The RPG Duelling League
Social Forums => General Chat => Topic started by: SnowFire on January 22, 2023, 08:33:27 PM
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Guess somebody might as well start the new thread.
Finished C9, up to C10 in FE Engage. Playing on Hard Casual (for 10 Divine Pulses + battle saves, death = reload / rewind still) with the Heroes DLC but without doing any grinding, at least so far. It seems pretty great so far, definitely a nice update of some of the "classic" FE ideas (i.e. *strong* counters, somewhat fixed character initial builds) rather than the more freeform system of Fates. I also like the reduction of some of the "monastery busywork"... although stuff like the Arena is still "press this button 3 times and watch the game play itself" for a huge support bonus at the cost of your time, and there's still some picking-up-glowing-stuff-on-the-ground simulator also seen in Triangle Strategy. (I know you automatically get all bond points when you exit even if you missed a conversation, but is the same true for ore?)
I am a little worried with the Emblem system getting a little too nonsense once more rings are acquired. I'd have definitely kind of preferred a system where you only had 3-4 Emblem users on the team, a la Jeanne d'Arc, to make them stand out more - will this still be true when there's 10 Emblem Rings on the field? (And it'll presumably devalue the Bond Ring internal gacha system after practically nobody is wearing a Bond Ring anymore.) I do like the lack of Rescue / Shove and fairly low movement by default to make the crazy Emblem movement powers feel properly significant.
Plot-wise, I was chatting with Djinn in Discord on this... some speculation as of C6 or so. (Usual disclaimer that I haven't read Internet spoilers/leaks/trailers, so this is just SF's speculation, not raw truth.)
Before the game begins, the totally obvious assumption everyone had was that Alear is the child of a Divine Dragon and a Fell Dragon to explain the mixed toothpaste hair + heterochromia eyes. As of C3, I was saying that I was getting the impression based on dialogue that it would also be entirely consistent with what was stated that Alear was in fact just a Fell Dragon straight-up. (Or, alternatively, that there is no distinction between Fell Dragons and Divine Dragons to begin with.) Basically, do the Knights of the Old Republic plot where you are a mind-wiped villain given a new start, it's about choices not an evil nature or some such. Lumera specifically says that she enjoyed *becoming* Alear's mother, which is a very suspicious turn of phrase (yeah, yeah, amnesia excuse). Lumera also asks "did fighting me trigger any memories" after C2. The flashback Alear has shows a mysterious red-haired person talking with Lumera, but Alear isn't in the picture. More bluntly, the opening video shows a red-haired person "beneath" Alear, suggesting that the blue is just a nice magical coat of paint on top of a red fell dragon, perhaps explained by Lumera injecting her divine dragon energy into Alear as she claims at the end of C3. At the time, I thought it was still possible there's some DBZ-fusion between Mysterious Red Person and Lumera's real kid that made Alear... but...
..as of C6, I'm willing to call the original theory near-confirmed, or at least the narrative wants us to think this (and ruling out the fusion possibility). Both the bad guy in C5 and at the very start of C7 express surprise that Lumera had a kid at all, saying that they thought she was the last of her kind. Once might be flavor, but twice is a plot point - this is pretty well identical to the "Huh, that's weird, I thought Mycen didn't have a grandkid" lines in FE Echoes. So yeah, Lumera somehow "adopted" a fell dragon kid, used Emblem Marth to turn them into a paragon of fighting for friends and justice. and that's gonna be the Big Surprise revealed soon, and the villain's gonna be all "YOU CANNOT DENY YOUR NATURE" and Alear's gonna be all "I stand with my friends!" etc. etc.
Going to presume that the mysterious magical girl is the same person as the shadowed boss ordering the evil team around and is also a fell dragon. She also had a fully red-stone she said came from her sibling so I presume she's dealing with the fact that her sibling has been brainwashed to join team good.
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Final Fantasy VII Remake- Fin, kept forgetting to make a threat!
So everything in the game, for the most part, is at worst drags a little or is kinda messily executed and at best is fucking brilliant. The degree to which the characters are captured really just makes the subset of people who were just angry at the ending completely baffling to me. Like, look, whatever you think about Nomura or Kingdom Hearts or whatever the fuck, the writers clearly understand the cast and the heart of the original FFVII, so any new directions they take here are gonna ring true.
Honestly I think the game starts off kinda overtuned, enough that I just cranked it down to easy and left it. It probably is actually fine after Guard Scorpion? Or mostly fine, especially once the game properly explains some of the more arcade mechanics, but it really doesn't start very fun. I do appreciate the balance they found though for making the customization robust but also giving themselves space to play later to make the next part feel like an expansion rather than having to treadmill the same level arc again. I mean, it might anyways, but there's space left to explore.
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Fire Emblem
but it's also a magical girl anime Engage - Got past C11 and oh no it's the consequences of listening to a bunch of idiots from toxic masculinity kingdom, who could've seen this coming, certainly not I. Oh well, can't say I was expecting much from the game on the writing front and it hasn't really... sunken below my low expectations, yet.
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Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope - Finished this since my last writeup, more or less posted my thoughts in the Game Reviews 2022 thread already. A good game.
Tactics Ogre Reborn - Completed. An enjoyable enough spin on the original, I was a little leery of the cards but they ended up being pretty fun. Revival giving you a turn instantly makes most of the game easier than PSP, but then the final boss is much tougher, and a very satisfying ending to the game when he was a dud in PSP, so that's a good change in my books.
Into the Breach - Definitely enjoying this! It makes a fun little bus game. Had a bit of a learning curve but after a couple failed playthroughs I've had a 100% success rate as I work through each of the teams in sequence (going for four island finishes because why not), although two of the most recent teams (the frozen titans and the hazardous mechs) I've come very close to losing. One thing I appreciate about the game is that there were several points where I thought "man the game really needs this" and then it turned out the game actually had this (namely: you can check the enemy turn order, and you can go back and check your party before choosing a reward). Overall mostly pretty polished. I wish it was a little more generous on rewinds I suppose?
Fire Emblem Engage - Probably the game to talk about. The writing... yeah I'm not really happy that this is the followup to Three Houses. Good thing the gameplay is really good! Map design is excellent, boss fights are exciting in a way the series hardly ever manages, classes feel interesting and reasonably balanced, same-turn reinforcements are once again gone even on the highest difficulty. Emblems are a bit IDK, I'm the opposite of Snowfire in that I really don't like feeling that I'm really favouring 3-4 of my units over the others (something the game has a lot of between emblems, limited master seals at my point, weapon engraves, etc.). But I'm having a great time anyway. Just finished Chapter 8. Unit notes! No second seals yet.
Alear - Probably the weakest main character since Marth. Sword lock is pretty blah because javelins/hand axes are good in this game. If I didn't give her an Emblem she'd probably be quite trashy. As is she can at least mess up axe-users something fierce, and Lodestar Rush is solid (and legitimately a bit better on her than other units).
Vander - In a similar vein, probably the weakest jagen since... Jagen. By my point he's basically fallen off. Still really great early, though - that 40 HP in particular let him take punishment nobody else could (except Louis vs physicals).
Clanne, Celine, Citrinne - All seem generically competent. Mages are solid since they troubleshoot certain enemy types very well and do competent chip against a bunch of others, and Thunder is a nice option. Celica's also an extremely good emblem because Warp Ragnarok is busted. These three all have slightly different stats but I don't have a strong feeling on which one is best and it may depend on RNG a bit.
Framme - Chain Guard is a nifty feature for a healer. Sometimes healers lack a useful action on a quiet turn right before a messy turn. Not any more! Lets you bait on some things that might otherwise be dangerous indeed. Besides that she heals nad occasionally attacks though she's pretty bad at it.
Alfred - 6 base speed is no bueno at least on Maddening, and unfortunately (spoiler alert) lance user competition is stacked. He only has +1 move on Louis, though does not make up for being only slightly faster and having about 10 less def.
Etie - Archer with a strength focus, well I'm glad they got the memo that the starting archer needs some sort of offensive stat. Her other stats are pretty bad, but you can do worse than one-shotting fliers in this game. Mini Bow and Longbow provide cool options to a class that often feels underbaked, but not in this game.
Boucheron - Axedude. So the niche of regular infantry is backup, free extra chip damage (3), amazing for one-rounding bosses. His stat build doesn't really inspire past that, but hey, someone's gotta sue axes and Vander sure is falling off so.
Chloe - Basically my team superstar, Chloe has run Sigurd so has crazy offence (thanks, Momentum which she can basically always utilize well thanks to flight + game-best speed), canter. Now she has promoted and can even use staves.
Louis - Armour knights... good? Is this still FE? Move could obviously be better but right now it's at least still infantry level, and he has really good def! And he's immune to break so yeah, tank things and toss javelins/melee weapons back as needed. Dies horribly to mages which is a bit limiting, but still one of my better units.
Jean - Not in the mood to play around with the villager archetype on a first playthrough, thanks. Healer version is at least easier to level than they sometimes are (looking at you, Donnel).
Yunaka - Generically solid stats: not as fast as I'd have expected from a thief, but bulkier? She can absorb punishment and counters everything (1-2 range, can't be broken by WTD). Have left Micaiah on her because her enemy phase is good (and player phase is less relatively good because she can't break things herself), so healing's a good player phase option. And certainly Micaiah's healing potential is very impressive. As is the exp you gain if you heal 3+ people with Mend.
Anna - Seemed kinda terrible, Boucheron but worse/underlevelled (better speed largely offset by worse build, the durability was bad).
Alcryst - Strength is a bit lower than Etie, but other stats are significantly better, so he can be used in a lot of situations, and he's still got the oomph to one-shot most fliers so far. One of my earliest promotions because of his good starting level, no regrets.
Lapis - Of the non-paralogue characters she seems like the clear loser so far? Sword lock is bad in this game (especially since she's a backup, like Boucheron, but can't equip a 1-2 weapon axe, at least right now), Alear's already forced to snag the good swords, and you get a better sword user one chapter later anyway.
Diamant - i.e. this guy. Not too impressive before promotion (4 move + 1 range woes, but promotion has made him very solid. None of his stats are exceptional but with hand axes as an option he becomes a versatile backup you can position in a lot of places, just as long as he isn't forced to take too much heat (especially magical).
Amber - Alfred is that you again. I guess he's a bit faster but I'm still not a big fan.
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Fire Emblem Engage: Cleared C17, that one was fun (except for corrupted wyrms which are the bane of my existence, yes i totally want the fe7 dragon in miniboss form and for anti-dragon weapons to not work on them because fuck you fell dragon isn't dragon dragon), the bumbling escapades of Magical Vtuber Alear continue to continue in the established weird mix of camp and drama direction (which in fairness has still managed to avoid falling below my low expectations) and I cannot hold all these shitty dads. Seriously there is so much shitty dad energy from the villain cast (and King Moron tbh, fuck that guy too).
I'm not as enamored with the gameplay as Elf is. CON is still a bad balancing mechanic and should feel bad, the pre-C11 team is... dangerously close to Dawn Brigade levels of incompetence (and don't even get me started on winners like Lapis and smol Anna) which doesn't at all help the aforementioned focus on 3-4 PCs issue (which is and has always been the lamest way to play FE), which is also not helped by how SP/skill inheritence works, and despite the game utiliizing revolutionary techniques to make armor knights actually good while preserving their core identity class balance is still pretty bad honestly, just in different (and perhaps hilarious) directions. Like how are we still finding new and exciting ways to make monosword culture worse? And of course Smash weapons, while not... completely useless do feel a bit underbaked.
I mean, don't get me wrong, this is still beating the GBA experience pretty cleanly, probably Awakening too if I'm honest (the lack of ninja reinforcements helps), but it's harder to say that it's beating 3H on that front so far and I definitely don't think 3H is in the conversation for best FE gameplay.
