Author Topic: What Games are you Playing 2017?  (Read 49464 times)

Grefter

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Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?
« Reply #525 on: April 21, 2017, 03:44:08 AM »
That Soma is SP Adhesive money, dog.
NO MORE POKEMON - Meeplelard.
The king perfect of the DL is and always will be Excal. - Superaielman
Don't worry, just jam it in anyway. - SirAlex
Gravellers are like, G-Unit - Trancey.

Hunter Sopko

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Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?
« Reply #526 on: April 21, 2017, 03:53:03 AM »
Honestly? The benefit from having the equipment from the start trumps the money crunch in the middle.

Also, starting NG+ I realize you don't see the outside of Sojiro's car until the very end. Rest assured, Grefbro. It is baller.

Captain K

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Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?
« Reply #527 on: April 21, 2017, 05:57:37 AM »
Got my PS4 back from the shop, so I can resume playing Persona 5.  But first, Dark Souls 3!

I've been playing a strength build knight (50 str, 39 vit, rest into hp).  Holy hell this is a million times easier than my previous run (0 added hp, dexterity build).  I used Vordt's hammer for most of the game, then switched to cosplaying Tsorig once I had the stats (2-handing Fume Ultra Greatsword, full Black Iron armor).

It's hilarious destroying things that gave my previous build problems.  With the no-hp build I got walled hard by Dragonslayer Armor.  As Tsorig?  Killed him on the first try with no ember.  Hardest boss was probably the Rotting Greatwood, just because it is early and I couldn't get anyone to help and my stats weren't in place yet.  Easiest was Champion Gundyr.  I was still embered from Oceiros so I summoned two players who had signs there.  I stabbed Gundyr in the ass with R2 and he fell flat on his face.  Then the three of us literally did a Persona All-Out Attack on him.  Too funny.

This is also my first time going through either DLC.  In Ariandel, Friede wasn't too bad.  First form is the hardest.  When Father joins he eats the same stab in the ass that Gundyr did for a quick phase 2.  Also fought Sonic the Fucking Hedgehog at the bottom of the rope bridge.  I actually made it harder on myself because I didn't find the bonfire down there so I was going down the vines every time I fought him.  GOTTA GO FAST.

Not too far into Ringed City yet.  Twin Demons I figured out was easier if you just summon Lapp and not Gael.  Gael dies too easily and just adds more difficulty to the enemies.  Lapp is a nice tank for distracting them.

================

Overwatch:  Uprising is a pretty nice mode.  Not very forgiving though, I've yet to beat Hard mode, and there's two more difficulties above that.  All heroes version leads to random team comps that shouldn't work but do (Pharah, Reaper, Bastion, Zenyatta).

================

Persona 5:  I missed one question on the exam and that gave me the worst grade in class.  Apparently I am going to smart kids school.  Somehow nobody has noticed a meowing cat in my desk helping me with answers.
« Last Edit: April 21, 2017, 06:00:46 AM by Captain K »

Grefter

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Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?
« Reply #528 on: April 22, 2017, 03:04:39 PM »
First day in days I have had time to do something not work.

P5 - I have been putting it off because I had lots of rambling, but now I am in the middle of a bunch of days where plot plot plot happens and I can't save, so now is as good a time as ever.

Akechi has like the worst fucking tie ever.
NO MORE POKEMON - Meeplelard.
The king perfect of the DL is and always will be Excal. - Superaielman
Don't worry, just jam it in anyway. - SirAlex
Gravellers are like, G-Unit - Trancey.

Captain K

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Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?
« Reply #529 on: April 22, 2017, 04:52:53 PM »
Persona 5:  So I had been playing with all allies on AI control, Persona 3 style.  But I had to turn it off for Major Boss 2.  AI doesn't know what to do with that fight and it's just chain deaths.  Also doesn't help that my levels are a bit low, 17 compared to the community average of 20.  Anyway I am now past that and have a cockblocker living in my mancave.  How am I supposed to romance sexy maids now?

Also I love fucking with Moon in every conversation.  Phantom Thieves?  Wtf are you talking about man?

Hunter Sopko

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Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?
« Reply #530 on: April 22, 2017, 05:39:24 PM »
Honestly, 17 was the average when I was at that boss on Normal (like 2 weeks ago). I was also at 17 and didn't really have a problem with it, so really it's just you using AI mode =-P

Captain K

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Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?
« Reply #531 on: April 22, 2017, 07:55:42 PM »
Yeah it's very easy with manual control.  Just a shame the AI isn't as good as P3's.

LordDirtyBrit

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Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?
« Reply #532 on: April 23, 2017, 01:40:01 AM »
Metal Gear Solid 2: Beaten Solidus Snake. Is it just me or is the sword extremely overpowered? It allows the player to quickly breeze through opponents from the instant you get it, except for the Metal Gear Rays you fight but even then the sword can block their attacks very easily. Overall, I'm probably not going to be very popular for saying this, but this game was pretty incredible. The gameplay improves my problems with MGS1 (other crawling still being a little awkward) as you can now aim in first person which makes combat a damn sight easier. There are more creative ways of hiding yourself such as grappling from surfaces and hiding corpses to avoid attention.

I also really enjoyed the narrative, I was even able to understand what was going on despite how twisted it became near the end. I felt the message of the game in particular was very powerful; while the dangers of the digital age are clearly expressed through the Patriots censorship plan, it also states how we can use it to display our history for the better of future generations. It really made me wonder what is stopping me from putting any ideas I have for video games into practise. If I had to come up with a complaint, it's that the cast is a mixed bag. While what Kojima did with Raiden back when the game was released was ballsy and I felt that the game did a good job with making him a complex character who is quite similar to the player in more ways than you'd think (you could kinda compare Raiden's backstory as a child soldier to your experience with killing in video games), I couldn't stand Rose. Codec calls with her took forever and most of her dialogue was romantic trite which gave Titanic a run for its money in terms of corniness. Also, because the relationship was confined to codec calls, there weren't many moments which allowed Rose to show why she eventually fell in love with Raiden despite her being a spy for the Patriots. Thankfully, there were effective moments which were displayed through small moments outside of codec calls such as the aftermath of Emma's death. I also felt that the Dead Cell members weren't worthy replacements to the FOXHOUND bosses, Fortune and Vamp weren't nearly as developed or as likeable as Sniper Wolf or Psycho Mantis.

