Recent Posts

91

Tournaments / Futurama 2023 Week 4

« Last post by Cmdr_King on January 24, 2024, 06:21:35 PM »

Godlike

Heat (Digital Devil Saga) vs Yuna (Final Fantasy X)
Goddess (Final Fantasy VI) vs Belial (Wild ARMs 4)

Heavy

Mei-ling (SaGa Frontier) vs Kyra Tierney (Phantasy Star IV)
Cthulhu (Cthulhu Saves Christmas) vs Anna Pascal (Triangle Strategy)

Middle

Minorio Aki (Labyrinth of Touhou 2) vs Divine Punisher Shaman (Etrian Odyssey V)
Dedue Molinaro (Fire Emblem Three Houses) vs Ba'Thraz (Chained Echoes)

Light

Amalia (Chained Echoes) vs Ivy (Fire Emblem Engage)
Mediator (Final Fantasy Tactics) vs Zelkov (Fire Emblem Engage)


Data Mine

Bravely Default II
Chained Echoes
Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance
Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny
Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless
Fire Emblem Engage
Labyrinth of Touhou: Gensokyo and the Heaven-Piercing Tree
Octopath Traveler II
Rhapsody II: Ballad of the Little Princess
Rhapsody III: Memories of Marl Kingdom
This Way Madness Lies
Triangle Strategy

92

Tournaments / Re: Futurama 2023 Week 3

« Last post by Cmdr_King on January 24, 2024, 05:52:06 PM »

Godlike

Heat (Digital Devil Saga)- iiii vs Lamington (Disgaea: Hour of Darkness)
Riou (Suikoden II)- i vs Yuna (Final Fantasy X)- iiii
Goddess (Final Fantasy VI)- iii vs Aeterna (I am Setsuna)
Belial (Wild ARMs 4)- iiiiii vs Ryu (Breath of Fire IV)

Heavy

Mei-ling (SaGa Frontier)- iiii vs Mystic Knight (Final Fantasy V)
Temenos Mistral(Octopath Traveler II)- i vs Kyra Tierney (Phantasy Star IV)- ii
Cthulhu (Cthulhu Saves Christmas)- i vs Lei Kugo (Live a Live)
Byakuren Hijiri (Labyrinth of Touhou) vs Anna Pascal (Triangle Strategy)- ii

Middle

Minorio Aki (Labyrinth of Touhou 2) vs Createur Rosenqueen (Rhapsody II: Ballad of the Little Princess) (random.org rolled 1)
Rinkah (Fire Emblem Fates) vs Divine Punisher Shaman (Etrian Odyssey V)- ii
Dedue Molinaro (Fire Emblem Three Houses)- iiii vs Kyrie (Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark)
Ba'Thraz (Chained Echoes)- i vs Tiki (Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem)

Light

Corselia (Suikoden Tactics) vs Amalia (Chained Echoes)- ii
Primrose Azelhart (Octopath Traveler) vs Ivy (Fire Emblem Engage)- iiii
Mediator (Final Fantasy Tactics)- iiiiii vs Heather (Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn)
Vitali (Soul Nomad & The World Eaters) vs Zelkov (Fire Emblem Engage)- iiii

93

Discussion / Re: RPG Ratings

« Last post by Cmdr_King on January 24, 2024, 03:39:16 AM »

Added my 2023 games which I think was...

The Legend of Heroes: Trails to Azure at 9/10
Super Robot Wars V at 8/10
Persona 5 Strikers at 8/10
Rhapsody II: Ballad of the Little Princess at 8/10
Fire Emblem New Mystery of the Emblem at 6/10
Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean at 5/10

And of course the first 2024 game

Atelier Sophie: Alchemist of the Mysterious Book at 6/10

94

General Chat / Re: What games are you playing 2024? Battle strength determined by frilly outfits

« Last post by Cmdr_King on January 24, 2024, 03:18:12 AM »

Atelier Sophie- Welp, a few weeks slower than I'd have liked but we finished!  Huzzah!