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I'm probably a bit higher on map design and the feel of battles when you're actually in them. I definitely agree that SP/skill inheritance systems seem kinda clunky and the comments on focusing on certain PCs, so sure, if you factor in all aspects of gameplay I think it's perfectly reasonable to rank this one below 3H; good chance I'll even agree though I want to finish the game first. Granted, with the 3H class system factored in it's top two for pre-Engage FEs for me.
Up to Chapter 12. I do wish this game had better writing because I think the gameplay sometimes does quite good work in service of said writing. Like goodness if Chapter 10 didn't manage to sell the epic it wanted to be, and Chapter 11 felt like a suitably frightening escape map even if IMO it was actually one of the easier maps in a while, and the moment midway through the map where the proverbial cavalry arrives hit with me with exactly the feeling of relief the game was aiming for.
Incidentally the lead Chapter 11 recruit seems crazy good, at base + Master Seal she has no non-luck stat below 14 + isn't weighed down by Elfire + flying + staves WTF, she dunks on the other three mages so hard and they weren't bad! The thief with +10 evade on enemy phase and great non-res stats is also welcome. Swordmaster with similarly great stats isn't very interesting but I'm sure he has a niche if you wanted, and hey there's a Levin Sword in Chapter 12 so swords are no longer trash at chain attacks, I imagine?
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On the topic of Emblem balance: Oh, don't get me wrong, I agree that low-manning and just having a few characters that matter is the lamest way to play FE. But the Emblems do a pretty good job of giving amazing but also limited bonuses that aren't just raw stat juggernauting so the effect is less degenerate than something like Radiant Dawn's various nigh-unkillable super-characters. Basically, I was just worried that being able to deploy everything would inherently reduce the uniqueness and value compared to balancing the map a little easier, but then having 3-5 powers that really stand-out.
FE Engage: Finished C19, up to Chapter 20 (although in reality doing like 4 paralogues in a row first). Gameplay remains great so far, with the one proviso that the level curve has gone a bit wonky from all the paralogues that open up... not doing them feels like missing out on content, but doing them can lead to being a bit overleveled in the story missions. I've been leaving all my dutifully collected stat boosters in the inventory (even the Boots!) which helps some, but I do feel like C19 didn't have a whole lot of teeth.
I am most reminded of FE Sacred Stones in some ways by the plot of this game. It's not reaaaally about establishing the setting, but rather introducing you to a bunch of handsome anime princes & princesses who go on an adventure against the Bad Guy Nation which has somehow simultaneously invaded everywhere, and hopefully selling you on the character moments. It remains to be seen if we get something as good as the Ephraim/Eirika/Lyon triangle ended up being.
And side note: the realm of Engage is... suspiciously well-constructed. Four kingdoms each in a corner of the map, 2 kings, 2 queens, exactly two royal kids each in all the combinations (pair of brothers, pair of sisters, elder brother + younger sister, elder sister + younger brother).. maybe not a big deal if it turns out this was a divinely planned thing a la The Twelve Kingdoms light novel/anime, but definitely not an "organic" arrangement, which FE8 at least attempted to honor with funky borders and more variety in the countries - this place is a republic, this place is a theocracy, etc.
General comments readable with what I knew at the time (i.e. spoiler-safe for that chapter)...
C9-C11: I realize that the "hurry it up" nature of the game meant it couldn't leave room for tons of plot to set up the deal with Morion and had to settle for a few lines, but I still wish there was *something* more. The game clearly understands at least somewhat that Brodia's rather martial style isn't all glory and honor in Alcryst being a rather different reaction than Felix of retreating into insecurity rather than defiance, but I think it still wants Morion to be basically competent. But whyyyyy fight Hyacinth without an Emblem Ring when the game's plot all but establishes this is a huge power boost?! If you need the Roy ring for the player for gameplay purposes, have Morion just fight and *lose* but then throw the Ring back dramatically, since it's not like the mechanics of taking or keeping Rings is consistent in this game anyway. Having him lose but only because the fight is rigged against him just feels like a bad author "explaining" how his super-awesome guy could lose - no, it's okay to just have alleged badasses lose, and I'd rather that then have them be inexplicably idiots in a way that seems out-of-character idiocy. And why the heck was King Hyacinth "trying" to kill Iris if we can trust Alear's hypothesis? If I want to extend a *lot* of credit to the writing, A) Hyacinth was mind-controlled at some nebulous point in the past, B ) his non-mind controlled side knew about Sombron's hunger for 'sovereign blood', and C) he'd rather have his daughters dead than drunk dry by Lord Vampire. But... I'm not inclined to make those leaps unless the game wants to explain itself a little more.
Also, hey, the devs agree with me that too many Emblems right away won't let them all stand-out, so I approve of yanking your Emblems even if the mechanics for what happened there don't make tooooons of sense. But whatever, enemy with a Time Crystal and a dark god means that the hard part to explain is less losing the rings and more "how did you survive at all", and the answer there is obvious, nobody wants a bad end this early. I was amused as well that you start off the game with the OG Japan heroes of FE1/2/4, and then restart the game with Lyn & Lucina for the American starter experience as well - nice meta tip there.
C12: Fogado is cool. I know that it's de rigeur because it allows dramatic scenes, but it's bizarre how often Our Heroes get ambushed or walk into the middle of a fight, so having a plot setup that is very directly "yo I heard bad guys are here, let's go clean them out" is nice because it makes way more sense for us to be on the offensive.
I gave Lyn to Alear and Lucina to Alcryst. While it's very cute for "Marth" to replace Marth, Lucina has horrible synergy with Alear - they seem one of the very worst characters to give her. She makes any unit a backup, so you want longrange units: read archers that can equip Longbows or mages that can equip Thunder. Alear has bad move and usually 1 threat range with their unique sword and isn't that dangerous with a Levin Sword. Also has no use for Bow Agility if you care, while I had already gotten Avoid +10 from Marth on Alcryst to stack with Bow Agility, so dodgy archer, sure.
Meanwhile, sorry Marth, but Blazing Blade was the first Fire Emblem game ever made and so Lyn is the true first Fire Emblem lord and thus the true companion of Alear. The Dragon boost for Lyn is great - +5 range on Astra Storm for easy sniping of escaping thieves or backline healers/mages, and more generally some range really helps a slow swordy character. This is also easily the best game for Speedtaker when the -Taker skills were really niche before - it doesn't come insanely late, doesn't cost a skill slot, and Lyn gives you something to do with the overkill Speed in Alacrity (and just generally great Avoid rates). Oh, and an extra clone too for the Echoes Invoke experience as well as 'nobody in range' turns to set up massive Chain attacks. Really happy with Alear having her.
C13:They weren't kidding about Ike being one of the strongest Emblems. I guess he DID knock a goddess back to sleep, but more importantly, he fights for his friends, which means shoving his friends, which means the mighty REPOSITION from FEH & 3H. Congrats, Ike, you are now friends with half my army. Just 400 Bond Points and 200 SP to learn Repo? Greatest deal ever.
Also, Timerra, but did we just destroy this market to save it...? ...are we the baddies? (Side note: her support with Alear involves her doing various helping-out style quests a la Black Panther, and I'm sure it's meant to be against evildoers, but she just says 'bandits'. There's a potential shadier interpretation here about a royal who runs around the countryside killing people and saying that whoever she killed was a bandit, though...
C14: The cutscene for this wins the "Would rather have had it in sprites where you couldn't see what was going on." It's SUPPOSED to be a tense hostage scene, but it's blatantly obvious that everyone is, like, 2 feet from each other at a cocktail party, and Hortensia isn't even wielding a weapon! Yeah yeah she mentions she has an Emblem, but still. Then she backs down but despite everyone still being two feet away from each other, the Queen is maybe still a hostage? Then somehow an entire Elysian army sneaks into the palace afterward, after Hortensia apparently got in mostly legit? I can see Hortensia's excuse, but how did the ARMY get in?! Yeaaaah don't think about this too hard.
I will say continue the FE8 analogy, I get the vague impression that the older games would more frequently have the villain separated from the crew and the omniscient player could just see Selena talking to Myrrh or her lackies or whatever, and we understood that the player knew stuff the PCs didn't sometimes. While there are "villain cam" scenes, the actual pre-battles seem to be more firmly Alear's vantage point, with the result of lots of pre-battle chats via loudspeaker or something.
Anyway, fun map. I will say that surprise filler PC that wins an award is Pandreo of all people... still no Micaiah meant I needed another backup staffer other than Framme, and damn if Pandreo isn't really good for this map. Surprisingly fast, still murders armor just fine with tomes, doesn't need an Emblem, and his excellent resistance gets put to excellent use baiting the Hounds at the end of the map who are hugely magical. A little weird using the priest as bait, but if you guys are gonna heavily invest into magic damage...
...that said, this map has maybe the rudest reinforcement trigger I've seen so far? You can be fairly deep into your turn when suddenly, mooks for Hortensia to summon. I get that the devs wanted to show off Demonic Dance or whatever, and Time Crystal exists, but still. I ended up not needing to Time Crystal it but only because Alear got some lucky dodges on 50 Accuracy enemy attacks.
Pre-C16 Paralogues: Lucina's was really easy, even when done far below the recommended level. Lyn's was more intense... it wasn't so bad until closing in on Emblem Lyn herself. Thankfully she'll use Astra Storm every turn she can, which is good because it's a waste of her insane speed that doubles absolutely everyone with Killer Bow. My Chloe barely survived Astra Storm so as long as I kept her at full health and out of range, Emblem Lyn would waste an Astra Storm on her every other turn. Meanwhile she's super-dodgy but I eventually ground her down.
Ike's paralogue is hilarious. I won't spoil but it starts with a FE9 map but it... does not go the way the FE9 map did!
Emblem Corrin talks about how tough her decision was and artfully picks a pre-split map not to annoy any of her other selves. I get you have to be diplomatic, Corrin, but really, it's not that hard a choice - Hoshido/Birthright was the right choice. Go talk to the version of yourself from that split, who is rather forthright about Garon being crazy and a murderer! Her map was pretty easy though.
Byleth's map seems to be a trap, and I'm not doing it. Maybe it'd be worthwhile if running an aggro Byleth for the Divine Pulse+ skill, but I'm running support Byleth on Framme. Unless Sword of the Creator is crazy broken, this means doing a Dance of the Goddess every single Engage before finding Emblem energy to promptly do it again. I actively don't want the L11 "longer Engage" bonus - I'd want a shorter Engage if anything! It's definitely come up where there's a Goddess Dance, sync expire, be ready to immediately step on Emblem energy, and finish off the boss before the next wave of reinforcements comes with another Goddess Dance.
C17: I baited Mauvier & Marni & their goons to move in on me at the same time (maybe this always happens? I did Astra Storm in the area though, so it's possible there's a way to safely bait just Mauvier) while some of my team was off the other direction killing Griss's goons, so this proved a little intense. In particular, Mauvier had Nosferatu equipped and was insanely dangerous - tanky, fast, parasitic healing, yikes. I barely survived the horde with Great Aether + some Obstruct staff blockages + Shadow Clone distractions and managed to pin Mauvier with 4 surrounding units, but still had no idea how the hell I was gonna break him aside from wait for the rest of my army to return and set up some sort of massive Chain Attacks from range + Smash attack shove off the forest tile I'd trapped him on... but then, after getting back to full health from the Reforge procs, he switched to Shine because I guess the AI decided he was already healthy enough. YOU FOOL! YOU WERE AS UNTO A GOD LIKE A PAIRED-UP THARJA! Well then.
V & CH prove a nice way to show off Corrin's extreme brokenness, stopping CH in his tracks with nobody to attack for turns on end along with some of his goons via Torrential Roar & magic.
