What Games are you playing 2015?

[VySaika]

Samurai Warriors Chronicles 3 - Picked this up on vita. I didn't know they made more in the chronicles series, but here we are. Huge huge steps up from 1(early 3DS game), but still really goddamn hard as far as musou games go. I'm rarely in danger of failing the entire map, but individual missions within maps can be rough. Especially when they come in waves of multiple missions, all of them time sensitive, and all with nasty consequences for failing. Here's a bit from a map I just did:

1 - The Mino three are heading to one of your bases! Don't let them reach the base. By the way they're all coming from different directions and are all in a High Morale area(enemies are basically all superpowered in these areas and mostly get to ignore hitstun!).

2 - By the way, Hideyoshi and some bros are going to torch your main base and your advance base. Don't let them reach either base. Unless, you know, you enjoy getting set on fire.

3 - Oh yeah, and Keiji and Toshiie Maeda are targetting your allies. You may want to kill them before they kill your bros. Also in High Morale areas.

All three of these triggering within 15 seconds of eachother made for some funtimes. I managed to stop torchdudes and save my bros, but I had to just let the Mino Three have the fucking base. Other such maps have had fun missions like "Kill Tadakatsu Honda in under 1 minute! By the way, High Morale Area and he has other officers around him because fuck you that's why."I get that a bunch of the missions are meant to be done when you replay the map with stronger characters. Still doesn't stop me from trying to complete them all first try ofc.

If I have one major complaint about the game, it's that your officers always come in at level 5 when you first get them. And...until you've played the map they come in on to unlock them, you can't level them up! So you can get stuck on a hard map with your main character who will be high leveled, and then three dudes all at level 5 with starting weapons that are NOT up to the task of the 5+ star stage. Dynasty Warriors 8 managed to have your dudes come in at reasonable levels for the maps in question in story mode, and that game came out well before this one, so I know it's not just something they've not thought of.

Overall fun, of course. It's actively challenging musou without having the challenge all be in enemies having insane chuft or having to avoid getting mulched by archers. Mission systems are good for that.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

FF5 - Currently doing the Fire Ship on Karnak. I really dislike this dungeon and I don't really understand very well why nowadays (maybe it's just how much of a pain in the ass it can be when you suck, and my memories from it really date back from then). I picked up Shiva by backtracking after buying a Flame Rod and breaking it on her face. That was pretty cathartic, she ate a shiny, shiny 2HKO from a single broken rod and a Chocobo, it was glorious. Speaking of which, both Chocobo and Sylph are pretty legit! 180 damage is more than any of my Blue Mages can reliably muster by now. I'm not even considering Shiva, which clocks in at over 300 MT damage and is currently my indisputed best offense. Also, I was wrong: I REACHED level 10 by the end of Walse. I'm L13 on Karnak right now, which is frankly weird as hell. I might end up below 15 when I get to the Ancient Library, I've never done this game at such low levels and it shows how much overkill they were.

EDIT: a question, though. When would be a good time to attempt grabbing the Elf Mantle? The Jackanapes are complete jackasses.

EDIT2: I just completed Karnak Castle! Liquid Flame is legit, mainly because of those goddamn Fira counters, which KO'd anyone in my party after a Blaze (which it'll often be unhealed from). It makes Vampire sorta unsafe. Regardless, one reset later, I managed to keep things under control. Karnak escape would've been amazingly simple, but I managed to kill Iron Claw before it got a turn. RESET because I wanted to learn Death Claw. And now, I got my third job, which is... Beastmaster. WELP, any trouble I might've had learning Blue Magic is now gone. It'll be interesting, too, since I've never used Beastmaster at length and this will be an interesting exercise. Some insight on what to do with it would be cool as well.

Also, holy -crap- does Summoner completely mulch randoms even on world 1 as soon as you pick up Shiva.

[Grefter]

Not sure about GBA version but I do a cheesy temp save fueled sprint to get it asap without running into any.  Elf Mantle fucking amazing accessory.

My experience 2 years ago matches yours.  When you are objective based going through FF5 you can smash through at much lower (still higher than Elf of Tallychu approved) Levels just fine.

I forget the Jacknapes tricks for Blue Mage.  I think Dark Shock and L5 death maybe?  That or 1000 needles probs.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Thanks to Beastmaster, I'll actually be able to pick up 1000 Needles in time to be useful, come to think of it. Also, can't I pick up White Wind or something from a Wind Shrine loser or whatever? May do just that before I attempt Library of the Ancients, and I'll also need to raise at least two of my PCs to L16 lest I explode to L5 Death - which I ALSO need to learn.

EDIT: I also must say that I really like just how damned -fun- the whole thing is when you're actually knowledgeable about it. FF5 is really creative in its designs and also in the ways you can rip it in half.