Apart from my issues with the cast; I still really enjoyed this game, easily one of the best games I've played this year so far. I would recommend the game, but I would strongly advise that you play the first game before playing this one.

Pokemon Platinum: Beaten Crasher Wake. Oh boy, the battle speed in this game is quite shocking in comparison to RSE and FRLG. While Platinum's battle speed isn't nearly as bad as DP's, it still feels off in comparison to the previous games. I also feel that the movement speed feels slower in this game in comparison to generation 3's. You'd think they would've created something faster with the new hardware. One thing I can praise Platinum on is the difficulty. Apart from Sun and Moon, Platinum is probably the most difficult game in the series. Fantina's Mismagius can burn in hell and even Roark's Cranidos is tough for a first gym leader.

Team so far:


Super Metroid: I was going to play Aria of Sorrow, but before that I decided to take a look back at one of the games to popularise the Metroidvania genre. What also compelled me to replay Super Metroid was that I had never played the NTSC version of the game, but rather the much slower PAL version. Needless to say, the speed difference was very noticeable. I found Samus' walking speed in this version felt just as fast as her running speed in the PAL version if you want an idea on the speed difference. Other than that, what else can I say about Super Metroid? It is easily one of my favourite games of all time, I'd even go as far as to say it is my favourite non-RPG thanks its great atmosphere, bosses and areas which encourage several methods of exploration. If only Nintendo would make an ALBW-style game with Super Metroid to generate more interest in the Metroid series, I can dream.

SnowFire

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Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?
« Reply #533 on: April 23, 2017, 08:03:07 AM »
Persona 5: Palace 1 boss down on 4th attempt.  Note the HP totals, and SP total on Joker, upon entering the boss's final phase here :
https://goo.gl/photos/C9NXJjGBEUtLEhoS6
Gameplay spoilers: Holy hell how is this boss doable on Hard without grinding an extra day in the Palace.  Sure, I won with only 2 total trips to the Palace + 3rd for boss battle, but it felt pretty RNG-y.  ♪Joker♪ was flat out of SP, so the battle couldn't stretch any longer as I'd be out of Tarunda juice.  And god help you if you don't use Tarunda, as I didn't at first.  Lustful Slurp buff is so insane on enemies, a max hit Volleyball Assault can nearly kill you from full-health, and buffed Tongue Slap is bad times too, and he double-acts!  Sheesh.  Even after I remembered that Tarunda exists and realized it was the only shot, it still took luck...  I basically abandoned healing after his 2nd Ultimate Jecht Shot of doom, and after Mona stole the Treasure, he nicely hit the mostly-full health returned Cat rather than any of my 3 nearly dead members.  That gave me more DPS, and he elected to wipe out Mona & Panther, so a 4 & 5 HP Joker/Ryuji staggered to victory afterward.  If he'd attacked someone else before (reducing DPS), or ever attacked Joker in the final phase, gg.  This was STILL cheating a bit in that I ran the dungeon on Normal, which gives a bit more XP, so presumably you'd be at lvl. 9 still on straight-Hard unless you grinded the Palace an extra day.  I was lvl. 9 on Mona, lvl. 10 on everyone else, which definitely made things a tad easier.  (Still no Media though, and according to the Internet, there was a fusion with phys. resist that'd help too that I didn't have.)

Also, I did ignominiously lose to randoms once on the way over, because I didn't have the final safe room unlocked, because when I tried to unlock it I died and had to re-do the miniboss.  I actually had to redo that miniboss twice because the first time I didn't know about the other safe room, and if you choose not to teleport back to the start after finding the Treasure, HAHA TOO BAD SUCKER you can't do it again without returning to a safe room.

Grefter

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Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?
« Reply #534 on: April 24, 2017, 11:14:27 AM »
We playing 5s games now boys.

Dragon Quest 5 - been on my to do list for a while.  Figured I would get it for Phone since I have DQ7 on DS going nowhere and it was cheaper.  Started up and decided that DQ5 was as Fenrir as the series would get so called my Hero Fenrir (because it's just true).  Your dad is name Pancratz.  Off to a good start.

Persona 5 a straight dialogue quote

"This overwhelmingly forgettable appearance, generic speech style, and total lack of sex appeal...

Mishima... are you an NPC!?"

What's an NPC?
Savage
> He's the Protaganist.  (This is the correct answer.)

That self burn right there P5 is some good shit.  I wonder if localization or if original script?

Edit - also the amount of bagging on Mishima you can do would almost be that douchey broey humor like Sopko and I have except that I mean it every time I make Shinsuke (aka Sopko) pick it and Sopko only means it 1/4 of the time when he says it to me.  Fuck Mishima.

Edit 2 - Akechi thanking Sojiro for a delicious coffee and walking away.  Cup still steaming on he counter. The signing on that plot twist is pretty fucking blatant.
« Last Edit: April 24, 2017, 12:24:39 PM by Grefter »
NO MORE POKEMON - Meeplelard.
The king perfect of the DL is and always will be Excal. - Superaielman
Don't worry, just jam it in anyway. - SirAlex
Gravellers are like, G-Unit - Trancey.

Niu

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Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?
« Reply #535 on: April 24, 2017, 11:27:58 PM »
Original script, Greg.
But they used a different term instead of NPC.
But same meaning.

Grefter

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Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?
« Reply #536 on: April 24, 2017, 11:48:24 PM »
I should have also checked in on finishing up Heirophant.  As you would expect, best thing the game has to offer.
NO MORE POKEMON - Meeplelard.
The king perfect of the DL is and always will be Excal. - Superaielman
Don't worry, just jam it in anyway. - SirAlex
Gravellers are like, G-Unit - Trancey.

Captain K

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Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?
« Reply #537 on: April 25, 2017, 01:10:16 AM »
Persona 5:  Third Palace was quite a bit easier than previous ones, and boss was a joke.  The AI does know what to do on that one!  I almost made it through the whole thing in one day (thank you Invigorate 3) but chickened out near the end when I was totally out of SP on everyone.