My team so far is Alear, Framme, Alfred, Celine, Boucheron, Chloe, Yunaka, Diamant, Alcryst, Fogado, Timerra, Pandreo. Maybe larger writeups with Emblems later. But yeah, kinda basic spamming of royals since I figure they're likely to have more plot and lots of Firenese (even when some aren't that great... Chloe has more Bld than Alfred, sorry, your bodybuilding attempt failed). And yes, there's a few obvious missing power characters, I figure I want to save some for my next playthrough (on Maddening?).
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Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Celebrating new Fire Emblem by playing slightly less new Fire Emblem. This one was a random run with the following rules:
-A twelve-person team is randomly generated using non-Anna members of the playable cast. Byleth is one of the twelve.
-Each unit is randomly assigned two skills to train in. Once those are seen, I get to choose a third.
-Characters may not use any weapon or magic in battle that is not one of these three skills.
-Any advanced or master class can ONLY be qualified for if the two highest (or only) skill rank requirement(s) of that class are from the list of skills a character can train in. e.g. to qualify as an assassin, the character must be training sword+bow. To qualify as Bow Knight, the character must be training bow+riding (but not necessarily lance). etc.
-A character can not qualify for a one-prerequisite class (e.g. swordmaster, warlock) using their chosen third skill.
-A character can train other skills for the purpose of recruitment and class certifications. Note that all beginner and intermediate classes are still on the table, so characters can still get useful skills like Death/Fiendish Blow.
-Authority is not affected by this run; anyone can train that however they want.
-Maddening NG no grinding etc.
-Other characters can be used to fill out a roster but may only use their default-trained skills and can not certify for advanced/master classes (except Wyvern Rider for male adjutants)
So who did I get? Here's the list. The skill I chose is in parentheses. Note that as soon as I rolled Claude, I was of course locked to Verdant Wind, so I removed characters unavailable on VW from subsequent dicerolls. I don't recall what order I rolled them in; it's not this.
Byleth: Sword, Reason (Faith) [Monk -> Mage -> Enlightened One -> Mortal Savant]: Sword and reason means a magic focused Byleth. She was actually very solid midgame with Gloucester Knights, good stats overall and lots of flexibility (Thunderbrand for a big punch, various physicals and magic otherwise). Kinda fell off late as the stats didn't really scale well enough, but never terrible. Going faith gave her some healing, probably more valuable than anything else.
Claude: Bow, Reason (Riding) [Monk -> Mage/Archer -> Sniper -> Bow Knight]: Like Byleth, got his signature weapon and reason, I decided to add Riding because if I'm gonna get reason, might as well use some magic, and the flying magic battalion sucks. Anyway unlike Byleth, reason magic never really was worth anything. Magic Bow was, though, with Fiendish Blow it could one-round armours... some of which he'd have gotten with Death Blow on a normal build, but shhh. Anyway Bow Knight Claude kicks ass, this isn't new, incredible ability to both one-round and control with canto and great threat range. Probably the #2 PC of the run. Also I got him to S+ bows in the final chapter, something I'd never done with a non-Shamir PC before. Thanks sauna.
Leonie: Sword, Lance (Flying) [Soldier -> Brigand/Pegasus Knight -> Swordmaster -> Falcon Knight]: Well as a Swordmaster she had great offence and good durability but the usual "oh yeah 5 move this class sucks actually" woes. As a Falcon Knight (which she was starting at... Chapter 17 iirc), yeah, the obvious MVP by far. Crazy dodgetanking with Alert Stance+ later, good offence and speed. Finished with something nutty like 36 str and 45 spd (there were a couple stat boosters in there), did two thirds of the final boss's HP with a single Brave Lance+ quad.
Hapi: Riding, Bow (Reason) [Valkyrie -> Dark Knight]: Standard Hapi... without legal access to faith, sob. Still useful for the extreme range (6!), Banshee, and monster cheesing as usual. Bows didn't add too much overall, but did give her a slight accuracy push against Tomebreaker enemies and a damage push against fliers, with the Magic Bow (and, earlier, before she gets Death, a range boost with Curved Shot).
Annette: Lance, Flying (Axe) [Fighter -> Brigand -> Wyvern Rider -> Wyvern Lord]. I got her in Chapter 3 and this was a mistake since without magic she's just utterly awful then, E+ axes and bad stats! Generally the twelfth PC. She had Death Blow and could actually swing a half-decent Brave Axe, or try to go for magic damage but Manuela had Nuvelle Fliers on lockdown so not much. She also got random utility like Rally and Impregnable Wall. Obviously not great but she had just enough utility on a few fronts to feel fine. And y'know Bolt Axe+ hands out good linked attacks to Mercedes (when she wasn't busy being Mercedes's adjutant).
Bernadetta: Bow, Faith (Riding) [Pegasus Knight -> Valkyrie -> Bishop -> Holy Knight]: So I did a bunch of extra investment to get Valkyrie then forgot that doing so was breaking my rules... but rather than just sink all that I just let her only be Valkyrie as an adjutant. She had some value as a Physic bot (especially once Mercedes lost a few uses of it midgame, see below) who could eventually also Rescue (but not very far) and Encloser (though at 2 range, Encloser's not nearly as good as on Bow Knight). Couldn't do damage to save her life past the Pegaesus Knight phase. I imagine this build would probably be better with lances instead of bows.
Mercedes: Brawling, Bow (Faith) [Monk -> Mage/Archer -> War Cleric]: I decided to go for War Cleric rather than Sniper so bow was mostly useless (some rare Cuved Shots aside). Anyway War Cleric Mercedes is pretty cool, Aura Knuckles one-round most things and she still gets 3 Physic + 1 Fortify. Really wants Arcane Crystals to go wild but you can buy an Aura Knuckles at the pagan altar which I did for her around Chapter 11 (when she hit A brawling) and though she ran out before the Dark Merchant, I tried to offset that by putting her back in adjutant duty and letting her master Archer.
Dorothea: Sword, Bow (Reason) [Monk -> Mage -> Assassin -> Mortal Savant]: So what if standard Dorothea, but very few supports to benefit from Meteor and no Physic? ... actually still pretty good, one-shots everything midgame and still one-shots snipers and swordmasters as late as Enbarr, and once back in Mortal Savant still had loads of flexibility with her offensive spell list.
Cyril: Sword, Riding (Bow) [Brigand/Archer -> Assassin -> Bow Knight]: Swords are neat enough as Assassin, though once he went Bow Knight he dropped them entirely since Point-Blank Volley is just better. Past that, he's Cyril, this is one of his two bog-standard builds outside the assassin dip. The stats always underwhelm, but the offence is pretty solid anyway.
Caspar: Sword, Lance (Riding) [Cavalier -> Dancer]: SWORD AND LANCE CASPAR the ultimate troll move, no saving that. I guess I could have made him a Paladin and hope his Brave Lance one-shots some squishier enemies but White Heron Cup to the rescue! Swords, of course, allow him to try to do the dodgy version of this build, for all that he was never a primary dodgetank the way Leonie or even Cyril (who held Gautier Knights) were.
Flayn: Axe, Reason (Faith) [Mage -> Warlock -> Gremory]: AXE FLAYN. Actually axes do bring some value, Bolt Axe+ provides 3 range and since my party had five other mages that meant I didn't have to waste a staff on her. Also Bolt Axe Helm Splitter has like 10 more might than Excalibur. Mostly, though, she's the usual, all about overcoming an awful start to get to the point where she actually has utility with Rescue and Fortify and 5 move from Gremory. Usuaully had Fetters of Dromi which made that 6 move and canto which was nice. Still obviously towards the bottom for usefulness overall.
Manuela: Reason, Flying (Faith) [Mage -> Dark Flier]: Did you want FAST MAGE? Yeah she finished with 36 speed or something, second only to Leonie (Claude was similar). Of course she didn't one-round things, but it meant very little one-rounded her, either, which is nice. Bolting, Silence, and Warp are all cool options. Obviously had to overcome her usual bad start, and also had to actually worry about running out of reason uses, but by the time she was Dark Flier with B authority and especially once she hit A reason (which is a slog) she basically never hit the bench, despite never really feeling amazing. It's funny how she and Dorothea can give each other +3 damage with their siege tomes. I hit A+ reason with her with two maps to go and I'm pretty certain I've never hit A+ with a bane before. Anything is possible if you believe in yourself.
When I had spots for adjutants beyond the above I used (in order of priority) Hilda for Claude, Alois for Leonie, and Yuri for Byleth. All give +3 might in addition to the usual 10 hit/evade.
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Fire Emblem Engage- "Alear's biggest supporter" my foot they exchanged rings they are married game. Why wouldn't you say that.
There's an underlying story here the game is deeply interested in telling, but it often reads like they felt obligated to include more elements of Marth Plot than actually fit that story. What's here is fine when the story focuses on it, but neither is it really the best version of the game it was trying to be. Similarly, what's actually in supports is fine mostly, but the absence of what *isn't* there is downright distracting. Not helped by most of the first supports you'll get being Framme and Clanne's Alear supports, followed by not really getting that many supports because (until the 2nd wave DLC update anyways) this is the slowest FE for supports since GBA.
Emblems... it's cool to play around with in some ways but it introduces a lot of issues in the game too, both directly (skill emblem is kinda dead to make way for them and that kinda has the effect that what you do with a character matters less than what emblem you slap on them) and indirectly (Paralogue Hell, and also the steady dripfeed of them that's necessary because having a bunch all at once destroys the game balance entirely.) So like, I like them but also do not want to see them ever again as a core mechanic.
What is undeniable though is this is the best raw map design FE has had in at least 10 years. I don't feel fully qualified to judge it versus GBA and Tellius but it's in that conversation for best in the series, and it's actually quite striking to see nearly every map offer a variety of enemy types, win conditions, special gimmicks, and side objectives after the era of remakes and Awakening-inspired rout fests.
But yeah ultimately I feel like this needed one more pass on the script and some extra QoL features to really be the best version of the game it wanted to be. Still alright, but very much middle of the pack.
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Fire Emblem Engage
Finished this up a bit ago. It's good... great even! The map design is excellent, the gameplay is still Fire Emblem-y while the Emblems give it a cool new twist, and the Emblems themselves manage to be distinctive in ways that aren't just "huge numbers!". "Paralogue hell" is definitely a balance issue (and one that gets even worse if playing with the DLC!) where the game isn't sure if you ran a bunch of maps on the side before the current plot map and unlocked even bigger stat bonuses, but probably not an easily fixed one... I know Three Houses has a similar issue in C8/9/10 of White Clouds where, for the Lions & Deer (and Eagles if you do lots of recruitment I suppose), they dump a zillion Paralogues on you that feature major power upgrades with the side effect of the plot missions getting indirectly nerfed. I liked it enough to start up a replay on Maddening with the intent of using an entirely different endgame team very quickly, although maybe I'll put it on hold if I get an urge to do Octopath Traveler II first.
My final team was the characters I listed before + the final two recruits (who weren't trustworthy and thus did not get Emblem Rings, but did get some Horse Manure). I mostly stuck to "canon-ish" Emblem choices... went with Alear+Lyn, Framme+Byleth (no paralogue, pure support), Alfred+Marth, Celine+Corrin, Boucheron+Leif, Chloe+Eirika, Yunaka+Micaiah, Diamant+Roy, Alcryst+Lucina, Fogado+Sigurd, Timerra+Ike, and Pandreo+Celica.
But the plot... woof. I won't say it's irredeemable, as it does have a few moments I rather liked, and a few others that at least had potential even if being badly underwritten. And I grew to like *some* of the characters (e.g. Alfred, Yunaka, Alcryst, Fogado; maybe some of the late recruits to to the extent they can be untangled from the dumb plot they're stuck in), although the game doesn't help itself by having some of its weakest characters show up first (Clanne & Framme!). I think the most obvious game of comparison plot-wise is Sacred Stones, which also featured a rather underwritten setting, but was much more coherent tonally. Some thoughts...
