The RPG Duelling League
Social Forums => General Chat => Topic started by: Grefter on December 31, 2014, 02:48:36 PM
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Dark Souls 2 - So I restarted as a Knight instead of Sorcerer so I could like have some HP and not use a Dagger.
Then I found the bonfire at the start of the Forest. That is less annoying now.
Also got a mod to get rid of the gigantic dead zones to running around doesn't feel like I can only move in 8 directions.
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Super Smash Wii U- Finally played a little of this. I kinda like using pacman. Otherwise, I'm really bad at this and it's still smash, so it's sensory overload at the best of times.
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Pokemon Omega Ruby - Had to get online to check POKEMON HEIGHTS, very important. I'm currently stalking Maxie to prevent him from douchery.
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Dark Souls 2 - So I restarted as a Knight instead of Sorcerer so I could like have some HP and not use a Dagger.
Then I found the bonfire at the start of the Forest. That is less annoying now.
Also got a mod to get rid of the gigantic dead zones to running around doesn't feel like I can only move in 8 directions.
Man Grefter daggers are totally awesome in Dark Souls 2 if you have two of them, 40-50 DEX, Ring of Blades +2 and Flynn's Ring.
Re: your last post in the old topic, I almost never use shields in Dark Souls 2. Whereas Dark Souls 1 is kind of terrifying without them, they barely ever feel necessary to me in the sequel. There's like one enemy type in the game that consistently makes me regret not having one around. Fucking Alonne knights, that overhead slash is just too fast.
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Smash: Unlocked all the characters. Now to learn Duck Hunt.
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It is nothing to do with the "nerrrrr where is my 100% physical reduction shield!" And everything to do with wanting a safety net when getting used to new flow of combat and enemy attacks. Two handing a dagger with fuck all Dex and Vitality is pretty rough learning curve.
Also holy fuck they split up Endurance into two stats? Why do people not complain about that forever.
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Solve all your issues and go Shield-only run. It's not too terrible!
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Daggerrrrrz was not a serious suggestion.
I actually think blocking itself is just less reliable in Dark Souls 2, though, even if you do have a good shield. It seems to eat up a lot more stamina than before, and you're not going to find a 100% physical shield until after Pursuer (which is early, but kind of a roadblock for new players). Granted, I've never bothered with greatshields (mostly because see below points). I stuck with the Drangleic Shield all through my first game and it was decent but not, you know, the reliable middle shield awesomeness you could find in abundance in Dark Souls 1; this time the best middle shield comes from the second-to-last boss soul! It's definitely nice to have one when you're unfamiliar with the game, but on replay I dropped them and never looked back. It actually feels like they intended for blocking to be much less the universally optimal choice than it usually was in DS1. I think dodging actually works out better in DS2 than it did in DS1 due to being omnidirectional (although i-frames being tied to an actual stat took a fuck of a lot of getting used to) and it's kind of difficult now for me to go back to the older games where you're locked into four directions for rolling.
Pump endurance to 20 and then forget about it. Stamina gains drop off after that point; you might want more if you're going strength weapons since they eat a ton of stamina, but that's about the only build that might need anything past the soft cap outside of quirky stuff like the warped sword (which has a special attack that eats like a full bar).
I almost completely ignore vitality. I don't see any reason to care about it unless you're using heavy weapons or heavy armor, and why would I waste levels on a stat that does nothing but let me move faster wearing armor when I could spend them on being better at killing dudes instead? Poise is a much less solid form of defense than it was in Dark Souls 1; even facetanking with Havel's doesn't buy you very many hits before getting staggered, and once you are staggered poise basically stops existing at all for that fight. And since Souls defensive stats do almost nothing, I find that poise being nerfed significantly diminishes the principle reason to actually use armor in the first place. The mainstay defensive options of DS1 seem to be less worthwhile by design in DS2 (it took me a long time and lot of swearing to get used to this). The fast roll range is also much broader than it used to be--I'm honestly not sure precisely where it is, actually, mobility seems to decrease gradually in Dark Souls 2 rather than having sharply defined cutoff points--so you don't have to obsessively fiddle with your stats and gear to make sure you're just under 25% equip burden at all times.
And that's why I don't complain about the divided stats, Grefter! Actually, it suits my playstyle a lot better--I can get away with investing less in endurance itself and ignore vitality altogether because armor's fucking worthless in my estimation anyway. All the Fashion Soulsest gear is light armor! You know my priorities.
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Torchlight 2: The big bad died offscreen from poison while I ran off to shoot up his minions (to spawn more of my own minions). Poison, you guys! It's so great.
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I worry that the split stat would make End and Vit (vigor? Whatever they call it) not as good or worth investing in. Making it solely drive Equip weight also sets you up to target it for a specific ratio in your build which is fucking around in arcane data points in a Dark Souls game, which is pretty fucking terrible because data points are obtuse and opaque by design (for all that they do present equip weight much better!)
I didn't think you were saying DAGGER OR GO HOME or anything, I only talked more about it because that character was a Sorcerer and Dagger was literally my only option. It was spawn with a dagger, find another dagger in the tutorial area. OK I guess I am using a dagger for now.
Edit - Got up to Malentia. Okay on my Sorcerer stuff was less fucked than I thought, I missed TWO FUCKING BONGFIRES. Okay okay okay. So anyway. Now I am going DO I BUY CLUB OR DO I BUY CAESTUS.
I think I am going to go Club and listen to some dubstep and trance while I play. Partly because Gourry already did Caestus as well.
Edit - Number of deaths by jumping off ladders trying to move down them quickly: 2.
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I worry that the split stat would make End and Vit (vigor? Whatever they call it) not as good or worth investing in. Making it solely drive Equip weight also sets you up to target it for a specific ratio in your build which is fucking around in arcane data points in a Dark Souls game, which is pretty fucking terrible because data points are obtuse and opaque by design (for all that they do present equip weight much better!)
I didn't think you were saying DAGGER OR GO HOME or anything, I only talked more about it because that character was a Sorcerer and Dagger was literally my only option. It was spawn with a dagger, find another dagger in the tutorial area. OK I guess I am using a dagger for now.
Edit - Got up to Malentia. Okay on my Sorcerer stuff was less fucked than I thought, I missed TWO FUCKING BONGFIRES. Okay okay okay. So anyway. Now I am going DO I BUY CLUB OR DO I BUY CAESTUS.
I think I am going to go Club and listen to some dubstep and trance while I play. Partly because Gourry already did Caestus as well.
Equip load isn't like Dark Souls 1, with a big jump at 25%/50%/75%/100% and no difference from 26 to 49%. Instead it's like 70%/100% only, but you always get smaller improvements from having lower equip load (higher roll distance, higher stamina recovery, maybe others I forgot) So there's less aiming for a specific ratio in Dark Souls 2 actually.
It makes the stat less worth investing in but it was too good in 1 anyway. You still get a ton more levels from playing Dark Souls 2 (too many really) so I always invested a bit anyway, at least up to the first soft cap unless I was playing a mage.
Dude how did you miss the big door to Melentia. Or did you miss the bonfire in Marjula? Oh, you might have missed the emerald lady who gives you levels in Marjula too, she's near a cliff to the right.
You should explore, exploration is super important especially in the early part of the game because you can get like 3 estus shards in Marjula + the forest of giants before fighting the first boss.
Regular clubs are still good, I used a mace for my NG1 playthrough and it's similar.
Edit - Number of deaths by jumping off ladders trying to move down them quickly: 2.
Yeah that was pretty dumb. You get used to it though
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Dragon Age: Finished. Final battle was pretty well executed. I liked the room with all the archers just waiting in sensible firing positions to hit the door. Of course, made it easier to Thunderstorm half of them, but still. Well done sequence all around though.
I like the game, kinda not sure how to feel overall. Not overly enamoured but dug the game on the whole. Game has some super great decisions that end up morally ambiguous on all sides in terms (Elves/Werewolves comes to the forefront of my mind here), in addition to the general Good/Dickish/Neutral dialogue trees. Most of the party characters were good, though most of the NPCs other than Anora were pretty shyte. 7/10 I think? Can't bring myself to rate it higher.
Human Noble, liked the opening bit. The Mom was badass. Both of us shooting down the opposition was totes proper Chiemi family form. Shame Arl Howe is a dick, but it's Tim Curry so I can't totally hate him.
Redcliffe was alright. Middle of the road-ish. The bit with the Ashes was just sort of eh. The cultists give you no real reason to do what they want. The Elf quest chain I think was the best. Not too long, and the choice at the end is probably the most interesting moral choice you have to make in the game. The Dwarven quest chain was overly long and annoying, not quite worth the payoff but the bit with the Anvil was good. Branka was played just right. Both Bhelen and Harrowmont are pretty shitty, so in the end it leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Circle Tower was good overall. Coulda done with the dream things being shorter, but they kept it if not always interesting at least different. Needed to keep Golem form.
Went crossbow. Not many options, really. Sailor's Crossbow served most of the game after the initial STR rush to actually equip it, Dragonthorn just barely outclassed it late. Woo Explosive bolts though. Scattershot was pretty much the most awesome way to clear Grunts in the end sequence, since even stunning them killed them.
Alister is a bro. Leiliana also p. awesome.
Will probably pick up Awakening, but I think that'll be the end of the foray into Dragon Age. Probably the best wRPG for a JRPG fan to play. Still has a pretty driven/focused plot despite having branching paths and relative freedom. Works for the best of both worlds.
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I hadn't made it to Melentia on the mage, but nearly got there. I got the Majula Bonfire, but I had missed the first one in Forest that is just off to the side, so doing the run from Majula wasn't super hard or anything (its like 2 mobs), but the run time really added to the whole thing to make it feel like a killer dash to a bonfire. Knowing it is there lets you rapid reiterate much easier.
I am too lame to spend Effigy to turn human, so spend way too much time with half health (this is dumb), but because connectivity works in DS2 and it isn't region locked for match making like DS1 is at the moment, there was actually really quick summons. So I got a summon to kill the Last Giant to see the fight before doing it, then summoned to do it as well because hey this looks fun. Then went and summoned for Pursuer as well because it was fun the first time. Theeeeeen I dropped my sign a few more times because it was fun.
Coop is good, I am glad to finally experience it, but wow does it make bosses zergfests. Doesn't matter, had fun. Look forward to doing them with groups of 6 when the rerelease happens.
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MACE is honestly too good. Like seriously one of the best weapons in the game. Caestus is outstanding but really shines powerstanced, so maybe wait until you're comfortable without a shield for that.
Co-op's expanded the lifespan of these games for me way more than expected. Like, oh, what, it's laundry day? Okay, let's wait on some summons while we match socks. Despite already having the game for PS3, I've definitely considered grabbing it on Steam too for DL tag-team hijinx. That said, I definitely don't plan on doing that until the rerelease because the old and new PC versions of the game will not be compatible.
The reduced health thing is really dumb and remains my least favorite aspect of DS2, but yeah, at least you can get human again just through summons (this was patched in, mind; it was an occasional glitch at launch).
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PvP is also pretty good even if that's not usually your thing, as long as other players are as bad/good as you. Which should be the case after a Steam sale. Edit: By PvP I mean rat covenant or bellbro
Shadowrun Returns: Not terrible so far compared to Dragonfall, maybe that's because I have low expectations. I expected the linearity and lack of meaningful recurrent companions (I don't really mind), but I didn't really expect the world building (and art) to be that much weaker. I am not sure exactly what made Berlin feel real and Seattle feel like Cyberpunk Theme Park, but it's there.
I have a pure rigger build with two drones. Fun fun fun. I don't even have any action points left for doing anything, I'm just sitting in a corner dual wielding cyberpunk remote controls and letting the drones do everything. I'm actually going to restart just to remove the few points I've invested in decking because drones are too cool and I want to recruit deckers. (And I'm playing on very hard so I want to max drones ASAP)
I'm pretty hyped for this:
(http://media1.gameinformer.com/filestorage/CommunityServer.Components.SiteFiles/imagefeed/featured/Harebrained-Schemes/shadowrun/Hong-Kong/ShadowrunHKAnn-610.jpg)
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Poking through Lost Bastille now and maaaaaan this place can eat a bag of dicks. Push through shitty ridiculous 3 pull that you have to body pull to get to boss, weapon nearly breaking. Tag team boss as summon, Fire Sword nearly breaks before we wipe. Do it again with Hand Axe. It nearly breaks, but we win.
Summon Bellclaire, go through door. Die instantly to boss I have fought twice before with no idea what the fuck is going on. Is it easier to dodge through lag or something?
Edit - Oh and I checked a wiki to see, but nothing definitive said on this. Is there a level range/soul memory effect in place on coop summons? I assume there is so red phantoms don't invade someone with a Soul Memory 1billion ally, but blahhhh. I see and get plenty of summons on these early bosses at least.
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Poking through Lost Bastille now and maaaaaan this place can eat a bag of dicks. Push through shitty ridiculous 3 pull that you have to body pull to get to boss, weapon nearly breaking. Tag team boss as summon, Fire Sword nearly breaks before we wipe. Do it again with Hand Axe. It nearly breaks, but we win.
Summon Bellclaire, go through door. Die instantly to boss I have fought twice before with no idea what the fuck is going on. Is it easier to dodge through lag or something?
Edit - Oh and I checked a wiki to see, but nothing definitive said on this. Is there a level range/soul memory effect in place on coop summons? I assume there is so red phantoms don't invade someone with a Soul Memory 1billion ally, but blahhhh. I see and get plenty of summons on these early bosses at least.
Invaders and summons follow the same Soul Memory rules, I believe. The reason you aren't seeing a lot of invasions is chiefly because invasion items are very few and far between until post-game. You're likely to see a lot more invasions in new game+. I am not a fan of this because it makes random invasions (which I think are fun) too risky/expensive for the invader, but if you don't want those it's probably a good thing.
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Grefter: http://darksouls2.wiki.fextralife.com/Summon+Range+Calculator
(Because soul memory's totally not a needlessly complicated way to divide casual PvE from the hardcore PvPers at all.) And yeah, you might get invaded maybe once or twice in the entirety of the game. This isn't even strictly because of soul memory (although that also contributes, because From didn't want Undead Parish happening again). The invasion items are available only in limited quantity, not sold infinitely until NG+ (and NG online activity is segregated from NG+) and even then rudely expensive. The belfry's an exception because it's basically a dedicated PvP area that has no cost on the invader's part.
Supposedly the rerelease will be abolishing the online division between NG and beyond as well as relaxing soul memory restrictions. Not sure of details though.
You can run past most of the mooks before the sentinels. Instead of heading left through the explosives-filled room that the three dudes run out of, charge straight past that and go down the stairs. There will be a ladder down there that brings you up basically right outside Belclaire's cell. This way instead of fighting everyone you can just snipe the first two soldiers from the door to draw them out and then skip like everyone else.
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Torchlight 2: Man the actual final dungeon area got extremely rude. It wasn't even the evil monsters from cthulhuspace that the game wanted me to be afraid of, it was just the turretbots that can burn through your entire healthbar in like one second. They often come in pairs and I got in the habit of mashing healz button the instant I saw one just because experience quickly demonstrated that I would otherwise die. Glad I was playing a ranged character so I could inch them just into view singly and snipe them before multiples could open fire at once. Dual gun spam worked out pretty well. Firing like four times a second and they're all crits and they all heal me. The endgame worked really hard to make drain cheese obsolete, though. Robots just do too much damage. Also minion bullets fine for chewing through trash mobs but ultimately kind of wasted levels as far as bosses go. Not because bosses don't have friends to convert (bosses always come with mobs in this game) but because they inevitably have AoE spam that flattens my allies before they can contribute anything worthwhile.
Tried a couple postgame areas. Randodungeons with beefed-up copies of maingame bosses tacked on at the end, about what you'd expect. Done here.
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Shadowrun Returns: Oh wow I already beat the ripper, which was the purpose of the game? So I get the $$$ I get for finding Sam's killer? Apparently not.
Man there might be another evil behind the crime but I don't care, I fully deserve the cash. I mean, next I'll kill beat that bigger badder dude and the game will tell me "WOW Super Great. But you know the reason why Sam was killed? Capitalism and patriarchy. Bring both down and you'll get your money"
Fuck offfff
It's fun to play this after Dragonfall, because you can see some game mechanics that mattered in the first game that were entirely irrelevent in the second, but they still kept them around because reasons?
I'm thinking about 1) Recruitable Companions 2) Alarm in the matrix 3) Friendly ally bots in the matrix, I think some weapons and items could apply too but I haven't dwelved into the mechanics that much.
I think I know what's bothering me the most about the world building: It feels like there's a lot of condescending distance between the writing staff and the world itself. It's like a CSI episode where the staff goes to some underground seedy bar, and it's super cliché, and the super rich and clean investigation team makes one liners about their revulsion.
Dragonfall feels certainly homely in comparison, like the writing staff has some fondness for the setting, and wouldn't mind hanging out with these people even if they acknowledge that their situation sucks.
Also there's a half japanese character that keeps inserting some japanese words in english sentences, because it's more exotic? No one does this in real life. This is a vraiment terrible trope, oui?
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The actual payoff for avenging Sam is like the only clever moment in Dead Man's Switch, even though you can and should see it coming by the time it happens.
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Pokémon Alpha Sapphire - What do you mean, they hand you a Latias for free after Norman?
Speaking of which, Norman's gym overall is just a fun piece of design. I like the item gimmick rooms and Norman himself is pretty mean. Two Slakings packing Yawn and often OHKO-level offense to my mostly frail party would've been overwhelming if not for Metang being a bad enough dude to rescue the president. He managed to survive a first-turn crit Retaliate from the second Slaking, which is sure as hell impressive.
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Also there's a half japanese character that keeps inserting some japanese words in english sentences, because it's more exotic? No one does this in real life. This is a vraiment terrible trope, oui?
In real life what happens, as far as I've seen, is speaking to others in the common language, and muttering of phrases to one's self in the native one.
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Consider Latias/os an apology for the nonsense you had to deal with in previous games to get them...
...well, no, they were perfectly reasonable in BW2, but shhh!
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The actual payoff for avenging Sam is like the only clever moment in Dead Man's Switch, even though you can and should see it coming by the time it happens.
Hahah wow, nope I didn't see it coming at all! Pretty sweet.
In real life what happens, as far as I've seen, is speaking to others in the common language, and muttering of phrases to one's self in the native one.
Yeah.
And if you go see a foreign family they'll speak to you in your language and argue between themselves in their language. Sometimes they'll change language mid sentence because of this. It's a pretty uncomfortable situation.
But yeah they don't add ", amigo." at the end of every sentence
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The Stanley Parable: This office needs more motivational posters, otherwise pretty accurate.
This game is basically a wankfest on the fixation of some western game supporters that choice is everything in games, but since it's also hilarious I can't see a reason to mind (and sometimes I just felt sorry for defying the passive aggressive narrator, because there are moments when you actually feel like a team working against the contrary wishes of the devious yellow line). I played through a couple hours of cycles and exhausted all the options I could find, or at least enough to feel like I did. It's cheap on Steam and worth it for comedy value alone. I mean, you'd spend more going to the movies for the same amount of time and almost definitely get fewer laughs out of it. It's also the most meta game ever on purpose (it's pretty explicitly the reason it was made). The majority of the achievements exist solely to troll achievement hunters by being unachievable, which I approve of so much. Maybe I'll boot it up again in 2020 just to see if the "don't play the game for five years" trophy is actually a real thing it'll give you.
I have to wonder if anything actually happens when you spend the requested four hours pressing the "prevent baby from walking into fire" button but I'm sure as hell not going to test this.
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I have to wonder if anything actually happens when you spend the requested four hours pressing the "prevent baby from walking into fire" button but I'm sure as hell not going to test this.
You become God.
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It'd be so easy if you just had to mash that button for four hours to get that ending!
But no.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7GAtSIy4-w
Edit: By the way, I recommend getting the achievement for clicking on door 430 five times.
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DS2 - Gargoyles can suck a boat load full of munitions. Fuck that fight.
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Pokémon Alpha Sapphire - I'm actually considering picking up a Milotic this time around.
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Kill me.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7GAtSIy4-w
Edit: By the way, I recommend getting the achievement for clicking on door 430 five times.
I tried but it didn't end up in getting an achievement. >.> Also I'm really glad someone else did the baby thing so I could YouTube it. Checked out an ending compilation, looks like I got 75% of them? Good enough.
FONV: I finished up the Legion/hardcore run from last year. TL;DR ending, everything good in the world has been annihilated and it's all my fault.
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Shovel Knight: Finished! 76% Completion, etc. Dunno if I'll go for 100% or just do a straight up replay at some point, but yeah, the game is good.
One thing I will comment on is the constant "The game is like Mega Man!" remarks, to which I say "...not really." The physics don't feel particularly Mega Man like, and most obviously is Mega Man is a "Jump and Shoot Man!", Shovel Knight is more a "Jump and Melee" man which makes a huge difference. To be honest, I found more in common with Zelda 2 than Mega Man in terms of gameplay.
-Primary attack is Melee. You can even get a "Projectile at full Health" upgrade.
-Down Stab Attack.
-Sub Weapons are gotten throughout the game and feel like means to compliment your character with either platforming or attacks. This is contrast to Mega Man weapons where in they're meant to replace your attack outright should the situation arise (granted, X in MMX4 and on, his weapons were more "compliment the Buster" style, especially in X8)
-Towns very similar to how Zelda 2 did them.
It's similar to Mega Man more in superficial ways. The Graphic style, the music, end-game Boss Rush, the fact that your Knight's default color is blue, water physics, and boss naming scheme are totally Mega Man. Someone noted "Stage design is very Mega Man like" and eh, I think the graphics make it seem more Mega Man than it is. Considering the Pogo Gimmick and how often you break blocks to progress, if anything, the stage design is a lot more like Ducktales (which granted is also Capcom) than Mega Man.
Game is also more linear...to a degree. You have several options of who to fight when, but you can't progress until current draw is defeated. Yeah, a few specific Mega Man games did this (MM7 and MM8 in particular.)
...none of that makes this a bad game of course! More just saying "Don't go in expecting Mega Man" but rather "Go in expecting a solid 2D Platformer!" and you won't be disappointed. That aside, game makes obvious nods to other classic 8 Bit franchises too. Spectre Knight's stage is a complete and total homage to Castlevania, down to Spectre Knight himself pretty much being Death from Castlevania, the overworld is a straight rip from Super Mario Bros 3, and in some stages it pulls the "lights off and can only see during Lightning Flashes" gimmick that Ninja Gaiden 2 has pulled on occasion.
The game got a lot of praise and generally was worth it. Apparently it's on Sale in the Eshop right now, so anyone with a 3DS or Wii U who is interested should pick it up NOW, even if you're not going to play it for a while. It's definitely worth playing if you at all like 2D platformers, especially if you have nostalgia for the 8 Bit era.
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It's also on sale on Steam for the same $10 that Nintendo is charging, so if it sounds good to you on any platform, buy it now (before 1 PM Eastern today on Steam, before next Friday on WiiU/3DS).
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7GAtSIy4-w
Edit: By the way, I recommend getting the achievement for clicking on door 430 five times.
I tried but it didn't end up in getting an achievement. >.> Also I'm really glad someone else did the baby thing so I could YouTube it. Checked out an ending compilation, looks like I got 75% of them? Good enough.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B95T5ewzSpU
Shovel Knight: Finished! 76% Completion, etc. Dunno if I'll go for 100% or just do a straight up replay at some point, but yeah, the game is good.
One thing I will comment on is the constant "The game is like Mega Man!" remarks, to which I say "...not really." The physics don't feel particularly Mega Man like, and most obviously is Mega Man is a "Jump and Shoot Man!", Shovel Knight is more a "Jump and Melee" man which makes a huge difference. To be honest, I found more in common with Zelda 2 than Mega Man in terms of gameplay.
-Primary attack is Melee. You can even get a "Projectile at full Health" upgrade.
-Down Stab Attack.
-Sub Weapons are gotten throughout the game and feel like means to compliment your character with either platforming or attacks. This is contrast to Mega Man weapons where in they're meant to replace your attack outright should the situation arise (granted, X in MMX4 and on, his weapons were more "compliment the Buster" style, especially in X8)
-Towns very similar to how Zelda 2 did them.
It's similar to Mega Man more in superficial ways. The Graphic style, the music, end-game Boss Rush, the fact that your Knight's default color is blue, water physics, and boss naming scheme are totally Mega Man. Someone noted "Stage design is very Mega Man like" and eh, I think the graphics make it seem more Mega Man than it is. Considering the Pogo Gimmick and how often you break blocks to progress, if anything, the stage design is a lot more like Ducktales (which granted is also Capcom) than Mega Man.
Yeah the melee vs ranged thing is a big enough difference between Megaman and Shovel Knight that they don't feel the same, especially since enemy design is dramatically different as a result.
The mechanics for moving around are a lot closer to Megaman than Zelda 2. Shovel Knight only really feels like Zelda 2 when fighting regular knights with shields.
A major Megaman influence in stage design is how each stage seems to rely on one or a few platforming gimmicks you don't see on any other stage in the game (except perhaps in the last boss rushy one)
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Rayman Origins - Completed! This was a lot of fun, anyone who likes 2D platformers should give it a spin (it's for pretty much every active system in 2011). Was a bit disappointed in the final stage, it's really just a normal stage and rather than fight the final boss, you chase him until he crashes his ship and it explodes. It jumps out at me because of Super Mario 3D Land which I'd beaten just previously; 3D Land isn't nearly as good a game overall but has a great final confrontation, Rayman is kinda the opposite. I can't be too disappointed though because the last "normal" stage (the fourth-to-last) is nasty as hell in a way you'd expect, and the second-to-last stage is distilled platforming terror and great fun. The third-to-last stage features the best scene in the game by far, I don't want to spoil it because it is so surreal that it has to be seen. Play it!
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U - Played some of this with Meeple and JSH yesterday. I find the lag frustrating but most of the time it's not too bad. 75m is satan.
Theatrhythm: Curtain Call - Started this.
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Dark Souls 2 - Nope. Gargoyles is fucking terrible. Just the worst. You know what made original Gargoyles not fucking terrible? Some time with one of the gargoyles alone for more than 3 fucking seconds. Fuck this fight and fuck how important it is to Lost Sinner.
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Dark Souls 2 - Nope. Gargoyles is fucking terrible. Just the worst. You know what made original Gargoyles not fucking terrible? Some time with one of the gargoyles alone for more than 3 fucking seconds. Fuck this fight and fuck how important it is to Lost Sinner.
Bring some friends!~
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You can't. Zone prevents summoning. Fucking terrible fight, fuck it so hard in its stupid fucking face.
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You can't. Zone prevents summoning. Fucking terrible fight, fuck it so hard in its stupid fucking face.
You can summon there. It's hard to keep your summon around with all the invasions (at least it was back when DS2 came out) but it is totally possible to summon.
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Oh huh, I must have been too close to the fog door or something. Guess I will try.
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Yeah, I grinded out Sunbros 2.0 using the gargs (club-guy was designed to smash them super-easy).
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Large/greatclub +10 at 40 strength and you should be able to demolish them in two hits (but that goes for most things in Dark Souls 2, it's not exactly news that great hammers are a bit too good). I usually do gargs -> Lost Sinner last anyway because that entire gauntlet is substantially worse than the lead-up to any of the other Old Ones in my opinion.
I'm pretty sure the only bosses genuinely off-limits for co-op are the rats. The trouble with the gargoyles is just getting someone before you get invaded. Not sure about Darklurker because I usually skip that entire quest (it's by far my least favorite area in the game).
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I honestly never fight the gargoyles; the key just gets you a Fire Seed and makes Lost Sinner slightly easier (it's a ridiculously easy fight in the first place, just circle strafing. I have never played new game+, can't comment on it). Sometimes I'll come back near the end of the game and then they're a joke, but that doesn't mean much.
One thing I do actually like a lot about DS2 is that you can skip most of the first half of the game's content. I usually have 1 million soul memory before killing all four Great Lords, and can skip one of them.
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Defender's Quest: Valley of the Forgotten
Heard about this from SnowFire's 2014 games review. It is a Tower Defense game. Djinn loves Tower Defense games, even though they are all basically the same. What makes Defender's Quest stand out (certainly isn't its name) is that it actually has something resembling a story and characters, which is surprisingly rare in the genre, which tends to sell itself solely on aesthetic and one minor quirk to the basic gameplay formula between iterations.
Defender's Quest apparently started life as a fairly polished free-to-play flash game. The for-sale version on Steam is basically just a nicer-looking version of the flash game with better coloring on the art, updated sprites, and a more streamlined menu/UI. These are actually all very welcome updates and turn Defender's Quest into an amusing and well-polished version of the generic Tower Defense formula. I shall henceforth think of it as the "ur-Tower Defense game". If anyone happens across any more Tower Defense games that follow this formula, I totally wanna play those too.
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Defender's Quest is a ton of fun. I don't love it as much as Orcs Must Die or Defense Grid (Play those games Djinn!) but it does well in spite of levels not being the most balanced mechanic for a tower defense game.
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Djinn's thought process: I like RPGs! I like Tower Defense games!
I like Defender's Quest! I wonder why? Probably because it's what happens when someone said: "Hmm... Tower Defense games are cool, but how can I make them more like RPGs?"
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I do rec Orcs Must Die as well DJ. It doesn't have explicit leveling like Defender's Quest, but it still has progression mechanics. They do rely more strongly on player skill than DQ though.
Dark Souls 2 - Summoning worked and then I stupidly didn't use he bonfire to go level before progressing the tiny bit past the bonfire. Queue many deaths as I retrieve my souls from npc invasion with dogs.
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Corpse Party: It's good! Unfortunately the DL decided to eat my comments about it. Pretty rare nowadays that the back button won't recover text, but it managed it here.
So, see the review in the 2014 games thread, no longer write-up I suppose. Basically RPGMaker sprite games are better scares for me than stuff like Resident Evil it seems. Jump scares & weird mutated horrors are a dime a dozen; slowly dying of thirst is worse. The game has very well designed scenarios for the most part about setting up something scary to happen, but making you push into it anyway. (Even if it also has a weird bathroom obsession sometimes in its scenario design.) Also music & sound effects hype goes here, too.
Spoilery comments more for my own good (that I happened to have backed up) that Andrew or Nitori can chime in on if they want, or not:
* Not really a question, but I'm totally with the Corpse Party LP on Yoshiki & Ayumi actually getting work done and being the real main characters, while Mochida mopes around trying to rescue damsels in distress. Helps they actually have character.
* So why did Yoshie attack Naomi in the Infirmary in C1? She just gone crazy?
* At the end of C2, Yoshikazu ganks Yoshiki, but not really. Fine, he's actually kind and checking his blows because he was cursed, I get it. Except... he straight-up kills Yuuya & the cameraman's assisstant later on. What was the difference? Yoshiki just get lucky after all?
* At the end of C3, does Naho send Mochida over to Naomi really just because mwahaha I want to see you suffer by arriving too late? Or was it actually trying to help? Huh.
* In C5, Sachiko helps save Yuka, and then she & Yuka have a little chat that ends with Sachiko threatening her. When next we see Yuka, she's in the annex with a tape player, and she says nothing of the incident. WTF happened here? (Considering that the game was actually good about explaining what happened during a certain other blackout period...)
* I wish the game went into a little more detail about why exactly Naho posted an intentionally screwed up charm online. Ayumi accuses her of trying to get "customers" for Kibiki or something, but she denies this, but claims she'll do anything for Kibiki. I'm not sure how seriously we can take anything darkening-Naho says, but it was normal Naho who posted the charm… okay, so Naho comes home from school, finds a note that Kibiki has gone to Heavenly Host, posts the wrong charm details online, then travels to Heavenly Host herself. So was this something to make Kibiki's story better after all? A bizarre way of mounting a rescue mission to Kibiki? A monument to him after she realized he wasn't coming back? Anyway, this is arguably the most evil thing anyone does in the game - at least Sachiko & the ghost children can say they were influenced by the dark spirit or curse or whatever, while this was perfectly normal Naho who got everyone else sent there.
* Morishige & Ms. Shishido have rather anti-climatic endings. Morishige gets his epic freak-out, which was pretty cool, although the lines about "oh mayu you were what was keeping me alive (in high school)" seemed overkill from the writers. Anyway, I'd have tried to keep him around in a crazed state of despair, but fine, the curse, I can see committing suicide. (Although why isn't his cell phone ever useful for the pics later?! Alas.) Ms. Shishido, however, ugh. It'd have been perfectly fine to kill her in C2, but if they're going to have her survive, I'd like it if she mattered in some way - bring a clue or an item to Our Heros. The way she dies is very random - I don't normally think of demon summoning circle as "giant trapdoor to the abyss." It's especially weird when right next door is an incinerator with an apparent trap door into the basement & pool, and Our Heros fall into that without incident! Basically they create a not-that-deadly threat and have her immediately sacrifice herself to it. Wish they'd figured out something better here. (At least the EXChap confirms she survives for a very short time afterward in the pit?!)
* In the end: Wait, ghost girl Yuki becomes a new Sachiko, wtf? What does that even mean? I guess this is sequel-bait, but darn it, I came here to make a crazed girl repent, let me have my victory darn it. I guess the darkness animating the place doesn't need the original Sachiko or something and will take any ol' ghost and convince them they're Sachiko.
* Hmm, nobody ever comments on how Ayumi Shinozaki has the same last name as Sachiko Shinozaki. I guess the extended family are all spirit mediums, which is why Yoshie & Sachiko & Naho continued on after death. Still weird that nobody comments on this in-game.
* The bit about "and nobody even remembered their existence" was your average OH SNAP extra plot twist, but, uh, doesn't make tons of sense. It clearly wasn't true for everyone - Ayumi knows who Naho is, and she got swallowed by the school - and same with the deaths in the 70's and the mysterious disappearances then. Oh well. This is me being a nitpicker I guess, just let their tragic disappearances be noticed darn it.
* Yeah, yeah, psychic powers, etc., but.. was Sachiko really a student at Heavenly Host in 1973? How come the principal didn't notice? If she wasn't a student, shouldn't this have been noted in the newspaper articles, that she was just a random mysterious girl? (Yes, Kibiki's research does show she disappeared later, but I'm talking even before later, like "oh you must be so scared, who's your mommy & daddy so we can take you home.")
Perhaps some of this will be answered in Book of Shadows.
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Pokémon Alpha Sapphire - Fortree and Mossdeep gyms down. Winona's design, once again, feels pretty tight in its bases (a gym leader based primarily on stalling you out? That's pretty neat!), though my team was honestly well-equipped to deal with it. The Swellow ate Crobat Aerial Aces as soon as it started spamming Double Team, an Overheat from Camerupt shattered all the hopes and dreams of her Skarmory pretty much as soon as it came out and Pelipper is a -horrible- idea against a Mega Manectric with Discharge. Altaria was pretty damned neat, though: Roost, Cotton Guard and Earthquake actually make for effective walling measures against physicals and provide a counter against Electric types (the Earthquake -did- OHKO Mega Manectric...). Dragon Breath also provides coverage and possible paralysis hax if things go wrong, but they honestly didn't. The fight essentially ended once I landed Toxic poison with Crobat hax: Confuse Ray, chip and let the poison work its magic. Didn't hurt that Altaria kept losing turns to Confuse and wasted Roosts uselessly.
Tate and Liza were frankly disappointing, though. The idea with Lunatone and Solrock was honestly pretty cute (Light Screen and Hypnosis on Lunatone and Sunny Day and Solar Beam on Solrock could be very scary, and Rock Slide is pretty dangerous MT given the decent power running off STAB and non-fail attack, especially if you run a slow party), but Reflect on Gardevoire and Mega Sceptile in general just made very quick work of the fight - they could've used two more Pokés after Lunasol. After Reflect, I lucked out on a Hypnosis attempt and managed to Calm Mind, which kept Gardevoire offense and healing viable with Draining Kiss while Sceptile chomped away at Solrock's HP with Giga Drain, mostly mitigating its Rock Slides. Ended up winning the fight with absolutely no losses.
So, since it's been a long chain of evolutions and a slot swap in-between gyms, further evaluations on current party!
Sceptile/Mega Sceptile (L41 - Giga Drain/Sword Dance/Leaf Blade/Low Sweep) - Well, that's a lot of offense and speed. Does very well walling Water types and generally provides physical damage now that I benched Metang for the Milotic experiment, which will be detailed later. It has become oddly hard to kill in spite of the bad defensive spread due to Giga Drain off -that- S. Atk being crazy good. Sword Dance makes for a good setup move for sweeping shenanigans, and Low Sweep gives it something to do against pesky Steel types. Not much utility, but sweeping is the name of the game and that it does well.
Milotic (L39 - Surf/Recover/Light Screen/Toxic) - So, it actually was worth picking up that Feebas. I pumped it full of HP and Defense EVs and it's become horrendously hard to kill. Competitive as an ability also has oddly useful stints, since it makes those Surfs kinda obscene. Across the board tanking with competent offense and acceptable speed honestly goes really far, though I want that Ice Beam TM so it can have more coverage. I probably can make do without Light Screen anyway, given the presence of Gardevoir in my team.
Gardevoir (L40 - Psychic/Draining Kiss/Calm Mind/Reflect) - Sweeps like a champ and Draining Kiss does -wonders- to its survivability in conjunction with Calm Mind. Reflect also covers the suspect pdur. I considered handing it Dazzling Gleam, but Draining Kiss just covers its defensive bases along with handing it non-Psychic coverage to such a baffling degree it's not even funny. Very good, and I expect murder and death once I get my hands on that Gardevoirite.
Crobat (L40 - Acrobatics/Poison Fang/Confuse Ray/Fly) - Keeps doing Crobatty things. Acrobatics is goddamn awesome without held items (effective 110 Power off STAB? Sign me up!), though I wish I could spare the Fly slot here. Poison Fang has been way more useful than I'd like to admit, both for hitting some odd weaknesses and haxing hilarious Toxic procs (see how that landed me a secure victory against Winona's Altaria). Trivializing Ground attacks also helps. Its hilarious stat lead has waned, but its offense/speed/utility mix remains quite desirable.
Camerupt (L40 - Overheat/Yawn/Lava Plume/Earth Power) - Does the same thing it did as Numel: massive damage in Fire and Ground variety. Durability sucks less now that it reached its evolved form, but speed's simply unsalvageable. Considering how -useful- having high-damage STABs off those two elements is, though, can't say I'm dissatisfied with this development. Munching through Electric types like they're made of paper doesn't hurt either.
Manectric/Mega Manectric (L39 - Discharge/Charge Beam/Thunder Wave/Strength) - More damage, now in anti-flier variety. Thunder Wave remains its sole utility, but it's damned good for what it is, and Discharge off the S. Atk and Spe combo fries things. Charge Beam, once again, works as a decent gamble move, but now it's a low-end sweeping gamble rather than a 2HKO check. Intimidate's also pretty nice against those physicallers.
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Bayonetta 2: Finished chapter 5, unlocked the Nintendo reference costumes. It's cool that costumes come with gameplay changes now, and hilarious that the one you're forced to purchase in order to get access to the rest is the fursuit.
Mario 3D World: Started a fresh file, cleared up to world 2-2 with all green stars. Missing a few stamps, though...I wonder if that'll block me off from anything. *Checks secret world requirements* O_o Eep.
Ace Attorney Investigations 2: I'd managed to ignore/forget that there was a usable translation patch until now. Finished the first case in one sitting, and I'm now into the second day of case 2. So far it's fun, although not a big step up from AAI. Logic Chess is interesting, though it also has potential to descend into trial and error. Also, I'm sure I'm not the first one to say so, but I'm hugely impressed with the translation team - every part of the game looks and feels like a professional release. Dang.
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Pokemon Omega Ruby - Just completed the maingame and I'm about to start working on Episode Delta. I used Delphox, Sceptile, Empoleon, Gardevoir, Sandslash, and Swellow. Swellow is not a very good endgame Pokemon, but he's just so darn cute. :) I had a lot of trouble with Steven, mostly because my team is poorly set up to deal with Cradily. He hits weakness on almost everyone and no one hits a good weakness on him, and his Confuse Ray is a bitch. Due to him being a massive pain in the ass, I equipped people with the confuse healing berries and tried to just go to town with Gardevoir, even though Sludge Bomb was a pain in her ass. That worked really well. Then Steven decided to be stupid and put out Claydol vs. Gardevoir, and I just buffed a lot and when Mega Metagross came out I just hoped that the Double Team spam would work out. It did, and I dodged and Draining Kissed my way to victory.
STAB Draining Kiss is stupid on a character with such high SpA and Calm Mind. Gardevoir is still the lategame MVP, unsurprisingly. Empoleon is decent but god is he a slowpoke (faster than Camerupt at least!). He of course made Mega Camerupt a joke. <_< Delphox is quite handy, STAB on fire and psychic managed to both be quite useful, and this game is pretty light on the Geodude / water-type spamming, so her weaknesses weren't as exposed. Sceptile loves getting Grass Pledge. Makes a world of difference to his midgame performance. I should have tried to find Giga Drain but I didn't have the Internet to FAQ it. ;_; Sandslash does its job as the faster, more fragile Graveller.
This game's plot is actually not as terrible as the more recent games'. I was a little caught off guard by that.
I also second Snow's mocking of Liza and Tate. Sceptile says hi.
I GOT TO PET PIPLUP IN POKEAMIE. MY LIFE IS COMPLETE.
Shale -- Stamps are only required for the mega super secret world, which is silly. I ended up doing it because I became addicted to the game, but I might take a wait and see approach to that. The first three aftergame worlds you can do without collection.
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Also, I'm sure I'm not the first one to say so, but I'm hugely impressed with the translation team - every part of the game looks and feels like a professional release. Dang.
I'm not sure. I definitely felt there was something lacking in AAI2 as far as jokes/humourous references went, compared to the other Ace Attorney game. Still overall I'm quite pleased with it. A particular standout is the good job they did voice-acting the Objection!s and their ilk.
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Also, I'm sure I'm not the first one to say so, but I'm hugely impressed with the translation team - every part of the game looks and feels like a professional release. Dang.
I'm not sure. I definitely felt there was something lacking in AAI2 as far as jokes/humourous references went, compared to the other Ace Attorney game. Still overall I'm quite pleased with it. A particular standout is the good job they did voice-acting the Objection!s and their ilk.
Agreed on all counts. The translation is dry compared to the main games in the series but I was impressed by the work they put into making it feel like a seamless western release.
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Agreed that it doesn't have the same feel as the official translations of the other games (there are characters without punny names!) but it still comes off as a professional piece of work, just one that was made by a different group of people.
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Back in Melbourne with laptop and a PS2 (chose over PS3) for a couple of weeks. So no more Dark Souls for a couple of weeks. I plan on replaying Suikoden 4.
While I get that setup I finished this
Dragon Quest 1 - this was on ITunes for a couple of dollars, so I a figured I would check it out. I have come out of it with surprisingly high esteem actually. It is super archaic of course and I do note that the iOS version is a remake (port of like GBC version?) so it has a few rough edges smoothed out, but I still liked it more than I did Daen of Souls.
It isn't really a great game by any stakes but I can see where it is coming from way better than I can sympathise with FF1, probably because DQ1 honestly is an evolutionary dead end in video games where FF1 has a sea of games that did it better.
So here is the thing, DQ1 is actually a really straight port of what RPGs were on other platforms at the time, it playslike a cut down (for size presumably) version of an Ultima game. You are given a vague goal to achieve, dumped into the world and off you go. There is clearly a route that the designers expect you to do and dungeons to go down, but it is entirely up to you to do so. Random NPCs all over the world will direct you to places, but none will suggest which thing you should do next.
The stripped back part is mostly scale and crufty systems that don't add heaps. Just straight mana and learning from levels is sufficient to do the job for magic systems and this port drops Talk Door Look shit as well which goes a long way.
Oh and this port has modern translation so there is some pretty mad DQ puns in here. Knight Abherrant was a personal favourite 10/10 would pun again.
It also works pretty well as a mobile game, you can drop in and mash away for a few minutes and on a bus ride you will easy make it through the pretty short dungeons the game has. Only the last one was particularly arduous.
So there you go, this is the decade I start to like SMT mechanics and become an honest fan of Dragon Quest games.
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Back in Melbourne with laptop and a PS2 (chose over PS3) for a couple of weeks. So no more Dark Souls for a couple of weeks. I plan on replaying Suikoden 4.
why
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Grefter and self-loathing walk hand in hand.
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Dragon Quest 1 - this was on ITunes for a couple of dollars, so I a figured I would check it out. I have come out of it with surprisingly high esteem actually. It is super archaic of course and I do note that the iOS version is a remake (port of like GBC version?) so it has a few rough edges smoothed out, but I still liked it more than I did Daen of Souls.
It isn't really a great game by any stakes but I can see where it is coming from way better than I can sympathise with FF1, probably because DQ1 honestly is an evolutionary dead end in video games where FF1 has a sea of games that did it better.
So here is the thing, DQ1 is actually a really straight port of what RPGs were on other platforms at the time, it playslike a cut down (for size presumably) version of an Ultima game. You are given a vague goal to achieve, dumped into the world and off you go. There is clearly a route that the designers expect you to do and dungeons to go down, but it is entirely up to you to do so. Random NPCs all over the world will direct you to places, but none will suggest which thing you should do next.
The stripped back part is mostly scale and crufty systems that don't add heaps. Just straight mana and learning from levels is sufficient to do the job for magic systems and this port drops Talk Door Look shit as well which goes a long way.
Oh and this port has modern translation so there is some pretty mad DQ puns in here. Knight Abherrant was a personal favourite 10/10 would pun again.
It also works pretty well as a mobile game, you can drop in and mash away for a few minutes and on a bus ride you will easy make it through the pretty short dungeons the game has. Only the last one was particularly arduous.
So there you go, this is the decade I start to like SMT mechanics and become an honest fan of Dragon Quest games.
Pretty well stated, really. DQ1 really more or less is Ultima 1 with all the extraneous sci-fi elements excised and the overall gameplay significantly polished. I can't think of many single-PC RPGs with a focus on exploration as opposed to plot that have really made any significant advancements on it without adding either multiplayer elements or action-game elements, if not both. Ultima itself went to multiple PCs with its third entry and didn't particularly look back. (And talk/look/door/stairs stuff too was very much an artifact of Ultima.)
FF1, as you stated, had a lot of room for evolution within its scope. Even DQ dabbled in some of it; I would argue that DQ3 largely does everything FF1 did better with the possible exception of giving the player direction (which feels intentional). Sadly, most later class-based DQs regressed from 3, in large part because they were trying to ape FF3/FF5 rather than stick to DQ3's strengths.
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Back in Melbourne with laptop and a PS2 (chose over PS3) for a couple of weeks. So no more Dark Souls for a couple of weeks. I plan on replaying Suikoden 4.
I thought you preferred more subtle tortures when it came to games.
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Back in Melbourne with laptop and a PS2 (chose over PS3) for a couple of weeks. So no more Dark Souls for a couple of weeks. I plan on replaying Suikoden 4.
I thought you preferred more subtle tortures when it came to games.
Maybe he brought S:T with him too and will play them simultaneously.
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Mario Kart DS - I picked this up in Oklahoma because I wanted to try to play all of the Mario Karts this year. It feels pretty clunky compared to the newer games, but its track design is quite good and it's quite a bit harder than the newer ones, which is nice.
Smash Bros. U - Kalos stage is the best because it has Piplup. <3
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Played Smash U on the weekend with some friends. 6 person fights - I got to paunch dudes. The 4+ Player maps are all pretty terrible outside of battlefield IMO. They are either too crowded and its impossible to tell what is happening (Yoshi's Island, Flatzone in particular. Standing by the blast line and throwing people back = +11 gg). Or they are way too big and it stretches the screen too far out so its very difficult to tell where you are. Oh, and camping too, which is silly. Good thing we weren't playing stock.
In that regard, Mariokart 8 seems to be the better 8 player game if you get a set up going properly. Its chaotic enough to be fun but not so off putting like Smash's small maps or hueg liek xbox maps. There seems not to be a happy medium. But the 2-4 player remains unchanged I guess. For better or for worse.
Speaking of, my favourite moment was losing on the Pikmin stage. 2 Deaths to random crab appearing and then 1 more death due to Warp Star nonsense (REPLAY WORTHY). Still not feeling the hype for this.
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Rob bought himself Endless Legend, the hex-based 4X game from Amplitude. They're the same guys who made Endless Space, the space strategy game that won me over when, in my first playthrough, I crossed through a wormhole to be confronted with a supermassive star empire bent on my destruction just like in Deep Space 9.
Endless Legend that plays somewhat like a cross between HoMM, Civ V and a board game. The basic nuts and bolts of FIDS are kept pretty much intact with the addition of a new resource, Influence, which is basically like Culture from Civ V. You use it to buy policies that give boosts to your faction, and you also spend it to do diplomacy things. These policies are set every 25 turns and you have to stick with those bonuses until next time. Fortunately, there are no penalties, but it also means that you can't, at any given time, pull all your points out of economic policies and dump them into military the second you're going to go to war.
Planning ahead is pretty important because you are apparently on a Game of Thrones world where you have only the vaguest idea of when summer and winter end. Winter is generally a very bad time and it gets progressively worse as the game goes on, sustaining penalties to army movement, income and production at first, and as time goes on and winter gets progressively harsher, additional penalties start cropping up. Having a surplus of money and, if necessary, food, is a key to surviving winter, as is having troops ready to protect your borders since their ability to react to threats is greatly reduced.
Cities function somewhat differently from most games. The map is divided up into regions, each having a name. When you build a city in a region, that region is claimed for you and nobody else can build there. You can have a city build extractors on resource tiles anywhere in the region, some of which are standard staples like gold or titanium, while others are materials previously established in the Endless Space universe like hydromiel, the food engineered by the Endless that grows in any environment and molds itself to the dietary needs of whatever eats it and is basically magic. A city obtains resources in two ways: population is assigned to work on a specific thing, like food, and they basically work in a vacuum making it. For every two population, you can build a new district for your city. Each district obtains resources from the tile it is on, as well as a smaller amount from the tiles surrounding it. To balance the obvious strategy of building a city shaped like a starfish to cover as many tiles as possible, a district gets a bonus when it is surrounded by four other districts. So your cities will often end up with differently-shaped urban areas depending on what terrain you want to exploit and whether you want to focus on extracting as much as possible from that or spreading out to different things.
Army-wise, each faction only has a few unique units. You are supposed to assimilate minor factions in to your empire to get auxiliary units. You know, like Rome did. My army is backed up by two-headed wolfmen and combat nuns because of course I would do that. You assimilate them by either attacking and destroying a settlement and then rebuilding it, bribing them into joining you, or doing a quest for the minor faction. While each region only has one minor faction in it, they may have more than one settlement, and each assimilated settlement is one free population, so violence or bribery tend to be the best options with only one settlement, while two or more usually means you should do their dumb quest to make them like you.
In combat, the units from an army spread out and fight each other kind of like in HoMM. Unlike in HoMM, they don't go to some separate fighting map, they do it on the world map. Therefore, the terrain you fight in can have a huge affect on the outcome. Cavalry units, who get attack bonuses from the number of hexes they move in a straight line before attacking, are fairly useless in mountainous terrain, while archers get rushed down and cut to pieces in an open field. Heroes are also far more useful leading armies than they are in Endless Space, because they don't just add passive bonuses, they're also usually pretty bad ass at killing people.
Can't comment on all the factions because I've only played three, but I really like all their aesthetics, and the three I have played all have very distinct play styles. The AI is fairly good at leveraging their particular advantages, although it's not quite on the level of GalCiv 2's, which doesn't even need to cheat to be good at the game. Unlike a lot of 4X games, each civilization has a quest to follow. It functions primarily to give you occasional rewards for doing things you should be doing while also serving for world-building. The Broken Lords, a faction made up of guys who used to be knights but are now ghosts haunting suits of armor that subsist on a combination of dust and sucking the life out of mortals, have a quest centering on the struggle whether or not it is okay to be a ghost Dracula, while the Drakken, a diplomatically-oriented race of dragon people who are probably the descendants of native animals uplifted by the Endless, focus on building alliances with minor factions and solidifying their defenses.
Visually, the game is quite charming in a different way than Civ V. While they're both hex-based, Civ managed to make the terrain flow together very well and not look too weird. Endless Legend has more of a board game aesthetic. It's terrain that is more polygonal, but with painted skins that give it real character and make the world feel like a giant Settlers of Catan board come to life, but with ghost Draculas and two-headed werewolves.
So in summary, Endless Legend is really good.
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I replayed 1, 2 and 3 in the last 6 months, so keep this train rolling and all that. I have Tactics which I never finished and 5 to play as well (lol not getting to that in 2 weeks though).
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Suikoden 4 - It is a shame this game is terrible because it is literally Ciatos.
Ways that this game is amazingly incompetent. The camera rotation on right stick are right to rotate left and left to rotate right. Literally the exact opposite of every other game ever. It at least automatically inverts the Y axis.
Edit - First encounter in the game is against "Snobby Shrew". Nice.
Edit 2 - first act of bravery, rescue a little girl that has been kidnaped from a dodger back alley full of pirates. "You can find your way back to your dad by yourself." lol
After every battle the screen dulls like your laptop going into low power mode until you push a button because presumably you have gone asleep while mashing auto battle.
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Prelude to drunken fridge steering simulator
oh god you were serious
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Wat. Are you playing Mass Effect or something?
Suiko Danforth - all the animations for this are fucked up. Everything feels like it is being acted out by high schoolers in a play.
I also like that probably the easiest Suikoden game straight up throws you a Water Orb in the first chest I'm the game.
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Wat. Are you playing Mass Effect or something?
Remember steering the goddamn ship.
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I do now. Fucking oversteer like crazy. I also remember how dumb the start of the game is"go to Middleport". Press the Map button for when you are on land. Make the compass that doesn't tell you where Middle Port is be giant and in the middle of the screen. It still tells you nothing. Invisible walls that turn your ship around 180 degrees. Crazy bad.
And walls near land that make you turn nearly 90 degrees when you go with two ship widths of them. Wowwwwwwww
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Just repeat to yourself. You're still in the best part of the game.
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I do now. Fucking oversteer like crazy. I also remember how dumb the start of the game is"go to Middleport". Press the Map button for when you are on land. Make the compass that doesn't tell you where Middle Port is be giant and in the middle of the screen. It still tells you nothing. Invisible walls that turn your ship around 180 degrees. Crazy bad.
And walls near land that make you turn nearly 90 degrees when you go with two ship widths of them. Wowwwwwwww
I hope you haven't forgotten to use R1+digital pad to steer the fridge, either. The ship was literally uncontrollable until I figured that out. Whoever programmed ship navigation in Suikoden IV must have been brimming with disdain for all things.
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Just repeat to yourself. You're still in the best part of the game.
Nonsense. Snowe doesn't have his Snow outfit on.
MY ARM!
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I hate the creepy uncanny-valley look of the Suiko4 character models. Like... Suikoden 3 has more emotive character models despite being a much older game. Also, Suikoden 4 character design seems to hate color and insists that every character must roll in the mud and then go through the desaturation machine before being presented to the player.
That said, I love Suikoden Tactics for some reason I don't know why I guess I hate myself.
Metal Gear Solid 4:
Oh right, I play games. Or in this case, an extended cutscene with some boss fights thrown in occasionally. This is the first MGS game that doesn't feel like a relic playing it in 2015. So... points for that? Some of its cinematics are quite engaging and the pants-on-head stupid plot was endearing. Mostly for the sheer homoeroticism dripping from every major player in the story. Kojima has an old man fetish, that is the only explanation. Despite this, the story essentially ends with two heterosexual weddings - honestly the biggest twist surprise.
Inferior to MGS3 in basically every way, but I still enjoyed it and teared up like a baby when Snake crawled through the microwave hall. (Despite that being an utterly pointless task that apparently has no repercussions whatsoever!) Wish Kojima had stuck to his guns and ended the series as intended there. Oh well, on to the next game in this... historic franchise.
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Despite this, the story essentially ends with two heterosexual weddings - honestly the biggest twist surprise.
Noooo!
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Pokemon Omega Ruby- Finished Episode Delta. It was kinda fetchquesty and boring, but the ending had Wallace and Steven being gay lovers and my character presumably friend-zoning Brendan, so all is well.
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Holy shit I need to finish Pokemon then. now if only I could stop being mad at them keeping Rock Smash as an HM and play it for longer (the Acrobike letting you pop mad wheelies everywhere you go NEARLY makes up for it)
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Holy shit I need to finish Pokemon then. now if only I could stop being mad at them keeping Rock Smash as an HM and play it for longer (the Acrobike letting you pop mad wheelies everywhere you go NEARLY makes up for it)
If it's any consolation, I think I -had- to use Rock Smash in the field a grand total of thrice. Which might actually -compound- the issue.
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Final Fantasy Tactics - So I'm playing this on the phone.
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Yeah I am not sure Rock Smash is used in Victory Road at all? I just kept it on Empoleon the whole game anyway, but it is dumb.
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AAI2: Starting part 3 of case 2. Part 2 did a really nice job of changing up some long-standing formulas in how you deal with suspects/adversaries (dealing with Debeste is amusingly like cross-examining The Butz, where you have to get him to say something that has literally any meaning at all before you can start in on the facts) and I'm looking forward to the resolution. Thumbs up.
Bayonetta 2: The way they arrange the levels in this game is really weird. You've got the tutorial stage, then a long level with lots of smaller fights, then some short levels, then a ton of boss fights in a row, and now two really long stages (that are basically one level broken in half). It's still fun to play but it's making me look forward to having all the stages unlocked so I can play them out of order.
I put Bayonetta in Link cosplay because (a) it does hilarious things to the sound effects and (b) it comes with a free Moon of Mahaa-Kalaa effect and that's awesome.
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I always thought the most hilariously incompetent thing about S4 was how R1 was apparently the run button but instead of having a different animation it just doubled the speed of existing one. It's so fucking simple and they couldn't get it right.
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Didn't you only unlock the "privelege" of running on a New Game+? Or am I thinking of a different poorly-designed game?
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No, it's there from the beginning. I definitely used it in my game and I didn't touch New Game+.
You might be thinking of Chrono Cross which unlocked Fast Forward mode on New Game+, possibly?
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Pokeniuko: up to six badges now. Haven't had a chance to post about it to date due to being on vacation, so time to catch up.
The earlygame was pretty rough for a while unsurprisingly, due to all the weak Pokemon I was trying to raise simultaneously with Exp Share disabled. I couldn't afford to bench my starter until my first Wurmple evolved into a Dustox and I finally got something strong enough to switch in for a weaker Pokemon, take a hit, and finish the battle.
DexNav was a godsend for its ability to easily get extra copies of stuff you’ve already caught. My first Skitty had the wrong ability and my first Surskit had Fell Stinger override Bubble, but I got replacements for them easily enough despite the 5% and 1% encounter rates for those two respectively.
Dustox/Beautifly made random battles run smoothly for a while, but eventually random trainers starting getting fully evolved stuff with decent stats like Sandslash and especially Hariyama (damned Knock Off is really OP this gen) and my slightly underlevelled team ends up taking a beating. Thankfully Team Aqua all suck (even the Admins) and I had strategies in place for all the gym leaders.
Gym leader notes thus far:
Roxanne was pretty scary on paper: Rock Tomb is buffed in gen 6, her Nosepass is pretty durable for this early in the game, and my best damage dealers vs her (Surskit and Beautifly) were weak to Rock. Thankfully, the AI was dumb enough to waste two turns on Harden vs Poochyena, which helped it pull off 5 Sand Attacks before fainting. That (+ a lucky Brightpowder from a random Wurmple) was enough for Surskit to slowly Bubble Nosepass to death without taking a single hit.
Poor Brawly got curbstomped by Beautifly and Dustox, who hard counter him.
Volt Switch made stat downs useless vs Wattson while Electrics are immune to all paralysis now. That could've made it a rough fight, but I got really lucky on the first try; Mightyena flinched Magnemite with Fire Fang while 2HKOing and Magneton missed every attempted Supersonic. Volt Switch still caused a bunch of havoc in the meanwhile, but eventually I got him down to just a Voltorb which was easy enough.
Flannery's Numel got OHKO'd by Bubblebeam and Slugma just sucked, leaving Torkoal as the only real threat. I was dumb and forgot about White Smoke, but it was 6v1 at that point and T-wave+Dig spam to waste its Overheat shots got it down to the range where Surskit could safely finish it off.
Norman took the most planning to date. His opening Slaking has Yawn, so it wasn't safe to attempt a Quiver Dance setup against. Instead, Delcatty spoiled its opening turn with Fake Out, T-waved it on the first truant turn, and then slowly trolled it to death with Dig. The Vigoroth ate 6 Sand Attacks, 2 Intimidates, and 2 Charms before Masquerain went for Quiver Dancex4. Amazingly his last Slaking barely survived a triple power Bug Buzz, but missed the OHKO in turn and went down afterwards.
Winona was a bad matchup for Masquerain, so I retaught Plusle Charge Beam for the sweep instead. Got a boost off her opening Swellow, which was enough to 2HKO the incoming Altaria with Discharge. Plusle could've had an easy sweep of her remaining Pelipper and Skarmory, but I opted to feed some exp to my lower levelled Pokemon instead.
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I thought S4 did reserve running for NG+? Or rather, NG+ made permanent the doubletime movement you'd normally just get from a sprint rune or whatever? The animation definitely is ridiculous, anyway. They literally did just double the speed of the existing animation. It's stupid and hilarious and makes the whole game yakkety sax. NG+ also gives you the amazing bonuses of changing your exploration sprite and revealing the entire map from the start of the game. Think of all those geographical spoilers they spared us, you guys! Otherwise we might have known that there was an island with elves and...that place Lino was from, and...wait that's pretty much it. (Not having to look at Lazlo the whole game is a surprising relief, actually. Not that S4 has outstanding character design anywhere but god, that bowl cut and those empty, soulless eyes.)
Suikoden IV really was a perfect storm of incompetent design.
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I replayed S4 for a Suikoden Tactics playthrough last year and the doubletime thing is NG+ only.
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Rayman Origins - Beat the optional super-level. Well. That was satanic.
Theatrhythm: Curtain Call - There's really not much to say about this game. It's fun. Quest medleys are definitely a significant improvement over dark notes, which is nice.
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Huh? I thought it was you can always "Run" as in move like a stop motion epileptic on meth, you had to get Cedric with "True Holy Rune" to get even more stupid fast and then on NG+ you always carried over super seizure mode.
I know right now I hold down R1 with a clawlike grip to move faster more than I held L1 with a clawlike grip to bring up my shield in Dark Souls. My memory card has a clear save unlocked on it already though, so it coooould be reading from that, but I don't think so?
Also for reference, progress from last night was
Suikoden 4 - Did some boring things on boats. Fucked up movement in a ship battle (MY ARM one) and got hit front on by a broadside without being able to retaliate. 1 damage to my ship with 48HP. So that was a thing.
Then stuff happened.
Commander Glen died and Vice Commander Katrina grieved. Then the natural chain of command was followed as brand new Knight Snowe became Commander Snowe and Vice Commander Katrina ascended to the rank of Vice Commander Katrina.
Fuck this game.
Get set adrift, float around on boat, get rescued, then get sent adrift again, land on an island, then escape island and get adrift again.
Got rescued by Flare and stopped. Took Paula (ELVES) and Tallychu with my (backflips) as my recruits.
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Commander Glen died and Vice Commander Katrina grieved. Then the natural chain of command was followed as brand new Knight Snowe became Commander Snowe and Vice Commander Katrina ascended to the rank of Vice Commander Katrina.
Fuck this game.
In fairness the game certainly implies this to just be gross nepotism. I would expect the characters would react appropriately, but I don't recall much happening, because this is around the part of the game where characters stop interacting or developing.
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They don't react at all, Katrina's last interaction prior to that was looking after Commander Glen and feeding him food in bed.
Also I forgot to translate in the implied Master/Slave relationship between Glen/Snowe that I joked about in IRC while I played so pretend that wasn't funny and kind of offensive.
The game certainly does imply it is gross nepotism, but the game also has guards outside FuckMyButt's room shout loudly through the door that HURR HURR HE MUST HAVE WANTED SPECIAL TREATMENT SELFISH ORPHAN. So the game implies that Razril in general is stupid and corrupt, so what the fuck ever.
Also after bumping into the archived LP while googling WHERE THE FUCK IS THIS RANDOM ENCOUNTER BOSS during the tutorial quests I can't unsee the terrible water texture that is used repeatedly for all water everywhere.
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STOP PLAYING SUIKODEN 4 YOU LUNATIC
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To get into the palace just let them know you are there to see the king. no probs.
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STOP PLAYING SUIKODEN 4 YOU LUNATIC
I have a railroad spike, someone else has to have a hammer. Let's mail them to Gref so he can drive the railroad spike down his dick hole. It will be just as unpleasant but you can get done in just a few seconds.
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Please tell that story. Why do you have a railroad spike?
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Super Metroid: Got back to the replay of this I started a few months ago because Free on Club Nintendo even though it is definitely worth the asking price but damn it I NEED TO SPEND THOSE COINS ON SOMETHING! ...I'm in a similar boat as we speak thinking on it...
Anyway, just about to enter Lower Norfair. Not much else to say about the game other than "It's Super Metroid, therefor good stuff!" I guess I can say that while I remember a fair amount of this game from when I played it back in like 4th grade (then later watching an LP of it years later because why not?), the Dragon Mini-Boss thing in Maridia is one thing I always forget exists. He's really easy (on a standard playthrough), and doesn't really offer ANYTHING as a result of beating. Just sort of comes off as "oh, right, we need a Mini-Boss in Maridia because all areas other than Crateria have one!" and just shoved in there. Granted, I don't remember Spore Spawn being largely relevant, but he's one of the first bosses you fight so I guess that stands out (first boss you need to use Missiles on I think to boot?)
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Please tell that story. Why do you have a railroad spike?
Friend of mine runs a self-storage. If your account is in arrears for long enough they take your stuff. One time a guy was using it to store scrap metal. I found a railroad spike in there and I figured I could use it for murder one day.
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True story once gave a dude a shoebox full of railroad spikes for a secret Santa. Didn't even say thanks, prick.
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the Dragon Mini-Boss thing in Maridia is one thing I always forget exists.
Yeah, I forgot he existed when I got to him in my second playthrough. As you said, easy boss + doesn't guard a reward = a key for not being memorable. (Though he is actually quite nasty on a lot of challenges, since he's immune to the charge beam and doesn't give you any ammo recharges, so fire all your missiles without killing and you lose.)
EDIT: Actually apparently he can be hit by the charge beam, I am probably just remembering no health recharges + killing him with charge beam is slow/very easy to miss so if you run out of ammo you're probably SOL.
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Rayman Origins - Beat the optional super-level. Well. That was satanic.
How long did Land of the Livid Dead take you?
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Okay guyz, need advice.
What are the pros and cons of the different Mass Effect 2 classes? Which do you recommend?
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Vanguard is the most fun. Second place is probably Adept.
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I played through as Soldier, which is the most "pretend you are in a normal FPS" option. Shoot things with a wide variety of guns, have special heavy weapons with limited ammo you can also switch between. This way I didn't have to really learn the "what blocks Biotic powers" rules since guns are pretty obvious line-of-sight, while I found my Biotic skills more easily blocked by walls & shields & stuff. (Of course that also makes it more *interesting* arguably, but I was fine with not having to bother.)
If I played through again, I'd definitely do with a Vanguard, which still doesn't need to learn Biotic rules but also has more of an excuse to leave cover and charge in. YMMV on if you're up for this, as it's also interesting because it's more unforgiving if you screw up. But ME2 has an excellent range of difficulties so I wouldn't worry too much.
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If you aren't into shooters stuff much I would go with Engineer, you can spend most of your time behind cover picking your shots with Pistols and throwing out your powers on cool down. You get the most diverse and useful skills for taking down shields/armour and your SMG does work on Biotic Barriers. Also your class passive reduces the cost of ship upgrades so you have to do less of the resource gathering and can get through stuff quicker. There comes a point where you can pick a type of weapon that you can learn to use. Pick up the Assault Rifle.
Trade off is that they are probably the least durable class.
The easiest by far is Soldier because the bullet time skill is broken (Adrenaline Rush), but it is also 100% straight shooter gameplay.
For what it is worth though ME2 is a pretty good shooter, so it isn't a bad place to learn the style of gameplay.
and thank you for playing it, I really hope you enjoy it <3
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Freezing dudes and then exploding them so that they freeze and explode other dudes is really pro...but thinking about it, I think that was what I did in ME3, not ME2. Sentinel?
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Gone Home: This is another one of those games I got because the G.I.A. told me to. It's very brief, but I really enjoyed it. This game's sole purpose is to tell a story through scenery and it succeeds at this brilliantly (there's a written and spoken narrative accompanying it which I am primed to sympathize with for thematic reasons, but it's essentially a complement to the exploration). It's basically a giant love letter to growing up in the nineties. Not to the nineties, per se, in that trashy Hollywood "here is an era-appropriate pop cultural reference and does that not make you want to smile in reminiscence of being young?" way, but a really heartfelt attempt to fit together a nuts-and-bolts recreation of what it was like to be young at a specific snapshot in time. There isn't actually much in the way of gameplay, exactly, but people should take notes from this on how to establish setting in an interactive medium. Also a character dates her lesbian awakening back to She-Ra, which is just perfect.
Then I check the Steam board to dig up the combination to this one safe I couldn't figure out and everyone's all "This isn't a game!" and "It's too short, I got gypped!" and "Homogay agenda!" (Actually it is pretty short for the price but I don't regret my purchase because homogay agenda.)
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J.U.L.I.A. Among the Stars: This is basically an old-fashioned point-and-click adventure game with an even more old-fashioned sci-fi story at its heart. Sure, there's the very modern and almost inevitable log-trail backstory of a shipful of paranoid crew killing each other one by one (this scenario feels strongly like a mafia game staffed entirely by incompetent townies and watched over by a smug douche of a GM), but more significantly for the heart of the story is that alien intelligence is perceived as a precious commodity that should be approached carefully and anthropologically rather than just seduced (hi Avatar/Bioware) or violently opposed (hi everything else). There's a definite old Star Trek vibe to this that makes me smile. It seems difficult these days to encounter sci-fi that's willing to posit the extraterrestrial Other as anything but a faceless enemy. I'm not finished yet, but there are strong hints early on that the titular AI is lying, subverted or broken and deliberately engineered the collapse of every away mission, as AI are kind of contractually obliged to do, but it's hard to dwell too strongly on this because even the character you're purportedly playing--the only surviving human on the ship--isn't even entirely forthcoming with information. It's been stated in textdumps that she was "cryo-jailed" early in the mission for unspecified reasons and she hasn't seen fit to comment on this at all. I admit to FAQing an increasing number of things as the game goes on because I sometimes find the puzzle logic obtuse, but I'm also a very literal person who's terrible at puzzles so I dunno. (I was completely incapable of discerning anything at all about what you're supposed to do with the translation minigame until I saw it in writing outside the game). So far I'd say it's worth bashing through for storytelling through ambience.
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Papers, Please: I made it all of a week before half my family died and I got thrown into debtor's prison. Probably better than I'd manage in real life.
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Atelier Meruru: "Barrel!" is not voiced. 0/10.
How does that crown stay on Meruru's head? It's sitting at like a thirty degree angle. Is it nature's suction cup? Anyway, our protagonist is rather dim, even for someone her age. Calling your dad a "poopyhead" in public? Really? Are you like five? I'd guess she's at least a teenager, although it's difficult to tell since the female cast is lolitastic goddammit. You know, I haven't played an Atelier game since Iris 2 or 3 (forget which ones I played) but I don't remember that being the case.
Anyway inventing stuff and beating up monsters is mindless okayness, although the game takes forever to get past its intro and let you get into a recognizable rhythm. We're talking like Star Ocean intro times here. And it keeps interrupting my gameplay for cutscenes I find it really hard to care about and they just introduced a character named "Estey Dee." Really guys? And then the protagonist of an earlier game shows up reverted to an eight-year-old by a botched potion of her teacher's that was only supposed to set her back to the "ideal age of fourteen" and what the hell am I supposed to--
Eight-year-olds, dude. Goddammit Gust.
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they just introduced a character named "Estey Dee."
what is this i don't even
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I find it so frustrating that Mass Effect has this class system... but you can only choose one class, for one character, and you're stuck with it the whole game. C'mon RPGs, give me my full-party customisation, I wants it. (I'll still probably play it eventually.)
Rayman Origins - Beat the optional super-level. Well. That was satanic.
How long did Land of the Livid Dead take you?
Probably around an hour or so. Good times.
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Shepard can steal a single skill from any of his/her party members, and which skill you take can be switched up between missions, so you get SOME customization / playing around, at least.
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Adept was pretty fun in 2. No real guns outside of pistols and (IIRC) the one freebie weapon specialization you get midway through the game, but being able to freeze, float, slam, and otherwise stun entire groups of enemies was really neat.
I forget what I did in 1. Vanguard I think? I have no idea, that was so long ago. In 1 though you can generally have your party members pick up the slack in whatever Shepard can do, though, and there's no real huge differences between Biotic users, Tech users, and Shooty McBangbangs. The only real downfall to not being able to customize characters' classes is that you can at most have two of the same class (making NEB's complaint about lack of party customization even more asinine than it already was!) This isn't as true in ME2, with there being more variety between characters in the same skillset type.
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I find it so frustrating that Mass Effect has this class system... but you can only choose one class, for one character, and you're stuck with it the whole game. C'mon RPGs, give me my full-party customisation, I wants it. (I'll still probably play it eventually.)
Rayman Origins - Beat the optional super-level. Well. That was satanic.
How long did Land of the Livid Dead take you?
Probably around an hour or so. Good times.
Sounds about what it took me and Ash. Glad you enjoyed it! I'm actually a huge fan. Have you already played Legends or going to move onto it?
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Glad to run into another DL fan. :) I haven't played Legends yet, but I definitely will pick it up at some point.
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ME2 has a fuckhuge cast anyway so practically speaking you can't help but have all bases covered no matter what Shepard is. Oh, did Ciatos grab any of the DLC? It's generally worth it (not as outstanding as ME3's DLC, but few things are).
Star Control 2: I am diseased and unable to sleep and the ceiling just fell off half my apartment so I needed videogame comfort food. This fit the bill. Funny how the remixes take so much longer to download than the game itself.
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Atelier Iris 3- Fin(ally). Short version: they wanted to make basically AI1, except on purpose. But Edge and Iris aren't as good of foils for the quirky shop keeps as Klein and Lita, and none of AI3's npc cast are Veola. It does have a better Pamela though. No required boss except the final is any good, although some will annoy you to death with resistances. Decent core system, but you never really get to employ it. Basically the Atelier equivalent to Grandia. Which IS better than Grandia at least. 7/10
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How does that crown stay on Meruru's head? It's sitting at like a thirty degree angle. Is it nature's suction cup?
(http://s3.amazonaws.com/rapgenius/o2QShekFT9WyvZR9514S_adebesis-tiny-hat-meh-ro50591.png)
= Meruru
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I just don't understand the purpose of a hat that can't properly keep your head warm.
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Confusing people long enough to get a sucker punch in.
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Shin Megami Tensei IV - Played through, got Law ending
Highly enjoyable (at least once I got a few demons on my side).
I ended up filling my main up with buffing/debuffing skills and pumping something like half his points into strength, 30% of his points into agility, and the rest into luck, on the grounds that you don't need magic for buffing skills and that I wasn't planning on swapping from melee weapons to a gun as I wasn't initially aware that you got one in addition to your main weapon, and I was hardly going to change what I had been doing once that happened. Supplementary reading after the fact seems to have revealed that these were far from optimal choices.
I love the fusion search system and can only assume that there's nothing like it in SMTIII & previous.
Beat Clipped Wings 1 & 2, beat my head against the Ancient of Days for a while and eventually gave up. Never bothered trying the other two DLC missions of that difficulty. Still probably less money spent on unused DLC here than in FE13.
Since it's been over a month since I beat it I can't remember if I had anything specific I wanted to mention unfortunately.
A Bird Story - Played through
I... guess...? it's a little hype-inducing for the followup to To The Moon? But it's not very entertaining in its own right. Not bad or anything, just...
I also don't really understand how the events in the game are going to play into said followup, but that'll be seen when it's seen I suppose.
Abyss: The Wraiths Of Eden - Played through
I was seeing people talk about a HOG that ripped off the setting of Bioshock and I was in the mood for something cazh so I picked it up. Better than I expected but I don't typically play HOGs so I can't really speak for what they're normally like these days. Not to say that it's particularly good or anything, either.
Unfortunately you get essentially no backstory on why Eden was established or what it was like in the past, assuming that these details weren't locked behind expert mode (the achievement for which is called 'The Whole Story', but I have no intention of replaying on expert mode to check what the differences are).
Jazzpunk - Played through
Fairly entertaining. Overstays its welcome a little, I think, but has some pretty great bits.
Persona Q - Played through P3 version
Mostly enjoyable. Not as good as EOIV or P3/4. Crossover games seem to be having some bad luck on those fronts recently.
Party for the majority of the game was (Glorious Leader, Chie) (Yukari, Aigis, Naoto). Did want to use Koromaru but he's redundant against Glorious Leader and Naoto, sadly. Was initially intending to use Fuuka for both navigation roles but eventually ended up putting Rise in as labyrinth navigator so that I could train an additional sub-persona and so that Fuuka didn't need to carry skills for both roles.
Eventually realised that my party was critically poor against electricity, but ultimately the only enemy which really used the element a lot was also an enemy that used elec corrosion first anyway, so that didn't end up mattering. It's possible that there were more enemies which would have used electricity if Naoto hadn't wiped them off the map before they could move, and powerful lategame enemies typically missed a lot due to buffs & debuffs.
After hearing that Circle Recovery and Healing Hand stacked (on top of themselves in addition to each other, and that Healing Hand didn't even need to be on the caster/receiver of the healing in order to take effect) I gave both skills to the entire party, which essentially meant that the only things they were concerned about were mass instant death and/or all my circle casters being prevented from resetting a circle before it expired. Went with Panic circles most of the time although it didn't seem to trigger as much as it was hyped up to - could have been due to my main circle casting duties ending up falling on Aigis, although I did give her an St-Lu Reverse (to be fair I'm not sure whether luck is actually involved in status chances).
The fusion search system is depressingly lame considering that I went into this right after SMTIV. I don't need you to search through the personas I have on hand, game, I can already do that myself! I need you to search through ones I don't have on hand! You don't even tell me about ones that I can theoretically make with the personas I have on hand but I'm not a high enough level to make yet.
No intention of replaying for the P4 version.
Super Mario 3D World - Got to World Crown, but no plans on beating it
Highly enjoyable for the most part.
Not a fan of the parts which required gamepad interaction. Especially the fan platforms, which I had completely forgotten about by the time they showed back up in the postgame. Ended up dealing with one part where I was supposed to use a fan platform for collecting green coins by bringing in a catsuit from outside the level, and only re-remembered what they signified when they showed up in the final Captain Toad level and I couldn't figure out where I was supposed to be going.
Got as far as 15 stars in the marathon mystery house before giving up. Eventually managed to get to the second area in Champion Road and decided it wasn't worth the trouble after the first try at it.
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I played Infiltrator in ME2 because I like sniping. They have a cloaking power that has a slowdown effect that helps you line up headshots. Incinerate is also useful for armored dudes. Soldier is very straightforward and Adrenaline Rush is pretty overpowered. I also hear that Vanguard is fun but I didn't get to that class until ME3 where it is stupid.
Also Ciato I don't care what your situation is, always use Garrus.
Freezing dudes and then exploding them so that they freeze and explode other dudes is really pro...but thinking about it, I think that was what I did in ME3, not ME2. Sentinel?
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Gone Home: This is another one of those games I got because the G.I.A. told me to. It's very brief, but I really enjoyed it. This game's sole purpose is to tell a story through scenery and it succeeds at this brilliantly (there's a written and spoken narrative accompanying it which I am primed to sympathize with for thematic reasons, but it's essentially a complement to the exploration). It's basically a giant love letter to growing up in the nineties. Not to the nineties, per se, in that trashy Hollywood "here is an era-appropriate pop cultural reference and does that not make you want to smile in reminiscence of being young?" way, but a really heartfelt attempt to fit together a nuts-and-bolts recreation of what it was like to be young at a specific snapshot in time. There isn't actually much in the way of gameplay, exactly, but people should take notes from this on how to establish setting in an interactive medium. Also a character dates her lesbian awakening back to She-Ra, which is just perfect.
Then I check the Steam board to dig up the combination to this one safe I couldn't figure out and everyone's all "This isn't a game!" and "It's too short, I got gypped!" and "Homogay agenda!" (Actually it is pretty short for the price but I don't regret my purchase because homogay agenda.)
The wider reaction to this game was really disappointing to me. When it comes to this type of experience, I think "is this a game" is the least interesting discussion point you could possibly have. Otherwise, the weird accusations of collusion from gamers who couldn't possibly believe that someone else liked it were also disheartening. Also, reading others' opinions on the game is also the first time I heard the term SJW which is pretty much the same as the homogay agenda I guess. I thought its environmental storytelling was top notch and the story was simple but resonant. They really did capture the feeling of discovering punk as a teen, which I appreciated. Also, little touches like the differences in their sex ed homework are just great. Unfortunately, you can't really talk about the game without the two points you mentioned.
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The sex-ed assignment was one of the best points of characterization:
-PC character writes a straightforward, by-the-numbers chronology.
-Sister writes a short story about the Nazi invasion of Poland.
:)
I definitely recommend the game but I guess it shouldn't be a surprise that people who expect certain stock mechanics and situations from their games would be uncomfortable with it. A number of the positive responses I did see while forum-digging for details I might've missed made the suggestion "If you don't understand why this game exists, maybe you should go play The Stanley Parable and come back," which is probably just good advice in general.
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What I'm wondering is...how is it that the people reviewing and discussing a game seem to have been surprised about stuff that a cursory glance at any review or discussion should have clued them in on? Don't order the chicken sandwich and write a nasty review about how you really wanted a cheeseburger.
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It's simple logic that restaurants should only serve burgers, cheeseburgers, and fries to better serve their customers, who want that (just as I do). Now if you want to get a "chicken sandwich", fine, whatever, but don't call it a restaurant then. Maybe a "food dispensary".
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People complaining about it more often than not haven't played it, or played it after they decided it wasn't a game so they could win points in Internet arguments.
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I played Infiltrator in ME2 because I like sniping. They have a cloaking power that has a slowdown effect that helps you line up headshots. Incinerate is also useful for armored dudes. Soldier is very straightforward and Adrenaline Rush is pretty overpowered. I also hear that Vanguard is fun but I didn't get to that class until ME3 where it is stupid.
Whaaaat? Use Charge then Nova then shotgun. Awesome.
If you don't like it in 3 I don't think you'd like it in 2.
I'd recommend against Soldier which isn't really exciting and make the action parts not that much different from any third person shooter.
Engineer is a bad choice because if you use an Engineer then you don't have an use for Mordin.
Vanguard is super cool but it is very high risk / reward and requires good reflexes and wanting some Vanquish like fighting.
Adept is fun if you like to throw enemies off cliffs.
I don't know Sentinel and Infiltrator all that well, they're the most defensive classes.
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The only real downfall to not being able to customize characters' classes is that you can at most have two of the same class (making NEB's complaint about lack of party customization even more asinine than it already was!) This isn't as true in ME2, with there being more variety between characters in the same skillset type.
I had a lot of problems in ME1 with those characters getting themselves killed. And using a class like Soldier... well... feels like having an AI controlled character like KH rather than having a party member. I always felt like I had 1 to 1 1/2 characters I actually in practice controlled at any given time. Obviously I will see if this is less of a problem in 2.
ME2 has a fuckhuge cast anyway so practically speaking you can't help but have all bases covered no matter what Shepard is. Oh, did Ciatos grab any of the DLC? It's generally worth it (not as outstanding as ME3's DLC, but few things are).
I didn't like ME1 enough to buy the DLC off the bat. If I like ME2 more I will.
I played Infiltrator in ME2 because I like sniping. They have a cloaking power that has a slowdown effect that helps you line up headshots. Incinerate is also useful for armored dudes. Soldier is very straightforward and Adrenaline Rush is pretty overpowered. I also hear that Vanguard is fun but I didn't get to that class until ME3 where it is stupid.
Also Ciato I don't care what your situation is, always use Garrus.
Using Garrus is always a good life philosophy. Unless someone comes up who is better to make sweet alien babies with, I will try to do charm his sexy self. I've heard good things about the character Samara so I am optimistic she will be cool though. ^_^
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P.S. I think I'm doing Vanguard, although Gourry made a valiant case for Infiltrator.
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(http://games-open.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/mass-effect-2-garrus-calibrationscalibrations-on-tumblr-kofec8ko.jpg)
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What I'm wondering is...how is it that the people reviewing and discussing a game seem to have been surprised about stuff that a cursory glance at any review or discussion should have clued them in on? Don't order the chicken sandwich and write a nasty review about how you really wanted a cheeseburger.
To be fair, many of the early reviews actively avoided saying much about the game's content, saying that it was better to know as little about the experience before playing it (which is true). So, some people were surprised at the subversions of expectation with regard to the game's tone, but I really liked what it actually was. People expecting it to be a first person horror game who were blindsided by the "SJW agenda" or whatever did not take well to it at all. However, to me, that sense of unease really contributes to the game experience, just not in the way that you think coming into the game.
I played Infiltrator in ME2 because I like sniping. They have a cloaking power that has a slowdown effect that helps you line up headshots. Incinerate is also useful for armored dudes. Soldier is very straightforward and Adrenaline Rush is pretty overpowered. I also hear that Vanguard is fun but I didn't get to that class until ME3 where it is stupid.
Whaaaat? Use Charge then Nova then shotgun. Awesome.
If you don't like it in 3 I don't think you'd like it in 2.
I meant stupid in the best sense. A low weight Vanguard in ME3 is really fun (completely trivializing a lot of otherwise tough fights). I didn't do a Vanguard character in ME2 so I don't know whether it is similar.
The Shadow Broker DLC in ME2 is excellent. That was the only one I played around with but it adds a significant chunk to the game and adds an option to explore interesting bits of characterization for your team once it is finished. I also liked Kasumi's since hers yields a nice submachine gun. I never played Overlord or Arrival but I haven't heard great things about either.
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Is true that there is Mako DLC in ME2?
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Overlord is fine, good gameplay. There are of course some odd things in the plotting, but not too much worse than your average head-scratching-if-you-think-about-it sci-fi plot point.
A) Autistic people can talk with robots, because, you know, autism is like magic or something.
B) There's a part of Overlord that invokes the classic horror trope of going through a deserted, spooky, abandoned ship with unactivated death robots on the way in... and you can guess what it'll be like on the way out. Except. In just the previous section you already *fought* the rogue Geth, so, uh, it's not really a shocking surprise when these turn on. Buh. Stick this segment in FIRST.
C) Cerberus still has weird personnel policies. You'd think that a scientist who got his staff killed and his installation blown up would, if not be immediately executed, would get some extreme torture as his punishment for failure. But those softies are all "don't punish him, we like failed unethical research that wastes our resources."
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Oh yeah allright!
ME3 mostly added Nova to Vanguard, Charge works the same way and is still the n°1 skill.
DLC I'd rank Shadow Broker > Overlord > Kasumi >> Arrival, the first three being better than regular missions and definitely worth it. Shadow Broker is the best part of the game (it also has the best vista, which has to be worth something), Overlord has a nice atmosphere / ending / music, Kasumi has that cool James Bond infiltration part. Arrival is lame.
Mako was removed from ME1 to ME2/3, but Overlord and additional DLC have some "Hammerhead".
It is entirely different and controls like a 3D platformer with health regen and ranged fighting. It is weird.
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Final Fantasy 7 - The "replay of a really old RPG I haven't played in a decade" of early this year for me, apparently. Currently storming the Shinra tower. Looking up GameFAQs I have somehow managed to miss both the All materia up to this point. Oh well, the game will be slightly less broken than it usually is. Still have to heal pretty much never.
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...man, I just needed healing items to not wipe out vs a random trainer with an L36 Milotic in rain and nothing else.
Admittedly I didn't have either Plusle or Mightyena in my party due to rotating in lower levelled stuff, but still.
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"I could do this if only I had Mightyena in my party" - words that should never be spoken about a non-psychic opponent
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Oh, I remember Overlord now. That was okay. It has a minor impact on ME3 if that matters to you.
I also forgot Zaeed but he is a super lame character with a boring mission. I guess he has utility from his very existence by the end?
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Zaeed has a nice grizzled old guy voice I guess? Too bad his mission's a snooze. Watching Kasumi warp across the battlefield to backstab dudes never got old, though.
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Mario 3D World: World 2 cleared perfectly - all stars, all stamps, all flags gold. Woohoo!
Bayonetta 2: Chainsaw. Rollerblades.
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Zaeed's mission has that Renegade prompt in which you burn a Krogan alive IIRC so that's something.
Shadowrun Returns:
Infiltrating a megacorp disguised as a janitor.
Two insanely lethal combat death drones follow me around and no one says anything about them.
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Zaeed was part of the whole Project $10 thing when they were just starting out with it and not really doing great DLC. He is an extra character that is kind of okay, but doesn't interact as much as a full character and the main benefit of him is that his Loyalty mission gives you an extra Rifle upgrade and another heavy weapons upgrade as Renegade (? I think that was it) so you can get the Cain sooner. It is weird and targeted all wrong. Pretty much it is just a much shittier way of doing something like Shale in Dragon Age. Kasumi is built similarly but is executed miles better (and unlocks my favourite SMG in the series).
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Yeah Zaheed + his mission + Hammerhead missions + other missions + some weapons were free if you bought the game new, so they're not really meant to be 10$ DLC or anything, even if they are now.
Best way to play ME2 now would be to get one of these editions with all DLC anyway.
Drones in Shadowrun Returns are so cool guys. So so cool. You need to put all your points into them though, accept no substitute. Drones from hired runners (or Blitz in Dragonfall) are terrible because they really need all your stats.
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I already have a copy of the game that I was given which I seriously doubt has the DLC. I'll check, though.
Super Mario Kart - Finally passed the 100cc Special Cup with a Bronze Medal. I feel so accomplished. I find the game unpleasantly difficult compared to the newer Mario Karts, but more random / enemies are more specifically concerned with killing you than F-Zero, which I find to be a bit of a strange combination, although I think occasionally the game can hit a sweet spot where it is fun rather than annoying. If Special Cup was in 50cc I'd probably just play that.
Smash Bros. - Not really actively doing anything in this other than continuing to play matches, but it's still good times.
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...man, I just needed healing items to not wipe out vs a random trainer with an L36 Milotic in rain and nothing else.
Admittedly I didn't have either Plusle or Mightyena in my party due to rotating in lower levelled stuff, but still.
This is pretty much great no matter what you say.
Pokémon Alpha Sapphire - Kyogre get. Also, Wallace once again got soloed by Gardevoire's broom. OHKOing a L46 Milotic with Psychic was good times.
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Using Garrus is always a good life philosophy. Unless someone comes up who is better to make sweet alien babies with, I will try to do charm his sexy self. I've heard good things about the character Samara so I am optimistic she will be cool though. ^_^
Ah, dextro- and levo-amino acid interactions. Never not funny, except when they are deadly.
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Shadowrun Returns: Finished.
My opinion about the ending : Oh come the fuck on.
I don't know what was up with that final battle. I launched my two drones on Jess and her HPs dropped to 0 after 3 turns. Then it was just cleaning up a few insects. I dont know what the pillars were for or if the other woman was supposed to do anything.
Edit: Oh yeah this is pretty important: I wore a Hawaiian shirt through the entire game.
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Brigandine GE: Just did a multiplayer session using the new patch. My complaints with the patch are still there. The text is really hideous and it is as if he retained a writing style that emulated the US localization (lots of things are awkwardly worded, some things just don't make any fucking sense). It is playable in this form but I ran into a bug that replaced all the characters and textures with scanlines or something.
I played with Caerleon (it is spelled Caerloen in the patch) in the second multiplayer scenario. Leonia and New Almekia are dissolved and their Knights are distributed throughout the other countries in the continent. Caerleon in this scenario doesn't start with any powerhouse units (its standout promoted units are a Lv10 Archangel and a Lv10 Couatl and also there is a Mandrake!) relative to the other countries, but its selection of Rune Knights is insane. It has Cai, Dinadan, Lance, Gereint, Isfas (I forgot that Guardians get Holy Word in this version), and the rest of Caerleon's magic contingent. Also, that Archangel actually isn't to be underestimated in this scenario since with a Holy Word and a few Geno spells, the enemy is basically half dead. Also, Caerleon is strategically identical to the Caerleon in the normal game. It doesn't have the alliance any longer but one chokepoint is still fairly easy to defend since it borders Esgares, which is easily overextended. The other countries in this scenario have at least four borders to defend to start so they're trickier to deal with.
So if nothing else, the patch has gotten me to replay the game again. I finally know what the backstory of some of the new Quest Knights are although none of them are very interesting. I might do an Esgares playthrough to see what's going on in their cutscenes but another part of me wants to completely rebalance this game, which would take time I don't have.
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You never read the forsena translation of esgares's story?
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Forsena only had a partial translation for Esgares last I checked, but that was years ago.
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Suikoden 4 - up to the end game. Got second party levelled and equipped. Game so dull. Also so much of the game is optional and unlocks what I at first had pegged as half way, but I swear it is actually closer to 2/3s of the way through the game before you get the boat.
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The GE patch? Don't tell me you are using the patch made by that die hard Christian who changed everything in there that he doesn't see as Christian like.
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The GE patch? Don't tell me you are using the patch made by that die hard Christian who changed everything in there that he doesn't see as Christian like.
Ha ha, the very same! As I mentioned in the idiot thread, all the Demon names have changed to things that are just puzzling (Imps, Sirens, Succubus) and the Missing Link item name change is particularly egregious. I was hoping for something crazy to be changed in the storyline, like active evangelizing, but sadly nothing of the sort is there. However, the annoying changes he made were in gameplay, changing spell lists and nerfing Meteor Doom (which takes the bite out of the Bulnoil fight). Also, one of the names he came up with for Demons/what are now called Imps is "Poop." Get it? Poop.
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FONV: I built a 10 Luck courier for the sole purpose of knocking out the gambling trophies. I thought getting banned from the casinos might actually take a while, but it turns out that you almost literally cannot lose at blackjack. Pity I only have 3 Endurance so there's really nothing to spend all this money on. (And the super expensive weapons are all irrelevant because with 3 Strength even Weapon Handling won't get me access to a lot of them.)
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FONV: I built a 10 Luck courier for the sole purpose of knocking out the gambling trophies. I thought getting banned from the casinos might actually take a while, but it turns out that you almost literally cannot lose at blackjack. Pity I only have 3 Endurance so there's really nothing to spend all this money on. (And the super expensive weapons are all irrelevant because with 3 Strength even Weapon Handling won't get me access to a lot of them.)
Yeah, it's hilarious isn't it? Even after a level 1 run to the Clinic you can instantly never worry about money again.
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AAI2: Man, people who called this game convoluted were not kidding. I tried to explain case 2 in my head and got lost almost immediately. I really like the reveal for the actual killing but the way you get from that to the scenario as presented in the opening of the chapter is just bonkers. Currently in part 2 of case 3, which has been really fun so far. Change-up/nostalgia cases generally are.
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FONV: I built a 10 Luck courier for the sole purpose of knocking out the gambling trophies. I thought getting banned from the casinos might actually take a while, but it turns out that you almost literally cannot lose at blackjack. Pity I only have 3 Endurance so there's really nothing to spend all this money on. (And the super expensive weapons are all irrelevant because with 3 Strength even Weapon Handling won't get me access to a lot of them.)
Yeah, it's hilarious isn't it? Even after a level 1 run to the Clinic you can instantly never worry about money again.
The build isn't min/maxed enough to capitalise kind of the problem there. You only really need 8 to win consistently at the Casinos and you can pick up Lucky Pajamas for +1 luck, so you can scrimp a point or two of Luck to put into Endurance/Str. Odds are you overinvested in Agi or Perception as well, outside of the Perk requirements they are not nearly as god stat as they were in Fallout 1/2/Tactics. Perks are frequent enough and spiky in quality enough that it is worth thinking about picking up Training perk as well.
The only thing that surprises me is that you didn't already have those trophies. All my dudez have always been decent Luck even before knowing the Casino thingo.
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I'm not sure I've ever even had Luck higher than like 4 prior to this. I've always made it the dump stat. And yeah, pretty close: 8 Perception/Intelligence, 7 Agility (was 6 before Small Frame). Implants went to Luck (started at 9), more Int for more skill points, more Agi for more action points (I have shitty aim okay). If weapon selection actually looks like it'll matter there's always stat upgrades from Old World Blues I think? In the meantime there's lots of energy weapons with low requirements and that was what I planned on maining so whatevs. And I never take Intensive Training. It feels lame when there are so many genuinely cool perks to grab instead (better stats or lesbian dialogue choices gee I dunno you guys). If nothing else I'm primed to get all those crits.
That said, I don't actually know how much of this run I'll complete. I love the game and all but I might be over actually playing it? We'll see. I still have the caravan trophies left and I have no idea how that game works. Otherwise there's just pickpocketing (easier to grab on a file with maxed stealth) and Gun Runner challenges.
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Caravan is just the most absolute nonsense.
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Caravan is garbage and the reason I never wanted to 100% it.
If you are going Crits you want to get yourself some classy clothes and a good hat, because you are locked into a build that goes for Laser Commander and uses the Tommy Gun laser thing.
Not because it is good but because aesthetics are a moral imperative.
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You know, I've gone a long time with 0 closely detailed lesbian high school seductions in my games, and then 2015 rolls around and I get two in a row. WTF.
Gone Home: See El Cid. This is not really a *game* but it's a solid experience. I had trouble with the same safe, by the way, but Oscar's plot and the Internet's guess as to what was going on there is... interesting. Also Sam's taste in music is awful. Ugh, punk bands. I kept inserting cassette tapes in hopes of, you know, an eerie coded message, but it was all just awful music.
Corpse Party Book of Shadows: Hey, this game also has high school lesbians and a creepy large setting with rain outside... definitely the Japan fanservicey version thereof, though.
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I've played FONV for over 200 hours and I've only played one non-accidental game of Caravan.
There's only one upgrade from OWB that increases your SPECIAL stats, though, and that's the spine mod. You can either get +2 STR and +2 DT, or +1s and a torso that can no longer be crippled. I always go for the +2. Base 3 + 2 for OWB perk + 1 for T-51b armor (or 2 if you want to lose 2 AGI in the process) = 6, so you can use anything with a requirement of less than 8, which is literally every gun in the game but the Minigun and its unique variant.
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I don't like punk either, but that didn't really matter. The music wasn't there for me.
Caravan is garbage and the reason I never wanted to 100% it.
If you are going Crits you want to get yourself some classy clothes and a good hat, because you are locked into a build that goes for Laser Commander and uses the Tommy Gun laser thing.
Not because it is good but because aesthetics are a moral imperative.
I forgot to mention that dedicated gambling gets you a swank hat and dress that I've never seen before. Totally worth the time and I would rock this wardrobe anytime survival doesn't dictate otherwise. That said, once I've got Boone's beret I never, ever take it off again.
J.U.L.I.A.: Also forgot to mention I finished this. Called it but still neat: the rogue A.I. killed the crew because its mission prerogative was peacefully contacting sentient aliens and it became obvious that this couldn't happen with actual humans representing it. When confronted about this, it defends its actions as the most moral choice available, which is neat because murderous A.I.'s are a dime a dozen but ones attempting to operate on an ethical basis (however warped) are not. Game kind of wore out its welcome before it was complete because I've never been a fan of point-and-click adventure interface (even though I grew up with that kinda thing). Still, it did some neat stuff.
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The Spine Upgrade is a bonus like equipment, so it won't count for Perk minimums despite essentially being permanent. Learned that the hard way myself...
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Re: Gone Home
People expecting it to be a first person horror game who were blindsided by the "SJW agenda" or whatever did not take well to it at all.
I expected it to be a horror game, was blindsided by the actual content, and still liked it! The better horror games are well over 50% walking simulator anyway, so I suspect these reactions have more to do with general homophobia, unfortunately.
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The Spine Upgrade is a bonus like equipment, so it won't count for Perk minimums despite essentially being permanent. Learned that the hard way myself...
Perk requirements no, but weapon requirements yes.
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SUikoden 4 - Finished. Game is just a pile of mediocrity and trying to make a more generic JRPG (lol even convert Jizo Clocks into Phoenix Downs, I had forgot they went that far).
That said it was still not a terrible thing to do to remind myself that it isn't that it is the worst game in the world and just that it is a terrible sequel and massively bland. Has one of the best villains of the series though because Graham Cray is literally OK.
Response to every single scenario in the game is :) about to kill someone :) About to commit treason :) nearly get crushed by a giant falling pillar :) trolling former mentor with the fact that will take secrets to the grave :) going crazy and talking about wanting to get the Rune of Punishment back and hear sweet sweet memories :)
I assume when he was cutting his own arm off to ditch the rune in the first place all he did was :)
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Re: Gone Home
People expecting it to be a first person horror game who were blindsided by the "SJW agenda" or whatever did not take well to it at all.
I expected it to be a horror game, was blindsided by the actual content, and still liked it! The better horror games are well over 50% walking simulator anyway, so I suspect these reactions have more to do with general homophobia, unfortunately.
Well, I think the subversion of the expectation you have coming into the game will provoke a strong emotional reaction by the end which could be positive or very negative. For me it was a relief and a pleasant surprise but for a lot of people, it just wasn't the story they wanted to see. Whether that stems from homophobia is up to the individual but I think this is a game that by its nature will garner polarizing reactions.
Also, I'm not into riot girl punk either but Sam is a disaffected teenager. So first off, teenagers have godawful taste in everything (I cringe at some things I used to like) but more importantly, the choice of punk works because she feels like an outcast and going to shows and being into punk is a way for people in her position to feel meet people who are similar and for them to feel like they're a part of something, gaining a sense of belonging and community. I wasn't into punk myself but I had friends who were, and it is that very sense of having a sense of place for the first time in their lives that drew them to punk. The music may suck and Samantha may outgrow it as soon as the next year, but that's not the point. It has a very particular meaning to her at that moment in her life and that is what is significant here.
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So Grefbro did you play S4 for any reason like a Suikoden Tactics save or do you just hate yourself.
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Fire Emblem Awakening - Decided to start a least-used playthrough, so I'm running a +LCK/-HP Robin, and trying desperately to use Virion, Vaike, and Miriel, since they're the ones I always dropped the quickest. Stahl and Kellam are also in the running, since they get dropped pretty fast too. It was going well, until Chapter 5, when the enemies start swarming and getting serious, and the lack of Frederick (whom I always use here) as well as decent levels for my PCs, means I'm suffering real bad here. Miriel and Vaike have both gotten two HP-only levels so far, and I'm cringing. The endgame may actually prove quite difficult at this rate, as opposed to laughable.
Oh, and I'm refusing to recruit Donnel this time around, since he is my #1 most used PC by far.
Dragon Age: Origins - Started this up so I can replay through it and get around to DA:I since I've heard too many good things about it to be able to pass it up. Should hopefully finish DA:O and DA2 by Feb 5, so I can have a little birthday present to myself of DA:I~
Playing a female city elf warrior who wields 2-handed weapons, who's main priority is eliminating racism and creating an equal society... but if someone badmouths her, her race, or her friends, she will cut the bitch up. So far I'm just lolligaging in Lothering while I pick up PCs and figure out what I want to do for my party.
Smash 4 - Playing this with friends online and off, and training up against amiibo. Not much else to say, besides I'm starting to main Robin now because Robin is best <3
Pokemon AS - In Delta episode, but taking some time to train up some new pokemon instead of rolling through with my team from the maingame. Also because I figured out you can get Zorua from route 101, and that is in my top 5 list of most adorable pokemon.
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Castlevania Dracula X Chronicles:
Now available on the Vita. Pretty cool. I love 2.5D!
This was surprisingly really easy for an old school Vania, I used my first credit against Dread Pirate Death which is pretty close to the end. The only dificult part is the boss rush, but all four bosses are pretty easy honestly. I still haven't gotten halfway through Bloodlines or 3, in comparison. Richter just has a pretty damn huge life bar. I think even 4 is harder, though I'd have to try it again.
I got the worst possible ending, everyone dies and Dracula escapes with Shaft. Wooo
Since Soulsphony of the Night can be unlocked in this, I want to try a Celsius only playthrough of it. Then finish the game with Maria. Maria was totally overpowered in Portrait of Ruin and seemilngly the worst character in Harmony of Despair, I wonder how she'll fare in Rondo / Symphony.
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Maria's pretty OP in Rondo, I thought. That double-jump.
Yeah, I didn't think the game was too hard, although I don't have much of a frame of reference; it was the second Castlevania I had played for more than like half an hour (and the first was SotN, so lol). I really should go back and try one of the older games at some point. 4's generally considered the best?
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PSP SotN Maria isn't HoD-level nerfed, but she isn't particularly good either. She's very mobile (moving faster than Alucard is always a relief), which I appreciate, but then so is Richter. Some of her item crashes are decent, but generally her offense I think is markedly worse than the guys. It's almost like SotN got a challenge mode, really.
I like using her anyway just for infinite air-dashing and bird-tossin'.
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Series replay has been ongoing thing for a few months. Slow, but I am getting there. I had a save for I could use for Tactics already.
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+SKL / - SPD Robin the most hardcore option, I think. +SKL / - DEF wouldn't be far off. HP is pretty harmless to drop, especially if you're interested in doing the aftergame, as HP caps the fastest of all stats.
It's certainly interesting to imagine if Gone Home had actually gone for horror straight-up. The note about "you can use my room since I won't be needing it anymore" definitely had me wondering if I'd find Sam hanging herself in the attic, rather than merely being a drama queen. Of course it's possible it would have ended up as Tragic FanFiction With a Serious Message had it gone that route, so I'm happy it merely had some trappings thereof.
Dracula X Chronicles is indeed pretty awesome. I found Richter mode reasonably difficult but I guess I'm not Fenrir Dark Souls trained. The hypable thing for Richter is mostly that the cross/boomerang is kinda nuts and can get stuck in bosses for multiple hits still. Maria gives you better mobility and hax birds so yeah she's better, definitely best to play Richter mode first so you aren't spoiled by double jump bailing you out of trouble.
Elf: Super Castlevania 4 is probably my least favorite Castlevania, but what do I know. I played it emulated and generally found the play control total crap, which was very frustrating - lots of dropped input and the like, which didn't come up with emulated SNES Dracula X (slightly different than Rondo of Blood / DXC - most notably in that Dracula is insanely hard in this version). The Sega Genesis CV Bloodlines might be my recommendation for an old CV game to try, actually. NES Castlevania III is also good if you're okay with the hardcore old style - no screwing with your jump in mid-flight, enemies do tons of damage on hit and knock you into a pit, etc. (You can also be impressed at how far Alucard came in SotN, since he is pretty bad in C3!) Disclaimer: I played C3 on an actual Nintendo w/ NES controller and circa 2003 emulators had real trouble with C3, hopefully that has changed since. EDIT: There's also Castlevania Chronicles, conveniently available over PSN as a download. It's a remake of Castlevania I with updated music, stages, options, etc. and is in general pretty fun, and has an epic werewolf boss fight.
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I think the game just gets easy once you get used to having to commit to your jumps, but this can take a long while. Compared to other Castlevanias there aren't too many bottomless pits. (or at least dangerous bottomless pits)
By the way Richter kind of has of a double jump! He can backflip in the air! I realized that after finishing the game!
The cross was really good but honestly I think I like the axe even more.
Castlevania 1 still holds up really well, it's one of the true NES classics. 2 doesn't. 3 I feel is a little overhyped, as in they just added more stuff to Castlevania 1 and not necessarily in a great way.
I really like Castlevania 4. It's ugly and weird with crazy mode 7 effects. It's generally considered the easy Castlevania, because you have that omnidirectional super-whip and the game is not really be balanced around it.
I don't really remember Snes Dracula X aside from the cool first level and the utterly ridiculous final boss fight Snowfire mentioned.
Bloodlines looks thematically interesting buuuut Genesis music + limited continues = I feel the core values of Castlevania are shattered.
El Cid: Sounds awesome
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Um wow, Maria makes Richter look like a complete dork in Dracula X Chronicles. She doesn't have to commit to either jumps or regular attacks since she can double jump / move while attacking.
lol
That's like playing as Megaman in Bionic Commando or Doom Guy in River City Ransom
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Sounds about like the reaction I had, yeah. (And I did figure out Richter's doublejump, but I found that rather clunky.)
Final Fantasy 7 - Up to Junon. Been using Tifa and Red XIII so far. Translation is pretty terribly awful by modern standards, but I think we all knew that. The game has been pretty enjoyable otherwise, though.
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Yeah I just destroyed the rest of the game with Maria
Symphony of the Night challenge:
I tried starting a fist only challenge but the big problem with Symphony of the Night is that Alucard is too much of a tank.
So I restarted with new rules:
- Barehanded or fist weapons only
- No armor except capes. Capes are cool don't question it. I want a pink cape eventually.
- No magic
- No items
- No subweapon
- No damage through alternate Alucard forms
This is pretty awesome and does make Symphony of the Night feel like Cestus only 2D Souls. I died many times already, especially against Doppleganger (this is the only time ever where Doppleganger has better stats than Alucard)
I bought an Elven Cape afterwards and it almost looks digustingly powerful here.
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Disagree completely with Snowfire. I loved Super Castlevania 4. It changed up the mechanics of the series some (Whipping in several directions, etc) and I found the controls fine. I think it's the one to play out of the classic titles.
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Pretty much agree with super on Super Castlevania 4, yeah. And yes, Maria is kind of way better than Richter. I remember someone tried to defend Richter because "better sub-weapons!" but the only sub-weapon of Richter's I really found worthwhile was the Axe (some of his item Crashes were good of course), and maybe the Cross. Compare this to Maria's far better mobility, as well as her ability to hit a better vertical tolerance than Richter, she's clearly way better.
Also the backflip got me killed way more often than it helped, I found.
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Wild ARMS 4 Annual Casual Run completed.
Was Great. I missed being able to take my time and dick around, but once you learn strats, you just get so used to them. I beat the game in 12:59:55, which is faster than the last casual run IIRC by like 4 hours. No idea if I'm going to do any post game stuff yet though. Need to get back into speedrunning, but this was a good break.
Some pointless stats, because DL loves stats:
Wipes: 1. http://www.twitch.tv/tideruglia/c/5855344 (http://www.twitch.tv/tideruglia/c/5855344). I learn something new every time I play this game.
Yulie Deaths: 11
Times Healed: 10
These are both a bit higher than I anticipated. Generally speaking, most fights only have healing once if any. Yulie deaths sometimes occurred more than once per battle though. Still decent when you consider the below:
Killing blows dealt (who gets the Kill bonus XP) -
Jude: 49 (21.21%)
Arnaud: 49 (21.21%)
Yulie: 38 (16.45%)
Raquel: 94 (40.69%)
Total battles fought is 230. One kill unaccounted for because Kresnik took it. So 231 total battles. Out of all those, I basically only had Yulie died or use healing in about 4%. Kill stats, Jude cheated a little because he got a point for solo Kresnik duel and Illsveil where he was segregated from the main group. If you take those out, he's about 44 or something. Stats are not really that surprising. Intrude gives Raquel essentially MT, Arnaud doesn't, which explains the huge difference there. They do kinda emphasize my point with Yulie Material summons, which are often times too slow to matter. Could keep track of more pointless stats the next time for fun if I think of others.
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Super Mario Kart - Finally finished 100cc Special Cup, ending with a celebratory yell. Now there's 150cc, tempting me... Mostly played as Peach, but I've been playing around a bit with Koopa Troopa and I even used Bowser! His acceleration is terrible but if you can get ahead he's pretty cool. Not sure how much I will dick around in 150cc if any, it seems to be calling my name though.
Mass Effect 2 - Started this. I currently have bitchy science lady and the token nice guy in my party. I ended up making a Vanguard, did a lot of face sculpting and playing around with the hair and eyes and stuff, and then jumped into making myself a fabulous pink and green armor suit. <3
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Oh yeah, like the only thing wrong with the amazing camp choices in ME2 is that it took until ME3 where you could canon be gay. Some of the choices you can make are straight out of a 70s gay disco bar.
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Do the renegade prompts if you can. They're always worth it.
Castlevania Symphony of the Night: I'll add two new rules:
- No familiar
- Any rule can be broken to unlock stuff
I went through all of the Castle of Balance except the final boss gauntlet.
The game definitely got a bit rougher around the chapel, then a lot rougher in the coliseum. I learned to just avoid invisible rapier ladies, among other enemies.
I don't think I can actually beat Richter for the bad ending, because he's jumping all over the place like a rabbit, and his Holy Water Item Crush does a ton of damage (multiple hits on a 0 def Alucard) and is unavoidable. (Edit: Oh right, the mist. I need to try this out)
Bosses that
1) can be reached by a fist only Alucard standing or crouching
2) stay in one place, at least once in a while
just die to a barrage of punches (= MASH SQUARE), and that's every boss so far except Doppleganger, Minotaur/Werewolf, Orlox and Gandalfoon.
Minotaur / Werewolf aren't moving at the very beginning of the battle, I just Hokuto no Ken'd Minotaur, then beat Werewolf easily enough because -I- am the super bare handed badass. My main strategy was crouching in front of him and punching.
Orlox was really hard at low HPs, he has to be harmed by impractical jump-punches and he throws fireballs all over the place. Plus, the lower his HPs the faster his attacks. I beat him by mist-teleporting between his legs and crouch-punching him there. It works.
Granfaloon ah ah ah ah oh god.
Essentially his pattern depends on how many parts have been destroyed, roughly it's:
- 0 parts destroyed: Not much, just throwing a few zombies around
- 1-2 parts destroyed: More zombies thrown around
- 3 parts destroyed: Less zombies thrown around, but a new laser attack rarely used
- 4-7 parts destroyed: Laser attack used more often
- 8 parts destroyed: ARMAGEDDON
He's pretty harmless w/ 3 parts destroyed so I aimed for that. I beat him by destroying all three parts on his right side because then he wouldn't be able to throw zombies at my face while I was attacking the core. Attacking the lower right and middle right side were easy enough. I beat the upper side by flying next to it as a bat, transforming to human form, punching, then retransforming into a bat, etc. Then the core went down pretty fast.
Symphony of the Night doesn't actually hold up very well as a Castlevania game. There is way too much backtracking, there's no balance, level design can get really empty, there are too many secret rooms.
The inverted castle, while super cool, has no level design at all, everything is inverted so nothing is designed to be interesting, but you have unlimited movement like you're freaking Kirby so whatever. Let's throw enemies with higher stats standing in there and call it a day.
SOTN's riding entirely on style: The aforementioned inverted castle, pressing up near a cliff, the water fountain turning into blood, the confessional, backgrounds, music, that animation you see before fighting Doppleganger, art style, attacking the shopkeeper from the lower floor, all the food, divekicks, owl fighters being sad when you kill their owls, etc.
Style does carry SotN pretty far. But I think it fares really badly nowadays compared to the more modern Order of Ecclesia and to a lesser extent Portrait of Ruin, which have way less backtracking, better level design, more satisfying combat, and cool bosses.
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I pretty much say whatever I actually agree with, which may not stack me up the most points but at least makes me feel the most satisfied.
Mass Effect 2 - Recruited Sir Psycho Sexy (Garrus) and now I am trying to get Mordin (just saved his second in command, and now I am doing whatever other things he wanted). I ended up going with less 80's disco armor this time, decking out in black and red instead of pink and green. The person I really have the hots for right now is Aria, who is like my old girlfriend except evil. The gameplay is certainly less clunky, although the health system I am a bit eh on so far.
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Sadly her biggest stuff is either in side stories or in Mass Effect 3 DLC (which I haven't done yet). She is pretty fucking rad just as a side character in ME2 though.
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She's actually not in ME3, just the Omega DLC, so get that I guess.
Not that you probably needed to be told because the ME story DLCs are all pretty good.
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I probably won't buy the DLC. Bank account is a bit anemic at the moment. >_>
Mass Effect 2 - Mordin recruited, chatted him up, it was good times. Probably gonna visit Anderson next.
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Ciato if you don't get the Citadel DLC when you hit ME3 then I will bloody well find a way to give it to you. It's the best part of the series and you owe it to yourself to play it.
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:)
Mass Effect 2 - Upgraded my weapon and armor on the ship, I get the feeling this is going to be plot important somehow... mostly spent the last hour of gameplay digging around for metals to add to the ship. I guess I'm gonna try to get Jack now?
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Crisis Core: In Nibelheim arc. I missed the chance to join the Zack Fanclub this game because of a trigger, BAH!
Paper Mario: Started this up, just got Kooper, not much else to say other than stuff.
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Yeah, if you're playing ME3 on Steam or something I would gift it to you. Citadel is definitely Mass Effect character interaction party porn.
SJW Inquisition: Started this up as a female Qunari dual dagger rogue. I don't know much about what's going on plotwise but the inclusion of Varric from early on is welcome. Combat doesn't feel smooth or particularly satisfying, which is probably due to coming from Dark Souls 2. I'm playing on hard but have yet to really need tactical mode yet, but I'm sure I will fairly soon. I can't wait to see the content that is trying to turn me into a feminist liberal homosexual.
I'm pretty much doing everything that everyone in the world could possibly need right now like gathering meat. I'm fairly sure my compulsiveness about doing every objective on a map means that I'll be in the Hinterlands forever.
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AAI2: Case 4 started out really good, but just kept going downhill. The opening is a great hook, and for all that amnesia is a hackeneyed trope it's not something Ace Attorney has really used in a case before (2-1 doesn't count), so I was looking forward to reconstructing memories, etc. Instead, NOPE, recycled "assistant falsely accused of murder" plot, a villain who quickly turns into a von Karma/Gant rehash, and the final confrontation just doesn't make much sense in general. Bleh. Hopefully case 5 ends things on a high note.
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DO NOT do that. Not only will you get bored but there's areas that are tuned for after the first act (so Tier 2 weapons and armor, level 8-11 or so).
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AAI2: Case 4 started out really good, but just kept going downhill. The opening is a great hook, and for all that amnesia is a hackeneyed trope it's not something Ace Attorney has really used in a case before (2-1 doesn't count), so I was looking forward to reconstructing memories, etc. Instead, NOPE, recycled "assistant falsely accused of murder" plot, a villain who quickly turns into a von Karma/Gant rehash, and the final confrontation just doesn't make much sense in general. Bleh. Hopefully case 5 ends things on a high note.
Case 4 is the low point for sure. The villain probably would have been better if his design wasn't so dull.
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That villain type has been done before both better and worse, but I do agree that it has been done far too many times at this point.
Fortunately the final villain is ridiculously better. I don't even like the last case that much (probably less than case 4; the first three are definitely the best, although the last two both have their moments), but the villain, once they make their appearance, is outstanding.
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I got so freaking tired of the goggle animation.
Oh, I should mention that I did like Courtney's part in the ending, it was a nice way to put her previous assholery in some context and not do a total 180 on her character. And whoever translated C4 was clearly having fun with the script, which I appreciate.
(Also, Franziska whipping people who deserve it: Always good.)
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I agree on all counts; the latter two paragraphs are pretty much the serious and comic saving graces of the case, respectively.
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SJW Inquisition: Started this up as a female Qunari dual dagger rogue. I don't know much about what's going on plotwise but the inclusion of Varric from early on is welcome. Combat doesn't feel smooth or particularly satisfying, which is probably due to coming from Dark Souls 2. I'm playing on hard but have yet to really need tactical mode yet, but I'm sure I will fairly soon. I can't wait to see the content that is trying to turn me into a feminist liberal homosexual.
I'm pretty much doing everything that everyone in the world could possibly need right now like gathering meat. I'm fairly sure my compulsiveness about doing every objective on a map means that I'll be in the Hinterlands forever.
I thought the combat felt pretty wonky, particularly as a rogue. If I want to stand behind a dude and backstab him while he's hitting my tank I now have to perform some fiddly movement every time the characters get jostled or I'll just be spamming my stabs into thin air. I guess if my character followed the target to stay in range automatically (like in Origins) it would detract from the new action game experience?
You will probably enjoy the "Kill All the Straight White Men" war table operation.
EDIT: oh yeah so I played DA3. There was some party dialogue I liked but mostly everything was tedious. I have seen some (http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidthier/2015/01/06/dragon-age-inquisition-is-beautifully-boring/) reviews (http://kotaku.com/i-like-that-dragon-age-doesnt-respect-my-time-1678068850) touting this fact so maybe I'm the one with the problem. Spell combos don't exist anymore, there's fewer spell types, and there's more straight copies of other elemental spells (you have Wall of Fire and Wall of Ice, Fire Mine and Ice Mine, etc. so picking one tree over another doesn't actually lead to different gameplay). Crafting and upgrade menus are cumbersome and terrible -- why can't I sort my weapon recipes by tiers so I can skip to the best ones without going through the whole list? why do I have to back all the way out of the crafting menu to compare the stats of a weapon I could craft to the weapon I've already got equipped? why can't I automate the process of swapping old upgrade bits into my new equipment? -- and there is a discouraging proportion of busywork quests. The villain cast is a joke. Montilyet is a hottie.
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Mass Effect 2 - I just finished the major mission after retrieving the first round of party members, and ran into the always lovable bitch Ashley. The gameplay is mostly unexciting and repetitive but it's a lot less obtrusive and clunky than the first game's, which is still a pretty big step up. I do miss the resource management within combat that was more prominent in the first game and the larger skillsets of the other PCs, but I don't miss my allies being slaughtered all the time nor do I miss anything related to the Mako. I've been rotating between Garrus, Mordin, and Miranda for PCs.
Much like the first game, the game is character-focused rather than plot-focused, but the game does a better job of engaging you in the missions anyway, and the plot setup with Cerberus is definitely an interesting hook. The character work is definitely better in this game -- it has my two favorite characters from ME1 as PCs (although I haven't recruited Tali yet) and has some other good characters added in (like Mordin and Miranda). The game feels more cohesive than the first narratively as well, although I do miss Anderson being around. I'm going to start working on loyalty missions or going to recruit Tali, whatever I decide to do first.
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Yeah, if you're playing ME3 on Steam or something I would gift it to you. Citadel is definitely Mass Effect character interaction party porn.
Oh yeah by the way I can gift Nuclear Throne or LISA to some of you guys.
I want to support the devs and I have a job so I don't care. Just send me a PM if you are pretty interested in either.
Castlevania Symphony of the Night: The Early Inverted Castle bosses are still scrubs even when you have basically nothing. The mummy killed me once, but then I got close to him, and Crouched + Mashed Square super fast.
Regular enemies can be pretty insanely hard on the other hand, so I just mist past some rooms.
Alucard is pretty badass with a purple cape, I suggest that. It's something like R20 V10 B20 + R10 V5 B10. I spent way too much time changing cape colors.
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Ranking mechanics in games
In yon early days of matchmaking, there was no matchmaking, everything was casual "join the game / room" with no idea of fair match-ups.
Later on, people stole ELO from chess and made some minor modifications. This worked great! Except it turns out people on the Internet are horrible and will treat low-ranked players badly and whine, and even for solo-games, it turns out that knowing exactly how bad you are is very disspiriting. Stupid reality! I want a cookie.
Some games got around this via a monotonically increasing grind upwards, but this risks losing the skill side entirely. So the way most modern games do this is to hide your true ELO but then let you chase some meaningless monotonically increasing value that only goes up, e.g. MTG Planeswalker Points or SC2/LoL League Points.
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http://us.battle.net/heroes/en/blog/17345415/coming-soon-hero-league-and-draft-mode-1-9-2015
So why am I rambling about this? Well, I don't play ranked League, and am miles away from being high enough level to play ranked Heroes of the Storm if I even had interest (I don't), but HotS has inexplicably gone for full-on Asia style grinding in its Hero League it's introducing. Wins give you ~200 points, losses are -60 points, and unlike hidden ELO systems (League) where the points are irrelevant, the points are actually all that matter in Hero League. Each rank is 300 points, and there are *50* ranks from 50 to 1.
Win 25% of your games, hit rank 1 260 hours later! Win 100% of your games and still be rank suck if you don't play enough. Nice design guys.
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Win 25% of your games, hit rank 1 260 hours later! Win 100% of your games and still be rank suck if you don't play enough. Nice design guys.
"Good job coming up with a system that forces people to play our game all the time, fellas."
(I must admit I am somewhat perplexed by games like Diablo 3 that don't have any ads or in-game purchases but still have the whiff of the hamster wheel. Maybe Blizzard has forgotten how to not do this.)
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You know the really sad part is that WoW is actively trying to step out from needing to suck you into the game? They aren't doing a great job, but you really only need to convince the player to play enough over a month that the sub is worth it, not that you need to log in every single day.
They are still pretty far from perfecting it, but they are getting there.
But that is probably the difference between Subscription model vs F2P where you need touch time to get transactions through sunk cost and play fatigue.
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You know the really sad part is that WoW is actively trying to step out from needing to suck you into the game? They aren't doing a great job, but you really only need to convince the player to play enough over a month that the sub is worth it, not that you need to log in every single day.
They are still pretty far from perfecting it, but they are getting there.
But that is probably the difference between Subscription model vs F2P where you need touch time to get transactions through sunk cost and play fatigue.
To their credit, a lot of the things that used to be done by farming (acquiring consumables and crafting mats) is now done by followers for you over long spans of time in a system they definitely didn't lift from other games even a little bit. Progression raiding still requires you shit in a tube sock but there's more game elements that seem to be set up for queuing them up before you leave for work and collecting the results when you get home.
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Progression raiding also got put off as even more distant unattainable goal for most players with the new raid tiering system. Mythic is for the fucking crazy crazies, but there is still plenty of raid for scrub guilds now that they don't have to plateau as early.
Dark Souls 2 - After a couple of weeks of PS2 graphics (for good or ill), coming back PC and running a game at 60 FPS was beautiful. Unfortunately that makes me want to scratch my itch on some other games all the more prevalent.
Spent some time invading as a Bell Bro while I refamiliarised myself with movement, controls and enemies. Ganged up on some people and won. Then won some 1v1 which is crazy unexpected. Had one guy that I looked like I was fucking awesome, come up against a dude with a spear doing the shield poke strats. Went in hard and chipped him down, kept pressure on with Throwing Knives. He managed to get distance and estus and nearly killed me. I rolled down onto the stairs, he followed me down with a plunging attack with his back to me so I fucked his shit up with a backstab that ripped off 75% of his health for the kill. It all looked nearly intentional, so other than the fact that I only actually had 3 Throwing Knives, rolling down the hole was in panic and while the punish on his plunge down after me was intentional I went in expecting normal swings, not a backstab.
After that spent some time just being summoned to learn Sinners Rise a bit. Ultimately helped 2 people kill her. Summoned help to kill her myself. Lucatiel nearly died because I stupidly summoned her before clearing out the trash in the run up, so it goes. As the host I went super defensive and just turtled behind a shield to let summon do most of the work just to minimise risk.
So like now I have cleared Forest of Fallen Giants, Lost Bastille, done Belfry and Sinner's Rise. I am now level 80 and have 40 Str, 20 Vigor/Vit/Endurance. Put a point into Dex as well for stuff. That puts me at level 80. I was only like 7 levels higher when I finished DS1. I feel pretty over leveled. I feel like I don't really give a fuck though, it all stems from cooping a bunch which is something I wanted to be able to do in DS1 but never could. I just wish you could join Sun Bros as early as you could in DS1. On the other hand, I also wish I ever worked out how the fuck to join them in DS1 since neither play I actually ran into the option sooooo whatever.
Torn whether to branch out into some spells or convert to a quality build. Maybe dump some more Str so I can Power Stance some bigger weapons?
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Level 80 isn't unreasonable to be there. You'll generally get to SL 120 by end game.
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Gref be cool like me and Fen and do Fistisouls.
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Sunbros in DS1 was Faith 25 for entry. Subtract 5 from requirement for each successful summon run you've had outside it. If you played the game without mucking around in multiplayer at all, it's not surprising you were never given the option, because without helping people only a dedicated cleric is actually likely to hit the reqs.
DS2 Sunbros opens up relatively early if you want to make a break right for it. Beat up Dragonrider (piss easy), talk to Licia, warp back to Majula, talk to Licia again (she's moved to down the stairs in the room with the nonfunctional gadget), pay her to open the door, run Huntsman's Copse and beat up Skeleton Lords (imposing first time but MACE solves all problems), Sunbros are in the next zone. That's a lot of not intuitive at all stuff when you don't know what's where, but the obstacles are relatively minor ones if you want to run straight for it.
And you can easily hit SL150 by the normal end of DS2 without even trying to grind for souls (at least, this is where I generally stop). This is even excluding extra from the DLC. You just level a lot faster and a lot more in the game than you could in DS1 (it has more stats to maintain so this is probably fair). You're pretty much expected to.
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Dragon Quest- so. Um. I have no idea how to feel about this game. Like. There's a lot of stuff I normally mark games diwn for, but they just don't matter. Wipe? Go the other direction, there's only one item in the game that losing money will set you back meaningfully from getting. Only one dungeon has actual length, and said dungeon is the only one with a boss in it, so managing resources is very rarely burdensome. And even then the way the game is scaled meanes stocking up on herbs will actually last that dungeon even with the item limit of 6. And of course realistically the game is short enough, and the map small enough, that you physically can't get THAT bogged down. Hell, only one location, the tomb, is badly telegraphed despite the game thriving on random npc hints.
Um. Pr...obably 5/10. Yeah sure.
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And that was the really interesting thing I came out of it with. The iOS port only has a tiny bit of polish on it compared to the NES release. That tiny bit of polish lets a game that really kick started a genre on consoles holds up surprisingly well. It isn't good, but it is also a bit better than a bad release is even today.
I was seriously considering investing into Dex and going Quality build which would pretty much either mean Fisting stuff to death or going Straight Sword/Greatswords.
I probably will dump a bunch in Adaptability though, but might not need heaps since I think my starting class had a bit.
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Basically all they did aside from graphics is remove all the stairs/door/etc stuff. Based on playing an hour or two of playing the NES game anyway. And yeah, the game fundamentally is very playable with those removed, I was really not expecting that.
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Came home without my computer adaptor by accident. So I revisited my Priest SCC on WotL...
Goland Coal City - Resets: 0
Those Male Chemists are always Libras to my understanding. Unfortunately, my Ramza is Capricorn. I ended up in a loop when one of the chemists did nothing but revive his friends I killed with Holy. The good news is, they have very low evasion so I can easily go up and bop them again. I send 2 Priests around the building to reach Olan as he proceeds to read words because Galaxy Stop is apparently too hard.
Lesalia - Resets: 0
Zalmo runs away from me, which is an issue since I do not want to get into an attrition war when my resources are so limited. I Protect Up, then have one Priest Holy a Knight. This Priest then sacrifices herself while I send Ramza and another to meet Zalmo as he comes up to try and revive the dead Knight. Alma being a human shield helps a bit but not really necessary.
UBS 2 - Resets: 0
The Chemist didn't have P.down apparently so this was pretty easy. Knock off the Lancers, then its cakewalk.
UBS 3 - Resets: 0
Similar to Zalmo but trickier. I'm forced to kill the two knights starting beside Izlude as they block off the passageway to reach him. One of the Knights has shit Faith so he ended up taking 2 Holys. This meant I needed to send my remaining 2 Priests to kill Izlude, while the other three who took out blockade delay the approaching enemies. I Shell Up with the three on the ground and Protect up with Ramza and the Priest who will be going after Izlude. This helps cut the incoming damage greatly. The summoner was dealing like 40 points of damage at most despite also have 74 Faith. Once Izlude makes the fatal mistake of being in my targetting range, I lock the 2 Holys on him and he falls.
UBS 1 - Resets: 0
Equip Ramza with the Chameleon Robe. Line up 3 Priests on one side and the other two spaced part on the other side. Ramza's Cham robe dissuades Wiegraf from targetting him, so he goes for my bigger group instead and effectively takes out 2 Priests. I still have 3 Holys though so guess what happens.
Luso - Resets: 0
6 Behemoths, 5 Priests. 1 Holy a piece for each Behemoth. Luso eats the last one all the while being supported by my Priests as needed. I almost get Ramza killed by 2x Gore, but thankfully he was under Protect so he was fine.
Grog Hill - Resets: 0
The key here is to knock off the 2 Chemists quickly. Easier said than done since they both start far away and have guns to boot. Turtle up initially for a Protect casting, than start luring enemies to my spawn position. Holy the Squire/Thief/Archer all on turn 1, then one of the chemists came down so I locked Holy on him. This left just one Squire and the last Chemist. Unfortunately that Squire had Item and Revived the Archer. Well fuck. I lock my last Holy on the Chemist as he proceeds to X-Potion the Archer. Then I proceed to beat the Squire with my wonderstaves. Thanks to Protect, he can't really damage me and eventually retreats once he hits crit and starts accumulating. I run back with 2 Priests for Crystals, then Holy the rest.
Yardow - Resets: 0
The Ninjas get destroyed ASAP because their offense is really scary (OHKOs a Priest under Protect? Holy shit). This isn't too hard thankfully because the Ninjas just love to suicide by charging far ahead of the summoners. Speaking of the Summoners, Magic Defense Up and Shell = lol at the Summon damage. I've eaten several over this SCC and they're still dealing double digits despite these units casting them with high faith. And I haven't even considered equipping a White Robe yet (Holy's damage is far more important than some defensive measures). After that, I lure the Summoners over with a Shell'd Priest and take each one out with a Holy. This leaves the almighty Malak who I proceed to play whack a mole with until he retreats.
Yuguo Woods - Resets: 0
I completely forgot that I had curative magic and those dealt damage to the undead >_>. Easy battle nonetheless. Cast Holy on the humans /monsters for fast kills and use curative to chip. Could've turned Rafa into a Chemist too, but eh.
Riovannes Gate - Resets: 0
I was afraid I might had to reset due to Ramza's squad getting critically injured very early into the fight. Luckily the AI decided to be dunces and the archers spread their arrows apart, allowing Ramza and the Priest with him to survive long enough for the group of 3 to come near. The Knights all go down to either 1 Holy or 2 Holys. Looks like most enemies need 2 Holys now, which is unfortunate. Malak also proved to be a bit of a pain as he had best comp with one of my girls and his low faith made Holying him usually not a good move unless it was from her. I couldn't displace his CT either so I eventually just swarmed him and beat him with staffs again. Never change Malak. Once I got the Priests to the roof with the Archers, fight was pretty much over since they had no room to run to and Minimum range made them dead in the water.
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Mass Effect 2 - Just recruited Samara and Thane. Since I did five things (Jacob loyalty, Miranda loyalty, Tali, Samara, Thane), I am being forced to do a mission~
I also picked up the Lair of the Shadow Broker and Kasumi DLC thanks to the Mass Effect fairy sending me a MS points gift card~ I will have to try those out. When do ya'll think is the best time to do that?
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Kasumi asap, Shadow Broker technically works best if you do it after recruiting everyone, buuuut the last recruit also triggers a timer for Bad Things to in the plot. So really just do it whenever. The up side to having all the recruits you can technically come back for (you unlock something and can revisit it whenever you want I think?) but you would mostly just miss out on a joke or two.
It is worth noting that the thing you unlock gives a bit of an info dump on characters.
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Allegedly you can do Lair of the Shadow Broker aftergame without much incident. (It's what I'd have done had I not lost my ME2 save.)
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Kasumi had a pretty hard boss. It depends on how badly you want her.
Best to leave lair for the aftergame or very end of the game i think.
Soulsphony of the night: inverted castle is cruel. I got a fist of tulkas to drop from a lion after an half hour farm, i could farm some more for +5 def but nope nope nope
Frankestein monster managed to be worse than any other boss in the game (even the bat) it is an amazing feat. I cheesed the hell out of doppleganger v2 (and maria) with a super cool infinite divekick combo. Meanwhile beelz looks impossible.
Joseph cape is super cool in purple/dark purple.
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Crisis Core: Nibelheim finished. Sephiroth was a huge dick on Expert mode.
Metroid: Got this because Club Nintendo. The game is meaner than I remember, particularly because you revive with 40 Health regardless. It's like how Zelda started you with 3 Hearts regardless, only it's much harder to grind for health.
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Kasumi had a pretty hard boss. It depends on how badly you want her.
Best to leave lair for the aftergame or very end of the game i think.
Kasumi's mission was one of the first things I did in the game. That boss...took a few tries.
I tackled Lair smack in the middle somewhere and that worked out fine.
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Touhou Labyrinth 2: Oh right, this is a thing which exists. It's basically more of the same (not that this is a bad thing) + more options for customizing characters. Do I want to spend skill points on making Team 9 an actual thing with gameplay bonuses? Goddamn right I do. (Wriggle is still unreasonably good because POIZN.) Downside, the game's doing the Yo Dawg I Heard You Like Grinding etcetera thing much earlier than last time. I'm just at the end of floor six and already there's an unbeatable boss ten levels above me blocking the only way forward.
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When I replayed ME2, I did both Kasumi and Zaeed pretty much right after getting Mordin and Garrus and that was (mostly) fine. Kasumi has an annoying boss but it should be doable where Ciato is at since she's recruited some of the midgame people and is doing loyalty missions. Ciato you could probably do the Shadowbroker where you're at as well.
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Priests roll into Bed Desert...
Wiegraf/Velius - Resets: 0
Ramza equips Cham Robe/Holy miter. Eat a Wave Fist, then nuke Wiegraf with Holy. In the second phase of this fight, Ramza retreats to where the other Priests are. Velius being a dumdum charges down and locks Clops onto Ramza, giving all my Priests a go at him and Ramza too. I lock 4 Holys on him and smack him with Ramza midcharge dealing 80+250 per Holy. Needless to say, the demons really didn't matter.
Roof of Riovannes - Resets: 0
I stagger my speed spread, giving Ramza and a second Priest 9 Speed, one with 8 (the main damage dealer) and one with 7 who is nekkid. I lure the two assassins with Ramza and the 9 Speed Priest by giving them an opportunity to midcharge me. They take the bait, and ignore Rafa. I proceed to lock Holy with my 8 Speed Priest and that is pretty much that.
Doguola Pass - Resets: 0
I drop the Magic Gauntlet for 108 as strengthen is more powerful than +2 MA at this point. I also change everyone's headgear to Gold Hairpins so they can all cast 2 Holys a piece. The higher leveled Priests and Ramza can even cast a few additional spells after. Anyways, with strengthen, this is a non-issue as Holy OHKOs some enemies, 2HKOs others. I take the OHKOs as a I can. The AI doesn't seem to recognize Regenerator being in effect and often targets me with a lethal L3 spell, only for me to get a turn inbetween and restore some HP, making it no longer lethal. To add insult to injury, I actually kill an enemy Wizard by redirects only as his friend was stupid enough to do this twice.
Bernervia Free City - Resets: 0
Position a priest in the second formation near the bottom right. This lures Melia into a specific spot such that she will use her Mighty Sword skill, but be in range to get targeted by 2 Holys. 2 shots to take her down to crit, I only need 1.
Finath River - Resets: 0
The Chocobos have your levels and I was only 23 with Ramza at most, so this was pretty much a joke. Lock Holys on Chocobos as they come and OHKOs for free.
Zeltannia Church - Resets: 0
Zalmo starts in a position that Ramza can immediately lock Holy onto and OHKO. I'm actually not sure if he could even do anything about this because he sure as hell didn't try to Shell himself or anything of that sort. After watching everyone take their turns, Ramza nukes him to the next millenium.
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Curtain Call: My Lenna has Dualcast, Ultima, Meteor, Doomsday. Shit evaporates.
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Mass Effect 2 - Finished Garrus and Kasumi's loyalty missions, decided to be nice to Sidonis because reasons. My newly acquired Sniper Rifle made pretty easy work of the Kasumi boss.
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LISA: Finished Pain mode. I think I saw about 5 unique fights, there's a small special area unlocked, and a new ending sequence. A ton of PCs got slaughtered by bosses (RIP Dick, Fly, Bo, Nern, Ollie) but I didn't reload because 2 arms Brad with Joy is good enough.
Mike had a lot of HP in Pain mode (I think 80 000?), so Poison was nearly necessary to beat him.
Castlevania Symphony of the Night, the symphony including a lot of punches: I beat Galamoth and Dracula. Galamoth was easy I didn't get hit. He has basically three attacks:
- Throw homing balls: Just stay at a distance
- High sword beam: Just never jump
- Super long lightning attack: Mist to get between his legs, then MASH SQUARE
Since he has ten million HPs this took a long time but one I understood how he worked I wasn't in any danger.
Drac was pretty difficult. His attacks are fast but there's a decently long time between them.
So Mist is once again super great. Surprise, turning into invincible mist at will is OP.
Only Beelz is left but meeeeh.
Overall, this was a fun challenge. Alucard punching stuff didn't get old in the 8 or so hours it took me to beat the challenge.
It wasn't balanced but I don't think there's any way to make SotN balanced.
I'll try Maria mode next.
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and a new ending sequence．
Is it any less terrible than the joyful ending?
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Touhou Odyssey 2: Turns out Grind Moar boss was just a Deal X Damage and It'll Run Away boss. Still took some grinding to survive that long, mind (10/12 PCs dead when I "won.") Of course, three floors later, I'm now running into that problem for real. I just can't deal any freakin' damage. It isn't that the boss init boosts DEF/MDEF 100%, that'll wear off. But even with that replaced by debuffs I can barely scratch her, and poison hitrate is pitifully unreliable against her. I'd spam ITD but the only ITD spells I have are in elements she resists (Rumia MVP sadly not happening this time). She's dangerous offensively, but barely manageable with the right lineup and buffs. I can just stick Meiling at the front of the line and she'll take negligible damage, but there's no guarantee the boss will exclusively target the first in line, and if she hits anyone else it's almost a guaranteed OHKO. Eventually the party'll get worn down and I just can't hurt her remotely fast enough for victory to happen first. Like, geez, I came into this well above the level the game says is appropriate for this fight. Not sure what they want out of me here.
Huge shock, fan-made game is still referential as fuck. I smiled when I picked up power armor and then frowned when the item description referenced the Capitol Wasteland.
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Pokémon Alpha Sapphire - Maingame done. Catching Kyogre was actually pretty simple (Mega Sceptile did a huge dent on its health before it got lol ohkoed by an Ice Beam. Dear god, 4x weakness is ugly), but then I pretty much never even took it out of the box because why not just play with my party? Elite Four was mostly the Camerupt/Milotic parade: Sidney aside, who mostly got manhandled by Mega Gardevoir, Camerupt and Milotic were pretty much exactly what I needed to properly handle most of them, though Phoebe also needed some help from Manectric. Glacia just ate very painful Flamethrowers and Overheats from Camerupt night and day once her Walrein managed to connect two Sheer Colds on Gardevoir (it survived one through affection hax! What the heck), and its HP actually -was- good enough to weather a fair amount of damage. Drake got borderline soloed by Milotic (Ice Beam so gooooood). In the end, Camerupt was also MVP against Steven, since it could survive a Giga Impact from Megagross and Overheat just tore it up to pieces. I'll bother with Delta Episode later. So, final evaluations!
Sceptile/Mega Sceptile (L48, Giga Drain/Leaf Blade/Swords Dance/Earthquake) - Going Mega or not on Sceptile's case is actually a legit interesting choice at times due to its typing change. Huge stats, but holy crap do I want to eat OHKOs from non-STAB Ice attacks all day and have defensive problems against Fairy and Dragon-types? Past that, it was a mixed offensive sweeper. Giga Drain sorta loses its offensive luster by endgame, but it's always serviceable, especially running off Mega S. Attack, and Leaf Blade certainly picks up the slack well enough, especially backed up by Swords Dance. Earthquake hands it some coverage, particularly against Steels and Electrics, which Scepty otherwise sorta struggles offensively against. Amazing in the early and midgame, sorta dawdled a bit in the end due to Grass not being particularly useful offensively on those endgame fights.
Mega/Gardevoire (L49, Reflect/Calm Mind/Psychic/Draining Kiss) - Draining Kiss on a high S. Attack Fairy-type with Calm Mind is soooooooooo stupid, guys. Gardevoire was already a prime RSE MVP contender for the lategame (held back by its underwhelming earlygame performance, but not by nearly enough to not make it a high-profile choice), but gaining Fairy typing and Draining Kiss just do -wonders- to cover its holes along the way. Psychic/Fairy is great (completely trivializes Fighting, neuters the fear it had of Dark-types, reams Dragons and Poison-types fear Psychic defensively. Sucks against Steel, but Garde -never- was amazing against Steel-types anyway), Draining Kiss is very useful to mitigate the durability woes and synergizes obscenely with Calm Mind. Once it reached L30, it took the MVP mantle and never really let go, Elite Four aside. The durability in the Ralts period's still all sorts of appalling, but it has enough options to not entirely suck ass now, including Draining Kiss - so yeah. Mega evo was pretty much overkill - 165 S. Atk and a 20 boost to its base Speed? Holy crap.
Camerupt (L50, Overheat/Flamethrower/Earth Power/Yawn) - The ensemble dark horse in the party. Numel's egregious durability/speed combo led me to think I'd never really take much mileage out of Camerupt aside from scoring a few essential OHKOs, but it ended up being a cornerstone Pokémon once it evolved, due to -actually being able to take hits- and having a very solid in-game typing. You'd be surprised at how many problems can be solved just by tossing Camerupt at them and OHKOing their asses. Ground trivialized Electrics further and not fearing Grass also let me exploit those types more effectively. Yawn was also -oddly- useful whenever it came up. Only really feared Waters, but I had plenty of Water coverage in my party.
Mega/Manectric (L48, Thunderbolt/Rain Dance/Thunder Wave/Strength) - Pretty unexciting, mostly a fast Thunderbolt spammer with the occasional Rain Dance use to boost Milotic's offense. Fairly useful anyway, since Electric is a very useful typing for offense (especially considering I had no real Rock coverage) and Mega Manectric both sports good stats and a great ability in Intimidate, and you can't really go wrong with speedy Thunder Wave.
Milotic (L52, Surf/Recover/Waterfall/Ice Beam) - Holy shit, does this thing tank. There was nothing as capable of covering my bases defensively as Milotic's simple yet devastating stalling game, really. I did swapping on the Waterfall slot all day - Safeguard, Light Screen, Toxic - just for the sake of covering different utility needs. Ice Beam was responsible for nearly soloing Drake and also hands it huge coverage. Really good wall with solid offense and non-utter fail speed really work. By the end, it didn't even eat 2HKOs off most weakness-hitting coverage attacks, so it pretty much bordered on immortal.
Crobat (L48, Acrobatics/Poison Fang/Confuse Ray/Fly) - Weirdly good overall, suck phase with Zubat aside. Confuse Ray is badass utility and plugs holes pretty much everywhere when you want to annoy, and Poison Fang liked to pick the funniest times to proc its deadly poison. Acrobatics is also badass spammable Flying damage and even Fly had uses when I was trolling charged moves and fishing for safe Surfs or Flame Plumes in doubles. Not terribly special at offense when not hitting weakness, though (albeit Crobat was my main means of dealing with Grass-types before Numel/Camerupt got rolling and also my fastest Fighting-types check), setting aside the hilarious period of statistical dominance due to an early final evo. Pretty fun Poké, all in all, though the Poison typing pretty much never mattered due to AS's sheer scarcity in Fairy types.
About the game itself, it's been said. It's gen 3 with gen 6 mechanics, but still covering a large amount of gen 3 sensibilities. Considering gen 3 and gen 6 are my favorites in the series by a healthy margin, this is in no way anywhere near bad. One thing I particularly liked was the game handing you access to a lot of Pokés from later gens, unlike what happened in FRLG. Though, given the fact the game uses RSE's level curve, the game would've broken even worse than XY if I turned the Exp. Share on.
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AAI2: finished. Final villain was as good as advertised. Especially when using an armrest. Overall the fifth case was not one of the series' best, but it gets credit for being broad rather than just long, tying up a whole bunch of loose ends from the other cases in a satisfying way. Most of my complaints about the game would be solved if those threads had been more evident early on - let the case 4 villain show up earlier, draw some of the connections between crimes bit by bit instead of all at the end, and you've got the strongest overall story arc in an AA game by far.
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Allegedly you can do Lair of the Shadow Broker aftergame without much incident. (It's what I'd have done had I not lost my ME2 save.)
I did it postgame no issue.
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Zenny: It's another sequence added on top of it that reveals some more backstory. Essentially Buzzo was the one who ruined Rando's face and destroyed Brad's dojo, as a revenge against Brad for being directly responsible for Lisa's death.
It's all foreshadowing for the Buddy DLC I assume.
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Mass Effect 2 - Finished Garrus and Kasumi's loyalty missions, decided to be nice to Sidonis because reasons. My newly acquired Sniper Rifle made pretty easy work of the Kasumi boss.
Armor-piercing ammo best ammo. Get the squad power and ride it for the rest of the game.
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Mass Effect 2 - I've been continuing to hack through the different Loyalty missions. Dealing with different people's emotional and personal problems is quite fun and interesting and you get to know all of the characters, but obviously Mordin's is the best. It addresses a lot of really key and interesting ethical issues that all of us scientists think about and discuss, even those of us who don't work in sensitive fields. The micro-morality vs. macro-morality is a tough issue, and I found myself emphasizing with both Mordin and Maelon during their argument. I really liked when Maelon points out that he could hardly argue about the morality of the genophage to his famous teacher, because it felt a little naive of Mordin to expect him to. I was definitely a little sad by the end of it.
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Have you been talking to Mordin between Missions? Literally character of the year for multiple years.
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Especially make sure to talk to Mordin after initiating Garrus romance. It could save your life!
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Especially make sure to talk to Mordin after initiating Garrus romance. It could save your life!
Pound sign anaphylaxis
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About the game itself, it's been said. It's gen 3 with gen 6 mechanics, but still covering a large amount of gen 3 sensibilities. Considering gen 3 and gen 6 are my favorites in the series by a healthy margin, this is in no way anywhere near bad. One thing I particularly liked was the game handing you access to a lot of Pokés from later gens, unlike what happened in FRLG. Though, given the fact the game uses RSE's level curve, the game would've broken even worse than XY if I turned the Exp. Share on.
To be fair, HGSS did allow for Gen 3/4 aspects to be incorporated into the main game too, for all that there weren't a lot available. Mostly Gen 4 Evolutions were available (this is excluding trading of course, where if you do that, anything goes!) My second playthrough, for example, I had Mamoswine on my team, whose req is "Piloswine with Ancient Power." A few others are available this way, like Ambipom.
Though yeah, ORAS was best about it particularly because enemy trainers would actually use some later Gen pokes, as well as things like Budew showing up in the wild. I know it screws with Pokemon continuity, but honestly, I think we can all agree that gameplay advances matter way more in a game like this...well, ok, at least for things that aren't related to EXPANDING THE LANDMASS.
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Especially make sure to talk to Mordin after initiating Garrus romance. It could save your life!
Pound sign anaphylaxis
hashish auto-erotic asphyxiation
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Have you been talking to Mordin between Missions? Literally character of the year for multiple years.
It really is astounding how good EVERYTHING about Mordin is.
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Not me playing, but a friend recently started P3P and FES at the same time (he is weird). I told him to start P3P as female route. I kind of want to put together Fenrir P3P run together in Storify and link him it.
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About the game itself, it's been said. It's gen 3 with gen 6 mechanics, but still covering a large amount of gen 3 sensibilities. Considering gen 3 and gen 6 are my favorites in the series by a healthy margin, this is in no way anywhere near bad. One thing I particularly liked was the game handing you access to a lot of Pokés from later gens, unlike what happened in FRLG. Though, given the fact the game uses RSE's level curve, the game would've broken even worse than XY if I turned the Exp. Share on.
To be fair, HGSS did allow for Gen 3/4 aspects to be incorporated into the main game too, for all that there weren't a lot available. Mostly Gen 4 Evolutions were available (this is excluding trading of course, where if you do that, anything goes!) My second playthrough, for example, I had Mamoswine on my team, whose req is "Piloswine with Ancient Power." A few others are available this way, like Ambipom.
Though yeah, ORAS was best about it particularly because enemy trainers would actually use some later Gen pokes, as well as things like Budew showing up in the wild. I know it screws with Pokemon continuity, but honestly, I think we can all agree that gameplay advances matter way more in a game like this...well, ok, at least for things that aren't related to EXPANDING THE LANDMASS.
The funniest part is the plot itself retcons the hell out of RSE anyway, so it's all in the name of the game. I'm frankly glad they made that choice anyhow, it vastly improves the experience compared to the original.
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I almost forgot the most important part of any Ace Attorney post:
Case 5 >= Case 3 > Case 1 > Case 2 > Case 4.
The big problem with the game in general is that 2 and 3 don't set up 4 as well as they ought, and none of them do the work necessary for 5 to pay off like the writers clearly wanted it to. That said, 5 in a vacuum was quite good overall, and what drags it down is more about earlier cases than its own execution, so those earlier cases come off looking worse than it does. Along with my earlier gripes about 4, both it and case 2 suffer badly from shoehorning Phoenix Wright's plot structure into the AAI cast and premise (the modern portions of 3 feels this as well, but less so and it's balanced out by the excellent flashback segments, easily the best part of the game), and Case 1 is just a reasonably well-done AAI case with few frills.
The game would be much much better if Blaise had showed up in Case 2, perhaps in Justine's place, and been a more overt factor in the Case 3 flashbacks. Set up his ties to Dogen and Roland, and then let us know that he's actively corrupt before he takes center stage. As it is the writers went out of their way to show that the PIC sucks, but going from there to "the head of the PIC is a corrupt murdering bastard" still takes some groundwork that they just didn't bother with -- not to mention the fact that every single case in the game is linked together by Blaise's past malfeasance, and they could have easily built that up over time.
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To be fair, HGSS did allow for Gen 3/4 aspects to be incorporated into the main game too, for all that there weren't a lot available. Mostly Gen 4 Evolutions were available (this is excluding trading of course, where if you do that, anything goes!) My second playthrough, for example, I had Mamoswine on my team, whose req is "Piloswine with Ancient Power." A few others are available this way, like Ambipom.
Though yeah, ORAS was best about it particularly because enemy trainers would actually use some later Gen pokes, as well as things like Budew showing up in the wild. I know it screws with Pokemon continuity, but honestly, I think we can all agree that gameplay advances matter way more in a game like this...well, ok, at least for things that aren't related to EXPANDING THE LANDMASS.
The funniest part is the plot itself retcons the hell out of RSE anyway, so it's all in the name of the game. I'm frankly glad they made that choice anyhow, it vastly improves the experience compared to the original.
Delta Episode established that ORAS (and XY, by proxy) are in a different timeline from the original RSE, so technically they didn't create any continuity issues! <_<
Giving you the National Dex after the eighth gym (or the Kyogre/Groudon battle, forget which) was a cool idea. It adds some more options for the E4, plus it spices up Victory Road. The enemy Darmanitan there is really scary if you don't have a decently bulky Water or Rock type at the time *cough*.
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My brother said that he was playing normally then could buy 50 rare candies out of nowhere. Balance
I am honored Gref but how would you find my posts? I had terrible results with the search function on this site.
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Search General Chat displaying posts by Fenrir containing P3 and sort by oldest thread seemed to find them all with only a bit of noise.
Edit - I am replaying Mass Effect as an Infiltrator. I am using Sniper Rifles and am convinced this is actually less optimal than just building for Pistol.
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There wasn't really a reason to use a non-pistol weapon unless you were a soldier, then you can use an AR. Fortunately they corrected that mistake in ME2, when they came up with the amazing idea that different classes could have totally different play mechanics.
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I almost forgot the most important part of any Ace Attorney post:
Case 5 >= Case 3 > Case 1 > Case 2 > Case 4.
The big problem with the game in general is that 2 and 3 don't set up 4 as well as they ought, and none of them do the work necessary for 5 to pay off like the writers clearly wanted it to. That said, 5 in a vacuum was quite good overall, and what drags it down is more about earlier cases than its own execution, so those earlier cases come off looking worse than it does. Along with my earlier gripes about 4, both it and case 2 suffer badly from shoehorning Phoenix Wright's plot structure into the AAI cast and premise (the modern portions of 3 feels this as well, but less so and it's balanced out by the excellent flashback segments, easily the best part of the game), and Case 1 is just a reasonably well-done AAI case with few frills.
The game would be much much better if Blaise had showed up in Case 2, perhaps in Justine's place, and been a more overt factor in the Case 3 flashbacks. Set up his ties to Dogen and Roland, and then let us know that he's actively corrupt before he takes center stage. As it is the writers went out of their way to show that the PIC sucks, but going from there to "the head of the PIC is a corrupt murdering bastard" still takes some groundwork that they just didn't bother with -- not to mention the fact that every single case in the game is linked together by Blaise's past malfeasance, and they could have easily built that up over time.
Hmm, I definitely don't agree. Case 5 has a bunch of problems which affect the case itself, to me, namely:
-Killing a conscious person by dropping a balloon on them is completely unbelievable, even by Ace Attorney standards.
-Freezing a body to throw off the time of murder makes some sense... but even a half-assed autopsy report would notice all the tissue damage from the freezing, and as such there is no way they would misreport the time of death. Made even worse by the fact that they already used this "plot twist" in a better way in case 3. Both this and the previous point combine to ruin the "aha!" of solving the murder, which is so important to my enjoyment of an Ace Attorney case.
-Dogen breaking out of prison far no reason other to exposition at you. WTF? In general it felt like the case did way too much revealing of things at times which were narratively convenient, but unnatural.
-The case didn't really tie the cast together in a satisfying way, the way other final cases usually do. Courtney, Ray, and Sebastian are all borderline irrelevant, even if I absolutely loved the Sebastian Logic Chess.
-Nothing about the Fake President's character makes a lick of sense.
I think I'd go with 2 >= 1 >= 3 > 5 >= 4 but the only gap I feel remotely strongly about is the one in the middle. I can absolutely respect 3 as top; it's a good case overall (and it has Larry) but I found it to drag some and I didn't care about the villain as much as I did 1's or 2's (and I loved 2's setting). I'd probably need to replay the game to firm up my opinion there.
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Crisis Core Expert Mode: In Gongaga, then did some missions, and holy crap, I'm actually almost finished with the entire DMW! Only a few more scenes for a handful of characters, and just need to get Tonberry and Magic Pot to activate, as well as Bahamut Fury once I actually get him.
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Replying to Elf...
-Killing a conscious person by dropping a balloon on them is completely unbelievable, even by Ace Attorney standards.
-Freezing a body to throw off the time of murder makes some sense... but even a half-assed autopsy report would notice all the tissue damage from the freezing, and as such there is no way they would misreport the time of death. Made even worse by the fact that they already used this "plot twist" in a better way in case 3. Both this and the previous point combine to ruin the "aha!" of solving the murder, which is so important to my enjoyment of an Ace Attorney case.
I'm pretty much resigned to the idea that the mechanics of a PW murder will make no doggone sense, especially after how convoluted earlier AAI2 murders got. Both of those elements were telegraphed (John being rescued from a refrigerated warehouse, Simon mentioning that the balloon weighs several hundred pounds), and that was good enough for me. I enjoy the “aha!” factor too, but I don't try to get there by applying physics as we understand them, because down that path lies madness. If they set it up narratively, I'll take it.
-Dogen breaking out of prison far no reason other to exposition at you. WTF? In general it felt like the case did way too much revealing of things at times which were narratively convenient, but unnatural.
This seemed to hang together? If ever Dogen would have an opportunity to escape it's right after the warden got arrested, which would doubtless lead to some chaos at the prison, and expositioning at Edgeworth serves his goal of getting Simon “safely” behind bars.
-The case didn't really tie the cast together in a satisfying way, the way other final cases usually do. Courtney, Ray, and Sebastian are all borderline irrelevant, even if I absolutely loved the Sebastian Logic Chess.
I thought it did a very good job of rounding Courtney and Sebastian out as characters (Ray didn't need the help, he was firmly established by 2 through 4), although you're right that none of them are particularly relevant to the mystery of who killed the fake president. Their part in the case is more of an epilogue to Blaise Debeste's story, except the writers held back the threads connecting all the different elements of that story until Case 5 because of....reasons? Still, I'd much rather the epilogue showed up late than not at all.
-Nothing about the Fake President's character makes a lick of sense.
Can you go into more detail on this? I didn't see anything contradictory in his backstory or behavior; he's the Actual President's body double, realizes that because his job is to look and act exactly like the real thing, he can steal the president's identity without tipping anyone off. He does so, and pushes the original's allies and confidantes away so they won't see subtle changes, but struggles under the weight of his newfound responsibility, becoming the desperate old man we see after his Case 1 breakdown. Later he meets with Courtney about “his” son because to blow her off completely could be suspicious, and gets death-by-lion-balloon for his troubles.
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Taking someone's place for 12 years is kinda crazy at the best of times. But... this man is a president. Presidents can not simply drive away their friends and hang out in their room or something. He'd have to "not remember" far too many supporters, businesspeople, diplomats, etc. to be even remotely believable. Being a president is no easy job and there's little reason to believe he'd be qualified at it. And there's also the fact that the writers want us to believe this guy is a cold-blooded multi-murderer in the backstory... yet a panicky mess in the Rooke murder case? I mean, yeah, people change, but the combination of the inconsistent characterisation, stupid motive, and unbelievable 12-year impersonation leaves little to like about the character and anything it touches.
The part about not being worried about specific physics is fair. I try to do the same, but sometimes things go too far and it doesn't work for me. Especially for things which are sensitive to the reveal. I got very little satisfaction in puzzling out anything that happened in the final case.
I felt Courtney's character was mostly done by the end of case 4. We learn she has a son in the fifth case, I suppose, but... that feels like an oddly deletable plot point. Sebastian's character arc certainly comes to a close in case 5, on the other hand, but he isn't that important to it. It's not the end of the world, just unsatisfying with how other final cases often tie up their core cast so nicely. I didn't really feel that about this one.
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Hmm, I can't seem to get the Mordin dialogue on Garrus. Ah well.
Mass Effect 2 - Finally finished off all of the loyalty missions except Legion's. I saved Thane's for last, and probably for good reason because it was kind of lame Bungled it a couple times before finally getting it right because I lost track of him. The last time I got a weird glitch where I did the last thing where I found the target but it initiated the cutscene anyway, which was kind of annoying. Grunt's was as one expects from a krogan-related sidequest; filled with macho violence and eyeroll-worthy stupidity. Most of the others were pretty fun, though, for all that I wish more of them had little to no gameplay besides Samara and Thane's. I had a lot of fun using Tali's AI Hacking ability to wreck all of the geth on her sidequest, and finally getting to see the quarian Migrant Fleet was pretty cool. I've been mostly rotating between different PCs, but my favorites are Garrus, Samara, Mordin, and Miranda.
I'm probably going to tackle the Lair of the Shadow Broker next, and then finish off the game.
EDIT: And it looks like I have officially turned over Liara's picture. <_<;
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALJCqdPqIrA
So at least 3 DLers (Ciato, El Cid, me) have been using FemShep and romancing Garrus I see.
(Probably more)
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All the impostor did was arrange the assassination behind the scenes (and maybe pose for a picture of the “kidnapping”), right? The ruthless schemer who falls to pieces when it's time to get his hands dirty is a well-worn character type, as is the usurper who's in love with the idea of having power and completely unprepared for the day-to-day responsibility of using it. (See also: many actual heads of state)
And I may be misremembering this, but I thought that at the end of Case 1, when he's justifying the fake assassination gambit, the impostor tells Edgeworth that being president for so long has worn him down as a person and that he's losing support among the people; in retrospect it sure seems like he's talking about not being able to match the original.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALJCqdPqIrA
So at least 3 DLers (Ciato, El Cid, me) have been using FemShep and romancing Garrus I see.
(Probably more)
umyeah
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That reminds me, when I revisit ME2 I seriously need to save Tali's loyalty mission for last and bring Legion along. I hear it is fun times.
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Yeah I was pretty sure you (duck) and Grefter did too
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I was obliged to switch to Traynor for ME3 though because you guys come on it's me.
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I am talking in very tiny type because clearly it is the in thing to do.
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I am talking in very tiny type because clearly it is the in thing to do.
Yeah but, is being the "in thing" really that great?
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Shale:
The impostor also sneaks up on and murders the cameraman (I forget his name), so he's not a mere schemer. Yet this killer goes and hides in his room in case 1? And if he's supposed to be a good schemer, why does he come off as so wretchedly incompetent compared to... pretty much every plotter in the game? (It's distinctly Knightly who came up with the crazy fake assassination in case 1, for instance.) In general the character just felt written in too many directions at once, for me, and none of them really measure up to the type of villain Ace Attorney is capable of writing. I also felt the character's concept before the "he's actually a rogue body double" plot twist, that of a legitimate president weighed down by his years in office, was notably more compelling.
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I haven't actually done female Shep in ME2 yet. I mostly played it importing the same 1 or 2 characters from ME1 I played which was one of a couple of DudeSheps of varying alignment.
I have replayed ME1 at least in part as female Shep a couple of times though with intent to keep going, but they never really got anywhere.
That said this run through is just that, going to bang the shit out of Garrus. Planning Paragon -> Renegade -> Paragon path through the three games since I kind of feel that is the intended arc.
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Gat out of Hell -- I don't know what I was expecting but it wasn't this. The big cut scene after you finish the perfunctory "assemble the crew, get your goddamn powers" tutorial jobs went from "congrats, you recruited Shakespeare to your team!" to a 90s Disney-style duet between Satan and his daughter, complete with a final crescendo where she looks out her window and
birds bats fly by. I wonder if they cast separate singing voices for maximum fidelity to the Lion King/Aladdin formula or their VA is also good at singing?
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Having just looked up some scenes, Male!Shep VA is super weird and seeing him is very confusing to me. >_>
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The opposite was honestly kind of counter to why I hadn't got far with female Shepherd for a bit. Got so used to Dudeshep VA that is was jarring. Not that I am ever going to hate Jennifer Hale, but it is just weird after so many plays through as Dudeshep.
That and you know, Kaiden scenes not being amazingly steamy gay sequences as he and Dudeshep stand inappropriately close face to face under a red light is way less hot with female Shepherd.
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Met God. He sounded familiar. Checked the credits. It reads as follows:
GOD -- Nathan Fillion
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And there was much rejoicing
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Mass Effect 2 - Beat the Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC quest, then spent half an hour being a creep and spying on my party members. But I suppose that's the point of this DLC, yes? Also got told off for having Garrus do something besides calibrate the Normandy's guns. Sass!
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Did you enjoy Legion's one? 213374U
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Mass Effect 2 - Beat the Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC quest, then spent half an hour being a creep and spying on my party members. But I suppose that's the point of this DLC, yes? Also got told off for having Garrus do something besides calibrate the Normandy's guns. Sass!
Like 70% that, 20% following up on Liara's story, 10% setting things up for use in ME3.
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Rob: I bought the Saints Row 2, 3, and 4 bundle on Steam when it was on sale a few days ago. It sounds like shit didn't get ridic until 3, so I'm not so interested in 2, but... likely I only have the time/interest to get through one of them. Should I start with 3 and plan to play 4 at some later time, or will I basically get enough of the experience jumping right into 4 and maaaaaaaybe revisiting 3 at some point?
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3 has a pretty bonkers story and an absolutely fantastic guest role for the Mayor of Steelport. I think you probably know how it plays: a GTA game but more awesome.
4 gives you motherfucking super powers ten minutes in. Guns and cars still exist but cars are mostly for telekinetically throwing at enemies, making them more like very large grenades than a useful means of conveyance, since you are capable of jumping up the sides of buildings and then taking a running start to glide across the city. There's callbacks to various stuff in the other games (Keith David played a character in Saints Row 1, now he does not play that character because he plays himself, for instance) that you might not get but that's life.
If you're only gonna play one, play SR4 if for no other reason than it is much more different from a sandbox game than SR3 is.
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Oh, 3 doesn't have the superpowers? Well, that solves that.
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You also aren't President of the United States in 3, nor do you get to choose between ending world hunger or curing cancer by writing "fuck cancer" on paper.
You DO get to meet the only character in any of the games who is more awesome than you, though.
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3 sounds like a game I will play the next time I look at GTA and go, "Yknow I wanna play GTA", so I'll probably play that at some point, but for now I want to pretend to be a horse cock dildo wielding demigod for a bit.
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but for now I want to pretend to be a horse cock dildo wielding demigod for a bit.
So you are going to play Saint's Row 3? Because that sounds like 3 to me. 4 you are significantly more than a "Demigod".
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Saint's Row 2 is awesome but the PC port is quite bad, unfortunately. If you do give it a try check out the Gentlemen of the Row mod, it offers a bunch of bugfixes and also adds in tons of customization items and other goodies.
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SMT4 - So, uh, this is a thing that is happening. I don't know, okay
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but for now I want to pretend to be a horse cock dildo wielding demigod for a bit.
So you are going to play Saint's Row 3? Because that sounds like 3 to me. 4 you are significantly more than a "Demigod".
You are definitely a Thor-tier god at minimum. In 3 you're just fairly indestructible.
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Has anyone played the Talos Principle? It sounds really intriguing but most people are afraid to really talk about it, and it seems like some of the best things in the game are to do with aspects of the story which people don't want to spoil. I've heard comparisons with Portal which is positive, but reviewers haven't done a great job expressing why it is compelling. It does look cool on the videos I've seen so I may pick it up anyway but a recommendation here would push me over the edge.
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SMT4 - So, uh, this is a thing that is happening. I don't know, okay
I actually do not like what's happening there.
It felt what have been built starting from SMT and matured through the Raidou game and Strange Joruney has been shattered to piece in this game.
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I honestly never felt the timeline laid out by Shin Megami Tensei ever made -any- sense to begin with, so I can't really be bothered. I'm just weirded out over the fact I'm actually enjoying the gameplay even though it's SMT as fuck even for the series standards.
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Has anyone played the Talos Principle? It sounds really intriguing but most people are afraid to really talk about it, and it seems like some of the best things in the game are to do with aspects of the story which people don't want to spoil. I've heard comparisons with Portal which is positive, but reviewers haven't done a great job expressing why it is compelling. It does look cool on the videos I've seen so I may pick it up anyway but a recommendation here would push me over the edge.
I've heard positive things over at SR (pretty much exactly what you've already said above, though). It's on my list of things to play but so are a million other things, so.
Touhou Odyssey 2: Ultimately, poison prevailed. As usual.
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Good luck vs. the Minotaur, Jo'ou. You may need it.
I actually rather liked some of SMT4's ideas in how it played with SMT1 characters / plot, and the parts I didn't like were ideas very clearly loyal to what SMT did before, so hey. I suppose I'm the anti-Niu.
Also: if you want the neutral ending, which you probably do, obligatory reminder that (**minor gameplay spoilers you should read anyway) you should be recording all the choices you make and checking a FAQ somewhere to see what it's doing to your hidden alignment score. You have to land in a -8 to +8 band by the split point, which is actually fairly narrow. (This is also where I whine that the final mandatory choice is between -10 & +10 and dopey, so if you were at -1 to +1, you were TOO NEUTRAL TO STAY NEUTRAL or something. It does help you get back on track if you were at 9-18 at least.)
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Giving out my 2 cents on what I don't like about SMT4.
I mean this game turned Gabriel into the biggest zealot among the Arch Angels, when she supposedly is among the most reasonable and level minded with Ramiel. In other word, they removed the saving grace that could have prevented the Law faction from becoming 2 dimensional cookie-cut villains.
Lucifer is even worse, getting turned into a text book character, who completely lacked that tempter's aura that he had in the past games. Especially how he had peaked in his tempter/manipulator role in the Raidou game. Oh, and his new look, god, how can Atlus do this!?
Then that Law Ending... YHWH help me. Just how half baked can it get? Especially when we had SJ's Law Ending.
Not to mention they completely wasted Mastema's potential in all this. SJ finally openly the door to discuss the split perspectives within a single faction. When I thought they'll finally expend on it in this game... nope, they let Mastema drop off from the plot!
The only thing that was done right is the White Man and the two other world, which actually brings out some interesting perspective. But still two dimensional when compared to SMT3 or SJ.
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Saints Row 4 - Wow. That tutorial sequence.
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Has anyone played the Talos Principle? It sounds really intriguing but most people are afraid to really talk about it, and it seems like some of the best things in the game are to do with aspects of the story which people don't want to spoil. I've heard comparisons with Portal which is positive, but reviewers haven't done a great job expressing why it is compelling. It does look cool on the videos I've seen so I may pick it up anyway but a recommendation here would push me over the edge.
Hey, this just got uploaded: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WImTfsHsCMk , talks about it a bit more in detail. Seems like it could be either really good or really terrible.
Speaking of really terribl(y ridiculous):
SR4: Just unlocked Kenzie and The Vice President. WHAT DO YOU MEAN I CAN'T ROMANCE THE VICE PRESIDENT KEITH DAVID THIS IS BULLSHIT!
Game is cool. Not deep at all but it's like playing a more juvenile Dr. McNinja comic in a way, and the more juvenile aspects are tucked away in customization options you can outright turn off for the most part. Also, holy customization Batman. There is a lot of opportunity for Fashion Saints here.
The game isn't difficult, especially since the DLC packs the game came with at sale have a ton of weapons that one-shot everything, but that is absolutely not why I'm playing the game. The game knows it, too, because from the outset there's an option to turn on all of your abilities from the start of the game in the cheat menu. At least they knew what they were going for.
Another positive, it looks blissfully short. 5 hours in and I'm at 18% completion. I imagine everything would wear thin if it were the length of a GTA game so hey, awesome.
There's a lot of baffling stuff you can do that I imagine are holdovers from when the game wasn't "Let's be Super Sociopaths." Like, why would I ever spend cache on the vehicle upgrades? Why would I ever use an airplane? Etc... the only thing that makes sense is that you could do that in SR3 and earlier, and at the time SR4 came out it was supposed to be a surprise that you can just jump and glide and sprint everywhere.
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You can TOTALLY romance the VP. Also some of the weird holdover stuff is there because SR4 was originally supposed to be DLC for SR3.
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He just tells me, "I know YOU want to, but I don't."
FUCK YOU KEITH DAVID, FUCK ME ALREADY. Is it because I'm white?
EDIT: Fuck people with two first names. Allen and David are the same name right.
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SR4 can kinda take a while if you're obsessive about picking up clusters and other dumb collectible shit (and not doing that is basically foreign to my gaming habits). I preferred SR3 just because a gradually escalating lunacy gradient* is easier on my sensibilities than is EVERYTHING IS TOTALLY INSANE FROM WORD GO, but I will definitely give SR 4 this: the game knows crazy. (I also got sick of the mood lightning in cyber-Steelport pretty quickly.) EDIT: of course there's tons of Fashion Saints options either way so clearly I was still satisfied at the end of the day.
(*SR3 almost immediately has you shooting dudes while plummeting from a mile in the sky dodging falling cars after jumping out of a burning airplane, but the fact that this seems tame in comparison only says anything about SR4.)
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Character loyalty quests make up many of the best parts of the game. Play them as soon as they come up.
Also did you decide to end world hunger or did you sign the Fuck Cancer Bill of 2013?
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Cancer can go suck a dick. Fuck cancer.
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SR4 has a stronger soundtrack than 3 does at least.
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Final Fantasy 7 - Beat disc 1. Didn't get Mighty Guard or White Wind, nor doing anything overtly cheap to bosses, but aside from that am cheerfully crushing the game. Trying to use "optimum" praties although since it's FF7 this doesn't matter too much. At first I used a party of Red XIII (best non-Cloud stats) and Tifa (best limits), but switched to using Aeris (magic stat advantage wasn't initially a thing, but it became one around Corel), kept Red XIII for a while due to being forced then getting the Seraph Comb, then back to Tifa when Powersoul showed up (Powersoul is really damn good). After Aeris left I've since used Cait Sith since he's the next best mage and has a cool 8-slot weapon but used Red XIII instead during Wutai for fairly obvious reasons. Will probably switch to Cid when I get the Javelin since that feels more notable than midgame magic stat differences.
Besides that, it's interesting to play this game which was obviously a big deal back in my early RPG playing days, which I haven't played in over 15 years (i.e. since I started having a more discerning eye for lots of things to do with balance). The gameplay largely melts under any remotely competent approach, although I can see how at least a few of the bosses gave me some difficulty when I was much worse at RPGs than I am now. Monster arena has been the main thing which has caused me to actually think about the battle system and is actually a lot of fun even if botching the slots in a bad way makes me twitch sometimes. The story is overall pretty good though it occasionally has some poorly-thought-out sequences, and the translation is absolutely wretched. This isn't news, but the game could really use a remake.
Kid Icarus Uprising - Replaying this randomly. I am attempting each map on 8.0 intensity and trying to get through chapters with less than two deaths. Generally failing at this goal. Also playing around with different weapon types because why not. The writing remains a joy but I'm pretty sure everyone who has played the game knows that.
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SR4 - Hit what I guess is the midpoint mandatory "you must do this mission now" quest, where you have to deal with being constantly attacked by gangs from the previous games until you throw some clones through a hoop. Love that the protagonist just goes "Oh look it's the default model from the first game" and doesn't even try to pretend it gives a shit about making sense. Did all the loyalty missions I've had access to. Matt's was hilarious, Ben King's and Shaundi's were great even without knowing the context the villains came from (I guess SR2 both times?), and Pierce's was somewhere in between. The duet singing was great. Faux-operatic Biz Markie. What a cunt. But the plot itself was kinda anticlimactic since I don't know nor care who the gang leader who showed up at the end was. Ah well. In any case, the games is doing a pretty good job on selling me on SR2 and 3.
I notice neither Keith David nor Kenzie have Loyalty missions yet (Is that why I can't have sex with Goliath from Gargoyles? This is kind of important. For fulfilling some fantasies... for a friend. Yeah). Do these pop up after I've done everyone else's? Or after I do all of their mundane quests?
Most of my time is spent recustomizing my character. Fashion Saints go. Pretty wide variety of options there, even before the DLC added a whole bunch of shit I don't care about (space pimp aside). Got a Deus Ex thing going on at the moment which is working well. Just need a longer skirt that isn't hideous. Somehow, I don't think the game will be forthcoming with that one though.
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Perfect World: First meeting between the two top factions this season of territory war was yesterday. Resulted in two 3-hour stalemates. Ow my aching tuchas.
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Infamous 2: Nearly done. Got all the powers (Lightning Tether is awesome, going full Spider-Man is exactly what this game needed), collected all the blast shards. A few dead drops and one random sidequest (convoy, presumably, since there are no more shards to collect in hidden packages) stand between me and 100% completion, then I can go sink The Beast presumably.
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There definitely is a Keith David loyalty mission and it is definitely a thing of greatness (although yeah Matt's is probably the funniest).
Eternal Poison: this is Dhyer's fault. I started as the pure and innocent idol singer priestess (this is what the artbook explicitly says was Ashley's design concept). Immediately a bishy nobleman gives her a book that eats demons and makes her hear crazy voices while it's in her possession and she asks no questions about this. He dresses like the devil as imagined by every Japanese videogame artist ever and enthuses about how nice it is to listen to the dying screams of the demons we bring back to be ground up into paste for science. Seems pretty legit you guys?
This game does some odd things. Whenever anybody hits anybody in combat, you switch out of map mode for a Shining-Force style cutaway animation of the attack. It looks like you actually have the option of turning this feature off, which I might well do since the load times for these (regular attack, remember) sequences are oddly cumbersome. Also for the first time you encounter any particular monster type on each map, an opera singer introduces it by singing its name. I have no particular judgement to express on this part.
The artbook says Thage is fourteen and I'm just going to ignore I ever read that.
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Mass Effect - Finished this. Started to romance Kaidan, went to Virmire early instead of Feros, so he died before doing the nasty, but not not before he cock blocked me from blue space lesbian sex (little did he know that I had already has some of that on the Citadel. Tali and Garrus would never tell, they are bros). Saved the council with Udina as counsellor. Paragon path in first game, going Renegade for the second. Played through as Infiltrator. Which is to say, played through as shitty Engineer with the wrong weapon unlock in use (it was a fresh install, so no weapon unlocks carried over). Not the worst class, but pretty far from being as interesting as it is in 2/3. Sniper Rifles were pretty honestly terrible and might be the worst weapons in the game. Shotguns aren't super good either though, but handle multiple enemies up close way better than the rifle does.
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Crisis Core Expert Mode: Hollander is a dick. Abuses his invincibility and healing move a lot in Expert Mode, especially with support. Beating out his healing isn't hard in my set up (Zack needs 3 crits, which are easy to get on Hollander, to break even, and you get plenty of time between), but man does he just refuse to die.
Also I swear I had like 10 modulating phases and only like 2 of them actually succeeded. I don't think I've ever had this bad luck.
Paper Mario: Chapter 1 completed! Not much to say about the game.
Punch out Wii: Bought this because $10 on Eshop, and I've always been curious about it, so if I don't buy it now, I'll have to spend twice as much. Anyway, beat Minor Circuit. It's very much a modern update of the original game, using all the same fundamentals, just with a huge graphical update and refined mechanics.
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Mass Effect 2 - Finished it, no deaths, murdered the final boss with a Sniper Rifle and setting him on fire. I finished the game, including Shadow Broker and Kasumi DLC, in 33 hours. Good times, still want to sort out exactly how I feel about it, but I had fun.
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I just started. Did first mission as Sentinel. Eerrrrrrrrrgh. I am going to restart as Vanguard.
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Yep.
Citizen of Earth: Isn't hot.
I mean there is kind of that Earthbound vibe but in a lazy Saturday Coming way which is 100% worse than the two Earthboundy games I just played.
Gameplaywise it has a cool and innovative RPG system circa 2006. I am not terribly impressed but it could be worse.
There is a very adjustable difficulty and I set it up immediately to max available difficulty right now. Since you get more rewards the higher the difficulty I also get Crazy Levels. Difficulty is immense and I am spending all my money on donuts.
All in all it would have been a cool game a few years ago. Now it is like playing Donkey Kong Country or Mortal Kombat for the first time in 2015.
It also has the worst, most bland soundtrack.
I probably should solo P4 at one point but the dating sim/story parts just really bore me right now and they're way less skippable than P3P.
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Speaking of P4--
Eternal Poison: Our protagonist encountered a disagreeable other "persona" which taunted her by suggesting she isn't precisely the person she thinks she is, and our heroine (who should probably stop taking fashion tips from the Alice Elliot school of irresponsible hemlines) responded to this affront by loudly proclaiming, "You're not me!" Somehow this confrontation did not terminate in a psychedelic boss fight.
Ashley seems pretty much unkillable so far. It's a little ridiculous. I feel like the rest of the team could die and she'd probably soldier on just fine (unless she had to knock down a barrier or something and lacked the proper elements). Also dammit Reyna your hair is way too fabulous for you to be a dude in disguise. That's not fair.
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All in all it would have been a cool game a few years ago. Now it is like playing Donkey Kong Country or Mortal Kombat for the first time in 2015.
It also has the worst, most bland soundtrack.
If it has a bland soundtrack then it's definitely not like playing DKC in any year, even in Space Years.
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I probably should solo P4 at one point but the dating sim/story parts just really bore me right now and they're way less skippable than P3P.
Much more doable in Golden, if you have that
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Since people were talking about Saint's Row 4, and I own Saint's Row 3, decided to play it.
It is dumb, obnoxious, crude, and stupid.
I am having too much fun. Will prolly pick up 4 when I have the assets.
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Also dammit Reyna your hair is way too fabulous for you to be a dude in disguise. That's not fair.
That plot twist's probably one of the most random things in the entirety of Ashley's story, since it hardly gets any sort of spotlight past the initial shock - the only thing I can even fathom justifying it would be a relentless pursuit in the name of failing the Bechdel test. Granted, I find Reyna a pretty decent character anyway (I like the tension between him and Glynne, even though Glynne's insistent genital sand-dipping annoys the hell out of me), but that plot point's so unexplored it's frankly baffling.
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Mario 3D World: World 3 cleared out. Generally fun (the boo house is a particular highlight, but I tend to like those in general) but Chain-Link Charge is the worst level in the game thus far by leaps and bounds. Also, the map music sounded like it came straight from FF7 and that kept confusing me.
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Yeah that level is pretty dumb. Probably the worst in the game?
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Also dammit Reyna your hair is way too fabulous for you to be a dude in disguise. That's not fair.
That plot twist's probably one of the most random things in the entirety of Ashley's story, since it hardly gets any sort of spotlight past the initial shock - the only thing I can even fathom justifying it would be a relentless pursuit in the name of failing the Bechdel test. Granted, I find Reyna a pretty decent character anyway (I like the tension between him and Glynne, even though Glynne's insistent genital sand-dipping annoys the hell out of me), but that plot point's so unexplored it's frankly baffling.
It's weird, right? Not because there's a crossdresser in the party, but because why is he even doing it? He said he found a traveler dead on the road and decided to impersonate her, buuuut he burned the letter, didn't tell anyone about it, and Ashley/Glynne didn't even know what kind of person they were supposed to meet up with anyway so whuh? Convincingly changing your voice for that long couldn't have been easy! And Glynne's not the sharpest tool in the shed.
Monster: You mustn't have the librum!
Glynne: Ashley, I think they want the librum!
Thanks bro they didn't just tell us that. Dude needs Lezard glasses so he can push them up on his nose every time he overprotectively butts into Ashley's business. You can tell the dog's evil because he has shifty eyes.
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Also dammit Reyna your hair is way too fabulous for you to be a dude in disguise. That's not fair.
That plot twist's probably one of the most random things in the entirety of Ashley's story, since it hardly gets any sort of spotlight past the initial shock - the only thing I can even fathom justifying it would be a relentless pursuit in the name of failing the Bechdel test. Granted, I find Reyna a pretty decent character anyway (I like the tension between him and Glynne, even though Glynne's insistent genital sand-dipping annoys the hell out of me), but that plot point's so unexplored it's frankly baffling.
It's weird, right? Not because there's a crossdresser in the party, but because why is he even doing it? He said he found a traveler dead on the road and decided to impersonate her, buuuut he burned the letter, didn't tell anyone about it, and Ashley/Glynne didn't even know what kind of person they were supposed to meet up with anyway so whuh? Convincingly changing your voice for that long couldn't have been easy! And Glynne's not the sharpest tool in the shed.
Monster: You mustn't have the librum!
Glynne: Ashley, I think they want the librum!
Thanks bro they didn't just tell us that. Dude needs Lezard glasses so he can push them up on his nose every time he overprotectively butts into Ashley's business. You can tell the dog's evil because he has shifty eyes.
#NotYourShield
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I've somehow maintained enough distance from that entire clusterfuck to not actually know precisely what that hashtag means and I am comfortable with my ignorance.
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Commonly it is used by sock puppet accounts who's profile declares some kind of oppressed group X and declaring that the target does not represent all of X so they cannot use them to defend themselves.
The fact that it is used by sockpuppets has unfortunately invalidated any actual people using the tag (for all the fallacy of it in the first place where the declaration is literally a shield for another group).
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GREFTER ARE YOU BUYING GRIM FANDANGO REMASTERED
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Is it coming out on PC or is it PS4 exclusive? I love the game, but $600 for it is PRETTY steep.
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PS4 and Vita. Pretty sure there's a PC version too.
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Is it coming out on PC or is it PS4 exclusive? I love the game, but $600 for it is PRETTY steep.
It's on the front page of Steam right now. Look under "top sellers."
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Then of course I am.
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Mass Effect 2 - Restarted as Vanguard. I am not super happy with the play style yet, think I need more points in Charge. I am falling back on using Pistol and SMG because that is how I am used to playing from most of my runs of this and ME3 multiplayer. I will play with some other shotguns other than the base one and the Eviscerator though, maybe the Geth Shotgun will be nice, I remember liking that in ME3 multi.
Did Kasumi recruitment and Loyalty missions straight out of the gate. Had honestly forgot the boss fight, but didn't find it a real problem. M5 Heavy Pistol from whatever DLC is pretty amazing at the start. Fire ammo power up on top just makes dudes be handled easy even if I am not popping domes all day every day (which is to say, I am popping domes most days you guys because I am 2 pro 4 u).
Gods I fucking love the Locust SMG you get from the Kasumi loyalty mission. So great. Just an amazing gun. So accurate and does so much damage per clip. Adding weapon buffs just makes it shred things to pieces. Normally will mow through Shields and Barriers like nothing. Something to handle Armor and it is done. Game over. Normal mode beaten already. Fantastic weapon, the only reason I swap to anything else is to maximise efficiency of Thermal Clips and because the boom of heavy pistols is satisfying as fuck.
Oooh yeah also meant to comment on the formal wear you get from her mission. I think the collar is too high and the necklace is pretty gaudy, but I was still thinking of rocking it all the time inside the ship. Then I sat down for a heart to heart with Miranda (http://cloud-4.steamusercontent.com/ugc/41991489528189864/4FA5EAF0FC5A07E3B7DA5C1B398AC3B2D46C412C) about her father (http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=382259191). So yeah I am not going to wear the formal dress all the time.
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Infamous 2: Beaten, finished all sidequests, unlocked all powers, got almost all dead drops but am not going to scour the map for the last five. The good-path final boss fight was pretty terrible, unfortunately; not only is the most efficient way of killing The Beast to just aim the reticule at him and mash triangle until he goes down, it's basically the only way to fight him, because if you take more than 40 seconds to blow him up he'll do an unavoidable, unescapable grab on you and then crush you to death. Nice. And the sub-boss who accompanies him dies just as easily, so that doesn't help. Credit to the devs for switching up the last karmic choice, but making it impossible to take the good/bad route unless you already have good/bad karma (respectively) is not friendly. I'm not going to go out and kill enough citizens to drop me by three morality tiers just to see the other ending.
Still, overall it's a very fun game, probably a point above its predecessor on a ten-point scale. I'll do the Festival of Blood DLC before long.
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EP: So my buds were all "Hey, maybe if you do X thing on this map, ??? will happen." So I did X thing and apparently(?) as a result it chained into another map with a douchy boss. He looked pretty scary, so I took my time clearing out all his friends, healing up and buffing before approaching him. Then he taunted me and flew away. What a jerk! I'm assuming I ran out an invisible timer since the game had outright told me how to deal with his barrier and everything. Is bonus battle pretty much what always happens when you hit a secondary objective?
I now have a chibi-Ashley. She's not as good as Ashley, but that's like...not being as fast as Citan, boo-hoo? I'll never run out of healing and mace beats, at least.
It's honestly pretty weird these days going back to a game where it takes so long to chunk through one map and as a result you might go an hour between saves. Also the inability to train up anyone outside of mandatory battles (because there are only mandatory battles) pretty much ensures I'll stick with one team, occasionally subbing in a new character if they look better than someone in the established group. I figure it'd be really tough to bring back someone who's been out of the party for a while because your equip options are restricted by level in this game, meaning you can't just toss your best gear onto an underlevelled character to give them a fighting chance.
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Crisis Core: Final Dungeon, it's killing me, Expert Mode is cruel!
Paper Mario: Just got to the Big Boo House or whatever it's called. Fights are starting to speed up a bit now that I have MT damage that has been upgraded and actual FP to support it with (as well as Refresh.)
Star Fox 64: Replayed this on a whim, still really fun. I did the primarily yellow route because reasons, going towards Sector Y and Area 6 the other two ways. Outside of a stint where Peppy decided to die on Solaris, I think I did pretty well for not having played in a while.
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Infamous 2: Beaten, finished all sidequests, unlocked all powers, got almost all dead drops but am not going to scour the map for the last five. The good-path final boss fight was pretty terrible, unfortunately; not only is the most efficient way of killing The Beast to just aim the reticule at him and mash triangle until he goes down, it's basically the only way to fight him, because if you take more than 40 seconds to blow him up he'll do an unavoidable, unescapable grab on you and then crush you to death. Nice. And the sub-boss who accompanies him dies just as easily, so that doesn't help. Credit to the devs for switching up the last karmic choice, but making it impossible to take the good/bad route unless you already have good/bad karma (respectively) is not friendly. I'm not going to go out and kill enough citizens to drop me by three morality tiers just to see the other ending.
Still, overall it's a very fun game, probably a point above its predecessor on a ten-point scale. I'll do the Festival of Blood DLC before long.
Festival of Blood is awesome, if short. Also shows you EXACTLY why teleportation wasn't in the maingame. Soooooo broken (but so convenient).
I don't remember not being able to make the final Evil choice as Good. Final choice, IIRC, is choosing between Nix and Kuo that last time. Choosing Evil when you're on Good path will set your Karma to full Evil, and you can do both endings if you reload. It's Evilpath that's a bitch and makes you replay, I believe.
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I was on the good path and the choices were "Do the Good ending" and "Abandon this mission so you can accumulate evil karma and qualify for the Evil ending." Not in those exact words, but close (and only slightly more succinct, it looks really dumb in big block letters).
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Curtain Call: Unlocked all the characters. Got my first perfect chain on an ultimate today (Celes's Theme <3). I want some of the DLC songs but I refuse to spend another dime on the game until they release Krile.
One thing I've noticed while playing is that Final Fantasy 1's music is really really good. Nostalgia glasses aside, it's just well done stuff, and a bit more puzzling in light of how bad 2 and 3's music is.
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I'll defend FF3 as having some rather good music for a NES game. As someone who doesn't really have the nostalgia effect (I played all three games within a relatively short span in my late teens), I thought FF3 had clearly the best battle themes of the original trilogy, and some other good tracks as well. That said, the choices for non-battle stuff in Theatrhythm itself is... questionable. I don't care for Boundless Ocean, or the Crystal Cave, or Doga/Unei's theme, or Elia's theme, for instance. YMMV.
FF2 has some scattered good tracks (Rebel Army is a classic, although it doesn't lend itself wonderfully to Theatrhythm) but isn't great overall, yeah. FF1 competely kills it (and FF3 for that matter) on dungeon themes in particular. Well over half of FF1's dungeon themes are enjoyable to listen to which is phenomenal for a NES RPG.
FF7 - So I did 19k damage with a single Deathblow/Added Cut from the Powersoul against Jenova-Death, that was a thing. I'm not using elemental defences much for once (Rune/Gigas/Wizard Armlets hype), and as a result Schizo was by far the hardest boss in the game so far. ... but not very hard.
Kid Icarus Uprising - Beat the game. I did in fact set one new personal best, beating Chapter 24 (the penultimate one) on 6.0 intensity, which means I have now beaten every chapter except 22 on that difficulty or above (22 is satan, brutal air battle followed by possibly the game's hardest boss). Otherwise I feel rusty. Going to play some more; haven't decided if I should shoot for beating levels on Pit Must Die mode or going after some of the trickier achievements which still elude me.
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EP: So my buds were all "Hey, maybe if you do X thing on this map, ??? will happen." So I did X thing and apparently(?) as a result it chained into another map with a douchy boss. He looked pretty scary, so I took my time clearing out all his friends, healing up and buffing before approaching him. Then he taunted me and flew away. What a jerk! I'm assuming I ran out an invisible timer since the game had outright told me how to deal with his barrier and everything. Is bonus battle pretty much what always happens when you hit a secondary objective?
I now have a chibi-Ashley. She's not as good as Ashley, but that's like...not being as fast as Citan, boo-hoo? I'll never run out of healing and mace beats, at least.
It's honestly pretty weird these days going back to a game where it takes so long to chunk through one map and as a result you might go an hour between saves. Also the inability to train up anyone outside of mandatory battles (because there are only mandatory battles) pretty much ensures I'll stick with one team, occasionally subbing in a new character if they look better than someone in the established group. I figure it'd be really tough to bring back someone who's been out of the party for a while because your equip options are restricted by level in this game, meaning you can't just toss your best gear onto an underlevelled character to give them a fighting chance.
You'd figure correctly. Planning your secondary party members beforehand's pretty much your best option, though at least later joiners scale up levels to a decent degree. Regardless, the backbone of your team will always be the main PCs in any given story, for obvious reasons. Also, bonus fights are kind of an obscure clusterfuck which changes your route through Besek and determine which ending you'll get. If you care, just grab a FAQ, but by that point, I honestly wouldn't.
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I'll defend FF3 as having some rather good music for a NES game. As someone who doesn't really have the nostalgia effect (I played all three games within a relatively short span in my late teens), I thought FF3 had clearly the best battle themes of the original trilogy, and some other good tracks as well. That said, the choices for non-battle stuff in Theatrhythm itself is... questionable. I don't care for Boundless Ocean, or the Crystal Cave, or Doga/Unei's theme, or Elia's theme, for instance. YMMV.
To be honest, it's a case where FF3 really should have used some of the DS variants of songs. FF2 had some of it's remake-originals inserted (Boss Battle A for example) and a number of FF3 songs just don't work without the DS reworking. Boundless Ocean is the best example I can think of; the NES version is just kind of "bland, slow overworld" while the DS version actually gives the "ruined world" vibe that it's trying for and sounds much better as a result.
Really, the older games should have had a mix of the original variants and remake variants; seems kind of silly to just force yourself to ORIGINAL ONLY!!! for the NES games when they have had plenty of updated versions in remakes and in the case of FF2 and FF3, half of the world has only ever heard those songs, pre-Theatrhythm, in their redone form.
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EP: "You saved Fungus." What.
Captured the 2nd stratum boss! I'm not very consistent about doing that sort of thing, but Ashley combos, they be a handful. Maybe I should actually try summoning someone for once? (I usually just eat captured majin for skills.)
Persona finally got tired of being told it wasn't me and gave us a proper boss fight. Geez, took you long enough, stick to the script please. So now we're trying to break the curse on our pure and innocent protagonist so she won't transform into a demon god or something, and to accomplish this we are told to venture into the darkest depths of the abyss looking for a dude named DOOM SHADE who eats souls. Seems pretty legit you guys?
Why am I just noticing Glynne has identical character design to Rufus in VP2? Glynne is a Rufus that simmers forever with the resentment of the permanently friendzoned. Meanwhile everyone in town has openly told me they know Reyna's a dude but he still does his hair like a girl anyway. Well hey, I guess if you can get away with it.
EDIT: I forgot to mention we casually ran into the princess lost in demon country that people are supposedly trying to rescue and the party was just way too into Ashley's problems to really even notice. Whatevs, she's an unarmed, pampered teenager, clearly she can take care of herself.
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SR4 - Got my last super powers. Death from Above eliminated my only issue with the game, how hard ot was to aim your landings.
At 76% completion. Gonna 100% it before moving on since I spoiled myself on Keith David's loyalty mission so I think it would be best to do everything else first. Not gonna scour the map for the collectibles, though, that sounds too tedious, and I can do without fully levelling up buff or stomp.
Once I'm done with the game, I probably won't be playing SR3, least not right away. My sandbox urge has been quenched and also I kinda hate the driving simulation parts, though that's mostly cuz the game expects me to be somewhat adept at it when I'm forced to drive even though I have never really needed to drive outside of those sections. Would probably piss me off less in SR3, since I'd have to practice it more.
Also Jonny Gat may be the lamest NPC in the game.
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But his recruitment mission was GLORIOUS. Saints of Rage, c'mon!
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Eh, yeah it was funny but the controls were super loose and sloppy and the grainy voice acting irritated me. Maybe if it was half as long.
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EP: "You saved Fungus." What.
Captured the 2nd stratum boss! I'm not very consistent about doing that sort of thing, but Ashley combos, they be a handful. Maybe I should actually try summoning someone for once? (I usually just eat captured majin for skills.)
Eating Majin for skills and equipment is doin' it rite. The monsters are just too openly understatted compared to your party - even mercs.
Why am I just noticing Glynne has identical character design to Rufus in VP2? Glynne is a Rufus that simmers forever with the resentment of the permanently friendzoned. Meanwhile everyone in town has openly told me they know Reyna's a dude but he still does his hair like a girl anyway. Well hey, I guess if you can get away with it.
Both of those statements are correct.
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Curtain Call: started with Y'shtola/Squall/Tidus/Firion, died 20 seconds into Under the Weight Ultimate, unlocked Butz
BOW DOWN OVERDWELLER
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SMT 4 - Minotaur down. I mostly rode on stacking Tarukajas abd Rakundas while having Flynn and Makara spam Bufu. The general offensive spread meant I was on a timer there, since Minotaur can deal horrendous amounts of damage and spread it around very far. Fortunately, I managed to chew through his HP pretty fast with maxed Taru+3 Dekunda Bufus (300 damage a shot!). Back to magic being the god stat.
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Just want to chime in that I am seriously enjoying these Eternal Poison recap posts from El Cideon. Please continue~
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Minotaur p. badass. I seem to recall using Sukukaja as well and praying for dodges, as Minotaur's multi-hit BS, while insanely badass, gives more opportunities for him to miss and thus lose a whole action, which gives a lot of breathing room. Not a RELIABLE strategy and I certainly wiped to him several times, but it eventually worked (in concert with some other buffs and a team full of ice-spammers).
It's still pretty impressive how tanky the cow is. He can survive 4+ rounds of smashing him with his elemental weakness in the face while buffed while throwing horrendous damage back that can't be reliably stopped. Owowowow. (Even more badass in the DL, I'd imagine - 2 PCHP+ damage a round to a single-target when his rando-target ability focuses? Absurd durability against non-Ice? Yikes.)
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I'm pretty sure he's a bit below 2x PC HP to me and, due to how dodging punishes one's actions in the game, he's quite vulnerable to high evade (i.e. toss him at Arnaud and watch the fireworks fly). But that's still positively absurd offense - something like Chelle-level at first and only grows -dumber- as his HP goes down. I tried Sukukaja spam in my first run and I decided it wasn't worth it given how Suku x4 didn't score a -single- dodge. Taru stacking proved more efficient, since it stacks up obscenely with weakness spam. I lucked out even so, since a smirking Flynn managed a dodge late in the fight which proved enough to end it all.
(Idly, I agree almost completely with you on Issachar's DL worth. Horrible durability + slow + wastes his first turn under 75% health to me => lawlz.)
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Also Jonny Gat may be the lamest NPC in the game.
If it's any consolation, his screentime in SR3 is minimal (for reasons SR4 should've made obvious).
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EP: Big Bad Monster sez, "So Izel is not the only one wearing a mask." Reyna sez, "This disguise is the only clothing I brought with me. I am not ashamed of it!"
:)
You know, I don't think anybody ever even explained what the heck Reyna was doing there in the first place. Meanwhile Glynne is still master of the obvious. "It must've been hard killing your dad huh? Ashley let me shaaaaare your paiiiiiin." (Basically verbatim, dude's not a creeper at all.) *earlier, during battle* Glynne: "Ashley, don't push yourself too hard." Ashley: "He's my father, he's the final boss, he's my father and the final boss!" Glynne, not arsed with inflection: "Oh. Okay."
:(
3rd stratum boss was hilariously not immune to fracture. [Fracture negates a character's strength/vitality bonuses to attack and defense. A creature so afflicted is lucky if it manages to deal single-digit damage in this state.] Needless to say I took my time to capture it properly. Back in town I turned it into...a special attack for a weapon type no one in my party uses. Bah! (Same thing happened with the 2nd stratum boss.) Final boss wasn't anything special at all, just circle around the room picking apart his friends one by one and then dogpile. Ares MVP, woman is a beast (though it says something about the sheer ridiculousness of Ashley that even with the boss halving her damage type she still dealt more than most of the party). The game definitely has maps that can threaten you by making it difficult to gank enemies individually, but when you can do that risk-free there's basically nothing to it. Odd game, AoE magic is wholly unremarkable because if you're ever even in a situation where you can hit multiple enemies at once, you've probably done something wrong.
So anyway big bad is dead and then people say some stuff and the game's basically like, "We could put an ending here if we felt like it, but we don't right now." Okay. I guess it's up to the other characters' chapters to play fill in the blanks. This is a damn long game if they're all approximately the same duration, though. Loading clear file = NG+? Whatevs.
In sum, today I learned that spinning around in place before you fire an arrow makes it hit harder.
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Paper Mario: Tubba Blubba beaten! Also, Bow is totally Snow if he were a Boo...also yay to her having a 5 damage physical when everyone else does 4!
Codename STEAM: Got the Demo. It's basically Valkyria Chronicles, only set in Victorian England, with Steam Punk Sci-fi technology, with Abraham Lincoln piloting his own Presidential Airship named Lady Liberty leading the team. Yes, this is a game that takes itself completely seriously with totally photo-realistic grimdark graphics and...
(http://cdn1-www.craveonline.com/assets/uploads/2014/06/CodeNameSteam.jpg)
...I'm not fooling anyone, am I?
It's fun but one flaw I'm already noticing is enemy turns seem to take too long.
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So anyway big bad is dead and then people say some stuff and the game's basically like, "We could put an ending here if we felt like it, but we don't right now." Okay. I guess it's up to the other characters' chapters to play fill in the blanks. This is a damn long game if they're all approximately the same duration, though. Loading clear file = NG+? Whatevs.
Yes, yes it is. It rides itself mostly on having pretty much entirely distinct maps for each PC and very variable map dynamics for each path. If it's any consolation, Ashley's path likely the least interesting of the three gameplay-wise (Olifen path hands you more PCs than any other and they're all quite good, Thage has the objectively best PC draw, but Thage's magic immunity requires extra attention. And -all- of them back themselves off different dynamics).
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I ordered a DDR mat and a game to try to get a bit of exercise, and it's pretty fun so far. I'm currently doing songs in the second difficulty and it's going pretty well. I haven't really been gaming in the past few days otherwise, though.
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:D :D :D
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Hexcells - played through
Okayish, but I guess I've been somewhat spoiled by Picross and I can't really get into tapping out a board that isn't going to form a picture. Consequently have no plans on getting the other games in the series. Not really much to say!
Tengami - played through (on Wii U)
I was expecting it to be short, but not as short as it turned out being. Pretty much all the game has going for it is some amount of style - there is no apparent reason for you to be doing what you're doing (unless you count 'making this tree bloom via abstract means'), the puzzles devolve into looking for symbols hidden on the sides of things as you turn pages rather than you actually doing anything via manipulation, the character moves pretty slowly which doesn't seem too bad to begin with but becomes pretty annoying when areas become large or you need to backtrack. Sometimes the game got its pathing data confused and the character would walk in bizarre directions to go where you asked, including one time when I selected inside an area they wouldn't normally be able to move into but did anyway, then couldn't leave. I was afraid that it would autosave in that location, but fortunately restarting the game restarted the current area.
All up: Not a fan.
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze - played through, didn't collect all relics
Pretty great except when it's being infuriating. Man, I remember when Rambi showing up meant that you were shifting into easy gear for a while in the DKL games, but in DKCTF Rambi sections are universally terrible. Way to make me dread them showing up, game. Barrel Rocket and Minecart segments are still around and still terrible also, and no, game, that 'Minecart' segment late in that one level does not make up for it. Next time you want to try something like that maybe add in more destructables and remove the pits.
Level 5-K is too stressful to play, but I got all KONG & puzzle pieces in all other levels I had access to. I doubt that there's anything superfantastic that I'm missing out on, going by what getting all the relic equivalents in DKCR got you.
Game, why must you crack open each figurine capsule ONE AT A TIME given that you need to buy tens of them at a time in the later areas in order to have any hope of getting anything new
Ultimately the game was awesome except for the times you were bearing through things waiting for it to be awesome again.
Ziggurat - Played through several times
Beat the game on Easy with Argo, Kraz, Menzi, Algorab, Rigel, Saiph, Corvus, and Jules so far. Failed several times with Simon and once with Osuna, haven't tried the other two yet.
Initially tried playing on Medium but wasn't even able to beat the first floor. I don't know if I'll bother retrying on Medium after I finish beating Easy with everyone, although I guess it would be something to do while unlocking the rest of the unlockables (assuming that doesn't happen while futilely trying to win with Simon).
Good fun, although if you get unlucky enough with weapons that could change. There's that terrible whirlwind spell for magic, a couple of atrocious fire-causing weapons for alchemy... don't recall seeing any useless staffs yet, although there's probably at least one.
Citizens Of Earth - started (on 3DS)
So. The graphics in this game all seem like they were just shrunk in an image editing program rather than being designed specifically for the 3DS. They're all blurry and kinda bad, it's not very inspiring.
The game is not being very compelling so far. Got it a week ago and I'm fairly sure I'm still in the prologue chapter. Not entirely sure what the problem is given that I typically devour handheld games at the expense of everything else when I have one on the go... maybe things will change when I get further along. It looks like everyone's going to have distinct movesets and so forth that I should be all over.
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I ordered a DDR mat and a game to try to get a bit of exercise, and it's pretty fun so far. I'm currently doing songs in the second difficulty and it's going pretty well. I haven't really been gaming in the past few days otherwise, though.
I should do more of this.
Speaking of, I play some games.
WoW - Just recently beat 6/7 of Highmaul on Normal with a group I have a good reputation with. Granted, I don't feel like I'm doing that well, since I'm only sixth out of seven on DPS rankings. Need to get myself better gear.
FF14 - Still working on crafting levels here and there, but more gathering anymore. Got my Scholar up to L48.
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Dark Souls 2 - Went and did Shaded Woods, missed everything in Doors of Pharos and they did Brighstone Cove Tseldora. Coop continues to be hellas fun. Was sad when I realised I had misremembered previous discussions and found Sunlight Altar is in Harvest Valley, not Shaded Woods though.
Went to Heide's Tower of Flame. Dudes die easy but I am shit at games and got knocked off edges many times. Plan was to unlock path to Harvest Valley though.
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3D World: Up to world Bowser, first seven are completely cleared out. Will probably have to use a continue or two somewhere in this one; Red Hot Rush cut my supply of lives from 50+ to 23, and it's been slow attrition from there. I ended up cutting it very close on the World Castle boss, too - he absolutely refused to throw bombs at me for a stretch, meaning when I finally beat him I had 12 seconds left on the clock. Thank goodness (and Miyamoto) for the +100 clock they put in the post-boss flag area, or I'd have timed out on my victory lap, and that would be horribly embarrassing.
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Paper Mario: I just beat an army of Shy Guys. I feel strangely empty now since I went through the Shy Guy section and did NOT a get a Shy Guy PC but something else entirely.
At least there were Shy Guys on Stilts!
Codename STEAM: Completed the demo. The last stage makes me even more interested in the game simply because it gives access to 2ndary weapons, and the Cowardly Lion's unique weapon shows promise in the variety this game may have.
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Dark Souls 2 - got through to Iron Keep. Was a little sad the Jester Thomas was not as metal as I had hoped, then I got to Iron Keep and it was more metal than I had hoped.
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What, did he somehow not solo the boss?
There may or may not be an occurrence later where Jester Thomas is WAY more metal than you'd like him to be. Fuuuuuck that invasion.
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Picking away at luck mode in FO:NV, this happened: http://cloud-4.steamusercontent.com/ugc/529506324658562907/1C3A45BA1E47DD7C40CA9ACBEC4B18E8EC909803/
I don't know what this Great Khan thought he was doing, but apparently it proved fatal. He just died right in front of me humping the scenery. Take note folks, poledancing not a gentleman's sport.
I've just noticed I spent half the game running around with ten thousand uncashed Tops chips in my inventory. This makes no difference whatsoever for anything. Presently trying to steal Benny's gun to assassinate him with it, but the first time he caught me and on quickload Maria stops appearing in his inventory. Have to reboot the game for it to properly reappear. Bah! I'll come back when I've maxed stealth.
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Touhou Labyrinths: Tenshi boss fights are stupid. I went into the last one 25 levels above the game's recommended and still only two people in the party could realistically damage her. I had to stick Remilia at the back of the party so she wouldn't get targeted because no one else could reliably do anything and the boss could still kill her in one hit. (Even still it was like half a dozen reloads before the boss decided to stop being a prick by going out of her way to one-shot the character I stuck in back specifically to avoid her being targeted.)
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Max stealth will make no difference whatsoever, just Stealth Boy it up. Or knock it outta his hands, whichever.
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Stealth Boy was definitely in effect, so I dunno.
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Even with 100 Sneak grabbing anything worthwhile is a crapshoot. I think I actually broke a hundred ties individually on grabbing both Maria and the Ranger Sequoia.
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Last time I played o got that achievement. Tried pick pocketing a bunch and gave up. Shooting it out of his hands and going for a flurry to pick it up was way easier.
Thomas didn't solo the boss because is as dumb and was overly aggressive and died. Just killed her solo after that.
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Dreeps: Alarm playing game
Dudes I totally set up my alarm. I am level 4.
It is unironical Progress Quest with a built in alarm and I still don't know why I bought this.
80 days: This is a pretty cool story / resource management game about going around the world in 80 days. Pretty excellent writing.
I'm going pretty fast but I'll only have 500 pounds left after using the Orient Express. I don't know how I'll cope.
I wonder if you can go around the world by going North-South instead of East-West. If not, all these African cities are just there because having them is cool, I guess.
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SMT4 - After how damned scary Minotaur was, Medusa was hilariously wimpy in comparison. Bind's just not as scary as getting your face caved in every round, apparently. I actually went quite a bit forward, managing to finish the Counter-Demon base quest and all. Right now, I'm making pretty good use of Lullaby and Spirit Drain, the latter being just an amazing resource extension at this point in the game. Getting the L2s also helps quite a bit (Mabufula +1 on a 60 Mag Flynn in particular busts faces pretty hard).
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3D World: Beat the main game, unlocked Rosalina in the aftergame. She's just the slightest bit ridiculous; a Mario character having an attack/doublejump in unpowered form is kind of bonkers. World Bowser went pretty quick aside from the stupid lava river level, which I hate and should die. Bowser himself was quite neat and really showed off the game's visuals.
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Last time I played o got that achievement. Tried pick pocketing a bunch and gave up. Shooting it out of his hands and going for a flurry to pick it up was way easier.
Thomas didn't solo the boss because is as dumb and was overly aggressive and died. Just killed her solo after that.
I've never seen Thomas die even after eating thousands of poison damage. I dunno, man.
FONV: Tried again with Benny and got it after a couple tries. Shoot him in the head with his own gun while invisible and his bodyguards all run away because their boss got assassinated by spooky ghosts. Go upstairs to loot stuff and meet Yes Man, come back downstairs and all the bodyguards are conscientiously guarding the naked corpse of their boss. Then leave and SECRET AGENT FOX gives me his pitch within hearing of an NCR trooper. I love this game.
I hadn't actually talked to Yes Man since the first time I played the game. Yes Man is fantastic.
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Phone typing screwed things up. I was overly aggressive and died, not Thomas.
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There a PS2 emulator that doesn't run like shit? I pulled a bunch of games cleaning out my storage unit and want to replay some of them.
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Dreeps the Alarm Playing Game:
I tried to use it as an alarm
Heard the alarm for 3 seconds and these were like the worst 3 seconds of my life
Fucking Dreeps
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PCSX2 is pretty good but requires a lot of messing around with plugins. It does have controller support and can run games in 60 fps (and beyond with frameskipping) depending on your computer's specs. Some specific games need different plugin setups, which can be a bit of a pain but the emulator can also run things more smoothly and in better resolution than the actual PS2. Game compatibility is also good although again, it may take some messing around with plugins.
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I should mention the real game I'm playing:
Citizens of Earth Hard Mode:
Is still really bland. Avoid.
I think I talked about it but I'll detail "Hard mode".
The only way to change the game's difficulty is to use the school mascot's talent. You can adjust difficulty on a pretty large scale, and raising the difficulty gives several exp/gold rewards while lowering the difficulty gives maluses.
I think it's pretty clear that you are not supposed to treat this as a conventional difficulty system, and that you're actually supposed to game this system: Raise the difficulty while grinding on weak monsters to get more rewards, maybe lower the difficulty on tough bosses.
The game's not designed to just set the difficulty to max and play through all of it that way AT ALL, because monster stats get jacked up to insane amounts. It's also the reason why I'm enjoying it, desperately trying anything to get through this insanely difficult bland C- Saturday Morning Cartoon.
I'm going mostly with a Teacher / Baker / Conspiracy Theory guy team, it is pretty balanced but I switch people around a lot whenever I want to hit a weakness / not get hit by a weakness.
- Brother: Tank type, can protect himself and provoke enemies. He also has cheap MT damage. The overall lack of damage is a problem, though.
- Mother: Early healer, outclassed by Baker I feel, but I didn't give her much of a chance.
- Teacher: Somehow this guy has the best regular physical attack. He also gets a lot of status and utility, plus some huge MT fire attack. My MVP. Yu have to pass a Tales like quiz about the game to recruit him and I totally cheated.
- Baker: Levelling him up is essential because you get more donuts. In battle he's a pretty tanky healer so I'm using him most of the time
- Conspiracy Theory guy: The "elemental mage" with the best overall damage. His personal item is useless.
- Mascot: I don't understand what's going on with this guy, but I treat him as the "Auto battle" guy. He has the best healing if you only use regular physical attacks on your two other characters.
- Coffee girl: Looks like shit
Cash flow is a huge thing, so it's good that I'm getting way too much from random enemies. I can either buy healing food or use the teacher to get Krazy XP on my guys, and I prefer to do the latter.
Difficulty is 3X right now, it could be 4X (lol) but I need to level up the mascot a lot first.
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Final Fantasy 7 - The chocobo breeding process is really stupidly dumb/long, even when you know what to do. It's amazing the type of things I put up with as a teenager which just kinda grate now. I've probably invested close to four hours in it already (between catching 'em, stealing the breeding items, racing a bunch, and soft-resetting to get the right genders, it'll probably need another before I'm done). When I first beat Ruby Weapon I did it without Knights of the Round and spent an hour or so grinding it down with Pandora's Box, but now I'm convinced that is by far the best way to get a gold chocobo, at least without outright RNG rigging (which apparently makes it possible to get a gold chocobo in minutes; I should have just done that clearly). Chocobo racing is also a really stupid mini-game. At least FFX's, aggravating though it is, has a strong component of player skill. FF7's is just "wait two to three minutes to figure out if your stats are high enough to win". Fortunately it doesn't need that much investment if you know what you're doing, since you never actually need to race past B rank (which requires relatively little financial investment to get good enough stats to crush).
(If anyone's curious, I'm just doing all this mostly for the science of re-examining the whole process as an adult. I am intending to defeat both superbosses, so the investment isn't pointless, either.)
Super Mario 3D World - Started this, beat three of the worlds. Not much to say, the game seems generally quite terrific. First two worlds are a bit too easy but I'm used to the Mario difficulty curve, and it's already clearly started to tick upwards, so that's nice.
Kid Icarus: Uprising - Holy hell bosses on Intensity 9 are evil. Not that I've actually gotten to many. I'm trying to get through the flying sections with no deaths, then the rest of the level with at most one. I've gotten to a few bosses at 9, but have yet to beat one.
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I should mention the real game I'm playing:
Citizens of Earth Hard Mode:
Is still really bland. Avoid.
The only reason why I'd play it is for the humor, but I saw a few videos on it and it looked cringeworthy. Whoever was doing one video said that the humor in the game was... "attempted."
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Mass Effect 2 - Garrus Loyalty mission the first one of the non-DLC characters. Forgot that would kick me straight into Collector ship. Kind of intended to do Grunt's and get Fortification before then, but oh well (because Armor Piercing rounds isn't great for me, Inferno Grenade while I good power is redundant with Incendiary ammo and Flashbang Grenade is amazing at crowd control is also kind of overkill for Normal).
The Garrus Bone Zone is super awkward. Shep just all "Hey we should bang." and Garrus being all "k we are friends so i guess that makes sense if you can work out how".
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The only reason why I'd play it is for the humor, but I saw a few videos on it and it looked cringeworthy. Whoever was doing one video said that the humor in the game was... "attempted."
Was probably Jim Sterling, since he opened his video with that. I remember there were a number of moments where the game seems like it's trying for humor, and clearly has a set up but no real punch line. Others are just bad attempts at humor.
Probably the most cringeworthy one in that video was this:
"I'm about to get my Penultimate Merit Badge!"
"Penultimate? What's that? Is it mightier than Swordultimate?"
I had a slight interest in the game, then I watched that video and saw just how dull combat looks, and how unfunny it was and went "yeah, pass." It also seems to think that humor through enemies works based on SUPER OVER THE TOP WEIRD CONCEPTS, not recognizing that Weird and Funny are not one and the same at all.
Crisis Core Hard Mode: Finished the main game, had to twink Zack up so Darkness would do 9999 just so I can take out all of the support quickly at once AND get some hits on himself. Otherwise I'm focused too heavily on the support and make no progress.
I have mixed feelings about Hard Mode. On one hand, yeah, it's legitimately harder and Crisis Core was a relatively easy game, at least the main story, as is. On the other-hand, one thing that was annoying about was how the HP boost in Hard Mode seems too drastic. There are times I felt like I was wailing on certain enemies forever and they would never die. Certain randoms have over 50k HP which for a game like Crisis Core is a bit TOO much even for a hard mode; the offensive push alone makes enemies much harder, the durability push just makes them dull. I'm not saying they shouldn't be more durable, make no mistake, just saying the HP multiplier or whatever was too high.
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The Garrus Bone Zone is super awkward. Shep just all "Hey we should bang." and Garrus being all "k we are friends so i guess that makes sense if you can work out how".
Garrus is super awkward, but it's kind of cute at the same time.
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"I'm about to get my Penultimate Merit Badge!"
"Penultimate? What's that? Is it mightier than Swordultimate?"
Hahaha what are you talking about this is great
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Saints Row 3: Beaten. It was enjoyable. Provides enough variety and enough fun characters to never really get dull. Some missions are an utter pain in the ass though. Game's pacing is wacky as hell, but then you chainsaw a bunch of luchadores to death, so it balances.
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"I'm about to get my Penultimate Merit Badge!"
"Penultimate? What's that? Is it mightier than Swordultimate?"
Yes honestly I haven't seen this yet but it would have been the only decent joke in the game.
For now it has just thrown unoriginal wacky stuff at me, thinking that the wackiness would be enough to make up for the total lack of jokes.
Think Simpsons, except there aren't any jokes (just wacky characters existing), there are no animations (just text), and there's one "funny"ish thing every 5 minutes instead of every X seconds.
A laugh riot.
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So the Rondo of Swords LP finally went up on the archive... (http://lparchive.org/Rondo-of-Swords/) And thus I am playing Rondo of Swords again. Going to go Cold Emperor path again and try out some alternate builds instead of nuking everything with Super-Archers and Laser Popes. Maybe I'll use Rukia and see if I can't make her do something useful?
Also if you are in anyway curious about RoS, give that LP a read, even if you're not much of an LP person, it is basically the RPG most suited for LP in the history of LP.
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Paper Mario: Just beat the flaming Pirahna Plant of doom. That was a legitimate boss fight, due to damage combination and how he is multi part (even if two of the parts only get an action once every other turn in effect), and I had to blow all my resources to get past him. There were some mistakes granted, like a few messed timed hits that probably would have alleviated the fight, but still, felt like a significant step up from everything else in the game.
Punch Out Wii: Beat Career Mode, then started Title Defense Mode. I actually lost a fight to Glass Joe...words I never thought I'd say! The helmet makes him strong! Mind you, second attempt I actually beat him because I mostly got a little cocky but I digress.
Von Kaiser was mostly a case of getting use to dodging the right way on his hooks, and remembering he WILL dodge a Star Punch if you throw it blindly. Disco Kid...well, soon as I learned that you can literally duck EVERY SINGLE ONE OF HIS PUNCHES, the entire fight just sort of fell apart.
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Bayonetta - I'm in the middle of Chapter 2 right now. I am enjoying the game pretty well, although I find the chapters a little overly long so far. I preferred DMC1's bite sized chapters.
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FONV: I forgot that Regis can teleport. Also Sergeant Contreras is somehow perfectly willing and able to do business from behind bars, not even acknowledging that you're the one who put him there. I'm pretty sure they just didn't bother to give him new dialogue because they thought he was too far back in the cell to speak to.
Not enough NPCs actually have things to steal! Makes the pickpocketing trophy kind of a pain (also the odds of success are routinely not great).
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You pretty much have to stick to low-value targets to get anywhere with pickpocketing, and even then, that's only for the achievement. It took me a while to gear up Bitter Springs trying to reverse-pickpocket power armor unto people.
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DDR II - I successfully completed a Basic 6 song and a Difficult 5 song. Still working on Basic 7 and Difficult 6 though. :)
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Devil Survior 2 Break Record- The Spring Triangle did not impress. These new enemies are not half as gimmicky as the Septentrion. They only have some unimpressive map weapon and some defensive tricks, which are not very threatening.
On the other hand, the plot was written in a way as if it is out to pander the Niu. Which is good, it is helping me to forget the pain that horrible anime had done to me.
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DDR II - I successfully completed a Basic 6 song and a Difficult 5 song. Still working on Basic 7 and Difficult 6 though. :)
:D
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You pretty much have to stick to low-value targets to get anywhere with pickpocketing, and even then, that's only for the achievement. It took me a while to gear up Bitter Springs trying to reverse-pickpocket power armor unto people.
Why would you even do that? ...Oh wait, pacifist run.
Anyway I got through pickpocketing mostly by exploiting the fact that NCR troopers keep a very poor watch on their dogtags (which I may possibly have subsequently cashed in at Forlorn Hope as retrieved from dead troopers). Admittedly a few thefts were somewhat more elaborate: http://cloud-4.steamusercontent.com/ugc/530632767061723230/503B42C37A2C5A04B914301BE362EC202C54FF1B/
I can only swear I didn't make that happen on purpose.
Also YCS 186 how did I never know you existed before? Oneshotting deathclaws from a mile away, pretty great. Not oneshotting the legendary deathclaw from thirty feet away, substantially less great. Somehow the most useless perk in my collection comes to the rescue! I took Miss Fortune early in the game because hey, this is luck mode, but it hasn't factored in much because I almost never use VATS (it's usually sneak 'n' snipe this time). In panic as the most dangerous creature in the game rushes at me I mash V and manage one ineffectual shot. Then ally appears and unloads a barrel full of nonlethal ammo on him. He falls to the ground and sits there while I shoot him repeatedly in the head. Feels a little less like a wasted perk now!
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I never gave a screenshot for that did I? Well, that's fixed. (http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i312/Fudozukushi/Other/2015-02-05_00001.jpg)
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Pokemon AS: E4 beaten, halfway through Delta Episode now. Haven't posted about this in a couple of weeks due to a mixture of stalling for the Substitute TM for the E4, working on my secret base, and some burnout due to two back-to-back Pokemon runs.
Golbats and the rare Crobat ended up being a persistent pain for me in the latter part of the game, due to natural Acrobatics and a team rotation that included 4 Bugs but only 1 Flying resist (Plusle). One Ace Trainer with just a Crobat forced me to pull out healing items despite a team that had full health; Plusle wasn't on the team at the moment, Kecleon got OHKO'd by a critical Acrobatics before it could Thunderwave the bat, and the AI actually hazed away two Intimidates! That turned out to be smarter AI then some bosses in this game.
Lategame bosses:
Tate/Liza- lol
Wallace- No Nasty Plot yet for Plusle, sadly, but Quiver Dance+Giga Drain on Beautifly was enough for the sweep. Luvdisc is the biggest setup fodder in the game still.
Wally- Altaria and Magneton I beat with SE damage, then Roselia came out and I realized Dustox could setup on it for free with QD+Roost. Got to +6/+6/+6, OHKO'd Roselia and Delcatty easily... then Mega Gallade barely survived a Bug Buzz. Psycho Cut would've been an easy OHKO, but instead the AI used Close Combat on a 4x Fighting resist. -_- You can figure out what happened next easily enough.
Sidney- He has a glaring weakness to Bug but three priority users, so I decided against fancy Quiver Dance strategies in favor of just hitting him with super-effective moves. Worked out well enough, though I needed one QD on Masquerain to beat Absol.
Phoebe- Her opening Dusclops isn't safe to setup on due to Curse; I tried taunting it with Mightyena, but it doesn't last long enough, safely. On a whim I tried out Plusle's Nasty Plot here for the first time in the whole playthrough vs Sableye, and managed to sweep it plus two Banettes, taking a big chunk out of Dusknoir before finally falling.
Glacia- Her Froslasses were troublesome for everything I had pre-setup, so this was time for Quiver Dance. Flashx6, Thunderwave, and Intimidatex2 let Masquerain setup 5 QDs for an easy sweep, plus a sub to ward off her second Glalie's Ice Shard.
Drake- Aerial Ace on his opening Altaria made setup harder, but Ice Beam on Masquerain meant I didn't need that many QDs this time around. Intimidatex2 and paralysis was enough for Masquerain to setup two QDs, OHKO everyone except Kingdra, whose Ice Beam wasn't fatal due to QD's special defense boosts.
Steven- His opening Skarmory had Aerial Ace as well, so I couldn't get enough QDs for a a safe sweep off it despite Skarm's lowish offense. Instead, I had Plusle KO it and tried setting up on Aggron instead, who obligingly missed a whole bunch of Stone Edges and Iron Tails while I tanked its accuracy. Shadow Ball was an effective sweeping move here now that Steel's been stripped of its Ghost resistance.
I should be done with the rest of Delta Episode and the E4 rematch soonish, after which I'll post some thoughts on my twelve team members this time and this run as a whole.
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Bayonetta - I'm in the middle of Chapter 2 right now. I am enjoying the game pretty well, although I find the chapters a little overly long so far. I preferred DMC1's bite sized chapters.
Bayonetta has chapters that are just boss fights or short setpieces. If you're talking about the city, that's of a length that is more of an aberration compare to the pacing of others.
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Paper Mario: Just beat Chapter 6. The game handing you a PC after you get access to Ultra blocks is weird. I would be annoyed about that since there is an Upgrade block in the dungeon that I used before getting him, but they were wise enough to make a 2nd available only after he joins, so it worked out OK, especially nice because as is the standard of every Chapter boss to this point, the new PC is meant to be used on the boss in question to counter whatever they have...kind of reminds me of most Zelda Bosses from OoT onwards that pretty much follow the pattern of "use dungeon item to beat boss!"
Punch Out Wii: Beat Bear Hugger refight. King Hippo was hard until I heard Doc's advice and that pretty much gave away the fight. Piston Hondo *shakes fist at car companies* was pretty much a straight forward upgrade; I didn't see any gimmicks with him, just faster attacks, hits harder, more advanced AI patterns, etc. Bear Hugger took a while, as it really came down to making sure you get as many Star Punches as possible and using them properly, since you can't get good combos on him without learning when to use those.
Next up: CHEATING INDIAN GENIE.
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DS2 Break Record - Spring Diamond all down. They are unimpressive until the end. Cora Caroli is just another map weapon boss like the other three. Hell, she starts off to close and can easily be blitzed down in a few turn.
Canopus wasn't much either. Just really tank in the three factors fight. While the final form dies to Thousand Thrust like everything else thanks to its crappy resistance.
But still, who cares. The plot still flows as if its was written just for the Niu. The admin ending panders to Niu so much that I am overjoyed.
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Citizens of Earth: You get all these status attacks but they are shit so you just stick with physical attacks.
Hard mode wasn't fun anymore so I stopped playing. Fuck this. 2/10
Dreeps:
Fucking Dreeps. 0/10.
Persona 4 Golden Hard Mode Solo:
I started playing this on Very Hard, but just got utterly wrecked at the beginning.
I then tried normal which felt too easy. (I may regret those words later)
So I settled on Hard.
(Incidentally, all this means I played through the dreadful P4 beginning three times in a day)
Shadow Yosuke
He is meant to be soloed, so he's nothing special.
Loser.
Yukiko's Castle
I love this:
"You have welcomed Slime into my heart."
The first floor is key here. For some reason it is randomly generated once but stays that way. If you exit / reenter it'll be exactly the same, with treasure chests restocked.
I got killed by randoms one time, then retried, and got one floor configuration in which I started next to a treasure chest. This meant I could exit and reenter the dungeon for (technically) INFINITE ITEMS, which means (technically) INFINITE SP, which means for (technically) INFINITE XP. I was no longer burdened by my finite HP and SP.
Unfortunately the only items I got on a regular basis were Peach Seeds (20 HP healing) and Revival Beads and stuff.
Also, the only SP healing item I could get are Soul Drops (Heals 10 SPs, that's pathetic) and Snuff Souls (heals 50 Sps, ultrarare)
The main character Yattaf (he's not a woman but whatever. He is named Yattaf.) starts with Izanagi, who has Zio (lightning attack), Cleave (useless) and Rakukaja (useless, since it goes away after three rounds) He didn't even have healing skills at this point, so I had to rely on PEACH SEEDS for healing.
On my second try through the dungeon, I spent the first battle guarding while Yosuke attacked (just to get killed), and he died pretty quickly. The bad news was that he then came back with 1HP after every battle, stealing my precious xp if he survives a battle :( I believe I'll be able to ditch allies after the sauna, which feels insanely far. I never even got past it on a regular playthrough.
The good news was that I also got Pixie after the first battle, and she comes with Dia.
There are two kinds of enemies here,
- Lying Hablerie: They're weak to Zio and die to one Zio + physical.
- Calm Pesce: RUN
I fought a few battles against Hableries, making sure he was dead before going for the kill. During the whole time he was all "HEAL ME YOU BASTARD, THIS PAIN IS CONSTANT AND UNBEARABLE"
I ignored him.
Shadow Chie
Strong against physicals, weak to Garu.
Uses physical and lightning attacks, + Green Wall (Wind res for 3 turns, used as a counter to Garu).
I had Garu on the Angel Persona, it did about 70 damage to her. Izanagi's Zio did about 35.
Chie's attacks don't do a lot of damage, but I really couldn't afford spending much SP there, so I quickly stopped using Zio.
What I did was double Garu for sweet 130 damage whenever she didn't have Green Wall on, and otherwise I switched to Izanagi and guarded. This means I could only attack every four rounds, but Izanagi has the best defense and lightning resistance, so I was barely taking any damage. It worked pretty well.
Level 8.
The first dungeon doesn't have overly difficult enemies (aside from any with physical skills, like Burning Beetles), but the huge resource drain was a problem at this point.
I could always go back to non TV world to replenish HP/SP, but I really didn't want to waste my days like this.
Avenger Knight
Weak to Agi
Has Power Charge, Skewer, physical attacks, OPB Tarukaja
Avenger knight took several tries; he does a lot of damage, about as much as I could heal with Dia. Since I could hurt him every round with Agi, this only was a matter of surviving about 20 rounds. doing Agi -> Dia and the occasional Agi -> Guard. Whenever I was on low Hps I only used Dia, just in case Agi missed.
My resources ;_;
Level 12
Shadow Yukiko
Weak to Bufu, has some strong fire attacks, Double Fang, White wall (Ice res for 3 turns)
I'm currently stuck against her.
Double Fang wrecks me. This is barely OHKO damage and she can use it quite often. At this point Dia heals for 1/3rds of my total HPs, so this is a problem.
Ice damage is necessary (and surprisingly rare at this point for fusion choices) After dealing ice damage to her, she always counters with :
- White wall
- Wait
- Huge MT Fire damage
I had a Persona immune to fire (Senri) so that's three free turns for me. I could just guard for the last turn just in case she wanted to use Double Fang; afterwards White Wall was dispelled, and I could use ice damage again and repeat the cycle.
I was pretty proud of these prostrats but she then summoned Prince Charming at half HPs. He's pretty durable, weak to Zio, and he uses Silence, Fear and physical attacks. Silence is the real dealbreaker here, he uses it all the time, and I can't hurt him with Zio whenever that happens. At this point, she also stopped following her dumb pattern too and could Double Fang my ass whenever she wanted.
Back to the Velvet Room, I fused Obariyon: Phys and fire res, with Dia. Boom. I had The perfect fit against her.
That wasn't quite enough so I then added a bufu card on top of it. (I relied on storebought ice cubes before to do Ice damage instead)
Man, you'd think this would be enough but no. At super low HPs Shadow Yukiko starts doing high% Fear status attacks followed by high allmighty damage to anyone inflicted with fear. Sigh.
I went back to town to sell all my stuff, so the blacksmith could get awesome new equipment I could then buy: Iai Katana, Lion Happi. Awesome.
STILL NOT ENOUGH. Jesus. There aren't any ways to protect against Fear and I can't blitz the last part of the battle because she's crazy durable.
I'm level 19.
I could fuse King Frost w/ Bufula at level 22, and a Mitama with Diarama at level 23, both would help a hell of a lot, but I don't want to grind four levels right now? Grinding isn't much of a problem but allies stealing xp and being a general annoyance make it more aggravating. I could probably get these skills by leveling a lower level persona (Jack Frost for Bufula for example) buuut my social links are pretty low so this might take even longer.
Mid grinding, I'll probably try to get a persona with high luck (to recover from fear more easily), plus the usual Bufu/Dia/Str res combo, and see how that goes.
At least resources aren't a problem anymore because I also just got Invigorate, which restores 3 SP every turn. So it's easy to just fight a low level enemy and heal back to full now.
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I beat her at level 21. Fused and grinded with Jack Frost who got Bufula + Ice Boost. Fused that into Principality (it's not really a hot demon, because it doesn't even have phys res, but it's high level) so I could blitz the last part of the battle.
She still survived like 5 boosted Bufulas at 1/4 HPs, Shadow Yukiko just doesn't give a fuck. I was dropping double Bufulas, she usually put up her ice shield right after, and then I just healed every turn (while crying) until the wall was down.
Shivering Rondo, her big allmighty attack, at least has the decency of canceling Fear on the target, so I could heal a little right after being hit by its monstrous 180 Damage.
I healed with Life Stones. I could sell these for 1000 yen each (a lot), and they only healed for 20 more Hps than Dia. (80 instead of 60) But I really really needed the extra HPs. In fact, I'd have died without them, I finished the battle on my knees at 30 HPs.
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Triple post
Steamy Bath house
Turns out I can remove other party members from this point on. I think this is an improvement over regular P4? Niiice.
This is a pretty cool dungeon, enemies hit like trucks but I have Tier 2 spells AND Diarama AND both Hama and Mudo. This is a game where instant death weakness on an enemy = I hit with a 100%ish hit rate + I get an extra turn. The 30%ish normal hit rate is also pretty efficient against the most durable foes that aren't weak to ID. So yeah. I basically haven't used status attacks as much in any game ever.
Daring Gigas
No weaknesses.
Pretty simple pattern:
- Power Charge (more damage on next attack)
- Rebellion (higher critical rate for 3 rounds)
- Tarukaja (higher attack for 3 rounds)
- then SINGLE SHOT FOR INSANE DAMAGE
And repeat.
Since I am a pro gamer, I beat this guy by using the little known Defend Command.
BTW he runs out of SPs after doing this silly pattern three times. He still continues afterwards, literally wasting three turns out of four. Sad.
Level 29
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Bayonetta - Just finished Chapter 6, and I'm definitely enjoying the game quite a bit. It is very silly and off the wall in that Devil May Cry way, but obviously we're just playing this for gameplay. Gameplay is quite fun, Witch Time is an enjoyable mechanic and the action feels very fluid. I think the game generally is at its worst when it's not letting you utilize its core mechanics of Witch Time and Magic gauge, particularly against the silly snake enemies. Grace and Glory are a pain in the ass and they need to leave me alone >_>
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker - The adorableness of this game melts my heart. I've done 13 stages so far, and most of them are pretty easy although I've had a few game overs. The dragon is terrifying.
http://assets1.ignimgs.com/vid/thumbnails/user/2014/08/14/WiiU_CaptainToad_scrn02_E3.jpg
Just look at him. Captain Toad makes shivering noises during that stage. (:
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I don't understand why you do these things to yourself, Fenrir.
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Eternal Poison: Olifens are go! He's kind of a punk so far, honestly. Even Pokeymajins taunt him about getting cockblocked. Also Cardinal Nephew is a wiener and I'm sure Big McLogueHuge's class being Accursed has nothing at all to do with his frequent psychotic episodes. Meanwhile Marie takes no shit from anybody and is therefore better than all these people. Her attack quote pretty much ensures this is lodged in my head throughout the entirety of this path, though: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGAuPfho1og (on a similar note, it's difficult for me to hear Irina's level-up quote without mentally finishing the line, "--oh Mr. Roboto, for doing all the things that nobody wants to." I really wish this wasn't true you guys, Styx has plagued me all my life.)
At some point I rescued Hulk Hogan and he gave Olifen a weapon as a reward for stripping and then he left. I don't even know.
0/2 on optional fights so far. First optional boss ran off as soon as I got close because presumably I exhausted another invisible timer. I guess from now on I should beeline straight for these guys (insofar as it's possible to do so without aggroing everything on the map). Other optional fight got denied because a giant enemy crab I needed to capture to trigger it backed himself into a cul de sac where it was physically impossible for me to surround it. Was worried I was actually stuck there since a fight can't end while there are still bound enemies on the map, but it turns out you can still kill them even after they've been OVAKILLED (on the next map, I learn to my annoyance that living enemies are also fully capable of obliterating bound enemies with AoE attacks. Stupid gigases!)
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Touhou Labyrinths: floors 13-15. Remember that PS2 dungeon that was just pits pits everywhere and hopefully you're jumping down the right one? Kinda like that, except at least here it's extremely easy to warp out and back in to relay points in seconds. Flipside, this actually nukes the rewards you get for randoms. Money/XP/droprates ramp up as you chain consecutive battles in a single dungeon dive, topping out at a bit over 100% increase after a couple dozen battles or something. So when an area's basically a long series of "fight a couple randoms before jumping down the next hole to loot something and then warp back to the entrance to spare yourself some backtracking," the battle counter resets constantly and you're really not getting much out of the zone. Not a mechanically difficult place to deal with, but annoying. But now it's over with and I can move to a teleport dungeon barf.
~
Also I tossed in DS2 today to check on what the patch changed. There's a totally grody new NPC who says a bunch of plot stuff but whatever, what we really care about is that Chameleon now works (sort of) on NPCs, right? I tried it out on the first hollows in the forest. You can inch up on knife dudes, every now and then they'll look at you all like "What was that noise? Eh, it's just a box," and then they get backstabbed. On the other hand, the archer jerk still recognized me as an enemy from miles away, so I guess maybe some enemies are less dumb about it than others. But still, Hollow Gear Solid, now you can troll the AI and other players at the same time, that's what we all came here for, right?
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Paper Mario: Chapter 7 completed. Was thinking about finishing game tonight but then got stuck showing off a crappy game to some DLers.
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The Stanley Parable- Yup. "Finished." Needs more jumpscares.
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LoZ: Twilight Princess Wii
I've had this for literally half a decade, finally decided to play it thanks to Smash Bros and my newfound goal of actually playing the titles that half of the characters come from.
Finished it, did -not- 100% complete it. I -did- manage to get the Magic Armor though, and that shit broke the latter 3rd of the game for me, so it didn't take too long.
OoT-style gameplay really isn't my thing, and this whole series is pretty much -built- on that high-exploration gameplay focus. However, Twilight Princess manages to have a more solid story foundation than the other LoZ games I've played, so it certainly held my attention differently than the others in the series. The aesthetic was also full-on awesome, despite the overuse of bloom lighting. (Dear god so much bloom.)
So, basically it was the most Djinn-pandering of modern LoZ but it still isn't really ranked all that highly on my list of 'beloved games' because the basic gameplay style just doesn't resonate with me. Solo-adventure stuff just never does. Midna certainly helps a LOT in this regard, as does the 'second playable character' of Wolf-Link. But it's just not the same as party-based battle systems for me.
Of the LoZ games I've played now, I'd probably rank them LttP > MM > TP >>>> OoT. I just highly prefer the easy-to-see and intuitive controls of LttP-style exploration over 3D adventure games. I am going to have to give the new one on 3DS a try at some point soon, but I told myself I'd play Skyward Sword first before I spoil myself on all the top-down LoZ games on the handhelds. Windwanker can go fuck itself, I hate sailing, so it's getting played last if at all.
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Mass Effect 2 - I finished this on th weekend. Playing through as Vanguard did end up more satisfying Thani expected, but it really needed both Rank 4 charge and the double ammo supply on Shotguns to feel good. Charge gives you a great way to close distance and destroys shit,but before rank 4 it leaves you open, so you only really should use it to finish dudes off, but at that point the enemy isn't a threat (the usual problem with Biotics other than Warp and Reave). Once you have rank 4 you get lots of shields back and will either aoe stun or get back a full shield bar and have some bullet time to respond (not hard to know which to pick in my opinion). Double ammo just lets you keep doing it while keeping afloat in ammo comfortably. The gameplay probably shifts to doable earlier if you go straight for Charge and use something other than the Claymore. I went straight for Incendiary ammo though and that was everything I hoped it would be. Making the Locust effective against everything was nuts and it got some serious work in before I was pinballing around the field shooting dudes in the butt hole.
Finishing the game made me really happy and solidified that I think this will historically show as one of the best sequels and most pure refined games to come out last generation. It lacks a ton of room for growth in the RPG elements, but what it has are sleek and work amazing. Adding DLC nearly would cheapen it if they didn't add story to the games when story is at its strongest as well. It isn't Trilogy syndrome where it is best because it gets to have all the setup and suspense build with none of the crash and disappointment of the reveal not meeting the expectations, the game just legitimately has better writing than 1 and 3.
Also I heard someone say that the final boss was disappointing and man I don't get it. It is still a giant fuck off Contra boss/Space Terminator. It looks rad as hell , is one of the very few "shoot me in my fuck me lights boss" in the series and those fuck me lights are its eyes and mouth. You kill the giant metal Psace Terminator by shooting it in the fucking face. The play could be slightly better, but it just uses standard cover shooter mechanics. I guess I could take issue with that, but I haven't really seen cover based shooters really do great boss fights. I don't think he style of gameplay really allows itself to much diversity? Grams of War might show me otherwise, but the majority of ones I have played tend to be similar (hide in cover,shoot the helicopter).
Still one of my favourite games ever. Jennifer Hale is pretty great and does slip a little more character into her delivery than Dudeshep gets. It always reads a little like it is a crack in character that Shep puts on as well and it happens a lot more than in ME1.
So that said I was also glad to move straight on to
Mass Effect 3 - wowwwwww I had forgot how much better the play steps up in this. Moving from Vanguard to Engineer feels good because that is more my primary play style. Going to a weight based gear system lets them get a ton more breadth out of weapon design (So two distinct pistols vs 8 where some are unique and others are just a variation of stats for cost:benefit trade offs). Both are good systems and we wouldn't have ME3s in the state it is without ME2s being as paired back as it is. I actually prefer the feel of Me3s system, but have a ton of respect for ME2s. I don't like all the cruft that comes with it (weapon ranks that you need to buy for example), but that extra cruft comes with the benefit of more growth and expansion of character that RPG nerds love so it does feel more "RPGish" for it.
I am running a Mantis Sniper rifle because it is light and comes with th entice benefit of being the semi auto sniper off the game which is my preferred sniper style. Back it up with a light SMG just in case and do most of my work with 200% recovery speed Incinerate and Overloads. Backed up by a turret and Combat drone as necessary. Ruining Normal.
Also found out how Armour works better than I used to. So Anti Armour ammo on Geth Plasma SMG with Armour penetration mods pretty much melts a Banshee. I am actually looking forward to the final boss fight this time.
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Kirby Super Star: So now that I can properly type it's time to add this review for a game I played like a week ago. Anyway, you can really tell this game is like the proto-Smash in a lot of ways; the overall structure of the game plays out like Smash 64's pile of minigames and the overall stage design (especially Spring Breeze) carried over pretty directly into the original single player mode.
Aside from that strong impression? Okay so this is the first Kirby game I've played more seriously than "a friend brought it over and I maybe did a couple lives worth of play", which I did on Kirby 64 and I thiiiink one of the GB games, Dreamland 2 or 3 I assume. So based on KSS I don't think I'll ever really be a Kirby fan. It's a fun enough game (I mean I basically did all five primary modes in a day and enough The Arena to determine I'm not good enough at the game to do it and not willing to invest the time Gettin' Gud) but it doesn't really hit any major notes for me. It's just not something I'm going to keep coming back to or hype majorly at anyone.
Buuuut within that frame I can see why it'd be a favorite among people that do like Kirby. It's basically a series of different concepts for what Kirby can be, and has a lot of charm that isn't quite hilarious, isn't quite the cutest thing ever, but strikes a decent balance between them and is pretty memorable in both directions. Also has some pretty amazing spritework, oozes personality. Probably about a 6/10 for me, just doesn't catch my fancy enough to rate higher but it's definitely interesting to see it in action regardless.
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I don't understand why you do these things to yourself, Fenrir
Because the best part about playing a game all about social links is ignoring everyone and going solo?
Actually I already tried playing it once normally and got bored. Now this time I'm having fun! I'm even considering going back to Very Hard instead because I don't feel like I'm fusing enough personas and stuff.
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Mass Effect 2 - I finished this on th weekend. Playing through as Vanguard did end up more satisfying Thani expected, but it really needed both Rank 4 charge and the double ammo supply on Shotguns to feel good. Charge gives you a great way to close distance and destroys shit,but before rank 4 it leaves you open, so you only really should use it to finish dudes off, but at that point the enemy isn't a threat (the usual problem with Biotics other than Warp and Reave). Once you have rank 4 you get lots of shields back and will either aoe stun or get back a full shield bar and have some bullet time to respond (not hard to know which to pick in my opinion). Double ammo just lets you keep doing it while keeping afloat in ammo comfortably. The gameplay probably shifts to doable earlier if you go straight for Charge and use something other than the Claymore. I went straight for Incendiary ammo though and that was everything I hoped it would be. Making the Locust effective against everything was nuts and it got some serious work in before I was pinballing around the field shooting dudes in the butt hole.
Finishing the game made me really happy and solidified that I think this will historically show as one of the best sequels and most pure refined games to come out last generation. It lacks a ton of room for growth in the RPG elements, but what it has are sleek and work amazing. Adding DLC nearly would cheapen it if they didn't add story to the games when story is at its strongest as well. It isn't Trilogy syndrome where it is best because it gets to have all the setup and suspense build with none of the crash and disappointment of the reveal not meeting the expectations, the game just legitimately has better writing than 1 and 3.
Also I heard someone say that the final boss was disappointing and man I don't get it. It is still a giant fuck off Contra boss/Space Terminator. It looks rad as hell , is one of the very few "shoot me in my fuck me lights boss" in the series and those fuck me lights are its eyes and mouth. You kill the giant metal Psace Terminator by shooting it in the fucking face. The play could be slightly better, but it just uses standard cover shooter mechanics. I guess I could take issue with that, but I haven't really seen cover based shooters really do great boss fights. I don't think he style of gameplay really allows itself to much diversity? Grams of War might show me otherwise, but the majority of ones I have played tend to be similar (hide in cover,shoot the helicopter).
I've always wanted a game where somebody expands on the Suicide Mission idea. Just assembling and building up a team of people with distinct personalities, getting to know their strengths and weaknesses, and assigning roles that best fits their abilities (it was very binary whether someone succeeds at a role here). It could even be at a larger scale like having a more hands on Suikoden-style war, but I think that basic concept has a lot of potential. If you had some Gods Will Be Watching style randomness in play, that could make for a really interesting formula.
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EP: Today I learned that some enemies have a spell which frees other enemies that have been subdued but not yet captured. This is pretty annoying when they use it on a boss, since it respawns at half health. But hey, it wasn't too tough overkilling Mr. Firebird the first time, I'll just do it again, right? Immediately after I've done this, before I have a chance to capture him, some dipshit weasel Pokeyman veers away from the PC he'd been attacking the entire fight and kills the boss just to spite me.
These maps take way too long for me to hit reset, but goddamn. I probably missed out on a bitchin' fire spell. Dick move, game. Dick move.
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I don't understand why you do these things to yourself, Fenrir
Actually I already tried playing it once normally and got bored. Now this time I'm having fun! I'm even considering going back to Very Hard instead because I don't feel like I'm fusing enough personas and stuff.
FYI, all Very hard does it reduce the XP and money you get to minimal amounts. It means you need to grind even more than usual if you need specific fusions and to level up paramtres to get money. Since a solo run is pretty much what the speedrun route is, maybe you can do that instead (like casual speedrun)? Probably more interesting than just grinding for things.
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Mass Effect 3 - Paragon interrupt to Bro Handshake with Wrex.
Paragon canon path in ME3.
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Paper Mario: Completed.
Game is ok, but nothing special. It feels very formulaic after a point, not putting much extra into the battle system save an occasional gimmicky enemy. This really stood out the most in the final dungeon which felt like it overstayed it's welcome, as I just wanted it over with. It's not bad or anything, just kind of "eh." Writing is amusing at least, with silly and charming dialog that is totally SUPER SERIAL and what not, music is kind of forgettable, etc.
So...let's look at allies!
Goombario: Was my default character if only for Tattle anytime I fought something new, and in Ultra Form, Charge + Multibonk is about as good as damage you'll get and cost effective. Also, since his attack is a Jump attack, he can hit aerials!
Kooper: He's good at first due to your first MT damage, but half way in I felt no reason to use him like ever. One of the few who didn't reach Ultra rank, I suspect his best attack does high ST damage, but honestly sounded boring.
Bombette: At first, I barely used her because close range attack with ST damage only? Pass. Then she gets Power Bomb and suddenly can nuke entire ground enemies for expensive cost. Ok, cool, but not cool enough. Then she gets ultra rank and suddenly does 7 damage with that move, and has Mega Bomb in case there's pesky flying enemies. Also her attacks are Fire thus good for busting Dry Bones. Ultimately, she was the most used character in the final dungeon, and used her a fair amount in the dungeon beforehand too, despite practically never using her before. Also, Mandy thinks she's adorable, and really isn't that all that matters?
Parakarry: My least used character; I never felt any reason to use him since the "hits anything anywhere!" rarely comes up, and by the time it does, you have other characters with that gimmick, his specials didn't seem to stand out and uh, yeah, LVP I found.
Bow: Is Snow but a Ghost. Weird character, in that she's really good Midgame, and should be great on paper, but can't do jack and all against anything with defense since she's multiple light hits, 0 defense enemies suffer from her Fan Smacks. To her credit, her ability to hide Mario and hit enemies anywhere were both nifty, and gave her utility use, though she definitely dropped late game.
Watts: Here's a character who felt useless at first. I decided to give it the Ultra form because MT Paralysis sounded more interesting than what Parakarry and Kooper gave. I do not regret this decision at all, since somewhere in the final dungeon I found Mega Shock actually has very good accuracy, and his/her/it/kappa's physical is ITD, as well as "can hit anything anywhere." The ITD factor was invaluable since knowing it'll do 5 damage regardless is such a huge boon in a game like this. This thing and Bombette saw the majority of use in the final dungeon.
Sushi: Character who felt too odd? It seems like it has the best MT damage but it's a pain in the ass to pull off with the button prompts so just sticking to Goombette felt better. Having water attacks is something but barely came up, and the defense buff could have been good but I rarely used it.
Lakilester: Joins late, but honestly got good milleage out of him. Cloud Nine is a great ability for longevity, it has reasonable and cost effective MT damage until about Chapter 7, and it he can throw his things at anything. Hurricane was a nice utility just to get rid of annoying enemies that give 0 EXP, and reliable too!
So yeah, think it's something like 5 or 6/10. Gotta mull it over. I'm glad I played it at least, but also glad I got it via Club Nintendo so I didn't have to pay money for it, so it's not like I regret the 25~ hours spent on it, just also wasn't entirely impressed by it.
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FF7 - Beat the game. Highlights include:
-Tifa was doing a pretty consistent 9999x2 with Premium Heart Mud/Added Cut.
-I did actually die once in the maingame, to a random in the Midgar raid which confused me.
-Hojo doing a total of 60 damage in the entire battle. Only the third form got an attack off, it was a Combo against back row + Sadness, it triggered a counter.
-I forgot to bring Dispel to Safer Sephiroth actually got a bunch of turns and did stuff, unlike every other post-Schizo boss. He managed to live long enough to use Super Nova, and died to a counter to it. Excellent.
-After beating the game, I went out and beat Ruby Weapon. I YOLOed him with double Knights of the Round and Mime, it worked thanks to Mystile/MBarrier/Sadness to tank the Ultima counters. Did have to finish him off with Pandora's Box since those two shots of Knights were all I had, but honestly, he has nothing to really threaten a decked-out team (unless he ran me out of items, which wasn't happening).
Just trying to beat Emerald now. Eye laser spam + Aire Tam Storm have done a pretty good job of overwhelming me so far, but I may monkey with my setup to get in all the needed Knights castings before I die. Or try something similar with gravity spam, but I missed W Magic which will make that a bit trickier unless I make a backtrack for that. EDIT: Noticed he was vulnerable to slow, landed that and got in the killing Knights of the Round at the last possible moment. Yay!
Plotwise the translation seems to get in the way more than ever these days. Obviously there are still some very good ideas there but translation standards are making them harder to appreciate for sure.
Kid Icarus Uprising - Playing all chapters on 9.0, allowing myself one reset on the ground section and one against the boss, so I beat most things on 7-8 (any time I get to a boss on 9 it vaporises me, ow). Up to chapter 21.
Super Mario 3D World - Beat the maingame! Very fun Mario... very possibly the best game in the series since the NES honestly, which is impressive. Everything good about the 3D games, the modern 2D games, and Super Mario 2 rolled into one. It's still not the hardest game ever but it doesn't embarass itself (I had 158 deaths since the game is so nice as to keep track) and has a very nice challenge curve. You could criticise its lack of SMW-style secrets I suppose, but I don't really care; the green stars and stamp is the perfect amount of collection for me. Currently doing the aftergame.
(I had a lot of the same experiences as Shale, particularly Red Hot Rush halving my ~50 lives and the lava lake level taking away most of the rest. Did manage to avoid a game over before the aftergame, though. I have since had two.)
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I've always wanted a game where somebody expands on the Suicide Mission idea. Just assembling and building up a team of people with distinct personalities, getting to know their strengths and weaknesses, and assigning roles that best fits their abilities (it was very binary whether someone succeeds at a role here). It could even be at a larger scale like having a more hands on Suikoden-style war, but I think that basic concept has a lot of potential. If you had some Gods Will Be Watching style randomness in play, that could make for a really interesting formula.
I was really hoping ME3 would conclude that way.
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Tide i'm not much of a speedrun guy honestly!
You're correct about very hard. But by going solo, I get a ton more xp yet as many personas, so I get to experiment a bit less with personas per level and this is a bit frustrating? If I truly go v hard solo , I would not plan on grinding much but on experimenting instead (persona is good with this) i don't really expect that many straight level checks like Shadow Yukiko, because p3 solo didn't have many either.
Btw very hard also forbids restarting from the beginning of the last floor after a game over, so this is Buy 99 Goho-Ms mode.
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Have you guys watched the P5 trailer by the way, it looks nice.
I say this as someone who finds P3 and P4 pretty damn uncool.
http://youtu.be/oc_9r4wifFc
I'm really happy with all of Mass Effect 3's decisions (except everything related to the invincible dumb ninja) but I still am more fond of ME2. It's weird.
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I'm really happy with all of Mass Effect 3's decisions (except everything related to the invincible dumb ninja) but I still am more fond of ME2. It's weird.
Invincible Ninja is one of the weirder elements of ME3. Like, it reads of a weird, fanfic, self-insert character or something.
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My main complaint with ME3 other than Kai Leng is the lack of a Krogan party member. Vega's nowhere close. I guess Citadel addresses this.
Javik also should never have been DLC.
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I'm itching to play ME3 just to see the legendary Kai Leng.
Bayonetta 1 - Just finished Chapter 10 and met the amazingly douchey Glorious and Gracious. Whoever created them probably hates all that lives. Luka is such a silly character.
Captain Toad Treasure Tracker - Fake endings are all the rage, apparently. I finished Episode 1 and rescued Toadette, but now Captain Toad has been kidnapped by the nefarious Wingo, so Toadette has to save him.
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You aren't ready for Kei Leng. He cuts you in half.
Have I mentioned that in the special Persona 4 Golden opening, everybody is breakdancing like mad to the sound of some super slow mellow J-pop?
There's this grown man with a Jolly Roger shirt (I forgot his name) and he's pulling these sweet moves because he's hearing the japanese equivalent of a Disney Channel song
It's like they did the animation for the intro, and then someone else decided to insert some crappy J-pop that doesn't fit at all because it's Persona so it needs J-pop. Or something.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7H5pYCw4ET4
Edit: I turned off the music and put on a random ton of music instead. Heavy Metal, Daft Punk. Nelly Furtado. Literally every song fit the animation way better than the J-pop.
Edit 2: The song that fit the best is Lonely Island's Motherlover
P4G Very Hard Mode Solo:
Anyway I beat Avenger Knight at level 11. I waited forever so he could kill Chie and Yosuke, and he ran out of SP before managing that, then spent 5 turns trying Power Charge. Then he killed Yosuke and I beat him with PULINPA, which wrecks him. GG.
Since I have like only 6 Goho-Ms I have to take a ton of risks or taking the time to get all the way back and then up before grinding.
I am relying on Hama and Mudo even more and they're so awesome. <3 Instant Death. Grind would be super fast if not for Chie and Yosuke. For some reason Chie and Yosuke are super low priority targets to a ton of enemies. I think to physical attacks in general, if that makes any sense.
I need to find a turn off Teddie button.
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Tried you experiment. The full version of the Psych theme song fits scary well. Best on 2 second delay from starting the video.
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Niiiiice
We are making this opening pretty awesome
I also like really it with this, to stay with Persona 4ish music
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_-o7ljpK_s
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SJW Inquisition: Expressing surprise at two women dancing makes you lose court approval. Bioware is clearly pushing an SJW agenda here, objectively 0/10.
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Since we're doing crazy, silly, awesome music crossovers. It works okay but not as well as I hoped.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6IKTNmn3Uo
Kay, I'm done. Found the best possible fit for it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnW35UDmWOI
Start the music, start the video at 4 seconds into the song. Holy shit, so perfect it's scary. ::Drops mike::
Using the video in the link you posted, of course.
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At work so can't do it myself. Could you test with Clubbed to Death (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFS4zYWxzNA)?
ME3 - I did some more stuff. I am not sure what the lore behind Banshee's is. They seem to imply they have to come from Ardat Yakshi in the mission they are introduced, but there is like hundreds of them. Samara explicitly states in ME2 that there is only 3 of them in existence. When you get to the temple there is clearly more there. Samara shouldn't really be allowed to lie within her code though? Whatever they are annoying and boring enemies.
DLC has added more things to help bypass armour, so they mostly just melt to NPCs with armour ignoring full auto weapons.
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I think the implication is that Samara's daughters are the only living Ardat Yakshi; the Banshees in the game must have already been collected.
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I figured it was just that ultimately they didn't need to be Ardat Yakshi and just had to be Asari. Probably should have emphasised they targeted there as a priority over Thessia just because of fear of the potential of the Ardat Yakshi.
Could have seeded more blah blah about this cycle being one more progressive iteration in increased capability to defeat the Reapers (but then Shephard would be less Jesus).
Not a big deal, it just feels like a loose thread with potential that could have been pulled harder for stronger world building. Far from the worst handled part of ME3 obviously. Space Ninjas and shitty Max Payne fever dreams being the obvious low points.
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I thought the idea was that Ardat Yakshi is like some sort of recessive genetic disorder so people can carry the gene but not be Ardat Yakshi themselves. So the reapers could make banshees out of full-blown ardat yakshi or just carriers of the gene, which is presumably far more common. That's also why asari-asari relationships are frowned upon-makes it more likely for Ardat Yakshi to crop up.
edit: Grefter you know as well as I do that running Shepard through a blood maze would be great, especially if they looped Shepard VA instead of a baby crying or some shit.
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Bayonetta - Finished Chapter 12! Jeanne is really difficult. ;_; Now I need to pummel the next boss, but I know soon is the rail shooter section, which I am dreading. Although I've been told that it was cleaned up by the Wii U version, which I appreciate.
DDRII - Beat a Difficult 6 and Basic 7 song, and tried a Difficult 7. Deeefinitely not ready for that.
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Mass Effect 3 - Went and started Citadel DLC by accident, so alt F4ed out to make sure I didn't munch an auto save. Went and got Tali then restarted.
Wrex jumps out of a window 2 stories up from a sky car and destroys it with an elbow drop. Game of the fucking year.
Citadel is really weird, it is like they took all the good writing that Bioware normally do and put it super concentrated in here instead of the rest of the game where they were being super cereal. It is pretty dense with all the humour and elicits genuine laugh out loud moments. I had to stop half way through because it was late and I am thankful for that, it means I get to play it for multiple days.
For Banshee stuffs.
If it is a recessive gene that is in the general population then they still don't really need to target the Temple though, but I guess there would be a higher population of Asari with it since presumably they will form relationships still on the planet where they would hypothetically only allow Asari on.
Seeing it with Morinth alive might make more sense?
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EP: I've just twigged to the koona referring to Count Duphaston as "Master D." Now where have I heard that name before?
...
Oh right, exploding Hitler head. This guy just gets more and more trustworthy by the day.
In other news, this game must have the saddest sleep status outside of PSIV.
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Sleep causes physicals to auto-crit. It certainly has a very sad duration, but considering the effect it might have on your damage, it's can be pretty useful.
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That'd be more helpful if the short duration weren't compounded by a terrible hitrate! (Status hitrates all seem pretty low in this game, so I'd rather take my chances with one that more seriously undermines an enemy's effectiveness for an extended duration, like fracture/disease/bleed).
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EP: Man Penumbra was the saddest boss this game's thrown at me so far. Having a weakness to slashing weapons when there are two swordfighters in the party who know Dual Attack is bad strats. Dude's sitting at 38 HP and he decides to taunt me, "You think you can defeat me, falsin?!" etcetera. Immediately thereafter he gets overkilled by like three hundred damage. Amusingly, this didn't stop him from trying to trash talk. Because there were still more
walking bags of EXP enemies on the map, I wandered off to beat them up before properly capturing the boss. Dialogue continued as though I hadn't killed him at all.
Throwing him into a blender post-battle for another useless special attack sure shut him up, though.
Speaking of useless, at some point one of the stray people I rescued gave me a spear that can only be used by women. I...don't think there are female spear-users in this game, game.
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DuckTales Remastered - Finished on Normal Mode. Pretty enjoyable, fluffy platformer. Never played the NES game, enjoyed the TV show well enough but it wasn't an all-time favourite + I don't remember much about it any more these days (e.g. I had no idea who Fenton or Gyro were). It's still a fun little game on fluff; diving in the money-pit is great and Scrooge is just such a lovable curmudgeon. Gameplaywise, the pogo mechanic is at least something different which I haven't quite seen in another game, which gives some neat flavour to the platforming sections. Also, maybe this part is nostalgia, but the "three lives and you're out" mechanic works well here, and definitely adds some tension to boss fights and other end-of-level type things. It doesn't work in every game, but it really works here; I can't imagine playing DuckTales with infinite lives. Terrible. On the one hand having one life would also suck with how punitive it would be for one stupid death, so three really is a happy medium.
As a platformer though it can be a bit underwhelming. It's largely too easy aside from a few pits (and there aren't even that many of those), especially once your heart count gets up - eight is ridiculous and I'm not sure what aside from the final boss (or a really bad run of a level) can actually threaten that. It has some obvious parallels to Mega Man, but there are no special weapons to spice up the gameplay, far fewer difficult platforming sections, and random enemy design is pretty eh as well. There are some tough bits, to be sure, like the underground part of the Amazon (in general, definitely the toughest of the first five stages, so it's really weird that it's listed first...), and the final climb, but they're pretty few and far between, and I'd liked to have seen more things like that. Boss design is good, though. Their difficulty is fairly dependent on your heart total of course but it's still a pretty fun set.
The game is littered with small secrets everywhere but they largely feel pretty pointless, since money does extraordinarily little. It's one of those things I do but kinda wonder why. I'm not sure what the best way to remedy this would be... maybe make money able to buy extra lives and e-tanks etc. (and make the game a bit harder to compensate?).
Music's solid. Was nice to finally hear the Moon theme in particular since that's probably one of the most-hyped pieces of game music I completely missed out on and yeah it's pretty great.
May play Hard Mode too? I haven't decided. Not an amazing game, but I'm glad I played it.
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Ducktales Remastered is extremely faithful, as far as level design goes, to the original, so any sort of design quirks like the pointless hidden treasures can be traced back there. Whether they should have changed this or not is a different argument, just trying to demonstrate where the mindset came from. In particular, being an NES game, the concept of "score" was still pretty common (though some games dropped it, like every Mega Man after the first), and Ducktales money was literally just intended for that. I think the remastered version does make the money pit fill up more if you have a higher score, so there's that!
If you're wondering, notable changes, besides obvious general update stuff (like plot!), between the NES and the Remake are:
-Intro Stage added
-Final Stage is completely different. In the original, the game literally just had you redo Transylvania again (hence why the final boss is a random vampire out of nowhere), with a different boss, so no Mt. Vesuvious Death Traps; the post-final boss race also got shaken up. The original game was literally just "climb a rope and don't do it slowly!" so there was pretty much no challenge there.
-Speaking of bosses, they all got changed notably. They're the same enemies, but they took advantage of giving them more attacks and more elaborate AI. For example, Magica Duspell (and Snow is going to kill me for spelling that wrong!) pretty much throw an energy attack, then turned into the bird, flew around, then repeated that. The fight in Remastered, as you saw, is a lot more involved.
-No money pit in the original :(
Super Mario Galaxy 2: Started this up, 10 stars in and just beat a giant dragon.
So far it's pretty much more Mario Galaxy, which isn't a bad thing but I have to say I'm not fond of the waggle for your attack method still. I will note that Yoshi is more elaborate of a mechanic than I was expecting though.
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The game is littered with small secrets everywhere but they largely feel pretty pointless, since money does extraordinarily little.
You're Scrooge Fcking McDuck. Money is everything, and you will have all of it.
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Javik being DLC is especially bad given that you need to bring him with you and Liara when you hit Thessia to really get the full effect.
He's SUCH a dick.
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Persona 4 Golden Very Hard Solo Yessss:
Ada-bro is my favourite S-link so far, he's totes my BFF. I am neglecting my romance options because I'm just hanging out with him all day.
Meanwhile Marie is a pretty bad addition to the game. She has the standard Female Robot / Female Goddess "clueless" personality, who learns what "friendship" is. Kill me already.
I like how Persona 4 Golden is still using the same old demon models from Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne / DDS + a few new ones in the same vein, so they can afford having hundreds of them.
I really do not think that the Persona 5 team has the resources to just model like 200 demons, just so they appear 1 second when you use a spell. So there probably will either be a lot less personas available, or they'll just appear as 2D pictures or something. It's sad!
Shadow Yukiko
I beat Shadow Yukiko at level 20, and I probably could have done it at a way lower level like 17?
Things needed were:
- The best armor available at that point
- A few medicines (100 HP Healing) + a few itemcast Zios / Bufus.
- A Jack Frost (level 16) preferably with Hama. Level him up until he gets Bufula. fuse him into something else with a high magic/level, boom. Elemental affinity doesn't matter since you can't transfer Bufula to a low level persona with phys/fire resistance.
- A Berith (level 15) with Null Fire (not really that needed but cheap and nice?)
I already went over how the first part of the fight is super easy.
When she summons the prince at half HPs, turns out you can just keep attacking her until she gets to 1/4 HPs, and the prince will flee then. This can happen super fast if you git gud.
Because if the prince silences you with Makakajam (this is totally going to happen), you can just itemcast Zio / Bufu to get extra turns (extra turn = extra chance of status recovery) and double itemcast Zio on him (or itemcast Zio + itemcast that rare 100 MT damage item) to at least make him waste a turn because he's been hit twice in a row.
This means I could get to Yukiko's low HPs phase with near full health. Her super high damage is not too much of a problem if you can survive it -once-, because after she hits with this you can go Bufula -> Médicine; she then usually follows with White Wall, and that means you get to heal for one extra turn. Voila, full HPs.
This would probably not be a good long term strategy. But Shadow Yukiko starts this phase with less than 1/4 HPs and immediately wastes one turn trying to summon her prince, so she goes down pretty quickly.
Tl;dr
I am probably the best at beating Shadow Yukiko in the WORLD. Unfortunately and understandably, no one cares.
I did some extra fights to level up The Aeon Tarot Level 18 Goddess with Japanese Name until she got Invigorate 2, because I really didn't like relying on items to heal SP. Hence fighting Shadow Yukiko at level 20. Still, the grind was surprisingly short because, on the last floor of the castle, Hama wrecks literally everything but some red shadows and golden hands. I'd rather transfer Hama than Healing or elemental spells during fusion.
Very Hard adds a 0,4x multiplier to money, so I get basically no money from fights.
There's no multiplier on item drops though, and since I fought a ton of enemies, I get to be super super rich for this point in the game. I bought 20 Goho-Ms for the sauna, a few books, a few extra medicine, some 3000 yen meals, etc.
Anytime I go do any social link stuff, I make sure to have the tarot-appropriate persona, bought from the compendium.
Nice.
Daring Gigas
lol
Level 23
Shadow Kanji
I think the remake added weaknesses to the two helpers, so they died pretty fast.
I also had Diarama, a phys resist demon, and I even found some Beads at this point.
There was nothing particularly threatening about the battle, especially compared to random battles in the sauna. So this uh only took two tries?
Level 24
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Saints Row 4: Before the last mission, beat Enter the Dominatrix. EtD was pretty funny, and the Auto-tune speaking guy makes me really want to play SR3 if he's in it.
I may not beat the game though and just watch the ending because I've run into a new problem. Suddenly, the cutscenes and the audio don't sync up anymore. This started I imagine after updating my graphics card... It's a pretty common problem, too, with both SR3 AND SR4, from the little bit of googling I've done on it. Nobody really has had a good fix for it, either. If any of y'all know how to fix it it'd be appreciated, but I've played through the game enough to quit here and not care too much.
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Quitting before the end is fine. I honestly regretted having to kill the villain even though he blew up the Earth, just because he was obviously having so much fun.
I didn't play EtD, but SR3 definitely has an Auto-tune pimp as one of your main allies.
~
EP: Olifen's done, Thage's begun. And I don't care what the game says, there's an H in her name and dammit, I'm going to pronounce it. Anyway, she's unapologetically bitchy to everyone and it's honestly pretty refreshing. Also her stated goal is explicitly Gotta Catch 'em All, so finally someone admits this game really is just gothic Pokemon. Weird team dynamic; can't reliably use the lead for combos this time because the lead's a squishy mage instead of an unkillable frontliner. This means I don't use combos as much (since that would entail losing her turn altogether instead of merging it with someone else's) and instead of those being the go-to for capturing enemies it's usually Thage exploding the fuck out of dudes instead. It's also pretty great using her to bait enemy mages into combat range. Enemies in this game will almost always target a PC they can hit a weakness against, since they psychically check your stats before doing anything (this is fine because that's what the player does man); they don't seem bright enough to recognize the Immune to Magic flag, though. On that note, I see I might actually need to keep healing items around for once. (I haven't even let anything have a chance at hitting Thage yet, but enemy archers are fear.)
Raki not having access to skills is *frumple*, but he's still pretty boss anyway.
~
Touhou Labyrinths: floors 16-18. Not as bad as expected geographically, but damn do the randoms get more and more annoying as the game goes on. Stupid MP-busting mushrooms that act before everyone else, stupid HP-halving skellies that act before everyone else, stupid fairies that simultaneously buff the entire enemy party and hit one PC with HP->1 and act before everyone else. Argh. Dungeon dives are like half as long as of F19 just because party exhaustion sets in so quickly here. Game basically says, "Hm, what's that? What do you mean you're not using Aya?!"
~
FONV: rank three GRA challenges are just the worst. I completed the "Kill Legion officers with Ranger Sequoia" one by headshotting Caesar, but I dunno what's going on with the other two. Kill cazadores with the shittiest bombs? Nope. Kill deathclaws with the game's shittiest weapons? Noooope. I might have to just do the robot-bashing one (sneak attack crits might make individual kills feasible) by stealth ganking dudes from around the vertibird crash site (don't think gutsies/sentries respawn anywhere else?), then go on an NCR killing spree. Yeah, I know, but at least I can reload after doing the latter part.
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Just do Cazadores and Deathclaw kills withy he game on super easy. Cazadores is still really fucking annoying, but they are both really doable because difficulty scaling in that engine is silly.
Mass Effect 3 - I got distracted and have been grinding in the Arena a bunch because I was having fun playing around with different weapons and setups. Going to go do Quarian home world after this.
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Quitting before the end is fine. I honestly regretted having to kill the villain even though he blew up the Earth, just because he was obviously having so much fun.
I didn't play EtD, but SR3 definitely has an Auto-tune pimp as one of your main allies.
I guess I'm more concerned with SR3 having the same glitch if I play it. The desynced audio is enough to be gamebreaking for me.
Thage's begun. And I don't care what the game says, there's an H in her name and dammit, I'm going to pronounce it
Johannes Sebastian BacH and The River THames would like a word with you.
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I'm just going to ignore this perfectly reasonable rebuttal and move on as though I never said anything stupid in the first place. I'm sure this is shockingly uncharacteristic.
EP: Man if it weren't for Rondemion this game would be right in line with Odin Sphere's "Let's give our game five different protagonists but then make them all be blonde royalty" thing. And I can only be sure of 50% noncompliance with Rondemion (his hair is BROWN). 3/3 for the ones I've played so far!
Thage rescues an awful lot of people for someone actively trying to be a jerkass. Like twice as many as the other leads? Anyway, sent her down the dark magic path for the class change. Obvious mistake since I'm taking the forest route and goddamn everything is weak to fire. Also for some reason I have Nena in the party even though she's just Thage-, because I make sound strategic decisions.
EDIT: also I always forget New Vegas even has a difficulty slider, because why.
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EDIT: also I always forget New Vegas even has a difficulty slider, because why.
Because there's nothing more beguiling than Very Hard Feral Ghouls managing to hit your -2 DT.
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Of course, now New Vegas is refusing to load any of my save files, so it may be a moot point.
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<Civ 5> Ciddy, I'm calling for youuuuuuuuuu
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Oh please, you know From Software's got both a new game and refurbished DS2 coming out shortly? My future's spoken for.
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Oh shit right, I need to finish P4G VHS ASAP
Contrarian King
Contrarian King has no weaknesses.
He uses only physical attacks, but he can do ungodly damage with Rampage, which hits for 1, 2, or 3 hits, and is death if it hits three times. Contrarian King can inflict Fury with Hysterical Slap.
I made some uber Persona for this fight, and the entire strip club dungeon: It's a Take-Minakata (strong against phys / lightning, weak to ID) with Zionga (tier 2 lightning), Mahama (MT Holy ID), Invigorate 1/2 (8MP healing every turn), Diarama (healing), Auto-Rakukaja. (Def up for 3 turns at the start of every battle, very useful against randoms)
This persona is awesome.
For the Contrarian King fight I gave him a Rakukaja skill card, and used the spell every three turns so Yattaf could always survive a Rampage. There's still some risk involved (If Contrarian King uses a few Rampages in a row, or if he inflicts fury, things might be fucked) buuut I think he dies to 12 Ziongas or so, so I won after a few tries.
Level 28
Intolerant Officer
Intolerant Officer has a lightning weakness, he uses physical and elemental attacks.
While this boss has way higher stats than Contrarian King, Take Minakata is even more of a perfect fit , so I beat this battle at the same level.
My strategy was using Zionga at the beginning of every turn for an extra turn, then using either Rakukaja, Diarama, or very rarely another Zionga.
Intolerant Officer has a ton of HPs, so this battle still took like 15 minutes + 5 SP restoring items, but I wasn't in any danger. Except at one point when I thought "Huh, Zionga hasn't missed yet. It would really suck if it missed right now" Of course it missed (and I finished the round with barely any HP)
Level 28
Amorous Snake
Amorous Snake has a fire weakness. He likes to waste turns using Stagnant Air (higher ailment % chance for three turns. He only uses POIZN so nobody cares) He otherwise has only weak physical attacks.
Take Minakata is not impressed.
Level 29
Shadow Rise and Shadow Teddie
Both of these bosses have one thousand billion trillion HPs, but aren't really dangerous.
Shadow Rise has mostly elemental attacks from the four elements, so I just equipped Take Minakata (as always) who had no elemental weaknesses + Diarama who heals more than anything she could do.
Shadow Teddie has so many fucking HPs! Jesus! He also has a lot more options:
- Some physical attacks. They have low accuracy but decent damage. Take Minakata's resistance is really good here, so again he's my main persona for this fight.
- Rakunda (not that much of a problem, I usually don't bother using Rakakuja to cancel it)
- Silence (Only lasts two turns, often misses, whatever)
- Mind Charge + Mabufula (I switch to Ganga who drains ice, get healed to full, thanks Teddy bro)
- CHAOS DUNK (Nullified by defend)
He also uses Nullify Guidance two times, at half and 1/4th HPs. It's an attack that does about 100 damage and lets him act twice, so it's pretty damn fucking dangerous. He follows the first one with a chaos dunk (not a problem since it has a two turns charge), and he follows the second one with Mind Charge + Mabufula. (a problem)
I died there, wasting like 30 minutes. I was super-pissed.
So the second time around, juuuust before getting to his 1/4 HP phase, I switched to Ganga and used Tetrakarn just in case, . EZ
Level 31.
Level 31 is a lower level than OK's in his Persona stat topic. I'm glad I stuck to Very Hard mode, so my levels can be shockingly low all the time.
Mitsuo dungeon
Woaaaah this game got meta
Ps: I like the grandma who says "I AM DEATH"
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You know, I convinced myself to go to a drama club to be more eloquent, I'm planning on getting there this week.
And I wonder if I got this idea from playing a bit of P4 before... and internalizing its "harder better faster stronger" philosophy there without even wanting it.
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Persona 4 Golden Very Hard Solo Yessss:
Ada-bro is my favourite S-link so far, he's totes my BFF. I am neglecting my romance options because I'm just hanging out with him all day.
Meanwhile Marie is a pretty bad addition to the game. She has the standard Female Robot / Female Goddess "clueless" personality, who learns what "friendship" is. Kill me already.
Pretty much. As amusing as Ada-bro's s-link is though, it really also kinda makes the whole thing kinda wonky. Yep, let's identify with and later make excuses for the sociopath. On the one hand, kinda funny and amuses the side of me I know is fucked up. Other hand, still really fucked up.
And yeah, Marie is totally flushable. Ruins the group dynamic of any scene she's in, and ruins the overall plot kinda later.
EDIT: And yeah. They really nerfed Shadow Yukiko and Shadow Kanji's fights in Golden. Screws with the difficulty of the whole game, since they were really the only challenging bosses.
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I'm looking forward to this. I've maxed Adachi's link for now.
Yeah it's a bit weird how they simplified combat from P3 to P4, the lack of Tartarus bosses being a major hit. I think the game expanded on the real world more, with many more activities and options, but I don't feel there really are more interesting S links compared to P3. Did Yukiko's s link really have to be about how she can't cook?
So far I like Moon and Jester.
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I feel like P4's links bat a higher average (the party members, even weaker stories like Yukiko's, are still largely better than the classmate/PC links in non-Yattaf P3) but don't have the absolute homeruns like Hermit, Tower or Devil. Although P4 Death comes close at least.
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Hermit, Tower or Devil.
A+ taste
I also liked Sun but it's a total downer.
I admit that I prefer to focus on the positive s-links, I've already forgotten all about the P3 s links with other PCs and those weird dumb kids.
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Y'know, the endgame of P3 is really dumb and grindy, and one of the things that help motivate me to actually finish? Seeing if there was an epilogue to Hermit. Worth it!
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I'm looking forward to this. I've maxed Adachi's link for now.
Yeah it's a bit weird how they simplified combat from P3 to P4, the lack of Tartarus bosses being a major hit. I think the game expanded on the real world more, with many more activities and options, but I don't feel there really are more interesting S links compared to P3. Did Yukiko's s link really have to be about how she can't cook?
So far I like Moon and Jester.
Party S-links aren't good, yeah. Kanji's comes closest to quality.
Moon is good taste. I also liked Temperance and Death. Devil has its moments too. Sun is entertaining but only if you're into over-the-top melodrama.
Some of the night-time interactions are pretty awesome. Best addition to the game really.
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Ni No Kuni: Started this up, about to go fight some mice or something. All I'll say about the game so far is that the game really takes it's time, and often says 5 words where 2 would suffice. I get it that part of this is Drippy's style of speech, but I still feel like they have multiple double beats, just some unnecessary repetition.
Super Mario Galaxy 2: Bowser #1 beaten, which means World 2 is beaten...which doesn't make sense because we deal with Galaxies in this game so what the hell game? Since when did World become bigger than Galaxy!?
Dillon's Rolling Western: Stage 6 beaten! No clue how much more is left...guessing there's 10 stages because nice round number or something. Spring Grocks are bullshit, HOW DO ROCKS BOUNCE!?
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DS2 Break Record - CURSES!! CURSESCURSES!! They change the criteria to fuse Satan just to match that stupid and bullshitty anime!! Now I can't fuse Satan until late into second cycle. UGHHH!
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Ni No Kuni: Started this up, about to go fight some mice or something. All I'll say about the game so far is that the game really takes it's time, and often says 5 words where 2 would suffice. I get it that part of this is Drippy's style of speech, but I still feel like they have multiple double beats, just some unnecessary repetition.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
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Speaking of useless, at some point one of the stray people I rescued gave me a spear that can only be used by women. I...don't think there are female spear-users in this game, game.
Ares.
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SMT4 - So, I beat the game and got the Law ending. That was entirely unnecessary.
So, it's very much SMT in that very SMT way. The press turn system is as fundamentally broken as usual, the downwardly spiraling difficulty curve remains the same and the typical RNG pains still apply. On the other hand, I'm not sure I enjoyed a SMT-ish game this much since... uh, Persona 4, and Persona 4 offers notably more in terms of surroundings than SMT4 does. Cutting out on bullshit like "main dies, game is over", letting you save any time you want, giving you visible randoms, allowing you to access demon fusion from anywhere (even in-battle if you bother to buy an in-game app!) and streamlining the inheritance processes really helps on enjoying the experience, and the game gives you interesting options at a very good clip (letting you learn Tetrakarn and Makarakarn one-third of the game through rather than holding it off until endgame, for instance, makes for far more interesting strategies than what usually happens. Early access to dual buffs/debuffs is also cool).
Balance between physicals and magic also improved notably, though it still has the problem of magic as a main build looking better on the long term (you certainly want a physical demon as soon as you get access to Phys or Gun Pleroma, but you probably -don't- want Flynn as a physical fighter, since you have to shuffle between more stats and spend a -lot- more money - which you're going to be strapped for the ENTIRE GAME - than you would if you were just casting the spells that make demons fall down). The weakness system also doesn't get eventually shuffled into nothingness by the lategame, since demons with no weaknesses are scant even as bosses - which, honestly, at least acknowledges the system's importance throughout. I also like how they managed to find a nice balance between usefulness and annoyance factor on status - it's accurate and often MT, but it's almost entirely rigged to not shut you down entirely on a bad run (unless you have a REALLY bad). And, on your end, hey, you can wrangle press turns out of it or have it as a side effect of damage (another point for physical skills even early). Also, ID skills being -useful- even early without requiring weakness is a far cry from DDS's "turn two when -hitting- weakness" pointlessness. But that might have been my main actually having an actual Luck score, which leads me to think this is the first time in the series I actually didn't feel like raising Luck was wasting my time.
Bottom line is mostly that the level of polish applied in battle mechanics here honestly takes most of what annoys me about SMT while keeping most of what intrigues me about it. Dead demons going back to stock sounds annoying, but it felt like it actually brought interesting in-battle applications and decisions (since there also are skills and items which bask on this very design decision). The absence of stuff like Traesto or Goho-Ms baffles me, though: I don't think there's a point to traversing dungeons back after clearing them out by 2015. On the other hand, I've never seen a SMT game with dungeons this impressively short, so that's something.
Probably a 6/10. I kinda -want- to give it a 7/10, but it's still fundamentally SMT-ey and the surroundings certainly are less interesting than Persona 4's. The slick battle mechanics don't really make up for it enough to reach its level. Props for the Rose of Versailles references, though.
EDIT: Speaking of SMT...
Shin Megami Tensei Devil Survivor: Overclocked - I dunno, I guess I'm in a SMT kick. Just started Day 2.
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Speaking of useless, at some point one of the stray people I rescued gave me a spear that can only be used by women. I...don't think there are female spear-users in this game, game.
Ares.
Oh hey, how about that.
EP: One of the people I rescued informed Thage that she's not dressed properly for an RPG heroine. My immersion! Also yo Ashley burning people alive because their hair color's a different from yours is pretty uncool. Let's not go down that path, okay? I guess this is what happens when there's no one to beat persona into compliance.
I was really hoping someone would open that scene with "Good to see you again...sister," but it just didn't happen.
~
FONV: Didn't feel like dealing with caravan (obviously) and wanted more weapon skills before trying the last couple challenges, so I'm doing Dead Money instead because that's actually neat (also I want my holorifle already, dammit). Two mysteries strike me here:
A) How do Dean's sunglasses even stay on? Did he crazy glue them to his face?
B) http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=393816661 - So are ghost people made out of styrofoam or is the police pistol secretly a zero-point energy gun?
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Mass Effect 3 - Finished. The ending sequences are about as weak as I remember and Kei Laggy is boring lame as remembered. Did something that fucked up my chance to talk down Illusive Man at the end, not really sure what I fucked up, thought I picked properly in cutscenes whole play and had maxed out Paragon. Oh well.
I picked Mint Green ending.
The only thing I outright disliked was the fact that you kind of kill off one of the members of a genuinely pretty fun romance. Going on from ME2 where I got Space Boners from Garrus, he wasn't putting on any moves in a hurry in ME3 so I went the Space Lesbian route with Traynor since I totes hit on Kelly Chambers as well, so hitting on my Yeoman is a thing that happened. I actually genuinely like that relationship and then well it can't go anywhere because of the nature of ME3.
Because she was Shepard's partner it does mean she and Edi totes hugged at the end so I am going to pretend that means Joker/Edi/Traynor three ways is canon.
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I was really hoping someone would open that scene with "Good to see you again...sister," but it just didn't happen.
So who wants to tell him?
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I'm sure the game will make whatever it is apparent eventually, there's only four maps left.
So just now the Count showed up and he's like, "I'm gonna kill you, Homer Retica," but then he's all haha it is only joke. "But seriously you should totally kill your friends right now." I see no reason to suspect this guy of anything sinister at all.
Then Retica gave us a speech about the moral virtue of selfishness and Thage responded by admitting that she plans to destroy the world, which I think is only the proper response to that sentiment.
I saved Fungus again. I guess refugees are tied to specific maps? Thage has easily grabbed as many of them as Ashley and Olifen combined.
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Ni No Kuni: So at first I was happy to get a 2nd PC...only to see it's a Mage PC with a Mage Familiar, both of whom are healers, and has half Oliver's MP and lower HP. To top it off, the AI seems to love blowing all their MP ASAP (though maybe that's because mages can't do physical damage worth crap OH LOOK), so she becomes useless pretty quick.
Should probably toss a non-MP reliant familiar on her just to alleviate the issue.
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Ni No Kuni: So at first I was happy to get a 2nd PC...only to see it's a Mage PC with a Mage Familiar, both of whom are healers, and has half Oliver's MP and lower HP. To top it off, the AI seems to love blowing all their MP ASAP (though maybe that's because mages can't do physical damage worth crap OH LOOK), so she becomes useless pretty quick.
Should probably toss a non-MP reliant familiar on her just to alleviate the issue.
Get used to it. No matter what commands you give, the AI is going to waste MP and never learn when to actually heal. If I were to ever play the game again, I'd probably just use pure physical Familiars on the side characters and do all the healing on my own.
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Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem: Heroes of Light and Shadow: Hard mode, no class change, no forge, no Silver Card: Final Destination:
I'm a merchant's child, am incredibly beautiful, and will soon be vastly wealthy… except that I can't both be a merchant's child and wealthy at the same time, so I suppose it would also be accurate to call myself an orphan. My family simply didn't understand me and my preferred mode of money-making, so cast me out on my own. I guess piracy and afros and hitting people with axes wasn't the usual family style? Never fear, it isn't really mine, although neither is shop-keeping. The axes are just a means to an end; I want cushy government contracts and access to the treasury. Everybody knows the good guys win, so that means cozying up to Altea, then parlaying my axe skills into a trusted advisor position. Money in the bank! But how?
This is where I must admit that I cheated a tad. Through a story too complicated to explain, I came across the legendary Eyepatch of Command. Witness its might:
(http://www.rpgdl.com/wiki/images/0/02/Maxed_anna_12.png)
Yeah, mostly maxed stats at 20/12, that's fair.
Anyway, with the might of the Eyepatch at hand… (eye?)... it was a simple matter to command my way into Marth's knights. Soon the other members of my division were kneeling before my leadership, with only Luke requiring a tad bit of convincing. Well, there was one… this Katarina figure seemed immune to the Eyepatch's magic. Perhaps. She too was someone of obscure provenance who claimed a sudden desire to serve the Prince… what is going on here? She acted deferential to me regardless. Something deeper is going on here than meets the eye - is she trying to use magic to infiltrate the Prince's circle as well?
My rise to power was swift, aided by the Prince's inner aides inexplicably hanging around us. I of course promptly commanded them to join my cause, ludicrous as this was for experienced knights to serve under a "recruit" like me. My biggest coup was no doubt collecting the Prince's fiancee, Caeda. She proved no match for the power of the eyepatch, which promptly convinced her I was a Gary Stu equal to that of Marth. It was clear, I would be the most powerful trainee in history, ordering around princesses and generals alike… as long as I survived these maps, at least. Sheesh! Rarely have early FE maps been this brutal, with often the best move being to huddle in the corner on turn 1 rather than move out to face my foes. No matter, I have no reserve about using 'cowardly' tactics to win.
Nor did Katarina, although in an odd way. She apparently had the ability to poison all of the castle's staff and random soldiers, but not Marth himself? Strange. I'd have expected her forces to rush me considering the situation regardless… she'll lose if she waits, but no, she lets her assassins slowly get ganked by my own advance. (Memo to self: Add a back exit to the throne room if I ever become Royal Architect.) Curious. I don't even need to use the Eyepatch to mind-control Marth, as Katarina herself provided the perfect opportunity for me to prove my loyalty and worth with her attack… hmm. She did appear to fawn over me some - could she have been plotting to earn my love with her own ploy to make me look good? Wheels within wheels...
And thus did an epic adventure to beatdown a lot of dudes start, an adventure I was 100% sure of completing successfully since that's just how these things go, and this appeared to be mostly a repeat of the war a year ago anyway. Gharnef had his own mind-control powers and was back for some reason and had mind-controlled both the Arachnean emperor and a random orphange head to create super-Japanese stressed-out child assassins or something. Considering how obsequiously everyone spoke of Arachnean 'Princess' (Queen?) Nyna, I advised Marth to wave around the Fire Emblem more often and point out how Nyna had chosen him, but he felt that this risked damaging his prized lockpick if he dropped it. A shame.
As I suspect is well-known, the maps were interesting, and seemed to really favor my flying allies - lots of escaping thieves, lots of hard-to-cross terrain, and busted stats of doom. Caeda capped her speed at Level 10 for example… part of the reason I dislike the idea that characters could change classes, as it makes everyone a big pile of stats and encourages weird things like General Caeda so that her speed growth isn't 'wasted'. Luckily, I knew that allowing class changes would merely lead to chaos, and thus ignored it. Hordes of other recruits begged to join up, and who was I to deny allies? I recruited them all, and then put them in a very large treasure chest specially constructed to keep them safe from all combat. Some of the later recruits are just… what. You join with 15 speed when enemies have 20+ speed? You will stay back over there… far over there. At least one recruit did allow me to bear the Tiara of Power, if but briefly:
(http://www.rpgdl.com/wiki/images/b/b2/Anna_tiara.png)
I took it off later, as I found that wearing two pieces of the Regalia was too much for mortals to bear.
For the regular maps, the Eyepatch allowed me to interfere with enemy decision-making to a degree. Awakening, for example, has an enemy commander who will notice if there's a potential KO to a target if every character attacks it and hits. Using the Eyepatch, I was able to fuzz the enemy commanders into only noticing OHKOs, not team-up 2HKO/3HKOs, and force them to fall back to damage maximization when lacking a OHKO. This was slightly awkward as often times unit safety depended on the order that the enemies made their moves in, and it was never clear how they'd respond to ties (notable for Glower mages!). Still, it definitely allowed some more #YOLOy strategies than usual, so I can't complain too much. What I can complain about was the Eyepatch restricting my sight. Characters routinely have huge range in this game of 8-10, especially if you are running 2x mounted units, 2-3 flying units, and boots Marth. Yet my vision was restricted to a comparatively small patch of ground! No "press R to zoom out" function like in Awakening, either. Too much scrolling back and forth trying to guess at the exact edge of the range of units from off-screen, the threat range indicators were unusually super-relevant here.
The side mission maps were more interesting. They were all close-range knife-fights that seemed to usually be "win on turn 2 or lose for sure." An interesting change of pace, for sure, and appreciated. The Radd & Caesar map & Roros proved especially vexing until an adequete turn 2 strategy was deployed. Hard mode Rorox7 (w/ ninja fast-attack respawns) for Godlike, bring it on Ashera. Strangely enough, Katarina's army was by far the easiest - but of course she was merely offing her now useless subordinates so she could resume her attempts to seduce me. I'll consider it, K, but let's wait until after the war for when my financial position is more secure.
The enemy's largest aces in the hole were their stealthy ninja reinforcements, of course. Not even honorably announced in advance - perhaps they expected me to play through Normal first? Luckily, my Eyepatch has a power equal to it: the SaveState Reload, whatever that means. I'm not really sure how it works since as best I can tell I've never used it once, but sometimes I get this weird feeling that there was a bad future where ninjas slaughtered a unit, and I find myself making orders that just barely avert this. Some form of precognition, perhaps? If I have used it without knowing from the bad futures, though, I feel fairly little guilt over it.
The final maps were not too bad compared to the difficulty in some of the midgame. I have to say, though, that if you're going to use mind control so often, you might as well have fun with it, Gharnef. Why not have your Noble Bishops running around, hamming it up? Might better explain why those Nyna-followers are attacking me & all, and you could have given Elice, you know, lines.
In the end, I assured Marth that there was no need to publicize his new chief Minister of the Treasury, as it was an extremely boring job that required no public oversight. Just let me handle everything. Yes, yes… this makes more sense than Marth needing to be some kind of god-king worshipped as the sole savior when Marth constantly harps on how he's strong only because he has friends and allies and it would make no sense to bury the achievements of his uber-friend. Good thing this explanation is false, as it's really stupid. This way to the treasure vault, Katarina, our family will live well...
Kill count list / members used:
114 Anna - Well nobody else who uses axes is at all memorable or plotty or decent, so. Even with 2x Arms Scroll use, never got beyond B in Bows, but whatever.
106 Cecille - Luke with worse everything except Speed & Skill, but Speed is the godstat, so that's okay. Identical after both mostly capped out in the endgame. High move still generally solid in FE12.
105 Luke - See above. Generally good stats except speed but that eventually caps anyway.
85 Caeda - My first Falcoknight. A tad shaky on the Strength side and Wing Spear doesn't murder everything, but.
79 Marth - Could have been even higher if he didn't cap level fairly easily.
78 Catria - Actually rode the bench toward the end due to horrible Dracoknight speed cap and capping a bunch of stats early. But totally broke'd earlygame.
72 Palla - Falcoknight #2, so waited for awhile at 20/0.
52 Merric - Not amazing, but I guess magic damage keeps enemies honest for the slower infantry troop. Staves.
51 Linde - Nosferatu would be better if she wasn't so easily OHKO'd. Really, really needs an Angelic Robe… or two… but you do have a reasonable budget for stat-boosters, so that's doable.
3 Yumina - Staves are really good in FE12.
2 Malicia - I'll certainly run 2 dedicated staff users (4 including the Sages). Especially when totally randomly only the random Marth fangirl can use Hammerne. Why??
0 Feena - Didn't run her earlygame, but she fills slots well and was often useful on the X chapters, and you fill out to 12 slots by endgame anyway.
17 Julian - I tried to build him up a little early, but not really worth it. Just deploy him for mad lootz and be done with it.
10 Nagi - Well she OHKOs everything at base, and you can toss a speedwing or two her way and she won't even die to enemy turn action. Kinda obsoletes Tiki, since it's bunch of dragon enemies (C10-C14) - Tiki joins - long Dragon drought - Nagi joins & a ton of dragons to kill.
4 Sirius - Killed some stuff on his join map, I guess.
3 Est - Oh hey, Est joins early in FE12, how novel, I must use her. wait where did she go
Anyway, it was okay! Very much in-between the meh that was Shadow Dragon and the awesome that is Awakening.
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So Suikoden III and V don't run particularly well on an emulator compared to most other games I've played. Which is odd.
Also I think S3's decision to have you play the boring beginning of every Suikoden where you are a messenger or errand boy and grocery delivery bitch both as Hugo and Chris, for double the boring, was not the best. Really hurts the game's ability to build momentum, which is something it really struggles with in general anyway.
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So Suikoden III and V don't run particularly well on an emulator compared to most other games I've played. Which is odd.
Also I think S3's decision to have you play the boring beginning of every Suikoden where you are a messenger or errand boy and grocery delivery bitch both as Hugo and Chris, for double the boring, was not the best. Really hurts the game's ability to build momentum, which is something it really struggles with in general anyway.
I dunno. Chapter 1 still isn't terribly long, and it certainly *ends* with a bang. And you need some "normal time" with Lulu not during a crisis if the game wants you to appreciate his demise at all, so at least some time will get eaten by that. Not sure that plot-wise either chapter could be sped up easily without losing something. (You can always skip the St. Loa Knights I guess?!)
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So Suikoden III and V don't run particularly well on an emulator compared to most other games I've played. Which is odd.
Also I think S3's decision to have you play the boring beginning of every Suikoden where you are a messenger or errand boy and grocery delivery bitch both as Hugo and Chris, for double the boring, was not the best. Really hurts the game's ability to build momentum, which is something it really struggles with in general anyway.
I dunno. Chapter 1 still isn't terribly long, and it certainly *ends* with a bang. And you need some "normal time" with Lulu not during a crisis if the game wants you to appreciate his demise at all, so at least some time will get eaten by that. Not sure that plot-wise either chapter could be sped up easily without losing something. (You can always skip the St. Loa Knights I guess?!)
Correction: Hugo's chapter 1 ends with something big. Chris' chapter 1 ends with her going back to the Zexen council to re-learn shit the player already knows. It's an absolute wet fart.
They're certainly capable of setting up a first chapter as more than "run back and forth between two areas that have plot scenes until the end of the chapter" if they want. Geddoe's Chapter 1 introduction does a great job of establishing basic personalities for each member of Geddoe's unit, showing us that tensions are rising and that you stand somewhat outside the conflict while still being nebulously involved. Chris' chapter 1 is especially egregious. You can cut everything before you show up to the actual treaty meeting and not lose anything important. Everything before that exists to establish one of two things: plot-relevant details that the audience can infer pretty easily from Salome's dialogue (the Zexen council are shits, Chris is in charge because her bosses just died) or that Chris is the best at everything and a woman being good at things is supposed to be a novel enough concept that the audience should find her interesting because how can a girl be the best at everything that's so crazy?
There is maybe 15 minutes of stuff that actually NEEDED to be in her chapter 1. Start as you leave for the meeting, fight battle, go back to Zexen, end. That one segment in the battle even reiterates the character traits we've already learned. Salome is smart, Borus is violent, Roland is kind of a shit. There's even another scene with the Zexen Council at the end of Chris 1 so that the player gets that, yeah, what Salome said about the Council being up their asses isn't just him being judgmental, it's him being right. It would also establish to the audience that Salome is someone who knows what he's talking about rather than someone who repeats things you already know. As you said, the stuff with Hugo is supposed to make us feel bad when Lulu gets killed when he fucks up jumping someone from behind with a knife. Most of Chris' chapter serves no purpose except to tell us stuff that is later repeated from other sources.
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On Suiko3: Eh. I'm going to cop-out and say I'd have to replay it to respond better. Suffice to say I don't recall being excessively annoyed at an over-long exposition, but it's possible that's misty nostalgia. Regardless, even if there is some fat, in absolute amount there isn't tons of it. I'll rag on S3's inter-town travelling before its plot if I'm going to complain about pacing issues.
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Pretty quiet here. Time for more Wall o' Texts. Was travelling recently, so time @airports and the like to burn. So many portable games to play, so much new blood… what should be next… hmm, I know.
Fire Emblem: Awakening, playthrough #4.
Once, there was a strategist named Karl M. He desired a classless Fire Emblem, where all were equal and none were jealous of the other. This proved inadvisable, as everyone had their own unique talents. So he settled for the next best thing: a leveless society, where all had equallish talents, and none were left behind to fester in the Barracks. You have nothing to lose but your chains, Ylliseans.
Yup, inspired by Elf's epic Path of Radiance equal level exploits. Goal is to keep everybody equal in level and see what happens. I have some complaints about how Lunatic enemies were stat'd up; this might be an interesting alternate 'challenge' playthrough.
* Fun first, rules second. This isn't GameFAQs, I'm doing this for my own amusement.
* Casual mode, but only for allowing in-battle saves (e.g. like Radiant Dawn), no deaths allowed until the final mission, recruit everyone. If things go pear-shaped toward the end, I might relax this, but it'd be basically conceding defeat. I'm not cheesing level-ups. Having in-battle saves makes things like misremembering the timing on ninja reinforcements a lot less stressful and thus more fun, see rule #1.
* In general, deploy the lowest level units available. Exceptions:
** It's always legit to deploy Chrom (req'd anyway!) & the Avatar. I'm not going to force them to hang back if their level is "too high." (e.g. Chrom is level 11 right now, I'm deploying mostly level 10 characters with some level 10 characters left benched, but whatever, I'll still use him, just sparingly. Avatar is level 13 but also has Veteran so that feels the sameish, I don't like "punishing" him for Veteran.)
** It's acceptable to deploy someone slightly too high level as a pair-up - e.g. a level 9 character's future wife is level 11, there are still level 10 units undeployed, fine, whatever, it's a level off. (It's the kind of thing that having a super pre-planned XP schedule might fix anyway but that'd be no fun.) If the difference is huge then the other character is only acceptable if never switched to the front. (Only time that really has mattered so far is deploying Fred as strict pair-up bait for Sumia.)
** It's always legit to deploy the lowest-level healer. I'll probably upgrade this to "two lowest-level staff users" for the larger deploy maps. (Otherwise, you're talking about chugging even more potions due to having to be sparing on the healing lest not being able to deploy a healer at all.)
* No Risen grinding or DLC in general, although...
** Olivia, if she is a dancer, can legitimately use DLC (EXPonential Growth) to catch up to the current lowest level if desired. (Also known as "dance grinding for XP after the map is 95% cleared but way faster".)
** A low XP DLC map is legit for grinding up Lissa & Maribelle supports later. (This is a completionist runthrough, and I'm not getting Owain or Brady if their moms are played as healers.)
** I *might* concede a Risen map or two later depending on how dire the kids end up being. We'll see.
* Buying stuff from SpotPass teams is legit. Renown awards & DLC bonuses are not.
** … except that I did get the L Bullion off Renown more for early annoyance reduction than power. Less rotating of items between everyone. (There's still a lot, but it's pretty convenient with the UI - nice faint overlay for who has the item currently, and a green sword icon for "this unit is deployed.")
Finished C10, C11 is up next, aka Gangrel's map. Everybody is level 10-11 at the moment (okay, 1 straggler at L9/94 XP, and Stahl & Gregor at level 12. Avatar is L13, Lissa & Maribelle are L14, Fred/Anna/Libra are starting levels.) Random enemies on this map are L14 usually, with some promoted units as a special surprise. This is where this run will start to get interesting, I imagine.
Also, normally I'd be inclined to alternate M/F/M/F on Avatar genders by playthrough, but… Chrom has already married Sumia/FemAvatar/Maribelle, so I'm doing Chrom/Olivia this runthrough. This means keeping Chrom a safe distance from all marriageable females, and trying to keep FRobin's grubby paws off Chrom is tricky, so it's still bro time, hence Karl Marx but not Emma Goldman. (I somehow managed to get Chrom/Sully to C support accidentally, but Sully also got the first marriage in Sully/Donnel just at the end of C10, so that is dealt with anyway.) Speaking of Donnel, I'm going to keep him a Villager until L15. Risky since his Axe rank will be shenanigans later, but I figure if Underdog is ever worth anything, it'll be at its best in this playthrough.
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Ni No Kuni: Beat a giant lava minotaur thing. You know, this fight would have been somewhat easier if the AI had any inclinct of a survival instinct. Enemy announces a big attack, and they sit there and take it, instead of either trying to run out of way (do-able given it's got some Tales Battle System elements in there) OR put up Defend/Evasion like the game made a point of "If you see enemy charging something big, USE THESE!!!"
As a result, big MT attack goes off, you see your PC either dodge or take like 11 damage when the other PC takes like 50. This is a game with expensive resurrection too, so a character dying can be a pretty big deal, at least this early anyway.
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On Suiko3: Eh. I'm going to cop-out and say I'd have to replay it to respond better. Suffice to say I don't recall being excessively annoyed at an over-long exposition, but it's possible that's misty nostalgia. Regardless, even if there is some fat, in absolute amount there isn't tons of it. I'll rag on S3's inter-town travelling before its plot if I'm going to complain about pacing issues.
As someone who has played the game within the past few years, just posting to second this. While it's true that you could cut some stuff for Chris 1, the extra material there gives you a chance to see the characters bounce off some different situations and I generally enjoyed it.
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Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate: Decided to buy this on a whim. Never played a MH game before except 3's demo, which I disliked. But I heard this one was more accessible so went for it.
Started off with sword and shield, but found myself whiffing attacks past enemies too much. Changed to Switch Axe which I like a lot, good range and speed. Just finished the 2-star quests in the first town and did an expedition.
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DDR II - I have mostly been sticking to Difficult 6 songs, but I will probably try to move up soon. I was thinking when I walked home from the grocery store about how awesome it would be if Janelle Monae's Q.U.E.E.N was a song for DDR. I think I''d be really motivated to play it then. :)
Bayonetta - I ended up finishing the game on Normal. After a bit of a slow start, I think the game becomes quite enjoyable aside from the odd quirk (the shooter stage, while not as bad as the 360 version, could have done without the spinning, and the little shooter part in the third to last stage was kind of weird and annoying). The gameplay is relatively simple but challenging, and the game is always throwing new quirks at you. Grace and Glory were probably created by Satan. Luka and Bayonetta's interactions are amusing, the main villain manages to make an impact with a small number of scenes, and you get to punch God into the sun at the end. Game probably ends up my favorite 3D action game just based on strong gameplay (without horrible camera issues like DMC1).
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker - I've almost finished this, I think. It's a cute little game, but I'm glad it's not very long because it is definitely a bit repetitive after a while. It reminds me somewhat of Kirby, in that it mostly floats by on its cuteness.
Long Live the Queen - I got this game as part of a Humble Bundle sale, and played through it a few times, trying to get different outcomes and endings. It's a fun enough game to play around with and I was addicted to it for about a day, but I'm done with it now.
Paper Mario - This game's beginning is hella unexciting. Hopefully it gets better!
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Chrono Trigger: My sister was complaining about how she went looking for a fun FF game and wound up with FFXIII instead, so I got nostalgic about way back when Square still knew how to make fun games. There's actually some pretty heinous lag on the version I'm playing though (PSN version, so I think it's an artifact of this being ported from the PSX release; a number of the PSX FF reissues had that problem). Just got to the future, still hungry.
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DDR II - I have mostly been sticking to Difficult 6 songs, but I will probably try to move up soon. I was thinking when I walked home from the grocery store about how awesome it would be if Janelle Monae's Q.U.E.E.N was a song for DDR. I think I''d be really motivated to play it then. :)
One of the 360 DDR games has Walk Like an Egyptian. It's p. great.
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Ni No Kuni: You know, game, throwing a big intimidating plot boss that you have to wear down to half health out of nowhere, that you can legitimately die too thanks to powerful attacks, some of which are MT and hard to counter, and THEN go "oh, yeah, there's the two commands that are integral to make this battle system work since it gives you limited control over AI Partners to let them defend and conserve MP!" is not good game design. Honestly, "All Out Defend" and "All Out Attack" literally address two of my major complaints about the game's battle system thus far:
-AI Partners being too stupid to use Defend/Evade against major telegraphed attacks. The game makes a point of telling you exactly how to use this, shows you why it's such a big deal, and you actually make full use of this...then the game makes boss fights designed basically to screw over your allies, essentially turning every fight into Solo Fights (There is resurrection but it's rather pricey at 500 per Phoenix Feather when having 2000 is considered "A lot" in this game, at least the point of the game I'm in.)
-Resource limitations. The game so far has been really bad about this. Your MP totals are in the 2 digits, and some attacks cost that much, and your AI loves to use them unless you tell them not to do it ever, in which case, they're not doing things like healing and leads to situations like "Oh crap, I forgot to turn them back on!" Add in how pricey MP Healing is, as well as how weak it is (basic MP Healing heals 10 MP, and costs 200; my MP scores are like 89/65/39, and some spells cost as much as 18) and you have yourself a game that is a massive resource crunch. There are Blue orbs you can collect but they heal like 5 each and aren't reliable enough.
See, what makes Tales games use the same system but work is a few design choices around them. Tales games generally recover a small portion of TP after fights, and eventually they instituted it where you get MP Back from using basic physicals. Additionally, Orange Gels (let alone improvements like Pine) are cost effective, so if you need more TP in a pinch, you're good.
Yeah, I know I keep having nothing negative to say about this game, but I don't hate it as much as it may sound; it's just the game has so many bad design decisions that hurt any other qualities it can have. Really feels like the game either needed another play-test to hammer out the kinks or people were designing different parts of the game without consulting one another,leading to design philosophies that clash. Like the resources, MP limitations would make sense if the game restored some MP after every fight.
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Dark Souls 2 - Got up to Fume Knight in the Iron King DLC. I have used all my wedges prior to getting here, so one short. Just got punished for exploring. That is some serious fucking bullshit right there.
Edit - Another boss fight in DLC where it quickly approaches anti-fun. It isn't quite Kalameet shitty, but it is no fucking Artorius that is for sure.
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P4 Golden Very Hard Solo:
Momentary Child
Mementary Child has purely physical damage, an ice weakness, and he has to waste a turn, to use his best skill Deathbound. He's bad.
OK he has ONE trick: He can raise his damage and crit rate with Rebellion and Tarukaja. If he got a critical attack under Tarukaja, that COULD have been bad news. Fortunately as long as I defended before he used Deathbound, I was in no danger at any point
Level 33
Killing Hand
Killing Hand, if alone, uses Deathbound, then summons some healing Hand (Which Casts Diarama on Killing Hand nonstop, and has an ice weakness)
Otherwise it only uses physical attacks. It has no weaknesses.
The healing hand cannot be killed with 2 Mabufulas, and it's immune to Dizzy so it always gets one turn to cast Diarama, maybe two.
Plan A was trying to kill the healing hand everytime it was summoned, but it was a huge resource drain and I just didn't have enough SP healing.
Plan B went as follow: Smack the Killing Hand with physical attacks, let the healing hand heal him with Diarama everytime, until the healing hand runs out of SPs. (this takes 39 Diaramas) Afterwards, let it be useless and destroy the killing hand with whatever.
It worked pretty well.
Level 37
Shadow Mitsuo
All his attacks are allmighty so I can't defend myself against them. And they do huge damage.
Time for some ultra grinding.
Phoenix Wright DD: Got this on the iphone. The formula is getting old. I think the mechanics of the series really need to innovate at this point beyond introducing one convoluted new gadget every game.
It's still a pretty decent timewaster so I'll probably finish it!
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Ni No Kuni: You know, game, throwing a big intimidating plot boss that you have to wear down to half health out of nowhere, that you can legitimately die too thanks to powerful attacks, some of which are MT and hard to counter, and THEN go "oh, yeah, there's the two commands that are integral to make this battle system work since it gives you limited control over AI Partners to let them defend and conserve MP!" is not good game design. Honestly, "All Out Defend" and "All Out Attack" literally address two of my major complaints about the game's battle system thus far:
-AI Partners being too stupid to use Defend/Evade against major telegraphed attacks. The game makes a point of telling you exactly how to use this, shows you why it's such a big deal, and you actually make full use of this...then the game makes boss fights designed basically to screw over your allies, essentially turning every fight into Solo Fights (There is resurrection but it's rather pricey at 500 per Phoenix Feather when having 2000 is considered "A lot" in this game, at least the point of the game I'm in.)
-Resource limitations. The game so far has been really bad about this. Your MP totals are in the 2 digits, and some attacks cost that much, and your AI loves to use them unless you tell them not to do it ever, in which case, they're not doing things like healing and leads to situations like "Oh crap, I forgot to turn them back on!" Add in how pricey MP Healing is, as well as how weak it is (basic MP Healing heals 10 MP, and costs 200; my MP scores are like 89/65/39, and some spells cost as much as 18) and you have yourself a game that is a massive resource crunch. There are Blue orbs you can collect but they heal like 5 each and aren't reliable enough.
See, what makes Tales games use the same system but work is a few design choices around them. Tales games generally recover a small portion of TP after fights, and eventually they instituted it where you get MP Back from using basic physicals. Additionally, Orange Gels (let alone improvements like Pine) are cost effective, so if you need more TP in a pinch, you're good.
Yeah, I know I keep having nothing negative to say about this game, but I don't hate it as much as it may sound; it's just the game has so many bad design decisions that hurt any other qualities it can have. Really feels like the game either needed another play-test to hammer out the kinks or people were designing different parts of the game without consulting one another,leading to design philosophies that clash. Like the resources, MP limitations would make sense if the game restored some MP after every fight.
The scary thing is that this version of NNK is an expanded version of the original DS release, so they had an entire game release worth of feedback to go on and still didn't fix many of the problems.
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Dark Souls 2 - Got up to Fume Knight in the Iron King DLC. I have used all my wedges prior to getting here, so one short. Just got punished for exploring. That is some serious fucking bullshit right there.
Edit - Another boss fight in DLC where it quickly approaches anti-fun. It isn't quite Kalameet shitty, but it is no fucking Artorius that is for sure.
I actually like Fume Knight more than most of the original bosses because he's genuinely difficult and satisfying to dodgehax against, but he's definitely super frustrating at first (I fought him first with pugilism souls on NG+, where he can easily kill you in one hit. It was pain). Nothing in his arsenal is undodgeable BS, but he just does so much fucking damage. I'm aware this is not a welcome suggestion, but blocking = probably not ideal here. I see people try it all the time and even with heavy shields he seems capable of wearing you down very quickly. He'll just rip right through your stamina and deal a ton of fire damage anyway (if he's in FRUE POWER mode). Gyrm greatshield sounds preferable if you have to, though? Think it has top fire resist.
Don't bother with the NPC summons at all. Neither of them contribute enough damage to offset the durability boost they give the boss (despite Ellie having the right damage type for that fight), and Carhillion in particular is probably the most worthless summon in the game. Contributes almost no damage because DS2 sorcery, and dies almost immediately. Should probably be easy to get PC summons there at least since goddamn everyone wants help with that fight.
The last wedge is found after beating Sir Alonne. Who can only be fought after Fume Knight. (Sir Alonne is the Artorias caliber fight, pity it's such a bitch getting to him.) I was lucky first time and overlooked one of the statues so I actually had a spare wedge by the time I got to the bottom of the tower. On replays I purposefully leave the top statue intact for last because it does nothing to help any enemies. Obviously not helpful advice for you at this point, though.
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With a little bit of distance I think I know why it irks me compared to Artorius.
The no shield thing I had worked out and that is part of it. Having to fully Jedi the fight feels shitty with the damage he does. Being able to block even part of it would feel like I am using more of me verb set and have more choices (Artorius I could block the first 2 swings of the three hit combo).
The damage punishes significantly harder than Artorius. Artorius would 2 shot me, but it was enough that I could heal and take another hit, I pretty much need to double Estus to survive another hit. Artorius also left a consistent opening on a timer in which you can heal.
The HP pool on this fucker is stupid stupid big. The fight drags on and on and on. It just amplifies the chance of failure. I have +10 Mace and 40 Strength. The only way I am getting more damage out is getting a new Ring of Blades (which would involve beating Smelter lol) and going and getting stuff from other DLC (flynn's Ring?).
I guess I go do The Gutter and kill the Rotten and keep going there. Maybe I get Velstadt helmet and see if only learning one phase helps (because phase one is kind of shitty as well).
Also I had no luck getting summons or summoning either. Not sure if it is a regional problem or if it is just a timing thing
Having to learn two phases is super shitty.
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He definitely does have way too much HP. All of the DLC bosses are notably more durable than the maingame ones, but he's worse about it than most (POIZN dragon might have more, not sure).
Flynn's Ring is great, but only if you travel light. +50 attack power, you've basically got another Ring of Blades +2 on, but the bonus scales down according to your carrying capacity. As long as your max load is less than 60 (I think? It's 14 or less VIT, or 9 VIT + Third Dragon Ring) you get the full bonus; anything more than that and the ring gradually decreases in effectiveness. This is fine for me since I always ignore VIT and wear light armor, but I dunno what you're using.
If you're doing this sorta early in the game (even as early as like mid-game levels), which it sounds like you are if all the Old Ones aren't even dead yet, then there's a decent chance low soul memory kept you from matching anyone. Personally I don't mess with any of the DLC bosses until maingame stuff is cleared. They're just so much meaner.
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Ni No Kuni: Got to Hamelin. This game's interpretation of Fairies is...well, points for DIFFERENT I guess.
Super Mario Galaxy 2: I threw Bullet Bills at a giant mec piloted by Bowser Jr., then proceeded to do 5 more Stars in the next world because shut up.
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Phoenix Wright DD: Got this on the iphone. The formula is getting old. I think the mechanics of the series really need to innovate at this point beyond introducing one convoluted new gadget every game.
It's still a pretty decent timewaster so I'll probably finish it!
Oh wow. Did not expect this to get the iPhone port. Neat. One less reason to want a 3DS.
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Yeah, the port is good and the platform is a perfect fit. You only lose the 3d effects, and no one cares in 2015.
You can save anywhere so the life bar doesn't have mich of a point, I don't know if that was in the original game.
The first trilogy and Ghost Trick also got ported.
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Darn Souls 2 - Beat Rotten. Had to look up where to go and shit to get to Drangleic. Then had to look it up again to work out how to get to Aldia's Keep. The fact that they are both from the same area is both depressing and shows a greater need for direction.
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Yeah, the port is good and the platform is a perfect fit. You only lose the 3d effects, and no one cares in 2015.
You can save anywhere so the life bar doesn't have mich of a point, I don't know if that was in the original game.
The first trilogy and Ghost Trick also got ported.
You could actually save anywhere in every Ace Attorney game. The only difference is that in the older ones, if you forgot to save, and you died, that you would have to redo everything since you last saved (a colossal waste of time in a text adventure; unlike in Mega Man, Dark Souls, etc., you aren't proving anything by re-reading text and remaking decisions you now know the answers for). Dual Destinies finally figured out that was stupid and now the game picks up from just before where you died even if you haven't saved recently. This makes the life bar entirely for personal pride but I'm fine with that.
I actually thought all the polish improvements in DD (along with the usual high quality of writing) made the game one of the most enjoyable in the series; I didn't really see the need for much innovation beyond that.
For my own gaming, I have started Bayonetta 2 (seems a lot like the first, but that's not a bad thing) and am still playing KIU... one chapter away from beating them all on intensity 7, and have now beaten several on 9. Hooray~
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Alpha Sapphire: E4 rematch beaten a few days ago, been procrastinating on the writeup since. Came in with an all-L60 team, ended up with Masquerain at L68 since it did all the sweeping and everyone else at lower exp-share induced levels. No recaps since every fight was a repetitive debuff-then-Quiver Dance sweep, but Steven's Carbink barely survived a +6 Shadow Ball and broke Masquerain's sub. That left it at ~60% HP with no protection up against a Mega-Metagross with STAB priority (Bullet Punch). I'm not sure if it Masquerain would've survived that, but thankfully the AI didn't use Bullet Punch so it didn't matter.
The original Pokeniu (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/56822682/Pokeniu.txt) run was one part attempt to play around with many of Gen 2's notoriously crappy fully evolved Pokemon* and one part attempt at seeing just how low the GSC difficulty curve could sink vs a team of underlevelled, understatted Pokemon. The answer was pretty low indeed, resulting in gameplay experiences like Aipom running rampant through midgame random trainers and Sunflora sweeping the Ice gym leader with Growth+Mega Drain despite being weak to, you know, Ice. <_<
*It says a lot that five of the original Pokeniu team (Piloswine, Sneasel, Murkrow, Togetic, got evolutions in Gen 4 while another one got a de facto revamp via Huge Power.
The main downside to the original Pokeniu run was that when I ran into the rare competent boss with multiple good Pokemon (or in Lance's case, good if your sources of Ice damage are total crap >_>), I had to resort to Potion spam to win without overlevelling, which isn't very satisfying. RSE had its share of crappy Pokemon (though a much smaller percentage of new Pokemon overall, thankfully), but noticably higher difficulty level compared to GSC made a Pokeniu-type challenge run feel unappealing when I considered it on paper.
By Gen 6 movepool improvements (and infinite-use TMs, for in-game) had greatly the powerlevels of most weak Pokemon even if they didn't get an evolution/Mega/overpowered ability. Almost everything gets has good STAB options nowadays, and usually okay coverage options as well. More interesting was the rise of crazy powerful buffing moves like Quiver Dance, which got handed out to lots of underpowered Bug types. This made it feasible, with some luck, to beat even the overlevelled E4 rematch, with actual strategy rather than just potion spam. I made tentative plans for how a Pokeniu-esque playthrough could go while playing through Alpha Sapphire with a more conventional team, then finalized them in about a week's worth of planning after finishing my first run.
This was more Pokeniu-inspired than a proper Pokeniu sequel, so I made a female trainer named Niuko rather than a male named something like Niutwo. I also didn't bother with anything resembling the dumb fanfic material from the original; if you missed that, just imagine Niuko writing a bunch of ArchiexMaxie and StephenxWallace slash as she went along her journey. Instead I focused on taking notes on how the gameplay went, especially the boss fights... which backfired a bit as I've repeatedly stalled on progressing due to being lazy with actually posting about this. I'm working on some detailed comments on all twelve Pokemon used throughout this run, but due to the length I'll be splitting it out into a separate post. Hopefully I can finish typing it all up before next weekend arrives. <_<
To commemorate the run, here's a secret base QR code. The base name is kinda silly, but I'm too lazy to generate a new code to fix it:
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/56822682/HNI_0033.JPG)
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Yeah, the port is good and the platform is a perfect fit. You only lose the 3d effects, and no one cares in 2015.
You can save anywhere so the life bar doesn't have mich of a point, I don't know if that was in the original game.
The first trilogy and Ghost Trick also got ported.
You could actually save anywhere in every Ace Attorney game. The only difference is that in the older ones, if you forgot to save, and you died, that you would have to redo everything since you last saved (a colossal waste of time in a text adventure; unlike in Mega Man, Dark Souls, etc., you aren't proving anything by re-reading text and remaking decisions you now know the answers for). Dual Destinies finally figured out that was stupid and now the game picks up from just before where you died even if you haven't saved recently. This makes the life bar entirely for personal pride but I'm fine with that.
I actually thought all the polish improvements in DD (along with the usual high quality of writing) made the game one of the most enjoyable in the series; I didn't really see the need for much innovation beyond that.
For my own gaming, I have started Bayonetta 2 (seems a lot like the first, but that's not a bad thing) and am still playing KIU... one chapter away from beating them all on intensity 7, and have now beaten several on 9. Hooray~
Yeah I guess the save system is an improvement and it was never really relevent. It would be pretty cool if there was a LA Noire system with the possibility of failure during the story, but I guess that would demand a ton more work.
As far as innovation goes I think that even if the games have been telling vastly different stories, they feel very same-y because they've been using the same effects since day 1 to punctuate its stories: The same music, screen flashes, sound effects (There's "Ding!!", "Uhh??" and the one that sounds like a videogame slash, to indicate a hit), portraits, presentation of the environment, etc.
There's also little things like :
When you're cross examining a witness, you press him for more info, another sentence was added to this testimony: You know this means that this added sentence is the flaw in the testimony.
It's been there forever, it makes some sense in the context of the game but it's pretty much bullshit.
Oh btw this isn't a problem at all, but I hope they never bring up Occam's Razor because this law doesn't exist in the PW universe. Nope.
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When you're cross examining a witness, you press him for more info, another sentence was added to this testimony: You know this means that this added sentence is the flaw in the testimony.
It's been there forever, it makes some sense in the context of the game but it's pretty much bullshit.
Yeah this part in particular is very true. Occasionally they'll have an added statement be worthless (but only if there are multiple possible added statements) but even this mild subversion is like once or twice per game. To some extent I think this is just an inevitable result of them trying to keep things relatively easy since this is very much a "casual" text adventure game for people who want to see a story, but I do agree that as a longtime fan I'd like to see them try trickier things.
Changing little things like visual/sound effects is something I don't have a strong opinion on but I suspect they keep them around because some vocal people get very whiny whenever you change things like that, no matter how irrelevant. (see: the Dragon Quest fanbase). I will say that I am glad the redid all the art for this game; it looks much better (even while being in the same style).
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I hope they do use Occam's Razor one day. But I hope that it is 100% literal in that there is someone called Occam who is killed with his own razor.
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And then in a shocking twist, it turns out that Occam is actually the villain from case 1 disguised as Occam, and the killer is actually Occam disguised as your assistant.
Where is your assistant? That's what Case 5 is for.
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When you're cross examining a witness, you press him for more info, another sentence was added to this testimony: You know this means that this added sentence is the flaw in the testimony.
It's been there forever, it makes some sense in the context of the game but it's pretty much bullshit.
Yeah this part in particular is very true. Occasionally they'll have an added statement be worthless (but only if there are multiple possible added statements) but even this mild subversion is like once or twice per game. To some extent I think this is just an inevitable result of them trying to keep things relatively easy since this is very much a "casual" text adventure game for people who want to see a story, but I do agree that as a longtime fan I'd like to see them try trickier things.
AAI2 had a few sequences where you had to repeatedly press new statements to get to the actual contradiction, which isn't any harder since there's never a penalty for pressing the wrong statement in that game but at least avoids the press->present autopilot.
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AAI spin off series it really doesn't matter in though because pressing on random shit gives you more Edgeworth dialogue (which is totes edge worthy).
AAI2 does still start Edgeworth right?
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SJW Inquisition: Beaten. Good God this game is tedious. There are huge, very expansive environments that are mostly served towards making you do quests that really feel meaningless (find my engagement ring! Kill a bunch of goats! Put flowers on a grave!). When you get to an area, there's this vomit of quest objectives all over the place, but very few of them are worth your time in the end. You get Influence and Power for doing most things, but beyond a certain point, both have very little practical utility and you don't gather enough influence to really make some of these minor things worthwhile. Really, the only thing worth doing most of the time are clearing out the rifts, since that gives a good chunk of experience, influence, and power. Eventually, you learn that most quests aren't worth going out of your way to do at all. This ended up being like 2/3s of the game, and thus the majority of the game's runtime is spent doing what really feels like busywork. The main game can probably be done in 20 hours, but it's a shame that the extra quests you do in this game don't feel like they're substantial at all. There is potential in this kind of gameplay loop wherein you stake out territory for the Inquisition and really effect change in the politics of an area, clearing out rifts and generally making some of these areas into less of a shithole. All you do currently is get camps that act as fast travel/potion restoration points. The Inquisition expands its influence in terms of territory, but then it is just there.
Most of the story missions are fairly interesting, but they do range from the novel (the Winter Palace) to weird mumbo jumbo Fade magic demon nonsense. It also falls into the weird Bioware trap where you make choices that feel like they could matter in the moment but things turn out the same way no matter what you do. Choices that should have had emotional resonance rang a little hollow or seemed clearcut, perhaps because I hadn't played the previous games in such a long time. The story itself was a lot of aforementioned mumbo jumbo, which would have been fine if the characters were stronger. They have converse with each other here and there with each other and there are some nice contextual banters (Iron Bull being elated every time he fights a dragon), but the character quests seemed fairly brief rather than having fully realized arcs. I didn't have an especially strong affinity for many of the characters. Iron Bull was entertaining and Varric is okay. The others are sort of fine. Dorian is clearly a character that was only made because of SJW masterminds. I think that most of these characters will leave my memory in a week. The Codex in this is extensive as usual but I don't think I'll really go back and read it over. I say that after every Bioware game.
All of this may have been fine if the combat weren't so damned awkward. I don't even know how to describe it, but positioning is annoying and all of the attack animations are very prescribed. It got to the point where I decided to control an archer instead of my main dual dagger character. Archers are really straightforward to play and I got lazy. I played on hard and some fights did get a little dicey and forced me to make use of the tactical mode, but for the most part, it felt like I was just chipping away at enemies who had too much HP for their own good. Combat felt kind of like a chore after a while, and this is a shame because I do think the skill trees could have made for some really interesting character setups if the combat felt better. Even DA2 with all its problems felt more gratifying when you were splattering dudes for ridiculous damage with a dual dagger rogue. Here it's just a lot more laborious and it doesn't feel like you're getting more powerful until you get a weapon that's of your level (level-locked weapons are such a boring idea).
The character unique skill trees all had some cool stuff in them, but I was so underwhelmed by the combat that it felt kind of wasted. There were imbalances here and there (Vivienne's specialty was overpowered), and I never found reason to deviate from my main party later in the game unless it was a part of a quest. The inventory is also kind of fucked but someone here already mentioned that.
I feel like the structure of putting together something like the Inquisition could have been so much more interesting. You have three advisors who oversee the military, your intelligence network, and diplomacy, but all that amounts to is Candy Crush-like countdowns to finish missions for paltry amounts of gold or Influence. It unlocks a few other quests but little that felt really meaningful. Again, a major problem here is that it never felt like you were really affecting anything in the world. You would get an alliance with major world players but that manifests through like 60 Influence points, not any story or conversation options. You accrue a larger army but that doesn't amount to anything. I mentioned this in a post about Mass Effect 2's Suicide Mission, but I would really like a game where you put together a squad or build and organization and your personnel decisions and what you build towards affect meaningful outcomes. Bioware hasn't managed to get there yet (ME3 only had a minimum readiness requirement) and SJW Inquisition doesn't come close either. It's frustrating because the ideas are there but maybe they can never come to fruition with the current formula. Maybe something with Mordor's Nemesis system where you can choose who to take out but with more substantial damage to the enemy's power structure. I don't know, I feel like some of these systems can really be put together to make something amazing but it's not there yet.
So I spent 60 hours on this in total and I don't necessarily regret them, but a lot of those hours were spent in that empty open environment loop which doesn't amount to much that is tangible. I don't really recommend this game, and I'll be fairly happy to move onto something else.
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I don't know if you will ever see it used really large scale. The time spent on a system like that to be truly interesting to procedurally generate a power structure is more significant than people are prepared to spend on a few hard cut offs or maybe if you are feeling like burning all the bridges you can, a purely random selection from a limited pool of options.
Still looking forward to getting to it though. I suspect that the most interesting things of the game are actually going to be entirely outside of the play. All the "SJW" components, the new way of handling "save" data transfer I think is fantastic and a great way to go forward and Varric Dialogue are all I honestly expect to get out of it.
I only realised last night while wiki walking through unrelated things that the game has Multiplayer tagged on. I loved it in ME3, but I never expected it to get shoe horned into DA games. It was a happy fit in ME3, but daaaaaamn do I not expect much from it here.
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Yeah I think there's inevitably going to be this tradeoff between a procedurally generated structure and the ability to tell a coherent story within that structure. Mordor doesn't pull it off because it doesn't really give a shit about its story.
The Keep is pretty good although not all of my choices seemed to go through correctly (it made my Hawke a mage for some reason). Your choices from other games do make a difference, particularly with regard to one character and that storyline. SJW Inquisition is also left open to sequels, so maybe it will lead to another Keep situation where your choices carry over. I felt like I was fairly careless with my choices since I wasn't especially invested with the story this time and I didn't bother to do everything possible with all of the characters. When it comes to it, I may mainline another Inquisitor if a sequel comes out. It will probably be much smoother if you skip all the extraneous bullshit.
Oh, the game also has 10 dragons to kill, and those are actually decent fights. Still, they tended to be tests of endurance rather than being very tactical (some of them are just looooong). They spit out good unique loot, and it felt like you really got something out of putting in the effort to fight them, which sadly isn't the case for most fights in the game.
And yeah, the game does have scary SJW elements. Many of your advisors are female, the party has several females that are members of every class, there's a trans character, there's Dorian, Iron Bull is basically pansexual, and your romance options are fairly expansive. That GG sees this as a negative is hilarious.
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Choices I wouldn't ever make in real life aren't actually choices. Literally have no love interests in game because I am mostly no interested in sex. Plz Devs ink ever make games where you have conversations with people of either sex full of jokes about sloppy sex, sweaty blowjobs and dry make outs with no actual sex. /ghazipost
Dark Souls 2 - Got through Dragon bits. Every fucking area got invasions once a run. Busy night. Disconnected just so I could run through boring area with no boss.
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Metal Gear Solid - I did the first mission, got to the second mission, walked around like a drunken fridge, declared that the game was as fun as having genital warts, and took it out of the console. I may have overreacted slightly.
Super Mario Galaxy - For some reason I never finished this game, so I decided to start over. Just piddling around in the first galaxy right now.
Super Smash Bros. Wii U - I've been playing this from time to time, but yesterday I got +6 with Dedede. :D
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The first trilogy and Ghost Trick also got ported.
Yeah, had already played both of those on the phone. It really is a great platform for it, and I'm glad they opted to do the porting.
To some extent I think this is just an inevitable result of them trying to keep things relatively easy since this is very much a "casual" text adventure game for people who want to see a story, but I do agree that as a longtime fan I'd like to see them try trickier things.
I dunno. Given the weird leaps of logic they use sometimes (I've certainly had to bang my head against a wall a few times to figure out what the hell the game expects of me in court), I'm not sure I want them to try something tricky. >_>
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Now Ciatos will never discover whether love can bloom on a battlefield. :(
CT: mysteries accumulate during the run-up to Magus. Why does a dinosaur have a navel? Why do cavemen sell guns? Why is Frog so bad?
Touhou Labyrinths: got up to the last boss. It is basically the Star Dragon Sword and appropriately jerkish. Cue griiiiiiiind. Also my melee characters are all running around with Lanius' mask on. It's pretty pro.
EP: I had to table this for a few days after fucking up the requirements for Thage good ending. I have a file right before that map, but fuck I hate that stage.
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Dark Souls 2 - Still doing Fume Knight. Literally only slightly less fun than Kalameet. Fuck this bullshit. Guess I wasted money on that DLC. Oh well.
Edit - I can get invaded while I alt-tab to make this post, but I can't find any summons. WoOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
Edit edit - Go to do Ashen Mist Heart shit because hiding the end of your game in fucking random shit all over the world is great ideas. First one I try is in Forest of Fallen Giants. Run to where Pursuer dies. Boring easy run. Climb some stairs. Some giants throw fire balls really fast. Enemies never seen before. Die. Respawn back at bonfire outside the memory.
k
Alt-F4.
So like when you talk about the end of a game being fucking shitty and disappointing? This is what you should complain about. DS2 is super strong right up until you leave Drangleic Castle in my opinion. Everything after that is flat and obtuse padding bullshit. Undead Crypt is boring. Aldia's Keep and Dragon Aerie frankly suck. This is fucking Wind Waker original Triforce Maps bullshit right here.
I am also mad at the DLC boss being shit, because the rest of the Iron Throne DLC? Was hard but fun and mostly fair and challenging back like 30 levels ago. Now I am frankly overlevelled by what I understand the end game meta to be at (2.5 million soul memory and level 156 Soul Level) and Fume Knight is still fucking dumb as shit. I don't feel like being cock blocked by a boring meat wall that is overtuned in damage outgoing and a massive HP pool size. I have seriously thought about whether it is worth Red Tearstone Ringing up and trying to rip off as much HP as I can while he spawns and then goes rageface because I have Velstadt's helm on (which I gave up on not using because Phase 1 is shitty, boring and a billion times less predictable than Phase 2).
I might actually ragequit and not finish this which is mega disappointing because everything up until now I thought was coasting as better than Dark Souls 1 just on the strength of the quality of life improvements making the play so much better.
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Is Kalameet really that bad of a boss? Maybe I just played through it too many times but he's not really that hard unless you're trying to cut his tail (which admittedly is unfun obnoxious). Definitely like that boss more than I like fighting basically any of the Lord Soul bosses minus 4King. (Nito is sillyrandom, Seath justs sucks, and Bed of Chaos stops being interesting immediately after the first time you beat her.)
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Edit edit - Go to do Ashen Mist Heart shit because hiding the end of your game in fucking random shit all over the world is great ideas. First one I try is in Forest of Fallen Giants. Run to where Pursuer dies. Boring easy run. Climb some stairs. Some giants throw fire balls really fast. Enemies never seen before. Die. Respawn back at bonfire outside the memory.
k
Alt-F4.
So like when you talk about the end of a game being fucking shitty and disappointing? This is what you should complain about. DS2 is super strong right up until you leave Drangleic Castle in my opinion. Everything after that is flat and obtuse padding bullshit. Undead Crypt is boring. Aldia's Keep and Dragon Aerie frankly suck. This is fucking Wind Waker original Triforce Maps bullshit right here.
Bolded a portion for emphasis. Yeah, it's really frustrating how dull the endgame is in DS2. I'm kind of okay with Undead Crypt just because Velstadt's a good fight, but everything after that is just shit bosses and post-Drangleic in general is jarring for being railroad linear after the game giving you freedom to do whatever the hell order in hunting down the old ones.
Most of the Ashen Mist Heart sections are in the forest*, actually, and they are the greyest, boringest places in the entire game. Especially unfun is boss smacking you in the face with a giant sword you couldn't see because a fireball left a cloud in the way. Giant Lord strong contender for worst boss in the game and it's one of the last things you do. Not an ideal way to go out, DS2.
(*There's one in Vendrick's room and another in Freja's room. I'm just waiting for the wall of profanity we'll get from Gref vs. Vendrick btw.)
I'm kind of surprised Fume Knight's proving quite this much trouble. What's your HP at? Did you not twink out the estus all the way?
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Like you said, Kalameet's tail is the only source of frustration on the bastard. Once you have his tells down, he becomes an absolute joke. It's just nearly killing the freak from near-misses on the tail is such tedium. I could probably still no-hit him after all this time due to how engraved into my bones his tells are because I had to fight him way-too-many time.
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Kalameet sucks for similar reasons as Fume Knight honestly. 1 billion HP more than is necessary. Optional side boss? Tons of HP? Care factor is nil.
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DS2 BR - Experimenting with Add Ons, but it seems there is no way to get the ExCharge ability onto the demons. Crap, there goes my uber Shiva build... unless this weeks free DLC demons come with it.
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Kalameet sucks for similar reasons as Fume Knight honestly. 1 billion HP more than is necessary. Optional side boss? Tons of HP? Care factor is nil.
I… what?
Yeah OK I imagine we get different things out of the game and probably won't agree on this. I am inclined to skip bosses like, say, Priscilla for the opposite reason. Low challenge, low reward, dies too quick to really matter.
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Priscilla was boring for like 2 minutes because she died. Kalameet was boring for significantly longer than that. Boredom is the worst sin a game can do to me.
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I guess my point is that I didn't find the fight boring.
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Super Mario World - I decided on a whim to replay this game. While it doesn't have the great stage design of the old games or interesting extra mechanics of the newer games, but it's still a fun romp and a blast from the past (it was the first game I ever played much at all). Cape is probably the second most broken regular power up, after the Coptershroom from NSMBWii, it lets you fly indefinitely, control your height change, wrecks enemies to a much greater degree than the Leaf from SMB3. Blue Yoshi is also broke as fuck.
I ended up doing all of the aftergame stages, predictably having the most trouble with Tubular, Awesome, and Outrageous (the 80'sest aftergame of any game ever?). The map I had the most trouble with in the maingame was Castle 7, except for the boss who was a giant wuss. In fact, all of the bosses except Wendy were giant wusses. Misandry?
Super Mario Galaxy - I've collected about 20 stars and I'm about to challenge the second galaxy's boss stage. I'm not sure exactly if I will collect all of the 120 stars or just the 60 required to kick Bowser's ass.
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Bayonetta 2 - Just beat Alraune. I'm having a blast with this game. Bayonetta was already pretty good but the sequel seems to have stripped most of the cluttery gimmicks which in hindsight were a real drag on its pacing. Generally a joy. I died way, way too much to Masked Lumen 2, and Prophet + Alraune weren't much better. "Look at it this way... it could have been worse!" I think the randoms (and plotless monster bosses) could probably be slightly better but damned if they aren't fun anyway.
Long Live the Queen - Started this a few days ago, beat it after a couple failed attempts in which I got shot and then ran afoul of a bishie supervillain. Have since been playing more, got a few more endings, and have looked up some things to do still more stuff. Also I have saved the world with the power of music and it was badass. I'm not quite sure exactly what I think about the game, and am unlikely to go out and play dozens more like it, but it has been a thoroughly enjoyable experience, at worst ranking notably above average for a visual novel/adventure experience. Could be anywhere from 6/10 to 8/10.
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Ni No Kuni: I'm beating up Undead on a random mountain because we're stuck in the past because plot convenience. I'd try to question why this is happening but my speculation on what the truth of this game's plot actually is needs to be disproven FIRST, since if I'm right, then the game sort of explains itself that way. Also resource issues getting a little less annoying now that I can defend at will with everyone thus blue things pop out more!
Super Mario Galaxy 2: Beat Bowser 2. That was an annoying fight because it felt like so much little stuff could go wrong and nothing that really makes the fight hard, just tedious. A failed hit means you have to sit through 3 Bowser Actions before you get a chance to hit him again. 41 stars in any event.
Kirby Triple Deluxe: Completed, got all Sun Stones and...that's only 70%? Yeah, I'm not getting all the Keychains because seriously! NOW TO OVERANALYZE A KIRBY GAME!!!
Had quite a bit of fun with this because it was more KSS/Return to Dreamland style gameplay, which is just giving a fair number of powers (including a large majority of the staple ones like Beam, Sword, Hammer, Fighter, Stone etc.) and skill-sets to all of them as well so none of them feel boring (even Stone and Wheel at least made an attempt at one though Stone always had this since RtDL, can't remember if Wheel did.) The new powers...well...
Beetle seemed boring until near the end when I found some quirks it has like being the only weapon with Slashing AND Pounding Capabilities, as well as the throw can be used as a legitimate projectile for serious damage, making Beetle out to basically be a total replacement of Suplex that's usable on bosses reasonably enough (Suplex was stylish but not practical.)
Circus was silly, but outside of being Fire, didn't seem all that useful. Bell seemed a little more straight forward but more novel than actually good; it had some quirks like hitting both sides and bouncing projectile.
The real highlight, though, is Archer. That's probably the best new power Kirby has seen in...well...I'm not sure how long. Projectile that's got limited aim-ability, can he charged, has fun little tricks that can be useful, and are just stylish (the dash jump move made me think of the Archery video MC linked to in Miscellaneous links.)
Hyper Nova was a way to incorporate the Super Abilities from RtDL but be different about it; I kind of liked it but yeah, it does dumb the game down for parts, but at least it wasn't overused. A better used gimmick, though, was the usage of the dual planes, with the foreground and background. The newer Donkey Kong Country games did dabble in this a bit, but it felt more like a visual gimmick to allow usage of the background, rather than actually gameplay oriented. Triple Deluxe actually made the 2 planes seem meaningful, doing quite a bit with it; won't get into details, easier to just watch some stages.
One thing that DID annoy me about the game was the insistence on using Gyro Controls for a number of sequences. Nintendo, I thought we were past the "use system gimmick for the sake of using it!" stage. Having to tilt the 3DS to basically do random puzzles based on a stupid physics engine was not fun. Luckily, outside of fuse puzzles, they never got TOO crazy with them, but it still broke up the gameplay and was jarring.
Triple Deluxe further establishes what is needed for a good Kirby game overall, which is basically "emulate Kirby Super Star" as opposed to "Emulate the Dark Matter Trilogy!" AMazing Mirror was clearly trying something different, and Squeak Squad felt like it sort of got it but limited it. RtDL is the first game to really go "Oh, right, those things called skillsets exist, and make a bunch of powers a lot more interesting rather than one dimensional." Also allows flexibility in plot...yes, it is a Kirby Game plot, but the basic premise of "evil entity thing comes and possesses characters and makes them evil!" and it always being the same group gets dull FAST. Honestly Dark Matter/Zero is also one of the blandest final boss designs in the franchise, being just an Evil Eyeball of DOOM!!!
Speaking of final bosses, I feel like this was probably the most "epic" Kirby final boss ever. Between fighting two DeDeDe forms, then Tarzana, then fighting a giant Magical Vespiquen, who proceeds to throw a radioactive Audrey 2 at you which Kirby must be fired out of a cannon to defeat, THEN you fight her again with MORE Audrey 2's, then HYPER NOVA DUAL...yeah this is a jRPG Final Boss. Which is a step down in terms of PLot Overpoweredness from what Kirby normally fights, that being Abstract Cosmic Horrors, so it's kind of strange that one of Kirby's weaker final bosses puts up the most persistent fight.
But hey, I can't complain; she is accompanied by bad ass music (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmxR486CYgk) in the last real fight, which well, honestly, this game has one of Kirby's better OSTs.
More importantly, back to the KSS thing, pretty much everything that bugs me about the Dark Matter Trilogy doesn't show up in any other games, and feels like they were trying to make a new standard that never caught on, like a bunch of bland forgettable new enemies (those kappas stand out; I only remember them because they were fairly frequent), the usage of Adelei in an attempt to make this arbitrary memorable human character, the lack of Meta KNight (granted, he wasn't big until arguably KSS), and either leaving out a bunch of major powers, or redoing how they work, be it changing Stone's physics entirely, not having Sword/Hammer, making Cutter go from the Rapid Fire Boomerang to slow single shot boomerang that ALSO removes Kirby's fight ability, and even was the series that said "can't fight the real final boss unless you play 100%!" Granted, RtDL did this as well, which was nice that Triple Deluxe removed that, instead going the Mario route of "get all collectables, open up special bonus stages!" Though unlock those games, RtDL didn't require specific powers to get items, or if it did, the power was usually right there (usually, it was 'need power with this trait' and usually there were multiple powers that covered that.)
...really, what I'm saying is the Dark Matter trilogy is the worst thing to happen to Kirby like ever; K64 wasn't too bad to be fair, but still not as good as Amazing Mirror or Squeak Squad, which I'd call "average" Kirby games. The fact that those games went out of their way to ignore the games that preceded them (KDL2 ignored a lot of what KA did, KDL3/64 ignored Super Star) just further demonstrates they were bad directions to take the series. I think JSH was right that those who made the Dark Matter trilogy had a very different view of Kirby than like everyone else.
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MH4U: So basically this game is Dark Souls, except bosses don't have hp gauges to tell you if you're making any progress and every boss is The Pursuer. As in, you don't have twitch skills to dodge these attacks in time, you have to know what they're going to do beforehand. And the only way you learn these tells is getting your face smashed by them repeatedly.
So it's decent, but feels unpolished compared to Dark Souls. Which is a bit odd considering how much longer it's been around. It's pretty though for a 3DS game.
Currently on the four star quests.
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Ziggurat - played a bunch
Finished beating the game on easy with every character, have since made 1-2 attempts with each character to beat it on Normal but I've failed every run except my second attempt with Kraz. Got to the final floor with Corvus, and the second-last floor with several characters (and failed on the first floor with numerous characters :( ), but oh well, I never claimed to be good at the game.
I've finished unlocking all the weapons/etc now so I probably won't be playing much more unless they add a bunch in an update.
Crystal Caves (the DOS game, not that game with a similar name that came out recentlyish) - played through all episodes
Good, simple, fun. When the somewhat-terrible jump mechanics aren't playing up - it should not be so difficult to jump into a one-tile-high passage. I also recognised a bunch of scenarios from my youth where you need to do things in particular orders otherwise you end up becoming unable to complete the level, which would probably have been otherwise infuriating if I'd fallen into them, so I may not have the purest opinion. Time limits on vital abilities (mostly reversed-gravity) probably not the best design choice.
Also that one level where you had to pick up a second gravity pill while still under the effects of one, which brought you to normal gravity then threw you into permanent reverse gravity once the timer ran out - that is just bizarre. I guess it can't have be too obscure if I was able to figure it out (and it wasn't something that I remembered happened).
Machinarium - played through
Not a fan. I'm having trouble remembering what my problems with it were, unfortunately - I know I hated the UI, I want to say it had some sort of terrible setup where interactable things would only change the mouse cursor on mouse-over if you were near them, but that seems so off-kilter I can't commit to believing that was the case. I can at least remember that using inventory items was endlessly frustrating because half the time the inventory bar wouldn't show up when you waved the mouse at it, and because there was no quick way to cancel out of attempting to use an inventory item - you had to wait for the bar to cooperate so you could manually put it back.
I remember hearing somewhere that they want to make the game such that it used as little written language as possible, but it really doesn't help me if I pick up a random strip of something in the store and have no idea what it's supposed to be. Try using it on a pool of gunk later on during one of my I-have-no-ideas-how-to-proceed periods expecting a result of either nothing or of it being dipped in the gunk for some unknown reason, instead it inexplicably gets waved about in a bunch of insects above said pool and they get collected. A week or so after this I was listening to something which brought up the Zombie Paper from Earthbound and I was like 'Oh, that thing in Machinarium was fly paper' but how the heck the game expected me to figure this out is beyond me.
Another example: the frozen zig-zaggy pipe in the cooling system is made of rubber, apparently. Maybe they are in real life! I don't know how they keep their shape in that case, and I feel like rubber could be too brittle when frozen for that kind of work (although it's not like car tires freeze or anything so I could easily be underselling rubber here), but even if they are I don't know that. Who knows that? Instead I'm trying everything on everything and I try this presumably metal pipe on the saucepan and okay apparently it's actually a rubber hose now that we've warmed it up. Fine, I know what I can do with one of those.
Also several points where the puzzle consisted of 'find some hard-to-see thing', such as the hook hanging on the pipe system. Would say the electric wire also counts, although it could be argued that I should have seen what happened to it after it snapped. The puzzle which caused that is also one that I would probably never have gotten if I hadn't seen a similar puzzle in Botanicula already. Enough complaining about Machinarium!
Citizens of Earth 3DS - Managed to progress from the prologue to chapter 2 in the month since I last reported in. It is the most compelling of games.
Partial list of things to complain about in CoE:
- There is no in-game way to load a saved game and the main menu always defaults to new game.
- It uses that horrible system where there's no grace period between dialogue bringing up a menu and the menu options being selectable, so often I end up selecting menu options while trying to advance dialogue.
- I got stuck in geometry in my last session. Somehow managed to escape eventually.
- It crashed in my last session (in the sense of falling back to Home with 'There has been a system error, restart the console').
- The paging system is terrible, you always start off from the first item and you can typically only advance one item at a time. You can advance a page at a time in the Almanac but pages in the Almanac also take longer to come up so that's kind of a wash.
Also, it seems like a lot of the more exotic items in the game are terrible, so it may turn out that for most item lists you're going to spend most time at the top anyway? Difficult to tell at this point, but the Almanac (bestiary) is just going to get more and more infuriating to use as the game progresses. - It's valid for enemies to run into party members other than yourself to start a battle, which would be fine if you didn't take up so much of the screen and if the party members didn't trace out your footsteps. Nothing like attempting to reverse course to get away from an enemy while your party members charge blindly ahead into the spot where you were and end up getting hit by them.
There's actually a party member whose special ability is to change the zoom level. I don't currently have them so I can only zoom out an almost-negligible amount, but once I get the chance I am so setting things to minimum zoom (and presumably running into some other issue that this will cause). - The last two boss fights I've attended I had no real idea were about to start, and consequently didn't get the chance to save the game. Possibly could get remedied when I get to zoom out.[/I]
I am still somehow getting some sort of enjoyment out of seeing what sort of moves/equipment/etc. everyone is getting and so on, albeit clearly not enough to make me play it with anything approaching regularity.
Jurassic Park: The Game - played episode 1
Died 3 times, got 8 gold medals, 3 silver medals, and 1 no-medal.
I don't want to say it's proto-TWD, because it goes in for QTEs much more than TWD does and doesn't have anywhere near as much dialogue among other things, but it does kinda feel a little like that?
I have no idea how people are supposed to be able to complete some of these non-optional QTEs without knowing what they're going to be ahead of time, but it is mr. garbage-at-rhythm-games talking here so I'm probably just bad at it.
Always possible that things are going to go sharply downhill, but I'd so far I'd say the game is more mediocre-middling than bad. I'm interested in seeing where the story is going, at least. More than I can say for CoE although that may partially be due to CoE not really having gotten around to actually starting its story yet.
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Kirby Nightmare in Dreamland: It's Kirby's Adventure with better graphics and some minor tweaks that don't mean a whole lot, so really refer to what I said about that game in the last post. 100% run through, guess I need to complete extra mode to do Meta Knight Mode, the one compelling reason to get this game if you already have Adventure, because otherwise you're just spending money twice on the same game in effect...
...well, no, I guess this version has gamepad support while the version I have, the Anniversary Collection, does not, so there's that convenience, but not worth the price I paid for it. Not saying the game is overpriced, just not worth the price if you have some version of Kirby's Adventure already.
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Bayonetta 2 - Finished. I'm still working out how it compares to the first game. It does some things better and some things worse, but arguably the most important change is keeping things focussed on the solid action gameplay instead of two many gimmicks (the gimmicks still exist, but are spread out enough / fun enough for them to not drag like in the first game). Though, I will say that the final battle felt anticlimactic which is kind of a weird feeling in Bayonetta which is normally so over-the-top.
Played on third climax. I had a lot of trouble with the midgame (Masked Lumen 2, Prophet, Alraune) but much less towards the end, and I'm not sure how much of this is me getting better the game and how much is the game itself. Game took me 9 hours, according to the Wii U tracking thing, which is notably less than the first game. Some of that is the game being legitimately shorter (similar number of stages, but they aren't as long), and some of that is cutting out some of the bullshit (as well as shorter times for climax attacks etc.), probably.
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Super Mario Galaxy - I fought the second boss, which was Bowser being goofy, but the much harder fight was some random boss stage where you only have one health against this weird robot thing that throws you into a lightning wall.
Paper Mario - Showing its anti-capitalism tendencies by portraying the bob-ombs as oppressed by their Koopa slavers. I'm currently in the Koopa Ninja dungeon.
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Mmm, before I get to my own plays recently a bit of comment on some of the other plays going on.
Re: Labyrinth of Touhou 2: When LoT2 first came out, my initial impression was "holy shit this is way better than LoT1". The more I think about this game in retrospect, though, the more I'm inclined to believe it's more of a lateral shift, if not actively worse in some aspects. PC balance in 2 is notably worse than the first game (especially where any PC with the Maintenance skill is concerned [NITORI]), and I don't think it particularly helps the game either that the developer decided to embrace high enemy defense much more thoroughly than the first game while simultaneously nerfing the fuck out of ITD in general. Most accounts of the game I've read on the Shrinemaiden forums (I haven't actually bothered to finish it) pretty much indicate that any damage dealer who lacks ITD is essentially useless in the endgame short of massive overleveling or using very specific team setups which abuse synergies. In short it sounds like party composition - which given that there are fucking 48 playable PCs, should be the most interesting aspect of the game - is a lot less flexible than the first game's. I feel like the only area in which LoT2 strongly improved is the user interface and allowing respecs. Oh, and the art, of course.
The first game definitely had its problems with grinding and an uneven as hell difficulty curve, but at the end of the day, you could use pretty much whoever you wanted to a large degree and get through the game without grossly overleveling (while you do need "a tank" and "a healer", there are really 5 or 6 PCs that are some shade of viable as a tank and you have 3 realistic healer options, and that still leaves 10/12 party slots free to play with). I don't feel like this is quite as true in the second from what I've seen.
Re: Monster Hunter: [Full disclosure: I would generally consider myself a MH fanboy, so you may want to take what I say with a grain of salt, I won't be offended.] There are certain definite aspects of Monster Hunter's design that, I think, are kept archaic on purpose, which is something of a weird design choice, but at the same time I kinda sorta understand the logic inherent to them. The two things I see most frequently brought up in this regard are the lack of true lock-on targeting and the lack of monster health bars, and I'll address these each separately.
The lack of true lock-on targetting is something that is often (if less frequently of late) cited by reviewers who, IMO, are failing to grasp the depth of the game as compared to the titles they typically bring up as counter-examples of why MH should have lock-on (in my experience, typically 3D Zelda titles and Souls games). The thing they are missing about the other games cited is that for the most part, hit location in a Zelda or Souls game is meaningless - you do the same damage to the big dragon boss regardless of whether you hit it on its nose, its toe, or its tail. A lock-on feature works in such a game because it doesn't matter _where_ you hit the enemy, it matters only that you hit them somewhere; whereas, in Monster Hunter, understanding the importance of hit locations is one of the biggest factors that defines the difference between a bad/mediocre player and a good player, because in MH, every body part on a given monster has its own unique hitbox, with its own unique defensive stats and elemental/weapon type resistances. An easy example for me to bring up here is Barroth from Monster Hunter 3; his underbelly is reasonably susceptible to bladed weapons, but you'd have to be an utter fool to attack his head with anything other than a blunt weapon as you'll do almost no damage.
It would be difficult (though not necessarily impossible) to devise a lock-on system which accounted for all of these nuances in MH's gameplay, and I suspect the result would in some ways be more cumbersome than what exists now (how would you cycle through all the possible hitboxes to lock onto?) Capcom did make one concession in this regard which I was initially guarded about when I first heard of its inclusion in Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, but now that I've actually played with it in 4 I realize it's rather ingenious and doesn't detract from the game at all, by implementing a toggle to change the functionality of the L button from "center camera behind PC" to "center camera towards monster". It's not a true lock-on (as you have to keep hitting it to keep the monster in frame), but it makes the camera controls SO much less onerous on a handheld sans Circle Pad Pro, and I find myself using it occasionally even though I HAVE a Circle Pad Pro.
As for monster health, I suspect the reasoning behind not displaying it is largely obfuscative and/or psychological. There's almost certainly an element of trying to minimize the "gamey" aspects of the game, that is, presenting the game as a fantastical monster hunting simulation moreso than as a simple game; this is, IMO, (weakly) reflected in the fact that the game gives you the option of toggling the HUD off completely, so you can't see your own health/stamina either. I don't know of anyone who actually plays like this, but it does expose a bit of the design mentality in play here, I think. Really, though, I think the much stronger argument for why this design choice was made is one of subtly manipulating player psychology; the player is going to approach each encounter much differently in the absence of such information. A player who knows the monster only has 75 HP left is going to take much larger risks to burn that 75 HP off than one who only can see that the monster is limping, and "limping" could mean 75 HP or it could mean several hundred and you have no way of knowing. (I can speak from definite experience here: Monster Hunter Freedom Unite on the PSP had cheat codes to display boss health on-screen which I used, and I *still* haven't completely "unlearned" the much more risky playstyle I adopted in that game, to the point where every friend I play with constantly points out my general lack of caution in multiplayer.) MH's design is built all around rewarding caution over speed; there's a reason that they give you 50 minutes to complete each quest, and it isn't because you actually need it, because most of them can be completed in 10 or less.
Now then, on to my own gaming activity:
MH4U: Slow progress generally, I haven't walled on anything yet but I just don't feel like dealing with Nerscylla yet. Soon. Definitely the best MH title yet IMO; I note interestingly that while the game is much more newbie-friendly in presentation with seamless tutorials and so forth, the actual difficulty level is much closer to Freedom Unite (commonly regarded as the hardest game in the franchise) than it is to Tri (generally considered middling difficulty) or Portable 3rd on PSP (generally considered the easiest). I've seen a few people claim on the Reddit that compared to Tri, they buffed monster damage fairly notably but also nerfed monster HP, and I think overall that it works. (Portable 3rd, from memory, had some of the monster HP nerf already but had very low monster damage by series standards.)
Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth1: Played (and finished) the PC version, which is a port of the Vita remake. It's actually a pretty well-done port, certainly the technical quality is higher than say S-E's FF13 PC port which is kind of sad given how small of a studio Idea Factory/Compile Heart are compared to S-E, but I digress. Game is quite a bit improved from the PS3 original, which I never finished. I haven't played either HDN2 or Victory on PS3 but I'm told that Re;Birth1's battle system is the system from Victory, only reverted to 3-PC parties instead of Victory's 4. This leads to an odd quirk (the game gives you a tutorial about combination attacks early in the game because they were a very prominent feature in Victory's 4-PC parties, when there is exactly one such combination attack in Re;Birth1 and it involves two optional characters you can't recruit until literally right before the final dungeon. Oh well. Game balance holds up a lot better than the original, although not perfectly; it takes until the lategame at least for balance to start crumbling, in large part because the most gamebreaking PC has fairly low availability. In general, though, optimal boss strategy in the lategame involves having 2/3 of your party members spamming Rush attacks exclusively to fill the EXE Gauge for your third member to spam EXE Drive attacks. Noire has the best EXE Drive in the game, so generally you want her to be the one spamming them, but if you lack her, most of the other characters suffice to some extent.
My only real gripes with the game are a mediocre localization (though not, say, FF7 bad; most of the meta jokes translated well provided you get the references - I actually broke down laughing for a solid 30 seconds or so on stream when I got a random grind quest issued by a "Uni soundalike" complaining about how she'd been tricked into accepting a curse as a condition of making a wish for magical power and now she wanted me to kill 5 of the creatures responsible - "Cuberials" - in some random optional dungeon*) [note: small text is a Puella Magi Madoka Magica spoiler, NOT a HDNR1 spoiler!] and the fact that there's a bit of text in the ending (if you unlocked Uni) which makes a meta joke about the fact that you're playing the game on the Vita (which Uni is the personification of) and they didn't change it to account for the game, well, not being on the Vita anymore. Oops.
(* Uni is voiced by the same VA as Sayaka Miki, in both the Japanese and English versions of both productions; I'm actually rather impressed that they pulled something like this off, because I have a feeling that this one joke probably dictated the casting choice for Uni's VA in the English version. And yes, naturally, "Cuberial" enemies look like Kyubey.) [see spoiler warning above]
For now, at least, HDNR1 holds the honor(?) of being the only Idea Factory/Compile Heart game I've actually finished, but if they can keep putting out games like it, it probably won't be the last (Re;Birth2 has already been confirmed for PC, as has Fairy Fencer F, and I'll probably end up getting both and hoping that they sell well enough on PC to bring Re;Birth3 and Hyperdevotion Noire over). Also has the honor of being the first relatively new RPG I've finished in probably over a year, so hey. The game's a solid 7/10 to me, on the whole; never really rises above being merely good, it is absolutely not a masterpiece, but it held my interest and didn't overstay its welcome either. (I did quite a lot of optional content, including unlocking two of the CPU Candidates - which is a notable grind - and getting the true ending, and I still finished inside of 33 hours.) I could see it being a 6/10 if you don't appreciate all the meta jokes though.
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X-Com the Boardgame: Finished the tutorial. Game feels and plays quite differently from Space Alert, which is nice. Game feels hella rough though. We barely cleared the tutorial successfully. The game accurately simulates X-Com's actual RNG. Will be curious to play the game on one of the actual difficulties.
Terra Mystica: Fire and Ice: Just when I was starting to understand the base game. New races are crazy and new boards change the game's dynamic pretty substantially. Still can't score well reliably.
Hansa Teutonica: We seem to be running into a groupthink issue where plates are just too good. The fact that they score bonus points for collecting and work as an endgame condition is really powerful, since it feels like other engines take too long to get going. Might just need to be more obstructive about preventing their collection? Who knows.
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As for monster health, I suspect the reasoning behind not displaying it is largely obfuscative and/or psychological. There's almost certainly an element of trying to minimize the "gamey" aspects of the game, that is, presenting the game as a fantastical monster hunting simulation moreso than as a simple game; this is, IMO, (weakly) reflected in the fact that the game gives you the option of toggling the HUD off completely, so you can't see your own health/stamina either. I don't know of anyone who actually plays like this, but it does expose a bit of the design mentality in play here, I think. Really, though, I think the much stronger argument for why this design choice was made is one of subtly manipulating player psychology; the player is going to approach each encounter much differently in the absence of such information. A player who knows the monster only has 75 HP left is going to take much larger risks to burn that 75 HP off than one who only can see that the monster is limping, and "limping" could mean 75 HP or it could mean several hundred and you have no way of knowing. (I can speak from definite experience here: Monster Hunter Freedom Unite on the PSP had cheat codes to display boss health on-screen which I used, and I *still* haven't completely "unlearned" the much more risky playstyle I adopted in that game, to the point where every friend I play with constantly points out my general lack of caution in multiplayer.) MH's design is built all around rewarding caution over speed; there's a reason that they give you 50 minutes to complete each quest, and it isn't because you actually need it, because most of them can be completed in 10 or less.
And that's fine, except why exactly is there a timer at all? If you want to simulate slowly stalking a giant monster to its death, why not let the player slowly stalk it to death? Like the Edge battle in MGS3? The timer forces players into a mindset of "gotta go faster"; combined with the huge stamina loss from how much you have to eat in those 50 minutes...
Archaic design principles aside, I am enjoying the game. Just finished the Tetsucabra armor set, still doing 4 star missions.
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X-Com the Boardgame: Finished the tutorial. Game feels and plays quite differently from Space Alert, which is nice. Game feels hella rough though. We barely cleared the tutorial successfully. The game accurately simulates X-Com's actual RNG. Will be curious to play the game on one of the actual difficulties.
You guys beat the tutorial? Fuck. Here I was thinking it was designed to most likely make you lose to teach you how that works...
My brothers and I played a game on Easy and thought we had won, but forgot to progress rough a step before doing the final mission. So rolled dice and shit and were like woot we won!!1! Then pushed buttons and found out we lost because of panic.
We played 3 player, so my older brother had a ton of shit going on as Commander and Central Officer, I think that would be too stressful for me. I was happy with Chief Scientist (inthelab) role. It lets you observe and help without being particularly stressful and probably has the lowest risk:reward situation. It is pretty cool and some of the mechanics are both super neat and flavourful. The game can present some pretty rough situations at time though.
Aaaaand I would love to know how much is pure RNG, how much is weighted RNG and how much is the game blatantly making choices in the app. Regardless of that the dice are volatile as fuck, but winning feels so good. Edit - oh yeah and the best feeling about Scientist was giving someone something amazingly strong. Tech is super super effective.
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X-Com the Boardgame: Finished the tutorial. Game feels and plays quite differently from Space Alert, which is nice. Game feels hella rough though. We barely cleared the tutorial successfully. The game accurately simulates X-Com's actual RNG. Will be curious to play the game on one of the actual difficulties.
You guys beat the tutorial? Fuck. Here I was thinking it was designed to most likely make you lose to teach you how that works...
My brothers and I played a game on Easy and thought we had won, but forgot to progress rough a step before doing the final mission. So rolled dice and shit and were like woot we won!!1! Then pushed buttons and found out we lost because of panic.
We played 3 player, so my older brother had a ton of shit going on as Commander and Central Officer, I think that would be too stressful for me. I was happy with Chief Scientist (inthelab) role. It lets you observe and help without being particularly stressful and probably has the lowest risk:reward situation. It is pretty cool and some of the mechanics are both super neat and flavourful. The game can present some pretty rough situations at time though.
Aaaaand I would love to know how much is pure RNG, how much is weighted RNG and how much is the game blatantly making choices in the app. Regardless of that the dice are volatile as fuck, but winning feels so good. Edit - oh yeah and the best feeling about Scientist was giving someone something amazingly strong. Tech is super super effective.
It was super borderline (Australia full on panicked, everyone else was 2-3 steps in Red) and we allowed some brief resolution fixes because we missed we had assets that could do things and such.
It was really interesting the way disasters drastically alter what you're doing moment to moment. We were struggling with air defense early, so we had to invest a bunch into fixing that and getting things back under control, then we lost like 4-5 soldiers to two INCREDIBLE botches and suddenly was having an impossible time actually replenishing them because l i t t l e m o n e y. Came down to literally one roll for the actual win.
The dice are... interesting. The 1/3 success on the dice themselves is rough, but actually botching is... interesting. Not too scary until you hit 3-4 on the task, but then you just roll that 4 die fail, 1 on the alien die and lose 4 dudes and cry.
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Yeah it feels like a mess when you like, roll 3 successes and a 1 after 3 rounds of just not getting any successes on that 1 health sectors. Pyrrhic victory! For very little.
I really dig how Floaters only had 1 icon so you could only attack them with 1 dude to emulate their manoeuvrability. The game is full of stuff like that.
I think from a single play session with mega skewed data, the air game is really really vital and has massive negative impacts, missions on the other hand are way less vital than you would expect. Shipping dudes out on your Skyranger to handle an incident can have way more effect and be super cost effective compared to a mission which you can look at, decide isn't worth the effort and just churn it next turn at no cost.
I think maybe the game could be a couple of years ahead of the curve on what it could potentially be. A few more years time you could maybe tie in more QR codes and shit on to the pieces in play and just have player have their device review status of things through the camera and strip out manual inputs and shit. It would be slick as hell.
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SMT Devil Survivor Overclocked - So, beat, got Gin and Haru's ending. The final day was a nice romp of just unleashing my hilariously overpowered and somewhat haphazard demon builds onto the poor game and watching things explode - so, the usual for endgame SMT. I kinda hiccuped in that there's no 8th day even on the 3DS version for Haru's ending, so I'll probably look at that on a replay or something. Hilariously, once the endgame drew in, I could've picked any of the endings but Kaido's, which is kinda silly considering I was only gunning for Gin's. Final party was Main Character (Mag/Vit build with a few stray points tossed into Agi and Str for a few specific spells like Megido and the Dances), Yoohoo, Izuna (with Atsuro subbed in for the very last map) and Mari. Unsurprisingly, all the strongest characters in the game are girls.
This said, the game honestly exceeded my expectations by quite a few notches. The map designs are kinda simplistic, a few of the systems are kinda annoying (Skill Crack didn't -really- find the right balance between making choices and just inspiring unnecessary resets, I find) and the overall difficulty kinda clocks in at somewhat low (even though the game picked up a few resets from me), but I feel there's a really interesting system overall under the bricks and rubble. The demon fusion and demon auction recruitment systems are great and the game really goes out of its way to hand you the necessary information on what you make and -how- you make it. The fusion search system is simply wonderful, letting you know which demons you can fuse, which demons you'll be able to fuse in a few levels and -how- you fuse them, which is all you need to create hilariously elaborate and powerful fusion chains. The simple map design also works to its advantage more often than not - maps are rarely obtusely crowded, they're not hard to handle fairly quickly and even then the objectives are varied enough within the system constraints. In a sense, there's a quiet elegance in the works there, which I like, and they certainly had their fun with enemy formations, mixing in a bunch of interesting demon teams that often require a monster-by-monster approach that works well with the strategy component.
Transparency on enemy stats and resists/weaknesses are also great within a SMT-style system, and led to interesting possibilities on map-by-map roster shuffles - which can be carried even mid-fight - god knows I've shuffled demons mid-turn in order to achieve a particular skill for range exploitation or mobility matters. Experience scaling is also a great idea in a game like this, and letting your main PCs level up by osmosis without fighting is pretty nice for life quality stuff (I wish this could be done with demons without handing them a skill, but I guess they didn't want the player spending no effort in grabbing level-up skills. I can understand that).
The usual SMT difficulty curve feels less stiff as well: the only real potential brick wall I've seen was the Wendigo fight, and even that isn't really -that- rough (mostly involved me learning to use Bind in order to keep it from reaching my PCs before I cleared the rest of the map. Granted, having that as like your THIRD map in the game is one hell of a wake-up call, since Wendigo's just kinda insane, scoring near-OHKOs with his basic physical on all your demons). From there onwards, it stays on the curve's sweet spot until the late midgame, where you start steamrolling everything. I wonder if they'll ever learn how to buck that trend, but given how they've been going that way for almost three decades now, I doubt it'll ever change. Though I'll also point out how I found the extra turn system the perfect compromise regarding the press turn philosophy for elemental weakness and resistance shuffling. This iteration retains the importance of hitting weaknesses in order to maximize your turn output and minimize the enemies' without the sheer degeneracy of its peers, which feels like the precise sweet spot they've aimed for since the old days of Nocturne.
This said, I also liked the scenario idea and the writing surrounding it. The game does a pretty good job selling you on the tension involved in a metropolis-wide lockdown and how the city and its inhabitants slowly spiral into madness. It also sells you on how scary the whole thing can be pretty decently when it needs to. I guess it doesn't hurt that I liked how the cast was written as well (particularly, I liked Atsuro a lot, he managed to strike a great balance between being a hopeless nerd and a practical, intelligent problem-solver. All bad rap aside, I also like Yoohoo, whose anguish about the whole thing is very believable and makes a -lot- of sense. I honestly found her most annoying BEFORE the lockdown, since she's... uh... kind of a bad human being then). The cast's not without its hiccups, though: Midori is insufferable and Keisuke's a Kresnik-level dumbass, but them's the breaks.
Regardless, this was a lot of fun and I'm definitely down for Record Breaker when it shows up. 7/10, and well worth the US$ 15 I spent on it.
EDIT: I'M ENJOYING SHIN MEGAMI TENSEI GAMES WHAT HAVE I BECOME
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Re: Labyrinth of Touhou 2: When LoT2 first came out, my initial impression was "holy shit this is way better than LoT1". The more I think about this game in retrospect, though, the more I'm inclined to believe it's more of a lateral shift, if not actively worse in some aspects. PC balance in 2 is notably worse than the first game (especially where any PC with the Maintenance skill is concerned [NITORI]), and I don't think it particularly helps the game either that the developer decided to embrace high enemy defense much more thoroughly than the first game while simultaneously nerfing the fuck out of ITD in general. Most accounts of the game I've read on the Shrinemaiden forums (I haven't actually bothered to finish it) pretty much indicate that any damage dealer who lacks ITD is essentially useless in the endgame short of massive overleveling or using very specific team setups which abuse synergies. In short it sounds like party composition - which given that there are fucking 48 playable PCs, should be the most interesting aspect of the game - is a lot less flexible than the first game's. I feel like the only area in which LoT2 strongly improved is the user interface and allowing respecs. Oh, and the art, of course.
The first game definitely had its problems with grinding and an uneven as hell difficulty curve, but at the end of the day, you could use pretty much whoever you wanted to a large degree and get through the game without grossly overleveling (while you do need "a tank" and "a healer", there are really 5 or 6 PCs that are some shade of viable as a tank and you have 3 realistic healer options, and that still leaves 10/12 party slots free to play with). I don't feel like this is quite as true in the second from what I've seen.
I like the enhanced customization you get from skills. I don't remember if this was as much of a thing in the first one? Been a while, but there are definitely lots of cool and unique abilities that you can invest in to build people in different ways here. Cast balance is definitely not good, though. Bringing dedicated mages with you to a boss fight is almost always a liability, made out of tissue paper + too slow just not a combo you can get much out of even if you constantly switch them in and out of the party. There's also a handful of people that are almost always in my party because replacing them with anyone else would be mechanically suboptimal:
-Remilia: is crazy good. Excellent attack power, not really lacking in any stats, only escalates in effectiveness as a fight drags on because auto-buffs and Gungnir is so ridiculous that it cuts through defense the rest of the party often can't. She tends to sit in the front line for boss fights and just stay there the whole time.
-Reimu: MT heals. Yeah, Rumia does this too, but she's somewhat squishier, and not so good for smashing randoms or buffing the party, acceptable as a backup but not really a substitute.
-Sanae: mostly for randoms because of the TP restoration. Essential grinding component.
-Sakuya: not great on paper, but what paper doesn't tell is that the bonus action skill can trigger repeatedly in the same turn. For boss fights this means suddenly your party's speed is doubled at no extra cost; for randoms this means everything is killed for no extra cost.
-Rin: see above + super fast, it's not uncommon for randoms to die immediately because she snagged five actions in one turn and just obliterated everything. Not great for bosses because damage per hit = not spectacular, but indispensable for grinding.
-Momiji and/or Kasen: generally at least one of them's around. Fast, durable brutes that excel both at massive ST damage and full-screen nukes.
-Wriggle: because POIZN.
So that's like half my party typically spoken for. Komachi sadly isn't the amazing one-trick pony again, just too many bosses resist debuffs this time and I don't use her much as a result. Yuugi might be in there if I'd got her earlier, but I completely overlooked her recruitment until checking a FAQ on the last floor. Otherwise there are too many other characters that just don't bring anything unique to the table or simply don't have the stats to make good on a promising skillset (most mages fall into this latter category, also ATK boosts are easier to find on equipment than are MAG bonuses).
The overreliance on insurmountable defense definitely just gets more aggravating as the game goes on. It was a boring gimmick the first time, guys. ITD is the solution to this obstacle only in theory--it's not very common and what you have of it is usually tied to elemental attacks, which tends to be a fatal inconvenience just when you need ITD offense, so in practice the solution is pretty much always grind more. This isn't entirely a new or surprising thing since there were three distinct points I had no choice but to resort to this in the first game (fundoshi man, Yukari, final boss), but here it happens earlier and repeatedly whenever Tenshi shows up. The game's actually pretty well balanced before that. You could look at the recommended level on a boss icon and generally bet that it'll be tough but manageable if you go in at that level. Midway through this game those recommendations just got totally out of whack and I'd routinely have a very tough time dealing with things I was supposedly more than prepared for.
This is a lot of complaining, but I still enjoyed the game when it wasn't pulling the lol no damage for you bullshit. Past tense because there's a decent chance I'm just done with it, it's obvious I won't stand a chance against the final boss short of grinding out dozens and dozens of levels (and I'm already 21 over the recommended level). Nobody does any damage and he outspeeds everyone and borderline OHKOs most of the party.
~
EP: Sat down to knock out the last couple maps of Thage's story and wait, what's this? I don't have the right attacks to break the plot-critical boss's barrier? I was reasonably aware this was a possibility at some point because the party lacks any earth damage at all, but as it turns out the requirement here is vastly more dickish. So you're going to have the possibility of an actual ending hinge on: A) a mid-game boss I may or may not have even fought; B) and who I may or may not have captured if fought at all; and C) who I definitely would not have kept as a summon even if I had caught it? (Because captured enemies are far more useful being turned into skills or items than as allies.) Fuck you too, game. Beat up the third stratum boss* after that debacle and yup, game's all lol no final boss or ending for you.
(*King Bellion, still hilariously susceptible to fracture and easy to capture because of it.)
So that doesn't leave me in the best of moods. Is there any similar bullshit I should be aware of in advance in the Rondemion/Super Secret Character (who I already spoiled myself on) paths? Anyway, I figure smashing through NG+ shouldn't be any trouble at all because endgame levels vs subtractive defense, so I hack through the first map again to at least get back to town and turn in some majin for goodies. Then I recruit Alexei again and wait, what? Why is he at starting level again with ghetto gear? ...I see. Plot PCs retain levels and equipment, but mercs revert to starting level and any gear/skills equipped on them at the end of the game vanish into the aether. I know mercs will be unnecessary for most of the game because endgame plot PCs, but I expect I'll still need the help for the last maps, so instead of mindlessly smashing everything I still kind of have to babysit some low-level allies and feed them kills all game. Guys, if you're going to implement a stupidly easy NG+ mode, why deliberately half-ass it?
~
FONV: http://cloud-4.steamusercontent.com/ugc/535137718206738031/266BCCD798CF2FFBFDA1DC40384DEECEE844DD38/
The end.
Fighting zombies with Ulysses still more satisfying than actually fighting him, confused as he is. Oddly, through all conversation he acted like I was working for Mr. House, despite the fact that a courier chose to murder Mr. House with a golf club (I never even talked to him). The only thing I can see being responsible for this is NCR rep getting knocked down from idolized to good-natured rascal or whatever after I assassinated McLafferty (an act which no one even witnessed, even Hostetler didn't react to it even though he was in the goddamn room and I didn't use a silenced gun or anything). Courier duster similarly went with Old World Justice. Weird. Still better than NCR flag considering I'd every intention of stabbing them in the back this time around.
Easy mode did prevail for the top-tier GRA trophy. On normal? Even with maxed explosives skill, three ranks of demolitions perk, every crit bonus thingamabobber I know of, Psycho, bug/cazador-specific damage bonuses from combat-acquired perks and OWB, you've only got about even odds of a sneak attack oneshotting a cazador. Long fuse dynamite is just that bad. So to hell with doing that legit.
Caravan is the worst thing. It just makes no damn sense. I read the rules and thought I got it but sometimes matches would just end in someone's victory for no obvious reason at all. I don't know, maybe I shouldn't have played with No-Bark? Probably wouldn't have made a difference. Game would be terrible tedium with anyone.
I oneshotted the final boss without even entering dialogue, sneak attack + YCS 186 just that good. I have no idea where his body landed.
Also at some point this happened: http://cloud-4.steamusercontent.com/ugc/536263437632414436/103FA5466D829182D4D17DC9AFF8DBF0D9894628/
Since motion doesn't carry well into screenshots, you'll just have to take my word for it that this disembodied radscorpion torso is simultaneously vibrating, leaping up and down through the ground, and whirling, whirling towards progress. It's not quite the celebrated Doc Mitchell spinny head glitch, but it's still one of the more elaborate physics clusterfucks the game's perpetrated on me.
Glad to be done with the game this time. I love it and all but it's pretty obvious I never want to touch this engine again (I had to do two complete reinstalls just in the course of this run). Part of why I went all out and did everything even though I initially just set out to power level enough to get those last trophies; might as well close the game out with an ideal ending where no one I like (okay, other than Mr. House, but it was him or the Kings) gets spectacularly screwed (I think indie New Vegas is the only route in which Arcade isn't totally boned as a result of his personal quest?) Also shutting down Oliver's attempt at staging a Big Damn Heroes moment is still immensely satisfying.
Oh yeah, and the gambler suit you get for breaking the bank is totally swank.
~
CT: Schala must be one of the least justifiable kidnappings I've seen in a game. Dalton just walks into a room full of well-armed killing machines and punches her out, no one does anything. Just to make sure no one does anything, he thereafter threatens to kill her, which I have to think is a very unlikely course of action considering the entirety of his boss's plans depend on her. CT definitely one of those games that likely wouldn't be able to make me care about anything if the soundtrack weren't so effective. At any rate, stage is set for the best part of the game.
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I've been going through a number of the SJW Inquisition interactions on youtube, and some of them are quite good. Apparently I missed out on quite a bit of banter because it was bugged and they didn't show up often (which is a fucking terrible thing to be bugged in a Bioware game), but the romance options and some of the additional dialogues are up to par with other Bioware things. It's just kind of a shame that I saw maybe 15% of this even though I did make the effort to rotate party members and talk to everybody after major events. I bothered with Cole in my game, and maybe that was a mistake since I knew nothing about him and there are some interesting things there.
The game does tackle some interesting concepts, especially with regard to faith and trying to find meaning in hopelessness. The scenes after Haven are a period where the Inquisition is broken and needs something to believe in. The Herald is basically a cipher, but you can spend the game in sort of this impostor syndrome, where you don't ever feel like you can ever live up to how other people think of you (but recognizing that there is meaning in the fact that they do believe in you). The singing is a little Magnolia-esque, and it straddles a line between being moving and possibly corny, but it did work on me.
Cassandra's character arc involves a genuine struggle with her faith. It is also interesting when your Herald is an Elf or a Qunari since that doesn't jive with the teachings of the Chantry. The game touches on these things in a way that doesn't happen often since religions in most RPGs are just evil and being brought to the brink of utter despair is usually countered by the power of friendship or similar nonsense. I'm not religious but I thought that these aspects were handled fairly well.
All this doesn't make me want to replay SJW Inquisition, necessarily, but there would be things that I would explore and do differently if and when I do. Thankfully, youtube has most of the major interactions out there if I want to save my time.
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Yeah but does it have a bit where you can make emo Aiel Elves throw wine bottles at the wall repeatedly in dialogue loops?
I didn't think so.
Hand of Fate - This is a really neat little game that I think I like more because of what it is than how it actually plays. It is essentially a roguelike that is distinct short 'rounds' where you progress through a randomised set of events laid out like a dungeon from Edge Master Mode in some of the Soul Calibur games. You find gold/equipment/food or take damage and interact with events other than combat sequences.
Combat plays out sort of like Assassin's Creed combat goes where it isn't that hard, you can dodge and counter pretty much everything and it is telegraphed from miles away. It is more about number of enemies and combinations of attacks that really scale up difficulty. You do a run of that, beat a boss or die, then start again on the next one or trying to beat the same boss. Each boss has their own curses that they inflict that changes the play (usually making a type of attack harder or sapping one of your resources types).
Otherwise events are mostly decided by binary dialogue choices and picking one out of four cards represented to you that you can try to follow as they get Shell Gamed around. They can vary on Huge Success, Success, Failure, Huge Failure. Combination of which will depend on the scenario. You can try to follow the card in the shell game but it can be hard at times. Sometimes it is more optimal to just try and Not Fail rather than always go for best results depending on how good you are at it. So it is a mix of skill or trying for chance which you always have 25% chance for success.
You build your own deck of cards of equipment and stuff you will find, but you also build your deck of encounters you can have (some cards are locked and require encountering specific scenarios to progress them). Beat bosses or meet certain conditions on cards will unlock more cards. Cards normally unlock other related cards simulating a little story arc. So as you progress you will unlock more and more possible encounters and cards, as well as getting to pick which ones you will run into.
That is just how it all works though, none of it is why I really like the game. It is a game put together in Unity that uses probably 6 or so environments that I have seen and I am half way through the story mode. So far have fought 4 types of enemies, 2 human types, lizard dudes and rat dudes. The Lizards and Rats share a lot of the same skeleton, so don't have tons of diverse animation. The majority of the game is you facing one guy who is fully Voice Acted, but has his face covered so they didn't have to animate his face. he spends the entire time sitting down so they only have to animate his upper body. He only ever directly interacts with tokens that signify "beating" a card. Everything else shuffling cards and moving everything around he does with magic so the 3D models don't have to interact with anything else.
It is really trying to get the most out of a small pool of resources and I think it does a really good job.
I also really dig the setting and story. You are constantly revisiting events that happened to you previously in your life and they are represented by the cards. So as you slowly progress you are learning more and more about things that happened to the silent protagonist PC through cards, a bit of text and mostly a dude across the table cryptically referencing bits and pieces. You are supposedly playing for your life, but when you do lose it isn't a big deal. The dealer makes reference to lots of people have played, but does question how you lose the game overall if you can keep retrying.
I am not expecting a great deal, it is just going to likely be that you are dead or you are him or some such, but it is a fun little mystery element to just tie everything together and keep a reason for continuing on. It is fairly light string to tie it together, but it ties together a narrative to the gameplay of a game that is about playing a game.
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:)
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Congrats again.
Dark Souls 2 - Cheesed Giant Lord, which involved buffing Hunter's Blackbow a bit and getting a pile of Magic arrows to plink him down, but whatever. After being one shot by fire and then getting one shot for standing next to a where a rolling statue head stopped I didn't have patience.
I killed Vendrick not realising I didn't need to bother. 4 Giant Souls rather than 5 because lol ancient dragon.
Throne Watcher and Defender got summoned at, then Nashandra did, then First Sinner did as well. Lots of signs here because I assume that is all that anyone in the community is doing at the moment. Died between each boss because that is pretty silly as a boss chain.
Edit - Not going to bother with any more DLC. End game burned up the good will. I might try it when there is people playing the game again in a few weeks on the DX11 version.
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Hunter's Blackbow cheese is doing it right (he's also pitifully susceptible to poison arrows, like most DS2 bosses).
I always kill the Throne jerks before Giant Lord because this way the fight doesn't chain directly into Nashandra (summoning also totally legit for wonder twins, that is an obnoxious fight and among my least favorite bosses in the game). Killing Vendrick is apparently the trigger for making Scholar of the First Sin appear as the final boss, which is the only reason I will ever waste time slogging through that particular optional tedium again (and even then probably only once to see the new final boss and/or ending?) For what it's worth, Vendrick's soul turns into one of the more broken weapons in the game (DS2 has a lot of broken to go around already, though).
Could maybe have tried warping out between bosses rather than dying. I don't know from experimentation whether DS2 lets you homeward bone away in the middle of a boss fight, but DS1 definitely did. Guess it wouldn't work no matter what if you had summons there, though.
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He was? Shiit I tried them and it didn't take, but that was when Black Bow was thinking off him before some upgrades and my regular bow was out of range.
Probably could warp if solo. Always summoned Sunbros because there was plenty of signs of people helping with Scholar.
Asking on reddit if my helpers got 3 medals or just 1 because if it was just 1 that is kind of shitty.
Edit - turns out it wasn't worth trying to ask
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Regardless, this was a lot of fun and I'm definitely down for Record Breaker when it shows up. 7/10, and well worth the US$ 15 I spent on it.
Snow, the writing in Break Record is closer to Persona 4 than that of Overclock. Just a warning.
The basic theme is also pretty different as Break Record is about fighting alien invaders (as if a super robot anime) rather than surviving a lock down.
So writing once, don't think you'll find anything in common.
The battale system is mostly the same. Except they now have really gimmicky bosses.
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Ni No Kuni: So the Pirate is a dog, and the dragon is a black kid on the track team. This statement takes on an entirely different meaning whether you understand NI No Kuni or not, which is exactly why I said it!
Time to say something positive about the game to prove I don't think the game is the worst thing ever:
It's good at keeping you focused on the main story, even when you get diverted into doing a filler quest or something. Everything you do feels like it has a purpose and even when it's a case of "road block", at least the game tries to make the road block sensible. You never lose sight that your goal is "Beat Shadar" and that everything you're doing are just steps on the way to becoming strong enough to do so. When a road block presents itself, it's actually integrated into the story, not just "The kid fell into the well, let's go help them because we're heroes!" It'd be more like "That kid is the Mayor's son, and he's the only guy in town with a boat we need! If we save the Mayor's son, he'll be more willing to do us a solid!" That situation doesn't actually happen to be clear, but you can see where I'm getting at.
It stands out to me because slowly playing through FF4HoL again (...there are horrible reasons for this, yes), Djinn, who had been watching me from the beginning, actually had to question what our goal of the game was, because the entire game from that point has been basically a bunch of independent quests that just get us further away from the home town because...reasons? The goal of the game, at least initially, is to save your town from a curse, but the game does such a bad job of correlating ANY event you do to having meaning to saving your town, you lose complete focus of your goals. It becomes "you are the chosen one, go do a bunch of things until something important actually happens." Ni No Kuni never really strays from it's main goal too far; you know what your goal is and why you're doing everything, and when you do deviate from the path, it lasts maybe a dungeon or two tops.
This feels like the easiest indicator of a game with bad story-telling. Not necessarily an indicator of GOOD story-telling as plenty of games keep you focused but have crappy stories, but if a game struggles to connect required events to the main story and you can't remember what the purpose of your quest is at all, then the game clearly has failed at telling a story. Deviating from the main story is not a bad thing but you shouldn't do it too drastically or too long term, because then you lose focus and forget why you're even on the quest to begin with. This is only doubly so if the story in question has time sensitive elements (whether they effect gameplay or not), as then you need a legit excuse for why characters will waste time on these unrelated quests on top of keeping a coherent narrative.
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CT:
Lenny's Ciato's Dalton's reign of terror is at an end. Acquired preferred party (Marle/Ayla/Sentient Widow's Peak), time to go sidequesting.
Probably it says everything you need to know about me that my favorite thing in the entire game is just Magus's cat recognizing him.
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Regardless of that the dice are volatile as fuck, but winning feels so good.
Sounds like XCOM to me!
(http://i.imgur.com/2d0Xlx4.png)
Anyway, I've been playing Sunless Sea. It's got great writing and the atmosphere is pretty fantastic, but it still needs some polishing, most notably in the base speed of how quickly you move. Makes getting around a bit more of a chore than it needs to be. Not sure if the game is supposed to be this eternally punishing but it's hard as fuck to get and keep any kind of substantial wealth since you always seem to be dropping good-sized amounts on fuel, in no small part due to how there's really only a few places that the game dispenses money from and they're all toward the edges of the map.