I bought a 100,000 yen rock.  I am not a sucker at all.

Hunter Sopko

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Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?
« Reply #538 on: April 25, 2017, 02:26:25 AM »
I should have also checked in on finishing up Heirophant.  As you would expect, best thing the game has to offer.


Fudozukushi

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Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?
« Reply #539 on: April 25, 2017, 06:39:28 AM »
It's a pretty nice attic all things considered.

Niu

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Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?
« Reply #540 on: April 25, 2017, 09:19:27 AM »
Now, I don't think I got the joke.
Why that piece of art when the Heirophant plot focused on his relationship with Hermit?

Dark Holy Elf

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Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?
« Reply #541 on: April 26, 2017, 03:11:07 AM »
I've been playing some Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. It's... decent? Hasn't really grabbed me so far. Just got to the savannah world which feels Rayman-style drug-induced, so that's a thing. Also, I'm happy to note that temple levels are still stupidly brutal; I spent nearly an hour on one.


Final Fantasy Dimensions - Hey sexy momma, wanna kill all humans?

First, another sidequest.

Anima Grove: Not too much to say about this dungeon. Usual Red Mage until MP gone then use Dragoon works well enough (though Dragoon is dicy due to no hats). Find the status holes here and there, exploit 'em, dragon breath does good damage to the rest. One enemy has Constrict and the dog-type enemy here has paralysis on their physical randomly so Gold-Spun Hat does its thing.

Conquerer (3 resets) - He's weak to fire and it takes me a while to figure this out because it's not really intuitive! (He looks like a red lion.) Anyway, he's easier than the resets make him look. All he does is use various physicals (double normal physical, Bite, Whack for MT) which do reasonably standard boss damage. Sometimes he'll use MT Roar (stun), which is less scary than ST because it fails around half the time, wasting his turn utterly. I go in with Memorial Ring and use Protect to stop those, it works pretty well... until he gets low on HP. Then he starts spamming Pox, which is MT physical damage that also inflicts Deprotect. This overwrites Protect and he's slightly faster than Red Mage, so... yeah, recasting Protect isn't an option and suddenly his damage is really high and it's far easier to be overwhelmed.

Eschewing Protect, I try again as Black Mage thinking the extra Int/MP will be useful, but the lost speed makes this not the case; I die.

Back to Red Mage, this time with the Protect Bangle for Auto-Protect. Fortunately this DOES impart immunity to Deprotect, so Pox is now nothing special. I win this time, don't even have to use an Ether although his large HP score (21000) makes this a concern. -ara spells aren't what they used to be...


Fabrica Cave: This area is one screen long. It's also surprisingly nasty! Hellclaws can use Death Claw. This can cause HP-1 sometimes. They also use Bio for Sap. RIP. There is also the Dread Chimera, which has a massive HP total, no weaknesses, and is mostly status immune, while doubleacting combinations of solid damage and curse. Ack. Black Mage can deal with them: Tornado! First serious use I've gotten out of L5 magic. It won't be the last. The easiest enemies here are Carmillas and their pet bats; the bats can be wiped out in two MT Firas. However, the bats can cast Silence, which sucks. I sacrifice my Protect Bangle to block it, but restore it as soon as I'm through this area.


Shipyard: The enemies here are mostly imperial soldiers, but they've taken a level in badass. My magic offence isn't what it used to be and they have lots of annoying status immunities. Finding the holes remains crucial.

Base Guardian - Hit hard and reasonably durable. Vulnerable to Confuse and Stop. Sometimes can confuse themselves.
Storm Trooper - Weaker than the above, though no jokes. Again, they have random Confuse. Sleep works, not much else does.
Highlander - Archers who cast Slow. I hate Slow so much. They're immune to silence unlike the ones in the Dark Knight chapter. Confuse and Stop both work.
Archmage - They use -ara spells and Curaja and Sleep. Sleep is certainly dangerous! They don't use physicals so I have to time it out if it lands. Or block it with a hat. Vulnerable to sleep themselves (a trend) and since they're pure magic they're a source of infinite MP via Attune Blade (Runic) spam, that's cool.
Repairer - Also mostly mages, they cast Cura/Protect/Shell to annoy my blitzing abilities. Weak to lightning since they're robots.
Sky Shooter - Most dangerous thing about them is Laser, which is 30% CHP gravity. Certainly takes a big chunk out at full HP. Oh and they also have random confuse. Yeah the robe that blocks that sounds good.

I can't always afford to set Dragon Breath here, Red/Black with two of Attune Blade, HP+20%, and INT+20% is my norm. Aqua Breath works as a decent substitute which is always available. It's somewhat more damaging than normal breaths anyway, though eats MP quite a bit faster, but honestly we've reached the point where that's okay. Attune Blade and Osmose do give me ways to stretch my resources.

Sentry x3 - They're not too notable a boss by themselves, though since they are unique to this formation and immune status they should probably be considered one. They use Cura (decent healing) and various attack spells. However, my offence can overwhelm them, and Sylph patches me up nicely. I waste a bunch of MP on them trying to find status holes, but nope.

Vata 2 - Although I beat this fight without resets, it isn't easy in the slightest. Vata's offence is somewhat higher for the time than that of previous bosses; not significantly, but enough to force that much more healing. And he's tanky with 20000 HP and no elemental weakness, and my offence really isn't improving much these days. Fortunately, unlike his first form, he can't use Tornado, which is a big deal. Jump does around 800, Howling Gale is around 500 and Sap, physicals hit twice for 400 total and sometimes miss, Thunder Breath does around 500. Below half HP he gains Buffet (700, sometimes stuns; he's faster than me) and Wild Dance replaces Jump, which is actually slightly worse against the back row: 4-5 hits of around 150 each. Buffet makes me more careful about healing. He also starts using Lancet at this point, which does pitiful damage (200ish) but drains, and also takes 15 of my MP. The draining doesn't matter too much (even my Sylph does over 300 now) but the MP damage does add up; still this is one of the better things he can do, from my perspective.