* Maybe this will come out more during my replay when I use the Elusian crew and see their supports, but Elusia was WILDLY underwritten if you only watch plot scenes. We don't learn *much* about Grado or Plegia, but we learn enough. The best we get is Ivy & Hortensia's conversation in C14, where Ivy says that Elusia is basically the Fell Dragon's country now. Okay, fine, but... let's explore that, then. Which leads into the next problem...
* Given the general light tone, I'd rather they have kept it and let the player decide whether this was Real Fightingzs or if it was FE Fates-style "play combat" where Corrin is somehow sparing everyone. Instead, C17, C19, and C20 directly suggest that messed up major massacres are going on. Which... okay, fine, I actually prefer that, acknowledging death, but they proceed to immediately forgot about it and not address it at all. Sure, there were towns threatened by monsters in FE8, but that was small towns in the middle of nowhere. Apparently Sombron depopulated an entire CITY?! With it implied he may have eaten more? And there wasn't some sort of revolt or mass refugee crisis? Okay, of course there wasn't, but point is, it changes the tone for the villains. It makes the more forgiving, understanding tone the narrative takes with the Hounds a lot harder to credit if they're aiding in a massacre of their own citizens. But the narrative seems to promptly forget this even happened, nor even use it for an interesting purpose, like as a justification for some big power-up for Sombron a la Awakening. Like in...
* Chapter 21. ARGHHHHHHHHHHH! THIS CUTSCENE WAS SO, SO, SO STUPID! And I say this as someone who would be 100% fine with Alear dying and losing the rings. A good narrative needs setbacks, it needs terrible things to happen so that the heroes can overcome it anyway. But... it was so, so badly sold! This is a plot about control of Emblem Rings. Everyone wants them and the plot hinges on their control. How... HOW can you just have Sombron get the rings for no reason?! Killing Alear might have gotten ALEAR's ring, but all of them?! And while I didn't mind this in Octopath Traveler, this is a case where everyone else mysteriously vanishing for the cutscene rings totally discordantly. GRAHHHH. Here's the very simple fanon fix: just do the Ike vs. the BK battle except rigged to lose. If you absolutely have to sell this plot point, Sombron goes Super Saiyan because he had killed all of those people for some big evil ritual here a la Awakening, and Alear has to go Super Saiyan back or whatever, and everyone else stands aside because Alear says it's too dangerous or something. Then you 1v1 Sombron IN SYSTEM as a callback to the Prologue. The cutscene just made... zero sense, especially with how it's not clear why Sombron doesn't keep on trying to kill Veyle. Was that breath attack he used a one-time thing or something?! Doubtful... shouldn't he want to keep going? If the writers had taken my suggestion, then Super-Alear could have inflicted some big wound on Sombron that forces him to retreat or the like, and he gets the rings via a magic spell. There, problem solved, weakly. That would still suck, but... bah.
And yes, I know, there's the ring theft in C10 too, but that is at least better hinted at narratively by Marth saying it's a bad idea to go into the Cathedral or fight, and the "oh no our Draconic Time Crystal was stolen" excuse. We don't even get that in C21.
* This is more a nitpick, but the C22 plot seems incomplete? The Emblems C. Alear creates are all silent & red, which is fine, but then they just... get better, because? I guess maybe it was Alear's resolve to be a good dragon, but that was already true. Before you say it was the miracle, the miracle could only happen AFTER the Emblems "got better" I presume, so it feels like this is missing a step. Also, if this was a novel or a Final Fantasy game or something, then physical Alear totally should have stayed dead and you'd have Emblem Alear to talk with as the equivalent, but that'd be it. Go make Veyle the new corporeal main character or whatever. I'm not actually complaining on this count because gameplay considerations come first and yoinking your stat-boostered MC would be considered rude by some audiences, but if that was less a concern...
* Can I rant about my personal least favorite support in the game? (Well, of those I've seen.) I don't care, I'm giving myself permission anyway. Alear / Veyle B SUCKS. It is one of those plot points that retroactively makes other plot points worse if you think about it.
Now, sometimes supports have weird lines seemingly contradictory to the plot/characters, and the best response is to just shrug and say it was a local joke or mistake, don't take it too seriously. Unfortunately, this support hinges on a fairly major plot point. Worse than your average nonsensical plot hole support, it's thematically contradictory.
In this support, we're told that Alear and Veyle met each other Just Once in the past timeline. It doesn't sound like a particularly intense meeting, either; it sounds like the sole thing Alear did was give Veyle the dragonstone and say some sweet nothings. However, this meeting was just so moving and inspiring that Veyle knew her big sibling would always be there for her. Aww, isn't that sweet! And now they're together again and will always help each other.
Except… except this is awful! It changed a slightly cliche but powerful (it's a cliche for a reason) plot point about friends reuniting after a long gap into a plot point about how blood ties are absolutely unshakeable even between essentially strangers. Now. There may be a game to do that in (Awakening?), but I'd argue that it is not this game, because we precisely DO have a plot point about a terrible, distant father for Veyle! I'm not faulting her for looking for kindness & support wherever she could find it, but picking blood relatives is clearly not necessarily the play. (Also, let's be real, I suspect there's some siscon fanservice here for the JP audience in to that.) Why couldn't they just stick to Alear & Veyle being close friends & supporters, except rather than being separated by going to different colleges or whatever, it's near-death amnesia? It makes Veyle come across as far, far more pathetic than narratively intended to be clinging to "that person who I talked to literally once" rather than "my old best friend & sibling." (But of course, the writer didn't think it was pathetic, they thought it was inspiring.) I hate it.
So yeah I have more to say about this one support than all the rest combined. Alas.
* While on that note, this may be more fanon-possibilities than an actual complaint, but it's a little too bad they made Sombron just another openly abusive dad who doesn't care about his kids. Based on what we see elsewhere, the door was open to making him a different kind of toxic, like an evil family-values type. Despite the fact that Zephia is essentially mind-controlling Veyle, she still takes orders from Veyle. That's interesting - it suggests that even the lowest of Sombron's children, the defect, can order around everyone else, even when they have to be brainwashed to do so. That would seem to fit with a Sombron who considered himself & his brood some sort of superior lifeform. But that's not actually true - Sombron doesn't care and considers his kids mere tools, means to an end. I think it would have been more interesting if they'd made Sombron the type who genuinely cares about his family, but in a very controlling and using kind of way - we're awesome and if we work together under my leadership, we will conquer everything etc. Rebelling from THIS kind of dad is a little harder, since he wants you on his side and considers you an asset, even if in a cynical way. And that also makes such a rebellion all the more rewarding - it's much easier to rebel from a dad actively trying to push his kids away. We also never see Sombron & Lumerra on the same screen at once, or ever hear what the two thought about each other, despite allegedly fighting a war 1,000 years ago. It would have been an obvious plot point to mine - maybe Sombron just wanted to escape this world at first, but after losing too many kids to Lumerra and her allies, he wanted revenge on her first, because how dare you kill my kids. That's the kind of understandable-but-still-evil villainous motive that helps spice things up. Sombron should have held grudges about his dead kids, rather than not caring about them.
* I actually don't mind too much Sombron's "real plot." It's basically about as narratively compelling as Krelian having an extremely, extremely complicated and evil plan to find the Wave Existence. Just... why hide it? And why have all the worry about Sombron invading countless worlds as some BS raise-the-stakes thing? I rather liked the Sombron that just wanted the heroes to leave him alone, while the heroes insisted that he face justice. I would have entirely dropped the threat of invading other worlds, and had a scene of Sombron basically saying "Later nerds" while a frustrated Zephia manages things back on Elyos without guidance or leadership.
* Or actually, even better. The best part of the lategame plot - which is still nothing special, to be clear, but is at least interesting and resonant - was C24, the time travel chapter. Past Alear is one of the more interesting villains the game has and giving them a moment in the sun was solid, so hey, I'm ending on a positive note! Now. Time travel does weird things for your setting and tends to not make tons of sense, but if you're gonna do it, Engage is the right place given a light tone and already having the Draconic Time Crystal be a plot point. So... and here we get more into the realm of fan rewrites... but damn, I wish they'd chucked, like, the other last 6-7 chapters in the trash and just expanded C24. Go full 7th Saga or Final Fantasy 8, have the entire back part of the game be time travelling back to 1,000 years ago and seeing that conflict. The conflict in the modern day just isn't very interesting or sensical, so make lemonade from your lemons with an excuse for a totally different situation. It would also be an excuse to see Lumera again (and maybe even throw in some Rhea-esque dark side) and throw out some insane plot twists. Maybe Gradlon was just a normal country and the idea of it being evil was made-up, and the reason it sunk was (insert crazy magic superweapon action that happens here). We know Sombron had lots of kids; that is an excuse to be fighting lots of Dragon-typed enemies that have Emblem Rings, even copies of Emblem Rings we already have. If taking the above advice on Sombron's personality, also humanize Sombron a little. We can also see Sombron becoming angry and/or distant as his children perish one-by-one, especially if taking my advice above about having him care about this, at least in the past. There's plenty of stuff that could have been done that would have been interesting as a matter of pure gameplay. And then various plot hooks could have been added to the countries in the present that'd be explained by plot twists in the past. Hell, even if the PCs eventually return to the present (more Xenosaga III Disc 1 style), they could have brought something a little more sensible from the past like knowledge or a missing Emblem Ring rather than the whole strange Fell Dragon crystal excuse. Sigh.
* Did I say I was ending on a high note? Nope, just kidding. This one isn't huge or anything, but there's one part of the ending that was extra-dumb. Alear tries to summon Marth for old time's sake and fails. Okay, fine. But then... the rings all glow and say "Our bonds can be reforged time and again, whenever you desire. You need only say the word." What!!! If that was true, then why didn't it work?! Like... pick one, game, either it's wistful melancholy of the departure of a treasured friend, or it's a happy reunion after a fake parting. You somehow settled on the unhappy middle where the friend is still around but is, like, hiding for the lulz instead. It'd be like if Final Fantasy X ended with Yuna sighing about Tidus being gone, and the camera cutting to Tidus hiding under the couch but not revealing himself.
EDIT: Oh, and one other thing.
The game kinda totally forgets about the opening movie. I don't think you should be stuck with whatever the animators came up with, but frankly the opening movie seemed to hint at more interesting stuff - a more explicitly evil Alear with a shit-eating grin that is affected by Lumera somehow, and blue & red Alear fighting Sombron w/ the crew. While nihilistic Alear was okay too, I'd have been down for some villain Alear as well, to make either their redemption (if they choose to get better) or Lumera's awkwardness (if she brainwashed him somehow with magic) more dramatically interesting. Also, if we're doing the Big Time Travel Plotline back to when there were, y'know, presumably people in Gradlon rather than just zombies, then that'd actually be an excuse to have the modern-day crew there for the big showdown rather than having the movie just be a total lie. Alas.
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Fire Emblem Engage
Beat this. Around 90 hours because I play FE games slow especially on first runs. This was about my time for Radiant Dawn as well for the record, with 3H just slightly behind.
I'll spare a few words for the story. It's... yeah, not good, sadly. Honestly I agree with Snowfire about pretty much everything. I will say that while Sacred Stones also has a fairly weak setting, I think the emotional core of the twins and Lyon lands far better than anything involving the primary players of this game. Outside of Griss who is an effective joke villain and Mauvier who actually does some reasonable self-reflection and feels human I was not a fan of this game's NPC or NPC-turned-PC cast like... at all. The royal heirs get some lines in main story scenes late in the game those lines all become completely generic. Oh well. I liked some of the stuff in Solm at least.
