What Games are you playing 2016?

[hinode]

Fenrir: One non-obvious UI note in BD is that after you've chosen commands for everyone and the "Go" button on the bottom screen turns red, you can press up on the d-pad to go in and edit one PC's commands without undoing everything else. This isn't super useful in general but it can save some tedium in boss battles if you've realized you made a minor mistake in commands.

[Fenrir]

All duly noted.

Orthros being all physical will be useful knowledge for all these boss rematches I hear the game is full of!

By the way. They have turned my favourite FF3 class into the furry class?? God damn it

[SnowFire]

It takes a furry to kill furred creatures.

Also Fenrir you said something I find delightful but I can't explain why without spoiling the plot you're skipping.  Alas.

--
Djinn: Interesting stuff.  I'm...  not sure that it really is aimed at girls, though?  Like...  I remember being surprised to find out that Mai-Hime was really more aimed at guys than girls, so having a bunch of women doing girl talk is not a guarantee of audience.  Also, Idols seem to be the in-thing for the "Japanier" games to randomly include?  I agree that *American* guys are a stranger fit for "daily life simulation w/ gossip & karaoke" but apparently the JP male market likes that kinda stuff, or at least tolerates it.

But, y'know, popstars in Japan, which is more like being a particularly well known wedding singer than the multimedia tabloid sensations that American pop stars are. So they still have some semblance of recognizable everyman life.

I always assumed that video game depictions of pop star life were basically pure fantasy, because people *want* to believe that the hot pop star they have a crush on can also be the nice girl down the street who goes to their school.  (Barring, of course, characters who are explicitly on "vacation" or taking some time off or the like, a la P4 Rise.)  The impression I got was that the best analogy to Asian teenager idol life would be be something more like members of sports teams - you spend literally all your time practicing & preparing for your special gig, whether it be football, figure skating, drum corps, violin, whatever.  You MIGHT get some easy dating on the side depending on prestige, but in general your life is not really comparable to Yon Average Middle Class Life because so much of it is consumed in training & performance, which is all conveniently skipped.

But what do I know.  Entirely possible you & Zenny know something I don't on this.

--
Also, on the note of idols & Gate bringing up the Devil Survivor remakes, I'd just like to complain a wee bit about DS2 Record Breaker's Triangulum Path.  Something well-known to do to mix things up in a direct sequel is to mix up the look of the characters a little - even if they don't age much, at least give them new costumes.  Trails in the Sky SC does this reasonably well, giving ~half of the characters slightly new outfits.  Record Breaker...  gives them new outfits for a scene, and then they change back into their Septentrione outfit for the rest of the game?  wut.  Why'd you even bother to make the new art then?!  But yeah, Hinako & Airi have started their own idol band in Triangulum complete w/ new clothes, which weirdly enough involves wearing MORE for Hinako (only 1 way to go?) and looking pretty swag, but it lasts all of a single scene before they're back to the same look as ever.  Sheesh.  (And the same bait & switch with another ~2 characters, albeit for less idol-related reasons.)

[Niu]

Niu: Yes, I did everything to get Black Frost. Now forced into a route where I won't get to use it. -_-; It he available on any other route, or just Gin's?

Evil Frost is only available in Gin and the Demon route.

[Sierra]

But, y'know, popstars in Japan, which is more like being a particularly well known wedding singer than the multimedia tabloid sensations that American pop stars are. So they still have some semblance of recognizable everyman life.

I was under the impression that the daily lives of Japanese pop stars were horrifically micromanaged by their labels for the sake of maintaining the most marketable image. No? It's hard to reconcile that impression with a sentence including "everyman."

[AndrewRogue]

The magical power is apparently related to one's ability to express their inner creativity (novel enough idea!) which is our excuse for why these popstars are the ones who are saving the world...

I get what you mean, but man. Man.

[Niu]

But, y'know, popstars in Japan, which is more like being a particularly well known wedding singer than the multimedia tabloid sensations that American pop stars are. So they still have some semblance of recognizable everyman life.

I was under the impression that the daily lives of Japanese pop stars were horrifically micromanaged by their labels for the sake of maintaining the most marketable image. No? It's hard to reconcile that impression with a sentence including "everyman."

It depends on being what type of star. "Idol", "Talent", or just a professional singer with nothing fancy.
Than there is also the target demographic in the equation.

Like those catering to the otaku fandom do have more rules follow. Because you know how the otakus are like and they want their fantasies to stay pure.

[Niu]

The magical power is apparently related to one's ability to express their inner creativity (novel enough idea!) which is our excuse for why these popstars are the ones who are saving the world...