There's not much to say about strategy. I use the Memorial Ring for higher speed/int and cast Protect periodically; I'm pretty sure this wins out over using Auto-Protect. No statusblockers needed here. Sylph when HP falls to the point where it will heal fully, -ara spells otherwise. I have to use Sylph quite often so the fight really drags out; I end up using my one Dry Ether and two of my three Elixirs. I might have been able to save one if I redid Sentry fight in a more efficient way, but the fight was a long one which I executed well so I didn't feel like redoing it.


Heliogabalus: This dungeon continues straight after the previous one but fortunately a shortcut opens up to skip the shipyard, so I retreat and restock on my Hi-Potions. This dungeon has a lot of the same enemies as the previous, though there are some new ones mixed in. The most dangerous is the Iron Fist, a monk-type who can confuse (whatever, we're blocking that) and stun with Roundhouse; he uses that quite often and since he's fast it's extremely dangerous. Confuse them with high priority. There are also a new lancer and swordmaster type; the swordmaster has paralysis as a counter according to the wiki but I never see it, so it might be a counter against basic physicals or something. (Ha, imagine using those...) Weresoldier X and Proto Armour are both bulky but not overly dangerous; the latter is weak to lightning and uses Laser which is still 30% gravity.

Anyway this isn't the easiest dungeon but since I'm somewhat used to many of the enemies by now it's not as bad as it could be, just a reset here and there. There's one fixed ambush fight against four Storm Troopers, but it's near a save point and an Aqua Breath barrage backed by confuse immunity kills them before they kill me.


Two plot fights occur and then we get to fight the final boss of the chapter, and it's a doozy.

Argy-2 (8 resets): Argy-2 hits harder than Vata, though not as fast. She mostly uses -aga spells which do over 900. That alone isn't the problem, although it's no joke. The problem is that she also has a variety of physical techs. Some, like Strike, are no big deal. Some, like Body Slam (confuse) push me to use a confuse-blocking robe, but still aren't too bad. The bad are the following:

Lotus Strike - Even probability of sleep, paralysis, slow, and instant death.
Blaster - Even probability of paralysis and instant death. Replaces Lotus Strike below half HP.

Neither is common but both are brutal. Slow landing is awful. Sleep is almost fatal given her preference for magic. Paralysis is fatal. Instant death... do I need to say it?

Blocking as much of the move as I can is key. The Gold-Spun Hat blocks paralysis, the Cleric's Hat blocks sleep. I can't, sadly, use both. I go for a quick FAQ dive and realize, to my relief, that I actaully missed a sleep-blocker on a bookshelf back in Deist: the Drowsy Ring. One backtrack later and I have the ability to block both sleep and paralysis at once, reducing her nasty status moves to 50%. This still sucks, and it kicks out the Memorial Ring and its stat boosts to boot, but it's the best chance I have.

The one good news is that I've hit Red Mage L10 since Vata, which gives me access to an extra slot. I run Red Mage with Summon and Int+20% to buff my offence and healing. Still, it's not enough; Blaster is just too dangerous and my offence means I have to see way too many of them.


Solution? Get more offence. I flirt with Jump-based strats here but the weaker Sylph, as usual, just makes it impractical. But -ara spells aren't cutting it any more, and Bio/Shiva are only small upgrades (with much worse MP-efficiency). -aga spells don't exist yet. What does exist yet? The fusion ability Deep Freeze, which requires knowing both Shiva and Stop. Unfortunately I'm not yet particularly close to either Black L5 or Summon L3...

So, it's grind time. I need around 1000 Black Mage AP or 900 Summoner AP to get one of those abilities. I opt for Black Mage, as it gets me closer to Magic Font and the sum total value of L5+ black feels more useful than Summon, especially since much of light-side Summon is useless to a solo (Phoenix, Unicorn). After some research, I head back to the Underwater Temple, which has relatively easy enemies (by this point) who give 12-20 AP a formation. I run Lightning Breath which takes out everything on the starting floor in 1-2 shots. Once I hit L10 I set Int+20% to make the OHKO on some enemies more solid.

It takes around 25 minutes, which is the longest grind session so far, but my reward is Deep Freeze, which does >200% damage over time compared to -ara spells and is only slightly less MP efficient. It also sets Stop, not that this is useful against a boss. I also level from 63 to 66.


Anyway, it takes a couple tries, where I figure out that Blaster is definitely more common than Lotus Strike, but yeah knowing to buff with Protect and make sure HP/MP are in good shape prior to the final Deep Freeze/Sylph blitz carries me through. On the winning run I see two Blasters but neither inflicts Death. Yay. Memorist chapter complete!


Dusk Level 66
Black Mage L12
Red Mage L10
Dragoon L6
Warrior L3
Summoner L2
Bard L2
Monk L1

Erwin Schrödinger will kill you like a cat in a box.
Maybe.

Dark Holy Elf

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Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?
« Reply #542 on: April 27, 2017, 02:32:51 AM »
One of the cool things about RPGDL is that we don't have annoying arbitrary rules against doubleposts.


Final Fantasy Dimensions - In search of the safety dance

Back in control of Alba again. I have a new shiny toy in Dark Knight. Dark Knight itself isn't too amazing or anything (the self-destructive moves are punitive on a solo, though Curse is a neat status for some enemies), but it grants Backliner, which is absolutely crucial to abusing Ninja, which is probably the game's most impressive job. So unless otherwise noted I'll be levelling in Dark Knight for a while. Dark Knight can use the Francisca, the back-row axe, which is starting to look weaker now but still performs overall better than front-row weapons.


Anyway I'm in a desert. Enemies here are competent enough, the best of them capable of brutally hacking through my MP. Sand Bears are tanky and hit pretty hard but can be cursed (and hit with other status like sleep). The Olgoi-khorkhoi (say that five times fast) is largely status immune and can drain a respectable chunk of HP, and hits very hard when it isn't doing that, so I usually try to take them out first. Striped Bark is an enemy which is usually harmless but occasionally dangerous, as they can rarely and without provocation use HP-1. Status works okay, they also die in a couple hits.