But yeah I enjoyed the gameplay a lot. Map design is pretty strong, albeit a bit weaker late, I think. The paralogues deserve note for being largely interesting love letters to their home games, and in many cases do it better than the home game did (which sometimes isn't hard, but still). I ended up enjoying the emblem system quite a lot, it does get better as you start getting more SP to play around with and as the emblems start actually really piling up (especially after Chapter 17). Classes, I kinda like that this game takes from Trials or Mana and encourages you to get to cool promoted classes faster. Class balance is also probably the best it has ever been in the series, fliers are still the best but balance is good otherwise and fliers aren't crazy OP like some games. Internal level is terrible, though. I had no idea what level any of people were towards the end. And Second Sealing from 20 to 1 is just a waste of time and resources. Please just use the FE4/3H system next time, Intsys. And ambush spawns are dead again! Please stay that way.
I could talk about units or emblems or other things and maybe I will. Certainly I should run down my unit notes at some point. But first, let's talk about maps! I played on Maddening which colours some things. To the spoiler text~
Prologue and Chapter 1: Tutorial fights, zzz.
Chapter 2 (Lumera): Teaches you a little about engage and also that Sigurd > Marth. Vander is still too OP though, laughs at your puny Ridersbane.
Chapter 3 (Alfred): This definitely feels like the first real fight. You have a real party to work with, there are fliers who can come in and threaten you (which Etie can one-shot on the dot, neat). One of the few fights I reset because you don't yet have the time crystal.
Chapter 4 (Firene): Introduces Chloe and Louis. Puts on a little time pressure with villages and also reuniting your team with them, fortunately they are both good PCs so using them well makes it not too bad.
Chapter 5 (Firene castle): OH NO BOSSES ARE TERRIFYING. Not a trivial map even before then, but yeah, on Maddening at least bosses are unbreakable, move, have a revival gem so you have to kill them twice. And this one does huge 1-2 damage, enough to one-shot some of my team. And he attacks you with friends. Had to be very careful about who fought him and how. This game has some of the most fun bosses in the series.
Chapter 6 (Yunaka): Fog sucks. Pretty benign map otherwise, they wanted to be sure Yunaka could basically solo the north so it's not too hard to reunite with your team. Boss is similar to the previous but not as bad for a few reasons (Yunaka, Micaiah, many more chokepoints existing, etc.). Still the hardest part of the map.
Chapter 7 (bridge): Great fun, kind of like Chapter 3 in that there are lots of fliers are carefully placed enemies for you to proceed past. The boss has potential to be scary but also has low HP, so as long as you can survive the turn she charges you should be ready to pounce.
Chapter 8 (Brodia): heyy defence map. A good one, like Conquest 10 there's a line to protect and some enemies WILL charge towards it, so you have to balance surviving yourself and kills. Like Conquest 10 siege weapons work in your favour, get to work Alcryst. Ivy makes better use of Leif than I ever did.
Chapter 9 (snow): This map is fine but doesn't really stand out like the previous two. Game puts on a little pressure for you to save Jade, but nothing too big.
Chapter 10 (cathedral): Nice big epic fight. Five bosses! They're all pretty competent in different ways. I consider the first few turns of this, with Hortensia and her retainers bearing down on you from three sides, probably some of the toughest moments in the game, but in a very good way.
Chapter 11 (escape): Tries to strike a balance between intimidating (the enemies have emblems, you don't, you have no rewinds) but still fair and mostly works? The enemy with freeze is very odd though, in that he could really fuck you up if he spammed that every turn and he just... doesn't? A bit awkward. And the lack of rewinds can be frustrating if you reset a few turns in. If you know how good the upcoming PCs are (or are playing casual), though, it's very reasonable just to let a few die. Ivy and friends coming in to save the day feels really good.
Chapter 12 (desert): I fought this map had really smart NPCs, they seemed to kite the enemies for me. But then they were really stupid for Amy, I dunno. Anyway it's a fairly short map completely dominated by fliers.
Chapter 13 (Timerra): Promoted enemies are scary. Promoted enemies at night, even scarier. Attack stats in the 40's, one even at 50! That's typical for endgame enemies! The bosses are brutal. I mean these dudes usually are, nice to see they continue that tradition (without any of the kinda transphobic-adjacent baggage they sometimes carry), but yeah figuring out to defeat both of them without losing anyone when they could both one-round most of my army was a thing. Evasion's the obvious strategy but definitely has some flaws!
Chapter 14 (Solm Castle): Bit of a long fight but it's nice to finally have high deployment again, there are chests to get. Clash with the bosses is pretty fun even if this is the first example of enemy AI having no idea how to use Fracture. Hortensia's reinforcement summon is weird and out of place for this game but fortunately rewinds exist if you trigger them at a bad time (I did not).
Chapter 15 (Seadall): Clearing miasma was kind of annoying, I was worried this would become a feature in the game and I'm very glad to be wrong. Enjyoable enough map, I like the two super-stat corrupted who come at you from behind to hurry you up.
Chapter 16 (beach): This map is just too long. My second longest map in terms of time and my longest in terms of turns, maybe I approached it wrong but I was still fast enough to save the village so I dunno? Just lots of enemies to slow you down, and those tides. Also in this map I learned that Corrin would make sure bosses were never scary again. I was... mostly right.
Chapter 17 (burning village): Corrin + Ivy is incredibly good. Actually the previous map proved this, but seriously. This map has six bosses, three of which you can potentially fight at the same time. And while I didn't find it an easy map, exactly, it felt nowhere near as bad as it could be. Tie up all the key enemy formations with Dreadful Aura while you pick off the rest, yes yes. Cool-looking map though and the six versus six emblem clash is certainly fun, along with Chapter 10 a good climactic moment for the game.
Chapter 18 (boat): aka "you want that speedwing, don't you? Of course you do..." Pretty enjoyable pseudo-defence map, with enemies coming at you from two sides (actually four sides, thanks to fliers). if you ignore the west ship (and the Speedwing) and just rush east it should be pretty easy.
Chapter 19 (miasma): Strange map. I thought it was going to be freaking awful but I ended up enjoying it well enough. There's a bunch of annoying aspects to it - an NPC who dies weirdly fast, a boss who uses AOE Warp to teleport people into your face, miasma freaking EVERYWHERE, and villages which are just traps? But aside from the stupid villages most of the rest ended up less annoying than I was expecting. Still not really a favourite, though.
Chapter 20 (Griss): Honestly the sheer personality of Griss makes this map fun even if it has the potential to be annoying. Love how he hides in the dark and keeps warping away, good for him, he's obviously having a great time. The priest with Entrap is evil, you definitely want a strategy for them, and obviously fog makes for some trickiness, especially this game's version.
Chapter 21 (Veyle): I've seen some people having trouble with this one but I found it fairly rote, just move towards the boss then punch her in the face within a few turns. The game starts really spamming reinforcements at you from behind to push you forward which I enjoy (staying to fight most of them is probably a mistake).
Chapter 22 (reclaim the rings): IMO, the worst map in the game. First of all, it's way too long; it took me the longest of any map. Second, you're without all your cool toys. You can reclaim rings and I was expecting that to be hype, but all they give you is their stats, which is really lame? Why is this a rout map. Why does the game lie and not tell you it's a rout map. Why is it a rout map where you have to defeat enemies with Void Curse (zero exp gain), which is usually a sign you aren't supposed to fight these enemies. The gimmick of this map was already done so much better by 11.
Chapter 23 (Zephia/Griss): Freeze spam, the game. That turn 2 where the enemies freeze a whole bunch of your team and then Zephia aims a bunch of space rocks at you is certainly scary. It took me a bit of thought just to survive that and defeat the Griffin Knights (Griffins are terrifying btw). Once I survived that the rest of the map was easy and even a bit odd since I just totally ignored the entire northeast of the map and a bunch of enemies just sat there?
Chapter 24 (avalanches): Fliers... good. Seriously their ability to ignore the gimmick breaks this map. Otherwise there's a bunch of hiding to not be pushed back too much, and you don't want that because there's a 15 turn limit! (I took 10.) Pretty fun. Boss has over 130 evade and Corrin reduces it by over half with one use of her Engage Attack because bosses can not deal with Corrin.
Chapter 25 (Lumera): Love the music. Okay so the game wants you to fight this with two teams. That seems tricky. I did not play by its rules, I used Micaiah and Rewarp/Rescue to unite the teams on turn 1, stomped through the leftside. The devs are smart, they anticipate this play by having thieves go to open the door of the area you vacate, but there are countermeasures even for that (I hit the thief with freeze until I could get over there). Thus I outraced most of the reinforcements and reached the boss. The end of this map feels more like something out of Radiant Dawn than Engage, the enemies basically all don't move what the hell? Entrap does make it interesting, as does the desire to get the treasure.
Chapter 26 (endgame): Bit of an odd map. Near as I can tell the best strategy is to kill three of the dark emblems, deal with whatever reinforcements the last one can summon, and just kill Sombron? Kill the last emblem to drop his barrier when you think you can just one-round him. I decided to play by its rules and kill all four and deal with the next four, which were trickier because I was out of position and because Sombron himself starts becoming more aggressive in this stage. I did not see stage 3. Doing so would probably make the map way too long. As is it was fine, but not really a great endgame map; I'd take most of 3H's over this one despite this game having better map design generally.
Oh yeah and there's a first phase which is a complete waste of time and I reacted to this how the game deserves: Entrap the boss turn 1 and beat him to death.
I could write about the paralogues but this is already long enough. I still need to do unit notes... later, maybe. For now, just in case I never get around to them, here are battles/kills and primary emblem of my core team. I did move them around a bit at points.
Ivy 389/215 Corrin
Chloe 287/194 Sigurd
Panette 243/162 Lyn
Merrin 209/126 Eirika
Fogado 182/102 Lucina
Goldmary 133/85 Marth
Alear 131/85 Byleth until C22, then nobody
Celine 154/79 Celica
Timerra 199/70 Ike
Hortensia 31/16 Micaiah
Lindon 39/20 Byleth from C23 on
Mauvier 24/16 Roy
Saphir 18/4 lategame filler
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Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line
Cleared all the series quests, which should unlock all the songs, so good time to mark it in the topic I think.
I played most of hte game on Expert, only able to do about 7-8 difficulty songs in Ultimate, which... even with rust that's a bit annoying. But it comes down to the game actually just being harder now due to being purely button control rather than accommodating touch controls. There's just more complex tech at the higher difficulties and honestly even after doing like 200 songs or whatever it is to get the series clears I still can't do some of it like... at all. So for that I do feel like this isn't hitting me quite as well as Curtain Call did.
That said you really can't argue with the sheer amount of songs you can do. Game is fucking stacked. There's a few things I could point to as surprising omissions, doubly so since unlike previous games they don't seem to be planning DLC for games that are already in the game (except the Deluxe Edition vocal songs, which honestly I expect just cost them more money due to Japanese music industry nonsense) but it's a really piddly number. And I certainly don't regret getting the Deluxe edition because while I'm done for now, I am absolutely looking forward to that trickle of fun other stuff to come. So yeah, not a perfect replacement for the 3DS game, but still something I'm happy with.
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Playing the Mario Rabbids Tower of Doom DLC. It's basically a randomizer for Rabbids. I just cleared challenge level 5. You get a random set of sparks and characters for each run. A run consists of 10 levels then a boss fight against a giant foe. You can choose between various levels which different rewards, like new PC's, golden prisms, extra sparks, etc. The healbot is disabled for this mode and there are no side quests.