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If you play dragon age inquisition by sticking mostly to the critical path and ignoring the big empty map sidequests, what are you missing out on? Any interesting side stories, any powerful material rewards?
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If you play dragon age inquisition by sticking mostly to the critical path and ignoring the big empty map sidequests, what are you missing out on? Any interesting side stories, any powerful material rewards?
There are side stories, but most of them are fairly inconsequential and/or fetch quests. There are dragon fights that are worth pursuing since they are good fights and tend to drop some good equipment, but otherwise, I would only really close fade rifts to get experience and power. If you seek those fade rifts in new areas, you should be able to get some materials on the way. Leave the Hinterlands if you haven't. It tends not to be worth it to milk everything you can out of an area.
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Bayonetta 2: Finished stage 15, so I think the next one is the final? Mecha-Witch was surprisingly fun to play, to the point where I'm now saving halos for the Devil Earrings. Fuck that last Remembrance of Time with a spike, though.
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Which one was that, again?
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He was? Shiit I tried them and it didn't take, but that was when Black Bow was thinking off him before some upgrades and my regular bow was out of range.
Depends some on stats since I think DEX and ADP affect poison infliction rate? Should have plenty if you went quality build. 40 DEX and 20ish ADP makes it usually something like four arrows to trigger status on an enemy with no resist, maybe neighborhood of six-eight for the more respectable bosses. Anything more than that and they're probably too resistant to bother trying. Very few are actively immune, though (Mytha/Najka/Freja pretty much it in the main game; DLC of course makes everything but the scrub bosses immune to status). All this is assuming no allies; enemy resist ramps up so severely with summons present that status stops being worthwhile to even try.
Dark would've been optimal for damage though, giants have basically no resistance to it at all.
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I might not have shot enough at him to trigger it maybe (why can't you see enemy status bar build up?), I was running low on poison arrows so might have been overly conservative.
My build had 40 Dex and 30 something ADP because once I was 40/40 I wasn't sure where to spend more points so more Agility seemed like a good thing. So probably just me not trying hard enough.
Couldn't do Dark damage because "Fuck you guys you can't tell me what to do help signs!" and freed Navlan without knowing what the lever did because why would I go right first in Aldia's Keep when I could clearly see a fog door there? Was hollow. No Dark Arrows for me.
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Actually, Undead Crypt zombie dude sells dark arrows. Navlaan sells something way more important (FABULOUS CLOTHES).
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Oh whoops, oh well.
DS1 - Started up for giggles I figure. Feels weird. Rolling feels like you have about a billion invincibility frames and you almost wonder why you ever die and then you remember you suck at this game. Died to Taurus like the scrub I am (roll in to geometry).
Also it feels really really nice to not have your weapon bounce off literally every single fucking surface it goes near. You still need to manage your swings in spaces, but holy fuck does DS2 love to make everything cramped and then go "WHY CAN'T YOU SWING YOUR WEAPON PROPERLY SCRUB". It still happens occasionally, but really not that big a deal.
Got talked into trying a dex/int build and use Moonlight Butterfly Horn. Noticing that the only req other than Int is starting Str of Pyro kind of sealed the deal there. Will level some boring Dex weapon for Artorius if I ever get there.
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WHY CAN'T YOU SWING YOUR WEAPON PROPERLY SCRUB
gotta Mace harder bro
lrn2mace
mace2face
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A grazing mace, how sweet the sound?
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The one handed hammer move set is legit. Regular attacks are good on vertical coverage and strong attacks have good horizontal for clearing multiple enemies. I started Club, got Mace and ended up using Craftsman's hammer (Mace kept because durability is a real issue at 60 fps).
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Dreeps: This game was going too slowly, so I tried to break it.
Even though the only thing I could do in the game is setting up alarms.
It worked and I beat the final boss. I am the alarm master and you will fear my name.
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Man I cannot make this stuff up
https://twitter.com/dreeps_staff/status/571989742352400384
I have the best alarmz
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As for monster health, I suspect the reasoning behind not displaying it is largely obfuscative and/or psychological. There's almost certainly an element of trying to minimize the "gamey" aspects of the game, that is, presenting the game as a fantastical monster hunting simulation moreso than as a simple game; this is, IMO, (weakly) reflected in the fact that the game gives you the option of toggling the HUD off completely, so you can't see your own health/stamina either. I don't know of anyone who actually plays like this, but it does expose a bit of the design mentality in play here, I think. Really, though, I think the much stronger argument for why this design choice was made is one of subtly manipulating player psychology; the player is going to approach each encounter much differently in the absence of such information. A player who knows the monster only has 75 HP left is going to take much larger risks to burn that 75 HP off than one who only can see that the monster is limping, and "limping" could mean 75 HP or it could mean several hundred and you have no way of knowing. (I can speak from definite experience here: Monster Hunter Freedom Unite on the PSP had cheat codes to display boss health on-screen which I used, and I *still* haven't completely "unlearned" the much more risky playstyle I adopted in that game, to the point where every friend I play with constantly points out my general lack of caution in multiplayer.) MH's design is built all around rewarding caution over speed; there's a reason that they give you 50 minutes to complete each quest, and it isn't because you actually need it, because most of them can be completed in 10 or less.
And that's fine, except why exactly is there a timer at all? If you want to simulate slowly stalking a giant monster to its death, why not let the player slowly stalk it to death? Like the Edge battle in MGS3? The timer forces players into a mindset of "gotta go faster"; combined with the huge stamina loss from how much you have to eat in those 50 minutes...
Archaic design principles aside, I am enjoying the game. Just finished the Tetsucabra armor set, still doing 4 star missions.
I would guess the timer is explicitly there for the reason you suggested: to keep people from turtling too much. (I actually have run it out once before, when I attempted a quest in Tri I was badly undergeared for.) Possibly also to keep people from wasting too much time in one place; it might be one of those arbitrary things they designed in as a deterrent to playing too long without a break. MH4U does break from it somewhat, since IIRC the Expeditions don't have a timer, but yeah.
Re: LoT2 stuff - I have seen people say the final boss is doable at challenge level, but it does take some of the specifically broken synergistic team setups. And Nitori, because Nitori is the game's most broken PC by far. Fucking Maintenance. Absolutely absurd skill.
But yeah, tl;dr I think PC balance was actually quite a bit better in the first one, even if the second one is more mechanically diverse/interesting.
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Got talked into trying a dex/int build and use Moonlight Butterfly Horn. Noticing that the only req other than Int is starting Str of Pyro kind of sealed the deal there. Will level some boring Dex weapon for Artorius if I ever get there.
Top-tier sorcery works perfectly fine on Artorias. If you're just going to leave STR/DEX at minimum weapon reqs and pump INT, Soul Spears should handle him just fine. It's multi-element weapons that really get walled by his resists; any kind of offensive spell is still at least functional.
Moonlight Butterfly Horn is pretty cool. Not spectacular as far as numbers go but I use it as melee backup for mages just because it's one of the neatest looking weapons in the game (probably only Quelaag's Furysword tops it for aesthetics, that thing is so fucking metal). Obvious downside of course is no availability until Anor Londo. Mechanically you get to ignore physical stats totally because its damage is purely magic and scales solely from INT. Mostly this is a good thing, until you're fighting golems and suddenly you deal like no damage at all. Spears are generally low damage weapons, but it's still kind of a neat accessory for a caster to work through mooks at safeish range while conserving spells. It has niche uses, which is more than I can say for most boss weapons in DS1.
Moonlight Greatsword is pretty much the standard INT weapon, but that's an even later pickup, requires more investment in STR, is kinda heavy and chopping Seath's tail is pretty bitchy if you don't have helpers to distract him.
Maybe someday I'll respond to something that's not Soulspost
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The timing of MLGS was exactly why I didn't want to bother. I don't give a shit about a weapon that I am going to use on 5 or 6 bosses at best that is annoying to get.
That said you are making me rethink the this Dex investment. Will think about it. Restarting won't cost me anything (Or I might bail on the replay).
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Go Dex/Attunement for katanas and Slightly Better Pyromancy.
It is fun times because katanas is fun times and pyromancy is fun times.
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Smash Bros 3DS:
So I am officially Smashscum now. I joined smashboards.com and now I am meticulously learning the inner workings of a freakin' fighting game. Like, stat-topic level depth except everything isn't as elegant as JRPG math due to the messiness of, you know, being a fighting game. So I am indulging my stat topic fetishism by learning frame speed data of attacks and the complex formula behind how knockback is determined and how much percent damage is needed to KO with certain moves on certain stages against characters of varying weights...
It's actually enjoyable somehow, but only because Smash Bros is a game with such a huge following that there's enough documentation on everything that I don't feel the need to do supplemental datamining on my own. It is passive stat-topic enjoyment rather than the fun that comes from datamining to make a stat topic. Though if Smash Bros was in any way DL-compatible I would stat topic it for fun...
In other news, I'm 90% complete with the Getter Board, or whatever the Achievements List is called in English. Just gotta beat the game on 9.0 one of these days. I would abuse one of these cool Equipment setups I keep reading about on the smashboards, but not only does that feel like cheating, I also can't get the RNG to drop the good stuff. >:(
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The timing of MLGS was exactly why I didn't want to bother. I don't give a shit about a weapon that I am going to use on 5 or 6 bosses at best that is annoying to get.
That said you are making me rethink the this Dex investment. Will think about it. Restarting won't cost me anything (Or I might bail on the replay).
Eh, it really depends on what you want to get out of the magic side. DS1 makes it a lot harder to excel at both melee and offensive casting* (DS2 you get lots more levels and can respec) so I tend to stick with one side or the other (I can't stomach using something without optimizing it because there's still plenty of meat on that bone.) If all you want it for is like buffs and support spells, then 40 DEX + some middling amount of intelligence for Great/Crystal Magic Weapon is superbly effective. For top-tier attack spells though you have less wiggle room because some call for like 40-50 INT and you'd probably want more attunement to fit them in too.
(*Of course pyromancy cheats because all you need is attunement.)
Velka's Rapier might be a thing. (I don't even know if it's any good, but it is expressly built for DEX/INT characters.)
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Far Cry 4 - I don't know why I am playing this. Far Cry 3 started boring the shit out of me at the midway point and this is a lot more of that. I guess the story is a little better but I am still not invested and literally everything in the world is trying to kill you. It's kind of like this:
(http://data1.whicdn.com/images/1285450/original.jpg)
So if you're idling for a bit, a hawk will come in and tear your face off, or a rhino will just saunter along and wreck your shit. This makes traveling around a little annoying, and I really don't like having a vomit of objectives everywhere. The skill tree is also constrained compared to 3, but they took away skills that were actually useful like being able to move faster while crouched. I did get this for cheap but there's nothing new here and this series just isn't for me. Blood Dragon at least looks better because of the setting.
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EP: Rondemion, if you don't want people to realize that you're that Rondemion, maybe you shouldn't tell them that your name is "Rondemion?" Just a suggestion.
So the first stratum boss room occupied in every other chapter by Morpheus now hosts a boss fight with Master D. "I assure you, my ability to change has been crucial to my success," and by the way you guys I'm totally not talking about being a shapeshifter. Then he joins the party and his class is "Usurper." I'm not even going to joke about him obviously being sinister anymore because at this point he's just openly trolling.
I went FAQ-diving and am relieved to see there's no special ending requirements for Rondemion's chapter. Also the final chapter unlock req is apparently all good endings (so I have to replay Thage no matter what) + full pokedex encyclopedia. I...probably can do that without replaying anything else, but we'll see. Two of the ??? entries are obviously the first stratum bosses I haven't fought and/or killed. I can only hope I encounter the couple others I have no idea about during R's chapter.
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4:12:52 attained in FFT. Beat Chessjerk by ~40 seconds. Vid to be uploaded soon as a I can because twitch was being twitch.
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Super Mario Galaxy - I'm up to about 40 stars in this, still having fun and chugging along. So many creatively designed stages and awesome gimmicks. Swimming, sadly, is still very bad.
Super Mario Bros. 2 - I decided to replay this on a whim, mostly for Princess Peach supremacy and a general desire to suffer. I'm currently trying to beat the game as Toad, which is pretty much the same as the game having a Hard Mode.
Also played some Smash yesterday, where I was mostly pasted but won a couple of matches as Palutena and Samus. Samus has worked out better than I expected as a main in this game and I may continue to use her. The one where I won as Samus was the first time that the 'bad' players in the group got 1/2 on the 'good' players of the group. There may have been celebration.
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Super Mario Bros. 2 - I decided to replay this on a whim, mostly for Princess Peach supremacy and a general desire to suffer. I'm currently trying to beat the game as Toad, which is pretty much the same as the game having a Hard Mode.
But but fastest block grabbing animation.
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Which, hilariously, is a double edged sword, since you are invincible during the frames when you pick up things. Alas, poor Toad.
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The Nintendo Powers of the time actually hyped him as best character!
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Nintendo Hard for a reason.
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Y'know I was always confused at people who hyped Toad - surely Mario is far superior if for some reason you actually value picking things up fast, since he can do that and actually jump decently well - so that does explain a lot; every person I've known who did so was a Nintendo Power reader.
Long Live the Queen - 100% achievements get, which of course includes tracking down all the hilarious ways to get yourself killed. Fun game! I'm not really sure what type of person to recommend it to, besides people with good taste obviously.
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance - Randomly replaying this, actually watching the scenes for the first time in ages. There are actually some good things to say about the writing, moreso than many FEs, and some not so good. Sadly Ike grates a bit more than he used to watching things again after playing FE10, I find, but Soren remains excellent.
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PW DD: I'm halfway through case 3, the game has been pleasant enough if not ground breaking.
I'm a bit bothered by the completely obvious culprits. Usually by case 3 we get at least one?
BTW I am Aristotle MEANS and the end justifies the MEANS
I should play AAI2 sometimes, I liked the change of pace brought from playing as Edgeworth.
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Mmm PW3's first few cases were also completely obvious with their killers, but otherwise you are right. I see where you're coming from even though I do quite like some of the cases where you know which smug bastard did it but you can't prove it. That said, there are some less obvious ones on the way.
I definitely recommend the DLC case by the way (it's a good one) unless you think there is a high probability you'll be Ace Attorney'd out by the end of the maingame.
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Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D - Back to this game after years. I love Squawks and I love the game saving your lives after you turn the game off. However, I hate electric crabs and cannonballs.
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Dragon Ball Xenoverse: So it's a DBZ fighting game with light (very light) MMO elements. The story mode is actually pretty neat. The premise is that there are these people changing the history of DBZ in bad ways. Like Raditz dodging Piccolo's Special Beam Cannon and living, or Frieza deciding to skip the theatrics and just go straight to his final form (which doesn't give Goku time to finish healing and get to the battle). So your custom character travels through time to get the course of history back on track by kicking the shit out of these people that were supposed to be dead already.
There's also a side-questy area where you do most of your grinding for gear and special attacks. The main bad thing is that you have to beat all of story mode (which gets difficult very quickly) before you get any additional character slots unlocked. I have all these DBZ-style names for characters picked out but I can't use them until I finish the game with my Namekian (named Viola!).
MH4U: Finished all 4 star quests, trying to beat the Urgent Mission for 5 stars. Why thank you, I would like to be punched in the nuts some more game.
Puzzle & Dragons: Kind of in a rut where the lower content is really easy but I'm in no way capable of beating Descends. Mainly just need to grind and level a lot.
Pokémon Shuffle: Free puzzle game, it's not great but the music is actually pretty awesome!
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I wasn't 100% sure about 3-2's killer right away (more like 95%) and for 3-3 I expected the whole time that Evil Phoenix Wright was part of something bigger, or that he was someone else in disguise. Especially since that case had a bunch of seemingly minor characters.
It was odd to have the intro cutscene of the second case reveal the villain, since IIRC this usually only happens with the first case in each case? Redd White's an exception, but the intro cutscene didn't spoil the fact that he had an accomplice.
Anyway I quite liked Robin and Hugh as subversions of Apollo / Edgeworth.
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Bayonetta - what the fuck is this shit
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Which one was that, again?
All the pieces are on top of pillars and you have 30 seconds to do panther-run double jumps between them. Once miss and you have to wait out the timer and start over.
Anyway, finished the game. The Space Harrier section is way better than the first game's, although that may be because I turned it into a Star Fox section instead. Final boss was....definitely a Bayonetta 2 boss, meaning pretty as all hell, hilariously over the top and generally fun, but also frustrating because things tend to get so chaotic that it's impossible to tell where the windup for an attack starts and the actual attack begins. Plot stuff was surprisingly satisfying and ties into the first game well enough. On balance the game is still a cut above Bayonetta but I do remember it being a lot easier to get into the flow of a big fight in the first one. Maybe I'll replay it! It is sitting right there, after all.
On the other hand, there are Witch Trials. Hmmmmmmmmmm.
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Super Mario Bros. 2 - Successfully beat the game as Toad. I feel accomplished. Now back to doing other things. >_>
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Which one was that, again?
All the pieces are on top of pillars and you have 30 seconds to do panther-run double jumps between them. Once miss and you have to wait out the timer and start over.
Anyway, finished the game. The Space Harrier section is way better than the first game's, although that may be because I turned it into a Star Fox section instead. Final boss was....definitely a Bayonetta 2 boss, meaning pretty as all hell, hilariously over the top and generally fun, but also frustrating because things tend to get so chaotic that it's impossible to tell where the windup for an attack starts and the actual attack begins. Plot stuff was surprisingly satisfying and ties into the first game well enough. On balance the game is still a cut above Bayonetta but I do remember it being a lot easier to get into the flow of a big fight in the first one. Maybe I'll replay it! It is sitting right there, after all.
On the other hand, there are Witch Trials. Hmmmmmmmmmm.
Wait, the game doesn't get -less- chaotic? I'm going to suffer so damn much.
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You mostly grow accustomed to the chaos. The game has a pretty steep learning curve, though.
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If you just want to experience Bayonetta as a thing, Easy is craaaazy easy.
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Yeah, Bayonetta is ridiculous and insane, and only gets more insane, but the more you play it, the more you get use to it. Still doesn't justify the Space Harrier section in the first game.
And no, it's not just the Star Fox aspect in Bayo 2 (which I still need to try at some point); the main mode it's still better. Particularly because the game doesn't spin the camera around when you do a dodge, so no getting dizzy, controls are more intuitive and less sensitive (while still being fully responsive), and they give you a Melee option which is a move that sacrifices range in favor of hitting a larger AoE naturally, which comes in handy multiple times. Add this to a much shorter sequence and we have a pretty tolerable if still pointless, gimmick sequence.
Also not tied to the best fight in the game. Bayo 1's, on top of being the worst thing ever, you have to go through it every time you want to fight Jeanne 4, which is my favorite boss fight in the game and it annoys me to no end that they didn't just make it two different chapters (and it's not a Halo abuse thing either; Pope Vader gives you more Halos and is his own chapter.)
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Phoenix Wright: Dual Destinies: Main game completed. I always forget that the writing in PW games is enjoyable somehow. Good game! Did a good job of feeling like a long absent return. Not a ton to say about it. New gimmicks are all well used, new cast is solid, etc.
Blackquill exceeded expectations and was a fantastic prosecutor. Athena and Apollo both worked well. It was great to see some old faces too.
Case logic felt a little shakier than normal, but it has been a while since I played PW3, so it is probably actually about the same. The game required way less insane leaps of logic IMO, though, minus the "show us the photo as evidence of a random thing" things. Only got game overs in case 1 (<_<) and case 2. Otherwise no FAQing or anything.
Will be doing the DLC case too, since everyone recommended it.
X-Com: The Board Game: "Easy." We completed one mission before our base exploded and everyone panicked. Absolute comedy of errors, largely caused by the dice becoming the world's most disagreeable things.
Mansions of Madness: Call of the Wild: Oh wow. This is actually a substantial improvement over the base game it seems. While MoM was an interesting experiment, it left our group cold due to a lot of problems (set-up being really long, balance issues, incredibly linear scenarios that often left multiple players with little to do, and limited replayability despite designer attempts). Call of the Wild seems to effectively address all those complaints. Will hacve to play more and see how it goes.
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X-COM the Boardgame - we beat Easy this weekend. I was Commander and Central Officer. That agitated me a bit too much. Multiple instances where tasks expired on me because Done didn't register who I tapped at it. Probably should take ipad out of case when playing. We won anyway. Misdirection mission type a bit more friendly than Domination.
Only some minor cheating.
Pathfinder card game - got three people playing this instead of two and it was a bit more fun. Knowing the rule made things flow pretty well.
The death rules can suck a big fat one though. Rerolling a toon if you die you are supposed replay all the campaigns if you want to "catch up" and get rewards. Fuck that shit. We will probably follow rules on deck building for them, but that ain't happening for level ups and shit.
Also we failed at following the rules for basic deck building, but oh well. The suggested decks also cheats by accident so I will accept us doing so. Finished the Bas set Adventure and will think about doing the Sdventure path sometime. Will definitely buy the rest of the set just out of completion sake. I could sit in a room and play by myself if I really wanted.
Would be pretty fun a a computer game.
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Bayonetta - Bayonetta kills things with her hair. Her hair is also her CLOTHES. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m41qSos4I6Y)
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At first I was worried someone had replaced Snow with a sinister robot because against all expectation he appeared to be taken aback by the raw crazy that saturates every second of Bayonetta instead of reveling in it, but I guess on second thought he was probably just surprised about the game actually being pretty difficult?
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EP:
I was really hoping someone would open that scene with "Good to see you again...sister," but it just didn't happen.
So who wants to tell him?
Ahahahaha.
So that bit now makes sense, needless to say (although I was still right about every protagonist so far being, if not actual royalty, then aspiring/failed royalty). Put R-man on hold after the second stratum to grind through NG+ Thage just so I didn't have that hanging over me. Killing Doom Shade as the ending unlock requirement is pretty dumb considering he says the same things whether you kill him or not (and geez there's a map I'm happy not to ever see again). The final boss actually could've been a little scary with Thage since breaking the barrier requires special attack usage? Thage being a squishy mage who is immune to healing and whose special attack is a melee move, not promising putting her right in front of FINAL BOSS POWER. If the boss was smart he could really ruin your day when you move in to break his protection (because MC death = game over here). Fortunately, the boss is not smart and decided that since he still had spells in stock he should damn well use them on someone across the room.
AI in Eternal Poison seems to do this all the time, like if enemies have any spells at all remaining then they're scripted to use them up before resorting to melee. This can result in some really stupid stuff like Unseelies constantly alternating between casting their defense/regen buffs because they can't have both active at once (a new physical or mental status will always overwrite an existing physical or mental status) from the start of the fight until they're all out of spells. It's pretty good about optimizing its damage output against your party, but this too is something you can use against the game once you figure it out. See above with the final boss prioritizing its spells against a random merc purely because he has no MDEF to reduce the damage (whereas sensibly punching the MC instead might result in a smaller damage figure but could also genuinely produce a crisis situation). Also any time you want to lure an enemy into a combo, just put the two characters you want to set it off perpendicular to one another, with them facing forward the same direction. Because striking an opponent from the side or rear gives a damage bonus, the computer will always obligingly march right in between your characters to hit the one with the exposed flank (allowing you to then do the same to the enemy, except super combo powered).
Pretty neat game in general, but yeah, not the sharpest AI I've ever seen.
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Touhou Labyrinths: Wound up beating the final boss after all. Looking for something mindless to do during dinner last night, decided to go grind for levels. Honestly not too bad (insofar as grinding can ever be "not bad"), at least at proper endgame, because the top floor randoms are all just one enemy at a time dropping stupid amounts of experience and Money (that is actually the currency in this game: "Money.") Vicinity of forty levels over what the game recommended and still barely pulled through. Party was: Meiling, Remilia, Sakuya, Wriggle, Momiji, Kasen, Yuugi, Utsuho, Reimu, Sanae, Reisen, Alice. (Despite having 3/4 of the SDM team present, I forgot to give any of them the team bonus skill. Stupid oversight.)
This was not an ideal party. Wriggle I guess chipped in by getting poison to hit a couple times but this was really a drop in the bucket given stupid huge final boss HP pool, and her raw offense sure wasn't adding much. Reisen could've/should've contributed the valuable service of counteracting the boss's buffs, but she died almost immediately. Alice contributed nothing whatsoever (note this isn't generally true, she's useful against randoms). Momiji/Yuugi should've added more since they're usually powerhouse melee fighters, but somehow couldn't here; just having the same base attack power as Remilia doesn't mean you can deal damage like Remilia, because git gungnir scrubs. As usual Remilia probably accounted for more than half the party's damage output. Remilia is crazy fucking broke. Kasen sorta able to keep up just for having the right element to hit weakness at least. Otherwise, Sakuya spams haste (she wasn't capable of dealing damage even after powerlevelling), Reimu/Sanae buff and heal, Meiling is a roadblock. Utsuho brought ITD, which is nice in theory except the boss resists the element. Still, damage cut to like a quarter or whatever is still more than some people can do (because it is a number bigger than zero) and wound up making a big difference at the last minute after everyone more important got ID'd.
Oh yeah, boss likes spamming ID. It's tied to his favorite MT tech that can also straight up murder some people through raw damage if the numbers go too swingy (bye Reisen). The status odds are not high, but this is still a huge problem when it's a persistent threat over the duration of an absurdly long fight. He also likes having multiple power-up stages that full-heal him. And buffing DEF/MDF 100% because lol you thought grinding out thirty levels would let you reliably deal damage again, sucker. Then because I had no one who could counteract enemy buffs I just had to turtle them out and hope nobody got ID'd while waiting. Same dilemma for taking time to recharge MP after every time the boss decides to wipe everyone's MP stores to zero (fuck you). At some point he summoned support dudes who had too much DEF for anyone to deal damage but fuck you, that's what I have ITD for. And at low health he thinks it's cool to break out the parasitic healing (god there are way too many awful gimmicks crammed into this one fight). When victory happened it was pretty much at the last possible second, 2/3 of the party dead, tank/damage battery/dedicated healer all gone, percolations resource exhaustion imminent, boss about to get a turn and probably frag the few battered survivors.
Normally that kind of victory is pretty satisfying, but not so much when you had to grind for an hour just to make that much feasible. For any postgame content I will just assume recommended boss level should be read as 50% higher than actually displayed because I don't know what they were thinking suggesting this fight was remotely possible any lower than I was.
Oh yeah, there is postgame, of course. I don't know how much of this I'll bother with. I found a boss rush and got the Great Question's mask for it because referential game is referential. There is a ton of extra dungeon out there but the randoms are obscenely obnoxious (and like 1/3 as rewarding as the easy ones on the top floor). Killed a few of the scrubbier optional bosses but most obviously well out of my league. I did finally get the capacity to assign sub-classes to everyone in the cast, at least. These are pretty neat; the extra offensive techs they open up generally don't seem too special, but the passive skills synergize with existing skillsets in some pretty nice ways, like making Orin the infinite MP factory.
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At first I was worried someone had replaced Snow with a sinister robot because against all expectation he appeared to be taken aback by the raw crazy that saturates every second of Bayonetta instead of reveling in it, but I guess on second thought he was probably just surprised about the game actually being pretty difficult?
I'm not sure -anyone- is ready for the levels of crazy in Bayonetta, and I can't really decide whether I'm in love with its sheer audacity or flabbergasted by the overwhelming male gaze. I'll admit I'm liking the design a lot so far, though.
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Played through a great retro platformer called Castle in the Darkness. Top notch game, and only sixbux on Steam. Controls are simple, responsive, and fast - you jump quick and sink like a stone, you start and stop on a dime. Loads of secrets. The platforming and level-traversing will take skill and smarts. Also a game where Spikes are a common feature. Difficult, but very little in the way of bullshit (minus a couple choice falling spikes). Setting is a great impression of a simple early SNES game. Music and sound effects are great. If you like tricky platformers, you really owe it to yourself to check it out.
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At first I was worried someone had replaced Snow with a sinister robot because against all expectation he appeared to be taken aback by the raw crazy that saturates every second of Bayonetta instead of reveling in it, but I guess on second thought he was probably just surprised about the game actually being pretty difficult?
I'm not sure -anyone- is ready for the levels of crazy in Bayonetta, and I can't really decide whether I'm in love with its sheer audacity or flabbergasted by the overwhelming male gaze. I'll admit I'm liking the design a lot so far, though.
So what I'm getting is you thought people were exaggerating about the nonsense we were referring too <_<?
Kirby Nightmare in Dreamland: Extra Mode beat and 100%ed; about the same as Kirby Adventure, though the Lion Mini Boss is really stupid in this game because if he contacts you, he grabs you and OH CRAP, can't use his weapon against him, and he's much bigger in this game. Meta Knight, by contrast, was a lot easier, probably because he no longer has large moments of flinch immunity, which is what made him tough in KA Extra Mode (hard to slug fest when he can kill you in 3 hits and you can get one hit per pass after all)
Kirby Triple Deluxe: HA! TAKE THAT SOUL OF SECTONI-...*AFTER form appears* ...:(
True Arena is a cruel, cruel thing. At least I feel like I'm learning the bosses and how to dodge them...except Flowery Woods seems to be really hard to figure out. I have learned that the pro-est strategy is Archer until Dark Meta Knight's Revenge, then go with Normal Kirby from here. If STone appears for either Dark Meta Knight's Revenge or Soul of Sectonia, USE IT. The invincibility you get from it is absolutely invaluable.
Ni No Kuni: We bit a big fat ass, then saw a lot of plot, then beat the fat ass again only this time with Oliver using a super spell. I have to admit, the game actually managed to put Oliver, a 10 year old boy, into a legitimate "bad ass hero in front of sun set" pose and make it WORK.
I suspect I'm reaching the end game arc seeing as the BIG PLOT TWIST was revealed, and we're about to fight the game's villain...who by the power of dramatic irony we know is really just the #2 guy to the real villain which the game has been showing us the entire time. I guess I'll give the game props for pulling off the Ultimecia/Zemus style villain only making it clear from the prologue the villain was there, while giving a legitimate reason for the heroes to not recognize there's anyone beyond Shaddar. Just a nice change of pace for the game to just be honest with the player while keeping facts hidden from the character's.
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Thage's special attack is actually awesome as hell considering it's 1 range on Thage (100% Fear is awesome). Probably not so awesome against a boss, but once I got it, I probably used it in every battle.
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Snow still all about those male gaze.
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Speaking of Bayonetta being crazy, I only just learned that the gibberish angels speak is a real language (http://bayonetta.wikia.com/wiki/Enochian) some 16th-century occultists made up as the "language of angels."
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At first I was worried someone had replaced Snow with a sinister robot because against all expectation he appeared to be taken aback by the raw crazy that saturates every second of Bayonetta instead of reveling in it, but I guess on second thought he was probably just surprised about the game actually being pretty difficult?
I'm not sure -anyone- is ready for the levels of crazy in Bayonetta, and I can't really decide whether I'm in love with its sheer audacity or flabbergasted by the overwhelming male gaze. I'll admit I'm liking the design a lot so far, though.
So what I'm getting is you thought people were exaggerating about the nonsense we were referring too <_<?
Kirby Nightmare in Dreamland: Extra Mode beat and 100%ed; about the same as Kirby Adventure, though the Lion Mini Boss is really stupid in this game because if he contacts you, he grabs you and OH CRAP, can't use his weapon against him, and he's much bigger in this game. Meta Knight, by contrast, was a lot easier, probably because he no longer has large moments of flinch immunity, which is what made him tough in KA Extra Mode (hard to slug fest when he can kill you in 3 hits and you can get one hit per pass after all)
Kirby Triple Deluxe: HA! TAKE THAT SOUL OF SECTONI-...*AFTER form appears* ...:(
True Arena is a cruel, cruel thing. At least I feel like I'm learning the bosses and how to dodge them...except Flowery Woods seems to be really hard to figure out. I have learned that the pro-est strategy is Archer until Dark Meta Knight's Revenge, then go with Normal Kirby from here. If STone appears for either Dark Meta Knight's Revenge or Soul of Sectonia, USE IT. The invincibility you get from it is absolutely invaluable.
Ni No Kuni: We bit a big fat ass, then saw a lot of plot, then beat the fat ass again only this time with Oliver using a super spell. I have to admit, the game actually managed to put Oliver, a 10 year old boy, into a legitimate "bad ass hero in front of sun set" pose and make it WORK.
I suspect I'm reaching the end game arc seeing as the BIG PLOT TWIST was revealed, and we're about to fight the game's villain...who by the power of dramatic irony we know is really just the #2 guy to the real villain which the game has been showing us the entire time. I guess I'll give the game props for pulling off the Ultimecia/Zemus style villain only making it clear from the prologue the villain was there, while giving a legitimate reason for the heroes to not recognize there's anyone beyond Shaddar. Just a nice change of pace for the game to just be honest with the player while keeping facts hidden from the character's.
Fun fact: the number 2 villain was the only villain in the original release of the game. All those cutscenes about the real villain are basically dlc added in the ps3 version. At least too me, the story in the second villain's part of the game feels super disconnected from the rest, so if you end up feeling the same, there's your reason.
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Well, that certainly explains a lot. I have my own theories about the game but I don't want to say what they are until they're confirmed one way or another, but that does explain why Shaddar is the EVIL BIG BAD from everyone's perspective, but he's clearly just a minion to the titular white witch.
Also explains the one council member guy doing stuff, when there's 12 of them.
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So I am officially Smashscum now. I joined smashboards.com and now I am meticulously learning the inner workings of a freakin' fighting game.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3SM8yOKKwU8PYqwsNP5rGA
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Thage's special attack is actually awesome as hell considering it's 1 range on Thage (100% Fear is awesome). Probably not so awesome against a boss, but once I got it, I probably used it in every battle.
I didn't use it much due to risk of putting Thage in melee. I may have been overly worried in this regard. To illustrate: she took damage precisely once over the course of both runs.
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Ni No Kuni: Just beat Shadar.
Yeah, it's exceedingly obvious he was the original final boss. He's a completely functional and full villain on his own without the White Witch scenes, and her role in his back-story (basically just her going "I like that you're evil, you are now my Dark Djinn!" She doesn't even appear, it's just her voice over in a scene completely absent from him) is so clearly shoe-horned in to go "This person is important and totally the reason behind everything!" but even then, it feels fake. Shadar as a character feels complete without any White Witch aspects.
Without being spoilerific, the characters treat him as the main villain throughout, and the rest of the world is all "The Dark Djinn is to blame" in various ways. You confront him halfway into the game, get beaten by him because "Mid-game villain showdown" scenario, and has the usual "We must get stronger to beat him!" By the time you fight Shadar, it's clear he and Oliver are opposites, between Oliver being the Light Wizard Boy and Shadar being the Old Dark Djinn. Heck, their ultimate spells are even obviously opposing one another (Mornstar vs. Evenstar.) After beating him, game divulges his past, explains where he came from, etc., and we see his motives and all that. All of it fits nicely without the need of a 3rd party person above him.
I know I said the White Witch scenes were at least shown, thus establishing her character, but they're all so inconsequential up to this point; I suspect they'll start mattering here because "oh, right, we beat Shadar, the ORIGINAL villain, we have to make the characters acknowledge the existence of that OTHER MORE POWERFUL VILLAIN we keep showing." To demonstrate just how...shoe-horned the White Witch is...
Every scene with her is just her viewing things from afar. She's your crystal ball viewing evil woman doing nothing but "oh no, the hero is actually succeeding rather than dying, we must make him dying instead of succeeding, SHADAR WHY HAVEN'T YOU KILLED HIM YET!?" Oh but she interacts directly with Shadar so clearly important right!?
I'll give her one thing; her design is creative, what with the space cape and all that. Still, you can totally tell everything related to her was not part of the original story. The original story was definitely intended to be Shadar as the main villain, and it's extremely obvious once you actually fight him.
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Thage's special attack is actually awesome as hell considering it's 1 range on Thage (100% Fear is awesome). Probably not so awesome against a boss, but once I got it, I probably used it in every battle.
I didn't use it much due to risk of putting Thage in melee. I may have been overly worried in this regard. To illustrate: she took damage precisely once over the course of both runs.
Yeah, the move is so good because on the chance that a random is not dead, it is not acting again and is easy prey for overkill. If it's the only enemy near her, then you are very much in the clear (Hmm...EP would be a good game for In Game Character Use Ranking. Thage might be good enough to smash into the top 20).
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Dragonball Xenoverse: I have become an official member of the Ginyu Force. Life complete.
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Donkey Kong Country 3D - Minecarts stole my balloons and killed my lives. They're my favorite stage designs in this game so far anyway.
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Kirby Triple Deluxe: True Arena is beat! Take that stupid evil final boss of doom. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FWHCWVZay4#t=20m35s)
Final Run I got lucky and managed to get Stone against Shadow DeDeDe, which I gave up Archer early for because the invincibility is invaluable for the following two fights. Getting through Dark Meta Knight with minimal damage can be tough as is though I can do decent against Soul of Sectonia's first half, but "decent" isn't good enough when the 2nd half goes psycho. Lots of Stone cheese was abused but it's a legitimate strategy and I won!
Probably won't touch Kirby Triple Deluxe for a while bceause the True Arena took a lot out of me...clearly I must go do that in Return to Dreamland...or I WOULD but I lack access to it :(
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That is a lot of attack patterns to memorize.
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That boss has the most "It's comin' right for ya!"s per minute I've ever seen. Thanks 3DS games.
The first part looks really easy but that 2nd one, after a boss rush looks legit challenging.
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yeah, that's basically the situation. What video doesn't show so much is while avoiding damage in the first part isn't so hard, a simple screw up can really punish you since those lasers hit hard, and it is possible to be Instant Death'd in the pit via those vines and such. Not hard, but you can't afford screw ups because of that second part.
Also what powers being used can make a difference. Hammer seems pretty effective on that first part, but I didn't have that because Archer is just too good for the first bunch of bosses and you're only given one power option between boss fights (though there are 2 mini-boss rushes that can give you powers, and Hammer is there, but the first 7 fights are randomized order, so also not reliable), on top of if the boss has a power to share as well.
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Hotline Miami 4: Wrong Number
I thought this would be an experimental title, this being the final game and everything, but so far it is just more Hotline Miami. Which is nice.
Locked masks makes it feel like there's a "correct way" to beat the levels, which is a step back. On the other hand they change gameplay more radically, so there's a lot of variety that was absent in the original. I guess the tradeoff is fine so far.
Music is dope
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Ni No Kuni: Finished. Tell you now, game is 4/10. It's pretty, decent music, and some ok to decent character and plot work, which is why it's not lower considering the flaws are big.
In chat, someone expressed the game as "aggressively mediocre"; from any gameplay perspective, this is pretty much spot on. The game has a pseudo-ARPG battle system but functions more like ATB and Turn based in some regards...no, I don't mean "either or" I mean it takes elements of both. It's hard to explain but it's a very poorly play tested system. It has potential if they actually did more with it and fleshed it out but unfortunately they keep it to the barebones so things just become a bore.
The real issue, which is what most of the game's problems stem from, is it's lack of polish. I already covered the resource issue earlier, and this does get better as game goes on and you can actually afford more and better items, but it's always present in some regard, because your AI is just stupid. I'll grant the 4th PC helps mitigate this a lot since he's got basically a combination of Oliver's stats with higher MP, a fast, MT Spell that has low recharge rate that is stronger than expected, and generally seems better at not throwing away his MP on useless stuff the way Esther is (Esther having much lower MP than you'd expect from Bard Mage Girl.) I digress though, as when that issue stops, the game rears a different issue of polish and that's animations.
Let's look at a game like the Tales series for a second, at least modern games. Everything here is real time outside some big heavy cinematic attacks, mostly Mystic Artes, but I'll get to those later. When you use an item or start charging a spell, that aspect is initiated independently of everything else. Items are instant, to boot, so when you use them, you get the immediate rewards. Spells with charge times? Well, you can interrupt them by getting hit, but if Yuri gets hit by a big spell and Rita is charging a spell, Rita will continue to charge the spell! When Mystic Artes pop up, the same logic applies, only there's a break in the action; again, if Yuri is hit by a Mystic Arte, Rita is unaffected, and the battle literally picks up exactly as it was before.
Ni No Kuni says bollocks to that, because SCREW logical design decisions! Let's look at all the problems, and keep in mind the Tales example at all times:
-Items have lengthy animations, at least for items. They're not super long, but they don't activate immediately, but only when the animation ends. This means you can throw a healing item onto a character to save them only for them to die before they're appropriately healed by the item, despite the item having already targeted them. I guess this can happen in a Tales game too but the window of opportunity for this to happen is so small, it's not really notable.
-Items stop the character using the item from doing any action until the item resolves; they can still run around and evade basic attacks, but still. This wouldn't be too bad because hey, all actions prevent you from doing other actions, so that's consistency...
-...except it also prevents the target from doing something if they aren't already initiated in an action. This applies to support spells too. There are times I'd have Oliver run to try and pick up a healing/MP orb, and suddenly he'd stop in his tracks because Esther cast a support spell. Yes, the game punishes you for using MT Support moves meant to be beneficial, and yes, everyone becomes inactive if you try MT Healing items. Anything MT should have been cinematic, just putting a brief stop on the action to prevent this, including MT Healing Items. To credit the game, MT Healing spells were cinematic, so that didn't come up.
--This issue actually cost me a reset on the final boss. There's an MT Resurrection item, which I desperately needed to activate, so I used it! Then a cinematic happened (see below), resetting it. Then I used it again, and my character stopped in place, couldn't move out of the way of the OBVIOUS MELEE ATTACKS, got slammed about 5 times, and before the item resolved, he died.
-To compound the issue further, if a cinematic attack is used during the item animation, the ENTIRE ITEM IS CANCELLED. yes, you can go 4 out of the 5 seconds for the item to resolve (not literal, just being an example) only for the enemy to use some attack, even if it's a worthless status move that hit no one, to interrupt your action. It gets even better when one of your AI partners casts a spell that does something similar. Again, remember how Tales just sort of pauses action and lets things continue where it left off with cinematics; this game doesn't do that. It's especially bad when the cinematic didn't even target your team, so you got interrupted over...nothing? At least the game doesn't take Items or MP if the effect didn't resolve, so you're not wasting resources.
--It does, however, count as using the action for the purposes of recharging the command. So even though you didn't use the item, you still did the action, so you still need to wait to use it again.
-Enemies can move during cinematics, thus cheat. yes, you heard that right; enemies can still move while a cinematic is going off. They can't attack or do anything meaningful mind you, so it's not COMPLETELY cheating, but it does matter in a different way. For standard Single Target and Full Screen Attacks, not a big deal; those will hit the enemy anywhere, so whatever (though sometimes in MT moves, the perspective makes it such that you can't see the effects on everyone, which is another problem, if more minor. It does show damage to off camera enemies at least.) Thing is, when you have AoE attacks and moves with ranges? Your character will generally go to the maximum range and fire the attack off if they're not in range already; when the attack initiates, they usually will hit too. Thing is, enemies under some circumstances can move, so they can in fact walk out of the range depending on arbitrary circumstance so you blow MP on the attack, in a game where resources are not casual.
-If it's not obvious by all of the above, resurrecting is as a result a complete pain in the ass. Compounding the issue further is it's only done via items, so your AI PCs can't revive you ever. Now note that enemies can have Instant Death that can come out of nowhere and gimp you. No one has MT Instant Death, thankfully, but still, nothing is more disconcerting than having a full HP PC just suddenly drop to 0 because an enemy threw an instant death attack, and the move isn't even a cinematic so you have this "Why did I just die!?" moment. Branching from that, enemies love Sleep and Paralysis, which have similar issues. IN some regards, those are worse; if your leader dies, you are forced to swap to a different PC, which is fair enough, but if you're asleep or Paralyzed? Guess what? YOU GET TO STOP PLAYING UNTIL THE STATUS RESOLVES! Same applies to Confusion for that matter, and both Sleep and Confuse last stupid long amounts of time if the enemy doesn't target you.
-AI is completely uncontrollable beyond telling them to "All Defend" or "All Attack"; the former is the only way AI will defend. Latter theoretically makes them more aggressive but it's hard to tell if it's meaningful, other than cancelling "All Defend." You can't do something like have Oliver charge a spell, swap to Esther and control her while he's charging; you have to sit there and play as your sitting duck PC. Again, using Tales as a comparison, I could be playing as Yuri and have Yuri tell Rita to start casting a spell via menu. I think you can even do something like select Rita, use a spell, then swap to Yuri while she's charging, and continue playing but could be wrong.
Combine this with all my complaints before and then remember these are constant problems, and you can see why this is such a big deal. It's a prime example of a game that clearly wasn't play tested well and thus poorly polished; they were definitely put minimal focus on the gameplay after the rough idea of what they wanted was done, as there's no way I can look at this and go "yeah, these were totally conscious decisions that people thought were good ideas!" Make matters worse, the final boss seems to completely abuse all of the above, such that he's a drastic difficulty spike compared to the previous two bosses...quoting Sage from Chat...
[15:47] <SageAcrin> ah yes, long multiform bosses where the last form is a difficulty jump.
[15:47] <SageAcrin> Have I mentioned those are stupid.
To be fair, previous forms aren't too durable, and the last battle does give you an invincible 4th PC with a lot of meaningful actions (though the PC doesn't count as a living PC for game over purposes, so yeah) which is a nice gesture considering the plot circumstances (I was thinking the game wouldn't do this even though the plot suggests "THIS CHARACTER SHOULD BE ASSISTING DIRECTLY!" but then suddenly there the character is, so props to the game for actually following through.) Speaking of the final boss, as shoe-horned in as the White Witch related stuff is (I'll get to that in a bit), the Final Boss fight is even worse. By this point, everything is resolved, and the game could have ended there. Then suddenly RETURN OF THE COUNCIL, which we just established is actually a figment of Cassiopeia's imagination given illusionary form due to her magic, comes and goes NO NOW YOU FIGHT US. There's no narrative value to this fight, and no purpose other than to force one last boss fight here. I get they wanted a 3 stage final boss, but why not just make the character before have a 3rd form? It was logical before; you fight her in her base form, the she uses magic to transform herself into a super form, and you beat that. Is it really so hard to just go "And then she uses her trump card to go into Ultra form!?" No, instead we pull that completely pointless stunt.
Compare that to Shadar for a second, the obvious originally intended final boss. First form is his base, Executor form we see throughout, logically. 2nd form isn't actually him, but a high powered Dark Knight he summons; considering his plot, this actually fits as a 2nd fight since Shadar is Oliver's Soulmate, and they just established a few hours earlier that Oliver can tap into the elemental stones using the Unleash spell to summon Nature spirits to fight for him briefly, so this could just be him summoning the Spirit of the Nevermore Marshes. Alternatively, it's just an extension of Oliver's ability to use Familiars, but corrupted and such., so fair enough. Then you beat the Dark Knight and Shadar basically pulls a "Gloves come off!" and goes into his Dark Djinn super form, in desperation to kill you. This is all fitting of a final boss and works well, because everything here is stemmed from Shadar in one way or another. The actual Final Boss after fighting the White Witch (...not a spoiler considering the game is called "Wrath of the White Witch") is just an asspull because they want one more fight.
Speaking of the White Witch, she really needed to be put into a different game or story altogether. Her role in the plot during Shadar's arc is completely pointless; I've covered this already, won't go into details again. When she makes herself known to the heroes, the story...has actually neat ideas...kind of. I say kind of because after thinking about it, she's literally the same character as Shadar.
Both Shadar and Cassiopeia started as young, naive people who wished to do well. Then they both had to face a harsh reality, leading them to do something to try and make amends for it, which in turn only backfired and made them go into the insane mindset of "The world must be destroyed because it's evil!
Really the only difference is one was driven by the sense of futility, the other by solitude. I do think the White Witch could have been an interesting character if they actually explored her throughout the game, rather than shove her entire back-story into the last 3 hours of the game, leading to a quick legitimate introduction and resolution. She gets absolutely no development before the last 3 hours. The best parallel I can think of is how she's pretty much Queen Beryl from the first season of Sailor Moon; exists to sit on a throne and bark orders and do EVIL EXPOSITION, but is otherwise completely pointless, as it's her minions that we care about (well, Minion in NNK's case, because Shadar's the only one.) It's not like the game even tries to show parallels between the two or make an attempt to tie-in anything she does to the main story until after Shadar.
The other issue I have is...well...the way the game presents itself, the White Witch really doesn't work in the story at all. The entire Shadar arc, if we factor out the White Witch stuff (which wasn't in the original story apparently), the game actually has an interesting philosophical angle that seems to explain what's really going on.
Namely, the story seems to be nothing more than an escapist fantasy that Oliver came up with to deal with the loss of his mother's death. Ignoring the White Witch scenes, until his mother dies, the game is completely mundane. Oliver lives in a normal town circa the early 1900s I think it is, and everything is standard. Then his mother dies suddenly, which he feels responsible for (which is understandable), and being a 10 year old boy raised by a single mother, he naturally takes this pretty harshly. THEN suddenly, holding his stuffed animal, it comes to life, with the same weird design because "he cried and is a pure heart!" From here, all the fantasy elements start kicking in.
Some signs that point me to this are the following:
-Drippy's title is "Lord High Lord of the Fairies." Yes, he did use the term "Lord" twice in there.
-Random encounters are small and cutesy, only the bosses are big and monstrous, kind of like how a 10 year old would view the difference between Strong and Weak.
-Soulmates are all conveniently in his town. Given he's 10, it'd make sense that he doesn't think of the world much beyond his own town, because at that age, the real world to you is only what's in proximity.
-Speaking of Soulmates, the fantasy world versions always seem exaggerated versions of his friends. The most obvious is Leila vs. the Cowlipha. Leila is this obese woman who Oliver gets milk from all the time. Her Soulmate, the Cowlipha, is a 20 foot tall cow woman.
-Shadar, as a villain, is pretty standard evil bad guy; he's made to look and seem like your typical evil old man wizard. Nothing subtle about him, again, that'd fit in with the imagination of a 10 year old since while kids can be creative, they do tend to have narrow view of "Good vs. Evil" and Shadar fits "evil" straight to a tee.
-No one can see Oliver's friends in his world, almost like they're imaginary.
-He does solve supernatural problems in the real world, but they could just be him having his imagination run wild. For example, one case involves a father/husband whose been mean lately and acting like a real jerk. Oliver goes and fights the shadow of his heart and restores his kindness! He goes back to normal! Is it possible what really happened is that fight never happened, just the man overworked himself and Oliver being there helped make him come to his senses, such that when his wife comforts him, he finally recognizes how he's been and turns over a new leaf? We're seeing the game through Oliver's eyes remember, so again, expect exaggerated situations.
-The Wizard book just HAPPENS to be found in his fireplace...and only after his mother dies...
-Last and most importantly? The goal of his mission isn't to save the world, but revive his mother by saving her Soulmate. He's clearly not come to grips with the idea that "my mother is dead and I will never see her again!" and to him, his mother was this saint-like figure, so naturally he views her as an amazing Sage, who simply got beat by an evil wizard and he has to save her "soulmate" and by doing so, he can bring his mother back.
I can go on but you can see there's a lot of things that all just fit in well if the story is nothing more than Oliver's escapist imagination "coming to life" as a means to cope with his mother's death. The big plot twist comes when he learns that Alicia, the Sage, isn't his mother's soulmate, but actually his mother, teleported through time and space through Breach Time spell to reach his world. In learning this, naturally it means his mother is gone for good. This to me came as the moment where Oliver had finally come to grips with the idea of death and that "my mother is gone and can't come back no matter what I do" and no amount of imagination can undo it, which is why he "goes into a coma." After mulling it over and thinking of all the people he "helped" was his way of going "I need to move on, I can't keep being sad!" The final battle with Shadar then has Oliver with the dilemma of "I die, you die too, SOULMATE!" which to me was Oliver's way of saying "if you beat me, then this great adventure comes to an end! You'll have to go back to boring reality!" then he comes up with a story that makes Shadar not seem like a bad guy, just someone who had misfortunes because "he's my soulmate, there has to be SOME good in him!" and Oliver was the one who purified his broken heart.
Pea of course is the hardest character character to explain. On one hand, I can believe she was also an addition since her main role comes in the last 3 hours, which if that was the case, then yeah, the theory only fits stronger as she was an addition. On the other hand, unlike Cassiopeia, Pea's purpose actually did fit with the story, as she interacts with Oliver and tended to have answers he didn't have. The best I can come up with is Pea was some sort of manifestation of Oliver's subconscious, a part of his mind even he didn't register and thus couldn't understand. It's worth noting that no one but Oliver can see Pea, even the others from the Fantastic world. As a result, if it was an aspect of his imagination he didn't know existed, and formed because he's letting his imagination run wild, well there you go.
I don't know if that was the intent, but the story just fits so well and would be a nice, different angle if that was what was going on; the White Witch just kind of throws a wrench in it, and her being a later addition just makes me further believe that was the original intent. Even the post-credits ending fits with the theory I presented as it's basically Oliver gets home, on a broomstick that NO ONE happens to see, and telling himself he's finally ready to move on with his life and he doesn't need his mother anymore.
Speaking of endings, the fake ending when Shadar is defeated is far more of an ending than when you beat the real final boss. Typical "load bearing final boss" situation followed by "we saved the world" and celebrations, and yeah, everything feels wrapped up, all that's missing is credits rolling but instead we get to Ding Dong Dell and the game goes "So...White Witch...remember her? Yeah, she's finally going to do stuff now." Then you beat the subsequent arc and the ending can be summed up as "And they lived happily ever after, ROLL THE CREDITS!" No, that's not really a spoiler because there's nothing TO spoil; the important stuff honestly happens right before the final boss, who as I said is a bullshit "we need one more fight, DEAL WITH IT!"
And yes, the post Shadar stuff in Ni No Kuni is comparable to F-arc in Tales of Graces F. The difference, though, is that F-Arc felt like a genuine extension of ToG's plot and characters. It followed up on ideas established in the main story, furthered the development of characters, and worked as extra world building. It also was more honest, as ToGf said "You beat the game!" when you beat the main story then goes "if you want to see more, play F-Arc!" so it's clear "THIS IS AN EXPANSION!" Ni No Kuni tries to pretend it's all one story. Yes, I am in fact saying Ni No Kuni would have benefited from having the credits after Shadar and then having an ominous voice over by the White Witch hinting "there's more to the story!"
As a final note, one last thing I'll give the game credit for is having a different protagonist than what jRPGs have. Most jRPG Protagonists range from teenager to early 20s. Having a protagonist who is legitimately a young boy, as in 10 years old, and not be annoying about it, was a nice change of pace. There's an air of innocence and naivete you get from Oliver that feels more genuine as a result than some of these "inexperienced teen protagonists" that are a dime a dozen. Add in some semi-competent writing and pacing for the most part, and Ni No Kuni isn't half bad of a story. Not something I'll hype mind you, but I was curious where the game was going at times (for all that it didn't throw many curve balls but sometimes you don't need to be different to be entertaining) and even when the game had filler, the filler felt well implemented, as it came off as "breathing room between plot points" as opposed to being outright padding.
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For me, it was the AI that really killed the game. I can forgive the White Witch stuff since it wasn't in the original game, I can forgive a lot of things. But from start to finish, the ally AI is so bad it makes any strategy other than pure melee pointless.
I wrote this back when I finished the game. Not as detailed, but we had many of the same issues:
http://jshreviews.blogspot.com/2013/07/ni-no-kuni-wrath-of-white-witch_25.html
I personally would have liked the game way more if the magic world was just Oliver playing pretend to cope with his mother's death. Both me and another friend thought this was what was happening until the end of the game and were disappointed when proven wrong.
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EP: Finished up Ro-man's chapter. He was kind of a drag most of the time, right? He's all "Grr, must kill Morpheus even though he's already dead," and he won't explain anything to his sidekick about why he thinks he needs to re-kill a dude he already killed, so we don't understand anything about him either. But Count Trollphaston's pretty great this whole time so that's something at least? Then you get to the final battle and Rondemion's just like, actually, Count, I was trolling you the whole time. And that was pretty great.
Just have Spoilertastic's chapter left now. Huh, dude starts with a lot of majin in stock and the town's weirdly depopulated. ...Oh. Oh, I see. I guess there's no avoiding monster majin party this time.
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For me, it was the AI that really killed the game. I can forgive the White Witch stuff since it wasn't in the original game, I can forgive a lot of things. But from start to finish, the ally AI is so bad it makes any strategy other than pure melee pointless.
I wrote this back when I finished the game. Not as detailed, but we had many of the same issues:
http://jshreviews.blogspot.com/2013/07/ni-no-kuni-wrath-of-white-witch_25.html
I personally would have liked the game way more if the magic world was just Oliver playing pretend to cope with his mother's death. Both me and another friend thought this was what was happening until the end of the game and were disappointed when proven wrong.
Reading the AI part of your review, I am reminded just how bad they are at this. I noticed that the AI will only use 2 Familiars at best, and usually the one in the 3rd slot never gets used at all, regardless how good/bad it is.
Generally, they use one familiar, and sometimes the 2nd will pop out based on the first's Stamina and such, or they'll go back and act on their own (which is another issue because Esther so often will run up to physical things when her physical damage never does more than 1 per hit...) I can't say I've ever seen AI so bad in an RPG like this. Even Tales of Destiny, with it's mostly lethargic AI, was better as at least Bruiser felt active and if the PCs had magic, they would cast it on a regular basis (especially notable with Rutee due to healing), and while that game had bad AI, it was still somehow adequate enough for the game. NNK's AI is a whole other level of badness, and that combined with the MP issues (especially early game)...ugh.
I think it's most notable that the 4th PC who joins in the last 3 hours gets Thunderstorm, which is an amazing spell in every sense (20 MP for 120-150~ damage to all enemies, rarely resisted, fast casting AND recharge time? SIGN ME UP!) and he'll never use it, instead opting for crap like Frostbite and Arrow of Light (ok, latter I guess isn't much worse on bosses and costs less MP, but he'll use it on randoms.)
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Hotline Miami 2:
This comes off as a big surprise: HM2 is not good. At all. It's not entirely unpleasant and it has some highs (like the ending) But it is not refined, it has nothing interesting to say, it lacks ambition. The atmosphere never quite clicks. (Edit: EXCEPT IN THE ENDING)
It is a lot harder, which is almost always a plus for me, but it's the Hard Mode of a game that's not meant to have a Hard Mode. The levels are way bigger with more enemies: The open ended areas mean million deaths from offscreen fire, and the higher number of enemies meant almost clearing a level like a pro then dying because of a glitch, or because you didn't hit the last dog at the exact right moment. Hitting at the right moment with melee was never really that interesting in HM1, but it didn't matter because you never lost too much.
This game doesn't deserve its awesome licensed soundtrack.
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Hotline Miami 2:
This comes off as a big surprise: HM2 is not good. At all. It's not entirely unpleasant and it has some highs (like the ending) But it is not refined, it has nothing interesting to say, it lacks ambition. The atmosphere never quite clicks. (Edit: EXCEPT IN THE ENDING)
It is a lot harder, which is almost always a plus for me, but it's the Hard Mode of a game that's not meant to have a Hard Mode. The levels are way bigger with more enemies: The open ended areas mean million deaths from offscreen fire, and the higher number of enemies meant almost clearing a level like a pro then dying because of a glitch, or because you didn't hit the last dog at the exact right moment. Hitting at the right moment with melee was never really that interesting in HM1, but it didn't matter because you never lost too much.
This game doesn't deserve its awesome licensed soundtrack.
This is super disappointing. Not even worth $15?
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Meeple, re Ni No Kuni plot:
Pea is actually just thrown into the storyline much like the White Witch. I think the original DS version didn't feature her. Mostly you could excise her completely and it wouldn't change much of anything. Think of when she warns Oliver about 3 'guardians' and there was a scene with the White Witch regarding this too... it wouldn't have changed anything at all had this not happened.
And yeah 4th PC's Thunderstorm is sweet. Knocks enemies down too, which is just gravy on a move that ridiculously fast.
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Hotline Miami 2:
This comes off as a big surprise: HM2 is not good. At all. It's not entirely unpleasant and it has some highs (like the ending) But it is not refined, it has nothing interesting to say, it lacks ambition. The atmosphere never quite clicks. (Edit: EXCEPT IN THE ENDING)
It is a lot harder, which is almost always a plus for me, but it's the Hard Mode of a game that's not meant to have a Hard Mode. The levels are way bigger with more enemies: The open ended areas mean million deaths from offscreen fire, and the higher number of enemies meant almost clearing a level like a pro then dying because of a glitch, or because you didn't hit the last dog at the exact right moment. Hitting at the right moment with melee was never really that interesting in HM1, but it didn't matter because you never lost too much.
This game doesn't deserve its awesome licensed soundtrack.
This is super disappointing. Not even worth $15?
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Meeple, re Ni No Kuni plot:
Pea is actually just thrown into the storyline much like the White Witch. I think the original DS version didn't feature her. Mostly you could excise her completely and it wouldn't change much of anything. Think of when she warns Oliver about 3 'guardians' and there was a scene with the White Witch regarding this too... it wouldn't have changed anything at all had this not happened.
And yeah 4th PC's Thunderstorm is sweet. Knocks enemies down too, which is just gravy on a move that ridiculously fast.
Ok, that makes sense for Pea. I wasn't trying to say she was super significant, just she didn't feel disconnected from the story the way the White Witch did. She was playing a role, if a superficial one, and interacted directly with Oliver. It only further suggests the original intent of the game was Oliver's getting lost in his own imagination to help cope with his mother's death and for some reason, they decided to not do this.
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I'd say no.
I'll elaborate some more because my post was pretty shitty.
I think the only part of the game I really like is the music (I see it as even better than the first game's), but it fits the game less well than HM1, because HM2's higher difficulty makes is more about planning and less about instinct. When playing HM2 you're very rarely in that HM1 transe-like state, so the OST is less effective.
The game also actually made me start disliking one track I love, because it looped badly, and I was listening to it over and over while dying for stupid reasons.
The game might handle a lot better on PC. The Vita was good enough for HM1, but the higher difficulty in HM2 asks for more precise and intuitive controls that aren't there.
On PC, looking ahead is mapped to Shift (instead of the fucking touchscreen) so you can actually look around and still do something else at the same time.
Using the keyboard keys for moving around is also a lot better than whatever you want to use on Vita (I switched from the Vita analog stick to the crappy Vita d-pad midway through the game, because I was getting stuck on doors all the time)
PC controls could make later levels a lot less frustrating, but even on PC, user reception is lukewarm.
I mentioned that the game is more about planning than instinct.
Essentially, if you're like me you'll try going in guns blazing, raking combos like in Hotline Miami 1. You'll die from a million offscreen deaths, get frustrated, and then start going more slowly, carefully looking ahead all the time, killing enemies one by one by luring them. You'll get through levels more easily that way, but fighting will be less fun, each death will be more frustrating, and the game will greet you with "I give your performance a C- rating, you are shit" at the end of every level.
The only way to play more skillfully and get good ratings, is perfect memorization of enemy placement and level design (and then a perfect execution of your plan to go through the level), which is a pretty significant departure from Hotline Miami 1. I am not interested in playing the game further to get good grades, even though I had a hell of a lot of fun getting an A+ rating in each HM1 level. Needless to say, I am not interested in this game's Hard Mode either.
At first, I thought that nearly removing masks would force a different playstyle and make the game more varied. But not really.
Essentially you either play like you have no special power, or are forced to go melee only (often with a beefed up melee attack), and that's about it. Let's see:
- Zebra has the most useless dodgeroll
- Bear has a move that looked amazingly cool but useless in trailers. I wondered how they were going to make this useful in game by using good level design. Guess what happened.
- Tiger is melee-only
- Swans are one melee and one ranged character at the same time, like Ice Climbers. You control both character's attack, but only the chainsaw girl's movement. In a very precise game, having one AI controlled character that constantly lags behind you is bad. The best strategy with the swans is to go melee only with the chainsaw girl and only use the second character to shoot loudly at walls, to attract enemies so you can kill them near doors with melee. It is actually super mega OP. But in the end you're just a melee only-character and having an ability that trivializes the game (for like three levels. You can't use swans that much)
- The journalist is a pacifist. It sounds like there are major gameplay implications to this, but if you grab a melee weapon on your first enemy (there's no reason not to), you get another melee-only character with no drawbacks.
- The army dude can switch between a knife and a ranged weapon at will, but cannot pick up weapons. Since you fight big dudes immune to melee in his levels, you end up always saving ammo for the big dudes and fighting everybody else with melee, sometimes luring with a single gunshot. Nothing interesting here either.
- Jake gets lethal throws. Allright, one point for Hotline Miami 2, still not too great.
- And then there are a few characters with no special powers at all, like the cop.
much variety, wow. A reminder that all this replaces the mask system.
I should mention that Hotline Miami 2 took those big enemies who die from a few bullet shots and are entirely immune to melee attacks... and then it gave them assault rifles?
Even if you have the best approach, shooting them from behind while strafing like crazy, the're a good chance they still might be able to turn around and spray-kill you. Amazing. These guys are like goombas that would become lethal on touch at completely random intervals in a Mario game. Pray the RNG gods are with you.
These enemies rarely appear but I think they're a nice example of the stupid decisions the game took, for the sake of higher difficulty.
I've mentioned the ending being nice, but while it looks and sounds cool, it's still really dumb. (Spoiler: Mafia mob takes too much LSD so he goes crazy and kills his entire gang)
The game as a whole is like that. You will get nothing out of the storyline, and won't even care that much about what happens next because you'll be jumping through time and changing characters every two levels. Sometimes the HM1 main character (with his rooster mask) will appear in hallucinations to taunt the current playable character and say something nihilistic.
Whatever.
I still enjoyed the game at first, because it was still more Hotline Miami, but by the end I started really actively disliking it, as should be pretty clear by now.
Oh, I read a really interesting post on Gamasutra about Binding of Isaac's themes and have changed my mind about its themes. I think it's less cruel than self pitying.
I got the remake on Vita and played through it a few times already, I'm feeling I'm getting better at it.
It's a pretty big step up in gameplay from the non remake. It can become a complete mess with some powers and in the boss rush, but that's part of what makes it work, I think. At least until I try playing with the low HP hard mode characters.
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EP: Master D's chapter is weird. Super short (just the third/fourth stratum, and fourth is just a boss fight), which is probably fine since full-on monster party would probably wear out its welcome over the full game. Also short because monster party encourages you to work fast since your allies all have turn limits before they port out for nappies (this definitely feels different from the rest of the game, so that's fine). Isapolis is bizarrely depopulated here and that's just odd to see. You get boatloads of money that you can't do anything with because D's classed as a monster and doesn't use equipment. You don't have to worry about overkilling anything because you can't capture anything, all the enemies are now washed-out palette swaps of their normal selves (that also appear to be immune to status, boo). Also the dude has no respect whatsoever for the fourth wall (and as it turns out in the ending, neither does Thage). My immersion, you guys.
Apparently the king is the boss alien from Edge of Tomorrow or something.
Altogether now! full-protagonist tactical squad is pretty much the best way to handle the last battle in a game like this. But man, did they really have to give the final boss regen? 300 healing per round is a pretty substantial amount to chip through every turn if you've already burned through all your special attacks against her support (which I didn't, fortunately, but I could see how someone might gimp themself by wearing their team out against the hands and having to deal with a real long haul for the head). Especially considering she does horrific amounts of damage at long range to a wide radius and has so many spell charges that you'll assuredly run out of healing before she exhausts her firepower, it can be tough to keep up when you've got to detail at least a couple people for healing (I sort of regreted here sending Ashley down the path of Superior Asskicking/Nametaking instead of support, because she couldn't keep up on her own, and I had to lean on summoned majin to help keep people patched up--so hey, once in a while there is actually a use for them other than grist for the magic cuisinart). Only saving grace is that LASER BEAMS has a tremendous amount of self-inflicted delay so you can usually count on everyone immediately doubleturning her when she uses it.
This doesn't necessarily mean that it was difficult, just that it made me go "Whoa, big numbers, I'll have to save up the top-notch firepower and go all out at the last minute." Eternal Poison is rarely, if ever, genuinely difficult, and if it ever is that's likely just because you misjudged enemy movement range and accidentally aggro'd more dudes than you meant to. I had no game overs (though I did reset a couple early Ashley maps because someone immediately died due to stupid initial positioning). The AI is extremely easy to manipulate in most circumstances, and though it doesn't give you damage projections the game's damage mechanics are nonetheless so straightforward that you can easily mentally calculate what you'll get. Straight subtractive defense -> result modified by elemental resistance (which is just +/- the percentage stated). Simple to guess on the fly, which is convenient since acquisition of a lot of neat things requires you to overkill enemies past certain thresholds of damage.
Also, Olifen, "Kneel before Atona!" not the most appropriate battle cry when we're, you know, murdering Atona. Then afterward Thage tells people it's not a good time to talk about religion even though we just killed god. Right. Thage totally the unofficial main character, by the way. It's so obvious someone on staff thought of her that way: she's the only one who can trigger combos in the last battle, her death there is the failure condition, her character art is on the soundtrack disc ("Thage vs. the Majin"), she figures out the time loop jiggery independently, etcetera. Which is okay, really, because she's actually pretty cool. "The more they boast, the better they roast." Also her representations notably outnumber everyone else's in the unlocked library of concept art (I didn't clear all of Stones of Fate, but I did enough of it to notice this). One of the early sketches has an extreme close-up of her bust, with some scrawled Japanese writing next to it that I have to assume translates as "You guys it's SUPER IMPORTANT that we get her cleavage rendered just right, can you see that I am serious?"
Pretty neat game? Worth a try if you just want a simple SRPG with some odd (usually good odd) quirks. Technically you are taking all five protagonists through the same dungeon, but there are multiple different routes and opportunities to switch between them midway, so while you're going to see some overlap eventually it doesn't feel so much like doing the same thing over and over again as it conceivably could have (everyone has personalized intro battle chains and plot bosses, too). The only really dickish thing is some obscure final chapter unlocks. Ashley's and Olifen's good endings are easy to sort out because the cast outright directs you down the proper path through clear dialogue references. For Thage, the only reason I knew to hit the dark path was that I knew from a previous character's run what the constant scythe references meant, and even then it turned out I couldn't do what I needed to do because I hadn't captured a specific optional boss on a specific map that is apparently plot-relevant for Thage even though the game in no way instructs you that taking this particular second stratum path is even important for her. Argh! Getting a full index of monsters (required for final chapter unlock) is also potentially tricky unless you go out of your way from the start to hit every optional boss. Chances are you're going to need to replay something to access the final chapter unless you do some FAQ-diving ahead of time. So that was annoying, but mostly the game avoids that feeling of wheel-spinning despite conceptually involving a lot of repetition.
Mercs recruited for each chapter:
Ashley: Ares, Yuri, Nena, Irina.
Olifen: Ares, Yuri, Vivian.
Thage: Ares, Yuri, Thage-- Nena, Alexei's Ridiculous Accent okay I guess Alexei's kinda worth using for battle prowess too.
Rondemion: Ares, Yuri, Vivian, Velnor, Irina.
Totally Not Hitler: I mostly stuck with the default array of, um...damn majin names. There was an archer dog and a dog dog and grasshopper chick and GARUDA and I think an unseelie and a lapis sylph? It hardly matters who you use here, his chapter is even easier than most.
Ares is amazing and I can't not recruit her at every opportunity. Compared to plot PCs she's a little fragile and just a tad lacking in damage, but she gets all the turns, runs halfway across the world, innately gets Dual Attack as well as a unique special, and has a mess of equip options that no one else can use. Yuri is probably technically the most valuable merc though just because of all those heals (you get lots of fighter recruits, not so much dedicated MT heals). Outside of those two it's almost academic who you recruit, anyone else tends to feel superfluous. The twins and Irina are adequate support characters but incapable of excelling at anything. Alexei deals truckloads of damage but is just sooooooo slooooooow. I never used Stein much because he was basically Nena except not a girl. Ditto Komori since he's a Yuri that trades some overall effectiveness for Fortify. This isn't really a winning trade. Koona are just haha no (I felt bad beating them up in Ro-man's chapter, though).
Probably gonna try and knock out some unfinished replays (CT, FFX, SC2) over the next week before Bloodborne comes out the Tuesday after next and my life is over (again).
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HLM2: cleared the game in one sitting today out of sheer bloody-mindedness.
Pretty much what Fenrir said? I'd forgive everything if I liked the level design but I don't, the stages are too big and there's glass everywhere and you can't really play it like you would HLM1. Blitzing through the first game's Hot & Heavy stage as fast as you can is hard, but a very fun kind of hard. Getting shot by someone you can't even see while shift-looking as far as you can in that direction because there's just that much open space in the level isn't fun.
I also want to register a complaint about the patrolling dogs in that night club stage where the screen's super dark and they're almost impossible to see. I ended up having to take the level really really slow to avoid getting chomped on by invisidogs. Verdict: queue up the HLM2 soundtrack and replay HLM1.
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Codename STEAM: So Henry Flemming, John Henry, the Cowardly Lion and Tiger Lily all took down a giant ice spewing Lovecraftian Horror with a giant cannon on it's head, while Abraham Lincoln insures the safety of Queen Victoria.
...why don't History Books tell us this part of world history?
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SF's mobile gaming:
Fire Emblem Awakening, Equality playthrough: Pretty much got put on hold right after my earlier post due to breaking my 3DS. Then new 3DSes having a nasty shortage (in the sense of "New 3DS", not a replacement old-3DS model). I bought a new 3DS last Sunday... but the memory card is hidden with the battery, and to get to the battery requires taking off the screws, which was freaking impossible for 1 screw. I'm now sending it back to Nintendo repairs to loosen a screw, this is silly. So... no 3DS / DS gaming. Vita stuff ahoy!
Corpse Party Book of Shadows - Pretty disappointing. I don't like the general slant the stories seem to be taking and the gameplay doesn't lend itself well to horror to me, at least not without better writing. On hold.
Castlevania Symphony of the Night, Maria playthrough - So Dracula X Chronicles, despite me owning the old PSP one, was on sale in the PSN store. Not as much on sale as it should be by Steam standards but whatevs. Okay I can finally try out Maria... what the crap is this, it's locked behind finishing an Alucard run? And SotN itself is locked behind finishing Dracula X? Sigh.
Dracula X / Rondo of Blood, playthrough #2 - As usual, did pretty good for stages 1-3, got owned on stage 4. Friggin precise jumps around traps as Richter. Wasn't really feeling it.
Tactics Ogre: Let Us Neutral Together - Ah strat-RPGs. Decided it'd be more fun to do a real playthrough than World back to the start. No Chariot of course (possibly excepting Hanging Gardens knockback BS, we'll see). Commentary on more interesting levels:
* Prologue: We've taken away Lanselot & his White Knight buddies equipment, let's see if they notice. Aside from being funny to watch 'em get their butt kicked, it's probably optimal too, more skill points for Denam & Canopus.
* Krysaro: Sorry Leonar, Donnalto died in combat. Some weird dude with wings shot him with Dark Weight. It's... it's a goddamn mystery as to why. Hand over Felicia for a change of pace in starter clerics pls.
* Arkhaiopolis of Rhime: Damnit Cistina. Definitely one of the more RNG battles in the game, but thankfully it's also fast. If the enemy archers & mages decide to focus down Cistina and/or she goes too YOLO and/or the crits & blocks don't go your way, it's possible there's just not a lot you can do here. Eventually I get rolling and Canopus proves a sufficient distraction. I tell Cistina some pish-posh about seeking peace, which is why I asked random foreigners to slay my enemies. We're two of a kind, here.
* Qadriga Fortress: I remember Reiska complaining in chat about the difficulty of this battle, which is fair enough, but I think he was lvl. 5-6. I was lvl. 4-5 for this, which makes it much more interesting. :) It is definitely one of the toughest battles in the game, although going in knowing that and thus being willing to use Blessing Stones helps - I blew 2 of 'em. (The very expensive revival item.) Anyway, for those who forget, this is Nybeth & his undead buddies. Definitely bring 2 Clerics with Exorcism for this one. Nybeth has great magic defense and Sidestep for arrows, so you really want to dive him with melee... but I forgot / had Canopus with Bow & shield for this fight, so he can't exactly do it, this requires #YOLO charging in from the frontline. Which wouldn't be so bad? Denam is a champion tank at this point, at least with the answers to the Tarot I gave (which generally did focus tankiness), BUT. It's all narrow staircases up, and corpses block your path. You cannot walk over the ghost remains... whatever that means? Better exorcise 'em first, except by definition this is Denam & Voltare-the-Knight diving deep, so it's not real safe for your Clerics to go that far forward. I had a positively ridiculous chase around the edge of the fortress as Nybeth retreated. He had to cast Summon Darkness at least 4-5 times this fight, bringing on new waves of reinforcements nearby, always vexing... and furthermore these incorporeal ghosts have the ability to, aside from body-blocking your melee units, throw Mend Herbs at Nybeth for a very relevant +25 HP. Eventually, somehow, after chasing Nybeth from the top-left to the right side of the fortress, I managed to get a Knight to stick to him; in combination with Canopus's Dark Weight earlier (at high TP it'll 100% hit even through Sidestep), I was able to finally take him down, possibly with some chip damage from my mages as well. Pretty close.
* Balmamusa 2 Chaos: Hmm, C-Denam sucks a lot more at getting out the word than L-Vyce. I kinda liked how the Duke's plan doesn't really work at dividing the Galgastani in the L-path; the Hireophant's opponents are silenced, not emboldened, kind of like if word of a fishy-sounding operation got out allegedly done by Mossad would probably create more of a "our good name and honor are under attack by bullshit" deal. Also Denam's dialogue sure makes it sound like he's gonna stop the operation, but I guess he fails despite defeating Leonar's goons.
* Tynemouth Hill: Dang it Arycelle. Checking a FAQ, I adopt the oracular strategy of handing her a dagger so she'll retreat. I manage to reduce Vyce to critical just before he could theoretically have chipper-shredded Arycelle. (He can nearly kill her at full health, and she only had 2/3 health.)
* Krysaro: A Knight boss with Phalanx, thrilling. Kill everyone else, cue a long 1960s Batman sequence of my characters holding up signs that say "Biff!" and "Whaam!"
* Ndmamsa Fortress: I spare an evil pregnant pirate. Not something I do every day. Say what you will about TO, its world is actually pretty reasonable on gender balance, having a pretty wide variety of female characters both in positions of authority and just as random soldiers.
* Golyat: Seriously, a mage boss who charges in? At least Vyce & the Ninja guy had something approaching durability. This makes it hard to get more moneyz from murdering everyone and taking their loots.
* Arkhaiopolis of Rhime 2: Xapan cutsceness at like half health, not even critical. Let me pick up my tarot cards first!
* Almorica: I thought you'd have to kill both Ramidos & Xapan from the description, but nope, just Ramidos. Good thing too because I was losing pretty horribly and my position wasn't improving thanks to reinforcements.
* Almorica interior: Wait what why does Vyce kill Xapan? Something about that's not the right way to use a hostage? Did Xapan try to torture Catiua or something? Except Vyse is pretty unsympathetic in this scenario, so maybe Xapan was too nice, or making suggestions above his paygrade or something? Anyway, regardless, Lvl. 11 Vyce slaughtered L10 Ninja Denam. Dirk +1 did 8 damage, Dirk did 1 damage, Vyce can heal 25 HP in an action and was doing tons of damage to me, even Heart Crusher was only 34 damage. This is with making a generic character a ninja as soon as possible (but no grinding) to be item-girl in the back, and then only moving Denam over when he was a mere 2 levels behind. Sheesh, subtractive defense. Anyway... switched Denam to an L11 Knight (my only L11 class) and learned Phalanx, which was sufficient (Phalanx whenever Vyce doubleturns the now much slower Denam to avoid getting murdered horribly). This is much more of a nerfbat war as the two go at it forever and each occasionally tosses a healing item, but for whatever reason Vyce stopped using healing items at some point and let me win. Got it.
* Decision split: I have to imagine that Duke Ronwey runs his own Pravda or something at this point for his Stalin-esque shifts in favor. ATTENTION CITIZENS: The Hero of Golyat we were previously hunting as a traitor is actually not a traitor, but the OTHER Hero of Golyat I put in charge of one of my armies was the REAL traitor, so kill him instead. Also, just how big is Denam's band anyway? You'd think the loss in prestige of accepting him back in would be greater than any benefit from them. But then again L-path Denam was able to single-handedly secretly conquer the northern part of the Galgastani Empire so who knows.
Also, this is less related, but apparently N-path locks you out of a pretty large aftergame quest because Gildas is dead (sans World Card abuse)? Like, shifting fortunes of war, I get it, that's fine, but Gildas doesn't really have much relevance to that aftergame quest, and it's not really a choice on the user's behalf. Kinda lame, it's fine to lock you out of something if your decision was vaguely related to it (didn't recruit a key person due to screwing up dialogue choices, say), but this is just random.
* Almorica Execution Site: Okay, game. Dunno what this was supposed to be, but that was a thing. Although to be too plotty - in the Chaotic & Neutral path, Balbatos's enemies desert him / rise up against him. Hektor is portrayed as a firm Galgastani loyalist at the execution, though, yet we know from Law-path that he was anything but - he hated Balbatos. So were there some OTHER bunch of Balbatos-haters who rose up then in this path I guess?!
* Lizardman Execution Site, aka Arycelle Loyalty Grinding: You know, I'm fine with adding an option to keep Arycelle in Neutral path, bizarre and unintuitive as it is, but the loyalty system is kind of shenanigans. I'd rather there be some kind of scene / dialogue with the bizarre situation now ("Hi, Leonar! We broke up because you murdered my brother and a bunch of others, but let's let bygones be bygones 'cuz Denam says so") where you have 1 option that keeps her around & 1 option that doesn't, or some bizarre FAQ-baity quest. "Go have her hack up a bunch of stuff to re-earn her loyalty" doesn't really jibe, nor does the lack of any scene to sell this. Also I haven't finished Neutral yet, but if any path it would make sense for Leonar to join, it'd seem to be this one... oh well. So yeah, I surrounded a lizardman and Arycelle stabbed him a lot while his cleric buddy healed him.
* Cerya Execution Site: what is this oh god oh god did Oz just crit Cerya for like 80% of her HP in one action nooooooooooooo
Time to head off to the Phorampa Wildwood.. I've avoided any grinding in C1 & C2, but that just isn't gonna hold true for Cerya. The Templars are L12, Oz is L13, my band of L10 & L11ers is not going to threaten them before Cerya loses her head.
Current party: Ninja Denam, Crossbow Canopus, Arycelle, Folcurt, Cistina, Bayin, rando-Enchantress, Terror Knight Voltare (gotta keep TK leveled for Dievold!), Felicia, Mirdyn. Mirdyn sucks and will probably be canned eventually. Crossbows on Canopus are interesting - they're less good & fun than Bow & Dagger Canopus IMHO, since you lose the "fly to heights and shoot outside of range" thing bows have, but this is compensated for by some of the best ultimates in the game. X-Bow Ultimates do huge damage to an *area* in a game where any area damage is rare, let alone good damage. A change of pace, at least.
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Codename STEAM: So Henry Flemming, John Henry, the Cowardly Lion and Tiger Lily all took down a giant ice spewing Lovecraftian Horror with a giant cannon on it's head, while Abraham Lincoln insures the safety of Queen Victoria.
...why don't History Books tell us this part of world history?
I Streetpassed Abe Lincoln the other day, that dude really gets around.
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Verdict: queue up the HLM2 soundtrack and replay HLM1.
This works pretty well. Best tracks for this are Divide, Technoir, Voyager, Roller Mobster, Le Perv, Future Club. Holy shit. Edit: and sexualizer, how could I forget this one?
Binding of Isaac Rebirth: Shit I spent the entire weekend playing this. I beat every boss, and that's about it.
This game's basic gameplay is decent but not that good (Nuclear Throne is certainly ahead in the genre)
On the other hand, this game manages to have endless replay value with:
- Unlocks everywhere by beating specific bosses with specific characters
- A fuckton of items with super cool effects on gameplay that even synergize together to have even cooler, sometimes absurdly overpowered, effects.
Each playthrough you might find another super sweet combo and might unlock another item.
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Verdict: queue up the HLM2 soundtrack and replay HLM1.
This works pretty well. Best tracks for this are Divide, Technoir, Voyager, Roller Mobster, Le Perv, Future Club. Holy shit. Edit: and sexualizer, how could I forget this one?
Binding of Isaac Rebirth: Shit I spent the entire weekend playing this. I beat every boss, and that's about it.
This game's basic gameplay is decent but not that good (Nuclear Throne is certainly ahead in the genre)
On the other hand, this game manages to have endless replay value with:
- Unlocks everywhere by beating specific bosses with specific characters
- A fuckton of items with super cool effects on gameplay that even synergize together to have even cooler, sometimes absurdly overpowered, effects.
Each playthrough you might find another super sweet combo and might unlock another item.
I've been getting more into games like Binding of Isaac and Spelunky (and Nuclear Throne but I only have a few hours in it), which in theory have unlimited replay value.
There was a neat article about people randomizing games like Super Metroid and Zelda where you can customize certain things (having no swords). They also come with some native challenges. It looks really labor intensive but there are a lot of games I'd like this seen done to.
http://www.usgamer.net/articles/route-randomizers
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Super Mario Galaxy - I finished this game with about 85 stars. Fun times, the Wiimote controls put it a bit lower than it would be otherwise, but it's a solid entry into the Mario series. Not as good as 3D World though. :p
Paper Mario - Just finished Chapter 3 with the Invincible Tubba Blubba. Why does Tubba Blubba's heart talk? Now I am wandering around a Toy Factory, trying to disrupt the plans of villainous Shy Guys.
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Gourry: Neat, thanks for linking that! I do agree with some of the comments on the article that this kind of random design can never replace good human design (Super Metroid is good in no small part because of the way it is laid out cleverly), and I have little interest in games which are always randomised for that reason, but as a spin on a game I've already mastered they do seem potentially interesting.
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia - Decided to replay it again, on Hard Mode. I'd done Hard Mode once before, but this is still kicking my ass. Up to the Skeleton Cave. Not really doing anything special with this playthrough besides refamiliarising myself with the game after not playing it for 3 years or so, which is too long considering how much I like it.
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance - Up to Chapter 28! Using mostly a fairly stock team of lots of Paladins and Flyers. Ike, Oscar, Kieran, Astrid, Geoffrey, Marcia, Tanith, Jill, Soren, Calill, Rhys, Mia (who made the team on the back of a good RNG-blessing pre-promotion then promptly didn't gain Strength 12 levels in a row after).
Marathon Infinity - Well I guess I figured I'd finish the Total Carnage series replay I started a while back. This really drove home how this is the weakest game in the series; stage design is extremely scattershot (challenge is incredibly inconsistent; there's a brutally hard finite-oxygen level, Acme Station, which is in the first third of the game and not even the penultimate level which is obviously trying to be more difficult really compares; I actually had to dig up a FAQ once or twice; the final stage is long and strangely dull with pretty much only one enemy type) and the plot just gets too weird and underexplained. I could go into details on that but since I suspect nobody else has played it I don't see the point. <.< Oh well. Currently doing the VidMaster's Challenge levels which are great fun, taking one level from each of the three games (a good one, in all cases) and remixing it into a nasty challenge level. That will probably scrub some of the bad taste from my mouth, at least!
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Right, one of the comments mentioned a randomized Dark Souls, but the big draw of that series is the obvious care that goes into each encounter and location. In the smaller indie games that use procedural generation, the common thread is that they have relatively simple gameplay conceits that have enough items/powers to provide a varied experience when things get randomized. Perhaps there could be a deliberatively designed Binding of Isaac for example that would make for an awesome, balanced experience, but whatever algorithms are generally good enough to create interesting experiences each playthrough, although you can still sort of get screwed on a crappy world. I hadn't come across the idea of doing that to an established game until reading that article but that opens up a ton of interesting possibilities (again, so long as someone is willing to do the considerable legwork to get there).
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Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D - World 6, only Perilous Passage and the boss left to go. Every time I start thinking "hey, the game is going easy on me, I'm beating stages losing only one or two lives", they throw me a curveball. The temple stages in particular are simply -insane-. I kinda dislike how geared towards dismantling momentum the physics can be, but I -do- like the insanity scale they apply to the level designs (randomly crumbling canyons left and right? City-sized locust swarm chasing your ass? Riding a minecart inside a giant rolling dinosaur egg? Sure, why not).
But I honestly feel the stage design's also at its absolute -best- when on rails, I feel, mainly because you don't have to fight against Donkey's oddly jerky maneuverability. It's quite a departure from DKC2's fluid momentum pickup and makes me wonder if Time Attack wouldn't be more painful than fun. The stage design itself often indulges in momentum breaking, which also strikes me as strange. It's one of the things that made DKC3 stage design such a chore, though DKCR doesn't pull that anywhere near as often as DKC3 did. Still, it's an interesting and amusingly brutal platforming romp so far.
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Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D - World 6, only Perilous Passage and the boss left to go. Every time I start thinking "hey, the game is going easy on me, I'm beating stages losing only one or two lives", they throw me a curveball. The temple stages in particular are simply -insane-. I kinda dislike how geared towards dismantling momentum the physics can be, but I -do- like the insanity scale they apply to the level designs (randomly crumbling canyons left and right? City-sized locust swarm chasing your ass? Riding a minecart inside a giant rolling dinosaur egg? Sure, why not).
But I honestly feel the stage design's also at its absolute -best- when on rails, I feel, mainly because you don't have to fight against Donkey's oddly jerky maneuverability. It's quite a departure from DKC2's fluid momentum pickup and makes me wonder if Time Attack wouldn't be more painful than fun. The stage design itself often indulges in momentum breaking, which also strikes me as strange. It's one of the things that made DKC3 stage design such a chore, though DKCR doesn't pull that anywhere near as often as DKC3 did. Still, it's an interesting and amusingly brutal platforming romp so far.
And to think, the sequel, Tropical Freeze, is basically more of that +5!
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"Procedurally generated" is a phrase that usually kills my interest in a game. I try to remember, "Hey, it worked for Toejam & Earl," but no, that's just not enough.
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Procedurally generated has come a long way recently. People are more interested in making the perfect algorithms for the best experience vs just having stuff be random for variation. I don't think Toejam & Earl is a particularly good example of this, as the basic gameplay isn't good enough on its own, and luck is a huge factor.
I'm really curious to see how the randomized levels in Bloodborne will end up, but I'm not holding my breath. I think level design is too important for the Souls formula. Flat rooms with 3 Taurus Demons don't sound too good. Whether randomization can be better than human crafted levels depends entirely on the genre and importance of atmosphere. As a pure gameplay experience Super Metroid is a hell of a lot worse than the best new action roguelikes (even on the first playthrough) but it's trying to do something different.
I find that Binding of Isaac is an entirely different beast than Spelunky / Nuclear Throne / Necrodancer / Teleglitch type. Those are extreme skill based challenges that stay relatively similar every time with luck being a medium factor. Randomization makes every game feel different but doesn't radically change the game.
BoI is more about watching really cool fireworks and see how they affect gameplay, with some absurdly broken combos you'll never see again. The challenge is less skill based, the game's overall easier (I win about half the time if I'm using a good character like Eve, about all the time if I'm using Azazel), there are more cheap hits but health is higher. If you get lucky you win, if you don't, eh you still have a pretty good chance.
The Lost is absolutely terrible design for BoI (one hit and you're dead) even though it could work in NT / Spelunky as an extreme challenge. It's already in Necrodancer and it's fine there. (I'm absolutely not touching it though, I'm not good enough)
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Gourry: Neat, thanks for linking that! I do agree with some of the comments on the article that this kind of random design can never replace good human design (Super Metroid is good in no small part because of the way it is laid out cleverly)
Games where lack of upgrades lock you out of places you need to go can produce a really interesting experience, but in general they're exactly the wrong type of game to try to randomize. Need that one thing to go that one place? GFL. The right type of game is one where there's a variety of powerups that significantly improve your character's performance, but you're never locked out of anything. A game that pushes you into dealing with various challenges in different ways depending on what you've got on hand. That type of game rewards ingenuity and discretion.
I digress. Play Risk of Rain. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIPGFhFPJhg&list=PLLDf8Bnp1K1Kkk3Kbepm9UamqHjMZlgsb&index=14) If you like randomized elements and platforming, I guarantee you will like it and if you don't that means you're wrong. Risk of Rain's levels are lightly randomized, though many elements are always present. Most of what is random is the powerups you get, and those can change the entire flavor of your experience. To elaborate, you pick a character class, each class has four active abilities, you can carry one active item in addition to that. Throughout the game there a ton of items will drop, the vast majority providing passive benefits: 10% chance to fire a homing missile on hit, heal while stationary, enemies within a certain distance of you take damage over time, chance enemies explode when killed, etc. Items work together to produce a beautiful chaos. A successful playthrough takes 60-90 minutes.
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I digress. Play Risk of Rain. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIPGFhFPJhg&list=PLLDf8Bnp1K1Kkk3Kbepm9UamqHjMZlgsb&index=14) If you like randomized elements and platforming, I guarantee you will like it and if you don't that means you're wrong.
:(
Yeah I didn't like it. This felt like a game that only becomes fun after you know the items well, 20 hours in, as combat felt a bit weak to me and platforming didn't really mesh very well with it. I'd rank it the worst out of all these quasi roguelikes I played (Nuclear Throne > Spelunky > Crypt of the Necrodancer > Binding of Isaac >> Teleglitch > FTL > Risk of Rain. I should try out Sunless Sea later)
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Gourry: Neat, thanks for linking that! I do agree with some of the comments on the article that this kind of random design can never replace good human design (Super Metroid is good in no small part because of the way it is laid out cleverly)
Games where lack of upgrades lock you out of places you need to go can produce a really interesting experience, but in general they're exactly the wrong type of game to try to randomize. Need that one thing to go that one place? GFL. The right type of game is one where there's a variety of powerups that significantly improve your character's performance, but you're never locked out of anything. A game that pushes you into dealing with various challenges in different ways depending on what you've got on hand. That type of game rewards ingenuity and discretion.
That is really the key to improving your procedural generation, ensuring that the generated output is winnable. It is a case of ensuring that certain things are acheivable (It can just be ensuring that a sequence of things are available in a series of gatekeeper flags? Then in case of failure regenerate world? That is not the most efficient way to handle it during generation, better to build in to your generator, but harder and "less random" I guess).
Buuuut you hit on the reason these games are so appealing there Elf. Running them through games you have already "mastered" is interesting. Generally the appeal is that part but you need to "Master" them while handling the RNG elements.
BoI actually introduced the ability to pass around the I have hopes that there are good seeds that can be introduced as sort of a "canon" beginners guide run so you can retroactively have a "normal" experience that people can progressively get better at.
These kinds of games really get a weird meta level to them where high level play becomes about managing risk inherent to the procedural generation system based on systems that are actually entirely outside the actual play loop of the game itself. Fascinating stuff and I hope Alex does a drive by post on this sort of thing because I personally think he is probably the person in the DL that has a ton of experience with it and ability to verbalise it well.
Necrodancer IS the best, but only because it is the only roguelike with a dubstep soundtrack to it (because that is the best thing to play Necrodancer to).
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Jurassic Park: The Game - beaten
Entertaining enough. Nothing really new to say about the game that wasn't said in my original report.
Final totals: 25 gold medals, 11 silver medals, 8 bronze medals, 1 lost medal, and 21 deaths.
Citizens Of Earth 3DS - beaten
Regarding the zoom thing - apparently its main use was as a placebo, as I had begun having less trouble evading enemies after zooming out to the limited extent available from the untrained citizen... but after finally recruiting them (and one of the subrequirements for that is in a very late-game area, depressingly) and training them up, I found that the game actually resets the zoom level whenever you move to a different map. Presumably the difference was little enough originally the first time that I just didn't notice it happen. Of course, given that it works this way it means that the zoom option is next-to-useless to use when you haven't recruited the citizen yet because in addition to the restrictions on how far you can zoom, you can only actually have it in effect in the handful of areas that the citizen appears in naturally.
I did end up zooming completely out in some late-game areas which are frustratingly large, but the majority of the time I didn't bother setting it back up.
Another late-game citizen lets you change the game speed, and that setting persists across maps (thankfully). Possibly the zoom level is supposed to persist across maps but there's a bug somewhere, since there's at least one map which has a different default zoom level.
With regards to changing the game speed, it's kind of annoying to have to deal with the reality that the game has been generally slower than preferable but now you can change it to a more reasonable speed and it runs fine without any issues. You can also change it to an unreasonable speed but then you can expect possible issues (mainly walking through things you shouldn't be able to walk through). If you're insane, you can also change it to a slower speed.
More complaints:
- Got stuck in geometry several more times. Most of the time I was not able to escape and had to reload (reminder that this requires closing and restarting the game).
- The game crashed at least ten more times. Three of these were harder than usual in the sense that the 3DS didn't wake up and kill the application, and the home button was unresponsive - holding the power button down still worked, at least. For reference, two of those happened while ambushing a 'Mr. Maze' enemy. Also, the game softly crashed twice while entering fights with the final enemy. Fun fun fun.
- Minor point, but enemy resistances and weaknesses aren't recorded in the Almanac.
- When you have bridges built, the overview maps aren't updated to include them, which is unhelpful at best.
- The Lifeguard broke in some way and started covering for near-death enemies, even from attacks she was making herself.
I ended up beating bosses from some later chapters before one from an earlier chapter, which broke something somewhere that ultimately led to it being impossible for me to trigger the fight with the earlier boss. Didn't prevent me from finishing the game, pretty much just led to uncompleteable tasks on the checklist, so how large of a problem this is probably depends on the observer.
Despite everything, I did enjoy completing sidequests and seeing the different citizens and what sort of attacks they had and so on. Depressing that it has to be so broken - not to say that it would be good if all the bugs were fixed, there are issues with the storyline being almost non-existent for a large proportion of the game, and I don't care much for the battle system, and the fast travel options could do with being considerably improved, and late-game maps tend to be far too large with far too many enemies, and...
I feel like the cast would make for an interesting stat topic (setting aside issues regarding how bonus stat points should be distributed) but I'm certainly not going to do one. Rank VP's Car.
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Procedurally generated has come a long way recently. People are more interested in making the perfect algorithms for the best experience vs just having stuff be random for variation. I don't think Toejam & Earl is a particularly good example of this, as the basic gameplay isn't good enough on its own, and luck is a huge factor.
I'm really curious to see how the randomized levels in Bloodborne will end up, but I'm not holding my breath. I think level design is too important for the Souls formula. Flat rooms with 3 Taurus Demons don't sound too good. Whether randomization can be better than human crafted levels depends entirely on the genre and importance of atmosphere. As a pure gameplay experience Super Metroid is a hell of a lot worse than the best new action roguelikes (even on the first playthrough) but it's trying to do something different.
I find that Binding of Isaac is an entirely different beast than Spelunky / Nuclear Throne / Necrodancer / Teleglitch type. Those are extreme skill based challenges that stay relatively similar every time with luck being a medium factor. Randomization makes every game feel different but doesn't radically change the game.
May be related that a lot of what you're citing sound to be roguelike games, which are something I already dislike on a conceptual basis. I don't think a high degree of randomization really hits on what appeals to me about games.
Touhou Labyrinths: chipping away at postgame still, no major progress to report but am just now noticing that Wriggle's class is officially listed as "A Bug of Light Wriggling in the Dark." And that's just outstanding.
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Gourry: Neat, thanks for linking that! I do agree with some of the comments on the article that this kind of random design can never replace good human design (Super Metroid is good in no small part because of the way it is laid out cleverly)
Games where lack of upgrades lock you out of places you need to go can produce a really interesting experience, but in general they're exactly the wrong type of game to try to randomize. Need that one thing to go that one place? GFL. The right type of game is one where there's a variety of powerups that significantly improve your character's performance, but you're never locked out of anything. A game that pushes you into dealing with various challenges in different ways depending on what you've got on hand. That type of game rewards ingenuity and discretion.
That is really the key to improving your procedural generation, ensuring that the generated output is winnable. It is a case of ensuring that certain things are acheivable (It can just be ensuring that a sequence of things are available in a series of gatekeeper flags? Then in case of failure regenerate world? That is not the most efficient way to handle it during generation, better to build in to your generator, but harder and "less random" I guess).
Even assuming you create a generation algorithm that never locks you out of places, I'm skeptical about the Metroid sorts of games working out in practice. A lot of the challenge in Metroid is in figuring out where to use your new powerups. Even if you don't know the layout, if you understand the solution to each potential problem, the game is still going to be reduced to a rather pedestrian "find A to open A1" experience. Sorry, guys, you already beat Super Metroid and there's nothing you can do to un-beat it. I think combat-heavy games are a better fit for randomization because unlike games where the main challenge is exploration, combat almost never straight-up locks you out of a path. It may make a path extremely difficult, but grappling with that fight-or-flight moment is what makes randomized games fun.
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Yeah I was going to comment that there is a reason it is more invested in Roguelikes because the play in Roguelikes tends to be simple enough that it plays well into those mechanics.
Like the first thing I noticed about BoI is that it feels like a 2d Zelda dungeon (as a "Roguelike" with the procedural generation). How do you port Zelda dungeons to procedurally generated stuff? Strip out tons of the gatekeeper elements to traversal power ups. Make the literal key power ups only ever lock out side areas. Which functionally is paring back the Zelda gameplay so that it works just on the level of a Rogue.
So yeah you could do it with "Metroid" but in that process without even more refinement I do think it would lose a bunch of what makes Metroid games part of that "Metroidvania" genre.
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Shovel Knight: Replayed this game on a whim. Took me 15 seconds more than my previous file, so I can safely say the game should take over 4 hours to complete. On the upside, I got more music Sheets this time around, found all but one relic in the proper stage (meaning buy at reduced price on top of, you know, being able to use it half a stage earlier), and even managed to buy the Gold Armor, which is really the MOST IMPORTANT ARMOR IN THE GAME!
It makes your armor sparkle and lets you do backflips, having absolutely no gameplay benefit whatsoever and costs 10k to make.
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Tactics Ogre: Cerya Must Die: This mission is sadistic. 7 Cerya deaths so far. I can entirely see why it's considered the hardest battle in Tactics Ogre. Even powerleveling doesn't do very much for you (although some certainly recommended it). So, some details. Oz & the Templars start at the top of Boed Fortress, you start at the bottom. So your archers are way less OP than usual, they certainly won't be sniping the squishy backline mages & clerics who will stay high & safe.
* The AI is screwy. To give Cerya a fighting chance, Oz always passes his first turn and the regular fighters seem strangely disinterested in going for Cerya. Fine. Except... the mages will certainly go for her, and Oz will start cracking skulls with a 2HKO to Cerya quite quickly, so you need to hustle it on over. Healing magic is pretty weak, though; it takes ~2 heals to cancel a single Oz attack. This means that once the mages start throwing spells at her, it's really hard to keep her afloat; and even if she has full health, Oz attack + 2 mage turns in a row can just plain KO her from full, or nearly so, and you can't guarantee that won't happen even with Slowing Oz. I might know this from bitter experience when I thought Cerya was safe, but the turns lined up wrong. Items would help, but...
* ...Cerya usually gets surrounded by 2 Templars to a corner such that there's no room to have Canopus stand next to her and heal. And the vertical tolerance is way too high to heal from below, or Lobber from below. So items are mostly out.
* I have seen the Templars blocking Cerya move out before, though. She used the opportunity to go punch Oz in the face and eat a crit damage counter for 60 or so. but hey she got 1 damage in so worth right??
* And as a reminder, defensive buffs in TO really suck. Fortify is like -3 damage a hit or something puny. There's apparently some aftergame Draconic Magic that will null the next attack but hahahano for having that now. So don't think about buffing up Cerya.
* Congratulations! You've somehow, through a combination of AI luck and using Boon of Swiftness, manage to hustle it up to heal Cerya to not die instantly. Maybe you even killed the most forward Terror Knight, and perhaps the archers raining shots on you didn't get a crit-knockback on your cleric to knock her off the path upward. However. Oz has been gaining mad TP from hitting Cerya in the face. He's got good defense, but if you go in on him, he's just going to hit 100 TP. And if you don't attack him, he'll, uh, still get 100 TP pretty quick, albeit maybe a turn slower. And yeah, even when I gave him other juicy targets to hit, he likes Axe ultimating Cerya with Dark Prison. This isn't quite a OHKO but if Cerya is at anything other than full health she will die, and keeping her at even half health is quite the struggle. (This is also why being overlevel won't necessarily help - you'd need massive damage to kill Oz so quickly he doesn't get a turn at 100 TP. Your own ultimates would help but you won't have built up to them before he gets his.) And yes, Dark Prison has range, so if Oz walked away from Cerya, he can likely still do this to her anyway.
So... what's the plan? My own personal thoughts - confirmed that somebody else solved it this way- is something like this: replay the battle until somehow there gets to be some distance for someone to sneak in next to Cerya or Oz. Don't ask how. Then get a Knockback-powered blast to knock either Oz or Cerya off the ledge - ideally Cerya, but this only works if she's in good health. If Oz is knocked down, then just murder him; if Cerya is knocked down, she should be at an angle that makes the mages unlikely to threaten her at least. I have no idea how I'm going to induce this, but we'll see.
Siiigh.
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If buffing defenses would help, would petrifying Cerya and then having people heal her work? I don't remember how potent Petrify's damage reduction is, though, and that also presents the problem of having her end up as even more of a sitting duck.
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I have never done Neutral in PSP remake, but in the original I pretty much just determined that it was impossible to save her and moved on. >_>
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I want to say I used the Teleport spell to save her in the SNES version, but it's been so long that I couldn't say. Not like it's worth doing, at least. To clarify, I mean teleporting one of my units up to go clobber the enemies.
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Jo'ou: Stone probably would help! I'm too low level to learn it, though. Dark magic Petriburst is L13, Earth Magic Petrifog is... more, I forget. I was previously at L10-L11; I've leveled my team up to L12 for the fight to be more sane. It wouldn't be unreasonable to hit L13 though to give an extra push to my offense, and if I do I'll give petrifying Cerya a shot.
Ciato: Heh. Unfortunately I happen to know that there's an event / battle / more recruits or something that happen in C4 if she's saved in C3, so I do want to give a good shot to saving her. If it was purely a matter of pride a la winning S3 optional fights and she was guaranteed to live/die regardless of the battle, with just different dialogue, I'd definitely have given up by now.
jsh: Teleport is still in PSP, but it's aftergame Draconic magic, so not working here alas. :( One idea from the Internet I didn't have before is to use Wheel of Fortune tarots to give my ground units Blinkwalk (ignore height when moving), which gets them up the fortress a good deal faster - but I only have 2 of them. Maybe tarot drops are farmable via Chariot?!
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I am kind of tempted to replay just to see that scenario. If Ignore Height is the answer then wassname crossbow Hawkman would be my knee jerk fix for the problem, but clearly that isn't the case here. That means that is a crazy scenario.
But fuuuuuck replaying that mess of a crafting system that hits me weak points for massive damage.
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Be fair. Everything in TOPSP is farmable with Chariot. In-fact the game's entire crafting system is like centred on this. Secondining Grefter on its bullship. TOPSP's entire crafting system is a mess. Drops aren't guaranteed and only some enemies on some maps will drop the specific crafting item, even though there is no indication about this. This means you can be fighting the same map multiple times with similar enemy types and never see the drop. It's a giant clusterfuck.
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Wait that is worse than the battle against Aloser in C2 in which she just snipes whoever the hell she wants and you hzcr the height disadvantage so your 10 archers team isn't even that good there?
I wanted to play more TO remake, but then I tried to recruit Deneb so I obviously stopped shortly afterwards.
I've tried custom music in Necrodancer but the beats were way off.
Did they improve the sick beats recognition algorithms lately?
It would actually work pretty well with some Hotline 2 tracks, like Miss Minnie, Acid Spit or Sexualizer
BoI: I beat ??? with ???, and this isn't a spoiler.
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I don't know how much work has been done on Necrodancer to be honest (only version I played was on brother's HTPC and I don't think he had latest version at the time).
The algorithm is an open source one from memory and I think it is used by other beat games (Audiosurf? ) that seem to work okay, so dunno.
Custom tracks were hit and miss in the version I played, but it was a communal thing so even when the tracks were all fucked up it was still pretty fun.
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Supposedly the craft rates in TOPSP were significantly increased in the international releases, although I'm too lazy to hunt down a source quote on this.
My personal crackpot theory is that the developers were forced to add an item crafting system into the game by higher-ups against their will, possibly late in the development cycle. The bitter programmers then decided to take their frustrations out on players by making the system tedious in as many ways as they could think of. I certainly can't imagine anyone who wasn't in an extremely sadistic mood devising the crafting chain required for Wootz Steel.
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You had linked to a thread discussing it on gamefaqs back when I played IIRC, so certainly prepared to take it at face value.
I always tend to read that kind of design as it being "optional stuff" that is there for completionists who attributed Time spent:$ value as king, so they build to it. Which makes for shitty play (and shitty design for that target since resets don't add to your game clock for epeening!)
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I don't know how much work has been done on Necrodancer to be honest (only version I played was on brother's HTPC and I don't think he had latest version at the time).
The algorithm is an open source one from memory and I think it is used by other beat games (Audiosurf? ) that seem to work okay, so dunno.
Custom tracks were hit and miss in the version I played, but it was a communal thing so even when the tracks were all fucked up it was still pretty fun.
I hope you played with a dance pad too and never got past level 1
I had actually forgotten entirely about TO crafting until hinode mentioned w00t steel. It's all coming back.
We should also mention TOr encouraging you to stick to one or two classes per battle, by giving some permanent stat bonuses, when one class levels up, to everyone in that class
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Thankfully it's only +0.1 to your base stats upon level-up in the international versions, which is pretty negligible even applying it to every single stat. Chapter 4 special PCs will pretty much always outstat your trained generics from chapter 1 in practice.
In the Japanese version, level-ups were +0.5 to all stats, which mattered... a lot, from what I hear.
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Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance - Beaten. Final chapter was actually kinda decent, Kieran got 2HKOed by a dragon + Bryce both with >140 hit which was kinda surprising. Too bad most of the game features somewhat less competent enemies using steel right up to the very end. Game was enjoyable, though FE9 does feel rather clunky to me compared to most of the surrounding games - map animations are very slow for map animations, detailed animations don't show hit/dmg/crit, weapon ranks are slow to go up and invisible, that stupid shop system where things randomly appear and disappear. The writing was a mixed bag, which does put it near the top of the series for writing. Translation could be better (and the voice acting is awful when it exists), but that's not too big a deal. The game has a bunch of scenes where it encourages the player to consider the morality of the situation... is Soren's behaviour right? Is Titania's? Is Sanaki's? Is Ike's? etc. Unfortunately towards the end of the game, Ike is always right forever. Special awkward points for the ending in which every PC talks about how awesome Ike is. Uuuhhh. It's interesting how I didn't actually notice this as much before.
Kill leader was Marcia with 100, followed by Oscar with 95, Mia with 91, Ike with 85, and Kieran with 74. The rest, for my own reference:
Astrid 71 > Jill 69 = Soren 69 > Titania 66 > Tanith 41 > Calill 36 > Geoffrey 28 > Boyd 23 > Lethe 20 > Gatrie 17 > Rhys 14 > Elincia 12 = Stefan 12 > Ilyana 7 > Devdan 6 > Rolf 4 > Ena 2 = Largo 2 = Bastian 2 = Ranulf 2 > Haar 1 = Janaff 1 = Makalov 1 = Volke 1 = Mordecai 1
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia HM - At Oblivion Ridge. I actually beat the boss of the mansion on the first try, only boss I've done that to besides the first. Randoms are getting less soul-crushingly damaging which is nice. I do think the damage scaling for HM could have been done a bit better, but I guess it's partly balanced with the Level 1 cap in mind should you play with that? Game is still great fun regardless. Not sure what I'll do after this playthrough. Could try with the Level 1 cap, or playing as Albus, or just trying to get really good/fast at NM. Or do some silly challenges involving glyph restrictions to force myself to use different ones. We'll see.
Marathon Infinity - Beat the VidMaster's challenge which was good fun.
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Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance - Beaten.
I am glad you got around to trying this little known gem. i am only joking please don't hate me
Grim Fandango - started up because I feel like I need something different. So good. It has aged a chunk , but the production quality of work from years ago still shines through. VA to die for.
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Ori and the Blind Forest: This game is really fucking gorgeous. I feel like that gets said a lot, but the nature backdrops and some aspects of character design look like they came straight from Hayao Miyazaki's brain. The backgrounds are constantly moving and the game does some cool things with things happening in the foreground. I haven't gotten incredibly far, but it seems like there could be some cool things in terms of positive restoration of nature, kind of like Okami (or maybe that's something that I want to see more), but there is this voice narrator who sounds like Dormin from Shadow of the Colossus, so I'm not exactly sure where this is going. The opening scene does a really good job of building a connection between characters, so my interest is piqued, although the storytelling is pretty minimalist so far.
In terms of gameplay, it is very much a Metroidvania type of game where parts of the map that you've explored can be reexplored once you get wall jump, double jump, etc. The platforming isn't incredibly tough so far, but your jump is kind of floaty and has less control than you'd want. There are some teleport puzzles that don't intuitively let you know where you will end up, which can easily make it so you land on spikes and keep getting killed on spikes. The game does use an interesting system where one of your resources, energy, is also used to save. The game doesn't really checkpoint you but you can save anywhere so long as you have energy. I can imagine a situation where you save before a point where you may fail a lot because you didn't save with enough health, but that hasn't been an issue so far. I've also never had a problem with running out of energy since the other thing you use it for is a combat move that doesn't seem essential so far.
Combat itself is a little weird. You shoot these little beams that home in on an enemy but you don't really aim them or target things. You have free movement while you shoot so combat so far has been me jumping around while mashing on the shoot button. It's not great.
I'm interested in seeing where this is going. There is a skill tree that isn't very extensive but does have some pretty useful upgrades, but I think I'm mostly in it for the art direction.
Grim Fandango - Shamefully, I never played this back in the day. The tank controls aren't great and the fixed camera can be a little funky, but that's harkening back to some older shit. There are already some puzzle with really byzantine solutions, and unlike the Monkey Island special editions there isn't a hint system, so I wonder what weird shit I'm going to be stuck on before I FAQ everything. The atmosphere and voice acting in the game is great and the first trip to the real world made me laugh out loud, so I am liking this so far.
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Grim Fandango: I'm stuck on the roof, trying to deal with birds. Baloon Animal Robert Frost, surprisingly, did not scare them off.
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Solution if you want it.
bread and kitty balloon animal. Bread from the stall next to ballon animal clown
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RUN YOU PIGEONS IT'S ROBERT FROST
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I finished Grim Fandango last night. I had completely forgot about the randomly generating beat poetry. So great.
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These kinds of games really get a weird meta level to them where high level play becomes about managing risk inherent to the procedural generation system based on systems that are actually entirely outside the actual play loop of the game itself. Fascinating stuff and I hope Alex does a drive by post on this sort of thing
Ahhhhh why you got to do a thing?
So, "high level" play in modern indie roguelikes huh. It all depends on what the player wants to get out of the game, with a side dose of comparison to how much they put into it. All of them have a sort of competence threshold to hit where the player can guarantee success at the basic gameplay, barring perhaps a truly awful run of variance where absolutely no good items appear throughout the entire run and the player is slowly attritioned to death in later areas.
For some of these games, this basic threshold is relatively high and simply hitting it is the bulk of what the game has to offer. I would place Necrodancer and Nuclear Throne in this category. They appear very, very difficult for entry level play and have precise control requirements and harsh punishments for mistakes. Once you get over the hump and master their basic systems, however, the entire game opens up. Once you get the hang of the beats, Necrodancer is easy to clear even with the OHKO setting. Once you get the hang of the combat system and enemies in Nuclear Throne, it doesn't *really* matter what weapons happen to drop, most anything will do. ... and once that point is reached, the game is pretty much done except for trying for small optimizations in speed. It might take 200 games to beat Nuclear Throne the first time, but then you very quickly become able to beat it every time, and keep looping until you're bored.
Then there are the games like Binding of Isaac and Risk of Rain (without Command). These games are relatively easy to get into and somewhat forgiving of mistakes. There's still a learning curve to the basic systems, but new players are more likely to reach the third or fourth major area within a handful of playthroughs, and to clear the basic game within ten or twenty. But in these games, that's not the end but the beginning. There are a lot of random items that significantly alter gameplay, there are a lot of additional unlockable items that reward certain challenges and playing in specific and unusual ways, and there's a major player drive to see new combos in how these items can interact with one another, and to shoot for gaming the system and trying to find specific items and combos by learning all the quirks of the item generation code. I think this is what Grefter was wanting me to talk about, I don't really know what to say though.
Risk of Rain is interesting in that it introduced the Command artifact, which makes item drops nonrandom and lets the player just pick what they want. As far as I can tell, this is a very popular setting and few people continued to play RoR without using it. ... and then, few people continued to play Risk of Rain in general.
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You said things, that is what I wanted. Thank you Alex.
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Tactics Ogre: Falling Down - Finally. Fort Boed cleared. Operation Blink Ninja Throws Templars Off The Walls worked... although not without its own issues. First, I gave up my no-Chariot use to grind up a 3rd Wheel of Fortune for more Blinkwalk. (Actually, a 4th would have been super-helpful too, but 3 ended up barely sufficient.) Grinding specific tarots is a bit annoying; I reduced 2 enemies to their knees (and left 1 archer enemy at full health farther away) then Chariot experimented with dealing the killing blow from a variety of angles until a Wheel of Fortune finally came up. Tedious but not as tedious as it'd have been with no Chariot.
Anyway, with turn 1 Blinkwalk, Denam can get behind Oz on turn 2 and try to knock him off. Daggers already have a high crit rate and knock people back annoyingly often; adding in Knockback I to go with the double attack just makes it quite reliable actually. I even got the best case, which is the Dirk +1 inflicting silence on Oz. (He wasted his next turn removing it.) I *still* needed a Blinkwalking Cistina to jump up to heal her sister, too, and my other healers got gummed up by the dropped Oz walking near the first set of stairs, so his Rampart Aura prevented them from getting in for heals. Denam could send the next Templar in line to take a shot at Cerya crashing to the ground, as well. Fun times.
I still lost, ignoring Chariot of course, because I took an opportunity to get a OHKO then watched in horror as the Templars still were able to off Cerya. Fine, roll that back, then lose again: it turns out that Oz being silenced wasn't useless at all. He turns around and throws a Sparksphere II into Cerya's back for 95 damage, more than his basic attack, and usable at high range with a huge height difference! This barely kills her of course. Holy crap, this is rough. And of course a Shackled Templar (the 2nd one Denam had thrown off the walls, after Oz) just had to go hug Cerya so that Canopus couldn't stand next to her and item her. Anyway, I Chariot muckety-mucked back a bit until somehow, for some reason, Cerya had barely enough HP such that Oz couldn't OHKO her (like 105 HP rather than 90 - did she get another block in, or did I redirect an AI attack? I guess.), so Oz settled for nearly scorching Arycelle to death instead. I was able to eventually surround Oz with units so that he couldn't go anywhere, and another Templar conveniently blocked the staircase down, so AI Cerya couldn't be threatened to walk back downstairs to her death. Good, since Oz did totally murder one of my units with Mistral Edge, and Arycelle ate deadly arrows, so this battle was still rough (2 knocked unconscious! ouch), but eventually Denam / Canopus / Cistina cleaned up the squishies on the roof while my other units kept the front line under control, mostly thanks to totally broken Shackles off my mage. Then I murdered the hell out of Oz. With Cerya alive. TAKE THAT.
Okay, interesting design whoever made this battle up, but still, please go dunk your head in a toilet. This is just plain too hard, and I don't see any even vaguely reliable way to do this until I found out about the (extremely limited!) Blinkwalk-from-Tarot-Cards insight, and even then you need a high-movement character like Ninja to get a turn 2 knockback, maybe. Sheesh.
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Okay, to elaborate a little bit more: "high level play" in roguelikes these days usually means speedruns or challenge runs. Of the two types of roguelikes I outlined earlier, the second (BoI/Risk of Rain/Spelunky) is far more popular for this than the first type. Of course randomness plays a large role in the outcomes of these speedruns/races/challenges, but the trick is using sufficient knowledge of the game's nonobvious mechanics to help overcome this randomness and "play to your outs" as best as possible. Which is, I think, what Grefter was asking about.
Before even touching on this, though, it is important to make clear that all this type of play is not aimed at the new or casual player who is just playing the game 1-10 times and putting it down. All this content and all these concepts are aimed at people who are deeply into these games and spend a lot of time playing them. Like
- Youtube personalities who do full runs with in depth commentary every day (https://www.youtube.com/user/Northernlion)
- Streamers who marathon games nonstop when they come out, for up to two weeks, with literally no breaks, until they 100% the game, and only then return to a "normal" schedule of streaming it for 4-8 hours nightly (http://www.twitch.tv/richard_hammer/)
- Speedrunners who do multiple daily attempts at 3+ hour marathon all-character runs (http://www.twitch.tv/slackaholicus/)
- That's just Isaac, you want some Spelunky, how about Bananasaurus Rex, here are some links: https://www.youtube.com/user/FlyingToast303/playlists
http://www.polygon.com/2013/12/23/5227726/anatomy-of-a-spelunky-miracle-or-how-the-internet-finally-beat
Now a lot of the folks here reading this are probably going "lol yes if you're a super obsessed ultra minority grinder, but who cares about them?" Obviously the above are all very extreme examples, but they are not alone or as extreme as one might think. The Steam global achievement stats for Binding of Isaac Rebirth show the rate of users getting into the final unlocks to be around 2 to 5%. (2% for True Platinum God, aka Absolutely Everything including the really tedious grind bits, 4% for Godhead, the hardest "skill" achievement involving beating everything with the OHKO character on Hard, and a bit over that for completing some of the OHKO character's unlock branches.) 5% sounds like a low number... but count the number of people you know who play these games and think about even one in twenty of them being into "hardcore" play. The original Binding of Isaac sold well over two million copies according to Wikipedia, and while sales stats aren't available for Rebirth, it's not at all unreasonable to imagine it's broken a million already. Five percent of a million people, or heck, half a million, is still a heck of a lot of people interested in and engaging with roguelikes in these ways.
So let's talk in depth about Binding of Isaac Rebirth, since it's currently the most popular game of this type by far. Isaac is an easy game to beat. As Fenrir noted, even a relatively non-hardcore player can enjoy ~100% clear rates when taking their time and using the stronger characters. But trying to play quickly, in a race or speedrun situation - that changes the game significantly. There are a few items that can "break" normal progression and enable fast wins right from the start of a run, but they're relatively rare. On the other hand, there are much more common items in certain categories (Curse Rooms and Devil Deals) that are closer to, I dunno, 20-30% reliability at putting the player on the fast track. If the game was all about resetting for Polyphemus in the item room that would be one thing, but it's not. On average, or in a race situation where resetting counts against your overall time, it's better to accept a "just decent" starting item and then try for some of the somewhat reliable routes.
Curse Rooms have a high rate of appearing on almost every floor, and a low to moderate chance of containing either soul hearts or one of the Guppy items. Not taking red heart damage highly increases the chance of getting Devil Deals, which can contain gamebreaking items, or Guppy items (three Guppy items breaks the game), or more soul hearts. Soul hearts help ensure you don't take red heart damage. Mapping items can shave significant time off a run, and are found exclusively in shops, so it is good to get $15 if possible to buy them if they appear. That's just a super bare bones primer but you can already see how there exist many possible avenues of reinforcement and good habits that will on average produce significantly faster runs and higher success rates than just rolling the dice on the starting item room.
We can go even beyond that, though. Roguelikes are randomly generated, but they are rarely truly random. Map generation engines for these games have patterns, they *have* to in order to produce playable areas, and with enough experience humans can pick up on these rules, either explicitly or subconsciously. Spelunky speedrunners can look at the first bit of a level and tell the path to the exit with about 95% accuracy. Isaac isn't quite so kind from a starting position, but it's still good enough that the Map is effectively also the Compass for telling where the boss is. Diablo 2 runners... well, most of them maphacked back in the day, but the folks still playing no longer need to, and there are some code dissections floating around out there if you care to look. The randomness can be gamed, and for a decent subset of players like myself that is absolutely fascinating.
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Nier - Forget all this in-universe hype for shades and living statues, wild boars are the true badasses.
Not much else to say, enjoying the game pretty well so far. Gameplay doesn't seem like a reason to play it but it's not offensively bad or anything.
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The game will remember the boars in time. Oh yes, it will.
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Xenoverse: Beat story mode, mostly by abusing Fighting Pose F. Ginyu Force! Final level was 48. Hardest fight was Beerus and Whis, followed by one of the fights with Cell, I think the first one.
Puzzle and Dragons: Ultimate Evolutioned Baal into David Bowie. Now maybe I can beat some of the harder dungeons.
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Lisa - is pretty cool, thanks for mentioning it Fenrir.
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Super glad you're enjoying it!
Alex, nice analysis. I'd definitely put Spelunky in your first type of roguelike though instead of the second, extreme challenge / not much to do postgame / less variation between playthrough
2% who got True Platinum God in Isaac Rebirth is pretty sad, considering that te Lost achievements are worse than playing an MMO and beating a boss over and over until he drops the item you want.
I searched the Lost on the Rebirth Steam forum and everybody hates it. I think that people just have to get the last achievements because they're too far into the game to not get them, like people in failed mariages keep going on because they're too far into their failed mariage.
I just had the sickest run with ???, like scythe + Double shot, then Proptosis and a Lump of Coal, and then every damage boost in the world like the Mark and Cricket's Head. Then soy milk and libra on the last floor. I'm pretty sure I beat the Lamb before he got an attack.
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Cool stuff, Alex. Your drivebys are always welcome.
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MH4U: Finally beat the Urgent Quest 5, which was kicking my ass royally. I came very close to ripping my DS into two pieces. Why no, I don't have anger issues, why do you ask?
Now back to regular questing. The game isn't bad when it's not punching you in the nuts over and over and OH GOD PLEASE STOP.
I need some higher level materials to make the rest of my armor set because Fashion Souls. But I think I have to upgrade my guild rank first. I've been largely ignoring guild quests and doing story and expeditions instead. Then I streetpass people that are G rank but haven't done any story quests and have no palicoes. So multiple ways to play the game.
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Risk of Rain is interesting in that it introduced the Command artifact, which makes item drops nonrandom and lets the player just pick what they want. As far as I can tell, this is a very popular setting and few people continued to play RoR without using it. ... and then, few people continued to play Risk of Rain in general.
fwiw I don't find it particularly interesting to play with Command. Far, far too easy, and of course it makes every run extremely samey, since the vast majority of variation that matters is in drops. I'm not playing RoR right now because it's a bit buggy since they switched engines (they're in open beta testing a new patch to clear it up).
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Dark Souls - The Caestus, with Magic Weapon on a quality build, is a perfectly viable weapon. I am fuckin shocked. Being a fast weapon with a high stagger percentage helps a lot.
Not a GOOD weapon, mind. In particular New Londo ruins sucks with it, and I probably wouldn't have gotten though the earlygame if not for coop, but by lategame you can make it work. 100 percent need the magic weapon buffs for it, though. Just not enough damage otherwise.
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BLOODBOURNE AND PILLARS OF ETERNITY ARE OUT AND I HAVE NO TIME FOR EITHER.
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Tactics Ogre: Cerya Must Die: This mission is sadistic. 7 Cerya deaths so far. I can entirely see why it's considered the hardest battle in Tactics Ogre. Even powerleveling doesn't do very much for you (although some certainly recommended it). So, some details. Oz & the Templars start at the top of Boed Fortress, you start at the bottom. So your archers are way less OP than usual, they certainly won't be sniping the squishy backline mages & clerics who will stay high & safe.
* The AI is screwy. To give Cerya a fighting chance, Oz always passes his first turn and the regular fighters seem strangely disinterested in going for Cerya. Fine. Except... the mages will certainly go for her, and Oz will start cracking skulls with a 2HKO to Cerya quite quickly, so you need to hustle it on over. Healing magic is pretty weak, though; it takes ~2 heals to cancel a single Oz attack. This means that once the mages start throwing spells at her, it's really hard to keep her afloat; and even if she has full health, Oz attack + 2 mage turns in a row can just plain KO her from full, or nearly so, and you can't guarantee that won't happen even with Slowing Oz. I might know this from bitter experience when I thought Cerya was safe, but the turns lined up wrong. Items would help, but...
* ...Cerya usually gets surrounded by 2 Templars to a corner such that there's no room to have Canopus stand next to her and heal. And the vertical tolerance is way too high to heal from below, or Lobber from below. So items are mostly out.
* I have seen the Templars blocking Cerya move out before, though. She used the opportunity to go punch Oz in the face and eat a crit damage counter for 60 or so. but hey she got 1 damage in so worth right??
* And as a reminder, defensive buffs in TO really suck. Fortify is like -3 damage a hit or something puny. There's apparently some aftergame Draconic Magic that will null the next attack but hahahano for having that now. So don't think about buffing up Cerya.
* Congratulations! You've somehow, through a combination of AI luck and using Boon of Swiftness, manage to hustle it up to heal Cerya to not die instantly. Maybe you even killed the most forward Terror Knight, and perhaps the archers raining shots on you didn't get a crit-knockback on your cleric to knock her off the path upward. However. Oz has been gaining mad TP from hitting Cerya in the face. He's got good defense, but if you go in on him, he's just going to hit 100 TP. And if you don't attack him, he'll, uh, still get 100 TP pretty quick, albeit maybe a turn slower. And yeah, even when I gave him other juicy targets to hit, he likes Axe ultimating Cerya with Dark Prison. This isn't quite a OHKO but if Cerya is at anything other than full health she will die, and keeping her at even half health is quite the struggle. (This is also why being overlevel won't necessarily help - you'd need massive damage to kill Oz so quickly he doesn't get a turn at 100 TP. Your own ultimates would help but you won't have built up to them before he gets his.) And yes, Dark Prison has range, so if Oz walked away from Cerya, he can likely still do this to her anyway.
So... what's the plan? My own personal thoughts - confirmed that somebody else solved it this way- is something like this: replay the battle until somehow there gets to be some distance for someone to sneak in next to Cerya or Oz. Don't ask how. Then get a Knockback-powered blast to knock either Oz or Cerya off the ledge - ideally Cerya, but this only works if she's in good health. If Oz is knocked down, then just murder him; if Cerya is knocked down, she should be at an angle that makes the mages unlikely to threaten her at least. I have no idea how I'm going to induce this, but we'll see.
Siiigh.
When I did this battle on PSX (and yes, I did save her), it involved sending Canopus into the battle naked except for a weapon to maximize his speed. I don't know if this would work on PSP.
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BLOODBOURNE AND PILLARS OF ETERNITY ARE OUT AND I HAVE NO TIME FOR EITHER.
:( :(
Me too. I'm planning on getting a ps4 friday and playing it nonstop this weekend though.
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I already have a PS4 but this is around dissertation proposal time so I'm fucked 'til like June.
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Wait what pillars of eternity is out WHERE IS MY COPY OBSIDIAN
Edit: False alarm, it comes out Thursday.
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I'm supposed to be glad I don't care about any of these games but I just got a notebook that runs Binding of Isaac Rebirth and I'll never have a life again.
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Oops, I guess Pillars is in two days. At any rate, the point stands. This week is crazy for games.
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I'm stuck with no Bloodborne until the PS4 is less crazy expensive... the wait is going to kill me.
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I'm personally waiting for Fenrir and Cid to hype it up until I buy Bloodborne.
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I'm personally waiting for Fenrir and Cid to hype it up until I buy Bloodborne.
I have watched enough footage now to be convinced it's as good as De/DaS.
I caved earlier today, found a Groupon for 10% off a PS4 that was already on sale. Now I just have to wait two weeks!
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It begiiIiIiIiins
Bloodborne: I have no goddamn clue what is happening in this game. Even compared to a Souls game they tell you nothing. The intro's just this old guy being like "You want blood, you got it." And then you're dumped into post-apoc Victorian London without weapons so the first enemy can kill you horribly.
I set out trying to build Ada Lovelace but wound up with more of a repressed schoolmarm. I'll take it. I picked the class with the highest starting "arcane" stat because it sounded like the most magicy/sciency thing available. This does shit-all for me because I started with nothing more to use than gun+melee weapon and I haven't found anything else yet either. Apparently it gets me +item-find at least? (Item find stat is a thing which is back.) There's actually no magic slots on the HUD at all so I have no idea what this might ever apply to or how any mystical stuff might even work out at all in this game, but I have to presume there is something because otherwise what the fuck does an arcane stat even do? (Edit: FIREBOMB DAMAGE.) Also there are four boxes in the upper-right corner of my status screen and one of them is blue and not even the in-game stat description feature will tell me what any of that means. Instead I've just been pumping dex Skill with my levels because at least that gets me marginal damage increases with my chosen starting weapon. Which is a sword-whipcane that is seriously cool to use, not real strong but I can stunlock whole mobs of dudes at a chokepoint. It is good that it is useful because I have found no other weapons yet.
I really have no idea what I'm doing and am flailing pretty terribly (haven't killed the first boss, can't practically damage the goons outside his door so I have to run past them), which would be less aggravating if resource management weren't so pissy. We're squarely back to Demon's Souls healing here and I'm not happy about that at all. Nothing at all replenishes naturally when you die or warp back to the hub area. Oh, you used up all your expendable resources trying to kill the boss and then died? Better get farming, son. (Especially considering bullets are an expendable resource that you have to have in order to do anything more than like 0.5% of the first boss's health bar per melee hit.) This happened several times already and it's why I stopped for the night (it definitely dampens my enthusiasm knowing the first thing I'll have to do when I pick up again tomorrow is go farming). Why you gotta make me waste my time, From? I thought we'd grown out of this. I've also not found any significant shortcuts (though I can run past everything on the way to the boss without too much trouble). There's a bunch of side paths I could take other than fighting the boss, but so far they've all proved to be full of dudes who 2HKO me and laugh at my pitiful attempts to damage them. That or rat mobs. Or both. Also gravity.
Random other statements before I collapse for the night:
-Poise does not exist, item weight doesn't even exist, and I take from this that armor proper doesn't exist (I'd be surprised if even shields do, but then again I have seen some mooks using a crappy wooden one). This doesn't bother me a great deal since featherweight dodgehax is really how I got used to playing DS2, but it does make learning enemy attack patterns really rough the first time through.
-There's a persistent gore effect that builds up as you kill enemies. I could do without this; in Dragon Age it just looked silly, but in a Souls game it ruins my wardrobe.
-Load times are appalling, which is obnoxious as you'd expect in a game built around dying repeatedly. Supposedly they're working on patching this. They'd better.
-I used my one humanity-analogue to try and summon someone. No one showed up and it ate the item anyway. Thanks, game. (I guess this shouldn't be a huge surprise since I haven't found the summon sign item yet either.)
-There was a big mean glowing eyes scythe dude guarding this one passageway? That looked significant so I blew all my post-leveling souls echoes on molotov cocktails to chip him down safely. I had to use all of them and there was nothing past him but a loot-free dead end. Thanks, game.
-SMALL HEAD physique is back you guys.
-0/10 game if I don't find a fabulous Victorian dress to incinerate monsters in.
I really can't have a strong opinion yet because I'm still not even on the learning curve. I seriously wish they'd at least stuck to the Dark Souls healing system in some way, though. It was so much more efficient with regard to player time.
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Forgot to mention:
-PSPlus is a requirement for online mode. So, you know, be prepared to shell out some more money if you don't already have that.
-Recovery is weird in this game. Sometimes there's an (annoyingly hard to spot) bloodstain, sometimes you have to kill the enemy that killed you to recover.
-On second glance I realize my character is basically distaff Geddy Lee. So basically Geddy Lee. Okay.
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Only negatives
STILL HYPED
Can you buy unlimited healing? How expensive is it compared to the stones in Dark Souls 2?
I heard that at least you can't carry unlimited healing with you, which was my biggest complaint about healing in DeS. Estus remains way better , but at least only the first playthrough should be affected by this problem (and challenges, oh god)
How are combat/architecture/fashion?
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I only care about fashion.
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I care about fashion but am also interested in architecture covered in giant spiders.
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huge day 1 update + drama club tonight =
I don't want to be hyperbolic but life has no meaning
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Only negatives
STILL HYPED
Can you buy unlimited healing? How expensive is it compared to the stones in Dark Souls 2?
I heard that at least you can't carry unlimited healing with you, which was my biggest complaint about healing in DeS. Estus remains way better , but at least only the first playthrough should be affected by this problem (and challenges, oh god)
How are combat/architecture/fashion?
You should take everything I say with a degree of skepticism because: A) I bitched a lot about Dark Souls 2 and still wound up enjoying the hell out of it and playing it way too goddamn much; B) I'm still really early in Bloodborne (haven't killed a boss); C) I tend to see the negatives in a thing first anyway, that's just my nature; D) the game is really fucking hard and frustration may be punching the keys once in a while. Nevertheless, point by point:
-Maybe 3-4 standard goons might fuel the purchase of one item where I am right now. I can't easily buy things in large quantities without making multiple farming trips. Healing item inventory caps out at 20 items and the shots I have available heal maybe half a full health bar. Attack items appear to have an inventory cap of 10 (20 for bullets). Drops of both are reasonably common, but not so much that you can wholly evade having to farm up more if you happen to totally exhaust yourself on a failed boss attempt.
-The weirdest thing about combat is just that I have no options other than my starting weapons. (Alright fine I do also have a torch.) I've found no other weapons, enemies appear to drop only consumables, and that's all the one basic vendor I've found sells as well. Obviously this isn't a Souls game, but you know I can't help but compare it to one, and that is really goddamn bizarre for a Souls game since there's usually a horde of weapon options available from the get-go and one of the key things is just sorting out which type suits you best (and this possibly more than anything else has fueled so many experimental Cid Souls builds). I don't know what to make of this. It's not quite as limited as it sounds because melee weapons have two forms (I hit L1 and my cane oscillates between sword and whip, for example), but still, it's strange to see available inventory be so extraordinarily stripped down and minimalist in a From game. It could be I'm just not far enough in that the game thinks I deserve getting new stuff, but I tend to suspect they want you to commit to a much smaller arsenal this time around.
Otherwise, there's no poise, so far no shields, and backstabs don't exist, so you better get good at dodging. There are critical attacks of a sort, but you have to stagger enemies first and I find I'm almost never in crit range after doing the prerequisite heavy attack. I'm guessing this is how you're supposed to deal with all the really tough enemies that presently take like twenty normal melee hits for me to kill (I'm estimating, of course, because they just kill me first). I feel amazingly incompetent playing this, like almost as bad as when I first played Dark Souls and didn't realize lock-on existed until like the Depths (except I had way more things to try out before the gargoyles than I've found so far in Bloodborne). I feel like I've made no progress at all and I'm doing absolutely everything wrong, which I might well be since I'm going in with reflexes wired for Dark Souls and this isn't Dark Souls. I can't even tell if there are i-frames, I mean there probably are but I haven't internalized this game's movement into instinct yet so every time I get hit I'm still yelling at the screen "How the hell am I supposed to dodge that?"
You can get some health back after taking damage by immediately striking back at an enemy before your healthbar can drain, but usually I find it more worthwhile to just get the fuck out of the way before I get hit again. Knowing you you'll probably try to leverage for this feature for all it is worth and maybe possibly die a lot for it. >.>
There's no leveling at will, you have to go back home and talk to Suigintou in Black to do it, but at least you don't have to button-mash through dialogue whenever you want to level this time.
I went ahead and looked up where the summon sign item turns up. Apparently you need ten insight (think humanity) to open up a certain shop and then one more insight to buy the item. I had one insight. I don't anymore and it sounds like a rare find. How often did you ever have ten humanity in stock the first time you played Dark Souls? So yeah, I don't expect to see multiplayer be any kind of thing until very far into the game. This feels like early edition Dark Souls when humanity didn't drop from bosses and Sunbros took 50 faith and they patched it because they realized these were terrible ideas. I definitely expect similar patches for Bloodborne if I'm forecasting things right based on (admittedly possibly sketchy) information.
-Architecture is outstanding. They really tried to exhume the spirit of the Prison of Hope and pour it over a whole city. Yharnam streets are stacked with coffins and human bonfires and crucifixins and the minor detail on every surface is extensive. This is all a huge step up after Dark Souls 2's often underwhelming environments, though admittedly I really hope the later zones mix things up because I don't want to run through an entire world that's grim in exactly this manner. Actual level architecture looks pretty promising in its own right? I haven't had a ton of chance to explore since all side areas so far are full of things that will murder me with ease, but I've come across a number of winding diversions that have a nice sense of verticality to them and I'd definitely be intrigued to suss out how everything connects if only this were actually tactically feasible right now.
-Fashion? Well uh I'll let you know if I ever actually find any other clothes. No seriously I've found nothing other than my starting set (which is admittedly fairly swank) and one buyable set. This is weird, see above points about weapon scarcity, same grounds for bewilderment.
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Crucifixins
Crucifixin for a saviour.
Back stabs are 100% stealth only and need to be from a full heavy attack charge at least back in the demo version.
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I got some extra crucifixins on my ice cream at Marble Slab.
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Welcome to Christ Burger, where we make you say "Dear Lord, that's a good burger!" Make sure to stop by our fully stocked crucifixins bar. Each meal comes with a complimentary holy water. I'll be goddamned if you can find a better deal and if you can, they're probably going to hell.
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First boss is down. I feel marginally less fatty fatty fat fat now, though not at all because of that fight and more because I have other places to explore now (which it turns out I could've reached without fighting him anyway). I just stocked up on molotovs and wore down like 75% of his healthbar with those, then flailed like an idiot trying to chip down the rest. You're obviously supposed to stagger him with headshots and then critstab him, but I have no idea what the proper window of timing is for a hit to stun him. So instead I just burned a lot of HP to turn into to bullets to plink down like 20 HP at a time. Lame, but a win's a win. Too much stuck-in-corner cam in that fight, glad to leave it behind. Also I bought the other armor set, which might have helped a little because higher defense in a From game clearly crucial?
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I found another boss and HOLY FUCKING SHIT WHAT IS HAPPENING
I won on the first try but it was so terrifying that I had to stop for the night anyway. Jesus christ. How do you make just one normal dude scarier than the Four Kings? I don't fucking know but they did it. New music guy's doing a man's job sir.
(Tomorrow I'll boot it up and see whose corpse pops was lacerating. Although I'm pretty sure I know. Seriously that was amazing, I just walked out of the room shaking all over.)
So item management's a bit less of a hassle than it looked like? Any items you pick up that are for a type you already have at max capacity magically warp into storage at home base. I'm pretty often at max while exploring at this point (boss fights are a different matter holy shit man) so stuff is starting to stock up. I cannot get the hang of staggering dudes with gun or melee, but I've got some weapon upgrades and some levels behind me and whipping dudes the old-fashioned way is starting to work out pretty well. Starting to get the hang of things finally!
EDIT: also I found a boar. He met exactly the fate you should expect.
There's no leveling at will, you have to go back home and talk to Suigintou in Black to do it, but at least you don't have to button-mash through dialogue whenever you want to level this time.
Also I was totally wrong about that latter part. Oh well.
EDIT EDIT: ambush bridge! It sailed right over my head and I didn't even know it was coming. Hooray for dumb luck.
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Bloodborne: Two hours in. It is pretty cool!
Name: Yattaf
Class: Waste of Skin (lol)
Weapons: Axe and blunderbuss.
The axe feels really good, I am OHKOing regular dudes, dogs and crows with the slow-but high reach/high damage two-handed R2. I'd rather have a victorian giant club that turns into a bigger giant club with a monocole on it, though.
The shotgun also feels good, I really wonder how the pistol fares in comparison. Since the game is showering me with bullets, I use them on just about every bigger than average dude.
I am deeply regretting picking Waste of Skin as a class because I have found no way to level up yet. So I've spent all my souls on healing. I have 62 healing things right now. Score.
I don't really mind the change, it's way better handled than DeS. The big difference between this and Dark Souls in that regard is that using estus costs you nothing while using one of these costs a liiiittle bit, just enough to regret having to heal, and to push you towards attacking the enemy to heal back instead. (bad idea)
You can get some health back after taking damage by immediately striking back at an enemy before your healthbar can drain, but usually I find it more worthwhile to just get the fuck out of the way before I get hit again. Knowing you you'll probably try to leverage for this feature for all it is worth and maybe possibly die a lot for it. >.>
Yes
I am pretty damn lost right now. I have already unlocked too many shortcuts and I don't even remember the first way through the levels anymore. I'll study the environment a bit more to figure out where everything is.
-Fashion? Well uh I'll let you know if I ever actually find any other clothes. No seriously I've found nothing other than my starting set (which is admittedly fairly swank) and one buyable set. This is weird, see above points about weapon scarcity, same grounds for bewilderment.
I'm sorry Cid, but git gud at fashion because I already found a third set.
So far everything is super dark, hard to differenciate, and blood does ruin everything anyway.
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Yeah, I eventually found set #3. I'm wearing it now. It looks a little different from the storebought set?!
I took the pistol but it does shit damage because my starting build has BLOODGUNFAITH as the gimped stat. I almost exclusively just use it to aggro mooks. I should probably just pump Arcane through the roof because there is no way I would have beaten boss #2 without molotov power. I think that is just going to be my answer to goddamn everything.
Leveling unlocks after you meet Cleric Beast. I'm not sure if it matters whether you win or lose on the first try (I died and got warped directly to the leveling NPC).
I got lost a whole helluva lot just going back to pick up stray items and scout out overlooked passageways, which is part of why item stock is starting to bloat out. Adjective "sprawling" barely begins to cover the area.
Forgot to mention I get pretty decent damage out of throwing knives. Thrown weapon damage getting stat-scaling was probably overdue.
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The blunderbuss does terrible damage too. Like, 24. I only use it for counters. I wonder if the pistol is as good about countering, and if so I don't really see the point of the blunderbuss.
I don't even have a good stat!
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Go get killed so you can fix that!
Okay, I am going to grab some Discworld and climb into bed now so my nerves can stop twanging.
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Gaining any insight at all unlocks leveling. You get 1 insight simply for encountering the Cleric Beast, but there are consumable items that give it to you too.
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With Pillars of Eternity due tomorrow, I'd like to ask for second opinions from more regular PC gamers on whether to get it via Steam or GOG. My kneejerk is to pick the latter on the principle of being DRM free, but I'd prefer to make sure I'm not missing out on any major features of Steam I'd be missing out on due to not really using Steam much.
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With Pillars of Eternity due tomorrow, I'd like to ask for second opinions from more regular PC gamers on whether to get it via Steam or GOG. My kneejerk is to pick the latter on the principle of being DRM free, but I'd prefer to make sure I'm not missing out on any major features of Steam I'd be missing out on due to not really using Steam much.
steam has automated patching, GOG doesn't
that would be the only reason to choose steam
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Don't forget sunk cost fallacy! I already have all these steam games, I can't escape the environment.
Goddammit Fenrir stop making this game sound good to. I was all ready to dismiss it on the strengths of Cid's snap judgements based on 2 hours of play.
I don't have another 2 years to devote to understanding a game enough to not be confused by it any more but still have an incredibly fragile love/hate relationship with it like I do with Dark Souls.
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Sorry, I'll mention other positives:
- Starting outfit is super classy
- I didn't really want to go with the most worthless class, but the description sold me on it: "You are nothing. Talentless. You shouldn't have been born"
- I lost it during character creation, when I went to the glasses menu and saw that there were like 9 kinds of Harry Potter round glasses , one monocole and nothing else
- There is way too much detail in the environments
- I have encountered one regular npc but could knock on about four doors and get answers from hidden NPCs? I don't remember what they said to me beyond basically " Don't even talk to me, I'm not going to open, Gtfo"
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This really doesn't help me with my dilemma (but I still love it and you <3).
Jim Sterling had a video where he knocked on a door about 6 times until the man in the house' screams started looping. Then he knocked on another door with a woman that screamed at him.
It is a Shane I think I would hate the play because the design of the game looks aces all the way.
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Fenrir make sure you knock on the house with the little girl who's worried about her parents for proper prepare to cry (it's related to a boss fight). Most houses with inhabitants seem to have a light on outside to signify that, but this one's actually just a window so easy to overlook. It took me a long time to find this and I wouldn't have if my brother hadn't pointed it out. It's in the immediate vicinity of a shortcut door, but there are a lot of those so I'll try to give specific directions: from the central Yharnam warp point, go right like you had to do at the beginning of the game because nothing else was open yet; run past all the mooks around that huge bonfire so you wind up in the fountain plaza with the first batch of not!harpies and the huge guy banging on the door; cross that and immediately veer left instead of ascending to the bridge with the dogs; she's immediately on the other side of the closed iron gate you should see there.
(I'm just guessing you've already opened this gate and overlooked that there was someone to talk to there, like I did. The gate opens on the other side; it's the shortcut you open after taking that huge ladder up out of the aqueducts, immediately above the obvious trap item surrounded by corpse dudes.)
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Oh, right, Pillars of Eternity? I've got some extra keys if anyone who wants it hasn't already ordered it. PM me if interested.
Edit: 5/5 spoken for!
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I went to the glasses menu and saw that there were like 9 kinds of Harry Potter round glasses , one monocole and nothing else
Welp.
So when does the PC version come out.
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Some notes from this morning before I run off for real life stuff:
-In the Cathedral Ward now. Finding gun stagger works really well against the lantern jerks here. It really is this game's parry except the timing's a little more obvious.
-I found a top hat. Instantly I look like every depiction of Jack the Ripper ever.
-I found a glowing blue cloud and in the name of science decided to walk into it. I teleported fifty feet into the air, turned into a werewolf, and died. Okay.
-Insight is not lost on death. Also you're basically guaranteed to have ten of it by the time you get to this zone, so that's okay, we can add another thing to the list of inaccurate Cid assumptions. Turns out you just need to have ten insight in stock in order for the special store to open, don't have expend it. The store vanishes again as soon as have less than ten again though, so buy everything you want in one go. I dumped all my insight on world's worst dad outfit.
-Got some co-op in. Your max health is cut down while in someone else's world. Not sure how much. It doesn't look as extreme as half? But then again I say that because I'm comparing the bar to my stamina bar and now I wonder if maybe that gets cut too. This is probably fair either way, because I don't see any apparent increase in boss durability with extra players, and what was horrifying single-player last night is almost trivialized with with a full group. Counterattack health regain is also a huge help multiplayer since dudes are constantly getting staggered by the other players and this makes it a lot easier for you to hit back. I might just refrain from summoning dudes altogether because out of 3-4 co-op runs they were all fairly stress-free victories.
-Hilariously, the Henry "Indiana" Jones Jr. Memorial Bridge goons are scripted to activate when you're past a certain point on the bridge, not when you cross that point. This means that if you warp in to the opposite side and then walk up behind them, they'll immediately charge across the bridge at nothing and then their big friend will immediately roll a boulder over them even though you're not in the line of fire. Free echoes!
-I found a shield! I have no idea how this works mechanically since there's no stability stat.
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Paper Mario - I finished this, for the Kaitlyns. :) Fun game, certainly not perfect but reasonably enjoyable. I like the partner system, makes for lots of interesting decisions within the battles. I generally preferred Bombette and Bow over the other characters, although Watt's defense-ignoring was useful sometimes. And Goombario having scan means that he is always relevant. I really enjoyed the balance of decisions than the game has with HP/FP/BP, although I generally thought the game slightly favored BP, then FP, then HP. My favorite boss fight was Huff-n-Puff because it makes you employ a strategy besides just a slugfest. Bowser was a little less enjoyable relatively because it's just a pure slugfest, but Bowser is amazing as always. Plotwise, the game isn't as funny as the amazing Bowser's Inside Story and a bit less amusing than SMRPG (and the game has very little serious plot to speak of), but the tighter mechanics probably elevate it above either game. Not sure, though. 6-7/10?
Now to mostly disappear from this topic for a while. <_<
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With Pillars of Eternity due tomorrow, I'd like to ask for second opinions from more regular PC gamers on whether to get it via Steam or GOG. My kneejerk is to pick the latter on the principle of being DRM free, but I'd prefer to make sure I'm not missing out on any major features of Steam I'd be missing out on due to not really using Steam much.
Obviously you get it on Steem so that when you play it your Steem friends will see you playing it and know that you have impeccable taste - and that will help with your...self eSteem.
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Really it's a great way of letting people know what you're up to without having to actually talk to them.
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Thanks for the thing about the little girl. :(
The good news is that I beat the first boss on the first try and am no longer lost, having explored everything so far... I think?
The bad news is that I spent all my souls on getting 16 STR and buying a kirkhammer, and while it looks insane it's much worse than my good ol' axe. You know how blunt weapons are reliable in Souls game, while bladed weapons sometimes do half damage? Yeah, well it looks like it's the opposite here. I also bought a completely useless lantern and clothes.
Second bad news is that I'm dying over and over against the second boss. Especially that later part of the battle where he just goes in this Attack -> Attack -> Attack -> Attack -> Attack -> Attack -> Attack pattern.
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The music box the girl gives you is supposed to stun him when he's frenzied? I'm hard-pressed to cite exactly how long though because I was too busy going OMIGODOMIGODOMIGOD to really estimate. Pops is a monster. And yeah, I don't see any ways out of Central Yharnam other than through him. Cathedral Ward opens up a whole bunch of options immediately after that fight, though (in addition to the zone itself being reasonably lengthy). Speaking of!
Today's progress: I am incapable of killing the Cathedral Ward boss. She deals way too much damage and I deal way too little; the one serious attempt I made, I ran out of healing after chipping through at best 40% of her healthbar. Fortunately, she doesn't appear to be blocking anything (other than like 40% of her own damn boss arena, god dodging is a bitch in there) so I was still free to explore other zones.
Old Yharnam is the longest straight run without a break that I've ever encountered in a From game, and I am indeed taking Shrine of Storms into consideration here. Two words that should never go together gatling sniper.. I wasn't exactly keeping careful track of time, but I feel like it could've been as much as an hour and a half to two hours to clear the place from top to bottom (granted, moving slowly with extreme caution because I don't know where everything is, but still, that's just one successful run there, not a death loop). Resource exhaustion was a definite thing by the time I found with tremendous relief the area's only significant shortcut (although I might've been better off if I hadn't wasted a ton of resources on a futile attempt to kill the badass hunter). There was a developer message at the end outright suggesting I summon someone for the boss, so I gave it a shot to see if there was an NPC helper about, but nothing happened. I'm actually not sure how you'd go about specifically summoning an NPC in this game or even knowing whether one was there, given there are no actual summon signs in Bloodborne. But anyway I could see the boss from outside its room and it didn't look like much from afar so I just walked in alone as usual and OMIGODOMIGODOMIGOD
So...so they're all going to be that terrifying? Okay. Okay, then. (Even the Pinwheel analogue was a little scary.)
I finally found a nice priestess outfit. I have a proper skirt now and I can curtsey. We're making progress. Actually, it almost seems like the outfit has altered the reactions of some NPCs? A couple people in houses and another priestess actively greeted me as though I was a member of the church (quite fearfully in the former case; hardly a surprise considering half the bosses I've encountered were clergy). Seems a bit much for coincidence that it only started happening once I switched to this outfit, but then I can't exactly reload and talk to them with another set on to check because autosave.
The crystal gecko analogue in Bloodborne is decidedly lacking the previously established quality of cuteness. Ewwww. Also I do not recommend trying to block bullets with this game's shield, or perhaps blocking anything at all with it.
I don't exactly know where I should be going right now. Old Yharnam's clear, Hemwick's clear, and neither seemed to link to other zones in any way I can presently access. I guess I will go back to Yahar'gul and attempt to evade porcine revenge. (I have not previously been successful at this.) By the way, Fenrir, whenever you get to the top of the Cathedral Ward and wander off to the right to explore the neighboring zone? If you see a tall gangly dude with a huge bloody sack (thankfully I don't mean this in the Shaded Woods hollows sense), let him kill you.
At this point I feel comfortable solidly recommending Bloodborne to anyone who's previously enjoyed a Souls game (I can't imagine coming into this without prior experience of From's shenanigans). It's exactly as tense as it needs to be and boss fights are nightmares made flesh. I'm not convinced there's enough cool equipment to warrant the kind of replay value I got out of DS1&2 (half a dozen bosses in and the number of weapons/armor sets I've found is each still in single digits), but the game is definitely impressive enough to warrant a once-through. I suppose the length of some zones and the distance between warp points and shortcuts might be offputting to some people? I haven't had much issue repeating stuff since I rarely die during exploration at this point, but we're miles away from the relative brevity and convenience of Dark Souls' zones here (and it doesn't matter how much they try to overhaul Dark Souls 2, it'll feel like a vacation after Bloodborne).
-Dodging occasionally does strange things to the camera when your enemy is exceptionally mobile. This is especially noticeable with barking crows and the Old Yharnam boss, who can move so fast that they fly right by you on a successful dodge and the camera spins in a rather disorienting manner to try and maintain lock-on. Not a huge problem, but a select few obnoxious enemies + Cid's easily confused sense of direction can equal bad times.
-You can't transfer directly from one warp point to another, you always have to warp back to HQ first and then transfer from HQ to your desired location. Especially given Bloodborne's load times, that is a distinct nuisance if your immediate business involves a lot of travel. Also, if you're trying to farm up a specific item, there's no resting at a bonfire to make enemies respawn--as above, you need to warp home and then warp back to make the enemies reappear. Since enemies appear not to ever drop actual equipment, there's less reason to farm anything in the first place, but still, bit of an unnecessary hassle when there is something non-storebought you want to stock up on.
I guess that's kind of it at this point? Everything else that initially bothered me stops being an issue once you've grown out of being an incapable starting-level character.
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Bloodborne: Holy shit Shadow of Yharnam. First try victory, way more proud of myself than I should be. Hooray for dodging attack transformations. Hooray for throwing knife finishing blow!
At some point items got more expensive? This is probably fair since attack items get scaling now and healing is obviously percentile-based. Probably still good to stock up while they're cheap though (not sure what the trigger is for price increase, would guess defeating specific bosses).
I ran out of other places to go (Darkbeast obviously isn't going down anytime soon), so I just called in help and smashed up Amelia the easy way just so I could move on to a new zone already. The boss fights against approximately human-sized enemies are amazing, but I'm a lot less fond of the "Here is a giant mutant wolf, can you guess exactly when to stun it?" battles. So then I moved on to Forbidden Woods, which is just the confusingest goddamn place ever in conjunction with being tremendously long (the grueling marathon levels are starting to mitigate against me wanting to play this a second time, however impressive it is the first). I probably spent half the time there backtracking and at least half of that not realizing I was backtracking. Ugh. Also welcome to Trappington Village, population: Traps. I only lived through the bird pit because through dumb luck the camera happened to position exactly where the ladder was. Save me yakkety sax ladder climbing, you're my only hope.
I actually found a nice outfit that isn't black or brown. (!!!) Unfortunately white is a bad color to wear in a game with persistent gore effects. I'll pass. I also found a snazzy electro-mace, but using it just gets me killed because I'm used to having a lot more range on enemies. I'm not sure I can see myself using anything other than the whip by this point, reach and occasional terrain abuse are such huge advantages. Belmont mode definitely confirmed.
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Unfortunately white is a bad color to wear in a game with persistent gore effects. I'll pass.
Have you tried singing? (http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3581756)
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Can't see link, not an SA member.
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The
heroine main character is one of those magical music anime types. She dresses in all white & gets copious amounts of red splattered on her during her murderous rampages, but her Devil Trigger equivalent includes all of:
A)More powerful & faster attacks,
B)Changing the music to have singing in the background
C)Being a dry-cleaning service that restores her clothes to pristine white.
Much like the cycle of life, once Intoner Mode expires, she can resume painting her clothes red, until there's enough that it's time to cleanse it with singing again... give it a try in Bloodborne!
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Why'd you have to remind me I played Drakengard 3, Snowfire.
What did I do to you.
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Why'd you have to remind me I played Drakengard 3, Snowfire.
What did I do to you.
Man, it's not that bad. Aside from the goddamn grindfest D ending of course. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck whoever thought that level of requirement was a good idea.
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Bloodborne:
(http://i.imgur.com/zlCHpHP.gif)
Bloodborne is bloody fantastic, I love it. Can't talk now. Need2playmore
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Blame yourself or God, Cid. Mostly yourself.
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...
I guess I can't really argue with that, Fenrir.
Apparently there's a bug where ringing the bell for summons or invasion in the Forbidden Woods makes the game unwinnable. Guess what I did immediately before shutting down today?! So hopefully that gets patched in...relatively short order.
Also Soppy making me glad I didn't bother with more than the B route. (I already knew the final was another obnoxious rhythm battle. I didn't know they'd contrived a way to make that somehow more objectionable.)
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No, Drakengard 3 is that bad.
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Bloodborne: Taking a break. I beat four bosses and a chalice dungeon.
- You get to populate your harem like in Dark Souls 2, except there's a choice between two places? I went with the most suspicious place. I "recruited" two ladies so far. Including one old super bitter woman with no gratitude whatsoever. Sexy.
- Random chalice dungeons are indeed not too great. Enemy placement is decent, but rooms are very blocky and poorly strung together, and there's no map when there should be one (because here, the level design isn't good enough to not have a map)
- Pumping everything into vit and strength pays off. So far. I beat the last four bosses (well, including three chalice dungeon bosses) on the first try. I was relying on the two handed axe moveset before, but now I'm pretty much purely one handed because it's way faster, and the damage is still high enough now. And I can switch between a torch and a blunderbuss for my secondary weapon. ALSO:
- The moveset for each weapon is pretty huge; so staying with one weapon only isn't that much of a problem. You get (and I've used all of it extensively):
+ R1
+ R2
+ R1 combo
+ R2 combo
+ Charge attack R2
+ Jump attack R2
+ Running attack R1 (and maybe R2, not sure)
All this x2 because each weapon has two (very different) stances.
+ two other attacks that are used when changing stances mid combo. Voila.
- So what I meant by this is that I just discovered the charge attack R2.
Two handed axe charge attack = "I am a helicopter whee", this does two hits and can send enemies flying, including minibosses.
One handed axe charge attack = PANCAKE ATTACK IS BACK. On a starting weapon. Praise From.
By the way, Fenrir, whenever you get to the top of the Cathedral Ward and wander off to the right to explore the neighboring zone? If you see a tall gangly dude with a huge bloody sack (thankfully I don't mean this in the Shaded Woods hollows sense), let him kill you.
I've never seen him!
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Huh. He's on a high bluff just past the area with the two incredibly annoying hunters, a little beyond the small churches where everyone inside just chants "Bless us with blood" over and over again.
I've rescued four people by now. I sent the ungrateful old woman (whose name I still don't know, and who by now seems to be going crazy) and Arianna (Cathedral Ward lady of the night) to the chapel just so I could see what they looked like (I really want Arianna's dress) even though the chapel caretaker is totally a creepy monster man, along with a priestess I found trapped in Yahar'gul. Arianna gave me some of her blood as a reward, and I'm sure nothing at all bad could happen from infusing myself with a prostitute's blood right? The only person I've sent to Iosefka's was a totally not suspicious at all dude I found standing half-naked amidst a pile of bloody corpses. I'm sure this won't end badly at all.
I haven't even tried a chalice dungeon yet.
Statwise, I pumped Skill until 25, after which point it looks like I already get diminishing returns on damage scaling. Weird. Otherwise Endurance 20, Vitality 25 and climbing, whenever I stop getting notable rewards from that I'll probably go back to pimping out Arcane because bomb more etcetera. Wasted two points on Strength so I could try the useless electro club, haven't raised Bloodtinge at all. Whatever, like I have any serious use for guns on pure damage grounds (I did find a cannon with an absurd base attack rating of 200, but you need like 30+ strength to use it. Nope nope nope.)
Yeah, I'm very satisfied with the variety of my starting weapon (and running R2s definitely exist, they're very handy). The game is really pretty bad for Fashion Souls, though. Every single other player I've seen is just wearing the basic hunter outfit. It's sad. (Although I guess it's not all negative if it means Giant Dad cosplay is no longer possible. The legend has died.)
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Huh. He's on a high bluff just past the area with the two incredibly annoying hunters, a little beyond the small churches where everyone inside just chants "Bless us with blood" over and over again.
Oh wow, I had killed him and had forgotten about him entirely.
Pretty cool that a relatively big part of the gale is hidden like that.
I've rescued four people by now. I sent the ungrateful old woman (whose name I still don't know, and who by now seems to be going crazy) and Arianna (Cathedral Ward lady of the night) to the chapel just so I could see what they looked like (I really want Arianna's dress) even though the chapel caretaker is totally a creepy monster man, along with a priestess I found trapped in Yahar'gul. Arianna gave me some of her blood as a reward, and I'm sure nothing at all bad could happen from infusing myself with a prostitute's blood right? The only person I've sent to Iosefka's was a totally not suspicious at all dude I found standing half-naked amidst a pile of bloody corpses. I'm sure this won't end badly at all.
That's funny, because the Yahar'gul girl told me to stay away and that was it. NPCs have been screaming at me a lot lately. I mean, more than usual. This may have something to do with Insight, since I've been hoarding it like crazy (I currently have 40)
Statwise, I pumped Skill until 25, after which point it looks like I already get diminishing returns on damage scaling. Weird. Otherwise Endurance 20, Vitality 25 and climbing, whenever I stop getting notable rewards from that I'll probably go back to pimping out Arcane because bomb more etcetera. Wasted two points on Strength so I could try the useless electro club, haven't raised Bloodtinge at all. Whatever, like I have any serious use for guns on pure damage grounds (I did find a cannon with an absurd base attack rating of 200, but you need like 30+ strength to use it. Nope nope nope.)
Mine mine mine
I've been using the flamethrower (!) lately and it's been really fun. Some enemies also have specific death screams whne burnt to death. Stuff like "It buuuuurns it buuuuurns!" Classic.
I beat Dark Blood Beast Souls 2: Electric Boogaloo is down, on the first try again.
I think the bosses are generally easier but the punishment for dying is higher (Having to stock up on items), so the game encourages to explore other areas before coming back instead of dying over and over. (which would force farming for items)
No death in this game sounds possible but completely insane (No access to Hunter's Dream), it might be too difficult since there can be no weapon upgrades.
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If the priestess didn't talk to you, that might confirm that she only talked to me because I was wearing the church outfit. I mean, she actively greeted me as though I was another priestess. So that's kind of neat I guess?
I tried the flamethrower right when I got it and it seemed bad. Too slow, poor damage even though it scales from one of my decent stats. Am I missing something here?
Darkbeast killed me within ten seconds. I'm not going back there until I'm out of other options. I've killed four out of the six bosses I've beaten on the first try, but that doesn't really do anything to diminish how emphatically scarier these battles are than like anything else I've played.
I would say the real punishment for dying in Bloodborne is having to backtrack. Not really an issue with bosses since there are shortcuts and you can run past normal enemies very easily, but if it had happened to me at the end (or even firmly in the middle) of a long area like Old Yharnam or Forbidden Woods then controllers surely would've been tossed. I think they overdid it a bit with the length of some zones.
You're probably going to pass me soon at the rate you're going.
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I don't think the backtracking is big at all (assuming shortcuts are unlocked), we're just back to Dark Souls 1 standards instead of Dark Souls 2, with some bosses being very close to the checkpoint (cleric, vicard, darkbeast) and some being further away like 4 Kings and Bed of Chaos were in Dark Souls 1 (father, super disgusting thing in Old Yharnam)
I also beat another boss and that's the new easiest Souls boss ever. (Move along Prowling Magus) Not sure how close it is to the checkpoint but this doesn't matter.
Meanwhile, while blood vials are plentiful and cheap, losing 20 blood vials fighting a boss is still something. You can't just go and fight the bosses 20 times like with O&S. If the game had estus, you might have tried to fight the cleric and bloodark beast a few more times instead of just leaving.
I tried the flamethrower right when I got it and it seemed bad. Too slow, poor damage even though it scales from one of my decent stats. Am I missing something here?
It's not great at all, but it's really really fun to use if you have some bullets to spare.
It's the kind of weapon you have to upgrade though. I got it to +3 because I have ten thousand billion trillions basic upgrade stones.
I use it against enemies that have a sliver of health left.
You're probably going to pass me soon at the rate you're going.
Nah
Yesssssss
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Pillars of Eternity: A few hours in, playing a female Moon Godlike Chanter. I like how the character creation is structured - lots and lots of choices as far as race/class/background, but fewer skills to worry about after you pick the fundamentals of your character, so leveling up isn't a nightmare of choice paralysis. Setting has a ton of history and generally feels nicely lived-in, to the point where I've been surprised a couple of times that it's new for this game. Story is waaaaaaaay too early to tell. Characters are basically null thus far.
Gameplay-wise, it's way more Baldur's Gate than Planescape: Torment. Blank-slate protagonist, lots and lots of mandatory fighting, especially in sidequests (in the same old RTWP shitfest, to boot), threatening enemies even in Easy, and so far few meaningful dialogue options. I was hoping for exactly the opposite of that, and I could have worn they said there would be almost no mandatory combat, so I'm not exactly happy with this state of affairs.
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I am though!
I started a fighter and made a wizard then promptly recruited a wizard 4 seconds later. Then did a hard dungeon and found out I could have recuited another character, who was a fighter. Made a Priest then. Got mad when I found out that was the next thing I would (and did) recruit. Dumped the create your own dudes. Kept playing and had fun.
Seriously glad I didn't rage restart because 2 fighter is really good at controlling battlefields. Also the classes I was considering retooling are literally exactly what you can get as recruits.
You don't get a thief though and that would have been nice.
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Bloodborne: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfdXbTRVRzc
Not a ton of forward progress this afternoon. My brother tipped me off to some stuff I'd missed so I went back to the Workshop. Still not sure how to get into the locked door upstairs, but apparently there's a hidden lower level. A...really, really lower level. Imagine if Dark Souls 2 had added poor lighting conditions to the tribulations of navigating that descent. Yeah. I was promised something special at the bottom and yeah, that's definitely true, what where am I this looks familiar? But probably I didn't get excited about exactly the same things he did. Hey, that's an unusually tiny treasure chest, let's see what's in it! *Cid opens chest* *Cid's eyes bug out* MBisonYESclip.jpg
I don't care if it's mechanically the worst armor in the game, I'm keeping it.
I also tracked down crow woman because apparently her questline gives you an outstanding Skill weapon. This, I discovered, is true, after I murdered her because I'd fucked up the quest and she'd gone insane (actually everyone's going insane at this point, the old lady thinks I'm her daughter). So anyway this dagger looks pretty good on paper, right, I mean exactly set up for my kind of character, so let's dump all our spare second-tier ore on it. And then let's give it a test run vs a boss in somebody else's world.
...
You guys I'm in love. It's like someone at From said, "Hey, remember the Gold and Silver Tracers? I don't think Dark Souls let you get enough attacks per second with those things. Let's crank that up by a factor of two." I just mash R1 and everything in front of me disintegrates, full combo is like 9-10 attacks long (and I might even be running out of stamina before I can complete it). Character build is set for the rest of the game, hit Skill/Arcane caps (it's a magic daggers!), pump Endurance because jesus christ those combos. Belmont mode is over, blender doll is for real. This is what I signed up for.
Plotwise, shit is getting real Lovecraftian. Apparently I am unaffected by the glitch and able to proceed, yay. I met an old friend and he took me to I place that I might find interesting. "Nightmare Frontier." I walked outside, fought one enemy, kthxbye. That is starting to apply to every place that I can presently go.
Also I decided to take a trip back to the clinic to see how Mr. Totally Not Suspicious At All is getting along. It's, uh...well, I don't think it's his fault actually. When I sent everybody else to the chapel, despite the chapel caretaker looking super sketchy, it was at least in part because I didn't entirely trust the doc for not letting me see her and for the fact that anyone I sent to the clinic would presumably disappear behind her door. After certain plot events, Iosefka no longer answers the door. Instead there is just a Chthulian throbbing noise highly reminiscent of the eldritch monstrosities I can now see looming over the city. Apparently there's a backdoor to the clinic that I missed in the Forbidden Woods. I dread going back there to look for it, but I think I'm going to have to.
Also, Fenrir, at some point you want to revisit the little girl's house. It, uh...it gets worse. I dunno what the timing trigger is, but check back there once in a while.
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Edit: I made this post before Cid posted.
Bloodborne: I am pretty sure I have found the new Terrible Place With Terrible Things that wants to replace the Valley of Defilement / Blight Town / Shrine of Amala.
It is the Nightmare Frontier, do not go there. Avoid at all costs.
Incidentally I got in two fights against invaders and won both. I think invaders get an HP penalty because I did not have the upper hand at all during the first fight. PVP was pretty cool, but a large part of that was due to us not healing. They must be a bit boring with each opponent having 20 blood vials on hand and willing to use them.
Oh, great news: I now know the reason behind being invisibly teleported in the air then invisibly teleported back on the ground with 3/4ths of my HPs gone, early in the game. Also, bad news: I now know the reason behind being invisibly teleported in the air then invisibly teleported back on the ground with 3/4ths of my HPs gone, early in the game.
Also Cid, you were right about the nun!
No update to the little girl story, there's been no response when trying to knock on her window in a while.
BTW, try doing a gesture to the doll. I did it by mistake. Results were cool.
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Did those invasions happen in the Nightmare Frontier? Because while I was briefly there I kept seeing messages about "a bell-ringing woman rings a sinister bell*," and the lamp would momentarily become unusable like bonfires always did when an invasion was pending. Nothing quite managed to happen, though.
(*I see this message a lot when appearing as a summon in other people's worlds, too. No clue why.)
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My understanding is that summoning help will always try and summon a PVP opponent as well (Bosses don't scale as well or something?). Think that was in a Vaati vid.
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Yes, those were in Nightmare Frontier. I don't think you can be invaded elsewhere without using bells.
I have the cannon now. It uses 10 bullets per hit. I've upgraded it to +6. I love it.
I think I cleared Nightmare Frontier + all of the Forbidden Woods I could handle. I burst out laughing when that guy who was basically eating corpses (?) asked me a place to live. He could have said "BTW did you happen to find my shotel on the way here? I've lost it". I sent him to Iosefka's.
Edit: Cid I now fully read your older posts and WHAT HAVE YOU DONE
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You're going to have to be more specific.
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Oh nevermind, I misread.
Anyway! Eldtrich horrors everywhere! Yay!
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Yes.
Also, I climbed up the clinic backdoor and had a look around behind the scenes. I don't want to know what happened to my friend.
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I can only do some bitesized gaming right now but something tells me that I'm not going to be able to resist Pillars of Eternity for very much longer (thanks Cid!). Can't join in on Bloodbourne talk for a while. :(
Valiant Hearts: So I picked this up on the latest Ubisoft Steam sale, and it was an intriguing game because games aren't often set in World War 1. It has gotten positive press because of its depiction of war and how it displays aspects of war that aren't often shown in games.
And I think I kind of hate it. It actually does some things very well in terms of being an easily accessible education game. You can pick up little collectibles, each of which has a wiki-like entry, and these are really interesting, ranging from the role of medics to more esoteric things like doggie gasmasks and small touches like how gold buttons on officer uniforms were actually disadvantageous because it made you more visible. The problem is that the game is very tonally inconsistent. The narration that comes in between chapters does a good job of conveying the horrors of war, the terrible conditions during the winter, how shitty trench warfare was, etc.
The big problem is that whenever something poignant happens, it is usually followed by mechanics that are... there just isn't a better word than "gamey."
*You throw rocks to distract armed guards so that you can knock people out with a soup ladle.
*Only one character can cut wires. If you run into a fence he is the only one who can ever do anything about it in the history of the world. Only one character can dig, I don't know what the German guy does. The dog is better at everything than everyone.
*You go on fetchquests for everyone all the time. There's one thing where you have to find some dude some socks so you find a dirty sock on barbed wire that you have to wash and he gives you an ink bottle and then you have to find some bread to feed a bird and the bird drops a feather so now you can write a letter to your daughter.
*You use sheep as cover.
*You use a bone you find as the handle of a lever.
*There is a French officer who won't get out of your way until you bribe him with wine (...).
*You shake apples out of a tree and that distracts a set of guards for some reason (they just stare at them forever!).
*The nurse character heals people with a rhythm game.
It's just a weird set of contrived situation after contrived situation drawn from the old tradition of weird adventure game logic, and that just doesn't work if you want to have a game that is wanting to depict World War 1 with any kind of weight. None of the game mechanics are specific to the era, and they're all almost entirely disposable. I feel like something like having the nurse try to heal mustard gas victims but having the rhythm game being impossible and the patient dying would have been a good idea here, but I think in general I may have wanted a much darker game than these guys were willing to make.
It makes me question what exactly they were setting out to do with this. At one point, there will be a fruitless infantry charge into no man's land where your companions just get endlessly bombarded, which shows how quickly a life could be taken in this war. Then there are sections where you are on a car chase running away from policemen in a situation where it seems like the Benny Hill song should play. Or, the main villain of the game is a Looney Tunes caricature of a German Baron, which I would totally be fine with in a game with that kind of tone. He cackles madly while launching dynamite at you and to beat him you throw dynamite into his tank hatch, after which he makes a comic book getaway. This is one area where the visual style (which looks quite good) may impede things because the violence is very stylized and cartoonish, with cartoon style bombs, dynamite, and explosions. Also, if you die, you start at the latest checkpoint and the game seemingly checkpoints every 30 seconds, so it really seems as if there is no consequence for getting caught or accidentally digging in a trench and hitting a bomb. I'm not sure if this game was just meant for kids or what, but it is not really afraid to get into dark and weighty subjects. It's just bothersome that the game's tone and pacing constantly belies that.
I will say that the ending is quite good:
So Emille, who is fairly pacifistic, has a commanding officer that constantly ordering them to charge directly into fire and bombardment. Your companions are getting gun down, basically to no avail. To prevent any more loss of life, Emille hits the officer with a shovel, which kills him. He is court marshaled and sentenced to death. The ending sequence is him in chains, walking slowly towards a firing squad. He sees ghostly outlines of some of the friends (the other controllable characters) as he walks and there is voiceover of him reading a letter to his daughter:
"Dearest Marie,
As the war ends for me, I have no regrets. I have seen too much horror. I hope fate has been more merciful to you. My time on earth is brief, and mine has been filled with so much joy that I can only be thankful for how much I've been blessed, most especially for the wonder you brought into my life. This letter is my last. I've been found guilty from a military court for the death of an officer. It was not my intention to kill him. War makes men mad. Though I failed Karl, I know my sacrifice has not been in vain. My honor is assured, since it is the will of God to separate us on Earth, I hope we'll meet again in Heaven. Keep me in your prayers. Your loving papa, always." [gunshot]
It then cuts to a Emille's plot in a veteran's cemetery, saying that we must strive to cherish the deaths and sacrifices of those lost during the war.
It is very emotional and well-done, and if the rest of the story had a similar level of thoughtfulness then this could have been SO GOOD.
At least the dog is amazing.
Ori and the Blind Forest - I finished this. It isn't a long game, but nothing too much has changed since my last post about it. The platforming feels good, albeit not perfect, but it helps when you get things like triple jump and the feather and the ability to "ride" projectiles. All these things make traversal a lot easier and faster, which is good because there isn't fast travel (BOO!). Backtracking can take a while but from what I could tell, there wasn't a ton of hidden stuff anyway, so making long trips to explore old places may not necessarily be worthwhile. Combat never gets that great. You are always spamming while your homing bullets hopefully hit shit, so your primary role in combat is actually just to dodge. There aren't really bosses as such, so combat seems like a bit of an afterthought.
Instead of bosses, there are these very deliberately paced set pieces. For example, there is one where there is rushing water and you need to use the ability to launch yourself off of enemy projectiles to get to high ground or you drown. I'm not really sure how to feel about these. You basically have to fail a lot in order to properly get a hold of what you're supposed to do, and occasionally, the enemies won't cooperate and you will make one mistake and have to start the entire setpiece over again. This was a little jarring a game built around the ability to save anywhere and where you generally don't lose progress. They weren't incredibly hard, but you basically have to fail them to learn how to get through. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I don't think some of them were designed that well. For example, in the water one, the water rises as a function of the progress you're making, so it doesn't matter if you're doing "well" in your current run because the water will just shoot up anyway. I do like some of the creativity involved with the setpieces and they are gratifying to get through I still think they could have used some tweaking.
The visuals remain gorgeous throughout the game. There is sort of this Okami/Miyazaki-like restoration element (mostly in cutscenes), and you do want the affected parts of the world to be revived because of how freaking beautiful it is at the beginning. Each dungeon you go to has a bit of an elemental take to it, so the environments are nicely varied, and the most striking thing is that there are always things moving in the foreground or background to make the world seem alive. There are stills that could very easily be desktop backgrounds or poster prints. I think it's the best art directed game I've seen in a long time, and it's worth seeing it in movement even if you aren't that interested in the game otherwise. The soundtrack is also excellent.
I ran into a really nasty bug after one of the cutscenes where my character couldn't appear and she gets blown away and all was fog. I had to patch my save and activate debug mode to get around it. That was basically gamebreaking though, since it happened every time I loaded. They're patching that and I think adding the ability to teleport between save shrines, so that should really improve the game. It's not a great game but it is good, and it's worth $20, although maybe wait until they have patches.
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Bloodborne: Out of Yahar'gul and Nightmare Frontier, I chose "Fuck that." I went to Cainhurst Castle instead. I figured, it just looks like a frozen ruin, there can't be anything here remotely as bad as those other places, right?
It must be possible for a person to be more than 100% wrong. I feel certain of this now. Worst enemy in the game bar none.
Place turns out to actually not be as terrible past the courtyard, though, since by that point you're mostly just fighting slow (but stealthy) enemies with poor melee range. Also the loot is swank:
-0/10 game if I don't find a fabulous Victorian dress to incinerate monsters in.
Potential 0/10 game status firmly revoked. We are properly fancy now (though at the moment I'm favoring the crow outfit because I am fucking terrified of everything again). I also found an amazing musketeer outfit complete with stupidly tiny fop hat. So fashion's getting a lot better mid-game. Did I mention you can dress up like House Gryffindor hitting the town on spring break? That is also a thing that you can do.
Anyway, fought the boss there once, died, went elsewhere. It looked pretty easy until Unlimited Blade Works happened. I'll try back later. Fenrir, I think you're right, the possibility of burning through my stores of healing really does discourage me from trying bosses repeatedly. I hate the feeling of working with finite crucial resources in a game, so if something gives me trouble I'll just try to ignore it as long as I can (and twice now I've just summoned people for bosses I didn't like mechanically just so I could move on with the game). I also had a host pull an invader while I was there and yeah, PVP can be really stupid when both sides are perfectly willing to spam heals. Whatevs, I'm not here for PVP anyway. Speaking of, though, willing to bet Pope Gwyn's guarding a covenant HQ.
I gave Unseen Village a shot after that since the front door is open now. Fuck, I might actually prefer Nightmare Frontier to this. This place is terrible and the bells, the belllLlLLLss! After running around like mad and getting no solid idea of the geography and probably missing a bunch of loot in the rush to murder summoners, I fled into a place that looked familiar. Hey, wait, isn't this the Yahar'gul lamp? Why isn't it active? ...Oh. Oh, that's why. This town's seen better days and I liked it more when creepy music and death pigs were the worst it could throw at me. So run run run and somehow I get steered back down to the depths of the prison and there's nowhere left to go but Darkbeast's room. Well...well, I'm here, might as well try again.
This was so stupidly easy that I don't even know what happened. My brother suggested I fight underneath him, so why not, RRA strats worked once. I run up to his hind legs, mash R1 a bunch and then suddenly he's not electric anymore and almost immediately 75% of his healthbar is just gone and he's actually very clearly running away from me. Sooo that fight was probably meant for a lot earlier in the game, but anyway, let's see what he was guarding! ...Oh. Thanks, guys.
I have to say, by this point every aspect of this game's setting/background/story is getting vastly weirder than I had any remote expectation for early on when people were just unfortunate enough to turn into beasts all around me. I can't say I have any notion anymore where it's going, only that I'll regret finding out. "Lovecraftian" applies more and more not just in the proliferation of horrid abominations but in the suggestion that the root cause is even more fucked up than what's onscreen. Vision of a woman in white dress with the abdomen bloodied + background noise now punctuated periodically by sounds of a baby crying + I found a goddamn umbilical cord somewhere that reeks of plot centrality = what in the everloving fuck is even happening anymore.
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Pillars of Eternity - This game is so Baldur's Gate that I already had a crash that was caused by failing to be able to load an area that was resolved by deleting my cache (or just the area that failed from my save file in this case).
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The Nightmare Frontier gets way way worse. Bring some frenzy res there.by the way.
Unseen Village feels too endgame-y for my taste, I'll explore the game a bit more before finishing it. I still have no idea what you meant by going way down in the workshop.
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Judging by your trophies, you do by now!
I found the red phantom covenant and decided to give it a whirl in Nightmare Frontier, but the host I invaded was idle so instead I decided to cheese things out and scout the area with impunity. Wow, it really is so much worse than it even looked initially. Just wow. (The worst part might honestly just be the horde of hunters, though.) The only plus I can see is that the ore-drop creature (which I'm just calling Mr. Skullhead until someone comes up with a better name) is goddamn everywhere in that zone.
I'm out of town for the rest of the day so I rather expect I'll have to stop reading your posts for a while by the time I get back. (Oh who am I kidding I'll do it anyway.)
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Resonance - played through
Fine enough. Got what is seemingly the best ending and 337 points out of 340. I'm not sure whether the missing points were from some incidental interaction(s) that I missed, or if they were due to deaths? Documentation with the game does state that you'll lose points when you die, and that running out gives you a game over, but if the amount of points you lose is that trivial I'm not sure how that would be likely to ever happen. On re-reading the documentation, it's a little more ambiguous than the way I described it, which makes me wonder if it's being disingenuous.
I was interested in the short-term memory system when it was initially presented, but ultimately I don't feel it was very fun to use. In concept, it's like you have an inventory of things you wouldn't normally be able to carry, but in practice this led to a lot of backtracking as picking up inventory items is a primary interaction whereas committing items to memory isn't. I was also under the impression that you had a limited amount of memory slots, but as long as I have the documentation open anyway, there isn't one mentioned here - of course it could be described in the game alone.
It just seemed like most of the time, the situations where you needed to commit something to memory were situations where a character would 'naturally' remember the item in other games, rather than something new? Maybe someone who hadn't played many/any adventure games before would find the system more usable.
Long-term memories were better, albeit a little abstract. The difference between long-term memories being memories of situations while short-term memories are memories of objects was possibly a little unnatural-seeming. I'd say that maybe a system with just the long-term memories and not the short-term memories would be better, but then we'd just have Return To Zork's tape recorder. Albeit a more discriminating one, I guess.
Bioshock 2 - played through
Pretty great. Got the good-good ending.
Reading up on the endings and their prerequisites later, it seems kind of strange that killing the third person can be considered to be an act of revenge for purposes of the endings, but oh well! I didn't kill persons one or two but did kill person three, and rescued all sisters. Kind of mostly implied by what ending I got I guess. Meanwhile persons one and two were essentially consigned to death anyway seeing as how they weren't tagging along, maybe they can leave via whatever magical means Brigid was planning on leaving by.
I hardly remember anything from the original Bioshock gameplay-wise, so it's difficult to say whether B2 was better or not in those regards. I have vague recollections of wandering splicers being far too common in the original and it feels like that wasn't the case here, but those memories are extremely sketchy. Checking my report (http://www.rpgdl.com/forums/index.php/topic,4410.msg117677.html#msg117677) on the original, I don't mention that at all.
While I have that up:
- I also generally neglected most plasmids here, but I used the electric one and its descendants in combat a lot. Fully upgraded and used the Shotgun a lot also, so things were getting zapped left and right. Also occasionally remembered to summon security robots with the upgraded security plasmid. Hated them continually getting in my way when I wasn't in fights though.
- I don't think that any of the missions in this game fell to the depths that the worst ones in the original did. So, that's a plus. I was wondering for a while how they were expecting to get through Dionysus Park in its condition if the detour hadn't become necessary, but given that the train typically runs underwater anyway I assumed they would have just driven through without stopping.
- Didn't have any issues with the linearity - I think the main difference is that your linear path in the original unnaturally conveniently goes to all the places you need to go, whereas here you're trying to take a natural linear path and everything keeps conspiring against you to hold you up.
I am very much not a fan of the gathering segments, but at least they didn't take too long.
I'll probably start on Minerva's Den in the next couple of days.
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I was interested in Valiant Hearts, not anymore!
Bloodborne: Hey! What's your favourite animal? If your answer is "Spider", you're in luck!
I just fought a martyr king who had a throne installed on the roof of his giant frozen castle, not giving any fucks. Very difficult and fun battle, probably one of the best in the Souls series, just like Pops earlygame. Looks impossible on NG+. (unless you rely on parries, maybe?)
Then I went through a part of the game in which it was quite obviously VERY displeased in me, yet I had no idea what I had done wrong. This lasted for about 5 minutes until I read the environment more carefully.
Classic Souls.
(The worst part might honestly just be the horde of hunters, though.)
No no no Cid, trust me, the worst part about Nightmare Frontier is absolutely not the ambush I had entirely forgotten about until now. It has to be either the dudes throwing giant boulders or the nightmarish things near the end. The swamp is pretty bad too.
Also I went back there to invade someone, did the helicopter attack with the axe and then shot him with my huge portable cannon. kthnxby. Then I invaded someone called Xx-Destiny84-xX who instantly disconnected. Classic Souls.
BTW, I was a bit shocked playing Demon's Souls when I noticed that they didn't animate people talking. Mouths moving and such.
Three games later, and on the PS4, they still don't give any fuck.
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Pillars of Eternity- one of my party members's pathfinding AI got stuck on a tree and now I'm unable to leave the area. Trying to figure out whether I should just reload a save from a few minutes earlier or find a way to fix this.
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Yeah, Obsidian's bug checking is in classic form with this one.
(Here's a list of known bugs that will permanently break your save in some way. (http://steamcommunity.com/app/291650/discussions/0/618457398969717553/) They're all avoidable, at least.)
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Pillars of Eternity: I'm having way too much fun. =)
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Started up Phoenix Wright. It's pretty amazing. Will have more to say later.
There is a phrase in the legal profession, "If the facts are on your side, pound the facts. If the law is on your side, pound the law. If neither is on your side, pound the table."
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I just got the keep in PoE. Interesting plot stuff there, and it opened the first round of meaningful party conversations. Durance is fun. Others are still just kind of there, but I'm looking forward to the elf getting some lines, at least.
Enemies in the next area to the east are kicking my ass, so maybe I should try wrapping up the big quest from the first town. It seems like it's possible to do via stealth, so we'll see how that goes.
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I was interested in Valiant Hearts, not anymore!
Valiant Hearts is definitely the kind of game that should be made more often but the creators have to know what exactly they're wanting to accomplish. Is it an adventure focused on character? Is it contrasting the differences between people from disparate economic classes and countries in this era? Is it an educational game for kids? Is it trying to show how fucked up war is? Any of these would have been a worthwhile concept to build a game around, but I think the most damning thing about Valiant Hearts is that after playing it, I can't tell you what it is trying to do.
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Enemies in the next area to the east are kicking my ass, so maybe I should try wrapping up the big quest from the first town. It seems like it's possible to do via stealth, so we'll see how that goes.
Was it a bunch of Druids? Because there was a pack of 5 in an area that made me give up and progress the plot as well. Just AlE my whole party down and have massive HP pools relative to normal castes o have faced.
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Undead backed by groups of forest trolls. I ended up sneaking around them and into the big city. Those druids are also assholes, but can also be avoided if you move carefully and stick to the south. Can't stealth around them, they spot you instantly unless (I assume) your whole party is ninjas, but if you give them a wide berth you can move around the rest of the area without fighting. Glad I did, because the town past them has easily the most interesting PC in the game thus far -- who is also a Cypher, supposedly the best class to boot.
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PoE- I opted just to reload an earlier save, since the only progress I lost was recruiting Durance and fighting a couple of wolves. Easy enough to redo, but now I'm seriously considering grabbing Kid Icarus Uprising from Club nintendo and playing that for a month or two while waiting for Oblivion to patch the game.
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Bloodborne:
"Hey screw this, let's forget about all of this"
"Yes."
-FIN-
I'm pretty sure I missed some Frue final boss there, but my final boss at least was a wet nurse, which is pretty awesome, you'll have to admit.
I'm going to restart as Harry Potter next. Arcane build, round glasses.
Change the default character's hair, and add glasses, and you pretty much get Harry Potter. It's too easy.
Bloodborne is a Souls game that's still its own thing. It is absolutely fantastic, I was amazed many times, and I do not regret getting a PS4 for it at all. I'd say that Dark Souls 2 is a more refined game overall; Bloodborne has more warts, but it's more ambitious.
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PoE- I opted just to reload an earlier save, since the only progress I lost was recruiting Durance and fighting a couple of wolves. Easy enough to redo, but now I'm seriously considering grabbing Kid Icarus Uprising from Club nintendo and playing that for a month or two while waiting for Oblivion to patch the game.
do it do it do it doooo ittttt
Nier - The plot just took me to the Forest of Myth.
... ... ... okay that was actually kinda awesome. I've been waiting a while for the game to do something like that.
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia - Beaten again on Hard Mode. Still great, etc. Realised that I'd never played as Albus before, so I started up a file on that. I'm about halfway through. Things I've noticed:
-Spamming guns does a crazy amount of damage from long range, and many enemies aren't balanced around this at all.
-There is still good enemy design (obviously, since it's still OoE enemies), but it's much harder to appreciate.
-There are some neat unique platforming things about this mode (in this case, the extra jumps which cost MP).
-The game's plot is non-existant.
-Several key menu functionalities are removed compared to normal gameplay... for some reason.
Conclusion: Albus mode is Devil May Cry 2.
I'm still going to finish it because frankly Normal Mode just flies by.
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Bloodborne:
Bloodborne is a Souls game that's still its own thing. It is absolutely fantastic, I was amazed many times, and I do not regret getting a PS4 for it at all. I'd say that Dark Souls 2 is a more refined game overall; Bloodborne has more warts, but it's more ambitious.
Fenrirest Soulslike or not? Ambitious and unrefined is very Fenrir. Transforming weapons are very Fenrir.
I'm going to restart as Harry Potter next.
The real Superaielsouls starts here.
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I like it a whole lot, but the Chalice Dungeons are very un-Fenrir for a Souls game, and they're essentially here to make up for the shorter length of the game compared to regular Souls.
They're all about getting phat l00t with +XX% bonuses in non-great dungeons. Said bonuses can be very varied but you'll likely only care about +% HP and +% damage, from what I've seen. Oh wow, I could do +15% damage against guys named Zenthor. Or I could just get +10% damage against everything. CHOICES.
I'll probably play Chalice dungeons ad nauseum anyway (duh)
There is one actually cool rune side effect I've found, and it's the one that restores bullets whenever you do a bullet parry, so you can just go on forever parrying everything if you're good.
I beat the first boss with Harry Potter, and am already wondering how I ever had any trouble with the earlygame enemies. (Not the first boss though, he's still pretty nasty)
I am pretty sad that the game went straight to NG+, because I wanted to do more Yattaf PvP with the hand cannon (that thing is nuts)
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Forgot to mention endgame stats:
35 Vit
28 End
30 Str
13 Skill
Base everything else
Vitality is the new God Stat, as healing scales with max HP.
Axe +9
Cannon +8
Torch +3
Sweet lightning rod +3 (I only used it to look cool whipping it)
99 Insight
6 Blood dregs
Outfit : Decadent noblewoman clothes + A cage as the helmet. Looked super silly during cutscenes
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Is there a NG+ thing? Bonfireside Chat made reference to being interested in the impacts of carry over Insight on the starting areas and how that changes the experience of them.
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Hmm, I wouldn't call Albus's special a "jump" that costs MP, it's more like a "teleport." And is totally broken, teleport past everything etc.
I played Albus Hard and recall yelling OPTICAL SHOT a lot. Screen-clearing attack that does holy damage? Make a little tiny hop first and you don't get rooted in place, too. Okay there are a few enemies weak to slashing but not weak to Holy and they can get shot normally, but even then, that's more dangerous as you have to stand still for a bit. Jumping & teleporting around while white & black swirly lines fill the screen is the way.
But yeah, good times. Not as good as Shanoa mode but a cool twist.
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Albus has an extra jump which costs MP. Up+L, I believe? The teleport is apparently something involving the touchscreen which I'm ignoring. I guess it'll be used to get past Paries walls in Dracula's castle or something.
Optical Shot is pretty nice for crowds, but every boss and single tougher random I've just pureed with gunspam from as the edge of range. It's kinda dumb. I have concluded that boss Albus clearly had the worst AI of all time.
But yeah, good times.
I just compared it to DMC2. We have a different definition of good times. <.<
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I don't think Snowfire plays games to feel this emotion you call "Joy".
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Yeah there's good old NG+ with buffed enemies like in Souls game. I haven't noticed anything different from playing in NG+, but I didn't go very far, I wanted to try Harry Potter Gaiden instead.
There are a lot of items that have an arcane stat req and that consume bullets, this sounded pretty fun and it's the game's new magic system. Note that you can trade health for bullets at a fairly nice rate.
Spoiler stuff: I've run through the early parts of the game again with 99 Insight, and have only really noticed one major difference.
I quite like Albus mode ""on paper"" but I always get bored with it immediately. Whereas I've gone through every extra mode in PoR multiple times.
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Reading random things because I am obsessive. I see Durability is back.
Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh. Is it Dark Souls 1ish or Dark Souls 2ish.
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Durability is a nonissue. You can go ages without bothering to do anything about just like in DS1, and it only applies to melee weapons anyway.
I just fought a martyr king who had a throne installed on the roof of his giant frozen castle, not giving any fucks. Very difficult and fun battle, probably one of the best in the Souls series, just like Pops earlygame. Looks impossible on NG+. (unless you rely on parries, maybe?)
I actually hated that fight because of his tendency to fly out of camera range before stomping on your head. Did you grab his crown? It's not entirely obvious that it's sitting on the floor in the middle of the room (instead of forced into your inventory like most boss drops). Wearing it opens up a new area behind his throne. It's also pretty swank and part of my preferred outfit along with noble dress + knight's gloves and skirt. Looks very queenly.
Nightmare Frontier is done, 100% as bad as advertised (even with maxed frenzy resist I died from that once, and boulders seem to be like OHKO damage even with 1100+ HP). Know I missed some loot in there but cannot divide by the number of fucks given. The boss took a couple tries. Should've been cool but camera souls was rampant like it usually is with gigantic enemies that can't fit in the screen. I had to switch back to the whip because the daggers couldn't hit his head, very annoying. Also chalk up another boss killed by throwing knives because it was too much of a bitch hitting him otherwise during the last phase where he totally wigs out. So glad I keep stocked up on those things.
I'm pretty burnt out on this latter third or so of the game but I'm trying to be thorough because I don't want to play this again. It's a very neat game, does lots of cool things and is definitely worth playing for any Souls enthusiast, but the shift from well-intentioned people tragically turning into monsters that it seemed like was Bloodborne's theme in the first half moving instead to "No actually the church was really always interested in UFOs and star children so here's all Chthulhuspace all the time" is really jarring and doesn't work for me at all, especially knowing I'm basically at the end of the game and there is nothing more to it than that. A lot of this stuff could've been better suggested than shoved in your face.
So at this point I'm just FAQing whatever it seems like I'd otherwise miss. Retrieved the key for the workshop and went for the upper Cathedral Ward. This place is populated primarily by Jim Henson's Allant Babies and that is exactly as bad as it should sound. Fought the second boss in the basement, got it halfway down, died because someone thought it was a good idea to give her a massively powerful charging dive that executes at the same time you're already trying to dodge a barrage of laser bolts. Thanks guys, there's 1/3 of my healing supplies down the drain. Fuck this place for now.
Fenrir, is there another lamp in Unseen Village past the chapel warp point? I'm getting too frustrated trying to deal with the hunters keeping the prison lamp locked out, so if there's something else later then I'll just skip them and move on.
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Undead backed by groups of forest trolls. I ended up sneaking around them and into the big city. Those druids are also assholes, but can also be avoided if you move carefully and stick to the south. Can't stealth around them, they spot you instantly unless (I assume) your whole party is ninjas, but if you give them a wide berth you can move around the rest of the area without fighting. Glad I did, because the town past them has easily the most interesting PC in the game thus far -- who is also a Cypher, supposedly the best class to boot.
That entire area is a deathtrap.
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The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth - So far, I landed three victory runs: Isaac vs. Mom, Isaac vs. Mom's Heart and Magdalene vs. Mom's Heart. They finally made Brimstone good again, which fills me with joy. Brimstone has long been one of my favorite powerups and its gimping for Wrath of the Lamb was very sadface. That said, still Isaac, but far more stable and even more off-the-wall bonkers.
Double-Dealing Characters - I didn't even -know- ZUN had a Touhou 14 out. Got my ass kicked by stage 6 on Easy. Dear god, I suck.
Subterranean Animism - As missing a 1cc on Easy with MarisaA proves.
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Undead backed by groups of forest trolls. I ended up sneaking around them and into the big city. Those druids are also assholes, but can also be avoided if you move carefully and stick to the south. Can't stealth around them, they spot you instantly unless (I assume) your whole party is ninjas, but if you give them a wide berth you can move around the rest of the area without fighting. Glad I did, because the town past them has easily the most interesting PC in the game thus far -- who is also a Cypher, supposedly the best class to boot.
That entire area is a deathtrap.
Very worth going through carefully if you can, though. Not only is the Cipher in town really good but there's a recruitable Druid hanging out in the forest who can absolutely wreck shit (and again, has a neat backstory/character quest).
I finally started moving the main plot along after realizing why I never got to Mad Lord Whatshisname's castle after the first town - I completely missed the eastern exit that leads to it. Whoops. It was a cakewalk with a full party and a couple of extra levels, though, so I'm not complaining. I sneaked through, played the two advisers against each other without killing either, and then opted for the boss fight at the end. Now I'm poking around Defiance Bay, accumulating quests that I may someday make actual progress in.
Oh, one thing that's been noted pretty well in other places but people who are actually taking the game's combat seriously should definitely be aware of so I'm posting it here: Disengage, the first-level priest spell, is bonkers. It basically turns one person into Switzerland, unable to attack but impossible for enemies to engage in combat. Except they can still block enemies' movement, so if you have somebody stand in a chokepoint and cast the spell, your ranged characters can cut loose without fear.
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PoE: I am a monk(Human Oceanfolk). Gate punches things, act shocked. Monk is...not that good so far. I have neither the offense nor defense to drop enemies before they drop me most of the time. Sadness.
Playing on easymodo because I am a scrub who is bad at micro, enjoying it well enough thus far. Get wrecked by undead in the church area, come back later when I have a full party, wreck the undead in return. Now off to confront Lord Evil McHangspeople. His sewers are full of ~more~ undead. He hasn't even appeared on screen yet but just keeps getting eviler by the minute.
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Hey, Elf's fault for playing on Normal. (You still murder everything instantly on Hard, just you get murdered back as fast.) I assumed the DMC2 comparison meant more "action game where the plot is mercifully out of the way" rather than "pew pew everything with OP gunz". Guess Elf meant both!
Speaking of which...
Devil May Cry 4: Dunno why I started this, but I did, it's been my Steam game to slowly waddle through lately. Anyway... it's fun. On Chapter 15 or so now? Got back to Fortuna Castle.
I am a filthy casual so I far prefer Nero so far, I like me my God of War-esque "press button for dramatic finishing move". No, seriously, while it starts off totally OP, the Devil Bringer is neat: you can't just throw the later "real" enemies, but have to manuever behind them or get them into a weak spot somehow, and it works very well with the bosses. Being able to drag one enemy near you to get beaten up while the horde is safely far away is pretty cool too. Meanwhile, for Dante... I think the game assumes you played DMC3, which I didn't? I have no idea what the styles are supposed to do. Do you get more grade if you use the Swordmaster / Gunslinger specials? And Trickster dodging seems generally less reliable than lock-on side-rolling. Royalguard seems potentially cool but I don't trust my reflexes enough for it. There's 0 indication of what leveling up the styles does. So been pretty much ignoring 'em. Without the Devil Bringer, Dante seems much more reliant on Air Hike as well for mobility. On the bright side Dante's shotgun is cool. (Nero's Blue Rose, unlike DMC2/Albus guns, appears to be a tool for hovering in midair, not for actually killing anything.)
Plot is basically a disaster but whatever, it's just an excuse for scenes of badassery, which it mostly succeeds at. Dante is the worst assassin ever. Nero is strangely uncurious about why there's a demon invasion immediately after His Holiness is attacked - the obvious assumption is that it was the assassin's fault, but he doesn't seem to connect that dot. I'm STILL not sure why, actually; the demon invasion in C11/C12 makes sense at least, but demons just kinda randomly show up for Nero's path. I *guess* the bad guys did that too, albeit without Yamato?! Or maybe the demons saw Dante was in the area and decided to attack him, and the village was just in the way? Yeah whatever. At least the plot IS very good at making me want to kill Dante at least?! Also the Order of the Sword is strangely confused. Don't they worship Sparda? Why freak out over Nero having demonic power? Sheesh he's already trying to kill Dante for you (by running into your secret lab?!), just let him do that first then get pissy at him if you must.
Anyway, this game has a Ys Origin vibe, which is actually pretty high praise: run through basically the same environment twice but with different characters against interesting enemies to surprisingly good music. Wildly different art styles of course but hey.
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I actually hated that fight because of his tendency to fly out of camera range before stomping on your head. Did you grab his crown? It's not entirely obvious that it's sitting on the floor in the middle of the room (instead of forced into your inventory like most boss drops). Wearing it opens up a new area behind his throne. It's also pretty swank and part of my preferred outfit along with noble dress + knight's gloves and skirt. Looks very queenly.
OMG RUN worked pretty well for me when he started trying Mario Jumps on me. Infinite Blades were much harder to avoid.
Yeah I got the crown, I wore it until I found the cage later on. Incidentally that's how I joined the >:-) covenant and started collecting blood dregs for my queen.
I'm pretty burnt out on this latter third or so of the game but I'm trying to be thorough because I don't want to play this again. It's a very neat game, does lots of cool things and is definitely worth playing for any Souls enthusiast, but the shift from well-intentioned people tragically turning into monsters that it seemed like was Bloodborne's theme in the first half moving instead to "No actually the church was really always interested in UFOs and star children so here's all Chthulhuspace all the time" is really jarring and doesn't work for me at all, especially knowing I'm basically at the end of the game and there is nothing more to it than that. A lot of this stuff could've been better suggested than shoved in your face.
I felt it was kind of hinted at with the Amygdalas earlygame and didn't really mind.
Insight and Frenzy are also new things that were added to the game that felt very Lovecraftian (Insight actually reminding me of Sanity in Eternal Darkness in many ways)
Fenrir, is there another lamp in Unseen Village past the chapel warp point? I'm getting too frustrated trying to deal with the hunters keeping the prison lamp locked out, so if there's something else later then I'll just skip them and move on.
IIRC there are two checkpoints there, the third one being gone forever at this point IIRC? At least I couldn't find it.
Harry Potter Gaiden: Cthulhu no Densetsu
(http://i.imgur.com/ixfVS3j.jpg)
(Not my picture but I have the exact same guy)
Cleric Beast was pretty rough, I panicked once I used my 10 cocktail molovs and realized he still had a ton of health back. Wasted a ton of bullets trying to parry until I realized I should have targetted the head.
Meanwhile Pops G went down super fast, like three easy counters with the pistol + two cocktail molotovs once he turned into a werewolf.
I had like 10 deaths against him the first time!
The whipcane is pretty bad compared to my old axe, but I'll live. I'm looking for something else.
The pistol is much better than the blunderbuss, I don't even know the blunderbuss' purpose at this point. Maybe the parrying window is higher with it?
The flamethrower actually looks decent with an arcane build, check this out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20kX_cR41j8
I read a ton of spoilers and now know that's there's a way (an insane way) to become best pals with the crazy dude in Old Yharnam, so I'm going to try that.
I'm also sending everybody to Iosefka this time to see what this changes. Yay!
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(http://i.imgur.com/ixfVS3j.jpg)
So when's the PC release date?
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it's going to always be a ps4 exclusive guys :(
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One neat thing about Bloodborne is that you can have your character name appear online instead of your psn name. My enemies will be greeted by "Harry Potter has invaded your game"
You can also get the most Harry Potterish clothes
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So you didn't need to create a dummy PS4 account called Eurowizardharry just for the gimmick? Cool.
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Fenrir I was going to post a pic of the hatcage when I figured out how because I absolutely knew you would wear the fucking thing as soon as you found it. Always good to have my understanding of the world verified.
Re: Iosefka's: :( (But I won't say anything else. I'd suggest not personally entering the clinic until the moon turns red, though.)
There are a lot of neat combat items that have Arcane requirements, consume bullets and are basically the only thing like magic that Bloodborne has. Could be worth playing with those? (I haven't, much.) The most ridiculous one has a requirement of 40, but most are much more sane (think 25 is otherwise max, which is where the soft damage cap hits anyway). The expense of molotovs far outweighs their actual usefulness at the end of the game, sadly.
I found the whip really useful for slagging random mobs but not so much for bosses. Sometimes the range is a godsend, though. I don't think there are too many melee weapons that benefit from arcane but I can absolutely recommend Eileen's daggers.
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:)
Hugs
(http://bloodborne.wiki.fextralife.com/file/view/micolash.jpg/544618928/micolash.jpg)
Yeah I've been frustrated by not being able to use all these arcane items, my firt playthrough! The arcane build should be fun. I could sacrifice health for more bullets. (I hope you can use it an unlimited amount of times?)
I don't find that the whip has that much range considering its slow speed, especially compared to the axe. Damage is pretty low. Stagger can indeed be nice, but that's only against rather weak enemies. Good crowd control in an open space I guess.
Iosefka gives you items if you send people to her clinic. There might be some nice stuff!
Also I already went through the backdoor last playthrough (before the moon turned red), and I know one of the awful alien things was initially the guy in the Forbidden Forest that I sent there. So I'm guessing all the NPCs are going to end up mutated just like him. But hey, cool items!
Also, people didn't really have cool lives in the Cathedral Ward anyway so whatever. Old woman: Dead (why?), Nurse: Catatonic, Prostitute: Terrified of giving birth to Cthlhu, Paranoid guy: Paranoid (I guess he turned out fine for Souls standards)
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Paranoid guy wouldn't even go anywhere for me and I have no idea why.
And yeah, they're infinite use. The magic weapon buff item in particular is fairly cheap to use and grants a really nice bonus (obviously doesn't work on already elemental weapons, though).
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Snowfire: Yeah, the whole list of bullet points I had was the list of things I felt DMC2 had in common with Albus Mode. Don't have a terribly high opinion of either, and I don't think HM would help in either case!
As for DMC4, I also prefer Nero's gameplay overall, and that's despite the fact that I think Nero is an insufferable, annoying trope and Dante is awesome. That said I did think the game was better for having both, since they felt clearly different enough that you had to learn the best way to fight enemies as each.
My enemies will be greeted by "Harry Potter has invaded your game"
For years I have wondered why the invasion mechanic in these games even exists. Now I finally know. Never change, Fen.
Nier - I visited a house haunted drained of all colour and met Cyclops Jr. after the house's butler hit on my daughter. Still enjoying the game pretty well despite how weak the gameplay is. For all my slagging of DMC2 I'm pretty sure it's a straight-up better action experience than Nier is. (Obviously Nier wins everything else.)
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errrrrrgh stop making things sound good when other things sound bad. Cost:Benefit analysis of trading HP for offensive resources and then conversely being able to convert healing items into offensive power is one of the mechanics that I always find appealing.
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Subterranean Animism
Has a pretty high learning curve no matter the difficulty, so go easy on yourself.
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I'm just rather frustrated that the rustiness caught up to me this badly. Back when I played SA when I was still regularly playing Touhou, even Normal wasn't hard to accomplish. But I just feel like those years went to naught right now.
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SA is kinda special in that regard because it more than any other Touhou game relies on remembering the flow of stages (ok UFO is more tricky in that regard but for reasons that don't count). Just having skill isn't going to be enough.
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errrrrrgh stop making things sound good when other things sound bad. Cost:Benefit analysis of trading HP for offensive resources and then conversely being able to convert healing items into offensive power is one of the mechanics that I always find appealing.
Actually it is really great here!
Essentially you sacrifice some of your health (= a little less than one potion?) for 5 blood bullets. Usually you have a 20 potions / 20 bullets limit , but this means you could go with like 10 potions / 70 bullets instead.
Bullets =
- Either more parries
- Or more magic
- Or pure damage with guns if you go with something like the flamethrower.
This singlehandedly should make pure magic / pure gun builds viable, at the cost of healing. It also allows a lot more parries which are genuinely good. (the parry window is a lot better than in your usual Souls games, and it works on more attacks)
I would have probably had an easier time with the game if I used this more but you know, I didn't want to sacrifice my healing. (which means I got hit more and had to heal more etc, which was ultimately worse)
Also, remember the mechanic that allows you to regain health lost in the last few seconds if you manage to hit the enemy back?
If you are extra cocky/badass you can walk up to an enemy, sacrifice your health for bullets, immediately shootparry the enemy, and frontstab him to get all the health back. One dead enemy, no health loss, and 4 more bullets than before.
I have tried this once and have died.
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I tried out the magic tools and sadly they are all pretty bad. Generally I'll get at least comparable damage out of one R2. I knocked an invader on his ass with the Force equivalent I guess? That's something. Apparently there's a full-party healing bell but I can't vouch for its effectiveness because I didn't find it. As far as melee weapons with Arcane scaling go, I have learned that there is a wheel that you can hit people with. We don't really need to say anything else, do we?
Also, Fenrir, I don't know whether you got the Roar gesture or not, but I recommend you give it a shot. It sounds completely ridiculous.
Anyway, Nightmare of Mensis. This place aspires to be as bad as Nightmare Frontier. I don't think it quite manages it but it definitely tries. The brains are worse than anything else in the entire game, but you also don't have to deal with them to get anyplace mandatory. (They're guarding the only piece of +10 ore in the entire game instead. God dammit you guys.) Which is good because they're total BS, frenzy builds up too fast even with the most resistant equipment, drops down incredibly slow, and even builds up while you're stuck in their grab attack of doom. Geez, why are sedatives so expensive? (Why is everything so expensive?) Mico was irritating, definitely a different kind of boss but after a couple minutes I just wanted him to sit still and shut up. MWN was cool though, superb visual design, mean skillset that demands some very precise timing but is pretty fun once you get the hang of it.
Quite a shock heading back to the dream after that. I told spoilers No and some unpleasantness ensued. I died three times and decided to call it a night there because oddly I did best on the first try. Will probably try and properly finish the game tomorrow when I'm hopefully more coordinated? I'm surprised to find you actually can summon in that particular location, but don't plan on doing so. It's a super-stylish duel and should totally be played that way. There's still one (stupidly obnoxious OHKO-happy) optional boss out there that may or may not exhaust my patience first I guess? Also I tried one chalice dungeon and am not sure whether I'll bother with more. Granted, I was notably overleveled for the one I tried (the multiple instances of "and then four dudes spawned immediately on all sides of you" still came close to killing me though, really bad form there you guys), but still, not too thrilling. If there are cool bosses hidden in there somewhere then I'd be interested in seeing them, but none of the first three I hit in Pthumera or whatever were much of note.
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Shantae and the Pirate's Curse: In the Ice Island place. Game does some creative things with platforming and humor remains amusing.
Codename STEAM: TIME TO SAVE WASHINGTON DC! Not because it is the capital of the glorious United States, but because it has an ancient book of almighty magic that allowed for the creation of DARK SCIENCE...note that DARK SCIENCE is not actually evil in this game.
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Dark Science is the kind of Science you do with the lights out.
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I get the image of people replacing bunson burners with make-out sessions.
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Make out by Burner Light. Add a bit of copper to the flame for extra romance.
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Civ 5- Testing Sage's patch. Do do do it's interesting- *gets battering ram on turn 2 with Atilla* Things escalated quickly from there.
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I tried out the magic tools and sadly they are all pretty bad. Generally I'll get at least comparable damage out of one R2. I knocked an invader on his ass with the Force equivalent I guess? That's something. Apparently there's a full-party healing bell but I can't vouch for its effectiveness because I didn't find it. As far as melee weapons with Arcane scaling go, I have learned that there is a wheel that you can hit people with. We don't really need to say anything else, do we?
Also, Fenrir, I don't know whether you got the Roar gesture or not, but I recommend you give it a shot. It sounds completely ridiculous.
The Cthulhu Tentacle High Five looked like a pretty cheap magic skill that could be gotten quite early, I hoped to rely on that for damage.
Yeah I never finished that questline so I didn't get the Wheel and Roar gesture. As far as gestures go, I do miss the WELL WHAT IS IT and hope that Roar will make up for it. As of right now I am quite happy with the Clapping gesture though.
I have seen gameplay videos of the wheel in action. You just bash people with a big chariot wheel. I... guess that's really the best way to harm someone with a wheel.
It looks terrible in a fight and I need it.
Mico was irritating, definitely a different kind of boss but after a couple minutes I just wanted him to sit still and shut up.
Hahahah they really screwed that up and I was laughing the entire battle.
Also this is the best thread on gamefaqs right now: http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/805577-bloodborne/71527528
Edit: Context, for non-El Cid people: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lQs2ZXJEBI
Quite a shock heading back to the dream after that. I told spoilers No and some unpleasantness ensued. I died three times and decided to call it a night there because oddly I did best on the first try. Will probably try and properly finish the game tomorrow when I'm hopefully more coordinated? I'm surprised to find you actually can summon in that particular location, but don't plan on doing so. It's a super-stylish duel and should totally be played that way. There's still one (stupidly obnoxious OHKO-happy) optional boss out there that may or may not exhaust my patience first I guess? Also I tried one chalice dungeon and am not sure whether I'll bother with more. Granted, I was notably overleveled for the one I tried (the multiple instances of "and then four dudes spawned immediately on all sides of you" still came close to killing me though, really bad form there you guys), but still, not too thrilling. If there are cool bosses hidden in there somewhere then I'd be interested in seeing them, but none of the first three I hit in Pthumera or whatever were much of note.
I've heard the chalice dungeons get way better eventually, I'll comment on that later. I fought some pretty cool giant fire dog boss there, he walked like a pimp for some reason.
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The Warren Zevon shoutout in that thread absolutely made my day.
Yeah, firedog was as far in as I went (it was an okay fight I guess, compared to fatties who just got hosed terribly by endgame offense). I think what I'm going to do this afternoon is beat up Spoilerclasm because the scythe you get from that fight is absolutely built for my character and the only other things I can use it on outside chalice dungeons would be frue final or NG+ (and NG+ing Bloodborne doesn't appeal). Supposedly mysterious crying woman in white dress is a boss somewhere down in Pthumeria so I want to at least try and search that out.
Not sure I got the clapping gesture, where was it? I tend to stick with Curtsey/Joy/Shh!/Respect/Church Bow (female variety duh)/Pray/Make Contact. It took me forever to notice, but it's nice that you can put some items into quickslots accessed via the right select button. It lets me toss the multiplayer triggers somewhere that's easier to find than in main inventory, but without them fucking me up by cluttering up my HUD item wheel in battle.
The magic items tend to all do around the same ballpark damage for me at 25 Arcane (300ish, nothing great in most circumstances) so the distinctions are really what else they do for you. Tentacle is cheap (1 bullet) so it's spammable and you can easily knock dudes down with it. It also keeps you locked in place a tad longer than I'd like, so if someone dodges then there is a decent chance of you getting punched in the face. SKULLFACE gloves are about the same except ++ bullets, pass, you just can't be as badass as Pope Gwyn. Lightning rod is just way too expensive for what you get out of it (6 bullets I think?) I'm really curious what the force roar claw thing can deflect since the description mentions projectiles? I'm wondering now if it could deflect the mortar shells in Forbidden Woods, but not about to go try (you find it just after the mortar anyway so this is academic). I can't comment on the thing that needs 40 Arcane because seriously, game. Best one is probably just the infinitely reusable magic weapon buff item (2 bullets, very good deal, vastly more cost-efficient than buying coarse paper from the store). I forget when tentacle becomes available but I guess it might be okay for damage purposes early on if you beeline for it?
Some things I forgot to mention in last night's fugue state:
-Wow, Patches has really seen better days. Pretty great reveal there, though. I'm curious whether I would've got more than a gesture out of him if I'd refused to forgive him (like he tries to bribe your friendship in DS1 if you say No in the Tomb of the Giants).
-When I got to the top layer of Mergo's Tower and saw the standard enemies were demoted mid-game bosses, I just broke into a run and barreled through the area without fighting. Everything followed me, and most of everything got trampled to death by murderpigs while in pursuit. Free echoes!
-By this point I've done enough co-op to feel confident betting money that a full 50% of Bloodborne players main Ludwig's sword.
-You can totally cosplay Pyramid Head in this game if you want to.
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Metroid Fusion - I decided to download this on the WiiU Virtual Console and play it. Loved it. Great game, great atmosphere, love the you vs. the world feel, love the boss design, love the decrease in clunkiness of the system compared to Super Metroid. Main knock on the game is that it's a bit more linear than SM but I didn't really mind too much since I played both of the games by the book anyway.
The Last Story - I finished Chapter 1. Syrenne is amazing. :D
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Just saw the new Fire Emblem trailer. The bits from the gaming journalists about the blank slate main character mattering / making decisions seems total nonsense as usual, which is fine by me, give me two-well developed paths over a bunch of tiny decisions that don't matter. (Unless you can do it well and are New Vegas or something, which is pretty darn rare.) Anyway, the way they're selling the big decision split rubs me the wrong way: apparently you're, by blood, a noble of the "good" kingdom, but were raised by the "bad" kingdom's nobles. And... that's not a choice at all, barring some really horrible revelation about your parents (e.g. you were kidnapped or the like!)! They're selling it as "blood vs. loyalty" which sounds like a reverse Catiua situation. Like, if I want to take the path to join the "good" kingdom, let's have it be because they're right in our bland main character's opinion, not because he's related by blood. This is what was always incredibly discordant about Catiua's plot arc in TO: Catiua has a variety of good reasons to become disenchanted with Denam, but she never articulates any of them except "but we're not REALLY blood siblings, so I must now oppose you." It comes off as a temper tantrum rather than a real split, so mending it is less meaningful.
On the TO note, since this is What Games Are You Playing... dunno how it works in Chaos, but Catiua & Vyce both come off really badly in Neutral path, while Denam & Leonar's stock go up. Denam never really has a split with Catiua, she just doesn't come along after being rescued at the start of C3 for no particular reason nor any fanfare as to why. This doesn't stop her from randomly murdering people for no reason. Meanwhile, Leonar really, really should have joined up in Neutral path to give it some sauce: Leonar & Denam are bros, with Denam rescuing Leonar again, Leonar being "I'm the only one who really understands you" and the like, him having a heroic speech, and all. Sigh. At least N-Catiua >>> N-Vyce, not that this is hard.
Neutral path, while interesting enough, does have 1 more horrible mission I think I recall Meeple complaining about other than "save Cerya": you fight endless waves of monsters at a volcano. The reinforcements spawn right in the middle of your backline and massacre your mages, oh and by the way the various dragons & golems & stuff are champion physical tanks so you really need your mages and a cleric for exorcisms. If you're thinking of moving to the bridge toward the middle to be able to create a chokepoint, be warned that it drops off into a pit, so you're risking an insta-death if you get knocked off. Yeah I just suffered the reinforcements instead.
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The trailer said that the Nohr route plot would involve an internal rebellion, so presumably the plotline involves eventually deposing the obviously evil king and putting a ruler more amenable to negotiations (i.e., yourself) on the throne of the warmongering nation. That's a more justifiable path than blindly sticking with the obvious bad guys, but it'll take some writing skill to make it work. Giving IntSys's track record, I'll be cautious about how they handle this.
Leonar really should've joined in Neutral because as it is its selection of unique PCs is really bad compared to either Law or Chaos. Oelias and Dievold are mediocre, Cerya is infinitely harder to recruit than she is in Chaos and comes later to boot, Arycelle's loyalty is a pain in the ass to work back up, and it's the only route where you don't get Gildas.
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Yeah, firedog was as far in as I went (it was an okay fight I guess, compared to fatties who just got hosed terribly by endgame offense). I think what I'm going to do this afternoon is beat up Spoilerclasm because the scythe you get from that fight is absolutely built for my character and the only other things I can use it on outside chalice dungeons would be frue final or NG+ (and NG+ing Bloodborne doesn't appeal). Supposedly mysterious crying woman in white dress is a boss somewhere down in Pthumeria so I want to at least try and search that out.
Alternately, I could almost immediately get tired of trying to hack through low-level dungeons to get the materials to open ones that would actually give me anything worthwhile (and get at least as tired of the one remaining optional boss murdering me from full HP) and just knock out the rest of the game already. Bit easier said than done, of course. Penultimate boss was excellent, last was...somewhat less so. Full-screen HP->1 attack. Doesn't matter where you are or what you're doing, enjoy having no HP (he can also turn off your healing). Bad form.
I guess there were a lot of things I would've wanted to avoid happening in the ending. My imagination evidently isn't warped enough to call the one that did. But I don't want to be an alien slug baby! Watching the others on YouTube and geez probably the "bad" ending (where you didn't meet the true ending requirements and skip out on a couple plot bosses at the end) is really the least objectionable. Another From game, another world stuck in a seemingly unbreakable and self-perpetuating cycle of despair. Except I think Yharnam is really the grimmest one they've made. I don't think you can even legitimately save anyone in this game? If they're not crazy at the end, they're dead, and if you leave them in their houses then presumably the monsters just get them. Can't just leave everyone sitting together in Firelink Shrine and avoid talking to them again so I don't make them go hollow, everybody's screwed no matter what. Wonderful.
Probably my general impressions are all well apparent by this point, but for summary's sake:
I'd say that Dark Souls 2 is a more refined game overall; Bloodborne has more warts, but it's more ambitious.
Yeah, pretty much. I'm surprised to find that I actually prefer the former even though Bloodborne is vastly better at a number of things that are usually more important to me. Bloodborne's environments are amazing, that nice DS1 sheen of gloss and obsessive detail is back with a vengeance, and level designs are sprawling, intricate and involved (if perhaps sometimes too long). Combat's smooth, the dodge is fast, fluid, cheap and spammable and facilitates lots of cheap shots with dodging transformation attacks, catering extremely well to the ways I prefer to handle Souls games already. Boss designs are mostly amazing, visually and combatwise, and sometimes almost unbearably tense to fight. New music guys did a fantastic job, and properly righteous noise is a major component of making Bloodborne's boss fights memorable (as it always should be!) Songs aren't always brimming with melodies you'll remember away from the game, but at the least the music's always perfect for amping up the tension as appropriate. Bosses in Bloodborne almost always have some combination of phases/low HP attacks/frenzy states, and battle tracks are composed to shift in tone accordingly as the fight gets more frantic. One of the more bombastic examples, in which From sez "Guys, we know this is only the second boss, but we need to make it absolutely clear that we are in no way fucking around" (minor spoilers I guess): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kA614N3IHD4&index=5&list=PLCLeSTzz6trY_Qn_8vMnqO9TbqesAM4x6. We're a long way from Taurus Demon here.
(I'd've happily linked the penultimate boss theme there instead, because it's the only piece of music in Bloodborne that shoots for Sif-like majesty instead of being outright unsettling and terrifying as its principal traits, but it's also a huge spoiler.)
I'd recommend Bloodborne for anyone who's previously enjoyed a Souls game because it is definitely an Experience. Unfortunately, I can't express any interest in replaying it for a number of reasons. It's shorter than I expected, but that's not really a problem since I'd had enough of it by the end anyway (memorable game that doesn't overstay its welcome >>>>>>>>> the likes of Skyrim, thank you very much). Not to say short exactly, since there's still more to it than Demon's Souls (I had a bit over 40 hours in by the end? But there's a certain fraction of not really necessary ore farming, co-op and dungeon diving in there), but still, it took me about half the time DS1&2 each required the first run through. But mainly I just can't think of anything else I want to do with it. You have an admirable arsenal of moves with any individual weapon (since they all have two forms), but still, the overall number of them is fairly limited, and the only other one I saw that I'd really want to mess around with any is the cool katana (which is a very late drop anyway, so nah). Additionally, the possibility of exhausting non-renewable resources works against what made the Dark Souls formula work so well, and in this case deters me from trying bosses until I figure them out because there genuinely is a distinct penalty associated with repeated death. If something still looked like a problem to me after a couple deaths, I'd usually just resort to summoning someone just to stave off the looming specter of farming up heals. This isn't how I'd prefer to deal with things, but if the alternative is potentially having to waste my time building up inventory again, then I'll take the cheese option. Finding people for co-op is also kind of a hassle sometimes, though--the lack of summon signs means you can't even get an indicator of whether or not there are even other players in your area, and when I found myself wanting to play with someone else, I usually wound up waiting much longer for summons or signs than has been usual for new Souls games in the past.
The drastic shift in focus 2/3 into the game also really soured me on what was left. I don't see how we got from point A to point B, one minute there's a plague of beasthood afflicting a city and the next everything's about space aliens for some damn reason, and though someone somewhere can probably point to a bit obscure lore that proves a connection, this is really more of a problem with tone and mood and makes me feel like I played one game that just happened to cover two wholly disparate stories. Early on the bosses tend to be hunters or clergy that tried and failed to combat a scourge, and fell in the attempt. There's a relateable, tragic human element to this that makes your adversaries more satisfying to fight, something most of the best Souls bosses had going for them too (Astraea, Artorias, Sir Alonne). Vicar Amelia's a pretty great example, not one of my favorite fights mechanically but starkly despairing in exactly the right way. You walk into the cathedral, watch her turn into a monster yet continue desperately clutching her holy emblem in one oversized claw; the arm holding the amulet constitutes the boss's actual weak point and that is a great touch. This human element is largely lost in the latter portion of the game, with rather startling abruptness. Priests accidentally turning into what they were trying to fight is something I can get behind thematically, but cultists operating on a basis of "Turn self into horrible abomination from the stars -> ??? -> profit!" is more of a struggle to wrap my head around, at least in a game that's already given me a more satisfying alternative.
But y'know, complaining about plot in a From game. It was still fun to play even when I was sitting there wondering how the heck the game got to all these strange endpoints from where it started. So it's a cool game with flaws, left a definite impression, personally find it lacks the potential mileage of either Dark Souls game, but one (mostly) enjoyable good run through it is enough to call it a thing worth playing.
Final stats (level 80):
VIT 36
END 26
STR 12
SKL 25
BLD 5
ARC 25
90ish insight
Blade of Mercy +10
Threaded Cane +9
Hunter's Pistol +6
TORCH (Hunter's variety, not that I ever used it for damage. Except for that one time when, um, sorry Arianna, I wasn't exactly aiming for you)
I was wearing the Cainhurst armor at the end because I actually wanted the defense (not that it mattered much, the final boss still combo'd me to death from full HP a couple times). More typically I preferred the noble dress + Crown of Illusions and knight clothes to round things out; doll set, black church and crow set all nice and saw plenty of rotation too.
Number the dead (Cids) time! Boss edition, generally euphemized or acronymed because new game is new. An asterisk indicates I had assistance (this happened a fair bit near the end because I was losing patience with the game).
Everyone already knows Cleric Beast is the first boss: 3
World's worst dad: 0
BSB: 0
Distaff Pinwheel: 0
Walkingdog.gif*: 2
Onsssssse a maaaaaan/why'd it have to be snakes/Notzgul/waytoomanypossiblenamesforthisfight: 0
Electric mayhem: 1
Obligatory spider boss*: 3 (I said Fuck It after the magic barrage straight up murdered me from full HP from across the map)
Pope Gwyn*: 2
LASER BEAMS not as scary as his actual level: 1
Royal alien vanguard*: 0
Stupid piece of shit I gave up trying to kill: 6
Ultra-gross!*: 0 (I'd called in allies for the hunter mob earlier in the zone; both died at the boss, but the headstart was probably still crucial to victory)
Lord Fenrirhat: 0
MWN*: 1
Spoilerclasm: 5
Talkin' about big bad moon: 5
Kind of a small number of bosses for a From game, think even Demon's had more? The average level of quality is higher than usual, though.
Probably 50-60 deaths total counting exploration. I didn't die much during the normal business of traversing a level and went through plenty of them without any casualties at all, so most of those are accounted for by a small handful of areas that were just too awful to handle in any slow and disciplined fashion: descending the well beneath the workshop; Nightmare Frontier; post-red moon Unseen Village; and, most especially, trying to get past the brains in Mergo's Loft to get that final weapon upgrade. Braiiiiiiiiins
Here, have one of the Fenrirest things I've seen in a while: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPvQ-OThPwM
Also, it took me forever to place exactly what BSB's horn-blaring musical motif reminded me of and I finally nailed it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUgaw6MyF0k&list=PLB2F7CC7864261450&index=2 (For the Grefters, but in 5/4 time.)
~
I guess I could start PoE now but you guys there's a shinier version of DS2 coming out next Tuesday (and I clearly haven't played that too much already). For reference whenever I get around to it, it sounds like Easy really = Hard? I couldn't make up my mind looking at the character options when I booted it up last week. I was thinking moon godlike something or other? And then I noticed rogues have high starting Perception and the rollover text for that stat said I could catch people lying and SOLD because more dialogue options.
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I don't think it is THAT hard. Normal is kind of okay challenge if you aren't Laggy though.
Most of the skills and stats are pretty okay for dialogue choices as well.
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Also, I now can play games made after 2008 on my computer. Any Steam-friendly recommendations?
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IIRC you get the Clapping gesture by helping Eileen against Pops G replacement. It's gleeful. Yaaaay *clap clap*
Oroboro used it in his PvP vids.
This is the state of PVP now:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5gFcoQHDIM
You get the tentacle high five in Lecture Hall. Beat Pops, Beat Vic, Open Sesame, talk to Patchy Patches, (HUGE SPOILER) get betrayed by Patches, voila. I don't really want to beat Vic right now though, so I'll have to wait.
The Patches reveal was perhaps the best moment in the game for me. That or Iosefka's clinic.
I think you have forgotten that there are two obligatory spider bosses. Is the second one Royal Alien Vanguard?
Ready for Dark Souls 2 2.0?
I've tried the FFXV demo, that battle system is super shallow and boring. They might potentially make it interesting at some point but as of right now it looks like it's going to be brain dead visual spectacle.
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Also, I now can play games made after 2008 on my computer. Any Steam-friendly recommendations?
I guess you could like
VVVVVVV
Jazzpunk and Stanley Parable
Half Minute Hero 1/2
Crypt of the Necrodancer
Edit: Cid, guess who got almost killed by the Hemwick boss
Twice
Maybe I should just quit Souls games
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I see you editted out DARK SOULS from the post, Fenny.
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I fucked up Eileen's quest because it's complete FAQ-bait. Why would I revisit an old boss room that has nothing of note left in it during this specific window of time, right? By the time I heard about the extra fight, it was too late, and when I met her again after the red moon she was crazy and tried to kill me. I was obliged to retaliate in kind (this was not easy, she's more dangerous than several of the bosses); killing her gets you her equipment but no gesture, alas.
RAV is something I think you didn't find, Fenrir. It's past the locked door at the top of the workshop (key is very carefully hidden in Unseen Village) and it is decidedly unspiderlike. I guess Nightmare Frontier boss is pretty damn spiderlike now that you point it out but somehow that didn't occur to me at the time (which is crazy considering, well, you know). The Obligatory Spider refers to Byrgenwerth or however the hell you spell that place boss.
The shameful thing in Hemwick would be actually dying, Fenrir. I did at the very least almost die against even most of the bosses I beat first try, that fight included. "Hey, I've got a reach weapon and they move really slow, so what if there's four of them coming at me at once, it's a narrow path and I can stunlock the whole mob, right?" (Not right, but VIT investment prevailed.) I've actually died to Pinwheel himself man don't feel bad (I was running for Wrath of the Gods immediately after Capra okay.) Also I YouTubed the chalice fight vs Crying Girl because the requirements for reaching her sound tremendously annoying. Holy shit does she really eject streams of blood at the player from her violated womb. She fucking does. What in the fuck From.
I have a list of probable builds prepared for Scholar of the First Sin because I don't have a problem at all.
I will definitely second VVVVVV and Stanley Parable as far as Steam games go.
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I see you editted out DARK SOULS from the post, Fenny.
Yes
You can still try it out... IF YOU DARE
(I can gift it)
I fucked up Eileen's quest because it's complete FAQ-bait. Why would I revisit an old boss room that has nothing of note left in it during this specific window of time, right? By the time I heard about the extra fight, it was too late, and when I met her again after the red moon she was crazy and tried to kill me. I was obliged to retaliate in kind (this was not easy, she's more dangerous than several of the bosses); killing her gets you her equipment but no gesture, alas.
You know, I actually finished the entire Eileen quest without even looking for it. I'd never have found out about the Unseen Village or Upper Cathdral Ward though.
It's a shame, I think Approval is the best gesture I've seen. (Wave being a nice old favourite)
The shameful thing in Hemwick would be actually dying, Fenrir. I did at the very least almost die against even most of the bosses I beat first try, that fight included. "Hey, I've got a reach weapon and they move really slow, so what if there's four of them coming at me at once, it's a narrow path and I can stunlock the whole mob, right?" (Not right, but VIT investment prevailed.) I've actually died to Pinwheel himself man don't feel bad (I was running for Wrath of the Gods immediately after Capra okay.) Also I YouTubed the chalice fight vs Crying Girl because the requirements for reaching her sound tremendously annoying. Holy shit does she really eject streams of blood at the player from her violated womb. She fucking does. What in the fuck From.[/quote]
I've died to literally every Demon's Souls / Dark Souls / Dark Souls 2 boss. EVEN THE CONGREGATION. I must have died like five times against Pinwheel. I really didn't want to remove the hemwick boss from the list of bosses I've not died to.
It actually has some sort of psychic grab attack that does quite a lot of damage and takes a long time to recover from. It's obviously really easy to avoid though. I got hit anyway by it (twice)
I have a list of probable builds prepared for Scholar of the First Sin because I don't have a problem at all.
YAY
Harry Potter updates:
Augur of Ebrietas is decent, but I can't really rely on it entirely. It owns those annoying NPC hunters at least. Useless in PvP (I'll wait a bit before trying other Harry Potter invasions)
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I've died to everything in Dark Souls 1, though it took like NG+++ for Gaping Dragon to finally cross himself off the list.
I've never died to the Congregation, Dragonrider, and I think frog mama. Pretty sure everything else in Dark Souls 2 has done it. Yes, even Covetous Demon. Fenrir please tell me you didn't seriously die to Dragonrider.
Only three Demon's bosses actually killed me, but I've only played that the once. Maneaters, Penetrator, False King, for reference.
~
PoE: I started as an elf rogue (on Normal) anyway even knowing I'll almost certainly get sidetracked from this next week. Sound planning skills. Anyway, I don't want to alarm you guys or anything, but it turns out bears are pretty scary.
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I've died to Dragonrider. At least two times. One in the SL1 playthrough. One in one of my many Failed no deaths runs in which I felt too cool to bother activating all the switches. I fought him on a desperately small platform with a low level character, played too defensively, died.
You've died against Penetrator but not against like the Armored Spider or Flamelurker? Wow dude
Harry Potter invasion success 0/3. I have the rune that lets me transform into mist to roll, it does basically nothing, costs 6 bullets, and lasts like 10 seconds. Looks amazing though. Leaves a good impression on the invaded.
Some gestures can now last until the player reacts. Some guy I invaded was just sitting in a corner, waiting for me. PvP got way better.
I got the holy blade, my build is 16 str / 12 skl / 30 vit / 26 arcane. The holy blade's transforming animation is the best.
I've also befriended the Old Yharnam guy, and the requirements for this are ridiculous.
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Look you can die to Dragonrider due to a number of factors. My death was because of trying to Belmont him.
Lemme think back on who I've never died against...
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You guys. I die to like all the dumbest shit in my plays of Souls games. The only things I can honestly say I haven't died to was stuff I cheesed the fuck out of (never even saw Alant)
This includes Pinwheel, Congregation and False Idol. I think I have died to Fume Knight more than I did to O&S and I at least beat those guys.
Snow here is a random pile of stuff from my Steam list, not all mad Snow bait, but stuff that I think is interesting and worth while that Fenrir hasn't already mentioned
FTL
Transistor
Bastion (But you have played Bastion, you have to have played Bastion)
Deus Ex - Human Revolution (Director's Cut)
The Longest Journey and Dreamfall games
Fallout New Vegas
Grim Fandango Remastered
Another copy of Puzzle Quest 2
Trine 1 and 2
X-Com
Life is Strange if you want a episodic adventure game going on at the moment.
Stanley Parable (Fenrir what are you doing?????)
Unironically I kind of want to see what you think of Saint's Row 3 and then 4.
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Incaution as always a leading cause of Souls deaths. You'd think after a while we'd learn, but then you wouldn't have been paying attention.
I was scared of pyro clowns so Stonefang was the last zone I properly explored, by which point I'd long since realized that the most potent weapon I could employ against the game was just having way too much HP (I even survived Garl's parries). I came in with a +5 or so greatsword and was more than prepared for stomping earlygame bosses with minimal trouble. So yeah, SpiderLurker victory mostly just credited to ignoring them until way later than was probably expected.
Sit, Pray, and Make Contact will all persist indefinitely until you tell the game to stop. If you wait long enough in Make Contact, your character will eventually shift arms. I like this one. Bloodborne has a lot of nice gestures, although two games later I still miss having a proper facepalm.
What do you even have to do to make nice with Old Yharnam dude? (I'm told his name is Djura, and will henceforth use that because it's shorter, notwithstanding this explanation.) The first time I went through the zone, he was immediately hostile when I climbed up his tower. After he very nearly killed me several times, I ran away. I only came back much later, by which time I'd killed Darkbeast and opened up the back door. This time, when I climbed back up to Djura prepared for a fight, he was mysteriously not hostile. I have no idea what I did to make him friendly, but it could only have been on accident. He asked me not to kill the beasts, I said No because you better believe they were trying to kill me, and then he attacked me again. Apparently I missed out on a gesture because of this?
~
Kneejerk rec for Steam was to go shit man New Vegas! Because come on, it's me. But I couldn't really see it being a Snow game at all. EDIT: SR3 grants a plethora of ways to look fabulous and I unironically recommend it on these grounds alone.
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Bastion is one of the games my old PC COULDN'T run, in fact. And I'll buy it again to fix this.
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I always thought it was strange Leonar never joined you. He's like an important plot PC (more so than most of the other dudes you can recruit) and there's a perfectly valid reason for him to join. It's like they derped and forgot to make recruiting him an option.
Snow: The only game I would really recommend is Civ 5 since its great. Everyone here who has played it likes it. The only other steam game that comes to mind that I can think of Long Live the Queen which is RICHARD and Tal approved, but not sure if worth the price tag if you can't get it cheap.
Also I play games. Kinda. Have been learning VP2 RTA for about the past month and a half. Probably the most complex and risky run I do where everything from Evolver onwards is "screw up one little thing and get rekt"
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I'm VERY WARY of playing Civ due to just one more turn reasons. I have a job, dammit
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Gref, my Stanley Parable recommandation was right there in my post, next to Jazzpunk, in the "Walking Simulator, and not Real Game for Gamers" category
(Gone Home also sounds good in that genre BTW. Probably better than Jazzpunk, but less good than Stanley, if you had to choose. The Stanley Parable is brilliant)
El Cid: Actually that's the right way, and only way to befriend Djura:
Get him mad, avoid him alltogether instead of fighting him, kill BSB to make bloodsack enemies appear in the world, get killed by a bloodsack enemy, get transported to Happy Village, destroy SoulsDarkBeastPal, enter Old Yharnam from the back door without Djura noticing you, go up his ladder and and surprise him.
One thing we haven't yet mentioned about Bloodborne (More like CasualBorne) is that it has a whole lot less bottomless pits than Souls games. Falling damage is going to kill you like 3-4 times in the whole game, tops (multiply that number by 10 if you're trying to get to the old workshop without following a video playthrough)
I don't know if the lack of bottomless pits a good thing or not, but I do kind of miss this constant fear of dying from rolling in the wrong direction or something. I also miss pushing enemies into bottomless pits.
My defeat against congregation in Dark Souls 2 was another failed 0 death run.
From the start of the game I was going straight to Tseldora, ignoring a lot of enemies, going into the Congregation boss room with like only a +4 weapon and 5 Sunny Delight charges.
My mindset was "Lol Congregation, I could handle them with a fresh character on NG+++++. With this character, I already beat the giant scorpion lady. I can handle this"
As always, as I entered the boss room, I tried to bumrush priest#1 straight away, but couldn't quite kill him in one R1R1R1R1R1 spam attack. I got hit a bunch of times in retur,n by the mage, priest#2, and maybe one of the crawling guys.
I retreated to a corner of the room to heal, came back, but in the meantime priest#1 had healed to full.
I tried to R1 spam him again, but mid-R1 spam, priest#2 managed to fully heal him AGAIN.
I realized in horror that I could actually die against the congregation. Oh my god.
Then I realized that I not only could die but that I probably was going to die against the congregation.
With lots of amusement, but also confusion/anger at the situation, I whispered VP Surt's death quote while internally going through the first three stages of grief. So I dramatically said "EVIL...? YOU MEAN TO SAY EVIL PROSPERS???" while actually feeling confused at the same time.
Cool, right? This should be on my obituary.
(However, unlike Surt, I did not really feel confused about "evil prospering" per say. So it might not count)
(Though, to be fair, just like Surt, I definitely did not accept this. So it might count)
Anyway, then I started getting real serious and playing real well against the congregation!!
Then I died.
One of my best Dark Souls moment.
Hey Fudo, where have you been. No PS4 I guess?
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I'll second the Long Live the Queen rec, seems like something you'd like. Good fun and doesn't make large demands on your time.
Nier - "Weiss, you dumbass!" 1x stupid mask get.
Order of Ecclesia - Beat Albus mode. Some of the later bosses were actually quite nasty as Albus' advantages are rendered relatively unimportant. I had more trouble with Blackmore, Eligor, or Dracula than I would playing as Shanoa on NM, certainly. Eligor's mostly a matter of not having glyph unions for the final phase, and for Dracula I actually had to learn how to deal with the first phase without just Volacticus-cheesing it, although I liked how Albus could handle the dogs in stage 2.
New Super Mario Bros. U - I've played this before, but only as a group (which is great fun). Decided to try it out one-player, which makes for a different experience. Star coins are harder to work for, but the less chaotic experience means I die less. At least so far.
Wild Arms 4 - The best. So, I'm doing a challenge run this time: no items, no turn manipulation (Intrude, Slow, Quicken, Turn Shift), initial equipment. Not too bad at first but it's going to be terrible down the line I'm sure. Stuff before Celesti Ruins was easy so I won't detail it.
Earthbound Dead - The main highlight here is that he got like 14 turns and Raquel got one. lol Slow Down. Anyway, Raquel's one turn was for Poison Bite which worked really well. His damage isn't great but he still killed Yulie, which put me on a timer, but poison's timer kicked in faster.
Jeremy 1 - Ouch. I pretty much just tried to keep Yulie/Arnaud alive long enough; he killed Raquel (before she got a turn, duh) but then he moved to a non-central hex. Jude moves to the central hex, Arnaud and Yulie move away from Jeremy and use Shut Out. Raquel and Jude die but I win.
Raquel's totally going to be the LVP now; I thought of banning Red Zone but realise that at this point she'll badly need it, so I won't. Not sure about Crisis Reflex Up.
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No PS4 so no Bloodborne. Honestly, even if I had a PS4... I probably wouldn't get it. Farming Blood Vials and bullets inbetween boss attempts is just not something I want to to.
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PoE: Started a fighter. I'm going for dual wield, but I haven't decided on a weapon yet. While I'm not trying to make a power build, I feel that I should at least consider that option carefully. So far the game is fun although I am noticing that Obsidian haven't done their math too well.
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You actually have a bunch of choices for weapons. Specialization being by a group of weapons is cool.
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I can't choose to specialize in scythes and medie-guns, then find one of each in the whole game, anymore?
0/10 game
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FF1- The Rako twins ride again. FFX PSX, Thief/Thief/White Mage/Black Mage.
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Two thieves? That sounds like endless suffering.
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I can't choose to specialize in scythes and medie-guns, then find one of each in the whole game, anymore?
0/10 game
C'mon, there are trophies specifically for soloing the game, on the hardest difficulty (also there is PRYBAR). Why aren't you already doing this and regaling us all with tales of your misery? (I mean other than because Bloodborne.)
PoE: Finding my protag is pretty squishy so I'm trying out bows a bit. Dying fairly often to just like mobs of animals. BOAR AGE strikes again. Also recruited pyro Rasputin.
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Bioshock 2: Minerva's Den - played through
It was fairly decent. Not up to the standard of the maingame, although I'm not sure why, assuming it's not just due to there being less of it in all ways. The entire run being set within a single (large) building may be partially at fault.
The way it assigns weapon keys based on the order you pick them up, rather than them being assigned the same way that they are in the maingame, was pretty annoying but not exactly that impactful. Makes me wonder if the maingame functions the same way if you avoid collecting some weapons the first time you see them.
Not really a fan of the laser, I ended up using the speargun most of the time once I got my hands on it (which seemed bizarrely early - especially since it started off upgraded).
Having Electric Flesh equipped completely trivialised the final boss to the extent that most of the fight I just stood there filling him with spears without even needing to heal, as he was seemingly using an electric attack of some kind on me and he was being helped by two Electric security robots. It's possible that the types of his security robots are randomised and I totally lucked out, I suppose.
Something which annoyed me during the maingame which I forgot to bring up, and was even more annoying here - for some reason, the game won't let you have over 100 saves. Which is fairly easy to run into if you save every few minutes. (Frequency of saving varies wildly depending on how tense I am and how much is going on, but amongst the tattered remnants of my save history I have a run where with 5 saves across 12 minutes for one example.) While the game does let you delete (or overwrite) saves, scrolling lists is broken in the game and runs annoyingly slowly - which isn't too much of a problem with in-game vending machines which don't typically have too many entries - but it is a problem with this list of 100 saves. And. After you delete a save, the interface jumps back to the top of the list!! (Happens on deleting any save, not just the one at the bottom of the list.) Somewhat fortunately, the first time I ran into this problem was sufficiently early enough in the game that I was able to cull enough saves from the current level to bring the previous level's saves on-screen, all the way back to the first level, but the issue of having to cull saves at all persisted and kept happening within shorter and shorter timeframes (as I endeavoured to keep five or so saves from each level). In any case, saves for Minerva's Den are kept in the same pool as saves from the maingame, so it suffered from the worst occurrences of the issue.
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Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze - I am currently working on the first secret area. Life is pain, Highness.
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I can't choose to specialize in scythes and medie-guns, then find one of each in the whole game, anymore?
0/10 game
C'mon, there are trophies specifically for soloing the game, on the hardest difficulty (also there is PRYBAR). Why aren't you already doing this and regaling us all with tales of your misery? (I mean other than because Bloodborne.)
Hmm wow
But I read about a level cap :(
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Two thieves? That sounds like endless suffering.
The offensive output is pathetic, yes. Temper lets me beat Ogres and the like without hacking away for several turns, but the hit is bad and there's no fix for that yet. I'm basically running from every random in the marsh cave because I have nil offense against non undead and had to save my charges for the Wizards.
I beat the Marsh Cave at L6 with only a dozen or so resets, most of which were on the back end. Both Rakos bit it to the wizards but I won the fight and beat four wizards. Lots of resets after that, mostly from randoms that jumped me and pummeled me into oblivion before I could run. I also had about a half dozen resets walking to the marsh cave. I couldn't afford to use my Bolt 2 charges on randoms, so it was thieves vs packs of enemies and well. ;_;
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Holding off on Codename STEAM for now until the double speed update comes out. I figure if I play the game, might as well wait for when one of it's more annoying flaws is mitigated.
Shantae and the Pirate's Curse: So I come to an area with lots of high ledges that clearly will require extra jumping. Clearly, this is where I get some sort of special jumping shoes or cape or...
*cannon that allows for quadruple jumping*
...can't say I was expecting THAT.
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Bloodborne: Fuck Ebrietas
Nice area though
FF Type 0 HD:
This is not a game made for the big screen and it shows.
I've tried remote play with the Vita but it's pretty bad. I guess this is the kind of thing you can be impressed it for 10 minutes, but the constant little annoyances (sound stuttering, framerate drops sometimes) just make you want to play on anything else instead.
The battle system looks like a mess, but a potentially fun mess, unlike FF15.
Right at the beginning of the game you immediately get introduced to 14 different PCs (!) They are named after cards. There is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, Jack, Queen, and King. Plus two newcomers named Rem and Machina. (If later in the game, there's a plot twist that reveals that this guy is a robot, I'll lose my mind)
I don't know where 10 is. Maybe the final boss? I hope they didn't just forget that there's supposed to be a 10 too.
Each character has like one personality trait. 5 is Super Dumb Airhead. 9 is Super Dumb Arrogant guy. Queen is Super Smart Mitsuru type. 6 is a punk girl with a scythe that's probably going to say "Whatever" a lot. Etc.
Guys I have this vision of a super great RPG in which every character is named after beef cuts. Sirloin is a mysterious 16 years old with Gackt hair and a troubled past. Flank is this nice girl who's very embarassed about not knowing how to cook.
It will be brilliant.
L'Cie
NOOOO
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Bloodborne: Fuck Ebrietas
I feel that this sentiment warrants emphasis.
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L'Cie
NOOOO
Get used to it. They were in a game, they are going to be referenced for another 2 decades. That's FF. For what it is worth they will never be the same as they were before.
FF Type 0 actually sounds pretty interesting if you go in accepting that it is a cheap upscaled port rather than a proper PS4/Vita game.
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I'm still waiting for SRZ3.2, so I finally sat down and finished 2nd OG in the meantime - I'd had a save mid-battle in the last fight for, no joke, two years. God, that fight is boring. Anyway, it's over now. I one-rounded Euzeth and now I can do an EX-Hard run sometime in the next decade.
POE: Continued poking around Defiance Bay, finished a few quests, hit level 6 and recruited the paladin PC, which makes the complete set. I seem to be done with the basic slate of stuff you can mess with, meaning it's time to either take sides in the city's power struggles or move on. Not sure how I'll approach that.
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Ebrietas just killed my motivation right there. That's like the worst Souls boss.
L'Cie
NOOOO
Get used to it. They were in a game, they are going to be referenced for another 2 decades. That's FF. For what it is worth they will never be the same as they were before.
FF Type 0 actually sounds pretty interesting if you go in accepting that it is a cheap upscaled port rather than a proper PS4/Vita game.
I think that's only for the games that are part of Fabula Nova Fantastica Most Stupendous Final Fantasy?
It is kind of like Ivalice but I'm pretty sure that no one cares and it's not FF15's setting anymore. Not sure though.
I'd be 100% fine with a game originally meant for portables on the big screen,but the problems are more about Square doing a lazy part and not correcting super simple stuff like the camera.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKh1x0c7ReQ
Instead they focused everything on making their female characters models more impossibly pretty and their male characters models more impossibly glamrock.
Oh yeah, in two hours, we already got two ridiculous acronyms like "This thing is a S.W.O.R.D. . Stabby Weapon Of Righteous Destruction"
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PoE: Budehuc's seen better days. Boss fight was funny, everyone in my party was in the red by the time I got down there so when I saw he had help I just had everyone run from the room. The boss followed, his friends didn't. Easy win!
Kana just has the best spell names, seriously.
I am getting some really obnoxious mouse input lag with this game. This happening to anyone else? New computer, wouldn't have expected it to have any technical problems.
EDIT: reading Shale's post, I probably shouldn't have just dropped money on hiring a paladin NPC. Oh well!
Ebrietas just killed my motivation right there. That's like the worst Souls boss.
Dying over and over again to the stupid, barely telegraphed overkill charge attack? The rest of her arsenal doesn't seem like much of a problem (the magic burst hurts, but at least you get plenty of warning) but every time it seems like I'm doing well in that fight, wait, no, instantly OHKO'd again. Fuck that shit. (Frue final kind of has this problem too, I only ever died to the trample charge.)
So guys I know this is a huge surprise but I actually started a new file. Maining the Skill/Bloodtinge weapons, because President Maya needs all the guns (and all the gems I guess). Right now I'm using the rifle spear, which is pretty great (the two-handed charge is amazingly effective); I'll be running to Cainhurst as soon as possible to pick up Reiterwhatsit and Evelyn and the katana. Interested to see whether gun offense can ever be a practical thing in its own right (outside of you know CANNON). I guess I should give the repeater a try. Unsurprisingly, game moves pretty fast when you know where everything is (and there's a lot less of Everything than there was in either Dark Souls game). Practically speaking, the only different things left to play with after this are Strength weapons (which I guess is fine since there's three endings to get). I might go axe -> hammer -> wheel/cannon (I think this is maximal ridiculousness for Bloodborne) at some point, but there's a decent chance the game's getting shelved on Tuesday, we'll see. The endgame areas just aren't as fun.
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Yeah, "lol you're dead" doesn't work well on the most durable boss in the game. First time the resource wasting aspect of Bloodborne bosses really annoys me.
I'm also kind of disappointed in that arcane character anyway. I'd like to try another build, maybe a skill one?
FF Type 0 HD: When I got access to the world map and could try out every character in battle, suddendly the game became really great despite everything?
These characters all have very different playstyles and there's at least one cool thing about each.
There were five characters I hated right at the start, but then I tried everyone in battle and now LOVE THEM ALL and find them endearing even outside of battle? It's weird. Somehow the characters I liked the least have all the coolest things.
Like Machina? He's this super bland main character with a dumb Dracula cape. Well in battle he uses dual rapier-drillers. He stabs people with his twin rapiers, then presses the power button on them or something, and the rapiers start drilling? This is actually how he fights.
5 is the super ditzy airhead I mentioned earlier, BUT IN BATTLE she uses a big slow giant mace like she's in Dark Souls even though she's 100 lbs. It's hard to use but pretty fun.
I really really never thought I'd like 7, AKA Lightning Clone Except With White Hair, but she can grab enemies with her whip from afar then shoot a bunch of lightning-sparkly things at them through the whip.
My favourite character has to be 2, in battle she plays the flute and it is really adorable. I also have a soft spot for King, with his ridiculous hair and dual magnums. Also also 3 and 4 and 8 and and ....
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You could just build up Skill on your existing character? It seems to synch up well with a lot of other things (whereas I don't see similar overlap between, say, strength and arcane/bloodtinge, or blood/arcane).
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It seems that Arcane only scales with elemental damage (like if you've put a fire gem on your weapon), so all those levels would go to waste?
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Wild Arms 4 IENINTM or something something.
Miscreation: Revive people who die to Stone Bullet counters, poison him, Shut Out, try not to explode horribly. It works out somehow.
Jeremy 2: His "always get two turns" thing just means he dies twice as fast to poison! That plus the usual array of healing and watching me lose pace, but keeping at least Arnaud alive long enough to win, pays off.
Incubator: Tough since the minions really hit hard. Trying to control them means I can't really pull off the lock with poison/shut out. Battle comes down to Arnaud surrrounded on all sides by corpses and fortunately I'm able to do the last remaining damage from there.
Scythe: Okay, Blast spam is actually legit. Raquel dies before I can get off poison, and he outpaces my healing/revival attempts, so I just need some luck with hitting him towards the end.
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It seems that Arcane only scales with elemental damage (like if you've put a fire gem on your weapon), so all those levels would go to waste?
Nah, it works for weapons that innately have elemental damage too. (The scaling isn't great, but it's there.)
So Reiterpallasch is disappointing. Chibi version of my spear. I'll pass. Trying to get past Logarius so I can get the katana, don't want to dump any rocks on boosting something past +6 because I might want them for that instead? But it is not going well. Wholly incapable of dealing with this guy solo, controller hurled across the room in rage and everything. It's stupidly easy during the first phase and then after he powers up it's basically impossible to get a safe hit in at all. What a fucker.
Also I stand by Rom's long-distance magic bombardment being complete bullshit. There's no indication of where it's going to land, tried running straight forward in hopes of outpacing it, tried moving back, left, right, whatever, the AoE is always right on top of me. Best you can do is mash dodge and hope for the best. Yeah, this is about where the game wore out its welcome last time.
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Long Live The Queen - That's a lot of ways you can die.
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Dark Souls: Low level (<60) Composite Bow + Avelynn co-op run. I run Composite on a quality build, Laggy does Avelynn. Cleared out the DLC except Kalameet, and Nito.
Composite bow is surprisingly effective. Like, it is a legitimate weapon choice with large arrows. I imagined that its effectiveness would fall off as we got past Anor Londo but no, it remains 2legit, dealing around ~300 damage at +15 on 27STR/30DEX. Granted, for bosses it is terrible (though less terrible than the Caestus) but that's what Laggy and his Avelynn is there for, and even then none of the bosses have been particularly difficult.
Most surprisingly, running through the game with a bow changes my opinion of the dungeons a lot. Like, Upper Blighttown was incredibly fun with a bow. Having range changed the dynamic of the level enough that it felt like playing an entirely new game. Some areas, unsurprisingly, still suck shit though. Namely, the first half of New Londo Ruins. In fact, after this run I'm inclined to think that New Londo Ruins is a less fun dungeon than Blighttown. Both are still awful though.
In other news jesusfuckingchrist Dark Souls 2 Remastered needs to come out already because we're playing a fucking bow run come on From gimmie my fix
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Pillars of Eternity: Mucked around in Act 1, doing some of the easier sidequests. I like the dialogue options in this game, but am having trouble grokking the whole real time with pause battle system. It's way too earlier to tell if I like or dislike it on the whole, but it's definately less intuitive than either Diablo-style hack and slash and turn-based battle systems (both console and PC) right now for me.
GOG has the 1.03 patch up right now but not the hotfix which apparantly fixes some lockpick issue. Anyways Club Nintendo finally worked so I'm parking this for a few weeks, hopefully more patches will have arrived when I pick it back up.
Kid Icarus Uprising: Grabbed this with my ~700 odd coins, since I don't have a Wii U and already bought the two Mario platformers and DKCR3D earlier. Star Fox doesn't interest me and I've heard mostly not good things about Sticker Star, so this felt like the best bet for a game (none of the physical goods blew me away, either).
Thus far, I like the flying controls a lot better than the land controls. Mainly playing the game for the dialogue anyways, which has been pretty great thus far (just finished C4). I'll probably keep the intensity on 2.0 the whole way through, since shooters aren't a genre I like all that much.
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RTWP combat has always been and will always be garbage, not to mention that if you start to think too much about POE's system you have to deal with disengagement and that way lies madness. Just set it to easy and enjoy the writing.
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Dark Souls: Low level (<60) Composite Bow + Avelynn co-op run. I run Composite on a quality build, Laggy does Avelynn. Cleared out the DLC except Kalameet, and Nito.
Composite bow is surprisingly effective. Like, it is a legitimate weapon choice with large arrows. I imagined that its effectiveness would fall off as we got past Anor Londo but no, it remains 2legit, dealing around ~300 damage at +15 on 27STR/30DEX. Granted, for bosses it is terrible (though less terrible than the Caestus) but that's what Laggy and his Avelynn is there for, and even then none of the bosses have been particularly difficult.
Most surprisingly, running through the game with a bow changes my opinion of the dungeons a lot. Like, Upper Blighttown was incredibly fun with a bow. Having range changed the dynamic of the level enough that it felt like playing an entirely new game. Some areas, unsurprisingly, still suck shit though. Namely, the first half of New Londo Ruins. In fact, after this run I'm inclined to think that New Londo Ruins is a less fun dungeon than Blighttown. Both are still awful though.
In other news jesusfuckingchrist Dark Souls 2 Remastered needs to come out already because we're playing a fucking bow run come on From gimmie my fix
Good luck if you actually plan on fighting Nito (I'm guessing you omitted him and Kalameet on purpose). He's by far the worst fight for bows-only simply because neither he nor his minions take any goddamn piercing damage. I caved and called in help for that fight simply because it was a logistical impossibility solo (my guest killed Nito before I was even able to shoot down the mob). Otherwise yeah, composite bow is shockingly effective. Four Kings were reasonably scary because, while I dealt decent damage per hit, I couldn't put the hits out fast enough to prevent the whole mob from spawning, but generally it worked out way better than I'd expected. All this reminds me that sniping does not exist in Bloodborne and lord do I miss that option sometimes.
Anyway, more Bloodborne, jerkface was overcome through the power of jolly cooperation. (I'm pretty sure Mister Potter did a good 75% of the work here, thanks Fenrir.) Multiplayer is really pretty borked in Bloodborne, though, which is sad. The one good point is that it's even easier to find specific other players than it was in Dark Souls 2 (and you don't have to pay for a ring this time). Otherwise, there's a lot negative in the way Bloodborne healing affects online play. Given the expense of healing items, the fact that summons get only half rewards from victory and have reduced HP in someone else's world, it's entirely possible that even on a win a summoned player will barely see any real profit. And if you or your host die (former only being more likely due to reduced HP) you've actually only lost resources. The upshot of this is that because nobody wants to spend non-renewable resources on a fight that has dubious odds of actually paying out (and might have a slim profit margin even if it did), it can actually be pretty hard finding anyone just casually running co-op for the fights where you'd actually most want help (and of course since there are no summon signs in Bloodborne you have no idea whether anyone's even around, all you can do is just sit and wait interminably; and if you don't get anyone and give up, well, that expendable item you burned on summoning still isn't coming back, which is less a logistical problem since insight is incredibly common and more just vaguely insulting). Like, personally, if I want a quick bundle of souls, I'll just go help someone beat up E.T. because he's stupidly easy and I can farm ore while waiting for summons; almost nothing else endgame is really worth the time from a cost/benefit perspective, and I wish I didn't have to look at things that way but Bloodborne resource management kind of mandates it. All of this really makes me miss the supreme user-friendliness of Dark Souls 2.
But enough about things that suck, I have a katana now. In its base form, it's just a regular katana, fast, reasonably damaging, but a painful reminder that I didn't invest enough in Endurance on this run. Ouch, but at least I can fix that part. Transformed, it's the Chaos Blade, except with blood instead of fire, seems faster too. And with the R2 I guess you stab yourself with it and make it, I dunno, double bloody or something so it does ridiculous damage at the cost of even more HP burn. Probably you can already guess I don't use that move much since I'm generally averse to high-risk/high-reward strategies, but it's functional enough a weapon even without that. Anyway, it's pretty neat, and stronger than what I was using, but it's no Blade of Mercy. God do I miss being able to stunlock everything in the upper cathedral ward to death before it could move (and the magic damage might not look like much on paper, but it's a huge help against physically resilient enemies).
Also, I sent everyone possible to the chapel this time (except for the mass murderer of course), and this makes deceptively suspicious chapel caretaker man really happy. It's almost cute, in sort of a creepy way. I wonder if he'll stay that chipper after everyone's dead or crazy.
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For Nito with bow only, I suggest wearing the Ring of Fog and Slumbering Dragoncrest Ring, then staying near the entrance. That worked for me. Carry a shield offhand to reduce damage from the Miasma.
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I did beat Nito in my bow only challenge but I forgot how. I assume I just beat the first skeletons super fast then stayed in the beginning area to not trigger all the other skeletons enemies, then strafe Nito for all eternity.
I downloaded Dark Souls 2 Super Awesome Edition, looked at the glorious 60 FPS, then realized I knew the game too damn much already.
Bloodborne: I went through some chalice dungeons. All the way to the end boss of the regular Pthumerian chalice dungeons, in fact. Unfortunately that end boss (Bloodletting beast) is absolutely ridiculous. He has that Mr Tickle arm extension punch that flies across the room and does all the damage. Right now I am definitely not a bad enough dude.
Chalice dungeons continue to be chalice dungeons. Their design is really boring and confusing, but I like some of the nasty surprises (new enemies / new traps) in wait there. I found some decent unique bosses, like a werewolf and a pyromancer.
The rewards are weak. I mostly get stuff to make EVEN MORE chalice dungeons. Soul drops are about 1/4th of what they are in the normal game, so most of my funds go towards blood vials.
Lots of bad decisions:
1) If you have to go through non RNG'd chalice dungeons to unlock the RNG'd ones, why aren't the non RNG ones not at least slightly better designed?
2) Why have ph4t l00t only appear in RNG dungeons, making the first run through chalice dungeons feel completely unrewarding?
3) Why is chalice dungeon co-op almost impossible between strangers?
4) Why are rooms so big?
Having fought Logarius a bunch more times now (BTW El Cid is being humble), and having found a way to destroy his flying swords, I now really really like this boss even more. I now actually find his first phase more dangerous than the second, but the strategy needed for the second is very different (First phase, you need to be on the attack, second phase, you need to be on the defensive and punish his strikes)
I stuck with Harry the Arcane Guy; Ludwig's sword is good enough now that I found some nice +fire gems and jacked arcane up to 38. Unfortunately this makes any decision with the ph4t l00t dead easy: Get the +fire damage gems, throw away everything else.
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The bit where he spawned the sword inside scenery was very rude, though.
EDIT: what are the restrictions on #3, anyway? I had hoped that if nothing else co-op would make hacking through the more tedious chalice levels less of a boring thing, but I don't immediately see any way to set that up.
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I downloaded Dark Souls 2 Super Awesome Edition, looked at the glorious 60 FPS, then realized I knew the game too damn much already.
fenrir plz do a casual Champions bare fist only run just so I can read more Fenrir.
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Cid - Rephrase, we beat Nito but none of the other Lord Soul bosses. Yeah, Nito was the only boss so far that I am not sure I could beat Solo with Comp Bow.
Anyway, run is deas because DS2 remastered is out. Oh well none of the other bosses were going to be a challenge anyway.
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Streetpass Mii Plaza Roundup!
Mii Force: Finally beat Arcade Mode. I usually choke on the last world (example, got to 5-1 with 8 lives, lost 5 on last boss alone). But I was in the zone for once and didn't even die to the last boss. First of these games where I've gotten all the plaza tickets.
Flower Town: Only plaza ticket left is the one for growing a short Gloria, which is proving difficult. All the ones from the seed shop are average size, and I can't get any other short plants to breed into Glorias. Other than that I'm at 74/80 breeds grown.
Warrior's Way: Missing the tickets for greeting 50 people, killing 100, and the ridonkulous one for killing 300. Meh.
Mystery Manor: Missing the tickets for getting all weapons (grindy but doable) and getting all puzzle boxes. Which is fairly ridonkulous due to there being 50, they don't show up often, and you can get duplicates.
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Pillars of Eternity: Got my own fortress. So far it's not doing anything, but I've build 2-3 buildings so far. I've picked peasant type of weapons to focus on. They give you Spears which has increased accuracy and look dumb when you dual wield them. I also get hatchets as a more defensive option, but I suspect that won't be very useful. Deflection seems like an all or nothing option, the more you have, the more additional points help. Since my character is more DPS focused, she doesn't gain much from extra deflection.
So far the game is fun, but not really that great. I'll see how things turns out when I get more options.
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The bit where he spawned the sword inside scenery was very rude, though.
EDIT: what are the restrictions on #3, anyway? I had hoped that if nothing else co-op would make hacking through the more tedious chalice levels less of a boring thing, but I don't immediately see any way to set that up.
It works like every other area in the game, you need to use a -1 insight bell and be in the same area.
If you need help for a boss and want a stranger to help you, you need to share your dungeon, get inside, waste 1 insight, and hope that there's a stranger who's selected the random dungeon list, seen YOUR dungeon, gotten inside and used the jolly co-op bell.
Note that the random stranger needs to have unlocked the dungeon level 4 by going through his own dungeon level 1/2/3 to be able to access your level 4 dungeon.
So yeah chances are pretty abysmal.
I downloaded Dark Souls 2 Super Awesome Edition, looked at the glorious 60 FPS, then realized I knew the game too damn much already.
fenrir plz do a casual Champions bare fist only run just so I can read more Fenrir.
Bring me 50 awesomestones and I'll do it
Champions run on NG actually sounds good, and I've never tried it! With the new item/enemy placement I hope I can find some exotic weapon earlygame to base my playthrough around that. That or pyromancy.
Bloodborne: Got some arcane gem on my Ludwig's, got the arcane stat to 50. Harry Potter hitting like a truck.
I also found the blood rock to get Ludwig's to +10..... Jesus Christ man. You can now terrify El cid and me just by mentioning "LALALAAALA"
BRB going to eat a few umbilical cords. Yummy.
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Long Live The Queen - I managed to complete a full magical girl queen playthrough and a military dynamo no-magic run in the same night. Now, I wonder whether I can pull off having a print, a hospital and death magical girl abilities in a successful run as well. Also should start planning for lesbianism playthroughs and evil monster Elodie runs as well. This game is ridiculously addictive for what is essentially an underage magical girl murder simulator.
(Have I mentioned there are achievements for running into the ridonkulous ways you can horribly die? And they're all drawn in chibi-cutesy-animu-style? Yeah.)
I also want to make a goon Elodie run, but holy shit social stats rule the universe in this game.
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The Last Story - I raided a bandit's fortress in a way that very much felt like a D&D party's adventure. You run into enemies in discreet pockets and you slowly make your way through the dungeon. And after that, I just saw the awkward/romantic scene at the Stargazer's Tower between Zael and Calista. I'm really enjoying the character work in this game -- contrasting this game to FE9, which I just watched, mercenaries act like (gasp) what you'd expect lower-class people who are trying to get by in the world to act like. Calista is definitely feisty compared to her trope and I quite like her. The gameplay sure is a thing of no difficulty so far though. :p
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Pillars of Eternity: Went to the big city in Defiance Bay. I decided to explore and do some sidequests before progressing the story. I soon hit a catacomb and went in to loot it and fight some skeletons since catacombs have a 100% chance of the dead taking a stroll. Suddenly my main quest journal entry updated. Turns out that was the next main story location. Also experienced what happens if you accidentally pull three different monster groups. I should let enemies come to me, even if they are below my level.
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Nevermind Cid, you can do a dungeon quick search once you've found a short root chalice thing.
It takes a while though. You need to go through 5 chalice dungeons, and that's assuming you have the ingredients for each one of them.
So far I have found 0 co-op partners and 0 people I could invade so far. But hey!
I've been using the Rosmarinus +9, it's like the Flamethrower, except it sprays holy water instead of fire and has S scaling in arcane. It is rather useless against bosses, but it can become spray2win against multiple weak enemies, I like it.
Suddendly enemies started dropping tons of souls (About as much as the final dungeon enemies), and this was needed because these bosses eat all my blood vials. I'm not too much of a fan of the chalice dungeon bosses lately, they have too much HP and a grab attack is typically instant death even at full HP. Which is a bit of a problem with bosses with ADHD like BSB++. (Thankfully I found a way to completely cheese BSB)
I got in a few situations where I just had to run away like mad and couldn't find an exit, and kept seeing new enemies and just kept running and running in circles. LALALA enemies were not involved. So this is all good for me.
What's bad is the blood chunk drop rate. In fact you can forget about them entirely. This means you can upgrade two weapons in NG and that's it unless you want to spend your life in chalice dungeons.
Right now I'm in a defiled dungeon. Defiled means my HP is cut in half. Hilarity ensues. Time spent farming for vials is still 0 though, Fudo take notes.
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I have been playing Bloodborne for days, still can't beat the first boss. Run out of blood vials every time. The game has been great aside from this. I get tired of playing every time because I don't want to farm the vials back up. It makes one wonder why From decided the Estus Flask wasn't good enough.
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FYI for the DS2 vets, apparently Scholar of the First Sin changed up enemy locations and placement quite a bit.
For example, there are approximately 15 hollows up the first ladder in Forest of Fallen Giants (you REALLY don't want to just run past that). Also there's totally an ogre in the river that grabbed and ate me for a oneshot on my first entry. Cardinal Tower was actually just quite an ordeal in general, though the bosses were easy. Dull Ember's right at the start of Lost Bastille. Cathedral of Blue's now guarded by one of those asshole red dragons and you can't just run past it.
Some rebalancing stuff was also supposed to have happened, I heard lightning nerf, armor set rejiggering, definitely some souls costs on merchants have changed, the degree of impact of any or all of this I have no clue because I'm playing for the first time
I actually only know any of this because I've been plugging stuff into the wiki whenever I run across an item/enemy/whatever and noticing the discrepancy.
ofc they didn't fix the really obvious glaring bugs like durability being tied to dps (why) or soul memory being a shit mechanic
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ofc they didn't fix the really obvious glaring bugs like durability being tied to dps (why) or soul memory being a shit mechanic
FPS, right?
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too many mmos
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I downloaded Dark Souls 2 Super Awesome Edition, looked at the glorious 60 FPS, then realized I knew the game too damn much already.
Man I'm almost set on cosplaying Maiden Astraea and maining all those support miracles, don't try and tell me it wouldn't be awesome clubbing everything to death as Garl Vinland.
Laggy that is 5x the hollows past that ladder compared to vanilla DS2. Bloodborne really likes huge mobs of dudes that it's tough to aggro individually, maybe Scholar decided to take a page from that.
Max power bare fists was kind of underwhelming when I finally got it (and getting it was incredibly tedious). The power's good, but your hits are a bit slower and wonkier than the caestus so I don't think it's entirely a fair trade.
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So is the Caestus actually a viable weapon in DS2? Or is the scaling ruse a distaction?
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The caestus is great if you dual-wield it. You get a cool boxer one-two combo that makes up for the lowish base damage with extra hits (the damage isn't bad on a single hit, but the enhanced striking capacity helps the weapon a ton). Scaling is pretty good if you go straight-up quality and pump both STR/DEX to the gills (I think it's A/A at +10?), and DS2 actually has multiple damage bonus rings which stack and greatly benefit fast weapons. It's also a strike weapon so hits weakness on a ton of annoying shit. Objectively there are probably better weapons, but personally I find it the most fun way to play the game. I went in expecting punching to be a challenge run when I first used it and had a surprisingly smooth time with almost everything.
You might eventually want to upgrade to kung fu grip though.
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Caestus is legit (unless they nerfed it lol). Basic Club is also legit. Mace is OP.
Crushing damage is king in DS2.
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The only time I managed to beat DS2 with no deaths was with a dual caestus build. They are awesome. You do need to put everything into str and skl tough. (and hp) I liked to just leave them normal and not have a quality build, I don't think it changed that much and it allowed me to put everything into strength.
Try to downgrade your Caestus to Bone Fist as soon as you find it (wherever it is in Scholar) if you want to do divekicks in Dark Souls.
Edit: Oh wow I'm late, they all said it already
Also, Giant Club is legit, Mace is what you use in SL1 but I'm not sure it's that OP
Also, the bone fist really is a downgrade compared to caestus, but 100% worth it.
Cid: Ok yes
jsh: I think this is a pretty good change for people who already are good at Souls game (I do think this works better than estus, for this game, because it makes every encounter have a bit more meaning), but it sucks for everybody else.
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Also:
FF Type 0 HD:
6 is Lady Edgy mc Edge, she is insufferable.
But 9 adding YO at the end of every sentence has gone from annoying to awesome.
I went into a random battle and kept fighting new enemies (with higher and higher levels), replacing all the dead PCs until only King was alive. I still won and it felt really great.
Then 2 lvl 99 Behemoth Kings ambushed me on the world map. I yakety-sax-ran around the battlefield for like 3 minutes before finally confronting my inevitable death. I think the behemoths only run away after killing someone so I was fucked. Dick move, game.
Escape Goat 2: Ok so you're a goat, rescuing sheep, in a tower. The sheep sometimes are thankful, and sometimes leave cryptic messages. In the rooms where you rescue the sheep, there often are a lot of switches that, when all pressed, make all the blocks in the room nice and symetric without serving any other purpose whatsoever (and when you leave / come back, they're messy again)
If you try to escape the tower early on, you get the classic Castlevania end scene, with the goat on a cliff while the castle crumbles (presumably with the sheep you haven't rescued getting crushed to death inside)
If you try to 100% save every sheep and explore every room, you eventually get into another one of these rooms I mentioned earlier. IF you press all the switches, the room gets all tidy, except for one block right in the middle ruining everything. There's also a written message in the room saying something among the lines of "Sometimes things don't fit perfectly, but that's ok, that's what makes life interesting"
Then you leave the room and get the same ending with the castle crumbling with no fanfare. The end.
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FF1- Rakos are victorious. hardest dungeons:
1. Marsh Cave (I was L6 for this so I was running from everything)
(Volcano)
2. Ice Cave (Duh)
3. Canoe to the Ice Cave
4. Walk to the Marsh Cave
5. Walk to Pravokia
The Volcano would've been hell if I had done it unpromoted. Not only are the thieves completely useless there, Kary can OHKO every single party member I had there. To make it worse, none of my physicals would've broken defense without some serious temper/hasting (Maximum four hits after haste=;_;). Getting through that dungeon would've been awful, beating Kary would've taken some luck with status and Inviz stacking.
Anyway. Thieves suck. They suck a whole lot. Anyone who has used one before in the NES/PSX version knows how bad they are. The really insulting part is that they are at their absolute worst during the hardest part of the game. They get competent post promotion, but still are far worse damage dealers and tanks than Knights. To make it worse, the gap between them and Red Wizard for physicals is pretty tiny by the end. Temper is wonderful and the armor's nice, but they get access to heavy armor at the time when the gap closes (Due to Ruby Armlets/Protect rings) which is just insulting.
The big dungeons (Sea shrine/Tiamat's arc/Temple of Fiends) all dragged much more than usual due to using two ninjas instead of a monk/knight. The one good thing that came from this was steamrolling Chaos- three temper users there meant I was hitting 1500 damage a turn by the end of the fight.
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Bloodborne: Likely getting backburnered tomorrow, but for now Maya's up to Nightmare of Mensis. Three things to note:
-I made friends with Djura this time! This is as it should be because he shares the amazing voice of Marvelous Chester.
-I took a closer look at the mummy in the chair that warps you to the lecture hall? And, uh, Mico, I don't think you're actually going to wake up after all.
-This time I told Patches I wouldn't forgive him. He did what you'd expect and insisted we were friends anyway, "Plain as a pikestaff." He gave me the same rewards as before so I figured that was that. Then I ran off to clear the first floor of the lecture hall, because I hadn't been there before on this file? And on my way back to Patches' room to take the ladder back up, after I've already killed all the local enemies, I get 6k echoes out of nowhere. What was that, what offscreen enemy killed itself by falling through scenery or whatever? I get back to Patches' room and he's gone. Patches, noooo, why did you have to take rejection so hard?
Incidentally, my brother tells me Patches will kick you into the Nightmare Frontier poison swamp (it's like quicksand in there, mmm) if you find him there? I didn't even know he was in the zone, never saw him. But then, I just bolted through most of that shithole. If I ever have the patience for a third run I'm going to try not talking to Patches at all in the Forbidden Woods and see if this alters his reaction any in the lecture hall.
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Seconding/thirding/whatever the Caestus, especially dual Caestuses(?). I had to move away from that in the DLC though.
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Crusader Kings 2: Game of Thrones mod. Played as Robb Stark during the War of the Five Kings because that's usually fun. The Ironborn Invasion was definitely the most interesting part of the early game. Theon fucks off and Balon invades as he is want to do. Meanwhile Stannis kills Renly as he almost always does, and I immediately go after Margaery because marrying Margaery doesn't guarantee the Reach will join your side (because Mace Tyrell is a lazy, cowardly fuck) but it does guarantee he won't join the Lannisters. He says no. So my usual "win the war with relative ease" card doesn't work. I ask Dorne if I can marry Arianne and they also tell me to fuck myself. So I have no real allies and Ironborn swarming all over the North.
Considering that many of my options are exhausted I have to have the Blackfish's army in the Riverlands basically Benny Hill while I mass all my levies in the North together under the King's banner and swing it around into the Ironborn. Balon and Asha Greyjoy are leading this army and Robb chops off Balon's head before taking Asha prisoner. Apparently under the laws of the Iron Islands this means I am now their king (having paid the Iron Price for it) and the Iron Islands pledge their loyalty to the King of Winter. SHIT IS GONNA GET GOT.
I never knew that could happen but it's pretty goddamn rad. Roose Bolton (who is my best friend because I keep winning) told me about a dragon in the farthest eastern reaches of Essos so I should probably go and try and tame it for when Dany inevitably shows up, so I can murder her more easily.
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Yaaaaaaaaaaaaay I got SRWZ3.2
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Nier - Five puzzle pieces get. The game sure is in downer mode now.
New Super Mario Bros. U - Finished the first four worlds in my one-player run of this game. It's fun, although I can't help but compare it negatively to 3D World now.
Wild Arms 4 challenge run
Belial (4 resets + 3 resets): Kinda knew this one had the potential to be nasty. Anyway, no Slow Down or Intrude means very few options to get in hits past the distortion, just doubleturns and hoping she doesn't reset the barrier. Unfortunately she presses offensively a bit too hard to be entirely focused on offence. And unlike all the previous fights this one has to be long, so Yulie dying at any point before near the end is a loss, and of course Yulie gets easily 2HKOed (can be OHKOed at the highest variance but this never happens) by Tank Drop. If Yulie gets a spare turn she can Protect herself but mostly she spams Material to keep everyone alive (using it on a leypoint for offence is also an option, but not a terribly realistic one for the most part). Raquel's job is to apply poison, but that her speed and not starting adjacent makes that a bit difficult. Belial can't be shut out so I also try to move to corner her, but 4D Pocket can certainly make a mess of that. Tough one, victory takes a bunch of things coming together. Well, the second victory. The first I eventually got very lucky with her moving twice in a row with the barrier down. Fun fun!
Grabboid: Okay another boss who takes a long time. Fortunately he pretty much just has basic physicals and Illusion and neither is that big a deal. Stone Bullet counters really hurt but they're rare, poison is still great. I botch this fight slightly and let him claim the centre hex and thus threaten Yulie at one point, but by then I'm close enough to winning that it doesn't matter too much.
Platapana passage deserves note because the randoms here are a step up, Cremation really hurts and Efreets are annoying to kill with their Arnaud resistance. I get MP Charge for Arnaud here, it's huge with how long this dungeon is especially since I forget to go out and heal after Grabboid.
Kresnik: So I go into this fight with Max HP Down (so Jude is like 2200 HP) and only three shots of Phantom Line left. I suddenly realise this is a bad idea, since after all I can't heal. But... I win anyway. I make use of the doubleturns to defend at opportune times (as well as moving away once), and Emergency MP at the end of the fight gives me the extra MP I need to get off five Phantom Lines and win. Kresnik is bad.
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Nier - Five puzzle pieces get. The game sure is in downer mode now.
You haven't seen anything yet.
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B-b-b-b-baby (http://lparchive.org/Drakengard/Update%2053/41-teeth52.jpg) you just ain't seen nothing yet.
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Oh man, you know way too much Grefter
Bloodborne:
I saw this fellow in the chalice dungeon:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQxGKC1VpXY
10/10
I'm pretty sure this enemy is a meta joke about Souls games / Souls players in general.
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It is one of the reasons I don't sleep well at night.
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CK2 GoT: Robb Stark fought and tamed a fucking dragon. It's name is Dreadwing, and one time Tyrion Lannister got real drunk and tried to ride it. RIP Tyrion, you were a bro.
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Bloodborne:
I saw this fellow in the chalice dungeon:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQxGKC1VpXY
All these crazy chalice enemies make me wish they weren't such an ordeal of tedium to find. Sigh.
Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin is a thing. Started it up after work, figured I'd hit a couple hours and then go back to picking away at Bloodborne, then suddenly it's bedtime. You know how it is, right? Anyway, a lot is different. Bosses don't seem to be, I don't think enemy attacks are, but enemy positioning is drastically overhauled in some occasionally perverse ways. Some areas I've been through don't seem hugely changed, while some have completely different enemy layouts and a whole lot of exceptionally mean tricks. In a couple places I've even seen new enemies (well more like existing ones slightly altered and given different movesets, but still). At Fenrir's request I'm going to be vague enough to avoid gameplay spoilers, so I'll just note that one normally very easy early area is now wholly terrifying and I don't see how I would've got through it without MACE. I don't know what I did to trigger the change in enemy behavior there, maybe I chose poorly in boss selection? Whatever I did, something has gone horribly wrong with the enemy aggro radius, Heide knights do not forgive, they are non-giving up school guys. I've died three times so far, twice to my hated foe, gravity, and once to dragon. He is very rude, I really don't see how you're supposed to deal with that outside of sniping him.
Loot is also really differently placed. Like, I ran straight for Tseldora as soon as possible because I wanted to buy the White Priest set because the archdrake robe isn't Fashion Souls enough for Astraea (sorry Grefter, that outfit doesn't do it for me, it just looks too bulky). WP doesn't look as nice as the priestess set, but since that latter one drops from one enemy in basically the last zone of the game I figure this is just what I'll have to wear most of the while. Duck into the passage before Congregation to grab the item there and WHOA SHIT full priestess set just hanging out, just lying there, on the floor there (I was expecting an estus flask shard but this'll do, thank you very much). I already found the clothes that will last me the rest of my life and this time it didn't involve burning ascetics to farm one lone enemy. I've also already found the dull ember and a whip and I'm sure I saw someone using the Black Knight Halberd already. I have a +7 lightning mace already and that really isn't very fair at all. So in addition to the game generally being meaner, a lot of cool stuff that was honestly too bitchy to get before is now available with much less hassle. (By the way From I have to wonder why the ember even exists anymore if you're going to place it so near to the place it's needed--what, is Macduff too lazy to beat up two mummies and walk upstairs?)
I don't know how I'm going to unpetrify all these statues, though.
So anyway I actually have to be careful again and that's cool, it's not Casual Souls anymore. I immediately miss the fluid movement of Bloodborne and took a while to get used to not being able to instantly dodge->poke->dodge->poke everything like lightning, though. I had to untrain Regain instinct, too. As far as graphical upgrade goes, I don't really notice a huge difference, but then DS2 environments are always going to look so much more (for lack of a better word) videogamey compared to the gross detail of Bloodborne environments. I'm noticing though that when Scholar wants to be dark, it is really goddamn dark. I've been wanting torches in places where they really weren't necessary before. I guess this is fine because original DS2 you really didn't need them anywhere but the Gutter (and maybe Shrine of Amana to highlight the ledges).
For Laggy: that invader that kept getting you yesterday was actually an NPC, which is why he could reinvade at will. That is definitely a mean spell selection for so early in the game, pretty sure From was deliberately evoking the spirit of the Burg there.
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Nier - B ending get. I'm motivated enough to keep playing and experience more, I think. Do I just load my clear file and keep going, or is there more I need to be aware of to get as much as possible out of the game?
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Nier - B ending get. I'm motivated enough to keep playing and experience more, I think. Do I just load my clear file and keep going, or is there more I need to be aware of to get as much as possible out of the game?
You can skip ending C and not miss much. Just be aware that if you take ending D, it's not kidding about the warning. If you did all the big sidequests (lighthouse, lost son, fishing) you probably got most of the delicious Weiss dialogue.
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Oh wait, maybe what I got was ending A? May have misread the ending screen. Anyway, just beat the game for the first time. (EDIT: Yeah, the ending I got was definitely A.)
I didn't do any of the sidequests you referenced (and I loathed what fishing I did do, so that one at least ain't gonna change). I'm not a big sidequest fan in general, though I did do a few.
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I would recommend at least doing the lighthouse stuff.
You should definitely do playthrough b. It adds a lot of detail to the game. The game is decent about expediting the second, third, and fourth playthrough so you end up not wasting much time.
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The Real Dark Souls
Yeah that area's a bitch. I have no idea how you're supposed to do it without a mace or a weapon well above +3, and is actually the dungeon that made me quit dual weilding swords and just twohanding a mace.
Did a bunch of stuff yesterday, mostly No Man's Wharf and the Huntsman's Copse. No Man's Wharf has easily caused the most deaths because I kept thinking this was DS1 and I could run in, kill an enemy before they move, and not run out of stamina after my dash and first attack. This lead to getting swarmed by Hollow Infantry and dying a lot. Copse was cool though I let myself get killed by a basilisk once and let myself get cursed by an urn and yeah. Bullshit.
Pursuers are bullshit that is all.
Still have not found any dresses, which makes Dennis Rodman sad. He continues to run shirtless though has put on pants because tight pants are the next best thing to flowing skirts.
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Cid: The Heine Knights seem to aggro after you hit one or kill the Dragonrider. As for the dragon, I found it very, very easy: it starts docile and you can go balls to the wall full sprint from the stop of the staircase to it, and you'll dodge its fire breath and can just wail at its feet for ages while it's stuck in the attack animation. I literally took out 80% of its health before it tried to attack me.
The new NPC invasions are mean as fuck. The one in Cardinal Tower wrecked my shit, the one in Huntsman's Copse put up a really rough fight. Impressions I've gotten reading threads is that Scholar of the First Sin just ramped up difficulty quite a bit in general. It's been very fun regardless, it's brought back my paranoia and terror that I abandoned from DS1 after knowing the game too well.
btw mace rules, I am also rocking lightning mace+7. No other earlygame weapon has come close to its dominance, it's really quite telling. I bought an Uchigatana on my cleric and passed it to my dual wielding katana char via co-op with Zenny and am power stancing them, and it's very, very good. Requires 15 Str/24 Dex, but I beelined for that immediately and the power stance L1 2HKOs almost everything. It's like a slightly faster Mace! (eats up way more stamina though) Cid why did you not tell me about power stancing :(
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I'm pretty sure I've said "dual-wielding rocks!" a lot, but I guess I wasn't clear about the mechanics.
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as it turns out, dual wielding being more than just having one weapon equipped in each hand and actually being 'there is an obscure thing called power stance where if you meet 1.5x the str and dex requirements of the weapon and you have specific weapon combinations you get access to a unique moveset on your L1/L2 IF you try to twohand your lefthand weapon'
is not the most intuitive mechanic
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SRWZ3: Started the Rengoku-Hen preorder DLC campaign. Five stages in, it's very easy (which the main game supposedly is emphatically not) but also quite polished. Rand's and Crowe's new mechs are great, and I like the new refinements Z3.2 has added so far.
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as it turns out, dual wielding being more than just having one weapon equipped in each hand and actually being 'there is an obscure thing called power stance where if you meet 1.5x the str and dex requirements of the weapon and you have specific weapon combinations you get access to a unique moveset on your L1/L2 IF you try to twohand your lefthand weapon'
is not the most intuitive mechanic
From Software, intuitive
But yeah, my bad, I should at least explain a thing I'm trying to get people to try.
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DS2: Beat the Lost Bastille, Sinner's Rise, and Earthen Peak. Finally unlocked the merchant with Large Titanite for sale and upgraded a bunch of weapons to play around with. Dual Caestus is a lot of fun and arguably better than dual mace (the powerstance moveset for dual mace is pretty slow) but probably worse than 2handing a mace. Armored enemies dropped off a lot so I can probably play around with dual wielding swords now, but I already dropped some Titanite Chunks into the fists so that's probably going to be my main weapon of choice. It's weird how after my Caestus run in DS1 basically had to be carried through the game by Laggy that in DS2 it is 2legit.
Playing the game blind is great. It really is too bad that it's a thing you can only do once before grinding the game into powder under your boot in all subsequent runs but whatever.
Soul memory is a really stupid fucking mechanic. I don't think anyone will disagree with that statement.
It isn't really a hit against the game, not a big one anyway, but it is pretty disappointing how disconnected all of the areas seem after playing DS1. Like, after only a couple playthroughs I had a pretty good idea of how the world fit together because it made sense, and it made the game feel like it was only three or four big maps instead of 15 or 20 smaller ones. DS2 apparently didn't even try. Even the two or three areas that are directly connected are all so disparate in geographical features that it's easy to misplace them in my memory. On top of that the directions don't even make sense. Hell, in order to get from the windmills-on-a-hill area to the castle-full-of-lava area you go UP an elevator. They didn't even try. Frankly though I wouldn't have even noticed had they not done such a good job of it in DS1.
tl;dr: Gavlan wheel? Gavlan deal.
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MH4U: So after repeatedly hurling my DS across the room I decided to try ranged weapons instead. I'd been avoiding it up until now because you have to craft an entirely different set of armor to wear and carry different gear. Settled on the Bow, and it has made a drastic increase in my successful hunt completion %. No, not like I'm successfully hunting 100% of the time, more like I'm winning 50% of my fights instead of 20%.
Anyway, just beat the Sanctuary boss.
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DS2: I have settled on character builds finally after some experimentation. Thank god for respeccing, I've done it on both chars I've made now (the level of polish increase from DS1 is unreal).
My cleric, which is the main char I'm going to focus on going through co-op with Zenny, went away from pure faith caster after I found out how utterly terrible offensive miracles are. Seriously, 3 charges on Lightning Spear, barely do the damage of a single melee hit? I get ranged utility but that's just awful. Mace was basically carrying that char the whole game and now that armored enemies aren't a dime a dozen it is finally beginning to show its drawbacks (particularly the Manikins in Earthen Peak really, really showcased how bad it is not to have a quick weapon).
I already have infused with Lightning and at +8 so it's still going to be used especially since Durability Souls 2 is a thing on 60fps, but I wanted something quicker and I was already committed to the concept of a faith caster (which basically means run Sacred Oath and Sunlight Blade, damage spells not viable), so I looked up other lightning weapons to use. Ended up settling with the Dragonslayer's Crescent Axe, as it was easily accessible and I hadn't used up my Twinkling Titanite supply on her yet. It is kind of awesome, feels like a mace in 1h and has great fast sweeping attacks in 2h (I assume it is the axe moveset). The speed is surprising on a big axe but it is definitely what I wanted. Not actually gonna infuse it with lightning that nerfs Sacred Oath/Ring of Blades synergy, but since it already has base lightning damage just leaving it uninfused is absolutely fine. Respecced to be Str/Faith while meeting Dex req on the axe, ultimately gonna be 40/40 with lots of attunement for buffs, 20 Endurance, Vigor probably to 50. I'm running the Blossom Kite Shield since it is basically DS2's Grass Crest and I loved that thing to death, plus I run in 2h most of the time anyway, though the axe is really cool in that I can do either.
My samurai on the other hand has up to this point run dual Uchis and naked armor, and has coasted on the sheer power of the powerstance'd L1. I can't emphasize it enough, that thing just does damage through the roof, huge sweep (90 degree angle from left of user to front, can hit BEHIND you), fast, spammable up to 3 times with 20 Endurance. I farmed the lone Alonne Knight in front of Iron Keep when we got there and managed to get a Blacksteel Katana before it stopped respawning. At 21 Str/40 Dex, probably not going further.
I actually think I'll stick to an Uchi/Blacksteel dual wield with the Uchi as the primary because I like the R2 thrust way more than the Blacksteel's (horribly nerfed) DS1 Iaito moveset in return for a slight damage drop vs doing two Blacksteels. On top of that, katanas apparently have 150 Counter damage, even higher than thrusting swords, so I slapped on Stone Ring+Old Leo Ring+RoB (only the basic one for now) to for maximum counter damage on the Uchi thrust and poise stagger. This gives the Uchi R2 thrust some serious utility when countering, getting a nearly 70% damage boost and giving me a great ranged poke when I'm not just spamming L1 on everything. Also picked up the Black Knight Halberd as a fallback weapon when my katanas do inevitably break, as it only required 1 Faith to use (started as Bandit). It serves its purpose very well, not quite as comfortable with it but I can see why people like it.
I intend to run Flynn on both chars once I find out where it is in SotFS.
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DS2: I have settled on character builds finally after some experimentation. Thank god for respeccing, I've done it on both chars I've made now (the level of polish increase from DS1 is unreal).
It's amazing that even in spite of flagrantly bad ideas like low weapon durability and soul memory, DS2 is still sufficiently more user-friendly and convenient than its siblings that I have trouble going back to them (however fun its combat and amazing its world, Bloodborne regresses a lot in regards to micro design). Zenny's comments about Drangleic itself are sadly spot-on, though. It rarely warrants regard as a place in the way DS1 did, or even aspires to. Honestly the neatest addition I've come across is just hollow soldiers mindlessly trying to murder a tree that was once a giant; it'd be neat if there were more personal touches like that, but I haven't really come across any others.
Still pretty cool playing a familiar thing made new. You can tell when messages were left by veteran players because they routinely express confusion at the altered state of affairs. "Friend...but not here?!" The room after Flexile Sentry is hilarious for reasons new players totally won't get. Also the new phantoms are great. Especially the one in Sinner's Rise. I won't say anything else just so Fenrir can laugh his ass off when he finds it himself, but make sure you thoroughly explore the basement while human.
Also Flynn's Ring is the beeeeeest. I basically can't not use it.
Fenrir if you're seriously going to go Covenant of Champions then I'm contemplating punching hard mode to death with you. Sound workable?
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as it turns out, dual wielding being more than just having one weapon equipped in each hand and actually being 'there is an obscure thing called power stance where if you meet 1.5x the str and dex requirements of the weapon and you have specific weapon combinations you get access to a unique moveset on your L1/L2 IF you try to twohand your lefthand weapon'
is not the most intuitive mechanic
From Software, intuitive
But yeah, my bad, I should at least explain a thing I'm trying to get people to try.
This right here is the difference between not reading anything about a From game over 2 years of preview hype/post deployment and having been obsessed and following development super closely.
Power Stance and Dual wielding was part of the mega hype. You knew about it before you played the game.
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Metroid NES:
Beat in under five hours for the first time ever. Yay for being the prototypical Metroidvania. Samus in jumpsuit isn't much of a prize for the amount of effort needed given my general skill level at platformers... >.>;; Still, gaming history or somesuch.
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Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D - Currently between 8-6 and 8-7. However, fell to the wayside due to...
Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. - Well, this is -very- different. I'm only a few stages in, but the good: the base system is incredibly interesting already. The Steam mechanic potentially allows for a lot of fun tactical decisions (do I want to cover as much ground as I can now or do I save steam for possibly overshooting enemies during their turn and mitigate collateral damage, just for a base example) and movement being non-committal until you attack/otherwise act also makes collecting items a lot simpler too, as well as giving you remarkable freedom in terms of scouring your terrain within the move limits. The bad: holy hell is the interface clunky. I can understand not being able to have a full map view, but not even being able to have a partial panoramic perspective on your character's viewpoint is annoying as fuck - not to mention controlling the camera without the stylus is terrible. Centering the perspective on your PCs during enemy turns is also a questionable decision in terms of transparency, since it's hard to even get a glimpse of what the enemies are doing. ON THE OTHER HAND, spotting enemies and properly positioning in order to avoid ambushes or stopping enemies dead in their tracks is among the core mechanics, so I can understand -why- it's there. Let's see where this takes us.
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Dark Souls 2 - Laggy convinced me to roll a character to play with him. I decided it was time for dual Caestus as well, so that is happening. I am going to pinch hit over to bows as well though because I am super wussy.
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Dark Souls 2 - Laggy convinced me to roll a character to play with him. I decided it was time for dual Caestus as well, so that is happening. I am going to pinch hit over to bows as well though because I am super wussy.
We're playing basically the same character then
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Shit you can't co-op with the covenant of champions on.
Oh well I"ll have a mediocre but cool build then. Twinblade with max Agility and magic weapon? Power stanced greataxes? Belmont mode?
Edit: Oh yeah, my god will be Calib, god of disease
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I would recommend at least doing the lighthouse stuff.
You should definitely do playthrough b. It adds a lot of detail to the game. The game is decent about expediting the second, third, and fourth playthrough so you end up not wasting much time.
Also the second time through you only have to play a little under half the game, since it starts over when Kaine rejoins you. Then you can get endings B, C and D all in the same runthrough if you achieve the requirements (it's 100% completion of the weapon collection, right?)
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Pillars of Eternity: The story quickly got a lot more interesting. The events in the asylum for people with trouble souls were interesting and cool. I have so for no idea what the villain really is trying to do, but the game has given me enough material to imagine all kinds of really bad stuff they could do.
The main character's special ability is also great. It gives you a good reason for why she/he can figure things out other people cannot without felling like it grants godlike powers. It also means that instead of talking to NPCs and have them say boring on liners or reveal things you'd normally not reveal to strangers, you can just check their souls.
Mechanically, there's problems with the game. In Baldur's Gate, I would re-roll my character until she got really high rolls. I ended up with a fighter who after using tomes, had 19/19/19 in the stats that matters and her stat total was considerable higher than even Imoen's. In this game I don't have a stat total that blows everyone else's away, all I can do is to distribute it more efficiently. Nevertheless, I feeling for more that my character is carrying the party than I did in Baldur's Gate. Minsc and Keldorn weren't as strong as my character was, but they still contributed well to combat. In this game, all companions are ridiculously far behind the main character. I'm not heavily min/maxing either, I just got 16 in both Might and Dexterity and I left Intelligence at 10 despite that being the third most important stat for fighters.
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Shit you can't co-op with the covenant of champions on.
I thought I read they were changing that for Scholar? But I can't find anything about that now I think that I must have imagined it, like Skittlebrau.
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You can change gods every time you put on the ring, Fen. It's actually pretty well done in that way... they should have just made the ring free though ffs.
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I was bitching about it with Laggy last night (because bitching and swearing is all I do when I play Souls games or any game). It should just have that effect based of your friends list for the respective system.
Also Zenny Zen, when you play does running around feel like there isn't much fluid movement between directions? Laggy didn't complain about it, but mine was as fucked up as original DS2 was when I played it and I had to grab a thing to make the directional controls not fucking shite.
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DS2: That blast came from the Death Star. That thing's operational!
Old Ones are down but OCD compels me to deal with RRA (ugh) and chario (double ugh) before running to the castle. Found full Aurous set in a box, shadow set is obviously farmable without NG+/ascetic shenanigans this time (the latter is encouraging, I think I could put together a fairly accurate Maiden in Black now if only the domino mask is actually a realistically obtainable thing too). I hope the same can be said about the monastery set because fuuuuuck getting even 3/4 of that was a bitch in vanilla DS2. Speaking of, I found an NPC who thought it would be a good idea to match up the Pharis hat, monastery shirt, and black witch bottom. The latter is just a pair of shoes, for reference. Have I mentioned the new phantoms are great? Try calling yourself Badass Ray dude it would be more accurate.
Also at some point a desert sorceress' skirt phased through her body and I could see forever. Apparently they've got thongs on under there. The more you know.
I can't say I mind Pursuers falling from the sky because at least they always drop twinklies. You should always look on the bright side of your life you guys.
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Yeah, agreed. Multiplayer is stupidly byzantine.
Nope, I had no problems whatsoever with the directional movement, though I suppose I'm pretty underwhelmed by omnidirectional rolling. If anything I was amazed at how smooth everything was compared to DS1 but that's probably more framerate than anything.
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After playing Bloodborne for a couple weeks, let me just tell you what a relief it is to come back to a game where I can even fucking tell if any other players are available for co-op in my area and I don't have to expend consumables on waiting indefinitely for people that in all probability are not even there, not that I have any indicators to tell me that thank you very much. (Planned co-op is fine in BB, it's casual multiplayer that in my experience is not, and it's kind of shocking in comparison to instantly find summons or help anywhere I look in DS2.)
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The thing that bugs me on controller is like, if you are running in a tight circle in one point do you do little tight circles or octagons?
We should just 3 man coop some shit tonight and I can see for myself. We can be Team Laggy because of how fucking terrible Aus-US-GLRSNIPN connection would be.
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K I think I need a new character for that. I made a pyro but my intention is to go Company of Champions and 1P/Hard Mode that shit.
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I would run something other than my Fistguy as well.
I think maybe mage triple team spit roasting shit? Fighter/Thief/Cleric holy trinity maybe?
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Shield Only
Whip Only
Twinblade Only
DO IT
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Zenny, stop insulting me by saying that I could worship anyone but Calib, god of disease.
Oh yeah guys you might be tempted like I was by power stanced twinblades. Don't, it's a trap. They get the same moveset as other weapons, so you don't get to look like a ridiculous star wars guy.
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I wanted to be Queen Anime so bad.
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DkS2: Stark contrast with Bloodborne, DkS2 feels way more videogamey. I think it's the 60 FPS. It just looks weird.
Bloodborne: Got way more into the chalice dungeons, I'm starting to really dig them despite every potential issue I could have with them happening.
I'm close to the queen!
Bosses are real damage sponges here, sometimes this doesn't work at all and sometimes it's perfect. I loved the battle against Frenzied Beast, and some Pthemuran dudes. I liked the fight against Darkpalbeast and Evil Camera a lot less.
I said adios to PvP for Harry as I reached crazy high levels and boosted Vit / Arcane to 50 and Endurance ot 40. Now I'm raising Vit to infinity
I did the regular chalice dungeons, but made a cursed rotten disgusting one just because, and I've found some nice gems there.
My Ludwig sword does some ridiculous fire damage now, 200 + 349 IIRC. I'm going to run through NG+ in like 2 hours. (NG+ is just Pops -> Vic -> Emo guys -> Only the PS4 can handle that many spiders at once -> 1 redux -> Grant us eeeeeyes -> Sexy wet shirt nurse right?)
I needed a Living String to make a chalice dungeon. I looked at the wiki to see how to get one, it mentioned one being in some main game in an area I missed, so I went there. Oh my god, I'm glad I got to witness that with minimal spoilers.
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Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze - Just finished the fourth world. Game isn't quite as tough as DKCR, but it's still a pretty difficult game. I am enjoying all of the colors and wildlife present in the game though. The swimming mechanics are actually pretty cool! Even the water boss was quite fun, a large puffer fish out of control~ I'm enjoying the multiple partner characters as well -- Dixie seems like the overall most useful, but the UOM is pretty good too (he pretends to be Scrooge from Ducktales).
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DkS2: Stark contrast with Bloodborne, DkS2 feels way more videogamey. I think it's the 60 FPS. It just looks weird.
I think the relative simplicity of the environments and the rather stark lightning contribute a lot to that, but yeah, "more videogamey" is a description that sounds like it should be asinine in reference to a videogame but is really a totally accurate comparison between Dark Souls 2 and its siblings. (It's also really striking how much more fluid and natural movement feels in Bloodborne; not that it's bad in either Dark Souls, but man it took some adjustment not having lightning agility and dodge + counterattack speed anymore).
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Like it was a game made more like a standard industry product instead of being as strongly led to a single auteurs vision?
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I don't really feel that about Dark Souls 2 even though it's a common complaint. Except with the "praise the sun again" comment.
I do agree that the worse environments and especially lightning contribute a lot to it looking like a videogame. I guess the 60 FPS, odd lightning and worse textures makes me think of old PC games. I like how grounded movement feels in Dark Souls 2 though. In comparison Bloodborne / Demon's Souls give you super rolls and stamina right away.
R1R1Borne: I got the platinum!
Which makes me a better person than Cid.
The last boss of the chalice dungeons was the Phtumerian queen, and: Ewwwwwww
After that part, I only had the two endings left to get. I beat Moon Presence in 10 seconds and got through NG+ in like 2 hours. I got one reset against Notzguls (My last checkpoint then was in Cathedral Ward. NOOO) and The Boss.
I got one genuinely Soulsian moment in a chalice dungeon (instead of just RNG and endless battles and loot), this was nice. Inside a garden, there was a particularly bright flower on the floor of one dungeon, so I naturally approached it without thinking about it. A giant fire caterpillar like the one in Byrgenweth then emerged from the ground and ambushed me. The flower was a part of the caterpillar's head; the caterpillar uses the flower as bait to attract foolish adventurers (and probably insects?)
In general I am a bit surprised that the chalice dungeons are an actual and important part of the lore, to the point that they didn't just throw every enemy in the game in there just because they could. You don't get to fight a green and a black G-dad.
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I don't really feel that about Dark Souls 2 even though it's a common complaint. Except with the "praise the sun again" comment.
I think the complaint isn't without merit, but I'm onboard with that only to the point that I think it's an excellent industry product that just happens to feel less inspired than the rest of its series. It suffers some in comparison but I've still had way more fun with it than, you know, most things that aren't Souls games, and the actual mechanical/UI refinements are things I find it hard to do without now.
Spoiler final really is The Boss, isn't he? I think it's impossible not to comment on this if you've played MGS3.
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Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze - Just finished the fourth world. Game isn't quite as tough as DKCR, but it's still a pretty difficult game. I am enjoying all of the colors and wildlife present in the game though. The swimming mechanics are actually pretty cool! Even the water boss was quite fun, a large puffer fish out of control~ I'm enjoying the multiple partner characters as well -- Dixie seems like the overall most useful, but the UOM is pretty good too (he pretends to be Scrooge from Ducktales).
For conventional use, as in on average, Dixie > Diddy > Cranky seems to be the consensus. For actual worth though, it's more like Dixie > Cranky > Diddy, since Dixie is pretty much always better than Diddy, and while Cranky may not be as good as Diddy on most stages, there are stages where he's flat out the best choice so you do have an occasional use for him over Dixie, making more useful than Diddy.
Of course, as if Dixie didn't already have the best platforming ability, she also has the best Kong Pow ability for bosses.
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Wild Arms 4:
Platapana Passage solder fight: Not too bad. Flame Thrower hurts but they don't get many chances to use it, and the fight is fairly controllable.
Neve D'Argento breakpoint fight: I have like half a dozen resets here, yeesh. First one of these that has truly worked me over. Anyway, the fight is against two Angels and two Fleuretys. All four go first and all four can 2HKO under the right circumstances, so I basically start every fight horribly on the defensive (and once get one-rounded before anyone gets a turn, joy). The Fleuretys are certainly more dangerous since they can also cast Hydro Pressure, while Angels occasionally use Heal but I only see it once, but it's great when they do. Jude can one-shot the Angels with Phantom Line, Arnaud pretty much needs an opposite leypoint, Raquel has trouble getting a turn though Dragon Edge is nice to off a Fleurety and heal her if she does. The time I win though is mostly blind dumb luck of Yulie starting on a non-water leypoint and surviving to get a turn.
Granted, I make things harder for myself because I don't save before the fight, so I'm pretty much stuck with the setup I have going in... and certainly having Magic Blocker (or Resist Water?) could have been a big help, for instance. But so it goes.
Kraken: I'm pretty surprised I beat him on the first try. He starts in the centre so can wreck Yulie, and his Widespread Slumber Fog is a huge pain. I'm able to Isolate him into the corner and poison him though, and poison = the win. It seems a near impossible slugfest otherwise and most of my PCs die as usual (not Arnaud!) since he has no exploitable weakness and a lot of HP but poison does its magic.
Hugo: Not too bad. He moves to the centre, Jude shoots him and he moves to the lower right. Arnaud moves, Jude on his next turn moves with Dash to box him in. Blah blah blah poison protect healing blast I win.
Spriggan: Jude and Arnaud need 3 turns to kill their mini-spriggans, Raquel gets hers does in one. In the real fight, Yulie starts alone so Protects herself, which means she mostly mocks Stone Bullet. Between that and the mini-spriggans needing some time to move into position she survives until everyone else shows up just fine. Unfortunately their physicals + Hyperion Blaster is a bitch, so she does fall, but Spriggan isn't too durable, Arnaud jumps to the opposite-element hex and blasts away after Raquel + Jude gut the mini-spriggans. Jude dies but it's okay.
Fiore and Asia (3 resets): Yeah these two are pretty badass! They open with Banned Spell which can one-shot Raquel and seriously hurts everyone else. On my first attempt I go for an opening Joint Struggle which does hurt but letting Jude take all that damage is too much, so I have him move away instead. Then, after the rest of the team takes one spell, Arnaud can jump them somewhere else (I usually go for the wind hex, so Fiore can't use her opposite-element Hi-Blast on me, but he still has strengthened spells of his own). I also learn the hard way not to let them get in the same hex (or if it happens, to Isolate 'em ASAP) as their second unite, Uncensored Spell, does big MT damage which I really can't handle at all if they start spamming it. Unfortunately they also do lots of damage with elemental Hi-Blasts, and those are hard to prevent. Arnaud's Magic Blocker is great, in fact, keeping Arnaud/Yulie in the same hex with Protect up does make them pretty magically tanky which helps, although Fragile can make a mess of things certainly (without the MDef boost, elemental Hi-Blasts still hurt like a bitch). Anyway, it's mostly a matter of treading water, trying to keep the sisters in non-deadly positions, and gunning whichever is more vulnerable down (Fiore is more dangerous due to her better speed, but on the winning run I actually end up killing Asia due to an opening poison on her). Sadly only Raquel gets Exp from this one, as it's a brutal fight to the finish after Yulie dies from elemental spells.
Also I never knew until hearing their victory quotes that Fiore is pronounced with a non-silent E ("Fioray"). Live and learn!
Guardian Chimera: I anticipate this fight being a bitch, but I get somewhat lucky. While the chimera moves to an elemental hex to start the fight as usual, it does not use its summon attack, and after a couple turns moves back to its starting place. I promptly corner it and lock down its pure physical skillset with Illusion. Poison overcomes its healing pretty easily. It has high defences and absorbs elements but Fragile to the rescue, that + Phantom Line spam gets the job done.
Next up: the hardest boss in the game!
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DS2: They made Shrine of Amana worse. Wow.
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It wasn't meant to be a complaint so much as how development goes? DS2 mostly being worked on by a team less under directorial supervision of Miyazaki while he worked on Bloodborne really shows in the product. I for one like it far more than the other two games like it I have played and it is one of the reasons I am not day 1 buying a PS4 and Bloodborne.
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Well "standard industry product" -> Corporate / focus tested to hell / ubisofty. These games have less potential for disaster, but aren't going to be that interesting.
For a Souls game that's damning, since they got successful in part by breaking videogame conventions (here, a fake screen http://i.imgur.com/pYpAfgh.jpg) and putting some really weird fascniating elements in there.
I still find the spark is there in Dark Souls 2, in simple things like the sex change coffin and the pit in Majula.
Oh yeah I've actually been really enjoying Strider Gourryuh on PS4 and it is one of the most corporate games I've tried lately. It looks like Strider (with gorgeous environments) but doesn't really play like Strider, it's a Metroidvania and you can take a million hits. Instead of like 3. The speed is so fast, I feel like playing Mario 2 with Luigi and jumping above everything.
Also you have a digital scarf that can change color with the D-pad.
Dark Souls 2:
I've died 5 times without even beating a boss, that's what I get for trying to main daggers.
Here is what happens with daggers: You use them early on, you find them pretty good, you switch for another weapon anyway, but you still think that daggers could have been viable.
WRONG.
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Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. - Mission 2 cleared, I can has a Lion, who by himself opened a really good array of strategic mobility options. That's just how freaking good Lion Launch is. GRANTED, unlocking secondary weapons is also cool beans and also works into making the whole thing more flexible. I also learned save points are a thing and also have tons of strategic use, since you can heal an agent/party once per point for a sum of coins. And now that I'm getting used to the interface, I'm actually seriously digging this game as of now.
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Dark Souls 2:I've died 5 times without even beating a boss, that's what I get for trying to main daggers.
Here is what happens with daggers: You use them early on, you find them pretty good, you switch for another weapon anyway, but you still think that daggers could have been viable.
WRONG.
Daggers are totally viable man, here's what you do:
-Backstab a lot if it's vulnerable to backstabs
-Burn an ascetic in Earthen Peak to get another Mytha's for everything that's vulnerable to poison
-Cry a lot if something's immune to backstabs and poison
I wouldn't defend them as good, but better than expected, sure. Dual dagger setup is definitely viable if you're fine with using weapons that are basically marginally faster but weaker caestuses that don't benefit from the godly strike element. Uh. Look, it worked fine when I did it just pumping DEX and ADP through the roof.
Anyway, Astraea is up to the Dragon Aerie. I wish Dark Souls 2 let you actually see your current HP (why doesn't it?) because I'm pretty sure I was sitting at all of 1 HP when I beat Darklurker. Now I can look forward to never dealing with that fucking quest ever again (I only bothered here because I wanted max miracle casting speed). Anyway, on a whim I tossed on Gilligan's scimitar for a backup weapon and it's working out pretty well. Fast two-handed R1, hits a broad arc, slightly stronger than the mace for me (minimal physical stats, 12 STR/DEX, everything's going into ATT/FTH) so only loses out vs armored jerks. The Sacred Oath/Sunlight Blade buff machine is in effect and I can put out 2,000 damage in a couple seconds if I'm free to burn through a whole stamina bar (of course I'm sure DLC elemental resists will spit on this strategy like they usually do).
There are more Don't You Dare! messages. Whyyyyyyyy. Also I don't know how to get into the locked wing of Aldia anymore, never found the key in the usual spot. Speaking of treasure I couldn't get, there are actually a couple of loot drops I've never managed to access in any run through Dark Souls 2:
-Lower Tseldora, the item in the house sticking out from the wall just over the vortex (beneath the roof the crystal lizard scurries over in vanilla DS2). How do you even get in there? I always fell into the pit whenever I tried.
-Harvest Valley, there's a large mutant behind a wooden wall, which he punches down. Shiny things lurk on the other side of another wooden wall behind him. I presume you're supposed to get him to punch it down but I've always been too scared to stand in the way and bait the attack.
I have actually taken a dive off the bridge below the Grave of Saints to pick up the Disc Chime, because I wanted it to accompany a Dragonslayer Spear build. Stuck the landing first try, definitely worth the risk for aesthetics alone but mechanically can't recommend it any grounds really. It's a functional thing for casting Sacred Oath, that's about it.
I was really hoping the rerelease would see the covenant ranking requirements for Blue Sentinels and Bloodbros cut down to something sane, but sadly this appears not to have happened. Gawd why. So WotG still not realistically attainable short of NG++.
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Tactics Ogre: The Man Who Would Be King- Finished.
So, mentioned this in my stat topic update, but hinode was right all those ages ago. The would-be King of Valeria can prepare for the capture of Heim via boldly heading into the swamp where he slaughters octopi and their foul worshippers alone in the muck, and suddenly be much more powerful. This. is. stupid, but better a stupid option (like grinding back up Arycelle's loyalty - which weirdly enough skyrocketed for some reason later, she became super loyal) than no option, I suppose. I like to imagine Denam said "This is for Leonar" before killing Catiua, but no, things proceeded as they always do, she's just as crazy as ever. The only thing you fear is your brother deserting you, and so you desert him, and when he comes back you do... that. Got it.
The battle with Brantyn is still pretty awesome, one of the best in the game. He's one of the very rare highly damaging mages; why is he so awesome at it when the others aren't? But he's balanced by having his 'tank' line be largely Terror Knights wielding 2H weapons, which, well, they've got Rampart Aura so they make you deal with them, but they aren't ACTUALLY annoying supertanks like Knights or Golems. So it's reasonable to whittle you way through 'em while also being able to have Canopus dive the backlines and assassinate other clerics / mages. Good times.
While on the Terror Knight note, Dievold was a pleasant surprise. PC Terror Knights are actually okay since you'll be smart enough to equip Spellstrike, so they can toss out reasonably solid Paralytic Waves before engaging or if not in range, and Sleep is actually pretty decent if you can't close, too. Against bosses or annoying knights with Phalanx, Drain Power is quite solid: certainly spamming Drain Power on the final boss was quite helpful to see fewer of his ultimates. And if you want/need to actually kill a supertank dragon or golem, Frightened is pretty useful for speeding up the clock. So yeah, he was alright, although dat speed.
Hanging Gardens were just as boring as ever, although the Andoras fight is good fun. I cannot imagine how many horrible accidents Dorgalua's servants had navigating it.
Surprisingly enough, Lord path gets to actually do a minor bit of Kingdom Policy post-Heim: after checking the Interwebs, I was surprised to learn that you actually want to ignore soldiers in your own army raping & looting Heim, mostly because it makes recruiting Cressida easier in the Chaotic path. I can see it now: "Why won't you join me Cressida?" "You jerk, you punished rapists. You don't have the backbone or moral fiber to lead and make tough calls." Uh huh. Interesting, anyway, it's a classic hard problem even if the effects are wacky. (The Galgastani & Walister army you just lead like it if you let 'em off the hook, but the Bakram hate you. If you punish them, it's the reverse.)
On that note, worst assassin ever. Checking the loyalty of new recruits, the Walister liked me, the Galgastani were okay with me, and the Bakram hated my guts. So clearly I should be assassinated by unhappy Bakram supporters, right? Nope, it's Walister fanatics yelling "Glory to the Walister" that gun me down. YOU MORONS, you have one of your own on the throne, lay off the crazy pills man. It's a small touch, but I wish they slightly adjusted the ending based on which faction hated you the most and having that faction kill King Denam. Also Cistina/Cerya you are FIRED from running my security, run guests through the darn fusil detector.
I do kinda like how the game portrays Denam being King at least: he got there the way many royal dynasties get there, by having the first guy basically be a warlord who conquers the place with an army, then his supporters say hooray he's a noble king. Less surprise royal blood from nowhere, more "me and my 11 friends with swords all say I'm King, you agree, right? Right?" And that this approach doesn't always work, either.
Anyway, fun times, but I really doubt I will do the aftergame, again. Especially since Lord ending inexplicably locks you off from the Coda or something, along with already not having Gildas who's needed to unlock a major aftergame quest. I guess I could World tarot back and cruise through Law on EZ mode and get a Princessy ending, but that'd be really boring, so no. Alas.
Back to Awakening equal-XP, most likely.
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-Lower Tseldora, the item in the house sticking out from the wall just over the vortex (beneath the roof the crystal lizard scurries over in vanilla DS2). How do you even get in there? I always fell into the pit whenever I tried.
-Harvest Valley, there's a large mutant behind a wooden wall, which he punches down. Shiny things lurk on the other side of another wooden wall behind him. I presume you're supposed to get him to punch it down but I've always been too scared to stand in the way and bait the attack.
There's some fancy jumping and dropping required and the reward isn't worth it whatsoever. I don't even remember what it was other than disappointment.
Yeah, that's exactly what you gotta do. There's an Old Knight Halberd and some other decent goodies in there.
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-Lower Tseldora, the item in the house sticking out from the wall just over the vortex (beneath the roof the crystal lizard scurries over in vanilla DS2). How do you even get in there? I always fell into the pit whenever I tried.
-Harvest Valley, there's a large mutant behind a wooden wall, which he punches down. Shiny things lurk on the other side of another wooden wall behind him. I presume you're supposed to get him to punch it down but I've always been too scared to stand in the way and bait the attack.
The drop in Tseldora is a Large Titanite Shard. It actually doens't involve anything fancy at all. Walk/roll off onto the roof and then very carefully drop from it down to the ledge sticking out next to the door. Don't get owned by sorcerers casting at you while you try to do this.
For Harvest Valley, yes, just bait him. It's actually not that scary. The ambush before that fellow with four Edward Hookhands is way scarier.
Cid: Do you know the exact machinations of what RoB and Sacred Oath do on infused weapons? I'm running both, plus the Thunder Clutch Ring and Flynn, with a +5 Lightning Dragonslayer's Crescent Axe. Supposedly it's one of the weird weapons (along with Black Knight weapons and other weapons with innate elements that upgrade with Twinkling Titanite or Petrified Dragon Bones) that don't get hit with the 50% nerf on RoB/Sacred Oath despite having elemental damage, but it's unclear whether this is true if you infuse them on top of all of that. I've read on separate sources that they either retain the full bonus or a larger share than 50% (like some site quoted 80%) and I have no idea whether it's total BS or not.
Mainly I need to know because the lightning infusion pumps up other things (better raw base stats, albeit split; better synergy with Sunlight Blade; 45 AR out of the Thunder Clutch Ring instead of 30) but if it renders RoB/Sacred to be inefficient, I'll want to tweak my build some.
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Ring of Blades gives only half the attack bonus to elementally-infused* weapons, same goes for Flynn's Ring. Consequently, I don't find either of them worth the ring slot when using elementally-infused weapons. Note that this reduction does not apply to weapons that innately have elemental damage, which can make stuff like the Chaos Rapier insanely good because you can stack RoB/Flynn's/buffs all at once. Supposedly some reduction applies to Sacred Oath too but I'm not really sure how much.
If there's a different degree of damage reduction for weapons that innately have elemental damage and are subsequently infused elementally, I'm not sure what it would be. Never heard that before, but I also rarely use a weapon like that (I rarely even use elementally-infused weapons, save for wholly physically incapable casters like Astraea). EDIT: noting that it was confirmed in chat that this is true, RoB is reduced to like 80% instead of 50%. How totally random. Also Flynn's apparently doesn't care about anything. Flynn's is amazing.
(*Raw-infused weapons still get the full bonus, which is why Black Scorpion Stinger is too good. Speaking of, anyone found this thing in Scholar? The normal mimic drop in Doors of Pharros is not there and I have no idea where they moved it. Maybe making friends with Tark actually gives you his weapon instead of a crappy ring this time, should probably go talk to him.)
Just don't ask me how mundane works, I have no goddamn idea.
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Dark Souls 2: Tried co-op with Cid, got some mega lag.
We fought Pursuer on the rooftop. The eagle did some trippy strobe effects and dropped Pursuer in the mountain range in the background instead of, you know, the rooftop. Except he was still there in Cid's game.
I realize now that I should have used this chance to get in front of Cid and spam him with emotes.
Ring of Blades pretty much doubled my damage so the daggers are not as terrible now? I'm still really looking forward to that precious twinblade. My build will be Twinblade + Magic Weapon + Some pyromancy to compensate for the repair mechanic.
As far as surprises go, I really liked Dennis the menace (what a jerk) and that key in the chest in Lost Bastille. "This room has always been surprisingly empty, I'm sure they've added something to it" -> "...Guess not" -> "....I FUCKING KNEW IT"
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What I take from this experience is that Fenrir is invincible and can teleport at will.
It's really weird because Bloodborne was lag-free when we tried co-op there.
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Some things never change.
I suppose PC Dark Souls was finish for me when hackers weren't being completely invincible.
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Also Cid's voice is A+ would hear again.
Pursuer Souls 2: I now have a neon blue twinblade +6. I'm pretty sure this is the best way to main twinblades (two handed, magic weapon) but they're not really fancy. Lots of variety but high commitment and low range. Fun to use at least. Makes me want to do a neon blue giant club run.
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Flynn actually worked with infused weapons the whole time. Not scaling properly was an interface bug. Community tested and From fixed the bug in 1.10 patch. Not sure about RoB though.
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Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. - Currently in mission 5-2, where an obscure character from Moby Dick joins our forces. Previously, we had a Lovecraftian Beast punched in the face by Abe Lincolnzord (yes). Right now, I'm pretty much accostumed to the interface shenanigans and the clunkiness rarely bothers me anymore (helps being able to control the camera more precisely using both buttons and the stylus). To make matters better, map design is actually sorta cool, even though there's way too much goal-reaching as of now. So far, the characters I've gotten that I've managed to get a handle on:
Henry Fleming - You know, I keep thinking that I should be more impressed than I am here, but I'm just not so sure. On paper, Henry's pretty solid: shoving things around is a pretty useful tool to extend reach for your other team members (the same way it is in Fire Emblem), his base weapon has high maximum damage and it's easy to use and it also means he's the best overwatch PC so far. This said, his durability isn't so hot and he needs to be close to his targets in order to actually do the damage he wants - and off typical distance, he usually misses a shot out of three. Not a great combo. His special attack (Eagle Strike), however, is really good: a high damage, long range, AoE thrown projectile that deals 220 damage to everything it reaches. That alone props him up a lot. Still, he feels like he should work better than he does on average.
John Henry - His Bear Grenade is great utility, but honestly deals less damage than I'd like. 65 damage off 4 steam and no overwatch can be pretty sketchy. ON THE OTHER HAND, its arc trajectory makes for great sniping and the mild AoE is good for spreading damage. Exploding golden crates and most scenery is also pretty helpful, though it can be replicated by other subweapons later on. Decent durability too, for all that Heavy Boilers aren't great for flexibility. His special is also pretty solid at melee range - AoE 150 damage + scenery breaking is decent.
Lion - Dear god, Lion Launch -rules-. For starters, it's amazing for mobility. Sometimes letting you cheat movement limitations and letting you jump between places is just great shakes. Then, it's also oddly useful for offense - 75 damage for 4 steam is less bang for your buck than I'd like, but it leaves Lion close to his enemy and often at a prime position for hitting weak points. That's great synergy with weapons like the Steam Crossbow (which he starts with) and the Steam Shuriken. Game-best HP and a passive that raises the -entire team's defense- pad him out. The special isn't -great, but stunning isn't bad utility. MVP so far.
Tiger Lily - Bad HP and uses the same boilers as Henry, which isn't a great start. Medi-Mortar is an amazing weapon for your party's survivability, though: AoE 50 HP healing for 4 Steam is crazy efficient (the next best is the Med-Carbine, which is ST 20 HP healing for 2 Steam. Um yeah) and her special even provides -even better healing- if you need it. She's entirely reliant on subweapons for offense, however.
Tom Sawyer - When I saw him on his joining map, I thought "man, this kid must suck. Sub-Tiger Lily HP? LAND MINES as his special? 20 damage plinks off his weapon?". But it's hard to overstate just how much action economy he brings to the table. Light Boilers provide huge steam reserves and his Tommy Punch is obscenely cost-efficient for 1 Steam a pop and about the same range as a typical shot weapon. He can chip enemies, stun then for improved damage with said chipping, cover -tons- of ground with his insane movement and position foes for his allies in order to maximize damage elsewhere. He can even overwatch with the Tommy Punch, which is useful enough given how it's much easier to save steam for him than anyone else. The game's pleasant surprise so far.
Game continues to be quite fun. Also, character balance has been quite solid so far and so has the difficulty curve once Lion showed up.
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You get both the Black Scorpion Stinger and the Second Dragon Ring from Mr. Manscorpion now.
Also I tested it this morning with Cid around and found:
1. Flynn gives full AR bonus if you meet the weight prereqs, on whatever you use, no questions asked (infused, catalyst, whatever)
2. RoB gives 50% of its AR on normal infused weapons, 80% on special infused weapons (special being a weird category but seemingly weapons upgraded by Twinkling Titanite or Petrified Dragon Bones; at the very least it applies to Black Knight weapons and the Dragonslayer's Crescent Axe), and 100% on non-infused anything
Sacred Oath supposedly behaves identically to RoB.
Oh Cid said all of this in his edited post. Well here you have it.
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It is "well what is it?" Laggy you scrub. Get your dark souls memes right.
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Kid Icarus Uprising: Man, it feels almost weird to fight an enemy grunt who -doesn't- appear in Smash Run. Those Aurum chapters almost felt like I was playing a different game.
Pretty much been using bows exclusively, since I like the long range partial homing attacks. Camera control during melee combat is kinda tricky for me, so I try to stay at range as much as possible.
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But Grefter Dark Souls 2 doesn't have Well, What Is It!
You get both the Black Scorpion Stinger and the Second Dragon Ring from Mr. Manscorpion now.
Yeah, his dialogue there I think triggers after beating Freja. Was hoping for earlier access than that. Ah well. I still don't know how to get into the locked wing of Aldia, though!
I've done everything maingame except beating Vendrick (and christ the Dragon Shrine is brutal now), which I will actually be doing this time (and probably never again) just to access the new final boss. Will probably want to dive into Shulva to grab Denial for that fight because that's the kind of cheese a slow, tedious, OHKO boss asks for. Of course instead of actually doing either of those things I'm screwing around with a new file. Quelaag = Chaos Rapier + Flame Weapon + whatever other pyromancies I can cram in with 30 ATT + only revealing clothes this time because Quelaag. Want to run to Shulva as soon as possible to get ridiculous priestess hat + Flynn's but this is probably a terrible idea. I expect I'll do it anyway.
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They actually made the Dragon Shrine worse? HOW.
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Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. - Wow, this game moves at a really rapid clip on campaign mode. Gave Mission 6-1 a go (it's a one-map mission!) and got into a situation where I'd -definitely- lose Scarecrow. Reset. This said, two new PCs joined the fray, and there's some stuff to say about them:
Queequeg - The Moby Dick representative is really, really good. Second-best HP and a passive that boosts the entire entourage's damage by 10% are a good start, but his main weapon just rules. Basically, he drops a walking penguin that trots along in a straight line until it slams into an enemy/wall/obstacle (these obstacles include potholes and your own allies), dealing AoE 70 or so damage. For 4 steam, this is clearly better than John's grenades at pure offense and it's also far more flexible when you're playing in a remotely open field. His special isn't so hot, though: 80 damage that hits a bunch of enemies in a straight line is okay, but not a really impressive finisher like Hammer Blow and Eagle Strike are. Still, that's a damned good package, only held back by the fact he's a Heavy Boiler character.
Scarecrow - The Wizard of Oz ensemble thickens. This said, Scarecrow's WEIRD. Light Boiler is a nice start for mobility, of course, but his main weapon is very strange. Pumpkin Stunner drops a pumpkin bomb that, once popped by a shot from your allies or in the next turn, explodes into a net that deals 20 damage to an area and stuns its victims (with the added caveat that it doesn't incur friendly fire, which is a rarity in and out of itself: even HEALING can target enemies, to give you an idea). That can be quite useful, since Stun doubles the damage dealt by the next hit and disables overwatch attacks from enemies, and, while it's expensive (4 to shoot the bomb+whatever the cost of the next shot to pop the pumpkin), this can be quite an efficient way to boost damage, especially GT. His special is kinda terrible, though: spreading random land mines+minor healing/steam recovery items is worse than Tom's land mine toss, which he can at least push people into with his Punch Gun. Sub-Tom Sawyer HP is also bad and he doesn't have the useful chipping/repositioning game Tom himself sports, so he's a lot more vulnerable than his Light Boiler buddy. Still, the strategies to be had with the Pumpkin Stunner are interesting and he starts in a map where that ability shines like a diamond. Let's see how it works. Oh, and he's stun-immune! That would've come in handy on 4-2 with the stun fly aliens plinking me all day.
The weird aesthetics part is how Scarecrow in S.T.E.A.M. is actually a mishmash of Oz's Scarecrow -and- Pumpkinhead.
Seriously, guys, this game is great.
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I don't know how the Dragon Shrine was in vanilla DS2 but giant hammer dude and double greatsword dude were pretty brutal.
I avoided aggroing the billion of other dudes there so I assume I'm doing something right
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Encouraged by Snow's enthusiastic posts and the reminder that there's a 3x speed up patch out now, I have started
Code Name S.T.E.A.M.
And have immediately sped through roughly 90% of the game. Getting all the medals and gears to unlock more Boilers and Subweapons would probably help as I'm getting my ass kicked on Chapter 15 (of I think 16 or 17?).
The game is Djinn-bait for being such an eclectic collection of ideas thematically, plus being Valkyria Chronicles with Tall-Tale Story/American Classic Lit characters. Having Ike is also cool. (dammit I want a Marth amiibo)
Ike himself is actually kind of lackluster for gameplay worth, but I use him anyway because -Ike-. His Ragnell shoots shockwaves that move slowly and sort of push enemies along, repeatedly hitting for minor damage each push. Great damage -potential- but in practice it's better just to use Urvan for a single hit of ~80 dmg. Locked Subweapon and Boiler kind of hurts him. His "Boiler", the Ike's Cape, doesn't have any particularly stand out features either. He -does- get Henry's Push ability and a decent Special, so I suppose if you hate Henry, Ike can substitute? (And I can certainly understand liking Ike more than Henry.)
I wanna talk about the other characters, but I don't want to spoil Snow (and I like reading his writeups on them).
Just based on the ones he's gotten so far, I'd kneejerk an ingame use ranking as something like:
Queequeg > Lion > Tiger Lily = Tom Sawyer = Henry Fleming > Ike > John Henry > Scarecrow
Queequeg's ranged AoE damage and durability combo just obsoletes John Henry, and usually cements him as the main damage dealer until some later characters show up.
Lion's mobility and passive defense boost and durability put him slightly above the pack.
Lily heals, which isn't really -necessary- if you're running the high-durability characters, but it doesn't hurt and with a good Overwatch subweapon, she's a useful contribution.
Tom similarly can play a support role and can scout well, so he might be a good choice for a fourth unit. Probably wouldn't run both Tom and Lily though.
Henry is just kind of a solid average option with good Overwatch and a good OPB nuke.
John is redundant, but if you run all heavy durability characters, he's your fourth option.
Scarecrow is certainly -usable-, but his niche specialties don't come up often enough to matter and Stun tends not to work on bosses. Also, gameworst durability...
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I also intend to make a stat topic for the game. Its mechanics are incredibly simple and transparent and it'd be a pretty quick work. In that sense, more than any other, it's an IntSys game through and through.
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They actually made the Dragon Shrine worse? HOW.
Do you remember the final staircase where there were like half a dozen dudes up there but they were stupid enough that you could pick off one at a time with arrows?
They're not that stupid anymore.
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Usually at this point I'm out of sunny d and just run past everything.
Cid, I found no one on the road to sinner except a respawnable flexile sentry (WHY) also, invaders seem to invade even if you're a zombie, so that's pretty cool. Not that I ever die of course.
The new enemies in the girl's wharf scared the hell out of me." Why is this Longarms attacking me so violently oh man it is not a Longarms run run run"
I'm this close to respeccing everything and using like a big magic blue axe instead of the twinblade. I feel that I care way too little about Star Wars to continue with this twinblade madness.
Also: Yes. Pursuers. I get it.
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There are still explosion zombies in Sinner's Rise, but yeah, it feels weirdly depopulated with one downgraded boss instead of multiple mutants. Also you could always be invaded while hollow in DS2.
Try to endure until you get to the castle and can pick up a stone twinblade from the ninja statues. It's almost decent! (The basic Bastile twinblade is outright terrible.) Supposedly the red iron twinblade is the one fans like, but I've never tried it. It looked like it didn't have the same ridiculous moveset, and if not why even use it?
Of course if you're really pro you'll impress us all by maining SORCERER'S TWINBLADE.
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They actually made the Dragon Shrine worse? HOW.
Do you remember the final staircase where there were like half a dozen dudes up there but they were stupid enough that you could pick off one at a time with arrows?
They're not that stupid anymore.
I didn't even arrow spam through and that still sounds awful.
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I'm not that bothered by how bad the twinblade is, I guess I'm just not really that excited about it anymore? I consideree switching to greataxes and those are even worse from what I remember.
Oh yeah, early whip is a thing now. And the notched whip is also early. If you guys want to power stance whips... (i already got 100 bell victories with that)
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Update: I always seem to just how bad the bandit greataxe is.
I'm sorry regular twinblade, I won't think about leaving you again
The gutter is even less of a harsh terrible place and even more of a fun place in which you light all these torches. On one hand that's bad for atmosphere, on the other I kind of love it.
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They actually made the Dragon Shrine worse? HOW.
Do you remember the final staircase where there were like half a dozen dudes up there but they were stupid enough that you could pick off one at a time with arrows?
They're not that stupid anymore.
I didn't even arrow spam through and that still sounds awful.
oh man fuck that
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DS2: Didn't even need Denial, beat the king without getting hit. Try No Lock-on is really the magic message here, very easy to stay behind him the whole time that way. Still tedious. Beat frue final on the first try, was pretty glad I had all those cleric spells though because chained bosses. Then I gave DS2's normal ending the finger and walked away.
Melu scimitar working out very well, that + Sunlight Blade and Sacred Oath was an extremely satisfactory way of dicing even stupidly durable Crown of the Sunken King bosses (as always, the boost they get with multiple players is staggering, in someone else's world with three total players and my 450~ damage swings are now like 150). Elana only lived long enough to get one summon gang out. Gank squad of course is still Try Circling Around -> Try Circling Around -> Try Circling Around.
DLC zones appear to be unchanged in Scholar. I'll still go through the rest of them because they're better than any of the original zones. (Well maybe not the Frigid Outskirts. Fuck the Frigid Outskirts.) And now I'm max level (for my standards at least) so stupidly large amounts of souls are building up and I start going hmm, I really do need 999 of each arrow type, don't I? I mean, I don't want to run out here you guys.
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They actually made the Dragon Shrine worse? HOW.
Do you remember the final staircase where there were like half a dozen dudes up there but they were stupid enough that you could pick off one at a time with arrows?
They're not that stupid anymore.
I am so confused. None of those dudes aggroed me the entire way through. I just had to fight the big guys and the dual greatsword knight at the end. Am I missing something?
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I dunno how it is in SotFS, but in the original it was much faster and easier to just run past all those dragoons and big knights. They stop chasing you once you get a ways in to the Ancient Dragon's room. The first time I played the game, I slogged it out and pulled the enemies one at a time, and it was torture. On replays, I just ran past nearly every enemy in Dragon Shrine and didn't have too much of an issue. Roll if someone goes for an attack and keep running.
The mace guys earlier on in the Shrine are the worst since they can interrupt you opening the door.
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I dunno how it is in SotFS, but in the original it was much faster and easier to just run past all those dragoons and big knights. They stop chasing you once you get a ways in to the Ancient Dragon's room. The first time I played the game, I slogged it out and pulled the enemies one at a time, and it was torture. On replays, I just ran past nearly every enemy in Dragon Shrine and didn't have too much of an issue. Roll if someone goes for an attack and keep running.
The mace guys earlier on in the Shrine are the worst since they can interrupt you opening the door.
Speedrun Strats
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They actually made the Dragon Shrine worse? HOW.
Do you remember the final staircase where there were like half a dozen dudes up there but they were stupid enough that you could pick off one at a time with arrows?
They're not that stupid anymore.
I am so confused. None of those dudes aggroed me the entire way through. I just had to fight the big guys and the dual greatsword knight at the end. Am I missing something?
Huh. I fired an arrow at one dude from the door and all eight of them immediately charged at me. Followed me practically back to the entrance of the zone, too.
I guess I must have pissed them off. Earlier in the zone all they did was gesture at me. Not sure exactly when their behavior changed (I mean before I shot a dude; I think they might have gone hostile as a result of me trying to loot the place).
EDIT: also while running Quelaag yesterday I got invaded and had a Blue Sentinel show up to help for...probably the first time in way too much goddamn time playing DS2. Wow.
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Cid, if you wanted the Priestess set, you can find the entire thing in a hidden room near the chapel in Brightstone Cove Tseldora.
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I actually managed to Blue Sentinel once! Sure my Way of Blue was dead as soon as I popped in but it was a thing!
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Well, I would be playing MK X but Steam seems to have made a colossal blunder with the way it is released. Rather than just letting you pre-load it, they're doing the same thing Blizzard does with WoW and only pre-loading 3 GB of the game (which is the menu/basic engine code, I think?) and letting you stream the rest while you play. I could see this working if you were playing Super Mario Brothers where you proceed linearly, but right now I'm just left waiting. I have several characters available to me, the game has yet to download a single stage for me to fight on.
It's not really the best system for installation and I don't really understand the logic behind it for a fighting game.
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Cid, if you wanted the Priestess set, you can find the entire thing in a hidden room near the chapel in Brightstone Cove Tseldora.
Yeah, I've been wearing it most of the game. >.> That item used to be an estus flask shard, so I was very surprised. The warlock mask is also now a guaranteed find instead of being a rare drop off of two enemies that don't respawn. If I can only find the monastery set somewhere too, I'll be satisfied that all the cool clothes are a lot more feasible to obtain now.
Did basilisks always do sick ninja flips? I don't remember this being a thing.
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Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. - Finished Mission 6, which, all in all, pretty much felt like a stellar piece of design - boss fight where you have to deal with tentacles burrowing under and rising from the earth to attack you, but they can be revealed by stunning them AND they can't attack you if you're standing on stone floor. ALSO, the boss specializes on using AoE stun and spawning Slashers, having no other attacks. And Prowlers start pouring in as reinforcements once you reach the boss arena. Coincidentally, you get a character whose main tricks are huge AoE stun bombs -AND- stun immunity! Discovering that his Pumpkin Stunner also completely trivializes the obnoxious stun-sniper insect aliens due to its obscene vertical range was also amazing, this map really makes Scarecrow look good.
The second run went far more smoothly than the first, and also involved a few hilarious brick jokes - for instance, remember how I complained about Trick or Treat being a useless special for Scarecrow? Yeah, one turn I used it for a cover of sorts for Queequeg and Tiger Lily, who were exposed - mostly landmines and a single piece of candy. In the incoming enemy turn, no less than -three- Prowlers slammed into the landmines, shutting down their turn. Then, Lion took a hell of a beating and barely survived. And I wouldn't be able to put him up to good health for a -second- turn. HOWEVER, he could Lion Launch into the sole candy thrown by Scarecrow. And then he recovered 75 HP. Hells yeah. Once I got to the graveyard where the boss stood, it was mostly a matter of keeping ground, sniping the alien queen with Queequeg's Penguin Lobber and having Lion gradually reach the boss while pouncing on enemies with Lion Launch (seriously guys this move rules).
Up next, we enter Miskatonic University. Having just unlocked a sweet Middle-weight Boiler Pack that regens 10 Steam a turn.
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You got the 10 regen Middle Boiler on chapter 6?! Geez, that's waaay earlier than I got it, you must be collecting like a fiend (or I was speeding through too fast?).
Also, yeah, Scarecrow is awesome when his niche is useful, but that map kinda plays to his strengths. The next one is pretty good for him too IIRC, but you don't really miss him much after that. I think there's maybe one more map with the burrowing guys from Tremors all over it?
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I haven't missed a single cog so far and I haven't been replaying maps since Mission 2 (I replayed mission 1 solely because it was my first evaluation and I was embarrassed by how badly I did at first. Mission 1 is pretty rough). It hurts my turn performance a bit, but I can deal, especially since the game doesn't tell you how many turns you have to succeed the speed bonus until a mission replay. That was a blunder.
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/me looks at the voice actor list for Code Name STEAM
Wow, that is quite the list. Kari Wahlgren? Finn? Worf & Wil Wheaton? Jayne? Azula? Colonel Scarecrow?!?!
Colonel Scarecrow : You will accept this assignment!
Dorothy: Why should I be stupid enough to do that? I'm no patriot.
Scarecrow: Dorothy, there's enough dirt in your file from your days in Oz to keep you in the stockade until you're a very old woman.
Dorothy: Oh I see. Blackmail.
Scarecrow: No Dorothy. I prefer to look at it as helping you to come to a decision more easily. But anyway, I know you better than that. You'd take this assignment even without the threat.
Dorothy: Why do you say that?
Scarecrow: You're a natural born soldier. You're not the grow old gracefully type. Same for all of us who've seen real action. The only place we can feel truly alive is on the battlefield. I'm a solider too. You've tried to play the girl scout out there in Kansas, but you can't harvest grain in the fields forever. Why don't you come back to us and be a soldier again.
Dorothy: You think my life is some kind of joke?
Scarecrow: Dorothy, I just want to give you back your purpose in life.
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/me applauds.
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Dark Souls 2: Twinblade +10. Too late to go back.
I had forgotten just how much the game shovers you with souls. I'm like halfway through! I already have super high stats and a maxed weapon!
Let's stack dex up to 50 and make a bleed twinblade. Huge number of hits per attack + magic weapon to mitigate the damage loss = I know have the perfect build. Dark Souls 2 is already over, I'll finish the game in 30 seconds then make a PvP video about this build (with dubstep).
(I tried this against one enemy and now already regret it deeply)
I quite like all the changes so far. Maybe it's just me but the bosses seem super tame now.
Edit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Th96wgegHw
Edit2: HEY EL CID! Can you check if HeinekenSouls is still a thing?
I can't waste these Pharros Stones damn it
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Yeah I really hope Code Name STEAM made enough money to offset the cost of such a great voice cast... Won't have much idea how well it did until it comes out in Japan next month. I don't actually know if it's going to have a Japanese seiyuu cast or if they are planning on just subtitling it all in Japanese. With such an expensive American voice cast and the game's setting/subject matter, it wouldn't be unheard of to just leave it undubbed. It doesn't strike me as something that would appeal to a Japanese audience, but it -is- an IntSys game, so hopefully it'll make enough money in Japan to warrant a sequel. It doesn't seem like it made a great showing just from its American release, which is just unfortunate.
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Dark Souls 2: Twinblade +10. Too late to go back.
I had forgotten just how much the game shovers you with souls. I'm like halfway through! I already have super high stats and a maxed weapon!
Let's stack dex up to 50 and make a bleed twinblade. Huge number of hits per attack + magic weapon to mitigate the damage loss = I know have the perfect build. Dark Souls 2 is already over, I'll finish the game in 30 seconds then make a PvP video about this build (with dubstep).
(I tried this against one enemy and now already regret it deeply)
I quite like all the changes so far. Maybe it's just me but the bosses seem super tame now.
Edit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Th96wgegHw
Edit2: HEY EL CID! Can you check if HeinekenSouls is still a thing?
I can't waste these Pharros Stones damn it
-Yeah, DS2 is pretty much set up so that the amount of souls you'll get during the course of killing the Old Ones is pretty much exactly what you need to open the door anyway (and easily enough to have at least 2/3 of your build filled out before you head to the castle). And getting a maxed weapon is even easier than it was before with the ember sitting in McDuff's own attic. This is why I don't understand my brother deliberately despawning entire zones. Dude, it's Dark Souls 2, it's balanced pretty well, you don't have to farm souls ever really. Just nom nom some boss souls if you need a quick fix.
-The bosses do seem mostly pushovers* at this point, but we've also played the game way too fucking much. It shouldn't be much surprise that the normal mobs give us a little trouble because they've been changed whereas the bosses don't because they're completely the same (well, I think Skeleton Lords had the death spawns altered a little, but that's it). Now that I think about it, I don't think I've even had a boss death yet in Scholar. Did I mention I've played this game too much?
(*especially after Bloodborne's)
-Wow how did I never notice how goofy those guys walk.
-Heineken...Souls? I honestly don't know what you're talking about. Oh wait, are you talking about Santier's Spear? (Just guessing because Pharros Stones.) I can go look for it tomorrow if you want.
~
Finished up with the clericness. Eleum Loyce aspires to radiate Keep Out on a level approaching Boletaria castle but probably doesn't quite make it. That is a fuckofalot of wall, though. Ivory King almost got blitzed down before he could even power up. Didn't know that could happen but guess it shouldn't be a surprise considering I've seen Fume Knight get smashed before he can go all rage mode (not by me solo, full group). Skipped Iron Passage and Frigid Outskirts because fuck both of those places.
Took the chaos rapier into Shulva to get ring + hat earlier than is practically advisable. I thought this would be problematic, and it was, but for reasons somewhat other than expected. Yeah, there was a pretty traumatic bit where the phantoms knocked me off the ladder leading to the third bonfire three times in a row and I ran out of estus before finally making it up there safely, but the really shitshitshit part is that I genocided the priestesses without getting their hat. Goddammit, game. You had sixty chances to give me the one thing I needed. No I don't need more Crimson Water, fuck off. I could burn an ascetic in there but I think I'd have to kill Elana first, so fffft. (At the moment I can barely take that place NG anyway.) So no hat drop for Quelaag. Fenrir if you get the ridiculous handlebar hat, you must give me the ridiculous handlebar hat, otherwise I guess will just have to settle for the wicked goat skull instead.
Also I hadn't died yet and I was all set to go you guys, pyromancy is magic, I just can't die with it, but then naturally I rolled right off a cliff vs the first hollow in Shulva. Gravity remains my hated foe.
I'm also gradually working through a punchysouls file, keeping pace with my brother on this one (who moves slowly because he actually has a life and also feels a bizarre need to grind the fuck out of these games). Spent some time bellbroing it up to get twin +10 caestuses. This is harder than it used to be because a good 50% of the time the host has Glencour with them and that fucker is always harshing my kills at the least opportune moment and you really cannot beat him, he must have at least 10,000 HP. Gawd why did they have to put an NPC summon in Belfry Luna. Anyway, covenant appears to drop other stuff now? I got some twinklies and a slab from victories while trying to farm out chunks, which really was not welcome because frankly chunks are a more welcome find in DS2 than are slabs (because you need six times as many of them).
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Heineken Souls would be the garbage texture that has a bottle in the corner of it.
I am pretty sure it is still there and probably not even upscaled. Both because *effort* and because it is funny.
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(http://i.imgur.com/zgtW2dz.jpg)
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So cool. 10/10
Cid if I find the hat I'll hide it in the frigid outskirts , summon you and tell you to find it, only giving you cryptic directions like "go somewhere cold, then go somewhere colder"
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i hate you
So where exactly is that pile of vomit? I would've assumed the Gutter.
Oh, also, I FAQ'd how to get into the locked wing of Aldia. I did not FAQ what was in there. I should have.
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In the well , near RRV, give a pharros snack to a pharros face to make one of the stone rats spill garbage all over the floor.
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Dark Souls 2: Only Old Iron King left before leaving for Drangleic
So how do they manage to make each new entry in the series (including this remaster) have even worse spiders than the last one? I feel like I'm always talking about those spiders, but still , seriously:
- Demon's Souls had Armored Spider, which was already the worst.
- Dark Souls had Quelaag, Quelaag's nice but super gross sister, and Ceaseless D. Horrible.
- Dark Souls 2 had all of Tseldora. Millions of spiders + Trap n°1 (red chest) + Trap n°2 (near the quicksand) Trap n°2 (That room near the locked door) + Trap n°4 (opening the chest behind that locked door) + Traps I'm probably forgetting + Spiders near the bonfire + Spidermen + The web room + Freyja. lol
- Bloodborne had a spider boss that uses the power of the PS4 to summon way too many spiders at once. It has giant spiders with human faces. It has you realizing midway through the game that giant-er spiderlike things were watching your every step and sometimes attacking you in various areas of the game. Then it has you fight one. It has random dungeons terrifying red spiders that are incessantly and infinitely respawning until you find the bell girl that you can't find because you're running the hell away.
- Dark Souls 2 Scholar had Tseldora 2.0, which is just like Tseldora except with spiders hanging on walls everywhere and freaking you out constantly unless you have a bow build and get all OCD about killing all of them.
What's next From?
SJW Inquisition: Hahahahahahahah that jump. I need a turbo controller to spam that instead of walking.
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You become the spider.
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That's basically Bloodborne's "true" ending anyway. EDIT: also Fenrir how could you forget the best spider in Bloodborne.
Fenrir I stared at rat vomit for several minutes just for you and was not able to discern any Heineken Souls. I can't state definitively that it's not there, but I sure couldn't spot it.
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Nier - Finished the B ending, or second playthrough, or whatever you want to call it.
The second playthrough really helps round out Nier as a game. A lot of the plot makes a lot more sense, and it's rather thought-provoking and definitely leaves an open question as to whether the actions of the characters are justified. Overall I feel like the game managed to create a conflict with no truly bad characters and where so much conflict just comes from miscommunication and assuming the worst of others, and that's pretty interesting.
Kaine backstory was also nice. I ended up really liking all four of the "main party" cast. None are among my favourite characters ever, but they were all super-memorable and brought something interesting to the table. Rest of the cast is mostly just there. I liked the final dungeon duo but I felt if you're going to pull that with those characters, that you should do more with it? Most pointless character award certainly goes to Noir; I'm not even sure if the game was just kinda trolling you with that. Then again he's Weiss' anime rival, and as such I conclude he gets about as much screentime/importance as anime rivals deserve.
It's not the best-written game ever or anything; it's really more about its broad concepts and some of the executions could be better. There are a few things that I wish the second playthrough had helped more than it did (Aerie sequeunce remained unsatisfying). But overall it's a breath of fresh air.
The music is great. I was a bit skeptical since I'm not a fan of most game vocals and I was worried that the music would be of that overdramatic vocal type... but I can really only think of one, maybe two tracks that fell flat in that regard to me. Most of the rest was really outstanding. Special shout-out to Hills of Radiant Wind being so good, since you hear it a fuck-ton and music you hear a fuck-ton being good is very, very important to me. (I'll take reasons why Chrono Cross soundtrack is unimpressive for $100, Alex.) Music direction is also stellar and I loved how various themes reappeared in certain places and how extra instruments would fade in and out depending on location and how a cutscene proceeded.
Gameplay... sigh. "Clearly worse than Devil May Cry 2" sums it up. I play plenty of action games and this is one that just feels obviously lazy, and rather bland. There are some good ideas with the bullet hell sequences but once you realise you can just block it who cares. I will give it this: it isn't aggressively bad. I can think of virtually no times the gameplay actively annoyed me. It was just there, something to get through before seeing more of the story, characters, and world. But it's still disappointing. Also given the emphasis on the party, I feel an opportunity was missed to give it a turn-based party-oriented RPG combat system. I'd love it if this game had FF4's battle system and I shouldn't be saying that about the game. Just imagine if it was anything like Wild Arms 4... *swoons*
I've seen some people say the game has bad graphics? I guess I just don't care that much. It has decent CG sequences where you can clearly make out facial expressions and that adds a lot to cutscenes and that's really the most important thing I can say about graphics.
Overall good game but I still have no idea how good. It's not as good as, say, Suikoden V to me, a game that I even more unequivocally like the writing of and find the character growth system more appealing. Probably somewhere in the vicinity of 6/10, but after the second playthrough it that feels like it's more likely to be a lowball estimate than the highball I would have called it before. And regardless of what rating it earns it is certainly an interesting game and would be high on my list of things to recommend from the (generally unimpressive) PS/360 generation.
New Super Mario Bros. U - Beat Bowser, now working on getting the remaining star coins (I have almost all of them) and doing the ninth world, which will be truly uncharted territory since we didn't do that in our group play of the game.
Wild Arms 4 silly challenge run continues
Enil - Somehow she is even worse than normal because Jude's dinky physical means he barely does any damage to his allies when killing their clones, not much to say past that.
Silver Star Express - The soldier fights here can be pretty rough. Dreadnoughts counter everything but hitting the hex with Misery, which sucks. Chemical Fighters do damage + disease which isn't as bad overall but occasionally can be nasty, and does favour not stalling. Pyro Gunners are the real problem, though, since their fire damage really stings, and poison is always bad. Still, it's the combinations which can be tricky. Resist Fire and Dispel both see some use here, and Genocide Edge, which I learned in Etemenanki, comes in handy a couple times. One reset on a fight with two Chemical Fighters and two Pyros.
Tank Vehicle - He's nasty, wrecking the party fast due to starting adjacent and being fast. Jude moves to hopefully distract him, but no good; Yulie and Raquel die. Arnaud uses Illusion and Jude uses Short Circuit, I win.
Balgaine - Jude and Raquel get in his face in the centre hex, Yulie and Arnaud in corners he never attacks. No real use for Arnaud since I don't have Reinforce. Jude Short Circuit, Raquel Poison Bite then Dragon Edge, Yulie Revive. Straightforward. Sadly I screw up and have people dead when Balgaine dies from poison.
Tony 3 - Like Tank Vehicle he brings the offence, but loses a valuable turn stepping forward, and Illusion is shutdown again. Kresnik is super-tanky compared to what I'm used to so that doesn't help Tony's cause much.
Super Soldier (5 resets) - This fight. THIS FIGHT. Okay, Super Soldier opens with Blast, 2HKOing everyone except Yulie and sometimes Arnaud. He gets a second turn before Arnaud's first, and will happily complete the 2HKO. Fortunately, moving Jude forward gives him a new target (and one he can melee, so usually Jude gets hit). Sometimes Super Soldier will move turn 2 instead, which is great. Jude sometimes dies from now, sometimes not. If he does he's not coming back; that's a Yulie turn I can never afford.
From here, a few difficulties present myself, namely that Arnaud's elemental blasts don't OHKO, Jude's Phantom Lines don't OHKO, and Material... is borderline. With a lack of great offensive options I instead spend my first Arnaud turn jumping to an elemental hex (bringing Yulie and Raquel), and Illusioning the adjacent enemies. If Super Soldier has moved, I jump adjacent to him to hopefully eat up most of his turns with this. Otherwise whatever. I defaulted to jumping to the fight but in hindsight this was a bad idea probably as whichever enemy I go adjacent to often wastes turns moving, and it's good if the the soldier on the right does that since sometimes he'll order everyone else to attack with his own melee attack and that sucks.
Yulie's first turn is tricky. I toy with various strategies, such as Material and Protecting to make her mostly immune to Blasts, but eventually realise the best idea is just to Heal (in WA4! Yes!), which maximises the chance of both Arnaud and critically, Raquel being alive. Because from here on, if both live to get a turn, especially with Illusion evade effects, there's a decent chance I get off Genocide Edge, which kills all the soldiers except the leader. From there on, Illusion is hopefully enough. On my winning run, Yulie does die, but that's okay, the others finish the job with Raquel landing a nasty elemental Dragon Edge.
Tough, and I definitely need some luck in the opening rounds (either Magic Blocker or Super Soldier moving), but a fun fight and eventually I get through.
Prototype Gear (3 resets) - Gets two turns immediately. Can OHKO Yulie or Arnaud (unless Arnaud dodges) or ID them with Radious Breath. This fight is kinda RNG because if they die before I get a turn I'm not winning (Jude's Short Circuit hitting the fourth boss out of the last five does make a game of it, but it's not enough). So I pretty much need to hope that either Prototype Gear misses with ID twice (at least on Yulie), or he decides to move.
Eventually he does move (downwards) without killing Yulie, at which point I'm able to have Jude and Arnaud close in to surround him while Yulie is outside of his range. That's game! All his attacks hit adjacent hexes or a line, and Yulie can revive. If he'd moved to the centre I could try to accomplish the same thing with Isolate.
Actually the end of this fight is a bit dicy as at one point Prototype Gear breaks out of Illusion and goes on a badass run and kills everyone but Yulie. Reviving actually isn't that easy, but Arnaud is the best bet, and if he lives long enough for Illusion I can probably count on getting others up too. I am a bit worried about Yulie's MP though, for a moment.
Augst - I'd kinda like to give the kill to Yulie but he absorbs elements so I'd have to chip him down to like 100 HP or take ages letting Yulie tap away at him, no thanks. Nothing else to say about this fight!
The break point fight in Dragon Fossil Mine is a real bitch. Both the Necromancer and the two Helter Skelters can order focused attacks which wreck me utterly. Usual problem of OHKOs being hard, even with Yulie being able to pull them with Hi-Sanctify. Necromancers randomly evade magic (including Sanctify) and this is awful. I have to reload and come back with a different skill loadout, the key change being the addition of Hi-Blast, which allows Arnaud to one-shot even without the fire hex (and has a chance to one-shot Necromancers with the fire hex). And then just pray to the RNG gods.
At this point everything is getting nastier. Fortunately the next run of bosses isn't that amazing (I hope) at least until Reclaimer Dragon. We'll see, though.
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Fenrir I stared at rat vomit for several minutes just for you
<3
I wanted some more trophies so I restarted as a sorc/hex build. Maybe I'll go back to twinblades later.
Hex still feels as good as before but I've only used dark orb so........
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Awakening equal XP: Bah, getting frustrating. Flames on the Blue, aka the ship map, played about as cowardly as possible (throw out boarding planks, IMMEDIATELY RUN AWAY from them and hide in the top of my boat). I can probably survive if I have Tharja go hang out near the front and Nosferatu everything to death, but that'll make getting XP for everyone else difficult, but attempting to fortify the top of my boat still gets me potentially overwhelmed easily. I can surely win if I switch to "casual mode allowing fake deaths" but want to give it a bit more of a shot first.
Suikoden Tierkreis: Started this after getting too frustrated with Awakening. The battle mechanics in this game are pretty tight, Dark Souls types might like it for precision timing and so on. For example, do you do press down -> press a for an autobattle? It's theoretically a tad faster, but your units will spread their attacks around randomly. "Press A repeatedly" with no directional button press will nicely focus on one enemy but is maybe a bit slower, but can also be done one-handed, if, say, you are sucking your left thumb and holding the DS with your right hand. Now, here's where it gets really interesting: certain enemies you're supposed to use magic on, but there's no memory of previous commands or anything, so you get to hand-select the magic damage command for all your troops every turn! Thrilling. The magic animations are nice & slow too so you can appreciate 'em. There's like a battle every 5 seconds so you get lots of practice in your techniques, too, and admire Mine #328 that I've hacked through in video games. And none of that 2x / 4x battle speed option from Bravely Default that scrubs use a handicap, or memory of previous commands as mentioned already. We'll see if I can make it through.
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Good news is that there support PCs who can instakill randoms lower levelled than you (which is a lot of them) or give you a 100% run. And the load times are fast (particularly compared to, say, S5)! So it's definitely possible to get the time spent on gameplay down pretty low. Which isn't a good thing to say about the game, but the rest of the package is worth it.
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Encounter-None, or a "don't get into encounters with lower leveled enemies" support, would both be pretty sweet, yes.
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Smash 3DS: Finally did All Star Mode and classic mode with all characters, Mewtwo included! Now back to Abraham Lincoln!
Resonance Of Fate: Also started this up, completed the prologue.
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Resonance Of Fate: Also started this up, completed the prologue.
Run away. Quickly. Mind you this is coming from a tri-Ace fan.
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I'd say play it until you get bored of it and then quit without regret. But that should go for all games, I suppose.
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Suikoden Tierkreis: Started this after getting too frustrated with Awakening. The battle mechanics in this game are pretty tight, Dark Souls types might like it for precision timing and so on. For example, do you do press down -> press a for an autobattle? It's theoretically a tad faster, but your units will spread their attacks around randomly. "Press A repeatedly" with no directional button press will nicely focus on one enemy but is maybe a bit slower, but can also be done one-handed, if, say, you are sucking your left thumb and holding the DS with your right hand. Now, here's where it gets really interesting: certain enemies you're supposed to use magic on, but there's no memory of previous commands or anything, so you get to hand-select the magic damage command for all your troops every turn! Thrilling. The magic animations are nice & slow too so you can appreciate 'em. There's like a battle every 5 seconds so you get lots of practice in your techniques, too, and admire Mine #328 that I've hacked through in video games. And none of that 2x / 4x battle speed option from Bravely Default that scrubs use a handicap, or memory of previous commands as mentioned already. We'll see if I can make it through.
I LOL'd. Though really, Tierkreis has a fun enough setting and is blessedly short enough that the battle system doesn't matter too much to get the most enjoyment out of it. Also, I promise the talking speed calms down later.
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Resonance Of Fate: Also started this up, completed the prologue.
Run away. Quickly. Mind you this is coming from a tri-Ace fan.
Just quit when you finish Christmas~
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Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. - Currently on mission 9-2. The pacing just doesn't let go, does it. Mission 7's maps were -brutal-, 7-1 in particular got scary as fuck once I opened the gates to the exit, with Berserkers and grenadier Prowlers pouring in while sniper Prowlers munched away my units at the stairways. 7-2 wasn't actually that bad in spite of the cramped up spaces, but it's very intimidating and requires a careful approach. The highlight of the map was Tom soloing a mutated sniper Crowler with mighty Punch Gun thwacks that kept it trapped and swinging like a ragdoll. -In fact-, Tom just shines in that map with the mobility and his ability to hop up steps, along with his positioning shenanigans. And, once again, strategically placed landmines proved invaluable for controlling ground. Mission 8 was definitely simpler, but the boss fight was hilarious. I was on a timer there, since Tiger Lily died to random ground tentacles and the boss itself, which I had Tom parking next to, 2HKOed him. I managed to kill the boss on my turn's -very last action- and that was that. 9-2 looks like a doozy, with two large floors to rummage through, but hopefully the new team member should prove useful.
New characters! There are three, but since I haven't had the chance to actually use Queen Califia, I'll focus on the people who joined in the fun earlier.
Randolph Carter - Well, the package doesn't -sound- like much. Randolph, being a Middle Class character, gets balanced stats and mobility, but somewhat on the low side (130 HP isn't too impressive, though better than Tiger Lily). His main weapon, the Unspeakable Lure, involves him dropping a slab of frozen meat to bait enemies. It deals no damage and only lasts one turn. Doesn't seem exactly great, right? But it's one of the most valuable abilities you could ever ask for: it takes enemies out of hiding and diverts their attention away from the party, often wasting their turns. They -can- attack you through it, but it generally works wonders to take foes out of hiding and position them into a place you want them to be. It also completely trivializes Berserkers, who are scary motherfuckers if they latch onto you. His special, Eldritch Shield, halves damage for all the affected allies for a turn, which is certainly useful when you expect to be under heavy fire, and his passive ability (improves critical damage) has amazing offensive synergy overall. Especially considering...
The Fox - Holy -shit-. The Fox. This lady here is utterly nuts. Light Boilers mean she gets a heads up on mobility, though her durability sucks (120 HP is the best out of the Light class, but that's uh still not good, all relevant Light Boilers lower defense to boot. So she's at best Tiger Lily-level). Her main weapon, the Fox Rifle, costs 4 steam, though, which is -a lot- for something that deals about as much damage as a Punch Gun thwack. What's her deal, then? First, the -obscene- range on the Rifle. No one can aim as far as she can by a wide margin, and this also means she's the best at scoring critical hits - which you can stack scarily with Randolph's passive and the Ninja Boiler. Her range also makes her the best at overwatch shenanigans, which get compounded by her passive skill, which improves overwatch damage, and her special, which makes her stationary for a turn, gives her an extra 12 steam -and- doubles range and damage of overwatch attacks, so you could park her on a spot where you -know- enemies will be pouring in and have her bust heads. Which you can -also- bait in with Randolph (in fact, Randolph and The Fox are -meant- to be together at all times in Campaign mode. The synergy is just incredible). Oh, and the Fox Rifle is cheaper on overwatch, spending 3 steam. With decent aiming, The Fox's offense reaches utterly nutsy realms - I had her OHKOing BERSERKERS with the Steam Crossbow (and The Fox should -never- use any other subweapon, in all honesty. Pulling off 400+ damage for 2 steam is completely insane). Best character in the game so far hands down.
The general rundown of characters remains mostly the same - PCs are very static in the game. I used Henry on 8-1 and he did quite well there, since that stage rewards his Eagle Pistol's range and damage. John has been left mostly untouched since Queequeg joined - he's clearly the worst of the explosive characters as of now due to being generally less flexible with his weaponry and a superior special can't really stand up to Queequeg's amazing range and passive. Lion's still amazing, but the last few stages have called less for his offensive mobility. Tiger Lily's still useful as your only AoE healing, Scarecrow is quite niche (for all that he'd have come in handy for 8-2's tentacles and I'd expect shiny numbers off stun-spammed criticals with The Fox) and Tom... well, Tom may not be even a top-tier PC, but I'll be damned if he isn't a ton of fun. He's just very versatile for a PC primarily geared for scouting, with a great - if strange - primary weapon and game-best mobility due to being able to climb and hop over obstacles. He also does hilarious things to stationary bosses and enemies in cramped spaces. Just don't saddle him with healing: Tiger Lily pulls off the low-durability healer schtick due to having a unique, powerful niche in that and Tom lacks that while being uniformly frailer than her.
I'm really not sure who I'd recommend this game to, but it's definitely a serious contender for game of the year in my book.
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Code Name STEAM:
Yes, you got to Fox. I was waiting to see your evaluation of her. She never stops being the best, though other characters are certainly good, the turn economy on her Overwatch+range, ESPECIALLY when paired with Randolph's Unspeakable Lure or Scarecrow's Pumpkins is invaluable on basically every map. She is the sole reason I was able to beat the game as quickly as I did. If you want a challenge, you can basically just do a no-Fox run of the game, since it's NOT an easy game. The AI is ridiculously cruel, even though predictable, and I feel like Fox is the PC most able to take advantage of its predictability.
Quick ranking of in-game worth:
Fox >>>>>>>> Queequeg = Califia >>>> Lion > Tiger Lily > Tom > Henry >> Randolph > Scarecrow >>>> John
You basically always want Fox, then either one or both of Queequeg and Queen Califia. Your last one or two slots depends on the map. You can sub John for Queequeg if you just like him, he's -usable-, just outclassed entirely and brings nothing unique. Lion/Lily/Tom all do things that are always useful and unique to them, so they are likely to see use even on maps not tailored to their skills. Henry is a good all-rounder due to overwatch and his awesome OPB damage on his special, but nothing that can't be replaced by the heavy hitters like Fox/Queequeg/Califia or even Lion. Randolph and Scarecrow are -unique-, but situational.
I totally used Randolph all the time though because he's a Lovecraft character and I <3 me some Lovecraft. (Unspeakable Lure is Soylent Green.)
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I totally used Randolph all the time though because he's a Lovecraft character and I <3 me some Lovecraft. (Unspeakable Lure is Soylent Green.)
As subtly acknowledged by John Milton.
The big deal with The Fox, though, is that while her critical game can be replicated by other Light Boiler characters (it mostly comes from the crit boost on the Ninja Boiler), none of them can replicate the range and overwatch coverage. The Ninja Boiler also gets in the way of the others' niches (Tom -badly- wants the three extra steam from the Scout Boiler and Scarecrow's too frail to get into the fray often, he wants to stay at range and stun large areas from a safe distance. The extra steam on the Scout Boiler also makes the difference between a Pumpkin Stunner or two -at the very least-), while it feels frankly MADE for The Fox. The Fox is the only one who can afford to sacrifice some Steam recovery for the offense, and you're -mad- if you're considering putting Tom Sawyer and Scarecrow of the game-worst durability on hardcore overwatch duty.
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I'm really not sure who I'd recommend this game to, but it's definitely a serious contender for game of the year in my book.
Well I know what game I'm starting next.
Wild Arms 4
As expected, this section of the game is fairly easy. No resets on fixed fights at all!
Kesaran Paseran - I'm probably mangling its name. Anyway it doesn't really change much on this challenge, its damage is all in 25% target HP chunks, so there's not much to say. Blow it up and heal away any counter damage.
Goldrake - Illusion. It doesn't use spells too much, which helps. Widespread poison is a pain, but manageable.
Jeremy - First form I am fortunate enough that he doesn't go after Yulie. Illusion wrecks him. Second form goes after Arnaud, so Jude walks forward to hopefully hold him in place and Illusion locks him down forever. Despite the fact that Raquel's physical only does like 1000 damage, he somehow manages to die to her counter anyway, because some things never change.
Jane Does - Well Triple Threat nearly OHKOs, that's kinda respectable? Arnaud Illusion, Yulie Protect self, Raquel move to Yulie's hex (as she's in OHKO risk). After a few tries they stop trying to Triple Threat and a couple of them even move adjacent to Raquel. Why would you do this. At least they resist all elements available on the map, but non-elemental Hi-Blast + Hi-Sanctify + Comet Strike takes care of business anyway.
The big thing I have trouble with in this section is an Ape Man Vargon I run into on the Fallen Bridge. I have a few resets trying to set up my strategy; he'll often OHKO people (Arnaud rarely dodges, Jude/Raquel can proc their defensive skills or sometimes survive naturally) and I can hardly damage him at all (100k HP, good evade), but he takes full 25% damage from poison so I try to set up Illusion, Poison, and Shut Out. Later in the battle he starts spamming Agony Effect which just OHKOs anyone (Shut Out might be the reason?), but fortuntely he dies from poison right before he can do this to Arnaud. Arnaud's level lead gets even bigger! He's at 43 now, with Raquel at 40 and the other two at 38 or so.
New Super Mario Bros. U - Beat the ninth world. I'd beaten the maingame before in my group playthrough, but this was new. Anyway, the ninth world was good fun. Last stage was pretty anticlimactic (kinda like SMW, I suppose; nothing like SM3DW's monster), just a couple minor puzzles to get the star coins. Some of the other stages were really nasty, and they were all varied and good fun. Game was enjoyable, not much to say.
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Dark Souls 2: I think the shrine is easier now that fireflies are easier to see and the final area has a lot less enemies.
The summonable NPCs everywhere are really cool, and help me deal with invaders a little. I like black crystaling them out of this world when the boss is near dead, and that has to be the biggest jerk move in the entire game when you're summoning other players instead of NPCs. Jester Thomas, Belleclaire, Scarlet, etc: They all hate me.
So many spells, I don't care because I have 3 slots filled with Dark Orb, and with a dark Sunlight Staff +5. I sometimes switch to the regular staff +10 for big magic sword swipes and Homing Soulmass because they're super fun. (but low on charges)
I tried Great Resonant Soul with Caitha's Bell. The nerf is massive, this is pretty much only useful in PvP now compared to Dark Orb (consumes 500 souls, does like 600 damage when Dark Orb does 500) Dark Orb is still pretty hype so whatever.
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Hexer strats:
1. Cast Dark Orb,
Is it dead?
Y-Target different enemy, return to step 1
N-Return to step 1
I find hexing pretty dull because you literally never need more than the one spell. At least you get some neat utility spells with sorcery (Repair, somehow useful for once, thanks for that DS2 weapon durability). Speaking of, I am running a sorcery file now because there clearly weren't enough in progress already. Mostly I just toss Magic Weapon on the Black Scorpion Stinger and only shoot spells when something's trying to run (this worked out really well when I was bellbroing it up to get the covenant spell for trophy purposes). Armor is shadow set + goatskull. I really wanted to toss on the domino mask here but it's a rare drop from one non-respawning enemy which of course I didn't get, could burn ascetics but that's a PVP zone and I'm not sure how to turn the game to offline mode again so ffff. Oh well. This is one of the more outrageous costumes you can put on in this game, at least. Maybe it's just me, but running looks absolutely ridiculous in the shadow pants, like kind of a high-speed duck walk. It might be this was always the case and it's only more noticeable while having mutant claw feet.
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Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons: So between this and Valiant Hearts, I've played two games that are "gamey" and I've been trying to think of why it works for Brothers and bombs in Valiant Hearts, so to speak. By gamey, I mean that the design of the world is structured around contrivances that serve as the basis for puzzles (who the fuck would design those mines that way). I think a big reason why it works here is that the whole point of the mechanics in this game is to help build the characterization and relationship between the two brothers, whereas similar game mechanics actively hindered the storytelling and tone of Valiant Hearts. The characters speak but in some weird Simlish, but you can pick on meaning very easily by inflection and body language. Most of the puzzles are really intuitive and it really is all about the brothers working in concert to accomplish things, each one with exclusive actions (older is stronger and can pull levers, younger can fit through small spaces, younger refuses to swim so he holds onto older's back).
Even after beating it (only a few hours of play), controlling the two brothers with the two sticks never felt natural, but possibly the most interesting part of the game is that each brother has a separate interaction button, and the game lends itself to interacting with as many things as possible, if only to see the differences with how they brothers react to the same things. For example, you meet a dude and a harp that you can interact with, and the little brother is virtuosic while the older brother is terrible at it. The older brother is a little bit more focused on their general mission (getting something to heal their father), so when he interacts with people, he usually shows them a map of where they're supposed to be going. The little brother is more mischievous, so his interactions involve pouring buckets of water on people, slapping people on the butt, spitting in wells, etc. There are also a lot of small interactions you can do that I actually wish were not tied to achievements. They involve helping a man who is about to commit suicide, helping a group of baby turtles back to their mother, and even playing basketball with a little girl. The most interesting part of the game for me was the beginning in the village, where you get to interact with all the inhabitants and really establish the two main characters.
The game also has benches that the brothers can sit on, which is a little reminiscent of ICO's benches, but their only utility is to show off some great scenic vistas in the game. The game goes to all kinds of places which don't really make a ton of sense in terms of what kind of geographical area they're in, but the areas are generally good looking.
The big thing with the game is that the entire game involves you learning the basics of the mechanics and it all builds towards one moment that pretty much can't be spoilt for you to really get the full impact of it.
One of the older brothers dies, which is something anyone could have told you from looking at two minutes of the game. The younger brother refuses to swim because their mother was in an accident at sea and he could not save her, so to maneuver in the water, he hangs onto the older brother's back. After the older brother is killed by the suspiciously superathletic girl who is actually a giant spider (THE MRAS ARE RIGHT, WOMEN ARE ONLY OUT TO DESTROY MEN, SJW ARE CENSORING GAMEING), you are very starkly aware that you are only controlling one brother on one stick. The game also forces you to fill your brother's grave, which is one of the best uses of slowed, deliberative movement in a game, since it really does feel effortful and impactful.
In the end, the younger brother has to make his way back home, and he has to swim. He is at a loss and just stands in the water with his head down, but you hear the older brother's voice, and I instinctually pushed the older brother's interact button. You are now alone but through your loss and the relationship you've built with your brother, you have to have the resolve to do everything that he had done for you in the past. You gain the strength to pull levers you couldn't and overcome your fear of the water. You can make it on your own.
For a lot of things, people say that it's about the journey and not the destination. Here, I think most of what you're going to get from it is going to stem from your reaction to the ending part. It worked for me, and while I can recognize that many things about the game are imperfect (some sections seem unnecessary and out of place in an already short game), the thing you remember is your emotional reaction and not what came before it. Since it's dependent on emotions, it may not work for everyone (and I think a lot of people who it doesn't work for think the game is really mediocre), but I think it's worthwhile. The game is really short so there isn't a huge time commitment to see whether it works for you, but it is definitely something that you need to play (and with a controller) to get the full impact, and that kind of thing is rare in gaming right now.
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Hexer strats:
1. Cast Dark Orb,
Is it dead?
Y-Target different enemy, return to step 1
N-Return to step 1
I find hexing pretty dull because you literally never need more than the one spell. At least you get some neat utility spells with sorcery (Repair, somehow useful for once, thanks for that DS2 weapon durability).
Sounds to me like a cool perk for being an awesome cool person who uses Hexes. Only need one spell? Spare slots for Repair.
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What it actually means is that you fill all your spell slots with muaDarkOrb (its name is a killing word).
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I... think I need to go play some Dark Souls 2 now.
El Cid has invoked the magic link.
Muad Orb started. I learned things today. Things like Laggy is a liar who is just out to hurt my feelings. He told me the ogre in Forest of Fallen Giants doesn't drop anything, but Soul of a Proud Knight is not nothing, it is something. It is 2000 souls worth of something and a Knight's proud soul. Laggy clearly hates America and the fine proud men and women that fight for This Great Country.
Also Sorcerer is clearly the class that people who are Good At Games play because suddenly I am Very Good At Video Games.
Didn't get further than first bonfire in Forest, but gunning for 20 Int/Faith asap and gunning straight for the Bastille.
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Hex build takes a little time to get going, it's not going to be immediately awesome even if you rush for the Copse and Bastille.
The Sunset Staff will be worse than the basic wand, until you get a ton of twinking titanite (Need to pursue some pursuers), and going through either Heide's Tower (or Lost Sentinels) to meet Straid early on is pretty hard as a newbie sorceror.
So I'd suggest taking your time at first, going through all the forest, not raising faith to 20 too early because it'll be useless to you compared to more HP/Attunment/Endurance, etc.
You'll have the best PvE build in Dark Souls 2 pretty soon though.
Do not forget to infuse your Sunset staff with dark (because you can actually do that)
You might also want to keep a few boring soul arrows + your boring mage wand around, just for those enemies strong against hexes like Darklurker. (Incidentally, I fought him right away and now think this is now my favourite boss?)
I find hexing pretty dull because you literally never need more than the one spell.
Oh yeah, I really do like Dark Hail too. It's not Dark Orb, but if Dark Orb is your R1, Dark Hail is your R2, if that makes any sense. It can be pretty fun to use at point blank / against crowds.
I'm fairly sure a melee build with Dark Weapon /Resonant Weapon could be pretty fun too?
The best part about the remaster is that you get the Ring of Hugs much earlier. I keep it on all the time. I can't believe they just made something so cool well hidden in NG+.
Titan Souls:
Good concept (it is Shadow of the Colossus) but one hit kills + having to walk back to the boss after death = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_veHrROj_E
I find it almost unplayable as a result.
I killed 3 bosses.
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Anything new in Dark Chasm?
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you assholes I don't have the time to go full into scholars of the first sin but I really wanna
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sorry
I don't remember old Dark Chasm that well, but it doesn't seem to have changed much. Or at all. The enemies seem to be the same (Havels with great clubs, ghost tree things, pyros, bastards with rapiers/bows) and there are no items (except ascetics dropped from enemies) The boss is the same.
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Oh yeah, the Ring of Life Protection costs 14k to repair now, so the endgame carelessness is over
Edit: Ancient Dragon was super easy
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Covenant-specific zones (Dark Chasm, Doors of Pharros, Grave of Saints, either belfry) are exactly identical in Scholar. I believe they shook up every other area, though.
INT weirdly gives like no benefit between 21 and 30 (the big boosts are all before and after that range for some reason) so gunning it to 20 immediately and then relying on wand upgrades/more ATT for more spells might be sensible caster combo early on. And yeah, ogres are a quick grind for 12k souls or so (plus however much they drop in the way of knight souls and titanite), easy kills for a sorcerer and that's a huge headstart in levels right at the first zone. I normally don't find it a sensible use of time to grind for souls in DS2, but that's a pretty painless quick fix right after chargen.
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I think there are a few difference? There isn't a rat ambush near the homeward bone in the Grave of the Saints for example. Sun and Moon belfry also felt slightly different.
Is it just me or do you get even more levels in Scholar? I haven't finished the game yet but my stats feel very NG+y. I have 50 Vig / 30 Int / 30 Faith / 30 Att / Enough ADP to have 105 agility / 15 Vit / 15 End. I haven't even spent one boss soul.
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What it actually means is that you fill all your spell slots with muaDarkOrb (its name is a killing word).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPK3nU2746U
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Codename STEAM: Blew up a bunch of queens with The Fox using a Crossbow.
Resonance of Fate: Beat Chapter 2.
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DS2 - Dragon Curved Greatsword is pretty badass. Anyway, beat the Final Boss and all the DLC, minus the DLC areas without bonfires and most of the Ivory King DLC because booooooring. Fume Knight was the last fun fight we did. Sunken Crown bosses were pitiful, Ancient Dragon was pretty easy once you figured out how to dodge his platform-wide fire breath, and Vendrick was boring. The final boss rush was also pretty underwhelming, but I'll be honest that I was pretty overlevelled by that point.
Found the Darkwraith Covenant area on my Company of Champions Pyro (missed it on Coop playthrough with Laggy) and HOLY SHIT do the enemies in front of the boss door wreck your shit. I eventually gave up fighting and ran for the boss door, then got OHKO'd by the boss. K.
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Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. - Up to mission 11! 9-2 I had to redo: on the first run, I got to the goal and decided to pick up the last cog and didn't have steam left on Lion to jump back and end it. Enemy turn kicks in, a prowler gets to the goal and I see the shiny Game Over screen. Then I redid the map from my last save and went straight for the goal. The pitfalls to the lower floor are the main trap on that map, which otherwise can be completed as fast as three turns into the fray (which I ended up doing on the rerun, grabbing the missing cog as well). You can eventually get maps down to a science in this game, it's kinda fascinating.
Mission 10 involved a lot of moving up and down and cheers for Tom Sawyer being a mobility god and soloing the two bosses in the map because fuck yes Punch Gun action economy on enemies that can't be knocked down. It keeps shocking me just how powerful Tom's offense can be at the right times. Regardless, boss missions in general tend to invoke the best out of the game's map design and this one was no different - two critter-spawning bosses! With AoE damage! On opposite sides of the (mostly vertical) map! Kamikaze explosive aliens, flying snipers and tentacles! Hope you at least have a Jump Booster or Rocket Boiler handy if you didn't bring Tom and/or Lion, otherwise you'll have to go the long way.
THIS SAID, I like how there are generally multiple ways to handle any given map - it all depends on what you bring to bear, and the game unlocking mission replays with optional challenges that improve your medal scoring acknowledges this in a big way. I just wish you could replay individual maps instead of having to rerun the entire mission when you do.
Two new characters! The roster's almost complete, guys.
Queen Califia - Well, the last Heavy-class PC sports the worst damage and HP out of the group (160 HP, 50 damage on her Rhino Blaster off the typical 4 steam requirement that plagues all Heavy-class main weapons), along with a crappy special (essentially John Henry's Hammer Blow with more range but less than half the damage). Her passive skill being the same as John's isn't interesting either. So, what does she have? Near-infinite range and immense ease of use. Her Rhino Blaster is essentially a targettable homing nuke, which gives her unparalled vertical and horizontal range even compared to The Fox, with the added perks that come with explosive damage (breaking golden boxes and scenery and, most importantly, crowd control). She can't control her blasts to push things towards you as well as John can, but that's okay. In spite of the lowish damage, the amazing aiming flexibility paired with the natural advantages of explosive attacks add up to make Califia a beast.
Tin Man - Well, Tin Man's basically IntSys's interpretation of a Fire Emblem dancer for Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. His main weapon, the Steam Projector, is a 3-steam refill for your allies, for the fair cost of 3 steam. In a game where a single point of steam can mean the difference between life or death in the extremes, this is extremely valuable and opens a huge array of strategic decisions, both in-battle and in equipment micromanagement (for instance, his steam parcelling allows more flexibility for the low-recovery, high-stats boilers, which otherwise struggle in comparison. It also makes costly subweapons more viable) in exchange for a character slot. Being a Middle-class character with Henry-level durability, he's fairly balanced durability and mobility-wise as well (it's kind of a pity, even, since Tin Man would be -hilarious- as a Light-class. Up to 12 extra steam to parcel as you wish every turn! His niche -does- mean he's meant to hug the Patriot Boiler and NEVER LET GO, though). His special, Steam Bath, mostly expands on his game: AoE minor damage to enemies and 3 steam recovery to all allies within the move's range - including himself. Not a bad sight. His usefulness really depends on how -badly- you need the niches provided by the rest of the party on any given map, of course, but I love meself some turn parcelling, and I'm sure Elfboy would agree with me.
Only one more PC to go and I have -no- idea when it'll join. This is the first mission where nobody joins at all since the prologue (well, mission 7 might count, since the new agent there joins -after- the mission). At this point, the map design -really- needs to dip down the toilet for my evaluation of the game to change, and I've gone through two thirds of it.
(And now I've realized I've been dropping ten billion gameplay spoilers since starting the game. Oh well.)
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DS2 - Dragon Curved Greatsword is pretty badass. Anyway, beat the Final Boss and all the DLC, minus the DLC areas without bonfires and most of the Ivory King DLC because booooooring. Fume Knight was the last fun fight we did. Sunken Crown bosses were pitiful, Ancient Dragon was pretty easy once you figured out how to dodge his platform-wide fire breath, and Vendrick was boring. The final boss rush was also pretty underwhelming, but I'll be honest that I was pretty overlevelled by that point.
Found the Darkwraith Covenant area on my Company of Champions Pyro (missed it on Coop playthrough with Laggy) and HOLY SHIT do the enemies in front of the boss door wreck your shit. I eventually gave up fighting and ran for the boss door, then got OHKO'd by the boss. K.
-Cave of the Dead (Sunken King optional area) isn't too bad and I like the boss. Iron Passage (Old Iron King optional area) and Frigid Outskirts (Ivory King optional area) are paiiiinful and well skipped, although the latter at least gives you an excellent hat and a cool ring, could just run in and die for those. Did you guys skip Sir Alonne? I like that fight a lot, though it is tucked away in a side area that's easy to miss (also requires having beat Fume Knight already and retrieved the Ashen Mist Heart).
-Now you know why I always poison arrows chariot to death instead of dealing with him head on. I wouldn't mind dying so much in that fight if it weren't such a slog reaching him.
EDIT: also Grefter one of the default eye colors is pretty much exactly an eerily luminous Fremen blue and I seriously hope you took it.
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I actually did Iron passage, and spent too long trying to figure out how to get up on all those ledges (there are items up there; surely I can?), and lost like 50k souls and gave up. Beat the boss though and was unimpressed by the rewards. I'll probably mess around with Cave of the Dead, but the Ivory King DLC was really boring to me and I don't really feel compelled to go back there to find the Frigid Outskirts.
We did beat Alonne, I think. At least, we tried, but I was kinda drunk by the end of that session and don't remember if we actually killed him or not. Definitely not on my file, but I think on Laggy's.
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If you beat Alonne without taking any damage you unlock a special death animation. 100% true story. The real Dark Souls starts there. Go get him.
unimpressed by the rewards.
WHAT
It seems that you haven't considered creating a character named Anime Stan, who's wearing the Smelter Demon set, and power stancing a smelter sword + aged smelter sword.
I can see Ivory King as boring, I really liked the cold atmosphere but the level design is the weakest I've ever seen in a Souls game. It just feels like a combat heavy PS2 game with huge empty environments like God Hand or PS2 Castlevanias. (this is hyperbolic of course)
The more time goes by since I've been there, the more I loooove the frigid outskirts. Actually going back there soon is going to be difficult.
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If you beat Alonne without taking any damage you unlock a special death animation. 100% true story. The real Dark Souls starts there. Go get him.
Possibly more proud of doing this than of no-deathing the game.
