Final Fantasy 6 is done. What an awesome game. Its the first FF that Ive actually been able to get into. 1-5 I got bored of and didn't finish. I got all the characters but Shadow, got 6/8 dragons, never ran into the flying sky monster. My main complaint about the game is that I spent an eternity getting massacred in the flying continent level until I got frustrated enough to google it and learned you just have to abuse the phantom esper and walk into all the walls to find the right path. I was initially pissed by all the hoops they make you jump through to beat the cultist tower, but because of the gem box Celes was able to essentially beat the end of the game on her own so I cant really complain lol

Probably halfway through Dungeon Master. Might be another 2-3 weeks at this pace

And then there were 13...

Dungeon Master is dungeon mastered

Congrats Brock, it will be fun to read the write up on this one.

Niiiiiiice.  

Excellent.
We draw closer and closer to our goal!

oh thank jebus. How many hours did you put into it? I assume you were using some sort of guide. Still deciding if I want to bother with it anymore.
 

15ish I bet


I used a walkthrough, maps, spell chart, and item list. Otherwise you'd really need the manual, graphing paper, a notebook, and lots of trial and error

Very nicely done!

Can confirm I beat Lufia & The Fortress of Doom a couple days ago, so that's done for 2019.

Bronze and D_D, what were the specifics around the exploit to beat Operation Europe with paratroopers?

I beat Scenario 1 as the Germans (basically recreating history)

There are just two towns you need to occupy. One doesn't even have an enemy force IIRC. Basically just keep moving all your units towards those two cities and protect your engineer (ends in 7) and supply (ends in 8) units. Don't fight any manual battles and make sure your units get sufficient rest every few turns. Eventually you will get a few tanks to the farthest westernmost target city and just bomb the shit out of it until you can occupy it. You can try using the engineer unit to sabotage bridges since it did come in useful once or twice.

Not sure what you mean about the paratroopers. All the enemy aerial stuff was a nuisance at worst and my paratroopers didn't assist much at all.

Sad to see the first Koei game on the list. I expect at least 12 to be in the top 50.
 

bronze was saying something about it. Maybe I can find the clear on S-16

Goati on Twitch was able to beat the 4th scenario (or 5th?) very quickly by landing paratroopers behind enemy lines. If you search way back in his stream archive/VODs, it's in there; he may have written up his strat on Sega-16 too...

...no, not as such, but he did post tips.
 

Well, if you do scenario 1 my way, it'll be less than an hour, maybe 1 1/2 hours since you're totally new to the game.

I've spent the last two nights revisiting it so I feel like a hardened vet by this point

64 minutes in, auto battles, and I'm still slowly trying to march my regiments across the first set of bridges.  The fucking pathfinding in this game doesn't help either

edit: 105 minutes in I'm calling it for the night.  I have taken neither town and I suffered a pretty harse defeat on one of them.  Did the Germans not blitzkrieg with Tigers?  Really could have used some of those things.
 

Jesus H. Christ, after 3 hours and 56 minutes (despite auto-fighting every battle) Operation Europe: Path to Victory 1939-45 is completed on scenario one

Even though I only played the game for 10 hours and not 30, I agree with everything he said.  

- It's maddening how regiments refuse to move, even when they seem (reasonably) rested.
- Special forces and bombing were borderline useless.
- I never once got reinforced or supplied
- The game is just bogged down with metrics and menus.  Can commanders become fatigued, separate from their divisions?  I think so.  Where is that information?  I have no idea.  What does this affect?  No idea.
- In a previous scenario I fought the battles manually.  Though they're still basically automated.  How long did they take? 15-40 minutes.  40 minutes for a single engagement

 

Yeah, I usually give Koei games the benefit of the doubt, but I have real suspicions that Operation Europe just isn't good. At the very least, it's utterly overwhelming, and with no clarity as to why some of the weird behaviors you describe are happening. Maybe the cut Campaign Mode helped to give the whole thing more coherence.

BTW I put something like 90 hours into my last playthrough of ROTK for NES. I don't know what my longest battle was, though -- probably 30-45 minutes.

It's a real flaw that Operation Europe's battles take so long, since a game of this kind should make you want to take an active role in the battles -- but it would increase the playtime by an order of magnitude.

My theory is there an equation such as Fatigue + Morale + Commander Fatigue x multiplier = percent chance the regiment ignores you that turn

What's required for Street Hockey '95? I actually researched and reviewed that one, and learned a lot of really neat stuff about its cast.

Reviewed it?

In any case, I'm not entirely sure.  Complete whatever tournament/season/playoff mode it has.

 

Aye, for a book.
Yeah, the tournament mode is a bit of a slog, but I could try to give it a go.

Animaniacs.  When I first attempted this a few years ago I didn't get anywhere and did not care for the game.  I went back to it a year ago, got frustrated and immediately quit again.  This time, I stuck with it, learned the game's unorthodox mechanics and flow, and actually enjoyed it.  Not a sleeper or hidden gem or anything, but much better than I thought it was.  Hence why I have to play every game so damn much to know I'm giving it a fair shake