It's neat, but PC balance is worse than the main game. You get much less stat prisms in this mode; I've been tending to skip out on the movement skills and prioritize things like support skills. Also found the golden prisms total trash due to lack of points to sink into it. This really hurts characters like Edge and Rabbid Mario, who have really bad support skills. Rabbid Peach is by far the MVP of this mode because there's so little healing otherwise. Peach, Luigi and Mario are also great here because they have fantastic supporting skills. Bowser, Edge, Rabbid Luigi are just not very good here because of bad support skills. Because you only get up to five characters each run (And start with three to four) you really can struggle if you get a bad starting set of PC's.
Just started run six on challenge mode and got Edge, Rabbid Mario and Peach. Hopefully I get Rabbid Peach really soon or I'm in for some pain.
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Octopath Traveler 2 - the Upper Class Is Once Again Horrible
So yeah, picked this up during the blackout, though it took two more days before I could play it. I can say definitively that it's a generally more polished game than the first; balance has been tightened, and there isn't nearly as much grinding--at least early on. You can pretty reliably start getting into Chapter 2s not long after the Chapter 1s finish, which is nice (they start at level 14 rather than 20-something like in 8PT1). The stories feel like they grab me a bit more, though the intros to them *definitely* feel longer.
Structurally, some may disagree with how the non-mains' Chapter 1s are handled, but I kind of prefer it; they're all isolated for each character, giving them time to get on their feet and be brought up to speed, and let you learn each character's ins and outs rather than be forced to carry them with your increasingly overleveled other party members. (Also it means we can add a few memetastic bosses to nominate in the DL. A worthwhile cause if you ask me)
I would also say the addition of Latent Powers helps the characters stand out aside from their classes--and while a few of these are basic limit breaks, others are extremely useful modifiers akin to Force abilities in WA. EX Skills also are hinted at, but not shown for the time being. Needless to say, everyone is rather distinctive already.
Character impressions thus far, in proper Octopath order:
Ochette (Hunter): Chapter 1 completed, her plot seems to be fairly simple and straightforward, and I feel her best 8PT1 analogue plotwise is Ophilia. What's really worth talking about with her, though, is the fact that she's an insanely strong improvement over H'aanit. You choose one companion from the start, Akala the jackal(covering physicals) or Mahina the owl (covering elemental), who are smart about targeting weaknesses and have a special attack for hitting broken targets. In addition, all beasts she captures can be used infinitely - and give you a food item when disposed of. The skillset's also been cleaned up, like many have. While Mercy Strike and Leghold Trap still sit there like the jank they are, the rest of her kit is improved. A recurring theme: multi-weapon classes generally now have skill coverage for both weapons. Her Latent Power is one of the two that is just straight-up Limit Break, giving her the choice of a multitarget attack, single-target attack, or weakness-agnostic shield-down plus debuff. Plus side to this, however, is that they can be boosted, and *do* scale with BP spent. Overall? Great first impression on gameplay.
Castti (Alchemist): Chapter 1 completed, and I am curious as to where her plot will be going, can't really see any analogues for her. Gameplay-wise, Castti isn't too different from Alfyn, especially with her class abilities. Her Alchemy *has* been streamlined to be more straightforward to grasp, though - and nerfed to an extent with the fact that if you want to boost it, you need more materials. It's no longer a Base+Modifier situation, you now have specific effects per material, duplicates repeat hits in the case of repeated damage materials. This leads her to being extremely versatile. Where she gets to be arguably broken as a support is with her Latent Power, which lets her use any materials in your inventory at no cost. Throw in 3 BP, pop LP, and watch as your entire party gets 4 BP. So she's arguably been nerfed in terms of baseline use, but Latent Power lets her pull out utterly ridiculous shenanigans. Also she's one of two who can knock people out during the night; she needs specific items to do so, but she can, which is helpful if you don't feel like beating them up during the day.
Throné (Thief): Early impressions: she feels like she's going to be a variant on Primrose (Hell, she even has Darkness magic rather than Fire). Gameplay-wise, I can't think of too much to say for her in terms of deviations from Therion. She loses the SP draining, though, which is rough. To make up for this, however, she's a random sweeper par excellence at night, owing to the fact that she gets the unique passive of giving the whole party Attack Up, Elemental Attack Up, and Speed Up at the start of all nighttime encounters. Her Latent Power is potentially amazing under the right circumstances; it gives her a whole second turn that turn, at no cost. Plotwise, I've completed Chapter 2, and while it interestingly has no fighting at all, I do have to complain about the fact that it gives you a choice-based non-standard game over with zero indicators as to which choice. You basically get a game over for losing a coinflip (technically Russian Roulette with poisoned cups, but same difference). It's not exactly punishing since you have two choices and the game over sends you back to the choice, but I find it mildly insulting to get a game-over over "you guessed wrong". Give us something to read into, don't just make us blindly check. Also choose the right cup.
Osvald (Scholar): I don't know what it is about 8PT2 but they're getting me invested in their casters. Osvald's story goes damn hard and I'm here for it. Also, very big ACAB here. I'm here for this one. Gameplay-wise, he's improved over Cyrus on the basis of having a skillset that's wider than three whole moves! He has the baseline spells, a spell that upgrades any elemental spells the target ally has to the next "level" (essentially adding hits to it), a random-target random-element multi-hit spell that can mulch broken lone targets, and a way to give himself random stat buffs. Study Target is still as good as before. And for his Latent Power? It was Cyrus' old Divine Skill. His multitarget spells are now single-target for the turn and hit way harder. Even if he didn't have all of that going for him, he can mug townsfolk for their items at night. Some rich asshole has a priceless painting that you can't easily steal but you want the money for? Beat him up for it! Fun for the whole family! (disclaimer: does not work on kids)
Partitio (Merchant): So I'm going to give a confession. I found Tressa to perhaps be my least favorite of the lot in the first game. I wasn't expecting to get into Partitio's storyline but I did. (Chapter 1 complete). Gameplay-wise, he feels awkward to use, but Arrow of Fortune does reasonable damage alongside giving you bonus JP, and of course he has options for His biggest advantage is the intersection of his class passives and Latent Power, allowing him to throw BP around like absolutely nobody's business; one passive gives him an extra BP to start a fight, another lets him start every fight with full Latent Power, and his Latent Power lets him just get a full BP gauge. Doesn't matter if he's at 0 on the turn, it's full now. You can see how this can get. On top of the 8PT1 merchant shenanigans, Partitio can also hire people to follow him at night. (This makes him the second to have followers; Ochette can befriend people with meat) Individual townsfolk, interestingly, also give Partitio varied bonuses when interacting with shops or buying from people, so it provides more assistance than just a combat summon for him. Cool stuff to consider, even if I haven't really figured out anyone I really want to bring with him yet.
Agnea (Dancer) Feels like Part 2 of Tressa. I...wasn't very big on Tressa, but I'll try to give her a fair shot for later chapters. Gameplay-wise, she has her own unique quirks that differentiate her. Most notably, Agnea starts with a kick special that no joke is guaranteed to knock off a point of shield on whoever it hits, regardless of weakness, and a miniature Turn Shift that bumps a target ally's next turn up one in the order. Her Latent Power? Any single-target ability immediately becomes multitarget. This is...hilariously powerful in theory and is already helpful for her native offensive buffs. More interestingly, this expansion to buffing is compounded by her talent. As expected, she can Allure townsfolk to help, but now everyone she does use Allure on has a chase effect on buffs she casts, of varying type. Like Partitio, this works just by having the townsfolk around, so this is a rather core mechanic to her. Very neat from a gameplay standpoint.
Temenos (Cleric): As I said before, 8PT2 has a way of getting me invested in its caster characters and Temenos is no different. In this case, I just find this absolute bastard troll of an inquisitor entertaining as hell and I look forward to seeing more of him bounce off of people. Gameplay-wise, he stole the SP drain skill that Therion had in 8PT1, making him *incredibly* self-sufficient on SP despite his big costs, as well as having a secondary role as Chief Staffwhacker. Skills are otherwise mostly the same. His Latent Power, though? All his attacks this turn break shields. Doesn't matter if they hit a weakness or that weakness is guarded or what. They're breaking shields. You cannot stop them from breaking shield. On top of the standard-issue Guide for Clerics, he can also now beat information out of people at night. He is an absolute bastard and I love him for it.
Hikari (Warrior): Up to Chapter 2 done, and it's been a pretty fun ride, complete with awesome bossfight. The real thing to talk about, is the gameplay. If it weren't for Hikari here, I'd have rated Ochette as the biggest upgrade. I do posit, however, that Hikari's upgrade over Olberic is absolutely insane. To start, the base Warrior class has practically been retooled outside of the taunt and self-buffs. His sword skills include a 3-hit randotarget and one that purges his buffs (the description implies it's the enemy's, but it's his. Very weirdly described here) to do extra damage, his one spear skill autocrits at max boost, and then he gets Vengeful Blade, which utterly wrecks face for so much of the first half of the game. And then he gets the ability to straight-up Mega Man techniques from people he wins duels with. Let it be said, he's an absolute monster and probably my favorite to run on the gameplay front. ...Oh yeah, and he gets the other Limit Break style Latent Power and it will absolutely wreck face when it goes off.
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Mario Rabbids Tower of Doom DLC. It's a lot of fun; the DLC is basically a randomizer mode that dispenses with the story and exploration and focuses entirely on gameplay.
You start with three to four PC's depending on the challenge level; the heal bot is disabled as well. You start with one spark for each PC. You go through a set of nine branching levels where you pick one of two to three missions to do for various rewards. Mission 5 is always a survival mission against the giant red cat boss; mission 10 is always a boss fight against one of the five giant enemies from the optional missions. I saw four of the five giant foes; it appears to be entirely random which you get. You gain a level for each mission and you end the game at level 10. After each stage you have 30 seconds to collect coins, which you can use to buy items.
You have much less of everything to work with in this mode. You never get a full roster of PC's and the ones you get are randomly generated. You have a very limited selection of sparks, which means you have to experiment and try ones you may not have used during the main game. Much less stat points means you have to be pickier with what you spend them on. I generally found to be running straight for the personal skills for the ones who have good ones, HP regeneration if I didn't have Rabbid Peach, and weapon skills on my main attackers. Dash skills largely felt less good and left out in the cold- this hurt Edge, Bowser and Mario in particular as they get very limited use out of some of those skills.
My character ratings focus on who I got the most use out of at higher challenge levels. I had to use everyone at some point. In spite of having the defensive PC's as the top ones, you wouldn't want to especially use a team made of Peach/Rabbid Peach/Rabbid Roslina- you need someone to hit things after all. But damage is more easily replicated. Things like reaching the goal missions are trivial as well in this mode; things like survival missions and killing a lot of certain enemy types at once are the hardest missions you get. My character ratings reflect this.
PC's in order:
Always want:
1. Rabbid Peach: Heal bot is disabled and you have very limited means of healing otherwise. Unsurprisingly she's great. I never bothered with her dash skills- she always was being used for healing and support. Offense isn't great but who cares? You're using her for healing.
Good:
2. Rabbid Rosalia: Also unsurprisingly good. Ennui is good for controlling large packs of enemies. IE: Some of the missions on challenge level 7/8 involve things like having to kill six to eight magikoopas on a map with almost no cover or range to move around in. Ennui dash is why I think she's better than Peach- it's a way to stop from taking damage every turn from a foe, which is important when enemies so do much damage in this mode. IE: You have battles where you have to kill a bunch of the high HP Claw type enemies and even a full turn of offense won't finish them off. Offense isn't good but like with Rabbid Peach, you have other characters to do damage.
3. Peach: Barrier's great, but generally I find it less flexible than Ennui in this mode. Less offense and durability means you need to get as much milage as possible out of turn skips.
4. Luigi: Tons of damage and range. This is just less good than in the main game because you're relying more on healing and support skills from characters here.
These three are fairly close together. I'm generally happy to have any of these four on my team.