Yeah, the problem with Ivory King is the huge environments that are just totally empty. This is a really imposing, gigantic fuck-off castle, but there's not much of anything in there. Bare stone corridors filled with lots of the same enemies (I hate the crystal-back/shield+spear hollows possibly more than any other enemy in Dark Souls 2). I guess every now and then there are crates you can break but that's about it for scenery. Dead environments like this are really glaring after the sheer busyness of Bloodborne environments, and Eleum Loyce is really one of the worst offenders in DS2. It just doesn't feel lived-in, not because everyone's undead but because you can't imagine it ever felt like that since there's nothing around to suggest what kind of personality the place might ever have had. That said, it does have some nice loot and I like the mandatory bosses (Ivory King's arena is just too impressive for me to hold the sheer bitchiness of getting through the initial mob against the fight). Also if you didn't thoroughly clear the zone then you missed two of the most obnoxious NPC invaders in the entire game, which is maybe a good thing but maybe also not (the return of MALDRON is such an apt mimicry of human invader trolls that I have to assume From was deliberately being meta).
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unimpressed by the rewards.
WHAT
It seems that you haven't considered creating a character named Anime Stan, who's wearing the Smelter Demon set, and power stancing a smelter sword + aged smelter sword.
Tbh I am way more enamored with using the Pharros mask to make a sorcerer named Socrates but I need a way to work poison into that.
Re: Ivory King, yeah the emptiness had a lot to do with it, but… I dunno, it's not that it doesn't feel lived in, its just that it's so… uninspired. Big fuckoff ice castle. Oh look ice themed mobs. Oh look now the enemies that didn't aggro before aggro. Lookit that. Wow. It feels a lot like upper undead burg, actually, except Burg is way shorter and the first goddamn area in the game so it can get away with it. The only cool thing there was the mimic in the ice, not a whole lot else.
For better or worse, the boss was pretty great for coop and only one Loyce knight saved, and it has the best crown.
God I need to take screen shots of Dennis Rodman when I get home. He has been the best pychadelic fairy rave princess you ever did see.
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Codename STEAM: Blew up a giant monster in less than 10 turns.
Resonance of Fate: Chapter 3 completed!
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Codename STEAM:
Got to play with Marth thanks to a friend with an amiibo. Holy crap he literally has no ranged attacks. This would make him completely awful in a game built around range except...
He's got the most broken passive ability ever. He, ironically, ignores damage from counters/overwatch.
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Ho ho! Time for words!
Magic: The Gathering: Dragons of Tarkir (and also hanger-on small set Fate Reforged)
This is a set about dragons.
Dragons are popular, I am told. People love these majestic creatures of awe, wonder, magic, and power. They're incarnations of pure ego, representing greed and vanity, in European traditions, or nearly the exact opposite in Eastern mythos. As Nasu might put it, they exist in a conceptual realm a level above that of humanity. Blah, blah, blah...
Well, I don't really like dragons.
I don't dislike them. I certainly don't hate them. They're... fine. There are certainly interesting things that can be done with them, like just about any supernatural or mythological creature. I don't get the elevation, though. But to use them as a mantra, to say "This set is about DRAGONS and will have DRAGONS in it! That is why you should buy and play this set!" just doesn't do anything for me. It's like shouting "There will be ELVES in this set! Willowy and ethereal, yet enduring and mana-charged! Everyone, get hype for Llanowar Elves!" But nobody does, there's no particularl excitement for elves in Magic, not even when there are special and interesting elf-exclusive things going on (like there were in Lorwyn!). By the same token, there's at least *a* dragon in almost every Magic set these days (except for the one named Dragon's Maze, ironically) and many of them are decently powerful and interesting cards. So I don't get the whole DRAGON SET!!! hype. Must be a marketing thing, like the angel craze that got some people believing Avacyn Restored was good.
Enough words about how I don't like the gimmick, though! So, we have dragons. That's... nice, I guess? What do they do?
In limited, there are a fair number of cards with dragon tribal synergy, which lets players... um... well, you can't actually intentionally draft or build dragon decks, because there are no common-rarity dragons to be passed around. There are a lot of very strong dragons at uncommon and above, but they're all strong enough to be slam first picks. And then, the lucky drafters who opened some insane dragonlord get rewarded again with the dragon synergy cards being passed to them, since the people without dragons can't play them. You don't really draft a dragon deck so much as open one.
Mark Rosewater once said that "if your theme isn't at common, it isn't your theme." For Dragons of Tarkir, he backpedaled on this and chewed out people on his blog, saying the real intent of the quote was "if it isn't at a high enough as-fan it isn't your theme." (as-fan here being the statistical reference of how often a given element shows up in a random booster pack.) This would be understandable, except when you go back and look at the original quote, no, he really did mean common. (http://archive.wizards.com/Magic/magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/mm/139) In my last post about MTG I talked about the difficulties inherent in taking Rosewater's public statements at face value; this article (http://blog.killgoldfish.com/2015/04/this-is-not-kill-reviews-return-to.html) provides another eloquent analysis that I find myself agreeing with.
Going back in time a few years (or possibly forward in time to this fall...), the Rise of the Eldrazi set made a distinct point of having its namesake Eldrazi at common. Not just the little brood spawner ones, either, but the giant lovecraftian 8/8s with Annihilator, those were at common. The entire draft format was built around that fact. It was highly experimental, but the experiment was a massive success, Rise of the Eldrazi is generally heralded as one of the best draft formats of all time. So why are there no common dragons in the dragon set?
In the storyline, Sarkhan's gone back in time and changed things in order to save the dragons, and the result of this is a world full of dragons... who eat, destroy and dominate everything and everybody else. The clans and khans were demolished. Far from being a better timeline, this is demonstrably worse for everything on Tarkir that isn't a dragon or engaged in a crazed obsession with dragons.
So putting all the pieces together here, what we actually have here is the social privilege set, where the gameplay and flavor both intertwine to create a dynamic of the haves and the have nots, the special and powerful vs the plebs they rule over, the dragons vs everyone else. Dragons aren't at common because dragons themselves aren't the theme at all - the theme is dragons stomping on everyone else, and the players with dragons need to be the distinct minority in order to feel special.
If you can't tell already, I'm not a fan of this set. I see what they did there and I don't like it, and I distinctly hope it doesn't repeat with Eldrazi 2.0 in the fall.
Oh, the actual gameplay? It's... fine. The mechanics are generally boring and Fate Reforged being the last pack and "pivot set" is something that... just doesn't matter. Rebound is back, but stripped of all power, so who cares. Prowess is supposed to be gone, but as it was one of the actually good mechanics of the block, it still exists in sneaky form on several creatures. Morph is now megamorph, because, I don't know, change for the sake of change. Dash exists and asks one-sided, medium difficulty questions in limited sometimes. Bolster... exists. And finally we have Exploit as the marquee mechanic that actually works well and influences gameplay, although it's hardly new in concept.
The khans are gone, though. Mana fixing is gone, except for the FRF pack in draft. Megamorphing costs more and results in bigger creatures. Outlast is gone. The prowess deck is still there, the BW warriors deck is still sort of there (but with vastly reduced synergies), R/X token aggro is still a thing and there's a nice UB exploit deck to be had now. But overall, the limited format feels much less interesting and less complex than Khans, and frequently comes down to haymakers.
In constructed, there are dragons. The dragons there are powerful and format defining for the year going forward. Dragon theme decks are a real thing, in Ojutai, Silumgar and Atarka flavors. So good job there I guess.
Overall verdict: disappointment and a sense of unease. Seems like the set is banked really, really hard on people digging the draconian superiority thing, and that may be a litmus test for liking it or not.
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I haven't played DTK limited but I suspect I broadly agree with you: they'd have been better off if they had common dragons that were strong, but also common strong removal, more mimicing older design philosophies. To go on a brief tangent: WotC has said elsewhere that they try to keep the power level of commons much more harshly in check than they used to, because commons show up every draft, and they want drafts to differ, so a different mix of rares & uncommons will matter more between every draft. Fine. That said, I definitely think that's a miss for a dragon set: just uber the limited power level of everything (while ideally keeping the Constructed power in check). If that makes commons unusually potent, well, oh well.
I too wish that the narrative had been a little clearer that the Dragons timeline is a *dystopia*, but I guess they wanted to have their cake and eat it too - dragons are SIMULTANEOUSLY shiny and awesome as well as megalomaniacal tyrants, since players seem to want both. Kind of like how Blizzard treats Primal Zerg in Heart of the Swarm: sure they're still bloodthirsty crazed predators with some social Darwinist kill-to-become-stronger thing, but they're also cool and the good guys now because there's something even eviller out there, yay! Don't get me wrong, villainous protagonists can be great, just please recognize the edge that made them villains. So yeah, the flavor on Dragons is definitely "Sarkhan brought back the dragons and this is GREAT and also here check out how everyone is enslaved to the dragons' wills now or get eaten." They should have made neo-Narset as some kind of very sympathetically portrayed freedom fighter and in some anime clash with Sarkhan & Ojutai for screwing everything up, like Chrono Cross done right (since this timeline screwing really DID make things worse).
Also, that linked blog is *interesting* but I really disagree with some of his opinions. I think one of the comments to that blog post had it right on Mark Rosewater: think of him as like Stan Lee, he's in love with his own work, something really obvious if you've seen his enthusiasm in-person. He's not exactly a shill, and if he is, the effect on his writing is pretty small: Wizards wants Magic to sell to make mad cash, Rosewater wants Magic to sell because he thinks it's totally awesome, same diff.
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Suikoden Tierkreis: Early-game spoilers for those who care. So the Grayridge weapons shop functionally opens up (i.e. no more 10x prices), followed by a plot-only no randoms journey, followed by.... a new weapons shop in Cynas with better stuff now that you've spent your money on the first one in Grayridge. Very skill-testing. Then I fight some librarians, then get told to go through the damn Grayridge mines AGAIN, then get teased with a multi-party thing that doesn't actually matter but trains you for the real version (maybe?). Then they reshuffle my party again, Liu joins up, and it's time for the big boss battle... except they also forcibly stripped my support forcing me to wander off in an unintuitive wrong direction to add her back... and then after all that build-up, not even a plot battle. We don't even capture the jerks we have cornered and let them run off for some reason. At least TRY you idiots, this is an attack.
A brief aside. "Plot fights" are a classic tool to preview bad guys in combat to show what a threat they are. Fine. However, the right way to do them is the way Suiko3 did 'em: give the enemies uber offense such that they will wipe your party out, but normal defense, so that you have a fighting shot at killing 'em. If you win, have the enemy pull out some plot power BS, then continue as before (entirely merited with the Masked Bishop anyway!) Suiko Tierkreis instead gives plot enemies good defense but uh Suikoden enemy offense. You're SUPPOSED to clearly view these as desperate fights where you're outgunned, but, um, no, I'm pretty sure I can take these guys, maybe with using a few items, lemme at 'em game. I guess plot fights are highly personal taste dependent (I know some people hate all of them and that is silly) but this isn't really to my taste, at least unless the game actively wanted to set these guys up as beatable.
Okay, moving on. The Tenkai is acclaimed as an awesome leader as usual, but since he actually has *lines* I actually buy this and it's pretty cool. Zed of Omega Company now runs Megido Fortress, you might detect a trend here. So I go off and meet people & stuff and help an extraplanar dog-guy run away from a fortress, but he's apparently wounded, so that's the perfect time to force him into my party to fight. Luckily a doctor finds us (!) before we can even look for one, but then we can't get Cougar the dog-man home, because you have to return via the same Gateway you came in. And this might explain why Our Hero can't leave either, so clearly I'm from another world too!
Wait a second... earlier, we found out that if you visit another world, you're semi-invincible to the inhabitants of that world, and it requires another planar traveler to defeat you. This is kind of a silly idea (why aren't there !gypsy Wanderer overlords doing their best FE9 Ashnard impression and being unstoppable badasses in other worlds?) but sure. So why were you worried about your wound, Cougar? But more importantly, I've been wondering why all these enemies, even the hyped plot enemies, sucked so badly at killing me. I do believe we just got plot / gameplay integration here:
(http://www.rpgdl.com/wiki/images/2/26/Immortal_colbert.png)
WAIT A MINUTE! I JUST KILLED DEATH. THAT MEANS I AM IMMORTAL! NOTHING CAN STOP ME NOW
Yes, this is actually a pretty solid excuse to be such a badass. NONE OF YOU CAN STOP ME, I'M FROM ANOTHER WORLD, HAHAHA. I actually hope they run with it, which would actually be a decent justification for those "fated showdown between hero & villain" type things that fiction loves, since hey, Macbeth can't be slain by one of this-world born, so it's gotta be you. (That said I fully expect them to have something lame like "it only works for monsters" or else forget about that plot point entirely. Oh, well.)
On the plot, while I won't complain about the anti-Destiny track the game is taking so far, it's a little weird to see that in Suikoden, with its 108 Stars of Destiny? And with the plot point already established that only a few special people get the cool powerz and everyone else can suck it? The destined few fighting that there'll be no Destiny? This can work, but it'll be weird. (Also, this is more me talking out loud & explaining my own current thoughts, please don't feel the need to argue / explain on how the game handles the Destiny / Order plotline if you've played the game before, at least not yet. I'll find out as I go along where they're taking this thematically myself.)
Checking a FAQ, apparently I have to go visit the Grayridge Mines AGAIN to find another recruit. W. T. F. They want to give me PTSD about that extremely boring place, I see.
Also, I promise the talking speed calms down later.
That's too bad. My biggest complaint with the game is its speed - 3 second death animation on this enemy, 3 second spell animation, 3 seconds and a music change to go to a menu, slow walking speed, it adds up. The Tenkai being in a hurry is positively charming, everyone else needs to emulate *him*, not for him to slow down!
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Well, Tierkreis gets much more explicit about the whole 108 Stars thing, but it's worth pointing out that a recurring element of the original series was that utilizing the power of the Stars allowed you to change destiny. To change the laws of nature, the wills of the True Runes, toward more benevolent ends.
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Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. - Mission 12! Oh god, camouflage-clad Prowlers, this is gonna suck. Mission 11 was another boss battle, this time one with a time limit - in fact, probably the same one Meeple mentioned. I'd talk more about it, but the aggressive solution to that one is sorta clever and I don't want to spoil -that- specifically. This said, boss fight and this game, yet another map I liked.
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Yeah, it was that mission. Just defeated another boss fight again, this one involved...blowing lots of other stuff up because that's how America does things!
It really is amazing just how much smoother the game is with an "enemy turn speed x2" option; playing the N3DS is probably even better where there's a x3 option. It doesn't completely undo the biggest problem the game has, but it sure as hell makes it a lot more bare-able.
Also, I will admit that I do use Save Points pretty liberally, though they do feel balanced. First usage of Save and Restore All is reasonable, but the price gets up fast, so you don't want to abuse it much. Granted, the fact that it restores the entire parties Steam is another huge deal. Still, game feels balanced around taking advantage of save points, and not intended to be taken with an FE Style "reset when die" approach. It's hard to plan things in an FE way when there's effectively FoW equivalent in every match and you don't know if enemies are on overwatch and all that. This isn't a flaw of the game, mind you, since the implementation of save points feels like it's the game's way of acknowledging this quirk and trying to let the players have a tool to work around this, if that makes sense. That and there's no Perma-death, though losing a single PC can be catastrophic, especially if there's no Save Point to revive them with.
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Codename STEAM: Save points can revive? That seems like a handy tidbit. Hadn't been using the full-party restoration function much so far.
I definitely have been usually restarting the whole map when I die, because I feel like I can trace most deaths back to early errors. Sometimes not, but yeah. Just beat 5-2, which was probably one of the harder maps so far. Nothing like having rippers knock you into the range/AoE of artillery attacks. Or artillery attacks knocking you into other artillery attacks. Definitely something I need to plan for.
Game's enjoyable so far. XCOM made by team Fire Emblem but somehow notably less like Fire Emblem than XCOM is. The limited perspective definitely changes up the formula significantly.
Wild Arms 4 - Nearly done.
Airport gave me some trouble because of Misery2 enemies stealing my MP. So I ground for the Raquel/Yulie MP-healing unite, which made things better.
Gawn (2 resets) - Well if he kills Yulie first I lose, can't possibly slug him down before he kills everyone else. There's no way to keep him from targetting whoever he wants, so... yeah. Luck pretty much!
Farmel - Pretty much the same as a normal game.
Reclaimer Dragon - He hits really hard and has solid overall stats, and sleep can make a mess of things... he does in fact put Arnaud to sleep at the start, which is bad news. But by keeping him out of the centre hex he can't really threaten Yulie, so I can patch things up until Arnaud is able to Illusion him, which wrecks everything he does except status, which is manageable.
Riesenge (8 resets) - Ack. I mispredicted which Illsveil boss would give me problems, apparently. So he gets two turns before Arnaud's first, even after I reset and come back with a 6th class level. He'll do one of two things: one is to buff himself and then use MAP ARM, which OHKOs Yulie, Arnaud if he hits, and Raquel sometimes. Did I mention it's MT? So I can't just distract him with Jude's first turn like many other bosses. This tends to just wreck me. Alternatively, he uses Sky Twister, which 2HKOs everyone except sometimes Jude. Did I mention everyone starts in the same hex? Ack. No matter what Jude does, he may Sky Twister the other three PCs again. So this is another pretty RNGish fight. On the winning run, he goes for Charge->MAP, Yulie dies immediately, but nobody else does. Arnaud is able to land Illusion to slow down his offence, then throws out punishing Hi-Blasts. Everyone else dies to Sky Twisters but Arnaud is able to do the needed damage, fortunately Riesenge HP is pretty awful.
Cyanoides - Well if he walks to the water hex turn 1 I know I'll lose. He doesn't, so I move Jude there. I have to try very hard to keep Jude alive (defending a lot) since if he falls there's no revival, and even the water hex doesn't reduce the damage Jude takes that much (Kresnik takes less despite not being there). Fortunately Cyanoides eventually goes on a stupid run dicking around by walking a couple times, so Kresnik is able to take the spare turn not needed on healing to move to the water hex as well, enabling Gadget Crush, which ups Jude's otherwise terrible damage into something that can 3HKO. Unfortunately Jude does die before I'm able to win, but Kresnik's able to do the finishing damage with Apoptosis.
Erytheon - Fortunately he dicks around with useless moves like MP draining, because he has potential to be brutal; Yulie starts in the water hex and he has Cremation, ick. Yulie's first turn is spent moving out of this (I could Replace, but I don't want him in the water hex either). Arnaud jumps to the water hex instead and blasts away for huge damage. He does die eventually, as you might expect, but Raquel is able to finish the job. Arnaud misses out on exp for once, don't get used to this.
Lambda - This is pretty tough, but I'm able to pull through on the first try. Lambda uses his ranged physicals to butcher Yulie, so that's bad, so from there on it's mostly a matter of hoping to hit through his nonsense. I try to set up with Arnaud on the elemental hex to the right, Raquel in the centre, Jude to the left, and Illusion on Lambda to waste some of his turns. Unfortunately he moves right and kills Jude so I'm not really able to maintain position and just have to pray for luck. Illusion again, kill him with Hi-Blast. Arnaud hits every time, everyone else misses every time, everyone else dies, Arnaud gets all the Exp, somewhere Tide smiles for reasons he isn't sure about.
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Codename STEAM: Save points can revive? That seems like a handy tidbit. Hadn't been using the full-party restoration function much so far.
Save and Restore All specifically can revive, yeah. The only penalty to dying in the game, to be fair, beyond the obvious "you're down a PC" is you won't get the survival bonus, so using it for that purpose is not really worth it since it probably won't really offset the cost of Save And Restore All, especially if used multiple times a mission.
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The bonus for ending a mission with all PCs alive is 100 medals and the minimum cost of a full team restore is 100 medals as well. It's impossible to offset the cost for those purposes, the best possible result is a zero-sum game. Also, regardless of what you use the save point for, they have a very clear tactical function in the map design. They also save my ass here and there (like 12-1, in which half my party got sniped to death by cannoneers).
I definitely have been usually restarting the whole map when I die, because I feel like I can trace most deaths back to early errors. Sometimes not, but yeah. Just beat 5-2, which was probably one of the harder maps so far. Nothing like having rippers knock you into the range/AoE of artillery attacks. Or artillery attacks knocking you into other artillery attacks. Definitely something I need to plan for.
Yeah, about that: the AI can and -will- concert enemy turns to knock your PCs into the range of a damage domino effect if you let them. They're nastily good at repositioning shenanigans. This is a very good reason to make grenadier Prowlers and other artillery units your zero priority kills.
That said, I also play this game!
Codename: S.T.E.A.M. - Next, mission 14. Mission 12 was as much of a dick as I expected, with the Stealth Prowlers being the main reason why (Prowlers firing three-digit damage artillery shots at my face starting on enemy turn 2 at best, turn 1 at worst, were reason #2. Lesson learned, kids: Prowlers are satan). Learning that Tiger Lily's Defiance kicks in indefinitely instead of being OPB like I first thought was funny, though. Mission 13 was honestly a breather, with a simpler variant on a rescue mission and a fairly manageable (though still entertaining) boss fight. Thing is that very small environments frankly simplify the strategic approach to maps a lot, and both maps in mission 13 are smaller than what you got used to earlier on. I won't complain, though.
Well, the last PC joined, and I'm not sure how I feel about that one. Let's see.
Dorothy Gale - The final cast member of the Oz ensemble looks -amazing- in theory. Light-class with a 6 base, 20 rate weapon that spends 3 steam (i.e. potentially 40 damage -per steam-. That's game-best base DPS hands down on paper)! Gets Hop like Tom does, letting her play a similar mobility game! A special that lets her move really fast in a direction infinitely until she rams into an obstacle, ignoring steam limitations! Sounds too good to be true? That's because it is. The Toto Blaster has a very awkward firing radius, meaning it's very hard to land all the shots (or even most of them) unless Dorothy's at pretty much point blank, and it also makes it -hard- to fire all of them into a weak spot, for instance, lowering its initially obscene damage potential even further. The range on it is also sketchy and it's a terrible overwatch weapon. Her special? Also spends all steam she has left, so it's more niche than you'd think. She still has Hop, at least, but Tom beats her fair and square in pure ease of use. In a sense, Dorothy is kind of a distorted mirror to him, being reliant on strategic positioning for high-powered potshots instead of merrily playing positioning shenanigans with a swell punching gun. That at least means the two synergize well, since they can keep up with each other and he can position enemies for Dorothy. She's definitely the hardest character to use well, though.
The home stretch is coming by, come to think of it.
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I spent an evening (like 8 hours) playing Nidhogg, Towerfall and Spelunky with an old friend who's probably the most Fenrir person I've ever seen (besides myself) it was good. Too bad I'm living somewhere else now.
Spelunky multiplayer was the best, but that's because we're both spelunky pros of about equal level (and were both drunk/high) co-op can reach new super mario levels of unintentional / intentional friendship ruining. Deathmatch is fucking brutal.
Towerfall was second best, worth all the hype it got. I'd love to watch competitive Towerfall and I basically never say that about any other game. I screwed up half the time because the controls are unintuitive though (x to shoot and right trigger to dash? Switch these plz)
Nidhogg was stylish but lacking content. Controls weren't very intuitive either. Tl;dr: i got fucking destroyed
I also beat the Dark souls 2 main game, I'm not a fan of the new boss which seems to boil down to "don't get greedy and you'll be fine"
I needed something other than magic for the dlc. After trying and being disappointed in a few boss weapons I just went with an oldschool raw murakumo which I'll two hand + dark weapon up all the time. Feels good.
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Magic is pretty worthless for offense in the DLC zones. As if generally high resists weren't enough, everything has a billion HP too.
Dark Souls 2 has a few cool boss weapons (at least, more than Dark Souls 1 did) but they tend to be for really specialized builds (this is ignoring the really broke shit like Curved Dragon Greatsword that everyone uses, because I don't use what everyone uses). Offhand I can't think of anything that really gels well with a sorcery setup.
So I got the sorcery and hex trophies with relatively little trouble because the covenant stuff there is just bash through a moderately rage-inducing sidequest and win 30 bellbro fights. I can deal with this, that's at most a couple hours' investment (counting time to NG+ the relevant Old Ones). Since the miracle and pyro trophies are the only things I have left I thought hey, might as well try knocking those out through covenants instead of muscling through NG++. Because I don't fucking want to touch NG++ again. I presumed my patience wouldn't hold out because 500 victories, god why but it doesn't hurt to try, right? Then I read that losing bloodbro duels actually decreases your covenant progress. This is idiotic. I try a few anyway. Win -> loss -> win -> loss. So functionally zero progress made. Alright, to hell with that, but getting the miracles is just a matter of patience, right? Oh wait, you need tokens of fidelity to start Blue Sentinel duels? I have four of them. You know what, we're done here.
Bloodborne: I started a strength character because it's basically the only thing I haven't tried in this game. Holy shit the axe is good. Why did I ever use anything else? Spin to win is legit, people are not exaggerating. Thinking of attempting the chalice BS on this file again but will probably lose patience before finishing the game like last time because Bloodborne tanks hard the second you fight Rom.
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I am somehow great at Niddhogg (compared to my friends) and I don't really know what makes me better but you do have to be able to use all of techniques available to you. I tend to divekick and find ways to run past dudes a lot (you're faster without a sword), which can help if your friends are super aggressive. You also have to learn when to just suicide so you respawn faster. The environment also really matters in terms of having higher ground or not.
Towerfall looks awesome, need to look into it.
I've been having people over a bit more so I'll plug the Jackbox Party Pack, which has You Don't Know Jack (the same trivia game), Drawful (you get a prompt to draw, people have to guess what it is), Fibbage (you get a fill in the blank prompt and have to come up with a lie that is plausible; the prompts are usually really off the wall so insane answers could be believable) and some others. The best thing is that it doesn't require controllers. Everyone who has a smartphone can just connect to a specific chatroom and draw or input things on their phone. Being clever is sort of antithetical to winning but there is also an upvoting system for people to like certain answers. It is a ton of fun and is really accessible for people who don't often play games.
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Unfortunately You don't know Jack has never been translated here to my knowledge.
There are lots of weird controls in Nidhogg that you probably got used to? My character just kept kicking at the worst times, couldn't throw sword when I wanted him to, and climbing up ledges was always really weird too. This didn't get much better even though we played for like 1 hour.
I tried Westerado : Double Barreled on Steam and it's already great fun.
I shot my uncle right at the beginning of the game by mistake. I shot everybody right away just to see what happens, and was not disappointed. Unfortunately, it seems that you cannot avenge your family by just murdering everybody.
Dark Souls 2 has a few cool boss weapons (at least, more than Dark Souls 1 did) but they tend to be for really specialized builds (this is ignoring the really broke shit like Curved Dragon Greatsword that everyone uses, because I don't use what everyone uses). Offhand I can't think of anything that really gels well with a sorcery setup.
Some boss weapons don't have huge stat requirements, but I didn't see any that really caught my attention for this playthrough in particular. 2H Butcher Knife came close.
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I forgot to mention that I finally got around to switching Bloodborne's co-op name display to character name rather than user ID. I was not disappointed: "The beckoning bell has summoned Won Reasley." Couldn't say how careful a recreation it was since he had the crow mask on, though.
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Hm, are you using controllers? I use a PS4 one (or XBox 360) and have never had problems with Niddhogg.
Yeah, the Jackbox has a lot of references to American culture and the trivia parts do require some knowledge of the US so that may not be a great option for you.
Have you played Gang Beasts? It looks really stupid but it could be fun if you're drinking with a group.
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Dorothy Gale - The final cast member of the Oz ensemble looks -amazing- in theory. Light-class with a 6 base, 20 rate weapon that spends 3 steam (i.e. potentially 40 damage -per steam-. That's game-best base DPS hands down on paper)! Gets Hop like Tom does, letting her play a similar mobility game! A special that lets her move really fast in a direction infinitely until she rams into an obstacle, ignoring steam limitations! Sounds too good to be true? That's because it is. The Toto Blaster has a very awkward firing radius, meaning it's very hard to land all the shots (or even most of them) unless Dorothy's at pretty much point blank, and it also makes it -hard- to fire all of them into a weak spot, for instance, lowering its initially obscene damage potential even further. The range on it is also sketchy and it's a terrible overwatch weapon. Her special? Also spends all steam she has left, so it's more niche than you'd think. She still has Hop, at least, but Tom beats her fair and square in pure ease of use. In a sense, Dorothy is kind of a distorted mirror to him, being reliant on strategic positioning for high-powered potshots instead of merrily playing positioning shenanigans with a swell punching gun. That at least means the two synergize well, since they can keep up with each other and he can position enemies for Dorothy. She's definitely the hardest character to use well, though.
That sums up Dorothy pretty well. I honestly feel like she could be considered cast-worst for ingame-use due to how hard it is to use her. BUT... on the other hand, I ended up using her a lot on the older maps recently and it changed how I played the game significantly. Because she has to be set up so carefully to use her to her fullest, it is VERY satisfying when pulls off all those hits on a point-blank weak spot on one of the more difficult enemies. Usually required running a Tin Man/Tom/whoever (Scarecrow or Randalph or Tiger Lily work well) team as a supplement though, which hampers your options, but it -does- make for some interesting scenarios where you can take out bosses in like 3 turns when it took like 10 turns in my first run. Might be more of a testament to how good Tin Man/Tom is as a combination though. Dorothy feels more like a bomb I have to carefully position than a character in some ways due to how limited her functions are. I suppose you could toss a cheap damage subweapon on her and just use her like Tom-lite, though?
Overall ranking?
Fox >>>>>>> Califia=Queequeg >>> Tin Man > Marth > Tom > Lion > Lily > Henry > Ike >>>> Randolph > Scarecrow >> John > Dorothy
Amusingly, compared to in-game use, I'll bet DL ranking would be something like:
Dorothy > Henry > Queequeg > Fox > John > Ike > Marth > Tom > Califia > Lion > Scarecrow > Lily > Tin Man > Randolph
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Shale, I noticed you have Skyrim on your Steam wishlist. You know it's $5 until 10 am tomorrow, right?
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Resonance of Fate: I did the statue mission, then did a side mission which I found just not feasibly do-able because Id' be hit into Critical Condition before I really have a chance at anyhting and the enemies damage is too high AND said situation did not let me use an Escape Hex (who came up WITH that idea?), and not having saved in a while...yeah, lost all my progress.
Statue Mission is seriously one of the worst conceived ideas ever. It has less health than you'd think, and enemies can just keep bombarding it while you're busy going one at a time. Beyond a few maps where there's explosives, you're pretty much forced to use Restore Hero Gauge once and lose 50k as a result...and the mission only gives you 20k. I did try Hero Mode because that seems to force enemies to divert fire on the character in Hero Mode, thinking that's what you're suppose to do, yet the statue seems to take a lot of damage from stray fire ANYWAY. This is not a game where an Escort Mission is feasible AT ALL.
Honestly, my biggest complaint about this game is enemies have way too many arbitrary advantages, and half of these advantages don't feel intended either. Maybe later on when you get legitimate amounts of Hero Gauge to use more Hero Mode and all that, the game things will get better, but the early game is a pain. I do feel I'm finally getting the hang of things but then they throw something like the Double Dwellinger at you (albeit that's optional), and you're basically just outpowered.
Punch Out Wii: SPEAKING OF BEING OUTPOWERED, I finally beat Bald Bull; I accidentally knocked him down 3 times over the course of the match with 3 3-star punches (yes, those two "3s" are intentional), and got a TKO not realizing I did that. That method ended up being easier than I figured since I did it by accident; kept trying to simply either outlast him, go for the standard "3 knock downs in a round" TKO (which I kept getting close but would **** up the timing on Bull Charge), or...yeah, he's a pain in the ass.
Tried Super Macho Man a bit. He doesn't seem to have a gimmick, just "hits really freaking hard" so you have very little margin for error. By hits hard, I mean he knocks you down with 4 hits of his basic uppercuts, and his spin punch is a 2HKO. I guess that makes sense for a 2nd to last fight, since I know Sandman's 2nd fight is basically Mike Tyson from the original game.
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Maybe later on when you get legitimate amounts of Hero Gauge to use more Hero Mode and all that, the game things will get better, but the early game is a pain.
Oh no, it gets WORSE.
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Codename: S.T.E.A.M. - Mission 14 was another breather. The only reset came from the fact I needed Hop/Jump Booster/Lion Launch to get the third cog and my first formation had none of that. Restart, pack Tom up for another go, clean clock. Mission 15's gonna be a -three-parter-, though, oh boy.
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Injustice: Gods Among Us- Finished story mode.
Game is almost exactly what it wanted to be really. There's a small handful of quibbles; characterization is thin, more or less by necessity with the size of the cast. For the main-universe Justice League (and Joker), it works. We're more or less assuming these are the post-crisis, pre-flashpoint characters, and since they have the very core Justice League at hand just a few lines here and there to establish them is plenty. We can fill in the blanks. The Regime cast though is defined by how it contrasts them, except it's just too large a cast. I know that, for purposes of gameplay, they need a larger villain cast than hero in order to keep from having the same 4 fights every frickin' chapter (especially since Regime Supes logically cannot be fought before the final battle!), but they just didn't have the room needed to breathe for them. They'd probably have been better served to have more members that were villains who weren't really themselves somewhat ironically; it makes it clear that these dudes are here for gameplay and aren't meant to be characters in the plot.
Also dude I know you went full Fascist but you're not the LEAST bit worried about having the antichrist in full demonic possession mode around you all the time? Might wanna check up on that man.
Otherwise, looking at the chapter selection after the fact, apparently the straight scenes in story mode are just under two hours, although I could swear I was playing the game way longer than that plus fight time. Who knows. Taken in that context, like I said, it's really good within the scope and style it set for itself. As with P4A, I don't feel I can judge it as fightans of course, but on its strengths unto itself I'm inclined to give it about an 8/10. It feels a smidge inflated, but I think that's more because I very recently rewatched all of Justice League which featured more fleshed out depictions of many of Injustice's constituent storylines.
The cast is like 75% DCAU and that makes me extra happy too obviously. Although I should note a lot of the animation is hilariously stiff at points. And Batman sometimes looks a lot like Zenny's avatar. Fortunately you start tuning it out a bit when the story moves past setup mode.
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Injustice: Gods Among Us- Finished story mode.
Game is almost exactly what it wanted to be really.
A car ad? I tell you, everyone's so shiny I feel the desire to buy an Acura or some shit rise within me every time I see it.
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Overall ranking?
Fox >>>>>>> Califia=Queequeg >>> Tin Man > Marth > Tom > Lion > Lily > Henry > Ike >>>> Randolph > Scarecrow >> John > Dorothy
Amusingly, compared to in-game use, I'll bet DL ranking would be something like:
Dorothy > Henry > Queequeg > Fox > John > Ike > Marth > Tom > Califia > Lion > Scarecrow > Lily > Tin Man > Randolph
In Code Name: S.T.E.A.M., a lot of it depends on how the damage averages will pan out and what assumptions would you make. Assume hitting weak spots? Lion (thanks to the Steam Crossbow), The Fox and the other Light Boiler PCs all soar straight to the top of the curve and everybody else sucks. No weak spots? The Fox plummets all the way down to the bottom. Then, there's also the matter of how much you factor in steam for movement (since moving and acting run off the same resource, it doesn't feel representative to assume innately that -all- steam goes straight to damage). I can kneejerk Tiger Lily will be at least among the cast stars, though: being able to heal and attack in the same turn forever and ever -and- being able to keenly manipulate her HP range for maximum Defiance abuse all add up to making her an adept staller no matter how bad her offense is (and it's gonna be pretty bad). She's terrible at quick skirmishes and status makes a mockery out of her, but Second Chance-lite + infinite healing spoils the likes of Zog. Everybody else depends on how the numbers line up.
Which also says the cast itself won't be exactly a DL terror. The systemics just don't translate all that well.
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Wild Arms 4 - Finished the challenge run! Let's talk about Divine Weapon. Levels are 40 Yulie, 42 Jude, 45 Raquel, 48 Arnaud or something like that.
Everyone is Class Level 6 except Yulie. Yulie has Healing Plus, Raquel has Iron Divide, Arnaud has Extend for critical passives.
Form 1 kinda sucks. It has Belial's gimmick except he's slower and it doesn't stop magic. Illusion prevents his attacks / focus fire, getting some people out of a line is important because otherwise Punishing Ray (line fire magic) really hurts. But overall not too bad, Arnaud does most of the killing.
Form 2 comes in. It's a new battlefield but PCs keep their HP and accumulated CT. Anyway, everyone starts in the same hex. Divine Weapon 2 has...
Claymore - Usually opens with this, does some decent magic damage and cancels the turns of everyone hit, hits the targetted hex and any adjacent ones. Fortunately it innately misses often enough. If he spams it and it hits repeatedly, gg.
Dead Heat - Isolate with a very small chance of ID.
Napalm Flare - Kills everyone in the targetted hex. uh technically it's like 5000 - target MDef damage or something, I dunno, but on this challenge lol surviving it ever outside like Yulie defending. Raquel resists fire and gets OHKOed. Fortunately he never uses this early, and seems to have a bias to using it on adjacent hexes when he does.
Prismatic Laser - 3HKOish damage to all hexes, slams everyone with fifty million status effects including Poison and Misery (UGH) and sometimes sleep/petrify because hahaha.
Anyway if Prismatic Laser is used I pretty much lose. To evade misery I need to waste turns moving, and between its base damage + poison + random fatal status I'm in terrible shape even before these lost turns. And he has the ability to use it AGAIN and misery whatever hexes I've selected as my news ones. Fortunately, it is never used remotely early, so it is mostly an incentive not to drag this fight out at all.
The strategy for this form is thus obvious enough, spread out (fortunately, Dead Heat sometimes helps!) Getting people far apart makes Claymore less dangerous (nobody in the centre hex also helps) and of course reduces the risk of Napalm Flare killing too many people. Arnaud can claim the ice hex and launch some powerful Hi-Blasts, Jude can Apoptosis and Raquel can Iron Divide to reasonable effectiveness. Yulie focuses on using Healing Plus Odoryuk to heal/revive everyone.
I have about four resets here on each run through this fight. It's a simple enough fight, but the things that can go wrong (mostly involving Claymore or Prismatic Laser, the attack which OHKOs a hex isn't that bad I swear) are enough that it's fairly tough. Fortunately resets take the battle to the start of phase 2 (preserving the HP/CT situation from then, too).
This takes us to the third form. Divine Weapon 3 sits in the fire hex in the back with four devices surrounding him (two in front, one on each side). HP is fully healed (and dead PCs from the previous phase don't incur Max HP Down) and CT is reset, so it's basically a new fight in all meaningful ways. FP is also set to 100 to start the fight. What he does...
ABM Lancher: A large number of hits (10?), each striking a random hex not occupied by Divine Weapon or any devices. Jude and Raquel die in 3 or 4, Arnaud and Yulie in 5, typically. At the battle's start there are three unoccupied hexes, later on the number increases to six. This is magic damage, and since its multiplier is so high, MDef is extremely significant. This means that Protect is a big fucking deal for this attack. Yulie takes 0.
Arch Smasher: 2HKO everyone. It appears to target a hex, but it's full MT (unlike Claymore or Slumber Fog which only hit adjacent hexes to the targetted one). Under Protect, it does less, but still never worse than 3HKO to anyone but Yulie, who is 5HKOed or so.
Boost Attack: Next attack does triple damage (with all of its hits, in the case of ABM Launcher). The effect goes away after said attack, even if the attack misses.
Handy Cannon: Physical, hits the nearest PC hex on a line. Bad damage! But still manages to 2HKO Yulie. Like 5HKO to Jude.
Energy Sabre: Physical, melee only, stronger than the above but still doesn't do better than 3HKO fighters / 2HKO mages. Having someone adjacent to him is necessary for it to ever be used.
Accelerator: Before anyone's turn but his own, Divine Weapon sometimes gets a free turn, just freaking because. >:(
Devices go between Arnaud and Jude, and have physicals similar in power to Energy Saber. Divine Weapon gets his second turn after the Devices, before Yulie (sadly. Yulie is only class level 5, since Healing Plus is an essential passive).
The strategy on the opening rounds, after many experimentations, proves to optimally be as follows:
-Jude uses Arc Impulse on the Devices in front of the party, killing them.
-Arnaud moves to the ice hex (so that subsequent Hi-Blasts will be stronger. This importantly puts him in range of one Device, which he will hopefully dodge, giving me enough FP for a first-turn Odoryuk if need be. Putting him in range of both by moving forward means he dies too often, and also hems in Divine Weapon so that he'll never move
-Yulie hopefully survives. If she can tank an Arc Smasher while protected, Protect self then prepare to throw out Odoryuk from there. If she can't, Odoryuk/Heal/etc. immediately.
-Raquel and Jude use their turns to either kill an enemy in the centre hex, if one exists, or to move and claim spots adjacent to Divine Weapon.
-From here on, kill the remaining Devices as quickly as possible, Arnaud casts Extend on Yulie to keep Protect up as long as possible (and recasts it as necessary), Arnaud Illusions the boss, place 1-2 PCs (NOT Yulie) are adjacent to the boss to encourage Energy Sabre, Reinforce the PCs adjacent to the boss to keep FP high, and spam Odoryuk like it's going out of style, eventually lower the boss to 0 HP with Apoptosis/Hi-Blast/Iron Divice/Dragon Edge.
So let's review what can cause me to lose:
-ABM Launcher is used first turn, and enough missiles (4+, sometimes 3) strike the PCs' hex such that Jude dies. Or, y'know, everyone dies. That feels more common than it should be.
-Yulie sustains enough damage from to die before her first turn, which can be due to any combination of ABM Launcher, Handy Cannon, and Arch Smasher. Divine Weapon gets two turns minimum she has to deal with, so to avoid this I need to get lucky with ABM Launcher missing a bunch, or Divine Weapon moving instead of attacking on his second turn, or Jude activating Defender against a Handy Cannon.
-Yulie runs out of Protect at a bad time and needs to heal on the turn when it happens. From there, if ABM Launcher focuses on her or DW uses Arch Smasher twice before her next turn, she dies and I lose.
-Divine Weapon moves to the centre hex and hits Yulie through Illusion. (I try to Isolate him away if this happens.)
-Raquel or Jude dies on Divine Weapon's second turn, 1-2 Devices move to the centre hex, then hit Yulie through Illusion.
-Accelerator comes at a bad time. Especially early in the fight.
-Boost Attack Arch Smasher. Protected Yulie can only barely survive this and he may complete the 2HKO with a regular Arch Smasher. This is when Protect is up. If it isn't, MT OHKO.
Things actually become pretty safe once the Illusion/Protect/Extend lockdown is in place. Protect, in particular, is absolutely crucial. With it, and Divine Weapon not adjacent to Yulie (with someone in the centre hex to block Handy Cannon if they're still lined up), the only attacks he can hit her with are magical, and they don't do very much to her. As long as she lives and I gain FP at a reasonable clip, I can keep casting Odoryuk to both fully heal Yulie and fully revive her allies. So at this point, even DW getting off multiple unfortunate Accelerators is something I can survive. Awesome!
Unfortunately, getting that far is a colossal pain. And the first time I try this fight, I don't have Extend, as I foolishly thought Hyper would be more valuable. Whoops. This leads to multiple resets in which I think I have DW locked down only to have Protect expire at a terrible time, Yulie takes too much damage and I lose. Eventually I redo the fight chain with Extend learned, and finally get everything to go right long enough for things to be set up properly. I still lose once after successfully casting Extend, because the first time I get Extend off it isn't until Protect is about to wear off, so when they both wear off it happens together, and of course DW picks that time to be an asshole.
After reducing DW to zero HP there's a cutscene and you have to Arc Impulse him (100 FP unite, nothing else will kill him). Using Reinforce/etc. can keep FP near 100, but it's still a bit dicy to re-gather everyone in the same hex, not having anyone die, and trying not to use Odoryuk. There's a bit of a balancing act but fortunately Revive works well so everyone moves to join Protected Yulie again and she casts that as necessary, eventually things work out and I win.
I'm not sure how many resets that was total for Divine Weapon. 70? Way more than anything else, by far the hardest fight of the challenge, and certainly rather RNG-based even once I'd honed my strategy. Thank goodness you can restart the fight at the beginning of phase 3, or this would not be sane. Although it does mean I get to hear an awful lot of Hauser rambling about hope giving way to despair and telling me to drown in the sea of war I desire. Seek help bro.
Pretty fun, generally wasn't too excessive except for Divine Weapon. What's very funny is due to having a much better feel for the game, I had less trouble with some bosses on this goofy challenge than I did on my real first playthrough (obviously a number of the puzzly bosses like Hugo, but also e.g. Miscreation). Divine Weapon was very obviously the hardest fight, Belial was probably second... or maybe Super Soldier. Fiore/Asia, Prototype Gear, and Riesenge were also good. A number of other bosses had the potential to be very nasty like Guardian Chimera, Jeremy 2, Kraken, but fortunately I prevailed first try. PC notes...
Jude: Nerfed by losing his basic physical and Mystic. Overall these aren't toooo large a nerf. Jude now has relatively better offence due to not competing with Raquel, and the physical durability/dash to get where he wanted to distract bosses was nice.
Yulie: "Everyone is more fragile" arguably hits her the hardest (she dies a lot), and obviously Quicken and Turn Shift and Crisis RFX Up are significant things to lose. In some ways the central PC in the challenge because she's the only one who can heal or revive, so battles end up often feeling like "what can other people do to keep her alive", via their positioning, Arnaud's Jump, Illusion, etc.
Arnaud: Yulie might be the most important PC in the challenge, but Arnaud is, final battle aside, undoubtedly the MVP. With no loss to his offence (besides gems I guess), his Blasts and Hi-Blasts become some of the most important ways of dealing damage. He remains the tankiest PC, which is huge when everyone is fragile; he's often the last one alive, finishing off boss fights. Illusion is a ridiculously amazing spell, shutting down any physically reliant bosses and making ones who are even partially reliant significantly worse (a big part of why Belial was the second hardest boss of the challenge is that she is fought before I have this). Extend and Reinforce only saw utility in the final battle but were great there. I guess the main thing he loses is Slow Down, and that is significant, but it doesn't really impact his importance in boss fights.
Raquel: Well Raquel obviously got nerfed the most. Her basic physical (and the utility of Move and Attack along with it), Intrude, and Red Zone are far too important to her game. Nevertheless, she managed to shine a bunch early on because Poison Bite was crucial for dealing with bosses for much of the game (especially Belial). Once boss HP kinda flatlined midgame this becomes less important, so really Raquel's main thing from then on was having great damage against anyone unfortunate enough to be stuck beside her, and draining to keep herself alive. Probably the LVP of the challenge? Arguable; it could be anyone but Arnaud.
Kresnik: Loses Adrenaline Rush, but has a great base physical, healing, and oustanding durability, by far the best PC when he's available, goddamnit I hate this challenge why did I do it.
Fun times. Five playthroughs of WA4 in the books. I was debating if I hate myself enough to try the aftergame with this challenge... probably not.
Codename STEAM - Mission 8 in the books. Having fun. I'll weigh in more when I haven't just written a WA4 mega-post.
Hyrule Warriors - Picked this up again now that all the DLC is out, immediately I am hooked. This game is way too addictive.
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Overall ranking?
Fox >>>>>>> Califia=Queequeg >>> Tin Man > Marth > Tom > Lion > Lily > Henry > Ike >>>> Randolph > Scarecrow >> John > Dorothy
Amusingly, compared to in-game use, I'll bet DL ranking would be something like:
Dorothy > Henry > Queequeg > Fox > John > Ike > Marth > Tom > Califia > Lion > Scarecrow > Lily > Tin Man > Randolph
In Code Name: S.T.E.A.M., a lot of it depends on how the damage averages will pan out and what assumptions would you make. Assume hitting weak spots? Lion (thanks to the Steam Crossbow), The Fox and the other Light Boiler PCs all soar straight to the top of the curve and everybody else sucks. No weak spots? The Fox plummets all the way down to the bottom. Then, there's also the matter of how much you factor in steam for movement (since moving and acting run off the same resource, it doesn't feel representative to assume innately that -all- steam goes straight to damage). I can kneejerk Tiger Lily will be at least among the cast stars, though: being able to heal and attack in the same turn forever and ever -and- being able to keenly manipulate her HP range for maximum Defiance abuse all add up to making her an adept staller no matter how bad her offense is (and it's gonna be pretty bad). She's terrible at quick skirmishes and status makes a mockery out of her, but Second Chance-lite + infinite healing spoils the likes of Zog. Everybody else depends on how the numbers line up.
Which also says the cast itself won't be exactly a DL terror. The systemics just don't translate all that well.
I was personally thinking something 1/3 attacks does weak spot damage and that PCs could use steam however they wanted for damage or saving it for counters (over watch), which still lets Fox be pretty rad thanks to the cheaper cost of her counters with no damage loss. Feels most representative of how the cast might look in game. I guess you can argue that a PC has to use 1-3 steam to get into position to use their attack on a weak spot? That would probably balance the cast between and Light and Heavy characters.
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I'm a bit skeptical that anyone in the cast makes Heavy, outside mayyyybe Tiger Lily who isn't much of one even if her damage manages to make it to "marginally below average" when the dust settles (and that seems optimistic). Most of the rest are pure damage with no DL skillset, no status protection (except Scarecrow's stun lol), and average speed. It is a cool and varied cast, but not in ways that translate to the DL.
Fox >>>>>>> Califia=Queequeg >>> Tin Man > Marth > Tom > Lion > Lily > Henry > Ike >>>> Randolph > Scarecrow >> John > Dorothy
That feels a bit harsh to John? He's not amazing, but he has good HP + AoE damage (and AoE damage is quite potent even against single targets who hide their weak spots). Thus far AoE isn't a niche I've been able to replicate with subweapons, unlike basic overwatch physicals or statusy options. It's certainly true that Queequeg is better (broadly speaking, at least; there are times when Queequeg's lack of vertical bites him in the ass), but I often found using both was one of the better options, especially early. Does depend a lot on the fight makeup, though. I just got Cafila, and she's probably bad news for John's use, but there was a lot of game up to this point.
But generally I do agree with your/Snow's assessments overall.
I kinda wish you had... well, any sense of what a fight would be like before going in; as is, choosing who to use is a crapshoot. I still rotate people because, well, why not?
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That feels a bit harsh to John? He's not amazing, but he has good HP + AoE damage (and AoE damage is quite potent even against single targets who hide their weak spots). Thus far AoE isn't a niche I've been able to replicate with subweapons, unlike basic overwatch physicals or statusy options. It's certainly true that Queequeg is better (broadly speaking, at least; there are times when Queequeg's lack of vertical bites him in the ass), but I often found using both was one of the better options, especially early. Does depend a lot on the fight makeup, though. I just got Cafila, and she's probably bad news for John's use, but there was a lot of game up to this point.
Well, the problem with John is being outniched, really. He's irreplaceable until you pick up Queequeg due to explosive and AoE both being so important (ITD and crowd control are -very- big niches) and John -does- have user friendliness going for him (Queequeg's aiming can end up with hilarious mishaps due to the game deliberately not giving you a precise glimpse of the penguin's trajectory. I've managed to miss an alien by a hair and blow up Tiger Lily and Tom who were all the way across the battlefield once, for instance), but Queequeg's lack of vertical is less problematic on average than John's far inferior range - and a couple later maps -can- exploit John's vertical against him, Califia's joining map being the biggest offender. As for him vs. Califia, her obscene range flexibility completely obsoletes John's arc shots. He still has the best damage out of the three (both on the Bear Grenade and Hammerblow, but Hammerblow really pushes him past Califia and Queequeg), but explosives aren't about the damage in practice and the spread is kinda thin between them (John deals 65, Queequeg 60, Califia 50. If you factor Queequeg's Warrior Spirit, he actually barely outdamages John, but John can also benefit from it if you deploy both and moves through the gap once again). I'd at least personally place John above Scarecrow and probably Randolph, though, since quite frankly explosive damage is good enough that I wouldn't see sortieing two users as strategically unsound.
I kinda wish you had... well, any sense of what a fight would be like before going in; as is, choosing who to use is a crapshoot. I still rotate people because, well, why not?
This is a beef I have with the fine line polish in this game. The map overview they give you before the map starts should have been stamped before the char select screen - and they should have given cues to starting position as well. Being able to restart a map at will means you can just press start and reshuffle accordingly, but ideally that should have not even been -necessary-. This is particularly egregious to me because even starting placement matters, I find myself always restarting a map in order to place my units optimally for my plan of action.
Regarding DL concerns, I mostly agree with you as well. I'll be shocked if even Tiger Lily clearly breaks past the Middle/Heavy borderline and nobody else has much of a case.
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Bloodborne: So I thought the weapon progression on this run would be axe -> hammer ->
GAVLAN WHEEL, just based on strength scaling. Actually it's gone more like axe -> axe -> AXE. Wheel pretty rapidly eclipses it for attack power even with fewer upgrades...on paper. In practice, it falls prey to the hammer's shortcoming of never doing quite as much damage as you'd expect for some reason. It's also sorta slow and lacks range and eats too much stamina. And seriously just not having the axe moveset is a mark against like everything else in this game. So that was a bust, should've recognized this before pumping it to +8. (I also wish I could've actually equipped the weapon just to test the moveset before dumping levels into Arcane, thanks for that Bloodborne.) Oh well, it's not like there's a ton else I'm going to bother using other than AXE. Bloodborne kind of makes it hard for me to main more than one weapon anyway; aside from the fact that you'll only ever be able to fully upgrade one weapon (short of NG+ or chalice fuckery), there's the fact that the best gems are generally going to gravitate to the same place, so if you do have two weapons at the same rank one of them's necessarily still going to be inferior. And you know I just can't bring myself to use something that's not optimized. I might use shitty weapons once in a while just because they're fun, sure, but dammit I'm at least going to get as much out of them as possible.
Oh, well, I did try out the cannon this time too. I guess that might've been a better use of chunks than the wheel. It's not casually usable, at all, and I'm not convinced it needed the nerf of raising the firing cost (you know I'm not the type to ever eat HP for bullets) but it's occasionally a great tactical nuke. So it doesn't really see much use, but it is ridiculous and I know exactly how I'm dealing with the brains this time. I might also dump some more levels into arcane for the empty phantasm shell, since I'm really not doing much else with those bullets.
Fenrir, I have two random questions: A) what is the Big Hat Logan hat that I keep seeing other people wear? I'm assuming this is chalice gear since it looks like what that one pyro boss was wearing; B) why is the dead doll in the old workshop surrounded by bloodstains of people killing themselves with the chikage?
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I'm a bit skeptical that anyone in the cast makes Heavy, outside mayyyybe Tiger Lily who isn't much of one even if her damage manages to make it to "marginally below average" when the dust settles (and that seems optimistic). Most of the rest are pure damage with no DL skillset, no status protection (except Scarecrow's stun lol), and average speed. It is a cool and varied cast, but not in ways that translate to the DL.
Yours and Snow's points are quite valid. I was mostly thinking in terms of damage output. It makes sense that Lily would be the best one with the heal/attack stall game. Lack of status protection sucks. They could make a fun set of Middle/Light duelists.
RELATED: Holy crap I managed to get Lucina and Robin amiibos. I got there about ten minutes before the store opened, picked them up, went to the cash register, texted my buddy that I got them. He asked me to pick up a Robin for him. By the time I paid for mine and went back to the shelf, they were gone.
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Form 1 kinda sucks. It has Belial's gimmick except he's slower and it doesn't stop magic. Illusion prevents his attacks / focus fire, getting some people out of a line is important because otherwise Punishing Ray (line fire magic) really hurts. But overall not too bad, Arnaud does most of the killing.
The Devices can't block gem items either (irrelevant in this game), but yeah they don't have Magic Blocker so Arnaud can actually potentially one shot them. I've played around this in RTAs before but its never been relevant in segmented as he never has enough Magic. A note about Punishing Ray if you've never seen it - he can use it as a counter to a physical. So Arnaud doing most of the damage is mucho important so you don't eat that in return
Claymore - Usually opens with this, does some decent magic damage and cancels the turns of everyone hit, hits the targetted hex and any adjacent ones. Fortunately it innately misses often enough. If he spams it and it hits repeatedly, gg.
In fairness, this is true of any run against DW2. I guess normally, Red Zone is the lolno button that stops him from spamming it. Less significant here since you can't pop a Mega Berry. The Widespread factor is important to keep in mind, yeah. Once you figure that out, you can minimize the number of targets it hits so this strategy is less viable for him.
Accelerator: Before anyone's turn but his own, Divine Weapon sometimes gets a free turn, just freaking because. >:(
The one mystery we have never figured out: When does he use Accelerator.
The strategy on the opening rounds, after many experimentations, proves to optimally be as follows:
-Jude uses Arc Impulse on the Devices in front of the party, killing them
I assume a base powered Apoptosis was not enough? I wonder if Fighter Badge Jude would've worked. Hyper works but Extend was more valuable I see.
So let's review what can cause me to lose:
-Yulie sustains enough damage from to die before her first turn, which can be due to any combination of ABM Launcher, Handy Cannon, and Arch Smasher. Divine Weapon gets two turns minimum she has to deal with, so to avoid this I need to get lucky with ABM Launcher missing a bunch, or Divine Weapon moving instead of attacking on his second turn, or Jude activating Defender against a Handy Cannon.
I assume by "All equipment" this included badges. Goat Doll otherwise would've helped against this some (not all since her CT would be reset to zero). Otherwise, as I'm sure you found out like I did from speedruns, Yulie dying is an instant loss. Which amounts to a lot of things that can cause that to happen!
-Yulie runs out of Protect at a bad time and needs to heal on the turn when it happens. From there, if ABM Launcher focuses on her or DW uses Arch Smasher twice before her next turn, she dies and I lose.
Yulie with Protect is like the solution to all problems in that fight because so much is magical. Once the Sword Devices are dead, you can bait physicals with the other characters, open up spaces for ABM to target etc.
-Boost Attack Arch Smasher. Protected Yulie can only barely survive this and he may complete the 2HKO with a regular Arch Smasher. This is when Protect is up. If it isn't, MT OHKO.
She can't live through it with Defend? My solution to that during speedruns is to have everyone Defend when I see Boost because Yulie dying = instant reset and a lot of time loss.
Although it does mean I get to hear an awful lot of Hauser rambling about hope giving way to despair and telling me to drown in the sea of war I desire. Seek help bro.
Should've been a sea of despair, deeper than the deepest oceans caused by using L1 Shinon late in FE9 <3.
Arnaud: Yulie might be the most important PC in the challenge, but Arnaud is, final battle aside, undoubtedly the MVP. With no loss to his offence (besides gems I guess), his Blasts and Hi-Blasts become some of the most important ways of dealing damage. He remains the tankiest PC, which is huge when everyone is fragile; he's often the last one alive, finishing off boss fights. Illusion is a ridiculously amazing spell, shutting down any physically reliant bosses and making ones who are even partially reliant significantly worse (a big part of why Belial was the second hardest boss of the challenge is that she is fought before I have this). Extend and Reinforce only saw utility in the final battle but were great there. I guess the main thing he loses is Slow Down, and that is significant, but it doesn't really impact his importance in boss fights.
:) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)
On that note, great read. I enjoyed the entire log.
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I assume a base powered Apoptosis was not enough? I wonder if Fighter Badge Jude would've worked. Hyper works but Extend was more valuable I see.
Yeah, Apoptosis wasn't enough, and no badges. Since I felt I absolutely had to kill these before they got a turn (or they have two swings at attacking Yulie, not to mention there are fewer hexes for ABM Launcher to focus on), my choices were to:
-Have Jude and Arnaud both attack them. However, this leaves everyone in the same hex, which increases the chance of Yulie dying. This isn't a terrible idea, since I do keep all my FP, but I ultimately decided against it.
-Have Jude move and Arnaud use Arc Impulse. Valid, but Jude can't dodge so I gain less FP this way, and for future turns Arnaud isn't in an elemental hex + Jude is going to have to waste a second turn moving to get beside Divine Weapon later anyway. EDIT: Dur this doesn't work anyway, Jude moving = no Arc Impulse.
-Do what I did.
She can't live through it with Defend? My solution to that during speedruns is to have everyone Defend when I see Boost because Yulie dying = instant reset and a lot of time loss.
If Yulie indeed gets a turn between Boost Attack and that, she can. But of course that happened only half the time at most.
On that note, great read. I enjoyed the entire log.
Thanks!
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Suikoden Tierkreis: We have a bit of a disconnect between the narrative slant and what seems to have actually happened in-game in our latest efforts. So our allies want to take a fortress back, and we want to help our vaguely-dog-man Cougar back through the portal there, so hooray. Sieges & crossings are boring so we're just gonna walk over there with some swords and beat down the door. According to dialogue:
* The Company & the Blades get the scutwork, somehow. We're "bait" and "cannon fodder." So somehow our job is really dangerous and sucks.
* The main elite army of the big nation in charge of the war effort (aka not the teenagers from some hick village & co.) will get the easy-but-glorious task.
* Everyone (except the main hero) agrees afterward this is unconscionable and that we deserve an apology from the commander or something, but she thinks her strategy was just fine.
Okay fine. Except in-game:
* The PCs job is to wander around a forest doing some EZ random encounters.
* The main army's job is to charge... onto a narrow bridge... in front of the fortress... right into their elite defenders. (where they get pwned)
Yeah, unless they have some kind of early-World-War-I thing going where GLORIOUSLY CHARGING TO YOUR DEATH into the teeth of the enemy lands is just awesome and something to be argued about who gets the honor of doing so, this didn't quite work. They needed to spend a wee bit more time in setting this up: maybe the Blades & the Company somehow lure the enemy defenders out of the fortress with a raid and then a staged retreat, and the allied main elites are supposed to use the opportunity to grab the undefended castle while our Company guys get munched, then after the main army returns from beating us up they find their fortress taken. Except of course there was SUPRIZE ELITE DEFENDERS and even this tiny scratch squad, without the help of their distracted main army, beat up our main army's elites, allowing the plot to proceed as before. But this way we could reasonably feel hard-done-by, even if it's potentially a good strategy.
Luckily, the fact that the main character is cool with at all helps keep this to mostly a nitpick. I mean. This is kind of how it works for lesser allies. What were you expecting? Good perspective, Tenkai. Everyone else, welcome to war when you aren't the commander-in-chief.
Anyway, we then have some more minor doses of murdering randoms while traveling, then it's time for a fetch quest dungeon crawl. Wait... the Order *wanted* to piss off the Porpos-kin? Wat. It sounded like they were just doing standard evangelism before it turned into bizarre trolling. Anyway... the Coral Cave can DIAF. Mines mk. 2, crazy encounter rate, camera too zoomed in (another nice thing about Bravely Default... confused as to where you are? let the camera zoom out, aside from the minimap), and a mobile game that's pick-up-and-play, so you get to figure out which way you were going repeatedly. Awful, boring corridors of sameness. oh and then the game crashes halfway through so I get to do it again. I'm not sure if there are other games where I can literally see a treasure chest and ignore it because who cares, it probably sucks and this game is already easy anyway, just let me out damnit. Then I somehow can't find the boss despite exploring the whole cave, so I clearly got turned around somewhere and thrown off track.
Like, seriously, this is reaching Final Fantasy 12 level dungeon boredom alerts, except in FF12 the problem was that the dungeons were freaking gigantic, so at least you had a real sense of achievement & scale when you hacked your way all the way from Rabanastre westward through the Sandsea or whatever, and you had a minimap. The actual dungeon here in Tierkreis is fairly puny, it's just the encounter every 5 seconds that takes a minute to resolve on autobattle as the dive bomber birds slowly attacks you then lands that eats up all the time.
2 "bosses" show up and get horrifically slaughtered. Congrats Connon I could probably *solo* you easily. Then I get to walk out because having some sort of Exit / Escape spell is clearly too good.
The support unit auto-clears battles cannot come fast enough, I don't think I can take another dungeon of this.
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Haven't been playing too much lately, but hey.
Codename: STEAM
Got this on opening day, and played it to and from work until completion. A lot of the characters didn't see much use from me, as I tended to go with an offense/objective-heavy focus to try and clear the maps as quickly as possible, while still collecting all the gears. There were... 3 maps where I accepted a teammate being down, and 2 of those were the final because FuckIt. Had a lot of resets on the all-vertical map, too, because of raining death. My thoughts on the characters are as follows:
Henry: Decent at just about everything. Until I got the final character, he was my go-to in every single map, since he filled in whatever I was lacking. Started to fall off until I saw his special in action, and boy do I love the American dream after seeing that.
John: Really good early in the game, when enemies were clumping and things were generally short/mid range, but I dropped him pretty quickly simply because I felt like he was too slow of a character for clearing the maps quickly. Not bad per se, just... not as good as others, generally.
Lion: MVP of the game. Once I got him and adjusted to his playstyle/weapon, I never dropped him. He was in literally every mission he could be. Lion Launcher is amazing. Even in the moments where I don't want to be launching him at an enemy I can still use it for repositioning and getting into new and exciting areas. Had him with the healing pack for most of the game, and I could launch him just about anywhere and rarely have to worry. Also, 20% less damage (multiplicative with boiler %changes) for the whole team is hella rad. Made an offense-heavy team way more viable than it otherwise would have been.
Tiger Lily: AoE healing and a special that heals? Quite nice! However, I was either playing such an aggressive game that I wanted things dead first, or else was playing so far back I generally wasn't getting hurt, so while she is objectively quite great, she saw virtually no use on my team.
Tom: One of the spikiest characters in terms of use. Fantastic weapon if you can use it right, and great mobility, combined with a quite excellent special (enemies will -never- try to avoid mines. Ever)make for an amazing package! However, being really frail means that on the maps where enemy overwatch is a significant concern he is pretty useless, especially since the game encourages splitting into 2 teams of 2 instead of going as 1 team of 4. He came in and out of my party here and there.
Queequeg: Instantly replaced John due to offense boosting and a (usually) much more useful explosive weapon. He spent a good deal of time sitting back and lobbing penguins at the enemies as the rest of my team would run around and maneuver themselves. Saw a good deal of use for, if nothing else, the 10% damage increase (also multiplicative with boiler %changes. The math in the game is weird). Never really found good times for his special, especially since the damage always felt underwhelming.
Scarecrow: I can see why people might love him, and I noticed that the AoE on his stuns is rather impressive, but I found him too frail and not useful for quickly beating maps. Special had a lot of potential that usually fell quite flat by putting heals where I wanted mines and vice versa.
Randolph: Lobbing chunks of Soylent Green at enemies was great map control, and combining his passive with a few characters (hi Tom and The Fox) can be hilarious, but I found I rarely needed the map control he gave, and the passive tended to be overkill, especially with Ninja Pack+Steam Crossbow being a thing.
Fox: Arguable other MVP. Her range meant that I could safely attack without fear of reprisal, unlike Henry. Also has fairly good damage on the Fox Rifle, and great overwatches. I threw the Steam Crossbow on her and laughed, as nothing ever survived my ability to snipe their weakspots. I was taking down Spawners and Berserkers in one turn with her. It was beautiful. Her arguably biggest flaw isn't her tiny HPs, but rather that to make the most of her you're rarely moving her, so objectives can be difficult. Luckily, that's why Lion is around.
Califia: Mediocre, but useful. Nothing terribly new about her, except the huge range on her AoE damage. Problem was, she came after The Fox, so outside of her starting stage and the final map, I didn't really use her. Worst part about her is her having the worst HP of the Heavys, and I felt like her weapon and her Special didn't really mesh that well.
Tin Man: Didn't use him for a bit because I found him mediocre, especially on his starting map. But then as I started experimenting with set-ups and I got the final character, he found a lot more use. Generally tended to sit in the first half of the map and just spam healing/steam replenishing. He is exactly as good as whoever he's helping, because he's basically giving them an extra turn.
Dorothy: Short-range glass cannon. She was my replacement for Henry, and Tin Man replaced Queequeg once I saw her potential. If you can get in the enemy's face (sometimes difficult because overwatch) then she is your absolute go-to. She will shred apart anything she gets near. Normally this would be difficult to accomplish, since you need to run from very far away to close the gap, especially with bosses, but when paired with Tin Man and The Fox clearing her a path and boosting her available Steam, this is quite do-able. If you build around her she is fantastic, but if you don't she is crap.
My team went from Henry/Lion/Queequeh/Tom to Henry/Lion/Queequeg/The Fox to Dorothy/Lion/The Fox/Tin Man. Maps were generally completed within 5-8 turns, unless they required more for whatever reason. Biggest difference is the mission with the giant explosive. Beat that one in 3 turns by accident. Quite fun game, would definitely recommend to people, since it seems to also allow for a very wide variety of playstyles, which is a big plus.
Rondo of Swords
Found this at EB for like $20 and decided to get it since I remember it being fun. It has yet to disappoint! I just wish I could remember/tell anything at all about the mechanics. This is probably the blindest and dumbest I've ever felt playing a strategy game, since I just go in and hope the characters I choose don't suck in the end. Currently trying to stop pirates from killing everyone (Chapter 9 I think? I just recruited Owl). I am legitimately confused as to who is worth a damn (besides Serdic/Margus/Marie/Ansom. I remember them being godly) and would appreciate advice, if anybody has any.
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Glad to hear you're enjoying Code Name STEAM it's a really fun new game by IntSys and...
OMG you're playing Rondo of Swords.
I have a stat topic for that if you're interested. http://www.rpgdl.com/forums/index.php/topic,6523.0.html
General thoughts on how to play optimally:
Mages suck in the beginning, but are basically your best source of damage late. Make sure you train a few.
Elmer and Selmer are traps. Make sure you get the bonus mission in Ch8 by saving all the townspeople so you can get Cotton. Cotton is the best mage unit in the game out of the box. Marie has to be babied to make her work but she's the best healer in the game if you can do it. If you go the awesome story route, you won't get to keep Marie, so consider training Igraine, but if you can get by with just Cotton until Ch17, you get Aegil the Laser Pope, who requires a little babying but not too much and makes a great in-your-face mage with decent healing. Arios is fine, but kind of a trap as he doesn't become super awesome until VERY late, though he's serviceable if you just want a basic mage. Yumiluna and Galahad are too late to bother with, honestly.
ZOC is the most important skill in the game, and you only need level 2 of it, anything after that is kinda useless. Only Margus and the main on one path (the awesome path) get it early enough to matter much, but you can certainly get some use out of any of the PCs who get it.
Archers are the best units in the game. They can move and attack at range in a single turn. Their only flaw is being stuck hitting only one target in a turn ever. Ansom is likely the only Archer you'll ever get. The other one is good but extremely late-game. If you can stand it, sending Ansom on his Tarot quest will make him stupid-powerful.
The next best fighter is Alhambra, and also a good candidate for sending on Tarot quests. She gets a lot of good skills and gets them early and her stupid-high movement range directly equates to hitting more targets per turn.
Rukia and Owl are complete traps, don't touch them.
The only other thing to look at is whether a fighter has good range and whether you want their Tarot quest skill as you can only get so many of those. Sasha is decent if you get her Tarot quest. Izuna is good for ST damage. Simon eventually gets ZOC and has great range. Kay is decent early, but you'll probably wanna drop him for Simon or Alhambra.
General priority is Ansom >> Margus > Alhambra > Cotton = Marie = Aegil > Serdic >>>>>> Everyone else (Arios > Simon > Igraine > Yumiluna > Izuna > Sasha > Kay > Shino) >>>> Late-joiners (Naji > Alicia > Al > Galahad) >>>>> absolutely useless (Selmer > Owl > Elmer >>>>>>> Rukia)
Seriously, never use Rukia. Her only use is buying and selling stuff. Note that you should only use Shino if you're gonna use Izuna, which means that Shino is basically useless until Ch19, four chapters after you get her, and requires that you fulfill the secret requirements to get Ch19 to recruit Izuna.
The only items that matter are Move+ items and DEFENSE. Defense from Items doubles as partial magic resistance in this game, with the magic stat being the other half of the magic defense equation, though generally just load on the Item Defense as it performs double-duty. This makes it more important than the Passive skills that boost Def and Mag.Def, so I'd focus on increasing Atk and Mag there first, assuming the PC has those passives. Obviously boost Movement and Regen before that though. If you're not sure what a passive skill does or when a unit gets what skill... consult a FAQ, you'll always be glad you did!
Promoting characters is really tough, you have to find their promotion items through quests and such and then send the character to get promoted AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. I highly suggest looking up how these things appear as it's quite complex and you will NOT manage to promote your whole chosen team if you aren't planning it out ASAP.
(Note: Not actually that complex, just the game tells you nothing so you have to keep track of how it works yourself. Much like EVERYTHING in this beautiful yet unpolished gem.)
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How do Tarot quests work? Like, how do I know which one is for whom/What do they do/etc?
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Hey now, Shino counts as a bit of an archer. Well. "Physical ranged unit with move & attack."
Something the LP pointed out is that it's sorta too bad that your deploy cap is 6. I mean, 6 is the right number, keeping track of WTF is going on is crazy enough at that amount and balancing around a larger deploy would require even more BS, but definitely makes it hard to experiment. Serdic is required, a healer is pseudo-required so one of Marie/Aegil/Yumiluna, and another ZOC tank to go with Serdic is highly recommended (Margus)... that leaves 3 slots to be fought over by a *lot* of characters.
At least RoS is way better than, say, FE12 at having the characters be unique so which ones you pick matters.
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Oh. You haven't been doing Tarot quests? Well then you can prolly only get two people their stuff. I recommend Ansom and Alhambra. Tarot quests are missions that show up between maps where you can send a character out on it to learn a skill. They have to do this for three maps for their first skill, and six maps for their (usually amazing) second skill. You'll know the tarot quests by then being named after tarot cards. They aren't necessary but they are awesome. Particularly Ansom and Alhambra, though anyone you use prolly wants those passives. Notably, Serdic, Marie, and Aegil don't have Tarot Skills, they just naturally have passives.
Shino is also a Ranged Fighter AND has magic so yeah, she can be useful if you just can't decide who to use for a sixth slot or if someone is gone on a Tarot quest and you need that ranged damage and mobility.
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Hm, are you using controllers? I use a PS4 one (or XBox 360) and have never had problems with Niddhogg.
Yeah, the Jackbox has a lot of references to American culture and the trivia parts do require some knowledge of the US so that may not be a great option for you.
Have you played Gang Beasts? It looks really stupid but it could be fun if you're drinking with a group.
Yeah I used 360 controls, it's just that the controls feel weird I guess.
I'll get Gang Beasts when it's released on PS4!
Dark Souls 2: El Cid I have your tiara.
I went through the Sunken City, I really do think this is the best part of Dark Souls 2.
I threw my Murakumo +10 away as soon as I got the whip blade thing, and respecced to get 40 dex.
There are a lot of cool NPCs you can summon against bosses, they're pretty much all traps.
Dragon Age Inquisition: The Dragon Age team at Bioware is still way inferior to Mass Effect team. You really have to admire how the ME team made everyone get attached to their Shepard. Here, I already don't really care about my inquisitor.
The dialogue in this game really makes me feel like I'm watching an average sitcom / cheap Game of Thrones knockoff.
I am going to be a huge jerk to everybody, and basically not get any friendship/romance points ever.
I'll try a Solo nightmare difficulty challenge right away #YOLO, maybe scale back later on.
Even more so than in Dragon Age 2, it feels like the game is designed towards controling one character only and having AI do the rest. There is still one option to control the entire battlefield, but it is barely explained and feels really poorly conceived.
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Douchebag inquisitor could at least be pretty funny instead of bland. I think you can end up punching certain characters and party members will leave of their own volition because you are so terrible.
I played on Hard and felt that Nightmare would just be a fucking chore. I think the combat in that game is bad anyway so prolonging it would not be a great thing to do.
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Dark Souls 2: El Cid I have your tiara.
I went through the Sunken City, I really do think this is the best part of Dark Souls 2.
I threw my Murakumo +10 away as soon as I got the whip blade thing, and respecced to get 40 dex.
There are a lot of cool NPCs you can summon against bosses, they're pretty much all traps.
Excellent. I'll definitely be stalking you the next time we're both online.
I like the bosses better in Brume Tower, but Shulva is probably the better designed zone. The cursed side areas you have to backtrack for bug me a little in Brume Tower. As for the NPCs, yeahhhh most are varieties of not good:
vs Elana: Benhart is as useless as ever and Ellie shames pugilists everywhere. Next!
vs Sinh: Dragonbro's actually pretty hardcore, I recommend him. Not!Licia's pretty decent about keeping herself alive (and I think she can MT heal?) but she deals like no damage.
vs gank squad: Both options are amazingly incompetent and unlikely to survive the boss fight. Also, if you choose to run past the mooks straight to the fog gate (which you should), your friends will not.
vs Fume Knight: Carhillion is probably the worst summon in the game. He dies almost immediately and has only magic to use against a buffed DLC boss. Ellie at least has the right damage type for this fight but she's still pretty incompetent. I don't think either option contributes enough to offset the durability boost they give the boss.
vs Sir Alonne: Stop gesturing and hit the boss, already!
vs Smelty mk. 2: Stop gesturing and hit the boss already, armadillo chick! For fuck's sake.
vs Aava: Ellie's relatively non-terrible here for the first and only time. Not great. But not terrible.
vs Ivory King: Twiggy has the bell hat but flipside he's also an archer. Lucatiel is just Lucatiel. She's an okay distraction but doesn't live long enough on higher difficulties. Neither's a huge help beyond the simple fact that you want raw numbers to get through the mob.
vs Aava x2: Vengarl's decent. Not!Licia is no more helpful than she was vs Sinh. Being elementally reliant is super bad vs buffed DLC bosses.
So yeah, mostly a wash. The maingame NPC phantoms unique to Scholar, on the other hand, are almost universally badass.
~
Bloodborne: So I thought this time I'd actually clear out the top floor of Mergo's tower, see what's actually hiding in the stray corners instead of just running straight through because of ohgodohgodohgod. Turns out there's lots of ore up there. Nice. While I'm doing this, attempting to sneak up on a death pig for proper anus reaming goes awry as he turns around when I'm right behind him. Holy shit! This is bad for obvious mechanical reasons because 2,000 pounds of angry death pig right in front of me. But it turns out this is also bad because what's wrong with your face?! I'd never stopped to notice that there was a different character model made specific for that zone. Wow.
I'd also not previously noticed the trail of blood leading from Arianna's chair to the sewer. Yikes.
President Maya is leveled up to 50 VIT/SKL and ready for proper dungeon diving. This is obviously a bad idea for a lot of reasons, not least of which is that axechick would be a more competent choice (but faster weapons are just more fun for me, outside of all practical concerns).
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Douchebag inquisitor could at least be pretty funny instead of bland. I think you can end up punching certain characters and party members will leave of their own volition because you are so terrible.
I played on Hard and felt that Nightmare would just be a fucking chore. I think the combat in that game is bad anyway so prolonging it would not be a great thing to do.
So far it's not great. Being a jerk is just picking the lower right options all the time, and they're nowhere near Renegade Shepard levels.
Nightmare solo is terrible terrible, I'm scaling it back to Hard or Normal next time I'm playing.
Not sure I'll continue for much longer, this is hard to care about this in a post Dragon's Dogma world. It's weird how well received this game got, I thought that reviewers cared less and less about this kind of game? It is the game that does all the things that EA asked (Open world, "Press a button something awesome happens", standard Dragon Age dialogue, Ubisoft approach of filling your mini map with inane sidequests) but nothing spectacularly and with the same battle system issues that have plagued the series except worst.
Excellent. I'll definitely be stalking you the next time we're both online.
I like the bosses better in Brume Tower, but Shulva is probably the better designed zone. The cursed side areas you have to backtrack for bug me a little in Brume Tower. As for the NPCs, yeahhhh most are varieties of not good:
vs Elana: Benhart is as useless as ever and Ellie shames pugilists everywhere. Next!
vs Sinh: Dragonbro's actually pretty hardcore, I recommend him. Not!Licia's pretty decent about keeping herself alive (and I think she can MT heal?) but she deals like no damage.
vs gank squad: Both options are amazingly incompetent and unlikely to survive the boss fight. Also, if you choose to run past the mooks straight to the fog gate (which you should), your friends will not.
vs Fume Knight: Carhillion is probably the worst summon in the game. He dies almost immediately and has only magic to use against a buffed DLC boss. Ellie at least has the right damage type for this fight but she's still pretty incompetent. I don't think either option contributes enough to offset the durability boost they give the boss.
vs Sir Alonne: Stop gesturing and hit the boss, already!
vs Smelty mk. 2: Stop gesturing and hit the boss already, armadillo chick! For fuck's sake.
vs Aava: Ellie's relatively non-terrible here for the first and only time. Not great. But not terrible.
vs Ivory King: Twiggy has the bell hat but flipside he's also an archer. Lucatiel is just Lucatiel. She's an okay distraction but doesn't live long enough on higher difficulties. Neither's a huge help beyond the simple fact that you want raw numbers to get through the mob.
vs Aava x2: Vengarl's decent. Not!Licia is no more helpful than she was vs Sinh. Being elementally reliant is super bad vs buffed DLC bosses.
So yeah, mostly a wash. The maingame NPC phantoms unique to Scholar, on the other hand, are almost universally badass.
I summoned both people against Sinh and neither contributed to anything but buffing the boss' HP.
In the cave of the dead I at least found that the two losers made a nice diversion. The best way to deal with that is probably to summon them, run and then black crystal them right before the boss (if they've survived up to that point)
Holy shit! This is bad for obvious mechanical reasons because 2,000 pounds of angry death pig right in front of me. But it turns out this is also bad because what's wrong with your face?! I'd never stopped to notice that there was a different character model made specific for that zone. Wow.
Yeah this surprised me way after having finished the game too. Spiders having faces too.
I should have noticed all that considering the crow-dogs and dog-crows.
President Maya is leveled up to 50 VIT/SKL and ready for proper dungeon diving. This is obviously a bad idea for a lot of reasons, not least of which is that axechick would be a more competent choice (but faster weapons are just more fun for me, outside of all practical concerns).
Oh god you're doing it. Okay.
These bosses are the hardest things I've done in Souls next to NG1 Gwyn so I hope you're ready. At least two bosses will take you one million tries (Cursed Fire Dog and Cursed Amygdala) I had an easier time with NG1 Ornstein/Smough and 4 Kings. Do not Fashion Souls anymore and just pick the best stuff for each battle.
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Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. - Welp, finally beat it. The last two missions are quite nasty and the final boss in particular is a -dick-. Somehow, Randolph saved my ass there after four resets, letting me divert its attention from The Fox, who gets one-rounded by it, but also deals the best damage to it. Somehow, it took -three rounds- of Steam Crossbow shots to its weak point to end everything, and just breaking it took a round and a half. I also got all cogs, which means I get to use the swanky uber universal boiler pack! ... for the aftergame. WELP.
Regardless, after all is said and done, I can't help but be entirely impressed here. This is a very unique and interesting take on the turn-based strategy genre with a distinct emphasis on -figuring out- the environments and general positioning. Not allowing you a full overview of the maps may sound like a terrible idea, but it's actually part of the fun. Everything is more or less designed around that - enemies also have to figure out where -you- are, for instance. And the way you can parcel actions steam point per steam point, shuffling freely between characters, gives you remarkable freedom and a lot of strategies to work with - all in all, the steam system is one of the coolest methods for action parcelling I've ever seen in a SRPG.
The game does start out rather rough, of course - mission 1 is quite frankly kinda rude to a first-timer (and you -got- to be a beginner at this at some point). But once the game hands you Lion, the system's potential gets realized to an impressive degree and the map design itself is also very cool, with almost every battle having at least a couple memorable nooks and crannies. The variety of ways in which you can accomplish a given mission is also a marvel, which encourages shuffling PCs and subweapons a lot. Since PCs themselves don't level up (the only growth you get in the game comes in subweapon and boiler unlocking, which are gamechangers as well. Compare 1-3 to 2-1 where the main difference is unlocking subweapons as a system and you'll know what I mean), it also means you won't ever be punished later on by not using someone in any given mission. And all PCs have very distinct niches, perks and failings, all while being entirely viable. Character balance is -definitely- good enough to let you play out as many different approaches as the system allows, and the game letting you replay missions with extra challenge options if you want is also cool as hell. I -do- wish the game let you select specific maps, instead of locking you into an entire mission when doing so, though.
In fact, the game's biggest problems in terms of gameplay lie in a few fine line polish details. I mean, the game gives you an overview of any given map before it starts... but -after- the char select screen. Seriously? The game lets you restart/reload maps pretty easy and fast, but why restarting a map to figure out starting positions (which MATTER) and the basic layout should be necessary? Honestly makes no sense. Also, why lock you into a single save slot for the entirety of Campaign Mode? I guess this is a pretty minute complaint, it'd be only really bad if the game didn't give you multiple save slots, but I'm not really sure what was the point. Then, controlling the camera takes some getting used to. I found that mixing up stylus controls and button controls yielded the most precise results, but that takes a couple maps to kink out. Enemy turns also could have used a measure that allowed you to skip them for the sake of simplicity, even though seeing them unfold is actually fairly important (I certainly did take my time looking at the different PC overviews to have an idea of where the enemy force was shuffling to as best as I could most of the time). The 2x speed skip update was a nice alleviator, though.
Scripting/writing... well. I really like the -aesthetics-. They made a very colorful world with highly memorable character designs and it just brims with personality. Problem is the writing is so very basic. The potential with classic literature characters with a rich history underneath was incredible, but it's taken at its most basic level and the characters themselves feel pretty rote. Some one-liners are decent, at least, and the voice acting is simply a joy to behold (Tom's southern drawl is hilarious, for instance. I also love The Fox's cheesy spanglish accent and Califia's raspy voice. And not to forget WIL WHEATON as Abe Lincoln). So, it's a lot of wasted potential, but you'd be really hard-pressed to be offended by it, especially given how it takes itself about as seriously as the music video for "Hey, Mickey".
This said, I'm not sure how to rate this game. I was very impressed by it, with a very intelligent system underneath it all, and I had a lot of fun from start to finish. On the other hand, there are some weird polish issues that keep me from really being intellectually awed by it. Still, it's a veritably worthwhile idea for a new franchise with a ton of things to like, be it in presentation, be it in gameplay. Still pondering between an 8 and a 9 here, but it's good. Go play it.
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MH4U: Beaten all the 6 star story missions, and about half the 7 stars. The free dlc today gave me enough armor stones to upgrade blademaster gear to a usable level (i.e. what it should have been all along).
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President Maya is leveled up to 50 VIT/SKL and ready for proper dungeon diving. This is obviously a bad idea for a lot of reasons, not least of which is that axechick would be a more competent choice (but faster weapons are just more fun for me, outside of all practical concerns).
Oh god you're doing it. Okay.
These bosses are the hardest things I've done in Souls next to NG1 Gwyn so I hope you're ready. At least two bosses will take you one million tries (Cursed Fire Dog and Cursed Amygdala) I had an easier time with NG1 Ornstein/Smough and 4 Kings. Do not Fashion Souls anymore and just pick the best stuff for each battle.
Theoretically I might be tag-teaming the harder bits with my brother, if so it may take a while to get through it all just because scheduling. So far I've gone through floor three of lower Pthumeru. I stopped for the night there because the boss is supposedly powered up Rom and fuuuuuck thaaaaat. The floor two undead giant was surprisingly mean considering that the upper Pthumeru undead giant got toasted in one attack sequence. The game's definitely done fucking around.
Right now I'm rocking the pyromancer bone armor, which is pretty fantastic (sans hat, because practicality or no I'll be damned if I give up my fancy crown).
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Binding of Isaac: Rebirth - Good to know Judas remains as OP as he was in the original game. Took me only two attempts to get a victorious run against Satan.
Tangentially, there's an insane Saint's Row sale going on Steam and I bought both SR3 and SR4 for a grand total of a bit over 5 USD. am i doing this right
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DO IT DO IT DO IT DO IT
Edit - Also check out some of the DLC if the pack doesn't have them because well, sometimes it is worth spending a few cents on amazing video games clothes (http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/55386/ss_7af0b4d0d9189d875703cd605bf939885d9ddd70.jpg?t=1360223157)
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phat swag is 100% why I played SR4. I mean, SR3 was fun enough just on its own rights of being ridiculous, but I probably wouldn't have signed up for a second tour if I hadn't been confident of the ability to be completely fabulous all over again. I wasn't disappointed.
Bloodborne: Lower Pthumeru cleared. Bloodletting Beast was kind of terrible. In the provoking terror sense, though camera fuckery had a lot to do with it. I'm constantly amazed at how Bloodborne somehow manages to be a less polished game than Dark Souls 2 in this regard (in other ways too, this is just presently the glaring one). I never had any significant camera issues with DS2, but BB here strongly recalls shit like when Kalameet would walk on top of you to do the glowy eye thing and because you were so close to the enemy you were locked onto the camera would just pan straight up and give you view of nothing but enemy crotch. Really not helpful at all. Anyway, I was too afraid to immediately go into Ailing Loran so I knocked out some odds and ends I'd skipped over on this file. Dicing the Unseen Village hunter trio with an absolute minimum of effort was incredibly satisfying.
Shovel Knight: Started this up, beat the first two robot masters knights. I feel like this is the kind of game Meeple would make if given free reign to do so. (I mean this in a good way.) The best part is probably just the retro tunage, honestly.
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There's a version with a ton of DLC packs, but none of them really caught my eye as of now. Maybe later.
EDIT: Question. Can I play SR3 and 4 with my USB PS3 controller? Sounds like using the keyboard would be a pain in the ass.
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Douchebag inquisitor could at least be pretty funny instead of bland. I think you can end up punching certain characters and party members will leave of their own volition because you are so terrible.
I played on Hard and felt that Nightmare would just be a fucking chore. I think the combat in that game is bad anyway so prolonging it would not be a great thing to do.
So far it's not great. Being a jerk is just picking the lower right options all the time, and they're nowhere near Renegade Shepard levels.
Nightmare solo is terrible terrible, I'm scaling it back to Hard or Normal next time I'm playing.
Not sure I'll continue for much longer, this is hard to care about this in a post Dragon's Dogma world. It's weird how well received this game got, I thought that reviewers cared less and less about this kind of game? It is the game that does all the things that EA asked (Open world, "Press a button something awesome happens", standard Dragon Age dialogue, Ubisoft approach of filling your mini map with inane sidequests) but nothing spectacularly and with the same battle system issues that have plagued the series except worst.
Yeah the game has so much that draws from recent AAA stuff that it's boring. I'm a little surprised it doesn't involve you climbing up towers to get more objectives, Assassin's Creed style. It vomits objectives all over the place but none of them are really meaningful (it's generally worth closing fade rifts though), and even though these objectives are technically extra content, the world still really feels really empty and somehow really awkward and annoying to explore. I ran into something similar with Far Cry 4 when there were a billion things for me to do but I didn't about doing any of them.
The Inquisitor is just kind of a blank slate since even the dialogue choices you make are delivered blandly. I think a lot depends on whether you like the characters and I wasn't that impressed with most of them although some are good. I liked abstract ideas the game addresses rather than actually going through the experience of playing it and that's not great.
The basic gameplay cycle doesn't really change (go to new area, do some bullshit until you can open up a new area or a story thing) but at least some of the story missions do some interesting things. I didn't find that sidequests were really worth the time until you can fight dragons, who do drop worthwhile equipment, so you can just blast through the story of the game if you want.
Shovel Knight: Started this up, beat the first two robot masters knights.I feel like this is the kind of game Meeple would make if given free reign to do so. (I mean this in a good way.) The best part is probably just the retro tunage, honestly.
The first stage song is my favorite to come out of video games in a long long time. I finished my first playthrough of this recently and I'm just impressed by how strong the stage designs are. Great game.
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Douchebag inquisitor could at least be pretty funny instead of bland. I think you can end up punching certain characters and party members will leave of their own volition because you are so terrible.
I played on Hard and felt that Nightmare would just be a fucking chore. I think the combat in that game is bad anyway so prolonging it would not be a great thing to do.
So far it's not great. Being a jerk is just picking the lower right options all the time, and they're nowhere near Renegade Shepard levels.
Nightmare solo is terrible terrible, I'm scaling it back to Hard or Normal next time I'm playing.
Not sure I'll continue for much longer, this is hard to care about this in a post Dragon's Dogma world. It's weird how well received this game got, I thought that reviewers cared less and less about this kind of game? It is the game that does all the things that EA asked (Open world, "Press a button something awesome happens", standard Dragon Age dialogue, Ubisoft approach of filling your mini map with inane sidequests) but nothing spectacularly and with the same battle system issues that have plagued the series except worst.
Yeah the game has so much that draws from recent AAA stuff that it's boring. I'm a little surprised it doesn't involve you climbing up towers to get more objectives, Assassin's Creed style. It vomits objectives all over the place but none of them are really meaningful (it's generally worth closing fade rifts though), and even though these objectives are technically extra content, the world still really feels really empty and somehow really awkward and annoying to explore. I ran into something similar with Far Cry 4 when there were a billion things for me to do but I didn't about doing any of them.
The Inquisitor is just kind of a blank slate since even the dialogue choices you make are delivered blandly. I think a lot depends on whether you like the characters and I wasn't that impressed with most of them although some are good. I liked abstract ideas the game addresses rather than actually going through the experience of playing it and that's not great.
The basic gameplay cycle doesn't really change (go to new area, do some bullshit until you can open up a new area or a story thing) but at least some of the story missions do some interesting things. I didn't find that sidequests were really worth the time until you can fight dragons, who do drop worthwhile equipment, so you can just blast through the story of the game if you want.
Shovel Knight: Started this up, beat the first two robot masters knights.I feel like this is the kind of game Meeple would make if given free reign to do so. (I mean this in a good way.) The best part is probably just the retro tunage, honestly.
The first stage song is my favorite to come out of video games in a long long time. I finished my first playthrough of this recently and I'm just impressed by how strong the stage designs are. Great game.
Quoth the Duck forevermore
Snow, yes you can play them with controller if you want.
Edit - This was actually a mistake, but I am leaving it.
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Well, that was all I needed to know.
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Binding of Isaac: Rebirth - Good to know Judas remains as OP as he was in the original game. Took me only two attempts to get a victorious run against Satan.
You find Judas OP in a game with freaking Azazel???
I find him allright, but worse + less fun than Eve and D6 Isaac.
Oh yeah I also finished everything on normal mode with every character, except like 3 easy runs (Finishing the chest with D6 Isaac, lol) and the Lost (obvs)
I also did every challenge but Purist. I just really don't like that one.
I heard the next DLC will have rewards for completing hard mode, so I think I'll stop for now in order to not just unlock everything from the get go.
Bloodborne: Lower Pthumeru cleared. Bloodletting Beast was kind of terrible. In the provoking terror sense, though camera fuckery had a lot to do with it. I'm constantly amazed at how Bloodborne somehow manages to be a less polished game than Dark Souls 2 in this regard (in other ways too, this is just presently the glaring one). I never had any significant camera issues with DS2, but BB here strongly recalls shit like when Kalameet would walk on top of you to do the glowy eye thing and because you were so close to the enemy you were locked onto the camera would just pan straight up and give you view of nothing but enemy crotch. Really not helpful at all. Anyway, I was too afraid to immediately go into Ailing Loran so I knocked out some odds and ends I'd skipped over on this file. Dicing the Unseen Village hunter trio with an absolute minimum of effort was incredibly satisfying.
I'd talk about Bloodletting Beast, but I always confuse this boss with the Frenzied Beast or whatever (which is the cannibal dude except way buffed)
Pro tip I haven't mentioned for the chalice dungeons: Before going to the forced cursed defiled one, finish everything else and go to the meanest cursed defiled rotten very bad chalice dungeon you can go to by doing a dungeon search, and just go get some gems on the first level there. They will be most likely awesome. If you're lucky you'll have a easy boss like "Boar" on the first level, and be able to go to the second level without much trouble.
Buffed Rom actually isn't that bad considering that he can't run too far away in a small dungeon room.
Yeah the game has so much that draws from recent AAA stuff that it's boring. I'm a little surprised it doesn't involve you climbing up towers to get more objectives, Assassin's Creed style. It vomits objectives all over the place but none of them are really meaningful (it's generally worth closing fade rifts though), and even though these objectives are technically extra content, the world still really feels really empty and somehow really awkward and annoying to explore. I ran into something similar with Far Cry 4 when there were a billion things for me to do but I didn't about doing any of them.
The Inquisitor is just kind of a blank slate since even the dialogue choices you make are delivered blandly. I think a lot depends on whether you like the characters and I wasn't that impressed with most of them although some are good. I liked abstract ideas the game addresses rather than actually going through the experience of playing it and that's not great.
The basic gameplay cycle doesn't really change (go to new area, do some bullshit until you can open up a new area or a story thing) but at least some of the story missions do some interesting things. I didn't find that sidequests were really worth the time until you can fight dragons, who do drop worthwhile equipment, so you can just blast through the story of the game if you want.
Yeah. I stopped Far Cry 3 for the same reasons and haven't played an Assassin's Creed since Brotherhood.
DA:I has ridiculously cliched/boring missions: I got:
- Kill wolves
- "Find medicine for my wife, kind stranger"
- "Find my dead husband's wedding ring, kind stranger"
- "Find my lost buffalo, kind stranger" ARE YOU KIDDING ME
- Kill 3 boars because girls find killing boars attractive
- Horse races
- "Find 21 songs, 22 shard things, 29 areas, 12 other shard things, 17 places, 29 bottles" I am 100% serious, I am reporting the exact numbers needed
I do like the quests that show me a rough sketch and tell me to find where it is. For what it's worth.
The gameplay has also been less terrible since I've bumped the difficulty down to normal. (I'm still soloing because fuck that IA)
Also one farmer called me Inquisition instead of Inquisitor. It made me laugh a lot (and reminded me of a super recent Dinosaur Comics)
The Inquisitor is just kind of a blank slate since even the dialogue choices you make are delivered blandly. I think a lot depends on whether you like the characters and I wasn't that impressed with most of them although some are good.
The most noteworthy part of her personality is that she gives 0 fucks about littering the world with empty potion flasks
The first stage song is my favorite to come out of video games in a long long time. I finished my first playthrough of this recently and I'm just impressed by how strong the stage designs are. Great game.
Yeah definitely.
The whole OST isn't actually that great, but the first stage song is so good and so memorable that it's been widely praised.
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Binding of Isaac: Rebirth - Good to know Judas remains as OP as he was in the original game. Took me only two attempts to get a victorious run against Satan.
You find Judas OP in a game with freaking Azazel???
I find him allright, but worse + less fun than Eve and D6 Isaac.
D6 Isaac is pretty particular. I remeber breaking the game itself pretty badly, but Judas is just pretty -easy-, you know? Granted, I'm interested to see in how they rebuilt Eve, since she was -awful- in the original. And yeah, Azazel is kinda nuts.
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Not sure how she was in the original but she does require good knowledge of the game.
Hurt yourself right away to get your heart to 1 then never pick up red hearts again. Break marked rocks / find secret passages to get soul hearts, plow through the early parts taking no more red heart damage and make every deal with the devil you can until you have 0 red hearts.
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Yeah, the game was considerably less lax with devil deals in the original (no Goat's Head, for starters), and, from what I heard, Dead Bird got buffed. The emphasis on soul hearts went up in Rebirth, which alone should improve Eve. But her awful starting damage in the original was just way too much to bear.
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Here you get super buffed speed + damage with 1 heart Eve, so it's very easy to get no damage in the second, third and/or fourth level, which raises your devil room chances to about 80% each level I'd say?
Azazel is disgusting, try him once. I'm fairly sure he's meant to be the easy mode character.
At least he's way less fun than the other characters because he has less synergies.
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There's a version with a ton of DLC packs, but none of them really caught my eye as of now. Maybe later.
EDIT: Question. Can I play SR3 and 4 with my USB PS3 controller? Sounds like using the keyboard would be a pain in the ass.
Yes. Are there still cross-platform games being made you can't play with a USB controller? Fucked up if true.
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There's a version with a ton of DLC packs, but none of them really caught my eye as of now. Maybe later.
EDIT: Question. Can I play SR3 and 4 with my USB PS3 controller? Sounds like using the keyboard would be a pain in the ass.
Yes. Are there still cross-platform games being made you can't play with a USB controller? Fucked up if true.
Quite a number of PC games only work with an XBox controller, yes. Or at least only work properly (vibration, etc.).
I gave in and bought an XBone controller myself. (Off the top of my head, Bastion, Transistor, Child of Light, & DMC4 I've all used XBox controller for and it was required.)
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Saints' Row 3 - I DON'T UNDERSTAND ANYTHING
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The sooner you stop trying, the happier you'll be.
Bloodborne: Ailing Loran floor 2. Blood-Starved Beast redux. For the first time in the game, victory hinges on turning HP into bullets. At this point bosses just have too much HP for anything other than parries to dent their mammoth healthbars. I also got the Beast Claw! I don't have the stats to use it. :( Dammit game, I'd at least like to preview the moveset. Oh yeah, I also actually upgraded the hunter's torch to +6 purely for those stupid blobs that otherwise take an offensive amount of time to kill. Worth it. Also, I can finally stop complaining about the chalice dungeons giving shit rewards for echoes. One excursion now nets me like 100k and I'm stocking up to 99 each of the attack items that are completely and utterly worthless at this point of the game just because I can. (Probably I should direct resources toward the obscenely expensive status cures instead.)
I ran through a round of Hintertombs before all that, though, because I was scared of going where I was supposed to go and wanted something easier to warm up on first, and I figured I might as well see if there's a different tileset here. There kind of isn't at first, it starts out looking exactly like Pthumera, but I did eventually find a mini-Valley of the Defiled full of enemies who weren't actually immune to poison. I stood and laughed as they died until a giant with a mortar exploded me into the swamp.
The stop-motion deadites are really the worst fucking thing.
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I stocked on sedatives and didn't avtually get to use thel IIRC.
i then spent everything towards levelling more hp even after hitting the soft cap. Worth it.
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Codename STEAM: Completed. Yeah, just going to echo what Snow said. For the 2nd to last map, I got my ass kicked with those rude reinforcements, reset to a mid-battle save, and found a work around that seemed cheap but on hindsight, seems intended if you want to get the Turn Limit req, because PLANNING AHEAD!!!
Regarding the polish and lack of writing beyond basic caricatures and missing it's potential? I feel like this being the first entry in a potential new IP, a lot of this was working out the kinks and getting the basics done. I suspect a 2nd entry will take a number of the complaints and fine tune a lot of it, and possibly give more focus on the "THESE ARE CLASSIC LIT CHARACTERS LET'S DO STUFF WITH THEM!" Also, come on, who doesn't want to play as some other president's interpretation of a giant robot?
So hopefully, game does well enough to justify making a 2nd which can make full use of the potential, now that they have the basic concept and ideas down.
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Saints' Row 3 - Why did they feel it necessary to add an option to customize your dick size?
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So you could mod out the censor bar.
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Saints' Row 3 - This game's idea of driving is remarkably close to Carmageddon's.
EDIT: I have no idea how I objectively feel about this game, but I know I spent -at least- 50% of the time I'm playing it laughing so far. Also, holy SHIT you can dress FABULOUSLY.
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Saints' Row 3 - Why did they feel it necessary to add an option to customize your dick size?
The "sex appeal" slider is anatomically (and quite possibly grotesquely) very specific for either gender.
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Oh god you're doing it. Okay.
These bosses are the hardest things I've done in Souls next to NG1 Gwyn so I hope you're ready. At least two bosses will take you one million tries (Cursed Fire Dog and Cursed Amygdala) I had an easier time with NG1 Ornstein/Smough and 4 Kings. Do not Fashion Souls anymore and just pick the best stuff for each battle.
Ultimate fire doggie down. First try victory. Throwing knife kill.
(Throwing knives deal approximately 0.2% of the boss's healthbar in damage even with optimal stats for scaling. You can carry up to twenty of them at once. Have I mentioned how hilariously worthless attack items generally are, and how totally out of proportion expensive their purchasing prices really are?)
This reminds me of Kalameet in all the worst ways. He just has way too much fucking HP and defense and the most dangerous factor is just your own impatience. So I waited for him to puke lava and stabbed him in the feet a couple times every time that opportunity arose, because it's safe to hit then and pretty much only then. Then he stopped puking for the middle third of the fight. After some trial and error I switched back to the spear and figured out I could use the R2 charge pain train to dart in and jab him on the chin after he tries a bite, without actually triggering the follow-up combo that would ordinarily ping when I tried getting closer to hit with the katana. Then eventually he started puking again and I went back to playing it safe. That's pretty much it! The paw swipe flamethrower caught me off guard a few times, but everything he has is easily dodgeable if you keep your distance. The charge attack looks scary, but he used it maybe four or five times and he has terrible aim. (Of course, it probably helps that I've fought this enemy before in a weaker version, and knew the moveset going in.)
I'm prepared to estimate this took a solid hour, but that beats dying over and over for a solid hour to get it done quicker. Anyway after that ordeal I helped people punch Fume Knight to death a few times just to unwind because I'm not crazy you guys, I'm not.
I'm actually not done with Ailing Loran, though. I have no idea how to deal with Darkbeast Jr., there just doesn't seem to be any safe window to hit him. Anytime I think I've got his attack patterns down, the game goes "Haha no actually this three-hit combo turns into a five-hit combo if you're close enough, lol git gud scrub." And I don't think you can parry him at all. Fuck this fight. There's also a wing of floor two that I haven't been able to clear because I was really wrong about something:
The stop-motion deadites are really the worst fucking thing.
Wow, no, they're bad, but they're relatively reliable parry kills. Dungeons with 2x spider-summoning bell maidens that call new enemies almost exactly as fast as I can kill them, that's the worst fucking thing. I actually went on to the defiled chalice instead of finishing Ailing Loran because I figured there couldn't possibly be anything in there more aggravating than this, and so far there hasn't been. (I'm not optimistic about uber Amygdala, though.)
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(Throwing knives deal approximately 0.2% of the boss's healthbar in damage even with optimal stats for scaling. You can carry up to twenty of them at once. Have I mentioned how hilariously worthless attack items generally are, and how totally out of proportion expensive their purchasing prices really are?)
Why do we like these games
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(Throwing knives deal approximately 0.2% of the boss's healthbar in damage even with optimal stats for scaling. You can carry up to twenty of them at once. Have I mentioned how hilariously worthless attack items generally are, and how totally out of proportion expensive their purchasing prices really are?)
Why do we like these games
Well, I really enjoy bad hit detection and dying in two hits.
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Sometimes, Grefter, I really don't know. Today is one of those days. The hilarious thing is that attack items are much more useful for raw damage purposes at the start of the game when they're actually vastly cheaper, since early on they're actually scaled appropriately for enemy HP and the game's inexplicable and onerous price hikes haven't hit yet. By the time they're expensive and it might take multiple enemy kills to fuel the purchase of one bomb, it would in fact take most of your inventory of bombs to kill one enemy. Bloodborne's economy is stupid stupid stupid.
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hilarious
(http://fat.gfycat.com/NarrowQuickHalibut.gif)
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Those exchanges are pretty much why I'm so reluctant in ever bothering with Souls. I'm not sure I'd want to engage in such an openly abusive gaming relationship.
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Attack items have pretty much always been earlygame only in Souls no? Even in sl1 runs I eventually stopped using them pretty fast unless I wanted to poizn something.
Not sure why they needed to raise their prices though.
Amygdala is going to be super unfun too, protips:
Attack his arms during the first phase, not the head, you'll have a bigger window and be able to esccape more easily
Get behind him during the second phase and attack his legs/tail. He can't hurt you. It's Going to take forever but you don't care. Btw you can't do this during the first phase.
The boss you're facing now actually redeemed chalice dungeons for me, and he also took me infinimillion tries. You just really need to git gud , learn his attack pattern and dodge accordingly there. You can't dodge in the same direction for the entire fight like you can do against a lot of aggressive Souls bosses.
Caffeine can help a lot.
Also: don't blink, only noobs blink
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Throwing Knives were really useful for me against Ebrietias (sp?). If you aren't using a YOLO close range strategy (I couldn't make this work the whole fight due to camera in the final phase hiding the laser spam) they do pretty good chip damage while waiting for an opening. And you want to use any opportunity to damage her since her charge attack is so difficult to block and will just eventually kill you if you take too long. I suppose a gun might work better if you have high enough Bloodtinge, but I was going SKL. Cane and top hat the whole game, like a boss.
Oh right, I played Bloodborne. Loved it, favorite Souls game.
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In non-games I'm actually playing related news: I'm considering buying Civ 4 and 5, given how my laptop can run Saints' Row 4 pretty easily. Anyone care to tell me how could this possibly go wrong?
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Dunno about Civ 4, but Civ 5 is pretty enjoyable if you enjoy tinkering around with empire building.
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You will be forever bereft of your time and will.
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You will be forever bereft of your time and will.
As long as I don't get late to work...
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I don't know about Civ 5, but Civ 4 has a built in clock. This is a necessary feature.
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Civ 5 has no built in clock, but is quite excellent. Only downside is that the DLC packs add way too much of the necessary gameplay/balance/etc, at least IMO. It is totally worth buying them, though.
Rondo of Swords: I am now invading the Holy City of Verona The Vatican Seine. My current party is Serdic/Ansom/Margus/Marie/Cotton/Alhambra/Sasha. However, given the fact that I need to bench people at certain levels until I get their shit, Alhambra and Sasha are currently benched for Shino shenanigans. Alhambra is in the process of promoting now, and Margus/Ansom already promoted. Thank you for the warnings, btw, I am sending Ansom and Alhambra on their Tarot quests and both are currently at 3. Ansom is on his 4th now, though, so I have Kay in his place.
Still finding it fun, and I do plan to beat both paths.
Idly, I've figured out a few things about enemy mages/archers. Archers have a range equal to their Move, and are not able to Move+Attack. Mages, meanwhile, run on spell levels 1/3/5. Weak mages have level 1 spells, strong mages have level 3 spells, and bosses have level 5 spells. This is how you can determine the damage/range of their spells.
Also, I heard I may be the only person in the DL to have actually played through the entire game before?
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Attack items have pretty much always been earlygame only in Souls no? Even in sl1 runs I eventually stopped using them pretty fast unless I wanted to poizn something.
Not sure why they needed to raise their prices though.
It's the price increase that gets me. Why make something progressively more expensive in inverse proportion to its actually decreasing usefulness?
Snow: I actually find Bloodborne markedly less respectful of player time than either Dark Souls game, despite being shorter than both of them. I really want DS2 quality of life improvements with BB environments. Maybe one day that'll actually happen.
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Yeah, I'm including Bloodborne in the same bundle all the same. Feels like From Software openly spites its players' time and disposition in wildly erratic manners.
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Man I feel like basically every game but Souls has no respect for my time now
I'm assuming they raised the price of healing items and bullets for balance and then also raise the price of every other item to not have a weird discrepancy and because they didn't care about them anyway.
Dragon Age Inquisition:
Here is a scene:
Random NPC talking to herself near the Inquistor: "ALL THESE PEOPLE DYING... BECAUSE WE LACK HERBS" *glares at Inquisitor*
Inquisitor: ............
Random NPC: "BTW I have made a list of all the herbs I need here. Look"
I have to say that the various environments look pretty nice and the game is huge. And all these codex entries! Sometimes I read some of them and find some of these cool. DA:I is a pretty credible Best Game Ever even if I don't really care about it.
It would be cool to have one of these games with actual cool combat. (Witcher 2's combat was so mediocre I'm not holding my breath for the third one)
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I'm honestly hard-pressed to think of a game I've played which openly has less respect for its players' time than Dark Souls. Maybe some games with really marathon animation/loading times from the PSX era, like FF9, or some other games which are way too long without a plot to justify it? (Note that "does not respect your time" is not the same as "bad", and indeed if you really love Souls you're not going to be bothered by this, just like FF9 fans. And on the other hand, Devil May Cry 2 perfectly respects the player's time!)
(FF9 fans are still baffling, though.)
Codename STEAM - Chapter 13. The experience remains enjoyable, but still a bit rough around the edges. I'm annoyed that I still can't predict when enemies are on overwatch or not. And under what conditions weak points show up. I guess I should just treat some of these things as kinda random and behave accordingly.
Dorothy is a terrible PC, holy crap. Even setting everything up so she can get into point blank range, her damage isn't that great, and everything else about her (HP, limit break) is just worthless. I guess if you get her in close against a large target with no defence she has good DPS, then Fox gets off a Deadeye shot and does more anyway, lol.
Rough opinion of PCs so far:
Fox > Lion >> Queequeg > Cafila > Tinman > Tom > Tiger Lily > John > Randolph > Scarecrow > Dorothy
Fox's killing power is unmatched. Lion and Queequeg having party-wide passive abilities puts them high on the list regardless, but they're good even past that, with Lion's game-best HP/high damage and mobility (and did you know that replacing e.g. Henry with Lion increases your party's effective total HP by ~225 or so? Yeaaah). Cafila's a nice variation on Queequeg who can do big reliable AoE damage from big range, Tinman gives more turns to PCs better than him, Tom is kinda situational with the durability but a 1-steam weapon deserves a lot of note (and sometimes has huge DPS potential). Tiger Lily's a nice safe choice who I could be underselling some. The other PCs largely fill inferior niches, though at least John fills his before you get better PCs. Randolph... I could be underrating some; there are certainly some maps where lure can be handy, but also some where he feels worthless, so hard to say. Scarecrow and Dorothy I don't think I am, they are bad.
Henry I have no idea about. Best limit break by far, junk otherwise. I'm pretty sure he's somewhere between Tom and Dorothy, but past that I dunno.
Hyrule Warriors - Ganon Mode is kinda dumb but fun in small doses; I still need to unlock Playable Giant Chicken. Otherwise, I've fully unlocked the Master Quest map and beat its "final battle", working on the Twilight map now.
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I disagree strongly, but YMMV on whether fetchquests and braindead battles towards progress are a waste of time or more content, and whether losing progress is a waste of time or a way to raise/have stakes. My definition of this changed over the years.
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Codename STEAM - Chapter 13. The experience remains enjoyable, but still a bit rough around the edges. I'm annoyed that I still can't predict when enemies are on overwatch or not. And under what conditions weak points show up. I guess I should just treat some of these things as kinda random and behave accordingly.
The only normal enemies that hide weak points are Prowlers, and they require taking damage to the head until it cracks (either an explosive shot aimed at it or upwards of 50 damage or so should do it. Fox -always- breaks it with her rifle and I've had very good results with shotgun blasts at relatively close range). As for overwatch... well, I figured pretty early that you can assume that -any enemy with an overwatch weapon will be on overwatch- and almost -never- have been proven wrong. I don't know if the AI cheats with steam or just plays incredibly conservative, but they always seem to have huge overwatch reserves (I had one particular run in 5-3 where Lion got KOed by triggering FOUR overwatch attacks in a row from the same Prowler. That was -not- fun). At least you can know when the enemy's attempting to overwatch you with the laser sight, but it's often too little, too late. The kinds of weapons that can overwatch are very predictable, at least (and, really, only sniper Prowlers, Hounds, Nettlers, Dreadnoughts and the final boss are at all capable of overwatching - and Nettlers seem capable of only one overwatch per turn. Shrikes weirdly are -not-, in spite of their range, but I guess it was a balancing measure due to their damage).
EDIT: Oh, one more niche for Randolph: the Lure redirects the line of sight of all enemies in its range, disabling their overwatch as long as you don't cross their sight. Since the Lure -also- lets you see the laser line as they're attracted towards it, it's a way to figure out overwatch dangers. That was how I got The Fox to safely move behind the back of the final boss for the winning shots.
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I have never really perceived anything in the Souls games as a waste of time aside from ladders and load times. There are a couple of stages, mostly in Demon's Souls, where the shortcut from a checkpoint is a bit of a hike, but nothing so bad that it's made me angry at the game so far with the exception of Bed of Chaos, who I don't think anyone defends. Usually if your time is wasted it's because you haven't developed proper strategy or timing against a boss or made poor choices you now have to live with. Admittedly, the very first time I played one of the games I found it frustrating, but on reflection (and replay) my problems were largely a result of me not taking the time to learn. A lot of the "time wasting" bits in the games are readily solved by running past enemies instead of fighting them, especially when on the way to bosses.
I can see the lack of tutorials on upgrades and stuff as 'hating the player,' I guess, but don't plenty of games have stuff you need to look up online/ask friends about to understand in full? It's probably the one thing I think could use better in-game documentation in Souls, to be fair.
Well, they're not for everyone, I suppose.
What I perceive as wastes of time in games: long unskippable story scenes, cutscenes or otherwise, before scenes you'll probably have to repeat. (worst offender I have seen is FFX, but a plethora of JRPGs come close) Anime filler-type "character development" scenes with no real impact on anything (most of Golden Sun's dialogue). Tutorials on extremely simple concepts. Fetch/trading quests.
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Amygdala is going to be super unfun too, protips:
Attack his arms during the first phase, not the head, you'll have a bigger window and be able to esccape more easily
Get behind him during the second phase and attack his legs/tail. He can't hurt you. It's Going to take forever but you don't care. Btw you can't do this during the first phase.
The boss you're facing now actually redeemed chalice dungeons for me, and he also took me infinimillion tries. You just really need to git gud , learn his attack pattern and dodge accordingly there. You can't dodge in the same direction for the entire fight like you can do against a lot of aggressive Souls bosses.
Caffeine can help a lot.
Also: don't blink, only noobs blink
A) Took two attempts. First one I tried getting behind him too early and got stomped. Stupid, gotta wait for him to rip his arms off before he goes into the jumping loop. My katana actually almost broke here because I had a bunch of cursed -durability gems on it, had to switch back to the spear to finish him off. First time I've actually seen the "Weapon at risk" warning in this game.
B) So it turns out Abhorrent Beast has no poison resistance. Guess how I killed him? If you correctly said, "Without attempting a single melee attack," you win a no-prize. Estimate the number of fucks given and win another one.
I skipped Lower Loran and hit Great Isz to get the final chalice materials. This was shockingly easy for a place I might've expected to be among the worst in the game. The worst enemies here are just brainsuckers, which are annoying but a far cry from properly imposing treasure guardians like deadites or summoner swarms. Also the first two bosses are just a brainsucker with extra HP and Celestial Emissary without his friends. Woohoo. (The third boss is Ebrietas, who I will never EVER be fighting again, and fortunately I don't have to to get what I need from Isz.)
I'm now in Great Pthumerian Ihyll layer two. The end is in sight! Pthumerian Descendant was pretty rough, I finished the fight with no heals left and sitting at ~30% HP. The follow-up boss is much, much worse. I'm pretty sure this is the real obstacle for me, defiled chalice can go take a flying leap (the only serious problem/repeat death I had there was the hellhounds at the start of layer three). Too much HP, too much damage, too much reach and not enough room to get away from him. After burning through ~30 heals in two failed attempts just at learning his moveset, my OCD tendencies kicked in and I had to leave to go farm up more heals, because I get nervous if I'm not appreciably near full stock at all times and the feeling of finite mission-critical resources is something that in games just burrows right under my skin and irritates me on every fundamental level. So I'm more than prepared to ask for help here if you've still got a file capable of accessing the chalice, Fenrir. I'll be getting home 1-2 hours later than usual the next couple days but I will definitely be stalking you on PSN if you're still around by then. I already fought this asshat once, I don't need to fight him again just because he's missing his face now. I want to get to the queen already, dammit, and he's the last thing in my way!
(FF9 fans are still baffling, though.)
I could almost set my watch by your reliable propensity to say something constitutionally disagreeable to me and then follow it up with something shockingly sensible. I guess we'll always have FF9 hate.
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Edit - Babbly ranty post typed up over 3 hours at work. plz ignore mostly i just want to respond to fenrir and tell him that he is still my favourite and <3<3<3
I disagree strongly, but YMMV on whether fetchquests and braindead battles towards progress are a waste of time or more content, and whether losing progress is a waste of time or a way tohave stakes. My definition of this changed over the years.
For where I personally think From games fall down? Other than literally every single second of Demons's Souls's?
Losing progress that actively punishes with a time sink (blood vials/limited resources like Numbing Mists) would definitely fit in not respecting my time. Having mandatory trap sections that you need to repeat that are fucking shitty is also not respecting my time.
The tipping point for the latter is pretty fine I think. The bottom 2/3 of Sen's is good in single player, the run to find the second hidden bonfire on your first sprint through is pretty terrible. Multiplayer the boulders being broken buggy shit is very disrespectful of my time (lol someone running in random part of hallway spawned a second boulder #getrekt). Ghost house in it's entirety is terrible. Ghost house probably actually the single worst point Dark Souls 1. New Londo in general is actually pretty bad, having to fuck around with the lift every time you die and respawn in another zone entirely is gross.
How random which bonfires you can teleport to is pretty vile.
Almost every single thing you want to actually touch in Darkroot if you die is also pretty bad?
Blight town actually comes out OKAY in the wash other than the run from the bonfire down the ladder if you aren't going in the back way.
Izalith without the shortcut is nope.
The run up to O&S is dumb and I wasn't really a fan of the Artorius one either (which definitely felt deliberate to make you want it more).
Generally they are mixed bag on how successful they are with risk:reward. The points where it is the worst is when there is punishment with no stakes. O&S has like 90 seconds of running where there is no enemies, just waiting for elevators and running up giant stairs. The run up to Artorius has no risk because I lost my souls 20 times over in the fight.
In a vacuum Bloodborne's sounds pretty terrible with part of the drive to perform is to actively avoid punishment of gathering bloodvials? I know that was part of the whole deal for Demons's as well. There is distinct short cuts there on most levels that act kind of as waypoints, but even with those outside of Phalanx the boss run ups are always pretty tedious regardless. (Was DEFINITELY a contributing factor to my incredibly liberal applications of cheese. I will cheap the fuck out of all kinds of shit in games, but Demons's was a special "Nah fuck you".)
None of that says that a 2 hours fetch quest for an antidote is somehow more respectful of your time though. There is definitely a modern trend to "Content" being king where just filling a space with menial side stuff to do for rewards of varying degrees of value (Like things that help you with menial side stuff!). It is the pendulum swinging to the opposite end of the spectrum and neither is really any better than the other. I play both stuff in that Ubisoft model and the From games for different things and when I want a different experience. From Style definitely peaks and troughs and burns me out much more though, so can definitely see preference for it when your play time is limited (Like now that I am not at the gym as much? I don't need a game like Dark Souls that gets inside my brain and won't leave quite as much).
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Yeah, I'm including Bloodborne in the same bundle all the same. Feels like From Software openly spites its players' time and disposition in wildly erratic manners.
That's really not true. The vast majority of each game actually does respect your time. It's hard, but hard in the way that rewards learning by becoming a trillion percent easier once you git gud. There are just a few bottlenecks where bullshit rears its ugly head. (I can't speak for bloodborne here, just the 3 ps3 games)
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anyway, I play games sometimes. I played Titan Souls. It's pretty great as an exercise in design, and the runs back to the bosses are mostly pretty short, which is good because you get smooshed by bosses a lot. I'll say some stuff about it later.
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Rondo of Swords: I am now invading the Holy City of Verona The Vatican Seine. My current party is Serdic/Ansom/Margus/Marie/Cotton/Alhambra/Sasha. However, given the fact that I need to bench people at certain levels until I get their shit, Alhambra and Sasha are currently benched for Shino shenanigans. Alhambra is in the process of promoting now, and Margus/Ansom already promoted. Thank you for the warnings, btw, I am sending Ansom and Alhambra on their Tarot quests and both are currently at 3. Ansom is on his 4th now, though, so I have Kay in his place.
Still finding it fun, and I do plan to beat both paths.
Idly, I've figured out a few things about enemy mages/archers. Archers have a range equal to their Move, and are not able to Move+Attack. Mages, meanwhile, run on spell levels 1/3/5. Weak mages have level 1 spells, strong mages have level 3 spells, and bosses have level 5 spells. This is how you can determine the damage/range of their spells.
Also, I heard I may be the only person in the DL to have actually played through the entire game before?
Oh yeah, sorry about not mentioning the mages/archers thing. For proper positioning, you'll often be counting squares for threat ranges. The melee types are easy to figure out, but obviously mages don't show their various spell ranges. It can be handy to have a list of all the spell ranges nearby when you're planning out where you're going.
Also, be sure to keep sending out Rukia and Owl and such to go to the market and buy equipment. It can be helpful to pack on the defense items.
As for your last question, I think I'm the only other DLer to play Rondo of Swords, but SnowFire and Grefter I think read the amazingly detailed LP. I feel like Random may have played it at some point too?
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Suikoden Tierkreis: Well since I appear to be giving a long-form plot summary of the game, might as well keep at it.
After finishing our last fetch quest, we returned armed with a new sense of purpose. and also porpoises. those help too. We find out that the Janam forces got chewed up attacking the fortress again, and there's some narrative hints that this is because they were stupid, but it honestly sounds sorta reasonable to me from what little info we have: they got word that their *enemies* had screwed up and left the fortress or something, so they were taking advantage of a sudden opportunity. It just didn't work out.
Anyway, it doesn't matter: they need our help for attempt #3 on the fortress. Maybe later dude, I've got sidequesting to do. It's very strange that this is a game which advertises the number of days for transit very heavily, throws urgent matters on your plate you'd think you can't just abandon for a month, then expects you to go around doing sidequests for occasionally missable recruits that take a month in game time. Luckily everyone acts like you didn't spend a month running back & forth playing telephone, so whatever. A hint of why Janam might be having problems is given when a cook randomly murders 3 of their soldiers with his bare hands, though. I also find a random wandering kind giant-folk Auster who just loves helping out and offering to do physical labor for free. The same Auster tribe which joined the Bad Guys. Hrmm. I'm not buying this: I want neither servants nor spies, I want warriors. To prove your loyalty, you must slay your kin and prove yourself. You're coming with me to beat down the Auster leaders on the bridge.
To my pleasant surprise, the plan works: my suspicious new Auster warrior doesn't falter vs. his own kind (although no special dialogue), and my elite ninja porpoise squad succeeds in penetrating the fortress... although the game likes to pretend that opening the gate is enough, it really isn't if the porpoises were ever surrounded & killed, they'd just close it again, nor would it help us break the allegedly unbreakable defense of these Auster. So yeah, I'm going to assume that the porpoises went on an off-screen killing spree for why this worked. We nobly let our opposition run off as a favor, since they did us a solid earlier by letting us run away like wimps rather than capturing us.
Anway, things go south and all our allies get blow'd up... again. And Janam reacts counterproductively and imprisons are buddies, Chrodechild's Blades, who they claim are at fault. This is something which I assume was Consort Shariah's doing: trying to cover for her screw-up + remove a potential future enemy in Chrodechild, after all, if she's a traitor, then the Emperor won't marry him. That'd make more sense though; no, Janam Emperor Danash 8 just is a crappy leader and was trying to force Chrodechild's hand in marriage the hard way (and Shariah went along with this because ???). Dishonorable, but sure, but apparently it's also some kind of weird test of Our Hero...? Maybe...? I'd like to pretend that he was just BS'ing when he claimed that part of this was his plan and he just hates to admit being surprised, but whatever. Anyway, the Janam forces are in fact *perfectly* justified at being pissed off at us because we've just committed a princess-napping of Danash's daughter Manaril, but nobody seems to care about that except for Shariah spouting some mwahaha about how she'll be dead anyway shortly. Instead the conversation turns political, with Danash apparently under the illusion that he's a strong leader or some such. Look, dude, if you want our loyalty, you can either be an effective leader or a moral/respected leader. You've pretty well failed at both, so let's just call this alliance off. Because this is an RPG there's a very very easy fight rather than straight tongue-lashing, then we decide to leave the guy who just ordered our deaths around in charge because we're nice like that. (Sheesh, at least take him prisoner.)
As a more serious comment, I actually rather like this plotline, at least parts of it. Having allies which are just plain incompetent and do stupid shit is part of life. Mistakes happen. It's harder in an RPG to have the main character & PCs screw up repeatedly without enraging the player, so this is about the next best thing.
Anyway, we get back and our castle does its magic transformation thing. That makes the "This Old House" home improvement aspect of Suikoden games too easy, tsk. Anyway this is a cataclysmic change... although frankly they kinda all should be... and to the game's credit, we get a peek into the consequences, which are something out of a horror story if you think about it. Rather than be a "reconstruct a past that leads to the current situation" kind of alteration, the game goes with basically full-on brainwipe mind control, which *screws people up*, most notably the inhabitants of the town in the mountain. What do you do with a fellow who's entire life was living and knowing the mountains, whose life now makes no sense? He's a crazy senile old fool now, and everyone is very puzzled. Another person who seems to know something is screwed up thinks that the mountains were there 1000 years ago and she has memories from a past life rather than from last Thursday. Kinda glad they darkened the narrative a bit here, and they even had Our Hero poo-poohing on destined love, so hey, looking good, except for all the constant backtracking through a high-encounter dungeon with easy encounters. Can't win 'em all, I suppose.
Also.. wait, was the support who auto-clears wimps Gadburg?! "Allows the use of Spark" is not the clearest way to express this... seems so from going to *really* out of date areas, but not for climbing the Cho'huli Mountains 10 times clearing out all the events there. Still, glad to notice this at last, became clear after getting "Bribe" that I was probably missing something.
After three months of playing merchant and running up and down a mountain and going back to HQ a lot, it's time to actually investigate our new plains that the Bad Guys will send agents to any moment. No hurry or anything. There's a boss boar that really tires us out 2-rounding it without taking damage (bosses vulnerable to stun / sleep, lol), so we need beastmen to take out the next 2. Then we fight the Bad Guys but inexplicably get painted as the bad guys ourselves because the other bad guy says so. Uh huh. More interestingly, Sophia, our evil lady opponent, seems to think that the Order getting the Chronicles will stop the changes/disasters somehow. Hmm, well you want me to hear more at least, so stop plot-running away, and stop lettin' em do that, hero.
Now that the plains are clear, our final destination is soon in sight: a disused water pump in re-located Porpoiseville. Soon, the world will tremble in fear of my elevator, powered by an old disused engine. Soon.
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(http://www.quickmeme.com/img/ca/ca1e217b16c548aa2a3393f1d50b0b491bee820eef35d0840f8f73179e37f6b3.jpg)
This is hilarious.
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Double-posting because yes.
Binding of Isaac: Rebirth - So, after Fenny's hype, I decided to give Eve a go and intuitively she felt -massively- improved, far beyond the design changes that'd improve her in a ripple effect manner (lost both times, but oh well). A quick wiki search tells me: Eve has unique interactions with Whore of Babylon, in that it activates at one red heart instead of half a red heart (not too major, but gives her more leeway to activate it and whatnot) and, beyond the 1.5x multiplier applied to damage, it raises her base damage multiplier to 1x instead of the natural 0.75x. Welp, that explains one hell of a lot.
EDIT: I remember Edmund McMillen interviews where he remarked Eve was his favorite character in terms of design concept, and I guess he actually realized she -needed- a boost in order to be even remotely competitive. I think those buffs went exactly in the direction she needed to go, pulling her up from the shooting gallery straight to high tier.
(Seriously, in the original, Whore of Babylon Eve had -less damage than base Cain- if my calculations aren't horribly wrong. Not even Judas. CAIN.)
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A Softer World is ending. I am sad.
Gref :
It is all a matter of perspective, but I'm not going to be hugely bothered if the downtime spent running to the boss is shorter than the time spent fighting the boss on average, which is the case with everybody but Bed of Chaos and Capra I think, maybe Gwyn? In Dark Souls 2 this happens with Darkdude (Optional), in Bloodborne this happens with Celestial Emissary lol. Maybe with Papa too. This happens all the time in Demon's Souls.
I checked some vids from random youtubers because of course I did, the walk back to O&S is 40 seconds + loading. All the bosses in Darkroot including Hydra are pretty close to bonfires, did you find the two bonfires there? 4Kings is probably the longest run clocking in at 1m45. (more if you don't learn the amazing elevator trick of activating the elevator again then running off, so that it'll be up on your next attempt after your next inevitable demise against 4K)
On a tangent this all reminds me of when I first got my hands on an emulator (Zsnes) I played through all of Kirby 3 with mass savestate abuse, I saved every five seconds and reloaded every time I died. (which was a lot, partially because I never got any better at the game, and because I had to press F2 and F4 constantly, which was hard because I REALLY had to not press F2 when I wanted to press F4) There was no time wasted but it was still fucking stupid all in all.
I feel Megamen/Megamans are way more punishing than Souls game about this, and I got a ton more frustrated having to run back through the same level to get to the game, but I still feel the "0 life -> Back to level select" thing Megaman does is way better than just having you get unlimited tries against every boss.
... Didn't we already have this conversation?
El Cid I actually found that boss way easier without his face, he wastes a lot of time using slow stupid attacks. You should try again a few times. I'm not sure I'll be online much in the next few days.
Also dude you can like buy ten million vials / enemy kill now. It would take longer to go back.
Snow: So speed was the only point of Eve I guess?
I don't feel there are really terrible characters aside from ??? (and even then) and the Lost (Fuck the Lost), the team's pretty balanced. Samson must be rough in hard mode I guess.
I played Rondo of Swords for a short while but I wasn't ready for a Sting game at the time. I know Sting didn't make the game, but, here, let me just try adding a bunch of text with 10 different fonts on a random Rondo of Swords screenshot, and it instantly becomes a Sting game.
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For fun I'm taking random screenshots from the Sting games I know and counting the number of different fonts on a single screenshot.
Riviera
(http://199.101.98.242/media/images/45277-Riviera_-_The_Promised_Land_%28U%29%28Trashman%29-6.jpg)
1) Overdrive! / lv 3
2) Ein/Disaresta
3) 605/720/130
4) 365, 68
5) HP
6) Exl. Overskill is ready
7) Exl
8) Skill Data Info
9) Attack
10) Hits/Eff
11) Attack
12) Over
13) 01: Ultima!
14) Enemy/Near
Yggdra Union
(http://img.generation-nt.com/yggdra-union-screenshot-9_0900F000A000028934.jpg)
Oh god
1) You Win!
2) Power 1700 / +20%, etc
3) Japanese font upper left
4) Japanese font upper right
5) Japanese font lower right
6) Japanese font lower left
7) 2180
8) Stray thief / Fencer
9) 2/0
10) Attack!
11) Vs
12) + Hero whatever I can't read
Knights in the Nightmare
(http://mashthosebuttons.com/gallery/knights-in-the-nightmare/kitnpsp_screens_02.jpg)
1) Dir/Time/Exp/MP/Speed/Height/ 4.419.359 pt
2) L
3) 4 hit
4) For victory/Attac
5) Start
6) (5.5)
7) 47
8) Dmg!
9) Bonus chance!
10) 2 hit!
11) Lv 8/10 Edit: Actually, 8/10 might be a different font than lv?
12) Action phase
13) L (the other L, near Action phase)
14) 2
15) 49.23
Knights in the Nightmare wins, honorable mention to Yggdra Union for having that much cluster. Feel free to correct me if I made a mistake.
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Snow: So speed was the only point of Eve I guess?
I don't feel there are really terrible characters aside from ??? (and even then) and the Lost (Fuck the Lost), the team's pretty balanced. Samson must be rough in hard mode I guess.
Her point was supposed to be a high-risk, high-reward character, but her offense was so awful it just didn't work out. The original also had less (-significantly less- pre-Wrath of the Lamb) soul heart sources and no evil hearts, which make maintaining Eve's primary gimmick harder. In practice, she was near game-worst PC, only better than ??? because seriously and probably slapfighting with Samson. Even her base speed wasn't a deal, since Cain matches her there and he gets far better item loadouts (Lucky Foot is -really- good in BoI original) and offense otherwise even with the lesser range.
As for BoI:R, I think, ??? failure curvebreaking aside, I think the worst characters are Magdalene and Lazarus, though neither are -pointless-. Lazarus is kind of a bizarre spin on Eve with simpler micromanagement but less payoff who has to struggle with crappy range and luck. Maggy... sigh. Her tanking just isn't really a niche BoI rewards in advanced play, though it at least makes for good practice while you're still getting the kinks. She's safe, but Isaac rewards risk-taking.
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??? is pretty bad, I much prefer 8-)
Maggy I find pretty good. She's a decent character for new players because of all the hearts. She's a decent character for pro MLG gamers because she takes ALL the devil deals
Lazarus I just reset until I get a good pill, and then he's good
A new contender for Yggdra Union, a PSP screen
(http://lparchive.org/Yggdra-Union/Update%2049/42-BF44-080.jpg)
1) You win!
2) Card power 5316 / +48% etc / 40%
3) Surviving Units / Ability Difference / Bonus
4) Head-Alive
5) Add-Factor
6) 6 / 0
7) La pucelle / Valkyrie
8) Yggdra / Aegina
9) Atk.
10) Vs
11) The time for indecision is past!
12) Morale
13) High
14) 4758
15) Geo defense
Big respect there
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Oh shit I forgot I also played
Gungnir
(http://d1vr6n66ssr06c.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Gungnir_PR_Screens_127.jpg)
1) Select a target
2) Enemy's Unit
3) Brute
4) Base p.
5) 5.0 ht / legion / hp / 245/668 / 7 / Level: 15
6) NO GUARD...
7) Lyzze / Ville
8) Rodrigues Blitzers
9) Target / Attacker
10) Wait
11) 12
12) Rune Orb
13) Front
14) Tactics
15) 205-226 DMG (perhaps the same as NO GUARD)
*slow clap*
Baroque
(http://www.cheatcc.com/imageswii/baroque_000.jpg)
What happened Sting
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A Softer World is ending. I am sad.
:(
(http://www.asofterworld.com/clean/cleansheets.jpg)
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What happened Sting
They decided more words would make the game make more sense and that wdon't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy don't go crazy
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Bloodborne: You have selected regicide! If you know the name of the king or queen being murdered, press one.
The game's super obscure optional boss is perhaps inevitably nowhere near as much trouble to beat as to actually reach. It's...certainly a memorable fight, at least. Insane bereaved mother that spews blood at you. Yikes. I'm not sure what kept stunning me in that fight. Are you not supposed to attack when the baby's crying?
El Cid I actually found that boss way easier without his face, he wastes a lot of time using slow stupid attacks. You should try again a few times. I'm not sure I'll be online much in the next few days.
Also dude you can like buy ten million vials / enemy kill now. It would take longer to go back.
Yeah man all he did for me was walk his crotch into the camera and push me towards walls so he couldn't entirely fit onscreen anymore and I couldn't properly tell what he was even about to do. Not my idea of a good time, not a fan of the giant size bosses in this game. Also killing enemies to get the funds to buy heals may be less onerous than farming them, but it's busywork nonetheless (ultimately I just helped someone kill MWN once). Was trying to wrangle support from someone on my PSN friend list for that fight but connection wasn't happening. While I was waiting, against all expectation a totally random other player showed up instead. I understand the odds for this happening randomly are staggeringly low.
Also while I was waiting I decided to have some fun with audio glitches. So the roar gesture, it's pretty great, right? Totally ridiculous sounding, everybody loves it. I've noticed it sometimes bugs out and the scream echoes in the same location every few seconds thereafter. This isn't uncommon at all. So while I'm waiting I walk around spamming this for like five minutes straight, then some dude finally appears and the walls are screaming at him. Excellent.
I just have to finish up with axechick now, talk to fake final boss #2 and submit to deletion, and full bragging rights are properly secured.
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Is the 4Kings time Firelink or Valley of the Drakes?
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Is the 4Kings time Firelink or Valley of the Drakes?
Is Valley of Drakes faster in any way? It always seems like a lot more trouble than the Firelink bonfire.
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I used Valley of the Drakes on my first run through the game, not knowing there was a shortcut from upper Anor Londo just past the first couple ghosts, and would roundly call that route worse. This probably assumes running past all enemies, though.
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I think it's faster. More dangerous because of the Drakes, but you have one short-ass elevator ride then can flip right next to the boss door.
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Lol no that is still not faster than running from Fire Link, especially if you remember to send the elevator back each time. MINIMUM, the two elevators from Valley vs. One elevator from FL seals the deal.
Lets not lose sight that it would just be better to have a closer Bonfire ala DS2 because every run up to a Lord Soul boss from the bonfire is a a couple minutes if you know what you're doing and 5 to ten if you don't. I wouldn't honestly know how to have made those run ups not suck shit if I didn't watch speed runs to see them.
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Lol no that is still not faster than running from Fire Link, especially if you remember to send the elevator back each time. MINIMUM, the two elevators from Valley vs. One elevator from FL seals the deal.
Lets not lose sight that it would just be better to have a closer Bonfire ala DS2 because every run up to a Lord Soul boss from the bonfire is a a couple minutes if you know what you're doing and 5 to ten if you don't. I wouldn't honestly know how to have made those run ups not suck shit if I didn't watch speed runs to see them.
Right, two elevators, I forgot about that.
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Lol no that is still not faster than running from Fire Link, especially if you remember to send the elevator back each time. MINIMUM, the two elevators from Valley vs. One elevator from FL seals the deal.
Lets not lose sight that it would just be better to have a closer Bonfire ala DS2 because every run up to a Lord Soul boss from the bonfire is a a couple minutes if you know what you're doing and 5 to ten if you don't. I wouldn't honestly know how to have made those run ups not suck shit if I didn't watch speed runs to see them.
Right, two elevators, I forgot about that.
f
Y don't u pussies just run from blight town like the pros???
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Holy crap that Sting + Fonts thing was hilarious.
Now I know the secret to making attractive UI.
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Holy crap that Sting + Fonts thing was hilarious.
Now I know the secret to making attractive UI.
<Google> You meant: unsalvageable UI.
The people who came up with those UIs must have never even heard of the concept of design. I swear half of those have more shit written on the screen than actual screen visuals. Also, half the data displayed makes absolutely no sense!
Long story short: Fenny is the bestest.
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Agreed, I can appreciate some things about Sting's general aesthetic but the UI is super cluttered (some of those are taking up 3/4 of the screen!) and a lot of what they are showing you is absolutely mystifying or fucking useless.
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I highly suspect the choices there exist to make the interface look edgy and cool without actually handing over much useful information ever. Obfuscation design by sensory overload at its crudest, really, though that's assuming they're actually thinking about their design choices instead of letting teenage font hormones run them over.
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My experience with Sting games based on the three I played is that they pretty much just consist of throwing random shit at a wall to see what sticks, so I'm more inclined to suspect the latter.
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<3 NotMiki
(And Gref so he's not jealous)
I think I played Baroque more than Dark Souls. The game made me crazy.
I completed the whole baroque database.
Sting games (except Baroque) are funny because they have a ton of insane mechanics interfering with each other all the time and they're all kinda relevant. (except in Riviera because Riviera is piss easy)
FFT is kinda like that, but you soon figure out that you don't really need to give a fuck about stuff like Brave/Faith and zodiac signs, while Sting games throw in your face all the time (because of the ridiculous UI) that everything in this game matters.
I played Rondo of Swords for a short while but I wasn't ready for a Sting game at the time. I know Sting didn't make the game, but, here, let me just try adding a bunch of text with 10 different fonts on a random Rondo of Swords screenshot, and it instantly becomes a Sting game.
(http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2015/19/1430941088-rondo-of-sting.png)
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Goddamn I love you.
EDIT: Adding a filter and more gradients to the fonts would probably make it literally indistinguishable from a Sting game.
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Needs more gauges for that, I think.
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Nah, only one is enough as long as you have the seven billion different font warnings. I mean, there's Gungnir.
OF COURSE, Gungnir's also a paragon of design elegance by Sting standards, but so you go.
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Paragon of design elegance by Sting standards seems like it'd be more than Rondo of Swords deserves, in fairness.
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These screenshots make me want to put my eyes out.
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I hate it.
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It's beautiful. It's exactly what Rondo of Swords needed.
I lost it at "My Sword is my Burden"
I'm making this my desktop background. (Last one isn't a joke)
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Goddamn I love you.
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That is brilliant. I especially love the random 3ft at the bottom.
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That is absolutely terrifying.
Excellent work. (I especially love "quadruple rondo". ... you did add that, right?)
Codename STEAM - Chapter 14. After my last post I realised that Randolph was due for a try again, and of course I then send him out in a map where he's completely useless. :( Unlike Snow I don't really have the patience to reload and choose a different team unless I lose.... and actually I just realised it's been quite a while since I lost despite the fact that I did quite a bit in some of the early-mid maps? It doesn't really feel like the game has been getting easier (especially not that Stealth Prowler map. Man, fuck those guys) so I guess I have been getting better or something.
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Fen I am pretty sure we can make the worst game of all time by combining Sting's inscrutable and meaningless UI with AAA objective vomit and collectables that literally encompass every step. Dumb sanctimonious shit like "this sword is my burden" or "these sheep are my burden" appear in comic sans while attacking or doing fetchquests. Also the rest of the game is Magna Carta.
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That game may be already greenlighted on Steam.
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That game may be already greenlighted on Steam.
thanks for that. now in my mind there is an RPG on Greenlight all about, like, MRAs fighting an army of evil gays and feminazis, "reverse racism is my burden," SJW LEVELS CRITICAL etc.
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That is absolutely terrifying.
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Goddamn I love you.
This. For some reason 152 - 12 = 140 in three different fonts just cracks me up.
That game may be already greenlighted on Steam.
thanks for that. now in my mind there is an RPG on Greenlight all about, like, MRAs fighting an army of evil gays and feminazis, "reverse racism is my burden," SJW LEVELS CRITICAL etc.
Bwahahaha.
oh god i hope that doesn't exist
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Fenrir can you make one for SaGa? Make sure to add lots of indecipherable icons that might be giving the player information!
(I unabashedly love these stupidly unintuitive RPGs, it is basically some kind of Stockholm addiction I think)
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Fenrir can you make one for SaGa? Make sure to add lots of indecipherable icons that might be giving the player information!
(I unabashedly love these stupidly unintuitive RPGs, it is basically some kind of Stockholm addiction I think)
(http://www.gameranx.com/img/13-Sep/darksouls2stats.jpg)
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Well. I guess DS2 certainly has the cluttered UI to earn my love! Too bad it's a solo RPG with ugly character models.
Turn offs aside, I genuinely like DS lore and have spent more time watching YouTube videos talking about its backstory than I have playing any of the Souls games.
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It takes work to be pretty in Souls games, but if it was genuinely impossible then I probably wouldn't play them. As much.
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Handsome Joe is insulted by your pettiness.
(http://i.imgur.com/HjfotZm.jpg)
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Codename STEAM - Chapter 14. After my last post I realised that Randolph was due for a try again, and of course I then send him out in a map where he's completely useless. :( Unlike Snow I don't really have the patience to reload and choose a different team unless I lose.... and actually I just realised it's been quite a while since I lost despite the fact that I did quite a bit in some of the early-mid maps? It doesn't really feel like the game has been getting easier (especially not that Stealth Prowler map. Man, fuck those guys) so I guess I have been getting better or something.
I think it's both getting better at the game and just having -better- character options. The game mostly backloads its top-tier PCs (Lion and Queequeg show up in the first half, sure, but Califia, Tin Man and particularly The Fox all show up later, and both Califia and The Fox are more aggressively dominating than the early two), and the map design also changes considerably to accomodate the enlarging array of options (for instance, I felt the early maps had a lot more platforms and whatnot to use Lion Launcher with). There's also the fact Missions 13 and 14 both feel like breather pit-stops compared to most others, but then it's kinda welcome given how nasty missions 15 and 16 are (I -really- like Mission 15's maps, by the way).
How much cog collecting have you done, by the way? Not that it's terribly relevant past 60 cogs throughout.
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I'm at 58 I think? I get them if I both find them and and can get them without significantly impacting my chances to win (or wasting 2+ extra rounds, though that's rare thankfully).
It's true that getting the Fox is a big help; I do use her the vast majority of the time and sometimes I get out of potentially sticky situations pretty much entirely because of her.
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I'm glad the game rarely gets cute with the cog placement, at least. I got all of them without even remotely considering a FAQ.
The Fox is frankly the closest the game gets to a broken character. Though I wonder if she would even be in the high echelon were she a Middle Boiler PC, since so much of her worth comes from scoring insane damage on a critical hit from miles away. This is also why I sorta believe that a Light-class can only be so bad, both Ninja and Scout Boiler are really good.
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Suikoden 3 - completed
My PS2's modchip (http://www.rpgdl.com/forums/index.php/topic,6222.msg159935.html#msg159935) randomly started working again aways back, and I finally got around to taking advantage of that and getting back to my S3 playthrough, and I thought to myself "this time, why don't we play more than a single chapter (http://www.rpgdl.com/forums/index.php/topic,5556.msg130772.html#msg130772) before getting distracted by other things" and somehow I managed to finish it.
It was generally enjoyable when it wasn't being aggravating. Ultimately I want to say that 1 & 2 are better, but it's difficult to compare them at this point.
I like a lot of the music, main tracks coming to mind are The Wind And The Earth and Mysterious People. Now complaints.
I never ended up divining what benefits I was supposed to get from the pair battle system. Possibly there weren't supposed to be any.
Really really needed sceneskip, for all that I'm given to understand this is common to a lot of games of the era.
Needed for the Mountain Path boss to be avoidable outside of Geddoe 1. Including the one they replace it with later on.
Feels like you get relatively little time to use many of the minor stars? For a lot of time in Chapter 1s through 3s your party is full of mandatory characters or you don't actually have access to adding them, and there are even some segments in later chapters where the former is still the case. I went around with teams of mainly minor stars while collecting the chapter 4/5 stars, and I don't think I ended up even using half of them.
Broken Age - completed
I went in to Act 2 having heard it had little to recommend, but it was generally enjoyable? Can't really speak to things set up in Act 1 having been ruined as I can only remember the general gist of things that happened in it. It is kind of dumb that there are puzzles in Act 2 which require usage of information from the other path when there was nothing like that in Act 1, but as I'd seen people complain about it I was ready for it at least. Anyone hoping to spend as long as possible without switching paths should start with Shay's path.
There is the one strikingly obvious change from Act 1 which people have complained about, which I also feel is kind of a problem - but I can't tell whether I feel that way just because I've seen other people feeling that way or not, as I can't remember enough about Act 1 to think of any particular sequences which the change contradicts.
There were lots of amusing moments in the game, and that's all I was really hoping for, personally. I don't recall there being any out-there inventory combination puzzles, although I was using everything on everything in the search for funny rejections so I could be forgetting some. Can agree with anyone who finds the rewiring to be saddeningly tedious.
Not really a big fan of the ending. Also feels like that one character who reappears near the end from Act 1 is contradicting statements made earlier in Act 2 just by existing, but again I can hardly remember anything they did in Act 1 so I can't be certain.
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I never ended up divining what benefits I was supposed to get from the pair battle system. Possibly there weren't supposed to be any.
Makes the battles faster, it's only 3 commands rather than 6. Also makes unrealistic "everyone piles onto the same enemy" strats slightly harder which makes enemy balance a little easier. I dunno, I liked it, although enough people hated it that they reverted it in later Suikodens. If you really want your frontliner to dive that one specific enemy rather than fight whoever's in range, you have to give up a spell, sorry. Also helps reduce the general micromanagement of where spell-less fighters are attacking by simply not letting you do it if you're having the backliner cast. Basically I thought it was a good balance between perfect control (and thus extra tedium with 6 characters and also easy use of overpowered focusing strats) and autopilot (DW4NES, FF13 allies, etc.).
Too bad that Broken Age isn't supposed to be amazing, though, I helped Kickstart it and have been meaning to give it a try.
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I have to say that I used the autobattle for the vast majority of the fighting in the game, so speeding up battles isn't really something it achieved and it mainly only came into play in battles too risky to use that where I could have preferred complete control. I mean, I considered the possibility that it wasn't supposed to have any beneficial effect, but assumed I could be missing something - I'm not saying I hated it or anything.
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I think it is a neat experiment that wasn't perfect. It has a few moving pieces that are pointlessly obscured from the player that curbs its potential. Overall I like it and think it is unfairly maligned, but I don't mourn it not being actively pursued much further. I don't think it was a style that would support an entire spin off genre or something. It is neat to have existed and while it could have carried a couple more games of refinement probably, it is far from the biggest loss of that kind. Suiko 3 is enough.
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I will pretty much echo Snowfire and Grefter's comments. I derived a bit more use out of the system than you, because I found it encoraged me to not use auto-battle compared to the games where you have to enter six commands. I still did use auto-battle plenty, mind, but less than I did in any other Suikoden (besides Tactics). Still, not like your experience is at all unreasonable either.
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I think my first play through was somewhat similar all truth told. Maybe slightly less because I actively sought out enjoyment of it because S3 was really blazing hot in the DL near when I started and I had only played 1 and 2 a bit before joining. That couple of year delay before I got a PS2 also pushed the mystique a bit. So it (along with FFX) were put on pretty high pedestals and were give a lot of leeway. Some of the appreciation for the underlying systems came on replays of post path split section.
Also I probably should thank Super for hooking me up with it when I finally got a PS2 it was a big deal.
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R1R1Borne: I got the platinum!
Which makes me a better person than Cid.
Not anymore. Nyah!
EDIT: I guess the best thing I can say about S3's pairs system is that while I find it unnecessary and in theory objectionable, in practice at least it never had any significant impact on my enjoyment of the game (which from memory I place above the rest of the series, but I am really due a replay. Why is it the only Suikodens I've replayed are the ones I don't actually like?)
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I actually replayed S3 recently with an emulator and frameskip, and it does hold up in many ways, although even with frameskip, walking from area to area is a chore, to the point where it feels best to just do all the large scale recruiting once you get the Vikis. My take on the partner system was that it was an attempt to balance things to prevent you from using six runes in one turn, which would have completely trivialized this game in particular. They also wanted to make you have choices between doing something on the offense and healing. I don't think it really work all that well but it's relatively unobstructive. A tweaked variant of it could have been interesting, like if you had greater control over things like positioning.
Of course they did away with this balance later on and very little in SV can take even 1/3 of a round of full party rune usage.
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Hahah thanks guys. And yeah I basically added everything in that screenshot but the HP bar and one of the damage numbers.
Are you serious Djinn. You didn't talk about any SaGa in particular so I'm assuming you mean Unlimited SaGa.
I've been playing Cordial Minuet (http://cordialminuet.com/forgotTunedDisco.php) because I really really want one of these amulets and wear it. I am prepared to spend too much money on this.
I'm pretty terrible right now though. I need to spend a day or two thinking about strategies but time is running out in the next few days.
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Resonance of Fate: Just beat Yeti. That dungeon was awful if only because Freeze status in this setting is a load of crap. Yes, things like paralysis and such exist in other RPGs, but most of them don't have you relying on a single item person, or the structure of the game isn't such that it begs on being Paralyze locked.
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Been playing Guilty Gear Xrd Sign a bunch this weekend. It's a fighting game, not a ton to say in-depth, so just random observations:
-I don't know why Millia felt it necessary to staple a license plate to her hat, but I suppose it's not the most questionable fashion decision a Guilty Gear character has ever made.
-Speaking of, Bedman's design approaches Faust levels of ridiculousness. Don't find him terribly fun to play, though.
-Direction given to Slayer's voice actor apparently consisted solely of Sound Like Sean Connery. "The most important thing in life is...dandyism." I like Slayer.
-Eddie is Zato-1 again. Zato-1 is emo.
Game looks fantastic. It's a little odd how many characters don't make a return appearance, though. Want to say Venom is the only returning newcomer from GGX? Anji/Baiken/Dizzy/Johnny/Testament all MIA. I guess I'm not hugely bothered since my preferred fighters are all here (Millia/May/Chipp). More variety is always good, though.
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Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. - So, I decided to do some damage tests to figure out how crits and multipliers work in order to attempt a stat topic. First discovery: the crit mult varies depending on the weapon used and also on the enemy. The Fox Rifle's base mult, for instance, clocks in at roughly 2.4x. This stacks with the Ninja Boiler -multiplicatively-, which also explains why her damage in-game is so fucking nuts.
Meanwhile, Tom's Punch Gun has a -negative- multiplier on its crit (0.96x). What the hell, IntSys?
EDIT: That also explains explosive weapons triggering red damage that's no different from the base, though: they must have a 1x multiplier that overrides all enemy defenses and crit mults.
EDIT2: FURTHER TESTING also testifies me that all boosting passives (Courageous, Warrior's Spirit and Arcane Lore) add a 1.2x mult to whichever statistic it boosts and they also stack multiplicatively. The damage crit boost given by the Ninja Boiler seems to be roughly 2x as well, stacking with whatever other mults. This explains a goddamn lot.
EDIT3: Scarab Boiler's offensive boost doesn't stack with Warrior's Spirit? Well, that's a goddamned shame. EDITEDIT: Nope, was wrong: the PENGUIN LOBBER specifically doesn't stack its offensive boosts. So, its maximum potential damage is 72 no matter what. Califia, John and Lion all get the stacking mults.
EDIT4: Yeah, the non-stacking is entirely specific to the Penguin Lobber. Even Queequeg's Harpoon gets the damage boost.
And with that said, I'm going to start working on that danged topic tomorrow. Should be up in a couple days tops.
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Been playing Guilty Gear Xrd Sign a bunch this weekend. It's a fighting game, not a ton to say in-depth, so just random observations:
-I don't know why Millia felt it necessary to staple a license plate to her hat, but I suppose it's not the most questionable fashion decision a Guilty Gear character has ever made.
-Speaking of, Bedman's design approaches Faust levels of ridiculousness. Don't find him terribly fun to play, though.
-Direction given to Slayer's voice actor apparently consisted solely of Sound Like Sean Connery. "The most important thing in life is...dandyism." I like Slayer.
-Eddie is Zato-1 again. Zato-1 is emo.
Game looks fantastic. It's a little odd how many characters don't make a return appearance, though. Want to say Venom is the only returning newcomer from GGX? Anji/Baiken/Dizzy/Johnny/Testament all MIA. I guess I'm not hugely bothered since my preferred fighters are all here (Millia/May/Chipp). More variety is always good, though.
They are using a new engine and has to redraw all the HD sprite.
It is natural that they can't bring back everyone at once. Plus, they need to make more sequels, it'll be unwise to bring back everyone at once too.
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Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. - Chugging along with the stat topic. Figuring out the calculations take all decimals into account until the final result, only then rounding down, made my life a lot easier!
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I am excited to see the results.
What are you doing about subweapons?
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GGXS: Have you ever wondered what expressions the Guilty Gear cast would make while receiving a sudden and unexpected rectal examination? Faust is prepared to satisfy your curiosity. (I-No is perhaps unsurprisingly pretty okay with the experience.)
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I am excited to see the results.
What are you doing about subweapons?
For subweapons, I'm allowing starting/given subweapons. So, Henry gets the Medi-Rifle (for all the zero good it does him in the DL), John gets the Steam Rifle, Lion gets the Steam Crossbow. Tiger Lily, Scarecrow and Tin Man all get a Steam Musket, since they're handed those weapons in their joining map even if someone else's wearing them (Tiger Lily's claim is the strongest, since her joining unlocks the Steam Musket to begin with). Due to that, I also handed Randolph a Steam Musket, since it feels quite artificial for him to be the only one to not be able to attack in the DL when that's entirely untrue to in-game experience. The interesting thing is how, due to the varying crit mults, passives and boiler options, even the Steam Musket folks differ on damage fairly noticeably. Also, I'm likely building something in the vicinity of -four- distinct damage averages, because Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. is that kind of game.
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Definitely agree with giving an attack sub-weapon to those who don't have one yet... and a decent one at that. Everyone should have a claim to all attack sub-weapons besides their three best unquestionably, since the worst sub-weapon they can be forced into using in-game is whatever is fourth best for them. (Fourth might be overly harsh, even.)
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I'll bother listing subweapons for those purposes, in that case. Not like the game couldn't use some public documentation.
EDIT: Anything past 30000 medals feels clearly post-game for me, though, but YMMV.
Also, the way the game works out, it's quite possible that none of the subweapons end up as the PCs optimum damage for those who have offensive primaries.
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El Cid, did you only get the Bloodborne platinum trophy because I taunted you?
I've won some money at that gambling game, but I don't even care, I only want one of the cursed amulets.
This might be difficult. I might take a day off at work just for this. Playing non stop for four days. Sounds good.
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Final Fantasy IV: The After Years (Android/iOS version)
Playing this primarily to document the (significant) differences for DL consumption. Finished Ceodore's tale last night.
The astute may remember that Android/iOS devices also previously got a port of the original FF4, specifically one based on the DS version. This port of TAY is probably better classified as a remake, as the game is running in the FF4DS engine and rendered in 3D. Unlike FF4DS, though, the mechanical differences in this version up front are more subtle - I've noticed already that buffs like Protect, Shell, Haste, etc. work like their (good) FF4DS incarnations rather than their (poor) FF4 SNES incarnations.
The moon phase system is still around and unchanged.
Bands now work completely differently. You no longer have to hunt and peck for them by experimenting with combos of different commands from the involved PCs (with no hints on how to unlock them); instead, the bands not unlocked by events now simply unlock when you fight X battles with the correct characters in the same party together. If you continue to leave the characters in a party together, the bands will gain levels as well, making them more powerful. Hooded Man and Ceodore's Cross Slash, for example, got a 5% attack power boost for each level it gained, and it was level 3 by the end of Ceodore's tale (maximum is 5). They seem generally stronger as well; I fought Tunneler in the +Attack moon phase, so damage was higher than normal, but I don't remember Cross Slash hitting for 2000 damage under those conditions before. (Hooded Man and Ceodore were both level 25 at the end of Ceodore's tale.)
I'm told some of the dungeon designs are different in other parts of the game (generally shortened), but I didn't particularly notice any cuts to the length of Ceodore's tale's dungeons. The Mythril Grotto was the same as ever. Devil's Road is still an annoying teleporter "maze" (it's actually a hallway, really) and no longer has damage floors (yay!). Underground waterway looked identical to its FF4DS incarnation I believe. Mist Cave also looked more or less the same as I remembered the Wii/PSP versions being, except that the room with the Mythril Gloves chest has a second chest added which contains an Adamantite.
The biggest change, then, is noticed when you complete the tale and save your clear data: there is no challenge dungeon.
Speaking of save data, this version of the game gives you 3 save slots *per character tale* - they are restricted, in the sense that you don't have 21 or however many total save slots. You have 3 save slots for Ceodore, 3 save slots for Rydia, etc. etc. You cannot save Ceodore data in a Rydia save slot, and so on. You get 5 save slots for the final chapter. Nice user-friendliness move on S-E's part to prevent dumb save-overs.
Beating Ceodore's tale unlocks all the other tales but Kain's, like in the PSP version. I'll be starting Rydia's tale shortly after this post!
Finally got around to continuing now that this version's been ported to PC.
Nothing super notable to report in Rydia's chapter for most of it. Both of the bands the Rydia/Luca/Calca/Brina team gets access to maxed out in level by the end of the chapter without even trying. As for what the levels do for them:
Calca and Brina: Max level reduces the MP cost from 10 to 7 MP.
Go! Calcabrina!: Max level boosts the damage by 30%. It OHKOs almost anything it faces, trap doors included, but it's pretty slow to execute.
Lightning Brain Buster: Max level boosts the damage by 30%.
I dunno if the system is better now, but I will say that bands are almost always your optimal offense in boss fights now, so they're at least clearly relevant.
As before, there's basically two things you can do with the Kokkol Ore: either make the Mythril Hammer and two Dancing Daggers, or make one Dancing Dagger, the Battle Axe, and the Tomahawk. (The Battle Axe is a prerequisite for the Tomahawk, so.) I took the former approach, didn't particularly regret it, it makes the dolls a lot more useful when they're not banding, and it also tends to be better than spamming -aras on Rydia.
I'm pretty sure Agart Mines (Rydia's last dungeon) lost a floor. Not positive, though. Fine by me, the randoms in there are fucking obnoxious and Rydia is an awful PC until she learns Bio, which she's likely not to do before the end of this chapter. Adamantite's picked up in the old Quarto Puppet room. Agartoise died in two Lightning Brain Busters, literally.
Speaking of the Quarto Puppets, they now block the path back out near the recovery jar on B2F, so Calca and Brina aren't missable anymore. Yay.
So, a few stats so far -
Ceodore's Tale: Clear time 3:33, levels - Hooded Man 24, Ceodore 25
Rydia's Tale: Clear time 4:09, levels - Luca 25, Rydia 26
Not sure which tale I'll do next. I'm also not sure if I'm going to attempt to farm colored tails.
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El Cid, did you only get the Bloodborne platinum trophy because I taunted you?
Nah, I probably would've done it eventually anyway. My own obsessiveness would've seen to that. I generally play these games until I run out of things to do with them and it just happens that three runs is about as much variance as Bloodborne's character building would even support. Altogether I think this took...only marginally longer than my first attempt at Dark Souls 1 did in full. I'm not sure if this says more about the brevity of the former or my initial incompetence at the latter.
GGXS: Elphelt is amazing.
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I Wanna Kill the Kamilia 3 (but actually I don't want to, she's kind of cute)
So... this game. How do I explain this game.
Here's the current latest version of the game, 1.30, for starters. (http://www.mediafire.com/download/3d3s318so604cp5/I+Wanna+Kill+The+Kamilia+3+v1.30.zip)
I think I can safely assume that in the year of our lord 2015, most every video gamer on the internet has heard of I Wanna Be The Guy, that trippy, bug-filled masochism adventure. Many people liked IWBTG, and tried to make games like it. Many games like it.
Many, many, many, many games like it, as Japan and Korea got in on the action. Holy tuna there are a lot of fangames. (http://www21.atwiki.jp/iwannabethewiki/pages/283.html)
These spun off in two main directions: long, inventive jokefests filled with video game references and custom bosses (I Wanna Be the Boshy is the best and most well known of these), and ultra-masocore subpixel precision jump-through-spikes platformers, sometimes with vocaloid fruit danmaku avoidance boss fights. About 95% of these fangames fit the latter category.
The I Wanna Kill the Kamilia series are compilation games that assemble the hardest and most memorable areas and bosses from popular fangames, slightly remix them and add extra polish and difficulty cherries on top. Kamilia 1 was not a very good game. Kamilia 2 was an excellent game, albeit very difficult, and is widely recommended as a capstone for people who find themselves enjoying fangames.
Kamilia 3 is beyond that. This game's intensity goes to 11. "Too hard" for any sane person is a vast understatement. This is a game where the very best fangame players, people who live and breathe these games and can toss off no-death runs of Boshy and Guy like they were nothing, people who can speedrun Kamilia 2 in sub-3 hours, THESE players take 10+ hours to clear single screen subareas. This is the kaizo of kaizos.
I don't recommend anyone else try to play this game.
For giving my fingers something repetitive to do during depressive fugue hours though? Great stuff.
It has some really neat and fun boss fights. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQ6qZudoWPc)
Some that look easier than they are. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTS31e452ms)
Some that shouldn't exist, even for this game. This player is so lucky... other videos can take 30 minutes on the last phase. I was somewhere in between. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRmnEhUg5is)
Most of it is more like this, though. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hHamzJtcrg)
This is just a really nice song that I was very pleasantly surprised to see made into a fun fight. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZ11-Lkq6-I)
The four devas are wayyyyyyyy too difficult and the rest of the lategame is easier than them. I didn't find the hidden bosses. That's all I have to say, really. This game. *shakes head*
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Westerado: I played a bit of this and it is pretty hilarious. It has a pretty good western feel, especially the soundtrack, but it doesn't seem to take anything seriously, kind of like having a game set in the town in Blazing Saddles or the western town the Simpsons visit in the grandpa/kidney episode (bloothbath gulch). Guns are used to open locks and you can just accuse everyone of murdering your family willynilly, including children. The townsfolk are really goofy and you can pull your gun on basically everyone as a conversational option. One nice touch is that if you pull a gun out in the saloon, the women and bodyguards will brandish their shotguns at you in response. You can kill your uncle and he just appears as a ghost and serves the same function otherwise (if you shoot the ghost he gets a little hole in his tummy before reforming again). Doing sidequests seems to get you one little detail about the person who killed your family. I only have a handful of clues so far but it could be an interesting thing later on.
I haven't made much real headway but I have robbed the bank and killed large sections of the town in this run.
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Just beat the A Path in Rondo of Swords, watching through the epilogue as everyone leaves me at the same time because Reasons. Going to replay in New Game+ as Ruthless Protagonist. Only the PCs I want to use will be recruited, the rest go to the meat grinder.
Final Party was Altrius, Margus (fully upgraded), Ansom (fully upgraded with full card quests done), Cotton, Marie, and Igraine (fully upgraded). Levels ranged around 48-52 generally, with Marrgus being 43 and Ansom being 57 despite the two being my MVPs at totally opposite things. I ran through with minimal FAQing, mostly just making sure I didn't miss anything super important. I also tried to recruit every character I could. Except Elmer. Because fuck Elmer. Or was it Selmer? Whichever is optional, neither ever saw use anyway.
Thoughts on characters on this path: Protagonist: Okay stats, but doesn't excel at anything. Gets basically all of his usefulness out of items and skills, which holy crap the number of skills he can learn. I focused on defensive ones mainly, so that his early-game wouldn't be too awful. He never truly got tanky even with all of that, but I could throw him in the way of a decent number of mooks to bait them in before blowing them up, so definitely useful.
Ansom: Holy Pincushions, Batman! He gets a point of Attack almost every level (which is CRAZY HIGH) and can have a threat range of up to 19 squares, 9 of which are his actual attack range. Get him his full quest and almost everything ever just blew up. Best part was building him so offense heavy, I found out you can only raise a character's stats up to +99. Without building him as such, though, the final boss would have been an awful, boring slugfest. Luckily, getting him 9 range allowed him to poke down the final. (For the record, this meant that his OHKO vs the tankiest enemies became a 8-9HKO against an enemy who one-shots almost everyone on my team) MVP for sure.
Margus: Tanky as fuck. I really wish characters gained exp from taking hits, or at least from activating skills, because then Margus would probably be the highest. As it was, he did a great job of baiting enemies in as he ran straight ahead into a big cluster, and allowing allies to nuke them thereafter while the enemies had reduced stats. Second best character, because I feel he's almost necessary for any team that runs even one mage or healer. Being able to bait the enemy into running into a line of squishies that Margus is at the front of is also hilarious. It works far more often than it should.
Cotton: Really strong, short-range nuke. Paired with Margus means that I have a small area of the battlefield permanently locked down. And by that I mean it becomes a smoking crater. AoE 1-2HKO damage (usually OHKO) that has IFF is kinda good. Also the only mage who can take even one hit from a physical enemy. Falls off a bit lategame due to range issues, but too good not to value highly.
Marie: Healer with %mMP regen is kinda good. I buffed her mana pool and her heal, then her teleport, and paired her with Margus mostly. Though once she got Martyr I started pairing her with Igraine because Endless Dark Magic.
Igraine: Has a low MP pool and can't compete very well with Arios for Magic either, but she gets an MP regen skill, and Dark Magic has hilarious range (10 and 8 for maxed out spells). Took some babying, but her extra Move is pretty great all things considered. She didn't end up falling really far behind like Marie tended to, in terms of moving around the map. Usually I ended up sticking Marie and her together and they'd just nuke things from the center of the map efficiently enough anyway.
Honorable Mentions: Alberich has good range but kinda frail, Alicia seemed like a mix of the offense of Kay and the Defense of Margus but is outclassed, Izuna hurts enemies REAL bad but has short range, Shino was useful when I needed a warm body, and Alhambra would've been better but she needs a bunch of work put into her and gets absolute lowest priority for Class Seal
Dishonorable Mentions: Elmer and Selmer are fuckers, Owl is a heap of wasted time and effort, Rukia is worthless forever, and what is even up with Simon.
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Re: Code Name Steam
For Randolph, while he's the only one who doesn't get a forced weapon that can deal damage, it is notable that in multiplayer mode, his Lure turns into an explosive disguised as a powerup. So if an enemy runs into it, they take explosive damage like a land mine. Might be worth considering its damage since Randolph can also shoot a few of them in a row to wall off openings and such as well. Especially if you're going to be harsh and not hand him a steam rifle like the other no damage main weapon PCs.
Re: Rondo of Swords
I see you discovered the fun of this game once it's firing on all cylinders (and you know, once you know how to play it...)
Getting Alhambra to promote is difficult and is one of those things where you want to NOT recruit certain PCs so that they aren't clogging up the promotion list. Simon is also usable and is generally Kay+ but lends himself to a physical-heavy team. You also wanna pick up his ZOC for a turn skill.
No Aegil? I hope you're gonna use Laser Pope for the second run. Also B Path is totally cooler.
Oh, and while +99 is the highest the stat will display, I'm pretty sure you can raise it higher and it still functions correctly but it's been a while since I tested that.
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I used Aegil a bit but then realized I was going to be keeping Marie around anyway, and she was surprisingly high level by the time I got Aegil. She -will- see use in my next playthrough though.
I still hate Simon. It's irrational, but I dunno. I've just always hated Yumiluna and Simon. They feel like people who try to fill in a niche that other people fill in better.
If you've hit +99, and you're still going higher, chances are things are dead anyhow. But yeah, no, it's totally an actual cap. Maxed out Lion's Rage on 70 bAtk Ansom when already at +93 and damage barely changed (on the only enemy who could survive the lower number). Dealing 800+ damage to tanky enemies is kind of insane. Just saying.
Not sure how much I'll change up my party in the long run. I think I can afford to try and give Owl a fair shake and see if his third class is worth anything though, since it seems pretty much nobody in the world has ever bothered with that. Also, as long as I have Cotton/Ansom/Margus I'm pretty solid on my team and can afford to faff about a bit. >_>
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FF4: The After Years (PC version)
Yang's tale next. The Adamantite in this one comes early, in the impact crater. Not that it's a long tale or anything. Don't miss the first Lustful Lali-Ho either, it's in someone's bed in Fabul's east tower.
I think the impact crater dungeon was a bit shorter this time around.
Yang and Ursula maxed out the Five Star Crimson Palm band on the way out of the tale's final dungeon (+30% damage), but Twin Wing Frenzy only got to level 2 (two more battles needed for level 3). Not too bad considering the latter is learned after beating the chapter's final boss.
Stats now -
Ceodore's Tale: Clear time 3:33, levels - Hooded Man 24, Ceodore 25
Rydia's Tale: Clear time 4:09, levels - Luca 25, Rydia 26
Yang's Tale: Clear time 2:17, levels - Yang 21, Ursula 20
Also, for fun, I'm going to do in-game use ratings for the cast in their individual chapters.
Ceodore's Tale
Ceodore: 4/10. He's okay. His good tricks aren't till much higher levels than this tale sees him reach and Hi-Potions heal better than his Cura. He lags a bit in damage, too, at this stage.
Hooded Man: 6/10. Doesn't do anything but physical damage, but he can OHKO most of the chapter on the +attack moon phase, which is good enough for me.
White Mage: 2/10. She's not an appreciably better healer than Ceodore and she has no offense of note.
Black Mage: 4/10. While he's limited quite a bit by MP and spell selection, he faces weaker enemies than Rydia and can often reliably OHKO with MT -aras. Good enough for me.
Rydia's Tale
Luca: 5/10. Doesn't do anything but physical damage and doesn't OHKO most of the chapter. However, she can do consistent damage regardless of the moon phase, which isn't too bad. Her bands tear a hole in everything you point them at, but she doesn't really have the MP to spam them in randoms, so they're a boss-only thing pretty much.
Rydia: 3/10. No, seriously, she's just awful in her own tale. Early-to-midgame Black Magic in FF4 is terrible and she doesn't have summons to save her. MT -aras fail to OHKO most of the Sealed Cave without a beneficial moon phase, and largely fail to OHKO things in her final dungeon even WITH a beneficial moon phase. This is a big deal with how expensive they are to cast. Bio would help, but she learns it at level Not Happening In This Tale. She wishes you could get a third dancing dagger without screwing Luca's weapon upgrades over, because it's better than -aras when not hitting a weakness and free.
Calca/Brina: 3/10. They don't get separate ratings because they basically do the exact same thing: spam the Dancing Dagger itemcast.
Yang's Tale
Yang: 7/10. Uh... shrug? He OHKOs everything in the chapter that isn't a boss.
Ursula: 8/10. She also OHKOs everything in the chapter that isn't a boss when equipped properly (you have to tweak for multipliers a bit on her) and she's faster than her father. FF4 Speed is a great stat. Plus, Chakra is free Cura, which is nice.
The generic monks: 5/10. They don't OHKO everything in the chapter, but they largely do get 2HKOs.
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Ansom: Holy Pincushions, Batman! He gets a point of Attack almost every level (which is CRAZY HIGH) and can have a threat range of up to 19 squares, 9 of which are his actual attack range. Get him his full quest and almost everything ever just blew up. Best part was building him so offense heavy, I found out you can only raise a character's stats up to +99. Without building him as such, though, the final boss would have been an awful, boring slugfest. Luckily, getting him 9 range allowed him to poke down the final. (For the record, this meant that his OHKO vs the tankiest enemies became a 8-9HKO against an enemy who one-shots almost everyone on my team) MVP for sure.
Wait, how did you do this? Last boss's OHKO spell should have 10 or is it 11 range? The only thing that can snipe him out of his range is Alberich's super.
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Ansom: Holy Pincushions, Batman! He gets a point of Attack almost every level (which is CRAZY HIGH) and can have a threat range of up to 19 squares, 9 of which are his actual attack range. Get him his full quest and almost everything ever just blew up. Best part was building him so offense heavy, I found out you can only raise a character's stats up to +99. Without building him as such, though, the final boss would have been an awful, boring slugfest. Luckily, getting him 9 range allowed him to poke down the final. (For the record, this meant that his OHKO vs the tankiest enemies became a 8-9HKO against an enemy who one-shots almost everyone on my team) MVP for sure.
Wait, how did you do this? Last boss's OHKO spell should have 10 or is it 11 range? The only thing that can snipe him out of his range is Alberich's super.
For the record, I'm talking about the final boss of Arch-Paladin Route Mephreyu and his range is a max of 8. So you can sit Igraine and max-range Ansom just outside his range and whittle down his resources until you can finally go in for the kill.
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Wait whaaa!? So they toned him down in the US Release?
That map took me forever to figure out a way to beat it in minimum turns thanks to his ridiculous range (as I want the boss drop).
And it took me countless tries until I noticed the boss AI while always choose run whenever he is in Cedric's attack range (as Cedric ignores his invisible defense buff) that allows me to finish him off quickly.
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For whatever it's worth, I believe the RoS LP recommended Selmer's overbreak of all things as another tool to deal with the A-path final. Even a badly underlevel Selmer can grant enough magic resist with Eidos Curse or whatever that the final boss can't OHKO as you move into range, then you finish him up in one turn ideally before he can heal back up.
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Atelier Shallie: Been stuck on the last chapter for a month now. Mostly because I'm trying to synth all the uberstuff, as is normal. Ultimate weapons properties gotten, but the best Quality I can put up right now is ~500. Armor properties are less abundant. Got 2 of 3, but waiting on Benevolent Soul. Accessory properties, just need Night Lord Soul. Going with One Angel Mascara for stats and Mirage Talisman for those delicious crit multipliers. Can't get the same Quality as I can imbuing though. ~85 in Alchemist level, so while Miruca's Max Chain is 7k, Stera's is only 5k.
On the plus side, on normal enemies I can hit for 9k on regular physicals, and I managed 90k on Wilbel's ultimate and nearly 150k on a Jurie Variable Strike.
Already beaten one of the superbosses on NO HOPE difficulty, barely. Prototype and Abyss boss will have to wait. But suffice to say I'm nearing done.
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For the record, I'm talking about the final boss of Arch-Paladin Route Mephreyu and his range is a max of 8. So you can sit Igraine and max-range Ansom just outside his range and whittle down his resources until you can finally go in for the kill.
Back in the day at least his range was totally 9 (http://www.rpgdl.com/forums/index.php/topic,4410.msg103798.html#msg103798). I don't know what was happening in your playthrough.
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Maybe Mage is just better at games than you guys.
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Igraine's third-tier class gave her access to the Null ZOC ability, and I thought back to all the times I wished I could have Igraine run through ZOCcing enemies WHICH WAS NEVER BECAUSE SHE IS A LOW-MOVE FRAGILE GIT THAT SHOULD NEVER BE ANYWHERE NEAR ANY SORT OF ENEMIES
Good times.
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Rondo of Swords is just this game that is excellent at producing these sorts of amusing and fond memories.
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Suikoden Tierkreis: A bunch of stuff happened, and I'm not going to recount it all, so: brief detours to random topics, like child abuse. Earlier in the game there's this ~12 year old (hard to say? but absolutely younger than her half-brother who's a teenager at best) who is dying due to magic but we rescue her. So what better way to have her go out then making her part of my army and making her continue to use magic & such? Hey, if you're going to die anyway, might as well go out a blazing star. She's pretty good, actually, mostly because Sleep is really good in this game and works on nearly everything.
Speaking of which, how old am I, anyway?! It's implied Liu, one of the kids from the starting Citro village's gang, is a peer & friend to Our Hero. He joined the village ~3 years ago. More recently in game, it's revealed that he left his own hometown before he could get gnarly tattoos, which happens at age 12. So he left at age 11, then, let's say (yikes, 11 year-old alone in the world?!). Now, you might think that perhaps it was simply a 2-year journey to Citro Village seeing the world, but nope, people in his hometown confirm he left 3 years ago for them, too. So he's 14?! Does that mean I'm also 14, or perhaps 15?! Okay yes I know in actually realistic Renaissance-y settings you're already working or being an apprentice then and there's no such thing as an education beyond elementary school for the vast majority of the citizenry, but still. This is some precociousness. And I guess if I'm already throwing my 14-15 year old self into deadly peril, not a big deal to take along the 12-year olds too.
On a slightly different note. One of the tactics the antagonists in Tierkreis use relates to their uncanny ability to predict various natural disasters. This is used largely for military purposes, doing things like tricking armies from Astrasia (in the backstory) and Janam into getting blow'd up by this. Everybody in the party agrees this is horrible and beyond the pale, and people wonder if the "honorable" general types on the other side could possibly have agreed to this. I find this a little strange; didn't the narrative approve when the Prince drowned an entire fortress by smashing a dam in Suikoden V, an *unnatural* disaster caused by us if you will? Like... this is war guys. Killing your opponent with a landslide or whatever rather than risking your own soldiers' lives seems crafty, not necessarily evil. Granted, the weird thing where they released prisoners first is a bit off... the game tries to portray this as a strategem, but it's more like an anti-strategem in that it tips off at least some of the group (aka Our Heroes) that something is amiss. It's not like the prisoners are particularly a threat while captive, so it is pretty dishonorable to just get them killed, even if weirdly indirectly, so I can see holding that against 'em. But the other soldiers, not really. I suppose that perhaps the game is assuming that close-quarters fighting happens with nerf bats and is basically harmless posturing, while these natural disasters can really kill people, which might explain the difference. It's certainly how things look elsewhere: after fighting General Honorable later on and defeating his two unnamed mook buddies, his reaction after the battle is a hearty laugh and compliment and friendly chat about the plot, not "oh my god you slew Eugene & Fred, what will I tell their families". (And... yes, the bad guys do something incredibly villainous and horrible LATER, but everyone's mad at them before that.)
I've got quite the international coalition now. People from all over just want to join my army, especially nobles. Lots of 'em.
(http://www.rpgdl.com/wiki/images/0/0f/Five_princesses.png)
All young, beautiful, and wanting to play down their titles and just be treated like a normal girl, of course. Because that's always so common. Still, you can do the sophomoric "take a party of 3 princesses with you to your hometown bed, take a nap... ladies?", or alternatively a Maoist "send all princesses into the fields for backbreaking labor to grow food". Or both.
On the international relations note, the princess from the really really Hawaiian sounding place that has a chain of islands is of course a pale blonde. She also complains about being shorter than her real age. Thanks, Japan. There's also an isolationist country far-off that's super warlike and is run by a shogun seven generals and maintains no diplomatic contact with anybody, BUT we researched them and they're actually super-cool and sugoi and here have a lady samurai war priestess princess in a kimono who'll join up. Uh huh.
I still like the narrative slant to the game so far, at least. More on this later when I see how the game continues, but the hero trying to demonstrate to Dirk that their actions *aren't* that of yon average teen superheroes drunk on power, but rather because they're right and they'd be done anyway (e.g. letting a non-Mark of the Stars person fight him), was pretty good. The right thing, morally, shouldn't change whether you have superpowers or not, a distinction often missed in other games.
In actual spoilers... marking this down now so those who played the game can make fun of me, don't reply to this speculation. By narrative law, you're supposed to already have met the villain by now. (I mean, sure, it can be a Zeemus/Zeromus type twist where The One King is just some guy, but no shame in missing that.) The obvious suspects from early in the game are the Hero, Liu, & Atrie. But now I dunno if any of 'em fit. The Hero doesn't seem to really work anymore. Liu acted super-sketchy early like he discovered he was the Dark Messiah or something, and later used a mysterious blast of unknown power, but they've since kinda explained it away differently with his whole plotline in his hometown. Liu does allegedly know the "true form" of the One King, which might be an oblique way of saying "himself", but then the elder was a moron to give Liu the power, so seems unlikely. Atrie has very conspicuously never helped directly at all and merely been monitoring Our Hero because... look he knew Alternate Reality Hero or something, or he's time-travelling future Hero from a bad future, or whatever. Possible. But it was also possible it was because he was the villain slowly trying to get let into the world or the like. Yet there was a quest to visit Atrie's world and he's apparently a good guy there also fighting the One King. Furthermore, the Chronicle scene in the Scribe's Village showed a *blonde* guy... none of these three are blonde. Possible the blonde guy isn't the One King of course, just someone talking to him, but still.
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In actual spoilers... marking this down now so those who played the game can make fun of me, don't reply to this speculation. By narrative law, you're supposed to already have met the villain by now. (I mean, sure, it can be a Zeemus/Zeromus type twist where The One King is just some guy, but no shame in missing that.) The obvious suspects from early in the game are the Hero, Liu, & Atrie. But now I dunno if any of 'em fit. The Hero doesn't seem to really work anymore. Liu acted super-sketchy early like he discovered he was the Dark Messiah or something, and later used a mysterious blast of unknown power, but they've since kinda explained it away differently with his whole plotline in his hometown. Liu does allegedly know the "true form" of the One King, which might be an oblique way of saying "himself", but then the elder was a moron to give Liu the power, so seems unlikely. Atrie has very conspicuously never helped directly at all and merely been monitoring Our Hero because... look he knew Alternate Reality Hero or something, or he's time-travelling future Hero from a bad future, or whatever. Possible. But it was also possible it was because he was the villain slowly trying to get let into the world or the like. Yet there was a quest to visit Atrie's world and he's apparently a good guy there also fighting the One King. Furthermore, the Chronicle scene in the Scribe's Village showed a *blonde* guy... none of these three are blonde. Possible the blonde guy isn't the One King of course, just someone talking to him, but still.
REPLY REPLY REPLY
(Oddly enough you're not totally wrong in that guess. But I think it'll be interesting anyway.)
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I seem to recall an implication that Liu was slightly younger than Hero/Marica/Jale, but yeah, he is 14 certainly. The hero I would peg as 15-16 offhand? He's very much still a teenager. I didn't have a problem with it even as someone who isn't a huge fan of the over-common teenage male main trope, because I felt he was a pretty well-written teenager.
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Yeah, his writing is good. To be clear, I *thought* he was written as a 16-17 year old, and that particular development with Liu made me wonder if he was "actually" 14 the whole time.
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Porom's tale next, jumping around a bit. It'll be a nice change of pace after Yang's.
You'd think with all the shortened dungeons they could have trimmed the Underground Waterway a bit, but no such luck :( Cooler Mammoth wasn't too bad once I remembered it was weak to fire and the tentacles could be silenced.
Tale of the Revolving Door Party continues. For our next act, we head to the Feymarch with Rydia, who sucks less in this tale than she does in her own. Palom and Rydia need 6 battles together to learn Thunderstorm. (Yes, the game will tell you right away what potential bands you can learn when you put PCs together - you don't need to grind to see what happens.) It doesn't level up at all while they're together in this filler dungeon.
Forgot to unequip Palom, so he ran off with my Lightning Arrows. Bummer. Not that I'll especially need them, now or ever. Pretty sure I can buy extras in some other chapter if I really need to. Ordeals isn't hard even if the party sucks. No other Bands in this chapter other than the twins' automatic Twincast as children, either.
Ceodore's Tale: Clear time 3:33, levels - Hooded Man 24, Ceodore 25
Rydia's Tale: Clear time 4:09, levels - Luca 25, Rydia 26
Yang's Tale: Clear time 2:17, levels - Yang 21, Ursula 20
Porom's Tale: Clear time 2:44, levels - Porom 22
Porom's Tale in-game use:
It's really hard to score anyone in this chapter because all of the combat is so pathetically easy.
Porom: 7/10. On the one hand, she's basically a worse Rosa in this tale. This would be a bad thing, but at every point of this chapter you either really badly need her healing (and Cura is adequate), her status (Slow and Silence work wonders against Cooler Mammoth), or you're facing undead enemies, against which she has surprisingly decent offense (either with Cura or Great Bow + Holy Arrows). Basically, the whole chapter plays to her strengths. Makes sense, given its her chapter.
Palom (temp): 7/10. Anything he faces either dies to an MT -ara, or if it doesn't, it dies to Break. And all the things that don't die to MT -aras he's with Rydia, so she can use the MT -ara and he can Break the stragglers.
Rydia (temp): 7/10. She faces nothing she can't somehow OHKO. Only MP issues hold her back, really (and you _don't_ get a surplus of Ethers in this chapter).
White Mage: 4/10. Strictly worse than Porom in every way, and you can't really afford a second Great Bow either so she's stuck with a Crossbow. Still an extra stock of MP for white magic, at least, even if she has a bit worse of a spell list.
Black Mage: 6/10. Strictly worse than Rydia or Palom in every way, but still doesn't face much he can't OHKO. Whatever, this works.
Kain (temp): Uhhh, 8/10 I guess? He OHKOs all randoms he faces, and fights one boss who is weak against his physical. Kind of a borderline DNR though.
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Rondo of Swords
Started my New Game+ run. Decided to chance it and grab the Black/Green Rings on the first map, and have otherwise mostly been trying to rush maps to get through them quicker. I just re-recruited Ansom and Marie, and killed the boss that got me the Robber Proof with a Laser Blast from Marie, which was GLORIOUS. And also got her 3 levels.
As for final boss stuff, he had 4 spells. I don't know the range on his unique spell, but Seven Menace is a max range of 8, and that was his biggest range spell I could see. And enemies never cheat when it comes to spells. I mean, they may have cheating items and semi-cheating skills, but the spells themselves are always the same as for PCs! Even looking up the skills, nothing Final Boss has is greater than 8 range at max level.
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Code Name S.T.E.A.M - So, I decided to test attack ranges in order to understand precisely what each level meant. Maximum range results are as follows (do keep in mind this likely applies to vertical range as well):
D Range - 3-4 panels
D+ Range - 4-5 panels
C Range - 5 panels
B Range - 6 panels
A Range - 7 panels
S Range - 10-11 panels (wtf)
Just food for thought.
EDIT: Also, trying to figure out optimum subweapons for the folks who don't start with offensive primaries. My first impression is that, no matter what, Tiger Lily's best saddled with the Steam Musket, since it plays perfectly into her stalling game as far as action economy goes and its actual damage-per-steam ratio actually isn't terrible (12.5 per steam off B range is actually quite solid for what it is). Scarecrow... my kneejerk is that, if you factor in criticals in -any- way, he'll want the Steam Crossbow. Makes use of the Ninja Boiler's quirks and also, idepending on stun testing, it may play into damage-maxing strats involving Pumpkin Stunner. Tin Man and Randolph are the question marks, though: I don't know which weapon would play ideally with their niches, which have no DL translation at all, and they share the same boiler type, so they likely want the same weapon. I'd like some sort of external input here.
Also, nagging suspicion: the Punch Gun's stun rate goes through the roof if an enemy's already stunned. From testing, I already managed to land a lot of stunlocks with startling ease in spite of the low rate on the status at base. This would be easier to test if most healing didn't also heal stun. Sigh.
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Researching the internet seems to find that Mephreyu's Pandemonium's range is an 11x11 square (presumably centered on himself). So he can't hit you with it if you're 6 squares directly in front of him, but has no problem hitting you if you're five squares away diagonally (a.k.a. ten squares in gameplay terms).
Rondo Of Swords is the worst.
Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon - played through
It was fine. But I feel like I don't really care for its specific style of gameplay, sadly. Didn't have any real interest in the mainline Far Cry games beforehand, and this hasn't changed that in either direction.
A lot of the dialog (including - especially? - the tutorial messages) was very funny, but that may be the best thing it had going for it? Takedowns and sniping were enjoyable, but not really a fan of the regular gunplay. The shotgun especially seemed kind of poor.
I did pretty much all the open world stuff before doing any of the missions I wasn't forced to do first - may have been a bad idea as the missions weren't particularly good. The open world stuff wasn't particularly good either, but it was often better. Missions also include the terrible gauntlet mission, which I guess I can't complain about too much as it does seem like something that would have been in those sort of movies. The final vehicle segment starts off fine, but once it ends and you find out what the next part is (it's the villain being killed in a cutscene then the credits) it just seems like a let down. Especially considering that I'm not sure if you can even die during that segment.
Pistol was mediocre, assault rifle was fine, sniper rifle was great then got exploding bullets which I never took off even though it would probably have made hostage rescue missions easier because explosive sniping, shotgun was bad, chaingun was mediocre, flamethrower was mediocre, never used the final weapon outside the point where it was mandatory, still no idea how people time or aim grenades in any game, land mines were fine in extremely situational situations I guess, as was C4.
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I played a couple hours of Blood Dragon. The gameplay didn't really catch me enough to keep going, but it was an entertaining couple hours. It's just that once I'd had Michael Biehn kill one zombie cyborg tyrannosaur, it felt like the game's mission statement had already been fully realized.
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The gunplay in it is pretty stock standard yeah, so if you don't enjoy that definitely steer clear of the past 10 years of the genre outside of specific exceptions (Deus Ex). The stand out for Far Cry/Crysis as a thing is in how they often let you setup your approach to engagements, which means that as soon as they put you in stock corridor shooter mode it feels pretty shitty to play.
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Dragon Age Suikisition: I have a big castle. I didn't get it from a climatic battle, I got it from my allies while I was doing something else. Uuuh thnx guys.
I can choose my advanced class and stuff. Rift Mage looks unexciting aside from that ultimate spell, Knight enchanter sounds completely ridiculous, Necromancer doesn't summon anything (the ultimate Necromancer spell is Haste? Uh?)
I'm going with KE.
I'm French yet I've never seen something as cheesy as Corypheus. Also this is a terrible name for a villain, dude you sound like a plant.
The desert area and the spoooooky bog are pretty nice, much better than that starting area. I liked jumping around finding stuff in the desert area, it's not Mario Sunshine or anything but it was nice.
Yattaf is a terrible Yattaf. Blackwall openly said to her that he dislikes her. Then on a journey when she finds notes left by Blackwall's friends, she goes all "Blackwall would have liked seeing this, unfortunately he's not here :( "
Seriously Yattaf? Grow a spine.
Edit: Actually I forgot that speech she had right after becoming Inquisitor in which she basically said "I RULE SO MUCH" and absolutely everyone disapproved. That was great.
Edit 2: BTW, so many bugs
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I keep forgetting I have that on my to play list and then end up playing Hearthstone, Ass Creed or cheap steam games.
I am broken.
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It's okay man. It's just Dragon Age Inquisition.
In other news Knight Templar is OP as hell in this solo. Before picking the class, I was looking at the abiity list, thinking "This ability looks good, this other ability also looks good" but I wasn't quite realizizing just how well everything synergized beautifully.
My main moves are:
- A barrier that fully negates HP damage, and goes down over time and damage taken. Tons of passive ensure that this can stay for a while.
- A magic melee sword swipe, that costs basically nothing, does lots of damage, and restores barrier. The barrier regen is ludicrous, moreso if multiple enemies are hit.
- A low mana, fast recharge, move that turns Yattaf invincible / invisible for 2 seconds. Yattaf can go inside an enemy in the 2 seconds, then make him explode from the inside or something when she reappears, doing a ton of damage.
- A move that freezes one enemy for a few seconds. Works on some bosses.
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There's a Kickstarter for a new Not-Castlevania with Not-Shanoa as the main.
The bad news is that this is an actual real thing that exists:
(https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/003/786/439/2d15a2f78527f20c0f2dd6531e2b710d_original.png?v=1431549692&w=700&h=&fit=max&auto=format&lossless=true&s=c473d85c3a816b473870fbefccbcdbe1)
(https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/003/786/447/4d595a2ef3fe693359374e759bafdf3d_original.png?v=1431549770&w=700&h=&fit=max&auto=format&lossless=true&s=9b25dc6ec3b773deae3616430be7e840)
Stretch goals have to be unlocked by things like retweets and cosplays.
It's like a twisted parody of Kickstarter made by me, coming to life
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The bad news is that this is an actual real thing that exists:
Turns out he was a vampire after all.
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Mario Kart 8 - 200 cc doing its thang and wrecking me at every turn. So far I've gotten three stars on Shell and Banana, and Gold on Mushroom(1 star)/Flower/Star(1 star)/Leaf. I'm going to work on the even scarier ones later.
Rayman Origins - I'm not sure if I need to use more drugs while playing this game or if the drug-like simulation of random music and strange enemies is enough. I am currently on the fourth world, and the game is a nice solid platformer, but nothing eyepopping.
Last Story - Just learned some backstory about Mirania and Yurick and then snuck into Zangurak's hizzle.
Those Kickstarter awards are hilarious.
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I'm not sure if I need to use more drugs while playing this game or if the drug-like simulation of random music and strange enemies is enough.....but nothing eyepopping.
If you ain't bugging out you ain't had enough.
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Dragon Age Suikisition: I have a big castle. I didn't get it from a climatic battle, I got it from my allies while I was doing something else. Uuuh thnx guys.
I can choose my advanced class and stuff. Rift Mage looks unexciting aside from that ultimate spell, Knight enchanter sounds completely ridiculous, Necromancer doesn't summon anything (the ultimate Necromancer spell is Haste? Uh?)
I'm going with KE.
I'm French yet I've never seen something as cheesy as Corypheus. Also this is a terrible name for a villain, dude you sound like a plant.
The desert area and the spoooooky bog are pretty nice, much better than that starting area. I liked jumping around finding stuff in the desert area, it's not Mario Sunshine or anything but it was nice.
Yattaf is a terrible Yattaf. Blackwall openly said to her that he dislikes her. Then on a journey when she finds notes left by Blackwall's friends, she goes all "Blackwall would have liked seeing this, unfortunately he's not here :( "
Seriously Yattaf? Grow a spine.
Edit: Actually I forgot that speech she had right after becoming Inquisitor in which she basically said "I RULE SO MUCH" and absolutely everyone disapproved. That was great.
Edit 2: BTW, so many bugs
Knight-Enchanter is so overpowered it's amazing.
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I'm waiting for the Witcher to come out. Never played a Witcher game, so we see how that goes.
Been playing a lot of Final Fantasy Record Keeper. The damn game won't give me Kain's relic weapon. Bastards. It did give me Rydia's which might help a tad more.
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From one twin to the other, so my next stop is...
Palom's tale!
Waning Moon (-Black Magic) goes off on me early in the Tower of Trials. Fuck. Still not a big deal, just a long and tedious dungeon.
Troia Waterway is next. A Little Black Magic maxed out early on in here (it's +30% damage when maxed). It's not that long of a dungeon nor is it particularly notable. These two gain quite a bit of EXP though.
This version of the game drastically reduces the prices of the passes to get to the various levels of the pub in Troia; the Member's Writ dropped from 10000 gil to 2500, the Member's Card from 50000 gil to 5000, and the VIP card from 99999 gil to 10000. Buying all three still earns you a Black Tail, and of course there's a Lustful Lali-ho stashed in there too, but you'll lose it if you let Leonora see what it is, so don't.
I don't have enough money for the Queen's Whip, so I'll have to come back for it and/or any of the other Queen's gear, which is still fairly pricey. As it turns out, I have enough money on chapter completion to just load and buy the whip, which is the only one I need for the secret band. Yay!
Ceodore's Tale: Clear time 3:33, levels - Hooded Man 24, Ceodore 25
Rydia's Tale: Clear time 4:09, levels - Luca 25, Rydia 26
Yang's Tale: Clear time 2:17, levels - Yang 21, Ursula 20
Porom's Tale: Clear time 2:44, levels - Porom 22
Palom's Tale: Clear time 3:38, levels - Palom 26, Leonora 24
Palom's Tale in-game use:
Palom: 7/10. Everything I said about him in Porom's chapter still applies; he isn't any different.
Leonora: 5/10. She has Cura and Slow, which is good enough for character tales, and healing is valuable when you have a party this squishy. Palom is enough offense, so her lack of it doesn't matter much here. Her deficiencies don't really come into play until the final chapter.
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Edge's Tale is next The prologues with the Eblan Four can no longer be failed - you'll get a gameover if you do.
Gekkou's mission comes first, on the Waxing Moon. This moon phase doesn't matter to him. Gekkou's 3D model is really strange looking, it reminds me of the fat ninjas in Samurai Warriors that do huge amounts of damage. Fitting, since he does that too. He no longer has the option to intervent in the monks suiciding on the Mysterious Girl (and thus suicide himself).
The next ninja is getting full moon (-attack), so I pick Tsukinowa since he's the least durable. Pretty uneventful, though I gameovered once because I went into a fight at low HP. Didn't matter much because lol PC autosave after every fight. (This is actually really nice.)
I do Izayoi third, giving her +attack. Since she's going to be sitting in the back row with a bow anyway, plus she faces the weakest enemies. Most of them don't even get to act this way.
This means Zangetsu gets the moon that boosts Human Kite. Yay. Zangetsu is badass looking in 3D, oddly. His part is similarly uneventful.
The Tower of Babil itself is uneventful as well, until Izayoi joins and immediately gets OHKOed by the flame dogs. Because of this, she ends up notably behind in levels and her bands don't get learned and leveled properly. Siiiiiigh :( I missed the Adamantite here, so I had to reload after clear to go find it.
I actually need to do this for Palom also. So he gets a bit more EXP and time added, reflected below.
Ceodore's Tale: Clear time 3:33, levels - Hooded Man 24, Ceodore 25
Rydia's Tale: Clear time 4:09, levels - Luca 25, Rydia 26
Yang's Tale: Clear time 2:17, levels - Yang 21, Ursula 20
Porom's Tale: Clear time 2:44, levels - Porom 22
Palom's Tale: Clear time 3:49, levels - Palom 27, Leonora 25
Edge's Tale: Clear time 3:10, levels - Edge 27, Gekkou 20, Zangetsu 21, Izayoi 19, Tsukinowa 24
Edge's Tale in-game use:
Edge: 8/10. He OHKOs pretty much everything he faces (especially with Waning Moon), he can heal, he can hit weaknesses, he can do basically everything. He's pretty much one of the best characters in the game outright, and this chapter does a fine job of showing you why.
Gekkou: 5/10. Probably the best of the Eblan Four overall, but his strengths don't really manifest in this tale other than being generally tanky and decently hard-hitting. Nothing special.
Zangetsu: 5/10. Conversely, his weaknesses don't really manifest in this tale (he's basically a worse Kain - TAY Kain, that is, not vanilla Kain).
Izayoi: 4/10. Probably the worst of the Eblan Four overall, and her durability is a notable problem even here. While she can heal, so can Edge, so she's not too great.
Tsukinowa: 5/10. His durability would be more of a problem, but he gets more EXP than the other members of the Eblan Four relatively. He can also heal and he does decent backrow damage, so he's okay.
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Knight-Enchanter is so overpowered it's amazing.
Yeah it is frankly ridiculous, even more so in a solo challenge.
I respecced AGAIN and got all the barrier related skills, now I can pretty much no longer die. Here is a list of all the gross barrier passives I get:
- If I do damage I get some barrier back
- If enemies damage my barrier they get damaged back
- My barrier goes down more slowly than it should
- My barrier is stronger than it should be
- I get a boost to mana regen whenever I have a barrier active. Which is always.
- When the barrier goes down, which is never, all enemies around get frozen for a few seconds, and my next spell doesn't cost any mana. So I can cast another barrier and make enemies go "Oh god NOT AGAIN"
- If I die, which is absolutely never, I survive the hit and instantly get a full barrier; there's a 60 seconds cooldown so I "really" need to be "careful"
lol? I don't even need to use the barrier skill anymore, since my barrier regens very fast by damaging enemies, and just refuses to go down even whenever I get swarmed by 8 demons at once. I can kill giant bosses just by pressing and holding square and not even moving at any point.
And as always, as a mage, I can inflict a ton of statuses and do a ton of damage too. Mana is not an issue, cooldowns are not an issue either.
I don't even heal anymore, seriously. I only drink potions for the satisfaction of littering the beautiful landscape.
I just killed one dragon that was 4 levels above me. (This is Bioware so dragons are kind of a big deal, remember Firkraag?)
Anyway I'm delving into FFXIV. Wish me luck. It will probably be a miserable experience but I'm curious.
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Code Name: S.T.E.A.M - Delving into range and steam expenditure theoretics, I think I devised a system I'll personally use for my own averages. I also think I decided how I'll handle the weaponry for Tin Man and Randolph, but this is less important.
Anyhow: the average squares between S range and D range equals 5.8something. Which, rounded down (consistent to in-game internal calculations -and- how the game calculates steam expenditure on an intuitive level), I'll take as the average distance between characters. Amount of steam expended to get into the range necessary for being able to attack = Maximum range - average distance. If Maximum range >= average distance, steam expenditure is zero. If an attack requires being at a certain range for landing more bullets, use the range's value in the maximum range variant (so, in order to hit at all, Henry's Eagle Rifle only needs to be at 7 range [A's maximum range], needing no steam expenditure. However, in order to hit all three shots, D range minimum is required. D's maximum range outside of AoE is 4. So, he needs to move at least 1 square in order to land all three shots).
I'm still trying to elaborate a personal formula for steam expenditure needed for critical hits, which I -think- should be factored in, since all fighting units, including PCs, have a weak spot, and critical multipliers -also- vary from weapon to weapon and even character to character to a lesser degree. Typical multiplier is 1.2x, but specific weapons have 2.4x and Tom's Punch Gun has a hilarious 0.96x. The Ninja Boiler also has a 2x stacking mult to all crits and Randolph sports his Arcane Lore to stack a 1.2x multiplier on top of whatever he uses. The positioning for landing critical hits and how to optimally balance steam usage for maximum damage are also very big in-game. So yeah.
Any thoughts from the other players? NEB, Djinn, Meeple?
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I'm honestly unsure what angle to take; I guess figure out what would be ideal for turn 1 for reach character, and either assume enemy moves by an amount equal to an average (possibly variable if they come from a game with an actual movement mechanic, so like an Fire Emblem Paladin would have greater distance while a General would have less, but we're talking averages here), or assume enemy doesn't move at all, and get a multiple turn average. Or am I not getting what you're asking right?
Curtain Call: So Force Your Way ultimate killed me in a medley, luckily Aetheryte before a path split and got around it! I could have also probably, you know, twinked more defensively, used a team that was higher leveled, or Teleport Stoned, but shhh!
...I'm going to have to stat topic this game too, since I did the first one, aren't I? If I did, should I include DLC characters, and if yes, would that include Krile, the character never released in the west because WHAT THE HELL!?
I do need to also work on making a super twink team or something...you know, a team where we have a x13.2 Ultima fired off by 3 characters on the first boss and the next like 15 enemies all die (or a summon appears and damage overflow stops :( )...oh that, would also involve a few x3 Ancient Magics from Shantotto and maybe a x2 Doomsday by Vivi. Or I could make an Added Cut team, but that involves using a bunch of characters I'm not fond of IIRC...or I could make a combination of it.
...no clue what I'd do for a TWINKED FMS TEAM because seriously, who cares about FMSs!?
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I'm honestly unsure what angle to take; I guess figure out what would be ideal for turn 1 for reach character, and either assume enemy moves by an amount equal to an average (possibly variable if they come from a game with an actual movement mechanic, so like an Fire Emblem Paladin would have greater distance while a General would have less, but we're talking averages here), or assume enemy doesn't move at all, and get a multiple turn average. Or am I not getting what you're asking right?
I'm thinking more on how to handle crits. I think that a happy medium where more range means less need for steam expenditure already works out (since that... uhhhh, pretty much what it happens in-game), but crit positioning is dicier since it's not -only- range that matters. On the other hand, range definitely factors in (see Fox landing crits more easily than -anyone else in the game does-).
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Just as a kneejerk reaction to your question, I'd assume that range is the main factor for landing crits, since for the most part you just have to get to correct side of the enemy to hit their critical point. So just take whatever steam expenditure each PC needs to get into firing range for their desired number of shots, and multiply it by a flat rate like 1.5x, rounded down like in-game, I guess? For characters whose movement Steam expenditure is 0 or 1, just assume a base 2 steam is used for correct positioning. This will reflect things like Fox's domination when using crits, and also punish the crazy range needed for things like Dorothy hitting all her bazillion shots on a single weakpoint (though I guess she can use her OPB Silver Shoes thing to mitigate that cost for turn 2?). I think the various kinds of weakpoints kind of average themselves out overall. A lot of the aliens have really obvious easy-to-hit weakpoints, and all human-types have their weakspot as their very-uncovered head, with only a few of the enemy types really hiding their weakpoints, so I don't think there needs to be a huge steam expenditure for PCs to be hitting crits. 2 minimum is already pretty high in addition to weapon and movement cost.
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If you're assuming the default distance is 5, then the absolute minimum number of steam needed to get behind/beside the enemy is 6 (bit some enemies do have weak points on the front, so maybe it should be less?), so at the very least that should buy you a weak point shot. Arguably it should depend on the enemy and what they do, of course. A melee enemy would need to get closer (and thus be easier to critical, or just get in more shots if your name is Dorothy), while ranged enemies would not (and in fact, might try to get slightly farther away to annoy STEAM PCs further... which would create a difference between in ranges greater than 5, at least, so that's nice).
Overwatch is interesting. In theory a STEAM PC should be able to get one overwatch shot off against anyone who doesn't stun them with their first attack (or status you, or kill you, etc.), the interesting question is when they get more. Obviously against people who attack twice, but probably also against melee people if the STEAM character doesn't end their turn at melee anyway? Judging how many more may be difficult, unless you feel like testing vs. a berserker or something.
Anyway, on that note!
Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. - Beaten. I had a fair bit of trouble with 16-1 since it was such a marathon map and I used the save points up not realising how much of one, but still, beat on the second try. I had a bit of trouble motivating myself to finish this game towards the end for some reason, but I suspect that had more to do with my mood than anything to do with the game? Hard to say. Final team was Lion, Fox, Queequeg, and Cafila; I debated between Cafila and Tin Man for use so went with the one whose design I obviously preferred. I also liked using Tom certainly. Tiger Lily's fine (and would have been a huge help in 16-1 definitely) but isn't as fun so nyah.
I enjoyed the game quite well. As mentioned, I do wish the polish was better. I also wish the writing was worth giving a damn about, like, at all. Like if you're going to put so little effort into the characters/setting why do you even bother going through the motions of JRPG tropes (predictably there is a scene where everyone agrees the main character should be their leader with like 0 justification for this) instead of either doing something fun with the source material characters, and/or dialling up the cheese to 11. On that note, the Code Name STEAM theme song, and Lincoln's voice acting, were some of my favourite parts of the game on this front.
But the gameplay's solid. Nice experimenting mixing the limited third-person perspective with a strategy game. Great array of PCs who play differently. Replaying maps to get better scores/times/those challenge runs are really neat on paper, this game has a lot of replay value which I'll have to dig into at some point.
Game's a 7/10 to me maybe? I'm not sure. Good, but I'm not wowed, and I definitely hope to see more games like this in the future. As long as they don't distract IS from new Fire Emblems too much, obviously.
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FFXIV:
If you choose a human female it's nearly impossible to not make a perfect adorable waifu, this is the exact opposite of Dark Souls 1
Also that starting outfit has to be something out of a porn movie.
I went with the conjurer class, the first scene was on a boat, people talking then panicking about pirates attacking! In media res stuff! Except the MC hides and then ten seconds later she learns that the crew outmaneuvered the pirates and escaped.
Then the trip to the port was uneventful. Then there were a billion unexciting fetchquests in the port town.
Unfortunately jumping in this game is not very exciting, you can't jump in the water or anything and there are invisible walls everywhere.
The interface is pretty O_O. Ye gods.
There are 8 different crafting classes, oh boy
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It's basically impossible to make a female character of *any* race not look at least somewhat attractive in FFXIV, yeah. Even Roegadyn, to an extent.
FF4TAY PC
Only one tale left to go before things start to come together. Edward's is up!
What's even more fun than going through the underground waterway over and over? Doing it while you have to kill everything by chipping 40 damage at a time.
Edward's Adamantite is hidden in a corner of the Antlion's nest. Also, the Baron guards in the last bit of the chapter have some weird glitchy text. Yay for lazy ports! I didn't bother hunting down all the Bronze/Silver Tails or any of that. Can always go back and do it later if I'm feeling particularly completionist/achievement-chasey. So that's it! Easy chapter, just kind of boring.
Ceodore's Tale: Clear time 3:33, levels - Hooded Man 24, Ceodore 25
Rydia's Tale: Clear time 4:09, levels - Luca 25, Rydia 26
Yang's Tale: Clear time 2:17, levels - Yang 21, Ursula 20
Porom's Tale: Clear time 2:44, levels - Porom 22
Palom's Tale: Clear time 3:49, levels - Palom 27, Leonora 25
Edge's Tale: Clear time 3:10, levels - Edge 27, Gekkou 20, Zangetsu 21, Izayoi 19, Tsukinowa 24
Edward's Tale: Clear time 2:40, levels - Edward 23, Harley 14
Edward's Tale in-game use:
Edward: 6/10? If you switch the Economical Ring from Harley to him, you're at no risk of dying ever at least. Awful offense though.
Harley: 1/10. Worst serious character in the game, and she only barely contributes to this chapter. She really should have just been a plot character, not a party member, if they were going to leave her in this state. (Pity she never got the function she was actually intended to have, a look into dummied data suggests she was intended to have Blue Magic.)
Generic Guards: 4/10. Embarrassingly, they don't actually hit much harder than Edward, but at least they take hits well.
With the completion of all those, we now unlock Kain's tale for this version. In the next post!
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You might want to (or might not want to) jump back into DL IRC to hook up with regulars there Fen. Meeple has recently started playing and I know Laggy et al still play.
Dragon Age: Inquisition Symphony - I dunno what you are talking about with this game Fenrir. This is practically Demons's Souls's 2. The controls suck and climbing up ladders is the slowest thing in the history of ever. I could catch an elevator on the Citadel faster than those.
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Pokemon X/Y- Just stopped in front of the second gym
Fire Starter- Strong magic and all around stats with a solid skillset
Snorlax- Surprisingly damaging and insane HP
Absol- That strength is nuts
Roselia- Gave her the TM with the Poison move whose damage doubles when the target is poisoned. Fun to play with for sure.
Wartortle- Solid all arounder
Axew- Not particularly great, may sub out.
Have also been running Espurr, Pikachu, the goat, and the ghost sword a little, but dropped them all.
Breath of Death- Just got Lita. I think Sara is currently the best on speed, HP AND Damage. Oh, she can also heal too.
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FF4TAY PC: Kain's Tale time!
First, we have two dungeons with a temp. Yawn. It looks like they scattered some of the treasures from Ceodore's challenge dungeon around the early parts of the chapter, though. The first Adamantite is in the second part of the Devil's Road. Baron More glitchy soldier text to be here (lol) once we get back to Ceodore and HM. Who get to go through....
GUESS WHAT IT'S THE UNDERGROUND WATERWAY AGAIN god dammit S-E. The second adamantite for this tale is found in the waterway's first map. Temp!Kain can kill Edward with autobattle even when he's wearing Ceodore's starting equipment instead of anything actually good, haha. Octokraken barely gets turns and dies to three Cross Slashes. Evil Kain has some serious problems even HITTING Real Kain. Granted it's the first time I've done this fight with Hooded Man not at level 15. Heh. So Kain gets his Persona, and that's that.
Ceodore's Tale: Clear time 3:33, levels - Hooded Man 24, Ceodore 25
Rydia's Tale: Clear time 4:09, levels - Luca 25, Rydia 26
Yang's Tale: Clear time 2:17, levels - Yang 21, Ursula 20
Porom's Tale: Clear time 2:44, levels - Porom 22
Palom's Tale: Clear time 3:49, levels - Palom 27, Leonora 25
Edge's Tale: Clear time 3:10, levels - Edge 27, Gekkou 20, Zangetsu 21, Izayoi 19, Tsukinowa 24
Edward's Tale: Clear time 2:40, levels - Edward 23, Harley 14
Kain's Tale: Clear time 2:34, levels - Kain 30, Ceodore 30, Rosa 30, Cid 30
Kain's Tale in-game use:
Temp Kain: DNR really, *shrug*. Doesn't face much in the way of notable opposition. Is identical to original game's Kain around midgame and faces largely the same enemies; he was pretty good there, and it's much the same here. Largest contribution is probably when you steal his gear to give to Ceodore and HM.
Hooded Man: 7/10. For all that his lack of utility starts to show itself, he still has a marked statistical advantage over Ceodore here.
Ceodore: 6/10. His durability starts to be a bit of an issue here, but he can take a damage hit to sit in the back row if he needs to (and his backrow damage is still at least decent, thanks to bows). His healing starts to not hold up as well here, too.
Rosa/Cid/Real Kain: DNR here, no action in this chapter with no challenge dungeon to face.
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If you're assuming the default distance is 5, then the absolute minimum number of steam needed to get behind/beside the enemy is 6 (bit some enemies do have weak points on the front, so maybe it should be less?), so at the very least that should buy you a weak point shot. Arguably it should depend on the enemy and what they do, of course. A melee enemy would need to get closer (and thus be easier to critical, or just get in more shots if your name is Dorothy), while ranged enemies would not (and in fact, might try to get slightly farther away to annoy STEAM PCs further... which would create a difference between in ranges greater than 5, at least, so that's nice).
About half the enemies in the game (and actually most relevant ranged enemies, in fact!) have their weak points either on their front (sniper Prowlers, grenadier Prowlers, stealth Prowlers, Dreadnoughts, Queens, Abominations, Generators) or have their back weak spots be so huge (Shrikes, Gunners, even Starface itself) that range becomes more important as long as you can at least see their back. The only ranged enemies that truly have their weak spots on the back are Hounds and Scourges (and Scourges may well feature in the "large weak spot category" depending). Melee enemies - such as Rippers, Berserkers, Lurkers and Slashers - are the ones who usually have their weak points on their backs, and even then better range makes reaching those spots easier (side flanking from a distance, for instance). The exception lies in Crashers, whose weak point is an upward tail that can be aimed from any direction (and is almost entirely irrelevant due to their durability. Nettlers are on a similar boat, being OHKOed by literally everything). Feels like that would encourage a "somewhere in the middle" approach. I'd argue myself that, due to this, ranged characters are actually -easier- to critical than melee characters in-game.
Overwatch is interesting. In theory a STEAM PC should be able to get one overwatch shot off against anyone who doesn't stun them with their first attack (or status you, or kill you, etc.), the interesting question is when they get more. Obviously against people who attack twice, but probably also against melee people if the STEAM character doesn't end their turn at melee anyway? Judging how many more may be difficult, unless you feel like testing vs. a berserker or something.
Having tested overwatch against melee, I've managed to get up to three overwatch shots against the likes of Berserkers when they were at a large distance. Overwatching them from range nets at least two shots. Ranged enemies, who -can- overwatch, usually save their steam in order to always do so, so they typically won't trigger overwatch more than once (for all that I've managed to slam Starface thrice with Fox's Sharp Eyes overwatch , which was kinda glorious). Another balancing factor is that overwatch requires the PCs to save on steam, so they have to sacrifice attacks on their own turn to trigger overwatch counters. You also could argue the opposition doesn't -have- to trigger the counters, but depending on range, that can be notoriously difficult.
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Well, if you make an attack and, at the end of that attack, your target is still alive/not stunned, they will always get an overwatch shot off (provided they're in range to make one), so no reason that wouldn't carry over into the DL.
The melee enemy thing probably depends how much they have to move. I feel like you get an overwatch shot every ~2 squares or so, but I haven't tested this so am far from certain.
Of course, as you note, there is a steam cost for Overwatch, and since one of the main reasons for Overwatch shots (stunning enemies who act multiple times) is much less potent in the DL, I'm not sure how broadly useful they will be. Fox gets a bit more steam efficiency out of them, of course (and gets a few free ones with her limit), so they're mostly of interest to her. For everyone else, it depends on overwatch stun rate.
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Overwatch stun rate seems to clock in at anywhere from 33 to 50% (certainly higher than Tom's stun, but hardly reliable). Feels primarily like a way to occasionally cancel an enemy turn, and Tiger Lily of all people would likely get the most out of it due to healing. Some PCs badly wish stun carried over to the following phase.
EDIT: some minor further testing also points to me that the most common enemy crit multiplier is somewhere along the lines of 1.67x (always remembering: all the mults stack). Seriously considering using that as the mult for the complete equation - at first, I considered using a 1 multiplier for the sake of simplicity, but that seriously underrates crit potency and this mult only applies to the PCs. I mean, in-game you'd never see Tom dealing less damage on a crit than on a normal move even with a Scout Boiler, but that'd be what happens in the DL if I chose that venue, which would also seriously inflate the Ninja Boiler for all Light class PCs.
EDIT2: So, uh, I think Tom's natural Punch Gun odds stack with overwatch stun odds. In addition to that, his Punch Gun actually stunlocks, since it doesn't seem to break stun like other weapons do. That actually can lead him to hilariously, -hilariously- damaging strings if he gets a stun going early.
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Agreed Reiska, but the human girls are extra impossibly gorgeous
You might want to (or might not want to) jump back into DL IRC to hook up with regulars there Fen. Meeple has recently started playing and I know Laggy et al still play.
I dunno, I am super casual about playing this + on euro servers
Here is how I view each class I've gotten so far:
Marauder: The marauder has an axe. I like axes. Nice support skills with the HP leech, damage debuff and defense buff. Low accuracy and high damage. The usual stuff.
Fisherman: Is this a real thing or an elaborate joke?
Arcanist: Arcanist is probably the best class (It has a familiar. And POIZN) but it has less damage than Marauder and I can't be bothered to learn the entire familiar skillset / deal with familiar AI.
Rogue: This is a generic thief with dual daggers, it is not called Rouge and by the way rougelikes don't exist
Targeting sucks on PS4, I'm never going to get used to this.
Dragon Age: Inquisition Symphony - I dunno what you are talking about with this game Fenrir. This is practically Demons's Souls's 2. The controls suck and climbing up ladders is the slowest thing in the history of ever. I could catch an elevator on the Citadel faster than those.
What have I done to you, why are you doing this to me
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Fisherman: Is this a real thing or an elaborate joke?
All the crafting and gathering classes have their own unique class, rather than just being something to do in your battle classes.
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I hope fisherman is the most monotonous one
I don't want to do a fishing minigame that's as elaborate as Pokemon Blue's for 100 hours to get to max level
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Angler was the first Life I mastered in Fantasy Life! Repetitive minigames for the win.
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It's basically impossible to make a female character of *any* race not look at least somewhat attractive in FFXIV, yeah. Even Roegadyn, to an extent.
Especially Roegadyn.
Bravely Default: this game is hard on hard, a giant floating brain 2x overkilled me. Time to grind for more Angelic Wards?
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Resonance of Fate: So apparently I finished Chapter 5 at about 11 hours in. I finished Chapter 7 at just under 22 hours. yes, I doubled my playtime in 2 chapters, I blame the moronic hex system which required me to literally grind for quite a while just to get stuff...oh and Chapter 6 being complete and total bullshit.
I did accidentally read spoilers, gameplaywise, that the next area apparently is going to have Poison; luckily the game showed what Poison does this time arond and...yeah, I'm not gonna wanna be hit by that.
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Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara - Man, Tower of Doom isn't very good.
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I actually prefer it to the sequel, Shadow over Mystara has too much random item crap and worse controls.
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Man, I felt the controls in Shadow Over Mystara were orders of magnitudes better. Tower of Doom controls like a drowsy tank in general and the hitboxes are wonky as fuck. The excess random crap is a point, but Tower of Doom isn't really much better about it and its gameplay isn't even a pale shadow of its successor.
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Shadow Over Mystara is definitely the better game, yes. But Tower of Doom is okay at least.
FF4TAY PC
Now, Lunarians' Tale!
We start by raiding a sleeping Lunarian dude's porn stash. Yes, there really is a hidden Lustful Lali-ho in the Chamber of Sleep. The chapter's Adamantite also comes early, in B10 of the Lunar Subterrane (before we even start seeing combats). Fusoya's max MP was boosted from 190 to 390 in this version, a very good and needed change from the original. (His tiny MP pool was stupid in original FF4, let alone TAY.)
With Fusoya's boosted MP, you're much more free to pretty much just nuke every single random with Quake, so that's exactly what I did. Mysterious Girl got Slowed as usual then crumpled under Flare and Bio spam.
Lair of the Father wasn't too bad either. Randoms died to a sneeze, Count Malboros or whatever died to a Bio and a couple Flares. They could put up something of a fight though, I had to bother Slowing them, so that's something.
Killing the Mysterious Girl is really cathartic, so yay for getting to do it twice.
With that, another trip through the Lunar Subterrane (which actually puts up a fight), and then we blow Zeromus' Malice up with Double Black Magic. Tale complete!
Ceodore's Tale: Clear time 3:33, levels - Hooded Man 24, Ceodore 25
Rydia's Tale: Clear time 4:09, levels - Luca 25, Rydia 26
Yang's Tale: Clear time 2:17, levels - Yang 21, Ursula 20
Porom's Tale: Clear time 2:44, levels - Porom 22
Palom's Tale: Clear time 3:49, levels - Palom 27, Leonora 25
Edge's Tale: Clear time 3:10, levels - Edge 27, Gekkou 20, Zangetsu 21, Izayoi 19, Tsukinowa 24
Edward's Tale: Clear time 2:40, levels - Edward 23, Harley 14
Kain's Tale: Clear time 2:34, levels - Kain 30, Ceodore 30, Rosa 30, Cid 30
The Lunarians' Tale: Clear time 2:57, levels - Golbez 40
Lunarians' Tale in-game use:
Golbez: 8/10. There's very little not to like here. Osmose to keep his MP topped off, Bio is a great offensive spell (and during a Waxing Moon, handily OHKOs a lot of the opposition), he can rock decent physical attacks too, and of course, he has solid durability (though not foolproof).
Fusoya: 9.5/10. Full White/Black magic list with 390 MP, equally good durability to Golbez. There isn't a random in this chapter that survives a Quake. Only reason he's not 10/10 is because of the lack of a credible physical option, really.
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The After Years saga continues with...
Final Fantasy IV - The After Years: The Crystals ~ Planet Eater
We import this data.
Ceodore's Tale: Clear time 3:33, levels - Hooded Man 24, Ceodore 25
Rydia's Tale: Clear time 4:09, levels - Luca 25, Rydia 26
Yang's Tale: Clear time 2:17, levels - Yang 21, Ursula 20
Porom's Tale: Clear time 2:44, levels - Porom 22
Palom's Tale: Clear time 3:49, levels - Palom 27, Leonora 25
Edge's Tale: Clear time 3:10, levels - Edge 27, Gekkou 20, Zangetsu 21, Izayoi 19, Tsukinowa 24
Edward's Tale: Clear time 2:40, levels - Edward 23, Harley 14
Kain's Tale: Clear time 2:34, levels - Kain 30, Ceodore 30, Rosa 30, Cid 30
The Lunarians' Tale: Clear time 2:57, levels - Golbez 40
Roughly speaking, my course of action is this, with picking up all of the Small Tails scattered in between:
* Get the Diamond Armor
* Dive into the Agart Subterrane for a bit to get Luca the Ogrekiller
* Get the Mage Masher (I burn a Bronze Hourglass on this fight)
* Get the Luminous Robe
* Get the Ribbon (Armor Construct gets Stopped by Rydia then blown up with Golbez's Thundaga and Big Throws from Luca)
* Get the Chocobo summon back
* Get the Black Belt Gi (Grand Malboro gets Stopped by Rydia then blown up with Lightning Brain Buster spam)
* Loot Damcyan and get Harley
* Loot Fabul
* Go to Kaipo, get Yang and Ursula, and max out Spider's Silk while I have the chance, and also get Sylph back on Rydia
* Loot Eblan and get Ifrit back on Rydia
* Loot the Lodestone Cavern and rescue Palom and Leonora and get Shiva back on Rydia
* Go to Mysidia, rescue Porom and get Ramuh back on Rydia
* Go to Agart and get Titan back on Rydia.
* Finally, loot Cave of Eblan and exchange our 21 small tails for stuff.
* Then, after all of that, go to Mist and get the Mist Dragon summon back on Rydia.
However, I have a dilemma - two really, and they're closely intertwined: what do I want to get with those 21 small tails, and whom do I ultimately want to use as my final party? Obviously the final party choice will to an extent dictate what tail exchanges I want, and possibly also what adamant set pieces I want later.
Choices, choices...
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Final Fantasy IV - The After Years: The Crystals ~ Planet Eater
Ceodore's Tale: Clear time 3:33, levels - Hooded Man 24, Ceodore 25
Rydia's Tale: Clear time 4:09, levels - Luca 25, Rydia 26
Yang's Tale: Clear time 2:17, levels - Yang 21, Ursula 20
Porom's Tale: Clear time 2:44, levels - Porom 22
Palom's Tale: Clear time 3:49, levels - Palom 27, Leonora 25
Edge's Tale: Clear time 3:10, levels - Edge 27, Gekkou 20, Zangetsu 21, Izayoi 19, Tsukinowa 24
Edward's Tale: Clear time 2:40, levels - Edward 23, Harley 14
Kain's Tale: Clear time 2:34, levels - Kain 30, Ceodore 30, Rosa 30, Cid 30
The Lunarians' Tale: Clear time 2:57, levels - Golbez 40
Choices, choices...
Oooh, if you're taking suggestions, I'd like to see a party breakdown something like this:
1 Top-tier character (Edge, fully-decked Palom, fully-decked Cecil/Ceo, Ursula)
1 'Project' character (Rydia, Leonora, Edward)
1 Mid-tier character (Yang, non-decked Palom/Cecil/Ceo, Golbez)
2 Failures (Eblan Four, Harley, Cid, Luca, Calcabrina)
No White Mages or Kain because White Mages are boring and Kain is Kain. Use the healing skills the rest of the cast has!
*Ursula/Yang/Cid/Luca might be misplaced, I can't remember them that well.
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Man, I felt the controls in Shadow Over Mystara were orders of magnitudes better. Tower of Doom controls like a drowsy tank in general and the hitboxes are wonky as fuck. The excess random crap is a point, but Tower of Doom isn't really much better about it and its gameplay isn't even a pale shadow of its successor.
I don't remember Tower of Doom's controls being worse, but the Shadow Over Mystara was a much better game nonetheless. There was a lot more you could do in the game, areas were better designed and less monotonous (I remember Tower of Doom feeling very...samey throughout.)
So yeah, really don't get how anyone can say ToD > SOM.
Oooh, if you're taking suggestions, I'd like to see a party breakdown something like this:
1 Top-tier character (Edge, fully-decked Palom, fully-decked Kain/Ceo, Ursula)
1 'Project' character (Rydia, Leonora, Edward)
1 Mid-tier character (Yang, non-decked Palom/Cecil/Ceo, Golbez)
2 Failures (Eblan Four, Harley, Cid, Luca, Calcabrina)
Fixed that for you. I don't mean to be ironic or silly here; Kain is the "alternative" to Ceodore, not Cecil. Yes, he can use Lunarian stuff, but being able to use Lances and Blink/Haste more than make up for it. Add in Cecil spends a large part of the game being absolute garbage, and likely underleveled as a result, he's Mid-tier at best.
I also don't know how Rydia is a project but Palom is top tier. Palom gets spells a little earlier, but not tremendously so; they're very similar otherwise. By extension, Gekkou should be Mid-Tier, not Failures like his sentai crewmates. He's a workable HP Tank who can do reasonable damage thanks to Throw. He's not amazing, but I can see getting reasonable milleage out of him.
Also not sure how Golbez is "mid-tier"; he's kind of really good throughout most of the end game, only sort of tapering off near the end, and even then, he's got high enough magic damage, considerably more health than other Black Mages (at cost of less variety), and has an actual physical.
Honestly, while she does qualify as "project" Leonora feels closer in the failure tier. She's not catching up to Porom or Rosa, the other healers, and despite getting Black Magic, she's worse offensively than both because they learn Holy at a reasonable level.
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Gonna second Meeple: having used all three, the idea that Cecil is a tier higher than Golbez or Rydia, the two best PCs in the game in that order IMO, is indeed pretty crazy.
Also white mages are some of the least boring PCs in the cast, they can do lots of stuff! Certainly more interesting than Edward, who is pretty much a white mage who can only heal. Using neither a white mage nor Edward is seriously hamstringing yourself, so I suppose that's "not boring" by some definition but meh.
Mega Man various - I've been running through different games trying to get the weapons in roughly the reverse order of how useful they are, and then focusing on the least useful weapons to see if I've been underrating them at all. Some notes...
MM2- assumed order: Heat < Bubble < Quick < Flash < Crash < Air < Wood < Metal
Atomic Fire: Is absolutely awful, no questions asked. Slow to charge, the midcharge is hard to use even if it were any good (and it almost never is), and watching it tink against things (at the cost of 10 WE) is horrid.
Bubble Lead: Too many things resist it, and it's too slow. Still, way better than Atomic Fire; it is sometimes useful if things are below you and there are a few places it performs quite well (like the rabbits in Wood Man's stage).
Quick Boomerang: Buster replacement which hits harder against a few things (and less hard against others but that's okay). Nothing really new here; I do like that it's a credible option against hoppers.
MM3- assumed order: Spark < Snake < Needle < Hard < Gemini < Shadow < Top < Magnet
Spark Shock: Well you can use it to freeze hoppers and then walk under them. Aside from that this is total trash. Lots of enemies are kinda hard to freeze in places where you don't run into them, and you can't switch weapons until all frozen enemies leave the screen making it just completely useless in many places you have to walk past enemies. I don't know if this or Atomic Fire is worse. Probably Atomic Fire? Gross.
Search Snake: Actually performed slightly better than my expectations, certainly better than Bubble, since it's faster than Bubble and climbs walls. Especially when enemies are on accessable platforms above you it can perform quite well, shoutouts for dealing with the needle-shooters and the guys who throw tops. Some levels it just sucks, though, and it still has a bunch of Bubble's problems of course.
Needle Cannon: On the other hand, this seems to be literally the buster against everything that isn't a boss. Also the height variation works against it, so it's worse. Now definitely below Snake to me, unlike Quick this fails to find any real niche. Ugh. Still owns Spark because what doesn't.
Hard Knuckle: I really wasn't sure where to go from here, but ended on deciding on Hard as the next worst. Going to have to say that's justified, the weapon is damaging but often so cumbersome that the damage isn't worth it. Certainly better than the weapons below it, but I found much more use for everything above as usual.
MM8: Clown < Frost < Grenade < Tengu; then, Sword < Aqua < Search < Astro
Different format here of course. Anyway I have virtually nothing bad to say about the first set of weapons; they're all great. Thunder Claw is the worst due to the range limitations but it's still damaging and really useful against a lot of things, Ice Wave is ridiculously better than the previous ground-crawlers, it's like Snake if it was rarely immuned (seriously, aren't flying enemies enough?) and did lots of damage. Can't spam it but oh well.
Flame Sword: The one legitimately bad weapon in the game, though not nearly as bad as the worst MM2-3 weapons. It's short-range! And... not as damaging as you might think, failing to OHKO the monkey enemies stands out, and you have to land hits very solidly to OHKO even relatively fragile enemies.
Water Balloon: Sorta the game's "boring buster replacement" weapon, except it does notably outpace uncharged buster shots so there's that. By contrast to Flame Sword, really good at taking out monkeys.
MM9- Concrete < Magma < Tornado < Plug < Hornet < Splash < Jewel < Galaxy
Concrete Shot: Is bad. Why does this crap cost 2 WE for a weapon with a bad trajcetory and causes enemies to not drop items. The platforms it creates are occasionally useful, but you have to move fast, and it is reasonably damaging against some things (but only some) such as a the Magma Dragon mini-boss. Still, being clunky to use offsets even that advantage, typically.
Magma Bazooka: Well Concrete is really the only bad weapon here. Magma's a bit boring but hahaha, it's like Atomic Fire but ridiculously better. Uses way less WE (half a point for the basic shot, 4 for the full charge), gets two extra blasts, doesn't tink as much, does crazy damage if fully-charged at melee (e.g. takes out hoppers in one go). Possibly not second worst? It's hard to say. All the other weapons are good.
Tornado Blow: Limited, but four uses of "fuck everything on the screen, enemies and projectiles both" is nice. It's certainly not as good as some other screen-clearers (MM4's or MM8's) but the utility is handy enough.
Plug Ball: Search Snake only tinks less and way more damaging, not much to say. I'm really not sure of the relative order of this, Magma, and Tornado, they're all so different. Hornet's in the mix too honestly. The other three weapons are just OP.
Hyrule Warriors - Failed to unlock the playable giant chicken; Ganon mode is pretty boring and I wasn't ready to deal with actual hard missions with him. Oh well. Currently collecting skulltulas, having fun.
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I will say that I understand how a person could make that mistake if they played FF4, but sadly Cecil is pretty much not worth using. I think the fat ninja might even be better. That's a good but sad debate.
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*shrug* Okay, use Meeple/Elf's tier list, but still wanted to see that kind of breakdown. Only one top-tier, one project, and two failures~ Preferably still no Kain or Rosa though.
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Reiska changed his name to Naked Kain in chat yesterday. Which means he probably should be shot out of a cannon certainly but is untrustworthy to not use Kain.
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I'm actually considering buying those FF bundles that include the FF4 remakes for the PC and I'm blaming Reiska. At least they'd be an excuse to replay FF7 after nearly two decades.
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You should play The After Years and revel in its fanficness (and fun gameplay).
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There'd be no Grefter to stop me.
EDIT: And hey, beats playing Demons' Souls.
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It's true.
I used Kain on my PSP run of TAY, though, I'm unlikely to field him again so soon, as good as he is.
As for character tiering, this is how I'd personally break it down (note the order within a tier has no significance):
Top tier: Edge, Kain, Ceodore, Palom, Ursula, Golbez
"Project" tier: Rydia, Porom
Mid tier: Yang, Luca, Gekkou, Rosa, Edward, Cecil
Bad tier: Cid, Leonora, Zangetsu, Izayoi, Tsukinowa
Joke tier: Harley, Calca, Brina
A bit of logic follows here. For the most part, everyone in the top tier is a slightly improved variant of someone in either project or mid tier.
Edge, of course, has all his weakness-hitting tricks (with claws, and with a couple elemental katanas even now) from the first game, plus a notably improved ninjutsu list to play with (and yes it is actually sometimes relevant I've found). Throw and Mug are just icing (Mug is nice because as far as I recall it ignores moon phase mods). Yes, by the way, "Smash & Grab" was renamed to simply Mug in the mobile version. Yay for consistency.
Kain is basically "Better Cecil" here; he gets similar power to Cecil with better speed and a better white magic list. Jump also lets him continue hitting hard during full moon.
Ceodore is often considered a "Better Cecil" as well, but I think it may almost be better, sometimes, to consider him to be the white magic equivalent of Golbez. By this I mean that Golbez is essentially a Black Mage who has a limited spell list, but gets the most important spells still (just missing out on the utility magic), but gets a decent physical and durability. Ceodore is much the same, a White Mage with a limited spell list, but still gets most of the important spells (missing Curaja does hurt, but Curaga can do fine with the right gear setup), and still can put out decent physical and is notably more durable than Rosa or Porom. His offense suffers compared to many of the better melees because he doesn't have a way of getting around the full moon damage penalty.
I put Palom in the top tier, but he's as close to a borderliner as this tier gets IMO. He learns Break early, and that matters. For further discourse, see my breakdown on Rydia below. One notable weakness is that he can't get around moon damage penalties on black magic. He does have a minor level deficit, as well.
Ursula is Yang who trades redundant base strength (which can be made up by equips, including the Minerva Bustier which is simply amazing on her) for speed, which is as close to a god stat as FF4 has. Tenketsu lets her continue hitting hard during full moon.
Golbez really needs no explanation.
Rydia can be reasonably described as a project because before you collect at least Leviathan she's strictly worse than Palom (almost entirely because of how early he learns Break). The basic elemental summons are a little better than -aras, it's true, but Palom has Bluff to even that score I'd argue, and while Rydia does have a level advantage it's not a massively commanding one. The top-tier summons give her something Palom can't match (high MT damage at a reasonable speed, since Leviathan and later Bahamut are faster than Meteor), but conversely, Dualcast (if you give it to Palom) gives him something Rydia can't match too. I'd wager that in the long run Palom is a better boss nuker if he gets Dualcast (via dualcasting Flare) while Rydia is a better random sweeper (Leviathan is stronger and less resisted than Quake as far as I know). Also, it must be noted that Summon isn't subject to moon damage modifiers, so this is an advantage she has on Palom as well.
Porom fits in the project tier, in my opinion, because she's strictly better than Rosa if developed (she also has Dualcast potential if you want to send it her way, and Dualcast Holy is almost as good as Dualcast Flare), but Rosa's level advantage can't be ignored. (I don't think Aim really enters into the equation; I can't think of a situation where Rosa has free turns to use it outside of randoms, and I'm not too concerned about my healer's offense in randoms in this game.
Yang, I feel, is really kind of on the borderline between top and mid tier. I placed him in mid because he's clearly worse than Ursula (he doesn't have moonproof offense, his high strength is redundant with much of his gear and his speed is lower), but at the same time, he's clearly better than basically anyone else I placed in mid tier.
Luca is in kind of a weird spot. She's not very good in a vacuum (she's a better Cid, but Cid is quite bad). However, her value goes up substantially in certain party setups due to bands, and Minerva Bustier access patches a lot of her weaknesses (like the speed), and she's a good deal more versatile than most melee characters because she has moonproof offense and she can do (albeit less moonproof) full damage from the back row with Big Throw, enabling oddities like four-melee parties.
Gekkou is likewise in a weird spot. He has better core stats than Luca, but misses the Bustier (obviously), and doesn't have the bands (except with Edge). He still has moonproof offense thanks to his (limited) Throw command, though, and the limitation in his Throw isn't that meaningful (oh no he can't throw non-shuriken).
Rosa... well, if you give Palom Dualcast, then I'd use her over Porom unless you want to rock the twin bands or something. She has a better physical than Porom, but Porom is obviously the better healer provided she gets that Dualcast. Rosa *does* notably have moonproof offense thanks to Aim, but I find in general that you don't want her equipped with bows in boss fights because you really want the extra Spirit from a staff, so the value of it is dubious IMO.
Edward is technically the game's best healer (Economical Ring + X-Potion Salve is nuts) but it drains gil like crazy and he can't do much else. Little else to say.
Finally, Cecil is basically exactly what he was in the first game except useless half the game and with a large level deficit to make up. You could argue he belongs in the project tier, but I reserved that tier for projects who pay off and he doesn't.
Cid is slow and Risk Strike sucks and he doesn't have any real way of patching his speed. That's all there is to say about him. Leonora would have been okay if she learned her black magic about 15 levels earlier across the board, but she doesn't and -aras really don't cut it in endgame. The other three ninjas are some variety of "<Classic FF4 character> but worse" - Zangetsu is a worse (original) Kain, Izayoi is a worse (original) Rosa, and Tsukinowa is a worse (original) Edge. They're usable, but only just.
I shouldn't need to explain joke tier.
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Cid's too high.
Was difficulty changed in a noticeable way?
I feel the 3D of the FF4 DS remake didn't really work, but the balance changes made up for it.
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Final chapter is supposedly easier early on. I haven't noticed it yet, truthfully, but I haven't gotten to the moon yet.
Other than that, the band changes, and the fact that buff mechanics are FF4DS non-stacking instead of FF4o stacking, the mechanics appear to be identical to other versions of TAY.
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Any team without Rosa or Porom can almost invariably be improved by adding one of them, so they're both too low I'd say? (Well, I'm okay with Porom there, but only because I consider Rosa better. If you value Dualcast more than Rosa's stronger start, though, then Porom should be Top.) Like yes, you can cover their roles by playing both Edward and Ceodore I guess, but why have 1 healer + 1 buffer when you can have one of those two and then someone who does both? I also completely disagree with Rydia being a "project" when she's probably the second strongest character out of the gate when you get party switching; Bio is ridiculously better than what most fighters can do at that point, never mind the MT options.
I finished Mega Man 9. Favourite Wily fight in the series, I love pulling out all the different weapons (Black Hole and Tornado for defence, Magma and Hornet to get potshots when he's high, Plug if you can catch him in close) to deal with him and he's certainly a worthy final challenge. I think I'm done with this little run of the series for now. Next up... Shovel Knight, I think? I'm in the mood for not-quite-Mega Man.
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Fair point on Rydia, though my experience is that Palom gets Bio quickly enough at that point as to render the difference close to meaningless (if perhaps not _entirely_). Rydia is certainly not a project in the traditional FE "starts bad, gets amazing" sense, at least assuming you take "start of final chapter" as your start point. (Now, if you include the first half of the game...)
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Saints Row 3 - I will never understand the logic of a game that lets you drop into the Atlantic Ocean and warp back to the nearest shore but forces you to fly your way to an abandoned warehouse on a helicopter playing gay nightclub music from 2010.
I also have a snazzy purple suit-trenchcoat combo and a kitty backpack.
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Final Fantasy IV - The After Years: The Crystals ~ Planet Eater
Finished the first part of the chapter, and all that jazz. So we move on to part two.
A few observations. First, I forgot to mention that this version of TAY retains the normal overworld theme, instead of always using the airship theme. *shrug*
The cutscene at the beginning of part 2 of the finale actually subtly shows you the party you have to bring against DK Cecil, because all members of that party appear in that specific scene (Cecil, Rosa, Ceodore and Golbez).
Alright, so I finally get to choose party members! By the way, finishing levels for the first part: Rydia/Edge/Luca 36, Golbez 44. Cecil starts at level 30 now rather than 40. Here's everyone's stats at the beginning of this part.
Cecil: Lv30, HP 1400, MP 125, 10/10/10/10/10
Rosa: Lv30, HP 975, MP 310, 24/17/18/14/37
Ceodore: Lv30, HP 913, MP 169, 21/23/20/12/23
Kain: Lv30, HP 1867, MP 93, 36/24/29/20/25
Rydia: Lv36, HP 1222, MP 367, 19/19/18/35/33
Edge: Lv36, HP 1846, MP 156, 31/31/25/21/20
Cid: Lv30, HP 1500, MP 15, 27/13/32/5/5
Yang: Lv21, HP 979, MP 35, 24/14/26/5/7
Palom: Lv27, HP 814, MP 289, 19/13/16/34/13
Porom: Lv22, HP 564, MP 230, 13/13/11/12/29
Edward: Lv23, HP 765, MP 92, 16/18/9/18/21
Luca: Lv36, HP 1908, MP 88, 42/20/40/4/4
Ursula: Lv20, HP 715, MP 40, 19/18/17/6/12
Leonora: Lv25, HP 667, MP 168, 20/11/15/16/27
Gekkou: Lv20, HP 885, MP 66, 21/14/22/9/8
Zangetsu: Lv21, HP 700, MP 118, 15/18/15/14/9
Tsukinowa: Lv24, HP 741, MP 84, 14/29/14/10/9
Izayoi: Lv19, HP 608, MP 95, 12/20/12/10/12
Harley: Lv14, HP 397, MP 60, 14/11/11/18/15
Golbez: Lv44, HP 2971, MP 342, 45/27/48/40/34
Calca: Lv21, HP 500, MP 64, 16/12/15/13/9
Brina: Lv21, HP 503, MP 65, 12/15/13/9/15
My chosen party will be: Edge, Luca, Ursula, Rydia, Porom.
So, finally, I get to unveil the other big change in this version: most of the formerly Challenge Dungeon-exclusive gear is now storebought! The Namingway immediately outside the Lunar Whale sells it. I sell a bunch of useless crap I'm carrying, buy a bunch of less useless crap, and this is what I end up with for equipment on this team:
Luca - Sledgehammer, Horned Helmet, Mist Wrap, Hyper Wrist - 60/25/40/1/1 - Attack 114 x8, Accuracy 89%, Defense 40 x3, Evade 55%, MDefense 12 x0, MEvade 13%
I'm not currently able to push Luca to a 9x attack. and anyway, doing so gives up a ton of evade and a defense mult, and I kind of need Luca to take hits with this team right now. 55% evade on Luca is actually a little ridiculous.
Rydia - Faerie Rod, Gold Hairpin, Mist Wrap, Talisman - 19/24/18/60/38 - Attack 43 x3, Accuracy 64%, Defense 26 x3, Evade 60%, MDefense 30 x3, MEvade 43%
Other than the Mist Wrap, this is pretty much a bog-standard offensive Rydia gearing. The Mist wrap pushes her defense mult to 3, which for now I feel is worth not having a Black Robe.
Edge - Kiku-ichimonji, Mage Masher, Chakra Band, Black Belt Gi, Hyper Wrist - 54/34/30/26/23 - Attack 128 x8, Accuracy 91%, Defense 34 x4, Evade 50%, MDefense 11 x2, MEvade 16%
Mage Masher gives him a species kill on High Wizards, pretty much the only thing he's going to get consistent boosts on here. Pretty much standard offensive Edge build.
Porom - Aura Staff, Mystic Veil, Mist Wrap, Gil Band - 13/19/11/19/46 - Attack 44 x2, Accuracy 65%, Defense 25 x2, Evade 57%, MDefense 17 x2, MEvade 27%
Gil Band can be exchanged with Level Band as needed. Squishiest PC here.
Ursula - Cat Claws, Queen's Whip, Chakra Band, Black Belt Gi, Hyper Wrist - 42/26/22/6/15 - Attack 52 x6, Accuracy 99%, Defense 30 x3, Evade 50%, MDefense 11 x0, MEvade 12%
The Queen's Whip allows her to do full damage from the back row, which is important at her low level. She should improve fast.
Finally, in this version, you can now return to the Blue Planet if you missed anything there, or need to buy more consumables Namingway doesn't sell, or forgot/didn't want to exchange your Small Tails, or anything else like that, simply by examining the Lunar Whale's flight crystal.
Also, a correction: While Slow appears to not be stackable in this version, Protect/Shell may still be (attempting to stack Slow actually gives a "No effect!" message, while Protect/Shell do not. I haven't done damage tests with protshell stacking though)
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Final Fantasy IV - The After Years: The Crystals ~ Planet Eater
Need to add a "part one, chapter two" and a subtitle there to get the full effect.
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Final Fantasy IV - The After Years: The Crystals ~ Planet Eater
Need to add a "part one, chapter two" and a subtitle there to get the full effect.
Don't forget "The Movie: The Game: The Book".
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Gaiden
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Ether One: is a critically acclaimed walking simulator so I was excited to find it for free on psn+
1) Art deco style ads that look like Bioshock's
2) No human presence but a constant voiceover from a female scientist
3) Slow walking speed
3) You can only have one item at once and have to switch them?
I uninstalled after 10 minutes and am never looking back
I may also already be bored of FF14. Those story cutscenes, man. This should be the least important thing in an MMO but I feel they ruin all the world building
Poor Yattaf Orlandu doesn't deserve to stay at level 11/9 though
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I thought you could skip them? That or I went for piss breaks.
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Some but not all
Also I want to be fooled into believing this grind is for something. I expected this world to be Ivalice, instead it's just an MMO world, nothing to see
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Saints Row 3 - In which you can jump off your newly-stolen penthouse and parachute your way into the city streets. This may be the first time I've ever had fun with a GTA clone ever just because everything is so completely off the rails.
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Shallie: Nearly one-rounded the final, couldn't because you don't start with any Burst Gauge for the fight. Oh well. Missed out on a decent final boss theme, for all that the fight itself is pretty anti-climactic. It's a slightly better game overall than E&L, but surprisingly not by much. Might change on replay, as I hear the other path is actually different enough to warrant a replay. Given that I could probably breeze through it, might do so and re-evaluate. Still, as usual,split path RPGs are fucking stupid. I can't think of one that does it well besides S3.
A lot of the music is really good. Better than E&L's OST but not as good as Ayesha's. The problem is a lot of it is mis-used. They waste a really good track, one of the ones from the trailer, on a town you barely spend any time in. Some of the placement choices are baffling.
Should also be able to finish off Brave Story and Drakengard 3 soon, so I can finally move on to a new flight of games.
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Forgot to mention that new FF4 TAY looks terrible, I'm not buying the game twice for less dungeons and challenge
Dragon Age Inquisition:
- "Hey, want codex info on these innocent deer-like animals? There's only one way, and that's murder"
- Isn't red lyrium really bad? Why am I establishing durable camps right next to giant red lyrium crystals?
- Morrigan got her precious cameo, she was mysterious. This character is never going to get old.
- Am I the only one who thinks this templars vs mages thing going on is totally this weird metaphor for the Arab-Israeli conflict?
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The one on Steam looks like the FF4 for the 3DS right?
What did they change from the PSP version, cause that one was fun.
<3
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The one on Steam looks like the FF4 for the 3DS right?
What did they change from the PSP version, cause that one was fun.
<3
Short version:
- FF4 DS-styled graphics, yes. The actual underlying mechanics seem to be mostly unchanged from other versions of TAY, with the exception of Bands, which are completely overhauled.
- Bands no longer you to play trial and error until you find the right combination of FAQ bait commands. Instead, you simply put characters together in your party, go to the Bands menu, and it will tell you what (if any) bands they have. Actually learning them simply requires winning a (small) number of battles; I think the highest I've seen required like 5-6 battles to learn. Beyond this, bands can now level up by continuing to fight with those characters in your party, gaining bonuses to damage or healing or reductions to MP cost, depending on the band in question.
- Challenge Dungeons are gone, and Planet Eater is supposedly rebalanced accordingly around the correspondingly lower level curve. I haven't actually tried moon encounters to verify yet. Cecil does start at a lower level now (30 instead of 40), suggesting this to be true, though. Because of this, Adamantites and Lustful Lali-Hos are now obtained in the chapters themselves, while most of the gear that was previously exclusive to them is now storebought at the beginning of Planet Eater instead.
- The optional characters are no longer optional; the Quarto Puppets which you had to fight for random drops in the Wii and PSP versions on Rydia's tale so that you could fix the dolls are now a required boss fight on the way out of the Agart Mines and always drop the required items, while the ninjas can no longer die (losing battles with them leads to a game over instead of proceeding with them dead).
- Going to the moon (at the end of The Gathering) is no longer a point of no return; you can now return to the Blue Planet at will, shop at the towns that are open, etc.
- The second part of the final dungeon, the Depths, has had its layouts substantially altered, largely significantly cutting the length of that part of the dungeon. A few other dungeons have had more subtle alterations - Agart Mines, for example, are missing a floor IIRC.
- The Mysterious Girl + Bahamut fight, previously on B20, is fought relatively much earlier in the Depths, giving Bahamut significantly more in-game use.
- The cameo boss fights with enemies from FF1/2/3/5/6 have been replaced with renditions of the Lunar Eidolon fights from FF4 Advance because S-E is too lazy to spend money doing those enemy models in 3D.
YMMV on which is the superior version. I feel that the game flows a lot better without the challenge dungeons being there and with those items being storebought, but there's a legitimate argument that shortening the Depths detracts from the game. I personally felt the original Depths dragged on a little bit too long with FF4 encounter rates, but not excruciatingly so. In any event, I don't regret buying this version; it is a different, parallel experience to the original format which makes some polish changes and gives you a different set of endgame bosses to fight with different AI routines.
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All the FF4-2 talk got me to check the iOS shop and hey look there's Final Fantasy Record Keeper for free, let's check that out, I've been wondering what All The Bravest mk 2 looks like.
So first impression? At least it's not as bad as ATB, but that's not saying much. It is not nearly as much of a naked cash grab. I'm guessing they made enough money on ATB to justify reusing its assets in an actual game! Honestly I haven't spent any money on it, but as far as free mobile games go, I'll try to keep an open mind about throwing some support its way. If it keeps updating like it has in Japan, the English version might actually turn out cool. At least for a on the go five minute play session nostalgia RPG. (One point in its favor, at least I can properly classify it as an RPG, unlike ATB!)
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Final Fantasy IV - The After Years: The Crystals ~ Planet Eater: Part 2: The Movie: The Game: The Series Gaiden
Oh boy, the chests in the True Moon's Subterrane are all different. I'm not going to spam up this thread with all the differences, but the quick summary is that in general, most of the gear upgrades are earlier in the dungeon, and most of the top-tier equipment is no longer boss-gated. (Ragnarok, Ultima Weapon, and the Hero's Shield still are.)
On the other hand, the dungeon is no longer mirrored. So the first 7 floors are mostly identical to the original Lunar Subterrane, except that the hidden passage that once led to Ragnarok has been cut short.
The FF4 boss refights no longer block the save points scattered throughout the Subterrane; instead, each has its own dungeon floor (which is always the map you originally fought that boss on in FF4).
Once you go downstairs from Subterrane B7, everything is completely different. Each of the boss refights still has their respective dungeon levels; in between them, you go through the other moon maps (the lunar tunnels and Lair of the Father). The first of the four Lunar Eidolon fights - yes, there's really only four - is at Lair of the Father 3F (it's Lunar Dragon, and beating it grants Dualcast). Asura and Leviathan are fought in the Feymarch maps, and after defeating them, the path opens to the Lunar Core (same maps as FF4o) and, ultimately, the Dark Knight Cecil battle.
The Depths have been cut down to 13 floors, and are about as linear as FF13, sadly. Mysterious Girl + Bahamut are on B4. Here's my party when I faced her:
Ursula - Lv46, HP 2487, MP 115
Equipment: Godhand/Tiger Fangs/Adamant Helm/Brave Suit/Protect Ring
Stats: Strength 73, Speed 71, Stamina 89, Intellect 18, Spirit 32; Attack 112 x13, Accuracy 99%, Defense 101 x8, Evade 70%, MDefense 30 x3, MEvade 28%
Rydia - Lv50, HP 2074, MP 533
Equipment: Assassin's Dagger/Adamant Shield/Gold Hairpin/Sage's Robe/Twin Stars
Stats: Strength 29, Speed 54, Staminda 28, Intellect 78, Spirit 45; Attack 104 x6, Accuracy 99%, Defense 59 x9, Evade 80%, MDefense 46 x4, MEvade 63%
Edge - Lv50, HP 3156, MP 229
Equipment: Mutsunokami/Masamune/Adamant Helm/Fire Scarf/Protect Ring
Stats: Strength 63, Speed 55, Stamina 59, Intellect 42, Spirit 40; Attack 196 x10, Accuracy 99%, Defense 84 x6, Evade 95%, MDefense 32 x3, MEvade 40%
Porom - Lv47, HP 1896, MP 463
Equipment: Seraphim's Mace/Adamant Shield/Cat-Ear Hood/Robe of Lords/Twin Stars
Stats: Strength 27, Speed 34, Stamina 38, Intellect 23, Spirit 84; Attack 67 x4, Accuracy 81%, Defense 64 x6, Evade 88%, MDefense 57 x4, MEvade 65%
Luca - Lv50, HP 3076, MP 134
Equipment: Gigant Axe/Adamant Helm/Minerva Bustier/Limit Ring
Stats: Strength 86, Speed 40, Stamina 69, Intellect 3, Spirit 3; Attack 183 x12, Accuracy 87%, Defense 82 x2, Evade 63%, MDefense 17 x1, MEvade 17%
The remaining Lunar Eidolons are found on B10 (Lunar Odin, drops Ragnarok); B11 (Lunar Leviathan, drops Hero's Shield); and B12 (Lunar Bahamut, drops Ultima Weapon).
I'm too tired to actually finish tonight and I might need to grind a bit anyway, the second phase's Meteor counters are OHKOing me. (Moon phase problems are part of it, should change it)
Still, I can give an overall opinion on this version now. I think that everything up to the Depths, including the Subterrane, is an improvement on the original version. While the Subterrane is technically *more* rehashed now, frankly, this game being as much of a throwback as it is anyway, it works, and it's a cute little nod. (I'm not especially fond of those parts in the original.)
However, there's no denying that the Depths was just cut down way too much. In fact, they barely even exist now, actually. So Cecil went from being bad to actually being completely useless in this version. By the time he stops failing at life, you have a whopping 2 required boss fights left (MG+Bahamut and the final).
Still, I don't regret buying or playing this version; it was fun, and the Lunar Eidolons were fun to work out strategies for, especially underleveled as I was. Still, I think the PSP version is overall the best one, in the end.
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I played a bit of Stanley Parrable as my present to myself for my birthday because Fenrir gifted it to me ages ago. Now it is a thing I have done a bit of.
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Grefter was so bad at following instructions it's amazing Fenrir didn't fire him ages ago.
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Don't play it again for five years so you can get the Go outside achievement
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I have New Year's Day 2020 set aside for just that purpose.
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Wait until the 6th so you can play it for an entire tuesday
FF Record Keeper: this is pretty nice on paper, very unbalanced though. But I guess that's part of the charm
I like trying to get the most out of these ftp bullshit games without spending a dime on them, and actually completed all the bravest that way. Atb being supposedly the absolute worst about it
So far I am steamrolling everything but special events. Weapon power is everything and I got reasonably lucky with weapon drops.. I have 4 characters set to auto attack + Lenna who got her own special five stars weapon, and who sometimes heal/ use bolt. Omg strats
Seeing FF6 style sprites of dudes from FF7+ games is fun. Especially the bosses.
Transistor: I have 5 limiters on, this is starting to get really rough
Lovely game. Will talk more about it later
Dragon Age Inquisition: This game started bugging like hell so I went to the ps4 menu to close and reopen the game. Except I chose DELETE GAME instead. I redownloaded it afterwards instead of just forgetting about it, so I guess I don't hate playing it
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Is anyone playing Witcher 3? I've read a lot about it and everyone seems to like it but then I hear clips of Geralt's gruffy gruff gruff voice again and see the grimdark anger sadness and the desire to visit that world completely goes away.
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Demons's Souls's Inquisition - I was level 7 in an area that randomly had level 12 spiders. They were fine and manageable for the entire zone until the last part of the zone when suddenly you fight like half a dozen of them. I can just manage to survive the fight but then
Bugs
The spiders may spawn infinitely at times.
K
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Witcher 2 was so juvenile that I have no desire whatsoever to try 3.
Puzzle & Dragons Super Mario Bros: Started, beat the first world. They simplified many of the mechanics from P&D mobile, notably evolving. These colors are so bright. Non-colorblind people must have to wear sunglasses to play this game.
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Is anyone playing Witcher 3? I've read a lot about it and everyone seems to like it but then I hear clips of Geralt's gruffy gruff gruff voice again and see the grimdark anger sadness and the desire to visit that world completely goes away.
If you don't like Geralt being a sassy gruff person then I'm not sure the Witcher games are right for you.
I've been playing it and enjoying the hell out of it.
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I don't think this is actually a bug Grefter, I often feel like there are too many fucking game giant spiders in DA:I but then this one time Yattaf said "wow I just killed too many spiders. Alone. The arra is clear now"
I liked Geralt's voice a lot in witcher 2 (he's so calm) but the game had terrible controls and Witcher 3 hasn't improved on that at all. I'll pick it up for cheap later. It looks like Dragon age inquisition ++
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FF Record Keeper: Started this on a whim last week, up to ~25 on my main party right now (Cloud/Kain/Wakka/Rydia/Lenna). The game works well enough as a time killer + nostalgia vehicle, and the pay 2 win elements seem pretty nonoffensive provided you don't care about equipment completionism or completing all the hardest challenges, both of which I am happy enough to ignore. The gatcha rates on rare equipment sounds really bad, but it's not like those are even remotely necessary for the main game.
My biggest complaint so far is that the RNG keeps giving me high end spears: first a 3 star one at the start of the game, and then a 5 star one from my first 50 mythril pull. I am thus pretty much stuck with Kain unless I find a better spear user AND get the time to grind him/her up.
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You're lucky, the rng has fed me five staves. I am stuck with using a two stars weapon on Wakka because I only have three non-staff non-harp weapon with 3+ stars. Magic is really lackluster so I'm not running a mage team
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Shovel Knight - Beaten, ~138 deaths and 62% I think. Fun times, it is Mega Man and Zelda 2 put in a blender with some Castlevania and Duck Tales thrown in. Very solid platformer, with some pretty cool stages and fun boss fights. Music's fun as far as NES-like stuff goes, and in general the game very much captures the feel of a (good) NES game if that's something that works for you (it does for me; I don't consider myself super-nostalgia driven but this is the era I grew up with). I don't have much bad to say about the game. Relics could have been a bit more interesting I guess? Only a complaint compared to better Mega Mans, but they're for obvious reasons a fair comparison here. Anyway, it's good; it's easy to compare to Duck Tales Remastered and with all due respect to DT this game is clearly the better one. Exactly how good is something I will need replays to pin down. Fortunately for the game I can say quite confidently that the replays will happen.
Also still playing Hyrule Warriors.
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I'm still picking away at that. It's good but mostly does not strike me as great outside of the obvious effort applied to making it look and sound like a production from the peak of the NES era. I've beaten all the knights (propellerhead's stage was super annoying) and stopped at the start of Tower of Fate due to there being too many ways to fall down for my patience to accommodate this morning.
It would've been nice if there was some easy way to switch back to relics you'd previously bought other than replaying the stage in which they were sold, but so far as I can tell this is not a thing. It's mostly just annoying because some of the bonus stages require a specific relic just for you to progress in them.
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I'm sorry Cid but now you're officially like guys who keep dying against Evrae because they don't know they can spend points in the sphere grid
I guess the inventory button might be hard to find if you play on a keyboard?
I bought witcher 3 on a whim, will report after I finish dragon age checklistition (which is almost an idle game at this point)
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I guess the inventory button might be hard to find if you play on a keyboard?
It's um...not. Not hard to find. Sorry.
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Hey I actually spent some time pressing random buttons on the controller before I figured out you were supposed to just use the touchscreen.
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My friend told me about the Gamepad aspect when I was first trying the game out at his house to see if it was worth buying. when I finally buckled down and bought it and played it on my own...I had forgotten this too, but knew the game couldn't have had this poor game design since this isn't the 80s/early 90s anymore and somehow figured out the gamepad aspect.
Curious what the newer console versions do in this regard. Assuming they just do like Press Start for Menu Screen. Either way, I just want Plague of Shadows to come out because damn it, I wanna play as Plague Knight!
On a different note...
Yoshi's Island Advance: Stage 2-3. It's the SNES game but with some a few changes that are generally for the worse, due to usual SNES -> GBA port. I'll grant the music is pretty faithfully kept at least unlike, say, FF6 Advance, so that's fine! What isn't fine is the smaller screen distance (which is an aspect of the console I'm aware), because a number of areas become harder than they were on the SNES version. Notably, in 2-1, there's that fallen segment and you have that much less time to react due to less vertical visibility, and it's even misleading since you can be off the screen and not die (SNES version, that was basically the typical "screen scrolled = you die") which should be fine but it does put you into panic mode and yeah.
Also had to insert the Yoshi's Story Voice into things which I have always hated (...don't get me started) which unfortunately I know is here to stay, but it wasn't in the SNES version, we didn't need to insert it here. I wanna say physics are a little less responsive but I've since adapted to them, so may have just been me. They did make the Red Coins harder to identify though; original SNES version, there was a subtle difference but if you knew there was a difference, you could spot the Red Coins pretty easily; the difference is there but even more subtle in this version.
Note that none of these changes actually ruin the game; it's still Yoshi's Island and all the major elements are still good and there and that's what matters. Just these port specific issues do make it a worse experience than the original, though really, since they can't put the SNES version on the Virtual Console (due to Super FX Chip licensing issues from my understanding?), this is the best we'll get and the version is good enough. Just that nagging "IT SHOULD BE BETTER DAMN IT!" thing is in the back of my mind and it's annoying!
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P&D SMB: Got all the way to the end of World 3 without dying at all. Then Morton Koopa hit me for twice my max hp. Ah well, I knew the grinding was coming at some point, just wanted to see how far my existing P&D skills would carry me before I had to start.
Prime World: It is League of Dota with leveling up characters/customizing their skillsets. Pretty neat. Granted my existing MOBA experience is exactly three games of Dota2, so I don't have much to compare it to.
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Dragon Age Inquisition solo:
Just wanted to mention that I got the best bug since the Disco Wharf in Dark Souls 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThY0sfdatxk
I am totally playing this as a power fantasy, and am greatly enjoying thinking about enemies going "Who is this Yattaf who has destroyed half our army alone!? Oh god it's all over. Tell Maria I'm sorry"
Game over rate has gotten from 2 in every fight to 0 in 20 hours. I think this setup has to be one of the best defensive setups in a videogame (for all that, as always, it still cannot be better than what that random dude from Dragon Slayer Gaiden had)
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Dragons's Ages's Inquisitions - I ran around and did some stuff and recruited a couple of dudes. Then ran around a bunch more.
I can see what some people see in it as "The sweet spot between Dragon Age and Skyrim". I disagree, but I see where they are coming from. To me it feels like Dragon Age with a bunch of stuff gating the plot away and a bunch of time sinks that fill my hours. The story is cool when I get to it, but running around a big empty area to find some shiny things, some connect the dot puzzles and 2 NPCs is the polar opposite to Dragon Age 2's problem. I have also heard praise for the combat with it being a slightly polished DA2, but ehhhhh I don't necessarily agree. The PC controls at least feel super shitty. Melee feels very uncomfortable. I really just want to be able to click to walk and interact and I can't. I could use the Tactical mode which has the shittiest tactical camera I can imagine (Zooms out slightly overhead and you need to drive it around just like you do your character...).
It feels like they straight ported the controller setup they had for DA2 to PC and didn't keep the differentiations they made between PC/console setups they were so adamant about doing in DA2.
Things are a bit better now that I have rebound "Search" from V to Z so it is easier to mash constantly (and you need to mash it constantly) because what we wanted was to have worse "Find interactables" setup than Baldur's Gate 2.
I could not do side shit and just focus on the story, but there is NCPs tucked away in side shit at least early on soooooooooo...
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Final Fantasy Record Keeper:
The Synchronicity bonuses are ridiculous so I've been using a lot of the PCs where most of the early game dungeons are based on. Namely FF4 and 6, of course. My only options at the moment for that are Rydia (yay), Cyan (ok?), and Kain (of fucking course). Cyan is unsurprisingly trash outside of FF6 dungeons. Rydia isn't bad and Kain is sadly great. Stop doing that Square.
Since roughly half the characters are gates behind Events that show up at the whims of the creators, I don't have as many options for named PCs. My ultimate goal for a party would include Terra, but who knows when her event will be available again. Instead the event that was running when I started playing allowed you to get.... Rinoa. God fucking dammit.
Currently planning on a Cloud/Rinoa/Rydia/Snow/Tyro(original character who is a battle librarian who can equip anything but has lackluster stats). Still need to get Snow. I would like to use Wakka but there is only one good weapon for him and its drop rate sucks. Currently hovering around 25-35 for levels.
My boyfriend is playing the Japanese version and it is notable that the American version is significantly more challenging. So that's cool I guess.
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The japanese version must really have been an auto battle fest.
This still isn't very hard but it requires some thought. Asura was the first really nasty boss because she kept spamming Curaga. You are supposed to cast Reflect but 1) I didn't have it on because there are only two ability slots / character 2) I couldn't even buy it. Thankfully I could still autobattle her because my party is all about autobattle.
My party is Cloud / JOSEF / Kain / Lenna / Cyan. Cyan gets replaced by whoever might have a bonus in that dungeon.
Cloud has the three stars weapon from the beginning, he he's had the best damage nisce the beginning of the game. He can autobattle + some spellswords.
Lenna has her unique five stars staff, she is a white mage (Not canon, she's supposed to be a monk/dancer) with 8 shots of healing and 2 shots of very powerful Lightning +. Her limit break also fully revives. So she will be in every team i create from now on, pretty much.
Josef has a four stars fist weapon, he's nearly on par with Cloud, he's great. This game is pure FF nostalgia, and who am I using? Fucking Josef. Awesome.
Kain has a four star spear, he's slightly not as good as the other two physical attackers but still, he autobattles well. At one point I fought Kain with Kain and nobody said anything.
Cyan has a three stars weapon, he does about half Cloud's damage. Canon.
Rydia has been terrible for me, she can summon a bomb once for about as much damage as Cloud's physical. Okay. I've been using her as a healbot but she's a lot worse than Lenna, even in FF4 dungeons.
I only could get a Chakram for Wakka so his damage has been very lackluster. Still, he's in the back row, and gets a spell that boosts Attack (unlike every other physical attacker here)
The first two generics were awful compared to PCs and don't get synch bonuses, so I haven't tried any other.
The main character is allright, but I dislike his face so he's on the bench.
I actually tried really hard to get Rinoa (her sprite is cool?) but I only had less than two days left after I started playing, so I couln't get far enough in her dungeon.
The game does that FTP stamina thing. You have to wait in real life to play again.
However you can get some gems that extend your stamina bar + fully heal it, and the main game showers you with gems, so you can pretty much keep playing forever.
Playing that way is kind of a waste of stamina healing, so after every full stamina healing I like to do one side dungeon (either a current event or a harder version of a main dungeon) then wait a tiny little bit before going back to a main game dungeon. I think this is the most efficient way of playing but also the one that ruins your real life the most
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So my first try on the Golbez/Shadow Dragon fight in Record Keeper, the RNG decided to faithfully recreate the original with Golbez using Shadow Hold right off the bat to paralyze my entire party. He then refreshed it a few turns later, and by the time it wore off the Shadow Dragon ID'd most of my team. Unfortunately they left out the part where (adult) Rydia joins the team so this ended in a gameover and a huge stamina loss, since I was planning around a full refresh from that dungeon.
Second time around I used the save/load trick I learned from the internet a few days back: force close the app if something goes wrong in battle, then when you open the app again it goes back to the start of the battle with no stamina penalty. Took three tries to not get screwed by the RNG with status moves.
Apparantly high level stuff requires lots of this kind of save/load abuse if you don't have godly equips, to get low rate status moves to hit ASAP or to dodge status on key team members. Personally, I'll just stick to playing classic dungeons and lower difficulties where I can get my doses of nostagia in a more casual manner, plus some of the lower levelled elite stuff.
Rydia does tons of damage to me (~1.8K with -ra spells when not hitting weakness, more in all those FF4 dungeons), but then I have good equips for her: a 4 star rod from an easy elite dungeon, 4 star Hypno Crown from gatcha, Earrings from the Rinoa event.
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Saints Row 3 - So, there are many ways in which you can extend your influence and tighten the Saints' stronghold over Steelport even beyond advancing the plot. Among them, we can count:
- Drug traffic
- Snatching missions where you rescue people from rival gangsters
- Helicopter escorting missions where you protect your allies while they do shady stuff and splurge their earnings on gas station-bought potato chips
- Mayhem missions in which you blow up things with either your own weaponry (which includes amenities like rocket launchers and aircraft carpet bombings) or a military tank
- Insurance fraud heists which involve ragdolling yourself into cars and discovering humans can fly as long as they fall into car bumpers for long enough
- Car escort missions in which middle-aged ladies discover the joys of pickles-induced sexual therapy
- Scooter races in which you ram things while being literally set on fire
- Tron racing
- A children's game show in which you shoot people dressing as mascots in the head while dodging electric fences and flamethrowers, but shooting pictures of pandas is an ethical no-no
- Driving around the city on a convertible with a TIGER ON YOUR PASSENGER SEAT for snazzy youtube videos
I don't -think- that's quite how international organized crime works. However, I can forgive all coherency lapses as long as I can do all that sporting a posh steampunk outfit.
EDIT: Also, apparently BDSM-themed chinese cabs are combustible, considering I managed to make one explode. This is Post-Dadaism: The Game.
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Yeah, I've been using Rydia as a Black Mage. I have two summons, but powering up summons is awful since you can only get the material for it in the Special Events.
Luckily I got Rinoa, who is actually a better Black Mage and has a cool sprite. Too bad I hate Rinoa, but I'm trying to use as many characters with new sprites as possible.
Once you FINALLY clear all the FF4 and FF6 dungeons, you unlock the new basic Dungeons that were added earlier this month apparently. This also adds Snow as a PC when you get to the FF13 dungeons. And he's a good addition. He can replace JOSEF as your Monk, too.
I wish I could get Lenna's special gear to get her awesome Soul Break. Full Revival sounds like a godsend. I keep getting my ass kicked on the countering bosses.
Current party is now Cloud/Snow/Tyro/Rinoa/Lenna. I've also got a trained up Kain, Rydia, Cyan, and Wakka. Of those, I mostly want to use Wakka because he's got a new* sprite while the others are recycled from their original games. I'd also like to drop Lenna because she was the least interesting part of FF5 AND is using a recycled sprite, but I need a healer and my other options are abysmal. Apparently Aerith is amazing and versatile, but also locked behind timed events so who knows when I'll be able to get her.
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Vanille should be either the next event or the one afterwards with a skillset of Black Mage 4/White Magic 5/Support 2, so there's your future healer.
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Rydia doing 18k? Jesus
Apparantly high level stuff requires lots of this kind of save/load abuse if you don't have godly equips, to get low rate status moves to hit ASAP or to dodge status on key team members. Personally, I'll just stick to playing classic dungeons and lower difficulties where I can get my doses of nostagia in a more casual manner, plus some of the lower levelled elite stuff.
I hope not
I think it's way more tempting to cheat in this than in a norma game because of all the FTP bullshit elements, I'd still rather not do this
Once you FINALLY clear all the FF4 and FF6 dungeons, you unlock the new basic Dungeons that were added earlier this month apparently. This also adds Snow as a PC when you get to the FF13 dungeons. And he's a good addition. He can replace JOSEF as your Monk, too.
I actually think that Bald UOM Weak to: Boulders > Anime Xtreme Surfer Kurt Cobain? I don't hate Snow or anything though.
I did Daryll's Tomb just now, that was really rough. Cyan actually saved our whole team. (The first boss wrecked my team, so I wasn't ready for the second at all. But Cyan's paralysis attack worked on it)
Age of Mashing L3: Inquisition:
Killed all ten dragons. Became even more OP. lol
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Sorry, 18K was a dumb typo, especially considering the old fashioned FF damage cap.
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Rayman Origins - Finished this game. It's a pretty difficult platformer, although overall less difficult than the DKCR/TF duo. The more advanced mechanics (always having the floating, wall/jumping and running, and the more potent attack command) makes the game more complex and robust than the new DKs, I think, and the secret stages, while still challenging, are less tedius than their DK counterparts. The difficulty ramped up in a pretty good way, too. Anyway, the game is fun and beautiful and I recommend it to anyone who likes platformers, as long as you aren't looking for plot.
Fire Emblem 7 - Now with more TV! I picked this up for the WiiU Virtual Console, so I'm having to hack through the early game tutorial maps again. I just picked up Lucius and Nils and now I am going to recover Ninian's ring.
DDRII - After mostly being in a statis for a while around Difficult 6-9, I have been working on some Expert 7-11 tracks, but only American songs. I fear the chibi songs on Expert still.
Final Fantasy Record Keeper - So far I have Wakka, Cloud, and Kain. Already kind of bored with the game to be honest.
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Final Fantasy Record Keeper - So far I have Wakka, Cloud, and Kain. Already kind of bored with the game to be honest.
I am happy it exists because those sprite graphics are fantastic, but that never translated into a desire to play more than like 15 minutes of it.
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Yeah, I love the sprites, which is why I've played as much as I have.
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(https://cdn-image.pf.dena.com/b0bf411b1e59ff824059847b9384dcc0134c5eba/1/56ed8973-0f83-3c84-8feb-cf6a8ef117a6.png)
Sprite Rufus!
I loved Rayman Origin's plot and think it beats every other platformer. There was the fun intro + great plot twist I absolutely didn't see coming at the end, and that was about it.
I'm near the end of Dragon Age Inquisition but apathy is reaching unheard levels. Amazingy I nearly beat the entire Orlais ballroom quest without any weapon or armor equipped because I didn't realize they were auto removed at the beginning of the mission. I still didn't have much trouble and could have beaten the boss. I'm still playing solo. I'm not kidding guys, this build is completely ridiculous.
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Final Fantasy Record Keeper - So far I have Wakka, Cloud, and Kain. Already kind of bored with the game to be honest.
I am happy it exists because those sprite graphics are fantastic, but that never translated into a desire to play more than like 15 minutes of it.
It falls into the same category as TAY where I'm simply curious as to which FF6 sprites they hacked up to make the PCs for the game. Like how Cloud is very clearly Cyan with new hair and Tidus is a repainted Locke.
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I would describe Rayman's plot as very Fenrir-friendly, yes.
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FF Record Keeper: this is not a full RPG, it's a mobile time waster as much as any other. It just happens to occasionally throw semi decent boss challenges or resource management puzzles at you while being covered with a veneer of FF nostalgia and nifty sprites for FF characters who never had them before. It's also kind of fun to make a party of various FF heritage characters and not have to play a Rhythm game. Because really the whole experience is basically Theatrhythm's team building aspect with less derpy graphics and no rhythm element. Which is perfect for playing between classes or being bored on a short train when I don't have time for Smash.
But yay, Vanille will make a good healer option! I even kind of like her. Which is more than I can say for Lenna or Rinoa.
Currently farming the FF5 event dungeon to buy some of the rare orbs the event offers. I like this system way more than the gatcha system.
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Saints Row 3 - In which the snatch missions get really fucking nuts. I guess I should finish the Dr, Genki sidequests, with higher bullet resistance and health, they're considerably more trivial. Pierce's final drug-dealing mission was also utterly insane. Do those cars grow out of trees or what? Good thing the Ciddy method works like a charm: unload the shotgun on the chassis until it blows up, watch things melt.
This game is far more fun than it has any right to be.
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Fire Emblem 7 - I'm continuing to get through this at a nice clip. I am about to do the chapter where you get Lyn and Florina back, which is definitely worth rejoicing over. As much as the overarching plot of the game has major issues, there have been some decent individual scenes scattered in the game, and a lot of the characters are distinct and memorable.
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Is anyone playing Witcher 3? I've read a lot about it and everyone seems to like it but then I hear clips of Geralt's gruffy gruff gruff voice again and see the grimdark anger sadness and the desire to visit that world completely goes away.
If you don't like Geralt being a sassy gruff person then I'm not sure the Witcher games are right for you.
I've been playing it and enjoying the hell out of it.
I actually quite liked Witcher 2 but I think the series sometimes tries to hard to establish a tone that I find a little laughable. It's a well considered world but it can also feel dark to the point of goofiness. I dunno.
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Final Fantasy Timewaster Edition For iOS - So yeah, it's free and something mindless to do during downtime. Currently slaving away at daily dungeons and FF6.
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So, finished Ace Attourney vs. Prof. Layton. Game is pretty good at what it set out to do. On the one hand, the puzzles felt easier and not quite as good as the earlier Layton games. But then, that's a complaint I've been feeling about the series as a whole. One thing it did do is give a highly polished Layton experience. As for the Wright side of the gameplay, they added in a few new mechanisms, one of which (comparing different parts of the testimony against another) I kinda wish would make it into the main series.
As for the plot, its resolution is very, very Layton. Not sure how much more than that I want to say, but, I was kinda expecting a twist like that the entire time.
FE:Awakening - Picked this up, suspect I'm just going to leave it on the back burner, so also playing it on Classic Hard. Just finished saving Emmeryn and noodling around with side stuff.
Borderlands: Pre-Sequel - It's very much Borderlands 2 on the moon. They hyped the new laser weapons a lot, but all they really seem to be is just a new weapon type, nothing really worth noting (though they are fun). On the other hand, the low gravity and low oxygen environment has been used to change the gameplay by adding a O2 guage, and giving you a pack that lets you double jump with pretty good control and power stomp things below you. It does a pretty good job of making small changes that makes the thing feel a lot more different than it actually is.
Currently playing as Athena, her melees are ok, though the range is ass. But her big draw so far is the shield. 90 degree field of mostly invincibility? Check. Powers up as it takes hits? Check. Cool and potent Captain America style shield toss at the end of it? Check. Fast recharge time so you can do it lots? Check.
I love this freaking shield. And her snark is coming in as a close second.
Victoria:Revolutions:VIP
So, yeah, I've been fiddling around with this game for a while, and eventually I realized something. When they made VIP, they changed the map, but left the original Grand Campaign in. This means you wind up in a world without rubber, and as anyone can tell you, the modern world, especially once you get near the 1890s, needs rubber. So, a lot of my early runs were flawed and ended poorly.
So, I started again, and decided to check out the VIP campaign with Prussia. They start off kinda weak. I mean, they have a decent selection of provinces, more coal than you can shake a stick at, and start with a respectable amount of factories, but they have only like 19M people. That is tiny. It also meant that industrialization meant that I wound up with almost no farmers at one point. Fortunately, eventually unification happened (though, the Franco Prussian War was amusing since France had the only land route in fortified and manned with a lot of entrenched troops, I couldn't go the historical way, so I loaded up troops on my superior navy and invaded Paris from the Channel).
The one thing I enjoy looking at is the different way the military is handled in the various Paradox games, and this is probably one of the strongest showings for the navy yet. Given they're fast, don't suffer attrition, and give bonuses to coastal combat, they potent even without getting into the fact that colonial warfare means being able to go anywhere in the world. And the navy is the means by which one is able to go anywhere. While land units are still needed to be able to take and hold land, if you don't have a navy, then there's a lot of conflicts where you simply won't have the troops in place to do either.
So, how does this observation fit into this playthrough? England. In the standard campaign, I've found England to be on top of their naval game and to have dozens of the top class ship ready to roll. Naturally, this makes going to war with them a nightmare scenario as your fleet is probably going to get smashed. And because they're Britain, your land army, however strong it might be, is piddly and useless against their island if you can't manage to land on it. In this game, however, they contented themselves with about a hundred ships, all wooden. Well, not entirely, they had a handful of ironclads and monitors. This became relevant around 1889 when the Scramble of Africa was underway and they decided they wanted me out of colonizing. At this point, I had about 50 Protected Cruisers, and a dozen Proto-Dreadnaughts in addition to another 50 Ironclads. It led to the odd situation where Brittania not only didn't rule the waves, but they quickly managed to have no fleet at all, and they did worse than their allies in the war. Britain managed to harry me in one of my colonial holdings, whereas British India managed to kill one of my armies (granted, I made a dumb mistake) and kept their fleet (they made sure to avoid fighting me), and Canada also managed to off some of my divisions and they were the only ones who managed to win a naval fight against me (Unlike the rest of the British Empire, they had a PC and it managed to catch an escort of Ironclads and Monitors off guard). Making this even worse, they didn't have many troops in England or Scotland so I could walk all over the place, while they had more than enough troops on Ireland to wreck my shit, but they had no ships to move them with, nor ships to break my blockade with.
Oddly enough, while Canada rebuilt their fleet and a few years later were the third strongest fleet in the world (quality, not quantity), England declined, and declared war on me again. After losing their transports in that second war (which were all, for some reason, hanging out in the Sea of Japan and got accidentally killed because I was there for the Boxer Rebellion), they seem to have finally come around to building a modern fleet.
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I just checked Rayman Legend's intro and it's just not as fun. I Mmight not get it just for that.
Dragon Age Inquisition Solo: Finished. Fitting that the end boss is a three part boss fight with 1) A mage like any other in the game 2) A dragon like any other in the game 3) An unique fight that dies to me pressing R2 and playing FF Record Keeper instead.
I got way bored with the game at the end but still finished it for the hell of it.
It's an interesting game that doesn't really work and it's crazy how it got universal praise?
Pros: Really fun world to explore. Judging people on your throne doesn't get old. You can punch your allies (I punched Solas)
Cons: Bad battle system, bad plot (Corypheus is still the worst villain) and Bioware conversations just don't work anymore.
Wasted potential: There's good lore but it's hard to care about lore in a game with a mediocre storyline. This is like a Crocodile Dundee MMORPG filled with books giving details on the Crocodile Dundee multiverse. We don't care about your Crocodile Dundee facts, you lunatics.
Also, all the council stuff could be interesting! Here is how they go: Various delicate political situations are explained to you, each of your advisor has a different plan, and then you get to choose which plan you'll follow. You don't do anything next, you just wait for the results. (This would have been a good way to avoid save scumming!) But since it's an AAA game, choosing one advisor over another amounts to literally nothing 99% of the time. It's all pointless. It also feels extremely disconnected from the main game because in the main game you're this woman killing bears and not the leader of a massive movement.
As I typed this I saw a mysterious post credits scene that could have fit in Kingdom Hearts
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Gourry I suggest playing Witcher 3 with Polish VA and English subtitles, it is pretty fun and gives that Eastern European vibe.
In the menu there's actually a language slider from English to Polish (just like there's a HUD size slider for example, you can choose a small HUD or a big HUD with various increments)
So anyway the language slider means you can choose a language appropriate to your level of hardcore 1337ness. It goes English -> French -> German -> Polish.
Go full Polish, you are badass.
BTW, oh my god is the fall damage real. Geralt is a wuss.
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I would choose to play all games in Polish if given the chance, especially Planescape Torment.
I look more favorably to DAI's character stuff moreso after watching youtube videos and reading the dialogues on wikis, which I guess speaks to how ineffective they are in game. There definitely is some good depth there but for whatever reason it didn't connect while playing, and I don't think I had the banter bug. Anyway yeah I agree about it being weird that all of the outlets just loved it. It has the same sins as all the AAA games that everyone claims to be tired of (objective vomit, meaningless, no impact sidequests, open worlds with stuff to do but nothing to do). Corypheus is nonsensical and the plot falls apart despite some interesting beats.
A political game where you run the inquisition and judge people actually would be really interesting but that was really meaningless as well.
Solas is also the worst.
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You probably got more out of condensed versions of it because it wasn't filled with hours of riding around on a moose (which is pretty cool in theory, but fails very much to deliver).
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There definitely is some good depth there but for whatever reason it didn't connect while playing
Yeah I still wonder about tha?. Let me recap the possibilities:
1) The main character is really boring and uncharismatic this time around, so any conversation that involves him/her becomes a bit more boring
2) We got tired of the Bioware formula / direction / voice acting
3) The open world nature of the game removes urgency from te storyline; ME/DA1 and 2 had more of a mission structure
4) All of the above
I did feel the emptiness of the open world was salvaged by by the design and personality of the areas. In essence, these are all meticulously crafted very large places, instead of just something copy/pasted ad infinitum like you'd see in Scrolls or Just Cause 2. There's always something interesting around the corner despite the game being the open world, and that's the game's saving grace to me.
BTW I meant that the game has a fun world to explore, not fun plot to explore. Also, let me add another Con: My left thumb hurts from pressing L3 too many times
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It's an interesting game that doesn't really work and it's crazy how it got universal praise?
Well it was pretty much the only really prominent big-budget game last year that wasn't made for a Nintendo system (and wasn't an active failure like Assassin's Creed).
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Anybody played the Long War mod for XCOM? Apparently Firaxis has been streaming it the past couple of weeks, figured I'd give it a try.
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Each year has its fair share of big budget games like each summer has its superhero movies. 2014 had Destiny / Far Cry 4 / Watchdogz / Titanfall / Infamous 3 / Shadow of Mordor on top of your yearly Callof/Battlefield/Assassin's Creed. Not sure if Dark Souls 2 counts as big budget now.
Wasteland 2 and Divinity 4 or whatever were praised as PCish RPGs at around the same time so there wasn't really a drought on that front
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BTW, oh my god is the fall damage real. Geralt is a wuss.
The real Dark Souls (2) begins here.
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BTW, oh my god is the fall damage real. Geralt is a wuss.
The real Dark Souls (2) begins here.
Sweet meme bro
Speaking of
DS2SOTFS Company of Champions - Ditched my pyro run because pyro ended up not as stupidly op as it was in 1, and yeah. Restarted with a sorc build, amd hacked in a Blue Flame because I wanted to use it. Holy shit this weapon's cool. It may not necessarily be all that powerful, but there is something intrinsically satisfying about having Great Magic Weapon boost both your damage and your spell damage. Interestingly, also getting a decent bit of milage out of Strong Magic Shield in the Watchdragon Parma. Otherwise, offensive spells outside of the Soul Arrow/Spear family have been lackluster but everything else synergizes so well I don't really care. Besides, I still haven't beaten any lord soul boss except the sinner so I still have lategame spells to get.
The only real downside is that this weapon is normally locked away stupidly late or requires farming after using a bonfire aesthetic in Tseldora and meeeeeeh.
Its almost at +5 and my Int is already at 40, so if I need more damage later I may have to figure out some weapon to power stance with it, but for now I should be fine up to Shrine of Amana at least.
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FF Recorder player: so I picked up Vanille from the new event and she's definitely a useful Mage, equal parts support and offense and has a sweet Limit in DeSpell. She also has a unique sprite that's not just a Relm frankensprite that I was expect. Unique poses for casting and such. It's nice.
But unfortunately she's no substitute for Lenna. I have gotten VERY dependent on her Mass Regen Soul Break. It's just the best. And I think I'd need a proper Healer with a Healing soul break to drop Lenna at this point, so it'll have to be Aeris when she becomes available. Flip side, I can totally replace Rinoa or Tyro with Vanille! Still means I'm stuck with a recycled sprite PC, but the FTP limits are strict enough that I don't want to handicap myself too much by dropping Lenna and losing battles I should be winning easily if my party was just constantly Regening HP for free.
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Saints Row 3 - In which the main character literally stores a rocket launcher in the 4D pocket of his ass during a plot mission. I have no idea how Saints Row 4 is supposed to top this kind of insanity and it's probably gonna be worth playing it just to find out.
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You ain't seen nothin yet.
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That's what I was hoping. Half the appeal of playing Saints Row 3 is just finding out precisely the depths of its unhinged ridiculousness (the other half is buying and dressing fabulous attire. I'm actually considering buying the DLC costumes).
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You may also enjoy the Gentlemen of Steelport (http://idolninja.com/sr2.php) mod, which adds some new clothing and different clothing options for all your pretty princess dress up needs.
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Geralt really really doesn't like fall damage. He's closer to Mario from Donkey kong than to a Dark Souls character. I made him fall from about three meters and he lost one third of his health.
FF Record Keeper: Joseph does the most damage now, Joseph rules. About 1200 dmg per strike when Cloud does 950.
I am close to getting 50 mithrils, and I praise the rng gods every minute in anticipation. But deep down I know it will only give me 10 staves plus one three stars spear.
Even if the game gives me nothing but staves , I still feel like I have a pretty good team right now. (Except Cyan of course, but i'm already starting to replace him with Vanille)
Daily dungeons make upgrading everything a breeze so I have maxed weapons on everybody. Soon I'll also have maxed armor. Yay
btw, Briggs >>> Atma weapon
Edit: i got pretty lucky!
I got duplicates for my good weapons plus a five star sword for Cloud. And a five stars princess dress that JOSEF can equip.
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Final Fantasy Auto-Battle Never Ends - 1x
Grefter Vanille acquired, caught her up with Growth Eggs from her event dungeon and replaced Rydia. I figure a second healer can't possibly hurt me, especially when she's almost as good at Black Magic. Right now, I realized my physical dudes OHKO FF7 Elite Dungeon randoms, so I'm giving them a go for shinies. Current party is Wakka/Cloud/KAIN/Grefter Vanille/Lenna.
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Fine. I will get the thing goddammit.
Edit - game won't let me use DJ Fuxxx as character name. ANLFST it is.
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http://kotaku.com/the-witcher-3-takes-shots-at-drm-1707277761
Have been considering getting a video card/Witcher 3 bundle. Said bundle gives you the GOG version of the game. Had more or less decided to just wait til video cards and Witcher 3 are both cheaper, probably be a wash money-wise. But now I dunno man.
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DS2SOTFS Company of Champions - Ditched my pyro run because pyro ended up not as stupidly op as it was in 1, and yeah. Restarted with a sorc build, amd hacked in a Blue Flame because I wanted to use it. Holy shit this weapon's cool. It may not necessarily be all that powerful, but there is something intrinsically satisfying about having Great Magic Weapon boost both your damage and your spell damage. Interestingly, also getting a decent bit of milage out of Strong Magic Shield in the Watchdragon Parma. Otherwise, offensive spells outside of the Soul Arrow/Spear family have been lackluster but everything else synergizes so well I don't really care. Besides, I still haven't beaten any lord soul boss except the sinner so I still have lategame spells to get.
The only real downside is that this weapon is normally locked away stupidly late or requires farming after using a bonfire aesthetic in Tseldora and meeeeeeh.
Its almost at +5 and my Int is already at 40, so if I need more damage later I may have to figure out some weapon to power stance with it, but for now I should be fine up to Shrine of Amana at least.
I recommend at least trying for a second Blue Flame (Undead Crypt ghost drop rate is not good, but at least you get infinite tries). Powerstanced BF with buffs active on each = probably the best melee damage I've got out of the game. Double Great Magic Weapon also looks pretty stupid anime for what that's worth (it's a shame you're never getting more than one Crystal Magic Weapon charge without actual NG+). Invest bare minimum into STR/DEX for the powerstance requirements, raw infuse it since the scaling's not great anyway, pump INT to 40 or so and slap on Lingering Dragoncrest Ring so your buffs last forever. That formula worked amazingly well for me.
I don't use offensive sorceries other than Soul Arrow variants pretty much ever. Soul Spear is alright for a boss cannon I guess (Crystal Soul Spear absolutely does not justify two spell slots and I'm not sure why they nerfed it in that particular manner). Soul Greatsword is kind of nice for sweeping whole mobs, but that's about it.
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Yeah, I was thinking of farming for a new Blue Flame anyway just for legitimacy points. I may do that.
Are you sure that raw is better than going magic Blue Flame? At +5 the scaling jumps to B, and boosts the magic damage (and therefore casting damage on Great Soul Arrow/Homing Soul Mass) pretty high.
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FF Record of Kain: So despite hating him, Kain has been stupidly useful in a game where physicals and durability are King. Cloud outclasses him of course, and I'm guessing so does Josef but I never tried him out. Since I needed a second meatshield besides Cloud (and Tyro/Wakka/Cyan certainly aren't cutting it), I've been stuck with Kain.
But that all ends today! I picked up Warrior of Light, who is basically just stronger/tougher/slower Kain. And he's about twenty levels lower than Kain and already outclassing him. It helps that he can use high end Swords, of which I have plenty, whereas my strongest Spear is a 2 star affair. Conveniently enough, WoL is sporting a new sprite based on his Dissidia look rather than just looking like a FF1 Knight, so he fits my criteria nicely. His FF1 sprite DOES pop up during his Soul Break "Class Change", amusingly enough. I'm not sure yet if I'm going to continue using both him AND Snow, since they fill similar roles and have similar Soul Break effects. For now, I like the dynamic of three physical bruisers plus two squishy Mage/Healers.
Current party: Cloud/WoL/Snow/Rinoa/Vanille
Also leveled up: Kain, Tyro, Rydia, Lenna, Wakka, Cyan, White Mage
At this point the only named PC I haven't used in my roster is Josef. I also kinda want to try out Red Mage.
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Raw infusion lets you maintain optimal bonuses out of RoB/Flynn's Ring, so as an actual weapon I think it'll always be better that way. Maybe not as an offensive catalyst in that case, though. I guess it depends on what you want to get out of the thing. I almost exclusively used it as an implement of melee destruction, so actual casting strength was not a factor in my build. Unlike in DS1, magic power does not influence the numerical ATK bonus of buffs in any way in DS2 (only their duration), save giving them a slightly higher base damage to enhance with their fixed percentage. I'm pretty sure from memory that the raw infusion ATK boost was more significant than anything I could get out of the INT scaling as far as melee output goes, but I suppose I can't comment on what that does to its casting potency.
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It didn't let me use MANDINGO so I deleted it.
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And I think I'd need a proper Healer with a Healing soul break to drop Lenna at this point, so it'll have to be Aeris when she becomes available. Flip side, I can totally replace Rinoa or Tyro with Vanille! Still means I'm stuck with a recycled sprite PC, but the FTP limits are strict enough that I don't want to handicap myself too much by dropping Lenna and losing battles I should be winning easily if my party was just constantly Regening HP for free.
I don't have Aerith myself, but checking online her default Soul Break is actually Seal Evil in this game, while Healing Wind requires one of those character-specific equips.
Decided to replace Rydia with Vanille myself as well, looking at stat charts Vanille has noticably more HP/defense and a much better Soul Break in exchange for lower magic and some unimportant stuff. Luckily the Vanille event itself throws tons of Growth Eggs at you at the lower levels that are a few Normal clears away, since I don't think I'm close to handling the Hard version yet.
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Josef is Snow with more offense and less defense pretty much. They can equip the same things including the princess dress. Snow has a rather useless limit (he casts regen and protect on himself iirc? Good job) while Josef punches things more. Snow also has a few extra skills from what i've seen (he can haste himself. Not sure if useful here.
Character evaluation:
Kain/Josef/Snow/Cyan: These guys can stab/punch things, and use an ability to stab/punch things twice. The rest of their skillset is pretty meh. Cyan is special in that his stats are just the worst
Cloud: Whoever made this game is a FF7 fan because you get Cloud ASAP and he outclasses everybody. He can use spellblades to hit weaknesses like a mage and deal more damage than them.
Rydia/Lenna/Vanille: all the girls are mages, surprise. Their damage is outclassed pretty fast (though my Lenna is decent with her chibi-holy) they have more of a support role: healing, status, hitting weaknesses, buffs. But they're a pain to use well since they only have two ability slots and few charges. You need one for healing, another one makes your team worse but helps meet hidden goals when replaying a stage for mastery. If she survives that long.
Wakka: he's some sort of mage/fighter hybrid, with worse stats than the fighters but a lot more utility with buffs and status. He's fun to use but I didn't find any good weapon for him. He needs a long range boomerang-chakra thing because he's way too squishy for the front row.
Generics: They blow.
I played Witcher 3 for a bit and liked it a lot so far. Playing this after Dragon Age Inquisition feels like playing Mario 64 after Bubsy 3D. (Not in the sense that Dragon Age is bad; it just didn't get it) The battle system is still messy, but I think I'll just focus on levelling alchemy and signs to avoid using swords too much. Right now I'm just helping villagers because I need more bread/water. Life is pretty shitty.
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Raw infusion lets you maintain optimal bonuses out of RoB/Flynn's Ring, so as an actual weapon I think it'll always be better that way. Maybe not as an offensive catalyst in that case, though. I guess it depends on what you want to get out of the thing. I almost exclusively used it as an implement of melee destruction, so actual casting strength was not a factor in my build. Unlike in DS1, magic power does not influence the numerical ATK bonus of buffs in any way in DS2 (only their duration), save giving them a slightly higher base damage to enhance with their fixed percentage. I'm pretty sure from memory that the raw infusion ATK boost was more significant than anything I could get out of the INT scaling as far as melee output goes, but I suppose I can't comment on what that does to its casting potency.
I'll keep this in mind for late-game. Trudging through spiderhell now and with GMW buffed Magic Blue Flame +4 I'm OHKOing just about everything with my melee, so I'll stick with what works for now. I've also been using Great Soul Arrow for 360 noscoping n00bs (re: slowly binocular lining up shots and cheesing out enemies I don't want to actually fight) so the spell damage is paying off. Worse to worst, I use a couple palestones, switch to raw, and blow a soul vessel to respec.
This game, man. Such Casual Souls.
Out of curiousity, is this from memory on vanilla DS2 or is this DS2:Scholar? I thought I heard something about Flynn's ring getting changed slightly with respect to spell/faith/fire/hex damage between versions. Either way, I can test out the scholar changes because it's not like I'm not gonna be swimming in stones I won't use otherwise by endgame
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There definitely is some good depth there but for whatever reason it didn't connect while playing
Yeah I still wonder about tha?. Let me recap the possibilities:
1) The main character is really boring and uncharismatic this time around, so any conversation that involves him/her becomes a bit more boring
2) We got tired of the Bioware formula / direction / voice acting
3) The open world nature of the game removes urgency from te storyline; ME/DA1 and 2 had more of a mission structure
4) All of the above
I did feel the emptiness of the open world was salvaged by by the design and personality of the areas. In essence, these are all meticulously crafted very large places, instead of just something copy/pasted ad infinitum like you'd see in Scrolls or Just Cause 2. There's always something interesting around the corner despite the game being the open world, and that's the game's saving grace to me.
BTW I meant that the game has a fun world to explore, not fun plot to explore. Also, let me add another Con: My left thumb hurts from pressing L3 too many times
I think it's mostly 1 and 3. Hawke could actually be played in a way that is sarcastic/interesting and even your DA1 character had a developed backstory and had some interesting dialogue options. Shepherd actually did shit like headbutt asshole Krogans. I don't know what it is about the Inquisitor but mostly your options are wishy washy and about possibly having impostor syndrome, even the jerk options aren't that fun, and the female VA I had just sounded incredibly bored. S/he also has no real backstory worth talking about which I guess was purposeful but doesn't do many favors in terms of establishing yourself as an agent in the huge world they have created. I even made a pretty concerted effort to talk to everyone after big events and while there are some good scenes, I generally got the sense that the character I was talking to was interesting but trying to interact with a plastic bag.
The lack of urgency is also big since you can be far removed from what's going on by all the time you spend collecting crack rocks and killing squirrels. There technically is a mission structure but time between story missions can be fairly large. I don't necessarily think that the Bioware formula has necessarily run its course since that worked for me as recently as three years ago, I just think it was really clumsily delivered here.
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FF:RK - the pacing for the level unlocks in this is nuts. FF7 to open with because they know it is the most popular one. Then bam force fed FF4 straight away, but you unlock a few other game worlds. Now I am 4 stages deep in FF7, X and nothing more unlocks. So you have to keep doing FF4. 5 stages deep. Hopefully something new opens up. At least I finally get an actual character from FF4 after this stage.
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Yes. Kain.
i hope you're not looking forward to Post FF7 because you'll have ten million FF4/6 fights before
I don't know Duck, things have changed a lot in 3 years.
Witcher 3: I take back what I said about having an item oriented build because farming herbs is way worse than in Inquisition. There was this one mission in which Geralt said "hmmm i should put some oil on my sword, drink a potion before fighting this thing" and I was all "YES time to put all these herbs I've gathered to use" except I couldn't create a single item. Not a single one. On top of that item detection is the worst.
Anyway Quen looks broken as fuck so whatever. Balance is over already. I still recommend playing on the hardest level. And in polish.
I really like small details like having to actually read books that serve as quest items, the bestiary giving useful tips, triple triad redux, etc
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This is definitely the best game if you want realistic peasants, and by that I mean gross as hell peasants.
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Yes. Kain.
Are you saying I am the brother that will betray you? Are you my Abel?
Its okay, I got Rydia finally 5 stages in. It is crazy that there is no other FF4 characters that are things that actually exist and will be used before that happens.
At least my inventory isn't full of spears that no one can use (I mostly get daggers and axes it seems).
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FFRK: Snow casting Regen on himself saves me from wasting valuable Cure charges on him, its actually more useful than most of the Soul Breaks since it seems most of the damage ones don't scale up w/ stats? I've certainly noticed that Kain's, Tyro's, and Wakka's are outclassed by their regular physical moves most of the time.
Admittedly, if I'm using Lenna, then Snow's Soul Break is pretty redundant.
Currently rocking a Level 40 Cloud with Drain Strike and Blizzara Strike (w/ Thunder Strike for the Vanille event). My next highest current unit is Rinoa at 36, rocking Cura L3 and Thundara L3 (can't wait for the free Thundaga from this Vanille event). Both have a 4* weapon and 5* armor. Everyone else I keep shuffling because it's more fun that way. Snow is L30 w/ a boring 3* dagger and Armor Break. Vanille and WoL are L26 with 4* weapons (Diamond Sword and Light Staff) that they harvested from Tyro and Lenna.
Rydia, Cyan and Wakka are still in the 20s since I haven't used them much since the FF4/6/X dungeons ended. Also, Summon Magic is way too limited to be worth the ability slot. Even assuming their damage is awesome, you get one shot of it per dungeon. And upgrading the Summons are near-impossible due to their upgrade material being limited to Event dungeons and even there, they exist in limited quantities. It's frustrating since I like Summons.
I might give Josef a try anyway despite his level deficiency from Fenrir's recommendation. I wanna see if maybe his Soul Break's damage keeps up with his regular damage output. I wish there were more Monk skills to make use of his semi-unique ability category. But I've been using Monk's Deathblow with Snow and it's basically useless.
Kain is still my second-highest level unit at 38 unfortunately. I can't shake the usefulness of his bulk and level advantage.
I still don't have any 5* weapons, but I'm only three Mythril away from my second 50-pull, so wish me luck, whatever I get will basically dictate how I have to build my party.
@Grefter: Hey, that's pretty lucky actually! Nearly everyone can use Daggers, so if you power them up, you can swap good equipment around to whoever you decide to use. Downside is that they are almost certainly the worst non-mage weapon. Though they sometimes have added status. Out of curiosity, which ones have you picked up?
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From what I understand, the GOOD Black Mages which you may have just missed are Terra and Rinoa, whom are apparently very effective at what they do, albeit may require their relic weapon. Big thing about both is unlike most Mages, they have a competent physical, Rinoa having range ignoring so she can use Back Row with no penalty, and Terra can use all good defensive gear making her defense pretty high for a mage (on top of both having actual HP Scores; they're averagish instead of bad.)
Looking at other factors, it seems Vanille could work as a decent Black Mage since she has 4* Black Magic and good Magic stat, even if her primary purpose is healer.
Down the line, other Black Mages who have events are Vivi and Golbez, Vivi being what appears to be a pure damage Mage, having game best Magic and that's about it for his gimmick. Golbez is a tanky mage, in that he has solid physical stats, can use heavy armor (and Axes!), but lower Magic than other mages (still solid), iffy speed, and no White Magic options.
Regarding Kain...apparently he use to be so bad they had to give him a +20 Strength boost at level 50 after an update. I think Celes and Cyan got upgrades of sorts as well, like Cyan got access to Heavy Armor when he originally didn't. ONe thing I wish there was is more documentation online. Apparently there's some more stuff released in Japan (like Terra gets a unique armor) and I can't find any stats on it, grrrr!!!
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Dancing Dagger (Which doesn't do anything special, but you never turn down a knife fight because if you win, hey free knife?)
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FFRK: got to the magic 50 mythril and pulled eleven relics. Only one 5*. And it's a Bangle. Damn talk about screwed. There's not enough mythril sources in the game to get anywhere near another fifty except by waiting for the daily allotment. So at least a month and a half before I can draw again. I got some 4* defensive gear and a 4* Axe that might see use but otherwise it was all junk. :(
Oh. And I got a Katana. So yay I can use Cyan?
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pay2win scrub
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Honestly I wouldn't mind throwing a few dollars at it. It certainly has held my attention at least as long as most of my handheld games of late. I wonder how much it would cost to do another 11-for-the-price-of-10 relic draw?
*checks* *coughs*
It's like $30... For just -one- draw that will only guarantee a single 5* item. C'mon Squeenix, not cool. At least offer first-timer discounts or monthly sales or something.
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Two months later
I can quit smoking and paying this game whenever I want
Are you even sure you're guaranteed to have a five stars item if you do a 11 items pull? Nothing points to it. I'm pretty sure you can get nothing but threes.
The game's pretty evil since four stars stuff is really way inferior to five stars stuff. But that's ftp. You knew what you were getting yourself into.
Btw, commoner three stars items upgraded to bourgeois five stars items are still shit compared to native noble five stars items. They think they can hang out with pure five stars items because they also have five stars, but everybody can see their roots and upbringing. Get these fucking five stars dancing daggers out of my sight, you son of a submariner.
Anyway you shouldn't really bother with Josef if you like Snow, I really had to make up for Josef's squishiness by giving him the princess dress (yes i'm going to keep telling I gave Josef a princess dress because it's too cool)
Summons do look pretty worthless overall, but they can be upgraded to get more charges. Kirin also sounds good, he's mt regen.
Today is finally armor upgrade day, so all my equipment is maxed now. Time to get them greater earth orbs from Lenna's event's hardest level while I still can. Protectga looks ace.
Grefter, how about only one Ff6 character in 21 stages? And it's Cyan.
Warrior of Light's sprite is a mess, he looks like an anime cosplayer. Not using this jerk
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FFRK: I haven't actually put any money into the game. I was considering showing my support for it by dropping a few dollars (maybe 5-10?) for some nice loot, but well, you can't even get nice loot unless you're willing to drop the amount that could buy you a proper video game instead. Sorry Squeenix, it's just not happening. Make a more reasonable pricing model please.
Picked up my free Thundaga from Vanille's event and upgraded it once so now it is my best source of damage period. But it also hits weakness on like 80% of the enemies in Vanille's event, so I can't wait to trounce the Hard level there. (Or more likely, squeak by with only Cloud left alive.) Unfortunately I gotta focus on Lenna's event since it's almost over.
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FFRK: I have not even downloaded this game, but from everything I've heard here I'm going to hate it until some specific instances come up.
Can someone tell me when the Terra, Locke, Celes, Edgar, and Ramza instances come in? I may start playing it during those. Alternately, I may just play FF6 again and reminisce about my last playthrough of LFT.
Actually it sounds like I may as well just do that.
DS2: FFFFFFFFFF I have lost SO MUCH soul memory to stupid shit.
Dysentery or something: click click click things die and I'm not in any real danger so I can be as much of a stupid faffabout for others' amusement as I want. terrible story and why are there wookies without fur mating with humans then being a race in this game also all the men look like han solo but it's an MMO with people I like playing it so I guess it is time to click left mouse button and forget that I can jump.
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Locke, Edgar and Ramza haven't been released in Japan yet, so even longer if you wanna play it in English. Terra and Celes already had their events in both versions, though these events reappear from time to time in the Japanese version. No word yet on when they'll show up again in the English release.
Honestly it's not a game to go out of your way to play. It's like Cookie Clicker or Candy Crush. It's only worth playing when you have lots of waiting time you need to fill. (Like if you have a daily 10-30 minute commute to work on a crowded train where the only thing you can do is play on your phone.) The only thing that recommends it over something like Cookie Clicker is because FF6-style sprites with a stripped-down FF6-style battle system is more attractive and engaging than mindlessly clicking baked goods. The effect is still the same - it's a Skinner Box Collectathon, though at least it occasionally throws a challenging boss fight at you?
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Out of curiousity, is this from memory on vanilla DS2 or is this DS2:Scholar? I thought I heard something about Flynn's ring getting changed slightly with respect to spell/faith/fire/hex damage between versions. Either way, I can test out the scholar changes because it's not like I'm not gonna be swimming in stones I won't use otherwise by endgame
I could've sworn DS2 vanilla Flynn's got a damage hit in conjunction with infused weapons, but after Laggy stated otherwise I tossed it onto a lightning-infused sword in Scholar and it did indeed get full damage bonus. Flynn's does not give a damn. Flynn's is just that good.
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Locke, Edgar and Ramza haven't been released in Japan yet, so even longer if you wanna play it in English. Terra and Celes already had their events in both versions, though these events reappear from time to time in the Japanese version. No word yet on when they'll show up again in the English release.
Honestly it's not a game to go out of your way to play. It's like Cookie Clicker or Candy Crush. It's only worth playing when you have lots of waiting time you need to fill. (Like if you have a daily 10-30 minute commute to work on a crowded train where the only thing you can do is play on your phone.) The only thing that recommends it over something like Cookie Clicker is because FF6-style sprites with a stripped-down FF6-style battle system is more attractive and engaging than mindlessly clicking baked goods. The effect is still the same - it's a Skinner Box Collectathon, though at least it occasionally throws a challenging boss fight at you?
To be fair to cookie clicker, the shit with the grandmas was hilarious and worth playing through once to see.
Yeah sounds like I probably won't actually play it then. I have too many other actual games on my DS that I haven't played if I need some waiting-around dickery.
Out of curiousity, is this from memory on vanilla DS2 or is this DS2:Scholar? I thought I heard something about Flynn's ring getting changed slightly with respect to spell/faith/fire/hex damage between versions. Either way, I can test out the scholar changes because it's not like I'm not gonna be swimming in stones I won't use otherwise by endgame
I could've sworn DS2 vanilla Flynn's got a damage hit in conjunction with infused weapons, but after Laggy stated otherwise I tossed it onto a lightning-infused sword in Scholar and it did indeed get full damage bonus. Flynn's does not give a damn. Flynn's is just that good.
It's pretty funny too, because outside of my Santier's Spear character (that fucker's heavy) I have no urge whatsoever to get more than 60 weight, so the Flynn's ring literally has no downsides for me. I don't like any of the heavy armors enough to fashion souls it up heavyways soooooo...
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Pretty certain at least for Flynn's it was tested to be a display bug with Infusion. Your AR displayed as if it reduced the AR of the ring and didn't apply any bonus to elemental damage. Testing showed it to be wrong in patch 1.09 and then 1.10 came out and fixed it. So you should be able to see for yourself and confirm if you want Cid?
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It's just a flat +50 phys damage to anything, so far as I can tell (I'm not aware of it ever having done anything to reduce elemental damage).
Yeah, DS2 has like no heavy armor I would even want to use for style points. There was plenty of shiny stuff in DS1 I liked to wear whenever I had weight to spare (Ornstein's, Lautrec's, Brass, Paladin set all outstanding, I guess I really like gold armor), but in DS2 it's just all so drab. I kind of like Throne Watcher's set (sans helmet--I rarely wear anything that covers the face), it's very grey but has just enough flair and there's a nice sense of solidity to it. Once I actually pumped a character's VIT up to 40 just to be able to wear it? Then I came to my senses, respecced to dump those extra 30 levels or whatever into HP and enough mental stats to cast the good support miracles, swapped armor out for exotic dancer outfit, suddenly much more effective in combat. DS2 armor, so worthless. The nice looking gear is all light anyway.
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FFRK: One addition to my above critique of FFRK as a Skinner Box Collectathon: It's fun to collect nostalgic FF characters and spells/skills/weapons.
Today I got Gordon and Luneth. Gordon (FF2) is a Ranger Mage, so he can do decent damage from the back row with Bows and still cast level 3 white/black magic, making him pretty useful! ...about 20 dungeons ago back when my bows were still worth something and I wasn't on the verge of getting level 4 white/black magic. Still I guess if you beeline for him he could help out in a lot of events?
Luneth is a remixed Warrior of Light. Same equips, better Attack, similar Soul Break (boosts Attack MORE), Better Skill Options (Level 3 Support and Celerity let him do more than just hit something). Only downside is slightly less HP/Def and a LOT less Res. And him being 30 levels behind. Still, there's a bunch of FF3 dungeons to get through it seems, so I'm gonna try him out.
Current party: Cloud, Snow, Vanille (black mage setup), Lenna, Luneth
I think this gives me the over best party for handling dungeons, though Rinoa and WoL are still strong options. Unless I get their super-weapons by chance, I doubt I'll be using any of Wakka, Rydia, Kain, Cyan, Tyro, or even Gordon or Josef. Now we just wait for more event characters.
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I can confirm the 11 item Gacha has no guaranteed 5 star item, got five 4 Star items (two staves, a dagger, an axe and some armour), the rest 3 star. Still okay with it since staves and daggers pretty generic.
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You might be okay with it but that's some abmysal luck.
I've been dying to Vanille's event hard mode for a while, so now I'm going through the plot with the FF13 chars. I want to come back to the event later and grab that power armlet. I've already seen Cloud do 9700 damage with a thunder spellblade, I wonder if there's actually a 9999 damage cap. I could go back to Rubicant and check how he reacts to Blizzara strike but I have other things to do.
Edit: Well as soon as I typed this I hit the FF8 fake president for 9999 damage with Fira Strike
This game makes me want to revisit FF8 and no other FF. Good job.
Mercenary Kings: I knew this was going to be bad but still bought it. It was indeed bad and I stopped after 20 minutes.
Roundabout: I dig this.
Witcher 3: Damn is the dialogue for sidequests is good. I could hear Geralt doing detective work all day.
I'm already starting to get tired of combat though.
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Roundabout: I dig this.
Simultaneously completely insufficient description of Roundabout, but all that needs to be said.
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Roundabout: I dig this.
Simultaneously completely insufficient description of Roundabout, but all that needs to be said.
It is the greatest FMV game.
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all that needs to be said.
Super Hexagon meets Crazy Taxi. You're welcome.
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Saints Row 3 - There's a fucking Millenium Falcon in my garage.
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Is that what it is called when Lando flies it?
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Roundabout might not be the most Fenrir game, but it could have easily turned out terrible, and for the first few minutes I didn't really know whether I liked it or not. I was then charmed over by the stock footage and "Damn it Steve!!" Date guy.
The gameplay is the same as Kuru Kuru Kururin, a GBA game I got at launch and loved but had completely forgotten about. Roundabout is very cluttered compared to KKK (wait I don't think I should use this game's acronym) but it looks like you can adjust the camera a bit later on to compensate. Right now I like it zoomed in.
Record Keeper: I didn't like Djinn being ahead of me so I finished all the current regular levels. FF5 Byblos is the current final boss. uh
Cloud is still stealing everybody else's stats. Whenever I use everybody's best skills, he does about as much damage as the four other characters combined. And now I upgraded his Fira sword so he can cast it four times. RIP non fire resistant bosses
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Have you crafted Retaliate yet, Fenrir? That's Cloud's frue power in the current global build IMO, even more so than Spellblade.
In case anyone here's not aware, RK Retaliate basically gives you Mirror Stance/Evade&Counter for about two turns, but with two big non-intuitive perks:
1) It bypasses enemy counters completely, great for counter whores like Wing Raptor and FF13 Anima
2) If an allied PC attacks the Retaliater, he will counterattack... against the enemy, for some reason. So you can convert your healers/supporters/etc. turns into extra attacks from the Retaliator. Also, using Double Cut on him will trigger two counterattacks, and Boost is a lot more efficient when most/all your damage is coming from a single attacker.
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The first is very standard FF practice of counters not triggering other counters. The latter, hahaha that's silly.
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Have you crafted Retaliate yet, Fenrir? That's Cloud's frue power in the current global build IMO, even more so than Spellblade.
In case anyone here's not aware, RK Retaliate basically gives you Mirror Stance/Evade&Counter for about two turns, but with two big non-intuitive perks:
1) It bypasses enemy counters completely, great for counter whores like Wing Raptor and FF13 Anima
2) If an allied PC attacks the Retaliater, he will counterattack... against the enemy, for some reason. So you can convert your healers/supporters/etc. turns into extra attacks from the Retaliator. Also, using Double Cut on him will trigger two counterattacks, and Boost is a lot more efficient when most/all your damage is coming from a single attacker.
Holy crap, I've been missing out ALL THIS TIME.
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Fire Emblem 7 -- Just finished the map with Valorous Roland and had Nergal gloat over the corpse of my dead girlfriend. Ready to shove an axe up his ass.
My Hector has more speed than STR or DEF and more speed than Lyndis. He has been pretty silly this playthrough.
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I did hear about the Retaliate strategy, but since it destroys any need for any other kind of strategy/planning in the game, I've refrained from using it so far.
By the way, I thought this skill was a Cyan exclusive since he's a samurai. Good to know that he doesn't catch a break and that Gary Stu gets everything good.
BTW I got a four stars armor as a daily pull, and I am not even going to use it. Sorry guys ~
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I assume you are strictly only using dresses by now.
Aaaand I need to go make Cloud even better.
Ciatos request for July entertainment. Hector Hard mode run?
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FFRK: Too bad Fenrir, I finished the story dungeons yesterday!
Joking aside, I have been having more fun with this than I expected and yet I did not know about this Retaliate strat, I must give it a go and see if I can't beat Anima on a harder difficulty. Gotta get that Thundaja~
Also, it's notable that Rinoa and Vanille have been doing better damage w/ -aga Magic than Cloud does with his basic elemental Strikes for me. Could just be my equipment pool though. Also I invested in Blizzara Strike instead of Fira Strike and of course I haven't come across any Ice-vulnerable bosses since, so I can't test which of those is better when hitting weakness.
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Noooo
Yeah, I have some gross five stars thunder sword on Cloud. Even with a five stars staff Lenna doesn't reach that level of damage at all.
I can beat Vanille's event on hard right now, which nets a pretty allright amount of magic royal things (especially if I reroll until I get a 90 magic royal points first fight) Between 5k and 8k per run.
Anima had a body and two arms. The body can regen the two arms if they get killed, and always counters. After a while both arms start spamming MT thunder death.
A good strategy is to have the weaker characters target one arm (only) and the stronger characters target the center after getting boosted. After the arm dies, have everybody concentrate on the body. That way, only one arm can do the MT death spam, and you get countered less than you could. I've gone form not being able to kill Anima to being able to kill two Animas per run (yes,this can happen on hard)
There aren't that many things weak to ice, I'd say that Lightning > Fire > Ice > Wind = Light > Water overall. I don't know about darkness but it's probably pretty bad.
Roundabout: I genuinely felt more emotion when Beth left Georgio than during the entirity of Dragon Age Inquisition
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The -ra strikes are 1.8x damage (3.6x when hitting weakness), which is a modest upgrade over the basic elemental strikes at 1.5x. I'm ignoring them for now in favor of the -ga level spells since they are roughly 69% stronger than -ra spells.
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The Witcher: I got this when it was on sale on GOG years ago and on a whim ran through the tutorial mission yesterday. I probably should've just put it on Easy because Left-click to Kill is never a combat system that's going to engage me much. I'm okay slumming in self-consciously grimy middle ages once in a while though so this will probably get picked apart in bits and pieces over an extended period.
I strongly suspect Geralt is some author's wish fulfillment character and he hasn't even done anything beyond having amnesia and sex yet. It's with no particular surprise that I notice giving Triss's character model proper boob jiggle was obviously on someone's list of priorities. Where does someone get that much fishnet clothing in a medieval setting, anyway?
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Yeah Witcher 1 looks like a total joke.
Also, women you have sex with = collectable card game
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Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth2: Sisters Generation
Here we go, the Neptunia 2 remake. Compared to the first game's remake, there is significantly less rewriting of the plot going on in this one -- some very minor rewriting in midgame because two characters were replaced with different characters due to rights issues: Red replaces Nisa, and Broccoli replaces Gust. Red is an entertaining anime archetype (she's basically a shameless lesbian who wants every last one of the CPUs as her waifu, to the point of actually calling them her 'wifeys') but her VA is gratingly awful most of the time, unfortunately and she's not terribly good in combat either. Broccoli is a chibi sitting on a roly-poly stuffed animal with precisely the opposite personality you'd expect from such a character (she's a snarky asshole), also she has a mildly annoying verbal tic, nyu. Didn't use her much in battle, but she did come in handy some early-game, since her initial skill is a 90% HP heal (that costs an absurd amount of MP) at a time when your only other healing is 1/3 that strength.
The core gameplay is exactly the same as Re;Birth1 (and thus, exactly the same as PS3 Neptunia Victory), for better or for worse, except that the party size is back to Victory's 4 after Re;Birth1 had trimmed it to 3. On the whole, this was a mildly easier game than Re;Birth1 I think; outside of the beginning I had to do very little grinding, and I played on normal difficulty for the majority of the game (I did drop to easy mode for the final chapter, but that was because I had opted for one of the slightly harder variant ending routes on my first playthrough; if I hadn't dropped to easy mode, I probably would have only needed to grind out 5 levels or so).
I personally find Nepgear to be a more appealing main character than Neptune, and she's also just flat out more useful in battle (whereas Neptune's skillset for most of the original game consisted of a couple fairly mediocre physical specials and a ST offensive buff, Nepgear's consists of a couple fairly mediocre physical specials, a defensive buff and two tiers of ST heal). I can't really imagine ever wanting to take her out of your party in this game, unlike the first game where Neptune was sometimes worth dropping from the active party.
(Purely mechanical) thoughts on the other PCs I used:
Compa - Her offense felt better in this game, a bit? Might be more things being weak relatively to magic damage. It was still fairly poor, but not completely fail. Healing came in really handy in the early and mid-game, and she was still in my backup slots at the end of game and did come out during a late-game boss or two for MT healing.
IF - More or less the same as the first game: great early on, her specials are still badly overcosted for what they do, and she gets worse and worse as the game goes on because she just stops getting power attacks and her rush attacks are never more than 3 hits. Her break moves are super-useful in that band of the game where break moves are useful at all though.
Cave - Probably the best character in this game not named Nepgear, and arguably better at times. Full Option Attack or whatever is stupidly powerful line damage with a stupidly low MP cost; for much of the game it would OHKO entire encounters, or nearly so, and she could spam it with relative impunity. Even beyond that, her normal attack strings are pretty good, and she can competently do both physical and magical damage. Never left my party once she joined.
5pb. - Pretty lackluster. I used her as filler for a short while and she didn't impress. Pure mage and you get better pure mages not long after her.
Falcom - Basically Nepgear- without HDD. Solid character nonetheless, and pretty tanky. Never left my party once she joined.
MarvelousAQL - So-so. Good for building EXE drive.
I have to go so more details will have to wait. Holy shit the Conquest Ending is probably the most depressing thing I've ever seen in a video game.
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FF:RK - So after talking with DJ last night a bit about how it is "okay". Today I got in to a fight with wind thing from FF4 and it still has the jump gimmick at the end of a series of fights that chew up a fuck load of stamina.
Fuck that.
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Yeah Witcher 1 looks like a total joke.
It's a hot mess of a game, and occasionally brilliant. The ending is pretty great.
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Oh hey, suddenly a Locke event.
Zenny you said to tell you when Locke became available. Well he's available now for about a week and a half. Literally just opened up like an hour ago.
Also also, I finally pulled a five star weapon. And it's Locke's special Rising Sun. So now I have both an awesome back row weapon AND a compelling reason to use Locke apart from "is FF6 and not-Cyan".
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Siiiiigh.
English version or Japanese version?
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English. Also the chances of getting his super weapon are increased by a lot right if my luck is any indication.
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Also by the text on all of the ongoing character events.
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Yes the game also says that its odds are increased but this is the first time I've gotten anything that was supposedly at "increased odds". So I was guessing that the odds are in fact decently high. Out of roughly 35 draws total, I finally got something that was supposed to be easy to get.
Edit: aaaaand.... 1x Locke GET. The regular level event stuff is clearly balanced for someone at lower levels than 40 across the board. I probably could have Mastered the whole set on Auto. Now for the Elite versions, which look promising for a challenge. And if not... Well hey at least I get the Phoenix summon out of the deal.
Locke himself is cool. A Support fighter that I've been needing since Tyro and Wakka stopped being useful. His regular Soul Break Sneak Attack already sets him up as a Backliner Support type, but with his Rising Sun weapon he's already got my strongest weapon, back row defenses, and a cool new Soul Break that does multi target physical damage and Slow! Time to wreck me an Anima.
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DJ, how did you install the English version? Mine automatically downloaded the Japanese version, which is fine I guess but if it's not running events for characters I can nostalgia over I really don't give a shit. I guess playing it in Japanese is at least "studying"
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I like the frequency of events; I could do Locke's right now but I'd miss Thundaja from Vanille's. So I prefer to focus on that...
Except today is also weapon upgrade day and I might finally be able to upgrade absolutely all my weapons to max, which would make Anima a bit easier? I had to withdraw from the event yesterday because my numbers were not quite large enough.
And obviously once I'll be able to concentrate on Locke's event, a brand new event will be opened up and I'll still have to hurry the hell up.
Also I'll soon be able to do another 50 mithril pull and I'll have to decide when exactly I want to do it. I don't care about Locke but a five stars chakram for someone else sounds nice.
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I probably wouldn't even live through Hard Anima without some tapdancing, so I'm just plugging away at Locke's event. And raking in that sweet, sweet free Mythril.
EDIT: Getting the Rising Sun and Locke would be nice, though, back row would at least make him essentially less squishy than Josef.
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Shovel Knight - Beaten on hard mode. Pretty fun; they removed a lot of the checkpoints (there's typically just one before the boss and one halfway through, like NES Mega Man) and upped enemy damage (while removing much of the healing) so dying from damage is a thing which happened a lot more outside boss fights. Nothing really redesigned, though, which was a bit disappointing but understandable enough. The boss rush at the end was absolutely brutal, with their better damage + only getting healing every two fights (and sometimes not even then? Twice the game didn't give me healing after the fourth, which felt like a bug) = ow, I probably had at least a couple dozen resets here (the game normally tracks them, but didn't in this case because I took a break after failing a bunch). Nothing else in the game was nearly that bad, though honourable mention for the first half of Plague Knight's stage.
I also have about half the achivements. Might be nice to get some more at some point. But probably not just yet. Excellent game, not the best ever but yeah very solid. 8/10 territory or so.
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Witcher 1 is bad. Cid, do yourself a favor and just skip to 2. Or at the least, definitely don't spend time doing all of the sidequesty stuff if you really want 1's plot so you have an idea of what you're getting into in 2, although it's not really strictly necessary.
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Locke event got me to not rage more. Killed whirlwind thingo before she even whirl winded this time (but would have just Retaliated through it now...).
FF games just don't work any more. ATB feels like you are moving through molasses. Adding in the FFX-2 charge components to ATBs without having varied recharge rates is bad and makes it worse.
For example
Get into a fight with Ifrit and Shiva. Tell first person to attack, Second person you input Blizzara because Ifrit is out. After first person attacks and before second person moves Ifrit uses Fira and swaps to Shiva. You heal Shiva. Okay I will wait and use Fire. Repeat previous fucking issue.
Old FF fights aren't built to have that charge there and it fucks with the fight dynamics sometimes.
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Oh yeah Ifrit/Shiva is terrible for this. I think it's the only time this problem really happens. It could have made healing a huge pain but healing auto targets whoever has the lowest hp% if you don't specifically target someone.
My Cloud - Snow - Vanille - Lenna - Kain team is pretty badass, aside from Kain. Vanille has cura and boost, Lenna has curaga and chibi-holy.
i tried to use Gordon since he's the only non Kain character who can use spears. Problem is , he has even lower attack than Kain. He is a red mage in a game specifically not made for red mages at all and gotten late. So he's about as useful as he was in FF2.
They could have given us Freja or Fang but nope and they're not even planned.
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Had over 100 mithril.
Tried to get lockes weapon...
Got a mystery veil...
And shit.
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuq
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Fucking whrilwind bullshit "Use Jump So We Pretend Kain Is Useful" FF4 boss was pretty shit for it and was why I was rage face at that as well.
Input commands. enemy goes into counter stance. Eat 3 Thundagas because lol.
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Oh yeah there's also Whelk. And Wingraptor. And Whelk 2.0.
And they're all way way worse than Valvalis.
Neeeeevermind.
On the plus side, I have 52k shiny things. Thundaja requires 125k.
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You can certainly design an ATB counter-oriented boss where you'd have to watch your charge times so as not to hit them during their counterstance (honestly Whelk was kind of like this in FF6 proper since the game had some charge time on all attacks, but it was pretty minor and mostly just punished you if you tried to have one PC attack twice in a row before he hid in his shell again IIRC). I don't think it's inherently bad design to encourage players to learn to time their attacks to get past these.
Not that I have much faith in FFRK to have said good design.
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I know basically nothing about FFRK except that almost everything you guys say about it makes it sound worse. Why is everyone playing it.
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Mobile platform is cool I suppose? That said I agree; it sounds like if I really want a portable game with FF nostalgia that my time would be better spent playing more Theatrhythm, which is actually competent at the genre of gameplay it provides.
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It is a Final Fantasy music playing platform that occasionally delivers a fun boss fight, a collectible character, and doesn't require me to play a rhythm game.
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It's also free at base.
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Incidentally the charge times for abilities in RK are in fact variable; this is most easily noticed when you sometimes have one PC use a Soul Break, then another immediately use a basic attack command right afterwards. Unfortunately it's not very well documented, at least in English; this (http://www.reddit.com/r/FFRecordKeeper/wiki/index/mechanics) is the best I could find.
It's also worth noting that the speed stat and Haste/Slow has no impact on the charge rates for moves, which really limits how much they matter in practice.
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Bars filling up and numbers, that sound when numbers are counting up that games make.
Also I need something to do on the train and while I shit.
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In FFRK you cannot really get what you want unless you throw a disgusting amount of money at the game. But is it ultimately worth it? Why do you want what you want?
The obvious answer is that Locke's sprite doesn't matter and you're a fool for thinking about giving your money to somebody who's trying to scam you by using your nostalgia. Nostalgia is a joke. The past is holding you back. Live in the present.
I applaud the game for giving these strong courageous messages.
(Unintentionally)
Also also we can finally -really- answer the RPGDL Ur-question you had when you were 10: who's better?
And the answer is Cloud. Cloud is better.
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Actually, the answer is "whoever can equip your only five-star weapon". Level 25 Locke with Rising Sun is doing double my Level 47 Cloud's damage with just their physicals. >.>;;
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Give Locke a five stars weapon and you'll easily finish levels for a day. Give Cloud a five stars weapon and you'll easily finish levels for a lifetime. True fact
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Autobattle Simulator 2015:
Man this sprite art is nice, I gotta give credit where credit is due. Otherwise... meh. Can't get the English version, so playing the Japanese, which is surprisingly understandable but also boring. The best thing is I named myself "くそガキ", which translates into Fucking Brat, which is hilarious. I read pretty slowly and sometimes things take time to parse, so suddenly Mog is cursing me. Then mog is cursing at me really badly. Then I remember it's my name. It's so Zenny. Too bad the rest of it is boring so I skip most of it.
Japanese event is... FF8 characters, and FF2 characters. I care even less about FF2 than I do about FF8 so FF8 it is. Unlocked Zell at level 5 (dungeon rated for 15) for a challenge past "hit autobattle and wait", which was actually decently fun until the boss 2HKOed all of my characters and was a 2 part boss that I needed to kill 3 entities (Biggs, then Biggs and Wedge) that I 30HKO'd. Luckily guest attacks are basically free ID spells at this level, so I only had to deal with Wedge, and Cloud with only a 3 star weapon is pretty damn powerful.
For all that this game is actually terrible it is hitting all those skinnerbox points that made me play Cookie Clicker for like a month so fuck here we are i guess.
DS2: Company of Champions made Smelter Demon competent and so I ragequit. I know I should really finish in Easy Mode since my co-op playthrough didn't really teach me how to beat any of the bosses solo but hubris.
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I leveled up cloud because he was the only magic sword user prior to celes's release. Past that, I don't use him much. The ff7 crew is kinda collecting dust right now.
Lv 50 characters right now are kain, both cecils, rydia, tyro, Terra and cyan.
Tyro n rydia were super easy with sundays daily dungeon.
I'm trying to get black mage and summoner leveled for their eventual passives.
Dunno how far I'm going to get in this Locke event. I'm currently running vector elite again cause the stupid cranes both relected at the start of the fight.
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Never has that line in Zenny's sig about aspergers and OCD been more relevant than when Square released a game specifically to prey on it.
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Final Fantasy: Fantasic Record of Autobattle - Cleared Classic Locke event, plugging away at random elite dungeons for Mythrils - really close to that magic 50 number. Current party still Cloud/Kain/Vanille/Lenna/JOSEF (all L34), in which half my party has 5-star weaponry and the rest plugs away with 4-stars. Cloud is the empress of the fucking universe.
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I'm currently pondering a game to play now that I beat FE7 again. Might go old school and play a game for the Virtual Console, or maybe go through with my idea to replay Suikodens that don't piss me off. Also thinking about trying Twilight Princess.
For FE7, Florina got the most kills because she just flew around maps taking human lives like all cute children should.
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FF Record Keeper: Yeah I tried this and you guys are all crazy and I can't imagine playing this for longer than the hour I put into it. Maybe if I had a commute or something but get Threes or something.
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When I will reach level 50 and have Thundaja and upgrade weapons with more stars on them
I'll finally be happy
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Oh man I just noticed you all also have these " social justice **** " titles
We're awesome
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One reason I wish I had started on the Japanese version like Zenny is because there's actually a minor social aspect to it wherein you can summon 'guest characters' akin to Bravely Default. This makes a fun little system where you can send and receive summons of other users' most powerful PCs for an attack. Which as Zenny has found out, is a nice limited-use "I win" button for the harder challenges.
I'm not sure when or if it'll get added to the US release, though.
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More like casual version
For real: I am disappointed that nobody has mentioned that FfRK has the best thing that's come out of FF6. The boss death animation. I am serious, it's the best.
Roundabout: Finished
If this game is a glimpse of the games industry run by LGBT tyrant overlords
Then count me in
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I thought about getting FFRK just to poke it and see what it did. Turns out my iPod is sufficiently old it is no longer supported for iOS updates and I can't. Boo.
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I hate everyone who has gotten a five star weapon. Also everyone who has gotten a good four star weapon. I just did a damn 50 mithril draw and got nothing but 3 star stuff and MORE FOUR STAR DAGGERS.
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I've done 4, 50 mithril relic draws.
2 5 star relics. One was a character specific (Rydia's whip...which is NOYCE) and a head piece that changes the characters limit to an aoe cure1.
Everything else has been disappointing.
I'm about done with the Locke event. I doubt I will beat it and get Phoenix. I just want to get the Angel Wing relic and be done with this for now...
I'd rather farm Vanille's event....in fact!
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Suikoden Tierkreis: Finished. More thoughts later, perhaps.
Ys 6: The Ark of Naphistim. Finished. Normal Mode, Catastrophe Mode (= Oath / Origin style, no healing items aside from enemy drops).
It's good... but also clearly the weakest of the Ys 6 / Oath / Origin set. It is nice & short, though - probably slightly longer than a single Origin playthrough, so there's that.
Went to Naphistim at level 49 and not having max forged any of the 3 swords, but I did (thanks to FAQ) find out about the Pikkards & that some of the rando-bosses had respawned (with 0 message about this fact in-game) and gave uber accessories on drop.
The Good:
* It's still Ys combat.
* The second to the last boss fight is insanely awesome. Sopko mentioned that it's one of his favorites in the series, and I agree. Totally crazy fight with lots of stuff to keep track of (the boss's allies whom you can stun out but not permanently defeat, his sword moves, various lasers & such).
* As usual, the random townspeople are interesting / amusing enough you get to meet.
* Did I mention it's still Ys combat? This is a pretty big plus, since it's kind of what you do.
The Bad:
* Some of the moves are way too finicky. It's easy to do all the Oath moves, but the fancy lunge slash & jump is too hard to reliably make happen. Luckily you don't really *need* the hard ones, but it does mean that you're going to do a lot of downslashing for safe damage.
* Magic is a bit over-centralizing, especially against some of the bosses? I had to FAQ one boss in particular to find out that the strategy is basically "oh zap him with magic 5 times then dodge a lot the rest of the time." In the same way Magic is very key against the frue final to actually get good damage in quickly.
* Level is among the most potent it's been in the Ys series, and this is a series where level is very often the god stat. It's very easy to run up to enemies whom Adol does 0 damage (or lol damage) to in the next section of a dungeon. Going back to an earlier section of a dungeon will lead to Adol shrugging off any and all damage even if you play suicidally. I don't mean "going back to the previous dungeon", I mean "an earlier section of the same dungeon." So yeah, low HP and high subtractive defense will lead to that. Boo hiss, do it DS Castlevania style instead.
* And on that note, that screws up the sword balance. Brillante (fire-sword) is the best 90% of the time because it can actually break defense the best. In the rare cases where it's HP that's the limiting factor not defense, then Erricil (thunder sword) is obviously the best due to attacking faster. Wind sword is just stuck in the middle.
* For the fleet sequence, tsundere pirate-girl can't fight wut?? And you can't heal her on Catastrophe (well, intentionally). This means you're encouraged to stand still for awhile until your magic gauge recharges so you can WTFpwn the next set of enemies. Not a fan of making escort missions particularly hard, so eh.
* Some parts of the game are FAQ-bait, and not the fun kind of FAQ-bait. Your average Zelda will encourage you to return to areas, sure, but they'll do things like "area tauntingly out of reach with your current skillset" that you know you should check again later. Finding the 4 lost Pikkards is basically "walk through the entire game again if you didn't FAQ their locations." Thrilling. Same with not cluing you in that certain bosses randomly revived at endgame so that you can fight 'em and get loot.
* Final dungeon is lame-o. It should *obviously* be the Ark, a place that has a genuine excuse to be filled with evil monsters & defense systems and is the dramatic focus of the 3rd Act of the story. Instead, there's, uh, this random ancient super-city #47? Of the good guys? That's still filled with robots or something? And connects to the Ark, sort of, in having a platform to ride an insect over there? Couldn't I have done that from the shore? Whatever, these plots aren't about nitpicking, but it's a thematic fail. (For that matter the Limestone Cave had some weird in-game logic to go there. "Hey I saw some flotsam somewhere in the water, therefore I should go through a cave because maybe there's a cove with pirates on the other side." Right.)
* Plot is pretty weak, although it has its moments and is short, I suppose. Very much the same rough outline as Ys 4/ Celceta: crazy evil person inexplicably gets command of his own army to use to gain ultimate power from the Eldeen civilization, senselessly betrays his own troops, gets beaten down by Adol. Whatever. The fairies were a nice change though and totally unexpected from having played Ys 7 first.
The Ugly:
*The music. It's fine, but... Falcom, what happened?! You're known for ridiculously awesome soundtracks, and this one was just decent. Easily the weakest Ys game as far as soundtrack that I've played!
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One reason I wish I had started on the Japanese version like Zenny is because there's actually a minor social aspect to it wherein you can summon 'guest characters' akin to Bravely Default. This makes a fun little system where you can send and receive summons of other users' most powerful PCs for an attack. Which as Zenny has found out, is a nice limited-use "I win" button for the harder challenges.
I'm not sure when or if it'll get added to the US release, though.
Newly announced as of an hour ago:
ALL the features that were exclusive to the Japanese version. This includes Wandering Hero summons (friend/social aspect), Battle Speed adjustment midbattle, Level Cap breaking, and a Passive Skills system.
This game is actually slowly becoming a proper RPG battle system. That's nice.
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Final Fantasy Let's Positive Autobattling - Locke get, 50 Mythril get. My 11-relic load included a bunch of useless 3-star crap, a Ten-Gallon Hat (useful for Vanille due to big Mag boosts), a Royal Crown (useful for Lenna due to big Mind boosts) and a -Genji Armor-. At L1, it raised Cloud's defense and res by more than anything else - upgraded - that I could ever muster. Uh yeah. As of now, I have no equipment under a natural 4-star, which is a decent start.
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Dr. Doom released in Marvel Heroes. His ability descriptions are superb.
"Doom Blast: Did you truly believe Stark to be the only one capable of wielding such technology? You will regret underestimating Doom!"
"Eldrich Reckoning: Strange is a clod who refuses to venture beyond his precious Vishanti."
He's also got a billion abilities so I'm a touch overwhelmed. Haven't played anyone this complicated since Dr. Strange, and I just finished levelling Wanda whose strategy is basically "map any seven abilities you want and then roll your face across the keyboard. Watch as your enemies melt before your eyes and your health regenerates faster than you can be injured."
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Saints Row 3 - OF COURSE the military has a zombifying serum. This game.
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Does Marvel Heroes still have colossal lack of inventory space?
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Does Marvel Heroes still have colossal lack of inventory space?
It gets easier once you realize the character-specific tabs can be used for any-hero uniques. I dump all my uniques into Star-Lord's tab and all my insignias and rings into Rogue's. Still it's the one part of the game you kind of need to drop cash on. Buuuuut if you're going to spend money, it's the 2nd anniversary and everything's 40-50% off.
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So same as before. Meh, I'll pass.
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FFRK: Grefter is right, this ATB is shit with all the counter based enemies. Also, having your attacks redirected because the boss summoned adds so you blow all your limits and blizara castings on nothing? Yeah fuck you game.
Got a bunch of characters though, so that's nice. The JP version has a lot of them locked away behind quests, where you just have to select the quest then beat the dungeon it tells you to. Most of them are too hard, but Terra was locked behind something really easy so I got her. Also got Zell, Squall, Zidane, Vivi, Steiner, working towards getting Seifer and Armarant and Eiko during the current FFIX quest.
Team is currently Terra/Squall/Cloud/Rydia/Zell. Terra can use either swords or rods, and has about even physical and magic stats, so she can either play tankier Rydia or Swordsman/heal battery. I'm opting for the latter because I have a shitton of 3 star swords but only one good rod, which Rydia is using. She's slightly weaker than Squall, who is way weaker than Cloud, but the healing makes up for it. Squall is Cloud minus minus and will be replaced. Instead of spellblades he just gets black magic and has shit for magic stats. Zell hits things really hard and though I haven't found any skills for him he may stay on my party until I get another monk (Sabin's locked behind a rating 60 difficulty dungeon so that may be a while. Meantime, I should get Amarant soon so he may be worth subbing in? Hard to say). Fortunately Edgar is also someone I can unlock soon, so if I get a rare spear I won't have to use Kain. Suck it, English language players.
But seriously the game's novelty has worn pretty thin this week and I will probably stop playing it soon in favor of games that the fact that I'm playing them doesn't piss me off on principle. Like actually just playing FF6.
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Saints Row 3 - It ended as it began: dressing up for great profit and internet air time. That was WAY more entertaining than it had any right to be.
Saints Row 4 - PRESIDENT GANGSTERS IN THE MATRIX
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Fortunately Edgar is also someone I can unlock soon, so if I get a rare spear I won't have to use Kain. Suck it, English language players.
*spends the entire post talking about why he hates the game*. But this one sentence shows what you're REALLY playing it for. To spite me. With your Edgar and your not-having-to-use-Kain.
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I went to the FFRK subreddit on a train ride
There's a tier list topic
Cloud has his own GOD tier above everybody else
Every core character is in the Core tier, below everybody else
Nobody in the huge thread contested these particular placements
It also looks like the next update is going to make Cloud much better , because he really needed a boost
Anyway I beat Elite Ultros in the opera house and that's as far as I can possibly go there. No phoenix but At least I have Thundaja.
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The core characters all have amazingly bad stats (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VLI5mQnbPlB-E4FcBcHJ0QhXAqHgSW1UfJUdEErEqUk/edit#gid=528239927); my favorite part is Knight having less HP and attack than healers like Aerith and Lenna.
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Wonderella Simulator, AKA Saints Row 4 - THEY HAVE MORE FABULOUS CLOTHES THAN SAINTS ROW 3 DID BEST GAME EVER
Also, I can't say no to a game that encourages you to jump hella high.
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You were told. You didn't believe. Have faith dear. Have faith in me.
FFRK - My next gacha pull had even less useful items. Like 1 armor and a platinum dagger to upgrade to 5* from first pull.
Not even mad though.
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Witcher 3: Wild Framerate
Each day this battle system gets even worse in my eyes, Geralt is a True Master of the Spin2Lose fighting style, flailing around like an idiot when you don't want him to. He just kind of does whatever he wants and then dies, all while I'm cursing at him.
So far I've only survived thanks to Quen abuse.
However I just found out, something like 10 hours into the game, that all potions /bombs/oils get replenished everytime I meditate and this only consumes one common item. You... don't need to gather all the ingredients again? You have no idea how fantastic this is, I am now to make an alchemy build from now on.
I've been playing Triple Triad with anybody who wants to play Triple Triad with me, and I've gotten some really cool cards. The AI can sometimes be extremely intelligent, pulling some ridiculous tricks, and sometimes extremely dumb, sending all its melee cards into a snowy battlefield.
Ultimately this is the thing I care the most about in this game. If I have to choose between getting a new sword or cards I go with cards.
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Rk...
Ok, friend system is out.
My Id is 91So
Now I'm trying to figure out how to break the lv gap.
I wonder if I need to bring those characters into the specific dungeons...
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I read somewhere that breaking the level cap is based on getting an item to drop by bringing X character to X dungeon at max level. I don't know any of the specifics though.
Also, sweet, the FFRK update is great. It is all the quality of life stuff I wanted plus social features. Now I can play in my Skinner Box collectathon AND show off all the cool nostalgia trinkets I've collected. Yay.
Friend code is enWi. The irony of this randomly-assigned set of letters is not lost on me.
Anyway, the Quest system is a HUGE new source of Mythril, so hopefully I'll be able to pick up some rare weapons in the near future.
And with the Call A Friend option, I might be able to take out the last mission of Locke's Event too and finally pick up the Phoenix Summon.
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eRuA is my friend code, though all I have to offer is a mediocre wakka. Did manage to get a 5 star weapon...a hawkeye. Which the soul break for is frankly worse than element reels imo(might do more damage I guess? but reels is MT and good for hitting water weakness to get the bonus on some bosses).
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Mine would be QGuM...
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Added all of you loveable ragamuffins.
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I always enjoy when people talk about quality of life improvements with these free to play things and MMOs since the language is evocative of a forced labor camp getting running water.
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Friend code - 9c5G
Vanille with Mystic Prayer off the Mystic Veil currently :)~
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Roundabout: this is Fenrir's fault.
If this game is a glimpse of the games industry run by LGBT tyrant overlords
Then count me in
See?
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Biggest improvement in Record Keeper was game-specific victory fanfares, a nice touch for nostalgia's sake. That's something that RK is actually really good at, whereas the gameplay is still just okay.
Code is 93Gf, I'm sending out Bard's upgraded Soul Break since I don't have any character-specific ones. It's apparantly an MT +80% boost to physical damage, which is nice when you aren't stuck with Bard in your party.
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Alright, which of you is ANLFST.
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I'm shocked you even have to ask.
EDIT: My code is Q1ne, but my best offering is a generic L40 Cloud with a non-fully upgraded five-star sword.
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I was considering stopping FFRK since this is getting out of hand guys.
On the other hand I just did a 50 mithril pull and got four 5 stars items, which brings me to 4 natural five stars weapons and 4 natural five stars armor without having paid for anything
So this is the first time I'm using this smiley: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Code is Gh52. You get two shots of full revival.
Roundabout: this is Fenrir's fault.
If this game is a glimpse of the games industry run by LGBT tyrant overlords
Then count me in
See?
It took me forever to really understand that Georgio/Beth was a thing, because this was handled like an old sitcom so there were no kisses, and the game treated the lesbianism like nothing special
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I started playing FFRK because you all won't shut the fuck up about it. Anyway I got Cloud so I guess I won the game already?
My code is Q3gF and it is the awesomest fighter with the awesomest skillset.
Prime World: My games are pretty hit-or-miss, I either dominate or feed constantly. My Priestess is godlike, nothing like 4 Russians chasing you around the map and not being able to kill you.
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FF Cookie Clicker: 50 Mithril Pull get while playing between classes. 2 4 star swords and one 5-star whip, so now Rydia is a lock and Terra is now the weakest hitter on my team, even with Rydia in the back row (either whips ignore row or 5 star weapons are just that good; she outdamages everyone except Cloud, and even outdamages him in FF4 dungeons). May set her up for magic damage for bosses, but right now she's the only person who can cast Haste and having more than one Cura caster is necessary for more difficult dungeons. I suppose haste isn't purely necessary but I have the feeling that hasted Cloud/Rydia end up giving me better returns on damage than the few castings of -ra spells I can muster now.
That is, if I keep playing. After I got my first mythril pull I basically lost interest in the game. Oh I have a 5 star weapon so I win now, except for those battles where I don't and there's not really a whole lot of leeway to beat those battles through changing setups/good decision making. Nah I'm done. Good job, though, game, you distracted me for a week. I may pop on once the FF8 event is done to see what event's going on next but yeah don't really feel compelled to play anymore.
EDIT: Also now that you guys have the update it no longer feels like I'm playing the "real" version while you all are playing gimp version. So I don't have that going for me, which isn't nice.
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Also why has Cid become Rufus from Bill and Ted?
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better question, why haven't you?
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Fenrir have you beaten Roundabout with Georgio cam?
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Final Fantasy Candy Crush Simulator - Second 50-Mythril draw, snagged me a Hawkeye and a Genji Helm. Welp, Wakka instantly earned a spot back into my team.
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Georgio cam was just an april's fool thing and not in the actual game... Right?
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I haven't managed to complete a single mission without exploding. In spite of this, I don't think I'm even the worst driver in the city. Of course, now that I can jump, that's my first response to getting past anything, and this is so not optimal in a lot of situations and often results in even more explodey. But at least I can say with certainty that I'm better than Fenrir is at limo soccer.
The villain is French Canadian by the way, 100% DL approved gaming.
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God damn my phone that is unable to play Record Keeper! Guess I'll have to stay fixated on Chibirhythm and FF14 for my FF Nostalgia related nonsense.
Rayman Legends: Played through the main game of this. Credits are stupid long, automatic -5 points right there! More seriously, this game is drug induced and about 70% of the game is actually quite good. The problem is the other 30% is Murfy stages and good lord are those awful. They feel made specifically for Multiplayer, since Single Player they're abysmal...and I know they're not even that good on Multiplayer because when I played with my friend, he was stuck being Murfy and he really doesn't like that since you're not really playing, just changing the scenery for the 2nd player.
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FFRK: New Tidus event out so that makes me happy. I know he's unpopular with some, but Tidus is likely my favorite male character in the series. I can justify that for hours like Meeple, but the long and short of it is that I like his general attitude and I can relate to his particular reasons for being emo. So his flaws don't bother me while his upbeat qualities actually appeal to me. So I'm hoping to put him to good use but I'm not quite sure how to fit him into my current party. Got both his and Wakka's memory crystals so when I get them up to level 50, it's going to be exciting to get my first Record Material to play around with.
Final Fantasy VI: Brave New World
I'd heard the name before but Reiska turned me on to this romhack. It helps that FFRK and FFD are really hyping my love for FF at the moment.
This might be a good alternative for Zenny too. Since he keeps saying that FFRK is just making him want to play FF6 again. Well this romhack is FF6, but with a few cool design choices and general rebalancing. It's generally faithful to the FF6 original, but changes around some skillsets and more importantly makes all the skillsets useful.
The big feature is that it makes it so all Espers are only equipable by certain PCs, so stat boosts and magic spells aren't universal. This really changes up all the PCs roles and forces a lot of interesting choices. The design decisions in general seem to be "make any skill/weapon only have up to two or three users", which means all the PCs have their uses. It's very much a design choice I support and one I attempted in my own unfinished FF6 hack so it's nice to see it implemented.
Notably the "limit who can use what Espers" functionality was previously a difficult prospect in the FF6 hacking community, though by the time I'd lost interest in it, people had just figured it out but hadn't really implemented it yet. Nice to see that the first one to really use it was a quality romhack like this.
On the flip side there are some minor dialogue edits. Some good, some neutral, some really egregious. I suspect on the whole it's a losing trade but I didn't mind it and the main plot line is unaffected. There's a LOT of dumb allusions to other games and TV though. I'd worry about it dating itself but honestly all the references are so old that they might be timeless at this point?
Anyway, it's still FF6, the only game in the world I'd consider myself a master at, so I've actually already beaten the hack despite only just starting it two days ago... I guess that means I enjoyed it!
The only other thing of note is that apparently the hacker himself has an inflated ego, as someone in chat mentioned they'd met the guy and he claimed he was making FF6 the way it was meant to be, claiming to know it better than Square and taking every opportunity to diss square and their programming of the game, even where it wasn't warranted. I don't know how much of that is true but ultimately I don't think it matters for my enjoyment of the free hack that implements a bunch of design decisions I too personally always wanted in FF6. I don't know if creator attitude should even matter that much when it comes to something like this. It just seems petty. Although, it's entirely possible that him being a rude anti-Square guy might actually make someone like Zenny want to play the hack even MORE, so...
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FFRK talk: Let me just point out again that we're all elite gamers around here who have portable *real* gaming systems, right? Play more 3DS/Vita games!
The only other thing of note is that apparently the hacker himself has an inflated ego, as someone in chat mentioned they'd met the guy and he claimed he was making FF6 the way it was meant to be, claiming to know it better than Square and taking every opportunity to diss square and their programming of the game, even where it wasn't warranted.
Welcome to the mindset of the kind of person who'd spend 50-300 hours working on their own hack of a game, alas. (This actually sounds like the kind of thing that COULD impact my enjoyment, depending on how bad the added tv show references in the dialogue are. You Are Probably Not Working Designs.)
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Really, the fact that it actually works at all considering it is (I assume) like 80% of the bare minimum size it needed to be is a testament to human ingenuity.
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FFRK talk: Let me just point out again that we're all elite gamers around here who have portable *real* gaming systems, right? Play more 3DS/Vita games!
Yeah but those systems don't have pretty sprite work.
Welcome to the mindset of the kind of person who'd spend 50-300 hours working on their own hack of a game, alas. (This actually sounds like the kind of thing that COULD impact my enjoyment, depending on how bad the added tv show references in the dialogue are. You Are Probably Not Working Designs.)
Eh. For the most part not too bad. Though I was a little off put by Cyan's final dialog against Kefka being an Inigo Montoya quote while everyone else had pretty serious quotes reflecting their character arcs.
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And being in the process of replaying Lunar, even Working Designs could field some real duds with their references.
So, what have I been up to?
My own retro nostalgia kick is getting fed with some Breath of Fire IV. Since I'm too lazy to find all the pieces to my old PSX, I'm not doing it vintage and, like the poseur that I am, it's getting played via PS2. When last I left off, I thumbed my collective noses at some imperial jerk before teleporting halfway across the world and breaking into a secret installation... just to get caught. Metal Gear Dragon this ain't.
So, back to the beginning. No worries, just gotta bust a worren out, and we'll be on our way. On that note, I've gained the most useful babysitter ever in a canine samurai. Also, finally gained a Master for folks who aren't magically oriented. Ryu is still staying with Rwolf, but I'm debating it, because he does have some good uses for power.
Codename STEAM: Gotta go to a bridge and rescue some folks. Neat. Sadly, despite talking a lot early on, the conversations seem to be dying down a lot now. Granted, IS is not really known for their character work or plots, so this isn't really a huge failing. Game is proving to be interesting though, and it's nice to have a full party. For all that the new shiny subweapons feel like they're actually weaker than the initial stuff.
Aside from that, it seems a friend remembered my love of mixing groundhog day with death from the skies. So I got a shiny copy of Majora's Mask for my birthday. Beat the first boss, and am currently hunting for Fairy Pieces in Waterfall Temple. This thing is, well, I was curious how it would stack up. They really did do a lot to change the game, giving it a complete graphical overhaul, as well as changing the controls to work well with a second/touch screen and making it work with the 3DS in addition to just streamlining the hell out of it. It is clearly a refined and much improved version of the game. Heck, when you're in first person mode, you can even change where Link is looking by tilting the 3DS, which is kinda cool, totally optional (you can turn it off), and I've actually been using it to fine tune my arrow shots a bit. >_>
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FFRK talk: Let me just point out again that we're all elite gamers around here who have portable *real* gaming systems, right? Play more 3DS/Vita games!
You mean the dead platform PS Vita? Because that is its full name now.
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Honestly the fact that the dialog's changed at all makes me disinclined to play it, at least not before replaying vanilla FF6. I'd rather not have my nostalgia trip interrupted by Cyan telling Kefka "You set us up the poison. All your base are belong to me."
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Final Fantasy How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Autobattle - Got both Wakka and Tidus' Memory Crystals. My current problem right now is -money-, since 5-star equipments are expensive to upgrade.
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Tell me about it, having the game down for maintenance on the Gil daily fucking hurt this week. I had plans and they could not be done.
I got memory crystals like these other dudes. Need money, plz summon.
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Will do.
Also, since Wakka got a few levels on his weapon and I got him up to date with my other PCs level-wise, I'll probably replace Cloud with him as my Roaming Warrior. Which attack do you people prefer, Blinding Strike or Element Reels? Element Reels kinda weak damage-wise, but MT helps, soooo...
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Weak MT is always a waste of your two-off power skill. Use Blinding Strike.
I never picked a rando with an MT skill and thought "man that was a good decision" afterwards.
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FFRK talk: Let me just point out again that we're all elite gamers around here who have portable *real* gaming systems, right? Play more 3DS/Vita games!
You mean the dead platform PS Vita? Because that is its full name now.
The preferred term is "legacy," thank you very much.
(And I've played, what, 1.5 PS Vita games? It's all about the PSP / PSX games anyway. Legacy indeed.)
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Weak MT is always a waste of your two-off power skill. Use Blinding Strike.
I never picked a rando with an MT skill and thought "man that was a good decision" afterwards.
Yeah, you're likely right, it needs to be potent to be worth using. I mean, every time I picked a rando Vanille Deprotega user, it was one hell of a "well fuck this fight" button (also matters a lot for multipart bosses), and Donkey Kong Cecil's Darkness is almost as obscene. But yeah, Reels stand nowhere near that level of offense.
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Honestly the fact that the dialog's changed at all makes me disinclined to play it, at least not before replaying vanilla FF6. I'd rather not have my nostalgia trip interrupted by Cyan telling Kefka "You set us up the poison. All your base are belong to me."
I seem to recall it's more like they inserted curse words into the game. Or maybe that's a different FF6 hack? I don't remember.
I tried playing it for a while but the guy who made it is a definite No Fun Guy. Like he removed the steal tables off non-human enemies because it wasn't "realistic" enough for monsters to have treasure. Motherfucker have you ever heard of a little thing called Dungeons & Dragons?
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The original release had a bunch of swearing, but in the current release, he dialed it back significantly (apparently at fan suggestion?).
Also, yes, he removed the monster Steals, but in compensation, he made all the human monster Steals worth wasting a turn on. And he increased the Steal success rate. So... the effect is that Steal is actually worthwhile AND you're not wasting turns on monsters that don't have anything... I'd call it a huge net positive.
Yeah, you're likely right, it needs to be potent to be worth using. I mean, every time I picked a rando Vanille Deprotega user, it was one hell of a "well fuck this fight" button (also matters a lot for multipart bosses), and Donkey Kong Cecil's Darkness is almost as obscene. But yeah, Reels stand nowhere near that level of offense.
Off hand, I've also gotten a lot of MT mileage out of Rydia's Call II. (Thanks Scar!)
I've been summoning you guys whenever possible (even on the braindead autobattle levels) to boost your Gil income. Do you think it checks if your warrior is actually summoned in-battle, or is it just a "your warrior was chosen on the select screen, now you get Gil" thing? I've been attempting to summon just in case, but I think it's the latter. Anyway, hopefully you are all now rolling in Gil.
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I've been really surprised by the number of constant stream of quality new games on the Vita considering its sales, you just don't hear about them because there have been no real big games since like Tearaway. It's probably dead soon, but about as much as the 3DS.
Anyway FFRK is not really brainless, it is just evil FTP BS
Grefter, you didn't even add me even though I set up an amazing jumpscare for you
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FFD: Playing this some while working on the stat topic. Alba is still awesome~
(http://i.imgur.com/n7ZaNMN.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/G4abp8h.jpg)
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Roundabout: We have acquired aquacar technology and not even Jimmy Carter can stop us now. I think hanging out with Jeffrey might be a bad influence on us, though. Zut allooooors!
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Rondo of Swords: Both paths beaten. I have gotten my $10 worth of the game. If people aren't useful within their first 5 or so levels of when you get them, they never will be. Not much else to say on the matter.
Final Fantasy Time Waster: Got this about a week or so ago, and have been playing it. Not sure what to say, except that I often find myself unsure of what to do, and rarely with any money worth a damn.
Fallout: New Vegas: Started this up and decided to actually finish it and see the various playthroughs/beat all the DLCs. A couple years ago I beat the Independant Route as a Barter/Gun pro. Now I'm running through with the DLC as a Brawler and going to go through The Most Obedient Route. I'm just finishing up with the Repconn Rocketships. I have Boone and ED-E following me around to pick things off from range while I run up and punch things to death. It's fun. Only level 6, though, which I feel is quite underleveled for this point in the game, but I haven't really missed anything, so I'm not certain why I feel that way.
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I decided that I enjoy experiential approach to video games and $3.50 for 3 item draws at HUGE increased drop rates in FFRK was an okay use of part of a $20 gift card I had lying around.
3* Gaia Rod
(http://static.giantbomb.com/uploads/square_small/0/125/178081-ravel.jpg)
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Mage: I'd suggest hitting up that ruined town north of Goodsprings (I forget the name) to grab Love and Hate as soon as you can deal with the enemies there. It'll be the optimal punching option for a while.
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FFRK talk: Let me just point out again that we're all elite gamers around here who have portable *real* gaming systems, right? Play more 3DS/Vita games!
You mean the dead platform PS Vita? Because that is its full name now.
The preferred term is "legacy," thank you very much.
(And I've played, what, 1.5 PS Vita games? It's all about the PSP / PSX games anyway. Legacy indeed.)
From my understanding, that line was taken out of context/mistranslated anyway (I read that when he said 'legacy' he was referring specifically to the original Vita model which was still being made as opposed to the redesign or something. In effect, the same relative meaning as, say, Nintendo releasing the 3DS XL and then calling the original 3DS a legacy platform.
I mean, could be wrong.
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Why can't I find loot tables for this most recent bunch of stages.
Ff3,5, 8,10, 13 ect.
The internet has tons of crap from the older content, but maybe nothing worthwhile drops?
I mean, we are about to get new stages and I still don't know where to go to get good gear in those stages.
Granted everything but the black cowl is a 2 star farm so far...
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My guess is that nobody cares about it, rightly so
FFRK: I reached level 50 with Cloud so I replaced him with the brand new Tidus. I used him a bit before asking myself:
Am I really willing to use Tidus, just because he can break the level cap and finish some special mission objectives right now? Is this the person I've become, sacrificing my integrity for higher numbers?
The answer is no. Fuck Tidus.
Luneth is back.
Anyway I did a 50 mithril pull.
(http://www.gifsanimes.fr/disney-gifs/disney-gifs/gontran-bonheur/gontran-bonheur-gifs-animes-9702193.gif)
I got another totally sweet 5* lightning sword, so I can either use two of them at once, or combine them to form a 6 * weapon (!) I really really don't know what to do. Life is hard guys.
I also got some 5* helm or whatever. I think it's supposed to be Dark Cecil's helm. Yeah.
I got Rinoa's special 5* weapon, which is fucking awesome but only really usable by her and Loser.
I hope we get Rinoa back real soon because she's really going to be the best. (And I don't want to use Loser much) I'm sure this won't happen until like september, unfortunately. I probably won't be playing the game anymore then.
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I've been really surprised by the number of constant stream of quality new games on the Vita considering its sales, you just don't hear about them because there have been no real big games since like Tearaway. It's probably dead soon, but about as much as the 3DS.
So I'll bite: what Vita games are worth playing?
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FFRK talk: Let me just point out again that we're all elite gamers around here who have portable *real* gaming systems, right? Play more 3DS/Vita games!
You mean the dead platform PS Vita? Because that is its full name now.
The preferred term is "legacy," thank you very much.
(And I've played, what, 1.5 PS Vita games? It's all about the PSP / PSX games anyway. Legacy indeed.)
From my understanding, that line was taken out of context/mistranslated anyway (I read that when he said 'legacy' he was referring specifically to the original Vita model which was still being made as opposed to the redesign or something. In effect, the same relative meaning as, say, Nintendo releasing the 3DS XL and then calling the original 3DS a legacy platform.
I mean, could be wrong.
If it's not what they meant then they're fooling themselves.
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Smash4: Woot! Amiibos GET! Managed to snag Palutena, Dark Pit, Ganondorf, and Zamus. Now to level them all up to the point that I can't beat them anymore. :(
FFD: Working on the replay for stat topic purposes. The stat topic is all but done but I'm only up to the part where the parties merge on the replay.
Playing with a Memorist this time, they take a lot of planning to make them work well endgame. This particular Memorist is rocking the Monk and Paladin skillsets and owning everything. I do wonder if a more magically-focused one would be better but that likely requires RedMage/BlackMage AND Summoner to get the most out of it. And RedMage's stupid long skillset slows down Memorist a lot.
Other builds:
Red/Black/Summoner- Dualcast Magic Font Summons~ holy crap. Also backup healer
Red/White/Seer- healbot with Dualcast Holy damage and all those useful buffs!
Thief/Ranger/Ninja- Dualwield Spreadshot and Mug~ Oh My! Also Alchemy for 2x Items in a pinch
Warrior/Dancer/Dark Knight- Backliner Double Attack with dark sword stats. Yes please. Dancer adds MT image and a good physical in Sword Dance to tide me over until War and DK got their better skills. Trance is also a great option on a physical build that doesn't need their MP much anyway.
Not getting used:
White/Red/Magus- the useless Dark side healer who levels up Magus for my main Black Mage
Summoner/Red/Dragoon- Light side Summoner now obsolete
Warrior/Thief/Bard- Utility Light Side guy now obsolete
My builds all work nicely but they aren't getting much in the way of F-abilities, so I doubt this will be the run that I bother with the bonus bosses.
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I've been really surprised by the number of constant stream of quality new games on the Vita considering its sales, you just don't hear about them because there have been no real big games since like Tearaway. It's probably dead soon, but about as much as the 3DS.
So I'll bite: what Vita games are worth playing?
The Vita is really good in terms of indie games or ports and remakes of things (P4Golden). As far as original games, I think it's really only Tearaway and the Danganronpa games.
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Even as far as ports/remakes go it doesn't really impress me much, particularly compared to the PSP (FFT, Mega Man, MMX, Castlevania, VP, etc.). I really haven't heard much that sounds exciting and can't be had for other systems (although it's your best bet for playing some indie games on a portable, yeah). I thought the PSP was disappointing for losing the third-party battle so badly to the DS (opposite situation of Nintendo home consoles) + obviously not having much first-party, and the Vita seemed even worse in this regard.
Hyrule Warriors - Twilight map gets pretty nasty in the second half, this is rather pleasant. I do wish the rankings were a bit better balanced; it's good that enemy damage has continued to rise but it means that getting A in damage received requires nearly perfect play (while A in KOs is trivial).
Fire Emblem - Hector mode, mostly doing this to unlock HHM on the Virtual Console version but it's been fun enough, up to the Bern arc.
Pokemon Alpha Sapphire - Just beat Wattson and progressing along the next route, levels 17-24. Current team is Grovyle (OP as fuck with Leaf Blade/Grass Pledge at Level 23), Mightyena (got one with Thunder Fang, which is nice), Golbat, Aron, Hariyama, and Magikarp (joining at L15 makes it less stupid).
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FFD: Working on the replay for stat topic purposes. The stat topic is all but done but I'm only up to the part where the parties merge on the replay.
Playing with a Memorist this time, they take a lot of planning to make them work well endgame. This particular Memorist is rocking the Monk and Paladin skillsets and owning everything. I do wonder if a more magically-focused one would be better but that likely requires RedMage/BlackMage AND Summoner to get the most out of it. And RedMage's stupid long skillset slows down Memorist a lot.
Said this in chat but.
1) Memorists are better at physical builds than magical builds (but this is largely a symptom of FFD physicals being OP at endgame with high-end F-Abilities and such).
2) That said, Memorandum or whatever it's called is glitchy as fuck when it comes to drawing magic sets. If you want to specifically build a mage memorist, I recommend parking them in Red Mage and keeping them there until you unlock Memorist. No, seriously, don't level anything else at all. When you draw a Magic ability set with Memorandum (whether Magic Blade, White Magic, Black Magic, Red Magic, or Doublecast), you get access to the FULL SPELL LIST of that ability. Even if all you have is one job level. So basically, a Memorist that pulls Doublecast on Memorandum can cast all L1-8 white magic (I think excluding Seer exclusive spells unless you have those abilities learned?), all L1-7 black magic, all (light side) summons and all spellblades. I am not sure if you need one job level in white/black for this trick to work or not, but it should be silly fun if you wanna mess with it.
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With that vita tv thing around now, I'd recommend just getting one of the consoles. It pains me because I love the vita, it's an awesome piece of hardware, but Sony has given it zero support so there is no good reason to pay hundreds of dollars for one.
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Yeah the vita doesn't have a lot of hot exclusives. Everybody since the game's release knows that releasing only on the Vita is total financial suicide.
It's getting some few PS4 + Vita only titles (Axiom Verge and Salt & Sanctuary are next, maybe I'm forgetting some?)
I really really really don't see the point of the vita tv since the vita is all about indies (or games like not-Castlevania) on that portable hardware w/ that screen and shit. Indies now being the best thing in gaming, this is real nice. I usually don't care that much about portability or screen colors (or framerate and screen resolution etc), but now, playing Spelunky on a PC now feels like playing Pokemon Ruby on a GBA emulator instead of the real thing. I've already rebought a few games just to play them on the Vita.
Nintendo is finally catching up about indies and the 3DS is starting to get them too (Shovel Knight, not-Castlevania, I think Binding of Isaac Rebirth, etc) I can say pretty confidently that any non-Sony exclusive will probably also be released on the 3DS from now on, so aside from the Sony exclusive, a 3DS can probably replace it from now on.
Pulling my download list.
The games I've liked on it are Gravity Rush, Spelunky, Jet Set Radio, Guacamelee, Virtue's Last Reward, Stealth Inc, EDF 2017, Muramasa Rebirth, Isaac Rebirth, OlliOlli 1/2, Luftrausers, Hotline Miami, Grim Fandango, Soul Sacrifice, Unfinished Swan, Octodad, Rogue Legacy, the Swapper, Broken Sword, FFX-2, PixelJunk Shooter, Tearaway, La Mulana, Shovel Knight, Rayman Origins/Legends, Sonic Kart 2, Touch my Katamari, Fez, + the PSP RPGs (I never got a PSP)
Popular games I didn't like or care that much about include Knytt Underground, P4G, Machinarium, Terraria, FFX, Don't Starve, Dragon's Crown, Thomas was Alone Titan Souls, Uncharted Golden Abyss
Haven't played Danganronpa or the new Ys
Looking forward to Nuclear Throne, not-Castlevania and the two games I've mentioned above.
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As someone who travels a bit and sometimes commutes, having portability plus that indie library (and I agree that indie developers are putting out the best games recently) plus my recent fixation with endless games (Spelunky, Binding of Isaac, etc) more than justified my Vita purchase.
Remoteplay with the PS4 is occasionally useful as well, although the touchpad control scheme is ridiculously awful with some games.
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I had a Vita for about a year, like 2012 to 2013? Something like that. I bought it since I lacked a PS3 and hey, a number of games I want to play on PS3 are coming on Vita, seems like a better investment!
I played Lego Batman 2 (bundle deal, came with game), Playstation All Stars, Gravity Rush, Medieval (PS1 classics, etc.), and Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus...and that was about it. I don't think I've ever had a console I've struggled to get games for like this, and nothing interesting sans FF10 HD was coming out for it in the near future when I had it either. Bought an old model of PS3 for like $120 sometime later, definitely find that a way better investment. If nothing else, FF14 alone has so far justified that.
Wii U I struggled to get games on at first but I knew that buying it when I did since I had an amazingly good deal and didn't think I'd get a good one anytime soon. Don't regret that purchase since well, I actually have a Wii U library plus it gave me a console to play Wii Games on without having to deal with my annoying brother, huzzah backwards compatibility, as well as other perks like the GBA Virtual Console, the few Digital Wii games that have been released (all 3 I didn't have, bought them for $10 each, and one of them is technically 3 games!)...you get the idea. For a console with as limited a library as it does, I sure have a lot of games on it. Vita really has no excuse by comparison.
A Link to the Past: So...speaking of Wii U, finally finished my replay of this. Nice nostalgic trip, and game is about as fun as I remember, though harder too. I took note of how often dungeons do NOT require the dungeon item to progress through, and those that do need it like once, usually to access the final boss room, or something close to it, and in just about all those cases, you get to the rooms after you get the item, so it's not a case of the game teasing you with "You're close to the boss but you can't get in here, neener neener neener!"
There are a number of dungeons that need items from previous dungeons, which honestly I prefer if only because it stops the formulaic approach later Zelda games have of this idea of fake non-linearity. They seem wide and exploration based but in truth, you really have to approach them in a specific order (which you find via trial and error) because there's so many locked doors and usually only one available key at a time, until you get the dungeon item, then you can use that to get to other parts of the dungeon, which lead to further more complicated parts that use that item.
ALttP? Actually lets you explore the dungeon because they don't require the dungeon item until generally the very end (as I just noted.) There were certain dungeons I beat where I didn't go to every room, because they don't require you to explore everything, just enough to get the required doors open, the dungeon item (which in some cases is flat out optional, like the Ice Palace and Ganon's Castle, though you REALLY want that item!)
Speaking of the required items to get into dungeons, they're usually very good about handling this too. Just about all of them make it clear you need this item in the first room. You walk into Ice Palace, you see this Ice Skeleton charging at you which you hit with everything and nothing works! Clearly, you don't have the item to get past it yet, and the game actually tells you via Sahasrahla that certain enemies can only be killed by certain items. So unless you found the Flame Rod (which is Dungeon 3, this is Dungeon 5), or the Medallion of Bombos (optional, but not too hard to find), you aren't getting into this dungeon. Given, as I said, this dungeon comes after the one you get Flame Rod, if you follow them numerically, no problem! If you don't...you turn around in the opening room, so it's not like the game is really wasting your time. It'd be offensive if they pulled this stunt halfway into the dungeon only to go "gtfo and get the item!" but first room? Game's way of saying "You will need this item to get through this dungeon!"
Bosses also didn't require the dungeon items like ever. Often the item helps against the boss, but it's rarely required. Armos Knights can be beaten with your sword, it'll just take a lot longer than your bows, and then we have people like Blind where your dungeon item is completely useless on him. If this was a later Zelda game, you know very well it'd have something like he wears big armor that you'd need to pick up strategically placed Black Rocks around the room to throw at him, then hit him when his armor is exposed, and those rocks would magically respawn so you would never be perma-stuck. Nope, ALttP just cuts out the bullcrap and goes "The dungeon Item here isn't combat oriented, so stab this guy with your sword a lot" and focuses on just making him an interesting, unique fight rather than trying to rely on a dungeon item gimmick.
The only major exception I can think of to all that is literally the 2nd Dungeon, both for progression and the boss. Hookshot is required at several points in the 2nd Crystal Dungeon, and the boss requires it to beat him. Granted, how they use it is far more original than what later Zelda games do, since it's not "Use item to stun boss, sword to damage, repeat 3 times!" but something else entirely and it's a legitimate two phase boss too.
There is one boss, though, that really stands out for poor design and that's Turtle Rock's boss. The poor design has never affected me since I've never missed getting the Ice Rod. I had the luxury of playing this when I was like 8 years old, so the idea of "run around and explore everything!" was a valid idea, so stumbling upon the Ice Rod by chance was a very normal thing, and something they wanted you to do. Having to require a completely optional item up to that point with no hint whatsoever that this item will be required is poor design, as you fight the boss, and literally cannot beat him unless you get the item. Again, it's never been a problem for me, but say someone picks up the game now and just wants to run through it as quickly as possible but without an FAQ. They'll use the map to find the next point of interest, using the in-game help to point them in the right direction and such, and thus never once get to the Ice Rod, fight the Turtle Rock boss and bang their head against the wall at how they can't hurt him.
Requiring an item from a previous dungeon is fine; yes, you can tackle dungeons in a non-linear fashion, but the game numbers them for a reason (unlike ALBW where you can go in whatever order you want and the required item is basically spelled out for you at the start of the dungeon), so going after Dungeon 7 when you haven't beaten 3-6? That's your own fault, and I think many would recognize that they should just go tackle the dungeons in order. Requiring an item you need to go out of your way to get with an "easy to miss" hint of it's existence? Yeah, can't defend that one. Ice Rod should have been a dungeon item, or they should have made an alternative way to hurt the boss that is way less efficient (like say, head vulnerable to Boomerang, but it does no damage, and you have a very small window to hit him with your sword. Boss is going to be a pain in the ass, sure, but he'd at least be beatable.) This is one thing I cannot defend of ALttP, despite how it's never actually affected me. It really stands out because there's nothing else like this in the rest of the game. Yes, Dungeon 5's boss requires Bombos or Flame Rod, but you need one or the other just to GET PAST THE FIRST ROOM, as I said before, so it's a given at that point.
So yeah, still had a lot of fun with the game, it's aged well, etc. It's a shame that just about every Zelda game after OoT sans Majora's mask and ALBW took all their cues from OoT, and followed the same formula, because ALttP shows that Zelda very much did NOT follow such a rigid formula.
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Final Fantasy We Love Autobattle - Finished all current main series dungeons and showered Wakka with a bunch of greater growth eggs in order to get him to L50 and break his level cap. Within a couple minutes, the game gave me his second Record Materia. Welp. Now, to collect the remaining four Mythril for my next 11-relic draw by slaving away at Difficulty 50 Elite Dungeons.
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for the next wave of increased drops and cheaper rare draw that I had bought gems for, got Murasame 5* sword. So that is something I guess.
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Final fantasy I play this at work all day long
I'm waiting for kains weapon to pop back up in the rotation before I spend my mithril.
Doing these quests has been annoying at times.
Have to recreate the summon spells is the most annoying...
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Most of the ability crafting quests aren't worth the rewards. Crafting summons is the worst, since you can only get summon orbs from event dungeons or mastery/first time rewards.
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But I want them all completed!
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Yeah I don't know how you can look at these quests, be able to complete them, and not complete them
Witcher 3: I have way more cards!!! YAY
I'm starting to get super suspicious of every random character I'm helping.
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FFRK: Did first 50-mythril pull, got Enhancer and Masamune. Now someone is going to tell me Terra and Sephiroth are event-only characters that won't be available for another six months.
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For a console with as limited a library as it does, I sure have a lot of games on it. Vita really has no excuse by comparison.
When I look at the library of vita exclusives, they all start to look alike, a veritable ocean of anime-styled action rpgs and dungeon crawlers. I'm sure someof them are good, but it's tough to sift through.
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DDR II - I tried some Japanese Expert songs and I died
Breath of Fire 3 - I decided to start this up after Dhyer remade the stat topic. I just beat the Nue Chimera. It has that classic RPG slow start, with low-stakes adventure and all that.
Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn - Just finished the Micaiah solo map. I'm trying to use Fiona, which is a poor life decision but I enjoy making poor life decisions.
The Last Story - The party just got removed from prison and now Zael is debating whether he wants to be a knight or not.
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Terra and Sephiroth are event-only characters that won't be available for another six months.
This doesn't really matter, you can still give their weapons to other people and you'll only miss out on the exclusive limit break (which probably isn't that great anyway)
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Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn - Using Fiona in 1-E with her piss poor accuracy is aaaawful. I fed her a couple of kills but the game conspires to make her as unlevelable as possible. And of course the next Dawn Brigade map also makes her bad because of swamp yay yay yay.
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Captain Toad Treasure Tracker: This game offends me because it dares be colorful and cheerful in an era where games are ONLY allowed to be depressing, Grim Dark, Male Power Fantasies! On the rare chance there's a female protagonist, she's only allowed to dress like a slut for it to be viable.
Got to Chapter 10, and killed a dragon in a cartoonish manner. The lack of firing a bazooka at this thing is downright insulting!
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FFRK: Apparently Lulu's event is going on in the JP version. I deleted the app. I'm free!
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Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn - Using Fiona in 1-E with her piss poor accuracy is aaaawful. I fed her a couple of kills but the game conspires to make her as unlevelable as possible. And of course the next Dawn Brigade map also makes her bad because of swamp yay yay yay.
Yeaaah. The LP thread voted to force use of Fiona. The LPer obliged by forcibly levelling her to 20 for promotion in 1-E. This was accomplished by using Nailah's Gaze (or whatever it is called) on one of the priests and letting his staff regen heal off her scratch damage for something like 60 turns. Point being getting real use out of Fiona without feeding her all your stat boosters and bonus exp is at some point going to require doing something really stupid, although you have some options on what KIND of stupid I suppose (I know Elfboy used her in the Scrub Run, and I can't IMAGINE he did what the LP did. Not his style).
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Honestly, I would expect Elf to deploy her and let her die to save someone else for one more turn.
Mofo is cold as ICE.
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If only I'd found a way to do that.
Actually I used her the very first time I played the game because I saw "cavalier + earth affinity" and figured it was only chapter 7 so I could make the bad stats pay off (poor, naive, me). I didn't grind her up the way the thread did, but I did give her the Energy Drop + a couple levels of BExp + a really good forged weapon (hit matters even more than atk for her) + fished for kills wherever I could find them. She was terrible until late part 3, although she does eventually become pretty good which is more than I can say for Astrid I suppose.
Fire Emblem - Just beat Cog of Destiny, which means Hector is promoted. The main team is Hector, Florina, Fiora, Kent, Sain, Raven, Lucius, Priscilla, Serra, Pent, Louise, Heath, and Nino. Eliwood and Lyn both got badly speed-screwed so I ended up dropping them except for high-deployment maps, Guy was Str-screwed so I got him to Level 20 then dropped him. Matthew and Legault have both been used extensively but neither will be promoted. Heath and Nino are somewhat the result of my wanting to baby people for the Exp ranking, but Heath does pay off some in Night of Farewells and should be respectable the rest of the way. Nino, as a contrast to Fiona, is at least very easy to level (accurate, ranged damage with good offensive stats for her level), and promoted at the end of Cog of Destiny and killed Linus because whynot. Obviously not objectively worth it at all but a good reminder that she is far better than the true scrubs of the series. Currently have five stars in everything.
Hyrule Warriors - Think I'm approaching the burnout point for this game again. Not just yet though. Master Quest map is totally complete for things I care about (i.e. not heart containers), Twilight map is objectively quite fun though because of its high challenge level.
Pokemon Alpha Sapphire - Oh wowww Emerald must have boosted Flannery a lot. Seriously between reverting her to a far inferior setup and levels being higher in AS (even without the Exp Share) the fight was just kinda sad. This is definitely Gen 3 "Gen 6-ified", with better random trainers and worse bosses (though not quite to the degree of gen 6?).
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Roundabout: Finished. You can run over thousands of people and no one cares, but help out one anarchist with sufficiently poor fashion sense to have gauged ears in the seventies (or I guess any time) and suddenly the cops are all over you.
Evidently this game was made by one half of the party responsible for the Saint's Row 2 LP. I'm just going to suggest that this explains everything about Roundabout. Panzer is an agent of chaos.
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Suikoden Tierkreis thoughts: What an odd game. Finished it ~10 days ago as noted, but writeup time. It has got some really strong elements and some really awful elements. Luckily I'm the type of person who's happy to enjoy the good elements and gloss over the bad parts, but sheesh. The bad parts are REALLY bad. So I'm going to whine about that first. Spoilers, of course.
The dungeon crawling is just... horrible. As is the combat. This is a game where there's a person who's the Viki-esque person with the oft-noted plot power to teleport anywhere she's been before, and you *still cannot teleport on your own*. (Outside of a few very specific points which she isn't even related to.) And the game doesn't plot-accelerate you out of several dungeons, so you have to trudge back the exact same way you came. And this all wouldn't be so bad if the dungeons were, y'know, interesting experiences, but they're incredibly bland. Not too many doodads, just empty corridors that are zoomed in too close such that it happened more than once that I got turned around unknowingly after a battle. I'm a person with a decent memory for such things, too. The combat is wholly uninteresting autobattle nonsense, but I've accepted that for other games (other Suikodens!) so this isn't necessarily a killer. I will say that if you're going to have easy randoms, make them like FF6 randoms which are at least very fast to fight. Speed this up, darn it.
So... a brief aside. I have a friend who didn't like Silent Hill because he felt it was insufficiently difficult. You know, you need to be scared in survival horror, so therefore he wasn't scared because he could hit nurses with a pipe all day or whatever. This is... silly. Silent Hill is scary for other reasons. Still, there's a limit to this. Effortlessly OHKOing Ganon (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbIpq8Uq4YI) in a Zelda game would be a huge anticlimax. So there clearly does come a point where gameplay can be so easy that it dulls the desired feel of the game.
Okay, back to Tierkreis. We all know, elite gamers here, that your average turn-based RPG is secretly rather easy. You can give fancy moves to the enemy, but if you simply revive dead party members ASAP and perhaps occasionally heal, you're going to win eventually. But you can still at least give the illusion of challenge. Let it feel like an epic confrontation, even if you aren't really going to lose short of catastrophic errors of judgment. Grandia II bosses are not particularly powerful, but dang if they aren't fun & rewarding to fight. In the same way, I can appreciate a Suikoden boss fight that's supposed to be an epic struggle against a mighty foe that isn't ACTUALLY hard, but feels rewarding to defeat anyway. And the plot sure does hype a lot of fights as difficult, complete with the party members panting afterward, that didn't threaten at all (or, in one case, that I literally one-rounded!). But whatever! It can work. So... a mostly good example: the HQ attack 3/4 of the way through the game. If you look at the boss stats I posted, objectively speaking, these guys suck. And... it makes little sense from a plot perspective, too. Why aren't they sending an army to support these guys? Aren't they concerned about losing the precious Chronicles? Why are they attacking from 3 directions at once? And yet, who cares. As a set piece - an excuse for a bunch of big fights, a chance for it to feel like recruiting all these dudes meant something - it's great. ('sup, Mass Effect 2.) You get to split up into 4 groups and take on 5 boss battles in a row. Bring it on! This is cool. Sure, I'd rather they upped the difficulty on the bosses some, but I get what the game was going for here, and I like it. It's like FF6's Narshe defense or XG's Shevat defense sequence. You don't even WANT it to be super-super difficult if you have someone who really neglected their party members too much.
But... I was ranting about the bad parts. The game never replicates this again, despite having room for up to 5 (!) parties. You have to make some other parties for an assault later on Cynas, and the fights are just... awful. I suppose the logic is you might have screwed up and only deployed one person, or be horribly underlevel, or something, but then just allow these other parties to be modified / grind after the fact. Instead, if you bring a real force, your other parties get 1 battle each which are all *insanely* easy. I'm talking "oh 2 enemies, you OHKO both with 2 actions while the other 2 party members twiddle their thumbs." Kefka's Tower this is not. Like... rip off Kefka's Tower entirely. Have 3-5 groups you can switch between and gear up / grind with all of them, and give them all *real* boss fights, and have them be right after save points. This isn't even a break with series tradition, both Suiko3 & Suiko5 make you deploy 3 parties in the final dungeon (if for a much shorter period of time). Look, I just want to have my other parties have something to do so that this is the 108 Stars of Destiny, not the 5 Stars of Destiny. Letting me purchase from the Stars who are cooks / smiths / salesmen / etc. would be nice, too! Ugh.
Now, after all this asking for more difficulty, or at least more fake difficulty (triple all endgame boss HP!), a complaint about something being too difficult. The frue final is very fast and, late in his sequence, has a strong MT 2HKO. And initiative is fairly random. So even if you spam an MT healing spell every round, it's possible via luck of the draw to have your healing spell uselessly go first one round, boss uses MT doom, boss uses MT doom at start of next round, rekt. This would be... fine! If you had a save point right before the boss. You don't, so there's basically old Dragon Quest difficulty of "I hope the AI RNG doesn't screw me." Granted, blitzing is not that hard and means that the number of chances for the boss to do this won't be very many, but it is possible, and if I'd run across it it'd have been frustrating, not fun. As is, I didn't run into that, so it was a cakewalk, because if you don't get unlucky it's the usual "do you know that healing is a useful thing, if y win." Still not a particularly rewarding win, and yet can still randomly wipe you if you're unlucky. Ugh.
I'll add that while there's some joy in figuring out optimal setups, I think the Pokemon-esque 4 move limit was a mistake with a cast this large. It just means there's a huge amount of bookkeepping to do every time you grab a new skill as you check what it is for every person and what you should take out for it. Just manage this for me and auto-upgrade skills. Every character gets a passive and 3 moves, and sometimes the passive / moves upgrade based on grabbing Chronicles. There you go. Would probably make characters *more* unique by forcing some more tough choices, too.