Gardenia Slums: Okay there's this little quest here where you have to make four slum-dwellers trust you. There are five options for this; doing four advances the plot, doing five gets you an Elixir. I've learned that Elixirs are pretty great, so I'll be doing that.

-One NPC just needs an X-Potion. X-Potions aren't common but this is still an easy sacrifice given the Elixir reward.
-One NPC needs a Pickaxe, which requires a slightly annoying but ultimately easy little fetchquest chain in Gardenia.
-One NPC needs a Cactuar Needle, which can be obtained from King Cactuars in the previous dungeon. King Cactuars are a huge pain to defeat on a solo since I don't seem to have any way to do it in less than three hits and they love to run. Fortunately stealing from them is an option as well. Thief to the rescue! They're not a common encounter but patience wins the day.

-One NPC needs a White Dress. This requires 500 coins from the casino, which costs 10000 gil or some time spent in the casino. I decide to opt for the latter. I experiment with the memory match game and while it's reasonably fun the odds of getting a lot of coins from it are pretty low. By comparison, high/low is simple: guess whether a card is higher or lower than the displayed one. You bet 1 gil and double your pot with each successive guess (a tie just results in trying again). Some math nerding reveals that I have a 75.6% chance to win each round. Winning 9 rounds in a row = 8.1%. Not too bad since it's a bet of 1 gil and 9 rounds in a row nets 512 coins, all I need. (10 wins in a row is the max, and 6.1%, so a good deal if you need more coins than I'm interested in at the moment.) I get this in about 15-20 tries which is reasonably typical, and it's actually pretty fast, so hey.

-One NPC wants a gem guarded by an Antlion to cure her sick child nope never seen this plot before. Anyway unlike FF5, the Antlion's respectable enough.

Antlion (2 resets) - His damage is competent enough, around 400-500 with Bite and Earthquake. Nothing special, and no status. The good news: he's mostly physical, so Protect sees play. The better news: he can be slowed! Yep, I try this just in case and it works, and as always the spell is a huge deal. The bad news: in Soviet Kaklim, antlion slows you. He has a low chance to counter anything with Silme which inflicts Slow and Sap; Slow lasts quite a while and Sap just adds on a bunch of annoying damage. So yeah, some respect for Slow is needed here, and obviously keeping him Slow is a big deal. He should be totally routine but getting fewer turns to keep the requisite buffs in place does make things hairier. He's got around 10000 HP which isn't too bad, but no weaknesses to exploit (Red Mage -aras are my offence of choice and do around 650-700). I use an Ether.


Now that I've proven that Alba is fantabulous enough to be trusted by shady resistance organisations, I'm able to advance the plot again.


Imperial Camp: We break in here but get ambushed. 1 reset on the fight here, it's pretty tough. It's in two stages: the first is a front attack against two Storm Troopers (normal grunts, can confuse) and an Archer (who can Slow). Slow is a pain but a Red/Summon setup handles this well enough. The problem is that immediately upon winning there's a back attack by a Martial Artist, Archer, and Lancer. Martial Artists remain jerks, because they have Roundhouse for stun as well as confuse and blind. The combination of Slow and stun is a dangerous one, and if I'm caught in the front row at the battle's start, that's a lot of potential for bad things. The solution is to be in the front row before the fight starts. This makes the first fight more dangerous but nothing a first-turn row-change can't fix, followed by Silence on the archer then Protect. In the second stage, I at least start in the right place. Confuse on the Martial Artist, Silence the Archer, Protect, -aras, Sylph, you know the drill for any tough fight.


After that we get solo Glaive! RIP me.


Once again I level the required PC to around 21. Since it's just one instead of two this time, it's even faster. This lets Glaive survive any fight long enough to use Teleport (unless his luck is real bad, e.g. a Lancer CAN instant double and use Impale for a 2HKO both times, but it's not likely). There's a forced fight with a Unit Captain, but after surviving two of its attacks, THE MASK shows up. The Mask has L6 black magic which is pretty badass. Two -aga spells send the enemy packing.

I then run from all fights until there's another Unit Captain, this one with support. I have one reset here and that's because I unequip The Mask of his armour (gold-spun stuff, so yes I can finally block paralysis with Alba too) and then underestimate his durability. Redoing the fight with Red Mage Glaive using Sylph and a Thundaga blitz works, though.


I get Alba back, kill off Glaive again, etc. Anyway the dungeon becomes a pretty normal one from here on. Red Mage is a bit safer than Dark Knight here since there are Gevaudans, dogs that can paralyse rarely, as well as various imperial soldiers who can inflict confuse as usual. But DK can get the job done too, and since this isn't as short an area as you might expect, I do run out of MP with Red Mage and have to use physicals anyway. Francisca, HP+20%, Counter and a lot of Hi-Potions gets me through to the boss.

Base Captain (2 resets) - Oh look, it's yet another Surprisingly Competent Imperial Officer boss fight. The Base Captain has a mean Axe, doing almost 1000 damage regardless of defence or Protect. He can also confuse and has MT, the usual. He's immune to slow. Not too shabby by any means. I discover the hard way that he CAN use axe on consecutive turns and well that's like 75% of my HP right there. Anyway he's not too fast but Sylph has a charge time so I do have to watch out for that.

The start of the fight of course is a bit hairy because I have to kill off Matoya (who starts in the back row, switching to the front helps) then survive his minions. Fortunately they're not as scary as they could be. He has a Base Defender who hits hard but can be confused and a Storm Trooper who isn't much as long as I have confuse immunity (I very obviously do).

Anyway, more -aras, more Protect, more Sylph. I use one Ether, again.


I get Matoya's snazzy equipment. There's a Dancing Knife which I'm sure will have some utility for random Osmose, but screw that, the real star here is the Red Shoes. 5 speed alone makes them great, but they also block Confuse AND paralysis. If you've actually been reading these updates, you know that those are two of the most obnoxious statuses to deal with, confuse mostly because it's super-common and paralysis because it's basically fatal. I have other ways to block them, but getting them both on an accessory that anyone can use and is already useful? The dark side just got its answer to the Protect Bangle.