I get what you mean, but man. Man.

There things far sillier than that.
Like it turns out the Holy Dragon Naga purge the entertainment industry in the FE World, because the entertainment industry can be used to revive the Dark Dragon. And thus leads to the FE villain to invade entertainment industry on Earth.

[Fenrir]

Snowfire I do not mind you spoiling the plot I'm skipping at all!


Boss notes:

Furry ranger: Yeaaaaaah fire weakness is a really bad thing to have right now.
Another boss that goes "Here I go charging my REAL ULTIMATE ATTACK" at the end, thinking that's a viable strategy.

Summoner: Very difficult but also very RNG based it seems? I tried three times and won the 4th because of she liked doing basic physicals instead of re-summoning her mean allies. Those are for real some of the meanest resummonable allies around. Especially that archer. Keeping them alive and focusing on her was not an option, they positively 
After she summoned allies for the second time, I panicked and had everyone but the white mage brave to -4 as a desperate finishing move. IT WORKED! They did manage to beat her. But then the two allies finished the rest of my team. That's how bad it was.

LDTRTL: Pretty solid! Its main problem is being on the defensive, which is not surprising at all. What's surprising is that it totally outspeeds my team. What are they feeding those turtle?
This is the token "look at how cool spellblades are" boss
It also spent like the entire battle at like 2-3 BP, which was very intimidating but amounted to nothing in the end

Dumb owl: Fuck owls

Red Mage: Impossible right now, unless I'm missing something

[Dark Holy Elf]

I thought the Summoner called allies on fixed turns, though I forget exactly which (5, then every 3? Every 6? I forget). The summoning (in the Final Fantasy sense) is certainly every 3.

[Fenrir]

The summoning was, and I believe the first ally summoning also was. But I felt that during one of my fights she re-summoned a lot later than in the first.



Valkyrie: This is an attrition war, and I have 15 ethers. I win.

Red Mage: Really fun fight here! He has status (not too much of a problem to cure in Bravely Default), some physical attacks, MT lightning, and anytime he gets hit he has a chance to get turns. If he does trigger that he follows the next round with 2200 healing, which is crazy. At low HPs he just thunderspams instead.

After Valkyrie I still had a few branches of her dungeon left to explore. I switched everybody to Summoner to learn lightning res at level 2. Afterwards the lightning spam wasn't much of a problem anymore! Healing still was.
My strategy was to get everybody to 3BP then blitz. On the first try I also had my white mage use a light curtain on him (adds reflect. I had one) It was awesome!

Ranger did all the damage, 1000x4 with her default skill. My black mage was doing 500 x 4, the Sword Fencer a little less.
Characters that don't specialize, and especially physical attackers without good damage, are completely inadequate in hard mode. Anytime I try to switch to something other than bows or -maybe- dual handed swords, I get terrible results. Why do bows continue to dominate every other weapon type? I think I'm near the end of Chapter 2 and here is my chapter 2 job evaluation:
Ranger: SSS tier
Valkyrie, Summoner, Red Mage: FFF tier

Black mage is lagging hard since those MP costs have been skyrocketing and ethers haven't been any cheaper.

[Dark Holy Elf]

1-handed physicals aren't usually very good, so yeah you should be using either a two-handed weapon or Two Hands (or Dual Wield) on someone you want to use for physical damage, for the most part. 2H swords/etc. should keep up with bows just fine. Ranger does have a slight hit lead on other jobs (as does Thief) so that also helps them, but honestly they kinda need it.

Valkyrie's one of the very very best classes for randoms and gets some neat tricks for bosses.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Djinn: Interesting stuff.  I'm...  not sure that it really is aimed at girls, though?  Like...  I remember being surprised to find out that Mai-Hime was really more aimed at guys than girls, so having a bunch of women doing girl talk is not a guarantee of audience.  Also, Idols seem to be the in-thing for the "Japanier" games to randomly include?  I agree that *American* guys are a stranger fit for "daily life simulation w/ gossip & karaoke" but apparently the JP male market likes that kinda stuff, or at least tolerates it.

It's possible, but I dunno, there's a lot of little things that add up to that feeling beyond just what I could consciously point out. Maybe watch some gameplay footage of the early parts if you think you can pin down what might be causing that feeling?

I always assumed that video game depictions of pop star life were basically pure fantasy

but in general your life is not really comparable to Yon Average Middle Class Life because so much of it is consumed in training & performance, which is all conveniently skipped.

Well, first of all, Average Japanese life is already mostly consumed with work and training, so it's already comparable. But as Niu also pointed out, depending upon level of fame and demographic, the incredibly-saturated Japanese pop idol industry has a lot of performers that are just generally unknown when they aren't on-stage despite making decent money from their work.