So... Sophie is a strange game because somehow by removing the calendar system they made it feel more bottlenecked?  I'm not sure if that's genuinely the case or just vibes but I frequently felt like I was just kinda grinding out the next Important Event points because there wasn't really any new alchemy or quests available and it was just doing one thing repeatedly.  There wasn't the sense of picking a focus and that still helping you do other things along the way.  I also felt like getting friendship progress was weirdly stalled, but maybe that was just the schedules being wonky so you didn't really auto-progress stuff very much?  I dunno.

There's this really great stretch in the midgame though, once you realize that Plachta needs some sorta body, that really has the good Atelier vibes, which is repeated later when it's time to unlock the reveal of the final boss.  Like yeah, you have a few different errands to achieve this one overarching goal, and each one has different facets that it needs done, and they have different timers so you can do stuff while waiting for stuff.  But the midgame stands out more because we suddenly go from "Sophie is a kind person who wants to help her friend the talking book" to "oh she's gay she is going to kiss Plachta now."  I gather the further entries of the Mysterious series only double down on this.

They did do the thing again where the final boss just drops a regen along the lines of 20% of his HP when on his last legs, so lol lmao hope your finishers and best items weren't spent getting to this point because you're just gonna lose ground every turn now.  Just extremely feelsbad game design and it's weird to me they used it so many times in this era of the series.  It's extra annoying because honestly the game is just not like that at all prior to the finale, but they hold back lots of stuff throughout the game so nothing truly mean would even make sense prior to the ending bits.  I mean we're talking about a game where after level 20 you stop gaining levels and instead get skill points.  Dunno if this carries over to the other Mysterious games but given the less than stellar reputation of Firis I can only assume they fucked it up if so.

Still, nice to have one of these off the stack again, even if I didn't make progress on the year overall.

95

General Chat / Re: What games are you playing 2024? Battle strength determined by frilly outfits

« Last post by Captain K on January 23, 2024, 02:10:28 PM »

PALworld: It's a survival game (think Ark Survival) with Pokemon and Soulslike elements. You can capture Pals and have them work in your sweatshop or fight alongside you in battle. I like it because it's not very demanding - although you can certainly find trouble if you look for it. Currently level 15, dicking around the first island.

96

General Chat / Re: What games are you playing 2024? Battle strength determined by frilly outfits

« Last post by Twilkitri on January 23, 2024, 10:47:22 AM »

Pokémon Scarlet - Hidden Treasure Of Area Zero Epilogue (Switch)

Accessing this is actually locked behind a mystery gift. ...that means that they can arbitrarily remove access at any time by just stopping distributing it, like they'd been regularly doing in older games but not so much recently. Not great! (Unless they put out an update that changes how it works later.)

Counterbalancing that situation is that this is pretty terrible, and appears to primarily serve just as a way to give you access to Pecharunt. So it might not be a huge loss if it was shuttered at some point.

If you want any actual lore about Pecharunt you're better served by the video put up on the Pokémon Youtube account rather than the DLC itself.

With regards to the Indigo Disk postgame, I did a little of it but it's really not doing much to entice me back to do any more.


Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Switch)

To my knowledge, I did everything except for beating the badge gauntlet level in the special world. (Unclear if there's anything else locked after that.) I was never able to get the timing down for consecutive parachute hat deployments and that level starts off with a lengthy section of them - not dealing with that on every reattempt.

Very enjoyable, possibly a bit on the easy side overall although that's hardly something I'd complain about. Also feels sparse for some reason that I think is mainly due to there being comparatively little postgame content? It has been a long time since the last 2D-centric platformer (...at least the ones I consider to be part of that category) so I may be internally comparing it against the wrong titles.


Escape Goat (Steam)

Escaped the Prison of Agnus (all rooms completed) with 1308 deaths.

I assume the majority of the deaths were in Final Path 9, but the game doesn't give you a breakdown unfortunately. Terrible room. Second highest probably a different room in Final Path, where there's concentric moving-block pathways where all the inner moving blocks have buzzsaws. Could not control the goat's jumps anywhere near finely enough for the sort of movements needed for these rooms.

I'm not going to try the alternate (harder) set of levels, although it might be interesting to look up someone else's playthrough of them.

97

RPG Stats Forum / Re: Final Fantasy V (Boss)

« Last post by SnowFire on January 23, 2024, 04:01:54 AM »

Necro'ing a topic last posted in over 10 years ago, but inspired by recent FF5 events…  we missed out on the feared superboss of Final Fantasy V, the first World 3 boss: Antlion!