5. Mario: Overwatch is as powerful as ever and Mario's got good offense. But he's hurt by his dash and movement tricks being worse. He's also a bit of a slow starter as well, you really need to get a few points so you can get rid of Overwatch's cooldown.
Limited use:
6. Rabbid Mario: He's great for killing reinforcement portals and doing damage at close range. BUT. He's useless on maps where there is a lot of ground to cover and his support skill is total garbage. Generally I don't have the points to put much into his dash skills either. That said I got more use out of Rabbid Mario in this mode, just because on some maps you really have to do damages in a hurry to a lot of targets and he's the best in the game at that. There's very little in between for RM- he's either great or a liability.
7. Edge: Whoof. The dash skills are very good on high challenge levels on the last few maps where you have the points to give her four dash. She does decent damage to bosses too. Everything else is just bad though. Stormblade is trash and she is the worst PC at the start of the game.
Pain:
8t. Rabbid Luigi: Terrible offense, pretty bad support ability. Weaken is so much worse than other defensive support abilities. I've gotten less use out of RL than I have Bowser, but Weaken on paper has more potential due to the damage boost.
8t. Bowser: Really bad offense, movement skills are useless in this mode and his mecha koopas are bad unless he's hitting a fire weakness. At least useful for destroying cover in early maps. YUCK.
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8PT2: me am play gods with subclasses.
In all seriousness, yeah. Once you start doing subclassing, you get access to some *serious* bullshit and god help any C2 bosses that you spring this on beforehand. Also, Divine Skills have come into play and this means disgusting things to the damage average. Now covering them in the order I recruited them.
Hikari C3 done. Subbing Hunter just so he can use Axe and Bow learned skills worth a damn. No really, that's half the reason I've put him in that class. Having a reliable user of Leghold Trap also doesn't hurt, though one recent boss actually fights back against that by basically *really* not wanting you to let him get turns back-to-back in his second half. Is one of three who's hit 9999 or higher. He's overleveled as hell, I do not recommend picking him as the main just because his hunt for Learned Skills is going to get him several levels' worth of experience alone. Also he does get some decent picks from some of the Learned Skills from plot-required challenges.
Ochette Two of her C2s done. Because Ochette's C2 is effectively three chapters spread out across a level spread from 16 to 37. Subbing Warrior because Hunter plus her first EX skill gives her five buffs to feed Enervating Slash with, and that is as disgustingly effective as it sounds (she's hit 9999). She's got access to Boss Captures as well (one of her plot captures works like this), but this requires 3 BP and is OPB, so you probably don't want more than one or two of these at most as proper captures.
Castti: C3 done. The tricky part with Apothecary here is that, combined with Castti's own Concoct option, she's essentially feature complete. She's difficult to pick a subclass for because she already kind of has everything she wants for the most part. Concoct still busted by the by.
Osvald: C3 done (though it's more of a C2 due to circumstances). Put him in Priest just because it's the only other class that gets him spells modifiable by Advanced Magic. The fact that he gets the SP Drain Staffwhack from it doesn't hurt. My main nemesis with him is one guard who is holding a Morning Star (perfect for staffwhacks!) and no matter what I do I can't get past his spam of Thousand Blades because Osvald is forever squishy. Feel free to laugh, it is kind of funny. (Disclaimer: due to Mug being what it is, it's not advisable to have Osvald as main; he'll level up a LOT just beating items out of rich assholes in town at night).
Throné: Both C3s done. Has one of the best C3 bosses in the game so far...and probably one of the laughably worst. Plot has me thinking a bit, though. Aeber's Reckoning has led her to be the third with a 9999 hit. Also, I'll have to see how much damage it does with Speed Up. Because she has a speed buff, and AR still is speed-based. Have her sub Merchant for extra weapon options and also Rest giving her some desperately-needed SP recovery, though there's not much else I can consider here. Dancer's buff-extending passive extends her start-of-battle nighttime bonus, though, which is disgusting. Want the entire party to have four whole-ass rounds of ATK Up, EATK Up, and Speed Up for free?
Temenos: ...took me a bit to remember that I eventually settled on Scholar as his subclass. Not that I'm trying to double up on what Osvald is doing so much as that with his Latent Power, Elemental Barrage is the single best break-inducing skill in the game; 6-8 hits at full Boost. For reference, Aggressive Slash is 6 hits, and Precise Shot is 5 hits. So worst case, it's even. The extra EATK from Scholar also is just useful, though Temenos is already pretty good on passives. One of his C3s is done, the other one is pretty high up, levelwise.
Partitio: C2 done. Partitio's a case not unlike Agnea where he's so well-rounded it's legit hard to actually pick a subclass for him. The fact that he's guaranteed to have 7 BP within the first two rounds of a fight means that his best picks are Scholar or Cleric, though, both for the relevant Divine Skills. Dancer's also an option, but that's stuff Agnea already wants to do. Osvald in particular wants that BP for doing damage by contrast, so having a backup user of divine skills who can get them out fast is not a bad idea. Hired Help has a lot more utility for what it's worth, if you're willing to shell out the money (contrasting OT1 HH where most are just scaling damage effects, most have an attached buff or debuff of some sort). Also, he has some fun passives from followers he hires, making him a hilarious case of Field Utility.
Agnea: C3 done. Nooooot gonna lie, her story's losing me a bit so far like I feared it would; I'll see how it fares in C4, but her C3 felt...extraneous. Gameplay-wise, though...hoo boy, I figured out how her follower rider effects work and they can be absolutely busted pending on which one you grab. There's at least one that chases her dancer skills with a 500 HP and 40 SP heal. There's others that increase BP or your Latent Power gauge. This doesn't use any summon uses of your followers so...yeah. Congrats, she's busted as hell as a support character. Subclass options, she generally wants Thief, Merchant, or Apothecary; her Latent Power lets her just decide a single-target (non-Divine) skill is multitarget. Of course, you could just make her a Hunter and slap that LP down on a multi-target Leghold Trap. If you go far enough into Merchant for passives you can even just do that every single fight. Or Scholar to just give everyone using magic multihit spells with Advanced Magic. The options just do not end with her.
Overall, if I had to compare OT2 to anything, I'd say it's roughly analogous to Final Fantasy 5, in the regards that it will hand you about twenty ways to break it over your knee. You have way more options than the first, and I'm not *quite* sure the game itself could keep up by contrast. I'm not even into the secret classes yet.
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Persona- finished the SEBEC route.
It's... odd. I've actually bought this game three times, once on PS1 in its original form, once on PSP, and again as a digital backup on Vita because I'm not entirely sure what condition my PSP is in. That original PS1 purchase actually made it the oldest game in my backlog, the last one standing from that Christmas I raided every bargain bin I could find in two cities for PS1 and 2 games in 2003. This is mostly because it is a bad video game that was easy to set aside for new stuff, and I never got to the point of "well it's this or replays" after then. The PSP version is a substantially better game but not actually a good game either, but... it does eventually get places. Like this is a game with about 5 bosses and 12-ish dungeons in this route (and I think 4 dungeons and 4 bosses in the other?) so there's not really that much plot, because there's only a few scenes.
What's there does have the actual vibe that Persona would ultimately build itself on though. Maki and to a lesser extent Nanjo do have tangible growth though the game, and the confrontations they have with what bosses do exist do speak actual anxieties people would have. I also especially like the (unstated) touch that Maki's being so unreasonably forgiving towards her bestie after the Harem Queen fight is intentional: Maki isn't that forgiving... she just wants to be, so this Maki gets to be. Probably the biggest disappointment is Masao, who just... is set up as important and doesn't actually do much except be a stepping stone for Maki and Nanjo to define themselves.
Gameplay wise though the only... lets say advanced mechanic here is the final boss, which would have been rude as hell if I'd gone there when I could have instead of saying "hey I wonder what these Ultimate Persona are like, may as well see in out of a misplaced nostalgia for DL-ifying characters". The gap between how good Nanjo and Elly were in the DL and how meaningful those attributes actually are in the game is pretty big if you were curious, although Elly really IS very good throughout the game anyways.
But yeah like... this is probably about a 5/10 but. I dunno. Weird to think I actually finished a fucking game from the deep backlog for once.
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Into the Breach - Played this a whole bunch. Switch clock says 55 hours, which was enough to win as every team and get almost all the achievements (still have a few left but not sure I'll bother). Game is pretty consistently fun, there's enough things to balance and the game is generally pretty transparent about how everything works. Easy to play over and over. Probably my biggest complaint is the rewind limits, but it's fine, I should probably be glad any game that contains some roguelike DNA has any such feature at all.
Suikoden Tierkreis - Replaying this randomly, a bit over halfway.
Chained Echoes - Beat this. I was a bit skeptical of the game at first because "appealing to 90's RPG nostalgia" is something which I can sometimes find a bit tacky; I do prefer games to be a bit forward-looking! Fortunately CE doesn't just rely on that, it's also got straight-up solid gameplay in the style of Zeboyd; needing to balance the behaviour of the overdrive gauge (certain actions raise it, certain ones lower it [which ones vary], and you want to keep it in a sweet spot) with other demands on your actions mean decisions almost always feel thought-provoking and rewarding, even as I try to set up specific huge damage moves. Compared to Zeboyd there's also a ton of stuff to do, so while the battles were the most appealing part to me it definitely scratches some of those other explory JRPG itches if they're your thing (I wouldn't exactly call them mine, but I enjoyed what the game was offering on that front to do a fair bit of them).
The writing is... okay? Definitely a mix. Suffers from a bit of a shaky translation/actual dialog writing quality (is this just part of its 90's charm?!) and at the end of the day none of the characters really stuck with me, but it's interesting enough. One of things I liked about it is that most of the NPCs/villains aren't actually that antagonistic to the party (there are some exceptions); you get lots of offers of cooperation which are sincere, so the PCs' choices end up making them feel like they're active agents in the story instead of just reacting to villainy. The worst thing about the writing is on occasion it decides to take some of the worst ideas from Game of Thrones. Less of a big deal but still a bit of a downer is the other thing it takes from the 90's: way more of the characters are men than women, like top to bottom in the cast, but at least it respects the women who are there.
Pixel art is very good; it's not even my thing but I appreciate how much of it there is, including punctuating some significant story scenes. I imagine big fans of pixel art will eat this game up. Music's a bit on the weaker side.
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The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog- delightful.
Okay the only real note is it sure is good the runner segments (basically a Sonic bnus stage used where Logic Chess might go) have modes to just turn off all the difficulty, because doing a few of them legit would be miserable. The game ends on one which... I understand why narratively but it just doesn't fit the vibe of the game. Some of the end cards are great though.
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Mass Effect 3 (Steam)
Mostly played last year but ended up running a few days over. I found it enjoyable overall.
To some extent I wonder if the complaints about the ending wouldn't have happened if they didn't let you choose one - in the sense that you were automatically given whichever was considered most applicable to the choices you had been making across the game. This would of course be out of step with the previous games where the analogous final decisions allowed you select theoretically out-of-character choices, but since there wasn't going to be any need to take this choice forward to future games maybe that wouldn't matter. Also unclear how the whole warscore setup would work with this but that system felt kind of underbaked in the first place.
I thought that the version I had had all the DLC included but it turned out it only had some of the DLC included, as I discovered when I found myself in the last mission and realised that I was aware of there being content that I hadn't seen yet and looked into what was going on. And apparently the pack with the rest of the DLC on Steam is broken in some way, on top of being wildly overpriced, in that you can get all the rest of the DLC for free within the EA app? Very weird situation, I imagine that the more recent edition of ME3 doesn't suffer from it though.
Afterwards, went to reread Shamus Young's series of articles on the series and discovered that he had died. Ultimately also enjoyed that reread although I found some of his complaints to be a bit specious.
Picross S Mega Drive & Master System Edition (Switch)
Cleared all puzzles.