Like... I've met a few, even hung out with some and they are just basically like any other Japanese person I've hung out with. Except maybe more people take notice of them? I mean, they are attractive women, but I don't get the impression any of the onlookers know that they are idols/talents. It's probably more comparable to someone who does Modelling as their main profession. Occasionally someone recognizes them and they probably have a small dedicated fanbase somewhere (who the girl probably barely tolerates from the reports I've heard first-hand?), but for the most part it's just their job.

Now, the story is different for performers who actually have Number 1 Hit Songs TM and the like, but that's not generally the idols I see portrayed in things like this? And in #FE, so far only one of the characters is a Number One Artist TM, and she's actually busy working all the time (so far, I'm only on Chapter 2). The rest of them are in-training or do backup acting/singing roles from what I can tell.

[Fenrir]

Valkyrie has catched up a bit but this took a hell of a long time. She was also stuck with crappy spears for a while. Since my last post spears have gotten 2 upgrades and bows 0, so they have at least catched up a little.

Two handed still costs one ability slot and some training as a knight, which is not terrible but still a bit of a pain compared to just grabbing a bow.


Water blob: this boss took me countless resets. Big MT damage that also summons allies, charm, damage, everything. No Ringabel, don't cast Regen on it for the love of god
My final strategy was to have everyone with some sort of protection against the big tidal wave attack (either an ice charm, or ice res, or protect, or knight's 1 turn protection skill that has now been used for the very first time in history)
Anytime the allies are summoned I made sure I had everybody ready to brave x4 then MT Thundara/ Thundara strike/ Aqua strike the hell out of everyone.
Red mage's bonkers passive helped my healer a lot. Red mage is now cool.

Barbarossa: lol you get to -2bp on purpose? Plz Barbarossa respect yourself. Easiest boss yet.

Three robots: took me two or three resets. They use mean physicals and buffs. I had my guys default until turn 4 then unleash everything on one of the robots in two turns, going well into negative bp just in case. The two other robots buffed in response, and I dispelled that. Smooth sailing from then on even with everybody having negative turns.

[Fenrir]

Oh yeah I fought Barbarossa after the three robots since I had missed him from skipping cutscenes. My brother warned me about it. Maybe that made him a bit weaker but I doubt he could be a good boss anyway

[Dark Holy Elf]

"ST damage only" can't really scare a competent party at your point in the game, so yeah Barbarossa is bad. Personally I didn't stumble on him until later which downgrades him from "bad" to "real, real bad".

The robots actually use their buffs on a fixed turn, not in response to death. If you don't have one of them dead by the turn after they buff, though, you're almost certainly toast.

[Fenrir]

Bravely Default: I am in Chapter 5. I am not going to talk about every boss. Lots and lots of fun setups; I beat the performer by casting sleep on her friends, I beat Victor & Victoria with Widen Area Antidote and Dispel, etc.

I believe that ninjas are pretty good? As a matter of fact I have three in my team right now? They are such a ridiculous offense upgrade, I love them.

RIght now I'm at the beginning of Chapter 5 at level 55ish and feeling a bit exhausted. Dragons kicked my ass, and I just can't handle fighting a bunch of difficult bosses in a row right now like the game wants me to. I need to find some place to job grind a bit to get some of these jobs to a higher level than 12.


Also.
Is there any plot reason that explains why we're able to sleep in the castle we're invading at the end of Chapter 4?

[Grefter]

It is Edea's room.  She is the Templar's daughter.

Edit so no.

[Luther Lansfeld]

Mass Effect 3 - Prevented the extermination of both races because I am Jesus, but then got owned by a wanky ninja. Did this happen in Jesus's life trajectory?

[The Duck]

Kai Leng is one of the shittiest characters of all time.

[Grefter]

NURR NURR NURR TO SHIT TO FIGHT ME ONE ON ONE LIKE A MAN WHY YOU SO WEEK SHEPHARD

*Is a stock standard helicopter boss fight*

[AAA]

Ciato when the time comes near the end of the game (you'll know it when you see it) take the Renegade interrupt. You know you want to.

[Excal]

Mass Effect 3 - Prevented the extermination of both races because I am Jesus, but then got owned by a wanky ninja. Did this happen in Jesus's life trajectory?

I have it on good authority that the thirty pieces of silver came in shuriken form.

[Luther Lansfeld]

I love how in that scene we do the classic turn away from the dead villain thing... so we are magically really stupid?

[Random Consonant]

It involves Kai Leng, so yes.