BoG

I played all day yesterday, without any problems. I live in Utah, and even playing on the East US (it wouldn't let me choose any other server) server, I was fine. Today, I can't play. If I can make it in the game, it says I'm not connected and I can't do anything.

I just want them to make it so that the areas which you develop are contiguous. This would make me happy.

@df: Difficulty wise. Control wise applies as well, though. In Sim City 4, it was possible to fail. I failed a lot. In my first go at this new title, I didn't take things to seriously, I just expected to fail right off the bat. I have a very successful city!

I've been playing for a while, and you should officially wait on this one. It's got a lot of issues. Fortunately, it also has a lot of potential. The game needed another year in development. They could have fixed the strange road and auto-terraforming, and expanded city size. It's also a really easy game.

Everyone add imnotaround. I should be on tonight. I'm in the US.

I wasn't cool in high school, and this has just informed me that it's ok, because cool didn't exist in 2005.

A recent topic discussing Ni No Kuni's battles has me thinking about my favorite battle systems in RPGs. I wanted to ask all of you, what are your favorite battle systems?

A few of my favorites, all from JRPGs:

Active-Time Battle from Final Fantasy: I don't think any discussion of JRPG battles is complete without mentioning the ATB system. From what I understand, it was a bit of a revolution when it was introduced in FFIV. Clearly it's a good system, as Square used it for six games. Having completed the six games that use the system, it is my opinion that it's a lot of fun. It's real-time, forcing you to think on your toes, but character's static positioning doesn't make it unwieldy.

Conditional Turn-Based from Final Fantasy X: I was initially in doubt of this system, as I didn't see how it was anything but a turn based system with something thrown into the HUD to indicate who would attack next. I was wrong! The battles were fun because you could see how your actions would effect turn-order. This added a layer of depth to your attack strategy. Furthermore, the game allows you to switch your characters at any time. Most enemies are weak to a certain type of physical damage, so swapping on the fly would allow you to take them out in the most efficient way possible. It's a shame that the CTB system was only around for one game, it was a lot of fun.

Press-Turn from Shin Megami Tensei: The great system introduced in SMT III is a whole lot of fun. The emphasis with this system is weakness. You must protect your party's weaknesses and exploit those of your enemy. Doing so will grant you additional actions, allowing you to pummel the enemy. If you're not careful, your enemies can exploit your weaknesses and punish you. Different games in the franchise applied this in different and fun ways (like GB's beloved Persona games).

It goes in this order:

1. Characters that resemble me as closely as possible

2. The hottest possible female I can create

What else does one need?

@immortalsaiyan: Don't worry, I think you're hip.

@demoskinos: That wasn't the point. Not to mention, it would be really difficult at this point in the game because I would never have enough MP. The point is that the market doesn't need more JRPGs that involve monster collecting.