[Dark Holy Elf]

You can L5 Death Jackanapes, yeah, so I'd recommend waiting for that. Running works fine too but is RNG reliant. He always ambushes you so put everyone in the front row (which becomes the back).

Summoner's random-mulching is indeed ridiculous, and never really lets up (W2 Titan is in some ways the relative weak point just because it runs into immunity more but it's still ridiculous). Playing FF5 and FFD at the same time really drives home how ludicrously more easy random-sweeping is in the former.

With Beastmaster you can get White Wind in Ronka from Enchanted Fans (as well as 1000 Needles from Lamias). There are a bunch of cool Beastmaster releases although I've never drawn them on Fiesta myself, the main ones I remember are Thunder Dragons (W2) and Dragon Aevises (W3) who can be released for MT MHP/4 damage, and Great Dragons who can be released for ST 9999. I'm sure there are a bunch of other cool ones, this being FF5. Also, Control works on plenty of mini-boss type enemies (Red Dragons, Shield Dragons, etc.) and can obviously wreck them.

The main Blue spells to ensure you get besides the obvious ones already mentioned are the Aer- series (Aera is in the library, Aeroga either from the wind seal guardian or from Metamorph transformed into an Enchanted Fan in Ghido's Cave), Flame Thrower and Missile from the two types of turret minibosses at Ronka, Level 2 Old from Magic Dragons in Exdeath's castle, and Dark Spark from Black Flames in various places on the W1 world map.

[Magetastica]

Was talking in chat and decided to try out this whole FF5 Fiesta thing, which also happens to be my first time playing FF5, so Gods Have Mercy On My Soul.

As it turns out, they did. I started with getting Knight, which seems to handily turn the game into Autobattles'R'Us, only needing to stop every now and then to use a potion or Phoenix Down. I have only had 1 battle where I didn't have absolutely everyone standing, and that was against Siren. Galuf left alive with 38HP. My hero~

Next I got Mystic Knight and spend the entirety of the stretch between Water Crystal and Fire Crystal not knowing that to use their spells I had to buy regular Black Magic. I got Blizzard just before doing the Fire Crystal because ~Experimentation~ and figured it out. Beat it just fine, though certainly had some troubles with Fira killing my party. Just beat Fire Crystal and got Beastmaster as my next job. Don't know what it does or how it does it. But current party is Beastmaster Galuf with Guard, Knight Bartz with Protect, and Farris/Lenna are both sitting as Mystic Knights that hold their swords in both hands like the Manly Men they are.

[Dark Holy Elf]

The spells needed for Mystic Knight are mostly Black Magic spells, as well as two White Magic spells: Silence and Holy.

Beastmaster is kind of a cross between an FFT Mediator and a Pokemon master. Their !Catch ability can capture a monster with less than 1/8 max HP (later in the game they get an accessory which raises the threshold to 1/2), and they can then Release it for a one-shot attack later. They also get !Control which literally lets you take control of a monster and tell it what to do.

[Grefter]

Oh I also forgot to note that Magissa died to a steady stream of Frits before she summoned.  Good times.

I rolled fire crystal early just to plan JP assignment a bit.  Bard.  I know Bard is good, so I am not going to be too salty when I get Dragoon again for Earth.

Currently getting cash to buy 99 Mithril Armor.

Also Elf, I would be more specific about the accessory since it is kind of obscure and that job setup isn't super interesting for first FF5 run.  I will spoiler text hint in tiny font in case it is unwanted.

When you get to a village full of wolf people check the well in the bottom right corner.  It will ask you to catch one of the frog randoms outside town.  Do that and hand over 10k Gil.

You can get it later as well, but I figure first run through deserves a leg up.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Hahahahaha oh wow FF5 Advance FAQs. One of the big FAQs has level recommendations. And he was LEVEL 20 AT WALSE TOWER and L24 AT KARNAK. That's so horrible - probably worse than my botched Fiesta attempt running THIEF and BERSERKER

[Captain K]

Was going to say my FAQ is up on the DL wiki, but apparently it's not there anymore.

Anyway if you can Catch a Goblin from the first area he uses Flare upon release.  Not really worth the trouble of catching but it's there.

[Reiska]

Hahahahaha oh wow FF5 Advance FAQs. One of the big FAQs has level recommendations. And he was LEVEL 20 AT WALSE TOWER and L24 AT KARNAK. That's so horrible - probably worse than my botched Fiesta attempt running THIEF and BERSERKER

Jesus christ what the fuck, even I don't level that high and I love overleveling.  For the record, Djibriel's FAQ is the best on GameFAQs by far.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Jesus christ what the fuck, even I don't level that high and I love overleveling.  For the record, Djibriel's FAQ is the best on GameFAQs by far.

Not sure if you meant just for FF5 FAQs, but honestly there's a decent argument for Djibriel's FAQs being the best on all of GameFAQs so the statement still stands.

