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General Chat / Re: What games are you playing 2024? Battle strength determined by frilly outfits
« Last post by Dark Holy Elf on Today at 02:21:45 AM »Unicorn Overlord
Still having fun, nearing the end of Bastorias.
UO difficulty is a bit odd. Playing on Expert, and since the earlygame my only deaths are due to third-party loss conditions (which Hallowed Corne Ash can't even save you from, lol) which are often kinda hard to see coming. Which isn't really great. That said battles are engaging anyway. Short maps can't really challenge you too much because items let you stomp things, but in long maps the 10 item limit is definitely a consideration.
Phantasy Star 4
Completed with no helmets or items. The hardest boss indeed proved to Lashiec, since with no armour even Thunder Halberd 2HKOs everyone, as does Another Gate, so I'm healing all the time, and only have four Star Dews. Profound Darkness had me worried about losing at a couple points (Megid after Cancelling one-shots some people so every time the latter is used, a bit of luck is needed to have Wren outpace the boss) but I pulled through, Raja was clearly the best choice since his Blessing buff let me Chaz and Rika survive the physicals, even without shields.
Air Castle and Garuberk Tower were both tough dungeons. Frost Sabers (an enemy) are very dangerous in particular because if they get a turn at 50% health or below they will use Air Slash which as a MT physical does crazy damage. Best solution against more than one ended up being to have Rika cast Saner so that I'd then reliably outpace them next turn and blitz them down. Tonoe Basement was probably still the toughest ultimately; Chaz and Rune getting to hang out in the back and cast Rever if necessary after the fight ends is certainly a big help.
The shield decision is always the biggest one for equips in this game. Kyra always had two shields which tended to make her the tankiest PC (although I usually put Wren in front for randoms), Hahn/Seth/Rune/Raja too though that's unsurprising. I only bothered with shield Chaz for the brief sections lategame where he's alone (more on that below). Rika was the one who varied the most; in the first half of the game I often had her with one shield just to have someone who could take hits near the front. After getting the Silver Tusk and Thunder Claw her offence is just too good to curtail in randoms, so I always used two claws for them, but usually switched to a shield for bosses (notable exception being PD, as above).
I actually lost the Chaz duel with Alys's ghost/illusion which feels like it shouldn't happen. 2HKOed by someone faster! Even with two shields! Yikes. The loss of endgame armour is a huge hit. Anyway I solved that by using the Swift Helm itemcast to outspeed her, then heal and wait for a dodge with my boosted speed, RPGDL strats here.
Was fun! Never really had too much trouble at any one point of the game but it made for a pretty neat hard mode experience.
Still having fun, nearing the end of Bastorias.
UO difficulty is a bit odd. Playing on Expert, and since the earlygame my only deaths are due to third-party loss conditions (which Hallowed Corne Ash can't even save you from, lol) which are often kinda hard to see coming. Which isn't really great. That said battles are engaging anyway. Short maps can't really challenge you too much because items let you stomp things, but in long maps the 10 item limit is definitely a consideration.
Phantasy Star 4
Completed with no helmets or items. The hardest boss indeed proved to Lashiec, since with no armour even Thunder Halberd 2HKOs everyone, as does Another Gate, so I'm healing all the time, and only have four Star Dews. Profound Darkness had me worried about losing at a couple points (Megid after Cancelling one-shots some people so every time the latter is used, a bit of luck is needed to have Wren outpace the boss) but I pulled through, Raja was clearly the best choice since his Blessing buff let me Chaz and Rika survive the physicals, even without shields.
Air Castle and Garuberk Tower were both tough dungeons. Frost Sabers (an enemy) are very dangerous in particular because if they get a turn at 50% health or below they will use Air Slash which as a MT physical does crazy damage. Best solution against more than one ended up being to have Rika cast Saner so that I'd then reliably outpace them next turn and blitz them down. Tonoe Basement was probably still the toughest ultimately; Chaz and Rune getting to hang out in the back and cast Rever if necessary after the fight ends is certainly a big help.
The shield decision is always the biggest one for equips in this game. Kyra always had two shields which tended to make her the tankiest PC (although I usually put Wren in front for randoms), Hahn/Seth/Rune/Raja too though that's unsurprising. I only bothered with shield Chaz for the brief sections lategame where he's alone (more on that below). Rika was the one who varied the most; in the first half of the game I often had her with one shield just to have someone who could take hits near the front. After getting the Silver Tusk and Thunder Claw her offence is just too good to curtail in randoms, so I always used two claws for them, but usually switched to a shield for bosses (notable exception being PD, as above).
I actually lost the Chaz duel with Alys's ghost/illusion which feels like it shouldn't happen. 2HKOed by someone faster! Even with two shields! Yikes. The loss of endgame armour is a huge hit. Anyway I solved that by using the Swift Helm itemcast to outspeed her, then heal and wait for a dodge with my boosted speed, RPGDL strats here.
Was fun! Never really had too much trouble at any one point of the game but it made for a pretty neat hard mode experience.