Moving on to plot whines... hmm. I don't think they really sold some of the heel/face turns well, or more generally "get" what the Order was up to in a proper sympathetic way. I think it's perfectly fine to play with a point you want to criticize to make its bad implications more stark - the "futile acceptance" part of a world which is predestined, here. And everybody knows religions can be hypocritical and inconsistent, so it's weird how The Order simultaneously crows about its predictions (Which are only useful if used to save lives - e.g. Macoute crowing about knowing about snowslides in the mountains) but also preaches that attempting to avoid disasters is pointless, but it's plausible, sure. But that isn't the angle the PCs use; for some reason they seem to think that a predestined world clearly has no joy or happiness, which is weird. For example, Chrodechild's argument to Fredegund (who, for being introduced as an OMG big time problem villain, ends up barely doing anything) is something along the lines of "I love you, how could that be true in a predestined world". Pish posh, especially from what we see of Valfred's eternal day later on. She could plausible have answered back that love exists BECAUSE the One King has predestined everything to be awesome, and it's perfectly compatible and why can't you see that. I mean, come on, you can actually check what real-life Calvinists believe / believed, and at its strongest form you ended up with Candide-esque "God has ordained the BEST POSSIBLE WORLD which is AWESOME".
But hey, at least they tried to explain Fredegund. Sophia, on the other hand, was apparently beat her up -> suddenly she is on our side because. I guess maybe getting beaten up washes off vague nonsensical brainwashing? It's still a bit of a clash, as it's implied that Dirk survives having a Chronicle implanted in him via some ubermenschen Triumph Of The Will type deal. So it stands to reason that somebody else who survives this for a long time would also be a zealot. But oh well, I guess this vague unexplained brainwashing that falls off after fighting is a bit of a staple in bad RPG tropes, so whatever.
While ST handled a multidimensions plot better than many, I think it was a poor choice to have the others called "The Infinity", though. Worlds are getting munched in The Infinity? By definition, they're probably getting munched then created all the time. The game tries to hype this as a big thing, too, but this is really a bit too abstract... are you willing to fight so that there will be invisible other dimensions maybe in the many-dimensions version of quantum mechanics?! No? You want me to care, do what Bravely Default did - there are 108 dimensions, and now there are only 5 left, better act now before they're all connected into one or something.
This is going to be general and vague complaint, and it isn't uncommon, but some of the plotlines didn't really seem to cohere. For example, there's this bizarre incident in the home village of the Furious Roar where the bad guys attack, and you fight them, and win, then Dirk comes by and says "lol thanks for the distraction we win!!1!" and Diluf is all "clearly you are the real demons." Okay, so I guess Dirk stole the Chronicle while we weren't looking and then Diluf has horrible judgment about who to trust. Except... the Chronicle isn't actually stolen? So... what did Dirk do he was bragging about then and why would Diluf even be mad? (Incidentally, that Chronicle DOES get stolen... later... and it goes to Dirk, who was crowing about stealing it here... so I have to wonder if they stuck in two different spots for it to be stolen, and then half undid one spot after they realized they didn't want to have the same Chronicle stolen then recovered twice in a row.)
Some of the characters were pretty lame, but I guess that's to be expected with 108 stars. I'll call out a few in particular:
* Zenoa. Ugh. Zerase was terrible too and they decided to recreate her. "lolol you suck and I disrespect you and I know the plot but I'm not going to tell you but will help you anyway." Don't get me wrong, you can't tell the plot to the player too early, and I'm fine with having characters inexplicably delay on telling you key details, but don't draw attention to this fact unless you ACTUALLY have a narrative reason to do so (e.g. Citan). Especially weird since she knows the true nature of the One King yet doesn't warn you off the bad end, because... because. They never explain WTF is going on with Ordovic & her's "resurrection" either, although I suppose that's okay.
* Icas & Morrin. Okay, token womanizer, even cartoonishly played up, fine. But Morrin wants Our Heroes to... what... kidnap her lost love who very openly is not the type to settle down with one person? This is... pathetic. And for whatever reason these idiots get tons of scenes and never have any character development, or at least other characters commenting on the lack of ability to grow up. Could have been okay as a side joke, was expanded into something lame instead.
* Buchse. What, you say? The random silent gunner with no lines? How can he be lame, he's just there to show Geschutz has some reports! Well he gets one scene in the final castle bit, and it's really dumb. He takes a shot at whoever was coming through the door, and somehow misses. (This is Our Hero, and he's apparently aiming at Tsaubern because he was annoyed at him or something.) Wat. Talk about failed humor. Lol I tried to murder someone but I suck so lucky, I'll apologize for not trying to murder the right person for no reason?
There was some plot wonkiness with the final showdown, too, aside from the poor life decision to have it only be 1 party. So... the last Chronicle attacking us really was just a rando-test? And... no final plot twist with respect to the final boss? Obviously referring to my earlier speculation that it'd be Atrie or alternate-dimension hero or the hero's father or something. Definitely missing some plot there, I think it was a bad call to just make it the equivalent of a giant space monster. Even worse is that it's apparently involuntary mind control space monster, since he's all thankful after you beat him up. This is a horrible choice in a Suikoden game: the villain needs to choose their path voluntarily, even if for some crazypants reason. It's not very much of a clash of beliefs or ideologies to face off against a guy who can't even defend why having 1 star was needed. It's not that hard: some horrible threat arose and the only way to stop it was to CONTROL FATE BY EATING STARS or something, I dunno, this wouldn't be great but it'd be something. It's especially weird since normally you can at least transfer "blame" for a mind control plotline to whoever's doing the mind control, but there's no entity that ever explains why some random Tenkai Star got forced into doing this, or why Our Hero would too in the Bad End. Like, control fate, fine, but what *for*? I'd assume it'd be the priorities of that Tenkai Star, not a new mission of "evangelize controlling fate and eat worlds." Bah. Some real missed opportunities. Not that it would necessarily have made tons of sense for Atrie to be the villain, but crazy melodramatic twists are worth something if it puts some personal stakes on the table for that final fight.
Okay, this was long and ranty, so let me talk about the good parts. ST gets across the implications of these "world-combination" plotlines WAY better than the vast majority of media that dips their toe here (e.g. the likes of FF5). I really like how they try and figure out the implications, and how lots of them are not good! e.g. the mountain expert who becomes a senile crazy old man when his mountains mostly disappear, Maybelle going totally crazy, everybody knowing to avoid the weird wasteland to the northwest of Pharamond (but hey, the monsters are passive, they've never attacked us in the past! ...true...) It's a little weird how some worlds are blatantly "exactly the same people as ours" while others are apparently radically different, but whatevs. Anyway, I liked that massive adjustments of reality actually got noticed and had implications. I also think that The Order was all in all an interesting villain; nobody else seems to have a religion, which as we all know from both Civ5 and real-life, makes it hard to resist prostletyization. Much easier when you can say "nope, we already found God and you're really servants of a demon" than "uh, sure, you offer eternal happiness, but YOU'RE WRONG" or something. Mentioned this already, but I liked the Hero / Dirk plotline as well. The final castle scene pretty good, along with more generally all the interaction you could do - I whined about some characters above, but the others were memorable / amusing enough in their own way, even if they often had too little to do.
So. In conclusion, the combat is bad. Alas. But I liked some of the plot, so yay.
Next up: Another old RPG. In fact, an RPG that I used to vote on in the old DL despite not really playing the game. We'll see if it lives up to the hype.
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Captain Toad: What the hell game? We face main villain and you beat him with GIANT TURNIPS! Seriously! Where's your idea of INTENSE BATTLE and BAD ASS RIVAL SHOW DOWN!!
At least the credits are rolling and so the game is over.
*Episode 2 now unlocked*
ffffffff
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Re: Snowfire on Suiko Tierkreis
That is a very measured and accurate review of Suikoden Tierkreis. You brought up a lot more bad points in the game than I remembered. I suspect the good parts of the game stick with the player more than the bad in this particular game, so perhaps you will have fonder memories of it than during the actual experience of the game. That last paragraph at least, is something worth mentioning. ST does a better job of this 'merging dimensions' plotline than any other take on it I've seen in -any- media, games, TV, or novels. I'm sure it's been done better -somewhere-, but the little details and the overall premise of the Order and how our heroes go about figuring out what's happening is really well done and worth being lauded.
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I agree with all the criticisms about the gameplay but generally cared far less. It has bad gameplay, that kinda sucks, but I'm pretty accepting of games that only do one of plot or gameplay well, so long as they definitely do it well. And at least ST's gameplay isn't brutally time-wasting or feature long loading times. (I bring the last point up particularly because S5, a similar game in terms of gameplay and story worth, features said loading times. I do think S5 is better anyway, mind.)
For Sophia, I haven't played the game as recently and don't have a great memory of that particular scene, but I thought her dad getting through to her was a big part of it? RPGs lean pretty heavily on "defeat = friendship" but I didn't have a huge issue with that scene due to Nova's presence.
Icas/Morin were indeed quite lame, and gunner guy I barely remember sounds like it too, but I didn't have too big a problem with Zenoa. I wouldn't call her a favourite by any means, but I liked her design and found her smarm to be more endearing than Zerase's dismissiveness. I'd really rather read more about which characters you liked than which you disliked!
I like the Order a lot but it's true that they don't always explore the philosophical arguments they could have properly, definitely agree on the Chrodechild/Fredegund scene you quote.
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Yeah it was more my post was getting extremely long so I cut off some more potential ramblings.
Djinn, mentioned it in chat, but yes, I'm the type of person happy to defend FF8 for its strengths and ignore its weaknesses, so ST is a bit similar. Also FF8's battles, while also easy, let you have nice eye candy and over-the-top Limits so felt slightly more rewarding than ST. Dunno.
For Suiko5, I wonder if old, bitter SF could handle the battles nowadays! I never thought the loading times were THAT bad despite knowing others complained about them. I shudder to attempt to find out, though.
Nova's presence helped sell Sophia's conversion a little, but it didn't work the first two times but does work the 3rd time, and the difference is that the 3rd time you beat her up. Still, fair point.
For characters I liked... well the Hero is pretty big on the list! Similar issues to how in Mass Effect, Shepard is weirdly enough one of the best characters, so it's a good one to pick. Most of the Citro crew was fine too. Since I *mostly* liked the Order plotline, the Greyridge crew + Darrow/Savnia worked well enough as well (although random dude trapped in an alternate dimension doesn't count, too random and too few lines. Lubberkin?). I mostly liked the Auster plotline, so Vaslof & Resno (but not Muro, per earlier complaints)... they sold both some of the implications of the world-merging AND gave them a solid excuse to join the bad guys AND gave them a solid excuse to leave, so well done. The Porpoise priestess whose name I forget was amusing enough in her schtick, and I also liked both the Lonamakua pirates & Hina (despite never ever using the pirates in battle). I was also pleasantly surprised that they didn't go full CK fanservice mode on Yula and have h0t lesbian princess-on-princess action or the like, which was frankly what I was expecting, and instead were a bit more subtle and gave out an appropriate amount of both hints & mystery. Tsaurabern (Ritterschild noble guy) was also amusing enough for his tiny role, I liked that they acknowledged that people could PROBABLY puzzle out what was really going on if they kept careful track of events. Lastly, I liked giving the devil their due a bit with Rizwan, who's presented rather antagonistically yet nevertheless helps save Salsabil with the Chronicle, which makes sense. (They, uh, kinda forgot to include either a tragic ending for Manaril OR have some quest / explanation for how she got better, but oh well, whatevs.)
The Scribe's Village & Furious Roar camp were okay, served their role I suppose. Magedom folk I'm a bit more conflicted on in general, I like some of the broad arcs but dislike some of the specifics there, and they totally should have had Shams RIP (have more nice characters we like die), but oh well.
But yeah, in general I liked most of the ST cast, so there's a lot of it to go through!
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Porpoise priestess is the best. Ninulnina I think her name is? I kind of want someone to avatar her "Praise Be To The Lord" portrait. Mostly Tal. I always think of Tal when I think of Ninulnina.
Though, bringing her up, that IS another religion in the game that does oppose the Order.
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Games night yesterday, we played Towerfall for 2 hours, then tried Smash Bros Melee for 10 minutes, then went back to Towerfall for 3 hours.
The new king is here
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I started up VP2 last night after some crazy person's speedrun reminded me it'd been in line for replay for a long time. It's nice to be back. Smashing enemies literally to pieces remains very viscerally satisfying, although thus far [played through the super short first two chapters] everything is much more stupidly easy than I'd remembered. The opening FMV still looks pretty great, in-engine cutscenes less so. There's a lot of the general murkiness you get when something not designed for HD is subjected to it, but they still packed in an admirable amount of detail for a PS2 game. Environments are crammed with lots of random bric-a-brac, even NPC houses you never need to visit (I am being really thorough and doing the Talk to Everyone thing just because it's been so long since I played this), and it's probably not news that I like seeing effort applied to making places feel lived-in.
Dylan is curiously knowledgeable. Also Lezard's battle VAs really clash with the humble persona he tries to affect in cutscenes, which really should've been a clue the first time I played the game but I guess I didn't question him much for the same reason I didn't give Dylan a second thought: I was too busy yelling "Leone is obviously Hrist why isn't anyone doing anything about this?" at the entire cast to suspect anyone else. VP2 more smartly written than we should expect from a Tri-Ace game (at least until everything completely falls apart in the last chapter).
I forgot Dallas wears a dog collar. I know you want to accessorize guy and that's okay but please rethink your life decisions.
EDIT: you know what's weird after maining PS4 games for a few months? Going back to a Sony controller that didn't weigh ten pounds.
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Necrodancer: I played this game all day instead of cleaning. Haven't yet cleared Zone 4 with Cadence, but have unlocked everything else. The game is pretty hard in that you can be doing wonderfully through the entire run then OH SHIT 10 DUDES ON THE SCREEN TIME TO MANAGE ALL THEIR GIMMICKS fuck fuck fuck no lost the rhythm SHIT dead. Bows are OP, Whips are probably better but require you to be good. Glass weapons are for people who suck less than I do. Obsidian is probably my favorite upgrade path because it rewards having rhythm but doesn't punish you terribly for getting flustered and getting hit.
This game is great. Half off on steam for the sale.
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FFRK: For those still playing this off and on, (game seems to have run its course here, which is fine, though my own reasons for playing it still haven't changed so I guess I'll still be mentioning it as I play on the daily train ride) the Global version is giving out a free 5-star sword for signing in today. Nice! Tidus and Wakka are now both over level 50 and sporting cool new Record Materia (and a 5-star sword). I also did another 11-relic draw and got two 5-star weapons! Both of them Tomes exclusively for the recordkeeper Tyro. Dammit. Well, at least I got two of them so I can give him a cool new Soul Break AND have a 6-star weapon (even if it sucks). I guess he'll be cool when I can break the level cap with him.
FFD: Beaten again. The ending is still really satisfying.
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the Global version is giving out a free 5-star sword for signing in today.
Why the fuck can't Cyan use Zantetsuken? It's a broadsword despite having the sprite of a Japanese sword. *facepalm*
Got Tidus, working on getting their memory crystals.
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Because Cyan is the worst.
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"We badly need to boost Cloud and nerf Cyan"
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Okay guys I admit it I'm the one behind FFRK pc balance
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Okay guys I admit it I'm the one behind FFRK pc balance
i knew it
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Zantetsuken/Scimitar is actually classified as a sword in FF6, so RK is technically being mostly true to the source material there. Sadly for Cyan RK doesn't allow for compatibility to be set on a per-weapon basis like FF6 does, so he gets screwed even though he could technically equip it in FF6.
Also I should mention that I spend more time reading about Record Keeper than actually playing it these days. The setups people use to take on elite event bosses are interesting, but repeatedly forcing closing the app until the RNG stops being a dick isn't. Farming orbs for ability honing endlessly is not my idea of fun, either. My short term goal is to wait for a half-decent spear user who isn't named Kain and doesn't have Mage-tier HP and defense like Gordon. Long term goal is to wait for PC Gilgamesh, who is a brilliant idea on the developers' part. In the meantime, I'll spend 30-60 minutes a day autobattling when I want a mindless time killer and reading up on the more interesting mechanics stuff occasionally.
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Apparently there will be a thing (which JPN already has) where if you keep a piece of equipment with a soul break equipped you'll eventually master that soul break, and then will be able to use the soul break without having to stick with that equipment, and switch between soul breaks as desired depending on situation, so I think I will keep all of Tyro's books (yeah I pulled both Healing and Sentinel in the same draw too, along with a FFVII Murasame and some random lesser stuff~) for now~
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FFRK: And... the Vivi event is live. (Okay it is technically a Garnet event, but you can get Vivi so that's what matters.)
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It's a trap, the farming simulator event is still up and you should spend all your time there
Edit: my core white/black mages are almost level 50, four other characters are level 50, all my 3* + armor is upgraded to max and most of my weapons also are, I have a bunch of exp eggs and 1 million gils
Hinode, I really think this saving/loading thing is The Dark Side, don't give in and you won't have a miserable time
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Screw everything, I already got Vivi and I'm about to recruit Garnet. Since both Vanille and Lenna are already L50 and I can't imagine they'll release their Memory Crystals anytime soon, I'll just raise those two and Tidus. Not being Kain-reliant good.
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You were only ever "reliant" because you let yourself be. You could have taken the moral high ground and run a party of 4.
Also bollocks to that Fenrir, gotta get another 50 Mithril pull in before Soul Break events are over. Gil and EXP are stamina locked, piles of Mithril is time locked.
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Yeah but the farming simulator event will end way before the FF9 event.
When it's exp day you should drop everything and get exp. Well this event is exp day + gil day + armor upgrade day + weapon upgrade day for a week. And you can also get some exp eggs. It is ridiculous. Heroic difficulty is also super easy this time.
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You were only ever "reliant" because you let yourself be. You could have taken the moral high ground and run a party of 4.
I'm already playing this game, moral high grounds are entirely lost on me - particularly when the game handed me a five-star spear early.
I already capped the Gold Saucer event. I'll use the event to raise Garnet and Vivi some anyhow (Tidus also could use the XP, he's only level 37), but recruiting the FF9 folks is higher priority and I'm almost there anyway.
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FFRK: Fenrir's not kidding about the Gold Saucer event. I max-leveled like 6 PCs with this event. I also blew a Mythril and grabbed Garnet and Vivi and now they're getting maxed too. I'm actually running out of PCs to max. The gold saucer event is also super-fun because there's no boss so you can actually use skills throughout strategically instead of hoarding them for the sack of HP at the end like most dungeons. Super-profitable too. I'm getting 60-70,000 exp per run plus more upgrade materials than I can handle (literally, I'm selling the lower-level ones to make space). Not to mention a shit-ton of gil to make abilities and upgrade weapons.
I also did a 5-mythril one-relic draw on a whim and got Tidus' Brotherhood, meaning he is now officially my best character and I couldn't be happier. I now have enough 5-star equips to outfit a full party if I select carefully! This makes the high-level fights possible, and they are actually genuinely challenging and fun to play. I'm quite glad I stuck with the game despite having an initially lukewarm reaction to it.
Also, yay for FF9 music in a game without having to replay FF9~
Smash4: Finally gave in and picked up my own Japanese copy of the WiiU version. I wanted to wait until I got a chance to grab an English one, but fuck yeah Ryu/Roy/Lucas in the same day. I am especially happy about Ryu~
Got a Fox amiibo too, found randomly in a mall. Did they get a restock recently? How does one even find out about these restocks?
Still, a good day for collecting characters!
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Heroic still pushes my shit in (Because 3 star items 4 evers lol) honestly. I guess I should go more. I chain ran Exp yesterday because that was fine.
Also I kind of got sick of selling Adamantite because the game refuses to give me new armour.
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even with the worst team you should be able to clear one wave of heroic saucer and that's all you really need.
I am fusing all the extra adamantite into my shitty three stars weapons now, because you never know
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Got Vivi and Garnet, probably going to powerlevel them in Gold Saucer for great profit.
EDIT:
Saints Row 4 - The one where they had mansex.
Tangentially, I also bought Civ 4 and 5, all DLC content included, on the Steam summer sale. If you guys never see me again in the next few weeks, you know why.
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Necrodancer: When the Necrodancer is summoning enemies, I really hope the script the VA is reading from says "Rihanna-mate"
I don't even like Rihanna all that much I just hope that that is infact a thing
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Final Fantasy Embodiment of Autobattle Devil - Holy -shit- Heroic Gold Saucer is disproportionately easy given how much XP it bestows. Also, Quake rules on things that don't immune it. Hilariously, FF6 Darkwings are among those things! Good thing too, those fuckers hit really hard with Dive.
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even with the worst team you should be able to clear one wave of heroic saucer and that's all you really need.
White Mage/Black Mage/Summoner in their mid-20s can't. Hell, I couldn't get them to survive a round of Hard with any consistency.
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VP2: Man Phyress is the best, definitely earlygame MVP except oh wait now I have to toss her out of the party for a while because volcano lair. Boo. I'm sorely tempted to do something ridiculous like full archer party because 4x Stardust launch would be amazing to watch, but I just don't have enough decent bows for it. (And no there isn't any way anyone can talk me into a party full of sorcerers, I don't even use one.)
Hrist do you have any idea how long it will take to dig a grave with a sword. That is not the ideal excavation implement. Hell, your shield would work better, certainly better than it would as a pillow Alicia, are you a Klingon or something?
Oh, the game triggered one of its random einherjar dialogue things between Phyress and (apparently) her daughter. This was super confusing because they have the same VA. God dammit, S-E.
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Necrodancer: When the Necrodancer is summoning enemies, I really hope the script the VA is reading from says "Rihanna-mate"
I don't even like Rihanna all that much I just hope that that is infact a thing
Stop reminding me I need to cave and get a dance pad.
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Necrodancer: When the Necrodancer is summoning enemies, I really hope the script the VA is reading from says "Rihanna-mate"
I don't even like Rihanna all that much I just hope that that is infact a thing
Stop reminding me I need to cave and get a dance pad.
Just play with a keyboard. Honestly it's flustering enough without adding dance pad coordination into it. Unless you've already played with a keyboard and want to go back and play with a dance pad, in which case you should go cave and get a dance pad.
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Final Fantasy 69 Autobattle Songs - The Garnet event is really lax in comparison to Tidus'. I've gotten to the point where enemies no longer get OHKOed by autobattle, but Quake and Garnet summoning actually help out pretty notably there. Even Mist Dragon is pretty efficient, and -that- I have at Rank 2.
In fact, Garnet's actually a rather good PC. Rank 4 White Magic gets you everything important so far but Holy, and that gets covered fairly well in niche by Summons, which, limited as they are, actually pack one hell of a punch. And she has superior stats to Rydia in a bunch of relevant areas (she's a point lower in Magic, ohnoes. They're also equal in speed and Garnet's only one point higher in Res, but that's easily compensated by having about 15% more HP). Garnet's L4 in White is honestly bigger than Rydia's L2 White/L3 Black (I honestly don't understand why Rydia's rank in Black isn't higher). If you're looking for someone to cover summoning, you probably want Garnet rather than Rydia. As far as dedicated healers go, there -are- better for raw skill, but then, Song of Memories is also great support (MT attack buff! In a game where, at this power level, you want most of your party physical!) and Garnet, along with Rinoa, is about the most durable pure magic PC to have appeared so far by an actually significant margin (Celes is mostly physical, Terra is a mixed type. Neither really -does- get into Garnet's niche anyway, since neither has Summon and Garnet has a higher White rank than both).
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Looking at them, how is Rinoa pure Magic but Terra a hybrid? They have very similar stats, and while Terra gets swords, Rinoa gets Ranged Weapons giving her an adequate physical too (plus she gets 2* Celerity! ...yeah that sounds completely "whocares/10"), so it's a case of Terra's stronger physical vs. Rinoa's full damage from Back Row. Feels like the statement can be applied to both *shrugs*
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Meeple you are the most transparent Terra fan
I got the Necrodancer OST on itunes, unfortunately, the alternate tracks aren't included. (The shopkeeper tracks are, though)
FFRK: Festival of gold is down. :( :( :(
Even with a full level 50 team with 5* stuff only, I get wrecked by the second to last boss(es) in the FFX event. I don't even want to try the Chocobo Eater.
I don't really know what to do to beat those events except crafting/honing a ton more skills.
So right now I'm still ignoring the FF9 event to farm some orbs instead. All these orbs are going towards finishing quests and getting Cloud more-ra strikes. Newsflash, dude is ridiculous. Right now he has 6 Fira strikes, 6 Blizzara strikes. They're each doing about as much damage as a single Thundaja from Vanille. And they can be buffed easily, unlike Thundaja
Does anyone know how long Protectga lasts? I'm a bit disappointed by the buff/debuff duration so far. Bard + defense debuff is awesome but just doesn't last long enough.
The events can be disappointing challenge wise because the battles go: Tons of super easy autobattle fests -> One very interesting grueling battle -> Impossible Death Dragons of Doom With One Billion Trillon HPs Even Though They Only Are Easy Earlygame Bosses Like LNDTRTL
Wakka has broken the level cap, unfortunately he's still Wakka. Wakka got a lot worse lately: Bard is quite clearly the best friend summon for me, and Bard eclipses Wakka's biggest advantage (the ATK boosting spell)
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Looking at them, how is Rinoa pure Magic but Terra a hybrid? They have very similar stats, and while Terra gets swords, Rinoa gets Ranged Weapons giving her an adequate physical too (plus she gets 2* Celerity! ...yeah that sounds completely "whocares/10"), so it's a case of Terra's stronger physical vs. Rinoa's full damage from Back Row. Feels like the statement can be applied to both *shrugs*
Yeah, I misfired there. Both Terra and Rinoa are primary mages with a decentish physical, Terra's main advantage over her being the option of wearing armor for better defense. Having Support 4 over Rinoa is also a plus, since that nets her the high-level stat breaks, which are really damn potent. Rinoa, on the other hand, has the ranged physical option and a better L2 Soul Break for bosses (Angel Wing is obscenely damaging when focused).
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Even with a full level 50 team with 5* stuff only, I get wrecked by the second to last boss(es) in the FFX event. I don't even want to try the Chocobo Eater.
I don't really know what to do to beat those events except crafting/honing a ton more skills.
From what I read, the trick with the Sinspawns is status. Hope you have some Busters honed.
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I finished the first Sinspawn fight on my knees, then a second Sinspawn: Sinspawn harder appeared and killed Vanille. I just gave up. I don't think my status would help that much unless it lasted ages. Need2hone
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The status really tones down on the need to heal and spend charges in general and lasts considerably longer than buffs/debuffs do (it's a tradeoff - buffs and debuffs are perfect accuracy on everything, status can actually fail to land). Landing Silence and Blind (and sometimes even only one of them) -completely- trivializes a lot of shit. That's how I championed Elite Lich, for an example, and Mental Break + Blind made Elite Nymph on Garnet's event a chump (when she normally could 2HKO any of my party members at will).
For Sinspawn Ammes specifically, you want to leave one Scale alive, sleep it, then silence Ammes itself.
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Okay I really need to start crafting all that then.
Still, the first Sinspawn battle took a really long time and I don't want to go through all this again
Terra is weird in that her battleredmage niche would be pretty awful (Just ask Gordon) She has swords and armor but you really don't want someone with middling HPs/defense on the front row in a hard battle (and easy battles don't matter) Luneth already feels squishy and he's more durable.
Support 4 is good but sacrificing half your abilities for a support spell doesn't when you're a mage?
She still seems pretty decent thanks to raw stats, as she somehow got Black magic 5 and high magic.
In the end she's probably better as a pure tanky back row mage without a sword, and she's good that way.
J/k she is sub Jogurt eternal puny confirmed
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The tanky niche is actually pretty big (magic boosts on mage equips are kinda paltry and all). Terra sounds like a good addition if you want survivability. Also, I figured out Vivi's point, which is dealing so damn much damage. I was popping 7k damage Firagas post-Focus -without- hitting weakness, which is utterly ridiculous. Not sure it makes up for the lack of skillset versatility, but it's telling that he's actually valuable for randoms now that I have some decently honed spells and Quake.
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Best way of handling Sinspawn Ammes/Echuilles on Elite is probably to combine Cecil's Sentinel Soul Break via Friend Summon, which makes all ST physicals target the user, with Retaliate. That way you can both ignore the Sinscales and get extra dps out of them. Incidentally, Retaliate auto-targets whichever enemy has the lowest percentage of max HP, so if you leave the sinscales untouched but poke the main boss at least once all the Rretaliate damage will aim for the big guy.
Oh, and Intimidate works on every boss in the Tidus event except Gui with a highish base hit rate (50%, apparantly), notable since paralyze is one of the best status effects in the game.
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The problem there is mostly -getting- a Friend Summon with Sentinel, it's pretty rare even if you happen to follow someone like that. It's a solid strategy anyway.
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FFRK: The minor name changes to enemies has kind of bugged me, but it's nothing I can't live with...
..."Orthros"
*uninstalls game*
Did second 50-mythril pull, got 1 five star and 3 four stars, all armor.
*uninstalls again*
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Yeah I have no idea how Square Enix US (or whoever) decided it was a good idea to just rename characters in later versions of the game. Can you imagine if George Lucas had renamed Luke Skywalker to Luke Heavenstrider in the Star Wars remakes?
Okay, I can, but it would still be terrible.
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Final Fantasy Rhythm Autobattle - So I figured I had 40 Mythril sitting around and they're releasing new world dungeons soon, so why not roll the dice for some gear? Did a three-relic draw, got a three-star junk knuckle, a four-star katana... AND VIVI'S OAK STAFF YEEEEEEEEEEEEES. Elite Sealion, your ass is so mine.
On the second draw, also got a five-star robe, which should be useful to prop one of my mages' durability, but OAK STAFF HELL YES
EDIT: also changed my Roaming Warrior to Vivi plz summon
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Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones: There's a Steam sale on and I'm playing old emulated Fire Emblem games. Fail.
Finally gave up hope of it ever coming to 3DS store and just playing it emulated. This has its own advantages, in a jury-rigged speed-up enemy turn functionality as well as mid-battle saves. Yeah, yeah, I know that part of the appeal of FE is that every decision can matter, but that's a disadvantage when the "decision" is the equivalent of a misclick, something that can happen pretty easily! I think I've sent back 3 equipped weapons to the supply due to clicking forward too fast when picking up new items, and even ate a casualty off of "Amelia moves next to Eirika, grabs a Sword from the stash to replace her broken one, but fails to equip it leading to getting barely 2-rounded by axe dudes @65 HIT instead of likely not 2-rounded @35 hit or so." Also move healer in, but default staff location is the 1 HP off somebody who just leveled up, not the horrible bleeding corpse in front. I like being able to move fast and write off the occasional mistake, since the maps can be kinda long. BUT I'm trying to be diligent and not level-up cheeze. (I think I may have done this once or twice, but I'd probably do that on a real cart, too, if it happens soon enough.)
Anyway. Trying Hard mode but Eirika mode (did Normal Eph eons ago). Also trying to use some different characters, but within reason (i.e. waiting for Rennac when Colm & Neimi both start turning out very good? nope.jpg). Random thoughts:
Chapters 1-8 (aka pre-split): MOSTLY just snoozes where the AI is set to the very simple "attack people who wander into my wakeup range = threat range, sit still otherwise." And very friendly-to-the-player architecture. Chap 3, Bazba's Bandits, is especially notable: there are doors and breakable walls that you're clearly supposed to open, but my Eirika will do no such chivalrous thing. The bandits will die, trapped in their own rooms, because they weren't given permission to open the doors themselves and I have wall-piercing arrows or something. Chapter 5 is okay at least, you have to move sorta quickly to deal with brigands and safely recruit Joshua, although I'm frankly not a fan of this "old FE" thing that was obsessed with having all recruits be enemies you have to talk to.
There is one exception, which is Chapter 6, the fog of war map with a time limit before the civilians are devoured by spiders. I guess there is at least the option to play this map really slow and just let 'em be devoured (why would you want to promote Neimi to Sniper anyway), but even still this map would still not be easy! I avoided using Seth earlier but this is very much a map to break out the Sethinator on, and even he isn't foolproof with various enemies carrying cavalier-killer weapons. Sheesh, not a gentle difficulty curve at all, which is okay I guess (you wouldn't want things to be at max volume constantly, it'd be impossible to train up weaker units).
Elf mentioned that C8, "It's a Trap!", is legit, but not really seeing it. The enemy AI here is still "stand still and wait for doom", and it doesn't seem to use later tech from the likes of FE11/12/13 where aggroing one guy will aggro all his friends too. Nope, you can lure the knights guarding the treasure rooms out 1-2 at a time pretty easily, and the thief arrives really really late even taking it slow (and then steals my Elixir before I can steal his lockpicks. Sigh. I guess I'll settle for taking the Elixir back.) The boss, Tirado, has pretty badass Def & Res (doesn't get fried to Lute, weirdly enough...).... but... uh, Reigenleif, and to a lesser extent Rapier/Armorslayer exist. So yeah, more an excuse to show off Eph being a badass.
After the split, it's new territory for me. C9 is interesting and difficult but slightly unintuitive: both villagers are under immediate siege by pirates, and you will probably have to reset the first time for moving insufficiently slowly on them. Even if you get them, the game doesn't warn you that Amelia will wander off on turn 12, so Eirika also needs to hustle it on over to recruit her. More "break out the Seth" time. C10 you similarly get to rush around and is pretty fun. C11 is mechanically sorta easy, but has Fog of War and a Deathgoyle who will kick your ass in the SE corner, and also has an annoying mechanic (sorta in C10 as well?): enemy reinforcements triggering on poking your head in the wrong spot. So Colm checks out the SE corner himself and they bum rush in leading to a reload from the Deathgoyle; but I approach the corner in force, the enemy moves, then I crush them where they stand knowing about it. How dare I try and move quickly rather than methodically, etc. There's some minor time pressure in not letting the Recover staff get stolen from a chest, but it's not too bad (and you kinda want it stolen anyway, at least on your time, saves a lockpick if you can kill the thief afterward).
C12 is a total yawn, lowish level monster fodder that mostly stands still. I guess because maybe you're supposed to train up Ewan here?
Anyway... running Eirika, Tana, Ross, Colm, Neimi, Lute, Amelia (Cav), Gerik, Marisa, & L'Arachel at the moment. Forde & Joshua were looking okay but eh, used 'em last game too bad. Natasha... UGH, staff XP is a thing, even moving slowly and spamming healz like crazy she's still a bit behind on level and became obsolete as a staff bot once Saleh joined. L'Arachel, argh, you look at her stats and they are crazy good, almost as good as Natasha's despite being 10 levels lower, but then you remember the horrible staff XP formula and how it doesn't really accelerate when you're "behind", which at least the trainees get from kill-feeding. We'll see how far I can get her before I get frustrated and early-promote her.
Speaking of trainees, I ignored 'em last run and am using both Ross & Amelia this run. Pirate Ross was super-helpful in Eirika C9 with helping distract the invading pirates from the delicious village (along with a seaborne Colm), so good on him. Amelia is... totally awful on join, ugh, 4 move and gets doubled and killed by anything that can counterattack her even if chipped into fatal, so god forbid attempting to grind her on a real cart. Luckily there are some archers at the end of C9, and more importantly, the boss can be lured into equipping a bow... I almost never boss grind in FE games, but damn if this isn't way saner than trying to safely give Amelia kills. Amelia does a 2-3 damage poke of the boss for huge XP, rescue, take, drop, repeat next turn while the boss shoots at Joshua. Joshua & Natasha even hit their B support conversation which involves dodging arrows and curing for wounds during it, very appropriate (I got 'em married before ditching 'em from the team). Once this is done, she becomes a great Cavalier, with stats close to L11 Forde except for Defense... nice. Marisa is turning out pretty good for me as well, I know that she can get Str-screwed sometimes but that hasn't happened so far.
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Yeah I have no idea how Square Enix US (or whoever) decided it was a good idea to just rename characters in later versions of the game. Can you imagine if George Lucas had renamed Luke Skywalker to Luke Heavenstrider in the Star Wars remakes? Okay, I can, but it would still be terrible.
To be fair, they usually still call him Ultros. FF6a kept him Ultros, as did FF13-2, FF14ARR, Dissidia, and Chibirhythm. FF12 did Orthros, but it's not the same character, just an homage (it's a purple flan who only appears if you have a full female team.
It is a failure on FF4TAY, FF1DoS and sounds like Record Keeper's now for calling him Orthros. It's clear they just went "ok, let's translate from Japanese to English!" and because it wasn't a playable character or a major villain, they didn't care about keeping things consistent. So I pretty much agree with you entirely on this point, just demonstrating "they don't do this ALL the time!" but the fact that it still comes up at all is annoying.
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Well, in their defense, "Orthros" is totally an actual name while Ultros is a mistransliteration of it that just happens to sound better.
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Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn - played through
Finally got around to playing this. No idea where my GCN memory cards are so played it without any carryover, for all that I'm led to understand that the carryover is minimal anyway.
458 turns, 87% events viewed.
I've managed to forget who the 3rd- and 4th-most prolific killers were due to being engrossed in looking for something to write on :despair: Aside from those, the top two killers were Micaiah followed by Rolf, while the 5th-most prolific killer was Ike.
Generally pretty entertaining. I think my favourite section might have been the first half of part IV when viewpoint swapping kicks in in full force, although that could just be due to it being in close proximity to the fairly lacklustre second half of part IV. Bosses in the second half of PIV are generally better than the bosses in the first half, of course.
I had always had the impression that the three-tiered class system was something that most of the units were going to go through (in the sense that most units were going to potentially go through two promotions), so it was interesting to find that that wasn't the case (in the sense that most units start off as second-tier classes). Definitely feels like the reality was superior to what I had been expecting. Will say that the 3rd-tier class/Satori skills are pretty terrible, the vast majority of the time they kicked in was either when I was trying to weaken units for others to kill or when I was going to kill the unit without it anyway.
Elincia was the best unit even if she wasn't getting as many kills as the rest (or to put it another way, because she wasn't). On the other side of things, add me to the list of people who were very unimpressed with Fiona's performance as a unit.
TIS-100 - up to repairing the Histogram Viewer
My current solution doesn't take into account that there's nothing terminating the inputs, so it doesn't draw the final column. My current plan is to synthesise a final input to kick that off, but I don't have enough room with the current layout. Probably would be easier if I was drawing a bar at a time rather than batching up sequences, but I'm too invested in that method to change now.
Fairly entertaining, I'm not going for ultra-efficient programs or anything. Sadly the Scatter Plot Viewer was removed the day after I repaired it.
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I started up VP2 last night after some crazy person's speedrun reminded me it'd been in line for replay for a long time.
That run was pretty awful. 8 deaths, 2 resets for Rib, bad RNG, awful frame rate, etc.
But apparently people enjoyed it, so if it got you replaying the game I guess it was a success?
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Well, in their defense, "Orthros" is totally an actual name while Ultros is a mistransliteration of it that just happens to sound better.
Orthros (usually Orthrus) is a two-headed dog which Ultros does not even remotely resemble.
But regardless, concerns like "is an actual name" and "is a 'better' translation" don't really hold much water here. The point is that people get attached to the names of characters. A good localisation is an art and there are many valid ways to translate Japanese into English, names especially, but once a decision has been made it should be kept unless there is a damn good reason otherwise*. The name "Phoenix Wright" is neither a literal transliteration of Phoenix's original name (Naruhodo) nor does it keep the same pun as the Japanese, but there would rightfully be an uproar if the next Ace Attorney game's localisation changed it. We're used to it; we're attached to the character by that name. Ultros isn't as significant so the reaction isn't as strong, but still significant enough that there's a clear reaction.
*An example of a "good reason" comes from FF6 itself, actually, when they changed Vicks to Biggs. This is acceptable both because Biggs is a very minor character, and also because it helps complete a deliberate reference which was only half-translated.
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IIRC DeNA handles both the development of Record Keeper and the localization process for the global release. Square-Enix probably just forgot to include midbosses on the list of deliberate name changes to keep along with Tina->Terra, Dragon Knight->Dragoon, etc. I suspect that DoS and TAY were also cases where Square outsourced the development work and thus didn't keep as tight a track on intra-series references.
Apparantly SE actually used the spelling 'Ultros' when talking about iconic characters in their E3 stream, which I didn't watch due to being at work at the time.
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Final Fantasy Super Autobattle Island - Sealion Elite started spamming 2HKO MT magic at low HP and I died. I think I want to save Slow and pack up more Magic Breaks against him, this feels clearly within my grasp with better planning. Poison also might help, but I'd be relying on Dualcast Venom here. Which at least is crazy good offense. Vivi is a hell of a cannon overall.
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Well, in their defense, "Orthros" is totally an actual name while Ultros is a mistransliteration of it that just happens to sound better.
Orthros (usually Orthrus) is a two-headed dog which Ultros does not even remotely resemble.
But regardless, concerns like "is an actual name" and "is a 'better' translation" don't really hold much water here. The point is that people get attached to the names of characters. A good localisation is an art and there are many valid ways to translate Japanese into English, names especially, but once a decision has been made it should be kept unless there is a damn good reason otherwise*. The name "Phoenix Wright" is neither a literal transliteration of Phoenix's original name (Naruhodo) nor does it keep the same pun as the Japanese, but there would rightfully be an uproar if the next Ace Attorney game's localisation changed it. We're used to it; we're attached to the character by that name. Ultros isn't as significant so the reaction isn't as strong, but still significant enough that there's a clear reaction.
*An example of a "good reason" comes from FF6 itself, actually, when they changed Vicks to Biggs. This is acceptable both because Biggs is a very minor character, and also because it helps complete a deliberate reference which was only half-translated.
This is pretty much exactly how I feel. No point going into further details other than noting that while I'm still used to calling him "Chupon" I'm totally ok with the re-translation to "Typhon" simply because he's a smaller character (ties into the other point!), and well, he was translated that way in FF7 anyway, so it wasn't like the game coming out 10 years later and re-translating it and giving fans the finger.
Apparantly SE actually used the spelling 'Ultros' when talking about iconic characters in their E3 stream, which I didn't watch due to being at work at the time.
Curiously, where did they say that and do you know the context? I suspect it was the Trivia section that preceded the conference, but just wondering where you heard this?
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Tangentially, while in the subject: Aerith/Aeris theoretical flame wars.
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Curiously, where did they say that and do you know the context? I suspect it was the Trivia section that preceded the conference, but just wondering where you heard this?
I read it on the Record Keeper reddit, specifically about the contrast with RK using 'Orthros'. Didn't mention what part of the E3 conference it was, sorry.
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Well, in their defense, "Orthros" is totally an actual name while Ultros is a mistransliteration of it that just happens to sound better.
Orthros (usually Orthrus) is a two-headed dog which Ultros does not even remotely resemble.
But regardless, concerns like "is an actual name" and "is a 'better' translation" don't really hold much water here. The point is that people get attached to the names of characters. A good localisation is an art and there are many valid ways to translate Japanese into English, names especially, but once a decision has been made it should be kept unless there is a damn good reason otherwise*. The name "Phoenix Wright" is neither a literal transliteration of Phoenix's original name (Naruhodo) nor does it keep the same pun as the Japanese, but there would rightfully be an uproar if the next Ace Attorney game's localisation changed it. We're used to it; we're attached to the character by that name. Ultros isn't as significant so the reaction isn't as strong, but still significant enough that there's a clear reaction.
*An example of a "good reason" comes from FF6 itself, actually, when they changed Vicks to Biggs. This is acceptable both because Biggs is a very minor character, and also because it helps complete a deliberate reference which was only half-translated.
While it's true that Ulty doesn't resemble the creature of his Greek namesake, the same is true of all of FF6's boss monsters. There's a bunch of bosses just named after mythological monsters (Humbaba, Ymir, etc) including Typhon, who is also Greek and likely one of the only reasons he's paired with Ultros/Orthros in the first place. (IIRC, Greek Typhon and Orthros are even related?)
So... Yeah, there actually IS a decent case for restoring the name to preserve FF6's mythological monster naming scheme. It certainly doesn't feel like the translator is trying to give the fans the finger by translating his name as such. I'm personally not a fan of the clunky sounding name myself (ugh Greek names), but it doesn't bother me or make me think the translator is foolish for using it.
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The problem is Mythological Naming schemes are everywhere, so it's not FF6-centric. Not even consistent mythology. Ymir (aka Whelk) is Norse for example, and Humbaba (aka Phunbaba) is Babylonian I believe.
Orthrus and Typhon in Mythology are related in that Typhon is Orthrus' father; that's about the extent of the relationship and being Greek Mythology, if your parent lineage isn't significant to the nature of your story, it's really just a case of "there for the family tree." Had Typhon been named Erutyious (SP?) or Geryon, then the relationship would be more meaningful since they're all part of the same trial of Heracles.
Using Mythological references the way they did here is not a case of "we want to reference the Myth" but rather "we need a name for this monster!" and rather than trying to think of something creative, they consult Ye Olde Encyclopedia Of Arbitrary Mythology Names, and pick ones that sound cool. Compare this to Kid Icarus Uprising (first example that comes to mind) which took a lot of liberties for mythology, sure, but you can tell they were named the ways they were for a reason. Hades is still God of the Underworld, Thanatos is God of Death, and while Medusa got a major upgrade to Queen of the Underworld, but her design was clearly inspired by the classical interpretation of her. I don't see any of that with FF6 monsters named after mythology. It feels like, as I keep saying, they just did it because they didn't want to think of their own names.
And perhaps the term "giving them the finger" was harsh but it's also not showing respect for the fanbase. It's not acknowledging what the fans actually might value and how they recognize the characters in question.
In any event, had FF6 legitimately kept to a consistent theme in naming, like a single source of mythology, but the fact that it's all over the place suggests otherwise. Using another example, Tales of Phantasia has a lot of things named after Norse Mythology, and it's a clear theme in naming, so missing one of those would in fact hurt the naming schema.
Note the above does not refer to Espers, etc. because, Shiva aside (who is more a coincidence), they're mostly faithful to their origins to some degree. Liberties taken, granted, but worth distinguishing.
ON THE NOTE OF ULTROS: Interestingly, while FF4TAY PSP called him Orthros, the Wii version called him Ultros. I guess the PSP version did have a retranslation after all.
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VP2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZuWllLXFNk
:(
Hydra was hilarious, though. Equip poison -> regen accessory and poison -> stats up accessory. Get poisoned, laugh. Only works in-battle but still pretty amusing.
Palace of the Venereal Dragon is next.
:(
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Well, at least the challenge takes a nosedive from there. Also, I always endorse Talking Heads plugging.
Final Fantasy Where The Red Fern Autobattles - Sealion Elite conquered. Sadly, I didn't get the Mastery, but I can live without the Great Orbs - the Magic Armlet is a lot more important, and that's a first-time reward. Parcelling my Magic Breaks better (and finally forging Raise, for that metter) really made all the difference there, as Tsunami went down from a solid 2HKO to the whole party to a solid 4HKO. I only saw it once this fight, too, since having all my PCs up and ready substantially improved my damage output.
This said, I honestly kind of like how the Elite battles shape up in this. The design actually encourages a lot of approaches - debuffs work on everything and a lot of bosses have crucial status vulnerabilities that you can actually hit reasonably, which makes you actually think about the setup you want to bring to a given dungeon. Randoms are mostly an autobattle fest, but sometimes they can actually be nasty, and then the game turns into a bit of a resource puzzle. Granted, being -able- to play this properly involves the goddamn luck component, but such is the nature of the skinner box. I reached a power level where the fights are actually interesting, so there's that.
Anyhow, party analysis.
Cloud - Yeah, he's kinda godly. Good equips, physically tanky and Spellblade, which only he and Celes can use (at 5 proficiency, even!), is one of the game's best physical skillsets, given how potent weakness hitting is and the substantial base damage boost they provide. Samurai 3 also lets him play with Retaliate cheese, which is kinda niche at times without a Taunt equivalent to use, but is hilarious and oddly effective (did you know it actually dodges both magic and physicals? It's the best). Frontline fighter extraordinaire and my best physicaller all in all.
Wakka - He went from near-unusable to freaking valuable once I got him a five-star thrown weapon. Damage isn't so hot, but Support 5 is huuuuuuuuuuge - gives him access to the Busters and high-level debuffs. And, as I said, debuffs in this game are completely awesome. Being able to use full damage physicals from the back row also makes him quite tanky to physicals, though magic makes him cry. My point man whenever I need status and contributes well for autobattling randoms.
Tidus - Kind of a mix between Wakka and Cloud. No back row physical nor Spellblade, but Support 3 at least lets him get the Busters, helping him compliment Wakka when I need extra status and his equips are almost as good as Cloud's. Similar HP too, which is a surprise. Delay Attack is also a very good Soul Break, since Slow works on an unholy amount of bosses. Damage is also fine. Right now, he shuffles between the lower level breaks and the Busters depending on my needs. I expect funny things too when I get my hands on the high-end Celerity stuff.
Vivi - Glass cannon from hell. Limited use in randoms due to reliance on spell charges, but they get mitigated once you start honing those spells (and you can actually spare a couple charges of them on randoms - or allot one of the slots for that purpose, really). Rams the damage cap pretty hard whenever he hits weakness, deals at least 1.5x Cloud's best damage when he doesn't - and, due to Black Magic's unholy elemental variety, he can hit almost all of them. Focus is a good Soul Break for bosses, too, but honestly pales in comparison to Dualcast Venom, which routinely breaks five-digit damage focused on the big bad bosses and can even poison them! Crucial for those big boss battles, but that durability is a big problem. Having only Black Magic would be an issue, but the very nature of the system makes this almost a non-issue and Black Magic itself is fairly versatile, eventually packing, besides powerful ST elemental damage, status and crowd control (the latter being -very- hard to come by).
Garnet - You don't really go much of anywhere without a dedicated healer and Garnet's pretty good at it. Only L4 White Magic, but that nets you the entire Cure line and Raise, not to mention the niche status healing and status/defensive buffing options. Garnet's big selling point as a healer is having the highest durability of the more dedicated healers due to a significant HP lead on the others. Offensively, she can also chip in with her 5 Summon proficiency, which makes a pretty decent emergency button against particularly nasty random setups. Having a MT attack boosting skill as her Soul Break is also pretty aces. If I get her unique staff, she'll be really amazing, since Summon Ramuh is very nasty, but she's already valuable as is. Certainly prefer using her to Lenna.
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Oh yeah, meant to respond to this.
Chapters 1-8 (aka pre-split): MOSTLY just snoozes where the AI is set to the very simple "attack people who wander into my wakeup range = threat range, sit still otherwise." And very friendly-to-the-player architecture. Chap 3, Bazba's Bandits, is especially notable: there are doors and breakable walls that you're clearly supposed to open, but my Eirika will do no such chivalrous thing. The bandits will die, trapped in their own rooms, because they weren't given permission to open the doors themselves and I have wall-piercing arrows or something. Chapter 5 is okay at least, you have to move sorta quickly to deal with brigands and safely recruit Joshua, although I'm frankly not a fan of this "old FE" thing that was obsessed with having all recruits be enemies you have to talk to.
There is one exception, which is Chapter 6, the fog of war map with a time limit before the civilians are devoured by spiders. I guess there is at least the option to play this map really slow and just let 'em be devoured (why would you want to promote Neimi to Sniper anyway), but even still this map would still not be easy! I avoided using Seth earlier but this is very much a map to break out the Sethinator on, and even he isn't foolproof with various enemies carrying cavalier-killer weapons. Sheesh, not a gentle difficulty curve at all, which is okay I guess (you wouldn't want things to be at max volume constantly, it'd be impossible to train up weaker units).
Elf mentioned that C8, "It's a Trap!", is legit, but not really seeing it. The enemy AI here is still "stand still and wait for doom", and it doesn't seem to use later tech from the likes of FE11/12/13 where aggroing one guy will aggro all his friends too. Nope, you can lure the knights guarding the treasure rooms out 1-2 at a time pretty easily, and the thief arrives really really late even taking it slow (and then steals my Elixir before I can steal his lockpicks. Sigh. I guess I'll settle for taking the Elixir back.) The boss, Tirado, has pretty badass Def & Res (doesn't get fried to Lute, weirdly enough...).... but... uh, Reigenleif, and to a lesser extent Rapier/Armorslayer exist. So yeah, more an excuse to show off Eph being a badass.
Well, bear in mind that, reading your log, it's very obvious that our playstyles are vastly different. I can't imagine slowly picking off Bazba's bandits with ranged weapons or waiting for Ephraim to reach Tirado's throne, or needing 12 turns to reach Amelia! But yeah some FE maps (not all, obviously) can be broken really badly by turtling strategies, drawing out as few enemies as possible at a time. (It's arguably a weakness of the series, one I prefer to avoid by just not playing that way. See also just crushing the game with a few OP units.) C8 has a couple rough patches going a bit faster IIRC (including the east treasure room with the knights). Certainly much tougher than C7, or indeed any pre-route-split map except C5 and C6.
C6 is the opposite, mind, it's a map that rewards moving quickly, at least if you have some good Torch!Colm support to know what's ahead and want the Orion's Bolt (and you need it to promote Neimi to either class option, FYI... or an Earth Seal). Getting to the fort fast with (preferably supported) Eirika/Seth is a big help, as is getting Vanessa safely across to the spider before the enemy army can really rush in from the north to get in her way. Still a legit map, mind.
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C... is ... a map that rewards... you ....good ... Colm
FE8 summarized.
FFRK - 11 rare pull, three 4* items, eight 3* ones. Smells like auto-protect and auto-shell.
Hearthstone - maybe just go back to this. Tavern brawl was fun. Not balanced or deep, but a fun diversion once a week.
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Thank god for probability so i still get 5 star items everytime while you still get nothing
Huh, I mean, srry gref
I got Aeris' staff which is my first five stars rod and is going straight to Vivi. Oh my god his durability is terrible, but maybe level 65 will make it better. And black mage's materia will sweeten the deal (bm is level 47 now)
I also got a really weird looking diamond sword from FF9. Just how does this thing hurt anyone
Shit i haven't played any other game in like a week
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Vivi's durability is Rydia-level, it is a thing. Hitting bosses with Doublecast Venom for 16K damage is so shiny, though.
EDIT: One of his Record Materia even makes his durability EVEN WORSE in exchange for MORE MAGIC. That uh frankly feels like overkill, though it might be nice to slap on an armor-clad back row Terra, I suppose.
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You people are all crazy.
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The sun rises in the east, the sky is blue and I have a commute.
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Oh yeah, meant to respond to this.
Well, bear in mind that, reading your log, it's very obvious that our playstyles are vastly different. I can't imagine slowly picking off Bazba's bandits with ranged weapons or waiting for Ephraim to reach Tirado's throne, or needing 12 turns to reach Amelia! But yeah some FE maps (not all, obviously) can be broken really badly by turtling strategies, drawing out as few enemies as possible at a time. (It's arguably a weakness of the series, one I prefer to avoid by just not playing that way. See also just crushing the game with a few OP units.) C8 has a couple rough patches going a bit faster IIRC (including the east treasure room with the knights). Certainly much tougher than C7, or indeed any pre-route-split map except C5 and C6.
C6 is the opposite, mind, it's a map that rewards moving quickly, at least if you have some good Torch!Colm support to know what's ahead and want the Orion's Bolt (and you need it to promote Neimi to either class option, FYI... or an Earth Seal). Getting to the fort fast with (preferably supported) Eirika/Seth is a big help, as is getting Vanessa safely across to the spider before the enemy army can really rush in from the north to get in her way. Still a legit map, mind.
For whatever it's worth, FE8 is probably the perfect storm to make me take maps really slowly. FE6/FE7 will score me on Tactics which makes me want to move fast as a point of personal pride; FE9/10 give you more bonus XP for moving quickly; FEA just generally rewards quick assaults if you can get away with them so that you can take on enemies before they aggro on you. FE8 also has hideously slow support building such that my first time through the game I barely saw any supports, but supports are cool, so this makes me pretty happy with slowly turtling while gaining romance points just so I can see the conversations where Amelia & Neimi discuss baking pies on the battlefield or something. (Sumia, you listening?)
Getting Vanessa safely to distract the spider seems pretty hard, or at least requires having Seth lead the way while hard-charging a bit. Lots of axe users and the occasional archer, and even if you got more levels into her than I did, she's not really a durability queen regardless, so it's pretty easy for her to get 2HKO'd by axes or 1HKO'd by arrows if her dodge hax fails her. (This actually was the cause of a "reset" which thanks to emulator hax was only "lose 1 turn" rather than "restart" when I pushed Vanessa too close to the frontlines.) I finished the map on the last possible turn by having Seth murder the boss; Vanessa still didn't arrive in time to kill the spider. It's a cool alternate option I'll have to try if I ever play the game a 3rd time, though, and have more levels in her (I was intentionally not feeding her much figuring she'd be obsoleted by her princess soon).
If Eirika hard-charges Amelia's spawn location (but isn't rescued by Seth or the like and dragged there) she should arrive around turn 8 or so I want to say? Turn 9 probably more realistic. Amelia leaves turn 12, so if you play even a little slow, there's not much room for error. I do agree that she should probably make it, but since there isn't particular warning that there's a time limit here, I can easily see missing it if you decide to be a tad conservative and wait to heal up & the like. More a "I'm glad I FAQ'd and am on an emulator as this would be frustrating to miss in a real playthrough."
Speaking of trainees, though, as I just finished up the monster mountain map... it's another map where you can lure the boss to equip a bow. I wonder if this was intentional and you're *supposed* to boss grind your trainees this way on boss archers. Didn't feel like trying out Ewan though so didn't attempt to boss grind with point-blank magic to the face + rescue -> drop hax while having a dodgy person catch arrows.
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Well, at least the challenge takes a nosedive from there.
I think the moment VP2 challenge falls on its sword is the moment you get enough materials for the 2x HP skill. What were they thinking? Maybe I'll just try to not use it this time. (No promises, especially re: Seraphic Gate, although I likely won't get to that until I'm done with ze Batmans next week).
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Yeah you're right that FE8 provides no extrinsic incentive for going fast the way FE6-7 and 9-10 do. I find the intrinsic reasons to be enough, but obviously a big YMMV there.
I dunno, I always get Vanessa to the spider and I don't send Seth that way because I fear the cavaliers from the north more. IIRC there's a fairly safe way to sneak through; you'll take a hit or two but just moving and using Vulneraries and avoiding the worst locations you can make it. I've done this even with somewhat underlevelled Vanessa. I'm pretty sure there aren't any archers on that path, or if so they can be avoided.
Valni exists as a safe way to grind the trainees anyway. But you're possibly right anyway. Ewan's joining map on Eph route also has an immobile boss who can be locked into a range where he can't counter. So does Amelia's, although sadly for her that boss is on a throne with an axe so javelins isn't really gonna cut it there unless you're extremely patient. (On the plus side said boss has no 2 range weapon at all! Yeah, he's bad.)
You can still get Amelia on a later map (C13) if you miss her on C9, for what it's worth. I've run into this on challenge runs.
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Final Fantasy Autobattle and Faithlessness - Tidus event Sinspawn Ammes and Echuilles down. Hilariously, the real motherfucker is Ammes, since his support respawns and the Sinscales' Spine attack borderline OHKOs Vivi. The trick, as I said, is keeping one Sinscale alive, then disabling both Ammes and the Sinscale. Silence Buster and Intimidate (accurate ST paralysis) to the rescue. I still blew a Mythril to heal for Echuilles, though, since one Curaga charge left would -never- make the cut there.
Anyhow, Echuilles is theoretically a nasty fucker: Blender is a MT 2HKO, Drain 2HKOs your mages and his support is much like Ammes'. HOWEVER, his Sinscales don't respawn. Quake away, Vivi. And his status immunities completely suck to boot - hell, it's vulnerable to PARALYSIS. In practice, once the support is down (and that doesn't take long), Echuilles is a total chump. I even managed to champion the run in spite of crap scores on both boss fights, so now I have some shiny ability-making materials in addition to Firaja. Will likely tackle the remaining Sinscales next, they look actually less nasty.
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So weird reading the names Sinspawn Ammes and Echuilles and hype being attached to them.
Fire Emblem 7 - Beat Hector Normal Mode. S ranked it, which is pretty satisfying since the last time I tried I got screwed on Tactics by Value of Life (final Kishuna sidequest) because I didn't know that the Hector-only sidequests don't raise your turn allowance. No such issues this time, though I did have one little scare when my Funds dropped below max rating after Sands of Time when I used my last promotion. In the end, though, I overkilled the Exp ranking badly and had 9 turns to spare on Tactics. I did do Value of Life anyway. Kishuna plot is so worthless, like most things connected to Nergal.
Kill leaders were pretty close to a four-way tie between Kent, Sain, Florina, and Fiora, with Raven and Lucius close behind. PC notes...
Hector - Pretended he had 60% speed growth which was pretty great. One of the best PCs from the time he really got rolling until I had to slow him down for level cap reasons (around C16-22). Never really caught up at the end, though, because the combination of 5 move and inability to be rescued by anyone except Florina (on my team; Rath and Eliwood can as well IIRC) hurt.
Kent and Sain - Both had some trouble sticking with the team at first, but I pulled them out whenever I had spare deployment slots. At a certain point their stats got rolling well enough, and the further the game went the better they seemed, eventually their stats were competent and they had the nice mobility.
Florina and Fiora - Despite a mild Str-screwing Florina wins MVP honours for this playthrough. Flight so good, only having 2x weakness to bows (assuming she doesn't just dodge them) is icing, and I played as a light-affinity tactician. She also got the Lyn Mode Angelic Robe. Fiora took a while to caught up and was never as dodgy but once she did she was pretty much a Florina variant, also outstanding.
Heath - You can pretty much always use more fliers. Heath's start sucks, he felt "okay" around Chapter 26 and really started paying off in Night of Farewells. He had more power and raw defence than the pegasus knights but never felt as good anyway. Still, paid off.
Raven - Well he got pretty RNG-screwed for a while, particularly on strength. So he wasn't as uber as he sometimes is. Still pretty damn good, fast and reasonably damaging and reasonably durable.
Lucius - Fragile but got enough speed to murder most things. Criticalled both Nergal and the dragon to finish them off, good times.
Nino - Way better than Fiona certainly! Yeah, I figured she'd be good Exp rank padding and after a bunch of (relatively painless) feeding she became quite capable. Obviously not "worth it" but fun.
Serra and Priscilla - I used both, only promoted Priscilla (and only very late at that). Not much to say, staves.
Pent, Louise, Harken, Jaffar, Vaida - Filler but capable filler, you know how they work.
Ninian - Danced.
Eliwood - Gained like 2 points ofspeed ever. Wasn't promoted.
Lyn - Also got badly speed-screwed. More effective than Eliwood because she has more speed at base but also wasn't promoted.
Guy - Unpromoted filler, never gained Str until Level 17 or something. Got him to 20, didn't promote.
Matthew and Legault - Actually had pretty capable combat stats, but their promotion item is dumb so that wasn't happening.
Game remains thoroughly enjoyable. Despite my issues with the writing (which does have some redeeming features, to be sure; there are some character interaction scenes) and the shop system being horrid plus some other polish things, this remains a great Fire Emblem with lots of very memorable battles. Rankings are cool, rescue shenanigans are cool, evasion and the weapon triangle are cool. Playing this and FE9 back-to-back has kinda cemented my feeling that this is my second favourite FE game, although a lot of them are close! Great series.
Pokemon Alpha Sapphire - Up to Mt. Pyre, levels around 37-38. Current team very much has an "A team" and a "B team".
(Mega) Sceptile - Leaf Blade, Mega Drain, Dual Chop, Power-Up Punch. In hindsight I wish I'd gotten Giga Drain with Treecko since I didn't realise it wasn't a TM any more. Still, Mega Drain suffices. The various improvements to an already good pokemon in the most water-spammy game in the series make Sceptile feel ridiculously OP.
(Mega) Latias - Mist Ball, Shadow Ball, Surf, Recover. Speaking of OP, I have no idea why they thought 700 BST midgame was a good idea. Ridiculous skillset (also can learn Thunderwave and various other attacks) held in check only slightly by unimpressive STAB moves (Mist Ball has only 5 PP / 70 power, Dragonbreath only 60 power). Awesome tank.
Crobat - Fly, Roost, Cross Poison, Confuse Ray. Fast, long-lasting, hits reasonably hard, has confuse, used him before but there's nothing to not like here. Even joining slightly later than in some games, evolved to Crobat at the earliest level possible.
Lairon - Iron Head, Rock Slide, Dig, Shadow Claw. Slow but has a solid typing niche to take hits with and has a decent array of attacking types. Nothing impressive and really hates water routes, but also sometimes really good (e.g. 5th and 6th gyms). Clearly worse than the three above, clearly better than the two below.
Camerupt - Earth Power, Lava Plume, Stone Edge, Overheat. Terrible speed, mediocre durability, bad defensive typing aside from nulling electrics (a niche which Sceptile has since stolen). Camerupt kinda sucks but ground's a great STAB and fire's an okay one, plus Overheat hits extremely hard at least.
Hariyama - Fake Out, Vital Throw, Bulldoze, Stone Edge. Aside from Stone Edge this is the same skillset it has had since forever, and it is really feeling its age. Fake Out is a very cool ability, as it essentially lets you "scout" the durability of what you're fighting, and of course is free damage. Past that he is... okay on durability, horrible on speed, and only okay on raw damage due to only having one, not terribly useful STAB (although it being ITE has been nice once or twice). Was decent for a while but probably should be dropped soon.
I've also used Gyarados (joining at Level 15 made it more useful, but then Latias came and stole the water niche while being ridiculously better otherwise), Mightyena (not much to say), and various others.
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How about Black Waltz 1 hype? It's a thing.
Yeah I still like the game.
I also really like that the flimsy plot given at the beginning of the game will likely never have a conclusion, so Tyro/Loser will never be free. His plan has failed and the world is no more. We only have memories of FF games left in our lives
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I escaped. Woke up in the middle of the night for a piss and uninstalled it.
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What will I do without ANLFST?
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I will always be there on your friends list. I will just be inactive.
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So weird reading the names Sinspawn Ammes and Echuilles and hype being attached to them.
I'm even more baffled than you are.
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Necrodancer - Beaten Cadence and Melody modes. Melody mode was stupid easy. Tried Aria mode but lol.
Grinding through Monk now, up to Zone 2. So many deaths to instinctually picking up gold after killing an enemy. It's definitely different but I don't know if I like it. The bosses minus Coral Riff are waaay scarier in this mode, too, unless I've lucked upon a blast helmet. Definitely made deep blue unwinnable once and that caused a ragequit. May switch to Dove or Dorian modes if Monk continues to be too frustrating.
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VP2: Dragon zombie is not immune to petrification or frozen. Wow.
Also I missed precisely one piece of treasure in the dungeon and I have no idea which one. ffffff
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@Fenrir: Is Black Mage's Memory Crystal actually available yet? I keep getting conflicting reports when I try to look it up whether some of the core classes can break the level limit yet. I would probably beeline to levelling him up if I could get his MP-regen ability now.
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They -just- released new dungeons, which include oodles of new memory crystals. Slave away.
EDIT: Those new dungeons also released new PCs, including IRVINE KINNEAS. Seeing his hilariously awful stats, I'm now absolutely certain Elfboy's mindcontrolling the people of DeNa in regards to this game's balance.
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Captain Toad: Just beat the Dragon again. This game is still the worst, most offensive thing ever. Cheerful games should never be allowed to exist.
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They -just- released new dungeons, which include oodles of new memory crystals. Slave away.
EDIT: Those new dungeons also released new PCs, including IRVINE KINNEAS. Seeing his hilariously awful stats, I'm now absolutely certain Elfboy's mindcontrolling the people of DeNa in regards to this game's balance.
I would say that Celes is too underwhelming for Elfboy to be making all of DeNA's balancing decisions, but oh wait she and Mog just got a major buff in the JP version yesterday.
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Just play with a keyboard.
Fucking Philistine.
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Freedom never tasted so delicious.
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Is the freedom comment a FFRK thing? I don't understand how it is that you feel trapped by the free to play game?
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Lord of Magna: Maid in Heaven:
so this game isn't actually very good (super slow combat system, giant hp sponge enemies, no sceneskip, crafting is both expensive and there's no catalog) but it has a bunch of girls in maid uniforms who call you Master
therefore it's better than the likes of ACF
all magic is crafting and crafting is expensive so you use your physical maids and spam basic physical, it's compelling
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Is the freedom comment a FFRK thing? I don't understand how it is that you feel trapped by the free to play game?
Ht DJ defends his skinner box
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I am free to try another more shitty free to play game while I shit now.
Honestly it is less freedom from FFRk an d just not playing something with stamina bars that make me feel like I should game with my phone open and play two games at once. Two at once really hampers my pod cast time.
Edit - oh yeah got back from a gaming bar with Rat. They had Nidhogg going. Watching people that don't know how it works play Nidhogg is pretty cool to me. Really shines some good intuitive design that game has in place.
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Final Fantasy It's A Wonderful Autobattle - New dungeons ahoy. I grabbed Cloud's Memory Crystal and broke his level cap and both Vivi and Garnet are five levels away from reaching the magic number. Having checked the overall strategy for the boss rush on Garnet's event, though, I may end up trying my hand at it. I suspect I can pull it off fair and square with the right setup. More interesting than autobattling through the new dungeon entries for Mythril, at least - I'm frankly way overpowered for them.
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Is the freedom comment a FFRK thing? I don't understand how it is that you feel trapped by the free to play game?
Ht DJ defends his skinner box
Not trying to 'defend' anything. I'm genuinely curious. You and Grefter both talked about the game like you were trapped by it. But I honestly don't feel anymore 'addicted' to FFRK than any other RPG I play. Yes, it's a Skinner Box, but most games are in some way or another?
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Man I was totally going to answer "Skinner box: Perhaps the same could be said of all RPGs" but you beat me to it
Anyway I am going to answer this.
The game limits the real-life time you're allowed to play it, like a mother that doesn't want you to play too many Vidcons.
So that means that the time you can spend playing is more precious than the time you're playing a regular game. This also means that when you're not playing despite having a full stamina bar, you are wasting precious playtime. Since the stamina bar gets fully charged every five hours this means you need to connect every five hours or you are essentially not playing as well as you could. If you don't play the game for a few days, you waste precious game time and maybe some events (just try doing it. You can't)
Hence the trap.
likewise if your mother limited your gametime to 30 minutes every day that cannot be stacked, you'd try playing every single day even if you didn't enjoy it that much
It's still cool though. I like traps.
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Final Fantasy Phantasmagoria of Flower Autobattle - Doing the FF9 boss gauntlet. Steiner unsurprisingly sucks, 3-4HKO pure physical damage and his support gets OHKOed by Blizzaga (yes, it's the bombs asplode battle). I just slapped Retaliate on Cloud and had him counter my dudes' basic physicals straight towards Steiner all day long. You know, Retaliate countering your own PCs' attacks into enemies honestly feels like a deliberate design decision, since the skill would otherwise be completely useless within the system. I mean, it's been nine months since the game's release and they haven't touched the mechanics there.
Plant Cage is next, and I don't expect it to be as kind.
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Man I was totally going to answer "Skinner box: Perhaps the same could be said of all RPGs" but you beat me to it
Anyway I am going to answer this.
The game limits the real-life time you're allowed to play it, like a mother that doesn't want you to play too many Vidcons.
So that means that the time you can spend playing is more precious than the time you're playing a regular game. This also means that when you're not playing despite having a full stamina bar, you are wasting precious playtime. Since the stamina bar gets fully charged every five hours this means you need to connect every five hours or you are essentially not playing as well as you could. If you don't play the game for a few days, you waste precious game time and maybe some events (just try doing it. You can't)
Hence the trap.
likewise if your mother limited your gametime to 30 minutes every day that cannot be stacked, you'd try playing every single day even if you didn't enjoy it that much
It's still cool though. I like traps.
Basically this plus what Grefter said.
Throw very, very, very addictive personality and you have someone starting new autobattles while waiting at stoplights and then sometimes while driving on empty stretches of road just to make sure my stamina bar didn't hit max and all of a sudden I catch myself waking up in the middle of the night because of some sound my cat made and go "oh before I go back to sleep I should start another dungeon and blow my stamina." Emphasis on should, like it was a goddamn moral imperative.
Or during a lull in the conversation with some of my friends starting a new dungeon because I'm going to hit full stamina soon.
Or feeling relief when I check my phone and only have 6 stamina so I still have a while before I have to play. All for a nostalgia trip through a franchise I honestly don't actually care all that much about and doesn't offer anything interesting in the way of plot or gameplay (or exploration but that is obvious)
Fuck that, and fuck these mobile games that prey on that tendency. Yes it is a personal failing that I fall for that shit but whatever, quitting altogether is easier than moderation so fuck that game.
At least with cookie clicker I couldn't fuckin take that thing everywhere with me.
EDIT: I also almost got very angry at whatever dungeon made you blow like 1 stamina per battle over 12 battles instead of 4 stamina over 3 battles because it made me have to pay more attention to that game to get the same amount done in my mind and no I am not doing that.
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I was mostly joking but yeah a lot of that if I am being honest. That kind of mechanic really plays on the same part of my mind that makes me good at my job and the same part that makes me think about games the way I do.
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I have pretty much the same problem as Grefter and Zenny and yet I keep at it because playing a ruthless skinner box is actually psychologically healthier than the rest of my obsessions. Speaking of which:
Final Fantasy More Songs About Autobattle And Grinding - Still plugging at the boss gauntlet. Prison Cage is a dick and will almost always trap Vivi first - I had to let him die so it'd imprison someone else and revive him. Good thing the boss is weak to fire. Then, Plant Brain. Its gimmick is landing perfect accuracy MT blind as soon as the battle start then slapping your face around with 2HKO tentacles. This sounds really annoying, but it's weak to fire and, as I mentioned before, Vivi rams the damage cap whenever hitting weakness with a -ga spell. And Plant Brain has 24k HP. You do the math.
Looks like Sealion and Black Waltz 1 are significantly nerfed from their Elite event showing and Baku is pure physical ST. Carbuncle's as good as mine.
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I may have missed this getting implemented, but glancing over Irvines weapons I see that he can use guns.
So guns have been added.
But I haven't seen one yet.
I wonder who the strongest gun user is going to be...
Barrett?
Dunno. Would like to get one tho.
Stamina is becoming scarce. These new stages aren't giving out as much as previous ones did. The trudge continues.
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I for one am totally comfortable letting most of a day's stamina be 'wasted' in Record Keeper. Especially on weekdays.
In closely related news, I am now well behind Snow progress-wise despite starting more than a week before him.
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What can I say, I'm very much the target audience for those kinds of games - clinically obsessive and almost always at my cellphone's reach. I don't fret about wasting stamina myself (I mean, I don't stop Saints Row playing sessions for that), but I spend way too much time using the phone anyways and most of it is very low-maintenance.
ANYHOW.
Final Fantasy An Autobattle By Any Name - Yeah, cleared FFIX's boss gauntlet. Sealion and Black Waltz were indeed significantly nerfed, having just above half their Elite iteration HP, which meant I didn't even see Tsunami this time. And Baku is pretty much worthless: ST physical 2HKO that's kinda slow is a terrible thing to specialize in, especially in a game with stat busts as good as these. The latter three fights pretty much saved my score from the bargain bin and brought me to mastery level, so in addition to Carbuncle, I got a Major Growth Egg and a Major Summon Orb. I'm pretty good to go back to the autobattle maingame dungeons now.
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The game limits the real-life time you're allowed to play it, like a mother that doesn't want you to play too many Vidcons.
So that means that the time you can spend playing is more precious than the time you're playing a regular game. This also means that when you're not playing despite having a full stamina bar, you are wasting precious playtime. Since the stamina bar gets fully charged every five hours this means you need to connect every five hours or you are essentially not playing as well as you could. If you don't play the game for a few days, you waste precious game time and maybe some events (just try doing it. You can't)
Hence the trap.
likewise if your mother limited your gametime to 30 minutes every day that cannot be stacked, you'd try playing every single day even if you didn't enjoy it that much
It's still cool though. I like traps.
That's actually how I first played video games, I had a half hour limit per day. It never really made me want to play games I didn't enjoy, though! Not like there weren't plenty of other fun things to do with my free time (and there still are). I rarely ever feel trapped by video games in this way as such. I have my own traps, mind (mostly reading stupid nonsense on the internet), but I don't really enjoy them and take steps to avoid falling into them.
Not trying to 'defend' anything. I'm genuinely curious. You and Grefter both talked about the game like you were trapped by it. But I honestly don't feel anymore 'addicted' to FFRK than any other RPG I play. Yes, it's a Skinner Box, but most games are in some way or another?
Most other games have more to offer on the fronts of writing, strategic gameplay, and/or exploration. Nothing wrong with enjoying a skinner box or even playing a game just for that if that's your thing, but don't try to reduce the other things games do well.
Anyway, sorry Gourry, I tried to keep up the good fight but I can't resist any more. I have given into this fad and started mobile Final Fantasy.
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Final Fantasy Dimensions - Played the first couple hours, just got access to jobs. I appreciate that the requisite "pre-jobs" part actually has some party dynamics due to the innate PC magic and skillsets, better than the equivalent parts of FF5 and FF3 etc. I also appreciate that this game seems to have some teeth to it, not super-hard or anything but the first dungeon felt very legitimate and the bosses have been competent. I don't appreciate how bad the writing seems to be so far, but oh well, I kinda knew that going in.
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More acceptable!
I had a gaming time limit growing up (and I have a self imposed one now due to a hectic schedule), but if anything, that made me want to maximize the time I had, which was part of what got me into strategy games (Brig, Master of Magic and Orion, Heroes of Might and Magic, the Civ games). I play more endless kind of games (don't wanna say roguelikes) nowadays because I'll know I enjoy my time with them.
The weird thing to me about FFRK is that some (I guess the ones that have already quit) seemed miserable while playing it and even people who like it say things like "the trudge continues" and make remarks on quality of life improvements. Having sunk an hour into it and being told that the gameplay doesn't really meaningfully improve, I'm just baffled. I don't think the game gating your ability to experience something that you don't need to be around or alive for is a plus in this case. RK is at least not nearly as cynical when it comes to the free to play model as most things. Sorry Fen, I am with you on 99% of things. At least we will always have our undying hatred of Magna Carta.
If you're willing to pay a little bit of money, there are some alternatives that are fairly cheap, like 80 Days (choose your own adventure type of game where you are the valet to Phileas Fogg, who has made a wager to go around the world in 80 days, absolutely fantastic writing), 10,000,000/You Must Build a Boat (match 3 with some compelling RPG elements), and Monument Valley (neat puzzle game). There are ports of good games out there too but those are a little bit more pricy and hardware dependent.
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80 Days is pretty great but gives me option paralysis (one more game where I am the problem). I have to play You Must Build a Boat, but understand it adds timing to match 3? Sounds cool.
FFD is great thank you for playing it Elf (you will think it is lame and boring).
I played games growing up with time limits as well, it was also why we got into strategy games (X-Com, Civ), because they were huge and could be play cooperatively with 3 people and you could pool your time to hour and a half (and hey if its all three of you then people are less likely to keep track of time well...).
Honestly the trudge/grind/trap is an ironic joke that is pretty consistent in games that use slow progressive grindy mechanics. It is the exact same thing I say about MMOs when I am in them (and it is a lot of overlap, chase rares, repetition, lots of hours for low progress curve). Mix that genre where the drive is for constant progress and gate that progress behind a time system where you can "lose" progress if you don't spend your time and it is a very different structure than allocated amounts of play time when you are young.
If you have the wrong personality type (and I know I do) then it starts to feel like it is mandatory play times instead.
Also that thing Zenny mentioned of it having parts where it has tons of little fights instead of larger chained fights and that shit is rough on an older phone that just meets specs and isn't as responsive. No, don't go to Relics screen! I wanted to pick the last battle in the list and had to tap it 4 times before you selected the wrong thing!
Such is life.
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I figure a FF5-like will have to try pretty hard for me to hate it!
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I for one am totally comfortable letting most of a day's stamina be 'wasted' in Record Keeper. Especially on weekdays.
Good for you.
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I can understand freezing on choices in 80 Days because I realized that different routes become available based on you talking to people en route (which is problematic because my knowledge of geography is terrible and I always ask about stupidly impossible route options) and sometimes through walking around the streets after you stay at hotels. There are so many choices and route combinations that it's mindboggling to me, and that has offered some great replay value. The North Pole is also really interesting.
10,000,000/You Must Build a Boat (both made by the same company that can't name games) are match 3s combined with the endless runner games, plus some RPG elements. Your character runs horizontally across the screen and will stop at various things like chests or monsters that you have to match specific tiles to deal with (keys for chests, swords/staves to kill monsters). You basically lose on your run when you're pushed to the very left of the screen (either by time or being pushed by monsters). You can buy upgrades to improve your swords and magic to get through monsters faster. It's a very tight loop and while runs don't tend to be long, it's easy and quick to get back in to start another one. 10,000,000 refers to the high score you want to get on your runs by the end, YMBAB has quests that you can take on to get rewards to improve your stuff. Good stuff.
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Well, uh... that certainly answered my question!
For me, I actually like most of what FFRK offers. Especially at the higher-end where I am now, it's more like a deck-building game with FF characters. Anyone who plays TCGs can understand the inherent fun in deck-building. The way the characters are set up, they are all both unique and yet they have mix-and-match skillsets/equipment builds. It is literally the game I wanted to make when I was 16. It's less about playing it and more about collecting -stuff-. The fact that FFRK has the occasional good battle or resource puzzle is just a bonus. My comment about the quality of life features was just that. There were some extraneous menu diving procedures that have been averted due to the game displaying more info and having more options for playing it. It took away some of the minor tedious bits.
The stamina 'trap' doesn't seem to really bother me. It is a train game. When I'm at home I play real games.
Speaking of...
Splatoon: OMG this is great, I actually have played with some of my kindergarten students online on this, they're adorably bad.
Smash U: Finally picked up on my own copy instead of just playing the 3DS version constantly. Cleared all the Solo Events. Two Player events next! Speaking of, my Player Two totally bought me some amiibos and now I am even happier than usual.
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Personally, I like the nostalgia. Also when I come back home from work I often feel too tired to play a real game (or at least one that's worth spending money on), so I boot up a mobile time waster for a few minutes.
Incidentally, I decided to skim an FF9 LP to see how the earlygame went in more detail and the LPer mentioned 1/256 steal rates on some rare items. Now I feel even less interested in actually playing FF9 than before, somehow.
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Aren't there like only 2 or 3 enemies the entire game that have that 1/256 steal rate item? Hillgigars is one of them with the Fairy Flute I believe, an item of Eiko's you get like one dungeon later in the Iifa Tree anyway. Another I believe is the optional book boss in Alexandria, and I don't even think the item was particularly interesting. Honestly feels like such a non-factor for most of the game, it's not worth considering unless you're an absolute completionist who must get everything ASAP.
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Speaking as someone who isn't personally a completionist nor obsessed with Steal, it is an absolute dick move for the game to have a "can't steal anything..." message tempting the player to keep trying with a success rate of 1/256.
Like sure, once you know the rate is that horrible you can make a decision not to go for it, but how is a player supposed to know that? He or she could reasonably waste lots of time trying to steal the item assuming that the odds of getting it were something at least somewhat reasonable and that he or she was just having bad luck so far. It's an obnoxious trap.
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After checking the wiki, it looks like the LPer was wrong about Masked Man's Mage Masher being 1/256. It's actually 1/16, which would be still be kinda annoying if you didn't have four Thieves for that fight.
Okay yeah, that one case isn't as insanely obnoxious as the LPer made it out to be, but 1/256 rates for steal existing at all is a dumb design decision for the reasons Elfboy mentioned.
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Oh, I'm not denying the 1/256 Steal Rate is something that is moronic and should be shot into the sun, just saying FF9 doesn't have it that commonly so it's not as bad as it sounds, though the few times it does come up, it's awful (especially since the items in question are so inconsequential, it's a major case of "why bother?")
To be fair, FF9 does have Detect that tells you the item you aren't stealing, though, if you're not using an FAQ, it's hard to tell how meaningful that item is.
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I don't really see FFRK as that great or anything Gourry don't panic.
I'm also not really trapped by the game despite being able to feel and talk about its evil.
I like the refreshing lack of story and, indeed, deck building / interesting lategame battles / spritework
I don't feel the other mobile games are a good alternative, I tend to just binge play through them. The only one I still play from time to time is Super Hexagon.
80 days was quite lovely but I just could not really get into it. I remember travelling with the Orient Express, I reached China super fast, Orient Express is OP plz nerf.
FFRK:
So when did the message board to go to for a random new videogame go from Gamefaqs to Reddit? Anyway I like randomly browsing the subreddit at work. Lots of good info + that chart http://i.imgur.com/x0FBRRs.png
I really want to use Irvine because of his sprite but I know that's just the worst idea. Right now I'm using Terrible Cosplayer / Boring Locke / Blitzballz / FF9 duo, everybody's good except Locke. I am tempted to just feed him eggs until he reaches level 50, just to finish his quest, then never touch a boring FF4-6 character again.
Witcher 3: Still good, still good. You don't get that much detail from sidequests from any other game, really.
Battle system also still a fucking mess
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Streetpass Mii Plaza roundup:
Find Mii II: Got the final hat (Pink Yoshi hat), so I can stick this in the vault now.
Flower Town: Got the last plaza ticket from completing jobs, so I can stick this in the vault now. Still have 3 or 4 plant breeds left, but meh.
Battleground Z: Beat the game. That was really short, probably the shortest of all the games unless you count Warrior's Way. Yay, the zombie plague is cured and everyone got turned back into humans. Uh wait, that was curable? So all those zombies I killed... whoopsie! Why is this throwaway game making me have lingering thoughts about the repercussions of my actions? Still have lots of plaza tickets to get, so I'm not done with it yet.
I now have every costume in the game except for the one for beating Ultimate Angler, which won't be anytime soon from the looks of things.
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Found Kains memory crystal.
He's back in the party, and this time...I know. Etter then to stick a crappy lance on him.
Danjuro ftw.
Might save up my mithril til Zack or balthier show up.
Also, not having guns in the game and giving us a character who only uses guns is awesome.
Man Irvine sucks.
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Witcher 3: Liberated two ancient evils hellbent on taking revenge (from two different questlines)
That's cool though, I have new shoes
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VP2: Up through Forest of Spirits, pointless backtracking time. I must be doing something wrong because bosses are actually getting two turns. I actually scrounged enough materials to assemble a Shiny Rupture, though! But just because the materials are available this early doesn't mean I'm supposed to have it, I think. I have like double strength Phyress now. Everything burns. You guys? It's just a shame you can only ever get one because there's only one Arbalest. Also because I'm an obsessive idiot I'm wasting way too much time skill farming for extra archer einherjar that are nice using for variety now but who I absolutely know will be obsolete once the full SG valk team is assembled.
PURE WHITE.
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Fallout Shelter - Everyone else with iOS devices are playing this right? It is like super casual Sim Tower, which is to say it is shallow as fuck but still super addictive because it is fucking Sim Tower still.
I got a rare Gatling Laser at the start of the game and have coasted on that for all exploring outside. 8 hour trip out with like 8 stimpacks and a few Rad Away to test the waters and came back when I was wanting to set it up to run over night while I slept. 15 hour trip out today wth 25 Stims and 15 Radaway. Turned back before they ran out, but my explorer did start taking a ton of damage from stuff because even though she was levelled I hadn't got any stat boosting places discovered before she was sent out. Sending out someone else with the Gatling Laser and some armour she found. Another with the Flamer she found and some armour. Now my first explorer is going to build up some Luck over night just casually playing some poker.
(http://members.optusnet.com.au/grefter/poker.png)
if someone made card sets where the backs were aces and eights i would totally buy them even if they technically could be used for cheating
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Final Fantasy Double-Dealing Autobattle - My whole party is now level cap-broken. I also got Black Mage's Memory Crystal, so I'm likely amassing billions of Growth Eggs to dump on him so I can get Mana Spring, that sounds shiny as fuck for Vivi.
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Watch Dogs was on sale for $15 so I picked it up. It has some interesting ideas with controlling the environment, and it's probably at its strongest during stealth segments where you have to do just that. However, it tends to rely on hard fail conditions like AC rather than just making it so you probably can't take on more than a couple people at once head-on like AP or DX. Makes the game more frustrating than tense often. So when it works it works, when it doesn't it's frustrating.
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Saints Row 4 - Beaten. The novelty of being obscenely overpowered never really wore off, but I felt the missions in Saints Row 3 were more fun in general. Regardless, I certainly had much more fun with both games than I'd ever expect to, especially considering it's a GTA-like. Certainly worth the like 10 bucks I paid for both.
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Saints Row 4 - Beaten. The novelty of being obscenely overpowered never really wore off, but I felt the missions in Saints Row 3 were more fun in general.
Yeah, that was basically my impression. Also gradually ramping up to heights of insanity (SR3) is easier for me to take than starting amped at 11 (SR4). Which says a lot about SR4's caliber of absurdity considering SR3's tutorial mission was a pretty nuts way to begin that game too.
Of course it's worth it for the wardrobe either way.
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Fallout Shelter - Everyone else with iOS devices are playing this right?
Do you really want us to be addicted to two games we have to check out every once in a while?
So, Witcher 3. I just did a pretty amazing questline. Witcher 3 manages to have a pretty down to earth attitude, caring about little details that would be quickly glossed over in an inferior game like Dragon Age Inquisition.
It manages to still stay distinctly Polish despite having a high budget, instead of trying to copy high budget games.
Witcher 3 has a lot of downtime, which would be a big failure of design for me, but I think it helps build the world in a meaningful way. By downtime, I mean going from point A to point B, or having to gather vanilla and baking powder because someone wants to bake a cake or something.
The worst part about the game is its Ubisoftness. As in, objective vomit everywhere on the open world, + you're looking at the minimap more than at the environment. Those things were the cardinal sins of last gen and it looks like CD Projekt Red hasn't learned anything. (BTW, worst company name right here)
That design is just not fun. I wish minimaps disappeared alltogether and games would have to rely information some other way. Sure you can disable it, but the whole game is designed around the mini map, so disabling the minimap is pretty much like disabling jumps in Mario.
Other games have tacky big arrows or golden lines showing you were you need to go, and while that's a very inelegant approach, it's better than having jack shit, forcing the player to look at the minimap all the time. Right now I am playing Minimap: The RPG: Now with cutscenes
I can still say that the game's a major improvement over Witcher 2 and I wish more games would learn from its approach to writing.
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FFRK: Had Tidus solo the Sunday dungeon to powerlevel to 50+. Made a last-chance attempt at the highest elite dungeons from his event. Nope, not happening. Normal enemies do way too much damage, and the bosses are hitting for 2-3k. Right now my best-geared character is Garnet, with a generic 5-star staff and 5-star White Robe. She cures for a ton but the lack of MT healing (and MT black magic) in this game hurts.
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FFRK: yeah I haven't been able to clear Tidus' final dungeons yet either. And I have a level 60 Tidus and Wakka. The key is honing skills but I wasted a bunch of materials on the quests so my spells and such aren't at the level of say... Snow. The EXP dungeon is quite nice though. Got my Black Mage up to 50 finally so I have Lesser Manafont. Apparently to get Good Manafont you have to clear a difficulty 80(!) Elite dungeon. Not sure even my best party is up for that but it also requires you to use Black Mage during the fight and he can't get KOd ever. Damn. That's a tall order with such a frail character. I could possibly RNG manipulate it but that's probably an hour investment and my longest commute isn't until Thursday. Still, you also get Kain's Break Limit crystal from that dungeon too so... Yay? I'm sure Scar's happy. :)
Splatoon: still a good game, I still quite suck at it, but getting better. Rank 7 opens up a stronger version of the weapon type that I'm actually good with. Seriously, Nintendo, I love you forever for putting a viable melee weapon in a competitive shooter. It means I don't have to shoot. Because really that's the part I hate (most) about shooters.
Smash U: And yay, a fighting game, a genre I inherently like, gotta get gud. Still not up to my Brawl or Melee skill level since there's so much more to master in this game (so many new characters, custom moves, and stage hazards to learn!)
I suppose I could just master the stuff that's trending in the meta but that's not how I roll with Smash.
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Yeah I've stopped worrying about Tidus' dungeon.
I still do intend to finish Garnet's though, the fights aren't that though. Feed exp to Vivi and give him fire, and then give fire strikes to Cloud, then get two healers w/fire on the side, or something.
The boss rush afterwards sounds easy (and worth it) with minimal mithril use.
If boss damage is too much of a problem, I suggest stat breaks. They're really good.
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I spent one Mythril on Garnet's boss rush and I might've been able to do it without one with not much better of a setup. It's a really manageable set. I liked the balance.
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Yeah, that was basically my impression. Also gradually ramping up to heights of insanity (SR3) is easier for me to take than starting amped at 11 (SR4). Which says a lot about SR4's caliber of absurdity considering SR3's tutorial mission was a pretty nuts way to begin that game too.
Of course it's worth it for the wardrobe either way.
I thought the point of SR4 was to mack on your Vice President anyway.
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Fallout Shelter - Everyone else with iOS devices are playing this right? It is like super casual Sim Tower, which is to say it is shallow as fuck but still super addictive because it is fucking Sim Tower still.
I tried, but the super casual didn't work for me. Just couldn't get involved.
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I wish minimaps disappeared alltogether and games would have to rely information some other way.
Insert favorable comment about Dark Souls design here.
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Yeah, that was basically my impression. Also gradually ramping up to heights of insanity (SR3) is easier for me to take than starting amped at 11 (SR4). Which says a lot about SR4's caliber of absurdity considering SR3's tutorial mission was a pretty nuts way to begin that game too.
Of course it's worth it for the wardrobe either way.
I thought the point of SR4 was to mack on your Vice President anyway.
Keith David doesn't have time for your fucking bullshit.
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Yeah, that was basically my impression. Also gradually ramping up to heights of insanity (SR3) is easier for me to take than starting amped at 11 (SR4). Which says a lot about SR4's caliber of absurdity considering SR3's tutorial mission was a pretty nuts way to begin that game too.
Of course it's worth it for the wardrobe either way.
I thought the point of SR4 was to mack on your Vice President anyway.
Keith David doesn't have time for your fucking bullshit.
:(
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Yeah, that was basically my impression. Also gradually ramping up to heights of insanity (SR3) is easier for me to take than starting amped at 11 (SR4). Which says a lot about SR4's caliber of absurdity considering SR3's tutorial mission was a pretty nuts way to begin that game too.
Of course it's worth it for the wardrobe either way.
I thought the point of SR4 was to mack on your Vice President anyway.
To Ciddy: yeah, the amazing wardrobe options in both games alone make the experience 20% cooler. Cookie points to SR3 for pulling off a final boss sequence to the sound of the OTHER Bonnie Tyler song.
To CK: don't be silly, the point of SR4 is macking -Johnny Gat- as a rebound fuck because Keith David doesn't have time for your fucking bullshit.
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Final Fantasy Bury My Autobattle At Wounded Knee - Mostly futzing around for Mythril, fun and games until the Squall event uploads. Difficulty 60+ Elite dungeons are currently my chumps, particularly because I have a lot of resources on Vivi (Rank 3 Firaga + Rank 2 other L3s), though I still want Rank 2 on Quake and Rank 2-3 on Drain, which is actually -really- good. Only drains for 30% of damage done, but that's actually very significant when Drain itself is slightly -stronger- than a L3 and I have nearly 300 Mag + Rod Master on Vivi. Dealing nearly 9k damage with -ga spells against Elite -bosses- is sorta nuts. Too bad I'll lose some of that damage when I pick up Mana Spring I, but that's just so damn much offense. At higher levels, magic becomes the backbone of your offense against bosses something fierce, even my strongest physicals can't possibly hope to match up without Spellblade hitting weakness, and even then, only the damage cap keeps magic from completely dominating. It's quite a departure from the early game shenanigans, though physical fighters -never- stop being your main way of dealing with randoms and their utility does pick up crucial things for dealing with bosses (debuffs and status attached to damage, mainly). The balance does work out decently this way.
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Necrodancer - Beat Cadence All Zones (hereby referred to as EZ) mode after a couple nights of trying. Still utterly hopeless without a bow/spear/longsword, though I can make due with a whip. For some reason I am just terrible with broadswords/flails/shotguns.
Probably will do Melody EZ next. I thought normal Melody was way easier than Cadence, but that she starts with 2 hearts in EZ mode just kinda confirms it. I rolled a revive potion, crown of thorns, Torch+3, and obsidian longsword in the first zone on my attempt with Melody, then bumped into a shrine of peace by mistake and rage quit.
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FFRK: I broke Cloud's level cap and got his sweet materia, gave him a 5* FF9 sword and attempted Garnet's second to last fight again.
52 Vivi / 50 Cloud / 50 Luneth / 52 Garnet / 55 Wakka.
That team rolled all over Black Waltz, it was ridiculous. Luneth slowed, Wakka broke defense/magic, Garnet healed. Vivi and Cloud burned everything. Vivi was hitting for 7500 damage, Cloud for 9999, and they were far from using all their spell charges when the fight was over. I could have probably tackled another black waltz fight right afterwards.
The constant ethers after every fight make the boss rush seem actually doable.
I went up to the fourth fight but left because Luneth was dead. I'll try again later. No S/L or mithril.
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If you have Raise, it's not a bad idea to bring it for the boss rush if you're losing people now and then. That saved my ass on the Plant Cage fight, since it kept imprisoning Vivi and he is my best damage by far.
EDIT: I'm a single Major Fire Orb away from crafting Phoenix. =(
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Yeah but you need both Blinda and healing for the boss rush!
I just went with Lenna's full revive instead (as a friend summon) to make up for that (Thank god for the amazing people who have her as their summon)
That boss rush is really fun.
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I do like it. Rewards also worth it in general (Tidus event also had worthwhile rewards, but the tail end of the bosses is just too brutal).
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Honestly I'm not sure I'll ever seriously use those summons since honing them is so difficult. Those rewards ARE extra shiny though, if nothing else, and that's a big plus.
Oh yeah by the way. Do you know if the black mage materia restores magic every fight or every... battle? (One battle = three fights (most of the time))
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Maybe Djinn knows, I'm still collecting eggs to feed Black Mage so far. Comments on the wiki seem to point to the start of each -battle-, though (each fight would make Mana Spring II -absurdly- broken, woohoo infinite Quake/summons/healing all day long never use a physical again).
EDIT: Got Arc, who is basically Lenna with MT Shell and no unique weapon instead of Mass Regen or unique weapon Full-Life. I guess his niche is covering for a healer with acceptable stats if you missed Aerith/Lenna/Vanille/Garnet. In his defense, at least, MT Shell is a pretty good choice for a Soul Break (MT defensive buffs are good stuff in general).
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Just beat Elite Black Waltz + Sea Lion with the help of Runic. Replenishing Vivi's Firaga/Firaja stock while nullifying their ice magic was fun, although the rest of my offense was limited enough that I still needed Magic Break + Mass Regen to survive a few Tsunamis near the end.
From what I hear the Boss rush versions have low enough HP to straight up blitz with Runic support, but I'll have to wait until tomorrow to get enough stamina for a try.
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About that, FF9 Masked Man (Baku, the first boss) nearly destroyed me and I think we reached the most ludicrous power disparity between a FF game and Record Keeper.
I still won the fight but didn't get the mastery. Magic didn't get replenished between fight 4 and 5 for some reason.
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Also this happened while I was grabbing the mythril from a daily dungeon at lunch:
(http://i.imgur.com/jjJnZ59l.png)
gj ai
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FFRK: the new Squall event is just precious with its introductory level 1 dungeons. Even Vivi is oneshotting foes. With his physical.
So I'm playing a challenge version. The game just recently handed me a bunch of new adorable sprites. So let's play "Cloud and the Level Ones". Irvine, Refia, Fran, and Arc will be playing their hardest to stay alive and collect that sweet sweet EXP while veteran member Cloud plays their manager. (And basically does all the work.)
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Speaking of Squall event: OHKOing group bosses with a generic Ramuh is funny. Should grab Squall within this stamina load and go on to the Elite versions. This event looks a lot less interesting than Tidus' and Garnet's, but like I'd say no to easy prizes.
EDIT: About that, FF9 Masked Man (Baku, the first boss) nearly destroyed me and I think we reached the most ludicrous power disparity between a FF game and Record Keeper.
I still won the fight but didn't get the mastery. Magic didn't get replenished between fight 4 and 5 for some reason.
Seriously? Baku is a chump as long as you have a couple Power Breaks and shots of healing left, I found. Oh no ST 2HKO physical in a game that hands you five party members I'm so scared.
EDIT 2: OH FUCK it's black and power orb day, nevermind I'm doing some farming there. Already got Drain to R2 and that's awesome.
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Should grab Squall within this stamina load
Ahhhhhhh skeet skeet skeet yeah.
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Should grab Squall within this stamina load
cocks
:rimshot:
I love you too.
Final Fantasy Distant Plastic Autobattles - So yeah, farming Power and Black Orbs, since those are my lowest stocks for ability crafting and honing. Since I'm one Stamina Shard away from upgrading my max, I'm also doing a classic FF3 dungeon for the Mythril and extra playtime. Good news, though: I can craft Protectga! Bad news: I can't craft Protectga without postponing honing Quake to R2. So uh yeah that'll wait for now. R2 Drain is great news regardless. I really do recommend crafting it, since it's good healing in the game's context and its damage is at least on par with L3s, which are pretty much a mage's bread-and-butter at this power level. It even hits weakness (Dark!) now and then, and it's -very- rarely resisted. Drain's existence really does trivialize Dark, though, doesn't it.
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I'm surprised Grefter passed on the obvious black power day joke.
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He can comment on white power day which is tomorrow iirc
And every other day
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I think cock jokes take priority there.
Regardless, I just level-capped Black Mage and got his first Record Materia. I should look into beating Hein's dungeon on Elite - the level scaling on FF3 dungeons is more lax and Hein himself was really meant to be fought with mostly mages. Runic or Sentinel's Grimoire should largely shut him down, and I -do- follow a Runic Celes.
(See? STRATEGYZ)
EDIT: HOLY SHIT ONE OF SQUALL EVENT'S ELITE STAGES HANDS YOU A MOTHERLODE OF GREATER DARK ORBS SO BEELINING FOR THAT
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I am a god damn 78 max stamina peasant. There's too little time to do the regular dungeons. I either have to do the current event, or get orbs, or get exp, or get materials, or whatever. There is always something else.
Oh, Baku only does ST 2HKO damage but remember that it's just fucking Baku we're talking about. He came close to destroying my team because I was nearly out of resources against him during the boss rush. (Not one healing spell left, for one)
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Oh, you went for a no-Mythril run. That makes more sense.
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I've tried Drain Sword and it looks to be the equivalent of Drain. Fira sword does 3300 damage to a random enemy in the hardest event dungeon, Drain sword does 3100. It restores about 800 HPs. The healing's not good, but throw a menuet + defense debuff and it becomes pretty good.
I think I prefer going with Fira/Blizzara strike on an average level but it's pretty nice.
I went with Protectga instead of Quake, I like it.
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Okay, pulling from the multiplier guide, I was wrong: Drain Sword and Drain are actually a bit -weaker- than L3s. 3x multiplier on Drain vs. 3.26x on -gas, 1.7x vs. 1.8x on -ra Spellblades. Looking at the mults, also explains why magic starts soaring later on: as of now, the highest mult you get on physicals, with 5-rarity skills, is 2.8. Magic abilities outpace that at -rarity level 3-. Pound doesn't seem to pull past that either, and it's rarity 4.
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Comparing mults is entirely meaningless though
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I do not comprehend.
EDIT: Granted, what you actually use either type for just varies. The mult thing is explained essentially because basic physicals always run off ATK, so you have a steady source of offense for trash mobs on your physicallers (if mage physicals ran off MAG instead... sigh). Against bosses, the physical skills serve utility purposes rather than raw damage. In the early game, this doesn't shape up quite that way because L1 and L2 magic is trashy and physical skills frontload their offense, but at this power level that's just how it goes. The gap is likely to widen as rarity-3 craft items become more of a commodity rather than a premium (Heroic daily dungeons drop those like candy). At some point, I imagine the ideal party shifts from three fighters+one mage+one healer to at least two mages+two fighters+a healer, because honing L3s becomes progressively easier and they actually last you even against boss rush stats, while physicals get offensively outdated even with 5-rarity material, which come at a serious premium.
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K guys
This is the nerdiest I get I promise.
If physical damage = 10 x mult and magical damage = 100000 x mult, then you can't compare mults directly. Right?
My support dude Wakka does more damage with a 1* mult physical attack, than Damage God Vivi does with a 1* mult magical attack
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I do not comprehend.
Anyhow, unlocked Squall, who will probably never be used ever.
EDIT: Checking on Reddit, the elite bosses all have HUEG HP, but a crapload of status vulnerabilities. Granaldo can be slept. Archaeosaur is vulnerable to pretty much everything sans ID. Oilboyles can be slept and silenced. Norg is vulnerable to INSTANT DEATH once the pod opens. Uh yeah, there are a lot of ways to cheese the fights and I even crafted Death for this.
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Physical and magical attacks have slightly different formulae, so a direct comparison of attack to attack and multiplier to multiplier won't work.
Physical: [Atk^1.3]*Atk^(0.5)/Def^(0.5)*Mult, part in brackets maxes out at 346
Magical: [Mag^1.15]*Mag^(0.5)/Res^(0.5)*Mult, part in brackets maxes out at 742
Offensive White magic use Mind instead of Magic, otherwise same formula.
The obvious takeaway is that physical damage scales higher with attack than magic damage with magic until you hit 346.
Oh, Snow's right about magic scaling better with higher level abilities though. 4* -ga strikes are 1.4x as strong as 2* basic strikes, while 4* -ja spells are more than triple the power of 2* -ra spells.
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A formula which uses an exponent of 1.15? That's almost Saga-tier.
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The ability mults are almost as entertaining.
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needs more sine functions, 3/10
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Tangentially, the need to mash a skip button and hope for the right character's turn to come up when several people have full bars is one of my least favorite aspects of FF ATB. I still don't understand why the programmers can't copy Chrono Trigger's setup where you can just press left or right to pick a PC.
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That -does- piss me off. They could've implemented a more elegant way to differentiate targetting and choosing PCs with a full bar.
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Reduce battle speed to 1 when that happens.
A shitty solution but that's all I got
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I don't know if I am right or not but I know at speed 5 without autobattling it felt like it was falling into the trap that is the kludge of FF9 combat where you can use constantly full ATB bars and attacks and stuff to queue things more effectively during animations (since enemy ATB won't refresh until their attacks are done and your gauges still fill).
Fuck FF9 ATB though. This at least animates !1billion^1.98*Y/666 where Y is faster than FF9.
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Reducing battle speed to 1 helps, but I ended up with four PCs with full bars at one point today and it still took needlessly long to switch over to Cloud. Record Keeper having five PCs in the party doesn't help, but it's a problem with the real FF games that use ATB as well. Chrono Trigger handling this perfectly back in 1995 just makes in inexcusible that Square never bothered to backport the system to FF proper. If defend/row commands are the problem they could just be moved to the bottom of the menu, UI design for JRPGs isn't exactly rocket science.
Incidentally I got Carbuncle today for the price of 1 mythril; I ran out of gas near the end of the Black Waltz/Sealion fight and took a few too many tsunamis to handle the last fight. I probably could've S/L'd and won cleanly with better luck but screw that, I have plenty of mythrils left in stock.
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Welp, just got Rank 2 Quake and crafted Break. Strangeways, here we come.
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VP2 is on hold because I'm Batman
Batman is really attached to his car. Sometimes he's all like, I can't move on to the next plot point until I figure out how to get my car there. And even Riddler's like I really really like driving and thinking about driving when I'm not driving. Huge shock, I'm not a great fan of driving segments, I just want to fly all over the city looking for tchotchkes. It's seriously GTA/SR driving though, you can just run over anyone and they go off flying covered with electricity but it's okay because the electricity cushioned the impact? They're all criminals anyway so presumably no one cares.
This is Cid complaining about everything that's different before he gets on with enjoying the game anyway. Also wow I knew they were going to work him in again somehow but I guess maybe it's better they didn't make me wait at all and annoy me more with it being ze big plot twist later?
Next time I am probably going to switch to the Adam West suit and just stay there the whole game because Arkham Knight really wants me to get rid of bombs.
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But some days you just can't get rid of a bomb!
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Physical and magical attacks have slightly different formulae, so a direct comparison of attack to attack and multiplier to multiplier won't work.
Physical: [Atk^1.3]*Atk^(0.5)/Def^(0.5)*Mult, part in brackets maxes out at 346
Magical: [Mag^1.15]*Mag^(0.5)/Res^(0.5)*Mult, part in brackets maxes out at 742
Offensive White magic use Mind instead of Magic, otherwise same formula.
The obvious takeaway is that physical damage scales higher with attack than magic damage with magic until you hit 346.
Oh, Snow's right about magic scaling better with higher level abilities though. 4* -ga strikes are 1.4x as strong as 2* basic strikes, while 4* -ja spells are more than triple the power of 2* -ra spells.
Out of curiosity, how quickly does that Attack hit 90 normally (since that's when it seems like it will hit 346 in brackets)? And yeah, Magic ends up mattering until you hit 310 approximately the the stat (so I guess 255 likely is not the cap here). That's...odd...balancing.
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Necrodancer - Beat my first Daily Challenge. Today's throws you a free heal spell in Zone 1, an Obsidian Longsword at you in like Zone 2, and a ton of healing in Zone 3, so yeah. EZ.
Trying to clear all zones mode without using Bow/Longsword/Spear. So far can get consistently to Zone 3, but usually end up petering out there if I don't have a way to deal with ice OR hit enemies at an angle. Also grinding away at Monk, but the urge to pick up gold after killing an enemy is just too strong. I've never actually died to anything except for being an idiot and picking up gold. Also beat Dove mode, was kinda boring except for some miniboss juggling in Zone 4. Not as EZ mode as Melody but definitely easier than Cadence.
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Physical and magical attacks have slightly different formulae, so a direct comparison of attack to attack and multiplier to multiplier won't work.
Physical: [Atk^1.3]*Atk^(0.5)/Def^(0.5)*Mult, part in brackets maxes out at 346
Magical: [Mag^1.15]*Mag^(0.5)/Res^(0.5)*Mult, part in brackets maxes out at 742
Offensive White magic use Mind instead of Magic, otherwise same formula.
The obvious takeaway is that physical damage scales higher with attack than magic damage with magic until you hit 346.
Oh, Snow's right about magic scaling better with higher level abilities though. 4* -ga strikes are 1.4x as strong as 2* basic strikes, while 4* -ja spells are more than triple the power of 2* -ra spells.
Out of curiosity, how quickly does that Attack hit 90 normally (since that's when it seems like it will hit 346 in brackets)? And yeah, Magic ends up mattering until you hit 310 approximately the the stat (so I guess 255 likely is not the cap here). That's...odd...balancing.
Uh rarity-5 weapons routinely break 90 attack by themselves with minimal upgrades. This means that a L1 physical fighter with a rarity-5 weapon immediately rams into the soft cap. Hitting 310 is -a lot- harder, though: my Vivi, with his unique Rod, L53 and mag-boosting equips, only breaks past 300 Magic with realm or equipment synergy bonuses. Regardless, the double usage of the attack stats means mostly the stat scaling slows down rather than entirely halts.
The formula also has the effect of making earlygame magic look -really- horrible when not hitting weakness, especially since L1 spells have THE SAME MULT as a basic physical. So, at the beginning, without weakness-hitting, mages rely on initially highly limited resources to deal less damage than a basic physical, which is just sad.
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Oh, the part in brackets maxes out when the attack/magic/mind stat specifically hits 346/742, before the exponent. Sorry for the miscommunication.
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Oh, that's a fair deal less insane. Idly, do we have any sort of formula handy for status accuracy?
Final Fantasy It'll End In Autobattle - Picking up the rest of Balamb Garden event's Elite battles and, unlike previously predicted, I am using Squall because I can't possibly master the Norg fight without him in my party. Good thing the event itself shoves a ton of high-rarity Growth Eggs down your throat. I can't really see using him in the long term outside of landing his unique weapon, though: L3 Spellblade is nice enough, but I kinda need the extra Support slots provided by Tidus, and I'm so not giving up Wakka of the Support 5 and back row physical.
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FFRK: Woohoo, I managed to beat Hein on Elite with my Black Mage still alive! It took some planning because Hein is annoyingly all-but-immune to physicals and he took damn near all of my magic charges on his own so I couldn't waste any on the randoms leading up to him. A pretty interesting resource puzzle, but I managed to kit out Rinoa with a chakram to be backup damage and that helped. Hein himself was me using four mages + Wakka with Aim to hit his weakpoints and get around his stupid evasion. Hein's damage wasn't very strong, so it was mostly just a slog and I didn't come close to using all my Curaga charges. It could probably have been done more easily with only one healer and letting Rinoa focus on hitting more elements instead of trying to play triple-duty as my Ice magic damage, my random-slayer physical-type, AND as my backup healer. Vanille handled the healing just fine on her own, particularly after Wakka managed to land a Magic Break and nerf Hein's damage. I just wanted to make sure that damn frail Black Mage didn't die. Notably, when the Black Mage was hitting weakness with a -aja level spell AND the "increase damage when hitting elemental weakness" record materia equipped AND Wakka and Vanille had lowered Hein's magic resistance... he was able to hit 9999 damage! (yay! He was contributing! ...kinda!)
Anyway, with that completed, I snagged Black Mage's Mana Spring II... or as I like to call it "Vivi casts Quake for free~"
It only refills once per battle (not per round unfortunately) but it's still great for clearing randoms.
I also got Kain's Break Materia... *shrug* it came with beating Hein. I threw some Growth Eggs I had lying around onto Kain and now I've got the amazing "Heart of the Dragoon" Record Materia! IT INCREASES THE DAMAGE OF JUMP YOU GUYS! Oh man, I am so excited. Gonna Jump all day. (Serious talk though: Jump could have an instant cast time, that would make it actually pretty cool in this game and give it a niche without it being overpowered... but well you know how it goes, Dragoons always have cool designs but end up being crappy in practice~)
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Jump in the early midgame has the niche of being the only 2x mult damage physical attack off barely more charge than a regular physical (the air time is -very- short) running off rarity 2, at least. But yeah.
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Final Fantasy Autobattle and Kisses - Still chugging along the Elite event dungeons, in which I discovered you can reapply status before it runs out. Archaeosaur never even saw the light of day.
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If you bothered to egg Kain up to L50, considering unlocking his second Record Materia at some point for laughs. Props to whichever programmer came up with that one.
Also for future reference, the best way to carry a mage-heavy team through randoms is to give Cloud a honed Retaliate and have all the mages attack him, Boost him first if he's not OHKOing otherwise. Buffs carry over through multiple rounds of a single battle so you only need 3-4 Retaliate uses to get up to a boss.
This is one reason why Cloud is going to stay near the top of the tier lists even as high level teams shift to be increasingly mage-heavy, even for people who aren't lucky/rich enough to get the latest in his line of increasingly overpowered relics.
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You gave me a -great- idea for tackling the Hein dungeon.
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Dark Souls 2 new PvP strats
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8oULkkFD8s
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Been a while since I threw that track on. Still beautiful every time.
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FFRK: dear hinode,
I took your advice and had an outing with Mr. Kain today wherein he discovered a newfound ability: getting brainwashed. Apparently it is such an integral part of his character, it is actually his unique passive.
I suspect that it's actually useful if Record Materia skills work for Roaming Warriors? That way he gets the 20% bonus without the whole "attack your own party" thing.
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Final Fantasy I Lost My Autobattle To A Starship Trooper - Oilboyles are -brutal-. I have the strategy to put them down set in stone, but I need to parcel my resources a wee bit better throughout the dungeon to pull this off. Hopefully replacing Squall with Tidus will make the difference here.
The main problem is that their Oil Blast counters are -really- dangerous when they go off, so you -must- Silence them stat. And even then, they have a 2HKO physical skill. And they're immune to Blind. And I undersold their durability to boot. Hopefully, packing extra Curaga charges instead of Silencega and leaving all the status slinging to Wakka will help too, since the real problem I had last fight was -running out of healing-.
EDIT: And yeah, Kain's second passive is absolutely hilarious and I love whoever came up with that at DeNa.
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My strategy for that was to use a friend summon with Zell twice to blitz one down, then take down the last one with spellblades and what have you while having two healers constantly heal. Took several tries but it worked.
Though, I also didn't have the resources to even get silence so maybe that won't be as effective in the global version.
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Dark Souls 2 new PvP strats
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8oULkkFD8s
That is a lot of dancin'
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Oh, the part in brackets maxes out when the attack/magic/mind stat specifically hits 346/742, before the exponent. Sorry for the miscommunication.
This makes it seem like a difference in mults isn't really that insane since until point 347 of strength, strength basically is running at a double advantage given the same mult. If magic mults are running at double the power of physical, this is mostly a wash.
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My strategy for that was to use a friend summon with Zell twice to blitz one down, then take down the last one with spellblades and what have you while having two healers constantly heal. Took several tries but it worked.
Though, I also didn't have the resources to even get silence so maybe that won't be as effective in the global version.
Against Elite stats, it's a bit of a different deal. Elite Oilboyles on Squall's event actually pack a punch, as stat-buffed enemies are wont to be. REGARDLESS, having more Curaga and spell charges did the trick pretty nicely. Landed sleep on one of them first turn, then Silenced the other and killed it in time for the other to wake up and face breaks, more Silence Buster and a lot of Firagas. The two healers strategy also works (Oil Blast counters are actually -gravity-., after all. Caveat is that, at base, the Oilboyles have a very solid 2HKO on Elite Balamb event, so a counter+Oilboyle turn is often fatal if it focuses, so your healers need to be on point at almost all times), but it does take longer.
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Final Fantasy Autobattle In The Bottom Of Sea - Okay, just mastered the final dungeon of Squall's event on Elite and it was just the best. The last boss of the event is NORG, and he functions just like in FF8: as long as the the two orbs aren't in the red, he'll almost exclusively cast menial status (Silence, Slow), defensive buffs (Protect, Shell) and ST -ras and WATER (low 2HKO at best). And, once the pod opens, NORG becomes IDable. Problem is, unhoned, Death starts at only one casting. So, my one shot of magic ID naturally missed. Sure, let's keep at it, I had plenty of healing still and the fight is very controllable (NORG almost NEVER uses offensive actions and the status is kinda inaccurate), just goes very slowly because the bastard has 160k HP. I've been reduced to basic physicals for a while to boot.
Thing is, I have Zantetsukens on both my sword users. It has a low chance of ID attached to it. It matters approximately never, given how you use basic physicals on randoms, who should get 2HKOed at -worst- by them.
Zantetsuken's ID procced on NORG. Cue sitcom laugh track.
EDIT: That done, I proceeded to prepare for grabbing Black Mage's second Record Materia. I still hadn't done Elite Darill's Tomb and, upon mastery, it hands you a 4-star Feathered Hat that -just- happens to be a FF3 equip. Sure, I go for that. Angler Whelk is surprisingly decent with MT 3HKO in El Niño and accurate petrify, but having a Fire weakness makes it astonishingly fragile against my party. Dullahan... well, is vulnerable to Paralyze. Fail.
That done, I deck out Vanille and Black Mage (good thing I still have those FF3 4-star Light Rod and Gaia Vest!), hand Boost to Garnet and Retaliate to Cloud. Four mages+one Boost+Cloud Retaliate is actually amazingly efficient randombusting, makes all your attacking turns productive and hugely saves your resources. Not to mention it also improves your OHKOing ability against them rather notably. I may end up adopting this setup eventually, though maybe with one more physical fighter (debuffing is really important for bosses, after all).
Anyhow, Hein. I picked Sentinel Grimoire Tyro as my RW and uh holy -crap- Hein fails hilariously hard. Sentinel Grimoire badly shuts down his already sparse offense (he's inordinately fond of casting MT Blind. That sure works against a party of mages. MT Confuse is better, but four mages mean that using physicals to dispel that is trivial and PC defense stats are so much higher than enemy defense stats that even your physical fighters only 4HKO your mages -at best- with a basic attack) and he's really easy pickings against a high-offense multi-elemental setup. It'd be even funnier if I had Runic instead, but Celes wasn't in that list. Regardless, I full-medaled Hein and grabbed my free casting of Quake per battle. This is really hilarious.
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Oh, the part in brackets maxes out when the attack/magic/mind stat specifically hits 346/742, before the exponent. Sorry for the miscommunication.
This makes it seem like a difference in mults isn't really that insane since until point 347 of strength, strength basically is running at a double advantage given the same mult. If magic mults are running at double the power of physical, this is mostly a wash.
There's a reason magic sucks until -ga spells, though you still need it to grab target scores upon hitting weakness (which is the only point where magic outdamages non-Spellblade physicals in the early game). Physicals frontload their 1.7-2.0 mults into 2-rarity skills (magic doesn't outpace 2x until rarity 3) and rarity 1 magic has the same mult as a basic physical, which is horrendous. HOWEVER, physicals don't... really improve from that mult area until rarity 4 with 2.1, and they max out at 2.8x at rarity -5-. Rarity 3 on magic leads you to minimum 3x mults (usually 3.26 to 3.67), rarity 4 leaps to 5.87x. And the mult doubles upon hitting weakness (which only Spellblade can do on the physical end and its mults on the current global version maxes out on uh 1.8x).
Another caveat: enemy DEF stats are usually considerably higher than enemy RES, which often mitigates the issue (enemy magic tanks are nearly non-existant). This isn't terribly noticeable on the earlygame, but gets increasingly bigger as the game goes on.
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Snow: The absolute multiplier for Fire/Blizzard/Thunder is 1.5x, not 1x. There are some sources that report the power of all Black Magic as multiples of those three basic spells and summon magic as multiples of Goblin/Bomb, which works out okay for comparing black magic with black magic and summons with summons, but not to different schools of magic or relative to physicals.
http://happypluto.com/~misterp/r/ffrk.pdf has all the accurate multipliers for stuff available in global, as well as a bunch of other info in a concise package.
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This is great stuff. Thanks, hinode. Also, the jump on mults is -considerably- bigger than I thought, holy hell.
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Her Story is great so far, cool people should play it.
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Still got Life is Strange and Dreamfall Chapters to get through bro.
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Arkham Knight: Apparently Gotham police HQ is actually Batman's trophy room. Also Poison Ivy evidently never learned to walk at any pace other than Catwalk Strut. That must have been awkward when she was a kid. Girl, you haven't got heels on, stop moving like it!
My guess for mystery man's identity remains Jason Todd. It makes too much sense in context, ignoring the fact that I think I heard he got brought back for other purposes in the comics.
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I was really hoping the Knight turned out to be Razor, that Thug that kept getting killed in ridiculously more absurd ways.
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Pokemon Alpha Sapphire -
Archie: You're not the only one who can use Mega Evolution! Watch and learn!
*Archie proceeds to switch his Sharpedo into a stray Earthquake which OHKOs it, before he can Mega Evolve it*
Much psyduck was had by all. I actually kinda like Archie/Maxie at least compared to every syndicate leader since, but god they have awful signature pokemon.
Anyway this game has been really easy so far but Kyogre proceeds to be the hardest legendary to catch in a while. 3 catch rate + fucking Aqua Ring regen + I try to use Sandstorm to offset it but it can't be set against him = argh, after repeated failures I come back with 20 Dusk Balls and of course then proceed to catch him on the first try. Still rather jarring compared to the rest of the game.
I definitely don't think this game is as good as either X/Y or Emerald at all but further comments can wait until I'm done. Still Pokemon, still enjoyable, etc.
Final Fantasy Dimensions - Up to the bard chapter. I am amused that they made a class whose skillset is not impacted by being a frog, and then curse the guest with it to be a frog.
The two-path thing is interesting. At first I was pretty lukewarm to it because the worst effect comes early as both parties get the exact same set of seven starting jobs, so playing with one then the other when both have only these jobs means you're making all the same decisions again and feels repetitive. But as each party gains access to a different pool of jobs to add into the mix it becomes more interesting. I kinda wish there would be more crossclass stuff, but that'll come, and even at base it's not that much worse about it than FF5 is. Challenge remains in a pretty good place overall, most bosses manage at least some respectability (I lost to the boss of the ranger chapter, even), and it remains fun to tool around with the class system as you might expect. Fun game so far and it feels like it's only getting better, although the terribad plot and some polish concerns will keep it from being great.
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@Elfboy: I didn't think the plot would have any kind of sway over your opinion of FFD, especially since it's probably better than FFs 1-5 overall (not that that's a hard bar to clear).
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Honestly Alba unto herself propels the game ahead of the first five FF games I think on plot, although I did play the PS1 version of FFV I suppose.
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Reasonable. The game has a poor translation and FF5a an actively good one which does make a difference there, but regardless the gaps aren't large.
That said crappy plot is always going to be a factor, especially in games like these which feel the need to devote screentime to said bad plot (and then not have sceneskip). I don't have FF5 at a 9/10 pretty much because of this, after all.
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Final Fantasy Please Stop Autobattling - Just did the Elite Balamb boss rush, but failed to master it. Not bothering to try again, Leviathan is good enough. It's fairly reasonable to finish it without spending any Mythril, though: Granaldo is very fragile and so are the cronies who support him and Archaeosaur gets badly trivialized by either Blind or Paralyze. Oilboyles are, as before, the nasty fuckers, but the lower durability makes them more reasonable, and I found out Safety Bit helps considerably against Oil Blast counters (gravity and ID fall into the same resistance!). Do, however, bring Squall if you want to make anything higher than Novice against NORG, since the battle still takes a long time. He has lower defenses and 60k less HP, at least. And, if you manage to have a Celes Runic RW, the first half of the fight becomes utterly hilarious: it completely walls all of his offense, since he has literally no physicals. Carbuncle yields similar results in a vaccuum, BUT NORG has MT dispel (which doesn't work against Runic!), so it can backfire.
EDIT: welp, finished all new classic dungeons, time to slave away at their elite iterations. The only old Elite dungeon left at this point is Library of the Ancients, and hoo boy, FF5's bosses have about as many status holes here as they do in their home game (faithful translations!). -Both- Ifrit and Byblos are vulnerable to paralysis? Are you fucking kidding me?
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Snow Rambo vs FFV in an epic gape off.
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Snow Rambo vs FFV in an epic gape off.
Yes.
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Captain Toad: This game actually had the gall to have it's male protagonist be rescued by his female sidekick. What the hell? Not only is it offensively cheerful and happy, it also ruins any image of MALE POWER FANTASY I could squint at having! This does not bode well for episode 3.
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Tales of Xillia: Time to play some FF14-*PSN won't load* ...well shit, I already started the PS3 up, like hell I'm going to make that go to waste!
...so I finally started this up after downloading it like a year and a half ago or something. While the battle system is more traditional Tales, and the existence of the summon spirits are back, everything else about the game does not really feel Tales like (well, ok, Art Style I guess, but come on, it's Tales!) The setting is actually interesting because the "What if the average person can use Artes and it's used for everyday purposes like lighting lamps?" and "the idea of the summon spirits is common knowledge to everyone." Also the setting does feel more cyberpunk than the usual Pseudo-Medieval setting every Tales game has...at least until I got to the 2nd town, but we'll see how long that lasts.
Final Fantasy 3: Started a replay of this. Land Turtle died to 3 actions consisting of 2 Anarctic Winds and a physical. Jinn sucked and really no point in saying what happened there!
Final Fantasy 3: Started a replay of this. Land Turtle died to 3 actions consisting of 2 Anarctic Winds and a physical. Jinn sucked and really no point in saying what happened there!
...no, that's not me being forgetful and somehow typing everything exactly as I did. I'm actually replaying BOTH versions of FF3 side by side in an experiment of sorts. I'm going to gauge the games next to one another, playing the NES version first, then playing the same sequence in the DS version, and reflect on the two. So far, here's things I noticed:
-NES version wins massively on dungeon set up. While the dungeons are identical in terms of how their actual layout, and the DS version has the advantage of non-grid based movement, the NES version has a much larger edge in visibility. The DS version is far more zoomed up and you can only see a fraction of what you can see in the NES version. This means it's a lot easier to keep track of where you've been or what you want to go in the NES version since you can see distant pathes way better than the DS version.
-DS version has an actual overworld map on the overworld. NES version gets one eventually but it requires the Sight spell. To be fair, this doesn't matter until you get off the Floating Continent, as that's when the size of the world increases significantly.
-On one hand, it's nice that Freelancer can do stuff while Onion Knights are a complete blech class. On the otherhand, getting jobs right after the first boss makes that not matter. Through Jinn, in the DS version you basically have 4 identical characters, with the only differences being Luneth's Job Level edge, and Ignus' slight level lead. Otherwise, you just juggle equipment, spells, etc. around and move on. NES version, after Land Turtle, you have jobs, so actual decisions need to be made.
Tangentially, they really want you to use a Red Mage this early, and I will note that after this replay, I'm convinced it's the WHITE MAGE you should drop in the early parts, not the Black Mage. Why do I say this? Red Mage can cover healing almost as well as white Mage; while he has less MP, this will be made up for by the fact that you'll be killing enemies faster, thereby taking less damage. Black Mage, by contrast, can equip Bows and Arrows, and the game hands you 40 Holy Arrows for a dungeon filled with lots Undead/Holy Weak enemies. This makes Black Mage actually competent as a back row damage dealer, who can sling Blizzard on the boss. You could use a 2nd Red Mage or a Fighter, sure, but I think getting a JLevel push on a Black Mage early will make those Mini-Dungeons easier. White Mage feels kind of dead weight unless you use MP to hurt Undead with Cure, but you don't have enough to really support it. between Potions and Red Mage healing, you should be able to get through the dungeon fine without a White Mage.
BUT BACK TO THE COMPARISONS!!!
-Both games suck at characterization. NES' version is just a 4 headed hydra who talks to himself when no one else is around, otherwise suddenly becomes one person if there's someone else to talk to. Flipside, Luneth and co. are given basically one personality trait and that's their character, with Luneth being "Adventurous Hero Guy", Arc being "Wimpy Kid", Refia being "Tomboy" and Ignus being "Noble Honorable Guy." I suppose DS version wins because they show a glimmer of characterization, but that's really a 'wins by default" than actual praise.
-NES game respects your time more, simply because the plot in both games are the same but the NES game just has some dialog boxes you scroll through and done. DS version has to show unskippable text through the Crystal Monologue nonsense that is boring as crap. Oh yeah, worth reminding you that after Jinn, game shoves you back to the Crystal Room to get your jobs, THEN does the opening credits, so you sit through *2* Crystal Monologues of boredom. Then you have to walk all the way back to Sasune from the cave. NES version, after beating Jinn, you warp right back to Sasune, and just continue from there.
-The difficulty between the two is pretty similar. On one hand, the enemies are individually better in the DS version since they hit harder (durability is similar.) On the other hand, NES version you can fight way more per fight at a time, so while you take the same amount of damage, it starts getting uglier when you fight things that have status effects, as it's that much less damage mitigation on the enemies end to status you. Plus enemies tend to status you more often, though that may be just a result of there being more of them.
-DS' damage curve is already higher than the NES version. Case in point, Anarctic Wind vs. Jinn in the NES version does about 100 damage, the same item does over 200 to him. I knew the damage curve in the DS version is way higher, but didn't think it'd show itself so early.
-CP System sucks ass early game because changing two characters can be tricky! Job Sickness doesn't exist early game by contrast.
As far as what I'm going to be doing in both? Nothing fancy, just what I feel confident with in terms of parties. I want the games to be on an even playing field. Granted, there's more options in the DS version to play around with due to how the two games were balanced but well, that's part of the experiment! Thinking I might do a repeat of my first play-through of the DS version, now applying more knowledge of the game and seeing how that goes.
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FFRK: Jeez, Snow, you're so far ahead of everyone now...
At this point, my only goal is to get 100 Stamina before Snow... only two points to go~
Squall and Irvine are getting levelled up to take on NORG because... eh, when ELSE am I gonna use FF8 characters? Cleared all the classic and elite FF8 dungeons, so I guess I'll try taking him on at sub-L50 with those two to see how it goes. That Synergy Bonus is still nuts. And hey, at least my Rinoa is max level. That should help.
Fire Emblem if: Shun bought this so I'm gonna watch him play it for a while and report dutifully to the DL on how awesome the game is.
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RK: Yeah I didn't play through all of yesterday for example so I can lag behind. I only have like 78 max stamina. It's cool though.
Spell charges are starting to get pretty good. I got a lvl 4 Fira strike, lvl 4 Curaga, etc. Also, 117 quests finished / 128. That's something I guess
I just got through the FF8 elite event up to Norg. I had a long battle then he one shotted Garnet out of nowhere. cool
I decided to just cram like 100 eggs at once in Bard's mouth so he could immediately level from 1 to 50, and now I'm trying to get his second materia just to completely trivialize that one fight against Norg
Her Story: Grefter, do you allocate your playtime by playing 90% dumb games and 10% smart games or something? So playing Her Story would impede on your Dreamfall playtime but not on your Warhammer 40k playtime?
Because I do something similar
Anyway I'm not sure Dreamfall fits as a smart game
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At the moms to my playntimemismbrkken up into 80% Fallout Shelter and 10% You Must Build a Boat and 10% oh my gods Fallout Shelter hurry up and boot.
I should get back to FF3.
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I've already bing played through You Must Build a Boat, it's allright. I don't think you can unlock the robber on a phone.
I finished Her Story and it's pretty amazing. My favourite non Souls game in a while. Great value for this kind of game too. (I played it for 4.5 hours and have cleared about 2/3 of the database, the hard part comes next. The game costs 5 bucks) Do note that it is also available on phones.
I can't say much about it.
I'm just looking forward to someone VaatiVidyaing this game
FFRK: Got Zealot, Norg and boss rush are next
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FFRK: Jeez, Snow, you're so far ahead of everyone now...
At this point, my only goal is to get 100 Stamina before Snow... only two points to go~
Squall and Irvine are getting levelled up to take on NORG because... eh, when ELSE am I gonna use FF8 characters? Cleared all the classic and elite FF8 dungeons, so I guess I'll try taking him on at sub-L50 with those two to see how it goes. That Synergy Bonus is still nuts. And hey, at least my Rinoa is max level. That should help.
I'm at 107 Stamina. Sorry, guys.
EDIT:
Final Fantasy Like Someone In Autobattle - Mostly futzing around. I'm pretty close to the 50-Mythril mark and one Stamina Shard away from 108 while being currently next to Elite Guzco. Once I mangle him, I'll just grind some more Ice Orbs, since I frankly could use a bigger stash of them. It'll be cool when the global version finally releases the post-Heroic daily dungeons, since those should have common Greater Orbs.
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The boss rush version of Granaldo has 4 chances to drop 4* orbs (Power, Non-Elemental, Wind, Dark) for 18 stamina. Probably more worthwhile than grinding today's daily dungeon, for those who've unlocked boss rush (which I'm too lazy to do, myself).
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I finished Her Story and it's pretty amazing. My favourite non Souls game in a while. Great value for this kind of game too. (I played it for 4.5 hours and have cleared about 2/3 of the database, the hard part comes next. The game costs 5 bucks) Do note that it is also available on phones.
I can't say much about it.
I'm just looking forward to someone VaatiVidyaing this game
I am really interested in this, but is it a better FMV game than Roundabout.
EDIT: also is it even a game lol
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Less of a videogame than walking simulators, 0/10
Roundabout's FMVs lost a bit of steam in the third area, while this is obviously more consistent. So sure this is better.
I like this FMV renaissance in any case
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The World Ends With You (IOs)
Holy shit, the writing
The Nomurast game
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Final Fantasy 3 Dual Play: Just got to Castle Argus.
So a common theme this session has been I finish the NES version, then find out I missed stuff via playing the DS version thanks to it's "zoom up and you can see secrets!" mechanics, so have to go back and get them. This includes having to run back through Tokkal Village's Cave, to get some notable stuff (The Freezing Rod being the big one.)
Things worth noting:
-This is the part of the game where CP vs. Job Sickness stands out a lot. CP concerns mean that you cannot change from Black Mage back to your basic jobs when you go to the Viking Cave, and need to stay in Black Mage the entire way. Luckily, the route is short and little combat involved, so not a big deal, but still a pain if you didn't know better. Job Sickness? Stats at this point are too low for it to have too meaningful an impact.
-Equipment doesn't matter at all in mini-dungeons in FF3NES, outside of the Freezing Rod item casts, which should definitely go to your White Mage (you want one of these for obvious reasons. Red Mage won't suffice on MP here) so it can do offense. Flipside, it's meaningful in FF3DS because it still impacts Magic Defense, something I learned the hardway when Big Rat nuked me a bit.
-Enemies in FF3DS Hate Ingus. He's died more than anyone else, and it's not a durability thing; they seriously like to target him. Maybe the game is yelling at me to use 2 Shields on him already since he's a Red Mage.
-The Mountain Climb was trivial in FF3NES. Even though I had missed the early Great Bow and Iron Arrows, it was pretty uneventful. The one blech thing was my Monk got petrified and had to blow a Soft to recover him. Flipside, the mountain Climb in FF3DS was a pain; I had a reset on there due to shear RNG hax. Back Attack -> healer gets Petrified, another character gets critical hit and KO'd. On the 2nd climb, I got petrified at least twice more. Honestly, this is kind of bullshit level since you're not going to be prepared for petrification spam this early. Yeah, NES had it too but the rate was definitely lower. You fight more Rukhs per battle in the NES version and thus get hit more often, yet petrify kicked in once compared to multiple times.
-Money at first seemed tighter in the DS version compared to the NES version since so much more stuff you wanna buy (Thief and Red Mage can use Mithril equips for example, as opposed to just Fighter/Warrior), but there's a lot more chests that give you significant amounts of gil. I'm not going to really be comparing the chest differences on that note since both games balance their chests around their systems, so it's only expected a lot of differences here.
-Mini-dungeons are better designed in NES than DS. The key thing in the NES version is back row legitimately does null out a lot of the damage since Mini increases your evade and back row halves enemy accuracy (which later in the game is functionally damage halving), so enemies regularly miss; it's just the back attacks and the rare few who have magic that threaten you. FF3DS, back row is damage halving, which halving damage when you have 1 defense is still hitting pretty hard. Enemies are frailer and you only fight 2 at a time granted, but it's the difference between fight taking 2 turns vs. 1 and part of the problem in my NES playthrough granted was my White Mage didn't have the Burning Staff so could only lend offense only a handful of times with Aero.
-Speaking of Aero, that spell kicks ass in FF3o. It's level 2 so doesn't compete with any Healing spells, and is stronger than Black Mage's spells, though early on you have only so many Level 2's to spare (current point, spell charges are 13/4/2). FF3DS, Aero got nerfed hard and is on par with Fire...which is weaker than Blizzard for some bizarre reason. It really makes the spell kind of not worth it since Item Casts accomplish the same thing without worrying about ammo. Aero being > Item casts but limited charges makes the spell feel meaningful.
-Also, FF3DS has worse spell charges than FF3NES. Notably, in Nepto's Shrine, I had 2 charges of level 3 spells, which is nice since the game hands you enough level 3's to go around (Cure 2 from Tokkal for your White Mage, and one of each elemental to hand to your 3 Black Mages), and they're good trump cards and/or big damage spells to use on Giant Rat. FF3DS, I didn't have any level 3 spell charges for Nepto's Shrine, so the spells just kind of were there. It seems to regularly be 1-2 less spell charges each level, dunno how much that gap will change.
-FF3DS has random plot triggers to continue the game. FF3o less so. Obvious point? FF3o, you can go straight from Viking Base to Nepto's Shrine, without talking to anyone really (though you should stop by the inn at least!) FF3DS, I tried to do that and wasn't sure what was going on, until I went back to Viking Base and talked to the Viking Leader. Only then did the game let me pass.
-...speaking of Nepto. In FF3o, he 3x overkills you. FF3DS, he 50x overkills you. This is completely meaningful and different of course!
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Fire Emblem if: Apparently it's going to be called "Fates" in America. For a while I thought THIS was the FExSMT crossover, for a couple of reasons, not the least of which being that there's a game called Shin Megami Tensei if.
Anyway, for those that don't know, the premise is that your Avatar is a special snowflake Dragonborn-something-or-other who was born a prince of not!Japan but then was kidnapped as a baby and raised by the King of not!England as a prince and not told his own identity, and indeed even the actual Princes and Princesses think he's family. He's given a bullshit reason why he's not allowed to leave the kingdom, so he's raised among a close-knit family for his whole life until King of not!England decides to use him as some kind of trump card and sends him out to battle, whereupon he's captured by the army of not!Japan. The royal family of not!Japan quickly realizes his identity and are overjoyed at finding their long-lost brother and son, and quickly invite him to rejoin their family. After King of not!England activates his trap card involving special-snowflake Kamui (Avatar), the not!Japan army brings him to the frontlines of the battle, where both of Kamui's families are now staring eachother down and demanding that Kamui come back to them.
This is where the path splits. You can choose to return to your family you've known your whole life and try to figure out how to stop the war from inside the aggressor's camp... or you can side with these strangers claiming to be your birth family but who are clearly (at least at this point in the game) on the morally righteous side of the conflict, but also somewhat underequipped for the war (especially now that the trap broke their main defense).
Depending on which version of the game you bought, the choice is made for you (though you can buy one game and get the other one half-off through digital download so you can actually make the choice here.) Shun picked up the not!England version because he likes that style of medieval fantasy over oriental fantasy. I personally think that's the more interesting side of the choice myself, though both sides are pretty interesting.
I have to say that it's definitely the most ambitious storyline I've seen in a Fire Emblem and I'm actually pretty excited for it to come out in English now. Especially if it gets as good of a localization as FE13 did.
Anyway, the whole "Prologue" bit is actually the first 6 chapters of the game, plus a proper tutorial map for chapter 7. And then you get a Suikoden-style homebase called "My Castle". Sweet! You get to make weapon shops and the like and have different characters run the shops and chat with everyone and such. There's also a super-duper-ultra-creepster Pokemon-amie style game where you literally pet your PCs to make them like you more... I don't even.
Ignoring that, the game has Amiibo support! All four FE amiibo will have their respective character show up in your base, have a chat with you about how they've come to be there, and then give you an item from a selection. Do this three times (can only be done once per map) and they'll battle you, whereupon they join your army as a unique-classed unit if you beat them. The absolute earliest you can get one is Ch10, but they have higher levels, so I suspect they're designed for about Ch15. They look freakin' badass!
Also, apparently some of the kids from FEA show up in this game. Shun's already picked up Owain, and it. is. glorious.
New classes and such are also pretty cool. The Shinobi and Maid classes are neat parallels of eachother from opposite cultures. Because of course they are. They use shuriken, which are like bows, but inflict statuses apparently? The game gives you a Freeze Staff right at the beginning of the game and man, it is fun playing around with status in FE. Why did they never use this stuff before? There's also this creepy-as-fuck puppetmaster class that's apparently some kind of not!Japan variant of a cavalier and it makes me weep in fear whenever I see it so creepy....
There's Normal, Hard, and Lunatic modes available right from the beginning, along with Classic, Casual, and Phoenix permadeath options (Phoenix apparently means that units can revive -during- battle.) I am of course playing on the fuck-it-steamroll-it-easy-mode because then if I don't understand a kanji, it's not such a big deal that I might lose because of it.
Game is basically Fire Emblem 13... but bigger. I couldn't ask for anything more.
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Archaeosaur gets badly trivialized by either Blind or Paralyze.
Yes, IF IT HITS. He wrecks your shit otherwise. Thank you Gate for the Wakka with Blind attack, because Dark Buster wasn't cutting it for me.
Got Squall's memory crystal and Cloud's. Aster Protoflorian is annoying because his resistance change happens at the top of the screen and you're usually looking at the bottom at your actions. Also, it can get covered up by other actions going off. Brilliant programming. So you have to guess at whether he's switched resistances or not. Other than that, he's not hard, and my Garnet has 12 shots of massive healing.
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So FE14 is living up to expectations, that's good to hear! Intelligent Systems tends to be good at that generally speaking. Sure, FE11 was a bit of a misfire, and FE12 could have been better, but then again, they were trying for the extremely hard balance of "Faithful to original games" and "modernize them!" Though honestly they really could have put more effort in the latter (why is Rescuing completely absent for example? Sure, wasn't in FEA, but FEA had Pair Ups which felt like a replacement of sorts, so at least that makes sense), but otherwise, since FE6 they've been good at the whole "take what worked and expand upon it!" It's the Dragon Quest formula, only IS is actually consistently good at it! I believe it was Excal who first pointed out the parallels a while back, but yeah, he's pretty much spot on in that regard.
It's contrast to the Final Fantasy "change everything each entry!" style, which has the advantage of every entry being fresh, but also makes games far more divisive.
But back to the important stuff, yeah, looking forward to FE14. It's worth noting that the Digital Version actually lets you choose which side you want on the spot, though you're locked into that route on subsequent playthroughs until you download the DLC for the other path. As in, there's only one Digital Version, and at Chapter 6, the game goes "WHICH PATH DO YOU WANT!?" If you don't care about physical copies and aren't sure which path you want, this may be the best route to go. Personally, I already know I want the Black version because yeah, the "build an uprising from within and overthrow your corrupt Government!" sounds more interesting; someone compared it to basically choosing Suikoden plot vs. Fire Emblem plot. Be interesting to see what the 3rd, neutral (likely canon!) route takes.
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Thanks for the update, Djinn! FE14 sounds pretty great. The rumbling out of people who are actually playing the game on Serenes Forest suggests that the plot is really good by series standards, the plot premise is certainly something I like (Avatar as special snowflake aside), they brought back Shove and Rescue (as class skills, but still), the map objectives and design on the Nohr/Conquest/Western route is supposed to be more varied again, they greatly rebalanced the Pair Up mechanics so they aren't overpowered, and replacing weapon durability with each weapon being distinct instead of linear improvements sounds like a significant trade up at best, and certainly a welcome experiment at worst.
Trying not to let myself get too hyped about the game because that road leads to disappointment but it's pretty much the most excited I've been about an upcoming game in a while.
Final Fantasy Dimensions - Holy shit Hecantoncheir was rude. That he is not the rudest incarnation of the boss in the series says something.
Pokemon Alpha Sapphire - Victory Road! This was one of my favourite parts of the game in Emerald and it's... definitely still a significant step up here. The randoms are pretty roflstomp-worthy (they forgot to level them to keep up with higher PC levels in this version... which is weird after how good X was at keeping randoms at near your level) but the trainers are actually pretty fun. Camerupt is still awful, Sceptile and Latias are still broken.
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Arkham Knight: We can't stop here, this is sidequest country.
Actually the optional missions are fairly rote this time. (I'm doing them all anyway, of course.) The series has always been fairly iffy for boss fights, right? AK gets around this issue by not having any of them. This isn't actually an improvement. Even if they weren't always peak gameplay in the earlier games, since the engine admittedly is better optimized to excel with huge melees, at the very least it's nice to shake things up once in a while. (And no, game, I don't mean by switching to another driving segment.) Most of the sidequests here are just beat up mobs of random dudes, which inevitably lacks the drama of a satisfactory showdown with an established face ("Take your best shot, Tommy," was the closest they've got so far, and even that suffered a bit from 100% of the build-up being in the previous game). And the higher tier car chase ones I've concluded are legitimately impossible for someone as bad at videogame driving as I am. You need like Clinger Winger timing here, fuck up once and you'll never catch up to the target again. But the main problem is that there's a void of really memorable moments here, and even the cameo villain cast is pretty sparse. It's like Rocksteady used up all their good ideas in Asylum/City.
Prime suspect confirmed to be existing in this continuity and (supposedly) extremely deaded. Since this information was related through drug-induced flashbacks, I question the latter point. It occurs to me I should lodge a back-up guess just in case that's an awful lot of red herring, though: Talia, because it's been outright stated that AK's voice is synthesized, so practically speaking it could be anyone in that suit regardless of gender so long as they have a familiarity with Batman's tactics and a personal reason to blame him for something. AK's petulant, childish posturing doesn't fit at all personality-wise, but I could still see the devs forgoing basic sense for a chance to go Fooled You!
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Witcher 3: Talked to some villagers who got a quest about getting rid of bandits for them. Mid conversation they entirely disappeared, and the quest was nowhere to be found. Spooooooky
Geralt feels too powerful plot wise, you know that he can basically just kill whoever he wants and hundreds of guards like nothing. Gameplaywise I'm playing on the hardest difficulty so he's a total loser statwise (but the nice skills compensate)
FFT (IOs): This version is nice, you get the War of the Lions PSP version translation / additional quests / Balthier without the extreme blur.
Touchscreen controls are terrible. (they still hurt my fingers less than TWEWY since I only need to tap and not drag the finger across the screen. Incidentally I'm stopping playing this for a while)
I wish I could just plug a PS4 controller into my iphone or something. It would look properly ridiculous.
I have a big problem with this game and JP. I usually refuse to have anybody not equipped with Gain JP Up.
So this time I'm raising two generics as JP gods (Getting Gain JP Up, then going straight to Dancer / Bard, then basically only ever using Dance / Sing skills while switching classes to rack up immense amounts of JP).
Hopefully this will feed my JP raising needs, so the three other characters will be left to do whatever/whoever the hell I want. Like Mustadio or Agrias or a Treant. I've never really used them!
Edit: I named Ramza "You fool!"
And Knights are pretty fantastic right now (Dorter), I'm surprised
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I decided to replay Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones in honor of its release on the WiiU VC. The game, unlike 7, lets you play on Hard Mode from the first playthrough which is a step up. I spent most of the game crushing maps with Seth+ Eirika + Vanessa + Tana, although Vanessa didn't reach her max potential due to Lute turning out awful. Alas. I had four resets on Last Hope and other scattered resets here and there, but overall it wasn't too bad. So I decided to try the HM Ruins.
So... first of all, since Seth and Eirika had an A support, I wanted to use him in the Ruins. The problem was, though, that he only had 15 Speed, so he was often doubled by various things and wasn't that great anymore. So I feed him a couple Speedwings, getting him up to 19, which was at least serviceable. And then he proceeded to gain Speed for the next 5 of 6 levels and capped it. Good work, Seth. Eirika is the MVP of the Ruins with her stupid evasion (102 Evade with Seth and Ephraim around). The second stage of the ruins is really really rough on Hard, and you really need to liberally abuse Axereavers (note to self, if I do this again bring lots of them!) and swords to get through it, but I survived. Sadly, Colm passed away to a stray Killer Bow hit, but otherwise the team is intact.
One character who turned out pretty solid that I wasn't expecting was Innes. He gained a lot of speed, ended up with 25 at Level 20, and he whored all the bows that no one else was using. Ruins team is Eirika/Seth/Ephraim/Tana/Vanessa/Artur/Innes/Tethys, with Selah, L'Arachel, and Cormag coming in when extras are needed.
One thing I noticed by getting Seth S in Lance and by not using Joshua or Gerik is that nobody can really use Audulma properly because Colm barely hits A in swords by the end of the game, at least how I played him. :( Eirika may start pulling it out since Sigilande is low on charges (after having already been Hammerned once).
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One thing worth mentioning about FE14's path split is that making the choice is super heartbreaking as both families genuinely care about Kamui and I damn near cried when one of the not!Japan siblings was like "I've been holding onto the hope that you've been alive for all these years... What was all that for?" So at least in terms of character writing/feels, the game has been delivering.
Except for that creepy face petting mini game. Seriously IS what the fuck.
Huh and apparently the game has same sex S level supports. I don't know if S supports result in time traveling children in this particular FE (I would suspect not but who knows). But hey it'll be nice to marry Owain to the Avatar or whatever S support means this time.
FFRK: ugh. I give up on NORG. Level broke Squall but still having trouble. Pro Snow strats needed. Leveling up in general to prep for Sephiroth/Zack event (not sure which SOLDIER they're teasing at.) At least the game has the courtesy to not wall PCs behind ridiculously hard boss fights like NORG. So I'll be able to pick up another FF playing card to add to my deck.
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FFRK: ugh. I give up on NORG. Level broke Squall but still having trouble. Pro Snow strats needed.
Give eggs to bard, up to level 50. Make a solo bard team, go to a low stamina req dungeon and fight until you get Zealot. Give Zealot to Squall.
Squall/Cloud/Vivi/Garnet/Wakka is probably optimal, depends on your pulls.
Have Squall attack every round against Norg. When your mages are out of juice, use his spellblades on the body and have the mages physically attack the orbs from now on.
Give only healing to your healer and keep everybody fully healed through the whole fight, because Norg has some random super high damage move.
Use weaker skills with more charges rather than strong skills with 2 charges, as you'll probably run out during the fight.
His second form is weak to wind so try to exploit that. Do not use lightning.
Pray that he doesn't use Protect/Shell, or at least not immediately
That's the most reliable way to beat him with a weak party.
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Pretty sure they're bringing Sephiroth back, since they have a "COMES BACK AGAIN" sign and Zack certainly hasn't been released yet in global. He might come in the pack as a second PC, maybe?
Anyhow, NORG is a pile of HP that can be a grind on resources (I know I mentioned him being doable with no Mythril, but I -did- blow a Mythril there because I wasted a lot of resources on the damned Oilboyles), but he's not really hard to control if you pack like 16 Curagas. I -do- have two rank 3 Curagas, sooooo. ALTHOUGH Fenny's advice on having Zealot for him is top-notch, since it trivializes orb control. I honestly have -never- seen the uber damage move Fen's talking about, the best he ever did to me was like 1900 with his Psycho Blaster.
Final Fantasy Future Autobattle Heroes - Futzing around, doing random FF9 and 12 Elite dungeons for their Mythril. Level cap-broke Squall because why not, since I capped his level with the XP dungeon. Mostly waiting for the next event, since those are where the interesting battles really lie.
Devil Survivor 2 Record Breaker - Well, more of the same. I chose Hard difficulty, but Day 1 certainly doesn't have much punch behind it gameplay-wise (no potential walls like that fucking Wendigo on DS1 yet). Music is considerably better, though, and the VA work here is top-notch - even better than DS1. Female Tico-Tico just fucking KILLS me every time she speaks, her intonation is absolutely hilarious.
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FFRK: ugh. I wish I knew how to quite you NORG.
Fallout Shelter - got 200 dwellers and from then it is just expanding buildings out so people aren't always on coffee break and fishing for rare item finds. So I guess I am done.
Fallout Shelter - Started a new shelter. No super amazing weapon from Lunchbox at the start so raiders and exploring is harder out the gate, but still got like a Rusty Laser Pistole which is better than 80% of the chaffe you find early, so that's good enough. Tidying up layout to that stuff is easier to oversee this time. Nuke the first Living Quarters and turn entire first layer into Diner so you gun down raiders easy. Nuke the Power Station just to turn whole second level section into Water Treatment, could go the other way if I had more caps early enough to place an Elevator down to start Water Treatment on third level instead. Second set of elevators going after the Diners and then down, so rooms are in a configuration of 3E3E2. Should be most efficient for room placement and travel (first bunker had elevators at the back of the area and that just increased travel time when the second elevator was most appropriate, clogs up first elevator a bit. Also note: efficiency with elevator travel is pretty much meaningless). Going to try and leave 2 room allocated to Storage and stat up rooms. This will mean early on I have to dig deeper which will cost more coin, but will make staff management easier.
Racing to 50 dwellers to get all stat boosting rooms available (ie racing to Luck because Luck is literally the most important stat) then probably going to chill at that for a while.
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Final Fantasy For The Love Of Autobattle - Sephiroth event is out! And the side PC is... Red XIII, no Memory Crystal. Bummer on the latter.
THIS SAID, I did another 50-Mythril draw, which netted me a bunch of junk, another Ten-Gallon Hat (neat enough, I used it to raise my Ten-Gallon Hat's rarity further... AND TWO COPIES OF RED XIII'S UNIQUE WEAPON. And given his unique Soul Break and skill loadout (Support 5? Black Magic 4? MT PROTECT AND HASTE ON THE LIMIT?), I think I have a Wakka replacement.
EDIT: Hell, I can even craft Wrath and use it for freeloading on Lunatic High besides having him as a magic/buster status whore and high-level debuffer. Diamond Pin Red XIII is actually pretty interesting.
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Holy shit at that gatcha luck, Snow.
My personal favorite part of the Sephiroth event is reading the description and realizing they kept the 'Touph Ring' typo intact. Now just go back and fix Ultros' name and all will be forgiven, DeNA.
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Gatcha luck of the gods. I got a four star staff as my best draw. Grrrr. At least Red XIII has the sickest sprite ever.
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Pokemon X- Beaten. Game was way, way, way too easy with EXP Share, but honestly, I hate the EXP allocation without it (Switching in for EXP is fine on FFX where it's seemless. It's sloglike in a Pokemon game). Otherwise, I would almost say it's shocking how little the games have changed. For all the mechanical changes, I can't say it felt really different from the first game (much to it's detriment; 6 games in or so and it should feel different). Game started well, but about mid game, I was crushing things too mindlessly. I got around this by switching in lots of Pokemon.
Xerneas- Is the Legendary, rules...etc. Gave it a great Thunder attack
Klefki- Very, very, very cool. Great balanced stats, awesome Fairy type.
Electrode- Pretty good. Surprisingly good SAtk. Didn't make the final team since there was a great Thunder-element TM.
Blastoise- Great for having Strength/Waterfall/Surf. Even with Mega, it didn't feel like it could hang with the final team.
Lucario- Wasn't going to use in my final team, but I figured that having that attack AND magic stat made it worth it.
Absol- Insane tank.
Garchomp- Wasn't going to make it in my final team, but I used it when running around with super underlevelled Pokemon and it hit 48, and then it was fantastic.
Pumpkaboo- Extremely fun to use.
Cryogonal- Fun, if not the best
Quagsire- Was good, but I felt like my main team already covered at least half it's damage too well
Talonflame- Very fun to use; good early, can be adapted late
Vivillion- Cool early game use. Dropped around L20
Chatot- Yikes. I don't have an explanation. I could put Fly on it, but I can't believe that this thing didn't have an evolution
Pikachu- Didn't take it too far once I just saw that Raichu was unimpressive stat wise.
Lampent- Hideously bad starting spells. Didn't really have any good ones coming up. Would have been passable, but without relearning, was a failure.
Snorlax- Cool. Awesome early. I didn't keep using it, although there's no reason I couldn't have.
Axem- Didn't really carry it's weight. I know it has to evolve, but it wasn't soon enough for me.
Roserade- YES. Toxic+65 Move Power that Doubles when target is poisoned=amazing super early combo. Roselia was clearly the best for that, in addition to just being good at staying alive.
Victrebeel- Eh. Not impressive.
Sigilyph- Cool at first, felt like it was hitting a damage wall for me. But was good
Hawlucha- Very cool and fun. Didn't take it all the way to th
Staravia- Wasn't bad, but just wasn't standing out.
Emolga- Held up well enough at first, but needed an upgrade.
Haunter- No trading, so as much of Gengarite was tempting, it wasn't going to happen.
Lunatone- It was okay. Never struct me as particularly special, but it worked for filler.
Krokorok- Fun to play with, albeit lacking damage. When I was running around with massively underlevelled Pokemon, accuracy down worked well.
Zoroark- Was not impressive
Durant- Late, so I didn't get to use it long, but held up well and did good damage.
Trevenant- Tried to make something on it, but it doesn't work so well.
Altaria- Late, but wrked well.
But still easy. They should really have Gym be hybrid elemental, because they are just jokes as of now. Two of the elite four were swept by the same overpowered Pokemon that the game throws directly at you. I guess I could have just used more underlevelled Pokemon to force more challenge.
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Final Fantasy Sea, Autobattle Me - Relevant discoveries of the day: Lost Number can be paralyzed and Materia Keeper is vulnerable to Stop. That's two out of four bosses who can be hilariously trivialized in the JENOVA event. Jenova BIRTH Elite is gonna -suck-, though. Double-acting with MT damage is -not- going to be fun on those power levels.
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FFRK: Almost got Red XIII! I'm so super-excited for the adorable furball~
(https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/cat_proximity.png)
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The Red XIII sprite is indeed pretty sick. Got him, fed those Growth Eggs from the classic version up to L31. I'll do some equipment material grinding in order to level the other Diamond Pin and the Ten-Gallon Hat next. It's pretty funny watching a L31 Nanaki deal more damage than L56 Tidus due to stacking synergy bonuses.
EDIT: Annnnd one trip to the Heroic Daily Dungeon later, I have fully upgraded and combined Ten-Gallon Hat and a Rarity-6 Diamond Pin. I also got Sephiroth, but who the hell cares about him.
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Update @Red XIII: You're a kitty!
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Final Fantasy Keep Your Children In Autobattle - Aw crap, Jenova Birth requires Sephiroth for one of its target scores and it has 200k HP on Elite. This is gonna suck so hard.
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Fuck this I got my first 5*less 11x mithril pull
Nooooo
FFT: Last battle of chapter 1
This remains the hardest game everyone pretends is really easy. I swear everytime I play I get thrown in an alternate reality in which it is the hardest game ever.
I am getting one reset at least once every story battle despite having played it too many times already
I'm looking at a single character challenge faq and it's all "Oh Chapter 1 is really easy, just haste Knight Delita and he'll solo everything" and I'm like WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT everybody piles on him and he dies in one or two rounds. How do you get anywhere with a single archer when my varied full team is getting wrecked. Why is this happening, I beat a bunch of FE hard modes.
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Anyone who says FFT is easy is someone who has probably played it too many times and has no idea what they're talking about. For some reason it's fun to pretend FFs are easier than they actually are and FFT is no exception. As far as SRPGs go it's certainly way harder than the likes of Vandal Hearts.
That said C1 isn't tooo bad I don't think (Dorter Slums is a bit of a rude spike, and Zeakden's decent). ~70 Faith female/Ramza Wizards really make a mess of it (40 damage at the chapter start, 60 at the end with an element-boosting rod, range 4 AOE doesn't trigger counters which FFT has way too many of). Knight's actually okay in C1 as you discovered because of that HP/power lead outside of Wiegraf (a foreshadowing of how wretched they are in the duel).
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Fire Emblem if: Apparently it's going to be called "Fates" in America. For a while I thought THIS was the FExSMT crossover, for a couple of reasons, not the least of which being that there's a game called Shin Megami Tensei if.
Anyway, for those that don't know, the premise is that your Avatar is a special snowflake Dragonborn-something-or-other who was born a prince of not!Japan but then was kidnapped as a baby and raised by the King of not!England as a prince and not told his own identity, and indeed even the actual Princes and Princesses think he's family. He's given a bullshit reason why he's not allowed to leave the kingdom, so he's raised among a close-knit family for his whole life until King of not!England decides to use him as some kind of trump card and sends him out to battle, whereupon he's captured by the army of not!Japan. The royal family of not!Japan quickly realizes his identity and are overjoyed at finding their long-lost brother and son, and quickly invite him to rejoin their family. After King of not!England activates his trap card involving special-snowflake Kamui (Avatar), the not!Japan army brings him to the frontlines of the battle, where both of Kamui's families are now staring eachother down and demanding that Kamui come back to them.
Ha wha? No. Kamui was hold hostage because of a hostage exchange. He was given to Not!England just like how Aqua was given to Not!Japan.
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Fire Emblem if: Apparently it's going to be called "Fates" in America. For a while I thought THIS was the FExSMT crossover, for a couple of reasons, not the least of which being that there's a game called Shin Megami Tensei if.
Anyway, for those that don't know, the premise is that your Avatar is a special snowflake Dragonborn-something-or-other who was born a prince of not!Japan but then was kidnapped as a baby and raised by the King of not!England as a prince and not told his own identity, and indeed even the actual Princes and Princesses think he's family. He's given a bullshit reason why he's not allowed to leave the kingdom, so he's raised among a close-knit family for his whole life until King of not!England decides to use him as some kind of trump card and sends him out to battle, whereupon he's captured by the army of not!Japan. The royal family of not!Japan quickly realizes his identity and are overjoyed at finding their long-lost brother and son, and quickly invite him to rejoin their family. After King of not!England activates his trap card involving special-snowflake Kamui (Avatar), the not!Japan army brings him to the frontlines of the battle, where both of Kamui's families are now staring eachother down and demanding that Kamui come back to them.
Ha wha? No. Kamui was hold hostage because of a hostage exchange. He was given to Not!England just like how Aqua was given to Not!Japan.
I had thought I had read that in the promotional materials somewhere. Glad to see it repeated. Between that and the Djinn report stuff, I am getting kinda stoked about the game.
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Anyone who says FFT is easy is someone who has probably played it too many times and has no idea what they're talking about. For some reason it's fun to pretend FFs are easier than they actually are and FFT is no exception. As far as SRPGs go it's certainly way harder than the likes of Vandal Hearts.
I agree with this but want to make an addendum of "looked up a lot of stuff ahead of time about the games!" Though, FF7 and FF8 (super bosses not withstanding) I haven't seen anyone claim are hard in any stretch outside of occasional fights like Carry Armor (having just seen my sister fight Carry Armor, he's indeed legit as I remember. Why is it the RANDOM ROBOT WITH CRANES ON IT one of FF7's best boss fights? And it's not even "Good by FF7 standards", it's just straight up a good boss in general!) and I suppose in FF8's case, it's very possible for someone to not understand how the game works (particularly junctioning), so I shouldn't say those games are straight up easy.
I think the most facepalm inducing "FF games are too easy!" statement was in regards to FF13, because "there's no penalty for dying, so it's super easy to beat anything!" Um, not really; it just means FF13 doesn't waste your time as much as other games. Dying 5 times to a boss in FF13 is no different than dying 5 times to a boss in another game; the main difference is that FF13 let's you get more practice in on the boss between each failure because you can jump right back in, on top of removing a lot of the frustration factor. As a contrast, dying ONCE to Cloud of Darkness in FF3 (either version, assuming no save states) will cause way more frustration than dying multiple times to any FF13 boss, and not because she's so hard (though she's a good fight make no mistake), but because each death is 1-2 hours worth of lost progress. A reset to any given fight in FF13 is maybe 10 minutes tops of lost progress.
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Some other reports on FE if:
HP growth is recognizably lower in this game. The game also has a far more strict RNG on growth making tweaking states a lot harder.
This made the Black route significantly harder as you can't do any grinding on the route.
My Castle is abusive. You can find a friend to set up decent castle with nice shop and skill for you to conquer.
The combo of fetching the cash related skills from a friends castle and then purchase good stuff from a late game level castle is game breaking.
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Anyone who says FFT is easy is someone who has probably played it too many times and has no idea what they're talking about. For some reason it's fun to pretend FFs are easier than they actually are and FFT is no exception. As far as SRPGs go it's certainly way harder than the likes of Vandal Hearts.
That said C1 isn't tooo bad I don't think (Dorter Slums is a bit of a rude spike, and Zeakden's decent). ~70 Faith female/Ramza Wizards really make a mess of it (40 damage at the chapter start, 60 at the end with an element-boosting rod, range 4 AOE doesn't trigger counters which FFT has way too many of). Knight's actually okay in C1 as you discovered because of that HP/power lead outside of Wiegraf (a foreshadowing of how wretched they are in the duel).
Oh yeah I definitely agree re: FF difficulty. (Except FF7/9, they're very easy eve if you know nothing about RPGs)
FFT takes the cake though. Very few people on the internet would consider Tactics Ogre less difficult for example. But really, it is.
I used a female black mage but she did way less damage (only had 50 faith). I was too lazy to recruit one with higher faith. Anyway most new players wouldn't know about elemental weapons boosting elemental damage, or brave/faith shennanigans, or female having higher magic etc.
BTW naming Ramza "You fool!" really really works. Especially in War of the Lions. It almost fits the dialogue all the time.
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The part about elemental weapons is right there in the help description (but you do need to know about that I suppose) or you could reasonably figure it out by experimentation (even if you just do best fit you'll end up with one of the elemental rods for a huge part of the game, then you may start noticing that certain spells do more damage)... but yeah FFT explains brave/faith badly. (My first experience with Monk was a 40-something brave female, don't do what I do.) I'm kinda surprised you didn't know about the importance of Faith in 2015 I'll admit, but it's certainly a reasonable trap to fall into in general.
Agreed that FF7 through FF9 are indeed pretty damn easy (they have the odd moment, mostly some pretty good final bosses, the one place they are harder than FFT!). I can't objectively discuss TO difficulty due to playing it like 15 years after FFT (it was certainly easier for me personally) and you're probably talking about PSX anyway in which case no clue.
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Tactics Ogre PSX difficulty is pretty much inversely proportional to the number of archers you use. (This may or may not hold true for the PSP remake as well, which I can't actually authoritatively say is an improvement on the PSX version because it has so many design choices that are just bad and I sour on them more every time I play/think about it).
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I found Tacticss Ogre PSX considerably harder than FFT. Between perma-deaths, the game having wonky mechanics and logic, and the fact that you really have to just grind a lot to win, no question I found FFT Easiser. True I had some difficulty my first FFT playthrough (Riovanes as a whole), and it was a tough game but definitely found TO PSX a harder game than FFT.
And yeah, FFT does a crap job with Faith and Brave explanations. I remember reading about them and it sounded like Faith only applied to Magic on the Defensive side. Also I had a similar experience with Monk where I used a low brave character (wasn't necessarily female) and saw them hit for very disappointing damage. I also used N Ninja Ramza with Hammers for a decent part of Chap 3 (I did learn pretty fast that Axes were crap at least!)
But anyway, onto a different Job System related game!
FF3 Dualplay: Beat Tower of Owen, then went to Gishal and Town of Ancients. So thoughts and such!
-Tower of Owen is completely opposite in both games. NES version, the randoms are fairly competent, the dungeon can be taxing on your resources unless you bought a crap load of potions, enemies can hit hard, and they hurl status (as a side note, PC#2 remains the Butt Monkey for all enemy status effects. Sure, when casting Mute on anyone else, it misses, but when you cast it on him? IT HITS! He's a Monk, so this of course was the worst thing in the world.) Medusa, by contrast is a complete push over, doing 5HKO damage to Monk (frailest PC to physicals given the set up; Mages are in Back Row which makes a HUGE difference, and Fighter is obviously much higher defense), and an inaccurate slow petrify spell. The DS version, the randoms are pretty tame; only thing that might be scary is one enemy can cast Blizzara and it's rare. The random encounter limit also shows up here; NES version you fight on average 3 to 4 enemies per fight. DS version, you regularly fight 2 (even though it's capable of having 3), and unlike previous dungeons, enemies aren't stronger to compensate. Medusa, on the otherhand, is the best boss fight thus far. Her Ara spells hurt a lot (outside of the one character with the Mage Robe and even they take some notable damage), and her basic physical can inflict Silence, and given this is FF3, she always uses it every turn (sometimes twice, but that means she's not using an Ara.) Worse yet, she has really high defense, so if your spellcaster gets silenced, it's hard to damage through her unless you've got a decent stock of expandable Ara casting items. Speaking of her defense, that too is flipped, as the NES version, her physical defense is standard but her magic defense is pretty darn high, complete opposite of the DS version.
Not sure which I prefer. On one hand, NES version is way more frustrating because every random gets on your nerves, but the DS version runs a serious risk of getting to the top of the tower (and it's not a short dungeon) only to die to the boss and have to redo everything all over again. I guess it's like choosing what would you prefer? Constant punches in the arm, or one big smack of a hammer. The former is going to consistently annoy you but the latter is going to hurt way more than all those other punches, but it's over and done with in one fell swoop...except that's a perfect parallel because the hammer in this case is waiting about 30 minutes before it actually swings, so you're sitting there with anxiety waiting for it to just drop <_<
-Again, reiterating that NES version handles dungeons better. The DS version I twice in Tower of Owen went the right way when I wanted to get treasure and had to turn around since the draw distance is ass. NES version, that didn't happen, because you can see 70% of the entire floor at once so when you go the right way and miss chests, you're more likely to turn around much sooner than the DS version.
--As a side note, this is one thing I'll give FF4DS credit for. While it still has this issue, it added a Minimap which marks your progress so you know where you've been and where the exits are, on top of rewarding you for 100% completion of each floor, giving you further incentive. It doesn't fix the doubling back issue but it does make navigating smoother, at least.
-Sailing is better in the NES version. Both versions have annoying encounter rates on the sea, and while the DS version allows for 8 directions as opposed to 4, the NES version moves notably faster.
-...on the other hand, the DS version has the constant map helping you keep track of where you are. The NES version requires using Dwarf Breads for that, and only now Sight has finally showed up, though at least they were smart enough to make it a level 1 spell, which White Mage has plenty, but even then, the DS version still has the ever present Map so it still wins, especially when you get off the Floating Continent and Sight only shows a portion of the World Map, as the world gets much bigger.
-Tower of Owen is where Thief actually starts to stop lagging. It's still way behind Warrior, but it's physical damage starts registering, especially after the 2nd Spark Dagger, which in addition to a considerable attack upgrade, also gives another +2 Agility; Thief is finally at a speed where it goes first a lot more regularly than others (though the randomness still exists.) Interestingly, Tower of Owen is where the NES Monk starts to become somewhat more consistent. It has more hits, and while still relying on Nunchaku's, the damage per hit is typically high enough that missing some isn't such a big deal. Around this time is when fists start competing with nunchaku's too. For reference, 3 Part + Tonfa is about 64 at 82% accuracy, unarmed is about 56 at 87% accuracy. Haven't been using DS Monk, but in my experience, you always have it with Claws if you aren't JLevel grinding, since it's unarmed physical generally will not outdo Claw damage.
--For why I'm not using Monk in the DS version? It's a short term investment I feel. Thief has far more long term uses, especially since I intend to nab Gungnir, and better utility thanks to the speed. Monk's fine for a fair amount of the game, but definitely reaches a point where it's damage isn't much better than other fighters, and they all have other qualities (be it having heavy armor, Speed/Back Row damage like Thief, Viking's Provoke tanking, etc.) In the NES version, all Fighters are a short term investment regardless, since the game is set up that they get obsoleted by superior jobs later (Fighter -> Knight for example), and Thief doesn't exist in FF3NES this early anyway (though if it did, it'd be god awful, since it'd rely on Mithril Daggers.)
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Bullshit and you know it Elf.
Brave is Courage.
Also I expect given Fenrir that the 50 faith is way more "I couldn't be fucked rerolling recruits" more than not understanding the mechanics.
I can say as someone that compulsively reads about games well in advance of touching them if possible, foreknowledge of FFT doesn't help. There is far too many moving parts with (comparable to other FF games) high risk outcomes. Say what you will about Golem in FFT, it isn't full map 80% healing or anything
also ff13 is easy as fuck because it is just easy and plays itself this is mostly a joke please don't hate me
Edit - OH I reckon you should be trying to milk FFT for that Fenrirness. Bring back that 50 faith mage. Make that old hypothetical "best PVP" character build which was Female Ninja with Move +2 equipped with hand bag and threw hammers and axes at things.
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Also I expect given Fenrir that the 50 faith is way more "I couldn't be fucked rerolling recruits" more than not understanding the mechanics.
Yes
Though I didn't think the difference between 50 faith and 70 faith would be that big
Edit - OH I reckon you should be trying to milk FFT for that Fenrirness. Bring back that 50 faith mage. Make that old hypothetical "best PVP" character build which was Female Ninja with Move +2 equipped with hand bag and threw hammers and axes at things.
Oh man that does sound like a cool build. She will take forever to get to ninja though unless the future dancer/bard help a lot with spillover JP
TO is a bit rough at the very beginning (like FFT) but while people die instantly, casualties matter way less, and you should pretty soon find out that Archers and Canopus w/ bows = Win. Then you get the revival spell which is totally awesome. The game's over before FFT.
PSX TO and PSP TO are pretty similar difficultywise
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TO PSP being the only one I have experience with, in that I found the twice as large party size helps a lot with adding more give in difficulty. Also the rewind button lets you go noooope to missing critical 70% hits if you want to use it.
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I technically had an easy time with my first FFT run (not counting time spent on friends' files), but that hardly counts when I'd already read the BMG front to back repeatedly before starting. Normal people won't do things like have an entire party make a beeline for Summon Magic ASAP after Auto-Potion/Gained JP-Up/(Teleport but I got that on one fight after spillover) or reroll for a bunch of ~70 brave/faith girls with Capricorn/Taurus for good compatability with all the game's Virgo bosses.
Incidentally we should mention Zodiac as something that can really screw up people haven't memorized the game's mechanics; even outside of min/max scenarios it can accidentally have a huge negative impact on healing/buffing magic and Ramza's sign can be a big deal for Riovanes, depending on his build.
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Not much to say other than to entirely agree; I was taken aback by some of the "lolez" comments on FFT at the DL when I first got here. I played it a bunch and still think that even vanilla FFT is entirely legit. Also some of the power strats are either highly unintuitive (cheeze the game's AI with this one weird trick!) or are obvious-but-dangerous. Like, sure, if you can beat up an enemy mid-charge, that's great. But it's entirely possible to go in on a charging Velius and *not* kill him, then watch 2-3 people wipe to cyclops while the Archaic Demon cleanup crew occupies everyone else. Sure you might still win but it'll be an epic "from hell's heart I stab at thee" from the survivors. And while FFT does have some OP setups, they take enough work to get to and aren't foolproof. (e.g. Blade Grasp is probably overpowered considering the large number of knights & archers the game throws at you, but it's also nearly worthless in some of the tougher battles, so.)
Anyway FFT is definitely harder than TOPSP. TOPSX is hard to compare since the frustration / obscurity factor in that game is high but once you get past that it isn't quite as punishing.
Also re TO PSX, check out this bit of horror that I found while digging through boxes of my old stuff recently:
https://goo.gl/photos/re8PZvqtWi5KzmGu8
Yeah that's Prima's official strategy guide of worthlessness in there (came with my foolish purchase of the game over eBay). I checked out its comments on C3 Neutral, and it helpfully noted that Cerye was probably gonna die. No indication she was recruitable or anything. Not much strategy in general, as best I could tell, for any of the maps! Lots of editing errors or things that changed before release; e.g. referring to a character by a different name than shown in the freaking screenshot right above ("Leonardo", "Dolgaria", etc.)
While I'm at it, see who the new member of Nitori's dark alliance is here:
https://goo.gl/photos/BbTQZ7PxKAeQn7498
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Vandal Hearts kicked my ass around the block (I did reset for each character death on that playthrough though) and FFT I found to be a breeze on the first playthrough.
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I also got Sephiroth, but who the hell cares about him.
I do, only because he's the first character who matches a 5-star weapon I have. Holy crap the synergy bonuses. His auto-attack hits over 5000 on enemies in the elite dungeon.
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I had a fair amount of trouble first time through FFT. I probably wiped more in that than I did in, say, Bloodborne. Of course, I also reset a lot just from individual characters dying irretrievably because eww permadeath. I think the DL being full of fanatics who understand every intricate detail of the game's inner workings is a factor that tends to undersell its difficulty here. It's a highly breakable game but you're not likely to realize that without experience and/or some substantial foreknowledge. FF7 I always found stupid easy. FF8 I made a lot harder on myself the first time through by never bothering to understand how to abuse junctioning properly, and then running a high-level party anyway so I had a party with crap stats facing jacked up enemies. It took me two hours to kill Ultimecia. I am shame.
Arkham Knight: With my freeze bombs I will STOP~. Man I missed those things. Anyway this afternoon was all Riddler trophy hunting all the time. I don't know why I thought I'd get through these in one sitting, there's like 240~ of them.
I went and spoiled myself on *Spoilers* and yeah, was right the first time. Pretty obvious with just a casual knowledge of Batman history. Doesn't bother me much, the importance of surprise as a narrative tool is overstated in modern fiction, etc.
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Yeah I think a lot of the "lol this so EZEZ" you encounter at first exposure at the DL is more um intended for the DL general audience (or the Vancrewver) than general consumption, but definitely would be jarring without the context of the group because y'all mofos are stupid good at that shit.
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There's probably also a bit of bias in that most RPG difficulty stems purely from understanding as opposed to execution.
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I also got Sephiroth, but who the hell cares about him.
I do, only because he's the first character who matches a 5-star weapon I have. Holy crap the synergy bonuses. His auto-attack hits over 5000 on enemies in the elite dungeon.
Yeah, the stacked synergy stat bonanza is utterly insane. I'm yielding over 4k with Nanaki's basic physical and his weapon is considerably weaker than that -and- he's like at least 12 (not sure if that or 18) points of attack below Sephiroth.
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Tales of Xillia: Up to Nia Khera.
I think I've figured out how they came up with Jude...they made him specifically to be the Anti-Lloyd. Why, I don't know; this is long after Tales of Symphonia came out and they've had plenty of varying protagonists since. Just really stands out to have a Tales protagonist who gets openly praised by both the Mr. Spock-like female lead, and the pseudo-bad ass Mercenary for his ability to use his brain.
Game also gets props for addressing something I was thinking during the "Alvin shoot that rock!" scene. Namely "Wait, how did he know it'd attack that person!?" well, the game fortunately does have Milla basically calling him out on it, and instead of the "I guess we just got lucky!" response that's the usual cliched reaction, Jude actually responds with how that situation could have still been beneficial to them, suggesting yes, he really DID think this plan through. Well done, Tales of Xillia.
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Vandal Hearts kicked my ass around the block (I did reset for each character death on that playthrough though) and FFT I found to be a breeze on the first playthrough.
Yeah this still makes no goddamn sense whatsoever.
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Final Fantasy Lullabies To Autobattle Vol. II - Was doing more Sephy event dungeons, but I'm in serious shortage of black power and today's daily dungeon is all about that. Time to restock.
Also, Manaspring II's ability charge restoration? Brings back a charge from -both- your equipped abilities. This is kinda broken. And, once the Summoner Record Materias become available, Summon abilities will simply skyrocket in usage. 2PB high-mult MT will largely trivialize trash mobs.
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Vandal Hearts scales with the main character's level specifically, FFT doesn't scale with your level outside of randoms (which are based on your average). If Super leaned on the main a lot then VH might have been crazy brutal.
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It strikes me as hard for Ash to really get a high lead in a game like Vandal Hearts. The weapon Triangle system alone seems like it'd immediately dick anyone who tried to focus heavily on one PC. I also remember Ash being pretty average pre-Vandalier (wasn't he like a standard Sword-class who learned a handful of spells unique spells?)
I mean I guess it's possible, but strikes me as a game where it's far less likely to happen. Contrast to something like Disgaea where early on it's possible for Laharl to steal a lot of kills and then he can just solo maps for pretty much 90% of the game.
That said, the real reason super found Vandal Hearts so hard is basically stated in his post: He treated the game like most of us treat Fire Emblem. He reset every-time someone died, adding an extra layer of difficulty, and I'll grant that it's very easy for someone to just get casually sniped and die in VH; luckily the game only penalizes you some cash when someone dies IIRC, and they're back on the next map.
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Record keeper
124 of 128 quests complete...just the 5 star abilities left.
Also, today is black power day! Time to raid til I run out of energon.
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Final Fantasy How Big, How Blue, How Autobattle - Still grindin'. There's a -lot- of stuff I can hone into R3 as soon as I have enough Power Orbs and Black Orbs, so I expect to be far better decked out for longer fights by the time Tuesday is over. R3 Drain, Blizzaga and Thundaga would be pretty aces. I am also one Greater Earth Orb away from Protectga, and that might be a priority as well. I need to raise White Mage's level for her Record Materia, though.
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I got all those crappy mages to 50 by just using exp eggs.
I heard bard has a good passive too so I guess he is next.
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That said, the real reason super found Vandal Hearts so hard is basically stated in his post: He treated the game like most of us treat Fire Emblem. He reset every-time someone died, adding an extra layer of difficulty, and I'll grant that it's very easy for someone to just get casually sniped and die in VH; luckily the game only penalizes you some cash when someone dies IIRC, and they're back on the next map.
Yeah, pretty much. The revival cost is pretty damn trivial, too, so the only real reason to play VH that way is for for pride reasons. Also, FFT would most likely be even nastier if you reset every time someone fell to 0 HP!
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I got all those crappy mages to 50 by just using exp eggs.
I heard bard has a good passive too so I guess he is next.
I did that with Black Mage, but right now my priority with them is Red XIII. White Mage will slave away on those Sunday XP dungeons until there's an event that gives me PCs I give precisely zero fucks about.
EDIT: Zealot sounds like a NORG-buster, a grinding facilitator and not much else. 60% power on the physical isn't good for OHKOing randoms and the penalty remains even against lone enemies.
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There's probably also a bit of bias in that most RPG difficulty stems purely from understanding as opposed to execution.
Also, FFT has an additional hurdle in the obfuscation of its mechanics and that's the translation. Some of the mechanics are already rather on the arcane side and trying to figure out how things work through tutorials is an exercise in futility, so you basically have to dick around with each thing individually until you understand it.
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I also played Vandal Hearts that way because I thought the game had permadeath (Just LOOK at these fountains of blood) and still found it easier than vanilla FFT
FFT :
So before this playthrough, I foolishly wanted to conserve resources so I only used White Mage instead of Chemist. Chemist is so much better, everybody was right. Damn. I am never using a fucking white mage again.
Knight I feel is very underrated around these parts. He's some kind of earlygame god and manages to stay pretty decent endgame. That's much better than a class that joins later, starts below average and stays below average (Samurai, dragoon. Arguably hippymancer, much as I hate to say it) He's just the absolute pits midgame and has bad mobility without other abilities, so he's one of the hardest SCCs, but in a regular playthrough in which you can constantly change classes he's fairly useful. It's not like you get punished in any way for not using him when he's crappy. Very cool hair too.
Time Mage is kind of the opposite. I'm sure he makes for a pretty good SCC, passives like Teleport are fantastic, but as a class he just kind of blows. The trademark haste can miss and lasts nowhere near long enough, the rest of the skillset isn't crazy (I'd rather have an oracle) and he looks like a fucking clown. When you try to bring a few people together to multicast Haste on them, there's always a black mage around to Thundara your face.
I did love having a mediator teleport to the top of the torture device in the executioner site then beginning to snipe everybody.
FFT (like Dark Souls) remains serious the whole time through, but manages to always have this lovely element of emergent humor which I'm very fond of.
Edit : Additional Rofel scene? Cool
RK: Awww Red 13's little attack paw and victory howl are so adorable
Thsi dog is the only character who cannot even equip a dagger though. He's going straight to the core class bench with the likes of Knight after this event (maybe after getting Sephiroth) The only reason he's still in my team is that I have some FF7 4*+ punch
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Red XIII shouldn't ever be bothered with if you don't get his unique weapon (he'll eventually get a second one that boosts his Mag! That's uh actually kinda neat with his skill load), he's like support-based Sephiroth.
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Time Mage is mostly about Teleport being amazing and Short Charge being pretty good. Haste... yeah is only worth it if you can get 2-3 people with it (if you use it on one person it's like TOPSP's in that it doesn't actually get you more turns, at least typically) and can stay out of the range of any Wizards, but it becomes quite good if you do especially with good internal zodiac (yes, this is something I don't expect players to set up for, but it's nice if you do). Other than that they have some situational status stuff (Oracle's is better), Demi for boss-killing (Life Drain/Lich are better), or you can invest in Short Charge Meteor which is pretty crazy good but has a ridiculous JP investment, gets more practical with a bunch of propositions.*
Knight's certainly good enough in C1 but that's really about it. Geomancer is way better, +1 move and similar power and having the option of a 5-range backup is great, easily worth a bit of an HP hit. I don't see much reason Dragoon isn't better in C2 onwards itself, they have equal HP/power and you get an extra range so even before you start building Jump you're better at Knight's job than Knight. Knights pretty much need to be given some sort of secondary to have something useful to do when they're out of range or they'll suck, because they have trouble reaching targets. There's Item for healing needs but it does mean you often waste your first turn, and most other things which come to mind (Elemental, Punch Art) just leave me wondering why you don't go to one of those jobs instead.
*caveat that all my comments apply to PSX English FFT, WotL went back to the JP version of the game which has some fucked up balance like 5000 JP Fly. I think Meteor is junk in WotL for instance.
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Knights do get a huge boost in Chapter 4 with Excalibur since Auto-Haste is so godly, but they're obsolete even then if you're using Excalibur on Ramza or any other special character. I'm probably a bit biased in even noticing this since I only play challenge runs. The Knight class would have been a lot better or at least have its own niche if there was a defense stat in the game, I think. It's likely they had one and removed it during development, but it was too late to save the Knight class. I agree that Dragoons basically do their job better.
To me, the overall problem with FFT's balance is that you basically have to use self-imposed limitations or mods to make the game interesting after a playthrough or two (or even reading guides for that matter) since once you know about them there's no reason not to use Math Skill or Martial Arts Ninjas to murder everything, grinding requirement aside. I mean, even just knowing that you can hire a 70 faith female character and make her a Wizard to do tons of damage early makes the game supremely easier. So it's a 'hard' game for people new to it, but very easy once you have done research on the game. I got a lot of replay value out of doing silly challenges, but after over a decade of hindsight, it's hard for me to say the game is well-balanced. It feels really obtuse for new players but doesn't give veterans much of a challenge on its own.
A perfect example of this disparity is the Oracle class. Every time I read forum threads about the worst classes, I'll see some people say the Oracle is useless, but it's virtually a guarantee anyone saying that hasn't used this class to its full extent since Yin-Yang is probably one of the most broken spell sets in the game and sticks are magnificent weapons for mages. However, it's unlikely that the average player is going to learn this since you have to go out of your way to experiment and get that knowledge, which the game doesn't do a great job encouraging by barely having any of certain classes represented by enemy teams, hiding spells behind JP walls, and handing you characters like Orlandu.
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Honestly, if FFT's mechanics weren't so all over the place, or the game gave you some sense how things worked, I don't think anyone would say Oracles suck. IOWs, if the game had a list of "weapon based off this stat!", well, you'd see immediately how good sticks are. Actual WP, runs off a Mage's good stat, and the same 2 Range advantage Spears have. Suddenly Oracle is looking like a Physical fighter with a lot of status tools at their disposal, as well as being able to set up entirely around Magic damage while not compromising their physical damage.
I'm not saying the game needs to tell you it's formula, just a basic idea of what stats improve what weapons. I think FF12 actually had a list like that, like it'd say "Katanas are based off Strength and magic!" Sure, it doesn't tell you that Strength matters more and Magic is a secondary stat, but at least you know both stats play a role in that damage.
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Final Fantasy All The Autobattles In London - R3 Intimidate, R3 Blizzara Sword and R3 Thundaga. Yeah, this ain't going too bad.
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Knight swords are a nice payoff late, but a generic Knight is pretty low on the totem poll for those. Knights really needed FFT armor to not be so aggressively bad past C1, among other things.
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Knight Swords better than Defender (which isn't that great, especially if you didn't reroll for high starting Brave on your generics) are uncommon enough that you have no real reason not to hand them to special characters instead of generic Knights. I'm not counting high level catch in DD shenanigans here for obvious reasons.
Observationally, a lot of non-hardcore players have trouble using magic effectively in FFT, due to faith/charge times/zodiac compatability messing up the heals/buffs. But the best generic skillsets are largely magical, so this makes things way harder for them compared to veterans, especially prior to the game handing you Orlandu+Excalibur on a silver platter. This is part of why the Riovanes duel with Wiegraf causes so many difficulties; there's pretty much no halfway decent mage build that can't smite him easily enough (all the SCCs handle him just fine), but a lot of physical builds can't outslug him so either they need a specific Reaction ability or they have to resort to Yell spam or sometimes they're just stuck.
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Duel!Wiegraf having Counter (on top of a shield!) was just an awful design decision, it makes it extremely difficult to win that fight with a melee Ramza unless you have a twinked Ninja or fall back on some weird strategies. And the game does make melee Ramza feel like the "natural" choice. "Become a fine knight, my son" and him holding a sword in cutscenes and all that, plus it's the fantasy default.
I was pretty fortunate that I made Ramza a Wizard/Summoner on my first playthrough, because a 70 Faith female-MA caster wrecks shit, but it's pretty easy to just blindly use a 55 faith male or something, and defensive magic and buffs have the additional problems hinode notes (bad internal zodiac, faith issues on both sides, CT is much more cumbersome for them than for offensive magic generally).
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I remember I did that fight with a white mage build Ramaza. Holy is my main offence, and I tag on that reaction ability... what is it called? the one that heals you when you are near death?
I tweaked my hp to just be able to survive the Lightning Stab, so every attack I received ends up healing me instead.
Then I slaughtered the Velius afterward with a legion of short charge summoner spamming Lich and Sylph.
And I was like, "shit, this fight is this easy? just what went wrong in my past couple of tries?"
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Funny thing: in my first FFT playthrough, I did AMAZING things like a Monk Ramza with Equip Armor and Wiegraf 3 utterly walled me for a while. I only beat Velius due to a lucky silence proc on Lightning Stab. Then, years later, I went back to FFT with a mage Ramza setup. I OHKOed Wiegraf with some summon or other. The split is really obscene.
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Basically any RPG with complicated mechanics (= Not Fire Emblem) effectively becomes way too easy with good knowledge of the mechanics
FFT: I got my bard at the beginning of Chapter 3 then a dancer shortly after. The JP gains are ridiculous, the XP gains also are at least on the dancer. My goal is to have the bard become a mime and the dancer become a dark knight... Eventually...
Dance is really good right now. Sing isn't. Sing + dance is a bad combo, but I really really want the JP.
I tried to make my dancer into a ninja for Wiegraf 2. Her battle performance went like this: *miss* *miss* *Wiegraf counters and OHKO*
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It strikes me as hard for Ash to really get a high lead in a game like Vandal Hearts. The weapon Triangle system alone seems like it'd immediately dick anyone who tried to focus heavily on one PC. I also remember Ash being pretty average pre-Vandalier (wasn't he like a standard Sword-class who learned a handful of spells unique spells?)
I mean I guess it's possible, but strikes me as a game where it's far less likely to happen. Contrast to something like Disgaea where early on it's possible for Laharl to steal a lot of kills and then he can just solo maps for pretty much 90% of the game.
That said, the real reason super found Vandal Hearts so hard is basically stated in his post: He treated the game like most of us treat Fire Emblem. He reset every-time someone died, adding an extra layer of difficulty, and I'll grant that it's very easy for someone to just get casually sniped and die in VH; luckily the game only penalizes you some cash when someone dies IIRC, and they're back on the next map.
Yeah the first time Super made the claim I replayed it while resetting after every death.
Still don't get it. Did he go all Guardsmen and turn all his healers and mages into monks or some shit? I even did things like making sure to meet Vandalier reqs and wiping out all enemies on the escape map, and this claim still doesn't compute.
Sure, difficult. More difficult than FFT though? Uh.
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To me, the overall problem with FFT's balance is that you basically have to use self-imposed limitations or mods to make the game interesting after a playthrough or two (or even reading guides for that matter) since once you know about them there's no reason not to use Math Skill or Martial Arts Ninjas to murder everything, grinding requirement aside. I mean, even just knowing that you can hire a 70 faith female character and make her a Wizard to do tons of damage early makes the game supremely easier. So it's a 'hard' game for people new to it, but very easy once you have done research on the game. I got a lot of replay value out of doing silly challenges, but after over a decade of hindsight, it's hard for me to say the game is well-balanced. It feels really obtuse for new players but doesn't give veterans much of a challenge on its own.
I dunno, this kinda statement is exactly what Fenrir was arguing against. Yeah, there's some comparatively obscure ways to trivialize the game, but I don't even consider it much of a self-imposed limitation any more than, say, not getting Knights of the Round is a self-imposed limitation in FF7. (Calculator I suspect was partially balanced around annoyingness to use + obscurity, too.) There are lots of games that you can freaking LLG and still not be too difficult; while you can absolutely lose a person (and thus reset) even with a party of Ninjas & Summoners at normal level not skipping random encounters. Not gonna hit the game too hard for Math Skill existing, especially when they took notable steps to balance it, e.g. making Calculator stats suuuuuck. (And the fact that you can get around said limitations is cool in its own way too, balance isn't everything.)
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Re: Calculator. There's a lot to be said for making a game fun the first time around. If balance utterly succumbs to perfect knowledge but the road to perfect knowledge is awesome, I'll take it.
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Oh Fenrir one thing to note, if there is a class you want a lot of spillover JP from, you can probably equip another support skill on the dancer/bard because Spillover ignores JP Gain up. So if you are like going for teleport and short charge you probably don't need that much excess on those two.
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AK: Wow some of the Riddler stuff is terribad design this time. I always had trouble with the riddles that required you to find a specific piece of scenery and scan it, but now in the plot there are flowers raining from the goddamn sky and that doesn't help my pixel hunting at all you guys. But far more objectionable are the ones where you have to follow a trail of question marks using car sonar. This sounds straightforward, right? But it's so awkwardly executed for an idea that was dully simplistic in the first place: the game's really wonky about when the ?'s will appear, sometimes a pulse goes out and nothing happens but sometimes like four or five new ?'s will ping instead; that is obviously related to your position so you can't just jump to the end, but the game's so finicky about you creeping just a little too far ahead that I spend a fair amount of time watching multiple pulses go out before seeing more progress; the game is super eager to lose the trail altogether if you switch car modes or get out of the car at all mid-search, which you actually have to do for some of these, which brings us back to point B because you're trying to hurry back through shit you've already done after losing the trail once before; the final destination is a wall that the trail will ultimately highlight for you to blow up with the car's cannon, but you can't just go straight to the end and explode it, no sir, that's not a destructible wall until the neon green paint tells you it is. ARGH. And of course there's enforced slow movement the whole time. It's okay for Batman to move slowly and deliberately when he's snooping around doing actual detective work, but this is just idiotic, tedious, poorly implemented bullshit. So far as I can tell there's only like half a dozen of the riddles that actually use this style, but that's six too many.
By about 50% riddle completion I was officially at a point of So Fucking Done With This Game. At 75% we can't even think of a word that rhymes. Why am I still doing it? Don't ask stupid questions.
I guess some plot stuff happened today too, I fought Angry Kid in his scary super tank. Which was admittedly pretty tense, but still, tank battle, not the kind of showdown I'm looking for. Also it was broken up by the game's second round of Rotate Left Stick Until Your Thumb Falls Off While We Watch Batman Do Something Very Verrrrry (But Dramatically!) Slowly. I actually failed this segment the first time because I foolishly took a moment to rest my thumb and then as a consequence had to do it all over again. Why.
Arkham Knight isn't wholly without merit, but I think it's pretty squarely the worst entry in the series.
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To me, the overall problem with FFT's balance is that you basically have to use self-imposed limitations or mods to make the game interesting after a playthrough or two (or even reading guides for that matter) since once you know about them there's no reason not to use Math Skill or Martial Arts Ninjas to murder everything, grinding requirement aside. I mean, even just knowing that you can hire a 70 faith female character and make her a Wizard to do tons of damage early makes the game supremely easier. So it's a 'hard' game for people new to it, but very easy once you have done research on the game. I got a lot of replay value out of doing silly challenges, but after over a decade of hindsight, it's hard for me to say the game is well-balanced. It feels really obtuse for new players but doesn't give veterans much of a challenge on its own.
I dunno, this kinda statement is exactly what Fenrir was arguing against. Yeah, there's some comparatively obscure ways to trivialize the game, but I don't even consider it much of a self-imposed limitation any more than, say, not getting Knights of the Round is a self-imposed limitation in FF7. (Calculator I suspect was partially balanced around annoyingness to use + obscurity, too.) There are lots of games that you can freaking LLG and still not be too difficult; while you can absolutely lose a person (and thus reset) even with a party of Ninjas & Summoners at normal level not skipping random encounters. Not gonna hit the game too hard for Math Skill existing, especially when they took notable steps to balance it, e.g. making Calculator stats suuuuuck. (And the fact that you can get around said limitations is cool in its own way too, balance isn't everything.)
It's not just Calculator which trivialises the game, though. FFT is a game with a vast array of knowledge that can help the player, but once you have that knowledge not much is going to give you problems, provided you also have a good feel for SRPG-related specifics like positioning and setting up AoEs correctly (having watched many different people play FFT, not everyone does, though I suspect most people reading this thread do).
Consider, for instance, that the Chemist SCC, which is a severely restricted challenge run, is something that almost everyone finds easier than their first playthrough. By a lot. (Both the Execution Site and Wiegraf/Velius are jokes on the Chemist SCC.) Why? Because both Auto-Potion (with the knowledge of its ability to use higher-level potions) and Phoenix Down are overpowered. So is Teleport. So is Summon Magic (provided you have good faith). So is Draw Out on a Wizard. So is a Ninja twinked for power/speed with a good support ability. So is Short Charge Meteor/Bahamut. So is gravity against bosses. So are Angel Rings (and if you can get them, perfumes). So is (obviously) Math Skill.
If you're like jsh or hinode or myself, then yeah, once you have this knowledge, the game unrestricted becomes very easy. It's not just one overpowered thing you can avoid, like Math Skill or the Chantage. Now, this knowledge is not easy to come by, because FFT has a lot of abilities to sift through (some of which are hideously bad like Charge+20), and a lot of nuances to learn even to make good use of the broken stuff (e.g. how Teleport works, how Auto-Potion works, the importance of Brave/Faith to certain abilities), and a lot of specifics for various fights (e.g. good places to set your PCs up on the pre-battle formation for individual fights) but once you do? Yeah there's a reason you'll see comments like jsh's and hinode's. If I played a normal unrestricted file of FFT now I would not have a single reset anywhere, I guarantee it.
I say this as someone who respects the game as challenging myself (because games shouldn't be judged for challenge by those who have all the knowledge ahead of time, unless we want to argue every puzzle/text adventure game is trivial), but yeah knowledge makes a huge difference in every RPG and this is more true of FFT than most. As Fenrir noted there's a pretty stark difference between FFT and say Fire Emblem in this regard. I would expect FFT to be harder than most Fire Emblems for the average first-time player, but as someone who is an expert at both I could much, much more easily get through FFT with zero resets today than any Fire Emblem.
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Arkham Knight isn't wholly without merit, but I think it's pretty squarely the worst entry in the series.
That's really fucking saying something because Arkham Origins was basically reheated leftovers.
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Arkham Knight assumptions
Angry Kid = so they brought back Jason Todd in an Azrael looking suit. Also I know they redid fucking Killing Joke?
For a series that I was keen on the first game because it was bringing back Paul Dini and the voice cast from TAS? Way to completely fuck up any potential that had. Woooooo lets harken back to the shittiest parts of Batman from the Dark Age. I LIKE killing joke as a one note beat in Barbra's story done by one damned author. Everyone else rehashing it and completely ignoring decades of character dev specifically taking back both the Batgirl persona and Barbara Gordon just to be shittier than Alan Moore can fuck right off.
FFT stuff. Knowledge in FFT != execution. I fucking suck at FFT.
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Arkham Knight isn't wholly without merit, but I think it's pretty squarely the worst entry in the series.
That's really fucking saying something because Arkham Origins was basically reheated leftovers.
The funny thing is that it's making Origins look better in retrospect. There was a definite been there done that feel to Origins, it certainly didn't have anything new to bring to the table, and prequels are as ever narratively unimpressive, but I'll at least credit it with having consistently decent boss fights (at least as much as Arkham City, though none of them were individually as good as Mr. Freeze) and a flair for presentation that's largely lacking here (Joker was the #1 element making Origins feel like a rehash, but damned if punching him out to the Carol of the Bells wasn't a memorable way to close the game).
Grefter: nah man Azrael wears Azrael's suit. Please. Otherwise spoilertext: Killing Joke is related through drug-induced flashback, and yes the purpose has nothing really to do with Barbara's own character and everything to do with making Batman feel guilty for failing his friends, which is a beat the game hits a lot and even its villains outright express as being their means of defeating him. Of course, the distinction is probably moot since someone else kills Barbara later anyway. I thought Asylum and City were both outstanding, but lack of Paul Dini involvement in the later two installments really leaves a painful deficit in quality storytelling.
My response to reading Killing Joke twenty years after the fact is pretty much in its entirety "That's it?" I generally like Alan Moore a lot when he's writing his own material, but it's a bit of a headscratcher why this little one-off should be considered a landmark Batman story aside from it just being dark and gritty in the eighties.
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Final Fantasy What Kind Of Autobattle - After getting Comet, Dark Buster, Thundaga and Intimidate to R3, I beat Materia Keeper, who is actually kind of a doozy. Blind controls the first part of the battle pretty well, but his low HP phase is nasty as hell: Trine is a high MT 2HKO and he likes spamming it once it's at that point. His Mind stat's also so obscenely high that Paralyze isn't very useful, so Slow and Magic Break/Breakdown to the rescue. I'm never getting a mastery on him without Sephiroth, but quite frankly screw that. Also looks like I'll be able to craft Protectga for Jenova BIRTH, so let's see how this goes against its 193k HP.
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I say this as someone who respects the game as challenging myself (because games shouldn't be judged for challenge by those who have all the knowledge ahead of time, unless we want to argue every puzzle/text adventure game is trivial), but yeah knowledge makes a huge difference in every RPG and this is more true of FFT than most.
That right there is why since I played FF12 I have taken this "do not give me advice unless I ask for it!" approach for first playthroughs. After seeing some people who I will respectfully keep anonymous go "this game is so easy!" when it's clearly not, when this person's method of playing through these games is basically "keep asking chat for advice ahead of time, set ups, etc." to the point where the chat is playing the game and he's just pressing the buttons. It made me realize that I'd probably get more out of a game if I went in blind like the developers expect, which also gives a better sense of how well explained things are in the game. I also won't FAQ something unless I'm legitimately stuck, or if it's a simple case of "how much of this game do I have left?" to help gauge how long it'll take me (the latter is basically done by looking at the table of contents and seeing what section I'm up to and how many I have left. Yeah, not perfect, but it gives a good idea)
FF14 is the one exception here, which being an MMO, you're kind of expected to be social about the game and relay info and such, but when it comes to single player stuff? I generally prefer to remain in the dark.
It also helps get a better sense of just how well polished (or not for that matter) a game is. Atelier Iris, for example, I thought was well polished and documented when playing, then as the game went on it's clear it wasn't. A prime example is a number of healing items can also revive, or so I was told, but the game doesn't distinguish them at all. I don't think I've ever seen a game that offered item descriptions that didn't at least try to convey it revives from death.
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FFRK: Fuck yeah, I finally beat NORG and the Boss Rush! Woohoo~ Leviathan GET! He's my favorite summon. And conveniently has the highest damage mults outside of Odin from what I can tell, so hey, he might just see some use! Just gotta Growth Egg up the Summoner and Garnet can random sweep~
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FFRK: Fuck yeah, I finally beat NORG and the Boss Rush! Woohoo~ Leviathan GET! He's my favorite summon. And conveniently has the highest damage mults outside of Odin from what I can tell, so hey, he might just see some use! Just gotta Growth Egg up the Summoner and Garnet can random sweep~
I'm planning on raising Summoner and White Mage for those materia, but only WM even -had- hers last I checked (maybe Summoner's MC will come up on the next batch of main game dungeons). Also, as I mentioned, the ability refill materias work on both ability slots -at once-, which means you could do mass sweeping twice per fight just with L1 Summons. Only problem is that's a -terrible- setup for bosses even if you have someone else slotted as your primary healer. The game's focus shift from physicals to magic has already begun, regardless.
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IIRC the Summoner RM is two dungeon updates away, so it'll take a while.
Re: FFT knowledge in general, one of the big pieces of general knowledge is that the the ratios of move range and attack range are strongly skewed in favor of strong ranged attacks compared other SRPGs like Fire Emblem. Most characters have 3-4 base move and IIRC random enemies don't normally equip a lot of move boosting equips/abilities. Meanwhile, Holy is range 5, the basic elemental spells are range 4 with AoE, and summon magic are range 4 with larger AoE. With good faith and MA it's easy OHKO average enemies while staying out of most melee range and bypassing melee counters and p-evade. That's an insanely powerful package in general, one that really only optimized Ninjas and special characters w/ Knight Swords (of whom only Ramza and maybe Mel will even consider meleeing) can hope to compete with.
Tactics Ogre is the only other srpg I can think of off the top of my head where the basic movement/attack range numbers are so heavily skewed, and it is pretty well known as a game dominated by Archers. But this isn't something that's obvious at first glance, especially to people coming off regular RPGs or even from other SRPGs where meleers can close in on squishy ranged units much more easily and probably have a significant durability advantage compared to poor FFT Knights and co.
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Final Fantasy Fear of Autobattle - Just beat Jenova BIRTH and HOLY CRAP those slugfesting stats. Jenova's got nearly 200k HP and can pretty much OHKO anyone's ass over doubleacting (hell, -one shot- of W-Laser overkilled Vivi because it ignores back row. That was a fast S/L) if you don't put your buffs up stat. Oh, and it has Tail Laser, which is MT. Good thing Sentinel Grimoire stacks with Protect and defensive debuffs stack with defensive buffs, so Lunatic High, Power Break and that to the rescue, reducing most of Jenova's offense to about a tenth of its original bite. Gas is still a big danger if you lack Shell/Magic Break (which I DID), though, mid-to-high magical 2HKO a pop. Jenova killed Garnet just a couple hits away from death, but I wouldn't have mastered the dungeon anyway so I took the victory as I could. In the end, it's not a terribly -complex- fight nor it has a lot of moving parts, but it can grind you out and its offense is scary as hell unmitigated. Good thing buffing and debuffing in this game is so horrifically good.
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Archers being broken in TO seems relatively obvious to me, I mean they just shoot from range and do more damage than your other characters and even have defense. Seems like a no brainer, especially in a game that severely punishes moving a little too far into enemy range.
The only obscure (but brilliant) part is knowing that you can shoot out of their range if it makes sense in game. (I really don't know why FFT didn't copy at least that part about TO archers, it would have been incredible)
FFT: I just think that breaking FFT often kind of gets in the way of getting more JP for fun abilities, so I cannot really do it.
There's a new, forced, battle against 6 behemoths/big behemoths/behemoth kings were you have to protect Luso, the FFTA2 main. He has Rafalike AI so if you don't heal/protect him right away he's dead.
I was totally anti hyped about all of this. Until Luso killed a behemoth with a physical and instantly poached it (!!!!) Yeah he has some poach strike. That's the passive ability of his main class (which is just ubersquire otherwise). I am never getting him out of this class. My bard's new goal is to give him enough spillover JP through Sing (thanks for the tip Gref BTW, I didn't know about that) to give him Equip Guns, so he can still be useful if I keep him on the bench.
So anyway after seeing that Luso could do this, I revived all the other behemoths I had killed so he could poach them all? With the loot I could buy some auto Float + auto Reflect perfumes. Nice.
RK: Forgive me for I have sinned and used S/L, but that's because I used all my intimidates on T-rex and it didn't even work once.
Sephiroth? I already have lvl 50 WM/BM/Summoner, so sure, eat all my eggs silver bishie I don't mind.
He's uh not really awesome or anything. He has the highest atk but he can't equip swords. He does way less damage than Cloud (obvs) unless you find a good katana (which are rare). His skills are overall subpar. (especially compared to loud) He works well as a 5th character with my 5* dagger and Squall's materia but could be replaced by anyone.
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Man, I use S/L like all the time. Way more efficient than wasting upwards of 70 stamina on a run that goes awry for no other reason than RNG.
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Well yeah it's obviously more efficient
But it's like save state abuse
FFT: Wait poaching is actually really easy to use, I just never used it because it was in the same slot as Gain JP UP.
GTFO of my team, Ludo
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What's S/L actually stand for? And RS while I'm asking about acronyms I constantly see on FFRK sites. At least I know what S\L -means-, just not sure where the acronym came from...
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S/L is Stop/Load: stop the game, load the game
I think RS is record synergy? The bonus you get from using stuff from the same game as your current realm
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And you've just mentioned one of the reasons why I love me some LFT. Don't get me wrong, I still like vanilla, and frankly, if I just want an FFT experience without having to worry about difficulty then I'll go vanilla. But, Gained JP up innate? Yes please. While I like some of the other changes a lot, that change takes the obvious and only best choice for the support slot and effectively assumes you'll use it, so have an effective second support slot for something non Gained-JP Up.
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If I played a normal unrestricted file of FFT now I would not have a single reset anywhere, I guarantee it.
Nitpick: This is not something you can actually authoritatively guarantee in FFT, given that there's I believe two battles which it's possible to lose before you ever get an action. (Yardow's Save Rafa battle is the more famous one, I think certain Zaland setups can approach this if and only if you choose the Save Mustadio! option)
In the case of the Yardow fight it does require the one Ninja that doesn't have a fixed zodiac sign loading with good or best compatibility to Rafa and throwing stuff at her, I believe.
More empirically as FFT difficulty goes: I find magic CT timing to be irritating at best, and an exercise in frustration at worst, depending on the Speed spreads in play. As an example (from LFT) this morning, I was trying to work out timing spells from a Squire with Summon Magic so as not to get mid-charged. This is in chapter 2, so most enemies are 6-7 speed (tending more toward the latter by the chapter's end) and my Squire is also 7 speed. So this is how the CTs line up:
SP7: 07-14-21-28-35-42-49-56-63-70-77-84-91-98-00
SP6: 06-12-18-24-30-36-42-48-54-60-66-72-78-84-90-96-00
So, on turn 1, anything with a CTR higher than 1 will get mid-charged. This condition will (more or less; rounding error exists) persist if both sides of the battle maintain this CT differential. If I assume that many enemies will not be able to move and act on turn 1, that means they're starting from 20 CT for their next count. So let's assume I wait in place and do nothing with the Squire for turn 1, and the enemy moves towards me but does not act:
SP7: 07-14-21-28-35-42-49-56-63-70-77-84-91-98-00-47-54-61-68-75-82-89-96-00
SP6: 06-12-18-24-30-36-42-48-54-60-66-72-78-84-90-96-00-26-32-38-44-50-56-62-68-74-80-86-92-98-00
I can now successfully cast anything CTR 6 or lower... which still excludes most of Summon Magic, without Short Charge (and this is a little bit too early in the game to reasonably have that without some grinding, I think).
In practice, I don't make these types of considerations in heavy detail because they slow down gameplay too much in an already slow game (and waiting in place with no action means no EXP/JP gain for that period of time), thus contributing to why I tend to find Summon Magic notably less useful in LFT or WotL (where its CTs are higher enough to cause these kinds of considerations) in the absence of Short Charge. The EXP/JP opportunity cost in passing 2 actions to make a CTR 7 line up is quite high.
I do agree Oracle is an underrated job, though. It's quite good once you realize a female oracle can hit almost as hard as a male lancer in melee. The only thing holding it back is that it's not particularly any less fragile than any other mage class so you may not want it getting that close, and it can be hard to find a place for the skillset in your build if you're trying to maintain a team setup that isn't fail-prone. For instance, I usually prefer to have a minimum of 2 PCs capable of revival, and I often actually have three (for instance, right now my LFT run setup features Ramza running Guts for one revive, a Knight with White Magic for a second, and a character running Punch Art for third).
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The chance of Rafa dying to a ninja's first turn is incredibly low but that's still a fair point. On the other hand, obviously if I were trying to guarantee a zero-reset file of FFT I would not save Mustadio (nor Algus; Boco maybe).
This is in chapter 2, so most enemies are 6-7 speed (tending more toward the latter by the chapter's end) and my Squire is also 7 speed. So this is how the CTs line up:
SP7: 07-14-21-28-35-42-49-56-63-70-77-84-91-98-00
SP6: 06-12-18-24-30-36-42-48-54-60-66-72-78-84-90-96-00
Most enemies in Chapter 2 are 6 speed, so being 7 speed would make charge-based abilities much more cumbersome to use. I never really twinked my mages for speed and never outlevelled enemies so being faster than my enemies was not a problem I largely worried about in FFT (only some Summoners, who can't mid-charge your for obvious reasons, and monsters will typically be slower than a mage). This is just another bit of FFT knowledge you need to pick up, though, I'll agree, if one I personally lucked into due to preferring to twink Magic over Speed. I played FF6 right before FFT, can you blame me?
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The chance of Rafa dying to a ninja's first turn is incredibly low but that's still a fair point. On the other hand, obviously if I were trying to guarantee a zero-reset file of FFT I would not save Mustadio (nor Algus; Boco maybe).
This is in chapter 2, so most enemies are 6-7 speed (tending more toward the latter by the chapter's end) and my Squire is also 7 speed. So this is how the CTs line up:
SP7: 07-14-21-28-35-42-49-56-63-70-77-84-91-98-00
SP6: 06-12-18-24-30-36-42-48-54-60-66-72-78-84-90-96-00
Most enemies in Chapter 2 are 6 speed, so being 7 speed would make charge-based abilities much more cumbersome to use. I never really twinked my mages for speed and never outlevelled enemies so being faster than my enemies was not a problem I largely worried about in FFT (only some Summoners, who can't mid-charge your for obvious reasons, and monsters will typically be slower than a mage). This is just another bit of FFT knowledge you need to pick up, though, I'll agree, if one I personally lucked into due to preferring to twink Magic over Speed. I played FF6 right before FFT, can you blame me?
Agreed, it's mostly an odd case of how Squire's (and Priest's) 110% speed modifiers in LFT can actually work against the class' utility sometimes.
This actually gives me an interesting idea for an accessory, though I don't know if it's actually possible in FFT coding: some kind of equippable accessory or hat or something with a Speed penalty on it, so you can twink your speed _down_ if desired.
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Priest's stat spread (slightly above-average speed, low MA for a mage class) always felt like it was a liability more often than a plus in vanilla FFT. I like White Magic a lot ever since I realized how potent Holy can be in FFT, but generally prefer it on a different mage class.
Incidentally, Oracle is one of my preferred candidates for this, the general idea being that you use your MP on Holy in assassination battles but more cost effective status/cure spells in defeat all stages, with stick beats for cleanup. Works best with some equipment shuffling between stages, admittedly.
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Well, per hinode, FFT SCCs are a little weird, because going with mass ranged allows some run & gun stratz that trivialize entire enemy turns. This compensates in power a lot for the lack of variety. (It's also a strategy I suspect a first-time player would be leery of, because they wouldn't know that FFT doesn't have very many "strong spoiling" enemies which just shut down a type of offense like in other games. Fear of running the 5 mage team into the army of hypothetical 10 Faith Mediators with guns or something which never happens.) I'd also propose that resets aren't the best indication of difficulty; FFT battles involve strategy and such, so mistakes can and will be punished, but what counts as a mistake is a lot more subtle than the likes of, say, SMT (you used the wrong element against an enemy you had 0 knowledge of? burn.). Meanwhile, sure, a Fire Emblem master will eat the occasional reset, but it'll be due to a merited RNG gamble where 3 low-probability bad events happened in a row that got a Lord killed or the like. (And if the FE master knew it had to be a no-reset run, maybe they just bench Eliwood anyway and never let him get near an enemy, just to be sure.) Seems more like a implications-of-the-system difference.
Anyway, back to Fire Emblem 8 Eirika Hard comments. Despite the fact that Ciato has beaten me to the punch.
C13 - Fun map... although talk about some screwy difficulty. The vast majority of the game has non-moving bosses that wait for their doom, this game has a mobile boss... that has 3-10 range... that you have a time limit to defeat... and gives you a new recruit who has like 2 Resistance. I SEE. Okay, if you're playing conservatively, you can totally ignore Pablo and Aias by sitting on the east side of the map and just murdering Aias's reinforcements as they spawn, but still, if you want glory, this is friggin' hard. They had to throw a Warrior with a Swordslayer in there, too, so that you can just let all of Pablo's axemen get themself murdered on Colm/Marisa/Eirika/etc. I eat a reset (thanx emulator), and should have eaten a 2nd reset, but Sage AI is apparently heal > go for a possible OHKO, so I sneak out the double boss kill anyway. If I tried to do this on a real cart, I'd definitely have tried to edge an extra promotion first, perhaps.
Also, Saleh acquits himself fairly well as a new staff bot who can also kill things, though he's got a bit of a glass jaw.
C14 - Everyone piles on the Rennac route, I recruit him, then murder the first wave of reinforcements. This is a pretty easy map if you play it slow; going back for the treasure to the west of your start location is annoyingly slow, though. (Not even much point in killing the boss early since Eirika needs to Seize.)
Also I'd just like to say that's some lameness coming from Carlyle. Intentional I suppose, but sheesh, I thought crazed stalkers would attempt to kill their unrequited loves after being frustrated. Like, if he wanted revenge against her for spurning his advances, fine. But he wants to make her fall in love with him by murdering all her friends or something then kidnap her? ...right, that's gonna go real well.
C15 - Fun times, pretty much the same as on Eph route. Eph gets to somehow get ahead of Eirika on levels by going to the southern forts and murdering entire armies by himself, going from 15-> high 19. I collect Caellech first, then Valter last. They really should have made Valter move, at least, or given him AI to move to fight Eirika if she comes within range, since that's his stated motive or the like.
Oh and desert nonsense, but we know that. Amelia is the lowest level of my main set although not by much, so she gets Metis's Tome. (I considered MYRRH as well but no).
C16 - zzzzzzzzz. I guess you have to move fast enough to stop the thief from stealing the NE treasure chests, and the waves of cavalry reinforcements can potentially be exciting for whoever you have holding them off, but pretty easy. Also, where is Orson even getting the money to pay these guys?! His rule is about to collapse on his own... maybe Grado left him with a giant warchest.
C17 - So why do these Grado remnants fighting for Lyon want to kill random river folk anyway?! Oh well. Fun map anyway, get some rescue hax going.
C18 - Farming, the map. 50 XP flat for killing a gorgon egg, even to promoted units? Ugh. Lyon didn't lead us to a trap, he lead us to a veritable XP font, probably because he has some anime-esque "I want you to reach your full potential before I fight you and crush your hopes!" thing. That's my story and I'm sticking to it, anyway.
C19 - Ah, Last Hope. This map I can definitely see as maybe frustrating on a cart, what with the endless waves of reinforcements coming through the front gate. In retrospect, I think I fought it wrong: what you want is 2 durable units with Iron weapons as far back as you can that still blocks other units from escaping, then murder everything up to the *farthest* point where 2 units can block everything, then back up and repeat. I stayed still or only moved back & forth 1 rank a bit too much, letting the enemy wave build up. Wasn't able to kill Riev as a result.
Oh, there was also technically a reset in that I forgot Myrrh was arrow-weak, and of course weakness hitting does wonders for smashing through her all-Def no-HP build. (I had her in the smaller top section w/ Gerik, Marisa, & Saleh holding that off.)
Darkling Woods next! We'll see how the new & improved hard mode monsters fare. Stats certainly look better than some of the data from the NM monsters in the stat topic, e.g. 18 Defense Cyclops.
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Fiesta is what I have been doing mostly, gamewise. Beat a White/Knight/Red/Ranger chaos run, including the mighty box dragon. Tried to mimic tallychu and pseudo-llg for awhile but I just got ripped apart by some bosses and had to gain about 5 levels. Still finished the game under what I normally do by a bit, so hey.
Started up a second one. MK/Bard/Ranger/Dragoon. Okay. Lategame this team will be unstoppable. As is, 11 resets on Soul Cannon because !Animals was my only non-POTION healing, so any time my Ranger got hit with old it was basically auto-reset. Also quite a bit lower level than normal for me, finished W1 at level 16(couldn't remember if anything in Ronka had L5 death, so I gained one more to be safe). Now in W2 I can buy hi-potions, so I don't anticipate healing woes anymore. Once I make :void: this team should have a free omega win, and we'll see what I can do about boxdragon. Someone has suggested zombie my team except for bard and hide the bard. That's kinda cheese, but I may do it for the lulz anyway. Expect Equip Harp to be used somewhere in there. Harp Jumps? Maybe~
Also playing some Binding of Isaac: Rebirth. Vita version. I'm slowly but surely sucking less, just managed to get the d6 unlocked and now to not touch ??? again for a very long time. Also almost cleared a Suicide King run, got to Cathedral and made it a few rooms in before stuff just killed me.
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This actually gives me an interesting idea for an accessory, though I don't know if it's actually possible in FFT coding: some kind of equippable accessory or hat or something with a Speed penalty on it, so you can twink your speed _down_ if desired.
FFT is hard coded to prevent equipment from giving stat penalties.
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Well yeah it's obviously more efficient
But it's like save state abuse
At worst, they're savestates built into the game and which were never patched out in nearly one year. At least DeNa made later bosses immune to Protect and Shell in order to mitigate the Vit-0 exploit (which I never used, but hey, some people -do- want to see Irvine dealing 90k damage with a limit), I honestly consider S/L inbuilt design (and FTP bullshit doesn't really deserve any better anyway. Fuck, they prevent it with the gatchas, don't really see why they couldn't do it with the battles themselves). Not to mention it actually always takes you to the start of the round anyway, it's more like a soft reset to me. But no real use talking about it, really.
Final Fantasy Autobattle Over Heels - Doing the JENOVA Project boss rush right now. Sample H0512 is hilariously worthless, you could actually safely autobattle it. Lost Number, with its vulnerability to paralysis and lower HP compared to its Elite iteration, isn't much better. Right now, my resources are mostly in top shape, but Materia Keeper is bound to change that. I'll see if I'll need a Mythril to fight Jenova BIRTH safely or not - I've gotten full mastery on the stages so far, but both Materia Keeper and Jenova BIRTH require Sephiroth around as a target score, so I have no real chance of mastering the rush anyway.
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Because Gatcha is the real money maker, Gems for resets is less likely to be the real high turn over. It probably just isn't worth the investiture in increased number of calls back to the server. Once per fight instead of each turn/round/whatever, much easier to maintain.
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Yeah, likely. Also, quite frankly, S/L sorta -improves- the experience, since it cuts down both on bullshit RNG frustration to a degree and also works as a life quality touch on the basis of cellphone gaming's intermittent nature. If turning off the cellphone wasted all the rounds in a fight, it'd be annoying as hell.
Final Fantasy Autobattle, And Wandering Around Lost - Still on the boss rush, up to Jenova BIRTH. I spent most of Vivi's magic charges and a Sentinel's Grimoire, but I still have overkill charges of healing, a Lunatic High limit and a couple breaks (not to mention the Mana Spring II recharges. That skill, so damn good), so I'll give it a no-Mythril go. If it doesn't work out, I'll do a one-Mythril run tomorrow or something. The bosses being overall weaker on the boss rush may make this pretty simple, even Trine was notably less dangerous this time around.
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Arkham Knight: Oh man, he just came back with a bigger tank, only now it's an instakill if you screw anything up, and if you do die you respawn facing him so the first thing you have to do is turn the car 180 degrees just to not immediately die. Thanks, game. Then the actual face-to-face battle is for all practical purposes just a predator battle vs regular goons. They really couldn't be arsed with boss fights at all, could they. (I'm also going to note now my complete expectation that he'll come back later to team up vs. the actual mastermind.)
I'm obliged to correct one thing re: spoilery text in previous post: Babs not dead. I guess we shouldn't take at face value everything that a drugged protagonist actually thinks he's seeing. Of course, it could just be she's a ghost since the game glitched out and her character model disappeared from subsequent cutscenes, which definitely made for some absurd looking scenarios when Batman was supposed to be carrying her around.
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Ffrk
The leading man arrives tonight!
About time I unloaded this 100+ mithril to attempt to get his weapon.
I haven't been lucky yet. So I'm due!?!
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That's not how probability works.
Final Fantasy The Grapes of Autobattle - Jenova BIRTH KOed Garnet at a point where I was still putting Lunatic High up late in the battle. Oops. Regardless, I have actually more charges than I thought I did. I -think- I can pull this off without Mythril, it'd be a nice first. Of course, if that doesn't pan out, the fight should be a cinch -with- Mythril. The difference having Rank 3 on most of your tools makes.
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No, it's not how it works....but I gotta believe!
I haven't gotten to boss rush in the ff7 event yet. I did beat all the stages except the last two with bosses though.
My ff7 team is kinda meh. Red13 is a weird character. I might just dump him altogether. Tifa doesn't have any noteworthy use really. Flower girl heals, which is nice....I guess. Cloud owns in this game and seph has his 4 star synergy sword so he hits hard too.
I might just keep cloud n seph for the bosses.
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You can't sanely master the Elite event endgame without Sephiroth in your party short of serious vit-0 abuse, those target scores are too important and Jenova BIRTH has too much HP for a quick blitz. And Red XIII shouldn't even be touched if you haven't got the Diamond Pin. Not being able to break the level cap yet and having an utterly generic damage SB off a shit weapon type? No thanks.
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Arkham Knight isn't wholly without merit, but I think it's pretty squarely the worst entry in the series.
Cid noooooo
I "finished" Her Story. It doesn't really have an endstate (lol not a game), but there is a point where you can get to the credits that occurs once you unlock enough stuff, and the prompt is pretty much "are you satisfied with your interpretations of the events." It'd be interesting to see how each person goes through their search history to see the thread of their logic. This is one of the few games I've taken notes on and it makes you think in a much different way than most other investigation games. There are lots of threads that are kind of red herrings or just not pertinent to the actual crime in question that are only significant for completionists, but the reward comes in having these little moments of insight, whether they come from a basic knowledge of police procedurals or you just noticing some connection that isn't explicitly spoken. And given the nonlinear path that your logic can take, there are pieces of information that get recontextualized as you have more information, and that process will be different for every player. I really enjoyed the way the story unravels here.
I have concurrently been playing cases in LA Noire and the contrasts are striking. LA Noire has fairly definitive correct and incorrect answers and gives you fairly immediate feedback with the chimes and there is a fairly decisive and unambiguous criminal in a lot of its cases. That's not at all the case in Her Story, where you pursue threads as you see fit, don't get feedback as to whether a given piece of information is useful, and there's a much more ambiguous path than in LA Noire.
I'm doing this game's version of pixel hunting at this point. Getting 100% doesn't really matter and some of the clips that I'm getting at this point are kind of silly (fine I will ask every goddamn thing about coffee). I'm not 100% sure on my interpretation yet and as Fenrir says, a Vaati-like theory would be really interesting.
The game is cheap so it's worth your time if this kind of crime story/investigation is appealing. It's not for everyone though.
spoielrs tsih gaem is abuot polyamry no not really
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Gourry I can't tell if you're lamenting the fact that the game is disappointing or just that I'm playing mediocre games.
I mostly found out I was wrong in L.A. Noire through the chief yelling at me afterward. This might have happened a lot. Of course Cole always got plot promoted anyway because plot.
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The former. People are all over the place about it, with most people who are negative on it saying that it was due to fatigue. I didn't play Origins so maybe that won't affect me but it seems like the trajectory of the series has been downward (Asylum being best and everything else being a step down). I'll still pick it up at some point.
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Final Fantasy Filigree And Autobattle - After a few early botched attempts, I decided to just run from the Jenova BIRTH fight, spend a Mythril and utterly mangle it for lulsies. And utterly mangle it I did. Got Power Breakdown, luckily had the orbs to hone it to R2 and now I'll just grind for more orbs and ability honing until the Balthier event lands. Probably won't try my luck at draws until the Sephiroth event is replaced, though.
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Super glad you enjoyed Her Story, Gourry.
Did you notice the things at the end of the credits because they help. I wouldn't have gotten 100% otherwise.
I am going to post increasingly spoilerish things
Did you decipher the knock code? That was my favourite moment.
I asked myself why there were so many coffee videos too, and there's definitely a real reason.
Mostly that it doesn't really make much more sense for her to say the canned phrase "No sugar, I'm sweet enough as it is" then take sugar in her coffee the next day. So...
There seem to be two camps about what was really happening: Theory one is there are two girls, theory two is there is only one total schizo. I fall in the former camp but I'm glad the ambiguity is here.
Ultimately it didn't matter much though.
Also, quite frankly, S/L sorta -improves- the experience, since it cuts down both on bullshit RNG frustration to a degree and also works as a life quality touch on the basis of cellphone gaming's intermittent nature. If turning off the cellphone wasted all the rounds in a fight, it'd be annoying as hell.
That second thing you mentioned is the reason why they can't possibly fix this, without ruining the quality of life of this game for everybody.
The only ways they could remove S/L would be:
- Having the player lose dungeon progress everytime he quits the game. Obviously terrible.
- Having the game send info to the servers even more constantly than before, making it a slog if you don't have a good internet connexion, which is a terrible idea for a mobile game.
So they're not fixing S/L, it's still very much of an unintended exploit though.
I mean you can still use it and all, I am not going to judge you negatively for this or anything, we are only talking about playing a dumb vidcon here. A dumb vidcon with FTP bullshit stamina. So I definitely understand the sentiment, I just personally don't like using glitches/exploits to get an advantage.
S/L is overall pretty similar to copying suspended saves in other games to effectively make them hard saves.
(Side note, I am definitely going to harshly judge people who copy their save file before Nier's D ending)
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FFT:
Chapter 4.
You know that math teaching quest?
I turned my bard into an arithmetician/calculator because, duh, and I accepted the quest.
12 days later:
"The skills of the ninja were a great boon to us. One person can make the difference!"
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FFT:
Chapter 4.
You know that math teaching quest?
I turned my bard into an arithmetician/calculator because, duh, and I accepted the quest.
12 days later:
"The skills of the ninja were a great boon to us. One person can make the difference!"
This is the way!
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I actually have the original guidebook for that game, and I have scratchouts everywhere on the "favored" jobs to complete quests.
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Does it even -make- a difference? I just sent whoever I wanted and the results were fine.
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RAR SPOIELRS
While I didn't pay much mind to the coffee another friend of mine said that was what opened up a ton of things for him, so that's just a really cool demonstration of how different some people will approach things and gain insight through very different things. Mine might have been picking up on an obsession with magic and fairy tales, following up on glazier which led to stuff about mirrors, and words pertaining to duality.
I looked it up and apparently it is spelt wrong, maybe an actress mistake? It's also possible that it's purposeful and there's a little more to it but I'm not sure what. Awesome touch either way.
I have a hard time seeing a plausible interpretation for the second theory, a lot of things point to there being two people. Like she talks about a bruise at one point and then another time when it is brought up she reaches for the wrong cheek (also she says she has a fast metabolism and heals quickly but that sounds like a lot of bullshit). Then all the stuff in terms of pregnancies, how one has an std and the other doesn't mention it, and how they just do twin tricks on their parents (being undressed and then the other twin comes out dressed) that point to two physical people. Then there's setting up the alibi which required two of them. There's also the tattoo thing but I suppose that could be temporary (although there's no reason to think so). There's a lot of weird shit you have to wave away if it's going to be split personality issue, particularly the bruise and the tattoo. Tonally I also feel it's more meaningful if it's about two separate people but I reveal my bias here I guess. You're probably right in that it doesn't matter in the end.
I'm still murky as to what happened to the parents with the mushrooms/food poisoning vs heat, that was a little odd.
Some of the last few entries on the thing for me were the lie detector things "yes" and "no" responses (I found the lie detector but not the specific responses), which were slightly anticlimactic. Finding everything isn't necessarily the point here and doing the brute force search method isn't all that fun and you likely won't be missing anything revolutionary although I did miss some longer things here and there.
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Does it even -make- a difference? I just sent whoever I wanted and the results were fine.
Sorta kinda if your generics suck.
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RAR SPOIELRS
While I didn't pay much mind to the coffee another friend of mine said that was what opened up a ton of things for him, so that's just a really cool demonstration of how different some people will approach things and gain insight through very different things. Mine might have been picking up on an obsession with magic and fairy tales, following up on glazier which led to stuff about mirrors, and words pertaining to duality.
I looked it up and apparently it is spelt wrong, maybe an actress mistake? It's also possible that it's purposeful and there's a little more to it but I'm not sure what. Awesome touch either way.
I have a hard time seeing a plausible interpretation for the second theory, a lot of things point to there being two people. Like she talks about a bruise at one point and then another time when it is brought up she reaches for the wrong cheek (also she says she has a fast metabolism and heals quickly but that sounds like a lot of bullshit). Then all the stuff in terms of pregnancies, how one has an std and the other doesn't mention it, and how they just do twin tricks on their parents (being undressed and then the other twin comes out dressed) that point to two physical people. Then there's setting up the alibi which required two of them. There's also the tattoo thing but I suppose that could be temporary (although there's no reason to think so). There's a lot of weird shit you have to wave away if it's going to be split personality issue, particularly the bruise and the tattoo. Tonally I also feel it's more meaningful if it's about two separate people but I reveal my bias here I guess. You're probably right in that it doesn't matter in the end.
I'm still murky as to what happened to the parents with the mushrooms/food poisoning vs heat, that was a little odd.
Some of the last few entries on the thing for me were the lie detector things "yes" and "no" responses (I found the lie detector but not the specific responses), which were slightly anticlimactic. Finding everything isn't necessarily the point here and doing the brute force search method isn't all that fun and you likely won't be missing anything revolutionary although I did miss some longer things here and there.
I think the wrong knock code is an actress mistake yeah. BYDHANNAN IIRC instead of BYEHANNAH
There is a second time she uses the knock code, right after she goes "Hannah Hannah Hannah, why are you talking about Eve?".
I found it very early on and it's one of the only videos I saved.
When she mentioned the knock code later, I looked it up on the net and went back to the video to try to decipher it. The message was LOVEU.
<3
I do agree about the story feeling more meaningful with the separate persons theory, and that's the main reason I prefer to go with it.
To play devil's advocate, most of your post can be explained by the two personalities being completely separate, and the whole childhood in a cellar / parents never noticing the twin girls afterwards felt too dreamlike to be true. With this theory Simon also becomes some kind of tragic empathic character instead of this horny guy looking for twin lesbian action.
I dunno, I feel both theories kinda feel shaky. I wonder if it's meant to be this way, or if we're all still missing something. I really wonder if there's one to find out which questions were asked during the lie detector test. Else why do the lie detection videos exist?
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The girls bonded over fairy tales, princess stories, and ouija, and that does bleed over into this surreal, dreamlike feeling some of the game has. I think what really torpedoes the one person thing is the tattoo and the bruise, neither of which have particularly convincing explanations under this theory (it's a temporary tattoo, she just got the tattoo between interviews, she's holding the bruise part that is reflected! All seem too far fetched). Her alibi also involves her being in Glasgow with records in the hospital to place her there and how it's impossible for her to have been in two places at once (unless, of course...). I think you have to make too many unlikely assumptions for the multiple personality theory to work (even though two people slipping past everything is also a little out there), so I find the two people explanation more probable and more satisfying narratively. Once more people play the game maybe someone will come up with something stronger.
The lie detector thing has that name thing (which caught her in a lie). Not exactly sure what that means yet.
At any rate, I find it hilarious that people who clearly didn't know anything about the game bashed it for being an SJW game, possibly on the sole basis of it being named "Her Story," (WHAT ABOUT HIS STORY/HISTORY) oh and I guess it has women.
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I've played thousands of hours of FFT and I don't think I've done more than one or two propositions. Related to that, I was completely oblivious to FFT's engrish till getting online. <_<
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FFT:
Chapter 4.
You know that math teaching quest?
I turned my bard into an arithmetician/calculator because, duh, and I accepted the quest.
12 days later:
"The skills of the ninja were a great boon to us. One person can make the difference!"
The irony is that Calculator is actually not one of the best jobs for that proposition, the way the system is designed. See, "Master Math!" is classified internally as an "Odd Job" with Faith preference. Proposition success is determined by attaching a score to each of the three participants which is based on their current job, their level, and possibly their Brave or Faith. If the combined scores of all three participants exceed 99, then you succeed on the proposition.
Since Master Math! is a Faith preference proposition, it rewards characters both for having LOW brave and HIGH faith. As an Odd Job, it favors Chemists, Thieves and Mediators the most (15 points base), followed by Bards, Dancers and Mimes (10 points base). A Calculator is only worth 5 on that job, paradoxically. There's a further job-based bonus awarded because it's a Faith proposition: this awards an additional 10 points to Squires and every job in the Chemist tree except Mediator and Bard, and an additional 5 points to Mediators, Ninjas, Bards and Dancers. Finally, 5-20 points are awarded (each) for each unit's Brave and Faith scores; more points for low brave and high faith, and an additional 10 points is awarded if the unit is under level 51 (this is different for Brave or neutral props, too).
If the total is under 99, there is still a chance of success if you have one or more of a certain, specific, single job on the proposition. From the sounds of the dialogue you got, this is exactly what happened with you, because Master Math!'s random success job is, in fact, Ninja, and having one gives you a 61% chance to succeed even if you don't have enough points.
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Final Fantasy In Autobattle We Entrust The Love Advocated - Balthier event is out, I'm roughly halfway through the wussy version. Looking up Balthier, he looks like a frailer Tidus mix who uses spears and light armors instead of heavy armors and swords. Better Combat, worse Celerity, maxed useless Thief rank. I may end up trying him out since I have a five-star spear handy and I could use Tidus' Zantetsuken to raise Cloud's weapon's rarity instead. Celerity 4 also lets me use both Shadowbind and Leg Shot, which certainly aren't bad. At least, Balthier isn't entirely reliant on getting his unique weapon, though it -does- let him stay at the back, which would help his durability a decent deal. I'll cross that bridge when I get there.
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FFRK: Finished all classic core dungeons. And hey look, another event is out. They seriously need to slow down the pace on the events. Yeah there's a lot of characters to go through, but the quickest way to burn someone out on stamina-based games is to have something special happening every.single.day. You need to work in some breathing time so people can do daily dungeons and take it easy for a while.
FF 13-2: FFRK put me in the mood to play something final-y fantasy-y, and this was the closest thing at hand. I'd stopped playing it before because I was hopelessly lost on how to progress the story. So I started over from scratch this time. Don't know what I did different but I got past the stopping point from my last playthrough. So now I'm at what the game proclaims to be the final dungeon, but I'm going back and getting more fragments before proceeding with it.
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1st 50 relic draw was a failure. 2nd attempt coming soon.
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If you have a good spear lying around, I wouldn't bother vying for the Ras Algethi. The SB is pretty generic and it doesn't even have much attack, just the perk of a back row physical. I just gave Balthier a spare Golden Spear and he's doing fine enough - he's more about the great skillset compatibility and solid overall stats.
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Today I got married to a man...
In Fire Emblem if. The male Avatar character can apparently marry the playboy thief Zero, so of course I beelined for that S-Rank. The conversation was pretty funny, and then after that happens, Zero literally moves into your room in your castle. That's cute.
Thieves use bows in this game for whatever reason, so he actually makes a good support unit for the Avatar if you made a frontliner one.
Also, randomly Owain, Inigo, and Severa are in this game. I hear they can use Triangle Attack. Neat. They are certainly my favorite of the second-generation of FEA characters, so those were good choices. Though I am a bit sad that Sumia's daughter didn't make the cut, she and Owain especially are hilarious. For some reason, (my bet's on Owain) the three have given themselves the pseudonyms "Odin", "Luna", and "Raswald". Maybe it's an "Ally of Justice" thing?
The game's plot is creeping into "multi-parallel-universe" territory, so it's entirely possible we'll see parallel dimension children popping up from marriage choices. Weird. But good weird.
Bad weird: The face-petting minigame is still super-creepy. Seriously, it was cute with Pokemon, but you are asking me to massage human faces with a pen, game... >.>;;
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The former. People are all over the place about it, with most people who are negative on it saying that it was due to fatigue. I didn't play Origins so maybe that won't affect me but it seems like the trajectory of the series has been downward (Asylum being best and everything else being a step down). I'll still pick it up at some point
Finished now, 100% completion because I hate myself.
Fatigue is definitely a factor, but it's not the whole picture by itself. It's difficult for the proceedings not to feel at least a little stale in the fourth installment of a series that doesn't see much growth in core gameplay. That was already the case in Origins, so I'd imagine it a likely response even skipping that game (and AK's credits, which are otherwise a slideshow of the whole series, do ignore Origins, although there are definitely references to it in-game). But I probably wouldn't care so much if it was at least presented with some more panache. I just don't get the impression that the creative team felt very inspired making this game. It's a fairly long game if you do everything, probably moreso than the rest of the series, but it doesn't feel like you've really done all that much by the end. I definitely think it's a case of more content not necessarily equating to more entertainment, as though a set amount of creative energy were just averaged out across the game. Riddler stuff in particular really just feels like a grind, but at least it's something different. Almost all the other sidequests just boil down to beating up mobs of random dudes, and nothing novel is done with any of the returning supervillains. The only real bosses this game has are tank battles. If you're ever facing someone important on foot then in practice all it is is beat up waves of mooks and the boss gets cutscene shanked in between rounds. You know, pretty much in practice just like the Joker fight in Arkham Asylum, because everyone loved that bit, right?
Arkham Knight's not entirely without new developments, but the most notable one is ultimately to the game's detriment. I really don't know why someone should have thought that what the series' calcifying formula really needed to shake things up was Mako. It makes sense for the Batmobile to exist in the game, because sometimes Batman's gotta get somewhere in a hurry. I don't really dig driving in games, but if you really want to put it there, at least there's an excuse. But wow it just accounts for too much of the game. Especially early on, it's required for basically every plot mission, like they really wanted to make sure you got used to its presence by not letting you do anything else. It's just too much. I wouldn't have minded it in moderation. You guys want to play a version of FFX where Tidus stops the party for a blitzball game every time you enter a new zone? Also holy shit Batman is responsible for so much property damage. Nothing short of buildings will stand in its way. Signs, fences, pedestrians, chimneys, trees, rebar overpass supports, all crumble before the irresistible force of a vehicle cruising at slightly over walking speed. Are Batman-related repair costs tax deductible? Oh wait it doesn't matter because everything magically repairs itself if you leave the screen for a few seconds.
Otherwise, there's a few battles where you've got another hero around for backup and you can swap between them and do combo attacks and whatnot? And that's pretty neat, but these instances are also very infrequent. If you skip sidequests you'll almost totally miss this altogether. I kinda got the impression with all the alt character DLC in Arkham City that it was meant to be the groundwork for something more substantial than we actually saw here (although I guess the answer to this might be "That's right: Arkham Knight DLC.")
I think the best new thing in the entire game is just the ability to selectively mute dialogue, and I'm sure anyone who played Arkham City can attest to how immensely fucking welcome that is. Now I don't have to listen to the same half-dozen thug voiceclips repeat on the radio when I'm out hunting Riddler trophies! Of course, it also means I miss out on Riddler's bitching while I'm doing so, which is a shame because I quite like his voice acting. I'd prefer the option to just specifically turn off KTHG, but ultimately any means of turning it off is something I'll eagerly use.
Anyway, endgame stuff. Mr. Vengeance is out of the picture for the last 10-15% of the game, so hey, here's Deathstroke for some reason to fill time. Oh by the way you fight him in a tank and the fight's almost exactly copy-pasted from the first Arkham Knight battle, except now I can fire a dozen rockets at once and that almost knocks him out immediately. Yawn.
The ending's a mess. I'm not really interested in going into detail, although I will mention, just to prove that the universe hates Grefter as much as the other way around, that we learn that if Joker had a tank then its limit break would be called The Killing Joke. I wish I was making that up, except wait no I don't because then I'd hate myself even more. It's probably fair to expect something psychedelic since Scarecrow's the main villain, but I'm not inclined to think that that was exactly what we needed. Also apparently Scarecrow's principal fear is just Batman, which I guess makes sense while also feeling trite when you just throw it out there and go what else would it be, right?
Oh shit I said Joker was in this game. Spoilers you guys Joker's in this game. Whatever, you learn this on like the first mission. Anyway, if you didn't expect this then you've probably never read a comic book in your life. I didn't actually mind this in execution, most of the time, although the idea justifying it in plot was so incredibly dumb that it could've come from MGS2. The game's story is a fitful mix of questionable ideas that somehow didn't work out quite so terrible as expected in practice and potentially worthwhile ones that it doesn't seem like anyone actually thought about very much past gestation. I guess I'll go to proper spoiler text now.
Arkham Knight himself is so obviously damaged goods that I wonder how he got an army.
Scarecrow's conceptually better, but wildly uneven as an antagonist. He has negative charisma but this isn't the primary problem. The game just can't seem to settle on what he's really trying to do in practice, which is frustrating because there's the core of a good idea in what he actually wants to accomplish on a personal level. "Hey, gassing might be sufficient to instill terror in ordinary people, but it's not good enough for Batman. I tried that once before and it didn't work. If I want to beat him, I will have to approach this like a psychologist and arrange events to emphasize how futile his crusade has been by demonstrating the severe personal cost everyone close to him has had to pay." This is a reasonable M.O. for a very unreasonable person to adopt, and if he stuck to that more consistently it might've made for a good Batman story, but a lot of what he does seems either unnecessary or even counterproductive to that goal. Like, what is your real plan here, can we just decide on one and stick with it? Do you want to blow up the chemical factory, or do you want to play with the military grade chemical dispersal weapon, or do you want to actually buckle down and do something *personal* already? The grand acts of terror, which make sense as things Scarecrow would just generically like to do in a vacuum, are ultimately superfluous to his immediate goal of ruining even the concept of Batman as a hero. This is one of those stories where the villain's schemes fail time after time and everyone acts like all these earlier failures are really just feints to set up his ultimate victory, complete with billboard/radio taunts--even after we've completely decimated his army and destroyed all his gee-whiz super toys--about how our TOTAL DEFEAT is just around the corner. After a while it just makes him seem comically oblivious. It's a shame because somewhere in there was the seed for a more competent plotter to arrange a satisfying conflict of personalities.
Anyway, Joker's function, for most of the game, is to act as the nagging voice of Batman's conscience and taunt him along the above lines. I'm pretty okay with this. If you're going to have someone manifest as the protagonist's voice of doubt, it's reasonably appropriate for it to be his most persistent and deranged adversary. And the more Bruce alienates or loses his friends in trying to protect them, the more it starts to feel like Joker's your only actual friend, which is just surreal enough to work. So if Joker was always going to come back from the dead--and you know he always was--I can accept this as the least obtrusive way to do it. And frankly the game's primary villains are so categorically humorless that it's actually a relief to at least see someone enjoying himself.
The actual plot explanation for why this is happening, of course, is what echoes Kojima at his worst: Joker snuck some of his blood into other people through transfusions just before he died, and wouldn't you know it Batman was one of those people (that was actually an Arkham City plot point, though for much more credible reasons), and now everyone infected is literally turning into Joker clones. Because transferring one person's memories and personality into someone else is totally what happens with blood transfusions, right? It's just...you know, guys, come on, really. Batman gets hit with high-grade fear toxin in the opening mission, that is all the excuse you need for him to be hearing crazy things, you don't have to go full pants on head stupid to justify Joker's presence.
I'm also still not clear on why Ivy helped Batman at all. She doesn't appear to care about humans any more than she did in the earlier games, I.E. at best they're useful as brainwashed drones and at worst they're fertilizer. Yes, Scarecrow's drugs were killing her plants, but they were only killing her plants because she was overtaxing them using them to mass drain fear gas across the entire city. You'd think she wouldn't object to something that thinned out the human population. She certainly doesn't raise moral objections to mass murder. We could assume she acts out of vengeance since Scarecrow DID try to kill her in the intro, yes, but this was also dumb on his part. So she didn't want to help out with your plan? Big deal, you don't need her anyway. Why pointlessly antagonize someone who just doesn't care?
"Wasted potential" really does sum up the game pretty succinctly. I do still have some preorder DLC to mess with, mind. I guess playing as other characters is at least a novel thing.
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Bad weird: The face-petting minigame is still super-creepy. Seriously, it was cute with Pokemon, but you are asking me to massage human faces with a pen, game... >.>;;
From what I understand, it exists so you can have a stronger sense of interactivity with the characters and thus feel closer to them. Why it's face petting? Well, they wanted to keep the game intended for all ages. If they allowed you to touch any part of the body...do I really need to finish this statement <_<?
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Fire Emblem: G-Rated Waifus
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petting anime girl faces is less creepy than petting other things!
This is true. But...
https://xkcd.com/463/
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Also re El Cid's musings. I haven't played any of the Arkham games but I share the slight bafflement that "The Killing Joke" is considered some seminal great Batman story. I mean. The part of it that's good is the whole idea that the Joker has is that one bad day can make anyone crazy, and the answer is nope, you're just crazy. And the coda mini-story afterward is actually pretty great as far as 4-page stories go! So it has some merit, sure.
But there's definitely a large part of it that seems to be along the lines of "the Joker is so cool and powerful, watch him shoot & murder people becuz the plot says he does." Like. I dunno, in persistent worlds like those of comics victories & setbacks (especially of a permanent nature) need to be dramatically "earned" to a degree. Impress me with something clever the Joker does that outsmarts his rivals or otherwise plays on their weakness, which allows him to shoot/kidnap the Gordons + get tons of money from somewhere + murder some poor carnival owner. Instead it just... happens. Again, this isn't about realism, it's about having some satisfying cause & effect, play / counterplay type deal. Like, The Dark Knight's Joker is a huge Gary Stu who recruits his own criminal group and somehow pulls off multiple major terrorist attacks in short succession, but the movie sells it via him doing something clever and/or evil to set it up (even if realistically it'd require way more), rather than the script saying he just wins.
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The girls bonded over fairy tales, princess stories, and ouija, and that does bleed over into this surreal, dreamlike feeling some of the game has. I think what really torpedoes the one person thing is the tattoo and the bruise, neither of which have particularly convincing explanations under this theory (it's a temporary tattoo, she just got the tattoo between interviews, she's holding the bruise part that is reflected! All seem too far fetched). Her alibi also involves her being in Glasgow with records in the hospital to place her there and how it's impossible for her to have been in two places at once (unless, of course...). I think you have to make too many unlikely assumptions for the multiple personality theory to work (even though two people slipping past everything is also a little out there), so I find the two people explanation more probable and more satisfying narratively. Once more people play the game maybe someone will come up with something stronger.
The lie detector thing has that name thing (which caught her in a lie). Not exactly sure what that means yet.
IIRC something about Simon's watch disproves the Glasglow thing being an alibi.
I think Hannah changed the time on it. And that that watch was the only way to prove the time of death, because the corpse was in the house for too long?
Now that I see this written, it sounds too Phoenix Wrighty for this game though. Um.
Anyway I don't have much more to add but I like to leave more tiny spoiler text
At any rate, I find it hilarious that people who clearly didn't know anything about the game bashed it for being an SJW game, possibly on the sole basis of it being named "Her Story," (WHAT ABOUT HIS STORY/HISTORY) oh and I guess it has women.
Yeah definitely. It sounds ridiculous but that's really what it is.
It's a generally dismissive attitude towards things seen as arty hipster BS coupled with an extreme defensiveness towards progressive elements because of gamergate.
And it comes down to: A game about a woman, without male gaze = Probably SJW
FFT:
Chapter 4.
You know that math teaching quest?
I turned my bard into an arithmetician/calculator because, duh, and I accepted the quest.
12 days later:
"The skills of the ninja were a great boon to us. One person can make the difference!"
The irony is that Calculator is actually not one of the best jobs for that proposition, the way the system is designed. See, "Master Math!" is classified internally as an "Odd Job" with Faith preference. Proposition success is determined by attaching a score to each of the three participants which is based on their current job, their level, and possibly their Brave or Faith. If the combined scores of all three participants exceed 99, then you succeed on the proposition.
Since Master Math! is a Faith preference proposition, it rewards characters both for having LOW brave and HIGH faith. As an Odd Job, it favors Chemists, Thieves and Mediators the most (15 points base), followed by Bards, Dancers and Mimes (10 points base). A Calculator is only worth 5 on that job, paradoxically. There's a further job-based bonus awarded because it's a Faith proposition: this awards an additional 10 points to Squires and every job in the Chemist tree except Mediator and Bard, and an additional 5 points to Mediators, Ninjas, Bards and Dancers. Finally, 5-20 points are awarded (each) for each unit's Brave and Faith scores; more points for low brave and high faith, and an additional 10 points is awarded if the unit is under level 51 (this is different for Brave or neutral props, too).
If the total is under 99, there is still a chance of success if you have one or more of a certain, specific, single job on the proposition. From the sounds of the dialogue you got, this is exactly what happened with you, because Master Math!'s random success job is, in fact, Ninja, and having one gives you a 61% chance to succeed even if you don't have enough points.
Oh wow, thanks for that info!
I really like these deeply convoluted yet utterly meaningless mechanics (meaningless because errand quest failure basically never happens)
Where/How did you find all that?
FFT: Just got Orland...eau
Balthier's real good. Not Orlandeau good, but really really good. Shock, War of the Lions gave us one more overpowered Chapter 4 character.
I also just got one Dark Knight!
I'm surprised I got it this soon into the game, considering the ridiculous requirements. (way worse than mimes). You need lvl 8 Geomancer/Dragoon/Ninja/Samurai + Master Knight and Black Mage. You also need 20 kills. A kill only counts as a kill if the enemy gets turned into a crystal / chest.
I had one female character go for Gain JP Up, then make a beeline for Dancer right away, then use Wiznaibus, all the time, every. single. battle. until she met all the requirements except having learnt black mage spells. (I also drew out battles a bit in Chapter 2 so she could have a lot of kills registered)
Then I got in an easy battle and taught her all the black mage spells via "blue magic" (Is this the most obscure FFT mechanic?)
Anyway I am already disappointed because, while her official art is adorable:
http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20111203044552/finalfantasy/images/2/28/FFTWLDarkKnightFemale.png
, her in game sprite is anti-adorable:
http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130227043333/finalfantasy/images/7/7a/FFT_Dark_Knight_Female_Portrait.png
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New avatar?
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New avatar?
Social Justice Anti-Adorable.
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Your soul. I will eat it.
OM. NOM. NOM.
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So Djinn, have you seen the Soleil support in FE:Fates? Is it as bad as it seems because it sounds fucking gross.
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FF 13-2. Beaten, bad ending get. For a game that never really caught me emotionally with the story during the course of gameplay, they hit you hard at the end. Now I recognize CT's sigs from long ago. "A Yeul who loved flowers."
I still have over half the fragments to go, so much mucking around in the timeline ensues.
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So Djinn, have you seen the Soleil support in FE:Fates? Is it as bad as it seems because it sounds fucking gross.
Not sure what you read about it, apparently some places have made it out to be even worse than it is, but it is still pretty bad. Good chance it gets changed in localisation, too; I know this happened to one or two of the more objectionable Awakening supports.
From what I've read people aren't too happy with the supports in this game on average but tbh supports in the series have never been a strong point of its writing and they've gotten worse since the 3DS games pushed for a massively overbloated support list to pander to players but letting them pair up almost anyone of the opposite gender.
For those who don't mind spoilers and want to read the discussion on this support, here (http://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=55343&page=1) is the place to go. Includes a link to a fan-translated version of the support, though the usual caveat of translations being imperfect applies.
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FF 13-2. Beaten, bad ending get. For a game that never really caught me emotionally with the story during the course of gameplay, they hit you hard at the end. Now I recognize CT's sigs from long ago. "A Yeul who loved flowers."
I still have over half the fragments to go, so much mucking around in the timeline ensues.
Just FYI, FF13-2 doesn't have a good ending, just an extended one. It's not really worth grabbing as a result (though it wouldn't be so bad if not for the 4XX Academia Fragments.)
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So Djinn, have you seen the Soleil support in FE:Fates? Is it as bad as it seems because it sounds fucking gross.
Not sure what you read about it, apparently some places have made it out to be even worse than it is, but it is still pretty bad. Good chance it gets changed in localisation, too; I know this happened to one or two of the more objectionable Awakening supports.
From what I've read people aren't too happy with the supports in this game on average but tbh supports in the series have never been a strong point of its writing and they've gotten worse since the 3DS games pushed for a massively overbloated support list to pander to players but letting them pair up almost anyone of the opposite gender.
For those who don't mind spoilers and want to read the discussion on this support, here (http://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=55343&page=1) is the place to go. Includes a link to a fan-translated version of the support, though the usual caveat of translations being imperfect applies.
Yeah, that's pretty much what I saw but some places are sensationalizing it a bit, especially with the drugs (which is still pretty terrible but this isn't on the level they are claiming).
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Just FYI, FF13-2 doesn't have a good ending, just an extended one.
If that's the case, I'm actually impressed they were ballsy enough to go that route. I'll finish it anyway, it's entertaining me for the time being.
FFRK: Got Balthier's 5-star weapon, so he gets to replace Tidus in my lineup (Garnet, Balthier, Vivi, Cloud, Sephiroth). Was planning on breaking his level cap anyway for the record materia, so double incentive now.
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Final Fantasy The Autobattle's Litany - Just finished the Dreadnought Leviathan event and this has to be the easiest Challenge Event I've ever finished. As long as you have decent amounts of MT and resources, you're very unlikely to lose to Judge Ghis, especially if you land Blind on him, since that completely shuts down his offense. His support goes down to a few Quakes, so it's not really a big deal. I expect the boss rush to be a pain in the ass, though, it's very MT-centered and that makes resource management obnoxious. I'll probably level-cap and cap-break Balthier tomorrow, he's already at L49. That record materia looks pretty tasty and hell, he's a good PC anyway. Certainly didn't regret benching Tidus.
FF7 - So the skinner box made me want to play something FF-y that I haven't played in a long time and felt FF7 was way overdue for a replay. The SD character models are quite hilarious in hi-res and wow, is the earlygame hilariously bad at threatening you. Some enemies have -100HKO- damage at this point in the game, this is seriously low-hanging your fruit. That said, I do like, translation aside, how the game paces its beginning. In media res high-tension wires going off. The dialogue is often awkward ("THE PLANET'S DYING CLOUD!" "¯\_(ツ)_/¯" is particularly weird in terms of logical flow), but the ideas are pretty solid in terms of starting things with a bang. Midgar is also a pretty interesting city setup.
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Re: FE if and Soleil
Haven't gotten her yet.
FF Autobattle: Agreed that the Balthier event is really easy. I've literally Mastered all of the fights except the last two with a Level 18 party of FF3 characters and Generics + level 40 Fran. Switched to a party of around level 40s for the 2nd-last fight but wasn't able to Master it. I can throw in Tidus (seriously Spiral Cut is resource-free MT 9999 dmg, best 5* drop I've ever gotten) and Garnet and probably handle that while still levelling my sub-50 PCs. Ghis doesn't look particularly tough either. I'll throw Vivi's Quake at him as suggested.
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Picked up VP2 again. Failed to one-round Freya by about 0.5% of her HP. Must twink harder.
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Wow Balthier's soul break is nice-looking, pulls up a nautical map over the battlefield and a giant wave washes over it. Seems to be about 75% as powerful as Sephiroth's, which is also multitarget. But hey, water element for obscure enemy weaknesses.
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Pokemon Alpha Sapphire - Beaten. The end of the game was better than the rest, certainly. Aside from Victory Road itself (already commented on), the Wally fight was better than I remembered it being in Emerald, and the final boss sequence was fine; I had one reset on Drake (due to missing two consecutive 90% accuracy Dragon Chops mostly) and one on Steven (lost Latias to Toxic and various other pokemon due to errors against Cradily leaving Armaldo to finish off the team). Delta Episode kinda tries to have an actual plot, it's cute. Actually less terrible at it than I was assuming? Anyway the overall level of fight competence here was high enough too, nothing too amazing. I liked that they threw in a fight against a re-imagining of Emerald!Wallace who was certainly better than the gym leaders in the game but still not that great for various reasons (worse movesets than Em, lower levels, bad AI). Final Zinnia was pretty nasty because I refused to use Rayquaza but still won on the first try, Deoxys ate a Master Ball to end the playthrough.
Sceptile - Leaf Blade, Dual Chop, X-Scissor, Mega Drain/Earthquake - Well it could use better physical durability and it would be nice if it had more movepool to run off its higher SA but who cares, that speed + grass is amazing in this game + a mega evo for even more stats made for ridiculousness. Even though I pretty much only used him against things that Grass (or occasionally Bug/Dragon) was effective against he still ended up 3-4 levels higher than the rest of my team at most times because water water everywhere. Really wish I'd gotten Giga Drain, but oh well.
Latias - Psychic/Psystrike/Double Team, Shadow Ball, Recover, Calm Mind/Thunderwave - Only real objection to Latias is that it doesn't learn a special dragon move stronger than 60 power. Aside from that she's tanky, fast, has a ridiculously deep movepool (in addition to the stuff listed I made plenty of use of Surf), and can sweep with the ol' Gardevoir strategy only does it better. I actually had really terrible luck trying to sweep Steven with this (ate multiple crits through Double Team and had terrible luck with evade in general, eventually running out of Recover) but it still killed half his team.
Crobat - Fly, Cross Poison/Sludge Bomb/Dark Pulse, Confuse Ray, Roost - Be faster than everything, confuse + healing is always good, have no really bad stats. Serviceable against most things. Dark Pulse got used against Steven because with steel losing dark resist it's an oddly good element in that fight, now. Also, it evolved into Crobat after one level as Golbat as usual, even though it's obtained later in this game than some. Good times as always.
Aggron - Iron Head, Stone Edge/Rock Tomb/Rock Slide, Earthquake, Thunderwave - Well once it reached its final stage and could learn Thunderwave that was certainly nice. Otherwise it has a typing which walls some things very well and dies to things badly. Slow but could at least outspeed a few things, but more to the point Thunderwave was great for making up for this. Decent enough damage, though you can't call it an offensive pokemon. I hardly ever used its mega form because Sceptile and Latias were so much more important for anchoring the team.
Wailord - Surf, Ice Beam, Earthquake, Strength/Waterfall - Man its movepool gets shallow after the first few moves. Anyway its stats aren't too great but the water/ice niche isn't a bad one to fill, and its stats aren't that bad either. Overall a bland filler but it joined at a pretty high level unlike most things I caught in the second half of the game that weren't legendaries.
Camerupt - Overheat, Fireblast/Flamethrower, Earth Power, Will-o-Wisp/Yawn - So on multiple occasions I went over an hour without fighting a pokemon that isn't a Water type (yes, I counted). Camerupt is total junk for any such sections. Toss in the fact that I was fighting Team Aqua and that he's also weak to Ground and it didn't feel like there were many places he could be used safely, especially since his speed is "always goes last" territory. I want to like Camerupt, his design is cool, but his stats + typing would be horrible in any Pokemon game and are even worse in this one. Oh well. Only pluses is that he was good for nulling electrics (on the very rare occasions those show up, and of course you get him after Wattson) and that his raw damage was pretty good, especially with Overheat.
Anyway I don't think this game was nearly as good as it should be by Pokemon standards. It's a combination of my two favourite games in the series, but generally didn't manage to capture what I liked about either. The thing I liked most about X/Y were the excellent array of options, the fact that random trainers and random enemies were up-to-speed level-wise and presented a constant moderate level of challenge (at least without Exp Share. This is not present in Alpha Sapphire, regular trainers are jokes and randoms are underlevelled, and pokemon availability could be better. It also did away with Fashion~ which is a shame because Default Male Trainer looks really stupid; instead we get secret bases which I can't give a shit about.
The thing I liked most about Emerald is that it has the best boss fights in the series, lots of well-designed teams which led to an epic feel in many boss fights. In this game the gym leaders are Diamond/Pearl level bad with much worse setups (going back to Ruby/Sapphire was a big mistake) and often felt a bit underlevelled (again, I didn't use Exp Share and ran six pokemon, so no excuses!), and had derpy AI in many cases. Like Diamond/Pearl the game steps up a bit at the end but that's not really enough.
So it's okay. I mean it's still Pokemon, still reasonably polished, infinite-use TMs are still cool, and it doesn't have any egregious mechanical errors like D/P's sluggish animations and surfing or RBY's bugs and documentation errors. And while the enemy design isn't where I want it to be it doesn't have anything as egregious as the Mahogany arc. And the game's villains don't make me facepalm as much as Cyrus or Lysander, that's something I guess. So it's better than RBY, GSC, DP, and HGSS at the very least. A decent game but a bit disappointing. 6/10 or so? Sates my Pokemon itch for the next year or two most likely, though I would like to play BW and/or BW2 at some point since that does feel like a definite hole in my experience with the series.
Final Fantasy Dimensions - Just beat the Memorist chapter. Game remains fun; I have more to say on it but will wait until it's not packaged in an already large post.
Final Fantasy 5 - Fiesta time! So I'm doing Chaos this year, the first job I drew was Berserker and the second is Samurai, which means until the earth crystal I have to do a Berseker SCC.
... this is... not a thing I'm willing to do. See, the Berserker SCC walls hard on Sandworm and Soul Cannon. It's generally agreed you need to overlevel like mad to stand a chance against them. (And I don't mean agreed by the type of bad FAQ-writer who claims you need to be Level 80 to beat Zeromus, I mean by people who are super-knowledgeable about FF5.) Oh well, just meant I used the Job Fair to re-randomise my Berserker job and got Summoner instead. Much better!
Anyway the first part (until the water crystal) is Freelancer only. Freelancers are definitely somewhat weaker than Knights early due to lower HP which means you need to pack a fair number of Potions (I used like 15 getting through canal + ship graveyard) and Siren was moderately scary. Magissa was nasty, had a reset here. Drain OHKOed me (I was slightly underlevelled to be fair) and she used it four times in a row when able, which didn't help, and her husband hit really hard as well. I won by lowering her just above her limit threshold, blitzing her, then finishing her off after the summon. Afterwards I switched everyone to the back row (otherwise Forza does ~135 damage with Tackles) and slowly chipped away.
After that you get access to Tycoon Castle and lots of cool stuff (Ashura katana, Whip, Heal Staff) which makes Garula a complete joke.
Getting Summoners was a relief. I've never used Chocobo/Sylph much before but they're actually pretty worthwhile ST damage at this point, certainly beating out physicals at no real cost and even adding some healing! I decided to take a run at Shiva; I lost once because I didn't realise having everyone in the back row would make her cast Blizzara ST and that one-shotted people, but I was more careful the second time and also got a lucky Fat Chocobo in to wreck the Ice Commanders. Sylph could keep up with her MT Blizzaras, the ST ones were just met with a Phoenix Down and plugging on. Not too bad.
Then Shiva proceeds to wreck absolutely every random until the Library, as well as Iron Claw who gets 2HKOed. The only thing worth noting is Liquid Flame who was certainly tough; he only transformed to Hand once but OHKOed when he did and had enough MDef to mock Sylph during it. I did win first try but at one point everyone was down to 0-3 HP after a Blaze! I've also beaten the Library, Ifrit gets one-rounded by Shiva and Byblos would have been one-rounded by Ifrit had I thought to buy four Fire Rods in advance. No biggie, it was still super-easy. Ran away a few times to make sure I didn't hit Level 15.
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Final Fantasy The Autobattle Of The Highway Strip - Mastered the last two hanging Elite maingame dungeons (Bottomswell and Jenova BIRTH) and now, all I have left until the next event is grinding for XP and orbs until the end of time. Cap-broke Balthier, levelling up White Mage and whatnot. Cloud broke level 60 and Vivi/Garnet are very close to doing it. Heck, Vivi's past 3k HP, this is absolutely jarring.
Speaking of jarring, I raised that Waterja from Balthier's event to rank 2. That deals 8k damage, no weakness necessary, to the likes of Jenova BIRTH Elite. What the fuck.
FF7 - Currently on Wall Market. The levels of mood whiplash present here are insane. You get into a tearful split from Barret and Tifa into Aerith plot into We Were Witchy Witchy White Women with a tinge of Gay Bar.
EDIT: hahahahahaha i'm twelve and they threaten Don Corneo's DICK on that scene
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FFT: I'm starting to grow fond of Dark Knight's big terrifying eyes now. She's pretty good.
She has Gaffy Gaff's skills, plus one reasonably powerful skill that can only be described as "dark shotgun" and that's very fun to use at point blank range on enemies.
Of course Chapter 4 is a big joke anyway. FFT pretty much just keeps getting easier and easier as it goes on. Chapter 1 is the hardest, then 2, then 3, then 4. (Though 2/3 have a few notable difficulty spikes)
The new War of the Lions Beowulf/Reis sidequest is terrible.
Here is how it goes:
Reis gets kidnapped by some loser duke whos plan is: Kidnap Reis -> Keep her locked up -> Maybe she will love me some day
Beowulf's honorable bro bishie templar works for that duke so we have to fight.
The 1st fight of the sidequest is against the bishie bro. Beowulf joins as a guest. You can't control him during the battle, or select him before the battle. The goal of the battle is: Kill Bro bishie. Okay.
So my OP as fuck army acts first and walks all over the first enemies we see, because FFT Chapter 4 balance.
Then Bro Bishie, with master teleport, teleports behind Beowulf and kills him in one hit. Game over. I hadn't equipped Beowulf because nothing tells you that if Beowulf dies = gameover.
Second try, my army once again walks all over the regular enemies, and I make sure to dispatch one of the enemy archers so Beowulf is safe. Bishie teleports behind Beowulf, attacks him (60% accuracy), CRITICAL HIT, then an archer gets a turn and hits him with a 40% chance. Beo dies.
FFFFF
During the second battle, we get this exchange between the duke and Beowulf about how the duke is wrong about love, and doesn't understand how love works, and how Reis and Beowulf have really special love, and that's how things should be. I'd grade Beowulf's dialogue as definitely sub-Huey Lewis and the News.
It would be trite in a regular game, but it's especially jarring in FFT, which has actual good writing and in which arranged marriages should be the norm.
After dying the duke, uses the dark Lucavi-ish powers to turn into... a palette swapped regular ice dragon. Epic. Of course its stats are super jacked up and he has like 4000 HPs and OHKO damage always. This is Chapter 4, so it's really easy, BUT if Beowulf dies I assume we still get a game over since he's still a guest. Brilliant design guys 10/10.
I'm really lucky that the game's auto-equip function gave Beowulf an ice shield, without it he'd have been OHKOed and I'd have had to redo the fight again.
So I'm going to get a 3DS pretty much only for Mario 3D Land, SMT games. I'll probably get Bravely Default and Kid Icarus too.
Any cool little worthwhile downloadable games on that thing, aside from Crimson Shroud?
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In FFT WotL we also got a very nice cutscene in which Agrias meets Olivia at the end of the game.
Agrias tells Olivia that she can't protect her, because Lucavi demons are a bigger deal. She gives Olivia a dagger for her protection (...) and she entrusts her to Delita, while saying to Delita that if anything bad should happen to Olivia, she (Agrias) will come back to get her revenge on him.
In the end, she couldn't, either because she failed, or because everybody died under Orbonne anyway.
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About 3DS stuff: there's also Shovel Knight, Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. and more Fire Emblem, Fenrir. Etrian Odyssey also sounds like something that you'd be into.
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Most of the cool indie stuff on the 3DS I'm aware of is also available for other platforms (e.g. Shovel Knight, VVVVVV, I've heard good things about Shantae), which makes sense since the 3DS is the most annoying system to develop for and the main reason to do it is to reach a huge audience that only wants to play these types of things on portables. i.e. I suspect Fenrir' has played most of it already.
But yeah seconding Snow's recommendations that the IntSys games are at least worth checking out. Smash and Mario Kart are cool as well if they're your thing, you have the main other things I'd recommend covered already. Phoenix Wright Dual Destinies? But IIRC you've played that.
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FFRK: Auto-haste materia is pretty legit. Sephiroth usually has around 2 bars of soul break by the time you get to bosses just from autobattling, and the haste lasts a few turns into the boss.
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Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones: Fin. (As was probably obvious from the stat topic I posted.) Not too much to say really. On Hard mode, the monsters hit reasonably hard but can still be manipulated into having horrible Hit, which actually cost me a reset on Darkling Woods after a 20 Hit Axe & 33 Hit Shadowshot somehow both hit Neimi and barely 2HKOed her. Shoulda let the Assassins in the trees handle 'em, lol 0 Hit rate & all. I think I'd have preferred more accurate enemies who hit slightly less hard, although the magic of subtractive defense would then make Myrrh / tanks OP, so eh.
Final chapter was mostly a turkey shoot, only the Dracozombies or triggering the reinforcements without being ready are really a threat here. Okay and maybe horrible luck on Shadowshot as well or on the Arch Mogalls actually hitting (again, good damage that 2HKOs the likes of Ross / Tana! .... and 20 listed Hit, so actually more like 6% hit rate.). Tana also got a Pierce proc on Lyon which was funny if unneeded. Fomortiis died on turn 1 from Eph double + Eirika double + Tana double, and I could have Tethys Danced up either Myrrh or Neimi for more weakness-hitting fun. Designing FE end bosses is tough! Awakening is still the closest to doing it right, if it wasn't for the damn ninjas that spawn right next to the boss. I'd have been fine with either nearby reinforcements that don't ninja, or ninja reinforcements that stream in from the other side of the map, but bah. Anyway Nidhogg went strangely unfired the entire game, Neimi could usually clobber just fine with a Killer Bow.
Kill chart:
Ross: 130
Amelia: 98
Neimi: 98
Lute: 94
Tana: 93
Eirika: 82
Ephraim: 74
Marisa: 71
Gerik: 62
Colm: 56
Seth: 33
Myrrh: 23
Forde: 18
L'Arachel: 15
Saleh: 14
Joshua: 13
Tethys: 0
And endgame levels at the *start* of the final chapter for lulz:
Seth - L5
L'Arachel, Lute, Saleh - L6 (this is with MASSIVE FAVORITISM toward L'Arachel too... for all that dancing your healer would be good anyway usually)
Gerik - L8
Eirika, Ephraim, Tana, Neimi, Amelia - L9-10
Ross, Colm - L11
Marisa - L14
Myrrh - L17 (This is with basically only feeding her kills in Last Hope & Darkling Woods. Yes.)
Tethys - L20
Gerik sadly got benched for the final mission denying Marisa her A-Support, but oh well. (Not enough Sacred Twins to go around, I'll take a meh Lute with Excalibur over a good Gerik sadly, and Myrrh is kinda broken on Monster maps.) (And Seth / Saleh / Duessel / etc. were only hole-fillers in the big-deploy count maps.)
If I'd known that my Lute would turn out crappy, I might have considered bothering trying to grind up Ewan, but eh, whatevs, less effort this way anyway.
Anyway, good game, wasn't just nostalgia.
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FFRK: Auto-haste materia is pretty legit. Sephiroth usually has around 2 bars of soul break by the time you get to bosses just from autobattling, and the haste lasts a few turns into the boss.
Indeed. The materia alone may not justify raising Balthier all the way to L50, but it makes a pretty good argument. Balthy himself being a good PC just makes raising him a borderline no-brainer.
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VP2: Lezard mk.1 got two turns. Both of them were Dampen Magic. Oh no! I tossed on Toughness for the finale because I hate the last battle sequence and remembered AE Lezard dealing too much damage. Enough to overkill Rufus if I hadn't done that, as it turns out. I guess he might have been wearing shitty armor? I'd point to the 150% ATK/50% RDM sealstone, but everything Lezard has looks magic to me, so I dunno.
Game stood up pretty well for me. I'm a little surprised at how good it still looks, especially the last couple dungeons. Credit Tri-Ace for having a good eye for distinctive character and set designs. Story of course remains totally silly after the point where the villain makes it clear he's just another one of those internet creepers who swears the girl of his dreams who keeps blowing him off is really just secretly tsundere for him and only needs constant pursuit to wear through her prickly facade. I realize it's mostly in keeping with his VP1 personality, but man is it awkward how quickly he pervs out once you actually confront him. (This is hardly the only reason the last chapter's ridiculous, of course--fusion valk as well as Brahms randomly dropping dead because reasons? also stand out.) But at least the game hits some satisfying character beats before that. I still like the combat engine a lot too but wow does the game get stupid easy in the second half. Fortunately, we have optional dungeon to remedy that.
Speaking of, feel the power of dogness is next.
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Pokémon X
Doing a theme playthrough for this one. A while ago Andy ran a Pokémon RP, and we ended up giving teams to all our old characters. So I ended up picking one to run. This is a Keith playthrough, which took some finagling and opting in for the PokeBank to get the necessary pokemon. Currently beat the 4th Gym, but hitting a pause to get the trade evo's for the proper team. I'll go by the concept, then explain the reasoning behind its inclusion, and where it's currently at.
First Slot- Magmortar. As a crossbow user, Keith had a penchant for using heavy explosive bolts. Nothing like simulating that with a fire pokemon with giant artillery hands. Currently though, this is a Magmar being babied up a bit after transferring from PokeBank. Curious to see how this will work out in practice. I used Electabuzz in HGSS, but never used Magmar before.
Second Slot- Blastoise. Keeping with the artillery theming, also covers type very well, is surf-able, and luckily you're handed one early so it was actually my first theme-compliant pokemon! Yay. Occupies the second slot since it's very tanky (Keith had the most HP in the party as a Ranger until an actual tank joined... and still was near their HP due to almost always getting max rolls on HP rolls).
Jolteon- Super fast, Keith had the best init by far (+10, next closest was +4). Also electric fits, since one of his crossbows added electric damage to each shot at will. Also was really easy to get in-game with no transferring. This was in the first slot, which fits since he used that crossbow until it upgraded from the electric pea-shooter to the giant fireshots of doom.
Gengar- Keith pissed off a lich early in the game by killing its host body and it took its revenge in many ways. The most ever-present was that it would often show up in the party's dreams and mess with them. Gengar totally fills that role. Helps that it's one of my favorite pokemon too. Currently a Haunter though until I can trade it.
Milotic- Keith was always fishing when on a ship, or near water (A hunter by trade but an outdoorsman in general). Also tended to get really, really lucky on die rolls, which I think Feebas hunting qualifies as. Managed to get a bunch in my Sapphire playthrough, and picked the best one I got to evolve into Milotic after transferring to HGSS. Still only level 23 after sending it over from there though, so it's another project. Still somewhat solid. Liking it so far. Plus it's in a Premier Ball.
Ursaring- Last slot is currently being filled by Tyrantrum, since I'm gonna wait to just catch an Ursaring in-game later on. May keep Tyrantrum though, as both sort of fit. Ursaring fits more generally for hunting, but he hunted more rare and specialized stuff rather than the mundane, so a T-Rex totally qualifies. Plus it fills the Gen 6 slot, since the entire team was thought of during Gen 5.
The only annoying thing is there's no Fly pokemon in party, so I have to keep going to box. Mrf. Still a fun playthrough. Exp share should help since Magmar, Milotic, and Haunter are half the level the other ones are.
Played up to the 3rd Gym before I got the PokeBank and transferred stuff. Started off with Fennekin, which I liked. Gogoat was great, almost kept it but theming takes precedence. Mothim rounded out the earlygame team. (Tyrantrum, Blastoise, and Jolteon were the other 3). Played around with Pancham and Pikachu, but opted for other stuff.
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I don't have a copy of Devil May Cry 4 SE, but I do have the HD collection of the first three that I never dug into, so I figured this weekend was as good a time as any to do that. DMC3, of course. Beat Agni and Rudra before I called it a night. Haven't played the game in ages so I'm not doing anything special with the playthrough, just getting reacquainted with the controls (I'm too used to Bayonetta...I miss the dodge button) and enjoying the cheese.
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Final Fantasy 3: Just got off the Floating Continent!
-The first Guzco/Gutsco Dungeon is pretty much the most forgettable dungeon early game. The only thing worth noting is Manticores in the DS version can hit you with MT Blizzard and do something resembling damage, I guess, but if you have enough Potions or Cure spells, you won't care; it's not damaging enough to kill a character, just enough to slowly wear you down. Guzco himself is not really stand out unless he hax's you with status in the DS version. Speaking of which, amusingly, he hit both Refia and Luneth (my 2 physical characters) with Mini...then died to Arc's next spell anyway.
-Black Magic has taken a spike in damage in the DS version. Add in how Black Mage's can item cast Staves giving them limitless Level 1/2 spells (Thunder = level 2, remember), you pretty much leave them in back row spamming spells. The NES version doesn't have as much damage, but Level 1/2's remain still solid throughout this point, with level 3/4's being good nukes (except for bosses who regularly have stupid good magic defense...), but more importantly, NES Status doesn't suck. Sleep is accurate when ST, sometimes worthwhile MT, being the big one right now because it's a level 1 spell.
-Lava is not a hazard in the NES version, but is in the DS version.
-Resisting Fire is much easier in the DS version, because Warrior, Thief and Red Mage can use Ice equips. NES version, only Fighter (and Onion Knight!) can equip it. Shockingly, this really doesn't mean like anything outside of the fight with Salamander since the Volcano dungeon has very little in the way of Fire enemies.
-Salamander's a good fight in both games, pretty faithful. FF3DS' has to deal with higher Fire resistance and mages with higher magic defense, but he double acts and does more damage to compensate. Either way, it's a decent fight in both games that's well balanced around the PCs they're up against.
-Hein's Castle is clearly better in the NES version. The enemies in this dungeon are just not good in the DS version; NES version has Pharaohs that can put you to sleep and Lamia's that can confuse you, and you often fight 4 or 5 monsters at a time. Never fight more than 2 enemies in this dungeon in the DS version and they're individually easier.
-Hein himself? NES version the game explicitly tells you how to beat him. Use a Scholar, exploit weakness, which obviously screams "HAVE A BLACK MAGE TOO!" If you aren't using a Black Mage, you can get by with Zeus' Rages and such, but you get the idea. Scholar is vital if you want to beat him without headaches. No, Knight is a go to win here; Hein's defenses, particularly Evasion, is so good that Knight can regularly whiff all hits. He can overcome defense if he hits thanks to King Sword, but you get the idea.
DS version is...a lot less interesting. He's very RNG based since he has too many commands and the double acting and what not. First off, you don't need a Scholar here; a big reason why is because Hein starts off with no weaknesses (FF3NES, he starts with a weakness, unsure if it's randomized or he always is weak to Ice), and when he barrier changes, he doesn't get resistances. FF3o Hein had the usual Barrier change of "Weak to one element, immunes the rest"; FF3DS, is just a boring "gets a random weakness!" Next off, Fighters can hurt him, so Warrior's still good here. Hein is fine offensively, and even has status that can get in the way, but I feel the nature of the fight is completely lost. The gimmick actually hurts him more than helps since a turn of him using Barrier Change is a turn of him doing less damage to your team. One thing that did make my life harder is using Red Mage instead of White Mage; the MP difference is notable here because Cure is starting to not be good enough, and Red Mage has only 2 Curas, and Hi Potions are too expensive this early.
Beat him in both without a reset, though DS version I'm finding someone often dies on a boss. I also had the mistake of using a Ranger in the DS version and missed the Rune Bow, so Refia was kind of completely useless here outside of throwing spell casting Items (which are better done by Arc and Ingus, who are Black mage and Red Mage respectively.
-Speaking of Mages, Red Mage is useless in the NES version now. White Mage is still damage anemic, but with status and large healing pools, it's worth having one anyway. Red Mage is extremely good in the DS version, albeit not necessarily a full replacement of anything yet; a key thing is he can Heal, item cast Staves for legit free damage back row damage, and dual equip shields to remain durable. Again, though, MP is a bit of an issue which is why he's not necessarily a full replacement.
-I swapped Refia to Monk during Guzco's Cave and Salamander because Thief is awful now. She's doing 2 digit damage pretty regularly, and even with no JLevels and Job Sickness, Monk was STILL outdamaging her. Granted, in one dungeon from now, we reach Amur, where Thief gets a huge upgrade in...well...everything, and is pretty damn good from here on in. Why use Thief this long? Because long term JLevels; using Thief this long, Refia's at JLevel 14, and that'll come in handy when Thief is actually good.
-The last thing I'll note is what I think is unironically the aspect FF3DS did best as a remake over the original, and that's the segment right when you get off the Floating Continent. Boundless Ocean is kind of a generic, forgettable piece in the NES version, but the DS version is probably one of the best remixes of a song they have, since it sounds utterly fantastic and fits the mood perfectly. The visuals are great too, making the world look legitimately shrouded in darkness, as opposed to the NES version where it's just a lot of water. Also the map means you aren't flying around blindly casting Sight like in the NES version, a very welcome addition, since that's fake difficulty (there's no random encounters or any danger; you're just flying around aimlessly til a landmark appears.) This is not me trying to be ironic or anything, it's something I just feel they truly nailed on every level, and did straight up better than the NES version in every sense, and it deserves that much praise. I was completely wowed by it when I first saw the sequence and going back to it, I am reminded why.
NEXT UP: The only FF1 Fiend to graduate into being an FF3 Fiend...except technically FF3 doesn't have real fiends but shut up.
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Final Fantasy I Wanna Be Autobattled - Championed the Dreadnought Leviathan boss rush. There's only one truly rough fight there: the Ba'Gamnan swarm. The rest is pretty trivially simple, even Ghis, who fails -very- hardcore with Berserk and Blind handy. It's actually kinda hilarious: once I landed Berserk on Ghis, he started casting Grand Barrier on MY PARTY. You can autobattle Air Cutter Remora and Daguza, Gwitch and Galeedo if you want, even - just toss a Quake and a -ga/ja/Comet and a defense buster first to speed things up.
EDIT: Since I also play non-FTP evil bullshit nowadays.
Final Fantasy 7 - I like the first hours of the game a lot more this time around in almost every respect. In spite of the terrible translation, it shows that the writing, both in plotting and dialogue, tries a few pretty gutsy ideas right off the bat and they pay off nicely. They'd benefit from a little bit of decompression, but the pacing itself is pretty refreshing and I like what they do in terms of personality with both Aerith and Tifa. Cloud could stand to be less Cecil-ish in that STAY BACK AND MAKE ME A SAMMICH WOMAN way, but Tifa and particularly Aerith have actual backbones and won't have any of that shit, and that's good.
The one real problem is that the gameplay is honestly uninteresting at this point. This stems principally from the egregious battle design - bosses have some ideas and even gimmick randoms like the ghosts in the train graveyard show glimmers there. But everything -hopelessly sucks-. Seriously, when enemies started averaging 6-7HKO ST damage, it was a monumental -leap- in competence, because they spend the first two or three dungeons impressing everybody with damage that ranged anywhere from 20 to -100HKO-. And in a game that practically drops on your lap cheap as hell, efficient and decently potent MT healing from more or less the get-go. And they get at worst 2HKOed by cheap magic. You end up just autobattling most of it just for the sake of simplicity - and I'm not even getting into what using items can do to them (seriously, there are enemies dropping BIO 2 ITEMS as commons right now. And Grenades, which are storebought for cheap, deal limit-level damage at this point, which is completely insane). It's pretty obvious they didn't want to overemphasize limits, which start getting egregiously spammed against strong offense the way they're envisioned, but the measures taken to rein them back lead to a huge problem here, they pretty much tossed the baby along with the water from the basin. Oh well.
About to walk back to Aerith's house for Cetra plot and then tackling the Shinra building. We'll see how this goes.
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RNG ducks
Two 50 relic pulls. Poop
One 3x relic draw. More poop.
Even tried the 99 cent draw for shots and giggles. Got a 5 star coat...no attack on it, so I doubt it gets used.
Poop, poop, poop.
Ah well. Time to beat these bosses and get my suiko-esque rise brooch.
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Oh yeah, Shantae and EO4 are really good picks. I haven't played or am not really interested in the others (at least yet) for various reasons. I'm not very thrilled by IntSys nowadays.
I got a new 3DS and I didn't know about the SD card situation.
1) You have to use a screwdriver to change it
2) The standard SD card can not have both Soul Hackers and SMT4 on it at once
lol
Also this is the worst game related online shop I've seen , I thought the PS3 one was bad already but damn this is something else.
Anyway all this doesn't matter because 3D Land and Soul Hackers! Yay!!!
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Final Fantasy Sweet Autobattles (Are Made Of This) - Grinding Fire and Earth orbs for no real reason. Well, no, there's -one- reason. Upgrading Firaga and Fira Strike to R4 will be expensive, so uh yeah.
On a tangent, though, I just found out that you can abuse Mana Spring/Concentration by running from battles and entering them again. This is very expensive stamina-wise, but is pretty likely to completely wipe out -any- resource issues I ever might have if I can spare the stamina - and certainly beats spending Mythril for a single fight. Interesting. This means I -really- need to get White Mage up to L50, though.
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Also this is the worst game related online shop I've seen , I thought the PS3 one was bad already but damn this is something else.
At least it works consistently, which is more than I can say for the XBox 360's.
Final Fantasy 5 - Beat World 1. Team is Summoner/Samurai/Dancer/Dancer, which is pretty bleh outside having Summoner. Anyway, W1 Summoner SCC notes...
Sandworm gets wrecked with Ramuh, Crayclaw gets 2HKOed by Ramuh, Adamantoise takes a few more shots (due to Auto-Shell and Shiva being weaker than Ramuh) and does enough damage to be kinda scary but still easy, Ramuh spam takes out the Ronka guns and Soul Cannon doesn't get a shot off. All randoms get completely wrecked by Ramuh or whatever else.
Archeoaevis is nastier, he gets off Frost and that 2HKOs my entire team, coupled with my offence dropping and my hideously bad healing I take a reset. I imagine I could have won by buring all my Hi-Potions/Elixirs but I'm not willing to do that. I set things up again, careful to complete the 3HKO on the first form when my other three PCs will get turns to start phase 2, and I kill phase 2 before it can get off Frost. His durability gets steadily better as the fight goes on, I need to switch to Ramuh and then CHOCOBO against the final phase which nulls all relevant elements. Fortunately the final phase has a lot of shitty moves so isn't too much of an issue, Chocobo also is surprisingly legit, about equivalent to a decent, ITE, long-range untwinked physical at this point.
At this point I gain access to my other jobs, I only use one Dancer for the end of W1 as you might expect. Titan's death counter OHKOs both my Level 18 Summoner and Dancer, but Ramuh spam means he doesn't exactly get many turns before said death counter, so whatever. The bombs whose names I won't attempt to spell get 2HKOed by Titan, it's cute how they think their Cura counters will save them. Manticore's another matter, he spams Aqua Breath so I have to dig into my Hi-Potion supply, using all but one of them, before I can Titan him away.
Abductor has a bad day, Galuf solo section is simple. The Big Bridge mostly features formations which can be one-shotted with untwinked Ramuh, with Neo Garula requiring a bit more but uh I have Titan if need be. Against Gilgamesh I spam Titan like crazy; Jump is scary because it's a high 2HKO to the low-HP types, I use Hi-Potion in response but those being highly limited means I'm concerned I might have to use Phoenix Downs. Yeah, not much of a concern I suppose.
Gloceana eats Titan/Ramuh spam as I just try to get through with hardly using any money. And now I can buy Gaia Gear! Everyone but Samurai can use it. Prepare to get wrecked, W2.
EDIT: Oh yeah I have one reset against a Jackanapes grabbing the Elven Mantle in Walse because seriously running fails for 12 consecutive rounds, FF5 run is stupid. Every other time it works within the first two rounds.
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Oh yeah, Shantae and EO4 are really good picks. I haven't played or am not really interested in the others (at least yet) for various reasons. I'm not very thrilled by IntSys nowadays.
I got a new 3DS and I didn't know about the SD card situation.
1) You have to use a screwdriver to change it
2) The standard SD card can not have both Soul Hackers and SMT4 on it at once
lol
Not sure if you saw my whining earlier on this, but I literally had to send my new 3DS off to the repair shop to get the damn screws off so I could replace the memory card. Bad times. (then it turns out that I bought TOO BIG a micro-SD card, although luckily it still works fine - you just have to format it on your computer rather than with the 3DS software, which can't handle 64 GB. Sheesh.)
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FF5 - Also started a Fiesta, no frills, no chills. Maybe I'll finish this one. First job is Blue Mage, which certainly beats the hell out of Thief.
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FFRK: well dang just when I was finally able to start going back and finishing all those Elite dungeons from the last round of new dungeons... They go and add MORE new dungeons. I'd be more excited if I knew these new dungeons added a character I wanted. But apparently they just add Red XIII (who I already have from the Sephiroth event that hasn't actually ended yet...) and Ricard, another GREAT Dragoon...
I still don't have any spears... Not for Balthier NOR Kain as is... And you give me Ricard? Dammit Game. I guess this will make saving up mythril easy for a little while!
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So I was looking into Sam Barlow, who did Her Story, and saw that he worked on some of the latter Silent Hill games, which I never touched. Can anyone vouch for Silent Hill: Shattered Memories in particular? It looks like a Silent Hill retelling with an interesting framing device but reviewers don't seem to love it.
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Speaking for other people,
IIRC Andy liked it but the gameplay is kind of meh and my memory of Alex's opinion is off, I can't tell if he ironically enjoys it or if its a thing he enjoys making fun of.
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FF5 - Already got through the Ship Graveyard. Blue Mage really makes going through the motions a breeze - Goblin Punch at worst is a nice boon for randoms this early, letting you put your entire party on the back row, and at best is hilarious, OHKOing things that are the same level as my PCs. Aero is your typical early game magic that's pretty decent for crowd control this early and, of course, Vampire is kinda overcentralizing this early, especially under GBA rules. Parasitic healing that doesn't suck, you say? Sure. Karlabos and Siren were pretty perfunctory as such - Karlabos ate pretty painful Vampires any time he attempted Tail Screw and back row takes a lot out of Siren's physical bite when she turns into a zombie. There's also the whole issue of a mage party turning her into paste. This could've been uglier with Black Mage, assuming they managed to get to Siren's zombie phase (GETTING there can be a problem), but so far, so good.
I'll assume I won't be able to land Mighty Guard and Transfusion unless I pick up a Beastmaster, though, which kinda sucks.
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You can get them via confusion instead. Worst case scenario, a Dancing Dagger works just fine even for Blue Magic SCCs.
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Do Blue Mages get confusion, though? I'm mostly thinking on how to get them to give me those spells in case I never land a job that allows me to use it. I gave up on two Fiestas due to the amazing Thief/Berserker combo (because it was honestly just -not fun-) and I don't really trust my luck to not saddle me with Berserker a third time.
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Like hinode says, Dancing Dagger has 1/4 chance to try and Confuse. The odds are kinda shit, but it works just fine (I know many other people have as well), I used it my fiesta a couple of years ago on iPaid version.
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Dancing Dagger at least ignores MEvade/Level so yeah it's 1/4 confuse on anything vulnerable, and allows you to get White Wind (Hellraisers) and Mighty Guard (Stingray) regardless of the rest of your party. It's glorious.
Beastmaster still lets you get a bunch of blue magic earlier than normal, though.
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Speaking for other people,
IIRC Andy liked it but the gameplay is kind of meh and my memory of Alex's opinion is off, I can't tell if he ironically enjoys it or if its a thing he enjoys making fun of.
He enjoys it.
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I liked SH: SM mostly. Parts of it kinda drag though.
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Speaking for other people,
IIRC Andy liked it but the gameplay is kind of meh and my memory of Alex's opinion is off, I can't tell if he ironically enjoys it or if its a thing he enjoys making fun of.
He enjoys it.
Thanks Jim. If you are both still online can you remind him of hello.
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Dancing Dagger at least ignores MEvade/Level so yeah it's 1/4 confuse on anything vulnerable, and allows you to get White Wind (Hellraisers) and Mighty Guard (Stingray) regardless of the rest of your party. It's glorious.
So, if I care, the game more or less already lost.
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Did you start FF5? RIP FF5 you never stood a chance.
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Speaking of breaking FF5, I can learn Frog Song at Walse's whereabouts, right? Trivializing Garula would be nice.
EDIT: I should've bought FF5 for the iPhone instead of playing the GBA version at home.
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Elf Toads in Walse Castle's tower (where you fight Shiva) will sometimes use it when alone, yes.
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Super Mario 3D Land: Chapter 2. Tanooki suit almost feels like cheating. I'll probably try a tanooki-less challenge later.
Soul Hackers: I expected this game to take itself a bit more seriously, this would have made the camp cyberpunk way better. Right now it feels outright goofy and no character is acting like a normal rational person. Too bad.
Still good though.
I'm playing on hard, Carol-J (the hell is up with that name?) was moderately difficult. Good times.
Paradigm X has to be the strangest (and maybe most boring) MMO ever so far, but I'm liking the first person quiz and weird gardens well enough. Why isn't the RPGDL like the beach forum in Paradigm X?
RK: Holy hell a new update already
This is amazing
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Final Fantasy When Mama Was Autobattle - Yeah, new update and I'm mostly slacking on dungeons because must. farm. black. power. Raised Blizzaga and Silence Buster to R3, hoping to raise at least one of the remaining -ra Strikes to R3 as well. The Breaks will have to wait until Saturday, which is Ice/Non-elemental orb day.
EDIT: I may end up powerdungeoning once the Yuna event shows up for the Mythril, though. But I suspect Cecil's reissue will come first, which will be a decent extra Mythril stash to pocket. I'm not banking on getting her unique staff, of course, but if it does happen, I'll be very satisfied. And, if the stat/skill load is accurate, she's totally going to be my Garnet replacement. 5 White Magic/5 Summon/3 Support, good lord. Proving once again that Elfboy's responsible for DeNa's character balance department.
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Black power is good, I care more about Black mage's R2 though
3D Land: I like how passive agressive the Toads are:
Chapter 1 Toad House: "Mario, a gift for you!" *Mario takes the powerup, jumps on Toad's head, burns his flowers, then leaves*
Chapter 2 Toad House: "Mario, a gift for you." *Mario takes the powerup, jumps on Toad's head, burns his flowers, then leaves*
Chapter 3 Toad House: "MARIO, A GIFT FOR YOU. MANY PICTURES OF YOUR GIRLFRIEND BEING KIDNAPPED. HOW DO YOU FUCKING LIKE IT, MARIO"
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So I was looking into Sam Barlow, who did Her Story, and saw that he worked on some of the latter Silent Hill games, which I never touched. Can anyone vouch for Silent Hill: Shattered Memories in particular? It looks like a Silent Hill retelling with an interesting framing device but reviewers don't seem to love it.
SHSM is an amazing, incredible, fantastic game and my opinion of it continues to rise over time. A lot of what it does right is subtle, introspective and not very traditionally game-like, so reviewers and players who come in expecting a "horror video game" tend to be confused and dissatisfied. And, yeah, the chase sequence bits are awful and sometimes frustrating. They are a minority of the experience though - for the most part it is an exploration/adventure/roleplaying game.
It is completely unique and I can't recommend it enough. Play the Wii version if at all possible, the motion controls add a ton to the experience as well (one of very few games I can ever truthfully say that about!)
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Sam Barlow has also made this in 1999.
It's pretty weird. I like it
http://www.ifiction.org/games/playz.php?cat=&game=232&mode=html
Click on "Do it" to begin, write something, click on "Do it" once to see the ending, click on "Do it" again to start over
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Did you start FF5? RIP FF5 you never stood a chance.
As someone who once attempted a White Mage SCC, I can attest that this isn't *always* true.
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The brunette spins round, "Shit!" You give her a menacing glare--"You don't need all that food! Where you're going--"
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I have no idea how you got that!
Oh, I forgot to mention that I had also forgotten about your New 3DS problems, Snowfire!
Is there no way to unscrew this with a regular screwdriver? What happened?
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It's mostly that the factory screws are machine-screwed and lodged in very, very tight. If you don't use a *perfect* screwdriver or slightly mess up, the screw will become stripped enough to be even harder to get out.
Spoilers: take her trolley
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Am I mixing up which Silent Hill it is? Is it the one with the vagina tree? That was Downpour wasn't it? Dammit.
I remembered Andy talking about it by name but remembered talking about sequences with Alex (about Downpour?) and didn't have the names associated correctly. Damn you neural networks and your always on fuzzy search.
Edit - googling. It is Homecoming, it is a Tree Baby, not a vagina, adding Vagina to a query for "silent hill x" is useless and brings up 90% of the wiki pages. Like the first hit was the SH2 rape bed monster.
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Nice!
I like how realistic each option is, and how videogame logic plays against you here. One of the first things you'd probably do is "Talk to woman" and that obviously does not end well because you can't just talk to strangers in a supermarket in real life. Then you try other options like eat gnocchi, punch gnocchi, kiss woman, cry, sing, whistle, etc, and every time you come across as a total creep and everybody is glancing nervously at you. It's nice
This Silent Hill is the one with the psychologist
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FFRK: Beat all of Balthier's event. Got expert on the last two elite dungeons and the boss rush but whatever, I got my Rose Corsage. Don't think I'll try and finish Sephiroth's, it'll just make me angry.
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I decided to play something super old school~
Zelda 1 - I just finished the fourth castle and walked into the sixth and it was like... boom, wizard guys, you are dead, so now I am raising a fund for a new shield. I should make a Kickstarter. I actually found the eighth castle second but I was too terrified to even try it.
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So I was looking into Sam Barlow, who did Her Story, and saw that he worked on some of the latter Silent Hill games, which I never touched. Can anyone vouch for Silent Hill: Shattered Memories in particular? It looks like a Silent Hill retelling with an interesting framing device but reviewers don't seem to love it.
SHSM is an amazing, incredible, fantastic game and my opinion of it continues to rise over time. A lot of what it does right is subtle, introspective and not very traditionally game-like, so reviewers and players who come in expecting a "horror video game" tend to be confused and dissatisfied. And, yeah, the chase sequence bits are awful and sometimes frustrating. They are a minority of the experience though - for the most part it is an exploration/adventure/roleplaying game.
It is completely unique and I can't recommend it enough. Play the Wii version if at all possible, the motion controls add a ton to the experience as well (one of very few games I can ever truthfully say that about!)
Alex, I'll go ahead and say that you'll likely really enjoy Her Story. I'll send you the $5 if you don't.
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FF5 - Just went past North Mountain and Walse Tower! Randoms on North Mountain are fairly perfunctory, Goblin Punch 2HKOs them. Magisa and Forza... well, Magisa durability is kind of a thing, she fell to a few Aeros focused on her. She -did- get to cast Drain once on Lenna, but she missed the OHKO by a hair and ate a Vampire back. Forza... well, he's just not very good under Flash.
Walse Tower was almost as simple, though enemies no longer get 2HKOed by Goblin Punch. Garula was hilariously useless, Pond's Choir completely trivializes the fight. So, I get my second crystal and my second job! Which is... Summoner. Goodbye, game.
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I decided to play something super old school~
Zelda 1 - I just finished the fourth castle and walked into the sixth and it was like... boom, wizard guys, you are dead, so now I am raising a fund for a new shield. I should make a Kickstarter. I actually found the eighth castle second but I was too terrified to even try it.
That sounds relatively normal. The game itself came with a manual that told you where the first dungeon is (not that it's hard to find or anything), and had a map that showed you enough of the world to find dungeon 2; from there you were expected to find everything on your own. The game was designed with the idea of rewarding exploration and experimentation, though still had situations like "can't get through here without proper item!" (Step Ladder comes to mind.)
It's interesting how the franchise, for better or worse, basically has thrown away a large part of that and become just linear "Go here, do plot, do menial tasks, get to dungeon, complete, continue!" with some optional side stuff. It's interesting that Zelda Wii U seems to want to go back to the game's routes and be legitimate non-linear open world.
For the record, this is mostly me musing and such and not trying to make a point or anything...
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Miyamoto's original inspiration for the Legend of Zelda was exploring the woods he grew up by and finding a pond in it that he never knew existed so I've always found the movement to linear plotting kind of strange given that. But hey, the first idea for the X-Men was an analogy for puberty, so people can move away from their first idea.
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fenrir link
first thing i tried was "punch self in dick"
game responded "I only understood as far as you wanting to punch yourself."
satisfied.
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Simon The Sorcerer 4: Chaos Happens - played through
On the plus side, it didn't crash anywhere near as much as Simon 3D (although who can say how much of that was the fault of my failing video card). Doesn't have wide expanses of useless space and has generally more competent-looking graphics, although I don't remember enough about 3D's to say whether they hold up in the style department. Being 3D-on-2D means it avoids the issues that Simon 3D had being 3D-on-3D, for all that it shouldn't really score any points for that.
On the other sides, the voice acting is often terrible, and not just because the actors were different. It only pays lip service to the ending of 3D, although to be fair 3D only paid lip service to the ending of 2. Simon is annoyingly still a jerk, although I can't remember 3D well enough to judge whether he's more of one or not... the solution to 'getting a skateboard' probably beats out pretty much anything he could have done in 3D, though, and the events which happen later don't counteract it.
After completing the game, I checked over the manual and found that there was a hotspot display key I hadn't found, so this is partially my fault depending on how you look at it - but I was stuck for a while because I needed a knife or something similar and I couldn't find anything. Which is to say, I could at least find a kitchen knife, but Simon refused to pick it up. Ultimately the solution required a different kitchen knife which was inexplicably lying on the ground in a hard-ish to see location in a different area. (Noting that the incorrect kitchen knife was lying on a table in a kitchen.)
Ultimately I didn't get stuck anywhere near as much in the game as I did in 3D, which is always a relief. Can't tell whether the game was noticeably shorter than 3D or not - if it was, that could be the reason more than the game being friendlier. Definitely nothing approaching the level of 2's Wear Dog.
The roleplayers didn't show up, which was somewhat disappointing.
Out There Somewhere - played through
Short and dandy.
Didn't get all the collectibles, but I'm not planning on replaying to try for them - the central mechanic hasn't worn out its welcome by the time the game ended, but I feel like it would quickly do that once I started on the harder puzzle rooms.
Albedo: Eyes From Outer Space - played through
Awful.
I was playing on Adventure - Hard, Action - Easy. Not sure how the experience changes if Adventure is set to Easy.
Lots of issues with things being difficult to see, or not showing up in the hotspot detection, or being broken, or being absurd.
The hotspot detection, for some reason, briefly pulses across the outlines of (most) detectable objects. In a 3D game. Meaning you need to keep turning around and tapping the key. And it doesn't trigger if the last pulse is still considered to be happening. And the character makes one of a small set of 'helpful' comments each time which get old fast. And you have to hope that there isn't anything which is too far away to be visible or which is obscured by something else.
The worst parts that come to mind:
- Divining that you can walk up a very sheer girder the boiler room
- Having to continually provide distractions in the generator room. Having the character continually reference using the hand for this even after you no longer have it.
- Building a ladder up a pipe with pipe segments as follows: Take a pipe segment. Hold it behind the pipe. Fire a rivet into the front of the pipe. Somehow this a) attaches the pipe segment to the back of the pipe and b) doesn't lead to the pipe segment just swivelling downwards when you put your weight on it. Also you have to manually add each pipe segment separately.
- I haven't exactly done any climbing, so maybe this is legit and just seems really unintuitive. But you're climbing without any footholds and have to deal with your arms getting tired. You do this by taking the tired arm off the surface and just hanging there for a time with the other arm.
There is hardly any action actually in the game. It's always possible that having action set to easy removed a bunch of enemies, I suppose, but you don't have any worthwhile weapon to fight them with for the majority of the game. Furthermore, I died several times to the action sequence at the start of the cave, and when I survived I had completely run out of ammunition, so I have no idea how that ends up playing out in action settings above Easy.
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Snow I was going to say you are probably going to prefer Advanced version than iOS because it has a slight pause when ATB gauges fill that lets you have an easier time locking down Omega and the like with the right jobs and I know you like cheesing superbosses.
But then I started my play and remember RICHARD stars as Lenna's dad and Farris' side eye is like the best piece of Amano Art ever.
Sucks to be you chump.
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Miyamoto's original inspiration for the Legend of Zelda was exploring the woods he grew up by and finding a pond in it that he never knew existed so I've always found the movement to linear plotting kind of strange given that. But hey, the first idea for the X-Men was an analogy for puberty, so people can move away from their first idea.
I think it's because he made Ocarina of Time and then kind of never stopped making it because "PERFECT GAME!" or some such. Majora's Mask and A Link Between Worlds feel like the only truly original games in the franchise that weren't just "OoT with some sort of cheap gimmick" (Wind Waker's sailing, Twilight Princess' wolf, etc.), and the former was something that sort of happened by accident due to ideas being dropped and needing ways to compensate mid-development (apparently the vision was basically "OoT 2.0") and ALBW was made because Aonuma finally went "we've done this formulaic structure too damn much since 1998, maybe we should do something DIFFERENT"; ironic that the game that started as an ALttP remake ended up being the one to challenge the Zelda formula.
I hear Skyward Sword was actually going to be similar in that regard, but being a 20th Anniversary special game or some such, they realized playing with expectations may not be the wisest of ideas.
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The thing with GBA is mainly the frameskip convenience. I'm also wondering if I'll try Omega, but I'll plan around it -after- my party is fully assembled. Not sure how well decked Summoner and Blue Mage are for handling that in a vaccuum, my FF5 knowledge is hardly encyclopaedic as it stands. Portable FF5 could ruin my life in levels that Civilization could only dream of, to boot.
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FFRK: With less than a day left I managed to snipe-master Sephiroth's Boss Rush and claim some serious prizes in Power Breakdown, a Major Growth Egg, and
a Major Wind Orb Valefor. Seriously came down the wire, I was just poking Jenova Birth with physicals and Cloud had like 2 HP left when it finally poofed. I am surprised at how satisfying that was. Missed out on a lot of Black Power day, though...
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Final Fantasy Why Do You Autobattle Me - After massive black power grinding, I have: R4 Firaga, R3 Thundaga, Blizzaga, Fira and Thundara Strike, along with R3 Silence Buster. Sleep Buster R3 will wait for white power day (jesus this sounds horrible). This was pretty productive.
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You mean every day? What's next Snow, ”Where's my pride parade?"
I am not sure I read the priority queue for actions of Garula properly, but I swear he countered my monk's counters. So that was fucked. I poked a bit and just decided level 10 yolo focus and hope for critz. I didn't get many critz, but the jump from 9 to 10 made punches go from 63 damage a hit to 98, so Focus does some work and Garula spreads out damage super evenly and no one even dies.
Then I guess cause I was talking some shit before I got Berserker. Which is to say a charity got some money.
Edit - I paid for time Mage since it was equal cost to re rolling and is one I haven't had before.
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You mean every day? What's next Snow, ”Where's my pride parade?"
I'M SORRY OKAY
I am not sure I read the priority queue for actions of Garula properly, but I swear he countered my monk's counters. So that was fucked. I poked a bit and just decided level 10 yolo focus and hope for critz. I didn't get many critz, but the jump from 9 to 10 made punches go from 63 damage a hit to 98, so Focus does some work and Garula spreads out damage super evenly and no one even dies.
Then I guess cause I was talking some shit before I got Berserker. Which is to say a charity got some money.
At least, Monk will last you through world 1 still. Hope you get something better from the Fire Crystal, but hey, at least your suffering will make some charity group happy!
Also, this playthrough really drives home how badly I used to overlevel. I left Walse Tower at L11 on Faris and Bartz and I don't think I ever beat it so low. I probably should start running from fights more as well, since Excalibur will be all kinds of useless for this run.
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Also, this playthrough really drives home how badly I used to overlevel. I left Walse Tower at L11 on Faris and Bartz and I don't think I ever beat it so low. I probably should start running from fights more as well, since Excalibur will be all kinds of useless for this run.
Pretty sure you mean Brave Blade here? Because Excalibur has nothing to do with running last I checked.
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Well they will both be all kinds of useless, to be fair.
Not that Chicken Knife will necessarily be much good either. I just finished my own run with Summoner and they clear randoms more effortlessly that against many enemies it's "why run?". Of course I actually needed the levels a bit more than Snow for some insurance against Earthshaker and Almagest, he has Blue Mage so lulz.
As for Omega you certainly -can- win with the party you have, but it'll be tricky as you'll have to find a way to set Float before the fight, not die, and abuse reflected Search to do damage. Obviously if you get Bard or Chemist or Beastmaster it'll be another matter.
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Bravely Defaulting On Governement Debt:
I wanted to name the main characters Tsipras and Kirchner but apparently I have to wait until Chapter 5. I am pissed. 0/10 Delete game
Super Mario 3D Land:
Up to World 7.
This game has so much creativity and it's all kind of wasted because of the complete lack of challenge. I'm on autopilot in a Mario game. My very few deaths came from not paying attention. (or trying to get some hard to reach medals without the tanooki suit)
I know more levels are unlocked later but right now none of what I've already played matters.
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Bravely Defaulting On Governement Debt:
I wanted to name the main characters Tsipras and Kirchner but apparently I have to wait until Chapter 5. I am pissed. 0/10 Delete game
You're my hero.
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As for Omega you certainly -can- win with the party you have, but it'll be tricky as you'll have to find a way to set Float before the fight, not die, and abuse reflected Search to do damage. Obviously if you get Bard or Chemist or Beastmaster it'll be another matter.
For Float, IIRC, Mighty Guard sets it, no? If it lasts post-battle, that's a problem solved right there.
Pretty sure you mean Brave Blade here? Because Excalibur has nothing to do with running last I checked.
Yeah, it's Brave Blade, my bad.
EDIT:
Bravely Defaulting On Governement Debt:
I wanted to name the main characters Tsipras and Kirchner but apparently I have to wait until Chapter 5. I am pissed. 0/10 Delete game
I fucking love you, man.
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Oh right I forgot that it does that.
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Final Fantasy Take Me To Your Autobattle - Shuffling between Gil hoarding (those honing sessions get -expensive-) and random dungeon clearing for Mythrils. Things of note: Tiamat is vulnerable to Break, like in the original, and isn't particularly hard to hit with it, unlike the original. Gottos was hilarious because, between Slow, Sleep and Stop, it didn't get a single offensive action. Slowga is badass and you should craft it as soon as humanly possible. This lull where I have no real event blazing to do, but there's a decent enough amount of timeless stuff to do, is kinda pleasant.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Bad RNG luck. Main dungeon bosses still drop orbs and whatnot.
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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)
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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.
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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).
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Still got a copy Cap? I lost it in PC moves and as usual your guide is solid.
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Final Fantasy Eggs And Their Autobattles - THERE'S A PALMER BOSS BATTLE IN THIS THING. PALMER HAS A BOSS SPRITE.
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Something to get tattooed finally?
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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:
(http://statici.behindthevoiceactors.com/behindthevoiceactors/_img/chars/char_94220.jpg)
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.
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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.
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http://www.rpgdl.com/wiki/index.php/FF5#FF5_Walkthrough_1
Is this not it? It looks like the end is missing though.
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Not 100% sure on the labels here.
(http://www.rpgdl.com/wiki/images/b/ba/Ff5-dl.gif)
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http://www.rpgdl.com/wiki/index.php/FF5#FF5_Walkthrough_1
Is this not it? It looks like the end is missing though.
Yes that's it, thanks for locating it. And yeah I never finished it. Still nice for pointing out what Blue Magics are available at what point.
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The critical ones are really just Goblin Punch, Vampire, Death Claw, L5 Death, Black Shock and Aeroga. The rest are nice to have but not needed. (Most are easy enough to get that you'll get them anyway)
I decided to do a fiesta too since everyone and their mother is doing it this year somehow (Like five people I sub on youtube are streaming it, holy cow), even though I've done every FF5 SCC that matters at this point. I started the normal one and rolled Black Mage, Summoner, Beastmaster, Dragoon. Just got past the Big Bridge after three or four hours of play, thank you frameskip. Now I have Gaia Gear, so the rest of the game can effectively be soloed by my Summoner with little to no difficulty. Yay! If I am understanding the rules right, I could even make my whole team Summoners if I wanted, but to preserve some semblance of challenge I'll just stick to my one-per-character rule.
I guess I will try and also finish all the other run variants if I have time.
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You have to keep at least one PC in each class, but you can stick Summon on everyone if you wish. (And you even have a second rod-user.)
I wouldn't call Death Claw critical, Missile I honestly find more useful due to its better accuracy and lower cost. White Wind and Mighty Guard, on the other hand, are super-good.
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You have to keep at least one PC in each class, but you can stick Summon on everyone if you wish. (And you even have a second rod-user.)
I wouldn't call Death Claw critical, Missile I honestly find more useful due to its better accuracy and lower cost. White Wind and Mighty Guard, on the other hand, are super-good.
Death Claw is mainly used for cheesing early game bosses (Byblos). After that, I find myself rarely using it.
I did actually find a niche use for Roulette when I played the SCC. It's great for killing the barriers vs Necrophobia. There may be a better strategy, but if you get lucky it's rather quick. Obviously in a fiesta there's no point in subjecting yourself to this.
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Well, Snow has Ifrit, so Byblos is going to explode into barbecued demon chunks anyway. I do agree that Death Claw has one or two cool uses if you snag it in W1 (though doing so can be annoying depending on your team) but it certainly isn't on a short list of important blue spells.
Nice use for Roulette, I always figured it was completely useless but I guess Barriers are a rare enemy who are Heavy, ID-vulnerable, and have enough HP for you to care (and also appear in large enough numbers for the odds not to be horribly against you). As you note the risk factor means it probably only pays off for teams who can't control the Barriers well enough in other ways. Still cool.
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FFRK: oh sweet a new event for characters I don't have! Oh it's Cecil.
Dark Knight Cecil's Skill options are literally only limited to Combat 5 and nothing else... Wow. I think that may make him worse than Kain? Maybe. Not sure how his high level stats and Record Materia end up being but that weapon/skill variety is adorable.
I do wonder if we will ever see any other class changed PCs? Like Ninja Lenna instead of White Mage Lenna. Or Advent Children Cloud or Gunner Yuna or something?
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Metal Gear Rising: Another game that I never got around to despite owning forever. Unfortunately it's kinda crap. Plotwise it certainly succeeds at taking the piss out of the Metal Gear Solid setting, which I appreciate, but the gameplay is a mess of systems, design choices and poorly-thought-out setpieces that have yet to gel and often get in the way of the combat the game is supposed to be built around. Might finish it might not, leaning towards not because that would mean trying to win this stupid shoot-em-up sequence (early chapter 4) that I stopped at.
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Final Fantasy Rilkean Autobattle - So yeah, Cecil event is adorably useless for me in terms of PC roster. Paladin Cecil's tankiness and chibi-Mighty Guard SB are neat, but frankly I don't have space in my party for a fighter who doesn't sport one of Spellblade or Support 3 at the -bare minimum-. Dark Knight Cecil is just completely useless with Combat 5 and nothing else - Vivi gets away with only Black Magic because that skillset rules, but fighters just need more than that. The event design itself is also unimpressive: over half the bosses are just randoms with scaled up stats, not even a special condition of any kind. I can't imagine how they will make a remotely interesting boss rush out of -this-.
THIS SAID, this event completely rules just by virtue of having no need to ever use any of the PCs for target scores and having more Mythril than usual for a challenge event. I can just dump all the growth eggs on White Mage for the Record Materia and I'll definitely have the Mythril for an 11-pull when Yuna's event comes up to boot.
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The critical ones are really just Goblin Punch, Vampire, Death Claw, L5 Death, Black Shock and Aeroga. The rest are nice to have but not needed. (Most are easy enough to get that you'll get them anyway)
It also depends somewhat on what sort of run you're doing. Emission/Flamethrower with a Flame Rod is your best damage for a while in a Blue Mage SCC, but if you have Summon magic access it's pretty trivial.
Ramuh is probably the best use of Death Claw in world 1 since he lacks an exploitable elemental weakness like Byblos. There were a few other W1/2 bosses it worked on, but I can't remember them all off the top of my head. Gilgamesh3, maybe?
Roulette is probably best used on a Blue Mage SSCC with Bone Mail equipped, where you can still heal yourself with Vampire or Emission+Flame Ring. That is hyper-niche, though.
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Yeah, Flamethrower is handy. It's not 'needed' but it's nice for randoms. (I run away from a large percentage of battles in this game) Actually, it's a moot point anyway since you are virtually guaranteed to learn Flamethrower and Missile. Lategame the best damage comes from reflecting Aeroga off the entire party..
I am not 100% sure of this since it's been a while, but I think Roulette ignores the Bone Mail? If it doesn't then that strategy is even better than I thought.
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Roulette does heal undead, apparently.
And yeah, Death Claw's best use is either against Byblos (if you don't have access to Summon) or Ramuh (if you do have access to Summon). It also works on Adamantoise but this only matters on a SSCC because otherwise you'll just have L5 Death, and everything after you have Missile for anyway, and/or Phoenix Downs in the case of undead targets (Ghidra, Archeoaevis forms 2 and 4, Manticore, Tyrannosaur, Dragon Pod, Enkidu).
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Final Fantasy 3: Completed two boring, water themed dungeons that are stupid and really the MAIN EVENT in fighting a Power Rangers villain is next. Yeah, short play session, but here we go!
-Kraken's dungeon is awful in the NES version. Halfway in, I stopped caring and just started Record Keeper tactics...inspite of a Back Row Black Mage (front row, he almost does damage with Knives!), and the damage anemic White Mage. Need for healing? NONE. Knight is OP here, and Archer is good against half enemies here due to elemental weaknesses, kind of OK vs. the rest. Still, this part is pathetic. How bad is this? In a back attack, Black Mage got hit for 36 damage; he has just under 500 HP. White Mage later got hit for 60! There was a fight where 4 enemies attacked my Knight (Front Row) and all whiffed. DS Version is a little better, because enemies do damage, so back attacks can be meaningful, and petrify exists, though it's still not a good dungeon. It's simply "Did you have enough healing? If yes, you're fine." You should be able to have a healthy stock of Potions and be using one of Red Mage or White Mage here; I went in with 29 Potions and a Red Mage, that was more than enough; as a reminder, Potions are Dirt Cheap, even by FF3's money crunching standards (end of the playthrough, I bought 99 of them and my wallet barely felt it.)
-Kraken himself is very different in both games. NES version, how hard he is varies on a few things. First off, did you equip Flamemail or Knight armor on Knight? Flamemail is important because it nulls out the Ice Helmet's Ice weakness (which is KNight's best headgear at the time), as well as making you resist 2 out of his 3 attacks. Additionally, are you using a job that relies on Ice gear (like, say, Archer)? Weakness to Ice = you die if he hits you with Ice 2. Flipside, Fire spells are pretty lulworthy. If he were to hurl Lightning magic everyturn? He'd still be decent as he'd have 2HKO damage to just about everyone. I barely pulled through due to bad planning by having a hail-mary Black Mage throwing Bomb Arm, and that killing him. Oh yeah, like every other boss, Kraken lulz at Magic; Bomb Arm worked because Fire 3 is just so much better than the other level 3's (which makes sense; it's a level 6 spell)
How much stronger is Fire 3 you ask? Ice 3 is 95 power, Bolt 3 is 110 power, Fire 3 is 150 power. Considering FF3 uses a subtraction based defense system, this is why Ice 3 gets mocked by Kraken but a Bomb Arm can do 500 damage (way better than any physical damage.)
As far Kraken goes in the DS version? It's still RNG dependent. He either attacks twice with physical damage which is decent, so if he focuses he can kill someone, or he uses Blind which sucks. This is one fight where Knight might actually stand out since his defense is way higher than Warrior, and you can go in with 3 near dead PCs, and Cover cheese your way to victory. Also worth noting I made life harder on myself by going back to Thief who still can't do crap, thinking "oh, Lightning enemies, that'll make Spark Daggers good!" Nope, Thief still sucks here. It's worth noting, though, that Knight's Cover isn't that useful if you don't plan around it since Kraken's damage is in that annoying area where "high enough to 2HKO' but "not high enough to knock you into yellow". On the otherhand, Warrior's damage during this arc is suitably absurd. Royal Sword + Blood Sword + Advance = Watch me do 4 digit damage! That + Blood Sword's healing made him pretty much immortal unless enemies double critted him.
-Speaking of Crits, Critical HIt Rate by enemies in the DS version is annoyingly high.
-Sewers of Amur are not really noteworthy in the NES dungeon; they're straight up PATHETIC like Kraken's cave, since the enemies do 3 digit damage (average PCHP of about 550) so severla of them ganging up on one PC can be scary, but like DS Kraken's cave, it's really a case of "Did you prepare enough healing." DS version...is interesting. First off, like an idiot I didn't buy more potions, so this was harder than it needed to be. More to the point? This dungeon's difficulty is completely related to which jobs you use, though not in the usual way. Amur's equipment is ridiculously good compared to Floating Continent stuff. How good?
Thief has 56 Defense with it's Amur gear (which is all free I might add!) Warrior, your tank through most of the FC, has 41. For what this translates to in damage, Thief takes about 60 from enemies on a good day (before factoring in Back Row thanks to Boomerangs), Warrior takes about 150, assuming he hasn't used Advance yet. Any class that relies on FC stuff takes a beating here if in Front Row, save for KNight since Knight's Armor + his Vitality probably makes up for it. those with Amur equips just laugh it off. As such, for physical jobs, the "Good vs. Bad" for durability looks like this here:
Good: Viking, Archer, Monk, Thief, MAYBE Knight
Bad: Warrior, Dark Knight, Dragoon
...go figure, I went and made Luneth a Dragoon thinking "hey those Thunder spears should be nice against enemies down here!" Turns out that made my life harder, and probably should have stuck with Warrior a little longer, if only because he'd do way higher damage and each attack heals him. To be fair, because I used Dragoon, Arc was able to be a physical damage dealing Red Mage again thanks to Royal Sword clearing up, and with Main Gauche/Poison Dagger (stronger than FC Swords, and an agility boost, so helps getting Hit Benchmarks easier. Poison Dagger is even free); still, convinced this was a poor life decision especially since I went in there unprepared. Overall I made a dungeon that SHOULD be inconsequential harder on myself.
-Aria's Death scene (OMG SPOILERZ!!!) is better in the NES version, strange as this sounds. You may have heard my rants about FF4DS making scenes impossible to take seriously because cute art style trying to be dramatic and serious doesn't work, since it looks campy and silly? Yeah, this is very much in that vain. The NES version, you see the sprite push you aside, the arrow hits her, and she falls down. It's not especially good, but then it's an 8 Bit presentation, this is about the best you'll get in this engine, so you just go with it. DS version, Aria pushes Luneth, cut away, she's standing there and we see the arrow fly towards her in ARROW VISION which while neat the first time they did it in Two Towers, it looks ridiculous when FF3DS does it since it's lacks the speed and impact. Heck, the speed of the arrow really makes it feel like one of THESE moments:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd2nWh6wui0#t=3m48s
Then, to make things even more ridiculous, she falls down, to the side, IN SLOW MOTION, as though "OMG DRAMATIC!" In truth, she looks like a rag-doll, and her expression looks borderline smile. This is why I can't emphasize enough how much better Bravely Default was for going a minimal approach with cut-scenes. Seeing the characters talking on a black background, with simplified actions, animations, etc? It gets the point across that "this is just a representation of what is going on" so we can recognize the "cutesy" art-style BD has is, again, just a representation of what is actually going on When you try to full act a scene out, though, it makes the whole representation thing harder to swallow.
-...though the art style works fine for more comedic, light-hearted moments. Case in point, when the 4 Old Men appear in Amur for the first time, they jump into a silly pose, and it's all the more awesome for it. The art style being the way it is actually works with the scenes silliness, not against it. To FF3's credit, there are very few big, dramatic moments that rely on action that get hurt by it (Aria's scene is one of the exceptions; most of the "dramatic" moments are dialog driven like Desch's FF4ing himself), which is why this aspect didn't stand out to me until FF4DS, so just wanted to be clear I am not against the art-style as a whole. Furthermore, another aspect the DS version benefits from? Cutscene speed. The 4 old men don't have to walk off/on screen one at a time due to limitations, for example. Granted, there are moments where the DS takes longer because they try to expand the cutscene, but when the two are equivalent, DS version tends to come out ahead.
-Oh yeah, one last thing in Kraken's cave! In the NES version, there's a side path that leads to a pool with absolutely nothing there, which is a total dick move. DS version, they put Blizzaga there (which is no longer storebought), which is far more acceptable. Also, encounter rate in Kraken's Cave seems way lower than in the NES version.
And yes, I know that dungeon is not called Kraken's Cave but **** if it has any meaning to me other than "Kraken is here" and "you get Water Jobs." But more importantly, a Power Rangers villain is next and really, what else matters?
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Fuck all this talk got me to want to play FF5.
Then I realized that instead of FF5 I could be playing FF6. So, playing FF6 GBA with the SNES sound patch because the GBA sounds were not close enough to my childhood.
FF6 - Up to the Returner's Hideout just before the path split. Thoughts:
What is Emperor Ghestal's sprite actually supposed to look like? As a kid I always thought he was some sort of anthopomorphic dog. Like, I even remember writing something akin to "The Stoner's Guide To Final Fantasy 3" as a dumbass teen and called him Dog Hitler. This is a notion that as a 28 year old man I have not yet been disavowed. Seriously how am I supposed to interpret that sprite except for as Dog Hitler?
Got caught in the "lol FF games are EZ" trap and just rushed the first non-Whelk boss with Locke's team of moogles. Won, but Locke had 1 HP and the moogles were all dead. Pure luck but whatever. FF games are EZ lol.
Figaro Castle is all sorts of hilarious to me now. Like, I never understood how Edgar was hitting on Terra in their first scene except the game was telling me that he was. After living in Japan I understand that the "Are you my type" question is way more flirty than it would be in the US... and it still is confusing and doesn't make any goddamn sense. Epitome of telling instead of showing. I choose to believe that Terra says that a normal girl would have been moved by Edgar's words only because she is starting at square one for any sort of human interaction and has no idea how a normal girl would react. Also Edgar but will wait until children are adults to marry them, but not to hit on them. Creep. Also what exactly is Edgar king of? One town and a technocastle? Also who is this high priestess Edgar tried to lay some game on? I am putting too much thought into this.
On a more serious critical note, the Sabin naming scene "ARE YOU... CRYING??!?!?" and the M-M-M-MAGIC?!?! Scene are just ridiculous. Also Terra apparently goes from confused amnesiac to winky-flirty because a couple of boys said she wasn't weird? K.
Man young me was dumb. Autocrossbow wipes up literally everything up until the point I've reached and I still thought Locke was the better character in fights.
I may have missed something but without prior knowledge how are you supposed to know that you need to blitz Vargas to win the fight? And what the blitz input for pummel is without being able to check a menu beforehand? I can only assume that the game tells you what to do if the battle goes on long enough? I dunno. I do know though that I vaguely remember getting stuck here a couple of times when I first played the game while renting it, so hey. Regardless, knowing what to do makes it not matter.
All throughout this intro Locke and Edgar have been talking about Terra as a weapon and I completely forgot about that. "A means of striking back at the empire has presented itself." lol dick, a star wars reference doesn't make that line any better esp when you're saying it in front of that very same "means." This part is actually kinda neat and reminds me of why I liked this game for its writing.
Sabin is happy to hear that he is a bear. Pappa bear needs to find a cub. Will that cub be Cyan?
Yes. Sabin will be fucking Cyan in the ass. That never stopped being a thing that was true, anyway.
In the next episode, do I get the genji glove or the gauntlet? tricked physical attacks don't matter
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Fuck all this talk got me to want to play FF5.
Then I realized that instead of FF5 I could be playing FF6. So, playing FF6 GBA with the SNES sound patch because the GBA sounds were not close enough to my childhood.
FF6 - Up to the Returner's Hideout just before the path split. Thoughts:
What is Emperor Ghestal's sprite actually supposed to look like? As a kid I always thought he was some sort of anthopomorphic dog. Like, I even remember writing something akin to "The Stoner's Guide To Final Fantasy 3" as a dumbass teen and called him Dog Hitler. This is a notion that as a 28 year old man I have not yet been disavowed. Seriously how am I supposed to interpret that sprite except for as Dog Hitler?
Got caught in the "lol FF games are EZ" trap and just rushed the first non-Whelk boss with Locke's team of moogles. Won, but Locke had 1 HP and the moogles were all dead. Pure luck but whatever. FF games are EZ lol.
Figaro Castle is all sorts of hilarious to me now. Like, I never understood how Edgar was hitting on Terra in their first scene except the game was telling me that he was. After living in Japan I understand that the "Are you my type" question is way more flirty than it would be in the US... and it still is confusing and doesn't make any goddamn sense. Epitome of telling instead of showing. I choose to believe that Terra says that a normal girl would have been moved by Edgar's words only because she is starting at square one for any sort of human interaction and has no idea how a normal girl would react. Also Edgar but will wait until children are adults to marry them, but not to hit on them. Creep. Also what exactly is Edgar king of? One town and a technocastle? Also who is this high priestess Edgar tried to lay some game on? I am putting too much thought into this.
On a more serious critical note, the Sabin naming scene "ARE YOU... CRYING??!?!?" and the M-M-M-MAGIC?!?! Scene are just ridiculous. Also Terra apparently goes from confused amnesiac to winky-flirty because a couple of boys said she wasn't weird? K.
Man young me was dumb. Autocrossbow wipes up literally everything up until the point I've reached and I still thought Locke was the better character in fights.
I may have missed something but without prior knowledge how are you supposed to know that you need to blitz Vargas to win the fight? And what the blitz input for pummel is without being able to check a menu beforehand? I can only assume that the game tells you what to do if the battle goes on long enough? I dunno. I do know though that I vaguely remember getting stuck here a couple of times when I first played the game while renting it, so hey. Regardless, knowing what to do makes it not matter.
All throughout this intro Locke and Edgar have been talking about Terra as a weapon and I completely forgot about that. "A means of striking back at the empire has presented itself." lol dick, a star wars reference doesn't make that line any better esp when you're saying it in front of that very same "means." This part is actually kinda neat and reminds me of why I liked this game for its writing.
Sabin is happy to hear that he is a bear. Pappa bear needs to find a cub. Will that cub be Cyan?
Yes. Sabin will be fucking Cyan in the ass. That never stopped being a thing that was true, anyway.
In the next episode, do I get the genji glove or the gauntlet? tricked physical attacks don't matter
The "high priestess", as far as I know, is the old lady you talk to that triggers the Sabin naming cutscene.
As for Vargas, the game feeds you a tutorial on how to use Pummel the first time you hit him with any attack that isn't Pummel.
Genji Gloves are more difficult to get more of later and are compatible with more weapons, typically making them the option of choice.
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Actually Genji Gloves are easier to get more of later as there are only a finite number of Gauntlets in the game (two more of each in chests, but Genji Gloves can be stolen from Dragons). Not that it matters, Genji Glove is better, plus Zenny's point.
FF3 comments: I'm not sure why you say Hunter is "reliant" on ice equips since he can equip ice+fire to mock elemental damage, or am I misunderstanding your comment? Also you actually missed 3DS' Kraken's best spell, that being a Blizzara which can OHKO lower-MDef types. So no, Knight-Cover cheese is not a good strategy there, sorry Knight!
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Fiesta (Summoner/Black Mage/Dragoon/Beastmaster):
I'm up to World 3 already. Smooth sailing. The only change I've made to my party is swapping my Dragoon and Summoner's classes after the Dragoon learned Lance. I guess I could get Summon for my Black Mage too, but honestly Black Magic is plenty powerful too once you get the tier 3 spells. I had forgotten just how worthless the Dragoon and Beastmaster's (and most melee) physical power is compared to magic in this game. Beastmaster might as well not be there except for catching a Yellow Dragon to do 8000 damage to Ex-Death. It's always fun casting Sleep on Atomos and laughing.
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FF3 comments: I'm not sure why you say Hunter is "reliant" on ice equips since he can equip ice+fire to mock elemental damage, or am I misunderstanding your comment? Also you actually missed 3DS' Kraken's best spell, that being a Blizzara which can OHKO lower-MDef types. So no, Knight-Cover cheese is not a good strategy there, sorry Knight!
It seems I was mistaking and missed that he can use Flamemail, so yeah, amend that. For some reason thought he could only use Ice equips, but not flame equips.
And he never used Blizzara on me, and I seem to recall something about the stat topic not having him use it initially and it being amended later, suggesting it's not a common spell. Though yes, that alone makes the "knight tank cheese!" set up dangerous. Also makes Knight Armor less viable because it means you're not using Flamemail, meaning you aren't resisting it. So really, you're just better off with Warrior through and through.
As far as the ears go, that's suppose to be really damn long, stylized hair; look at his Amano Art for further reference (which will appear in the GBA version once he gets a real dialog box, not a text overlay in a flashback.)
Also, Zenny, as far as Gestahl goes? That's suppose to be a mustache, and the black part below is just a shaded region to show the depth of the mustache. I never saw the "dog" thing until the internet, and never had problems interpreting it. This isn't to say I haven't had other issues interpretting FF6 sprites, like the generic females "down" sprite, I always interpretted it as seeing the legs and up her skirt, leading to a weird perspective, when what I thought was the legs was actually the hair and thus the head is facing the camera, not away.
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Figaro Castle is all sorts of hilarious to me now. Like, I never understood how Edgar was hitting on Terra in their first scene except the game was telling me that he was. After living in Japan I understand that the "Are you my type" question is way more flirty than it would be in the US... and it still is confusing and doesn't make any goddamn sense. Epitome of telling instead of showing.
One of his reasons is "your beauty has captivated me" and you still didn't put it together?
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What is Emperor Ghestal's sprite actually supposed to look like? As a kid I always thought he was some sort of anthopomorphic dog.
Didn't play FF6 as a kid because no SNES, but when I got around to it in college that is exactly what I thought he was. I wondered for a fraction of a second why a dog was leading the world's most fearsome empire, then concluded that since FF6 wasn't interested in addressing this I might as well stop asking stupid questions.
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The amusing thing is if it was FF9 that had that, they wouldn't have any need to address it, since FF9's world is filled with anthropomorphic...well...everything, it pretty much explains itself. I mean, Zidane's got a tail, and they never once reference it as anything beyond a physical description of the character.
That said, there's still the whole Lonewolf aspect. FF6 never establishes a Werewolf race the way FF5 did, so having an Anthropomorphic wolf run around and all people think of him is "He's the infamous pickpocket!" is kind of strange. Wonder if FF6 was going to have a small village or others like that and just dropped it mid-way, keeping Lonewolf because "let's make another Cid-like character!" that fell through. About the best explanation I got (at least they used the sprite through Espers, so it's not like total waste?)
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Always looked like a dog to me.
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Lonewolf is actually just a furry. Stealing things dressed as an animal is a sexual thing for him. Don't ask what he wanted the gold hairpin for.
Still, FFVI has Gogo too, so it's not like he's the only FFV reference.
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Genji Gloves are more difficult to get more of later and are compatible with more weapons, typically making them the option of choice.
Genji Glove is actually straight up superior in FF6, since Gauntlet isn't 2x damage. It's still pretty much irrelevant, admittedly, except in various challenges because lol FF6 physicals. I'm used to putting one on Locke for all the WoB dungeons he's forced, but that's because I pretty much exclusively play NMGs where he can't use Espers to get a real skillset.
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Also hey it lets you equip two Enhancers.
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Genji Gloves are more difficult to get more of later and are compatible with more weapons, typically making them the option of choice.
Genji Glove is actually straight up superior in FF6, since Gauntlet isn't 2x damage. It's still pretty much irrelevant, admittedly, except in various challenges because lol FF6 physicals. I'm used to putting one on Locke for all the WoB dungeons he's forced, but that's because I pretty much exclusively play NMGs where he can't use Espers to get a real skillset.
I remember someone actually demonstrated that with Illumina and Ragnarok, unless you're using one of a handful of weapons (like Valiant Knife for example), will actually be better with Gauntlet, because you're dramatically increasing the High Powered Auto Crits, which apparently gives mroe damage than most 2nd weapons. Granted, FF6a renders that pointless, and generally speaking, Illumina works best with a good shield anyway.
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Figaro Castle is all sorts of hilarious to me now. Like, I never understood how Edgar was hitting on Terra in their first scene except the game was telling me that he was. After living in Japan I understand that the "Are you my type" question is way more flirty than it would be in the US... and it still is confusing and doesn't make any goddamn sense. Epitome of telling instead of showing.
One of his reasons is "your beauty has captivated me" and you still didn't put it together?
I wasn't a very bright child and to be honest I forgot about that as soon as he said it last night too.
OK so Dog Hitler totally is a thing other people saw. His Amano art is of an old dude so I guess the ears and dog nose are supposed to be hair but no fuck it Dog Hitler.
Guys. Guys. The answer is that basic physicals don't matter. That is rule 1 of getting anything done in FF6. On an actual FF6 mechanics question, did FF6a fix the MEvade glitch? Does Evade actually matter? Similarly, does Blind do what it's supposed to do and not just give you bitchin shades?
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For what it's worth I also thought and still think that Gestahl looks like some sort of dog.
Yeah, those bugs are fixed in FF6a so sadly you can't rock shades without a (slight) performance hit any more.
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:( this game sucks 0/10
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I finished Zelda 1 today. Interestingly, the palace I had the most difficultly with was the sixth one, with the seventh one being pretty lol terrible (including the boss which gets hilariously owned by the Magic Wand). Final dungeon was kind of like a longer version of the sixth palace with less required Wizzrobes and with more dead ends. Fuck those jelly guys that permanently eat your magic shield in the ass. I had so many resets over that.
I think the first part of the game was a little rough going since you have to feel out where you are going and you get really confused at first, but as time went on and I had a much better clue of where I was going, the game was more fun.
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Yeah IIRC The 6th palace was always the hard one. Wizzrobes are some bullshit.
Are you gonna do the second quest? Unlike Zelda 2's second quest it's actually worth playing. Different dungeon placement, a handful of new enemies, and a couple mechanics that playing without an FAQ are probably either kinda interesting or extremely frustrating (false one-way walls).
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Guys. Guys. The answer is that basic physicals don't matter. That is rule 1 of getting anything done in FF6. On an actual FF6 mechanics question, did FF6a fix the MEvade glitch? Does Evade actually matter? Similarly, does Blind do what it's supposed to do and not just give you bitchin shades?
Yeah, it's fixed. On top of this, a few other quirks got fixed alongside it. For example, Beads on top of 20% Evasion also flat out halves accuracy of on-coming enemy physicals (so they're a lot better than they appear.) A few status have a 25% impact in the same vain, both positive and negative (like Haste and Slow with the expected results.) oddly, Seizure of all things BOOSTS Evasion, and Reraise Lowers it. Forget what happens if you have something like Haste + Reraise.
Another bug fixed was Vanish/Doom, which on top of fixing it, they also made just about every boss immune to Vanish as a precaution.
A new bug that shows up, though, is the Imp one. Any spell that toggles Imp status can be immuned by nulling Imp. This means Bad Breath becomes a glorified Imp spell and thus kind of completely worthless as a result.
There's also an item dupe bug but considering it's a pain in the ass to activates and only happens at the final boss...forget I even brought it up.
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I'm not sure, but FF6a may have the same random battle bug as FF5a too, where the formations you run in to are fixed after saving and reloading.
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Guys. Guys. The answer is that basic physicals don't matter. That is rule 1 of getting anything done in FF6. On an actual FF6 mechanics question, did FF6a fix the MEvade glitch? Does Evade actually matter? Similarly, does Blind do what it's supposed to do and not just give you bitchin shades?
Yeah, it's fixed. On top of this, a few other quirks got fixed alongside it. For example, Beads on top of 20% Evasion also flat out halves accuracy of on-coming enemy physicals (so they're a lot better than they appear.) A few status have a 25% impact in the same vain, both positive and negative (like Haste and Slow with the expected results.) oddly, Seizure of all things BOOSTS Evasion, and Reraise Lowers it. Forget what happens if you have something like Haste + Reraise.
Another bug fixed was Vanish/Doom, which on top of fixing it, they also made just about every boss immune to Vanish as a precaution.
A new bug that shows up, though, is the Imp one. Any spell that toggles Imp status can be immuned by nulling Imp. This means Bad Breath becomes a glorified Imp spell and thus kind of completely worthless as a result.
There's also an item dupe bug but considering it's a pain in the ass to activates and only happens at the final boss...forget I even brought it up.
Huh, invest in Bead futures eh.
Continuing from last night, up to the Veldt after beating the other two scenarios.
Noiseblaster > Lethe River. Really all there is to say on the matter.
Ultros and the tentacle rape reference. I can't imagine that line was in the SNES translation. 1 reset here, MT tentacle followed by ST tentacle and a physical wiped out half my party from full HP. Put Terra in the back row and the problem was solved. I remember getting walled here a lot as a kid to the point where each time I had to start over (oh, the days of cartridge rentals) I would just level until I had drain or something stupid like that. Turns out 10 year olds don't understand that yeah row kinda fuckin' matters.
The star wars refrance pile doesnt stop getting taller. Curious to see if these were in the original Japanese but I doubt it.
Are there any Rages worth getting at this point except for Stray Cat? I never really used Gau that much in the WoB but may use him a bit to change things up until I unlock espers.
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Ultros' lines were universally different in the SNES version, and while Kefka was mostly maintained (and eveng ained MORE One-liners) they were pretty much for the worse since they were all literal changes. In the tentacle rape case, it was "Delicious Morsel, let me get my bib!"
The big loss for Ultros is "That's it. Game Over! Don't tease the Octopus kids!" being replaced with "You're up the creek without a paddle!" Sure, the former is completely out of nowhere...but isn't that Ultros' thing? The ladder is just a generic idiom that meh. Worst part is they always reference the new Ultros translation and like to pretend Woolsey never happened.
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Some of the names may have been retranslated in GBA, I dunno.
Marshall (the boss from the Narshe mines) has a strong always-MT wind attack. They're kinda rare IIRC.
Templar (heavily armoured imperial soldier with an axe) has Fire 2 and Auto-Protect.
Hazers and Ghosts from the Phantom Forest both have Bolt 2, the former is slightly preferable if you get both because it isn't undead.
Bomb has Blaze, slightly stronger than Fire 2 but no Auto-Protect.
A few enemies have Break... Dark Wind (brown bird from the first overworld area) is definitely one.
Rhodox (squirrel-like creature from S. Figaro overworld) have Snare, which is death-counter-bypassing instant death.
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OK. Getting all of those sounds kinda tedious and unnecessary so I'll just grab a handful whatever of those pops up first. Thanks, Elf.
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Yeah, pretty much, that list is definitely more "these are some cool things to keep an eye out for" than "you must get all of them".
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Incidentally, I got Guard Leader/Marshal like the second fight, and Templar not long after. Gau basically soloed the entire Protect the Esper sequence.
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Huh, invest in Bead futures eh.
Bees?
RK: I got a little ahead, but then I tried to do dailies just for mithril, and real life stuff got in a way, and tomorrow is exp day so I'm pretty much already way behind again. FFRK in a nutshell.
Combat 5 is pretty good for me right now since all my breaks are R4. So I guess I can find some use out of Seph and D.Cecil.
Did another 11 mithril pull with 3 five stars relic. Seems to be the norm with me. I've got 16 natural 5* now, not including that useless accessory we got last event.
I have also used mithril to upgrade inventory a little but it feels so terrible.
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I also thought Gestahl looked like a dog, the same kind of dog as in Valkyrie Profile 2's Seraphic Gate.
To be fair he does have a weird character design, basically all hair and eyes:
(http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120725034956/finalfantasy/images/f/f7/GestahlNB.png)
(http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120725034522/finalfantasy/images/2/25/Chibi_Gestahl.jpg)
(http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140228072033/finalfantasy/images/0/08/FFVI_IOS_Gestahl's_Plot.png)
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Incidentally, I got Guard Leader/Marshal like the second fight, and Templar not long after. Gau basically soloed the entire Protect the Esper sequence.
Lucky bastard. Marshall's a pain in the ass to get since it's one formation that's shared with a bunch of others that you're basically not missing.
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Fenrir: the R4 breaks are -Support-type-. And later bosses (starting at right about now, Ghis already sports it) resist Breaks, lowering their effect, albeit not their accuracy. This is why having only Combat ranks sucks for breakers. This is more or less why I'm not benching Wakka/Red XIII anytime soon. At least, Support 3 gets you the status Busters, which are pretty big for spoiling bosses.
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Huh, invest in Bead futures eh.
Bees?
Fuck why wasn't I up at 4AM to say this first.
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Just checked out some JP Record Keeper stats, and holy shit the power creep is real. Faris has Support 5/Celerity 4/Thief 5/Dancer 4 with Dagger/Sword/Spear/Bow/Throwing/Harp/Whip for weapons and literally everything for armor. Krile has Black 5/Summon 5 with a magic stat only 5 points behind Vivi/Lulu and better defenses than them. Whips too, just to make Rydia even more irrelevant.
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Jesus fuck. And doesn't Thief eventually become the king and queen of debuffing too? Looking at the stat thieving skills, my mind went-blank-.
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Yeah, Power Steal and Armor Steal have the same debuff levels as their Breakdown counterparts plus buffs on the user, while still being only 4 star for rarity. Only drawback is that we'll have to wait forever to get them.
Funny how Steal ends up being way better than usual in RK because DeNA is unwilling to code in steal tables.
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Krile has Black 5/Summon 5 with a magic stat only 5 points behind Vivi/Lulu and better defenses than them. Whips too, just to make Rydia even more irrelevant.
Doesn't matter, North America will never get Krile. *drops mic*
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Final Fantasy Love Of Autobattle - Cap-broke White Mage and got both her Record Materias. Free Protectga/ healing charge every fight forever and ever.
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FF5 - Currently doing side stuff in preparation for Ronka ruins. Galuf just learned Control, which I promptly used to learn Transfusion, and I'm going to pick Flamethrower and Missile as well. Not sure I should bother with Self-Destruct and I certainly didn't bother with Dischord (is it even learnable in FF5?) and Magic Hammer, trivializing Byblos with Ifrit and Death Claw was much better. Aqua Breath and L5 Death obviously saw use so far, hail that Elf Mantle.
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Self destruct can one shot Azulmagia. He's easy enough though.
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Dischord (is it even learnable in FF5?)
Nope.
FFRK: About 80% done with Cecil event, which is hella easy.
Terra Battle: Realized my phone can play this now so I'm only a year late to the discussion. I have yet to obtain any ugly old men. My first pull was an SS rank healer. Her art is unfortunate though:
(http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/terrabattle/images/c/c1/Amina.png/revision/latest?cb=20141011033328)
That's supposed to be her butt hanging between her legs but it comes off as a giant cameltoe. And they show her portrait every single time she attacks.
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Dischord isn't Blue Magic but Dark Shock/Spark is, and you definately want that - it rounds levels down when used, so it can create new opportunities to use L5 Death.
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Captain K noooo
Only play one F2P game at once
Soul Hackers:
This conversation:
"Hey, Mister! Did you know that dolphins are super smart? I think if they're smart, they know how to lie. Like they'd be deceitful and plot against us. They'd lull us into security... They might even assassinate the prime minister! Just because they're animals doesn't mean they're innocent. I bet dolphins are just waiting for the moment to strike."
Next boss fight:
(http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130501173540/megamitensei/images/2/2a/Snapy_DSSH.png)
I think magic damage is exponential or something because Nemissa is way more nuts than before, when she was already completely nuts.
The damage of my party goes:
- Main character ~60 with physical attacks and he has nothing else.
- Zeed: Slightly less than MC when I keep him levelled
- Demons: Around 30 damage with physicals or spells. Note that demons can disobey and do random shit you don't want them to do at the worst times.
- Nemissa: 280 damage with a 3MP Bufu spell / 8 MP Mabufu. That Mabufu is my only really reliable strong MT damage and is a lifesaver.
Here I'd say that ice immunity walls my team because I'm too reliant on Nemissa for damage, but she can just cast Media every turn instead. She can cast it 23 times before running out of MP.
This is a bit unfortunate since the gameplay is centered around demons yet they are pretty much worthless right now. They can use buffs/debuffs and serve as meatbags. They can also use healing, they're way worse at it than Nemissa but I don't want to rely on Nemissa for healing.
Despite Nemissa, bosses have been pretty rough (this is hard mode) Lots of effective status.
The "More items" app is extremely good, I get unique equipment and gifts all the time.
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Only play one F2P game at once
That's good advice. I did stop Puzzle & Dragons though!
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Dischord isn't Blue Magic but Dark Shock/Spark is, and you definately want that - it rounds levels down when used, so it can create new opportunities to use L5 Death.
Yeah, I did pick that up. More opportunities to slam people with the LX spells is always good.
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VP2: Are kobold scenes the best part of the game? I think they might be.
What does the gender-switching sealstone even do? I'm tempted to sneak it onto the dais outside Freya's door, but it's a bitch to get up there and I doubt it would actually produce any amusing results.
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Final Fantasy Autobattle Days Are Over - So yeah, Cecil event makes the Dreadnought Leviathan look good for difficulty. If you WANT, you can even just let Dark Knight Cecil thwack you twenty times and then die as long as ypu don't attack him back. Like in the original! That said, just killing him is faster anyway, and Protectga + Sentinel's Grimoire = Cecil deals as much damage as difficulty 40 randoms. That was utterly pathetic.
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Huh, invest in Bead futures eh.
Bees?
Fuck why wasn't I up at 4AM to say this first.
No, not the bees? Not the bees not the bees not the beeeeees
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Looking up: FF6's Japanese script absolutely had some of the Star Wars references (at the very least, Biggs, Wedge, and the [Millennium] Falcon are there).
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Ffrk
Mastered balthier's event, 1st one I've completely beaten. Hurray me.
Got my ff4 squad out for Cecil's rerelease.
Made pld my generic healer for now though rydia not being able to use fire against milon is a shame. I don't have any real good holy attacks yet.
Not that I really need it. This event might be easier than the last one.
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Reiska: Yeah I'm talking about the more overt, "Aren't you a little short to be an imperial trooper" stuff, Reiska.
FF6 - Zozo through Magitek Research Lab. Slam Dancers and Hill Gigases in Zozo are scary but fortunately Gau also got a bomb so I had someone with float. Cute that confusing the imps there is something you really really don't want to do since they'll cast vanish on you and guarantee that the Slam Dancers will OHKO.
I spent 5 minutes thinking about my esper setup before remembering it isn't going to matter at all because I'm not playing Evil Type.
The Opera Scene... so, the music restoration patch I used for whatever reason decided that instead of the FF6 SNES opera sound files they would inject an actual operatic rendition of the songs... which on the one hand is kinda cool, since they use the Japanese lyrics and I can finally have the words on the screen mesh with the notes of the song in my brain, but on the other hand really took a lot away from the scene. But honestly I imagine most of my misgivings about the decision are just because it's not emulating my childhood as hard as it possibly could be and I don't actually have any valid criticisms. Ah well.
Lol can you seriously not change Espers until you have more than 4? There doesn't seem to be any way of taking Espers off except for putting a new one on, and since all of mine were already equipped... wow. I know you get Shiva and Ifrit and then a whole shitload of others about the time you'll want to start changing espers but come on that is a serious stupid flaw right there.
Hooooly fucking shit Cid's portrait is hideous. And the whole "Locke doesn't trust Celes anymore" shit is so goddamn manufactured. You're really gonna take Kefka at his word? Celes saving your ass immediately after doesn't tip you off that this is retarded? Whatever.
Sealed Cave is next then. Gonna shelve Gau for now, figure since I'll be forced to use Locke up until the FC I should let him get magic, and beef up Edgar's skillset so I'll have two competent PCs for the first stretch of the WoR. He's definitely way better than I had expected, though. Having access to -ra spells before you get Magicite is all sortsa ridiculous.
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Reiska: Yeah I'm talking about the more overt, "Aren't you a little short to be an imperial trooper" stuff, Reiska.
FF6 - Zozo through Magitek Research Lab. Slam Dancers and Hill Gigases in Zozo are scary but fortunately Gau also got a bomb so I had someone with float. Cute that confusing the imps there is something you really really don't want to do since they'll cast vanish on you and guarantee that the Slam Dancers will OHKO.
I spent 5 minutes thinking about my esper setup before remembering it isn't going to matter at all because I'm not playing Evil Type.
The Opera Scene... so, the music restoration patch I used for whatever reason decided that instead of the FF6 SNES opera sound files they would inject an actual operatic rendition of the songs... which on the one hand is kinda cool, since they use the Japanese lyrics and I can finally have the words on the screen mesh with the notes of the song in my brain, but on the other hand really took a lot away from the scene. But honestly I imagine most of my misgivings about the decision are just because it's not emulating my childhood as hard as it possibly could be and I don't actually have any valid criticisms. Ah well.
Lol can you seriously not change Espers until you have more than 4? There doesn't seem to be any way of taking Espers off except for putting a new one on, and since all of mine were already equipped... wow. I know you get Shiva and Ifrit and then a whole shitload of others about the time you'll want to start changing espers but come on that is a serious stupid flaw right there.
Hooooly fucking shit Cid's portrait is hideous. And the whole "Locke doesn't trust Celes anymore" shit is so goddamn manufactured. You're really gonna take Kefka at his word? Celes saving your ass immediately after doesn't tip you off that this is retarded? Whatever.
Sealed Cave is next then. Gonna shelve Gau for now, figure since I'll be forced to use Locke up until the FC I should let him get magic, and beef up Edgar's skillset so I'll have two competent PCs for the first stretch of the WoR. He's definitely way better than I had expected, though. Having access to -ra spells before you get Magicite is all sortsa ridiculous.
Re: removing Espers - try to equip a blank slot.
Re: Locke/Celes: I sort of strongly suspect at some point in development the writers planned on having some kind of deeper subplot about that but most of it got scrapped and they just didn't completely scrub it out entirely properly.
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The Locke/Celes thing is a relic of developmental ideas that fell through.
Notably, Celes' original concept was going to be sort of a "Kefka-lite" situation when FF6's theme was "Power leads to Corruption!" or some such. So Celes was going to be a somewhat sociopathic character who was in fact a double agent for the Empire, but her time on the Returners and interactions with Locke made her second guess herself, and actually turn on them. This scene very much fits in with that, as it'd be the point where Celes gets exposed but she's already decided she's had enough with the Empire.
Somewhere during development, Celes was turned into a more standard "hard as nails female who slowly develops her sensitive side", and I guess they really wanted Celes to leave at this point for whatever reason, so they kept the whole "double agent" thing but shifted it to be more "Kefka's a lying bastard" with Celes doing heroics to prove it. That's all well and good, but Locke's reaction really doesn't fit. Why does he trust the evil imperial clown who has would say anything to screw with others over the character who has been his ally for sometime now that has done nothing suspicious since her time on the team? It's one of the more awkward and forced moments of FF6, in any event, because it feels OoC for Locke, and just to give Celes a reason to overreact to remove her from the team.
So yeah, it was effectively spawned from a plot that got scrapped because the Celes in question that was intended for that scene was removed in favor of the one we got, they just didn't delete the scene entirely. The original Celes probably would have had a personality making her legitimately suspicious and the fact that she was suppose to be a double agent would have made sense. The Celes we got, though, is very blatantly Anti-Empire from the moment we meet her, so there's no reason to suspect she's a spy (Cyan aside, who is understandably suspicious for emotional reasons; granted, Cyan gets extra dialog there if he's in your teams, so there's that.)
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Cyan ... if he's in your team
lol
OK that makes sense. I'm kinda sad that they didn't go through with that now because it would have made her more interesting. Terra and Celes' character arcs are pretty similar in that regard come to think of it.
Up to just before the FC. No real thoughts. Dramatic scenes is dramatic. Strago's pretty good and I am tempted to spend some time getting good lores for him in the WoB before moving on, especially since he can be gotten as soon as you get the Falcon IIRC. In the spirit of using characters I didn't use as a kid, Locke is basically shelved for the rest of the game aside from the group dungeons. I could also bench Terra and Celes in that same spirit, but they're kinda too good and already both have lots of magic. It's not like it really matters in any case.
Any good rages I should get before moving onto the WoR? I checked a guide and it looked like the only things I'd really want don't open up until the WoR anyway, so I was just gonna do that then unless something neat opened up in the second quarter of the game.
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Aspik is nice. (Giga volt) chicken lip uses quake, so you can Gaia gear up and abuse that. To be honest, marshal will continue to wreck the fc, especially the IAF sequence, and magic will mostly eclipse rages in the WoR, though there will be some good options then too. In a solo challenge you'd probably want Ing for its resistances.
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You can certainly -find- Strago as soon as you get the Falcon, but you have to get Relm to snap him out of his cult brainwashing~ So, gotta beat Owzer's mansion first.
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Chimera's decent too, being Aqua Rake with a crap ton of status immunities.
Chicken Lip actually isn't a good rage in the WoB, contrary to popular belief. On paper it should be amazing but most of what you fight after it's available floats, making the offensive benefits of it really crappy despite how awesome Quake is, and when it would be good in the WoR, you could just have Gau cast Quake outright (there's little reason to hold off on Narshe, seeing as it has some of the best rewards, especially relative to how easy the dungeon is). The "it heals and damages!" factor doesn't really come up as a result, since most things immune it, so if you want Gau to heal, just have him cast Cure 2, and when damage comes up, you're better off casting Magic.
This is around the point where Rage's stop standing out offensively. Aspik remains good for the time being, as does Stray Cat, but this is around the time Rage's start becoming more defensively worthwhile. Chickenlip would have been great if most of the FC wasn't flying enemies, but that's kind of the problem. I guess Wind Slash is good for the IAF sequence since it hits both sides and nails weaknesses, so Marshall still remains workable.
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I've certainly gotten good use out of ChickenLip before. You're underestimating the time it takes to get Quake on everyone; ChickenLip if you are fortunate enough to grab it is available from the start of the post-Falcon WoR, while Quake requires you beat Umaro's Cave then gain 34 AP on every PC you want to use it, which is a notable lag even if you do Umaro's Cave as the absolute first thing in the WoR (which meh, lots of other things have rewards you may want first). But yeah it + maybe a couple L3 spells/Pearl/X-Zone in the early WoR are certainly rage's last gasp offensively.
Otherwise good late-WoB rages have already been covered. Anguiform is a perfectly acceptable substitute for Chimera incidentally. Was there a WoB rage which could use Cyclonic too? Baskervor? I don't recall.
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OK that makes sense. I'm kinda sad that they didn't go through with that now because it would have made her more interesting. Terra and Celes' character arcs are pretty similar in that regard come to think of it.
Shit was much edgier in the original designs. I think Terra was going to die at the end and Locke was a Dark Knight so he got all his power from cutting himself.
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FF5 - Dark Spark, Flamethrower and Missile get. Unsure of whether I should detour for the Blitz Whip or beat Sol Cannon senseless. Is Ronka a point of no-return? Learning 1,000 Needles would likely make my life a lot easier against the Skull Eaters.
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OK that makes sense. I'm kinda sad that they didn't go through with that now because it would have made her more interesting. Terra and Celes' character arcs are pretty similar in that regard come to think of it.
Shit was much edgier in the original designs. I think Terra was going to die at the end and Locke was a Dark Knight so he got all his power from cutting himself.
Locke wasn't a Dark Knight. He was, however, kind of emo and had Runic as his special. Terra was originally going to be male and the intention was indeed for male!Terra to die, but they figured the story worked better with a female, and reflecting upon it, having a character deal with so much crap and not get a satisfying conclusion would be a dick move.
Also Male!Terra and Emo!Locke were apparently going to be shonen (Friendly) rivals, so that also suggests Male!Terra's personality was going to be way different as well. If Locke was similar to the Locke we got now, it'd be easy to picture male!Terra s a Cloud or Squall-style protagonist (...not saying those two are the same, because they really aren't, but they could be argued as falling under the same general umbrella if that makes sense. Basically, Cloud and Squall are more similar to one another than either are to someone like Zidane or Tidus.)
In fact, Male!Terra was originally drawn to look like Squall!
Linking to image since posting it seems to lead to it being too small. (http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20131028181504/finalfantasy/images/a/ab/Nomura_FFVI_Cast_Artwork.jpg)
That was extremely early concept art done by Nomura for FF6 in those stages. Most of the characters should be identifiable for one reason or another (case in point, guy holding Dice is obviously Setzer, male with Bandana is Locke, etc.) For the ones that are harder to figure out:
Not!Squall in the middle: Male!Terra most likely. The placement, Nomura's statements about how he feels about certain character roles, and the fact that he's known to reuse designs suggests that's who this character is.
Female in the bottom right-hand corner: Angela, I think her name is; the whore of Nikeah. I believe she was intended to be playable, and be modeled after the FF5 Beastmaster, whips and everything, as well as suppose to be Cyan's foil of sorts. Sort of process of elimination given the only other Young Adult Female on there is probably Celes given the sword.
Old Woman: Strago's Wife, a Geomancer. A dropped character whose purpose sounds like it would have been to get into Old Married Couple arguments for comic relief.
I think there's a handful of other Early Nomura concept designs for FF6, but this is the most interesting because it shows the original intended cast. The others are things like "look at the Figaro Bros., Locke, and Cyan together!" or something along those lines. Also ones from FF5, but those seem to have been done later in development considering they all more or less look like their in-game selves, save for Bartz's spikey hair.
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Post Lonka you will lose Galuf.
FF5 - Rolled earth, got Chemist. Monk-Time Mage-Bard-Chemist. Should be alright.
Adamantoise walled me and then I broke a couple of rods on his face. Trying to work out how to kill so,e Prototypes so I can get some Dark Matter.
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What does the gender-switching sealstone even do? I'm tempted to sneak it onto the dais outside Freya's door, but it's a bitch to get up there and I doubt it would actually produce any amusing results.
The gender switching sealstone needs to be combo'd with the White Loincloth to have any use. On top of that, the White Loincloth is only equippable on males and you can only get them from Gabriel Celeste. By itself, the sealstone does nothing.
However, if you do decide to pair it together with the White Loincloth, it effectively gives that character a x2 multiplier IIRC. This is pretty significant because most other skills and abilities top out to 50-60% at most.
This is why in files where you try to maximize damage, most people end up using Dylan. Not only can he use the White Loincloth, but he can also get access to the Tyfring, the strongest weapon on raw power as well as having Full Swing, which has the strongest multiplier out of all the normals in the game (x2.2). AFAIK, the only other character who kinda comes close is Freya and Freya can't use the White Loincloth. On top of that, the Ether Laser is one of a kind, so she also can't use Wrath of Forcefulness as it can't be replaced. The Tyfring can.
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That's one of the most absurdly situational pieces of gear I've ever encountered in a game. No wonder it only cost 150 crystals to return.
Also irrelevant! Because my party is Brahms + team valk and staying that way even though Freya would be a straight upgrade over Silmeria (are there even any new bows in the SG? I think she's still using junk from Lezard's tower). However, I'm sticking with Silmeria because honestly I have spent maybe .1% of my previous playtime with this game actually using the title character before and I figured I should fix that. And Hrist has Gungnir now so it's not like it even fucking matters who else is in the party anymore. Gungnir is so broke you guys. Holy shit. I mean, I remembered that, but it's still amazing instantly switching from "basically competent" to "literally tears every enemy in half in one swing" just from one weapon upgrade.
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FF5 - Just beat Ronka Ruins. Archeoaevis was uh pretty special. 1,000 Needles x7 into L5 Death and welp, the end. Blue Mage is an incredible class at times for all the weirdest reasons. And my final job is... Dancer. Well, beats getting Dragoon. I raised Faris to be my Summoner, but I guess I'll make her my Dancer instead. Good thing I picked that Ribbon on Karnak Castle!
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Post Lonka you will lose Galuf.
FF5 - Rolled earth, got Chemist. Monk-Time Mage-Bard-Chemist. Should be alright.
Adamantoise walled me and then I broke a couple of rods on his face. Trying to work out how to kill so,e Prototypes so I can get some Dark Matter.
Too late;don't care advice: While Adamantoise is pretty annoyingly resilient folks without Ice damage (or L5 Death), you can get Slow (and, if you lack any other credible offence against him, Gravity) to land on him and those go a long way towards letting you tough it out.
Your team doesn't really have a great answer to Prototypes, unless I'm overlooking a Mix which will work and doesn't consume dozens of Turtle Shells (or require Dragon Fangs/Holy Waters/Dark Matters). Hit him with Slow, Berserk him with Bacchus' Cider use Haste/Regen, then fish for criticals with Barehanded? You could also try halving his defence repeatedly with Turtle Soup (2-4 should get him to the point where damage comes easily enough). Sounds super-annoying to me regardless and if it were me I'd wait until W3, but maybe you'll prove me wrong.
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Chemist would involve waiting for post Lonka and I think 3 man party is super volatile on something like Prototype. I just hasted up two Time Mages up (Bard casting haste) and threw rods at it. A few thousand Gil is alright cost to have options of Dark Matter mixes.
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Oh right, rod breaks do actually exceed 100 power, I'm too used to thinking of that as "perfect defences" for W1 although now that I think about it, scrolls break it too.
Final Fantasy 5 - Right I never posted about the end of my Fiesta run which I finished last week. Summoner/Samurai/Dancer/Dancer.
I don't have much to say about randoms except that Summoner wrecks them pretty bad. I used Gold Hairpins to extend my resources and the fact that Samurai couldn't use either them or Ribbons or Gaia Gear definitely left him/her behind the curve, though less so in W3 when everyone could rock Air Knives. Titan was good at clearing things but imperfect due to flying enemies, fortunately Ramuh etc. aren't horrible fallbacks, and Dance does allow for some direct offence. Selected boss notes...
Dragon Grass: Golem would wreck this battle so badly if I ever let him get attacks off, but Titan says nope.
Gilgamesh + Enkidu: I kill Gilgamesh first because Titan. Then Enkidu kills himself by using Vampire on my Bone Mail wearer, doing 3000 damage to himself. Hahaha.
Atomos: I used a shot of Zeninage here because I left Bone Mail on someone and thus couldn't revive so things turned kinda ugly, but I won.
Seal Guardians: I set everything up for a perfect Titan blitz which would kill three of the crystals before they got their spells off. Worked perfectly. Now just have to kill the earth one. I think I have some plan here to avoid two turns in limit mode with a combination of things but I screw it up and everyone except my Samurai dies, but fortunately Zeninage gets its second use of the challenge to finish things.
Carbuncle: Catoblepas when he drops his barrier.
Exdeath: Golem + Carbuncle zzz.
Gargoyles: Oh no two bosses I need to kill at the same time, what will I- *one-rounds with Titan*
Melusine: Kinda annoying with her Titan immunity, but not threatening.
Bahamut: Well at this point my offence is so high (eight Syldras for every turn he gets) that even 2HKOing most of my party he can't do too much, I do use Golem/Carbuncle to be safe.
Catastrophe: I skip most of W3 but I fight a decent number of randoms to make sure I survive his Earth Shaker. He then proceeds to not use it.
Halicarnassus: Counters Summon with a random OHKO damage shot, but unthreatening otherwise so Dance/etc. gets the job done. Fortunately it's W3 so I actually have 50% Sword Dance now.
Twintania: Catoblepas while he charges.
Necrophobia: Don't bring multiple targets to a Syldrafight.
Neo Exdeath: At level 36 my Samurai can just survive Almagest, Phoenix is a great tool to help my recover. Golem/Carbuncle and Ribbons/Hermes Sandals shuts down almost everything else they can do, and there is an awesome moment of hilarity as a reflected Delta Attack kills the Almagest part, making up for my missing it with like 15 uses of Catoblepas first.
Only optional things I did in W3 were Phantom Village-related (Hermes Sandals!) and getting the non-Leviathan optional summons, a rare playthrough where I didn't even do the island shrine. Beaten at Level 36, don't recall any resets in worlds 2 or 3 but I could be forgetting. Don't have much to say about the jobs besides Summon being OP; its only weaknesses are mediocre non-magic stats in the job itself, a lack of healing, and a lack of certain buffs (Protect/Shell) but really Golem/Carbuncle/that MT offence should be enough for almost everything. Samurai and Dancer are mostly different types of filler, though Zeninage and Dance both did see some use, and equipping shields (+ having good HP) and equipping ribbons (+ having good speed and robes) meant both jobs had their own perks in the summoner army.
Final Fantasy Dimensions - Up to the Paladin chapter.
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FF5 Fiesta: Rocking me a fancy new airship. It's funny. 2x Mystic Knight/Knight/Beastmaster makes a lot of fights fairly easy to just autobattle (even if the Beastmaster is kind of... tame) but any fight I can't autobattle my way to victory becomes pretty much an instant loss to me. Ifrit was tough and nearly wiped me, but then Byblos was LOL because I did 1600 damage with a Fira!Physical and he doesn't like that. Adamantoise was similar, going down after about 2-3 turns. The game is amusing enough. Might want to try it again on a chaos run, provided I don't get 4 berserkers. It makes it oddly easier to just wander through the game when I don't have to worry about what classes to choose or any of that. Also frameskip. Frameskip makes it much easier to catch up when I forget to save and then get wiped by a random way tougher than I can fight that I accidentally wander up to.
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Shadow Hearts 3: Up to Machu Pichu. Game's pretty fun. Magic wrecks enemies pretty badly right now. Its similar to Wild ARMS 4 in that you never want to give randoms a turn because they will probably wreck your shit. So having AoE/GT targeting is pretty important. As such, my team is pretty much mages and then one person who can fallback for physicals/support. Shania works very well here. Hilda's MVP for mass clearing enemies and doing the bulk of the damage against bosses with Surge/Entrance combo. Past Shania/Hilda, Johnny and Ricardo exist to be back up mages. I get more use out of Johnny's camera then anything else he does though since he just doesn't have the stats for super offense. I should try using the Magic Mind's Eye at some point.
Fire Emblem 7: Done another playthrough in Eliwood mode. Game's still pretty solid. Although RNG and all that, so some opinions change. I went a little differently and tried to set up as large of a support ring as I could. This probably worked against me since I couldn't get anybody to S class other than the mono-weapon users. But Eliwood having less maps than Hector certainly adds to it. Units used + thoughts:
Eliwood - Strong Eliwood. Not the strongest I've gotten, but still 2 rounded things much earlier, so he was good. A Ninian/B Hector. Probably the support option of choice if you want a paired ending somewhat reasonably. Otherwise, A Hector is better and then B whoever. Barely had anytime with Lances, so yeah, he just hit things with Swords and then later hit things with Swords on a horse. Late promotion doesn't help.
Lyn - A Florina/B Rath probably the most reasonably because both supports are quite fast. Lyn this game was kinda mediocre pre-promotion due to a strength drought. Florina support kept her afloat. Then after promo, she got like 2-3 strength in a row which eliminated the problem altogether.
Kent - A Fiora/B Sain. Kent/Sain support is pretty good if you get both Cavs to not be awful. This is the first time this happened so personal experience suggests that it doesn't happen on average. Anyway, Kent performs better early/late but loses mid to Sain. Pretty certain on that now. He's better defensively and out of the gate, both are not that far apart. But midway, Sain has a huge strength lead and the speed difference between the two usually wasn't significant enough to matter.
Sain - A Rebecca/B Kent. See above. Was pretty close to MVP midgame by a huge margin (mobile OHKOing machine that wasn't frail? Jesus). Not quite though. Still crazy. Was the only other person who had a S weapon rank, although that's probably because lances are the more dominant weapon in this game.
Rebecca - A Sain/B Raven. Awful start. Pretty awful midgame and bad late game. Mono bow is bad. Nothing special of note on promo. The support helps though but not worth it IMO. Too slow and too easy to be out of position :GBA Archers:.
Matthew - B Oswin/C Serra. I had to force the Serra support. If you don't use Guy, he's pretty screwed support wise. Oswin isn't good due to their different roles. Honorable mention for his growth going haywire and giving him 16 strength pre-promotion. Sure, I'll take pseudo-Guy. Promoting him is kind of eh. If he didn't have crazy stats, I wouldn't bother tbh.
Oswin - A Hector/B Matthew. Yep. Oswin was a little disappointing this time around. I find that the cavs are better because he's just so immobile at reaching the fight upfront. But his durability is top notch, so he got his moments and got to the end team that way. I almost dropped him because Sain/Kent did everything almost.
Hector - A Oswin/B Eliwood. Was on crack. Thought it would be cool to steal Dart's speed growth so he had something stupid like 15-16 speed by the time he was 20. Had like maxed stats by the time he was 20/8. Gave him the boots to keep Eliwood and him supported throughout. Hector gaining speed = lol since enemies can't keep up. I don't think any of his paired ending grows at a reasonable pace outside of Lyn and she wants the A Florina so much more gameplay wise, so uh...oh noes for him if you care about that.
Florina - A Lyn/B Fiora. Last person's whose growths were on crack this game and was definitive MVP. Flying, mobile, and somehow defensively tanky even without the evade. Made other units supported by her better. Her only issue is AS loss from weapons so she can't use anything really powerful and not having enough weapon ranks at the end.
Fiora - A Kent/B Floroina. Medicore this time around. Helped by Kent. Got strength but her speed for a peg wasn't great which meant she had offense issues here and there.
Raven - B Rebecca/B Priscilla. Is Raven. I mean, he wasn't god!Florina or god!Hector, but its hard to go wrong with him since he's almost RNG proof. Supports with the best healer too. Probably will A Pris in any other game. It's a decently fast support.
Priscilla - A Erk/B Raven. Vastly superior support options to her rival and is more mobile. Not news really but promoting two healers with only 1 Psychic staff is sad times :(.
Serra - C Matthew/C Erk. Awful awful supports. She gains weapons levels faster from Shine, but that's not much considering Pris' other advantages over her. "Quick" promoted at L18 because it was like Cog of Destiny and still having a tier 1 there is sad times.
Erk - A Priscilla/C Serra. Pretty good at the start. Medicore at the end. Competes with Pent, we all know this. Made worse by the fact that he has other things he's lacking on other than just stats.
Rath - B Lyn. I don't get any hype behind Rath. He's a complete glass cannon and is monobow until promo at which point he gets stuck with Irons for a while before getting Steel? Ew. Also, his growth this game was completely awful and I had to jack him up with stat ups to give him a chance. The one saving grace was the Lyn B support which built much faster than I anticipated so he has that. But that's really not much considering all his other issues. Will probably never use him again. Well...at least until I forget this playthrough.
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So, I played FE8 on my computer. So what have I been playing portably lately? Oh, just a game I sorta half-knew already, and in fact voted on in the old DL despite not having technically played it myself (SCANDAL). I wanted to experience it on my own terms though in retro mode, so didnt' want to chat about it here before hand or during, + I also tried to keep the FAQing low. Anyway, I've basically been Ciato+1: she played FE7 & BoF3, so I took a look at a game I got on sale from PSN for like a dollar or so...
Breath of Fire IV: Interesting! Very much a window back to the world of PSX era games, I think. Minigames! Obscure sidequests! Terrible camera angles! Long attack animations! Untranslated Japanese! And yet it's pretty cool anyway.
I'm playing this on Vita, so they map R2/L2/R3/L3 to the rear touch pad. It's pretty awkward; when I want to switch who's in front, it often takes several taps, and sometimes when wandering around I'll get stuck into a constant switch of standing in place as everyone rotates crazily due to it detecting a constant press. Oh well.
Anyway. My impressions are *mostly* positive, as the game has an interesting setting, some reasonably compelling overarching plots, and pretty much all of the cast is likable (or hatable for the villains). I also rather like the intentional decision to not have Alliance-Empire War II break out and to have a lot of the quest be about ramping down tensions and shrugging off slights rather than make some big affair of honor out of it, something many games screw up. Fits very well with a war-bringer vs. peace-bringer type setup. On the other hand, the low-level plots leave something to be desired. Actually quite a lot. I mean, I'm a person who authentically can enjoy plenty of "journey-is-the-destination" type games where you move from town to town solving their minor little problems a la Grandia I/II. And I can see an angle where the dragon who was busy with the Big Political Problems of the world was too blind to see what the guy who was fishing and meeting random travelers found. But... the actual low-level plots suck. They're bland and uninteresting. Way too much "pure travelling" with some BS obstruction in the way, like not having directions, and too much "you need X keystone to get into Y" (don't ask how the enemies you fight got in). Now, I respect that if you're not going to have a big war or something going on, you have to lower the stakes some, but you can still have there be some *interesting* excuses for a dungeon. Like, "awakened earth monster on the isle of fire stops the wind in the sea" is probably one of the better quests-along-the-way they have, and that's a pretty low bar! Sigh.
Additionally, the B plot (save Elina) is weirdly underplayed early when it's the best thing they have. The A plot is compromised per usual by silent protagonist (another horrible decision) and the fact that it's introduced as "Ryu, you must level up a lot!"... so that he can... send Deis back to wherever Gods come from?! And she thinks that Fou wouldn't do this for her because ??? but Ryu will because ???. Sure, the Fou/Ryu arc turns out well, but I don't particularly like the way it takes over too soon and shoves out a more interesting plot. The whole thing about paths & streams is a little creepy too - if Ryu had actual lines, then you can write it off as a side-effect of his charisma or the like, but nope, fate is literally making people slaves to his will or something. Doesn't matter that Cray doesn't trust Ryu in his lines sometimes, he's stuck because magic. I guess this is sort of okay in that it's reinforcing that Ryu & Fou-lu can literally set the fate of the entire future, so it'd make sense that they'd naturally take over everyone around them and bend them to their path, but once again, it'd be helped a lot by Ryu having lines.
Related to this, there's a plot element which I'm not exactly complaining about - ambiguity can be good, especially for things like "workings of divine beings" - but seemed a bit conflicted. In the world of BoF4, gods are summoned for a reason but have little wills of their own - they're shaped by their summoners. Okay. Fou-lu was summoned because the people prayed for peace or something, and his interpretation of fulfilling that was to unite everyone under one empire rather than many warring ones. This is all fair enough, and furthermore this plays into the idea where Ryu's story hijacks the plot - that the Empire was trying to capture Ryu so that he'd be their servant and do whatever they ask, while Ludia's prince wants Ryu to serve the Alliance. Yet... there's a line that Nina has late C3 along the lines of she thinks Ursula has realized that even if she delivers Ryu to the Empire, he's not really going to be their plaything, he's his own person. Well... maybe?! The whole way everyone is acting is as if you can just capture a dragon then tell him your wishes and profit. And then there's the line about how they're worried that Ryu might destroy the world too or something, but Ershin is all "I wouldn't worry, he's totally under Nina's thumb anyway." Well, if this was supposed to be a lovebirds gibe, fail, as this has been built up 0 even given a silent protagonist (unless you think Nina talking about her crush on Cray to Ryu counts?!). But I guess you can sorta assume this really was literal and Ryu has already been shaped to be an instrument of Nina's general nice & fluffy desires?! Or alternatively that she sculpted him into being his own person and that's a person who wouldn't despair like Fou did?! Maybe. Seemed like they wanted all of the above to be true simultaneously or the like.
Also, everyone knows this already, but Lord Yuna is a memorable slimeball. Great that he gets away as well. Well done. (I already knew the rough overall plot arc but it worked out well enough playing it through.)
Anyway. Gameplay! This weird blue-haired guy is just an amnesiac, it'd be cruel to force him to fight out of some selfish desire to get sandflier parts. So I'm not going to. Nor am I gonna bother farming minigames or fishing or making items or gathering skills. Make things interesting and more to the point!
Note that bosses provide quite a lot of XP, so I'm not as far behind on levels as you might think, *but* individual levels are quite potent in BoF4, and more to the point you are horrifically short on money. Every purchase is precious, coming from boss money & chests.
Long boring list of actual bosses of note + gameplay comments...
Random desert town + scavenging: Why'd they have the first town be one where they explicitly comment it's confusing and hard to see what's going on?! Look, you can hide the layout problems by not having super-narrow alleys where you have to constantly rotate around to see which way's which.
North Chamba: This place has zombies & skeletons & such! We're clearly no match for them, run away. Took me embarrassingly long to solve some of these puzzles. A skullfish eats the poor helpless amnesiac guy, although nobody seems to comment on him becoming this weird winged thing when attacked. Shame, that means he stays pitifully low level compared to the boss of the expedition.
Prophetic Dream: I'd just like to say this is a weird way to introduce the Elina plot. Nina & Cray don't even comment on what they're doing at the beginning of the game, and now Ryu of all people gets to see the future or something? 'k.
Path to trap town: Not knowing the system, I accidentally give Ershin a master in RWolf, and find you can't remove masters once set. Oops. Kinda don't want to use them, not that I want a DL-legal team exactly, but I want to experience the characters as they are and not risk screwing them up permanently. Ershin seems like a physical attacker with those deadly fists so this is clearly the wrong build for her. (Oh, young SnowFire, how misguided you were.)
Trap town: DIE PARROT AND YOUR YUFFIE MINIGAME
Trap forest + Maman:
Reset #1. After all the annoyance of placing apples and running around, Maman, the giant monster the mayor's cheesed off, is a super badass. I dunno if Meeple missed a move in his boss topic or if his damage is just way better against underlevel & underequipped characters, but he can throw out 600 damage in an attack (2x hits of 300) which is a OHKO to anyone that isn't Aura dragon. When I don't have any revival items. Off good tankishness. And his other moves aren't bad either; his stun seems to always connect (certainly a way better hit rate than most of the status moves in the game, and his stun is attached to damage!). Crushed.
I do notice that there are revival items for sale now that I look ("Ammonia" wasn't obvious from a glance), but they're expensive, and this is actually a horrible enough loss + the dungeon is annoying enough that I decide to briefly break my no-killing-not-in-self-defense vow and hunt some monsters in the forest. Ryu in particular badly needs it being like level 2 or level 3. After this, it's not so bad.
Kahn: Looong slugfest, and has nice damage, but he wastes a lot of turns on stuns that don't do anything and useless buffs and WHY IS MY FACE MELTING AFTER HE BUFFED UP. Still, no problem, not as hard as finding the dang kids with bad camera angles getting in the way.
Captain Rasso / Ymechaf:
An epic & long slugfest. Not a lot to say other than it required me to use a fair amount of precious revival items. Also around now I think I figure out that not just Ryu can learn skills, but everybody can! Luckily it seems like most skills don't matter. Also unlike FF7, you can learn skills then run, so there's that. (Also why do they say later this broke the gate? It clearly functioned well enough to send us back, and we fought a reasonable distance away.)
Chapter break: This is where I"m just gonna mention there's some weirdly different rates on item drops (something you notice a lot when buying rarely). Swords in treasure chests are super-rare, but Ershin fist drops are all over the place, for example. Scias keeps his starting sword, the Jang'do, until literally the final dungeon (although I guess I could have given him Ryu's Flame Sword, but nah.). Additionally, although it doesn't crop up yet, how do some people know about the Yorae Dragon, anyway?! It literally doesn't exist, or possibly half-existed 600 years ago. Like, the dragons, sure, and maybe the Wind Dragon told somebody? But otherwise this makes even less sense than the townspeople talking about exactly what's in the treasure chest at the bottom of the monster-infested cave. How do you know about this anyway?!
Sparrow: Haha. Oh, these mischevious fairies, possibly murdering random passerby with their silly magic! Hilarious.
Kahn 2: Notably easier than his earlier form, dunno what's up with that. Since I've already commited the sin of using a Master, I move Ershin to Una to get better fist beatdown.
Nightmares: Most are EZ, but one of them is an utter pain because he's practically immune to everything. High subtractive defense or something? He ends up way tougher than the "real" boss, I have to unload all of Ryu's AP on him and go dragon and everything. Every death he gets adds up too since I don't revive early thinking he'll be easy and I don't need to spend resources, and that's fewer people regenning AP in the back. Anyway, yeah, Shining Blade did like 100 damage to him at most, lots of stuff bounces off, ugh.
Metal Gear Nina: Soldiers are EZ, even underleveled I can unload combos to win fast enough. Also this plot point about the King's Sword is weird. It's been in my inventory the whole time (the broken one, not the replacement?) I guess the Empire taking it didn't translate to gameplay. The refresher LP I'm looking at to make sure I don't forget something seems to think that Yuna also made a fake Sword to send to them? Dunno about that, but maybe.
Wyndia: No boss, but Momo is a cool enough master I decide to break the no-masters thing for non-Ershin types and have everyone sign up with her (except Ershin). More HP is good if the goal is "don't get OHKO'd" which is really all I care about in an LLG, and she doesn't screw up other stats, and she knows the importance of sleep-management in boss fights. Good times. Also the music in this town is utterly awful, possibly the worst piece in the game. Also one of my 3 fairies dies for some reason, so I have to go harder core on the hunting it seems. Ah, the fairy race: stupid and flighty left to their own devices, they just need a white dragon's guiding hand to tell them what labor to conduct. They actually like doing it and WANT to be ordered around, no really.
Random goons from Ludia:
First off, what's everybody doing here?! Shouldn't you have needed the damn Tower of Wind key? And if you came in after how'd you get here before me?
Anyway, these guys are badasses and push me to the brink. They kill everyone but Ryu and kill one of his dragon forms, but Ryu limps through. We then almost have one of the rare cases of losing to a strictly easier fight in round 2 with the goons, as despite Scias's help, I have 3 party members at 1 HP and Ryu without much AP. Luckily, Nina's learned Cyclone by now I believe so she has MT damage, and Scias has a healthy supply of Multivitamins to toss (share your stash with me, bro!) which combined with some revival helps me pull through. Of which I'm very glad, doing this dungeon again would have been annoying.
Flip side, this definitely also plays into the streams crossing thing... why does Scias help me out? Because he hung around Ryu too much and got his fate tied in. He doesn't actually have a reason and is confused himself. Creepy.
Deis mind elemental pillars of doom:
Reset #2. I hope you enjoy my ghosts haunting you forever, Ershin. I misplace which pillars are weak to which elements, which isn't TOO bad as Cyclone is still MT, but non-Nina offense clowns around in the wrong way, and the pillars have nasty regen if you don't take out the supports (clearly intended for you to use combos here). Anyway, the pillars are glass cannons: while I take down the Wind-weak one, the others wreck me pretty hard. Their offense is pretty good if you let it get rolling! Nina being the only good mage in this set doesn't help.
In attempt #2, I blitz the wind-weak one harder and use that to set up kills on the ones that aren't getting regen. The wind-immune pillar isn't so bad when it's the final one remaining and can get taken down by Scias's magic.
Captain Rasso 3:
Well going Aura first certainly extends this up a bit, as I frustratingly wail on the nearly invincible boss! Then Kaiser happens and I realize it's a plot fight. Whew.
Ursula is kickin' rad, being way higher level than my team (L20 or 21 or so, when my team is L12-L16?) and also has MT magic. Prepare for lots of Firestorm -> Cyclone/Simoon for the rest of the game. She joins the cult of naps as well of course.
Kahn 3: Exciting. Harder than Kahn 2, easier than Kahn 1 thanks to better items? Tiger Fist still defintiely a potential problem. Also what's up with the horrifically dated art from the 1910s & 20s you got from us of blacks. :( I am horrible at the Nina fightan' minigame, as she really likes jumping to her doom after a bounce near the edge. Takes me like 4 plays of the game to finally knock the soldier off.
Evil below decks critters: They're exciting but I win with fire-wind combos, but it's close IIRC.
Glebe (rock monster on the isle of fire that controls the wind on the seas): An epic, drawn-out, knock-down fight. Naps are very important to keep AP up; Firestorm -> Cyclone won't clear the tankier minions he summons in one turn, so he gets turns to mess with me with both a OHKO & an MT 2HKO. Additionally I find out the hard way that Kaiser can just randomly beat up your own party members. And that Glebe automatically counterattacks any PC attack with his own physical for ~600 damage or so, so get wrecked Cray. (And to a lesser extent, Scias.) This perma-locks some people as dead which means less naps! (Yes, yes. I found out later that you CAN target the back row with healing / revival, but at the time, I thought that you had to have someone in the front row target a front-row person for healing or revival, and if that person died before they got their action, welp, too bad.) Anyway this battle has to take at least 30 minutes, with Ryu going through 2 full AP bars and only 3 characters surviving. It turns out that Summon Minion costs AP, and furthermore Glebe is required to use it if he's alone, so I eventually run him out of AP after 20 or so castings of it, which renders him useless as he's required to keep attempting to summon more minions. Hooray!
Also WTF Capcom at the Sea Dragon location, I'll admit I FAQ'd this one up.
And while we're at it and mentioning FAQy things. Why do they even let you turn over a dragon form to random stereotype merchant without making it clear what you're doing?! Sure it's a useless form, but that's a permanent loss. Waiting for pottery is also boring. Also the idea that Ursula can't find the capital seems faintly ludicrous; are there really no soldiers to talk with? Bah, dropped balls, this arc of the plot from the salt flats to sailing to pabpab village to the edge of the Empire is bad. Again, I respect the idea of flashing between Fou-Lu having crazy shit happen while Ryu is fishing, but bah. I also think that investigating Fou-lu's tomb is something we could have reasonably wanted to do on our own, or be given a good excuse for. Why is it a path between cities?! Sigh.
I do make one notable last-ish purchase: the +10 Wisdom staff for Nina that gives her more CP AP regen. Sweet. Most of the rest of my war supply will go into items from here.
Anyway...
Won-qu: Another badass! Brutal MT damage that can OHKO a person and generally screw everyone up, decent magic, ridiculous BoF durability. Good thing he occasionally uses Sanctuary & a crappy status move that never hits even into no status resistance. This is another knock-down, drag-out 20-30 minute fight with lots of needed napping. Luckily I'd figured out by now how to heal the back row, which helps a lot.
Also, screw you red eye. I ignored the damage because it was lulzworthy, didn't realize that was coming out of my max HP, although going back outside for a save is honestly not a bad idea anyway since the next boss is kinda random and also tough...
Fuzzy guard dice: REVOLUTION IS THE DEVIL. That's the "invert everyone's HP" move, and yes, he can follow it up with MT magic. So full life -> 1 HP -> ded. I eventually learn that I need to keep my HP at around half to be safe, since the MT magic isn't super dangerous and isn't a 2HKO if Revolution didn't screw me up. I fight this boss on July 4 of course, so revolutions are tough. I have maybe 3 Ammonias left by the end. At least Ershin's physical build finally has a reason to be relevant vs. the magic immune die... from checking Meeple's boss topic, it's not that Ursula is a super mage, it's that bosses in this game tend to have crappy Fire resistance and great physical resistance, much to Cray's displeasure. I bought him an upgrade for his log at some point and regretted it since, Cray is an item boy and I should just forget he has an attack. (At least Scias's magic is okay, especially with Nina for Cyclone -> Ice Blast/Lightning). And Ershin seems to do fine damage with Blizzard & Quake anyway even without building for it (hey, she has L3s and no one else does!), so sheesh, I see now why Ershin is apparently a fighter who turns into a mage. Weird.