--
Antlion
HP: 8100
Speed: 6 CT to 8 average first turn, 2 CT to 3 average afterwards (same as Castle Exdeath)
Elements: Immune to Earth.  Weak to Water.  (Water is an extremely rare PC element at this point, if it matters.)
Status immunity: Heavy type, Dead, Stone, Toad, Mini, Poison, Paralyze, Charm, Stop
Evade: 10%
MEvade: 10%

Attack: ~280 (to front row)
Critical attack: ~280 (to front row)
Sonic Wave / Dischord: Halves target's level. 80 Hit.
Stomach Acid / Digestive Acid: 120 damage, ignores row, inflicts HP-leak.  Always hits (ITE).  (AI script will use every 5th turn.)

Fights 2 PCs (Butz & Cara / Bartz & Krile).

PC stats should be same as Act 2 Exdeath listed above (edged up a tiny bit because Antlion's defenses are a little worse than Exdeath's, 20 vs. 25).  So average PC HP of 1055, average damage of somewhere around 600 (non-optimized, assuming classes are picked randomly) or 900 (more optimized setups).  Ends up with Antlion's HP coming in at 2.7 PCHP / 1.8 PCHP (held against 2 PCs), or 1.54 / 1.03 PCHP (held against 3.5 PCs).

Notable status holes include Sleep, Darkness, Slow, and Old.

When Antlion dies, it flees (but you still get AP).  In the current patch of FF5 Pixel Remaster, if Antlion is sleeping (and perhaps other forms of loss of control?), it will full-heal rather than flee.  (Does not apply to SFC / GBA)

--
Antlion sucks!  4HKOs the front row and uh 8HKOs the back row, and that's if all his attacks hit.  If you managed to beat Castle Exdeath, you'll be fine against Antlion, even with 2 random PCs.  No double actions, no level 3 spells.  Antlion's basic attack has all the usual FF5 problems of PC evasion & blocking as well as back row for far less damage than Exdeath's Vacuum Wave.

It seems pretty hard to imagine a situation where you managed to beat Exdeath but had trouble with Antlion that isn't a Faris solo or the like.  You'd have to be hugely underlevel and have whatever strategy you used for Exdeath not be operational due to the 2 missing crew members.  But even in a challenge run, just chugging potions and using back-rank characters would probably get you far.  The one trick he has that might be relevant is Sonic Wave / Dischord - level is a potent stat in FF5, and the effect stacks.  It can make PC offense real bad (although unlikely to cause damage to tink...  except for Zenigage, which is super-defense reliant in its formula).  In the DL, this means he might prey on the most damageless of healers (your Tales of Phantasia Mints and the like), dropping HP leak and lots of level-halving before slugfesting.  Low Light.


(For those who missed GDQ: See the section linked below at 2:04:45.  Imagine telling someone in 2000 that the wildest cheers of an FF5 run would be for Antlion.. There aren't any random encounters to grind on, Bartz didn't learn !Mix because he was dead in a fight, and Krile's damage with Zenigage / Giltoss goes to 0 after a single Dischord, meaning Antlion will actually win the slugfest.  Plan B was sleeping Antlion, but the documentation for the healing surprise was lacking, because what are the odds, right?  Match of doom with Xenogears Elly if she's force-equipped with the Dream Rod as she frantically tries to win with Ethers.. )
https://youtu.be/amyuJjTe5gk?si=vAf_7xsHiLuwYDP9&t=7485

98

General Chat / What games are you playing 2024? Battle strength determined by frilly outfits

« Last post by DragonKnight Zero on January 22, 2024, 06:57:16 AM »

Might as well get things started with finishing up writeups from FFT Fiesta.

  Was being indecisive about what I needed for the final series.  For accessories, picked up 2 Rubber Shoes (just in case though I don't plan to use them) and a 2nd Defense Armlet.  Grabbed a 2nd Red Shoes. (should have picked up a 3rd as well) Most of my remaining funds went to extra katanas for Draw Out.  Kikus and Murasames mostly with a few more Kotetsus and Heaven's Clouds.