[Meeplelard]

Hahahahaha oh wow FF5 Advance FAQs. One of the big FAQs has level recommendations. And he was LEVEL 20 AT WALSE TOWER and L24 AT KARNAK. That's so horrible - probably worse than my botched Fiesta attempt running THIEF and BERSERKER

FAQs do that all the time with lots of games.  I remember it was commonly believed when SD3's "ideal end level" was somewhere in the mid 60s, when anything above like 51 (the level where Deathspell stops working on you) is completely pointless and even that takes some grinding to reach. 

[Scar]

Rk

Been noticing that a lot if the new bosses don't drop anything.

Either rng super hates me, or Dena has gotten lazy.

I noticed this trend as soon as the ff13 stages appeared. Bosses have become super stingy. Guess I don't need to catalog gear drops anymore either. I've been reluctantly dropping 2 star things in favor of space...

And I have 200 inventory spots.

Ah well. About to knock out ff6 cave if the veldt.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Bad RNG luck. Main dungeon bosses still drop orbs and whatnot.

[jsh357]

Hahahahaha oh wow FF5 Advance FAQs. One of the big FAQs has level recommendations. And he was LEVEL 20 AT WALSE TOWER and L24 AT KARNAK. That's so horrible - probably worse than my botched Fiesta attempt running THIEF and BERSERKER

FAQs do that all the time with lots of games.  I remember it was commonly believed when SD3's "ideal end level" was somewhere in the mid 60s, when anything above like 51 (the level where Deathspell stops working on you) is completely pointless and even that takes some grinding to reach.

Compounding this, it's pretty likely you won't even learn all of some classes' abilities if you finish the game at a reasonable pace. You can easily finish the game in the early 40s (maybe even earlier), but can't be a tier 3 class until level 38, but the game seems to assume you will achieve Level 38 much earlier than you'll get there.  The fact that you barely get to experience your team build in the end is probably the biggest design flaw in the game, yet no surprise considering how shoddy most of the Mana games are.  (psa: I love SD3; I just wish the second class change happened at Level 28 instead)

[Reiska]

Yeah, it's not altogether unreasonable to get to more or less endgame in SD3 well before hitting level 38.  I'm pretty sure on my last playthrough I had to grind for a non-negligible amount of time to get there.

[Dark Holy Elf]

I've never finished it below 50 myself but I had a horrible tendency to get lost in the final dungeons. But yeah, I usually was at or slightly below 38 when I hit the final dungeon (the obvious time you're supposed to class change).

[Grefter]

Still got a copy Cap?  I lost it in PC moves and as usual your guide is solid.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Final Fantasy Eggs And Their Autobattles - THERE'S A PALMER BOSS BATTLE IN THIS THING. PALMER HAS A BOSS SPRITE.

[Grefter]

Something to get tattooed finally?

[Fenrir]

Does a pixelated truck hit him?


Mario 3D Land: Got Luigi.


Soul Hackers: Controlling Judah ATM. Yes.

I'm liking the game way more now, I have turned voice acting off. The city feels like a smaller Persona 2 city, which has a lovely atmosphere I haven't really seen anywhere else (and which is one of the only reason I like the game nowadays) All the shop FMVs? Gold.

I'm surprised by the number of cool SMT enemies in this that I haven't seen in any other SMT game yet. (Even Strange Journey, which has like 300 demons) I particularly like Zeed (creepy as fuck) and this one (Classic SMT) http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120417043539/megamitensei/images/2/2a/Garrote.jpg)
 
Hard mode has been pretty harsh, especially with player character death = Game over. As such I have pumped endurance and a bit of strength for him and his performance has been mehish. (not that he could be good with full strength, really)  At least he doesn't die anymore, at all.

Nemissa has a mage build, does about 3x MC's damage with Bufu, she also has Dia/Media and a gigantic MP pool already. If she wants to use physicals she does the same damage as MC with her gun. I am nothing without her.

I've tried to avoid using demons because Nemissa is already so good anyway, and because I want to hoard mag. I already have converted a ton of it into money and put all that money in the virtual bank to get interest money. $$$. I hope Paradigm X isn't a gigantic scam. The guy behind it has Cruella De Vil's hair:



Still, you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, maybe he's very nice.

Resources aren't a problem so I just give drinks to all my demons sitting inside my gun-computer. so they can have fun. I don't know how I do it.

[Captain K]

Still got a copy Cap?  I lost it in PC moves and as usual your guide is solid.

Nope I don't.  Maybe ask whoever reformatted the wiki (MC?) if they saved it somewhere.  Google didn't turn it up.

[The Duck]

http://www.rpgdl.com/wiki/index.php/FF5#FF5_Walkthrough_1

Is this not it? It looks like the end is missing though.

[SnowFire]

Not 100% sure on the labels here.