I notice I can buy Vitamins from the Fairy Village, which is excellent since MT healing is awful or non-existent. I think Nina just learned Vitalize around now? But that's just 400 HP or so of healing. Vitamins, with 1000 HP for everyone, are much better. Healing items so useful in pacifist underlevel BoF4.
Undead dudes @Astana: EZ, they get rekt. While we're here, though, the timelines are a little weird - lots of running back & forth from Astana & the road to the capital and the town in-between. You'd think that a major emergency like what happened here would have had more repercussions. Also Yuna, you can cut back on your shit-eating grin, your little experiment got all the staff killed you'd need to fire the Carronade anyway, so I don't think your sacrifice plan would have worked that well. Also give me back the damn Dragonslayer, that weapon was sweet.
A-Tur: He uses Frost Breath on turn 1 and wrecks me, but his AI seems to use Sanctuary way more often than Won-Qu? Maybe just good luck, but those extra waste-a-turns help a lot until I can grind down his Frost Breath to something more manageable. I try out Kaiser again (possibly vs. Won-qu too?) and am pleased to see that the berserk rate seems smaller, he mostly just spams Kaiser Breath now. Also Chedo as a dungeon is great, a good reminder that Fou-lu is in fact the bad guy here.
Castle: Sheesh this place can be confusing, but it's pretty interesting, too. This is what Suikoden Tierkreis got wrong: I'm fine with a labyrinth that's flavorful, interesting, and distinct. Just don't give me bland passages with nothing in 'em. A fine final dungeon, except for the part where it's pretty hard to tell where the Blue Charm is and that you can pick it up. On that note...
Dragonne: Lots of ST, so he eats up a bunch of Ammonias (the main thing my money has gone into), but not too bad otherwise... except when he uses Wither, the MT ID spell. Why does this one have an okay hit rate when all the other status moves in game are so awful?! He nails 2/3 with it the first time he uses it. Anyway, ST focus is still not going to win vs. sandbagging revival, so I outlast.
Tyrant:
(http://www.rpgdl.com/wiki/images/5/50/Game_over_bof4_smaller.jpg)
Reset #3. I may be at the end of my rope here. I *barely* survive Dark Wave - somehow - it deals ~1000 damage to my full front row, leaving them on their knees at 50-150 HP or so. Ryu can go Kaiser ASAP and he can tank things and hopefully not kill me, but ow ow ow, I just can't deal with constant near MT OHKOs that are faster than me. Vitamins only go so far when Fou can also just outspeed and smash the Vitamins user dead, and I have a limited supply as well. Not sure what the right strategy is here! And since I know Astral will be coming after this, and it's a looong walk down + scenes in order to refight, my patience to give this too many tries may be low. I may have to break my vows once more, like I did for Maman. For reference, Ryu/Nina/Ursula are L27, Cray is L26, Urshin is L25, and Scias is L22 (he managed to end both A-Tur AND Dragonne dead, and they gave out mad XP).
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You are crazy under level by normal play through standards.
I am pretty sure there is ways to resist Astral, but I forget themechanics. Meep will have documented in topic though.
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No, not the bees? Not the bees not the bees not the beeeeees
Incidentally I found a Wicker Man demon in Soul Hackers
http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110926003339/megamitensei/images/8/82/Wicker_Man.jpg
In general I think the game has a lot more demons from really local folklore instead of just religion, which brings some fresh air to the SMT series.
I found artbook scans for (I think?) all of Soul Hackers's demons.
http://imgur.com/a/B5KEA
Kaneko just keeps on giving. I wish he could design the next Dark Souls or something.
Demon conversations have also been the best in the entire series, so the demon part of the game is top notch. So many interesting convos I regret not recording.
Plotwise, I don't like how the hacking team is only reacting to events and never provoking them. I don't know how they ot this far to be honest.
I just beat the VR Haunted Mansion. Been pumping Namissa's agility so she goes first and cast Mabufula. Randoms are dying, the last few bosses have been really difficult though. I like how most battles are against a summoner + five demons so you can get pretty creative. (I barely won one boss battle by charming one of the summoned enemy demons) Allied demon damage has been non existant lately but they can still contribute in interesting ways.
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FF5 - Post-Ronka, I'm tackling the meteorite bosses. Titan was a chump, 1,000 Needles 3HKOs his ass and equipping robes for MDef ensured my squishy party wouldn't get MT OHKOed by his Earth Shaker death counter. Purobolos swarm is next. Not being able to buy Gaia Gear until world 2 -almost- makes me sad I didn't roll Thiefahahahahaha who the hell am I kidding.
EDIT: Final Fantasy Autobattle During Wartime - Cecil event's boss rush is shamefully easy. Championed, no Mythril involved, on my first try. Just packed an Ifrit for Scarmiglione 1 (OHKOs the support fair and square, no shenanigans involved), Sentinel's Grimoire for Dark Knight Cecil and went at it. I won't say no to the free Major Growth Eggs and crafting orbs, though. All that's left now is dungeon-clearing for amassing more Mythril (hopefully the next event banner will have more interesting drops), finishing them all would hand me enough Mythril for an 11-pull and a 3-pull, which'd net decent odds of landing an acceptable 5-rarity equip.
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FF6 - Up to the start of the WoR.
IAF. EZ, Egdar's drill don't care and Terra has Thundara. Celes kinda got shafted on attack magic but has status so that's fun. Really, the only thing of note here is that 1xEarring Trance'd Terra hit 9500 damage on Ultros with Fira. Yeowch! Octopus soup!
See? Cuz the refrance. did u see it
FC. This area's a lot more fun playing with all the statuses Edgar and Celes have, and using the Assassin's Dagger for ID. Dragons are weak to stop? Cool. Megagigawiggas gets ID'd first blow? Cool.
Dramatic cutscene is dramatic. Still overall good, but...man, Dog Hitler and Kefka trying to get Celes to join them so they can rule the universe as father and daughter* (and apparently mate with Kefka? Ew.) only makes any sense with the originally intended story arc for Celes. I really wish they kept that in (but still dumped EmoLocke and SquallTerra those ideas are stupid), it would actually have been pretty neat and taken away the only trite thorn in an otherwise awesome scene.
*str wrs refrance. pile. taller. doesnt stop getting taller.
Speaking of, I think I should clarify. I'm bringing up issues I have with the writing because well Zenny but honestly I've been pretty impressed with how almost everything stands the test of time (though yes adjusting standards for SNES space limitations). For the most part everything is actually good. There's a huge amount of emphasis on characterizing everyone, and a lot of focus on character vignettes, and it all works really well actually. Really, my only qualm is with WoB Celes. It really does feel like her character changed completely but they drove the plot forward with the original ideas in mind... and it doesn't help that aside from her scenes in the Opera house she's actually rather dull. No real backstory to speak of, absolutely not played for comedy (nor really should she be?), and everything about her personality meshes poorly with the role the writers wanted her to play with the plot.
Really, had they kept her being more Renegade Shepard all the scenes I've nitpicked would have played off beautifully. Still, despite that the game does a good job of making me skim over it because everything else is just so good.
Sidenote, hate hate hate hate hate is gone but honestly the new GBA dialogue is better.
Reset number 2 on the boss during the countdown, which really shouldn't have happened given how quickly I beat it on my retry. Terra got killed and Celes' doom timer ran out and I couldn't deal. I also healed her once because I forgot she had fire absorption, and that lead to my downfall.
Incidentally, after you reach the airship if you get bored and walk around and get into battle with not enough time to escape, it still counts as you waiting for Shadow. So that's good to know I guess.
Did both scenarios, save Cid and Cid dies. Goddamn in the age of the SNES was Cid Dies ballsy as fuck. Cid lives is really dumb and terrible but I can see why they added it in. Definitely remember doing Cid Lives when I replayed it on the PSX because ballsy fiction was less important to me than the comfort of knowing I could prevent bad things from happening if I just tried hard enough.
Still haven't really decided on a 4th party member for WoR sections. Terra and Celes are obvious locks, and I'll almost certainly use Edgar, but after that... maybe Mog? Relm? I'm half tempted to just roll for whatever characters I'm gonna rescue / use for the next dungeon so my party balances out for the split dungeons but honestly either way the game is going to crumple to my will.
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Did both scenarios, save Cid and Cid dies. Goddamn in the age of the SNES was Cid Dies ballsy as fuck. Cid lives is really dumb and terrible but I can see why they added it in. Definitely remember doing Cid Lives when I replayed it on the PSX because ballsy fiction was less important to me than the comfort of knowing I could prevent bad things from happening if I just tried hard enough.
I think it's a masterful piece of fuckery to have it possible to prevent an incredibly sad thing, just you didn't know how. It feels like FF6 getting into metafiction, especially for the era. If you paid closer attention to the fish and tried to figure out how it worked based on the item descriptions and what Cid says, you can probably find out how to save him, but the game makes it so you have to scramble to save him (since his health ticks down no matter what you're doing). It's a really effective way of putting you in the character's shoes the first time you play through it. So Cid lives is important in that it puts the responsibility for Cid dying on you, the player, for doing it wrong, and not just the story. Even though it's trite.
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Dramatic cutscene is dramatic. Still overall good, but...man, Dog Hitler and Kefka trying to get Celes to join them so they can rule the universe as father and daughter* (and apparently mate with Kefka? Ew.) only makes any sense with the originally intended story arc for Celes. I really wish they kept that in (but still dumped EmoLocke and SquallTerra those ideas are stupid), it would actually have been pretty neat and taken away the only trite thorn in an otherwise awesome scene.
I've always felt this scene made more sense with Terra than Celes to boot, and it was only done with Celes because Kitase admitted he shoved Celes into random scenes she had no intention of being in because "meh, favorite character, don't care." If you look at it, what makes Celes stand out as a person that could allow for "magical progeny" or anything? Because she's a Magitek Knight, a factor we know is now obsolete when Magicite came into play? Additionally, Celes has had her loyalties tested already, and she clearly was not on the Empire's side, what makes Gestahl think it's going to work now? Shear arrogance, but I digress, she was in a similar situation in the Factory and told the Empire to piss off there.
Terra's case, Half Esper makes the "Let's get magical babies" thing a lot more sensical, she hasn't had her loyalties truly tested and pushed, and it'd moment she'd have to actually make a decision. Furthermore, the scene leading into the Floating Continent suggests Terra has more reason to go there (the Floating Continent rises I mean.) I fully admit there are some biases here, and not willing to go to lengths to defend this, just a random thought I've had.
Though again, Kitase pretty much said this scene and the start of the WoR were not intended for Celes, he put there because the scenes were not written for any characters in particular, and thus needed someone to fill the gap, and being Celes was his favorite, he often defaulted to her, so she got several extra scenes she was never intended to have, for better or worse.
Also worth noting that if Cid lives, some WoR related stuff doesn't really make sense. Case in point, Celes talks about "losing all hope" to Sabin which doesn't actually happen unless Cid dies (she shows some fear for the worst, sure, but never "ALL IS LOST!!" More importantly though is her ending; the object races back to get is Locke's bandanna, which if Cid dies, makes sense why she'd care about (even explained if you didn't recruit Locke, so there's no ambiguity as to why.) If Cid lives? She never gets the bandanna (especially if you don't recruit Locke!), let alone puts any sort of sentimental value into it. It honestly feels like the "Cid lives" thing was added after the fact, because they wanted an interactive sequence and it'd be a total waste of time if you forced people to sit through this "feed Cid" scenario with nothing but inevitable failure.
I just wish there was some legitimate incentive to saving Cid other than "you did good!" Even something as simple as a bonus cutscene if you have Celes and Locke in your party would have been nice. I can see why no gameplay incentive since Saving Cid is partially luck reliant (it's possible to do everything right and still fail because RNG hates you), and having to choose between better narrative and better gameplay feels like a poor move. Heck, they avoided that earlier with the Genji Glove vs. Gauntlet , where you can get the Genji Glove and still see the war room scene if you do things properly (in short, say "no", talk to soldier, then tell Banon yes. Scene will play out as normal only skip the "Take this Gauntlet!" dialog.)
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I finally got a 360 on the cheap, so I've been playing through Lost Odyssey. A little bit into disc 2 now.
Some general thoughts:
- The voice acting is cheesy in that appealing way often typical of a slightly earlier era.
- The memory novels would have been a lot better with voiced narration. I actually find them a very interesting way of shedding light on Kaim's (and later Seth's) backstory, but voiced narration would have added a lot here, I feel.
- I'm glad meeting Lirum knocked Kaim out of his "insufferable twat" phase.
- Enemies in this game are far more competent than anything Sakaguchi ever produced at Square, at least up to this point. You have a lot of skillset pliability on the immortals, but even randoms have pretty competent damage sometimes, and most bosses have put up a very solid fight thus far (the tank boss at the beginning of disc 2 is the big exception sticking out to me). I think the single biggest contributing factor to this so far is that boss damage usually outpaces healing unless you have multiple characters doing it, and some of the bosses have had mechanics that punish stalling.
- Holy shit the amount of hidden treasure in this game puts even Dragon Quest to shame.
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Given LO's style of voice acting it might be for the best that the dreams weren't VAed. I don't think the awkward/cheesy style fit the rest of the game's tone either to be honest, but it would be a very poor fit indeed for the dreams.
The game's challenge doesn't hold up as well as I'd like (and not at all if you get your hands on certain broken skills) but it still has some moments later, probably my favourite thing about the game that isn't the dream sequences.
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Finding Teddy 2: Finding Teddy 2 is a matroidvania which stars a nameless little girl and has great environments. She has similar move-sets as Zelda 2 link, but the controls and collision detection are clunkier. The game is still perfectly playable as long as you're using a controller, if you use a keyboard you will learn to hate your life.
Anyway, it's intro time. Well, it would have been intro time if the intro had loaded, but it only did so partially. The music and most importantly, the "press any key to skip" prompt, was successfully loaded, but the scrolling text which is supposed to appear was not. So, let's Youtube the intro.
Exidus, a monster world, is ruled by a tyrannical king called Tarant. Tarant was also a giant spider in Finding Teddy, but Finding Teddy 2 doesn't bother with that detail. Anyway, the king was as mentioned, a tyrant and consequently, nobody wanted to be his friend. The other monsters were unsurprisingly unhappy as well.
Tarant decided to open a magical gate to the human world and look for a friend there. The gate opened right into the bedroom of a little girl sleeping with her teddy bear. Tarant had the genius idea of claiming the teddy bear as his friend with the logic that an inert and lifeless object cannot reject him. Yeah, we have a real winner here. However, he forgot to close the gate, so the girl followed into the monster world.
After a thousand and one travels, she finally found her teddy bear. Well, it wasn't really a thousand and one travels since Finding Teddy is rather a short game, but maybe it felt so since she got impaled, crushed and eaten alive a dozen or so times. See, while Finding Teddy 2 is a metroidvania, Finding Teddy is an adventure game. The girl had no means of defending herself, so whenever she encountered one of the sad monsters, she had two options; either she figures out how to make it happy or she meets a brutal death.
Anyway, she eventually finds her teddy bear and also manages to befriend Tarant who at that point had realized that while an object doesn't judge him, it also isn't much of a friend. He returns the girl and her teddy bear to her world. Tarant then figures out that being a douche bag isn't the way to go and start being nice which both makes his subjects happier and removes the need to look for friends in other worlds.
Well, most subjects are happier. It seems that while Tarant didn't know better than to be a douche bag, some monsters are more of a "evil for the sake of evil" type. One such monster is a magician named Anguis. He manages to kill Tarant in combat and takes over Exidus. To prevent the monsters from getting the idea to flee into the human world (presumable Tarant told them about it and assumed everyone there is as friendly as the little girl) Anguis seals the gate to the monster world inside the library of worlds. However, Tarant had created four eggs of great power that can break the seal. Anguis solves that problem by sealing them as well, each one in a separate world with it's own monster to guard it, hoping that nobody will slaughter her way trough the monsters and recover them.
After that, the game claims that the reign of Anguis can begin, but that can't be true. As we will see shortly, the nameless girl can make it from her world to the library of worlds and the world of monsters is sealed from the human world. This means the world of monsters has to be sealed from the library of worlds. Also, Anguis is in the library of the worlds which means he just sealed himself out of the monster world.
Anyway, Tarant's soul had apparently in time escaped to the library of worlds and makes its way into the human world. There he finds himself in a dark room with the teddy bear. He possesses the corpse. Now, the game calling it a corpse can mean two things, either the teddy bear is a flayed koala or whoever translated the game isn't very good at English. You see plenty of signs to the latter explanation during the intro, but the first alternative can not be fully discredited once we learn more about the nameless girl.
The girl is this time not sleeping with her teddy bear, she is sitting in front of a TV and playing video games. The power is suddenly cut, the room gets dark and the girl seems to know something is going on. She nervously makes her way towards a chest and from there produces a sword and a shield. So, while Tarant learned that being a douche bag isn't the way to go, the girl learned that that being defenseless and getting brutally killed over and over isn't the way to go either. She holds up the sword with the right hand and then... holds it with her left hand. Turns out she's facing her left handed direction.
With a sword in hand, whichever hand it may be, the girl is no longer nervous and makes her way down the cellar. There she finds her teddy bear, floating in the air. The teddy bear being in the cellar is a clear sign that she outgrew it, but I guess you're never to old for a floating teddy bear possessed by the soul of a giant spider. She follows Tarant into the library of worlds and the gameplay begins.
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Ffrk
Cecil event beaten! Sold the raise, and now I'm free to farm and beat the leftover elite dungeons I missed.
hurray!
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Given LO's style of voice acting it might be for the best that the dreams weren't VAed. I don't think the awkward/cheesy style fit the rest of the game's tone either to be honest, but it would be a very poor fit indeed for the dreams.
The game's challenge doesn't hold up as well as I'd like (and not at all if you get your hands on certain broken skills) but it still has some moments later, probably my favourite thing about the game that isn't the dream sequences.
Yeah, to be clear they'd have needed at least halfway competent narration, say, something on par with Ondore's narration in FF12.
The VA quality is all over the place in LO in general, and as best as I can tell it was a problem of direction (similar to FF10), rather than a problem with the actors themselves - nearly all of them have extensive resumes showing their capability of quality work. (In some cases it may also be a factor of them playing very far out of their usual character type.) Since I enjoy this topic, I'm going to go into it a bit further, for the characters I've seen to this point, in order of appearance (roughly):
Kaim's VA is Keith Ferguson, whose most notable role is probably that of Basch in FF12. He's also responsible for a number of sound-alike/celebrity impersonation roles on the likes of Robot Chicken. As far as I can tell, Lost Odyssey is the only time he's played a leading role, although Basch comes close arguably. His work in LO is notably worse than his work in FF12 (which was a year earlier), and you can occasionally hear the Basch voice come through on some of Kaim's lines, which is kind of weird.
Seth's VA is Tara Strong, who needs little introduction. She's using largely the same style of voice she did for Rikku in FF10 overall, I feel, and she's one of the best voices in the game overall.
Jansen's VA is Michael McGaharn, and he has probably the shortest voice-acting resume of the cast, with his only notable roles before LO being Knuckles in the original Sonic Adventure and Ken in a Barbie video game. He hasn't done any further VA work since, either. His voie works well enough for the kind of character Jansen is (as an aside: as much of a prick as Jansen is, I love that he exists, and he injects some much-needed humor in what would otherwise would be, at least thus far, an extremely depressing game).
Gongora's VA is Jesse Corti, who has a prolific career in voice over work, though mostly bit roles. He's probably most famous as Lefou in Disney's Beauty and the Beast. It runs in the family, too; his son voiced Neku Sakuraba in TWEWY. Gongora is kinda overacted, though frankly it feels deliberate and it doesn't work altogether poorly. The oddity really is that he sounds like a Disney villain (fitting, since he was a villain sidekick) in a game where he's playing a much darker villain than you see in Disney.
Tolten's VA is Chad Brannon. Lost Odyssey is, to date, his only voice role; before LO, his career was mostly as a daytime soap opera actor, and since LO, he's been one of Fox's voices for network bumpers. (The short "commercials" that a network airs for its own shoes during a commercial break.) He's one of the weaker voices in the cast, I think, but isn't truly awful for what he is.
Cooke's VA is Kath Soucie, who also needs little introduction given a 30-year resume. Like Seth, she's one of the highlights of the cast, and she manages to be a pretty credible kid character while also (thus far) not being annoying.
Mack's VA is Nika Futterman, and is definitely the one I would say is playing well out of usual character type here, her other notable roles including Hey Arnold's Olga, Archer's Sia, and League of Legends' Vayne. Mack hasn't really talked enough to make a judgement on quality though. My friends watching the game on stream are _endlessly_ amused by the fact that Mack has the same VA as Vayne.
Finally, Ming's VA is Salli Saffioti, whose VA career is relatively young (Lost Odyssey looks to have been only her second voice role). She's probably most notable for Monster High work on television; her most recent game role was the voice of Shiva in FF14: A Realm Reborn. She's pretty good for the role she's playing in LO I think.
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- The memory novels would have been a lot better with voiced narration.
My nemesis
Soul Hackers: The plot of the game is that the MMORPG organization is manufacturing soul stealing computer chips and distributing them to everybody in the city
Anyway Shemyaza destroyed me. That guy has MT Confuse, MT 2HKO ice/fire/lightning damage (that inflicts turn loss) and high MT 2HKO Megidolaone. He has insane HP and is immune to ice damage of course, so Nemissa is just a healbot.
Edit: And he looks like this http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20111002221749/megamitensei/images/8/81/Samyaza.jpg
I must have tried like 6 different setups before just leaving the dungeon in rage to improve my team (Step 1: Buy Me Patra Stones and Balms of life at OK's store, Step 2: Fuse my best demon into a sword, Step 3: Spend too much money on summoning a demon with Rakukaja)
At least this worked well. Rakukaja rules hard. I may be mistake, but I think that in Soul Hackers, buffs are way better than debuffs. I think they're about equal in every other SMT game.[/list]
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Breath of Fire 4
Yaaayyyy! Glad you enjoyed it, agree w/most everything stated.
Wyndia: Also the music in this town is utterly awful, possibly the worst piece in the game.
Look at this wrong opinion though. The wrongest of opinions. Shame. *Wyndia bell chime* Shame. *Wyndia bell chime* Shame.
Waiting for pottery is also boring.
In all 8-10 times I've played that game I have always gone for pottery and always had it work by immediately stepping out of the town, reentering and talking to the dude again. Bing, pot's done. FAQs and people insist that you have to wait or something. It is a mystery.
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Don't shame bell me bro. It cuts deep.
As a side comment, I know that NotMiki hypes the Empire battle themes up a bunch (Men at War + the boss theme... Raging Emperor's Banquet I think?), but I actually like the Alliance territory boss theme more I think ("Bastard Sword"). Nice & epic, loops well. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WdibZ37hdw )
In all 8-10 times I've played that game I have always gone for pottery and always had it work by immediately stepping out of the town, reentering and talking to the dude again. Bing, pot's done. FAQs and people insist that you have to wait or something. It is a mystery.
Huh, I got the pottery commissioned right away, then explored the ruins, came back, and it wasn't ready (the slightly annoying/boring part). Then I saved and found out that yes, I was losing Mutant if I didn't wait for pottery. Then I went over to the Abandoned Village and did some minor combo practice on the immortal trees there and walked through another dungeon looking for anything I missed, came back, and it was ready. Go figure. People on the Internet claim it might be related to # of battles, so maybe it's "after 25 battles or if you have X battles total?!"
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Anyway, I left the Castle and discovered that the useless* Dragon Blade from a treasure chest sells for 30K zenny, so I may come back with some better armor for round 2 with Tyrant. We'll see how it goes.
*Useless because it's heavier than the Flame Sword and Ryu's physicals don't matter since apparently his dragon forms scale off base stats, not equipped stats. And if Ryu is out of AP, he heads to the back lines to Drowse some and recover AP. Side note: Drowse can fire off if you're status immune. You still get the HP/AP healing, but sleep misses. Power naps indeed!
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Though again, Kitase pretty much said this scene and the start of the WoR were not intended for Celes, he put there because the scenes were not written for any characters in particular, and thus needed someone to fill the gap, and being Celes was his favorite, he often defaulted to her, so she got several extra scenes she was never intended to have, for better or worse.
The start of the WoR stuff not being designed for her seems like a very happy accident, then, since it parallels the early game with Terra so much and she is a clear foil. A character with power is assisted in a time of temporary vulnerability by someone who seems altruistic but actually needs her help? If that was an accident then it worked out really well.
Unless you mean that they arbitrarily chose her as the PoV character for the start of the WoR and then worked from there using a parallel situation turned up to 11 on bleakness because you're now in a shitty world, that would make a ton more sense.
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FF5 Fiesta: I wandered the world and went to all the places I hadn't been to yet, got myself some Bard songs and such. Then I went and fought the defenses of the flying city, and got walled hard by Sol Cannon or whatever it's called. The Aging+MT 2HKO damage that bleeds was a little much. Then I discovered I could take out the things that were launching the missiles. Funnily enough, I'm also about 90% certain that taking them out damages the main cannon by a fair amount, because I've definitely done way more damage to the cannon and not touched the missiles than in my successful run of that battle. (4-6k on the successful run, whereas I've had a run where I did 6-8k to the main cannon and never touched the missile pods)
Running through the Ronka Ruins now, and holy crap. For a setup that is mostly Knight classes, I severely rely on blitz tactics. I either win in about 2 turns or people begin dropping like flies. Luckily I stocked up on revival items and potions, but given the best healing I have are storebought potions, those can only get me so far.
Made it through to the end, and now I'm at the Flying Snake boss, and I am just totally walled. I'm hitting it with every element I have, as well as elements I don't have, but it deals about as much damage to me as I deal to it (not a lot. about 70-180 each) and it has way more health. Best damage I managed was 256. I have absolutely no clue how I am supposed to beat it.
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Soul Cannon has 12500 HP, actually, but yeah, not being hit by Aging goes a long way to making sure you have enough damage. Taking out the Launchers doesn't lower the main boss' HP but it's absolutely worth doing; I've never done a playthrough where it wasn't.
Archeoaevis is going to be a total bitch with your team, yes. The good news is that storebought Hi-Potions (500 healing!) are very close, but that's of no help to you now, and just waliing on him physically isn't great especially since his defence starts out very high. If you want some specific help, try catching some Ronkan Knights, which when released will use an attack which does high damage, possibly enough to take out each of his forms in one go (each form has 1600 HP), but I'd hit him once or twice first to be sure. I highly recommend using these early in the fight, as his defences get lower with each form, so he'll be relatively easier to beat on. The second form, in particular, has by far the nastiest attack in the fight, Frost, which you'll want to avoid. It shows up again in the fifth and final form but is very rare then.
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As a side comment, I know that NotMiki hypes the Empire battle themes up a bunch (Men at War + the boss theme... Raging Emperor's Banquet I think?), but I actually like the Alliance territory boss theme more I think ("Bastard Sword"). Nice & epic, loops well. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WdibZ37hdw )
Nope, I pretty much agree with you there. What I hype is most of the town themes.
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FF5 - Battle on the Big Bridge is awesome as always. Gilgamesh 2 is kinda unimpressive when you can 1,000 Needles cheese him away (if nothing else, trivializes Shell/Protect and it's still my best spammable damage). White Wind's also kind of lulzy, usually full or close enough to full MT healing for that MP is silly. Meanwhile, I'm considering shuffling Dancer between Lenna and Faris because there's a -serious- offensive payoff for running Summon as a backup skillset on Dancer and MP draining also synergizes nicely with that. The game just can't catch a break.
(Incidentally, Abductor is horrible. Incidentally deux, way too much stuff gets nailed by Death Claw. Incidentally trois, Beastmaster's Catches are pretty fun, but, in addition to chipping enemies to catch them being kind of a pain in the ass, a lot of them kinda get trivialized by the death combo that is Summoner+Blue Mage, which is a pity given how Blue Mage -also- has tools to make catching beasts more practical. At least, Control is also nice. Though their game would massively benefit from you being able to hold multiple monsters instead of just one like it happens here.)
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Finished my regular fiesta run with no real problems (Summoner/Black Mage/Dragoon/Beastmaster). Twin Tania was the hardest fight as I had no elemental rings, but hasted Dragoon > him as it turns out. Beat the game at Level 33 I think. I have not fought Omega or Shinryu in many years, and don't plan to bother this time around either. Maybe if I roll a dancer or something.
I started a Random Natural run next, so far have Blue Mage, Red Mage, and White Mage. I think Gilgabot likes me. I'm up to Sol Cannon already and doubt I will have many issues going forward.
Edit: LOL of course my fourth job is Summoner.
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Inspired by FFRK, more FF games! This time modern ones, heaven help me.
FF14: So I am not actually -playing- this, but chat goes on and on about it, and it IS the only numbered FF I literally know -nothing- about, so I started watching some of the main quest on youtube to kill some hours. It's... actually not bad. The localization team actually does a great job writing MMO world-building plot and has some entertaining dialogue for the characters you meet. I think the only complaint I have with it, writing-wise, is that it has the ugliest names for things ever. Hard to read, harder to remember, and nigh-impossible to spell without looking so you'll have to ask Meeple for the highlights there.
The design for the Primals (summons, but evil) is Fucking Amazing. Worth watching even the most tedious of cutscenes just to see them in motion.
It's really too bad it's an MMO and I will never ever ever play another one of those again, because it has the most worthwhile story/writing/worldbuilding of any FF since 10.
FF Type-0: And in contrast! We have the Fabula Nova Crystalwhatsis. Honestly has very very little to do with FF13, which is great. It is certainly the best writing to come out of the FNC, for all that I'd be wary of calling it 'good'. It has some decent plot/action moments and it builds its villains and their schemes well, but it's the heroes that are lacking really. Type-0, as literally everyone who knew anything about it could have predicted, has TOO MANY CHARACTERS and none of them are well-rounded or fleshed out, and only barely likable due to the most surface of qualities given to them. In a game with 16 or so playable characters, and none of them are really given the role of "main character", this dearth of personal stories is really distracting. If, let's say, Ace was really the main character as he appears to be from most of the promotional materials and his name, and he was the driving force of the story and all the other 16 or so PCs were his tagalong Suikoden one-hit wonders then these shallow personalities would actually gel rather well. But as-is, he's closer to a silent protagonist in terms of personality depth. The worst part is that I -know- SE could have pulled off the assemble cast thing, since even the decades-old FF6 managed to give its similarly-sized cast each their own little story arc. It doesn't help that the voice-acting is sub-par...
This isn't to say that I dislike it, though! I'm actually rather engaged in the whole political struggle and interesting world ideas that are reimagined from the FF13 world into something much MUCH more coherent. It's just really distracting having all these main characters running around. The plot itself cribs a bunch of concepts from FF13 like l'Cie and Focus and uses them as the basis for a sci-fi super-soldier plot wherein an empire also happens to be going around trying to capture all four elemental crystals that are the source of all magic OH AND ALSO ARE SENTIENT THINGS THAT CREATE L'CIE, replacing the stupid Fal'Cie from FF13 that made no sense. Basically, Type-0's story is much more straightforward in its world-building and is all the better for it narratively so it can focus on the political goings-on of the four nations. I daresay I'd read a novel about this storyline were it not centered on the 16-or-so military high school students who make up our playable characters. The politicians could carry this novel.
Oh, and the gameplay. It exists, it's not bad. It is essentially a Kingdom Hearts/Crisis Core style ARPG (with a lot more PC options) and that's just not my thing, but it seems competent at it. So for people who dig those kinds of battle systems, I'd recommend it. Otherwise... well I don't think the narrative is going to win anyone over due to its horrible misuse of large-cast, but if you like FF13 and KH, you probably will like this?
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Ffo
The lack of distinction between the characters really stood out.
Yeah, they do have slight differences in their outfits, but they look too similar to care. Hell, even giving them unlockable ff oriented job gear would have been sweet.
Imagine nine in dragoon gear. Would have look cool, yo!
Anyways no one has anything close to a good or engaging personality, which is a shame. I love large casts in rpgs, just not bland ones.
Oh, and the chick who picks the wedgie out of her ass every time she swings her mace around...classy Japan. Classy.
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I'd play Type-0 but lack of PS4 means I won't. Ah well...
Hard to read, harder to remember, and nigh-impossible to spell without looking so you'll have to ask Meeple for the highlights there.
And yet, this is still a step up from FF11. At least FF14 doesn't throw apostrophes into 50% of it's names, only 20%! Also removed the hyphen nonsense from Tarutaru names when creating Lalafells.
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FF5 Fiesta: I wandered the world and went to all the places I hadn't been to yet, got myself some Bard songs and such. Then I went and fought the defenses of the flying city, and got walled hard by Sol Cannon or whatever it's called. The Aging+MT 2HKO damage that bleeds was a little much. Then I discovered I could take out the things that were launching the missiles. Funnily enough, I'm also about 90% certain that taking them out damages the main cannon by a fair amount, because I've definitely done way more damage to the cannon and not touched the missiles than in my successful run of that battle. (4-6k on the successful run, whereas I've had a run where I did 6-8k to the main cannon and never touched the missile pods)
Though you got past it, it's worth noting that Sol Cannon's big MT attack always does _exactly_ 50% of your max HP in damage, so if you can keep your HP above that threshold, it will never kill you ever.
(Some parties in the fiesta format do have issues with this.)
FF14: So I am not actually -playing- this, but chat goes on and on about it, and it IS the only numbered FF I literally know -nothing- about, so I started watching some of the main quest on youtube to kill some hours. It's... actually not bad. The localization team actually does a great job writing MMO world-building plot and has some entertaining dialogue for the characters you meet. I think the only complaint I have with it, writing-wise, is that it has the ugliest names for things ever. Hard to read, harder to remember, and nigh-impossible to spell without looking so you'll have to ask Meeple for the highlights there.
FF14's worldbuilding and writing stands up even to the non-MMO FF entries, in my opinion. Like, a hypothetical refactoring of the game where they made it a single-player experience instead of an MMO (with the expected gameplay changes, naturally) and made the main character not a silent protagonist would probably be well-received amongst the series as a whole, I suspect. The parts of the MMO which are currently "Now go do this group dungeon!" could easily be handled either by crafting 3-7 more OCs (as "player character" stand-ins) or, in many (but not all) cases, just letting you run around with some of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn or various Grand Company NPCs as party members, or even by just taking a couple of the characters that are ostensibly important but don't actually _do_ anything visible during most of the main scenario (like Alisaie, who has a very significant role in the Binding Coils of Bahamut, but has all of like two cutscenes she appears in for the entirety of the main scenario leveling quests, and they're way back around level 15).
The main character themselves not being a silent protagonist could be handled either by making them a set character (as with most FFs) or while leaving FF14's avatar customization in, possibly with a 'personality selector' not unlike the one used by the retainers in the actual MMO. (Obviously the latter would entail significantly more writing work, as you'd probably have a minimum of two sets of lines for every race/gender combination possible, so at least 40 different "main character scripts" if you don't include Au Ra - 5 races * 2 subraces * 2 genders * 2 personalities)
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Did both scenarios, save Cid and Cid dies. Goddamn in the age of the SNES was Cid Dies ballsy as fuck. Cid lives is really dumb and terrible but I can see why they added it in. Definitely remember doing Cid Lives when I replayed it on the PSX because ballsy fiction was less important to me than the comfort of knowing I could prevent bad things from happening if I just tried hard enough.
I think it's a masterful piece of fuckery to have it possible to prevent an incredibly sad thing, just you didn't know how. It feels like FF6 getting into metafiction, especially for the era. If you paid closer attention to the fish and tried to figure out how it worked based on the item descriptions and what Cid says, you can probably find out how to save him, but the game makes it so you have to scramble to save him (since his health ticks down no matter what you're doing). It's a really effective way of putting you in the character's shoes the first time you play through it. So Cid lives is important in that it puts the responsibility for Cid dying on you, the player, for doing it wrong, and not just the story. Even though it's trite.
Hm, I think I agree but I feel like that wasn't done on purpose. In any case...
Up to Figaro - Good stuff etc. Reset in the house Sabin's holding up because I dicked around too much. Both Hunbaba and Phunbaba are legit translations of what I assume is the original name and that irritates me but whatever. Dealt with Tentacles easily... this was another boss that walled me as a kid and I have no idea how. I can only guess I hadn't actually bothered to build up a skillset for these characters because my party as a kid was Locke/Sabin/Terra and...... Cyan. So only one character was really set up to do anything? Anyway, EZ mode this time around.
A bit of plot incongruity... Celes had been asleep for 1 year, and Figaro castle went under the day everything went boom, but there are all these bodies laying around saying they can't breathe. So they've apparently been suffocating for a year straight. Silly plothole, i c u.
hahaha ok gba translation you got me on the NPC talking about people spelling Kefka's name with C's. That was pretty great. god that doesn't even make linguistic sense
Darryl's Tomb. Another area that was only probably hard because out of the characters you have access to here I only ever used Sabin. On that note, Genji Glove Sabin with two Burning Fists is actually pretty badass throughout this section, and barely outdamages Celes with -Ra spells. Like, even without setting him up with any skills in the WoB he's still holding his own. I imagine that's intended though since almost everything in this stretch is weak to fire, so they wanna give you a leg up. Edgar, too, would be fine on the strength of his tools alone, the utility spells I gave him are just an added bonus. And even if I hadn't been using Celes she'd at least have Blizzara by now. Setzer on the other hand... man without any setting up he is terrible. Maybe better with slot manipulation but I don't care enough to do that. Good thing the other 3 PCs you're forced with here carry their own quite handily, and Seraph can turn him into an OK heal battery by the time it's time to fight Dullahan. Another easy boss that walled me as a kid because I didn't realize motherfucker was countering all my sick fires. 10 year olds is dumb.
And now I have the Falcon. Dramatic music is dramatic (also great). First order of business, ignore the game trying to get me to get Cyan and go get Terra. Phunbaba is easy even though he blows away both Celes and Edgar. Mahou Shojo Terra is Mahou Shojo Terra.
Now that I have a proper team + Sabin, I decide that my final party will include Relm since I've never actually used her, so off to Jidoor... after picking up some low hanging fruit. Bum Rush, Birdsper, etc. Owzer is Jabba the Hutt. Refrence pyle. taller. dont stop gettin. Dungeon was somewhat competent, but not really. Relm and Lakshmi (uh whatever it is originally called. Gives Curaga) acquire, a brief drop off for Strago, then to Narshe for -aga spells.
Millivanilly (Villagepeoplemiranda? Vilimanjaro? Viligarmanda?... Tritoch) goes down EZ, so does the Ice Dragon. Reset once to Tonberries because I haven't learned to heal up before opening chests yet and I forgot this was a mimic. Beat Umaro, and realize I hadn't gotten mog yet, and redo the dungeon, swapping Edgar for Mog and pissing and moaning the entire time. It's not even like I'm gonna use Umaro or anything. Anyway, swapped Mog for Strago, frameskip my way to get Aero for Strago and to rerecruit Gao and then quit for the night.
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Tentacles are easy to troll with game knowledge, yeah. They can be a little hard when you don't realize that Running Shoes/Hermes' Sandals make you immune to Slow, and thus also immune to their seizing attack.
There are some official Square publications (in Japanese) from the era that romanized the name as "Cefca", and when Sky Render did his retranslation of FF6 he used that spelling as a result. Even he thinks it was dumb now, he prefers the GBA script over his own.
As for Setzer, it's pretty easy to at least hit Flash or whatever the three gems slot is consistently, and you don't need anything better for that segment of the game, probably.
Relm's actually pretty good just on raw stats, if projecty. Sketch is hot garbage though of course.
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The Cefca thing was pretty much straight up pedantic nonsense because of the Japanese Romanization; Woolsey did the right thing translating it as "Kefka" simply because, well, doesn't give the false impression of "Sefca" and phonetics are probably the most important thing when it comes to Name Translations (as in, "Jody" vs. "Jodi" is completely meaningless; they're pronounced the same way and in Japanese, there'd be no way to distinguish the two.) These days it's easy to shut those fake-purists up by simply linking them to a Japanese Dissidia cutscene where they very blatantly say "Kefka."
I remember someone tried to argue Kefka was based off an Italitan character and the name was probably meant to be italian and thus "Cefca" made sense until he remembered that if it was a Italian, it'd be pronounced "Chefca" that way, which is no better than "Sefca" so he back-pedaled on that claim. This is a random annecdote, not really making a point!
And yeah, the Figaro thing is a plothole I've seen brought up plenty. Another plot-point that feels off is Mobliz. Terra claims that Kefka nuked the town the same day the world was redone, but the flashback suggests this isn't the first Light of Judgment Kefka has hurled since the parents seem to recognize it (First in Mobliz, sure, but not first in the world.) I personally think it should have been reworded as something like "shortly after."
Figaro could easily be re-written too. Change "we're running out of air!" to "we're running out of supplies!" Sure, some suspension of disbelief on "where are they getting air from!?" but changing it to a supply issue as opposed to an air one makes sense.
And yeah, Early WoR is very much geared to be Sabin solo-able, specifically for that reason. It's very possible to have an under-developed Celes at this point since she leaves right before integral Espers show up, and her level might not be high enough to get Ice 2, etc. Sabin, by contrast, will have most definitely learned Fire Dance by then, so enemies are basically made one-shottable by him to help make that section easier despite 2 PCs. Add in how just about every enemy until Daryl's Tomb is clearly way weaker than the Floating Continent, unscaled, and it's clear they balanced it to be easy. Daryl's Tomb is the first dungeon with any bite to it and even that has, as you note, a heavy emphasis on Fire Weak enemies.
Interestingly, before Sabin rejoins, the enemies are geared to be easily solo-able by Celes. There's a bunch of Ice weak enemies, and they have fairly low HP, and outside of the status in the collapsing house (which the game warns you about if you talk to NPCs in Tzen, and the relic shop does have the appropriate relic to counter-act it), so it's clearly intended with that mindset, since once you cross the bridge, the enemies shift from "lots of Ice weak" to "lots of Fire weak" as though you just got Sabin. It's honestly a pretty well designed area all things considered since before this point, outside of Thamasa, you have a lot of freedom with characters, then suddenly it says "you mults now use these characters, one of whom is very plausibly under-developed!" so they balanced it around that minimum potential. Played a lot of games that give you the finger when doing a stunt like that.
As far as Setzer goes, Chocobop is the best for Daryl's Tomb; it's essentially Meteor that can't hit fliers, and it's just as easy to get as 7 Flush. That said, Setzer's not particularly good during this arc. Sabin's hitting weakness, Edgar's got big ST damage with his tools, Celes probably has probably caught up by now with Magic between the previous segments if she had fallen behind at all, Setzer...yeah, doesn't have much. I guess 7 Flush is no worse than Edgar's Flash, except Edgar does have Enhancer giving basically a 20% boost Setzer can't get (before Esper boosts.)
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Final Fantasy Suite Autobattle II: Menuet - In which I grind for tons of black power. Got Dark, Venom Buster, Mental Break and Retaliate to R3. If I manage to pull another -ga to R4, I'll be pretty much good to go for a while.
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One thing about FF6 slot is that in my experience if you get the first real for 7-flush or Chocobop than the game will rig the next two for you at a really high rate, something like 90% or so. Getting the timing down for just one reel is a lot easier than doing it for all three.
It's probably still not worth the bother of practicing unless you are doing some sort of esoteric challenge where you use neither Sabin nor Espers in the early WoR, though. Or god forbid, are using Setzer on the Floating Continent in an NMG. Or maybe if you're named Meeple and are trying to argue Setzer>Sabin for the back half of the WoB in a faq/message board.
Snow: I assume Thundaga is the first one to R4? If not, definitely pick it, 3 of the likely next 4 events will call for lots and lots of lightning-elemental damage.
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One thing about FF6 slot is that in my experience if you get the first real for 7-flush or Chocobop than the game will rig the next two for you at a really high rate, something like 90% or so. Getting the timing down for just one reel is a lot easier than doing it for all three.
That's due to how it's rigged. Chocobop and 7 Flush are rigged in your favor, such that if you get the first one, the 2nd one is insured, and the 3rd one is insured unless you a hit specific icon on #3. This is because it's rigged that the game will take the icon you landed on and scroll through the next 3, stopping on whatever matches with the previous two. In most cases, there's a diamond or chocobo every 3 or 4 icons so you are insured to get it this way, but there's one case where there's a stretch with them, and it lands on a 7?
Either way, Chocobop and 7 Flush are the only two you can reasonably Spam if you learn the timing because the game helps you out. H-bomb is a bit risky since it's a 50% rigging against you (as in, the game will just tell you "no") which honestly I find silly because H-bomb, while good, is not so good to the point to need rigging against you as the timing has to be precise, though H-bomb can still pay off since 50% odds is no different than Gau (only crap healing on failure instead of crap damage, and you have to actual know the timing but you can pause cheese that I guess). Everything above H-bomb is basically "don't bother, not worth it."
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Snow: I assume Thundaga is the first one to R4? If not, definitely pick it, 3 of the likely next 4 events will call for lots and lots of lightning-elemental damage.
I want to R4 both Thundaga and Blizzaga, since I already have R4 Firaga. Problem is I don't have enough Lightning Orbs for R4 Thundaga. Suppose I'll grind that tomorrow. Thundara Sword and Thundaga are both at R3, at least, and that goes a long way.
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Slots are a source of kinda okay damage which can tide you over while learning spells with Setzer, a choice which is mostly justified by the existence of Fixed Dice. I'm actually kinda inclined to agree that Setzer > Sabin in the back half of the WoR but neither's great then anyway so whatever.
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The Cefca thing was pretty much straight up pedantic nonsense because of the Japanese Romanization; Woolsey did the right thing translating it as "Kefka" simply because, well, doesn't give the false impression of "Sefca" and phonetics are probably the most important thing when it comes to Name Translations (as in, "Jody" vs. "Jodi" is completely meaningless; they're pronounced the same way and in Japanese, there'd be no way to distinguish the two.) These days it's easy to shut those fake-purists up by simply linking them to a Japanese Dissidia cutscene where they very blatantly say "Kefka."
I remember someone tried to argue Kefka was based off an Italitan character and the name was probably meant to be italian and thus "Cefca" made sense until he remembered that if it was a Italian, it'd be pronounced "Chefca" that way, which is no better than "Sefca" so he back-pedaled on that claim. This is a random annecdote, not really making a point!
#MeepleTalksToZennyAboutJapaneseLinguisticsAndTransliteration
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Is the italian character Franz Kafka
FFRK: Curse you Snoooow
Well. The situation is not too bad here. I got R3 -gas, R1 Protectga, R3 standard breaks, R2 magic breakdown. I also have three priceless works of art: R4 Curaga, R4 Fira strike and R2 Waterja.
I almost have a (good) level 65 team + several other levelled characters, plus the MP restore materias.
I still only max 95 stamina though, the regular dungeons are taking way too long. No idea how anyone has beat all of them.
I also don't want to whip out a calculator + check the website for HP just to beat fucking Baigan.
To be fair, I'm spending every sunday in exp city. So I have levelled a lot of different characters.
Here is my character evaluation right now, from the ones I have tried:
Vivi: Rules
Garnet: Rules
Cloud: Rules so much
Wakka: Wakka's kind of a loser but who else is going to use breakdowns? Fucking Irvine? So he's still useful.
Squall: You use Squall when your Cloud is maxed and you don't want to lose exp, he's about the same but obviously less good
Tyro: Useful when you need three white magic spells but don't want to use two white mages. So you can slap a white mage spell on Tyro, plus let's say, a breakdown. That's pretty good.
Gordon: You could also do that Tyro build I talked about with Gordon, but I'm pretty sure Gordon has worse stats overall after equipment. Also Tyro can do literally anything else he wants and Gordon can't. Gordon blows.
Irvine: Irvine, I tried really really hard to get you a gun, but the odds were so low
Lenna and Arc: Garnet is better since she can break the lvl cap
Mean Cecil / Luneth / Warrior of Light / Kain / Brosef / Sephiroth / Locke / Tidus: They're all very similar generic filler fighters. The difference between each of them is like the difference between pokemon games. D. Cecil and Sephy are the best since they can break the level cap
Nice Cecil: Is slightly more defense oriented than those above, which is bad in this game. Good SB though.
Balthier: See Irvine. Also, lack of Support 4 is a real bummer. He's pretty worthless right now, I don't really see what his role is supposed to be.
Rydia: Black Magic level 3 only = Get the hell out Rydia
Cyan: Get out
Cores: Get out
Soul Hackers: The Amani Monolith has traditional SMT final dungeon size, so I guess I'm at the end. I've already spent like four hours inside. Loving these ridiculous dungeons.
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The design for the Primals (summons, but evil) is Fucking Amazing. Worth watching even the most tedious of cutscenes just to see them in motion.
It's really too bad it's an MMO and I will never ever ever play another one of those again, because it has the most worthwhile story/writing/worldbuilding of any FF since 10.
I would be all over FF14 if only it wasn't, you know, an MMO. I've had FF soundtracks on in the background while working on personal projects the past couple days? And it turns out FF14's tracks are mostly pretty boss, and I do like the actual boss designs as well. Only because it's an MMO they're hidden behind a splash of names&numbers&cooldowntimers vomited all over the screen and MMORPG combat, just fundamentally unpalatable to Cids. I got closer to that than I liked in FF12, thanks.
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Yeah this is definitely more of a traditional MMO than a FF.
I guess I'm the only one here who wasn't charmed by FF14 at all because it's an MMO, yet I really like FF12 a whole lot.
I consider FF14 to be the worst FF I've played, easily sub FF2. (not including 11 which I haven't played at all and which is probably even worse)
Redundant jobs, endless grinding, endless backtracking, no thinking required during gameplay, worthless story, and the world is a FF-themed theme park instead of an actual FF world. (Note that this is all pretty standard for a MMORPG) The only good thing about it are the graphix, I haven't paid attention to the music but it's not like I had any epic boss battle anyway.
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FFRK: Curse you Snoooow
Well. The situation is not too bad here. I got R3 -gas, R1 Protectga, R3 standard breaks, R2 magic breakdown. I also have three priceless works of art: R4 Curaga, R4 Fira strike and R2 Waterja.
I almost have a (good) level 65 team + several other levelled characters, plus the MP restore materias.
I still only max 95 stamina though, the regular dungeons are taking way too long. No idea how anyone has beat all of them.
I also don't want to whip out a calculator + check the website for HP just to beat fucking Baigan.
For Baigan, you do the following: pick Summon Eidolon II Rydia as your RW. Bladeblitz once. Focus on Baigan until he's at lowish HP. Then, unload Rydia Shiva x2. Alternatively, you're likely overpowered enough that you'll be able to master that fight even without fulfilling that condition. I pulled that Target Score when I was at like L45 or something.
As for Balthier, I dunno. Right now he's a Tidus variant with worse pdur and weaponry, but better mdur due to robes (which is a mixed blessing, since being squishy =/= good for trash. Mitigating physical damage is easier than magical, though). He will likely soar up the tiers when the Thief abilities drop into Global, parasitic stat buffing with Breakdown power sounds crazy good.
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Ffrk
Next week I will have all the core classes to 50, plus those that can break the level cap too.
I spent all day getting black power, but I didn't have enough ice or lightning orbs for the aga spells.
Drain n drain strike are lv 3, so that's something. Got terras daddy to rank 2 as well.
Tidus so far is the only max lv character. I'd rather leave him on the bench for this upcoming event. Kain, wakka, balthier, cloud, vivi, rydia, and garnet are all high 50s.
Need a new retaliate n magic sword user fast cause fuck sephiroth n squall. I'd rather use cyan and lv 50 celes.
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Final Fantasy Children of Autobattle - Welp, they announced the Yuna event. The banner preview also sounds good, worth tossing some Mythril on. Now, to amass the Lightning Orbs I need for Thundaga R4.
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FFRK: Working on getting the abilities that alter the Attack command for more efficient autobattling. Level cap-broke Josef, but haven't had luck getting his second materia. Got the memory crystals for bard and ranger but they lack levels currently.
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Speaking of which, I now have enough Black Orbs to hone Thundaga to R4 -and- to hone another Break to R3. Not sure if I'll do that, since the metagame will soon phase the lower level breaks out and I could use those Power Orbs to hone Spellblades instead, but it's worth a thought.
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New abilities would be nice. Does monk even have anything yet?
I'd appreciate a large release of new abilities to further differentiate all these characters.
Also, I think kain's daddy is gonna take his place as soon as he maxes out.
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Yeah this is definitely more of a traditional MMO than a FF.
I guess I'm the only one here who wasn't charmed by FF14 at all because it's an MMO, yet I really like FF12 a whole lot.
I consider FF14 to be the worst FF I've played, easily sub FF2. (not including 11 which I haven't played at all and which is probably even worse)
Redundant jobs, endless grinding, endless backtracking, no thinking required during gameplay, worthless story, and the world is a FF-themed theme park instead of an actual FF world. (Note that this is all pretty standard for a MMORPG) The only good thing about it are the graphix, I haven't paid attention to the music but it's not like I had any epic boss battle anyway.
I think we played different games. >_> But I'll go down the line with your points.
Redundant jobs: How, exactly, are they redundant in 1) a way other FF job systems are not, and 2) a way that isn't necessitated by the realities of MMO design? (There is certainly some redundancy inherent there. Some of it is a necessary evil in MMOs due to role stratification; MMOs explicitly don't permit the inclusion of gimmick classes, because every class has to contribute something meaningful to group play, and in a well-designed MMO, no one class' contribution should clearly outweigh that of any other class in the same role.) If the classes were truly redundant, then optimal group composition for raid content would involve identifying the single highest DPS class and bringing 4 of that class and only that class for the 4 DPS slots in raid groups. Being roughly in contact with three different raid groups that are decently competent at this game, I can assure you that this doesn't happen and that FF14 raid compositions tend to be quite varied within the guideline of 2 tanks, 2 healers and 4 DPS; the community pretty much universally agrees that doubling up on any class ever is generally to your raid's detriment, from what I can tell.
Endless grinding: I wouldn't characterize it as "endless" but I will concede that FF14 is slightly more grindy than is my preference (for reference, I consider WoW's leveling grind to be about "just right", and FF14's is notably protracted by comparison in some ranges). Grinding in MMOs in general, of course, is another consequence of the medium; no doubt it originally existed to ensure that monthly subscriptions continued to get renewed month to month, and even now in this era when more and more MMOs are coming out in a freemium format, it exists to partly alleviate the fact that no development team in the world can create new content for the game world at a rate that keeps up with players' consumption of content. And when players run out of content, they quit, and they often don't come back.
Endless backtracking: Return to the Waking Sands. Sure, there's a lot of backtracking in FF14. There's also a lot of backtracking in basically any offline RPG that ever has any kind of a central hub location for anything. FF5 sticks out to me as a game with a lot of it (mostly around the Catapult, Ancient Library, and Sealed Castle Kuza). So I mean, sure, this is accurate enough, but I don't see how it's a unique criticism at all... and in the specific context of FF14, anyway, it kind of makes narrative sense for what is, at first, presented as a quasi-secret society to, you know, want to stick around in their quasi-secret base, not gallavant around in public all the time.
Also wait if you hate endless backtracking how the heck did you like FF12 because holy crap it has probably the most backtracking in the entire damn series. Hell, 14 itself has more convenient travel.
No thinking required during gameplay: Yeah, uh, no. Sorry, I don't mean to be rude, but this is 100% horse shit, unless you want to be a really bad player in any content past about level 30, which is about when the game starts taking the training wheels off its group content and expects you to actually deal with enemies having specialized mechanics. Roughly speaking, you can say that the first three dungeons are more or less tutorials on how to play in groups. (On that note, organically teaching you how to actually perform in group content is an area in which MMOs are typically very weak, and an area in which FF14 relatively excels by the genre standards. Compare WoW, which pretty much just throws you in on the deep end and doesn't ever teach you the fundamentals of "how to tank".)
Worthless story: Respectfully disagree here. FF14 probably has the best story presentation in the MMO industry, which is to say that it exists at all. (I will accept that it is limited somewhat by the nature of the medium, e.g. silent protagonist problems.) Also it actually largely makes sense and is internally consistent, which is more than I can say for, say, FF13.
The world is a FF-themed theme park instead of an actual FF world: I'm not honestly sure what you even mean by this, elaborate?
"It's not like I had any epic boss battle anyway": Yeah, you didn't play long enough. Sorry, but it's true, what non-MMO FF game has had an "epic boss battle" in the first quarter of the game? I typically associate "epicness" in boss battles with boss competence, and while single-player FF isn't known for boss competence in general, it's CERTAINLY not known for *early game* boss competence.
That all being said, I will happily concede that if you're a person who strongly dislikes MMOs in general, FF14 is exceedingly unlikely to win you over or anything.
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Hm, I think I agree but I feel like that wasn't done on purpose. In any case...
I don't know that it's on purpose but I know it fucking works. You know, like penicillin .
I consider FF14 to be the worst FF I've played, easily sub FF2. (not including 11 which I haven't played at all and which is probably even worse)
Redundant jobs, endless grinding, endless backtracking, no thinking required during gameplay, worthless story, and the world is a FF-themed theme park instead of an actual FF world. (Note that this is all pretty standard for a MMORPG) The only good thing about it are the graphix, I haven't paid attention to the music but it's not like I had any epic boss battle anyway.
In FF14 you at least get to press buttons and shit. Most of FF11 is spent watching your character autoattack because every ability is on a noticeable cooldown. Class design in WoW back in Vanilla wasn't great but even a vanilla Paladin looks like Guilty Gear in comparison.
FF14 probably has the best story presentation in the MMO industry, which is to say that it exists at all.
Never played The Old Republic or The Secret World, I see.
"It's not like I had any epic boss battle anyway": Yeah, you didn't play long enough. Sorry, but it's true, what non-MMO FF game has had an "epic boss battle" in the first quarter of the game? I typically associate "epicness" in boss battles with boss competence, and while single-player FF isn't known for boss competence in general, it's CERTAINLY not known for *early game* boss competence.
So the statement was preceeded by "I wasn't paying attention to the music," so it looks like you're pretty much entirely off-point there mang. Clearly a question of presentation. Kefka melts as soon as Locke gets a turn whenever I play FF6 but that doesn't make him not "epic," as overused as the term is.
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"It's not like I had any epic boss battle anyway": Yeah, you didn't play long enough. Sorry, but it's true, what non-MMO FF game has had an "epic boss battle" in the first quarter of the game? I typically associate "epicness" in boss battles with boss competence, and while single-player FF isn't known for boss competence in general, it's CERTAINLY not known for *early game* boss competence.
Big Rat. Liquid Flame. Ultros 1. Sinspawn Gui. Manasvin Warmech. Challenge is a super-subjective thing but all of these bosses strike me as pretty competent and I've definitely seen them wreck/wall various people (I certainly died to all but one of them myself). And I'd definitely say FF2's "hardest" boss is its first, but that says more about how shit FF2's design is (hahaha a boss who nulls physicals in a dungeon where you'll probably have 5-10 MP at most if you go in without grinding, and use most of that up on flans).
Also I'm not sure what the "first quarter" of an MMO means but if it's a large enough number of hours this comparison becomes meaningless, since the raw amount of time is what matters here. e.g. if two games have opening 10% of each game be really boring, that's waay worse for a 100 hour game than it is for a 5 hour game.
Idly, FF5 is really light on backtracking by RPG standards. If the worst you can say is "you have to walk through Kuza multiple times" (optionally!) then your game doesn't have much backtracking. And the only time you return to the Catapult you have a freaking airship.
(I have no investment in either FF12 or FF14; FF14 is in a genre I don't care for and FF12 is a bad game in a genre I do care for.)
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Hmm, I'll definitely give you Liquid Flame at least. I'd give you Sinspawn Gui but frankly it's further in the game enough that it doesn't feel misplaced I think? I dunno. Anyway.
The game length thing is a valid point. I do think in general that MMO design is somewhat held back by the need to make early gameplay relatively simple so as not to overwhelm new players, who cannot be assumed to be familiar with the genre. It results in the low-level experience (which in FF14 I'd call about the first 24 levels or so, generally speaking - it varies a BIT by class) fairly uninteresting, at least compared to what comes after it. City of Heroes was actually, IMO, one of the best games in the genre at avoiding this problem; the designers had a core design goal of making you feel awesome very quickly and keeping the feeling of awesomeness steadily escalating as you went.
I miss that damn game. It was a particularly odd MMO gateway drug for me, considering I have no attachment to comic books whatsoever - it had to hook me entirely on its gameplay.
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That all being said, I will happily concede that if you're a person who strongly dislikes MMOs in general, FF14 is exceedingly unlikely to win you over or anything.
What was the purpose of the 800 word point by point response then?
Could we like not call someone's personal experience out as factually incorrect?
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That all being said, I will happily concede that if you're a person who strongly dislikes MMOs in general, FF14 is exceedingly unlikely to win you over or anything.
What was the purpose of the 800 word point by point response then?
Could we like not call someone's personal experience out as factually incorrect?
what forum are we on again
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That all being said, I will happily concede that if you're a person who strongly dislikes MMOs in general, FF14 is exceedingly unlikely to win you over or anything.
What was the purpose of the 800 word point by point response then?
Could we like not call someone's personal experience out as factually incorrect?
what forum are we on again
The one where you blow me <3
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FF5 - Past Regole, where I bought myriad Wizard Hats and Gaia Gear and now randoms eat 1.3-6k MT damage before they get a turn and die. Sometimes, Faris is out of MP and Dances for some draining, which is fine too. Then, either Bartz or Lenna cast Titan in that case. I walked into Kuzar Castle and got surprised by one of those Shield Dragons, but surprise surprise, Control completely wrecks them. Then, I went to the Forest of Moogles - entirely unnotable save for having -yet another boss who eats it to Death Claw-. The spell is silly in the first half of the game. I'm probably sticking with Dancer Faris until she learns Dance, then I'll stick it on Lenna (Galuf could be a point, since he's the only one who knows Control in my party, but maybe I should stick Bartz in Beastmaster instead, I have no idea what the hell BeMa grants at the 300 AP level). Finding out where the Kornago Gourd is would be nice too.
Final Fantasy Cherry-Coloured Autobattle - Honed Thundaga to R4, life is kinda good (well, it was already kinda good due to Curaga R5, Retaliate R3 and Boost R4). Currently doing Nibelheim Elite for that 60th Mythril.
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FF6 - Not a lot of time to play today but made some progress. Got Shadow, a second Minerva, and Gogo. That only leaves Cyan and Locke left then actual side quests. Probably will get Locke first since I have enough characters to fill every slot for his dungeon, and then send in a scrub brigade plus maybe Strago for someone competent to get Cyan.
Not much to say. Celes got -Aga spells now she hits the damage cap on a weakness. So that's nice.
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FF Type-0:
So the cool political plot eventually gave way to full-on Evangelion-style Japanese craziness. I say this lovingly. It certainly got intense really fast all of sudden.
SPOILERS for anyone who cares
So despite the fact that the game has been waving around the prophecy about the end of the world being nigh for the past 20 hours, it actually happens so suddenly and so intensely that it still came as a shock when the characters did exactly what the prophecy said and then the end of the world happened.
Too bad the main part of it happened off screen, I would have liked to see a little more of the apocalypse. Instead we got the Xenogears cliff's notes version of it, which sounded REALLY AWESOME. Sigh.
Still, this issue and the issue of the too-large-cast aside, the plot is surprisingly self-consistent unlike everything else to come out of FNC, and it's intriguing in that anime navel-gazing way. The huge tonal shift and the various plot twists in the game's last few hours are just a fun joyride of narrative -payoff- after all the political backstabbing and buildup.
I won't say it's a masterpiece or anything, but this game's director is the director of FF15 and now I'm actually looking forward to that instead of dreading it, so there's that.
Re: FF14
Like I said, I am not actually -playing- the game because MMOs are not at all something I want to play. But I was sufficiently engaged by the world-building from watching it despite that, so I think it's at least not the most worthless story FF has come up with (poke the easy targets like FF13, 1-5~)
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Holy Crap, Pokken Tournament is out tomorrow in Japanese Arcades. This is going to be epic.
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I do think in general that MMO design is somewhat held back by the need to make early gameplay relatively simple so as not to overwhelm new players, who cannot be assumed to be familiar with the genre.
That's Final Fantasy design at work. You spend the first hour or so of FFV with four characters who just fight and use items. FFVI doesn't let you crack the system open and dig into character customization until act 2. FF10 doesn't let you customize items until you recruit Rikku. There's a lot more examples, probably.
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That's one of the most absurdly situational pieces of gear I've ever encountered in a game. No wonder it only cost 150 crystals to return.
Sealstone cost is really weird in VP2. Sword Blessing, (which is one of the best sealstones impart due to its cost) is only 150 Crystals as well. Sharp Sword Law is only 1500 Crystals. Both are excellent yet have low price tags. Flipside, the "Turn to X" Sealstones all cost 20000 crystals are all mostly awful. They have defensive uses, but from what I read, are not good offensively. And VP2 is a game that's about pumping up your offense more than anything. So it hardly made sense to attach a 20k price tag on them in the first place. Even though Transvestial law is quite obscure in use, I would still take it over something like Sheathed Power Wrath and Secluded Valley Law. If you're crazy like me, you have access to both, but still.
That seems to be the general rule in VP2 though. Defensive stuff is way overpriced on top of being not effective the more you play the game. Even things like Toughness just isn't that good late because you realize the skills/damage you trade off just becomes less and less worthwhile. If you're trying to build defense in VP2, you work with elements and not really any raw stats.
Also irrelevant! Because my party is Brahms + team valk and staying that way even though Freya would be a straight upgrade over Silmeria (are there even any new bows in the SG? I think she's still using junk from Lezard's tower).
Ull in Highsocks has the Soothsayer Bow which is a 620, 3 Atk Weapon with SC enabled. Incidentally, Archers function more as mages than mages themselves (due to the elemental multipliers on many of their attacks). As such, attack power is less important than elemental modifiers, which Soothsayer, IIRC does not have. You want the Supreme Crossbow for its hidden 0.5 Holy modifier. I think the Arbalest has an Earth modifier too but its less preferred due to it either clashing or de-focusing.
And Hrist has Gungnir now so it's not like it even fucking matters who else is in the party anymore. Gungnir is so broke you guys. Holy shit. I mean, I remembered that, but it's still amazing instantly switching from "basically competent" to "literally tears every enemy in half in one swing" just from one weapon upgrade.
Hrist actually can get a couple of other upgrades before Gungnir in the form of Dinosaur Spear and the Lunar Bardiche IIRC. Gungnir is just the SG's way of giving you broken tier items. Tyfring still beats it if you're trying to capitalize on pure damage, but those set ups are less practical for crawling. Comparatively, the only other characters who have comparable weapons are Brahms (Bloody Murder) and Freya (Ether Laser). The Light Swords (Levantine tries) and bows don't catch up and mage staffs were lol to begin with.
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I do think in general that MMO design is somewhat held back by the need to make early gameplay relatively simple so as not to overwhelm new players, who cannot be assumed to be familiar with the genre.
That's Final Fantasy design at work. You spend the first hour or so of FFV with four characters who just fight and use items. FFVI doesn't let you crack the system open and dig into character customization until act 2. FF10 doesn't let you customize items until you recruit Rikku. There's a lot more examples, probably.
I honestly wouldn't compare FF10 Customization to FF5's Job System or FF6's magicite; it's a feature, but not the core development system. It'd be more comparable if you couldn't use the Sphere Grid system until you got Auron, for example.
A better example I think is how FF13 doesn't let you use the Crystarium until Chapter 3, making every fight through Chap 1/2 functionally meaningless (unless you got items from it which I honestly can't remember.)
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I do think in general that MMO design is somewhat held back by the need to make early gameplay relatively simple so as not to overwhelm new players, who cannot be assumed to be familiar with the genre.
That's Final Fantasy design at work. You spend the first hour or so of FFV with four characters who just fight and use items. FFVI doesn't let you crack the system open and dig into character customization until act 2. FF10 doesn't let you customize items until you recruit Rikku. There's a lot more examples, probably.
Oh, definitely. Just it's long been a staple of MMOs in particular, and "early gameplay" lasts a lot longer in pure hourage in an MMO. Like, it can reasonably take you 3-4 hours or so to get to your first group content in FF14 (the early guildhests which are basically tutorials of MMO teamwork - they're basically single-room instances which walk you through basic MMO tactics like pulling enemies without getting multiple groups, properly managing threat (both on the tanking end and on the DPS end), healing, proper use of crowd control, etc.). The two original tank classes don't have their full standard combat attack rotation until level 24, and are still unlocking important parts of their kit as late as the 40s, as the game progressively introduces more and more nuance, more complexity to the gameplay, one step at a time, until you get to the level cap and encounters start expecting you to know how all the little pieces fit together and how to use your long-cooldown abilities most effectively. And these are things the game doesn't feed to you; these you have to figure out intuitively, or learn from someone else.
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That seems to be the general rule in VP2 though. Defensive stuff is way overpriced on top of being not effective the more you play the game. Even things like Toughness just isn't that good late because you realize the skills/damage you trade off just becomes less and less worthwhile. If you're trying to build defense in VP2, you work with elements and not really any raw stats.
I definitely don't agree with Toughness antihype, a lot of bosses lategame and in the SG have damage which can OHKO/be very scary without Toughness and far easier to deal with if you do. It's much better than most offensive skills, you can pretty much predict who finds bosses like Odin competent or not based on whether they have Toughness yet, not based on any other skills.
That said Toughness being great (2x durability lol) has no bearing on your general point as most other defensive sealstones/skills are far worse, and certainly things like, say, boosting RDM/RES, are a total waste of time.
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Final Fantasy John, I'm Only Autobattling - Still doing Elite maingame dungeons with their obscene stamina requirements. Will also probably have to grind white power (oh dear lord) tomorrow, since I'll want a reasonable amount of orbs to hone the upgraded Dia-line spell from Yuna's event. At least, Yuna herself sounds pretty amazing: pretty much Garnet+ (5 White Magic/5 Summon/3 Support off pretty much the same durability and only marginally lower offense stats. Garnet has 4 WM and 2 Support) aside from Soul Breaks, and Garnet herself is currently a high-tier healer unit. If they release the new dungeon update this week or the next, to boot, Summons will suddenly become a trash-sweeping staple, and that's likely to be awesome.
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Oh you didn't finish the elites? K then
Yuna looks pretty nice but she has an awful SB, unlike Garnet. When WM5 becomes useful, Yuna'll be the best, but for now my default healer will stay Garnet.
Re: FF14:
Okay I'll elaborate.
I was comparing FF14 to other FFs, not MMOs, which is why I complained about endless grinding (Other Final Fantasies having literally 0 grinding, save for the other MMORPG in the series, and FF10 during the postgame)
I feel that I could probably like a MMO one day, just like I finally started to enjoy roguelikes thanks to Spelunky. But MMOs have not had such paradigm change yet, and FF14 certainly didn't try to be different and ambitious. (This is actually the only one thing that makes it stand out compared to every other Final Fantasy)
Redundant jobs: How, exactly, are they redundant in 1) a way other FF job systems are not, and 2) a way that isn't necessitated by the realities of MMO design? (There is certainly some redundancy inherent there. Some of it is a necessary evil in MMOs due to role stratification; MMOs explicitly don't permit the inclusion of gimmick classes, because every class has to contribute something meaningful to group play, and in a well-designed MMO, no one class' contribution should clearly outweigh that of any other class in the same role.) If the classes were truly redundant, then optimal group composition for raid content would involve identifying the single highest DPS class and bringing 4 of that class and only that class for the 4 DPS slots in raid groups. Being roughly in contact with three different raid groups that are decently competent at this game, I can assure you that this doesn't happen and that FF14 raid compositions tend to be quite varied within the guideline of 2 tanks, 2 healers and 4 DPS; the community pretty much universally agrees that doubling up on any class ever is generally to your raid's detriment, from what I can tell.
In other Final Fantasy games, jobs heavily change your playstyle. Here you're auto attacking and waiting for countdowns to... count down, with every job. Playing solo, you'll always do this all the time no matter what your class is.
There isn't much you can do against stronger enemies than you except Get Higher Numbers, unlike other FFs which are typically very LLG friendly.
With other players, classes seemed to mostly fit into the MMO trinity (Tank / DPS / heal) and you seem to get very few variations in playstyle between each. Tell me if I'm wrong but I don't think there's the crazy shit like Mix, Math Skill, Throw, Terraint, or even Steal. And, again, there's not a lot of variation in your playstyle. As an individual player, you don't have much of an option to be creative.
Class composition choices could be interesting but it's not like you have much of a choice unless you've been levelling every job (lol)
In other FF games the earlygame is relatively simple and gradually eases you into new mechanics, but the base gameplay stays engaging. Which isn't the case with FF14.
Endless grinding: I wouldn't characterize it as "endless" but I will concede that FF14 is slightly more grindy than is my preference (for reference, I consider WoW's leveling grind to be about "just right", and FF14's is notably protracted by comparison in some ranges). Grinding in MMOs in general, of course, is another consequence of the medium; no doubt it originally existed to ensure that monthly subscriptions continued to get renewed month to month, and even now in this era when more and more MMOs are coming out in a freemium format, it exists to partly alleviate the fact that no development team in the world can create new content for the game world at a rate that keeps up with players' consumption of content. And when players run out of content, they quit, and they often don't come back.
The problem is that the grinding is purely mindless, while Destiny grinding for example is at least involved.
Endless backtracking: Return to the Waking Sands. Sure, there's a lot of backtracking in FF14. There's also a lot of backtracking in basically any offline RPG that ever has any kind of a central hub location for anything. FF5 sticks out to me as a game with a lot of it (mostly around the Catapult, Ancient Library, and Sealed Castle Kuza). So I mean, sure, this is accurate enough, but I don't see how it's a unique criticism at all... and in the specific context of FF14, anyway, it kind of makes narrative sense for what is, at first, presented as a quasi-secret society to, you know, want to stick around in their quasi-secret base, not gallavant around in public all the time.
Also wait if you hate endless backtracking how the heck did you like FF12 because holy crap it has probably the most backtracking in the entire damn series. Hell, 14 itself has more convenient travel.
Each time you do a quest you have to backtrack to the city to go back to whoever gave you a quest, then look at the minimap to find other quests. Quests is all you do unless you're grinding instead, and they're 2% talking, 80% walking to/from the destination, 18% fighting. The backtracking is immense, it's more than half the game from what I've played. You can pay to make it slightly more painless. Amazing.
FF12 had a moderate amount of backtracking during the main story but nothing this crazy. Optional monster hunts required backtracking, but each led to overall really good boss fights. (which led me to start some unfinished stat topic. I'll go back to it if the game gets an HD remake, promise)
No thinking required during gameplay: Yeah, uh, no. Sorry, I don't mean to be rude, but this is 100% horse shit, unless you want to be a really bad player in any content past about level 30, which is about when the game starts taking the training wheels off its group content and expects you to actually deal with enemies having specialized mechanics. Roughly speaking, you can say that the first three dungeons are more or less tutorials on how to play in groups. (On that note, organically teaching you how to actually perform in group content is an area in which MMOs are typically very weak, and an area in which FF14 relatively excels by the genre standards. Compare WoW, which pretty much just throws you in on the deep end and doesn't ever teach you the fundamentals of "how to tank".)
"It gets good 50 hours in"
I think I have played FF14 for about 20-30 hours, and you know, games should get good at least after one hour, two hours tops. I pretty much dropped Okami immediately because of the beginning and am not willing to go back.
I actually felt particularly generous to FF14 because I know MMOs are a slow burn (and I found the mindless grind moderately addictive while watching something else). But, in the end, fuck all was happening, and I knew things would not really get better.
Worthless story: Respectfully disagree here. FF14 probably has the best story presentation in the MMO industry, which is to say that it exists at all. (I will accept that it is limited somewhat by the nature of the medium, e.g. silent protagonist problems.) Also it actually largely makes sense and is internally consistent, which is more than I can say for, say, FF13.
Cutscenes have no rhytm whatsoever, character models are extremely stiff and the entire story is generic. Click to any random part of this and be immensely bored:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvWnCYolcQI&list=PLlMscAdJiuKpO2v6B6fImPqmIU1fQmGQZ&index=3
Compare to the beginning of FF10 for example.
Let met set the bar IMMENSELY LOW and compare it to Arc the Lad 4:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQT5p0AUgI4
FF14 is not even that much better than Arc 4 man
Can't comment on FF13 as I skipped every cutscene
The world is a FF-themed theme park instead of an actual FF world: I'm not honestly sure what you even mean by this, elaborate?
No NPC is telling you an interesting story about their first love or, I dunno, trains.
There's supposed to be a war that went on, or is still going on, I think. It's hard to notice.
Areas don't have an atmosphere beyond the same "Kinda pleasant" feel that applies to everything.
Nothing changes and people are forever glued in one place.
There's lots of boring flavor text, lots of insipid dialogue that exists to justify asking you to fetch 5 evil feathers from 5 evil bunnies two areas from here. Any random page from the FF12 bestiary is more interesting than any flavor text I've read in FF14.
Everything is sterile, artifical, and static, so it feels more like a theme park than a real breathing world.
You could also say this about early FF like FF5. But 1) At least FF5's world at least is constantly changing. 2) World building is far more important in a MMO than a regular RPG 3) FF5 has awesome gameplay 4) FF5 is more than 20 years old
"It's not like I had any epic boss battle anyway": Yeah, you didn't play long enough. Sorry, but it's true, what non-MMO FF game has had an "epic boss battle" in the first quarter of the game? I typically associate "epicness" in boss battles with boss competence, and while single-player FF isn't known for boss competence in general, it's CERTAINLY not known for *early game* boss competence.
Yeah I wasn't particularly talking about difficulty here.
5 minutes into FF3 and you get this battle against LNDTRTL, nothing would be half as memorable in FF14: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZnoIwvABPE
Also, sorry for using the word epic, I hate it too
I also forgot to mention FF14 maybe having the worsts UI of literally any game I've ever played. (on PS4)
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Oh you didn't finish the elites? K then
Yuna looks pretty nice but she has an awful SB unlike Garnet. When 5 becomes useful Yuna'll be the best but right now my default healer will stay Garnet I think.
Well, I'm five elite dungeons and a half from clearing them all, but that's neither here nor there.
Regarding Yuna vs. Garnet: that's pretty accurate an assessment. I'm actually willing to use both Yuna and Garnet, though, depending on whether I get a second 5-rarity staff or not in the short term, since I already have WM's Concentration II and I'm bound to have enough eggs for raising Summoner to L50 once the new dungeons roll in. Of course, I'm also a Yuna fangirl and I'm dumping a crapton of Growth Eggs on her both for the event and for long-term, since Garnet already hit the level cap along with Vivi. This -also- means I may be willing to bother with Quistis once her event with Selphie rolls in. But, as usual, depends on what I get from the gatcha die rolls.
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I feel that I could probably like a MMO one day, just like I finally started to enjoy roguelikes thanks to Spelunky. But MMOs have not had such paradigm change yet, and FF14 certainly didn't try to be different and ambitious
There's certainly games that are doing different things. I'd say The Secret World was a pretty ambitious game in that it did away with classes and levels and most other traditional mechanics, and also had some really interesting quest design ideas that you don't normally see in MMOs. Solving mysteries and shit. The problem is that a game like that hasn't become a huge hit and so new big budget releases are sticking to the WoW theme park formula because they think they can somehow replicate the effects even though it never works.
An interesting thing in what seems to be the new MMO life cycle of "come out for release, get box money + sub money, wait for that to dry up, go to a F2P model" is that once it hits the F2P part, games start to get more experimental in what they're doing and go off the beaten path more. I attribute that to them deciding to pander to the base instead of trying for mass market penetration, but I'm not on any of these company's boards so I can't say for sure.
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That seems to be the general rule in VP2 though. Defensive stuff is way overpriced on top of being not effective the more you play the game. Even things like Toughness just isn't that good late because you realize the skills/damage you trade off just becomes less and less worthwhile. If you're trying to build defense in VP2, you work with elements and not really any raw stats.
I definitely don't agree with Toughness antihype, a lot of bosses lategame and in the SG have damage which can OHKO/be very scary without Toughness and far easier to deal with if you do. It's much better than most offensive skills, you can pretty much predict who finds bosses like Odin competent or not based on whether they have Toughness yet, not based on any other skills.
That said Toughness being great (2x durability lol) has no bearing on your general point as most other defensive sealstones/skills are far worse, and certainly things like, say, boosting RDM/RES, are a total waste of time.
I do switch Toughness in for the SG bosses*, but otherwise have been finding it preferable to do without it. I left it off of Silmeria vs. Odin because I needed Heat Up in place just to have a full-party SC chain (this is the real problem with sticking with her instead of Freya), and wound up having to devote an inordinate amount of AP to keeping her specifically alive. For randoms I use those five skill points for Heroism + Break Up instead. Heroism bonuses get nuts when there's like half a dozen enemies, and you know I love breaking everyone's shit. Break mode is the best. Remaining skills tend to be assigned to Fists of Iron/Mental Boost/Psychosoma for non-Brahms people, Brahms skipping the latter two and just subbing in whatever random shit I feel like playing with at the moment (and then inevitably forgetting about). I think he had Observation in place last time I played the game. I haven't noticed it doing much of anything. I never ever use defensive skills other than Toughness, outside of the very early game when Fortify Physique is all you've got because your accessory options are shit.
(*maingame, only final Lezard really felt like he made it necessary. AE Lezard deals too much fucking damage.)
Sealstones are always always Sharp Sword Law first, was Poison Pin second in the maingame but poison's pretty worthless in the SG, and then usually Paper Tiger third because free damage bonus since I'm obsessive about being at full health anyway. For SG times the latter two are replaced by Yggdrasil and Six Elements Blessing, which is probably the only defensive sealstone I have ever bothered using. Even knowing offense >>> defense in VP2, I tend not to use the ATK 150% RDM 50% sealstone unless I know I'm about to fight something magic-focused. Not real comfortable nuking my defenses to that degree.
EDIT: I could maybe assume it's obvious I took the time to teach the entire main party every single skill even knowing I would never use 90% of that shit.
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Finding Teddy 2: Beat the first book. The environments are really pretty and the game has a rather cute feel, other than when you're fighting a boss whereupon things look rather brutal. For example, the first boss is a mermaid who once defeated will slump down wounded instead of dying immediately. As far as I know, there is no other way to proceed than to make the girl execute her.
Due to the controls and collision detection not being that great, fighting generally is more a contest of simple knowing which moves you should use than being a test of reflexes and maneuverability. Usually it's not complicated. Sometimes you're best of running at the enemy and attack with the girl's double damage dash attack, sometimes you're best of walking up to the enemy and block one attack before you stab it, sometimes you're best of jumping and down-stabbing it and so on. It does happen though that the easiest way gets rather weird. For example, one enemy is easiest to beat by first ducking and stabbing at it barely out of range. The enemy will crouch down to block the attack even though it doesn't hit. Then you walk slightly forward and stab it while it crouching and has its shield down. However, you need to be quick about it else the enemy will stab you in the legs. This usually means you stab before it look like the sword actually reaches the enemy, but it still does, the air seemingly being between the sword and the monster be damned. Either the sword has a longer reach than the visuals let on or the enemies has a bigger hit box than they seem to.
One another note, the game is now making good of it's title. Once you beat the first book, the big bad evil magician spirits away the girl's teddy bear including the giant spider soul it hosts. Last time someone took her teddy bear, she got it back by mostly being nice. This time though:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v141/Crystalgate/Finding%20Teddy%202%20hero_zpsblralhpx.jpg) (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Crystalgate/media/Finding%20Teddy%202%20hero_zpsblralhpx.jpg.html)
She's probably going to try a different approach.
I also almost got enough money for a sword upgrade. I can buy an armor (cloth) upgrade right now, but killing faster seems more fun than surviving more blows so I'll hold off.
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Re: FF14:
Okay I'll elaborate.
I was comparing FF14 to other FFs, not MMOs, which is why I complained about endless grinding (Other Final Fantasies having literally 0 grinding, save for the other MMORPG in the series, and FF10 during the postgame)
I feel that I could probably like a MMO one day, just like I finally started to enjoy roguelikes thanks to Spelunky. But MMOs have not had such paradigm change yet, and FF14 certainly didn't try to be different and ambitious. (This is actually the only one thing that makes it stand out compared to every other Final Fantasy)
Okay, this is an extremely fair point (and yeah, frankly, there are some things they could have stood to innovate over WoW and didn't).
In other Final Fantasy games, jobs heavily change your playstyle. Here you're auto attacking and waiting for countdowns to... count down, with every job. Playing solo, you'll always do this all the time no matter what your class is.
There isn't much you can do against stronger enemies than you except Get Higher Numbers, unlike other FFs which are typically very LLG friendly.
With other players, classes seemed to mostly fit into the MMO trinity (Tank / DPS / heal) and you seem to get very few variations in playstyle between each. Tell me if I'm wrong but I don't think there's the crazy shit like Mix, Math Skill, Throw, Terraint, or even Steal. And, again, there's not a lot of variation in your playstyle. As an individual player, you don't have much of an option to be creative.
Class composition choices could be interesting but it's not like you have much of a choice unless you've been levelling every job (lol)
In other FF games the earlygame is relatively simple and gradually eases you into new mechanics, but the base gameplay stays engaging. Which isn't the case with FF14.
Yeah, all true here too. It falls under those "necessary evils of conventional MMO design". There's absolutely a fair argument that they should have tried something a lot more unconventional, and... well... they did, it was FF14 1.0, and it it was terrible. (That's not to say unconventional can't be done well, just that FF14 1.0 was a lot more ambitious in overall design in a number of ways, and almost all of them turned out to be really bad design.)
This is likely to hold true so long as MMO game design continues to stick to the "holy trinity" paradigm, I think; so long as that paradigm of design is in place, there's a certain minimum baseline of things that every class in a given role must be able to do, and only room for relatively minor variation between them. I absolutely do think this is a core flaw in MMO design, but I have yet to see a game which really steps away from it extremely well; the majority of attempts I'm familiar with either ended up horribly unbalanced in some way for it, like City of Heroes and Champions Online, or aren't really comparable for other reasons (Guild Wars, which is IIRC largely PvP-oriented and holy trinity design has never really held up or existed in the PvP space).
I loved City of Heroes, but balance was never one of its strengths. CoH bucked the trinity design by making every class capable of powerful healing through cheap, easily replenishable consumables (when I say cheap, I mean trivial, as in you could buy a full inventory of them for the amount of currency you got from killing a single mob and have money left over) which had no drawbacks or cooldowns, so you could eat them like candy (in fact, the playerbase usually *did* call them candy). The upshot of this is that CoH was truly a game where you could literally pick any 8 random players on the server, throw them in a team together, and they'd be able to clear anything and everything the game could throw at them so long as the people behind the keyboard were reasonably competent.
The downshot, of course, was that there was often just no incentive at all *to* group up for content. CoH innovatively had a very robust mission difficulty slider (similar to the difficulty slider for FF14 levequests, for those familiar); you could set the level of enemies in your instanced missions to be anywhere from -1 to +4 levels relative to you, and you could also tell it to populate missions for a given team size regardless of your actual team size (like Diablo 2's /players command).
At the time of the game's shutdown, the main character I played was able to solo missions set on +4 levels and tuned for a full 8-player team without much difficulty.
The problem is that the grinding is purely mindless, while Destiny grinding for example is at least involved.
No experience with Destiny, but I'll take your word for it. You're not wrong about the grinding here.
Each time you do a quest you have to backtrack to the city to go back to whoever gave you a quest, then look at the minimap to find other quests. Quests is all you do unless you're grinding instead, and they're 2% talking, 80% walking to/from the destination, 18% fighting. The backtracking is immense, it's more than half the game from what I've played. You can pay to make it slightly more painless. Amazing.
That's (modern) MMOs in general. I hate to bring it up again but City of Heroes is literally the only MMO I ever played that _wasn't_ like this, and only because being set in the modern day instead of being in a medieval-ish fantasy world gave them the narrative "out" of your questgivers having a cell phone, so the extent of your traveling was super-jumping or whatever from mission door to mission door.
Perhaps ironically, the older generation of MMOs (EverQuest, FF11, etc.) had much less backtracking. In its place was ... more mindless grinding, though, so...
"It gets good 50 hours in"
I think I have played FF14 for about 20-30 hours, and you know, games should get good at least after one hour, two hours tops. I pretty much dropped Okami immediately because of the beginning and am not willing to go back.
I actually felt particularly generous to FF14 because I know MMOs are a slow burn (and I found the mindless grind moderately addictive while watching something else). But, in the end, fuck all was happening, and I knew things would not really get better.
Fair complaint, it's an intrinsic MMO problem. The unfortunate reality, from the perspective of a MMO designer, is that most of your customers are retarded. The leveling process in any MMO is absolutely a glorified tutorial sequence, and I mean the entire leveling sequence all the way to the cap. It's a necessary evil because of the multiplayer aspect; we need only look at League of Legends for clear examples of what happens when you throw players in on the deep end in a forced multiplayer game.
(tl;dr: the 1% of the players who AREN'T retarded and "get" the game mechanics immediately are largely utterly toxic to the other 99%, causing moderation problems at best and actively driving your customers away at worst)
MMOs that frontload the difficulty have historically performed really poorly in the market, I want to say Wildstar is a recent example?
It's absolutely a valid complaint that the game should get mechanically interesting sooner, but I can't see how you can actually doing it without running into the "most players are retarded" problem and ultimately MMOs have to make money.
Cutscenes have no rhytm whatsoever and the entire story is generic. Click to any random part of this and be immensely bored:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvWnCYolcQI&list=PLlMscAdJiuKpO2v6B6fImPqmIU1fQmGQZ&index=3
Compare to the beginning of FF10 for example.
Let met set the bar IMMENSELY LOW and compare it to Arc the Lad 4:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQT5p0AUgI4
FF14 is not even that much better than Arc 4 man
Can't comment on FF13 as I skipped every cutscene
Can't comment on AtL4 as I never played it. I still respectfully disagree though, flatly, I found FF14 quite engaging by MMO standards. It's certainly miles ahead of WoW in that aspect (WoW is pretty terrible at storytelling though for the most part, very low bar to clear).
No NPC is telling you an interesting story about their first love or, I dunno, trains.
There's supposed to be a war that went on, or is still going on, I think. It's hard to notice.
Areas don't have an atmosphere beyond the same "Kinda pleasant" feel that applies to everything.
Nothing changes and people are forever glued in one place.
Fair enough. (Things do change. But these are mostly backloaded so it's fair you didn't see it)
Yeah I wasn't particularly talking about difficulty here.
5 minutes into FF3 and you get this battle against LNDTRTL, nothing would be half as memorable in FF14: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZnoIwvABPE
Also, sorry for using the word epic, I hate it too
I also forgot to mention FF14 maybe having the worsts UI of literally any game I've ever played. (on PS4)
It's a pretty typical MMO UI. Worse than WoW's, for what it's worth, IMO.
That said, while it takes a while to get there (see above about standard MMO problems), I thought FF14's introduction of Ifrit was pretty memorable.
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That seems to be the general rule in VP2 though. Defensive stuff is way overpriced on top of being not effective the more you play the game. Even things like Toughness just isn't that good late because you realize the skills/damage you trade off just becomes less and less worthwhile. If you're trying to build defense in VP2, you work with elements and not really any raw stats.
I definitely don't agree with Toughness antihype, a lot of bosses lategame and in the SG have damage which can OHKO/be very scary without Toughness and far easier to deal with if you do. It's much better than most offensive skills, you can pretty much predict who finds bosses like Odin competent or not based on whether they have Toughness yet, not based on any other skills.
That said Toughness being great (2x durability lol) has no bearing on your general point as most other defensive sealstones/skills are far worse, and certainly things like, say, boosting RDM/RES, are a total waste of time.
I do switch Toughness in for the SG bosses*, but otherwise have been finding it preferable to do without it. I left it off of Silmeria vs. Odin because I needed Heat Up in place just to have a full-party SC chain (this is the real problem with sticking with her instead of Freya), and wound up having to devote an inordinate amount of AP to keeping her specifically alive. For randoms I use those five skill points for Heroism + Break Up instead. Heroism bonuses get nuts when there's like half a dozen enemies, and you know I love breaking everyone's shit. Break mode is the best. Remaining skills tend to be assigned to Fists of Iron/Mental Boost/Psychosoma for non-Brahms people, Brahms skipping the latter two and just subbing in whatever random shit I feel like playing with at the moment (and then inevitably forgetting about). I think he had Observation in place last time I played the game. I haven't noticed it doing much of anything. I never ever use defensive skills other than Toughness, outside of the very early game when Fortify Physique is all you've got because your accessory options are shit.
(*maingame, only final Lezard really felt like he made it necessary. AE Lezard deals too much fucking damage.)
Sealstones are always always Sharp Sword Law first, was Poison Pin second in the maingame but poison's pretty worthless in the SG, and then usually Paper Tiger third because free damage bonus since I'm obsessive about being at full health anyway. For SG times the latter two are replaced by Yggdrasil and Six Elements Blessing, which is probably the only defensive sealstone I have ever bothered using. Even knowing offense >>> defense in VP2, I tend not to use the ATK 150% RDM 50% sealstone unless I know I'm about to fight something magic-focused. Not real comfortable nuking my defenses to that degree.
EDIT: I could maybe assume it's obvious I took the time to teach the entire main party every single skill even knowing I would never use 90% of that shit.
RDM-50% sounds bad but... it adds like 5% to Lezard's (physical) damage, for instance, and IIRC that's fairly normal for its effect. Really not worth caring about, when you consider how big the offensive boost is. You can make up the defensive drop in all sorts of ways (Six Elements Blessing is a good one, since almost every boss after Hrist uses elemental damage, even for its physicals).
I agree that Toughness isn't always necessary by any means because going all in for offence works and works well, but if there's any fight which is actually a threat to kill you, Toughness will surely make the difference. I don't think it has much competition for the mantle of "best skill in the game", nothing else is as universally applicable for making your party better able to deal with things. (Psychosoma puts up a fight though.) You can get around its value by blitzing whatever you are up against, of course, as well as various advanced tactics used to defeat NG++++ runs which I'm sure Tide could tell us about, but generally speaking it's really great, particularly since most VP healing is %-based.
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That's (modern) MMOs in general. I hate to bring it up again but City of Heroes is literally the only MMO I ever played that _wasn't_ like this, and only because being set in the modern day instead of being in a medieval-ish fantasy world gave them the narrative "out" of your questgivers having a cell phone, so the extent of your traveling was super-jumping or whatever from mission door to mission door.
Most of the games I'm familiar with only have you returning to the last hub for repeatable quests, if they do so at all. Even WoW has a fair number of objectives that auto-complete and give rewards out on the last kill now, or barring that, you turn in at the next questing hub. What is your frame of reference, in terms of things you've played?
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Oh, there definitely isn't a skill in VP2 more game-breaking than Toughness. I've just played the game enough that this time piling everything into killing faster has proven a fair exchange in circumstances other than bosses having overkill damage.
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Oh yeah, no question there.
Star Fox - I randomly decided to replay this, first time in like a decade probably. I've played a bunch of space shooters before but this is definitely the only one which has ever truly grabbed me and made me want to master it. Part of that is that several of my friends in late elementary school were really into this, and part of it is something that became pretty obvious upon replaying this again: its bosses are very memorable and feel kinda like MMX boss design thrown into a different genre, is the best way I can put it. One or two of them are frustrating (fuck you Great Commander 1 and your tiny, tiny weak points) but overall they're very enjoyable.
Generally speaking I was able to get through most stages with little problems but every route has 2-3 bosses towards the end of the game who are nasty bastards and generally killed me multiple times (Phantron, Plasma Hydra, Metal Smasher, Spinning Core, Great Commander). Andross is always easy by comparison, beaten on the first try every time.
Played it on an emulator which could lag a bit at certain points (the base game already lags at some points IIRC, but the emulator definitely made it worse). Nintendo needs to release this for the Virtual Console, the SFX chip can't be that hard to emulate...
Super Mario Bros. - I have no idea why, randomly replayed this too. It is short! Took me just over an hour despite game overing on worlds 1, 6, 7, and 8. Yeah I have no idea about 1 either, I kept trying to get the mushroom in 1-4 and dying, I make bad decisions sometimes. 8-1 is still nasty as hell. Also given how limited the game is the final room (hammer brother, podobo, fire + hammers Bowser) remains pretty golden for what it is if you don't have a mushroom/flower. Which of course I didn't because I lost it to something stupid earlier in 8-4.
One thing I noticed about both games (and indeed many others of their time) is how dying once is a good way to ensure you die again because in both games you get powerups (mushroom, twin blaster) which you frequently need to pick up over the course of several stages to get to the highest power, and/or if you die you'll be without it and there may not even be one to get in the stage (or half stage if you're past the checkpoint). Which of course makes everything that much harder. This isn't a judgement call on the design choice, on the one hand it's kinda punitive for one death to potentially lead to others, but on the other hand, it really makes you want to cherish that fire flower/twin blaster/various Contra guns/etc. It's interesting how this design feels like it has mostly died out from games, so I guess on average people didn't like it much. <.<
Final Fantasy Dimensions - Paladin chapter now. Definitely enjoying this, it is a job system game which could give you more options but those you have are fun and it makes up for it with the battle design being quite good. Grefter observed that they do kinda go to the same well a few times but still each major boss gets its own spin and it's pretty fun. Just lost to Styx a couple times, because as Edgar proved two decades ago, MT confuse is really rude.
I wish the game were a bit shorter / faster-paced because it would have extremely high replay potential then, as it stands it will probably just be okay.
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I definitely don't agree with Toughness antihype, a lot of bosses lategame and in the SG have damage which can OHKO/be very scary without Toughness and far easier to deal with if you do. It's much better than most offensive skills, you can pretty much predict who finds bosses like Odin competent or not based on whether they have Toughness yet, not based on any other skills.
Yeah, the keyword is 'more time'. I wouldn't expect people on a first playthrough to necessarily know about all the dumb ways in which you can pump up your damage. But as you've sorta alluded, on crystal+++ runs, things do change which is more what I was getting at in general. As you get more experienced with the game, toughness becomes less useful because you know more about AI attack ranges, limit levels to dodge SC, elements to get around GM/ AoE and so on. If you are going to get one rounded regardless, you might as well find some way to make a fight more efficient so you have less chances of screwing up. Its an excellent crutch otherwise for the first several playthroughs for sure and probably gamebreaking since balancing your challenge around whether or not a player may have learnt a 2x durability skill that is more or less permanent in battle is kinda tricky (see: Super Laggy RPG).
In terms of offensive skills though, several of them are quite good universally, although not game breaking. Higher crystal runs/speedruns and what not find that using less party members is more effective since it allows you to better focusing of your AP as well as accessories for boosting. As such, skills such as Adversity and Solitary Struggle are quite powerful. Fists of Iron is also very good as it costs only 2 CP. Giant Killer/Magician Slayer catches most dangerous enemy types, so combining the two of them + tertiary skill is also an option. In battle then, you use 2 people only and have them operate alone for greater maneuverability: one as support and the other for offense. This works quite well because you can stack elemental protection on your support to tank through AoE/GM and have other secondary skills like Free Item that are highly beneficial but not very good offensively.
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Terraint
You win the argument because you combined a job skill with taint.
Mass Effect: Playing this for the first time. Picked Infiltrator as my class. My character has an evil mustache and is a dick to everyone, but they admire my dickish ways and simply label me a renegade. Despite being a war hero, Shepard has apparently never fired a gun before. The onset of Parkinson's disease makes using a sniper rifle a hilaribad choice.
Finally got off the Citadel and am now exploring the galaxy while playing Moon Patrol.
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Yeah Reiska, I don't doubt that FF14 is probably fine as a MMORPG.
In general I think "RPG + multiplayer" is certainly a winning combination, and that MMORPGs are succesful thanks to it (and despite all their massive problems)
I don't know how they could make them good and I'm not really the right person for it.
If I could have unlimited money to make FF14 something I think I'd like, I'd do something like:
- Fast grind to max level, with very small incentives to level every job and a lot of options to have skills from one job transfer to another one
- Heavy randomization of enemy placements, enemies (and bosses) are roaming around. The difficulty of bosses is lower, though. The game would be less about the perfect execution of a plan made in advance, and more about handling whatever the game's throwing at you at the moment the best way you can. The game would feel more lively and grinding spots would be dead.
- Faster battles too
- Battles like FF12 except controlling one character
- Cool skills like Thief and Mix added
- HP/MP healing similar to Dark Souls Estus, can potentially be upgraded
- Quests chosen from a menu and auto completed
- Obviously Matsuno writes the story, FF12 bestiary guy and Lost Odyssey novels guy hired write the lore
I'd have probably tried the Secret World but I don't have a good enough PC to run it
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That's (modern) MMOs in general. I hate to bring it up again but City of Heroes is literally the only MMO I ever played that _wasn't_ like this, and only because being set in the modern day instead of being in a medieval-ish fantasy world gave them the narrative "out" of your questgivers having a cell phone, so the extent of your traveling was super-jumping or whatever from mission door to mission door.
Most of the games I'm familiar with only have you returning to the last hub for repeatable quests, if they do so at all. Even WoW has a fair number of objectives that auto-complete and give rewards out on the last kill now, or barring that, you turn in at the next questing hub. What is your frame of reference, in terms of things you've played?
CoH, FF11, WoW (through Mists), and FF14. FF11 of course barely has quests. WoW started doing what you mention in Mists, but AFAIK they didn't rework old quests to that standard, maybe that's changed since? FF14 is a bit special since the questing hub doesn't move for like 20 levels, which probably contributes to that feeling of backtracking. Even in the game's community it's a running joke how often you get sent back to the Waking Sands/Rising Stones, I mean. CoH gave its questgivers cellphones, so when you finished a quest you could just call them for the next one.
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Yeah Reiska, I don't doubt that FF14 is probably fine as a MMORPG.
In general I think "RPG + multiplayer" is certainly a winning combination, and that MMORPGs are succesful thanks to it (and despite all their massive problems)
I don't know how they could make them good and I'm not really the right person for it.
If I could have unlimited money to make FF14 something I think I'd like, I'd do something like:
- Fast grind to max level, with very small incentives to level every job and a lot of options to have skills from one job transfer to another one
- Heavy randomization of enemy placements, enemies (and bosses) are roaming around. The difficulty of bosses is lower, though. The game would be less about the perfect execution of a plan made in advance, and more about handling whatever the game's throwing at you at the moment the best way you can. The game would feel more lively and grinding spots would be dead.
- Faster battles too
- Battles like FF12 except controlling one character
- Cool skills like Thief and Mix added
- HP/MP healing similar to Dark Souls Estus, can potentially be upgraded
- Quests chosen from a menu and auto completed
- Obviously Matsuno writes the story, FF12 bestiary guy and Lost Odyssey novels guy hired write the lore
I'd have probably tried the Secret World but I don't have a good enough PC to run it
It's worth noting that XIV actually does strongly incentivize leveling other classes, at least if you want to do anything at the level cap. There *are* cross-class abilities and at least some of them really aren't skippable (e.g. only one of the tank classes actually gets Provoke, the other two have to get it by cross-classing it).
Otherwise, what you described actually sounds almost exactly like City of Heroes. God, I miss that game. CoH was a game all about mowing through massive waves of thugs and feeling awesome about how much ass you were kicking, very appropriately for the genre it was representing. It's probably historically most notable for the fact that it was reasonably successful as an MMO for something like six or seven years with no endgame raid content whatsoever; it was a rare MMO where the game was about the journey to the level cap, not what you did once you got there. They *did* eventually add raiding stuff, but as the genre goes it was very lightweight; like, the hardest raid in the game at the time the shutdown came around was probably still easier than your typical WoW LFR instance.
If someone bought the rights to City of Heroes and put it back up, or got a private server working or the like, I would drop FF14 in a fucking heartbeat. It wasn't a perfect game; in fact, it was actually pretty grindy if you really thought about it. It just did a really smooth job of hiding how grindy it was because you were having a blast beating the shit out of twenty dudes at once with a bunch of people.
It's also the only MMO I can say I never had an unpleasant pick-up group experience in.
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It's also the only MMO I can say I never had an unpleasant pick-up group experience in.
I played it for about a month with a free trial. The Heroes players were all dicks, but the Villains were very helpful!
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It did vary somewhat by server. Freedom server admittedly had a reputation for toxic players, whereas Virtue (which is where I played) was pretty chill.
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CoH, FF11, WoW (through Mists), and FF14. FF11 of course barely has quests. WoW started doing what you mention in Mists, but AFAIK they didn't rework old quests to that standard, maybe that's changed since? FF14 is a bit special since the questing hub doesn't move for like 20 levels, which probably contributes to that feeling of backtracking. Even in the game's community it's a running joke how often you get sent back to the Waking Sands/Rising Stones, I mean. CoH gave its questgivers cellphones, so when you finished a quest you could just call them for the next one.
Remote communication in quests actually went in with Cata, Blizzard just decided to stop trying to justify it so much in Mists and they decided to go with what was fun and made questing more enjoyable. With WoD, they're far less interested in explaining who is giving you the 13g for finishing the area mission or why you automatically get it from walking into a region because, as they established in late Cataclysm, all player characters are psychic (which also explains zonewide chat). Unsurprisingly this shift came just as several other games came onto the market that all had ways to communicate with most questgivers without doubling back.
Blizz has always been willing to borrow ideas, especially in the way they structure their questing, that work from other games that are less successful, which would be stealing if they weren't so good at figuring out how to vary it just enough that it's not. Still, your take makes sense if that's your frame of reference. In terms of design iterations that is an enormous goddamn jump from, other than WoW, a niche game that always did its own thing in CoH and FF11 which is a fucking abortion of a game to FF14.
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Final Fantasy Here Comes The Autobattle Again - Welp, got myself started on Yuna's event and blew all my Mythril on her banner. No rarity-5 armor, but I got Wakka's Official Ball and two Heat Lances. Also a decent 4-star rod and a 4-star Black Robe, so I can't really complain.
EDIT: This mostly means that Wakka's spot for the long-term is even more guaranteed, since Status Reels is an awesome SB and the Official Ball is also an excellent weapon. I can also use the Heat Lances for a superior option for Balthier, since hey 6-rarity equip post-combine. I'm already at three character-unique equips and counting, this is kinda nuts. Funnily enough, I may just wait for the Selphie/Quistis event for another pull, since it sounds like it has more good mage equips, gives more time for the next batch of dungeons to kick in and Yuna's Magistral Rod isn't that great anyway (the SB is kinda generic). Regardless, my haul's looking pretty good, defensive equipment aside.
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I think I'm going to wait in sabin and edgar's event for another relic draw. I'm just about done with Yuna classic, but I ran out of stamina right before seymour.
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Also putting away at Yuna's event. Did a relic pull but got nothing but four star crap. Oh well.
More importantly...
Pokken Torunament! It's been out in Japan for less than twelve hours, but it looks like they don't have any newcomer fighters that weren't accounted for already. The eight playables are Pikachu, Lucario, Charizard, Gardevoir, Suicune, Gengar, Machamp, and Weavile. Each of them plays pretty differently so that's good at least but I can't help but to want a few more. The game looks great and plays smoothly though I've only tried a couple of rounds so far. The arcade game runs on a card-account system so that you can level up your Mon and gain new accessories and skills a la Dissidia. Because of this, there is the possibility of unlocking more characters but no confirmation on that yet.
The controller is a weird addition but it works fine. I like it better than the giant joysticks most arcades use honestly. It just needs a freakin thumb sized analog stick. Seriously a D Pad?
Still fun. Looking forward to playing it some more after work when I can stop by the arcade.
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If you want to get technical, Burning Crusade had quests where you summon a hologram to do hand ins. It ain't got shit in CoX' mobile phones or radio missions, but they toyed with the tech early on.
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FFRK: Yuna GET. Instaegged up to level 49. Holy crap she's really good. Fits into any party and I don't even have her unique weapons.
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Final Fantasy Autobattle Intruders - Got Yuna, instaegged her up all the way to L50 and beelined for her Memory Crystal. Zero regrets. In other news, L56 Tidus with a Genji Armor has more trouble staying alive than front-row L56 Balthier with a Monk Robe. Um yeah, he's going back to the bench once I'm done with this event. Meanwhile, I'm going to at least get Diara to R2, since it's gonna be a huge help on this event and it starts at 4 uses.
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People keep ragging on Tidus, but I got lucky and got his 5* weapon and holy shit is Spiral Cut a useful thing to be able to constantly spam. It is the highest physical damage out of a physical Soul Break at this point, but it also happens to be MT, unlike Squall/Cloud/Tifa (the other high-multiplier physical soul break PCs) so Tidus definitely isn't useless. Also, I happen to have like four 5*-swords while I have a dearth of other weapon types (like 5* staves/rods, I just want ONE, come ON, RNG.)
He just slots into my party well. Spiral Cut is definitely outdamaging Vivi too. (I really want Vivi's Soul Break weapon, Snow you are a jerk.)
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Teeedus isn't bad. Even his default sb is decent.
But he's maxed and I hate wasting a spot because you know wasting experience and such.
This event hasn't been too bad so far. I gave Yuna my mystic veil so her sb isn't total ass.
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People keep ragging on Tidus, but I got lucky and got his 5* weapon and holy shit is Spiral Cut a useful thing to be able to constantly spam. It is the highest physical damage out of a physical Soul Break at this point, but it also happens to be MT, unlike Squall/Cloud/Tifa (the other high-multiplier physical soul break PCs) so Tidus definitely isn't useless. Also, I happen to have like four 5*-swords while I have a dearth of other weapon types (like 5* staves/rods, I just want ONE, come ON, RNG.)
He just slots into my party well. Spiral Cut is definitely outdamaging Vivi too. (I really want Vivi's Soul Break weapon, Snow you are a jerk.)
In all fairness, I was ragging out of a circumstancial coincidence (Tidus has better pdef and HP than Balthier, after all, but for some reason enemies target Tidus a lot more argh). I'm using Balthy over Tidus in normal dungeoning right now mostly because I used my spare 5-star sword to upgrade Cloud's weapon to R6, and my best substitute is a R4 FFX sword (which at least happens to be a nice boon for this event) while I have had a maxed Golden Spear in my inventory for ages and I'm about to forge a rarity-6 Heat Lance. As for now, Tidus, all things equal (factoring in SB weapons) is a bit better than Balthy anyway because Thief skills haven't rolled in yet and nobody has rarity-5 skills to use (plus, Tidus' SBs are clearly superior). Regardless, Tidus will eventually fade into unnotability due to nothing in Celerity 5 skillset being all that interesting even in JP, while Thief 4 will be a hotly disputed niche (I expect Locke to stumble his way up once his MC and Thief skills begin to roll in).
Regarding rods and staves: Selphie/Quistis event next week might help you a bit, since both of them are mages. Quistis' weapon is a -whip-, though, which would require you to use either her or RYDIA. About Vivi's Oak Staff, excuuuuuuuuuuuuuuse me, princess, come back when the Eiko event rolls in.
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I am using Djinn's Tidus SB so much that I am basically paying Djinn's virtual rent.
Otherwise yeah, Tidus is pretty subpar.
I think I'm ready for the upcoming mage meta, thanks to Lenna's wand, Aeris' stick and Rinoa's thing. Now I just need Rinoa, or Aeris. Yeah.
I have 70 mithril but I'm finally saving up instead of spending it all immediately. I'm going to spend all of it the next time a 5* gun comes around, I want Irvine in my dream team. I love that cowboy hat and all, but he's just unusable without a gun.
Steiner, Seifer and Auron have HOT sprites too, might spend mithril on them. Now that I have a pretty strong five men team, my willingness to spend mithril on pulls is directly proportional to the sprite hotness of the character in the current banner.
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That's pretty salutable as far as strategies go, Fenny. I'm tempted to use Quistis/Selphie myself because their sprites are kinda adorkable (particularly Selphie's), but that all depends on whether I get them their unique weapons, their stats and skillsets not all that scorching. Steiner sounds like a nice addition when Taunt sweeps in for certain setups, though.
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Steiner has BULK.
Hmm. Selphie's cool, but I don't really like Quistis' sprite. A shame. She looks hunched forward, and I don't like that hair.
He's old news now but I still really like Josef. Bald + Poncho ? Yes. Never getting tired of him.
(Here is every sprite)
http://chapter731.net/ffrk/
Edit: I changed the link, here is REALLY EVERY sprite
One thing we don't mention is synergy mattering. It makes every core character worse (... Yeah) but I think it also makes FF1-2-3 characters worse: DeNa knows it would get 1000x less money from making a FF2 event about that dragoon guy rather than making a FF7 event about Tifa. So we're nearly guaranteed to get way more events from the most popular games in the series.
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Synergy bonuses do lead to one piece I like in event design, though: every event hands you low to mid-end equips in multiples for upgrading and combining. A combined 3-rarity equip with synergy bonuses is almost as good as a maxed natural 5 without synergy on average, which at least lets people who get screwed by gatcha-RNG have a fairer shot at the elite fights - and can get used for realm synergy on maingame dungeons as well. It's a nice acessibility nod.
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Looking foward to steiner because I need a new magic sword user.
Zack looks like sex. Golbez should be fun.
Vaan can go burn in hell.
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Synergy bonuses do lead to one piece I like in event design, though: every event hands you low to mid-end equips in multiples for upgrading and combining. A combined 3-rarity equip with synergy bonuses is almost as good as a maxed natural 5 without synergy on average, which at least lets people who get screwed by gatcha-RNG have a fairer shot at the elite fights - and can get used for realm synergy on maingame dungeons as well. It's a nice acessibility nod.
Yeah it's pretty good.
How many more fencing sabres are we going to get, though?
Materia doesn't really feel like a good mechanic... We cared about them for 1 week, but now we've got all the best ones (Auto-Haste, magic regen) and don't care anymore since we only use five and almost never switch. I mean, I'm still looking forward to Josef's RM2, but that's about it.
Edit: Ashe's sprite really looks weird. I would never have recognized her.
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I know I am late to the party probably but that Red XIII sprite is badass. Also SE continues to fail at making Warrior of Light look anything but awful.
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Well, WoL would have to not be an awful aesthetic concept to begin with. Also, the sprite work for the later FFs is one of my favorite parts of the game. PALMER'S BATTLE SPRITE SKIPS RIGHT AND LEFT.
And, for Record Materia, I think unlocking a second slot would be nice. Most of the dominating ones are way overcentralizing (you're never -not- using Mana Spring and Concentration II on a mage unless you're running an EX++ boss fight, for instance), and the other ones just can't justify the trade-off.
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Final Fantasy The Silicone Autobattle - Still plugging away at Yuna's event, halfway through the elite fights right now. One of the fights gave me a bunch of black orbs but it left me ONE. ORB. AWAY. from being able to forge another rarity-3 to R4. Oh well, what I have should carry me through fine. I'd also like to point out that Isaaru's sprite is hilariously adorkable. And the sprite aeon intros are pretty fun too. Some of the details on this game's fanservice are pretty clever.
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RK: I went straight to Elite Seymour instead of doing filler stages. He's not very threatening (magic brakdown > him) but he's durable, unlike real Seymour.
He has Boss Protect, which seems to last forever, so Vivi is very important here.
Instead of honing a ton of skills, I'm trying to focus on getting a few key skills to satisfying levels. I have a R4 Firaga (soon R5 thanks to all those orbs), and a R2 Waterja on Vivi.
This has paid off well here, as I don't think I'd have had enough juice to beat Seymour if I had cared to get R3/4s on everything. (or at least I wouldn't have gotten the mastery)
Waterja is amazing, I'm saving all the greater orbs to hone it. It hits a weakness on no one, but does like 8000 damage against durable enemies, and it's resisted by absolutely nobody, so who cares? It's also by far the easiest -ja spell to hone and make. And I really like saying "Water? Ja!" with a fake German accent before casting it.
3DS: Bought a tiny screwdriver and changed the SD card. I thought saves would be saved inside the DS and not inside the memory card. Nope. Lost all my progress on Soul Hackers unless I change the card back (uuuuuugh) And I was at the very end.
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Yeah the new 3DS is stupid with its SD card stuff. I hope their next handheld is better about this. And not fucking region locked. Seriously why Nintendo.
FFRK: I also just skipped to The Seymour fight with my best party and newly level broken Yuna. Beat it easily enough but due to the fucking trash mobs I missed Master clearing the whole dungeon by ONE fucking medal. One! Argh. I guess I don't really need the master rewards but... (Yulie voice) that's kinda disappointing...
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3DS: Bought a tiny screwdriver and changed the SD card. I thought saves would be saved inside the DS and not inside the memory card. Nope.
Varies from game to game! Yeah I don't get it either.
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R2 Waterja
Did they seriously release Waterja before Waterga or was that released in the intervening time since I ragequit?
Fenny, you do know you can like copy data between SD cards right? If you are desperate there is cheap USB ones, but if you own/know someone that owns a laptop I would legit see if you have one built in.
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They released Waterga in-between.
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Is it weird that I like Yuna's theme way more than the vocal song that it's based on?
Also I just realized that I am exactly one Major Fire Orb and one Major Dark Orb away from a complete orb set. I'll get the Major Dark from Cecil's boss rush (pretty sure I could handle it now, but I want Waterja R2 and Diara R4 so I can smash the Scarmigliones harder) and... ooh, looks like I have a reason to bother with the Elite Undead Evrae fight now.
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Final Fantasy 3 Dual Play of Dualness...duality: Just beat Garuda. And yes, I totally played this song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMBZEHSPyxM) both times I fought him. I wiped once in the NES version and twice in the DS version though the first was pretty much entirely my fault. Winning run I had insurance and turned Refia into a Dragoon (Luneth was already one), threw away more cash to get more Wind Lances and yeah.
So more analysis nonsense! Not much because short segments:
-Vikings aren't bad on offense as people think they are in the NES version. What really is going on is every enemy in Goldor's Mansion resists Lightning, which is the first dungeon (besides maybe the sewers) you're plausibly trying Viking out, and just about every weapon Viking has in the NES version is Lightning elemental. I tested this outright because at first I thought accuracy was bad then Viking got 4 hits in and did crappy damage to the point where I realized it's damage per hit was way lower than Thief's which made no sense (Thief of course gets more hits, so would do more damage anyway), so tested Bolt vs. Ice and Fire, the former being notably stronger (Level 2 vs. Level 1 spell) and the level 1 spells did more. That said, Viking isn't anything special on offense, and you do have to make sure he only equips 70% Accuracy weapons because the 60% ones suck; to be fair, Morning Star is the strongest weapon for Viking at the moment, and is 70% accuracy. For reference most good fighter weapons are 80%.
-Goldor's Mansion is kind of uneventful in both versions beyond what I said above. The only thing stand out is Back Attacks can be a real bitch in both versions.
-Goldor himself...I wanna say the NES version is better designed, because he's consistent. The DS version has very wildly varying difficulty, because he has so many attacks, many of which are inaccurate status moves, but he sometimes focus his physical for high damage (though I had a low defensive team overall to be fair), and rarely throws a big MT Thundara or some such at you. To be fair again, in the NES version I intelligently turned my Black Mage into a Karateka (because of available equipment mostly)for that fight knowing he has stupid high magic defense. DS version, Arc, my Black Mage, could still do SOME damage with Blizzaga, then he runs out of level 4 charges, and became useless outside of being an Item Boy. When I say useless, I don't mean magic damage sucks, I mean "Anything below Blizzaga cannot break his magic defense."
-One thing to note about Goldor's Mansion that differs notably in both is the potion situation. DS version I used way more potions (though, Red Mage vs. White Mage scenario kicking in here), but Potions are both significantly worse in the DS version, but also actually available in Amur; in NES version, only HI Potions, which are way more expensive, are available there. This is part of why you can get away with lesser MP healers in the DS version this late. I'm not convinced that says the dungeon is harder so much as how my team situations in both were.
-Dragon Spire is changed so much in the DS version, I had forgotten. NES version it almost kind of counts as a full dungeon, with that stupid invisible path gimmick. DS version, you run up a few small rooms, and then the top is finally when stuff might happen. There's still randoms, but significantly less than expected.
-Garuda himself is a bitch in both versions, not shockingly (...no pun intended.) In the NES version, you're very at the mercy of the RNG, for multiple reasons, a big one being that in my first run, I saw at least 5 hits fully miss, in the winning run, I saw 5 connects of 700+ damage, with 3 of them breaking 4 digits, to give you an idea. Also you realistically cannot win without grinding unless you use 4 Dragoons; even if they're not fully equipped, just the whole "forced turn skip" gimmick of the NES version is huge. In the DS version, you don't NEED a Dragoon, but damned if it doesn't make the fight way harder. One thing I had forgotten is Garuda's defense is stupid good; Thief Refia normally does like 500-700 damage against generic enemies; Garuda took 142. Refia with no JLevels AND Job Sickness using Jump? 1900. Though, worth noting while Garuda's defense is massive, his Magic defense is unnoteworthy. Arc's summons did 4 digit damage to him (and Titan, as a reminder, is 100% chance to do damage, albeit, lowest damage of the summons, but still competent), which with his 10k HP, it might be possible to beat Garuda with just a lot of healing, and Summon spam...but hell if I would want to try that!
-Job change time! Both games, I swapped from Black Mage -> Evoker/Conjurer. In the NES version, Black Mage remains useful for status purposes, but I figured why not change things up? Conjurer is less reliable, but makes up for it by having real damage vs. bosses thanks to Titan (who is stupid good for the time in the NES version), and when it comes to Shiva and Ramuh, Conjurer gets either "one enemy dies" or "all enemies are incapacitated." Ifrit...meh, healing isn't worth it due to randomness, and if I want damage, I'll go with Titan. Black Mage in the DS version, by contrast, stops really being worthwhile here, for a few big reasons, notably, Rods make anything Black Mage can do from level 3 and below completely obsolete, and Summons tend to be better damage than agas. To be fair, Evoker's best consistent damage is Hyper which is worse than Blizzaga and Thundaga, which combined they have equal castings of, HOWEVER, the more random summons do higher damage, and while Spark and Icen are inconsistent with their status (unlike the NES version where they're stupid good), Heatra's healing is ludicrously awesome so it's good to use on randoms as it either murders something dead, or helps remove some stress on your healer.
-Remember my rant about Aria's death being awful in the DS version? Yeah, Allus' father's death is handled way better for the exact reasons I laid out. They kept it simple and short. You see him appear, hold the knife, then the knife goes into his stomach and he falls over. There's no forced drama, no attempt to make it look more amazing and serious than the kiddy sprites can make it appear, just simple and straight to the point (...no pun intended.) Now it's not a careworthy scene because seriously, it's some guy we literally met this very scene, there's no emotional impact. Even though yes it's Allus' dad, we met Allus about 5 minutes ago, so we haven't gotten emotionally invested in him either. At least with Desch, he was with our team for a few dungeons. This is a flaw shared with the NES version naturally, and the main point here is serious stuff doesn't look silly in this graphical style if you don't try to make it look more dramatic than this graphical style is capable of.
Last thing I'll say is this replay is reminding me why I thought the DS version of FF3 is actually a decent remake:
While I struggle to say it's the better game, one thing it notably doesn't do is screw up things that the NES version didn't screw up. As in, major flaws the DS version has for the most part are things the original game had, showing it's not a version issue, but either a problem with the game's core (like poor plot/characters), or it's just their refusal to add modern polish that should be there (SAVE POINTS DAMN IT!!!) The things it does worse than the NES version aren't really deal breakers either, like Capacity Points seem better handled incentive to not change jobs like mad compared to Job Sickness.
It really contrasts FF4DS where-in that did explicitly screw things up compared to the 2D version, the most obvious thing is the difficulty, which is wildly inconsistent with major spikes and drops and there's actual fights where you just lose based on the RNG.
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3DS: Bought a tiny screwdriver and changed the SD card. I thought saves would be saved inside the DS and not inside the memory card. Nope. Lost all my progress on Soul Hackers unless I change the card back (uuuuuugh) And I was at the very end.
Well where did you expect the saves to be? Anyway, it's complicated. It IS stored on the memory card, but Nintendo is crazy fearful that somebody will digitally download games to 100 different 3DSes or something, so even if you copy your saves over it'll assume you're an evil pirate by default. You have to back up the saves to your computer first then import them or something. (Since I was doing a 3DS memory card -> New 3DS transition, I ended up transferring over Wi-Fi instead, not particularly trusting Nintendo here.) So it's doable to get your saves on the new memory card but annoying.
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Saves don't take up a lot of space, so I expected them to be saved inside the 3DS' internal memory, this would have been the most sensible decision. But yeah Nintendo hasn't made the most sensible decisions regarding memory ! They handled Xenoblade Chronicles with lots of incompetence.
Xenoblade Chronicles is the only new 3DS exclusive, but there is no way to play the eshop Xenoblade Chronicles without swapping sd cards, which they deliberately made a lot more difficult on the new 3DS when it was easy on the old one.
RK: They made every water spell available at the same time and made Waterja an event reward.
I beat Undead Evrae. This event is the first time Cloud feels like one of the weakest links in my team. Vivi, Yuna, Wakka were better. This feels weird.
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The problem is that I'm pretty sure there are now laws in parts of the US/Canada that REQUIRE screws over small things babies might digest. (Kids eating batteries is really bad times it turns out.) I suspect that was their legal department requiring them to make it annoying as hell to replace that, along with desire to use micro-SD rather than 3DS accepting normal memory cards.
Saves can take up more space than you'd think when you're lazy, so I dunno about that. I'm fine with them on memory cards, I'd just make saves always swappable & easy if I was worried about piracy, and try to only lock down the games part.
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Iirc Waterga was added along with the first batch of FF12 dungeons and the second batch of Ff13 dungeons, which contained bosses weak to Water but not Ice or Lightning for pretty much the first time in the game. Then Waterja was added when Balthier's event went live and it was a quest reward for the last elite stage.
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Final Fantasy Road, River And Autobattle - Welp, done with Yuna's event. Evrae Altana was a total non-factor, Photon Laser unfocuses too much and he's not threatening outside a rare Petrify Gaze. I tried blinding him for lolsies, didn't pan out. Slow was more than enough, though. As for the final stage, the randoms are actually more complicated than Seymour Natus, since they get 3HKOed by physicals without Boost and run in four-round sessions. Reta-meta to the rescue, then. I didn't get to cheese the hell out of Natus with either Carbuncle or Runic Blade (didn't get her RW in the winning run and I'd need to run both Garnet and Yuna in order to sanely stock both Carbuncle and Diara into my ability loadout. Lazy), but Magic Breakdown completely trivializes him, since Mortibody's Desperado is complete junk (wow, sub-10HKO damage without -any- buffing/debuffing, I can't begin to tell how impressed I am. BUT IT'S MT). Regardless, mastered everything, championing even Seymour's fight in spite of an underwhelming performance there. Full-medaling the randoms makes a huge difference.
When the boss rush kicks in, though, I'm likely running Garnet+Yuna for it, since stacking Diara+Carbuncle and picking up a couple extra White Magic tools would be nice and Cloud honestly isn't contributing that much offensively either (no randoms for reta-meta to shine and he ain't hitting a single relevant weakness in those fights). Regardless, today I'm amassing upgrade materials for Balthier's R6 lance and dark orbs for further forging. Tomorrow, I'll have to juggle non-elemental orb and gil farming, since the honing this week dug a hole in my pocket.
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RK feels like a civ game between DL players except we can't attack each other
Wish I could invade Snow's game and steal his dumb technology/orbs
Edit: Snow is boasting about his military strength above but I'm sure it's a bluff
I am Gandhi and have begun work on a wonder: a R5 Waterja
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Man, I think you have a better loadout than I do, you're like the poster boy for Gladstone Gander gatcha antics for the game here in the DL. I've split my luck roughly 50/50 (before I got Vivi's staff, I had a no-5* 11-pull and my pulls on Balthier's banner were trash. Genji Armor isn't that great an option and neither is the Emerald Shield, though the Emerald Shield at least ruled the Yuna event). I'm still waiting for a more interesting staff than the generic R5 from FF5 and -some- natural 5-rarity hat/bracer at all. The forged R6 Ten-Gallon Hat can only last for so long.
EDIT: Speaking of which, I'm actually considering farming Greater Non-Elemental Orbs for R2 Mental Breakdown (I already have R2 Armor and Magic Breakdown, will probably stay there for A-BDown because eventually we'll have the Steals for physical debuffing). I'm still waffling on whether I R2 Firaja or save it for R3 Waterja, but I need so. Many. Greater. Ice. Orbs. Regardless, R4 Comet sounds like a good goal. And I could also farm Greater Earth Orbs for R3 Quake, but Ruinga looms.
EDIT #JohnI'mOnlyGrefter: FUN FACT: during the Seymour Natus fight, I picked up Wakka's RW because I wanted to stack Armor/Mental Breakdown for longer. So, I pile Wakka's SB on him. He casts Protect before it runs out. Later in the fight, I use the RW. He casts Protect AGAIN. Tidus and Cloud fweem his ass for 9999 a pop for a round. This is the first time I've ever seen Vit-0 in action.
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Final Fantasy 14 1.x Plot: Watched this on Youtube because **** if I can find this, since I was curious about backstory to ARR. I saw a video about Gridania arc and later Limsa Lominsa (the latter because it had stuff AFTER 1.0, Gridania video ended only 2 hours in; I skipped all the stuff where the stories converge until 1.x starts.)
First off, the two early storylines! Both of them have this major issue that I've ranted about in chat a lot that there's only 2 songs that play throughout every single cutscene. Either the respective town theme plays, or this other song which has this "IT'S A MYSTERY!" vibe, with some allusions to FF7's Anxious Heart, except without any of what made Anxious Heart work, and being overplayed to **** hurts (even if it was a good song, overplaying something that isn't a battle theme kills any effect it has...unless it's the Chaos Wars theme <.<) This makes all the cutscenes feel the same droll, boring nonsense as either it's the characters talking to the silent protagonist in all "OH IT'S YOU! I WILL NOW TALK TO YOU ABOUT HAPPY STUFF ^_^! CAN YOU HELP ME ^_^!?" style nonsense, or "Hey, what's going on, this looks like it might be mildly bad!" Gridania's storyline is especially bad because I feel like absolutely nothing happens. It's about some kid being angry and so he burns down a tree, and no one thinks to stop him beyond "NO! DON'T!" Look, I get it, you don't want to hurt him...but the CONJURER GUILD MASTER IS RIGHT THERE, I'm pretty sure he could cast a Repose or something, knock the kid out harmlessly, then you can detain him. This isn't some military mastermind or bad ass mercenary, it's a freaking farm-boy.
Limsa Lominsa wasn't as bad; basically about Pirate and Sahagin stuff, still feels like not much goes on. To it's credit, there is a fight scene with Y'shtola and some jerkwad near the end which is kind of cool, and a better conclusion to that storyline than what Gridania had.
There is more movement and action in FF14 1.x's cutscenes, though the hero comes off as just peripheral even more so than ARR. Like, s/he's just there to give the the NPCs someone to exposit nonsense about. Your hero doesn't really do anything until it's like "ok, here's a boss fight, you will now be bad ass and win." ARR still had the Mary Sue Protagonist vibe, but at least the game felt self aware and didn't try to beat around the bush. Yes, you're super awesome perfect guy/girl chosen by the gods, now go be awesome our awesome chosen one! This is especially note-able in the 2.x storyline and Crystal Tower where they make lampshade hanging comments like "Well, since you're the resident expert on saving the world, wanna do it again?" It's not good story-telling, but it does give a sense of honesty. 1.x tries the usual "YOU'RE A REAL CHARACTER, HONEST!" even though you're clearly not. The issue though is while FF14 1.x has active cutscenes, nothing really notable goes on. Sure, characters are walking more, moving more, but it's all superfluous actions, so it's completely wasted.
1.0 is really boring in general even after the sides merge. The Walking Sands intro really contrasts ARRs. In 1.0, you have Minfillia (who is wearing way less clothes than ARR I should note) just go on about...well...stuff. That's really all it is, stuff. ARR, when you meet her, you also meet the rest of the Scions, so you know who your "would be party members if this was a solo RPG" are,a quick glimpse at their personalities, etc. It flows better than exposition dump to a silent character. After the walking sands, stuff happens...which is an improvement over the pre-merging arc, but the stuff isn't interesting outside of maybe Ifrit showing up, and I guess Gaius vs. the 4 Scions was neat only because "Hey look! ACTION SCENE!!!" though honestly I think ARR's Thancred + Yuigiri vs. Sahagin Army was a better scene, which shortly after is followed up by Merlwyb being awesome with guns, and Thancred/Yuigiri basically showing up for "Hey, don't forget about us THAT quickly!" just for a conclusion to their awesome.
Now to credit the game, stuff AFTER 1.0, which I think is 1.23, is significantly better. Here we finally have what actually feels like a legitimate story-line with legitimate stakes. We get an actual primary antagonist in Nael, we have Gaius there as this questionable extra element, a legitimate threat in the Dalamud Moon, and a sense of scale. I wouldn't say this story is great, but it's a drastic improvement over the 2 hours of, well, nothing I felt the 1.0 storyline was. On top of this, cut-scenes actually make use of their activity, since actual things happen, like short fight sequences, characters doing necessary poses, Nael being basically Sephiroth while trying to shout at the camera "I AM NOT SEPHIROTH!!!"...basically, stuff is now happening so cutscene quality matters now.
Cool thing is Gaius who is basically a case of being a rationally thought out super villain. They want to Conquer Eorzea for the Empire, not destroy it utterly. Gaius is also quick to note how much can go HORRIBLY WRONG with Nael's plan and that people are just too quick to fall for his false promises. Oh, he's still evil and even says "I want a country left to conquer" as basically his motivation for helping you. He's a lesser of two evils, but lesser of two evils is still, you know, evil. Just because you stop the greater one doesn't mean the other one won't suddenly be a good guy, and 1.x does establish that well, as Gaius is still promising to conquer you, but most would agree Imperial Rule > having the freaking MOON dropped on you, so better to risk Gaius than Nael. It does help add to his character in ARR where he's pretty much just "Evil General Guy" since now we have a little more context in terms of where he draws the line.
Nael, unfortunately, is kind of boring. He's just a "I WILL SUMMON THE MOON AND DROP IT ON YOU AHAHAHAH!" ranting lunatic. This is part of why the 1.x storyline I hesitate to call "good" because the villain which is an integral part of the story is just so generic and dull. Then he explodes into pixie dust because...magic. Yeah, I didn't miss him at all in ARR; I know he appears in Coil which is silly seeing as he definitively DIES here.
Lastly, Louisoix is the biggest waste of a UOM Elf I've seen. He has 3 scenes total, and all he does is go on about Gods and Magic and such which could have explained in like 3 lines. It says something that his appearance in ARR is more memorable than anything he did in 1.x, and all he did there was erect a barrier that did jack all, and then die.
Dunno if I'll watch the Ul'dah arc (I have seen the intro, which is the best of the three), though I heard that was easily the best of the 3 arcs. Think I've seen enough in any event, and I guess if I want to hate myself with more plot exposition with a game I will probably never play, I'll go back to the FF11 Drinking Game.
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Final Fantasy Artificial Autobattle - More grindans: already combined that Heat Lance, should finish upgrading it on the next upgrade material daily run which I'm already in the middle of. It'll BARELY outpace the Golden Spear, but it'll have a SB which, from the accounts I've heard, is actually solid instead of crap, which is frankly a leg up for Balthier. It'll also look really good on the boss rushes due to FFX synergy. Plus, having two 5* weapons from different realms is good for synergy and stuff. If the rush doesn't require Tidus for a target mastery, I'm shoving him out of the party for great glory.
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http://ffrk.kongbakpao.com/the-false-bride-elite/
Boss rush requires Tidus for three fights, Wakka and Yuna for two each. Nothing's weak to an available spellblade element and Retaliate isn't worth much without any trash mobs so this would probably be a good opportunity to give Cloud a brief vacation.
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Yeah, Cloud being replaced by Garnet is a lock for the run (since I want to abuse Carbuncle and someone else to run Slowga as well would be pretty aces).
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Meeple: There's an explanation for him reappearing in Coil, a plausible one even, but I can't tell you what it is without extremely major Coil spoilers.
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Man, I think you have a better loadout than I do, you're like the poster boy for Gladstone Gander gatcha antics for the game here in the DL. I've split my luck roughly 50/50 (before I got Vivi's staff, I had a no-5* 11-pull and my pulls on Balthier's banner were trash. Genji Armor isn't that great an option and neither is the Emerald Shield, though the Emerald Shield at least ruled the Yuna event). I'm still waiting for a more interesting staff than the generic R5 from FF5 and -some- natural 5-rarity hat/bracer at all. The forged R6 Ten-Gallon Hat can only last for so long.
Oh yeah definitely, I'm in a really good position.
I think I kinda focus more on upgrades and exp and specific skills, and I have stupid luck (I had forgotten I had an emerald shield before this event), while you focus more on max stamina and diversifying your portfolio, and you waste way less Timebux IRL.
Like Civ players would focus more on tech or military strength or whatever.
My strategy is probably way worse but I like having a bunch of levelled characters and finishing quests and having maxed equipment.
I really hope my luck won't run out because I can't possibly live with getting only one measly 5* generic spear from 11 pulls, like a peasant. (Or heavens forbid, zero 5*. It happened to me once. Never again. Cannot forget. The pain)
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Fire Emblem IF Hoshido Lunatic Classic-
Running into a snag on chapter 22; tons of promoted mounted units just tear though my defense line and the boss throws a giant fucking fireball that does 10 damage to all my units. I just don't have the raw defense to survive long enough to heal next turn.
Anyways impressions, I'm playing the casual scrub route because it was cheaper to buy. Map design is more akin to Awakening but better mechanics makes it more enjoyable to play. Pair up has been split into guard stance and attack stance. Guard stance is FE Awakening pair up but with reduced boosted stats and no dual strike. Dual guards block 100% of support attacks and only block primary attacks after a meter is filled. Attack stance is having two unit adjacent, the supporting unit attacks 100% of the time but at reduced damage. Proper use of mages and archers lets you set up an attack stance chain that lets you clear enemies faster than any other FE game. Enemy units also take advantage of attack/guard stance, making it easier for them to pick off your weaker units.
My Castle feature is like the base from FE9/FE10 but you can move around instead of just clicking menu options. Building your armory and shops is quick and easy and upgradable as you move through-out the game. There's a bunch of dumb things like KILLER BALLISTAS and puppet units you can make to defend your castle from online players. I don't know, I can't access online in the game. Then there's Pokemon Amie. You rub people and they say lewd things (B-Brother! You can't touch me there!). It's not necessary at all in building support points using this feature if it offends you.
I can't read moonrunes and just reading translated support logs, so I don't know what's going on in the game. All I know is the younger royal brothers of both sides are emo jerks and there's a fruity Excellus-like guy who triple crosses you in the most retarded way possible. Also there's a guy who has a bear as a best friend. The excuse of why there's grown up children characters is goddamn stupid: afraid of monsters attack your castle while you're away, they raise the children in a alternate dimension that's also the hyperbolic time chamber and went you go to check on them they're all grown up. They even ramped up the anime memes here, including a character who only speaks in haikus and Not!Tharja who is actually bisexual for real this time.
My favorite new unit is the blacksmith who not only has the baps (boobs and abs of steel) but can find pretty good weapons randomly based on the damage you deal. Single weapon locked classes have enhanced crit again and skills are more of in line with flat damage increase/reduction rather than percentage chance of doing things. Avatar gets their Ignis-like skill at level 10 unpromoted but only 50% x skill chance of activating. Ironically, his dragon form is completely useless: locked into one range, reduced speed, cannot doubleattack, does magic damage off a weaker magic score, while your plot sword remains strong the whole game.
While FE7 HHM mode is probably the most fun I've had with the series, FE14 is an easy second and I've only played 1/3rd of the overall story. I don't understand why Nintendo needs to sit on it until 2016 when it would be a great holiday title. I'll wait for the English version to play Nohr and Neutral path. I've invested a little too much in importing for the moment right now.
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Oh yeah definitely, I'm in a really good position.
I think I kinda focus more on upgrades and exp and specific skills, and I have stupid luck (I had forgotten I had an emerald shield before this event), while you focus more on max stamina and diversifying your portfolio, and you waste way less Timebux IRL.
Like Civ players would focus more on tech or military strength or whatever.
My strategy is probably way worse but I like having a bunch of levelled characters and finishing quests and having maxed equipment.
I really hope my luck won't run out because I can't possibly live with getting only one measly 5* generic spear from 11 pulls, like a peasant. (Or heavens forbid, zero 5*. It happened to me once. Never again. Cannot forget. The pain)
Part of trying to have good levels on most of the stuff I use at R3 is the fact that, as of now, even the JP version hasn't obsoleted the magical R3s yet (and even a fair deal of the physical R3s get plenty of use). I'm not sure having R5s at this point hugely matters, but R4 is a crucial breaking point, which I'm nearly done with on my black magic (as for white magic, all you need is R5 Curaga. I could start honing Curaja too, but it's currently overkill).
The part of diversity also plays into preparing an ampler party. I've been egg-50ing most event characters for that sake, only shrugging that off when I think the PC sucks or the rewards from the events from using them don't feel worth it. See: Wakka, Tidus, Vivi, Garnet, Squall (who I at least took to L50), Red XIII, Balthier, Yuna. Vanille and Lenna used to be primary PCs, so I don't count them, but once they get MCs, they'll rotate back in. I'm also planning on using Quistis/Selphie some, maybe Tifa if I get her a good knuckle (lulz), definitely Steiner... this will likely play into having better general options for different realms in the long term. I should level the NES FF losers for their Mythril at least, but there's a lot of stuff that takes priority.
As for the gatchas... well, I can't deny I've gotten a great loadout in practice as well. Three unique character weapons, a fairly diverse array of 5* weaponry and having enough 5-rarity armor equips to feed a full party depending on the situation is nothing to scoff at. Yours is just shiny, though. And I generally run off the mindset that I'll happily work with what I have. S'been pretty good in terms of results.
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Wait in your post, doesn't R3 alternatively mean "3* skill" and "A skill honed two times"?
You should probably level Josef up at one point, both his RMs look like some of the top RMs for melee fighters. (Auto Doublecut being only really good for Retaliate though)
My level50+ club right now is... Sephy, Yuna, Vivi, Cloud, Black Mage (lol), White Mage (lol), Summoner (lol), Bard (lol), Cosplayer of Light, Luneth, Kain, Lenna, Locke, Squall, Wakka, Balthier, Garnet, Snow, Vanille, Tidus. Pretty cool. So many eggs. I can also still pump one dude to level 50 if I want. (...Gladiator?)
Another advantage of your skills is that you can also use two black mages right away, while my second would only have two measly R3 -agas.
Anyway I'm glad I didn't spend my greater earth orbs right away, so I can immediately break the two loser guards in the Ex+. I think I'll go Yuna/Vivi/Vanille/Front row Danjuro Wakka/Cloud for the ex+, Vanille carrying one black magic and one white magic spell. Edit: Oh god I meant Cloud, not fucking Tidus
Regular Ex looks fairly manageable.
Also. I'm liking that Seymour Guado sprite.
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FF6 -
Phoenix Cave - Before this, while I was wandering around getting Mighty Guard/WWind and looking for what seems to be the only goddamn relic shop in all of the WoR that sells Earrings, I happened to beat Doomgaze and get Bahamut, so that was nice. After so many dungeons of autobattling wow this kinda kicked my ass... until I lfigured out that Faces were vulnerable to Stop. Then it was a simple matter of managing Zombie/Confuse status and keeping my element nullifying characters alive while blowing everything up with -aga spells and Flare. Funny how I thought status was useless both when I played the game as a child and whenever I replayed it on the PSX, because it shuts down anything that doesn't immediately die to spell spam. Anyway, killed RDrago and Cutscened my way to feelings and more importantly unlocking Ragnarock / Cursed Shield.
Rachael's revival scene really missed an opportunity for the final Star Wars Refranse. Only it should have been Locke saying "I love you" and Rachael saying "I know." Oh well, still cute.
Slapped Cursed Shield on Strago (never actually got the Paladin's Shield, so hey) and had a team of scrubs (Locke/Sabin/Shadow) follow him to get Cyan. Since they're not going to be dealing nearly as much damage with spells as Terra/Celes/Relm are, I'm focusing on making them heal/status batteries. Fortunately, the game makes this easy. After scooping up Cyan I swing around and get Gogo. Cyan's dungeon is much shorter than I remember but on the other hand Gogo's is much longer (in that there is any dungeon) so it evens out. In a break from form, possibly because I've been drinking red wine tonight, I name Gogo after Victor Hugo, because both of them have been so angry that they have thrown a baseball through a dog.
Backstreet's Back, All Right? Onward to get spellz.
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Ffrk
Beyond the daily dungeon...
Where are you guys going to farm greater non elemental orbs at?
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Wait in your post, doesn't R3 alternatively mean "3* skill" and "A skill honed two times"?
You should probably level Josef up at one point, both his RMs look like some of the top RMs for melee fighters. (Auto Doublecut being only really good for Retaliate though)
R3 I usually mention as rank 3 spells. Honed twice, 6 uses. I'm already shifting out of the R3s and entering the age of R4s, though. I may have used R3s at some point for rarity-3, too, I mix up the terminology at points.
Regarding Josef: I should, but lazy. He's one of the people I'm eventually going to level, at least. I also levelled WM and BM, but didn't list them for reasons of lol. I also did the same to Kain, same reasons of lol apply.
Another advantage of your skills is that you can also use two black mages right away, while my second would only have two measly R3 -agas.
Well, you prioritized specific Spellblade -ras. For physicals, I prioritized breaks and busters, since I read in advance about the mage meta and realized, by the time Concentration and Mana Spring kicked in, that we're on the cusp of the mage age. I still have R3 -ra Strikes pretty much universally, but I'm unlikely to go beyond that, since they'll be obsoleted by the -gas and the -ras already don't really cut it for pure damage anymore when not hitting weakness.
Anyway I'm glad I didn't spend my greater earth orbs right away, so I can immediately break the two loser guards in the Ex+. I think I'll go Yuna/Vivi/Vanille/Front row Danjuro Wakka/Tidus for the ex+, Vanille carrying one black magic and one white magic spell.
Regular Ex looks fairly manageable.
EX Plus, I'm probably running Heat Lance Balthier/Official Ball Wakka/Vivi/Yuna/one of Garnet, Vanille or Red XIII. Garnet gives me more leeway on defensive loadout, but Vanille and Red let me save a Vivi offense slot. I have both Break and Death, and I might even craft a second Break for less S/Ling. Regular EX, I'm only benching Cloud and loading up on Garnet, since Carbuncle + another heal/Dia/Slowga battery (see, besides the R5 Curaga, I also have a -second- R4 Curaga!) would be sorta nice.
Now, for Scar: there are specific maps where you can farm them, you can look up on Google or Reddit. It's a pretty long and inefficient process, though, I wouldn't recommend it unless you're close to being able to hone/craft an ability. I usually just craft the R4s from the spoils I get through dungeon rummaging and event clearing.
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I have no regrets about spellblades, I don't think I could have three chocobo'd some tough event battles without them. And soon, Bio strike and Break strike will exist. Way 2 cool
Kain's actually not too right now, I think he got a boost. Pretty good stats for a normal fighter, and he can use one of those regular breaks we have honed to hell. (because support guys can't quite carry 4 breakdowns at once) If you have one of those 5* spears lying around he's not the worst choice especially if you just want to 5 speed auto stuff.
Now that I'm looking at stat comparisons though, I see that he's basically Balthier trading Support 3, Thief 4 and Celerity 4 for Dragoon 5. That's... Yeah.
At least he can totally Horizontal Jump 8 / Vertical Jump 8 stuff. Also Lancet is probably coming? Please be excited
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I'm also planning on using Quistis/Selphie some, maybe Tifa if I get her a good knuckle (lulz), definitely Steiner... this will likely play into having better general options for different realms in the long term. I should level the NES FF losers for their Mythril at least, but there's a lot of stuff that takes priority.
Eiko is almost certainly the best of the near-future event chars, baring favorable gatcha luck (in which case Sazh probably takes the cake). ~400 less HP than Yuna/Garnet at L65, but she gets Mass Shell as her default SB and Bard 4 is almost certainly more useful than Support 2/3; MT attack and magic buffs, MT sleep, and a 2* non-elemental ability with the same multiplier as Diara (2*) that scales off magic.
Eiko being this good kinda saddens me, but I suppose I put up with Kain in my party for a long time, so I'll just have to deal with it.
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Huh, she gets Bard 4? That so does make up for the crap stats. I was fearing she'd be a Garnet mirror.
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FFRK: Cecil boss rush was very hard compared to the regular dungeons. Scarmiglione with constant counters and Cecil's crazy crits.
Yuna Elite dungeons are just kicking my ass in general. I'm using Tidus but not Yuna or Wakka, so missing a lot of stars there. Oh did I mention I just got wrecked by Undead Evrae twice? First time he Stone Gazes Balthier and Garnet. Okay, just bad luck, spend a mythril to do it again. Everything's going great, I hit blind on him with first attack, I'm beating him down nicely. Then he Stone Gazes Garnet. Again. Suddenly I have no healing and those 400 damage hits from Photon Spray add up quickly. *throws phone*
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Final Fantasy She-Autobattles From The Deep - I couldn't resist and upgraded Firaja to R2. Back to the drawing board. Also amassed enough NE Orbs for Comet R4. Now, all my efforts will be focused on gil farming for today. 115k gil for 45 timebux isn't a bad deal, at least.
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FFFFFF I bought the wrong Etrian Odyssey from the store. I bought the one that's an easier remake of the first Etrian Odyssey. Which is, as far as I am concerned, the worst thing.
Fortunately you can from the select a classic mode instead of story mode, and a hard difficulty: the game becomes regular good old EO1, with mechanical/graphical improvements.
So I've started a Troubadour SCC on hard mode. What could possibly go wrong?
Troubadours can use a ton of boosts that last three turns. Atk, def, hit, speed. They can spellblades regular attacks, and lower enemy resistance to the corresponding elements. Since they have no attack skills, boosting regular attacks looks pretty hot. They can dispel, and have weird HP/TP healing skills. They also have some other skills which look pretty cool.
YEAH!
My guild name is Bardz. One floor in and I realize I'm fucked. Damage is pretty low and doesn't look it will be improving any time soon. The worst enemies 2HKO and I have no healing, so I have to haul my ass back to the inn after every battle. The inn is way more expensive than what I get from a single battle so I'm losing money. Buffs seem fucking useless at low levels.
At level 2 one of the bards gets some inexpensive out of battle HP healing, so I can start slowly getting some cash for new equipment. Getting money is usually painless in EO,you just create a few characters with all the gathering skills, go to some key points in the dungeon, and leave. Unfortunately bards only have the Take gathering skill, and apparently I can't Take any stuff on floor 1. And floor 2 is so far away.
I am deathly afraid of exiting the very first area (like, the first small square, not the first floor), because enemies get super nasty right away. I grab a skill that lowers encounter rate, so I can rush to the chopping point to grab one measly ingredient and rush back to the inn. But I'm not sure if the lower encounter rate is real or if it's just a placebo effect at this point. What's with all the shitty skills, man
tl;dr: Bards
RK: Wow I am pretty close to finishing every stage that has 2 Timebux shards as a reward
Don't laugh Snow
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Low Stamina is pretty much the second highest thing on Snow's list of reasons to break up.
Also dude, plz no. Don't do that to yourself. That is some trancey level self bondage right there. Just play the ezez mode and make fun of the plot for me.
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Low Stamina is pretty much the second highest thing on Snow's list of reasons to break up.
Pretty good
Also dude, plz no. Don't do that to yourself. That is some trancey level self bondage right there. Just play the ezez mode and make fun of the plot for me.
Can't, if EO picks characters for me, I know they'll be moe as hell.
Like, during character creation in a standard EO, 80% of the characters are moe and I have to look hard for the UOMs and bears
I also have some pretty fond memory of EO plot, and this would probably ruin all the good parts
Anyway, I got some +10HP helms on my front row fighters(the HP boost is amazing) and managed to map the first floor and complete the first quest.
I nearly cried when I found 100 gold during exploration. Then I got 500 gold from Rhada hall for finishing the mapping quest.
Rhada hall you are amazing, I am ready to genocide an entire race just to satisfy your terrible expantionist philosophy, if you want (who knows??)
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Low Stamina is pretty much the second highest thing on Snow's list of reasons to break up.
Lies, that's only fourth-highest.
FF5 - Drakenvale accomplished. The dragon randoms are kinda nasty, but Control is simply -great- at wrecking them. Rescuing Golem was kinda tricky due to my party being so MT-centric, so I actually needed to tone down on my offense and my usual cheese tactics were being finicky to connect. I ended up busting out an Elixir for safety on Golem, but it ultimately worked out. Dragon Grass was pretty much a Titan conga line where none of the enemies ever saw the light of day. Summoner is so busted as crowd control. I'll have to go back for the Bone Mail, though, assuming I care enough about it. I'm not sure I do.
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FFRK: Woo-hoo got triple-chocobo on Yuna's Boss Rush on the first try! It was nail-biting but actually a really intense battle. Valefor nearly ended my run 3 times with Sonic Wings before I could take it out. Luckily it misses fairly often. In general, the hardest fight was the triple-Aeon Isaru battle because I had to keep reapplying my debuffs but couldn't use them as a damage source because I needed to conserve that shit for the next two major bosses. I should really finish upgrading all of my Breaks to R4.
Anyway, yay I got Ixion (who I wonder if I'll ever even use...) and a Major Egg!
And... what's this... ANOTHER Bonus fight? EX++? Seymour and Anima? Oh cool it's only twenty stamin- why am I dead already?
...
Well, at least it'll be EXP day in about twenty minutes.
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Low Stamina is pretty much the second highest thing on Snow's list of reasons to break up.
Lies, that's only fourth-highest.
I see you either changed more or you lied to me even more.
FF5 - I have had a couple of spots I struggled until Ex-Death's Castle where I realised that even though Monk isn't as cray as some earlier incarnations, it still scales mad dumb with Character level. I have Chemist. If I have setup time then nothing stands much of a chance. Bard is only going to make that more stupid if I didn't fuck up pianos. Time mate gives me that setup time most of the time. Ex-Death still had some bad runs though, he is legit. Dragon Grass was lol though. You don't need anything as strong as Titan there. Kick rolls that fight. Kick. Which incidentally is better than I used to give it credit. Even before level boost nonsense it is okay MT physical that ignores row.
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My second fiesta run is near its end (Natural Red Mage/Summoner/Blue Mage/White Mage)
It's always hilarious to me that Antlion is one of the tougher fights for Summoner.
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Etrian Odyssey Untold Troubadour SCC:
I'm nearly done with Floor 2. Look just how fast I go through the game.
Floor 2 introduces FOEs, and my reaction to FOEs right now is : Nope nope nope nope
I have three front row bards with swords and two back row bards with bows, because I can't possibly have only two bards eating all the front row damage. They'd die immediately. Every front row bard has at least HP Up 1 since it's a nice 10% HP bonus, for one skill point.
I have one bard focused on the def+/mdef+ song and one focused on the atk+ song. Both songs are maxed, so I can notice their effects in battle! Amazing!
One bard is aiming for the healing skills, we'll see how good they are. I am guessing: not good.
One bard is focused on the fire-spellblade song, because I know my favourite ice wolf is the 5th stratum boss and my bards really cannot possibly be prepared enough for this fight.
One bard has the out of battle healing skill, and is going to get that one song that raises max HP soon.
Maybe, just maybe, I can kill Fenrir with atk+/def+/HP+/fire attacks on everybody. That'd be sweet.
People get moved by bard songs so they become better in combat, right? But how could 5 bards singing different songs at the same time possibly help anyone?
Untold introduces a new extremely JRPGish system of Grimoires. In battle there's a % chance that you'll get another % chance of getting a thing after battle, that gives you skills, and you can combine these things according to extremely obscure mechanics, etc etc. JRPGs, man.
Basically this means I can get enemy skills (useless) and skills from... bards. (also useless)
I started with one extremely useful grimoire skill though: It's basically CPR. It costs 2 TP, works only outside of battle, and gives a ~20% chance to revive an ally. Beforehand my only source of rez was an expensive storebought item.
In this remake, I can also buy some passive abilities that last for an entire day. Right now, there's one that costs 10 gold and restores 10% HP at the end of every round. Yes plz
RK: Exp day = Level 50 Brosef
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Low Stamina is pretty much the second highest thing on Snow's list of reasons to break up.
Lies, that's only fourth-highest.
I see you either changed more or you lied to me even more.
With age, comes change.
Final Fantasy Autobattle Opens A Boutique - Yuna event boss rush mastered with zero mythrils spent, that was pretty easy comparatively (don't get me wrong, it was leagues more involved than Cecil's boss rush, which is just kind of lol. But no fight really broke past the 80k HP mark, so blitzing bosses was a lot easier. Reta-meta for Evrae 1 and Isaaru, straight up blitz Evrae Altana and Seymour Natus. I also lucked out some on the Ethers, so I was in great shape for Natus, with two Waterja charges, overkill Blizzagas, four Magic Breakdowns and three Armor Breaks). I also completed the EX ++ boss fight, which is interesting, but I don't think I'm in position to easily master. See, it replicates the first Seymour fight: two tankish Guardians, Seymour slinging magic, then Anima, then Seymour again, now with -ga spells. You can petrify or ID the Guardians - and you pretty much HAVE to if you want to have a serious shot at mastering this - and Seymour eats it bad to Carbuncle/Runic Blade. Problem is Anima, who is a damage race with painful attacks (at least, outside Oblivion, they're all ST). If she gets off Oblivion, you also instantly lost mastery. So, there are these moving parts which make the fight itself fairly sane, but the mastery conditions are pretty brutal. If I manage to hone a second charge of Carbuncle this week, I may try my hand at it again, at least.
Also just L50'd Josef with eggs and some XP dungeoning. Why the fuck not.
FF5 - This is pretty fun, guys. Went to Atomos' Tower and realized much to my chagrin that half the spells I wanted to learn there required Reflect... on the enemies. Oh fuck this noise. At least I learned Time Slip and Off-Guard there and nabbed by pure accident a Reflect Ring (AND A DREAM HARP!!!11111!!!1). Atomos... I thought this party wouldn't be so hot at handling him (having to face his MEvade, even if modest, for cheesing him out with Sleep and he's just obscenely brutal otherwise), but then I realized he's L41. Dark Spark => L5 Death => lols. Then, I got a submarine and instead of moving the plot forward, I decided to pick up Catoblepas. I captured an Ironback on the way there. I tossed it at Catoblepas. *5860 DAMAGE* *lol ohko* uh.
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I take back everything I said about S/L because fuck break.
My plan for the mastery is :
1) Carbuncle, break on one guard, pile on the other
2) Snow's dog +Waterja Vivi + Firaga Vanille + Breaks Wakka + Breaks Cloud + Curaga Yuna against Anima
3) Carbuncle again for the last fight.
Should be enough right?
EO Untold: I can only have three buffs on an ally at a time? This is bad. Really really bad. And I had started thinking my bards team could be good.
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Now you guys get to have the fun of trying to get Josef's second materia. Which I got last night *taunts*. It's two hits against random enemies, either one can crit independently.
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I take back everything I said about S/L because fuck break.
My plan for the mastery is :
1) Carbuncle, break on one guard, pile on the other
2) Snow's dog +Waterja Vivi + Firaga Vanille + Breaks Wakka + Breaks Cloud + Curaga Yuna against Anima
3) Carbuncle again for the last fight.
Should be enough right?
I'd also recommend bringing a Celes RW for backup instead of Red, since Carbuncle being up against Anima is seriously bad news. Lunatic High is nice for being able to pile up damage on Anima faster, but I suspect you have enough resources to bumrush Anima as long as she doesn't start charging for Oblivion -too- early.
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Goddammit I have been trying to get Josef's second RM for like a week now.
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I'm really not too sure why people are so excited about Josef's RM2. I mean, it's cool for Reta-meta, but otherwise, it's bad for cleaning trash due to unfocusing and spreading its 1.3 mult between hits. His first RM is a far bigger deal, nearly 20% effective boost on Atk AND Def in exchange for starting the battle with a menial status, that's a freaking sweet deal.
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Because one is "always useful and has no downside" which is more than most RM which are all bordering on useless lately...
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Every site seems to have different values for the multipliers, I have no idea what the correct ones are. I wouldn't call Sap a menial status though. The constant ticks add up quickly in elite dungeons. It also doesn't seem to expire over time, so you're stuck with it.
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Sap's pretty bad for Brosef as he's one of the least durable fighters already, but I'm sure someone like Cloud could do wonders with this materia.
I think that the other materia does +10% atk and this translates to +20% damage or something. Mechanics are weird.
Kain's adds 20% atk, it's awesome. It's just a royal pain having Vivi smack your Cloud at the beginning of every battle
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It's just a royal pain having Vivi smack your Cloud at the beginning of every battle
SOLDIER boy off in this hoe
Watch me spank it
Watch me roll
Watch me spank that SOLDIER boy
Then super man that hoe
Now watch me you
(spank that SOLDIER boy)
Now watch me you
(spank that SOLDIER boy)
Now watch me you
(spank that SOLDIER boy)
Now watch me you
(spank that SOLDIER boy)
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Idly, does anyone know which version of FF4 came up with the Scarmiglione/MilonZ counters Fire damage gimmick? The FF wiki claims this happens in every version except Easytype and FF2us, but none of the PSX/GBA/PSP faqs I've checked mention anything of the sort, just the DS guides. I don't personally remember anything of this sort either, but it's been years since I'm played any version of FF4 so my memories are hazy at this point.
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Every site seems to have different values for the multipliers, I have no idea what the correct ones are. I wouldn't call Sap a menial status though. The constant ticks add up quickly in elite dungeons. It also doesn't seem to expire over time, so you're stuck with it.
If it works exactly like poison (which it seems to -at best-), it deals 1.5% HP damage every six seconds on battle speed 3, which amounts to kicking in every 1.25 turn or so, sometimes less. For it to start actually denting your health significantly, you'd have to let a fight go on for longer than it has any right to. In general, just healing whenever the character is under risk of a KO (i.e. at 50% health or below), like you'd do -anyway- in any situation, is enough to completely negate Sap's effect. It's only remotely significant if you're running a no-healer team -and- you get seriously unlucky on potion spawning. Hell, even Regen more than counteracts Sap's effect, since it heals 3% of your health every 6 seconds. That's so worth taking 20% less damage from physicals and dealing 20% more damage overall with both basic physicals and techs, it's effectively a net gain even for durability. For an overall use physical RM, I'll take Sacrifice over Double Attack any day.
Of course, I'd take Double Attack for any setup where I'm relying on Reta-meta, it's very good for that, but unfocusing 0.65x dual hits that only apply to the basic physical is something that isn't even necessarily all that good for auto-battling trash mobs. Which is why I don't understand why people are getting more excited about Double Attack than Sacrifice.
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Idly, does anyone know which version of FF4 came up with the Scarmiglione/MilonZ counters Fire damage gimmick? The FF wiki claims this happens in every version except Easytype and FF2us, but none of the PSX/GBA/PSP faqs I've checked mention anything of the sort, just the DS guides. I don't personally remember anything of this sort either, but it's been years since I'm played any version of FF4 so my memories are hazy at this point.
Pretty sure it's the DS version only; they modified a number of bosses to be less boring in that one. The other 3 fiends had recognizable gimmicks and beyond some stat adjustments (...and giving Valvalis an MT Lightning spell for some random reason, as well as making Ruicante's Scorch MT and heal him while still keeping it stupidly strong...), they were kept in-tact. Milon was completely changed because...well...he sucks. Oh no, he might Curse you or Poison a character! That might scare you if you forget that Palom can 2-3HKO him.
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I guess the question is if it is 20%. Most of the sites have it as 10% attack and defense, which is much less significant.
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It's 10% to the stats, which is, in practice, a 19~% or so boost to the effective damage output and durability because the formulae are weird.
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It should be about +19% damage if you're still under the 347 soft cap and +8% physical durability.
PC-side defense/res gets a ^0.84 exponent applied for reasons only DeNA can explain. This makes Protect/Shell "only" about an 80% increase in durability despite doubling the stat in question. Meanwhile, enemies get a ^0.5 exponent instead, because yes, the damage formula is actually different depending on whether the target is a PC or an enemy.
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THAT explains why enemies take considerably more damage than PCs do despite often having better defense stats than your party. Exponentials are silly.
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RK: Got mastery on wedding ++. That was intense. I lost one medal on action and one on damage.
I made a lot of small mistakes (Magic Breakdown on Seymour) and greatly underestimated how durable enemies were going to be. At the end I had nearly no charges of anything anymore except 10 useless Curagas. At the end it was down to Wakka, Cloud to use basic physicals and to Seymour to blast himself with his own spells like an idiot. Why are you punching yourself, Seymour?
I still didn't bother with Yuna's damage limit break and just had her pass turns. That's how bad her limit break is.
If you have two shots of Carbuncle (one for the first fight, one for the last) + Magic Breakdown, you have enough damage mitigation. Do not even bother with Curaga and give Diara to Yuna instead. If you don't have two shots of Carbuncle, you're probably not going to get the mastery anyway.
Mage meta is a lie, Vanille was a total dead weight in my team. I suppose she could have been better with a honed mental breakdowns. With just a regular mental breaks on Anima, she was doing sub Wakka damage with Waterja. That's very bad. I should have went with my trusty lvl 65 Sephy instead.
Vivi's still cool though.
Great fight.
EOU Bard SCC:
Beat Fenrir! I can barely believe it.
Fenrir himself has: Lots of HPs, a damaging ice move that hits two PCs, pretty good physical attacks, a MT fear skill (random stun), a fire weakness.
Around Fenrir there are four lesser wolves running towards where the Troubadours vs Fenrir fight is taking place. On the 3th run, one of them joins the fight, then another on the 5th, another, etc. They are very durable (like, they die in 5+ turns of boosted focused attacks from 5 bards) and their physicals hurt. They are very bad news.
Fenrir can also do a two-turns Howl that summons even more doggies around him.
Troubadours are so cool they could negate all of Fenrir's strength. Expensive +30 HPs accessories for everybody. Ice resistance on helms. A very powerful (for now) regen skill that heals half of the team's HPs at the end of a turn, for 5 turns. Fire swordspells.
Friendly doggies are the worst part of the fight. But you can buy flash bombs, which halt any FOE's movement for one round. I just bought 30 of those bombs and had one guy use them every turn, so the dogs were never a factor. Meanwhile, regen handled Fenrir's damage just fine.
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Diara probably would have worked better for Vanille as well better than Waterja maybe, she has the same base Mind as Yuna at L50, well assuming if the player didn't manage to get Yuna much over L50 yet :)~ Of course depending on best available rod/staffs and such as well~
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Final Fantasy Memories Of Autobattle - In which PALMER has a solid 2HKO to average (high 2HKO on Vivi and Yuna) and you don't even care because Mako Gun is physical and he's vulnerable to both Blind and Paralysis. Hahahahaha.
EDIT: with my 4* spare staff, Royal Crown and FF7 Earrings, my Vanille was dealing 4.4k to Anima with Firaja. Not great, but could be worse.
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Diara probably would have worked better for Vanille as well better than Waterja maybe, she has the same base Mind as Yuna at L50, well assuming if the player didn't manage to get Yuna much over L50 yet :)~ Of course depending on best available rod/staffs and such as well~
This largely depends on what rod you have on Vanille. I had Lenna's SB weapon, which raises both mind and mag by a lot. She still did around 3800 damage with Waterja, Wakka doing around 4100 with Danjuro breaks. Unless you have a ton of honed -jas, her damage's not good.
Diara on Yuna doesn't do much damage either, but it's a really good option. If you give Carbuncle to Yuna, you only have one slot left, so you need a lot of charges on that slot or she'll just sit there doing nothing during the battle.
Vanille's very useful usually, but the lower max level and lack of materia hurts her a lot here.
I now have R5 Firaga and at least one of every orb, everything's cool
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You probably should have handed Vanille Diara, though. Higher MND and also takes advantage of Healing Staff's Holy-boosting properties.
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Oh man I didn't even know my SB staff did that.
No wonder why I was the only one who thought Dia was actually really good.
I should have still given that to Yuna and replaced Vanille with Sephiroth, though
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FF5 - Completed Forest of Moore. Catoblepas has seen pretty healthy use on that dungeon - completely trivializes Wyrm in a single action, which is nice. Will likely see use on Carbuncle, too, which would otherwise be horrifying (50% MEvade what the fuck why). Also grabbed Liliputian Lyric because why not. The Guardians were pretty much a straight blitz: Titan until three of those fuckers die (doesn't take long, considering each Gaia Gear shaves off almost 1700 HP off their 7777 pool), Ironback => finish off Earth Guardian. He still got a couple Earth Shakers off, though, which killed Galuf. Weirdly appropriate.
Apparently, Exdeath Castle comes with a bunch of neat tools for Blue Mages (L2 Old! L3 Flare! Aeroga!), so I'm hoping for a field day there. I'll buy a fourth Air Knife before going there, though, because I need to be ready for the age of glorious Syldra spam.
EDIT: Fenny: problem there is Seph can't use Break nor Death, only L3 Black Magic, unless you're really confident you can kill the Guado Guardians fast. I'm actually considering replacing Vanille with Red XIII there, though.
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Why are you punching yourself, Seymour?
Beat Fenrir!
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I love you.
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:D
EOU: Floor 7. Plot twist: Troubadours are now awesome, nothing can stop them. The 3 buffs limit actually helps keep things sane and makes me use some strategy instead of just steamrolling everything, so I think it's fine now.
Right now, the regen song is too powerful. Like the same bard song in FFT, it's too OP for the beginning of the game, and gradually becomes obsolete.
But, by the 3rd stratum I'll also have maxed the other healing skill, so I'm not too worried about healing.
I have a song that raises max HP by 1,5, and as long as I use the defend command on PCs sometimes, even FOEs cannot really do enough damage to kill anyone.
Maxed songs are expensive, buuuut I respecced one bard to get a song that restores TP, so resources are pretty much unlimited right now.
Ailments could have been a problem, but I'll soon have a song that raises chance to recover from ailments, this base is also covered.
There is one very cool thing about buffs that I only just noticed in game. EO has a boost mechanic, which is yet another kind of limit break system. When the boost bar is full, you can you select boost, and then have to select another action, that action will be improved for that round.
This works with songs. The regen song heals 2x as much, for example.
The best part is that EO is very generous with buff/debuff refresh. They stack in all the best ways.
So let's say you have a -30 HP per round POIZN skill that lasts four rounds.
If you use it on the first round, the enemy loses 30 HPs and has 3 turns of POIZN damage left = You do 120 damage total
If you use it again on the second round, the buff will now last 3+4 rounds = 7 rounds, and still remove 30 HP per round. = 240 damage total.
You don't need to wait until buffs are over, or almost over, to benefit from recasting them; it's very easy to keep buffs/debuffs on all the time because of this.
You can have buffs/debuffs on up to 9 rounds max, which is plenty.
Now this is where it gets interesting / broken; if, on the second turn you use a boosted POIZN that removes 60 HP per round, the game considers that the boosted POIZN takes prevalence over the unboosted POIZN, and you'll have 7 rounds of 60 HP damage instead of 30. = 450 damage total
Now obviously this is ridiculous, but it also gets even better: You can use a normal unboosted POIZN afterwards to refresh the boosted POIZN. The enemy will always lose 60 HPs per turn, and not 30, as long as he has POIZN on him, even if you use the weakest POIZN spell on earth to reapply it.
tl;dr: All my buffs are now 2x better and last forever if I want, huzzah
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Final Fantasy Autobattles Are Mosaics - I decided to spend spare Mythril on single pulls because eh why the hell not we'll get a new event and a new dungeon batch this week. Result: a second Official Ball. Hello, third 6* weapon. I also cleared Mt. Nibel and Wutai, currently working on Temple of the Ancients, after which I'll have completed all current dungeons, though I still need mastery on Mt. Zozo II (requires not getting Cyan KO'd, lolnoes) and Veldt (there, I just need to not be an idiot and use Curaga on zombie Sr. Behemoth before casting Raise on him, so it's plausible). If I Master TotA, I'll also have enough Greater Holy Orbs for R2 Carbuncle, so there's that.
EDIT: Mastered the Temple, honed Carbuncle to R2. I may be able to pull off the Seymour mastery yet. Also, should do a run on the equipment upgrade material dungeon for punting up the Official Ball to L25. My luck with gatcha pulls is honestly kinda weird, but I'm not complaining.
For Seymour, my considerations: running Cloud/Wakka/Red XIII/Yuna/Vivi, Cloud geared for full offense (Drain Strike/-ra Strike or a defensive break), Wakka with Power/Magic Breakdown, Red XIII with Death/Break (Death is well over double Break's base accuracy, so if I land it first turn, I'll have a better shot over the next two with Break. And hey, he can also contribute with pelts and Lunatic High), Yuna with Carbuncle/Diara, Vivi with his premier offense (Waterja or Firaja/-ga spell). I'm honestly scared of Anima's damage potential without any sort of healing to deal with her searing Pain shots, but I may bring Sentinel's Grimoire to mitigate that, worst comes to worst.
EDIT2: HELL YEAH MASTERED THE SEYMOUR FIGHT. Indeed, Carbuncle R2 did the trick, though the Runic Blade RW I brought (no SG on that particular RW lineup, so eh) also guaranteed a smooth transition, since neither Break landed (the Death -did- land, at least). Drain Strike also did wonders to mitigate Sap... until the status RAN OUT. Yeah, the downside to Self-Sacrifice is fucking menial. At the end, I still had a Runic Blade left and Seymour did almost half the damage to himself due to Carbuncle ruling that fight. Made it in the fucking brink, I lost exactly the three medals I could afford (two on actions taken, one on damage because Anima landed two full damage Pains. That was very scary). This was a great, fun fight and I hope the following EX++ battles are as interesting and involved as this. Now, to run the EUM dungeon once for L25 Official Ball.
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Keep the official balls uncombined, you never know!! </weird reddit posters>
I got Double Cut from my first FF2 dungeon with Josef, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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Too little, too late, I already combined it. I just need to level it up. Regardless, reddit's pretty full of it, what the hell would I do with the spare? Give it to Tidus, who ain't even getting any further airtime from now and gets no SB from it? Not to mention he gets outdamaged by Heat Lance Balthier anyway. Regardless, a ranged character running a +100 weapon is fairly shiny. Wonder if anyone else will step up for the spare Hawkeye in my inventory eventually.
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I don't know. Something something two 5* are more powerful than one pseudo 6*. Don't ask me. I always combine ASAP
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Yeah, you have that right (though Hawkeye is a natural 5*, I'll just never draw one again unless they decide to pull another Locke event). I guess I could slap it on REFIA when I decide to level her up, there'll be a FF3 event at -some- point and eh, I need a L50 FF3 PC for one of the quests anyway. Maybe on a lazy Sunday afternoon.
Also, since final rarity also factors into the stat boost provided by synergy, I can't imagine not boosting the weapons in the fortunate case you get multiples unless you badly need spares of a certain weapon type. That's more prevalent with mages, though (I certainly could use a second 5* rod and staff, for instance).
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Breath of Fire 4 - Slowly working my way through this. Game is still as beautiful as I remember, though the pacing is still super slow and the game is still basically "you are traveling west." Seriously, Chapter 1 is we need to take a shortcut to the Western Empire. Chapter 2 is that worked horribly, so what do we do now? And Chapter 3 is of course, just take the long way west!
I'm at a point where I probably should backtrack for masters I can get now but don't currently have. I'm also at a point where I need 3k fish points in order to unlock two masters. Unfortunately, the fishing minigame is proving less enjoyable than it did last time, and different kinds of fish are refusing to come out. Once again, my weakness against timed hits is showing.
Regardless, as those listening in on chat no doubt know, I've crossed the great sea of water, and am approaching the sand flats.
Codename Steam - Gave it a try, got to the Mecha Lincoln, decided it's not for me. Not entirely sure why, because I want to like this game. And I like both Fire Emblem and X-Com. But I just can't get into this.
PersonaQ - What, I still haven't beaten this? Oh right, last time I went on a bender I got past some tricky stuff only to put it down for a moment, forget that I didn't save, and turn the thing off, wrecking a huge amount of progress. Anyways, waited long enough that each step forward was more of a "Why did I put this down" as opposed to a monument to my own stupidity. At this point, barring stupidly durable enemies, Mamudoon and Mahameon are my only offenses. I can see why this is the game where they really shine. a) They have a stupidly good hit rate, and few enemies block either, and not sure any block both. While several enemies have a weakness against one or both. b) Unlike the Atlus games, the elemental spells aren't as good. You're not guaranteed to down someone when you hit weakness. You're not guaranteed an all-out attack even if you do knock everyone down. And the enemies feel durable enough that they'll usually survive all of that if it goes off, while in 3/4 if you get the All-Out attack it's rare for it not to kill. So, yeah, just spam the ID.
As for puzzling, I'm on a stage where you're clearly supposed to use some sacred flame to create slippery bits of floor to squeak by the FOEs. Me, I got lazy about the puzzling and just did things the crazy way, you can disrupt the patterns of the FOEs by strategically picking fights with them and running away. Why run away? Because they have three attacks, a buff, a turn waster, and a MT 2HKO. If buffed, that 2HKO turns into a 1HKO for Yukiko, and isn't really healthier for anyone else. Somehow, I managed to get to the far side of the floor without wiping. Unfortunately, it looks like in order to open the door to the next floor I'm going to have to slip n slide the flame down past the FOEs anyways. Kurses.
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Codename Steam - Gave it a try, got to the Mecha Lincoln, decided it's not for me. Not entirely sure why, because I want to like this game. And I like both Fire Emblem and X-Com. But I just can't get into this.
Might it be related to the fact that there's a mecha Lincoln?
Also, I didn't know Persona Q had FOEs. I'll grab it.
For me now the 3DS has become an Atlus console with some unimportant Nintendo games on it
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Persona Q is pretty much Persona Odyssey, made by the same team and all. You didn't know?
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Persona Q is pretty much Persona Odyssey, made by the same team and all. You didn't know? (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=j1CFmuWfwFY)
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<3?
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Codename Steam - Gave it a try, got to the Mecha Lincoln, decided it's not for me. Not entirely sure why, because I want to like this game. And I like both Fire Emblem and X-Com. But I just can't get into this.
Might it be related to the fact that there's a mecha Lincoln?
Also, I didn't know Persona Q had FOEs. I'll grab it.
For me now the 3DS has become an Atlus console with some unimportant Nintendo games on it
Are you kidding? If a SRW gave me a mecha Lincoln, named it ABE, and let me punch aliens and Zakus with it, I'd probably squee for five minutes in sheer glee.
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<3?
You didn't know there was a URL? (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=j1CFmuWfwFY)
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Super Mario Bros. 1 - Repeatedly was stuck on World 7, now repeatedly stuck on World 8. Life sucks. :)
The Last Story - This game is just a little too tedious for its payoff, but I'm going to try to finish it.
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FF5 - Welp, got into World 3, currently only Faris, Bartz and Krile are in my party. Exdeath Castle's most problematic part was the stretch with the lava tiles, which says volumes about what Blue Mage and Summoner do to the game. Air Knife Aeroga is pretty legit ST offense and covers for when Titan gets immuned - so far, so good, was my main means of damage against Gilgamesh 3 and Exdeath. Carbuncle ate Catoblepas, Gilgamesh 3 ate whatever, Exdeath ate Golem+Carbuncle total shutdown (which, really, makes it understandable why it's easy not to respect him as a dueller... though frankly, Tree Exdeath is likely to be even worse). White Wind ignoring Reflect is frankly ridiculous, by the way. I even learned Doom, which was an unexpected bonus that I'll probably give few fucks about. Randoms are mostly unnotable, though I have to note that making Red Dragons weak to Earth leads to absolutely hilarious damage figures. EDIT: I also ran from an unholy amount of battles so far, so I expect the Chicken Knife to do some obscene amounts of damage on Dance. Can I get Lamia's Tiaras on anything other than rare drops, though?
Final Fantasy Throughout The Dark Autobattles Of April And May - Black power day - AKA "Snow does nothing but farm those damned orbs and hone all those skillz" day. Already have R4 Comet, am considering either getting a couple -ra Strikes to R4 or just R5ing Firaga or Blizzaga. Thundaga ain't happening, I'd need to farm more Lightning Orbs and tomorrow there'll already be a new event out, along with the fact that there's more gil farming to be done.
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Codename Steam - Gave it a try, got to the Mecha Lincoln, decided it's not for me. Not entirely sure why, because I want to like this game. And I like both Fire Emblem and X-Com. But I just can't get into this.
Sometimes, there is no rational reason you like or dislike something. It just, for whatever reason, doesn't appeal to you and you can't put your finger on it. This may very well be one of those cases. I myself have the opposite reaction to Wild ARMs 2, a game that by all accounts I should find meh, but actually like, and can't figure out why.
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Fiesta - Finished my second one easily enough; started a classic run, Monk/Monk/Knight/Red Mage.
Current I am up to Exdeath (World 2) and he's been the only real stopping point. Gaining a few levels vs. the dragons to get elemental rings. (I already have 2 Coral Rings from Yellow Dragons earlier) My other option is to learn Dualcast, but to be honest I am going to need levels so Monks can stay semi-okay anyway, so gaining EXP first makes sense. I was having no luck with Reflect Ring drops at the Barrier Tower and decided to just press on, but now I'm regretting it a little since one of those would be really sweet for this fight. It's easy to forget that Exdeath's second AI script can actually be tough if your party doesn't have reflect.
Incidentally, since I have a Knight I'm going for the Brave Blade for the second time ever. I had forgotten how cheesy some of these encounters could be since I normally run from them; the Reflect Mage/Black Warlock formations particularly.
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Final Fantasy Autobattles Will Happen - Still grindans. Researching upon the Selphie/Quistis banner, I'm having second thoughts about pulling from it - at best, feels like a case for a 3-pull and hope something comes out. Two Light Armors is nice, but Selphie's rod focuses on Mind over Mag (unlike, say, Yuna's Magistral Rod, which has good values on both stats) and Selphie herself ain't a great unit (Celerity 3 on a -mage-? Black Magic 3? Vanille can do better than that, Selphie's only triumphs over it are the AoE Curaga and the Memory Crystal). Quistis' Sleipnir's Tail, well, is a goddamn whip. Only her, Selphie and RYDIA can use that, so it's highly niche as a mage weapon. Support 4 is a point (lets her play a Terra game with Support+Black Magic), but she only gets a 4 at BM and back row physicals aren't too hot when you have notably sub-Wakka strength. I'll mostly hold out for either Lightning/Sazh, whose weapons are terrific, or Golbez/Tellah, which is mage equipment heaven, and all of these are at least another dungeon batch update and a bunch of events away. I can't imagine I'll want anything out of Edgar+Sabin and Tifa reissue (Tifa's reissue will come with a bunch of Monk skills, at least, which should make Monk levels less irrelevant, but fighters focusing on offense when mage meta is just around the corner is so not what I want).
On more relevant news, I'll see if I'll get enough black power for R5 Firaga. If not, R4 Fira and Blizzara Strike may serve me as a substitute.
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EDIT: I also ran from an unholy amount of battles so far, so I expect the Chicken Knife to do some obscene amounts of damage on Dance. Can I get Lamia's Tiaras on anything other than rare drops, though?
They're storebought in the Phantom Village.
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EDIT: I also ran from an unholy amount of battles so far, so I expect the Chicken Knife to do some obscene amounts of damage on Dance. Can I get Lamia's Tiaras on anything other than rare drops, though?
They're storebought in the Phantom Village.
Thank god, I so don't want to waste time farming Moore Pyramid randoms.
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For me now the 3DS has become an Atlus console with some unimportant Nintendo games on it
Meh, I have become quite soured on Atlus of late, between them marking all their games up to be $10 more expensive than even first party titles and then throwing in the occasional bit of frankly insulting DLC on top of this. EO Untold 2 is the worst offender here by far, it has stuff that was very clearly cut out of the finished game to be sold as DLC, because there are parts of the dungeon where there's just a door, and you try to open it, and it's all "Sorry, gotta buy the DLC if you want to go past this door!" so you can't actually complete the map without buying all the DLC.
The Japanese fanbase apparently revolted too, because EOU2 is the worst selling entry in the franchise to date (the best being EO4). Granted, I can't say for sure whether it's because of that or because of EOU2's *other* design problems. A common one I hear complaints about: the story mode main character is grossly overpowered, to the point where he makes all the rest of his party mostly irrelevant in boss fights except to support him because he does like over twice as much damage as the other four party members combined. You would think that the solution to this problem is "well, just play classic mode instead then!" and that's all well and good, right?
Except they balanced the bosses' health pools around his damage, so enjoy your massive slog in classic.
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Yeah that does sound pretty bad!
To be honest I find all the core additions to EOU terrible: The story mode is the worst, the grimoire system is needlessly convoluted, instant shortcuts between levels are stupid, and I cannot possibly roll my eyes enough at the addition of the maid. "NOTICE ME SENPAI!!" Jesus. And stop giving me dumb Medicas.
But the base game is compelling enough that I don't care. EOU brings some quality of life changes that EO1 lacked, from being the first game in the series (respec only costs 2 levels, for example)
EO3 is still the best, but EO1 remains the most memorable one.
All this just makes me want to replay Strange Journey yet another time though.
Persona Q is pretty much Persona Odyssey, made by the same team and all. You didn't know?
No, I noticed that it was Persona + Chibi and this turned off all my interest
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I might skip the elite++ battle in Yuna's event, since I don't have carbuncle yet.
Might have to change too many things to even attempt it.
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You can improvise it out with a Celes Runic Blade RW. Not as good as Carbuncle, since the summon lasts longer and speeds up the fight along with saving you actions. You may also want to attempt it without vying for a mastery as well, since both Greater Dark Orbs and Major Summon Orbs aren't trivial to come by. A honed Carbuncle is a serious consideration for the future metagame regardless, since a lot of bosses can be shut down by it and it also plays into cheesing enemy magic counters in a ghetto Reta-meta way. I'd recommend crafting and getting it to R2 it as a midterm goal, at least, since it sounds like you missed the chance to score it from Garnet's event. That was totally worth the Mythril I spent for healing the party midbattle so I could beat that boss rush.
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Re EOU2: High base prices on games seems fine to me - remember, back before digital distribution SNES games used to be 50 bucks in 1990s money.
That said, it still strikes me as weird why you'd remake an EO game anyway. They're dungeon crawlers, right? It's not like people have fond memories of the epic plot of EO2 and want to see it remade. Just make EO5 & EO6 and say "bad news! The Dark Lord is back! We must journey through a fire level, a water level, caves, and a floating city to defeat him" or something.
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There was understandably demand for these games to be remade with additional story in Japan. This is kinda like remaking Doom to allow talking to the monsters.
I do have fond memories of EO1 story bits! Not 2 or 3, though they still had that aura of mystery. The atmosphere is a pretty major part of the dungeon crawling genre and I would rapidly lose interest in a generic one like you just described.
RK: Carbuncle is useful for the mastery but not necessary for beating the stage. You do need high levels and high hones in any case. And the reward is not much, it will probably be marginally useful in 10 years.
The next event requires both Selphie and Quistis alive for the boss ex ++ deluxe combo fight. Selphie and Quistis haven't been available before this event and start at level 1.
Well if I use all my eggs I can get one character to lvl 50 and one to level 46. Goodbye, eggs.
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You can -seriously- cut down on egg usage there just by bringing Selphie and Quistis to the elite stages, at least. The event will also last through a Sunday daily, so you could grind them two further there. I really don't think wasting those growth eggs on them is worth the hassle unless you don't have the FF8 levelling quests done or you seriously intend to use them - or you have nobody else you care to level. In my case, Summoner is a far higher priority than either because Record Materia being released on the next dungeon update, which may be even this week.
EDIT: OF COURSE, those events also dump a boatload of Growth Eggs on you anyway, so, if you care...
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I, for three, would be very interested in learning the tortured past of the pinky. DOOM movie notwithstanding.
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Spoilers: The cacodemon is a tsundere
Snow, you don't get that much xp from elite dungeons. I want to get all the masteries (and already have a level 50 summoner)
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Oh, in that case, go nuts. Taking them to the elite dungeon adds up, though, and the level gain early is seriously frontloaded (don't forget they get 1.5x XP bonus from realm synergy!). From my experience with Balthier and Red XIII, just the eggs you get from the event + experience from the battles is almost enough for getting a single PC to L50, so if you have spare Eggs, you -should- be able to build both to that point.
Also, HYPE FOR SELPHIE RECORD MATERIA Y/Y
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Well it looks impressive when you get one character from 1 to like 10 in one fight, but in total exp up to level 50, that's not much. My main goal is to have both at at least level 50 so they can equip materia. Lvl 50 means lvl 60 with synergy which should be enough.
I looked up Selphie's record materia. Better than Red Mage's?
Black day = I got Thundara strike from R2 to R4, Squall is happy and ready for the boss rush.
I am running out of equipment to upgrade, I only have shitty 3* FF12 rods to upgrade and I'm done, nothing to upgrade anymore. I blame the festival of gold
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I'm torn between R5ing Firaga and waiting for tomorrow to grind Thundara Strike to R4. Problem is mainly missing a day of gil farming. I -might- manage to scrounge enough black power for both, but I don't count on it.
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Mario 1 - Finally ceased being an embarassment and actually beat the game. It's glitchy and super hard but fun times.
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instant shortcuts between levels are stupid
Most of what you're saying I agree with, kinda, but what? Shortcuts are bad? What?
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To be honest I find all the core additions to EOU terrible: The story mode is the worst, the grimoire system is needlessly convoluted, instant shortcuts between levels are stupid, and I cannot possibly roll my eyes enough at the addition of the maid. "NOTICE ME SENPAI!!" Jesus. And stop giving me dumb Medicas.
EOU1's story mode is pretty forgettable, yes. I don't hate it but it's very much excuse plot. I do dislike that there's a bit of game content exclusive to it (one of the few things EOU2 improved on). The two unique-class PCs in EOU1 story mode aren't nearly as broken either, relatively speaking (although they are IMO clearly the two best PCs on the story mode team, they don't render the rest irrelevant).
The Grimoire system only exists in the first place because of the fact that you're not allowed to change the story mode PCs' classes, so it's there to give them access to other skills. I haven't played classic mode, but I strongly suspect that outside of aftergame the system is completely ignorable in classic. That said, I think the system is terrible and a massive step down from the subclassing system seen in EO3/4.
Instant shortcuts between levels... on the one hand, they make you not have to wander through multiple floors of irrelevant combats every time you return to town from the last floor of a stratum. This is clearly good. On the other hand, they also strongly diminish the inherent risk of pushing your exploration further, which is possibly bad, because that gameplay of taking calculated risks was one of the franchise's strengths IMO.
As for high base prices: Sure, high base prices on games are not a new thing. Atlus marking it up to $50 when even Nintendo's big first-party titles like SSB4 are $40 is not, in and of itself, a dealbreaker to me, although it does make me vaguely unhappy. What makes me angry is when they mark the game up to $50 and then also load it with a further $22.50 in DLC. To make matters worse, they did that thing where like half the DLC will be free for the first week it's out, so fuck you for not being an early adopter, asshole.
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Final Fantasy 3 Dual Play of Dualness...duality: Just beat Garuda. And yes, I totally played this song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMBZEHSPyxM) both times I fought him.
It's pretty excellent noise. I stumbled upon it through random YouTube linkage weekend before last looking for background music while working on something and wound up listening through the whole collection of boss tracks. Shiva's first theme is one of the better ones but then it shifts to J-rock for some reason and it's completely jarring tonally and I don't know what somebody was thinking there.
Anyway I finally got around to trying the Arkham Knight pre-order bonus DLC. Well, some of it, didn't touch the Scarecrow missions, likely not going to, but the episodes for Harley and Red Hood. Super short in either case, nothing really inventive about either except I guess some minor style points when you activate Harley's detective mode analogue. Which doesn't make up for her awful, awful voice. And Red Hood has personal problems (beyond pacifism, he's very fragile). I already knew I wasn't going to shell out for the $40 get-all-forthcoming-DLC season pass and this hasn't done anything to change my mind.
Also after a couple months of ignoring it I finally sat down and finished Shovel Knight. It's hard to pin down why, but I rather lost interest in this midway through the game. The retro aesthetic is just the best thing it has going for it (the spritework really is quite nice). I liked half the idea of the final boss, not so much fond of instadeath pits in a final boss fight. And yeah I am an idiot for not finding the equip-change button until now. I tried everything on the world map! I did not try everything in a level.
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It's pretty excellent noise. I stumbled upon it through random YouTube linkage weekend before last looking for background music while working on something and wound up listening through the whole collection of boss tracks. Shiva's first theme is one of the better ones but then it shifts to J-rock for some reason and it's completely jarring tonally and I don't know what somebody was thinking there.
Probably weird Frozen fanboyism. (No, seriously. The in-game achievement for defeating Shiva EX is "Let It Go".)
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Fiesta:
Third run complete. (Natural Knight/Monk/Monk/Red Mage) Hardest bosses were Exdeath and Neo Exdeath, both of which I had to gain levels for. Never knew you could cheese Catastrophe with Old status, but turns out that's a pretty rad deal. I had to get up to level 40 for this one, basically just to ensure the Knight survived Almagest. In a somewhat risky maneuver, I ended up with only the front Neo part alive (at near full HP) and him doing his Meteor/Vacuum spam. Fortunately, Dualcast Raise was able to keep me barely going long enough to take him out. Brave Blade was a huge boon here, and I probably would have had to level up considerably more if I'd gone for the Chicken Knife Red Mage plan. As usual, Monks were awesome until somewhere around the Crystals, while Red Mage was mediocre but had some nice status and Dualcasting to make him not terrible. Maybe for run 4 I can get a real humdinger going.
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To be honest I find all the core additions to EOU terrible: The story mode is the worst, the grimoire system is needlessly convoluted, instant shortcuts between levels are stupid, and I cannot possibly roll my eyes enough at the addition of the maid. "NOTICE ME SENPAI!!" Jesus. And stop giving me dumb Medicas.
EOU1's story mode is pretty forgettable, yes. I don't hate it but it's very much excuse plot. I do dislike that there's a bit of game content exclusive to it (one of the few things EOU2 improved on). The two unique-class PCs in EOU1 story mode aren't nearly as broken either, relatively speaking (although they are IMO clearly the two best PCs on the story mode team, they don't render the rest irrelevant).
The Grimoire system only exists in the first place because of the fact that you're not allowed to change the story mode PCs' classes, so it's there to give them access to other skills. I haven't played classic mode, but I strongly suspect that outside of aftergame the system is completely ignorable in classic. That said, I think the system is terrible and a massive step down from the subclassing system seen in EO3/4.
Instant shortcuts between levels... on the one hand, they make you not have to wander through multiple floors of irrelevant combats every time you return to town from the last floor of a stratum. This is clearly good. On the other hand, they also strongly diminish the inherent risk of pushing your exploration further, which is possibly bad, because that gameplay of taking calculated risks was one of the franchise's strengths IMO.
As for high base prices: Sure, high base prices on games are not a new thing. Atlus marking it up to $50 when even Nintendo's big first-party titles like SSB4 are $40 is not, in and of itself, a dealbreaker to me, although it does make me vaguely unhappy. What makes me angry is when they mark the game up to $50 and then also load it with a further $22.50 in DLC. To make matters worse, they did that thing where like half the DLC will be free for the first week it's out, so fuck you for not being an early adopter, asshole.
Yeah I was initially very disappointed to find out that I couldn't play with the new classes! Not disappointed enough to play Story instead of Classic though.
The pricing is very different in Europe, Atlus Europe doesn't exist and their games are less popular. So they never got time to get greedy. Nintendo games are 45€ and Atlus games less (SMT4 is 20€ for some reason when I could have given 80€ for it)
So far I haven't managed to get a high level bard skill on a grimoire. Either grimoires are really bad or I haven't fully grasped the Grimoire system. But I don't really care about transfering skills to other classes in a SCC, and enemy skills just look crappy. I have tested one enemy skill and it was bad. I never liked Gau in FF6, so I'm not going to bother to dig for the two potentially game breaking enemy skills.
I mostly use the plot grimoires as they give invaluable advantages. One allows one of my bards to equip axes, one has CPR, one has all the gathering skills, etc. All the ones I make myself are useless.
instant shortcuts between levels are stupid
Most of what you're saying I agree with, kinda, but what? Shortcuts are bad? What?
EO1 has 6 stratums, each with 5 floors. 1st stratum goes from Floor 1 to 5, 2nd stratum goes from Floor 6 to 10, etc. (I'm still not really sure whether you go down and down as the game goes on, or just go deeper into the forest)
There's a big boss on the last floor of each stratum (Fenrir on Floor 5) but you can only teleport to the beginning of a stratum (Floor 1, 6, 11, etc) To fight against the boss, you have to teleport to the beginning of a stratum then walk through 5 floors. Fortunately the game has added shortcuts through each floor that you have to look out for.
EOU (the remake) is the same except you can now instantly teleport to any stairs of any floor you've mapped. In game shortcuts still exist but now don't have any purpose, exploration is less interesting due to lower risk/rewards.
I beat the second stratum boss. He wouldn't be too threatening but he likes to summon back row healer allies. He's a damage test, and bards have terrible damage. His damage was low enough that I could focus on the damage buffs, but I'm getting a bit scared of the 3rds tratum boss.
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RK: Aren't you guys sick of the RK talk
Anyway my lvl 43 freelancer stat loser Tyro is a better black mage than my lvl 65 Vivi for this new event. Praise Tyro. Cloud/Squall/Tyro/Quistis/Selphie will probably have a real easy time.
Quistis is weird, she'll probably fill a strange niche at some point but she doesn't look too awesome. Selphie looks like my next Diara damage god.
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Final Fantasy: Are you there RNG, it's me, Autobattle: (What? I've been enjoying Snow's quips)
Picked up Quistis and Selphie, neither of whom look like main staples in my party unless the RNG decides to give me their Soul Break weapons. Still... at least I -like- them so it's fun to add them to my collectible FF Hero cards. It'd be cool if I could get a Whip at some point... Even Rydia isn't the -worst- option among the FF4 cast.
LoZ ALttP: Picked this up and replayed it for the first time in a long number of years. It's still a masterpiece and I really ought to play its direct sequel at some point but I'm in Japan so it's hard to get ahold of. The big highlight of this playthrough was that I finally played around with some of the hidden stuff like the swamp ghosts and Chris Houlihan's secret room.
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RK: Aren't you guys sick of the RK talk
srry
Anyhow!
Final Fantasy You Made Me Autobattle - Cleared Quistis/Selphie event's wussy version. So, I mentioned yesterday I -might- be able to max Firaga and R4 Thundara Sword via black power grindans, but I wouldn't count on it. NEVERMIND, the event hands you a bunch of Lightning and Black orbs throughout it, so now I have R5 Firaga and R4 Thundara Sword, thus regaining lost ground on Fenrir in our Final Fantasy Civilization Autobattle match. The event also drops a bunch of Greater Dark Orbs, so I'll only need those two Greater Earth Orbs remaining for Quake R3. Life is funny.
As for Quistis/Selphie... yeah, I dunno what's up with them. Quistis probably fills the breakdown mage grasped by Terra off lower Black Magic levels and worse equips, though getting a Memory Crystal -does- give her a considerable leg up. Selphie, on the other hand, is yet another healer/black mage hybrid, like Vanille, with lower Black Magic levels (i.e. can't use the -jas, which frankly sucks) and a useless backup (CELERITY 3 ON A MAGE) instead of something useful (Support 2 sounds menial, but that's all you need to be a Boost bot, and that's vital for Reta-meta prostrats). I'll swap Yuna out for Selphie for this event and pull up Wakka for further break support, anyhow.
Also, sounds like we'll get Edgar/Sabin event next week. Edgar'll make a fine replacement for Balthier in the short term, especially considering his -amazing- equipment options (can equip pretty much -any- armor, along with being able to use both swords and spears). Combat 5/Support 3/KNIGHT 5 isn't exactly wowing me as far as skillset goes, but whatever, I'm using Balthy mostly for status and low-level breaks anyway. Sabin, though, is just bad. COMBAT/MONK 5 with worse equip options than Josef, get the hell out.
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Maybe we should have another topic just for that game. This would have only the three of us talking, with the occasional Captain K / hinode post, and Zenny saying we're terrible people once in a while
thus regaining lost ground on Fenrir in our Final Fantasy Civilization Autobattle match.
Nooo
I'm going on a trip to Europe next week so I'll probably only be able to barely do events. Maybe I shouldn't go. (I am just joking guys don't worry)
At least I now have respectable max Timebux (109) and am about done with the classics dungeons. Also? 111 mithril. Saving for long term.
As for Quistis/Selphie... yeah, I dunno what's up with them. Quistis probably fills the breakdown mage grasped by Terra off lower Black Magic levels and worse equips, though getting a Memory Crystal -does- give her a considerable leg up. Selphie, on the other hand, is yet another healer/black mage hybrid, like Vanille, with a useless backup (CELERITY 3 ON A MAGE) instead of something useful (Support 2 sounds menial, but that's all you need to be a Boost bot, and that's vital for Reta-meta prostrats). I'll swap Yuna out for Selphie for this event and pull up Wakka for further break support, anyhow.
Selphie has the highest mind stat right now and respectable HP, so she's still good as a pure white mage.
It still feels like a waste to put a breakdown on a mage unless you've got their super special weapon.
Also, sounds like we'll get Edgar/Sabin event next week. Edgar'll make a fine replacement for Balthier in the short term, especially considering his -amazing- equipment options (can equip pretty much -any- armor, along with being able to use both swords and spears). Combat 5/Support 3/KNIGHT 5 isn't exactly wowing me as far as skillset goes, but whatever, I'm using Balthy mostly for status and low-level breaks anyway. Sabin, though, is just bad. COMBAT/MONK 5 with worse equip options than Josef, get the hell out.
Oh great, other regular fighters, and I'm sure we'll have to level both for the boss rush
Aaaaaargh
At one point I was thinking that it was time to level Cyan for this event, but I am 100% sure a level 65 Cloud with no realm bonus is better than a level 65 Cyan with realm bonus
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Maybe we should have another topic just for that game. This would have only the three of us talking, with the occasional Captain K / hinode post, and Zenny saying we're terrible people once in a while
That actually sounds like a plan if people are getting annoyed by our back-and-forth.
Nooo
I'm going on a trip to Europe next week so I'll probably only be able to barely do events. Maybe I shouldn't go. (I am just joking guys don't worry)
At least I now have respectable max Timebux (109) and am about done with the classics dungeons. Also? 111 mithril. Saving for long term.
111 Mythril? Man, that's a nice haul to save for either Lightning/Sazh or the next Soul Break celebration. I'm considering a single 11x pull for Sazh/Lightning (or Eiko/Steiner), then just saving up for the next SB celebration. They'll also up the 5* drop rate on the gatcha system after that along with bringing more equips per banner, which should make amassing rare equips considerably easier.
Selphie has the highest mind stat right now and respectable HP, so she's still respectable as a pure white mage.
It still feels like a waste to put a breakdown on a mage unless you've got their super special weapon.
In terms of offense, I -do- agree. It's another source of status, though, which may find its uses here and there, and busters are already behind Breakdowns for damage -and- have more powerful effects when they work. Support 4 is honestly a versatile enough skillset niche. Mostly depends on what you -seriously- need to pack for a given fight.
Oh great, other regular fighters, and I'm sure we'll have to level both for the boss rush
Aaaaaargh
At one point I was thinking that it was time to level Cyan for this event, but I am 100% sure a level 65 Cloud with no realm bonus is better than a level 65 Cyan with realm bonus
Cyan, always the worst. And yes, the boss rush requires both Sabin and Edgar. I'm so giving that the finger, though, Sabin is terribad.
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FF6 - So I left off in Odin's castle because I got too drunk to play. Figured out things were weak to ID, and X-Zone/Banish and Break wiped up basically everything. At the end, Terra learned Ultima and now she's benched til endgame because there's no real reason to learn other spells with her, and I think having support spells on my meatheads will be nice.
Well, she's benched after I wipe up Leviathan (GBA only Esper). Not terribly hard, his El Nino counter is mean but luckily I set up Mighty Guard beforehand so only my cursed shield bearer fell to the spell. Admittedly it was an OHKO, but with Shell up nobody else really cared. I bench Edgar again, too, since he has basically all the utility spells.
I realize I'm missing some low hanging fruit and throw together a scrub party to get Cactuar and build up my heal/status batteries. Beat Gigantaur with a Mog/Locke/Shadow/Sabin party... and another reset here because I didn't have anything to counter its repeated use of 1000 needles as a death counter. Try to redo the fight and apparently the Cactuar counter resets so I'll do this later and come back when someone has Reraise. If it weren't for Frameskip I don't think I'd even be bothering with this Magicite. Yeah sure Cactaurs are 10AP so it is good for building up characters you haven't been using, but this would have taken like an hour instead of 10 minutes without frameskip. Lousy design there.
Actually, looking at the skillsets of the GBA only magicite... wow all of them suck. Leviathan gets Flood, which gives everyone access to the Water Element!!!!! wow so good. Cactuar... makes sure you have Teleport in 5 battles I guess? And teaches Hastega faster than Birdicite. Gilgamesh and Diabolos are a bit cooler, teaching Quick and Valor, and the gravity spells respectively... but one costs an absurd amount of Gil and the other is at the end of the optional new super dungeon so it literally matters less than Leviathan. Whatever.
Next, Cyan's dream. This place walled me the first time I got this far in the game and now I'm irrationally afraid of it, so I take Relm, Celes, and Strago since they all have a bit of catching up to do to get Terra-tier but not so much catching up to do that they'd be a liability. Fortunately this just ends up being everyone casting Firaga on everything and winning. The dream stooges are EZ once you figure out weaknesses. I only got walled here, I'm pretty sure, because it's a dungeon you can't get out of until you beat it, and I went in and saved over my only save slot with a party characters I hadn't been building up. Kinda frustrating, but I could have gotten by easily with just WoB magicite had I known what I was doing. Celes also gets Ultima in this dungeon, and since I have two Gold Hairpins I guess she's done worrying about things too.
Take out the Earth dragon with Relm/Strago and people who need to be better heal batteries, and quit for the night. That just leaves... collecting the GBA magicite, Hidon, Fanatic's Tower, the GBA dungeon, and then the final dungeon I think.
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Yeah I'm waiting until the % rate for 5* improves. I want a cool shiny 5* gun way way more than Sazh's or Lightning's no matter how overpowered they can get.
Looks like this will be the first boss rush in a while that will be impossible for me without mithril recovery, those HP values are nuts. I'll still try to get Thundaga R4 just in case.
Support 4 on Quistis/Terra could be useful if you really really need an uneven number of breakdowns for one fight; you can give them that breakdown + a R4/5 black mage spell and they'll be decent. This is still pretty hard to justify for me as long as defense breakdowns have much less hones than breaks and are much less widely available.
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Zenny: Cactuar's big thing is actually +2 Speed, being the only Esper who grants that, making the Odin vs. Raiden decision trivial...especially since Gilgamesh teaches Quick, making the decision REALLY not matter.
Leviathan is pretty disappointing if not grabbed ASAP, which basically requires Terra, Gau or Imp Gear (Terra w/ Minerva and Trance can weather a lot of the damage, Gau can use a Water Absorbing Rage, Imp Gear naturally does that), as it is basically Water Scroll anyone can use, but yeah, it's not a terribly impressive spell considering the Agas are stronger, Quake exists, etc. I guess it does give one more option to make your spellcaster's damage more up to date over Aras, but really hard to care. Honestly, the biggest contribution Flood did to FF6 is being one of Terra's HP Attacks in Dissidia <_<;
Diabolos would be cool because Gravija is basically Ultima that cannot kill (works on EVERYTHING, no exceptions), and it gives +100% HP (meaning you can max out HP at level 99 with one less optimal level usage than Bahamut, whoo?), but you're absolutely right about how the "post super boss in aftergame dungeon" thing kills any potential worth it has.
FF6a honestly was the most laziest of the ports, in terms of additional PC content. The new bosses are actually decent, but you covered the new Espers, and the new weapons are a huge case of "we didn't do our homework, we just stereotyped the characters and came up with OBVIOUSLY useful things!" Like Sabin getting a pure physical weapon with no physical augmenting properties (save Holy elemental) because he's a Monk, Setzer getting an Auto Crit weapon when his best weapon uses the relic that shuts off Crits, Locke getting a Dagger because "He's a thief!" rather than, a Hawkeye/Sniper or Boomerang, which would have been significantly more useful. This isn't even touching upon the obvious lack of playtesting with Longinus and Gungnir.
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So are we still posting about rk in here?
I'm almost finished with classic selptis event. I really don't want to waste eggs on these bimbos, but I might have to eventually.
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Yeah I was initially very disappointed to find out that I couldn't play with the new classes! Not disappointed enough to play Story instead of Classic though.
The pricing is very different in Europe, Atlus Europe doesn't exist and their games are less popular. So they never got time to get greedy. Nintendo games are 45€ and Atlus games less (SMT4 is 20€ for some reason when I could have given 80€ for it)
So far I haven't managed to get a high level bard skill on a grimoire. Either grimoires are really bad or I haven't fully grasped the Grimoire system. But I don't really care about transfering skills to other classes in a SCC, and enemy skills just look crappy. I have tested one enemy skill and it was bad. I never liked Gau in FF6, so I'm not going to bother to dig for the two potentially game breaking enemy skills.
I mostly use the plot grimoires as they give invaluable advantages. One allows one of my bards to equip axes, one has CPR, one has all the gathering skills, etc. All the ones I make myself are useless.
Getting good grimoires is an exercise in lots and lots and lots of grinding, and most enemy skills ARE crappy. Boss skills tend to be decent IIRC? I don't remember, it's dumb.
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Is it bad of me that the number 1 reason I am looking forward to the Edgar/Sabin event in RK is seeing how many people's heads explode on reddit when I explain to them that Bum Rush is magical and Sabin is basically a mage in FF6?
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Wut?
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Is it bad of me that the number 1 reason I am looking forward to the Edgar/Sabin event in RK is seeing how many people's heads explode on reddit when I explain to them that Bum Rush is magical and Sabin is basically a mage in FF6?
I want screenshots. I'd love to see his equipment SB run off his MAG just for the trolling nod.
Wut?
The vast majority of Sabin's Blitzes run off his M. Attack in FF6. It's one of the big reasons why his damage doesn't utterly suck in spite of the subpar magic stat because loooooooooool ff6 physicals.
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Actually, the big reason Sabin's damage doesn't suck in FF6 despite being magical is his spell power. Generally speaking, Spell Power can be correlated directly to damage, as in double spell power generally means double damage (or close enough.)
IOWs, let's put some numbers to demonstrate this:
Aura Bolt: 68
Fire Dance: 42 but ignores split damage
Air Blade: 78, ignores split damage
Bum Rush: 128, ignores defense (so this is roughly double as strong in practice)
For reference, Fire is 21 power, Fire 2 is 60 power, Fire 3 is 121 power, Flare is 60 w/ defense ignoring, and Ultima is 150 w/ defense ignoring. When you look at these numbers, this is why Sabin's Aura Bolt out-damage's Terra's Fire hitting weakness despite the huge Magic Power difference.
So Sabin, despite having a stats of your typical Final Fantasy Monk, is actually best suited as a Mage. In truth, beyond some very specific boss fights (like Ultros 2 thanks to Fire Knuckles, or Phunbaba thanks to Dual Poison Claws), Sabin's actually one of the worst physical fighters in the game, and is way more effective if you focus entirely on boosting Magic Power. It's why I cringe when people go "lol Sabin w/ GG + Off = Brok'd!" because Sabin's possibly one of the worst users of that combo (though pretty sure he at least beats out Straog and Relm with this combo), and realistically that combo is actually not all that good in FF6 despite the infamy.
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Maybe we should have another topic just for that game. This would have only the three of us talking, with the occasional Captain K / hinode post, and Zenny saying we're terrible people once in a while
That actually sounds like a plan if people are getting annoyed by our back-and-forth.
I was here for the DL's original love affair with FE7, you three ain't got shit.
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We should get another topic for RK talk because I get really confused when I see people posting about FF3/5/6. Not actually joking.
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That is one thing that FE7 never did. It never involved the same cast of characters as a completely different set of games that routinely get played around here.
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I don't see much point in separating things myself. It is a game, people are playing it, therefore it is on topic. If people really hate reading about it (or about other games...) they can scroll past it.
Metroid Fusion - Played this again twice, once a (bad) speedrun attempt and once for 100%.
Final Fantasy Dimensions - Parties have met up. Using Alba (Ninja, Dark Knight, Warrior), Sol (Dragoon, Bard), Sarah (Dragoon, Monk, Paladin), Glaive (Black Mage, Summoner), and Dusk (White Mage, Black Mage). Currently collecting the summons I missed; the job seems notably better now that I have access to both sets of summons and have picked the ones I missed up.
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Honestly, I've seen way worse offenders than Record Keeper discussion in this topic. At least the posts for Record Keeper aren't being too disruptive and if you're not interested, easy to just not read the rest.
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Seems no like no one actually minds it taking up most of the topic, so keep it here.
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As Meeple says it's easily enough ignored for those of us who don't care about it, yeah.
Haven't been doing much interesting gaming myself the last week, been busy and/or blah. Got to early disc 3 in LO and took a break to finish my LFT run but haven't really done much on that front because I stopped to grind JP on Reis because fanboyism.
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Maybe we should have another topic just for that game. This would have only the three of us talking, with the occasional Captain K / hinode post, and Zenny saying we're terrible people once in a while
That actually sounds like a plan if people are getting annoyed by our back-and-forth.
I was here for the DL's original love affair with FE7, you three ain't got shit.
This plus if you move threads I'm just going to have to open yet another thread to inform you of how terrible you're being. Don't make more work for me pls i dont like it
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Hyrule Warriors - been playing this at the house of the elves.
Zenny I aM not saying that you should go out and buy a WiiU and this or anything, but I think you need to see some Tingle gameplay videos and make an informed decision about your life.
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Final Fantasy Dimensions - Parties have met up. Using Alba (Ninja, Dark Knight, Warrior), Sol (Dragoon, Bard), Sarah (Dragoon, Monk, Paladin), Glaive (Black Mage, Summoner), and Dusk (White Mage, Black Mage). Currently collecting the summons I missed; the job seems notably better now that I have access to both sets of summons and have picked the ones I missed up.
You could probably stand to put your Mages (especially Dusk) through Red Mage to grab Chain Cast (and Sword Magic is great for Status). Not sure what your love affair with Dragoon is... It's a decent physical class if you've got the Spears but otherwise you're almost always better off with Paladin. Bard/Dragoon is an odd combo in itself. I think it gets a decent Fusion but not a top tier one. If you put anyone through Dancer, you can combine with Monk for one of the top tier Fusions.
Or ignore all that because honestly some leveling will be more than enough to carry you through the endgame with that party. Aftergame is the only place you need any kind of min maxing. Because even at high levels those bosses will kick the ass of a poorly outfitted party.
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Okay then.
RK: This event makes me regret not levelling Gordon more, good job DeNa for making Gordon more desirable than any other Final Fantasy character for two seconds
EOU: Third stratum is really rough with 5 bards. (no shit) Even boosted buffs don't really cut it anymore. The worst enemies 2HKO any bard they want, and get 4HKOed back. I am getting owned by ants. Big ants, yes, but still, ants.
Ants scare me so I don't even want to talk about bears, who aren't even FOEs and who can KUMA-STRIKU-OVAKILL my entire front row with a single attack.
I just found a hexer's grimoire; its debuffs skills aren't too awesome, but I can just apply all my buffs + all the hexer debuffs then extend the duration of all of those at once one more turn with Taboo Rondo.
I am beginning awfully rude to the NOTICE ME SENPAI made but she never stops being nice. I come in, she desperately asks me to gather some things for a quest, I tell her no every time, she then gives me some items she tried really hard to gather, I tell her to keep that shit, and I ask her to go back to the kitchen and make me some tea before leaving ASAP.
The game says we haves reached "max friendship" and I think it's in denial.
SMT4: I heard that the game starts really hard then get super easy, so here are my self imposed rules:
- No fusion
- Main character is pure support and can only level up Agility/Luck
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Final Fantasy Dimensions - Parties have met up. Using Alba (Ninja, Dark Knight, Warrior), Sol (Dragoon, Bard), Sarah (Dragoon, Monk, Paladin), Glaive (Black Mage, Summoner), and Dusk (White Mage, Black Mage). Currently collecting the summons I missed; the job seems notably better now that I have access to both sets of summons and have picked the ones I missed up.
You could probably stand to put your Mages (especially Dusk) through Red Mage to grab Chain Cast (and Sword Magic is great for Status). Not sure what your love affair with Dragoon is... It's a decent physical class if you've got the Spears but otherwise you're almost always better off with Paladin. Bard/Dragoon is an odd combo in itself. I think it gets a decent Fusion but not a top tier one. If you put anyone through Dancer, you can combine with Monk for one of the top tier Fusions.
Both my PCs with significant Red Mage levels were dropped (this may be related to the fact that RM was underwhelming), so dipping back into the class for a Job Level 20 skill isn't going to happen. Unlike in FF5 you can't just slap Black Magic/Summon/etc. on a Red Mage and have him be awesome while grinding out Dualcast.
Dragoon's very fast for a high-HP physical job in a game where speed matters a lot, and they can use swords as well as spears. Paladin's skillset is certainly better, I'll agree, but Dragoon saw lots of use prior to even getting Paladin and still has better stats. As for the Bard synergy, well, Bard has better magical stats than physical stats so it puts the whole Dragoon skillset to decent use (not amazing because none of Bard's stats are great) and of course anyone with decent speed can carry Bard well (hey, MT status!).
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in a game where speed matters a lot
#allstatsmatter
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Final Fantasy Autobattle On The Big Bridge - Selphie/Quistis event mastered, no big shakes. R4 Thundara Strike and Thundaga were my indisputed MVPs, as predicted, Reta-meta also playing a big role. Stumbling onto R4 Retaliate was great, that + a casting of Quake per battle on the last waves of trash mobs let me full-medal all the randoms no sweat. Protectga + Power Breakdown mostly trivialized the bosses' offense, though you may also want Sentinel's Grimoire and Magic Breakdown for the mechanical spider. The big train is Blindable, so that + Power Breakdown + Protectga completely cripples the fight. The soldiers get handled by Quake spam. All in all, felt pretty simple. And now, to grind for white power, those Diaras don't hone themselves.
EDIT: By the way, the folks at DeNa finally fixed the Vit-0 glitch. The flame wars on reddit over this have already begun. They also raised the attack soft cap, though!
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Oh yeah I have R4 Diara and R2 Power Breakdown, stuff is good.
EOU:
So on the 11th floor you fight Killer ants, which have a MT attack buff and are damaging and difficult to kill
Then you fight Guardian ants, which have the same stats + a MT defense buff, they take aeons to kill
Then you fight Honey Ants which heal themselves.
Right.
Then you fight FOE ants, which are like the other ants here but with jacked up stats
Then you fight 2x Killer Ants + 1x Honey Ant formations, of course the honey ants heal the killer ants, and you really have to start going crazy with the buffs to counter all that
Then you fight 2x Killer Ants + 2x Guardian Ants and see your bards die left and right and each single battle is life or death
Then you find eggs which continously spawn FOE ants until you destroy them
Then you fight 2x Guardian Ants + 2x Killer Ants + 2x Honey Ants formations. Etrian Odyssey, plz
Then you fight the Ant Queen which is a boss in an area filled with ants that can buff her, and eggs that can spawn ants that can buff her.
Fuck ants, guys. Fuck ants. I'm taking a break from EOU.
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It's almost like the game is designed around a party with more than one character class.
p.s. debuffs wreck this area if you have access to any, seeing as they overwrite buffs.
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I think FFT has spoiled us for beating multiclass games with a single class.
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in a game where speed matters a lot
#allstatsmatter
#notmydef
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Speaking of class restrictions, my fourth Fiesta has finally gotten me a somewhat challenging party. OK, not challenging, just tedious early on. White Mage/Time Mage/Bard/Dancer. I can't wait to unleash instant-turn Sword Dances after a year of singing. Currently I'm up to the Moogle Cave. The hardest fight so far was Ifrit (I was level 9).
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I'm not convinced any party with Time Mage can be challenging if you know a few boss status holes. (Ifrit can be both stopped and slowed, for instance.) By the time bosses stop having status holes you have Hastega/Shell/Protect to mock pretty much everything. Agreed about the W1 damage being tedious, but now that you have Comet that should be in the past.
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Final Fantasy Autobattle, Little Children - There's not a whole ton of stuff to do while on this lull of events - Selphie/Quistis boss rush is due tonight, next dungeon batch is due next week and so is the Sabin/Edgar event. So, I just grind for random stuff like orbs and maybe fishing for Greater Orbs. Running North Mountain for Lenna's bonus quest landed me a Greater Lightning Orb, which is nice. But I still want those two Greater Earth Orbs so I can hone Quake to R3. Diara is up to R3, at least, and once the next black power day is up, I'll pick up the rest of the -ra Strikes to R4 as well - well, some of them, at least. Fira and Drain Strike at R4 sound like good places to be. One thing that's also noteworthy is that Ethers scale up with your ability loadout: R1-2 abilities will recover about 1-2 uses, while R3-4 will restore at least 2, sometimes 3 uses. This is really big for boss rushes.
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FF6 - I throw Cyan and Shadow into my party because Shadow can be useful and Cyan needs to get status spells so he's not completely useless later and then Hidon was knocked down. I kinda forgot that the Ebot's Rock dungeon even existed. Man it is terrible. Honestly with a lot of these late game dungeons I find myself thinking I wouldn't have the patience for this bullshit if not for Frameskip. In other news, Relm and Strago are more entertaining than I remembered, so they've got that going for them.
Sidenote, I used flood in an attempt to bypass the one minion with Reflect. He absorbed water. Most useless spell in the game? Most useless spell in the game.
I fly off to the Coliseum to get Gilgamesh since I bypassed the 500000 gil threshold. Dang this guy's actually kinda threatening! Like, 1.2 KO's front row, and still a solid 2HKO on backrow characters, high MDEF and no weaknesses. I didn't change my party at all and so I essentially only had 3 members (and fittingly Cyan died at the end so no sweet sweet AP for him), but Quick+Flare, Mighty Guard, Hastega and Curaga end up being all I need. Cyan helped, though! Offiering x Zantetsuken nixed the fight for Excalipoor I also got a Merit Award out of winning it.
Since neither Terra nor Celes are in my party anyway, Strago now sports a Minerva Bustier. This remake should have made armor change your sprite, dammit. Except wait, the only dungeon I have left before the finale is the Fanatic's Tower, and I'm not about to use Gimps for that. Sexy Strago will have to wait.
OK maybe taking my A team was overkill. Only the final floor had any challenging enemies and even then most died to one, and everything died to two, Ultimas. After getting the item, dang I completely forgot a Dualcast accessory was in this game. Like, how is this + Gold Hairpin + Quick + Ultima+ Osmose not more hyped over Offering + Genji glove? The former is actually really really broken while the latter sucks (unless you have an ID weapon on, or I guess Fixed Dice but I haven't found those yet) but looks cool.
So now all that's left is to get Cactuar (I guess), the final dungeon and then the GBA dungeon. Also because I never bothered before, I guess I'll look up some Coliseum Stuff and get Snow Mufflers and Red Jackets and shit too. But that all sounds really tedious right now so I'm done for the night.
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FF5 - Welp, shit's gotten pretty real. Melusine was a bit of a chore, but frankly, White Wind + 1,000 Needles meant defeat was never a risk. I also snagged Mighty Guard from a Stingray and everything will fail forever from now on. I also fought Wendigo due to wanting Mind Blast and L3 Flare, and he was kind of a pain in the ass because I was really lazy and my good offense is all MT (and the boss kiiiiiiiinda punishes that, but not enough to keep me from using it, just meant I had to save Bartz's turns for White Wind every time I used Syldra). Unsure on whether I do Fork Tower or not, and I probably should also hit Phantom Village and pick up that Chicken Knife.
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I think FFT has spoiled us for beating multiclass games with a single class.
Honestly, as hard as the bard SCC in EOU is, the bard SCC is still probably harder in FFT.
How the hell do you handle Wiegraf with bards?
Bravely Default: Ominas Crowe was really rough! (on hard) I had to fully use Brave & especially Default even though it's just the beginning of the game.
Also, wow @ that music. Is that SSH? That was way too intense for that fight (not that I mind)
SMT4: I think I understood everything that happened in the extremely cryptic opening cutscenes because I've already played too much MegaTen. "K this guy is Chaos Hero. This guy is Law Hero. This girl must represent the neutral ending I guess"
So far the game is super cool.
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Final Fantasy Autobattle, Little Children - There's not a whole ton of stuff to do while on this lull of events - Selphie/Quistis boss rush is due tonight, next dungeon batch is due next week and so is the Sabin/Edgar event. So, I just grind for random stuff like orbs and maybe fishing for Greater Orbs. Running North Mountain for Lenna's bonus quest landed me a Greater Lightning Orb, which is nice. But I still want those two Greater Earth Orbs so I can hone Quake to R3. Diara is up to R3, at least, and once the next black power day is up, I'll pick up the rest of the -ra Strikes to R4 as well - well, some of them, at least. Fira and Drain Strike at R4 sound like good places to be. One thing that's also noteworthy is that Ethers scale up with your ability loadout: R1-2 abilities will recover about 1-2 uses, while R3-4 will restore at least 2, sometimes 3 uses. This is really big for boss rushes.
Ethers kinda do whatever they want! I just had one restore 0 Curaga and 2 Diaras to Garnet.
I had completely forgotten that, during the boss rush you can enter any battle and flee to restore charges. That seems way more reliable (but this only works with BM/RM skills so far, of course)
Really helps me not spend one ofmy 19443 mithrils.
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I haven't done the bard scc, but I would assume you speed song to 50 (using move +3 to evade) then boost pa and punch a few times.
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Oh, that was dumb of me. I meant Wiegraf in the library.
Edit: What about Riovanes roof too?
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Bravely Default: Ominas Crowe was really rough! (on hard) I had to fully use Brave & especially Default even though it's just the beginning of the game.
Also, wow @ that music. Is that SSH? That was way too intense for that fight (not that I mind)
Bravely Default has some issues. Challenge is -not- one of them.
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The answer to Riovanes roof if you don't have a good ninja is pretty much always naked strategy: remove all HP-boosting equips from one party member to hopefully bait the assassins into targetting him/her instead. Sometimes double naked is necessary to bait'em both.
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FF5 - So yeah, ended up doing Fork Tower. I picked up the Chicken Knife and raided the Phantom Village on the way for all the sexy equips. Hermes Sandals are horrendously broken, jesus christ. Anyhow, Fork Tower was pretty simple, though Minotaur was actually kind of a pain due to one of my physical classes being squishier than any of the game's mages (seriously, Dancer, why is your durability so awful). 9999 Sword Dances eventually spoke louder, though. Omniscient was pretty much Carbuncle => Syldra lulz until the Flare OHKO that exists solely as a consolation for the previous full shutdown. I suppose I could hunt for Leviathan and Phoenix now, I have no point for any of the remaining legendaries. Afterwards, it's straight to the Rift. For all that I don't even have four-digit HP on all my party... but yet, it hasn't been much of an issue, holy hell.
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If you make sure to get Big Guard before Exdeath it'll probably never be much of an issue.
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Final Fantasy and the Sorceror's RNG: Finished getting all the secondary Record Materia on my Level-broken PCs. Garnet's and Josef's took literal -days- worth of stamina, which puts me behind everyone else. I haven't even beaten the last SeeD fight yet. Flipside, Garnet's RM2 is awesome for autobattling. Just stick it on a mage and now they're contributing mild healing throughout all the trash mobs, and they can still do something helpful if they run out of magic charges in bosses. It's great. It even auto-targets the lowest-health PC like a regular healing spell. Josef's double attack RM2 is helping the Reta-Meta a lot too, so I'm gonna start taking on the 90+ regular Elite dungeons soon. Got up to 111 stamina, and honed all my Agas to R4, with Diara and the Ara Strikes at R3. Quake and my Breakdowns are only at R2, though roughly half my Breaks are R4, but at least R3. Other skills actually seeing some use? Ramuh/Kirin at R2, Leg Shot R3, and Protectga~
I'm considering forging Wrath to help Tidus get his Soul Break even MORE often so that he can keep being essentially my only source of damage... but MORE often!
(Seriously, I hope I get a 5* Staff or Rod before this "Mage Meta" kicks in because even Vivi isn't outdamaging my 5* Sword wielders, even with element-boosting 4* Rods unless he's got Record Synergy.)
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Yeah my Vivi semi-sucks as well, just don't have anything to replace him with. Nice to know how Garnet's RM works, I might go ahead and farm that.
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(a) Wrath is a 4* ability, Tidus can't use it.
(b) It takes three uses of Wrath to get one bar of soul break gauge. That's pretty lame for a 4* ability.
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Well damn, dodged that bullet. Thanks hinode :D
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If you make sure to get Big Guard before Exdeath it'll probably never be much of an issue.
I have it already, so uh yeah. Goodbye, FF5, I hardly knew ye.
Final Fantasy Spleen And Autobattle - I'm currently doing the Selphie/Quistis boss rush, currently on the big train (I REFUSE to figure out the alphabetical mess that is the name of that boss) and abusing the flee/Concentration and Mana Spring synergy for maximum smash. I'll likely have three Soul Break gauges for Seifer, which means Vivi will rip nearly half his health in three swings, hooray poison weakness. I even came with a seriously suboptimal setup (lol R3 Curaga on Yuna, lol no Magic Breakdown, lol Mental Break), but eh.
Also, Djinn: if you're seriously killing for mage weapons, the nearest mage-heavy banner coming up is the Golbez/Tellah one, which should come up after the Rinoa reissue. It's a while away, though, and the second SB celebration should kick in right after it too.
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Bravely Default: Ominas Crowe was really rough! (on hard) I had to fully use Brave & especially Default even though it's just the beginning of the game.
Also, wow @ that music. Is that SSH? That was way too intense for that fight (not that I mind)
Revo, actually! It gets more obvious when you start finding the vocals.
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FF5 - Ex-Death died. No idea what the boosted level was. It was quite high.
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Bravely Default: Ominas Crowe was really rough! (on hard) I had to fully use Brave & especially Default even though it's just the beginning of the game.
Also, wow @ that music. Is that SSH? That was way too intense for that fight (not that I mind)
Revo, actually! It gets more obvious when you start finding the vocals.
I googled that name and only found pictures of cars + an androgynous japanese vampire.
I'm assuming Revo's the latter
Final Fantasy and the Sorceror's RNG: Finished getting all the secondary Record Materia on my Level-broken PCs. Garnet's and Josef's took literal -days- worth of stamina, which puts me behind everyone else. I haven't even beaten the last SeeD fight yet. Flipside, Garnet's RM2 is awesome for autobattling. Just stick it on a mage and now they're contributing mild healing throughout all the trash mobs, and they can still do something helpful if they run out of magic charges in bosses. It's great. It even auto-targets the lowest-health PC like a regular healing spell. Josef's double attack RM2 is helping the Reta-Meta a lot too, so I'm gonna start taking on the 90+ regular Elite dungeons soon. Got up to 111 stamina, and honed all my Agas to R4, with Diara and the Ara Strikes at R3. Quake and my Breakdowns are only at R2, though roughly half my Breaks are R4, but at least R3. Other skills actually seeing some use? Ramuh/Kirin at R2, Leg Shot R3, and Protectga~
I'm considering forging Wrath to help Tidus get his Soul Break even MORE often so that he can keep being essentially my only source of damage... but MORE often!
(Seriously, I hope I get a 5* Staff or Rod before this "Mage Meta" kicks in because even Vivi isn't outdamaging my 5* Sword wielders, even with element-boosting 4* Rods unless he's got Record Synergy.)
That materia quite good if you run two white mages.
I'm not sure about the autobattle use though. If you autobattle you often don't really need healing. And auto is not really an option at that point anymore. At 111 stamina, you can't just use physical attacks against mobs anymore. Elite dailies are also a bit too dangerous for low level characters to autobattle through.
Using Break on Tiamat is the best moment in the game so far
The answer to Riovanes roof if you don't have a good ninja is pretty much always naked strategy: remove all HP-boosting equips from one party member to hopefully bait the assassins into targetting him/her instead. Sometimes double naked is necessary to bait'em both.
What do you do when you have two less bards and have to get Celia/Lede/Elmdor to critical HP with three bards? Reset until Rafa gets 4 hits on the same target?
Edit: Ahahahahah
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AExBHGp1Npo
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Final Fantasy For We Are The King Of The Autobattle - Mastered the Selquis event. Big bad train is scary and OHKOs your backrow characters sans damage mitigation! Too bad it's 100% physical and 100% Blind-vulnerable. Still a good idea to apply mitigation as needed, though. Leaving Edea for a time -after- running Quistis through the Sunday daily, though.
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Revo's band is Linked Horizon? They did a virally popular anime opening I think. Bravely Default soundtrack is great though. Could have used more tracks I suppose.
Arc The Lad 2: replaying for stat topic purposes.
FUN FACT: Equipping a magic Apple automatically gives 1 charge (but no higher) This is +75% damage AND makes the PCs attack ITE. Wtf.
Baiting enemies and then killing them with AoE magic is still a very efficient way of handling business though. And Invincible is still the best way to bait enemies.
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Final Fantasy When My Boy Autobattles Down The Street - *Edea fight.* *Blizzaga OHKOs a L50 Selphie under Realm Synergy.* Ow ow ow ow ow no god why
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FF6 - Cactaur get. I'm not entirely sure how you're supposed to get around the death counter; Reraise doesn't guarantee success, and you can't Libra to check Gigantaur's HP so it's hard to line up something like Jump to make sure one person lives. Perhaps coming in with someone having Birdicite equipped and having everyone jump when he's at low health, and hoping for the best? Ah well, in any case I won so whatever.
I decide that I'm not gonna bother getting more powerful equipment before the final dungeon, it should be easy enough as is. I probably will before the Dragon's Den, though (if I even play that, I'm starting to get pretty tired of the game). Anyway, onto Kefka's Tower.
I split my main party into two with scrubs and have my semicompetents form a party by themselves. I realize my semicompetents don't have anyone who can cast Ultima, but that is completely unnecessary, and besides Magic Urn Gau is on that team so whatever. I look up what parties have the earliest opportunities to off the last dragon bosses and start with Party 2. Holy shit Gogo's stats suck. I knew this from old DL arguments, but this is the first time I've played that I bothered to check. Goddamn how terrible. Good thing being a heal battery / Tools / Blitz doesn't really need good stats but jeeze.
Gold Dragon goes down to 2 quick + Ultima rounds. Silly.
And then out of nowhere, I almost get wiped out by 2 Ninjas + Caster, didn't catch their names, since they countered everything. Whoadang. Tricky.
Switch to party three (Celes/Strago/Locke/Mog), no problems, destroy skull dragon. Get Crusader. Not to complain about being overpowered, but really since you can't get it until about halfway through the game's last dungeon, this really should have been the magicite to teach Ultima. Like, then you'd actually have to think about which spells to cast to maximize damage up until this point. On that note, I have had the Cursed Shield equipped since I got the bloody thing, and always had someone in my active party using it. Jesus what a stupid secret. You must really have to grind to get this thing, and by that time you've probably already got Aegis/Gengi/Elemental Shields and Ragnarok. I guess you could have taken the Sword like a dumbass instead, so this would be your only way to Unlock Ultima afterwards? But jeeze at that point you may as well just restart the game. It'll probably take you less time. Stupid stupid dumb.
Back to Party 1 (Edgar/Sabin/Shadow/Gau). I find out the Minerva isn't effected by the Merit Award, and my new dream of Sexy Edgar is dashed before I even knew I had it. :( Things go relatively smoothly. Gau aside, they're all characters who are fine right out of the box, and Gau only needs a little bit of knowledge about which Rages to get. Nobody has Ultima so I throw Crusader on to get Meteor. Things go smoothly until L5 Death wipes out my whole party in one go. -_- Great. Retry with some Safety Bits/Memento Rings and yeah. Fortunately, this game has good save point placement and (especially with frameskip) I'm back to where I was in only 5 minutes or so.
Fighting with this party is actually pretty interesting, since I have to rely heavily on status to get anything done. I probably said it before, but for some reason I was under the impression that status sucked in this game when I was a kid; it definitely does not. Berserk, Confuse, Stop, and ID in particular all have been consistently useful throughout the game, until the point where it was just easier to blow things up and frameskip.
Beat Demon, meh not hard. Beat Fiend, was a bit more challenging since it was my Shadow/Edgar team. On this fight, though, I finally get the Paladin's Shield, so yay? Whatever. So without grinding, you basically have to have the thing on from as soon as you can get it until the end of the game. Dumb.
So, Kefka. 62000 HP. That's a little over 6 castings of Ultima. I wanna try something. I throw on a Soul of Thamasa and Gold Hairpin on Terra, then Who Gives a Shit. Unfortunately, I couldn't kill him before he got a turn because Dualcast takes forever. However, Terra did get off 5 ultimas in one turn for all intents and purposes, and that was neat. Celes had to pick up the slack and cast it twice more. :(
Ending was the ending.
So yeah that definitely scratched a nostalgia itch. While I enjoyed it a lot now, I have the feeling that if it was my first time playing the game I'd have a much less high opinion of it. Lots of parts have not aged very well. For one, the character writing is a lot weaker than I recalled. Two, the dungeon design is really shitty in the last half of the game, and this shittiness shines through in Ebot's Rock, Odin's Castle, and the Fanatic's Tower. The last dungeon is fine, actually, but there's a lot of dungeons that are just a chore to explore. The cave to Odin's Castle in particular had an obnoxious combination of low view distance, sprites overlaid on places you can walk that make it look like there are walls where there aren't any, and overall labyrinthine feel to it.
The combat is actually pretty enjoyable if you take away Ultima, though there is definitely something to be said for being able to stamp everything under your boot with little to no effort. While having such a large cast was interesting for character work, as far as combat goes I can't say I'm terribly fond of the FF6-7-8-12 Philosophy of "every character can access every skill at once." Class systems are just way more interesting, and I am not terribly surprised that interest in FF5 is surging again with the Fiesta challenges. It could be interesting to split the magicite evenly across the cast -Umaro and allow each one to only be used once and see what sort of "classes" get built that way, but honestly that still sounds not very fun.
Though, there's one area it still shines just as much as it did back during the SNES days - Graphics and Sound. The OST is just really enjoyable to listen to, and there's a reason FF:RK sprites are all in the style of FF6 instead of adapting from FF4 or 5.
Still one of my favorite games due to nostalgia, but there's no way I'd enjoy it as much without that. It's just aged too poorly. Probably won't do the aftergame after all. Going through the new dungeon just brings up feelings of apathy and honestly I got other things I should be doing with my time and other games I could be playing.
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That was a fun read. On the whole I agree with most of your commentary.
Re the specific magicite idea: the problem with just giving everyone their specific magicite is that it doesn't turn the game into an FF5/T/etc., but into an FF4/9, where everyone has fixed progression. It's slightly more interesting because new abilities are tied to things besides level (in some cases, at least, such as Edgar, Gau, Mog) and certainly the relic system would go a long way towards giving the player some choice in how to design his/her characters, but I still find those sorts of fixed-progression games pretty inferior and they definitely have less replayability. Even, say, Wild Arms 4, which I'd argue is the best fixed-progression RPG gameplaywise, uses a system to give the player a lot of choice in abilities (the GC Graph or whatever it's called) and has a really fun battle system.
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It could be interesting to split the magicite evenly across the cast -Umaro and allow each one to only be used once and see what sort of "classes" get built that way, but honestly that still sounds not very fun.
This is more or less exactly what the Brave New World romhack Djinn mentioned does, yeah (each character gets a list of I think 2-4 magicite they can equip, some of it overlaps). They still have stat mods, too, so replay value comes in experimenting with different statup loadouts for the PCs.
On my end, finished LFT replay. Reis kind of stomps all over the remainder of the game if you get her early, although she was probably actually LVP against Altima with the setup I used. My final team looked like this, going from my final pre-Altima save:
1) Squire Ramza with Yin-Yang Magic, Dragon Spirit, Attack UP and Move-HP Up. Finished the game at level 59, with 97 brave and 70 faith. I ran Ramza as a utility caster most of the game (he has Geomancer mastered and the full YYM spellset), but transitioned to the physical setup at the end because of the 97 Brave. For the final battle he was equipped with Ragnarok, Aegis Shield, Thief Hat, Maximillian and Salty Rage.
2) A generic Lancer with Punch Art, Blade Grasp, Attack UP and Move+3. Finished the game at level 56, with 75 brave and 60 faith. One of my starting generics, featured in almost every battle in the game. He ran the dreaded MP Switch/Move-MP Up combo for a while, but in the later game I valued the mobility of Move +3 more and so switched to Blade Grasp. Probably the character whose setup varied the most over the game, he ultimately mastered all of Monk, Lancer, Ninja and Bard, although I don't think I ever actually used Song in more than one or two fights. Once I got the Blood Lance from Nelveska, I never looked back. Final battle saw him equipped with Blood Lance, Paladin Shield, Grand Helmet, Crystal Mail and Bracer.
3) A generic Squire with Time Magic, Damage Split, Short Charge and Move-MP Up. Finished the game at level 55, with 76 brave and 70 faith. Another of my starting generics, featured in most battles. She missed out on some C1 battles with only 4 deployment slots. She actually only ran Squire primary very early and very late; she was a Summoner for the actual meat of the game, and ended up with Wizard mastered. Summoner would be mastered but for Zodiac. As it turned out, her secondary would prove meaningless in the final fight, though. She was equipped with the Materia Blade (left over from running Summon/Black earlier in the final gauntlet), Flash Hat, Light Robe and Setiemson.
4) Dragoner Reis with Elemental, PA Save, Equip Armor and Move-HP Up. Finished the game at level 56, with 62 brave and 64 faith. Geomancy damage from her is absolutely insane, routinely breaking 200. Holy Breath is hilariously YOLO, I got decent mileage out of it too. Probably LVP against Altima herself though, that fight doesn't play to this setup's strengths. I probably should have switched her to Punch Art for Altima, oh well (she had the full set). Equipment was Crystal Helmet, Crystal Mail and Salty Rage.
5) Divine Knight Meliadoul with White Magic, HP Restore, Short Charge and Move-HP Up. Finished the game at level 55, with 76 brave and 68 faith. The ultimate expression of tanky white mage support. Her job gives her plenty of MP to work with, and Speed Ruin is absolutely awesome and probably the best skill in her kit. Equipment was Save the Queen, Genji Shield, Genji Helmet, Genji Armor, and Genji Gauntlet. I probably should have given her Excalibur but given that everything she does in the Altima fight is charged it wouldn't have mattered much. Turned out to be absolutely worth the effort of getting her about 2000 priest JP (that and the rest of her RSM is all I grinded out though).
Honorable mentions (characters that featured heavily in the run but didn't get used at the end):
6) Generic #3. Meliadoul replaced her, being the same thing but better with low effort. She had mastered Knight, Geomancer, and Priest and spent most of the time in some permutation of those three jobs, being a support character with generally low damage, often running Equip Gun with a Blaze Gun as her primary offense. She was level 52 at the end, so she got plenty of action, still, and was generally invaluable in her role.
7) Agrias. Agrias was great all through chapter 2 and 3 and, I felt, started to fall off some in chapter 4. For one, although she has an RSM advantage against Orlandu, he crushes her in raw damage output with swordskills. Holy Knight's poor stats also hold her back, and her options for other feasible primary jobs are limited due to the swords restriction (Punches notwithstanding) - once the better Knight Swords started rolling in (like Excalibur) I found it increasingly hard to justify using a job that couldn't equip them, once I reached the point where even Scorpion Tail-powered swordskills weren't reliably OHKOing. I never really settled on a good secondary set for her, and so the lack of focus eventually was her downfall and she ended up being replaced by Reis. I probably should have brought her back for the final battle, though.
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That was a fun read. On the whole I agree with most of your commentary.
Re the specific magicite idea: the problem with just giving everyone their specific magicite is that it doesn't turn the game into an FF5/T/etc., but into an FF4/9, where everyone has fixed progression. It's slightly more interesting because new abilities are tied to things besides level (in some cases, at least, such as Edgar, Gau, Mog) and certainly the relic system would go a long way towards giving the player some choice in how to design his/her characters, but I still find those sorts of fixed-progression games pretty inferior and they definitely have less replayability. Even, say, Wild Arms 4, which I'd argue is the best fixed-progression RPG gameplaywise, uses a system to give the player a lot of choice in abilities (the GC Graph or whatever it's called) and has a really fun battle system.
Very true, but for my part I think I'd still enjoy that more than the current system. At least with FF4/9, the characters are very obviously different. As interesting as jobs? Definitely not. More interesting than what FF6/7/8 turn into without self imposed restrictions? I would say yes, though honestly not by much. 100% agreed that there's little to no replayability there, for what it's worth, but that's not high on my list of priorities for games (EDIT: RPGs) TBH. Like, of my top 10 list of RPGs (not including Roguelikes like FTL or Necrodancer), the only game that breaks 3 replays is Dark Souls/Dark Souls 2. And, uh, Kingdom of Loathing, I guess, but that doesn't really count. Discounting that, MAYBE FFT and Earthbound have 4. Maybe.
It could be interesting to split the magicite evenly across the cast -Umaro and allow each one to only be used once and see what sort of "classes" get built that way, but honestly that still sounds not very fun.
This is more or less exactly what the Brave New World romhack Djinn mentioned does, yeah (each character gets a list of I think 2-4 magicite they can equip, some of it overlaps). They still have stat mods, too, so replay value comes in experimenting with different statup loadouts for the PCs.
Oh man I forgot about that. Meh, I'm so burned out on FF6 now (the dungeons I saved for the end in WoR really soured the experience) that that one's gonna have to wait another 6 years before I play it.
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Yeah, putting replayability as a low priority is entirely fair (these games tend not to be short to start with). Personally, I do feel that it has an effect since even if I don't hit 4+ playthroughs that often either (though more often than you, certainly), a game with very fixed character builds may struggle to hit even two or three playthroughs. It's pretty much why I haven't played Radiant Historia, for instance, despite enjoying its battle system a fair deal (not that this example means much to you. I'd use FF4 as an example, but I actually have replayed that multiple times despite never being a big fan because I was young and stupid).
EDIT: To be clear I'm talking about replaying games for gameplay purposes. Obviously someone might wish to replay something like Xenogears, Earthbound, etc., for other reasons whatever their character build methods.
I still think the FF6 model does have an inherent edge on the FF4 model because you can restrict yourself to essentially turn the former into the latter, but it's pretty reasonable to feel differently regarding self-imposed restrictions, and it's not like I'm that big a fan of the FF6 model anyway (though the stat/equipment differences make it better than FF7-8 by a ways IMO, at least).
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Regarding Cactuar:
You beat the death counter by having a combined party HP of over 10k HP; Reraise helps this though yes, being unable to Scan him is flat out stupid since it means you can't even plan around it, just need to keep track of it.
It's another example of how the guys Square-enix outsourced the GBA ports too were just going "yeah, this sounds like a good idea!" without actually play testing or thinking about it fully, though really all the new ideas show some issue in this regard. Gilgamesh is tedious to access, Leviathan gives a new spell that is gotten too late to be worth anything, Cactuar you discussed, and Diabolos has the always moronic "requires beating aftergame dungeon to access!" I've already ranted about Dragon's Den weapons enough that all I'll add is the things they got right there were either because of a low bar to clear (like Shadow or Cyan) or weren't weapons at all (Umaro and Gau.) Dragon's Den was clearly not play tested since you can't gain Magic Points there, which doesn't seem like a very logical decision because there's little reason to hold back there; the real reason is likely because they shoved all the formations on the formations that can't yield Magic Points and didn't bother to test this (because again, the game shows more signs of lack of play-testing in new content than intentional design decisions.) The only thing I think they really got right were the Dragon Refights in Dragon's Den, and if it weren't for Ultima trivializing one of it's major gimmicks, Kaiser Dragon is a well done and unique super boss.
EDIT: Also, I'll add in that I agree with Elfboy that FF6's model lends itself to the potential of making actual character differences via restrictions. One thing I will note though is a way to get around the "fixed" model is to offer enough options to work with, something FF9 does so you can at least say "ok, I used this team on my first playthrough, let's try something different!" Games with fixed parties and fixed growths tend to have no real offer in replay-ability. FF4DS did try to add augments to alleviate that granted, but they screwed that up by making the game outright punish you for sub-optimal usage of key ones, and having no leeway whatsoever, to the point where it doesn't even promote the idea of "play around and see what works." I maintain FF4DS could have used something to allow you to reset augments, like maybe an item (an expensive one even to avoid abusing it!) that removes augment from the character and lets you use it on someone else.
And I don't buy "the level 70+ stat growth!" argument because that an entire idea is stupid to begin with, and just replacing FF4's original stupidity of "Randomized growths after level 70 because reasons! Oh yeah, stats can go down too."
Also don't think it's entirely fair to say FF6 is on the same level as FF7/8, because in those games barring some very key examples (Tifa's weapons of awesome, Squall's Auto Crits, Limits), the characters are completely defined by what you equip them with. Granted neither FF7/8 are anywhere near as extreme as FF2 or FF12, where the character differences are basically non-existent beyond some minor base stat things (and in FF2's case, that'll stop mattering after a point anyway.)
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One thing I will note though is a way to get around the "fixed" model is to offer enough options to work with, something FF9 does so you can at least say "ok, I used this team on my first playthrough, let's try something different!"
Yeah, when I said that I was thinking more along the lines of FF9/Chrono Trigger/DQ4/Valkyrie Profile/Most other games that use this system, where all characters are static but you have a large(ish) variety to choose from rather than FF4/Earthbound/Wild ARMs/DQ8, where your party is unchangeable and without much customization. In those types of games, while every character may be the same in every play through, you can at least play with party composition, whereas party composition is meaningless in the 7/8 model. Of course it's a matter of preference, but yeah. I can confidently say that when I replay Earthbound/Mother 3, it sure as hell won't be for combat reasons because y'all are right--replaying those games isn't going to provide much of interest in that arena.
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To be fair to Dragon Quest 8, it allows some level of customization since while the characters are the same, you can make them in different builds due to the skill system, though I think there's a number of key skills learned via levels regardless that compromises the skill-point system anyway, meaning character changes between files aren't so drastic.
But yeah, I think it is key factor in all of this. A game with a static cast like DQ8 works if you give enough customization to make it that the characters can have different builds between games, and a static growth system works fine if you have an actual say of who to use. The whole reason FF4TAY's second half is better than it's first half, and similarly, why it's gameplay is a significant improvement over FF4, is because TAY allows for full party options and you can build a team how you want.
...well, ok, 2nd half of TAY is also better than the first half because it completely guts the fan-fic level intrusive plot in favor of just "look, you have a bunch of characters, some old, some new, now make a team of them and kick some ass for the next 10 hours."
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Revo's band is Linked Horizon?
Sound Horizon. Whenever they team up with other bands, they switch it over to Linked Horizon because they're working with others. Dunno why they bother but hey.
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The FF6 super dungeon is not very interesting. I played the FF6 version just for that dungeon, and quit halfway through it. It's a FF6 megadungeon in which you use your stupid unbeatable setups and go through a ton of battles against HP meatbags.
I think people like Offering + Genji stuff because they can just autobattle and press less buttons
I shouldn't have mentioned Civ battles in RK with Snow since i almost feel a little part of me wanting to spend money on stamina refresh, and: nope.
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Final Fantasy and the RNG of Secrets: Got Selphie to Level 50. Her Record Materia is Slots, which sometimes changes a basic physical to a magical attack. I guess that's good if I'm running multiple mages. The novelty of it is nice at least. Selphie herself hasn't been too bad as far as a replacement healer goes so I'm not wasting EXP. Garnet is the better option, and I don't have enough Staves to justify using both of them most of the time. Also, I just -like- Yuna more, despite her inferior Soul Break. Man, I can't wait for Summoner's Materia so I can finally start spamming summons.
Quistis is just awful, though. If they gave her White Magic 4, she'd be viable as a magic damage + Reflect/Protectga/Silencega carrier, but as-is it seems only Tyro can wield both decent Black and White magic. Well, so can Vanille/Rinoa, but she's capped at 50 instead of 65, so useless to me for now.
I can't overstate how important that level cap is for PCs to be viable anymore. If they can't break 50, they can't use Materia, and that just makes them useless. It's really disappointing. I've even got Locke's Soul Break weapon, but he's capped at 50, so he's weaker than all my main fighters, can't gain more EXP, AND can't use shiny new Materia to help him get around his weaknesses. It's sad because I would LOVE to be able to spam MT Damage+Slow in boss rushes...
Alternately, if the RNG would give me a fucking 5-star Staff, that'd work just fine too.
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Level 4 support is way better than level 4 white magic Djinn, Support 4 is honestly the best skillset in the game right now.
I'm expecting that once we'll have properly honed breakdowns, Quistis'll contribute more to the team with Firaga + Mental/Armor Breakdown
than a pure black mage with two BM spells, even if her damage with breakdowns is utterly pathetic
Regarding level cap: I agree. A level 50 character in his realm will still be respectable, but less useful than a level 65 character from another realm, so ...
I'm using Fran right now, she's really good. With a 5* spear, she shines a lot more than Wakka with a 5* dagger. She's going to take his place as the default support in my team. I thought that as a support, she'd be too frail for the front row, but she has Tiduslike durability and can use power/magic breakdowns.
SMT4: Hot imagery
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61L7r1HvNQL._SL1024_.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/p2sjdmk
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Quistis' 4 Support is pretty nice for slotting extra breaks and status, I feel like you always want more slots for that in the current metagame. Another cool use for it is being an extra Intimidate slot for no real downside. Her crappy offensive stats are a bummer, though (barely higher base Mag than Red XIII? Ew). Her SBs are also terrible.
Fran, by the way, is a surprisingly good Wakka substitute if you have even a decent spear or bow and minimally honed Breakdowns. Her stats are pretty good for a Support-type. Until Full Break becomes a thing, you could honestly do much worse, though she can't use low-level breaks due to no Combat levels, but that's honestly okay.
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Final Fantasy The Desperate Autobattles You Made Me Do - After getting Quistis all the way up to L46 and handing Yuna's equipment to Selphie, I took another swipe at the Edea battle. Setup was Cloud with Retaliate/Thundara Strike, Vivi with Firaja/Waterja, Wakka with Magic Breakdown/Magic Break, Selphie with Curaga/Diara and Quistis with Boost/Armor Breakdown, Sentinel's Grimoire as my RW. Setup was essentially "eke out as much DPS out of Reta-meta as humanly possible" along with "shave off the rest of Edea's HP as fast as it can be done". With R2 -jas consistently dealing 9999 damage to her with absolutely no buffing/debuffing and Armor Breakdown + Boost allowing for 3.7k damage basic Cloud physicals, this proved rather fruitful - enough to land mastery, nonetheless. When I won the fight, the Magic Break I brought for insurance in case her 214k HP outlasted both Magic Breakdown spam and two SGs proved frankly unnecessary. This ++ fight feels a lot closer to Jenova BIRTH than to Seymour - rather than a puzzle battle, it's mostly an ugly slugfest that relies on your ability to juggle offense and damage mitigation. Just don't believe Dr. Mog and try to cheese her with Reflect: besides Edea having MT Dispel and being rather trigger-happy with it, her MT damage isn't reflectable anyway.
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It could be interesting to split the magicite evenly across the cast -Umaro and allow each one to only be used once and see what sort of "classes" get built that way, but honestly that still sounds not very fun.
This is more or less exactly what the Brave New World romhack Djinn mentioned does, yeah (each character gets a list of I think 2-4 magicite they can equip, some of it overlaps). They still have stat mods, too, so replay value comes in experimenting with different statup loadouts for the PCs.
BNW lost me when I found out that the guy went through and changed all the steal tables on non-human enemies to having nothing in them because it was more realistic this way. Kleptomania is a way of life in Final Fantasy and fuck you for trying to change it.
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Honestly though? That's one of the best changes he made. Not having to try to Steal from every enemy in the game made Stealing much less tedious. You Steal from the humanoid ones and generally get -good- things, so it's worth spending turns on it.
Final Fantasy the Prisoner of RNG:
EXP Day! I decided to level Quistis up anyway for the Edea fight, and am maxing out Squall, Selphie, PalaCecil, and Summoner while I'm at it. Speaking of Summoner, NEW DUNGEONS! Sweet now I can get Summoner's Materia and cast Valefor/Ixion all day everyday.
I keep hoping every time my Daily Login chart refreshes that it'll have another free 5* weapon on it, particularly a staff. No such luck.
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FFD - Got up to Deist in Chapter 2.
Enemies in the cave up to Deist were kicking my butt, since I was trying to run a Red Mage/Thief/Black Mage/Summoner team - there's just too many encounters in there that sap up MP use. Every save spot I found was more along the lines of "Oh god I can use a Tent again."
Still haven't spent any of the JP I was given at the start of the chapter, since I have no idea what I should be spending it on for a first run.
I can already tell that magic's the way to go this early on for power, and Silence/Frog/Mini has seen considerable use in the end of chapter 1.
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Final Fantasy The House Of Autobattle - SPHERIMORPH IN SPRITE FORM YEEEEEEESSSSSS
Oh, I guess I also honed Quake to R3 after beating Sinspawn Gui's Elite dungeon.
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Re: FFD
Well, you definitely want to get those Red Mage levels out of the way as early as possible for Chain Magic/Spellblade, while it's still semi-usable. You should probably consider a melee character. Fighter is always good, but doesn't synergize all that well later on. Monk isn't great, but it has a decent skillset and maxing it out is the key to the two big Fusion Abilities lategame, so you might want to try getting those levels out of the way early on while it's still useful. Thief sucks, you can probably safely ignore Thief the whole game and then just level one up towards the endgame to help with the rare item steals. The only thing Thief even offers is SPD+, which you can certainly aim for, but if you're having trouble, then you probably wanna use the Thief's slot to use a stronger Job to help clear the immediate threats rather than prepping for the long run.
In Ch. 2 Summoner is probably hitting its midgame slump, might be time to switch to White Mage (or a second Red Mage if you're planning to use the Summoner long term you're gonna want Chain Magic.) Notably, the Dark Warriors get a really good F-Ability with Shiva and Black Magic, so if you've got a higher-level Black Mage/Summoner there, you might want to prep for that F-Ability, it basically destroys Ch3/4 mobs that aren't ice-immune. This also means that you of course don't want to miss Shiva...
So... I guess I'd recommend Red Mage, Monk, Red Mage (sub BLM), White Mage (sub SUM)? If that's too much magic-focus for you, change out White/Sum for Ranger or Red Mage for Dragoon (depending on Dark/Light chapters).
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Final Fantasy 3: So I beat Saronia Catacombs, found a hidden area in the DS version, saw it gave a bunch of Elixirs and Phoenix Downs, proceeded to load up the NES version specifically to get those! I might be slightly overleveled in the NES version as a result, but I'm pretty sure bee-lining half a dungeon shouldn't make a big deal. This has been a useless comment, so onto the useful stuff!
-DS version gimped Doga's basement significantly...and I'm fine with that. It's a filler dungeon with the annoying Mini gimmick, albeit after Geomancers showed up so you have unlimited reasonable offense in both versions, well after that gimmick has over-stayed it's welcome. Thanfully this is the last time. NES version I probably made it harder on myself using Conjurer since the lower MP vs. Black Mage is really felt here, though again, Geomancers exist, so you use a few of those. Also NES version loved back attacks.
At this point, 3 possible dungeons to go to; to keep things fair, I tackle them in the same order in both versions. Sunken Cave -> Temple of Time -> Saronia Catacombs.
-...poor life decision in the NES version. The Sunken Cave stands out as a dungeon that the game NEVER tells you about, you just kind of have to stumble upon. Everything else has some hint, whether it's people in Saronia talking about a hidden passage to Odin, seeing a large ominous lake in the distance over impassable terrain, etc. In any event, the NES version, this dungeon is the hardest of the 3, probably intentionally so. Something I noticed is the Ambush and Back Attack rate is stupid high here, which I believe is something that Level helps prevent, suggesting that I tackled this dungeon too early. The enemies, while do-able, are clearly stronger than the other dungeons, the rewards are much better, etc. I believe the intent was they wanted you to do Temple of Time first, because the game spells out where it is, and then later you're suppose to go "hey, wonder what else is down here?" and find the Sunken Cave. Cannot say the same about the DS version, though the rewards relative to other dungeons didn't change (Air Knife is stupid amazing for Thief.) This dungeon is clearly easier than Temple of Time (not sure about the Catacombs), and offers rewards that help a lot there, like Reflect Mail for Fighters, Diamond gear, weapon upgrades, etc.
-Just going to note that rewards in both games for Sunken Cave are pretty stellar, and it's worth doing regardless. In fact, a key thing about the DS version is they buffed the Ancient sword a lot to be "just weaker than Defender", which makes Knights and Warriors way better, as that + the Defender Sword in the Temple of Time means they now have two reasonably powered weapons. Granted, Warrior wasn't TOO gimped since Axes exist, but generally prefers Swords due to weight issues. I guess I should note the NES version gives you the Blood Lance here, which is fantastic.
-Temple of Time is kind of lol-worthy in the NES version but probably because I just did a much harder dungeon before it. If I didn't, it'd probably be unremarkable still, since enemies just aren't scary. DS version? Ok, enemies are clearly frailer than the Sunken Cave, but the offense is way higher. Chimera's Lightning is a dick move, doing high 2HKO damage to any Fighter w/out Diamond Gear, and 3HKO damage to mages without Diamond Bracers, and you can be ambushed by 3 in a single fight. I thought those were just an anomaly...until I fought an enemy who cast Blizzaga on the party doing similar damage, and this is an element that can only be resisted by Armored units using a weak armor (Flame Mail); Sunken Cave's best attack is an enemy casting Blizzara for half that damage. Behemoths are in both but in NES version, they're shrugworthy, DS version, they're pseudo-bosses. A Pseudo-boss is something that appears pretty frequently in FF3DS determined by their solo appearance, high HP, and dual acting like bosses. Behemoth's Physical focused on a PC can kill them if they aren't a higher defensive unit; a Reflect Armor using Dragoon may not suffice.
Overall, I think the NES version definitely did it better. While the Sunken cave is a dick, it's at least optional and rewards you. The mindset probably was to scare people off with the powerful randoms who were un-prepared, as a "come back here when you're stronger!" means. This is not an uncommon tactic used in older RPGs, after all. Also, Sunken Cave is 100% optional, Temple of Time is required. Scaling one dungeon around the fact that someone MIGHT go to this other dungeon that has no reference whatsoever first as opposed to continuing the plot is poor design; by contrast, FF3 NES assumes Temple of Time is being taken by those who just left Doga's Mansion. I'd rather a dungeon be too easy because you did a side-quest earlier than they intended rather than a dungeon being too hard because they wanted to factor in those who did those side quests. Side-quests should be the harder dungeons, IMO, because they're optional. The point of them is rewarding you for taking the time to do them, not punish you for not realizing they exist.
-Saronia Catacombs...is uneventful. No, seriously, the enemies here are bland and easily killed, not much else to say. You could do this dungeon before Temple of Time in the DS version and get a lot of worthwhile rewards (there's a Reflect Mail and some Diamond gear here) and the dungeon is at least acknowledged, but I still don't think it's right to assume people find this dungeon before Temple of Time.
-Odin is way better in the NES version. A critical by him, which is more common than you think, can completely destroy a Viking, let alone a lesser armored unit, and Atom Edge is reasonable MT damage. Odin in the DS version is pretty much a large sack of health that hits twice for reasonable damage, who is only scary if he focuses those hits.
-I did steal Gungnir from Odin in the DS version, but I had to grind for about 30 minutes to get JLevels up for Refia (other 3 were killed off, so no benefit.) Thief Refia has been kind of broken since I got Air Knife; I saw her hit the 9999 damage display cap, albeit that was a Critical vs. an enemy weak to Wind. The massive JLevels for the Catacombs made that laughable too though i should note the JLevels didn't have an impact here, Saronia Catacombs are just not very good. This also affirms that yes, you definitely need grinding to get Gungnir, which hurts Dragoon's use. I'll probably stop using Thief since the last Locked Door segment is finished, and with the amount of JLevels, it feels unfair, though Thief also lacks any equipment upgrades until the final dungeon too, so using one despite it's damage can be a liability. Thinking of going Viking until Dark Knight gear shows up.
-Conjurer > Evoker. While Evoker does more damage on the damage summons, Conjurer in most cases does "enough" that it could one shot enemies, and Shiva/Ramuh are just so much better since their MT status' are extremely good while in FF3DS, I saw Mindblast hit like twice on one enemy, and Mesermize missed every-turn. basically, Conjurer is reliable because you know you're getting something good out of them, Evoker is 50% chance of deceny. To Evoker's credit, it definitely has the better Ifrit, due to the healing being exceptional, while the NES version's Healing is a huge pile of Meh. Then again, that's FF3NES vs. DS in a nutshell right there: FF3NES' status >>>> FF3DS' status, but FF3DS Healing >> FF3NES healing.
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SMT4 (No fusion, agi/luck only) : Minotaur is a total roadblock. Tons of HP and damage, even after 3 Rakukaja, and nobody has phys res here.
I really like how you get app points every level and can buy new apps, which only help indirectly. I focused on Fundraiser to get money from demons (because this game is very stingy with money), and demon slots.
I also just got another one that lets me talk to unintelligible demons, because I figured maybe one of these demons would have access to better buffs, but so far it's not happening. God damn it.
I really need some Suku against Minotaur plz
Edit: One of those unintelligible demons gave me Sukukaja, plan went perfectly. I beat Minotaur on the very last action the team could do before being wiped out. 6 demons + the MC died in the battle.
RK: I've used Armor Breakdown against Edea and it wasn't much better than Armor Break. Damage went from 8000 with Armor Break to 8500 with Armor Breakdown? For now I suggest giving your support dude magic/power breakdown and sticking to armor break / mental break on your combat dude.
2 FF8 five stars swords trivialized the event, Cloud and Squall were competing to see who has the biggest sword. I ended both boss rush and Edea fight with a ton of charges left.
I'll actually probably do a pull in the FF13 banner because I have no good FF13 weapon and still no gun.
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Honestly though? That's one of the best changes he made. Not having to try to Steal from every enemy in the game made Stealing much less tedious. You Steal from the humanoid ones and generally get -good- things, so it's worth spending turns on it.
"Having to?" This isn't FF9. You're talking about it like it's something you spend multiple turns on at the beginning of every fight while everyone else plays with their dick. If his goal was less tedium, emphasizing buffs more in fights undercuts that far more, since that's multiple turns from multiple characters at the beginning of fights and it's far less optional in boss fights than stealing is.
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Looking at the FF13 banner, there's only -one- equip there I wouldn't ever want (and all the others I want kinda bad), so it totally warrants an 11-pull from me. Doesn't hurt that the upcoming Super Figaro Bros. banner is really bad and the Tifa reissue one doesn't sound at all promising either.
Also, Fenny, regarding Minotaur, he's a complete doozy. I'll be honest, Sukukaja did -not- help me there, I ended up packing more Bufu spam and Tarunda against him and won mostly by virtue of luck (smirking boosts your evade more significantly than only using Sukukaja or Sukunda. You really need to stack up -both- to make his accuracy problems significant and I don't even know how viable that is at that point). Minotaur also marks pretty much the absolute apex of SMT4 difficulty. From there, the gamebreaking tools start slowly lining up towards you and you know what that entails in SMT.
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Honestly though? That's one of the best changes he made. Not having to try to Steal from every enemy in the game made Stealing much less tedious. You Steal from the humanoid ones and generally get -good- things, so it's worth spending turns on it.
"Having to?" This isn't FF9. You're talking about it like it's something you spend multiple turns on at the beginning of every fight while everyone else plays with their dick. If his goal was less tedium, emphasizing buffs more in fights undercuts that far more, since that's multiple turns from multiple characters at the beginning of fights and it's far less optional in boss fights than stealing is.
I don't know where you get this "Steal from everything" mentality in FF9; I'll avoid going into specifics, but I'll just say FF12 is more the example of what you want, seeing as Stealing is basically your main source of funds and materials for a large part of the game.
ON THE OTHERHAND, I agree with the rest of your statement. If you have a skill like Steal, there should be things to steal on a regular basis. It's there to reward people who for willing to sacrifice a turn in order to beef their inventory up, or alternatively, those who have a well built team that sacrificing the action isn't a big deal. It's why games with low steal rates are dumb. In fact, applying "realism" as your excuse to any mechanic I feel is dumb unless there's a damn good reason for it; rarely does being realistic actually enhance the experience unless the point of the game is for a strong sense of immersion.
Yes, Slam Dancers shouldn't have Level 2 Magic in Zozo because that spits in the face of FF6's plot...but for the sake of making enemies more interesting, gameplay variety, etc., we can overlook this because that's just how these things work. It's nice when gameplay and plot are integrated (Galuf's Death in FF5 is one of the best examples of this), but often it needs to be sacrificed. Yes, it's unrealistic that a random monster has a sword or armor on them, but then it's unrealistic that an island resort place like Mideel would have far superior gear than the Urban, Heavily Shinra Run area that is Junon. Why would Black Mages in the Black Mage village have any kind of gear other than stuff that Vivi can equip? Why does Mysidia sell stuff that only a Paladin can equip when the game establishes that there have been no successful Paladins until Cecil? Speaking of FF4, why does Kain have more White Magic than Cecil when Cecil's been using it for 17 years, and Kain just learned it on the spot (Ceodore had two white magic using parents, one of whom specialized in it, so makes sense he's better than his father)? How can a character like Wakka or Tidus hope to have strength close to someone like Auron who wields a huge Katana, been fighting for over 10 years, and regarded as a legend?
All these questions can easily be answered with "because Gameplay happened" and we just move on. Stealing being unrealistic and allowing for real rewards? That falls under that.
The best way to handle steal is to make the rewards interesting, but also skippable. That way, you reward the person who bothers with it, while not punishing those who don't use it.
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Final Fantasy BBC Radiophonic Autobattle - Busting down the new dungeon batch, just unlocked Macalania Temple Elite in order to pick up Summoner's Memory Crystal. Getting Summoning Spring II is completely going to suck, though: it's one of those random grinding Record Materias. Well, might as well grind for Josef's RM2 and random Greater Orbs while at it or something.
EDIT: Holy crap, Kimahri's PC sprite is a fucking mess.
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Looking at the FF13 banner, there's only -one- equip there I wouldn't ever want (and all the others I want kinda bad), so it totally warrants an 11-pull from me. Doesn't hurt that the upcoming Super Figaro Bros. banner is really bad and the Tifa reissue one doesn't sound at all promising either.
Also, Fenny, regarding Minotaur, he's a complete doozy. I'll be honest, Sukukaja did -not- help me there, I ended up packing more Bufu spam and Tarunda against him and won mostly by virtue of luck (smirking boosts your evade more significantly than only using Sukukaja or Sukunda. You really need to stack up -both- to make his accuracy problems significant and I don't even know how viable that is at that point). Minotaur also marks pretty much the absolute apex of SMT4 difficulty. From there, the gamebreaking tools start slowly lining up towards you and you know what that entails in SMT.
Oh, I edited my post. Sukukaja actually helped me win that fight (barely)
My Flynn has around 25 agi and 50 luck so that must have also helped. He dodged Oni-Kagura three times (!), including a charged one that'd have been complete overkill. I also had 3 Rakukajas/3 Rakundas on.
Minotaur is pretty much SMT4's Matador, huh. I think the difficulty will stay relatively high because I won't be able to transfer OP skills to new demons (no fusion rule) and Flynn will stay as pure support with no damage since he has base str/dex/mag.
I do like that demon revival is now cost-free, because I'm spending pretty much every difficult battle chain-summoning demons to replace the other ones who just died. In a total panic. This would have been an insanely costly strategy in Nocturne.
RK: Is Kimahri the worst character in the game excluding cores? I'm thinking yes
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Oh god, I'm trying to think of someone worse than Kimahri outside the cores and seriously blanking. Specializing in DRAGOON, with 3* BLACK MAGIC and Support secondaries, and -zero- Combat? No Memory Crystal? Not even an SB weapon? Sub-Wakka stat spread? Hooooooly crap, guys.
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Gordon's definitely better despite the abmysal stats, since he's the only one outside Tyro who has a support/white mage niche, which can definitely be handy.
Cyan vs Kimahri is close, but I think Cyan is better, he has a lot more attack (that's just sad) and more HP/def. Combat 5 is also probably better than Dragoon 5 and Support 3/ Black Magic 3 with no rods.
For what it's worth, Cyan also has Samurai 5. It's worth nothing because no one ever is going to turn Cyan into their retaliator.
Kihmari does have access to spears, which are more common than katanas.
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Cyan having access to a Memory Crystal -definitely- ekes him ahead of Kimahri in my eyes. I'd honestly say Reta-meta is a more relevant point than you make it sound at this level of slapfesting, but your mileage may vary, since nobody with a katana ever would use Cyan instead of Sephiroth if the idea is Retaliating. Hell, if you -don't- have Katanas, you might be better off using
Loserface Tyro as a Retaliator depending on your weapon load.
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I meant that, if you use Retaliate, the retaliator becomes the most important member of your team, and that better not be fucking Cyan
Anyway, the Tower of Babil level needs Jump, Holy, Water, Ice, Thunder for the mastery. A crapton of mastery conditions, including Jump.
This is it: The one dungeon in which Kimahri's access to Dragoon 5 and BM 3 could shine
Here are your options:
1) Use Kimahri with Jump/Blizzaga. You only need one WM, one BM/spellblade to meet the mastery reqs, so you can use two other characters of your choosing.
The downside is that Kimahri will do next to no damage with Blizzaga and mediocre damage with Jump.
2) Use Kain. You then need one WM, two BM/spellblades, and then one character of your choosing.
Kain has record synergy, does way more damage than Kimahri with jump, and can use some combat skills... Not to mention the likely massive level advantage
3) Use Loser with Jump + Blizzaga/ja.
You can give him a rod and put him in the back row, he'll do more damage than Kimahri and have more durability
Both Loser and Kain can break the level cap and get a materia while Kim can't
God damn it Kim, you had one job and you're still the worst
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Move over, Cyan, Kimahri is the new worst. Maybe he'll become less horrifically pointless when Auron's event sweeps in.
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RK: They're sitting on Kimahri's REAL potential until they reveal the new and overpowered Blue Magic skillset! ...maybe. I mean, they've had Blue Magic tags coded into the game since the beginning, but we're coming up on a year or so of gamelife in Japan and they STILL haven't unveiled the Blue Magic skillset so maybe it's just a relic of coding that was dummied out?
But if it exists, Kimahri will TOTALLY be awesome! (And likely competing with Strago/Quistis/Quina for a niche, which might actually make him worth something as he's definitely the most physically-oriented of the bunch... for all that would matter for a Blue Mage...)
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Kimahri would need rods added to be any good w/ blue magic even if it's implemented. Only spear that boosts magic meaningfully is GORDON'S, which is so crappy that nobody complained about DeNA skipping it entirely for global.
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Hey you don't need good magic for Mighty Guard !
Jump + Mighty Guard setup = Pretty good!
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From what I hear, they still want to implement Blue Magic, but haven't found a proper way to do so yet. I'm honestly not sure it'd help all that much, most Blue Magic we've seen in the game is pretty generic.
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FFRK: Beat Selphie Boss Rush. Seifer was a dick (surprise!) and killed Sephiroth right before he himself died, knocking 4 stars off my total. Yet somehow I still got Mastery, so yay. Not trying Edea until I finish leveling Quistis (49 atm) and make a Carbuncle, which I am one orb short on.
Got Selphie's 5-star weapon today, so she gets to be my new healer. It's a rod, but the Mind stat is as good as the 5-star Judgement Staff that I have and has a lot more magic and attack. She still doesn't have an amazing magic stat but it's respectable enough that you could stick an -aga on her without feeling you wasted a slot. Don't see any point in Celerity 3 because Leg Shot is lame. Her Soul Break is a multi-target Cura, not Curaga. But I'll take it, this game needs MT healing so bad.
Think I'll keep Quistis as well because Black 4 and Support 4 are both good and she actually has a soul break that does something unlike Vivi.
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Focus is a pretty ridiculous MAG boost. It's actually one of the best default SBs for offensive magic. It lasts a short time, but that time has him dealing -ja-level damage with -ga spells.
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I meant that, if you use Retaliate, the retaliator becomes the most important member of your team, and that better not be fucking Cyan
The funny part is that I think Retaliate was inspired in part by Cyan's Retort skill (though the jp names are different, iirc) that you use maybe once or twice in FF6. Record Keeper's spiritual successor turned out to be an uberskill, but one that almost no one actually uses on Cyan in favor of two non-Samurai from FF7 who semi-randomly get Samurai skills. Well okay, Seph is famous for wielding a katana but otherwise isn't really a Samurai, and Cloud getting Sam 3 was just totally random. Unless DeNA secretly did intentionally make Retaliate uber just to make everyone use Cloud even more than they already would otherwise.
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Final Fantasy Autobattles For The Deaf - Grinding Summoner's RM2 along with Josef's. Life is suffering.
FF5 - I did pretty much everything optional I could. Fork Tower, check. Istory Falls, check. Phoenix Tower, check. Bahamut, check. All that is left is the Rift. One thing I'm wondering is how would I go dealing with Omega through this party. I remember Elfboy pointing out Calm'd allow me to stall Omega to a degree, but I'm not sure how would the strategy effectively go. Slowly plinking it down while three people Calmspam? Or what? The only time I bothered with Omega involved utterly simplistic Rapidfire dualwield Thundaga Sword, so I never really -learned- Omega at all.
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Spamming !Calm works, but it works better if you can have two people spamming it while the other two plink away.
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I've finished 5 Fiestas now... (Summary: http://fourjobfiesta.com/players.php?player=jsh357)
One more to go, just no750. I've been extremely lucky with my picks so far. Overall it has been fun sitting back and playing FF5 again, and I'll probably play again next year, but six in a row is a bit much. It makes me happy that these types of challenges are getting out there more and people are seeing how enjoyable they can be.
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Calm is a short-lasting Stop, so you'll want at least two people with their turns staggered as much as possible using it (some people prefer to use three). Other PC(s) need to use lightning, ITD, or super-high-base-power damage. 1000 Needles is probably your best bet offhand.
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Personally, I did manage to kill Omega one time with only one PC spamming !Calm, but I think that required using a !Release to hit Omega with Slow first, and my Beastmaster having Hermes Sandles on (it was a Natural Run with a Berserker, so...)
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Focus is a pretty ridiculous MAG boost. It's actually one of the best default SBs for offensive magic. It lasts a short time, but that time has him dealing -ja-level damage with -ga spells.
It's not enough of a boost to warrant skipping a turn unless you have very few spell charges, and if you have very few spell charges your soul break won't be charged. Catch-22. I'd much rather have Black Mage's SB, at least that covers an obscure weakness and you can use it when you're out of spells.
In other news, the last boss of Macarena Woods is damned tough, even on Classic.
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Focus is a 54% boost in damage so long as you're under the magic soft cap (which is ~741, so basically always). You only need to use two spells under Focus to break even, and it lasts over 4 turns if you aren't wasting a lot of time on picking a command. The only time it isn't worthwhile is if you're ramming the damage cap already.
Also Darkbolt is only fractionally stronger than a basic Fire spell (1.6x multiplier vs 1.5x) while also being significantly slower (2.5 s cast time vs 1.8 s) so it is actually worse on DPS. It would be useless if there weren't a bunch of earlygame FF4 bosses that require Dark damage for medals.
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Final Fantasy and the Goblet of RNG: Grinding for Summoner's Record Materia alongside PalaCecil. The Cecils have been more useful than I expected due to my surplus of 5-star Swords making basically -any- character who can hold a sword a force to be reckoned with even at level 1... It also means I'm wasting less EXP since all the 'good' swordsmen are already level-capped.
Dear God the Macalania Woods fight was a pain. I went in there without preparing, thinking a puny classic dungeon would just crumble before my team of Level 60-ish characters and instead I get greeted with Spherimorph nulling all elements but -WATER-, nerfing half my damage output plus countering everything and spamming MT Gravity on its own turns. Once I finally grind my way through that with nothing but physicals, I enter the next boss fight at lowish health from all the Gravity-spamming. And THAT boss comes with its own Silence Field Effect completely ruining my healer's ability to heal -anything-, even with the Healer Attack record materia! And he just LOVES spamming MT, killing 1-3 PCs on the first turn. Ugh, Record Keeper Classic isn't playing around anymore. Gonna have to actually -pay attention- to the game, I suppose.
After wasting 60+ stamina on that, I've since gotten my revenge on both its Classic and Elite forms, but it was still frustrating to lose to a Classic fight.
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Well, I still have a bit of an SNES FF itch, so time to fire up FF5.
FF5 - My dark secret: I never beat this game. Never even got past World 2 because I kept getting distracted by grinding and bad gaming habits I had as a teenager. So, in the interest of actually completing this run for once, I will be doing no grinding (for job skills/levels. I'll probably do some minimal grinding for Blue Magic I want. To that end, I'm also looking up what Blue Magic is available in each dungeon, to minimize overlevelling/skilling). Additionally, since I haven't actually explored what all the classes have to offer, I won't be doing a Fiesta challenge, BUT in the interests of keeping characters completely unique, I'm setting the restriction that once a character uses a class, ONLY that character can use that class for the rest of the game.
Damn why do the GBA versions insist on using Amano art character portraits. So ugly. Galuf looks blazed out of his mind.
The game also wastes your time with waiting for sprite animations to a much higher degree than 6 did. Thank god for frameskip.
So about 40 minutes and two autobattle dungeons in (in game timer; more like 15 real time) and I finally have jobs. Uh, OK game. Lock the part that makes you interesting behind 40 minutes of gameplay cool. I decide that my first round of jobs will be Blue Mage (Bartz), Monk (Lena), WM (Galuf), and Knight (Faris). Once I get Learning I throw Bartz in Thief for a bit until I get Find Passages because god that's a tedious gimmick the early FF games had way too much of and I don't want to deal with it. Once I get Find Passages I switch back and probably won't deal with Thief again.
The game really is tedious for the first hour or so, especially plot wise. Galuf being ridiculous aside it's all forced drama about characters we don't yet have a reason to give a shit about. There's a lot of bad here that I could spend basically all my time complaining about but after a certain point I just stopped caring and deleted it all. Suffice it to say, nothing special is going on here and I probably won't have anything to say unless it's egregiously bad because I just can't care.
Up through Walse Tower, Monk is pretty clear MVP thanks to innate barehanded/Counter, with WM being a very clear second. Blue Mage will pick up later but I'm pretty sure I'm done with Knight.
For now, switching Galuf to BM but will probably switch him to Summoner once I get better summons, and then swap back and forth between WM and Summoner as I get access to spells. Maybe switch him to RM for a while to get Dualcast later? I switch Faris to Mystic Knight with Two-Handed, and Bartz to Time Mage since he has Learning and my Blue skillset is really pathetic right now, and switch back to BluM once he gets a few levels in TM and a better set of Blue skills. Lenna will be taking a brief dip into Berserker but I'll ultimately be switching her back once I get the Berserk skill.
One thing I find interesting so far is that this game gives you an "airship" really early, but in spite of that your exploration options still end up being fairly linear. It's one of the more well done thing about this game, and frankly most of the early FFs in general. Almost immediately you have unimpeded access to all of the towns you've visited previously while still not having complete access to the whole world, which is very necessary since shops don't necessarily all carry the same things. I think this is why games like Suikoden 3 drove me up the wall--like in this game, shops carry different things so you have to go back and forth a lot, but S3 has you trudging back and forth between uninteresting, tedious dungeons that take a good chunk of time to get through, but in these early FF games once you've made it somewhere once all the backtracking can be done in a very brief time. Some strikingly good design decisions on that front, really.
Get up through Karnak Castle. Beastmaster with Barehanded is really, really good through this section, and 2handed makes the basic attack of Mystic/Knight pretty good. The fire boss is easily rekt by Blizzara and Blizzara Sword, each breaking 4 digits roughly 4 hours into the game. Yay.
The timed section gives me a reset because I tried to get everything but ended up running in circles a couple times. This ends up being a blessing, because on my second try I learn Aera, which I missed the first time. I missed Death Claw from the Iron Claw, but not a huge deal. Bartz can finally be useful...ish.
Quitting here, but a few more comments. While the game makes the oh-so-stupid decision to withhold jobs from you for a good hour or so, once that flood gate opens you're goddamn swimmin' in options. 3 hours 30 minutes game time (Probably 2 hours real time? yay frameskip. You the real MVP) and I have almost all of the jobs and the game's really opened up.
Thinking about what jobs to take, I'll probably stick with my current party for now, with the exception of switching Lenna off Berserker for Beast Master, so I can beef up my Blue Mage more easily. Once I get that, I'll switch between Monk with !Control secondary and Berserker with Bare-Handed secondary as appropriate, then once I get the Berserk secondary settle back into Monk for the long haul (IIRC the Earth Crystal jobs don't open up for a while). Once I get Shiva and Ifrit I'll switch off BM into Summoner with White secondary, then go into WM as new skills unlock, and probably abandon BM for good. Once I get enough levels into Mystic Knight to keep casting -ara blades, I'll probably transition into Ninja because that seems obvious.
Yeaaaaaah this is scratching my wholly-unnecessary-planning itch way better than FF6 did.
Is Geomancer even worth using in this game? They're really a crapshoot between the different FFs. FF3o's sucks, but FF3DS's is awesome, Mog's dances suck, FFT's is good, etc. etc.
Anyway done for the night. The game is like the polar opposite of FF6 so far. Everywhere FF6 shines FF5 is just awful, but the parts where FF6 fell apart FF5 shows a lot of promise in.
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Geomancers are by no means great, but Gaia is a useful secondary for mages. It's free. In any area with wind slash it rules pretty much. It's also good in swamps, where you can get a multi target instant death move. There is like one swamp in the game though.
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Lost Dimension: New game from Atlus on the PS3 and Vita. It is Anime Mafia the Psychic Dystopian TRPG. It has a XCOM/Valkyria Chronicles-style TRPG battle system with less FPS-inspired elements. You start the game with 11 PCs who are all various flavors of ESPers and tasked with saving the world by climbing a Persona 3-esque tower, that just so happens to be made up of a bunch of mini TRPG maps. Also, there's a traitor in your midst, and you must navigate conversations VN-style between missions to determine who is voted to be lynched at the end of each chapter. This also all ties into the Assist attacks and Sphere-grid-like Character progression systems that rely on ally Trust Levels and such. In a nice bit of story/gameplay integration, this translates to things like Assist attacks being less likely between characters who don't trust eachother or characters with high Trust being able to help other PCs learn their skills from their skill trees.
The psychic powers themselves create some interesting skill trees. Instead of the usual elemental-themed special attacks, each character's build is based on a type of ESP. For example, the main character has limited precognition, so his abilities tend to increase accuracy, critical rate, and evasion. Whereas the character with psychometry can read the history of items he touches like an ancient katana and gain badass katana-wielding skills or learn more about an enemy each time he attacks it (and thus increasing his critical rate against it, etc). There's a few of the more standard skills like Pyrokinesis, Telekinesis, Electromagnetic Manipulation, Psychic Healing, Teleportation, and Self-Levitation. But each of those is important for rounding out the available skill trees. The most interesting one to me is the Synchronization/Mental Linking power, which allows that PC to "Link" himself to another PC and take on their stat builds, with various modifications he gets over the course of his skill tree, and a few unique abilities like Pain Share against his enemies. Just a really interesting take on the whole "Psychic Powers" thing that I hadn't really seen much in JRPGs. Borrowing a bit from Valkyrie Profile, when a character is 'lynched', you get to assign their powers to another PC.
It also has Gordon from Disgaea in it (or someone doing an impressive soundalike) and he is hamming it up and it is awesome.
It seems like something the DL would like at any rate.
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Final Fantasy De Profundis (Out Of The Depths Of Autobattle) - Black power day, and you people already know what that means. Honed Fira and Blizzara Strike to R4, will likely do the same to Drain Strike. -If- I care, I might hone Dark or Drain to R4 as well, but I'm running out of 3* spells to hone (maybe Biora? I mean, I -may- stop using Vivi eventually). I'm also taking Summoner to grind out his damn RM2 because life is a desolate, hollow husk.
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Final Fantasy I Can't Think Up Cool Names Like You Guys: I have a bunch of people at level 50+, but my main party is Tidus/Cloud/Vivi/Yuna. Garnet I was not badass enough to get her Record Materia in time, otherwise she'd be on the main team. The rest are Sephiroth, Squall, Wakka, Balthier, etc. Basically, people I either wanted their Record Materia, or who have found good use within my party for various battles. My fifth member I'm deciding between Quistis and Selphie, but for now I've decided to farm Black Mage up to 50, since I'm getting walled pretty hard by multi-boss fights and randoms are not being quite as laughable anymore.
Fire Emblem If: Bought a NN3DS and Fire Emblem from Japan so I could play it on my way to/at DLCon. Currently on Chapter 6. I have access to the Japanese e-Shop even in the desolate wastes of Canadia, so life is going to be good. Also it's helping me learn Japanese, which I've traditionally always had a strange mental block with. So that's good! I'd have more to share, but frankly I'm impressed I can even keep up with the gist of what's happening. As a note, though: When I don't know what's being said, Nohr is very unsympathetic. Just based on actions, I have almost 0 reason to go help them over Hoshido. I mean, Hoshido family actually hugged me. WTF Nohr. Oh well, as long as I get my Butler Husbando I'm happy.
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In defense of the Nohr family... it's only the Dad/Emperor who's evil. And cartoonishly so, even his own children are like "Fuck... Dad's evil isn't he? Good thing we're on your side, even if we're not on Hoshido's side."
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Final Fantasy What's So Funny 'Bout Peace, Love And Autobattling? - I unlocked Summonspring II during black power grinding. Trash mobs, kiss my shiny metal ass. I'd go back to slaving away at the new dungeons, but honing more stuff from black power takes priority.
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RK: all my equipment is upgraded, I don't know what I'll do with all these upgrade materials. Maybe I'll pull from the next banner after all , to be the only cool guy with Bio Blaster and to use these materials on something. Or I'll upgrade inventory and hoard.
This game really gives 0 fucks about FF1. No equipment, no event, only one character and he's ugly, way less levels than any other FF and we're only ever going to get one more.
Even FF2 gets five times more respect
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It's been almost a year and they -still- haven't finished the FF1 portrait room. I wouldn't hold my breath on that ever being the case. Also, I'm waiting for you to get Sabin's weapon just so you're forced to use that waste of a slot (jk). They CLEARLY should have given him Black Magic 5 as a nod to his mage niche in FF6!
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Tbh that wouldn't be so bad, as I don't have a 5* fist weapon! And Sabin has pretty high attack. And the sb looks REALLY COOL.
Now that the summoner R2 is out I realize that I don't really care about it. Summons: still pretty useless
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If reddit is anything to go by DeNA would've been a lot richer if they had made Sabin's relic sb Suplex instead of Fire Dance.
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Tbh that wouldn't be so bad, as I don't have a 5* fist weapon! And Sabin has pretty high attack. And the sb looks REALLY COOL.
Now that the summoner R2 is out I realize that I don't really care about it. Summons: still pretty useless
Summons are the ultimate farming tool, really. Not all that much else. It's okay, though, I R3'd Quake for lunch.
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Quake really does sound way superior to summons
And I haven't even bothered to craft Quake yet. I got R4 Poiznra before R1 Quake. No regrets.
I used Leviathan against the weak to water FF12 lizardmen, it did passable damage once and that was it. Not worth the slot at all
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The Ifrit/Shiva/Ramuh trio are fractionally weaker than Quake (5.5x vs 5.6x) but obviously way harder to hone. Maybe the Golden Saucer event will change that, but it's a long ways away.
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If anywhere on the internet in English is anything to go by DeNA would've been a lot richer if they had made Sabin's relic sb Suplex instead of Fire Dance.
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Focus is a 54% boost in damage so long as you're under the magic soft cap (which is ~741, so basically always). You only need to use two spells under Focus to break even, and it lasts over 4 turns if you aren't wasting a lot of time on picking a command. The only time it isn't worthwhile is if you're ramming the damage cap already.
Also Darkbolt is only fractionally stronger than a basic Fire spell (1.6x multiplier vs 1.5x) while also being significantly slower (2.5 s cast time vs 1.8 s) so it is actually worse on DPS. It would be useless if there weren't a bunch of earlygame FF4 bosses that require Dark damage for medals.
Are you talking about Black Mage's second Soul Break? Because Vivi's is nowhere near a 50% boost to damage (I get <6000 damage compared to >4500 non-boosted) and you only get two spells off during it unless you aren't doing jack except hitting Skip turn with your other characters. Vivi's default SB is utter crap.
Got a second copy of Selphie's weapon, so this is my first 6-star anything. hashtagSelphie
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Black Mage's second SB, IIRC, is no better than Vivi's Default. Your experience sounds like you're comparing inadvertently the effect of a spell pre-Focus under Mental Break and a post-Focus spell not under Break.
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No, Magic Signet is better (+50% Mag for 30 seconds at speed 3 vs +30% Mag for 25s at speed 3), it's just that Black Mage is irredeemable rubbish. Also Magic Signet locks you into using the Light Rod for now. For reference Regen is 30s, Boost is 25s, Retaliate is 15s long, and all of these durations scale with battle speed.
RK uses Magic^1.65 in its magic damage formula up to ~742 (nearly impossible to hit even with 7++ synergy rods) so damage does not increase linearly with stat buffs.
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Light Rod is actually the best rod I have and what I've been using on Vivi. If you have higher magic from better weapons, that exponent would explain why your experience with Focus Magic is vastly different from mine.
Four Fiends Boss Rush = KIMAHRI time to shine! Lol no, just perfected the other 3 and dropped the 3 stars on Barbaricia.
I totally messed up the CPU fight though. Attack Drone is too hard to touch-target since it's near the top of the screen, which caused me to lose time while it blasted me with MT damage. Eh whatever I'll go back and get the mastery later.
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Final Fantasy The Autobattle Bleeds And Sucks Its Thumb - Mostly finished with black power grindans and I have R4 Fira and Blizzara Strike along with R4 Drain. No luck in getting R4 Drain Strike, but I'll live. Now I have enough R4 -gas to last me three Black Mages and I can more or less outfit two Spellbladers with high-level resources. The incidental R3 Quake and Summoner Record Materia are nice gravy (spamming Leviathan and Valefor streamlined the grinding nicely, at least). Tomorrow is gil farming day, so I ought to build some money for my needs before the Figaro bros event goes live.
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Ffrk.
I don't care if the figaro twins banner sucks, I'm doing a 50 mitral pull for shits n giggles.
I got the ff8 bimbos to lv 50. Gonna do boss rush and ++ 2morrow.
Squall is coming, contemplating who else should come along...
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the ff8 bimbos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YUCblQE7n0
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Thx
If anyone cares, don't buy the swindle on vita, the port is really poor. Thanks god for cross buy.
Cool game so far
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the ff8 bimbos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YUCblQE7n0
This is -amazing-.
Final Fantasy Papa Was An Autobattle - Gil hoarding day. Maybe I should amass Lightning Orbs too, since R4 Intimidate wouldn't be bad, but there's no real rush. Tonight they'll also release the Figaro Bros event, so that's at least more free Mythril (I'll easily have 50 mythril and a decent surplus for the Lightning banner) and I'm likely using Edgar anyway. That Golden Spear I got waaaaaaaaay back in the early game will shine like a diamond there.
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By request posting friend's Roaming Warrior code so it's on hand for more DL peoples, hopefully before his friend list gets completely filled up with randos, since it's filling up fast, he hopes it will be useful to DL peepss ~ -
Toro~ - DmKF
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So in case people didn't know, Steam launched the workshop for KotOR2 last week, along with an actual fucking update for a ten year old game. So you can get the Restored Content Mod through there and it installs/updates itself and all that good shit.
Started a new playthrough of that because honestly it's about time I renewed my vows with that game.
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FFRK: Continuing my lucky streak, got a 5-star Blitz Sword. Don't really have a use for it atm, but I can let Squall hold it and be a pretty pretty princess.
It's amusing how changing the characters to chibi sprites makes me enjoy Final Fantasy 8, a game I loathe.
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I suspect the lack of any sort of dialogue is also helping.
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Fenrir: I forget from where, but I definitely didn't get the "understand unintelligble monsters" upgrade too soon, but got Sukukaja anyway. And it's goddamn necessary for Minotaur, getting even a single dodge on his MT nonsense to deny a turn is pretty crucial.
While I felt money-shy in SMT4, money also isn't TOO important? There's a bunch of minor alternate options which are all pricy it felt like, but you won't lose much not having access to them unless you're trying to set up to specifically spoil a boss. (There ARE some really good things to burn cash on endgame, but that won't be for a good long while.)
Anyway, belated gaming updates...
Breath of Fire 4: RIP. Plain ran out of resources, I should have sold off more stuff even more aggressively than I did, 30 Ammonias were not enough (and 6 150 AP restoration potions, 2 Ambrosias, ~7 Moon Tears, and 13 Vitamins). But mostly the Ammonias, they made me revert to Raise Dead and missing a Raise Dead is seriously awful. Mentioned this in chat, but while I think Tyrant / Astral are doable at LLG levels (w/ no grinding minigames / fish /etc.), it requires some good luck, and possibly knowing the battle a bit more than I did. Not going to finish it... well, ever, now, because my Vita was stolen a few hours ago and it's not one of the recent save games I'd have backed up to my PC. Alas. But I probably wasn't going to take a hack at it again anyway, that is a seriously long battle (75 minutes or so? Maybe more?).
Basically, I got lucky vs. Tyrant and Tyrant spammed a bunch of status / Sanctuary / ST physicals at !Kaiser while Kaiser just berserk unrolled a bunch of Kaiser Breaths. Which was an absolutely huge amount of my real damage when I'm stuck with dinky L2 spells otherwise. So good. Astral... Astral, I was not as lucky on. He was very good at using Soul Rend in response to dragon transformations which is just horrible. My L2 spells did around 500 damage, sometimes more if I combo'd 'em, so yeah that's a 100HKO or so, gonna need Ryu to come through. I wasted my first Ambrosias too readily in retrospect; I should have ran down every dragon before using them, not just Aura & Kaiser. With my bad luck on Soul Rends (or just plain MT damage), my final dragon sets didn't last long enough, but it was too late to conserve Ambrosias. :( In the same way Astral ran out my revival and healing. Rough.
Also, checking an LP, there's some cool symbolism in the glyphs that flies over your average Western audience, e.g. Ryu entering the final battle standing on the symbol for Earth, and Fou-lu standing on the symbol for Heaven. Neat stuff. http://lparchive.org/Breath-of-Fire-IV/Update%2029/
Mega Man X4 - Also gotten for like a buck with BoF4 on PSN. I am bad, 0 robot masters defeated, none of them seem to have a big flashing "you can reasonably buster me down" flag. Also they'd have been better off having no voice acting and possibly no plot as well, but oh wellz. Back to living in cyberspace and attempting to destroy the global network.
Kid Icarus: Uprising - All Meeple-approved games? Apparently. Finished C18 (Magnus + BOSS PIT), onto C19 shortly. A strange game. It's too easy except when it's not and I randomly die. But the dialogue is actually amusing for a derail-our-own-plot 4th wall breaking fest, a tricky feat, but one they pulled off. So far at least.
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But what would I fight for!?
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FF5 - Up to Ronka Ruins. I have a lot less to say about this game than I did FF6. The writing is all sorts of I don't care, and there's not too much to say about the gameplay. It is fun, though, and now that my BluM has the skillz to pay some billz… he still gets outclassed by Summoner since the class abilities really open up around the same time you get Ramah.
I'll probably keep playing it until I get bored and go do something else.
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But what would I fight for!?
To get the true FF8 effect, you need to have had an internal monologue and then yell out the last part because of your 'tism.
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FF8's badness looks quaint next to things like AT and XS.
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Final Fantasy Autobattle Or Las Vegas - Unlocked both Edgar and Sabin, just plugging away at the event now for shinies and riches. Dear god, is Sabin skillset trash.
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Had 125 mithril. Used 50 for the ff6 event. Got FIVE rainbow items. 5 five star things in one pull. Not ONE single character specific item though....upset, but I can't be that mad I guess.
Two weapons, a ff8 sword and the golden spear.
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The Golden Spear at least looks pretty good in the current event. I slapped mine on Edgar already. Also, if you got a Mystery Veil, I will envy you forever.
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I have one. Definitely looks good on Yuna or any healer with a shit sb. Yuna can do around 1200 aoe heals with that bad boy.
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Yeah, that's pretty much better from an objective standpoint than any of the equips available on that banner. It's one of the best hats in the game as of now.
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1200? Man, that's way better than what Vivi's healing for me, unsurprisingly. No way am I taking my only 5* hat or bracer off him, though.
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No real shock there, Vivi has fighter-level Mind.
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Kinda funny.
My Co worker also plays this game.
Fucker has kain, dk cecil and tidus' relics.
I showed him my pulls today so he felt frisky.
Even though he said he didn't want anything on particular.
He does the 11 draw and gets only one 5 star item.
But it's the mystic veil.
And he slumps down like he got something bad.
Go figure.
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FF5 - Confuse by the missile launchers caused one reset, minimal adjustments to my setup (putting on berserk, twohanding a coral sword) trivialized the battle though. At this point I'm pretty sure Two Hand is better than Dual Wielding, with the downside of costing an ability slot.
I pick up White Wind and 1000 Needless and now Bartz has a niche, so that's cool.
Hahahaha fuuuuuuuuuck I forgot that Galuf leaves the party for this next section. Unfortunately, he was my Summoner/WM, so I don't have access to those classes under the restrictions I set earlier. No BM, either, due to Galuf getting a few ranks in that. Blue Mage goes from being overshadowed by Galuf to carrying team just like that. I could check out the new classes but honestly none of them seem that helpful in this situation.
One reset due to not knowing the gimmick, but afterwards Aqua Breath + Lightning Scroll makes short work of the Bombs at the Walse Meteor. Titan gets taken down by normal means. So does Manticore. And then the party's reunited.
OK I guess not having summoner didn't matter.
Got past the big bridge, then called it a night.
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Final Fantasy Amplified Autobattle - Getting to the endgame stages on the Figaro Bros. event. Next up is the obnoxious tentacle raid in Figaro Castle and suplexing a train. I'm probably keeping Edgar for the short term, since his equipment options and Support 3 let me fill him in as a competent filler utility/tanking fighter for now. Good equips and high durability (Edgar is quite tanky, really) on someone who can use the busters and Intimidate certainly could be worse. Sabin, however, will only see the light of day on the Sunday daily and the boss rush.
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I have one. Definitely looks good on Yuna or any healer with a shit sb. Yuna can do around 1200 aoe heals with that bad boy.
By comparison, Selphie with 266 Mind is aoe-healing over 1700 with her SB.
Edit: Tried the Edea fight. HAHAHA that ain't happening. So I'm done with this event.
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Man, Lair of the Father was a pain in the ass to Master for a classic dungeon stage. Whoever thought it was a good idea to make high HP single grunts (most of which resist every element except poison) with AoE magic deserves a good kick in the groin.
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Man, good thing I honed Comet to R4. I could also hone Biora its way up to R3, too.
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FF5 - Completed the Fiesta playthrough, levels were 37-38. A bit higher than I'd expect by that point, but lower than even DL-legal, so it's all good. It's just impressive how everything completely fails against Mighty Guard + Golem + Carbuncle shutdown, because Syldra spam exploding everything obviously wasn't enough.
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Oh wow I honed one thing before Snow (R4 Biora) I also got R5 mental/armor break, they're very lovely and should be useful basically forever. R3 Waterja is also onlyone orb away
Captain K, did you magic breakdown/power breakdown Edea? Those are the most important abilities in the game IMO as they help immensely against these monster bosses. With those honed once plus a team of level 65 dudes you can probably beat Edea.
I got a 5 starsless draw so I guess the RNG gods have forsaken me.
Snowfire that sucks, how did you get your vita stolen
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Oh wow I honed one thing before Snow (R4 Biora)
Well, it just generally wasn't -necessary- for me, I have Vivi's SB weapon. For instance, I just amassed a full three level SB gauge on him during the Selquis boss rush and dumped it all on Seifer for nearly half his HP. Good times.
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Oh, nice
Frankly I don't really need it either because it has a slightly lower multiplier than the -gas and very few enemies are weak to it. My R2 blizzaga should have been a higher priority.
But it's POIZN man. The coolest element.
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The Bio series would be more worth the trouble if the poizn proc rate wasn't bugged at 1%, really.
Final Fantasy Children Of Autobattle - Nearly done with Figaro Bros. Only one dungeon left for Edgar and two for Sabin. Phantom Train was suitably pathetic: Thundara Sword => Raise => collect victoly. Edgar's currently level 41 and I have quite a few Greater Growth Eggs to dump on him yet. This isn't really a hard event by any means, though the Blue Dragon will be funny enough. Apparently, it's vulnerable to Paralysis! Yeeeeeeeeah.
Edit: Tried the Edea fight. HAHAHA that ain't happening. So I'm done with this event.
To deal with Edea's offense, bring a Sentinel Grimoire RW and Magic Break/Breakdown. That completely neuters her bite and lets you handle her at a far more leisurely pace. With R2 Magic Breakdown, I managed to keep her damage under wraps for the whole fight. Just keep tabs on the buffs/debuffs as they run out.
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Atma/Ultima Weapon's the one you can paralyze. Blue Dragon is only vulnerable to Poison and Blind, and the latter is not really worth it when BD only attacks 20% of the time with a basic physical.
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Final Fantasy The Dead Only Quickly Autobattle - Concluded Edgar's path on Super Figaro Bros. Blue Dragon was a bitch and refused to get poizned by Venom Buster, but otherwise was pretty typical. Sentinel Grimoire and Magic Breakdown stacking to mitigate its copious MT magic, spam Lightning-elemental crap, move onwards. Apparently, it's also vulnerable to Berserk, so in theory, a Blind/Berserk strategy could work, but Berserk AI is rather wonky in this game (see Judge Ghis spamming his ST Mighty Guard clone ON YOUR PARTY when you berserk him), so I won't vouch for this. Regardless, Ultima Weapon is next.
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Final Fantasy (Autobattle For My) Sugar Spun Sister - And I'm done with the Super Figaro Bros. event. Honing Quake to R3 is -wonderful- for dealing with high-difficulty trash, it lets me plan ahead my resource parcelling while optimizing random sweeping much more easily. This is particularly important on the Floating Continent dungeons, which aren't shy to drop four Grenades and Ninjas on you that spam MT damage and make your damage taken medals plummet into the abyss. Ultima Weapon... well, it's vulnerable to Paralysis and I landed five out of six attempts. It got three turns -total-, one of which was used to charge Flare Star (and then get paralyzed, cancelling the charge), one of which missed and one of which rammed into Sentinel Grimoire and Magic Breakdown. The boss rush should be due tomorrow, so let's see what that offers me.
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I did use Magic Breakdown but only r1. And I don't have any Sentinel Grimoire friends. Tried Reflect but she keeps dispelling it.
And yeah those Ninjas and friends are hellacious. So much MT damage before you even get to act.
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If you can't hone Magic Breakdown to R2 (entirely reasonable, 4* orbs aren't easy to come by), bring a honed Magic Break as well. Not as good, but any mitigation is better than none. I'd recommend rummaging the FFRK subreddit and its friend threads for SG peeps you can follow. I followed a good three or four who followed me back, so I'm pretty well set in that regard, but Sentinel's Grimoire is the best RW for those high-end boss battles bar none, 60% reduction to all non-Gravity damage that stacks with Protect and Shell is crazy good.
Tangentially, I've been peeking at the next batch of character events and man, they're padding out a bunch of currently non-existant skillsets. The Tifa reissue next week will release no less than -three- Monk skills (Pressure Point, Chakra and Aura Blast), two of which actually sound pretty decent (it'll also release Shellga for WM, which is great for all the obvious reasons). Eiko event will be a hueg gift basket, releasing two new Bard skills, two Knight skills (including Taunt, marking the rise of Loserface's Tauntaliate age or something) and even giving us a second shot at nabbing a free Phoenix, along with a couple lower-level summons like Shiva and Bomb if you happen to care. The influx of underdevelopped skillset padding will die down a bit past that, but there's still stuff like Diaga and Faith to look forward to in Aerith's reissue, for an example.
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Yeah you guys take this game way more seriously than I do. I just want to hit Autobattle and listen to Final Fantasy battle themes.
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FF5 - Up to the barrier tower. The GBA translation turned World 2 into the Land of Puns and Galuf being Ridiculous. This is a good thing. I am much more entertained by the dialogue here than I was before when they were being too serious and dramatic. There's still a whole lot of seerius drama (Lenna may be the FF character who thinks things through the least? That says something. Good thing she goes berserk and punches things hard) but it's covered up in a lot of puns and Galuf so is good. It's gonna be a sad day for this game's plot when he dies.
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I have problems, that's not news.
Also, speaking of problems, I'd link to the video with the person spending HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS on twelve 11x pulls and failing to get Edgar's Partisan, but that's a different kind of problem entirely.
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Instead, have a video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7MLzGx2Tk4) of someone taking on Red Dragon from Locke's event... with an all core character team. Much pain and suffering ensues, even with Vit0 via Roaming Warrior.
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I love you.
EDIT: Oh wow, this guy's channel is -great-. Among the jewels, there's this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5mEOeICaQ8) offering where, less than two minutes in, he involuntarily answers the timeless question of what the hell happens when you try to hit a sleeping Retaliator. The answer will bemuse and bewilder you all.
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Man, the damage medals on RK are super finicky. Getting hit with two Fire Veils and some minor scratch damage = 1 medal lost, but one Fire Veil + a bunch of physicals (enough to knock my healer down to just ~500) was still good for full medals. Thanks to this, I miraculously managed to get the bare minimum medals for mastery on the last Edgar stage with zero S/Ls despite not bringing Edgar along because I'm too lazy to level him up.
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The damage medals take into account damage dealt to the whole party (calculated via pooling your entire party's HP and holding all damage taken against the pooled value), which grossly inflates how much of a danger to your score MT attacks are. An attack that deals 550 damage to all your PCs gets you closer to a medal loss threshold than a ST attack that deals 2500 to a single PC.
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Beat boss rush barely.
Did not master, not sure if I'm going to retry...might need to waste a mithril on it.
Will attempt blue drago Monday or something. Can't waste experience day.
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I'm levelling Sabin and some losers before I even attempt the boss rush. Better safe than sorry. I really wish Sabin wasn't such complete deadweight in this rush, though.
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The best weapon I had for him was a 5 star main gauche.
Feels weird him not using claws.
He was level 52 when I did the rush.
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Unless that was a FFVI Main Gauche, you were better off combining the three Mythril Claws the event hands you and running off Realm Synergy bonuses. A 2++ Mythril Claw running off RS is like 106 ATK.
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Right. It's the one from the Locke event. I pulled a 3rd during my adventures in this hell hole of a game.
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Speaking of the Pit of Volles.
Final Fantasy Every Little Thing She Does Is Autobattle - So, the Super Figaro Bros. boss rush is just rude. Ultros is an ass and counters weakness-hitting with either Thundaga or Ink, depending on which of them you hit, Vargas is an ass and spams 1000 damage Gale Cuts pre-mitigation while the Ipoohs block him, Tentacles are asses with there being four of them with weaknesses and absorptions strewn all over the place alongside status and four-digit damage Bios, and Ultima Weapon, despite being paral-lockable, is an ass and splatters your ass with MT high-2HKO Flare Stars. Magitek Armors aren't even threatening enough to be asses, but so it goes. I ended up using a Mythril for safety and it was frankly worth it, since I ended up championing all five fights. Blue Dragon was kinda perfunctory in comparison - bring Sentinel's Grimoire, bring Kirin, bring Thundaga and Thundara Sword, collect sweet mastery.
Part of the problem in the boss rush was that I had to bring Sabin as my makeshift debuffer, and, against that level of offense without SG (the tentacles badly ask for a MT offense RW unless you want to get mulched by them long-term, they're too spread apart for debuffing to work and they're frail enough to be blitzed if you have MT), the Breaks don't quite cut it, particularly against Ultima if you get an unlucky Intimidate streak. At least, it ended up working in the end, I'll recover the lost Mythril just by logging in today and I can never say no to Major Growth Eggs and L5 Orbs.
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FF5 - Midway through Ex-Death's Tower. Poor Galuf. Now all my PCs are bland. :(
Between Atomos and here, Lenna mastered Monk so I put her in Ranger for a while for 4x Attack. Faris mastered Ninja, so now she's a dual-weilding Spellblade casting machine. Drain Sword + Dual Wield is ridiculously good. In hindsight, optimally I should have put Faris in Ranger and just had Lenna get more passive buffs, and had saved Knight for Lenna for passive Freelancer cover and slotted +HP+30% and Berserk for her passives endgame. Mastered Ninja for Dual-Wield and Quadrahit + Spellblade secondaries would be really great for Faris. In fact, going that route is so tempting part of me wants to do away with the restrictions I set for myself just so I can do that. Besides, if I'm going to play FF5 again (more of a possibility than FF6, actually!) I'll be doing a Fiesta and that combo isn't possible since Ninja and Ranger are on the same crystal.
Actually, yeah, fuck the restrictions I'm doing that. Since I'm still avoiding grinding, in practice all it ends up being is that I put Lenna and Faris way behind in ABP.
Galuf and Bartz are doing fine and I don't think I really want anything more for them than what I have. Blue magic really picks up in W2 once you get Aeroga, Time when you get Hastega, White with Curaga, and Summoner has always been a great random mopper-upper. I threw Bartz in Thief for fighting Randoms, because he's not doing too much thanks to Titan and having his passive exploration skills will be nice when I throw him in Freelancer (Fairly soon, actually! Once his three classes are mastered). I may put Krile in BM until mastery so she gets the MP freelancer bonus but otherwise I can't really imagine needing more skills for her.
The section near the save point in Ex-Death's castle is a massive step up in difficulty. Blue/Red Dragon encounters can choose to one round me unless I switch to better HP classes, Blue Dragon is Backrow and flying (negates Titan) and Red Dragon is undead so Drainblade just kills me if I attack with Faris. It's the first encounter I've had to think about in a while. I can and have beat it, but honestly it is too late for me to be dealing with this shit so it is time to call it a night.
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Reading your logs on FF5, it almost slightly surprises me that you consider Blue Mage not so hot until world 2, but that's more a matter of picking up knowledge on the game's metadesign than anything else, and it's a slog to memorize it all (I had a FAQ handy for most of the game, given I hadn't played it in nearly two decades). The Fiesta really drove into my head just how amply Blue Mage can make mincemeat of nearly everything given the right skills and lore at hand (Vampire and Goblin Punch for the very early game, exploiting various status holes starting with Garula's vulnerability to Pond's Choir, going through White Wind being ridiculous, 1,000 Needles having a window of sheer dominance in ST offense if you get it in Ronka Ruins, Dark Spark and LX skill exploitation - which is one of the ways to manhandle Atomos with Blue Mage! -, and going all the way to lategame, also passing through Air Knife Aeroga's somewhat brief window of greatness and capping off at Mighty Guard, which, paired with MT healing, trivializes all damage to no end), but part of it was also being fairly thorough on getting just about every skill as soon as possible. The only Blue Magics I missed in that playthrough were Self-Destruct and Roulette, which weren't at all missed. Beastmaster is pretty key on obtaining those skills, though, and the class is kinda awkward, if rewarding with enough patience and knowledge. In fact, Beastmaster with a Hypno Crown is -really- helpful against those dragons in Exdeath Castle, since they're perfectly vulnerable to it and some of the skills they have wreck their own asses.
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During the boss rush I'm just restarting the easy first battle over and over to refresh charges and not spend one fucking mithril on this.
I have R3 waterja and it is cool. Way way cool.
I'm looking forward to the Dragoon core character. He's exactly Kain except with a slightly darker armor tone, worse stats in every way, no realm synergy. The most pointless guy in the game
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Dragoon RM will eventually restore Dragoon skills after every fight, at least. That'll be useful once we get all the elemental jumps to turn our dragoons into delayed spellbladers.
Warrior now is just completely pointless, not even a memory crystal yet. Ditto for Knight.
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My problem actually wasn't charges, but -HP-. Which is pretty telling of what the rush can do to you.
Dragoon RM will eventually restore Dragoon skills after every fight, at least. That'll be useful once we get all the elemental jumps to turn our dragoons into delayed spellbladers.
Warrior now is just completely pointless, not even a memory crystal yet. Ditto for Knight.
What does Gladiator get, if anything, since we're talking about the dregs of Autobattle City?
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Ff6 event beat!
So the dragon was so much easier then boss rush.
Still probably won't do boss rush again.
Debating whether to hone death to rank 2 or save ice orbs for waterja to rank 3.
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Save the orbs. Whenever Death is useful, just S/Ling works well enough for maximum efficiency. As for me, I'm debating farming Greater Fire Orbs at some point so I don't stay behind in the R3 Waterja train. I decided to R2 Firaja in the meantime, which is now biting me in the ass in the Civ war. ON THE OTHER HAND, I have R3 Quake.
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Warrior and Knight do have unique sprites at least, unlike Dragoon.
Fuck Death really, save the orbs. When would you use it? I've been using Waterja nonstop and have run into four enemies who null it? It is really nice.
HP is also a problem for me for the boss rush but 20 stam = 1 curaga with the white mage record materia if I always flee ASAP. So whatevs.
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My problem was really that, after Ultros, -everybody- was at KO range from a single Bio and there are four tentacles. That just wouldn't work out. If you end up in better shape, you'll likely not need the Mythril.
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Oh. Well then you could always come back to Ultros or the armors, S/L until your healer starts with a full bar, use curaga, then flee immediately, x4
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Yeah, I could've avoided spending the Mythril, but it's not like I'm -hurting- for them. Just more practical, I'd have to flee like 8 times just to restore all Curaga charges. Seriously, Ultros is a dick.
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Someone on reddit came up with the rather clever strategy of using Runic RW vs Ultros, then spamming Thundaga to hit weakness while his counters all get absorbed by Runic. Runic can absorb all the Bios that the tentacles throw at you, as well.
Edit: someone please talk me out of going on Reddit and lecturing people on why offering/genji glove is overrated. Deep down I know I know it'd be a total waste of time but my inner Meeple is crying at all the overlevelling fueled hype (and outright misinformation on what weapons can even hit 9999x8 damage)
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Dear god, woman, get a hold of yourself. I know what thread you're talking about and I'm not touching that pile of wrong with a ten-foot pole.
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DO IT Hinode
Follow your instincts
Or I'll talk about how Vincent is the best FF7 character because of 9999 damage physicals with his death penalty
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Final Fantasy Autobattles For The Deaf - Randomly completed a bunch of elite dungeons in the lull between having completed Super Figaro Bros. and waiting for Tifapalooza. I currently have 65 Mythril and the Tifa banner actually looks pretty good (multiple mage bangles! A five-star rod! A mage weapon for Red XIII!), but I'll hold off on burning Mythril there for the Lightning banner, which has the same stuff I want and a bit more (Lightning and Sazh's weapons look sexy and a chance to pick them up is good stuff). Also, I must say that the trash on the FF1 endgame dungeons is honestly kind of a pain in the ass. But who cares, you can cheese all the bosses hardcore. Petrifying Tiamat still top-tier.
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Reading your logs on FF5, it almost slightly surprises me that you consider Blue Mage not so hot until world 2, but that's more a matter of picking up knowledge on the game's metadesign than anything else, and it's a slog to memorize it all (I had a FAQ handy for most of the game, given I hadn't played it in nearly two decades). The Fiesta really drove into my head just how amply Blue Mage can make mincemeat of nearly everything given the right skills and lore at hand (Vampire and Goblin Punch for the very early game, exploiting various status holes starting with Garula's vulnerability to Pond's Choir, going through White Wind being ridiculous, 1,000 Needles having a window of sheer dominance in ST offense if you get it in Ronka Ruins, Dark Spark and LX skill exploitation - which is one of the ways to manhandle Atomos with Blue Mage! -, and going all the way to lategame, also passing through Air Knife Aeroga's somewhat brief window of greatness and capping off at Mighty Guard, which, paired with MT healing, trivializes all damage to no end), but part of it was also being fairly thorough on getting just about every skill as soon as possible. The only Blue Magics I missed in that playthrough were Self-Destruct and Roulette, which weren't at all missed. Beastmaster is pretty key on obtaining those skills, though, and the class is kinda awkward, if rewarding with enough patience and knowledge. In fact, Beastmaster with a Hypno Crown is -really- helpful against those dragons in Exdeath Castle, since they're perfectly vulnerable to it and some of the skills they have wreck their own asses.
I've been pretty vigilant about getting spells ASAP too. Honestly outside of a Fiesta context, Blue Mage is competent but easily outclassed. By the time you get 1000 needles, you also get Titan (easily breaks 1k), Dual Wield + Spellblade on a weakness consistently broke 1k, and so did Berserk Monk. White Wind is good, but really expensive compared to MT Cura, and in W1 Cura is usually enough to get you by. Goblin Punch admittedly got a lot of use, but the Aero spells before Aeroga are all kinda lackluster compared to the other elemental spells/summons, since they can be boosted by rods and Gaia Gear while nothing boosts Wind until the Air Knife. Hitting status holes also didn't really come up for me until W2, because everything else got blitzed down so quickly.
Don't get me wrong, it's a competent class regardless, and unlike the other classes it is capable of filling literally every niche on its own. But when you're not intentionally blocking out other Wind Crystal jobs, not banning yourself from stupid good offense synergies (Dual Wield/Spellblade, Barehand/Berserk, Summon/......Summon) nothing he does is really hands down better than what other classes could do.
Admittedly, in a Fiesta scenario? Easily the best Wind crystal job you could get. Filling every niche possible becomes a lot better when you can't necessarily fill those niches in other ways.
Actually, side note, for your Fiesta did you also get Beastmaster? If not, how did you get 1000 needles and WhiteWind in W1?
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FF5 - For the first time I venture into W3. Kinda wish they kept the W2 pallet for the overworld, but meh. Nice overworld theme. Just got Lenna back after beating the Pyramid.
Gilgamesh 3 - Gilgamesh is second best character behind Galuf. Possibly best, because his Leitmotif is the best song in the game. Not a hard fight, even with a semi-gimped party (wasn't expecting the fight, everyone's in the classes I'm levelling up instead of the classes they're awesome at). Just, uh, long. Fortunately being in Thief for it means I get the Genji helm... whoopie? TBH I wish I had stolen the other pieces of equipment. My freelancers should be using Ribbons endgame, or Gold Needles.
One note, Hayato Bow on an unleveled Ranger is pretty damn awesome. Second note, this fight is really where the differences between FF6's mechanics and FF5's really become apparent. Level halving matters SO much in this game, to the point where Gilgamesh discording my entire party halves their damage (it matters so little in FF6). Additionally, the range of damage outputs is much smaller, which is great. Above all, you can switch to a level 0 class and have it be pretty competent as long as your spell list/gear is up to date, which encourages switching but still rewards mastering only a set of classes quite a bit. Much better balance in that regard.
ExDeath - Didn't really see what he could do, tbh. Hastega and Shell then throwing all my damage at him and healing as necessary made it a pretty quick battle.
Antlion - lol
Pyramid - Really, game, you're taking away another character for a full dungeon? Um. OK. Fine. You know this gimmick is stupid right? In any case, this place was pretty draining on my MP resources. Titan no longer one shots, though usually Titan and Aeroga wipe up everything. But, I only have one Gold Needle helm so I burn through my ether supply a little. FF6 spoiled me with being able to give everyone Osmose. Not that that would have mattered in this dungeon since IIRC everything is undead here. Midway through Krile masters summoner, so I throw her in Black Wizard to round out her MP when she goes Freelance. At some point Bartz masters Thief so I put him back in Time Mage to master that. Faris is almost done with Ranger, so once that's done I'll put her back in Mystic Knight. I'll probably get Cover for Lenna, since the game is just showering me in APB right now, and then... uh, honestly I may be done getting levels in jobs after everyone rounds out their 3 jobs. Maybe rush through Geo so I don't have to deal with dungeon traps. Nothing else seems to offer passive skills I really want, and my final active skills I've already decided on.
Really, the one reason why I may do a Fiesta is just so I have a reason to use all these jobs that I haven't touched nor do I really have any incentive to touch. It's just like... Samurai, Dragoon... why bother when I already have a couple good physical set ups? Meh.
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Beastmaster is indeed required to get 1000 Needles in W1. It's possible to get White Wind via Confuse as well (requires Red Mage, White Mage, Bard? Might be forgetting one). IIRC Snow did have Beastmaster.
For what it's worth the only Genji equip you missed (Gauntlet) isn't really worth much because of how good accessories get later (mostly Hermes Sandals). Helm has the issues you mentioned. The two still to come (Armour and Shield) are the two with some value, although to be honest none is the best equip of its type.
Pyramid has way, way too many monsters in boxes for my taste, taking away a PC is a bad gimmick but the dungeon piles on a second one for good measure. These days I just avoid most of the treasure and run from most randoms while blitzing the place, then come back later with a fourth PC and Hermes Sandals.
Phoenix Wright: Dual Destinies - Randomly replaying this, currently in the middle of case 2. Caw caw caw.
Final Fantasy Dimensions - Nearing the end. Still fun. I was thinking randoms had slipped then you get things like Red Dragon + healer in the back row formations which require a bit more effort than usual. Most randoms I status out with some combo of bard skills, various white/black/Odin, and beat down things that resist such tactics with my ninja and paladin. Bosses are getting higher and higher defence so magic is actually starting to look like a pretty good way of dealing with them. Dualcast would obviously be great around now, but oh well.
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Pyramid has way, way too many monsters in boxes for my taste, taking away a PC is a bad gimmick but the dungeon piles on a second one for good measure. These days I just avoid most of the treasure and run from most randoms while blitzing the place, then come back later with a fourth PC and Hermes Sandals.
Yeah this would have been the way to do it. Oh well, you live, you learn.
Picked up a bunch of low hanging fruit. Odin and Wind Shrine down. Bartz finishes up Time Mage, so I put him in Geo, he finishes that, and... uh, I'm done I guess. I don't really need anything from him and I'm tired of switching between skills to see passages so he's in Freelancer for now (until I get the GBA jobs... maybe? None of them look good, except Necro which is locked behind way aftergame content. FF6a syndrome all over again). I may scrounge up a new second skillset for him, since Hermes Rings make Time magic less godly than I initially thought, but slow, stop, and quick all have their uses there. I toyed around with having him go through Samurai for the passive evasion, but that's like 900 more BPA. Faris mopped up Ranger and is back in Mystic Knight til mastery, then will go Freelancer. Krile is almost done with Black Mage, so I'll swap back to Summoner til Mastery, then Freelance. Lenna will go freelancer once she wraps up knight.
Part of me is not comfortable leaving all that remaining BPA on the table not going toward anything, but at this point I don't know if collecting !FLIRT etc. is actually going to be worth my time.
EDIT: Fork Tower - The boss of the physical section was legit hard, and would have required some finaggling of setup had I not gotten lucky. That guy's a decent argument for getting the Chemist's passive skill to be able to heal well.
Karnak Tower - Ohhh yeah Mime. Wait what Mime has *THREE* Skill slots? Oh baby baby. I throw Bartz into it and will probably throw Krile there too because A) the costume makes them feel like superheroes, B) They're both probably going to use staves/rods and Gold Needle Helms anyway, so they're not missing out on the Freelancer's Free For All on equipment. At the very least, I no longer feel like Bartz is missing out on AP. Even if practically I'm never going to actually use mime outside of Mime. Bartz only has two skillsets I want, but Krile has no reason to be using items ever and could access all three of her schools of magic (Or rather, White/Summon/ThatOneWithOsmose), so I'll probably do that until it becomes very obvious I want everyone wearing Ribbons.
Also, I love the Gogo fight. I had already spoiled myself on it long long ago around the first time I gave up on FF5, but it's something you could easily figure out without an FAQ and you betcha you'd feel pretty clever finding out on your own.
Undersea Rift - This would have been obnoxious if not for Odin. Meteor rounds out my list of spells I care about I suppose.
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Reading your logs on FF5, it almost slightly surprises me that you consider Blue Mage not so hot until world 2, but that's more a matter of picking up knowledge on the game's metadesign than anything else, and it's a slog to memorize it all (I had a FAQ handy for most of the game, given I hadn't played it in nearly two decades). The Fiesta really drove into my head just how amply Blue Mage can make mincemeat of nearly everything given the right skills and lore at hand (Vampire and Goblin Punch for the very early game, exploiting various status holes starting with Garula's vulnerability to Pond's Choir, going through White Wind being ridiculous, 1,000 Needles having a window of sheer dominance in ST offense if you get it in Ronka Ruins, Dark Spark and LX skill exploitation - which is one of the ways to manhandle Atomos with Blue Mage! -, and going all the way to lategame, also passing through Air Knife Aeroga's somewhat brief window of greatness and capping off at Mighty Guard, which, paired with MT healing, trivializes all damage to no end), but part of it was also being fairly thorough on getting just about every skill as soon as possible. The only Blue Magics I missed in that playthrough were Self-Destruct and Roulette, which weren't at all missed. Beastmaster is pretty key on obtaining those skills, though, and the class is kinda awkward, if rewarding with enough patience and knowledge. In fact, Beastmaster with a Hypno Crown is -really- helpful against those dragons in Exdeath Castle, since they're perfectly vulnerable to it and some of the skills they have wreck their own asses.
I've been pretty vigilant about getting spells ASAP too. Honestly outside of a Fiesta context, Blue Mage is competent but easily outclassed. By the time you get 1000 needles, you also get Titan (easily breaks 1k), Dual Wield + Spellblade on a weakness consistently broke 1k, and so did Berserk Monk. White Wind is good, but really expensive compared to MT Cura, and in W1 Cura is usually enough to get you by. Goblin Punch admittedly got a lot of use, but the Aero spells before Aeroga are all kinda lackluster compared to the other elemental spells/summons, since they can be boosted by rods and Gaia Gear while nothing boosts Wind until the Air Knife. Hitting status holes also didn't really come up for me until W2, because everything else got blitzed down so quickly.
Don't get me wrong, it's a competent class regardless, and unlike the other classes it is capable of filling literally every niche on its own. But when you're not intentionally blocking out other Wind Crystal jobs, not banning yourself from stupid good offense synergies (Dual Wield/Spellblade, Barehand/Berserk, Summon/......Summon) nothing he does is really hands down better than what other classes could do.
Blue Mage -does- a bunch of stuff no other classes can do, but, in general, you're roughly right. It's mostly how BM does damn near everything -at once-... except offense. And in a no-holds-barred playthrough, that does show. I guess I end up valuing it more because it's a very fun class. The really unique niches for Blue Mage really start showing up later on, like the level-busting, or the fact you can use White Wind through Reflect (-really- good for Carbuncle/Reflect Ring shutdown shenanigans), or hitting the niche paralysis vulnerability with absolutely perfect accuracy with Mind Blast. Or Mighty Guard, which, even with White Mage, is still >>> Protect and Shell due to its obscene action economy.
Actually, side note, for your Fiesta did you also get Beastmaster? If not, how did you get 1000 needles and WhiteWind in W1?
I did get Beastmaster indeed. White Wind in World 1, you may be able to get from Enchanted Fans in Ronka Ruins if you have a way of inflicting Confuse by then if you don't use BM. 1,000 Needles is Beastmaster or bust, though.
EDIT:
Final Fantasy Never Gonna Autobattle Again - If you guys pulled from the Super Figaro Bros. banner before they corrected the wrong display on the Golden Shield (it displayed an attack boost on the banner instead of the defense boost it actually gives), you have five extra Mythril in the item chest. Besides that, black power day, massive grindans ensues. I also did Elite Giant of Babil 2, but missed mastery because I seriously underestimated the offense on Attack Node. I should've brought Protectga and Sentinel's Grimoire to not lose damage medals there. Well, I can always try again, you can't lose the fight once the Attack Node is dead as long as you can deal over 1.6k a turn (as in, with all your PCs) with basic physicals.
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Gf bought me bravely default.
So, I'm going to try this whole "each job can only b3 uaed by one character" thing. I played the demo which got me...things? I dunno. They werent readily available upon starting the game, or I just missed where they are.
Tiz gets monk.
Agnes got white and black mage
Edea got knight
Ringabel got thief and maybe merchant? Dunno. Just got the job and it hasn't gone to anyone yet.
So I'm heading to the wind palace to meet the wonderful wizard of oz.
Because because because because because beaaaaaaaaaaaaause...
I can't do anything else at the moment.
Also Agnes needs to shut the fuck up already. She's annoying.
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Agnes gets better later, but she'll always be behind Ringabel and Edea for character banter.
Final Fantasy and the RNG of the Phoenix: I finally fucking got Summoner RM2. Yuna+Vivi screenwipe all randoms forever now. Makes getting to bosses sooooo much easier now. I've been using the Keeper himself as my healer with the White Magic II RM, which works out great since I've got his Sentinel's Grimoire so he's effectively a Curaga bot and has innate replenishable Protectga/Shellga AND still has an extra slot for literally ANY support ability in the game. Toss in Tidus of the full screen 9999 dmg Soul Breaks every few turns and I've got a pretty strong base team (And can make it stronger with Garnet, but why waste the EXP when Yuna's sprite is so much prettier?). Just leaves me with one party slot for whoever the game decides NEEDS to be in my party for boss rushes, though. And both of the Super Figaro Bros are pretty worthless to me, so I'm not even gonna bother with mastery for their boss rush. I just want Alexander anyway (love me some summons~). I'm not sure who to bring for a fourth then. Cloud/Squall for spellblades? Cloud for Reta-meta? LOCKE for his BackRow SB Weapon and RS? Wakka for Breakdowns and using Locke's BackRow 5* weapon? Yuna AND Garnet for more White Magic shenanigans? I -do- have a Diara and Protectga just sitting around. Hmm...
Ni no Kuni: Finally catching up on my backlog again after burning out on playing nearly every Nintendo game from the past 20 years in less than 8 months. Ni no Kuni just seemed like it would satisfy my sudden urge for a fairy tale. And it did! The story itself is a slow burn, but very Ghibli and I loved it. Well, at least all the way through the main Dark Djinn storyline. The White Witch aftergame stuff kinda ruined the whole "The game is a metaphor for the 5 stages of grief and has an ambiguous ending that could represent either Acceptance/defeat of grief OR Suicide if you're feeling darkgrim". BUT outside the context of the theme, the White Witch stuff was fine for world-building and had some good character moments. It just seriously spits on the meta context that I was enjoying so much up to that point.
Oh, and the gameplay is awful. The monsters aren't even that cute. Shame. Only Drippy Lord High Lord of the Fairies has a really eye-catching design, which just really feels like a waste when the game is building itself as Ghibli Pokemon.
Dragon Quest VIII: I WILL FINISH YOU! Restarting again, because I've played the beginning of the game like 5 times now and really quite like it but I want to see the ending. It has a really cool timeless fairy tale quality that Ni no Kuni was also evoking (I think they may even share some voice actors?), but significantly better gameplay. Even the DQ8 is probably the best gameplay in the DQ series, it's still sad when your battle system is less fun than Dragon Quest. If DQ8 had fast forward, it would be a lot more bearable, so I'm giving it a shot on an emulator. Currently up to the part where I've been tasked with finding my own ship, so I've got to go back to Trodain (I love this part). Training Guv in Boomerangs and Swords, Yangus in Scythes, Jessi in Whips/Staves, and Angelo in Bows. Any advice or do those builds sound reasonable? Also, how difficult is getting the good monsters for Guv's Call Monster ability? I wish the 3DS version was out, because playable Morrie (and Red) sounds cool.
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I wouldn't bother putting points in boomerangs for Guv. With zero skill investment, as long as you keep updated on the weapons themselves, they'll be more than good enough for randombashing.
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Guv's utility/healing branch is really awesome. I'd suggest dropping swords or boomerang for that. Personnally I roll with boomerangs. They don't have awesome skills but the attack bonus is so nice.
I don't remember having trouble building a good monster team.
Rk: Dropped blue dragon with no healers in the team. I was frustrated by having to choose between Cloud/Vivi/Wakka so I just dropped Yuna and kept them all. R2 magic breakdown + sentinel grimoire = yes
Btw I think half the roaming warriors I've friended are sentinel grimoires?
Fran's lvl 51 and already near making lvl 65 Wakka obsolete. (In this event, Edgar had stolen her spear, so i just kept using Wakka)
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When is the stat topic coming out, Snow/hinode?
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Man, a FFRK stat topic would be a complete trainwreck. So many shaky assumptions to make.
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The big problem is that the game is constantly changing.
But we have weirder stat topics
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I used that skill roll out on Yangus and Angello. Scythes is gonna be bad, they are pretty much Axes with no crit or defence down skills, terrible steal hit rates and less item availability. You end up trying to ID randoms because you aren't using his MP on anything else and it will never hit. Bow Angello is a slow burner but once he gets MP draining the game is pretty much super easy mode. Efficient applications of focus and MP restoration means he pretty much will keep you alive through everything, once you get Seraph's Arrow or the Attack boost 10 points later I would swap to Staves instead for bigger MP pools.
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Actually why don't you have a fisticuff only team?
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I went Fisticuffs on Jessica after Staves and it sadly wasn't worth it since she won't get the 200 points to cap them both off and both are good for all 100 skill points (unless you don't want Kazing and then well +100 MP for staves is pretty great, but you can drop that if you are going to BARE HANDS 24/7 you could stop at 70 points for MP Recovery and be good, 30 skill points might be enough to get Magic Burst at end game, but probably better swapped to Whips). I highly recommend focusing her on Staves instead of dipping into Whips early just to see how effective Caduceus really is. Early game Whips is solid for the attack boost, but free Mid Heals is fucking dumb as shit. oh no jessica will do no damage with staff beats whatever shall she do. The answer is fully heal someone every round.
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DQ8: I am considering switching Yangus to fisticuffs, but Scythes Are So Cool Man. (Seriously, I'll switch him over once I get something out of the points I've invested in Scythes and never look back unless the game hands me a Really Cool Scythe for stats.)
Jessica already has Twin Dragon Lash, so technically I'm done with Whip levels and already on my way to Caduceus~
re: FFRK stat topic
At this point, the game is so well-documented, you could easily just make a Google Docs spreadsheet that you update alongside the game. I'd just assume max levels/honings/full weapon selection/full ability selection/unique Record Materia for legality purposes.
If you take the Japanese version of the game as it is now, then all of the non-core PCs can get to at least level 65, so you could assume that as the baseline if you wanted it to have fewer updates. (The level cap is now 80 for a select few characters in the Japanese version, but that's so far off as to be useless for Global players.)
...I may have considered making one already. >.>;;
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Full hones would be weird as you'd have everybody throwing quick hits all the time. And Garnet spamming Odin.
I think r5 for <4 stars skills, R2 for 4 stars skills, R0 for five stars skills would be reasonable?
Level 50 might be enough, and it would mean Warrior / Knight at full power
Every weapon, maxed, sounds pretty crazy if you're not a millionaire, I'd probably just give everybody average 5 star equipment or something. Like, golden swords/spears and stuff. But it's not my stat topic. It's... Yours?
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Biggest advice I can give for DQ8 is that you should certainly build one of swords or spears for Guv since the damage push from those skills against bosses is huge, and not having them is a recipe for trouble against some of the long boss fights that come later in the game. Same goes for Angelo + at least one of swords/bows, and Jessica + whips, but fewer people make those mistakes.
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Full hones would be weird as you'd have everybody throwing quick hits all the time. And Garnet spamming Odin.
I think r5 for <4 stars skills, R2 for 4 stars skills, R0 for five stars skills would be reasonable?
Level 50 might be enough, and it would mean Warrior / Knight at full power
I'd vehemently disagree with capping off at L50 exactly because it'd inflate people who suck because they don't get Memory Crystals. They've been a huge part of the metagame since they were introduced and the current meta has most main parties already capped in at L65. L65 cap I might even agree with, since so few people have MC2s out in JP, but capping off at L50 doesn't even allow the PCs to grab Record Materias, and all characters who break level caps get at least one associated with them.
That said, I wouldn't even -allow- 5* abilities if taken at global, since pretty much zero people have been able to -craft- a single ability in that list as of now. Their orbs aren't even farmable, for chrissakes. For weaponry, I'd allow L20 5* uniques (due to character uniqueness clause, even if getting -any- of them is a complete crapshoot) or a generic 5* weapon in case they don't have SB equips + generic 5* armor of their type for the sake of streamlining. But this is theorycraft for a stat topic that will hopefully never see the light of day (the very allowance of skills is a bit of a legality issue, since not much of it is -actually- unique, and a lot of it is unique simply by current default. Allowing all abilities within the given skillsets is an idea, but also flies in the face of how the DL handled most skillsets of this ilk).
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So when do you start? We want to see a damage average that involves L50 Dragoon doing less damage than 65 Black Mage who is locked in to physicals only for uniqueness reqs.
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Holy shit, not allowing skills would make all mage classes spam FRONT-ROW DAGGER PHYSICALS.
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You can pretty safely drop boomerangs for Guv. I'm pretty sure I maxed that for him or near enough and results were not spectacular.
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Come on guys.
Don't listen to their lies Djinn. Boomerangs rule. Don't bring a sword to a boomerangfight.
Also Snow, "vehemently"?
Give warrior a break. He's already gameworst everything despite being the rarest character in the game (!)
I thought stat topics had transcended DL rules and became their own perfect things. By that I mean: abilities should be allowed.
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In practice, I'm inclined to agree with allowing abilities because yeah, not having half the cast working in ways that they never, ever, EVER would is good.
About Warrior, however: I have absolutely no sympathy for a PC that ranks at the bottom of the chart even among cores.
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Full hones would be weird as you'd have everybody throwing quick hits all the time. And Garnet spamming Odin.
I think r5 for <4 stars skills, R2 for 4 stars skills, R0 for five stars skills would be reasonable?
Level 50 might be enough, and it would mean Warrior / Knight at full power
I'd vehemently disagree with capping off at L50 exactly because it'd inflate people who suck because they don't get Memory Crystals. They've been a huge part of the metagame since they were introduced and the current meta has most main parties already capped in at L65. L65 cap I might even agree with, since so few people have MC2s out in JP, but capping off at L50 doesn't even allow the PCs to grab Record Materias, and all characters who break level caps get at least one associated with them.
That said, I wouldn't even -allow- 5* abilities if taken at global, since pretty much zero people have been able to -craft- a single ability in that list as of now. Their orbs aren't even farmable, for chrissakes. For weaponry, I'd allow L20 5* uniques (due to character uniqueness clause, even if getting -any- of them is a complete crapshoot) or a generic 5* weapon in case they don't have SB equips + generic 5* armor of their type for the sake of streamlining. But this is theorycraft for a stat topic that will hopefully never see the light of day (the very allowance of skills is a bit of a legality issue, since not much of it is -actually- unique, and a lot of it is unique simply by current default. Allowing all abilities within the given skillsets is an idea, but also flies in the face of how the DL handled most skillsets of this ilk).
Ah, good point about hones on the 5-star skills. Since those aren't farmable, the rank they can be honed to can actually be counted. For all other skills, I'd just assumed max honing.
As for weapons/armor... if you allow full choice, I'm pretty sure it works out to about the same as what Snow listed. Almost all characters want their Soul Break weapon/armor over everything. Though I suppose there's a few instances where they want one of the generic Soul Breaks, and that's probably not the best idea. Also, Lv20 for 5* equips is certainly reasonable, though that information is less readily available, and simply allowing max level would make the stat topic easier (and it would even out if given to all characters).
Any view that wouldn't allow Record Materia (and those are the most unique part of the game) doesn't sound like a good way to show off the game. Gotta have my Brainwashed Kain.
You -could- just take all characters at Lvl50, but assume they have broken the level cap so they can use their RMs. Though that doesn't really reflect how the game is going recently.
Here's the spreadsheet I've been looking at to consider all of this:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1p6iMuCSWr_2QLQVxnhYjz5og6oOx0CfgCCNb_z4JCPY/
It even has a damage calculator...
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Hmm hmmm!
Giving black mages two R5 -ja spells doesn't reflect the current game either. Combat dudes also have this advantage over other classes that their break skills are pretty powerful and cheap to hone. Which is why no one cares about monk skills, jump, etc.
Lvl 50 for everybody just means less painful updating each time another character gets its crystal, rms would obviously be considered. 65 is probably better.
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You can pretty safely drop boomerangs for Guv. I'm pretty sure I maxed that for him or near enough and results were not spectacular.
My advice would be to use Boomerangs but not invest in them. They are incredibly helpful, multitarget free attacks, but you gain little from getting their skills compared to Sword/Spears/Courage. Zap (learned either naturally or from Courage, I forget) suffices as a 'paid' multitarget attack over the Boomerang skills.
I personally don't think Swords are worth it on Hero, but it's been a long time since I played the game and I may be forgetting some advantage of them. It's easy to find some ahead of the curve Spears early on and Thunder Thrust is your go-to Metal killer lategame. Swords are all right on Angelo (I like Bows a little more) and wasted on Jessica.
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For DQ8 there's a really elaborate guide on what to invest skill points in pinned on the Gamefaqs board for the PS2 version. I'm not sure just how good the various suggestions are, but there's more thought put into them than just "put everything into one skill tree until you max it on, then move on to another" at least. There's also a bunch of paths for each PC so it's not just dictating a single option and calling it the best.
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Shovel Knight - Played the first few stages. The game is good fun, lots of interesting bosses, but the stage design feels weaker than the better Megamans. We'll see how it goes overall though.
Deemo - I've been playing this a bit during downtime. It's a fun little rhythm game with nice music and simple gameplay. Good for wasting time on a bus.
Shin Megami Tensei Devil Survivor - I'm about three hours into this, on the second day. It shows enemy weaknesses on the status screen, which is excellent and makes me happy, especially in a portable game where I don't always want to memorize all of the weaknesses and resists. The plot is pretty weak but the setting is nice. The blend of RPG and SRPG works decently because the game is fast-paced and doesn't have too many enemies.
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About the ffrk Stat topic...
Both Cecil's would benefit the most from character specific weapons and armor ya?
Sure dkcecil doesn't have a lot if options skill wise but hI'm and his pal....ly get a sword and armor/shield where everyone else only has a weapon or something.
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My advice would be to use Boomerangs but not invest in them. They are incredibly helpful, multitarget free attacks, but you gain little from getting their skills compared to Sword/Spears/Courage. Zap (learned either naturally or from Courage, I forget) suffices as a 'paid' multitarget attack over the Boomerang skills.
Yeah, pretty much this. MT is always great for randoms...but you don't tend to need a lot of skill investment to beat up randoms anyway.
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Sephiroth smash puny FF7 event.
Dude's hitting 9700+ on his normals, non-crit.
I can predict I will get destroyed on the mage side though because I still have 0 mage weapons. Selphie solo run.
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Hmm hmmm!
Giving black mages two R5 -ja spells doesn't reflect the current game either. Combat dudes also have this advantage over other classes that their break skills are pretty powerful and cheap to hone. Which is why no one cares about monk skills, jump, etc.
Lvl 50 for everybody just means less painful updating each time another character gets its crystal, rms would obviously be considered. 65 is probably better.
Disagree. If you pay money/can grind without limit, you can easily have R5 ja spells on your Black Mages. Also, at this point in the Japanese version, all characters get released alongside their Record Crystal to get them to 65. Just some of the old ones don't have it yet (like 3 out of 80 or so?). It just seems like the way to cut down on updating it.
As for equips. Snows suggestin makes sense. Give them their unique SB equips and fill in their other slots with generic five star stuff. Not sure if I'd hand out five star accessories though. Maybe just give them generic Atk or int boosters.
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Also, I love the Gogo fight. I had already spoiled myself on it long long ago around the first time I gave up on FF5, but it's something you could easily figure out without an FAQ and you betcha you'd feel pretty clever finding out on your own.
Story from college: I'm playing FF5 emulated. I yell "Hey Gogo, look at this!" Then I attack Lenna. I get a crit. She dies. Then Gogo gets mad. We double over laughing for like 3 minutes.
Maybe you had to be there.
Stat topic nonsense: Well as Fenrir already said, making a stat topic of any constantly changing game is really hard. However, a lower level cap rather than a higher one would presumably make things *more* stable, not less. It still won't include new characters, but it won't have the temporary swing from which characters can break the level cap or not, which seems very much like an artifact of a particular snapshot. Except for maybe Core characters who probably will never be allowed to break level cap or be good, but details.
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The big problem is that the game is constantly changing.
But we have weirder stat topics
Just imagine trying to stat out WoW.
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Hmm hmmm!
Giving black mages two R5 -ja spells doesn't reflect the current game either. Combat dudes also have this advantage over other classes that their break skills are pretty powerful and cheap to hone. Which is why no one cares about monk skills, jump, etc.
Lvl 50 for everybody just means less painful updating each time another character gets its crystal, rms would obviously be considered. 65 is probably better.
Disagree. If you pay money/can grind without limit, you can easily have R5 ja spells on your Black Mages. Also, at this point in the Japanese version, all characters get released alongside their Record Crystal to get them to 65. Just some of the old ones don't have it yet (like 3 out of 80 or so?). It just seems like the way to cut down on updating it.
Look I don't mean to be a dick, but you realize how useless a stat topic basing things off the version NOBODY WHO WOULD USE THE STAT TOPIC IS PLAYING would be, right?
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Snowfire that sucks, how did you get your vita stolen
I was actually quite lucky, so don't want to make this a SF's blog whine! Anyway, if you're curious... I was waiting for a bus (streetside pickup, you see) at a nearby Starbucks from 5:30-6:30 AM with the bus departing at 7 AM. I was a bit tired and wandered off from the Starbucks with just my suitcase and left my backpack unattended under my table. No big deal, right? This was for like 15 minutes? Yeah it was gone, stolen, the staff confirmed nobody offered it up to the lost & found or anything. This was literally right before boarding a bus to the United States. Did I mention that my passport was in there too? And 300 dollar noise cancelling headphones, and a fairly rare book, and my keys?
So yeah, that did suck, but actually I got insanely lucky. The police told me to check nearby dumpsters since criminals often drop stolen backpacks there after they've taken anything obviously pawn shop salable, which I couldn't do because I foolishly took the bus anyway (before asking to voluntarily return to Canada at the border, despite the guard being willing to let me in). But it didn't matter; I'd called up the Consulate General's office to arrange an emergency passport session the next day, and then got a call back an hour later that some kind soul had found my passport / work badge / keys near a dumpster near where the incident happened. Heck, it might have been the thief himself for all I know. Anyway, not complaining. So I managed to get the world's fastest passport recovery, and just booked a new bus trip to Seattle on the same day - at a much cheaper rate than my first bus trip, no less. Not bad. (The backpack & everything else was lost, though, despite me checking the dumpsters myself later.)
Also, Vitas cost 200 USD and 200 CAD. Since the US Dollar is worth like 1.35 Canadian, uh, time to pick up a new one right the hell now. Amusingly enough, totally unprompted by me, the Best Buy clerk was complaining about thefts in Downtown Vancouver as well - someone else wanted to buy an XBox One, but apparently their whole stock was stolen.
I don't like the look of the new Vita though - I think it's smaller and lighter, and is much plasticyer and less metal. I think the buttons are closer together, too. At least it accepts a standard Micro-USB charger now, which is something. It also comes with a 8 Gig memory card, which is way saner than Sony's old policy of screw you.
Just imagine trying to stat out WoW.
OK foolishly stat topic'd the StarCraft II multiplayer units ( http://www.rpgdl.com/forums/index.php/topic,5448.0.html ), despite them changing a bunch since. Alas. Reminds me that I should theoretically stat topic Heart of the Swarm campaign sometime... for all that PC Kerrigan is a huge mess and she arguably wants her cheesy SC1 form with cloak anyway.
Kid Icarus: Uprising - Beaten. Fun game! Except for some of the platforming. The difference between walk & dash means Pit spazes out sometimes, which isn't so bad in an open field, but is a problem on narrow ledges. Goddamn wind room in the C19 tower, it can't even kill you (thankfully) but it wasted like 10 minutes of my life repeatedly falling in it.
As noted before, this is a game which basically repeatedly derails its own plot and makes cute references to old games in fun ways, and somehow does a good job with this humor. Not bad. Viridi's the weakest cast member who gets a bunch of lines and she isn't even that bad. My only minor complaints:
* I think they should have had the loot drop only abilities, not stars for base weapon power. And have the loot more evenly distributed between the intensities. The game clearly wants you to play around with different weapon types, but once you get a single really good weapon, it can kind of obsolete everything else and make you feel as if you're handicapped and/or play on lower intensities (which makes it even harder to get competing loot for that item!). I got a Lancer Staff with 4 stars Ranged & 2 stars melee and +3 to backward charged shot (and some other minor stuff) and never got anything too close to it ever again, making me feel like the game had picked my weapon for me. I'd enjoyed it more earlier where I used a different weapon every stage.
* Magnus & Gaol seem a bit underused. They just kinda randomly show up in C24 but don't really DO anything.
* The very final arc turn back to Hades felt a bit uninspired. You don't really discover much NEW about Hades being a jerk, it'd have been nice to up the stakes or else mix things up a little bit. I was strongly hoping for Medusa to be the final boss, given her iconic status in the series, and she does show up, but doesn't really do much.
* Why wasn't there a stage based on Palutena's Revolting Dinner?! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ctpw0vaSiIg
Good times, but probably won't go through again trying on super-high intensities. Oh well. (I did do a few earlier stages on 5-7 intensity, but not doing 'em all again!).
Record Breaker - Figured I'd give it a try on the planes to NYC with all the hype about it around here, + inspired by Ciato saying she'd give the earlier game in the series a try. Y'all are crazy. This isn't a mobile game and autobattle isn't an option and seems to have nothing to do with Final Fantasy. Fine by me though.
First time, I did the speedrun low% bad ending. Gee I'm being offered to save my own life by summoning demons? I know this plot, mister, and in America it usually ends badly and it's all the selfish person's fault. That said, this is Japan, so after getting my game over screen for accepting death, I guess it's time to recklessly summon demons. We're later told that conventional weaponry does nothing against them (despite ramming with trucks being quite effective... and that being basically the same thing but worse as tank shells... sigh), so how exactly do we beat them up? Fists of fury?
Anyway, on Day 2, but somewhat alarmed at how extremely FAQ-baity the game appears to be, at least for people who want to go through only 1 time. In most RPGs you can just do everything. I have no problem with RPGs that don't let you do this or otherwise reward you for moving directly along, and the same with RPGs that reward you for being an adult and actually meeting your appointments Shenmue-style and punishing you if you fail 'em, but as it stands right now it feels a little arbitrary over how much stuff you'll get cut off from if you do the "wrong" events or do things in a not-the-most-optimal fashion. Like I said, this is actually pretty cool if you plan on playing the game 3-4 times, but rather stressful on a first playthrough where your instincts to save everyone and get high fate rankings (= character affectiony type meters) might be high.
Flip side, I looked at a few screens from the original online, and the remake seems to have been for real. They've cleaned up a bunch, everything looks sharper and there's more data on the screen, and they retranslated the whole script + added voice acting for everything. Nice. Including, oddly enough, each character voicing the name of the game on the title screen, just in case you forgot.
Anyway, the battle system is pretty cool so far. Like Ciato said, letting me see weaknesses from the start without any bullshit is nice and lets me plan sanely how to approach a fight, and they even do some good work in "themeing" areas to have monsters with similar attacks / weaknesses. Took a sudden surprise leap in difficulty recently, though. Turns out busty hacker woman in a trance at an abandoned amusement park with some kind of portable computer hooked up to ???? and subconsciously summoning demons to kill me can be pretty badass. I like how you can *theoretically* dive the leader immediately but this isn't usually a good plan thanks to lots of healing from the other enemy squads, although perhaps this will change later. They're also good about having some reinfocements but not endless amounts.
We'll see how the continuing adventures of mute schoolboy JC Denton go and if he can autobattle his way into unlocking memory crystals or something.
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But after two minutes Heart Kerrigan can summon fifty units!
Hell might as well stat Heroes of the Storm! CRAZY PEOPLE!
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Djinn, even assuming unlimited cash + a desire to fund Square through F2P games, even Snow would die of boredom grinding black power and elemental days to hone a single ja spell to R5
Snowfire, pretty terrible, and yeah I don't think I would have just left my bag sitting there.
The new Vitas also don't have the OLED screen everybody was talking about
I've only played Devil Survivor once but liked missing things. The game makes it pretty clear that you cannot get everything because you already don't have in game time to even talk to everybody and see every event. I remember one random npc who seemed interesting (dude in a suit) and I always priotized talking to him over every other event , because I wanted to see what would happen next to him? That was infinitely more rewarding than talking to any random noc in basically any other game.
The endings are so different too. It's probably way better to follow your instincts rather than aiming for the closest thing to a hypothetical 100% playthrough you can get on the time through. i think this applies to most games but especially this one, because you're preventing yourself from weighing the opportunity/cost of events and making your own playthrough special compared to everyone else's.
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(Devil Survivor 2 for reference, btw. Seemed more interesting than DS1.)
In theory I'd agree with you, but other SMTs usually seem to be cases where "true" endings are sort of okay, and other endings are lazy pieces of crap. Usually at least. Dunno if DS/DS2 avoid that trap.
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Hmm...
I don't remember DS2 well enough to answer that.
Persona games are definitely like that yeah, and it's very annoying.
SMT1/2 are arguably; because in the neutral ending you get to fight everybody which is more fun, and the plots aren't developed enough that being on one side is a big deal.
Nocturne is not really like that... If you consider that the true ending was not in the original game and is essentially DLC.
Strange Journey completely avoided that pitfall, Neutral not being the best anymore.
Megami Tensei 1-2 / DDS / Devil Summoner don't have alternate endings IIRC, dunno about Soul Hackers, and nobody cares about Revelation: Demon Slayer
Devil Survivor... I don't think my path had all the boss fights but I really liked the ending I got. The endgame boss fights are fucking exhausting anyway and you don't want more of them. I think there's one path where you go Fuck it I Will Destroy All but it's probably not good for a first playthrough and doesn't make that much sense plotwise. I think I've heard the 3DS remake unfortunately did a Nocturne and added a super special ending if you meet certain requirements?
So yeah I can relate. Still I'd actually argue that the choices you make are a part of the gameplay and faqing makes you miss out.
Just like faqing Long Live the Queen to make no choices and get the best ending right away, sounds less satisfying and interesting than trying the game a bunch of time and not even getting a good ending before stopping playing.
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Look I don't mean to be a dick, but you realize how useless a stat topic basing things off the version NOBODY WHO WOULD USE THE STAT TOPIC IS PLAYING would be, right?
Yeah, I can't see how knowing ahead of time what the updates to a constantly-updating game are could POSSIBLY be useful to anyone trying to make a stat topic. Thank you so much for your input, Zenny :)
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Look I don't mean to be a dick, but you realize how useless a stat topic basing things off the version NOBODY WHO WOULD USE THE STAT TOPIC IS PLAYING would be, right?
Yeah, I can't see how knowing ahead of time what the updates to a constantly-updating game are could POSSIBLY be useful to anyone trying to make a stat topic. Thank you so much for your input, Zenny :)
Sure if you want to have one that's going to be useful in a month but is inaccurate and useless up until then. But wait, because you'd constantly be updating it to where the Japanese version is, and the Japanese version will always be ahead of the Global version in that regard, it'll be useless until DeNA stops updating the game altogether and everyone stops caring.
Unless you don't constantly update it, in which case it'll get outdated eventually, and the entire thing was an excercise in wiggling your dick around to see if you can make out what FF characters you can see in your piss dribbles.
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Mechanics information, general shape of the PCs/skillsets/equipment loadouts, universal skill information, etc. There are plenty of things about the game that -don't- change are useful to have written down as a base. From there, the minutiae can be quibbled over in individual conversations. It's not like stat topics are strangers to extrapolation, and using information from future updates of the game is basically a form of that. I don't think anyone is going to be confused by having the future information if they're already well-versed enough in the game to care about a stat topic of it at this point.
But I know you don't care about that, you just like picking on me, you tease ;)
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But wait, because you'd constantly be updating it to where the Japanese version is, and the Japanese version will always be ahead of the Global version in that regard, it'll be useless until DeNA stops updating the game altogether and everyone stops caring.
Unless you don't constantly update it, in which case it'll get outdated eventually, and the entire thing was an excercise in wiggling your dick around to see if you can make out what FF characters you can see in your piss dribbles.
Well, first of all, this is the DL, where even Brigandine still has people who care about it... So even when DeNA gets to their final build, somehow people will still find ways to talk about it.
Second of all, it's an internet site about RPG math battles, it has -always- been an exercise in wiggling your dick around. Specifically your dick, cause we love you.
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But I know you don't care about that, you just like picking on me, you tease ;)
You're like my 10th favorite verbal punching bag
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Only number 10? I'm insulted!
Wait.. who are 1-9?
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Only number 10? I'm insulted!
Wait.. who are 1-9?
sigh
you're lucky you're pretty
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Final Fantasy Know Who You Autobattle At Every Age - Blazing through the Tifa event. Did everything but the boss rush on Knight's Path, am currently moving through Mage's path. Gi Nattak was -hilariously- perfunctory due to Carbuncle, which badly humiliates his Fira focusing gimmick and absolute lack of MT. He even has a physical, but that you can trivialize with Protectga/Power Breakdown and he very rarely uses it. Celes Runic RW also works well there. Meanwhile, Mage's path is basically broomvile: spam Ixion/Alexander against randoms with a Summoning Spring II Yuna all day, mop up leftovers with Vivi, cast Protectga with Selphie for good measure. I wonder if this is what mega meta feels like.
In the meantime, I also honed Mental Breakdown to R2 with those Greater NE Orbs, which puts me further away from the R3 Waterja dream, but R2 is such an important capstone for Breakdowns. Oh well, R2 Waterja + R2 Firaja +R3 Quake will have to do for the time being. Maybe R5ing Thundaga with the surplus Lightning Orbs + Lightning daily farming today is an acceptable substitute.
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Well that was retarded. Let's talk about FF5 some more.
FF5 - Isomething Falls down. The ladies with the frogs is a cute gimmick and I had a little fun using maidens kisses on the frogs just as she was about to cast toad on them until I realized blitzing them down was faster. :( At some point, Lenna and Faris master their last classes (Lenna did last playthrough, forget if I mentioned it), and honestly this dungeon just isn't hard enough to put them in freelancer yet, so Lenna goes Samurai with Counter and Faris goes Dragoon with some other passive that didn't matter. I underestimated jump. With Hermes Sandals it's less than a turn of charging and then 2x damage that ignores row. Zeninage could be useful if I wasn't running a summoner but meh. Masamune and Holy Lance both definitely pull their weight, and Masamune seems to have a pretty high crit rate that synergized well with Counter.
Leviathan goes down EZ, Black is the legitimate better option over summon for this fight since the weakness is obvious. Tidal wave hits counter, and so Lenna and Krile basically take him down together. Bartz cast the best spell in the game (lemme make something clear. By W3 Blue Mage is a utility god. It could have JUST Mighty Guard and White Wind and its status game and still be in contention for Top 5 skillsets and I didn't mean to imply otherwise. Frankly, being a god late game is better than early game anyway) then kept everyone topped off with WW while Faris just kinda was up in the air a bit.
Picked up the other three jobs. I look up what they can do and... Oracle is a mage with a lackluster skillset, but the stat boosts could be nice. I'm tempted to put Bartz in it but ugh doing dungeons without Thief/Geo passives. I throw Krile in there I guess but am ready to abandon as the first sign of it sucking shit. Cannoneer seems like complete garbage unless I want to look up mix tables, and I don't. On the plus side, they look like pirates, so they've got Fashion Fantasy 5 going for them. Gladiator... gives physical characters a MT skill if mastered, and that doubles up with Dual Wield. I throw Faris in that since Why not. I still have two more dungeons before the final, I'm getting showered in APB, and TBH Dragoon isn't going to get me anything but stats if I go to Mastery.
Onward to Bahamut and the Tower. They didn't change anything about North Mountain which is just fucking lazy but whatever. Bahamut gets Blitzed down. Fortunately both Maelstrom and Megaflare missed Bartz so WhiteWind basically won the fight. Additionally, DAMN the Gladiator's damage output with Dual Wield is even better than Freelancer against enemies without elemental weaknesses. Good job, FF5A, you have new content that isn't completely worthless.
So I learn what Magic Pots do through the magic of FAQs and I'm gonna abuse the shit out of that. Lenna, I have master Berserker for Stats through this. Bartz, Chemist for the passive buff. Lenna Masters Berserker anyway but Bartz will sit in Chemist for the time being. (EDIT: If not obvious, I wrote this as I went through the game. I meant he'll stay there until the end of the dungeon. Gladiator is kinda good, so I throw Faris back in Dragoon, and I want Krile out of Oracle so she stays there. At this point, re-equipping Hermes Sandals is annoying and I wish I could turn the Optimize at Ability change deal off. >_< But, whatevs. Onward and upward...
What? Really? No boss? Man.
And that wraps up W3 apparently. Dragoon, Samurai, and Chemist are still not mastered. Chemist means no Bartz passives so fuck them, but I'll stick with Sam/Drag for the final dungeon until things require special tactics. Oracle does get mastered, however, so Krile is back in Mime doing the mime-y thing. Calling it a night, next up is the final dungeon.
I may actually do the aftergame content for this, because unlike FF6 the game remains interesting gameplay-wise til the end. It may actually be a better game than 6. Definitely so if you disregard the quality of writing, which I don't. FF6 was so ballsy and straight up unprecedented with some of the things it did, and had great character work that while it doesn't stand the test of time because of SNES space limitations, I would be very interested in seeing how a proper remake would treat it (though, perhaps by someone not-the-current-FF-team because they haven't produced anything I've enjoyed since Tactics). FF5 fails completely and utterly in the writing department, but seems to hit everything just right in the combat arena. Job systems, man. They're good. I'm sorely tempted to pick up FFD after this.
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I haven't posted here in a while. Let's change that.
Krosmaster: Arena - Tabletop minis game based off Wakfu/Dofus or what not? Surprisingly fun. Wasn't expecting much when I demoed it at SDCC, but ended up absolutely loving it. It plays very much like a tabletop SRPG (grid based, etc) and the characters all have a reasonable amount of shenanigans going on. Just the 8 core characters are pretty variable in playstyle (drain tank, heavy hitting summoner, mobile summoner, healer, ranged attacker, area controller, tanky unit manipulator, and burst mage) and allow for a lot of clever interactions and outplay. The win condition not being directly related to wiping out the opposition (though it helps) as well as the ability to buy gear midgame further makes things interesting.
Has an online implementation at http://www.krosmaster.com/en if anyone ever wants to try it out with me. The tutorial is pretty damn thorough.
League of Legends - Still playing this. Things have been weird lately. Riot's been taking a hammer to a lot of things, so changes have been coming fast and furious.
Been getting progressively better at the game since I changed up the lanes I played (focusing on Top and Support now) and narrowed my champ pool. Made it to gold promos, but don't think I'll make it since I need to win 2 in a row at this point. Annoying. Still, I enjoy the game a lot, even with occasional frustration stuck in there.
Terra Mystica - This goddamn game remains so brain burning. I don't play many perfect information board games, so the few I do are pretty intense. Just so much planning involved.
Under Night In-Birth re: EXE.late - Holy shit, this game plays well. Had a blast rocking it with Niu.
Guilty Gear Xrd - Also fun!
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Bravely Default: Started a replay, Hard Mode because there are no other modes, etc. This is a challenge run of sorts, which is forcing characters to only use Jobs that fall under a specific guideline. First off, just beat Khamer/Khint, to give a frame of reference of where I am so you can understand my decisions; the actual playthrough stuff later in post!
First off, the rules! Naturally, can only use jobs that fall under their role. Each job falls under one role and one role only, so no sharing jobs. Likewise, abilities can only be used based on that role. This is notable because getting the Job means you have access to the most basic of skills, meaning Knight = Stomp, White Mage = L1 White Magic, etc. No cheap nonsense of "Oh, they technically have it!" Prior getting it, everyone uses Freelancer until their first job, and Miscellany until their 2nd job. Here's the split up I've done!
Also trying to keep the split up relatively equal; won't be perfect and there are some obvious ambiguous jobs (like Freelancer or Conjurer), and I'll have to figure those out eventually. Additionally, everyone needs to show some level of even job usage, so I can't just neglect a job entirely. This aspect may be pulled once characters hit Job Level 9 given the JP Req spikes, so I might just change it to "everyone needs to get their Job to level 9 at very least."
Tiz: Light Fighters. Tiz is a country boy so naturally he's built strong, but he's got no formal training. Yes, I'm using Plot Logic behind this...also his stats fit but quiet! Anyway, Light Fighters are determined by being a clearly Physical Job that doesn't use Heavy Armor, defined by "gets an A/S in Shields, Helmets and Armor." Has to be All 3 mind you.
Agnes: Staff Mages. Because she's a Vestal which is a religious figure meaning White Mage meaning shut up this logic is flawless. I specify "Staff Mage" because "Support/Healer" Mage has more arguments behind it, leading to less objectivity.
Ringabell: Rod Mage. Mostly "by default" reasons because the other 3 feel more fitting in their primary roles. Anyway, see Agnes, make appropriate adjustments, obviously the primary offensive spell caster.
Edea: Heavy Fighter. She's got formal training and actually uses swords, so damn it, she gets the swords! Basically "everything Tiz doesn't get" is best way to sum it up. And yes, I suspect she will be my best character outside of possibly Agnes who gets White Mage.
Fighters are pretty straight forward, really, given the guidelines I made, and nicely enough, they both have exactly 6 of each, so that feels pretty much set. The others are a little harder to decide.
This first came up is Merchant vs. Time Mage. Both are Staves > Rods, so I decided why not look at INt vs. Mind...and both are Int > Mind Jobs. So there's an argument for both. Ultimately, Ringabel is the "default" Merchant character, so I went with that as a tiebreak. Time Mage...has Tiz of all characters being the default, which is completely random, but whatever, so this logic works as a tiebreak. Also, and more importantly, Merchant is a 100% Awesome Swag Job, Time Mage is the Anti-Swag Job that looks completely dumb. Ringabel, as we all know, has an S Rank in Swag, while Agnes has Not!Ringabel rank in Swag, so of course that Job goes to Ringabel!
As is stands, there's 4 jobs left, and each Ringabel and Agnes have 4 jobs each, so 2 per each. Performer and Red Mage are both meaningful, Freelancer...less so, but at least it exists and Conjurer is BWAHAHAHAHAHAHH! I'm thinking Ringabel gets Conjurer simply because it's stats are closer to what he'd be using (S in Int, B in Mind), plus Conjurer is clearly meant to compliment Summoner in the same way Arcanist compliments Black Mage and Spirit Master for White Mage. Given this, that would put Freelancer on Agnes, which would sort of address an issue I am bringing up next. If you've forgotten, Conjurer has an A in every Weapon Rank, E in All Armor Ranks, S in Int/MP, B in Mnd, C in everything else, so it does actually fit Ringabel's in the sense of "uses Rods, Int > Mind" job albeit in a technical sense in the former aspect! Freelancer is a B in all weapon/armors, C in all stats, so it can pretty much go everywhere. Also worth noting? Agnes will be stuck with Miscellany longer than Ringabel due to the Merchant thing I mentioned, so it fits there.
Additionally, giving Agnes Freelancer also makes me feel less guilty about the few times I used Treat to maintain resources while she was a White Mage (Ringabel did use Examine once or twice but if he's using Examine on a turn, then that suggests he'd have been using Default on the turn otherwise, so I don't think that's really meaningful), so it's more legit or something!
Logically Performer should go to Agnes which would put Red Mage on Ringabel. The one thing I don't like about this is how it means Ringabel gets 2 jobs from the Water Crystal Arc, and Agnes gets nothing until the Fire Crystal arc (where she will get two.) I do want to keep things even, but wondering if I should just treat that as "dems the breaks" for a challenge, and really, whoever gets Conjurer is going to have to wait a damn long time for it anyway. Considering the rant above, Agnes' lack of a Florem Job won't be as big a deal given she'll have access to Freelancer anyway, lessening the gap.
"But Meeple! Red Mage is a Swag Job! That totally kills the discussion there and then!"
You're right...except that Performer is ALSO a Swag Job, so the Swag Tie-break unfortunately doesn't work here. As a reminder, Red Mage has a B in all weapon ranks save Swords (A), Bows (C), and Knuckles (D), B in Armor rankings, B in all stats save Str, Dex, and Vit which are C, so yes, it's legitimately tough to figure out where it goes based on gameplay.
So considering all of the above, I have concluded the job sets will look something like this:
Tiz: Monk, Thief, Hunter, Pirate, Ninja, Vampire
Agnes: Freelancer, White Mage, Time Mage, Performer, Salvemaker, Spirit Master
Ringabel: Black Mage, Merchant, Summoner, Red Mage, Arcanist, Conjurer
Edea: Knight, Spell Fencer, Valkyrie, Sword Master, Templar, Dark Knight
And now...WITH THE ACTUAL PLAYTHROUGH STUFF!
The prologue is mostly unchanged. Yeah, some technicalities like no one else can use White Magic, Ringabel and Edea stuck as Freelancers when they otherwise wouldn't be, but there's not much to talk about so ONTO ANCHEIM!
First off, Jackal's Dungeon. Tiz equips an Oak Staff because it's barely weaker than the Iron Knuckle, but one handed, which in BD is always a good thing, as unlike FF5/T/Etc., Shields are universal, just some are way better with it than others, so Tiz appreciates the defense boost. Tiz is unfortunately kind of shitty at this point. Edea has Two Handed Stomp w/ Issun No Kami, much higher defense, and has Cover. Tiz has an unreliable boost move, way lesser damage, higher HP at the cost of much lower defense, and his big damage attack misses 50% of the time. Oh joy. Ringabel is a cannon with limited resources, and Agnes is my lifeline. I get a little overzealous with Ringabel, and end up fighting Jackal/Khint with him being useless.
Jackal/Khint (2 resets): I enter the fight the way I showed above. things are going fine! Then Jackal uses 500 HP Healing Potions because he cheats, which ends up being a big deal because I can't reliably break that. Edea's Stompx4 can break that, but that only happens once in a while, where as he can throw Potions whenever after stealing. Tiz, unfortunately, isn't very good here; he does 40 damage per physical, and Strong Strike does like 120, but misses half the time. I reset, take off the Oak Staff, see Tiz's attack raise notably thanks to Barefisted (making the Iron Knuckles useless now), attempt again, no dice. I leave dungeon entirely, heal Ringabel of all MP, rush back in there now with a real MP score, and win. Note to self: Always go into boss fights with Ringabel having actual MP!
Tiz now gets Thief. This makes him so much better I cannot stress it enough. The big thing from this is Thief's A in Bows, giving Tiz access to the Iron Bow. Bows, unlike Fists, are actually strong enough to be almost as good as a 2 Handed Sword from Edea. He's still clearly worse than Edea, but at least now he reliably goes first, and does damage that registers. Also Life Thief can be handy to easy up Agnes' role a bit.
Profiteur/Khint: Pretty straight forward. I do go in without someone having the magical 601+ HP (which I could have easily gotten by making Tiz a Monk) but ultimately didn't matter since he never focused on the same character.
Ringabel now gets Merchant! He can now Swag like he's suppose to at the cost of effectiveness.
Wind Temple is uneventful; a lot of Tiz shoots things with Bows, Edea stomping on enemies, Agnes either defending or healing because she can't do anything else, and Ringabel sometimes hurling big damage, other times poking things with the Oak Staff to do damage equal to about 1/3rd of what the fighters are capable of. Hey, it's a major improvement over what a Black Mage does with the Mace ok!?
The Thread Cave gets a scare moment where my ENTIRE TEAM gets confused. Lucky for me, Ringabel uses Run and we get out of it. Tiz is actually my best character here because there are so many flying enemies, so the Iron Bow seems a lot of use. Also, thanks to DLCon, Norende is developing really fast, which while for shops isn't a big deal (the good stuff is way too expensive at this point.) Due to money reasons, didn't buy much from Yulyanna's Pet, which makes this dungeon a bit more annoying than it needed to be but ultimately, that one scare moment aside, everything was straight forward.
Dragon: Hey look, a Boss I don't remember at all! Goes down pretty easy, though one thing worth noting is due to how the boss works, after his initial onslaught to use the Bow special, Tiz actually equips a Dagger + Shield combo since his damage isn't big anyway and his speed makes him a prime Item Boy user. On top of that, Daggers activate Specials based on items used, so if Tiz is attacking, he might as well make it a big hit that boosts Edea's damage. The other thing to note? Bully is a pain in the ass. No, not hard to deal with other than I was low on Phoenix Downs (though not TOO low), but rather, the lowest HP character kept being Agnes so she kept dying, and was dead at the end of the fight so missed all EXP and JP from the fight. BAH I say to you!
Buy some Mithril Stuff, a few Norende equips (Lambent Hat for the mages, Rainbow Dress for Agnes). Mithril Sword vs. Axe was a tough choice; on one hand, Mithril Axe is cleanly better on damage and Stomp makes it's accuracy meaningless. On the otherhand, the Sword has a Special that can activate far easier (Use Brave vs. Kill Enemies), especially vs. Bosses, so I opt for that. Think it was the wise decision because I can equip Beast Slaying properties on the specials which will be handy for Othros. Also turned Tiz back into Monk because he gets a Beast Slaying weapon, which will be handy for the boss.
Othros: For a fight I remember giving me a lot of trouble, was able to beat him in one attempt. First time I fought him, kept resetting and then finally went in with *2* Staff Specials Ready. This time, having Agnes simply alternate between Default and Cure x2 seemed to work, while Tiz, Edea and Ringabel focus on killing one of the heads. Also got lucky in that he only used Blazzard twice in the fight. Once the Ice Head died, the fight was pretty simply and easy. Things that may have helped include giving Edea a Shield and using Shield Bash on turns instead of Ironclad, knowing that the breath damage is physical now.
The Clock Tower of Ancheim was uneventful other than enemies randomly would OHKO characters with Eye Gouge and such and because of low Phoenix Downs, I do leave the dungeon to restock. Turns out it wasn't necessary but better safe than sorry. I actually pay attention to some damage value related stuff for Tiz. First off, Mithril Bow on Thief is 86 attack vs. Edea w/ 2H Mithril Sword at 106 attack. Tiz is doing about 350-420 damage, depending on how many hits he gets, RNG, etc. Edea does about 450-520 damage w/ Stomp. So while Tiz's damage is clearly worse than Edea, he's still keeping up to some degree, which is a hell of a lot better than what he was doing as a Monk, where he downright needed Strong Strike to compete. I also look at equip differences too:
Mithril Sword is 18 power, so 36 w/ Two Handed. Mithril Bow is 34 power (albeit used by an A in the weapon vs. an S, so slightly weaker in practice). The Basest Claw is 23 Power, best weapon Monk can use (w/out Two Handed). Why am I posting this? Mostly to demonstrate why Thief is a huge upgrade vs. Monk. It's still cleanly worse than Knight, make no mistake, but worth noting that without Stomp, Tiz actually outdamages Edea thanks to increased hits, as well as further demonstrates that Bows do feel properly scaled against weapons w/ Two Handed while Claws do not, as we can see the Mithril Bow is only marginally weaker than a 2H Sword at the same time, while Claws are significantly weaker. In conclusion? Thief Tiz is competent, albeit nothing special. Monk Tiz is just kind of blech unless his claws can squeeze out damage. Oh yeah, Mithril Dagger is better than Oaken Staff too, so Thief Tiz even does better with a 1H Weapon should he require a shield.
BUT ENOUGH OF THAT! ONTO THE LAST BOSS I FACED!
Khamer/Khint: ...is really easy. The only thing worth noting is that Khamer loved to cast Stop on Tiz, which pisses me off because Tiz was trying to steal from him. Go figure, the successful steal was Ringabel using a Thief Knife item cast after many failed attempts by Tiz, despite Tiz being a Thief thus getting the Steal Up Bonus. Not much else to say, other than I open with the Level 2 Sword Special (again, thank you DLCon!) and Poison both since I shoved Poison on the special as a "why not" kind of thing. No, I don't think that was meaningful, because the two really aren't threatening.
Now Agnes has a stupid outfit, and Edea is now dressed in a 100% Approved By Ringabel Manner. She's immediately regretting this Heavy Armor decision.
This playthrough will probably be on hold until I finish FF3 Dual Playthrough. Mostly started it because of DLCon purposes, and the game I was playing was FF3DS and kind of want to keep the DS and NES version on equal footing. One last thing I'll note is I have MP Recovery Lv2 ready for Rejuvenation, which means Ringabel is probably a lot better because Agnes can every once in a while cast a bit healing spell that restores 30-40~ MP. Might actually equip her with 2 Staves just to allow more castings.
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I'm gone ten minutes and Zenny is on a long rant about a Record Keeper stat topic?
What the fuck, DL?
The Swindler: Fun game but this is not the Spelunky killer or anything.
This is some sort of stealth 2D platforming roguelike. You infiltrate one randomly generated house per in game day, to get $$$ that you spend on upgrades. You have 100 days to get to the end. You die in one hit and if you die you lost your day and reappear as another swindler the next day.
The premise is awesome but the execution is a bit off. I blame : Weird as hell controls and momentum that lead to very cheap deaths + a lack of meaningful choices in the skill progression (you just end up buying everything so each playthrough stay the same) + waiting around because this is a stealth game. (Fuck stealth games)
Evaluating risk / reward during a level is delicious. You can leave at any time, but there might be some more money inside... If you want to be punished for being a greedy bastard this is the best game.
Art / atmosphere is Tim Burton / Steampunk. Extremely generic but at least a little less than swordfantasy.
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Job systems, man. They're good. I'm sorely tempted to pick up FFD after this.
The thing that makes job systems good and interesting is that they provide a developmental framework for a character but let you pick what the framework is. They allow you to customize a character while also getting invested in them. When you compare it to a system where the character is basically just a coatrack, like FF7 or 8, this means that you have the freedom to build a character how you want, but them being unavailable actually means something. When you can't put Tifa in your party you can use the option on the menu that lifts all the materia from her and gives it to someone else and you don't have to give any fucks. On the other side, in something like FF4, characters are pretty much set in stone and might as well just come out of the box with all their abilities and just have Fire scale with level, which really isn't that fun unless you're doing something like WA4 where the boss battles are basically puzzles.
I think FF9 has an interesting flirtation with this idea, where character skills and active abilities are preset, but you can customize passives with relative freedom. Too bad every fucking battle animation is way too damn long for me to play that again. FF6 is also kind of this way in the stretch from Zozo to the Sealed Gate, where you probably haven't learned a lot of spells with any one character and they probably have specific niches. Too bad you can't mod it to use the D&D magic system, I guess.
Anyway I picked up Way of the Samurai 4 on Steam because a friend told me it was a pretty responsive narrative and I'm a sucker for historical narratives. What I was told was true but god damn if other parts of this game aren't weird as fuck. Apparently the way you romance ladies is to ask them out on a date and instead of going to a romantic seafood dinner you sneak into their house and yank them out of their bed?
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Final Fantasy The Autobattle You Can't Remember, The Autobattle I Can't Forget - Did Tifa event's Mage Path Heavyweight match, in which Motor Ball got two-rounded. Afterwards, I plunged into Lightning Orb farming and emerged from it with a R5 Thundaga. This is my second R5 Black Magic and it doesn't feel bad at all. The boss rush will be good.
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FFRK: Did full physical side of Tifa event. Came one star short of mastering boss rush, but got my skill so whatevs.
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Final Fantasy Souvlaki Autobattle Station - Just finished the Mage path of Tifa's Battle Arena. The bos rush is hilarious: three out of four bosses are weak to Lightning, two out of four are vulnerable to sleep and Bottomswell is vulnerable to poison in addition to the sleep vulnerability. I didn't even bring damage mitigation besides Protectga and it was entirely unnecessary, I could've pulled it off without healing (and mastered the rush losing only one medal in damage taken total because Bottomswell landed a Big Wave in one of the two turns it got). Of course, landing Sleep Buster first turn on Motor Ball and Bottomswell helped, but that's really all you need. Proccing poison off Vivi's 1% Dualcast Venom status odds was just insult added to injury. Funnily, you can beat Bottomswell entirely off Poizn + Sleep (and with Motor Ball being sleepable as well, it's worth bringing the status, especially when it synergizes as well as it does with magical offense), so you may want to try the rush even if your mage gear ain't so hot. Shellga is totally worth it.
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RK: Missed the mastery medal on the physical boss rush. I'm blaming a lack of FF7 weapons / enemy weaknesses / no black mage in my team. (maybe Vivi could kick ass with Aeris' rod, though even here)
So anyway now I'm grinding white power hard to get Retaliate past R1 for this.
I'm bringing a full core team: Warrior, Red Mage, Hunter, Ninja, Gladiator. Wow.
I also noticed that I had a 4* bow (Killer Bow) that gave an unique limit break to Ranger (!!) It actually looks nice and is pretty powerful too, it did 7x5000 damage. To be fair, that was against the low defense enemies in the dailies, and if you want to use it you still have to deal with Hunter's appaling defensive stats, but still!
I'm joking, it only does 900 damage
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Final Fantasy Decadent Sound Of Autobattle - Missed the mastery on the physical boss rush as well. The main problems were forgetting to score the Holy weakness on Gi Nattak and performing poorly on Rapps, who -refused- to be blinded, in stark contrast with the sleep spamming back in the mage path boss rush. If I need mastery to unlock the Schizo fight, I may try again, but a single Greater Non-Elemental Orb and six Greater Power Orbs aren't among my top priorities for item gathering. Maybe if it were 3x GNEOs. In the meanwhile, I'll just finish the remaining core elite dungeons in my turf.
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Lost Dimension - So I picked this up on a whim a couple days ago. The basic premise is...well, mafia-ish, honestly. Some wanker calling himself The End is threatening to destroy the world and you have 13 days(doesn't seem to be an actual time limit in game?) to stop him. Normal military measures fail to breach his
magic psychic tower thing, so they assemble a team of Gifted people(read: have psychic powers) from "all over the world"(read: Japan + one non-Japanese guy. He's the one that uses the katana) to get into the tower and defeat The End before he nukes every major city in the world at once somehow. The kicker? Once people get into the tower, The End somehow fucks with their memories so nobody remembers who they were with on the outside/how they got in/etc, and he reveals that someone in the group is a traitor. At the end of each stratum there's the Room Of Judgement, where you have to vote to kill one member of the party before you can go to the next level. Hope you get the traitor!
Except, uh, there's a new traitor each floor as "memories return the further up the tower you progress, which may cause someone to remember their true allegiance". Okay. Basically what's going on here is that the group will get whittled down from You+10 dudes, to You+5 dudes at the end of the game. Half your dudes are traitors, but only one at a time. Your main dude has a way to narrow down who the traitor is between fights, and other party members will ask your input on it which can influence their votes depending on how much they trust you. Oh, and who the traitors are is randomized. And every character is mentally fucked up in some way, so it's pretty much believable from anyone. :V
I won't spoil anything else plotwise for those interested in the game, so on to gameplay.
Gameplay has been described as "Like Valkyria Chronicles without the 1st person bits" which...is honestly about right. You have phases, you can move your dudes in any order during your phase, everyone has their own range of movement/range of attacking/etc. Enemies won't shoot at you while you move, but will counter if you attack from within their attack range. Also any allies who have that enemy within attack range will attack the enemy after the active person's attack as a support attack. Each character has a pretty wide skillset based on their particular psychic gift, you get Gift Exp every couple levels(and every story map for the participants in that map) to level up skills/buy new skills/etc. Some skillsets can look a bit samey, but even the two that resemble eachother the most(the Telekinetic and the Pyrokinetic) a) have different supporting skills to back up the damage options, and b) have waaaaay different stats and a different focus on ST vs MT damage. I'm really impressed by the skillsets overall.
Now this does raise the question of what happens to the skillsets of the people that you eliminate in the Room of Judgement. The answer is that you get an item which contains their skillset(or a part of it) that you can equip on one of the surviving people to give them access to the dead person's skills. So you never really lose anything that you've spent points on...but you can't continue spending points on the skillsets of the dead people. For me, the healer wound up as a traitor on floor 2. So I got 2 Fate Materia from his death: Rejuvenation(containing all his healing skills) and Side Effects(containing his one attack skill), letting me give access to those to someone else...but I can't progress them any further. This means no non-item based revival for me(was too far down his Rejuvenation line) or any of his Adaptation skills(couldn't get any of them that early. If I had, I'd have gotten a 3rd Fate Materia from him for Adaptation). It's an interesting system.
So far, I'm enjoying the game even though I just hit a spot that's kicking my ass hard enough that my response is "welp, time to grind". That or there's a strat to this map that I'm not seeing(probably the latter). Also my favorite character so far has turned out to be the traitor on floor 3. ;_;
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re: Lost Dimension
Awesome to see someone else trying this game out. I've been having a blast with it, but been wanting to compare notes on it with other DLers for a while now.
Did you also get George for Floor 1? I'm guessing he's always first, which is such a bummer since he was immediately my favorite character and I hope that on New Game Plus I can save him! He has a fully developed skillset and everything that I want to play with!
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Rk. I'm atrying boss rush in both sides if the event.
https://www.reddit.com/r/FFRecordKeeper/comments/395uia/friend_codes_megathread_part_2_or_the_im_not_full/
So I'm reading that lunneth's advance is starting to catch steam since you can stack it with a ton of things. It'd supposed to be great with the reta meta.
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Bravely Default job allocation reasoning.
I'd say that looks like a fair distribution. Considering that is literally the job allotment I came up with simply based on "what looks right" without any rules or stipulations for my own play through. I didn't keep characters from using others' classes though, so this could be interesting. Looking forward to Post Red Mage and Valkyrie write ups.
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Djinn(re: small text): Yup. I think that's different on NG+ though, yeah.
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Hmmm. I might get that later on.
RK:
I just brought Vivi to the fighter arena and he didn't give a fuck about supposedly "high enemy res". The fights were still overall pretty difficult, especially compared to the mage side aka steamroll central.
Even with 2x Carbuncle / POIZN / Magic Breakdown, Gi Nattak was a nasty bastard. Man they're making those random trashy FF bosses so good.
BTW you can just Curaga him for the holy weakness medal.
Retaliate is less good than I thought it'd be considering the hype. It's pretty balanced actually. You get pretty good damage for few skill uses (Just retaliate, Double Hit, Boost) but good bosses put enough pressure that you need to buff/debuff/status them and thus reduce your potential retaliate damage, and the damage is less good than if you just went on an all-out attack.
HP bars are coming and I'm not sure that's a good thing. They are cool, but they will make hard boss battles less suspenseful.
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I ordered Lost Dimension yesterday, blame Gate and Djinn. I'll see how it works out when it gets here.
Final Fantasy Autobattle Is Like A Bottle Of Gin - Mastered Macarena Woods Elite. You can actually keep Spherimorph from ever casting Press by following its Element Shift pattern to a tee: smack => hit elemental weakness => smack => lather rinse repeat. This solves that fight's fundamental problem. Crawler is just kinda nasty, though: having no healing and little to no mitigation until Negator dies against a boss who thrives on MT offense and counters is pretty rude. Good thing he's not too durable, so I just blitzed him with my physicallers once Negator was revived. Fun dungeon, anyway.
Quality of life updates good.
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Magicians & Looters: Beat it. It's a short game, but fun enough for that amount of time. Boss battles are challenging, but not frustratingly so.
The game is a metroidvania with three characters. It's implementation was probably it's weakest point. You can only switch characters at save points and sometimes a specific one was needed to get a certain roadblock. This meant you could play as someone, find out you need someone else and now you have to trek back to a save point. This encourage you to play as the fastest character. The fastest character also happens to have three "get past this roadblock" skills whereas the others only have one each. Finally, it's almost always much easier to just run past enemies than fighting them and you get no exp from killing them, so you have the recipe for a game where one character gets used more than the rest together. This is all done so that the game can have some fairly uninspired puzzles that rarely amounts to more than "here you have to play as Vienna/Brent/Nyn".
It's a pity because the characters all have the same core mechanic and switching from one to another doesn't feel awkward, but they still differentiates enough from each other so that they offer meaningfully different play-styles. It's just that the other game mechanics don't support that core idea.
Finding Teddy 2: Beat it shortly after. This game is also a metroidvania.
You play as a girl of maybe 10 years and the environments, while fairly low tech, are beautiful. This game is very cute, but doesn't restrict itself to be cute at all the time. There is one town where some inhabitants discusses who wants to kill who with a musical language. Then there's a dungeon where you receive a death threat via the same musical language. Finding Teddy 2 does so sparingly however and doesn't turn "hey, we toss brutality into a cute game" into a gimmick.
Controls and collision detection is fairly bad. This is to an extent mitigated by the fact that you very rarely need precision. If you have a hard time dodging enemy attacks, the problem is never that you need to become better at controlling your character, rather you need to approach the fight differently so that being good at dodging enemy attacks isn't needed in the first place. However, the poor controls is a problem when you're going on a collect-a-thon. In Super Metroid, if you go back to Brinstar late game in order to clean it out from powerups, you will have an easy time since your mobility and combat prowess is much greater than during the initial run trough of it. In Finding Teddy 2, while earlier aren't won't pose and threat to you later on, running trough them will never be relaxing. If you get reckless, you will get hit-stunned a lot and also get knocked down ledges so you have to redo jumps a lot as well.
A greater problem is that it's easy to get stuck int his game. For example, theres one dungeon where you encounter what looks like a bottomless pit, but it turns out you not only can jump down there and land on a floor, you have to do so. If you're someone who despises using a guide on your first playgroup, skip this game. BTW, also skip this game is you're deaf, have poor hearing or just a very bad sense of music. This game requires you to recognize musical sounds. Finally, the map layout isn't logical. There's one instance where you can enter two different doors, one positioned above the other. Both doors lead to the same outdoor area at roughly the same vertical height, but the topmost door leads to somewhere far to the left of the bottommost door.
In the end, I'd say that the ideas were there, but the game design skill wasn't.
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Final Fantasy I Thought You Were My Autobattle - Just one elite dungeon from the last update to clear (though two to master), and it's Giant of Babil 1. Sigh, having to use Dragoons for a mastery. At least I have Shellga, I might bring two white mages just for the sake of having both Shellga and Protectga up and about. The other healer can carry around Curaga and Diara or sumthin'. Lightning event's scheduled for next Monday, too. Let's see what the 11-pull will hand me.
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I'm super excited for HP bars in Record Keeper so I can finally efficiently take on the core Elite bosses. That can only be a good thing.
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Enemy HP bars are pretty much the best thing ever, visual spreadsheeting on the fly for the victolies (sorry, Fenny, suspense sucks). Remove All and ATB shuffling based on the last person to fill up the turn gauge are also amazing.
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I'm gone ten minutes and Zenny is on a long rant about a Record Keeper stat topic?
What the fuck, DL?
I would like to clarify that I was mostly yelling at DJ.
Too bad every fucking battle animation is way too damn long for me to play that again. FF6 is also kind of this way in the stretch from Zozo to the Sealed Gate, where you probably haven't learned a lot of spells with any one character and they probably have specific niches. Too bad you can't mod it to use the D&D magic system, I guess.
Oh, that brings up a good point. Both FF5 and FF6 are nigh unplayable now without frameskip. I really don't get why Frameskip hasn't been added as a feature to non-pirated games. Only perhaps RTS games don't benefit from frameskip. Specifically, toggle-able frame skip that you can turn off the second you're done watching the animation load for the umpteenth time and need to make a decision.