Anyway, with paralysis immunity, just like on the light side, it's time to backtrack for the summon I missed because Binding Attack is was a pit of festering sewage.

Erwin Schrödinger will kill you like a cat in a box.
Maybe.

Magic Fanatic

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Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?
« Reply #543 on: April 27, 2017, 09:35:46 PM »
Persona 5 - Beat the final boss on Merciless.  Final average character level: 62.  Way overstocked on items, only used 3/5 Somas I had by the end of the game, but I had a lot of the doctor's items used too.

Final boss took me TWO FREAKING HOURS to beat.
« Last Edit: April 27, 2017, 09:40:56 PM by Magic Fanatic »

Captain K

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Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?
« Reply #544 on: May 05, 2017, 03:45:27 AM »
Persona 5:  I can't believe you guys wasted time dating Priestess when you could have been with Temperance instead.  Best waifu.  She makes lockpicks, and I sit in the room and play video games and watch her.  Or she makes curry in the kitchen while I read books.  And I always get a great massage when I come home from a hard day of killing Shadows.


Fenrir

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Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?
« Reply #545 on: May 05, 2017, 09:03:24 AM »
P5: I am in november, I'll probably max all confidants easily. Niu was wrong.

Sometimes this game shows some ancient politics. That comic relief gay couple that tries to see the underage protagonists naked and it's all played for laughs. Ann being a victim of sexual harassment then being total fanservice / object of desire for the male members of the crew in every cutscene. Your teacher in a maid outfit coming to your home every night. I remember a scene where promiscuous girls were pretty much shown as human garbage by the main characters.

Are we in 1990 again?


TBH the text bores me a lot now, and I hate Morgana, but I am mad addicted to the gameplay + time management + style

jsh357

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Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?
« Reply #546 on: May 05, 2017, 11:22:07 AM »
Finished Bravely Second. I guess overall I was unimpressed with it, though it did do many things right.

Liked the two new main characters a lot, but didn't care for the plot or the general tone of the game. I'm okay with a game being goofy, but this one just wouldn't stop. I started skipping cutscenes in sidequests about halfway in. The soundtrack was probably my biggest disappointment, but let's be fair, it had big shoes to fill. Every time I thought I liked a song, I realized it was a song from the original. The new job classes were all refreshing and innovative, which surprised me. Some of them felt a little too gimmicky to be useful, though, or like I would have had to specifically build a party from the start expecting to use them. Still, the game at least provides plenty of classes from the original so you can fall back on familiar options. That said, I don't think the game provided enough interesting bosses to really test the skills learned. I felt like I just powered through things and didn't need to experiment much. That's really the only knock I can give the gameplay, as it was otherwise very satisfying.

Like BD, I really enjoyed all the quality of life features in the game. Instant random encounter % switches, turn macros, pig warping, and what have you. All that stuff matters. The game ends suggesting a third one is coming, and if I have the time I might get it, but hopefully whoever is writing the script can balance the goofy with the serious a little better (I thought the first game struck a nice balance).

I guess either a 6/10 or 7/10 from me. if I was looking purely at gameplay, it'd be more like a 8.5.

Final team was:
Yew - Summoner with Spellcraft and Exorcism, but he was a Sorcerer/Red Mage most of the game. Was incredibly potent for the entire game. Killing enemy groups quickly is very important here. Excorcist is a great new class; the concept of undoing turns is simple but very useful. Played with many Undo BP setups to get 4 turn strings of attacks from my other characters. It seems like people on the internet don't like the Summoner in these games, but I found it to be pretty powerful myself.

Edea - Sniper/Ranger. I changed her class a lot and didn't really settle on a specific role, but she ended up with pretty good damage in the end. The sniper is a cool class that sort-of specialized in breaking through defenses (like Default).

Magnolia - Ninja with Quad Wield and attack buffing (from Charioteer). Also had Astromancer's ability to buff other stats. I was unimpressed with Charioteer as a class, but man, it learns some great secondaries. Buffing felt a little weak in this game unless you spent tons of BP stacking it, but I got some good results at the end of the game. This character tore through stuff at endgame.

Tiz - He was basically a Bishop the entire game with a bunch of different secondary classes for support. Bishop is ridiculously good; it's basically a White Mage that heals based on percentages instead of a Magic stat. Probably could have optimized by using it on a fighting class or something that could benefit from this more.

Currently playing Night in the Woods. It's cute.

Niu

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Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?
« Reply #547 on: May 05, 2017, 08:14:01 PM »
Persona 5:  I can't believe you guys wasted time dating Priestess when you could have been with Temperance instead.  Best waifu.  She makes lockpicks, and I sit in the room and play video games and watch her.  Or she makes curry in the kitchen while I read books.  And I always get a great massage when I come home from a hard day of killing Shadows.
Foolish CK. You should  have Temperance make curry than do Death's lv.9 event, showing Temperance that you are dating other woman in her face.

Hunter Sopko

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Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?
« Reply #548 on: May 06, 2017, 07:26:58 AM »
Persona 5: Oh the things you learn/notice in NG+

So I really should've been using Fortune's Money reading more the first time around. For 5K, you get something like 1.5x-2x money for winning a battle with an AOA. Took one before the 4th Palace runthrough, and it was much more time efficient than Negotiating. The groups of 3 Sandman in the beginning were worth 5K apiece. Even better: You just have to WIN the battle with an AOA, you can kill one or two and it'll still count all the enemies in the battle for the bonus. Sure, Confusion grinding the Mementos bosses is still your best money-maker, but this is probably the most efficient method for Palaces.

Training in the Gym or at Home will raise your max HP and SP. You get a bonus if you have a Protein Shake. I need to check and see if stuff like Muscle Drink also works. Good for near the end when you may have finished S-Links and you don't want to read or play games.

If you don't have a book or tools to craft (and would rather take the chance to get points in something other than Proficiency), Sleeping in class will give you 1 in a random social stat.