UBS4

  Priest with Draw Out, Dancer with Punch Art and Martial Arts, Samurai also goes Punch Art + Martial Arts.  Blade Grasp on all.  The only really meaningful threat on the field is the lower leveled monk.  He dies to a Bolt3 from the mediator's Blast Gun and an Earth Slash from the dancer.  After that, it's just taking out everyone else.  Other monk, then archer, knights last.  I checked the knights' secondaries for anything that would threaten a full team of 80 Brave Blade Grasp, danger level nil.  Elemental boosted Blast Gun, Earth Slash, and Draw Out > enemy evasion.
  Did stall for a bit at the end.  Could have dropped the last knight with Holy but the first monk would crystalize first so I opted to wait a round to go for all the marbles.  Crystal which Felicia picks up.  Learn Counter and Move-HP up off it.  She now can master the class.  Only damage I take all fight is one arrow and random Throw Stone.

UBS5

  Everyone but the dancer is set up with a spell gun and a Black Robe if they can.  Arrange PBF to draw Rofel forward with a Petrify.  Firing squad executes him in three shots.

Morund Death City

  Priest and mediator go in squad 2, everyone else in squad 1.  Mediator, monk, and samurai have Hamedo and keep Blade Grasp on the rest.  I give the dancer a Bracer and a Power Sleeve to go with her Thief Hat.  Punch Art and Martial Arts on her and the samurai.  Move Ramza exactly 3 panels from his default location.  Kletian comes forward to charge Holy on the dancer.  Ninja on squad 2 side goes for Throw on the Mediator, Hamedo.  Other enemies advance doing nothing.  Dancer advances with a Spin Fist on Kletian, a ninja, and a time mage hitting all three. (this is the only time I've used Spin Fist all game)  Mediator shoots ninja dead.  Priest does nothing of importance: using Kiku on a samurai just for the action.  Monk Ramza punches Kletian for 210.  Wave Fist from the samurai does enough to drop him.

Death City Presincts

  My female Gemini's turn to be the priest.  I give her Blast Gun, Thief Hat, Black Robe, and Red Shoes and set Hamedo.  Samurai Artemis gets a Blaze Gun, Black Robe, and Hamedo.  Everyone else sticks with Blade Grasp.  Defense Armlets on the members unable to wear Thief Hats.
  I messed up PBF placement putting the female Gemini in squad 2.  So Balk ends up shooting at Artemis on his first turn instead.  Gun Hamedo.  Priest moves up and Kiku on Balk for 160. (and the hyudra)  Enemy Chemist tosses a Hi-Potion on the hyudra, not that it matters.  Monk Earth Slash on two, 40 to Balk.  Samurai and mediator shoot the hydra dead.  Dancer starts Nameless.  Balk gets his second turn and shoots at the female Gemini.  Just as planned.  Gun Hamedo procs a Bolt2 leaving him at 124 HP.  She does 153 with the Blast Gun allowing me to end it right there.  Easiest Balk 2 fight I've ever had.  And hey, that 40 damage Earth Slash mattered.  Dancer doesn't get any actions this battle.

Hashulam

  Black Costumes for all but priest and samurai to ward of Spell.  Hamedo on monk and samurai with the rest sticking with Blade Grasp.  MagicDefend Up on all.
   Turned out to be very straightforward bashing.  Hash mostly stuck to hitting 3-5 units at a time with magic but MagicDefend Up (and Move-HP up on the two who had it learned) along with Chakra, Murasame, and the occasional Cure were sufficient to keep up.  If someone got low enough to die to a physical, well that's why I have Hamedo on the two units with decent physicals.  Priest supports and uses Draw Out.  Monk and samurai go between offense and support as needed.  Mediator shoots,  Dancer uses Kiku or Slow Dance if not able to get a good fining line/offense would require too much bunching up.  Hash couldn't really get damage to stick and went down like a chump.  No Slow procs from Heaven's Cloud but didn't really need it anyways.

99

Tournaments / Re: Futurama 2023 Week 3

« Last post by Dark Holy Elf on January 14, 2024, 10:08:26 PM »

Godlike

Heat (Digital Devil Saga) vs Lamington (Disgaea: Hour of Darkness): Lamington doesn't really have a great way past the tentacles.
Riou (Suikoden II) vs Yuna (Final Fantasy X): Faster.
Goddess (Final Fantasy VI) vs Aeterna (I am Setsuna): Yeah this seems rigt.
Belial (Wild ARMs 4) vs Ryu (Breath of Fire IV): 4D Pocket is kinda evil. She probably doesn't need it.