I haven't made any progress in FF5. I'm doing that thing I do with FF games where I get to the final dungeon and I just stop caring. Did it with FF7, did it with FF4, did it with FF3, FF10... actually a whole lot of RPGs, and not just JRPGs either. I dunno what it is. Feeling like I completed the game enough to not care? Not wanting to have the game end? Neither of those really apply here. Maybe I've just been busy. I guess it's only noteworthy because of how much of a recurring pattern it is with my RPG habits.
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I would like to clarify that I was mostly yelling at DJ. .
Harder. Harder! HARDER I SAID! Do it like it means nothing to you. Look me in the eye and stare 30 meters behind me so it looks like you don't care.
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cocksex
Yes.
Final Fantasy Autobattling England By The Pound - Holy hell, the Four Fiends boss rush dungeon is annoying as -hell-. Between Scarmiglione being a trudge and Cagnazzo having obnoxious paralysis counters, the whole thing's just a pain in the ass. I'm also not looking forward to Barbariccia and Maelstrom spam. Sigh. Amazing how FF4's dungeons consistently have the worst battle design. Which is pretty faithful to the origin game, I suppose.
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For those who still care about Brigandine there's a 99% full english translation patch now, free of bugs and arbitrary non-translation changes. There's no translation for the anime cutscenes but there is for everything else.
http://www.swordofmoonlight.com/bbs/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=869.0;attach=2615
Apply to ISOs with ppf-o-matic
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Just finished an RPG maker game called In Search of Immortality.
It's short, but that's a good thing as the plot is a simple one that would be poorly served by taking longer. Instead, you play long enough to get what's going on, and see the characters interact with each other. Which is great, since the writing is at its best in its banter. The final boss is also effectively played up for all the respect and drama he deserves.
But the best thing about this is the gameplay. Each character has their own class, and none of these classes draw on traditional RPG classes. Despite this, they all work. For example, your mage is a magical engineer, who can not only blast spells, but has a fair bit of utility and can create magitek weapons for anyone in the party to use in the middle of battle. You have an alchemist whose skillset manages to actively encourage you to craft items, even in the middle of combat. And with almost no rare items you don't have to save them for emergencies that may never arrive. You have your illusionist who is both a Turn Shift monkey and kinda of the party tank thanks to his decoys that give him perfect evade, when they're up. And all of his skills tend to give minor healing, just cause. And your priest, who manages to be one of the better slow but strong characters this side of Raquel, with a lot of his moves being slow, but all of them having a catch that makes them much faster, and having an instant speed ITD move that can be quite potent.
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Chroma Squad: I was supposed to work today but I just binge played Chroma Squad. Went from the beginning to almost the end.
This is a kickstarter'd SRPG. You are a group of actors playing in a sentai series like Power Rangers.
You need to do flashy moves to get more audience, more fans, more income... In fact, between battles, you can do the traditional buying / crafting / picking skills stuff you'd see in an RPG, but also pick a marketing strategy for your show (!) It gets pretty in depth and the management is as important as the actual battles.
This game is the most meta shit. You spend half the time not knowing whether what's happening is supposed to be a part of the sentai series within the game, or not. And then it gets more complicated as the cast gets seriously threatened by srs guys later on, but even then they keep acting and attracting fans and all. Because they need money to fight evil? BUT and that's the kicker, the filming crew (visible in every battle) is never acknowledged by the real villains when they really should be, so maybe all of this is also just an act. I don't know.
If that wasn't meta enough The Power Rangers company actually sued Chroma Squad, so Chroma Squad included the Power Rangers guys as enemies/huge douchebags in this game. Their lawyer is literally Satan.
Of course the game also has traditional 4th wall breaking on top of it.
Battles are... particular for a SRPG. There's no terrain and allies/enemies can't really block you, so there's excessive freedom of movement. The game's not too complicated as a result.
Every party member can for free use a support move instead of attacking. You can then launch other party members in the air for free (it's very useful) or combo if both party members are next to an enemy. If all 5 members combo at once, they get a crazy finishing move.
The game has some weird stats, including skill regen. Each skill has a cooldown before you can use them again, and higher skill regen reduces that cooldown.
Each party member starts with one skill and gets another one at the beginning of each chapter.
This means that at the beginning of the game, every party member mostly uses physical attacks, with the occasional skill once per battle (the cooldown is too long to use skills two times per battle, really) By the end of the game, every party member has like 4 or 5 active skills with almost no cooldown, and the game becomes very fun and very ridiculous.
You get 5 party members and can choose their looks and colours, but there are 5 fixed roles much like the XCOM roles. You get a limited choice of passive and active skills and can change them anytime, which is pretty cool.
Character breakdown:
Lead: Leader is the tankiest party member, so she was pretty useful as the girl at the beginning of the game I put generally in front. Enemies almost always attack the closest party memebrs. She has some nifty skills, but lacks a real niche. I consider her to be the least useful member of the team! Weird.
Medic: Very competent healer. She has a passive that makes her autoheal adjacent allies when using the support move, and that makes her the most useful party member in the early game by far; as this means she can both heal and attack within a combo in the same turn. Later on, she gets mass healing with low cooldown. Her healing skills are also one of the best ways to raise audience.
Brawler: Obviously Brawler does the most damage, which sounds good on paper but is not very significant earlygame. Everyone else does low 2HKO damage and she does high 2HKO. So, she kills enemies as slowly as the others, unless she uses her weapon skill or is facing a particularly tough enemy or a boss. However, she does slowly start getting absolutely ridiculous skills: A traditional Spin2Win move that basically OHKO any regular enemy adjacent to her, plus a Trample skill that doesn't cost an action and makes her move 5 spaces away while damaging anything in the way. So you can go Move -> Trample - > Spin2Win to go to other side of the battlefield while killing half the enemy forces, yay, BALANCED
Techie: Techie's the gun nut, and not a particularly powerful party member, but notable for having the first AoE in the game. He then also gets a very strong AOE attack/movement debuff , and that's about it. Good enough!
Scout: Scout's the MVP! Scout is already dominant at the beggining of the game, because she has an AoE stun that doesn't cost a turn. It's a real lifesaver. Then all her skills she gets next are ridiculous. She gets +2 movement (on top of her passive +1), a skill that's stronger than a physical attack that she can use every round, and then some ninja invincible backstab healing stuff that's completely OP. Endgame Scout is unreal. In fact she is unkillable.
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The starting director the squad walks out on is Haim Saban.
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FFRK: Mastered the mage-side boss rush. Spent a mythril at Motor Ball to refresh my spell charges. Was worried that I'd have to do the same at Bottomswell, but his pdef is actually not that good and Balthier finished him off with a normal attack right after I ran out of spell uses. Key to this event was obviously 94 magic black mage Sephiroth.
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Lufia: The Legend Returns- Beat.
I found myself continually shocked at the game's ability to be obviously budget but still kinda neat in spite of it. Like, the core game too, but also the translation. Some dude had to crank this out over a weekend. But... the way it plays out works well with the actual plot, because fact that party are simple-headed doofuses and Wain is King of the Idiots is an actual plot point anyway, so if he says something really dumb that's okay. If the Sinistrals are completely lacking in any gravitas, that fits the tone of the game because duh, Wain is so goddamned stupid they can't keep a straight face at him, let alone give full supervillain rants about FRUE DESTRUCTION/THE POWER OF CHAOS/PURE TERROR.
The party layout aspects of the game are kinda neat just for the fact that it gives characters who in most RPGs would be utter bench-bait actual use. Sure, Mousse has half the effective stats of most of the cast because he can't use equipment, but he also gets essentially free actions, he goes in the party and never leaves it. It's in keeping with most of Lufia 3; sure, it's probably not really GOOD, but it's just interesting enough to carry you through the game. Solid 6/10 material.
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Yeah Lufia 3 is cool. Best in the series.
Except when it freezes on the 180th level of the Ancient Cave.
RK: Did the two 1337 bosses of the current event, mastered the magical one (not too though)
Wait until HP bars are a thing before trying to master Schizo guys. This guy are sick.
Losing three medals means missing the mastery, and you are going to lose at least two medals on damage taken and actions taken. Losing another medal is very easy even with ridiculous damage mitigation. (As in R2 Magic Break, R2 Magic Breakdown, Sentinel's Grimoire, + R2 Shellga)
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Just a general heads up, the Danganronpa games are on sale on PSN for $20 each. I haven't played them but a lot of people really think highly of them and I'm generally into visual novels so I'm at least on board.
Also finished Arkham Knight and am generally disgruntled. Maybe I'll do a longer post later.
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RK: Did the two 1337 bosses of the current event, mastered the magical one (not too though)
Wait until HP bars are a thing before trying to master Schizo guys. This guy are sick.
Losing three medals means missing the mastery, and you are going to lose at least two medals on damage taken and actions taken. Losing another medal is very easy even with ridiculous damage mitigation. (As in R2 Magic Break, R2 Magic Breakdown, Sentinel's Grimoire, + R2 Shellga)
Final Fantasy Various Autobattles And Saints - Just mastered the Proudclad fight, and, as Fenny advertised, he's no big deal. R2ing both Firaja and Waterja paid off big here, since it meant I could rock both Quistis and Vivi with four shots of 9k damage, no weakness involved, which was more than enough to quickly dispatch the Jamar Armor. I capped off with Blind + Mental Breakdown + Magic Breakdown on Proudclad, then Shellga on my PCs, then suddenly Proudclad could barely ever damage me (his only non-physical offense is Mana Cannon, which takes a turn to charge. Under Shellga + Mag Breakdown, it deals uh 150~ damage per PC. I'm scared. No, really). Schizo, I haven't tried out yet.
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Schizo also only does 100 damage after every mitigation skill is up, but both head act + you can't have both heads with Magic Breakdown throughout the entire fight unless you have ridiculous hones.
I'm getting Tifa to the sunday dungeon + getting some new orbs monday before trying again. My lack of good FF7 gear (outside of Aeri's rod) is showing here. The rewards are not crazy but I'd hate to miss a single 5* orb.
I do consider this game to be legit real good now that autobattles are over. There's more strategy and planning involved than any other Final Fantasy, it's also the only one outside of FF12 in which status doesn't just feel like a novelty for challenge playthroughs.
I'm slowly getting to the end of the elite dungeons, I only have FF4/6/7/10 left. About 5 levels in each on average. I'm sure there will be another dungeon update before I have time to progress any further though.
Chroma Squad: Massive difficulty spike at the end of the game, oh boy. I could just cheese with Scout I guess, but that's no fun.
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Yeah, I just tried Schizo and I think my problem there is action economy. I think it's not worth bothering to get two medals on damage taken, since they have too much MT and their dying attack Dragon Fang is their -only- physical attack, which is a dick move. However: R1 Shellga + Magic Break + SG is -definitely- enough for the damage to be unthreatening on both heads throughout. I brought both Mag Breakdown and two Mag Breaks, and that second Mag Break was totes overkill. Still, what I really need there is either a better synergy weapon for FFVII or Armor Breakdown to raise my DPT. I might give that a try, at least I got that Champion's Belt for good measure.
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Sure that Dragon Fang is physical? From what I've heard it's magic.
According to this https://www.reddit.com/r/FFRecordKeeper/comments/3dnap6/ranking_medal_criteria
You'd need to do less than 31 actions to get all three medals on actions taken. Seems impossible without crazy gear to me.
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Final Fantasy 3: Just got the Earth Crystal Jobs!
-Ancient Ruins is more annoying than I remember. No, not because of Splitting Enemies in the NES version before you have Dark Swords, that's manage-able if you have a Magic user (I had Conjurer), and are careful. The real reason is because there's a lot of enemies calling support. As in, basically splitting enemies only they do it unprovoked, so you can get into those situations Dragon Quest games love to shove you in of "STOP SUMMONING ALLIES!" DS version caps enemies at 3, so it's less annoying there, at least.
-NES version knew how good the Blood Lance was, and planned the Ancient Ruins around that. Enemies must resist Wind (which is what just about every Dragoon weapon is) because Dragoon does notably less damage than you'd expect, and Dragon Zombies mean you can't use Blood Lance, and dual Wind Lances are just not going to cut it here, since just about every other Job can do more damage over 2 turns than Dragoon's Jump.
-Cave of Shadows in the NES version loves Ambushes and that's a pain in the ass. Also, Conjurer is not enough of a Mage for this area, due to MP reasons. Black Mage is definitely better if only because it'll last much longer in a dungeon like this in terms of resources, and you want more reliable status. In the DS version, while I did see the splitting gimmick, it's honestly pretty mundane because enemies are easily 2HKOed and the clone take the HP AFTER the attack, so it's not too hard to just barrel through things. I used a Dark Knight anyway because I did my first playthrough, and as I said, trying to see how emulating that would go now that I have more knowledge of the game.
-Dark Sword's gimmick in the DS version seems to work against everything the game does otherwise. As in, when you attack with 2 Weapons, the game just lumps it as one attack with the combined power of both, but multiplies it by 0.6 to compensate, and it seems to apply it to elements as well. However, if you hit a Splitting Enemy with a Dark Sword + Non-Dark Sword, the enemy will still split if they don't die. This also applies to Soul Eater, making me respect that move less.
-...also, Soul Eater does really kind of suck. This is not really surprising given as I keep noting FF3DS never has formations greater than 3 (barring the one sewer forced encounter that has 4), so MT damage can only be so much, you're better off just doing the significantly higher ST damage and not taking the physical.
-NES version, Cave of Darkness is as annoying as expected if it wasn't obvious. DS version? It's pretty mundane. With the exception of Vasagos who hit considerably harder than anything else, enemies aren't very threatening so long as you have enough healing, the dungeon is a lot shorter due to less downtime on invisible pathes and the ability to move in diagonals, as well as some rooms being modified (NES version, the last room has a cocktease where an invisible path leads ALMOST to the boss but can't get there, making you have to go the long way. FF3DS, it cuts that out entirely and just has a straight run.) Furthermore, doing the NES version without a Dark Knight, let alone 2 like I was using, is hellish. Sure, a well built Karateka using Build Upx2 can probably OHKO them, at the risk of getting slaughtered, a Dragoon using Jump with some RNG luck can do well (and even without some, he probably hits hard enough that the split isn't too strong), a bunch of mages can help, but that's of work when Dark Knights just rip it apart. On the flipside, you can easily get away without Dark Knights in the DS version. As I said, enemies get 2HKOed on average here (heck, there's a few that have only 1-2k HP), and you have an enemy cap of 3, so splitting enemies aren't really that dangerous. On top of that, Mages have unlimited offensive resources thanks to Item Casting Rods (which use Aras), so that's extra damage allowing to chip around splitting enemies.
-This dungeon made me despise how the NES version handles running and defending. Not being able to use a Defend command on Mages is a pain in the ass when I just want them to not attack, since attacking = splitting enemies. Luckily, you can have them just use a weapon as an item to skip a turn so there's that, but I much prefer Defend just being a common action anyone can use (well, FF3DS Thief can't). More to the point, Running Away is bullshit because DEFENSELESS IS THE DUMBEST IDEA EVER. FF2 already screwed running up a lot with the whole "if enemy is too strong, you can't run, gg!" which I guess is their way of saying "you went to a spot you're not suppose to lol" but kind of falls on it's face against Hill Gigases of Dist. So FF3NES decided to screw it up in a different way with Defenseless. No, Running away should not have a major penalty like that. You're already penalized both in how a failure = a completely wasted turn and the fact that running offers no rewards for the fight.
For the record, FF4's "you lose Gil!" thing was stupid too, albeit, not really worth ranting about since the impact was minor, so just a typical "stupid idea that ultimately didn't hurt the game too much." True, running in the ATB games was easier for a number of reasons (...let alone FF10 where they outright gave you "Get out of combat free!" move on Tidus damn near close to the start), but the fact that you're not getting any sort of rewards for combat in itself is a risk, hence making you want to use it sparingly on it's intrinsic merits. Not to mention some people just use Run because the enemies are fodder and it's faster to skip them then have to go through several actions to wipe them out and see the victory screen.
FF3DS Run seems to suck granted, but more in a success rate kind of way if you aren't using Thief's Escape or getting lucky with the Chocobo Evoker/Sage summon, which ok, I guess that's a thing, but at least FF3DS doesn't do what games like Dragon Quest do where Run is a PARTY action, not a character action, and failing that = entire turn skipped.
-Hekaton sucks in both games. He's better in the DS version since damage is higher and he double acts, but if you so much as cast MT Healing every turn, he can't kill you outside of bad RNG. NES version, he died in like 2-3 turns (I swapped a character back to Knight because might as well get back to that.)
-Titan sucks in NES version. I summoned Odin via Conjurer, got the MT Reflect, watched him hit himself with Flare as we pounded on him. As a reminder, Reflect in FF3 has no negative side effects. Titan in FF3DS? Somewhat harder, but I am sequence breaking. The game has him balanced to assume you've faced Doga/Unei already, and possibly done Leviathan/Bahamut's dungeons (which can be done as soon as you get the Invincible, but I chose not too due to a combination of Evoker/Conjurer's MP not caring about those two until the very end (and even then, just Leviathan) as well as would rather get those Skill Levels on more meaningful jobs, at least for the DS version anyway.) The noteworthy thing he has is Quake and a decent physical, so no one can really tank him well outside of a dual shield Red Mage w/ a White Robe, who completely nullifies Quake and in back row, can take a few hits of his physical. Ultimately, I beat him on my 2nd attempt item casting Defender on him and the Evoker, while my 2 Physical PCs died off from Quake, and the rest of the fight was Ingus (the Red Mage) casting healing while Arc summoned Titan, wondering what will run out first, his HP or my MP (...albeit I had Elixirs so...), turns out his HP went first!
-I spent a little more time after getting jobs prepping for Sage. In DS version, this was done immediately because now that I have Sage, I turned Arc into that since he loses practically nothing compared to Evoker, but now gains a whole bunch of healing and some damage upgrades. Debating if he should use Black Robe for damage or White Robe for the slight MDef Boost (due to Mind); don't think it matters TOO much granted, but will probably have a spare White Robe on hand just in case. If I need an extra dedicated healer, Ingus has every single White Magic spell as is and thus can turn into a Devout if necessary. For the NES version...well, if you don't prep sometime around now, you'll be forced to leave the final dungeon, go through the Labyrinth of Ancients, get all the spells you need and turn around...and seriously, **** that, because that's a boring, dull dungeon with no real worth! Just ask FF14!
-Current teams if you're wondering are Knight/Dark Knight/Shaman/Summoner in NES version, and Dragoon/Dark Knight/Sage/Red Mage in DS version. DS version isn't going to change much, NES version...well...anyone whose played the game knows what's going to happen there. I COULD try to beat the game without doing that, but in a dual playthrough? Probably not wise.
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Sure that Dragon Fang is physical? From what I've heard it's magic.
According to this https://www.reddit.com/r/FFRecordKeeper/comments/3dnap6/ranking_medal_criteria
You'd need to do less than 31 actions to get all three medals on actions taken. Seems impossible without crazy gear to me.
Three medals on actions -is- completely impossible, but two sounds feasible. And Dragon Fang even -should- be magical, but it dealing 900 damage -after- magic breakdown + Shellga + Sentinel's Grimoire sounds really crazy, that'd make it MT overkill without mitigation. Regardless, I'm not sure if I'll even try again. I think the two medals loss is just way too punishing to attempt mastery here, at least with my current resources. Mastering Proudclad is pretty good, at least!
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AtL2. Beaten. Elc, Sania, Poco and Tosh were levels 115-130. Used Dieckbeck and fed his exp to those 4 for maximum smash. It worked really well as I did not even grind those levels. This was without Dieckbecks final unit, whose requirements are too obscure even for me.
Rolled the final boss in record time. Sania used Divide and then Tosh/Elc smashed him in the face with fully charged physicals. Took maybe 5 minutes total for both forms.
Invincible -> enemies surround Elc -> AoE smite works way too well. Weak Enemy into Divide on Sania is also a nice fast MT KO.
Hope to redo a stat topic for the game.
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Etrian Odyssey Untold 2:
Okay this is my first EO. I bought this one because it had the cuter girl on the cover. I went with story mode because only the story characters have voices. Naturally I picked expert or I would make Fenrir cry.
First floor I blindly walk into a deer and die. You get dog PC then cry went you find out he's temporary.
The default classes it gives you seem rather awkward. Main character is a glass cannon elemental swordsman. He gains a transformation form and does 5x more damage than anyone else but runs out of TP too quickly. I don't know what a "war magus" is suppose to truly be, but it doesn't fit the little girl in robe and wizard hat.
There's a lot of Canadian jokes.
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Etrian Odyssey Untold 2:
Okay this is my first EO. I bought this one because it had the cuter girl on the cover. I went with story mode because only the story characters have voices. Naturally I picked expert or I would make Fenrir cry.
Restart in classic mode and do a Bear SCC plz
Chroma Squad: Finished this. The game has an inverted bell difficulty curve because the last few battles are really hard. Also, Scout dealt no damage because of some glitch Big problem when she usually did 50% of the team's damage against bosses (Assault doing 40%)
Lead became really useful because of her utility skill: One free skill that makes everybody gather around Lead (even if they're all across the map), and one AOE healing + attack buff move.
In fact, the medic and techie are the one who got pretty much outclassed for the last few maps (they're still useful don't get me wrong)
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Final Fantasy The Cactus Where Your Autobattle Once Was - Sunday daily grindans ensues. Hopefully I'll get Refia to L50 so I can finally grab that L50 FF3 PC Mythril quest.
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I like the sunday daily.
Finding the perfect middle ground between priotizing
- Short term (Tifa, for the current event)
- Middle term (Fran, who's going to be the default support at max level)
- Long term (Paladin Cecil, for the upcoming FF4 events)
- ??? term (Irvine, best sprite in the game)
- Dem cores (Red mage)
while still having a team capable of finishing 9 battles in a row and getting mastery for max xp.
EOU Troubadour SCC Hard Mode:
Ephraim reminded me of this so I went back to it. It is grueling. Battles take 10 rounds each. Very long, very difficult, very tiring.
Morale was at an all time low at the lower levels of the 3rd stratum, where I was just dying from some random crabs. I could access a golem on the higher floors but he just OHKOed everybody and was 300HKOed by my puny bards.
There was hope though.
I beat the Golem not too long after encountering him by getting into srs prostrats with bards. Then the 3rd stratum boss was a joke compared to him (I actually beat him on the first try? This NEVER HAPPENS in this challenge) And now the 4th stratum has relatively easy randoms too! Huh.
I also found grimoires that allow my bards to equip katanas/guns, the strongest weapon types in the game at the moment!
Maybe there's hope for bards?
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Final Fantasy Please, Please, Please Let Me Autobattle What I Want - Still grindans. Refia is L48 and SEPHIROTH zomg is L34 hyep. Hilariously, Yuna reached the level cap. Selphie, who was included for sanity reasons (Protectga + Curaga highly minimizes S/Ling), is L57. You can't say I lack properly levelled healers, at least (Vanille and Lenna both at 50, both MCless, Garnet and Yuna level-capped, Selphie well on her way). It'd be nice if they threw more mages at us, but Quistis is L50 at least. I don't think I have to mention Vivi being level-capped, since he's still the top Black Mage in the current Global metagame. Tally-chu would be proud.
EDIT: Oh yeah, Fenny, you said you wanted guns to make Irvine usable, right? Rinoa's reissue banner, which will come up some three events from now (Lightning, Eiko and Aerith reissue come first) will have two 5* guns. If you're bent on getting that specific weapon type, it -might- be better to wait for that instead of splurging on the Lightning banner tomorrow (not to mention getting the Vega pretty much ENSURES you'll end up using Sazh, Boon is just obscenely good).
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Tales of Xillia: So Cline has a bad ass butler named Rowen. That is awesome, pity he's an NPC who just helps us get through a certain sequence...
...oh wait, he's my primary mage...well, I guess ToX just gained +1 Bad Ass UOM Butler compared to like all other Tales games. whee!
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Final Fantasy Please, Please, Please Let Me Autobattle What I Want - Still grindans. Refia is L48 and SEPHIROTH zomg is L34 hyep. Hilariously, Yuna reached the level cap. Selphie, who was included for sanity reasons (Protectga + Curaga highly minimizes S/Ling), is L57. You can't say I lack properly levelled healers, at least (Vanille and Lenna both at 50, both MCless, Garnet and Yuna level-capped, Selphie well on her way). It'd be nice if they threw more mages at us, but Quistis is L50 at least. I don't think I have to mention Vivi being level-capped, since he's still the top Black Mage in the current Global metagame. Tally-chu would be proud.
EDIT: Oh yeah, Fenny, you said you wanted guns to make Irvine usable, right? Rinoa's reissue banner, which will come up some three events from now (Lightning, Eiko and Aerith reissue come first) will have two 5* guns. If you're bent on getting that specific weapon type, it -might- be better to wait for that instead of splurging on the Lightning banner tomorrow (not to mention getting the Vega pretty much ENSURES you'll end up using Sazh, Boon is just obscenely good).
Yeah, fuck Lightning's banner, the Deluxe ++ boss sounds masterable without specific FF13 weapons anyway since he has a weakness (to ice)
Hoarding these 160~mithrils for a while longer.
Irvine might still be inferior to Fran with his weapon honestly. Higher pdef (he's in the back row), lower mdef, comparable damage? Anyway, none of that matters, he shot Edea from so far away, on the first try. With a shotgun. So cool.
I thought the learning limit breaks update would be completely useless except to P2W players, but I can actually find some use. Lenna will have both mass regen and full revival available at once, Aeris will have MT healing without keeping her awesome mage rod away from Vivi.
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The usefulness of the new mechanic is directly proportional to how many character-unique SB equips you have floating around, more or less. This is bound to become more relevant later on, with the increased %* relic drop rate and progressive rigging in your favor with gatcha draws, both mechanics that should be implemented not too far from now. Currently, my best use for it would be having the option to use both Focus Magic and Dualcast Venom and choosing accordingly - there's no reason to use Red XIII's Sled Fang ever and Wakka's Element Reels have a sucky mult. Being able to pick SBs is a bigger thing, though: Blessing of Spira, for instance, is a -horrible- SB to be your only choice if you're not Yuna sans Magistral Rod, but as an option between multiple moves, it's actually quite neat to have.
Also, Irvine's going to be markedly inferior to Fran until Full Break is a thing. Irvine's stats suck ass and his equipment options are horrible, while Fran is pretty solid on those two fronts. Hell, even assuming both have their unique weapons, Fran kicks him to the curb, since her Loxley Bow Soul Break is pretty good for a short full-party DPT boost and Irvine's is just a generic high-damage limit that sucks against crowds due to massive unfocusing and runs off his sub-Kimahri attack. It doesn't even have the hilarious wtf potential it once had with specific Vit0 shenanigans.
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Final Fantasy The Language Of Autobattle - QoL update is out! The enemy HP gauges look sexy and lovely, as expected. I have pretty much nothing to do until the Lightning event starts tonight, so I decided to do some fire/earth orb farming (why not, I'll likely need it to R5 Fira Strike). Then, the game hands me two Greater Fire Orbs in my first dungeon run. I see no reason to complain.
Also, Lightning event will be, suitably, Greater Lightning Orb heaven. I'm so looking forward to that, R2ing either Thundaja or Armor Breakdown sounds great.
EDIT: Also, pay heed to the tiny new Event icon on the event screen which wasn't there as of yesterday.
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Yeah but I thought that relic SBs would pretty much always outclass default SBs, and only people who go "Wow I can't hold all these character specific 5* relics lol" would bother with this feature?
Anyway, I mastered Schizo on the first try since the update. Got the delicious orbs.
HP Bars man. OP as hell. And I have to admit they are sexy.
The lightning attack is definitely magic, I managed to lower it to 300 MT with Shellga / Sentinel Grimoire / Magic Break on.
Team:
Cloud, R2 Bladeblitz, R5 Armor Break.
Tifa, R2 Magic Break, R5 Mental Break
Wakka, R2 Magic Breakdown, R4 Boost
Yuna, R2 Shellga, R1 Haste
Vivi, R2 Quake, R3 Waterja
Some of the high hones were completely unneeded (Especially Shellga)
The only good FF7 gear I had was Aeris' rod on Vivi, and he was the least useful party member. Edit: And I forgot to give them good record materias. Cloud had none!
First turn: Wakka breakdowns one head, Tifa breaks another, Yuna Shellgas, whoever else uses SG.
Yuna hastes and Wakka boosts Cloud, congrats he now does 8000 MT damage with Bladeblitz superfast. Then Yuna/Wakka do the same thing to Tifa. Vivi spams Quake then Waterja. Reapply debuffs and buffs when needed, be especially careful once one of the heads is at low HP.
Edit : Oh my there's a new screen that shows all the materias you haven't gotten yet. Gotta catch em all. I miss 17. :(
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Anyway, I mastered Schizo on the first try since the update. Got the delicious orbs.
HP Bars man. OP as hell. And I have to admit they are sexy.
The lightning attack is definitely magic, I managed to lower it to 300 MT with Shellga / Sentinel Grimoire / Magic Break on.
Yeah, Dragon Fang's thing is that the Schizo head CLEARS ITSELF OF ALL DEBUFFS before using it. So, you want both SG and Shellga up at that point. I realized my SG had probably run its course. I might attempt Schizo again prioritizing Red damage alongside Cloud and replacing Yuna's Curaga (which -shouldn't be used-, you want to run the fight sans healing as much as you can) with Boost, then handing both Magic and Armor Breakdown to Wakka. Also, I can't imagine ever needing to hone Shellga/Protectga unless you don't want to use Concentrate, two castings will last you through essentially any fight as of now.
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Oh yeah. I did recast SG right after the first head was about to die so that probably helped mitigate the damage to only 300ish MT.
That R2 Shellga probably was a waste of orbs. I didn't realize it lasted that long.
At least I won't be worried by Shell going away ever.
Anyway Snow: That major egg I got from mastering Schizo. Hmmmmmmmmm. It is succulent.
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Devil Survivor - Slowly chugging through this. It's a fun little game, abysmal plot and characters but at least the gameplay's pretty legit.
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Also finished Arkham Knight and am generally disgruntled. Maybe I'll do a longer post later.
Do share! Always interested to hear people complain about things that I also complain about.
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Restart in classic mode and do a Bear SCC plz
3 bears and 2 pandas or 2 bears and 3 pandas?
Why do they look so sad?
(http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/etrian/images/1/17/Beast.png/revision/latest?cb=20120520054845)
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3 Bears.
They are sad because Goldilocks haxored their emails.
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Final Fantasy Lloyd, I'm Ready To Be Autobattled - Lightning event out! I did my 11-pull first thing and I got... a Keepsake Knife. It's -kinda- disappointing from a fangirling point of view, sure, but on the other hand I was badly hurting for a 5* knife and this is one of the best around: besides +94 Attack, it boosts Def -and- Res by 10 AND has a Protectga shared SB. I also got a Red Jacket, which is now my best Light Armot available overall, so I can't say I'm dissatisfied with the results. Now, to trudge through the dungeons.
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Welp, got a second Judgement Staff *and* Royal Gown. I'm 99% sure I want to combine the staves, but leaning towards keeping the gowns split right now, since I only have Mystery Veil and a new FF13 bracer for 5* armor otherwise.
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Yeah, I'd definitely keep the hat. And shit, I'm badly hurting for *5 hats as well, my best one is a fake-6* Ten-Gallon Hat. Even getting a second Royal Crown would be nice for combining. I've been getting good weapons pretty consistently, but had sketchy luck at best for armor. I guess I'll save for a pull on the Aerith event, which is mage equip town.
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Um, I have 2x Royal Gown, not 2x Mystery Veil. Not nearly as sexy, but with one of Balthier or Fran in the party at pretty much all times I could actually use the defense.
I also forgot I just got a 5* FF6 Shield, because Shields suck.
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Shields do suck, but the FFX Emerald Shield I have at least serves me for using Edgar as filler and pulled me through a lot more easily on the Yuna event. Having a 5* equip you can use is just better than not. Also, I forgot I also have a FFX Monk Robe, which is silly given how I'm always shuffling it around between my healers and Balthier.
I still want a 5* hat. Oh well, I'll just wait for the Aerith reissue, which should be up next week.
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Shovel Knight - Downstab is the best. Anyway, I just finished Polar Knight and Tinker Knight's stages and beat down the bosses. Tinker Knight part 2 I'm afraid I've watched too many times to find very challenging thanks to hard mode.
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Ephraim they just want a hug <3
They have "Auto-Lick" which is the best sounding ability
RK: There are only two five stars hats apparently, so don't wish for them too much
I have seven cores trying to learn their OP SBs through daily dungeons and the first levels of the event. It's going slowly.
I am pretty sure the only good one is the bard's. I am curious about Summoner's that calls a random summon though. Can he randomly summon Odin or Bahamut? (My guess is no)
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Nope. It's trash like Bomb and Mist Dragon or something.
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And Bard's relevance will disappear since Aeris' new SB is straight up better :(
Rip cores and thanks for everything, hinode's bard
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Final Fantasy God Wants Us To Autobattle - Welp, completed Lightning event's wussy path, unlocking her and Sazh on the way. Egged her all the way up to L42 and now I'm taking her to black power grindans, which is simply unskippable as of now. I considered grinding for lightning and wind power tomorrow, but her event drops a lot of Lightning Orbs, so I'm decently covered in that regard.
EDIT: a quick check tells me they replaced the Mog/Edward and Firion/Leon events (which were Japan-contextual, collab deals) with a single, week-long, Festival of Gold-like event where, in addition to those PCs, you'll get obscene amounts of gil, Mythril, upgrade materials and growth eggs. For people who missed Squall and Yuna, there'll also be an opportunity to get them again. This oughta be good.
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Despite me not wanting to, I went against better judgment and tried to get that sexy gun.
50 mithril gone....no 5 star drops.
Boooooooo.
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Mang, you just can't seem to catch a break.
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Final Fantasy Sex, Autobattle, Sex - Still grindans. Anyhow, couldn't resist and spent another 15 Mythril on a 3-pull.
I got a Danjuro.
I swear, my gatcha luck in this game.
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Danjuro, Will Robinson! Danjuro!
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=)
<3
Final Fantasy Autobattle Me With Ecstasy - I tried Schizo again and I even managed to improve my actions taken score, but no such luck on the damage taken one. I'll just give up on the extra Major Growth Egg. In other news, holy crap having two 5* daggers really opens up my party venues. Especially when one of them nearly breaks 100 Attack. What the fuck, game, giving me the best two daggers in the current meta.
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"Brag brag brag~"
Final Fantasy Lord of the RNGs: Lightning works really nicely in my party, so I egged her up to 47. I could egg her further but then she'd hit the Level Cap before I grabbed her crystal. I just noticed that she gets guns, which means she's the only Spellblader who can use ranged weapons IIRC (outside Keeper himself of course). Now I really want a 5* Gun... which means there's roughly a 0% chance of getting one. Sigh...
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That's pretty much Lightning's big draw: ranged spellblading shenanigans. At least, the current event gives you two 3* guns, which you can combine. The next FF13 event will -also- have a copy of that same gun, so you can keep it shelved for upgrading it to 3++*. It's no natural 5*, of course, except when it -becomes- so in FF13 dungeons due to RS bonuses, so it could be worse. I'll be using her with the Keepsake Knife myself.
Also, if you care, in two weeks Eiko's event will be up and you'll get another shot at the Oak Staff.
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Final Fantasy (I Am Always) Touched By Your Autobattle - R5 Blizzaga under my belt. Brynhildr, your ass is -mine-.
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Yeah Lightning could be pretty useful for those ranged battles.
I tried giving Loser Rinoa's chakram + spellblbades, and he was fucking useless.
My Danjuro has been one of my most used weapon, very useful on supports and bare handed characters.
Have I mentioned Waterja being really fucking good? I'm going to bring it to R4 before considering investing 4* fire/ice orbs into anything else. It only costs 18 big fire/ice orbs to get it from R3 to R4! (plus black orbs but I already have like 100 of them)
R4 Waterja could be an actual real thing, in my portfolio, soon-ish.
I suspect R4->R5 also only costs 25 fire/ice orbs, and if so, lol
I am being all Snow and getting orbs all day instead of doing the event. Just trying to get R5 Blizzara strike for the event boss. This + R4 Blizzaga should be enough.
EOU: Floor 18.
Floor 17 had like 30 of those stone trees that took ages to kill with bardz. Progress is slow.
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Firaja / Blizzaja :
R1 costs 8 orbs
R1 -> R2 costs 15 orbs
R2 -> R3 costs 30 orbs
R3 -> R4 costs 45 orbs
R4 -> R5 costs 75 orbs
173 orbs total
Waterja:
R1 costs 3 orbs (ice and fire)
R1 -> R2 costs 6 orbs
R2 -> R3 costs 12 orbs
R3 -> R4 costs 18 orbs
R4 -> R5 costs 30 orbs
69 orbs of each element total
It's way easier to find a varied selection of orbs than only one kind of orb
It's the least resisted element outside of maybe wind but nobody cares about wind
Water is also good for your body
(http://www.mycariboonow.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Water-Advisory-Committee.jpg) = OP
Invest in 2 R4 Waterja before even glancing at lowly Firaja/Blizzaja
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Also finished Arkham Knight and am generally disgruntled. Maybe I'll do a longer post later.
Do share! Always interested to hear people complain about things that I also complain about.
Okay!
Arkham Knight: So, a lot of the problems I have with this are problems I have with general AAA game design. Here there are sidemissions all over the place and while they're not as annoying to deal with as objective vomit from something like a Far Cry or Assassin's Creed, several of the missions don't seem very well considered or designed. Like, oh okay there are bombs all over the city, let's upload a virus and then fight 40 tanks for no reason. Or let's take out a random outpost. That's not quite fair because some of the missions have at least some character interaction between villains that can be okay, but all of the villains outside of the Knight and Scarecrow are just doing random assorted things around the city and are relegated to side missions. As with Dragon Age Inquisition and some other games, there is a difficulty in maintaining a proper amount of tension in the main story for large open world games with a ton of sidequests. The main story ends up taking a backseat when you can just fly around beating the shit out of random people on the street for no particular reason or cruising around in your causing millions and millions of dollars of property damage. "Scarecrow must be stopped," but nah I'll just disarm some bombs and solve every crime that's going on in the city before I handle that.
Because most of the villains are left for side missions, the confrontations don't tend to be very memorable, and you have an explicit sense of where you are in a quest because you are shown a little timeline of rewards every time you do something, which wasn't a good way of incentivizing things for me. The main problem is that the threats posed by each side mission was very abstracted or gamey in a way that eliminated all sense of a threat. Two-Face is going around robbing banks! (don't care). We need to destroy Penguin's gun caches or else something bad will happen! (doesn't matter). Some dude is setting fires all over the city! (if you fail to catch him it's all good). There are bombs around the city that need to be destroyed (will never go off if you leave them alone). There's a serial killer leaving bodies behind (you won't ever find him until you get far enough in the quest). There's some dude who wants to be your heir! (who cares). There are military APCs all over town! (god damn it I don't wanna drive). Rioters are confronting members of the fire department! (this is getting there but again, they will wait around to be saved forever). The Riddler quest has a bit of a hook because Catwoman is captured (the game's damselization of women is mildly problematic but that's another issue), but again, you can just sit on your hands forever and the Riddler won't do shit.
I feel like nowadays, there are enough other gameplay ideas out there that would alleviate some of these issues. For example, this isn't quite a Nemesis system (Shadow of Mordor) idea, but if they had it so if you had encounters with really heavily armed Penguin folks out in the world, that would greatly incentivize you to deal with that sidequest and directly show that what you are doing has consequences in the world. You destroy his cache of guns, his goons are crippled and can easily be dealt with. You stop Two Face from robbing a bank, he gets fewer resources for future raids or something. If you don't deal with a bomb, it goes off and greatly hinders your ability to travel around in your stupid tank. I think a game like this that had time sensitive side missions actually could work, although it would be a little stressful, but god damn it, it would be stressful to solve every crime in an entire city, and that should be reflected somehow. The Nemesis system had it so if left alone, factions would get stronger. If implemented in this type of game, I think there could be something really special. I guess what was missing for me was a sense that anything I was doing in this open world meant anything. Your reward for doing stuff tends to be upgrade points but I think a better reward would be for your actions to have some tangible effect on the power structures that are in place, but maybe that's not the game they were trying to make.
The core of the gameplay is largely fine. Predator missions are still really gratifying still and I still hardly ever used the shiny new stuff available to you if I didn't feel I needed to. They have some twists like having dudes drones, dudes who can detect your detective mode, and dudes who can't be seen during detective mode but those are kind of rare. The one confrontation with the Knight that is all Predator mode is a fairly good encounter, albeit a little easy (dude do you never look directly below you?). Combat is still good, but when you need a special gadget against a specific type of enemy, the game tends to be good at targeting the one you need to use the gadget on, although the same isn't true of special combo takedowns (ALWAYS TAKE OUT BRUTES DAMN IT). The dual takedown situations are fun but tend to be over really fast. Medics could have been annoying but they're really easy to take down.
But the car. The fucking car. It doesn't control well enough to allow for precision driving but that is what you need for some of the things the game asks you to do. None of the Riddler driving missions were that bad, but whenever I failed, I never felt like it was my fault but that the car is weirdly floaty and goes too fast but sometimes too slow? I don't know how to describe it but it's annoying, and the game comes up with the most contrived situations in which you need the car. It's never for anything particularly creative, you either need to blow shit up or use the winch or power something up. I like the concept of having a remote control the car, but I didn't like any of what the car was used for. Tank combat is kind of stupid, and it gets ridiculous with some of the later parts where you need to beat up like 50 tanks on your own. Those segments aren't that hard, they're just annoying because there's a cacophany of lines and red shit and noises which are slightly overwhelming to the senses. Stealth tank combat is really stupid though.
I think the reckless abandon that the car is used for is one of the reasons I felt a little weird about the game. I think a lot of my thoughts can be summed up with this piece by Austin Walker (great writer, btw):
http://www.giantbomb.com/articles/superheroes-cities-and-empty-streets/1100-5241/
I played Arkham Asylum and still love its smaller but tightly designed areas. I think one thing is that Knight is missing is a sense of place, and that's a criticism shared with a lot of big open world games. The huge locations are just places I have to drive through between different objectives. I never end up like I know what a place is like, excepting LA Noire, and that's because that was really meticulous and I recognized a lot of the landmarks in the game. But in Arkham Knight, Gotham is this destructible playground for Batman. You run your car into structures and it has no import, which brings up the question of whether I as Batman really give a shit about this place I'm supposed to be defending, since I have absolutely no problem just tearing through everything in it. A Gotham that Walker describes, where you get a sense of why people are there and why it is great and a sense that the city is a city and not just a large combat arena, that is what is missing. Superhero movies and games are just kinda boring if they're only power fantasies, but if there is a sense of loss or that you need to restrict yourself, that greatly increases the intrigue in a game like this. Everyone in Gotham after the evacuation is a criminal so you can just drive around like a fucking lunatic and run everyone down if you so choose (how does this not kill, by the way?). The possibility of collateral damage and having situations where you need to skillfully maneuver to avoid hurting citizens would be so much more appealing to me, but that's not there.
I don't read any of the Batman comics so I can't speak for very much on that front, but the story was kind of fine. The inclusion of Joker is interesting thematically but it highlights how weak the remaining villain cast is to have him having the biggest presence and him in your ear at all times. Scarecrow got a bit of an upgrade and he does seem like more of a threat. The plot is weirdly uneven and the Knight is sort of one note and then just kind of fades away. Not a fan of the ending but I haven't seen the 100% one. I'll have to youtube that since I'm not doing all this riddler shit.
Anyway yeah, it's the worst Arkham game I've played. It's still, like, okay, and I did a lot of the side missions in spite of the problems I outlined above, mostly as a thing to do rather than me actually wanting to do them. I don't regret playing it, but this could have been so much better.
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I also stopped liking AAA games and superhero movies at the same time, Gourry
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Devil Survivor 2: Holy crap this game is hard. I'm a level 60 strat RPG gamer so I'm still winning and not getting stuck or anything, but sheesh, I can see why they added an easy mode to this game. Grinding does very little for you and you're chronically short on money and you're harshly MP limited on some of your best attacks with no way to get it back (as of yet), so using every little trick in the book to get an edge is really needed. This is tentatively kind of cool, except when it's not.
Quick example: There's a dude you see getting beat down and instinctively know he's a good guy and to support him over the bad guys. (Side rant: Our Silent Hero can totally flubs a Renegade prompt - the Boy Taking On The Hordes you're going to help asks if you're good guys or bad guys. If you say "bad guys", you clearly don't do it in some kind of badass watch-me-crush-this-rioter's-skull type way, as Io clarifies with some kind of "It's not nice to lie! We're good guys!" to cover for you.) If you don't have any special movement abilities equipped, he's just gonna get rekt and die. Come back into the fight with Flight + Distortion on 2 characters and it's fairly easy so that you can support him, but yeah, the game expects you to use tricks like that. No particular problem with that from me.
Anyway, my most recent battle is slightly more rage-inducing, though. There's a 2nd fight vs. brainwashed hacker lady. Mission goal is to knock her unconscious (= beat her up in combat), except she creates miasma pools that summon reinforcements, and there's some superbadass demon squad that's guarding her with its leader like 16 levels ahead of you or anyone else. Using guerrilla tactics, I drag the enemy attention around the map and send in a ninja strike squad to kill her, and just barely succeed before healers arrive (although I do eat a few attacks from the badass overlevel squad). Yay! Mission Complete!
...except then the mission objective changes from "kill the leader" to "destroy all demons." WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS. Argh! Okay, the L35 enemy does disappear when you defeat the leader, but still, #$% you game. Don't let me assume I can play around throwing everything at the boss only to be told I actually need to kill everything after all. I somehow barely stagger through anyway with little MP and summoning the bottom of the barrel of my demon stock as fodder, but there'd have been some rage had I lost. (I'm not against all changing up objectives on the fly - it's often very dramatic and 'realistic' to the demands placed in actual combat situations - but this particular one annoys me, don't change "defeat leader" to "rout", especially if there's good reason to think defeating the leader would clear the entire board of enemies. She's a demon summoner & all. If you want to change "get to this specific square to lower their defenses" to "defeat the enemies" or the like that's fine.)
Afterward the cast seems strangely uninterested in why or how the hacker lady was brainwashed and appear happy to abandon her and treat her as an ally. Even assuming she IS on your side and not just faking, what's stopping her from getting brainwashed again?! Aren't you at least a little interested or worried?
On the bright side, the DLC money grind map is only 99 cents. This might be a rare time where I'd consider this as non-shenanigans to use. (I wonder if it disqualifies you from the "didn't use free battles to grind" title? Not that it matters, already lost it here.)
So yeah I can relate. Still I'd actually argue that the choices you make are a part of the gameplay and faqing makes you miss out.
Just like faqing Long Live the Queen to make no choices and get the best ending right away, sounds less satisfying and interesting than trying the game a bunch of time and not even getting a good ending before stopping playing.
This is true, but LLTQ is like 90 minutes long (maybe 120 minutes if you carefully plan out optimal mood adjustments or the like), and also lets you save-scum a tad to see / get past certain deaths.
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FFRK: ...welp, this might be the end of me playing the game. It won't connect for some freaking reason, no matter where I am. No other game on my phone has this problem, just RK. Won't connect on the wi-fi, won't connect on the 4g, turning it off and back on fixes nothing, disconnecting from the wi-fi and reconnecting does nothing...dunno what to do at this point. <_>
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Yeah Lightning could be pretty useful for those ranged battles.
I tried giving Loser Rinoa's chakram + spellblbades, and he was fucking useless.
Rinoa's Valkyrie isn't so optimized for attack, but Loserface and being useless on offense, pick five.
Also, even though I don't regret honing Firaja to R2 (Waterja R2 + Firaja R2 > Edea and Proudclad), I have to agree with you on Waterja. I'm likely not even bothering to craft Blizzaja until it's either R4 or we get farmable Greater Orbs dailies, whichever comes first. I'm likely honing Thundaja to R2 as well, but this is me and portfolio diversity. Heck, I may hone the -ga duplicates I have once I R5 Comet and Drain. And, worst comes to worst, I have R3 Quake already. So good for trash clearing and not too shabby on bosses either.
Final Fantasy God Loves Autobattle - I'm more or less done with black power until next week, not really getting significantly more than R5 Blizzaga. So, I'm back to running Lightning event. She's L48 and I already have Sazh's Memory Crystal. Once I get hers, I'll plop a couple more eggies and cap-break her. Afterwards, all of the eggs go to Sazh himself, since I need him at acceptable levels for Brynhildr. Seriously considering Tauntaliate strats there for maximum humiliation.
EDIT: Gate, is it a problem with Google Play services? I heard on reddit that people were having issues connecting due to it.
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Snow: I have no idea? I have no issues playing Terra Battle or PaD, so...if those also use Google Play then no? But I have no idea how to see what they use.
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Maybe trying a hard shutdown might help. Updating Google Play might also do the trick if you use it at all, since I heard there was a sketchy update which gave issues and a fix was made available a short while ago.
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Gate that happens pretty frequently to me with Terra Battle rather than FFRK, but it goes away after a while.
Has anyone gotten the Cloud event to work correctly? I did Mako 1 and 5, but the special button never lit up or had a quest for me.
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Quitting solves the problem more efficiently and completely.
Machina of the Planet Tree -Planet Rule- - This game is somewhere between Trancey and Niu on the trashy JRPG scale. It is super RPG Maker, but that's fine for something trashy to get on special.
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I also stopped liking AAA games and superhero movies at the same time, Gourry
I still feel like someone could do a superhero game well if it weren't "lol I'm basically invincible" and touched on some of the things I mentioned in my post, and I don't even think that some of those things are antithetical to a AAA model. My issue is that lately companies seem to be intent on delivering similar huge open world games with a lot to "do" but ultimately the large amount of content which masks the fact that the worlds themselves are lacking in substance. They tend to be graphically very impressive but they're just sets of action movies rather than actual places. That's why I'm kind of interested in the Witcher 3 since people say that's an actual world.
Superhero movies are a different thing, I'm fatigued on them for different reasons but I guess it's similar to AAA because there's a homogeneity to it all.
Anyway, Everyone's Gone to the Rapture looks a bit interesting but people have a large love it or hate it thing with it (some saying it's a walking simulator in its most pejorative sense) so I'll wait and see.
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It is a Chinese Room game, I figure anyone that is interested in what they do is aware of what they are getting into at this point.
Machina blah blah blah - Ice dungeon has a Freeze status as a random chance on some enemies, it is a debilitating status that enemies can't knock you out of when they hit you. It is on a MT attack. Proc on all three party members at once. lol
something we literally yanked out of early game RPG maker game some of us were working on for that very reason. Good job.
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apparently they included a run button in Rapture, but forgot to communicate it to players. Whoops.
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Final Fantasy Enigma Of The Autobattle - Still trudging along Lightning event. Coming back to Anima with high-powered setups after the struggles way back in the Vanille event is seven kinds of vindicating. I got Light's Memory Crystal and cap-broke her, so the remaining Greater Growth Eggs are now going straight to Sazh. I also honed Launch to R4 because eh why not, Intimidate to R4 because it's way too good when it's useful (and I'll need it in two battles for this event) and soon I'll have Thundaja R2, for all the good it'll do to me. I also mastered Vivi's Doublecast Venom, too. Only three dungeons left for the event.
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Beat scizo. Lost three mefals. No mastery.
Fffffffffffffffffffffffffuuuuuuuuu
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Final Fantasy Autobattling Wounded - Dreadnought crushed under Lightning's heel. Paralysis vulnerability against R4 Intimidate just ain't pretty, he got a single turn in -two- fights. Now, only Odin left and god have mercy on my soul.
On other news, Launch honestly isn't a bad pure slugfesting move for what it is, 3* 2x mult physical is better than anything else at that rarity level. Double Cut obviously does better for Reta-meta, but for something you get as an event dungeon reward and actually isn't terribly demanding on orbs, that's a pretty legit filler move.
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Yeah it's not bad. Not very exciting though. I'll not lose sleep over being too lazy to upgrade it. It's almost always better to prioritize breaks (which do ever so slightly less damage but lower stats) but it's still cool if you already have 4 kinds of breaks.
I have used cores extensively, so I can rank them. Here you go:
1) Black mage: Can use Quake and Waterja. DAMAGE...? On a core? He can be put in the back row to have effectively the physical defense of like Edward on the front row? OP. Magic makes him very very dead though.
2) Gladiator: Is... Is that STATS? She's like halfway beetween a normal character and a normal core, stat-wise. And she can equip swords. Wow. GG
3) White Mage: Protectga and Shellga help her survive, Curaga is always good. That HP though. That HP.
4) Bard: Breakdowns and a good SB. No damage whatsoever
5) Red Mage: White magic 3 and Black magic 3. That... is bad. Still, he can hit a weakness with a -aga on one hand and have a Curaga on another (he's only going to use it on himself)
6) Summoner: We are getting into the very bad here. Congrats on summoner for having the worst durability in the game. He's, uh, a randoms sweeper I guess, especially with his RM. Hard to hype Carbuncle because using it means he could only heal through Kirin's regen. It's a death sentence.
7) Ninja: Ninja is only usable if you have a chakram so you can put him in the back row. Because he has Vivi-like physical defense. I also use the term "usable" loosely because his attack stat is still sub-Edward
8) Knight: Holy shit we found a knight less durable than Lufia 3 Randolph. When/If he gets a turn, he can use a sword, so that's at least something, I guess.
9) Hunter: Ranger is the Kimahri of the cores, he might not have the worst stats but he does no damage and has no skills. It was my favourite FF class :(
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Yeah it's not bad. Not very exciting though. I'll not lose sleep over being too lazy to upgrade it. It's almost always better to prioritize breaks (which do ever so slightly less damage but lower stats) but it's still cool if you already have 4 kinds of breaks.
Oh, sure, breaks are overall better. At this juncture, though, I'm more or less moving away from breaks and towards breakdowns, since I have almost all of them at R2 (-will- have all of them at R2 once I get another Greater Non-Elemental Orb), and I found that having all of the breaks at R3 is more than good enough even if you don't prioritize breakdowns. At the current meta, mixing breaks and breakdowns is more or less ideal, though FFXIII Odin will require the breakdowns for any notable effect (as will Brynhildr. Break resistance is a dickbag).
EDIT:
Core characters are unsalvageable rubbish even if I try to make them work
Core characters exist mostly to drag down the stat averages and make Loserface look less bad. And enabling DeNa dick moves with tasty Record Materia sometimes.
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Breakdowns are pretty good, but assuming already using a support for Magic / Physical Breakdown, I'd rather have a fighter character with R5 Mental / Armor Break than a second support character with even R3 Mental / Armor Breakdown, honestly.
I also do not believe the Thief skill > Breakdowns hype, since thief skills do no damage
I hope we get a Core character only dungeon or something, I'll be awesome with all my fucking useless level 50 cores
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Breakdowns are pretty good, but assuming already using a support for Magic / Physical Breakdown, I'd rather have a fighter character with R5 Mental / Armor Break than a second support character with even R3 Mental / Armor Breakdown, honestly.
On average, even on really durable enemies (as in, 200k+ HP), I've found that I don't -need- more than four charges of the breakdowns, as a rule of thumb, and breaks override breakdowns and vice-versa (i.e. bad ability juggling could leave you lowering your DPT/mitigation ability). If I -really- want more spammable damage, I'll honestly just use another mage instead. Of course, I -do- intend to get the breakdowns higher than R2 eventually, and I still use Armor/Mental Break as my prime combat unit filler move, but that's just how things go. Setups are so damn fluid in this game anyway.
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Oh, the thing is, if you have R4/R5 breaks (which is pretty easy, I have both defense breaks at R5 and do not daily much), you don't really need to care about the exact time when you need to refresh the break status like you'd do with a support character. You just spam that shit during the entire battle instead.
This results in much higher damage dealt than with a second support. Another mage is also a worse option considering that with a mage, you're not keeping the enemy's def/mdef lowered throughout the entire batte.
Those combat 5 characters can actually be real good! They also make pretty amazing random sweepers.
I agree that having both the same breaks and breakdowns in the same battle is a bad idea (unless you're fighting Schizo or something) but again I'm not really fond of the idea of having 2 supports in the team for all 4 breakdowns anyway. Until we get enough orbs for multiple R4 breakdowns, at least.
But anyway. CORES. I'm hyped for the next ones. Dragon Knight? Mystic Knight? Dark Knight? Thief Knight? So much potential there
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There'll be a Mystic Knight eventually! Who'll hand a Spellblade Spring RM even further down the road. Want.
Anyhow!
Final Fantasy The Sun Goes Down And The World Goes Autobattling - Lightning event -finished-, at least until the boss rush and deluxe boss battle show up. I swapped for a Reta-meta setup with Keepsake Knife Cloud and it worked pretty well: Reta/Quake for trash, use the second-to-last battle to put up Lunatic High and Shellga and Retaliate shenanigans, walk in with guns blazing against Odin. 94k HP honestly isn't much to chew through unless Odin uses Ullr's Shield, which he didn't get to use: 7k damage Pounds and Waterja (which nearly rams the cap post-Focus Magic) really tore into him. Now, to lull through dailies until the boss rush.
I also now have R2 Thundaja, but that's less important.
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Gourry: I think it's a pretty safe bet that if a AAA studio implemented a timer that could make you permanently fail missions (autosave game, remember!) because you dicked around too much and didn't know any better, this effort would be met with a substantial amount of hate from series fans. This isn't a criticism of the idea so much as it is a prediction that no developer that already operates on objective vomit lines is inclined to alienate diehard fans by casually denying them 100% completion bragging rights.
(Souls games have done stuff like this on a very small scale, but I consider them to operate well outside the headspace of negative-connotation-AAA. I admit to not being a huge fan of the idea, because it always stings to realize you permanently missed something for reasons you didn't have any obvious grounds to anticipate, but I acknowledge that it's definitely not without memorable impact when it happens. For example, there's a reason I always murder Petrus in DkS1 while I ordinarily go out of way to avoid killing NPCs at all. It's certainly realistic for there to be unfortunate events that happen based on things beyond your reasonable ability to anticipate, for a given value of videogame realism, and god knows plenty of great turns in fiction are based on exactly that kind of dramatic irony, but it really does fly in the face of the kind of total control I imagine most gamers expect. That was probably your point, I expect. There's no stakes without consequences, etcetera.)
Anyway that whole rant's largely my list of complaints as well. Villains outside of the main baddie duo were completely wasted and impactless. Batmobile is absurdly destructive (and boring, and yeah I could not get an intuitive feel for the wall-driving at all) but it doesn't matter how much property damage you cause because scenery all regens when you turn your back. The city really is just power fantasy Batman's playground and they didn't really apply effort to make it more. I'm not sure if they weren't interested in trying or if they didn't even think about it, but I think the intro movie is just such a transparent means of setting exactly that up. Would Gotham really evacuate based on one threat from Scarecrow? Should we believe any civic authority capable of actually clearing out however many millions of people that quickly and no one actually complaining about being forced out of their home? The story starts out on a not very believable note and never works very hard to earn back a shred of credibility. I wanted to like Scarecrow more as a villain than I actually could. Wanted because it was welcome for D.C. to use someone other than Joker for once as the main antagonist--I often feel like they're so insecure that they just think audiences won't pay attention if he's not in everything. But the dude really fails at screen presence here and his plan makes no sense. What even is the plan? Did you want the chemical plant to blow up or was it acceptable for Batman to prevent that? Did you plan all along for the chemical plant to not blow up so you could blow up a bomb tank thing instead? You don't have to do either of those things to really undermine Batman's work. If you just want to personally prove that he's a failure because everyone who helps him suffers for doing so, that's a legit villain approach that I endorse as a dramatically worthwhile plan, but you really don't need all these crazy science toys to do it. It feels like either you have no attention span or the writers are just spinning their wheels.
It's not, like, a terrible game, because at the very least the core engine remains solid (although frankly after a couple years of playing way too much From games, my responses are so attuned to those games' controls that Batman handling feels a little like tank controls even outside of the car). It just so fails to do anything strikingly human. Even when Gordon's just casually like "Hi Bruce" to Batman, all I could do was shrug. There's a lamentable dearth of really memorable moments here. It was briefly pretty haunting when the gas bomb went off and Gotham turned into a vision of hell, but this was undercut by knowledge that everyone stuck in there was "scum or worse" and by slowwwww wheeeeeel turniiiiiiing. (Why did they do this twice.)
I'm not sure if the development team was tired of doing the same thing and this was just mercenary work, or if it was really the best they could do without a genuine storyteller on board to guide them. I said pretty much the same thing after Origins, but I'm surprised to find I consider that a better game just because it at least managed some nice boss fights.
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I also do not believe the Thief skill > Breakdowns hype, since thief skills do no damage
Power Steal is supposedly +50% attack on the user, which translates to +107% damage if you stay under the soft cap. That makes up for the initial lack of damage and then some. Armor Steal I'll agree is not great, but then Armor Breakdown was already the worst of the Breakdowns so eh. At least Armor Steal helps with the gimmick of the 140 difficulty Rubicante in Edge's event if anyone here is still playing by then.
As for cores, I'm pretty sure the real reason we get so damned many of them is that somebody at Square is determined to to recycle -all- of the sprites from All the Bravest (http://www.spriters-resource.com/mobile/finalfantasyallthebravest/sheet/56164/) in a game that isn't universally despised.
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D.C.... they're so insecure
You figured out the secret of why DC does stupid things all the time.
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As for cores, I'm pretty sure the real reason we get so damned many of them is that somebody at Square is determined to to recycle -all- of the sprites from All the Bravest (http://www.spriters-resource.com/mobile/finalfantasyallthebravest/sheet/56164/) in a game that isn't universally despised.
The real reason is because Djinn has 'gotta catch 'em all'.
Also, still excited for Thief meta, because it's the only thing the RNG has properly prepared me for. Goddamn I want a 5 star mage weapon... >.>;;
The only things I got going for me are Tidus' SB, Locke's SB, and a 6-star Tyro Sentinel's Grimoire weapon. So... yay? I don't have to use my Roaming Warrior on Tyro. Just a party slot and hope that loading him up with things like Carbuncle or Protectga or Intimidate will be worth it. I wish they'd give us Locke's level-break crystal already.
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kay, haven't written one of these in a while
Fairy Fencer F - PC version's out, so I've been playing this. Fairly fun little game. Difficulty curve in the early game feels smoother than the Neptunia games, which is good, but it has the opposite problem, your PCs grow in strength notably faster than the enemies do for a while and everything gets really easy. Using the World Shaping effect which is WP+50% and Damage x2 only compounds this; see, Damage x2 is intended by the designers to be a downside to that WP +50% (WP being basically FFF's equivalent of AP), but this is a game where your best combos/attacks are in the 2HKO damage range naturally. So you tack on Damage x2 - it applies to both sides - and now you're OHKOing left and right.
Still fun, and apparently I'm right before a difficulty spike. Good, game needs one right about now. The game itself and its plot are fairly standard IF/Compile Heart fare. It takes itself more seriously than Neptunia, but still not very seriously (to its benefit; the writing is probably around FF5 tier at best). The characters are all standard anime tropes, although I at least was amused that it's the male lead that's the tsundere in this game.
All in all, charming little romp, but I'd say Neptunia Rebirth 2 was probably better so far. Note that I consider Neptunia Rebirth 2 to be pretty much the best new JRPG I've played to completion this year thus far. (This is less a statement on the quality of the game itself, although I feel it's a fairly solid 7/10 or so, and more a statement on how poor the competition is in my opinion.)
Tactics Ogre (PSP) - Replaying this. Unlike my last replay, I'm not using the 2x skill advancement rate cheat. I _am_ using the 100% crafting success cheat, though, just to save the time of saving and reloading a bunch. Started from a clean file, playing Law route and generally trying to play a little more efficiently than previous runs. One of the big discoveries I've made this run is that trying to use one of every class early on is a fantastic way to get yourself badly underleveled because of spreading the EXP too thin. As such, the only hard battle in chapter 1 was rescuing Cistina, which is only worth the effort to save me having to World back to that battle later (I can instead just World back to Balmamusa and not have to replay half of chapter 1 to make Cistina alive again), because I'm doing law route.
Once crafting unlocks in chapter 2, I promptly sink all of my goth into crafting up a full set of Bronze Helm +1 and Linen Slops +1, as well as +1 ranged weapons for the archers and +1 basic crossbows for the people who can use them. These will likely constitute the entirety of my crafting for a long time, because these particular pieces of gear last a long time.
Chapter 2 thus far has also been fairly uneventful, although I had some trouble keeping Xapan alive. His battle marked the first time I broke from my all-generics team (bringing in a Cleric Canopus with a lobber to heal Xapan). Specials will eventually feature in the team full time, I'm not doing an explicit challenge run or anything, though, aside from limiting myself to two actual archers for the early game.
The loot system in this game is still really fucking stupid, there have been multiple battles where I've deliberately delayed killing a unit because there was no way I could prevent their item drops from being stolen, and at least one where I stalled killing the boss so I could kill more of his support.
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Planet tree thing - Beat it. Last third of the game or so had some tight scaling with needing to upgrade weapons (based on random farm points mostly) and/or levels to beat bosses. Mostly so you can overcome regen/healing most bosses have. Because everything heals just a slight boost to damage output translates to significantly shorter fights. So I bailed out of a dungeon to power up a weapon a bit with something I needed from an earlier dungeon to beat a boss fight. The trip out and some material gathering pretty much gave me 10 levels (which uh was a lot) and let me mostly power through the rest of the game easy. The fight I needed to overcome was a boss fight with 5 old bosses I think completely unscaled. The problem was the 2 later bosses who both had respectable MT damage that could just cleave down the team in 1 turn, the earlier boss could be one rounded with just a bit of a push for offense since she was notably low on durability even for the time. Could have done it without powering up with some fine tuning of skill usage, but meh.
Its alright, its just RPGmaker game. There was no other point really as dumb as the Ice dungeon with Freeze thing. Some of the ideas it played with were interesting little quirks and some of it is pretty well put together for RPG Maker. It was also amusing to see issues we struggled with on Disquiet when we were working on it pop up in someone elses games. The big one being, they don't use a strict turn based system, buffs and debufffs are super inconsistent at how long they last because once you break out of strict turn based what constitutes a "turn" is pretty wonky.
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As for cores, I'm pretty sure the real reason we get so damned many of them is that somebody at Square is determined to to recycle -all- of the sprites from All the Bravest (http://www.spriters-resource.com/mobile/finalfantasyallthebravest/sheet/56164/) in a game that isn't universally despised.
The real reason is because Djinn has 'gotta catch 'em all'.
Also, still excited for Thief meta, because it's the only thing the RNG has properly prepared me for. Goddamn I want a 5 star mage weapon... >.>;;
The only things I got going for me are Tidus' SB, Locke's SB, and a 6-star Tyro Sentinel's Grimoire weapon. So... yay? I don't have to use my Roaming Warrior on Tyro. Just a party slot and hope that loading him up with things like Carbuncle or Protectga or Intimidate will be worth it. I wish they'd give us Locke's level-break crystal already.
Holy crap, you have Sentinel's Grimoire. THAT SAID, Thief skills start showing up on Vaan & Ashe's event, shortly after the second SB celebration. Also, if you're hurting for mage weapons, the next few events will be pretty rich. Aerith reissue will come with her SB rod and a new unique mage hat, Eiko's event will bring back Vivi's Oak Staff and will also provide Eiko's hat, and, of course, Golbez/Tellah event will have tons of mage gear. There should be two dungeon updates in-between, so that's plenty of time to gather mythril as well. in fact, the very next update should be up today or tomorrow.
EDIT: Final Fantasy When You're Young And In Autobattle - White power (urgh) grinding day. Not much, got a couple Greater Power Orbs and honed Diara to R4. Also mastered Giant of Babil 2 in the meantime. Hopefully, I'll be able to R2 Diaga as soon as I get it on the Aerith reissue.
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FF5 - Final dungeon time.
Wow, Dual Wield Bladeblitz is a nice move. Affected by row, but the remaining party's physicals wipe up basically everything Bladeblitz doesn't kill. Would be a good substitute for summon if you were restricting yourself against that but not the GBA classes for... well, whatever reason.
Unfortunately, Barehanded Berserker sucks lategame, primarily because you have to ditch Hermes's Sandals for the Kaiser Knuckle. Fortunately, Lenna's stint in knight gave her Twohand, which works nicely with the Masamune. That critical hit rate.
Otherwise, same as last time. Summon to clear out enemies, Mighty Guard and Spellblade to wreck bosses. Going through mostly blind because with mimes and Freelancers I'm not really in danger of dying to normal things without exploiting status weakness gaps. Blitz blitz blitz.
The final dungeon's kind of a neat concept, with the designs of the floors copying previous areas of the game. The village area is a nice, if obtuse hint to the fact that this village exists if you hadn't FAQ'd its location.
I walk into Omega, not knowing it was Omega, and get one rounded. lol ok game. I'll be back for you later (re: probably never).
None of the bosses are particularly threatening or memorable nor do they have names I can remember without looking back at an FAQ. Azumagus could be pretty mean if you stumble on him and all your levels end in 5, but otherwise not too bad. The most memorable thing is the boss who frogs you turned Bartz into a frog, then Krile tried to cure him but couldn't because of the Aegis shield kept blocking Toad. So that was neat.
I get through to the end area and then Shinryu is a monster in a box. Yeah, fuck you too game. I die obviously and get sent back 15 minutes or so and yeah I'm done for the night, will probably wrap up the main game tomorrow then do the aftergame if I care enough. Probably not.
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If you have someone using Sing or Mix it might even be worth using Hermes Sandals over Kaiser Knuckles just due to how good the damage scaling Level is on Barehanded. You are going to hit damage cap easy enough anyway. Or you could haste them with Mix if you want.
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Hermes Sandals are still better than the Kaiser Knuckle, even without level buffing, because they block Stop, Slow, and Paralyze in addition to having Haste that persists even on revival (meaning you don't have to spend a turn casting it). Barehand simply isn't worth it late in the game.
I guess you can also just throw money. Whee!
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I liked the FF5 GBA bonus dungeon well enough (it's better than the FF6 one, worse than the FF4 one) but you really need to be motivated to progress there, and you aren't. It is some kind of insane giant maze. Also I only soloed it so I don't know how it is with a full party.
RK: Okay Power Steal does sound awesome.
I really like going through event dungeons with terrible teams and seeing how far I get. This means a lot of stamina wasted, but it's more fun? Events get pretty dull otherwise Ex+++ fights.
I got White Mage and Knight through about half of the elite events, before not being able to handle their terribleness anymore.
Right now I'm still using Lightning/Sazh even though they haven't it level 40. Sazh's not too bad but Lightning is by far the weakest member of the team right now. I'm pairing both of them with the level 52ish Selphie/Quistis/Kain. I had to retry the entire stupid bird boss gauntlet 4 times before getting the mastery. I'm going straight to Odin afterwards, probably going to die.
FF13 music is very Unlimited SaGa like. I am assuming it's the same composer, but too lazy to check.
It's nice to enjoy this music without the usual FF13 bloat + nonsense, which is prevalent when playing FF13 even if you skip every cutscene. Also, the single thing I dislike the most about FF13 is the Donut Goblins, and they aren't here.
Speaking of Unlimited Saga, it was supposed to emulate board games but that's all BS? I realize just now that it has nothing but superficial resemblances to board games. You move a pawn instead of a character. You get to hear descriptions instead of directly seeing things. I guess the skill checks for things like swimming are vaguely board game-ish but that's a stretch. That's it? The battle system, skill/stat progression, cities, dungeons are absolutely not board game-like.
Essentially the board game part means they have just added massive immersion breakers. Very weird, very Kawazu
Still a cool game though
Edit: Reddit for this game sure brings a lot of schadenfreude
https://www.reddit.com/r/FFRecordKeeper/comments/3gvr1n/i_just_spent_300_dollars_omfg/
Hahahahahah
EOR: Genocide
I got Sherlock Holmes in my house so I don't have to deal with maid waifu's dialogue ever again. YAY
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D.C.... they're so insecure
You figured out the secret of why DC does stupid things all the time.
It would explain their abusive relationship with Zack Snyder. Honey, don't settle, you can do better.
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D.C.... they're so insecure
You figured out the secret of why DC does stupid things all the time.
It would explain their abusive relationship with Zack Snyder. Honey, don't settle, you can do better.
But c'mon, look at how much cash he made that one time for a movie about Spartan abs.
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Bought a 4 pack of Magicite, which is pretty darn fun. Game doesn't even try to balance the options, so instead of looking at it like a traditional roguelike, which is basically a "puzzle", you really should just look at it as levels of difficulty, which makes sense for a platformer. Luckily, Magicite is both of those things.
Netplay is a BITCH. Even playing on my LAN I had to go adjust settings on my router. What's the goddamn point of that? How is this not integrated with Steam's online play?
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Yessssss Double Hit dropped from Mysidia Tower, part 2. No need to farm for it now.
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D.C.... they're so insecure
You figured out the secret of why DC does stupid things all the time.
It would explain their abusive relationship with Zack Snyder. Honey, don't settle, you can do better.
But c'mon, look at how much cash he made that one time for a movie about Spartan abs.
Zack Snyder's basically perfect for the modern DC imprint. Doesn't understand things beyond a surface reading, wants everything to be gradients of one color, is aimed only at 35-year-old men and nobody else.
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Yessssss Double Hit dropped from Mysidia Tower, part 2. No need to farm for it now.
So many hours spent farming for that... >.>;;
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Final Fantasy There's More To Autobattle Than This - New dungeons, moving through them now. Not really much to say, though those Greater Fire and Ice Orb rewards look nice. Also got Dark Knight Cecil's bonus quest out of the way, since that Greater Growth Egg is nice for getting Sazh up to speed for Brynhildr.
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RK: Bryndlhyr was very rude! I think it was the hardest boss since I've started playing. Especially with no FF13 gear beyond dumb bracers and a dumb gun.
Getting mastery was at least easier than getting Schizo's, but that's not saying much.
Pure mitigation with no healing doesn't work at all here. Lynyrd Skynyrd is too durable and does too much damage.
So I got demolished once, then went with this setup:
Cloud lvl 65: mental break R5, super ice strike R4
Squall lvl 63: armor break R5, regular ice strike R2
Yuna lvl 63: diara R4, curaga R4 (i really need to hone that)
Sazh lvl 40: power breakdown R2, boost R4 (can't believe I'm still using this)
Vivi lvl 65: blizzaga R4, waterja R3
Rw: sentinel grimoire
At the end of the fight everybody but Cloud was dead and I had used Diara once. I only got one chocobo reward (this changes nothing compared to having two chocobos, beyond the game telling you that you are terrible)
Traded diara for protectga and SG for Sazh's boon (mt haste + shell) then got the mastery. I needed luck + perfect timing for the buffs/debuffs or else someone on the team died. Shit was intense. Battle speed 1 for the entire fight was an obvious requirement.
Mvp was Cloud and Vivi, tied. Shock. Cloud did 9500 damage after armor break and boost, Vivi did about 8000 after mental break IIRC.
Edit: oh yeah the boss rush was nasty too. Had to use a mithril to refresh Snow's dog because I wasn't able to beat Odin
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Brynhildr is a continent-sized dick
Yup. But I'll address this shortly.
Final Fantasy The Fiery Autobattles - So yeah, Fenrir's not kidding. I went through the boss rush without much trouble (just handed SELPHIE Wind Slash for the weakness medal on Garuda Interceptor - Celerity 3 was useful on her for once! - and Intimidate even at R2 makes Dreadnought complete lulzies. I had it at R4. Keepsake Knife Reta-meta on Cloud carried the day along with R2 Waterja+Firaga otherwise, and it's particularly recommended for Anima, since it bypasses its egregious counter whoring), but Brynhildr is a very rude awakening. For starters, if he opens with MT, you're likely screwed: it puts you -way- too much on the defensive. Anyhow, he's a pure high-end slugfester with good durability, ice weakness and decent amounts of MT, both physical and magical, and also some ST magic, but -a lot- of ST multihit physicals, including a six-hit attack. My setup went along these lines:
Cloud (L65) - R4 Retaliate, R4 Blizzara Strike
Sazh (L39) - R1 Armor Breakdown, R4 Boost
Red XIII (L50) - R2 Power Breakdown, R2 Magic Breakdown
Selphie (L60) - R5 Curaga, R1 Shellga
Vivi (L65) - R5 Blizzaga, R2 Waterja
Roaming Warrior - Paladin Cecil Sentinel
You can see where this is going, right? Sentinel has the effects of Taunt - i.e. directs all ST physicals to the user. Retaliate evades and counters ALL physical-tagged attacks, whether they ignore evade or not, and applies to each and every hit of a move. Once this is set up, whenever Brynhildr decides using Gunshot or Valkyrian Scythe is a good idea, Cloud chippershreds his ass. Shellga and Mag Breakdown were vital to keep his magic under control, while Power Breakdown worked as a safeguard of sorts when he uses his MT physical. This is a pretty risky approach, since it makes the first -three- turns a race against AI instead of just the first, but once all the cards are on the table, this leads to hilarious things. In the end, I managed to master him after some S/L shenanigans (besides the very dangerous opening turn, in one of the runs, he managed to KO Sazh while I was trying to put Reta+Sentinel back up), but holy hell. Cloud rammed the damage cap post-Boost and Armor Breakdown, Vivi was dealing 7.8k with Blizzagas no strings attached. Selphie spent the ENTIRE FIGHT slinging Curagas after the initial Shellga and every. Single. One. Of. Them. Mattered.
Fun fight!
EDIT: Since Fenrir mentioned it, I've also seen a sizable rush upwards in the amount of times people are using my RW. Gogogogogo Doom timers.
EDIT 2: I also have to note Brynhildr's animations look so fucking slick.
EDIT 3: I'm not sure why people struggle a lot with Odin's timer. I mean, both times I beat him I had over 30 seconds spare on the clock - wait Lunatic High.
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Cool.
Oh the timer wasn't a problem for me or anything, his attacks were the problem. I beat Byrllmndihr with 40 seconds/90 left.
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I beat Odin 1 with 4 seconds left on timer and boss rush Odin with timer at 00. Way more style points than you Snow.
Mastered all elite fights, expert on boss rush (lost 1 action and 2 damage on all four of them). Haven't tried Bryn yet.
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I beat Odin 1 with 4 seconds left on timer and boss rush Odin with timer at 00. Way more style points than you Snow.
I'm pretty sure I spent all my style points quota for the year when I beat NORG through a Zantetsuken ID proc.
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Shantae and the Pirate's Curse - Just beat up the self-styled best filler boss of all time! Fun game, has a few flaws but generally it's a good, light-hearted romp. Playing them close together I can't help compare it to Shovel Knight, and while SK has several advantages in game design which I will get into when I write a larger post for the game, Shantae obviously wins big in anything related to writing.
Phoenix Wright: Dual Destinies - Up to the final case!
Final Fantasy Dimensions - Fin.
Game was around 55 hours, finished at Level 71.
As I said early on in the playthrough in this space, it's a FF5-like, and you have to try to screw those up in my eyes. As such, FFD did not disappoint; I got what I hoped for out of it. There are enough differences between FFD and FF5 (as well as Bravely Default, Blue Dragon, etc.) to merit note, but on average if you like one you should like the other.
What the game does well:
-Most obviously, it has a fan job system. Each character has 12 jobs to play around with (though there are 17 total; the 12 one gets depends on which path the character is from), which is certainly adequate for such a game (it's less than FF5/Bravely Default, though Blue Dragon got away with fewer). Skillsets and passives can be ported over between jobs: there are 2-4 skill slots available (more as the job you're currently in levels up), with typically skillsets and particularly powerful passives costing 2 slots, and weaker passsives and simple job commands costing 1. It offers more flexibility than FF5 did, as such, though not hugely more. Unlike FF5, though like almost every other game that has used a job system, it does not automatically upgrade your stats for equipping a magic skillset, so if you want to get the most out of certain skillsets (such as white magic's invaluable healing), you really need to stay in a small number of jobs. It's a bit limiting but fortunately the game gives you enough options with party composition that you can get by (e.g. you can either go with one mind-twinked white mage healer or have multiple weaker healers in the form of Dragoons, Dancers, Red Mages, or various others carrying white magic off weaker stats). I know some FF5 fans bemoan the fact that the game eschewed FF5's high level of skillset portability, but there is probably a reason most games do it, and I don't think the game lacks for valid options, so eh.
-Class balance is actually pretty respectable. In both FF5 and Blue Dragon, attack magic was generally far too powerful for enemies to handle, while Bravely Default had the overcentralising Dark Knight. If FFD has anything like that, I didn't find it. Physical damage generally offers more DPS (due to magic having charging times), while magic offers more options and better multitarget. Speed vs. damage vs. durability are real tradeoffs between many classes, status is very useful without feeling overpowered (because fully immune enemies very much do exist). So not only are there many viable options, but there are many which feel valid as well, and that's a nice feeling.
-One great idea FFD has is the use of temps to show off new jobs. In most chapters, you get a temp character, locked in one job (but at a fairly high level of it), which gives you a good sense of what the job can do and what abilities it will learn. That way, you know what you're getting into when jump into it at Job Level 1 instead of going in blind, or needing to resort to a FAQ. It's a pretty organic solution, the only real downside that of course it means you can kinda predict how a temp will join and leave like clockwork. (This supposed downside would matter if FFD had a plot worth caring about.)
-Enemy design is relatively strong. Randoms are durable enough and with varied enough defensive properties to reward learning them and determining the unique optimal way to cut them down, which is not a given in the genre by any means. On offence/skillsets the randoms are generally a bit less individually memorable, although there are certainly some standouts (red/blue dragons for instance). Bosses are generally quite fun affairs: they're reasonably fast and durable and have enough tricks to keep things interesting; they rarely have completely overwhelming offence but it often feels like you have to keep on top of them or be overwhelmed. I had some scattered resets throughout the game, though rarely too many. I thought the game maintained its challenge better than FF5 or Bravely Default did, certainly, but full disclosure that I did not get Dualcast, may affect things some.
-While the music certainly isn't outstanding, it's pretty good. I liked most of the battle themes. Most of the rest of the soundtrack is largely just there, but never grates. I have less good overall things to say about the graphics, but the enemy sprites are pretty good and the animations are decent (and never too long, always nice).
What the game does less well:
-Overall I think the game's decision to go with two parties is a net negative. Early on, when their list of jobs is identical, you just feel like you're retreading all the same decisions in the job system (often picking up most of the same equipment as the corresponding chapters progress) which is lame. Later each path gets different jobs, which keeps things more interesting, but still means you have to put on hold the development of your party in order to develop the other, and it can be a bit jarring. While it becomes less of a negative, it never really becomes a positive. I'm obviously not opposed to perspective-switching games in general — Suikoden 3 and Fire Emblem 10 are two of my all-time favourites — but in their main payoff is typically narrative, allowing more interesting stories to be told, or perhaps that they allow you to really sink your teeth into developing a larger cast of characters gameplaywise. Neither really applies to Final Fantasy Dimensions; its writing sucks (and it doesn't make particularly good use of the split perspective) and building 8 characters proves not particularly more compelling than building 4-5, especially with how boring most of them are.
-The game has a love affair with plot fights (I think there are about a dozen?). It's stupid and wastes your time. On the note of things that are stupid and waste your time, the game badly needed sceneskip; it feels like FFX in that major boss fights are not easy, and often have a reasonably lengthy cutscene before them. This is a bad recipe. Fortunately you can deal with the latter by doing something else while mashing the touchscreen, but still.
-I've touched on this enough times, but let's repeat it here: Final Fantasy Dimensions' plot and writing are shit. Most of the characters are tired, overused tropes (the game has two mains and they're somehow both members of two of the most annoying JRPG main tropes, the idiot lead and the silent, kinda-emo one). The game has a large villain cast but they're transparently just used for cool boss fights and are all boring and blend together. There's too much anime goofiness. Even series like Tales, Grandia, and Xenosaga with their bad plots usually manage to at least have one or two compelling characters or bring up some interesting philosophical points; this game really doesn't manage even that. There are glimmers of potential here and there, like Matoya and Gawain are kinda interesting if I squint, but they're temporary. The only thing which saves the writing at all is the fourth-wall-shattering Alba (and to a lesser extent her lovable douche of a brother), but she's pure comic relief and thanks to the game's weak translation/script even she falls flat at times.
-Graphically the game isn't impressive and generally it looks relatively low-budget. Not that big a deal, but it is what it is. The game is still good enough to be absolutely worth its pricetag, but I can understand the presentation being a bit of a turnoff.
-Touchscreen controls are obviously sub-optimum. I really wish the fixed D-pad was on the right instead of the left; I had some problems with the floating one (which I did end up using) but didn't want to adjust to the left-handed one. And if I held the iPad in the wrong way the game would interpret my holding hand brushing the screen as a confirm. Sometimes at rather bad times. It's not game-breaking but yeah I'd have preferred to see this on the 3DS.
Still it's a pretty fun game, will certainly replay at some point to kick that class system around some more. Pacing could be better in variety of ways (the one place FF5 convincingly beats out its imitator) and it's certainly not an all-time great, but I got what I was looking for out of it. Definitely enjoyable. 7/10, could be 8 if I feel generous upon further reflection.
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Final Fantasy Another Rainy Autobattle - Now that I'm done with Lightning's event, it's back to dungeon rummaging. FF9 dungeons are pretty damned easy in general, boss design was pretty uninspired in that game. I can't complain about listening to my favorite Final Fantasy battle theme besides maybe Blinded By Light without having to play FF9 itself, though. Also got Garnet's second Record Materia just by running the classic dungeons. I'm sure it'll be truly useful approximately never, though it's a cute idea.
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FFRK: Holy shit -classic- Beatrix just did 3300 damage unmitigated turn 1 to a L50 Lightning, OHKO. First time I've had to resort to S/L in a classic dungeon since Golbez used his 5% Hold Gas turn 1.
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Yeah, classic dungeons took the kiddie gloves off.
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Final Fantasy and the Half-Blood RNG: Yeah, it's kinda annoying that I can't use the Classic Dungeons to level up my C-list collection anymore. Everyone in my party needs to be at least -this tall- (level 50) to even be considered. Even with Record Synergy, it's not really worth it to bring someone who can't even equip a Record Materia. To be fair, 90% of my leveling comes from EXP dungeon and Growth Eggs, so it's not a -huge- loss, but it was kinda fun using slightly weaker guys that I normally wouldn't use (GORDON!).
Did an 11-pull and got some 4-stars... Guess I'm not going to be rocking Gun-Lightning. Sadface.
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Final Fantasy 100,000 Autobattles - Cleared all of this update's Classic dungeons, running through their Elite versions now. Quake on Vivi and summons on Garnet for clearing the trash is really good times with the Spring RMs, it allows me to bring L41 Sazh to those dungeons impunely. On the front row. I decided to save all my Mythril for the second SB banners, just after Golbez's event. Currently sitting at 54, hopefully will have 100+ for Yuna's second SB banner and Lightning's Blazefire Sabre reprise.
More discoveries: FF9 dungeons are brutally mage-heavy. Shellga/Carbuncle is highly recommended for running the trash if you're letting them get turns at all. It even spoils bosses like Black Waltz 3. Also, Zorn and Thorn are completely worthless.
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Tried Record Keeper.
WTF? Why can't I equip Cloud with Thunder? Fuck you. It is Thunder. It is a starting ability on Cloud. Delete game. Uninstall bluestacks. Ruminate about life.
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Alpha Protocol: I replayed this thing and it's still fairly enjoyable albeit flawed. I played Thornton as an insufferable asshole who everybody hates and I killed everyone or let everyone die and I have decided it is pretty much canon. I was buddies with Steven Heck, though, but I figure that fits with the character.
*It is fairly satisfying pissing Conrad Marburg off so much that he attacks you out of pure rage (that was the only real goal of the playthrough).
*I angered Albatross on both my playthroughs so much that I don't actually know what he's like as an ally.
*Mina is super boring.
*Konstantin Brayko is still one of the most memorable encounters in the past few years.
*The opening in the Middle East is still a big and boring misstep and makes it seem just like the slew of games released around this time set in the same region. I can see why people would have turned away from the game from this initial part.
*I only wish there were more opportunities to piss Darcy off. He's so easy to take out in his boss fight that it's not satisfying.
*I didn't touch stealth and handguns. Those are basically gameplay skip buttons and I don't care about the gameplay in this game, so I probably should have used them. Other guns have interesting things, but nothing is as broken as Chain Shot. No stealth kinda sucks, though. I did kung fu because this Thornton is the loudest, least subtle spy who just runs up to everyone and punches them to death. High level kung fu + fury can do a good dent to most bosses although it doesn't work on some others.
*Rome > Taipei > Moscow
*Fucking everyone over in this game is strangely gratifying.
This was a nice palate cleanser.
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Final Fantasy Are You There, RNG, It's Me Record Keeper: Fuck Yeah, I got a 5-star Dagger, the Keepsake Knife!
I had other things to say, but now none of that seems so bad. EXP day is more fun when you can make literally any character do damage that registers thanks to a single weapon. What am I gonna do with all these four-star gloves and such that are now all completely outclassed by my universal shitkicker.
Other cool things: Quake R3, Alexander R2, Ramuh R3 - sweep ALL the trash!
Waterja and Firaja R2
All-agas are R5
Most Breaks are R5.
Power/Magic Breakdown R2
Four natural 5-star Swords... >.>;; (Why am I even keeping the upgraded 3- and 4-stars?)
3 6-star weapons, though only one of them is a natural 5* (Sentinel's Grimoire).
My best Spear is still a 3-star, amusingly.
Best Gun is still a 3-star.
Best Bow is a 4-star at least!
Best Thrown is Locke's unique 5-star, which only a surprisingly small number of Ranged characters can use (Wakka's never irrelevant to me! All my other Thrown-users are stuck at Level 50)
Still no 5-star mage or healer sticks. Though I -did- get a 3* clip for Nanaki if I ever wanna mage him out.
Tidus, Wakka, Cloud, Squall, Garnet, Yuna, Vivi are all level 65. I probably don't actually need to level any other characters, but I'm still leveling Tyro, Lightning, White Cecil, Fran, Sephiroth, Selphie, and Quistis for potential use. Other PCs getting leveled are mostly for their Record Materia, like Bard, Edgar, Sabin, Tifa, Sazh, Gordon. Not that I particularly need any of their Materia, I just wanna collect 'em all. Trying to decide which is the better way to spend EXP day - trudging through with the under-50 club to hurry their progress... or work on leveling my B-listers up to 65 and then tossing the resulting eggs at the weaklings? Certainly the B-listers will make the EXP dungeon a lot -easier- to mindlessly clear, so I'll probably use a few of them ANYWAY because otherwise the under-50s aren't gonna be able to efficiently clear the EXP dungeon itself.
Rydia and Dark Cecil still need to hurry up and drop their second Record Materias. Gore-Stained Blade II is the largest attack boost on a Materia, while Rydia's actually boosts Summon damage, which will be useful for a few select boss fights.
Max Stamina is 116. I haven't cleared even half of the Elite dungeons from the previous update, though I've been clearing all the ones from this update as I go, which seems to work out better. Wish they'd give up those sweet sweet stamina stones more easily though.
Tried Record Keeper.
WTF? Why can't I equip Cloud with Thunder? Fuck you. It is Thunder. It is a starting ability on Cloud. Delete game. Uninstall bluestacks. Ruminate about life.
Man, Cloud with Thunder would be awful...
If you'd held out for like a day, you could have given him Thunder Blade instead, which is WAY cooler.
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I should probably give AP another shot. My older computer struggled a little running it, but I probably just wandered off because the Middle East opening plot didn't catch my attention at all.
*Cid YouTubes Brayko fight* Okay that is pretty great.
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Final Fantasy 3: I am struggling to come up with a witty title for the dual playthrough so I won't, instead, enjoy this utter lack of visual aid I present!
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...
...
Anyway, just beat Doga/Unei, and the 2 Floating Continent summons. It's not a lot but still thoughts are to be had!
-Doga and Unei are awful in the NES version, though honestly it feels kind of intentional. They're fought back to back, and given how RNG dependent the game can be at times thanks to AI and such, having a fight which is hard followed by another one can turn it into a game of luck. DS version is exactly that. Doga is the only boss fight in the game that doesn't fully heal you after beating him, and both he and Unei are treated like regular bosses, and the DS version is just as RNG dependent as the other game...if not more. Doga can randomly hurl 1HKO ST damage at a PC with Flare, and Unei's MT Aerora + Physical stings. I had a reset because Doga killed off 2 PCs via Flare at the end of the fight just as he died, and then Unei loved to spam Aerora and such. The second run, I beat Doga with 2 characters in yellow meaning all Unei had to do was cast Aerora (she's fast by the way) and I'd be screwed.
-This is a rare dungeon where they legitimately changed the layout in the DS version. NES version, it's your typical twist and turns dungeon. DS version, they turned it into a large spiral ramp dungeon in a few rooms with an occasional break off for treasure.
-Leviathan and Bahamut's dungeons feel scaled to be done BEFORE Cave of Darkness. The enemies here suck in both versions, both games give you Kotetsu, the step up from Asura, the store-bought Dark Sword, obviously intended to be used in Cave of Darkness (after Cave of Darkness, you aren't running more than 1 Dark Knight, so the 2 Kikuichimonjis you get by the end are all you need), DS version hands you 2 Platinum Hammers between the dungeons which are straight up inferior to the Blessed Hammers you get in Fargabad. As a result, not much to say here.
-The bosses...different story. Well, first off, Leviathan sucks in the NES version the way I played; no getting around that. Tsunami is his only remotely threatening move and I think it might be Thunder elemental (Leviathan's summon is) meaning Diamond Gear which most jobs will be using at this point mock it, and Cure 4 handles the damage well. Leviathan in the DS version? Way better than Heckaton; Tsunami is downright cruel here, and his physical randomly inflicts stone which if he aims for your healer, you can be SOL. It bugs me because if you're designing a dungeon to be balanced around tackling at this point, make the boss balanced in a similar vain! Leviathan does not feel that way.
-Bahamut? NES version he's a dick. This fight is an example of how 4 Dragoons can be extremely handy since Mega Flare spam is really hard to deal with unless you have more than one healer (which is what I did on the winning run.) Also he's a massive tank, physicals do about half what you expect and Magic is mocked (it's not just elemental; I had my Summoner item cast a Chocobo Rage and it still did ass damage.) I have to wonder if they wanted you to fight him with 4 Dragoons because "Dragon Knights vs. a Dragon!" and built him like Garuda; wouldn't be shocked if he was weak to Wind as well making Dragoon's damage way better than expected. DS version...funny thing about this? I had a Dragoon, it used Jump w/ Gungnir + Blood Lance, it did 34k~ to him and he died on turn 2, so I cannot comment on difficulty, only awe at how much damage I did. How did I know how much damage I did when there's a 9999 display cap? Blood Lance heals for HP = 1/6th total damage dealt (when dual wielding anyway), and I healed 5700~ with it, so math stuff.
-I ended up not needing to buy any spells on the Floating Continent outside of a Sleep spell in the NES version. This is because in the NES version, Toad and Mini are identical when used on enemies, so split them between each character, and gave one character Blind and the other Venom because Filler. Granted, Cure, Chocobo and Shiva are the only Level 1/2 spells I'll be using this late but shh!
NEXT UP: LABYRINTH OF THE ANCIENTS. Aka a really boring filler dungeon that got recreated over 20 years later in another boring and bland way! Also, Eureka too, which is to say, "yay awesome gear!"
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Alpha Protocol is one of my favourite games of last gen, I've finished it 3 or 4 times. I can't blame anyone for giving up at the beginning, but it gets really good.
There are lots of choices but it's almost impossible not to be a huge jerk, and it's more fun to pick the most contrarian answers
I didn't find the pistol that good compared to the assault rifle? Both are way better than SMGs/Shotguns/CQC in any case.
RK: Djinn, record synergy for items is really something big so I suggest keeping all those 3 stars items.
Record synergy for characters past the beginning of the game doesn't matter nearly as much, so there's actually not much of a real gameplay intencive to level everybody instead of just a small team. It's just more fun to do + It matters if you're a crazy min / maxer
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Well, that's unfortunate game design. I'd rather spend time leveling up a bunch of characters for different synergy boosts than trying to collect a ton of RNG weapons. I mean, I see the reason for it. It's technically a good way to keep 3-stars (aka the most common type of actually usable equipment) relevant and gives the player a lot of interesting choices and flexibility... but dammit I'd rather just swap a few good equips around on my different collectible sprites for different realms instead of vice-versa.
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Well you have to keep in mind that this is a F2P game.
If character difference was more relevant, characters wouldd have to be available through gatcha mechanics or something. "TIFA EVENT! 10% chance to get Tifa and 90% chance to get Warrior if you spend 50 mithril"
And I'd rather have every character than every weapon.
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Assault Rifles turned out quite well in this playthrough but max Chain Shot with good pistol ammo ends most boss encounters almost immediately. As I mentioned Cid, stealth is a big gameplay skip and it gets ridiculous later on (you can turn on invisibility for a really long time wherein you can just stealth takeout everyone, and you get temp invisibility if you are seen), which is useful for your first playthrough. Intel is worth picking up too since it leads to various things appearing in different missions or ways to deal with bosses that would not be available to you otherwise. Trying to fill out dossiers is also pretty cool since it does add a lot to the world although I just wikied things I couldn't get to. Give it a chance past the Middle East, it does improve quite a bit. It's also noteworthy that once you get to your three safehouses, you can and should move freely between them. Characters and other things will appear in the other locations and it's neat to see how things interact with each other.
I guess the nicest thing you can be in the game is professional, and even then you just kind of talk like a heartless, singleminded asshole. There are no true nice options and that's great, and you still get perks when people hate your guts, so there isn't this KOTOR or Mass Effect-y reason to be nice to everyone. You get perks for fucking up missions and for almost anything (like using a conversation option like suave a number of times), so you're generally rewarded for playing any way you want to. If the gameplay were better, there might be a incentive for people to minmax some of their choices so that you have minimal cooldowns and good bonuses for your build but it's just not necessary in this game.
Some of the perks you get when your handlers hate you are pretty funny.
Sean Darcy, Endurance +10
Your will to live is strengthened by the knowledge that dying would make Darcy happy. That can't happen - not at any cost.
Albatross, Endurance +15
The only thing worse than Albatross' voice in your earpiece is the thought of his smug grin if you died. That thought alone leaves you unwilling to give up in the face of grievous harm.
Sie, Endurance + 5
There's something about SIE's androgynous voice over your earpiece that makes you less inclined to die - it's probably the fear that if you were wounded on your mission, she'd rescue you and lick your wounds.
If you hate everyone, you get bonuses to HP because you want to survive purely out of spite and I can get behind that.
Sadly, the game likely won't get a sequel but the game had enough worthwhile ideas that someone else should steal and build on them.
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FFRK: Sephiroth hit level 65, my first character to do so. Also got r3 Quake.
Omega Ruby: My son gave this to me as a gift. I am playing with Normal types only so I can be the best Normal type trainer like my father. This means ZIGZAGOON ARMY.
Wow the radar thing is stupidly easy to get good pokemon with. Back in my day we had to slave day and night to breed pokemon with good stats, now they just pop up in the grass. A lot. Like the pop ups are more common than regular encounters in the grass? This is so weird as a pokemon game.
Beat the Rock gym with 5 Zigzagoons and a Slakoth. My most OP Zigzagoon has the egg move Tickle, which is pretty amazing this early in the game.
Fighting gym was tackled with 3 Zigs, Slakoth, Whismur, and Skitty. Skitty pretty much soloed Brawly's Makuhita with Attract. The power of love can never be defeated!
Electric gym was annoying due to Volt Switch shenanigans but nothing I couldn't handle. Watson's pocket Magneton did nothing but use Supersonic over and over, missing every time.
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Final Fantasy I Was A Prisoner In Your Autobattle - FF5 Sandworm battle in ATB with charge times and no measure to 2HKO its face with Aqua Breath = a complete pain in the ass. Good thing I could afford to lose the no-Gravity-triggering medal. Otherwise, I'm mostly doing dungeons and XP daily. Maybe I'll get Sazh to L50, and I'm also levelling Tin Can (aka Steiner). That should be useful for the Eiko event in a little bit over a week, give and take, since the Beatrix fights require him around for medals. OF COURSE, I'll also likely use Eiko and certainly Vivi will be around. The Oak Staff completely rips FF9 dungeons in half and that's beautiful.
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Assault Rifles turned out quite well in this playthrough but max Chain Shot with good pistol ammo ends most boss encounters almost immediately. As I mentioned Cid, stealth is a big gameplay skip and it gets ridiculous later on (you can turn on invisibility for a really long time wherein you can just stealth takeout everyone, and you get temp invisibility if you are seen), which is useful for your first playthrough. Intel is worth picking up too since it leads to various things appearing in different missions or ways to deal with bosses that would not be available to you otherwise. Trying to fill out dossiers is also pretty cool since it does add a lot to the world although I just wikied things I couldn't get to. Give it a chance past the Middle East, it does improve quite a bit. It's also noteworthy that once you get to your three safehouses, you can and should move freely between them. Characters and other things will appear in the other locations and it's neat to see how things interact with each other.
I guess the nicest thing you can be in the game is professional, and even then you just kind of talk like a heartless, singleminded asshole. There are no true nice options and that's great, and you still get perks when people hate your guts, so there isn't this KOTOR or Mass Effect-y reason to be nice to everyone. You get perks for fucking up missions and for almost anything (like using a conversation option like suave a number of times), so you're generally rewarded for playing any way you want to. If the gameplay were better, there might be a incentive for people to minmax some of their choices so that you have minimal cooldowns and good bonuses for your build but it's just not necessary in this game.
Some of the perks you get when your handlers hate you are pretty funny.
Sean Darcy, Endurance +10
Your will to live is strengthened by the knowledge that dying would make Darcy happy. That can't happen - not at any cost.
Albatross, Endurance +15
The only thing worse than Albatross' voice in your earpiece is the thought of his smug grin if you died. That thought alone leaves you unwilling to give up in the face of grievous harm.
Sie, Endurance + 5
There's something about SIE's androgynous voice over your earpiece that makes you less inclined to die - it's probably the fear that if you were wounded on your mission, she'd rescue you and lick your wounds.
If you hate everyone, you get bonuses to HP because you want to survive purely out of spite and I can get behind that.
Sadly, the game likely won't get a sequel but the game had enough worthwhile ideas that someone else should steal and build on them.
Being able to flip every character in the game to your side or get everybody killed is enough to warrant a bunch of replays. Player agency is a wonderful thing.
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Final Fantasy Autobattles Made Flesh - Aerith event lands tonight, so naturally I'm
dating pidgeons clearing the remaining Elite dungeons in this update. Bringing a Summoner to clear the trash mobs has definitely been worth it even though Garnet really doesn't contribute much to boss fights, since basic physicals otherwise fail to -2HKO- the randoms and I don't feel like setting up Reta-meta. There's also the fact that randoms very solidly 3HKO my ass now, so cleaning them fast is imperative. Full-mastering trash stages is really big for having breathing room against bosses, so yeah.
EDIT: Right, I play non-FTP bullshit too.
Lost Dimension - So uh this game is pretty weird. You have a SRPG with a lot of emphasis on support-attacking and a huge cast with potentially ridiculously powerful abilities and, by the side, a game of psychic Mafia. I have no idea how that's supposed to pan out, but let's see how it goes.
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Took the weekend off swimming down rivers and evading water moccasins, gators and lightning bolts.
I get back to civilization, and my rk'ering is delayed and I missed out on xp day!
I don't even have lightings event over and we have this new one coming today!
I gotta catch up.
In bravely default, (a game I can play without wifi!) I saved some boys from a coal mine and ring a bell is elvis.
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Final Fantasy Autobattles Become Wings - Only two Elite dungeons left, which I should be able to slam down in a single sitting due to being right next to another max stamina upgrade. Zorn and Thorn remain completely worthless, they're not supposed to ever get an offensive turn. Current Mythril count is 66, seems likely that I'll have enough for somewhat ruthless SB celebration splurging with 20 days worth of daily Mythrils + the three events we'll get before that kicks in. I kinda wanted to draw from the Aerith reissue banner due to the mass of 5* bracers it offers, but feels like a better bet to use it on banners 37 and 40, which will bring both amazing weaponry and cool armor equips.
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RK: I missed all of Satursday but no way I'm missing a sunday. This one got me Irvine to level 52 and Gordon to 49. And Knight and Hunter have their SB learned. Jealous guys? About two thirds of my characters (31/48) are level 50 or above. Pretty cool.
Spoilers, apparently we are going in one month to fight some boss that can basically only be beat by Poizn / non elemental spells and it'd be best to have 2 Comets / Biora spells.
I would have hated to be a japanese player by then, not knowing that. "SURPRISE here is this boss can only be beaten by spamming ... I don't know... wind attacks? He'll go away in two weeks. Good luck lol"
I also have 186 mithril but I'm going to be the only loser who wastes like 100 on Rinoa's banner right before pulls are going to get better.
Etrian Odyssey: 21F is another steep incline in difficulty, and the difficulty curve was already going straight vertically before.
So now the difficulty curve's somehow going backwards, defying basic mathematical laws.
At least now that I have a ton of grimoires, I get a bunch of different skills and can start getting conditional drops, which lead to new options.
In particular The 3rd stratum boss drops a material that can create the best bow in the game if killed with POIZN so I'm working on that.
I can't get past the two guild girls because they take hours to kill, and one of them has ID, and if I revive a bard he comes back at low HPs and no buffs, and he get picked apart super easily.
I also tried beating Optional Boss Alraune and ahahahahahahah this is never happening
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Comet is a good idea to hone in general anyway, best mult of the 3*s and non-elemental is often useful, especially on places like the Sunday daily (FUCK YOU JACKANAPES). THAT SAID, I started honing my Biora anyway, and I'll likely have the Dark Orbs to hone Bioga to R2 at least. I'm also saving my Greater Holy and Wind Orbs for Diaga, which will be coming verrrrrrrrrry shortly.
EDIT:
I also have 186 mithril but I'm going to be the only loser who wastes like 100 on Rinoa's banner right before pulls are going to get better.
I'd save some for Banner 41 of the second SB celebration as well, since it also has two guns (including a 42s Vega reissue for Sazh!). It also will have EDWARD's SB weapon and Squall's second SB gunblade.
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Oh yeah you're right.
I'm not only pulling for two guns though, I'm pulling for IRVINE's gun especially (we're probably never going to see it again, it's not very good), and the blitz sword (This is my only 5+ weapon, I'd like having it at 5++)
I didn't have Comet before, but I could create and hone it to R4 straight away, so.
Biora is also at R4. Tuesdays will be spent making copies of these / maybe honing them to R5
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Tuesdays are pretty much eternal black power farming, so yeah. Power and Black Orbs are the most important 3* orbs to amass by -far-, since you need them for damn near everything. I'm at a perennial shortage of black orbs no matter what as a rule of thumb. I -do- want to hone Comet to R5, but I think I'll take Biora to R4 first, since it's a lot more efficient (and Comet's already at R4 anyway).
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Yeah, I thought I was nearly done with Tuesday but nope.
Honing multiple copies of Comet / Biora sounds dumb, so I'll try winning without them.
With skills like Retaliate, summons, and maybe physical attacks backed by insane mitigation.
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I'll be honest, I'm already considering packing multiple -gas and -ra Strikes anyway, since that allows for more weakness exploitation, but that'll wait until I have at least all my relevant 3*s at R4 or higher (not terribly far from that, only Dark and Biora left to go to get to R4... and Biora's at R2 while Dark's at R3. At least both Drain and Dark share the same element, so they can already play double weakness-hitting duty). I figure we'll get by with just Comet/Biora/Bioga on that boss, though, I already checked it out.
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Final Fantasy Autobattle Makes A Tangle - Holy -shit-, Elite Beatrix's on Castle Alexandria 2 is nasty. She wiped me after pulling off a Climhazzard from which I'd never be able to recover. Guess it's time to bench Garnet and Lightning and bring in the Reta-meta show with Cloud along with Red XIII for Lunatic High. I -have- to kill her before she unleashes Climhazzard lest I want to die horribly again.
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I'll be honest, I'm already considering packing multiple -gas and -ra Strikes anyway, since that allows for more weakness exploitation, but that'll wait until I have at least all my relevant 3*s at R4 or higher (not terribly far from that, only Dark and Biora left to go to get to R4... and Biora's at R2 while Dark's at R3. At least both Drain and Dark share the same element, so they can already play double weakness-hitting duty). I figure we'll get by with just Comet/Biora/Bioga on that boss, though, I already checked it out.
Man I dunno this sounds like way overkill. 4* spells are going to become more relevent, they're going to make copies of 3* spells obsolete. I guess that's still decent if you run a multimage team.
Has anything even be weak to dark so far?
Cecil is going to get a buff, 4* white magic. Oh shit, you give him Protectga + something like Mental Break and he suddendly becomes Cloud-tier. Or Protectga + Shellga plus a RM that buffs regular attacks. Cecil hype.
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Aerith event lands tonight
The final battle should totally give 3 stars for "Win with Aerith KO'd".
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:)
BTW Zorn and Thorn have amazing sprites / animations.
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Multiple -ga spells or whatever depend on which future superbosses you care to fight in the future. For instance Omega will be in one event in a no synergy level, so best way to take it on is lots of well honed Thundagas/Thundara Strikes/Stops. Merugene in a different event has a barrier switching gimmick and nulls/absorbs every other element, but she always starts weak to fire and can be put to sleep, so if you have enough Fire magic you can s/l until sleep hits asap and easy mode the fight.
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Aerith event lands tonight
The final battle should totally give 3 stars for "Win with Aerith KO'd".
I love you.
Fenny: it's pretty much what hinode's pointing out what I want to accomplish. I'm already at a point where I want to run multiple mages, and -gas are still relevant when hitting weakness (whereas -ja spells hitting weakness is brutal overkill, those are primarily boss slugfesting/high-end trash troubleshooting abilities). They obviously don't need to be ultrahoned, but being decently honed would be pretty aces.
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In other FFRK news, Antlion absorbs Water element, making it the most powerful boss in the game. Sandworm however is Balthier's bitch, since his SB hits the water weakness *and* doesn't trigger counterattacks from the holes.
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Yeah, MT doesn't trigger wormhole counters, it's a pretty nice sanity net. But then, neither did it in FF5. And man, FF9 Antlion absorving Water is totes news to me. Anyhow.
Final Fantasy Lust In The Autobattles - Reta-meta + full-on R2 -ja Vivi artillery made a chump out of Beatrix. Went with a Red XIII RW so I could still keep Garnet for clearing trash, forfeited Protectga due to LH and slotted Slowga. Turns out this was all I needed. Good times were had and now there's only one dungeon left, which should be relatively cake. Good times.
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Final Fantasy Autobattle The Collapse - Sweeped through wussy version of Aerith's reissue, which is more or less a glorified JENOVA Project recycle event. Having unlocked her, I fed the girl some Growth Eggs and took her to black power grindans, which inevitably takes up all of my Tuesday FTP bullshitting time. The goal for today: R4 Biora or R5 Comet.
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I...
I have R5 Biora and R4 Comet.
I outsnowed Snow
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I've had R4 Comet for the longest time, though. I also have all the main -gas at R5 and Biora should reach R4 still today, I already have it at R3. I don't think I have a single relevant 3* Black Magic spell under R3 at this point, and most of them are at R4. Portfolio diversity, it is a thing.
EDIT: Also worth pointing out that getting a spell from R4 to R5 costs more in materials and money than raising it from R1 to R3. Diminishing returns apply really fiercely.
EDIT2: ALSO hoping that Eiko's event, debutting this Sunday, will give me the necessary Greater Fire and Ice Orbs for R3 Waterja. I've seen they're among the event's rewards already, if they boost the orb count like they did on the previous few events, I'll be set.
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I hope it will give me enough orbs for R4 Waterja so I can resume gloating
I've had R4 Comet for the longest time, though. I also have all the main -gas at R5 and Biora should reach R4 still today, I already have it at R3. I don't think I have a single relevant 3* Black Magic spell under R3 at this point, and most of them are at R4. Portfolio diversity, it is a thing.
Yes. That's right. Okay. Hmmm-hmmm.
*looks at own portfolio*
But do you have R5 Poison?
Edit: The gil costs are getting out of hand, can't believe all this gold raised during the festival of gold has run out
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We're getting a second SB celebration festival for those exact reasons, shortly after the Rinoa event starts, I'd suspect. The rewards in Growth Eggs, materials and monies are simply -insane-.
Yes. That's right. Okay. Hmmm-hmmm.
*looks at own portfolio*
But do you have R5 Poison?
I have R5 Sleep and R4 Venom Buster, does that count? EDIT: actually, I have all Busters at R4. (Though it's kinda unfair, all the statuses are useful. Granted, Sleep being this high is partly because it works better with specialized niche mega-meta)
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In other FFRK news, Antlion absorbs Water element, making it the most powerful boss in the game. Sandworm however is Balthier's bitch, since his SB hits the water weakness *and* doesn't trigger counterattacks from the holes.
If you're all forgetting what the early game is like, pretty much everything absorbs water. I've taken to calling Wakka my "enemy support class" because of how many enemies I've inadvertently healed with his overdrive.
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He used to be the only source of Water damage in the game IIRC. Oh how times have changed.
Also... Eiko event on Sunday? Sheesh. I only just got Aerith's Level Crystal. And I'm nowhere -near- finishing all the regular dungeons they gave us. I was hoping to have time to grind at some point...
Egged Aerith up to 50 because you can never have too many different flavors of healers. I wish they'd hurry up and give us Terra and Celes again... Then I can -finally- get my FFdex up to date.
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Hey, is that extra rare draw worth always saving up for the 11 pull, or should a person at like, level 12 be trying to pull everything to trivialize the early game (well, I mean, more trivialize it. I only wiped when I got cocky and attempted a challenge about 5 levels ahead of me. That did not work out so well.
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I'd save for the 11-pull, since it's not hard to get the Mythril and, at your point, even 3* equipment will be at least close to game-changing if gotten in bulk. Do pay attention to the banners, though. Lightning's banner is great for overall use, while Aerith's is very mage/armor-centric. I'd suggest pulling from Lightning, but if you don't think you'll be able to amass 50 Mythril until Thursday, do a 3-pull from it. who knows, you might get lucky and you'll almost certainly get something decent for your current power level.
EDIT: Final Fantasy Drowned In A Sea Of Autobattle - Achievements unlocked: R4 Biora, R5 Diara. Also R2'd Berserk because sure why not. I now also have more Power Orbs than I care to count, but those may serve me well by the time Zack's event comes out, which should be five weeks from now. I need to find some time to grind a Wednesday orb daily before then, though. I could also R2 Valefor, but I do -not- want to spend my Greater Non-Elemental Orbs lightly. I need them for further breakdown honing and all.
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In terms of cost-efficiency, clearly saving up for the 11-pull is always the right answer. But if you're not min-maxing and just want to have fun - I'd say just pull whenever you get 5 mythril and there's a banner with stuff you wouldn't mind having. Your chances are still basically the same. It's also a lot less psychologically disheartening if you don't get any 5-stars from single-pulls than an 11-pull too.
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I did two 11-pulls at the beginning of the game, but that was it. Was too annoying to save up and watch things pass by. You're so limited on stamina early on that mythril doesn't exactly flow freely.
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Honestly, 3 pulls sometimes give you more bang for your buck if you luck out, but I tend to do those when my interest on a banner is more niche and/or I don't think it's worth waiting. I got stuff like Vivi's Oak Staff, a Monk Robe, my 6* Heat Lance and the Danjuro out of it, so it's all good. The only thing I don't really recommend is doing single pulls. I'd rather spend the five Mythril on upgrading inventory space.
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3 pulls seems kind of useless since it's only 3 single pulls with no incentive? It's a bit faster I guess. There is a cult of three pulls says the 3 pull has a higher chance of pulling 5* items, but can we believe them? There's also an urban legend that says it's called 3 pull because you only draw terrible 3* items.
Your call.
I'm on the atheist side on this one.
I did a few single pulls (Like 10 or so) at the beginning to get up to speed ASAP. Then it's been 11 pulls only.
In terms of cost-efficiency, clearly saving up for the 11-pull is always the right answer. But if you're not min-maxing and just want to have fun - I'd say just pull whenever you get 5 mythril and there's a banner with stuff you wouldn't mind having. Your chances are still basically the same. It's also a lot less psychologically disheartening if you don't get any 5-stars from single-pulls than an 11-pull too.
You've had your heart broken so many times that you don't believe in love/11 pulls anymore. But it is great. Imagine pulling three 5* at once
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Nah, I just like getting stuff more often.
Also it means I don't have to upgrade my inventory so much because I'm culling the useless shit as I get better 4*s to replace 3*s and such.
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I would say the only time an 11 draw isn't optimal is if there is a good banner running out before you will get 50 Mithril. You should only pull when there is a banner up (is there ever not now?).
I think thee might be an argument for doing smaller pulls really early to get a few 3-4* items or until,you get a 5* carry.
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There are always banners up, the matter is more precisely -what- each banner carries. Pulling from Lightning's banner >>>>> pulling, say, from Edgar/Sabin's banner, due to a much better featured equip draw. Also, strictly mathematical, but if you decide to spend a specific amount of mythril, just want a *5 (any *5) and will stop as soon as you get one, it's more efficient to pull individual draws, since you have more control over your resources.
Final Fantasy Autobattled And Abandoned - Slaving away at Aerith reissue's Elite fights, already grabbed her Memory Crystal. Jenova BIRTH suddenly isn't so scary when she has less than half the HP and damage she had in the JENOVA Project event.
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I've played rk since it came out.
1 character specific weapon...
Rng hates me so much.
Don't think I can beat the ++ boss in 13. I don't have enough 13 gear to get me over the hump. I'll try with my capped guys though...
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Brynhildr is fundamentally about staying on top on its first turn, then putting up your typical setup. Tauntaliate is a very valid strategy if you follow Paladin Cecils with Sentinel (see my post (http://www.rpgdl.com/forums/index.php/topic,6636.msg176911.html#msg176911) on the matter), otherwise, just the typical mitigation+offense strategy does the job - i.e. Sentinel Grimoire RW, Shellga, Protectga and Breakdowns. You -will- need both Power and Magic Breakdown there, preferrably at R2, but Rydia spamming Blizzaga with your Ice Whip and Cloud spamming Blizzara Strikes (especially under Boost) should be enough on offense to get you by. It's a nasty fight, but it should be doable at your power levels.
Final Fantasy Une Année Sans Autobattle - Still slaving away. Next dungeon brings Faith, which I've been wanting for a while. Kinda ridiculous that it's a 3* ability when its physical Support equivalent (Boost) is a 1*, though.
EDIT: And, since I got a bit inquisitive after Scar, I decided to do a runthrough over my current equipment stack.
6*s (Natural 5*s or otherwise)
Diamond Pin (Red XIII weapon, FF7)
Official Ball (Wakka weapon, FF10)
Heat Lance (FF10)
Ten-Gallon Hat (FF8, originally 4*)
Zantetsuken (FF6)
5*s (Natural or otherwise)
Judgment Staff (FF5)
Genji Armor (FF5)
Genji Helm (FF5)
Golden Spear (FF6)
Hawkeye (FF6)
Oak Staff (Vivi weapon, FF9)
Monk Robe (FF10)
Royal Crown (FF6, originally 4*)
Emerald Shield (FF10)
Keepsake Knife (FF13)
Danjuro (FF12)
Those are the main fixtures on my builds. I use a few scattered 4* robes and Light Armors (Red Jacket is quite good for a 4*, for example) when I don't have the right equipment draw for a given party composition as well, along with a couple 4* realm-specific synergy weapons like Masamune Blade for FF7 and Warrior Sword for FF10 (in fact, I have a lot of FF10 high-end materials). I suppose I could use better armor in general, but doesn't feel too bad.
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That's a nice list.
And while I may have more 5 star gear than you,much of it started out as 3 star stuff.
Let's see...
Bah. This would take too long on the phone. I'll post my stash when I get home.
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Yeah, the only originally 3* stuff I have are the PSICOM Pistol from Lightning's event, the Flail from Selphie/Quistis' event and a Golem Staff, all of which were upgraded to 4*. I'll be honest, I don't expect to ever use the mage weapons (for mage equips, frankly, my FF3 Light Rod and FF4 Empyrean Rod cover me fine for emergency backup, though I still want a second 5* rod/whip), but at least the Flail and Pistol will appear again on further FF8 and 13 events, and might be useful under maxed synergy.
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Oh I'm the only one who keeps 3* around?
I have a bunch of 3++ items and with synergy they're better than the 5* items without synergy. So I keep every 3* item just in case, upgrading inventory doesn't cost much anyway.
Right now Tifa's rocking some 3++ FF7 fist weapon that has 20 more attack than Danjuro in the event. Danjuro's her best weapon usually.
And Nanaki has a 4+ FF7 fist weapon that does 42 more attack than Danjuro right now.
Also keeping all the 3* items makes you feel like you almost never waste pulls so you don't get too terribly disappointed.
I beat Lynyrd with no FF13 gear. You can probably do it unless you really lack natural 5* items. Getting mastery might be a stretch though.
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I have a very low repeat rate on the 3*s, so I end up tossing them aside or using them as upgrade materials. I save 4*s more intently, since they require no effort to be better than natural 5*s under synergy, and, once they're at 4++*, they're actually not that much worse than natural 5*s (my Ten-Gallon Hat, for instance, has only -10 Def, -19 Res and -3 Mag/Mind compared to a few natural 5* hats, so it does the job okay enough. I'd -like- to have natural 5* hats, sure, but a combined 4* does the job okay there). 3*s, even fully upgraded and combined, are only ever useful under synergy, the gap is way too large.
EDIT: Final Fantasy Osu! Tatakae! Autobattle! - Only two Aerith reissue dungeons left. There's really not much to say about them, the last boss will be Demon Wall and -that- little fucker will eat Blind and Slowga like a good boy. And then, the boss rush will have three out of -five- bosses who can be paralyzed. Yeah, I'm not terribly worried.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/FFRecordKeeper/comments/3hk5pp/breakdown_of_natural_5s/
There was just a topic on this that popped up recently so you can see how your luck compares. Snow is obviously the darling of RNJesus.
I'm rocking 17 natural 5-stars, most of it is Shields...
I -do- have 5 Soul Break weapons. But 2 of them are Sentinel's Grimoire, which is obviously my only 6-star weapon.
I keep all my 4-stars, so quite a few of those are now 5-stars, which is cool. I also have a 4++ Axe somehow.
Still only have one 3-star Spear. If Dragoons and their elemental jumps ever become important to the meta, I am screwed. I'm already feeling the pain of no natural 5-star mage weapons... *glares are Snow's Oak Staff and Diamond Pin*
Also... you have an Official Ball too?! I -really- wanted that one...
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I got it in my pulls for the Yuna event while aiming for the Magistral Rod. Honestly can't complain, especially considering how good Status Reels is.
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I have a very low repeat rate on the 3*s, so I end up tossing them aside or using them as upgrade materials. I save 4*s more intently, since they require no effort to be better than natural 5*s under synergy, and, once they're at 4++*, they're actually not that much worse than natural 5*s (my Ten-Gallon Hat, for instance, has only -10 Def, -19 Res and -3 Mag/Mind compared to a few natural 5* hats, so it does the job okay enough. I'd -like- to have natural 5* hats, sure, but a combined 4* does the job okay there). 3*s, even fully upgraded and combined, are only ever useful under synergy, the gap is way too large.
Synergy does count though, I feel. Especially in events. I really haven't regretted keeping those 3* in the past events. I have eleven 3*++ so they do add up!
Obviously you can throw away all the FF1-3 gear though because they get no events.
If we are listing shit, as far as natural 5* I have
An awesome 5+ Blitz sword
Zantetsuken (FF6)
Diamond Sword (FF9)
Betrayer Sword (FF8) no more swords please
Danjuro (FF12)
Gold Spear (FF12)
Guard Stick (FF7, Aeris', but it's a black mage weapon)
Valkyrie (FF8, Rinoa's)
Caduceus (FF5, Lenna's)
Judgement Staff (FF5)
Genji Helm (FF5, awesome)
Dark Helm (FF4, awesome)
Gold Armor (FF12)
Monk Robe (FF10)
Princess Dress (FF6)
Emerald Shield (FF10, I never fucking use it even in FF10 dungeons)
Also one 4++ item, four 4+ items, and eleven 3++ items
Sitting on 193 mithril so hopefully I'll be able to add a gun to that list
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6 stars: Selphie's Morning Star (8)
5 stars:
Zantetsuken (6)
Enhancer (6, but no Terra QQ)
Blitz Sword (8)
Masamune (Sephiroth - 7)
Ras Algethi (Balthier - 12)
Judgment Staff (5)
Genji Shield (4)
Defense Veil (10)
Adamant Vest (9)
White Robe (9)
Not listing the 4+1s, have a ton of those and they all suck. Natural 5s or gtfo. My main need is a mage weapon (or a mage that can use swords for the Enhancer).
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Golbez, who'll be released early September, will tide you over, then. Tanky mage who uses swords. A month after, more or less, Ashe will also show up, and she's yet another sword-wielding mage... And then Terra's reissue will come exactly on the next event. Oh well.
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My main need is a mage weapon (or a mage that can use swords for the Enhancer).
How about Gordon?
No Waterja and low magic for a mage but hey
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That music we get in the Aeris event menu is truly atrocious.
FF7-8 could have some really awful music for some reason. Early PSX days I guess.
BTW Every FF7 boss looks much better in Record Keeper than in the original game, but especially Demon Wall
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So it's e-peen comparison time, eh.
Natural 5 stars:
Zantetsuken (FF6)
Golden Spear (FF6)
Keepsake Knife (FF13)
Full Metal Staff (FF7)
Judgment Staff+ (FF5)
Mystery Veil (FF6)
2x Royal Gown (FF6), still uncombined
Golden Shield (FF6)
Golden Armor (FF12)
Gold Armlet (FF7)
Sanctum Gloves (FF13)
Zero character relics, but it's a pretty nice mix of equipment types, at least (thankfully the Full Metal 'Staff' is actually a rod). Also the amount of FF6 stuff on here is kinda silly considering I've only made 3 single pulls on an FF6 banner, Locke's, from which I got the Mystery Veil.
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Golbez, who'll be released early September, will tide you over, then. Tanky mage who uses swords. A month after, more or less, Ashe will also show up, and she's yet another sword-wielding mage... And then Terra's reissue will come exactly on the next event. Oh well.
How long before I can get Celes and -finally- finish my pokedex?
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Your pokedex won't be complete until you get WARRIOR from the link 4 chars/4 MC1s/4 MC2s event.
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A priori, after the Hope/Vanille event, which should be some three weeks after Terra. She'll also bring Strago and Setzer with her.
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Eagerly waiting for Warrior.
He's unique in that he's the only character in the game who gets a soul break from a 3* weapon.
Also, "A warrior fears no danger, and excels in bringing combat to the enemy. Sturdy yet lithe, the warrior can wear a wide range of armor, serving as both sword and shield on the front lines of battle."
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Hahaha. Hawkeye is a 5* weapon? That's fantastic. It's nice to see the creators acknowledge just how good that could make Locke.
MY best weapon? Well, gentlemen, feast your eyes on my lovely BASTARD SWORD (FFVI), a 3 star weapon that nonetheless makes Cloud deal about 4 times more damage than the rest of my party on either FFVI or FFVII maps.
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So it's e-peen comparison time, eh.
5 star equipment:
4 star equipment:
3 star equipment:
2 star equipment:
1 star equipment:
i think i win
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whale
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Pay2Win asshole
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Mastered Aerith's event, without using Aerith because I don't need to waste eggs on more healers and I heard she dies before the game is over. No surprise that Smashiroth was MVP. He was still 1-shotting randoms with his normal attack in the level 99 dungeon.
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Final Fantasy A Chain Of Autobattles - Also finished the Aerith event. Red XIII does truly disproportionate damage when under full synergy bonuses. I want the dungeon update that brings the Forest of Moore so bad.
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Have fun with the mastery conditions for Aerith's upcoming boss rush, Cap'n.
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He likely won't aim for it anyway, it's not worth it if you don't raise the event PC. I know I said "fuck it" to mastering the boss rush in JENOVA Project. No regrets.
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That music we get in the Aeris event menu is truly atrocious.
FF7-8 could have some really awful music for some reason. Early PSX days I guess.
That PSX sound chip was complete ass at some things.
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After killing a Lightning Event enemy by cheerfully playing a harp at it, I was lead to wonder:
Will Final Fantasy ever be silly again? Can it be silly again? Can it be fantasy, again? That's what I wonder. Sure, there's magic and airships and whatnot, but it's all so... serious. Final Fantasy 4 had you defeat an Elf because you played music through a telepathy weed. Final Fantasy VI had you confront a talking octopus on multiple occasions. Final Fantasy VII featured a party member that was a magically animated cat robot riding a larger stuffed moogle robot. And then made that character the "spy" on your party.
Is there whimsy in later entries? Where is it? If it's gone, can we get it back?
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FF7 and 8 original game music is Midi as fuck.
Also VSM. Dimensions. Play it.
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So noted, about Dimensions, but I meant more "in the main series, as a matter of setting."
I guess I just want a "High" fantasy Final Fantasy again.
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Final Fantasy Autobattling In The Name - With the Aerith event toppled and the realization that I don't have much use for white power today (not really much I really need to hone from White Orbs and I already have some 120 Power Orbs from black power Tuesday), I naturally decided to
date pidgeons farm Greater Fire Orbs at Thamasa. Tedious as fuck, but I got one for my stash already. Also cap-broke Aerith and Warrior of Light.
EDIT: Second gotten. If I get two more, I'll have enough -Fire- orbs for Waterja R3, but there are still the three Greater Ice Orbs left to go. Well, there's always Besaid for that. Honing either Thundaja or Firaja to R3 will be -pain-, though: 30 Greater Orbs fuck you.
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So noted, about Dimensions, but I meant more "in the main series, as a matter of setting."
I guess I just want a "High" fantasy Final Fantasy again.
Unfortunately you are not the fan Square wishes to pander to. Maybe if Japanese teenagers start clamoring for it they'll bring it back but until then it's MOMS ARE TOUGH and Cloud having cancer.
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Woah FF is not Game of Thrones.
FF didn't get less silly at all. Have you looked at FF15?
These japanese games have higher graphical fidelity and you got older, what you saw as charming whimsy in early FF you see as stupid anime bullshit in recent FF
FF2/4/6 were pretty srsbns overall
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I try to look at FF15 as little as possible these days, myself.
I do think the kind of more surreal moments you get in earlier FF (such as the character of Ultros in general, Wall Market / Honeybee Inn) have vanished from FF10/12/13, though obviously whether that's a good or bad thing is something you can debate. I look back kind of fondly on some of it myself (especially Ultros, duh), but don't really miss it, if that makes sense.
Agreed that there are definitely parallels between the "whismy" of early sprite games and the "anime bullshit" of more recent RPGs. Actually if so this kinda drives home my previous point, since whatever you think of the relative quality of FF and various other RPGs these days, it's hard to argue against the observation that various other JRPG series (Fire Emblem 13-14, Persona 3-4, Tales, Disgaea) are clearly more "anime" than FF12-13. EDIT: On the other hand FF Type-0 is anime as fuck.
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I posit FF7:AC as the midpoint between anime as fuck and srs bznss. It's not goofy in the same manner FF7 is, but it is unquestionably goofy.
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So in this example goofy means utter shit?
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These japanese games have higher graphical fidelity and you got older, what you saw as charming whimsy in early FF you see as stupid anime bullshit in recent FF
FF2/4/6 were pretty srsbns overall
Ehhhhh... I see this argument with anime a lot too and I'm not fully convinced I agree? There are definitely things that are going to relate to simply getting older and changing tastes, but there is something to be said for the fact that the way things are being handled has changed too. I mean, at a very base level, EDIT: I'm stupid as shit and fucked up the numbers 1-6/Tactics/9/12/11/14 vs 7-8/10/13/15 have a pretty big gap in genre (the latter leaning way more sci-fantasy than fanrasy).
I think NEB nails it a bit better by saying there are parallels between the whimsy and the BS, rather than your statement that they are the same. There is a definite difference in presentation, handling, etc. This isn't to say one is superior (and that there isn't some degree of nostalgia tinting), just that things have indeed changed.
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Final Fantasy Weekend Without Autobattle - Still farming Greater Fire Orbs. Got three so far, so could be worse. I just can't wait for the Orb festival, which is coming like a month and a half from now. If anything justifies mythril stamina refreshes, that will be it. So many Greater Orbs.
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I think the shift to more realistic graphics has impacted how players react to surreal moments in FF games. I'm pretty sure that stuff like the Leblanc message minigame and Chocolina would've gotten very different reactions had they occured in a game with SNES sprites. Conversely, the "M-M-M-M-MAGIC?" scene from FF6 would likely play out very differently in a game with FF13-level graphics and especially facial expressions.
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Perhaps so, but imagine the entire Phantom Train sequence, complete with suplexing, in glorious HD and realize how little Square must truly love us.
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Ehhhhh... I see this argument with anime a lot too and I'm not fully convinced I agree? There are definitely things that are going to relate to simply getting older and changing tastes, but there is something to be said for the fact that the way things are being handled has changed too. I mean, at a very base level, 1-6/Tactics/14 vs 7-13/15 have a pretty big gap in genre (the latter leaning way more sci-fantasy than fanrasy).
Yeah that's why I mentioned high fidelity graphics.
Also FF isnt really sci fi? There's just modern technology added to the recent ones.
Hinode is right, and I think you would fucking hate Ultros in FF13.
And the scenes about Gau saying Cyan is Mr Thou
If we just want to list silly stuff in modern FF there's:
FF10, throwing water polo balls at wolves for 99999 damage, attacking robots with tiny stuffed cactuses
FF12, Balthier saying he's the main character, being Captain Basch from Rosenburg of Dalmasca, Rogue tomato and shit
FF13, chocobo living in Sazh's hair
FF15, driving around in a car complaining about cramps then killing Behemoths
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Some of that isn't graphics so much as a decreased willingness to accept poor translations. Can you imagine a "This guy are sick" in a contemporary release?
And HD means some things need to be changed graphically, for sure. Like, I feel like you could still have Ultros, but having him dive into water that doesn't exist would be much odder, somehow. On the other hand, I don't see why you can't just have him dart around when he wants to re-position. Octopi are FAST.
The entire Edward/Dark Elf sequence in FFIV seems like something that'd never be recreated, but I see no reason why it wouldn't work in high fidelity graphics. It's like our willingness to accept absurd has changed---but specifically in Final Fantasy. Why -can't- someone equip a Megaphone or Harp anymore? Dynasty Warriors has HD graphics and I'm pretty sure fans would REVOLT if they took away Zhenji's flute.
On the other hand, you could have an attempt to go back to the series' roots wind up in another FFIX, which is my least favorite game of the series, barring the original. So.... Ugh. I'll let the storytellers tell the stories they want and hope they decide to go -weird- for XVI, or hitherto unreleased parts of XV.
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A page of people saying the whimsy in FF games is gone but FF13 Lightning Returns is literally S-E recreating Barkley: Shut Up and Jam Gaiden with a ginormous budget
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I hate you for making me wonder even for a split second whether LR might be worth playing, Tonfa.
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I think the shift to more realistic graphics has impacted how players react to surreal moments in FF games. I'm pretty sure that stuff like the Leblanc message minigame and Chocolina would've gotten very different reactions had they occured in a game with SNES sprites. Conversely, the "M-M-M-M-MAGIC?" scene from FF6 would likely play out very differently in a game with FF13-level graphics and especially facial expressions.
I think this is the key. In old games, you could make jumping off an airship onto land be a 6 second sprite animation. In FFX, that would come off as completely absurd graphically. This becomes really noticeable replaying old games; they are in a way so barebones that the writing they use at times just wouldn't work very well in today's high budget games. It worked really well then, but it would fall flat now. Something like equipment is different since it's just a pure visual.
Early FFs had a heavy dose of sci-fi. FF 6 had Magitek, trains, genetic engineering and an airship. I think that advancing graphical technology has given them the ability to make the sci-fi more blatant and impressive. I can't say that FF9 or FF12 feel less "fantasy" than the early games in terms of overall setting.
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Early FFs had a heavy dose of sci-fi. FF 6 had Magitek, trains, genetic engineering and an airship. I think that advancing graphical technology has given them the ability to make the sci-fi more blatant and impressive. I can't say that FF9 or FF12 feel less "fantasy" than the early games in terms of overall setting.
I'll address other stuff when I have a little more time, but I just straight up blanked on 9/12 when doing numbers. I'm derp.
6 (and other FFs largely)... I realize we're getting into semantics here, but 6 was way, way more Steampunk than Sci-Fi. Where you want to draw the line between fantasy and sci-fi/sci-fantasy can obviously vary, but if we go by aesthetics (which, honestly, is where the difference tends to lie), FF6 and the like feels more fantasy while 7, 10, 13 feel more sci-fi.
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(http://i.imgur.com/cwNyS9Kl.png)
Welp, that's the best 11 draw I've gotten yet. Goodbye Bard RW, it's been a good run.
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Two Edincoats what the hell
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That's a Gold Armlet, not an Edincoat. Stats aren't as good, but it does have Protectga as a shared SB.
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That's pretty nice, anyway. I wish I could spare more Mythril for Aerith's event, I need to save up for the SB Celebration and Orb Festival.
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Early FFs had a heavy dose of sci-fi. FF 6 had Magitek, trains, genetic engineering and an airship. I think that advancing graphical technology has given them the ability to make the sci-fi more blatant and impressive. I can't say that FF9 or FF12 feel less "fantasy" than the early games in terms of overall setting.
I'll address other stuff when I have a little more time, but I just straight up blanked on 9/12 when doing numbers. I'm derp.
6 (and other FFs largely)... I realize we're getting into semantics here, but 6 was way, way more Steampunk than Sci-Fi. Where you want to draw the line between fantasy and sci-fi/sci-fantasy can obviously vary, but if we go by aesthetics (which, honestly, is where the difference tends to lie), FF6 and the like feels more fantasy while 7, 10, 13 feel more sci-fi.
In fairness, if you remove Midgar, FF 7 really doesn't feel that notably different than FF 6 and from what a remember, the FF 6 Empire's city was basically a bunch of tech that maybe not have really been all that different from Shinra HQ? I know FF 7 added things like broadcast signals and such that would be some differentiation. Now I would say that things like Crisis Core may have retconned exactly how technically advanced the world was.
Of course, I don't really consume anything steampunk (beyond a few hybrid fantasy/steampunk novels), so I have no idea what that truly encompasses.
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FF7 has cars, motorcycles, electric power, aeroplanes, and television. It's hardly just Midgar; this extends very much to at the very least Kalm, Junon, Costa del Sol, and the Gold Saucer as well (EDIT: as well as Rocket Town and Icicle Village, and even the ninja village feels kinda like a tourist attraction for a pseudo-modern market rather than anything authentic). FF7 feels like an alternate, fantasy interpretation of our present (or at least a time close to it) while FF6 definitely feels like it's more trying to channel something from another era, maybe a bit more Industrial Revolution / Victorian to judge from things like Narshe and Jidoor. It's a pretty notable difference.
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Ffrk
Beat the wall. Blind nerfs it bad.
Just in time for the boss rush.
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Shovel Knight - Finished this off, boss rush was amazing, and I really enjoyed some of the alter stages. The game's plot is still a total joke and Shield Knight is bad and should feel bad, but it's a cool game. I think I will have to play HM at some point.
Devil Survivor - Just got another boring male PC, Keisuke. The party is complete, though~ Rescue missions in this game are the pits.
Deemo - I got the ending. Great game, lovely music, and beautiful art.
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Final Fantasy Autobattle And Cigarettes - In the end, the Greater Orb farming day led me to five Greater Fire Orbs and one Greater Ice Orb, which frankly isn't half-bad. Depending on how Non-Elemental farming goes on Saturday, I may have Waterja R3 for Eiko's event. I also have enough orbs for Quake R4 as of now, but I'm saving the Dark Orbs for Bioga honing when it comes out.
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Having just replayed FF5 and FF6 a lot of the whimsy moments are in fact stupid anime bullshit. The games just simply EDIT: AREN'T as good as we remember them on that front. FF6 was at it's best when it was being experimental srs business (Opera scene, Celes's suicide attempt). Ultros was fine but without nostalgia goggles I wouldn't know what the big deal is. He is also decidedly anime bullshit.
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FF7 has cars, motorcycles, electric power, aeroplanes, and television. It's hardly just Midgar; this extends very much to at the very least Kalm, Junon, Costa del Sol, and the Gold Saucer as well (EDIT: as well as Rocket Town and Icicle Village, and even the ninja village feels kinda like a tourist attraction for a pseudo-modern market rather than anything authentic). FF7 feels like an alternate, fantasy interpretation of our present (or at least a time close to it) while FF6 definitely feels like it's more trying to channel something from another era, maybe a bit more Industrial Revolution / Victorian to judge from things like Narshe and Jidoor. It's a pretty notable difference.
I think if you'd let technological development continue uninterrupted from FFVI (say Kefka and Geshtahl perish in a hair cutting accident), in about 30-40 years you'd probably get something that looks quite a bit like FFVII technologically.
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Devil Survivor 2: Actually hold that thought.
Goofiness vs. stupidity in games: I actually quite respect games that mix in humor. This is a GAME after all, I want to simultaneously save the world and be entertained by cute cats or whatever. There's a lot of parts of games where *theoretically* the weird cast o' characters should really let boring professionals do the job, or otherwise take things way more seriously than they seem to be, but... whatever. It's just like how in crossovers, REALLY characters should probably be suffering massive crises of faith that so much of their world they knew turned out to be wrong and everything is different and OMG etc., but that's lame and repetitive, so just roll with it and move on.
And on that note...
Devil Survivor 2: Sheesh, the game takes a turn for the lame on day 4. The setting for the first 3 days is quite grimdark, which is fine. The apocalypse has happened, it's an explicit plot point that one of the main characters has SEEN her parents die, everybody else is - at minimum - unhinged from the world they knew and its certainties, not having seen their families and knowing that due to the disaster things like getting or growing food is a huge problem. Let alone the fact that zillions of people are DEAD. Even if all the rampaging demons disappeared tomorrow, life is going to be screwed up for a LONG time (the characters don't know there's probably a magic reset switch awaiting them). To the extent that people aren't just breaking down and crying, it's amazing. BUT, they're the heroes, so pressing forward into the game is totally fine, and even preferred. Parcel out some melodrama but keep things moving.
Day 4 decides to amp up the comedy! Which.. could be fine. Except it's lame anime bullshit. Lame hur-hur gurls r purdy bullshit, specifically. Like. To be clear, I'm totally fine with romance in games, and for that matter saucy flirting is okay by me too! Shadow Hearts 2 is good times. Just. Day 4 is the cruddy junior high otaku "haha i can see up a girl's skirt" stuff. Like, one thing I'd be totally okay with buying is that, it's the apocalypse, we might die tomorrow, I dun wanna die a virgin, fuck me noooooooow and hard. Lots of emotions & hormones jangling around. So *actual romance* would be cool by me. For that matter something like Honeybee Manor, which, for all its silliness, is involving actual real life things - prostitutes, sex slavery (but that is secretly kinda cool in a really sleazy way because it's fiction and you can do that there), cross dressing, whatever. Basically what I'm saying is that if DS2 had gone full on eroge that'd almost have made more sense than juvenile tittering over sneaking over to watch the girl's physicals from the doctor and spy on their conversation where they compare breast sizes to each other and get jealous. HELLO IT IS THE APOCALYPSE WHAT IS THIS. The whole thing rings false. I'm reminded of one of Elf's comments on something he liked about Xenogears: that game pretty heavily implies that Fei & Elly actually get it on at some point, and at a time where it makes a certain amount of sense that hey, life is short, let's hurry this up 'cuz we might die tomorrow and enjoy things. If you want to have people reverting to the shit in DS2, at least have them be NPCs who have gone crazy and are coping by adopting childlike behaviors or some such. But I suppose the target audience in Japan thinks that this is all perfectly normal and also hilarious comedy so what do I know.
Seriously! This extends outside the above scenes, too. There's, like, an argument over a crepes stand in the mall and whether a 19 year old would fit in if it's a hangout for high-school girls. In something like Persona 4, fine, these are normal high schoolers living mostly normal lives, this is something they'd worry about. When said stand is probably unstaffed and all the food-making materials looted, the conversation makes no sense, at least not without bursting into tears at the end or something, so just don't do it. Sheesh.
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Regarding Anime bullshit, see how fucking weird and awkward Vanille and Hope feel in FF13. They are "anime as fuck" but the over exaggerated weird animation would slot in pretty straight to a sprite game since everything needs to be over acted by necessity.
Also Mr Thou scene legit nearly as bad as FFX laughing scene even just in text (and both better than hatehatehatehate)
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Final Fantasy Stone Temple Autobattlers - Crushed both the boss rush and the Reno/Rude fight, closing my involvement with Aerith's event. For the boss rush, the setup was mostly cheesing the hell out of the fights: three bosses can be Intimidated, almost all of them can be blinded (while being heavily physical) and you can take it from there. Intimidate only really worked on Red Dragon, but that was all it took anyway. Demon Wall didn't get blinded, but was safely blitzed with SG + Power Breakdown + Lunatic High anyway. Hilariously, my best physical damage dealer was Red XIII due to Diamond Pin's obscene L6 synergy. Why yes, I -do- want 5.5k damage Dark Busters.
Reno and Rude... well, didn't even take a single S/L. Blind landed on Reno on my second attempt (from which he never really recovered. The goggles, they do nothing), Sentinel's Grimoire went off before any of them had an opening turn and all of my Slowgas landed, so it was smooth sailing from there. Quake on Vivi and Mental Breakdown on Wakka guaranteed a fast enough fight. To make matters simpler, Reno spent the last turns of the fight spamming Pyramid instead of attacking, at a point where it just wouldn't be useful. Do keep in mind that Pyramid dispels buffs, though, so keep an eye for it if he uses it early. I'm so ready for the Eiko event. And I even honed Diaga to R2, making it my first ST offense -ja-level spell to have six uses. Now, to farm Dark Orbs.
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Mastered boss rush, but it wasn't fun.
Nanaki had dark buster and boost, so I figured flower girl would be my paralyze applier.
Nope!
Hold sucks balls.
Not only did it never stick. It basically gave me a useless/wasted slot that could have been used as a kirinor protectga.
Blind helped a lot though. The dam wall spammed cave in which really hurt.
Onto the turks!
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Hold is bugged at 1% hitrate and isn't likely to ever be fixed (it may be even an in-joke, considering how bad the spell usually is in the source games). It's pretty much the worst ability in the game. If you want to paralyze anything, you use Intimidate.
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Too much effort to quote.
NEB pretty much nails my thoughts on something like FF6 vs FF7. Like I said, you can draw the lines differently (I'm sure plenty of people would consider FF6 way too industrial to be fantasy), but there is a definite gap between the two.
And I think some combination of Grefter and Zenny nails the rest. Some of the stuff is just a matter of nostalgia holding things up, some of it is a difference in presentation causing things to be received differently, and some of it is just straight up changes in humor/structure/etc.
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Just now noticed that my post was unclear thanks to missing a word.
I posit that the whimsy bullshit VSM is remembering fondly actually sucks and is stupid anime bullshit. The tone didn't really change all that much, we just played the later games when we were old enough to be sick of that nonsense.
Side note, I also don't get the whole big deal about the wood elf stuff and only remember that because it was a dungeon with a stupid gimmick that you could completely circumvent by changing equipment mid battle.
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Bravely Default is very much an old FF, except with voice acting and stuff, and it's definitely more anime BS than charming whimsy so far, and I bet it gets worse as it goes on
That PSX sound chip was complete ass at some things.
FF7 and 8 original game music is Midi as fuck.
They still managed to do great things like the boss theme.
The worst songs are the ones that abused the Irritating Fake Midi Flutes & Horns. BTW if you want to groan at my opinions, I looked up the name of the terrible track I mentioned and it's: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1VYCy3HW00&list=RDs1VYCy3HW00
So bad
IIRC FF8 is even more full of this and you should basically auto-mute outside of battles
RK: Man I really don't want to farm 4* orbs.... I might just waste all my stamina waiting for events/dungeon updates in the future. This should not be TOO much of a problem right?
I went two fights in the Aeris boss rush before realizing I had brought no support character. I had no damage mitigation whatsoever aside from Boon? I still went all the way to the last fight then got atomized by Evil Wall's unmitigated unblinded MT.
Still that's some pretty easy boss rush, because that shit wouldn't have flied in the last events.
Reno & Rude was not as nice. I had Nanaki with Dark Buster and it didn't ever land. I had to retry this fight a few times and it just never worked. Maybe Nanaki's lowish level had an effect on this skill's hitrate? That would be annoying.
PROTIP: I think bringing two white mages, instead of one white mage and one support, is a good idea. Support just isn't that useful here. The white mages can share between them Curaga / Slowga / Diaga / Protectga, and all be awesome.
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FFRK: Beat the boss rush fairly easily, would have mastered it if I had Aerith. Turks were a pretty ugly fight. Dark Buster only hit 2/6 times, Leg Shot hit 0/6. They killed Cloud but I rezzed him which gave me his 3 stars but took away the 3 for nobody dying.
Honed my Diaga straight to rank 3 because I could and because I'm better than Snow.
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Just now noticed that my post was unclear thanks to missing a word.
I posit that the whimsy bullshit VSM is remembering fondly actually sucks and is stupid anime bullshit. The tone didn't really change all that much, we just played the later games when we were old enough to be sick of that nonsense.
Can't remember what the post looked like before the edit, but that was the impression I got from it. Hence why I think I fall somewhere between you and Gref.
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Can't remember what the post looked like before the edit, but that was the impression I got from it. Hence why I think I fall somewhere between you and Gref.
Zenny we should let Fenrir know we are going to France sometime since we are going to Eiffel Tower.
PSX FF music composition is great year Fen, the actual way it sounds "instrument" wise just sounds like a butt hole because it uses sound outputs 20.years older than the game itself. MIDI is great and still used in recording today, just more for input and you output to something else so you don't get that beep bop chip tune sounding mess.
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RK: Man I really don't want to farm 4* orbs.... I might just waste all my stamina waiting for events/dungeon updates in the future. This should not be TOO much of a problem right?
Orb festival will be the real breaking point for greater orb farming. With them being more common drops than in any other event and being repeatedly farmable like a daily, using it for hardcore farming will likely dictate our hones for the foreseeable future. I'm certainly going to reserve a mythril stash for farming all of the greater/major orb days myself.
I went two fights in the Aeris boss rush before realizing I had brought no support character. I had no damage mitigation whatsoever aside from Boon? I still went all the way to the last fight then got atomized by Evil Wall's unmitigated unblinded MT.
Still that's some pretty easy boss rush, because that shit wouldn't have flied in the last events.
Reno & Rude was not as nice. I had Nanaki with Dark Buster and it didn't ever land. I had to retry this fight a few times and it just never worked. Maybe Nanaki's lowish level had an effect on this skill's hitrate? That would be annoying.
Stats have no effect on status accuracy at all. It's just that Dark Buster has a 30% status hit rate. RNG will be RNG.
PROTIP: I think bringing two white mages, instead of one white mage and one support, is a good idea. Support just isn't that useful here. The white mages can share between them Curaga / Slowga / Diaga / Protectga, and all be awesome.
Depends on what kind of offense you have there. I found that, for Rude/Reno, Magic Breakdown and Mental Breakdown was enough post-SG if you land Blind early. But, in my specific case, -one of the supports was also a primary source of offense-. If you need the survivability, the extra White Mage is good, though, Shellga + Protectga together are pretty badass. Also, if you're using buffs instead of debuffs there -and- you have to choose, I'd prioritize Shellga, since Rude's MT Fira is the big bad wolf against your medals there. And also worth pointing out Pyramid is a full buff dispel, which weighs a bit in favor of Breakdowns (not breaks, though, which are worthless against Break resistance).
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Didn't have stamina to do 2 "story" dungeons in a row. Was bored. Got Aeris. Benched Aeris.
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Well you have to spread out your breakdowns between both Rude and Reno, and they're only as effective as regular breaks here, so they're not really incredible.
Pyramid only debuffs one out of your five guys so that should not be too much of a problem.
The two white mages strat also means you can have one on Diaga duty, kicking major ass. I think this + either Shellga or Protectga would be better than the 33% or so damage reduction you get from breakdowns that takes ages to set up. You get both more damage and more mitigation from the white mage.
White mages now rule. New meta.
Can't remember what the post looked like before the edit, but that was the impression I got from it. Hence why I think I fall somewhere between you and Gref.
Zenny we should let Fenrir know we are going to France sometime since we are going to Eiffel Tower.
PSX FF music composition is great year Fen, the actual way it sounds "instrument" wise just sounds like a butt hole because it uses sound outputs 20.years older than the game itself. MIDI is great and still used in recording today, just more for input and you output to something else so you don't get that beep bop chip tune sounding mess.
Well Uematsu was used to working with shitty instruments by then
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It may be the meta for you rich late game guys, but for where I am, I'll take a handy flex pick like Sazh for my utility.
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White mages now rule. New meta.
Selphie is doing 8000 damage to elite bosses with no synergy.
Selphiroth.
(http://i.imgur.com/v2AWEEu.jpg)
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Oh hell yes!
(Except that my level 65 Sephiroth does way less damage than Selphie)
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Badass. Diaga is really good, I'd actually hone it to R3 (I have the orbs), but I want to save my Holy Orbs for Ruinga. I can -also- hone Quake to R4, but I also have plans for those Dark Orbs.
In other news, I just honed Waterja to R3. Suck it, Gandhi.
EDIT: In all fairness, White Magic is just about the most self-sufficient skillset in the entire game. Two very good status spells (Slowga and Silencega), niche ST buffs, utterly badass MT buffs, the obvious healing usefulness and even competent, cost-efficient offense (the two extra castings on the Dia line go a long way). The only thing they truly lack is MT offense, which many healers (like Vanille, Garnet, Yuna and shortly later Eiko - hell, even Aerith in the foreseeable future) cover with other skillsets. Don't fuck with the clerics.
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So uh, just how high are you intending to hone Ruinga, Snow? <_<
Just remember that Hope's event should come after the orbfest, so chances are you'll have a lot more Greater Holy Orbs by then compared to what you have in stock right now.
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Ooooh, it's coming -after- the orb fest? Good to know! Though my plans for the Dark Orbs involve Bioga.
EDIT: Said "fuck it" and honed Valefor to R2 as well. I'll recover those five NE Orbs.
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Ultros was fine but without nostalgia goggles I wouldn't know what the big deal is. He is also decidedly anime bullshit.
If the opera's grand finale is wrong, I don't want to be right.
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PSX FF music composition is great year Fen, the actual way it sounds "instrument" wise just sounds like a butt hole because it uses sound outputs 20.years older than the game itself. MIDI is great and still used in recording today, just more for input and you output to something else so you don't get that beep bop chip tune sounding mess.
It's very strange. Compare the Opera to the chunk of Aeris' theme that recycled it and the latter totally falls flat (GET IT????), but a lot of the tracks from CC sound much more real than anything from the prior generation. Then again I went back through that a while ago and some of the tracks sound like total ass.
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Just now noticed that my post was unclear thanks to missing a word.
I posit that the whimsy bullshit VSM is remembering fondly actually sucks and is stupid anime bullshit. The tone didn't really change all that much, we just played the later games when we were old enough to be sick of that nonsense.
How is something like "Mr. Thou" considered "anime bullshit"? It's goofy and I can see not liking it, but stupid/goofy does not equal 'anime bullshit'. It's just regular-variety 'bullshit' if you have some kind of intolerance for stupid/goofy. 'Anime bullshit' requires stupid anime tropes, which I honestly don't see a lot of in FF games. Apart from basic character archetypes (which you see in western games too, so I don't think this is FF-exclusive), most of the story/humor stuff in FF-games are culture-neutral. Compare with things like Tales, which are 'anime bullshit' to the point I start to wonder if it's parody (it's not, unfortunately), and I'm not getting this complaint that FF humor is too steeped in anime tropes to be enjoyable/whimsical.
FFRK: Finished Aerith's boss rush. Reta-meta for the win. Aerith is a pretty solid skillset. I am totally gonna run a five-white-mage party for kicks at some point. Still have lots of core dungeons to beat. Garnet/Yuna/Selphie/Aerith... Vanille I guess? Maybe actual White Mage for challenge?
Admittedly, Garnet will just end up being a Summoner in a party like that. Well, I guess her SB still qualifies her as a WM, so after she uses all five of her charges, she'll be doing -something-.
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Ultros was fine but without nostalgia goggles I wouldn't know what the big deal is. He is also decidedly anime bullshit.
If the opera's grand finale is wrong, I don't want to be right.
Agreed. Just saying, whacky octopus interrupts opera? Pretty fuckin anime
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Reno n rude beaten. No mastery.
Balls.
Did ff5 land worm elite afterwards.
Ran into a glitch. Not sure what triggered it.
Had Edgar balthier dagger lightning and vivi. Vanille was my sb.
I used Vanille's sb which hit all the holes. No counter.
Ok. Whatever. I continued to beat down the worm and eventually it moved to the top hole. I dropped it down to no life and it died.
But it gave me a normal enemy death effect.
It didn't boss die and the fight went on.
So I sat there thinking maybe it retreated or went down a holet again. Nothing.
So I beat up on some holes for a bit. Git bored and restarted the fight.
Beat it the second time no issues. That time I avoided the Vanille sb. Dunno if that mattered or not. Just strange.
Not looking forward to the ff9 event. I had 5 ff7 pee pi s with every slot of their equipment loaded with ff7 gear. Every one had ff7 gear of at least 3 stars or better, and the end of that event got pretty hard.
I have waaaaaaaaaaaay less ff9 gear. So unless vivi carries me with faith. I can see a struggle coming.
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Ultros was fine but without nostalgia goggles I wouldn't know what the big deal is. He is also decidedly anime bullshit.
If the opera's grand finale is wrong, I don't want to be right.
Agreed. Just saying, whacky octopus interrupts opera? Pretty fuckin anime
How is that in anyway an anime thing? Childish, perhaps? Whacky/goofy/silly/stupid/outlandish/non sequitur is not somehow a Japan-only invention in either games nor animation.
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Ultros was fine but without nostalgia goggles I wouldn't know what the big deal is. He is also decidedly anime bullshit.
If the opera's grand finale is wrong, I don't want to be right.
Agreed. Just saying, whacky octopus interrupts opera? Pretty fuckin anime
How is that in anyway an anime thing? Childish, perhaps? Whacky/goofy/silly/stupid/outlandish/non sequitur is not somehow a Japan-only invention in either games nor animation.
https://youtu.be/k2phr3HXWq0?t=40s
EO Untold: Jesus Christ this is all so hard
God damn bards
But I'm close to the end
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That is clearly -not- the opera.
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Tentacle rape jokes are the Stupid Animest thing ever
If your game has a talking octopus making a tentacle rape joke about the female main character, then the bs animeness of that scene extends to all subsequent scenes involving said talking octopus, and arguably to the entire game
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I think you're confused.
Tentacle Rape is the stupidest anime thing ever.
Making fun of tentacle rape is basically the opposite.
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Final Fantasy My Baby Don't Autobattle Me - Non-elemental orb farming day is go. Got two GNEOs and a GIO already, up to 59 NEOs. By the end of the day, I should have the orbs for R5ing Comet with room to spare, except for the fact I have no Black Orbs. Sigh, I want Tuesdays.
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I think you're confused.
Tentacle Rape is the stupidest anime thing ever.
Making fun of tentacle rape is basically the opposite.
Well. By that logic Disgaea becomes the Anti-Anime because it mentions a lot of anime tropes in a joking manner.
It isn't. It is the Uber-Anime.
this kind of vague tentacle rape joke is not making fun of tentacle rape, it is a *wink wink* at the "terrible otaku" audience
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I think today is a money farming day in rk for me.
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Yeah that Ultros line is pretty stupid and just in case you needed more evidence that the Woolsey translation is superior, that line is not in his version of the game.
But I do agree with Djinn otherwise that a zany purple octopus deciding to make a mess out of an opera is not particularly anime- or Japan-specific.
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My only comment on the "zany" debate is to echo something Meeple's said in the past: compare FF4 original to FF4 DS. FF4 DS tries to present every scene from the original game faithfully in 3D. Sometimes this works, and sometimes it's patently ridiculous like when Golbez whips his cape around Rosa and she magically vanishes because that's what happened when they used sprites.
So yeah, I do think actually that the transition to 3D and quasi-realistic graphics does limit this sort of thing.
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But I do agree with Djinn otherwise that a zany purple octopus deciding to make a mess out of an opera is not particularly anime- or Japan-specific.
You know I was thinking the same thing but the more I think about that scene the more it reminds me of Slayers. So I guess it is kind of anime or something? But the similarity isn't about the stuff in anime that annoys people, so whatev.
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So yeah, I do think actually that the transition to 3D and quasi-realistic graphics does limit this sort of thing.
Well, now that they brought voice acting into the mix, we can no longer give them the benefit of the doubt that the character knows this line they are saying is terrible, so it's really like swapping one problem for another.
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Personally I'm not really willing to give bad lines in text that sort of benefit of the doubt.
Phoenix Wright: Dual Destinies - Finished. Hmm, overall I'm not sure this game holds up quiite as well the second time through as some of the others? In that, when you know the spoilers, it's a bit more transparent what the contortions are which the plot is going through to reveal things in a certain way for maximum drama. (Speaking of drama, the third case has way too much.) That said the final case and DLC case are both still excellent, and the cast is still terrific.
Shantae and the Pirate's Curse - Beat the game, then collected the two cacklebats I'd missed and beat it again to get the full ending. Final boss of the true ending is pretty brutal if you aren't spamming items, definitely a bit of a spike over the rest of the game (although Dargon gave me some trouble too). Spent about 12 hours on the game which certainly made the game more than worth its suggested price, never mind that we got it for silly cheap due to a sale.
Anyway, this was fun! The game's writing is a light-hearted romp but generally managed to stay quite enjoyable. It's not on the level of Mana Khemia 2 as far as comedy games go but it's certainly good enough to grease along the solid gameplay. Speaking of said gameplay, it's a pretty fun Metroidvania type, definitely more like Castlevania than is is Metroid. The base gameplay is rather plain (certainly nothing on the level of all the cool gylphs from Order of Ecclesia) but the items you gain that let you platform better work pretty well, giving you a pretty fun and varied skillset. There's a bunch of pretty fun stage design especially once you get your hands on more stuff, and it's always enjoyable to take your new powerups and revisit old areas, now with the ability to get through them more effectively and find more treasure. Boss fights and enemy design is generally only okay, but good enough to support the game.
There are some nagging times when it feels like the game doesn't really introduce concepts as well as it could. I was a bit stumped that there are certain platforms you can attack to flip, since the game doesn't really do a wonderful job of introducing this concept to you, for instance. And at least one other occasion where I felt things weren't intuitive enough. This is mostly obvious playing the game right after Shovel Knight, which felt like it had an excellent eye for such things (also reading up on old platformers and seeing the good things some of them did). It's not the end of the world, the internet exists for help at worst (although notably Shantae doesn't actually have any good FAQs, so I had to dig a bit more). I probably wouldn't even mention this if I weren't kinda actively looking out for it.
Overall the game isn't really exceptional, but still quite enjoyable. The game's solid gameplay and level of writing put it above all non-OoE Castlevanias to me, and probably pretty comparable to Rayman Origins and Shovel Knight. So something close to that same 8/10 region.
Star Ocean 3 - Haven't played this in a decade, so decided to start it up again.
1) Discovered that you need a file with battle trophies to play on harder difficulties. Which of course, neither Ciato or I had because those things eat a sixth of a memory card. fffffff
2) The opening is still terrible, Tri-Ace why you so bad at this.
I'm sure this decision to replay the game will pay off eventually!
Fire Emblem 8 - Also randomly started replaying this, no real goals in mind.
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Personally I'm not really willing to give bad lines in text that sort of benefit of the doubt.
I'm thinking of stuff like Yuffie's use of "gawd," which is usually obnoxious, and could be meant to be comedic but it could also just be the game's love of writing everyone's dialogue phonetically and they think that's just how she should talk. Or basically every line out of Zell's mouth, which can generally be taken as a joke, or that this character is just the most obnoxious person in the world. Or both, I guess. They're not mutually exclusive.
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With Zel it is definitely both.
I dunno about others, but for me "anime as fuck" in this discussion is less the plot/character tropes ala Tales and much more things like big overly expressive animation and dialogue (and melodrama I guess?). Stuff that was really necessary with sprites and a tiny amount of raw text as your only way of conveying a message.
With full VA and decent 3D models you get stuff like FFX laughing scene, which even with better delivered VA would still come off as pretty painful (in my opinion), so much stuff in there is so on the nose and it just goes on so long to convey a feeling to the player that Yuna is pushing "Fake it until you make it" and the fact that this is telling you that underneath it all there is a bit more going on. It isn't that the plot is bad or anything it actually dodges a fair few tropes (like a sympathetic stepford wife protaganist maybe? I dunno), but the presentation is still "anime as fuck".
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I always took Yuffie's use of "gawd" as an attempt to invoke a stereotypical ditzy teen girl, which is definitely part of Yuffie's personality (or facade thereof?).
I also take a rather different definition of "anime as fuck" than Grefter, but obviously such things aren't precisely an exact science.
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I also take a rather different definition of "anime as fuck"
we um could just NOT bother figuring this out, you know.
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Yeah OK maybe Anime As Fuck isn't really a good term for it. However, I would say Ultros fits more in line with something that'd show up in Excel Saga or FLCL than it does showing up in an western kids cartoon.
I will also say that this is the least interesting semantics argument we could possibly be having.
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Second least. We could be discussing the definition of an RPG.
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Yeah OK maybe Anime As Fuck isn't really a good term for it. However, I would say Ultros fits more in line with something that'd show up in Excel Saga or FLCL than it does showing up in an western kids cartoon.
I will also say that this is the least interesting semantics argument we could possibly be having.
We wouldn't be having it if people would stop using it as if it had a dictionary definition. Especially considering that it's used to collectively dismiss an entire culture's animation, and usually by extension, the culture itself and comes off as mildly racist. That's the part that bothers me, more than people disliking common tropes.
I think you're confused.
Tentacle Rape is the stupidest anime thing ever.
Making fun of tentacle rape is basically the opposite.
Well. By that logic Disgaea becomes the Anti-Anime because it mentions a lot of anime tropes in a joking manner.
It isn't. It is the Uber-Anime.
this kind of vague tentacle rape joke is not making fun of tentacle rape, it is a *wink wink* at the "terrible otaku" audience
Disgaea isn't Uber-Anime because it makes fun of anime tropes, it's Uber-Anime because it plays all the ones it -doesn't- make fun of completely straight. The ones it rags on are usually handily avoided and still one of the highlights of the series.
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If dismissing anime is borderline racist then Sieg Heil and sign me the fuck up. Even Miyazaki hates you people.
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blahblahblahblah
Watch me be super butthurt and defensive about a hobby of mine.
Christ dude do you listen to yourself sometimes
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I am -shocked- that Rob and Zenny disagree with me about this!
Edit: Anime isn't even a hobby of mine. I haven't watched it outside of shit for my schools or Miyazaki in years. I am definitely first in line to call out when anime does dumb shit or gets gross or pedophilic or pandering or xenophobic. I'm not saying that everything about otaku culture is some awesome thing to worship and is beyond criticism. I'm against dismissal of an entire medium just because it makes for a quick pithy comment. Especially since I see it used -a lot- in cases where the critique is more aimed at Japanese culture as whole and not just anime or otaku culture. Though I am obviously not extending that directly to anyone here. I don't think anyone here is being racist. Sorry if it came off as that kind of accusation; I guess it just bugs me when the same language is used here as I see in places where it does apply. Especially when it's stated like fact as if it's some kind of argument-winner for why something is -bad-.
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Bad things are bad, now everyone stfu and start talking about RK again.
FF Portal: Oh wait I'm not talking about RK either. So this is a free mobile app that is basically advertising for the 1 billion FF-related things that SE is pushing out. But it comes with free Triple Triad and (for a limited time) free FF1.
Triple Triad: Beat all the solo mode chars. Played one game of online which I won. Took 10 minutes to connect to that game and 30 minutes to not connect to anymore afterwards. Yay online games.
FF1: Oh god touchscreen controls so painful. I guess this is Dawn of Souls? idk never played that version. Rolling with Thief, Monk, Red Mage, Black Mage. Game seems a little easy compared to NES FF1 so far. MP pools definitely help.
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If you have MP, it's based on the Dawn of Souls versions. That seems to be the only version they acknowledge these days, sadly. Kind of wish they'd just release a version of FF1 that at the start of the game said "Classic or Modern" with Classic being based off Origins, Modern being based off Dawn of Souls. Shouldn't be THAT hard to do honestly.
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Seriously not cool, Rob.
But yeah I largely agree with Djinn about this (aside from the tentacle rape joke but I already addressed that), and I certainly have no particular attachment to anime myself, having not watched it in a decade and disliking most of its tropes that work their way into the media I do consume.
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I am -shocked- that Rob and Zenny disagree with me about this!
I had something snarky to say then Rob brought up Nazis so I'm just going to shut up here.
Edit: Anime isn't even a hobby of mine. I haven't watched it outside of shit for my schools or Miyazaki in years. I am definitely first in line to call out when anime does dumb shit or gets gross or pedophilic or pandering or xenophobic. I'm not saying that everything about otaku culture is some awesome thing to worship and is beyond criticism. I'm against dismissal of an entire medium just because it makes for a quick pithy comment. Especially since I see it used -a lot- in cases where the critique is more aimed at Japanese culture as whole and not just anime or otaku culture. Though I am obviously not extending that directly to anyone here. I don't think anyone here is being racist. Sorry if it came off as that kind of accusation; I guess it just bugs me when the same language is used here as I see in places where it does apply. Especially when it's stated like fact as if it's some kind of argument-winner for why something is -bad-.
saying "anime bs" = "japanese culture sucks" is a conclusion that is really fuckin' ridiculous. Not in the least because it insinuates that anime = japanese culture which you know damn well for a fact isn't the case. Aside from the kid/teen shows that the students you and I teach watch anime is only a very small sliver of what constitutes "Japanese Culture."
look dude i'mma lay my thought process out here for you probably like i should have so this wouldn't have turned into some kind of thing. When I think of anime BS, I think specifically of the two different versions of Full Metal Alchemist. I rewatched the first like a year ago so this isn't necessarily just nostalgia talking, but on the flipside I could not give you much more specific details. The second one I quit after the first DVD, so either the third or fourth episode. The first one was very much serious bsns. It had its brief moments of overplayed comedy-melodrama and got really fuckin' ridiculous in the end plot-wise with Ed getting sent to WW2 era Europe and all that nonsense but at its core it was actually pretty freaking dark. Its comedic relief was there but not overplayed. It's anime, but it's not anime bs for the most part.
The remake, however, is basically unwatchable as far as I'm concerned because there's so much anime bs. Everything "comedic relief"-style is so fucking overplayed as to be cloying, the same repetitious jokes were pounded into the ground by the end of the fuckin DVD, and it was very much zany and manzai as fuck.
Would that have made you happier? If I had said it was manzai as fuck? Would that have circumvented your tedious defensive prattling about how racist it is to say a goddamn fictional octopus was "anime bs"?
God I bored myself to sleep typing that out because the distinction isn't even fucking interesting.
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Final Fantasy Antichrist Autobattle Blues - Sundaily = level-grinding for the B and C-party losers. Currently levelling Steiner, Loserface, Aerith and Quistis.
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Sorry you're bored, I happen to find the discussion and classification of storytelling tropes interesting. Particularly since that's what spawned this whole conversation in the first place.
FF Portal: Huh, so Square has leapt into the mobile scene full force now. I guess it makes sense. They've ported nearly all of their major early FF releases to mobile, plus a bunch of exclusively mobile games. As well as stuff like Theatrhythm. So why -not- have an app dedicated to managing your FF apps? And hey, free Triple Triad while we're at it. Beat all the solo modes in Triple Triad, but can't figure out how to unlock any new rulesets beyond the initial 5. Hopefully it gets more robust later, though there's a least a -ton- of Cards available already from every freakin' numbered FF + Tactics and Type-0.
FF1 mobile: This looks to be a direct port of the PSP version, but since it is both free and on my phone, will likely get played! Warrior/Monk/Red Mage/White Mage because I liked their sprites best.
FFD: Started another replay of this to show it off to Shun.
FFD2: Japanese title is FF Legends: Toki no Suishou, it is the sequel to FF Dimensions (FF Legends: Warriors of Light and Dark in Japanese). This is... basically nothing like FFD and plays more like FFRK but with an actual story and characters. The story involves Chrono Trigger-esque Time Travelling between realms to help a mysterious girl who lost her memory and to save the Crystals blah blah blah. More importantly, you go to the Esper World and get magicite and these slot into your PCs to give them both a Summon skill AND a regular ability. I.e. if you equip Shiva you can summon her when you store up enough mana but you -also- can now cast the Blizzara spell regularly with your MP. Each PC appears to be able to equip up to 4 magicite. You can also upgrade magicite and equipment by forging it with fodder magicite/equips, just like in FFRK and various other mobile games. There's currently only 3 PCs, though more chapters/events are getting released that grant access to more PCs. There's also a minor friend system that's nearly identical to FFRK's RW system. The only thing that seems to be shared with FFD is the soundtrack, which is apparently ripped directly from FFD. Mourn the loss of the job system. At least the sprites are cute.
FFRK: Slowly going through core dungeons and their elite counterparts as I go. Only real things of note are that I honed Quake to R4, and got 4 RM2s in a single battle. That was nuts. I spent nearly a week of stamina trying to get Josef's and Garnet's RM2s. But after only randomly running the base FF4 dungeon to waste some stamina before a recharge, I got Rydia/D.Cecil/Gordon/Bard's RM2s in a single battle. RNG is weird.
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Sorry you're bored, I happen to find semantics and being nitpicky about tropes interesting.
Nothing interesting about storytelling has been argued about here. Only a petty hissyfit between the both of us over the definition of anime bs.
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Okay.
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Yeah OK maybe Anime As Fuck isn't really a good term for it. However, I would say Ultros fits more in line with something that'd show up in Excel Saga or FLCL than it does showing up in an western kids cartoon.
Feel free (as usual) to ignore me.
Looking at this from a modern perspective is sort of interesting thanks to the fact that folks who grew up with this stuff are part of the industry right now and the broader feel of anime shifting over the last dozen years. Kind of a neat shift in cultural adaptation. If I think about it, the sort of anime I'd associate Ultros-esque stuff with (90s/early 00s) have sort of been getting increasingly displaced by American animation (MLP, Steven Universe, Star vs The Forces of Evil, etc). Just vaguely neat as someone who grew up through the "anime is new" period to see shows that are blending the best of multiple worlds naturally.
Basically, I totally would not be shocked to see someone playing FF6 today in the US for the first time would be more inclined to compare Ultros to American animation as opposed to anime, despite the opposite being the true formerly!
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CK wins!
In the 80's and 90's we saw japanese culture as fresh and cool, plus mangas often had fantastic art direction while western comics looked boring as fuck. Everything looked exotic in anime. The extremely weird male-female relationships didn't seem weird because we were awkward teenagers.
Now we can see that a lot of specifics of anime reflect the problems with Japanese society; the terrible gender relationships leading to some super low birth rate and gross fetishes (rape/pedophilia) appearing in mainstream media, the hyper competitiveness between everybody, the lack of change/evolution/progressive elements in culture because of xenophobic tendencies, etc. (I'd even argue that the finer attention to detail but lack of animations in anime compared to wester cartoons, tells a lot about Japanese culture)
So this is partly why anime has failed to stay culturally relevent lately / why everybody has been collectively eyerolling at anime elements lately. This also leads to a vicious circle: Less people around the world care about anime -> Anime panders more to otakus -> More animes about one guy having a harem of underage girls he carelessly bumps into once per episode with heavy blushing involved.
I am going to keep dismissing something for being anime like I'd dismiss something else for being hollywood or for being "like a comic book". Everybody vaguely understands it and it's cool.
Sure, #NotAllAnime, Cowboy Bebop and the Graveyard of Fireflies, etc. But #Notallanime misses the point, just like #NotAllMen didn't.
FFRK: Sunday is not long enough
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No, it isn't. On the plus side, I'm one fight from level-capping Steiner, so I expect to breeze through the next event. Hell, Carbuncle R2 + Summonspring II >>>>> Eiko boss rush.
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one fight from level-capping Steiner
Steiner's diet:
(http://www.tradi-cuisine.com/oeufs/oeufs_au_plat.jpg)
(http://www.femmezine.fr/files/images/article/a9/4dd12a1a606a9-oeuf-a-la-coque.jpg)
(http://www.les-oeufs.com/pic/oeuf-dur480.jpg)
(https://saveursdumonde.blob.core.windows.net/saveursdumonde/site/recipies/2389.jpg)
Mine is level 39 now.
Aeris got to level 50 (Raises Diaga damage materia -> hahahah yes) and all the cores but Summoner learned their SBs.
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Victor Vran:
Had no internet so was playing this. Got up to level 22.
Victor Vran is a diablo-like game where I am currently equipped with a giant pumpkin hammer that makes a big orange smiley face when I attack.
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one fight from level-capping Steiner
Steiner's diet:
(http://www.tradi-cuisine.com/oeufs/oeufs_au_plat.jpg)
(http://www.femmezine.fr/files/images/article/a9/4dd12a1a606a9-oeuf-a-la-coque.jpg)
(http://www.les-oeufs.com/pic/oeuf-dur480.jpg)
(https://saveursdumonde.blob.core.windows.net/saveursdumonde/site/recipies/2389.jpg)
Mine is level 39 now.
Aeris got to level 50 (Raises Diaga damage materia -> hahahah yes) and all the cores but Summoner learned their SBs.
I'm impressed.
And man, Diaga's pretty great. I'd push it up to R3, but I really don't want to run my Greater Holy and Wind Orb stock dry right now. I don't want to R4 Quake either because that'd run my Greater BLACK Orb stock dry. I just want the Festival of Orbs.
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Ugh
They are giving out mithril knives as the ff9 weapons?
You can get those randomly in so many areas already, plus they are pretty crappy to boot.
That's a bummer.
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Mage Staves are the noteworthy FF9 weapons (Mythril Daggers are just worthless). The Brigandine and Silk Robe also aren't half-bad if you want synergy armors for the realm.
Final Fantasy My Favorite Autobattle - Completed autobattle Eiko event course, got started on Elite dungeons. There's just such a wealth of ways to completely cheese the event it downright impresses me (all the bosses on Conde Petie are vulnerable to ID! You can skip all of the Hill Gigas' turns by using Eiko summons once it gets below half health! The Black Waltzes get eaten by Carbuncle! Zorn and Thorn are utterly worthless against any sort of sustainable MT!). This may be the easiest event since the Cecil reissue, and that's -a feat-. At least, cheese is fun.
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FFRK: ...dammit game, did you seriously just give me -two- Bomb summons in one fight as a reward? What the hell am I gonna do with even -one- of those useless things, let alone two?
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Cheese the Hill Gigas fight.
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Final Fantasy Disco Autobattle Love - There's one tiny detail on cheesing Black Waltz 2 that must not be forgotten: his elemental counters are MT. Fortunately, you can avoid those counters by using elements not covered by his draw (i.e. anything other than fire, ice, thunder and water. Well, and earth, since he immunes the element). Physicals aren't -too- great for bypassing that either, since he still counters those 15% of the time. You could also Berserk him in the meantime - should bypass his MT counters, as it forces him to cast ST Fire, which rams into Carbuncle. This is mostly relevant for the boss rush, though.
EDIT: Aaaaaw, they already removed the bug that caused Eiko to summon-lock Hill Gigas. Oh well.
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Forget it and just kill everything with R3 Diaga
New events = I USE MORE CORE and I feel that I might have overrated Ninja. Ninja is fucking terrible.
How do all these cores have descriptions that make them look competent?
I saw a japanese FFRK character ranking site and Red Mage was the lowest ranked character. I don't get it. He can use Curaga, Raise and Comet. He's better than fucking Ninja/Ranger.
Kimahri is the only regular character in the entire game who got a worse ranking than a core. That I can get behind.
Sephiroth's Masamune is pretty glorious. I should have saved mithril for it earlier. The SB is basically Seph's Aeris killing move, except super fast, and it looks hilarious and goofy in 2D. I love it. And I really really like that his Aeris killing move was turned into an actual attack you can use. Just the concept of it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrGsv5nTDGM
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If I have the opportunity to cheese, by the name of God in heaven, cheese I will. Also spares me from slotting a Support character during the event.
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Also spares me from slotting a Support character during the event.
You could be grinding Irvine to 65 though
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Also spares me from slotting a Support character during the event.
You could be grinding Irvine to 65 though
lulz noes
I've been raising Loserface and that's all I can spare
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Sephiroth's Masamune is pretty glorious.
Welcome to the "I have a weapon that Sephiroth can use" club.
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I believe Dissidia was the first game to make Seph's Aeris-killing attack into a specific move and name it Hell's Gate. Needless to say, when 012 added Aeris as a support char people used it to make videos like this: https://youtu.be/jr5floFlKpU?t=1m11s
Edit: Beat Tracking the Turks on the first try, thanks to Reno not spamming pyramid excessively. Having 4 5* FF7 armors (and a 4*+ bangle) also helped a lot, Rude's Fira wasn't too bad except for the one time he hit with Magic Breakdown unapplied.
Edit2: Oh man, I just realized I forgot to swap out Vivi's Mana Spring II for Devotion. No wonder Quake was 'only' doing ~7600 damage to the Turks. <_<
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Final Fantasy I Autobattled It Just The Same - Nearing the end of Eiko's event, already at Conde Petie - i.e. where -every single boss is vulnerable to ID-. Beatrix was more of the same, only compounded by Draw Fire kinda trivializing her a bit further. Thorn and Zorn were suitably useless, you just can't lose if you have someone to MT their ass always at the ready. Meanwhile, I'm pretty sure I'll have Eiko at L50 by the time this event ends.
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Beat Xillia 1 and Xiliia 2. The games are better as a package - a sequel for once that improves upon the original, but only really when taken together with the first. There's some interesting stuff in the plot but overall, eh. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who isn't a tales fan or enjoys ARPGs. The games aren't spectacular. Admittedly, my best memories of both game is spending like 10 dollars for the school costume sets so I can listen to this instead of standard Sakurabai shit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKy4lfHRhbo. Good track even after 90 hours.
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FFRK: You people and your mages with weapons that can make them actually useful. My Vivi barely did 5000 with Quake to the Turks, so I couldn't get Mastery. I'm not even bothering to run a black mage for the Eiko event. My 5* sword collection makes running a physical team (+
TyroSentinel's Grimoire) basically my only options for high-end fights anymore... >.>;;
...why does the Eiko event have -Phoenix- for a Summon reward instead of Maduin?
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Grandia 2 (!) got a Steam port with another difficulty level.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/330390/ (http://store.steampowered.com/app/330390/)
Too bad I played it so recently or this would be at the top of my list.
I wonder who on Earth even owns the license now. Regardless, cool that now it's just 98% dead series (Putting it in the TOP half of living RPG series).
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Final Fantasy Her Mouth Is Filled With Autobattle - Hill Gigas <<<< standard mitigation measures. Farming Greater Fire Orbs paid off big time: I wouldn't have enough GFOs from Eiko's event to hone Waterja to R3, and having ten charges of -ja damage is sexy and cool. Now, to farm Black Orbs in order to R5 Biora and eat the Rinoa reissue alive. I may even farm extra Dark Orbs to hone that extra Biora the event will hand us.
I also cap-broke Eiko, but that's part of the standard fare. I expect to utterly mulch the boss rush with Vivi's Oak Staff and Carbuncle (did you know enemies can't counter reflected spells? Useful for Black Waltz 2!). I also caved in and honed Diaga to R3.
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Apparently the Hard Mode is just +20% enemy HP according to the comments, which is pretty much the worst type of Hard Mode. It's possible there are also boosts to other stats and they just haven't noticed yet because earlygame G2 enemy offence, though, I dunno.
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I'd actually shell out for G2 again if it was an actual worthwhile hard mode. Just +HP is weaksauce.
Shadowrun Hong Kong is a thing which now exists. I'm playing a shooty elf again because it worked too well the first time. I thought, oh I'll run rifles this time thinking it's like Berlin sniper rifles so that at least would be a little different, but no it's just assault rifles so I really am 100% copying Dead Man Switch Cid. Whatever, full auto hasn't failed to instantly murder anything yet so I find it hard to argue. Also based on portrait alone I'm trying to play a detached psychoanalyst who clinically acknowledges and manages teammate emotional reactions while providing absolutely zero emotional feedback in response. Dialogue options have been pretty accommodating so far.
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FFRK: Apparently I can't get mastery on Hill Gigas without Eiko. Curse these three-battle dungeons. Oh well I'll feed her eggs and swap out Garnet.
FF Type-0 HD: Bought this on Steam since it sounded more like Star Ocean than FF. Not bad so far. Damn that is a lot of PCs for an action RPG. Mastered the second mission after I wiped and had to go back a long way because I hadn't saved. Doing the Couerl Cave now and getting wiped because I am obviously not high enough level.
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FF5 - So I'm finally in the mood to beat this. Redid all the stuff between Azure Magus (If that's not that boss's real name it fuckin' should be) and Twintania, remembering to steal the Genji Shield this time. Gilgamesh didn't show up for Necrophobe, so no Genji armor for me, but I also don't really care.
I'm bad. I looked up how to beat Shinryu and Omega while bored but without enough time to play. The easy Omega strategy means breaking my soft rule against having more than one character on a job (or just resetting until Faris gets two turns which is boring), and more importantly gets me nothing except ABP, so eff that. Shinryu, on the other hand, doesn't require me to break a rule and gets me... a slightly more powerful sword. Hey, it's something!
I switch Krile to Freelancer with White/Summon, give her the Masamune and a Mirage vest, give Lenna !Guard, then head into battle. Raise ends up being more useful than Arise since folks revive at critical, so auto-cover saves the day. It's a matter of keeping Blink up on Krile and wittling down the superboss from there. Return if I fuck up too badly to recover. I do kind of like the design here, actually, in that it isn't feasible at all to fight him head on, making you have to rely on moves that you may not be using (!Guard/Cover, Berserk/Blink/late-game Raise, etc) to cheese him out. Makes him more of a puzzle than a boss.
That said I don't know how anyone had the patience to figure out his status weakness, and there REALLY should have been a save point immediately before him, not immediately after. Had Shinryu been right next to a save point, that would have minimized the time between failing and retrying, and made it much more palatable. As it is, without FAQing it not only is an uncharacteristically unwinnable-by-normal-means fight, it wears down your patience with each retry. But, with FAQing (and the Return spell. Did I mention that this is the BEST spell in the game? It's kinda superfluous in modern games that let you save anywhere and retry boss fights immediately, but in the 90's-early 2000's style of RPG it is fucking amazing for the game respecting your time and letting you retry (most) things immediately if you fuck up. Probably too good, really, since there's no penalty for fucking up. I think WA3+ hit a good balance in this area, what with it only letting you retry after you've reached the fail-state, and with it letting you choose between blowing a semi-rare currency or spending the time between save point to boss fight, but at this point holy shit am I getting off topic.)
And then it's Ex-Death time. Nothing special here. I will note though that I really enjoy the fact that the background art shows Exdeath's trunk extending up to the boss fight. Really neat touch there. Other than that, really lame final boss. Not the lamest FF Final Boss by any means (that maybe goes to Zeromus? Perhaps Chaos?), but it just died so quickly.
The ending was lame but nobody who likes this game likes it for the plot.
Final thoughts: As much as I shudder to agree with NEB about basically anything, this is a fucking great game. I'll even say it is straight up a better game than FF6. 6 absolutely wins in story, but 5's gameplay has aged way better than 6's story has. The gameplay shows its age, sure, but I still a lot of fun playing around with the classes and trying out skillset synergies. I had more fun with this, at least, than I did playing around with 6's skillsets. The broken setups (Dual-Wield/Spellblade/Rapid Fire in particular) are obvious for the most part, but even the most minimal of self-inflicted restriction opens up the game a lot, and makes each character pretty distinct. I wish the standard battles were harder so that there was some necessity to making broken characters, but you do have to have some leeway for kids/newbies playing the game to not get completely wrecked, so oh well. I'm pretty tempted to do a fiesta challenge now, but I think my time may be better spent playing either FFD or Bravely Default if I want to keep barking up that tree.
The downside to that is that neither of those two games lets me frameskip, which has been absolutely crucial to my enjoyment of both FF5 and FF6.
All of my characters ended up being super useful, though I'd probably say Lenna was my LVP (and I couldn't have beaten Shinryu without her, so...). MVCrystal is easily the Wind Crystal, LVC is easily Earth.
And now onto the most important question... is this anime? Some parts seem very anime. Bartz and Galuf swooning over Faris, Krile's feisty little girl trope, etc. etc. However, these are not exclusive to Japanese media, so you are racist if you think they are anime. Therefore, this game gets a Not-Anime / Anime rating.
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Bravely Default has sceneskip for cutscenes and fast-forward for battles, which goes a long ways towards making up for no frameskip. Also random encounter rates that can be toggled between 0% and 200% which I wish every RPG would adopt.
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Yeah, BD does have a lot of cool quality of life stuff (it also auto-saves at the start of every floor of a dungeon so a reset doesn't set you back that far... you can turn this option off if you're the personality type who dislikes the idea) which should make it pretty playable. FFD somewhat less so: it has a speed-up option in-battle but that's it, really, the no frameskip/sceneskip/encounter control (until late) is something of a drag.
EDIT: Also glad you enjoyed FF5, etc.
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Uuuuuugh I really should be saving up money for next year when I don't know if I'll have a job or even what country I'll be in but y'all are sorely tempting me to splurge on a 3DS and BD.
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Final Fantasy Living, Loving, Autobattling - Farmfarmfarm. Up to 37 Black Orbs, but I realized I only have 63 Dark Orbs, so no R5 for Biora until Friday at the earliest. The alternative would be R5ing Comet, but that's not so attractive given the incoming event. Oh well, still a ways to farm.
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Apparently the Hard Mode is just +20% enemy HP according to the comments, which is pretty much the worst type of Hard Mode. It's possible there are also boosts to other stats and they just haven't noticed yet because earlygame G2 enemy offence, though, I dunno.
Ugh, yeah, that would suck. It would be a shame that they had the right idea and then botched it.
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I find that hard modes that just add +X% to enemy stats sound bad on paper but work reasonably well in practice. There don't seem to be a lot of games that offer interesting alternatives anyway...
This Grandia 2 hard mode does not sound very good though. Eye of Valmar bumrushing your team ASAP aside, Grandia 2's difficulty is a total joke and +20% enemy HPs will not help make anything threatening enough to force you to really use strategy beyond trying to cancel things with your Cancel Striku abilities.
Hinode and Captain K: That video is the best thing to come out of Dissidia
I don't actually have a Masamune, but I've been slowly replacing all the Tiduses from my friend list with Sephiroths because Hell's Gate looks way better than Tidus doing the least spectacular somersault you can imagine.
Now my ~30 people friends list is 20% DL people
40% Sentinel Grimoires
20% Sephiroth's Hell Gate
17% Various potentially useful RWs for the sake of variety
3% someone who had "Follow if you like dogs" as her message, I felt compelled enough
If you don't want to train a character you HAVE TO bring (like Eiko), and have four good enough characters (Let's say, Cloud, Vivi, Selphie, Garnet?), and the battle isn't too difficult, you can just petrify the lvl1 needed character at the beginning of the battle. Voila, no medals lost.
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FF5: I actually just finished a replay of this myself. Started it as a 4JF, but since this is literally the first time I'd played the game in fifteen years, I decided it'd be more fun to actually play around with classes. Dualcast Summon/White on Mime is just too much fun to pass up. Time/Blue is also awesome. Dualwield Sword Magic on any physical class is almost broken. Apart from Mime, though, all of those classes are gotten really early on, so the broken is just handed to you from almost the beginning. Oh well, it was fun steamrolling the game.
It -was- kind of interesting getting to mix magical and physical skillsets thanks to how skillsets hand you stats to back them up. Nerfs challenge though.
FFD: Compare with this game, which I am intentionally trying to break, but still consistently almost-wiping to bosses. Playing them together, it -really- shows that FFD is FF5-2 in all but name. They could have said Sol was a descendant of Bartz and pulled in tons of money on the name alone. Then again, perhaps giving the game its own title keeps it from getting unfavorably compared? (Or keeps away FF sequelitis, since their previous attempts at sequels are... middling at best, for all that I like X-2 and 13-2 well enough.)
Complaints about JP limiting Job options/growth are basically null and void on a replay where you know what sort of build you're going for ahead of time. The game just hands you JP too often, and even with grinding, I haven't wasted any AP so far. It's especially nice early game where you have a ton of basic jobs you can get the first few joblevels of for free. One of which is Red Mage's HP+20%, basically an AP sink that every PC might as well pick up in that first hour. Red Mage is pretty solid early on, and any mages you make are going to want to master it anyway.
Current builds planned on the Light Warriors are Monk/Paladin (w/ Warrior early on), Warrior/Dragoon (w/ Monk for F-Abilities), Red Mage/Memorist (Dualcast on Memorist means free access to all spells, but Summoner as a secondary until Mem shows up), Red Mage/White Mage (w/ Bard and Seer for lategame AP sinks)
The Dark Warriors will net me my physical guys, while the Light Warriors are my mages/utility guys. Dark Warriors will be focusing on Ninja and Dark Knight, with the earlygame builds not mattering much.
FF1: Up to the pirates~ This game is so old it's tedious even with this pretty new iOS update.
FFRK: Still plinking away at Eiko's elite event, Rallying Etude is great for Reta-Meta. Also, now I have five proper Healers! Can't wait to tackle some elite core dungeons with the power of care and song~
and yes, I -am- playing 4 FF games at once. Maybe I'll FF3 in there too and play -all- the job system games at once!
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I'm pretty sure that nobody cares about Bartz, not even FF5 fans. If anything you might risk reminding the Japanese about the crappy 90s OVA that had the same premise.
Gilgamesh and Battle on the Big Bridge is where the FF5 nostalgia money is at.
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Actually FF5 characters are the ones I'm fondest of. Don't know why, I just like them. I will probably be blowing real money on FFRK when they actually release them.
Also did I mention how pissed I am that Krile never made it to English Theathrhythm? I'm mentioning it again.
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With how much FFD leaned on FF5 I'm kinda surprised it didn't have an extra direct reference or two such as a Gilgamesh summon.
I find that hard modes that just add +X% to enemy stats sound bad on paper but work reasonably well in practice. There don't seem to be a lot of games that offer interesting alternatives anyway...
A % boost to various stats is a pretty effective way to make a hard mode, I think, and yeah there are plenty of effective examples (Star Ocean, Fire Emblem, DDS, CStW, etc.). In theory, a HM should rebalance everything but in practice that's waaay more work for an only slightly better product which the vast, vast majority of your market won't care about.
However, only boosting enemy HP/durability is terrible. There are very, very few RPGs where I've ever thought "This game would be signifcantly harder if only the enemies could take a few more hits", partially because most RPGs let you survive for far longer than is required via healing etc. There are a few exceptions I can think of but they involve either your resources being severely limited (increasing enemy HP by 50% in FF1 would be terrifying) or battles designed around both sides slugging each other down ball-lightning style making player stall difficult to impossible (Cthulhu Saves the World for instance). Even in those cases, I am skeptical that pure HP boosts would be the most fun way to do a HM. And outside those cases, enemies are pretty much going to need to have more offence to be more dangerous, and only boosting their HP just runs the risk of making everything more boring.
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Actually FF5 characters are the ones I'm fondest of. Don't know why, I just like them. I will probably be blowing real money on FFRK when they actually release them.
Also did I mention how pissed I am that Krile never made it to English Theathrhythm? I'm mentioning it again.
At least, the game will cover your needs there, Bartz, Gilgy, Faris and Krile are all crazy good PCs in RK.
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Yeah I was looking at that. And Lenna is first level 80 White Mage, so her gamebest Mind stat becomes *way* gamebest. Galuf is considered to be one of the weaker characters but he has an interesting SB that makes him totally invincible. So yeah I will totally be rocking full FF5 team when they're released.
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re:FF5
I've always thought of FF5's cast as the only almost-redeemable part of the story. The plot itself is just kinda -there-, and the characters are just varying shades of 'heroic', but together, they're chums. Like, they just -feel- like a nice set of friends who would literally do anything for one another, more than just 'save the world together'. Most of the scenes that actually -show- this tend to be hidden by going to various places and sleeping at inns, though. Whether this is a plus or a detriment is debatable. On the one hand, it's nice to have optional story as a reward for exploration. On the other hand, the required story scenes don't build the characters up much, so you never really care about them enough to go looking for their backstory. A few more scenes in the main plot would have helped overall, but this is FF5 so who cares. FF6 did the whole thing better, with having only -one- Mysterious character with a hidden backstory scene (well, more if you count all of the WoR as optional hidden backstory, but Shadow's the notable one). So you get the colorful cast of characters and then the -one- guy whose deal you just don't know, so seeking it out is worthwhile and a nice reward.
Also, if there was any oldschool FF that deserved to called "anime", it'd probably be FF5...
FFRK:
All Healer Party is go!
Garnet: R1 Valefor, R3 Kirin, Summoner's Spring II (Restore 1 Summon charge per Summon per battle)
Aerith: Curaga, Diaga, Light of the Fayth (Healing+)
Yuna: Diara, R3 Alexander, Sage's Staff (Holy damage up), Eidolon's Gift (Summon damage up)
Selphie: Curaga, Protectga, Concentration II (Restore 1 White charge per spell per battle)
Eiko: R3 Ramuh, Shellga/Raise/Esuna/Curaja, Light Staff (Thunder damage up), no RM yet only Lv46
Kicked Beatrix's ass! (...on classic core)
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Yeah I was gonna say Elf, +%HP on Grandia 2 isn't enough but it is a pretty damn good start... because holy crap enemy stats in that game.
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In fairness, at endgame enemies aren't truly damage anemic (AoE 4HKO could be worse), but they'd still need far more than 20% in HP boosts to make you care.
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A flat +20% boost to everything for enemies would probably end up pretty balanced (if still a bit easy) for Grandia II.
I'd add FFVII to the list of games where just HP boosts might make a difference. They aren't GREAT, but FFVII enemies definitely have stuff they can do if they actually get a damn turn. Of course, the number might be closer to 200% boosts to work there.
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Final Fantasy White Light From The Mouth Of Autobattle - Farming Lightning and Wind Orbs because hell, I may need them soon with Dual Delay's release slated for next month. Getting a couple Greater Lightning and Wind Orbs randomly wouldn't be bad either. The farming lull may end soon, though, since sez the oracle that we'll have another dungeon update either today or tomorrow. Guess I can't complain about having more Mythril for the SB celebration starting next week. If I got even Quistis' Scorpion's Tail, it'd be aces, though I dream of Yuna's second SB weapon. God, I want MT healing so bad.
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The Magic Circle - This came out a few months ago, but finally got around to it and finished it.
Weird meta game that is about games stuck in development hell, the difficulty of game development, fan entitlement and engagement, ownership of "story" by individual writer and the large community of consumers, how bad it is to be involved in all of those, how good it is to be involved in all of those. Plays as a weird sort of puzzle game where you can pick and choose attributes of enemy monsters to make them fight opponents for you. Ultimately I went with really powered up dog creature that flew, was fire proof, had a rail gun for a mouth and shared its abilities with every other dog within a large radius (So a pack of helicopter railgun dogs).
It is a strange game. It has James Urbaniak doing some of the main VA, so that's also pretty great. Recommend. It isn't quite Fenrir/Fenrir, but it is maybe Gourry/Fenrir. It is definitely Grefter/Fenrir but a rating of Grefter never gets anyone to play shit.
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FFRK:
Saved up for another 11x relic draw. No 5stars. No 4star armors. No accessories.
Got 2 doubles on 4star swords and bows, though. Both will eventually be combined. Cloud has sword for now. Stared at stats and equipment and abilities lists for like, 30 minutes (maybe more. God help me.) and decided to give a Bow each to Gordon and Wakka. Party has evolved to:
Gordon, Rydia, Josef, Cloud, Wakka
All at/around level 30.
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Grefter I heard about this game. One query: I feel that the premise is extremely innovative and cool BUT that nothing inside the game would actually surprise me. Am I wrong Y/N
NEB: You are right most of the time (no one wants punching bags that just take longer to kill) , though yeah it largely depends on the game. (WA4 could have really benefited from a hard mode that only boosts enemy HP)
There are also some games in which you can just get by by spamming physicals; higher enemy HP would mean having to start using more damaging skills (Suikoden?)
Anyway yeah, I probably would have bought Grandia 2 again on steam if it had a real hard mode. Not sure though. I youtubed the Melfice fight and could hardly handle that much cringe. Sorry guys
RK: Pressure point is a pretty good way to inflict instant death. Case in point, all these bosses in Eiko's event..
Snow, I have MT healing... And it's definitely cool, but I'm not that crazy about it? You want healing to be reliable, and SBs aren't extremely reliable. They have a very long charge time + you can only them once or twice in difficult battles. It's not going to save you, it's only going to be convenient.
Shadowrun Hong Kong: I started up Steam to download this but noticed that the LISA DLC is here. Sorry Shadowrun, BRB
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With WA4 it is worth noting that when I've done challenge runs I've generally focused on raising enemy offence (e.g. no armour, HP/MP slider set to minimum HP) at least as much as enemy durability, usually more. You're right that due to the nature of WA4 fights, increasing only their durability would be effective (although this isn't always the case, e.g. someone like Balgaine wouldn't be any better with 2x the HP), but even then increasing their other stats too would result in a more fun, balanced HM experience, at least in my opinion.
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Lisa DLC = he grows more arms so he has more to cut off?
And Fenrir is wrong, MT healing is godlike and will definitely save you. Pretty much every white mage gets some version of it in the future though so it'll show up eventually.
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RK: Pressure point is a pretty good way to inflict instant death. Case in point, all these bosses in Eiko's event..
Snow, I have MT healing... And it's definitely cool, but I'm not that crazy about it? You want healing to be reliable, and SBs aren't extremely reliable. They have a very long charge time + you can only them once or twice in difficult battles. It's not going to save you, it's only going to be convenient.
Yeah, but I want it exactly due to convenience. There are hardly any fights where I feel I -need- MT healing, but there are many where I feel like it'd save at least three actions. Since MT healing isn't worth bringing as a RW either (SG is way too overcentralizing, to a lesser degree, so are Lunatic High and Boon)...
EDIT: Though what really makes Yuna's MT healing SB attractive to me is the fact that it also casts MT Hi-Regen. MT Buff + healing on a single move is just all kinds of hot.
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Why does Blind sometimes go away? It's not supposed to wear off, but I've had it vanish a couple of times without me curing it or the character leveling up.
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It is a strange game. It has James Urbaniak doing some of the main VA, so that's also pretty great. Recommend. It isn't quite Fenrir/Fenrir, but it is maybe Gourry/Fenrir. It is definitely Grefter/Fenrir but a rating of Grefter never gets anyone to play shit.
Is this a scale between two extremes or is Fenrir/Fenrir the pinnacle?
Do want to play Magic Circle at some point, I'll look into it.
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VSM: Blind -is- supposed to wear off. Its duration just refreshes between battles and is also longer than most status attacks.
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Gourry/Fenrir is only like a step down on the scale of liking experimental weird art games.
Honestly, I don't even think it is that innovative Fen? I have played stuff with similar mechanical concepts before, but the one runs them further and executes on them better. Storytellingwise like I don't really see how it pushes any envelopes that Stanley Parable didn't? But the content is different. Both are about games in very different ways.
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I find that hard modes that just add +X% to enemy stats sound bad on paper but work reasonably well in practice. There don't seem to be a lot of games that offer interesting alternatives anyway...
Grandia 2 strikes me as one of the best fits for ramping up difficulty just by increasing enemy stats. Grandia 2 (and it's been a while but I think this is true) your highest-damage moves in combat cost a significant amount of your overall resources. So higher numbers could quickly push you into now-I-have-to-think-about-things territory. It's just that the main game is so easy that 20% HP isn't going to get the job done.
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Shadowrun Hong Kong: So I guess we can rely on every Shadowrun campaign starting off with an old friend getting in too deep and dying and leaving you to figure out why (Dragonfall sort of did this twice in the same story!) Anyway, I'm in Kowloon, there's a monofilament whip cyber upgrade, and I kinda regret not running Wugui. The NPC gang is not as immediately engaging as it was in Dragonfall, although I'm intrigued by the Russian dude with the murderbot. Duncan seriously needs to loosen up. Trusting in law and order in the crapsack world that is Shadowrun, how else was that going to turn out?
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I've played Shadowrun on a few different occasions, and I have played several times in a shadowrun setting with rules that aren't ass. And every time, I run a character with a monofilament whip, the name of one of the Castlevania protagonists (with the last name inverted to "Montbel") who is deeply paranoid and pathologically hunts down ghouls, vamps, and man-made biological horrors.
I can make my own characters in RP settings, but in this case, why would I want to? It's shadowrun. Characters aren't deep. And what's more fun than a weapon that used to cut you in half on a crit fail?
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Okay then Gref. I meant storytellingwise, since mechanics just looked fairly perfunctory at first glance.
It did look like an entirely different beast than Stanley Parable though? Stanley Parable is a game toying with the player and mocking Bioware for 5 hours. Magic Circle looks like a way to get you more conscious of what happens during the creation of a game (which I feel I know well enough already)
Notmiki: Don't you also amass a ton of healing items you never end up using in Grandia 2?
LISA the Joyful: Oh boy
This follows Buddy going full Kill Bill Bride mode to get some respect around Olathe. It is very much the continuation of the first game, for better and for worse. Would gross out Zenny /10.
I think it overexplained the story a little bit, I liked the overall vagueness of the first one better? This isn't a full on Hotline Miami 2-esque debacle or anything though, of course.
The gameplay mostly just served the story, even more than in the first one. There aren't a lot of interesting choices in battle, but you get basically no randoms and no chance to truly recover ever so there is tense resource management going on. Sort of. Can't comment on more without going into spoiler text. There were a few clever and very heart breaking ideas. Noteworthy things:
You have two party members at the beginning, then one leaves for the rest of the game and you're left alone. He also protected you at camps, with him gone you get attacked every night.
You amass Joy, which is the drug that gives you huge stat boosts but Is Very Bad for you and leads to Bad Endings in the main game. Here you are pretty much forced to use it at one point, as the game is too difficult without it. I fucking tried going without it in the first two hours, but had to give up. The game had won. By that point everything became super easy.
Your very limited skillset is centered around making things bleed if it wasn't clear that you are full badass now.
Replay value is fairly limited because of that, unfortunately, compared to the former game.
There is a sprint button! And I don't think I died even once to gravity!
The music is extremely cool, it was as experimental as the first one (which already clearly copied Earthbound's / Mother 3's style and overabundance of battle tracks) but much more pro. It is so Fenrir it hurts though.
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Notmiki: Don't you also amass a ton of healing items you never end up using in Grandia 2?
Could be. I don't remember since, y'know, even if they're there you never use them.
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Final Fantasy I Autobattle Myself - Eiko boss rush and new dungeon update are out! I already cleared the boss rush with a grand total of one medal lost. Worth noting that Black Waltz 3 and Thorn and Zorn have MT magic, so Carbuncle doesn't lulz at the rush -quite- as hard as you expect, though it still does pretty bad things to its challenge. My only healing for the rush was Kirin and it proved more than enough. Just brought Magic Breakdown and SG as safeguards for keeping Kirin competitive and it worked out pretty great. I'll tackle the Beatrix fights tomorrow - I figure a Power Breakdown + Draw Fire approach will be enough here for the first fight, at least.
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Notmiki: Don't you also amass a ton of healing items you never end up using in Grandia 2?
Could be. I don't remember since, y'know, even if they're there you never use them.
You know why you don't know how many you had? Because no one has ever opened up the Item menu in Grandia 2. Ever.
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I totally opened it up between fights to spam those dirt cheap MP/SP restoration items which can only be bought at specific points in the game.
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Also, if there was any oldschool FF that deserved to called "anime", it'd probably be FF5...
Racist
LISA the Joyful: Oh boy
This follows Buddy going full Kill Bill Bride mode to get some respect around Olathe. It is very much the continuation of the first game, for better and for worse. Would gross out Zenny /10.
Welp. *Downloads.*
I still need to replay on Painful mode though and access the areas I missed the first time through.
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I should note that I played the Joyful with no mask on, which does sound radically different from playing with a mask. for example everybody attacks you on sight including the only two shopkeepers
I'll replay it later.
RK: eiko event mastered, Beatrix was relatively easy since she's all physical. I had no FF9 equipment beyond a sword for Steiner, but I did have lvl 65 Vivi/Garnet throwing Op Waterja/Diaga under synergy. I also nearly have enough orbs to upgrade both to R4, yessss
Zorn and Thorn were much more difficult because I had completely underestimated them? They did some unreflectable doublecast 2hko skills and stuff. Upgrade to godlike. Scary as fuck, cool fight. I'll stop looking at the strats sections in the FFRK reddit from now on to have more experiences like this and have to work on my own strats. The true FFRK starts here. EZ mode over.
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Final Fantasy Gimme Autobattle - Also mastered Eiko event. To my surprise, Draw Fire Steiner didn't manhandle just the first fight, but all of them, since the DEF boost given by Draw Fire is very good -and- seems to stack with Protect (obviously does stack with Breaks). Suddenly, we have a valuable, elegant Knight skillset niche there. At this point, I'm mostly rummaging through the new dungeons for that sweet Mythril. FF3 randoms are a pain in the ass and I'm just summonspamming them at leisure.
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Per the developer, Grandia 2's Hard Mode is not just an HP boost. Normal enemies end up also getting some speed boosts. Bosses can get boosts of all types (damage, speed, durability). They are currently working out a host of bugs that are going to be corrected, so probably better to wait regardless. But since Hard mode has more improvements, I will try it at some point.
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OK. I want to bring up the shit topic again, even though I regret accidentally causing it in the first place.
FF5 IS the most anime FF, and it has nothing to do with character situations, story, personality, humor, or whatnot.
FF5 has an oddly higher rate of anime iconography than any other Final Fantasy. Something distinctly Japanese. Like, the sweat drops, the slow ellipsis or the garbled squiggles that sometimes appear above characters' heads. That's, like, a Japanese style for portraying difficult to convey emotions/reactions. It pretty much only appears in western culture as a deliberate parody or tribute to Japanese comic art.
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FFRK: According to FF Portal, we're getting the FF14 collab sometime in September. So the expected timeline of future events will probably be thrown out of kilter.
Working on the new regular dungeons before I tackle the end of Eiko's event. Did a 50-mythril pull on Eiko's banner, got two 4-stars and no 5-stars. Boohoo.
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FF Type 0 HD - I haven't actually started playing, just watched the opening cutscenes. Apparently this game is about pretty fashion teenagers fighting Steve Blum voiced Hitlercutus of the Borg (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KecRj2TPgs4&t=4m3s).
Edit - The first like 5 minutes of the game after you say New Game is watching a teenager slowly bleed out with his chocobo mount. Chocobos apparently make horse noises. I am pretty into the bleeding part, especially when the main Fashion Teen watches it happen, refuses to actually touch the blood covered chocobo (sort of hover hands pats it) and holds the hands of Less Fashionable Teen.
Then you kill some stuff and find out one of the two armies (I missed if it was the enemies, I think it was) are called the Militesi. I am pretty into that as well.
Fenrir, you didn't sell me on this hard enough. I was already in from what had been discussed, but if I knew more of what it was about and just how fashionable the Fashion Teens are I would have played it sooner.
Edit - OH MY GODS WHY DIDN'T I PAY ATTENTION TO ACE'S ATTACK ANIMATIONS SOONER.
He literally vogues enemies to death while throwing cards at them.
Edit 2 - All the plot sequences oh my gods. They are just words words words l'cie in the same way as FF13 was, but instead of telling me there is a dictionary it instead just constantly smash cuts to another face with a voice actor who has been working for nearly a billion years. Then suddenly you meet the doctor that created the Fashion Teens (who I am now realising are a Sentai team in this world).
Meet Arecia Al-Rashia (Pronounced like Erasure)
(http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110610061335/finalfantasy/images/2/2b/FFType0-AreciaRender.png)
Fashion Teens were made by Fashion MILF who wears a weird assortment of 70s Disco flares, 60 Beatnick headscarf, 80s haircut and early 2000s (?) midriff revealed blouse while she smokes from a cigarette holder, has both a scarf as a shawl and a fucking styling cape. Oh and of course sexy librarian/teacher glasses. Holy shit. Also rocking some fucking MAD bling.
Oh and she said some words and said to send the Fashion Teens to war, but I don't care about that, her outfit is amazing.
There was also a bit during the words words words about the Nazis blowing up an entire fucking country with an ersatz nuke "Ultima Bomb".
Edit 1 billion - It is also pretty amazing that the leader of the Fashion Teens carries around a little hip holster for his Magic Cards so he can dual you in a moment's notice with his presumably Tournament Legal deck (I bet he plays Vintage, cause that shit's OP as fuck).
Okay so after getting through all the words finally we get to where you can control the characters again, today; the day after after the Fashion Teens pretty much single handedly turned the tide of the battle against the Nazis because they can use Magic even in Anti Magic fields; IT IS THEIR FIRST DAY AT SCHOOL.
Is this some kind of pro home schooling propaganda? I never met any home schooled kids that dressed this damn well.
Edit 899 - Doc MILF referred to her as Ace's mother, not sure if biologically accurate or just turn of phrase. Either way it seems the Fashion Teens are either vampires or necromancers. Edit - Oh and I forgot to say there is two new people to the class (presumably OTHER new people to the class since it's the Fashion Teens first official day at the academy) who we need to keep the Fashion Teens post kill feasting a secret from. Presumable ZANY HIJINKS will ensue.
Edit 1 billion and 2 - I forgot to mention the two new dudes were already seen during the Nazi Fights. Rem the girl is the one that's likely to be super important to the plot and Machina (Seriously) is likely just to be an anime rival, BUT he is going to be the perfect anime rival.
Why?
Because he fights by dual wielding Drilldo Swords.
(http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110516195306/finalfantasy/images/4/4d/FFType0-MachinaRender2.png)
This might be the best game ever made.
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So who are your favourite fashion teens so far?
I fucking love this anime cast
Edit: I had the same reaction to Machina right here in this thread
Also, sorry :( :(
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Yeah they all have Abercrombie & Fitch superskinny figures, then Machina joins and he totally doesn't fit in. Everyone else has stylish red capes and he just rips some curtains off the wall and wears them.
Oh and one of the girls just got date raped in a sidequest. I wish I was making this up.
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I do not comprehend.
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It's all about the panty shots in that game.
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Final Fantasy Unmarked Autobattles - Cleared all Classic dungeons from the new update. Expect the Elite versions to be kind of a pain in the ass. Oh well, at least Balthier is L65.
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Far as I can tell, Type-0 is FF8 with fucking awesome capes.
...
Sold.
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Pretty much!
Oh and one of the girls just got date raped in a sidequest.
The most realistic part of this campus
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Is this what Grefter/Fenrir game looks like?! I may check it out when it goes on sale.
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Gourry, Type-0 is the kind of super anime game that completely ignores all basic game design lessons from the 20 last years. It is pretty interesting.
Lisa the Joyful: Replayed and finished, having a mask actually changes basically nothing. The game was 100% easier this time around so it at least went fast.
Not really worth replaying and getting all the achievements, though I liked the little secret with Green Ranger.
He's the only surviving member of the sentai team from the first game, he lives alone and he's basically the only guy around who doesn't want to control Buddy. Buddy still doesn't trust him and she leaves. Later on you see that he has killed himself, and you get the "No friends" steam achievement.
Cheerful stuff.
Best track is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GmZXasCoU0
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Also it is a massively lazy "HD" variant. 1080p 60 FPS with models that have oven mitt skeleton for hands and high res 2D textures in 3D environments. It is a straight port from the PSP with textures upscaled.
It is pretty far from terrible, but it definitely makes it feel like a much smaller studio's $25 games that runs in a free copy of Unreal 3. Then the actual plot is Square with the melodrama cranked up to 16.
Oh I also forgot to mention that their teacher is totes that ninja from Naruto.
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It is pretty far from terrible, but it definitely makes it feel like a much smaller studio's $25 games that runs in a free copy of Unreal 3. Then the actual plot is Square with the melodrama cranked up to 16.
Yeah this is the perfect description for this game.
This + Glamrock hair
Grefter, 2 might seem like the most bland party member but you should definitely use her in battle. Because https://youtu.be/KMf6NdM55ws?t=1m32s
In fact you should use everybody for the hell of it, it's fun
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Oh I also forgot to mention that their teacher is totes that ninja from Naruto.
Also he came into the room while I was being date raped. He seemed unhappy about it but didn't do anything to stop it.
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Phew. Rk
Eiko event mastered. Had to use a mithril on the boss rush, but Beatrix I squeaked by each of her fights. Lost 3 medals each time.
Now, I have to beat that Seymour fight so I can get that smn rm.
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Star Ocean 3 - Five hours in or so, just reached Arias.
To some extent this is a tale of two games so far. The first couple hours are terrible. Awful. Bad game is bad. First of all, there's hardly any gameplay, and what little there is is confusing. I really hated it on my first playthrough because I had no idea what I was doing. Now it's just boring as heck. But whatever, it's not the first game to start light on gameplay, and/or what gameplay there is to be boring or simplistic. That's just Tri-Ace being Tri-Ace or whatever. No, the bigger problems are definitely related to writing.
Looking back on Star Ocean 3 a decade later, one thing I respect a lot about it is its treatment of gender issues. Most games fall into a trap of stocking their NPC casts of primarily men; that is, even games whose core cast is roughly balanced gender-wise usually break down if you expand the circle to say, the twenty most important characters. SO3 is a rare game which bucks this, chiefly due to the nation of Aquaria. And quite apart from number, most of the female cast can hold their own just fine in terms of competence. Maria is the leader of Quark; Mirage a capable operative; Nel and Clair are the de facto leaders of Aquaria's military, overseen by a queen and a female chief military engineer. Of course there are plenty of male NPCs too (patriarchal Airyglyph answers right back to Aquaria on this front), but in both quantity and competence the female cast acquits itself just fine, and better than most games.
Why this tangent? Because early SO3 is pretty damn embarrassing on this front. Sophia is, like, every problematic stereotype of JRPG female characters rolled into one. She needles Fayt passive-aggressively, but of course secretly likes him. She gets exhausted easily. When the crisis hits, Fayt generally keeps a cool head while she gets all panicky. She exists partially to give Fayt someone to protect. Most of her scenes are cringe-worthy. Peppita, the only other female character worth mentioning from early in the game, spends her first scene and only particularly memorable scene desperately hoping for the male player avatar to lavish attention on her and validate her. It's all rather uncomfortable.
So the earlygame features two bad female characters for Fayt to bounce off, and Fayt isn't really a strong enough personality to overcome this and be worthwhile. Also after a long exploration of a boring hotel setting which literally is irrelevant for the rest of the game, you get shunted from one crisis to the next in a way which is kind of tiring and ineffective. It's a relief once the inevitable Star Ocean "get stranded on a lower-tech planet" kicks in even though you know the game has kinda just been one long excuse setting this up until now.
But despite all that negativity? Once this arc ends the game gets legitimately good. I was honestly starting to wonder if the game just had worse writing than I remembered. I'm glad to say those worries weren't really necessary. Cliff shows up, and is generally great. He bounces off other characters very well. He has his share of character flaws, but the game isn't afraid to call him on them. His interplay with Fayt, Mirage, and Nel is always a lot of fun. And Nel is pretty wonderful. She is coldly pragmatic in a way which is somewhat unusual for a JRPG character (even moreso a female one). Her relationship with Fayt reverses the cliched "overly emotional woman / rational man" dynamic fiction is over-fond of. The game sets up a situation where all three of the major characters have sympathetic, understandable viewpoints and encourages the player to look at it from each of their sides, and the resulting scenes are a lot of fun. They're long, but I never begrudge the game this. And when I died to some Airyglyph soldiers after one particularly long scene, I was very glad the game had sceneskip.
Gameplaywise the game still feels positively restricted compared to what I know is still to come; the first few techs are pretty weak and you can't combo them effectively and/or at all due to CP limitations. But the core gameplay is still pretty fun (although I do wish there was a way to control the camera, and after playing SO4 a bunch I now really miss enemy HP gauges).
That ended up longer than I intended. tl;dr: SO3 before Vanguard = crap. SO3 once Cliff shows up = outstanding. It's a game I remember as inconsistent, certainly, but damned if it isn't the best writing Tri-Ace has ever done when it's on its game.
Fire Emblem 8 - Up to Eirika chapter 11. Not much to say about this replay, game is still thoroughly enjoyable as always.
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And when I died to some Airyglyph soldiers after one particularly long scene, I was very glad the game had sceneskip.
GLORY TO AIRYGLARGH!
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RK: Finished the new classic dungeons, working on elites in a completely random order.
Dragoon's in my team!! I gave him a major egg and he now has thousands of HPs! And by thousands, I mean 1,9 thousands.
The elite dungeons are rough. I never bring max level characters in those and this is starting to be a problem.
Randoms suddendly do 1-2k damage and have 10k HPs so I kinda need to spend resources on them, but then bosses are super tanky and I might run out of resources. It's all about very close balance, and I would have literally not being able to beat the FF5 elite archeomegabird if I hadn't honed both Diaga/Waterja to R3. Quake is also legit super useful now instead of just being quality of life.
Not using max level Vivi is a problem because my alternatives are not so hot. They are:
- Quistis (Hybrid with lower magic, so her Waterjas do like 7000 damage only)
- Maria (No record materia)
- Vanille (see Maria + Quistis)
- Red XIII (See Maria + Quistis)
- Rydia (No lvl 4 black = Terrible)
- Loser (Has less magic than Kain)
- Black mage (lol)
- Kimahri and other hybrids with 3* black magic
- Rinoa (comes out next week yeeeessssss)
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Who is loser? I'mma guess Red Mage? Also, that's hilarious.
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Loser = Loserface = Tyro = Loserface = Loser.
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Yeah, the guy you can rename who can equip everything. With the silly hat.
Red mage does have higher magic than Kain, but his magic stat is still pretty terrible (I complained about Quistis' but he is something else entirely) and he can not even equip 4* black magic
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SO3 stuff
SO3's been on my replay list for a while, since I'd just unlocked 4D mode last time I played it (like eight years ago?) Granted, I don't see how a 4D Freya is even logistically possible to beat, since I nearly ran out of stun bombs just beating Universe Freya and there is practically no other reliable way of dealing with her than constant stunlocking.
Writing I recall being surprisingly solid throughout the war arc on Elicoor (excepting the obvious plot tumor of Ameena). The PC trio there works very well together and I pretty much fell in love with Nel first time through the game in a way I don't think another videogame character has prompted me to respond. Also Aquaria seems like a place I'd be happy to live in if not for you know impending conquest by patriarchal invader. Everything plotwise shifts to being completely absurd the moment you jump through the talking dimensional door from that one Star Trek episode, but at least it's in a way you can laugh at. Also NEB you pointed out all that legit awful stuff about Sophia and neglected to include that she runs around in public with her pants unzipped.
Gameplaywise, in retrospect I don't see much point for CP limitations at all. I mean, it's not like it stops you from using broke shit anyway (like for example Side Kick -> Side Kick -> Side Kick -> Side Kick).
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For a game I respect as much as SO3, I feel I have done it a disservice NOT replaying it ever. Sadly not sure if this will ever happen in the forsee-able future, because I have too much other stuff.
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I've been playing Grandia II Anniversary Edition.
Everything as been pretty easy on Hard mode until I got to Eye of Valmar. He actually took me out twice! The eye and its two parts attack very fast. Crackle does around 500 to 600 damage which is a 2HKO. The Tendrils can do around 300-400 damage. Spellbinding Eye is a lot more frequent and comes off quite fast if you can't cancel it. I had to spend some coins picking up Alhealer to get by. It almost felt like I was fighting a Grandia III boss.
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Final Fantasy The Sound Of Autobattle - Still plowing through Elite dungeons. The randoms got pretty dangerous, to the point where summonspam actually isn't simple QoL dungeoning, but optimum strategy in order to perform reasonably. Randoms now get 3HKOed by boosted Cloud physicals, which really marks the end of the Reta-meta age against trash mobs. Honing Ixion and Valefor to R2 feels validating at this point. I also R5'd Biora and will do the same to Comet next Tuesday, which should leave me ready enough for Golbez's event. Maybe I'll farm more Greater Fire and Ice Orbs on monday.
EDIT: Also, Japan just got PC KEFKA what the fucking hell
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PC KEFKA as a Black Mage/Bard/Dancer hybrid at that. Because he is dancing mad, obviously.
We'll have to wait for the event to drop to see the exact levels on those skillsets, though.
The JP roster of dancers is now Mog, Lenna, Faris, Rikku, Penelo, Kefka which is uh... interesting.
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Writing I recall being surprisingly solid throughout the war arc on Elicoor (excepting the obvious plot tumor of Ameena). The PC trio there works very well together and I pretty much fell in love with Nel first time through the game in a way I don't think another videogame character has prompted me to respond. Also Aquaria seems like a place I'd be happy to live in if not for you know impending conquest by patriarchal invader. Everything plotwise shifts to being completely absurd the moment you jump through the talking dimensional door from that one Star Trek episode, but at least it's in a way you can laugh at. Also NEB you pointed out all that legit awful stuff about Sophia and neglected to include that she runs around in public with her pants unzipped.
Yeah I pretty much agree with all of this from what I remember. I will note that I still think the absurd dimension door plot is better than what Tri-Ace often musters, and would honestly be pretty okay with it if the character writing hadn't completely fallen off around that time.
Re the last point, I figure I will leave the skewering of atrocious fashion sense to Grefter; he is much better at it.
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Weird choices on Kefka, but whatever. Should probably be what? Rods, Swords, Daggers? (Since everyone has daggers.)
Hope he's primarily YET ANOTHER Black Mage, because I feel like the other two aren't scary enough to be even OG Kefka.
EDIT
Fuck, make Gestahl a character. He's got a sprite and we know he knows MERTON. Make it his Soul Break. Make everyone hate Gestahl again.
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Actually, Kefka makes perfect sense as a playable villain, more so than Reno at least; he already has a full functional sprite for Record Keeper since he has those Fake!PC Boss forms you fight multiple times.
Granted, you'd think they'd have gotten the rest of FF6's cast in first before him, but I think most of them are there so there ya go.
I am a bit disappointed Kefka doesn't get Summon though; that feels like something that'd have fit him considering.
Also, VSM, Gestahl doesn't have a fully working sprite. Kefka has a full PC Sprite Sheet, like any normal character, including stuff like the finger waggling animation, Casting poses, etc. Gestahl does not; he has the standard walking and standing poses, a "raise arm" pose (see his flashback speech or when he kills Madonna) and a downed pose (though vertical only; don't think he has a horizontal one.) That means he's lacking things like a casting, ready, and impact pose. Most NPCs have that much.
For reference, full list of characters with a full sprite sheet are:
The main 14 (+ Esper Terra, so really 15)
Banon
Leo
Kefka
Ghost
Soldier
Merchant
And any Palette Swap of the above like "Gerad" and Duncan.
That said, I wouldn't be shocked if late down the line, Banon and Leo pop up, and Merchant is turned into a Core PC as an excuse to use the sprite. Heck, wouldn't be shocked of Biggs/Wedge get in because they are recurring FF characters, though it's not like they're in the game in some form (FF8's variations)
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OK, we need Banon and ?????, STAT.
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I... Don't see why that is a problem though? It isn't like half the series also don't have sprites. Gestahl is still half the work of people from games without sprites (that weren't in ATB).
I don't have much to say about rocking your fly undone. If the pants are tight enough to stay on while they are undone then they probably aren't hiding much either?
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Eh Kefka makes sense, we already have Sephiroth and Golbez. I'd guess at Kuja being the next villain to get PC treatment.
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With NPCs/villains I'm pretty sure DeNA's number one criteria is "will this character make us money?"
Sephiroth is a no-brainer on top of technically being a temp, Gilgamesh is a definate yes in Japan at least, Kefka is almost certainly a yes (globally at least, not really sure what Japan thinks of him), Reno... probably has enough fangirls plus general Turks fans to be a yes there?
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With NPCs/villains I'm pretty sure DeNA's number one criteria is "will this character make us money?"
Sephiroth is a no-brainer on top of technically being a temp, Gilgamesh is a definate yes in Japan at least, Kefka is almost certainly a yes (globally at least, not really sure what Japan thinks of him), Reno... probably has enough fangirls plus general Turks fans to be a yes there?
Yeah
This is also why PC Kefka exists before, say, Umaro
Japan also has PC Seifer, rad as fuck. It sounds like they're focusing mainly on FF4 through 10, so I am pretty sure we could get PC Xdeath/Rufus/Edea/Kuja/Seymour later.
Also. I don't think we mentioned Laguna existing:
(http://i.imgur.com/qVYNmBl.jpg)
Final Fantasy The Sound Of Autobattle - Still plowing through Elite dungeons. The randoms got pretty dangerous, to the point where summonspam actually isn't simple QoL dungeoning, but optimum strategy in order to perform reasonably.
Eeeeh I still feel summons pretty worthless, especially compared to Quake. I still use them a little (I like to use a two white mage setup, my second white mage can have Curaga + a summon + Summoner materia) but I don't quite feel they've become actually optimal or anything since they're competing with things like Protectga.
Protip for Sol Cannon elite: You need either Nanaki's or Sazh's RW to get the mastery. I tried this fight with the absolute sickest team for this fight (trust me on this) and still couldn't beat him before it used the laser, without Hastega.
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Oh yeah, I just did some Towerfall DLC local co-op and local PVP and had an absolute blast.
I... think I consider this to be the best game on PS4.
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I... Don't see why that is a problem though? It isn't like half the series also don't have sprites. Gestahl is still half the work of people from games without sprites (that weren't in ATB).
I don't have much to say about rocking your fly undone. If the pants are tight enough to stay on while they are undone then they probably aren't hiding much either?
I didn't say it was a problem. Granted, VSM just said "he has a sprite" so my point could be argued fruitless, but no where did I say that'd be a problem, pretty much for the exact reason you laid out.
That said, basically what hinode said for the actual reason he won't get in. My point wasn't "This is why Gestahl won't get in", more just highlighting he isn't 0 work the way someone like Kefka would be (which isn't much of a point granted.)
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Final Fantasy The Sound Of Autobattle - Still plowing through Elite dungeons. The randoms got pretty dangerous, to the point where summonspam actually isn't simple QoL dungeoning, but optimum strategy in order to perform reasonably.
Eeeeh I still feel summons pretty worthless, especially compared to Quake. I still use them a little (I like to use a two white mage setup, my second white mage can have Curaga + a summon + Summoner materia) but I don't quite feel they've become actually optimal or anything since they're competing with things like Protectga.
If you have two R2 4* summons (often enough, even a 3* is all you need due to their mults being close to Quake's and Summonspring 2 existing), they actually become legit offense against bosses as well as slaughtering dungeons. I've been running a R3 Quake + 4* mage/healer with Curaga + one of Protectga, Shellga, Diaga or Slowga/summoner/support/melee team for the dungeons and it's been actually substantially better than running multiple melee fighter - hell, bosses don't last -much- longer than the four shots my dedicated summoner has as a rule of thumb either, so it works out nicely for core dungeon running (not quite ideal, but given the stellar results against increasingly dangerous trash mobs, it's good enough). On dungeons, trash mobs are the majority of the medals you score as well, so excelling against them is pretty big. Bosses are generally entirely under control under mitigation anyway, so having a lowish-resource, high-power slot isn't -that- much of a problem, as long as it's only one. Meanwhile, running physical fighters who 3HKO enemies and spend non-replenishable through RM ability uses has become increasingly problematic. Quake also has the problem of running off the most often immuned element in the game, so you want a competent backup when it doesn't work. That's also why I'm likely not honing it past R3 anytime soon, for all that getting it as far as R3 was absolutely worth it.
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I think the real question is when will we get Payne?
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Probably after we get Ceodore...
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Final Fantasy The Sound Of Autobattle - Still plowing through Elite dungeons. The randoms got pretty dangerous, to the point where summonspam actually isn't simple QoL dungeoning, but optimum strategy in order to perform reasonably.
Eeeeh I still feel summons pretty worthless, especially compared to Quake. I still use them a little (I like to use a two white mage setup, my second white mage can have Curaga + a summon + Summoner materia) but I don't quite feel they've become actually optimal or anything since they're competing with things like Protectga.
If you have two R2 4* summons (often enough, even a 3* is all you need due to their mults being close to Quake's and Summonspring 2 existing), they actually become legit offense against bosses as well as slaughtering dungeons. I've been running a R3 Quake + 4* mage/healer with Curaga + one of Protectga, Shellga, Diaga or Slowga/summoner/support/melee team for the dungeons and it's been actually substantially better than running multiple melee fighter - hell, bosses don't last -much- longer than the four shots my dedicated summoner has as a rule of thumb either, so it works out nicely for core dungeon running (not quite ideal, but given the stellar results against increasingly dangerous trash mobs, it's good enough). On dungeons, trash mobs are the majority of the medals you score as well, so excelling against them is pretty big. Bosses are generally entirely under control under mitigation anyway, so having a lowish-resource, high-power slot isn't -that- much of a problem, as long as it's only one. Meanwhile, running physical fighters who 3HKO enemies and spend non-replenishable through RM ability uses has become increasingly problematic. Quake also has the problem of running off the most often immuned element in the game, so you want a competent backup when it doesn't work. That's also why I'm likely not honing it past R3 anytime soon, for all that getting it as far as R3 was absolutely worth it.
Trash mobs is a bad name for thoese freaks!
I dunno, I feel that this is a pretty handy strategy for 90-100 difficulty dungeons but becomes sub optimal for the realest craziest later ones, as bosses that die in 4 turns are pretty weaksauce and I really wouldn't want dead weight in my team past turn 4?
I haven't had too much trouble clearing randoms with Quakespam so far, and if failing that, one replenishable Waterja/Diaga on one monster + melee spam on another (using abilities not physicals, since melee fighters never actually run out now. Physical attacks are over) I could see replacing my melee armor/mental break dude with a mage with R5 Comet + R5 Biora but not with a summoner
Also the biggest problem for me is spending all those orbs. Man, they even ask for super duper orbs even though they're only 4*! The nerve
Anyway, praise the heavens, sweet xp is upon us, etc. I am not sure my plan to level everybody to level 50 is going well considering that DeNa just releases one million new characters every week and we only get one sunday per week. At least most of the future event reissues will give me eggs instead of new people to level.
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The FFRK devs have taked about adding FFT later on.
I'm looking forward to the potential Calculator core.
And Delita.
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Yeah I pretty much agree with all of this from what I remember. I will note that I still think the absurd dimension door plot is better than what Tri-Ace often musters, and would honestly be pretty okay with it if the character writing hadn't completely fallen off around that time.
I actually don't think they're routinely terrible, at worst I'd call their work uneven with some notable bright spots, but my experience here is based on:
SO2: Okay, this one really does have no story merit that I can recall after two playthroughs.
SO3's already covered.
VP1: I think a lot of the recruitment scenes have great emotional impact considering their brevity. The actual plot of course is barely existent, but I like the portrait B+C routes paint of Lenneth as being a committed drone with no personal understanding of her recently deceased recruits' emotional distress, and exactly the kind of meager reward such a person should expect for her labors. Suddenly emotional A ending Lenneth happens so fast that it's kind of jarring, though. If there's anything Tri-Ace consistently struggles with, I'd say it's endings.
VP2: Having just replayed this, I'd reiterate that the plotting for the first two thirds of the game is solid. I wouldn't say the cast has the kind of chemistry of SO3 at its best, but the pacing takes full advantage of player expectations re: characters having hidden agendas/personas and hiding the really important ones behind the red herings of more obvious disguises, and I respect that. Also, no one felt it necessary to have the male and female leads fall in love, they get to be mutually supportive friends the whole time and that's great. Everything after Lezard's reveal is a mess (although I love the reveal scene itself), but that's Tri-Ace endings for you. (Kobold scenes almost make up for it.)
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Honestly, I agree with you. I'll make the caveat that VP2's last third certainly made me angrier than SO3's (though both represent a clear drop in quality). I do think that the two Tri-Ace games you haven't played don't really help its average much: SO4 is okay (it doesn't drop off at the end unlike most Tri-Ace, but its writing quality is a clear step back from SO3's otherwise) while VPDS is pretty damn bad (it has some good ideas in there, but botches their execution and is particularly bad at being a Valkyrie Profile game). But... yeah, can't disagree with anything you wrote in your own summaries. So maybe I need to give Tri-Ace a bit more credit; they have an uneven track record at writing but there is certainly worse.
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Final Fantasy 3 Dual Play: Labyrinth of the Ancients and Eureka completed.
-Labyrinth of the Ancients sucks and should feel bad. It's boring visually, the enemies suck, and the only cool thing is the gear you get here. Really no point in addressing either version specifically since anything after Titan is pretty much entirely filler. I also missed the Crystal Shield on the DS version which matters because I am using Red Mage (the one job that may care about these things)
-Actually, both these dungeons highlight just how annoyingly close the FF3DS camera is, especially Labyrinth of the Ancients. Easy to miss side pathes and such without going out of your way to check them because it's so zoomed in. As I said before, for all the crap I give it, one thing FF4DS did very right was applying a minimap, which does wonders with the zoomed up camera. It's also worth noting that I suspect a number of people are going "What is he talking about, that wasn't an issue for me!" but it's mostly apparent relative to the NES version where navigating dungeons is easier because you can see more of it. It's a very apparent drop in visibility compared to the NES version.
-This point of the game feels like bosses are only as hard as the RNG lets them be. Kunoichi can triple physical someone and deal legitimate damage if all three hits a certain person; if she doesn't do this, and you're casting Curaga/ja every turn, you'll be fine. The others are all "Do they cast this spell and this character!?" Also worth noting that Lightning attacks are mockable since you have Diamond Gear which plays in the AI thing since most bosses with elemental damage will have the big 3.
-The sad part is? I still can't tell you anything about these bosses besides Kunoichi. NES version she has high evade and usual Magic Defense/Elemental Resistance nonsense making Summoner useless beyond the limited Bahamut shots, DS version, see the triple acting physical thing (and she has evade but not as much as the NES version.) The other bosses are all basically just a lot of the same crap. I guess Scylla in the DS version had a 4000 healing Curaja, which off sets a basic physical from Dark Knight and Dragoon, but it's also having her offense meaning you're probably fully recovering unless your healer is dead or something. Also worth noting? Red Mage w/ dual Aegis Shields in back row feels unkillable.
-Eureka is way easier in the DS version than NES version. Even though NES version has Summoner's really good MT damage being meaningful (though Shiva isn't as good as you'd expect, so ammo is limited) as well as Warlock's crazy accurate status with deep MP resources, enemies are generally just better. On top of this, the DS version also fully heals you between each boss fight, the NES version does not. Granted, when you get to the last two, you can skip them, run to the back, use the full healing pond, and fight both fully restored (also with potentially more Crystal Gear, but I don't think it's worth it for reasons I'll get into.) I digress though, the fact that you recharge every fight alone makes Eureka far less strenuous, especially since the NES version basically makes you run off a single MP Pool since the start of the Labyrinth.
--You can also get Ninja/Sage before the last one and get a huge boost to...well, everything! I intended on doing this...then promptly forgot to change jobs against Scylla and wasted the opportunity. Whoops!
-I played around with Holy lance vs. Dragon Lance because the latter weighs less thus doesn't lose hits and...convinced Holy Lance is just better. Apparently it's raw power does make up for the extra hit loss, and there are enemies weak to it, which makes Dragoon's damage disgusting when combined with Gungnir.
-Red Mage and Knight get a huge damage boost here in the DS version since they go from Defenders to Break Blade, Excalibur and for Knight, Ragnarok as well. No other Job gets a damage boost this big. Even if you didn't get Gungnir, Dragoon's Dragon Lance is only a marginal drop from Holy Lance Dual Haken is a marginal upgrade to Blessed Hammers from Vikings, Demon Axes used by Warriors aren't too far off either (though Warriors do get Break Blade and Ragnarok; only reason to use Dual Haken is because someone else wants the Break Blade or Ragnarok, which is a very possible outcome I'll grant), and yeah you get the idea.
-Red Mage gets a huge spike in physical durability if you want here. Crystal equips, can tank with dual shields, etc. The Shield Set Up has merit for a tanky healer of course, but I personally don't see the other equips as meaningful. One of Red mage's defining features is being a workable physical fighter who can use Mage gear, which is a huge magic defense push over fighters; the healing of course is an added bonus. Still, viable option against 2 Headed Dragon though I didn't buy a Crystal Equip set because you get 2 for free anyway and I suspect dual shields should be enough there.
-As a fun note, in DS version, Red Mage AND Dark Knight were being used to item cast Protect from Defenders in some fights because Protect makes a notable durability increases. This is another perk Knight and Warrior can make use of as well.
-NES version doesn't let you use Exit in Eureka, DS version does let you use Teleport. This is nice and handy! The NES version does, however, have you curbstomping the entire dungeon on the way out since not only did you get the absurb weapons, you also get Ninja and Sage. While Ninja is a marginal boost over Knight and Dark Knight when not using Shurikens, Sage is a huge boost over other Mages. First off, just about every summon they use can clean house, even Shiva. Heck, their Chocobo Summon works as a modest physical stand-in instead of a "meh, got nothing better to do." The resources are absolutely absurd too; Shaman/Warlock have about double the MP Summoner has, and Sage has even more than that. This means you can spam a number of **** off summons if enemies pull back attack nonsense on you like Bahamut and Leviathan. Those summons...may not be stronger than Summoner because of JLevels (Intellect is added directly into damage, so lower end summons benefit a lot more from Sage's higher stats than the higher end ones, which makes Summoner's JLevel advantage offset it), but honestly, 7 shots of (temporarily) slightly weaker Bahamuts vs. 2 shots...yeah. Oh and you are likely using 2 Sages. Let's not forget all the Healing, Status, etc. Sages bring too.
-As for why I didn't buy a 2nd Crystal set? Both games give you a 2nd one in Syrcus Tower. In NES version, I'm only using 2 Ninjas, so I only need two sets. DS version, I'm using 3 characters who can use it, but as I said, Red Mage will probably only ever use the Crystal Shields. Also, after a point, the only Crystal Equip worth using is the Crystal Mail if you play your cards right. Your Fighters should be using Protect Rings, not your mages. The Magic Defense push is far more relevant to them than defense boost to Mages, since most big threats at Magical. Also, you want Lightning resistance since a handful of enemies use that INCLUDING the Cloud of Darkness; Protect Rings cover this. Mages' 2nd best is the Diamond Bracers anyway; it's not CoD's strongest move granted, but you want to mitigate any damage she throws at you to insure survival. For Helmets? Everyone is going to be using Ribbons anyway, since status immunity + defensive stats.
--NES version, though, you'll want the Crystal Gloves on your Ninjas and Protect Rings on the Mages; Ribbon covered Elemental AND Status defense in this game, so Protect Rings clearly were a Mage thing here.
---In DS Version, fighters may go in with Reflect Mail, because of the Magic Defense push over Crystal Things but only for specific fights. This one is a tougher call I should note because the Reflect Mail causes a nose-dive in physical defense and enemies always have a physical, but it's still a valid option. For that matter, Red Mage may prefer Aegis Shield over Crystal Shields depending on set up, but with Mage equips and 2 Crystal Shields, something tells me he won't be needing Magic Defense if I need him in emergency healer mode.
NEXT TIME: The Long as **** Final Dungeon. I'd do this in shifts except there's no way to do that in the NES version legitimately, so you'll see the entire update then and there!
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Video of Kefka's first soul break is out: https://ffrk-movie.static.sp.mbga.jp/soul_strike/10601600/20150831_s9FnKcCj-uw.mp4
The laugh sfx is enough to ensure I get a bunch of RWs at least.
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THE LAUGH
THE FUCKING LAUGH
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HE FUCKING BREAKDANCES WHEN HE LANDS
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God damn it guys.
Stop trying to make cocaine look like fun.
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Final Fantasy Lost In Autobattle - Welp, after the Sundaily bonanza, I got Sephiroth to L50 and cap-broke his ass. Also got started on the Rinoa reissue.
Tangentially, I decided to do a single pull for the lolsies, like I almost always do on every event. It's usually worth little, it's almost always some 3* junk equip.
...
The game gave me the new FF8 5* gun off the gatcha pull. My streak of not getting what I want, but getting stuff that covers niches I was missing continues. Ranged Spellblade Lightning and backrow usable Sazh/Balthier, here I come.
Well, I guess there's also -Irvine-, but why bother.
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I disagree completely Cid. Tri-Ace's beginnings are way worse than their ends.
The ends are at least usually fucking crazy weird, the beginnings in like every game (even SO4) are really long and tedious as fuck.
Also insert timid defence of SO2 here, the plot is dumb and 5 flavours of stupid, but it embraced the Star Trek rip off more than the other games in the series (from the parts of 4 I picked up). Tons of SO2 doesn't make sense and either does most of what happens in TNG.
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FFRK: Did a 50-pull on Rinoa's banner hoping for some ranged options in Guns or her unique stuff. Instead I got another 5* Sword and some crap. Sigh... I didn't even get any 4* staves...
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Did you at least save those 3* Flails from Selphie/Quistis' event? You can combine those with one of the Flails this event hands you for a 120 Mag goodie in FF8 dungeons, which is quite frankly better than a non-synergy 5*. Doesn't solve the long-term problem, but will serve you well during this event.
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Dann Kefka drops silence and paralyze with his super?
Op
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I don't think I saved the Flails. Even still, the 5* sword I got is FF8 flavored so I think I can handle the event with superior Reta Meta instead of going that one day I'll get to join you guys in the cool Mage Meta. As it stands, my best Mage weapon is Tyro's 6*book, de facto making him a better Mage than 4* Stick Vivi... At least I've got SG... So I can stall forever but Mastery on EX battles is a thing of tales and legends...
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Fashion Fantasy Typ0 - The side events during school time are better than the side quests. Got in a second one with Carla who tells Cinque and Jack to refer to her as a "Blazing Merchant"
(http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20111012205519/finalfantasy/images/6/67/FFType0-CarlaRender.png)
xXx420BlazingMerchantCarlaxXx then proceeded to try and sell them meth at 70k Gil a pop.
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Tri-Ace openings are usually terrible for gameplay/slowness reasons. Their quality writing-wise varies. (VP1's I think is pretty good for instance, but YMMV.)
Also insert timid defence of SO2 here, the plot is dumb and 5 flavours of stupid, but it embraced the Star Trek rip off more than the other games in the series (from the parts of 4 I picked up). Tons of SO2 doesn't make sense and either does most of what happens in TNG.
Huh, that's actually the opposite of how I feel. I never noticed the similarity of SO2 and Star Trek myself, whereas SO3 has all the stuff about the prime directive UP3 and giving scientific knowledge to affect the history of a less developed planet which is extremely Star Trek. (The lategame plot craziness is also, I feel, very in line with crazier Star Trek episodes.) SO4 is... arguably an entire game about how the UP3 came to exist and why it is a good idea (not to mention that the protagonists are on a mission which is pretty much the same as the Enterprise, and actually planet-hop a lot doing so). And I had heard that SO1 is also more Star Trek-like, though I haven't played it myself.
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Yeah, that's a decent summary. SO1 is Star Trek, SO3 has some definite TNG vibes, SO4 is Enterprise*. SO2 is... a bit like Voyager in its way? Owes a lot to TNG but mostly meandered pointlessly a lot of time.
*Well no. Enterprise wanted to be SO4.
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I specifically was thinking of the ways the plot doesn't make sense (not the arc of the story). Oh there is secret super human space men that can manipulate the fabric of space time because of reasons and stuff. One of them eats people and another one is on fire.
Fashion Fantasy Type 0 - I invaded the enemy empires weapons development lab in their capital city where they were busy making prototypes of impossible super weapons. They lean on this Nazi thing really hard.
Then someone invoked the Fabula Pact and now there is a peace treaty (and the Fashion Teens are presumably stuck behind enemy lines or something). They seriously call it the Fabula Pact. They know their target audience here.
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FFRK: Spent 100 mithril on Rinoa's banner on the off chance I'd get Valiant or another Blitz sword.
Got only one 5*: Valiant.
Gatcha is easy guys, I don't know what you're talking about. Just spend some mithril and get what you want? Not complicated.
IrvineMeta is upon me, he just OHKOed Edea with a breakdown.
The Swindle: I got to the end of this game but can't beat the last level.
Balance in this game is non existant.
You have 100 in game days to beat the game, it goes roughly Initial Struggle (10 days) -> Buy a bug -> Buy a second bug (1 day) -> Buy every other upgrade in like 30 minutes because bugs are fucking OP (15 days) -> Die repeatedly in the last level.
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From the gobs of Greater Orbs we'll get from this event, I also predict the age of R4 Waterja will soon dawn upon us. I know I'll have the materials for it when I'm done with it.
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Then R5 Waterja during OrbFest.
BOOM
I have the opposite feeling re SO3: I found SO3's intrigue at the beginning extremely boring (Albel, Sophia, Farleen, Welsh, a litany of terrible characters) and couldn't wait to get to the cyber spaceships 2000 part, and I was NOT disappointed when the game went completely bonkers/meta at the end.
Tri-Ace is at its best when it does its own thing instead of copying everybody else.
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FFRK: After that disappointing use of 50 mythril, I threw two of them at extra stamina today and got every character who can break the level limit up to level 50 today, excepting Red Mage, but who cares. This meant Eiko, Sabin, Edgar, Cyan, Tifa, Sazh. Red Mage is around level 40 now, and I also had an opportunity to toss Snow, WoL, and Luneth into my grinding parties to have them get their RM2s. I am now the proud owner of every available Record Materia save Red Mage's (lol) and Cyan's RM2 (meh). At least that's -something- like an achievement, unlike my Gatcha luck.
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Final Fantasy Autobattles And Ballyhoo - Spent a Mythril last night to blaze through wussy version of Rinoa's event. Just got her Memory Crystal and cap-broke her heels in order to have a third functional Black Mage in my ranks - and heck, her stats are pretty danged good for a mage type anyway. I'm also taking a sorely underlevelled Irvine (he's like L23) through the event just to see how far a RS 5* gun can take him. Right now, he's outdamaging Zantetsuken Squall. =D I'll probably take either Balthier or Sazh to the boss rush instead, though.
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Yeah Rinoa is pretty ace.
I changed my RW to ridiculously RS'd Irvine. Use him against the first mobs of the event for potentially absurd damage.
I am half tempted to egg Irvine to 65 just for this.
Edit: how can I find RWs with Advance? I really need to try that with Advance + Boost
Btw Snow, it's ok to do the 100 gem pull
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100-gem pulls are something I've been doing since Selphie+Quistis. This was the first time it -really- paid off. Also, I used a L65 Irvine with Valiant against Elite Edea 1. 15k damage, no breaks applied. That was fun.
EDIT:
Edit: how can I find RWs with Advance? I really need to try that with Advance + Boost
Boost and Advance overwrite each other. THIS SAID, you can rummage Reddit for the Friend Code spreadsheet they left available. Be warned, though: getting a supply of Advance RWs is quite difficult due to the sheer mass of people following those for Reta-meta. If you don't get a followback, expect those Luneths to fall off your list very, -very- quickly.
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Yeah the limited 100 gem pull is a sensible middleground between not paying for anything and being a fucking F2P whale. Very Kingdom of Loathing-ish. Dena is smart (and evil)
I'll roam to find some Reddit friend codes then. I didn't find that last time I checked, but must have not looked hard enough.
The bastards. How dare they waste all these Luneths to progress through the game, when I absolutely need him for Science
You sure about Advance not stacking with Boost? i heard the opposite
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From what I've heard, Boost and Advance trigger the same flag, which means they wouldn't stack. However, it's also worth noting it's very likely Advance + RS alone will ram past the current Attack soft cap.
EDIT: ALSO.
Anyway I did a 50 mithril pull.
(http://www.gifsanimes.fr/disney-gifs/disney-gifs/gontran-bonheur/gontran-bonheur-gifs-animes-9702193.gif)
I got another totally sweet 5* lightning sword, so I can either use two of them at once, or combine them to form a 6 * weapon (!) I really really don't know what to do. Life is hard guys.
I also got some 5* helm or whatever. I think it's supposed to be Dark Cecil's helm. Yeah.
I got Rinoa's special 5* weapon, which is fucking awesome but only really usable by her and Loser.
I hope we get Rinoa back real soon because she's really going to be the best. (And I don't want to use Loser much) I'm sure this won't happen until like september, unfortunately. I probably won't be playing the game anymore then.
How little did we know back then.
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FFRK:
Bucking with my traditional "Not bothering with events until the last minute in favor of progressing through story dungeons" because Story Dungeons also happen to be FFVIII, so gathering two characters, one of which could potentially become a better/my main black mage seems like the smarter thing to do right now.
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You want to grab both Rinoa and her Memory Crystal even if you're nowhere near reaching level caps. Breaking the cap is very important for long-term viability and your only alternative to Rinoa right now with an always-available MC is RYDIA, who doesn't even have 4* Black Magic as of now.
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I intended to get at least Rinoa, I'm probably beefy enough to push toward the crystal, too. Mostly what I do is fight a dungeon or two if my stamina goes up, fight an event dungeon to use excess stamina, repeat slowly over a few days.
Whereas this time, since I'm on FFVIII anyhow, I see no reason to not get as far in the event I can as early as possible.
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I'd recommend beelining straight to the MC Elite after clearing the Classic Dungeon, then, unless you feel you really need the levels/rewards that come before. I have no real sense of how strong you need to be to -clear- that dungeon, since I started reaching the L50 cap on my A-team, along with getting actual 5* relics for a full party, by the time they released the Memory Crystal mechanic and that much power is -definitely- a bit overkill for the first half of event elites. Operation Mi'hen was also one of the harder events to boot.
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Yes I am indeed hooked for life. Help.
I didn't expect the lategame to be this cool.
Also, while the game has power creep to keep players going, it also definitely has a coolness creep, as evidenced by Kefka's SB, Edgar's new drill weapon (just look at this shit: http://i.imgur.com/NLHbER2.png), and the absurdly cool Secret of Mana crossover event. The game just keeps getting cooler.
I used the reddit spreadsheet and friended 5 Luneths. AdvIrvine strat GO.
VSM: Yeah see Snow. Crystals are pretty fucking important. If you can get Rinoa's you're pretty much set for life as far as black mages go.
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Yes I am indeed hooked for life. Help.
I didn't expect the lategame to be this cool.
Also, while the game has power creep to keep players going, it also definitely has a coolness creep, as evidenced by Kefka's SB, Edgar's new drill weapon (just look at this shit: http://i.imgur.com/NLHbER2.png), and the absurdly cool Secret of Mana crossover event. The game just keeps getting cooler.
It's the weirdest thing. When we started, reaching L50 and all was thought to be lategame, but then, just when we get there, they started introducing cap-break and Record Materia mechanics. Then, it dawned that L50 actually marks the start of the -midgame-. The game really gets its gears going once your options start opening up in terms of levels, abilities and resources. And a bunch of the fights are -really- cool. At this point, even classic dungeons require a modicum of planning and forethought, which makes for rather fun mobile-based RPG gameplay. Pretty far departure from the autobattle festival the game was back in the early days.
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Final Fantasy Where Have All The Autobattles Gone - We interrupt this Rinoa reissue event to inform you I just honed Waterja to R4, bitches.
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Abyss Odyssey: Well this is a weird one.
This is sort of a roguelike but you get to keep your level between runs? I got to the final boss on the first run, but died. Then died again on a second run, but way sooner.
Art direction is: Oh my god best of any game ever. Art deco aesthetic with curves and flowers everywhere (http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2014/10/1394065021-demon-violinist-katrien-soldier.png), lovely 2.5D graphics, very imaginative enemy design.
Gameplay is : Roguelike with Smash Brothers Style fighting game mechanics. I happen to not like those very much and find the game super messy as a result. Characters aren't very responsive and you never quite feel totally in control. Would have rather liked they'd stick to Castlevania fighting.
You can make enemies join you, it's a pretty complicated process and you end up with a moveset you know nothing about and die super fast.
I don't quite get a roguelike in which I feel I'm doing poorly and still almost reach the end of my first playthrough, then get several rewards for the next playthrough upon dying.
It's, uh, at least going to be an interesting 4-5 hours to finish the game.
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Goddamn it. Goddamn it goddamn it goddamn it.
Back on the wagon until the japanese ff6 event ends. Unfortunately since I haven't been playing for months I probably am not high enough level to get any memory crystals, but I should be able to get Kefka at least.
A drill would be cool too.
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FFRK - Uh. Spend $1 on FFRK, expecting 3* or 4* stuff. Get 5* Rising Sun. Cue joy... But now I have two FF8-flavored 5* Thrown Weapons.
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FFRK - Uh. Spend $1 on FFRK, expecting 3* or 4* stuff. Get 5* Rising Sun. Cue joy... But now I have two FF8-flavored 5* Thrown Weapons.
Cool you now have +1 magic and nothing else of value
Goddamn it. Goddamn it goddamn it goddamn it.
Back on the wagon until the japanese ff6 event ends. Unfortunately since I haven't been playing for months I probably am not high enough level to get any memory crystals, but I should be able to get Kefka at least.
A drill would be cool too.
srry
RK: AdvIrvine did 35k to Elite Edea 1 with no further buffs/debuffs. Sweet!
Boost does stack with Advance, which might be useful in non-FF8 dungeons. Boost -> Armor Breakdown -> Advance -> PEW PEW PEW PEW
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You're making it sound like Irvine is an actually competent offense PC. Never stop.
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The game gods aren't funny.
I have three 5 star ff8 weapons and a 5 star body piece too.
Ugh.
At least that will help make this event easier.
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Yeah Selphie has 407 Mind stat with synergy. Diaga bitches.
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You can make enemies join you, it's a pretty complicated process and you end up with a moveset you know nothing about and die super fast.
Try recruiting a cow. Cows are broke tier.
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Abyss Odyssey: Well this is a weird one.
This is sort of a roguelike but you get to keep your level between runs? I got to the final boss on the first run, but died. Then died again on a second run, but way sooner.
Art direction is: Oh my god best of any game ever. Art deco aesthetic with curves and flowers everywhere (http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2014/10/1394065021-demon-violinist-katrien-soldier.png), lovely 2.5D graphics, very imaginative enemy design.
Gameplay is : Roguelike with Smash Brothers Style fighting game mechanics. I happen to not like those very much and find the game super messy as a result. Characters aren't very responsive and you never quite feel totally in control. Would have rather liked they'd stick to Castlevania fighting.
You can make enemies join you, it's a pretty complicated process and you end up with a moveset you know nothing about and die super fast.
I don't quite get a roguelike in which I feel I'm doing poorly and still almost reach the end of my first playthrough, then get several rewards for the next playthrough upon dying.
It's, uh, at least going to be an interesting 4-5 hours to finish the game.
You made it sound awesome and then terrible.
FFTypo - I just realised that Cinque +Jack are Tiffany and Kevin from Daria in personality and line delivery. They are probably a better couple than Brittany and Keven were. Other characters from other sources are Queen is Quistis, Machina is generic anime rival (he is Seifer without the homo-eroticism and he is more being played than being a pile of stupid. DUAL WIELDZ though!). King is generic older bro who rocks a fucking killer mullet and uses akimbo Magnums, so he is pretty rad.
Edit - Oh and I forgot the obvious Seven is Payne. Payne works well in a better game.
Edit - Also got Trey's summer outfit
(http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140621220733/finalfantasy/images/f/ff/Trey-type0-psp-model-summer.png)
I love how because he wears a long sleeve shirt they want to balance out the Shooting Glove he has on one hand they give him an elbow length glove on the other hand. It doesn't work. He looks like a really bad MJ impersonator instead of someone that wants to be MJ. It probably could have just been a bracer or something instead of a glove that makes him look like he washes dishes (with style).
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Cinque is unequivocally the best thing about FFType0.
FFRK: huh. Didn't realize that Beatrix was actually three fights worth of rewards. I just looked at the first one, thought "meh don't really care" and decided not to bother with the EX++ fight this time. Then I had some extra stamina to blow and found out that now I have roughly a day to beat her twice more, each time more difficult and costing more stamina. Great.
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Best part about Cinque is scratching her ass during her win pose.
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FF why not just do opium instead - So the game gives you a nice welcome back package, something like 20 mythril and some upgrade materials. Neat.
Got the ff6 characters up to Kefka and stalled on him just like Seifer's fight. Gonna focus on getting the ff6 folks levelled before next Thursday when the event ends so I can get Kefka and everyone's memory crystals. With the right roaming summon I may be able to luck my way out before people reach 50 but yeah. What day is exp day? Sunday right?
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You're making it sound like Irvine is an actually competent offense PC. Never stop.
Oh shit did you see Irvine intimidate a T-Rex?? Irvine is badass man
His stats are actually pretty standard compared to the other supports. (Red 13 is far ahead, but front row only) Irvine actually has one of the least rare weapon types among other supporters, who use pins, bows, whips, and water polo balls. (Plus later on: Cards, hand cannons, harps)
FFTypo - I just realised that Cinque +Jack are Tiffany and Kevin from Daria in personality and line delivery. They are probably a better couple than Brittany and Keven were. Other characters from other sources are Queen is Quistis, Machina is generic anime rival (he is Seifer without the homo-eroticism and he is more being played than being a pile of stupid. DUAL WIELDZ though!). King is generic older bro who rocks a fucking killer mullet and uses akimbo Magnums, so he is pretty rad.
Edit - Oh and I forgot the obvious Seven is Payne. Payne works well in a better game.
I thought that Machina was the pseudo main character you're supposed to identify with because he's the new guy in town
And that 7 was Lightning
Edit - Also got Trey's summer outfit
(http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140621220733/finalfantasy/images/f/ff/Trey-type0-psp-model-summer.png)
I love how because he wears a long sleeve shirt they want to balance out the Shooting Glove he has on one hand they give him an elbow length glove on the other hand. It doesn't work. He looks like a really bad MJ impersonator instead of someone that wants to be MJ. It probably could have just been a bracer or something instead of a glove that makes him look like he washes dishes (with style).
What's with the half bra /giant eyepatch that only covers one breast and is worn over clothes
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Looks like pretty standard, if light, archer armour. Which fits with his archer glove.
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Abyss Odyssey: Well this is a weird one.
This is sort of a roguelike but you get to keep your level between runs? I got to the final boss on the first run, but died. Then died again on a second run, but way sooner.
Art direction is: Oh my god best of any game ever. Art deco aesthetic with curves and flowers everywhere (http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2014/10/1394065021-demon-violinist-katrien-soldier.png), lovely 2.5D graphics, very imaginative enemy design.
Gameplay is : Roguelike with Smash Brothers Style fighting game mechanics. I happen to not like those very much and find the game super messy as a result. Characters aren't very responsive and you never quite feel totally in control. Would have rather liked they'd stick to Castlevania fighting.
You can make enemies join you, it's a pretty complicated process and you end up with a moveset you know nothing about and die super fast.
I don't quite get a roguelike in which I feel I'm doing poorly and still almost reach the end of my first playthrough, then get several rewards for the next playthrough upon dying.
It's, uh, at least going to be an interesting 4-5 hours to finish the game.
You made it sound awesome and then terrible.
I don't regret the purchase at least because you don't ever see design as classy as this in games. I love the devil playing the violin.
The only ther art deco games I can think is Unlimited SaGa.
Romancing SaGa 1-3's art is art deco but this doesn't translate to in-game.
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Final Fantasy Why Can't I Autobattle You - Finished the main course on Rinoa's reissue, answering the timeless question of whether can Seifer punish a L33 Irvine with a synergy 5* gun for his insolence. Answer: not really. Finished it just in time for black power farming to boot, which is nice - I have -ra Strikes to R5, after all. Rinoa's event was also kind enough to hand me a bunch of Black Orbs as well, so I've been rocking both R5 Comet and Biora since yesterday. Maybe Golbez event won't be so bad.
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motherfucker fine if this thing is gonna prey on my obsessive compulsion i am gonna make this work for me
immediately before exercising farm events (JP currently has a somewhat neat Secret of Mana event where you can get a bunch of orbs and a few accessories), on free time maximize timebux regen and mithril acquisition, run errands during downtime. farm orb day before making dinner. more playing during dinner.
maybe i'll even wake up to exercise before work because I'll probably wake up at 5:30 anyway to not waste timebux
oh i guess i did some stuff in game too. who cares the early game isn't really that interesting, will open up when I get people hitting the level cap and record materia it sounds like
edit: does global have Quests yet? I unlocked a bunch of characters through that even though their events aren't running. Kinda not useful where you guys are at since it looks like you can't unlock level crystals that way. Also it looks like the level cap isn't 65 anymore? I've seen a lot of level 70+ randos running around.
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Quests have been a thing on Global for a while now. 2nd Memory Crystals will be a thing on Global once the Cloud/Barret event lands, which should be about a month from now on Global. Obviously, it's been a thing for a while in JP.
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@Zenny: EXP day is indeed Sunday. Global has Quests, though obviously not all of the ones available in JPN yet. It has Tidus, Lenna, Cecil, and... someone else I forget who. More on the way presumably. From what I know of the JPN version, the level cap can be broken twice, once at 50, then again at 65, maxing out at 80. Only a handful or two of PCs can reach level 80 at the moment. The associated Record Materias for the level 80s are badass.
Good to know you're using the game to your advantage. Any excuse to work out more is a good one, even if timebux is evil.
Speaking of evil,
FF1: God, even with the updates to the mobile version, this game is just clunky as hell. I like older games, but I think my patience for NES-era bullshit is just -gone-. Nice nostalgia trip, and I'm catching lots of callbacks that other FF games made to this one that I never caught before. (The Lukahn prophecy gets brought up a lot in other games it seems, for example.)
FFRK: Plinking away at Rinoa event to avoid wasting stamina. Now that I'm on the train though, the time has come to take on that Beatrix fight. *rolls up sleeves*
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I'll probably wake up at 5:30 anyway to not waste timebux
Zenny if you're atually serious do not do this
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I will not know how serious I am until tomorrow morning.
Edit: Though for real I've been trying to get up with enough time to work out and meditate prior to work for a while now, and failing. I have to wonder if I can't use this to get that going (of course going to bed earlier to compensate).
If I'm going to be playing this abberation anyway I should at least get something out of it.
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Fenrir changed his FFRK Roaming Warrior to Irvine. An entire age has come to its end.
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I might put Lenna back in later after the event
Because while nobody cares about Lenna, even less people care about Irvine
And she's still useful on like sunday,s when you don't want to S/L like mad just because your underleveled core got hit by Sap
Today is tuesday, which means black orb day FF4 materia day. I'm only missing Rydia's.
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Speaking of black power, I've been getting a disproportional amount of Power Orbs today. Not that it terribly -matters-, since I have no real intention of honing anything else until I've replenished my gil after honing Biora, Comet and Waterja. Then, we're also getting the Soul Break Celebration event late in the week. This feels like a busy time in the game.
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Got waterja to r3. This will help a lot.
also...
I HAVE THE BLACK POWAAAAAAAAAH
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Does anyone have Odin? I need to know if Seifer no-sells it like he does in FF8
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Almost nobody has Odin, crafting 5*s is a pain in the ass.
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Can farm Major NE orbs from Beatrix. It is awesome but I jumped on this train way too late.
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Also this is disc 1 Seifer, disc 3 is where he gets the Zantetsuken counter.
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Did a 50 mythril pull. Buncha 3* armors, two 5* rods and Mog's Holy Lance, bringing my 5* weapon count up to 4. I don't have Mog, and he's locked behind a 60 stamina dungeon, but I'll probably get him sometime tonight. If I pump him and Kefka full of eggs that should get me Terra and Kefka's crystals, and I can stop caring about the FF6 event and focus on farming the Secret of Mana event for its store.
Unless I get a character specific weapon again before the event ends, it looks like my party will be Mog/Terra/Kefka/Cloud/Rydia just due to what 5* weapons I have. I may switch Rydia out for Quistis since they'll both be level capped at 50 for the time being, and where I'm at in the game there's no appreciable difference between Mag5 and Mag4... but I don't really want to have to blow XP eggs on her when I'm gonna need to beef up Mog and Kefka. Will have to get a real healer at some point but Terra will suffice for now.
Still can't get Mastery on the middle-tier farming zones so that's useless to me for now. Too bad, a few more Mid-tier thunder orbs today would get me Thundaga. Oh well.
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If I pump [Mog] and Kefka full of eggs...
it begins
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Final Fantasy Autobattling For Pearls - Today is 100% gil farming day. Oh well. Rinoa boss rush should also be due tonight, which is likely to bring some tears and raging.
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If I pump [Mog] and Kefka full of eggs...
look at me i know too much please infect me with ur seed zenny
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If I pump [Mog] and Kefka full of eggs...
look at me i know too much please infect me with ur seed zenny
on a scale of 1-10 i don't know how many grefter dicks i would need to suck if he was a mutant with enough dicks to satisfy me
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If I pump [Mog] and Kefka full of eggs...
look at me i know too much please infect me with ur seed zenny
on a scale of 1-10 i don't know how many grefter dicks i would need to suck if he was a mutant with enough dicks to satisfy me
12
EDIT: just one more autobattle you know im good for it:This doesn't deserve a new post but there is something endlessly entertaining to me about Terra transforming into Kefka just so she can disco breakdance
i want kefka's sb weapon dammit
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FFTypo - Deuce got Accelerate between now and when I last used her. That is the move that lets you just move around faster. I think she might be the most broken character now. She can chip pretty much anything to death and keep just out of range by walking backwards in a big arcing circle. The number of enemies she easily gets Killsights on enemies when no longer having to stop playing/attacking to dodge is kind of crazy. Before her slow homing things were pretty much a crap shoot if you would have been playing 10 seconds earlier needed to hit a thing. Now you just have a constant stream that will eventually get there and do the job. Kind of nuts.
Edit - She is the kind of character that would be great fun to play even earlier when she was slow in a proper multiplayer game like this instead of one where Player character? I think you mean Target For All Enemies.
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FFRK: Mastered Eiko boss rush. Had to spend a mythril on Zorn and Thorn cause I had no resources left.
Beatrix 1: Mastered, no Red 13
Beatrix 2: Mastered, with Red 13
Beatrix 3: Had no Red 13, she killed Steiner with her very last hit before she died, costing me 7 stars. Second try with Red 13 I got mastery.
She's basically a luck-based fight. If she Counter Shocks too many times at the beginning of the battle before damage mitigation is up you're screwed. With damage mitigation she's easy enough. Of course Retaliate makes Counter Shock less of a problem but I don't use it. Draw Fire on Steiner helps a bit, but it only catches her normal attacks and Thunder Strike. Shock and Counter Shock ignore it.
Gonna fight her a couple more times today to see if I can get a GNEO off of her. Plus she drops mad gil.
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Seifer beat.
Seemed like a pretty easy event.
I guess boss rush will be harder?
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Not all that much, the first fight is only trash mobs and you can Sleep Seifer. The EX++ fight should be a doozy, though: Seifer, Raijin and Fujin all at once and Fujin has both MT and Sai. Oh, and you can only afford to lose two medals. Hope you're following people with the Sheepskin Coat RW.
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But I have her chakram!
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Because i like being unreasonable I did another 11 pull on Rinoa's banner. Got a second Zantetsuken and two Sheepskin coats. I'll take it!
Not going to put it as my RW because I don't want you to gameplayskip this cool fight! Not worth it!
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What is this Sheepskin coat thing?
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It is Irvine's cowboy coat so everybody fucking loves it.
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The coat's sb is MT 50% sleep, which works on the entire disciplinary committee. Hence the high demand for it for the upcoming ++ battle.
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3rd even 11 relic pull:
Still no 5 stars. Worse, I don't think I'm even going to use any of these 4 star items. I guess I have.... building materials and/or synergy alternates? ....kinda?
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Not going to put it as my RW because I don't want you to gameplayskip this cool fight! Not worth it!
What the fuck, nevermind they are 100% unmasterable without Sheepskin RW (Or Angel Quake perhaps)
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Devil Survivor 2: Day 6. Still enjoying myself.
After the extremely dumb attempted fanservice of Day 4, Day 5's Kama / Shiva plotline was considerably funnier and better done. A pleasant surprise there. The whole Sapporo plotline was strange and slightly botched... hey guys you have to do this ludicrously evil action that will destroy a city!!1! But wait nobody will actually die because of the completely unbelievable reason that they're all already dead (and you are somehow able to guess this?!)! I was hoping this would be just bullshit made up to make us feel better about killing them, but nah, seems it was actually true. I'd have just set it up so that we tried to destroy an empty patch of ground if I was the scriptwriter, but I guess that'd be less dramatic or something.
Also there's things like rail tunnels in-between cities, and it's possible to calculate flight times between Tokyo & Sapporo, but wasn't the void devouring everything not protected by a barrier? Is the void starting on cities but leaving the countryside untouched or something?! Since travel-through-void is presumably harder to track or time.... Yeah never mind that's clearly thinking too hard about this.
Day 5 boss was erratic - if you don't realize how the Neurotoxin works he will utterly slaughter your teams effortlessly from extreme range off great speed, but once it's negated he totally has a glass jaw and dies really fast. Okay.
The game tries to make something of a PLOT TWIST revelation out of the fact that JPs, the secret governmental organization in charge of defense against the supernatural, has a giant magic circle in the basement of the equivalent of City Hall. Okay that location is mildly surprising (in that it's stupid, pick a basement in the middle of nowhere), but the fact one exists is about as shocking as finding out the military has a tank in its armory. It's not like the circle is being powered by human sacrifice or something. Sheesh.
The Law/Chaos ideologies are more compelling and believable than in your average SMT game, which is a very low bar to clear. On that note. Why is it the 15-year old tsundere who gets to treat the Chaos ideology with the respect and seriousness it deserves. Which is along the lines of "This is crazy. And stupid. Stop being stupid."
Yamato, Anguished One, and to a lesser extent Ronaldo cannot shut up about how awesome I am, and it's often hard to tell them they're being creepy. Grah. SMT really embraces the "you are a fanfic self-insert character."
In the realm of linking to better games, an interesting comment from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTVBSxnwiCo
, a retrospective on Deus Ex from Warren Spector, was that JC Denton comes off as really callous partially because the developers could never be sure if the player would actually do any random sidequest / request / etc. So you'll have somebody giving a sob story about their daughter being kidnapped and Denton will go all "I'll think about it" as far as helping. Anyway since I've named Our Hero JC Denton in Devil Survivor 2, I wish he was able to brusquely dismiss a lot more of this nonsense while keeping his options open, but that is usually either impossible or means less friendship fate points, so. Being blandly nice to everyone it is.
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FFRK - Terra and Edgar's crystals get. . . . barely. I didn't bother reading Magic Master's description well enough so went in with 3 mages with all elemental attacks. Whoops. Got reaaaaally lucky with hitting his weakness a few times and then chipping him down with Mog and Cloud. Only Mog and Terra were alive by the end, really pulled that one out of my ass. Not gonna try for Kefka's yet until I can craft Shellga. I may try to go back for the mastery on Magic Master after I get that, though I think the rewards for that probably aren't worth the timebux that could be spent mining mythril for another 2-3 11 pulls before the event ends.
Is anyone out there documenting the JP version stuff in English for when those events come out in Global? I doubt it, but it'd be nice to have. Kinda wish I could just play the Global version so I'd be on the same page as everyone else, but on the other hand breakdancing Kefka.
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There is an extensive community on Reddit documenting the JPN version for Global in English. It is notable that the events don't necessarily come out in the same order though.
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Not going to put it as my RW because I don't want you to gameplayskip this cool fight! Not worth it!
What the fuck, nevermind they are 100% unmasterable without Sheepskin RW (Or Angel Quake perhaps)
Yep! I tried, lost three medals. At least, the fight is pretty fun anyway! It was entertaining scrambling to keep at least both Seifer and Fujin asleep and MT really does undermine their durability. Faith'd Vivi was dealing nearly 9k to the committee. =D Angel Wing Quake doesn't really work because only Shellga and Protectga are -not- enough mitigation and they resist breaks. One non-fully mitigated MT from both Seifer and Fujin = instant one-medal on damage taken.
EDIT: And thanks to Fenny's Sheepskin Coat Irvine, I mastered the fight. Yummy Major NE Orbs and Growth Eggs for all. I also finished all of this update's Elite dungeons in the meantime. Ronka Ruins 2 was a lot less problematic than I thought it'd be. Now, all I'll ever do is farm Greater Orbs until the new Soul Breakfast event kicks in tonight.
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Aaaand I managed to get mastery with your Lunatic High RW. Awwww.
It's probably the second best RW for this event (tied with Boon)
Even with the best RW (Sheepskin), you actually need good mage gear and/or hones, and if you use it, welcome to S/L city, population: You.
Anyway this whole thing took so many tries and party tinkering. I think I spent more than 100 timebux on it.
My final team was:
Rinoa lvl 50, Quake R3 Biora R5
Yuna lvl 65, Valefor R1 Slowga R2
Irvine lvl 53, Sleep buster R3, Power Breakdown R2
Selphie lvl 55, Shellga R2 Diaga R3
Squall lvl 65, Mental Break R5 Armor Break R5
My first priority was mitigation, then putting Fujin to sleep, then putting Seifer to sleep, while largely applying Slow too and focusing damage on Raijin. Reapplying mitigation before it runs out was important because you do not want to spend one second not Protect'd/Shell'd.
The fight becomes much easier with just Fujin and Seifer left, because you can keep both either slowed or asleep easily. Hastega helps, immensely.
I also finished the fight with Fast Ammo because it's super badass.
Strangely enough, Raijin is maybe the least dangerous guy here but it was best to take him out first? That's because keeping all three asleep is difficult, so he became my lowest priority as far as applying sleep goes; and thus he was never asleep and became the biggest source of damage, hence he needed to die first. Does it make any sense. Also Squall could stab his ass without waking him up.
Valefor R1 on Yuna barely helped, and even R2 would have been mehish, I definitely should have gone with Faith instead.
This should go without saying but Quake fucking rules this battle, and Faith'd Quakes would have been uber.
The boss rush was moderately difficult too because you don't get ether refills!
The good news is that the first fight is against randoms, the bad news is that they like to do 2k damage and you want to save your Quakes for the next fight. Squall with R5 breaks saved the day here by not giving a fuck about resources.
I went with Boon RW and used it against the lizard things + Edea, not Seifer. I highly recommend this because fuck these lizards.
One obvious thing I completely didn't realize about learning SBs is that I can equip Danjuro on Irvine in FF12 dungeons and he'll still be able to use Fast Ammo with it (How? Irvine is amazing) and do big synergy'd damage.
Perfect for AdvIrvine prostrats!! Now I just need to find a gun / dagger for every realm and I'm all set!!
Also I just fought a FF4 dragon, here's how it went down:
- Lightning hits him with Thundera strike
- The dragon absorbs lightning, and gets healed for 2500 HP
- Then the dragon promptly dies
It took me some time to figure out what the hell happened
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Final Fantasy Autobattle Everybody Wants - Farming Greater Black Orbs against Elite Airship Ultros because I'm miserable. For some reason, he can also drop 2* Whips from FF4. But I never talked about the boss rush, so yeah:
The boss rush replicates more or less the last stages of the old Rinoa event, which was sorta grossly overtuned and caused various nightmares for the players back in the day. Since there were a lot less abilities around (old-style dailies in which even 3* orbs were rare, a lot less abilities in general available - I'm not sure if breaks were even released back then - and lack of Roaming Warriors) -and- the event was released earlier than expected, colliding with Celes' event and getting in the way of Flan farming for XP, for instance, the event became a bit of a sour note for the community at the time.
The reissue sorta feels like it was tailored exactly for cathartic revenge measures, and it particularly shows in the Parade Float boss rush itself: in spite of okay HP (165k for Seifer and 187k for Edea), they really can't stand up very well against those players who stuck around post-Rinoa event and kept climbing the game's power creep ladder as it went on. Hell, the first stage of the boss rush is a wave of -trash mobs-, for starters. Seifer, besides having awful Res, is vulnerable to both Slow and Sleep -and- weak to Poison-element, which can utterly cripple his fight. Edea in particular has pretty miserable non-HP durability stats, ESPECIALLY her two-digit defense, and so many moves with no AI priority attached that she will act in wildly erratic manners (why yes use Dispel on my party -before- my Shellga resolves. Why yes -finally- counter dispel Shellga when I'm two mage actions away from finishing you off. And then cast Dispel YET AGAIN). The biggest threat in the rush is pretty much the Iguions, which are frail and weak to Earth, but can petrify people at low odds with their Magma Breath, so you -do- want them to fall quickly. Everything else borders on perfunctory. I didn't even have to enter and flee stages for ability-healing abuse in a boss rush that does -not- give you guaranteed Ether Drops. I think this is all that needs said.
EDIT: This said, if you like people writhing in despair on the internet, drop by the myriad reddit threads where players are banging their heads against the wall over the Interdisciplinary Committee battle. Some people are having Rinoa event 1 flashbacks all over again.
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Aaaand I managed to get mastery with your Lunatic High RW. Awwww.
People help the people. =D
Even with the best RW (Sheepskin), you actually need good mage gear and/or hones, and if you use it, welcome to S/L city, population: You.
To a degree, yes. My mastery setup involved Selphie with Diaga and Sleep so I could scramble sleep procs if someone I didn't want was awake. Trying to get all of them to sleep on the -first- try is an exercise in frustration, but sleeping two at first and then landing it on the remaining one isn't nearly as bad. This was the first boss fight where I -really- appreciated summons outside trash sweeping, Faith'd R2 Ifrit and Valefor alone shaved off about 40% of the overall fight's HP. Just R3 Quake wouldn't have cut it, but I agree that, if you have less than four 3* (preferrably higher) summon charges for a single PC, don't even bother with them this fight. High-end MT is how you perform here, no ifs and buts. Also, Faith ruled the fight so damn much, totally worth bringing Rinoa with Biora/Faith for this. And just the four charges I have were all I needed.
Also I just fought a FF4 dragon, here's how it went down:
- Lightning hits him with Thundera strike
- The dragon absorbs lightning, and gets healed for 2500 HP
- Then the dragon promptly dies
It took me some time to figure out what the hell happened
I'm Zantetsukenning, they hatin'
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Devil Survivor - Finished the Amane / King of Saints ending. The final boss was an enormous asshole, last form was super obnoxious, but after resetting, setting up the physical character again with Pierce and Deathbound (thank god the game auto-levels PCs), and coming back with the Dances rather than the -dyne series because there is only one enemy in most of the fights, I kicked his ass instead of getting thrashed. The MC was the MVP of the final battle overall, but Atsuro did most of the damage to the final form.
Pretty interesting game, I like that it gives you information about weaknesses and stuff, but it's a little too random for an SRPG for my personal taste. A lot of the strategy that you form can be pretty wrecked by things which I can't seem to figure out how to predict, like who goes first in a matchup and obviously moves such as Dual Shadow, as well as criticals giving enemies extra turns. Will I try DS2? Maybe, especially since Snowfire seems to be enjoying it, but I think I'm done with SMT for a little while for now, although the added 8th day is temping.
MC's headphones are so derpy looking and all the other characters are bad and dumb. Except Midori, who is dumb and amazing.
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Aaaand I managed to get mastery with your Lunatic High RW. Awwww.
People help the people. =D
Even with the best RW (Sheepskin), you actually need good mage gear and/or hones, and if you use it, welcome to S/L city, population: You.
To a degree, yes. My mastery setup involved Selphie with Diaga and Sleep so I could scramble sleep procs if someone I didn't want was awake. Trying to get all of them to sleep on the -first- try is an exercise in frustration, but sleeping two at first and then landing it on the remaining one isn't nearly as bad. This was the first boss fight where I -really- appreciated summons outside trash sweeping, Faith'd R2 Ifrit and Valefor alone shaved off about 40% of the overall fight's HP. Just R3 Quake wouldn't have cut it, but I agree that, if you have less than four 3* (preferrably higher) summon charges for a single PC, don't even bother with them this fight. High-end MT is how you perform here, no ifs and buts. Also, Faith ruled the fight so damn much, totally worth bringing Rinoa with Biora/Faith for this. And just the four charges I have were all I needed.
Summons did that much? I honed Shiva to R2 for that fight, it did 3000 damage, I couldn't roll my eyes any more. Granted I didn't give her that Flail ++ for higher magic.
I managed to beat the fight with MT only doing about 50% of the overall damage, but I was always keeping the bad guys under slow/sleep and the good guys under haste so....
Is Sleep decent compared to Sleep Busting? I saw that it was a 1star spell and moved on.
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Sleep doesn't break enemies out of sleep like Sleep Buster does and the status has the same 30% rate as the Buster, so it's better for when you want to keep a status lock. I honed it to R5, no regrets, since it's so unintrusive to hone and has situational uses over its physical counterpart.
EDIT: Regarding summon damage, do keep in mind that I -did- bring Faith to the committee fight. Summon magic definitely benefits a lot from a buffing setup, since you get more bang for your buck. I put my Flail++ on Vivi, Garnet rocked an Empyrean Rod, but she also had Devotion. Also, 3* summons have a slightly lower mult than Quake (5.5 vs. 5.6), while 4* hover significantly higher (ranging from 8.8x to 9.6x), so, depending on your setup and hones, you can rock lower-grade mage equips with them. Valefor at least is worth honing, since it's a lot cheaper on 4* Orbs and Major Wind Orbs are used for roughly zero relevant future metagame skills unless you feel like whaling for Quick Hit.
EDIT2: Welp, just checked and seems like I -do- have enough Major Orbs to craft Meteor. I also have enough to craft Flare, but like hell I'm going to bother with that.
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Final Fantasy A Long-Forgotten Autobattle - So, I'm almost done with the first phase of the Soul Break Bonanza event. I'd just like to interrupt this to show the results of my last 11-pull.
(http://i.imgur.com/oPDNI8u.jpg)
So yeah. I complained for so long over lacking actual armor variety in 5* flavor and the game deigns me an Edincoat, an Adamant Bangle and a Viking Coat - i.e. one of the highest-stat bangles in the game, an attack bangle and a Light Armor. Also ANOTHER Emerald Shield, but whatever I guess it's decent for FFX synergy. I don't even need a hat anymore. I don't think I'm even bothering pulling again until the Golbez event, this covers my bases so damned well. God yeah.
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FFRK: Haven't done Seifer's EX battles yet. Thanks for the strategies. I will definitely be cheesing with Fenrir's Irvine if he'll show up on my rotation.
Did a few pulls on the new banner. Got a Five-Star! Yay! ...it's a sword. Again. It's the Zantetsuken in fact, so yay, I have another 6* weapon? At least I don't have the conundrum of "should I hold off on combining it?" because holy fuck I can think of zero instances where I'm going to need ANOTHER 5* sword...
Dear RNJesus, please give me a 5* mage weapon... >.>;; Or Snow's luck.
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FFRK: Hate you so much Snow. Did an 11 pull, got more 3 star crap and some 4 star stuff I don't want(ANOTHER dagger and ANOTHER axe. <_> ) I have enough for one more, but gonna wait for another banner.
Also, for Snow and Fenny, what are your freind codes? I missed them earlier in the topic. Mine is eRuA if an Edgar bioblaster is useful to you at all.
Anyway, managed to barely clear the Heroic+ event in the Forbidden Treasure bit. I don't grind much, so I only have like r3 Thundaga and such to slug with. More pressing was my lack of MT healing aside from a friend summon Triabia's Light.
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That's fucking bullshit. That is a pirate's coat, not anything close to Viking related.
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The only MT healing in the game is Soul Breaks and Kirin...
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Final Fantasy A Long-Forgotten Autobattle - So, I'm almost done with the first phase of the Soul Break Bonanza event. I'd just like to interrupt this to show the results of my last 11-pull.
*snip*
So yeah. I complained for so long over lacking actual armor variety in 5* flavor and the game deigns me an Edincoat, an Adamant Bangle and a Viking Coat - i.e. one of the highest-stat bangles in the game, an attack bangle and a Light Armor. Also ANOTHER Emerald Shield, but whatever I guess it's decent for FFX synergy. I don't even need a hat anymore. I don't think I'm even bothering pulling again until the Golbez event, this covers my bases so damned well. God yeah.
Geez, Jo'ou. Stop making me want to throw high gobs of money at this game. You're making me want to go back to Target for a $100 Gift Card for this.
FFRK - I was unable to Master the stage, but I got Cloud's Memory Crystal. Steps in the right direction!
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Also, for Snow and Fenny, what are your freind codes? I missed them earlier in the topic. Mine is eRuA if an Edgar bioblaster is useful to you at all.
Mine is Q1ne. I've been following you for a while! Bioblaster is a cool SB, one of my favorites for farming.
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My friend did a 3 item pull and got Leon's armor, the ff9 black robe and the 4 star cowboy hat.
I cursed and congratulated his good luck.
Frankly I'm scared to draw. My luck I get quistis' gawd dsmn whip...
Giving me two relic whips.
No.
No game. Not today.
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Another 11 pull because I am getting showered in mythril for some reason. Some JP campaign gave me like 15 over the last two days.
White Robe and Black Clothes 4* armor, neat. That's my second White Robe.
3 more 5*s. 2 Crystal Mails and a Assassin's Dagger. I guess the mail is cool, especially since I can potentially make that 6*? Was hoping for a weapon that was not a dagger, but oh well. They just added a sword for Celes which has an SB that restores your charges, so that'd be cool.
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Another 11 pull because I am getting showered in my ... White Mails and a ... Dagger.
ED.
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FFRK: Add me to the list of people having fits over the Disciplinary jerks. Even using the Sheepskin cheese and blowing a mythril for the offensive boost, I -still- lost 4 medals and missed the fucking mastery. God that was like 4 hours of planning and preparation time, not including the half-hour spent on the battle, all to get the consolation prize...
I even have an R4 Quake, what the fuck. Dammit game, give me a fucking mage weapon... I had near-full health when I finally beat them, but apparently I just took too fucking long (Also I ran out of charges and had to staff-whack Seifer's last 8th of a health bar...) Guess I can hone Biora some more before the event ends, but dammit I have other things to be throwing my stamina at, game! I want those fucking Major NE Orbs though... >.>;;
Guess the mage meta is here and the RNG just isn't gonna cooperate for me. *Grumble* I'd even take a whip at this point.
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Calling it now: Next 11 pull, I get 2 more mage weapons. That would make me equally as happy as getting something I actually need/want.
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Update! Did a 15 mithril pull and I finally got my second character specific weapon! Yuna's lullaby rod and then I got a 2nd viking coat which when combined will make my 1st 6 Star item.
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Calling it now: Next 11 pull, I get 2 more mage weapons. That would make me equally as happy as getting something I actually need/want.
Update! Did a 15 mithril pull and I finally got my second character specific weapon! Yuna's lullaby rod and then I got a 2nd viking coat which when combined will make my 1st 6 Star item.
I hate you both so much right now...
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3 more 5*s. 2 Crystal Mails and a Assassin's Dagger. I guess the mail is cool, especially since I can potentially make that 6*? Was hoping for a weapon that was not a dagger, but oh well. They just added a sword for Celes which has an SB that restores your charges, so that'd be cool.
Daggers are so fucking good, I'm not even kidding. A weapon type that everybody can use is -hugely- valuable when you need to shuffle teams around, and a bunch of them aren't even -that- low in the attack scale. Since there's so much roster swapping and many PCs specialize in esoteric weapon types, just having something that won't disappoint you when you equip on whoever goes a long way. Keepsake Knife and Danjuro were huge quality of life improvements in my general equipment draw, moreso than a lot of character-specific SB weapons could be.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/FFRecordKeeper/comments/3jhrrt/japan_orb_conversion_ability_dismantling_update/
This looks super helpful.
Yunas Mt heal does around 1600 recovery. Kind of a letdown, but the regen effect is nice.
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The real perk is the high regen, yeah. I was honestly sorta disappointed by the Mag on it, Garnet's Storm Staff and I think even the Magistral Rod do better, and I want a mage weapon with higher Mag. Oh well.
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Come for the Final Fantasy fanservice, stay to watch Djinn's misery.
Gate I just added you this morning.
Somehow I got less $$$ from having a Sleeping Gas Irvine yesterday (THE RW everybody wanted) than I usually do every day with a Full Revive Lenna. Whatever.
Allright in this event. I'm going to spend my tablets like this : 4/0/2/0/4.
My reasoning is: XP Eggs = Fuck yes. $$$ = Yes. Upgrade materials = Fuck no.
Incidentally I spent all these eggs I just got on cores (Dragoon, Ninja, Knight, Gladiator, and Kimahri) and now literally all the cores in the game are at least level 50. (Bard is 52) The best decision. Waiting for CoreMeta.
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FFRK: Misery train stops here. Well, brief stop. I finally mastered the Disciplinary squad's fight with YOLO mage strats despite not having a single 5* stick to my name. Mage Meta so good even Djinn can do it! (with help from Fenrir's RW, thanks.)
YOLO Mage strats being: egg all Mages up to 60+, no healing, no mitigation, ALL offense + Selphie with Faith, Stop/Load until MT Sleep hits everything twice. Then somehow dodge Raijin's physicals 4 out of 5 times for the last few Bioras.
Notably, Fenrir, Sleep lasts longer if you attach it to a high-MND character like Selphie instead of Irvine. That -could- be why no one besides us summoned you...
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Final Fantasy It's The End Of Autobattle As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) - Farming Dark Orbs, mostly. A run to the upmat dungeon got me to max the Viking Coat, which was all I needed. Also, my planned distribution on tablets: 3 on day 1, 3 on day 3 and all the rest on day 5. Upmats just aren't worth tossing Tablets at. For what I did with my haul, I mostly cap-broke a bunch of random people: Luneth, Snow, Cyan, Sabin, Rydia, Loserface. Should cap Irvine, Pecil and Kimihari on the last phase. Maybe Arc and one of the FF2 losers like Gordon. Oh yeah: I also spent a few Mythril to get my inventory to 200 slots.
EDIT: I like how Fenrir bunched Kimahri with the cores.
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3 more 5*s. 2 Crystal Mails and a Assassin's Dagger. I guess the mail is cool, especially since I can potentially make that 6*? Was hoping for a weapon that was not a dagger, but oh well. They just added a sword for Celes which has an SB that restores your charges, so that'd be cool.
Daggers are so fucking good, I'm not even kidding. A weapon type that everybody can use is -hugely- valuable when you need to shuffle teams around, and a bunch of them aren't even -that- low in the attack scale. Since there's so much roster swapping and many PCs specialize in esoteric weapon types, just having something that won't disappoint you when you equip on whoever goes a long way. Keepsake Knife and Danjuro were huge quality of life improvements in my general equipment draw, moreso than a lot of character-specific SB weapons could be.
That's a good point, actually. Plus, Rydia is starting to become a fucking liability so maybe it's time to swap her out, and this dagger means I can do that to anyone. EDIT: Though, I am probably going to swap her out for Eiko, since I really need a dedicated white mage and I have literally no other white mages. I think Mog is technically classified as one? He does have pretty high Mind. I may put Edgar back in because of the level breaking even if I'm still using Mog.
On the other hand, it isn't *cool* though. I want things to be *cool*, because hopefully after the FF6 event ends I get bored and quit and take back my life again.
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Also, for Snow and Fenny, what are your freind codes? I missed them earlier in the topic. Mine is eRuA if an Edgar bioblaster is useful to you at all.
Mine is Q1ne. I've been following you for a while! Bioblaster is a cool SB, one of my favorites for farming.
Aaaaaaah. I think I didn't follow back because I had 3 other Lunatic High people that I followed and didn't realize Hello-C was you. <_< Fixed that now~
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FFRK: Mastered Rinoa boss rush on first try, no mythril. Made an attempt at beating the three stooges with Sentinel Grimoire, did not end well. Went back and swapped out Sephiroth with Squall so I had a Blitz Sword user. A world where Sephiroth is not good enough for your party is one I don't want to live in. Second try used Red 13. Had good luck with Sleep and Sleep Buster for once and managed to win. Lost two stars on actions and two on damage. Don't see myself mastering it without massive amounts of honing (was out of almost everything while fighting Raijin), so I'm probably done here.
I get fucking Sheepskin coat every time I do dungeons other than the one I need it in.
Also used eggs from event to level 50 WoL, Luneth, Paladin Cecil, and Cyan so I have all quests done now except for crafting the 5-star abilities. Which require MNEOs. Sigh.
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RK - Fff I keep forgetting to check quests before clearing dungeons and so now to get Yuna or Auron I need to spend timebux and not get mythril in return. I kinda wanted to make Yuna my WM but I guess now I'll get them later.
They also added battles onto the FF6 event. One of them unlocks Terra's second level crystal. It's a 110 difficulty rated event. Even if I spend all day level farming tomorrow I don't see myself clearing it by when the event ends. :(
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Notably, Fenrir, Sleep lasts longer if you attach it to a high-MND character like Selphie instead of Irvine. That -could- be why no one besides us summoned you...
God damn it this is Irvine's coat, I do not accept this
EDIT: I like how Fenrir bunched Kimahri with the cores.
I was certain you'd notice
I think I'm going to ignore the soul breakfast entirely. I'm pretty much set right now (I'd like a 5* mage robe I guess? Maybe a third 5* mage weapon?) On these banners there is certainly good stuff available but not much cool stuff.
I kinda want Firion's axe but, just like last time, I really really don't want to risk pulling Tidus' sword instead. I would end up using it as upgrade material for a 1* knife.
A 5* harp would be cool too, but Japan got one for free at one point, so I'm not going to spend precious mithril on this.
I don't understand people who aim for the Sentinel Grimoire. It has the best skill in the game but are you really going to often bring Loser into battle? He works as a crappy white mage I guess? But you can't give him Diaga and expect results.
SG's just much better as a summon RW only.
Right now I have almost finished every elite dungeon (I'm keeping a few to get a free timebux refresh on sunday) , have only 2 materias left to get (Luneth's and Cosplayer's) , and only 6 characters under level 50 (I kinda went berserk with the egg use, again) Pretty close to having not much left to do but waiting for new events.
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FFRK - So before the daily reset, I decided to pop the Daily Relic, thinking I could get something I'd sell for a bit of extra Gil or use an upgrading material.
I got a second 4* Mesmerize Blade, which I can eventually combine into a 5* dagger.
something I'd sell for a bit of extra Gil or use an upgrading material
THIS IS NEITHER OF THOSE THINGS.
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I don't understand people who aim for the Sentinel Grimoire. It has the best skill in the game but are you really going to often bring Loser into battle? He works as a crappy white mage I guess? But you can't give him Diaga and expect results.
SG's just much better as a summon RW only.
Apparantly people in Japan think that owning either SG or Y'shtola's clone of it is the single most valuable relic that you can have for the recent 140 difficulty fights, and ideally you have Vega or Diamond Pin or Ingus's Shield with Protectga/Hastega or one of the good healing SBs as well. Someone on gamefaqs had to S/L 61 times to master Misfortune Vossler because he didn't have any of the above, so trying to pull one of these is actually quite significant long term for completionists.
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For big boss fights like this, I expected SG to be way better as a RW summon than as an actual used item, because otherwise you'd have to spent the first 10 turns or so without it on?
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Cloud and Loserface get RM3s that start you off with one bar of SB gauge every battle. Needless to say they are huge gamechangers.
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God damn that is pretty sick
FAST AMMO at the beginning of every battle
I'll throw all my mithril at FF14 I guess
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Oh hey I play videogames. Lessee what I've been doing for the past few months...
Curtain Call!
I decided to get an S on every song for some reason. Wasn't too hard. Now I am pecking away at getting a SS on every song. This will probably never happen but hey, whatev. Only 103 to go!
Diablo 3!
The new patch just hit and now I can fill up bars even faster. New patch gives monk new options for exploding palm builds, which will now and forever be The Most Fun.
IA/VT Colorful!
Is a vita rhythm game. Didn't come out over here so I imported it. It's...ok. Nice enough music and gameplay, but there are better games out there. Maybe it will grow on me, but I haven't played a lot of it because when I fired up the vita I instead started playing...
Ys 7!
The most classic RPG to ever RPG an RPG. Lame plot, but it makes up for it by being totally self-aware, and by having snappy gameplay. Adol's dodge roll is the funniest thing. It goes like 12 feet, and looks vaguely like a high-speed horizontal levitating somersault. Boss fights are all designed around it, and have been pretty fun. So far, so good. Gameplay is decidedly inferior to Oath and Origin though. Even so, a lot of fun.
Guild of Dungeoneering!
Indie steam game where you use cards to create a dungeon for your explorer to complete objectives in. A neat idea but the gameplay is a little shallow for it, so it gets old fast. The thing that really kept me going was that the game is musically narrated by a sarcastic old git who considers your failures humorous and your successes to be an unmistakable sign that society is going to shit.
Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom!
Latest touhou game, and a pretty great one. Better music, stages, and boss attacks than we've seen in a while (outside last year's exemplary Impossible Spellcard)
Other rhythm games!
been playing some iphone rhythm games. Actually quite a few. Maybe I'll post about them later.
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Wrong topic Notmiki, you haven't talked about Record Keeper
Abyss Odyssey: Replayed and beat with the naked spear lady. Got the same ending.
Why on earth do you keep gold when you die? This game makes no fucking sense.
FF Type 0: Abyss Odyssey is nothing compared to Type 0, the king of meaningless 236 game mechanics crammed together in the most JRPGish package. The cutscenes are completely inane. I am back to it and enjoying it a lot. Just beat Chapter 2.
Nine is completely hilarious, YO, and I wish he was the main character.
Machina confirmed real main character because he has 6 archive entries while Ace only has 5
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Wrong topic Notmiki, you haven't talked about Record Keeper
Oh yeah I downloaded record keeper because of all the spiffy sprite art, but it wasn't much fun to play, so I stopped and went back to rhythm games.
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Whew... Okay, NOW you're allowed to talk about other games.
FFRK: Not bothering with this round of the soul breakfast not its associated upgrade material dungeon. Since they are giving us extra tablets to unlock the forbidden prizes, I thought "sure I'll try the max difficulty fight for fun." The fight was indeed fun (kicking Seymour's ass was sweet sweet revenge), but now my inventory is bursting with upgrade materials and I have spend time cleaning out the useless stuff and possibly still dropping some upmats so I can continue playing the game... >.>;; Definitely don't think I'll be bothering with the lower difficulty stuff today. At least the Gil round won't take up space in my inventory. Still bummed I didn't get any of yesterday's soul breakfast weapons...
Super Mario Maker: went to Tokyo today and got to play a preview of Super Mario Maker. It is fucking cool and I'm glad it seems to be popular here because Nintendo is banking a lot on this project if their aggressive advertising campaign is any indication. The title is somewhat misleading. Yes, there is Mario level making. But this is essentially the newest mainline Mario game. It has its own levels and there's a progression to how you unlock the level making tools, so there's actually a game here, not just a toolset. Neat.
Re:Type-0
Have you gotten to the parts with the l'Cie lady yet? I want fashion talk about her.
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Kefka and Terra level break get. Mog at 50. Cloud should max out and Edgar should level break before the end of the day. Considering blowing some myrthril on timebux to do so, and ensure I get Eiko and Gilgamesh and maaaybe Sabin to 40. It would be nice to get Terra's second level crystal, I really have no conception of how difficult or not that may be.
The 45 stamina difficulty EXP dungeon actually requires me to pay attention because Jackanapes really fucking suck. Absorb all elements, counter physicals with MT berserk? Yeah fuck you too.
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I've seen one with a feline helm. Pretty cool.
I've also seen Shiva..... Yeah.
The 4 nations remind me a lot of the 4 house colors in Harry Potter: You have
- The good one : and they're extremely similar
- The bad one : actually they're not that much like Slytherin color wise, but they're bad
- the fucking useless one
- The fucking useless one that's even worse than the other one because its mascot is a completely harmless animal unlike the three other ones. (Badger vs Eagle, Snake, Lion / Turtle vs Dragon, Gryphin, Tiger)
Edit: The dialogue you get when you switch your main character from Machina to Nine:
Machina: "It's your turn!"
Nine: "It's MY turn!"
Edit 2: I'm now up to Chapter 4, which is basically called "Chapter 4: The queen will die in this chapter"
BTW that queen is 47 yet she looks 14. Wonder if that will be a plot point
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Do I miss out in anything important if I skip the upgrade materials dungeons?
Other then getting MOG of course...
Whose skillet is....interesting? Two magic skills, but no mage weapons. K
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Mog makes a pretty good WM with a decent physical attack but I think his unique weapon boosts mind too. Dances have pretty good MT Debuffs too. Not worth it if you already have a dedicated WM and access to Shellga/Protectga though.
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Mog is actually awful right now in the NA version. He got a huge buff in the JP version that makes him a good White Magic user, but at first, he's kind of worthless. Granted, getting him now so you can get the EXP nonsense out of the way with him to prep him for when he does get the buff wouldn't hurt I suppose.
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He ends up being the tankiest White Mage, although his mind stat is mediocre.
So I'm in a 5-star drought right now. 50 mythril on Eiko event, 2 4-stars. 15 on Rinoa, 2 4-stars. 15 on SB1, 1 4-star. 15 on SB2, just 3-stars. Oh and three of those 4-stars were katanas, the one weapon type that I don't need.
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Mog is actually awful right now in the NA version. He got a huge buff in the JP version that makes him a good White Magic user, but at first, he's kind of worthless. Granted, getting him now so you can get the EXP nonsense out of the way with him to prep him for when he does get the buff wouldn't hurt I suppose.
Ahh OK, yeah then don't bother.
He ends up being the tankiest White Mage, although his mind stat is mediocre.
Or maybe do bother for when the update comes. I dunno. Look I'm just sayin' words here OK
Moving on... So I was doing well getting through EXP day, so I blew a mythril on restoring timebux to get more timebux. Next round Eiko and Cloud died. OK, fine, whatever, I get through it again and blow another mythril before the day is over. Next round, Eiko and Edgar die. WHATEVER. I will be pissed if I miss a 4th 11-pull by 1 or 2 mythril come Thursday, though.
Terra/Kefka/Edgar/Mog/Cloud are all within 5 levels of 50, and T/K/M are all at the cap or level broken so that's nice. I'll see how well they do on high(er)-level events tomorrow. I suspect I have a chance of getting Terra's second crystal but IIF I plan properly and farm orbs I need. I should look into that...
I set up a B-team (Gilgamesh/Vivi/WoL/Eiko/Sabin) to do my dungeon crawling for me, and if the first encounter I tried is any indication that should be fine. WoL is the weak link at L10 and me not having very many fighter skills, but eh his Level Crystal is up in the next event so yeah. I need to look into what record materia are good and set up a C-team. I know WM and BM cores have record materia that I want so they're locks, but aside from that no clue.
Also, I'm unclear of something possibly due to misunderstanding the Japanese. Terra's record materia says that it will restore 1 black mage charge at the start of an encounter, but I noticed that that sometimes didn't happen. Does this type of record materia only activate sometimes, or do I have to manually do something to activate it, or maybe is it that only one of her slots gets restored so if the RNG picked slot is not Black magic it doesn't go off? I'm confused.
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Terra's RM 1 has a 50% chance of restoring one use of both your BM abilities. For the 100% version, you have to unlock Black Mage's (yes, the Core Class PC) second RM.
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We have zero dance abilities, so Mog in NA is Red Mage with shittier equipment options.
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He makes Gordon look good!
And vsm and makkotah, maybe daleks too...
Do I have yer friend codes?
I thought makkotah was analfst, but that account has been awol for quite some time. I think I got everyone elses...
I'll change my in game name to scar to make it easier.
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Yeah IIRC Irvine was the same, he had like black magic with no rods, and he could basically do nothing in battle.
Then they buffed him and he became #1 as we all know it.
Zenny is playing the jp version so that he doesn't have to interact with filthy gaijins. You cannot have his friend code.
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I actually use Gordon. Don't talk smack about my Gordon.
I never posted friend codes. My code is:
bFmo
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If I assign my Roaming Warrior to a level 1 Arc, will people use it just for Mass Shell? (I have no good Soul Breaks for RW)
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Daleks is Captain K.
Q3gF for multi-target healing yo
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If I assign my Roaming Warrior to a level 1 Arc, will people use it just for Mass Shell? (I have no good Soul Breaks for RW)
no
FF Type 0: Words
Consider this:
- Eidolons are super powerful, but they're only active for 2 minutes and the character who summons them gets killed.
- Rem has a Reraise spell that costs almost nothing
Yeah I've broken Type 0. I get slightly lower end mission rankings at least, that's something I guess
My current best non Rem character is 4, who just dances around the battlefield like a lunatic and has a Megaman buster.
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Final Fantasy We Were Witchy Witchy Autobattle Women - 100-gem pull for phase 2: a second Monk Robe. I guess I'll leave it as a spare for Balthier or Fran. Saddeningly, that was likely on the top half for possibly useful featured equips on this banner. Holy crap does it scream "we're emotionally abusing the Sephiroth fangirls who missed One-Winged Angel last time around".
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If I assign my Roaming Warrior to a level 1 Arc, will people use it just for Mass Shell? (I have no good Soul Breaks for RW)
no
Go unique SB or go home
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Devil Survivor 2: Everybody's still talking about RK. Well better ramble more about RB.
FWIW Ciato, while I am enjoying DS2, part of the reason I started on it rather than DS1 was because from all reports they're kinda the same game. Which is fine, I mean, lots of us here played LFT despite already playing FFT, but it might be worth taking a break first. Incidentally, anyone want a mint copy of DS2 DS still in the shrink wrap? I wouldn't recommend it for anyone with access to a 3DS - just get Record Breaker then w/ the new translation & voice acting & other stuff - but if anybody is stuck on the vanilla DS, it's not like I'm ever going to use that cart.
I mostly like the Day 6 arc. I will say that to MILDLY whine... well, to back up, if you have a system where the way the player interacts with the plot is by choosing who to socialize with / monitor in events, then you make the plot interactive by, well, forking the plot based off the player's event choices. Good! That said, I kinda wish in-game they snuck some OTHER excuse in for the Day 6 life/death crisis than "Our Hero went and chatted with the girl and cheered her up" when said crisis isn't directly tied to self-confidence or the like. Sure, I understand that in reality it's because I the player went and chatted with her, but I'd prefer it if in-game, it's because that event involved getting a mystic stone of protection or something. Oh well. I YouTube'd up the 'bad' option, and it's pretty well-done! I like that they don't have some long slow bleed-out with lots of dying words. Especially since...
I think the writers ran out of ideas for how to do the Fate-level 5 (=max S-Link's) events. They are way too melodramatic. They are all some variant on "character comes to some revelation that they are awesome despite their doubts, then goes on a demon killing spree to save someone," and them thanking Our Hero for inexplicably showing up for this to offer some bland encouragement. Mix things up! Daichi saves Hinako, Jungo (human) saves Jungo (cat), Keita saves Jungo (human), Makoto saves rioters while Ronaldo saves gov't agents. Io / Joe / Airi get the best ones and they don't directly involve demon combat, so more of that, please. (I'm even missing out on the Dera-Deka sidequest... grumble grumble).
Mizar (Day 6 boss) is adorable, as is the dragon. He's easy.... until he wasn't, if that makes any sense. Very much a fight where you can be rolling through everyone going "yes I am awesome" until things start collapsing as he keeps coming, as oh man do they harshly punish you if you don't keep the offense rolling. Quick Growth has some weird timers... there was one piece of Mizar that used it that I didn't kill immediately, and still got another turn later on to finish it off. But another one just used it then grew without me getting an intervening turn (!!), though in fairness I was attacked which does slow turns down a bit... and sheesh is that horrible, you have to kill the big one (who now has range 4) THEN kill 2 more small ones afterward. There's a time limit on the full battle too, so I ended up having good use for the SDTP transfer after I killed one side with Hero & Io but needed to get my good demons over to the other stat. Speaking of which, you're certainly rewarded for using Io in this fight: Mizar is fire-weak and Io is like the only good fire mage. Airi maybe I guess, but only Io has the strength to equip Fire Amp AND a good magic score. Give her the Chaos Wave unit (no Extra turns? whatever with her AGL) and she snipes the little pieces from afar like a champ (they're range 2, she's range 3). Also this is definitely the stage of the game where you can get some pretty broke'd units with Null Phys and the like; it's probably the last hurrah of my great Cu Chulainn, whom I fused Anti-Ice on so he has no weaknesses AND has Pierce & Assassinate, so he murders the enemy leader like a champ no matter what. He's made all of Day 6 a lot easier, so we'll see if I can get something similarly broken for Day 7.
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Oh right I play games sometimes.
SRWZ3.2: Stage 28 (Ocean). Game's not super challenging but is not a cakewalk either if you're going for SR points and bonus Z-chips, which is nice. Lots of broken, of course. And custom per-attack music is great. There's quite a lot of original enemies, but that's par for the course in a grand finale. Very very looking forward to the sphere holder upgrades that are around the corner.
Thomas Was Alone: Started this on my phone this afternoon. Good fun, great narration. Stopped at the beginning of stage 3.1.
Also I might have to jump back into Diablo 3 for a while, looking at the patch notes. Sounds like fun.
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Devil Survivor 2: Everybody's still talking about RK. Well better ramble more about RB.
Stop breaking these:
(http://rivista-cdn.pittsburghmagazine.com/Pittsburgh-Magazine/January-2012/Analog-Archaeology/records.jpg?ver=1325023631)
I'm trying to keep them
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FFRK - Oh yeah, I never posted my friend code.
ttuj
Got L50 Rinoa with Angel Wing Quake, if that helps anyone at all. Working on getting her stronger.
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Batmangs :Arkham Asylum - I never finished this when it was out. We got up to like what is about the halfway point in a sitting or two and thought it was bigger, so never got back to it. Two play sessions beat it this time.
It isn't as good as I remember it supposedly being. It's still okay, but combat doesn't flow nearly as well as my false memories do (Assassin's Creed 2+ just does it better). The metroidvania aspects are pretty weak. It is mostly faffing about to get things that don't do much of anything? They do give good XP so I guess getting all the Riddler trophies gets you enough to upgrade fully quite early, but I was only missing one upgrade at the end of the game and got like 3/4 of the trophies, so the last chunk of them have to be pretty worthless feeling.
Also while HP regen being tied to XP gain is a functional mechanic so far as it gives you some HP when you win fights in a fairly direct way while not having a flat regenerating HP pool or anything, it feels really fucking weird when you notice that is how it works.
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Is there a way to get rid of people that are following you in FFRK? VSM and Magic took my last two follower spots, and I'd like to get rid of some of these guys that haven't played in 28 days.
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Had a fun fight v the boss under junon, which I beat with Gordon/Rydia/Wakka/Irvine/Sazh, 3/5s of which are not in my primary party and about 10 levels lower than the rest of my team. "can't be hit by melee" made this a really interesting fight.
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There's no way to intentionally lose a follower. But it will happen naturally as long as you aren't following them back. If someone else puts in your friend code or if they choose to follow you after you show up randomly on their rotation, it'll bump out the oldest follower on your list that you aren't mutually following. When you hit 100, you're "full" for about a day. Then new people can start bumping old non mutual followers.
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I think the writers ran out of ideas for how to do the Fate-level 5 (=max S-Link's) events. They are way too melodramatic. They are all some variant on "character comes to some revelation that they are awesome despite their doubts, then goes on a demon killing spree to save someone," and them thanking Our Hero for inexplicably showing up for this to offer some bland encouragement. Mix things up! Daichi saves Hinako, Jungo (human) saves Jungo (cat), Keita saves Jungo (human), Makoto saves rioters while Ronaldo saves gov't agents. Io / Joe / Airi get the best ones and they don't directly involve demon combat, so more of that, please. (I'm even missing out on the Dera-Deka sidequest... grumble grumble).
I guess you'll like what happened in Tri-arc better than.
They mixed things up a bit more there and not as MC dependent as the Sept-arc.
Well, except Daichi, Yamato, and Al. They became even more deep end MC fanboys (when they already were) due to circumstances.
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Another 11 pull. A third Diamond Armor, a second Red Jacket and 2 more Man Eaters, meaning I could boost my first one up to 6* EDIT: Never mind Sword Breakers and Man Eaters have the same goddamn thumbnail. Still, that equals another 5* Dagger so that's cool. I guess I know where my weapon materials are getting dumped into now.
Is there any point to keeping all the random 3* weapons I've been accumulating if I don't have two copies of it? Like, leveled up and synergizing with the dungeon, will a 3* be more useful than a similarly leveled 5* without synergy?
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From what I've seen overall a 3* with synergy is worse than a 5* without
A 3*+ is about the same
A 3*++ is better
I keep them all just in case I run into copies and I'm too lazy to figure out which ones are never going to be useful
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Never mind Sword Breakers and Man Eaters have the same goddamn thumbnail.
You should see how many 3-star Dancing Daggers there are in the game. I'm beginning to think there's one for every game with the same thumbnail.
I've been dumping everything from I, II, and III that doesn't have a cool special effect since they're not going to have event synergy. Then I dump stuff that is redundant with what I already have (have Zantetsuken and Enhancer, so don't need a 3-star FF6 sword, etc.).
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FF3 has a lot of story dungeons left, I'd keep anything from there that's potentially better than a 5* after synergy at least. Lake Dohr is 140 difficulty on Elite and there's still more to come.
FF1 and 2 are done for story dungeons, but in JP they are getting short non-collab events right now that we'll probably actually get. The FF1 event is named, "Accessories of Light" because everything involving WoL has to be named of LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT apparantly. It also has a 140 diff Garland fight that might set a new record for RK to original game challenge ratio.
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Hm. Yeah, I think Captain has it right. Literally all of my 5* and 4*+ equips are FF6, so theres no real reason for me to keep any 3* things from that game.
It has become apparent this evening that now what is holding me back is lack of honed skills, and what is holding me back from that is Mid-grade Black Orbs.
Oh, look, Tuesday is Black Power Day. Well, good bye hopes of getting a 4th 11 pull. Good bye Kefka SB. At least I'll get to use you with all those wandering warriors I made sure to follow. Getting skills to pay the bills and maybe eek my way through the rest of the FF6 event areas for that second Terra level crystal is more important. I may blow whatever mythril I have left at the end of the day tomorrow so I can get everyone equipped with high level -agas.
can i stop thinking about this game yet i swear i did things other than obsess about it before I downloaded it again last week
edit: i just realized I haven't even mentioned what game i was talking about for the last several posts because there are no other games
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Final Fantasy Autobattle Street - I have nothing to do on the daily and I already completed day 2 of the Forbidden Treasure trove, so I'm farming Greater Lightning Orbs for R3 Thundaja. Only six to go.
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Are any of you guys "Opus" with a Selphie RW? I find it odd that someone random wants to follow my Gordon.
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Since making questionable choices about what games we play is currently all the rage at RPGDL I have decided to play Super Mario Bros. 2j / Lost Levels / whatever we're calling it. I played this game briefly two decades ago and it didn't interest me much, but hey I've played all the other mainline Mario games except Sunshine (do I want to play a game often regarded as an inferior SM64, fuck no) so why not.
It is Super Mario Bros: The Romhack pretty much. Ridiculously lazy sequel, we seriously still have all the same music, 98% of the same graphics, and Toads who still say "Thank you Mario but our princess is in another castle" okay. It also seems to fix practically none of the bugs present in SMB1, and makes them matter more (e.g. the fact that SMB1 can only process one mushroom/flower/star/beanstalk on screen at once) or introduces new ones (e.g. in 3-1 you can use a springboard to jump over the flagpole... if you move to the right from there, you get stuck and have to wait for a timeout).
Like most romhacks it is also pretty hard. That's kinda fun in its own way, though the challenge can be a touch inconsistent. I'm generally fine with it but then you get random spikes like this one relatively early in the game (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rREEMpg5-vE&feature=youtu.be&t=63) (it's harder than it looks IMO; SMB1 physics make it so that if you jump clean onto or over the first invisible block with your running jump, that your momentum will carry you off it and into the pit). Also warp zones that take you back to previous worlds. Obviously you don't go in one of those pipes if you find them, instead you commit suicide using the pit they helpfully provide, but uhhh really game, that just amounts to trap zones. Congratulations for finding this hidden area, players!
Anyway because I enjoy Mario well enough I can't say I am not having fun a decent amount of the time anyway, and it is fun to see the occasional Mario things which actually originated in this game (such as piranha plants who come downwards out of ceiling pipes) but yeah this game remains a good lesson about how not to build a sequel. NoA made a pretty excellent decision to give us a reskinned Doki Doki Panic in its place.
Star Ocean 3 - I thought there was a dialog option to leave Roger in the cage, but I didn't get one. Oh well. Probably not going to use him anyway, just using Fayt/Cliff/Nel for now. The playthrough is kinda confirming all my old memories: the techs you have before Level 10 are bad, Cliff dominates Level 10-14 with Hammer of Might (even though you can't combo after it), and now Berserk Ice Daggers is really great (and things which mock ice tend to be weak to fire, so HoM wrecks). I still have trouble getting Side Kick to combo properly.
Fire Emblem 8 - Up to Last Hope now. Using Eirika, Ephraim, Seth, Franz, Vanessa, Tana, Lute, Saleh, Gerik, Marisa, Tethys, and Cormag primarilly, with Rennac occasionally because I let Colm die Grefter I'm sorrrryyyyy. Having fun!
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You can definitely avoid finding Roger altogether (which I did first time through the game, and was retroactively pleased about this when I did find him on a replay). I could swear at some point I got an ending sequence that involved Roger still being in the cage, but maybe that is just what happens if you never find him as opposed to there being an option to leave him inside.
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That would make sense. The internet and multiple people have confirmed that such an ending exists. For some reason I thought you were given a choice in that scene. The party members certainly consider leaving him there, which is fun enough.
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Oh right, I play games too.
Final Fantasy The Autobattle And The Beast: I am somewhere in between the two Metas right now due to the abilities I've gained and my Gatcha luck giving me very little that's actually useful. (Thanks for the 3rd 5* Sword, I was really hoping to use MORE FIGHTERS). I am too far into game for Reta-Meta to be fully useful, but I have very little outside of those swords, so I'm currently running
Cloud with full damage outfit, R5 Retaliate, and the Break/Spellsword of choice for any given boss fight.
Vivi with full M. damage outfit, R2 Waterja, and either my R3 Quake or R3 -aga spell to hit weakness.
Rinoa with my M. damage scraps, R1 Firaja, R2 Thundaja. When she runs out of spell charges she starts attacking Cloud
Yuna with my Healing Rod (!!!! Only non-sword/non-Lance!), R3 Curaga, and I split Protectga/Shellga/R2 Kirin/R2 Diaga/R3 Diara/Alexander/Phoenix between her and Aerith as the situation demands. Typically Diaga/Kirin, though.
Aerith with shit that keeps her alive because I did manage to get her Keepsake Ribbon during the "ONE-TIME ONLY" draw for her event, so by the time people run out of charges, typically she's able to use Planet Protector and then everyone begins mauling Cloud so he can AA the way to frue victory. Oh, and if I have no special need one way or the other I typically give her Faith/Boost, with Boost being totally replaceable for something else if need be.
It's an odd mix trying to get through dungeons and still have enough health/medals left to beat the boss fights and get Dungeon Mastery, but oh well it just means I've actually got an RPG to play.
Oh yeah, friend code: QRtu and mine is Aerith with Planet Protector because I'm a scrub still stuck in the past/who only has one Unique Equip.
Fire Emblem: if: Been playing this through the Hoshido side, trying to look as few things up as necessary. The difficulty has definitely been ramping up much harder than I remember it ever happening in previous games, as in it's not just a spike, it is a legitimate curve and it fucking hurts. I don't know how much of the difficulty is the enemies actually having variety in skills and/or weapons and me being unable to read Japanese, and how much is the game just trying to give some real challenge.
One of the first Nice Things I noticed is that EXP gain is vastly more level-dependent than previous. If you're 5 levels above an enemy, prepare to gain maybe 3 xp from killing them. On the other hand, being underleveled means you gain a bunch. I like this, because it means that you're stuck in line with the story missions to a certain degree and can't just grind your way to victory. Unless you want to pay money or spend hours upon hours doing so, but I'm not crazy.
Won't say too much because I don't really know what's been going on in the story anyway except Bad Things, but I am definitely very excited to replay this in English when it comes out over here.
...okay, maybe I am crazy, but shh.
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One of the first Nice Things I noticed is that EXP gain is vastly more level-dependent than previous. If you're 5 levels above an enemy, prepare to gain maybe 3 xp from killing them. On the other hand, being underleveled means you gain a bunch. I like this, because it means that you're stuck in line with the story missions to a certain degree and can't just grind your way to victory. Unless you want to pay money or spend hours upon hours doing so, but I'm not crazy.
Eeeh I hope they boost the prepromotes to compensate, because they lose a big advantage. And they're already a bit underused.
BTW you should maybe rename your Tyro! And give him a wonderful 30 characters quote.
And give your RW Aeris whatever that can give her mind, just to improve the duration of Planet Protector a bit.
Edit: completely fucking Seymour over with mental break, carbuncle and faith on himself never gets old
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I've read more about the game than I probably should and there are a few prepromos that people are really raving about. Prepromos in general have been really good in recent games, I think. They'll always be used a little less than they "should" be because raising people is more fun to many people, and that's okay.
The change the EXP formula is super-welcome IMO because what it really punishes is trying to use a smaller group of people. In many earlier FEs, using say 3-6 PCs instead of 10-12 was incredibly OP because they gained a lot more EXP than normal and became unkillable gods. Pretty much the only reason not to do that is because it isn't as much fun as using a full party. If you constrain the EXP overlevelled people get, this strategy becomes much less effective.
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I don't know if this is true for the class or the character, but your maid/butler is a pre-promo that gains exp at the same rate as if they were not a pre-promo of the same level.
And I'll re-name my Tyro, butI've already given her pretty much everything that boosts Mind. You seem to be confusing me for someone who actually has decent equipment to choose from. >_>
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Straight stat buffs like Planet Protector have a fixed duration. What Mind matters for are for named status effects like Protect, Shell, Reflect, Regen, etc.
Also most negative status moves (paralysis, silence, blind, etc.), with caster mind increasing duration and target mind decreasing it, although there are a few exceptions like POIZN where mind doesn't matter.
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FFRK - Decided to do an 11-pull early, despite it not being phase 3 yet.
Got 9 3* things and two 5* things - a Flame Sword and a Rising Sun (FF6).
I don't even have Locke yet!
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Oh, 5* equipment. It must be nice. SO NICE. One day I, too, will partake.
What do the orange elixirs do? You'd THINK they restore ability points to your dudes, but I've had several battles where I've gotten them and then, NOPE. Abilities are still depleted.
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They do restore charges, but they may restore only the charges of the abilities you haven't used?
Hinode: So SG doesn't last longer with mind but Boon does because it's (MT) Haste+Shell?
NEB: Yeah I guess. Also makes it easier to bench a character if he's RNG screwed (something that never seems to happen to me though)
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FFRK:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1q-7YHNFigCqzOITIY7PrXtCM7qw5Y89eTcU6cqDyR_o/edit#gid=1933251675
Why has no one posted this before? This could save a life. (Greater Orb farming locations, FINALLY I can waste my timebux efficiently!)
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Final Fantasy 3 Dual Playthrough: Completed! In the same timeframe, I finished the Crystal Tower of FF14 again so I think I'm Crystal Tower'd out...but screw it, now you are all obligated to listen to this!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uObYHzgtCwc (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uObYHzgtCwc)
So here are...THE THOUGHTS OF EACH PART!
-Syrcus Tower gives a very different feel in both. The NES version is longer in terms of shear number of rooms and tiring as a result, FF3DS' just takes longer because everything in FF3DS takes longer except for characters running. Also FF3DS' camera nonsense hits here because there's a number of forks in the road that you cannot see enough, which the NES version you could.
-Enemies, likewise, have a different feel. FF3o's enemies aren't bad so much as clearly not scaled to take on Ninja and Sage. It's easy in a way that makes you feel Overpowered rather than enemies feeling weak, kind of like BoF4 easy vs. BoF1 Easy. It's only easy because of the tools you have and if you're willing to use them (which you really should, because Sage is fun!), not because enemies suck. FF3DS, by contrast, enemies suck because they're basically pseudo-bosses that don't have anything close to remotely scary enough. They double act, and might use some modest MT damage, but you should have plenty of healing and blitz through them; fights are annoying because they take a while, and no real way to speed them since they're Single Target, and generally status immune. The exceptions are Ninjas and such.
-...speaking of which, a really cool thing FF3NES did that was lost in FF3DS stylistically is enemy design, namely that Ninja aspect. FF3NES makes it clear that "Ninjas are the ultimate physical job" even as early as Fargabad where they are referenced. You fight 2 Human Bosses in Eureka...who are both Ninjas (namely Ninja and Kunoichi) and all the human enemies in Syrcus and World of Darkness are Ninjas as well, unless you count the D. General guys who seem more like monstrous ogre things than humans. This is actually a really neat attention to detail that I wouldn't expect out of something like an NES game, and feels like it was intentional because there's a lot of human sprites they could have used and basically avoided all of them but the Ninja-style ones, so cool job there. Why is this lost in the DS version? Because Ninja is no longer treated as the Ultimate Physical Job, just a generic late game one; the Ninja thing is still kept for enemies but only because enemies are kept the same between the games...
-...except for Thors. For some reason they appear in Syrcus even though I'm certain they didn't do so until WoD in the NES version. Could be wrong. Not really meaningful; they're not exactly big scary enemies only noteworthy thing is MT Lightning damage (which is the easiest element to resist in the DS version and...hardest in NES version because Ribbons miss them, heh; mind you, their damage isn't high enough to really be threatening in the NES version.)
-There is on exception to the whole enemies feeling lackluster outside of HP in the DS version, and that's Dragons. These things are tough and mean and running into one could kill you easily. They're harder than most bosses in the game, and rare. I wiped once to a Green Dragon because I couldn't get a run away move up. Second playthrough, I ran into a Red Dragon, swore, managed to get a Teleport spell up last minute and escape. NES version has Dragons in one room I believe, but they're nowhere near this hard. I honestly hate design like this; yes, Warmech in FF1 was similar levels of bullshit. I believe FF2 had something similar in the Iron Giant except it only appeared in an optional room that got you the game's best weapon, so yes, I am saying that FF2 of all things handled the "random super monster in final dungeon" best of the NES games...and yes, I am aware that Warmech is not the final dungeon, and technically Syrcus isn't either.
-Xande kind of sucks in both versions. NES version, he skips every other turn and only scary move he has is Meteor, which if he casts, you use ST Cure 4 on everyone (ST it's full healing, MT it's like 550, so 2 Sages MT Cure 4ing heal about 25% HP...yes, MT Healing in FF3 NES isn't very good.) DS version, he always acts, but sometimes wastes turns casting Protect or something, and he generally can't KO Mages in back row in one turn, so someone constantly casting Curaga/Curaja should keep you alive.
-The 5 Dragon scene is silly in both versions. Of note, though, it's another example of FF3DS making use of the ability to have multiple characters move at once, as the 4 Old Men appear on the screen at the same time, while FF3NES, they had to come one at a time. Similarly, you had to watch each character walk into the cloud of Darkness room one at a time in the NES version; DS version just shows them already standing there with fade aways because DRAMATIC and such. See, this is how you do better exposition with simplistic chibis and such...making the Aria scene look all the worse (and basically half of what goes on in FF4DS.) These two scenes are most annoying because each wipe in WoD means you have to go through the entire sequence AGAIN...
-...by the way, shock and awe, lack of save points in both versions REALLY ****ING SUCKS. In the NES version, I had the worst RNG luck of all time repeatedly that I broke down and used save states and fast forwarding just to get back to where I wiped. How bad was my RNG? Xande Clone #3 back attacked me and used 2 Meteors in a row; there's pretty much no realistic way to survive that unless you have an FEOK and there's absolutely nothing you can do to prevent that; it's pure RNG. I am a bit more lenient to the NES version because "Save Points" weren't a thing yet then, but it's still a flaw the game has and an example of it not aging well as a result, so I still hold that against it. It's MORE frustrating in the DS version of course where they even considered putting Save Points in then said "nah." The game really needed at very least a save prompt after Xande, but apparently polling Japanese Fans who wanted the FRUE ORIGINAL EXPERIENCE!!! was more important...even though a simple "Save Points On/Off" option in the menu would have accomplished the same thing. I mean, FF Origins actually had a whole bunch of option toggles so you can play the game as close to the original as you want, like "Auto Retarget On/Off" and such.
-Dark Guardians are basically inverted in terms of how good they are in each version. So here we go, in the order I fought them!
(http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080217171547/finalfantasy/images/a/a8/FF3NES-2HeadedDragon.gif)
NES version, he'll murder anyone in the front row, no questions asked. Back Row, someone might survive in the RNG Gods bless them. The result is basically just having a lot of revival and not caring about firm HP scores; if he kills your reviver, just have both characters use resurrection and you're at worst in the same position you were before. Since he's pure ST, this makes him one of the easier ones and failing to kill a character sometimes is a thing that happens. DS version, he splits his physicals up and can kill a character if he focuses, and things like Crits exist so if RNG is off, he can get scary since if characters die, it can be hard to revive since he acts twice. Generally, he's not too bad though 2nd hardest Dark Guardian in the DS version but mostly by default, you'll see why. In the DS version, I had my Red Mage go into pure Tank Mode and he basically couldn't die.
(http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080510120356/finalfantasy/images/8/8b/FF3NES-Ahriman.png)
NES version is mean and evil and unfair and WHY DID SHURIKENS DO ONLY 1000-2000 TO HIM I WASTED 4 OF THOSE THINGS GRAH!!! Yeah, you'll learn more about that hate later. The big thing here is Meteor is unfairly cruel; if he fires that off, you could be screwed. Quake is not as bad but still hits really hard especially if it's paired with Meteor; even with Ribbons, Quake can sting. The entire fight is on your seat as a result. His Elemental MT damage isn't too bad otherwise, and you might get lucky seeing him heal himself for laughably low damage, but nonetheless, he's a cruel bastard in the NES version. DS version, he's an utter joke; his physical is laughable, his MT damage is barely scary, he will waste time healing for damage way less than what you can deal, AND he is weak to Wind, so Dragoons can tear him a new one (probably Archers too.) The worst Dark Guardian easily in the DS version.
(http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080217171612/finalfantasy/images/1/19/FF3NES-Echidna.gif)
Echidna is Ahriman-lite in the NES version. She can hurl Meteor on occasion and has Quake but it's not as strong. More to the point, she uses a lot of turns casting Status after you will have at least 2 Ribbons, and doesn't have his evasion. Her Drain at least does damage...not a lot but it's something! DS version is basically the same but with way less damage; double acting with a basic physical doesn't make up for it. FF3DS Status is worse for starters, her Drain actually can't break Mage Magic Defense, and I don't think she has stuff like Meteor to hit you with. She's harder than Ahriman since at least she can hurt people not using Ribbons and her physical is better, and doesn't die horribly to Wind damage, but she's still not very good.
(http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080217171336/finalfantasy/images/6/60/FF3NES-Cerberus.gif)
Cerberus spams one move in the NES version SOMETIMES using a shitty physical but the one move is a 4HKO Lightning spell you have no problems healing. hey, it gets past ribbons! If you have Diamond Gear, he's all the worse. He's laughably bad in the NES version. In the DS version, he's the best Dark Guardian by far. Not only is his MT damage legitimately scary, and better than all the others, he triple acts, so he hits two characters for reasonable physical damage. It's really absurd just how much better he is. He can also sometimes ST his spells and do high damage with that which isn't much of a save when he triple acts and can easily gang up on a character. I barely beat him in the NES version thanks to Blood Lance hax, even with my Red Mage in full on tank mode.
-And of course, the final boss time!
(http://static3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20111212012823/fanon/images/thumb/a/ae/Cloud_of_Darkness.PNG/437px-Cloud_of_Darkness.PNG)
NES version, she spams one move and you pray turn order doesn't bite you in the ass. The interesting thing is I use to never have problems with her since with Shurikens I could overpower her in a race to damage with Cure 4. This is the first time the game says otherwise; Shurikens were doing really low damage for some reason, which is odd. We're talking getting in like 2-5 hits and doing 1000-3000 damage, when I'm use to seeing more like 4-8k...and that's AFTER casting Haste in the former's case, so this was downright ridiculous how many times I had to fight her because the RNG was just that bad. Combine that with how the first turn is so hard to figure out because you have no clue what damage will happen when, so you don't know what your Sages should do, etc. I eventually won after a lot of swearing, resetting, etc., but good god was the RNG just painful. DS version, it was a tense fight but beat her on the first try, since I knew some quirks about the fight, like "kill the Tentacles first" and "Protect is your friend" and such. I did gimp myself having only 2 Arises before needing an Elixir since I was using Sage + Red Mage as a healer, but it's nice that I used the same team I did in my first playthrough WITHOUT having to alter them specifically for this fight.
Overall, this was a neat experience and I feel like the two games are similarly good in their own right. One thing that stands out about the DS version though is it seems to take very few attempts to actually improve upon the NES game, more goes out of it's way to be different. Honestly, I don't think that was the right decision; they should have put more effort on banging out the issues the NES game had, but to the game's credit, it doesn't really add any serious flaws that weren't already present in the NES version. There were also times I felt the game went out of it's way to do something because the NES version did it. Even ignoring Save Points, an obvious glaring one to me is the existence of Black Belt, Devout and Magus. Feels like the only reason they were kept is because "the NES version had them!" and they really didn't do much to justify their existence. NES version, jobs obsoleting other jobs was just how that game rolled, so they made sense; here, they try to go "well, White Mage has more low level spell charges but Devout has more high level ones!" but seriously, Devout has better stats and who cares about having more Cures and Curas when you Curaga and Curaja are the spells you care about? Black Belt is even more insulting since they made a high JSkill intensive job LATER than it originally was thereby killing any potential use it could have. Feels like they should have ditched those three, and focused more on fine-tuning the other jobs. Yes, I'm saying less jobs may have helped, because they artificially balanced redundant jobs, trying to pretend they all have a use even though no one in their right mind will look at Black Mage and go "yeah, that totally looks worth using over Magus late game!", where as deleting a handful of redundant Jobs and working on banging out the kinks might have made the options more interesting.
Oh, something worth noting about the DS version is that it strangely lacks conventions that existed since the SNES games, like using L/R to scroll quickly through items and such. There's no reason you should be forced to go through menus one at a time when FF6 and such let you scroll down by pages using buttons that existed on the DS. NES version? Yeah, no choice, but the DS version really should have implemented at least THAT much.
Interesting experiment nonetheless. I would consider doing it with something else, except not sure what else I'd do it with. I mean, yes, FF4 exists but FF4DS is not something I'm really excited to replay at this point.
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Hinode: So SG doesn't last longer with mind but Boon does because it's (MT) Haste+Shell?
Yes.
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(http://static3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20111212012823/fanon/images/thumb/a/ae/Cloud_of_Darkness.PNG/437px-Cloud_of_Darkness.PNG)
Which Type-0 character is this? She hasn't joined my party yet.
@VSM: Elixirs seem to be totally random as far as whether they work or not. Which makes them near-worthless.
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Oh, 5* equipment. It must be nice. SO NICE. One day I, too, will partake.
What do the orange elixirs do? You'd THINK they restore ability points to your dudes, but I've had several battles where I've gotten them and then, NOPE. Abilities are still depleted.
Took me about 80 Mithril to get my first 5*.
Also, the orange elixers restore 25% of 1 Ability's uses, rounded up. However, it is random whether it'll be Ability 1 or Ability 2. So if you used all 8 charges of Ability 1 but still have all 4 of Ability 2, and it decides to restore Ability 2, then you're SOL.
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OAK STAFF GET
Welcome back to the party Vivi. Now I don't think I have to spend mythril on Man in Black event at all. Can save for upcoming Galuf event.
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Kimahri just made his first useful contribution to the team today: casting a Watera weak enough to not OHKO Ifrit so I can get all the medals.
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FFRK: Soul breakfast! Holy crap, did four single draws, got two five star weapons! Balthier's Gun and a shared soul break Lance. So apparently the game wants me to use Balthier! It also means I am finally ready for the Dragoon Meta! (That's a thing right?)
Still no fucking Mage weapon...
*sees CapK's post*
Why?!!!
Sigh I can't even be angry. Two five stars in four pulls is awesome!
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If you want mage weapons so bad you don't care about other 5*, you should only pull on banners which offer two+ mage weapons instead of one, otherwise you're really setting yourself up for disappointment
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It DOES offer two Mage weapons, doesn't it? Or is Diamond Pin not a Magic focused weapon?
Edit: Also I was totally excited for the Gun or another weapon to make Tidus awesomer. I am happy, just mildly irritated to see someone else get the Mage weapon I've been needing...
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Nah the diamond pin isn't. The other pin is, but Nanaki's magic is pretty weaksauce anyway.
Golbez event should have two mage weapons. Edit: three actually
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It DOES offer two Mage weapons, doesn't it? Or is Diamond Pin not a Magic focused weapon?
Edit: Why does other motherfuckers' grass always gotta be greener?!
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Black Power day was productive. Got R3 Firaga, R3 Comet, R2 Blizzara/Thundaga, Doubled up R2 Magic Break/Power Break, and Mental Break. I now have babby's first skillset.
I am one (Greater? Major? Second from the top. What order are they in?) Earth Orb away from Shellga and that's the last thing I think I'll try to get before grinding out the boss battles up to Terra's second level crystal. The Accessory of Light event has it available as a mastery reward for the first EX battle, but I'm not sure if I can manage that, especially since one of the reqs for it is keeping WoL alive and that motherfucker's still level 17. The other special condition is hitting him with Holy (I only have base-level Dia), and so that's gonna eat up a WM slot that could be going toward Faith. Eugh. Gonna attempt that before going to bed, most likely, then plan from there.
EDIT: Fenrir, is there a particular reason you chose Waterja as your main -ja spell? Does it hit the most weaknesses or something? Is it stronger than Thundaja/Firaja/Blizzaja?
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If it's undead, then I believe hitting it with Curaga or something will count as attacking with a Holy-elemental move as well.
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Disgaea 5 demo up on the psn store.
Games fun. Shocker.
Next month is gonna be fun.
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The Old Autobattle and the Sea - Beat the Lich. Wooooooooooow. Black Power grinding paid off immediately. That wasn't even as tense as the battle immediately before it that I attempted yesterday. And thanks MF, Curaga does count as Holy Elemental for the requirements. Lost one medal (and thus the mastery) on number of turns to beat him, I think I can clean that up by not having skills he resists equipped on Kefka and get the mastery no problem.
Terra's second level crystal is well within the realm of possibility now, I think. You don't even need mastery for it, just a clear.
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About Waterja: it's the easiest to hone. To give you an idea: to hone it from R1 to R4, you need 60 Greater Blacks, 36 Greater Fires and 36 Greater Ices. For Firaja, you need 60 Greater Blacks and 90 Greater Fires. And it's a lot easier to get scattered orbs of multiple types than a bulk of a single type due to events and the ilk. Waterja also rarely hits resistance on relevant content. Also rarely hits weakness, but -jas hitting weakness is mass overkill anyway, you use -gas for that.
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Decided to blow 50 mythril on the soul break banner again, since 3 out of the four main weapons would benefit me. Got 2 4-stars and a duplicate Ras Algethi. Life is good.
Oh and one of those 4-stars was the Black Robe that Balthier normally wears anyway. So I am in Combining Heaven right now.
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Duplicaaaaaaaaate!!!!!!
Man, they need a friend trading system already!
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Yeah see Snow.
When it came out -jas did like 8000 damage on everything so the 2000 damage boost from hitting weakness was far less relevent than making sure to be resisted/nulled/absorbed by as few enemies as possible (since we don't have the resources to make a bunch of -ja spells)
Now bosses have a bit more defense so this argument is less relevent. Or it would be if faith didn't become a thing.
So yeah waterja is still awesome.
Diaga is even better though. Diaga is SICK. Get this asap and don't be afraid to run two white mages.
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OK, good to know. Yeah, I'm starting to see that at least as far as what skills I want to be able to use in battle, two white mages is going to be way more important than two BMs. Shellga, status, Faith, Healing... need it all. Terra makes a competent Red Wizard for now at least.
I'm assuming Diaga is the 4* version of the spell? The Japanese system for White Magic is perplexingly different than Black Magic (IE, Cure series is: Kearu 1*, Kearura 2*, KearuDA 3*, Kearuga 4*), so there's Dia 2*, Adia 3*, and Dadia 4*. And lucky for me, I am 2 4* Wind Orbs away from getting that. Pretty sure I saw those as a reward somewhere around there. EDIT: Oh, Wednesday is Windnesday. Yippie.
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Yeah I mean the 4* white mage holy elemental damage spell.
It does about as much damage as a -ja spell but has two more charges for some reason?
So you can hone it to R2 for a fairly low amount of orbs, and already have 6 charges of absolutely sick damage on a class far more versatile than black mage.
I got some holy damage boosting rod (Lenna's) and a single Diaga does more damage than any of my other skills, excluding Valefor (But including Rinoa's Valkyrie SB)
Who knew the full staff that gives full revive would turn out to be my best 5*?
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Crap I am trying to save all my mithril for the FF14 banner but it's very difficult to resist this one
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My friend did a 15 pull today and got a 2nd mystic veil.
Jelly.
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F2P overlords here is an update on my butthole, it says ;-)
King of Dragon Pass - This came out on steam and I found out that there was an iOS port a year ago. Apparently it can be fully voice controlled? So I bought iOS version. Option Paralysis engages immediately.
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Type 0: Oh god they're using the word verboten unironically. As in, verboten Eidolon
It's really weird how voice actors are trying to show emotion while character models are clearly dolls and not humans
I know why the game's atmopshere is special now despite the game being so anime. It's the music. Super dramatic background chant all the time.
Edit: Oh god Ace just said: "What does he have up his sleeve??" I am dying.
Basically everybody in the class has an one dimensional personality trait. Trey is the awkward bookworm, Cinque is the ditzy idiot, Jack is Chandler from Friends, etc.
Ace is just "Mr Cards"
RK: Finished all current dungeons . Maybe I'll stop talking about this. J/K
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I think you mean Ace is Yugi-Oh.
The game is great isn't even because of the music (I mute it and listen to Babymetal while I play). You are eventually going to fight your way through an ice dungeon. This ice dungeon is actually frozen clouds that your airships crash into. They are frozen by a giant white dragon l'cie from the Dragon Country Place (who is busy fighting Lord Xaioyu who is totes-not-a-Phoenix-for-some-reason Vermillion Bird Crystal l'cie).
Props to FFTypo for not making me want to punch people every time they use the word L'Cie, eventually they do call things Fal'cie or whatever and I start to have my eyes glaze over from the critical mass of made up words you need to understand the minutiae of difference of to follow the plot that FF13 does. But for a while it is generic enough filler term just like Aeon or Eidolon that you don't care and can just parse "Fantasty Cruft Noun".
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F2P overlords here is an update on my butthole, it says ;-)
King of Dragon Pass - This came out on steam and I found out that there was an iOS port a year ago. Apparently it can be fully voice controlled? So I bought iOS version. Option Paralysis engages immediately.
This game is randomly getting a lot of play lately and it's up for a Watch Out For Fireballs episode soon I think so I'm on board.
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King of Dragon Pass is amazing, and gives you options for just about any set of circumstances you find yourself in, even if it's not "ideal" or "correct".
Got a good enough viking lawyer? SUE THE SHIT out of that ghost for illegally haunting you. WIN THE CASE.
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I hear there is a duck clan that you can beat up.
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Final Fantasy The Autobattle Of Tomorrow - Golbez event is out and it has -a lot- of mage equipment on its banner, so I decided to splurge it out. One 11-pul, the 100-gem pull and two three pulls. End result: I got a second Empyrean Rod (nice, 73 mag weapon without synergy isn't bad!), a Dark Helm (SB EQUIP FOR DONKEY KONG CECIL I'M SO HAPPEH)... and Golbez's fucking Rune Axe. I guess I got what I wanted, but I'm not terribly enthused with being essentially forced to use Golbez for mage meta. Sigh.
EDIT: Scar will probably hate me forever.
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FFRK - 100 mithril spent on pulls during the soul break banners. Out of 22 items, I got maybe 3 that are useful 4 stars and not a single 5 star. RNGesus is not with me.
Lost Dimension - SPOILERS FOLLOW IF YOU CARE
Got to the final fight. Had one traitor in my team at the end due to COMPLETE FUCKING BULLSHIT on floor 4, namely being forced to have 2 votes on who to delete. There were apparently 2 traitors that floor. No warning of this before the vote. I got one the normal way, but had no opportunity to convince people who the second one was(I figured it out as soon as I knew there were two) so while I voted for the right person, the NPCs did not and someone I knew was innocent got deleted. fffffffffff
Anyway, the final fight. Also complete bullshit. Need to grind moar to beat him because hoooooly shit is that not happening with the numbers I have now. Down one person is bad enough, but he's got 2HKO damage on anyone on my team, even the tank. And of course like everyone else in the game he counters, so if someone attacks him I have to heal that person before enemy phase or he just kills them. This leaves me 2 people to attack with as I need 2 actions to heal afterwards, and 1 person left over who...well, can't attack or they die and doesn't need to heal. My buff-mage was the last traitor so I don't have access to any of her skills to use. Oh and debuffs get countered the same way attacks do. :V Also he has ginormous defense so even unloading my best shit I didn't take off more than like 25% of his HP in three turns.
I only got those three turns, too. Because on turn 4 he summoned copies of himself. Three of them. Who have lower numbers, they only 3HKO instead of 2HKO. And I *could* kill one copy in one turn if I unloaded full offense on it(meaning spending GP and San I can't afford to spend)...presuming I got that turn to attack with instead of scrambling to heal and revive(oh and revival is super expensive if you didn't get to keep the healer dude).
tl;dr version - I got wrekt. Need bigger numbers.
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Autobattle With Your Dad Simulator 2015 - Do You Still Autobattle With Your Dad?
My asshole is gaping.
I blew like 100 time bux on that fucking Lich fight and still couldn't get the mastery. Even with resorting to S/L abuse to have everything go perfectly my turns weren't optimal enough for the game to give me all 3 medals. It dropped the single Earth Orb I needed to get Shellga on my last attempt, though, so fuckin' finally. I'll probably go back and wreck it with WoL in my party later do get the 3 Earth orbs I need for Quake.
I also realized I could get R1 Waterja and R2Diaga so I did. Also got High Magic Break before realizing nobody in my party could use Support Skills (and it is a support skill even though Magic break isn't? OK game whatever).
Beat the fight with Inferno two fights before the Terra Lvl Crystal fight by the skin of my teeth. Lots of Saving and Reloading... actually probably should have just restarted the dungeon, ate the Timebux hit, and tweaked my skillset a bit and I could have gotten mastery. Those grow eggs would have been nice. Don't care, moving on.
Next fight is... Shiva/Ifrit and then Viligarmanda. I got Wrecked by Shivfrit. I'm thinking that even if I do beat them, which is gonna take a lot of s/r scumming to avoid fucking up timing my spells, I'll have to blow a Mythril on healing up before Viligarmanda. If I even can beat them. I need like waaaaay more charges of everything it feels like.
Agh, I'm so close. Just this and the Kefka fight. Blaah.
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It sounds like you're actually having fun with the game, but at the same time, it sounds like you're not having fun with the game.
FFRK: Golbez/Tellah banner is awesome, too bad after 4 pulls I couldn't get anything worthwhile from it and I'm out of Mythril. Sigh... I got much better luck from the Soul Breakfast, maybe I should have poured more mythril into that?
Tellah's weapon looks great though. Not only is it a mage weapon, his Soul Break is MP restoration, which is downright broken levels of good in a game like this. I am considering spending money on this game... >.>;;
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The lategame stuff has finally opened up and the cool stuff that everyone's been talking about have started to become apparent and that part is a lot of fun (Fuck that Lich though. I may or may not have made an ass of myself on the boat to school today and lost a pair of sunglasses overboard because of that fight.) Working on the Shiva/Ifrit EX fight is highlighting the sort of skillset and character tinkering that is where the game shines.
The FTP traps of "finish this now or wait until god knows when when the event re-release comes!" and stuff that made me uninstall the game that I've ranted about before all still suck and so yeah the game still sucks in those regards. That said, I'll probably be able to have fun with the game and be less stressed about grinding as much as possible once events for games I care about are over, and it becomes more about seeing if I can beat the fight or not rather than "If you don't beat this by Friday fuck you." Admittedly, part of this is me having uninstalled until there was an event that interested me and it wouldn't even have been a factor had I not uninstalled.
EDIT: Shivfrit down. Go go gadget S/R abuse and setting Battle Speed to 1. Blowing a mythril to recover and we'll see how the next one goes.
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Yes, yes, if you had played something habitually that was actively causing you to lose sleep for 3 months instead of quitting you would be much better off.
FF Typo - I beat the boss that you fight on a bridge, this was also kind of scaled to be not level appropriate, but he was significantly easier to beat up on than giant fuck off dragon that one shots you, so whatever. I didn't have the music on to see if it played a variation on the appropriate song.
I don't really know what you wanted me to comment on Setsuna's design DJ, I have more to say about the game insisting on spelling it Caetuna, but still clearly pronouncing it as Setsuna. Does it somehow make it fancier if you transliterate it phonetically into the meaningful word in Japanese when you put the game out in English? She dresses in the kind of dress that Chris Lightfellow's armor riffs on, but it is just a dress. The knife accessory is pretty neat.
Oh and the dead body of Kurasame standing up doing his Spirit Bomb pose when she turns into a crystal flower was pretty hilarious.
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Took another shot at Seifer and the Bloodhound Gang with Angel Wing Quake RW (100% aoe slow). This went much smoother but I still lost 3 stars and thus the mastery. Ah well.
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FFtypo- Nine sucks because he is Dragoon, BUT the second swing of his Up + Attack is a sweet slide on his knees while he spins his spear around over his head. That's pretty metal.
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I hear there is a duck clan that you can beat up.
Never, Ever Fuck With The Ducks.
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Oh shit I need to try that.
Nine's physicals are pretty pathetic but his jump is so cool I try to use him often.
I dislike how the game forces you to use magic a lot of the time (More like Final Flantasy am i right), because we only have two slots (like in RK) and I'd rather use those cool unique abilities rather than boring magic.
Even if you give magic to one of your three PCs, one of your two non controlled PCs might be replaced by the japanese shadow army at random , so you end up with a group with no magic struggling against flans until the japanese shadow army kindly decides to gtfo. The japanese shadow army can be deactivated but if you do you stop getting japanese shadow army points. Which is bad.
Cinque is godawful on paper but everytime I use her I get amazing results. Does that happen to you?
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Gourry have you played Duck Game? It's pretty good
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What are you saying? Ice magic is the best!
Spamming Blizzard spells is the second best thing to do than spamming King's physical.
BTW, I should mention the guy on the bridge has a super boss form later on.
I should also mention Kurasame's summon is Knights of the Round in the case when Setsuna is not doing her job.
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Final Fantasy Autobattlin' On Every Door - I said I was kinda disappointed over getting the Rune Axe, but holy shit do I take that back. Oak Staff-level damage and the SB's sorta absurd for damage. It's even a viable weapon for his Combat/Support levels.
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What are you saying? Ice magic is the best!
Spamming Blizzard spells is the second best thing to do than spamming King's physical.
BTW, I should mention the guy on the bridge has a super boss form later on.
I should also mention Kurasame's summon is Knights of the Round in the case when Setsuna is not doing her job.
Niu there are so many ways to break the game and magic has to be the most boring one
Also restoring MP is kind of a pain so far
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Cinque is godawful on paper but everytime I use her I get amazing results. Does that happen to you?
I've been trying to use everyone to try them out but I keep going back to Cinque, she just fucks shit up.
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Final Fantasy Autobattle Song '89 - Currently slaving away at The Feymarch on Golbez event. Rune Axe is almost maxed, I cap-broke the man in black, life's pretty good. I'll save the rest of today's stamina for the next Soul Break phase, though.
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I keep fucking up and saying/assigning Cinque instead of Cater. Cater is amazing, Cinque only really works one you get her Flinchproof on her basic physical. No step forward on that makes range on it weird. Her back + Attack charging Swing probably has potential if I get used to the range, but it is so easy to get hit out of. I would rather us Trey. When she hits the thing dies though.
All the ranged characters have worst stats and are actually best in the game.
Blizzard is pretty nice, it's true, I have had some success with most magic. I mostly run none and use King. Let Queen, Rem, Ace or the like do it. Flans have super easy Killsight though bro. Walk up to their face, step back and to the side and swing as soon as they go to flop on you. Instakillzzzzz. Flans are pretty much why when doing some side stuff I unlocked King's second SPP gun. You can easy farm Level 99 world map Flans.
Also RE: Cap and Cinque. Well she is the most pantyshot member of the cast by a great magnitude.
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Well with a normal FF0 character you often go Begin attack -> Enemy dodges -> Attack misses
With Cinque it goes Begin attack -> Enemy dodges -> Wait -> Wait -> Wait -> Enemy goes back into Cinque's range -> Attack hits for 100000 damage
Cater is indeed crazy good, in the last mission everybody died right away and I just finished everything with just Cinque and Carter. In fact as I type this I'm at the very end of the big bridge mission and everybody but those two are dead again. I think levelling everybody and letting the japanese shadow army take over really ruined my xp gain and everybody is way behind.
All the stuff in the ice-ish dungeon was suitably epic, and GLORY TO THE MILITESI EMPIRE
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Yes, Glory to the Militesi empiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
That behaviour with Cinque is really only with Supersoldiers and sometimes Infantry. Everything else she is Swing, get hit in the face repeatedly, enemy dies and she has lost half her health (And she has lowest HP of meleeguys by far). I generally prefer Jack in that slow but mad damage archetype because he slides around with dodge and then one shots shit super fast. For everyone else, well that is why ranged characters are king. They don't dodge roll around forever if you aren't in melee range and attacking. King who is the real MVP honestly is the one who struggles with them most, but that's why you use a special attack or just hold down the button a bit longer.
Shadow army wrecks your XP curve. I replay missions for SP (mostly to finish tasks), mostly Escape from the Imperial City because +100 HP on characters who are balanced by having low HP makes them OPOP. needs more broken flutegirl.
Also meant to note with Magic, it is only really great on people that can regen Magic (so the ones I said all do that). Rem's MP restoring orb move is great because it hits killsights and then she gets roughly 1 hundred billion infinities worth of MP. Queen I honestly just have her use the HP-> MP move on AI because that way she is infinite healing battery (Have you worked out how to heal other characters like the AI does?). Throwing Blizzard BOM on her is just gravy (because holy fuck it does like 3k damage at the tap of a button).
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Final Fantasy Wasn't Born To Autobattle - Yeah, three Golbez event dungeons still left to go because I went to clear more Soul Break Festival dungeons. I also did a 3-pull because why not attempt Sentinel's Grimoire or Garnet's excellently balanced Storm Staff?
I got Lightning's Blazefire Sabre. I could've used you back in the Lightning event, goddammit. Not complaining about a character SB weapon that's stronger at L20 than a Zantetsuken at L25, though. I DID need another good 5* sword. Having -five- character-unique SBs is kinda weird.
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Final Fantasy Wasn't Born To Autobattle- Everybody betray me! I fed up with this worl.
edit - I GUESS ITS FINE.
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That was more the Rune Axe. I wanted Lightning's weapon, that's for sure, but I'm pretty anxious for more universal mage gear.
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FF: Ah, Toe Bat. Lol - Wrapped up the SoM event and cleaned out the inventory in the item shop, minus the Major summon orbs because who cares. Lots of new orbs. Also fed Eiko and WoL eggs to Level 49. WoL is probably going to replace Cloud for the time being since I'm just using him for breaks anyway. After doing so, I went back and mastered the Lich fight. Mm, Earth orbs.
Orb Transmorphing and Ability dismantling were introduced in JP, so I could have taken my 50 some Normal Earth Orbs and made them into 5 big ones. Oh well, now I have mooooooore. I had plenty of smaller orbs I wasn't gonna used so I transmorphed some and honed up some more abilities. It ended up being pretty expensive gil-wise but I now have R2 Shellga, R2 Mental Break and an R3 Curaga. Should have the dark orbs for Quake after the level crystal fight. Unfortunately also have like 0 ice orbs of any flavor so R2 Waterja will have to wait.
Tried the fight against Kefka for Terra's Level crystal. Got a shitty draw on Friend summon so didn't expect to win, but yikes. Requires a lot of S/L abuse to make sure he doesn't just OHKO someone off before you even can get shell up, and then even more to make sure he doesn't just wipe out a party member by casting four MT spells in a row. Even with Two healers I couldn't keep up. Motherfucker can't be broken either, so Mmph. I may have to put the breaks on Quake to get R4 Comet just to have enough damage to knock the guy out.
EDIT: Oh yeah, he's vulnerable to slow. That'll help me not get overwhelmed, but will I have enough damage? I guess we'll see.
EDIT2: Yeaaaaaah, I can't win. I simply don't have enough damage. But apparently you get bonuses for continuing with a Mythril, and one of those is +2 charges to your abilities. OK time to just lose a lot and spend a bunch of mythril. I'm fine with this.
EDIT3: Welp had I known you could just blow mythril to get enough charges to win I wouldn't have blown those orbs on R4 Comet. Oh well.
It's done. I can finally stop caring. On the plus side, this happened, so, you know, worth it. (http://i.imgur.com/RGxqa8M.png)
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That is, indeed, worth it.
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Also, for Zenny: break resistance doesn't grant break immunity. It still debuffs, but at reduced effect. So, a breakdown has roughly the effect of a break and a break just sucks.
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It's done. I can finally stop caring.
You will post about it again tomorrow.
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I don't see what's wrong with caring about a game you like? Zenny's past the earlygame autobattle-fest and should be at the point where he's got enough timebux that he shouldn't even be losing sleep over it if he tried, thus solving the main issues you and he had with it?
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I do see a problem with someone who has an addictive personality taking back up a something that actively made him lose sleep and feel uncomfortable "wasting" resources in it that actively encourages him to do it every day for months at a time that he going back to it unironically can say the reason he had difficulty with it this time was because he didn't play it for months.
Also mostly I just need to be able to shout things at Zenny something other than how much he has been neglecting the shaft and the balls lately.
But hey you are using it to get that early morning exercise in right Zenny?
FF Typo - Redid the bridge thing for SP for Tasks. That boss goes down much quicker and easier with King than Cater. His shots aren't hitscan, but they are easily the fastest reacting things you have. Tight killsight windows is pretty bad since actively attacking stops them from coming up. That means things with tight windows you literally need to ESP out. Some of the bosses ones just aren't consistent enough in when they pop op to get them 100% of the time (though times they don't come up aren't punishing you UNLESS they are followed by another possible killsight).
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I'm totally in control this time. Yeah. Totally. I got this bro. Everything's coming up Feldman on this one. Just call me Corey.
and yeah i'll totally post about it tomorrow
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FFRK:
Fourth try at 11 relic pulls.
(http://i.imgur.com/kQ4cu7z.jpg)
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Yes.
RK: Got all them materias, mastered all them dungeons. What do I do what do I do. I think I'll try soloing some dungeons with synergy for exp and fun, because fuck dailies.
We can finally craft Meteo. I got Flare instead. I got a major black orb for completing the quest.
Atma Weapon was a bit difficult, as you can only lose two medals and you're definitely going to lose three. The answer to this is, as usual, ProtectgaShellgaPhysBreakdownMagBreakdown but I also recommend some Carbuncle to reflect its Flare. My level 52 team beat his ass.
Firion is another Tidus, fuck him
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Dude, Ultima Weapon is vulnerable to Paralysis, I lost one medal on actions taken and I was rocking a B-team. R4 Intimidate rules that fight.
Final Fantasy Autobattle Knows I'm Miserable Now - Done with Soul Breakfast phase 4, done with Man In Black, currently farming Greater Blacks because misery is my name. I also crafted Meteor because seriously, people.
EDIT: FIRION HAS BLACK MAGIC 1, MAGE FIRION WITH GOLBEZ'S RUNE AXE META 4 LYFE he can use staves anyway
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I'm not even sur I'd have even used that if I had known about this, Intimidate never fucking hits
Can you even live having finished one less quest than me
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I mentioned in chat, but I have an obsessive personality, so I'll mention here, too.
Why does Irvine have magic, when he's the guy who is scared of GFs?
Why does Irvine have ZERO ranks in Celerity instead of FIVE? Does anyone else find it really fucking weird that Final Fantasy's resident sniper is unable to use the "Aim" ability?
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Why is Kraken immune to earth damage but takes normal damage from water?
Why is the boss of the Snow Cavern in FF2 weak to ice?
Why are the following flying creatures not immune to earth damage? FF3 bats, FF10 Simurghs, FF13 jetpack troopers. Probably others I'm missing.
#fflogic
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Well vsm, Irvine is a really shitty sniper...if that helps.
Ffrk!
I waltzed through the golbez event and in the last fight I beat the cpu and did not bring lightning, so no mastery for me!
Yay, do over!
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Why is Kraken immune to earth damage but takes normal damage from water?
In FF1, enemies fought underwater (including Kraken) were immune to Quake because they were swimming in water, not standing on the ground.... so them being immune to earthquake is actually pretty reasonable. Meanwhile, water was not an element in FF1, and the PCs had no water attacks of any sort.
Why is the boss of the Snow Cavern in FF2 weak to ice?
Because it's a turtle. Granted, that leaves open the better question of why on earth a turtle would live in a snow cavern.
This has been Unwanted Answers with Dark Holy Elf.
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I'm not even sur I'd have even used that if I had known about this, Intimidate never fucking hits
Can you even live having finished one less quest than me
50% hit rate. Can be refreshed before running out. Don't blame me, blame yourself or RNGesus.
Also, I refuse to waste that many 5* orbs on a spell that has no real use over -jas even six months from now. Meanwhile, Meteor can be spammed against the ever increasingly dangerous trash mobs even at R1 and mocks Reflect.
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Meteo is useful against randoms, but the upcoming Ruinga cover its base and R2 Valefor is basically already = this.
Flare has too few uses to be better than -jas, but if you have two black mages, you can probably give one a Flare for easy 2x9999 damage
Both spells are pretty redundant but have their use. Only one of those two completes a quest
Type 0 : Is wrecking me
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Well, after everyone here wouldn't stop talking about it, I downloaded RK about two weeks ago. I saved some Mythril for the Golbez Banner (didn't get anything noteworthy) and used the other Mythril I had on SB4.
(http://i.imgur.com/aBmsPSc.png)
Not pictured is Firion's Axe.
I am pretty sure I am going to be hit by a bus tomorrow.
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Welp, you're set for mega meta.
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Why is Kraken immune to earth damage but takes normal damage from water?
In FF1, enemies fought underwater (including Kraken) were immune to Quake because they were swimming in water, not standing on the ground.... so them being immune to earthquake is actually pretty reasonable. Meanwhile, water was not an element in FF1, and the PCs had no water attacks of any sort.
I also want to add that, depending on the nature of the water attack as well as the nature of the creature, an aquatic beast being wounded. I mean, I keep fish. Wrong chemical composition, wrong aeration, wrong temperature, etc will all kill the hell out of fish.
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I was going more for, if you're giving the boss an obscure immunity, why not make it the element he lives in? But yeah this is the DL, RPGs are srs bsns.
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So we all agree that Kraken are terrible bosses and games shouldn't do water levels any more right? Cool it has been decided.
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Maybe the kraken is hurt by being pushed by the water you summon, towards, like, a certain death?
Also Irvine got over his fear of magic when I junctioned 100 deaths to his gunz
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The skillset in Celerity is a weird combination as is, though. It's got shades of Ranger through Leg Shot and Aim, but Shadowbind is usually more of a Ninja skill, while Wind Slash originated from Sabin's Blitzes. Quick Hit has been in the Ranger skill set before, but I always mentally associate it with Tidus, who is a swordsman/speedster/time mage. I can't even recall which other games had Quick Hit besides FFX and FFD at this point, though. Did FFV Ranger have Quick Hit? I recall FFV Ranger having Barrage as its major skill.
Anyway, the point is, that Irvine, despite wielding a gun, does not actually get any of these skills, whereas characters like Tidus and Fran actually -have- gotten them in their games.
Now that said, I -totally- think that if Rinoa and Squall get Celerity, that Irvine should too, but uh.... oh well? The word "celerity" literally refers to speed, so it's not -actually- the Ranger skillset. Which explains why other ranged characters like Sazh don't get it either.
FFRK:
Wanted to play with my toys, so I made a team of all-physical 5*-loaded combat characters to see if they could autobattle through some Elite-level content. They Mastered the 90-difficulty Demon Wall in Golbez's event without much trouble, though I did switch to manual to throw some Drain Swords.
All Lv65, all 5* or better gear, all rocking 4* damage abilities + a Break or Spellblade
Cloud w/ 6* Zantetsuken+ rocking Holy Blade materia
Tidus w/ Brotherhood and Double Hit
Squall w/ Blitz Sword and Self-Sacrifice (and Drain Sword)
Lightning w/ Ras Algethi gun and Zealot
Sephiroth w/ Keepsake Knife and Gore-Stained Blade II
It's not as good as Mage Meta, but surprisingly effective when you can actually use all your best gear in one party. (Why can't I get a freakin' 5* mage weapon...!?)
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Because misery loves an audience.
Final Fantasy Topsy-Turvy Autobattle - Farming Greater Black Orbs on Mako Reactor 5 today has netted me five of them so far. This is actually a -really- good haul so far. I just wish the Orb Festival would come by already.
Tangentially, I'm pretty sure I can easily break 300 attack on most of my swordsmen with Blazefire Sabre sans synergy just by stacking my current equips and Self-Sacrifice. At this point, I'm not even using Cloud anymore unless I need Retaliate, and that has become increasingly rare (basic physicals just don't work anymore. Such a far departure from the days of yore. As much as autobattle has become the game's moniker here, no relevant content worth its salt will fail to lay waste on your party if you attempt autoing nowadays. FF4 Demon Wall does -not- count as relevant content).
EDIT: Regarding Irvine, considering his only sniping achievement in plot was FAILING TO LAND A SHOT, I think it's only fair that he gets no Aim. Hell, SELPHIE gets ITE on her basic physical and he doesn't in FF8.
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FFV Ranger did not have Quick Hit, no.
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EDIT: Regarding Irvine, considering his only sniping achievement in plot was FAILING TO LAND A SHOT, I think it's only fair that he gets no Aim. Hell, SELPHIE gets ITE on her basic physical and he doesn't in FF8.
Not that I like Irvine or anything, but you're kind of off the mark for Irvine here, no pun intended. He didn't miss the shot so much as she put up a barrier blocking it; we clearly see Edea hold up her hand, a barrier like thing appears just as the bullet reaches her. Failure to kill, yes, but not because he couldn't aim. The failure came from how he paniced beforehand, thereby letting Edea have enough time to realize "oh, someone's probably going to try and kill me."
Yes, I'm being nitpicky, what about it?
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I.e. it still happened because Irvine sucks.
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Such a far departure from the days of yore. As much as autobattle has become the game's moniker here, no relevant content worth its salt will fail to lay waste on your party if you attempt autoing nowadays. FF4 Demon Wall does -not- count as relevant content).
EDIT: Regarding Irvine, considering his only sniping achievement in plot was FAILING TO LAND A SHOT, I think it's only fair that he gets no Aim. Hell, SELPHIE gets ITE on her basic physical and he doesn't in FF8.
To be clear, this Difficulty-90 Demon Wall + its reasonably tanks Trash mobs are almost certainly the absolute upper limit of any Autobattle strategy. I was as fully loaded for efficient Autobattle as possible and I still only got Mastery by the bare minimum. And Demon Wall is notably an anti-magic themed boss anyway, so I was using the recommended damage type anyway.
Really the game should be getting RNG or S/L style mocking monikers instead of Autobattle jokes.
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Neph goes 5/22 on 11 pulls when I am 0/44. Neph is the chosen one of Nuffle. Why has Nuffle betrayed me?
Irvine's not just a gunman, is my point. He's a FAST, ACCURATE Gunman. His schtick, as far as we know is two things:
1)He's supposedly an elite sniper. (So he should, by all rights, have Aim)
2)His Limit Break is popping off a lot of shots really fast, fuck, his best limit IN THIS GAME, is called Fast Ammo.
Celerity may be a weird skillset, but Irvine comes at that skillset from the direction of "being a sniper" and "attacking really fast". He's probably got the best claim to the skill outside of Tidus.
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He's probably got the best claim to the skill outside of Selphie.
Fixed.
(http://i.imgur.com/P2B64lX.jpg)
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He's probably got the best claim to the skill outside of Selphie.
CapK being the best.
The sad part is that while she has no use for it, if Selphie had Leg Shot I'd totally put it on her now. With Irvine in the party, just to make him feel bad about being the only one in his cast who can't use it.
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centre of mass 24/7 mofos
it just so happens that zenny has a really huge head
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I rage bought a 5 mythril pull out of desperation and FINALLY got a five star item.
It's... an Adamant bangle. It... doesn't have a soul break. It does, nonetheless, have really great stats and is easily the best armor I have, and it raises a LOT of abilities, so now I have to figure who this makes the most sense to stick on.
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FF How To Autobattle Your Dragon - FF5 event! With a Galuf Level Break II crystal, and a Lenna Lvl Break 1 crystal. I now have a white mage lined up that can be Level 65, so that's neat. Now I just need a 5* Staff.
Oh and Exdeath I guess. I dunno his battle sprite is pretty ugly I'm not sure I care.
Got WoL's Level Break 2 crystal this morning. I am just vaguely hoping that by the time I reach that tier of levels I'll have someone else who can take his place because his sprite is so ugly.
Fashion RK is soon to be a go, methinks.
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Crap I had high hopes for Xdeath's sprite. Don't tell me he's as bad as the Cosplayer of Light?
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FFRK: Got Mythril, did another pull on the Soul Breakfast banner because there's more 5* items advertised there. Holy crap, paid off! Look at that shiny five star... sword. Of course it's a sword. It's always a sword. Anybody need a five star sword? Just hand me your phone and five Mythril and I can near guarantee one!
It's not even a sword I already have, therefore making it useless for actually increasing my damage output through combining...
I just want a Mage weapon damnit...
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Dude Djinn. Djinn. There are two banners available right now. One has one mage weapon. The other has three. Choose the one that has three. Not the one that has one.
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Dude Djinn. Djinn. There are two banners available right now. One has one mage weapon. The other has three. Choose the one that has three. Not the one that has one.
Also,
Crap I had high hopes for Xdeath's sprite. Don't tell me he's as bad as the Cosplayer of Light?
Oh god no. His sprite's just so busy that it looks like a mess. That said, it looks terrible blown up in the banner but not that bad shrunk down. I'll know for sure in a few minutes after I get him. EDIT: Miscounted stamina. More like an hour and a half.
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Dude Djinn. Djinn. There are two banners available right now. One has one mage weapon. The other has three. Choose the one that has three. Not the one that has one.
I drew from the other one too. Three 3*s. I figured I'd give this one a draw because it won't be around after tomorrow. Drew again, got another Sentinel's Grimoire. That's kind of like a Mage weapon I guess? First 7* item. I'm trying to be happy but I can't put it on any of my actual mages...
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Use クソがき. You know you wanna.
EDIT: I'm pretty sure the 6 followers I have is because of that name alone, or the fact that my introduction say 俺様は世界一素晴らしい人間だね！ instead of some lame よろしくおねがいします because I'm 1000% sure nobody wants Mog's shitty Regen Soul Break as their Friend summon.
BTW DJ does your boy toy still play? Convince him to give me his friend code. This is as close to adding someone on the DL as I will get. Mine is QdGsY
EDIT: I looked at ExDeath's sprite without all the obnoxious banner art behind it and scaled down to what would be used in game. It's actually not bad at all. I rescind my previous comments.
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Hmm... Maybe if I actually rename him that it'll be worth it.
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Your reasoning should not be "this banner that has no use to me outside of one rod disappears soon, better invest in it"
It should be "put all the mithril in the mage heavy banner right now and don't even think about the others"
You have absolutely ridiculous Fenrir-like luck so you would have gotten like two or three mage weapons from Golbezfest if you hadn't spent all mithril on breakfast for dumb swords instead? Yes I am twisting the knife and adding salt.
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At this point, I almost don't want to get a Mage weapon. If I do, what will I complain about anymore? How will the RKDL get its schaudenfreude?!
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I'm using my mage weapons on melee characters right now out of spite to autobattle through the first parts of this event, if it makes you feel any worse.
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At this point, I almost don't want to get a Mage weapon. If I do, what will I complain about anymore? How will the RKDL get its schaudenfreude?!
Well even if you find one, I don't know how you could possibly live with only one mage weapon?? Oh man the game would really be a lot more annoying if I only had one mage weapon. It would be terrible.
I have four (two for black magic, two for white magic) and that's already not really enough?
I'd like another black magic one.
Thnx.
I'm glad you're taking the bullet for all of us
Edit: got my FF3 guys to the FF3 dungeons. The fourth to last FF3 level isn't bad for xp, 20k for 20 stamina plus synergy bonus. Lots of small wind orbs too. I'm not leaving until everybody is at least 50.
I need to find something similar for FF2 because the number of underleveled FF2 characters is growing exponentially.
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I figured I'd give this RK thing a try . Don't see myself getting hooked on it because the menus you have to wade through for micromanagement are a molasses-speed pain in the ass, but the dungeons are entertaining enough. Also my introductory relic pull was a 5-star weapon (Blitz Sword) so everything dies.
Diablo 3: Working on getting a Hellfire Amulet. Three Uber bosses down, one to go - just need the stupid Act 2 keywarden to cough up his rare drop so I can do the fight. I've been lucky enough to get two of each crafting material from the boss drops so far, too, so if the RNG lets me down I can try again pretty easily.
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I rage bought a 5 mythril pull out of desperation and FINALLY got a five star item.
It's... an Adamant bangle. It... doesn't have a soul break. It does, nonetheless, have really great stats and is easily the best armor I have, and it raises a LOT of abilities, so now I have to figure who this makes the most sense to stick on.
Bangles are great, the best armor type for overall stat boosts. I've been ecstatic since getting that Edincoat and Adamant Bangle from that 11-pull last week. Adamant is more of an attack bangle, though, so the first priority is sticking it on your physicallers if you need the attack. I have it on Golbez currently, since he actually has uses for the Attack with that Rune Axe of his.
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Hate you all so much... >:(
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wahhh wahhh people get 5 star swords that is so mean
:)
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I -will- note that 4* mage weapons are quite good enough to tide you over even sans synergy in a pinch, especially now that Faith is a thing. I've only had that trusty Light Rod and an Empyrean Rod as backups for the Judgment Staff and Oak Staff for a loooooong time, and they work well - especially with Devotion and Impetuous Youth for RMs. It's also considerably easier getting multiple 4* copies, which also helps a lot. I even lucked out enough to land two more Empyrean Rods this week, so now I have an 80-Mag backup, no synergy involved, for my dedicated summoners. The higher mults do make up for the lower mag and, at L65, it's not hard getting past the ~220 magic threshold, which is where the higher mults really start paying off.
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Hah.
So, are we not getting meteor as a boss rush reward?
And does anyone know if the Zack event is next or is that ff14 one before?
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Zack event is likely next. I'd bet on the FF14 event coming up either alongside Terra's reissue or just before, since that's when the JP client introduced nine-relic, two-set banners. Minimizes mucking around (which led to stuff like the glitched Wakka Memory Crystal back in May).
EDIT: I don't think even the JP client has even gotten a single 5* skill as a reward as of now. You want Meteor, you craft it.
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FFRK - Decided to plow through a few stages. Picked up Black Mage's Memory Crystal, shoved a bunch of Growth Eggs down his throat, and then pushed him through Elite Hein's Castle. Only needed to S/L once, but I got his RM2 quite easily. Can I be a part of the Mage Meta now?
FF14 - Trying to plow through story. Just finished up the Dravanian Forelands.
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I haven't been playing enough new stuff lately.
Never Alone (Kisima Innitchuna): Aesthetically very pleasing, not totally sold on the mechanics yet. Should check if the game can be played with a controller. I am ass at using the keyboard for platformers.
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drunk and ignoring problems? play autobattle fantasy whatever
R2 Waterja am i cool yet
no i was cool when i started playing the same game as fenrir
should i start playing typo then
is typo the new dark souls
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At this point, I almost don't want to get a Mage weapon. If I do, what will I complain about anymore? How will the RKDL get its schaudenfreude?!
Me?
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Final Fantasy Autobattle And Pain - Shuffled back to Ultros/Chupon for Greater Black farming. By my calculations, I need 13 more of them to raise the incoming Bioga from R1 to R3. 15 more Greater Darks as well, but I'm less worried about those. Easy to farm and they show up as prizes on events often.
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Swept the ff4 elite classic dungeons. Used a full ff4 squad which helped.
Now I'm trying to beat the last 6 ff2 elite stages with my full ff2 team. Hilarity will ensue.
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FFRK: it begins, got a blitz sword out of tutorial, maximized autobattle
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Oh god we are expanding
Zenny: Hell no
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RKDL meta is happening
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FFRK: it begins, got a blitz sword out of tutorial, maximized autobattle
AYUGHldfjaisdsf;fFoaidfj';ifjea;who;augho;auwhao;gaeogaewgohag;ijaewfo;ijafe
YOU EVEN TROLL ME WHEN YOU DON'T TRY, KAPPA.
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Why do you remotely believe he wasn't trying to troll you
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He's probably got the best claim to the skill outside of Selphie.
Fixed.
(http://i.imgur.com/P2B64lX.jpg)
This is the best thing in the history of everything ever.
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FFRK: it begins, got a blitz sword out of tutorial, maximized autobattle
AYUGHldfjaisdsf;fFoaidfj';ifjea;who;augho;auwhao;gaeogaewgohag;ijaewfo;ijafe
YOU EVEN TROLL ME WHEN YOU DON'T TRY, KAPPA.
They actually implemented a free 5-star weapon for all beginners in that initial pull recently. Like... I think the day after VSM started? (I'm sorry man, I'm not even joking.)
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They considerably raised the odds of a 5* gift pull on that start. People are still getting 3*s and 4*s on start, but they're a lot less common.
EDIT: Also holy hell is this final Soul Breakfast banner underwhelming outside of Vega. This is some One-Winged Angel SB banner emotional abuse. Vega's even showing up again in about a month from now!
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In JP, the implemented a banner that lasts until something stupid like March 2016 where after your pull you get to pick a free Character Specific SB 5*. They all kinda suck except maybe Yuna's, but take solace, VSM. In several months, you can get a 5* guaranteed.
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Did a 15 mythril pull, got Tifa's glove. Not what I wanted, but hey I have five unique soul breaks now. Plus a weapon for Galuf when he's released.
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Final Fantasy Autobattle's Refrain - *Starts Dark Bahamut fight.* *Dark Bahamut OHKOs half the party with initiative Megaflare.* BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD.
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What were your strats for the battles before Dark 'mutt?
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Okay, read through like the last 15 pages and caught up. Comments in no particular order.
On Grandia 2 re-release: Yeah, the hard mode buffs bosses notably more than randoms. The developer more or less said there's not much point in us buffing randoms to the moon because it's so trivial to refill your resources in Grandia 2 anyway so all it would really do is encourage players to run back to the save cone after every battle and that isn't really fun or compelling gameplay. So the randoms aren't buffed too hard, mostly just more HP and speed.
On Star Ocean 3: I really hate the combination of how easy it is to get bonus gauge broken and how glacial advancement can feel without the EXP bonus from bonus gauge that I can never remember if it's double or triple. I think I'd honestly like the game much better if bonus gauge never affected your EXP gains but they were raised by half the bonus you get from the gauge all the time.
On Star Ocean writing in general: Echo Grefter, SO does an okay job of running with the Star Trek tropes. Star Trek is definitely the franchise's biggest outside influence and its writing was often equally laughable or worse, regardless of which incarnation you look at. (Spock's brain, hello?) SO2 definitely makes references to the UP3 and stuff, the catch is that if you play Rena's storyline you miss basically all of them.
On FF1: Android version is so terribad, it's the PSP version without any of its (or Dawn of Souls') extra content but still having lol DoS balance, iOS version's fine though
And now my own gaming. Been on a Super Robot Wars binge lately, playing several of them side by side - OG1 (Ryusei route), J (Calvina with Coustwell), and Z2-1 (ranged spec mech).
SRW OG1: God, I forgot how long Ryusei's route is just utterly saddled with a pile of utterly terrible units. Gespenst MkII-M's are almost worse than empty deployment slots. Almost. Don't have much more than that to say right now; I stopped in the middle of chapter 18, know there's a few more marathon stages coming up. Soon, at least, I can stop deploying the embarrasingly bad units.
Only missed one skill point thus far, in chapter 16. I don't think that one's possible in a fresh run without either some serious good luck or very specifically planning all your upgrades for that stage specifically (or game over abuse, but I consider myself above that). Biggest problem is that getting it forces you to kill a lot of enemies on counters... and those enemies have very long range and prefer to wisely shoot people who can't counter, and most of your ways to get that long of a range don't work underwater (which is 95% of the map). In a replay you'd probably have a much easier time of it with upgrades and stuff.
Kind of wish OGs PS2 at least had a menu patch. I can play SRW games in full Japanese but I'm excruciatingly slow with navigating menus that way (especially seishins).
SRW J: The only one of these games I've ever actually finished before. Unfortunately, I lost the save, so it's a fresh run, not NG+. As mentioned, playing Calvina with Coustwell. Left off when I last played a few days ago in the middle of chapter 27. I had really forgotten just how much of a slog J's midgame can be; all the enemies ever have way more HP than they have any business to. I kind of wish someone would do a romhack of this game to tweak the AI somehow, but that's probably way too hard to do. I know there's a Japanese rebalance hack, but I assume it's incompatible with the English patch and in any case there's absolutely no useful patch notes as to what it does (yes I google translated the readme, it doesn't really say anything specific).
I did the Archangel route this time for the first route split, think I like that one better than the Nadesico's first split because less fighting Boazanians with absurdly high HP. Flip side, you get to fight Grand Chers earlier and those are god-awful too. Second split was Moon route, and from there secrets dictate the rest of the routes so.
As for Coustwell... it's probably the worst of the three protagonist mechs, but it's still a stupidly good protagonist mech so whatever. At _worst_ it's a better Shining Gundam, and that's hard to bitch about.
SRW Z2-1: I kind of love this game, but I wish the skill points were more interesting than all of them basically boiling down to "LTC the stage kthxbye." What I assume to be the OC villains are super annoying to fight though. Just finished... I think it was chapter 13? The last chapter before the routes converge finally, so I'm about to get a bunch of new units and stuff.
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On Star Ocean writing in general: Echo Grefter, SO does an okay job of running with the Star Trek tropes. Star Trek is definitely the franchise's biggest outside influence and its writing was often equally laughable or worse, regardless of which incarnation you look at. (Spock's brain, hello?) SO2 definitely makes references to the UP3 and stuff, the catch is that if you play Rena's storyline you miss basically all of them.
My go-to ep for catastrophically bad Star Trek writing has always been The Omega Glory. The one where Kirk plays great white hero to a band of transplanted native Americans is also pretty fucking atrocious. I really don't remember Spock's Brain at all, in spite of its infamy.
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Oh look they released an update which gives Selphie even more Mind stat.
(http://i.imgur.com/WuSISpb.jpg)
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/me approves of Selphie hype but laments the loss of the rare advantages Lenna and Aerith have~
No more Record Keeper for the CTs for now as it is inflicted with an apparent permanent Mini status (on Bluestacks the app has went really tiny, uninstall reinstall doesn't fix it, previous versions of Bluestacks doesn't fix it, uninstalling Android updates doesn't fix it, fiddling around with registry values doesn't fix it, unless I'm doing it wrong, more or less threw everything and the kitchen sink at it and it doesn't fix it), oh well, I may pick it up again eventually if it somehow gets fixed with an update or something or even just to somehow struggle through things just to get Vanille's Memory Crystal whenever that shows up~
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I think I had this problem...don't remember how I fixed it, but I Googled the answer. There was some function you had to turn off on your phone I think. Mine happened after my phone manually updated.
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Um, Selphie isn't on the list of chars who got buffed. (http://imgur.com/a/3Uvsu)
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What were your strats for the battles before Dark 'mutt?
In your case, you can just Advantaliate the boss rush to hell. It's great for bypassing the Fiends' counters. Just don't forget to bring Jump and the assorted necessary elements. I mostly fed them to Rune Axe Golbez. Reta-meta also works on White Dragon, but you -do- need to bring poison and NE magic for it anyway so you don't miss the target medals.
Anyhow.
Final Fantasy Autobattle Nabbed As A Sniper - Mastered Dark Bahamut after some tinkering around. Crucially, you must -guarantee- all your PCs can survive the opening Megaflare 100% of the time. HP above 3.3 and Res above 205 does the trick. Past that, it's also important to bring Dispel so he doesn't smack you with Reflected Flares. I beat him before the second non-initiative Megaflare - and, as long as you have the offense to keep him from pulling a third, you should master the fight with room to spare.
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Lost Dimension: Attempt at final boss #2. I still need more numbers. <_> Maybe next time I'll actually let him kill me instead of just turning the game off once I have 3-4 people dead and realize I can't win to see if there's any kind of special ending from losing to The End.
FF Chibirhythm Curtain Call - Playing this again. I blame jim. After getting back into the swing of it, I am experiencing the pain of 1great. Almost, ALMOST manage to All Critical a song but somewhere in the middle I hit a single Great and do not get the All Crit. This is on Expert, not on Ultimate, before anyone tries to strangle me. Ultimate songs pop up in the Quest Medleys and I have trouble even getting SS, All Crit just ain't happening. I have resisted the urge to spend additional dollars on DLC largely by virtue of playing the game in a different room than I leave my wallet and letting laziness take care of the rest. Good strategies.
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Um, Selphie isn't on the list of chars who got buffed.
(http://imgur.com/a/3Uvsu)
I was referring to the Augment system. Her 6-star rod got a free +2 to Mind.
Oh btw shields gain defense from Augment, not evasion. So it's not always your highest stat thankfully.
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All of the natural 5* equips get a minimum +1 to stat augmenting by proxy. +6 get a starting +2. I gladly fed a useless Gold Shield to Vivi's Oak Staff, so now we're cruisin'.
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Oh, hey, adding 4* spellblade on one of the characters already in my party? I am OK with that. Game, you're forgiven.
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I'm just sorta shocked how fast they added the buff to Mog. Look, now he's a viable healer. Oh, and Celes is finally a viable battle mage hybrid.
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Still wish they unlocked some of the other people if their lv cap.
It's crazy to think cloud will be able to get to 80 before some characters break past 50.
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Cloud being broken is an easy way for monies. I mean, Seph was the second PC to get his MC2. At least, by the time Battle in the Big Bridge rolls in, nearly almost every relevant character will have MCs. Though this might not happen for the FF2 crowd and Edward since most of their memory crystals are in collab events, which have a -terrible- history of showing up on Global.
EDIT: No new event until the 17th? I'll die of boredom unless they stick a dungeon update in-between.
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RK: that Dark Bahamut fight.
I got as much poizn and non elemental as I could on my mages (Valefor 2, Bioga 1, Comet 5, Comet 3, Biora 5, Flare 1, Faith 3) and barely beat white dragon. Dark Bahamut just wasn't going to happen with this setup. I went with advantaliate instead and it was still pretty fucking intense.
Cloud Retaliate 4
Golbez Flare 1 Bioga 1
Aeris Curaga 5 Shellga 2
Garnet Protectga 1 Dispel 1
Wakka Boost 5 Double hit 4
Luneth RW, Garnet had double hit.
Cloud had 4* FF4 daggers plus Dark Helm, and did about 6500 damage per hit after all the buffs. advantaliate is king.
All in all pretty fun, especially when Dbahm hit itself with Flare after its Reflect got dispelled.
Also Cagnazzo was a huge jerk. Best fiend. In the original game he just died in two Tellah spells?
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A nice thing is that we got the rebalanced medal scoring thresholds today! So, people who waited to master White Dragon and Dark Bahamut (i.e. not me) will very likely have a considerably easier time now.
EDIT: yes, Cagnazzo is a jerk. Those damn status counters!
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Counter mt paralysis. What a jerk.
And then you're in the last round but he retreats inside his shell, you start attacking but do almost no damage, he heals, you don't want to waste charges so you just set the speed to 5 and do nothing, he heals three more times and goes out of his shell, all your buffs are gone now and you can't damage him fast enough, then he goes back in his shell, you go all out and even use like Flare , but still can't kill him the next round, he heals, etc etc.
Yeah. Fuck Cagnazzo.
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The fully honed Blizzagas and Thundagas I had paid off big, big time there, at least. He can be Stopped, though! Which I still don't have at a high enough level to spam (only R3).
EDIT: Meanwhile, against Dark Bahamut, Golbez was dealing 9999 with Faith'd -Bioras-. God damn that Rune Axe is evil.
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Played more SRW OG1, am now at that magical part where you have to actually consider deployment setups. 21/23 skill points. Might end up missing the Graviton Cannon, but I'll try my best to get it. :|
Something I recalled which wasn't previously addressed in the thread - Dhyer: Grandia rights, along with all of Game Arts' other franchises (and the studio itself), are now owned by GungHo Entertainment. (They're most known for Puzzle and Dragons).
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GungHo is a pretty good company in my experience. That's probably a good place for the rights to reside.
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Final Fantasy If Autobattling Was Art - Sundaily arrives, currently levelling up Nice Cecil, Mean Cecil and Fran. Also brought a cap-broken Loserface so I can prepare him for his second MC down the line. Highlight so far was getting his second Record Materia within the second round of the first levelling dungeon.
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So I've been playing another Squenix timebux game for a couple of weeks. Heavenstrike Rivals is a small-map tactics game with a surprisingly interesting story campaign.
Anyway they have a promotion right now where you can get Ramza as a unit. I seem to remember one or two people in the DL liking FFT, I think Super was one of them. So yeah if you like Ramza check it out. My invite code is CPTFA1B045B if you want some extra stuff.
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I typed "Square Enix" into the iOS app store search box and holy crap, Squeenix is flooding the place with mobile games. ...and most of them look pretty good! Apart from the rereleases of FFs 1-7+T,Theatrhythm, SoM, CT, TWEWY, and DQ series (all nice in their own right!), there's also FFD, FFRK, Crystal Defenders, Song Summoner, the Chaos Rings series, Symphonica, Hills and Rivers Remain, Triple Triad, and some F2P ones that look decent, Drakenrider and this Heavenstrike Rivals thing.
There's also All The Bravest, but you can't win 'em all. Guardian Cross is also some kind of F2P Gacha based game with nothing but pandering half-naked ladies all over the advertising...
Here's hoping that all this mobile stuff is making them money hand over fist and they will translate FFD2. I really want that game in English, watching Shun play it in Japanese is not enough.
But yeah, gonna give this Heavenstrike Rivals thing a try.
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FF So You Think You Can Autobattle - Hey, I can grind in the highest level zone in the dailies now. Neat.
Level broke Lenna, Grind Grind Grind. Got Shitwizard up to level 49 and will probably start advancing the story again so I can get his level crystal and access his record materia. Kefka/WoL/Edgar are all high 50s now and Terra got to 60, so she should be level cap breaking again soon. While grinding I got WoL's second record materia, put it on him and then a couple enemies started absorbing his attacks. Good job.
Did an 11 pull, got a new 5* armor and some 4* goodies but nothing noteworthy. The FF5 banner has a Staff and a Sword, both of which I want, but I'll probably end up drawing the rod and then rubbing it in Djinn's face.