Dark Holy Elf

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Re: What Games are you Playing 2017?
« Reply #549 on: May 07, 2017, 07:38:12 PM »
Forums are back, so time for an extra big helping of Elf-challenge walls of text. Enjoy~


Final Fantasy Dimensions - Improper dancing in the middle of the sewers

With the Imperial Camp cleared, there's a shop upgrade. The Mask and Matoya joined with most of the important defensive equipment and I don't really need new weapons, but L5 spells are cool if sadly not usable by Red Mage. I buy the black stuff. Then a backtrack to get Ifrit:


Cave of Perfervidity: Well what kept me out of this dungeon before was the Icaronycteris and its Binding Attack. Not a problem any more! With Red Shoes (paralysis/confuse) and Sigurd's Armour (curse) I'm immune to a lot of status attacks in this dungeon, as several enemies use those. There's a new lamia-type enemy but this one doesn't use confuse, just curse (and reasonably strong MT damage, good thing I don't care). The most dangerous enemy is probably either the Grenade, which can Self Destruct for about 600, or Flamequines who can do around 400 with Fira, but honestly neither poses much danger and I take the dungeon apart with Dark Knight. Woohoo.

Ifrit: Red Mage with Sylph, zzzz. He can use confuse but Red Shoes say lolnope, otherwise he has offence/durability which may have been slightly better than Baugauven's but he wasn't much anyway and I'm higher-levelled now so who cares.


Beneath Gardenia: A tougher dungeon for sure! Dark Knight has trouble cutting it here so I switch back to Red Mage. Alveolata makes its return from Dusk's chapter, with annoying regen, poison infliction, and a useful Break vulnerability. The real problem enemy though is the Leach Squid, which can hit up to three times each for 300 damage to the back row. Uh if that doesn't ignore row that's just brutal against the front, wow. (I don't find out.) They are reasonably durable and can appear with support and up to two at once. Gross. I mess around with confuse but eventually realise they can be petrified too and that makes them much less bad. Aqua Flans have decent scary water damage (400 or 700 depending on the move) but die very quickly to magic damage (even a Dark Knight Magic Bomb 1 does it). I don't have too much to say about the other enemies but their damage can add up. When I run out of magic I try to muscle through as Dark Knight and do pull it off but some fights can be a bit scary for sure, Squids immune Curse so I basically have to hope for luck with Bash them (confuse-inflicting physical, probably around 50%) or run if they're in a tough enough formation. Alveolata regen can be pierced decently with Strike.

Owner? (8 resets) - Oh no, "Owner?" has betrayed us! This would be less awkward and more effective if they'd given this guy a name. Oh well. He only has 10000 HP which is slightly less than our previous Token Imperial Officer. He's accompanied by two Weresoldiers X, one in the front row and one in the back, who are quite bulky and the front-row one hits reasonably hard. Owner himself has Bio which does about 800 and Sap, legit for sure, but sadly the real problem lies in his status. More on that later.

First of all the support. A Claw from the front-row guy and a Bio is a LOT of damage and puts me back on my heels quite a bit, so confusing the front-row one is useful. Poisoning both also is reasonable, since they have a lot of HP. I'm pretty sure this is the first time all game something has been worth poisoning. Break doesn't work, Tornado does but I'm running Red Mage for speed/HP so no dice there. My general priority is to stay healed, keep the front Weresoldier confused, keep Protect up, poison the Weresoldiers then hit the boss.

Owner can use three status attacks: the first is confuse which is blocked by Red Shoes or the Gold-Spun Robe. The second is silence, which is rarely used as a counter to magic. I am torn about whether to block this; losing the 5 speed from Red Shoes is an interesting tradeoff for using turns on Echo Grasses. I eventually go with Red Shoes because I want as much magic evade as possible. And why is that? Because the third status is MOTHERFUCKING BREAK damn you game. I get my first blocker for it, of course, next chapter. If it lands, I die. He can use it rarely at any time, though it gets more common once he's below half HP. Fortunately it's not too accurate, especially if I equip for as much magic evade as possible (I do). Based on my experience over all the fights it's something like 25-50% against the setup I run. (Probably much higher normally, assuming my juiced mental stats are reducing its rate.) Not much to say about this, there's luck dealing with it for sure.

Since this is another "race against the RNG clock" fight I once again dig up the best magic attack I can get: Dark. Dark is a fusion between Curse (Dark Knight) and Cura which is dead easy to get so I pick that up. It hits notably harder than an -ara but less hard than Deep Freeze. It's shit for MP-efficiency (32 MP instead of 10 for the -aras) but that's okay, Owner isn't too durable and I'm willing to burn resources here. I use a Dry Ether on the winning run.


Odin's Castle: Curse and confuse come out to play here, I block both. Silence from Carmilla Bats is also a concern and blocking all three statuses isn't possible, but obviously physical setups don't fear silence. I use a bit of a mix here as usual. The dungeon isn't precisely easy and I burn through my full stock of 80+ Hi-Potions but I don't have too much to say about it either; no enemy has overwhelming damage or status I can't deal with. There are some cool rewards here like a rod upgrade.

Odin himself will use Zantetsuken on a 5-turn countdown, and it inflicts either HP-1 or instant death. The former can be dealt with by charging Sylph as he uses it, easy-peasy. The latter kills me, and judging from my YouTube research probably kicks in around 1/3 of the time. He has 30000 HP which is uh a lot right now, and I don't really need Odin badly. Leaving this for later.


Underground Fort: Man the empire has bases everywhere. This dungeon has a lot of the same enemies as the Shipyard/Heliogabalus from Dusk's chapter, and some of the same strategies apply when I run Red Mage, e.g. confusing Base Guardians, Weresoldiers X, and Iron Fists; putting Archmages to sleep. Gevaudan has Roar which is annoying, fortunately their paralysis and all the confuse in this dungeon are both blocked by Red Shoes.

But actually the job I end up running for most of here is Summoner. See, between Gevaudans and Raised Ghouls there's some notable fire weakness here, and Ifrit OHKOs both (OHKOing Gevaudans is useful, they appear up to three at a time, with other enemies). Ifrit spam is also quite fast which is nice. Once I burn my MP I switch to Ranger (I have Backliner by now so I use axes from the back row, Eph-style) and it's albe to get the job done too though can have more trouble with some tougher formations. Aim Heart means I still have access to confuse which is nice, though Archmages are more of a problem and I need some luck to punch through their healing.