Heavy

Mei-ling (SaGa Frontier) vs Mystic Knight (Final Fantasy V): See Snow, this is probably an initiative 2HKO and even if she misses, she can buff once with LightSword first.
Temenos Mistral(Octopath Traveler II) vs Kyra Tierney (Phantasy Star IV): Bindwa to the rescue! That can buy her time until the debuffs wear off. Of course, she'll actually have to win at some point, and that... would basically need her to get lucky with sleep's duration. Temenos can also do massive damage to her (like 90%) so I imagine he can heal-lock somewhat (she's faster I guess but Octopath speed). I'm not certain. If Kyra had more than four shots of Bindwa I'd definitely vote her, but as is she'll need to get lucky reasonably quickly. EDIT: Going with 074's vote.

Middle

Dedue Molinaro (Fire Emblem Three Houses) vs Kyrie (Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark): Dedue 3HKOs, Kyrie 4HKOs. After a slow counter, Dedue gets his next two turns in the time it would normally take him to get three, but that still means he gets his third turn just before Kyrie gets her fourth. Dedue's 3HKO is high so I don't think regen saves Kyrie here.
Ba'Thraz (Chained Echoes) vs Tiki (Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem): Tiki is just durable enough to survive a Heaven and Hell Metal Dagger, so Ba'Tharz doesn't win until turn 3. Tiki also wins on turn 3, and is faster. Except... wait. Ba'Tharaz gets massive damage boosts at low HP, both from Revenge and from SOS Atk Up (which I don't think Tiki can dodge). So he just one-shots. Wild.

Light

Corselia (Suikoden Tactics) vs Amalia (Chained Echoes): Both fail at killing each other, but Corselia runs out of MP and panel regen eventually. Heal/Concentration lets Amalia stay afloat indefinitely.
Primrose Azelhart (Octopath Traveler) vs Ivy (Fire Emblem Engage): Doubt Primrose doubles to me, and she may win even if she is because I definitely agree that doubles would not give extra BP.
Mediator (Final Fantasy Tactics) vs Heather (Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn): Think this is right.
Vitali (Soul Nomad & The World Eaters) vs Zelkov (Fire Emblem Engage): And this.

100

Tournaments / Re: Futurama 2023 Week 3

« Last post by Pyro on January 12, 2024, 09:15:04 PM »

Godlike

Heat (Digital Devil Saga) vs Lamington (Disgaea: Hour of Darkness)
Riou (Suikoden II) vs Yuna (Final Fantasy X):
Goddess (Final Fantasy VI) vs Aeterna (I am Setsuna)
Belial (Wild ARMs 4) vs Ryu (Breath of Fire IV)

Heavy

Mei-ling (SaGa Frontier) vs Mystic Knight (Final Fantasy V)
Temenos Mistral(Octopath Traveler II) vs Kyra Tierney (Phantasy Star IV): Holy nuke.
Cthulhu (Cthulhu Saves Christmas) vs Lei Kugo (Live a Live)
Byakuren Hijiri (Labyrinth of Touhou) vs Anna Pascal (Triangle Strategy)

Middle

Minorio Aki (Labyrinth of Touhou 2) vs Createur Rosenqueen (Rhapsody II: Ballad of the Little Princess)
Rinkah (Fire Emblem Fates) vs Divine Punisher Shaman (Etrian Odyssey V)
Dedue Molinaro (Fire Emblem Three Houses) vs Kyrie (Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark): One-two punching?
Ba'Thraz (Chained Echoes) vs Tiki (Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem)

Light

Corselia (Suikoden Tactics) vs Amalia (Chained Echoes): Limitless resources.
Primrose Azelhart (Octopath Traveler) vs Ivy (Fire Emblem Engage)
Mediator (Final Fantasy Tactics) vs Heather (Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn): I'm harsher on Humans in FE10 then most so this feels right?
Vitali (Soul Nomad & The World Eaters) vs Zelkov (Fire Emblem Engage)