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Final Fantasy iautobattleautobattleiwhoautobattlei - It really feels like a drought of interesting banners is coming until next month outside of FF14's, and that one is mostly Y'shtola's equips. Zack's banner is balanced, but it offers nothing really -cool-. Auron's banner is simply awful (A KATANA AND A SPEAR AS ITS PREMIER WEAPONS. I'm trembling in anticipation). Vaan's banner is all over the place and I personally am -not- hurting for FF12 synergy equips. Terra's banner... eeeeeeh. She really doesn't rely on her character-specific equips to be solid and, outside those and the ever elusive Mystery Veil, the banner's just riddled with objectively junky equips for rhe metagame (Edgar and Sabin aren't great units and their relic SBs are hardly game-changing. Cyan is one of the worst PCs in the game). I guess it's an incentive to save up for the Hope and Zidane events with their copious mage gear and new MT healing SBs with buffs.
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Sorry Cap I'll follow my only one FTP bullshit game rule.
Just so I can get more mage weapons I can sacrifice for one more damage point on Irvine's Vanguard.
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Diablo 3: Hellfire Amulet acquired! Rolled with the Relentless barbarian passive, which is good enough to keep -- it's a solid defensive skill that I use for tougher fights anyway. Sadly it didn't come with either critical bonus, so it's probably getting replaced when I can, but for the moment I've got it re-rolled to add critical chance, and it works. Also I found a Sash of Knives and extracted its power as a passive, so now every time I attack I also throw a dagger and a honkin' big battleaxe.
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Final Fantasy Someone To Autobattle You Home - Still grinding XP for Fran and the Cecils. The important part is that someone mastered the Dark Bahamut fight with a setup involving three Dragoons and Loserface with Jump and cleverly cheesing his Reflect state AI (http://youtu.be/DhacsVTdHlI). This is amazing.
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That's almost as impressive as the guy who beat final Beatrix with solo Tyro.
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Duck Game: Fenrir gifted this to me on Steam. Messed with tutorial stuff, wasn't sure what to think. Then tried online vs. match and okay how is this not a DL thing yet. This is one of those games where you laugh constantly even when you die. Which you will do a lot, I've seen rounds that lasted probably literally one second.
I should never pick up grenades.
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Final Fantasy: Record of XANA - Okay, so. Tried to do a lot of things today.
Got beaten up by Leviathan in MiB, then got Reflect, honed Retaliate to R3, and then steamrolled that stage.
Then I get my crap pushed in by Demon Wall because my damage is too low.
Tried the Difficulty 110 in the Soul Break Bonanza event. Got the boss down to 1/3 health before it killed me.
Then I go up against Elite Shinra Cargo Ship. Had to S/L nearly a dozen times due to random deaths or enemies up to Jenova using Flamethrower, not to mention the sheer difficulty of Jenova herself. Got Cloud's RM2 and Mastery for the stage for my troubles.
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SRW OG1: Up through chapter 32 now. At this point, I more or less have my final team setup, the only thing I haven't actually gotten to play with yet is the actual combined SRX. I'll go ahead and evaluate what I thought of the cast in my run (remember, Ryusei route) so far, nonetheless; I doubt my opinions will change much between now and endgame.
Ryusei (Gespenst 2-TT -> Wildraubtier -> R-1): Weirdly unimpressive for an SRW main protagonist. Both of his mechs are notably better than he is, really. He's not utterly terrible, and most of the time you don't have anyone better to deploy on his route anyway, and his availability is solid at least. Shishioh Blade has done wonders for his effectiveness in the late-game.
Rai (Schutzwald -> Huckebein 009 -> R-2): Probably the best of the SRX team. Good stats, great seishin set. R-2 is a bit of a mismatch for him (hampers his good dodging stats) but the weapons are right up his alley and you can fix it with upgrades/parts, so I left him in it. Never disappointed me; even during all those water stages in the Schutzwald, I could fall back on (upgraded) Autocannon for solid offense.
Aya (Gespenst 2-TT -> R-3): Ugh. She's just not very good, and spent a lot of the midgame benched. Very clearly the third wheel of SRX. Only really worth deploying for R-Formation and the eventual SRX combine, even in this route.
Garnet (F-28 Messer -> Lion F): My favorite support pilot in the game. Huge SP pool and 20 SP Trust is just amazing and lets you play extremely aggressively, which is fun. Ryusei route also gives you time to get her kills and pilot points; if you can get her up to SP Regen (I didn't) I suspect she'd be absolutely insane. She's terrible at combat, in the long run, but that's not what she's there for. Deployed her in every map I could and never regretted it once.
Giado (F-28 Messer -> Schutzwald): Filler PC and little else. I had to use him a bit again in the lategame, and he does perform better than an empty slot, at least. The mech is a mismatch, but he's not getting any of the things that he'd actually be better in as they go to better pilots to him. Felt like a liability in the plane.
Latooni (F-28 Messer -> Wildraubtier): Really good, although I actually don't think she was my MVP in this run. Overcosted Valor hurts her a little, and the enemies didn't like targeting her as much as usual. She also did a bit of time in the 009 and performed well there. Really, she's good in just about anything you put her in. But she wasn't whoamg amazing this run, either.
Ryoto: Only got used in one or two stages (in a Gespenst 2-TT) and was generally a liability. Probably would have been okay if I hadn't stolen his mech to use as a support bot, but I don't like him much as a character type.
Rio (Gespenst 2-M -> Huckebein 009 -> Huckebein 2): She was decent, and only that, once she got real mechs. I feel she'd be better used in a different mech, but other PCs would be better used in that same mech, so she ends up with this.
Irm (Gespenst 2-M -> Huckebein 009 -> Grungust): Man everyone went through the 009. Anyway, he was pretty awesome in this run. I don't think I'd call him MVP but he's definitely one of my better PCs.
Ingram (Wildschwein): Solid while he's around.
Tasuku (Giganscudo): The Giganscudo's lack of range sucks, but what the hell else is Ryusei going to deploy? Didn't see play on every map, but performed okay when it did. Filler, but pretty good filler. I equipped him with the +10 starting will part, which helped a lot.
Katina (Gespenst 2-M -> R-Gun -> Valsion Custom): Pretty great once she got the Valsion. I don't think I'd bother deploying her if I hadn't gotten it, it plays hard to her strengths (and covers her weaknesses extremely well).
Russel: Only used him in one map where he was forced, where he was an okay supporter.
Radha (Schutzwald -> Guarlion): She saw a bit of support use lategame. I like Garnet better in general, but Radha's less helpless in combat, so that's a thing. Probably my pick for second support PC when you can afford to use two.
Bullet (Huckebein 2 -> Wildschwein): He sucks in the Hucky 2. Like, really badly. He's still not that great in the Wildschwein. He wants a super robot and there aren't enough in this game to give him one. Bleh.
Kusuha (Grungust Type 2): Pretty good, but I don't get the huge DL hype for her. 12 SP Guard would be ridiculous in most SRWs, but by the time you can field her most enemies are frankly not that threatening, and Giganscudo/Valsion Custom can tank them admirably without blowing away SP on it. She misses most of the fights you'd actually really badly want that 12 SP Guard in, frankly. Still, overall I'd say she was in the top half of my PCs? Maybe.
Leona (R-Gun): Basically a second Latooni. Equally good at it.
Gilliam (Gespenst 2-S): Decent lategame filler I guess.
Kyosuke (Alteisen): Solid. Game liked putting him in the back of the formation all the time, which held him back. I miss newer SRWs letting you control your starting formation.
Excellen (Weissritter): I'm glad she can equip weapon modules to get a P attack that isn't terrible. That said, solid PC. Kyosuke makes her better, of course.
Masaki (Cybuster): Probably my run's MVP. Bless + Valor + Cyflash on a pile of weakened grunts = tons of cash, and I did this again and again over the course of the game. He can boss kill with the best of them too, using either Akashic Buster or spamming Cosmo Nova with Garnet parked next to him.
Lune (Valsione): The other MVP contender, for exactly the same reasons as Masaki.
Hagane: The better ship of the two, but with worse pilots. Overall it saw more use than...
Hiryu Custom: The worse ship of the two, but with better pilots.
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VtM: Bloodlines - Replaying this with latest Plus patch. Not sure how much stuff I am noticing for the first time and how much is added by patch (some is obviously patch).
- Ran into the Kuei-Jin you can fight in Santa Monica in the back alley behind the hospital (he just teleports away).
- Saw Becket running along the cliff tops in wolf form when I went to get the Astrolite.
- You can see the Elizabeth Dane from the room in the Hotel where you get Amulet.
Something that the patch definitely introduced was that Dominate sometimes makes the NPCs dance. That's pretty great. Dominate a Hunter and watch a dude in a trenchcoat start busting moves in the sewer.
Just finished the sewer part of Hollywood. Holy fuck it is worse than I remember. Like the whole last level is fucking pointless. There is nothing in the maze but trash mobs, a key and an exit. It is a maze full of dudes you just fought as a boss fight and some bullet sponges. Also the Tzimitcie heads with legs things make me jump like a billion times more than the Hotel does. not because they are scary, but because their sound balance is completely fucked, like twice as loud as the base audio and they scream every time they do the following
- See you
- Attack
- Jump around pointlessly
- Don't see you
- Walk around
- Jump around even more pointlessly
By the end of the dungeon I am pretty sure you have killed upward of a hundred of the fucking things and you are so desensitized to the shouting that it has dulled into the background like the white noise of your AC at work the same way Beheaded Kamikaze do in Serious Sam.
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I tried to restart that on the new computer, but I couldn't even get it to run on Win8. Is this a known issue with a workaround?
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I had no problems, quick search on steam just has a mix and match of "Don't work" and "no problem"
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D3: I started a monk in the new season, and RNG decided it loves me.
Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac, Broken Crown, Nagelring and a legendary potion dropped while I was rushing to level 70.
I went to spend blood shards after hitting 70, and two of my first three purchases were the chest armors from really good monk sets – Inna's Mantra and Uliana's Stratagem.
I went to do some bounties and almost immediately found the ice immunity amulet. I no longer have to hate Frozen bosses. I CANNOT OVERSTATE how much I hate Frozen bosses. This alone means I may just not touch my non-season Barbarian that I've been playing since release until the season ends and this amulet falls into my regular inventory.
Finished my first bounty chain, which happened to be in Act 2 – out pop the Illusory Boots, probably the best quality-of-life item in the game.
I feel like I should play the lottery now.
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Or run an 11-pull on FFRK lulz
Speaking of which!
Final Fantasy Autobattle On The Big Bridge (The Black Mages version) - Yeah, so this DU has Battle On The Big Bridge. Cleared all the Classic dungeons of the update, currently running Elites. After this, max stamina will be 130, precisely enough for three daily runs in a row. Which ain't really meaningful, but so it goes. Also holy mother of fuck, Dark Knight has REMOTELY USABLE STATS. Too bad about the sub-Donkey Kong Cecil skillset. EDIT: nvm those are GALUF's stats. Dark Knight remains Coretastic.
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That's gonna take a while, I think I've got 30-some Mithril to go yet.
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We shall have our DL Duck Game tournament. Eventually.
It doesn't quite have the longevity of something like Towerfall but it's just perfect at what it is.
FFRK: That sandworm sprite is one of the coolest things in the game, I rank it on part with those Raijin/Fujin/Seifer/Rufus sprites. It's just a really big, drooling, sandworm. It looks awesome.
It seems that FF3 is the only game that has a decent levelling dungeon. Ah well. I might have fucking useless lvl 65 Luneth / Refia, soon-ish.
The websites say that Lightning's stats aren't too bad, but every time I've used her she's been LVP by far, contributing fuck all to the party.
Maybe spellbladers were only useful earlygame? My Squall and Cloud have been lvl 65 since forever now. Let's not get into her "Ranged spellblader" niche, which is like the dumbest niche around.
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I dunno about you, but Lightning's been consistently performing for me as a melee unit (and is quite frankly my top physical unit now that I have her signature weapon, but so would Cloud if I had a Hardedge). Spellblades are currently in a rut right now, though: lower mult than Launch means they don't deliver when not hitting weakness and, of course, we're at the point where the slugfesting rage is all focused on the 4* abilities, and mages get the brunt of those. I'm not even sure if the 4* Spellblades will be a renaissance, since they're only 2.1x, IIRC? Regardless, I think we've made a near full-shift to the age of mage meta now.
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Illusory Boots, probably the best quality-of-life item in the game.
Illusory boots is really good for monk, but if you use Dashing Strike you may eventually find you don't really need it. That's how it went for me, anyway. Dashing Strike can teleport through walls, and as a practical matter there is very little that is better for survivability than to just mouse over to where you would like your toon to be, hit a button, and then be there.
Monk is really great right now, and one reason is that every single monk set has really good set bonuses for 2 and 4 pieces. You almost can't go wrong mixing and matching. Uliana's 2 bonus works really well with the 4 bonus of Sunwuko - you inflict Exploding Palm on a ton of dudes at once then get Sunwuko's 5x damage bonus to it. It is delightfully obscene. Or you can go the other direction and use Uliana's 6 bonus with Raiment's 2 bonus so you can do good damage with your generators inbetween casting 7-Sided Strike (and also use Raiment's attack speed bonus to get to that third hit of your generators that applies Exploding Palm faster).
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We shall have our DL Duck Game tournament. Eventually.
It doesn't quite have the longevity of something like Towerfall but it's just perfect at what it is.
Yeah, we need to club DL folks into four-player mode weekend times. Did I mention that you guys there's a button just for quacking? Because you guys there is a button just for quacking. Also whoever made this was seriously in love with the Genesis sound chip.
I should never pick up grenades.
As true today, as when it was written.
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Yes we just fought and it was fantastic.
I should note that Cid also always picks up grenades if there is one.
It looks like there are a lot of user created levels, But I really don't get how user content works on steam. I click on the map in the workshop and then I have the option... subscribe? To something? And that's it?
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Exploding Palm is wonderful even unbuffed, especially starting a new character with no stash or paragon levels or obscene gold reserves to fall back on. Kill one thing, everybody else dies. Nagelring is an especially great pairing for it when punching above my current weight class, because the minions it summons crit for 25 million goddamn damage when they suicide, so I can just EP one target in a crowd and let them start a chain reaction.
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You had me at
Exploding Palm is wonderful
Really, the reason I keep coming back to D3 is that Blizzard keeps finding ways - somehow! - to make Exploding Palm even MORE fun. For example, before this patch, the DoT from Essence Burn did not stack. Now it does. I have been known, on occasion, to look a boss who has just been blasted by a dozen minions' essence burns straight in the eye and say, "You're already dead."
Does D3 have a walk button? It needs a walk button so you can walk slowly away as dudes explode behind you.
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Final Fantasy 7 - Yeah, after a long hiatus, I'm going back to this. Jesus christ, the programming of those timing-based events is woeful. I have no idea of what the timing on the jumping cable during the Shinra building invasion is supposed to be. The game at times -really- feels primitive. The plot ideas still feel like a wonderful little mess, which is cool. Holy crap, Hojo's utter derangement really flew over my head when I was 13.
Final Fantasy Because The Autobattle - Still doing Elites. Running Fire keeps paying off - used it as Lightning's backup weapon against Kalavinka Striker and it worked out nicely. Also doesn't hurt when I don't need her doing ranged for Sazh, whom I really started to appreciate as a jack-of-all-trades supporter: I'm often slotting him with the weird BM 3 status or WM 3 buffs/utility so I can pack up Diaga on my healer for very good results. Having him dump Faith on my mages often works just as well as using Mental Breakdown and requires less judicious timing. Too bad Faith doesn't work on Diaga.
I've also been watching pull videos from random Redditors because I clearly want to feel depressed about people spending hundreds of dollars on ill-fated gacha tangos. People seriously stream this shit.
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If any of you crazy Diablo 3 people want to add me, my Battletag is Morrie#1378
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FFRK: Working on Elite Dungeons. Still need to do Boss Rush and +/++ for Golbez, but meh.
Heavenstrike Rivals: Beat all the story missions. Uh, that was anticlimactic. I guess they're planning on releasing more in the future? Cause right now it's just kind of hanging there.
Have all the units I'm using promoted except my mages, because mage promotion material dungeon is like 10x harder than all the others.
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FFRK: Just beat White Dragon with a fairly half-assed setup. Going in with Boon as my only mitigation move was a serious mistake, but after a couple of S/Ls I managed to make it work with two Curagas in play. I had nothing left by the end except for about 2 Bioras on Vivi and two REQUIEMS on Eiko. Rinoa got the kill with her second shot of Power Sigil (shared SB, basically a Comet clone).
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....Okay, seriously, this is getting absurd. First (and only!) rift of the day, Uliana's helm and a Magefist. Yeah, that's good for an Essence Burn build. Jesus Christ, my direct damage is practically nil on T3 but it doesn't matter because as soon as I kill one thing, by waiting around for the minions to do it for me if necessary, it's just an endless cavalcade of explosions. Went fishing at Kadala again, why yes I would like the Inna's Mantra pants, why not.
Now I just need to do something about my boss strategy....
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FFRK: Did a few more pulls on this Mage weapon heavy banner. Bunch of crap but then suddenly the light of a shiny 5-star! Could it be? Finally a Mage weapon?
No of course not, it's a bangle. Dragoon themed too. So yeah, hoping for game breaking Mage weapons, instead I got Kain paraphernalia.
At least there's lots more mythril in this new dungeon update left to collect!
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Actually, the Dragon Bracer ain't half-bad for mages. Yeah, it's an attack bracer, but +18~ Mag and Mind off an armor slot is something only other 5* bracers and hats can achieve. Usual disclaimer about bracers being the best armor type in the game for overall offensive builds applies here. I guess there will always be the FF14, Hope and Zidane banners for your next magestravaganza russian roulette needs, though. Do at least keep any 4* rods you run across, since you may have better odds of combining them into fake 6*s and those can get you by pretty well. Spell mults are so nutsy that you can work with lower raw numbers than physicals. Flipside, physicals scale much better with buffs.
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Now I just need to do something about my boss strategy....
Bring a friend!
Seriously tho this is kinda the tough part. If you have enough pieces of Uliana, 7-sided strike all the things. Otherwise...well, I'm doing an Exploding Palm build and my second source of damage is Cyclone Strike.
Alternately if you have at least 2 pieces of Inna's, you can use Air Ally to get a healthy amount of spirit (8 per second with the first Inna's set bonus, plus 100 every 30 seconds) then use Wave of Light for real damage.
Alternately alternately, get 2 pieces of Raiment and suddenly your spirit generating attacks do legit damage.
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Could it be the items I need? No, it is the items I deserve.
Payday 2 - Reset my progress along with younger brother. Try it out with all the new DLC. Still a fucking great game when it is firing on all cylinders. Still really shitty when they fuck with balance. Oh you didn't know this map was balanced to be harder than original maps? Well fucking deal with it, fight stuff that is about 3 difficulty levels overture comparatively.
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DS2 - Some Russian dude invaded Laggy and he summoned me as my dual-whip wielding Naughty Adolf. He proceeded to kill me 5 times (never actually attacking Laggy) while I ran around throwing the I'm Sorry wood carvings.
I think we finally beat the game.
FFRK - Progress is slowing down considerably but that's OK. I think I finally hit about what I should expect for average mythril gain from now on instead of the flood of mythril they give you to bait you into the game. Also ran out for story dungeons that gave me 3+ stamina gems so I'm probably past the point where the game will let me play basically all day for free, and that's also a good thing. Really starting to feel the lack of decent physical weapons, even with both Kefka and Terra with 5* rods fielding multiple R4 and R3 Agas I'm running out of spell charges before the ends of high-end dungeons and my physical hitters just can't compensate well enough. Like, I'm not sure that Necrophobe is doable for me right now because I just run out of spell charges before I can even take down 2 of the 4 barrier nodes to take him out, and my physical damage is loltastic (1-2k~ vs 5-8k) by comparison.
The other option is farming orbs for spells and so I'll probably do that a bit while also trying to focus on getting mythril for one more 11 pull before I leave for vacation on Friday.
It's looking like I probably won't get Galuf's 2nd crystal just due to going on vacation in a few days where I'm making a point of NOT playing the game in part just to show that I can. I am OK with this, because Galuf looks shitty. 5 Monk and not much else. Too bad, since he was the best FF5 character.
On the other hand, Faris is doing really well on the B team. 4* Support so can use Hi-breaks, can use my whip so has a decent physical, and I could get a couple 4* Speed skills without hurting my mage resources too much so I may end up levelling her up next EXP day and fielding her until I get a sword or second dagger or something.
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Seriously tho this is kinda the tough part. If you have enough pieces of Uliana, 7-sided strike all the things. Otherwise...well, I'm doing an Exploding Palm build and my second source of damage is Cyclone Strike.
Alternately if you have at least 2 pieces of Inna's, you can use Air Ally to get a healthy amount of spirit (8 per second with the first Inna's set bonus, plus 100 every 30 seconds) then use Wave of Light for real damage.
Alternately alternately, get 2 pieces of Raiment and suddenly your spirit generating attacks do legit damage.
I think in the short term my best hope will be either a second piece of Inna's that doesn't conflict my my Uliana's gear, or finding the second Shenlong's fist (I also found one of those!) and stacking boosts to resource generators.
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Could it be the items I need? No, it is the items I deserve.
I admit I chuckled at this.
Really starting to feel the lack of decent physical weapons, even with both Kefka and Terra with 5* rods fielding multiple R4 and R3 Agas I'm running out of spell charges before the ends of high-end dungeons
I can't tell if you're trolling. You're playing the JP version, so why don't you just choose one of the awesome physical 5-stars the game is literally giving you? Bartz's dagger at the very least you can use on anyone, and Ashe's and Lightning's swords are pretty awesome IIRC.
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No, I'm just angsting about my lack of swords and how I'm just swimming in mage weapons for my health. ;D
EDIT: https://www.reddit.com/r/FFRecordKeeper/comments/3l0h9w/next_jp_campaign_chamber_of_rituals/
OK fuck I guess I will be playing a bit over vacation. At least I just have to log in to get the rewards. I don't see why you'd spend tokens on anything other than the MC2s (OK, I do; same reason I cared about Terra's MC2. Fanboyism) but hey.
Also apparently they're releasing Ultima as a 6* BM ability, along with a 6* accessory that I didn't care to read the stats on. That may be something to make me blow more mythril on for whatever boss challenge I have to meet to win it. We'll see.
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Final Fantasy Save An Autobattle For The Moon - Black power day and it feels like the hole just digs deeper. I'm not even thinking about R5 Drain and Dark - or R5ing Blizzara Strike, for that matter. But I need to hone Stop further than R3. And this Thursday will be a rare day when I'll need to farm white power because I need to hone Faith and Dispel to R4. And tomorrow I'll also prioritize Lightning/ Wind Orb farming because Dual Delay's just around the corner. Oh, and I'm one Greater Lightning and four Greater Blacks away from R3ing Thundaja. Oh, and Ultimate Weapon on Zack's +++ battle immunes Water. Hope you didn't put all your eggs in the Waterja basket.
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But he doesn't immune Water...kick! Eh I can't even hype that, Tifa's limit breaks suck so bad.
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At least she'll deal real damage for you with synergy on that SB weapon, so bringing her with, say, Dual Delay won't be a half-bad idea. You'll already have to bring Cloud and Zack for mastery, though.
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Roommate has stupid luck in FFRK. Already has 2 five star weapons, one of which is Tellah's staff that gives him Font of Wisdom, so he's also making money.
Meanwhile, I'm attempting to get Golbez' memory Crystal with my comparatively awful equips/stats, but think I might have a shot because I had a spare FFIV weapon that adds Ice damage to attacks. If it works with SPECIAL attacks, I might be in business.
EDIT
If it's not obvious, I have two or three fights left and I'm hung up on Rubicante, who Rubi-can.
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For Rubi: he has the same AI quirks that he had in the original if he kills someone (i.e. countering fire damage with Raise). You -will- need reasonably honed Blizzagas and Blizzara Strikes there, though.
EDIT: Did you combine the Lilith Rods the event hands you? Those alone give you a 90 Mag weapon for FF4 dungeons, which alleviates matters immensely for you.
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Duck Game: Cid is getting better by the minute
We're getting into real Duck Game prostrats here.
Other people are terrible online so guys just come over
FFRK: Bartandelus (or whatever) is pretty damn strong but he has the worst sprite in the game. That sprite just looks like a fucking mess of pixels. What a nerd. God I hope we won't see him fifteen thousand more times like all these FF7 bosses.
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Hope event, after Terra's reissue. Oh, and you'll fight him thrice in that event because of Event Quests. Enjoy!
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OH GREAT
I think our new Dark Knight is literally worse than Gladiator in every way.
And he might be worse than the regular Knight overall?
Oh god, why do they keep getting even worse?
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To make Zedoshi's Core-only vids better and better, obviously.
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In the end, the guy who I gave an FFIV sword to died anyhow, and Rydia managed to chip him down with Blizzard spells after he took a boatload of damage from my friend's RW who had FFIV bonuses and hit for like, 8k damage.
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Duck Game: Cid is getting better by the minute
We're getting into real Duck Game prostrats here.
Other people are terrible online so guys just come over
I just tried this out for the first time with randoms and got slaughtered. By the third intermission thing I had won like six matches but I didn't win any in the first two. It's fun but I don't know what the hell I am doing.
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I just tried this out for the first time with randoms and got slaughtered. By the third intermission thing I had won like six matches but I didn't win any in the first two. It's fun but I don't know what the hell I am doing.
I also woke up this morning and was in real life.
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FFPlzKeepTheseRekordsOh shit, with the latest event you can just pick the MC and MC2 crystals you want. Along with characters you want etc. Gotta look up what ones probably wont be reissued for a while but I think I'll probably get the MC2s for two white mages and a support character and have a proper lvl80 team prepped.
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SRW OG1: Finished. Final count of 327 turns, got 38 of 41 battle mastery points. Closing thoughts... endgame was less of a slog than SRW J's still, although it was definitely a marathon at the end. The SRX is a ridiculously broken mech and made up for basically all of Ryusei's midgame mediocrity in spades and then some. Honorable mention for the fact that it single-handedly took off half of Levi's HP in chapter 41 in one turn (to be precise, 106,160 damage). This wouldn't have been possible without Radha (for Hope usage), so she paid off.
Other bits that didn't fall in with my earlier PC evaluation:
- Latooni's Enable was ultimately more useful than her own turns when pointed at SRX, for all that she could only do it once.
- Rio got the Huckebein 008L and did pretty well in it. She'd still overall prefer a Grungust or something with her will gains, but there aren't enough of those to go around.
- My damage dealing hierarchy at the end was pretty much SRX > Irm/Sanger >> Latooni >>>> everyone else.
- Lune's lack of Strike holds her back quite a bit as a boss killer.
- Bullet was pretty much the worst PC I fielded in the final chapter. Still, he wasn't useless.
- Viletta was a very solid lategame filler PC, easily better than Gilliam. Might have been different if I hadn't gotten the Gespenst mkII-S but that mech is surprisingly good. In the end, Russel, Giado, Gilliam and Ryoto were the PCs that didn't get fielded for the final boss. Ryoto probably would have been better than Bullet had he been leveled.
- Elzam is IMO the worst of the three deep lategame joiners (him, Sanger and Viletta). Still decent.
- Kusuha's Support saved me from a few ugly moments a few times. She is not a good damage dealer though, Doomblade just isn't strong enough. Better than Tasuku I guess.
- The realities of boss design mean that Leona largely gets consigned to being a debuff bot in endgame because of her combination of Fury, being able to equip the Armor Breaker, and not being part of SRX.
Both Levi and Septuagint got splattered in one turn. Anyway, OG2 now I guess.
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Duck Game: Cid is getting better by the minute
We're getting into real Duck Game prostrats here.
Other people are terrible online so guys just come over
I still pick up every grenade ever and if I ever blow up someone other than myself with them it's sheer luck. Other things I should never ever pick up but will probably continue to grab at every opportunity: mines, flamethrowers, flare guns. But at least now I know what the fire extinguisher is for! I still have no idea what the TV or shopping trolley are for.
If there are ever flammable barrels then my #1 priority is to shoot them and rain firey death upon the world below. This won me exactly one round so I absolutely stand by the strategy forever.
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Duck Game: Cid is getting better by the minute
We're getting into real Duck Game prostrats here.
Other people are terrible online so guys just come over
I just tried this out for the first time with randoms and got slaughtered. By the third intermission thing I had won like six matches but I didn't win any in the first two. It's fun but I don't know what the hell I am doing.
Yeah there are some really good Duck Game players online who play it like it's srs bsns and it's sometimes hard to appreciate things like the (spoilers) band when you're pitted against people who have already seen it a few times and go straight for the flamethrower. i specifically mention the band but it also applies to pretty much every level at least a little.
DL only matches would definitely help here.
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Duck Game: Cid is getting better by the minute
We're getting into real Duck Game prostrats here.
Other people are terrible online so guys just come over
I just tried this out for the first time with randoms and got slaughtered. By the third intermission thing I had won like six matches but I didn't win any in the first two. It's fun but I don't know what the hell I am doing.
Yeah there are some really good Duck Game players online who play it like it's srs bsns and it's sometimes hard to appreciate things like the (spoilers) band when you're pitted against people who have already seen it a few times and go straight for the flamethrower. i specifically mention the band but it also applies to pretty much every level at least a little.
DL only matches would definitely help here.
Yeah, one of the dudes I played the first time called me retarded and autistic before I told them it was literally the first time touching the game, but that was a lovely introduction. It felt good when I started getting wins but half of those felt accidental. Like Cid, I don't know what half of the things are.
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Believe it or not Cid and I had an encounter with an even more terrible person yesterday
i hypothetized that Souls made online gaming work by not allowing people to talk or write anything to other players
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Maybe all you should be allowed to do in the game is quack. I sometimes think about what a different and horrible experience Journey would be if people could type to each other.
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i hypothetized that Souls made online gaming work by not allowing people to talk or write anything to other players
Tongue but hole
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Try attacking from the rear.
FFRK: Mastered entire Golbez event. Four Fiends were EZ, mainly because they have no hp and are weak to things like Diaga.
White Dragon was another story. I tried a mage setup, but 8 Bioras, 4 Biogas, and 2 Comets were not enough damage to kill him. Yes, I just crafted Comet for the first time and didn't have orbs left to hone it. So I went with a half mage/half Retaliate setup:
Selphie (Curaga, Shellga)
Balthier (Magic Break, Boost)
Vivi (Biora, Bioga)
Tellah (Curaga, Faith)
Sephiroth (Launch, Retaliate)
Shellga turn 1, Boost and Retaliate, everyone except Vivi attacks Sephiroth. Faith wasn't needed until Bioga ran out because it hits 9999 naturally (Biora 5800 without Faith, 7000+ with Faith). Golbez was Roaming Warrior for the non-elemental win condition.
Dark Bahamut I kept the same setup except Selphie swapped Shellga for Reflect and Tellah swapped Faith for Dispel. Reflect Bahamut when counter hits 5, Dispel him when counter hits 4, and commence smackdown. Yuna RW for the aoe heal and regen. The Regen actually lasts a long time, so only need to recast it after third Megaflare.
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Final Fantasy Suburban Autobattle - FF14 event supposedly lands tomorrow and I have enough Lightning and Wind Orbs to hone Dual Delay to R4 straight off when it's released, so I decided to farm greater orbs. Got the one Greater Lightning needed to hone Thundaja to R3! Too bad I now have to farm the remaining three Greater Blacks. In the meantime, I honed Stop to R4 and Magic Breakdown to R3. I want R3 Mental Breakdown too, but I need a lot more Greater Ice Orbs than I have right now. R2 Blizzaja ain't happening anytime soon.
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Duck Game: Cid is getting better by the minute
We're getting into real Duck Game prostrats here.
Other people are terrible online so guys just come over
I just tried this out for the first time with randoms and got slaughtered. By the third intermission thing I had won like six matches but I didn't win any in the first two. It's fun but I don't know what the hell I am doing.
Yeah there are some really good Duck Game players online who play it like it's srs bsns and it's sometimes hard to appreciate things like the (spoilers) band when you're pitted against people who have already seen it a few times and go straight for the flamethrower. i specifically mention the band but it also applies to pretty much every level at least a little.
DL only matches would definitely help here.
Yeah, one of the dudes I played the first time called me retarded and autistic before I told them it was literally the first time touching the game, but that was a lovely introduction. It felt good when I started getting wins but half of those felt accidental. Like Cid, I don't know what half of the things are.
Yeah, my first random group included an exaggeratedly racist southerner who ended every win with a pronouncement of "bad cause mad." It's way fun when you get a friendly group, though!
When something I try to do works out as planned, this is basically a happy accident. There are so many ways to accidentally kill yourself in this game that I think a substantial proportion of my wins must be me standing safely far away somewhere else right after everyone else has mutually exploded themselves. Sometimes the only winning move is not to play.
Book is OP by the way. Always go for book if it's there.
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You guys are making me want to play that game.
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FFRK: My phone now autocompletes that acronym whenever I type a capital F...
Anyway, cool mechanics infographic exists so I wanted to post it here because that is kind of what we like here IIRC. http://i.imgur.com/QuIQ0vP.png
Eschewing dungeon crawling in favor of farming Dark Bahamut. Roughly 20 runs (it's a fun fight), and he's dropped about 3 Summon Orbs, 5 Greater Summon Orbs, and a single Major Black Orb. Not a bad haul. If I could get ONE more MBO I could craft one of the cool five star spells and then Tellah could cast Meteor without dying. (Maybe)
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Duck Game: Cid is getting better by the minute
We're getting into real Duck Game prostrats here.
Other people are terrible online so guys just come over
I just tried this out for the first time with randoms and got slaughtered. By the third intermission thing I had won like six matches but I didn't win any in the first two. It's fun but I don't know what the hell I am doing.
Yeah there are some really good Duck Game players online who play it like it's srs bsns and it's sometimes hard to appreciate things like the (spoilers) band when you're pitted against people who have already seen it a few times and go straight for the flamethrower. i specifically mention the band but it also applies to pretty much every level at least a little.
DL only matches would definitely help here.
Yeah, one of the dudes I played the first time called me retarded and autistic before I told them it was literally the first time touching the game, but that was a lovely introduction. It felt good when I started getting wins but half of those felt accidental. Like Cid, I don't know what half of the things are.
Yeah, my first random group included an exaggeratedly racist southerner who ended every win with a pronouncement of "bad cause mad." It's way fun when you get a friendly group, though!
When something I try to do works out as planned, this is basically a happy accident. There are so many ways to accidentally kill yourself in this game that I think a substantial proportion of my wins must be me standing safely far away somewhere else right after everyone else has mutually exploded themselves. Sometimes the only winning move is not to play.
Book is OP by the way. Always go for book if it's there.
I bumbled my way into the gatling gun twice and won, that was cool.
Also got called gay today for my skill at Duck Game before getting any wins, that was also super cool.
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Final Fantasy Rocky Horror Autobattle Show - FINALLY farmed enough orbs for R3 Thundaja. Now, only R3 Firaja to go (Blizzaja won't go any higher than R1 until Waterja's R5 and Mental Breakdown is R3 at the absolute minimum).
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Duck Game - So uh I bought this. This looks like platformer Worms Armageddon, how come those things aren't announced far and wide to everybody in the world!?
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Fenrir is playing it. What more do you want from us? To literally buy your games for you?
(Thx fen again 4 duck game)
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Burning Man 2015 This Year's Art Theme is Autobattle - Got 50 mythril while playing between classes/packing/cleaning today. I got Partisan, my second 5* spear. This boosts the case to use Gilgamesh over WoL and makes me consider getting his level break 2 crystal instead of my current plan of Red XIII/Aerith/Lenna ASSUMING I get to choose 3 which is assuming a lot based solely on the fact that I was allowed to pick 3 character slots.
Also on the 1st anniversary event I picked out new characters I didn't think I'd have a chance to get in a while who I either wanted to use or liked their sprite art. Got Golbez, Beatrix (Villain-themed party gogogo), and Rikku (sprite seemed nicest out of the ones that weren't indicated as being available otherwise). I did this before my lunch break. Rikku came out as a quest-available character after my lunch break. Should have gotten Yuffie instead. Oh well I wasn't gonna use any of them anyway.
Plus side, Yuna's Level 2 crystal will be coming out and still available after Rave With AZNs At A Campsite 2015 so I'll at least have a MC2 White Mage available without the anniversary event. Nice sprite art, too.
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Gilgamesh is the only non-Loserface PC that can use the brutal Retaliate + Draw Fire combo and sports an amazing equipment selection. You could do A LOT worse than him as a physical fighter in your party.
Final Fantasy The Thinner The Autobattle - Cleared all elite dungeons in this update, am about as ready as I can be for the FF14 event. So, I'll spend the rest of the day farming white power.
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And most importantly, I like him. His sprite's kinda ugly but Gilgamesh is cool enough for that to not matter.
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Duck Game - Yes (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMpLIFhTJYI).
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Star Ocean 3 - Got Maria, cleared the Shrine of Kaddan. Ameena plot is not the best; I kinda like the way it affects Fayt but in its own right it is stupid and kinda melodramatic. I've enjoyed pretty much all of the rest of the writing, so far, so that's good. It's interesting to note that Roger and Adray, despite being PCs, are both completely irrelevant to the plot so far, hooray for transparent roster padding? Gameplaywise this game has really puny weak bosses so far (outside the optional one in Suferio Aquatic Gardens or whatever they're called) but Shrine of Kaddan was a significant step up in giving randoms teeth.
Fire Emblem 8 - Beaten! Nothing special to say about this run. Tana was MVP with her capped Str/Spd/almost luck, not really a huge surprise. Seth of course is the MVP for the first two thirds of the game or so. Ephraim was super-Str-screwed but still very useful, Eirika slightly Spd-screwed but still very useful, Vanessa when propped up by Lute was only slightly worse than Tana, Lute grew into invaluable offence after a rough start. I let a lot of people die but it wasn't strictly a no-reset playthrough, since I did reset if someone died really early or multiple people who died.
Playthrough data / kill counts which most people probably don't care about.
226 turns (16 on Scorched Sand, 14 on Unbroken Heart and Distant Blade)
Tana 102
Vanessa 99
Lute 97
Eirika 84
Franz 82
Seth 67
Marisa 61
Gerik 56
Cormag 52
Ephraim 46
Colm 31 (died C12)
Artur 20
Saleh 19
Garcia 18
Kyle 17 (died C11)
Forde 16 (died C10)
Innes 13
Moulder 8
Ross 8 (died C7)
Duessel 5
Joshua 5 (died C6)
Amelia 3
Ewan 3
Rennac 3
Gilliam 1
Knoll 1
Myrrh 1 (died C19)
Syrene 0 (died C19)
Super Mario Bros.: Lost Levels - Finished! World 8 was certainly the hardest part of the game, even if 8-1 was relatively easy (easier than in SMB1) and 8-2 was short once you figure out the trick. 8-3 and 8-4 were both brutal, brutal levels, though. 8-3 has combinations of lakitus, springboards, and mobile hammer brothers, i.e. everything that is nasty about SMB1/LL in general. 8-4 just has some brutal platforming jumps not seen before in the game and a finnicky "maze" in which you have to not touch certain platforms. I had to FAQ what I was doing wrong in one of them. Well, I would have figured it out eventually, but the level was hard enough that I didn't want to do so myself. Ended up getting to Bowser with a fire flower after a lot of tries to get through the level, which obviously wrecked both him and his blue clone.
Anyway it was enjoyable enough (certainly better than SML2 as far as 2D Mario goes... possibly SML1 as well?), but also kinda frustrating at points, and as I said before, remains a good example of how not to make a sequel.
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Payday 2 - Reset my progress along with younger brother. Try it out with all the new DLC. Still a fucking great game when it is firing on all cylinders. Still really shitty when they fuck with balance. Oh you didn't know this map was balanced to be harder than original maps? Well fucking deal with it, fight stuff that is about 3 difficulty levels overture comparatively.
Hit me up, my specialty is drilling vaults and also brains.
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Star Ocean 3 - Got Maria, cleared the Shrine of Kaddan. Ameena plot is not the best; I kinda like the way it affects Fayt but in its own right it is stupid and kinda melodramatic.
Agreed. If nothing else it reminds Fayt, who has become wrapped up in this war, that holy shit Sofia still exists and wait I'm not from here what the hell am I doing? It's a good wakeup call for him. And it's silly and fluffy and melodramatic in a funny way.
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Payday 2 - Reset my progress along with younger brother. Try it out with all the new DLC. Still a fucking great game when it is firing on all cylinders. Still really shitty when they fuck with balance. Oh you didn't know this map was balanced to be harder than original maps? Well fucking deal with it, fight stuff that is about 3 difficulty levels overture comparatively.
Hit me up, my specialty is drilling vaults and also brains.
If you see me on, pretty much feel free to jump in. Server is normally set to Friends Only and is commonly just two of us.
Opened up to some pubs yesterday. Got some great high infamy levels carry for a few maps. Also had one guy join after we picked OK Ukrainian Job just go "do this other map" and be a douche when I said we didn't have money to Contract. Only realised after he left that he wanted to carry nubs. His big point of offence was my use of the word "thinger" to describe not having any indications on Infamy.
He was replaced by a guy called Shithead who was Infamy 25. He was pretty fucking rad.
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Duck Game - I had a couple games with Fenny and I can't possibly describe how good it feels to hit a duck with a mind control ray and send it plummetting to its death.
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Ameena plot
I like Ameena plot if for no other reason than Fayt just goes in her house like a PC and she and her mom are like, "what the fuck are you doing in our house that's not normal" and it's a fascinating and uncomfortable scene. It's the second time someone in the game has said something to that effect (first is Peppita in the very beginning) and it's really funny in a game where even before the big reveal characters occasionally act with self-awareness of their main character status (as when Fayt and Cliff offer to rescue Nel, just the two of them, through the front door, because of course they can do things like that because that's what PCs do.)
Fascinating game, totally need to replay it.
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Duck Game - I had a couple games with Fenny and I can't possibly describe how good it feels to hit a duck with a mind control ray and send it plummetting to its death.
Yeah, great fun. There's a bit of a lag with you so there were a few BS deaths, presumably the internet takes a long while to get from France to Brazil and back.
It feels really weird to play Duck Game with a quack-free player, personnally I have no trouble multitasking when one of the tasks is quacking
The best joke in the game is reloading with the musket, this made me laugh so much the first time I saw it
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Duck Game - I had a couple games with Fenny and I can't possibly describe how good it feels to hit a duck with a mind control ray and send it plummetting to its death.
Yeah, great fun. There's a bit of a lag with you so there were a few BS deaths, presumably the internet takes a long while to get from France to Brazil and back.
It feels really weird to play Duck Game with a quack-free player, personnally I have no trouble multitasking when one of the tasks is quacking
The best joke in the game is reloading with the musket, this made me laugh so much the first time I saw it
I didn't feel -much- lag, but I'm used to laggy netplay in general due to living in the tropics. I may eventually learn to multitask quacking, but the controls still kick my ass a bit as of now. Maybe I should use my PS3 controller for this. Also, I think there wasn't a single match where I didn't laugh out loudly.
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FFRK: FF14 event came with a new banner, so I did its 100-gem pull and got a 5* Character-unique SB Dagger.
Really game? I've done like 20 draws on this damn mage-weapon-heavy FF4 banner and got nothing... But a single pull on FF14 and I get a 5* unique (non-mage-weapon of course). I am near-convinced there's some kind of algorithm that is keeping me from getting a goddamn mage stick.
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Thancred's unique dagger is -obscenely- good. Sword-level attack and a strong, post-power creep SB. Speaking of which...
Final Fantasy Agony And Autobattle - So, I was -really- tempted by Y'shtola's Staff. As in, spend real money level-tempted. So, I bought a Leviathan and an Ifrit gem-pack. Which led to two 3-4* 11-pulls in a row. At least, from the last two, I got a Lominsan Bow, a Keep of the Saints and an Evoker's Horn. None of those are Thyrus-level good and I do feel kinda pathetic for this, but getting a second universal rod and a hat with a decent shared SB works. Oh well.
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Well it IS a nice dagger but it's basically tradition at this point to complain about not having a Mage weapon.
Also... FF14 event complete! That was... anticlimactic. Thanks for the Mythril?
At FF14 players:
So I now have Thancred and Yshtola. Who else should go in my party to get the full FF14 experience? I hear there's an FF3 dungeon in 14, so maybe characters from that? Or is there a cameo from other FF characters? I know Gilgamesh is in 14, but he's not available in RK yet.
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The event will also run for nearly two weeks, which is atypical. It's enough time to get at least another three-pull from it, which I'd recommend given its amazing equipment draw. Even if you don't get Y'shtola's staff, there are three more mage equips for stuff you're interested in. I'd be a lot saltier about the money spent if it wasn't cash I have on surplus and the generic rod and hat weren't good stuff in a vaccuum even with non-existant synergy for the next six months. The bow is inexcusably bad, though.
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I am too fucking over things to make fun of you.
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Duck Game - I had a couple games with Fenny and I can't possibly describe how good it feels to hit a duck with a mind control ray and send it plummetting to its death.
Yeah, great fun. There's a bit of a lag with you so there were a few BS deaths, presumably the internet takes a long while to get from France to Brazil and back.
It feels really weird to play Duck Game with a quack-free player, personnally I have no trouble multitasking when one of the tasks is quacking
The best joke in the game is reloading with the musket, this made me laugh so much the first time I saw it
I didn't feel -much- lag, but I'm used to laggy netplay in general due to living in the tropics. I may eventually learn to multitask quacking, but the controls still kick my ass a bit as of now. Maybe I should use my PS3 controller for this. Also, I think there wasn't a single match where I didn't laugh out loudly.
I still occasionally throw away weapons that I am trying to shoot. Jesus Cid there's only three buttons of actual gameplay consequence here.
Well it IS a nice dagger but it's basically tradition at this point to complain about not having a Mage weapon.
Also... FF14 event complete! That was... anticlimactic. Thanks for the Mythril?
At FF14 players:
So I now have Thancred and Yshtola. Who else should go in my party to get the full FF14 experience? I hear there's an FF3 dungeon in 14, so maybe characters from that? Or is there a cameo from other FF characters? I know Gilgamesh is in 14, but he's not available in RK yet.
Ultros is also in FF14 if that's an option (no idea if he's in RK though). I don't really know anything about FF3 itself, but there's definitely a large chain of dungeons and (I would presume by extension) FF3 bosses slotted right into FF14. The game is generally very reference-happy. There's also a random dude that tells you to blame yourself or the gods if that helps you decide on anything. Otherwise I guess you should just go with a chocobo because ffffffffff to going everywhere on foot in FF14.
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Tried a 3 pull in the ff14 event.
No 5 stars.
Ffffffffffffffuuuuuuuuuu
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Duck Game has three buttons of gameplay consequence and three buttons of no gameplay consequence, having easy access to all 6 at once is important. It's a way better game with a controller.
Let's have a tournament this week end... Maybe with voice chat??
RK: I threw 150 mithril at FF14 and got only two 5* relics. The new robe and FF13 Kaiser fist. Djinn is now officially the luckiest DL player here but his terrible banner choices thankfully ensure we still have better builds
At least the robe boosts mind by a lot, so Selphieroth with Diaga will be even more ridiculous than before. And I have a metric ton of 3++ and 4+ items now.
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D3: Advancement continues. Got a Stone of Jordan, Witching Hour and 100% Depth Diggers(!) to improve my damage against bosses/elites, and also snagged Uliana's shoulders from Kadala so now I'm one set piece/RRoG away from Seven-Sided Strike turning into a nuke. I think at this point the monk I've been playing for five days is better than the barbarian I've been playing since 2012 (off and on, with a lot of "off" periods, but still for WAY more runs at higher difficulties even since the expansion). Also visited the Vault twice so I've been able to throw a ton of gold at gem upgrades.
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Autobattle on Parade - New event going on, designed solely I am sure to keep people playing over the long Holiday.
It is Orb Day, Gil Day, and XP day all wrapped up into one. Thunder, Dark, Black until Monday then it switches. I blew all my mythril I got from the event dungeons on it and could probably craft R2 Thundaja now if I wanted. Definitely can and probably will R4 Thundaga. Terra is also close enough to the second level cap my nipples are fucking hard. Gilgamesh is also nearing the first cap.
Fuck this game, fuck this gimmick, Im not turning on my phone for this while I am at Burning Japan.
… maybe
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I went to two festivals this summer and didn't play RK during them
You can do it believe in yourself
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FFRK: first 50 mythril gets me a lominsan bow and noble's armguards
well that's helpful i can continue autobattle culture
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I don't play FF14 but I hear that you're called the Warrior of Light in that game, so Djinn should consider running WoL for the quest.
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RK: I threw 150 mithril at FF14 and got only two 5* relics. The new robe and FF13 Kaiser fist. Djinn is now officially the luckiest DL player here but his terrible banner choices thankfully ensure we still have better builds
At least the robe boosts mind by a lot, so Selphieroth with Diaga will be even more ridiculous than before. And I have a metric ton of 3++ and 4+ items now.
Tell me about it, I now have a backup 4*+ Staff for FF4 that actually boosts Holy damage, so I can toss a second WM slot in my party with relative impunity. I'm also pretty giddy over the hat and I even got more FFV mage synergy gear. Now, if only I had some AoE healing. Oh well, Hope and Zidane event might provide. Hell, Djinn could even get mage weapons from one of those.
EDIT: I also take back my protest about the Lominsan Bow's uselessness. Thancred's actually pretty good with it and I'll probably get good mileage out of the likes of Bartz and Vaan with it as well.
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Autobattle on Parade - New event going on, designed solely I am sure to keep people playing over the long Holiday.
It is Orb Day, Gil Day, and XP day all wrapped up into one. Thunder, Dark, Black until Monday then it switches. I blew all my mythril I got from the event dungeons on it and could probably craft R2 Thundaja now if I wanted. Definitely can and probably will R4 Thundaga. Terra is also close enough to the second level cap my nipples are fucking hard. Gilgamesh is also nearing the first cap.
Fuck this game, fuck this gimmick, Im not turning on my phone for this while I am at Burning Japan.
… maybe
I went to two festivals this summer and didn't play RK during them
You can do it believe in yourself
Stop encouraging him.
Zenny, keep a log of every time you play it at Japanese Burning man. Tell me how much better it felt than taking Mushrooms would. Then try to tell me you don't have a problem.
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Ffrk
Golbez event beat!
Had to fight db twice because I forgot to put pecil in the back row.
Had my ff4 squad+Yuna and had relative ease both times though.
DB ate a ton of flares. What a dummy.
Time to do some elite stages and get some more mith for the Zack event!
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October's banner set is downright depressing. It's pretty telling that Zack's banner, which is kinda generic outside Aerith's third SB rod, is hands down the best we'll get until Hope's event early November.
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It may not be great, but I still don't have a physical character specific relic, and me wantsssss
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Autobattle on Parade - New event going on, designed solely I am sure to keep people playing over the long Holiday.
It is Orb Day, Gil Day, and XP day all wrapped up into one. Thunder, Dark, Black until Monday then it switches. I blew all my mythril I got from the event dungeons on it and could probably craft R2 Thundaja now if I wanted. Definitely can and probably will R4 Thundaga. Terra is also close enough to the second level cap my nipples are fucking hard. Gilgamesh is also nearing the first cap.
Fuck this game, fuck this gimmick, Im not turning on my phone for this while I am at Burning Japan.
… maybe
I went to two festivals this summer and didn't play RK during them
You can do it believe in yourself
Stop encouraging him.
Zenny, keep a log of every time you play it at Japanese Burning man. Tell me how much better it felt than taking Mushrooms would. Then try to tell me you don't have a problem.
What's the problem
For real Zenny, do not bring an expensive phone to a festival, it's really stupid (not that i didn't do it of course but that's not the point)
Get one of those cheap ones
You might avoid hating yourself in a cool festival too so that's a bonus
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It may not be great, but I still don't have a physical character specific relic, and me wantsssss
I suppose. FF7 synergy is by far the best to have around, at least. And having a nice multi-hit high-mult SB isn't bad (it does mean that almost all the early frontliner relics are a bust. The power creep hit those -particularly- hard). I already have so many physical niches covered by this point that I really don't care much about it. Hell, I can run an almost full ranged physical party now. But that's pretty much useless now that the autobattle days are a thing of the past.
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At FF14 players:
So I now have Thancred and Yshtola. Who else should go in my party to get the full FF14 experience? I hear there's an FF3 dungeon in 14, so maybe characters from that? Or is there a cameo from other FF characters? I know Gilgamesh is in 14, but he's not available in RK yet.
Obviously, Knight, Dark Knight or Warrior, and one of Bard, Ninja, Dragoon, Black Mage, Summoner, or Monk.
This is FF14 so you play as generic guys and that's exactly what cores are! And those Jobs are in FF14 (Knight = Paladin; god only knows why the MMOs refuse to use the term "Knight" when it's clearly called that in Japan.) As for why those ones specifically? Thancred = DPS, Y'shtola = Healer, so you still need the Tank and a 2nd DPS for the AUTHENTIC!!! experience!!!
...or, you know, just use real characters who fulfill similar roles, like P. Cecil for Tanking, or Vivi for DPS.
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I haven't followed the new Shadowrun series and I've heard conflicting things. So some people say Shadowrun Returns is skippable and that I can start with Dragonfall (and I'm curious about Hong Kong purely due to setting). Does that seem about right or should I just start with Returns?
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I haven't followed the new Shadowrun series and I've heard conflicting things. So some people say Shadowrun Returns is skippable and that I can start with Dragonfall (and I'm curious about Hong Kong purely due to setting). Does that seem about right or should I just start with Returns?
I have really liked all three entries. Shadowrun Returns draws a lot of inspiration from the SNES game, if you ever played that (and if so, then known Jake Armitage is your training wheels NPC). It's basically a series of setpieces that you move through in pursuit of a plot objective. Many of them are pretty cool but the writing suffers due to your party basically always being hired guns who don't have lines. SRR is not bad at all but you should probably play it first for the same reasons people suggest you play a lot of the first games in a series first: Dragonfall is overall more polished, both in terms of QoL stuff and in gameplay balance, and there's a bit more of a sense of freedom in the narrative, even if much of it is illusory.
Dragonfall is really clearly HBS' "okay, our first try was really well received! We've got more money to do another game so let's do those things differently that we talked about when we discussed things that we would have done differently!" Case in point: you have an actual party of characters, with their own plots and goals and differing reactions to the shit you pull. Also some pretty genuinely surprising shit happens and you get to get elbow-deep in some pretty powerful players' business as always.
Hong Kong doesn't have as tightly-focused a narrative as the other two; a lot of the time you spend in the game will be taking runs, not chasing down your personal leads. This isn't all bad, though. A lot of the missions give you the chance to learn more about the area, the groups around Hong Kong or the metaphysics of Shadowrun, so they're not just like "go to this parking garage and shoot up the place." Also, your party members have missions that cap off their storylines this time, unlike in Dragonfall. Mechanically the two big changes they made were the cyberware rebalance (badly, badly-needed) and the new Matrix interface. Both improvements but it didn't quite set the world on fire like the first two because the changes were less in-your-face.
HBS is launching the kickstarter for their new turn-based Battletech game next week and I am HYPE AS FUCK.
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Is there a place that goes more into detail on what they changed in Hong Kong?
Also i think the main complaint people have with returns is that there's a enemy type that pops up later on that is unkillable without specific weapons, of which you only get a handful (and few people can use them). It's pretty tedious and really made the endgame drag on.
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I don't even remember that enemy? I haven't had too much trouble on the hardest difficulty setting, after the beginning of the game.
Returns and Dragonfall aren't related storywise. It is universally agreed that Dragonfall is better so just go for it instead. (Or try Hong Kong, which is also unrelated and which I haven't played yet)
The only part of Returns that's better is that you're a lone guy who has to recruit hires and carefully balance your bank account, while in Dragonfall you have a full free team and hires are 100% useless.
Choose your build carefully, my experience so far with the new Shadowrun builds are:
Decker = A terrible idea for your main character
Sword melee = Not very effective but kinda fun
Rigger = Fucking awesome
I should probably try a mage in SR Hong Kong but I just want to play a rigger again
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I'd agree that melee is not great yet also pretty satisfying to chop dudes' turns away when it works right. Assault rifles are the brokeshit option in my experience, act shocked. I've always used ally mages as Haste batteries and now it's difficult for me to conceive of them serving any other purpose.
Dragonfall is better than the original campaign in absolutely every way. I would generically recommend it to RPG people in general just because the cast and story writing have a surprising amount of merit, which I think Dead Man's Switch largely lacks. But it's also kind of retrograde trying to play the first campaign after you've got used to the awesome one, so eh. I don't think the base SRR campaign represents that much of a time investment if you just want to start from the beginning to see how the series progressed linearly? It was a solidly okay experience that didn't excel at much but at least represented a framework for cooler things that would follow.
I haven't got really into Hong Kong yet. Didn't immediately catch my attention and there's been competition for gaming time lately.
EDIT: also I think Trips is referring to the ghost bugs that you need the ectoplasm gun or whatever to kill? I let Harlequin handle that because he was shockingly mediocre at everything.
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I only played Returns and I thought it was a nice little game (putting some emphasis on little here though - the game is ultra short). The other versions might be worth a look too.
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Well, if Returns doesn't have very meaningful character interaction or worldbuilding I may just skip it and go for Dragonfall or Hong Kong.
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Is there a place that goes more into detail on what they changed in Hong Kong?
Didn't find a rundown so here's the highlights:
-The Matrix was changed up to let you circumvent security as opposed to how you HAD to fight through every piece of IC in Dragonfall. The tougher enemies usually only spawn after you get caught by a patrol. This is very important in some fights because Matrix turns and real world turns are now 1:1, and getting bogged down in fights can mean getting overwhelmed in many cases. So if you pay attention and do a good job of moving, you can avoid security and get in and out quickly while skipping over most security (which is how you're supposed to do it in Shadowrun, not blast through every security program you meet).
-Cyberware was overhauled. There have been additional places to attach parts as well as more options for slots. For example: you can install a datajack in your palm or eye for covert access to computers (when you need to access it in a way that is sneaky!) while body and skin mods are now different slots, so you can have both reinforced skeletons and dermal plating to turn you into an unkillable monsterman. There's also a bunch of new mods, particularly arms, that are relevant to one particular playstyle. For instance, there's an arm that gives +1 ranged combat and makes reloading cost 0 AP. Cyberware can also be a stand-alone character build now, since it comes with its own weapons (Wolverine claws, shock hands and monofilament whips). Additionally raising your cyberware skill is no longer just a point sink to be able to use cyberparts, it also increases your essence so you can chrome up MORE.
-There are different kinds of drones for Deckers now instead of one linear progression of combat drone. At each tier there's a shotgun, SMG and rifle drone for combat as well as two different types of support drones, one more med-focused and one more combat-focused.
-Cash flow is lower than it was in Dragonfall, so you need to be more focused in your build. Even though you only bankroll yourself, you probably can only afford to upgrade your armor and any two other things (so two guns, or guns and cyberware, or guns and spells, or cyberware and decker shit). You probably wanna upgrade your armor, dudes have grenades.
-Every couple missions or so, party members will all gain a new skill. There are six tiers of skills with two options each, representing two approaches the character might take. For instance, Duncan the Lone Star officer's trees are called "Lethal force" and "Crowd control" and focus on either improving his ability to waste fools with his assault rifle or giving him tools to deploy which, mostly, reduce enemy AP and accuracy. Since you can't control the growth of other party members, this gives you the chance to shore up ways your party isn't quite meshing with your playstyle.
Well, if Returns doesn't have very meaningful character interaction or worldbuilding I may just skip it and go for Dragonfall or Hong Kong.
Not a ton of character interaction but there's some pretty decent worldbuilding. The BTL chips you are dealing with early on are something that keeps coming up in other games in particular. The main plot climax is something that happened in Shadowrun history so it's not like this is the only place they've ever covered that, though.
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Duck Game - Things I discovered playing with Ciddy and Fenny:
- Bananas don't kill people.
- Ducks kill people.
- Grenades are the best.
- I keep tossing weapons when I mean to shoot.
Final Fantasy Master Of Autobattles - I have nothing to do, so back to farming Greater Black Orbs on Dr. Lugae. At 10 stamina per repeatable attempt once you get there, it's the most efficient way long-term, especially when I can 3HKO the fight ad nauseum with inexhaustible resources. Got six of them today, once I have 20 total, I'll move on to farming Greater Fires for R3 Firaja.
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I think we broke the hilarious deaths record this last time. Those were some of the best fights I had in the game.
I am drunk and absolutely ready for more DUCK GAME right now guys.
FF Type 0: I have handled special missions that are way too overleveled for me by just using Reraise with Rem then summoning Odin over and over, Odin getting one level per minute. It's been 100% awesome.
This netted me an Hypno Crown, that just raises every kind of magic by 30 and MP by 50% ? Completely fucking ridiculous
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FFRK: Catching up on Elite dungeons during the event lull. Up to 126/130 timebux now. I'm really liking the Pressure Point skill. Wouldn't run a monk specifically for it, but if you're running a monk anyway it's pretty nice. Too bad it takes Greater Dark Orbs, the type I am perpetually out of.
Heavenstrike Rivals: Got all the units I'm using promoted, now I'm grinding a bit to get them to level 25, because bigger numbers.
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FFRK: Got super excited about the FF14 event and saved up, did 2 11-pulls at different times. The first one, right as it came out, got me the Ninja Garb and an extra Thornlet. the second one (last night) got me the Lominsan Bow, Yoshimitsu, a second Chakram, a second Empyrean Rod, and pretty much endless joy. I am not even close to set up for the Mage Meta, but hot DAMN if I'm not set up for a standard RPG party filled with nothing but hotties like Thancred. I am very happy.
Darkest Dungeon: Remembered I had this when my internet started hitting the shitter this week, decided to get back to it. It's a fun little romp where you play against virtually impossible odds. It's kind of like a medieval XCom, where you have abominations trying to kill you and the plot is mostly just there to get you through, and everyone dies because of Syphilis or Rabies, but sometimes you want Rabies? I don't know. It's pretty and it tries to kill you constantly with heart attacks and STDs while you fight eldritch abominations. What more do you want out of a game?
Fire Emblem Fates: Still plucking away at Not!Japan path, still don't know what the hell is going on. It's fun, albeit every 3 chapters is a Valm-like spike in difficulty now, so it's probably going to take me a bit to get through it. Oh well.
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I just got 50 mithril again and spent it on the FF14 banner like a casino addict. Got Yoshimitsu. Okay.
Pretty cool (I like Thancred's super weird skillet) but Hinode scared me forever and I'm now afraid I won't be able to finish everything without either SG / Lunatic High / Boon
Oh and I crafted Holy. It looks nice?
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I have Lunatic High, plz summon
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I'm watching my kid play MGS5. It's 1984 and Snake has an iphone with Siri on it. #realism
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Final Fantasy - A Reload Reborn
I swear, I think I've spent nearly $260 on FFRK for this event alone... And what do I have to show for it?
3x Ninja Chainmails
2x Lominsan Bows
2x Cobalt Katzbalgers
1x Thyrus
Unrelated to FF14:
1x Defense Veil
...I need to stop spending money on this game. At the very least, I've averaged about one 5* for every $30 I spent. At the very least, since I still live at home with my parents, I can afford to give up a week's pay for fun. Flipside, I basically get to buy no new fun times until after Christmas.
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I would act superior for not having spent money on the game, but FFV event hasn't come out yet and I'm very capable of doing the same thing.
MGS5: Apparently this game is just an HD remake of Balloon Fight.
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Final Fantasy The Angels Of Autobattle - I did the egregiously easy FF14 event quests and went back to Greater Orb farming. Up to 20 Greater Blacks, currently farming for Greater Fires. I need only 16 Greater Fires to hone Firaja to R3!
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This would have made FF6 much easier:
https://ffrk-movie.static.sp.mbga.jp/soul_strike/10600100/20150831_llVxmCkkM08.mp4
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FF6 NEEDS to be a lot easier!?
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D3: Ring of Regal Grandeur acquired, and the four-piece bonus from Uliana's set turns Seven-Sided Strike (which now deals, appropriately, seven times its base damage) from an occasional bit of extra power when I have extra resources into a bonafide nuke. While farming bounties for it, I was super excited to see a set fist weapon drop, because I found Shenlong's Fist of Legend on my first day with the character and completing an endgame weapon set inside of a week would be pretty freaking sweet. I identified it, and...Shenlong's Fist of Legend. So close!
In any case, I'm up to easily soloing Torment 5 and GR 23, so that's pretty nice.
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FFRK: Plucking away at the event quests and story missions, currently at 116 Stamina. Btw, would Aerith's Planet Protector or Thancred's Dancing Edge be a better RW?
D3: Oh yeah, forgot that I play this game sometimes. Started the new season as a Monk because hey never played them and everyone is always raving about how awesome and fun they are! ... I die constantly and can't deal enough damage to last because as soon as I walk up to something and attack it attacks me first. Might just reroll as a Wizard or Crusader or something unless they got seriously nerfed this season. Going to need to do some reading.
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If you need a quick ride to 70 so you can start collecting gear, or just somebody to do runs with who will also be seeing Monk drops, let me know. The class is a blast to play but many of its tricks are super dependent on equipment. Shale#1151.
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FFRK: Plucking away at the event quests and story missions, currently at 116 Stamina. Btw, would Aerith's Planet Protector or Thancred's Dancing Edge be a better RW?
Neither is terribly hot (ST damage SBs are a waste of a slot outside of the occasional newbie trying to cheese past earlygame content and MT attack up is slightly niche a setup, along with competing against Advantaliate setups), so I'd say pick whichever you like more.
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I swear, I think I've spent nearly $260 on FFRK for this event alone...
JESUS CHRIST
Snow, look at what you've done
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You seriously haven't been enough on reddit to see the tales of horror about splurging on single events. Hell, I made the mistake of spending over $100 on this one, that's over double what I've spent on this game since I started playing until this event. Never again.
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I don't post about it here but I play Marvel Puzzle Quest pretty regularly and jesus fucking christ you do not want to know about the spending some people get up to there. Five digit figures, I swear to god.
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FIVE DIGITS?
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For a match 3 game?
Well we know why F2P prevails now
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I've spent 4 dollars on rk.
Speaking of...
I finally have every character who can break the level cap, broke.
Yay!
126 stamina and counting.
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Yep.
In fact, let me explain because the spectacle is kind of mind-blowing. In MPQ advancement is all about getting new and better abilities for your characters. Each character has three “covers” that correspond to their available powers, and getting a cover lets you learn or level up that power, to a maximum of five levels per power (and 13 overall, so you have to choose a build rather than going all-in). There used to be four tiers of characters, but this month they introduced a five-star tier, currently occupied by Silver Surfer, that's ridiculously hard to get, including measures that are supposed to make it all but futile to try to buy your way in. Key words: "all but."
With lower-tier characters once you have a power you can level it up by spending in-game currency if you don't want to wait to get the cover you need, but you can only build up a five-star by finding the proper covers. The only place you can get those covers is with a “Legendary” draw, which has a 95% chance of a random four-star character and a 5% chance of the Surfer. There are a bunch of ways to win a legendary draw by playing the game, but only one way to buy them – if you buy a 40-pack of “Heroic” draws (two-to-four-star covers), for $50 worth of in-game currency, you get one Legendary. That's one five-percent chance at one Silver Surfer cover. This opened up two weeks ago, and one guy has nine SS covers. Think about that math.
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Dear god.
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(also, since I mentioned the freebies, I should mention that there have been eight opportunities for one so far.)
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Basically y'all are the suckers I made fun of while working at Aeria Games. (^_~ - Smiley added, sorry, that sounded meaner than I wanted)
Seriously though, we had folks who spent $1K+ on events that happened twice a week, every week.
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I really hope those guys have money to waste, because the idea of plunging into a spiral of debt and poverty for a game kinda hurts my heart.
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I would raise exactly zero fuss if anybody who pulled the trigger on that $50-for-a-single-draw nonsense was automatically deemed incompetent to manage their finances by a court of law.
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Four dollars seems like too much in retrospect...
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Final Fantasy - A Reload Reborn
I swear, I think I've spent nearly $260 on FFRK for this event alone... And what do I have to show for it?
3x Ninja Chainmails
2x Lominsan Bows
2x Cobalt Katzbalgers
1x Thyrus
Unrelated to FF14:
1x Defense Veil
...I need to stop spending money on this game. At the very least, I've averaged about one 5* for every $30 I spent. At the very least, since I still live at home with my parents, I can afford to give up a week's pay for fun. Flipside, I basically get to buy no new fun times until after Christmas.
Hey, maybe they'll one day use some of that money to make a good mainline FF game or something. Then we can all thank you!
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Guys guys guys. Why in the fuck did you think I was saying this is a bad idea for people with addictive personalities to play?
Payday 2 - It introduced dailies and that is bad. One of them is always do 4missions for one of the Contractors. Sometimes those are fine 4ish minute smash and grab ones. Sometimes it is exclusively 20+ minute 3 map long ones. This is fun, but 2 hours a day of play might be pushing it. The rewards are low enough to not really push it though. I am having fun with PUGs and doing harder content than I used to with them. Not sure if game got a bit easier on Overkill or if general population just got better. Probably a mix of both and some power creep on the player side.
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Dust: An Elysian Tail - Muramasa with smaller breasts and more furry folk. I'm having fun. Controls are a bit mushy (moves aren't quite distinct enough to feel decisively that I have hit X, X, Y sometimes) and some of the VA was done with bad mics, but eh.
Maxing damage because I live on the edge. Also because the game has the universe's most forgiving parry.
Never Alone - Just not working for me. Couple of bugs have hit me already, platforming hasn't been interesting, bola controls are annoying, etc. Kind of a bummer. Really wanted to like it.
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I just got 50 mithril again and spent it on the FF14 banner like a casino addict. Got Yoshimitsu. Okay.
Pretty cool (I like Thancred's super weird skillet) but Hinode scared me forever and I'm now afraid I won't be able to finish everything without either SG / Lunatic High / Boon
Oh and I crafted Holy. It looks nice?
The good news is that people have mastered everything to date without any of those fancy SBs, and recent Misfortune bosses have been easier than Beatrix/Vossler.
The bad news is that you might have to S/L ~60 times for those two bosses.
FFRK: Plucking away at the event quests and story missions, currently at 116 Stamina. Btw, would Aerith's Planet Protector or Thancred's Dancing Edge be a better RW?
Neither is terribly hot (ST damage SBs are a waste of a slot outside of the occasional newbie trying to cheese past earlygame content and MT attack up is slightly niche a setup, along with competing against Advantaliate setups), so I'd say pick whichever you like more.
The one thing about Planet Protector is that it's weirdly rare on reddit compared to the RK playerbase at large. As in, only two people have ever posted a code for it ever, including me. I hit 100 followers last week with PP and get more gil on average than a bunch of people with SG/Boon/Lunatic have reported.
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That's interesting. I think I happen to follow both you and Magey, so whenever I do a more physical party I hit those up. I largely moved away from Reta once it started requiring Advance to properly keep up as a strat, though.
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So close!
One of the Cube powers is to transmute a set item into a different item in the same set. Just sayin'.
Also if anyone playing D3 wants a free ride to legitville and is NOT playing seasonal (which is a hamster wheel too far for me) just let me know.
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I would raise exactly zero fuss if anybody who pulled the trigger on that $50-for-a-single-draw nonsense was automatically deemed incompetent to manage their finances by a court of law.
While I agree with this, and strongly encourage MagicFanatic & others to dial back their record keeping...
...I'd be much more eager to deny basic adulthood rights to people who go to casinos. Okay, fine, I'll be more specific: people who play slots in casinos.
I kid you not that they offer "slots tournaments." I am not making this up. This is not ironic. There are groups of friends who organize these among themselves with no need for casino prodding, too! Think about that for a moment.
At least if you're playing a game, you have the fun of playing the darn game for your 'investment'. Nobody over 7 years old likes just raw playing slots if there's no money involved.
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I kid you not that they offer "slots tournaments." I am not making this up. This is not ironic.
As long as the person who shows up when the fewest people are typically in the Casino (and therefore the slot machines have the highest payout) wins, I am ok with this.
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So close!
One of the Cube powers is to transmute a set item into a different item in the same set. Just sayin'.
Also if anyone playing D3 wants a free ride to legitville and is NOT playing seasonal (which is a hamster wheel too far for me) just let me know.
Only works if the set has more than two pieces.
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Oh, are we telling free-to-play stories?
I still play Perfect World. The rarest item in the game is a helmet that comes from chance packs at a rate of .0003%. It is so rare that up until recently we didn't have any on our server, despite it being available for a couple of years already.
So PWI's 7th anniversary rolls around, and they offer some massive sales on chance packs (along with rewards for charging money to the game and spending that charged money).
We have had five of those items pulled in the last week.
If my math is right, that's an estimated $366,000 charged into the game just for those packs alone, not even counting money spent on other things. And the other 3 servers.
And Perfect World isn't even their biggest game anymore. Which means people are spending even *more* money on Neverwinter and Star Trek.
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And i thought I was irresponsible with money, like when I gifted Duck Game to everything
Duck Game: 4 players deathmatchs with Snow, Cid and Gourry. Really really cool.
13 hours in, the game is still not getting old. It says I have quacked 17 344 times so far, that's roughly one quack every 2,7 seconds for 13 hours.
Undertale: Gourry is going to tell you about how cool this game is. I don't want to spoil, but it is pretty cool.
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Only works if the set has more than two pieces.
Lame-O
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I'm currently in the Barr mountains in SO3. I'm currently mostly using Nel, Maria, and a rotating third.
The main thing I've been playing, though is Celestian Tales - Old North. Fun little indie RPG.
It's a short game, and pretty clear part 1 of something bigger, but you can play it through multiple times to see it from the perspective of each of six main characters. Past that, the art is nice (reminds me of VP), the story is a pretty interesting little political yarn with lots of grey morality, all the major characters are distinct and memorable, and its battle system is well-done. I'll talk most about the battle system because it's me, but yeah the rest of the package is good too.
At the core of the battle system is stamina: each PC and enemy starts with 3, and can gain 1 by using a basic physical or 2 by defending. Using skills costs this resource, and obviously you can't go negative. Enemies use the system too, and the game has a bunch of skills which play with the system, like attacks which can lower target stamina or which ignore defence (and therefore defending). Both sides have lots of buffs and status options (status works on everything, so it tends not to be too debilitating) so there are lots of fun options to choose battle-to-battle. At first I was worried that the game would be too easy for any of this to matter, but after a slightly worrying start in the challenge department it definitely hits its stride. So in the end it just feels like it has a pretty good challenge curve.
It has a bunch of quality-of-life stuff I definitely approve of like healing all your HP after each fight (though there is a BoF/WA-like "max HP down" status so that you want to avoid deaths) and everyone gets full exp, whether in the party or not. Which means you can pretty much switch in the PCs you feel like using for any given fight at your discretion (does have to be between fights though).
It would certainly be nice if the game were longer or had a bit more content, but given its low price you certainly get your money's worth IMO (it costs less than half of one random item grab in FFRK, what the fuck to that...). Really the only major flaw is I feel the game's lack of sceneskip, which really bites it in the ass as the game does on one occasion put a nasty fight after a lengthy cutscene. Boooo! Otherwise the game is pretty good on polish issues.
It's hard to know exactly where to rate it since it's just part of a whole, but I definitely enjoyed it. I played as Cammile because she was described as rational (didn't disappoint as a character, though kinda underwhelming as a PC), took around 7-8 hours, finished at Level 24. Going to play through as someone else next.
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And Perfect World isn't even their biggest game anymore. Which means people are spending even *more* money on Neverwinter and Star Trek.
STO has a shitload of money sinks and a lot of people who boast potent combinations of neurological and personal defects. For instance, there are projects designed to be completed by an entire fleet working together. Some notable sperglords have maxed out multiple lines of credit buying money to throw into this pit so they can max out the space station for their vanity fleet where they have roleplay space cat sex.
On top of this, there's also gambling involved! You can buy a key to open a lockbox for like a dollar or something. The odds of getting a rare ship are roughly 1:10,000, and there's one per lockbox. Also, most of the best ships in the game (like all the Jem'Hadar ships) can only be obtained in this way, so it's not even P2W, it's Gamble 2 Maybe Win.
What I'm saying is a lot of the pubbies who play this game are broken people.
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See when I play Payday 2 I am only doing missions to burn virtual money in a virtual bank, no literally burning money on a virtual bank.
Also glad to see STO is just an EVE clone at this point. sickburns.wav
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Do people in EVE compare their video game man being sprayed with a video game fire extinguisher with no effect whatsoever to 9/11 on a regular basis? Cause that's STO.txt
e: Or "when someone uses a disco ball and forces my character to dance, that is forcing me to do something against my will. That is the literal definition of rape."
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I have no idea but given that it is still an MMO, let's give it 1.0000009:1 odds on it being the case.
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Undertale: Gourry is going to tell you about how cool this game is. I don't want to spoil, but it is pretty cool.
OMFG is the full game out?
The demo is the best game I have played this year. I now have weekend plans.
Also jesus christ you people spend money on RK?
Guys.
Guys.
Stop it. Now.
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The DL has fallen far when Zenny is the voice of reason.
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Undertale: Gourry is going to tell you about how cool this game is. I don't want to spoil, but it is pretty cool.
OMFG is the full game out?
The demo is the best game I have played this year. I now have weekend plans.
Also jesus christ you people spend money on RK?
Guys.
Guys.
Stop it. Now.
lol
Payday 2 - Tried a job I stealth all the time on super hard mode (Death Wish). We would have succeeded if a civilian didn't decide to lie down inside a bookshelf and alert guards through a wall.
Hearthstone - the current flavour of the month decks of "no matter what I am playing it is months old meta and i am literally going to rope every second turn" fuck me off and I am uninstalling. Gods people just fucking play your goddamned fucking 2 drop for fucks sake please be dying in a fire right now so that it is over faster than the 15 minutes it will take to get to turn 8 oh my fucking gods.
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I don't post about it here but I play Marvel Puzzle Quest pretty regularly and jesus fucking christ you do not want to know about the spending some people get up to there. Five digit figures, I swear to god.
Holy shit, this game still exists?
I was playing this like, 3 times a day before I rage quit, but I forget what exactly made me finally snap.
Event scaling used to be way too Rubberbandy. I could build a team that could beat -anyone- I played, and then I'd log out for two hours, come back and OH HEY I'M IN TWO HUNDREDTH PLACE. The only way I could win an event was if I could log in and time it perfectly so my last several matches all occurred back-to-back within the last two or three minutes of an event. UGH.
~~~~~
FFRK: Another day, another 11 relic pull that comes up empty. One, I might add, that cost me ZERO DOLLARS, because if I'm gonna spend 70 dollars on anything, it's gonna be my meds!
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They actually fixed that a while back! Rubberbanding is pretty much a nonfactor now, and they've fiddled with scaling, timers and point values so it takes way less playing time to do well.
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Final Fantasy - A Reload Reborn
I swear, I think I've spent nearly $260 on FFRK for this event alone... And what do I have to show for it?
...I need to stop spending money on this game. At the very least, I've averaged about one 5* for every $30 I spent. At the very least, since I still live at home with my parents, I can afford to give up a week's pay for fun. Flipside, I basically get to buy no new fun times until after Christmas.
Hey, maybe they'll one day use some of that money to make a good mainline FF game or something. Then we can all thank you!
This is the wishfullest of thinking, perhaps behind hoping that Konami's focus on pachinko machines and its inhuman working conditions will lead to the rebirth of Suikoden.
Also please don't spend real people money on FFRK.
Duck Game - I played the other day with Cid, Fenny, and Snow, and it was a lot of fun. I still got killed a lot but simply learning the pickup/throw/shoot thing helps a lot. I suicided by banana at least three freaking times because I never learn. I still don't feel great about playing with randoms but maybe that will change once I stop dying so much? Or it could just be an internet asshole thing.
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I've also notched two playthroughs of Undertale, and it's pretty remarkable for a number of reasons. A lot of people have described it as similar to Earthbound, and it is, but I feel that there's more to it. I enjoyed Earthbound's world, but it has a lot of strange non-sequiturs that don't necessarily serve much purpose. Undertale has its own share of strangeness, but it is all serving the development of the world, specifically your relationship to its characters, and your knowledge of and connection to these characters is paramount depending on your playstyle.
It's getting press as a game where you don't have to fight at all. You can befriend monsters and bosses in battle, but you have to probe their mood and their characteristics before sparing them (in most instances, making it so they they don't want to fight you any longer). You can also take the route where you kill everything you see as in all other RPGs, and unlike in other games, your choice of violence vs pacifism has a very stark effect on the world, not through branching paths but through how the world ends up perceiving *you*. There is a very intensive moral compass, and the characters in the game and the game itself keeps track of all of your decisions, even if you savescum. Sometimes it's subtle, like a line or a small event change, or sometimes the whole tenor of a scene is recontextualized if you've decided to be violent (and people will comment on you if you're murderous, saying that your have a blank emotionless stare).
The main reason why I think the game is remarkable is because of its emotional sincerity and resonance. The scenes leading up to the opening title card are masterful (I think this is basically the demo), in ways that I cannot elaborate on for fear of spoiling. The game's message and morality lessons are pretty simple and perhaps a bit on the nose but they are told extremely well by gameplay mechanics. It is rewarding but difficult to be nice and befriend people, and that's shown in more difficult encounters when you have to spend a couple turns avoiding your enemies' attacks (combat mostly involves a bullet-hell like avoiding of enemy projectiles) before being able to befriend them. On a pacifistic run, you don't get experience for killing people, so you don't gain LVs and thus your HP will never increase. On the other hand, it is pretty easy but numbing to kill everything in your path. Depending on your choices, the game consists of emotional highs or stark darkness with in depth examinations of sociopathy. I think any game that is capable doing both well is worth a look, and it's only $10. It's kind of hard to talk about further without spoiling anything and it's kind of annoying because there actually is so much shit to talk about but it's basically impossible to talk about things I would want to recommend without ruining part of the experience. But, like, seriously, there is some Dark Souls level speculation already about all that is laid in in this world.
*There's a skeleton character named Sans who is basically Fen.
*This game has the worst goddamn, most groan inducing puns in the world, many of them skeleton related.
*The way you spare two dudebro guards is to get them to admit they are gay.
*There's a skeleton dating sim and he has pictures of his biceps and the biceps are wearing sunglasses.
*The game's art style may not be to everyone's taste, but it actually does quite a lot in terms of conveying emotion using very simple changes to a few pixels here and there.
*I don't think encounters are truly random but somewhat set. If you kill everything you see, NPCs in the real world don't appear in towns later, so this game doesn't fuck around when it comes to choice. You can find entire towns unpopulated if you're particularly violent.
*There's a FFVI opera scene with a homicidal robot as Celes.
*As an example of dealing with enemies, there's one enemy whose description is that he seems evil but he might be with the wrong crowd. He usually comes with other enemies and will attack you relentlessly until you spare everybody but him, and then he just flaps his arms.
The game's only ten bucks and I recommend it without reservation.
The most excruciating choice in video games:
(http://i.imgur.com/CpTkZXc.png)
Trenchant political commentary:
(http://i.imgur.com/ma20G2s.jpg)
Spoiler talk
Okay, so the first time I played this, I only knew that you could talk yourself out of battles, but the section with Toriel is really good. She literally hand holds you through tutorial sections and shows you game mechanics, like how to spare enemies. She is just a matronly figure for you, making you pies you like, and she has built up a space for you to stay forever (why did the skeleton want a friend? because she was feeling bonely!!! Har har har). This seems boring and as your character, you only have options asking how to get out. She then takes you to the basement and says that others have died underground and that you had to go through her to get out. You fight her, and I thought that with RPG logic that this was a scripted encounter where the point was to teach you that the world is terrible sometimes and that sometimes killing is unavoidable, so after trying to talk or spare a few times, I start attacking her. She uses a lot of magic attacks that are tough to avoid as a first time player, and it seems that you have to attack her to stop it all. And then, something changes. She uses magic but it falls in a barrier like pattern around you, never touching your character. Toriel cannot get herself to hurt you and is basically accepting death, and this is a perfect example of gameplay mechanics telling story/revealing character. I killed her and then I find that you didn't have to, and I felt fucking terrible about it, but I don't savescum (the game will know if you start over and do this differently). I made my choice and felt like a piece of shit for it, and that strengthened a resolve to avoid killing for the rest of the playthrough, and that's what I did before doing a true pacifist ending next.
*The ending of the neutral path (some killing) involves some Metal Gear Solid-esque interface screw, closing the game from Steam several times and turning into a weird 2D shooter with 3D models of a monster plant. It's pretty gnarly. The characters in the game acknowledge the existence of saving and loading, and this happens in this encounter with the final boss several times, where he is clearly savestating to hit you over and over again. This part is pretty awesome.
*The final encounter on the pacifist run is very Giygas-esque, where there is a hopeless fight and your friends have been absorbed and you have to save them by acting on things that had defined your friendship, like telling horrible puns or making shitty spaghetti, but it is these character moments from the game that have established your attachment to these characters. The music in this is awesome and carries the scenes emotionally.
*The game knows your choices and whether you've killed, and it will know if you reset. You can still get any ending on a replay, but that changes things here and there and it changes the ending, so going no mercy to true pacifist will color the true pacifist ending because you know what you did you fucking monster and the game knows too.
*Anime's not fucking real, that's a load of shit.
*After doing the pacifist ending, you get a message at the end not to restart the world because that is the happiest end state and to start things over would be cruel, and this is very Spec Ops: The Line-like where the right thing to do is to stop playing the game. I then watched a bit of a genocide run, and it is completely unpalatable to me. I could not stomach killing Papyrus. It really reflects the character attachment you end up getting where the notion of these characters dying by your hand just feels so wrong. Later, Undyne is shown to be the heroine with undying resolve against you, the monstrous antagonist of the game. This is when it basically becomes Orsted's rampage in Live a Live, where you are too far gone and have killed too much, and the world is evacuating to escape your senseless wrath. I don't think I will ever do a genocide run. At the end, Flowey talks about doing similar things as you, where he chose to make everyone happy and then started killing just because he wanted to see what would happen, and this is a reflection on the player and on just general game tropes where we become blank eyed killing machines so that numbers go up. It also plays on the concept of EX(perience) and LV (level of violence) on a rather on the nose way, but it does reflect that this "determination" that you have can cut both ways and isn't necessarily a force for good.
*Sans is a character who obviously knows more than he lets on no matter what path you choose ("you're gonna have a bad time"), even though he plays incompetent and likes annoying people. He is basically the final boss of a genocide run and he looks incredibly fucking hard.
*There is so much speculation and lore going on with this game. For example, the equipment that you find is themed (tutu & ballet shoes) and may be linked to the previous six humans. People going through the data have also found a guy named Dr. Gaster who has lines and stuff but we don't know what his role was.
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I particularly appreciate what the game does with the bullet hell dodge sequences. Lots of good ideas. earthbound is the best source of inspiration for new indie RPGs.
The only thing that bothers me is how the nice / not nice thing seems like a non choice, if you're just going to kill everything then what the fuck is the point of playing this rpg in particular. Also, enjoy golf qtes. Killing seems to me like a nice novelty you check on on your second playthrough more than a real choice.
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So you are saying it takes the ideas Nier fucked up and makes an actually good game?
(http://www.survivinggrady.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/7F221.jpg)
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You stop your NieR badmouthing.
FFRK: crafted Meteor, immediately put it on Tellah, but he won't die no matter how many times I make him cast it. Sad face.
Also, dear god Magic. I'm glad you have money to spare and seem to be enjoying the game, but that is a lot of money on a F2P game. I usually just buy the biweekly dollar pulls to support the game because I actually like the game and feel it's worth a dollar every now and then but... $260 in one go might be indicative of a problem...
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So you are saying it takes the ideas Nier fucked up and makes an actually good game?
(http://www.survivinggrady.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/7F221.jpg)
Undertale definitely has Nier-like elements but I forget what you didn't like about it so I can't comment on that aspect.
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Yeah seriously. At least I just obsessively compulsively play it all day, and this weekend proved that is something I can not do if I have a good enough reason.
And seriously you guys if you have money to spend on FFRK you REALLY should be spending it on Undertale instead. I linked to the demo a while ago in misc links. If you are unconvinced (and the fact that Fenrir played it should convince you you heathens), go give the demo a shot.
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Also, dear god Magic. I'm glad you have money to spare and seem to be enjoying the game, but that is a lot of money on a F2P game. I usually just buy the biweekly dollar pulls to support the game because I actually like the game and feel it's worth a dollar every now and then but... $260 in one go might be indicative of a problem...
Yeeeeah... I already touched on that in chat earlier, and chatted with Jim about it a little bit.
EDIT: Right, may as well talk about the other games I've been playing.
FFD: Played for a few hours in my downtime at work. Just got the Ranger job and then switched to the Light side again.
Light: No JP Spent, but mostly rank 3 in all the jobs except Dragoon.
Nacht: Rank 3 Red Mage for HP +20%, Rank 7 for Thief. Not sure what to do next.
Alba: Rank 3 White Mage, Rank 7 Black Mage, Rank 4 Red Mage. Going to get Chaincast then throw her back into Black Mage.
Diana: Same as Alba, but switch White Mage and Black Mage.
Glaive: Rank 3 Knight, and then Rank 7 or 8 Monk.
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Excellent, superior mobile FF.
Star Ocean 3 - Robinwind died in a single Scatter Beam combo, just like my first playthrough.
Celestian Tales: Old North - Working on a second point of view. Flying by.
I'm actually kinda tempted by Undertale but Earthbound humour + artstyle both really don't do it for me. (Though of course, I did like Nier, if that's the second comparison.) A good look at violence vs. pacifism is really intriguing, however. Still worth it, you think, Gourry?
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Triple Triad:
Ever set up a glorious Same combo that will run the board for you, only to realize to your horror that you're playing Plus and not Same?
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Triple Triad:
Ever set up a glorious Same combo that will run the board for you, only to realize to your horror that you're playing Plus and not Same?
Not even once.
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FFRK: Ditched my two best characters for Golbez and Thancred. This game is so weird. Sometimes ditching your BEST dudes is the best decision. Weird. eerie.
Party is Golbez, Josef, Rinoa, Cloud, Thancred.
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I'm actually kinda tempted by Undertale but Earthbound humour + artstyle both really don't do it for me. (Though of course, I did like Nier, if that's the second comparison.) A good look at violence vs. pacifism is really intriguing, however. Still worth it, you think, Gourry?
Seconding potential interest with misgivings. It is really difficult for me to want to spend extensive time in a world where the art style doesn't jibe with me.
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The game looks actually pretty good when you play it. You'd like Toriel and her house.
I don't like how the main character looks, I think this emulates Earthbound's weird MC sprites. The game shows its limited budget with the static sprites and drab environments, but the overall art is pleasant enough (unlike say, Lisa's)
The Papyrus battle was the coolest part of the game so far, it cannot possibly get better
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The game looks actually pretty good when you play it. You'd like Toriel and her house.
I don't like how the main character looks, I think this emulates Earthbound's weird MC sprites. The game shows its limited budget with the static sprites and drab environments, but the overall art is pleasant enough (unlike say, Lisa's)
The Papyrus battle was the coolest part of the game so far, it cannot possibly get better
Papyrus is a great character but it gets better. I didn't talk about combat much, but the game really does cool and creative things with its bullet hell stuff, messing around with the menu interface, your movement abilities, and using character personality to inform their mode of attack.
The artstyle on the overworld is really minimalist but as I mentioned, there's a lot going on with regard to battle sprites and facial expressions for important characters. It doesn't look always great but I think the artstyle is inoffensive at worst and it also uses its aesthetic in a subversive way.
As I mentioned, there are similarities to Earthbound, but it doesn't totally share its sense of humor. The things that come up that are strange/quirky are completely in service to character/world building, whereas I feel that Earthbound had some random things that weren't in service of anything. There is some 4th wall breaking if that bothers you, but a lot of the humor consists of puns and lampshade hanging on game/RPG tropes, and it's not at all obnoxious about it. Humor is hard to gauge from person to person, but I think the strength of the game is in its emotional resonance and sincerity more than its humor style.
I think you guys can try the demo, but if I'm right, that's just the opening. It's really good, but the tenor of the rest of the game is a little different.
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D3: Enemy drops hate me, got nothing useful from them all week except some new looks I can switch my good equipment into. Kadala and the Cube love me though. Buying armor pieces with blood shards got me Uliana's boots (four pieces down!), Inma's gloves (again, four pieces down), and the Raiment Of A Thousand Storms gloves (one piece, would not complain about a second for that 300% damage boost on punching). Then I went to the cube to upgrade fist weapons, and what should show up but that Shenlong's Relentless Assault I narrowly missed before. Granted, the stats on it suck, but I can fix that!
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Final Fantasy Autobattle Will Tear Us Apart - Farming for gil, mostly. I already have well over 100 Lightning, Wind and Power Orbs, which should be plenty to get the incoming Dual Delay to R4 at minimum, and that'll be pretty helpful for the also incoming bonus battles of the FF14 event. Hopefully, I'll be able to rip Ifrit into tiny ribbons with that Keep of the Saints and Lominsan Bow. The extra Growth Eggs from the initial event quests will also go straight to Zack, since he's a requirement on most of the relevant masteries in his event. It shouldn't be hard anyway, I'm pretty set for FF7 synergy (Diamond Pin, a 4+* Masamune Blade, an Edincoat, an Adamant Bangle. Those should keep things very simple). It's good to be back into a steady influx of stuff to do, and there also should be a Dungeon Update next week at the latest.
Final Fantasy 7 - Currently up to North Corel. When I was a kid, I used to grind all the way to L30 on Mythril Cave to have the HP to pick up Beta and farm Ethers from Ark Dragons. Surprise, surprise, all of those are utterly unnecessary. I'm not even L20 right now and I just got Fire 2. The other L2s should follow up shortly. Enemies continue to hilariously suck - you're seriously telling me that there are enemies who still deal 20 damage AT THIS POINT OF THE GAME. I really don't know what were the devs thinking with the damage scaling there. Sometimes, things ST 4HKO when they're lucky! Heck, Jenova BIRTH has a MT 4HKO! Too bad the game hands you powerful MT healing basically for free, and I'm obviously not talking about Aerith's Healing Wind. The balance is seriously out of whack.
Narratively, the game continues to be an odd mess of interesting ideas and wildly fluctuating execution. The tone set for FF7 is often schizophrenic, which gets magnified by the polygonal models.
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I think you guys can try the demo, but if I'm right, that's just the opening. It's really good, but the tenor of the rest of the game is a little different.
Yeah, the Demo is just up until you reach Toriel's house and the subsequent boss fight.
It... actually, y'know, nevermind. I don't know how what I found so fucking amazing about the tutorial plays out in the full game because I haven't been reading the spoilers. The pacifism option and bullet hell combat are hella cool but those things aren't the most interesting thing about the tutorial by a longshot.
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Final Fantasy Autobattle Me All Your Money Holmes - Farm Farm. Got the three FFX level crystals, should be able to get Yuna's Level Break 2 crystal before the event ends mostly thanks to the stupidly good Happy Parade event going on. Going to dump a lot of mythril into stamina recharges during the Black/Fire/Ice Orb 3-day fest for sure, since the possibility of R4 Waterja is very real. Farming a bit of the Wind/Non-Elemental/Strength orb fest but I'm way less excited about that than literally any of the other fests except for the equipment upgrade fest. Earth Orb Day will probably get me R3 Quake, R2 Protectga, and then I can probably stop caring about Earth Orbs for the time being. I have so much Gil I don't know what to do with it, and both Yuna and Gilgamesh just broke the first level cap. Even with a 4 day break progress is kinda ridiculous right now.
Used some summons with Yuna while farming. Jesus christ they are awful. Like, yeah, their gimmick is that they're MT but they're never worth using over, say, Quake, or even the equivalent rarity MT black spells like Raincall or Fireball. Why the hell are they all 1 charge and such low damage? Being MT isn't a good reason for that when you have shit like Quake (which, admittedly, ate up a lot of Dark/Earth orbs).
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Summons are mostly a QoL thing and, once you hit up the 4* content, they actually have legit offense (from -ja level to higher), along with being your only non-5* source of -ja-level non-elemental damage. The 3* summons have slightly lower mults than Quake and Ruinga. The only 2* ever worth using is Kirin. And no 1* summon is ever worth touching.
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Gourry I appreciate it but I'm sure it cannot get better. Papyrus + Music + Blue attack joke thing + cool gameplay change / challenge + long jump at the end + Bone attacks + Special attack. It was awesome.
Anyway I just got past Undyne.
Zenny: I use R2 Valefor and it is allright.
You actually notice Quake being weaker at one point. Enemies start barely surviving Quake, while Valefor just straight up murders stuff.
In the 1337 difficulty dungeons I like having one guy with Valefor and another with Quake, both having refill materias + one second ability with a high number of charges for the boss fight.
Otherwise, Maduin = Valefor with other requirements, Carbuncle is cool, Kirin is niche as fuck and overall bad, and all other summons are absolute garbage
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Fenrir have I ever steered you wrong.
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Guess not!
But right now the game keeps telling me I'm close to the end.
BTW, I won the defusing game on the first try, and it kind of sounded like I was not supposed to. Is there any way to legit actually complete the (awesome) colored blocks puzzle right after?
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Guess not!
But right now the game keeps telling me I'm close to the end.
BTW, I won the defusing game on the first try, and it kind of sounded like I was not supposed to. Is there any way to legit actually complete the (awesome) colored blocks puzzle right after?
I did the defusing thing first try too. There is a way to do the colored block puzzle but it's also easy to make it impossible if you step on the wrong block toward the beginning.
http://imgur.com/abW77N0
There's still another little bit but you're close to the end.
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Woah there's a solution gif already? Cool.
Does anything actually happen if you complete it that way, or is the ending pretty much the same as during the defusing part?
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This is what happens:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Go7VCjh_Owo&feature=youtu.be
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Waiting for the Zack event to start...
BTW that earthbound'ish game...
It's on steam only?
2nd question can I use a controller for steam games?
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A quick glance says that Undertale is PC/Mac only, so probably just steam unless it maybe hit GOG. Most Steam games do allow for controllers, HOWEVER depending on what Undertale was built in it may not recognize most generic PC controllers. Depending on how complex the keyboard layout is you can probably just use a joy-to-key program to get around that though.
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Waiting for the Zack event to start...
BTW that earthbound'ish game...
It's on steam only?
2nd question can I use a controller for steam games?
I bought it from Steam but I think you may be able to buy it direct from this page:
http://undertale.com/
If you have an XBox or XBox One (I think) controller, those are plug and play with Windows and lots of Steam games have controller support, including Undertale.
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Gourry I appreciate it but I'm sure it cannot get better. Papyrus + Music + Blue attack joke thing + cool gameplay change / challenge + long jump at the end + Bone attacks + Special attack. It was awesome.
Anyway I just got past Undyne.
Zenny: I use R2 Valefor and it is allright.
You actually notice Quake being weaker at one point. Enemies start barely surviving Quake, while Valefor just straight up murders stuff.
In the 1337 difficulty dungeons I like having one guy with Valefor and another with Quake, both having refill materias + one second ability with a high number of charges for the boss fight.
Otherwise, Maduin = Valefor with other requirements, Carbuncle is cool, Kirin is niche as fuck and overall bad, and all other summons are absolute garbage
I have just enough resources to get Valefor and can get him to R2 with farming today, so sold. Does about 2k more than Quake so that's nice.
Also, did a new 11 pull and got a Sephiroth sword whose name I can't read, so I guess he's gonna be in with Gilgamesh. Yay, I don't have to use Cosplayer of Light now.
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Final Fantasy and RNGesus Love Me: MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! HAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
One-dollar-pull on Zack's Banner, suddenly Aerith's Mage Weapon! Fuck yeah! Part of the cool kids with Mage Weapons club now~ Woohoo~!
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It's... not -quite- a mage weapon, it's more of a healer weapon, though it's sorta balanced on stats, so it's a good weapon for all the WM/Summoner hybrids around, Aerith included (the SB is horrendously niche, though, quite possibly the worst of her -four- including the default). I -guess- it does have more Mag than anything else you have and hey, Diaga hype + FF7 synergy. Only three more mage rods to go!
And I suppose you'll have an easier time with Misfortune Beatrix six months from now.
EDIT:
Also, did a new 11 pull and got a Sephiroth sword whose name I can't read, so I guess he's gonna be in with Gilgamesh. Yay, I don't have to use Cosplayer of Light now.
So uh you got his Super Soul Break weapon.
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Controller support has been built into Windows since 7, maybe Vista. The answer to "can I use a controller?" is basically always yes.
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What is his super soul break? I've Shadow Flare and Black Materia floating around as RWs, but this one is different. Havent tried it or even translated it yet.
That would be pretty badass if it's the one you're talking about. I should look into that on my lunch break
Edit- nah it's Prisoner's Gate, basic mt attack. I'd imagine Black Materia is the super SB you're talking about
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The Black Materia Soul Break is his super. Since you said you couldn't read it, I assumed it was the SSB equip, though I -think- the Masamune is also in kanji (and heck, if it's different from the others, yeah, that's likely it. His first SB weapon, Masamune. Waaaaaaaaaaaay pre-power creep). One-Winged Angel, which carries Shadow Flare, is entirely in katakana.
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Final Fantasy Those Wings, I want Them Too: Finished up all of the Classic Dungeons while waiting for Zack event to drop. It dropped, and I just finished up running through it so I could 1) get Zack, the character I've wanted since I first heard about this game, and 2) Get enough mithril for my extra 11-pull. It didn't disappoint. On my first pull I got CC Buster Sword. Though I also got SOLDIER Sword, so I guess I'm still locked pretty solidly into Physical Meta? Oh well. Thancred+Zack+Cloud+Vivi+Aerith and everything will die forever and I just hope it dies before I do.
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With Planet Protector, you can set up a pretty capable physical party. Physicals scale much better off buffs until they hit the soft cap, which is nowadays over 500. With Cloud holding your strongest synergy sword, you can also do Retaliate shenanigans with Double Cuts and Double Hit RM. IF you have the patience, Advantaliate (Retaliate with an Advance Luneth RW) also yields pretty absurd results.
EDIT: Also, worth noting that Flurry Tempo (ability you can grab by mastering the second dungeon of the Elite version of the event) is a bit of a gamechanger for just about everyone who gets Celerity 3 (I can imagine Captain K using it with Selphieroth already). It's basically Double Cut that can inflict Slow, so it both eases up on the burden of carrying Slowga on your White Mage and allows some people without Combat ranks (hi, Fran. Hi, Thancred) to contribute to Reta-meta setups, along with being decent enough offense on its own. I beelined for it and honed my copy straight to R5, should come in very handy for both the Zack event and the FF14 + and ++ fights.
As for me, I'll just save Mythril until the Hope event for an 11-pull and the Zidane event for dumping millions of rocks on 3-4*s. Good thing October's banners are so miserably awful (Auron's banner is quite probably the -worst- I've seen since the Super Figaro Bros. banner back in July).
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FFRK: Attempted the first stage in the FF14 Boss Rush. Managed to beat the first stage, buuuut I lost three medals - one for Actions taken, and two for damage taken. I don't think I'm ready for this.
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HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! My long term gambling addiction paid off in short term rewards! HAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
everything you love is worthless because it isn't perfect *12 hours of Smiths on repeat.FLAC*
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Man guys I think I'm out. RK has been way less interesting now that I've finished all regular content. The HP bars also kinda ruined the excitement and tension of the hard fights for me as I expected, and I only play for the hard fights. I also don't want to do easy stages anymore, or farm anything ever.
Djinn finally getting a mage weapon is sad too. :( :( :(
It has been a cool 4 months though. RK is evil but cool.
Anyone wants my account? It has tons of shit.
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Oh, if you have a ps3 or ps4 controller you can also plug them to your pc and play games. You might need to download dsfix (or was it ds4fix?) but it's reamly simple. You just install this, open it and that's it your ps4 controller now works on your pc. Some games don't even need it.
I'd hate to be a third party controller manufacturers for pc like mad catz right now
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I'm still alive, just limited in when I can do stuff for a number of reasons!
Anyway...
Bravely Default: Got to the Water Crystal arc, no new jobs have popped up and the previous dungeon was just a lot of Ringabell burns/ices things, Tiz and Edea smash, Agnes heals sometimes (didn't have enough rods to make Aero or Quake worth anything), occassionally throwing Rejuvenate for MP.
Tales of Xillia: So we now had a team of 3 a jRPG protagonist, a jRPG Flirting Mercenary, and a bad-ass UOM Ninja Butler. I have to say, it's nice that the average character is actually rationally thought out and intelligent in this game. For example, Rowen rationally telling soldiers to stand down because "you have what you came here for, there's no reason for the two sides to fight" was something you almost never see. How many jRPGs would have turned that into a "Fight soldiers because they're bad guy soldiers moments?" or done the "we can't fight here, retreat!" Nice to show the whole soldiers doing their job also means they won't be complete dicks about it, thus won't hurt others if there's no actual aggressive resistance, and nice that Rowen was smart enough to try the reason with enemies angle instead of just attacking straight up.
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Man guys I think I'm out. RK has been way less interesting now that I've finished all regular content.
Could you go back and do this like 3 weeks ago pls.
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200 mitral gone.
No Zack sword.
Two 5 star items...
One claw and the other is a soldier sword.
I guess that will do for now....
*cries in a corner*
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It has been a cool 4 months though. RK is evil but cool.
Anyone wants my account? It has tons of shit.
Why don't you give it to VSM, since he's been running dry for some five 11-draws? I'm sure he'd appreciate it. I don't really need it.
Final Fantasy Endless Autobattle - Holy crap Ifrit is S/L-ville. The FF14 boss rush is pretty darned simple, but Ifrit is a -dick- and I blame it entirely on Vulcan Burst. He decided to spam it late in the fight three times on me. All of them ended up in a reset. MT turn resetting is just obnoxious.
EDIT:
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! My long term gambling addiction paid off in short term rewards! HAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
everything you love is worthless because it isn't perfect *12 hours of Smiths on repeat.FLAC*
Eat at Arby's.
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Yes VSM you can have it if you want. I have Irvine's cool gun.
Man guys I think I'm out. RK has been way less interesting now that I've finished all regular content.
Could you go back and do this like 3 weeks ago pls.
Sure.
You're now free from FFRK.
Hey if you want I can totally replace Record Keeper if you need me. Watch:
Zenny you just did a Fenrir RK 11-pull. You get 3 old socks, 1 ikea wardrobe called Malm, 1 linoleum sword, 1 armani vest, 1 teflon pan, 1 ragnarok, 1 ultima ragnarok, 1 fire trousers and 1 earring of taste.
Wow, so lucky.
You also just got enough experience to level Juan-Luis to 50 and break his cap.
Come back in 4 hours to play again
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Nope, not enough obsessing about orbs. Thanks though!
Will be around to try out Duck Game this weekend though. Maybe that will distract sufficient.
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Today is thursday, aka Teal/Purple/Black orb day.
You do a few heroic fights and can now upgrade either Slimega to R3 or Sucker Punch to R4. You spend two hours thinking about it and decide to wait until later.
You also got two greater teal orbs and can now upgrade Waltz de la Muerte to R2. Your bard Boris is lvl 60 so boss fights sure are going to be easier! You're doing great Zenny!
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D3: I made the worst Hellfire Amulet in the world. +Vitality, a flat increase to base damage rather than a critical or percentage boost, and the passive that lets you run ten percent faster. I feel like I should frame it.
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Oh yeah, JP FFRK just got -this- alongside 50 Mythril and a FFV 5* Excalibur in their item chests today: http://youtu.be/3PsC2KDe_rQ
Ultros summon, bitches.
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Today is thursday, aka Teal/Purple/Black orb day.
You do a few heroic fights and can now upgrade either Slimega to R3 or Sucker Punch to R4. You spend two hours thinking about it and decide to wait until later.
You also got two greater teal orbs and can now upgrade Waltz de la Muerte to R2. Your bard Boris is lvl 60 so boss fights sure are going to be easier! You're doing great Zenny!
Where can I download this?
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Oh yeah, JP FFRK just got -this- alongside 50 Mythril and a FFV 5* Excalibur in their item chests today: http://youtu.be/3PsC2KDe_rQ
Ultros summon, bitches.
I'm kind of surprised it took until Record Keeper for this to happen, considering Typhon was made a summon back in FF7.
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Ultros was the result of a celebration poll for a new summon. He won by a landslide, both for gameplay and Ultros reasons.
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Oh yeah, JP FFRK just got -this- alongside 50 Mythril and a FFV 5* Excalibur in their item chests today: http://youtu.be/3PsC2KDe_rQ
Ultros summon, bitches.
That sword handout wasn't exactly an Excalibur...
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Oh, it was the Excalipoor, right. Excalibur is the Bartz SSB weapon.
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Captain K:
Zenny introduces you to Fenrir Rk and gets three damascus shards.
The beginning of the game is a breeze for you because you got a Der Erdrutsch from your first pull. I think they've made the first relic you get way better, Zenny got a mere Metal Sai when he started playing? Zenny loudly complains that they're making it too easy for beginners.
You give der Erdrutsch to Ahmed and the whole earlygame crumbles before you. You get a ton of damascus shards but decide to wait before using them, because you know that seven banners from now, Leonidas' amazing Dual Glasses are going to be featured and you definitely need all the shards for them, dude.
You still spend one Realbux and get a Blue Shirt. Could be worse you guess.
With your real money I buy a small bottle of mineral water.
I want to buy ice cream so I introduce a new system: Spend 5 realbux, get 5 random ikea items, available once per player for a limited time. You are very tempted but ultimately decide not to do it. I curse loudly.
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Ugh I don't have enough orbs to hone with. Can't wait for Mango Power day.
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Fenrir Fantasy The Magnetic Autobattles best Fenrir Fantasy.
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You should skip Mango Power day and progress through the event before it's over; with Ahmed equipped with Der Erdrutsch you're all set for Groinkick-meta anyway
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Ultros was the result of a celebration poll for a new summon. He won by a landslide, both for gameplay and Ultros reasons.
Well, it doesn't help that the other options weren't the most exciting. Behemoth is a generic FF Monster that while a mainstay, isn't the most exciting thing to summon. Phantom Train we've seen before in FF8, and it's way more interesting as a boss for all the silliest reasons than it was as a summon, and Mom Bomb...seriously, don't know they could pretend people cared about that.
also "landslide" is putting it lightly. He had more than double the other 3 combined. He slaughtered the competition, then dropped their corpses into a volcano, then proceeded to drop nukes into said volcano.
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Pretty sure the last few posts here have been a stroke warning.
Dusty: An Elysian Tail - Trying to work out if my issues with the controls are the game or my controller. Been having some trouble platforming.
That said, still having fun. The second real bossish fight in the game (the trolls + exploding mushrooms) was pretty bullshit, though. Not sure I was just too sleepy or something, but I seriously could not handle it. Plot is going. Amnesia is eh, but I kinda appreciate that they are giving the answer to the player pretty quick.
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I'm kind of surprised it took until Record Keeper for this to happen, considering Typhon was made a summon back in FF7.
It took me like seven years to realize he was supposed to be Chupon.
e: I knew they were somehow related but I thought they were brothers because their names were similar but he didn't sneeze people away so clearly not the same guy.
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also "landslide" is putting it lightly. He had more than double the other 3 combined. He slaughtered the competition, then dropped their corpses into a volcano, then proceeded to drop nukes into said volcano.
Ultros is Xenu?! ( http://www.solitarytrees.net/pickets/elrond/21coset.htm )
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Been hacking at The Last Story. Its gameplay continues to vary between braindead easy and frustrating, but its character work all around is pretty solid and the music is nice. I think I'm around 80% done with the game now, my island has been infiltrated by Gurak, crabs, and the undead. Great.
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Undertale: Finished a super pacifism playthrough.
I think most people here would really enjoy this game. As for me, while I have to salute the game's innovation / early parts / few reveals (also, Gourry was right about the Papyrus fight not being the best part), I really disliked the last two hours or so (especially in retrospect) so much that I don't want to go back to it. This involves huge spoilers. Also Gourry will now think that I'm a huge emotionless jerk, but seriously I'm not guys.
- The weak points of the game earlygame were for me a lack of control given to the player, a strong reliance on plot fights, and a tendency to go overboard with the saccharine elements.
Well this is amplified tenfold in the last stretch, with like three power of friendship moments, and every attack being gravity based so that you can almost never die. You need a hell of a lot of emotional resonance to get me to go non-relunctantly through something like that, and this game didn't have enough; while Alphys is the only one of the core six friends I disliked, Papyrus was the only one I really cared strongly about. (Because I kept calling him the entire game) Ok, Toriel was cool too.
- Ultimately, while the savestate / loadstate thing was rad as fuck (as was this entire fight) here we have a game that sends a message that there is something wrong with you if you do not care vicariously about your videogame characters.
The flower basically is a videogame player who's bored and just goes kill everything in its videogame, and it's the antagonist of the story. He abuses savestats mid battle to get advantages, he plays with saves and toys with the idea of restarting the game, etc. The reason it's being so evil here is that it is bored. You convince it that it is not very nice and it turns good after a while.
If you restart the game after getting the good ending, the flower-turned-good tells the player of Undertale, directly, that all the characters are happy now and playing the game again would make them unhappy again.
This whole thing is at the core of the storyline.
Two problems with this.
1) Jesus Christ, that infantilizating guilt trip! Stop attaching such emotional baggage to fake things. Toy Story has the same problem (Always keep all your toys your entire life or they will be super sad), Undertale might be even more dumb about it because we are not even talking about physical things. (It might actually be better because carrying your toys around your entire life must be a real burden)
2) This is a terribly judgemental and conservative way of thinking. I like going Renegade in Mass Effect and punching journalists. I like being a huge jerk in games because I'd never act like that in real life and want to test the game's boundaries. This does not mean that there is something wrong with me. Surely this is an argument we're all tired of by now. I took the whole thing pretty personally (like I was supposed to) and I'm not even one of those guys who kills bystanders in GTA
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Fenrir Record Keeper: I decided to start playing this. Everyone give me your friend codes!
FFRK: Putting events on hold to farm Power Orbs so I can hone Tempo Flurry for my Thancred/Selphie/Fran Advantaliate needs~
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Final Fantasy She Bangs The Autobattles - Three dungeons left to finish Zack's event until the bonus fights, I got Zack cap-broken and all. FF7 events are so damned lazy it's almost impressive. Also mastered all the bonus battles on the FF14 event. The event quests won't be fun, though. Ifrit was a pain in the ass with four PCs, it'll only get worse with one less offense source. I may end up resorting to Red XIII and Lunatic High in order to mitigate the damage Vulcan Burst can do.
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While you guys were busy playing record keeper on your phones I was engaged in the much more meaningful activity of playing iphone rhythm games. Specifically Love Live. Anyway I full combo'd this song and I need to brag about it to someone because it was pretty hard, so yeah. Go me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvgtDerh2wU
(that's not me playin' but you can just pretend it is and that all the text is in English)
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Undertale: Finished a super pacifism playthrough.
I think most people here would really enjoy this game. As for me, while I have to salute the game's innovation / early parts / few reveals (also, Gourry was right about the Papyrus fight not being the best part), I really disliked the last two hours or so (especially in retrospect) so much that I don't want to go back to it. This involves huge spoilers. Also Gourry will now think that I'm a huge emotionless jerk, but seriously I'm not guys.
- The weak points of the game earlygame were for me a lack of control given to the player, a strong reliance on plot fights, and a tendency to go overboard with the saccharine elements.
Well this is amplified tenfold in the last stretch, with like three power of friendship moments, and every attack being gravity based so that you can almost never die. You need a hell of a lot of emotional resonance to get me to go non-relunctantly through something like that, and this game didn't have enough; while Alphys is the only one of the core six friends I disliked, Papyrus was the only one I really cared strongly about. (Because I kept calling him the entire game) Ok, Toriel was cool too.
- Ultimately, while the savestate / loadstate thing was rad as fuck (as was this entire fight) here we have a game that sends a message that there is something wrong with you if you do not care vicariously about your videogame characters.
The flower basically is a videogame player who's bored and just goes kill everything in its videogame, and it's the antagonist of the story. He abuses savestats mid battle to get advantages, he plays with saves and toys with the idea of restarting the game, etc. The reason it's being so evil here is that it is bored. You convince it that it is not very nice and it turns good after a while.
If you restart the game after getting the good ending, the flower-turned-good tells the player of Undertale, directly, that all the characters are happy now and playing the game again would make them unhappy again.
This whole thing is at the core of the storyline.
Two problems with this.
1) Jesus Christ, that infantilizating guilt trip! Stop attaching such emotional baggage to fake things. Toy Story has the same problem (Always keep all your toys your entire life or they will be super sad), Undertale might be even more dumb about it because we are not even talking about physical things. (It might actually be better because carrying your toys around your entire life must be a real burden)
2) This is a terribly judgemental and conservative way of thinking. I like going Renegade in Mass Effect and punching journalists. I like being a huge jerk in games because I'd never act like that in real life and want to test the game's boundaries. This does not mean that there is something wrong with me. Surely this is an argument we're all tired of by now. I took the whole thing pretty personally (like I was supposed to) and I'm not even one of those guys who kills bystanders in GTA
I wonder how your reaction would have changed if you went in blind like I did and didn't actually do pacifism first. That changed the tenor of my second playthrough for sure. As is, I can see your viewpoint but don't necessarily agree on everything.
So I actually see little problem with people getting attached to characters, that's a whole staple behind what makes good fiction work, in books, games, movies, tv, whatever. Like you, I quite like Papyrus and I also liked Sans and Toriel, who I killed first playthrough which I felt bad about. I actually liked Undyne after that ridiculous date (although somehow my estimation of Papyrus went up more in that scene), and while the friendship blah blah Giygas whatever fight at the end was too much, I don't see a problem with people coming away from the end of the game with some attachment to the characters. It's that kind of attachment that made the first season of the Walking Dead games work so well for me. I think an argument could be made that the situations the characters are put in to elicit emotional reactions are emotionally manipulative, though.
The game's writing is very on the nose and that is a big fault, but I think the basic thing it's doing is actually giving meaningful consequences to choice that people always clamor for. We like to do goofy shit, choosing renegade options and pushing the limits to see what we can do in a game, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. However, I think this is a different type of experience where it is trying to simulate a closed system (of course it's not truly closed) where you do something and characters react to it, positive or negative, and you can't go back and reload these choices because in this system, your choices are meaningful and have permanence. You kill an NPC, it obviously won't appear in town. You kill a major character, that has reverberations throughout the world and in how people treat you. I thought that was cool, and it points out that one thing that could constrain your behaviors was a sense that your choices would actually be reflected by the game world, which I find fascinating from a psychological standpoint. It's pointing out that this is a world where how you act matters, and some of the "gamey" behaviors we engage in can have consequences that can be emotionally affecting if there's no way to back out of them. Of course none of it is real and they are just abstractions, so maybe this is all silly sounding but I do think it is cool if the game gets you to hesitate and readjust in the situation it has set up. These choices are not at all nuanced, though, and that is a problem.
While I do think the writing didn't have to lay it on so thick sometimes (and oh man it does), I just didn't have the same reaction to it as you in terms of feeling guilted. I can easily see where you're coming from, though. Within the world setup, it does have a very simplistic morality and the No Mercy path is set up solely to make you feel fucking terrible. The weird thing is that I probably would find this level of moralizing unbearable if it were in a film, like I couldn't stand Funny Games.
Man a lot of that sounds sappy.
There is one awesome fight on a genocide run if you decide to ever go back.
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RK - Wowie Zowie free Mythril and Excalipoor. So happy. Saving the mythril for the next event because the chances of getting something redundant from the current banners are pretty high. I guess a third rod would be nice though. We'll see.
Farmed enough orbs to R2 Valefor when I get the summon orbs for it. Sephiroth is already at the level cap, so I should be able to use him, Gilgy, Terra, Yuna, and Lenna to get Yuna's MC2 crystal. Then farm farm farm until I am gorged on Orbs and shiny and chrome and awaited in Autobalhalla.
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Fenrir Record Keeper: I decided to start playing this. Everyone give me your friend codes!
My friend code is pOuf but my RW is just a level 1 Davide with Schlep soul break. Too lazy to change it.
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Rivals of Aether - So I bought this for myself and a friend on Steam. It's something of a pixellated smash clone, but it's also a lot of fun.
I was having fun playing on random, while my friend was selecting specific characters. Things were going fine - he got a few wins, I won most of them... And then a thing happened that prompted me to write this:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/383980/discussions/0/523898291496683339/
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Didn't you get Anita's unique SB? Set that as your RW for thousands of $$$. Nobody has it, and you can use both it and Davide's cooking skills for basically 10% MT healing regen every turn. OP as fuck.
Djinn, oh shit, you got the False Spear, Silver Scarf, and Le Crime Parfait in only one pull? Still no bard weapon though. I don't know how you'll perform lategame without a bard weapon...
Gourry I'll probably answer later but now I'm super late for work. I can definitely see where you're coming from though. (I did go blind into the game though)
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RK - Like after I post that they come out with a SSB banner, I roll the dice and I get Aeris' SSB that MT restores and adds Reraise.
At this point I'm going to be using nothing but White Mages. I have a bit of story missions to go through before I can unlock her but yeah that is a thing.
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http://memegenerator.net/instance2/2076237
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Undertale - Playing blind, going full-blown bastard (well, not really. I'm half-assing it, so I guess half-assed bastard), including taking advantage of some things I knew from playing the demo like getting to the point where you can spare Toriel, then one shotting her when her guard's down. Malicious. That was admittedly really hard, though. I like Toriel, a lot. (Revision: Not as hard as killing Papyrus. ;_;) I figure this will be the least repetitive way to play, since NPCs get taken away as you butcher them. I'm also less interested in the replay changes that come from going good then evil on a replay than I am in seeing what happens if you play through as a bastard once, and a nice guy the second time around.
Got to the save point with the crystalized cheese, after the first Undyne encounter. The Papyrus boss fight was amazing as advertised. Though I'm already pretty concerned that what I loved about the demo may be just not that accessible in a game much longer than the demo. I'm just not seeing it come into play at ALL yet, and by the time someone DOES replay it to see the fact that the game responds to the decisions you made in previous playthroughs they may already be put off by the game (ala Fenrir) or just not hooked enough to do so. Ughhhh, that was like *THE* fucking thing that made the demo great, too. Without it, so far it's certainly solid but not really that amazing. I really hope that it comes into play somehow on the first playthrough to at least give the player a hint that they *really really really really really really* should be replaying it to see what the game does with replays, save scumming, regret, playing just to see content... all of it!
At least based off the demo, of course.
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Djinn, oh shit, you got the False Spear, Silver Scarf, and Le Crime Parfait in only one pull? Still no bard weapon though. I don't know how you'll perform lategame without a bard weapon...
God, it's psychologically painful even when it's not real...
FFRK: Wasted a bunch of Stamina today by -just- missing mastery on not one, not two, but -three- different elites. Now I have to do them all over again. What an unproductive day. Stupid FF14 bossrush and its stupid 'must use Slow on Imps' requirement...
Undertale: Started playing this because everyone was talking about it both -here- and among my co-workers, so this is an interesting cross-section of my life. Full pacifism mode because I am the anti-Zenny. (And because it would make Toriel happy.) Quite enjoying the humor so far. I hope Papyrus joins my party.
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I don't know if that's the anti-Zenny. I've had to resist the urge to go back and play pacifist more times than I have fingers. They filled the post-demo section with cute puppies for that very reason, no doubt about it. ;_;
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Undertale - Playing blind, going full-blown bastard (well, not really. I'm half-assing it, so I guess half-assed bastard), including taking advantage of some things I knew from playing the demo like getting to the point where you can spare Toriel, then one shotting her when her guard's down. Malicious. That was admittedly really hard, though. I like Toriel, a lot. (Revision: Not as hard as killing Papyrus. ;_;) I figure this will be the least repetitive way to play, since NPCs get taken away as you butcher them. I'm also less interested in the replay changes that come from going good then evil on a replay than I am in seeing what happens if you play through as a bastard once, and a nice guy the second time around.
Got to the save point with the crystalized cheese, after the first Undyne encounter. The Papyrus boss fight was amazing as advertised. Though I'm already pretty concerned that what I loved about the demo may be just not that accessible in a game much longer than the demo. I'm just not seeing it come into play at ALL yet, and by the time someone DOES replay it to see the fact that the game responds to the decisions you made in previous playthroughs they may already be put off by the game (ala Fenrir) or just not hooked enough to do so. Ughhhh, that was like *THE* fucking thing that made the demo great, too. Without it, so far it's certainly solid but not really that amazing. I really hope that it comes into play somehow on the first playthrough to at least give the player a hint that they *really really really really really really* should be replaying it to see what the game does with replays, save scumming, regret, playing just to see content... all of it!
At least based off the demo, of course.
Killing things is actually much more tedious, especially if you are going out of your way to kill everything. What you're looking for from the demo is definitely there on replays.
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Undertale - Playing blind, going full-blown bastard (well, not really. I'm half-assing it, so I guess half-assed bastard), including taking advantage of some things I knew from playing the demo like getting to the point where you can spare Toriel, then one shotting her when her guard's down. Malicious. That was admittedly really hard, though. I like Toriel, a lot. (Revision: Not as hard as killing Papyrus. ;_;) I figure this will be the least repetitive way to play, since NPCs get taken away as you butcher them. I'm also less interested in the replay changes that come from going good then evil on a replay than I am in seeing what happens if you play through as a bastard once, and a nice guy the second time around.
Got to the save point with the crystalized cheese, after the first Undyne encounter. The Papyrus boss fight was amazing as advertised. Though I'm already pretty concerned that what I loved about the demo may be just not that accessible in a game much longer than the demo. I'm just not seeing it come into play at ALL yet, and by the time someone DOES replay it to see the fact that the game responds to the decisions you made in previous playthroughs they may already be put off by the game (ala Fenrir) or just not hooked enough to do so. Ughhhh, that was like *THE* fucking thing that made the demo great, too. Without it, so far it's certainly solid but not really that amazing. I really hope that it comes into play somehow on the first playthrough to at least give the player a hint that they *really really really really really really* should be replaying it to see what the game does with replays, save scumming, regret, playing just to see content... all of it!
At least based off the demo, of course.
Killing things is actually much more tedious, especially if you are going out of your way to kill everything. What you're looking for from the demo is definitely there on replays.
I'm aware. To clarify, I am playing the game the most tedious way possible (OK no not really I am not farming out all the dungeons until encounters stop fuck that) now so that replays are much more enticing to do.
And I'm sure it's still there. That was such a big part of the demo that it would be stupid for it to not be there. What I am bitching about, I suppose, is that in a game much longer than 45 minutes-hour, users are much more likely to just quit after one playthrough instead of replaying, and missing out on what may well be the real meat of the game. I haven't read the spoiler correspondence between you and Fen yet since I'd like to go through blind, but if the game has people being done with the game after one playthrough (based off of reading Fenrir's non-spoiler text, mind) then it is doing a disservice to itself.
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Dust: An Elysian Tail - Okay. So encounters with adds and explosions in tight confines are just annoying in this game. You need to approach them really carefully because it gets hard to actually see what's going on.
Fidget is the true hero of the game. Magic is ridiculous in this game.
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I could answer your questions Zenny but that'd spoil things. Sorry
Gourry:
- The weak points of the game earlygame were for me a lack of control given to the player, a strong reliance on plot fights, and a tendency to go overboard with the saccharine elements.
Well this is amplified tenfold in the last stretch, with like three power of friendship moments, and every attack being gravity based so that you can almost never die. You need a hell of a lot of emotional resonance to get me to go non-relunctantly through something like that, and this game didn't have enough; while Alphys is the only one of the core six friends I disliked, Papyrus was the only one I really cared strongly about. (Because I kept calling him the entire game) Ok, Toriel was cool too.
- Ultimately, while the savestate / loadstate thing was rad as fuck (as was this entire fight) here we have a game that sends a message that there is something wrong with you if you do not care vicariously about your videogame characters.
The flower basically is a videogame player who's bored and just goes kill everything in its videogame, and it's the antagonist of the story. He abuses savestats mid battle to get advantages, he plays with saves and toys with the idea of restarting the game, etc. The reason it's being so evil here is that it is bored. You convince it that it is not very nice and it turns good after a while.
If you restart the game after getting the good ending, the flower-turned-good tells the player of Undertale, directly, that all the characters are happy now and playing the game again would make them unhappy again.
This whole thing is at the core of the storyline.
Two problems with this.
1) Jesus Christ, that infantilizating guilt trip! Stop attaching such emotional baggage to fake things. Toy Story has the same problem (Always keep all your toys your entire life or they will be super sad), Undertale might be even more dumb about it because we are not even talking about physical things. (It might actually be better because carrying your toys around your entire life must be a real burden)
2) This is a terribly judgemental and conservative way of thinking. I like going Renegade in Mass Effect and punching journalists. I like being a huge jerk in games because I'd never act like that in real life and want to test the game's boundaries. This does not mean that there is something wrong with me. Surely this is an argument we're all tired of by now. I took the whole thing pretty personally (like I was supposed to) and I'm not even one of those guys who kills bystanders in GTA
I wonder how your reaction would have changed if you went in blind like I did and didn't actually do pacifism first. That changed the tenor of my second playthrough for sure. As is, I can see your viewpoint but don't necessarily agree on everything.
So I actually see little problem with people getting attached to characters, that's a whole staple behind what makes good fiction work, in books, games, movies, tv, whatever. Like you, I quite like Papyrus and I also liked Sans and Toriel, who I killed first playthrough which I felt bad about. I actually liked Undyne after that ridiculous date (although somehow my estimation of Papyrus went up more in that scene), and while the friendship blah blah Giygas whatever fight at the end was too much, I don't see a problem with people coming away from the end of the game with some attachment to the characters. It's that kind of attachment that made the first season of the Walking Dead games work so well for me. I think an argument could be made that the situations the characters are put in to elicit emotional reactions are emotionally manipulative, though.
The game's writing is very on the nose and that is a big fault, but I think the basic thing it's doing is actually giving meaningful consequences to choice that people always clamor for. We like to do goofy shit, choosing renegade options and pushing the limits to see what we can do in a game, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. However, I think this is a different type of experience where it is trying to simulate a closed system (of course it's not truly closed) where you do something and characters react to it, positive or negative, and you can't go back and reload these choices because in this system, your choices are meaningful and have permanence. You kill an NPC, it obviously won't appear in town. You kill a major character, that has reverberations throughout the world and in how people treat you. I thought that was cool, and it points out that one thing that could constrain your behaviors was a sense that your choices would actually be reflected by the game world, which I find fascinating from a psychological standpoint. It's pointing out that this is a world where how you act matters, and some of the "gamey" behaviors we engage in can have consequences that can be emotionally affecting if there's no way to back out of them. Of course none of it is real and they are just abstractions, so maybe this is all silly sounding but I do think it is cool if the game gets you to hesitate and readjust in the situation it has set up. These choices are not at all nuanced, though, and that is a problem.
While I do think the writing didn't have to lay it on so thick sometimes (and oh man it does), I just didn't have the same reaction to it as you in terms of feeling guilted. I can easily see where you're coming from, though. Within the world setup, it does have a very simplistic morality and the No Mercy path is set up solely to make you feel fucking terrible. The weird thing is that I probably would find this level of moralizing unbearable if it were in a film, like I couldn't stand Funny Games.
Man a lot of that sounds sappy.
There is one awesome fight on a genocide run if you decide to ever go back.
Well first off, re: Zenny.
I think the game has huge replay value until you do a supernice playthrough, then it has no replay value (because if you replay you're as bad as Flowy).
This is bad when your first playthrough is a supernice playthrough.
I am sure the ending would probably have been more palatable had I not taken the supernice path first too, because I'd have watched one half of it for the first time in the first playthrough, then the other half in the second playthrough. I'd not have had to watch all of it for the first time in a row. Does it make sense?
I do not feel that it is very far fetched to try sparing everybody on your first playthrough though, especially since sparing enemies is the main selling point of the game.
If the game seriously did not expect me to go full pacifism right away, then it has failed somewhere. OR MAYBE I'M JUST NATURALLY WAY NICER THAN EVERYBODY ELSE?
I don't have a problem with the idea of getting attached to characters (otherwise I'd drop all of fiction but the most cynical), but with how this game treats them like real human beings with real emotions when the game directly talks to the player.
I am not saying that the question "Why are you hurting these fictional characters on purpose?" is a worthless one. (I liked for example Hotline Miami's approach to this)
I just think that Undertale's approach of trying to humanize videogame characters when breaking the fourth wall is manipulative and just kind of inane?
The consequences of your choices over multiple playthroughs thing is cool on paper... But I can't really praise Undertale for the consequence of the in game choices when the only choices are that obvious.
I mean, everybody mocks Bioshock's "moral choices" now ("Killing a little girl, or not killing a little girl?") and this is essentially the same thing.
Of course, the moral choices in this game could not really be grey, because it would run counter to the game's guilt trip purpose, but as said above I find said purpose dumb.
Toriel, Sans, Undyne and the fake final boss were all pretty cool. I just didn't get attached to them too much because the game is so short? Sans is second best (The E.X.P. and L.O.V.E. acronym reveal was pretty awesome. Too bad that HP didn't get to be Hitler Points or something)
I think I'm just going to watch that one hour long video about what changes in a genocide playthrough.
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I'm really interested in seeing everybody's opinion about this thing!
Guys you can binge play it, it's pretty short.
FFRK: I haven't played this in two days, it's been really easy. I should start smoking more than once per month, just so I can stop easily and be a huge jerk about it to everyone.
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FF7 - Backtracking for some E. Skills (having picked up Aqualung, I think I'm in good enough shape to pick up Beta now with Elemental+Fire and that Fire Ring, definitely good enough to pick up White Wind) and the RTS minigame. Holy crap FF7 minigames are terrible.
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FFRK: So I pity-summoned VSM's Black Mage RW against trash mobs. Fun fact, the Special Combatant mob from FF7 immunes dark damage. This game hates VSM.
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FF7 - Picked up White Wind and Beta without a sweat. Big Guard is next.
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I could answer your questions Zenny but that'd spoil things. Sorry
Gourry:
- The weak points of the game earlygame were for me a lack of control given to the player, a strong reliance on plot fights, and a tendency to go overboard with the saccharine elements.
Well this is amplified tenfold in the last stretch, with like three power of friendship moments, and every attack being gravity based so that you can almost never die. You need a hell of a lot of emotional resonance to get me to go non-relunctantly through something like that, and this game didn't have enough; while Alphys is the only one of the core six friends I disliked, Papyrus was the only one I really cared strongly about. (Because I kept calling him the entire game) Ok, Toriel was cool too.
- Ultimately, while the savestate / loadstate thing was rad as fuck (as was this entire fight) here we have a game that sends a message that there is something wrong with you if you do not care vicariously about your videogame characters.
The flower basically is a videogame player who's bored and just goes kill everything in its videogame, and it's the antagonist of the story. He abuses savestats mid battle to get advantages, he plays with saves and toys with the idea of restarting the game, etc. The reason it's being so evil here is that it is bored. You convince it that it is not very nice and it turns good after a while.
If you restart the game after getting the good ending, the flower-turned-good tells the player of Undertale, directly, that all the characters are happy now and playing the game again would make them unhappy again.
This whole thing is at the core of the storyline.
Two problems with this.
1) Jesus Christ, that infantilizating guilt trip! Stop attaching such emotional baggage to fake things. Toy Story has the same problem (Always keep all your toys your entire life or they will be super sad), Undertale might be even more dumb about it because we are not even talking about physical things. (It might actually be better because carrying your toys around your entire life must be a real burden)
2) This is a terribly judgemental and conservative way of thinking. I like going Renegade in Mass Effect and punching journalists. I like being a huge jerk in games because I'd never act like that in real life and want to test the game's boundaries. This does not mean that there is something wrong with me. Surely this is an argument we're all tired of by now. I took the whole thing pretty personally (like I was supposed to) and I'm not even one of those guys who kills bystanders in GTA
I wonder how your reaction would have changed if you went in blind like I did and didn't actually do pacifism first. That changed the tenor of my second playthrough for sure. As is, I can see your viewpoint but don't necessarily agree on everything.
So I actually see little problem with people getting attached to characters, that's a whole staple behind what makes good fiction work, in books, games, movies, tv, whatever. Like you, I quite like Papyrus and I also liked Sans and Toriel, who I killed first playthrough which I felt bad about. I actually liked Undyne after that ridiculous date (although somehow my estimation of Papyrus went up more in that scene), and while the friendship blah blah Giygas whatever fight at the end was too much, I don't see a problem with people coming away from the end of the game with some attachment to the characters. It's that kind of attachment that made the first season of the Walking Dead games work so well for me. I think an argument could be made that the situations the characters are put in to elicit emotional reactions are emotionally manipulative, though.
The game's writing is very on the nose and that is a big fault, but I think the basic thing it's doing is actually giving meaningful consequences to choice that people always clamor for. We like to do goofy shit, choosing renegade options and pushing the limits to see what we can do in a game, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. However, I think this is a different type of experience where it is trying to simulate a closed system (of course it's not truly closed) where you do something and characters react to it, positive or negative, and you can't go back and reload these choices because in this system, your choices are meaningful and have permanence. You kill an NPC, it obviously won't appear in town. You kill a major character, that has reverberations throughout the world and in how people treat you. I thought that was cool, and it points out that one thing that could constrain your behaviors was a sense that your choices would actually be reflected by the game world, which I find fascinating from a psychological standpoint. It's pointing out that this is a world where how you act matters, and some of the "gamey" behaviors we engage in can have consequences that can be emotionally affecting if there's no way to back out of them. Of course none of it is real and they are just abstractions, so maybe this is all silly sounding but I do think it is cool if the game gets you to hesitate and readjust in the situation it has set up. These choices are not at all nuanced, though, and that is a problem.
While I do think the writing didn't have to lay it on so thick sometimes (and oh man it does), I just didn't have the same reaction to it as you in terms of feeling guilted. I can easily see where you're coming from, though. Within the world setup, it does have a very simplistic morality and the No Mercy path is set up solely to make you feel fucking terrible. The weird thing is that I probably would find this level of moralizing unbearable if it were in a film, like I couldn't stand Funny Games.
Man a lot of that sounds sappy.
There is one awesome fight on a genocide run if you decide to ever go back.
Well first off, re: Zenny.
I think the game has huge replay value until you do a supernice playthrough, then it has no replay value (because if you replay you're as bad as Flowy).
This is bad when your first playthrough is a supernice playthrough.
I am sure the ending would probably have been more palatable had I not taken the supernice path first too, because I'd have watched one half of it for the first time in the first playthrough, then the other half in the second playthrough. I'd not have had to watch all of it for the first time in a row. Does it make sense?
I do not feel that it is very far fetched to try sparing everybody on your first playthrough though, especially since sparing enemies is the main selling point of the game.
If the game seriously did not expect me to go full pacifism right away, then it has failed somewhere. OR MAYBE I'M JUST NATURALLY WAY NICER THAN EVERYBODY ELSE?
I don't have a problem with the idea of getting attached to characters (otherwise I'd drop all of fiction but the most cynical), but with how this game treats them like real human beings with real emotions when the game directly talks to the player.
I am not saying that the question "Why are you hurting these fictional characters on purpose?" is a worthless one. (I liked for example Hotline Miami's approach to this)
I just think that Undertale's approach of trying to humanize videogame characters when breaking the fourth wall is manipulative and just kind of inane?
The consequences of your choices over multiple playthroughs thing is cool on paper... But I can't really praise Undertale for the consequence of the in game choices when the only choices are that obvious.
I mean, everybody mocks Bioshock's "moral choices" now ("Killing a little girl, or not killing a little girl?") and this is essentially the same thing.
Of course, the moral choices in this game could not really be grey, because it would run counter to the game's guilt trip purpose, but as said above I find said purpose dumb.
Toriel, Sans, Undyne and the fake final boss were all pretty cool. I just didn't get attached to them too much because the game is so short? Sans is second best (The E.X.P. and L.O.V.E. acronym reveal was pretty awesome. Too bad that HP didn't get to be Hitler Points or something)
I think I'm just going to watch that one hour long video about what changes in a genocide playthrough.
Thinking about it, I can see your path leaving people unsatisfied. I'm very happy with my path through the game. Killing Toriel made me feel like garbage, but I lived with that decision and didn't reset even I chose not to kill again. This bled into my second playthrough, when I wanted to make things right and avoid killing at all (which made the sparing Toriel very gratifying and your past actions are consistently reflected and commented upon in replays). So I went from a bit of a downer or bittersweet note to an ending where most of the heart-tugging things felt more earned because I had failed previously and was given an opportunity to fix things, which is probably a more cathartic path than just doing everything at once. In some ways, the promotional materials and coverage surrounding the game being one where you can befriend everything may have been doing it a disservice if doing it this way does kill any desire to replay.
The writing is too on the nose, I think this is a big flaw, and the choices are simple and binary, but I think the criticism hear is about you and this closed system that is in place, where you know that what you do matters and the game questions why you persist. I think it can be a little too manipulative at times, certainly moreso than it needed to be at times. Like we talked about, it's not flawless but it has some cool ideas that people should see. I think similarly closed system that doesn't lay it on so heavily could do wonders. I think the Walking Dead does some of this well in some cases, although with some examination it all falls apart and you realize that you're completely on rails.
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Payday 2 - We tried Framing Frame last night. They haven't fixed it yet. Stealth on old maps is still fucked. I was incredibly mad. We were doing that because they introduced a new mob to the loud missions who is also pretty goddamned bullshit with our standard loadouts and are a bit pay 2 winish. Will see how we adapt. Cloakers were more bullshit at release. New dozers they introduced back before we quit last time were also bullshit. The game has never handled change elegantly, might take a bit for the balance point to hit (them always showing up on Very Hard is pretty fucking rude since that is a still a beginner sort of level and they literally have thousands of HP to grind through).
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FFRK - The FFX Flying dragon (Efflay? Effray? I don't remember the English name) fight was giving me fits until I made a retaliate build. It halves the main 4 FFX elements (minus Holy) and has a buttload of HP, almost as if it was designed to say fuck yo mages. Fortunately, with Sephiroth's Masamune, Lunatic High WR, Faris on support and Gilgamesh doing breaks while my WMs healed/wailed on Sephy I was able to eek by... the first battle.
Funniest part of the battle: Forgetting to take the Assassin's dagger off of Faris after Auto-equipping then having to S/L in the middle of the Efflay=Altern fight because she Instakilled Sephy after Retaliate wore off.
Also received my choice of free MC2 crystals. Got Sephiroth, Gilgamesh, and Aeris'. With Terra's and WoL's and soon to be Yuna's, I have a pretty good set of options shaping up for a Level 80 team.
Blew a mythril after losing the second round (which is Holy-Weak), was EZ thanks to Sephiroth wearing the WoL's Record Materia.
Still have no clue how you're supposed to not lose medals on damage taken. Anyway, one more boss fight until I get Yuna's MC2 crystal. Yojimbo looks obnoxious. Breaks don't work, he has a powerful MT physical attack, no weak points... I'll have to look into if Cheer and Water of Strength stack and what other buffs I may want to throw in. May just have to hope for another Lunatic High RW.
Then, then it's farmday until it stops being farmday. The new Ultima event doesn't look like it has a time limit so I can wait on that. Though maybe I'll make a detour to speed through FF7 dungeons to get Aeris so she can get levels during the anniversary farming event.
I have a party to go to so that will all wait til tomorrow. It's nice to know that I can quit this goddamn game when I have a good reason to.
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I have a party to go to so that will all wait til tomorrow. It's nice to know that I can quit this goddamn game when I have a good reason to.
(http://thedeathofcatholicism.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/best-party-ever-cell-phone-fail.jpg)
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Final Fantasy Love's Easy Autobattles - Event quests in the FF14 event successfully accomplished, which now means I'm completely done with the most poorly paced event in the history of global FFRK. It's a pity they let it drag for so long (in JP, it was just a mini-event that went alongside the others instead of being a stretched out stand-alone), but the fights were very interesting - lots of different takes on crowd control, mainly, which is pretty rare in this game. Ifrit is also a lot more fun when he doesn't use Vulcan Burst three times in a row, but I guess Lunatic High also helped in the late going. Regardless, good to be done with this. Next, we have Zack's bonus fights, which should go live tomorrow night.
To Zenny: you're talking about Evrae. Also, regarding mitigation: in long battles, you minimize medals lost by stacking buffs and debuffs. Sentinel's Grimoire stacks with Shellga and Protectga, and both stack with Power and Armor Break. Otherwise, not much else to do. At least, you never had to face the older medal loss thresholds for damage taken (25% HP of the entire party = lol MT instant medal loss. The Edgar/Sabin event was a S/L fest).
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Hmm, doing that, but still losing all my medals. I have a feeling that has more to do with these fights being scaled for Level80 parties now while I'm still in the 50-65 range with everyone but Terra. Ah well, I'm not terribly concerned about high end Masteries quite yet. I still have a lot of levelling/forging/gambling to do honestly.
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In all honesty, most high-end fights you try to get by for mastery through not losing both actions taken medals and fulfilling all of the target score conditions. 2-1-3 for the universal conditions is my most common score on the high-level fights.
EDIT: Also worth noting that Breakdowns are still worth bringing against bosses with Break resistance. Breaks, though, are a waste of an ability slot in that case.
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FFRK: So I pity-summoned VSM's Black Mage RW against trash mobs. Fun fact, the Special Combatant mob from FF7 immunes dark damage. This game hates VSM.
Shoot, I left that guy up? I switched it to BM because my Cousin needed medals on FFIV stuff and had no dark damage.
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FFRK: Starting to burn out a little bit after actually spending real time and not just bus/break time playing this over the weekend, so probably going to finish up the FF14 and Zack stuff then leave it on the backburner for a bit. It is fun, and I don't want to lose interest entirely.
FEif: Still plucking away. Still cursing my inability to read Japanese. That or I'm just ass at strategy games suddenly.
D3: Decided Monks are boring and lame so I built a Wizard and have been running around in silly headgear, slowly upping the difficulty level as I get more and more bad-ass. I'm now playing at Torment 2-3 while solo, while I sit back with Storm Armor and Magic Weapon on and I just blast things to death with Disintegrate and freeze anything foolish enough to get close. And if that works I LOL!Tele away. Twice. And then Disintegrate some more. I mean, I guess I have Archon Form for Panic Button healing, but I dunno. I'm thinking of grabbing the Flintlock Familiar instead for MOAR DPS BRO or something. Highlight of the game, though, is definitely running around the desert, killing a bunch of mobs, 3 groups of Elites, and 1 Boss (or whatever they're called) enemy, and a treasure goblin all at the same time... and getting virtually nothing of note. Walk around desert with nothing left to kill and 1 minute later I find some loose rocks, click, oh hey Legendary Belt of Knife Throwing, surewhynot.jpg.
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But... but monks. :(
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FFRK: Did the FF14 event quests before attempting 5-man party. Lost 7 medals on boss rush and got expert, which is stupid because it means that extra 3 stars on slowing an Imp doesn't help you master any easier.
Ifrit was a bit rough, I tried Yshtola+Thancred+Vivi+Balthier. But the lack of MT healing and damage mitigation meant there were too many things that could go wrong. So the obvious solution was moar Selphie.
Yshtola (Curaga, Shellga)
Selphie (Curaga, Diaga)
Vivi (Blizzaga, Waterja)
Thancred (Tempo Flurry, Shadowbind)
Red 13 Roaming Warior
It went well and then he did Radiant Sun when he had 1 hp left and killed Yshtola and Thancred before dying. Would have mastered it if they hadn't died. Oh well, will be easy with 5 people.
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Final Fantasy An Autobattle In Brooklyn To Sell -
Beat Yojimbo. Final team was Terra (Thundaja/Waterja), Sepiroth (Retaliate/Endoasupiru, the physical skill that boosts soul gauge), Gilgamesh (Retaliate/Draw Attacks), Yuna (Water of Strength, Curaga), Lenna (Protectga, Curaga), with Aeris' Reraise skill as RW. Turns out if you need to deal with someone who uses only physical attacks you cannot go wrong with Retaliate. Lenna and Yuna were still dead by the end (if I had just ended it a couple rounds sooner I may have gotten the mastery. >_<) but yeah, I have Yuna's 2nd level cap crystal. Yaaay. Now I just have to unlock Aeris and level her up and I have my level 80 team.
It's kinda comforting to know that, worst case, if a boss that's giving me fits is purely physical and I don't care about mastery, I can just slap the Loner Record Materia and both R5 Retaliates on Seph and most likely win.
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FFRK:
At one point today, my entire party was confused and I decided this was not enough of a reason to turn off autobattle. I was right.
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FFRK - I have Hinode to thank for giving me the idea of how to not only get Mastery on the FF14 ++ fight, but also for how to complete the Event Quests for both + and ++. So yeah, thank you.
Rivals of Aether - I have one friend to play this with so far. I tried going into general online play and just got wrecked. I also need to look into how to use my gamepad to play this, instead of my keyboard.
FF14 - After I complete two days worth of Beast Tribe dailies (yesterday's and today's), I'll only have two more days to do before I'm done with them all. Woo!
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Final Fantasy The Price Of Autobattle - Completed Zack's bonus battles. Very straight-forward stuff, Ultimate Weapon in particular is very simple. I got to hone Dismissal to R2 with the Greater Lightning Orbs from Proudclad with some spare as well. Just in time for the Sundaily, even! Hopefully I'll cap-break Fran today.
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It's kinda comforting to know that, worst case, if a boss that's giving me fits is purely physical and I don't care about mastery, I can just slap the Loner Record Materia and both R5 Retaliates on Seph and most likely win.
There are videos of an earlier Yojimbo +++ fight getting soloed by Retaliate Auron without a sweat, by the way. There's a reason purely physical bosses without NAT backup have become so uncommon.
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Undertale - First playthrough beaten. They do a really good job of making you feel like a right dick for choosing the violent route.
Never found out what the mystery key was for, I kinda wanted to just move on to my pacifist run and figure out stuff then.
Enjoyed it quite a bit. More comments later, I have to get stuff ready for work tomorrow and pass out now.
EDIT: Snow: NAT?
EDIT2: WOW NEVERMIND I did not reload the game after it "crashed". I am not done nor do I have the energy for the final boss fight atm
EDIT3: I am a dirty fucking liar. That was hard as shit. Of COURSE Flowey could load mid battle to fuck up your dodging. God this game is so good. NOW I'm done for the night and more detailed commentary later.
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Tales of Xillia: Just go to Au'joule's capital *takes a sh-...wait this isn't FF11!*
Damn it ToX cast, stop using your brains! You're a Tales cast, you're suppose to be Plot Stupid because the game demands it!
Yes, Jude, stop being able to catch onto hints and recognize not only things are fishy, but just WHAT the fishy things are!
Also how dare the game have the gall to talk about a mercenary in rational manner. Like, yes, he's employed to help you, but whose to say others didn't employ him for more to pretend to work for us? The team acknowledges this possibility, going with the logic of "well, if he's with us, he can at least help us directly and we can keep an eye on him for anything fishy" and the game even goes a step further of the character basically going "yes, yes, that is all entirely a possibility and no, I won't pretend to tell you what's true because seriously, what's the point?"
There better be a moronically contrived heroic sacrifice that isn't actually a sacrifice because "I got better" happening soon, or a character does something that they knew they shouldn't have done but did it anyway because reasons, this team of rationally thought out characters is a travesty in the world of Tales!
...diverting from the silliness, Jude's dad needs to be smacked. When they showed his mom, at first I was like "oh, so maybe they are just work first, child second, but still care about him!" parents because his mom seemed reasonable in that regard, actually caring about him but at the same time going "sorry, but I have to run!" Then they have the father...who is a typical dickwad "shut up son, how dare you come back here without a medical degree!" "well, you see, the thing is..." "WHAT IS YOUR REASONING BOY!?" "...I was just about to..." "NO! THAT REASON IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH! Also you lied to your friends, you are a horrible person!" So I guess that's totally Tales right there; cliched dick of a dad who ignores all logic and reason and we're suppose to believe he "cares about Jude deep down!" because the game tells us he does.
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Damn it ToX cast, stop using your brains! You're a Tales cast, you're suppose to be Plot Stupid because the game demands it!
Don't worry, they make a full recovery.
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Don't worry Meep you'll get your Tales stupid in due time. And hey, Elize isn't all that rational and clever!*
*(You're not seeing it on Jude's path, but I think Milla's path makes it clearer that Elize sees some seriously screwed up *%&$ and is legitimately traumatized by it. I was hoping they'd go for a deconstruction of the 'child PC' but she was handled well enough as it was)
SMRPG: On a nostalgia binge, playing this for kicks. It's pretty fun. Geno is a great PC. Mallow is way better than I remembered, Toadstool is awesome at the whole healing business.
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NAT is basically the game's tag for pseudo-typed attacks. Those generally hit either defense, but bypass Reflect/Runic/Retaliate/Draw Fire/Draw Magic.
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D3: Completed Uliana's set! Every piece but one came from Kadala, who I think may be a bit biased toward giving useful armor pieces now. (Gambling weapons remains a horrible idea, as always). Also got a Fist of Az'Turrasq from the Cube, ancient Spirit Guards (damage reduced by 35% as long as I keep using a resource generator, bumped me up by two Torments all by itself) and Gundo Gear, which turns the six-piece Uliana's set bonus into an even bigger nuke, so that's awesome. To wit: Enemies hit by the Exploding Palm explosion now get Exploding Palm cast on them. Uliana's set makes it so I can set off the EP explosion without actually killing things. Put the two together and the same enemies just keep blowing up over and over until they and everything around them dies.
Main needs now are a Hellfire Amulet that isn't awful (latest attempt: Near Death Experience. Could be worse.), the Focus half of the Focus/Restraint ring set, a Lion's Claw, and rerolling the Fist to something with not-terrible bonuses. I also got a Schaeffer's Hammer, but cubed it because the rolls were really really bad.
Mario Maker: Early birthday present! This game rules. As expected, people have turned out some excellent stages to play. The ease of level building is even better than I thought it would be, though - it took less than 90 minutes of owning the game to put together a simple design that's not a ripoff of 1-1 and I was happy with. The hop-in-hop-out testing is really really smooth and helps a ton.
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Dust: An Elysian Tail - Beaten.
If you asked me to point to a game that best represented the concept of "indie game," I feel I would point at Dust.
The game does a lot of things right. The sprites are great, the environments are gorgeous, the VA is solid, the writing (while nothing groundbreaking) hits all the right notes and manages to extract a few laughs. The gameplay is engaging and responsive, leading to fun encounters.
It also does a lot of things right. The character dialogue art is pretty laughable. Pretty sure some of those VAs had worse mics than me. The plot is pretty rote and makes several stretches that are never addressed. Putting the most evasive enemies in the game in a crowd of allied mobs is a terrible fucking idea and someone needs to be punched for it.
But, ultimately, I don't want to focus on the bad of Dust. It was fun. And, I think, in this case? That's what really matters.
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EDIT3: I am a dirty fucking liar. That was hard as shit.
Actually this is all easy as hell, but the game uses a few neat tricks to make you think like you're struggling.
I have played way too many video games, so I could see through all of them and I couldn't really get into these battles beyond appreciating the graphics/music. Admittedly most people haven't played too many damn vidcons like I did, so I'm not really complaining about this.
Essentially, like most endgame fights in this game (I think?) all the boss' attacks are gravity based and do like 30% of your current HP, so a level 1 character with 20 HP doesn't struggle more than a lvl 9 character with like 90 HPs. Since most attacks are near unavoidable in that battle, you get hit constantly and are always at low HPs, but you're not really in danger if you pay attention. Healing in that battle is not gravity based (or maybe just a % of your max HP) so never dying is pretty easy. It's like that first boss in FFX.
Also the game checkpoints everytime you activate a colored heart in that fight, so even if you die, you get back to 3 seconds ago at full health.
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Devil Survivor 2: Path of the Septentriones beat, stat topic posted (http://www.rpgdl.com/forums/index.php/topic,6729.0.html). Pretty good, I liked it! Okay actually I did this a week+ ago but never finished my post, so whatever, belated. Sorry CK, I ended up doing Triumphant Restorer, although Kingmaker is certainly appealing as well. Basically all of Liberator / Restorer / Kingmaker accomplish about a third of what I want... which is why it isn't shocking that the canon ending they went with for Triangulum is basically "those 3 at once," which I was pretty happy with. Anyway since I suspected I wanted to do a stat topic, I figured I'd take the route that means I only have to impute 1 character's damage rather than 2. Also Rank 5 Fate'd everyone (more time on Day 7 than I expected).
Gameplaywise it remained cool until the end, which is an achievement with SMT's usually wonky endgame balance. I didn't feel like it was THAT much of a slog (re Fenrir), I certainly prefer the more boss-centric design toward the end that kept filler to a minimum. Strangely enough (barring my brief attempt at Kingmaker... ow ow ow Shiva vs. 2 characters), Ronaldo & Joe & random rioters posed the biggest difficulty by a lot - I fully expected I was going to wipe, actually, and instead found out that the other rioters run off after you dispense with R&J. Good thing since I was wrecked otherwise, got into a bad position and Joe ruthlessly was sniping me from long range while being inconvenient to get to, but I YOLO dragged him down with my last surviving team and got a surprise win. Otherwise, not so bad. The final boss was suitably epic; probably a little frail in the jaw at times, but overall well designed. My one complaint is that they didn't stick a "hurry up" time limiter on phase 2, so you technically should sit back and restore MP, heal up, etc. during it rather than push forward. Went with Daichi, Yamato, & Otome as the final party, letting Daichi gank forms 1 & 3, form 1 in a single turn. Monkey madness off Wukong, woo 6x Multistrike attacks leaving a mark. (For form 3, Otome stood on top of the demon summoning part and murdered it whenever it respawned, while Yamato eventually got the attacking part after dying once, then Daichi & Hero charged in. Kind of a funny reminder of how glass cannony the lategame is also happened... Daichi's squad murdered an enemy squad before it got a turn, fine, no surprise. Same squad respawns and later gets the drop on Daichi from range, cursing his group (no healing) and reducing their range to 1, then killing one of his demons and reducing him & the surviving demon to nearly dead. Daichi got another turn, and knowing how this goes, walked up to the other squad and murdered them all again with just 2 nearly dead people because I'd go first and could sweep like that, but still has to limp around uselessly for awhile afterward while waiting for curse to wear off.)
Character usage... hrmm.
High usage: Hero, Daichi, Io, Makoto, Otome
Medium usage: Fumi, Yamato*
Low usage: Jungo, Airi, Joe
Nope: Keita, Hinako, Ronaldo
* Well medium for the tiny amount of time you have him, I guess.
I built JC Denton as a straight-up mage a la Fumi which is handy as usual; harder for him to get walled like a straight-phys character can. Daichi got the most use, Multi-Hit/Multi-Strike is awesome, and he's usually pretty amusing with his VA putting in good work (at least when he's not doing vanilla "teenage boy lust" notes). Hinako got 0 usage but she's fine, just identical; I suspect Daichi is slightly better than Hinako early (equip useful Magic support sooner, have relevant backup) and slightly worse later but whatever, they're basically the same character except 1 of them actually wears clothes. Makoto & Io both got a fair amount of use as well; mixed damage to deal with a variety of threats, and the durability problems aren't a big deal as long as they can keep their demons alive and don't get OHKO'd. Fumi & Otome were both fantastic magic nukes and were good Chaos Wave candidates along with the hero; I used Otome more, but Fumi's fine. Yamato's a prick but he did get deployed for the final 2 battles (and pretty much no other ones); having everybody resist Physical in some way is quite useful, and he doesn't have to burn a passive on Anti-Phys while the other 3 characters go Drain/Reflect/Null.
Characterwise, most of the cast was amusing enough. Otome gets a special call-out... how often do single moms show up in such games? Really it was pretty unrealistic that she could juggle both a young child, being a doctor (in the middle of a MASSIVE CRISIS with what should be an endless line of patients to treat without good supplies), AND fighting demons with Our Heroes, but hey whatever, I'm not complaining. Yamato... he SORTA worked for me but not how the writers really intended. To the extent that he's an arrogant 17-year old screw-up who can't handle rejection with some charisma anyway, he's fine. And to the extent he's a villain, he's also fine. The thing is... aside from the whole ludicrousness of a 17-year old leader in the first place... he's got that quasi-fascist "things were AWESOME back in the day, then Japan FELL and became lazy and corrupt and not worth saving (read: the post-WWII pacifism and so on)." This is approximately as sympathetic as, say, a Neo-Confederate in an American setting for me. Now, let me not complain too much: like I said, he's something of a villain, and I'll take that. But he's supposed to be a "gone too far but with a core of nobility" type who can be convinced to sway from his path. And he's supposed to be "cool" in his own dark horse way, and he really does command vast cosmic powers with his Japan-uber-alles nonsense. Yeah no.
Finally, the one part that I already whined about in chat, but what might weirdly be my least favorite part of the game, even more so than some of the lame middle school libido beats in the midgame: the cast is *way* too bootlicking toward Our Silent Hero for no good reason. Especially on the final days, they simply cannot shut up about it. And all this laying the praise on thick grated on me worse than it would in other games. See, here's the thing: your Hero in DS2 isn't ACTUALLY that important. In games like Zelda or thereabouts, sure, Link doesn't say much, but dang if he doesn't personally run around and solve everybody's problems. Same with other solo-y type games like Fallout New Vegas, etc. Even without lines, that's a certain achievement, and people thanking you for it is fine. That isn't really the case in DS2. Everybody else has lines and everybody else drives the plot. In the personal scenes, you're often times more a sounding board where characters work out their problems by talking to themselves / others, and you're basically just being a good listener. Your character is, at best, a really badass warrior on the field, but even that isn't sold as well as it could be, and he's just one of many. Since the game wants to let you pick any faction, your character can't actually express any opinions, and usually just endorses whatever the character they're talking to is saying. And yet everybody acts like you're the friggin' bodhisattva. No, if the Anguished One has been overseeing humanity for so long and was playing Prometheus, he's SURELY met other people who can give vague assertions about humanity being awesome from just about any random person on the street. I simply do not believe it that our Shining One is somehow unique in his philosophical wisdom. So yeah, DS2 combines "not actually very relevant Hero" with "half the lines in the end are slathering flattery on him" for some shitty dialog. Shepard is obviously the gold standard for controllable Gary Stu protagonists, but I'm willing to settle for less!
Initial thoughts on the Triangulum arc: This is really, really similar so far. Like... maybe too similar. Remember how MGS2 parroted MGS1 in a lot of ways - at least in the Big Shell scenario - but at least owned it with some crazypants explanation for why we're going to see if we can train others to be like Solid Snake by concocting ninja attackers, helicopters, etc.? I'm wondering if it'll be like that. Same earthquake apocalypse, same creeping void eating everything, stars who speak in funny star speak are attacking towers, etc. Another giant parade of 99% of the population of Earth getting killed means that we're pretty much stuck with another giant reset button, and once you know that one exists, it can kind of kill the tension. Usually better to set your plot up so that whatever bad things might happen it's not worth the risk in invoking it, while the destruction of humanity part 2 practically necessitates it. Anyway, if I'd been in charge, I'd have definitely done something non-post-apocalyptic to mix things up.
Also, the characters have a bit of an unexpected take on Nicea. All the characters are like "why is Saidduq letting anybody get Nicea? Shouldn't he know just to give it to us and not trouble those silly irrelevant other people?" Um. To the extent that this was about giving "power" / "will" to the people (exemplified in the form of, uh, demon control, but whatever), no? Don't you care about the random civilians off-screen having some method to not get murdered by roving demons / stars? Seriously WTF here at going all "see our victory was really Triumph of the Will by a few supermen, giving power to the masses results in trouble." Not that they phrase it this way, of course.
Have thoughts on Miyako vs. Yamato of course, but spoilerz that only Niu would appreciate, so maybe later. Miyako at least has the sense to talk like an actual government official who didn't want to be instantly deposed: we're interested in saving lives, etc. rather than "hahaha the strong will propser and the weak can fend for themselves mwahaha". Probably for the best to keep her evil plans quiet rather than broadcast them to everyone in range!
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Final Fantasy Once In A Red Autobattle - New dungeon update! Highlights include Arc getting a Memory Crystal, Zell and MYSTIC KNIGHT.
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I just wish it included Mystic Knight's record materia, because spellblade spring would be -awesome-.
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That's some four months down the line.
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Someone hold the devs at gunpoint and switch Zell's celerity with Irvine's magic use.
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I'm all for things that make Irvine look bad. Support 5 makes him far better than he should rightfully be as is.
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Hey, Dismissal and Tempo Flurry make Celerity a lot more usable now! Besides, Zell certainly fits as a "Speed" character. (Though Monk would make more sense?)
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I think VSM is more of the idea that Irvine is a Sniper and still can't use Aim out of the Celerity set.
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Zell is Combat5/Monk5/Celerity3, but he's heavily built toward speed. (Now third fastest. Wedged just under Locke) Very excellent power, but he's absolute glass.
I'm just miffed Irvine is all wrong. No celerity, and BOTH Black and White magic when he's the only member in your cast that shows any reservations about using GFs. He shouldn't have magic. Support seems arbitrarily given. Irvine's plot ability is "He's a great sniper". His limits are a bunch of stuff that lines really closely with the Combat skillset, not the Support ones. He has support because of Dark Shot, I guess? And to make someone in the cast support 5? Well he has Flame shot, too. Instead of the magics and Support5, I feel like:
Combat5/Support3/Celerity3(possibly even up to 5)/Spellblade2 makes the most sense.
Zell having Celerity doesn't bother me at all and ALSO makes decent enough sense. We've got a lot of combat/monk mixes, so he's not really anything SPECIAL. I'm underwhelmed by Zell, but with the 5/5/3 he has, he's at least kinda viable.
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My mobile game isn't getting characters right and I am upset.
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Irvine's schtick as a great sniper gets disproven both by plot and gameplay, though, so I'm -completely- fine with that getting no recognition. Fucking Selphie gets perfect accuracy on her weapon and Irvine doesn't, so I'm not shedding a single tear over Irvine not getting a skillset that only makes sense for him if you delude yourself into thinking he's light-years more competent than he actually is.
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FFRK: Mastered the 14 bonus battles easily with a fifth party member as expected. Then blew through Zack's content. Maybe it's all my FF7 synergy but that was probably the easiest event yet.
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It's not just you, Zack event is pretty easy. FF7 synergy also comes by in droves, since there are so damn many events for that game. Auron event might be more interesting, though it -does- have a similar case to FF7 in that synergy for the realm comes by pretty easy.
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let's cue the exact same argument that i'm pretty sure we had just earlier this month
FFRK - So I realized that I could and should just blow mythril to get Aeris now, and blow more mythril to make up for lost farming time because trying to catch her up after the event is going on is gonna take a while. Plus, it only cost 5 mythril refills to get to the Temple of the Ancients, so I still ended up with a net positive mythril gain from all the story missions. Once I thought about it, it didn't make sense to wait.
Got her, farmed up to R2 Valefor and R3 Waterja. Should get R4 before the Fire/Water/Summon fest is over, so that's nice. RNGsus is being quite generous with the Giant Cactuars that drop 5* orbs this evening. I could maybe get enough orbs for R5 but at that point I need more Black Power and that festival is long in the past. :(
It dawns on me that I should probably be getting some Generics up to speed to harvest their organsRecord Materia. Maybe once Aeris hits 50.
GHOST edit: CapnK why are you fighting without a full party? Is there some sort of reward for that?
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Undertale - Uh, on second thought I'm going to reserve commentary. I just started my Pacifist run and because I didn't show mercy to Flowey he is gone. For good. After some minor googling it seems very few people have this game state, so I'm very curious as to how this plays out with trying to "redeem" myself on a second playthrough.
Also reserving responding to Fenrir's criticisms in full until I play the pacifist mode myself, but I'm going to say I'm pretty sure we're going to have to agree to disagree when it's all said and done. At least, having killed everyone (but not gone out of my way to completely genocide all the random encounters because BORING), I thought the tone shift towards the end worked really well. That said, I don't know how it plays out in Pacifist yet, so.
That said, Re: Fenrir that makes a lot of sense about the final boss, but for what it's worth if you're not already aware of it it's a damn good illusion. It had me sweating bullets and completely gripped even if the difficulty wasn't actually there. Addionally, I did die twice (before the first call for help), but come to think of it it was to the same (relatively easy-to-dodge) attack. I have a feeling that all of his insanely hard to dodge, colorful body/plant horror attacks are cHP% based while the monochrome, easier cloud attacks are actual damage. Too bad I can't go back and test that!
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GHOST edit: CapnK why are you fighting without a full party? Is there some sort of reward for that?
Certain events have quests to do specific fights with specific party compositions for extra rewards. Such was the case for the FF14 event.
Final Fantasy Death Of An Autobattle Dancer - Farming Greater Black Orbs and random Record Materias on Tower of Babil Depths still because I'm not in a hurry to finish story dungeons and fire/earth daily is a complete wash. I got Gordon and Arc's second RM already, so only Donkey Kong Cecil's left from the current party. I also picked up Fran and Irvine's second RMs from Sundaily, so I'm slowly picking up on the less relevant RMs for completionist purposes.
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There were bonus quests with the FF14 event where you had to fight with a four-person party that included Thancred and Yshtola. So basically that left me with a 2-person party because I didn't pull any of Thancred and Yshtola's relics. Luckily Selphie is that damn good.
(http://i.imgur.com/7GANnlj.jpg)
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Irvine's schtick as a great sniper gets disproven both by plot and gameplay, though, so I'm -completely- fine with that getting no recognition. Fucking Selphie gets perfect accuracy on her weapon and Irvine doesn't, so I'm not shedding a single tear over Irvine not getting a skillset that only makes sense for him if you delude yourself into thinking he's light-years more competent than he actually is.
Look at this guy, trying to apply sense and reason to characters from FF8. There's only one thing that's consistent and that's "nobody is allowed to be better than Squall, he is the best at everything." Since they were as incompetent at that as they were at storytelling, they managed to fuck that up too by not giving him the shortest attack animation.
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let's cue the exact same argument that i'm pretty sure we had just earlier this month
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Undertale - Uh, on second thought I'm going to reserve commentary. I just started my Pacifist run and because I didn't show mercy to Flowey he is gone. For good. After some minor googling it seems very few people have this game state, so I'm very curious as to how this plays out with trying to "redeem" myself on a second playthrough.
Also reserving responding to Fenrir's criticisms in full until I play the pacifist mode myself, but I'm going to say I'm pretty sure we're going to have to agree to disagree when it's all said and done. At least, having killed everyone (but not gone out of my way to completely genocide all the random encounters because BORING), I thought the tone shift towards the end worked really well. That said, I don't know how it plays out in Pacifist yet, so.
That said, Re: Fenrir that makes a lot of sense about the final boss, but for what it's worth if you're not already aware of it it's a damn good illusion. It had me sweating bullets and completely gripped even if the difficulty wasn't actually there. Addionally, I did die twice (before the first call for help), but come to think of it it was to the same (relatively easy-to-dodge) attack. I have a feeling that all of his insanely hard to dodge, colorful body/plant horror attacks are cHP% based while the monochrome, easier cloud attacks are actual damage. Too bad I can't go back and test that!
I think I understated how awesome I found the "Three frames nuke gif from 1997" battle (especially the music, my god the music), I was just disappointed when I realized it was basically a glorified plot battle. And by everything else surrounded it.
You're probably right about the cloud attacks, but I remember being hit by that a few times.
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I kind of wish there were versions of Undertale's final encounter(s) that were just straight up fights since they just become pretty cool challenges that way.
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To Snow Fire:
Ha? Wha? What did they do to the translation?
Yamato is not like that. He is just another chuuni who hates people because he thinks people suck.
Really, he is just a kid inside who think he is better than everyone and is not satisfied with his current standing that he has to take orders from what he considered as bunch of low life.
Thus he developed this extremely childish idea of making a world that'll only have competent people like him.
So the truth is he just want friends, but people out there are just not good enough to be one. The very reason why he eventually became MC's fanboy. Who the game wants you to believe as a superhuman being.
He is so chuuni genre savy that I don't know if he is funny or not.
As for Nicea in Tri-arc.
They talked about not giving the program to civillians because well... the raids of demons rampaging around in Sept-arc is a direct result of that.
So why not avoid the casaulties by giving Nicea to people that he already know won't let the demons out in rampage? Common sense?
There is also no need to test the humanity's will again. Because Al already know who is going to work from the expereince of the last cycle.
BTW, the Nicea logo and version number in Tri-Arc, guess if you can figure it out what it implies.
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My mobile game isn't getting characters right and I am upset.
Thank you.
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Picked up LISA because it was described as post-apocalyptic EarthBound with pro wrestling. Fights take way too long because enemies seem to have a jillion health. Decided to just spoil the story for myself and I feel like the people who recommended it to me misrepresented what I was getting into. There's sad and then there's absurdly grimdark.
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Irvine's schtick as a great sniper gets disproven both by plot and gameplay, though, so I'm -completely- fine with that getting no recognition. Fucking Selphie gets perfect accuracy on her weapon and Irvine doesn't, so I'm not shedding a single tear over Irvine not getting a skillset that only makes sense for him if you delude yourself into thinking he's light-years more competent than he actually is.
...I hate to be the FF8 DEFENDER or something but my OCD is acting up.
No, FF8 does not disprove Irvine's sniper hype in plot at all; stop pretending this is the case. He actually was dead on with Edea; he failed because of a barrier. He shoots his gun at one other point during the prison break and apparently hits the guys no problem since after he shoots, they stop firing back. Look, I get hating Irvine, I don't have much love for him myself, but that doesn't mean you can continually go on about this "HE IS BAD AS A SNIPER IN PLOT BWAHAHAH!" because no, there's nothing to support that, because as I said before, the one time we do see him taking a sniping shot, his failure had nothing to do with his aim.
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There's sad, there's absurdly grimdark, and there's Warhammer 40K.
Heresy will not be tolerated.
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40k is less grimdark than LISA, if only because 40k doesn't really seem to incorporate sexual abuse.
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Jokes aside, I think it can get fairly vile depending on the writers you're dealing with? But I can't imagine it'd actually be pound for pound worse than a game actually dealing with it.
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It is tame compared to Drakengard!
I've been listening to Undertale tracks, I hadn't really noticed that the OST was so good. I like how minor fights got some awesome themes (Dummy / Spider)
Big Pharma: I think I got this game down. I mastered a few maps already. The key is to go massively in debt and buy a ton of shit and invest in a ton of R&D and hurrying the hell up before collapsing under the weight of the debt. It doesn't always work but it's exciting.
The game is supposed to make you evil? So far:
- The only thing I care about when choosing to make a drug over another is profit, period.
- At the beginning of the game I tried to remove every side effect from my medicine. Now? I give 0 fucks, I keep all terrible side effects on because I'm lazy as hell, and I just make creams instead of pills to reduce side effects a bit so sales are higher. Better make 2 wonky pills than 1 really good one.
- I am happy anytime there's a catastrophic world event like an epidemy or something, because it means higher demand for my products. I am sad when they end.
Okay yes it has worked.
Unfortunately you cannot go all Martin Shkreli in this game, marketing isn't a part of it and you can't choose the prices you sell your product.
(There are patents though)
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Niu: Oh I agree, Yamato ACTUALLY is just a spoiled kid who wants friends, but I dunno. They seem to play him off as somebody who's serious about his goals at least somewhat even if said goals are ludicrous, a la Code Geass. Certainly the Tri arc has Daichi - a "voice of reason" type usually - saying "you were a jerk but you were ultimately a good guy" basically, like trying to set up some bizarre magical dictatorship was no big deal and you were a bro by the end. (And also presumably in contrast to Miyako, who is very nice but probably evil.)
For the demons, I guess it depends on how many demons were released because cell phone demon contracts gone wrong vs. explicit attacks by the Septentriones. My personal assumption was that there was enough of the latter going on that giving the populace demons to defend themselves with seems pretty important. But I guess it's hard to say. (Also, not that this logic ever comes up in RPGs, but even if you know who the biggest 14 badasses with a cell phone are in advance, it might still be worth some risks to have the 140 biggest badasses ready in case they fail?)
The PCs were already pretty explicit in noting the new logo & 2.0 for Nicea, but not having particularly helpful thoughts on what it meant. Most obvious is that somebody else is in charge (despite the Ticos being the same, and still talking about His Excellency blah blah?) since the game wants to sell handing out demons to everyone as something that Saidduq would *not* do (again, despite him allegedly doing similar things as Prometheus-lite in the past), but I suppose I'll see, no need for spoilers.
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It's kinda comforting to know that, worst case, if a boss that's giving me fits is purely physical and I don't care about mastery, I can just slap the Loner Record Materia and both R5 Retaliates on Seph and most likely win.
There are videos of an earlier Yojimbo +++ fight getting soloed by Retaliate Auron without a sweat, by the way. There's a reason purely physical bosses without NAT backup have become so uncommon.
Conveniently DK Cecil makes a reappearance in the Pick 4 MC2 event as a 110 difficulty boss with no pesky trash to get in the way of silly gimmicks, and I'm pretty sure Darkness is still PHYS instead of NAT. I'm still debating whether it'd be funnier to attempt that with solo Cloud + Advance RW or go for the quintruple Retaliate.
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Only problem with quintuple Retaliate is that it's a -lot- of Lesser Power Orb farming, and those are the most annoying to pick up from dungeon rummaging, I found. Farming lesser orbs on dailies is kind of a pain with the unusually high rate of 3* orb drops. Also, Gilgamesh/Loserface make funnier options.
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Just realized that I forgot to switch Vivi's RM to Devotion again for the Zack bonus battles. Eh, that's the sort of mistake I can easily absorb with 5* FF7 rod and bracer equipped.
(I also forgot to swap Waterja for Thundaga for Prod Clod, did 9999 anyways)
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I just brought both Waterja and Thundaga because why not have one for the Jamar Armor and one for the loser? Not like the event really takes a whole lot of effort, this one was easier than the Eiko event and it wasn't even as cheesable.
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I had Quake in the other slot to damage both at the same time. :p
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That's what a second mage is for!
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Farming lesser orbs on dailies is kind of a pain with the unusually high rate of 3* orb drops.
Oh, you Global plebs with your inability to trade orbs. Need lesser orbs? Crush one two ranks above it and get 100.
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Fenrir, if you like the Undertale OST I recommend checking out the Homestuck albums on Bandcamp. Toby Fox did a lot of the songs associated with that comic, so if you like the OST you'll probably like his work on those albums too. I can toss up a link when I get home.
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VtM: Bloodlines - Finished this up finally. Chinatown is super dense compared to earlier sections, which I guess is good because while it has a little less stuff in it, what is there is easy to get to and has less running around. I was Tremere and went Anarchs ending. Blood Strike is still useful even though it hasn't 4HKOed all targets in the game for a long time, but mostly for kiting and killing bosses earlier and weaving in for damage later one between melee/shooting (why are you not shooting). I should have used Auspex to buff my Ranged Combat above 10 but always forgot. Stuff died to the Steyr more than I remember them doing so. Final boss fight was a rifle job though, so it was the best choice for like half the boss fights in the end of the game.
Blood Theft is just great, it tends to be blood positive on trash mobs and even if the thing you hit isn't trash it stun locks them. While you can't shoot through the whole animation you can still get range on things while you do it so that is still crazy good.
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Undertale
I finished this a couple days ago, and let it percolate because I was too braindead to muster coherent commentary immediately. That, in fact, may still be true, but I have nothing better to do now.
That was the best and also the worst video game I've played in a long time. But mostly the best.
Most people's reviews, as well as the game's own marketing, emphasize the pacifism vs violence choices and multiple playthrough aspects. I think that is nonsensical and a regrettably poor choice of things to focus on. Those aspects are not very well developed or engaging at all. It's the usual indie game pacifism Hitler vs Jesus dynamic, with nothing particularly new or compelling to say on the subject. Fenrir and Gourry covered all that pretty well already, if people are interested just go back and read their posts (including the spoilers, which honestly aren't very spoilery). But in a single normal playthrough by someone who likes the game, none of that stuff is going to matter in the slightest.
Undertale is probably the best written and most detailed game I've ever played. Every single character, every single music track, every single NPC, every single random "enemy," every single room, every single action and line and thing that a player might possibly do are placed perfectly and then showered in polish and attention. It's rare to see an interaction where the interface ISN'T breaking in some way. It begs the player to get immersed, to enjoy the game world and take it seriously, and to also break the fourth wall and not take it too seriously and then use THAT as a way to take it MORE seriously... and it puts more effort towards all that end than any other game. Planescape: Torment has nothing on the artfulness and earnesty of this game. Bioshock Infinite spends the entire game trying and trying to make the player love companion NPC Elizabeth, but Undertale can make you care more about a random one-off encounter with just a few lines of text and sprite art.
There are a million tiny things I could talk about and I don't even know where to begin. This is a bar raiser for me. Every future game I play, I'm going to have to look at aspects and compare them and go "well, this would've been a 10/10 game for its realization of atmosphere, but really, it's no Undertale..."
It's also a terrible game that falls completely flat if you don't get into it. The mechanics are weak and poorly explained. Very often you're choosing options at random, with no clue as to what they do, whether you're doing the right thing and just need to do it more, or figure out something, or perhaps nothing you do matters and you just need to survive X turns, or maybe it's a plot fight and you need to get hit, etc etc. Movement is slow and there's no run button and scant fast travel until the endgame. There are no technical options of any sort, except fullscreen vs windowed, and the game hogs more resources than a Source engine FPS. And if you ever fall out of emotional immersion, or never got immersed in the first place, then suddenly you become the sarcastic teenager walking through the haunted house rolling their eyes, and there is no fun to be had anywhere.
Such are the perils of going for emotional engagement and depth: you can't please everyone. What is deeply meaningful for some groups of people is an unintelligible turnoff for others. It's a familiar problem in the psychological horror and character-heavy dating sim genres, and it's no coincidence that those are the genres Undertale most resembles and pays regular homage to (the surface disguise of "RPG" lasts about 30 seconds). This is also why triple-A mass market games so rarely even attempt similar themes. They're very risky, and indeed, Undertale is not for everyone. I'm not sure I would recommend it to most of the DL, honestly.
This is a game where there is an enemy named Tsunderplane. It is a jet plane wearing a mob cap, and it is definitely not jealous that the other enemies in its formation are paying attention to do. To defeat Tsunderplane, you must get close to it (but not too close), accept its gifts graciously, and wait patiently for it to work out its issues and figure out that it wasn't really attacted to you, but to the idea of being in love with you. If reading that makes you crack a smile and giggle, maybe look up what a mob cap is, you will like this game. If you are more concerned about what exactly you need to press to do those things, or you're just rolling your eyes because you believe that anime isn't real... you're gonna have a bad time. And that's ok.
For me personally, my buttons were pushed, and pushed hard, from the beginning all the way to the end. I cried a river during all the final battles. The only major disappointment I felt at the end was that the game was too easy. For supposedly being bullet hell inspired, and pushing a "pacifism is rewarding" theme, it sure didn't make a convincing case. Pacifism never felt like a difficult choice to make, and there was only one fight in the entire game where shmup skills felt like they even came into play and helped me.
But then Gatewalker talked about the game, raging about the difficulty of that exact fight and how it made him feel punished for having gone pacifist and not gaining levels. So apparently it DOES work, it just didn't work for me because I'm too experienced or w/e. That made me feel a lot better. It made him want to quit playing, because it broke his emotional immersion. So. Best and worst.
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I also had issues with that fight because I was using a terrible weapon that increased my defenses instead of my attacks(which was normally good for pacifist) but this was the one freaking time I had to punch something. Going back and getting real fighting equipment helped that massively(shockingly, over doubling your damage output is helpful!). Also having a bigger stock of better healing items.
So yeah, Undertale beaten. I did normal ending and Frue Jesus ending. Spoiled myself on the couple of cool things from Hitler path as I have no real desire to actually play that route.
Overall my opinions can basically be summed up as:
Story/Writing - Fantastic
Thematics/Atmosphere - Amazing, outside of a couple of decisions.
Gameplay - Bad.
I definitely overall enjoyed it, but the times where it dropped the ball, it did it in ways that pushed with sniper like precision my annoyance buttons. Gotta backtrack to find shit/do sidequests/etc and there is no run button. And the walking speed is slow. Bunch of stuff involving the final sequence(but not frue final sequence) that would be spoilers to talk about and I don't feel like doing smalltext, but it made the game feel very patronizing during those points.
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Huh, I felt the gameplay was overall awesome. The lack of information to the player constitutes the only interesting thing about the Jesus vs Hitler thing. (Jesus requiring more work) Some peaceful solutions to the player felt wicked clever, like the tsundere plane, laughing at some monster's joke, throwing sticks at dogs, etc.
I also thought The boss destroying the mercy option was clear enough.
I was only disappointed by the amount of plot fights, the lack of normal boss fights like Papyrus is a shame.
Zenny do provide links
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I also quite liked Undertale's gameplay, it did a lot of clever things and there was enough variety in the enemies to make each encounter interesting. I don't get the thing about poorly explained mechanics, you mostly just check the enemy first and it was usually pretty clear what you were supposed to do after (certainly this is a lot less byzantine than Shin Megami Tensei demon negotiation where the monsters are the moodiest things ever). There's a certain order some things are to be done in but most of the time the battle dialogue told you what that was going to be (dog's not ready to be petted yet, you don't smell quite right, etc). It is overall really easy but that didn't bother me very much.
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For whatever it's worth, as a comment from the peanut gallery that didn't play Undertale, a tsunderplane enemy sounds potentially hilarious. But The Duck's original screenshots about skeleton fish ladies & politics was not even unfunny to me, more like "not a joke, I'm only reading it like one because I'm being told to." About as funny dialogue as "I'm a farmer."
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I drink my own drool because my caretaker for mentally disabled adults thinks it is funny to make me do so.
EDIT: Fen: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Music/TobyFox
I don't remember exact tracks off hand but that should give you a good start
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(Also, not that this logic ever comes up in RPGs, but even if you know who the biggest 14 badasses with a cell phone are in advance, it might still be worth some risks to have the 140 biggest badasses ready in case they fail?)
Giving it to the populace or not is not the problem itself, for the reason you mentioned. The problem is that it is out there for everyone.
Since Al already know who can handle it and who doesn't. Under this prerequisite and still give everyone the cellphone is nothing more than asking for demon outbreak.
The logical development here is that Al would take action to prevent those who can't handle it from acquiring the Nicea.
The PCs were already pretty explicit in noting the new logo & 2.0 for Nicea, but not having particularly helpful thoughts on what it meant. Most obvious is that somebody else is in charge (despite the Ticos being the same, and still talking about His Excellency blah blah?) since the game wants to sell handing out demons to everyone as something that Saidduq would *not* do (again, despite him allegedly doing similar things as Prometheus-lite in the past), but I suppose I'll see, no need for spoilers.
Well, it seems you already fell for what the game is trying to do to misguide you.
This is an answer is too obvious so it makes you overlook it type of trick.
I'll just point this out without spoiler: the logo and the version number is pointing at two different plot points.
The logo hint was also something that was done in the Sept arc already.
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Tales of Xillia:
Rowen: This is my past with Nachtigal. Things were going fine until the Sleepless Night.
Jude: Yes, I know all about that. Allow me to explain what it is in detail so the player knows, which is literally the only reason I have for going into detail about this.
Rowen: And why can't I do it?
Jude: Because we have to establish that it's common knowledge among anyone educated in the history of this country, makes more sense that a regular med-school student like me does it as opposed to someone who clearly knows things no one else does.
Rowen: ...fair enough...
To be clear, I'm not knocking on Jude doing the explanation, despite how it felt a bit forced, because you need to establish what that event was SOMEHOW for the player, and there's not really any elegant way to handle it in a cutscene manner, so it's either do what ToX did (exposition) or do what something like FF13 or SO4 does with a datalog and force the player to find out on their own. I will give the game credit for establishing that a major historical political event is relatively common knowledge, and that Jude isn't somehow oblivious to it because jRPG protagonists always are. Again, I give credit to Jude for side-stepping a lot of cliches. No, he's not the most well done character or anything, but I respect that we have a Tales protagonist who doesn't ride the waves of jRPG cliches until he saves the world. I mean, he still does cliched stuff like "he's helping save the world because good guy" but to the game's credit, it's totally self aware about it by constantly having the game call him a "do-gooder" and him just kind of fessing up to it.
Also, what's with the random Leia being all "I'm holding everyone back, I'm useless" moment? This really felt like it came out of nowhere, and served no purpose. I guess that's just Tales being tales.
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Jude actually knowing history will actually lead to explaining something later on that seems odd. Though it's hilarious that he sort of avoids why Rowen is really famous as The Conductor.
The Leia thing is incredibly easy to overlook because the game doesn't point it out whatsoever, but after every plot-mandated battle you've had with her, she's been clearly drained and struggling after.
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FFRK - So the current banner reissued Terra's SSB weapon. I had 39 Mythril, and didn't want to waste Fire/Ice orb farming time getting the last 11 for an 11 pull, so I spend 15 on a 3 pull. Nada, but hey whatevs.
2 hours later the game tosses me a free 10 mythril gift.
....
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I didn't get the joke about politics either and assumed this was a cultural thing.
Lots of things I didn't get in general (about the tsundereplane, why is it a plane) but there were enough things I did get.
The guy who made Stanley Parable just announced a game that's going to be released... tomorrow. Very hyped, I hope my laptop can run it.
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Undertale: Finally beat True Pacifist run. Those last few fights are pretty challenging, I need to danmaku better. Story is full of warm-fuzzies with just an edge of indie horror game. I enjoyed it, though I can't see myself comparing every game that comes after as "good, but not quite Undertale". I'm looking forward to replaying it in Genocide mode though. Hopefully it'll be a little more RPG and a little less danmaku.
FFRK: Had to take a break from Dungeoneering for Black Power day so I could get Tempo Flurry upgraded. I love this skill and I might make a second one. Selphie now a permanent fixture in the party~
(I blame CapK)
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Final Fantasy We Come From The Same Autobattle - Yeah, black power day is non-negotiable. Spent all day farming those orbs, grabbing four Greater Blacks and a Greater Power. From that, I maxed Dark, Launch and Drain Strike. If I want, I'll be able to max Drain as well once Friday kicks in. In the meantime, I also picked up Gordon, Arc and Donkey Kong Cecil RM2s. So, back to dungeon crawling, currently doing FF12 dungeons.
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I'm looking forward to replaying it in Genocide mode though. Hopefully it'll be a little more RPG and a little less danmaku.
This is such a weird sentiment to me.
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Felt like making a relic pull at lunchtime with the free 5 mythril, just for the hell of it. Got Thyrus out of it.
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I'm looking forward to replaying it in Genocide mode though. Hopefully it'll be a little more RPG and a little less danmaku.
This is such a weird sentiment to me.
Pacifism mode was kinda boring. I'm hoping that being evil will add some edge to the narrative.
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Lots of things I didn't get in general (about the tsundereplane, why is it a plane)
Because the -ere part makes it sound like "airplane." Just another silly pun. ..... as far as I know!!
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It's not really a cultural thing. It's just highlighting the absurdity of the situation by stating exactly what's going on, deriving its humor from making you realize that yes that is exactly what is happening and you were just kinda going with it. What a weirdo.
Undertale -
First play through: Sans: "Here's some advice on fighting my brother, blah blah blah blah blah helpful advice."
Replay after genocide mode: Sans: "Here's some advice on fighting my brother. Don't. Capiche?"
I knew redemption mode was the right way to play. Honestly I do think a lot of people's criticisms of the game (aside from gameplay) come from playing pacifist mode first. And then making comments about how Hitler mode is completely unpalatable to them because how could they kill Papyrus? For Sans being pissy at you and then you shove it in his face by not killing Papyrus, that's how.
But man, I get why you wouldn't genocide through the first time. You miss out on the amazing Papyrus dating game. Actually, I feel like that's a general theme between the two modes. You miss out on anything that would resemble emotional resonance by being pacifist (I have a feeling that, in a vacuum, the fight against Undyne is going to end a lot less awesomely without her last desperate attempts to stop your rampage), causing the (neutral) ending to seem to come out of nowhere. But on the other hand, you miss out on a lot of hijinx by not not killing everything in sight.
I would also point out to Alex that the game definitely does not give up on its RPG pretensions in a neutral/FrueHitlar playthrough, but I can easily see where that's coming from on a pacifist playthrough.
Also I missed out on the Tsundere-plane pun because I was pronouncing it Tsun-deh-reh like some weeaboo piece of garbage
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I missed the Tsundere-plane pun because I assumed it was just a weeaboo piece of garbage inclusion and didn't bother sounding it out.
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Clearly best option is True Pacifist run for character attachment, Genocide for heartbreaking edgy grim dark horror feelings, then regular Pacifist for redemption and emotional resonance. Also you get try all variations of the game's attempts at being a danmaku and an RPG.
FFRK: God dammit Seymour Natus why do you vex me so?! Pro strats please, Snow. I used Carbuncle and that didn't go so well. Best him but lost mastery (and 4/5 of my PCs).
Flip side: yay five free Mythril because autumn apparently.
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Carbuncle actually isn't a very good idea against Seymour Natus because Mortiorchis is so MT-centric. You want to Magic Breakdown both Seymour and the appendage, stack with Shellga and possibly Sentinel's Grimoire as well. Dispel is also an option against his Protect, which you probably -should- use with such a fighter-centric team. Runic is also a better option than Carby - however, it does -not- replace mitigation with buffs and debuffs due to Mortiorchis. It mostly neuters Natus' doublecasting and can extend one of your PC's resources. Past that, it's a straight slugfest. I mastered it on both Classic and Elite, since I wanted to beeline for Arc's Memory Crystal and yeah, went full mitigation and mage offense. You can get by via Advantaliate pretty well, since you have Loserface's SG, just don't skimp on damage control.
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Hey DJ I have some sick advice for you.
mage offense
git gud scrub
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Clearly best option is True Pacifist run for character attachment, Genocide for heartbreaking edgy grim dark horror feelings, then regular Pacifist for redemption and emotional resonance. Also you get try all variations of the game's attempts at being a danmaku and an RPG.
Well that would be quite completely missing or ignoring the whole point of the game.
I'd gladly ignore said point, but why would I engage more with a game that's telling me that I am literally a terrible person for doing this
Man I feel dumb about the tsundere plane pun
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It probably should be a portmanteau if they want the delivery of the pun to work in text. Tsundere-plane/Tsundereplane matches the same style as the cadence you need to do it verbally for it to match 'aeroplane'.
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Undertale:
Beat demo, have about zero desire to continue game.
"Play the demo and find out"
Well, that doesn't actually sell me on anything. So, good work
EDIT:
Music in some parts is pretty OK though.
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Man I feel dumb about the tsundere plane pun
nah any pun that requires you to mispronounce words is real dumb to begin with
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The reference probably would have worked just as well if they'd spelled it "Tsundairplane".
Re: Snow on FFRK: Yeah, I was running a somewhat underleveled team for Experience. No SG, no Magic Break/down. Just Shellga and Carbuncle. Woefully undersold the MT offense from the leech. And since the damn leech kept reviving itself at low health, Advantaliate was useless since it auto-targets the lowest-health enemy. So I had to leave that thing at full health and couldn't use reflect because then Seymour would accidentally damage his own leech and I'd be back to wasting Advantaliate swings on it. So I had just Shellga for mitigation, one of my double-hitters on constant Curaga spam, and everyone else trying their damnedest to off Seymour before his DPS could completely overwhelm. My mage was also running Meteor and Quake, so I couldn't use -that- either or it'd fuck up Advantaliate's targeting again by slightly injuring that fucking Mortibody. The fact that I beat it at all with this team was basically luck. Just... not looking forward to wasting more stamina on it to get like... 4 orbs total.
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You will do it anyway, though. At this point, Greater Orbs are at such a premium. Heck, I honed Mental Breakdown to R3 thanks to those three Greater Ice Orbs from mastering Evrae Altana.
Final Fantasy Blind Among The Autobattles - Auron event lands tonight, yet I'm farming white power because I need to hone Berserk to a decent level. Berserk + Carbuncle hilariously spoils Defender X and that'll be useful both for the story dungeon with him and the event itself. I also have L50 Kimahri solely for the Biran/Yenke fight.
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Undertale Genocide: Holy crap Sans. Yes, that took 30 resets. Yes it was awesome, but holy crap.
Anyway, apart from the two interesting fights that this route provides, the game's story really benefits from seeing just how -awful- you could be and seeing how the characters act under such a dire threat (also, it has 100% less Alphys, so it's awesome!). Still not a life-changing experience, but certainly memorable.
I think the game's heavy-handed message of "how dare you be callous to fictional characters in a fictional world" sort of misses its mark on me. I've never been able to self-insert with blank slate protagonists in video games, so instead of it coming off as the game chastising me for being callous, it actually just made me consider the possibility of a higher metabeing that might fuck around with our own world just out of boredom and -that- was kind of a scary thought. Not the first time I'd had it, but it had been a while since I'd considered the possibility in the context of the real world as being a game to the bored metabeing. So instead of feeling callous, I felt more empathetic? Just a different way of viewing the same message I suppose.
Less thematically, what the hell IS Player/Frisk? Genocide path keeps alluding to his/her not -really- being human in that vague *wink wink nudge nudge there's more to this so figure it out on your own or by scouring the internet* way.
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Re: Undertale's RPGness: Nah, can't buy it. I know RPG is a loose definition, and you all are getting consumed by Record "Autobattle" Keeper, but still. RPGs, even Dragon Warrior, tend to have you make a few decisions about how to fight encounters, and have stats and equipment be important ish. Undertale, even in Genocide Mode, does not. Every encounter is "Press Fight for X turns, maybe heal when your HP is low" and that's it. Not just figuratively it, like an easy RPG, but literally it, there is nothing else. No other battle commands that matter when Fighting, no other PCs, no usable items except healing, maybe one equipment choice ever, no stats but HP/attack/defense and nothing you do really alters them. The only actual gameplay to be had is shmup-style dodging for survival. We're not talking "Tales of is sort of like a fighting game" here, there is not any RPG to be had at all, at least in my mental book.
Anyway tonight I also fired up...
We Know The Devil (https://datenighto.com/game/we-know-the-devil)
Hail Satan.
Before talking about the game, I have to talk about the site, because you have to deal with the site before playing the game. Paying over 5 dollars for an online only VN on a sketchy looking website is a tough sell. I make poor life decisions in the name of media, especially when friends hype things at me really hard, but I almost didn't in this case and can't say I would expect anyone else around here to do so. That sucks a lot, because this game is really good and I'd love to hear reactions to it from people who aren't already heavily invested in the "online queer literature" culture. But those people (and nuts like me) are likely the only ones who are going to be willing to get their credit card info stolen in order to play this. Oh well.
So the premise here is we have three teens at a religious summer camp. They're friends, or something like that, or at least they're grouped together for the time being and engage in interactions with each other. Venus is a shy, quiet boy who apologizes for everything and appears incredibly nice and gullible. Jupiter is The Good Girl at the top of all the charts for sports and activities and leadership and generally being role model ish. And Neptune is there to provide the requisite doses of dour, biting sarcasm and flipping the bird to the rules and the man. They interact with each other, but, as is the way of most human interaction, in a group of three, two are closer and a third is left out. The player gets to choose the exact dynamics of the three over the course of the evening.
So there are some humorous camp antics, some Truth or Dare... and then it turns out that in this setting, God exists, not just as a theological concept but constantly speaking to His followers on the almighty Radio at 109.8 FM. And the Devil likewise exists, tempting the darkness in people's hearts. And this summer camp is a nicely controlled environment for kids who weren't judged righteous enough to be with their normal peers, with barbed wire and sirens for everyone's safety. As they say, "the price two friends must pay is the third." Someone's getting possessed tonight (hint: you already know the devil, it's whoever you left out the most) and there'll be a bit of a party, maybe a nice game of Splattergories or Cranium 2: Extraction.
The game sinks or swims on the back of the trio's character writing. I have to be a little vague because there isn't a good way to talk about the characters without spoiling huge chunks of development, but my verdict is that it swims, and swims very well at that. All three are extremely interesting and deeply developed, even in the game's short timeframe. It's beautiful to me as a writer to see how well and how quickly a few precise sentences in each scene convey such emotional depth.
Now, as a timely interjection, Undertale did something similar to this with economy of characterization. But not the same. Undertale is more of a surreal, lighthearted fantasy world where everyone is nice and more or less gets along. There's no real conflict at hand, except for a couple of the the final boss characters. We Know The Devil goes in the extreme opposite direction - these teens are MADE of conflict, brimming with it just under their smiling facades. They hate the world, each other, and themselves, and have plenty of reasons for each. Not only that, they have the very literal specter of religion looming over them, and the absolutely certain knowledge that tonight, one of them will face final judgment as A Bad Person and won't be coming back to breakfast (or worse, maybe with a side helping of killing their former friends.) And each one of them is wondering, the whole time, "is it me?"
As usual for psychological horror type stuff, it's not going to hit home for everyone, no matter how great the characters are. But wow, does it ever hit me. I grew up on a strict activity diet of Church Stuff and Boy Scouts, including lots of summer camp, and the trueness to life here is just incredible. The earnest but inept bonfire captain with his awful guitar and self-serving platitudes! 420 noscope sicknasty burns like "Don't you even read Lewis?"! The cabins that fall apart if you touch them but nobody cares! The only thing that doesn't ring completely true is that the characters have brain cells. I can only wish there were people half as interesting as these three at any camp I ever went to.
Oh, yeah, also the issues and character dynamics. Those are pretty real too, at least for certain facets of each character, and they do a very good job of explaining the ones that aren't personally relatable. This is the real meat of the game, and yet I can't say too much about it except deeply sympathizing with all three when all's said and done. I thought Venus would be left out on my first run, but it wound up being Jupiter, because I had ignored her one too many times thinking she was fine on her own... which is exactly the point, isn't it? Oops. Venus' devil ending did turn out to be the least compelling to me, though. It's a little one-note and hard to link to the rest of his character.
After seeing the individual endings, you can unlock a fourth ending where you juggle all three characters (take notes...) and go full Hail Satan. It feels cathartic, but less individually intense than the other endings, a bit too creepy-saccharine and predictable for me even though its existence is thematically important. Really a blend of everything would be best.
I wish everything I read had writing this good. And, heck, friends like this in the real world wouldn't be that bad either. Could do without God Radio, though. The music there is not nearly as good as the awesome WKTD soundtrack. Maximum Hail Satan!
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back to Undertale stuff in new posts since writing that took a while. Less Alphys =/= more awesome! ] : (
You are a player, a metabeing who exists in a different universe. Seems like you did get the message, Djinn? Agreement on the two unique fights as "what ifs" being the useful part of that mode.
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Man I feel dumb about the tsundere plane pun
nah any pun that requires you to mispronounce words is real dumb to begin with
It's exchanges like this that make me wary of playing the game. Nothing I've seen or heard so far seems like humor I'd appreciate (and fourth-wall breaking is just no stop).
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For what it's worth, I don't think Undertale is some kind of 'must-play' game, but it was short and certainly interesting enough that it was worth playing for our little RPG book club discussions.
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Fen I know you are reading this should I buy The Beginner's Guide immediately.
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Man I feel dumb about the tsundere plane pun
nah any pun that requires you to mispronounce words is real dumb to begin with
It's exchanges like this that make me wary of playing the game. Nothing I've seen or heard so far seems like humor I'd appreciate (and fourth-wall breaking is just no stop).
You can do what I did and play the demo, decide you were bored, then look up the story to see what the big deal is and still not get why no one wanted to talk about it.
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Regarding Seymour Natus, I mastered it by making liberal use of multi-target attacks like Quake. By attacking Seymour and Morty at the same time it's like getting an extra hit because Morty drains Seymour. Granted most of my soul breaks are aoes, so this strategy might not work for you. I had Magic Break on Balthier and his sequence was break Seymour, break Morty, do some other attack, then start over at breaking Seymour. I used Stoneskin RW, but Boon would be even better.
...Defender X has a lot of hp. And having one of Selphie's slots taken up by Berserk isn't helping. Either need to run a second white mage or do more honing.
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Running a second White Mage honestly isn't a bad idea. If you have even a 4* rod, you can pull off pretty solid shenanigans.
Final Fantasy Help Me I'm Autobattlin' - Auron event is out, did the usual 100-gem pull. Got a 5* FF4 Gold Hairpin. Sure, I'll take it.
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Man, the Zack event was easy.
Plowing thru the auron event.
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Fen I know you are reading this should I buy The Beginner's Guide immediately.
Yes.
Don't get too hyped or anything though
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FFRK - plowing through the Auron event, just picked up the newly released character.
...And as I said in chat not long ago... <MagicFanatic> ...I keep staring at the most recent banner in FFRK, wanting to spend more money for gems to make equipment pulls, and have to keep telling myself I shouldn't.
Is this a good thing or a bad thing?
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You probably should stop playing if it tingles your gambling instincts that badly.
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Yeah, I'm with Snow here. FFRK is fun, but not $100/month fun.
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(http://www.rottnestfastferries.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/whale-watch.jpg)
y/n
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So majestic~
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I will fully admit that most of what had me excited about Undertale was knowing other works Toby Fox is associated with and enjoying them quite a bit. For what it's worth, I still think it's probably my game of the year and honestly find some comments about it bewildering ("I don't like being told I'm a bad person for doing bad things because video game characters don't real" striking me as particularly, "uh...") but I also accept and understand that you are all plebeians and that is something outside of my control.
FFRK - The FF7AC event makes me a little angry that I spent one of my free MC1 gifts on Sephiroth's since I just got his again (and after looking up Record Materia, I really want Luneth's. Auto-haste, but it's 20 story dungeons away >_<), but ah well. I feel like that's just going to be a pattern with this game and will not worry too much about it. Too busy worrying about wasting Stamina.
Running through story dungeons now while I wait for the EX battles to drop. Almost to the Summoner MC, now that I've been converted to the Valefor faith, so that's good. My collection of Level 50 organ banks keeps growing, so that's also good. Terra hit 80, and the rest of my A-team are all above Level 70 sans Aerith, who is climbing the ranks while playing babysitter to my organ banks, so that's also good. Lots of people with Cloud's new ridiculous "what does power creep mean" SB keep showing up as RWs for me, so that is also good.
And I haven't spent any money on this game still, which is also good. This means I am winning. Magic, you need to get better at this game.
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I will fully admit that most of what had me excited about Undertale was knowing other works Toby Fox is associated with and enjoying them quite a bit. For what it's worth, I still think it's probably my game of the year and honestly find some comments about it bewildering ("I don't like being told I'm a bad person for doing bad things because video game characters don't real" striking me as particularly, "uh...") but I also accept and understand that you are all plebeians and that is something outside of my control
As Zennyish as that post was I'd actually like having a proper discussion about this!
To repeat something I said to Gourry, what if , when opening Duck Game for the second time you'd get a message that says "You, player. Please stop playing Duck Game. So the ducks can finally be at peace." You'd laugh.
Undertale does the same thing, except it is actually serious, and considers this as Very Important, and players genuinely see this as powerful.
Sorry but 2 dumb. And I don't like the implication that continuing playing makes you a badman.
The game is still good overall, don't worry Cid
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Also note the fact that Zenny also does things for the explicit purpose of being told that he is a bad person.
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FFRK: Sweet, Auron is out, welcome to the party! I finally have a new character who can use Retaliate who isn't max levelled! Shut up, Cyan doesn't count.
Picked up Kimahri's Memory Crystal... it's more like a burden than a reward. Now I -have- to level him up to 50...
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To repeat something I said to Gourry, what if , when opening Duck Game for the second time you'd get a message that says "You, player. Please stop playing Duck Game. So the ducks can finally be at peace." You'd laugh.
Undertale does the same thing, except it is actually serious, and considers this as Very Important, and players genuinely see this as powerful.
Sorry but 2 dumb. And I don't like the implication that continuing playing makes you a badman.
The game is still good overall, don't worry Cid
Sure, I'll take a stab. Undertale and Duck Game are extremely different works, and lumping them together because "they're both video games" or more widely "they're both fiction, they're not real" doesn't sit well with me.
Not being able to empathize with fictional characters in general is... something I cannot understand. You care about flesh and blood people you meet in real life, right? Well, how about people you only meet over the internet, but maybe only meet in person once or never? How often do you hear people saying things like "I thought I liked you but I actually just liked my mental image of you"? How much can anyone say they really know their grandparents, or great grandparents, compared to a mental fiction of what those people were like? How about historical figures? How about historical figures going further back where some amount of fiction is undoubtedly worked into the history? How about going back to mythical figures who may or may not have existed but probably had some base in reality, unless maybe they didn't?
The line between reality and fiction in people's minds is not really all that clear. I prefer to err on the side of caring about people and empathizing with them, and I find value in doing that whether or not they are "real."
On another axis, fiction has creators, media is a communication between the author and the audience. Duck Game's creator doesn't ask that you take Duck Game's characters seriously and care about them. That is clearly communicated through the tone of the game. Toby Fox does ask, implicitly, that you take Undertale's characters seriously for maximum enjoyment. That is also clearly communicated through the tone of the game! Maybe not case by case, he surely is thick skinned enough to care about individuals or groups not doing so, but if *no one* took the game seriously and cared about the characters, you have to imagine he'd be unhappy. So no matter how you slice it, there is a Definitely Real Person being slighted there, if only at an expected and atomic level.
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Picked up Kimahri's Memory Crystal... it's more like a burden than a reward. Now I -have- to level him up to 50...
Even better, you have to level him up before the event ends, since bringing him is a target score req on the Biran/Yenke ++ fight! Have fun, I egged him way back in Forbidden Treasure because of that shit.
Final Fantasy Chant Of The Autobattle - Currently mowing through Auron's event, beelined for both his and Blue XIII's Memory Crystals and cap-broke both. Tidus actually delivers on FFX events when he's running around with a 6* Official Ball, by the way.
EDIT: The FFRK subreddit is currently a barrel of monkeys with all the people bemoaning pulling Kimahri's Dusk Spear. I've never seen people get so angry over scoring a character relic. And the spear itself isn't even bad!
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FFRK: Well, at least it means I'll be able to field a full FFX party in FFX dungeons now. Kimahri can at least pretend to be useful at max level with record synergy. And hey, he can use Boost! That's... something?
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Re: Undertale's RPGness: Nah, can't buy it. I know RPG is a loose definition, and you all are getting consumed by Record "Autobattle" Keeper, but still. RPGs, even Dragon Warrior, tend to have you make a few decisions about how to fight encounters, and have stats and equipment be important ish. Undertale, even in Genocide Mode, does not. Every encounter is "Press Fight for X turns, maybe heal when your HP is low" and that's it. Not just figuratively it, like an easy RPG, but literally it, there is nothing else. No other battle commands that matter when Fighting, no other PCs, no usable items except healing, maybe one equipment choice ever, no stats but HP/attack/defense and nothing you do really alters them. The only actual gameplay to be had is shmup-style dodging for survival. We're not talking "Tales of is sort of like a fighting game" here, there is not any RPG to be had at all, at least in my mental book.
If Undertale was a PnP we'd say that it's fluff, not mechanics, centric. Having role-playing games' identity is rooted in a combat system is something that Indie games could probably benefit from moving away from, especially if they want to do weird experimental shit. Probably it suffers from not de-emphasizing it MORE. Like, I see what they're trying to do and they didn't go far enough.
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Can we please not turn this into a "My game is better than your game" topic?
After watching videos, reading wikis, playing the demo, et cetera, I have a not negative review of Undertale. I'd post it somewhere, but out of respect for the anti-spoiler crowd, I'm not sure how to actually do this.
EDIT
"Review" is probably best reserved for completing something myself. I have a not negative detached criticism of the game that praises some things and explains why it didn't come close to grabbing me, personally.
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Make a topic that says "Undertale Critique *SPOILERS*" or do a small text post?
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15 pages a day of FF:RK, and we're going to criticize people talking about other games?
I haven't played any of these games, but the discussion re: Undertale has been the most interesting thing I've seen in this topic in a long time.
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Idly, I realize it might partly just be because folks aren't doing a lot else, but it might be worth considering giving RK it's own topic. It feels like it is consuming far more of the topic airspace for far longer than any other game we've had (even FE stuff).
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To repeat something I said to Gourry, what if , when opening Duck Game for the second time you'd get a message that says "You, player. Please stop playing Duck Game. So the ducks can finally be at peace." You'd laugh.
Undertale does the same thing, except it is actually serious, and considers this as Very Important, and players genuinely see this as powerful.
Sorry but 2 dumb. And I don't like the implication that continuing playing makes you a badman.
The game is still good overall, don't worry Cid
Sure, I'll take a stab. Undertale and Duck Game are extremely different works, and lumping them together because "they're both video games" or more widely "they're both fiction, they're not real" doesn't sit well with me.
Not being able to empathize with fictional characters in general is... something I cannot understand. You care about flesh and blood people you meet in real life, right? Well, how about people you only meet over the internet, but maybe only meet in person once or never? How often do you hear people saying things like "I thought I liked you but I actually just liked my mental image of you"? How much can anyone say they really know their grandparents, or great grandparents, compared to a mental fiction of what those people were like? How about historical figures? How about historical figures going further back where some amount of fiction is undoubtedly worked into the history? How about going back to mythical figures who may or may not have existed but probably had some base in reality, unless maybe they didn't?
The line between reality and fiction in people's minds is not really all that clear. I prefer to err on the side of caring about people and empathizing with them, and I find value in doing that whether or not they are "real."
On another axis, fiction has creators, media is a communication between the author and the audience. Duck Game's creator doesn't ask that you take Duck Game's characters seriously and care about them. That is clearly communicated through the tone of the game. Toby Fox does ask, implicitly, that you take Undertale's characters seriously for maximum enjoyment. That is also clearly communicated through the tone of the game! Maybe not case by case, he surely is thick skinned enough to care about individuals or groups not doing so, but if *no one* took the game seriously and cared about the characters, you have to imagine he'd be unhappy. So no matter how you slice it, there is a Definitely Real Person being slighted there, if only at an expected and atomic level.
Hmmmmmm
I agree with the first part of your post, but I feel that the question here is not : "Is caring about fictional characters fine?" (the answer is: yes) but : "Is not caring about these fictional characters fine?"
I mean, if Duck Game told you to stop killing ducks:
- Some people would stop killing ducks because they truly care about these mean ducks (That would be you and Gourry)
- Some people would still like to kill ducks because Duck Game is fun and these ducks are... JUST... MERE... DATA, but they would then experience weird cognitive dissonance because the game would tell them they're super jerks (That would be me)
- Some people would not give any shit about what the dev's point is and whether it matters (That would be Djinn and very probably Zenny )
TBH, I do find it interesting that the game goes "If you truly care about these characters, then never replay this game, just move on" and if players like me have to be ignored, so you guys can have something like that, then k it's not a problem.
Something else bothering me though.
I would agree that in this kind of game, characters are an extension of the mind of the dev, and if you choose to hurt these characters, you are dismissing the dev's point of view. Fair point.
In a regular game, your only options are: playing along with the game, or closing it and doing something else. Go with the game or get out.
Undertale gives you an additional nihilistic option of destroying everything, and then it directly chastizes you for using it. It's very... crazy defensive? And immature? It feels like Toby Fox playing Genesis God, with the ability to kill ingame being the metaphorical apple?
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Can we please not turn this into a "My game is better than your game" topic?
When did that happen?
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You are off on your Zenny psychology there again, he (like myself) would play the game because he wants his own negative opinion of himself validated. I am a bad person, see how even the games tell me that I am bad?
Payday 2 - this is still fun and infuriating when things just don't go right. It will probably be on sale in a couple of weeks if anyone wants to play a really fleshed out 4 player coop shooter.
KotOR 2 - replay of this started and just hit Telos. I had forgot how much higher the lace curve in this is compared to 1. Level 7 by the time you leave Peragus and Telos is still when the game is on rails. I had also forgot how goddamned high level so many power unlocks are. 1/3 of the way through your basic D20 progression and 2 powers have unlocked the second tier skill. Crazy.
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Fen, I wonder how you would react to a similar setup as Undertale, keeping what's there with the world except without fourth wall breaking or as much explicit melodrama, so instead of actively commenting on what you're doing, the world just depopulates and becomes more and more desolate (the basic theme of genocide runs is "but no one came"), so the result of killing everything is that you get fewer and fewer opportunities to interact with the world at all because there's nothing to interact with. I think this could be done in a Dark Souls-y way, since that Dark Souls doesn't comment at all on what you're doing (although there is sin) but it can show the consequences of killing an NPC (or the consequences if you don't help them), usually in an indirect way. So, if you play pacifist, you are able to interact most fully with the world/Papyrus/silly puzzles but killing everything obviously closes your ability to do so, and at the end of killing everything, you're on your own and there's nothing left to do. It's a very different work and it's still not particularly subtle but it still talks about how different players engage with a game's content without its characters being accusatory towards you or telling you how to feel.
The game's biggest flaw for me is the lack of subtlety in writing and it does a lot of telling and not showing in its themes (although it does a really good job in showing a lot of subtle touches and details within the world itself), so I can easily see your point of view, but I just wonder if you are more bothered by the message or its delivery.
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Hm. I'm holding off on a thorough response until I actually finish my Pacifist playthrough, because that may well change my opinion of it, but at the very least in Genocide mode, this conflict between doing the pacifist thing and doing the genocidal thing and how characters reacted to it, even the other meta characters, always seemed to be the opinions of CHARACTERS in the narrative more than an explicit word-of-god coming down from the Dev. And, as the opinions of characters, the berating makes a lot of sense. "You just murdered all of my friends. You are a dick." "You just murdered all of his friends. See? You're just like me." Maybe it is more heavy-handed when trying to restart from a pacifist playthrough, and maybe that will color my opinion. I'll revisit this probably later today after I get through it.
That said, ASIDE from Sans and Flowey calling you out at the end, in Genocide mode it kinda does exactly what Gourry just outlined. The world slowly depopulates, you're shown consequences, the remaining NPCs get more and more desperate, and there's honestly very little commentary about your actions until the very end.
And regardless, even if it does get a heavy handed word-of-god "don't replay my game even though I designed it to be replayed a lot," honestly it's still a more interesting take on the Hitler/Jesus mode than, say, Mass Effect's, as entertaining as Mass Effect's was.
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Yeah, the specific thing in question here is the end of the true pacifism ending. After you've done everything and the credits roll, the game pops up and directly says "This is the happiest possible ending for everybody, please don't ever reset your save to play again or you'll destroy this happiness as though it never existed." It is uh... pretty hit or miss. As Fenrir said. This was not a part that hit for me. Mostly. I'm still honoring it because there's not much reason not to, but... ehn.
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And now for something completely different.
Celestian Tales: Old North
Someone linked this indy steam RPG in chat awhile back, I forget who, but thumbs up to that person since I put it on my wishlist then and finally got around to picking it up(same time I got undertale, actually). So far it's a good classic style rpg(turn based, I'm not seeing anything in the way of double turns happening so it's probably not CTB). I'm up to chapter 6 and enjoying the writing, particularly the dialogue, quite a bit. The gameplay is also good, if...hmm. Simple isn't the right word, becuase the game is not easy. But there's also nothing particularly complex about it.
To talk about the gameplay a bit, I suppose what it really revolves around is managing Stamina and Threat while trying to kill the enemies. You have 3 of the 6 PCs in your party at any given time(can swap them outside of battle freely, also levels are gained as a Party. Everyone is always the same level, nobody loses out on shit because they died/etc), and you've got the classic Attack/Skill/Defend/Item commands here. Stamina is your MP, you start with 3, can hold up to 8 max. You gain +1 by using a basic attack, +2 by using defend, and can spend them on your skills. Basic stuff. This is where it gets interesting. Skill use increases your Threat, making enemies more likely to attack that character. The more Stamina a skill costs, the higher it increases your threat. Some skills specifically increase/decrease your threat as part of their function as well, of course. This...is actually FAR more effective at controlling who the enemies attack than I'm used to seeing in games with this kind of mechanic(note: I don't play MMOs, but I hear they're quite effective there). I have yet to see enemies attack anyone but Luce after I have her use her skill that boosts her defense and increases her threat. Also the threat increase from even using a 1sp skill is pretty large. When a fight starts, and say Camille gets the first turn, if I use her skill that does damage and inflicts bleed, the enemies pretty much WILL target her if I do nothing to draw it away(or if enemies go after her but before the other PCs, etc).
I guess what I'm getting at is that there doesn't feel like a lot of randomness here. Except for when I've gone back through previous areas for one reason or another(like, oh, I was dumb and sold all my monster drops instead of realizing there was probably a crafting system of sorts, so I had to go get more spider legs and shit from the first area...), the fights have all been requiring strategy. Just blindly attacking and hoping for RNG to go your way...well, there's not a lot of RNG involved. Oh, yeah, and your HP refills out of battle automatically and Stamina does not carry over. So attrition between battles isn't an issue. There is a system where you take a Wound if you get KOd(even if you get revived in that fight) which lowers your max HP(and possibly other stats? Unsure) until you get healed at a church. Up to 3 wounds can stack, dunno what happens if you get KOd again after that.
This brings me to the next point of there being pretty easy encounter control. You see the enemies on the map and they are laughably easy to dodge. This was very intentional, early on an NPC talks to you about how fights are easy to avoid...but be careful or you may not have what it takes to deal with the fights you can't get around(like, oh, boss fights). I ran into a difficulty spike around chapter 4 becuase I dodged fights a whole bunch and thus got wrecked by the boss of that chapter. Then I tried to go get some levels...and got wrecked by the RANDOMS in that chapter too, since I fought like nothing that wasn't required in ch3. Oops? Could I have won those fights? Probably, but that's also the point where I realized I hadn't upgraded my weapons because I sold all my drops like a dumbass and had to go kill stuff from earlier chapters to get drops to upgrade my weapons. Herp derp.
As for the characters, like I said above, there's a pretty good balance. Everyone feels useful, and the skillsets are...both large and small at the same time. I'm about halfway through the game I think, and each person has 6-7 skills learned, as well as 3-4 passives. Buuuuut you can only have 4 active skills and 2 passive skills equipped at once. And the skills aren't straight upgrades either, it's all making the skillset wider instead of just upgrading from Punch to Punchmore, etc. Let's take Camille, the one I picked as the main. She has a 1sp shot that inflicts bleed, a 3sp self heal and Threat reduction, a 1sp Scan skill, a 2sp dispel+def down skill, a 4sp "get rekt" shot that does bonus damage on a bleeding enemy, a 5sp "get rekt" shot that I think is ITD, and a 6sp mt high damage+bleed shot. And I think she'll pick up one or two more before the game is over. Can only have 4 at once. For passives she has Immune to Blind/Silence, +chance to inflict status, +status duration, and 100% run chance. Can only have 2 at once. So you want to swap around skillset depending on what you need to deal with.
Anyway, it is a fun game so far. Definitely don't regret the price of entry, etc. And while I spent the whole post talking gameplay, I do think the writing/character interactions is also a high point of the game. Not really sure what else to say about it other than "I like it, it is good" though. <_<
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Ducks should behave as such.
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Re: Gate
All those words on Celestian Tales and not once did you mention how the art was fucking gorgeous? Really gives off a Valkyrie Profile vibe aesthetically. And you only just barely brought up the whole '6 possible main characters, each with their own story route' thing. Anyway, I was curious enough (and had free time) after reading your review to check it out, but these two things would have made it a more-instant 'must-buy' for me.
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Yeah, it's definitely worth playing! Not perfect but I think a lot of DLers would kind of like it for what it is. It's short (e.g. Gate, you're about halfway done the game) but quite good at what it does. And replaying it for the other character paths is something I've enjoyed pretty well, you definitely gain some important new insights for each point of view. So far I've played through as Cammille, Ylianna, and Aria, and am working on Isaac. Not sure if I'll do the last two because at this point it is starting to get repetitive, past their openings. (And I don't really like Reynard much anyway.)
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Playing as Lucienne. I wish I had chosen Reynard, he's my favorite by a WIIIIIIIDE margin. They are all pretty well-rounded, even this early in the game.
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I'm currently in the Barr mountains in SO3. I'm currently mostly using Nel, Maria, and a rotating third.
The main thing I've been playing, though is Celestian Tales - Old North. Fun little indie RPG.
It's a short game, and pretty clear part 1 of something bigger, but you can play it through multiple times to see it from the perspective of each of six main characters. Past that, the art is nice (reminds me of VP), the story is a pretty interesting little political yarn with lots of grey morality, all the major characters are distinct and memorable, and its battle system is well-done. I'll talk most about the battle system because it's me, but yeah the rest of the package is good too.
At the core of the battle system is stamina: each PC and enemy starts with 3, and can gain 1 by using a basic physical or 2 by defending. Using skills costs this resource, and obviously you can't go negative. Enemies use the system too, and the game has a bunch of skills which play with the system, like attacks which can lower target stamina or which ignore defence (and therefore defending). Both sides have lots of buffs and status options (status works on everything, so it tends not to be too debilitating) so there are lots of fun options to choose battle-to-battle. At first I was worried that the game would be too easy for any of this to matter, but after a slightly worrying start in the challenge department it definitely hits its stride. So in the end it just feels like it has a pretty good challenge curve.
It has a bunch of quality-of-life stuff I definitely approve of like healing all your HP after each fight (though there is a BoF/WA-like "max HP down" status so that you want to avoid deaths) and everyone gets full exp, whether in the party or not. Which means you can pretty much switch in the PCs you feel like using for any given fight at your discretion (does have to be between fights though).
It would certainly be nice if the game were longer or had a bit more content, but given its low price you certainly get your money's worth IMO (it costs less than half of one random item grab in FFRK, what the fuck to that...). Really the only major flaw is I feel the game's lack of sceneskip, which really bites it in the ass as the game does on one occasion put a nasty fight after a lengthy cutscene. Boooo! Otherwise the game is pretty good on polish issues.
It's hard to know exactly where to rate it since it's just part of a whole, but I definitely enjoyed it. I played as Cammile because she was described as rational (didn't disappoint as a character, though kinda underwhelming as a PC), took around 7-8 hours, finished at Level 24. Going to play through as someone else next.
Your description of the battle system reminds me a lot of MS Saga, which I've been playing through lately. Don't have a whole lot to actually say directly about MS Saga though other than that I like it a lot and wish it had been more successful. The writing is pretty standard peak anime bullshit really but the gameplay is neatly strategic for an RPG of its era.
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See, I missed that Elf did a post about this game in the flood of FFRK stuff. I think I'm definitely in favor of moving RK talk to it's own topic. So yeah, I basically spent like half an hour writing a post about the gameplay of a thing that elf already covered more coherently. <_>
Djinn: See, despite the fact that VP1 is a 10/10 game for me, the art style is not even remotely one of the reasons why. I actually dislike VP1 character art, though the in-game animations are cool. Also, art not really a priority for me. I was trying to focus on stuff about the game that you couldn't know just from looking at it's store page.
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Not just the character art, but the backgrounds and sprites are quite well-done too, though the sprites are a bit stiff. Also, holy crap that ending theme is gorgeous.
Oh yeah, beat the game. Short game. Apparently setting up for a sequel hard. Looking forward to it.
Strongpoints are definitely the battle system, but also some superb character writing and good internal logic to its plot.
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I find that art-style tends to be low on the priority scale for most DLers, in the sense that it either only comes up in passing, or someone will only bring it up if the art-style is so bad that it makes the game actively hard to get through.
I for one really don't care about art; Ni No Kuni is really pretty, and I really don't care about it, as even the prettiest of game won't distract me from more prevalent qualities, positive or negative.
EDIT: And yeah, you can get a strong sense of art and visuals by just looking at the game through trailers, screen shots, etc. It's one of the factors of a game that you really don't have to buy the game to appreciate. Yeah, you can listen to the music too, for example, but without having someone to either recommend music or going out of your way to listen to a large part of the OST (which can be lengthy!), it's less likely you'll get a strong sense of the OST.
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Re: Celestian Tales:
Stayed up too late last night finishing this. Now I'm heading to work on too-little sleep and thinking on the ending of the game and honestly, there's one thing that doesn't make sense. Why the heck was Severin so angry about Alain's ruse at the end of the game? What was he worried about? He didn't seem to have any designs on the throne before that? Alain's ruse at least makes some sense - he's doing it for his wife or something. But maybe there's something I'm missing by only playing one path? Trying to be a little vague to avoid spoilers.
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Djinn:
Gareth talked to Severin about something that had Severin convinced that Alain was a traitor and/or out to get him. It isn't clear what the exact conversation is, but from Aria's path it's very clear that Gareth deliberately tried to provoke the reaction out of Severin that he got. The most obvious possibility is that Gareth told Severin that there was a ruse to keep him/Lupin* from taking over Levantine, and Severin was crushed by the betrayal of someone he considered to be so honourable and overreacted. I'm curious as to if it goes deeper than that; there are certainly hints of plenty of machinations below the surface which the squires don't really key in onto. But I suspect confirmation of any theories will have to wait for the sequel.
*Keep in mind that the realm is quite theocratic so Lupin in particular taking over Levantine would probably start a civil war.
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I picked up Celestian Tales about... a month ago. The description was pretty good with an emphasis on a grounded story rather than magical macguffins, so that plus the art gave me a Suikoden vibe (which for all that it has magic and shit is ultimately a story driven by characters wanting power). Overall kind of disappointed but I built it up too much in my mind.
I find that art-style tends to be low on the priority scale for most DLers, in the sense that it either only comes up in passing, or someone will only bring it up if the art-style is so bad that it makes the game actively hard to get through.
I think, more than art, what people tend to really notice is a strong sense of visual style and visual storytelling. Part of that is that fancy visual effects don't really dazzle people anymore on their own, which is what I call Episode I Syndrome.
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I believe you cannot get true pacifism if you've done genocide before. Unless you delete your save and play offline or something.
Duck: I'm not sure that "you do terrible things = the world reacts " is particularly novel to be honest. I think what sets Undertale apart is how humane (and cutesy) characters are, so their rejection seems particularly striking.
My reaction to a beginner's guide is : "K pretty good" I've seen some extremely positive reactions to the game but don't really share them; I think this will affect you more if you're a creative type, which I'm unfortunately not.
Stanley Parable was the opposite, it talked to people who play games as opposed to people who make them. It's the only one that's going to make me a real lasting impression. (Btw it is real good, much recommended)
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Undertale - Finished my Frue Pacifist runthrough.
I definitely see where Fenrir is coming from a lot on this side of the run. Tonally, the Pacifist run is a very different run from Genocide/Neutral, in many ways better (way more entertaining, for one) in many ways worse (any attempts at emotional resonance on this side... fall completely flat). Then, everything from the True Lab to the final boss ends up fitting much more in line with the Genocide/Neutral side of things, and the final battle onward... saccharine as shit. I'm not particularly bothered by it because it was nice to see things end well after I slaughtered everyone the first time around, but I must admit that I'm thoroughly less impressed with this ending than the Neutral one. Additionally, the stuff I loved about the demo/neutral path was the whole meta-being schtickt and commentary about how your decisions differed from playthrough to playthrough, and... that was completely nonexistant here. I was expecting at LEAST for Sans to make a comment about how I came back to make things right after killing everyone the first time. Frankly, I'm more disappointed by the lack of follow through on that than I am about how saccharine and unsubtle the ending is.
Actually, what the hell. I just realized. I offed Flowey in my first playthrough, and he was back (obviously), but... no commentary about that at all, either! The fuck. That was at least present when I started the runthrough, with Flowey (faking, I suppose) being dead, and Sans being standoffish with me when I went to fight Papyrus. Ugh. That was the meat of what was interesting about the game.
And, yeah, the message about how you shouldn't replay the game because the characters are at their happiest is... trite. I suppose it is still coming from Asriel, but after seeing it in action I definitely get the reaction to it. I'm inclined to disregard it and play a genocide run anyway, because frankly whether or not the author thinks that that's the interesting part of the work he created doesn't actually have any bearing on if it actually the interesting part of the work. And I'm inclined to say it's not.
Honestly, I wonder if the marketing of this game kinda shot the project in the foot by emphasizing the Pacifist path so much? Yeah, it's there, but reaching this ending actively discourages replaying, and replaying/the game making commentary on your savescumming/replaying was what interested me so much about it.
Tl;dr: I see where Fenrir's coming from a lot better afterwards.
Re: Alex and the RPG status: Uhhh yeah, I will agree that in the pacifist run it does kinda throw out the pretense of being an RPG, especially since almost all boss battles end up being on timers, but I still disagree with you re: Neutral/Genocide path. "There aren't any options except attack/use healing items" is a pretty arbitrary line to draw in the sand there.
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My reaction to a beginner's guide is : "K pretty good" I've seen some extremely positive reactions to the game but don't really share them; I think this will affect you more if you're a creative type, which I'm unfortunately not.
Stanley Parable was the opposite, it talked to people who play games as opposed to people who make them. It's the only one that's going to make me a real lasting impression. (Btw it is real good, much recommended)
I played through this too, and I can see people going in blind seeing that it was from the Stanley Parable guy and thinking it was going to be something very different. The tone is very different. I do agree that it will probably resonate more with creators, and I saw a of this game not in myself but in one of my friends who writes and is sometimes deathly afraid of letting anyone read her writing, some of which is so specific and specialized that only a few people would get anything from it and much of it being more therapeutic for her. I do think that what it says about anxiety, depression, getting into a rut, self loathing, and the selfcentered way of thinking that what makes you happy would make someone else happy should be able to get through to everyone to some extent, and that was my biggest takeaway from it. Definitely worth going through for me but I don't know who I would recommend it to. I do like how honest (but not really honest) and personal it is.
Avoiding all "is it a game" discussion because who gives a shit.
Incidentally, this has been a really strong year for newly released games to me, and this is without having played MGSV or the Witcher 3 yet.
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FFRK: Almost caught up on elite dungeons. 132/134 timebux. A lot of these dungeons just test your number of hones, as bosses aren't particularly hard but have stupid amounts of hp. Also fuck bosses that can't be hit by melee attacks. That was a bad idea back in FF7, it's idiotic to bring it back in FF13.
I have no idea where I'm going to fit Steal abilities into Balthier's set. He's already godlike with Celerity 4. Tempo Flurry + Dismissal is lockdown city.
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Probably not a bad idea to slap those onto Vaan or Bartz when they're released (Vaan in particular is coming next Wednesday). Speaking of which...
Final Fantasy Spanish Autobattle - Sundaily, so I'm propping up Auron, Loserface and Arc in levels a bit further. Current carry-on for L50ing is Tellah, may replace Warrior of Light with some other loser now that I got his second RM. I also finished Auron's dungeons, in which the highlight was Seymour Flux snapping out of Silence just in time to cast a Flare on himself and die. The boss rush will be quite a doozy, though: needing to Silence and Poison Seymour Flux along with preparing the typical setup for Seymour and Anima means picking up an optimal setup is quite tricky. May bring Yuna for a second cleric in order to spam Diaga and Silencega, freeing a space for Auron's breaks, since Mental and Magic Breakdown are already taken. Thankfully, both Magic and Mental BD are already R3. I may bring Shellga/Curaga instead, handing Yuna Alexander/Carbuncle, but we'll see.
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A couple of random stories from Sage got me to try Space Station 13.
After several rounds of hilariously failing, I spawned as a Changeling. Basically the creature from "The Thing". I was also nominally the station's medical doctor. OK. I can work with this.
I roamed the station looking for a lone victim. But I was not alone. Someone else started as a traitor boxer and was doing the same thing. Before I knew what was happening, this maniac flew down a corridor and beat me within an inch of my life. I couldn't even use any of my cool changeling abilities.
However, since no one knew I was a changeling, I called for help, the ship AI alerted everyone to my location, and the cavalry came in and drove off the scary boxer man. Another medical doctor pulled me into surgery and healed me up right quick, without me even having to use any of my abilities. I thanked him. The boxer ran into med-bay and I yelled "Save me from this maniac" and hid in the morgue while a big firefight ensued.
While I was in the morgue, I found a corpse and drained it of its precious fluids and DNA. 1/5 of my objectives done.
I heard there was a big commotion in the court house. OK. So far I got my ass handed to me in direct confrontation, but draining bodies of the already dead seemed to work just fine. Usually "commotion" means there'll be more dead dudes. And, as a medical doctor, if I drag one in the general direction of sick-bay, no one will ask any questions. I proceed to the courthouse. "That's odd. It's just char and desolation. I don't see any bodies." then I step into the courthouse and I get the message The dust explodes violently. Very nearly killing me, and blowing me into the room. The room which is, apparently, coated with explosive dust. After rolling into corners and going into a regenerative cocoon several times to regrow my legs as they got blown off violently in this courthouse, I finally escape. I have one leg but it's not bleeding, and I see another character bleeding and randomly passing out. I chase him down an empty hallway yelling "Wait, I'm a doctor!" trying to catch up to him. It's the slowest chase of cripples as my speed is about as reduced as "Having one leg" would make you think. I catch up only because he keeps blacking out. I use most of my medkit on him and successfully stabilize his wounds. He thanks me. Then he passes out again, as my neurotoxin sets in. I drag him into a dark room and consume him while he's still alive. I emerge with his stuff.
Later, I find two crew members fighting to the death in the chapel. One has been turned into a monkey, and the other has an official ID card with the job description "Monkey Abuser". Seems legit. I hide in a corner expecting to kill the winner and then eat both. (Not actually possible. Can't eat monkeys) The monkey accidentally walks into the mass driver used for ejecting coffins into space for space funerals and gets spaced himself. I pull the near-dead Monkey Abuser into confessional and start strangling him. "I'm telling", he says, but he no longer has air. Poor bastard. You should have actually told BEFORE I cut off your vocals. Oh well. I eat his DNA and assume his identity. I find a random corpse and eat that. 4/5s my objective done.
Then some OTHER traitor summons the escape pod, jumps on, and gets it to leave within 10 seconds. The normal crew did nothing productive to stop me. Every single case of touch and go was just some other traitor going about their business and assuming I was a normal person. Playing as a changeling is super fun. I think I found my calling in this game.
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FFRK: Almost caught up on elite dungeons. 132/134 timebux. A lot of these dungeons just test your number of hones, as bosses aren't particularly hard but have stupid amounts of hp. Also fuck bosses that can't be hit by melee attacks. That was a bad idea back in FF7, it's idiotic to bring it back in FF13.
Honestly, I don't even remember that mechanic being in FF13, or if it was, it was such a non-factor because Melee characters all had Ruin anyway, so it was, at worst, a damage loss for characters (and I'm pretty sure you could attack anyway because "Jump and attack!" animations are a thing that exists); why FFRK felt the need to implement that as a serious gimmick for bosses is beyond me because it very much WASN'T a notable gimmick in FF13.
Tales of Xillia: Completed! I went in going "ho hum another Tales game, should be alright" and came out with a more positive opinion than expected. The big thing about Tales of Xillia I found is that it doesn't fumble over all the usual Tales hiccups. I like Tales games, but they do tend to have consistent hiccups, like being longer than they need to be, cheesy themes that they really don't do anything with other than beat you over the head with them ("FRIENDSHIP!" in Graces comes to mind), loving to waste your time with meaningless little dribble like "go to this location in another town to activate a cutscene just so we can go to ANOTHER location!", and of course, shitty villains (exceptions being Dhaos and Richter, aka the original Tales villain and that guy from the Tales sequel everyone hates, go figure)
Tales of Xillia manages to sidestep a lot of these. For starters, one thing I noticed immediately is that until basically the last 25% of the game, dungeons are brisk and fast, and straight forward. No Sorcerer's Ring nonsense that is pretending to be puzzles but is actually just a way to artificially inflate the length of a dungeon, no platform moving nonsense, no teleport nonsense (well, no, there is one but it has like 3 Teleporters and it's obvious where they lead to thanks to the minimap), etc. They're a few rooms, you're in and out. It reminds me a lot of FF7 in that regard, where most dungeons are 2-3 rooms long, fight a boss, then you're done; there are a few exceptions of course, but that's to be expected.
Branching from that, randoms handled better. While Xillia has a lot of corridor with branch-style dungeons, the corridors are just large enough that you can avoid enemies (and the overworld is an open field so plenty of freedom). Heck, the final dungeon I literally avoided every single encounter...oh yeah, the Final Dungeon is really short too, which is basically unheard of for a Tales game. I appreciate that this a lot since it doesn't mean you have to resort to "Holy Bottle, keep it up to avoid enemies"; you can actually avoid them by simply navigating around them save for like 2 dungeons with small pathes.
Yeah, they aren't as pretty or awe-inspiring when you go into them...but remember what I just said before about visuals? Yeah, I'd trade in visuals and "full of life!" in favor of things that are, you know, FUN AND NOT-DETRMINENTAL TO GAMEPLAY. This comes up because chat was discussing how Tales of Graces has more "life" but if it's between livelier areas and better designed ones from a gameplay standpoint, the latter always wins for me. Yeah, the prettier game might be easier to sell at first, but overall I'm going to enjoy the latter a lot more, since the latter will be fun repeatedly, the former has only the initial reaction.
The cast is shockingly not as Tales-like as I expected. You've already heard my rants about Jude; a character who the game says is smart and actually follows through by SHOWING he's smart. This actually has a 2nd benefit in that it avoids forceful exposition by NPCs to explain things to the team, and let's Jude figure it out on his own. The big revelation with Milla? Jude figured that one out simply by putting a few things that didn't quite fit together and the rest of the team is like "...huh, now that you mention it, that DOES seem to fit." Yes, we have had non-stupid Tales protagonists, but I think this is the first one who qualifies as intelligent. He's able to hold a conversation with the team's token strategist, after all, and it's more than "I'm the emotion side, you're the intelligent side", but rather "the honor student talking to the seasoned veteran", two different kinds of intelligence and they bounce off each other.
But I think the thing that stood out to me most is that despite how many villains the game has over the course of it, none of them really qualify as evil outside of maybe Nachtigal, and in his case, it was more him being misguided and broken, I guess. Gaius in particular they did a good job of avoiding all the usual cliches with him, keeping it clear that "no, he's not a bad guy, he really does want what's good for the world, just his methods don't line up with Jude's." It makes characters like Duke look all the worse because Gaius never quite reaches the extremes that go "ok, your motivations are ass, you're just an evil guy trying to destroy everyone!" It really did come off as realist vs. idealist. It's especially strange because Gaius is not someone I ended up hating; there are moments where you totally understand where he's coming from, he clearly has respect for Jude's resolve, vision, etc, but he just disagrees with him, and isn't willing to change from his path. Heck, Muzet literally gives herself to Gaius, and he's reluctant to take advantage of her because it does actually go against his own code, but ultimately caves in realizing that walking away from her is meaner than enslaving her, since she has no understanding of this concept of 'freedom' at all. I also appreciate that while Gaius survives in the end, he's not exactly happy about Jude winning; most villains who survive go into this "now I see your side, I agree with you!" Gaius is "ok, you win, but I still think you're wrong, and I expect you to fail, but I'm not in any position to stop you. You've won this feud of ideals, but as soon as you DO fail, I will come in and save the day with MY future." So yes, doesn't like it, but he's not going to resist it either, more let it run it's natural course, with his own plan being a contingency if things go southwards as he expects.
Also, Ivar is pretty great now that I think about it. He annoyed me at first...then it became slowly clear THAT'S THE ENTIRE POINT OF THE CHARACTER. He's a pathetic arrogant individual that you can't way to just punch in the face I feel like he's a slap in the face of Shonen Rivals everywhere. People start saying "Shonen rivals are pathetic individuals and I hate them!" and Namco just sort of went "...you're right, here's a pathetic individual, we're not going to even PRETEND there's anything redeeming about him!" He reminds me of Zagi of ToV in that regard, though Ivar is obviously not a homicidal psychopath, more just "Butt-monkey to everyone!"
Other characters? Well, Leia ended up working for a character whose motivation is "I like Jude!" I think a big reason why is because unlike characters such as Cheria, Leia is upfront and honest about it. She's not hiding the fact that she's here for Jude, so there's none of those awkward "call her out and she embarrassingly tries to defend herself!" moments. It's more "yeah, but I don't think I'm doing very well." I also approve of the fact that for once the game actually says "you can do your best and still fail" which is another theme with her character; you can do everything right, make all the right decisions, even be good at it, and things can still end up wrong, because not everything is under your control; the key is how you cope with it. It's rare to see a game actually go against the "Do your best and anything is possible!"
Elize and Teepo...at first I was like "oh boy, shy little girl and annoying puppet, this is going to be fun isn't it?" It actually worked because they established that Teepo is actually Elize's subconscious speaking out which actually adds depth to Elize, since it let her remain the shy little girl but actually express herself without being out of character. Teepo's voice was kind of annoying but I think the game was self aware about this between how the game seems to treat Teepo as being this annoying character to all BUT Elize.
Alvin's the character I'm most conflicted on. On one hand, I do appreciate they had a character who was a mercenary through and through, and someone like him is absolutely necessary for the game's theme of "It's not the path you choose that's important, it's just being able to choose your own path" as we have a character who doesn't bother choosing where he goes, he let's his clients do that for him; the whole trust thing got a little out of hand, because yes, he's untrustworthy, and the team lets him in anyway knowing he's untrustworthy because he's useful in combat, etc. What gets me though is he flip flops a little too much I guess? I felt like we could have done with a few less of those. He does work way better than Kain simply because this is a character aspect of Alvin, as opposed "he's mind controlled, we will call this depth!" His personality is alright, because Troy Baker and such, at least.
Rowen is a bad ass UOM Magical Ninja Strategist. Seriously, why did it take this long for us to a character like this!?
Milla's alright I guess; a little too stock "deity who gains humanity thus associates better with them!" though I suppose I do respect the game for having her be Pro-life from the outset. She's not just "I have a mission, and if people must die so be it!" because her mission involves causing as few deaths as possible. I guess she deserves props for avoiding that cliche.
Speaking of which, I think ToX handled the "two worlds" thing best of any Tales game with that, as they did a better job explaining how there are two worlds, what's different about them, and even though we spend all of like 10% of the game on Elympios, we learn everything necessary about it fast. High tech, low nature world, people on it use the EVIL SPYRIX for actually rather begnin methods, most notably in medical usage, and we even see that the Civilian scientists are trying to find alternative methods that are NOT sucking the life from others in Spyrites, establishing that "Elympians are actually pretty ok." They also show that they're self-centered, but at least the game follows up with "well that's just normal.")
Gameplay wise, this game further confirmed my suspicions that TP isn't that limiting on the gameplay. Ok, at first it kind of was then I discovered that "oh, you have to actually EQUIP these skills you learn" and suddenly things like "Level restore" and all those TP skills kick in and yeah, I never ran out of TP unless I spammed nothing but expensive Artes. Thing is, in most Tales games, I'm very good at mixing and matching Artes and normal attack chains, and ToX I felt more free than usual; I played primarily as Jude but mostly because he's just so easy to get the hang of and very fluent in style. I toyed around a little with everyone, Leia and Milla's styles were both pretty good I found though Milla I started a little too late so too many moves to get use to, and Leia was a healer, kind of want her on AI! Alvin was the one I found one of the harder to use DESPITE being a Tales Swordsmen, the charge mechanic seemed like a big deal for him, and he handles very awkwardly; the AI seemed to do an alright job with him.
The Grid system was neat though yeah, a little too samey for every character? Got a little out of hand when it got big that I just auto-leveled. Still, it was a competent way to have character growth with some player input, and not be "everything is levels!" Come to think of it, not sure the last time Tales had "everything is levels!" style growth. Link System I thought was going to be a chore but I actually found it neat because hey, combo attacks in Tales game and just a case of remembering what works well with who, which isn't so bad if you stick to a single character. Additionally, I love how they let you equip twice as many Artes as always; I could actually play around with my skillset some! I think this is the first game I used the short-cut analog for Artes as well but that's mostly because Jude had support moves and it worked to distinguish them immediately (albeit I only used stuff like Healer because it often had a nice strong Link Arte for healing.) It's also another reason why TP isn't a big deal.
I think another huge addition was AUTO ITEM (though part of me is saying "IT EXISTED IN GRACES YOU DUMB ASS!" but I seriously can't remember) Being able to set a number of items for characters to automatically use under certain conditions like FF12 Macros? That alone makes fights much smoother. It allows you to get away without a healer more freely since now your AI is throwing items too instead of the player having to micromanage them, means a healer dying is easier to recover from since, again, an AI character can cover that, etc. This was really handy in the final boss fight.
SPEAKING OF THE FINAL BOSS FIGHT, I really appreciate that fight stylistically. The Mystic Artes thing was cool, but more to the point, "Here's a boss that uses EVERY SINGLE MECHANIC the PC has been using to this point!" I know, not the first one, as there were a few others where bosses linked up, but this one the usage of it was very obvious and you had to care, most notably because you could kill the lower HP one and the higher HP one would actually restore the partner, thereby making it not a simple case of "well, kill the support and the fight gets a lot easier!" No, killing the support slows them down a bit, but they'll be back. Did get a little hectic.
Overall? Pleasantly surprised with this. Was expecting generic Tales, got something somewhat more enjoyable. It's still a Tales game, but it managed to be quite Un-Tales like in a number of areas that made the experience better. Not sure what I rate it, thinking 8/10.
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I also quite like Sphere Grid but find it gets quite same-y late in the game.
KotOR2 - I really want to go light side pretty dedicated. On the other hand doing some drug dealing on the side unlocks a really good shop.
Grey morality at its finest!
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Alvin's voiced by Matt Mercer actually.
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I also quite like Sphere Grid but find it gets quite same-y late in the game.
KotOR2 - I really want to go light side pretty dedicated. On the other hand doing some drug dealing on the side unlocks a really good shop.
Grey morality at its finest!
Look if you are on Nar Shaddaa and you don't take the opportunity to slang some space drugs you missed the whole point of the trip. It's like going to Thailand and never engaging in any type of sex tourism.
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Undertale - Started Genocide run up through Waterfall. Find replace all instances of Neutral/Genocide in previous posts and replace with Neutral, because they are very different.
Reading up more on the game, and getting this little taste of the genocide path, I have the feeling that the most continued enjoyment I could get from the game would be going after the neutral endings (there's like 7 of them). As it is right now I don't have the patience to farm out every area of random encounters, so I'll probably be shelving the Genocide run and maybe youtube through the changes. If and when I revisit the game I'll definitely be doing some sort of Neutral run.
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Undertale - Just started this last night. Up to Waterfall - Quiet Area. Going for a Pacifist's run, and enjoying the atmosphere so far.
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The Last Story - Lost to the final boss. The game is weird and the plot meanders in the last 20% of the game. I feel liske they really should have taken the final boss (an actually decent character) and run with his story instead of all this crap with the Gurak who are universally boring and bland. (Or they could have not made the antagonist country filled with caricatures of evil demihumans...)
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Alvin's voiced by Matt Mercer actually.
Really? Well color me shocked because he sounds exactly like a large number of Troy Baker roles, hence the claim, but that'll show me for jumping to conclusions.
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Helldivers: Looking like a pretty cool couch co-op games. A bit complicated at first but you soon get the hang of it.
Summoning mechs is OP but I'm sure they're just jeigans.
Difficulty 1/10 is easy but we died a few times to friendly fire and launching helpful things on top of allies. Difficulty 2/10 is easy if we don't screw up too much, but still can be really tense. Difficulty 5+ is so going to kick our ass.
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Undertale -
1. I beat hard mode!!! Was so hard.
2. I am a dirty lair. After finding out that there's not a video series of the Genocide run without some jerkoff let's player talking over the entire thing, I decided to play it myself. Up to Undyne. Got walled like William Wallace. The increased difficulty makes itself known here. Had to give up using my controller and use the keyboard to stand a chance. Still haven't beaten it, but it's just a matter of time. Weird to think there's actual difficulty in this game somewhere.
EDIT: To admit when I'm wrong, yeah this game very much gives up on RPG pretensions when it gets hard. Fine, wrong again, what's new.
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D5 2nd chapter.
Fun so far, haven't gotten too deep in story or game mechanics, but it looks like a game I can dive in for one of those 200+ hr affairs.
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So did you know there was a 100% complete Brigandine Grand Edition patch? I didn't.
http://www.swordofmoonlight.com/bbs/index.php?topic=869.0
Don't install the voice over patch unless you want a laffo.
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Back to the Future: The Game- About 90% of the time this game is pretty bog standard for Telltale. The way the puzzles logic, the sorts of dialog branches you get, the adventure game bits are all extremely similar to the Sam and Max seasons (themselves showing obvious descent from the SCUMM engine). Which isn't a bad thing really, but it's not really exceptional in that capacity and it's good to know that before saying much more.
Most of the remainder of the game (let's call it 9%) is the action set pieces. You're stuck in once place (a moving vehicle, surrounded by goons, so on) and have to dialog box choice what way you move to get things done. It's one of those cases where you know why it's there (BttF had action scenes, they can't have their Adventure game be entirely wandering around solving puzzles), but these miss way more than they hit. The moving vehicle ones are just tedious, the surrounded ones usually involve a lot of trial and error before the logic of it clicks. Conceptually most of them are cool but yeah.
The writers certainly did their research, and there's definitely a lot of the character of the movies in the dialog and scenarios. It manages to also be a sort of counterpart to the movies, being Doc's story where the films are very much Marty's, and giving us a scenario that logically could have come up in the films but never did, the characters being the ones to screw up the timeline by making certain figures too central to events rather than being a villainous plot.
So that last 1%...
So in the third episode you're stuck in basically the little brother of San Angeles from Demolition Man. You've gotta run around playing with dogs and macking on Jennifer until they haul you into Citizen Brown's office. They build him up as basically Big Brother, but he turns out to be more like big brother, he knows you just need guidance and a nudge to get back on the right path. You turn the tables on him, telling him this timeline isn't right and you know how to fix everything, but first you have to convince him you're actually a time traveller. So you wander around his office, looking at his various mementos, then launch into detailed descriptions of what they are and what they mean to him. And something about the way the scene plays, followed up by you handing him the drawing of the flux capacitor (whereupon he looks at all the emblems of his regime and realizes he was trying to think of it all along) that's just like HOLY SHIT. I dunno what it is, but it's amazing.
So... yeah. Good stuff, occasionally fucking amazing, 8/10.
-
I enjoyed the BTTF game a lot too. I had just watched the trilogy for the first time before playing it, so the memory was fresh for me, and there are a lot of nice, subtle references in the scenery. I'm even OK accepting the game as a canon sequel. The actual gameplay was not too inspiring, but everything else was cool.
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Undertale - Hahahahahahaha.
Hahahahahahaha.
I had a bad time. Beat Sans, and when he spared me, I chose to spare him.
He killed me, and told me if I was really a good person I would not come back.
It got to me.
I did not go back. Nor will I, at least not on this run. I choose this ending. I am a dirty liar and should stop lying. I am glad I was lying though, because the fight got way harder. Still going through it. EDIT2 I am bad so this is still a thing. As someone who is not used to Danmaku, this is legitimately a difficult fight.
This is exactly what I wanted out of this game. This is a much better ending than the pacifist ending. I am so much more satisfied now than I was when I beat the game the right way.
-
I just want to note.
Undertale - Hahahahahahaha.
Hahahahahahaha.
I had a bad time.
...spoilertext about genocide run...
This is exactly what I wanted out of this game. This is a much better ending than the pacifist ending. I am so much more satisfied now than I was when I beat the game the right way.
You are off on your Zenny psychology there again, he (like myself) would play the game because he wants his own negative opinion of himself validated. I am a bad person, see how even the games tell me that I am bad?
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yeah well you're not wrong
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Pokemon Alpha Sapphire: Nuzlocke Run. Doing the contests gets you a Contest Pikachu, and I need an electric-type, so this is the first time I've ever done a contest in a pokemon game. It was... different. Certainly a better minigame than most things (that are not named Voltorb Flip). But uh... is there any reward at all for doing them? I beat the Coolness Master Rank with the out-of-the-box Costume'chu, but I have no desire to keep doing them if all I get a decorative ribbon...
So far I've lost 3 'mon to random crits. RIP Zigzagoon and friends whose names I've already forgotten.
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Shovel Plague Knight - Plague Knight is so janky, it's great. Where am I going? That platform? Nah bro I'll just explode myself right over it and onto the next one. Or maybe into the pit on the other side. Either one's fine. It's FINE. Explosions everywhere, accuracy is for lame nerds with shovels. Oh hey some collectible green coin things right next to conveniently located spikes. Lemme just caaaaarefully try to *boom* whoops I hit the spikes. Doesn't matter, got coin.
Basically I'm dying WAY more than I did as Shovel Knight but it's more fun anyway because boom. I can't wait to see the Plague Knight speed run.
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Indivisible: Beat the demo. Final boss is stupidly hard until you realize the mage's R1 is aoe healing+revival. Then the fight's just very hard. Lab Zero obviously loves Valkyrie Profile like they love Marvel vs Capcom 2. Would be nice to see them come up with some original ideas rather than just remaking other games for once though.
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What else has Lab Zero remade?
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I was referring to Skullgirls. It's for all intents and purposes Marvel vs Capcom 2 with different characters.
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Shovel Plague Knight - Plague Knight is so janky, it's great. Where am I going? That platform? Nah bro I'll just explode myself right over it and onto the next one. Or maybe into the pit on the other side. Either one's fine. It's FINE. Explosions everywhere, accuracy is for lame nerds with shovels. Oh hey some collectible green coin things right next to conveniently located spikes. Lemme just caaaaarefully try to *boom* whoops I hit the spikes. Doesn't matter, got coin.
Basically I'm dying WAY more than I did as Shovel Knight but it's more fun anyway because boom. I can't wait to see the Plague Knight speed run.
Yeah, I'm in the middle of Plague of Shadows myself, just beat Plague Knight's stage, which has a pretty amazing boss fight. Well played, Yacht Club.
I can't say I'm dying more but the game just feels as a whole a lot more dangerous. The big thing I notice immediately is that while Plague Knight can get through areas without relying on terrain the way Shovel Knight can, his methods are a lot more...well...explosive. The biggest thing though is that I think even with double jump, Plague Knight still has a notably lower jump than Shovel Knight, and he feels a lot slower and clunkier, so his mobility is significantly worse despite the multi-jumping. Obviously the explosion jump makes him go way higher, but that's also the one where you lose some control. Very easy to overshoot your target (though the "slow fall" powder certainly alleviates this some) or some such just like Gate said.
It's also fun experimenting with the various combinations of explosives. I don't think I found anything that's downright worthless, just a case of finding the right combination that compliments it. Like the Quick Fuse seems pretty blech but then you combine it with the "bombs can be thrown together to make explosion" and suddenly it's pretty good. It reminds me of Vile Mode except you can change mid-combat, and are expected to micromanage to some degree since being stubborn and sticking with one combination can make some areas absolutely brutal, like those damn spirit-things in Plague Knight's stage; if you're not using the Throw In an Upward Arc, they're hell to kill.
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Hell To Kill
Good band name. 'Throw in an upward arc' might work as a song name of it was on an album with 'Face towards enemy' and other instructive track titles.
Payday 2 - I am getting into this enough to start following the meta game of damage break points and different weapon builds between difficulty level.
Fun fact, Overkill (second hardest difficulty and by far the most played and most fun) you want weapons that do 40 damage so you OHKO the strongest regular cops with headshots. However weapon damage is done in fractions of /512 and stats round up, so lots of weapons in fact do 39.75 and reports as 40 damage, so the meta favors 42 damage weapons over "fake 40" weapons.
Death Wish (the super hard mode introduced after launch) however "fake 40" is the breakpoint for 2HKO on the same guards and similar improved performance for some special enemies. So the harder difficulty actually favors these lower damage weapons. This doesn't mean more guns are "viable" on DW than OK though. You also fight more specials and just more enemies on DW. So lower damage but really ammo efficient weapons at the go to for DW.
Video games are weird.
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The Last Story – I finally finished this game off after playing it on and off for a few months. Overall it’s a pretty enjoyable game with a compact, nicely wound story with a cool cast and some good plot ideas. The game’s story isn’t epic, nor is it trying to be, but I think it mostly succeeds at what it is trying. Although, I think that the game is a little bit underdeveloped in a way because it feels like a few of the of the most prominent and most interesting characters, namely Calista, Dagran, and the Count, were not given adequate screentime to fully complete their arcs.
With Dagran in particular, I think the game would have been very well-served by spacing out a lot of his endgame plot over the last 25% of the game. Instead of getting the hour of whiplash between Dagran has disappeared mysteriously to Dagran shows up and reveals his evil plans to Dagran having this little redemption scene at the end, you could instead have the reveal about Asthar earlier, allowing the player to mull on that plot point a bit, and have the plot more naturally build up to Dagran as a villain rather than just dropping the big drama bomb on you really quickly after Zangurak dies.
Also, the Gurak suck and should feel bad. Such a boring, predictable race of people which is so insulting to the intelligence of those who play the game.
The game has a great secondary cast, particularly Syrenne, and they bounce of each other quite well. Syrenne even has some pretty sad/serious stuff at the end of the game that I enjoyed quite a lot.
Gameplaywise, the game is a mess, although its gameplay is pretty interesting. I found myself largely floating through randoms without many problems and then generally being annoyed by the boring gimmicks of all of the bosses. The gimmick of “you have to hit the boss with a certain spell or ability” is not really a recipe for a very fun fight. The final boss is the major exception to the rule of the game’s bosses being really stupid and gimmicky though. If only the rest of the game’s boss fights were more like it, then Last Story would be a better game. Also, never have solo combat in a system that rewards having ally contribution, game. Mirania was probably the MVP just because she has the multitarget Revive and regain stock spell. Lowell on the other hand kind of sucks because being a fighter-mage is a bad niche in that game.
The game reminds me a lot of Dungeons and Dragons in the sene that you have these fixed encounters rather than random battles, and there feels like a lot of contrivance to have you fight as many battles as you do in the game. I felt like the game has a lot of filler fights that could have been used fleshing out the game’s story more.
The game is certainly pretty aesthetically appealing, with the music and graphics being very nice, and I love the trend toward letting you design the clothes that your PCs wear that both Xenoblade and TLS have.
I’d probably give the game a high 5 or low 6 depending on my mood. Good game, but has some pretty major flaws that prevent it from being great.
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Undertale - Currently getting my ass kicked on my initial opening Pacifist run.
The True Lab is really unsettling. The way this game is structured, whenever a mood whiplash into something like this happens, it actually feels more effective than normal?
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Nitori bought me a porn game and forced me to play it.
And now...
THINGS I LEARNED ABOUT DATING FROM PLAYING HUNIEPOP
...with Veryslightlymad
1)It is perfectly acceptable to ask a girl you just met what her cup size is. In fact, all of them will tell you and expect you to remember forever.
2)Girls like to randomly ask you questions about themselves, based on arbitrary things they told you. You big jerk.
3)It is perfectly acceptable and not at all creepy to give a girl you just met 6 gifts, and then, on your first date, give her 6 more gifts. She won't feel suffocated at all.
4)On that note, it's TOTALLY OK to give a girl the exact same gift every single date. I like to think girls collect Stuffed Whales. They're like beanie babies.
5)Stuffed animals OP
6)If you ask out a girl you just met, no matter how badly you bombed the initial conversation, she'll say yes.
7)Girls will just... give you infinite chances. Boy, that's a relief.
8)You know what gets girls in the mood? Cabbage
9)No one likes a nooner.
10)And finally, the best way to get chicks? Lie. Lie like crazy. Dating 12 girls simultaneously? "How do you feel about open relationships?" "Oh, that's not my thing." "YAY!" OR! "So like... what was your longest relationship....?" "I've never really dated anyone." "I thought I was the only one! <3"
Yep. Just fuckin' lie. I hate porn. I love porn. I fuck everyone. I'm a virgin. Coffee? BLEH. FUCK YEAH COFFEE TIME. Smoking is gross. SMOKE WEED ERRYDAY.
Whatever, bro, just get in 'dem panties. They won't care.
11/10 would trade cabbage for sex again
THIS HAS BEEN
THINGS I LEARNED ABOUT DATING FROM PLAYING HUNIEPOP
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VSM: when it comes out, you should maybe play Ladykiller in a Bind (http://ladykillerinabind.com/), which is all about how just lying to every woman you meet about stuff based on what you think they want to hear so you can sleep with them is maybe a bad idea? I am looking forward to it.
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Now for the ACTUAL GAMEPLAY REVIEW:
Well, the dating/conversations/whatever suck. Like I said, it's basically a "memorize facts about people" and then give them trinkets. That's it. I will say that the voice acting is really fucking good. Not just by H-game standards, I mean, really good.
The Match 3 game is a standard match 3. You can slide a piece across either axis all the way. I like this system. It's pleasing. Game doesn't run the board out of tiles, and, since you're not playing fucking Bejeweled for points, that is refreshing. A lot of games have the "BOARD OVER" shit when they don't need it. Several pieces, most do the same thing, three do different things. enormous variety of items, but once I found 6 I liked, I pretty much sold everything else. Still, if you have a different match-3 style, you might get mileage out of very different sets. After a while, the game will eventually scale up to where it gets somewhat challenging to Meet the quotas.
You got 8 girls and 4 "secret" girls. They're extremely well voice acted. Several of them are dogshit human beings that, honestly, who would want to fuck? I'll review them in depth if anyone wants me to make this a 3 part review of a fucking H game. You go on 4 "dates" with each girl, more if you fuck up. The 4th date (conservative culture. I always heard three. :facetious emoticon:) leads to sex, presuming you had the foreknowledge to ask them out at NIGHT instead of during the morning, afternoon, or Evening. All dates are spur of the moment. I wish real life was more like that. Fuck dating, like, conceptually.
The sex "game" is terrible. It's basically zen Bejeweled with a score that constantly lowers. Once you reach the target number, uh, I guess the girl climaxes, and then you win. Yay.
I feel like this is backward. Not only is it incredibly dull from a gameplay standpoint, it also raises odd questions about the sex. Like, ideally in Huniepop, you finish in like, 20 seconds. It favors the wham-bam-thankyouma'am, John F Kennedy approach, and that just feels jarring. What would be better, both from a gameplay standpoint and also, I don't fucking know, metaphorically would be less "Zen" bejeweled and more "Lightning" Bejeweled, where you have a high score to begin with, and it gradually goes down, and when it empties, the mini-game ends. Instead of getting done as soon as possible, it'd encourage you to get bigger, better combos, stay alive for as long as you can, stay focused and generally actually be a game.
You never lose points with the girls, which is also odd. You get infinite tries. Apparently there's an "alpha" mode which soorrrrrrrrrrrrrt of does this, but just the name of that mode pisses me off to the point where I refuse to try it. At any rate, if you fail a date with a girl, you should lose a heart and have to work your way back into her good graces. There's no stakes and that's kind of lame.
So the quck review is: All in all, as an actual game, it's not bad. The main dates are a take on match 3 that I like and the scores can get challenging and the item system is robust. The question game sucks. The sex game also sucks.
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I'll review them in depth if anyone wants me to make this a 3 part review of a fucking H game.
Your tears are delicious and must be maximized. Also, that's an oxymoron.
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I'll review them in depth if anyone wants me to make this a 3 part review of a fucking H game.
Go for it. This is already the best content you've ever posted on rpgdl.
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I'll review them in depth if anyone wants me to make this a 3 part review of a fucking H game.
please tell us how much you love audrey
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I'll review them in depth if anyone wants me to make this a 3 part review of a fucking H game.
Show us how much you loved them all.
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I'll review them in depth if anyone wants me to make this a 3 part review of a fucking H game.
Go for it. This is already the best content you've ever posted on rpgdl.
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I'll review them in depth if anyone wants me to make this a 3 part review of a fucking H game.
Go for it. This is already the best content you've ever posted on rpgdl.
Objection. I was the Axe Man.
I just booted up Bejeweled 3 and tried Lightning Mode, and yeah, it's more erotically satisfying* than the sex game in Huniepop, and it doesn't even have anime girls moaning at you. (With, again, terrific voice acting). I also beat my high score, somehow, despite playing maybe 5 matches.
*I'm also the guy who gets really turned on by that knocking sound pinball machines make when you get a high enough score to win a free game, so YMMV
~~~~~~~
MAXIMUM TEARS it is. I couldn't remember the names of the girls, so I found a wiki for it (of course there's a wiki). I found a poll for "favorite girl" with the following results.
Aiko: 276
Audrey: 99
Beli: 146
Celeste: 64
Jessie: 70
Kyanna: 97
Kyu: 69
Lola: 31
Momo: 64
Nikki: 279
Tiffany: 99
Venus: 24
So 279 people are playing this game because they're actually sad losers that are waiting for a girl JUST LIKE THEM, but they'll never find her because she's ALSO busy furiously masturbating to Huniepop.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Aiko:
The Good:
She's the other highest vote getter, and that's because she's actually fun. Her dialogue is a trip. She's incredibly no-bullshit, loves to gamble, cuss, and masturbate. She likes rough sex. :frogsiren: If I have to pick a Waifu, this is my waifu. :frogsiren:. She comes across as a very down-to-earth, normal girl. The game description says she's depressed, but honestly, she seems to have a better worldview than most of these idiots. She's also supposedly the only Asian, because Kyu points it out, which I find WEIRD for an H-game, but Huniepop is shockingly diverse. She's really playful. Her gifts are "Japanese" and when you give her one, she'll exclaim "OH MY GOD! That's SO RACIST, I love it!" in just... a really authentic way. The voice actress nails the sort of give-each-other-shit attitude that you can have with a close friend. Assume I list "Voice acting" for basically every character, henceforth.
The Bad:
She's a university professor that wears a midriff shirt and short shorts to class. She actually has more conservative outfits that she wears on dates. What? Just switch around her defaults and it makes more sense. Also, Girl needs to learn some Poker. Gamble smart, babe. Also, cabbage.
Audrey:
The Good:
The Writing. She's such an over-the-top bitch that even though I hate her, I like hating her. She's the most physically attractive of the girls, IMO. (I'm not a big boob person). She's uninhibited (...one way of putting it). Being a megabitch is actually free of an awful lot of emotional baggage. She knows what she is and what she likes and god damn it, it's kind of refreshing. Likes (presumably rough) doggie.
The Bad:
MEGA. BITCH. Absurdly bitchy. I laughed out loud several times over how over-the-top bitch she is. We can get into a big feminist debate or whatever over whether or not the word "Bitch" is OK, but... it's OK for Audrey. She would wear it on a fucking sticker if she could (The sticker thing probably belongs in "the good"). Also, the Smoke Weed Erryday thing is a turnoff for me.
Beli:
The Good:
Huniepop continues to be surprisingly diverse by having an asian indian character. She's the second-most attractive of the girls. Sure, she's busty, but she's SUPER TALL and has crazy legs and everything just works proportionately. She's a sweetie-pie that deserves better than the faceless serial-womanizing protagonist. I like that when she asked what I would change about her, and I responded with "Only that you would ask such an insecure question" (which made me feel like a dick, but seriously, that's a SHITTY thing to ask someone), she took it to heart and cheered up.
The Bad:
Well, the insecurity. That's the main thrust of it. Is there some kind of rule that the women with the most bangin' bodies think they're all out of proportion and weird? Otherwise, I really like Beli. She's nice. But... Cabbage.
Celeste:
Before I begin, Celeste is a secret character. She's a blue horned alien chick. Kind of reminds me of the Aliens in World of Warcraft, but without the cloven hooves and backward knees.
The Good:
Fuck you, religious fundamentalists. I love that 6,000 years is a wrong answer you can give for "How old is the earth". I love that the answer to the question "What is the smallest planet in your solar system" is "Mercury." You go, freaky alien girl.
The Bad:
Who the fuck quizzes you on astronomy as foreplay? Her outfits are terrible. Her least awful outfit is an homage to the Leia slave outfit and, as you may recall, I don't like Star Wars. She sends you a picture of her being tentacle raped. (Although, on the good side, you get an amusing caption of "...in my line of work you learn to just roll with it.")
Jessie
The Good
There's a subtle sadness about Jessie. She's in her 30s, which is like, H-game taboo. Otherwise, I like her voice. There's... not a lot more to say about her, here.
The Bad
Her main hobby is "Drinking". That's just... ok, that part of the sadness isn't very subtle. Though I like her voice, some of her quotes bother me. "That's my baby." Ugh. She asked me her last name and I waffled for a while because I couldn't remember, and I wasn't going to say "Maye" because that's Tiffany's last name, and I totally remember---oh. OH NO. OH GOD NO. WHAT HAVE I DONE?
Kyanna
The Good
Huniepop continues to be surprisingly diverse by having a character who is Mexican. She has a 1 year old son that she seemingly takes good care of. None of her dialogue seems to imply that she thinks her kid ruined her life. She seems responsible and driven and is probably a good mom. She's the first girl listed who has a "normal" libido, whatever that means. Now, while personally, that's probably much too little libido, it's refreshing that the girl with the kid out of wedlock is portrayed as perfectly normal and not any kind of sex-starved ho.
The Bad
The Mexican character is a hairdresser and has a 1 year old son and 5 siblings. You give her things like Sombreros and Lucha masks and shit. Unlike Aiko who makes a joke about you being an insensitive ass (and thus making the gifts feel like a personal joke between you), Kyanna doesn't comment at all. She just loves the gifts. Not even an unironic "I'm really proud of where I come from" or any sort of... I dunno. It makes it seem like she loves Mexican stuff because all Mexicans do. Apparently doesn't wash her underwear, which, ew. Also? Cabbage.
Kyu
Before I get started, Kyu is one of the "secret" characters. Not really, because she unlocks as soon as you have a successful fourth date. But she's a magical fairy.
The Good
I fucking love Kyu. She's a barrel of fun, and is your introduction to the game's great voice acting. She's your literal wingman early on in the game by giving you pointers and playfully insulting you. I like spritely girls, and it's hard to get more spritely than a literal faerie.
The Bad
Sometimes she can be a little abusive in her word play? Honestly, there's nothing really bad about Kyu.
Lola
The Good
Lola is black (and looks black, instead of a palette swapped white or Asian girl. This is largely because of her hair, which is gorgeous. Curls > Straight hair, you have no idea.) So, again, Huniepop continues being surprisingly diverse for this sort of game.
The Bad
She's an ultra driven perfectionist, which is like my biggest personal turn-off. Even though she seems like a decent person, like, objectively, I honestly think it would be harder to be in a relationship with her than fucking Audrey. 3 of her hairstyles negate what I said above and make her look like a palette swapped white or Asian girl. Her favorite foods are breakfast and fruit, which is totally innocuous and kind of makes sense for a traveler---I mean, that's basically Hotel food. So that's fine. It's just that the food you get each day is random, so it is totally possible to have a date where you win her over by giving her some watermelon and a big stack of pancakes, and honestly that made me a little uncomfortable.
Momo
Momo is one of the secret characters, and is the mandatory Andrew's Waifu cat-girl.
The Good
She's silly and friendly. She has the largest selection of good outfits.
The Bad
Her kitty facts make me sad. I've never had an indoor cat that didn't live past 22. She calls you master and acts like a child, because she probably is one. She's "18", but... uh... bullshit. Worse, she's probably your child, since she's kind of your pet. So, congratulations. You're now an incestuous pedophile. On a lighter note, one of her facts is that cats can't taste sugar, yet she loves sweets. And vegetables for some unfathomable reason. So.... cabbage.
Nikki
The Good
I love most of her outfits. Her default posture is charming. She realizes that school is bullshit, but unlike Audrey, doesn't waste (presumably someone else's) money. Her voice actress is an amazing and talented lady with an inspirational story and a heart-meltingly beautiful face.
The Bad
She's completely unlikable. She's arrogant, aloof, mean-spirited, and wishy-washy. She has severe confidence issues, but unlike Beli, who tries to overcome them and be a better person, in Nikki's case it's almost played up as a good thing. She's Tsundere. She wears pajamas to a carnival. I don't get why so many people want to date her. She's just... ugh. I actually have dated someone like this, and it was a disaster for about the reasons you'd expect. She's just overall kind of a shitty person.
Tiffany
The Good
Tiffany is great. She's absolutely that girl-next-door that most people probably either wish they married or did marry. She's the kind you bring home to your family with absolutely no worries that anyone will dislike her. She's easily the most well-adjusted member of the cast.
The Bad
....I'm real sorry about the whole 'doing your mom' thing. I didn't know. I... I didn't KNOW.
Venus
Venus is a secret character unlocked by sleeping with all of the not-secret characters. She is the literal goddess of love and sex.
The Good
............I got nothing. Literally nothing. She... looks like Palutena, if you're secretly or not secretly into that? Meeple Waifu?
The Bad
You'd think a sex goddess would be more... sexy. Or a love goddess would be more romantic. Or flirty. Or... at all anything but coldly detached. She's more like a goddess of observation. She just comes off as haughty and boring. There's no character here, which is just odd, because the other secret characters have characters, and Venus is sort of a final "boss"? Whatever. You're not exactly given a lot of reason to seduce her. Kyu should overthrow her and take her title.
SO:
Aiko > Beli > Tiffany > Kyu > Audrey > Not banging Momo > Kyanna > Jessie > Celeste > Lola > Venus > Nikki > banging Momo
(Cabbage gets girls wet)
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My life is now complete.
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Objection. I was the Axe Man.
...
(Cabbage gets girls wet)
that's basically all i took from that
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Kyu
Before I get started, Kyu is one of the "secret" characters. Not really, because she unlocks as soon as you have a successful fourth date. But she's a magical fairy.
The Good
I fucking love Kyu. She's a barrel of fun, and is your introduction to the game's great voice acting. She's your literal wingman early on in the game by giving you pointers and playfully insulting you. I like spritely girls, and it's hard to get more spritely than a literal faerie.
The Bad
Sometimes she can be a little abusive in her word play? Honestly, there's nothing really bad about Kyu.
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....I'm real sorry about the whole 'doing your mom' thing. I didn't know. I... I didn't KNOW.
I don't even know what this means and this is outstanding.
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One of the characters is literally another character's mother and it's only obliquely hinted at in the plot instead of ever stated outright, past them having the same last name. By the time I, personally, realized, the damage was already done, so to speak.
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a fucking H game.
Aren't they all?
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I played that game earlier this year; had much the same feelings, though I wasn't familiar with the type of casual games it's imitating, so I actually thought the date games were pretty fun. While the game was at its core unjustifiably sexist (big shocker), I will say at least it didn't take itself very seriously. The presentation and voice acting were excellent and the music wasn't half bad either. It's one of the better pornographic games out there, though I can't recommend it unless you're actually interested in playing one such game. I have seen some footage of the sequel and it seems like the developers completely missed what was good about the game they made.
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They also took many of the crappy girls and threw out several of the GOOD girls, so I think I'm probably not in the target audience.
Funny you mention sexism, because I'd say this is the most positive female portrayal I've seen in anything hentai. Also, only two characters are teenagers. Everyone else ranges from 20-36. (Or, you know, 10,000, but that's a cop-out.) In addition, no one is a brain dead bitch.
On the other hand, having a game where the entire context is "sleep with girls" is sexist in its own right.
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They also took many of the crappy girls and threw out several of the GOOD girls, so I think I'm probably not in the target audience.
Funny you mention sexism, because I'd say this is the most positive female portrayal I've seen in anything hentai. Also, only two characters are teenagers. Everyone else ranges from 20-36. (Or, you know, 10,000, but that's a cop-out.) In addition, no one is a brain dead bitch.
On the other hand, having a game where the entire context is "sleep with girls" is sexist in its own right.
Well, that is what I mean. I would say the same thing about most porn, it's just very obvious in dating sims. I'm not a huge fan of how the game makes all of the girls 'objectives' with stats to manipulate through food and stuff like that. It's very belittling and puts all of the female characters below the humanity scale of the protagonist. This is pretty common across the board in the genre, though a few games subvert it. For instance, I thought Katawa Shoujo was a much more sex-positive game outside of like one of its arcs; the girls in that game had lives we actually encounter outside of the main character's existence and you just happened to become part of those--romance wasn't really a "game," at least from the characters' perspectives. Plus it made a point of calling the protagonist out when he was being a white knight or devaluing the women in the game (I would cite more specific examples, but I have not played that game since it came out). To be fair, though, KS didn't have any real gameplay mechanics to speak of, and those generally lead to questionable objectification in one way or another. It comes with the territory until someone makes something better, I guess.
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Momo
Momo is one of the secret characters, and is the mandatory Andrew's Waifu cat-girl.
The Good
She's silly and friendly. She has the largest selection of good outfits.
The Bad
Her kitty facts make me sad. I've never had an indoor cat that didn't live past 22. She calls you master and acts like a child, because she probably is one. She's "18", but... uh... bullshit. Worse, she's probably your child, since she's kind of your pet. So, congratulations. You're now an incestuous pedophile. On a lighter note, one of her facts is that cats can't taste sugar, yet she loves sweets. And vegetables for some unfathomable reason. So.... cabbage.
WTF, Japan. The romanceable alarmingly young cat-girl who calls you "Master" and shit shows up in Growlanser 4 as well (which I played for the strategy RPG part, thank you). The thing is... since when are cats the obedient servant pets who excitedly wags their tail when you come home and fetches sticks and the like? That's dogs, you morons. Or perhaps alarmingly young dog-girls. If they're playing to stereotype, cats are the ones that ignore you when you come home and continue doing their own thing, and to the extent anyone's a servant in the relationship, it's you who have to clean up their cute messes and change their litter box. Grah. I wonder if the cat stereotype is different in Japan, or if the love of anime girls calling the player "master" and crap is so strong as to poke itself in everywhere even when not particularly appropriate.
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Playing Saga Frontier, Blue's quest. Got my ass handed to me by Timelord even after surviving Overdrive. I can not afford more than one piece of endgame equipment. Silly game, And nothing remotely interesting in Blue's quest plotwise.
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SaGa Frontier doesn't do a lot of actual storytelling. The appeal plotwise is entirely based on 'holy shit this place is weird, worldbuilding/setting porn'. And at that, I feel it excels. I -still- remember all the imaginative/fucked up details of SaGa Frontier, while I only have the vaguest impression of the plotbeats in something like FFT (and the impression of having really enjoyed the story at the time, so it's kind of disappointing).
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I am so glad VSM is posting about games again, this topic is a better place.
Who the fuck quizzes you on astronomy as foreplay?
Someone who is good at it.
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I am so glad VSM is posting about games again, this topic is a better place.
Says the man who contributed his fair share to #FEDL
That's dogs, you morons
For what it's worth, and this may well be 100% anecdotal bullshit, but cats in Japan feel like they have waaay different personalities than American cats. Aside from the part where he does what I say, my cat is way more dog like than cat like. Just, like, a really really poorly trained dog.
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So I played the star wars battlefront demo.
Seems fun. Friends seemed pumped for the game. Might pick it up.
Star wars of duty
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Undertale - Sans beaten. Holy hell that was hard.
Thoughts haven't changed. The genocide mode was... exactly what I was looking for from the game. My thoughts haven't changed, though I will say this ending was... slightly worse than Kill-all-bosses Neutral, much better than Fru Pacifist. Thanks to the difficulty of the Sans fight, by the end I was made to feel the same as the first human. I was done fighting Sans, and I just wanted to finish the game.
Still not the best writing, and it's filled with sophistry, but I liked that it was exploring what it explored, and that it played with conventions so much.
If you want an RPG that would be called a Zenny game, this would be it.
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So I played the star wars battlefront demo.
Seems fun. Friends seemed pumped for the game. Might pick it up.
Star wars of duty
lords forgive him for his transgressions for he knows not what he says
(COD and Battlefield have some serious turf fighting in FPS circles and they are dramatically divergent paths of the brown military shooter genre)
KotOR2 - Finished Nar Shadaa. Some good story beats there, but lots of annoying gameplay bits where you consistently get cut off from your ship and then get railroaded into the main plot when all I wanted to do was hand in some side quests. I like the concept of just turning up and making a difference driving the plot forward but goddamn even when it was me driving things forwards the density of "and now you fight Visas" and "okay now the ship is full of drug runners" and then "now we need to go back to the ship because the main plot is happening" all being out of my control really stripped the feelings of agency.
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The thing is... since when are cats the obedient servant pets who excitedly wags their tail when you come home and fetches sticks and the like? That's dogs, you morons.
Well... to quote from an article about Shiba Inus (the definitively Japanese dog)...
If you don't want to deal with...
-Massive destructiveness when bored or left alone too much
-Excessive suspiciousness when not socialized enough
-Aggression toward other dogs and cats -- strong chasing instincts
-Containment difficulties and preventing escape attempts
-Running away, oblivious to your calls, when an interesting sight or scent catches his attention
-Strong-willed mind of his own, requiring a confident owner who can take charge
-Heavy shedding
A Shiba Inu may not be right for you.
And then, you know, the Akita is Japanese. One of the explicit "You are not allowed to live here with one of these dogs" breeds. Even the Pom (which I believe is somewhat popular in JP?) is notoriously strong-willed and a pain in the ass to train.
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Icewind Dale EE:
Like 10 years ago I told Grefter I could easily SCC this game with 6 slingshot using paladins.
Well here we go.
Hardest difficulty.
3 regular paladins. 1 inquisitor paladin. 1 dark paladin. 1 skelepaladin. All with 18 strength and dex. All wearing slingshots and shooting in glorious unison. Destroying the hell out of these rats.
Well technically, one pally doesn't have a slingshot yet since the shopkeeper only sells 5. Yeah, cool balancing game, you knew that giving 6 slingshots was way too fucking OP so you only allowed us to have 5. Great job.
I don't know how to do stats (This is D&D Taco edition) so I just gave a lot of paladins charisma and wisdom, with a vague disregard for intelligence and constitution. I have too much respect for my paladins so I still couldn't bear to have them have <8 INT which means not even being able to speak.
Except for one female paladin called Gnu with 3 INT.
Neglecting constitution is probably terrible but I at least have 2 or 3 paladins with maxed con IIRC.
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Tales of Xillia 2: Started the game, have a stupid debt because Ludger's female friend is a total ditz who goes from serious to all "PAY UP ^_^" in a manner of 20 seconds (at least the game is fully self aware of this), and grah, I hate her already.
I knew of a number of quirks the game had thanks to DLCon 8, like the aforementioned debt nonsense, as well as a silent protagonist and Elle the little girl...and "Risky Encount" but they removed that :(
Ludger is actually not as bad as I was expecting. Make no mistake, a silent protagonist doesn't really help Tales at all, but at least they seem to be making a legitimate attempt to establish him as a character, just someone whose life you're controlling as opposed to "you're watching these characters do things!" It's appreciated that your decisions actually adjust how he interacts with cutscenes (even if the end result is the same), as opposed to just flavor text nonsense that sounds like it's more unique than it is. Also, he's not a Mary Sue at all, at least early game. NPCs aren't all "OMG YOU'RE THE GREATEST!" and they don't go for the other extreme of disrespecting you. In particular, Julius being firm and practical when you two are on the job because business relationship, and then being the supportive, friendly older brother when you're back at home? That's ok! So far they've avoided the situation of you being prompted to say something, you go with the "You suck" option and their response is "Hey! That's mean...but you're right, I do suck." So props to that much. Also, I do appreciate Ludger having occasional 1-2 word lines here and there, and not having to rely entirely on dialog prompts and body language. You don't really compromise a silent protagonist too much having him say an occasional "Yes" or "Ok"; it helps make the scene look more natural when he can actually respond, even in the most basic of ways!
...still would prefer he was an actual character. Also would prefer if he had a more interesting design, since he's basically a stock-anime teen. Most Tales protagonists at least have something that makes them stand out, be it their outfit (like Jude), a unique hair-style, what have you. The most unique thing about Ludger is he has some pale black hair in the front mixed in with his white hair...making him basically an inverse Reiji, except Reiji's Black/White hair was very obvious, this is just kind of like "oops, my ink smeered a bit...meh, I'll just make his hair always like that."
IN ANY EVENT, so far Ludger hasn't really done much GOOD for the game, but he's not as bad as I expected considering silent protagonist, so I suppose I can tolerate him.
Elle on the other-hand already is pissing me off. I was originally going "little girl can't be that bad; it's overblown how bad that is"...took all of like 2 scenes for Elle to prove me wrong. Her initial scene is an introduction that says nothing about the character. Then she randomly tags on with Ludger without him noticing and then frames him for something and OF COURSE everyone believes her immediately since little kids NEVER lie.
The sad part is, my sarcasm is suppose to sound more cynical than it does in text, because this is how reality works too. Being a teacher, if a kid says anything seriously bad about you, you're in deep shit even if the kid is blatantly lying. I've heard legitimate Real Life stories of teachers getting their lives ruined because some kids had it in for them and said teachers didn't even do anything wrong, because kids are apparently super trustworthy. Just proof how MORONIC higher ups can be, they don't care, they just want to abuse power. (yeah, I'm bitter about this since I was once almost fucked over by something I didn't do but some kids embellished some details a lot and grah. Luckily, things worked out, and it was just an inconvenience but still an example of just how bad this is.)
...ok, tangents aside, Elle is just bad. They can't decide if she should act like a completely naive 5 year old who knows nothing, or a 12 year old, which is that age when you're capable of holding conversations with adults and knowledge-able enough that you can give some information, but still clearly young. She's done nothing but be all "Canaan!" and "Give me back my watch you meanie!" and...if this keeps up, she may be my most hated Tales female, and that's saying a lot seeing as this is a franchise that contains such wonderful females like Anise.
Was surprised to see Jude appear as quickly as he did and join up. Also shocked the game did legitimately address Mega Man Syndrome with simply noting Lillium Orbs are gone, there's a new thing which is still developing, so ok, Jude and co. have an excuse for being weaker than their endgame selves. Yeah, video game sequel logic, and I don't mind this for gameplay, but it's kind of jarring in plot when you have the heroes be bad ass and save the world, but then the sequel comes along and suddenly they struggle with these new guys who are clearly significantly weaker than what they fought previously. Addressing why characters can't deal with new, lesser threats is a plus in my book, so doing the whole Lillium -> Allium Orb thing, while cheap, gets the job done.
Bravely Default: Beat Land Turtle!
So I took on Artemia and Mephilia. The latter first because that's just how I did things. Not much to say about either, it's the same fight more or less. Put the lancer to sleep, in Artemia's case, kill the Archer because chaos, this prevents her from summoning more support, and then use Default every 3rd turn to avoid Girantbulu. This took me a few tries because the trickiest thing? She calls support on turn 5, aka one turn before her next summon, so you're going to have to Default there or risk getting exploded, which means her support gets a turn.
Artemia didn't stand out really at all, just healer and beat down; toughest part really is her multi-hit move because characters will randomly die based on how it focuses and there's little you can do to stop it other than maybe casting protect and equipping everyone with shields. Nonetheless, beat her first attempt.
Ringabel gets summoner, Tiz gets Ranger. Summoner isn't really a big deal, but Ranger kind of is. Tiz was relying on Thief as a crutch, because Bows are great, and Quong Wave and Hidden Dragon from Monk did help some, but honestly, getting an S in Bows, and access to Hunting skillset is big. Targetting is like Quong Wave (I'm probably spelling that wrong but shut up), and more to the point, the slayer skills. 8 MP to deal 50% damage to various enemies is big, and it compliments the Bow special. Tiz is now outdamaging Edea when Edea isn't hitting a weakness via Spellblade pretty regularly. While I submit Ranger isn't the greatest Job, considering Tiz was relying on Thief as his best job until this point and Ranger is basically a better combat class in all ways save for speed, I'll take the upgrade. Also, further establishes that Bows are well balanced.
Land Turtle was...uneventful. Amusingly, I did throw 4 summons at him because Reflect, did 1700 damage; Blizzara did 1100 damage for much lower MP granted. This was not a fight I was caring about other than Tiz got killed, revived, tried to steal and failed and yeah, when a fight isn't hard, you don't take it seriously.
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Elle is 8 I believe?
Also did you mean Encounter Link?, I could have sworn the game still had that~
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KotOR2 - Finished Nar Shadaa. Some good story beats there, but lots of annoying gameplay bits where you consistently get cut off from your ship and then get railroaded into the main plot when all I wanted to do was hand in some side quests. I like the concept of just turning up and making a difference driving the plot forward but goddamn even when it was me driving things forwards the density of "and now you fight Visas" and "okay now the ship is full of drug runners" and then "now we need to go back to the ship because the main plot is happening" all being out of my control really stripped the feelings of agency.
Yeah, they do a lot of interesting thematic work with the idea of interconnectedness in Nar Shaddaa but god damn if the game doesn't show its seams pretty badly there. Also, the Atton solo fight is fucking impossible if he's not a Jedi so they probably needed to tune that a little better.
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Cats are sweethearts, if you raise them from kittens/young cats and give them attention. It is absolutely easier to summon a cat by calling it than it is, say, the average Pekingese.
My sister's cat will absolutely play fetch with you. And will nip you if you stop before she's done.
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Yeah, they do a lot of interesting thematic work with the idea of interconnectedness in Nar Shaddaa but god damn if the game doesn't show its seams pretty badly there. Also, the Atton solo fight is fucking impossible if he's not a Jedi so they probably needed to tune that a little better.
I think the lack of agency is probably even intended, just feels frustrating. Also for Atton solo, if you walk him behind the bar the AI just sits there and eats blaster shots to the face. That and the Mira stuff is some real shit though. Mira is manageable with levels, but fuck doing that if you were level squatting her for Jedi levels. Edit -also Immunity belt helps, reducing slashing by 10 with that and her starter armour. Definitely both needed some balance work.
Also glad I took Shock earlier than last time I played as light side. Even first rank Shock does like several times the damage what you can do as a consular Light Side. There is of course no reason not to max it out. Sure it costs 50% more than base spell costs, but Jekk'Jekk'Tar was literally run around a room scooping up as many enemies as possible then running to a doorway and killing 20 dudes at once with 2 Rank 2 Lightning spells.
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Oh good, someone actually posting about Xillia 2. I never got to hate-rant at anybody here! Endless plot holes. ENDLESS!
Elle is eight for sure.
Encounter Links are still in, they're just disable for a long period of time early-game for no reason.
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Icewind Dale EE: wait doesn't this game have super difficult enemies immune to anything but magic weapons? If so I'm fucked because the game must have like 1 super sling tops
And how are these things one handed?
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Elle is 8 I believe?
Also did you mean Encounter Link?, I could have sworn the game still had that~
No, I meant a Risky Encount. In ToX2j, whenever you get into a battle, they called them "Encounts." There was a "Risky Encount" and one other that I can't remember ("Encount Link" maybe?) This clearly is NOT in ToX2e, since I got into this fights and did not see the life changing word "Encount" appear, thus the game is officially ruined.
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Oh. Risky Encount = back attack encounters.
Encount Link = Linked Encounter.
Both of these are disabled in ToX2 for a while. They'll pop back up once you get access to Aldahi Seahaven.
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Yes it does Fen. There is a boss that needs +2 weapons now that you remind me. You are in luck, it is the ammo that needs to be magical, not the launcher.
You are still boned though...
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Icewind Dale EE: wait doesn't this game have super difficult enemies immune to anything but magic weapons? If so I'm fucked because the game must have like 1 super sling tops
And how are these things one handed?
dude you're fucked
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Yeah basically, I don't think you can get +2 sling ammo before Chapter 3 (could be wrong on that) and even after that you need +3 weapons to hit the final and I'm not sure you can even get that in sling ammo flavor.
second edition.
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I will finally pay for my hubris.
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A sad day.
At least I have now learned that D&D has david vs goliath slings, not Bart Simpsons slingshots, which is considerably less stupid and thus less funny. Yes i assumed that slings were an abbreviation of slingshots. Dunno man. It was 10 years ago
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Tox2 let's you play with a very strong cast. The extra members that join are great.
Also, rolo. Dudes a freaking stud.
Disgaea 5. I can fully costomize all my units, color wise. So, not only am.I forever lost in the item world trying to collect every piece of every rarity of gear in the game, but now I can aimlessly seek the perfect color for all my units.
Also, the dlc did not have gig. Super lame.
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Dragon Quest Heroes - It is DQ Musou, and pretty fun. The two mains are sadly samey, they have some different properties on attacks(the girl's are better, straight up) but the same attack patterns. Kyril is bizarrely competent on offense, Alena is exactly as good at boss wrecking as you'd expect, and Terry is a douche(also has the same general attacks as the two mains). For the other two OCs, the King is the largest ham ever, and the scientist/mage lady is going for the femme fatale flirt angle but kinda falls a bit flat with it. Oh and the mains are not silent. The guy talks too much but is the rational strategist sort, while the girl is the one who always goes "you talk too much" and charges into battle without a plan. This has yet to backfire on her. Naturally the cautious guy dressed in blue uses fire and the hotheaded woman dressed in red uses ice. :V
The VA for all the chars so far is great. Isla, the scientist/mage lady, is the only one who seems like her accent slips a bit here and there. The King's ever utterance has so much ham it could feed a family of four, and Alena and Kyril are delightfully russian. The story so far is DQ.jpg but the character interactions are pretty great.
My only real complaint with the game so far is the lack of local multiplayer. Dunno if there's any online multiplayer yet, not far enough in the game to have network features be a thing.
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Fire Emblem Awakening
Getting the kid characters I have never gotten before: Owain, Brady, Inigo, Nah, and Gerome. Building supports for healers and dancers is annoying (although at least Lissa joins early). Owain's actually an adequate PC despite this, he joins early enough. Most of the rest are locked behind maps which are too difficult to do before mid Valm, and thus don't seem terribly practical, but we'll see. So far I have Owain and Brady (along with Tiki), will get the others soon. Special shoutout for Brady being extra terrible, D in staves + healer-kid problems = not sure what exactly he offers besides being another Demoiselle carrier. Worst PC in the game? Probably.
Star Ocean 3
Did the optional part of the Mosel Ruins, now onto Firewall. Have I mentioned that the number of PCs who start underlevelled in this game is annoying? Because it really is. Sophia, Peppita, Adray, Mirage, and/or the second optional Elicoorian you get all have severe levelling issues. Using Adray this time to build up some Captain K cred but he is not very good.
Rayman Legends
Randomly started this. Not much to say, it is zany and fun in that Rayman way. Murfy feels a bit overused so far? It's not so much that his sections are bad, but they're not what I'm playing the game for.
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Star Ocean 3
Using Adray this time to build up some Captain K cred but he is not very good.
Even I admit he's worst in cast, but that's not a big deal in SO3. Everyone is usable.
If you're playing on North America version you can chain Aerials for massive damage and hilarity. Put Aerial on X and O. Start by holding O, quickly release and press X briefly, then press and hold O again, repeat. The X part should be done very quickly, you spend like a half second on that button. I think we figured out this doesn't work on EU version.
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On the other hand, having a game where the entire context is "sleep with girls" is sexist in its own right.
I kinda wonder about this. So what if the goal of a game is to have sexytimes with women? Where, exactly, is the problem with that? Is it that sex is an unworthy goal, even for a videogame? If so, isn't that just a product of the general shame and stigma surrounding admitting to sexual desire? And isn't THAT a conservative more that has the effect of nudging women into subservience?
If the genders were swapped, would it be equally problematic? Or is this a one-way problem because male privilege makes it so?
More broadly, is it always sexist to objectify women? Is it always sexist to objectify anyone?
p.s. I do not think Huniepop is a great example of how to do a sexytimes game right, because the tenor of the game seems to betray a worldview on the part of the creators that is steeped in chauvanism and casual racism. But that's a separate issue. Or is it?
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Don't mind Jim. He's being a SJMRA. Or a MJW. Or something. I can't tell anymore.
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On the other hand, having a game where the entire context is "sleep with girls" is sexist in its own right.
I kinda wonder about this. So what if the goal of a game is to have sexytimes with women? Where, exactly, is the problem with that? Is it that sex is an unworthy goal, even for a videogame? If so, isn't that just a product of the general shame and stigma surrounding admitting to sexual desire? And isn't THAT a conservative more that has the effect of nudging women into subservience?
If the genders were swapped, would it be equally problematic? Or is this a one-way problem because male privilege makes it so?
More broadly, is it always sexist to objectify women? Is it always sexist to objectify anyone?
p.s. I do not think Huniepop is a great example of how to do a sexytimes game right, because the tenor of the game seems to betray a worldview on the part of the creators that is steeped in chauvanism and casual racism. But that's a separate issue. Or is it?
Your argument would be fair in a vacuum but not in the context of our society and all these games?
See : gamergate arguments
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So I guess you're saying that h-games are problematic specifically because of male privilege but wouldn't be inherently problematic otherwise?
Or are you just saying that more or less all the h-games out there are awful and sexist?
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More broadly, is it always sexist to objectify women? Is it always sexist to objectify anyone?
Well, yeah. It's right there in the word, treating living things as objects. That's inherently bad.
I know, just being pedantic before getting to the meat.
More generally this gets into the clash between sex-positive and (if there's a better term for it PLEASE let me know it comes up) sex-negative feminism; is pornography and other sexualization inherently patriarchal. There's no clear answer and you can debate the matter in circles; all sexualized imagery, regardless of intent, reinforces patriarchal gender roles, but developing healthier attitudes towards sex will diminish those roles, so we need to not shame people for embracing their sexuality, except this just gives patriarchal eyeballs more flesh to feast upon, ad infinitum.
I personally tend to be sex-positive (because look, people should be free to do what they want within reason) but in actual discussion it's a matter of no clear answer.
So let's apply that to the standard H-game.
I kinda wonder about this. So what if the goal of a game is to have sexytimes with women? Where, exactly, is the problem with that? Is it that sex is an unworthy goal, even for a videogame?
I think H-games will tend to be inherently worse than pornography of equal sexual content because of the meta implications. The actual mechanics of the genre straight up reward the protagonist for doing anything to get someone into bed, awarding literal points towards winning over the conquests. Lying, cheating, and manipulating are inherently encouraged and rewarded, something that's almost always a red flag in the real world but that's inescapably tied to how the genre functions.
Which leads to...
If the genders were swapped, would it be equally problematic? Or is this a one-way problem because male privilege makes it so?
Yes to both. But because essentially the behavior of H-game protagonists is inescapably tied to toxic masculine behavior. Even if you changed the actual genders, the gender ROLES are unmistakable and not really possible to alter without dramatically changing the mechanics (and thus the genre, invalidating the point) of the game. It'd always be a super-masculine character conquering super-feminine characters regardless of the actual genders of the characters involved.
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I think H-games will tend to be inherently worse than pornography of equal sexual content because of the meta implications. The actual mechanics of the genre straight up reward the protagonist for doing anything to get someone into bed, awarding literal points towards winning over the conquests. Lying, cheating, and manipulating are inherently encouraged and rewarded, something that's almost always a red flag in the real world but that's inescapably tied to how the genre functions.
In Persona 4 (may have been 3, not sure) when you max every social link, Victor marvels that in order to do that "you must have been many things to many people." I always read that as a veiled insult, and a fascinating commentary coming from a game that DOES reward you for being all things to all people. But you only get the message if you do all social links on a single save file. Do them on branching saves, there's no effect. I think the social manipulation you're getting at only explicitly exists when a game allows and encourages you to contradict yourself within a single save. Otherwise, you're not lying about who your character is, you're role-playing a different character. (Unless you're playing PS:T, then you get to actually lie.)
So I think your criticism is on point for the games it applies to, but I don't think it applies to sexytimes games as a whole.
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It's certainly possible to make an erotic game without those issues (well, I think), but not within the dating game format (which I'm taking H-Game in this context as a specific form thereof), if that makes sense.
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I'm... not sure I buy that?
Mechanically there are tons of ways for dating sims to smack you for scummy behavior. That's all about scenario design.
If you're talking about gameism in and of itself... well, that's more complicated, since, devoid of emotion, all social interactions boil down to manipulating people to achieve a desired end. Hell, even with emotion involved, that happens. I do a nice thing for someone because I want that person to be happy, and I want them to be happy because it makes me happy. So I'm not really sure you can put that burden on the game.
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What you're saying is, we need to all be calm and replay School Days (or just watch School Days), which, sure you're a manipulative dick that gets freaky with all the chicks. BUT! You also get brutally murdered if you go too crazy with it.
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Nice Boat
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Got into the Blade and Soul alpha test. First thing I did was try to make a character that looked like Adray. Had to compromise on a few things like hair color but it came out pretty good.
(http://i.imgur.com/Me3QfrR.jpg)
As for the game, I'm still in the easy tutorial stages so it's pretty much just facerolling things right now and figuring out what buttons do.
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Had a marathon of Shadows of Mordor, beating, I believe, the first half of the game. No particularly interesting dudes spawned. It makes me kind of sad. I guess I don't have a nemesis. Maybe half 2 will give me a nemesis.
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If it's not too late, don't upgrade your health at all. Getting a nemesis is based on you dying lots, if you're too good or high-leveled then you'll never have anybody noteworthy.
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Talos Principle PS4: I'm at the beginning of World C, getting red tetris pieces.
Wonderful game.
The puzzles are very interesting, there aren't many elements but the 3D perspective makes it a litte more complicated, if less "raw" than say overhead 2D puzzles. You have to get out of the first person perspective and think about the whole map as a whole. The items used in the puzzles are pretty unconventional (aside from the "box that you can put on switches") as are the obstacles. The game is starting to throw a lot of red herrings in the puzzles.
Atmosphere/storytimes are amazing and I really want to see more.
Knock Knock PS4: I don't understand anything
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If it's not too late, don't upgrade your health at all. Getting a nemesis is based on you dying lots, if you're too good or high-leveled then you'll never have anybody noteworthy.
Can't it be a guy that runs away from YOU a lot, too? I seem to recall my first game's orc was a guy named Ashgarn the Uncatchable who would run away about as much as you think a guy with that name would.
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Alright, I know I haven't posted in a while (family issues plus a new job). Been on and off on FF14 and slowly treading through plot (mostly due to exhaustion and mostly because of my inherent laziness). Been playing Fate Grand Order and got three accounts through git and stress. mostly stress.
FGO: Right now, I'm waiting for the Halloween event. As for the three accounts, these are the main servants on each (links are so I don't spam the topic with pictures):
- Meep: http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f126/Meiousei7Kyoufu/Game%20Photos/FGO_1_Meep.png (http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f126/Meiousei7Kyoufu/Game%20Photos/FGO_1_Meep.png)
- Bluelike: http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f126/Meiousei7Kyoufu/Game%20Photos/FGO_2_Bluelike.png (http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f126/Meiousei7Kyoufu/Game%20Photos/FGO_2_Bluelike.png)
- Psy: http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f126/Meiousei7Kyoufu/Game%20Photos/FGO_3_Psy.png (http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f126/Meiousei7Kyoufu/Game%20Photos/FGO_3_Psy.png)
I'm trying to ascend (get more levels) on Meep's team first then Bluelike's team second. Psy isn't all that important, even with Nero on the team. Each team works differently and supports one another...dear gods help me...
Also, at the time of writing, I haven't put up Meep's team yet as I'm working on Bluelike atm. It will be up by the end of the night, however. Just a warning if you want to see the "main" account. Meep link is working now.
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First image isn't working for me.
Also three accounts holy shit. O_o
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yea, I mentioned that the first link isn't going to work just yet. I'll probably have the Meep account up in an hour connected to that link.
the funny thing about it is somehow the Bluelike account. keeps. getting. good. characters. Arturia and Vlad (5 Stars being the best). EMIYA, Arturia Alter, Atlanta, Lancelot, Stheno, D'eon being 4 Stars.
As for 3 accounts, I was bored. REALLY bored. I made an account before and didn't get lucky. And this was before they fixed re-rolling. So I made Bluelike in humor. And somehow that name got that lucky with ALL those characters. I made Meep while trying to nab the time limited Gilgamesh by rerolling. Meep and Bluelike are the true main accounts, with Meep being worked on the most. Psy was another account made during the Gilgamesh rush I did, but it got such good characters, I hung on to it. I don't really use Psy as much so it gets little love.
Like I said, it was made while I was stressed with a job...and I refuse to let go of Bluelike or Meep...but I can't let Psy rot away either, so I log in and try to keep all three as current as I can and run out of AP and jump to another...or refill.
UPDATE: The Meep link is updated now in my other post above.
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Talos Principle PS4: I'm at the beginning of World C, getting red tetris pieces.
Wonderful game.
The puzzles are very interesting, there aren't many elements but the 3D perspective makes it a litte more complicated, if less "raw" than say overhead 2D puzzles. You have to get out of the first person perspective and think about the whole map as a whole. The items used in the puzzles are pretty unconventional (aside from the "box that you can put on switches") as are the obstacles. The game is starting to throw a lot of red herrings in the puzzles.
Atmosphere/storytimes are amazing and I really want to see more.
Knock Knock PS4: I don't understand anything
Yes, everyone play Talos Principle.
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Don't really do much game playing these days other than fiddle around with grand strategy games. That said, those games still manage to be a fantastic time sink!
Europa Universalis IV - Meissner Porcelain Achievement Run - It's the very early 1700s, playing as Saxony, and I'm currently smashing the Ming and "Japan" (for some reason the AI-controlled Daimyo of Ouchi conquered all of Japan, yet declined to take the Japanese throne). The goal of the campaign is to control every province that produces Chinaware, which is found only in China, Southeast Asia, Indonesia, and Japan...as Saxony (which starts smack dab in the middle of Germany).
A quick summary of events to this point:
Loaded the game up as Saxony (kind of required for the achievement) in the 1444 start date and immediately started internal Holy Roman Empire politics! Allied France (because it's the unstoppable baguette of doom), Poland, and 2 of the Electors. Spent the first few years eating territory from the bigger HRE princes, without full annexing anyone, while waiting for the first election. Austrian Emperor dies and Saxony becomes Emperor. Yay. Spend the next several DECADES squashing internal HRE wars and force-releasing any HRE prince that was vassalized, expanding into Bohemia and Austria (to get access to the non-HRE countries of Hungary and Poland), and just generally passing Imperial Reforms and increasing my own territory (again without annexing anyone). Somewhere in this time period I picked up Offensive ideas (can't go wrong with early god-tier Generals and stupidly good Policies that Offensive unlocks).
Start eating into Hungary by the late 1400s, just before the horrible Reformation hits. The Reformation fired around 1510, and I made the stupid mistake of switching to Protestantism right away. This caused me to lose the Imperial throne (to lowly one-province minor Anhalt, of all things). To get my revenge, I take Religious ideas, and immediately start Holy Wars with just about everyone. This lets me eat more land for cheap plus force convert all those heretical Catholics. In the meantime, I continue annexing land to the East, eating most of Hungary and the Balkans until I'm bordering the Ottoman Empire.
Around 1560 or so, the Religious Leagues unlock. I immediately join the Protestant League, wait for my allies (i.e. France) to join on my side, and declare war on poor little Anhalt. The 30 Years War lasts more like 5, and I force convert every HRE prince that dared join the Catholic League. With Protestantism entrenched, I am again crowned Emperor. I continue the HRE politics and eventually pass Revoke the Privilege. This is why keeping as many princes around as possible pays off: by passing this reform, I now have 54 vassal princes, each with an army of about 10,000. With my Zerg swarm, it is time to eat the Kebab.
I Holy War the Ottomans and watch as my horde completely obliterates and full occupies the Ottoman Empire within a span of 2-3 years. Too bad peace deals cap at 100% warscore. I eat territory all the way to the Timurids (somehow they haven't imploded) and spend the rest of my warscore releasing minor nations to keep Kebab busy. From here, its a succession of fast, easy Holy Wars to crunch through the Timurids (releasing Afghanistan along the way), Yarkand, and Mongolia to make a beeline to the Orient. I reach the western edges of the Ming in the mid-late 1600s (about 1670).
Ming is huge, but stupidly fragile. I've taken multiple Military Ideas by this point (Offensive, Defensive, and Quality); I have Western Technology versus their Chinese Technology, so they are consistently about 4-5 Military Tech levels behind (which usually leads to about a 0.5 Tactics advantage, or roughly 50% military effectiveness advantage; and I have a vassal swarm of 500,000 troops or so (Ming can field an army of about 70,000). Despite that, Ming has enough provinces to equal around 500% warscore, so it'll take several wars (with a 15 year truce between each war) to fully devour them.
The first war goes easy enough, as expected, and I take provinces that lead to Chinaware, and end up bisecting Ming. I then notice during the truce period that Ming starts to collapse to rebels, releasing the nations of Shu and Wu. They also lose some of their southern territory to Spain (two of which contain Chinaware, so Spain is going to be a future enemy). I Holy War Shu and Wu and take what Chinaware provinces I can from them.
My truce with Ming expires and I eat all their provinces bordering Spain (preventing Spain from expanding further) and reach a border with Dai Viet. My truces with Shu and Wu also then expire, so I Holy War them again and take more of their land. At this point, I have all the Chinaware provinces in China proper, minus the ones Spain holds. This leaves about three
Next steps: Holy War on Dai Viet to start the conquest of southeast Asia (which will also get me closer to Malacca/Indonesia). I will also Holy War Japan, but that will require a navy (of which I do not have, having started as a landlocked German prince and not having much access to the water until just recently). Given that it's still the early 1700s, I should easily knock out the achievement requirements before the game ends in about 120 years.
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So, what I'm reading here, is that ID is literally Hitler.
Nice Lebensraum bro.
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Star Ocean 3 - Firewall. Spiderbots are douchebags. I'd kinda forgotten just how much of a resource grind the super-epic final dungeon is, definitely makes you want to watch your MP/revival use. Honestly the best thing about Adray is that Restoration does help here. (Not enough to offset having another good PC, probably, but it's nice.)
Fire Emblem Awakening - Got Nah, that map definitely took a few tries due to general nastiness. Also Gerome. Nah sadly isn't anywhere near cracking the team, being unable to immediately promote is pretty damning I think. Gerome I may try to use, we'll see. Inigo is next, he promises to be completely worthless.
Rayman Legends - Not much to add from my previous post.
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Pft, Hitler has nothing on Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus and his desire to conquer the porcelain market. He only wishes his domain extended this far (and in 1674 no less!).
(https://i.imgur.com/13WZfRI.jpg?1)
Then again, he didn't have the advantage of a fully unified Holy Roman Empire at his beck and call, either, given how Napoleon smashed--then disbanded--a less unified coalition instead.
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Ming is huge, but stupidly fragile. I've taken multiple Military Ideas by this point (Offensive, Defensive, and Quality)
*Stare* You went more than a little warmongery in that case, holy hell. That is an obscene amount of gold as well, you can buy a navy (Or anything) with that much money. I'm guessing you're playing more wide than tall (IE not spending points on upgrading your provinces) as well.
So, what I'm reading here, is that ID is literally Hitler.
Nice Lebensraum bro.
Going Maximium Hitler is a time honored tradition in Paradox Games.
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Talos Principle PS4: I'm at the beginning of World C, getting red tetris pieces.
Wonderful game.
The puzzles are very interesting, there aren't many elements but the 3D perspective makes it a litte more complicated, if less "raw" than say overhead 2D puzzles. You have to get out of the first person perspective and think about the whole map as a whole. The items used in the puzzles are pretty unconventional (aside from the "box that you can put on switches") as are the obstacles. The game is starting to throw a lot of red herrings in the puzzles.
Atmosphere/storytimes are amazing and I really want to see more.
Knock Knock PS4: I don't understand anything
Yes, everyone play Talos Principle.
Yeah. It's a very thought provoking, insightful and sincere story about philosophy, faith, science, purpose, good and evil, civilization, IA, etc. It has the same writer as the Swapper and it shows. It's all in text dumps but it allows you to take them at your own pace, and brings a nice contrast to the puzzles.
The most interesting stories in games have come from puzzle games and walking simulators, and that probably has to do with their non violent approach. I wish this could translate to other kinds of games, though.
Anyway, I have 8 red sigils left to get. I only have 5 stars and I'm not sure I have the willpower to go back to get them all. I'd like to at least find 10 and unlock one door, though.
I like how when I'm stuck in a puzzle, I can just sit back and look at the delicate pieces of the puzzles, observe the ruins, the sky and the trees, listen to the birds and music. Very (solitary and) beautiful.
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The game's biggest issue is that if you get a messenger hint (and oh boy are they rare and precious) there's annoying useless extra UI there cluttering the bottom of the screen. So I wasted my only hint on an easy puzzle and have avoided getting any other. Which is bad because they give extra plot.
I am fairly sure that no matter what you say to him re: morality , Milton is playing devil's advocate (huh huh) and can always refute your points. That's IMO because there can be any absolute answer to theorical morality questions, and I might be wrong but I don't think the game actually offers that option. It has been fairly good otherwise re: that kind of stuff.
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*Stare* You went more than a little warmongery in that case, holy hell. That is an obscene amount of gold as well, you can buy a navy (Or anything) with that much money. I'm guessing you're playing more wide than tall (IE not spending points on upgrading your provinces) as well.
My income is off the charts, thanks to revoking the privilege. 50+ some odd vassals pay me a total of about 70 ducats a month. I don't need mercenaries, since my vassals provide all the extra warm bodies I need, so most of that money sits around doing nothing. I could buy buildings, but eh,
And while it's mostly been building wide, I've dumped my share of monarch points into development. Basically, if I'm still ahead of time on tech, and my monarch point pool is approaching the cap (around 950 is when I start paying attention), I'll spend on development to buy my pool back down to 850 or so. This happens mostly with Military and Diplomatic points. Military points are useless beyond buying Tech upgrades (and the occasional general)...with all my ideas and traditions, I roll a God-Tier general on first try, so 50-100 points every few years is nothing. Diplo points are just weak in the current version of the game. Buying down war exhaustion is not needed, ever, when I have Defender of the Faith (and am the suzerain overlord of every Protestant nation, so I don't get DoF Call to Arms).
Given how smooth this run went, it may be time to shoot for Raja of the Rajput Reich achievement next...
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Elf: Yeah, Nah & Gerome's recruit maps are randomly the most brutal ones, they definitely feel balanced for ~C21 levels or so which is pretty late. Stupid rotating doors that lure you into thinking characters are safe... On the other hand, I don't see how Nah is particularly worse off than any other kid. Sure she won't get the weird super-boost from Manakete double-promotion right away, but being L10 without the 30 previous levels under her belt means she levels pretty darn fast anyway, and as the most durable of the kids (even more so than Kjelle), she's one of the safest to grind up.
Inigo on the other hand... his worth is all in the aftergame, so yeah, if you're not planning on doing that he's total trash. (He IS a Male that can reasonably easily grab Galeforce if you bother to wait for Olivia being way overleveled for Hard Mode endgame.)
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I'm more into CK2 with the ASoIaF mod myself. Stared in the War of the Five Kings and am now a little over a century past that with House Stark on the Iron Throne, which ended up becoming the Empire of New Valyria when I conquered the Free Cities. Most recently, one of my king's aunts was widowed so she decided to go to Mereen to confront the dragon there. She then murdered it, apparently with no help whatsoever, and I realized that there are no rules against women in the Kingsguard, so I made her Lady Commander. My previous dude had Greenseeing so he always knew when people wanted to murder me, which was nice, but this lady killed a dragon so that's gotta be a wash.
Also everyone's intermarried through House Stark so that's getting interesting. I took a lot of time to get House Stark on five of the eight kingdoms and now it's going crazy. Fortunately rather than everyone making a grab for the Iron Throne (I have the Free Cities and the Slaver's Bay Kingdoms to back me up) it meant that they're all fighting wars to take each others' Lordships. That also means everyone's levies are depleted so their vassals are rising up to try and depose them. House Bolton's trying to take out House Stark of Winterfell, House Stark of Highgarden was already deposed by the Florents (that guy was an idiot though so he had it coming), House Stark of Sunspear lost its last member in a war against House Dayne and House Lannister and House Tully are in an all-out throwdown.
Anyway, I picked up Mad Max for $20. I don't know if I'd pay full price for it but that seems to go for most games. Overall, a pretty enjoyable experience. Finished the story last night; pretty typical Mad Max stuff, though it introduces an interesting motif in that the V8 Interceptor is a sort of purgatory for Max that I liked. World design is pretty fantastic and there's a ton of little touches that I like. There's a lot of empty space but that's definitely a design decision. In fact, I feel like they probably compromised on how spread out they meant things for be for the sake of convenience.
Overall, combat's a lot of fun but I feel like the survival elements are understated. It's set around Gastown so fuel isn't as much of an issue, but food and water supplies are a little too plentiful and a little too inconsequential, equating just to health recovery. I understand that resource scarcity isn't the most popular thing when you're making a AAA game but a little tighter situation would have been nice. They did a good job balancing shotgun ammo, for instance, limiting your ability to stockpile it.
You can see the seams but overall it's a fun game to tool around in and do general wasteland mayhem.
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Snowfire: The other kids gained this late can be promoted instantly to help them keep up, Nah doesn't have this. Kjelle, by comparison, can be obtained much earlier, so doesn't even need to promote ASAP, but can be anyway if you wish.
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[timg]https://i.imgur.com/13WZfRI.jpg?1[/timg]
Then again, he didn't have the advantage of a fully unified Holy Roman Empire at his beck and call, either, given how Napoleon smashed--then disbanded--a less unified coalition instead.
OH GOD THOSE BORDERS. You have turned me into every sperg on Something Awful that I used to make fun of.
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ASoIaF for CK2 is really weird and has to be approached totally differently. Like, your personal demesne has to be uncharacteristically small. I keep trying to get into it but it feels like a large percentage of the time is spent "doing nothing", but then again, I keep playing as relatively minor powers.
I've got several hundred hours into the game, but haven't touched it this last patch (lack of dollars will do that. Also, I'm more alert and want to play slightly more active games lately). It's pretty amazing, though. I had a vassal get to the point where they had more territory (and thus troops, power, and... so on.) than I did, which is generally not a position you want to be in. I threw a feast and the cocky little bastard pulled a serving wench down and cut her throat. This gave me the decision to arrest him without any kind of conflict and I was able to immediately banish him and revoke all the titles. My other vassals would have been furious, but they were all barons and mayors and no one gives a shit. Problem solved.
I like to think that poor girl was a national folk hero for generations.
EDIT... we don't have thumbnails?
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ASoIaF for CK2 is really weird and has to be approached totally differently. Like, your personal demesne has to be uncharacteristically small. I keep trying to get into it but it feels like a large percentage of the time is spent "doing nothing", but then again, I keep playing as relatively minor powers.
Yeah, you really need to play as one of the suggested characters to get the full experience. Partly because you spend a bunch of time dicking around otherwise and partly because there's a large number of events coded for those people.
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Plague of Shadows: Fought Mole Knight and Treasure Knight, and well...
(http://thisweekinnuclear.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/explosions-fires.jpg)
That is all.
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I am fairly sure that no matter what you say to him re: morality , Milton is playing devil's advocate (huh huh) and can always refute your points. That's IMO because there can be any absolute answer to theorical morality questions, and I might be wrong but I don't think the game actually offers that option. It has been fairly good otherwise re: that kind of stuff.
(https://scrapbookoftruthdotnet.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/shutterstock_755319.jpg)
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I'll trade my wood for your bricks.
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Do you have wood for sheep?
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Has anyone picked up Legend of Legacy? I've been curious about it since I see on Japanese shelves all the time and I heard it just came out in the states. And it seems like a new SaGa game (minus actual corporate Squeenix involvement) would be something the DL would be excited about?
No one's picked up Disgaea 5 either, I guess, but that's less surprising (and somewhat more depressing personally...)
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Well if anyone but Ciddy (I think) had a PS4...
I picked up Legend of Legacy but haven't really checked it out at all.
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I possess a copy of Disgaea 5. Haven't had a chance to do much with it yet, though.
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Blade and Soul: The neat thing when starting a new MMO is seeing everyone else's characters. I saw a Silmeria Valkyrie, and then there's this guy:
http://i.imgur.com/TEfL8aO.png
Don't make eye contact.
Up to level 26 now. Being able to spec and respect your skills is a big deal, and really lets you play the way you like.
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Has anyone picked up Legend of Legacy? I've been curious about it since I see on Japanese shelves all the time and I heard it just came out in the states. And it seems like a new SaGa game (minus actual corporate Squeenix involvement) would be something the DL would be excited about?
We've ordered it. :)
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I bought it but I've been playing Undertale and Downwell instead. Pretty box though!
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I'd love to pick up Disgaea 5, but NIS won't put it on a console I own, so no dice.
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Shadows of Mordor:
Got to the second area, decided to stop for now, because everything is in a shitty spot and I hate traveling in this game.
Final Fantasy XII:
Started this up. First thoughts: WOW, the controls are really fucking weird. Camera is awful, controls take a lot of getting used to so you can heal before you are dead.
Played for about 3 hours. First impressions:
Reks: Got reksed, son
ACTUAL CHARACTERS:
Vaan: ...so far is inoffensive. Standard street rat type. Probably shouldn't mouth off to big guys in armor when he's a skinny turd in a belly shirt with a rusty old sword.
Penelo: Vaan, man, the flowers were a nice idea, but you probably didn't need them anyhow. I thought it was funny that she joined dealing more damage than me, despite having a dinky little dagger. Supposedly, she had cure, but I didn't own it. Also, she has Liefield feet and it bothers me.
Balthier: Said his lines. Is Balthier. I like this guy.
Fran: Hey, suddenly I -do- own cure. And fire. And she uses bows. So... uh... you can be the leader character for the time being.
So far I haven't leveled anyone on the license grid, because I haven't seen a point. I have exactly one item from the dungeon that I could equip if I put a level into swords. Which is conveniently next to Vaan's starting weapon spot and---HEY WAIT A MINUTE, this fucking game is trying to GUIDE me down a path instead of letting me dick around and grow my characters chaotically, as I am wont to do.
I have no idea how a nuffle-worshipper like myself can still build randomly in a game like this. I'm still trying to come up with a decent method that doesn't gimp me, but also makes me somewhat interesting. I'm welcome to ideas.
I kind of want to play a patched version of the class system remake of this game, just so I actually DO have something to randomize.
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Tales of Xillia 2: ...you know, I'm overdue for one of these and this game feels appropriate for it so...
MORE MEEPLE RPG ABRIDGED!!! And yes, you may get whatever items necessary to murder me on the spot.
Narrator: When we last left our hero...
Jude: Uh...last left? We never even started!
Narrator: Ok, FINE! Context. Ludger is some kid whose brother is this awesome soldier guy named Julius. He failed an exam, is now a chef, got on a train to his first job that happened to get him stuck with this girl and the main character of the previous game...
Jude: ...I have a name...
Narrator: Ok, geez, Jude. Said train had stuff happen, people died, Ludger got into a huge medical debt of 20 million...no seriously...and now he's a wanted man with the only way to clear his name is to find his brother. There, HAPPY!?
Elle: Can you repeat that?
Ludger: No.
Jude: So we can go to Helioborg or...
Ludger: Helioborg.
Jude: Wait, you didn't even listen to the second option, don't you think it's best we weigh our options?
Ludger: No.
Jude: Well, I guess since you're the main character, I have to follow you, right?
Ludger: Yes.
Elle: But how can we get there!?
Ludger: Train.
Elle: But you have to pay off your debt to get to that spot later!
Jude: Well, in my last adventure, we did actually hike literally from Trigleph, which is where we are now, to Helioborg, so we could just do that. It's not that long and probably take less time than it takes to pay off the next benchma-...
Ludger: Train.
Jude: ...ok, fine, we'll take the train.
*Ludger gets 7000 Gald*
Nova: Hiyo! Just here as your friendly neighborhood PAY UP NOW OR WE WILL HUNT YOU DOWN ^_^.
Ludger: *sigh, pays up*
Nova: That's some awesome BMs you got there! BM by the way stands for Bank Maximum...because you know...it's totally an in thing we say...even though I made it up...GOOD LUCK WITH PAYING OFF YOUR IMPOSSIBLY LARGE DEBT ^_^!
Ludger: Grrr...
Elle: Being a loneshark is mean, why would people do that!?
Jude: Because...you see...there's thing called money and...
Ludger: No.
Jude: Huh?
Ludger: No.
Jude: Ok, saves me an explanation.
Elle: But I want to know now >:(
Ludger: Hate.
*one Helioborg trip later*
Ludger: Here.
Jude: So what's going on here?
Red Headed Guy: YOU CAN'T COME HERE! AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY! THAT MEANS ONLY DOCTORS AND SUCH!
Jude: ...but I am a Doctor...I WORK here even sometimes...heck, I'm the lead researcher on the stuff that goes here!
Red Headed Guy: Bah, that's Jude Matthis' job and you're totally not him! I mean, sure you look exactly like him and have his voice and are claim-...oh...
Jude: Yes, now, can you explain to me what's going on?
RHG: Yeah, see, Exodus happened, people from Rieze Maxia who were here on a good will trip being shown around by Balan were stuck in there...and so is he...
Jude: And great, we have business with Balan!
TOTALLY NOT A BLATANTLY FAMILIAR VOICE: I'll take it from here!
Jude: Alvin! What are you doing here?
Alvin: ...good question, and since I don't have a good answer...my cousin works here so family business?
Jude: ...whose paying you?
Alvin: Sharp as ever I see!
Elle: Is he your friend, Jude?
Alvin: Tough to say; I use to work for Exodus, do you really think you can trust me!?
Ludger: Yes.
Alvin: ...yeah, you're totally Jude's friend.
Jude: And much as you won't admit it, you're mine.
Elle: He's a bad ugly man!
Ludger: Ignore her.
Alvin: Way ahead of you!
*Alvin joins the team!*
Will the team of 3 dudes and annoying brat get to the bottom of this!? Will Ludger pay off his debt to an annoying Not!Mafia? Will Jude ever notice he's wearing a plushie of himself on his shoulder? Will Elle ever say anything meaningful? And will Ludger's cat ever get acknowledged in this parody!? TUNE IN NEXT TIME FOR...
TALES OF ENCOUNT!!!!
-
Europa Universalis IV - Meissner Porcelain Achievement Run
Completed the main achievement in 1720. Last guy to have the Chinaware I needed was some random Korean island you can barely see. Silly Korea, trying to hide that from me...enjoy your full annexation.
State of the world as it stands at the end of the achievement: https://imgur.com/VlAwz5i (https://imgur.com/VlAwz5i) (revel in those spiderweb borders!)
Now, I had noticed earlier that I had forgotten to click the final HRE reform button during my Austria game (because going full Greyskin sucks compared to having 50+ vassals) and that save is no longer compatible. Sooo, as soon as I grabbed that last piece of Chinaware for Meissner Porcelain, I also clicked the button and went full Greyskin for the "A Kaiser Not Just in Name" achievement. Yay, two for the price of one. Even more cool: I'm standing at exactly 50% of the EUIV achievements unlocked.
My total firepower went down significantly (not that it matters at this point, I still have a standing army equal to my force limit of 640K...well enough to DoW the world and win...oh, and now I make 120 ducats a month), but oh well. Looking at what I can do in another 110 years or so, I think I'll keep playing a bit before shelving this particular save file. A quick glance at stuff I can still unlock pretty easy with this save:
Master of India - Own and have cores on all of India as a European Nation.
At Every Continent - Own one province on each continent (why do I not have this yet!?)
The Rising Sun - Own and have cores on all of Japan as a European Nation.
City of Cities - Own a core province with at least 60 development (I have the points to burn, and some of my Chinese provinces are already in the mid-40s for development)
Subsidize my Love - Subsidize at least 3 allies with at least 50% of their income (Got the money to burn).
A Decent Reserve - Have a maximum manpower reserve of at least 1 million (currently at about 600K...easy enough to get by taking Quantity Ideas).
We'll see how many of those I manage to plow through!
-
Final Fantasy XII:
Started this up. doesn't talk about rouge tomato
maybe you should try not being shit at video games bro
-
So far I haven't leveled anyone on the license grid, because I haven't seen a point. I have exactly one item from the dungeon that I could equip if I put a level into swords. Which is conveniently next to Vaan's starting weapon spot and---HEY WAIT A MINUTE, this fucking game is trying to GUIDE me down a path instead of letting me dick around and grow my characters chaotically, as I am wont to do.
I have no idea how a nuffle-worshipper like myself can still build randomly in a game like this. I'm still trying to come up with a decent method that doesn't gimp me, but also makes me somewhat interesting. I'm welcome to ideas.
I kind of want to play a patched version of the class system remake of this game, just so I actually DO have something to randomize.
I forget, did you play Diablo3? Know how you just unlock a bunch of talents just from D3 leveling up, and can switch between them whenever you want, but can only set 6 at once? FF12 is vaguely like that. You get enough LP that everybody can theoretically be a generalist, but of course you have to pick what you're actually equipping / using / gambiting. There's no point in hard-pushing one particular area of the board because getting the ability to equip super-Light Armors early or cast mega-deadly Black Magic is irrelevant when you don't actually have access to the later equipment / magic / technick yet.
So yeah... I got nothin'. FF12 has variety but it isn't in character builds, it's just in all the options every character already has, e.g. lategame FF6 characters who get to pick which spell to do something broken with. Just try out a bunch of different crazy weapons, spells, & techniks. You can also have characters play "against type" at basically no cost; they have inherent stats but the differences are puny, so having spear-maiden Penelo & mage Basch is not a big deal.
If I had to recommend one thing you definitely should do (so therefore, you should NOT do to be perverse?!) is have at least 1 person with a gun at all times, maybe 2. There are various annoying flying dudes lurking about and guns have range and 100% hit, so a lot less annoyance to shoot them down then to set up some kind of combo chain to disable the bird then attack it on the ground.
-
Speaking of which, since Meeple cruelly never stuck it up in the in-game rankings thread... FF12 in-game rankings by performance!
Vaan - 6.5. (Best stats! And it doesn't matter!)
Penelo - 6
Balthier - 6
Fran - 5.5 (Worst stats! And it doesn't matter!)
Ashe - 6.25 (2nd best stats!)
Basch - 6
That was easy.
-
Has anyone picked up Legend of Legacy? I've been curious about it since I see on Japanese shelves all the time and I heard it just came out in the states. And it seems like a new SaGa game (minus actual corporate Squeenix involvement) would be something the DL would be excited about?
No one's picked up Disgaea 5 either, I guess, but that's less surprising (and somewhat more depressing personally...)
The game is headed by Koizumi, who was Kawazu's right hand man and Saga's cheif battle engineer.
Aka, he is the man behind the SaGa's pain in the ass battle mechanic.
Legend of Legacy is a turn based dungeonc crawling game with some SaGa mechanic but even less plot than SaGa.
The game is small, so don't expect it'll have the same content as SaGa.
The game is mostly on SaGa mechanic nostalgy and awsome Hamauzu music.
-
Europa Universalis IV - Meissner Porcelain Achievement Run
Completed the main achievement in 1720. Last guy to have the Chinaware I needed was some random Korean island you can barely see. Silly Korea, trying to hide that from me...enjoy your full annexation.
State of the world as it stands at the end of the achievement: https://imgur.com/VlAwz5i (https://imgur.com/VlAwz5i) (revel in those spiderweb borders!)
Now, I had noticed earlier that I had forgotten to click the final HRE reform button during my Austria game (because going full Greyskin sucks compared to having 50+ vassals) and that save is no longer compatible. Sooo, as soon as I grabbed that last piece of Chinaware for Meissner Porcelain, I also clicked the button and went full Greyskin for the "A Kaiser Not Just in Name" achievement. Yay, two for the price of one. Even more cool: I'm standing at exactly 50% of the EUIV achievements unlocked.
My total firepower went down significantly (not that it matters at this point, I still have a standing army equal to my force limit of 640K...well enough to DoW the world and win...oh, and now I make 120 ducats a month), but oh well. Looking at what I can do in another 110 years or so, I think I'll keep playing a bit before shelving this particular save file. A quick glance at stuff I can still unlock pretty easy with this save:
Master of India - Own and have cores on all of India as a European Nation.
At Every Continent - Own one province on each continent (why do I not have this yet!?)
The Rising Sun - Own and have cores on all of Japan as a European Nation.
City of Cities - Own a core province with at least 60 development (I have the points to burn, and some of my Chinese provinces are already in the mid-40s for development)
Subsidize my Love - Subsidize at least 3 allies with at least 50% of their income (Got the money to burn).
A Decent Reserve - Have a maximum manpower reserve of at least 1 million (currently at about 600K...easy enough to get by taking Quantity Ideas).
We'll see how many of those I manage to plow through!
All three of the points feel relatively useful? Admin are the best of the three but yeah, you can always develop your provinces. I also like how you got to Japan, you didn't waste time on taking/coring nonneeded provinces.
You playing Common Sense EU4?
-
Has anyone picked up Legend of Legacy? I've been curious about it since I see on Japanese shelves all the time and I heard it just came out in the states. And it seems like a new SaGa game (minus actual corporate Squeenix involvement) would be something the DL would be excited about?
No one's picked up Disgaea 5 either, I guess, but that's less surprising (and somewhat more depressing personally...)
The game is headed by Koizumi, who was Kawazu's right hand man and Saga's cheif battle engineer.
Aka, he is the man behind the SaGa's pain in the ass battle mechanic.
Legend of Legacy is a turn based dungeonc crawling game with some SaGa mechanic but even less plot than SaGa.
The game is small, so don't expect it'll have the same content as SaGa.
The game is mostly on SaGa mechanic nostalgy and awsome Hamauzu music.
Is this supposed to deter me from Legend of Legacy? Honestly it worked more like a sales pitch...
-
Final Fantasy XII
No rogue tomato mentions since my brother in law plays FFXIV, and I already saw a fight against, like, just a shit ton of vegetable people.
I settled for leveling up characters' licenses only as needed, and then semi-randomly from there. This involved levelling up Vaan into swords and white 1. (And I think First Aid?) and some other random crap for other characters.
Escaped from the dungeons, which involved fighting several bosses. None of which were THAT hard. The "random" encounters, though. Holy shit. Had to do this with Vaan and Fran solo for the most part.
Vaan: Oh, the flowers were for your dead brother? Less cool.
Balthier: Continues to be the man in charge. Just... absurdly awesome, too competent to deal with this shit.
Fran: Found a way out, was otherwise quiet. HOWEVER, she's my leader character, still, and clearly MVP at this point, since no one else has black magic, and only Vaan has white magic. I should have given him that earlier, in hindsight, but we'll see what wacky VSM leveling nets us in the future.
Basch: Yeah, Vaan. I get it. I wouldn't believe an "it was my twin brother!" excuse, either. Otherwise, he randomly found a sword and armor and instead of just equipping him and making him stronger, the game decided it would let him GAIN FOUR LEVELS. What the fuck? I want a sword-of-gain-four-levels. Why can't I get one of those? Where are they on the license grid?
-
Final Fantasy XII:
Started this up.
maybe you should try not being shit at video games bro
Fixed.
-
All three of the points feel relatively useful? Admin are the best of the three but yeah, you can always develop your provinces. I also like how you got to Japan, you didn't waste time on taking/coring nonneeded provinces.
You playing Common Sense EU4?
All three have their uses...Admin just have the most general utility, since they are needed for everything important (keeping Stability at 0 or better; keeping inflation below 5; expansion via conquest; etc...). That said, having a lack of Military hurts you more than a lack of Admin (even a 0.25 Tactics difference can make a huge difference, likewise with a Morale advantage). So I'll definitely national focus Military if my ruler rolls a garbage Military score. Falling behind in Military Tech is a bad, bad, thing. Diplo points are just, meh (I guess you can develop your Silk/Spice/Ivory/Gold producing provinces). Ever since they nerfed Diplo-Annexing, I just seem to run a stockpile of them except every 15 years when I tech up.
And, yeah, I'm running all DLC on 1.13.1.
I'll probably revert back down to 1.9 if/when I go for Three Mountains. With changes to coring range, all good openings are now gone. No more No-CB on Champa to full Annex--they are now too far away to claim any provinces in the Peace deal (I suppose you could vassalize, then hope like hell they fabricate claims, then war on their behalf for 10 years). I think the only targets in direct coring range are Japan (haha, no, not with one stupid port to build up the needed Galley navy to win) and Ming (uh, yeah).
-
I quite like FF12. There was a really high quality LP that highlighted all of its good points (mainly the non MMO inspired stuff) that quite raised my opinion of it. Enough that I decided to try out the IZJS version and found out that FF12 gameplay could be good too when it was tweaked to have meaningful Liscense Grid choices. I guess it's harder to find, but if VSM has the time, it is VERY much worth checking out the improved version of FF12 and I am praying that when FF12 gets an HD remaster we will see it in the west as the job system version.
-
When you have to watch an LP to make in order to make the game seem better after already playing it, that's generally not a good sign. I looooooooooved watching BG 2 LP (before the one I was watching was hit by copyright issues), but it definitely wouldn't make playing through the game any more bearable.
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You'd think, but it's a shockingly common thing, especially with some distance of years. It also seems a lot more common in screenshot LPs. Basically when you're digesting a game most slowly like that you start to actually find nuances that fly over head when you're in the moment trying to slog through enemies with all of the HP.
-
Has anyone picked up Legend of Legacy? I've been curious about it since I see on Japanese shelves all the time and I heard it just came out in the states. And it seems like a new SaGa game (minus actual corporate Squeenix involvement) would be something the DL would be excited about?
No one's picked up Disgaea 5 either, I guess, but that's less surprising (and somewhat more depressing personally...)
The game is headed by Koizumi, who was Kawazu's right hand man and Saga's cheif battle engineer.
Aka, he is the man behind the SaGa's pain in the ass battle mechanic.
Legend of Legacy is a turn based dungeonc crawling game with some SaGa mechanic but even less plot than SaGa.
The game is small, so don't expect it'll have the same content as SaGa.
The game is mostly on SaGa mechanic nostalgy and awsome Hamauzu music.
Is this supposed to deter me from Legend of Legacy? Honestly it worked more like a sales pitch...
To put it simply, unless you have a lot of love for SaGa, you can just walk away from the game and purchase the OST instead.
-
Has anyone picked up Legend of Legacy? I've been curious about it since I see on Japanese shelves all the time and I heard it just came out in the states. And it seems like a new SaGa game (minus actual corporate Squeenix involvement) would be something the DL would be excited about?
No one's picked up Disgaea 5 either, I guess, but that's less surprising (and somewhat more depressing personally...)
The game is headed by Koizumi, who was Kawazu's right hand man and Saga's cheif battle engineer.
Aka, he is the man behind the SaGa's pain in the ass battle mechanic.
Legend of Legacy is a turn based dungeonc crawling game with some SaGa mechanic but even less plot than SaGa.
The game is small, so don't expect it'll have the same content as SaGa.
The game is mostly on SaGa mechanic nostalgy and awsome Hamauzu music.
Is this supposed to deter me from Legend of Legacy? Honestly it worked more like a sales pitch...
To put it simply, unless you have a lot of love for SaGa, you can just walk away from the game and purchase the OST instead.
DJ's taste is fucking terrible, of course he has a lot of love for SaGa.
-
FFXII:
Was in, then ran away from, the Lhusu mines
Vaan: You dumbass. Not 5 minutes after the smart party decides "No names", you call the WORST POSSIBLE PERSON by name in front of a stranger. What the hell, bro? (Also, the game doesn't really explain why he suddenly believes and trusts Basch, and that's kind of a big deal.) Vaan rolled his way into using a nasty spear, and is my secondary healer/the CPU healer.
Balthier: Continues to generally be the man. For all his protests about saving girls and whathaveyou, he still comes along, generally comes up with all the plans, and is charming. Has constant great lines. Dude, however, currently is kind of useless and dies a lot. Trying to come up with an option to mitigate that.
Fran: Continues to say nothing and be MVP/my leader. Gave her some more magic, because WHY NOT? Actually, having magic options makes everything slower and this game's controls punishes you severely for that. So.... yay. Good game design, Square.
Basch: Finally joined. Hasn't been around long enough to diversify himself. I like that the game kept him with the half-starved prisoner look, instead of magically making him all buff again after he got out.
-
(Also, the game doesn't really explain why he suddenly believes and trusts Basch, and that's kind of a big deal.)
I was a bit taken aback by this too, but... it actually makes some sense, and fits FF12's narrative style. The standard milk-out-all-possible-melodrama approach would be to have some kind of elaborate dance of distrust as Vaan closely monitors "Basch" looking for some kind of slip, and maybe there's some kind of big misunderstanding or "evidence" found later that swings Vaan one way and then the other, etc. etc. This is all very dramatic & all but why are they even working together if Vaan thinks he might be evil. FF12 just gets that out of the way at the beginning. Vaan believes Basch's story and isn't going to get all huffy at somebody he acknowledges isn't actually responsible for his brother's death. (And presumably he wouldn't have helped break him out of prison if he didn't believe his story!)
So yeah, there isn't a "reason" in the sense of DECISIVE EVIDENCE from Phoenix Wright, but just general "okay this story, while crazy and slightly paranoid, makes sense and I don't think he's bullshitting me."
-
The thing is, they could have had it both ways. Just have a throwaway line with Vaan stating "Oh, you mean that guy from earlier who looked exactly like you, but also seemed pretty evil? Yeah, OK. Maybe he DID kill my brother."
-
FFXII Leviathan:
Super hard for no reason! This game's controls are just about the worst. Guys decide to walk into trip wires, because apparently you have to explicitly tell them not to. (Balthier gets bonus shame points for deliberately backing up 3 or 4 steps to fire his gun when he doesn't have to, tripping a wire for literally no reason.) Boss fight was a nightmare. 6 enemies at once targetting one dude is just uncalled for. I finally managed to beat it out by finding a random sword on the dungeon, equipping it on Basch, and also equipping an auto-counter relic on Basch. Go Basch.
Vaan: Not much use for him. He's there. He deals better damage than Balthier, so he's in my party when I have to actually do things.
Balthier: No good lines because this dungeon is awful and takes forever. Found an Assassin's Dagger and gave him THAT, because mother fucker will NOT stop triggering alarms by walking backward through them. I hate the friendly AI in this game. Not sure what I'm ultimately gonna do with this guy.
Fran: Continues to be MVP-esque. Learned Dark, which is, apparently, super good. Also managed to equip this random mage armor I had floating around, making her deal even more damage, and, somehow, giving her the best defense on my team. So... uh, go Fran.
Basch: As mentioned, I found a very good sword and a counter-attack relic. I couldn't find the relic on the grid, so he has access to tons of relics I don't have. Also, since it was right there, I bought my very first quickening for him. Quickenings are stupid.
~~~~~~
As I get further into the game, I realize that the reason so many folks must hate it is because of the god awful controls/gameplay. The story actually isn't bad at all. Balthier is super cool, Basch seems interesting. Vaan isn't ALWAYS an idiot. Those gameplay flaws, though. They're kinda dealbreakers.
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The thing is, they could have had it both ways. Just have a throwaway line with Vaan stating "Oh, you mean that guy from earlier who looked exactly like you, but also seemed pretty evil? Yeah, OK. Maybe he DID kill my brother."
Honestly, I would have preferred something like that myself. I rewatched that sequence recently and yeah, there's nothing having Vaan acknowledge that Basch could be telling the truth; he just goes from "I don't buy it!" to "You didn't kill my brother, the empire did" in the manner of a dungeon with no real reason. I don't think Vaan even says as much as "Your story makes sense, but I have a hard time buying it!" which at least that would suggest that he LISTENED to Basch's side and thus we can conclude he was thinking about it, but I seem to recall he basically just blew it off as an excuse.
Balthier at least made sense with the whole "Twin Brother? Seems awfully convenient an excuse, but I guess it's plausible enough, so sure, I'll buy it." Considering Balthier has absolutely no emotional stakes with Basch the way Vaan does, it makes sense he's willing to just roll with it, especially since from his perspective, it's "well, he is another able-bodied adult, it only helps us to give him the benefit of the doubt, especially since he has much to gain from NOT stabbing us in the back, at least until we leave."
-
Super Robot Wars Impact - played through
Final turn count was 1029. Got 58 skill points all up - didn't realise the game even had skill points for a while, decided that if it wasn't going to tell me what the conditions were I wasn't going to bother trying to meet them.
Some of the skill point conditions are kind of poor, in any case. There was one map early on which I beat before the enemy you needed to kill for the skill point even showed up. There was one extremely-late map where you get a skill point for killing a particular enemy, who doesn't retreat, and the objective is kill-all-enemies - the only possible way to avoid that would be to do the same as above, which would require incredible coordination given that the enemy shows up once there are less than 17 enemies remaining at the start of the enemy turn.
There's at least one map where the enemy you needed to kill for the skill point didn't show up at all because of the branches I had taken beforehand.
There's a stage early on with an enemy you need to at least make retreat for the skill point. It shows up on the Turn 3 Enemy phase. It goes away on the Turn 5 Player phase. So, you essentially get a single turn to lay into it - except it appears on the other side of a river from where you're guarding a launch, so most of your units typically won't even be able to attack it unless you knew ahead of time and sent them over there.
I don't remember elevation being in Alpha 1 so I'm going to assume it wasn't and that it was brought in for this game. I guess it made some maps look a little nicer but also made things occasionally difficult to see? Also, as far as I could tell, non-flying units took movement penalties for changing elevation, while flying units didn't even if they were grounded... and there were no other noticeable mechanical effects. All up, not very enamoured with it. (Also kind of hilarious when you have one unit at the top of a cliff getting support attacks from a unit at the bottom of the cliff.)
Support attacks! And defences, to a lesser extent. Game, why won't you let me choose who is going to be the supporter. I know that Advance had problems with supports as well but I can't remember what they were, so I'm not sure whether this game handles them better or not (I feel like Advance at least wouldn't let you choose what attack they were going to make, but can't remember if it would let you choose the supporter? Impact does at least let you choose which attack they're going to make). There must be some logic behind which unit it decides to go with, but it's definitely not based on which has the higher damage potential/is more armoured & healthful.
Speaking of damage, something strange is going on with the damage formulas. Several times I saw attacks with lower power doing more damage than attacks with the same typing, terrain rankings, and being-criticals-or-not-tedness. Unfortunately I don't remember any examples offhand. I definitely remember Combattler V doing more damage with SEM Spark than with Grandasher at one point, but I don't recall if this was an example of that as I don't remember the typings/rankings for each attack.
Lighter notes:
* CC Zaku is actually worth using in this game.
* Maybe SRW allows this all the time and I've just never thought to try it, but you can eventually have Yurika take over Gai's Aestevalis (once she gets the nanomachine skill) and do Double Gekigan Flare with Akito. (Sadly they don't get fancy dialogue or anything.) Also she eventually gets the ability to teleport the Nadesico around which I don't recall being normal.
As far as I can remember, I got Rein Weissritter instead of True Getta in Compact 2, so I went with True Getta this time around. (Also because Rein can't use Rampage Ghost for whatever reason.) I can't say that I care much for this version of True Getta, seems to eat through energy like it's going out of style.
Man it takes an annoyingly long time to save/load this game. I hope they managed to get things working a bit quicker for the other PS2 SRWs when I eventually get around to them.
While I was slogging through that I also found some time to play some other small things.
Picross e6 - played through
So the gimmick in Picross e6 is that instead of having one set of regular Picross boards and one set of Mega Picross boards, it just has one big set of boards which you can play in either regular Picross mode or Mega Picross mode (setting aside one page of boards which are too large to play in Mega mode). I'm divided on this.
In theory, it means you can play through all the regular Picross boards and never have to touch Mega Picross mode, and you've played everything. In practice if you do that you don't get a medal for Mega Picross, and if you play through all boards on both modes to get the medals for each mode you're essentially playing each board two times over.
I ended up getting the medals for both modes. Despite still thinking Mega Picross is terrible. At least each mode has the boards in somewhat different orderings. (Also it was a couple weeks after finishing regular Picross mode that I started on Mega Picross mode, so the boards weren't particularly fresh in my mind or anything.)
Micross is also still terrible.
They need to come up with a good gimmick.
Undertale - played through twice
Pretty amusing. I suck at dodging when the battles start actually trying. Music often good. I assume that there isn't much I can say about it that hasn't already been said recentlyish. Not going to do a genocide run, although I might dig up an LP of it to look through at some point.
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Tales of Encount:
Narrator: When we last left our hero of few words...
Ivar: NOW HANG ON! This is an unfair injustice!
Narrator: Huh?
Ivar: I was totally in the previous section and you completely left me out!
Narrator: Who are you again?
Ivar: I'm Ivar! The Handmaiden of the great Lady Milla Maxwell!
Narrator: ...ok, but she's not in this game yet...
Ivar: I'm also a JUNIOR AGENT OF SPIRIUS CORPS! I totally owned Ludger with a sucker punch and...
Narrator: ...got effortlessly beaten by Jude using a basic wrestling arm-lock, a fighting style I might remind you Jude is not specialized in...
Ivar: THAT'S NOT THE POINT! I DEMAND RESPECT AND-...*punched in the face*
Jude: Can we get on with the story already? You're just wasting our time...again...I think that's the only thing you truly excel in...
Ludger: Agreed.
Alvin: Yeah, I mean, I'm the only one who can shoot these enemies back...it doesn't help I'm the only one focused on actually fighting them and you're busy dealing with that idiot.
Ivar: I said RESPECT ME damn it!
Elle: This guy is annoying.
Ludger: ...
Ivar: FINE! I'll prove I am important! Here, take these Guns, Ludger! Why don't I use them? Because I'd be too dangerous! I need to limit my abilities you see! In fact, I'll even let you use me as target practice for-...
*Ludger shoots Ivar repeatedly in a means reminiscent to Dante's Ebony and Ivory*
Ivar: OW! What was that for!?
Jude: You literally just asked him to do that...
Ivar: Bah! This is nothing! You'll see my true strength later! *Ivar limps off*
Alvin: ...on the bright side...we now have a 2nd person capable of wielding fire arms?
Ludger: Yes.
*the three dudes beat up robots, and Exodus agents, Elle remains useless*
Alvin: There's just no end to these guys!
Jude: Yeah, but we have to push through!
*Big dark energy blows up a robot*
Alvin: ...what was that?
Ludger: Good question.
School Girl: Oh, that was me!
Jude: Oh, Elize! Barely recognized you! Wait, are you the Rieze Maxian good will ambassadors?
Elize: Yeah, my school was going here on a field trip touring the place and well...you can probably figure out the rest.
Alvin: Wait, if you're here, does that mean...
Teepo: WAH-HEY! IT'S OUR LITTLE FRIEND!!!!
Alvin: ...just what I need...him...
Elle: What is that thing!? It looks stupid!
Elize: This is my friend Teepo.
Jude: Speaking of friends, where are your classmates?
Elize: Oh, Mr. Balan diverted the enemies so the rest of us can get into a safe spot. Luckily, I had Teepo with me so I was able to scout around and defend myself.
Jude: Glad you're alright, Elize, think you can help us locate Balan?
Elize: Sure!
Alvin: Wait, is it just me, or does this seem like an awfully cheap excuse at a full cast reunion of the first game?
Teepo: Awww, you're just saying that because you're being mean!
Alvin: Awww, you figured me out!
Jude: Let's be fair, Alvin. She IS our first true healer, do you really want to do this dungeon without her?
Alvin: ...fine, I'll put up Teepo.
Ludger: Let's go.
*Dungeon crawling and a temporal distortion nonsense later, the team reaches the roof. On the way, Elle and Teepo are competing in an Annoying Everyone Off! ...Elle is "winning"...*
Jude: This looks like the roof.
Alvin: Jude, we were literally here one year ago dealing with problems in the first game. Did you seriously forget that already?
Jude: I'm just making an establishing statement for the people playing this game ok?
Alvin: Fair enough.
Elize: Say, does that giant orb over there look familiar.
Volt: BZZZZT! ZZZZZZT! VOLTORB!!!!
Elle: OMG! A POKEMON!
Jude: Actually, that's a Spyrite nam-...
Elle: WE HAVE TO CATCH IT!
Alvin: What Jude is trying to say...
Elle: GIVE ME THE DAMN POKEBALLS NOW!
Elize: There are no Pokemon in this universe!
Teepo: Though Spyrites are basically the same thing when you think about it.
Jude: Which leads me to what I was ABOUT to say: That's Volt, a Spyrite of a greater spirit that...should be dead...because we killed it one year ago...
Alvin: So, Dr. Matthis, what's your analysis?
Jude: Heck if I know, things die when they are killed and we definitely killed it last year...unless they brought it back...yeah I'm going to question Balan on that because I definitely didn't give it the ok!
Elle: LIGHTNING IS SCARY! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!
Teepo: Can we just kill the thing so she stops crying!?
Alvin: What do you know, something we agree on!
*one annoying boss fight later, Ludger goes into DEMON MODE and stabs the damn thing causing it to explode, Temporal Distortion ends and everyone back to first floor*
Alvin: We were on the roof, right?
Elize: I think so...
Alvin: Then what the heck are we doing down here?
Ludger: Doesn't matter.
Elle: BUT I WANT TO KNOW THE ANSWER NOW!
Alvin: Kid...
Elle: Yeah?
Alvin: ...shut up
Elle: ok!
Jude: So...back to the roof?
Ludger: Back to the roof.
*back on the roof*
Jude: So...where's Balan?
Alvin: Oh I know all his hiding spots. HEY BALAN COME OUT HERE YOU BUM!
Balan: Huh, Alvin? That you?
Alvin: No.
Balan: oh, ok, thought it was.
Alvin: ...seriously get down here, Exodus is gone.
Jude: Balan, good to see you again...why was Volt up here? I thought we all agreed NOT TO USE GREAT SPIRITS FOR SPYRITES!
Balan: ...we didn't recreate Volt...that would be the dumbest idea possible.
Jude: Huh, but we totally fought him here.
Elle: LIGHTNING IS SCARY AND BAD AND AAAAAAAAAH!!!!
Jude: ...we had to put up with that for the past 20 minutes because of him.
Balan: You sure? I've been up here the entire time and no Volt.
Jude: Well that's strange. So where to next.
Flying Woman: It's been a long time, Jude!
Jude: huh!? Muzet!? What are you doing here!? ...you're not going to be a boss fight are you?
Muzet: Why would I be that?
Jude: You were kind of the final boss of the previous game...
Muzet: What about Gaius?
Jude: Fine, you were the CO-Final Boss of the previous game, happy?
Muzet: Better!
Jude: Anyway, why are you here?
Muzet: Bad things are happening, and Milla is missing and I thought maybe you knew where she was.
Jude: ...wait, Milla's missing? Isn't she suppose to be, you know, busy sort of maintaining the world's spirits?
Muzet: Yes, yes she is...then she decided to stop doing that, came here in human form and well...
Jude: ...I see...no, I don't know where she is.
Muzet: Oh, that's too bad, well best I go look for her! She's kind of important after all.
Elle: Who...was that?
Teepo: That's Milla's big sister!
Elle: Whose Milla?
Alvin: NO! We are NOT giving this brat a crash course in the entire first game's plot.
Ludger: Home.
Elize: I'll go with you! I want to know what's happening.
Alvin: Ok, that DEFINITELY is an excuse just to have another party member.
Teepo: And we all know you're only complaining because you don't like me.
Alvin: And that is one thing I have NEVER kept secretive!
*back at Trigleph*
Jude: So our next destination is Marksburg because someone has been looking for Julius there.
Alvin: Yeah, but how are we going to get there?
*Ludger's phone goes off*
Ludger: Hello?
Nova: PAY YOUR DAMNED DEBT NOW! Toodles ^_^
Jude: Guess that answers THAT!
*one Jude character quest later that we're skipping because frankly, I don't feel like going over it. Just know that Jude used basic logic and legal reasoning to defeat a black market guy, Ludger pays that part of the debt and they head off to Marksburg*
Jude: So there's suppose to be someone looking for Julius here.
Alvin: Well I guess we best start looking!
Teepo: Hey! Look! Someone is over there.
Elize: Hey, I was about to say that!
Jude: Even though the chances of that being relevant are incredibly small...
Ludger: There.
Jude: Fine, we'll go.
*team talks to person*
Girl: Here kitty kitty kitty! ... I SAID HERE DAMN IT! Come on, please :(
Jude: Wait...Leia? What are you doing here?
Leia: huh? Jude? Oh, just trying to get this cat!
Jude: I thought you were a reporter now...
Elize: Wait, Leia's a reporter? Since when?
Teepo: Yeah, that's as crazy as Alvin being a salesman!
Alvin: *cough*
Leia: Well, it's part of my job! See, this cat is Julius and getting him is the big scoop and...
*Ludger attempts to get him, gets scratched*
Ludger: Pain...
Jude: wait...that cat is Julius!? So the person hunting Julius was you...and it's not the Julius we were looking for...
Alvin: So this is yet ANOTHER case we're just meeting someone for the sake of a reunion...to hell with it, I'm getting that cat back for you, Elize, you're with me!
Elize: Why?
Alvin: Because I need to use Teepo as bait.
Teepo: HEY!
Elize: I'll help but only if you promise not to use Teepo in such a way.
Alvin: ...I'll try?
*Leia joins, Alvin and Elize leave temporarily for plot convenience*
Elle: Wait, is she your GIRLFRIEND JUDE!?
Jude: Uh, no, she's just a childhood friend, that's all?
Elle: HEY! YOU TOTALLY LIKE EACH OTHER! MEANIE >:(
Jude: Uh...what? I...uhh...Leia, back me up here...
Leia: It's...just like...he...said...uhh...say, what's your name anyway?
Ludger: Ludger.
Leia: Ludger! Yeah, that's it! Tell that kid...what's her name?
Elle: I'm Elle, REMEMBER IT!!!
Leia: Yeah, tell Elle there's nothin-...wait, Jude, are you...
Jude: HOW DID I GET MYSELF INTO THIS!?
Ludger: Why me...
*team moves on*
Elle: Hey, that glasses man looks familiar...
Ivar: AHA!!! Fearing cat, you will know the sting of my...OH GOD MY FACE!!!
Leia: What's he doing here?
Jude: ...do you want the alleged answer or the speculative rightly truthful one?
Leia: Yes.
Ivar: YES! SEE EVEN THE MIGHTIEST OF BEASTS RUN SCARED OF ME AND MY MIGHTY HAMMER!
Ludger: Sure...
Ivar: And thus, HERE YOU GO! I have no need for such a mighty weapon, I am mighty without! Come on, I dare you to try and beat me with that-...
*Ludger smashes Ivar over the head with the sledgehammer, wielding it like he's god damned ninja somehow*
Ivar: Aha! A clever tactic attacking me while my guard is down!
Leia: Uh, I'm pretty sure that was less "clever" and more "releasing pent up rage on a fool" but sure, you keep telling yourself that.
Ivar: I would love to school you some more, but now I MUST GET GOING! *Ivar limps off screen clearly beaten...badly...*
Leia: Please tell me we won't have to deal a whole extra game with him...
Jude: I'm afraid so...
Leia: Aww...why can't you have picked a COOLER more competent rival!?
Jude: Hey, I didn't CHOOSE him to be my rival...actually thinking on it, I'm pretty sure he chose me...and I can't even begin to fathom WHY.
Leia: Anyway, let's go back to Duval, I have a source I need to contact!
*at Duval*
Leia: Ah, there you are Jolyne!
Jolyne: I'm not going to give you information for free you know...
Leia: This is Jude Matthis, the guy who is working on Spyrite Technology, and this is Ludger Kresnik, the wanted man who is the brother of that other wanted man...I'm pretty sure we can pay you information!
Jolyne: You win. Anyway, there's this guy in the street...a DEMON if you will...go check him out, good news story!
Jude: I guess we're going to alleyway now, huh?
*at the alleyway*
Elle: This place is scary!
Leia: Why are we bringing her along again? She can't fight, and she's not a booster for another character justifying the existence...
Jude: I'm still trying to figure that part out. Ludger, do you know why she's with us?
Ludger: No.
Elle: Because I said so *sticks tongue out*
Leia: So I hear this is a black market for Spirit Fossils and...
Random Dude: DID YOU SAY SPIRIT FOSSILS!? I GOT A WHOLE BUNCH OF THEM FOR LESSER SPIRITS HERE! YOU GOT MONEY! I GOT GOODS!
Jude: This seems a little too convenient...
Random Dude: GET HIM BOYS!!!
*guy holds Jude at gunpoint*
Jude: ...you do realize I could turn around and beat you pretty damn fast right?
Random Gun Guy: Ha! It's not like you're the main character or anything!
Jude: No, but he is!
*Ludger steps on Rollo's tail, Rollo screams, gun guy startles, Jude knocks guy out*
Jude: Ok, start talking!
Random Guy: RIEZE MAXIA SCUM! YOU ARE MONSTERS WITH YOUR SPIRIT ARTES AND SUCH! US NORMAL ELYMPIANS WITH OUR GUNS ARE THE TRUE MASTER RACE!
Jude: That...doesn't even begin to make sense. Well, no, I get the fear and monster part but how is being clearly inferior a "master race" and...
Leia: You're applying too much logic to idiot racist thinking, Jude...
Jude: ...touche...
*Spacial Distortion Bullcrap happens*
Ludger: ...Deja Vu.
Jude: Ok, I think see where this is going.
Random Dude: Aha, you there, you look like you're looking for something.
*Jude catches gun guy coming behind him*
Jude: Ok, speak up, WHY DO YOU HATE US!?
Random Dude: YOU GUYS ARE RIEZE MAXIA SCUM! WE WILL MURDER YOU MONSTROUS CREATURES!
Familiar Old Voice: Monsters using Spirits? I see...
*3 knives cause a triangle around them and capture the dudes*
Rowen: I believe I'm the one you're looking for.
Jude: Rowen! How convenient!
Random Dude: Oh no, we of this organization are going to get back at you MONSTERS of Rieze Maxia and...
Rowen: Monsters? Why yes, yes we are *immolates the guys*
Leia: Uh...Rowen...what did you do?
Rowen: Murdered them because they killed Gaius and Lady Drissele and...
Ludger: Imposter.
Jude: Yeah, most likely, SHOW YOUR TRUE SELF!
*Rowen turns black and evil*
Jude: Boss fight?
Ludger: Boss fight.
Leia: *sigh* Didn't even get a real dungeon...
*one boss fight later, more Lance bullshit by Ludger, distortion ends*
Random Dude: What!? People don't just disappear! They truly are monsters.
Jude: Uh, we're right behind you actually...no, we do not have an explanation for it and I can assure you it's not Spirit Artes.
Random Dude: bah, shoot them!
Manly Voice: That's enough, actually.
Random Dude: And who are you?
*revealed to be Gaius*
Gaius: Does it matter? Put the guns down.
Random Dude: Why should I?
Gaius: Because I just sliced them out of your hands when you weren't looking and am now holding you at sword point.
Random Dude: HOW DID YOU DO THAT?!
Gaius: Villain of the first game.
Random Dude: ...oh...
Gaius: So tell me, what are your plans with the boosters and spyrix?
Random Dude: We were going to create a Greater Spyrite and cause it to make a havok thus have people lose faith in the process! There, happy!?
Gaius: That's...actually a very clever plan...wouldn't you say so Rowen?
Rowen: Yes, indeed, good thing we're going to stop it.
Random Dude: See!? YOU ARE MONSTERS! YOU'RE GOING TO KILL US!
*Gaius puts down sword*
Gaius: Actually, you're wrong; we're going to let you live. Proof we aren't monsters.
Random Dude: But you just said you were the villain!
Gaius: Past tense is key there...
Random Dude: Yeah well...RUN AWAY!!!
Jude: Well, not how I expected to see either of you but...uhh...hi Gaius and Rowen.
Rowen: Pleasure to see you again.
Gaius: I see you're doing well.
Jude: So what are you two doing over here? I mean, one of you is King of Rieze Maxia, and the other is Prime Minister...you are literally the two biggest people in Rieze Maxia.
Gaius: Investigation. Need to find out what's going on over here first hand. By the way, my name is Erost while I'm up here...kind of can't give away that I'm KING OF RIEZE MAXIA walking around.
Rowen: Something is afoot, if you don't mind, I'd like to rejoin my comrades.
Gaius: Works for me.
Alvin: Oh yeah, we're conveniently back at this point too.
Elize: Yep.
Rowen: Ah, the whole gang is back together...and with some new faces.
Ludger: Indeed.
Elle: YOU'RE OLD AND STUPID AND WHY DO WE HAVE TO HAVE YOU!?
Rowen: So where do we go from here?
*Ludger's phone rings*
Spirius Agent: GO TO ALDAHI SEAHAVEN! NEXT MISSION IS THERE!
Ludger: ...Aldahi Seahaven apparently.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN AT ALDAHI SEAHAVEN!? ANd...oh screw it you already know how this is going down. Just tune in next time.
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FFXII:
Played a crap ton of this today. How much? Uh.... I went from wherever I was all the way to after Belial. So... a ways. It certainly feels like a ways.
Vaan: Upgraded his spear to an even better spear. Has a shit ton of HP. Luckily hasn't done anything too stupid since last time, but he did watch his girl get hit on by both Balthier AND that little twit Larsa, so he's really gotta up his game. I can see that after FFX, Square liked making you an observer to someone else's story, because for all that Vaan is there, it really feels like a story focused on Basch/Ashe/Balthier. Oh, well.
Balthier: Found a different gun and gave it to him, and hey, he suddenly deals a bunch of damage. Gotta love not giving a shit about enemy defense. Guns are weird in this game. ITD is interesting, but even so, wow, they have terrible power. I still haven't figured out what I want to do with him, but I gave him a Belial, because it was there, and I figured "Well, at least it gives him a definite use for the next several battles or whatever." In plot, continues to generally be the man. They must have had a blast writing this guy.
Fran: Continues to be my jill of all trades. Dark is real good for much of this part of the game. I keep finding decent bows, so I'm just sort of rolling with it in that direction. Pretty much necessary for killing the trash mobs if they go full zerg swarm. Finally did some stuff, plot wise.
Basch: My only character with quickening. Actually, he has two. So.... Basch is a guy that I stuff in my party if I want a competent-to-very good physical fighter, but if a boss is giving me difficulty, I can sub him in and delete it, now. I really wish him and Vossler switched places.
Ashe: Sort of a paladin in my file. So tanky. She really likes blocking enemy attacks with her shield and generally gumming up the works. She also has a boatload of HP, but not like, Vaan levels. I feel like she's basically following Yuna's act, which kind of waters her down. Otherwise, she's cool enough.
Penelo: Rejoins with about a billion LP and the freedom to go in any direction you give her. I wound up giving her a pole, because I had one lying around and holy shit, poles are awesome. They combo like crazy, boost your evade to absurd levels, and hit Mdef instead of def, so even though ostensibly she should be my fourth strongest character, against certain enemies she does about 100 damage more than any other party member---with ONE hit. She usually gets more. I decided I wanted to give her a bunch of high armor/strength/evade equips, and now she's an ultra-tank that just ruins the shit out of tougher random encounters. PLUS she has all the magic variety that Fran does. And that's just what I chose to do. I love that she starts with so much LP, that, this random orphan girl that you pick up can just be turned into whatever, you know. I mean, I made her a crazy bo-fighter, but someone else could have easily turned her into a super mage or some sort of viking berserker.
Really though, everyone is the same, but I'm digging that I've built them differently enough to be notable, so far. I gave everyone in my party Raise, because why the hell would I not give everyone in my party raise?
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Balthier: No good lines because this dungeon is awful and takes forever.
...
...
...
Do you know what's coming?
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Human Resource Machine - Another game that proves I only pretend to be smart and am actually a fucking moron.
I want to talk about why it makes me stupid, but that would only be me trying to pretend I am smart. So just accept that I am not smart and move on. literally proving that I shouldn't work in the field that I do because I can't do basic fucking variable handling.
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I am some kind of Human Resource Machine God and have finished half the levels with all the stars in like one hour so far.
On the other hand , unfortunately, being good at this is actually not related to intelligence in any way
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Maybe knowing code actually makes you worse at this
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Oh yeah I also finished Talos Principle. Fantastic.
While the rewind machine was a fantastic idea, I felt like it slowed puzzle execution down too much.
I tried to get one other star (I had 7) then just dropped the idea and youtubed the super special ending. It's actually not super special at all!
I'll try the DLC later.
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I don't actually know code is part of the problem.
I couldn't optimize like the first thing on the tier that has year 20ish and fought to even solve it, then ragequit on sorting Zero terminating strings. Nearly fucking broke stuff when I solved it today but still wouldn't get it to work because I hadn't realised that 000 would want to output 00 instead of just 0 because it is very specifically 0 TERMINATING, not 0 working as start and end of a string and the game not really telling you WHAT is wrong with the code when it flips its shit because your set works for the current set, but it wants to output a new one that breaks it. SO I was expecting to only output 0 and then would move on to the next output which I thought was right and it is all NAH MOTHERFUCKER IT SHOULD BE 0 and I go... but I fucking DID 0.
I also have no idea how to strip a command and I am sure there is some deliberately inefficient command structures I can use to reduce # of actions but inflating # commands that I haven't internalized, but far more frustrating is not working out how to drop a command on a code you have just got working and miss the target by 1...
Fucking INFURIATING. And this is why I don't actually code.
Vermintide - Do you like Left4Dead? Do you want Left4Dead with level progression and loot? Well you should probably have checked out Payday 2 or Warframe or both, but this is also like that but MUCH more like Left4Dead because Skaven are mostly melee mobs and a bunch of the special enemies are straight rips of classic L4D enemies (the smokers/Pack Rats are much shorter range at least). It also has probably a more robust melee system than even Left4Dead 2. I only did 2 maps both as the dwarf, but like 1/4 of the way through the first map I got the feel for the rhythm of blocking and shield bashing to control crowds and regenerate your defense/stamina, compared to L4D where you just pretty much don't want to really get locked into Melee it feels really nice.
Oh and there is no friendly fire, so it is safe to play with Super.
Apparently the difficulty scales up by reducing healing AND increasing incoming damage which pushes my buttons a bit (I hate difficulty levels scaling with two vectors, it is way way way too easy to fuck up AND can very easily make the game not feel like the thing you originally enjoyed). It does do some pretty neat things with sacrificing item slots for better chances at loot. You can give up portability of your healing slot to get Tomes that buff your odds of loot drops at end of the level. You can still pick up and use healing items that you find, but you can't take more with you. There is Grimoires for your buff potion slots that you can't put down that do the same. Unfortunately you can also really easily throw them away by accident (which I did of course) by toggling to that slot and clicking. But essentially you can forego standard bonuses while you play for long term rewards, which is play I usually quite like.
SO we will see how I feel about that, but from a short session it feels like neat little thing with a lot of potential which is wayyyy more than I expected when I originally saw it. I first saw it as a Warhammer fantasy tie in (which I never really give many fucks about) for a game setting that has literally just been killed by Games Workshop. (Like it is cool as a thing that exists and to know some lore of, but balls to most of the games that aren't Chaos in the Old World). When I found out it is a coop game though I was more on board, then finding out a few more things, like some progression to keep me interested beyond just finishing the campaign, different character types so some asynchronous play and I was pretty sold.
It is a good thing that there is auras around friendly characters though, because everything is so grey and brown that I would still fuck up the human sillhouettes for rats in a flurry otherwise. This is why grimdank is terrible settings for shooters.
Also I should probably not have let the death of Warhammer phase me. I mean like, Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines came out JUST as Old WoD was killed off as well and Bloodlines is amazing, BG2 came out at the death of 2nd Edition, so clearly there is some pedigree there.
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Yeah nevermind I got up to Year 20 and FUCK THAT SHIT.
I mean I can finish the level but optimizating this? Jesus
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Tal, SRWI damage math is absolutely cuckoo in a number of ways. Hell, it's the first, and God willing only, game where Shin Getter 1 is generally acknowledged to be a worse unit than Boss Borot.
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Hunger Quest - Just picked this up as a mobile game because it was in the recommended queue for Pictlogica. Seems fairly fun from the outset, though the fact that new jobs are basically bought kind of annoys me.
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Human Resource Machine - I finished Zero Terminating Sum (year 21). It was a shit solution but it did the job. I tried the "hard" thing of that tier afterwards (year 22), which is grab an input, then output the Fibonacci Sequence until you reach the number closest to the input. I fucked up and built a count to that number of sequences into the Fibonacci sequence instead. So rework it to check and see if the next Fibonacci number is > than the input and that works. I know my loop functions were a bit inefficient and I could have cropped a command or two which might have actually met the optimisation goals. Probably 15 minutes total spent on the "hard" puzzle.
Then try Year 23 and I have no fucking clue man. I worked out a shitty way to do it, but it uses all 8 variables just to compare 4 outputs and then it breaks if your Terminating 0 is the fifth output (or if you have more than 4 values to compare). It would be super inefficient but it would work if I had more Variables and the outputs were limited. I can't fucking work out how to do it. I know I could do it with a running count (and a ceiling on the number of variables to compare). However there is no way to define a variable as a starting point for running a Count (sometimes they prepopulate something with 0 which I could use...).
I just... fuck me. This game makes me hate myself.
Edit - I beat like year 24 as well. Then went back and realised I didn't have 17 done, but finished that as well.
26 I can't work out either (which is sort 3 things in numerical order). I can do all kinds of things, but I can't compare things.
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I just... fuck me. This game makes me hate myself.
Yeah, that's the game's fault. Sure.
10/10 GOTY amirite
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gref: i haven't gotten there yet
But can't you Like substract x from y and if negative then x is bigger and if positive y is bigger?
Jesus this game is math edutainment
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Star Ocean 3 - Re-beaten. I defeated Luther on the first try though it was a bit dicy with some Analeptic use after Perfect Symmetry wrecked people a few times. Didn't see Insanity Prelude. Mostly used Scatter Beam chains and Poison Cloud/Mirror Slice combos to smash things, it worked pretty well. Adray, as mentioned, helps extend healing resources and that's about it. No idea why mages are so bad at comboing in this game compared to 4.
The ending was pretty goofy. The one new ending scene I hadn't watched on my first playthrough was Albel's. Which is about him having an anime showdown with a vampire or something? What the fuck was that? I kinda regret getting Albel, every time he opens his mouth he makes scenes dumber, although lategame scenes in SO3 don't have much to lose to be fair.
So yeah. As much as I like a lot of the writing, and I even like the idea of the plot twist, I don't really like how the scene-writing and character work derails hard in the late-going. So many scenes which are just... awkwardly directed, with characters repeating themselves, and a total lack of interesting character conflicts which dominated the Elicoor arc. Oh well. The gameplay, at least, remains quite fun, if sometimes rather rough around the edges (I'm now pretty certain I prefer SO4 from a pure gameplay perspective, functional mages + characters not being underlevelled + rotatable camera + visible enemy HP + buffs/debuffs visible + rush mode; SO3 has fury which is cool but not implemented as well as I'd like). It was certainly an enjoyable game to revisit. I won't bother with the aftergame this time.
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Hey, ID, this is neither here nor there, but do you play League of Legends under your usual call sign? I only ask because my roommate was paired up with an Infinity Dragon the other day and then you magically reappeared shortly thereafter.
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I just... fuck me. This game makes me hate myself.
Yeah, that's the game's fault. Sure.
10/10 GOTY amirite
I don't blame the game for my vanity, emotional instability and self esteem issues. Edit - that's what you are for after all.
Fen, that would work, need to build a function to handle comparing negatives. Need to make sure to store results efficiently as well when comparing 3 as well.
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Hey, ID, this is neither here nor there, but do you play League of Legends under your usual call sign? I only ask because my roommate was paired up with an Infinity Dragon the other day and then you magically reappeared shortly thereafter.
I haven't played LoL in a while now, and that was never my tag.
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Coincidence, then.
I like to think that my randomly thinking about you summoned you back into the existing universe.
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Shovel Knight: Maingame beat. Fun. Pretty. Plays well. Pretty much a super well executed modern platformer. Using shovel hop in the middle of things is confusing and cost me a few deaths (as is the surprising sensitivity of starting it). Still, fun. 8/10.
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Human Resource Machine: I really thought I had the most elegant solution to that last problem :( :( :(
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The Vaan/Basch deal mentioned above was what made one of my best friends quit playing FFXII, because he couldn't take the writing seriously after that (and he has an impressively low bar for RPG writing to boot).
The group over at the Phantasy Star Cave forums finished their Phantasy Star Generation:2 English patch, so I played through that. TLDR: If you didn't like Phantasy Star 2 on some level already, don't bother, because more than likely, everything you disliked about it hasn't changed.
Rather than going into a long discourse in general on Phantasy Star II, I'll just talk about what changed throughout the game. In general, this remake shares a lot in common with FF4DS, in both the good and bad ways. The plot is, of course, the same as it's always been, but, like FF4DS, it's a fair bit more fleshed out. The PCs get slightly more character development, for instance. The overall flow of the game is same, but there's some added content here and there. This would bring me to the first downside of the remake: almost all of the added content is annoying, padding, or both.
The remake changes layouts in a couple dungeons. The most notable changes are in Nido Tower (the second dungeon of the game - the layout is now much more straightforward, but the dungeon is a bit longer) and the Control Tower (it's no longer a god-awful elevator maze from hell), and Skure (it's also less of a maze). There are subtle alterations to Climatrol's layout as well (it ends up being slightly shorter as a result). Even when layouts aren't changed, treasures often are - a lot of redundant equipment in the Dezorian dungeons got turned into big piles of meseta instead.
In any case, the game plays more or less the same until you reach Zema. Once there, you're thrown into an annoying fetch-quest that I think is supposed to be a callback to the first game - sometime between the Genesis version and this remake, Rolf has forgotten how to speak the Motavians' native language, so now you have to do an annoying fetch quest to get a key item that allows you to do so. It basically consists of talking to everyone in Zema (the road to Kueri won't open till you do this), then going to Kueri, then going back home because of course you have to meet Kain, then going back to Kueri and talking to everyone THERE, then going back to Zema and doing it again. Then you have to do another annoying one to actually get the Jet Scooter: instead of just going down the back side of the dump and talking to the Motavian there and getting the scooter, you have to go down the back side of the dump, talk to him, return to Zema, buy a key item from a guy for 10,000 meseta, then go down the FRONT side of the dump and give it to a specific Motavian on the bottom floor. Oh, and if you talk to the wrong Motavian on the way, he'll take it - without asking - and you have to go buy another one. (What the fuck, Sega.)
From there, the rest of the game pretty much plays out the same as the original again, at least in terms of game flow. The game is overall less grindy than the original; the only part I had to consciously grind was to get that 10,000 meseta for the key item. In large part, this is because PCs not in your party gain EXP now. It's not full gain - I didn't pay attention to the exact rate but I suspect it's between 50% and 75% of what active members gain - but it's enough, given the way level requirements scale (quite steeply beyond a certain point). You can also, instead of having them gain EXP, work on creating items instead. I found the item creation feature to be completely useless and horribly grindy; your mileage probably won't vary. It's probably best ignored.
The battle system's changed up some. It now pauses between each turn like most games rather than running your commands until you press a button to interrupt. Basic physicals come in one of three attack levels. Level 2 attacks are the baseline and what your party members will use on autobattle. Level 1 attacks are more accurate and have an initiative bonus, but do about 1/4 to 1/3 less damage. Level 3 attacks are less accurate and have an initiative penalty, but do about 1/4 to 1/3 more damage. In general, I found level 2 attacks to be optimal, but there were times where the other levels were useful.
Each PC now also has a special skill meter which is filled by either making basic attacks or defending. The rate at which it fills varies for each PC, and defending it raises it a bit more than twice as fast as attacking. When the meter is full, a special skill unique to that PC can be used:
Rolf (Royal Guard) - Party is made completely invincible for 3 turns. This blocks literally everything, including Dark Force's corruption attack. His is also the slowest special to charge, taking six turns of defending to fill the meter.
Nei (Final Force) - One PC's TP are restored to full. Takes four turns of defending to charge.
Rudo (Revenge) - Hits a single enemy for ~375-450 ITD damage. Accuracy's similar to regular attacks (it can miss). Takes two turns of defending to charge.
Amy (Nareverser) - Revives one PC at full HP. Takes five turns of defending to charge. Worth noting this is the only source of revival for around half to 2/3 of the game.
Hugh (Sulfur) - Hits all enemies for ~100 ITD damage and inflicts Paralysis. The Paralysis from Sulfur ignores immunities; it works on every enemy in the game, including Neifirst, Dark Force, and Mother Brain. However, it can miss. Takes two turns of defending to charge.
Anna (Medical Treatment) - Removes all status ailments from all PCs. Takes three turns of defending to charge.
Kain (Burst Touch) - Hits all enemies for ~200 ITD damage. Takes two turns of defending plus one physical attack to charge, IIRC (I didn't use Kain much).
Shir (Tornado) - Hits all enemies for ~125 ITD wind damage. Note that since it's elemental, a number of enemies will resist it and only take ~65 instead - most notably just about all robots. Takes two turns of defending to charge.
Elemental damage is a thing now; I noticed very few overt elemental weaknesses, but resistances definitely exist. So Nafoi isn't the end-all be-all tech anymore. Rolf is still the best caster though.
PC balance is still a mess, and is arguably worse than the original game, though. To break that down...
Rolf is still very clearly the gamebest PC. He's lost none of his strengths from the original and he still learns basically every offensive technique in the game, including the newly added ones. Megid doesn't hurt your party as much either (but it's still not going to see play unless you're overleveled). He's slower than in the original game, now being just slightly faster than Rudo.
Nei is notably better on the whole, with an expanded support technique list, but has trouble with offense against defensive opponents in the later parts of the game she's in. Most notably, she gets Shift/Deban/Nares. She's also now way faster than everyone else (nearly 2x Rolf's speed, from memory).
Rudo hasn't changed meaningfully in any way.
Amy is now clearly the gameworst PC. She has game-worst durability, game-worst offense, game-worst speed, and all of the unique abilities her skillset gives her can be duplicated by storebought consumables. She used to have a niche in MT healing, however horribly inefficient it was, but she's lost that, as the remake made Star Mists buyable on Dezoris (for 1000 meseta a pop). Moon Dews too, for that matter (at 12000 each). Sure, they're expensive, but what else are you going to spend the money on? Better that than lug around a PC who is slower than most of the enemies in the game and gets literally OHKOed by half the randoms on Dezoris and Dark Force and Mother Brain. Through Deban. Yes, she's that bad. Remake Amy may just be the worst PC I've seen in any JRPG ever; she's a warm body for a bit, then she might be worth bringing for Deban until you get the Snow Crown ... maybe... and then you should never, ever use her again after that.
Hugh is probably the third-best PC now, strangely enough. His paralysis spell works nearly 100% of the time on randoms (as long as they aren't robots), and even against robots, he has a better variety of attack techs to fall back on, plus Sulfur is probably the best PC special in the game that is actually usable. Having him around for the final bosses makes them _unbelievably_ easier (it almost feels like cheating, but considering both of them have MT near-OHKO at the level I took the endgame at, I don't especially object).
Anna is ... marginally worse than on the Genesis. In particular, her offense pre-Dezoris went from being kind of okay to being really awful, and she doesn't bring anything else to the table since she, like Rolf, got nerfed on speed. I used for most of Dezoris all the same, until I switched Hugh back in for the final dungeon.
Kain doesn't stand out as much when Hugh has Sulfur, but he's probably still a very credible (maybe the best?) fourth party member choice. I didn't use him as much as I probably should have so it's hard to say.
Shir has much better late-game offense now (the Laconia Dagger bug was fixed - her basic physicals almost keep up with Neisword Rolf now!), plus Tornado is a pretty good special, if not quite as good as Kain's. Her durability isn't completely awful either; I ran her in my final party and didn't regret it. That said, she's also nerfed on speed some.
As I alluded to above, the PC speed curve is a lot different: Nei is _way_ out in front. Rolf, Rudo, Anna and Shir are all basically tied with each other; none of them are more than like 3-5 points of speed apart at equal levels. Kain and Hugh are a step slower than that group, and more or less tied with each other, and Amy is gameworst.
Like FF4DS, on the whole this game, despite being less grindy than the original, is actually more difficult on average. Lategame enemies hit EXTREMELY hard - there were enemies in the Nei equipment dungeons that were doing 3HKO damage on Rolf/Rudo (or 2HKO on Hugh/Shir) through Deban. Dark Falz and Mother Brain themselves had borderline OHKO ST damage through Deban (it WAS enough to OHKO Hugh once) and MT which was just barely shy of being 2HKO on Rolf through Deban. It's impossible to state just how much easier Hugh's Sulfur made these fights; the paralysis probably wiped out a good 3/4 of their turns.
That's about it, really. There's a long and stupidly involved sidequest you can do to revive Nei in the remake; however, it requires clear data from the PS1 remake, which I don't have, so I didn't mess with it. If you do it, she does get a weapon upgrade on Dezoris.
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FFXII:
Got past Tiamat, who, barghle. I got this boss to like, 5 HP or something. Enough where the health bar was invisible before dying once, so when I did finally beat it, it was a pretty big relief.
Vaan: Has been clever-to-good lately, aside from the "never ask a woman their age" joke. His vitality is starting to really show how good it is, and I gave him boosting equipment to take advantage of it, and then I started giving him Hammers, because why not? Hammers are hilarious. Vaan will now hit from between 2 and 800 damage (party average is a little under 300). I'm pretty reasonably sure that his average is much higher than anyone but Basch at this point, so I think I'll keep him on that high random bullshit train.
Balthier: Still awesome. Honestly, I don't really like the gameplay in this game too much. Balthier here is the main reason why I keep playing. He's finally carved out a niche for himself as my Technick character, so he's got that going for himself.
Fran: Hey look, this character has story. So... she's basically an elf and the Viera are along the same asshole lines as Tolkien's original shitty elves. I haven't had much luck finding new magic in a long, long time, but she's still got bows, and that armor I found way back when is still the best I've got, so despite falling behind on damage, she's still not a liability by any stretch of the imagination. Even though everyone has Cura/Raise at this point, she's sort of my designated healer since, well, she has boosted MP and I might want Basch's for something else.
Basch: Speaking of. He now has 3 quickenings before any other character has one. On top of that, he's got my best weapon by far, consistently hitting for 760ish damage which is more than double just about anyone else, save Vaan and Penelo. Basch is the dude that I point at to make things die. If I'm struggling with small-fry for some reason, he makes a really good healer, since he has more than double anyone else's MP, too. He has had no story to speak of in this update.
Ashe: Really needs to not trust that little shit Larsa. Basch lite currently. I gave her Step Mine (fuck you, Traveler. You're a shitty name. Step Mine forever) so I have a secondary/tertiary nuke for hard bosses. Otherwise, she's just a really solid tank, trading quite a lot of Basch's damage output for huge pools of HP and better evade and a relic that helps her shield block.
Penelo: Continues to shatter worlds. POLES, son. Between the combos and the hitting MDef, it's just a great weapon. Better still, I gave her an evade-increasing relic. Look, I think we can all agree that Flans are the most annoying enemy type in this game of VERY ANNOYING enemies. Poles wreck flans. If you play or replay this game in the future, consider getting a dedicated pole-user just so you can not have to deal with asshole flans.
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Since Zenny seemed concerned that we didn't have enough #FEDL...
Fire Emblem Awakening - Playthrough finished. I mostly didn't do any reclassing this time, and had the goal of getting every kid PC I hadn't gotten before (Owain, Brady, Inigo, Nah, Gerome). Unit notes...
Final team
Robin (+Spd, -Luck): Tried for the DL build. Offensive stats did feel a bit low (-Luck lowers them) so not quite as good as she could be. Still good. Third in kills with 85.
Chrom: He was lagging generally so I gave him Naga's Tear. Otherwise he kinda existed.
Stahl: Gained lots of speed and was one of my best PCs midgame. Post-promotion his speed mostly fell back to the usual Stahl territory so much less good by the end, though he always had pdur and good supports at least.
Sumia and Cordelia: Their usual good selves. I favoured staves with them more heavilly than I have in the past, so both got Physic and Mend at least. Too bad Recover is B in this game. Sumia was second in kills with 88.
Panne: Used her long enough for her to get reclassed back to 1, and after that her stats were extremely all-around good. Her Beastbane also ended up very handy. Ended up with capped Skill/Speed (over 50!). So yeah, useful. Lack of 2 range and only 6 move are the only real drawbacks. Ended up the kill leader at 104.
Anna: Provided her usual excellent utility, nothing out of the ordinary here. Lategame I class changed her to Sage and this actually works pretty well provided she can absorb the speed hit, since I had a spare forged Wind tome.
Cherche and Henry: I supported these two to get Gerome. They're in some ways kinda similar, amazing pdur and not-so-great speed/res, so they're great against fighters. Cherche had mobility and Hammers, Henry had Nosferatu and not having a weakness, they were both pretty useful.
Lucina: With Maribelle as her mom she was weaker than normal. Poor Str in particular. Demoiselle is a nice skill at least. Still decent.
Say'ri: Filler with good stats, then valuable as Tiki's support buddy.
Tiki: Lategame MVP as she often is ever since I figured out about reclassing to 1, invincible and killed things shockingly well when paired up.
Owain (Stahl as dad): His stats were pretty solid, though there have been faster myrmidons. I made him an assassin so someone would be able to use bows, got him to C rank there. He was never really exceptional but served his role well enough.
Morgan (Owain as dad): I got him after all the other kids but thanks to the levels Owain had gotten he was actually usable at base, and with Veteran I was able to level him to promotion in a couple maps. After that he was pretty sick with amazing stats, though lack of A rank = no Amatsu or Brave Sword meant that he was basically all stats, and still not as good as Panne or especially Tiki at that. Still useful late for sure.
Flavia and Basilio: As usual, better than the weaker kids/etc, A/B weapon ranks help, so they snuck onto the team.
Not on the final team
Lissa and Maribelle: Still not very good, I benched them once I got access to their kids.
Olivia: I love how dancing is all but mutually exclusive with getting her completely useless kid, that is great. One of these days I'll need to use her without worrying about Inigo so I can actually get a sense of her.
Sully and Miriel: Useful earlygame, got RNG-screwed in Sully's case, and just dropped in Miriel's, mostly due to Ricken.
Ricken: Actually he didn't turn out that good, but I needed to use male PCs and he was one of the better ones after he gained speed like his first 3 levels. Was Nah's dad.
Nowi: Is somewhat better than I've given her credit for? I dropped her when Tiki joined but using both would have been legit enough since she was near to Level 30, Tiki really didn't need the Dragonstone+, or they could trade it in some manner probably.
Tharja: See Miriel more or less, with Ricken and Henry on the team for parenting reasons using her didn't feel as compelling as it often does.
Libra: Filler staff user/dad. Solid in his role as always.
Gerome (Henry as dad): I got him prior to Chapter 19 and I tried to use him out of the box, but after a couple resets I decided to promote him so he wasn't a liability. He was okay, another Anathema user is always good, but wasn't good enough to stay on the team when the party size contracts in chapter 21.
Anyway, game remains fun. Assessment hasn't fundamentally changed, I would like it more if it didn't have ninja reinforcements (great to hear FE14 has done away with them!) but it's still a game I greatly enjoy and still will easily merit loads of replays.
(Kill data again mostly for my own reference)
Panne 104
Sumia 88
Robin 85
Chrom 79
Tiki 74
Stahl 73
Cordelia 69
Cherche 67
Henry 66
Lucina 58
Nowi 51
Owain 47
Say'ri 44
Morgan 35
Ricken 33
Miriel 24
Sully 23
Anna 17
Libra 13
Tharja 10
Flavia 10
Gerome 9
Frederick 5
Virion 3
Donnel 3
Nah 3
Vaike 2
Lon'qu 2
Olivia 2
Basilio 2
Gregor 1
Kellam 0
Lissa 0
Maribelle 0
Gaius 0
Inigo 0
Brady 0
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Beyond Earth's expansion has been out long enough for some general word to form so I picked it up. Overall, I think they've finally managed to differentiate themselves from 5 enough. It's not as big a shift as 4 to 5 is, but it's probably a bigger change than 3 to 4.
The main revisions are a general overhaul of diplomacy that definitely isn't borrowed from Endless Legend (play Endless Legend, it's the best 4X in years). You start with a basic trait that defines your government and then pick three perks, one vaguely gold and industry-related, one kinda growth-related and one kinda culture and science-related. You can upgrade them with capital, which you accumulate through buildings and when people make agreements with you. Your traits change the agreements that are available to make with you, which means that each Civ has one agreement that can only be made with them. The water city-focused Civ, for example, has an agreement that lets you increase the strength of water-going cities and make it easier to move them. If you don't need to upgrade or buy things, you can use it to buy production like with energy.
The ocean overhaul was the other big thing. Now, there's lots of different kind of ocean terrains and resources. You can also build cities on the ocean, which gain territory not through culture but by moving the city. This means that you can more deliberately carve out territory or seize important water passages easily. In my first game, I played the water city-centric North Sea Alliance and played exclusively with ocean cities. The big changes are that food is far less important (ocean tiles having great food yields and farms being available in literally every tile) and industry is emphasized further, since you need industry to move your city and ocean terrain with good industry yields are far less common. Of course, you can also use trade routes to bolster output to try and balance that out, but then you're losing out on very profitable trade yields.