This brings us to Asmodai, the boss of the chapter!

There's... a lot to say about him. Suffice to say Alba's record of walking over the Four Generals has come to an end. >_<


Asmodai 2 (17 resets) - Okay, let's break this one down. There are two problems with Asmodai which make him probably the toughest fight for the solo so far:

1. You can't actually solo him. Once below half HP he will periodically use Return to Darkness to become invincible. Matoya has to use Third Eye to remove this. (I suppose Matoya could solo him, but as a Dancer with no way to output high damage or heal more than ~700, hahahaha good luck.)

2. He's hard, man. Earthquake does 800+ MT, Upheaval a terrifying 1200+ MT. Dark does 1800+ to a solo target, though it unfocuses. Return to Darkness, the move which activates his invincibility as a side-effect, is yet another MT attack, does similar damage to Earthquake, and adds one of four random statuses: Poison, Debrave, Deprotect, and Deshell. Forsaken is MT confuse and MP damage. He also has physicals and Curse (sets Curse + Sap) which he'll use in double-acts. The entire set is kinda terrifying and this is considerably more damage than the other bosses fought in the Memorist/Dancer chapters which topped out around 900, usually ST.


Anyway on my first run I play carefully as a solo and get up to the ilmit phase. Not much to say here, while tough, standard Red Mage strats of Sylph get the job done. I block both curse and confuse. However the below half HP phase is just nasty, with Dark 2HKOing even my inflated my HP score... and yeah I try to revive Matoya to have her use Third Eye but he's got way too much MT so I have to revive her RIGHT after he takes a turn (Matoya is quite fast; he outspeeds Alba as Red Mage despite her much higher level), and in the meantime I can't use Sylph and I die.

So I come up with these modified rules:
1. Matoya can participate in the battle; however she can not deal damage to Asmodai (accomplished by unequipping her weapon) nor heal Alba. She can heal herself, restore her own MP with Osmose Dance, and use Third Eye.
2. Since Matoya's presence causes Sylph to unfocus, I allow Matoya to use Cure Waltz after Sylph (or later, MT Curaja) is used, to make up for the lost healing. (Cure Waltz is MT healing, restores around 650 or so.)


The problems are legion. They don't really show up until the second half of the fight... the first half isn't EASY and I do have some resets there, but the second is where things get ugly.

-First of all, I learn that Deshell + Upheaval is a OHKO on Matoya. It wouldn't be normally, but she's still at her base level. This makes winning nearly impossible because, as I have already learned, successfully reviving Matoya during the second part of the fight is nearly impossible. The solution is to gain a couple levels with Matoya.

-But even then, things feel kinda hopeless. Something eventually goes wrong, and there are two reaosns for this. One is Deshell in general. Deshell is terrifying. It's only +25% damage but adding that on to Asmodai's already good damage is nasty. Matoya still dies really easily during the second phase, while Alba just takes loads of damage. The other problem is that my healing just isn't good enough. Sylph only restores ~1800 (unfocused, 900), even following it up with Cure Waltz is a difficult pace. And it has a big usability problem in that if Return to Darkness gets used while I'm charging Sylph, RIP me. The solution is a job I have yet to use this playthrough. A job which I'm kinda terrified is actually the best plan.

White Mage.

I lose some speed, and certainly damage due to lower Int. I gain a little HP and a lot of MP due to being able to set HP+20% and MP+20% (no need for secondaries). But I gain Curaja, which does 2600 ST (around half of that MT). I gain Blink, which shuts down two Asmodai physicals (I eventually decide this isn't worth the time to cast, the physicals are too weak). And most importantly I gain Shell, a 25% damage cut that also overwrites Deshell (and is overwritten by it, but we can't have everything).

Strategy is generally as follows: cast Shell whenever reasonably possible (since Asmodai is invincible at the battle's start, two ST castings is the way to go then; later MT, or ST to overwrite Deshell). Curaja, mostly on self only, whenever HP drops below around 1000 or I anticipate a doubleturn. I equip Red Shoes to buff Alba's slow white mage speed as much as possible, leaving me vulnerable to Curse, so I have to heal that when it lands (Matoya gets the curse-blocking accessory). Matoya can defend when at high HP or heal herself with Hi-Potions. Occasionally, especially later in the fight, I'll use MT Curaja -> Cure Waltz from Matoya if Asmodai is starting to outpace Matoya's damage. And of course, using Third Eye (with no weapon) to remove Asmodai's invincibility is a thing. As far as Return to Darkness' status... besides Deshell, I can deal with poison using Antidotes, but despite the fact that poison is no joke this is really only something I can do when time allows as healing is more pressing. I can deal with Deprotect using Protect but often don't because physicals are a small part of Asmodai's offence overall. Debrave I just accept.

Anyway this is definitely a winnable approach but it requires perfect execution for a very long time. White Mage does around 500 with her physical to Asmodai and misses some of the time; he has 23000 HP. (That's despite Asmodai being weak to bows.) F-Abilities provide slightly more damage but not much, and drain my MP much faster. Eventually I decide that rectifying my offence is a thing I should do.

Ranger Level 12 grants Quick Shot, which does 85% normal damage but has a 4x recharge time, so it's basically 3.4x damage per round. It costs 36 MP for four uses, and almost HAS to be used an auto to get its full potential, but careful use of that is certainly possible. It's a huge offence push. So I run White Mage with Aim (no HP+20 or MP+20). By now Alba has hit Level 67 and Matoya has hit Level 51 (despite being 40 when I first reached this boss). On the second try I'm able to execute perfectly and I win, although it's super-hairy and I definitely am worried about dying several times during the second stage. I use two Elixirs.

Dancer chapter complete! Woof, that was tough.

Alba Level 67
Ranger L12
Red Mage L8
Dark Knight L7
Warrior L5
Black Mage L5
Summoner L5
White Mage L1

Erwin Schrödinger will kill you like a cat in a box.
Maybe.