Trade also got a boost, as trade routes can now yield strategic resources you don't have if you have a good diplomatic relationship with your trade partners. This means you're no longer forced into the position of needing to decide between crippling yourself or angering an ally. This is one of a lot of little changes (like hybrid affinities) that make the game play better overall.
I've played a couple times and enjoyed it a lot. I don't think I can recommend it over Endless Legend but if you're looking to change things up because you're Legend'ed out, you could do much worse.
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King of Dragon Pass - I started this and I don't know what the fuck I'm doing so I decided to harass the ducks and drive them to extinction. Then they gathered their beast buddies and I got fucking murked.
I do like how there is a bunch of weird lore shit ("The ducks claim to be descended from a great, vanished Empire called Ganderland") and no one really knows what anything means and that is reflected through the game mechanics.
I kind of wish I could on somebody's clan ring in real life so I could give them the worst lifehack advice.
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King of Dragon Pass - I started this and I don't know what the fuck I'm doing so I decided to harass the ducks and drive them to extinction. Then they gathered their beast buddies and I got fucking murked.
I do like how there is a bunch of weird lore shit ("The ducks claim to be descended from a great, vanished Empire called Ganderland") and no one really knows what anything means and that is reflected through the game mechanics.
I kind of wish I could on somebody's clan ring in real life so I could give them the worst lifehack advice.
To quoth the wisest of sayings: "Never-EVER fuck with the ducks."
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Wow, badass.
That Phantasy Star 2 remake looks like Etrian Odyssey Untold: take the base game, remove the one thing interesting about the story to give fans what they want, add grindy item creation to lengthen the game and fetchquests to develop the story somehow. I guess this is what you do when you remake games and have no idea of what you're doing
Human Resource Machine:
I only have one regular and two optional floors left, but right now I just can't handle it.
Sort 11 numbers at once???
I've still kept meeting about half of the optional goals from Floor 20 on so I don't feel too terrible. Just slightly terrible.
This game is like FF13 in that half the game is a tutorial. The difference is that this is a puzzle game so you can breeze through the easy parts very fast.
Starting from the multiplication level it all becomes hell and you just spend hours looking at your crappy code and not making any progress.
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King of Dragon Pass - I started this and I don't know what the fuck I'm doing so I decided to harass the ducks and drive them to extinction. Then they gathered their beast buddies and I got fucking murked.
I do like how there is a bunch of weird lore shit ("The ducks claim to be descended from a great, vanished Empire called Ganderland") and no one really knows what anything means and that is reflected through the game mechanics.
I kind of wish I could on somebody's clan ring in real life so I could give them the worst lifehack advice.
Don't antagonize anyone except for the other clans. EVERYONE ELSE is better than you are. If you think they aren't, you just haven't pissed them off enough to extinguish you, yet.
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Tales of Encount:
Narrator: When we last left our heroes we...*hammer to the face* OW! What was that-...
Ludger: Shove it.
Narrator: But...
Ludger: No.
Narrator: Oh come on.
Ludger: Leave.
Narrator: Fine. Geez.
*in Bakur's office, Bakur being leader of the Spirius Corporation that we learned earlier from parts I skipped*
Bakur: ...I thought I told you to come alone...
Ludger: You didn't...
Bakur: And who are these?
Ludger: ...friends?
Bakur: ...sure, whatever. Anyway, I'm here to offer you a job! The same one your brother had!
Alvin: Ok, there's totally a catch here. I'm not the only one suspicious about this?
Elize: To be fair, Alvin, you were a mercenary, so taking on shady jobs was kind of your thing...
Alvin: ...my point stands!
Jude: I agree with Alvin.
Rowen: Yes, this guy does kind of rule over all of Elympios when you think about it and he could take over everything because of how economically powerful he is...
Bakur: Fine! I need Ludger because he can use a special power needed to destroy FRACTURED DIMENSIONS, something only he and his brother can do...since they're both Kresniks.
Jude: Wait, Kresnik? You mean...
Bakur: Yes, the same...
Teepo: Oh no! Run from his conviction!
Elle: What's conviction mean? Can we eat it?
Bakur: ...I meant OUR Kresnik...
Jude: You mean the lance guy right? Because I don't know who Teepo is talking about...
Bakur: Anyway, yes, him. Ludger is a direct descendant, and he can destroy anomalies known as FRACTURED DIMENSIONS!!!
Rowen: Yes, you've mentioned that before, do you mind telling us more about them?
Bakur: How to put it...see that flower over there?
Elize: Yeah?
Bakur: ...good because that has nothing to do with this conversation, I just wanted you to admire my floral workmanship! See, it's kind of a hobby of mine and I didn't really have leeway in and...
Ludger: AHEM!
Bakur: ...right, so anyway, there are realities that branch off ours, and feed off our PRIME Dimension...we're totally the right one by the way, so don't bother questioning...and we have to destroy these other dimensions. You've sort of done this already but didn't know about it.
Jude: So you want us to blow up OTHER worlds so ours may live?
Bakur: Yes.
Jude: ...you're the main villain, aren't you?
Bakur: Now now, let's not get ahead of ourselves! I'll even show Ludger how to use his SUPER POWERS!!! and give him a fine salary to deal with his DEBT if he joins us.
Alvin: Let me guess, we can't continue the plot until Ludger says yes, can we?
Bakur: Pretty much.
Teepo: Oh come on and say it already! Want to get somewhere!
Rowen: Come now, let's just see this power Ludger can use.
*one tutorial later, Ludger now can transform into a super demon awesome mode*
Bakur: Good, now hang tight until you get a message for us.
Rowen: Based on historical evidence of this game, I think that means you have to pay off more of your debt.
Ludger: Mrgrgr.
*one debt payment and annoying Nova related nonsense later*
Spirius Corporation: Here's this object, NOW GO TO THE FRACTURED DIMENSION DUMBASS!
Jude: I didn't know insulting your employees was part of your protocol.
Nova: WELL IT IS AND MY TWIN SISTER WILL DO SO!
Alvin: Wait, when did you get here?
Nova: I am like a Ninja...FOR DEBT! BEHOLD MY GLORIOUS HAT POWERS!
Rowen: No, nobody even consider questioning her. If you value your brains, it will only help to not think about it.
Elle: What did she just saw?
*everyone pratfalls*
*one fractured dimension shift later*
Alvin: This looks like Trigleph but...well...it's Trigleph, what's different about it?
Jude: I know! Me and Leia will split up and the rest of you will go searching in a clearly suspicious area!
Teepo: Wait, Leia was here this whole time? Why didn't she say anything?
Leia: Because a good reporter always pays attention and takes notes! ...also I was too awestruck at his flower workmanship. I mean, did you guys even SEE that flower!? It was amazing and...
Jude: Ahem, come on Leia.
Leia: Oh, right, sorry!
*at a random natural plant later*
Svent: ALVIN!!!!!
Alvin: ...hi...uncle...I see...you're...uhh...wait, do you hate me or like me in this dimension? Need to get some context here...
Svent: Your mother would be upset with you the way you are acting!
Alvin: ...mom's alive?
Svent: Don't play games with me!
Alvin: hey Uncle, can we...you know...tour the place? Want to show my friends.
Svent: WELL WHY DIDN"T YOU SAY SO!? So here we grow all food on Elympios and use the power of the GREATER SPIRIT ASKA...
Rowen: Say, is there a chance your uncle is the Catalyst?
Ludger: No reaction.
Rowen: Never-mind then.
Alvin: So...Aska must be the catalyst! I mean I never heard of a GREAT SPIRIT called that...
Teepo: It was totally in Tales of Phantasia and Symphonia and...
Elize: Er...what Teepo meant to say is we haven't heard of it existing in THIS game yet!
Alvin: ...yeah, so...Uncle...about that thing you have...consciousness...*pistol whips Svent* Now let's go kill a Great Spirit!
*one dungeon later*
Elle: AAAH! It's bright! WHY IS THE SUN ATTACKING ;_;
Rowen: So if I had to guess, Aska must be the GREAT SPIRIT OF LIGHT!
Alvin: Really? I thought it would be the great spirit of puppies.
Elle: PUPPIES!? Yay! Wait, Rollo doesn't like Puppies!
Rollo: Meow.
Teepo: At least he understands sarcasm!
Ludger: Bird, there!
Rowen: Yes, let's get to fighting it...
*one boss fight later*
Svent: NO! ALVIN! HOW DARE YOU TRY TO KILL THAT WHICH GIVES US POWER! ELYMPIOS WILL FALL!
Alvin: Well...we are going to destroy this reality anyway, so...uhh...lose lose for you?
Rowen: Ludger, do your thing?
Ludger: ...no reaction.
Alvin: So it WASN'T the catalyst!? Uh...well...how do we get out this situation without my uncle SHOOTING ME IN THE FACE!?
Aska: YOU WILL PAY FOR MY IMPRISONMENT! *eats Svent*
Teepo: WOW! THAT BIRD JUST COMPLETELY MURDERED THAT GUY! LET'S SEE IT AGAIN!!!
Aska: CHILD OF KRESNIK, ONE WHO HOLDS THE POWER OF CRONOS...toodles!
*Aska leaves*
Ludger: ...
Alvin: ...
Rowen: ...
Elize: ...
Teepo: ...
Rollo: ...
Elle: MY HEAD HURTS!!!!
Alvin: So...back to square one?
Rowen: It would appear to be so, let's hope Jude and Leia had more luck.
*Jude and Leia appear*
Jude: Yeah, we had no luck.
Ludger: Figures...
Leia: We did, however get a lead about a LONG HAIRED GREAT SPIRIT by the Dimensional Rift...you know that place that led to the final dungeon in the first game?
Rowen: Right, I'll stay back and give Svent a proper burial. Elize, I want you to help me.
Elize: Why?
Rowen: Because we need to clear up space for Jude and Leia to join the team and this is as good an excuse as any.
Elize: Oh ok.
Teepo: Well that seemed rather forced!
*one trip back to that spot that we're skipping because screw it, not interesting*
Elle: There's nothing here! You are all wasting my time! I HATE YOU *sticks tongue out*
Rollo: Meow?
Alvin: This was definitely where the Rift was...what happened?
Jude: Hmm...maybe the fact that the Schism is still in place in this reality means it's still there?
?????: Aha, foolish humans, you will know the wrath of...
Leia: JUDE LOOK OUT! THERE'S A NAKED MAN BEHIND YOU!
?????: Wait what? Naked Man...NO! I'm CRONOS! THE GREAT SPIRIT OF...
Alvin: Hey, bro! Can you put some clothes on?
Cronos: NONSENSE! A GREAT SPIRIT LIKE MYSELF NEEDS NOT SUCH-...
Jude: But Milla wore clothes...
Cronos: NEW MAXWELL DOESN'T COUNT!
Leia: So did Muzet...
Cronos: Related to Maxwell, DOESN'T COUNT!
Alvin: I think both Volt and Celsius were dressed too...
Cronos: THAT'S IT! ALL OF YOU DIE NOW!!!
*one boss fight later*
Cronos: DO YOU FEEL THE PAIN AND SUFFERING!?
Jude: Uh...we won the fight so not really?
Cronos: ...PLOT BULLSHIT ACTIVATE!
Julius: CONVENIENT EXCUSE TO SHOW UP ACTIVATE!
Cronos: God damn it! TEMPORAL RIFT TO CONVENIENTLY SET UP NEXT PLOT POINT ACTIVATE!
Julius: JUMPING INTO PORTAL TO FORCE LUDGER TO FACE ME ACTIVATE!
Alvin: Uhh...stupid cutscene power of...grabbing children...activate?
Jude: ...seriously Alvin?
Alvin: oh come on! Don't tell me you didn't want to join in on that?
Leia: Can we just jump into the ominous portal already?
Rowen: Yes, let's do that.
Leia: Wait, when did you get here?
Teepo: We were always here!
Leia: ...whatever, let's just do the portal jumping already.
*team jumps in*
Ludger: ????
Jude: Hey, we're at Milla's house...wait, where's Alvin and Rowen?
Elize: Elle's gone too.
Ludger: Good.
Leia: No point standing around, let's get moving so we can find that thing.
*team heads off*
Leia: That...enemy...looks...off...
Ludger: ...crap...
*pseudo boss fight, ends prematurely*
Leia: So...Chronostasis thingy or whatever, wanna do that Ludger!?
Ludger: ...no dice...
Jude: Uh-oh, then what're we going to...
Milla: Humans should not be here! BE GONE EVIL BEINGS! *kills enemies and runs away*
Jude: ...well, we know where Milla is in this dimension I guess?
Leia: Is it just me or did it seem like she didn't recognize us?
Teepo: Milla seems mean here!
Jude: She probably never met us in this dimension...unfortunately...but let's get going.
*at Nia Khera*
Jude: Oh how convenient, the entire team is here...and Julius too.
Julius: Hello, Ludger...
Ludger: Brother...
*intense stare*
Leia: OMG OMG OMG OMG!!!
Elize: OMG OMG OMG OMG!!!
Elize/Leia: THE YAOI POTENTIAL!!!!
Elle: What's...yaoi?
Julius: Let's make this clear...I'm going to destroy this reality and you aren't going to stop me because we're totally doing the same thing and...
Jude: Actually, this is Ludger's mission, given by Spirius Corporation who is also your boss I think?
Julius: ...crap...fine, I'll let Ludger think he can handle this, but he totally should let me do it!
Spirius Corporation: We found an artifact thinga-majig, YOUR NEW MISSION IS TO FIND IT AND BRING IT BACK HERE!
Milla: I thought I told you all to leave this place.
Jude: Milla, we're your friends.
Milla: No you aren't, though I do feel attached to that cat...I MUST FEED IT NOW!
Rollo: Meow?
Elle: NOT WITHOUT ME YOU WON'T!
Ludger: ...
Jude: We have to follow them, don't we?
*at Milla's house*
Elle: Milla makes awesome food because it doesn't have tomatoes and ^_^!!!!!
Rollo: Meow.
Milla: My food is awful, she must have awful taste to think that's the case.
Ludger: Agreed.
Jude: So...Milla...this is your house and...
Muzet: MILLA! HOW DARE YOU INVITE GUESTS WITHOUT ME!?
Milla: I didn't invite, they just kind of...
Muzet: QUIET BITCH! LISTEN TO ME!
Leia: Is it just me or is her eyes like...not opening?
Muzet: NOW SHUT UP AND MAKE DINNER EVEN THOUGH YOU CAN'T COOK! *Smacks Milla*
Milla: I'm sorry sister!!!
Jude: Ok, something is horribly wrong here, and...
Leia: ...and you're staying behind here because yo'll get emotional. Rowen and Elize, please tie Jude to a bench while me, Ludger and Alvin solve this issue.
Rowen: A wise idea, come young mistress Elize, we have much work to do!
Jude: Wait what!? No! I can totally...heeeeelp!!!!
Alvin: Wow, I'm impressed, way to take charge there, though this was another excuse to clear up party space for someone else wasn't it?
Leia: Pretty much.
*at Milla's shrine*
Milla: Why do you keep following me?
Ludger: Muzet.
Milla: Yes, she's my sister...
Leia: So...does she like...talk to herself randomly?
Milla: How do you know that!?
Alvin: Face it, your sister is possessed and not the one she use to be.
Milla: Nonsense! My sister loves me and cares for me and protects me and...has never been the same since she almost died doing so...huh...
Alvin: I think we got through to her...
Milla: Alright, let's go talk to Muzet, need to ask her if I can leave the house again anyway...
Elle: Yeah, I have to ask permission from my daddy anytime I have to leave the house!
Alvin: SO ABOUT THAT MUZET THING, let's go deal with it.
*atop the mountain*
Milla: There she is, I'll talk to her in hopes to reach an understanding...
Muzet: Please master! HAVE I NOT SERVED YOU WELL! GIVE ME A SIGN SUCH THAT I MAY SMITE THESE MORTALS!!!
Milla: Hi, Muzet! Can I...talk to...
Muzet: No.
Milla: Well, that didn't work, what's plan B again?
Ludger: Kill.
Milla: But we can't...
Muzet: DIE HUMAN SCUM!!!
Ludger: *goes demon mode* NO!
*Boss fight later*
Muzet: HOW DARE YOU FIGHT ME!?
Milla: HOW DARE YOU NOT PAY ME BACK THAT 500 GALD!?
Julius: Can we kill her already? She's clearly the catalyst.
*after some action sequence and Milla stabbing Muzet and Ludger being all demon and stuff, Muzet dies, team goes back to Prime Dimension*
Jude: Hey we're back! Yes, I'm here now, deal with it.
Milla: What do you mean we're back? We never left anywhere...
Ludger: ...
Jude: ...
Julius: ...
Leia: ...
Alvin: ...
Everyone: AAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!!
*Nia Khera*
Rowen: Ah, so your return suggests you're successful...except what's Milla doing there?
Jude: Good question, what is she doing here?
Milla: I'm here, you still haven't explained anything to...
Julius: Your world is destroyed...
Milla: ...very funny...
Jude: He's...kind of telling the truth...
Milla: No, seriously, you don't joke about that! What about Muzet?
Ludger: Dead.
Julius: Your reality was a fake one and this is the real one and I don't know why you're here, but you are, so deal with it.
Riddeaux: Yes, now give us the artifact! <- This is the guy Ludger owes a debt too.
Jude: What are you doing here and why should we listen to you?
Riddeuax: Because I now have Julius' job! By the way, you've been fired and are merely former director.
Julius: Jerk.
Ivar: AHAAHHA! I'M HERE TOO AND...
*Jude Punches Ivar in the face*
Ivar: HEY! What was that for?
Jude: ...force of habit?
Ivar: Bah, I'm sitting this one out...oh hi Milla.
Milla: Hi.
Riddeaux: Now give us the artifact.
Ludger: No.
Riddeaux: ...give it to us and kill your brother.
Ludger: No.
Riddeaux: Fine, I'LL TAKE IT BY FORCE!
*Boss fight later*
Riddeaux: NOW GIVE IT TO ME!
Ludger: You lost.
Riddeaux: SHUT UP AND GIVE IT TO ME OR I WILL...uhh...BE FORCED TO BE MORE EVIL!
Ludger: ...fine...
Riddeaux: Very good, now go back to Bakur...also, make sure SHE *points to Milla* comes with us!
Ludger: ...hate...
---
yeah that ending was rushed, but I need to get to sleep, so apologies, and yes, I'm breaking character for that, deal with it.
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King of Dragon Pass - I started this and I don't know what the fuck I'm doing so I decided to harass the ducks and drive them to extinction. Then they gathered their beast buddies and I got fucking murked.
I do like how there is a bunch of weird lore shit ("The ducks claim to be descended from a great, vanished Empire called Ganderland") and no one really knows what anything means and that is reflected through the game mechanics.
I kind of wish I could on somebody's clan ring in real life so I could give them the worst lifehack advice.
That is dark as fuck.
Also you didn't listen to the episode bro, they told you not to fuck with them!
i also got nowhere in my tries at KoDP. Option paralysis just too strong.
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EOU, re Fenrir: What was the one plot point you liked in EO1? (I played neither game.)
Beyond Earth, re Mr. Stark: Dunno, I'm skeptical. Also trade routes were brokenly *good* pre-patch in base Beyond Earth before getting nerfed in the update, so I'm worried if they're making 'em better again without some hard thought about the implications. Hybrid affinities are a good thing and much-needed, but differentiating the affinities more is really the thing that'd bring me back. If you grow from a vanilla template into your own StarCraft race, then I'm down; if you just stick a different coat of paint on the same "larger numbers" military units / buildings, uh, who cares.
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Wow, badass.
That Phantasy Star 2 remake looks like Etrian Odyssey Untold: take the base game, remove the one thing interesting about the story to give fans what they want, add grindy item creation to lengthen the game and fetchquests to develop the story somehow. I guess this is what you do when you remake games and have no idea of what you're doing
I can't disagree. For as much credit as I'll give the remake for generally tightening up Phantasy Star's worldbuilding and fleshing out a lot of the smaller details and addressing certain plot holes, nothing of value is particularly added in forcing you to deliver a wedding ring from an old man to his granddaughter, then delivering a letter from her back to him so that he'll give you Maruera Berries, which you can then trade to a weird indigenous creature you can't speak the language of to get a ring that lets you do so. Especially when, in the original game, you could just speak their language right off. And even then, you're not done; you need to talk to a guy in Zema to learn that polymetryl is a thing that can dissolve anything but laconia, then talk to the dude in the bottom of the dump to learn that the natives need it, then talk to the first guy again and buy some of it for an amount of meseta equal roughly to what you get from winning about 25 battles, then deliver it to a different Motavian.
It's very easily the lowest point of the remake, and in seriousness, is a primary reason why I probably won't replay it for a long time (whereas I will replay the Genesis version, at least in romhacked made-less-grindy form).
The remake does a little better when it comes to addressing PS2's biggest plot hole, the old question of why you can't just take Nei back to the clone lab again? It largely uses the same explanation as the original game, but improves upon it in that the limitations of the clone lab are introduced much earlier, and elaborated on somewhat. It's ultimately still really fuzzy science and doesn't make a lot of sense, but it shows that at least they tried. Basically the clone labs' technology won't work if the body is too badly damaged; the game exposes this earlier, by adding a short cutscene the first time you visit any clone lab after the North Bridge cutscene (i.e., after Teim is killed by Darum), explaining that the bodies of both of them were brought in but were too damaged to restore (Darum, you idiot, why did you BLOW YOURSELF UP after you killed your daughter). In Nei's case, of course, the body is damaged because she's a hybrid of a human and a Biomonster, and Neifirst's existence is (somehow) what allows all Biomonsters on Motavia to live, so when she dies... yeah.
One of the remake's nicest touches, IMO, is that after you kill Neifirst, every line of dialogue from every random NPC in the game changes to reflect the fact that your party are wanted criminals. Some of them openly revile you or scream for help/authorities, some urge you to turn yourself in, others openly sympathize with you and sometimes reference the existence of anti-Mother Brain resistance movements. This even extends to the shopkeepers (though they all, for reasons of game mechanics, fall into the latter category) and the like - the teleportation NPCs will all regretfully inform you that Mother Brain is tracking your teleports, for example. It's a nice bit of worldbuilding and makes the world seem more alive, although it would probably work better if some shops (those with irrelevant inventories, probably) actually closed to you.
There was one other big change I didn't touch upon in that post, idly, because I forgot: the Neifirst fight was changed around narratively. Instead of how it went in the old game, where Nei attacked Neifirst by herself and hopelessly got her ass kicked then the remaining three PCs took the gloating Neifirst on, in the remake, Nei still attacks Neifirst by herself, but can actually put up a competent fight thanks to Shift/Deban/Nares and her TP-restoring special. (Having some Trimates is still helpful.) You're expected to win the fight with her. If you don't, then Rolf takes her on (also alone). If you lose that, it's a game over. It makes no difference in the ultimate outcome, but having Nei winning the fight be feasible plays better psychologically IMHO. I won the fight with Nei so I don't know exactly why Rolf goes alone, though.
As for the item creation system and why it sucks. The way it works is, each of the PCs not in your party can be set to either training (the default, gives them spillover EXP) or producing. If certain combinations of PCs are set to producing, they won't gain EXP, but will instead work on creating an item together. The item you ultimately get is, I believe, the number of battle grade points you get before the next time you enter Rolf's house; the exact mechanics are not documented anywhere I'm aware of, but it boils down to "fight X number of battles" and high battle rankings count more towards X than low battle rankings. So the most efficient way to do it is to grind mosquitoes outside of Paseo since you can kill them in one round easily and thus get an S rank, and it takes upwards of 40-50 S-ranked battles to get anything actually good. And almost nothing that can come out of this is actually gamebest gear for a character; the sole exceptions I'm aware of are:- A helmet for Rudo/Hugh which adds 2 defense, 2 dexterity and 6 luck over the next best one.
- A helmet for Shir which adds 4 speed, 3 dexterity and 8 luck over the next best one (but no defense).
- A helmet for Nei which adds 11 defense, 8 dexterity and 12 luck over the next best one. I guess it might matter if you revive her?
- An armor for Anna which adds 2 defense, 9 dexterity and 18 luck over the next best one. Nei can also wear it, and it would actually matter for her, since it adds 66 defense for her instead of 2. It could also theoretically matter for one of Amy/Shir if you use both in the same party, since it's the second best armor for either of them after the Nei Field.
- An armor for Hugh which adds 6 defense, 9 dexterity and 12 luck over the next best one.
- Footwear for Rolf which trades 5 defense for 5 attack, 1 dexterity and 4 luck.
- Footwear for any of the females which adds 3 defense and small amounts of other stats varying by PC.
- Nei's Silent Claw. The weapon itself is useless, but it itemcasts Vol (biomonster ID), which is worthwhile.
- The Napalm Shot, which is Kain's best weapon.
- Maybe the Wave Gun, as the best ITD weapon Rolf can use??? Probably also Hugh's best weapon if you give him one at all.
- Both of Amy's best weapons, if you give her any at all.
I bothered with all of the above exactly none at all and didn't feel especially disadvantaged for it.
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I'm typing on my phone (no internet access on the computer for a while) so I can't do long elaboratr posts.
(EO spoilers)
EO1 is Ye Olde RPG until boom you're in the ruins of a skyscraper from Tokyo. It's a fun twist, we have several examples of it now but by the time the gar was released I felt it was pretty fresh. The remake ruins this for literally no reason by having one character come from Ontario + having guns.
More important: EO1´s plot at the beginning is just the city adking your group of adventurers to explore the Mysterious Ancient Ruins (TM)
At one point you encounter an ancient tribe that tells you to please just leave because the place is sacred. Then the city asks you to just kill them all and you do that because duh it's the city they must be right?
I feel that was a nice critisicsm of the classic RPG trope of just barging everywhere and killing everything + commentary on colionalism + a touch of Milgram's experiment (your party is after all supposed to be good guys... Right?)
In the remake no problem you can eventually become best friends with the tribe while still dismissing their culture by still going wherever the fuck you want.
That Phantasy Star 2 fetchquest sounds like something people would REMOVE from the original pre 90's game, not something they'd add to the remake.
I'm also surprised that the item creation is grindy not as in Star Ocean 3 grindy, but actually "grind easy battles" grindy which is ten times worse.
Honestly it sounds like the game that'd have happened if in mid production in 1988 the original Phantasy Star 2 devs gained access to a recent computer + Playstation 2 toolkit and tried to make the best game they could, not having learnt any lesson in game design past 1988
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About right, it's why I can only be so sad that the planned remake of PS4 fell through, because there's a good chance it would have come out worse in the deal. At least PS4 doesn't really need a remake; it's still perfectly playable as-is.
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Tales of Encount:
Hey, you've reached the part where the plot starts becoming obnoxious and dumb in obvious ways. Instead of the subtle gaping millions of plot holes starting in Striborg Line.
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EOU, re Fenrir: What was the one plot point you liked in EO1? (I played neither game.)
Beyond Earth, re Mr. Stark: Dunno, I'm skeptical. Also trade routes were brokenly *good* pre-patch in base Beyond Earth before getting nerfed in the update, so I'm worried if they're making 'em better again without some hard thought about the implications. Hybrid affinities are a good thing and much-needed, but differentiating the affinities more is really the thing that'd bring me back. If you grow from a vanilla template into your own StarCraft race, then I'm down; if you just stick a different coat of paint on the same "larger numbers" military units / buildings, uh, who cares.
Trade routes are very powerful but also you're limited to one per city. That means there's a hard decision between shipping around industry/food or getting sci/resources/energy which I like.
As far as hybrid affinities go, I think the main game advantage it gives is that I got to choose in many cases between the Purity version of a unit or the Purity-Supremacy version of a unit, so there's a level of mixing and matching that opens up to players that isn't previously there unless you've really tight-beamed onto one and only one affinity's techs.
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FFXII:
Just beat Mattias and got the Sword of Kings
You know, for all that I shit on the gameplay of this entry in the series, this was probably my favorite dungeon I've gone through since, oh, some of the Phantasy Star 4 ones. Unlike previous dungeons in the game, you're always within fair distance of a save point. The enemies are always dangerous, from start to finish, the boss is mean but not game-breakingly hard. AND it happened to be a major dungeon plotwise, which is nice. It's always a let-down when the best dungeons are just... there.
Plotwise, I'm increasingly convinced Vayne is a fucking idiot, so it's very weird to see everyone tout him as a strategic genius.
Vaan: Actively had good ideas this time. Has a new hammer. Holy shit, Hammers. The low end of Vaan's damage has been reduced to about 150, which I almost never see (maybe that was against a protected enemy?) usually the low hits are about 300, and the high hits can get upwards of 1500. God damn. I have a reward from an optional boss equipped to Basch and HE only hits for about 800 right now. Balthier ignores defense and ALSO only hits for about 800. Hammers OP as hell. You can even use a shield, too. (Having an ice shield on Vaan helped trivialize the ice-themed boss.)
Balthier: Seems angry suddenly. Like he doesn't want to be here anymore. Weird. Went back to giving him Guns, because they're hitting like trains again. Finally opened up a Quickening for him, so there's that.
Fran: Had no plot this time around. Pointed out the obvious several times. Got no equipment upgrades, but, since she's been my mage since the beginning, when I got the ara level spells, she got those and yeah, that's a buff that keeps her relevant. She's also got all the perks that lower magic cost, so she's basically transitioned from my party's black mage to my party's white mage. I'll probably make someone like Ashe take her place on the black magic front. She ALSO got a quickening
Ashe: She's growing on me as a character. Instead of "Yuna-lite" like she felt earlier, she's really starting to feel like an honest-to-god War-leader, despite not having, you know, a nation or an army. Ashe feels like she could be a Suikoden protagonist. Rounds out the list of people that got quickenings this update, hey, she also got an esper, since Mattias opened up right next to her board, and I like not going out of my way for these things. Plus, you know, it kind of makes sense, plotwise. She currently does the least damage of anyone in my party by a fairly wide margin, but she has the blood sword which sort of makes up for it, and she's at least 200 HP tankier than anyone after her.
Basche: Also has no story this update. Has an optional sword and another ice shield and yeah, that's a good combo that executes things. He was by far my heaviest hitter, but then I upgraded Vaan's hammer and Balthier got a slight boost in gunnery. Now he's basically even with Balthier (better because swords are much faster) and WAY the fuck behind Vaan. Vaan is easily MVP at this point, even though he doesn't have a single quickening.
Penelo: ALSO did nothing plotwise this update. Got a new pole just after the dungeon ended, so I'm excited to try that out. Penelo is sitting on about 200 LP, but there's nowhere immediately within reach that seems useful. So.... she's probably gonna do what she did back in the beginning of the game and just rush toward the first awesome thing I get that's in the middle of nowhere.
MVPs on my file have gone: Fran (early game mage)->Basch (ALL THE QUICKENINGS) ->Vaan (Stop. Hammertime.)
Game as a whole made a significant upward turn this last stretch, and that makes me happy. I'm very intrigued that I might someday be able to play this again and have just a completely different experience, or at least, in the earlier/middle parts of the game.
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Undertale - Eph true ending: kill everything except dogs. All dogs must be pet. I may spare Tsundereplane. Everything else dies.
Otherwise, the game is something you have to experience but honestly it's not really fun to play. I already don't like bullet hell mechanics. If it wasn't so easy to get spoiled from youtube and let's plays, then it wouldn't be worth it to buy.
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Tales of Zestria - I understand why Alisha was scrapped to become a minor character. It was to reinforce the relationship of Sorey and Mikleo to appease to the crazy Japanese fangirls and sell thousand of yaoi doujins. Rose is probably the most rushed character ever. Oh hey, here's another human character. Btw she can pretty much do everything the legendary once-a-millennia Shepard can do within 10 minutes of her being introduced as a central character. I blame everything on Niu.
Somehow the game looks and runs worse than previous Tales games (PS3 version here) and the battle camera is about as bad as Operation Darkness. I also don't like the idea of Hard mode cutting your exp by a large margin. Trash mobs don't give anything, so they make bosses give majority of exp. A good 600-700 (that amounts to 15 battles) is lost playing on hard. There's also the mechanic that dead seraphim are replace by another one, but you cannot revive them until they naturally recover after 2 minutes. This is a pain because if the battle ends before they recover, then they get no exp. You can lose multiple levels if this on a boss fight.
What's with the stupidly complicated skill system? It seems something ripped out of an idea factory game. Skill are randomized on equipment you find and buy. It's next to impossible to achieve the skill layout you want unless you grind an obscene amount of money and level up the merchants.
Usually the problems with Tales games comes from plot/characters, because the mechanics behind the game are fun and polished. Here they screwed everything up by trying to different: using the field map for battles (I love the camera hung up on a door!), limiting who you can have in battle because you don't have 2 humans and a grade system that forces you to grind if you want to get anything out of it.
The good things are ditching cooking after battle to recover HP and instead put it on a skill that naturally recovers HP as you walk around the map. The rate you recover is pretty high, so you can count on being full HP for the next encounter without needing to consume gels or food. Food items are produced as you move around and act as stat buffs for a difficult fight. Armatization is pretty cool for a sudden burst of power at the cost of crowd control. Also Edna is cute. That is all.
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I was considering picking that up because it's actually available on steam. I am no longer considering that. Thanks, Eph.
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Holy crap the camera in zestiria is awful.
Died to a stupidly easy boss because it bugged out in a tiny corridor. It went straight up the bosses ass.
What the flying fuck. How has this not been resolved yet?
It's almost unplayable with 2 people.
The story is whatever, but this isn't looking good taleZ
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Zestiria's written by the same hack who did Xillia 2, so it was always destined to be shit.
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Human Resource Machine - I saw the Gref and Fen were playing this so I had to pay attention. I see that it's the same people as Little Inferno, but I saw a preview video and don't know what the fuck is going on. As a good consumer I will buy it with basically no information.
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Have you noticed that it made both of us feel terrible about ourselves?
I'm not sure I'd recommend it, but if you tend to usually buy cheap quirky indie games and aren't allergic to math? You did good.
Oh Downwell is pretty fun btw. I wish I had bought the steam version instead of the iOs one because touch controls, in a precise action game = lol (even if the game was made for phones in mind)
I got up to 2-3.
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I was going to wait for Downwell to come to Android but it looks awesome.
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I recommend Human Resource Machine, it is a good game. The only problem with it is end users.
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Zestiria has some pros, like the OST is quite fine, and most people seem to agree that's very well done over all, but then you don't essentially have to play the game to listen to the music~
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Okay, so this post was from last night that I didn't realise hadn't posted.
Human Resource Machine - I did the rest of the blue tier of things. Sort 3 (year 28). Optimisation challenge Use 34 or fewer command, you used 106. Speed Challenge, complete in 78 or fewer steps, your best completed in 107 steps on average.
i am so bad at everything. i don't know how i can do 11 more stages.
Vermintide - Tried playing with people. Other people got further ahead of us, so only want to do hard things. Younger brother is still learning things and hates not being valuable so hates the game. This is frustrating because he is doing fine. Older brother being around would give us 3 people so we would only need to find 1 more spare. I think it would be a good game if I could just get stuff together for it without it feeling like I am making people's day shit.
This post is now from today
Human Resource Machine - A few more levels in and the thing that the game was holding off on introducing is using a variable as a pointer to another variable. This... this is like super easy compared to trying to focus on juggling flow of code and going "Okay I have 'if negative then' and I need to compare these two negative numbers then subtracting them means that if the negative number is *STEAM MESSAGE INCOMING FUCK YOUR TRAIN OF THOUGHT*" like the blue set was. I expect it will kick into gear more soon enough, but in the early tier of it? I just did year 34 which is eliminate all the vowels. Nailed it meeting optimisation and speed challenges first run of the code. like... gods this is so much easier than constructing if/then statements with raw numerals.
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I swear, Grefter, you will regret these words
The true Human Resource Machine starts here
I am still stuck on the last normal level and second to last optional level.
On the plus side I got like 70 total steps on a level that asked for 350ish. I felt really good about this even though I basically cheated.
Downwell is fun but really rough at the start. For the first few playthroughs you're like a 5 years old in a rollercoaster. '
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I am up to the last normal level now (unless there is something after the last button on the list?). I think I have the direction for the solution started, just need to do a reverse sort and then output and it should work.
Haven't looked at the final bonus branch of things since pointers were introduced.
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Child of Light - I started this game up on the WiiU, and so far I'm really enjoying it. It's a simple, elegent battle system with a few quirks. I really enjoy some of the more challenging random encounters in particular. I find myself always waiting for people's levels so they can restore their MP. Obviously plotwise the game is a bit of a wash, but I like the beautiful drawn graphics and the music.
Yoshi's Woolly World - I picked this up for the sake of cuteness, and I've been pretty pleased with the game so far. I wasn't sure if the Yoshi series was going the way of Kirby (i.e. mostly aimed at small children), but the game's challenge level is actually fine (except the bosses, who are generally a bit of an embarassment so far). i just finished the second world. I've been collecting all of the Yarn Yoshis in each stage, which give you different skins to play as.
I'm probably going to try my hand at Legend of Legacy at some point soon, since i just got it in the mail.
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I've played a good chunk of Downwell - made it up to world 4 - and it's great. Simple design, perfectly calibrated. If you like any of the follwing:
- shootin' dudes
- jumpin' on dudes
- combos
- things that blow up
- pixels
then you owe it to yourself to pony up the $3 and get playing.
I want to elaborate a bit on the combos. You get bonus rewards (money, ammo capacity, health) for executing combos. You get a combo counter for the number of enemies you kill in midair before landing. You can kill enemies two ways: by jumping on them (about 2/3 of the enemies can be safely jumped on) or by shooting them with your gunboots. Your gunboots recharge either when you land, or when you jump on an enemy. And they can be used to slow your descent, so you can use them to position yourself to jump on another enemy. Now, there are side rooms in the game with shops and powerups, and you might think that that would mean you have a choice to keep your combo going or use the side rooms, but there is a bubble at the entrance to each room, and if you get to the bubble, time stops for everything but you, and your combo is not broken by landing. So there's no tradeoff; all you need to do is have the ability and agility to get to the side room entrance. Maybe it doesn't come across from describing it, but this game is poetry in motion. Every design choice - every single one - has been carefully crafted to work in conjunction with the game as a whole. Anyway buy it.
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Human Resource Machine -
Fenrir game, Grefter game. Yeah ok fine.
I got to year 9 before I stopped optimizing everything, then got to year 17 before I realized this is not a game I can really play while drunk, nor one I should be fretting about at 1AM when I have work tomorrow.
Very interesting concept, takes Little Inferno's tone and attaches a game that is actually really stupidly complex to it. I'm into it but probably won't get very far before frustration sets in. Less likely to be a game I'll binge on and more something I'll pick at over the course of a year.
Honestly this probably should have been a mobile game? Nothing about the mechanics requires more than a touch screen and the puzzles seem like they'll take so much time for the Zennidiot to puzzle out that having it be portable would only help it.
It actually really confuses me that Downwell, the action roguelike that requires precision is a mobile game while this is not. Management expected 0 when you returned 1.
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Human Resource Machine
Sorting Floor (Year 41) Size Challenge use 34 commands for less, you used 59. Speed Challenge complete in 714 or few steps, your solution completes in 3108 steps, on average.
I looped things # times to the # of variables to provide certainty. I could have used a 'Confidence' variable that reset to 0 after doing a run and does +1 each time you do a swap. Realising I could do that, I shouldn't run the check for Is Less Than the same number of outputs in the string, but just run through a test for Is Less Than previous number until the 'Confidence' is = on a pass through. That would strip out the whole negative test entirely.
i think i couldn't be fucked making that though
edit - I loaded up the first of the last branch of optional ones. couldn't be fucked.
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Human Resource Machine: just started. Seems fun! I stopped going for optimization challenges during this last run of optional assignments (22, 24, 26, 28) but I guess I could always go back later. So far it's a better gameplay experience than Heart of the Swarm's campaign mode and the writing is better.
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For that last test I just did Is less checks, if no then check another number, if yes take that number instead.
This gives you the lowest number, but afterwards how do you remove that number from the pool, in order to find the second lowest?
I was contemplating just turning them into 0s and always checking if 0 before doing any substraction,but it was completely inelegant and then there were other complications, etc.
Fun.
Grefter plz do those last three levels there are only three. How hard can it be?
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Also, good luck to all playing this.
Brace yourselves.
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I'm unreasonably happy about finishing 36! Lots of errors fixed.
It looks like there's only a few assignments left. Is there an aftergame that unlocks after 41?
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Finished the main game:
(http://i.imgur.com/hC5ZcvZ.jpg)
My year 41 solution needs work (like your dick (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnzYG0ZkrXg)) but I'm gonna wrap up the optional stuff first. Can strongly recommend the game along with its sequel, which is called "working through the Project Euler (https://projecteuler.net/) set with Python."
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For that last test I just did Is less checks, if no then check another number, if yes take that number instead.
This gives you the lowest number, but afterwards how do you remove that number from the pool, in order to find the second lowest?
I was contemplating just turning them into 0s and always checking if 0 before doing any substraction,but it was completely inelegant and then there were other complications, etc.
Fun.
Grefter plz do those last three levels there are only three. How hard can it be?
I wasn't storing the outputs in separate fields, I was doing a sort on the first and second number, then on the second and third number upwards. This shuffles everything just fine in 1:1 comparisons. I would check my Count variable (Bumped up as I took the string out of the inbox) for 0 to see when I was at the end of a run.
The solution I DID from there was then to sort in reverse to do another run from highest to lowest. This is fucking stupid and unnecessary even in my solution.
When that didn't work (Because an output of 6 3 5 7 4 ends up as 7 6 5 3 4) I just gave the fuck up and copies my Count variable to a secondary counting variable and then bumped it down by 1 after each sort up and down.
The more efficient way to do it I was talking about would be like this
Define a WRONG variable
Grab all the shit and define COUNT by number of outputs
compare 2 numbers
If negative -> Bump WRONG +1
Swap the numbers
Bump count -1
Loop if count is not negative
If count is negative copy from WRONG
If WRONG is zero -> Jump to your output string
Jump back to start of your compare string.
That way you will just continuously sort until you do a run where nothing swapped.
And yeah Otter the end of the game is essentially just "Yep this is Turing Complete, hooray!" (I think it is anyway...) and you know, yayyyy computers.
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(http://i.imgur.com/gmUFYgu.jpg)
Finished everything. My 40 code is gruesome but viable, like a newborn baby. Remembering some relevant math right now would help but I don't, it's been like eight years. Really fun to mess around with anyway and I wish there were more problems.
edit: got year 40 to 839 steps with 99 commands. It was kind of absurd coming back a day later to a program that generates primes and factors nonprimes and being like "hang on, what's the best way to divide by 2 again?" As someone who isn't very visual I think it's really cool being able to watch different parts of a program working away in their own little sections of the game screen.
edit2: got both optimization challenges done for year 20. Still really enjoying going back through these. Fifteen assignments still need optimization so I could be at this a while.
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Undertale: Neutral end get. Should be nabbing the Pacifist end tonight. Will probably talk a bit more about it after that.
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Pro Downwell Tips (http://kawaiikochan.moe/post/132099257061/get-down-get-downwell-to-business-hi-its)
Also: I played Undertale, and it was exceptional. Everyone should play it. That is all.
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Blade and Soul Beta started today. 1500 people in queue waiting to play.
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I got up to the third area in Downwell. New rules, huh.
On mobile i find that the normal styles fall way too fast but levitate is manageable. I only use this style and boulder now. Boulder's cool.
Aqua and Downwell palettes are my fav palettes for now, the basics.
My most hated enemies are the Castlevania skeletons in the catacombs. I can almost never react in time.
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Pro Downwell Tips (http://kawaiikochan.moe/post/132099257061/get-down-get-downwell-to-business-hi-its)
Also: I played Undertale, and it was exceptional. Everyone should play it. That is all.
What the fuck is this abortion of a website
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fingernails on chalkboard that only Japanese speakers can hear. Meta-weeaboo fun the whole family can enjoy. I back it on Patreon because I hate you.
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Way behind on updates, but....
Human Resource Machine: This is teaching GOTO programming. Evil. As it happened I actually learned Apple IIe BASIC back in the day, so I know my way around GOTOs, but ack. Not stopping me from "playing" it anyway of course.
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Undertale: NeutralPacifist and Pacifist ends get. It's a good game. Very solid 10/10. You could mostly read Alex's commentary to get my opinions. Game is legit funny and continuously surprises me with things it does with it's system. Pretty much every fight in the game is interesting and does some seriously amazing things with the game's structure. I can definitely see if utterly falling flat for some people, though.
I'm... not sure if I'll play further. Did watch the Sans fight out of curiosity. That shit is amazing.
The meta stuff works for me. I get into media. Maybe it is being a writer, but I do honestly enjoy being good and hate taking the messy/foul options in games, and this one obviously discourages it even harder than most.
I do find the very strong reactions to the meta "Why're you fucking up the world?" kind of interesting. I'm not really up for an essay right this second, but it's just interesting to me because, despite my previous comment about getting into media, I'm not really offended or irritated by the idea that I'm a "terrible" person for fucking up a completely fictional world. I just naturally don't like doing it. I want happy endings. But sometimes my desire to see things or just let out my darker desires wins out sometimes. Though I usually fix it.
My English majory gut says that the game's push for the relatively peaceful -> pacifist trajectory is "correct." A large part of the point to me seems to be to challenge one of the basic conceptions of a lot of games: Being good is harder than being evil (as well as stuff like: is it worth doing things just to do them?). I think it also helps with the last two fights (Asgore is actually a "challenge" since you are looking for the way out and killing Flowey actually feels like a real choice). I dunno, Maybe I'll try talking more when I'm more coherent.
This game puts me a lot in mind of Where We Remain.
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fingernails on chalkboard that only Japanese speakers can hear. Meta-weeaboo fun the whole family can enjoy. I back it on Patreon because I hate you.
Are… are you hitting on me?
Edit: Ooh. More Undertale talk. I am basically in the same camp as you, though I will say that the experience of doing a genocide run mostly blind lead to a few big moments that will probably stick with me for a long time.
The only minor point of contention is that killing Flowey is unfortunately really just an illusion of choice. No future playthroughs are effected by this, and more than any other point of contention others have had I feel like this was 100 percent detrimental to the game, and with just a little more time to program Flowey killed scenarios for all future playthroughs the game would be a goddamn masterpiece.
Toby Fox tried to play with the idea of being a shit having consequences in the genocide run. With some reservations, I think it was largely well presented, and made for a neat experience. But he really missed the opportunity to explore that in less heavy handed, on-the-nose ways with making the Kill Flowey decision not have any consequences at all, in practice.
Mmmm, the more I think about that last bit the more sad I am made by that decision. Nothing else so poignantly undermines the conclusions Fox made while exploring these themes.
Teeldar, Sans best character 11 out of 10
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fingernails on chalkboard that only Japanese speakers can hear. Meta-weeaboo fun the whole family can enjoy. I back it on Patreon because I hate you.
Are… are you hitting on me?
Wasn't that the point?
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Undertale: NeutralPacifist and Pacifist ends get. It's a good game. Very solid 10/10. You could mostly read Alex's commentary to get my opinions. Game is legit funny and continuously surprises me with things it does with it's system. Pretty much every fight in the game is interesting and does some seriously amazing things with the game's structure. I can definitely see if utterly falling flat for some people, though.
I'm... not sure if I'll play further. Did watch the Sans fight out of curiosity. That shit is amazing.
The meta stuff works for me. I get into media. Maybe it is being a writer, but I do honestly enjoy being good and hate taking the messy/foul options in games, and this one obviously discourages it even harder than most.
I do find the very strong reactions to the meta "Why're you fucking up the world?" kind of interesting. I'm not really up for an essay right this second, but it's just interesting to me because, despite my previous comment about getting into media, I'm not really offended or irritated by the idea that I'm a "terrible" person for fucking up a completely fictional world. I just naturally don't like doing it. I want happy endings. But sometimes my desire to see things or just let out my darker desires wins out sometimes. Though I usually fix it.
My English majory gut says that the game's push for the relatively peaceful -> pacifist trajectory is "correct." A large part of the point to me seems to be to challenge one of the basic conceptions of a lot of games: Being good is harder than being evil (as well as stuff like: is it worth doing things just to do them?). I think it also helps with the last two fights (Asgore is actually a "challenge" since you are looking for the way out and killing Flowey actually feels like a real choice). I dunno, Maybe I'll try talking more when I'm more coherent.
This game puts me a lot in mind of Where We Remain.
The only issue I had was that there's no choice for "go along with the Monster King's plan and give up your soul so that they can rise up and conquer those mean old humans". I just want to make these people happy.
(http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u137/DjinntoTonic/UndertaleCattyBratty_zps1nzjy3tc.png) (http://s167.photobucket.com/user/DjinntoTonic/media/UndertaleCattyBratty_zps1nzjy3tc.png.html)
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Are… are you hitting on me?
D-don't get the wrong idea
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Are… are you hitting on me?
D-don't get the wrong idea
You best step off. This is one I have marked.
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Dreeps: you know that fucking stupid iphone alarm RPG?
Well after beating it, I kept using it every day to grind, Progress Quest style. Took me five seconds per day.
Now that I am level way too fucking much and have all companions almost maxed out, weird things have started happening. My guy can either stay alive for very long or drop dead 30 minutes after a full rest. I do not know what is happening.
Either there is stupid Elder Scrolls like level scaling going on, and numbers going too up for this game not to crash and burn
OR there is some amazing secret that only I will likely ever see, some amazing event or monster that can give you the true meaning of life and reason for the universe.
I will study this extensively.
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Undertale: I didn't mention this, but I wanted to take a moment to say that this is also the first game in a while where the OST has really resonated with me. Great shit. Also, on the off-chance that anyone is being scared off by all the small metatalk text: I will say that I thoroughly believe Undertale is worth experiencing for the gameplay alone. The fights are basically all just danmaku puzzles, but they are all just incredibly different and do some absolutely fantastic shit with the interface.
Zenny: Yeah, that does sound like a serious drag that there isn't an alternate scenario sans Flowey.
And I definitely think that doing the Genocide first option has some serious advantages by providing the opportunity to walk back some of the very nasty stuff that happens, while the Pacifist first route provides a very different emotional resonance for a gamer: do I want to fuck this all up just to see what happens?
Thinking on it, the game's tagline might actually be really clever: "The friendly RPG where no one has to die." I mean, the game puts it to you right there. Killing folks is your choice in this game. You have the power to shape the narrative however you want. You can make it a saccharine sweet story, or you can make it tragic. You just have to accept the consequences for it. Which is gonna fall utterly, utterly flat with some people, but it is the exact sort of meta commentary that I'm going to respond to.
I will say I'm much more unsure about the Frisk/Chara thing and that the way that ends up being presented (particularly if you speak with Asriel again after completing the Pacifist Run). If you do neutralgood -> good, Chara being portrayed as "not that good" inherently is rough and I wish Toby had been vaguer about that or only did it in response to player assholery. Positioning the player inherently as a douchebag is something I disagree with. But I think I'd have to do some exploring on a replay (I think I missed a bunch of that plot stuff?) to really get a good grasp on it.
DJ: It does exist! Lose a boss fight, don't restore your save! :p
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Undertale: I didn't mention this, but I wanted to take a moment to say that this is also the first game in a while where the OST has really resonated with me. Great shit. Also, on the off-chance that anyone is being scared off by all the small metatalk text: I will say that I thoroughly believe Undertale is worth experiencing for the gameplay alone. The fights are basically all just danmaku puzzles, but they are all just incredibly different and do some absolutely fantastic shit with the interface.
Zenny: Yeah, that does sound like a serious drag that there isn't an alternate scenario sans Flowey.
And I definitely think that doing the Genocide first option has some serious advantages by providing the opportunity to walk back some of the very nasty stuff that happens, while the Pacifist first route provides a very different emotional resonance for a gamer: do I want to fuck this all up just to see what happens?
Thinking on it, the game's tagline might actually be really clever: "The friendly RPG where no one has to die." I mean, the game puts it to you right there. Killing folks is your choice in this game. You have the power to shape the narrative however you want. You can make it a saccharine sweet story, or you can make it tragic. You just have to accept the consequences for it. Which is gonna fall utterly, utterly flat with some people, but it is the exact sort of meta commentary that I'm going to respond to.
I will say I'm much more unsure about the Frisk/Chara thing and that the way that ends up being presented (particularly if you speak with Asriel again after completing the Pacifist Run). If you do neutralgood -> good, Chara being portrayed as "not that good" inherently is rough and I wish Toby had been vaguer about that or only did it in response to player assholery. Positioning the player inherently as a douchebag is something I disagree with. But I think I'd have to do some exploring on a replay (I think I missed a bunch of that plot stuff?) to really get a good grasp on it.
DJ: It does exist! Lose a boss fight, don't restore your save! :p
Way too drunk for meaningful discourse at the moment so I'll respond in the morning, but I want to clear this up because I also made the same mistake when I first played the game. Mostly semantics more than anything.
There is a drastic difference between an actual genocide run (defined as a run that you start in the tutorial dungeon, that requires grinding random battles until enemies stop appearing in an area, and that can be aborted by failing to kill all enemies in an area before reaching the next area), and a normal run where you don't spare any bosses. I referred to the latter as Genocide/Neutral not knowing any better. They are not the same at all. I do think though that playing normally and not sparing any bosses, then restarting and doing a run where you do spare all the bosses/go pacifist, is a great experience and I'm thoroughly glad I played that way. But, yeah, Neutral/No Mercy is much closer in every way except tone to Pacifist than it is to Genocide.
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Zenny: From what I've seen, that's fair. Replace my use of Genocide with No Mercy.
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Speaking of semantics, the term no mercy seems to imply merely that in a situation where you have the abilityto spare an enemy, you decline to do so. But in the negative route you're going beyond that and actively trying to kill as many monsters as you possibly can.
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I will say I'm much more unsure about the Frisk/Chara thing and that the way that ends up being presented (particularly if you speak with Asriel again after completing the Pacifist Run). If you do neutralgood -> good, Chara being portrayed as "not that good" inherently is rough and I wish Toby had been vaguer about that or only did it in response to player assholery. Positioning the player inherently as a douchebag is something I disagree with. But I think I'd have to do some exploring on a replay (I think I missed a bunch of that plot stuff?) to really get a good grasp on it.
OK so I don't actually have that much to respond do, but I do want to point out that in this sort of realm of meta abstraction, but player is much more closely linked to Frisk than they are to Chara. It really doesn't come through in the No Mercy/Neutral/Pacifist side of the game, but Chara directly interacts with the player in the Genocide ending. Just as importantly, throughout the Geno ending the battle prompt text is altered with a lot more of Chara's voice in the prompts as opposed to just description of the world and what Frisk is sensing. Chara directly gives opinions in some of the battle prompts (trying to talk to Toriel will return, "Not worth talking to.", the battle with Undyne starts with "In my way", etc.), while IIRC 100% of Frisk's battle prompts are description ("Smells like Papyrus") or direct narrator-talking-to-player. Those come up in the Geno playthrough as well but it's not 100%, and is justified because Chara doesn't assume 100% control until you beat Sans.
(Side note, it would be neat if this came up again when doing a Pacifist run after the Genocide run in more than just an easter egg at the end, but like with the game not having a Flowey-killed scenario of all future runs that probably is something that got cut because it would have taken a long time to program, I assume.)
All that leads me to conclude that Frisk is much more of an empty avatar the player is supposed to inhabit while Chara is an actual character, so the "Chara isn't actually a good person" info dump at the end of the Pacifist run isn't necessarily incongruous with the player's actions.
This does however undermine the reveal at the end of the Pacifist ending, though. Like, the whole reveal is that Frisk isn't who you thought s/he was, the name you gave him/her isn't actually Frisk's name, is supposed to be this huge revelation, but when you take the geno ending into account and think about it even a little that falls apart for reasons I've already outlined. Man, the more I think about the ending the less satisfied I am with it. All of the interesting meta commentary really comes at the very beginning if you save scum, and in the end of the Genocide run.
Speaking of semantics, the term no mercy seems to imply merely that in a situation where you have the abilityto spare an enemy, you decline to do so. But in the negative route you're going beyond that and actively trying to kill as many monsters as you possibly can.
I personally like that distinction, but from what I recall of the Undertale wiki the player base is having a tedious argument about which terminology is better so meh I just avoid using No Mercy when talking about the game to avoid confusion or even sparking that argument. Not that it matters particularly here, mind.
EDIT: Also this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ejy457WNkuE&spfreload=1
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Undertale- Strange. Funny. Heartrending.
Pacifist but by no means perfectionist.
Not terribly inclined to replay the game for more endings.
Urges to Murder:
Every random in Snowedin.
Muffet.
The game does a fantastic job of creating a charming world and populating it with fun and interesting characters that I give big smiles without a hint of malice. The plot, especially the meta, just don't work on the same level. There's also a lot of clunkiness where they have the right idea for the exposition but have this fear the player won't pick up on the hint to look around and end up force-feeding it to them anyway. It's also a chore to play. Part of that is because the Check command takes a turn; I haven't seen this enemy, I need some ideas how to coax it into giving up. Oh wait I took a third of my HP in damage during that and it'll use a stronger attack next turn while I work it out. Fantastic.
In all I know the lowest score I can give it, but I'm not sure if I want to give it higher than that or not. Mmm. Nah. 7/10.
Yes, I've read all the spoilers. That has minimal impact on my opinion. See comment about the plot and meta not doing much for me.
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Tales of Encount:
Narrator: We joins our heroes as...
Ludger: Quiet.
Narrator: *sigh* Fine.
Jude: Ok, so I guess we need to report that got this object to Bakur, as well as Julius and such?
Ludger: Yes.
*at Bakur's office*
Bakur: Excellent, you destroyed the Fractured Dimension! Also you have the Waymarker, give it to me please.
Rowen: Can you explain what those Waymarkers are for? I mean, they can't be something as simple just precious artifacts.
Alvin: Yeah I'd like intel on that too.
Bakur: Yes. They're keys to Canaan.
Elle: OMG! CANAAN! THE PLACE DADDY TOLD ME TO GO!
Bakur: ...who let that little girl in here?
Jude: She just kind of follows Ludger everywhere, we hope the "ignore her and hope she goes away" strategy will work...eventually...
Leia: Also she's kind of a key to Ludger's Chromatus working it seems.
Bakur: I see...in any event, I need you to destroy more Fractured Dimensions so Origin can maintain souls and you can get mo-...
Milla: Destroy more worlds!? That's appauling!
Bakur: ...say aren't you Maxwell?
Milla: YOU DESTROYED MY WORLD JUST TO GET THAT ITEM!
Jude: Uhh...you see...she is Maxwell but of a fractured dimension...yeah, I don't get how she managed to come back with us. I also don't know why she lacks that big green strand of hair our Milla has.
Milla: It's called a hair cut; I thought you humans knew better than that.
Jude: ...you get haircuts?
Bakur: *AHEM* Anyway, now that we have the Waymarker, we need you to get 4 MORE OF THESE to enter Canaan!
Ludger: ...Macguffin Hunt?
Bakur: Yes, yes it is.
Ludger: ...I quit...
Julius: Good, you shouldn't have to be dragged into this brother.
Bakur: Oh, sure, quit, but who is going to handle your debt? Where you getting money from?
Ludger: Quest Board.
Bakur: QUIET! YOU STILL WORK FOR ME AND THAT DEBT STILL LOOMS OVER YOUR HEAD!
Julius: Hey! I'll handle the debt, you just worry about living your-...
Bakur: YOU"RE IN NO POSITION TO TALK! TAKE HIM AWAY!!! Anyway, we'll call you when we find a new one, go waste time to finish your debt.
Jude: ...let's go home? And by home, I mean Ludger's home of course...
Ludger: ...why me...
*Ludger's home*
Elle: Yay!! FOOD! NO TOMATOES THOUGH!
Milla: Is Ludger some kind of cook?
Elle: Yeah! He's awesome, BUT NO TOMATOS! What's for dinner?
Ludger: Tomato soup.
Elle: >:(
Milla: well nice to try someone else's cooking for once...though it was nice to get my cooking complimented. Muzet hated mine afterall...and was abusive...you know, now that I think about it, losing my world maybe wasn't such a bad thing...
Jude: So you're saying...
Milla: I CAN'T LET YOU DO THIS ANYMORE!
Jude: That's just an excuse for you to join us now until the Milla of our world is found, yet remain annoyed isn't it?
Milla: And what of it?
Jude: Nothing! Just doing the usual thing...(man, she's just like our Milla, but not quite...it's not the same...)
*one debt repayment later*
Nova: YAY!!! YOUR DEBT IS BEING PAID! PAID YOUR DEBT IS BEING! LET US GIVE 3 CHEERS FOR DEBT PAYMENTS! UNTIL NEXT TIME ^_^
Ludger: ...bitch...
*Phone ring*
Vera (name of the Spirius Corps agent from before): We've got a lead on a fractured dimension. Go to Hamil. Also some guy named Erston wants to speak with you elsewhere.
Ludger: I'll talk to Erston *Dialog prompt, Not cheating with Ludger*
Vera: NO! YOU GO TO HAMIL FIRST! THIS IS YOUR JOB AND I'M YOUR MASTER! But first head to the Seahaven to get details on your journey.
Ludger: ...fine...
Elize: Ooooh, it'll be like old times!
Teepo: They abused in Hamil, why do we want to go back there?
Elize: ...good point, why DO I want to go back there?
*the Sapstrath Seahaven*
Elle: Hey, there's glasses man and that bad guy!
Riddeaux: How rude!
Elize: Why are you wearing those sunglasses now?
Ivar: Because Julius ruined his face!
Riddeaux: Shut Up moron!
Ivar: YES SIR!!! ...wait, is that...MILLA!?
Milla: Yes?
Ivar: WHAT ARE YOU-...no, you can't be her!
Jude: Yeah, it's not the same, can you just explain what's going on now?
Riddeaux: Your brother ran to a fractured dimension in Hamil, go find him!
Ludger: Great.
*Hamil*
Muzet: Hi everyone!!!
Milla: Muzet!? Is that-...wait, no, it's not really yo.
Muzet: What are you talking about? Of course it's me!
Elize: Hi Muzet, didn't expect to see you here...
Muzet: Yes, and I didn't expect to see Milla...though she's not really Milla...
Milla: I am the former Maxwell!
Muzet: ...yes, yes you are...
Jude: Er...let me explain. *cut away later* And then we ate Tomato Soup, and Elle wouldn't shut up which explains why I didn't get much sleep last night and...
Muzet: Ok, I get it! Do you humans like to keep talking about nothing forever?
Jude: ...sorry, got carried away.
Muzet: So you're Milla from a fractured dimension? Darn, thought I found you! Still looking for her!
Villager: PORANGE THIEF! HOW DARE YOU STEAL MY FOOD!
Muzet: What can I say? Sometimes I just get hungry! *actual line of dialog*
Elle: Wait, do Spirits get hungry?
Muzet: No, but I have been introduced to this concept called "good food" and well, I can't get enough of it! You humans are such lucky creatures!
Jude: Yes, because potential to starve is completely lucky *rolls eyes*
Muzet: So you are going to a fractured dimension? Ok, count me in then!
Elize: Wait, you want to join us!?
Muzet: Yes, I'm interested in doing that!
Elize: Did we just recruit a final boss into our team?
Jude: It would appear so...wait, we now have 5 party members, and we need to clear some space, so whose going to le-...
Ludger: Jude.
Milla: Jude.
Elize: Jude.
Muzet: Jude.
Jude: ...I hate not being the main character anymore....
*fractured dimension jump later*
Elle: OH LOOK AT THE SEASHELL WHEE!!!!!
Milla: ...and there she goes, should we run after her?
Ludger: No.
Milla: Thought so.
Muzet: Why do you bring her along with you anyway? She seems to just get in the way.
Ludger: Good question.
*Ludger looks to the side and sees Julius*
Milla: And there HE goes. Are all humans as impulsive as him?
Julius: Ah, Ludger, I knew by humming this song I'd attract you.
Ludger: *nods*
Julius: Yes, remember that camping trip? With the poison ivy? And the scratching? And the you crying like a little girl while I kept telling you to shut up? ...well, neither do I so I'm not sure why I brought it up!
Ludger: *sigh*
Julius: Now listen, GIVE ME THE GIRL!
Ludger: Ok.
Julius: ...OH COME ON! You're suppose to resist this notion. If you just give me her, then there's no conflict between us and as we know, brothers are ALWAYS in conflict.
Ludger: Take her.
Julius: Well, now I don't want her!
Ludger: Crap.
Elle: EEEEEE!!!!
Ludger: ...double crap....
*back at Elle*
Elize: She's hurt, healing artes are doing nothing!
Muzet: It's a Stigma Arte!
Milla: a what?
Muzet: How do you not know about Stigma Artes? I mean, you're Maxwell...of a different world...but seriously, how?
Milla: ...just tell us what it is.
Muzet: It's a super evil arte that exists to suck the soul of a person and thus needs-...
Milla: Basically an excuse for a big dramatic boss fight which would have happened anyway since this thing is clearly the catalyst.
Muzet: My, you're sharp!
Julius: Take this watch, NOW BEAT THE THING!
Ludger: Fine.
Narrator: And so, one boss fight and Ludger getting an upgrade to his transformation later, Elle is saved and the team heads back to the PRIME DIMENSION! And so we end another episode of...
Ludger: Stop.
Narrator: But why?
Ludger: Just stop.
Narrator: ...
Ludger: Good.
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Etrian Odyssey 4: Legends of the Attack on Titan: What a strange, dystopian world.
* In the future, child labor is not only legal, it is common. Some of them occasionally dress up like adults but they aren't fooling anyone.
* In the same way, the 40-hour work-week is a thing of the past. Staff are expected to work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It's not surprising why so many people look so young - such a grueling pace leads to early graves and a short life expectancy.
* Guys, Titans aren't legendary. They're right out there. Horrific giant rabbits the size of a town prowl the land, thirsting for carrots and human flesh. They literally reach up to the skies to attack passing airships if they detect humans with their razor-sharp noses.
** Don't think duck meat or buffalo will satiate them. It won't, they'll keep coming for the delicious humans.
** Despite having access to flight, the threat of the murderous rabbits apparently has prevented very basic cartography of the area, such that even educated rulers are not entirely certain where the town's river flows from.
* For some reason, soldiers & adventurers are being sent into dangerous, monster-infested woods near by. Why? I can't rightly say. At least one of the nearby forests has a mine in it, and I can respect securing precious ore there, but why visit the larger & more dangerous bear-infested forest?
* The topography of said forest is very strange. There's a staircase that leads from "B1F" to "B2F". Basement 2/ 2nd floor? Except... there's another ground level forest down there, with majestic trees reaching far upward. And another set of stairs down to "B3F." And people in town refer to the "2nd floor" and the like. Are these... stacked forests? What happens if you look straight up? Is there sunlight? And who built these stairs? How long are they?
** Option 1: These are three forests separated by cliffs, and the stairs go diagonally down the cliff to the next, lower forest, with this horizontal movement not shown. Diagram:
__B1F__
\
\
____________B2F__
\
\
_____________________B3F__
** Option 2: These really are underground forests. The stairs are incredibly deep, and there's an artificial sun on the "ceiling" of the lower floors. The upper level trees have adapted to having shallow roots due to their soil "bottoming out" and becoming the ceiling of the next level.
** Option 3: These forests exist in some kind of alternate dimensions where the stairs are actually piercing the boundary between the worlds.
Probably gonna finish the 1st Labyrinth then switch off to Trails SC, but not bad for a time-filler. Beat the fake boss already, and since this game doesn't have the giveaway save point before a boss, it nicely lets the characters have psychic danger sense of "hmm, feels like the REAL boss is behind this door." Time to go back in & give it a shot.
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Yesterday I played FFXII for a little bit and didn't advance the plot because I really like the hunts.
Highlight was, in the process of going for Marilith I decided to finally get the Adremmelech summon (gave it to Vaan). Even at decent levels, Adremmelech is HARD. His support zombies are just super crazy mean. I eventually said fuck it and burned repeated quickenings on him, and managed to stylishly execute him with Ark whatever, the lightning one. Yeah, that's right, mother fucker. I'm so cool I'll defeat you with the element YOU ABSORB. Anyhow, lest I sound too cocky, that was the second time I beat him. The first time I beat him, I barely beat him. Got the cinematic for beating him. Got the "You got the esper: Adremmelech the Wroth" message for beating him. Got my party (really just Basch at that point) to strike a cool victory pose with fanfare.
...then I pressed a button to exit that screen and the zombie minions were still alive and immediately nailed me with 4 ARA level spells and I died. Basch is dumb, guys.
~~~
Vaan: Now has a Francesca axe which is like a hammer, but not as cool. It is, however, over 20 points higher than my next best (real) weapon, and Vaan will hit things for 2-3000 damage now, while everyone else hovers around 1, if they're lucky. Goddamn, Axes are great. On Vaan. You need good Vitality.
Balthier: Is still just kinda there in my party. He's sort of my "utility" guy that is pushed in enough directions to be useful in any situation, so he's often in my party when the boss dies, but... for the life of me, I'm not sure WHY.
Fran: OK, full stop, I don't understand stats/stat growth in this game. Does Fran ALWAYS have the lowest speed, by, like, a lot, or did I just equip her that way? Anyhow, I find it infuriating that she's stuck on bows, because, statistically, she is the worst person in my party I could conceivably give a bow to. Anyhow, I'm waiting around for the glorious day I can give her a Katana, or possibly a Mace and Shield, but I can't find a decent one of either. Can cast "Bubble" which is crazy good, especially on Ashe.
Basch: Yep. Having 3 levels of quickening is useful. That's really all I have to say on Basch. He didn't develop anything else that was cool.
Ashe: Discovered the +150, +200, and +500 HP locations on the board. So is a super tank. Has just shy of 6000 HP when bubbled, which... uh... next highest (when bubbled) is a bit over 3000. So yeah. Ashe is what I put in my party when I'm panicking and not sure what my actual strategy should be, yet. (She doesn't exactly have damage, since I keep giving Basch my better sword-type weapons. I should dedicate an entire weapon niche to Ashe, but I'm not sure what I'd actually use.
Penelo: Currently has a crossbow. Is my second best mage. Is kind of falling into the Balthier category of not really specializing in anything but generally always being useful. When I kill a boss or hard mark, my party is usually Penelo/Balthier, and then either Basch if I have to quickening it out, or Vaan if I don't.
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Probably gonna finish the 1st Labyrinth then switch off to Trails SC, but not bad for a time-filler. Beat the fake boss already, and since this game doesn't have the giveaway save point before a boss, it nicely lets the characters have psychic danger sense of "hmm, feels like the REAL boss is behind this door." Time to go back in & give it a shot.
Welp. Ran out of MP with the boss at ~40% HP or so, died with it @ ~20% HP or so. Guess I needed to avoid the Bloodbear guards rather than kill 1. Resource management.jpg? I wonder if I can kill one, leave, then come back without having it respawn. Probably not.
I should add that hunting in this dark world is similar to hunting via helicopter. Airships just soar through a herd of animals blasting 'em with something and take the meat. I'm forseeing an American bison-level near extinction event in the future if this becomes more common.
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Payday 2 - I am still playing this.
Vermintide - Got a group for Normal. My younger brother got a Rifle of any kind finally and is happier with the game. Might not be money wasted. It is good and feels amazing when you are rolling in deep in a melee.
Seriously if you guys want that Left4Dead experience again, get on board this train.
Jade Empire - After finishing KotOR2 I figured I could revisit the oddest game in that engine. It holds up about what you would expect. It is early Bioware writing so all the stock tropes are in full swing. Closed Fist tries hard often to be "not thug evil", but very often it is just 'fuck you pay me' or the 'fuck you pay me' options are functionally identical. I am playing Open Palm anyway since you really don't need the extra money for being evil for anything and the OP options are always first in the dialogue list, so it is literally easier to be good.
Number keys don't pick dialogue, you need to use the mouse. That is dumb.
The menus are terrible.
The game just kind of doesn't work properly under Vista+ environments. Some stuff you can do to make it tolerable but the camera just shits itself.
There is still loading sections where the game has big areas that it only loads half of into memory and will dump and reload when you walk back into the other half of the area. This was due to memory limitations of the original X-Box. These areas are tiny. This is hilarious.
Playing this in 2015 is a bit awkward. Like 100% of the voice cast I recognise I know are white.
It is a fun experiment for a game and has a few stock Bioware things before they really became stock Bioware things (there is 3 romance options, one girl only interested in guys, a guy and a girl both romancable by either sex main). It at no point splits off two four areas of your choice. It does do 3 at one point, but they are interrelated and much smaller (and is not the entire game).
It did make realise, there should be a suite of mods that turn any character Cam Clarke VAs into Leonardo from TMNT.
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I want Vermintide real, real bad, and your endorsement more or less seals the deal, assuming I ever know what money looks like again.
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You need to get a group of regulars to play with, just like L4D. Also (at least on easier difficulty levels?) there is no Friendly Fire. So Super won't take your head off with a shotgun blast/burn the entire group down with an AoE Conflagrate.
But seriously, L4D + asynchronous gameplay on the player side = really smart idea. Why has it taken nearly a decade for someone to get behind it this hard? (Yeah yeah, Payday and Warfrane both play with it but they also significantly shifted up the formula).
Also (kind of obviously), Vermintide takes the melee push from L4D2 and dials it up to 11. At least as characters I have played you will be quick swapping between ranged and melee a lot as the situation demands.
One quality of life thing I would like is for specials to be auto tagged when they are doing things to your allies. Yeah it would make the game easier, but the game also auto highlights your allies in giant fuck off red sillhouettes in those situations. So you have to train yourself out of targetting the silhouette and leading your shot appropriately (which is easy to do because a Gutter-Runner/hunter will be on top of your ally and you can like literally see the pole a Packmaster/smoker is choking your ally with. It 100% is just a case of overriding your twitch reflexes to hit just off to the edge of the big highlighted thing. (Also that is something that Payday 2 does with tasers after a while, so I am used to it).
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Laggy deserved to be set fire to all those times in L4D and I will not hear otherwise.
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D5: beat~
Now the games really begins!
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Yeah I am sure he deserved it for standing within 5 meters of you while you spun around wildly as soon as you clicked throw on your molly.
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Been working on Disgaea 5 some. Got up to chapter four or so and then things started slowing down because I began to have too many people in my army to keep up to scratch (I tend to like keeping a representative of most generic classes around in these games, or at least from the cute classes). I should proooobably be trying to get more mileage out of the send inactive dudes to explore other netherworlds and coincidentally gain levels while you're fighting feature. Haven't used it much yet, don't know how efficient it is, but some experience is presumably better than the no experience they'd get just sitting on the bench.
Plot is basically more Disgaea. It's the sort of nonsense it turns out I was actually in the mood for but I doubt it's going to sell anybody on the series who doesn't already like it. Killia so far seems like a less charismatic reflection of Dis4's protagonist (who was probably the series' best). This is basically fine because he works well as a straight man to Seraphina's whole Etna with cleavage and fufufu thing. Red Magnus was pretty annoying at first but is basically super white noise by this point. Christo is so painfully obviously a demoted angel that I can already sense Snowfire's gag reflex kicking in over N1's whole "Heaven and the netherwold are basically morally equivalent entities, right?" thing.
It looks like you don't actually have to reincarnate generics to get to the next tier class in their line? They just sort of autopromote at some point. I don't actually see the mechanics of this communicated clearly anywhere, but it seems to be based on mana accumulation rather than raw level (it would have to be detached from level since you can now hire generics at something like protag level -3 or whatever). You can still reincarnate dudes if you want to grind stats? But the periodic whelp time to grind up all my flunkies from level 1 again because everyone unlocked a new class tier thing that was familiar to like every other Disgaea is apparently no longer necessary. And there's a zombie maid class now because of course there is. They get to use Item as a free action once per turn. This is more helpful than it sounds because free damage and throwing knives nerf enemy speed.
The random name generator has already given me both Rorona and Meruru. I am probably going to name the next generic hire Totori just to get it over with.
Also: "Netherworld effect active: Mushroom Paradise!" Your N1 mind control ray is working, Dune. You can turn it off now.
~
Also bashed through most of Guacamelee when Super was over a couple weekends back. Still need to go back and do the final dungeon, got hung up on re-exloring the world and clearing out all the secrets first. Amazing game, anyway, plays much better with a controller than it did when I tried it on keyboard a couple years ago. Combat is smooth and incredibly fun, throwing dudes into other dudes so that I enjoyed meeting you Cliff and then you push the guy over the cliff is basically the best thing you can do with enemies in a game.
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What kind of rig are you running Vermintide on, Gref? I've found the minimum system requirements on games to be grossly overblown lately. The recommended CPU is a 4.7 gHZ quad-core and that seems super-overblown based on the gameplay videos i'm seeing.
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Christo is so painfully obviously a demoted angel that I can already sense Snowfire's gag reflex kicking in over N1's whole "Heaven and the netherwold are basically morally equivalent entities, right?" thing.
Funny you mention that. I still need to mention more DS2 & AOW3 recaps, but...
King's Bounty: Dark Side: More of the recent KB games made by Russians who liked the really old 90/91 NWC PC / Genesis game that would lead to the Heroes of Might & Magic series. Anyway, this game they decided to mix it up and let you play the bad guys, which I will admit actually makes tons of sense for games of this type. You don't have to explain why there are voracious monsters & evil armies across the lands trying to kill the player, like you do with "good" heroes; how would merchants or trade get by? No, the world is fine, and it's the equivalent of the National Guard trying to murder you wherever you walk since you are kind of traveling the world intent on spreading evil & overthrowing governments to install nice Dark-friendly replacements. So a good excuse to be fighting a lot.
Plot: You are the villains! Ham it up! Except. The game's tone kind of can't pick between "dark and light are just two basically equivalent teams having a foodfight", "You are actually evil, but pragmatic evil, e.g. just trying to put yourself in charge" and "You are cosmic evil." Notably, the 1st really doesn't play well with the 3rd. For example, sometimes the characters will explicitly call Light side people "evil" and basically portray them as racist jerks who just want to crush the dark side for being different. Okay, sure, we can have a world where the Light is sometimes evil and the Dark sometimes good. Except... if you look at who they're fighting, it's blatantly obvious that their Dark *really are* threats to the life & liberty of innocents, which changes the game a little. One island has a dispute between a necromancer & a vampire, where the vampire wanted to farm a farming village for blood while the necromancer just killed everyone and made 'em skeletons, so then they fought each other. A classic beef vs. dairy farming issue, as described by Our Dark Hero. And now both are oppressed by the King's forces and a fortress he built to stop them from advancing further. Okay fine, resolve their dispute and help them conquer the throne, but this is because I'm evil, let's not pretend that this is in any way a "good" thing to do! There's some similar psuedo-feminist things where oh noes, this Paladin is killing all the succubi and has some spell that makes him immune to their charms... but... look, incubi / succubi are magic rapists. Who do this in the plot! I'm pretty sure that killing them dead to protect others sounds like a great idea.
Anyway, the overarching plot is actually not a bad hook: to build a magical weapon of vengeance, you have to make the 3 happiest women despair, make the 3 most loyal men traitors, and take the 3 purest servants of the Light and make them servants of the Dark. This is the cosmic evil part: this is some evil shit. The last 2 are done rather fanatsy-esque which potentially isn't interesting; apparently just drag loyal men to the Demoness (where she seduces them with magic) and pure ones to the Vampire (where he puts the bite on them). Bang, instant magical betrayal. Well, it's shocking enough, I guess, even if using magic rather than something more subtle is a little disappointing. (Some of the ways you can recruit helpers actually ARE pretty neat, like researching a magician's bad luck, undoing the hex on him, and convincing him it was because he was trying to use Light Magic rather than Dark Magic...) The making the happiest sad part, though... that's where I quail a bit. See the solution is to just have the Orc beat the shit out of them. Every day. While leading them around with a collar on them. That's just... ugh. I want to be Darth Vader, not a sadistic torturer. And quite enough women already get beaten for my tastes in the real world, where at least getting turned into a vampire is rarer. It's even worse in that the Orc justifies it as a "Look, this is really the Light's fault anyway! They started this!" deal; if he embraced the evil act, then it'd feel like the narrative owned it, at least. Trying to justify something as horrible as this... bah. Kinda turned me off.
Gameplay: I'm playing as the Vampire, the mage class. (Orc is the Warlord archetype, Demoness is the Anti-Paladin archetype.) The first area, Portland, is actually pretty well balanced. It might even be too difficult at times; I actually ate a retreat vs. the king in the final battle for the area. Anyway, in the first area, I think you can get something approaching the intended experience with KB: you're mixing up your army with whatever local options you have available, trying out different approaches, just learning spells and not guaranteed to have the most useful ones, etc. After this... it falls off.
Here's the thing. The game is heavily balanced around you winning most of your battles cleanly, that is, with few-if-any losses. Gold isn't a big deal (on Normal), but sheer number of recruits and the annoyance of running around to fill up on them is. In fact, later on, you can credibly clean out entire stocks of troops for sale and not max out on them, which is really lame as far as letting you pick an army comp you like. Now there IS a non-intuitive way around this to generate infinite stacks (Blood Priestess's Sacrifice ability), which ends up really crucial to use, but the game doesn't call it out, so hope you experimented or checked the Net? It'd be like if you had to use Vanish-Doom in FF6 to get back MP or something similarly super-crucial. And it means leaving around crappy enemies is important, so that you can run back to them, stick your valuable Blood Priestess stack in, summon some mooks, sacrifice them and use that to build up the stack you really want. Lame.
On the summoning note... winning deathless battles gets progressively harder as the game goes on. Or it would, if OP summoning didn't exist. I guess this matters most for the vampire, but engaging in a straight-up brawl is usually a poor idea. So around near the end of Portland, the strategy becomes "drop a Phoenix in the middle of the enemy lines, laugh when they try to kill it because SURPRIZE it's a Phoenix and it comes back." Eventually throw in a Black Dragon which is also tanky & fire resistant, and have demons with explosive fire shots rain down on the area, since it's not like the Phoenix / Dragon drawing the aggro are going to take much from it. Eventually after a single Ancient Phoenix wasn't badass enough, Call of Nature just summons infinite OP doomstacks where you don't care if they take damage because they disappear at the end of the fight anyway. Your own army barely matters because it's just about summoning hordes to crush your enemies with. It'd be nice if that spell was max-twice-a-battle or something.
As a side note, you are inexplicably limited in the number of spell scrolls you can carry around, and the number of spells you can transcribe / upgrade is harshly limited. Not sure this was a great idea, it means you'll be spamming the same 4 spells quite a bit.
Lastly, DOT effects are gruesomely overpowered, especially lategame when stacks get large. Early on, it's fine, your 1 Black Dragon shrugs off %-based damage. But that %-based damage gets way nastier with larger stacks, as now your 15 Dragon riders, chipped by some wimpy werewolves into "bleeding", now suffer a casualty. Noooo. This encourages you to play EVEN MORE conservatively and ensure that only your piles of summoned stacks do any fighting while everyone else huddles in the backlines. Meh.
I think I'm done with the game, it's too much of a cakewalk now with the "spam summoning spells" strat but not close enough to being finished. Alas. (On Aralan @L50 or so, max level is apparently L80 and there's still 2 demon realms, Bear Butte, & Amazonia to go.)
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Jade Empire - Finished. The back half of the game is kind of eh. I did the bind Death's Hand to you and then was frustrated that there was no Open Palm or at least neutral way to really keep him around.
Black Whirlwind and Kang still the two best things about the game.
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Talisman Digital Edition:
A friend and I occasionally play this, and I play the physical version from time to time. Normally I wouldn't post anything about a board game, but I played against 5 computers last night and some amazing hijinx came up.
Players were Me/Pirate, Prophetess, Druid, Assassin, Ninja, Elf.
Elf gets cursed early on by getting the follower that allows you to move only one space at a time. Elf don't give a shit. Elf slowly trudges to two adjacent spaces that grant random stat-ups and spends many turns just getting beefy as fuck using his guaranteed 1 movement to exploit this area of the board, moving back and forth. Damn, the AI in this game is pretty good.
Ninja has 4 items, and decides to cross the river. He builds a raft. Oops. Now he has five items. Ninja spends a long time looking at his items and then discards the raft. .... he proceeds to do this five more times before getting it right. ......never mind what I said earlier about the AI.
OH JESUS Assassin got ripped and proceeds to go to the inner area and just passes every test with ease because his stats are so good. He starts spending a long time trying to murder everyone.
Everyone largely doesn't give a shit. We spend many many turns healing and/or Assassin doesn't successfully damage us. I try to get through the portal but fail. Prophetess DOES get through the portal, gets to the werewolf, fails 4 fights in a row against the wolf and dies.
I finally get through the portal. I have 1 life. I slowly trudge up the inner circle one turn at a time, while Assassin fails all his rolls, but only takes about HALF of his rolls because Ninja and Druid continually cast Counterspell or immobilize and just ruin his day.
I arrive at the center. At this point I have less strength than Assassin and 1 HP to his 5. BUT, he can't assassinate me and I can use MY combat ability and I have fate and he doesn't. I successfully beat him once. Instead of damaging him, I steal his armor. On his turn, I beat him again and steal another item. I steal his final strength-based item on my turn and suddenly I have a big advantage on him in strength, I have 2 fate for rerolls, and I have both his armor to mitigate damage as well as a spell to mitigate damage.
I end up needing neither. I defeat Assassin 8 times in a row before he can defeat me once. (There are some ties in here.) I kill him and start using the crown.
Elf tries pulling a ME and starts coming at me slowly but surely with like, 4 fate and better stats than I had, but I'm luckier than Assassin and manage to rattle off 3 successes pretty quick and ruin his day. Ninja does nothing. Druid is a fucking prick and just.... spends an unbelievable amount of time staving of the inevitable without actually trying to get into the center. I damage him TWENTY TIMES before he finally runs out of bullshit heals and dies. I win.
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Burned through the bulk of Bloodborne to get a NG file ready for DLC later this month. (Sirs not appearing in this film: Ebrietas, Logarius, anything chalice, all of which can go do in a fire). Went with arcane + Ludwig's sword, which really is a ridiculous combination. Also A Call Beyond absolutely warrants both the level investment and chewing through your HP for extra bullets. The other offensive arcane items are pretty scrubby, but 1,500 damage a shot vs. MWN is nothing to sneeze at.
I'm still wondering: why is it that the defunct doll in the old workshop is constantly surrounded by the bloodstains of players killing themselves with the chikage?
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To fuck with people.
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Celestian Tales: Old North: Pretty good! I liked it. It is very, very short, though, with lots of "this map continues over here in the future but we're not there yet so you can't go here yet." I guess they didn't want to call it "Episode 1" or something since that might set expectations of people buying a season pass or the like. Still... whatever. Good writing, mostly good characters, good music, good art, good gameplay.
I am shocked, simply *shocked*, that all of Elf/Gate/myself picked Cammile as an initial main character. Neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerds. I also did the same thing as Gate, LLG'd the game and sold my crafting stuff, then got wrecked by Tortured Ender who both OHKO'd anybody he wanted or MT OHKO'd the world. In Bravely Default Hard you can get away with that because stocking up Stamina / BP lets you use extremely broken revival, but not so much here with wounds and going to 0 Stamina on revive. Was able to LLG past the boss of the next area, then had to grind up for the final fights after getting wrecked by the final at L20 or so. I suspect the final is hypothetically doable at L23 with some good luck on his healing move, but L24 makes it way, way more sane.
Anyway, not a lot to say. I mostly liked the writing, with a few exceptions where the author is making their point a tad too blatant (e.g. the nobles being told about cleaning up manure, etc.). There's a lot of *good* influences from A Game of Thrones & its knock-offs here too: that there exists a rulership structure beyond the old king, the young princess, and his evil chief advisor. People have extended families, loyalties are weird, all nice feudalism elements showing up. And I like that as the advertising indicates, the authors are willing to show that dramatic stuff happens that isn't securing the great magic artifact from a monster-infested dungeon; guarding supplies or burning evidence is plenty interesting too.
The only character that was a big miss was Ylianne, the half-elf. They're trying to go for the "alien outsider who notices the obvious flaws in human society and asks seemingly strange questions, as she hasn't internalized this as common yet" trope, which is indeed a mighty classic. Star Trek Spock for one obvious case. But... it's way too saccharine, and comes across as more childlike than alien. You know, the 3rd grader who writes a letter to the President asking why he doesn't just declare peace and feed the hungry people. Doesn't help that her personal backstory seemingly has nothing to do with anything, but maybe that'd change in playing her path, or in future developments if we ever got to actually visit the elven city.
Of course with all the loose ends, this is like judging Suikoden V based on everything up to the Godwin coup, so it's possible things take a turn for the worse later on! We'll see. I hope. They damn well better make their sequels to this...
...speaking of story-heavy games with good settings...
Trails in the Sky SC
I still have my save backed up to the PC even despite my Vita getting stolen (RIP TOPSP Neutral save, though.). Who woulda thought SC would be on PSP as well as Steam? Thanks for the labor of love, XSEED. Now Trails FC is a fantastic game, but with 1 quibble: Hard difficulty was inexplicably locked behind finishing the (fairly long!) game, and Normal was a tad too easy.
Trails SC fixes this. You can select any difficulty right away! Like, say, Hard. Or Nightmare.
Yeah. Nightmare. We doing this. Bring it on, Ourborous.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3K4rjTvkGc
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Regarding the final boss (gameplay spoilers for Celestian Tales):
The healing move can be avoided either by applying silence with Aria or depleting the boss' SP with Lucienne. A mix of both works perfectly, since during silence enemies will naturally build up a lot of SP, so you can be ready to kill it at the end. I think the lowest-level I beat that fight was 20, but I'd that was on one of my more recent runs when I knew the game well. I actually found the first stage of the final battle sequence the bigger problem, but I can see either way of course. The final battle sequence and the Tortured Ender are the two points you need to be ready for in terms of equipment/party loadout, for sure.
I actually quite liked Ylianne, unlike your third-grader example I found a lot of her questions to be pretty darn reasonable, because medieval society and warrior culture both kind of suck. (Also, she is a child; if you do her path it becomes very clear that CTON goes for the "elves mature much more slowly than humans" angle, instead of just physically aging more slowly.) That said I don't really recommend doing her path (unless you do them all!), because although it sheds some light on her and a very small amount on the elven land, it doesn't really shed much light on anything else.
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El cid, what's your....uhm I'm assuming ps4 handle?
I need a d5 buddy to send and receive items from.
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On PSN? Lerxstmobile. I'm moving pretty slowly through the game though since I'm also working on a couple of others lately.
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Elf: Amusingly enough I kept forgetting to slot in the stamina-to-0 spell for Lucienne, I did think of that. When I was fighting him at L22, I actually did keep him under a Silence, Stun, Silence lock for awhile... and when it fell off with him at 8 Stamina, Omnislash, wipe Luci (no guard!), Omnislash, wipe Cammile, RIP. Makes sense that if you can both deny the heal and deny Omnislash then it's winnable, though.
I do agree that "optimal" play at lower levels almost surely involves both Luci & Aria to survive, since you just aren't going to blitz if you're underlevel even with some kind of YOLO team set up for it. Knowing your comment on avoiding the heals, I'd agree that surviving the penultimate fight is probably harder (although I managed it!) - seems to require carefully juggling aggro while you wear out Aria's initial shields, blitz down 1 soldier, then recover and set up a Luci aggro & defense spam backed by Aria Ritual Blade healz lock.
Re Ylianne, makes sense that they're pulling the "she's actually a kid in diguise" trope for all that this still doesn't really work for me if the goal is to make serious points. And I agree that medieval society sucks in many ways (although CTON at least makes its medieval society way more gender egalitarian, if in a few weird & forced ways... Turkish sultans with 20 wives can have lots of kids, but duchesses with 5 husbands aren't going to pump out kids any faster...), but I just don't like the "from the mouth of babes" approach to philosophizing. It's too easy to make any stance sound heartless if you do that.
Communist author: "Why can't the rich just share, like we learned growing up? Why do we need prices?"
Religious author: "Why doesn't everybody just worship the true god? Don't people want to be saved and be rewarded with eternal bliss?"
Ayn Rand: "Why do you let the government take the fruits of your labor? Don't people complain when their hard work isn't rewarded?"
etc.
Reed/Isaac can do the job of railing on society better anyway.... although I just played his prologue, and sheesh, he's a lot worse than I'd assumed (maybe Just As Planned when he's a side character that you *don't* know this and treat him normally!). Didn't realize he was a psychotic murderer. Oh well, act casual! Nice job on doing a rather Sanderson-esque explaining why healing crystals haven't radically revolutionized peasant life & health care, though. Setting consistency & all.
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Isaac is definitely a bit of a sociopath. It's fun to compare his unique scenes/thoughts (make sure to read his diary!) with what you see of him on other routes.
Regarding Ylianne, well, agree to disagree and all that. I think it's fair to consider her role a bit forced, and I agree it could be used to make baseless criticisms... but I certainly felt that most of her criticisms were valid myself. Like yes, it is fucked up that Reynard enjoys killing, or that society defines greatness by being good at warfare, and an outsider/child perspective provides a good in-game vehicle to draw attention to this.
Rayman Legends - I got to the end credits, so I guess I beat the maingame? Anyway, this was a lot of fun. I think Murfy was a bit overused and not always too fun (a bit trial-and-errory and reliant on occasionally annoying AI, though it's usually fine) although I do quite like the Murfy's dungeon challenges. Bosses are better than Origins, which admittedly wasn't a high bar, and the musical stages were certainly a lot more fun/flavourful than their Origins equivalents. I enjoy the daily/weekly challenges quite a bit as well! Some ups and downs compared to Origins but overall an excellent game, one of the best I've played this year.
Bayonetta - Replaying this, up to chapter 5. I can get gold ranks now! Helps a lot that I'm actually doing the Alfheims. A lot of those are quite fun! It's strange that game seems to not want you to do them, a lot of them are only available as "backtrack to this random location in a short window between Verse N and Verse N+1" which is kind of dumb. I guess they were kind of dumb in DMC too so this is just a genre tradition. I generally don't remember them being as bad in DMC though, probably because that game doesn't wall off backtracks nearly as often as Bayonetta does. Ultimately not a big deal though. Game is still very good!
Legend of Legacy - Saga Fonrtierish... but a bit of a slow starter so far. We'll see how this goes.
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Has anyone tried the indivisible demo on the psnow store?
It's a cute sprite looking game that plays very much like valkyrie profile. Side scrolling, maybe metroidvania-esque.
The demo is short and possibly bare bones, but it seems it's a kick starter and if it doesn't reach its goal in less than 2 weeks, the games getting scrapped.
If you like VP, I'd suggest checking it out.
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My problem with it was that it was too much like VP, lacking sorely in originality.
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Not gonna lie, at this point, 15 years later, I'd happily take another game "too much like VP". It's a system with loads of potential and it's almost impossible not to put some sort of spin on it which will keep it fresh enough.
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Been 7 years since Covenant of the Plume even. Yeah I am okay with this.
What do you get when you take an existing franchise and make a super super corporate design by committee game and then polish it and polish it? Wrong its not Assassin's Creed 4. That was just that description set in the offices of a video game subsidiary of a giant corporation. Think bigger more evil corporate than Ubisoft. That's right I am talking about
Lord of the Rings: Shadows of Moredoors - Holy crap this is a straight rip off of Ubisoft's formula done slightly worse with a bit more polish (and a lot more game breaking clipping issues). The Nemesis system would be significantly more interesting if you didn't unlock the final pieces literally just before the final mission and the whole dealio with it was essentially the lead up to unlocking the final mission.
I don't think there is much more to say, it is a shorter more DLC filled Assassin's Creed in a shittier setting that is way more up its own arse, and that is saying something.
The final actual boss fight was pretty good. They ripped off the final boss of AC1, but instead of LOLOLOLOL THERE IS 9 DUDES AND ONES A CLONE HOPE YOU LIKE SWORD FIGHTING SOME MORE, they instead make the dude split into a bunch of copies that you need to hide from and get sneak kills. This is actually a neat way to do a high fantasy stealth game boss fight. Of course that guy was some pointless villain who meant nothing (though making dead bodies heads follow Tallion around as he walked was a pretty effective bit of cinematography). After that you go in to a sword fight corridor and then find "the Black Hand of Sauron" who is an emogoth dude setup to obviously be the "dark version of the main". He the proceeds to slit his own throat so that he absorbs the ghost man that lives inside Tallion. Then Dark Ranger turns into Sauron or something? Then like Ghost Man (who was dude that made the rings and spoiler warning totally fought Sauron with the one ring for a bit!!!) wills Sauron to be frozen in place and you do press buttons to not die and then stab Sauron in the belly. Of course press button not to die happens right after 300000 hours of cutscene and this is the first time you have had them in a plot sequence (other times it is just mid fight button prompts).
It was an alright game that had fun ideas I am glad to have finally seen first hand. I am also very glad I waited for discount. Holy shit that was short for something in that genre.
I might see if I want to do some of the DLC stories tomorrow. If I start playing StarCraft 2 replays instead I will just uninstall.
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My problem with it was that it was too much like VP, lacking sorely in originality.
I dunno. I'm a bit rusty on my VP, but the game felt reasonably different despite using the same core mechanic?
That said, I'm actually on the fence because I think the combat might be too tight for me? Like, having a lot of trouble with comboing attacks because it is muuuuuch stricter than I recall VP being. I think I'll stick back it because I love the art and potential, but I'm not sure how much it'll matter. Game needs a pretty serious surge at the end.
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I gotta play AC4 at some point, on that note; have it but haven't touched it!
Tales of Encount:
NOTE: I couldn't remember the exact characters who were in the first half, so I fudged it, not that it makes a difference, because in the end, Elle is still there and really, you can't get worse than that!
Narrator: So when we last left our...*checks both sides* ok good. When we last left our Mostly Silent Hero and crew he...
*gun shot*
Narrator: Ouch, hey what where did that come from?
Ludger: Here.
Narrator: Fine, just start the scene, see what I care.
Ludger: Ok.
*phone call*
Vera: Agent Kresnik, Erston wishes to see you, he won't stop asking for your prescense. Also, he's constantly picking fights with our guards, beating them up, them offering to take them out for a drink. We are not pleased by the complete humiliation that our guards receive in terms of both skills and class by him, it would be appreciated if you met with him.
Elle: Why do we have to go? It's not related to Canaan after all! This is stupid!
Ludger: Quiet.
Rowen: Well, shall we go meet with him then?
Elize: I'll help too!
Ludger: ...where? How? Why?
Elle: Hey! You just said 3 words!
Ludger: Shut it.
Elle: Meanie!
*at Spirius*
Gaius: Now listen here, you stop doing that and I won't be forced to embarrass you.
Random Guy: Yeah, or else what?!Q
Gaius: Or else I'll offer to take you out for a drink, you won't refuse and then I'll make you pay the bill!
Random Guy: ...you monster! I concede!
Gaius: Ah, there you are.
Elize: Hi your hi-...er...generic nobody! Yes! That's it!
Gaius: I am NOT a nobody!
Elize: But you said you didn't want...
Gaius: I am Erston, playboy billionaire aristocrat noble! You got that?
Rowen: Yes, he seems to demand that even his alias must be of a high rank, but in any event, what do you want?
Gaius: Take me to a Fractured Dimension! I must see if you are WORTHY of destroying realities!
Leia: Wait, why do you care about this?
Ludger: But...what...I...huh?
Milla: Yes, why do you destroy worlds so casually?
Ludger: I give up.
Gaius: Ignoring how these two spontaneously appeared, let me help you until you find another fract-...
*phone call*
Vera: We've detected another Fractured Dimension at...well...basically your exact location, GO THERE NOW!
Gaius: ...how convenient.
Milla: Take me with you, I want to see you destroy another world.
Elle: Wait, what if Ludger isn't good enough to destroy a world?
Gaius: Death!
Leia: And if he's good enough?
Gaius: I'll become a PC.
Leia: Do we have a choice?
Gaius: Do you want to continue the plot?
Rowen: It's settled then! Off to destroy another reality!
*Fractured Dimension, in Kanbalar*
Gaius: This is just like the Kanbalar where I come from...wonder what's different about it?
Leia: Let's talk to the guards? You are king, they should let us in!
Guards: YOU'RE HERE TO KILL THE KING! GET HIM!
Gaius: ...do you guys REALLY want to do this? I mean, I'm a former final boss, we all know this is...
*Guard cuts Gaius' new fancy suit very slightly*
Gaius: ...excuse me, this scene is not suitable for most eyes.
*Pan Camera to Ludger and the rest, sounds of vicious death, murder, and other things occur*
Gaius: Well, our path is now clear.
Leia: ...Gaius, can I ask you a question?
Gaius: Yes?
Leia: How did you so casually murder 7 guards in such a gruesome way and NOT get a single bloodstain on you?
Gaius: I'm just that good...and my custom made suits are that important to me.
Leia: Uh...huh...
Milla: Anyone not acknowledging that he completely slaughtered those people?
Gaius: Well, if Ludger succeeds, they're going to stop existing anyway.
Milla: Oh, so now you're just going to destroy this reality like it's nothing?
Gaius: Isn't that why we're here? I mean, isn't that the exact reason you came too?
Ludger: Let's go.
*in the palace*
Gaius: So the king here is a recluse...well, it's not me because I'm totally not like that...
Elle: Because you have friends right?
Gaius: Not...really...
Leia: What about the Chimeriad?
Gaius: What about them?
Leia: I mean, they were kind of your friends or something right?
Milla: Sounds like minions to me.
Gaius: Well, that's because that's what they were! Have you ever heard of a man like me with friends!? Anyway, let's go meet the king.
*Wingul sitting on throne*
Wingul: Life is pain, hate, suffering I AM NOT FIT TO BE KING!
Gaius: Hi Wingul.
Wingul: What!? Erston, you return!? WHY DID YOU LEAVE ME TO THIS FATE!?
Gaius: Because...uhh...what reason did I give you again?
Wingul: Your sister was sick so went to attend her, and left me on the throne because I suggested it! THIS IS YOUR FAULT!
Milla: Wait that doesn't...
Gaius: (Shhh! Trying to do this civilly!) Yes, it's totally my fault, I am a coward who can't sit on the throne and deal with my problems. Now excuse me, I need to go behind that pillar and vomit out the fact that I actually said that.
Jude: Wait, so the Gaius here went to help his sister and left Wingul on the throne and he's not fit to rule? I can see how that's a problem.
Milla: You were definitely NOT standing there 5 minutes ago. How did you do that?
Jude: Uhh...would you believe me if I said I was a Ninja Doctor?
Milla: No.
Jude: ...then I got nothing.
Gaius: Listen, Wingul, we can do this together, we just...
Wingul: YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS! *Goes white bishie mode* Nande Tsumakasu Nincato Ivan Eht Nioj!*
*This is not meant to actually resemble a real language; the language sounds almost Japanese but isn't quite it. If you played ToX1, you know what I'm talking about.
Jude: I think he's the catalyst...
Gaius: ...so...is this going to be my first boss fight as a PC?
Ludger: Yes.
*one boss fight later*
Wingul: Your highness, I'm sorry! Please take the throne and protect the country again! I am not worthy!
Gaius: I understand...Ludger, your thing.
*Ludger kills Wingul, gets the Waymarker*
Milla: You so casually had your own friend killed like that?
Gaius: Trust me, I didn't like doing it, but I knew it had to be done. Part of being a King is having to make decisions that go beyond your own personal life and are for the best of your subjects. I fully understand what the me of that reality was going through and many a time I considered doing the same thing.
Milla: But you sat on the throne and muscled through it all in the end, rather than addressing your own personal needs.
Gaius: Yes. It's hard to have a personal life when you're royalty, but well, you know...anyway, Ludger, you are clearly worthy, so I don't have to kill me. Call me if you need help destroying another world...or you just want a drink.
Elle: Aww, he's a nice guy!
Gaius: We'll split the tab, of course.
Elle: ...jerk >:(
*Gaius' phone rings*
Gaius: ...this damn thing won't stop, how do you handle it!?
Rowen: I've told you multiple times, you press the button and talk into it.
Gaius: I don't understand how you can figure out these "phone" things. I'll just ask you to show it to me later!
Elize: ...not very good with technology, is he?
Teepo: He's a complete klutz!!!
*one debt payment later*
Nova: COME HERE! I NEED YOU BECAUSE...uh...JUST DO IT OK I'M SCARED!
Ludger: Pain...
*at the next town*
Nova: These guys, we froze their accounts and then they GAVE ME A DEATH STARE :(
Ludger: Who cares.
Nova: Damn it, show some compassion!
Elle: I think I've been here! There's a lake and such here right?
Leia: Uh, there haven't been that many lakes like that on Elympios in a while.
Nova: Well, there was that one lake near here...that went dry decades ago...there were ruins found there...
Alvin: What the heck does that have to do with anything?
Nova: Well, it means Elle clearly can't be thinking about this place because there's no water!
Jude: Hmm...I feel like something convenient is about to happen right about...
*Phone call*
Jude: ...now...
Vera: Fractured Dimension, Waymarker, GO THERE NOW!
Nova: Wait, Vera? IS THAT YOU SIS!?
Vera: Nova? What are you doing here?
Nova: I should ask you the same thing.
Vera: I'm not here, I'm the freaking phone calling one of my employees WHO YOU KNOW IS EMPLOYED UNDER SPIRIUS. What about me calling him doesn't make sense?
Nova: THIS IS WHY YOU NEVER HAD A STABLE RELATIONSHIP!!!!
Jude: ...where did that come from?
Elize: So...Nova...I guess we'll be seeing you.
Teepo: Yeah, good luck with those death stares!
Nova: BUT I'M SCARED ;_;
Elize: But we have to deal with the Fractured Dimension!
Alvin: That's ok, you B-team guys can handle that!
Elize: B...team!? I'm just the B-team!?
Teepo: You're a jerk!
Alvin: Yes, yes I am.
Milla: I'll go with Ludger, I have to guilt trip him more about destroying worlds.
Ludger: Why me...
Jude: Good, Leia, you're with him too, Rowen, help and me and Alvin out.
Leia: Wait, Jude, I'M on the B-Team too!?
Jude: Uh...I guess you are?
Leia: ...fine, see what I care! Let's go destroy another reality already! That will be a far more interesting story to write about than that.
Rowen: Say, where are Gaius and Muzet in all of this? Aren't they part of our team?
Ludger: Drinking and shopping.
Rowen: Ah, I see, fair enough.
*Fractured Dimension*
Leia: So which way do we go?
Milla: Not sure, we need leads.
Elize: We could just wander around aimlessly and go to wherever is dangerous until we stumble on the right area.
Teepo: Yeah, but that won't get anything done and I frankly just want to take a nap in Milla's chest.
Elize: Teepo!!!
Ludger: Ruins.
Milla: What?
Ludger: It's there.
*at the lake ruins*
Elle: YAY! We're closer to Canaan! Then I can see daddy and...
*Thunder*
Elle: EEEEEEEH WAAAAAAAAHH!!! ;_;
Milla: Awwww, is the little girl afraid of a little thunder? *evil grin*
Elle: NO! I'M NOT AF-*thunder* EEEEH!
Milla: Oh, I'm going to have fun with this this >=)
NOTE: She actually does this. Milla actually mocks Elle outright and trollls her and it's glorious. 5 points for Alternate Milla!
Elle: I'm not afraid, fear makes you unable to focus and that's bad and...
Elize: It's ok to be scared of something.
Elle: SHUT UP!
Leia: Yeah, it's nothing to worry about.
*Thunder strikes, Leia and Elize jump down*
Leia: ...that Thunder IS really loud though, hurts my ears.
Elize: And it'll probably start raining soon, we should get inside.
Ludger: Let's go.
*inside*
Voice: WHO DARES ENTER THE HALLS OF THE MIGHTY ONE THAT IS ODIN, LORD OF THESE MIGHTY PALACE WALLS!
Milla: ...seriously, Odin? This place looks like something out of a late game Star Ocean dungeon.
Voice: QUIET! YOU WILL LEARN TO RESPECT THAT WHO RULES OVER THOR LORD OF TRANSVERSING TIME!
Leia: Hey, voice, shut up! We're trying to figure out where we are out?
Voice: SUCH INSUBORDINATION WILL NOT BE MET PLAINLY! LEAVE NOW DESTROYER OF WORLDS OR...
Ludger: No.
Voice: I DID NOT FINISH MY THREAT! HOW DARE YOU INTERRUPT MY MIGHT BOOMING VOICE AND...
Ludger: Hush.
Voice: I WILL NOT LISTEN TO...
Ludger: Shove it.
Voice: FINE! BUT DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU FOUL MORTAL! YOU WILL SUFFER THE WRATH OF...
Elize: Can he just shut up already?
Teepo: Hey, idiot, we're already starting to move in so shut up so we can just continue onward already.
Voice: YOU WILL PAY FOR SUCH ACTIONS FOUL CREATURE! WHAT IS YOUR NAME?!
Teepo: I'm Teepo!
Voice: THEN, ONE CALLED TEEPO, YOU HAVE MADE YOURSELF A POWERFUL ENEMY RIVAL THIS DAY! I WILL NOT REST UNTIL I OVERCOME YOU, FOR YOU ARE CLEARLY THE MIGHTIEST OF THOSE IN YOUR GROUP!
Leia: Did he just...
Milla: declare Teepo his...
Ludger: Archrival!?
Narrator: Yes, yes he did. And now we are ending this chapter.
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FFXII:
I gave up on hunts and optionals for a while and resumed the story. I defeated Doctor Cid in a weird fight.
Vaan: Successfully DIDN'T use names this time when told not to use names. Was called Balthier's apprentice which made Balthier look visibly shaken. Actually did stuff with his unrealized girlfriend instead of seemingly encouraging others to steal her away. All in all, Vaan had a good showing this time around. In combat, Vaan is just disgusting. No new weapons, but he's still putting out about twice as much damage (per strike. More total since axes are fast AND combo.) as the next best in my party. I have attempted to Berserk him through some hunts/bosses with mixed success.
Balthier: Damn, son. You are shockingly well-adjusted for a dude with a dad like yours. On my list of guys that succeeded despite really, really crummy dads, I place Balthier just below my Brother-in-law, but just above The Vision. In combat, continues to be sort of my jack-of-all trades. I've reached a level where guns are really good options despite Balthier having crummy stats across the board. I think he's the one character that I don't bother to equip him with stats beside defense and resistance, because I know he'll be fine.
Fran: Also had some light plot. Emphasis on light. Otherwise, is there. Gave her a Katana, but shockingly, she still deals the same amount of damage. At least now she can combo a little? Ugh. I have no idea what to do with her. I could give her dedicated mage weaponry, but.... the mage weapons are SO BAD. She doesn't have the vitality for Axes, I don't WANT a third swordsman, and I haven't seen a good spear for a while. Poles on her would be dumb, because anything where she wants to target Mdef, she wants to just cast spells anyhow. Nonetheless, she's still a really good mage in my file and is often in my party for boss fights. I just wish I could handle trash a bit better with her. On the plus side, I found this hat I don't think I'm supposed to have yet, and I've seen her take 16 damage from a spell cast by a mob that was higher level than her. So... that's there.
Basch: Got to show his kung-fu off against what I'm gonna try to get my friend to Cosplay with me if we ever go to a convention. Has identical weaponry to Ashe and that makes me feel bored of both of them, so someone's getting something else, eventually. Not sure what or when. SO STRONK. He has like, 15 more strength than anyone else. Still only guy with more than one quickening.
Ashe: "I want to destroy the nethecite" "I need the nethicite's power".... wait, is she conflicted? I thought her stance was pretty clear, but now, less so? I'm confused. I feel like this is another instance of the FFXII writing staff Aiming for "Subtle" and landing on "completely unshown transformation". At any rate, she's my tank, still. Lots of HP, hilariously about 1000 more than her summon if she pulls it out. ALSO worth noting is that I managed to summon Mateus in a fight AND have it be a good, helpful strategy. So Mateus enters the early lead for espers, which are probably as bad as summons have ever been.
Penelo: Has a crossbow now, and probably will keep a crossbow forever, unless I shrug on what to give Fran and stick it on her, or decide "Well, fuck it. Crossbows run purely off of strength" and give it to Basch. Why? Because I have Stone Bolts. Holy christ, are those good. On hit disable, and it fires a LOT. This thing is a lifesaver. It's what I never knew I wanted or needed for this game. Penelo otherwise is my secondary mage. Kind of fits that weird "Statusy" niche that you gotta have on your team if you have a 6 man team.
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Trails SC - Ow ow ow ow OW. Okay Nightmare was a bad plan. This isn't a game where you can grind your way out of a scrape, either, XP growth goes to crap really fast if you're overlevel.
Human Resource Machine: Since by law you have to post your screenshots.
(http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/401179010976831699/BCB3A1B9FCAA9F9A2ED2DA1DBEC60A9F215F60EA/?interpolation=lanczos-none&output-format=jpeg&output-quality=95&fit=inside|1024:576&composite-to=*,*|1024:576&background-color=black)
Bubble sort still works, yup. Probably need to be an n log n sort to hit the speed challenge, I suspect.
(http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/401179010984817826/D247723359E8E1BBCF0CF77379624D112CCA5B5A/?interpolation=lanczos-none&output-format=jpeg&output-quality=95&fit=inside|1024:576&composite-to=*,*|1024:576&background-color=black)
Yes.
EDIT: Oh by the way, the humor was sort of okay and not too in your face throughout most of the game, but sheesh, the ending was a miss. You're not allowed to explain the joke! That kills it! Additionally, not sure what they were thinking with having Carol all in a cast & plummeting from the building. Like... that's fine for Wile E. Coyote, but it's weird and disconnected with anything here. Haha, an employee tried to commit suicide? Or something?? On the bright side this totally doesn't matter, so oh well.
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I don't think it was actually meant to be much of a joke? I think it is literally meant to just be "Here is computers! Computers are great! Yay for automation!".
Which probably makes it not a great game as message? Because the audience for it generally are going to know the schtick and pick up on it early
Also I assume that you only posted the final level that means you sat down and did the whole game in an hour and it really just shows how dumb I am. Don't correct me on this.
Edit - Oh yeah I mean to comment on the Carol thing as well. I don't really get why they implied that the robots threw her off a building. I was going to ?!?!?!? at why they killed her, but then like well she isn't DEAD I suppose, but it is just a joke with setup and a punch line, but doesn't make sense.
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Child of Light – I finished this game a couple of days ago, and it remains a pretty solid-if-breezy game. I think the later game bosses are weaker than the earlier game ones for whatever reason – ran out of ideas? Nox and the sea serpent are particularly crappy. I like that all of the PCs have some use, and I ended up switching people in quite a lot. My general feeling is that the usefulness is Finn > Oengus > Rubella > Aurora > Robert ~ Gen > Tristis, but everyone is at least situationally good except for Tristis who largely seems to barely have a niche. (Although his long lasting Protect + Taunt against the final boss was a reasonably good strategy. The game’s music was so good!! I like pretty much all of the tracks.
Yoshi’s Woolly World – I’m working on World 3 right now. Still a fun game and very much a successor to the SNES game.
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So I supposedly sent El Cid an item in d5.
Used the bill, "send item to friend."
Then it didn't let me pick an item, and now the bill is gone....so who knows!
-
Tales of Encount:
Stocke: ...what the hell am I doing here?
Narrator: I'm not doing this, because...
Stocke: ...you get attacked everytime? And why should I suffer?
Narrator: Well, you are a time traveler so if something goes wrong you can...you know...
Lippti: OH STOP BEING SUCH A WIMP AND DO IT ALREADY! DO IT DO IT DO IT DO IT!
Stocke: Fine, geez. Anyway *checks script* The part of Milla will be played by "A. Milla" and "P. Milla." Wait what the hell does that even mean?
Lippti: TURN LEFT!!!
Stocke: ...yeah, screw it, I'm out.
Voice: TURN BACK NOW YOU FOOLS! YOU DO NOT KNOW THAT WHICH YOU...
Ludger: No.
Voice: OH COME ON! LET ME FINISH MY SENTE-...
Teepo: Hey we're trying to get through this place, can you give us a moment to concentrate?
Voice: ...sorry, my bad, I was...wait a minute! I'M THE ONE WHO...
Ludger: Done. Hi Odin.
*Odin is a big guy in armor*
Odin: ...that's not fair! How'd you get here so fast?
A. Milla: Fast!? It took us 6 hours to do this!
Voice: And it took me 3 years to build this place!
Leia: You...built this place?
Odin: Sort of...look, it's not important! What is important is I AM THE GUARDIAN OF THOR, ARK OF TIME, THE LOST CIVILIZATION OF 38,362 YEARS AGO!
A. Milla: That's awfully specific.
Odin: QUIET! Now, please leave me in peace because this is the only Dimension where we are alive.
Elize: Wait, you know about us? How?
Odin: You guys have fought me multiple times and always lost!
Leia: So versions of us thinking they were from the Prime Dimension came and failed...well good we are totally from the Prime Dimension!
Odin: NOPE! THIS WILL END THE SAME WAY! But hey, if you want, I can lock you up for centuries until the people of Thor rise. You live, I don't have to kill you, and we all go home happy...
*Ludger stabs Odin in the face with his lance*
Ludger: Quiet.
Odin: ARGH! YOU WILL PAY FOR THAT-...wait, why can't I feel my heart?
*sees Ludger holding the divergence catalyst in his lance*
Odin: ...well crap...
*fractured Dimension finished*
Leia: Well...that's Waymarker found, so just one more to go right?
Ludger: Yes.
Rollo: Meow.
Rollo: Meow.
Elle: THERE'S TWO ROLLOS! WHAT'S GOING ON!?
Rollo 2: Meow? *disappears*
A. Milla: ...it seems two of the same thing can't exist in the Prime Dimension...well that's certainly ominous. I sure hope that doesn't come up soon!
*one debt repayment later, we will spare you Nova*
Vera: We've found a fractured dimension with a Waymarker!
Ludger: Yay!
Vera: But we can't get into it; come to Spirius Corps. so we can discuss this!
Gaius: Take me with you; I want to meet the head myself.
*at Spirius Corps.*
Bakur: Well I'll be damned, we have royalty in our presence.
Gaius: You don't seem that flustered.
Bakur: Well I do basically own the half of the world you don't rule over...
Gaius: ...touche...
A. Milla: So what's going on with the Fractured Dimension?
Bakur: Seems someone is preventing us from entering...namely MAXWELL!
Jude: Milla's doing this? But why?
Muzet: Yeah, she should be able to leave at any time!
Gaius: Probably not that she won't, but she can't. Something must be preventing her from doing this...
*everyone looks at A. Milla*
A. Milla: ...yes, yes, I get it; I'm the cause. What are you going to do, KILL ME!?
Jude: We could never do that!
Bakur: We'll figure that part out later; what matters the big ceremony happening in Marksburg that our highness should be attending.
Gaius: ...rub it in why don't you...
Jude: Wait, where did THAT come from!? This is first we've heard of it.
Bakur: Well, we have reason to believe Exodus is there and well...
Alvin: Yeah, yeah, we go kill Exodus, prevent the Peace Making Ceremony from going horribly wrong and be awesome. Can we just skip the in between stuff and...
*Transition to Marksburg*
Alvin: ...not complaining!
Marcus: Alvin!? OH NO! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!
Alvin: ...you're working with Exodus again aren't you?
A. Milla: This a bad man?
Alvin: Nah, he just always chooses the wrong crowd...every-time. I mean, I was a mercenary, so I didn't really PICK my clients, they picked me! He's the other way around...and a wimp...which is why we're going to force him to tell us everything he knows.
Marcus: You'll never get any information out of me!
*30 seconds later*
Marcus: EXODUS IN THE CITY IS A DECOY! THEY'RE ACTUALLY ATTACKING THE SHIP WITH THE PRIME MINISTER ON IT!
Alvin: See? Was that so hard!? Ok, Marcus, you're going to row us over to that ship now!
Gaius: I'll stay here with Rowen; be dumb to have multiple diplomats on there.
Jude: Right, so I'll help Ludger and Alvin and...
A. Milla: Oh come on, I'm totally going too. Someone has to make you second guess destroying another world.
Alvin: We're going to stop a terrorist organization, not a fractured dimension, I don't think that's necessary...
A. Milla: Oh quiet, I'm doing you a favor by putting myself into a dangerous situation so YOUR Milla can return!
Elle: But I like you most! You're my favorite Milla!
*half a gimmicky dungeon later that we're skipping*
A. Milla: This would be so much easier if YOUR Milla destroyed all of Exodus herself!
Jude: If she did, I wouldn't be born. My father was a former agent who turned over a new leaf when he met my mom.
A. Milla: (...so that means I killed Jude in my world...maybe I deserve to die...) Er...well...you know...forget I said anything!
Riddeaux: By the way, I'm here!
Alvin: Where'd you come from?
Riddeaux: Well you see...
*shift to earlier*
Riddeaux: HA! They're totally falling for my plan of attacking the ship and stopping Exodus and...wait, that's not what I wanted at all! Crap, better find a way to use this to my advantage...
*Shift to now*
Riddeaux: ...it's not important! What is important is we SUMMON MAXWELL HERE! That will REQUIRE A SACRIFICE AND TWO CONDUITS AND...oh hell *just punches Alvin and Jude into a wall, and throws Milla into a hole after a fight sequence* There, now it's almost done!
*Ludger grabs A. Milla's hand*
A. Milla: Let me go! If I die, your Milla can return, isn't that what you want?
Ludger: No.
A. Milla: But why?
Ludger: You're my friend.
A. Milla: I see...
Elle: STOP THAT YOU BIG MEANIE *starts beating on Riddeaux with Milla's sword, Riddeaux KICKS ELLE*
A. Milla: ...take care of Elle for me... *Milla forcefully let's go*
Ludger: ...crap...
*A. Milla crosses P. Milla*
A. Milla: ...knew I'd hate you *disappears*
*P. Milla comes out of the hole all epic and awesome and HOLY CRAP THE 4 GREAT SPIRITS AND WHY IS HER OUTFIT DIFFERENT!?*
P. Milla: ...I'll be taking THAT *grabs A. Milla's sword from Elle* Now, where were we...
Jude: Oh hi Milla, it's been a while.
P. Milla: You didn't answer my question...
Alvin: Glad to see nothing's changed...
Ludger: Hm?
Elle: WAAAAAAH!
Riddeaux: STOP IGNORNIG ME AND FIGHT!!!
Alvin: Oh, right, that. Let's fight!
*Boss Fight later*
Riddeaux: MWAHAHAH! EVERYTHING IS GOING ACCORDING TO PLAN!
Ludger: *Dialog prompt: You won't get away with this!*
Riddeaux: And yet, they always do!
Elle: Wait, if your Milla is here, WHERE'S MY MILLA!?
P. Milla: She's...gone...I'm sorry...she did it for you I'm sure...
Elle: QUIET! YOU'RE NOT MILLA! I WON'T EVER CALL YOU MILLA!
Jude: Uh, we spent an entire game calling this one Milla, and she's kind of the protagonist of the previous game alongside myself...
Alvin: Yeah, kid, you missed an entire game, who are you to call this Milla fake?
Elle: SHUT UP SHE'S A FAKER! WAAAAAH!
*phone ring*
Nova: So Ludger...honey...
Ludger: Debt?
Nova: Debt.
Ludger: Hate.
Nova: Love ^_^
*one debt payment later*
Vera: Bakur wants to meet the REAL Maxwell, also Fractured Dimension stuff.
Ludger: Ok.
*Ludger brings the whole team*
Bakur: I wanted Ludger and Maxwell only, NOT everyone.
Jude: It's not like we trust you or anything...
Bakur: ...a fair point...
P. Milla: Ok, let me explain, Chronos threw me into a rift and that made things hard on me. I was searching for him because he's a jerk, had to use Mana to make a physical form, and I can only do this temporarily.
Jude: So you're probably leaving us when this game is over again?
P. Milla: Pretty much.
Jude: Figures.
Elle: SHE'S NOT MILLA!!!!
Ludger: Hey kid?
Elle: Yeah?
Ludger: ...shut up...
Elle: OK!
Bakur: Anyway, go get that last Waymarker!
*Fractured Dimension hop later*
Rowen: Well, we're in Sharliton!
Shopkeeper: OMG! ARE YOU ROWEN!?
Rowen: Indeed I am, the steward to lady...
Shopkeeper: DON'T PLAY GAMES WITH ME! HE DIED 8 YEARS AGO! MURDERED! YOU"RE A JERK!
Rowen: ...well that's morbid.
Jude: Let's take a look around then?
Rowen: Agreed.
*at Marksburg*
Woman: Hey! Help me get that!
Ludger: Cute.
Woman: Thanks.
Jude: Hey, it's a Spyrite.
Woman: what's so big about that? They're everywhere! They've been that way for the last 8 years all thanks to that Jude Mathis!
Jude: Really? Where can we find this Jude Mathis fellow? I'd like to learn his secrets!
Woman: Oh he was sadly murdered 8 years ago.
Jude: ...so this Fractured Dimension is at least 8 years ahead of our own...and two of us are dead...I wonder if our death's are linked?
*at Drelin*
Man: Oh man, look what I fished up!? It's that stuffed animal from that little girl who died 8 years ago!
*holds up a moldy, bustered Teepo*
Jude: ...
Rowen: ...
P. Milla: ...
Ludger: ...
Elle: Why is everyone silent!? TELL ME!
Rowen: Er...I think it's safe to say that...
Jude: ...no, don't say it, I'd rather convince myself I can pretend that's not the case...
Ludger: To lake.
Jude: ...yes, let's go to the scene of the murder!
*at the lake where they fought Odin in the ruins...yeah, that's where they are, deal with it*
Jude: Well, there's an actual lake here now. Spyrite sure are amazing...
Rowen: That house was definitely NOT there in our dimension though.
Ludger: Summer home?
Elle: No stupid! That's MY home! I'M HOME! DADDY!!!!
Jude: ...wait, so this is...
Rowen: And that means that Elle...
P. Milla: ...there must be a mistake, I mean, she's only 12 and...
Elle's Dad: Thank you for watching over my daughter, welcome friends...and Ludger. I'm Victor!
*Victor is a dark haired man with a black suit a stupid mask*
Ludger: Huh!?
Elle: Daddy is awesome! SHOW THEM YOUR BEST SOUP EVER ^_^
Rowen: ...I don't like where this is going...
P. Milla: That mask...hmm...
Ludger: Catalyst.
Rowen: You think so?
Ludger: Certain.
Jude: So...Victor...can you explain...you know...everything?
Victor: Oh, simply put, Elle has special powers part of the Kresnik line but that power only manifests itself once every...well...ambiguous time frame really, what matters is SHE CAN TRANSCEND SPACE AND TIME!
P. Milla: And I have a question for you...
Victor: About the Mask? Oh, I got myself hurt and well...
P. Milla: ...that wasn't my question at all. I was going to ask if you have always been so full of yourself and lying out of your ass.
Victor: Actually, I use to only speak in one word phrases at a time...sometimes two if I felt like it...
Ludger: ...
Victor: But then, you would know that better than any of us...right Ludger?
Jude: Why are you acting this way?
Victor: Oh look, my daughter's asleep! Convenient excuse to go outside so I can explain everything to you!
Ludger: Boss fight?
Rowen: Seems so...
*outside*
Victor: So...simply put...I killed you JUDE and ROWEN and ALVIN and ELIZE and LEIA!
P. Milla: ...you left me off that list...
Victor: Oh I didn't kill you because you didn't appear. You got lucky.
Jude: Wait, why did you kill me?
Victor: Because I'M THE DIVERGENT CATALYST! YOU WERE GOING TO TAKE ELLE AWAY FROM ME!
Rowen: I'm still confused.
Victor: ...oh come on, is it not obvious yet?
Jude: Not really; you haven't todl us anything, just rambled like a typical super villain.
Victor: ...hate...
Jude: ...HOLY CRAP! YOU'RE LUDGER FROM THE FUTURE!
Rowen: And that means Elle is Ludger's future daughter?
Ludger: ...excuse me...
*Ludger goes to barf for 5 straight minutes*
Ludger: ...still sick...
P. Milla: But why did you kill everyone Not!Ludger?
Victor: BECAUSE ELLE THAT'S WHY! I'm going to use her power and my WAYMARKER to reach Canaan and make a wish that would allow us to exist in the prime dimension and...
P. Milla: ...that plan is stupid. You're stupid. STOP BEING STUPID!
Rowen: My sentiments exactly.
Victor: Bah, Julius said the same thing! He sided with you guys!
Jude: Maybe because it IS incredibly stupid...and evil?
Victor: THAT'S IT! KILLING YOU ALL...AGAIN!
*Attacks with dual blades, Ludger blocks, gets kicked down*
Elle: Daddy, what's going on?
Victor: Nothing sweety! Just having a talk*kicks Ludger while he's down* Trust me, nothing to see!
Ludger: Jerk.
Victor: Oh, but remember, I am you! So when you call me a jerk, are you not really insulting yourself!? And then whose the villain!?
Ludger: ...you...
Victor: ...that was a rhetorical question...
Jude: Not...really; I mean, it had a very clear answer...
Rowen: Now I can see why Ludger doesn't talk much; his vocabulary must be legitimately very low...
Victor: HEY! YOU TAKE THAT BACK! *Attacks Jude, Ludger blocks* Hey, stop that! You want a piece of me!?
Ludger: *dons a stylish gun pose* Let's Rock!
*cue DMC style fight scene between Ludger and Victor; Jude and P. Milla join in after a point*
Elle: NO! Don't hurt Daddy! WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS!?
Victor: Stay out of this Elle! THEY MUST DIE!
*Victor fires a straight shot that almost hits Elle, Ludger saves her*
Elle: Daddy...but why?
Ludger: Devil Trigger!
*charges Victor, who also goes Devil Trigger*
Jude: ...can we just get to the gameplay part already?
Victor: YES!!!
*one really annoying boss fight later*
Victor: Damn it, HOW CAN I LOSE TO THOSE I'VE ALREADY DEFEATED!?
Rowen: Technically, you were fighting yourself and someone you didn't fight, so only two of us were defeated.
Victor: Shut up! I WON'T LOSE!
*Victor charges again, Ludger goes DT again, Devil Trigger fight, Ludger stabs Victor killing him*
Jude: ...I've heard of killing yourself but this is ridiculous...
P. Milla: ...I'm getting a strange sense of Deja Vu...
Rowen: Well you did see the other Milla die when you finally came back to us, remember?
Elle: STOP MENTION HER BY NAME! Wait, Daddy's dying? DADDY NO NOT YOU TOO!
Victor: ...screw you all...*dies*
*Fractured Dimension disappears*
Stocke: Ok, no, I'm just jumping in here and summarizing. Elle is upset, Ludger gets burned accidentally dropping soup on her...don't ask just go with it, more emo cutscenes, eventually the two make up, and we learn Elle is the nature of Ludger's power and she's turning into a catalyst herself. There, done, can we finally move on? Also, I am not doing this again.
Ludger: Good.
Stocke: where...did you come from?
Ludger: Over there.
Stocke: ...so what are you going to do about Elle?
Ludger: I dunno.
Lippti: KILL THE BITCH!!!
Stocke: ...yeah, I'm out, GOOD BYE!
-
Oh hey, Chapter 12. Did you spot the plot hole so appallingly huge it took me months to recognize it for what it was?
-
So I supposedly sent El Cid an item in d5.
Used the bill, "send item to friend."
Then it didn't let me pick an item, and now the bill is gone....so who knows!
Yeah I dunno, man. I logged in last night and didn't see any special notification about receiving an item. For what it's worth, I decided to try passing the same bill on my side too. It also didn't ask what I wanted to send, just passed the bill and then called it done. So...who knows.
-
It looks like you don't actually have to reincarnate generics to get to the next tier class in their line? They just sort of autopromote at some point. I don't actually see the mechanics of this communicated clearly anywhere, but it seems to be based on mana accumulation rather than raw level (it would have to be detached from level since you can now hire generics at something like protag level -3 or whatever). You can still reincarnate dudes if you want to grind stats? But the periodic whelp time to grind up all my flunkies from level 1 again because everyone unlocked a new class tier thing that was familiar to like every other Disgaea is apparently no longer necessary.
This feature actually originates from Disgaea D2, though in that game you had to pass a bill to do the promotion manually. The Vita port of Disgaea 4 also inherited it.
-
Remember that post I made about Talisman?
This time copy paste the assassin/pirate stuff only change "pirate" to "Sorceress", and this time I was the assassin.
Same fucking thing.
Assassin is arbitrarily crippled in this game and I don't understand why. Everyone else can use their fucking abilities on the final space, why can't he? It's not any better than Beguile or press-gang. This is a broken character and there's no reason to select him if you aren't playing randomly. If you're playing SEMI randomly? Take the other guy. Assassin can't fight on his own merits.
-
Tales of Encount:
Samanosuke: So...you want me to...
Narrator: yes, yes I do.
Samanosuke: ...why me?
Narrator: Because you have dealt with parallel time skipping nonsense thus sort of fit into the thematic.
Samanosuke: That's a stretch and you know it!
Narrator: Look, just do it ok?
Samanosuke: What's in it for me?
Narrator: You won't have to deal with Ranmaru for at least an hour?
Samanosuke: ...so Ludger learned that Elle was his daughter in an alternate reality future and thus we continue onward with a debt repayment! ...ok, seriously, I only read one line and I'm already confused...
*One debt payment later*
Nova: Ludger, look, about your debt...
Ludger: *dialog prompt* I JUST KILLED MYSELF, I DON'T GIVE A DAMN ABOUT YOUR DEBT!
Nova: ...what...killed your...Ludger! It's just money! Don't go suicidal on me! Please don-*cut off*
Vera: Go to Marksburg, agent Kresnik; the CEO will give you instructions from there.
Ludger: No choice?
Vera: None.
Ludger: Great...
*at Marksburg*
Jude: So Bisley is suppose to be here now?
Milla: I sense a disturbance in the Deus Ex Machina...
Alvin: ...I refuse to believe that's actually a thing.
Muzet: Well, actually it is! But you wouldn't know this because you're not a spirit!
Gaius: ...for some reason, I doubt it even more.
Muzet: Meanie!
Elle: HEY! DON"T GO STEALING MY TERMS, MEANIE!
Muzet: Deal with it, wimp!
Elle: Stupid lady!
Muzet: Little brat!
Teepo: SHUT UP BOTH OF YOU, YOU'RE ANNOYING!
Ludger: Ugh...*phone call*
Bakur: Yes...Agent Kresnik, put down the Waymarkers and the way to Canaan shall be revealed! NOTHING CAN POSSIBLY GO WRONG TRUST ME!
*they do exactly that, Canaan appears, it's basically a giant world shaped like a fetus...I'm not making this up*
Milla: So...I guess that's Origin's Trial...getting UP THERE.
Cronos: No, that's just part of it.
Elize: How did you...
Cronos: Lord of Time.
Elize: Right!
Cronos: So...yeah, you humans need to die, not letting you pass it!
Jude: Not without a boss fight you will!
*boss fight*
Cronos: HA! You can't beat me, see!? *turns back time, heals wounds, gets into a more stronger state*
Ludger: Shut up!
*another fight later, this time with Chromatus*
Cronos: Aaawww, using your Chromatus and hurting the girl? See, it's exactly like I planned. HUMANS CAN'T RESIST POWER! MWAHAHAH!
Bakur: Uh, yeah, I can do that too!
Cronos: Do what?
Bakur: Get to Canaan, I know how!
Cronos: ...well poop, I'll see you there! *leaves*
Milla: So you could use the Chromatus all along too...how?
Bakur: No time to explain!
Milla: What do you mean no time? The explaination is pretty obvious that you're also a descendant of Kresnik but haven't been open about it.
Bakur: I SAID NO TIME TO EXPLAIN!
Jude: Milla, give up, he's not going to reveal plot details to us.
Bakur: That's right...at least not until we're at Spirius Corps, please go there now while I open the path Can...er...I mean, cover some odds and ends in shops here, YES! THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT I'M DOING! Important...CEO...business...stuff....
Alvin: ...you do realize I'm a professional at that kind of thing right?
Bakur: Look, just go because we need to advance the story.
Alvin: Fine fine.
Bakur: By the way, you did good Ludger. You are no longer needed, I have given you a big reward, THIS IS IN NO WAY SUSPICIOUS TRUST ME!
*They all leave except Elle*
Elle: Canaan's there, but I'm just a fake, I serve no purpose.
Bakur: Ok, good, wanna work for me and thus get us to Canaan?
Elle: Ok.
Bakur: Excellent!
*at Spirius Corps.*
Vera: Yeah, Ludger, your debt's been cancelled, you're a free man.
Ludger: SWEET! *phone call*
Nova: YOu don't have a debt!? HOW CAN I BOTHER YOU NOW ;_;
Ludger: LATER! *turns off phone*
Vera: So, VICE PRESIDENT KRESNIK, the CEO wishes to speak to you in his office.
Ludger: Vice...President?
Vera: Yes, you are now VICE PRESIDENT of Spirius Corps., effectively immediately!
Ludger: Cha-ching!
*at the office, Bakur is on Video Conference*
Bakur: So...we're going to Canaan and telling Origin that our wish is going to be to have all Spirits SERVE MANKIND!
Milla: ...that's horrible, how can you make such a wish?
Bakur: It's for the good of mankind!
Muzet: ...and horrible for Spiritkind...
Bakur: BUT MANKIND!
Milla: Look, I'm pro-Humans and all that...but I'm also Pro-Spirit...you're doing this just to spite Cronos aren't you?
Bakur: Yes, yes I am. Now Vice President, look around the company!
*downstairs*
Riddeaux: Ah, Vice President, what can I do for you?
Ludger: Truth, now.
Riddeaux: Oh, well, you see, a Kresnik must die to open the path to Canaan. The Key of Kresnik appears once every few generations in the family line, the last one being the CEOs Wife who, I might add, clearly has no relation to you whatsoever.
Ludger: ...suspicious...
Riddeaux: So...yeah, he's going to kill a Kresnik...not your alt-reallity futuristic daughter mind you; he needs her to kill Cronos. Oh no, he's going to kill...
Ludger: Julius?
Riddeaux: You said it, not me!
*Bottom floor*
Jude: Hey Ludger, what's up?
Gaius: Yes, you're vice president now, I guess that puts you on par with Rowen...which is still lower than me. It's good to be the king!
Ludger: Leaving.
Milla: So soon?
Ludger: Yes.
Muzet: Awww, I wanted to see more.
Gaius: You can cut through space and time at will; you could literally phase in, see what you want, and phase out immediately, why do YOU need permission of all people? Heck, your Near-Omnipotently powerful Sister can't even do that without some form of sacrifice. Though, now that I've said all that, I have to wonder why we couldn't just have used Muzet to solve like all these issues with Fractured Dimensions...
Muzet: Well, clearly it's because I'm not a Kresnik, so I can't do anything involving Space, Time and Dimensions!
Gaius: ...so about that "let's leave" thing...
Milla: Yes, let's...but before we do...FIGHT ME LUDGER!?
Ludger: Wait what!?
*they fight, Ludger activates his Chromatus somehow*
Milla: Good, just as planned. I see your resolve as strong as ever! Just had to come up with a way to force you to go all out.
Ludger: ...that's stupid
Milla: Really? I thought it was pretty clever.
Jude: Well, you could have just...I dunno...ASKED HIM.
Riddeaux: yeah, not happening. The CEO has explicitly told me to NOT LET YOU LEAVE!
Ludger: yes, but...Vice President...
Riddeaux: I ALWAYS FOLLOW ORDERS! IF I DIDN'T, I WOULDN'T KNOW WHAT TO DO!
Milla: What kind of sad existence is that?
*Gaius stares at Muzet*
Muzet: ...what!?
Ivar: Wait...Milla...you're the REAL Milla!?
Milla: Hi Ivar, nice to see you again.
Ivar: I don't work for you anymore! I'm a JUNIOR AGENT!
Milla: ...you do realize that's a demotion from Handmaid to a deity, right?
Ivar: SHUT UP!
Jude: Well, we're in a predicament, how do we get out of here?
Ludger: Basement.
Jude: I mean, how are we going to get there?
Gaius: Path is clearly free...
Jude: ...look, we have 5 characters and only 4 can fit into a party, so one of us has to stay behind to hold the guys off ineffectively...
*everyone stares at Jude*
Jude: ...oh I see how it is; because being a former protagonist who clearly lost a fair amount of his power due to loss of the power source from the previous game CLEARLY makes me the most viable option to solo an army. No sir! Let's not call upon the Strongest Warrior of a nation filled with bad asses, or the spirit who controls space and time who can FLY no less and thus escape at will no problem if the going gets rough, or FREAKING MAXWELL HERSELF WHO IS AIDED BY THE FOUR GREAT SPIRITS! Nope, let's rely on the half-Elympian scientist from Rieze Maxia who punches things! Yep, great idea there guys!
Milla: Glad you understand, later!
*They all leave*
Jude: ...she still doesn't understand sarcasm...
*Jude fights off army, fade away, one dungeon later*
Riddeaux: AHAHAHAH! THOUGHT YOU COULD GET AWAY FROM ME!?
Gaius: Wait, how did you get here before us?
Riddeaux: Uhh...Ivar?
Ivar: ...well, you certainly got me. *pulls up map showing the heroes taking the most efficient route and the villains would have had to take a huge detour* By all accounts, it doesn't make any sense.
Riddeaux: ...whatever. Now, SUFFER MY WRATH!
Gaius: ...you do realize there's no possible way the two of you can beat us four right? Do I have recount what you're up against?
Milla: I agree, this fight is oddly stacked in our favor.
*Riddeaux snaps fingers, bunch of nameless minions appear*
Gaius: I don't think that really changes the situation...
Muzet: There's a name for those kind of guys, what are they called?
Ludger: Cannon fodder?
Muzet: Yes, that's it! Thank you!
Riddeaux: Ah, but I have one more trick up my sleeve! Behold my Chomatus power!
Ludger: ...seen that already...
Riddeaux: Ah, but aren't you curious HOW I can do that!?
Ludger: No.
Riddeaux: Oh come, really?
Ludger: No.
Riddeaux: Well you see, I was once injured really badly, then SPECIAL SPYRIX BY DR. MATTHIS...
Milla: ...Jude's father?
Riddeaux: Maybe, I don't care, anyway, he used it on me to create artificial organs and NOW I MODIFIED THEM TO HAVE CHROMATUS POWER!
Gaius: None of that makes any sense.
Riddeaux: NOR WILL YOUR FACE WHEN I SMASH IT IN!
Gaius: ...and here I thought Wingul was nonsensical when he powered up...
Milla: Ivar, look, I appreciate your loyalty to me but...we're enemies, and to respect you...even though you really don't deserve it...I won't hold anything back.
Ivar: I WILL MAKE YOU RESPECT ME MILLA WHEN I BEAT YOU UP! THAT'LL PROVE MY AFFECTION TO YOU! ...wait, something about that doesn't sound right...
*one boss fight later*
Riddeaux: No, how could I lose!?
Gaius: ...because you're an evil scumbag? Look, I did the antagonist thing but I at least knew that being evil = you die by the end of the game, which is why I totally stayed on the line of sympathetic. And look at me now, I'm one of the main characters!
Ludger: ...supporting cast...
Gaius: Main character.
Ludger: Supporting cast.
Gaius: ...fine, fine, supporting cast member, but a good guy nonetheless! Either way, Ludger, shall I kill him or should you?
Ludger: Saved my life.
Riddeaux: Don't you dare be sentimental with me! KILL ME NOW!
Gaius: ...and because you asked, I'll spare you, since it makes you suffer more. Being King, I feel it is my right to choose whether people live or die...
Milla: This is Elympios though, you don't exactly have any political authority here.
Gaius: Shh!
Ivar: Damn it Milla, why?
Milla: You're a pathetic failure, Ivar...but you are loyal to me, so I can't really hurt you, and I never did fire you so...uhh...good bye?
Ivar: What the hell does that even mean?
Milla: The same thing everything else you've ever said means?
Ivar: But...I...oh...
*the heroes leave*
Riddeaux: Well crap, what am I going to do now.
Spirius Agent: CEO wants you.
Riddeaux: NOT ON MY DEAD BODY! *Transforms*
*They click a button, he detransforms*
Riddeaux: Wait what?
Spirius Agent: As if we didn't have control over your fake organs. Come now, you're going to be sacrificed to Canaan.
Riddeaux: I WILL NOT BE DRAGGED OUT WITHOUT DIGNITY!
*They drag him out without dignity*
*At Spirius Corps. Entrance*
Jude: Oh hey guys, I'm alive. Julius saved me.
Ludger: Where's Julius?
Jude: He left already. Said to go check your room for one final letter, so...let's do that?
*at Ludger's house*
Julius' Letter: Yeah, Ludger, hi, I'm proud of you, come and kill me so you can open the land to Canaan. Also bring your weapons because we're totally going to duel because shut up and do it I'M YOUR BIG BROTHER LISTEN TO ME! Ps. I love your cooking, it's awesome.
Ludger: ...crapbaskets...
Gaius: Can you really kill your brother?
Ludger: ...why me...
*at Marksburg*
Julius: Nice to see you again Ludger, so you ready to KILL ME and SAVE ELLE?
Ludger: No.
Julius: Why?
Ludger: Hate Elle.
Julius: ...rephrase. You ready to kill me and SAVE THE WORLD?
Ludger: ...do I have to?
Julius: Yes, yes you do.
Ludger: If I refuse?
Julius: Bad ending.
Ludger: Crap.
*one epic Tales duel later, which is stylish as hell, etc., ends in Ludger getting Chromatus mk3*
Ludger: ...Fractured Dimension? *starts walking around, gets to room*
Alt Ludger: OH GOD! I'M LATE! NEED T HURRY!
Alt Julius: Hold on there, little brother. Don't rush out, it won't be that bad.
Alt Ludger: I know but...well...look, I need to get going, I'll make it up to you with an awesome pasta dish later!
Alt Julius: ...always trying to butter me up...
*Ludger follows*
Alt Julius: Forget something?
Ludger: No.
Alt Julius: ...oh, I see, you're...well, that's great. I understand, go ahead, you earned it! Kill me now and save the world, it's totally cool bro.
Ludger: GRAAAAH! *stabs Julius, fractured dimension disappears*
Jude: Is it done?
Rowen: It would appear so.
Gaius: How sad, but necessary.
Elize: This was a cruel fate indeed...
Teepo: HOLY CRAP! LUDGER JUST COMMITTED FRATRICIDE!
Alvin: Hey, on the bright side, we can save Elle, right?
Elize: Alvin!!!
Teepo: TOO SOON!!!
Muzet: Milla...are you going to do the same to me at some point?
Milla: Wait what? Why would I try to kill you?
Muzet: We were enemies in the last game!
Milla: But that was over a year ago and...
Muzet: SO YOU ARE GOING TO KILL ME! I'M YOUR SISTER AND WAAAAH!
Milla: I'm the Lord of Spirits yet somehow I have absolutely no control over THAT one over there...great, now I'm questioning my powers again, thanks a lot Muzet.
Muzet: You're welcome ^_^
Samanosuke: And thus, the team sets off for the final dungeon, Canaan and to complete ORIGIN'S TRIAL! CAN THEY DO IT BEFORE...
Ranmaru: SAMANOSUKE!!!!
Samanosuke: ...I thought said...
Narrator: I tried...
Ranmaru: YOU WILL FIGHT ME AGAIN HERE AND NOW! FOR YOU SEE, YOU STAND NO CHANCE OF DEFEATING MY ALMIGHTY ABILITIES! THE BLOOD OF THE LIVER THAT FUELS MY HATRED WILL SEE TO IT THAT YOU DON'T-BLARGHLE! *Stabbed by Ivar*
Samanosuke: Yes, thank you.
Ivar: God damn he was annoying, who the hell is he anyway?
Milla You know, there's a human saying that applies here, but I can't think what it is...
Jude: The Pot calling the kettle black?
Milla: That's the one!
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Clicker heroes
Disclaimer: Zenny do not play this
So this is an idle game like Cookie Clicker. I've been thinking about it, and I feel like idle gales are the best, natural evolution of the NIS game. They shed all the unnecessary / bad parts of NIS games (battle system, story) to focus on the numbers going up. Very much like Disgaea, the question is not "can i win, making my numbers go up" but "can my numbers go up faster if I do this or that?" . Numbers ARE going up. It is inevitable. But you can make them go up even more faster better.
And trying to find the most optimal levelling route is fun ! Especially if you don't have to go through a subpar battle system for it!
The three idle games I've played also have the same plot I basically love: you are some unclear nebulous force that wants numbers to go up, and your numbers going up related selfish satisfaction will eventually cause our doom
Ok the bad part is that idle games take over your life more than Disgaea. BUT they take over your life less than FFRK at least, so that's something. An idle game might be a vaccine to FFRK. (And like a vaccine you might end up playing both games and being far worse for it)
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Bisley is the real hero.
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Rollo is the True Key of Kresnik ~
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They shed all the unnecessary / bad parts of NIS games (battle system, story) to focus on the numbers going up.
At this point are we really not better off just typing out the biggest number we can think of?
EDIT: I should post about something I'm actually playing too, I guess.
Shadows Over Mordor: Kinda winding down on this. Having fun, still, but I think I spent too much time dicking around. Not sure I'll make it to the end.
I feel wrong having a different opinion than Grefter, as I'm enjoying the game more than Assassin's Creed stuff? Play just feels a lot smoother, combat is a surprising blast, etc but I wonder if this is from only playing older AC games? Plot is totally nonsense and being ignored (though the Ratbag stuff was enjoyable).
Warchief assassinations irritate me and I wonder if I just don't understand how to do them. Pretty much always have to fight a billion goddamn orcs at once.
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Clicker heroes
Disclaimer: Zenny do not play this
So this is an idle game like Cookie Clicker. I've been thinking about it, and I feel like idle gales are the best, natural evolution of the NIS game. They shed all the unnecessary / bad parts of NIS games (battle system, story) to focus on the numbers going up. Very much like Disgaea, the question is not "can i win, making my numbers go up" but "can my numbers go up faster if I do this or that?" . Numbers ARE going up. It is inevitable. But you can make them go up even more faster better.
And trying to find the most optimal levelling route is fun ! Especially if you don't have to go through a subpar battle system for it!
The three idle games I've played also have the same plot I basically love: you are some unclear nebulous force that wants numbers to go up, and your numbers going up related selfish satisfaction will eventually cause our doom
Ok the bad part is that idle games take over your life more than Disgaea. BUT they take over your life less than FFRK at least, so that's something. An idle game might be a vaccine to FFRK. (And like a vaccine you might end up playing both games and being far worse for it)
dude I made fun of you guys for ffrk but I've put months into this horseshit. this and timeclickers
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Yeah I got my idle game itch out when I got all the achievements in Cookie Clicker. No worries about me there.
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Shadows Over Mordor: Kinda winding down on this. Having fun, still, but I think I spent too much time dicking around. Not sure I'll make it to the end.
I feel wrong having a different opinion than Grefter, as I'm enjoying the game more than Assassin's Creed stuff? Play just feels a lot smoother, combat is a surprising blast, etc but I wonder if this is from only playing older AC games? Plot is totally nonsense and being ignored (though the Ratbag stuff was enjoyable).
It is. AC actively polished and smoothed out the combat loop significantly over the first 3 games. The jump from 1-2 is massive, 2-Bro is pretty big as well. Revelations is about where I would peg Moredoores at (Batman finishers are not as good in a stealth/climbing primary game compared to Asylum's railroad action game). Revelations-3 is probably where the series plateaus in changes, but AC3 is pretty streamlined.
Warchief assassinations irritate me and I wonder if I just don't understand how to do them. Pretty much always have to fight a billion goddamn orcs at once.
Try running away. Blind corners or bushes are your best friend. But yeah, mostly it is going to be lots of orcs. The main thing is you can reset the mobs and mostly pick your engagement. There is also a whole chunk of play involved that will unlock later.
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Tales of Zestiria:
Finished the four trials. Now at the, probably' "Big Fetchquest" but we'll see.
I'm really not sure how I feel about this game, about 30 hours in. I've played all of the previous Tales games from Vesperia on, and they each do something well and screw something else up.
Graces had the most fun combat - I played Malik the whole time and enjoyed it. The plot was boring.
Xillia had an interesting plot and felt the most similar to Vesperia - just an all around "good" game. Played Leia.
Xillia 2's plot is absolutely ridiculous and has plotholes, but it absolutely was entertaining and interesting. I feel like I like it more than it deserves, but it's probably my favorite of the recent tales games. But it has a mostly silent main for... some reason. Tried to play Leia, didn't do well really. Ended up playing Rowen and was much more effective.
Zestiria... The plot is better than Graces, at least, but I'm still not sure where it's going to go, 30 hours in? Which is strange. And the gameplay is... It's like graces - but not as good. I'm not really sure, but it just feels like your characters skillsets aren't wide enough. There are things I like - the whole charge up a spell for another spell thing let's you have a lot of moves on your buttons at once - which would be great if I had more moves. Usually play Mikleo, sometimes switch to Dezel or Lailah depending on elemental resists.
Oh, and also, the equipment system is just weird. It's convoluted for no good reason.
I always "Like" the Tales games, but they always feel like they could be better than they are. I'm still enjoying Zestiria, but it has weird flaws (Also, the maps are way too big - and empty.)
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Clicker heroes
Disclaimer: Zenny do not play this
So this is an idle game like Cookie Clicker. I've been thinking about it, and I feel like idle gales are the best, natural evolution of the NIS game. They shed all the unnecessary / bad parts of NIS games (battle system, story) to focus on the numbers going up. Very much like Disgaea, the question is not "can i win, making my numbers go up" but "can my numbers go up faster if I do this or that?" . Numbers ARE going up. It is inevitable. But you can make them go up even more faster better.
And trying to find the most optimal levelling route is fun ! Especially if you don't have to go through a subpar battle system for it!
The three idle games I've played also have the same plot I basically love: you are some unclear nebulous force that wants numbers to go up, and your numbers going up related selfish satisfaction will eventually cause our doom
Ok the bad part is that idle games take over your life more than Disgaea. BUT they take over your life less than FFRK at least, so that's something. An idle game might be a vaccine to FFRK. (And like a vaccine you might end up playing both games and being far worse for it)
I kind of hate everything you just said in this post. You're bad and you should feel bad. That is all.
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Rollo is the True Key of Kresnik ~
Having just completed Tales of Encount, that would have made the game significantly better. I'll get the last update up later tonight, as well as legitimate thoughts. I WILL say that the ending scenario needs a kick and thank god for youtube (doesn't help the "True" Ending isn't very good.)
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Oh I played Clicker Heroes a little bit, sunk a few days into learning the play cycle with idling and stuff. It was boring and intrusive after that. It is fun to scratch that part of your brain that likes exponents, but that is about all. After a few cycles through it gets really degenerate fast.
Also getting 50 rubies is the most important hurdle in the game.
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Rollo is the True Key of Kresnik ~
Having just completed Tales of Encount, that would have made the game significantly better. I'll get the last update up later tonight, as well as legitimate thoughts. I WILL say that the ending scenario needs a kick and thank god for youtube (doesn't help the "True" Ending isn't very good.)
But the feels man! THE FEELS! Who cares if nothing in the ending makes sense! THE FEEEEEEEELS!
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Tales of Zestiria:
Finished the four trials. Now at the, probably' "Big Fetchquest" but we'll see.
I'm really not sure how I feel about this game, about 30 hours in. I've played all of the previous Tales games from Vesperia on, and they each do something well and screw something else up.
Graces had the most fun combat - I played Malik the whole time and enjoyed it. The plot was boring.
Xillia had an interesting plot and felt the most similar to Vesperia - just an all around "good" game. Played Leia.
Xillia 2's plot is absolutely ridiculous and has plotholes, but it absolutely was entertaining and interesting. I feel like I like it more than it deserves, but it's probably my favorite of the recent tales games. But it has a mostly silent main for... some reason. Tried to play Leia, didn't do well really. Ended up playing Rowen and was much more effective.
Zestiria... The plot is better than Graces, at least, but I'm still not sure where it's going to go, 30 hours in? Which is strange. And the gameplay is... It's like graces - but not as good. I'm not really sure, but it just feels like your characters skillsets aren't wide enough. There are things I like - the whole charge up a spell for another spell thing let's you have a lot of moves on your buttons at once - which would be great if I had more moves. Usually play Mikleo, sometimes switch to Dezel or Lailah depending on elemental resists.
Oh, and also, the equipment system is just weird. It's convoluted for no good reason.
I always "Like" the Tales games, but they always feel like they could be better than they are. I'm still enjoying Zestiria, but it has weird flaws (Also, the maps are way too big - and empty.)
I'm not as far, but I'm feeling the same about this game more or less.
Combat is fun, but it's just armatize to win most often. Exploit a weakness and cheese.
Since I only play multiplayer, the camera is still the biggest gripe I have about the game.
Graces isy favorite tales, but at least the cast had fun with each other. This cast hasn't done it for me yet.
X2 might be silly, but you get to play as big boss man, which is cool. He's cool and his ignorance of many things is amusing.
Vesperia is had a fun story. Abyss had great character development.
Zesty...is here. It's gonna take a while to beat this one. I just reached that town with the silly knight who needs my help to take down the pope? I dunno.
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:D
Everybody feels shameful about idle games because they're obvious skinner boxes and there's no challenge in the traditional sense (as in the win/lose) but I definitely think you can see making numbers going up more efficiently as an interesting form of challenge itself.
I should note that while Cookie Clicker has no challenge in the traditional sense, in Clicker Heroes you have to beat some bosses in 30 seconds, and if you can't you need to go back and get your numbers higher before trying again, so we have about the same level of challenge as Disgaea here but much faster. Lol
Andrew: No because the point is the journey and not the destination. A fantastic journey to keep these numbers going up exponentiallish-y instead of logarithmicallish-y.
Gourry: Glad to see you have a weak point!
This one was just released for mobile and I feel it is a way better (/worse) platform for idle games than PC
I'm in the Dread Knight Hell Grind part of the game right now and it's pretty fun.
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Rayman Legends - Finished everything. Kinda surprised that there was no optional super-stage a la Origins, although the drug-induced visual fuckery of the final music stages works as an adequate substitute.
Anyway modern Rayman is a pretty excellent platformer and is highly recommended to those of you who like such games (or just want to check out where the genre is these days). Both Origins and Legends are excellent, I don't feel strongly about which is better. Time for a comparison!
Origins:
+Tricky treasure stages are great
+I liked the way you unlocked the powers as the game went on, it's definitely a better introduction to the series than Legends would be
+Moskito stages are both better than Murfy stages, and there are fewer of them, a net positive since the core gameplay is what you're here for
Legends:
+Doesn't have Origins' terrible boss fights
+The daily/weekly challenges are a neat idea and some are really fun; the invasion stages are also a welcome addition
+Far better musical stages
Origins also makes it far trickier to get the highest award via lum-collection in its stages, so you certainly have more work cut out for you if you go for max completion (or just want to unlock the Land of the Livid Dead). I'm pretty neutral on this difference, but it's important enough to mention. The core is similar though, stage design is pretty excellent in both, as is the wonderful surreal feel the games go for. While still being just generally a lot of fun and colourful etc.
Legend of Legacy - Further along now, just gained access to the second set of elemental spells (finally!). Game's... interesting, I'm not sure how much I recommend it. It's very Saga so you definitely get some interesting choices to make in battle. But compared to say, Saga Frontier, the game feels really slow; I'm seven hours in and don't feel like I've accomplished much, and I even thought about putting the game down early before the battle system started to evolve to something more interesting as you get more options. The game kinda feels like Saga Frontier, FF13, and Dark Souls in a blender (clearly something Rob should play), obviously with Saga dominating, with Saga contributing the core battle system, levelling system, art style, and weird mechanics, FF13 the musical style and a paradigm-esque system, and Dark Souls the setting work (which is a pretty terrible thing to pull from Dark Souls IMO, but I know some people disagree). It's... certainly not going to be a great game, but is holding my attention well enough now that I'll finish one path at least.
Bayonetta - I've actually gotten two platinum ratings now! I'm having a lot of fun. Just beat chapter 9.
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Rollo is the True Key of Kresnik ~
Having just completed Tales of Encount, that would have made the game significantly better.
:)
True ending still has catitude at least, can't remember for Normal end, also the poor woman was barely even in the door Ludger please~
Tales of Zestiria - (EN) On the subject of the Big Fetchquest, just collected the last three Iris gems and have to report back to Mayven Due to forknowledge and experience from JP version I was able to phase this quest out through the game and story so when it came to the game actually wanting me to find the rest, I only had three iris gem episodes left to do, so it wasn't as much as a chore as it could have been overall, oh and big spoiler I chose to get some extra ones with Dezel instead of with Zaveid, which is a neat choice you can make, depending on your preferences at the time I need to report in but I don't want to because I know what's coming next, and I still have at least two ruins left to explore from everything I've found so far~
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Tales of Encount:
WARNING: Apologies about this episode. It is probably the single worst idea I've ever come up with.
Narrator: So...yeah, unfortunately, the footage of the last chapter has been lost. It seems a certain SOMEONE who is totally not the "sort of" silent protagonist of the game refuses to let me show it. As result, the last chapter will be reinacted by various others! We apologize for any confusion that may come from this!
Lightning: Wait what? How did I get roped into this?
Hope's Voice: Oh just go with it; near as I can tell, you're suppose to play this "Milla" fellow.
Lumina: I guess that makes ME Muzet ^_^!
Lightning: ...yeah, I'm going to have to kill God again after this...
War: Who the hell is "Gaius" and who do I kill for putting me in this role?
Lymle: I'm Elle, 'kay.
Stocke: Wait, how'd I get back here? This is not another bad end is it?
Lippti: TURN LEFT!
Stocke: Er...so...let's see this script thing? *checks* Jude? Ok. But what is she doing here?
Teo: Well, apparently, she's playing Teepo...
Stocke: And you are?
Teo: NOT IN THIS PART GOOD BYE!
Jacques: So...I'm Rowen? Can I still do this in French?
Narrator: Wait, we didn't cast a Ludger, did we?
Edge: ...why is everyone staring at me? Wait how did I even get here?
Narrator: You've been drafted to play a near-silent protagonist.
Edge: HOW IS THIS FAIR!?
Reimi: Oh, uh, I signed you up for it because I thought it'd be fun to play Leia! Also Faize is playing Alvin.
Faize: Wait what!? I CAN'T PLAY THAT ROLE!!
Edge: Uh...Let's go? (was that too many words?)
Lightning: We're already in it, can we just get this over with?
War: So who do we have to kill to end this story?
Stocke: Uh...*checks script* Some guy...named...Bakur? Origin? I can't even tell what we're suppose to be doing, HOW AM I SUPPOSE TO PLAY THIS ROLE!?
Lippti: KILL THE BITCH!
Stocke: Wait, if you're Teepo, whose playing Elize?
Lippti: Shut up idiot and DO IT ALREADY!!!
Jacques: I think you somehow are playing double duty.
Stocke: Does anyone else understand him?
Lumina: Oh let's just jump into the portal and finish this ^_^
Faize: Yeah, let's do that.
*They jump in*
Faize: There's a lot of mist here...anyone know what this stuff is...don't check the script Stocke, that just wastes more time.
Stocke: (Damn it)
Lightning: It looks like Chaos...which means it's and i should kill it now because savior duties and all...
Hope's Voice: It's called Miasma, apparently it's deadly to everyone but spirits which means you and Lumina but that would be a bad idea.
War: But I'm not human and divine and...*shoved* what!? YOU MEAN MY CHARACTER IS HUMAN! HOW AM I SUPPOSE TO DO THAT?!
Lippti: WE RUN THROUGH MIASMA! IT'S GOOD FOR US! WHEEEEE!!!
Stocke: No one correct her, PLEASE!
Teo's voice: I heard that.
Stocke: Wait, why do you care about her? I mean, yeah, she's your sister, but I can't imagine she...
Teo's Voice: Are you the last of your kind?
War: I kind of am.
Teo's Voice: Shut up I wasn't...wait, you can hear me?
Lightning: Yes?
Teo's Voice: ...I'M OUT!
Faize: I got an idea! We use the power of the FOUR SPIRITS that apparently exist in this world and 4 of us...and a cat...can run through!
Lightning: ...shouldn't I have been the one to come up with that plan? I am playing that role after all!
Faize: Ooops sorry, I'm just use to being the smart guy on the team.
Reimi: Don't mean to Faize, he's still getting over being the whole "Final Boss" thing...
Faize: You know, wouldn't it have made more sense I was playing Gaius based on that logic?
War: SHUT UP! I'M GAIUS!
Faize: But I thought you hated that role.
Watcher: Oh please, as if tehre's any logical thought in his brain beyond "who do I kill" and the follow up of "what's the messiest way to do so?"
Faize: You...weren't there 5 seconds ago...were you?
Watcher: I have my ways!
Lumina: *Grabs popcorn* Keep fighting, this is funny ^_^
Edge: Can I choose?
*Edge picks Lightning, Lumina and War*
Edge: Let's go!
*one dungeon later that involved fake floors and such*
Abadon: Wait, where is this? Who are you? Where'd I come from...oh hi War.
War: Yo.
Hope's Voice: Uh...yeah, Abadon, according to my records, you're suppose to be playing Bisley Bakur.
Abadon: What the hell is a Bisley Bakur?
Hope's Voice: I dunno, I think he's a villain?
Lymle: Final Boss, 'kay.
Heiss: NO BEFORE FIGHTING ME! See, because I can travel through time, that make me a TIMELORD. Therefor, I AM PLAYING CHRONOS!
NOTE: Heiss is suppose to sound like Jeremy Irons from Dungeons and Dragons.
Stocke's voice from a distance: DAMN IT! THAT'S MY ROLE JERK!
Lightning: Wait, you VOLUNTEERED for this?
Heiss: Yes, yes I did!
War: ...ok, killing him first, any objections?
Lumina: Whee, finally a boss fight ^_^
Lightning: ...you're an NPC, how the hell are you suppose to fight?
*one boss fight later*
Heiss: HA! But there's still 999,999 Fractured Dimensions, one more and you lose the trial! CAN"T BEAT ME BECAUSE "ELLE" WILL BECOME A DIVERGENCE CATALYST AND...
Abadon: *stabs Heiss through the stomach* SHUT UP AND GIVE ME A CHANCE TO SAY SOMETHING! *ahem, in the most monotone, reading off script voice possible* No humans have passed origin's trial therefor we win. You are a sore loser, "Cronos."
Heiss: A SORE LOSER!? NONSENSE! I AM THE LORD OF TIME A-CHA-CHA-CHA-CHA!!!
Abadon: No you are not you have lost and i have the key of kresnik get him
Lymle: You lose, 'kay?
Edge: "Elle"!
Lymle: Hi, "Ludger", 'kay?
Abadon: no you will not get origin's wish i will spirits must be stopped let's fight now
Lightning: FINALLY, this sequence was starting to make sense.
Hope's Voice: ...no it wasn't....
Lightning: QUIET YOU!
*Boss fight later, epic stuff happens*
Abadon: oh no i lose blech *he falls down*
Heiss: Humans ACTUALLY PASSED Origin's Trial!? SO HE'S FINALLY COMING OUT!? MY FRIEND, WE WILL BE REUNITED!
Reimi: Oh, hi, didn't want to miss the ending everyone!
Jacques: Wait how did we get here?
Lippti: WE WALKED! STUPID!
Stocke: ...you fly though...
Lippti: Nuh uh! I totally can walk!
Stocke: But that doesn't...why do I even bother?
Faize: So uh...where's this Origin guy?
Godbert Manderville: Right here! As a true Gentleman, I will grant you ONE WISH! For you see, the TRUE power of the Mandervilles is the ability to destroy realities which is exactly what you want!
Lightning: ...that actually explains a lot...
Faize: You're telling me!
Godbert: So tell me, WHAT IS IT YOU WISH!? I SHALL CREATE IT ON THE SPOT!
Edge: Uhh...kill all universes but this one?
Godbert: Agreed! "Elle" must die though!
Edge: Ok.
Lymle: 'kay.
*Normal Ending, "Ludger" meets his future wife and becomes President of Spirius*
Stocke: ...screw that! I want the TRUE ENDING! *Turns time back to right before the decision*
Godbert Manderville: Right here! As a true Gentleman, I will grant you ONE WISH! For you see, the TRUE power of the Mandervilles is the ability to destroy realities which is exactly what you want!
Lightning: ...that actually explains a lot...
Faize: You're telling me!
Godbert: So tell me, WHAT IS IT YOU WISH!? I SHALL CREATE IT ON THE SPOT!
Edge: Uhh...kill all universes but this one?
Jacques: Wait, haven't we done this already?
Lumina: SHHH! You're distracting me from admiring the raw sexiness of "Origin!"
War: Can I just...kill one of those two guys already? It's getting boring just sitting here.
Edge: Fine, kill me.
War: I CAN DO THAT!
Godbert: And so, you wish to SACRIFICE YOURSELF FOR "ELLE'S" sake!?
Edge: No, I didn't...
Reimi: "Ludger" I didn't know you were suicidal ;_;
Faize: Can we just skip the melodrama and jump straight to the epilogue?
Narrator: Fine! "Elle" lives and gets older, "Ludger" dies and we get philosophical exposition upon the SACRIFICIAL SPECIAL NATURE OF HUMANS, happy?
Ludger: No.
Narrator: Wait, where'd yo come from?
Ludger: Episode is stupid.
Narrator: YOU LEFT ME NO CHOICE!
Ludger: Too bad.
*mallets Narrator*
FIN
Serious thoughts? Gameplay is more Tales of Xillia which is fine, though the obsession with status on bosses is obnoxious ESPECIALLY since Tales Confusion (which...did that even exist before this game?) is like the worst thing ever. Hey lose control of your character for a good deal of time AND there's no way to recover other than wait on it, whee! I swear there were many moments where I was hit by ABSOLUTELY NOTHING and whoops! Ludger confused!
As you may have heard me say before, Ludger is a half-decent character...by Silent Protagonist standards anyway. I get they made him Silent because the theme of the game was all about choices and impact and they wanted you to actually choose how the character acts, but at least they tried to give him some sense of characterization and the dialog choices felt legitimately unique, not just "There's this option, and there's the opposite!" That was my issue with Persona 4; despite all the dialog options, you never got a sense of Souji's personality other than "HE'S YOU!" and he was a total Mary Sue. This made the character quests a lot better than S-links to me as well, especially since all Characters have a Quest Partner, so it's not just Character Monologue To Our Silent Protagonist Until They Find A Revelation About themselves! And heck, Ludger's generally superficial element in this; it's the character discovering things on their own and Ludger just happens to witness the events, it's not "YOU HELPED ME FIND MYSELF, THANK YOU!" For example, Rowen's story about accepting he's getting old and won't be able to accomplish as much as wishes he could in the time he has? It's fully established he came up with this on his own, and the events that triggered this had nothing to do with Ludger, Ludger was just the guy who, along with Elize (Rowen's Quest partner), aided Rowen and witnessed him change.
Basically, they made Ludger actually feel meaningful and not in a Mary sue way. He's still the worst playable character in the game from a writing stand point but not as much as you'd expect, despite ToX1's strong cast returning.
The rest of the ToX1 cast felt like logical +1 year extensions of themselves. Gaius and Muzet were surprisingly really fun, with Gaius having a legitimate sense of humor that managed to mesh well with the cast and Muzet being the "spirit trying to understand humanity" taken in a completely different, more comical direction than Milla. Overall, they were well utilized and it did a nice balance of using them while not overshadowing the new characters.
...and then there's Elle. All I can say is everything wrong with this game's writing hinges upon her in some way. She's a poorly written character who the game WANTS you to like, but they really failed at giving her a personality that is actually like-able. She's an annoying brat who also happens to be central to everything, and any sort of ludicrous plot element is related to her. Even the MAJOR PLOT TWIST with her didn't feel necessary. If you remove her from the equation, the game still works fine.
We don't need her for the opening; Ludger gets on the train with Jude and by chance, crap happens. The pocket watch works as a macguffin for him to transform, and even Bakur's actual plan is enough of a "...we need to stop this...FAST!" You don't need this KEY TO KRESNIK crap, just have it that Chronos is your typical Careless Deity because he thinks he's invincible, and let's his guard down for the Deus Ex Machina super powers to overcome. Chapter 12 was ONLY necessary because ELLE EXISTS. They were aiming too much for an emotional attachment and the way the ending is structured, they want you to care more about Elle than Ludger, even though Ludger is the guy who had life shit on him completely by chance and we've been seeing him do this the entire way while Elle has been a spoiled brat.
Oh, and Fractured Milla stuff? Works fine without Elle. That was just there to make you FEEL BAD WE HAVE A LITTLE GIRL CRYING! If we remove Elle, F. Milla's still going to constantly guilt trip you, and when you see her sacrifice herself for Prime Milla, you're likely to get the same emotional reaction anyway, since the whole point of that was a microcosm of "fractured dimensions must be sacrificed for the Prime dimension to continue!" Here we have F. Milla, sole survivor of her dimension, dying for the sake of P. Milla coming back, and we've been with F. Milla long enough that her dying will have an impact, enough that it gives you mixed feelings with the "yay! OUR Milla is back!" aspect. You could easily have Jude and Co. being depressed instead of excited to see P. Milla, and her recognizing that her return cost the life of someone else, and you get the point across. WE DON'T NEED ELLE TO PORTRAY THIS!
Also, what the hell? You choose Elle for the true ending or get a bullshit halfassed one? Yes, I am fine with the "Choose Your Life or the Girl's!" but put effort into both. Nier did the same thing but had two major differences:
-Massive warnings about your decision's consequences.
-The Developer actually said he wanted the player to have the choice which character should live, rather than decide for them which is right/wrong.
If you give a choice like this, you DON'T make one option blatantly wrong unless you're going to give a decent amount of forewarning. See, in chapter 15, the bad end actually gives you a shit ton of chances to not pussy out, having the same "Yes" option word for word each time, as a hint towards "THIS IS WHAT WE WANT YOU TO SAY!" That's fine! Furthermore, YOU HAVE A CHANCE TO SAVE BEFORE THIS! The final boss sequence of ToX2 is not trivial though, so requiring you to do it a 2nd time is just bullshit.
Seriously, the rest of the game's writing would be fine if Elle didn't exist. All the game's problems stem from her in some way or another. It's like they wrote the game first, then went "...we totally need a little girl in this game, let's shoe-horn her in and make her important!" forgetting we already had Elize as the little girl, and one who wasn't TOO young to be annoying. It says something that Elle is more annoying than Teepo, the character that to some degree definitely feels like he was made INTENTIONALLY annoying.
...oh yeah, Nova's annoying but in a more "meh, whatever" sense, Vera's just there, Riddeaux's a ham, Bakur's so blatantly "I'M THE VILLAIN!" from the moment he appears (CEO of a corporation that basically runs half the world, if that isn't a red flag for "eventual villain" I don't know what is) and Julius...was surprisingly like-able. No really, here I was expecting your typical shonen rival douche older brother, but they did a good job making him NOT antagonistic most of the game, his aim being more "I don't want Ludger involved, let me handle this!" and ultimately his fight came off as him giving Ludger a final farewell, and a chance for Ludger to actually prove himself to his bigger brother, something he never had the chance to, before inevitably getting rid of him. It should have been a good indicator in the first scene after the prologue, honestly, where even though Julius was a total dick to you at the test, he's completely friendly and supportive of Ludger at home and comes off like a legitimate older brother.
Overall, it's actually a decent sequel, but Elle alone brings the score down, not just for being an awful character, but because, as I said, she outright plays a negative role on the plot. It's very rare that a character is not only badly written, but all the bad elements of the game can be linked back to her!
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It is. AC actively polished and smoothed out the combat loop significantly over the first 3 games. The jump from 1-2 is massive, 2-Bro is pretty big as well. Revelations is about where I would peg Moredoores at (Batman finishers are not as good in a stealth/climbing primary game compared to Asylum's railroad action game). Revelations-3 is probably where the series plateaus in changes, but AC3 is pretty streamlined.
That'd do it then. I only played 1 and 2.
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Seriously, the rest of the game's writing would be fine if Elle didn't exist.
It really, really wouldn't be good ever. Every single plot mechanic has a huge gaping plot hole associated with it. The story thrives on contrivances and can't keep anything consistent. I have to vehemently disagree on everyone being X1+1 year later on development (save Elize). Everyone has a huuuuuuuuuge backslide due to the Trial's nature and just blandly accepting that, going viciously against what actually happened in X1.
Even before you're done with the Striborg Line, you have a dozen plot holes involving the Watch Situation. By game's law, Victor's Watch should have disappeared immediately upon entering the Prime, but it keeps blinking in and out by convenience. And instead of returning where it was (in the middle of nowhere because they're on a speeding train) it keeps popping up around Elle's neck. Then, when the game sets up its big return in the endgame, it once again completely ignores mechanics to do so. Victor's Watch should be destroyed with Victor's Dimension! Just like Elle should have when she was in her Home Dimension when it was destroyed! But the game ignores alllllllll this shit constantly to keep going with its own patented level of retardation.
Ludger sacrificing himself for Elle is BRAVE AND NOBLE! But Elle sacrificing herself for Ludger is apparently not nearly as honorable. To say nothing of Elle just dying anyway because of the 1 Million hit. Except, oh wait, once the Trials doors open no more Fractured Dimensions can form, which means Ludger's sacrifice doesn't even work, Origin saves her. All because winning the Trial doesn't stop transformations, but losing it does? What contrived dopey reasoning.
And of course, Bisley suddenly decides to drop his manipulator self and suddenly confront Ludger. He directly antagonizes Ludger and forces him into a fight for NO REASON! All Bisley had to do was say, "once I have Origin enslaved I'll save Elle" and BAM he'd win. Even if he's lying that's still better than picking a pointless fight.
Then we have the miasma and soul energy excuses for why the Trial must end. The latter of which doesn't exist outside one cutscene and is blatantly made worse by FD destruction as is. The miasma meanwhile, relies on all the souls of Fractured people not being displaced by the Prime variant. Alt Milla and Prime Milla are two different beings, human and spirit, and can't coexist, so neither should fractured souls and Prime souls but the game just ignores that. And even if the did, the Fractured Miasma would be pushed aside by the Prime miasma.
FEELS! FEELS! The writers didn't give a shit. FEELS!
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It is. AC actively polished and smoothed out the combat loop significantly over the first 3 games. The jump from 1-2 is massive, 2-Bro is pretty big as well. Revelations is about where I would peg Moredoores at (Batman finishers are not as good in a stealth/climbing primary game compared to Asylum's railroad action game). Revelations-3 is probably where the series plateaus in changes, but AC3 is pretty streamlined.[/q]
That'd do it then. I only played 1 and 2.
Not saying to go out and do it or anything, but if you have Brotherhood from a bundle or something and want to play something like it, I recommend it.
It is an interesting play from the analytical side of watching something grow and taking the original game's progression and compressing it. Brotherhood is essentially the entirety of AC2 + a bit more that takes half the time to get through. It is really dense play compared to the original game (which isn't bad for how much it strings out the progression, it is there for story reasons as well as pacing).
I really really like Brotherhood on reflection. I have a play through of 2 I jump in and out of that is nearly done and keen to revisit Ass Bro (but that won't happen until the glut of summer releases is done most likely).
Edit - Holy shit we are bad at forums
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I think part of it is that idle games strip down the skinner box so that you see every part of what's happening to you down to the nuts and bolts. You click a shitty monster until it dies, you get some money, you upgrade your dudes and your numbers go up so you can kill more shitty monsters. The loop is short and satisfying (and a shorter loop is better so that you do avoid all of the Disgaea/NIS bullshit as Fen says), but maybe the shame comes from the very fact that there is something satisfying about it even though it's abstracted to a very bare level. When you get to the point when you can make deep runs just by idling then the game loses its luster.
TimeClickers has better "gameplay" but I used the online version and my save got erased so I stopped forever.
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Clicker Heroes is kind of amazing in that the idle method has been calculated to be the most efficient even after your first Ascension so long as you save scum to get the right ancients. You should only really ever click to get your first bit started then to push through a boss or two to cash out N+1/2 tiers higher.
It pares back the mechanics and then compresses the gameplay loop super quick and even then when it is jammed in your face completely transparently, you still fall for it.
This is why we psychology isn't it?
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Even before you're done with the Striborg Line, you have a dozen plot holes involving the Watch Situation. By game's law, Victor's Watch should have disappeared immediately upon entering the Prime, but it keeps blinking in and out by convenience. And instead of returning where it was (in the middle of nowhere because they're on a speeding train) it keeps popping up around Elle's neck. Then, when the game sets up its big return in the endgame, it once again completely ignores mechanics to do so. Victor's Watch should be destroyed with Victor's Dimension! Just like Elle should have when she was in her Home Dimension when it was destroyed! But the game ignores alllllllll this shit constantly to keep going with its own patented level of retardation.
Ludger sacrificing himself for Elle is BRAVE AND NOBLE! But Elle sacrificing herself for Ludger is apparently not nearly as honorable. To say nothing of Elle just dying anyway because of the 1 Million hit. Except, oh wait, once the Trials doors open no more Fractured Dimensions can form, which means Ludger's sacrifice doesn't even work, Origin saves her. All because winning the Trial doesn't stop transformations, but losing it does? What contrived dopey reasoning.
And of course, Bisley suddenly decides to drop his manipulator self and suddenly confront Ludger. He directly antagonizes Ludger and forces him into a fight for NO REASON! All Bisley had to do was say, "once I have Origin enslaved I'll save Elle" and BAM he'd win. Even if he's lying that's still better than picking a pointless fight.
Then we have the miasma and soul energy excuses for why the Trial must end. The latter of which doesn't exist outside one cutscene and is blatantly made worse by FD destruction as is. The miasma meanwhile, relies on all the souls of Fractured people not being displaced by the Prime variant. Alt Milla and Prime Milla are two different beings, human and spirit, and can't coexist, so neither should fractured souls and Prime souls but the game just ignores that. And even if the did, the Fractured Miasma would be pushed aside by the Prime miasma.
These...are not as big plot holes as you want them to be. I think you just didn't like the plot and are seriously coming off as "NO! THIS IS STUPID!" The watch thing is about the only one, but I think the logic there is tied to the Key of Kresnik nonsense, and honestly as I said, the entire thing yo just mentioned is LITERALLY TIED TO ELLE. Victor's entire plot nonsense is only relevant because Elle exists. Without Elle, that entire subplot explodes and it'd never get brought up, never needs to be addressed, and the game does not suffer for it. So congrats on only proving my point further. Though "this should have happened to Elle" is not a plot hole like you claim it is; they already established exceptions can exist, several times. How those exceptions come to be isn't established, which is a different problem altogether (not a plot hole, just the game not explaining itself).
Your second point...again, literally what I said: Every issue the game has is related to Elle's nonsense. You literally just said it's contrived and stupid because...it revolves around the Elle plot point...which again, IS MY EXACT POINT.
Bisley's situation is...again, about Elle! And no, it wouldn't work. The game makes it very clear that Bakur's solution is not something Ludger or the rest of the cast wants. Did you completely forget the "I want to enslave spirits!" nonsense? That's kind of enough of a reason for Ludger and the entire team to want to stop him from getting his wish. The "he could use Elle as a bargaining chip", again, works itself away if Elle wasn't in the story to begin with, which is the point I cannot emphasize enough. The game's plot problems all stem from Elle, and pretty much every problem you bring up is "Elle exists, therefor this is a problem."
Regarding Miasma...I believe the game does establish that Canaan follows it's own rules, not the Prime Dimensions, because it's at the heart of all dimensions, thereby the prime dimension rules need not be followed. This isn't contrived, it's a typical "Dimension between Dimensions" that exists in many mutli-verse story-lines. Also, did you forget P. Milla is literally not in the Prime Dimension for most of the game? This is how F. Milla can survive. It's that two of the same thing cannot exist in the Prime Dimension at the same time, not that the Fractured versions disappear if the Prime one is still around. As luck would have it, F. Milla happens to be sacrificed for P. Milla anyway. I don't see how "one is human and the other is spirit!" is relevant here; they are the same being in truth, just not the same physical manifestation.
Not to mention I don't think the Fractured Miasma has anything to do with Origin's scenario, because it's not actually Fractured Miasma, it's just created by the existence of Fractured Dimensions which if they still exist, the Miasma exists.
Again, this cannot be emphasized enough: Just because you don't like something and think it's contrived doesn't make it a fact, and it's not necessarily a plot-hole. You didn't actually address a legitimate plothole save for the Watch (which browsing things, that seems to be the only major one people note.) It's more like you're conveniently ignoring details the game did address just so you can label something a plothole and claim plot is worse than it actually is. It's ok not to like something but to try and twist things to be different than they are? Nope, not going to buy it. This entire post is you going "I FIND THIS CONTRIVED AND STUPID!" and you completely ignored my initial point of "Every single problem with this plot is tied to Elle's nonsense" which...guess what? YOU JUST PROVED FURTHER! Since just about everyone of your complaints is a factor of the game that only exists because they were trying to make Elle important. It definitely feels like the story was written first, then they jack-hammered in this character and pushed her to be the Female Lead, and didn't actually do it properly. A lot of the game's issues in story do suddenly work themselves out if Elle doesn't exist.
Victor's subplot? Gone (as is the entirety of Chapter 12.) The pocketwatch inconsistency? Gone. The nonsense in the ending with Ludger's decision? Gone. The Bakur not using it as an ace up his sleeve? Gone.
I'm not saying the story is good, but I think you're just flailing and throwing shit at more than it needs to be and you pretty much proved the exact point I made anyway: A lot of the game's problems in writing are hinged heavily on Elle's existence. She is a very superficially important character, important only because the game randomly demands she plays a role that is very much not necessary in anyway, shape or form. Write her out, a lot of the problems work themselves out in simpler fashion; she's an added element that complicated everything, added unneeded subplots and details to the story, and messes everything up. The whole Normal vs. True Ending scenario literally only exists because of the Elle factor for example.
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blah blah blah blah blah
blah blah blah blah blah
Ladies, ladies. I hate both of you. You can stop talking now.
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Even before you're done with the Striborg Line, you have a dozen plot holes involving the Watch Situation. By game's law, Victor's Watch should have disappeared immediately upon entering the Prime, but it keeps blinking in and out by convenience. And instead of returning where it was (in the middle of nowhere because they're on a speeding train) it keeps popping up around Elle's neck. Then, when the game sets up its big return in the endgame, it once again completely ignores mechanics to do so. Victor's Watch should be destroyed with Victor's Dimension! Just like Elle should have when she was in her Home Dimension when it was destroyed! But the game ignores alllllllll this shit constantly to keep going with its own patented level of retardation.
Ludger sacrificing himself for Elle is BRAVE AND NOBLE! But Elle sacrificing herself for Ludger is apparently not nearly as honorable. To say nothing of Elle just dying anyway because of the 1 Million hit. Except, oh wait, once the Trials doors open no more Fractured Dimensions can form, which means Ludger's sacrifice doesn't even work, Origin saves her. All because winning the Trial doesn't stop transformations, but losing it does? What contrived dopey reasoning.
And of course, Bisley suddenly decides to drop his manipulator self and suddenly confront Ludger. He directly antagonizes Ludger and forces him into a fight for NO REASON! All Bisley had to do was say, "once I have Origin enslaved I'll save Elle" and BAM he'd win. Even if he's lying that's still better than picking a pointless fight.
Then we have the miasma and soul energy excuses for why the Trial must end. The latter of which doesn't exist outside one cutscene and is blatantly made worse by FD destruction as is. The miasma meanwhile, relies on all the souls of Fractured people not being displaced by the Prime variant. Alt Milla and Prime Milla are two different beings, human and spirit, and can't coexist, so neither should fractured souls and Prime souls but the game just ignores that. And even if the did, the Fractured Miasma would be pushed aside by the Prime miasma.
These...are not as big plot holes as you want them to be. I think you just didn't like the plot and are seriously coming off as "NO! THIS IS STUPID!" The watch thing is about the only one, but I think the logic there is tied to the Key of Kresnik nonsense, and honestly as I said, the entire thing yo just mentioned is LITERALLY TIED TO ELLE. Victor's entire plot nonsense is only relevant because Elle exists. Without Elle, that entire subplot explodes and it'd never get brought up, never needs to be addressed, and the game does not suffer for it. So congrats on only proving my point further. Though "this should have happened to Elle" is not a plot hole like you claim it is; they already established exceptions can exist, several times. How those exceptions come to be isn't established, which is a different problem altogether (not a plot hole, just the game not explaining itself).
Your second point...again, literally what I said: Every issue the game has is related to Elle's nonsense. You literally just said it's contrived and stupid because...it revolves around the Elle plot point...which again, IS MY EXACT POINT.
Bisley's situation is...again, about Elle! And no, it wouldn't work. The game makes it very clear that Bakur's solution is not something Ludger or the rest of the cast wants. Did you completely forget the "I want to enslave spirits!" nonsense? That's kind of enough of a reason for Ludger and the entire team to want to stop him from getting his wish. The "he could use Elle as a bargaining chip", again, works itself away if Elle wasn't in the story to begin with, which is the point I cannot emphasize enough. The game's plot problems all stem from Elle, and pretty much every problem you bring up is "Elle exists, therefor this is a problem."
Regarding Miasma...I believe the game does establish that Canaan follows it's own rules, not the Prime Dimensions, because it's at the heart of all dimensions, thereby the prime dimension rules need not be followed. This isn't contrived, it's a typical "Dimension between Dimensions" that exists in many mutli-verse story-lines. Also, did you forget P. Milla is literally not in the Prime Dimension for most of the game? This is how F. Milla can survive. It's that two of the same thing cannot exist in the Prime Dimension at the same time, not that the Fractured versions disappear if the Prime one is still around. As luck would have it, F. Milla happens to be sacrificed for P. Milla anyway. I don't see how "one is human and the other is spirit!" is relevant here; they are the same being in truth, just not the same physical manifestation.
Not to mention I don't think the Fractured Miasma has anything to do with Origin's scenario, because it's not actually Fractured Miasma, it's just created by the existence of Fractured Dimensions which if they still exist, the Miasma exists.
Again, this cannot be emphasized enough: Just because you don't like something and think it's contrived doesn't make it a fact, and it's not necessarily a plot-hole. You didn't actually address a legitimate plothole save for the Watch (which browsing things, that seems to be the only major one people note.) It's more like you're conveniently ignoring details the game did address just so you can label something a plothole and claim plot is worse than it actually is. It's ok not to like something but to try and twist things to be different than they are? Nope, not going to buy it. This entire post is you going "I FIND THIS CONTRIVED AND STUPID!" and you completely ignored my initial point of "Every single problem with this plot is tied to Elle's nonsense" which...guess what? YOU JUST PROVED FURTHER! Since just about everyone of your complaints is a factor of the game that only exists because they were trying to make Elle important. It definitely feels like the story was written first, then they jack-hammered in this character and pushed her to be the Female Lead, and didn't actually do it properly. A lot of the game's issues in story do suddenly work themselves out if Elle doesn't exist.
Victor's subplot? Gone (as is the entirety of Chapter 12.) The pocketwatch inconsistency? Gone. The nonsense in the ending with Ludger's decision? Gone. The Bakur not using it as an ace up his sleeve? Gone.
I'm not saying the story is good, but I think you're just flailing and throwing shit at more than it needs to be and you pretty much proved the exact point I made anyway: A lot of the game's problems in writing are hinged heavily on Elle's existence. She is a very superficially important character, important only because the game randomly demands she plays a role that is very much not necessary in anyway, shape or form. Write her out, a lot of the problems work themselves out in simpler fashion; she's an added element that complicated everything, added unneeded subplots and details to the story, and messes everything up. The whole Normal vs. True Ending scenario literally only exists because of the Elle factor for example.
They are plot holes. Every single plot mechanic introduced has a plot hole or absurd inconsistency with it. The Watch situation I can have a twelve point bulletin on how bad it is. Then, because this is a multiverse situation, that explodes into millions. There's the fact that only the Key of Kresnik can bring stuff back to the Prime, but you bring back Fractured Gald and items through all the time. Okay, maybe the Key carries them. Those millions of gald. And hey! You can pay off debt in the FDs. Alright, so maybe it's not canon. Except you blatantly grab the Time Capsule items which are specifically still in the Prime and Elle sure as hell didn't carry them back. Because, of course, Chapter 12! Then when Elle's no longer with you, you still bring crap back. You bring back the goddamn Temporal Blade! And only Elle is supposed to be able to bring people to FDs in the first place so there's another three(?) more blatantly ignoring mechanics. Then of course, Ludger's sacrifice can't actually work because no more FDs can form. And Origin destroys the FDs before Ludger turns anyway.
Yes, some of this is incredibly petty poking, but when everything is opened up for such scrutiny because the shield of quality has been destroyed by huge gaping ones like the Watch or Chapter 12 I'm damn well gonna be petty. And when everything is a plot hole, it's one huge amalgamation of nonsensical writing. So of course I didn't like the plot. I outright fucking despise it with every fiber of my being!
Saying plot holes wouldn't exist if they weren't plot holes doesn't do a damn thing. A bad game would be good if all the bad shit was taken away... So what?
Bisley doesn't give a shit what the other's want, they can't stop him. Ludger's the only competition for the Wish and he outright goads him to a fight. Which is my point, after an entire game of lying to get his way, he suddenly drops it to pick a fight he had no need to start. Add in "I'll save that girl of yours too" and Ludger has even less of a reason to fight because the two spirits he knows: one replaced his bread and the other harasses him all the time.
How the hell is Elle surviving her Home Dimension being destroyed around her not a plot hole I addressed? She is in her home when it's erased, she should be too.
If Canaan was exempt from the nominal laws then the Watch would have popped right back up instantly. Canaan only exists outright in the Prime Dimension. It is not some nexus which everything is build around.
No, it's that Alt Milla and Prime Milla are two fundamentally different beings at that point. Human and spirit. They should be able to co-exist perfectly fine in the Prime together. But they can not. So the stretch of how the rules apply then extends towards Prime/Fractured Souls and Prime/Fractured Miasma.
Miasma is literally pulled out of souls as part of the reincarnation process. It's Fractured. The whole danger of the FDs is that there are suddenly trillions of souls now being pushed into Canaan which is beyond Origin's ability to seal.
Maybe I wouldn't fling shit if those didn't exist. But they do, so I'm flingng all the shit at what's there. All the shit the game's made up of and doesn't think stinks.
blah blah blah blah blah
blah blah blah blah blah
Ladies, ladies. I hate both of you. You can stop talking now.
But I love you so much. Why do you do this to me baby. Come on give me more.
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Where is my Anise vs Elle comparison rant!?~
*I don't actually hate Elle
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Where is my Anise vs Elle comparison rant!?~
*I don't actually hate Elle
I don't hate Elle either.
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It is. AC actively polished and smoothed out the combat loop significantly over the first 3 games. The jump from 1-2 is massive, 2-Bro is pretty big as well. Revelations is about where I would peg Moredoores at (Batman finishers are not as good in a stealth/climbing primary game compared to Asylum's railroad action game). Revelations-3 is probably where the series plateaus in changes, but AC3 is pretty streamlined.
That'd do it then. I only played 1 and 2.
Not saying to go out and do it or anything, but if you have Brotherhood from a bundle or something and want to play something like it, I recommend it.
It is an interesting play from the analytical side of watching something grow and taking the original game's progression and compressing it. Brotherhood is essentially the entirety of AC2 + a bit more that takes half the time to get through. It is really dense play compared to the original game (which isn't bad for how much it strings out the progression, it is there for story reasons as well as pacing).
I really really like Brotherhood on reflection. I have a play through of 2 I jump in and out of that is nearly done and keen to revisit Ass Bro (but that won't happen until the glut of summer releases is done most likely).
Edit - Holy shit we are bad at forums
Problem is EVERY forum I'm on handles code differently, so I forget which is which.
That said: Yeah, no plans to. Mordors has more than scratched my itch for that kind of game for now. I enjoy them, but I don't think I can play many of them.
And it doesn't help I hate the AC frame narrative.
Edit: Irony
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Well Elle definitely was a spoiled 8 year old brat who lacked a mother figure (before F Milla), and had a crazy serial/mass murderer dad in Victor who spoiled her like hell, but then there is what he would have done in the end, but yeah spoiled 8 year old brats aren't everyone's cup of tea (I personally enjoyed the bond she formed with F Milla, some of her more touching scenes with Ludger, the bond she formed with him, her awe of Gaius, her one girl/one cat act with Rollo, etc as well as some of her quotes)~
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I just ate popcorn and didn't think too deeply about x2's plot.
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A good policy for any game that can be labelled with the moniker X2.
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Elf hating on X2-The Threat for no reason. Typical elves.
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Learning Shadow Hearts 3. I believe this sums up the experience:
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Paint It Back - completed the completable parts, did a bunch of quick mystery puzzles
It's Picross.
In comparison to the Picross e series, it has a lot of boards which are much larger than the largest Picross e boards (ignoring Micross), and it has a random puzzle mode. Of course huge puzzles aren't necessarily a good thing, although at least here you don't have a time limit unlike in Mario's Super Picross. Also, the random puzzle mode sadly seems to draw from the puzzles you did in the completable parts rather that a separate set.
Progress tracking is annoyingly inferior to the version in Picross e, it'll only mark segments as entered if all segments in a line have been entered or if there are no blank spaces between the segment and the edge of the board. So, say you had a line with 1 4 4 1 segments, and you managed to complete both the '4' segments but not either of the '1' segments, the game would still be displaying both 4s as inentered - while Picross e would have them both as entered, and would even be able to infer which was entered if you only had one entered and there wasn't any room for the other on one side. This can get to be particularly annoying with the larger boards.
The game has differing difficulty levels for the large boards which it achieves by splitting the board into smaller pieces on the easier difficulties, similar to Micross. I suppose it's fairly laudable that they were able to make so many puzzles which are properly solvable both when they're split up and when they aren't, assuming that it hasn't been proven that jamming a bunch of properly solvable boards together will always result in a properly solvable board or something. Annoyingly, if you do all the boards on the maximum available difficulty, you won't complete enough boards on 'Normal' to get the achievement for that and you'll have to replay some of the harder ones on that difficulty. MICROSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Message Quest - played through
I was expecting it to be short, but I wasn't expecting it to be that short. I'll peg it as a fair bit better than Lume in the shortgamelympics, but still fairly mediocre. Also half the price, at least.
Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic - played through
I'm finding it difficult to come up with anything to comment on?
Episode 2 was clearly the worst, difficult to judge where episode 1 stands given that it gets bias due to my having played it back in the day, episodes 3 and 4 kind of blend together.
Chrono Trigger DS - played through ~1.5 times
Played through once, continued and got the bonus ending, did an encore semiplaythrough and got the rest of the endings.
I had always gotten the impression that the alternate endings were supposed to be... good? worth getting? something. But most of them are terrible. Whatever!
In general the game was a lot shorter/easier/more entertaining than I felt I remembered.
Now I can play Chrono Cross. But not right now.
Somehow, I forgot Life is Strange.
Life Is Strange - finished
In general, I really enjoyed the series. I do think that the final episode was somewhat of a let-down, although it had some great parts as well.
Feels like the game sometimes went out of its way to be a jerk with regards to your choices, which was a little annoying. I'm not exactly a gardener, but I'm fairly sure that watering a plant two days in a row isn't enough to drown it.
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Bayonetta - I thought that maybe the final Jeanne fight would be easy now that I know the game far better but nope. Now in the final dungeon.
Bravely Default - So I decided to replay this. And what's the best way to replay an FF5-like? With a Four Five(?) Job Fiesta!
BD divides its jobs into five very distinct groups instead of four, namely:
-The five jobs gained in Caldisla/the prologue (including Freelancer)
-The four jobs gained in Ancheim/Chapter 1
-The four jobs gained in Florem/Chapter 2
-The five jobs gained in Eisenberg/Chapter 3
-The six jobs gained from the Council of Six/Chapter 4 onwards
So yeah, rolling up one random job to use from each, Fiesta-style. I haven't decided what I'll do with the fact that there are five instead of four; either just roll with it and use whichever five I like, or roll a die to remove one of the five jobs once I have all five, probably. I dunno.
Beyond that, playing on HM, because why the hell not (if this proves too much I'll go back to Normal), and no Norende because yeah no serious challenge really works with Norende stuff I think. I thought about just banning the equipment and still using specials/etc. but meh effort.
First job is Monk. Centro Keep was definitely a problem area, since three Monks don't reliably blitz down the formations here, so some default-turtling is needed, and enemies hit pretty hard. I ran out of potions. I had one reset on Omnias Crowe because I thought you could leave the dungeon by going past him, whoops this was a faulty memory and I ran into a fight with him when I had no potions. Refighting him again with a decent potion stock, he wasn't too bad. Poison's annoying but Silence is a wasted turn against my team and his damage isn't super-scary or anything.
Next was Lontano Villa, which was by contrast a very easy dungeon. Yes, the enemies are better than the previous, but not by enough given that one more PC means 33% more brave-blitzing potential... actually even more, because even with an E rank Ise-no-Kami deals as much damage as a Level 10 Monk's bare fists (and I wasn't Level 10 for this dungeon), plus a crit rate, plus the ability to equip a shield. Very easy dungeon, almost nothing survived one turn.
Heinkel (2 resets) - By comparison, here is the big problem fight of the first chapter for Monks (and presumably Freelancers as well). Did you know that he'll protect his allies from physicals, 100% of the time? I didn't. So yeah, for all of Heinkel's 3000+ HP there is no way for me to kill his support, two archers. And the archers use Poison Strike, modest damage and ~75% poison, and there's no way to block it this early. Heinkel, meanwhile, likes to buff his defence with either Shield Strike or Ironclad (the latter is basically just a troll move since it only lasts the turn it is used, but it has initiative...), which reduces my damage to rather paltry levels. I go into this fight with 40 potions and it's nowhere near enough.
So I return with 80 potions (selling all ethers), and in the process also hit JL 3 in Monk, which gives me Inner Alchemy (heal self of poison/some other stuff). I also come back with shields equipped on everyone. I sometimes unequip them when non-Edea monks attack (Edea has Ise-no-Kami still), but re-equip them after of course. Main strategy is to default a lot, heal using brave-blitzes and Potions, heal off Poison with Inner Alchemy (Edea doesn't have it, so I sometimes use antidotes on her, but I run out. Arguably I should have bought more, they're cheaper than potions and end up healing as much in practice). Not dying is important because I only have 4 Phoenix Downs, but it's enough in case I screw up. Once at 3 BP I'll use Invigorate if Heinkel's defence isn't the lowest it can be (i.e. 100% in the first half of the fight, 75% in the second after he starts using Stomp), and hope it doesn't backfire, then attack x4 the next turn. All of Edea's turns are funnelled towards attacking since even though I'm Level 10 now she's still the best at it due to crit + not needing to unequip her shield, while the others heal as needed and only relatively rarely when I have the spare turns use this attacking strategy of their own.
One nice bonus is that Heinkel never uses Brave, I assume his allies need to be dead for it. Stomp still hurts but it's nothing staying healed can't take care of. I use 64 Potions (gah), 2 Hi-Potions, a few Antidotes, and one Phoenix Down. His allies die in like a quarter of a round once he falls. >:(
Now that I've arrived in Ancheim, I just rolled for my second job and got Spell Fencer, which certainly has some nice synergy with my previous physical class (good thing this isn't FF5 and there's no sword requirement... though I forget if it works when unarmed? Guess I'll see).
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Not that Grefter + Challenge = anyhting but lol, but I would say just use whichever of the 5 you want. It seems the most fun. (But I would allow Norende stuff so whatevs)
Vermintide - Finally played a few more games. A regular fourth makes this good. The upcoming free DLC that was announced for December 3rd sounds amazing and like they will fix the biggest complaint about the game with how RNG loot is.
Pretty keen.
StarHammer40k Legacy of the Eye of Terror - I replayed Wings of Liberty and Heart of the Swarm. Wings is just pretty solid, there is a few things that are tightened up a few years later, but it is overall pretty solid. I am a bit more favourable to HotS than say Otter was. The plot was pretty dumb and over the top, but that's what I expect from Blizzard. They do pulp fantasy stories. Kerrigan's plot is predictable and not deep, but it is affecting. Relatable (?!??!?) story with good animation and VA kind of cheats and lets you write whatever. Gameplay wise, it is hella easy compared to Wings and is clearly tuned for scrubs like me. Attack Move all day every day.
Then I started the Prologue for Legacy and holy fuck i am bad at games. Just so shit at all the things that Protoss do. I was expecting them to shave off some of the crazy micro gameplay that Multi Protoss has. Not really in the prologue. Here is the whole tech tree from day 1, here is restrictive map goals. Hope you have been playing Protoss because if you are lost we aren't going to help you lol.
Then just like a mission in to the regular campaign is much more sedate. Huh, I guess the Prologue was for people that had been waiting a while to play while they waited for the main campaign, not for bads to be shit in.
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It's weird and baffling how difficult the prologue is compared to the proper campaign.
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Yeah they drop the need to macro Chrono Boost, Warp Gates store multiple charges... like a few other QOL improvements I was expecting the kind of thing to be there in the prologue that just aren't. I like the campaigns because they are babbies first Starcraft.
Edit - I also kind of dig how Karaxx is just like, straight up Protoss Swann. Your engineer dude will always just be a fake dwarf forever.
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It'll just keep getting weirder too.
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Elfboy's post rmeinds me I need to get back to my Bravely Default playthrough.
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Bravely Default - Monk fiesta continues.
World map randoms in Ancheim aren't too bad, although Sandworms can roll well and blind my entire party at once, which obviously messes up brave-blitzing them. Not much to be done about it, fortunately if I'm on the world map I'm always close to an inn if something goes wrong. Anyway, I have a choice of doing the Wind Shrine or Jackal's dungeon, I decide to do the former because it gives me access to the superior shop at Yulyana's.
The Wind Shrine is brutal. Might be the hardest part of the challenge so far. Golems can do 200-250 MT damage which is kinda nasty even if I'm defaulting and brutal if I'm not, certainly not something I can stand and heal against. They can just survive a brave-blitz by themselves, so even fighting one is kinda dicy depending on what they do. However, when they fight with one of the other randoms, it's nigh-impossible. I eventually learn to just try my hand at running. Anyway, this dungeon is pretty short but still takes several tries. I also fail to make any money at all at this point in the game, I spend more on the potions I need to patch me up after each fight than I get from fights... by a fairly notable margin. Yeesh.
Anyway, this means I'm not really able to afford much at Yulyana's besides topping up my item supply. Oh well. Jackal's definitely an easier boss than Dragon, from what I recall, so he's up next!
His dungeon is a lot easier than the Wind Shrine. I'm actually able to brave-blitz some formations immediately, and those I can't can usually be handled without too much trouble anyway. I get blinded a bunch, both by Sandworms and the traps here, but Inner Alchemy to the rescue! After running low on potions, but also getting an important 1500 pg treasure, I retreat to Yulyana's and by Mithril Knuckles for my team, which have the same attack power as a Level 21 Monk (I'm 13-14 now). This is a big upgrade! I'm now able to brave-blitz almost every fight in Jackal's dungeon.
Jackal - Not too bad. Would have been better if I'd clued into using Strong Strike earlier in the fight. Strong Strike is 50% chance of 2x damage, 50% chance of miss, which sounds like a null deal, and I'd been avoiding it because in randoms the unreliability can cost me a brave-blitz which is very bad. But Jackal has pretty notable evasion (30, compared to 5 on the previous bosses) so regular physicals suffer, while Strong Strike does not, and honestly long-term damage is all that matters in a marathon BD boss fight anyway. By this point, my monks all have 3 hits except Ringabel, who broke 20 agility and has 4, and successful Strong Strikes do about 150 damage (Ringabel 200). I try to launch my main assaults after either Jackal or Khint has brave-blitzed. Jackal's healing is annoying but once I hit on Strong Strike I'm able to overwhelm it, and once Khint leaves the offence is low enough that things get pretty easy. Also Jackal starts using Brave x3 at this point, which is great news - I can just default until he does, then do whatever the fuck I want. Usual BD strats apply, trying to take 3-4 turns at once instead of 1 so that I'm defaulting more often, never going below 0 BP at the start of a round if possible, but yeah, nothing too bad. I only use about 40 potions! Would have been less if I'd used Strong Strike from the start.
Now mostly done the Vestment Cave, which was a step up for randoms but nothing tooo bad. It's still taken me a couple tries like every other dungeon. I'm a bit worried about the Dragon; I haven't been buying Hi-Potions because they're a big pocketbook hit compared to Potions, but sooner or later I'll need their turn efficiency in boss fights, and I'm a bit worried Dragon may force me to do it. We'll see. Everyone has hit JL5, and with it an extra hit, so I now have 4-5 hits which is nice, and I'm working on affording the equipment upgrades from Yulyana's still.
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Kero Blaster: I heard there's a new overtime mode so I double dipped on iOs.
IOs controls are... Allright. The most optimized button game on iOs, still way worse than a regular controller but better than Downwell. It helps that you don't really have to change the direction of your shooting much.
Kero Blaster is still super cool, the most laid back / charming Contra like in the world. Overtime mode is pretty difficult so far, at least compared to the relatively easy regular game.
Clicker Heroes: Numbers are really high
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Bravely Default: Tales of punching
Dragon at 17, 1 reset
Profiteur at 18
Orthros at 19, JL6, 3 resets, 20 hipotions and a lot of potions
Khamer and Khint at 20, 2 resets, ~50 potions
Dragon (1 reset) - Difficult but not as bad as I was expecting (or as bad as the first attempt hinted). Dragon will brave woth Mow Down + Bully, which is predictable in that it's always a MT attack followed by a hit against the person with the lowest HP. Now, this does a fuckton of damage, and unfortunately the Dragon is "psychic" with the Bully attack. If someone isn't defaulting when he does this there's a very good chance they're dead unless their HP is extremely high. Oh and both these attacks can critical, that sucks.
But fortunately a lot of default-spam helps, since his strategy means I'll have openings to attack/heal after he braves. And on his non-brave turns, Bully is pretty wussy (Mow Down is still legit). I have 5 Hi-Potions for this fight and they make a huge difference. I spam Strong Strike in this fight, just like Jackal, because Dragon has surprisingly competent evade too (20), I think almost every boss from here on out does? Basic physicals for the lose. I'm Level 17.
Profiteur - The nice thing about being Monk is that I have enough HP to easily survive a double Takeover. In fact, at full HP I can even survive a Khint hit on top of that! This never happens, but hey. Different from the last fight in that Profiteur always defaults before he braves, and obviously I don't want to sink a lot of damage into that. And since defaulting doesn't slow Takeover anyway, there's zero reason not to attack on the turns you know he'll do it twice, since when he's at 1 BP he never defaults again. So save attacks for that.
Khint still isn't too scary against my party that gives no shits about silence (plus he leaves halfway through), and Profiteur's offence is less scary than Dragon's Mow Down for my potion supply even on turns when I default. I still use a few Hi-Potions here in tougher situations, but overall this is the easiest fight of the chapter. I'm Level 18.
Orthros (3 resets) - Oh crap. This fight, on the other hand, is terrifying. Orthros can unleash MT attacks doing about a quarter of my HP twice a turn. Defaulting cuts down on that, but that's a lot of consistent damage since it never stops (and occasionally criticals!). Sometimes he uses ST attacks too, but not often enough. This isn't terribly different from fighting two frailer Dragons at once.
The good news is that I have a new ability, Hidden Dragon, which does 1.25x damage but always goes last, so my offence is good enough that one head will die in six 4x brave-blitzes. i.e. I'm not far from being able to one-round a head! But it's far enough. This is the first fight where Potions are absolutely NOT an option, 4 of those will barely patch up a full round of attacks to a single non-defaulting PC. I buy 20 Hi-Potions (and also grind just a tiny bit so everyone has Hidden Dragon), which is the biggest financial investment I make for any boss fight. I use every last one of them.
Beyond that the strategy is simple enough. Hidden Dragon x4 when I get to 3 BP, heal x (current BP+1) whenever I feel I have to with anyone else, prioritising lower-Strength characters for healing of course (the gaps are small, but noticeable). People dying is bad so I try to mostly avoid it, of course. Eventually, I take a run at one of the heads (knowing their HP due to FAQing of course), since Hidden Dragon is actually reliable I can do this pretty safely.
It's a bit dicy since of course I go into negative brave to do this, and I know what comes next: once one head is left it will brave twice for a nasty triple-act... but fortunately only one is ST, and it gives me plenty of time to recover. I spend a while just getting back on my feet, using my last remaining hi-potions at this point, but once I do it's pretty smooth sailing. The remaining head will periodically triple-attack again, so the same strategy as Dragon works here, and I'm able to mostly cruise on Potions from here on. I'm Level 19.
Grand Mill Works - No rest for my poor monks, this is another challenge, the toughest dungeon since the first trip to the Wind Shrine for sure. Merchantry Thugs can blind, but more significantly can brave at any time and use Psych Up + Strong Strike, which has a 50% chance to OHKO a non-defaulting PC and does a strong 2HKO to the defaulting. Ow. Merchantry Mages meanwhile sometimes use physicals (puny) or Sleep (annoying but not too bad), but can also use Fira for a strong 2HKO to the non-defaulting. So there's a lot of damage potential here, and in particular Strong Strike sometimes just haxes me and there's nothing I can do about it. Another dungeon that takes a few runs as I also need to get my potion stock up for the next boss fight, which proves harder than I expect...
Khamer and Khint (2 resets) - I wasn't expecting this fight to be that bad, because I wasn't expecting them to have boatloads of physical defence. (Just in case there was any doubt that Black Mage is good through to the end of chapter 1.) I decide to go for Khamer first, who actually is the slightly less tanky of the two, because he's more dangerous, but even he takes less than half what Orthros did, and has more HP (though less than the Dragon... still more pdur). Fortunately I do have Invigorate, which while always dicy due to its 25% chance of failure (which does 20% self-damage for good measure) is extremely valuable for overcoming high defence as one successful use will double my damage and two will triple it, in this fight.
After a couple failed attempts and some time to theorycraft I realise, somewhat counterintuitively, that the best strategy here actually involves going into negative BP, an unusual strategy when it isn't born out of desperation or when going for a kill. Get to 3 BP, Invigorate twice, then Hidden Dragon x4 on the next turn. This leaves me at negative BP for one turn where I can't default, but it's worth it, because 150% PAtk Hidden Dragon x4 does ~1200 damage for 6 actions, a far better deal than I can get otherwise, and the extra turn spent non-defaulting isn't THAT big a deal since the offence of these two isn't -that- bad.
Not to say what they do is trivial. Khint is still mostly bad but the extra damage he piles on can hurt, especially when I'm not defaulting and not using a shield. Khamer will sometimes use Attack or Veilga (both essentially wasted turns) but also sometimes uses a Quara which hits for 120/240 against my entire team, and Stop, which is annoying as fuck since I can't block or heal it, so I just have to hope it wears off quickly. If it hits someone who has just Invigorated (either on the current turn or the previous, and Hidden Dragon going last means it gets the chance to do this) that sucks since I lose those turns in effect as well. Fortunately this obviously isn't too common.
One other ripple is that below half HP, Khamer can default, then always uses Quara+Stop. The only adjustment to my strategy is that I will never use Invigorate on turns where he has BP, since the chance of Stop is higher. If I've already invigorated the previous turn, though, there's no point in wasting that and I go for the attacks anyway.
Once he falls, Khint is pretty easy. Same offensive tactics work but he's just no good at killing me when alone, so I can use only Potions from here. I end up only needing about 4 Hi-Potions with this strategy. And like 50 potions of course, what else is new. I'm Level 20.
And I finally have Spell Fencer! And I immediately hate the Job Level mechanic since my Spell Fencers are going to suck until at least JL2 (when they get Sleep/Silence Sword), especially the non-Ringabel ones since they haven't hit 20 speed yet in this job, so only 2 hits! Gross. (My monks all have 5.) Oh well, Knuckle Lore means I don't lose tooo much raw damage per swing, and everyone will have the L1 elemental spellblades. I also confirm that magic sword works when unarmed, as I've now just hit Level 21 so unarmed is just as good as Mithril Knuckles (which I now sell). I buy the L1-2 spells, restock my potions, turn Ringabel and Edea into Spell Fencers, and get ready for a dungeon I already know will be nasty. On to chapter 2!
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Got back from visiting a friend who owns a PS4 recently, played some newfangled stuff there. So, belatedly... turns out Fenrir was right, folks. Sorry.
Towerfall: Ascension: Holy crap this game is fun. And it could have been made in, like, 1997. Why wasn't it?! I'd have played the crap out of this in college.
Anyway, while I'm sure 4p local deathmatches are hilarious, we only had 2 controllers, and that was fine. The mode we played the most was 2-player co-op, which is crazy enjoyable and arguably better than versus anyway. Well. "Co-op." Friendly fire is a thing, so sending arrows randomly arcing around the map is a great way to make, uh, exciting moments for your partner. Additionally there's just way more craziness in 2p vs. 1-player: more enemies, more chaos, more arrows lying around. You'll never be fooled by a doppleganger in 1-player, just watch yourself, but you will wonder why your teammate went crazy and murdered you in 2p. The swingy nature of the game means that a single survivor will sometimes murder the whole horde until the next round, getting a free respawn for your partner, and other times you'll have 2 people survive until the last enemy who then double-kills both of you. Mastered the regular levels? Oh just crank it up to Hardcore, don't worry, you'll all die there. Seriously, if I was Sony, I'd consider packaging the PS4 system with Towerfall.
Also Fenrir when you are going to stat topic the characters.
Titan Souls: Another entry in the "retro pixel graphics characters with limited arrow supply", this time ripping off Shadow of the Colossus. So all bosses who are innocently minding their own business until you try to murder them and steal their soul. 1 hit, 1 kill for both sides... or at least 1 form-transition.
This game seems a little too difficult for my tastes. The first 4 titans aren't so bad, but I could tell that beating the later bosses would require some extreme precision. "Pre-emptively roll out of their attack, immediately start pulling back, loose your arrow at where the boss WILL be so you can hit their exposed weak spot" or the like.
Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare: Seemed amusingly enough. PvZ franchise is a weird fit for an FPS, though?! Why can these plants run around strafing and jumping Halo style?! Whatever, Sunflower has a laser. Anyway... it's basically TF2 Mann vs. Machine, except rather than upgrade your weapons, you plant allies who obey the normal tower defense rules to help you out. Peashooter is Scout that can turn into a Heavy, Sunflower is Medic, Chomper is the melee character, Cactus is Sniper.
Jackbox / Drawful: This is the pack o' small games you get with You Don't Know Jack. Of these, Drawful is definitely the best, especially when dealing with non-gamers or having distracted players (e.g. small children who need tending). Get crazy prompt, draw picture of it, others insert their own fake interpretations of what you just drew, then have to vote on what they thought was the real prompt. Needless to say hilarity results. Don't even need a bunch of controllers and plays a ton of players: you just connect to their website on your phone / tablet and draw there.
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Grefter: Yeah the SC2 LotV prologue is inexplicably brutal. Not even finished it yet!
Meeple / Fudo: Almost all multidimensional chaos plotlines make no sense. I usually just award bonus points if a story can manage a shred of internal consistency here (Radiant Historia?) and otherwise hope that it's at least something cool (if nonsensical).
Elf, re BD: You should totally give yourself all 5 classes, maybe with a soft requirement to always have the currently unused class's ability set on someone. BD HM is brutal enough that a bit more flexibility should be more "sanity-preserving" than "defeating the challenge." Also, since you already missed White Mage... I sure hope you get one of Red Mage / Salve-Maker / Vampire, or else I imagine the lategame is going to get really painful. (At least Monk / Spellblade will be able to blitz randoms, even if they are going to be drug abusers in boss fights.)
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Check out Quiplash if you like the humor from the YDKJ crew.
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Jackbox / Drawful: This is the pack o' small games you get with You Don't Know Jack. Of these, Drawful is definitely the best, especially when dealing with non-gamers or having distracted players (e.g. small children who need tending). Get crazy prompt, draw picture of it, others insert their own fake interpretations of what you just drew, then have to vote on what they thought was the real prompt. Needless to say hilarity results. Don't even need a bunch of controllers and plays a ton of players: you just connect to their website on your phone / tablet and draw there.
This is a great party game. Drawful is probably the best, but Fibbage is good too. The rest aren't necessarily that great, but those two are worth the price of the pack alone. I'm surprised more companies aren't using this type of controllerless gaming. It would work perfectly well for certain board games or party games for instance.
There's a second Jackbox which has more Drawful/Fibbage prompts, but the other new games look a little byzantine.
Quiplash is great too but I've only played it once. All these are dependent on the crowd you're with.
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes looks potentially really interesting but that's a slightly different type of game.
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I'm not sure what the sound prompt game is, but it's also pretty fantastic.
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Fallout 4 is not as good as Morrowind but better than Fallout 3, Oblivion and Skyrim by a good amount. The ending actually has the player's decisions affecting it so they've rediscovered the concept of agency after 15 years.
They also seemed to put actual work in companion characters, which is a shock after their more recent games. They're not quite on the level of the New Vegas NPCs, but I think Nick Valentine in particular is a genuinely interesting, compelling character who I liked having around and whose presence in the game I appreciated. Make sure you get all of Nick's story. He's pretty great.
The narrative starts slow, gets good fairly soon, then kind of falls apart towards the end when you learn more about the antagonist plot (and consequently it stops making sense). Suffers from the normal Bethesda problem where you are elevated to important positions in factions without actual agency in how they operate. The fact that the factions are opponents this time makes it extra frustrating because you can't tell the Elder of the BoS "hey I'm a pretty important guy in the Institute, why don't we change gears and instead of a direct battle, assassinate people ahead of me in line to lead?"
World design is quite good overall, feels like what they wanted to do with the wasteland in FO3 but the engine couldn't handle it. The Glowing Sea to the SW of the map is a genuinely tense, creepy environment that I enjoyed exploring in particular.
8/10.
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It might be hard to believe but I'm always telling the truth
Have you tried the Dark World expansion? The new co-op is short but amazing. There are bosses ! There's an impossibler difficulty level even with three players, fun new arrows and most importantly, balanced new characters. The red ones are really cool. In the stat topic they would be godlike because I always play them
In general I find co-op slightly better than versus with two players , and versus better with three (and probably four), but everything is always amazing except singleplayer anyway
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Bravely Default - Chapter 2 part 1
Miasma Woods before I get Level 2 Spellblade has probably the nastiest randoms of the challenge. Myconids have a decent chance to counter any physical with Spore, creating a copy of themselves, and hit hard in the meantime. There's a random with MT sleep. Life is not good. Fortunately after several resets and eventually two fights I do win, I get Sleep Spellblade at Job Level 2 and everything changes.
Anyway, at this point, my spell fencers have only 2-3 hits while my monks have 5, so obviously the monks are the main attackers. Roles are simple at this point, spell fencers will use sleep then the monks will finish. Usually I have three people default on turn 1 to cut down on damage, while one spell fencer uses sleep and hits as many people as possible, braving well into the negative. On round 2, the other spell fencer can repeat if necessary. The monks then go to work, using the appropriate L1 spellblade and follow it up with Hidden Dragon, whose negative property doesn't matter against sleeping targets.
Myconids are still a pain because at base I only 3HKO them with Fire spellblade. but one Invigorate will push me into a 2HKO! Which, against a sleeping target, means no chance of counter (sleeping enemies don't counter the attack which wakes them up). Fire spellblade also works great on the tree enemies, ice on the scorpions, and the moths are from an earlier dungeon and die in two Hidden Dragons anyway.
I reach Florem. Along with the Scimitar in Miasma Woods, I buy two Spiked Knuckles which are a significant power upgrade. From now on I can 2HKO Myconids with Fire Hidden Dragon, no Invigorate needed, which is nice. I also buy a bunch of items as always, and a couple Cross Shields for my Spell Fencers. I roll for my next job, and it's Ranger. Kinda disappointing, Valkyrie (for Crescent Moon spellblade shenanigans and various other tricks) or Red Mage (healing! dispel!) would have been much more valuable. But on the other hand, hey, I can get the job right now.
Artemia (2 resets) - The spell fencers are still behind on hits, so they spend this entire battle hiding behind their Cross Shields (which still work for inflicting sleep!) and healing, while the monks go on the attack. I do switch the monks to bucklers when they aren't attacking, she's certainly good enough to deserve that.
She comes with a Legion Impaler and Legion Mage. The former will sometimes brave and use Execution twice, which really hurts. The latter mostly serves as a reminder that BD MDef is a joke stat, since she has no magic damage, but Gravity can hurt (Silence is no longer useless against my party, but still a wasted turn). Both are worth taking out of course. First turn brave-blitz to put them to sleep, then once I feel I've built up enough BP, a Thunder Hidden Dragon blitz takes the impaler and a regular Hidden Dragon blitz takes out mage.
Artemia herself is the first boss who uses her BP rather unpredictably, she'll store up with default and periodically Multiburst, but overall likes to stay in the positive BP. Her other turns are either on a wussy physical or on Targeting, which does enough damage to warrant Hi-Potions, the first boss who hits this hard ST. She's weak to fire, so fire Hidden Dragons are obviously the way to go. Her unpredictable defaulting means sometimes damage will be wasted, unless I use Qigong Wave which goes through default, but I only have the MP to use that a limited number of times so I save that for nearer the end of the fight.
Multiburst is random as heck in terms of what it does, but can really wreck non-defending PCs pretty fast if they get unlucky. Still, it's a spiky fight in terms of recovery. Below half HP she can Multiburst x2 which is really brutal, could potentially instant wipe me if I wasn't defaulting, but I know it's coming. She only seems to use it at 2+ BP so that she doesn't go too negative, so I just make sure I'm mostly defaulting then.
I actually win the second try, but it's with two PCs dead and all my X-Potions used so I decide to redo the fight more competently. I still use all of my 20 Hi-Potions, easily the most of any boss since Orthros.
Ranger get! From this point on I keep two PCs as Spell Fencers, because I value the JP there a bit more: I really want Magic Armour on two PCs for Rusalka, I think, and Drain Spellblade is going to be a crucial part of my healing later so I want that on everyone! And Spellblade Amp. I hit JL 5 Spell Fencer after this fight which means the spell fencers are up to 5 hits, too, so from now on I start using them for legit damage occasionally too, although I only have two Knuckles total so one Spell Fencer is stuck with the weaker Scimitar. I do buy a Composite Bow for my ranger, though, as the bow is quite a bit stronger than the knuckles. Ranger actually gains hits faster than the other two classes, so it turns into a pretty legit carrier pretty quickly, although its own skillset is fairly trashy (Targeting is the same as Qigong Wave, but no Hidden Dragon or Inigorate or Inner Alchemy...). Everyone uses Spellblade, of course.
At this point I do the Florem Gardens to grab all the items there (Mephilia is absolutely not worth fighting yet). I have one reset on the 6x Alraunes fight to get in here, that's just rather a lot of enemies and I have no MT! I try to sleep 'em all quickly but that takes all the turns of two PCs and paralysis can wreck me pretty fast. I redo it with my two Earthing Rods equipped and it's not too bad. They do get 2HKOed by fire hidden dragon at least. Past that, Florem Gardens is mostly enemies I'm used to fighting by now, and the usual strategies work.
Mount Fragmentum is a bit tougher. Grizzlies can hit really hard with the MT Salmon Swipe (400-500 MT!) and can even brave on top of that. Three defaults and sleep is obviously the way to go, I double up on sleep hits against them for higher probability (while the total probability of ending the round with sleep is the same, this strategy has the advantage that if sleep is applied and then unapplied, the enemy's turn is cancelled that round and they don't gain BP). Chompers are also notably because they have loads of defence/evade (I get into real trouble once when I try a brave-blitz using basic physicals to go earlier in the round than Hidden Dragon) but are weak to lightning at least, and die effectively enough to my higher-Atk characters (especially my Ranger).
Land Turtle - More like LOL Turtle, am I right guys? ... guys? Anyway, first boss since Profiteur where I incur no reset, I only need 10 Hi-Potions which is by now a very affordable budget hit. Like Artemia he defaults a lot and unpredictably. Unlike her he sometimes wastes turns, by casting reflect, and he has no MT. His brave is used for Spin Strike x2, which does hurt; non-defaulting PCs take most-to-all of their HP in damage from one Spin Strike, so two can even kill a defaulting PC if I'm unlucky and they're not at full HP (or not equipping their shield) and he's smart. Still, the unpredictability and decent ST damage is all he has. He does, to his credit, run out my stock of four Phoenix Downs, so the battle could have gone south in theory (my bad for not bringing in more), but oh well. I'm Level 26.
One required dungeon and one optional dungeon left before Rusalka. I... am not looking forward to her.
Job notes:
Agnes: Monk 8
Edea: Monk 6, Spell Fencer 7
Ringabel: Monk 6, Spell Fencer 5, Ranger 5
Tiz: Monk 7, Spell Fencer 5
Next goals are to get Tiz/Ringabel to Spell Fencer 6 for Magic Armour, and Edea to Monk 7 for Qigong Wave.
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Just bashed through most of NG+ Bloodborne in one sitting (just optional stuff unfinished). Wow this game goes by fast when you're not stopping to loot everything. Mostly a breeze, only repeat deaths I had were to Micolash of all things. Wasn't even A Call Beyond OHKOing (which it will basically always do on higher difficulties I think) most of the time. Nope: did you know that he can parry and backstab you with Augur of Ebrietas? Because he can totally do that and he will happily chaincast squidarmz while you're stunned. Very rude, had never seen him do that before, but it happened repeatedly today.
From patched some new stuff in separate from the DLC (which drops on Tuesday). There's a new covenant, actually co-op focused (unlike the completely useless from my perspective original three), and it is led by this guy: http://bloodborne.wiki.fextralife.com/file/view/valtr.jpg
Now we wait for Fenrir to kill him just to get his bucket helm.
There's also a new hunter tool that lets you do the Shadow of Yharnam snake summon thing, but I can't use it on this file because it runs off of bloodtinge. President Maya could use it, but unfortunately President Maya is scrub and you have to fight a seriously hardcore hunter to get it.
EDIT: psyche, of course I'll pump bloodtinge up to 50 just to see what this thing can do. (Also transformed chikage is now totally ridiculous, maybe the most out of control melee offense I've got out of the game yet.) Apparently what snakes can do is murder the fuck out of the player. See, you can't aim this thing. The snake erupts from the ground under the caster's feet, and you need to move immediately or it'll catch you too. The damage is pretty severe for the relatively modest cost of four bullets, and it's an AoE so it'll obliterate a mob if you're getting swarmed, just, y'know, make sure you've got space to dodge out.
So basically it's Wrath of the Gods with friendly fire. I don't know whether it can kill friendly phantoms, because I'm not about to try, but I'd be surprised if it couldn't. Just waiting for the trolling vids of summons "accidentally" murdering their hosts right now.
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Bravely Default - Just some dungeon updates.
Witherwood: Einheria's dungeon. Like Mephilia's, I do this for treasure, but do not fight the boss. This is very worthwhile because there's a new bow here. Score! Randoms here are a step up. The worst are the d'gons, which have enough durability to take ~8 elemental attacks to drop and can do loads of damage with Fireball (near OHKO). And they can brave. They're actually not that different offensively from Land Turtle, and you can fight two at once! Otherwise, Legion Archers are frustrating for their surprising bulk and confuse (and lack of elemental weakness). The dungeon really is quite a lot better than the early parts of the chapter, as evidenced by the fact I'm annihilating the map randoms now.
Twilight Ruins: Ow, another step up. Aqua Lanterns are a pain because they can't be put to sleep, and have pretty good defence, such that only my ranger(s) put a good dent in them. They can be silenced but their physicals are good enough that it isn't really worth the time (although I do equip my Ice Charm). They have an elemental weakness at least! Which sadly the other two randoms here do not. Imps can be put to sleep but seem kinda resistant to it, and use Drain and Fear, the former hitting decently hard. (Incidentally, these are the first two enemies since Khamer who actually use damage magic! And thus the first time I ever get to see Anti-Magic have an impact on a fight.) They're the least scary enemy in this area but can still annoy. Finally, there are minotaurs, who have a weakness to Beast Slayer if I want to use MP, but a lot of HP otherwise, and hit pretty hard. Not as scary as D'gons overall, but similar.
I get a Birch Bow in this dungeon, yet another stronger-than-storebought bow, which hits weakness on Imps, so that's cool. This actually convinces me to use two Rangers, since their innate higher hit count offsets lower JLs to some extent and the Atk is just so much higher.
Victor and Victoria are the boss here, last time I played this Victoria just wrecked my team with MT poison + Exterminate but this time they just dick around until the battle times out. Whatever, chapter 2 is done!
Except for one small problem...
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You make me want to replay this pretty badly.
Fallout 4 - So you know how way back in the day I was mad that Fallout 3 was going to be Oblivion with Guns and that Bethesda have no idea how to do Fallout properly and just took the brand and slapped it on top of their stuff badly?
Well Fallout 4 is exactly that. It is done really well though. It is a terrible Fallout game, but what it is is the best Elder Scrolls game they have ever made. The progression system where you progress with nearly every action in the game (finding locations gives experience, building settlements gives experience, crafting gives you experience, lock picking, hacking, passing dialogue checks all give you experience and of course killing things gives you experience). Instead of that funneling into a ton of discreet skills that build individually all your actions build into a character development system that is sprawling and lets you develop in any direction you want and levelling is nearly limitless by design but functionally is slow enough that you will finish with the game before you max out in everything. So each investment feels earned because it takes time, but it isn't so punishing that if you get it "wrong" your character is wasted.
World building wise Boston in isolation is pretty interesting. In the broader world it is kind of dumb (even Fallout 3 but meh Fallout 3 plot not in isolation is far worse). The gameplay loop is just really fun.
The menus suck. Some of the gameplay quirks are terrible. The party members personalities are pretty flat and unresponsive, but when you do get character interactions they are nice and decently written (it is pacing that is the problem).
I generally have a lot of fun when I am playing. I don't use the Power Armour much, at first because of limited resource, more so now because I just don't like the play style (they are terrible at stealth unless you build hard for Science and armour making and I love hit and fade tactics).
I had the worst time with a segment last night though. I had swapped to using one of the robot party members. I started a quest. It drops a fresh suit of Power Armour for you to take at the start of the mission (so big reward! Power Armour is rare and expensive! I was high enough level that it spawned with the highest end gear, which incidentally you seem to start hitting before even half way through where I peg "end game" levels at for people that do a lot of exploration). So its a mission they spoon feed you Power Armour in. So there is tons of enemies. It is in tight quarters, so hit and fade/stealth in general isn't going to happen much at the best of times. They also give you 3 fucking allies. They can't die or anything, but them + your companion mean your only choice is pretty much to run into enemies in a meat grinder. THere is lots of enemies and I am playing with boosted Legendary spawns. So they can just mince meat me if things go badly.
There is 4 fucking AI companions. Things go poorly a lot.
A list of reasons for this is: I can't get to the enemies because there is a pile of fucks in my why, I can't hit with half me shots because there is a pile of fucks in my way, I can't loot the dead enemies because there is a pile of fucks in my way or I can't move through the tight corridors because there is a pile of fucks in my way.
This mission was a fucking terribly designed pile of shit and made me want to break things when I was already wound up and angry while I played it.
But generally speaking? This is probably the best Bethesda game ever. I don't think it will turn anyone on to the formula though.
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4 Dudes in a Car: Episode Pointless Name That Means Absolute Jack Shit:
So I got through this and my thoughts?
The game certainly shows potential but needs a lot of ironing out. I realize it's a demo and a lot of these issues will hopefully be addressed, but as it stands there's a lot of little stupid things. Funny fact is I did cause a major graphics glitch at one point. I had Noctis drown himself causing the game to not know how to render underwater completely, just blanked out and suddenly all the ground textures disappear. So it looked like a Steam Greenlight game! I was thinking "There's no way the game looked this bad", reset, and yeah, "oh, yeah, IT DIDN'T look this bad, I just screwed it up, ha!"
Characters...well, I get a good sense of Prompto, Gladio, and Ignis' personalities at least and they seem like-able enough. Noctis I can't figure out what they want to do with him at all. He seems like an optimistic youth, but his voice and design highly suggest he's a loner dick, and he speaks the least of all the characters despite being the one in the most scenes.
Cindy...what the hell? That design is abysmal and no, I'm sorry, when she's the only female in your showcase of the game, it's awful. It gives the sense that the game was made for middle-school boys. You play as 4 bad-ass dudes capable of kicking ass, and the only chick is some half-naked girl working on your, in as seductive a way as possible. I don't mind an all male party; fine, it's something we haven't done yet in the franchise, and if it works more power to it, but you still need to treat females with some sense of dignity. It's ok to have a female mechanic, and heck, I'm totally all for it! It's a profession more associated with males, sure, but having a female do a more associated male role once in a while is totally fair...just MAKE HER DRESS LIKE AN ACTUAL MECHANIC!
The other thing I noticed is the game seems to want to address a number of stylistic complaints fans had from FF13, notably how detached FF13 felt from the series (apparently FF14 shoving references down our throats wasn't enough <.<). It has the victory theme when you sleep, Prelude plays in the ending briefly, and the "Enemy nearbye!" theme is clearly meant to be an homage to the classic battle intros found in FF1-6/9. Enemy designs are clearly meant to strongly resemble past games, no matter how much it clashes. Behemoth looks fine, as does Galura (why those were brought back of all things, god only knows), but Goblins look like a joke since they look like something out of a fantasy cartoon in a setting highly promoting realistic graphics.
Plot...no point in talking about it. The story of the demo is essentially your token filler episode in a TV show; it's a bump in the road the heroes run into that has nothing to do with anything just to justify filling that time-slot. I guess "the guys are trying to get money to repair the car" works as an excuse to stop them on their road-trip, but yeah, you're not getting anything compelling in terms of story-telling, all character work...
Character work is fine as eluded to before, but a major problem is a lot of that "characters banter at random" thing which works until a random encounter shows up, and you can't hear the end their dialog.
So...yeah, I guess I'm looking forward to the game if they can fix a lot of the gameplay issues; I won't go into details on the gameplay issues since they're numerous, but I think the core game is fine, just a lot of ironing out. It's just an early build demo after all, so it shouldn't be indicative of the final product.
NO CLUE WHEN I'LL START TYPE-0 HD! I bought the game for that reason after all, I played FF15 first mostly because it was shorter and might as well get it out of the way. No sense holding off the demo for a full game, when it's clearly the lesser product. Yes, FF15 Demo, you're the cartoon short before a feature length movie.
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I finally picked up gaming again. I'm going through Legend of Legacy about 30 minutes or less a night. I just started the Animal Crossing home designer game, and I'll go back to Xenoblade once my semester is officially over. -Ahoy from Idun.
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Subterfuge: started playing this after watching the Misc. Link. Really interesting because of the amount of time it takes ships to get anywhere. You really have to plan far into the future. I'm going pretty ballsy/aggressive so we'll see how that pans out.
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I should have figured that was Idun. From the horrid avatar.
::Glares::
(Hi Idun, we missed you)
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Welcome back Idun~
Bravely Default - My HPs, the defaults do nothing!
This post will be about Rusalka. For those who don't remember, Rusalka runs a five-turn cycle. On turn 4 (9, 14, etc.) she will use Seep, becoming untargettable for the rest of the round as well as the subsequent one. On turn 5 (10, 15, etc.) she will use Dark Flow, which does about 1000 water physical damage to everyone. It ignores default. It also summons three clones of her with similar offensive stats and 2700 HP (which is not a negligible amount), though they can't use Seep/Dark Flow themselves. Otherwise all turns are spent on a basic physical, Aqua Regia (water physical which lowers Def), and Charm, which is the worst. No, Dark Flow is the worst. Second worst then.
This fight would generally get my nod for being the hardest boss in the game normally, and is brutal with my team, which lacks MT or good healing. Fortunately it does have Spell Fencer, which provides two crucial weapons. One is Thundara spellblade (the only L3 spellblade I've bought so far), which hits weakness here and is obviously great. The other is a trick I haven't used yet, the Spell Fencer Level 6 passive, Magic Armour. It causes the caster to half elemental damage of the spellblade element he or she has just activated, for four turns. Blizzard Spellblade thus turns into a 4-turn "half Dark Flow" buff which is extremely important.
I toy around with different strategies. I even try leaving the clones alive, since I'm all ST, but this invariably fails, I spend way too many turns healing and charm sooner or later destroys me, that is if Dark Flow against a not-fully-healed party doesn't first. So yeah, clone-killing is the only viable option. And... there's a problem here, I actually only have one PC who can reliably two-shot the clones. Agnes the L3 ranger can... but only sometimes. Ringabel the L6 ranger is the only one who does it reliably. Anyone without a bow doesn't have enough Atk. So it's extremely difficult to reliably wipe the clones in one round, and I tend to hardly end up doing any real damage to Rusalka herself, and charm can really mess things up. Even if it doesn't, I estimate that I'll need about 80 Hi-Potions with this strategy, something I can't afford.
Okay I lied, this post isn't all about Rusalka, because I eventually decide I can't beat Rusalka when I get to her. So I go grind get some JP by doing an obviously meaningful sidequest with important rewards for my team.
Mephilia - Normally a pretty good boss herself, but I'm three dungeons after where she is "supposed" to be fought so she isn't too bad now. I default for three turns, tanking the summon she unleashes on turn 3, then blitz turn 4. On turn 5, I realise that if I repeat the blitz, I'll win, but if she gets a turn before I can kill her she'll summon two allies, who will likely wreck my BP -3 team. So I play it a bit safer, heal up, default turn 6 with everyone to tank the summon and attacks, hope confuse doesn't do things which are too bad (it doesn't), and win from there.
So yeah, after this I have my two reliable clone 2HKOers. But after some experimentation, I realise that, thanks to Aquatic Slayer which Ringabel picked up, Ringabel + Aeolian Bow + Thundara Spellblade + Aquatic Slayer + Hermes Sandals (for the extra hit)... can actually OHKO the clones. Not always, but experimentation yields "more often than not". This is pretty great! Thus, the winning strategy:
Agnes, L5 Ranger with Spellblade and an Ice Charm (there's only one, sadly)
Edea, L8 Monk - pure healer with a shield
Ringabel, L7 Ranger with Spellblade and Hermes Sandals (again, there's only one)
Tiz, L7 Spell Fencer - pure healer with a shield mk2
Ringabel notably has as much defence as he can possibly get, which includes a Cross Shield for defence when he isn't attacking, and the rather pricy Mirage Vest from Florem. This is so Dark Flow doesn't OHKO him, since I don't want to waste his turns switching between ice and thunder spellblade. (When I first tried the fight before any setup monkeying, he was OHKOed. It was bad.) The healers have the highest-def accessory since nothing else helps. Everyone has HP+10%, Agnes has PAtk+10%, everyone else has Magic Armour (not that RIngabel ends up using it).
Anyway, I default for the first three turns. If someone is charmed, the fastest person shield-punches them out of it. On turn 4, when Seep is used, I have up to eight turns to work with (if nobody was charmed). These are spent on setting up spellblades (ice for the healers, thunder for the attackers), healing any chippy damage taken (Ringabel at full HP is a must), and, if the spare turns exist, trying for one attack with each of the rangers. Turn 5, switch back to shields and default for all that it does nothing.
On turn 6, Ringabel is the only PC who reliably goes before the enemies, due to Hermes Sandals. (A fact which messed up many previous runs.) This is where potentially OHKOing is so helpful. RIngabel aims one Aquatic Slayer at each opponent, hopefully killing the clones. Now, the enemies can potentially get turns. If someone is killed, that's bad, since BP is such a premium in this fight. The faster healer (Edea) uses BP to try to minimise the chance of this. If charm lands at this point on someone yet to act, that's also terrible, especially if it's Agnes since she has a real weapon and has braved to the max (this tends to mean an instant loss if it happens). Fortunately, Agnes and Edea at least on average go before most/all of the enemies due to better speed. Agnes aims one Targeting at each of the four enemies, which will finish off any Ringabel didn't kill, and any he did kill just get redirected onto the boss. Finally, Tiz does some healing of his own.
If all went according to plan, then we're back at turn 2, essentially, in the old cycle. The attackers have one less BP than last time, but their spellblades are already in place, so a similar strategy can kick in. This time the "extra healing" that takes place before Dark Flow will likely need Hi-Potions (whereas Potions often sufficed the first time).
On the winning run, after the second big blitz (and a few other minor hits) on turn 11, I realise that I've done enough damage (~27k of the ~40k needed) to potentially blitz out a win, so I switch everyone to offence (the healers equip real weapons and use Thundara Spellblade Hidden Dragons), dumping everyone to -4 BP on turn 13, except Ringabel, who reliably acts before Seep on turn 14. I kill on turn 13 anyway thanks to a crit or two. Hooray! On the winning run I'm able to keep everyone alive which is hugely helpful, and not 100% reliable, but nothing too bad ever happens (Ringabel is never charmed, nobody is charmed before they act on turn 6/11), so while I have modestly good luck this strategy is certainly repeatable. I was Level 29 when I got to Rusalka (and fought Mephilia), Level 30 when I won. Nine resets total.
Onto Chapter 3!
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Hey Idun! Glad to see you back!
...no, I don't have much to talk about gaming...YET!!!! *dramatic lightning*
BUT I WILL SOON!
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Finished Tales of Zestiria.
Opinion hasn't changed too much. It's alright? If you like Tales games, you'll probably enjoy this.
The big, empty maps starting annoying me more and more as the game went on. It's like Xenoblade, but at least Xenoblade had cool looking environments. This just has big areas that take forever to walk around, with werewolves that are faster than you.
Although I enjoyed the combat well enough, it never "clicked" with me like Graces did. Played on Moderate the whole game and only had a couple of wipes - but I felt like enemy damage was too high, and so was enemy health - some fights dragged on. I would regularly get a lot of KO's in a tough boss fight, but reviving with Armatization made me wipe only two or three times. So... I'm not really sure? It doesn't have Xillia's annoying super armor, but the CC system doesn't feel as fun as Graces - maybe I just enjoyed playing Malik that much, no character in this game really felt like "the one".
I did enjoy the incidental dialogue found in the bestiary with the characters comments. The character interactions as a whole were decent, as well.
Still feel like the equipment system is way too convoluted for its own good. I would not have minded playing with it if it gave you lots of similar-statted equipment with a variety of skill slots without excessive grinding. But it doesn't. So you get a new dagger, and are like, awesome, a new dagger - and find it gives... 200 focus and nothing else. What on earth? It's not a HUGE deal, but it's strange.
The story was decent? It reminded me of... FF8, of all games, in that I feel like that game had a lot of potential for a cool story that didn't appear. This game has some flashes and sparks of cool story beats, but then shifts gears and goes to something else. And the main villain is strange, too. I mean, it wasn't great, but I'd still mark it as above, say, Symphonia's story. The characters were likable enough.
A bit of rambling here, I don't regret playing it, but there are better Tales games.
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I doubt I'm too far in zesty.
I'm in some caves going to try and find the pope!
But I am on the same boat that this Tales game hasn't really stood out.
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Devil May Cry 4 Special Edition: Got this, loaded it up!
Hey! You can play as Lady/Trish and Vergil out of the gate!? That's awesome!
*proceeds to play Nero/Dante anyway*
...what? To be fair, I am using Nero's new Sparda outfit so it's like I'm using a different character! Not sure what I think of it, mostly because of the weird scarf thing. Scarves are cool, make no mistake, but I think combined with the classic Sparda Purple Trench-coat, it might be a bit too much? It's nowhere the same level as intrusive as Lightning's Savior Outfit (I wanted an image but all of them are too big), where it was HIGHLY ANIMATED CLOTH EVERYWHERE Yes, I despise LR Lightning's design, especially since they love to reference it. Original design? Fine. Valkyrie Design? Quite good! That one? ***** you Toriyama! I don't care if he didn't design it, I'm blaming him! This at least doesn't obstruct the character, but borders on "design feels a bit too busy", I guess they felt Nero's default outfit looks too similar at first glance and the simple color change wasn't enough, so they threw in an extra detail? Honestly not sure.
For reference, it looks like this:
(https://scontent.cdninstagram.com/hphotos-xaf1/t51.2885-15/s320x320/e15/11373562_1484089018548799_873756417_n.jpg)
Other things to note? I'm watching cutscenes again, and wow, the character animations are awkward. Like, ok, DMC4 is not trying to be realistic, nor does itself seriously, but when it's not an action scene of sorts, characters move in what feels like old CG movie fashion. I guess compare DMC4 to something like FF13 and you'll see what I mean. It's fine when dealing action scenes because the movements are far more over the top and suddenly you EXPECT this kind of stuff, but stuff like Kyrie singing just looks...weird...
The opening montage is worse. Now it still uses the abbreviated version of Shall Never Surrender...that's good! But it cuts out the audio, which added to the "cheesy action movie trailer" feel DMC4's had, that's bad. Something felt lacking when there was no "Let her go!" "This is all Credo's doing!!"cheesy dialog, and no actual sound effects in the action scenes. To it's credit, though, it's a new opening movie altogether, highlighting a lot of the new content, which demonstrates not only new gameplay, but also "hey look! The new characters have a legitimate campaign too!"
Also, HOLY CRAP Dash was sped up a lot. It seems if there's no enemies on screen, the effect kicks in almost immediately now, which is a nice perk.
Otherwise? It's DMC4, and thus still one of the best action games to date. Just got Devil Trigger, so yay having access to all primary mechanics!
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The party members personalities are pretty flat and unresponsive, but when you do get character interactions they are nice and decently written (it is pacing that is the problem).
I found a lot of them to be kinda middling overall (but good by the standards of Bethesda writing) except for Nick Valentine. Nick Valentine is, beyond any shadow of a doubt, the most interesting and compelling character that Todd Howard and company have ever come up with. Fuck all this other shit, you should just get to play as Nick, first before the bomb solving crimes and fighting the Winters family, then you wake up in a dumpster. Dude had a narrative that was actually compelling.
That said they seem to have realized that they grossly misused the Brotherhood of Steel in FO3 and they're back to being dickheads, which is good.
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Holy crap it's an Idun. Welcome back!
~
Bloodborne Old Hunters DLC mostly complete. It's basically three zones, all of them quite lengthy in that Bloodborne way of oh my god when will I find a shortcut. The new content is actually accessed fairly early in the game (available immediately after Amelia). You could probably just about take the opening zone that early...but not some of the latter two, the damage is real. I'm running a 50 VIT character and the last two bosses were very capable of demolishing my healthbar in single combos with some bad luck (granted, I was wearing basically the least protective armor in the game but hey, there's only so much that armor can do for you in a Souls game). I can't imagine how some of this stuff could possibly be surviveable on NG+. Extremely glad I came in with a fairly overpowered NG file instead.
Level design in the second zone is extremely reminiscent of Latria, if it was an asylum instead of a prison. The last zone is essentially Innsmouth, which I guess is only proper considering how much Bloodborne always blatantly owed to Lovecraft anyway. I feel confident that Miyazaki must have been abused by a rickety swamp shantytown in his traumatic youth. Altogether very cool zones, tons of oh my god please don't tell me I actually have to go in there moments and consistently some of the creepiest shit that From has ever produced.
Bloodborne level design's definitely had its Castlevania moments, right? I can only presume The Old Hunters wished to acknowledge that, because there's both a Simon and a Maria running around, and the latter's even fought in a goddamn clock tower. (CV Maria should take some lessons in badassery here because Gihrlman does not fuck around: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rdt5XNvPkc).
In retrospect, it's painfully ironic that I walked into that fight wearing the doll outfit. Also I really want her sword but unfortunately to get it I'd have to fight two super elite fishmen hiding in a cave after a pair of brains and why would you do this, From.
Two of the boss fights are amazing. One is less so due to being fairly easy but still has some pretty outstanding atmosphere going for it. The last boss is terribad and I summoned help after the first death just to get this awful abomination off my screen as quickly as possible. I still haven't figured out how to access the remaining boss. It seems like there's a lot of easily missable (or at least easily overlooked) NPCs and items here, because I'm spotting lots of stuff on the wiki that I didn't encounter at all. Sadly, none of the new weapons were very well suited to Sierra at all, she wound up sticking with Ludwig's the whole time (this was at least the most appropriate option for one boss).
Get this if you liked the base game at all. (It probably shouldn't be any surprise at this point that From DLC provides some of the most outstanding content in the game.)
Also guys Micloash was wrong, it isn't Kos vs. Kosm it was Ko all along: http://bloodborne.wiki.fextralife.com/file/view/milkweed_kos_parasite_trickmode_small.jpg
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Off topic a little, but what are some black Friday gaming deals you all have seen around?
I'm planning on picking up ffx ps4, fallout 4, mgs5, and maybe dragon quest heroes from best buy. Gcu member so 20% off any black Friday deals plus bogo on used games too.
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http://www.ebay.com/itm/281863975098?afsrc=1&rmvSB=true
Wii U with SSB and Splatoon for $250.
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FF7: Is Striking Staff worth the trouble of stealing? I ran into one Eligor but killed it without realizing how rare they are in the Train Graveyard.
The two most notable things about FF7 earlygame thus far are the terrible damage of most randoms and, conversely, how efficient a Restore-All Materia combo is for team healing. Cloud is healing over 60% PCHP with just Cure-All right now, which feels silly considering what sort of enemy offense it is dealing with.
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I generally wouldn't bother with it because early enemies are too pathetic to justify stealing something that you can buy in Junon, but I don't have patience for stealing much in these games in general.
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Tracked down the last Old Hunters boss. It's a palette swap! However: A) there are legitimate plot reasons for it; B) it has its own distinct moveset; C) different music! I'll take it. More worthwhile than some other DLC bosses, that's for damn sure (*cough* bluesmelty). So as a reward I get enhanced beast mode, which is actually exactly the sort of reward I'm looking for and is why I'm now running claw file through NG+ Old Hunters. It rejiggers the Beast Claw moveset to add an awesome flying tackle! and a Beast Roar clone which appears to do nothing! neither of which are as impressive as my altered character model's hair, which now casually mocks gravity, or my fixed and dumbfounded, open-mouthed rictus grin which is about on par dignity-wise with DkS1 dragon form. It's amazing and I'm so sad there's relatively little left to actually use it against.
NG+ Maria took like ten tries and literally half a million echoes' worth of weapon buffs. It's a good thing I deal redonculous damage now because holy shit so does she.
Also I forgot to mention that the expansion added the most absurd elevator in the series, which is saying something for a series which contains Anor Londo.
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Bravely Default - Reached the Eisenberg continent. I am dirt poor from all my Rusalka preparation and experience, but I do manage to buy another Aeolian Bow as I lean more on Rangers and start to get Bow Lore. I also discover that the Eisenberg magic shop sells Level 4 white magic... but not black. Fuck. I have to wait longer than I expected to get an important tool in my arsenal, one I'd already been planning the next boss around...
On the bad news note, I get Swordmaster. It's not a terrible job, but everything else would have been much more potent, I think: Salve-Maker would have given me great healing, Performer and Pirate's buffs/debuffs are amazing, and Ninja has Utsusemi and great synergy with my physical jobs. Oh well. This is a class I was wanting to use on my replay, I suppose... I won't be getting it for a while, though.
The randoms on the map take some getting used to but aren't ultimately too bad. The worst are definitely the Deathstalker which can summon more of its kind and throw off brave-blitzes badly. Also randoms seem to be getting more sleep-resistant. Nuts. Fortunately Slayer skills and my deeper MP pool are making it easier to blitz randoms.
Grapp Keep is all undead, all the time. I do some calculations and realize that busting out Phoenix Downs is, in fact worth it. With a 70% chance to ID any undead, I have to decide if using one will save me 7 Potions (approximately the same cost once adjusting for miss rate). I usually conclude it does. Against undead I usually have one PC brave-blitz and Phoenix Down each of them once, then hope at most one survives and blitz it next turn. If two or more survive, repeat. Works well! Fortunately Eisenberg comes with a significant spike in random rewards, both JP (now ~30 a fight) and Pg (typically 300-500, so I can easily afford these Phoenix Downs).
Automaton x3 (3 resets) - A bastard fight. When I first try it, it's possible for my entire team to be two-rounded through Default, MT 5-6HKO or so (and similar ST due to evasion, but they seem to prefer the MT). Yuck! Just surviving until turn 5 is kinda tricky. Turn 5 is a breather as they use it to buff themselves. Thereafter, they have close to double the offence, so if three are still alive I die instantly and two isn't much better. The problem is if I die in the early rounds it's almost impossible to blitz them, and really only a PC with Hermes Sandals always outpaces them.
After several attempts which seem to be going nowhere, I realise I have a lot of Pg from the dungeon (the second time through it, since I did retreat out once) and a lot of stuff to sell, so I backtrack out, sell the useless weapons, and have about 10k Pg to work with, which I use to buy two Large Shields (finally I can get rid of my Bucklers), up-to-date hats, and up-to-date light armour (except for one PC still rocking the Mirage Vest). A big improvement to my Def, so now I can actually survive somewhat more reliably. Their post-buff damage is still way too much to deal with, but fortunately I'm now able to keep everyone alive long enough (Hermes Sandals on the Spell Fencer healer) to do some nice Thundara Spellblade Targeting blitzing, and I'm able to kill two of them before they take their sixth turn. That just leaves the one post-buffed, and of course I'm well into negative BP, but I purposefully leave one of my tankier PCs at 0 to default through and survive. The buff wears off, I Phoenix Down a bunch of people, and am able to recover and win, since one of them fundamentally isn't too bad. I'm Level 33.
I use 4 X-Potions here, half my supply. Rough, but hopefully nobody else is this bad until I can actually buy them. I don't think anyone will, but it's possible Chaugmar will keep up the tradition of crystal bosses being evil monsters. We'll see!
After this comes the Mithril Mines. This is a breather area by comparison. There's a bunch of fixed fights with solo swordbearer soldiers which are generally easy, Thunder Spellblade then blitz! Sleep can be mixed in. One catch is that the pikemen counter physicals, which kille me pretty fast given my brave-blitzing strategy. Sleep Spellblade, hope it works (usually seems to), then Thunder Spellblade Invigorate x2 and crush away, hopefully 2HKOing.
The randoms are certainly better, though I don't fight many (I suspect getting in a fixed fight resets the time to another random? Dunno). The real dangers are the Succubi which can inflict charm and ruin all my plans, gumming up brave-related strategies. Not much to do about it. Sleep blitzes to take out them and their allies work. The Mythril Shell (turtle) is noteworthy for a lot of defence and solid power, but still, sleep works here, as does ice Aquatic Slayer off my highest-Atk PCs. Carbuncles use MT protect which mostly makes the turtles even bulkier, and are another rare enemy that attacks with magic! Not too bad otherwise.
And with that done, the game finally gives me access to Starkfort and that means... Drain Spellblade! Score. The dungeon however is a step up, as I now have to fight three of those Black Blade soldiers from the previous dungeon at once! And it turns out they actually hit pretty hard, can OHKO on a crit when I'm not defaulting (which happens several times). And the ones who counter are now just jerks who ruin all my blitzing plans. The swordsmen, meanwhile will use confuse-inflicting physicals, so just default-spamming at the start doesn't work well. I vary my strategies with a mix of thunder, sleep, and drain spellblade to get the job done. No boss here at least.
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Subterfuge: I think I am winning? Granted I don't have a mine yet which is the actual win condition, but I'm about to build one of those and take over another person's.
Earlygame I promoted a Hypnotist into a King, which makes you lose shields on all your outposts in return for your drillers kicking more ass. This let me grab a large amount of territory. Problem is eventually you don't have enough energy to support all those factories you have... but I hired a tinkerer which jacks up your energy output. When I promote him and the smuggler I will have massive energy supply and factory output.
Granted I will have a giant target on my back, but I'm allied with the guys to my north and south. That affords me a large amount of protection. As long as they don't backstab me very early I should be in good shape.
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Bravely Default -
So the next dungeon is the Underflow. This place is hard! Probably the most difficult dungeon for the challenge since the Temple of Wind. The first floor isn't too bad, just introduces some of the enemies, but after that, whoof. Might as well break it down by enemy.
-Red Flans are relatively benign, and each one can be brave-blitzed by my stronger offensive PCs. Their fire magic is pretty good, or they can poison. They alone cause me to pull out the two Flame Charms I have (adding the third when I pick it up in this dungeon), though I keep the Hermes Sandals.
-Flare Lanterns are jerks. Seriously, they ruin everything and cause several resets. Their money move is a MT fire magic which inflicts silence (which prevents sword magic). This completely fucks up brave-blitzes. Also, if four of them ambush me I may just die to the damage. Fights against four of them, or two of them plus two Red Flans, are bad news. If only one appears, it can be killed by a brave-blitz with my Hermes Sandals PC. Oh yeah, and they immune sleep.
-Zombie Minotaurs also immune sleep. They'll use Berserk turn 1 then start doing crazy amounts of damage, and have lots of HP and no elemental weakness. I can spend lots of MP on Beast Slayer to deal with them, and hope they don't stop me, since it takes 2-3 PCs to brave-blitz one and sometimes I fight two at once, or them + other enemies. Or I can toss Phoenix Downs. Guess which I do.
The third floor is the hardest because it features nasty formations involving the above guys. There's more:
-Magicians are actually pretty wussy! They're demons, so weak to the Birch Bow. They have MT Curse which can screw up blitzes somewhat, and MT blind which makes me put Blind Immunity (the Monk passive) to good use. They're usually fought in small formations, though, and have no more HP than Red Flans.
-Demons have a bit more HP, and hit hard with ST physicals, but that's about it. Also demons (obviously), sometimes waste time with Corpse (MT 5-count death sentence, I should always finish the fight before then). Only formations involving 3+ demons/magicians are hard, and I think those are only in the temple of fire itself at the very end. Sleep is an option for both demon-types, but they do seem to resist it some.
-Inferno Golems are total jerks, at least at first. Why? 100% counter to ST physicals, that's why, OH GUESS WHAT I HAVE. Of course, they immune sleep, so my usual strategy for counters is out. Only good news is that their counter is fire, which is good because if I don't resist it, it does a strong 2HKO and outperforms my draining. Speaking of which, drain spellblade brave-blitzes using fire-halving PCs are the way to go here. When I get the Iceflame Shield (nulls fire and ice), I get an even safer option for them.
Oh yeah the final screen of the Underflow itself has a formation with six Red Flans, which is noooope. When I finally get through the dungeon after at least half a dozen resets, fortunately a path opens up for a quick backtrack which is good because by this point I've used up my 99 Potions, and almost all of my Phoenix Downs and Hi-Potions. That brings us to the boss!
Chaugmar (2 resets) - The easiest crystal guardian so far, but still rough. Let's break down his pattern. He starts the battle with perfect defences. For three turns, he'll use one of his regular attacks. On turn 4, he'll transform, dropping his defences, and on turn 5 he'll use Energy Burst, which is a brutal MT physical. On turn 6, he'll make one more of his regular attacks, then on turn 7 he'll transform to restore his defences. Repeat until one side dead.
The first reset is because Energy Burst kills two people despite them being at full HP, so I monkey with my setup. Big thing is to go down to one Ranger, since they're the most fragile (Monks have HP, Spell Fencers have shield/armour proficiencies). I end up going with two Monks, because they have more speed, and I only have one heavy armour anyway. Sword Magic on everyone, Monk skillset on my Spell Fencer.
At this point, let's talk about his skillset. His worst move (for me) is Heart Suck, which drains 2 BP from someone to him. This means he'll brave the next two non-Transform, non-Energy Burst turns he gets, and THAT is bad. He also has a regular physical which tends to do 4HKOish (depends on evade) damage to a defaulting PC, and Soul Suck, which drains MP (obviously not too bad).
When he braves, though, he'll use Blood Suck twice. This hurts. It does magical damage, and when not defaulting it does borderline OHKO damage to most of my team, and thus can 2HKO through default sometimes (not the spell fencer, who activates Anti-Magic and will tank the second). It also heals him for a bunch. FUN FACT: My second reset is because I go for a brave-blitz but forget about all the health he has drained. Whoops.
Anyway, some big realisations I make which help are that (a) because Blood Suck hurts so much, it's often easier just to leave people at low HP. I can always heal the turn before Energy Burst, (b) if people do die before Energy Burst, leaving them dead is okay! Everything else besides Energy Burst isn't THAT bad, and leaving people at lower HP means less health for him to drain.
Besides that I have a choice between using Thundara or Drain spellblades as necessary. A particularly good time to attack is the turn he uses Transform, with Hidden Dragon, either using Drain to heal up or Thundara if that's not needed. Sadly my ranger doesn't have this strategy, so he'll use any spare BP pre-Energy Burst to toss potions. Default through Energy Burst, hope everyone lives, use any remaining BP for more attacks. Repeat. Brave-blitz when I feel I can go over 54k damage done (accounting for draining!) total.
Chaugmar is fast enough to outspeed everyone but the Hermes Sandals wearer (one of my Monks, who needs the Def the least) on occasion, so that has to be accounted for with healing or blitzing (either on turn 7 before transform or for a kill) strategies. I learn this the hard way, but once I do, not too bad.
Overall a tough fight but manageable! I was Level 39.
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Bloodborne: All my characters are either in NG+, or they're a pathetic attempt at an SL1 playthrough, so I restarted from the beginning, for the DLC. My character is an UOW named Benedicte.
Christ Bloodborne is good, I had forgotten how much. I am beyond rusty and almost lost to that wounded first dog, even after getting a weapon. Still, I beat the first two bosses.
Cid told me to STR build so I did, and picked the Kirkhammer up ASAP. I remembered it as an extremely crappy but cool weapon, and it is a lot better and way more fun than I remember. It mostly pales compared to the OP axe, and Dark Souls 2's completely ridiculous giant clubs to which it directly compares to.
Anyway. With the Kirkhammer you get perhaps the best weapon design in the entire Souls series, which is saying something.
You also get standard fast lightning sword stabs. You get a sword thrust stab, your best friend when all else fails, which is often because the Kirhammer's standard damage is resisted by everything. You get really slow but satisfying overhead hammer swipes, basically throwing a cube of concrete on the head of your enemies. You get the most satisfying pancake charge-R2 you can imagine. You get Spin2Win L2, followed by a fun combo that nobody in their right mind would ever fucking use.
I like it.
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I am playing through NG with Simon's Bowblade (had to kill an NPC to get it early, but I don't care because bow hype) at the moment. I got to the first boss of the DLC and got seriously curbstomped, but I was level 49. I figure I'll max out the weapon through the maingame and give it another try. As it turns out, this weapon completely breaks the maingame bosses, LOL. Bows > Guns for real up in here. The only drawback is that while it's easy to get ranged 'backstabs,' getting a followup visceral attack is tricky. The dagger half of the Bowblade is pretty sick too.
I enjoyed what I played of the DLC, but could have done with fewer bloodlickers. The less those show up at any point the better.
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Bravely Default - With Chaugmar defeated, the Swordmaster asterisk has unlocked. This is good! (I hope...)
Anyway Starkfort randoms are mostly pretty easy now. There's some new fire dragon random that wasn't there on the lower floors and if he comes with multiple other soldiers I can't actually brave-blitz things, and I remember to put the pikemen to sleep. But overall it's still significantly easier than the Underflow. I don't have much to say.
Kamiizumi sucks.
His strategy isn't bad, and can certainly kill you, until you know what it is. Basically, he'll whore counterstances until one of them activates. Said counterstances are brutal overkill, even my highest-Def setup isn't close to surviving one. If your entire team attacks into one, game over man! Hell, even if 2-3 of them do, you're in big trouble, because after you trigger one of his counters, the next turn he'll use Attack x3. His attacks can 2HKO my defaulting PCs if they don't have shields, sometimes, though are a fair bit worse otherwise. (Evade makes them hard to predict.) It's easy to see how this could kill you.
Unfortunately, once you know the trick, you only have one person attack a round. Thus only one person will die. Then, if you're defaulting, the triple physical isn't going to be a worry (I have one person not default to use a Phoenix Down), and then you get two freebie turns to recover and pound him. With Drain Spellblade for my pounding, I don't even need to worry about healing!
Then, when Kamiizumi's HP is below half, he dispenses with the counters, and he adopts a strategy... which is EVEN WORSE. Just 3x Attack, every time, always sending him into negative BP. Even if this pulled three KOs, somehow (it won't), I could respond with Phoenix Down x3 and still come out ahead in terms of BP / turn economy. So his only hope is to run you out of Phoenix Downs I guess. As is, lol.
Congratulations, Kamiizumi, for being the first boss I defeat without using a single potion of any sort. (And he's still completely broken in the DL, go figure.)
Swordmaster get! We'll see how this goes.
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Devil May Cry 4 Special Edition: Dante has a Sparda outfit as expected, so of course I use it. It is kind of surreal seeing scenes I'm so familiar with starring a character who looks notably different (Nero looks the same in his Sparda outfit, it's just a different color for the most part; Dante, meanwhile, has a whole new hair-style, and the monocle), though a perk I liked about it is DT stands out more when in Sparda, so you tend to not be accidentally in it! ...yeah, that's not really a perk because it's not like DT is subtle <_<
Anyway, finished the game; I had one death the entire run and that was to the 2nd Blitz. This fight DID teach me that I've been fighting Blitzes all wrong as Dante and should be uses the Shotgun on them more often. Also got the special ending in one go, whoo!
Beating Devil Hunter gives you access to what I guess is a Vergil!Nero outfit and, hilariously, an outfit based off DmC Dante, even giving the outfit the same pose New!Dante has on the box art. Gonna have to go back and play as Dante at some point just to see that.
THEN I went and started Lady/Trish mode! So a few things that stand-out:
-Lady/Trish share everything you got in Nero/Dante. Well crap, game's just going to be a cake walk isn't it? I'm disappointed they took that route because Vergil didn't share with Dante in DMC3, was hoping the same way here.
-Dante and Nero maintain whatever outfit they were wearing when you last used them, so Dante's still swagging as Sparda
-Lady's melee sucks...but that was kind of expected. I'm sort of shocked she has melee at all but I guess there are some enemies or mechanics that just don't work with guns, like switches
-Lady can fire Kalina Anne in mid-air...yes, she can fire the DMC Explosive weapon aireborne, I'm pretty sure that's illegal in the series!
-Her Handguns are disappointing slow, so looks like their use is not quite the same as in other games
-Her Shotgun, meanwhile, is the DMC SHotgun; I think it has more spread. It is neat that her charge version is, unlike her other weapons, a status like Dante's that is fire for x amount of time in a powered up state, though the increase in damage seems way bigger than Dante's (closer to what it was in DMC3)
-She lacks a DT, being a normal human and all, so instead she fires a bajillion pipebombs. With about 7 orbs, this took off 45% of Berial Health. I'm not exaggerating...
-Charged Kalina Anne hits like a truck and has ridiculous AoE
-Her Grappling is amusing, since it doesn't just pull the enemy in, it also throws them aireborne, which is the perfect position for a DMC Gunner!
-They brought back all of Kalina Anne's skills from DMC3 and amped them up significantly. Kind of a must I suppose since she lacks Dante's Melee, and it's her primary damage weapon.
...yeah, she's a very different character than like anything before it. A character built entirely around ranged combat...my only concern is DMC4 was not balanced around that and this could make her feel either completely OP or defenseless at points, but we'll see. So far, OP stands out but partially because I have an Endgame character fighting off early mobs. Still, she's fun and nice to play DMC4 in a completely different method. Curious what Trish is like as well, and Vergil...well, already know how he plays, just a question of what they changed!
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Hugely belated thoughts:
Fenrir: Nope, no Dark World for my friend.
Trails SC: Just beat the C2 boss. Still enjoying it so far. General comments...
* There are some games where reusing the same assets as the previous game in the series would be lazy or a retread. In Trails, it isn't. They're obviously going to throw in some new dungeons for you to look at, but the roads & trails are the same & the towns are mostly identical, which makes sense since it's just ~3 months later or so. What's different? The people. This is still one of the best living, breathing worlds out there that 'makes sense', and that means there's always interesting things happening. You deposed & disgraced the mayor of a town? Well now there's an election happening for a replacement. The army guy who helped you out before? Well he's clearly proven his loyalty, and is a favorite of Cassius anyway, so he gets a promotion. So yeah, good job as usual here.
* In the same way, script is still good, no surprises here. XSeed wasn't kidding about the size of the script; all the NPCs dialogue everywhere you can access updates after everything, so you can run around playing NPC Stalker 3000 as they all go about their activities, often times switching up their locations. There's a whole living, breathing world going on outside your adventure, so you can listen in on an effort to refit an airship's engines and the progress thereof, plans to lure a young noble to the spot where she's got an arranged marriage, the misadventures of a rich guy's family and his son who likes to hang out with the thugs, etc. What makes it even bigger is that unlike the vast majority of FC, you have party choice in SC, so the dialogue has to vary a lot... but these aren't just bland dialogue changes where the optional party members say something generic. No, if you bring Olivier to go solve the mystery of the peeping tom at the hot springs, you'll get a notably Olivier spin on things. I can only imagine how much this blows up the amount of dialogue they had to write for the game.
* Tita's blind actually saved the day in one set-piece miniboss battle! She's still bad and died anyway shortly afterward (2/3 of the max HP of anyone else will do that) but hey.
And now the bad...
* This remains to be seen, but I'm not a fan of the villainy so far, although I guess it's not a huge shock. So, Trails FC has its main villains be not very loud in their villainy - at least when they're acting blatantly aggressive (they'll show up unmasked & smirk all the time in normal contexts, ofc). This is something I rather like; villains in real life rarely have name tags hovering above their head, but are more like "that guy over there." Let the patsies like the Sky Bandits be obvious. I always thought the black-clad soldiers were suitably ominous - they strike at night, they're obviously not your friends, but just who are they and who do they really want? There's an obvious guess, and it's even mostly correct, but they don't confirm this for you or crow about their plans too soon. Additionally, the *real* villains are even more coy. So you have really secretive assassins acting through 2 sets of proxies, and then 1 of those proxies gets their *own* proxies to work for them at times. Cloak & dagger, good times. Makes the melodramatic showdowns in the final chapter more fulfilling in their own way, and explains why you can't simply try and get the main bad guy proxies arrested earlier. And while sometimes the black-clad soldiers are explicitly not trying to kill you, other times they kind of are (the Tita / Agate @ Carnelia Tower deal), so... this is real. They're not fighting in the street with lots of witnesses, they're just going to have some people go missing and it'll be a damn shame.
Additionally, I know Elf didn't like him, but FC Lorence basically worked well enough for me - he's the one character you know early is obviously up to something and his power level is over 9000, but what's he up to? To the extent he's a big antagonist whose objectives aren't clear (and succeed anyway!), he's fine. He makes clear that the matter of the Septillion/Sept-Terrion is a Big Deal and that you don't really know much about 'em. And while he talks some shit to the party, he's not exactly an anime rival; it's just business.
Trails SC, you get to meet some more operatives of Ourborous, and... (**mild SC spoilers**) they're definitely closer to the Wild Arms 4 school of "wacky anime crazy dudes with powerz!1!" so far, the kind who do dumb crap like explicitly call attention to themselves so they can have an awesome fight with Our Heroes, have some kind of grudge / fixation with a particular party member, then no-sell any attacks done to them, then run off because.... ??? idk, maybe they're one of those types who enjoys GLORIOUS BATTLES merely for the sake of it. Then despite the fact that you've totally failed to stop them let's declare victory despite there being nothing preventing them from resuming mischief since you didn't defeat them. Boo hiss. Telling me their names, their plans, then failing to kill me (or die trying) is like the reverse of what I'd expect a super-secret society to do. Which is not to say I think the game should continue to troll me about how much information I'm getting after how long they kept Ourborous under wraps, I'd just rather it come from PC action like intercepting messages or the like rather than a villain monologue, and if you want the villain to live, I'd either want some better assurance of actually having won a victory (breaking their hypertech toy they're using to cause havoc, say), or else have the party grousing about how they haven't solved anything, but let's lie & announce to the public that everything is fine to prevent a panic. And the villains refusing to kill me despite seemingly being able messes with the tension. (This might yet be fixed if there's a non-shenanigans reason to leave the PCs alive for the bad guys, but I doubt it.)
Anyway, like I said, we'll see.
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I am playing through NG with Simon's Bowblade (had to kill an NPC to get it early, but I don't care because bow hype) at the moment. I got to the first boss of the DLC and got seriously curbstomped, but I was level 49. I figure I'll max out the weapon through the maingame and give it another try. As it turns out, this weapon completely breaks the maingame bosses, LOL. Bows > Guns for real up in here. The only drawback is that while it's easy to get ranged 'backstabs,' getting a followup visceral attack is tricky. The dagger half of the Bowblade is pretty sick too.
I enjoyed what I played of the DLC, but could have done with fewer bloodlickers. The less those show up at any point the better.
At least they're much less aggressive than the ones in Cainhurst? It's really easy to abuse their five-second memory to hit and run. And yeah, bow definitely looks stronger on paper than any non-cannon gun, possibly because you can stack gems on it (instead of guns which can only ever take one gem at most). That said, I haven't had much chance to road-test the thing since if you get it legit it shows up extremely late. I may wind up redoing some chalice stuff just for an excuse to use all this cool stuff I got at basically the last minute. (Hi there Rakuyo.)
It took me hearing it out of game to realize the Living Failures theme is basically just Mars, Bringer of War. I have no objection to this.
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Yoshi's Woolly World - Finished~ Final boss fight was surprisingly fun, and the last world was quite enjoyable. Good game.
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Bravely Default: Elf Edition
So I decided to play this through on the Elf Challenge because misery sounds fun, with one slight tweak: I'm allowing Special Moves and the Norende Item shop, simply because 1) I'm not as good at games as Elf, and 2) I feel like Hard Mode, at least, is certainly balanced around having access to the basic stuff.
I've made it through and am in Vestment Cave now.
Prologue: Leading up to the first boss fight is uninteresting, as always. Goblins take more than 1 hit on Hard, oh no~ The boss fight itself was actually quite tough, though. Had to tweak my setup quite a bit to try and get the right amount of both defense and offense, since Holly would often heal about 8-10 attacks worth of damage if she fell below 100, and l o l at braveblitzing her if she gets lucky and goes before either of my 2 PCs. Monk dude is still uninteresting, of course. I mean, he hurts like a truck if I'm not being prepared for that, but that's what potions are for. I used Examine on Holly just so I could know when to braveblitz because fuck her. For the first set of jobs, I got pretty lucky and rolled White Mage, which will be immensely useful once I have more jobs to back it up, which means yay~ I can actually start accumulating my JP already!
However spells are expensive, so I'm still pretty underwhelmed for items and gear, and White Mages are squishy as hell and have no offense until Aero, which makes the randoms leading up to Ominas Crowe a huge pain in my ass oh my god I would make it about 2 fights into the dungeon then have to leave because someone got unlucky and the enemies either OHKO or focus down and 1-round KO and I don't really have revival yet. So I have to slug-fest my way through and hope my MP pools keep up and that I don't get too unlucky. Ominas Crowe himself was actually pretty easy. He's slow-ish so he almost always goes behind Ringabel, and his damage is slightly worse than my healing, so I just try to predict whether it's AoE or ST fire damage and then laugh. Edea, still having actual ranks with her Ise-No-Kami, eventually wittles him down and I take the victory. easiest fight since the goblins, hands down.
Heinkel, on the other hand... his randoms weren't too awful once I got adequate defense to survive one round, and I only had a couple resets on his group of 4 knights (because OW). Heinkel himself, however, I am convinced is literally impossible for a White Mage SCC. If he doesn't up his defense then I can maybe do 30 damage to him, or 120 if I go into massive debt. if he doesn't boost defenses. Oh, and then there's his buddies who will spam 2-3HKO damage, and Heinkel will do somewhere between 2-5HKO damage himself. Oh, hope nobody criticals!~ Yeah, no, fuck this fight. I did some rough math with the Elf, and figured out that it is theoretically possible to win if Heinkel is alone and predictable and never gets a crit. So I cheated a little and called in some 'Friends' AKA random people and just mashed my way past Heinkel.
Chapter 1: Now for the real test of pain! Hey, maybe I'll get something relatively easy and early to grab, like Merchant or Thief or-- Nope, Spell Fencer. It's good! But oh god 2 full chapters of White Mage SCC.
Randoms for the most part are a massive pain in my ass, and I basically just run around doing everything but boss fights grabbing all the loot and munniez I can so I can gear myself properly and afford spells. Nothing in Ancheim is a huge pain above anything else, so far (besides Golems. Holy fucking shit Golems. 2HKO MT damage and they almost never come alone. Oh, and I can't possibly blitz them down even with Aero spells because they actually have M.Def and massive HP. Who thought this was ever good game design? oh yeah and they spawn with friends, like, 90% of the time. Thanks game.) Now I am in Yulyana Woods and the Vestment Cave, and the 4 significant enemies of note here go as follows:
Zombie Wolf: Default until it goes into debt cannibalizing itself, then heal it off and smack its face. Easy-mode.
Dark Lantern: High defense means I'm pretty guaranteed to have to use spells to kill it, so it's an MP-drain, but otherwise not exactly nasty itself. I'm just glad they've been kinda rare so far.
Moths: Fuck them in their Confusion-causing face. Oh well. Not the end of the world. Annoying, but manageable. Their offense isn't exactly the highest either, so I can generally survive as long as there's no Z. Wolf with them. (Note: They almost always spawn together)
Blood Bats: Literally the worst, so far. I have a very limited supply of MP that needs to survive long enough to get me through to the boss. I typically use about 15-20/fight, more if necessary. Blood Bats casually suck out 17MP per turn. So fighting one of these, if I'm unlucky, is like fighting 3 battles in 1. I'm usually wasting as much MP as I can just to Aero these fuckers in their smug little faces before they can do any more harm, except for one tiny problem: about 80% of the fights so far have been Moth/Blood Bat/Zombie Wolf. So I can't just unleash on them or the Moth because unlucky turns see someone dying (sometimes even through default if crits happen) but I can't just wait around because Confusion and MP-draining. So my very limited resource usually ends up getting drained really, really quickly.
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Bloodborne: Christ Bloodborne is difficult. I had forgotten how much? I am constently out of vials and bullets.
One of the blood sack guys straight up OHKOed me with a kick in the face and I then got completely destroyed in the unseen village. (having forgotten where the lamp is) Amelia is terrifying. UUUUAAAAAAAAAAAAH
I think that, because I ended playing Bloodborne with a few hours of chalice dungeons, I remembered the maingame as not really that difficult and slightly inferior to other Souls games but with still a few good ideas. Nope it is totally as awesome as regular Souls. I'm glad I picked it up again from the beginning.
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Amelia is terrifying. UUUUAAAAAAAAAAAAH
The sound FX team did amazing work on this game, yes. It was actually a long time before I felt able to make a serious attempt at soloing that fight and I'm not sure difficulty was entirely to blame. And yeah, I also felt totally incompetent restarting this after not playing it for half a year.
I've definitely found myself more enamored of the game on replay than I did when it was new, though. There's still stuff that bugs me, but either I'm used to it enough now or I got over the initial nitpicking I always do because things are different or I just don't care because Bloodborne probably has the best combat in the series?
So I was doing some random co-op in the DLC zones this afternoon, right? I'm standing outside Maria's room, and I get summoned for...the previous zone. I'm stuck on the wrong side of a door, I can see a boss health bar and hear the fight in progress on the other side, but I can't get into the arena because hey, that door doesn't open until after the boss fight. The boss enemies can still detect me and try to hit me though, so at least I can contribute a little by hitting enemies through clipping abuse? You uh, might want to fix this From. It actually happened twice today. Plus side 80,000 largely effort free echoes I guess.
The last DLC boss is still godawful. I can't beat it solo on NG+ and I can't find help either because no one wants to be in the same room as this thing. Well 4/5 new boss success rate is decent enough I guess.
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Due to sale, I bought Bloodborne.
I don't have a PS4.
This plan was terrible.
Banished: My first Village starved in Spring. I do not understand life well. Second village is doing much, much better. There was a major touch and go point where my average health dropped to 2 and no one had tools, but we all pulled together. Things are going pretty decently right now.
Shantae and the Pirate's Curse: I thought this was a platformer, not a Metroid game. That was surprising. That said, it's been... nothing that I expected, honestly. Fun though. I kinda feel I'm missing a lot not having played the first game, though?
Mysterium: Board game. Cooperative Dixit. It's really quite fun. I'm impressed. Aesthetics are great. And, honestly, I've always liked Dixit anyway.
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I think we started Xenoblade at like the same time, Idun. You'll likely finish it before I do.
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Hey, I play games besides RK! Well, mostly just Smash, Pokemon, and FFRK at the moment. But I got the urge to try out the Shantae series (apparently at the same time as everyone else here?).
So I emulated legally procured Shantae's first game from the GBC. And holy crap those are some nice-looking GBC graphics! The pixel-ness of it all just put me in a good mood. And the whole game has a fun atmosphere.
The game's story runs into the limitations of the GBC hard, I think. It's very brief but it feels like it wanted to say so much more. Every character with a name felt like they had a story to tell but there was basically no time to tell it. That's nice design right there, and I hope to see them fleshed out in the modern sequels.
The gameplay is a bit too oldschool in places. Wandering around a level waiting for a RNG event to progress the story is not fun. But luckily those moments are few and far between, and the game is overall short so it's a breezy affair that fits nicely into my busy schedule. Highly recommended for anyone who likes platformers/metroidvania style games. Though the story is so basic that you could probably skip this entry and go right into the sequel Risky's Revenge without losing anything. The very end -does- hit a cute character note for Shantae herself at least if you feel you must play a whole series from the beginning (like me), so it's not a complete waste either.
tl;dr: Good game, but dated. Can jump right into its better sequel without missing much but it's not bad by any means and worth trying if you think you'll want to play the whole series.
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Subterfuge: won my first game. Used King earlygame to take over lands, Tycoon+Minister of Energy for massive production, took over a mine from some idiot who built an unprotected one right next to me, and then built two of my own. Mines produce more for each land you hold whether it's a factory or generator, so my large holdings made the game end quicker than anyone could respond.
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Bravely Default - Monk/Spellfencer/Ranger/Swordmaster versus the end of chapter 3
There's an annoying amount of trekking around the world map involving Egil plot, nobody cares, game.
Grandship dungeon I don't have too much to say about. Zombie Sharks eat Phoenix Down, most other enemies can be blitzed down pretty easily at this point. In the middle of the dungeon I pick up a lightning-katana, so I actually switch to using that with my Swordmaster... it's still an offence hit overall, but only barely with the crit rate and weakness hits factored in, and I can use it with a shield which is cool.
Behemoth (4 resets) - Is a jerk.
He's aquatic, weak to lightning, and has a massive 108000 HP, double what Chaugmar had. The fight is guaranteed to be long, so I'd better have a good strategy. And any good strategy has to deal with his Roar attack, which is devastating, dealing anywhere from ~50% (swordmaster/spellfencer with a shield) to ~110% (ranger without a shield), MT. Defaulting halves that, of course, but yeesh. Oh yeah and it inflicts silence, as if the move wasn't bad enough. And he's fast enough to go before all but my fastest, Hermes Sandals-boosted PC at least some of the time, which can mess up many strategies.
The rest of his skillset is ST. Toothy Rend hits really damn hard, pretty much always a OHKO if someone isn't defending (2HKO if they are), Venomous Bite and Bite do similar damage to Roar (one of them poisons). All his skillset is named, so no evasion, and all of it is physical.
The physical part is key. Swordmaster's Level 1 skill is Nothing Ventured, which halves physicals for a round and counters them. It does, in fact, work against multitarget, which I wasn't sure about. Initial experiments with my Swordmaster spamming that plus Drain Spellblade ended in her being consistently the best-performing PC, so I adopted that strategy on two people: the Spell Fencer and Swordmaster (nobody else can use that skill combination).
I settle on using White Capes (silence immunity) on the two counter-focused PCs, since they don't need speed too badly, while the ranger and monk get Hermes Sandals to go before the boss most/all of the time. My general strategy with the counter-users is to default up to 3 BP when at full HP, and use Nothing Ventured when damaged even a bit. The spare BP can be used on turns to brave Nothing Ventured with something else, during which I still half physicals to the round, and can either recast Drain Spellblade (I try to do this before ten turns are up), use a Phoenix Down on someone else, etc.
Meanwhile the two attackers also try to store BP, but healing them is more tricky. Either potions or heal silence if necessary -> drain spellblade -> attack. If they're able to build up spare BP, then they can hit quite hard, especially the Ranger with Aqauatic Slayer.
Since both attackers can die at random moments, a lot can go wrong. I learn not to try too hard to revive them, better to let someone stay dead than risk more deaths and everyone falling apart. Also, I try not to let the attackers' BP fall below 0 (i.e. 1 at the end of the round) in case the attackers die, which they can do very easily on turns they attack (no shield + not defaulting). Shields go on everyone when not attacking or countering.
But overall defensive play and leaning on Nothing Ventured drain counters, braving on turns to do other actions, works extremely well. I brave-blitz with thunder spellblade at the end, though even then I keep the counterers on standby just in case.
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Bloodborne:
A gift to Cid:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uQoqR4CKzBM
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Realpost: I got through the three shadows + all optional areas up to there except Cainhurst.
If you just follow the main path in the forest you can just go pretty much straight to the boss. Pretty neat! I kept getting lost there before. This still doesn't help me get to Iosefka's clinic. I've searched everywhere!
I found some NPC summons, were those added? I definitely don't remember them. I could summon help for Amelia, Phaal (the help died immediately), BSB, Shadows.
Kirkhammer is still cool.
Also congrats Captain K
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Because I just consume data for everything I see even when I don't like it (I don't like Bloodborne. I also didn't get past like either first two bosses you can run into).
Additional summons are new as you would hope for The Old Hunters, it introduced more hunters.
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You know too much. Do you know what that thing I linked is all about?
I also encountered in the forest a new dude named like Vlatr? He was maybe the most generic and boring guy in the entire Souls series. But he had a new covenant. I joined it, I still don't know what it does.
I had forgotten this but Bloodborne is a game that gets easier as it goes on. The beginning is the hardest part. Demon's Souls was similar, Dark Souls 1/2 weren't.
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Well Demons's Souls's is also a heap of shit of a game as well so aye.
No love for Valtr's bucket hat? I don't know specifics, but it is apparently a coop oriented covenant.
At work, so can't listen to the ambient thing, but would assume it is collective unconscious of all the victims of the nightmare screaming out in harmony (or you know, it is the Choir since it is a nightmare around Yarnham and the Church and well... you know what happened to the choir).
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Demons's Souls's's is indeed the shit. You are right. Total best game ever until Dark Souls came along.
Valdrt's like a parody of a Souls game character. He's all
"Hunting! *evil smirk* Killing things! Am I right? *psychopath laugh*"
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I like how that video seems to have a rhythm to it with the splashing sound but oh god what is that sound
Yeah, they added a ton of NPC summons with the patch just before DLC dropped. It's not even DLC-reliant stuff. They even tossed a lot of them into the chalice dungeons. Ditto Valtr, he turned up the week before Old Hunters was released. His covenant rune gives you 2% more health as a summon. WOO. (Actually this is more useful than 2 out of 3 other covenant runes, right?) I actually liked how obviously unhinged Valtr is. Did you fight the hunter outside Valtr's room? I'm not sure what the trigger is for this guy showing up, game's been pretty flaky about it. I've read you have to talk to Valtr first, but when I get here on NG+ sometimes the dude's already spawned. One time he spawned offscreen and instantly died somehow while I was talking to Valtr. 30,000 echoes + snakecharmer whistle for no effort at all, score.
(Fenrir please tell me you've tried the whistle.)
BSB always had a summon, but the sign for it is way more obvious now. My brother hates the chime that rings out around summon signs now because he says it gives him Latria flashbacks, though personally I don't think it's that close a sound.
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Well... I tend to consider stuff patched in just before expansion as expansion related. Souls games are living world games like MMOs tend to be, so since the base game and the expansion share servers etc there is a need to mix some of the content in with the base game even if you gate a bunch of the other stuff (like even just to have entrance to the zone like in Dank Souls 2).
Its also a damn good excuse to just go back and patch in extra stuff you think you fucked up or that is low effort decent yield. (Also tie in hype events etcetcetc)
Presumably the covenant also will fuck around with match making like they always do in ways that are a pain in the arse to document.
Also of course there is Latria call backs in there somewhere (it might not be close tonally, but yeah its probably hearkening back to it) because Latria is Lovecraft and Bloodborne is Lovecraft.
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Bravely Default - Start of chapter 4.
Ice Golem (1 reset) - After restocking on items we get another boss right away. Ice Golem is a lot like Behemoth, but largely worse: whatever advantage he gets from not having a type weakness is made up for by 25% less HP, he's still all physical, and now he's almost all ice, too, which is very helpful: I come in with an Iceflame Shield on my Swordmaster and Ice Charms on everyone else (I need to buy a third of these, the first reset is before doing so). He still has a MT attack and some ST attacks.
Nothing Ventured counters with Drain spellblade still make him unhappy, as do default-then-drain-blitz with those who can't use this strategy. The big ripple aside from the usual speedhax problems is that one of his ST attacks can inflict Stop, which I can't block, has a random duration, and is generally kinda annoying. But I'm not in too much danger of being overwhelmed overall.
I arrive in Eternia! Which means I can restock all my items, marvel at the cool new bow upgrade, and promptly not be able to afford it (due to back-to-back bosses draining my item supply). I can also buy X-Potions now to restock between boss fights (I've been trying not to use more than 5 per boss) but they are really expensive, so I'll be trying not to rely on them too much, at least for now.
Eternia map randoms can be pretty mean. Silver Wolves paralyse me which kinda wreck me until I pull out Ranger's passive to immune that, then they can die to the normal strategies of default-then-blitz and "default to 1 BP, drain and Nothing Ventured, spam Nothing Ventured". Mandragoras appear in packs of six which can be kinda overwhelming with their MT attacks (which poison!), but drain counters completely wreck them (getting everyone to survive the battle is slightly trickier, but not essential anyway). Liliths charm, not much I can do about that noise beyond the usual "switch to a shield and punch them" strategy.
Victoria & Victor (1 reset) - The first fight since i got swordmaster which really makes the counterers not very good. Too much status/utility, and it's all ST, so the chance of a counter activating is pretty low. I still decide to have my Swordmaster spam the magic counter because those ST spells (Dark and Holy) can hit pretty hard and halving/autohealing them is nice, especially when Victoria is below half HP and often braves to use Dark twice. Otherwise Victoira will use MT poison (I block this with everyone, to seal off Exterminate), and Corpse which kills someone after 4 turns (no BP gained the turn it kicks in). Corpse is a real pain but at least it means I don't have to worry about healing the afflicted. I do try to get their BP up to 3 when they die in case reviving them proves hairy in some way.
Victor, aside from Holy, mostly uses Fairy's Aid which boosts elemental damage of one of them by 50%, but costs an extra BP. Not a great move, even though I can't dispel it! He'll heal either of them when their HP is low but this can't outpace my offence and isn't a big deal, though does drag out the low-HP Victoria phase a bit.
Not a trivial fight, hence the reset, but also not too bad. Once I kill Victoria, the fight becomes super-easy, the only ripple being that I burn loads of Phoenix Downs in the first phase (either an elemental spell OHKOing a non-defaulting, non-countering PC, or Corpse, or just other damage adding up at a bad time / speed-haxing) such that I actually only have 3 left by the time Victoria falls. This proves more than enough for the rest of the fight. I'm Level 45.
Oh yeah I also rolled my final job and it is Dark Knight, oh ho ho. This leaves my final team as Monk, Spell Fencer, Ranger, Swordmaster, Dark Knight. Very physical! Currently my big upcoming problem is Gigas Lich, who immunes my overreliance on draining and buffs his stats (which I have no way to dispel or remove)... and aside from good offence and draining, I have nothing particularly good against the final two bosses, so it'll be interesting to see how they go.
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Watched Ashley play Journey.
it is pretty much as good as advertised. She made a friend. Quite a touching little journey.
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Half-Life - played through
At this point in time, I can't really consider the game to be particularly impressive. Who can say how I would have felt about it if I played it back in the day.
On several occasions I got stuck in geometry, and not intricate geometry either. I'm talking like the 'airlock' you walk through right near the start of the game, the game decided that I was walking close enough to the edge of the wall during a map transition to get me stuck in it. Got stuck in geometry across a map transition which occurred in a pipe a couple times until I jumped across the transition point.
Pretty much every time the game decided to have something I was walking in break and fall down that I can remember it didn't work properly the first time and ended up killing me or severely injuring me.
Tanks are the worst things, and I was playing on easy, so I don't want to know what they do to you on harder difficulties.
The teleport tower was terrible, as far as I could tell you typically couldn't see where you were going to end up even once you knew where a particular teleporter was going to go so you couldn't really time landing on platforms, and actually jumping into the tower was bizarrely finicky for some reason and most of the time I'd end up falling to the bottom.
The fight against the spider/crab boss broke in a non-obvious way and eventually lead to me having to restart the map once I looked into why it wasn't dying.
Shotgun didn't seem anywhere near as powerful as it ought to have. This isn't really a problem per se, just something I was disappointed in.
Tranq bow was very difficult to use properly underwater, given that it's theoretically the main underwater weapon. Not sure how well I would have done with underwater fights on harder difficulties.
Game was fine when it wasn't being actively annoying. Or setting up close-range fights with military.
Tick Tock Isle - played through
It's fairly enjoyable but has much too much backtracking. Also very short, but was entertaining enough to counteract that. But the backtracking.
Ultimately I didn't end up completing some 'sidequests' because once you get close enough to the end of the game you get locked off from doing so, and it's set up such that you can't really see it coming. Didn't really feel like replaying, although to be fair there should be less backtracking on a replay if you can remember where most things are.
Card City Nights - played through
Fairly enjoyable. Can't really offer an opinion on how well-balanced it was.
My decks mainly fell on the side of trying to disable as many of the opponent's cards as possible and ideally run them out of free spaces. This didn't work with everyone, although most people it didn't work against I was at least able to wait out until they ran out of cards.
I'd say that the most difficult opponent in the game is Fiery Woman, who has a hyper-aggressive deck and also has the Ittle Dew DX card (which essentially makes you lose one HP every turn). It took me innumerable attempts to beat her, and I had to end up falling back on attacking her directly rather than disabling her cards (which was at least helped by her having very little in the way of HP restoration).
It took me several attempts to beat the final boss as well, but that's mainly due to the final boss being a jerk rather than them actually being a good player. Didn't take me anywhere near as many attempts as it took to beat Fiery Woman.
I'd like to get a complete card collection but the game doesn't actually give you any aid with this (i.e. there's no list of which cards you don't have, or even a count of which cards you don't have, and so on). So I'm not going to do that.
There are a fair amount of interface issues with the game. A few of them are as follows:
- All lists can only be shifted one row at a time. In a per-click sense via arrow icons, or in an accelerating way by dragging what would typically be the pane slider to the top or bottom. (i.e. you drag it to the bottom, the list shifts down one row. After a short delay if shifts down another row. As you hold it down the delay gets shorter.) You can't select a position with the thing which is in the place of the pane slider, and you can't shift a page at a time by clicking between the thing which is in the place of the pane slider and the arrow buttons.
- The alchemy interface lists all your cards, not just ones which can be used in alchemy. The ones which can be used are highlighted, so it's not like it's supposed to be secret. Even further, once you've selected a card, it reduces the highlighting to ones which work in combination with that card, but you still need to look for them through the entirety of your library.
- Say you put together an attack combo, and the opponent doesn't have any cards on the field so the only available target is their HP. You still have to manually click on their HP, despite it being the only thing you can actually do. There's an argument that what you're doing needs to be clear, but there must be a better way of going about it. (Setting up a revive combo when there are no valid targets doesn't force you to hit anything to accept that that's what's happening or anything.)
When there are competing rules, for example if there are two cards on the field which both do things at the start of a turn, it isn't clear which one of them is going to trigger first.
The card shop only sells cards which you already have (and which aren't rare). So say you have one copy of a card, which is currently buyable. You use your copy in alchemy. Now you can't buy it any more to replace the one you used. From one perspective you should've bought another copy beforehand, but you typically don't know what you're going to be using in alchemy ahead of time, so that changes the steps to 'Go to the science lab and enter the alchemy tool. Find a pair of cards you want to alchemize. Leave and go to the mall and go to the card shop and re-find the cards in question and buy extra copies. Then leave and go back to the science lab and re-enter the alchemy tool and re-find the pair of cards in question and actually go ahead with it.'.
It feels like the deck builder could really have used some filters - for example, to find every 'attack' card which has arrows pointing left and right, for example. Currently all you can do is change the ordering.
You can't use every ordering in every instance of the list. I can't remember the situation exactly, but there was at least one time where I wanted the list ordered in a way which was available elsewhere but it wouldn't let me order it that way in that particular instance.
You can't have rematches with every character. I was hoping that they would be unlocked after the end of the game, but that just unlocks rematches with the people who had legendary cards. There's no way to rematch Magical Fox, for example. The game teases having some sort of superboss rematch against Excitable Student but as far as I can tell that never actually happens.
The Card Gods suck and I'm pretty sure I beat them all on my first attempts.
Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, And The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist - played through twice
Pretty enjoyable. Pretty short. Pretty free.
No real branches like Stanley Parable, in case anyone wanted to hope for that going in. I did a second playthrough as an obedient helper and it didn't really change anything.
Tried to collect all the money on my first run without realising that it was an actual goal, ended up failing anyway. Not going to bother retrying that.
Apparently I missed a tape recorder on both runs so that's something you might want to look for.
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Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, And The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist - Thanks for the tip, Twikiltiri! Still... it's short, yet I'm still disappointed. Maybe that was the intent? Also... why are they giving this away for free? What's their angle here?
I guess it's fine, but play The Stanley Parable first if you haven't already, because it's better and actually has some sort of agency / variety in it.
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Dr Langeskov was different enough from Stanley Parable to be worth it.
I really liked that final punchline.
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Legend of Legacy - So the final boss has two targets. One of them, the one I arbitrarily decided to kill first, apparently has infinite HP, with no clues to this (e.g. auto-healing after a certain point, regen, taking no damage, etc.). I fought the fight for over an hour and a half before figuring this out. That's definitely a bit of a "good will towards the game is shot" moment.
Braev Lee Defaults
Eternia Command has a pretty rough mix of randoms overall. The Eternian soldiers themselves include a mage which does magic damage (duh) and can cast sleep which is annoying: both of these mix up counterstrats. Also messing up counterstrats is the fact that the spearman has an initiative attack which can sometimes beat out the counterstance (both the counter and the damage halving). Actually that can mess up everyone. Fortunately they're all weak to lightning and not super-durable. The Raikiri makes it (presumably?) final appearance here.
Liliths are back, they still have physicals that charm. There's a bigger, uglier Archdemon who also has a physical that charms, for those who are into that. I only have one charm-blocker, it goes on the swordmaster, which says much about how much I lean on that class here. She switches to the Birch Bow (demon-slayer) against these guys, and I can take 'em down with whatever. Yet another demon, the Teufel, sometimes uses weak lightning magic, which can be nulled by Raikiri or countered with Before Swine... but not at the same time, I learn.
I generally haven't bothered with FAQing or searching for hidden treasure, but I do here, picking up the Excalibur, anticipating any holy weaponry being potentially valuable against Gigas Lich. It sees no use before him, though, as its power far trails the bows, particularly the Killer Bows I can buy now.
Killer Bows aren't nearly 25% in practice, for the record, but it's nice when they do kick in. I do wonder how status odds work in this game. Int stat...?
Braev - He's a bit reminscient of Artemia, in that he defaults a lot, generally building up BP, then as his HP drops he increasingly uses it up instead (only going into negative BP at the end of a round if his listed HP is below half). The big difference is this repeats three times, as he has three HP bars, and he swaps back and forth between his general AI trends as the battle goes on. The trends are just that: trends, and I can never 100% predict when he'll default and when he'll brave, except that he always braves if he reaches 3 BP.
The big problem here is Radiant Blast. Buying Light Charms would help, but I don't. It ignores default and can pull OHKOs. Ow! What does it not ignore? Why yes, counterstances, so those are huuuge here, I have two PCs using them with drain spellblade of course. I generally default more when I expect him to default, and Nothing Ventured when I don't, leaving spare BP for various things. The attackers are vulnerable to just dying, but do reasonable damage/draining otherwise. Qigong Wave and Targetting give them both methods to ignore his damage-quartering(!) Default, so I never actually have to deal with that. This party really matches up well against Braev, in general.
It's still a pretty rough fight, and it's kinda surprising that I have no resets on it since it's honestly the hardest of the three C4 boss fights so far (spoiler: it won't be the hardest overall). I burn through some ungodly number of Phoenix Downs (40?) and burn a few X-Potions but not too many (5-10). But not too bad. I'm Level... I forgot to write it down, damnit. But around 48 or 49.
On to Everlast Tower. The randoms here are a bit different, and I end up dropping counterstrats as a major thing here (so the swordmaster uses Multitask-enhanced physicals), because the bread-and-butter enemy here is the Earth Lantern, which uses ST magic about half the time. More? Incidentally, that magic is earth, and Swordmaster has Abate Earth as a Level 2 ability. I anticipated this and got it for everyone. It helps.
Other than them there are a few 13.5k HP (pretty bulky) randoms. Gastric Worms aren't too bad, they have a MT physical that low 2HKOs though. Still, all physical, so counterstrats can work, and lowish defence + bug weakness means I can fell them pretty fast. They're also pretty easy to put to sleep and always appear either solo or with a single Earth Lantern. Far more dangerous is the Mailed Dragon, which hits really hard (solid ST 2HKO or solid OHKO with a 1-BP-cost Rush), and surprisingly durable (high defence, often defaults), and can appear in pairs. Finally, appearing late in the dungeon there's the Daedalus, some big beast enemy which can berserk itself to hit really hard but isn't too bad otherwise. Sleep works pretty well on them too, especially since once berserked there's no downside to sleep-then-wake-up on the same turn (which gives them a BP in exchange for cancelling their turn... but berserked enemies can't use BP).
As you can tell sleep makes a bit of a return in this dungeon, for all that earth lanterns are immune and dragons resistant. So does Squeaky Wheel, which is great for controlling one dangerous enemy when that's all I'm down to (it does break sleep though, so I need to be careful). Drain spellblade still gets a bit workout, and counters do see play against non-earth-lanterns. A few resets here and there, certainly.
Gigas Lich - Hey this doesn't seem so bad, drain may be walled but Quaga's weaker than I remembered and Fear/Death are okay, I've totally got this- *fully boosted Slam does over 4k damage to non-defaulting PCs, with no warning* oh fuck
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Shantae and the Pirate's Curse: Fuck that last Cacklebat. Took an annoyingly long time to find. Also, kinda annoyed they suddenly introduced a ton of precision platforming in the last dungeon.
Fun, but I think kinda overrated? There are a lot, lot, lot of little niggling problems with the game.
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Guacamelee! - Played through, beat, got all the secret collectables and beat again for the frue ending. Very fun luchador-themed Metroidvania beat-em-up, in no small part because it is a lucha libre metroidvania beat-em-up. Good combat, great style, and while there's not a ton of exploration relative to the rest of the genre it's more than enough to make the game fun to poke through. The platforming gets frustrating at times, especially later on, would be my main complaint.
Also, it's definitely worth shelling out an extra couple of bucks for the updated version of the game (Super Turbo Championship Edition instead of Gold Edition); it's got better controls, better combat, more stuff to find, just a far more enjoyable experience start to finish.
Borderlands The Pre-Sequel! - Started this because it was cheap on the Steam fall sale, playing as Baroness Hammerlock because I'm 2/2 playing Borderlands as a sniper and might as well make it 3/3. It's definitely a stand-alone Borderlands 2 expansion, but I haven't touched BL2 since 2013 so it feels fresh enough to me.
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The existence of a character named Baroness Hammerlock almost makes me want to play something just so I can be a character named Baroness Hammerlock, but my brief experience of BL1 was considerably less than stellar (flat humor, rote shooter gameplay, blargh randoloot etc.)
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Also she's DLC.
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BL1 is easily the worst of the series, though the only thing to really see a lot of improvement is the writing. The rest is just a lot of polishing.
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They are also terrible solo. Newer ones are better than BL1 solo, but they are still pretty terrible. So you would want to play with like Super or something (there is no friendly fire).
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Cid, in BL1, the loot and shooting get even worse as you play more. I played BL2 and it didn't change anything about it.
The loot system works well with a Diablo style overhead / isometric view, because you can quickly look at new loot and compare with your stuff, plus move and look at menus at the same time.
The field of view also means that enemies can be physically close to you but not aggroed (just a little bit off-screen), so you can go back to the fray right away.
In Borderlands the first person view and loot system actively work against each other, as looking at different weapon stats is slower because you have to manage the weapons in a 3D environment, the big menus get in the way and you can't move at the same time, you have to look down / up to look at new gunz all the time and it will give you a migraine.
And the enemies are pretty far apart so you have to walk a lot.
In the end there's way more tedium than action, and the action doesn't have any punch anyway, plus levels matter way too much and skill doesn't.
Multi? Couch co-op is out of the question unless you have a huge TV because these hard lines will make split screen unwatchable. Also play Towerfall instead.
Online? This solves the problem, but it's probably more boring, and I hope your buddies don't take too much time comparing stats or you will go mad. Play Duck Game instead.
Man. BL1 would have been Game of All Time in 2005, yet I find it 100% unbearable now. BRB going to lower its rating again in the ratings topic
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Anyway I haven't had time to play Bloodborne much.
So I have played inflation rpg. This shit is weird. Probably has stolen art from 30 different games.
At least this isn't a skinner box.
In short it is half minute hero but less good and always on the same huge map instead of different levels, and you can keep your stuff when the timer runs over. (But not levels) There's no timer but there's a set of random battles you can do before the game ends.
Yeah this doesn't sound like half minute hero anymore but trust me.
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Borderlands games are mostly okay if you do couch co-op. Playing solo makes you a little more aware of how lousy the shooting is. It not being skill based at all is also a huge problem. I did co-op lower leveled than my friend and was completely worthless until I caught up.
BL1's world is super drab and boring upon second glance although I think I like its cast more. BL2 adds more to the world but the writing is obnoxious, juvenile, and meme-y (Tiny Tina and Handsome Jack are pretty insufferable). Tales from the Borderlands is supposedly pretty good which is surprising since I can't imagine caring about anything in this world, but maybe that's Telltale helping with most of the writing duties.
Life is Strange: I didn't play this but watched a friend get through it this weekend. The writing in the first episode is very cringeworthy at points, with weird projections of teenspeak like "hella," like a bunch of 40 year old dudes came together and figured that this is how millennialyouthteens talk. Also the main character makes reference to how awesome Final Fantasy: Spirits Within is. Sometimes corporate overlord decisions are hilarious, but this just made me groan. The writing tightens up after the first episode as the game gets more time to let its characters grow. Many of the secondary characters in the school seem a bit one note but the game does a fairly good job avoiding making them just one dimensional high school caricatures. I'm not too big into time travel and some of the advantages that you get from the knowledge you gain from rewinding are weird. Like, one character is standoffish until you rewind and find out her last name? Or some dumb skater kid calls you a poser until you learn about tre flips from him, rewind, and then he says "oh you're not a poser" even though Max clearly doesn't know what she's talking about.
The best use of the time travel mechanic to me came from small, constrained situations where many of the situations involves you fucking up so you keep rewinding and trying new things in order to find a way forward, and the best ones are like Rube Goldberg contraptions. There are at least two situations that stood out to me that did it well, and they reflect the limits of what you (Max, a teenage girl) can realistically do in order to affect change in situations where she doesn't actually have much physical control. She has to get by on knowledge acquired by failing.
The game also does a good job having background things going on in terms of Max's journal and her text threads with various characters, which aren't necessarily part of the gameplay. Max chronicles major events that happened before the game to give you some background and her interactions with friends and parents often reflect her inner state and reactions from these events.
I didn't necessarily love it but I also wasn't playing it myself so I didn't have a ton of control over the choices made. My friend was really thorough and tried to get all the flavor text from the game, so I do have a decent idea of what it had to offer. It has some good ideas for sure and is probably worth playing ($20 total so not that bad) if you like this kind of adventure game. I do think playing it during the time it was released and waiting for episodes instead of playing it all at once may have helped a bit, since the game does a good job of ending episodes on a dramatic note.
SPOLIARS
So I've read that people complain that all of the choices you've made up until the final choice don't matter since the endings don't change. While that is true on the face of it, I think that is missing the point a bit. Your choices do matter insofar that how you have chosen to interact with the characters in major or minor interactions will have an effect on how you make your final choice. In essence, the final choice is a version of the trolley problem in philosophy/ethics, where your decision will result in one person killed or an entire town getting destroyed. The twist is is that the one person is your best friend. An interview with one of the Telltale people said that their ideal when it came to choices was for there to be an even split for players between two decisions, and that is basically what the playerbase has here.
To me (and my friend agreed), it wasn't much of a dilemma, and part of that is because I don't think either of us ended up actually liking Chloe very much. She is brash (endangering herself and others, including Max) and often selfish and she doesn't necessarily treat Max very well. While her circumstances and many of her outcomes are tragic, in the end, she does ask Max to sacrifice her, which is one of Chloe's truly selfless acts and shows maturity and acceptance. The dilemma comes in whether Max herself could make that decision, I suppose, but my friend had gone out of her way to try and maintain good relationships with most of the characters. It seems cruel to save Kate Marsh from suicide only to have her wiped away in a tornado, for instance. That made the decision much less difficult than it could be, since this Max had a lot of stake with several of the townspeople and her peers vs her childhood friend who popped into her life last week. From what I've read, some people really fucking love Chloe and they saw her as more of a romantic option, and maybe then the calculus becomes different (other versions of the trolley problem use a loved one dying vs like five people dying for instance), but that wasn't how things played out for us.
The way that the final decision came down to those binary options is pretty contrived, so I do think that is a fair criticism.
*Kate Marsh's situation mirrors a friend I had growing up who attempted suicide, so that did resonate with me. I don't know what I would have been able to say in a situation where you are literally talking them out of it, so I can't speak to whether the game's dialogue here is accurate, but it did strike a cord. Seeing the video where you mess up and she kills herself was pretty sad (I know I know, video game characters).
*Jefferson is a scuzzy piece of shit who I disliked from the moment the game started. After he victim blamed Kate I knew something was off with him.
*Victoria didn't get much of a redeeming arc for us, but in a demonstration of how making a choice can have unintended consequences, if you are nice to Victoria and warn her about Nathan, she goes to Jefferson and is murdered.
*I think an interesting question is what kind of person Max is, and I guess that is kind of reflective of what you decide to do. Are you really connecting with some of the characters or telling them what you want them to hear in order to get a favorable reaction? If you really don't know them well enough to cheer them up or to get them to help you, are you really their friend or are you actually meant to be friends? Max doesn't seem to be a manipulative person (Victoria with these powers for instance would be monstrous), but in a lot of ways she's a blank slate as a teenager without much self confidence, at least in the beginning.
*The situations where the time travel mechanic looked the most interesting was in the scene where you are trying to hide the keys from Chloe's dad and the scene where you have to do things in order to warn David about Jefferson so that he can save you.
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As far as I understood things the issue was less that the endings don't change and more that both endings essentially obliterate the choices which were made. In the Sacrifice Chloe ending, in addition to the events of the week turning out significantly differently in the first place, 'interim' Max who doesn't know that she has time powers or any of the things which 'main' Max knows is in control until she gets tossed out at the end of the week. In the Sacrifice Arcadia ending there are arguments that a lot of the people involved may have died.
I personally went with Sacrifice Arcadia mainly because I didn't believe that it was going to be played as straight as the option was named. Infuriatingly, the ending refuses to actually say anything about how lethal the destruction actually was, although I'm pretty sure you can see the diner being suspiciously nonexploded. There's also the issue I've since seen brought up that no-one who blames the time travel for the environmental crisis & tornado actually has any authority on the matter to stand on, so as far as Sacrifice Chloe is concerned you could be engineering her death for no actual benefit. (I'll note that I haven't seen the Sacrifice Chloe ending, so I don't really know what it says with regards to the crisis/tornado.)
It also raises the question of whether the tornado was caused by time travel itself or by Chloe's continued existence. The segment with Chloe's father slams stakes into both options - the crisis/tornado doesn't show up in the past after you were time travelling in the past or after Chloe's father continues living. Only the same time it was seemingly always going to turn up.
If you go with it being caused by time travel itself, then you can make the argument that the reaction to the time travel is always going to happen in the 'real' time, but personally that argument feels kind of dodgy.
One somewhat interesting theory I've seen around is that Max is actually an 'interim' Max herself, suggested as a way to explain some of her confusion at the start of the game. I don't remember the start of the game too well, so I can't really say how well that stands up as a possibility. But, if it's true it's interesting in that it means that interim Maxes can learn time travel themselves, making Sacrifice Chloe even less of a guaranteed option, and it means that she will be annihilated at some point for an further outer 'main' Max to take over.
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Borderlands games are mostly okay if you do couch co-op.
Couch co-op makes basically every game better and that's why I'm so sad that most games anymore don't have it
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Couch co-op stood out as the only redeeming feature when I did play it (was killing time at the brother's place). The squashed split-screen was kinda painful but still seemed way more fun than playing it solo could possibly be.
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I feel odd. Unlike every other shooter I have ever played, I just don't like Borderlands split screen. I've enjoyed it well enough, but just because the people I've played it with have added enough to the experience to make up for the detraction of the splitscreen. Whereas I find more than enough gratification in the single player shooter mode.
As for what I'm playing... continuing with my fascination with the old, I decided to whip out FF8. Of course, since I couldn't find FF8, this proved to be a problem. I'd make a crack at this point about "since I didn't want to play anything good..." but I went with Legend of Dragoon. And frankly, just because it isn't FFT, or Xenogears, or Suikoden 2 doesn't mean it isn't good.
Of course, let's start with the terribleness that we all knew was coming! PSX Voice Acting! It is every bit as bad as I remembered! It also takes those old pre rendered backgrounds and sticks the guidance arrows FF7 had and forces you to use them. It's good they have them, because you need them, so much. But you can't turn them off on the many occasions where you don't. The dialogue is also stilted in a lot of places, which isn't too surprising since this is about the point where people started to pay for decent translations, and the really good jobs therefore all still suffered from some kind of issue (though I'll still argue that Woolsey's artistic vision was generally for the best, I am far more ambivalent about Working Design's.) Then there's Shana, whose whole purpose so far is to be a plot device and generally be devoted to Dart, and nothing else. Oh, and be weak. Y'know, I just realized it, but there's a lot of similarities between her and Rosa. Granted, every now and then they switch things up, like when she grabs the bow and arrow to fight, or when it's Lavitz that slips and falls instead of her (bad move Shanna, saving someone who just slipped is a sure fire lead in to romance! And how can Dart say no to a guy named Slambert?), but yeah...
On the other hand, the game play is reasonably interesting, and it's still my favourite take on the timed hit system. I had forgotten that Dart, unlike a lot of RPG protagonists, is actually making decisions and has his head screwed on straight pretty much from the beginning. He was adventuring before the plot started, sure his home town getting destroyed kicked off the plot, but it specifically started this plot, Dart would have been out fighting anyways. When he gets the opportunity to find a place to hide, or at least get back to his personal problems and goals, he chooses to get involved because he has the skills to help Basil, and he wants to help them. And all of this happens before he becomes a Dragoon, so at this point he's just a badass fighter, but nothing really special.
Adding to this, you've got the Dartmaster Bromance, which is pretty excellent. The two of them really do work well together, and they have the best chemistry in the cast so far. And you've got Rose. Right now she's pretty much all style, but she's harsh and practical and is willing to go along and help the group. Now, if her mysteries weren't revealed, or if they were bad, then she'd be a much worse character, but I recall them being solid enough.
As for the plot, it's a nice low stakes beginning. You've got a simple civil war, an ancient legend which wasn't 1000 years ago (though, I think they don't quite get how freaking long 11,000 years is), and a few hints that the two are actually connected. It all holds up quite well after the years.
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Compare Borderlands split screen with Goldeneye split screen and a big issue with Borderlands co-op becomes pretty obvious.
(http://www.gamegrin.com/assets/Uploads/_resampled/resizedimage638365-1-mpu-goldeneye-splitscreenMPU-id1379321681-343178.jpg)
(http://picresize.com/images/tbl1.jpg)
That clutter man.
(Though again it might be tolerable on a gigantic screen)
Borderlands couch co-op is honestly one of the worst couch multiplayer experiences you can get nowadays, but it does provide progression, which is often absent from couch MP. As far as progression based couch multiplayer games go I'd rather recommend Diablolikes over it (GC Baldur's gate, Dungeon Siege 3, I'm probably missing new ones)
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Couch co-op would require playing an FPS with a controller. Fuck that.
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You play Borderlands on 4 PCs with voice chat or in the same room what the fuck is wrong with you guys.
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You play Borderlands on 4 PCs with voice chat or in the same room what the fuck is wrong with you guys.
Lesser races don't understand the glory, Gref.
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They could at least I dunno play on Vita or something?
You guys should probably maximise your ability to talk shit about the shooters I play at the moment though. Counterstrike introduced a new gun that is some amazingly bad balance, so for once the most popular CS variant isn't the best competition FPS at the moment.
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Eh I'll get Vermintide next time it goes on sale but NOT before
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Vermintide's new patch helps a bit with the loot RNG. It is in a nice place at the moment, so yeah do rec on sale.
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It is also on my list come the next time it's on sale.
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Bravely Default challenge continued
Gigas Lich (3 resets) - Actually this turned out not quite as bad as I thought. I don't really get Slam's mechanics, it seems to do roughly the same damage regardless of whether I default or not, and whether I use Nothing Ventured or not? May investigate in later fights. Regardless it's a high 2HKO without warning and where my healing sucks. It's terrible. If he uses it a lot there really isn't much I can do, 4 X-Potions don't fully patch me up and would bleed me dry pretty quickly anyway... I stock up on 20 for the fight which is a huge investment.
The bad news is that Slam sucks and I have nothing that really helps, the good news is that he doesn't use it too often and his other attacks are way less scary. Death is a pain of course, but a blocker helps, and it can be reflected (I use a light curtain on a couple occasions with spare turns). Reflect also stops everything else, but the other moves are even less bad: Dread, and Quaga, which thanks to everyone having Swordmaster's L2 ability Abate Earth isn't too big a problem. Even better, below half HP he starts using Quaga on himself, which is a complete waste of a turn as it doesn't even come close to offsetting 4 BP worth of offence.
So I mostly eschew counters and draining and all that nonsense and just largely try to balance damage with lots and lots of healing (mainly Phoenix Downs, but I use all 20 X-Potions as well). I throw the three Elixirs I have at him, because I figure nothing else will ever deserve them as much as this. (I have since decided this might be incorrect... oh well.) They do 9999 each out of his 108k HP, which makes a big difference when my best offence otherwise, Undead Slayer on one PC and the Divine Fists (holy weapon) on another, do about 2500 or so. At a certain point of the fight I go into desperation mode and stop even trying to heal, just reviving, and praying he doesn't use Slam. It's a rare move so this isn't totally crazy. It works. I don't have a remotely reliable strategy for him, which is bad given I'll have to fight him again, but I pull through with luck. I'm Level 51-52.
Alternis Dim - Buy Dark Charms for everyone except one PC with the Dark Shield. The first form of the fight is dead easy. Default then drain, or counterdrain. No problem.
The second part is pretty damn nasty on the other hand. Minus Strike kills anyone, which alone would be fine (see: why Kamiizumi or Qada are wusses). The problem is my revival is only 200 HP, and he can pick off anyone at that HP range, except my Dark Shield PC, with the MT Black Bane. In fact if I'm not defaulting/countering, there's a risk that high variance kills off someone even at 1700 HP (i.e. Phoenix Down + X-Potion), and yes, that's with halving dark! So the only real way to get back to safety is with draining attacks, and since I have to reset drain spellblade every time I die... yeah, this part's dicy. The Dark Shield is hugely helpful, since that PC can laugh at the MT, and thus if I always acted first I could avoid dying by having them toss Phoenix Downs if Black Bane wiped out everyone else, and have someone else revive him if he is hit with a ST non-elemental attack. I don't always go first, though, and that makes this battle rather scary. I use 48 Phoenix Downs in all, which I think might even be a record for one fight thus far.
Orthros 2 (3 resets) - I decide to hit him up first. I figure he won't be too bad, Ice Charms/Iceflame Shield on everyone, I now have elemental damage to control the heads... and yeah I run into a lot of trouble. His damage has roughly doubled since the first fight (relative to the time), which means each head has MT 2HKO if I'm not defaulting. Which means this is the first boss who potentially has the ability to one-round my party, at no extra BP cost, every turn, with Blazzard x2. Of course we don't see that potential, but still I misplay this fight a few times as that's a lot of potential damage, even controlling the heads, and recovering against it is hard.
Fortunately, counters are really good here, since Orthros uses a lot of MT and gets two attacks per round, all physical = lots of draining counters! I decide to have my two spellblade-counterers focus exclusively on that until one of the heads die. The other two PCs, one with the Iceflame Shield, buy them some time. On turn 1 the Iceflame Shield user uses Ice spellblade and disables one of the heads, on turn 2 (after a default) the other attacker (my ranger) uses a fire-enhanced Beast Slayer to hit the other. This allows my counterers to safely default a few times to build up extra BP with which to reset drain spellblade, if necessary, and spam Nothing Ventured from there, meaning they can't really die. Once one of the heads falls, the rest of the fight is really easy, although due to bad luck I do finish with my ranger dead, a loss of 999 JP. :( This fight is way easier than Gigas Lich and doesn't deserve to have 3 resets, but that's the way these things go. This is even more true when you consider the next paragraph, which I should have done first.
At this point I realise looking things up that there's a Thief Knife hidden in one of the dungeons, which allows me to steal things. Now, BD steal isn't that great a lot of the time, but in chapter 5, it lets me pick up Iceflame Shields. So I go steal those from the Kobold Slashers in the Norende ravine. Easy enough. I now have four of them, which will make future refights against Orthros and Rusalka much easier. I'm much less comfortable about Chaugmar and especially Gigas Lich's second appearances. In Chapter 6 I'll be able to get access to the Muramasa, a katana which can use Defang, and lower their Atk to make them much easier, but for chapter 5... we'll see.
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Bloodborne DLC:"oh my god this new weapon is so cool" x3
I have no twin shards left.
I'm maining Boom Hammer + Amygdala Arm, going through the old game for chunks.
Level design is so cool and interesting it hurts.
I haven't encountered a boss yet, except for a few crazy hunters plus that thing near Amelia plus BSB. Yeah,
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Bloodborne DLC:"oh my god this new weapon is so cool" x3
I have no twin shards left.
I'm maining Boom Hammer + Amygdala Arm, going through the old game for chunks.
Level design is so cool and interesting it hurts.
I haven't encountered a boss yet, except for a few crazy hunters plus that thing near Amelia plus BSB. Yeah,
DLC is fairly generous for ore, like From DLC generally is because hey new weapons to upgrade. There's one more rock (this is generous by Bloodborne standards) and enough chunks to get I think two weapons to +9 (again, generous for Bloodborne, this isn't Monty Haul Souls 2). Twin shards, whatevs, you can buy those eventually. Amygdala Arm is extremely cool. I didn't dig the Boom Hammer, though, like I disliked most of the weapons that didn't have a true alternate weapon mode and just had a "hit L1 for brief buff" instead.
Of course the best thing DLC gives you is just a power-up for the Beast Claw, because you guys know my favorite way to tear these games to pieces is with bear hands.
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Subterfuge: My last game didn't go so hot. Got triple-teamed from the very beginning. Including a backstab. Protip: don't backstab someone on the very first day when they don't trust you anyway. Build up a few days of trust so that they leave their flank exposed to you, *then* backstab them.
I actually pulled off some miraculous defense. I had inspector and smuggler as my first two specialist draws. So I shuttled the inspector back and forth, constantly recharging my shields and inflicting massive losses. Two of the three guys that attacked me didn't get a single one of my lands. But three against one is too much and the third guy slowly whittled me down. I dumped my remaining lands and specialists to another guy that had helped me and he won.
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I think I want to get through NG+ as a beast.
Or do a bloodtinge run and main the gatling gun
Boom Hammer's lack of an alternate moveset was definitely disappointing (I'm maining the gross and weird arm, not the hammer), but the cool fire effects, the name "Boom Hammer", and the way you acquire it are just awesome.
I can buy twin shards but that costs insight! 2 for each twin shard, so 32 insight per weapon.
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Oh. Well, twin shards eventually go on sale for echoes, but I forget what the unlock timeframe is.
Gatling gun is hilarious against large enemies, pretty bad against small ones (because they get knocked down by the first bullet and then the rest miss). I'm not sure if this was lag making enemies wig out or what, but I co-oped the latter stages of the chalice gauntlet with my brother last week and it seemed like dual gatlings would stunlock most anything.
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I'm playing Shovel Knight's Plague of Shadows mode, I'll post some thoughts when I'm done. And Bravely Default, obviously. But this post is about
Legend of Legacy - Beaten. Eloise as main, Garnet and Liber as the other PCs. I shouldn't have used Liber, he reminds me of Zidane... but by the time I figured out how to recruit other PCs he had learned too much useful stuff. Eloise was primarily a defender with staves (staff parrying is cool) but also had all the fire and wind spells, including the fire contract. Liber's speciality was speed ("support" as the game calls it, thanks LoL mechanical opacity), had my 200 HP healing accessory, some bow/1Hsword attacks, and various water spells + water contract. Garnet was the heavy hitter with greatswords, held the wind contract, and had a bunch of water spells.
Reading up about the game I learned there are actually different stances (states which you choose at the start of the round, they change your stats/etc. and kinda resemble FF13 roles except that they don't restrict your skillset) besides the first three you start the game with. The way you get them is both kinda unintuitive and grindy, which is a shame because they have some kinda interesting potential.
They also made the final battle notably easier. Big things which helped were putting Garnet in the stance which boosts speed a lot the turns I needed to refresh Water Shield, using the stance which boosts attack at the expense of speed for turns on offence, and using the stance which boosts durability on turns spent healing or spamming contracts. I also spammed the water contract like mad so the final's MT magic wouldn't wreck me, and spammed Fluid Strike (staff parry + counter). I didn't think it would work against MT physicals, but apparently it does, and one of the boss' scariest move involved using a mid-power MT physical three times a round, so yeah countering that was great.
Anyway the gameplay of this game is at its best pretty interesting and certainly unique, at least once you figure out some key mechanics the game doesn't tell you about (i.e. how the elemental field affects the damage of physicals and magic). But it also goes through some dull points, including a very slow start. Pacing-wise it took me like 26 hours, I think, which is too long for what the game is. So it's a Saga Frontier file which takes 2-3x longer, has no plot, and in which your party consists of three instead of five, entirely humans instead of Saga's racial diversity. It adds up to a notably worse game. At the end of the day the only thing it really has is a decent battle system, which for a game that is weak everywhere else isn't really enough. (Nice art, too.)
3/10.
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Bloodborne DLC:
- Overall, it's a good expansion, as good as AotA.
- The Fishing Hamlet and Research Hall are fantastic additions to the game; some of my favorite areas in all of the Souls franchise. Bosses are a mixed bag.
- I focused on Simon's Bowblade (because I love archery and always go for archer builds first in games) with the Evelyn. The Bowblade breaks the maingame; most bosses are made much easier with a cheap, reliable projectile. It is considerably less useful in the DLC, but still good in a few areas and versus one of the bosses. The dagger portion of the weapon is a whole lot of fun, reminding me a little of Scimitars in DeS and DaS.
- Other weapons and stuff looked cool, but I'm not sure how many times I would be willing to slog through some of this content to see it all for myself.
- On to bosses. "Sword Guy" was incredibly tough and had a frankly unfair jump attack, but went down to determination in the end after about a week of attempts. I would equate that battle with Artorias; it was fantastic and a little overwhelming, but probably one of my favorite bosses no matter how I look at it.
- "Pack of Goons" was a nice breather from the previous boss, but was also an interesting fight in its own right. It was like Celestial Emissary from the maingame done better.
- "Flaming Goat" is the boss I almost stopped bothering with. Grad school really wears on your patience for this kind of thing. He ended up being pretty cool in the second half, but easily cheesed by a ranged build.
- "Sword Lady" was an awesome battle, if a bit short due to the strength of ripostes on a SKL build. Incredibly well animated and with lots of pressure. Interesting lore implications.
- "Zoidberg" was incredibly tough, but super satisfying. A bit disappointed there was no cutscene or real closure, but that's Souls for you.
- My one general complaint about the DLC is that most of the treasure is just basic maingame stuff, and while it's nice to have another Blood Rock, aside from the new weapons I felt like a lot of time was wasted looting side areas that had nothing new of interest. Why should I bother dealing with these dangerous mobs for a Coldblood Dew?
- I would also have liked the area to scale better to lower levels, especially since it becomes available so soon. I don't play New Game+, so now if I want to experiment with a weapon buried deep in these areas, there's not much point since I have to wait until so late in the game and would basically have to play on NG+ to get any mileage out of them. This complaint is probably not solvable without sacrificing the quality of content some; more of a personal issue with game progression for me.
- In short, if you liked Bloodborne a lot you'll like this content too, though $20 is fairly steep. If the price is dissuading you, I'd hold off for a sale. There's some much needed lore added, interesting combat, and some hideous but fascinating areas, but nothing essential by any means.
- I doubt I will finish any more games this year, but it seems a bit soon to say. I can tell you that, while this DLC was good, it didn't push this game above Undertale for me and MGSV is close competition for sure.
Life is Strange: I was intrigued by the time travel concept, but this game made me feel like a really grumpy old man. I cannot sit through 15 hours of teenagers talking the way these characters do.
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Okay, I beat Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows
Overall Plague Knight mode isn't as fun as Shovel Knight mode, mostly because the stages are still designed for Shovel Knight, fundamentally. And Plague Knight's controls are a bit weird. Still, it's fun; I enjoyed the more comic turn of playing as a mad scientist ("The better the alchemist... the bigger the explosion!") and the writers seem more adept at comic writing than serious writing generally. They also integrated Plague Knight's story into the main story surprisingly well (that is, both stories coexist simultaneously, without contradicting each other), which I wasn't really expecting. And on a purely gameplay note, the system of different bombs as well as the more traditional MM-esqe special abilities were both fun, so yeah, it's a welcome addition to the game for sure. Good times.
Also, more Bravely Default:
Rusalka 2 (1 reset) - Iceflame Shields mean Dark Flow is nulled, but charm is still a big pain, and the clones are relatively more durable this time. But one big change is I have Dark Knight's Black Bane, which is pretty good MT damage. With Drain Spellblade setup in advance, four of them don't quite kill all the clones, but one more Aquatic Slayer to each gets the job done.
The biggest strategy note is that, for the first time, I actually use the Gale Bow's itemcast for Haste, since making sure the Dark Knight goes first the turn after Dark Flow is crucial (otherwise either charm, or taking enough damage to lower her below 30% where Black Bane can't be used, can ruin all my plans). With the ability to clean up the enemies quickly, and Dark Flow nulled, the only possible complication is charm on other turns, which isn't too bad given how unthreatening other things in the fight are, and because I have two setup turns (Seep, Dark Flow) before the one which matters.
At this point I decide to see if I can fight a dragon without doing anything about Fire/Dark/etc. Bane. Turns out... not really. Even defaulting/countering and with a shield on, it tends to be a low OHKO to most people. Only high 2HKO to some but that's not really good enough. I'll try again in chapter 6, perhaps, because Vampire Castle is the source of a Blood Blade, which would be helpful to get access to, but at this point might as well wait for when I get Defang.
Randoms aren't trivial at this point in the game but nor are they too bad. Phoenix Down spam deals with undead, Black Bane deals with everything else, unless it nulls dark, other strats (blitz or counters) can help out as well. The toughest enemy for my team is the Dark Pudding, which absorbs dark and can hit reasonably hard to both defences, so no strategy works that well. I have a Monk with Divine Knuckles, Hawkeye and Precision, which at least takes them down reasonably quickly.
Chaugmar 2 - I'm a bit worried here, but it turns out that his Energy Burst doesn't even come to close to OHKOing through default. So this is Chaugmar 1 again, but generally a bit easier. Minus Strike and Hidden Dragon remain are the best ways to deal with healing (draining) before Energy Burst, I foolishly come in with this on less people than I should, but still, the people with those can't really die too easily, so it's not too bad. I'll know better for next time. Other people may die before Energy Burst (because I can't drain while the shield is up, and can't drain the turn Energy Burst is used, since I won't be defaulting... although Nothing Ventured provides a possible avenue). Not bad though.
Gigas Lich has a lot of potential to ruin my day again. Hopefully not. We'll see.
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Civ5- Playing this off and on again with the new Enlightenment era mod. The extra era largely helps the player- it's something else for Deity/Immortal AI to waste hammer and beakers on ineffectively, and gives you more time to catch up. It's still pretty fun and well designed though.
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fell off the wagon
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Emily is Away: Andrew college years AOL Instant Messenger simulator. Shockingly accurate. Short, fun little thing. Kind of a downer.
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jsh for what it is worth, fairly universally people seem to think the dialogue improves in Life is Strange after episode 1.
Elf, I missed you getting Dark Knight and presumably deciding on your rules for job juggling. Did you just go with 4/5 in use and must be unique?
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Civ5 - Incidentally, I also fired up Civ5 while waiting for SC2:LotV to install and then ended up just playing Civ5. Pangaea, Small map, Japan, Emperor difficulty. Late game is really boring and easy on Emperor, it turns out; once I took down the second Civ of the game and got to Crossbowmen and Cannons there wasn't really much competition.
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jsh for what it is worth, fairly universally people seem to think the dialogue improves in Life is Strange after episode 1.
Elf, I missed you getting Dark Knight and presumably deciding on your rules for job juggling. Did you just go with 4/5 in use and must be unique?
Yup.
A couple hours after getting Dark Knight I remembered Snowfire's suggestion to force myself to use the secondary of whatever job I'm not currently using, which is a pretty good one, but by that point I had already broken that rule several times and anyway I'm certainly not worried about the lategame being too easy, so I decided to go without that particular restriction.
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Bravely Default chapter 5 end:
Gigas Lich 2 (6 resets) - Okay let's talk about him some more.
First of all, he has 25% more HP this time, which I was counting on, as well as 100 Def instead of ~50, cutting my damage by almost a third, which I was not. As such he's more durable than last time (I was kinda expecting less) so that's even more time for things to go wrong and Slam to wreck me.
Slam's mechanics are pretty straightforward now that I've watched them carefully: it's just a MT physical which ignores Default. If used turn 1 it's only a good 3HKO, but it rises to a very solid 2HKO over the first five turns, and there's nothing I can do about it. As per previous comments, Death is also kinda annoying, Quaga and Fear aren't too bad but do affect strategy.
Anyway, with this knowledge on hand, Default suddenly becomes not that great in this fight, since it only reduces Quaga, and storing up BP can backfire due to Fear reducing BP to zero when it lands. Still, it's good to store up some BP just in case of emergencies, which definitely happen in this fight because Slam does more damage than four X-Potions can heal. I generally default either once or twice before trying to get rid of BP. Let's talk setup:
-Dark Knight twinked for HP and Minus Strike, along with a Divine Knuckles and See You in Hell, which kicks in a lot. She gets played differently from anyone else in this fight, as I leave her at low HP once she ends there, never healing there, for Minus Strike/See You in Hell use.
-Monk and Ranger, both based around using Divine Knuckles and Undead Slayer. I only have two Divine Knuckles and the Dark Knight monopolises one, so they have to share, but that works pretty well. These two have my lowest offence outside of a high-HP dark knight, so both end up doing a fair bit of healing/revival.
-Spell Fencer with Sword Magic Amp and Pressure Point. He's my only character with Holy Spellblade, and although it costs 160 MP (!), it's worth it as the combination of holy on my strongest bow and the defence-ignoring Pressure Point yields over 8000 damage, which even at the cost of an extra BP is my best offence. He also has my lone Safety Ring, because Death making me recast Holy Spellblade is bad both for the wasted turn and the MP cost (I can cast it twice before needing to turn to a Turbo Ether).
Basically the strategy is to output damage when possible, while dealing with the other threats. Slam still really sucks, and necessitates healing. I always try to get at least one PC to survive another Slam, and getting more up there (except the DK) is better, but not always possible, since I don't really want to borrow turns to do it. Highest priority for keeping HP up is the Spell Fencer, since Death cuts through anyone else's HP, mkaing me feel like I wasted turns. From 200 HP it takes two X-Potions to get someone to survive Slam, otherwise whether one or two is needed to recover varies. When hit with Fear, I don't heal it, since the ability to brave/default isn't THAT valuable and it wears off on its own in pretty quickly anyway, so I just use those solo turns for healing, reviving, and attacking as needed. Revival is almost always a high priority, as I want as many people regaining BP as possible.
Like the first Gigas Lich fight, it does eventually spiral increasingly out of control, but by counting his 135k HP, I just need to get to around 75-80k damage done, and then I can unleash my Elixirs (2 normal, one Mega), and a brave-blitz to try to take him out. Last couple turns are pretty hairy as I need revival to get the final brave-blitz out but it works, and fortunately he wastes one of his low-HP turns on healing himself for 2k. Ha! I was Level 55-56.
Alternis 2 - Exactly the same as the first fight, really. My offence is slightly higher but whatever. Same easy first half, same scary second half which I very, very easily could have lost if I'd been speed-haxed at the wrong time. Incidentally Alternis seems notably faster than his listed 42-44 speed, or my luck is really screwy.
Currently in the middle of blue chest hunting, bashing randoms. I picked up Dark Nebula. You might say its performance so far is...
(http://static.hometheaterforum.com/imgrepo/c/cd/htf_imgcache_28060.jpeg)
... stellar.
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Slam's mechanics are pretty straightforward now that I've watched them carefully: it's just a MT physical which ignores Default. If used turn 1 it's only a good 3HKO, but it rises to a very solid 2HKO over the first five turns, and there's nothing I can do about it. As per previous comments, Death is also kinda annoying, Quaga and Fear aren't too bad but do affect strategy.
What? Does he have Atk boost I forget?
-Dark Knight twinked for HP and Minus Strike, along with a Divine Knuckles and See You in Hell, which kicks in a lot. She gets played differently from anyone else in this fight, as I leave her at low HP once she ends there, never healing there, for Minus Strike/See You in Hell use.
????????????????? apparently BD mechanically works nothing like I remember, I have in my head that Minus Strike is like ??? in FF series, not that it is a physical with amplified multiplier at lower HP (like um other shit in FF).
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jsh for what it is worth, fairly universally people seem to think the dialogue improves in Life is Strange after episode 1.
I can attest to this. In particular, the opening scene with the photography class is incredibly bad and cringeworthy, but they make jokes in later episodes about things like "hella" so I think they learned their lesson a bit.
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Gref:
Gigas Lich's physical and magical attack rises by 10% at the end of every round. In a normal playthrough you dispel that shit, or debuff him, to stop it from being a problem (or cheese him with a Bravely Second Elixir or One More For You if that's more your style).
Minus Strike is indeed the same as ???, so the weapon doesn't matter there (and initially I had the DK set up with just a defender + shield), but See You In Hell is a free counter of 4x weapon damage whenever you die, and that ended up adding up to more than I expected.
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Alternis 2 - Exactly the same as the first fight, really. My offence is slightly higher but whatever. Same easy first half, same scary second half which I very, very easily could have lost if I'd been speed-haxed at the wrong time. Incidentally Alternis seems notably faster than his listed 42-44 speed, or my luck is really screwy.
Hard bosses get a 20% bonus on their randomized initiative variation speed, IIRC. So uh yeah, they're generally faster than their listed speed.
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Gref:
Gigas Lich's physical and magical attack rises by 10% at the end of every round. In a normal playthrough you dispel that shit, or debuff him, to stop it from being a problem (or cheese him with a Bravely Second Elixir or One More For You if that's more your style).
Minus Strike is indeed the same as ???, so the weapon doesn't matter there (and initially I had the DK set up with just a defender + shield), but See You In Hell is a free counter of 4x weapon damage whenever you die, and that ended up adding up to more than I expected.
Ahhh yeah now that you mention it I remember (he was post Vampire for me so... toolkit resolves everything)
I guess I wasn't taking into account how much See You In Hell would be going off and how much below damage cap you are for it to be so impacting.
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Well finally been a month of steady internet, so I guess I can actually post what I've been doing in the intern (Aside from FF14 Summoner and Fate Grand Order Nobu goshdarn silliness)
Tales of Grace f:
Well I did stop in a good spot, going to go visit Pascal's sis. Also have been trying to master the art of Huberting. I'm not doing particularly well. Also attempted to do the Warrior's Roost challenge WELL ahead of when I need to try it (EXP please.) I got to Veigue...and promptly got creamed by AI. That actually got me to continue plot. SO I'm going to try to continue story sometime next week. I want to try to beat Tales of Grace f main scenerio soon.
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Final Fantasy Type-0: Started this up, played the first real mission of Chapter 2.
So far, battle system seems like it could be interesting and does rely heavily on who you use. One thing I do have to slam the game for is in the prologue, they throw you against a boss with changing your non-Ace characters immediately. Naturally you're going to want to try out new fighting styles...oh look, boss just murdered you before you had a chance! Seriously, they really should have let you play as those two briefly before doing that. The sad part is boss isn't that hard if you just use Ace like the game wants you to, but honestly, they should have kept it to Queen and Nine the entire way, maybe showing the others fighting in cutscenes to go "hey look, they are bad asses too!"
The voice acting is bad. Well, ok, the narrative stuff was fine and those council members didn't stand out, but the actual Class Zero characters? Little emotion, little inflection, really comes off like they're just reading scripts with putting just enough effort to make it "better than PS1 era voice acting." Feels like this was a rushed job or something, and don't give me this "well, it was a PSP game!" nonsense (not sure why it'd matter), because Crisis Core and Dissidia were the same way and had way better voice acting (...ok, Dissidia had on and off moments, but even it's "off" moments demonstrated some sense of effort)
Likewise, you can totally tell this is a PSP game. Game looks fine during gameplay segments, but in some cut-scenes, the character models look off...and again, "PSP game" doesn't feel like a full legitimate excuse as Crisis Core I remember looking significantly better.
Other things I notice? Game seems to think it's a mainline game in the way it has the victory theme, Prelude, Chocobo Theme AND Moogle Theme. On top of that, monsters actually resemble their traditional selves, like Bombs look like Bombs. That latter aspect makes me scratch my head at people insisting this is the same universe as FF13, because so far nothing matches up other than the usage of the term "l'Cie" which feels like a carry over when the FNC was still a thing. FF13 had FF enemies, but they all looked different from their classic look, like Bombs were in big octagon things.
Additionally, the OTHER terms don't match up. Ok, Eidolon does, but Eidolon is used in many FF games, most obviously FF9, and Eidolons in Type-0 have a more classic look to them contrast to FF13's Eidolons which were very techno-organic in look; just compare Type-0's Odin to FF13's. Other things?
-Moogles in FF13 were suppose to be considered a myth, to the point where they named Mog "Mog" in FF13-2 because he was believed to be the only Moogle so they named him after that. Type-0, they're everywhere.
-"Magitek"; this term has been getting around lately, but FF13 notably never used it. It had something similar in Mana Drive engines, but if this was FF13's world, they'd have called it Mana Drives. The usage of the term "Magitek" is a specific term started in FF6 and reused a few times throughout, but never in FF13 to my recollection
-"Magicite" as well; again a term used throughout the franchise multiple times, but FF13 was not one of those times.
-The Lore just seems completely different. The game talks about Magic being used like it's an art, but I believe FF13 states that it was a power granted to l'Cie by Fal'cie. I think 13-2 suggests Serah gained her powers from wielding Mog, and Noel from training with Caius and gaining some Chaos powers or some crap, but I digress, they do seem to highly suggest that normal humans can't use magic. Meanwhile, they talk about an ENTIRE COUNTRY using it as their primary weapon in Type-0.
-The Crystals. Yeah, 4 crystals weren't a thing in Cocoon or Pulse last I checked!
I dunno, maybe playing the game further will throw more allusions...but this feels so drastically distant from FF13's setting outside of the term "l'Cie." Like if the original FNC idea of there being more giant orbital cities LIKE Cocoon was clearly still a thing (which it's not; 13-2 pretty much killed that idea), and this was taking place on one of the others, thereby appropriately distant from the events of FF13 to not be affected by them, I could buy it, but so far? Feels like any connections to FF13 this game has are just carry overs from the original idea, not actual intended connections. Kind of like parallels you can draw between XG and CT in that regard, or DMC1 and the Resident Evil series.
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From what little I've seen, Type-0 is as close as you can possibly get to being FF8 with better costumes. Seriously those capes fucking nail it.
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It is about inter-dimensional travel.
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Meeple: I think the differences are "working as intended", just possibly not a great idea. Type-0 is still a descendant from Fabula Nova Crystalis, but apparently the pretentious original intent really was for these to be separate universes that are "thematically connected", whatever that means. By "tale of the new crystals" as the central idea. Yeah. Every game can then interpret whatever the hell that means on its own, except sharing a few terms.
It didn't really work.
(n.b. if anybody is bored, read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabula_Nova_Crystallis_Final_Fantasy#Themes & the Creation section and see if you can puzzle out WTF was going on. Sheesh, I totally endorse wanting to use different casts of characters between games, but just do what Ivalice did and have big time gaps to explain away any differences.)
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An idea from the FF13 development cycle didn't quite pan out?
(http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110618205941/chrono/images/c/c0/Chrono-trigger-but-the-future-refused-to-change-300x225.jpg)
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Almost done winning another game of Subterfuge. Tried a no-mining game, where you have to control 50 outposts to win. I don't like it as much as the standard game. Here's what three princesses and two sentries looks like:
(http://i.imgur.com/6BeVfmo.png)
It's like having your own personal Death Star.
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Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin - The legendary plot twists have me hoooked, this guy that we only met once's daughters are vampires?!?!?!
DMC3 - Just watched a srs cutscene and Dante riding a missile back to back
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Meeple: Apparently the whole FF13 and Type-0 connection is solely that they are two universes with the same gods (or at least Etro), which is why all the terms connected to her (l'Cie et al) are the same.
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Life is Strange Episode 2: I'm handling all the choices the same way I would irl
As a result everyone's life is pretty well worse off
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FF7 - Is this the only game where Magic Hammer drains MP in addition to damaging the enemy's supply? I can't remember it doing so elsewhere off the top of my head. It's also kinda hilarious that Square decided to add MP restoration to the already crazy broken Enemy Skill skillset.
Also, I know that you have to use the first limit of a level to learn the second, but getting a higher level just depends on getting kills, right? Feels a bit weird that Red and Yuffie haven't gotten their first L2 limit yet for me when Cloud's already on Climhazzard.
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Different characters need different kill counts (usually the later you recruit the less they need). Cloud takes like twice as many as the next closest. Cloud be kill stealing yo.
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Nevermind, I just checked the limit menu and Red has L3 limit already. <_< Just didn't notice the messages that they unlocked, apparantly.
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For what it is worth, his level 3 and 4 suck anyway.
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Bravely Default: Start of chapter 6.
I pick up all the blue chests. This gives me lots of chance to fight randoms. Undead die to Phoenix Down spam, most everything else dies to Dark Nebula, which thanks to Magic Sword Amp, Gloom, and Drain spellblade, can fully heal while doing mid-to-high 4 digit damage to everyone. It's not too hard to keep two PCs' Def higher than my DK's attack if she uses a sword (Excalibur, later Chaos Blade) and the other two get Dark Shields, so this works well and blitzes many randoms out of the gate. Black Cait Siths die to blizzard Beast Slayers and Dark Puddings die to Divine Knuckle beatdowns from other PCs. Ambushes and such still suck and can kill me if I get speedhaxed the turn after in particular.
Here are the blue chests of note for me:
-Yoichi Bow: My new strongest weapon, nothing remarkable about it otherwise.
-Muramasa: By far the most important reward, it allows me to Defang (Atk -20%) opponents, which is crucial for various upcoming bosses.
-Chaos Blade: A stronger sword, mostly useful for powering one-handed Dark Nebulas.
-Lustrous Shield: It's a shield with the best Def yet, it nulls light.
-Genji Helm, Royal Crown. Genji Armour: Boring upgrades to defence.
-Luminous Robe: Somewhat more significant, this has the same defences as an Adamant Vest (best storebought light armour) but also boosts light damage by 50%. This stacks beautifully with Divine Knuckles on a Monk.
-Brave Suit: Great defences, and gives you +1 BP to start the battle, which is great.
I get all the rest, mostly selling the superflouous stuff, though I keep the Genji Gloves (highest-def accessory, lol who uses accessories for that this late) and Death Axe (itemcast Kill, which slays enemies 10+ levels below the caster) just in case.
Chaugmar 3 - Well I have to do his dungeon anyway for the Genji Helm, and uh he's really easy now, see Chaugmar 2 except now I have two PCs with Minus Strike and can Defang him to make Energy Burst wussier.
The Dragons
At this point, there are quite a few things in Vampire Castle I want, and with Defang, I finally have the tools to go dragon hunting. So let's talk about them!
The dragons are almost identical bosses. Every third turn they will make the entire party weak to their element, and on all other turns they use a breath of that element. or a singletarget physical which isn't too scary. The big problem is that weakness + dragonbreath can OHKO people if they aren't defaulting, though tankier PC, and I'll be seeing that a lot. Defang reduces this to the point where tankier PCs can avoid this, which more importantly means they can avoid a 2HKO if they default. Since they can only use breath two turns in a row (since every third is used to inflict weakness), this is really key for having anyone but counter-users survive.
Nothing Ventured with Drain Spellblade is key to the fight, and I have two people (the maximum possible at this point) with it, allowing me to do good damage with draining counters on the turns breath is used. The other two PCs just try to survive on the breath turns by defaulting, then heal up. The Dark Knight will use a draining Minus Strike and Muramasa's Defang on the third turns to keep his Atk under control, while the Monk uses Pressure Point which does plenty of damage against their defence, so they basically use these turns to heal up. Counter-users can either default to save BP on the third turns, or refresh spellblade.
That's the theory anyway. If things go wrong then I try to use extra turns to revive, use X-Potions, etc. Generally any problems are manageable. Onto the specifics...
Salamander - Fire dragon. Unremarkable. Iceflame Shields null the first two turns, getting me plenty of time to set up. I know he's the easiest so I fight him first and use him to get my strategy down.
Wyvern - Wind dragon, also unremarkable, except this time the first two turns aren't free. One of my counterers has the Brave Suit, so I have her use Drain / Defang / Nothing Ventured on turn 2 to hopefully weaken the second breath if needed, and more X-Potions are required to patch things up in these opening rounds. But once I settle in, easy.
Shinryu - Light dragon, breath inflicts blind. Monk's blind immunity goes on all PCs, at the expense of some HP, typcially. Lustrous Shield can protect one PC who uses Defang turn 1. Resists holy, weak to dark, which means my Monk's Pressure Point is far weaker, but Dark Nebula scores a weakness, so I use Dark Nebulas on turn 3 and use Diamond Staff + Dark Shield Pressure Points for healing which isn't full, but tends to be adequate.
Ladon - Earth dragon, breath inflicts paralysis. Ranger's paralyse immunity goes on all PCs. Like wind, there's no easy opening rounds here, but past that there's nothing too notable.
Jabberwocky - Dark dragon, breath inflicts dread. This isn't a problem at all to the counter-users, for whom defaulting is a luxury which I can do without (I just refresh drain spellblade if they're suffering from fear on a turn divisible by three). For the other two PCs, dread could fuck them up by preventing default, so I buy one Courage Ring to go with the one I have already, and give them those. They lose some speed/damage but it's fine. Dark Shields protect both counter-users on the opening rounds.
Mizuchi (7 resets) - Okay this one is by far the worst.
This is the ice dragon, and Its breath inflicts stop ~50% of the time. There's no way to stop that (not even a Ribbon) except with a Time Mage passive, and I have no way to avoid the attack. This is pretty terrible and makes the whole fight a crapshoot. The biggest adaptations I make are to dispense with countering, since a counterstance which ends in my being stopped is a waste of BP. I just try to go for draining attacks on every third turn, applying Defang when I can, and in desperation, trying to go for draining attacks at the start of turns he might attack, if it will take me from "OHKOed even through default" to "can probably survive an attack if not defaulting". It's dicy, and needs some gambles, even on the winning run there are a couple of times where I make plans based on the assumption that if the boss uses Ice Breath this turn, I'll just lose. There's nothing remotely reliable about this strategy, but after a few tries it works out.
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FF7 - Is this the only game where Magic Hammer drains MP in addition to damaging the enemy's supply? I can't remember it doing so elsewhere off the top of my head. It's also kinda hilarious that Square decided to add MP restoration to the already crazy broken Enemy Skill skillset.
To be fair, Magic Hammer is not exactly a common spell. It's FF5, FF7 and FF9 only IIRC. That said, yeah, only game it heals MP.
FF Type-0: Beat Chapter 2.
Getting better sense of gameplay but I'll still with-hold judgment for later. I need to play more of this. It's not the game's fault I've been lagging; it's been a combination of things...mostly FF14, though considering my current scenario, I'm mostly relegating FF14 playing to weekends now so I can leave time for other things. Cut back on the addiction and all that (I intend to time my playing of FF14 to Saturday mornings, so I can knock off Friday AND Saturday Dailies in the same go.)
That said, Jack hits hard as hell, but good lord he can't move! I was pissed off at the boss since I had 2 support characters I couldn't swap to while using Jack against a HIGHLY MOBILE BOSS! ...then boss crashes and becomes immobile and Jack slaughters him in 2 passes...so I realistically couldn't complain.
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Guacamelee Super Turbo Championship Edition: Bad end get? I guess?
Fun gameplay. Much more satisfying than Pirate's Curse. Powers are cool and varied and come at you pretty quick. Combat's fun. Game moves fast. Art style is great.
Holy shit does the Mexican Aesthetic and the goofy meme/reference humor clash weirdly sometimes.
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Bloodborne: HOLY SHIT THE WHIRLIGIG SAW. I TAKE EVERYTHING BACK THIS IS THE BEST WEAPON.
Oh my god it is so great. Cid was right. Strength build is the best. There is no way any other weapon can be better than this.
I'm sad I just used my only blood rock to upgrade the Amygdala Arm to full ;_;
In the DLC, I just beat the most important character in the game aside from Gerhalt and the doll? Yeah. Bloodborne doesn't have many important characters.
Nuclear Throne: This got an official release, and got released on PS4 and Vita. I bought it again.
PS4 version feels wrong. The graphics are wrong, the controls are wrong.
Vita version is cool. Controls are much less precise than KB + Mouse on PC, so I activated 100% autoaim in the settings. This... doesn't seem to do much, but I'll take any placebo effect thx.
I got very lucky and found the golden wrench as Steroids on my first hour or so of play. In runs I often find a second wrench or a screwdriver very early on, so I can just very easily go dual wielding melee weapon only and spam nonstop. This works really well with Long Arms (obviously), Stress, Euphoria, and Extra Feet, in that order. I did manage to loop once (=finish the game) with this setup despite still being terrible at it.
It is still an absurdly addictive game, and unlocking everything would take hundreds of hours. (but not be really useful. Binding of Isaac is better at this than Nuclear Throne, if nothing else)
The patches since I've last played make the game feel even better. Assassins got a big nerf (good idea), Lil Hunter got a big boost (he is the most dangerous boss IMO), the 0-1 boss is now fun, and the junkyard and palace are much more fun. A lot of things vaguely feel better but I'm not sure. Overall it is one of the very best games ever now.
1001 spikes: The game title lies. There are way more than 1001 spikes. Trust me on this. Way more.
This is essentially a masocore game (Like the Mario hacks and I wanna be the guy, but probably less difficult?)
I played through all of it in two days. I got severly addicted guys, and did not expect it at all. Just replaying levels over and over until I got everything right. You get through the whole game (it is impossible) then it goes "THE TRUE 1001 SPIKES STARTS HERE" and the second half of the game is unlocked and it is way more impossible. The hardest levels took 100+ tries.
There are no double jumps. The game has no friction, movement speed is fixed and the character immediately halts when you stop going in a direction. It is just a pure platformer hell. There are shiny trinkets to collect in every level, they unlock characters. The last unlocked character is Curly from Cave Story, she has a jetpack. Curly completely trivializes the game, but you can't play the second part until you've finished it with the default main character.
The only problem with this game is that its story is terrible. It would have been perfect with a La Mulana or Spelunky story, but it had to be stupid about it. There's no drive to go through the game to see the ending! And those sweet Ninja Gaiden-esque cutscenes are ruined!
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Guacamelee Super Turbo Championship Edition: Bad end get? I guess?
Yeah, good end requires finding the six orbs scattered around the game (most are only accessible after you get all the special moves, so you'd have to do extensive map-completion backtracking) and really only changes the ending; the gameplay prize for getting them is the ability to fly in chicken form.
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Good news, fenrir. you can buy blood rocks for insight in the latest patch.
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Huh that's pretty huge! Rocks were the rarest thing.
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Well finally been a month of steady internet, so I guess I can actually post what I've been doing in the intern (Aside from FF14 Summoner and Fate Grand Order Nobu goshdarn silliness)
Who are you! And why are you playing FGO!?
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Good news, fenrir. you can buy blood rocks for insight in the latest patch.
WHAT. When did this happen? I knew you could buy chunks after a certain point (I want to say Unseen Village) but only for thirty insight a pop. I can only presume rocks would be at least as absurdly expensive. EDIT: yep, sixty insight. But chunks are only twenty now! Crazy, short ritual chalice still best way to farm chunks. (That thing actually works pretty well for me at this point.)
There's also 1x rock located near the end of the DLC, but if you can make it that far it's like what do you even need it for? Also it's past brains because of course it is. (It's still easier to get than the Nightmare of Mensis rock.)
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Who are you! And why are you playing FGO!?
Why am I playing it? Because I like the series. Plus I invoked the power of Meeple by naming my account "Meep" (which isn't a good thing). Why is it bad to? I have Gilgamesh, Okita, Jack the Ripper and Arturia. all 5*. And Gilgamesh likes to be a douche at times.
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Since I've played a weird amount of Metroidvania's lately I guess, here is my arbitrary ranking system:
Guacamelee > Dust > Shantae and the Pirate's Curse
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Guacamelee is definitely the best Metroidvania I've played since OOE. Shantae lasted 30 minutes before I got bored.
I found out that Kingdom Hearts, the series with the most ridiculous game titles, has outdone itself: "Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue" is coming out.
"Final Chapter Prologue" is just beautiful. "2.8" is nice, for all that I'd have liked a "5.6/2" more.
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Since I've played a weird amount of Metroidvania's lately
Me too, if by "a weird amount" you mean "Spent 30 hours playing Environmental Station Alpha, if Steam Clock is to be Believed" (it wasn't actually that long, but I accidentally erased my save file most of the way through the game.)
So, Environmental Station Alpha. Is not so much "Metroidvania" as "Game that wants to be Super Metroid in particular." And it mostly does a damn good job of that. It features a number of "oh I don't have the right upgrade to get to X, oh wait can I really do it with just the stuff I have? holy shit I can/nope, I can't" moments. Mostly courtesy of a grappling hook that you can use on any surface that operates quite differently from the Super Metroid one. Really, really solid level design. Your weapon is pretty dinky and short-range, and that kinda seems like an issue, but all the bosses are really well-designed around just that, so in the end it works well. Also, there is a large amount of end/post-game content, some pretty interesting puzzles, and alternate endings. Anyway if you like Super Metroid, particularly the exploration and the way rooms are designed, there's a lot to like in this game. I'm sure it'd be fascinating to route for a speedrun. I noticed one pretty cool sequence break to get to a lategame boss with just grappling hook and horizontal dash (and one carefully-timed instance of intentionally getting hit to get a little extra distance on a jump) and looking at the Steam forums, which the developer is very active on, it looks like a few more have been uncovored as well.
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Guacamelee is definitely the best Metroidvania I've played since OOE. Shantae lasted 30 minutes before I got bored.
I found out that Kingdom Hearts, the series with the most ridiculous game titles, has outdone itself: "Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue" is coming out.
"Final Chapter Prologue" is just beautiful. "2.8" is nice, for all that I'd have liked a "5.6/2" more.
I remember when people laughed at the re-release of the first X-Men movie with a bunch of cut footage that had the bad guy from the second movie in it or something. They called it "X-Men 1.5" and everyone I knew was like "hahahaha motherfucker WHAT????"
It seems so quaint now.
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Well taking a bit of a break from Tales of Grace f to test out the other game I'm going to be playing in the new year: Xenoblade Chronicles X.
First impressions: I died twice because I'm still getting used to the controls. I spent the first hour just grinding my starting class (Drifter) rank to 10, so I could pick one of the specialization classes. So I have a good amount of items atm, while also figuring out the buttons. I found out how to (flawlessly) engage enemies...yes, I'm that bad at games. I traveled to the final part of prologue and ended up pulling a level 60 while trying to fight the level 6-7 enemies. I only got out of that fight because cut scene + ran far enough.
I decided that I didn't hate my life enough, so I'm going to level into the Enforcer class tree. Given that I was able to handle the 3 mini boss monsters before entering the city proper, I think I'll be fine for the time being.
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Since I've played a weird amount of Metroidvania's lately
Me too, if by "a weird amount" you mean "Spent 30 hours playing Environmental Station Alpha, if Steam Clock is to be Believed" (it wasn't actually that long, but I accidentally erased my save file most of the way through the game.)
So, Environmental Station Alpha. Is not so much "Metroidvania" as "Game that wants to be Super Metroid in particular." And it mostly does a damn good job of that. It features a number of "oh I don't have the right upgrade to get to X, oh wait can I really do it with just the stuff I have? holy shit I can/nope, I can't" moments. Mostly courtesy of a grappling hook that you can use on any surface that operates quite differently from the Super Metroid one. Really, really solid level design. Your weapon is pretty dinky and short-range, and that kinda seems like an issue, but all the bosses are really well-designed around just that, so in the end it works well. Also, there is a large amount of end/post-game content, some pretty interesting puzzles, and alternate endings. Anyway if you like Super Metroid, particularly the exploration and the way rooms are designed, there's a lot to like in this game. I'm sure it'd be fascinating to route for a speedrun. I noticed one pretty cool sequence break to get to a lategame boss with just grappling hook and horizontal dash (and one carefully-timed instance of intentionally getting hit to get a little extra distance on a jump) and looking at the Steam forums, which the developer is very active on, it looks like a few more have been uncovored as well.
Did the Super Secret Endings requirements get changed? They were such obtuse absurd bullshit. iloveit
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I'm not sure? They were preeeeetty obtuse, but I'm not clear on whether I've done everything (outside the new DLC research station, which I know I haven't finished.) and I believe some things were changed but I'm not sure those changes were intended to make things easier to figure out...
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Adventure bar story! : Jesus this has the most generic anime look
So. You have this bar/restaurant. The goal is to make $$$. You buy flour and shit from the guy next door, try to guess some recipes (there are hints) then sell food. You can also go to dungeons for other cool (and free) ingredients, and eat your own cooking to make your numbers go up.
I am all "shit how do you make tempura, what is tempura even" so I google it, memorize the recipe, use it in game and it works. This is cool.
In game, beef carpaccio is made with mayonnaise. What the fuck? I googled this and found out that the original recipe actually uses mayonnaise. Wow.
EDU-TAINMENT, guys
The early recipes are absolute garbage. "Salted cucumber: cucumber + salt + no ustensil" Wow. Try selling that in an actual restaurant guys, see how it goes.
I can't tell you about the story. The game just said right away: Do you want to skip it y/n and I said y. I can tell you that there is a huge douchebag with a much bigger restaurant not far from here and I hate him.
Nuclear Throne: is still the best.
10 hours in, I looped with Melting so I am the gun god. If you ignore that I still haven't even seen Mom.
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This deserved a new post:
Melon juice is OP as hell.
That is all
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Exist Archive - It's real! This thing really plays like VP! They are not kidding in calling this VP's spiritual sequel! Also, making the order of the attack>timing of the attack is a good change. Chaining attack is much less stressful now. The start up and the lag between every three attack is the only thing that has to be worried about timing wise.
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This was the game you were talking about at con, Niu?
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Bravely Default Monk/Spellfencer/Ranger/Swordmaster/Dark Knight, Chapter 6-8:
So I think after the last update I'd just beaten the dragons. This gave me access to Vampire Castle, which is cool. Vampire Castle notably includes a Blood Blade (itemcast Drain spellblade, which is great) in a hidden chest, and the Hadean Claws (at 80 power, my strongest available weapon) in a blue chest. And some other stuff which isn't too important. I don't bother fighting the boss here. The randoms can be scary if they get the drop on me (Melusines have charm, Cerberuses just hit hard, and have counters to ST), but blasting away at them with Dark Bane/Dark Nebula works well.
Chaugmar 3-5 - As mentioned previously, Minus Strike and Pressure Point let me heal even when his shield is up, Defang makes Energy Blast wussy, and in general he's the scrub now.
Orthros 3-5 (1 reset) - Still a bit tricky because Blazzard does hurt. Elemental spellblade Defang is a pretty great method of control. Otherwise, keep Iceflame Shields up most of the time, try to keep it so that exactly one head is active at all times (this can largely be accomplished by hitting them with alternating elemental attacks every two turns).
Rusalka 3-5 (1 reset) - Mostly need to maintain respect for charm fucking me up on the blitz turn. Besides that, I by now have multiple Black Bane users, so I use Gale Bow (or Slow and Steady) + Drain Spellblade on them while Seep/Dark Flow is being used (Iceflame Shields block it), then use the hasted attackers to bash away all the clones. My one non-DK is a Natural Talent user who goes all lightning spellblade and does nasty damage with Quigong Waves/Hidden Dragons. I'm able to kill her before the second Dark Flow.
Gigas Lich 3-5 (1 reset) - With Defang, he's far easier than before. Apply that every two rounds to keep his Atk at 85-95%, not too scary. Very different strategy than most other fights still due to no Drain Spellblade, but various methods of holy damage (Holy Spellblade, Divine Knuckles, especially with Luminous Robe to boost one of these) hurt him pretty bad, and the weakened Slam largely can be made up for by X-Potions. Abate Earth sees use on everyone in these fights which is also nice. It's funny, this fight makes me use Monk/Ranger skills on everyone which is the opposite of like, every other fight.
Anyway through these sets of fights my level rises from about 60 to 70-71 at the end. It's actually a pretty good design on BD's part, optional fights in Chapters 5-8 don't give Exp at all in the case of bosses, and not all that much in randoms, while the crystal guardians give a fuckton, so while your job situation may vary considerably (other fights do give plenty of JP), your level is somewhat predictable.
So now I've reached Endgame and have currently walled on the first form of the first boss there, who has MT stop and I can't do anything about it. I probably should have done the bad ending first, and gained some of the equipment there (a Ribbon would be the main nice thing), but it's too late for that now. We'll see how this goes...
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FF7 - Chasing down Ultimate Weapon repeatedly was really damn annoying. Also managing the camera in the region around Cosmo Canyon gave me more trouble than any of plot bosses in the game through disc 2.
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This was the game you were talking about at con, Niu?
Yes.
Exist Archive - Finally enter ch.3 and pass the stupidly draggy beginning, where I can finally access the Purify Wicked... errr I mean Demon's Greed.
But unlike VP, the bar can be charged up to 400%
So instead of recharging between each PWS like VP, Exist Archive makes you do all the charging before hand and unleash as many Demon's Greed as possible at once.
Though, the game is pretty boring until hitting lv.13, which is the earliest possible to increase the job class level, which equates to more attack moves.
The gem drop is also different. Ground combo now drops EXP gems, while air combo drops gems that increase item drop rate.
No more flame jewels that reduce waiting time.
Though, magics waiting time is now different between each spells. Weaker spell has only one turn wait time, thus can be used every turn.
Right now, the team of Kanata/Mitsuhide/Kiriya/Koharu or Mayura are so stable that I don't feel like changing party anymore.
But Namero has one very good skill that I want, so I am kinda forced to use him.
Characters can learn also skills from one another after ch.6, but that requires a certain amount of affinity value between them. Theoretically, everyone can become carbon copy of each other if enough time is invested to make them all like each other.
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How did the setting turn out?
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How did the setting turn out?
The basic setting is this:
Certain alien invaders are attacking a planet that's in charging of cycling the soul of the entire universe.
It became a three way conflict between Amatsume, the goddess who oversee the planet, Yamatoga, the goddess' partner who betrayed her and sided with Xenobia for his own agenda, and Xenobia, the boss of the alien invader.
Amatsume eventually defeated Yamatoga, but because Yamatoga is immortal, she divided him into 12 pieces and exile him into space.
But unfortunately, those 12 pieces eventually fell on to earth and merge with 12 different people.
Which Amatsume finds troublesome so she summon those 12 to her planet. And the game starts from here.
And then this happens:
Amatsume: I can't let you people leave while you are still merged with Yamatoga.
Amatsume: I am super weak right now after overusing my power to summon you here thus can fend off Xenobia no longer, so help me recover my powers.
So the story is pretty much fulfilling Amatsume's demand so they can go home.
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Tragically, the process of getting superpowers have left them all terminally creepy looking. Alas.
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Kuwabara, kuawabara
MGS3 control takes a bit of getting used to after a decade or whatever. After a couple years of playing mostly Souls games/FFXIV? Yeah, tank controls require some readjustment. Anyway, played through tutorial mission, got arm broke by mentor. Does Snake ever get through a cutscene encounter with The Boss without compound fractures? I want to say he doesn't. Nice preview of her actual boss fight there. Random stuff I mostly forgot:
-Ocelot is the best frenemy. Everything he does is so theatrical. Raowr!
-Someone stuck a Japanese pinup poster on the ceiling of Snake's infiltration drone because of course they did.
-I still don't understand how Russia has a jungle.
-I am really really bad at these games. But that's okay because I got a trophy for dropping bees on dudes.
Gonna try tranqing down all the bosses to get the unique suits, but dunno how long my patience will hold out for that (I was never able to get The End's because you actually have to hold him at gunpoint for it or something and I can never remember the basics of CQC). I'm amused that you start the game with all sorts of national flag facepaint, did not remember that being a thing. So you could play the whole game being Mr. Americaface or Mr. Swedenface(!!!) if you really wanted to (although I won't because lack of camo optimization means even more fights for me to flail ineffectually at after inevitably failing stealth again). Also I'm making sure to call Paramedic every time I eat something new because there's actually a lot of radio chatter I've never heard and it's all totally goony.
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They don't have 'jungle', exactly, but they do have temperate rainforest. Russia is really, really big and has a lot of different biomes in it.
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I am always up for some MGS until I remember I have to deal with those controls.
Nuclear Throne: 20 hours in. I'm trying to loop with every character, the ones left are: Fish, Eyes, Rebel, Horror, Rogue.
They were in early access for 1 year and half but the vita port is some kind of mess. 2 FPS during Big Dog's explosion(s), crashes all the time (but only upon death so that's manageable), you can't select crowns, alternate weapons or alternate skins, etc. Fish and Rogue are stuck with bad golden weapons and I can't switch back to their default ones.
Apparently there's already a patch but Sony takes ages to approve, so we're stuck. I still don't want to play anything else so.
I wonder if the weapons with too many particle effects (Nuke Launcher, Super Flak Cannon) will stay forever unusable or not.
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Bravely Default: Poor Life Decisions Edition
So I got to the end of chapter 8. I didn't do the B ending, which in hindsight was a bit of a mistake. Once you've reached this point, you're stuck on the airship and you must beat the next boss before doing anything else. Fortunately the airship includes shops and a dungeon if you need to level, though going elsewhere to get specific enemy steals/drops, stuff only found in specific shops, etc., isn't possible any more. Let's talk boss fights.
Piercer of Boundaries - Larval stage (9 resets before the first victory, 13 resets in total)
She has 70 speed (faster than anyone in my party unless I use Hermes Shoes) and 100 defence (enough to make Dark Nebula not really that great, I tend to use Black Bane instead just because it triggers Adversity more). The relevant skillset I have to deal with:
-Attack: Low-mid 2HKO at base, evadable, generally not an issue.
-Tight Bind: MT stop. The stat topic calls it 50%, but it LIES. Closer to 80% I think. This is hell. There's no way to block Stop with the class set I have, it prevents me from gaining BP or defaulting or doing things that aren't dying. Stop wears off randomly at the end of each turn (1-4 turns, I want to say), and if it wears off immediately you still gain BP that turn, so that's something, but yeah, this can destroy me very, very easily.
-Slaughter: Hugeass 10-random-hit physical which poisons. It's borderline capable of wiping out my entire party if I don't have her attack debuffed and nobody is defaulting, although it really depends where the hits go. Usually if the party is healthy it won't kill me outright, but a beat-up party can easily be taken out by it. The one mercy is it costs an extra BP, so the followup turn is a free one for anyone who survived.
-Poison Punisher: OHKO damage to anyone poisoned. Magical. Defaulting or Before Swine half it to a mid 2HKO.
-Spike Guard: Really bad for my party, she will henceforth counter anything physical with an ITE physical attack which solidly 2HKOs at base (3HKOs if debuffed). Literally everything my party can do is physical, including Minus Strike, so this makes both healing and debuffing her more difficult. After around 5-6 turns after she initiates this she'll lose a turn when it ends.
Her usual AI is to use Tight Bind zero to two times, then Slaughter once or twice, with physical attacks randomly mixed in. Then, Spike Guard, then do the same (although I see Slaughter three times in a row once). Then release, repeat, etc.
Poison Punisher is her "weakness". Why? Because if someone is poisoned, she uses it a lot. As in, it replaces 80% of her turns (except Spike Guard/Release Guard, which happen at the same intervals roughly). This can be abused. Although the attack can't be countered, it can be nulled with Absorb Magic. Thus, my strategy is to leave one (and only one) PC poisoned, who spams Absorb Magic (dark knight ability, initiative magic immuntiy for the round). This fres up the other PCs to do whatever, which includes using an X-Potion every three turns or so to heal the poisoned PC. Other focuses are Defang every three turns when possible, and healing anything from counters and attacks which do slip through. However, this strategy greatly, greatly reduces the chance of seeing Tight Bind more than once in a blue moon, which is huge. It's not foolproof because other attacks do get used sometime, and an Absorb Magic-spamming PC isn't defaulting so bad luck with Slaughter can take them down, and stop means they can't absorb magic and will get poison punished into oblivion next turn.
I end up running two PCs with poison immuinity (including my Monk, my only PC without Dark Arts) and two vulnerable, which increases the chance one gets poisoned. (If two get poisoned, I cure one.) The other two accessories are Hermes Shoes (+20 speed) to have one PC faster than the boss (a second PC runs Slow and Steady so she'll be faster if she defaulted last turn. She defaults a lot, just in case) and a charm-blocker for reasons. I also use the Gale Bow periodically because it's important for injured PCs to go before the boss right after her guard drops to heal up safely, and also for damage-dealing PCs to get the drop on her before she puts her guard back up - a brave-blitz into spike guard ends poorly.
Piercer of Boundaries - Pupal stage (3 resets, so 16 total over both fights)
When the boss is lowered below 15% of her 202,5k HP in the first stage, the fight ends and there's a fresh fight. HP/MP and poison carries over, nothing else does, as per usual for two separate fights. New skillset:
-Flare, various -aga spells, Dark: All of these are MT magic attacks. Flare does borderline 2HKO damage if I'm defaulting, so Iceflame Shields on everyone! They also block Blizzaga. The other attacks are a bit weaker, 3HKO if I'm defaulting and 2HKO otherwise. Still scary!
-Acedia: Literally the worst. Dispel, even gets rid of spellblade (this is bad), makes me weak to all elements. Now the spells do 2HKO if I'm defaulting, OHKO if I don't.
-Luxuria: MT charm, 50% or so. I have two PCs blocking this (one via accessory, one via the Lamia's Tiara from Vampire Castle), so hopefully it only hits at most one other. Can be healed with a faster PC punching them for 1 damage, but still creates problems.
-Irritate: 100% berserk. ST at least. There's no way to get a Berserk blocker, not even a Ribbon works. Remedy it next turn, though like charm this creates problems. Berserked attacks are less dangerous than charmed ones, of course, though they're pretty ineffective because this boss has ridiculous evade.
There's also a basic physical, which I see once in four fights. It's the same as the one from the last fight. Needless to say I don't bother with Defang in this stage.
Anyway, at first I'm a bit despairing of what to do here, since the weakness-boosted offence is just so brutal. MT OHKO every turn! The first three turns aren't TOO bad although not trivial by any means, but on turn 4 and then every 5 (or so. Sometimes it's 6 I think?) turns later we see Acedia followed by three turns of extreme pain.
But... hey, it's all magic! Absorb Magic can null it. Keeps me alive, but not really good enough. And... Before Swine halves it, making it survivable. And mercifully, unlike Poison Punisher, it IS counterable.
So yeah. Three PCs have Bushido for this fight (recall: three have Dark Arts as well; the other two skillsets are a Spellblade and a Martial Arts... but of course, everyone can access Drain spellblade via the Blood Blade). With Drain spellblade and an appropriate setup (Counter Amp, Spellblade Amp, knuckles/bow S rank) they do 7-9k damage on Before Swine counters, fully healing them. Meanwhile anyone not set up to counter can use Absorb Magic. Great!
There are a few problems. The first are the charm and berserk. They mess this defensive strategy up. The statues are sadly not magical and can't be stopped, and if a PC is charmed or berserked while still weak to everything, they're probably dying next turn (not even worth curing). Of course, if the status has worn off, then they can be healed. But yeah, this can punch through my defences.
Secondly, there's BP generation. Spamming stances like this means I have no extra BP for applying drain spellblade, healing if necessary, reviving, etc. The way around this is to default as much as possible when Acedia isn't in effect, especially on the first three turns of the battle. With Iceflame Shields, the status moves, and Acedia itself, it's possible to not suffer much during these turns, although spells which I'm not nulling will need to be healed at some point, using up some of this BP. If everything goes well I maintain BP, rather than lose it, so that's nice at least, and means if I survive an Acedia phase in good shape I can afford to keep using counters/etc. if necessary, though I don't do this if I expect Acedia (i.e. on the fifth turn from the last time it was used).
The final problem is that Acedia removes Drain spellblade. And that she's, generally, faster than I am (in fact, my one faster PC is the one without Bushido). So it's not a simple matter of braving and using Nothing Ventured + Drain spellblade the turn after Acedia: she may attack before I set drain, and while I'll still counter, I lose a lot of health and will need to massively heal next turn. One way around this is to use Absorb Magic + Drain spellblade instead, on the PCs who can; I take no damage while getting things set up. That's okay. But even better is to anticipate Acedia, and use Drain spellblade on that turn; since I'm slower, it'll come right after dispel, and I'll be healthy and ready to go for the turns which come.
Drain + Minus Strike is the best way to heal, but not always practical (if I have the BP, Absorb Magic along with this is very safe indeed). X-Potions can also be used, and I do use them, though they by now restore less than 30% of my HP. Just have to use enough to make halved weakness-hits survivable.
It's rough, and takes several tries as I get the specifics down, but watching a MT magic trigger three nasty counters for 25k+ HP (i.e. 1/8 of her health or so, she also has 202.5k) is pretty great.
Beaten at Level 70-71, used about 30 X-Potions. I also had a Megalixir which I used on many losing runs as a bailout option, but managed to hold it on the winning run. Hardest fight so far? Of course. Might not have been if I'd done the B ending / Dark Aurora already, as I'd have more PCs who would block charm. But the core strategies that let me win (particularly poison abuse) I'd still have had to discover the hard way.
Final dungeon and Dimension's Hasp for more shinies are next.
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Final Fantasy Type-0: Ok, I think I figured out how the gameplay works. You're not expected to survive anything that hits you and you're suppose to dodge like mad since most attacks seem to borderline OHKO me. That's fine, because it seems enemies run off a similar philosophy, so this game is basically "Rocket Tag: The ARPG."
In the middle of chapter 4. So...yeah, I was thinking "hey, a legitimate ensemble cast" until...well...the last two chapters when suddenly all plot is basically "Machina and Rem!" Half the dialog among Type-0 is stuff relating to those two or just those two speaking. The rest is "Oh yeah, I'm a character in this game, time to say something to remind you I'm here!" This isn't factoring in the optional dialog between scenes of course; those are fine!
Honestly, I wouldn't mind it that much if the game just came out and said "ok, Machina and Rem are the main characters and this is about them being newbees into a team full of bad asses" and went from there. Giving us this subplot about Machina and Rem and trying to pretend this is a full-on ensemble hurts, especially when Machina is just an unlike-able whiny dick.
Heck, this sequence made me want to bash my head in:
"So your brother was sent on a mission that somehow involved Class Zero...in a way, Class Zero killed your brother, YOU DON'T TRUST THOSE THAT KILLED YOUR BROTHER DO YOU!?"
"You're right, Class Zero is a bunch of murderers, I'D LEAVE NOW...except Rem :("
That logic makes no sense. Look, if you want to be angry at Class Zero for not being there to help him and save him, that's fair, because the whole "he trusted you,you weren't there for him, how can I trust you guys!?" thing. The "THEY KILLED YOUR BROTHER BECAUSE OF SOME TANGENTIAL RELATIONSHIP TO WHAT ACTUALLY KILLED HIM!" logic is just dumb.
Type-0's writing really suffers from it's cast size. They gave each class member a single personality trait basically putting them on par with a 90s Kids Cartoon, and that's about the extent of their character so far; no time to really develop anyone (save Machina and Rem) because the most we get is some simple fluff conversations to help get the point across "yes, Nine is a brutish idiot" "yes, Queen is an intellectual" and all that. Maybe more happens later, but frankly most plot-related cutscenes happen with characters NOT in Class Zero, and when they do, it's "oh look, more Machina and Rem!", and as I said, Machina is just annoying.
...oh, I should probably talk about Rem too, right? Meh, she's just kind of there, hasn't really done much other than be the ear for Machina, and is all "I'm sick and dying, so I will show this by occasionally seeming weak!"
On a more positive note, the game's lore and setting are pretty cool. It feels like what FF8 was trying to be but failing. The School setting actually works way better here than it did in FF8 (because they actually feel like a class), and feels more like a legit Military Academy than it does a college campus with a hunting range filled with dinosaurs attached.
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Chibirythem 2. Trying to complete the roster of characters, but the game seems deadset on handing me Turquoise shards. Almost as if it's trying to hold the rest of the dregs of the cast hostage to me picking up Kain. This shall not work! >_>
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Amusingly, just last week I got the last character in Chibirhythm 2, though for me it was some FF11 Chick I don't know anything about since I hadn't watched anything beyond Chains of Promathia.
...FF11 could have used ONE male character in Chibirhythm on that note <_<
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The SJWs go on an on about DOA X3 and all, BUT DO THEY EVER MENTION THAT FF11 HAS NO MALE REPRESENTATION IN CHIBIRHYTHM? DO THEY??? Guess the FACTS don't fit their AGENDA.
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Guys that was not sarcasm I am really super mad about this.
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Super. Mad.
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u mad bro?
(http://i.imgur.com/Ahowpov.jpg)
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I have a new hero.
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Actually, it's about ethics ins bkja ntnlkgjmmgnn kkkopplllllththhthth
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Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes: Pretty neat freemium game. Basically a turn-based RPG where you make a team out of characters from across the Star Wars timeline (and even some expanded universe chars like HK-47). You get some random-ass characters at the beginning of the game but it seems almost everything can be farmed, so you can eventually get the chars that you want. There's some neat synergies when using characters from the same faction. I'm working on collecting First Order characters because Captain Phasma is badass.
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Super Robot Wars K - replayed through
Went for restoring the Fafner team as I hadn't done that before. The first hurdle is kind of a terribly jerkish move, requiring you to psychically intuit that the Mark Sechs is going to benefit from upgrades to the Mark Elf, which the guide I was following conveniently didn't mention and I ended up having to sell a bunch of non-consumable items. But it was all worth it as Sakura got to get the last hit on Lugh COBOL.
Focussed pretty heavily on giving kills to people with low kill counts this playthough, as at the start of the final chapter most people have 70 kills or over except Lou on 63, Fafner Kenji on 19, and Shoukou on 13. Of course this meant that Tetsuya K. was only able to get his kill count up to 625. Still several playthroughs required before that can be maxed out then.
Half-Life: Opposing Force - played through
It's Half-Life but shorter.
You don't fight anywhere near as many tanks or helicopters, so that's a plus. I was disappointed that you don't get a heavier shotgun or assault rifle, though. (I guess the chaingun can sort of count as a heavier assault rifle, but not really what I was after.) The sniper rifle was appreciated.
Used the zappy alien gun a little, never really touched the grenadey one. The teleport energy gun was great against the big semi-insect aliens. I tried using the self-teleport function a couple times but it seemed pretty pointless?
The barnacle was a bit janky.
Machina Of The Planet Tree: Planet Ruler - played through
Not good.
Starts off fine enough. Then aways in you get Estiole on your party, and she has so much damage that they counter this by giving bosses regeneration to the tune of most of the damage she can do. So you either need to settle for making very slow progress or get her to use those turns which give you double the amount of actions which I forget the name of, which leaves her useless for the several following turns along with being much more vulnerable. (Sequential actions typically build up a combo counter which increases the power of subsequent actions, so this isn't necessarily a losing trade.)
Eventually her damage falls off, there's a couple of bosses without regeneration, then Retla gets an insanely overpowered weapon and starts doing freakishly large amounts of damage and the regeneration comes right back. And by now, you have the resources to casually restock character SP or whatever stat it was that's drained on a double-action turn that makes them more vulnerable - except bosses are typically able to just one-hit kill Retla even when she isn't affected. By bizarrely high amounts. Retla does typically hit many more times per attack string than Estiole, so she builds up the combo counter to spectacular levels. Definitely got to at least 108 at one point, I tried to take a screenshot for posterity but of course the steam overlay version doesn't work and I forgot to paste the printscreened version somewhere after shutting the game down.
Anyway what I'm trying to say here is: I don't think that this game is very well balanced.
Incidentally, I'm not sure on this, but I'm fairly sure that Retla's weapon above was a rare drop from an 'attribute' gathering spot. Most new weapons are. I don't really want to imagine having to fight the lategame bosses without it - Estiole isn't really helping much at this point, and Cram can do reasonable amounts of damage but it would take forever with just him, setting aside any turns where he has to do things other than attack.
Your starting weapons and ones that you find can be upgraded (and essentially have to be upgraded before becoming usable for the latter) at the workshop, with specific item combinations. It initially seemed interesting but ultimately devolves into everything needing some item that you won't get before a boss drops it, and afterwards it will only be able to be found as a rare drop from specific attribute gathering spots.
Your characters can change their armour and accessories, but I never found any different armours and only ever saw a single accessory for sale at the end of the game. Maybe all the options are hidden as rare drops from specific attribute gathering spots. Maybe there are no options.
Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam Bros. - played through
Highly entertaining. But then I also thought Dream Team Bros. was great which seems to be somewhat controversial stance to have On The Internet so take that as you will. Still not as good as Bowser's Inside Story.
As far as I can recall, it has literally no original named characters or original races (unless you count Paper Mario/Peach/Bowser/etc. since this is strictly an M&L game) in case that's something you care about it. It is disappointing, but I feel like they do good work with what they have.
The card system is fairly interesting, although they take way too long to introduce it. Ultimately it led to me applying three level down effects to the final boss, which was fairly amusing. People more into that sort of thing could probably break it much further.
It is annoying that you can essentially only get shiny cards as rare drops, as they're considered to be separate cards to the non-shiny ones. I've ended up having 110/154 cards, where 77 of them are normal ones, and 33 of them are shiny versions of the same, and the only way for me to collect the other 44 shiny cards is to grind battles. So, I'm not going to bother with that.
The papercraft battle system is fairly uninteresting, unfortunately. Each battle has some new gimmicks but they pretty much all devolve into the same things.
I know that some people will be shattered by this (assuming it didn't already happen in Dream Team Bros. and I forgot) but I have to inform you that the level up bonus spinner is no longer a thing.
One thing I am frothing with rage about, is the final '3d' battle mechanic, which they spring on you at one point and you only get seconds to realise what's happening, and if you fail you get hit with an guaranteed-terminal attack (999 damage to all characters). You don't get set back very far, but it's still very poor behaviour on their part as far as I'm concerned. To be fair, I'm not exactly quick enough to do a lot of the things the game asks for (final stats say I have 51% dodge rate), so maybe it's all on my head.
On the plus plus plus side: No 3ds-gyro-based mechanics.
Hammer bury mechanics are back again but they managed to make them somewhat enjoyable to use, so that's another nice thing.
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So I played Nier when it first came out a couple of years ago and enjoyed it's off-the-wall plot (and the music, oh yes, the awesome music). Gameplay was a bit meh, but entertaining enough with the boss fights (mobs were boring...jump with two-handed sword, drop attack, dodge-roll and animation cancel into another jump).
Now that I finally got unpacked and my TV and old PS2 back, I decided to give Drakengard 1 & 2 a spin, since Nier was an off-shoot continuum game.
Drakengard 1 was a thoroughly terrible game as far as gameplay goes, but the bizarre plot was interstingly enough to convince me to knock out all five endings. All the characters were awful people, but they also all had wierd and interesting flaws that mad them interesting (except maybe Verdelet, who would go from a mad prophet crying "DOOOOM" to a fanatical, genocidal racist "Caim, make sure you kill all the subhuman scum!"). Plus Drakengard had Chapters 12 and 13 (for endings D and E). Those two Chapters may be the greatest "what the hell is going on here!?" scenarios in video game history. Didn't really find the Ending E boss as bad as has been hyped...took me about 4 tries (not the 30+ that some have warned of). I died way more times to the Ending B boss, although that's because I sped through Aerial missions and never really bothered learning how to actually use the Dragon until that boss...If I had to rate...probably 5/10, all points because of the insane characters and completely original and entertaining mind-fuck plot.
Drakengard 2 I didn't even bother finishing. This is what happens when your creative genius (Taro Yoko) leaves and the publisher (Square Enix) decides to heavily get in the executive meddling department. There is nothing redeeming about this game at all. Terrible gameplay (supposedly it's better than Drakengard's...all I noticed was a slightly smoother camera and you could mix up the Triangles with the Squares in the combos, instead of just a bunch of Squared followed by a Triangle finisher); terrible characters (Drakengard 1 had terrible characters, but they were entertainingly quirky); terrible plot (driven by the terrible hero, Nowe, who is possibly the most mentally challenged protagonist in any medium of fiction, ever)...I suppose the music "terrible" but it is completely forgettable. I may finish this some day. Given what I've played so far, easily a 0/10 game (solidly the worst PS2 game I've played, right now I'm thinking only some hot NES trash may compete with it. This is Hydlide level bad). No redeeming qualities. Period.
Now to finally get around to Xenosaga 3 (yes, yes, I'm behind the times). I'm sure Super broke out cackling upon reading this.
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So I played Nier when it first came out a couple of years ago and enjoyed it's off-the-wall plot (and the music, oh yes, the awesome music). Gameplay was a bit meh, but entertaining enough with the boss fights (mobs were boring...jump with two-handed sword, drop attack, dodge-roll and animation cancel into another jump).
Now that I finally got unpacked and my TV and old PS2 back, I decided to give Drakengard 1 & 2 a spin, since Nier was an off-shoot continuum game.
Poor ID, why did you tried? The voice acting is so bad that it made all the amusing segments in DoD1 to become stupid as hell.
Oh, and at least give DoD2 the credit of fulfilling the desires of the Caim/Angel shippers. (aka me)
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Now to finally get around to Xenosaga 3 (yes, yes, I'm behind the times). I'm sure Super broke out cackling upon reading this.
Deep pity mostly. XS3 has absolutely nothing redeeming on the gameplay front- the best thing you can say about it is that it's far simpler and easier than XS1 or 2's gameplay- and the story, welp.
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Not to continue perpetuating an outdated thread, but:
I find XS3 combat more forgivable than XS1's. XS3 is at least fast, if simplistic; XS1 is slow and doesn't demand much more than spamming X-Buster.
(XS2 is the slowest but wins out anyway just because it actually requires and rewards extensive planning of combos; there's genuine payoff for coordinating things properly.)