I haven't really been following the Picross S series, unsure if there's some issue with them versus Picross e or if it's due to being on the Switch versus being on the 3DS. Anyway I'm happy to pick one up that's all about sprites, even if I've barely played any classic Sega games. Hopefully they put some more out. Although on checking now, if this came out in mid-2021, that seems unlikely to happen anytime soon.
They seriously need to stop giving the Picross and Mega Picross modes the same set of... answers. It's not so that someone who doesn't like Mega Picross (reasonable) can get the whole experience by just doing all the regular Picross puzzles, or vice-versa! They expect you to do both! If they don't want to have entirely unique answers for each mode, they can at least have some unique answers in each mode.
I have not seen the Clip Picross mode before and so on first entering my initial thoughts were 'aha, they've fixed Micross mode'. These thoughts were wrong. I was imagining that the splayed pieces were essentially a jigsaw that the game was going to put together once you'd solved all of them - or potentially get you to do that. Instead they're all just small snippets of a larger image and once you solve them all the game fills in all the area outside the pieces. It's ultimately still better than Micross. But not by much.
Color Picross mode was fine I guess. The impression I had was that it's both easier than regular Picross and more tedious.
Fire Emblem Engage (Switch)
Beat on Normal, beat the DLC campaign on normal. Got all regular supports (M-Alear only).
Some of the story sequences put me in mind of Advance Wars with regards to how familiarly the opposing characters were treating each other while disregarding the troops. I'm also unsure how well some facets really hold together (the need for royal blood seems to just disappear after comparatively little of it was collected, for example). As a whole I liked it though. I feel like it could be interesting to see some of the earlier events in light of later revelations but I've spent long enough on my single playthrough that I'm not willing to do another at this point.
I don't understand what the intentions were for some of the side features. Some of the achievements are bizarre. (Who is going to naturally buy 50 swords? I don't actually remember buying any weapons except for achievement purposes, although I can understand a person doing a gimmick class run needing to buy some.) Things like the Ring Reference etc really seem like they should be available out-of-game so that they can filled out across multiple playthroughs, assuming I just haven't failed to see them.
Soul Blazer (SNES, emulated)
Beaten.
...I think this might actually be my favourite of the Blazer - Illusion - Terranigma series? Been a long time since I played either of the others though. (Had not played this one before.)
[EDIT]
Somehow completely forgot
Pentiment (Steam)
which I played between beating the main FE Engage campaign and the DLC campaign being released.
It was great. Lots of alternatives available for replaying, although I don't think I'll do so in the near future.
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The Legend of Heroes: Trails to Azure-
This game has a literal beach episode but it still feels like it's just gogogogogo and you never get a breath. A sense compounded by the very "uh yeah don't worry everyone lived but we can't tell you how this ends right now!" nature of the ending. Inexplicably, Azure manages to both feel like you're wading through molasses AND everything is happening all at once in chapter 2. But that's really about all the notes. The way this game mixes both the big stakes and the small is astounding, and I love that the final thesis goes from "we're taking our daughter home" to "how DARE any of us try to put ALL THIS on that little girl!"
Yeah real good. Not as structurally sound as Zero but really has about the same punch without having to bring in pinch hitters, if you will.
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Played some games for the first time recently. Impressions -
Touhou New World (demo):
Advertised as an action RPG though I played it more like a hack and slash with RPG elements. Either of Touhou's primary leads can be selected and even though Marisa is my fave character, for other reasons I picked Reimu.
Action takes place from a primarily overhead perspective. At a glance without looking at a manual or controls list (which would have helped if I'd asked about them), each character has a variety of attacks to beat on Touhou inspired enemies with stronger ones needing to recharge between uses. There is a jump button for avoiding enemy fire as well as platforming. Settings look like something from Gensokyo and the enemy bullets will look familiar to Touhou players.
An Xseed representative told me that the player stats were boosted for the demo. So I could mostly bash my way through making mostly token efforts to avoid enemy attacks and still progress. Not so for the boss battle at the end which still requires paying attention to their actions and I did end up losing. Game did provide an option to retry from the last checkpoint (the start of the boss fight) but with a line of people also wanting to try behind me, ended my session there.
Controls well and enjoyed the gameplay loop for what it is. Bodes well for the upcoming release of the full game.
Touhou 10: Mountain of Faith
I really haven't played this one before. Jumped in semi-blind on Normal with only a knowledge of the basic controls and no recollection of the game's special scoring mechanics. Playing Touhou with default controls doesn't bode well for my performance. I'm so used to movement on the left hand and actions with the right hand so I'm already handicapped before even starting. Game over on Stage 1 so I gave it another shot from the beginning. Still with little familiarity with the patterns, the next try ends on stage 2. No spellcard captures. Crisscrossing bullets are a nightmare. Fairly standard outcome for me as far as shmups go really. Also not helping was thinking C is the focus button and only later realizing it's Shift.
Touhou 14: Double Dealing Character
This may be the only Touhou I have the capacity to 1cc on Lunatic. But that requires learning a path through the game and being familiar with boss patterns and enemy placement. So I stuck to Normal for this playthrough. This went better and I actually got a spellcard capture on my blind attempt. Game over on stage 2 though not upsetting being that I went in cold. Still had forgotten that Shift is focus and not C.
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The Legend of Heroes: Trails to Azure-
This game has a literal beach episode but it still feels like it's just gogogogogo and you never get a breath. A sense compounded by the very "uh yeah don't worry everyone lived but we can't tell you how this ends right now!" nature of the ending. Inexplicably, Azure manages to both feel like you're wading through molasses AND everything is happening all at once in chapter 2. But that's really about all the notes. The way this game mixes both the big stakes and the small is astounding, and I love that the final thesis goes from "we're taking our daughter home" to "how DARE any of us try to put ALL THIS on that little girl!"
Yeah real good. Not as structurally sound as Zero but really has about the same punch without having to bring in pinch hitters, if you will.
Azure is great. I pretty much consider Zero the best of the Trails series in terms of arcs. Has a lot of the Cold Steel DNA for the battles without as much stupid and the plot beats are just both more straightforward and thematically sound. Excellent for a 2-parter story. I'd probably see Cold Steel in better light as a whole if it ended after 2 but then they added 2 more games and we know how those end up.
Oh right, games. Uh...I replayed VP2 casually for the first time in awhile. If you've been on Discord, you've probably seen a few of my notes and comments. A brief recap:
- The best way to play this game is so counterintuitive. Despite the game wanting you to use combos and VP1 was all about PWS, VP2 is all about boosting 1 guy and then doing everything to make that 1 guy as broke as possible. The best part in this game is often just 2 characters. YOu can use 3 characters late, but early on, it just isn't effective.
- 2 party teams include 1 person as an Anchor (tank, revives people if you make a mistake) and a point character (your attacker). 3 party teams often include a Mage or Archer (usually the latter) since both do Magic damage and give the attacking point character enhanced ranged. You really only use 3 characters once you can give them adequate enough magic power that they can contribute. Otherwise, it's better to have this slot as a dead PC.
- Speaking of, Mages are so bad in this game. They will literally have double the magic power of an Archer but deal 1/2 the damage. As Meeple noted, it says something when Lezard and his 800 powered magic rod basically deals below average damage.
- Magic is much harder to pump then Physicals which contributes to the above. However, Archers get a couple of tools that help them out, while mages don't. So Archers are far more valuable in the main game. Releasing Mages is like the only strong point of Mages and it's just so awkward.
- Throughout like the first 4 chapters of the game, Dylan is like the game's best PC. If you can choose which Einherijar for guaranteed recruitment, you'd probably end up with Phyress or Zunde but since even Phyress is only 90% - Dylan is the only PC who has guaranteed recruitment and is good at what he does. Comparatively the other plot PCs during that time are Alicia, Rufus, Leone, Arngrim and Lezard. All of which have their share of issues.
- Crystal income is actually very restrictive if we are playing in an effective manner. It makes me wonder if Sharp Sword Law is a lock at 2000 crystals because there are several other Sealstones worth restoring. Most notably, Wrath of Forcefulness is absolutely stupid if you are willing to be like a FFT Sam and smash swords, since it lets you load up on like Flamberges and hit things with +300 attack power for the main game most of the time. Other stuff like Paper Tiger Blessing is 800 crystals and is a 1.5x at full health.
- If you are willing to grind, Stone Hurlers Wrath is also supremely busted. You lose 1/2 your movement speed but you are often dashing anyway, so who cares.
- In the last two chapters of the game, it gets murky since Dylan goes AWOL. However, this is kind of where Rufus starts getting better (more Sealstones, more MAG+ items, more levels), so he might end up being your best PC. Otherwise, likely that it's one of the einherijar you recruited. Chapter 6 does introduce everyone else and then you got the Seraphic 7 basically all competing together.
- Seraphic 7 are still the 7 strongest characters in the game at late game/post game: Rufus, Dylan, Brahms, Lenneth, Hrist, Freya and Valk. Hard to say who is the best here since each PC is good at something. However, from what I'm aware of, Dylan has the most potential while Freya is the easiest to use "Out-of-the-box", so probably 1 of them is my guess. Brahms is probably the weakest, but his huge HP Pool + Draining not only makes him a great Anchor, but he can do respectable damage too due to stacking the Max HP Damage+ stuff, being male and probably the best person at using the Bloody Patch.
- Meanwhile, despite having her name in the title, Silmeria is probably the game's worst PC. Doesn't have anything going for her, actively competes against other flame archers (notably Phyress) while having significantly less usability. Very much a "Yikes" in terms of bad PCs! Would significantly benefit if a) she shared Alicia's learnt skills b) Had some unique weapon (Lezard) or Attacks (Rufus) to have her standout c) Had some other notable quality for SG. For example, Brahms has his tankiness and draining, Valk has her Resists +0.3 Holy modifier on all attacks, etc. The nixing of Soul Crush mults to all be 4.7x also sucks since it gives them less ways to be differentiate themselves.
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The Portopia Serial Murder Case: Super New Experimental AI Edition!
Totally unplayable. WTF, Square-Enix. They took an adventure game where you pick options from a menu and used a text parser (which, granted, was the ORIGINAL style of the game in its first release, but not the probably-more-popular NES port). Maybe it's okay in Japanese, but they have the world's strictest, most unclued English text parser that wants you to type very, very specific phrases in to advance or do anything. Merely going to a room they tell you about, the study, was impossible - "go study", "enter study", "open door", "knock", "knock door", etc. all don't work. Shame, because better graphics + an official localization on an OG locked room mystery would be nice.
The Portopia Serial Murder Case: 2010 Fan-translation of the 1985 NES Edition!
This was translated by RPG-E, aka the people who did the fan-translation of Final Fantasy V on the SNES before it'd been officially localized. It is so much more playable than the new 2023 release. An interesting historical footnote, too, since it was Yuji Horii's (yes, that one, the Dragon Quest guy) first game. Chunsoft of various adventure game fame was involved, too. Expanding the ROM & patching it is pretty easy for those interested, and the fan translation includes a fully translated manual (important, it has the "start" of the game hiding in there, as the game is otherwise a bit in media res).
https://www.romhacking.net/translations/764/
Anyway, definitely mess around with it, but you probably will need a walkthrough to efficiently progress past a certain point as some of the obscura was probably intended for bored schoolkids. Notably, there's some pixel-hunting required, and a few actions to progress require some LucasArts style cruelty but in a more realistic setting. (By which I mean, yes, it's police brutality time. You DO need to beat up some people to make 'em talk in interrogations at the police station, and to progress. It was the 1980s, I guess.) That said, I can see why the game was "important" - it's a pretty good mystery, honestly, especially given NES limitations on text size. (Example solid plot point: So of the initial suspects, some of them are suspicious and also have bad / false / nonexistent alibis. The sweet female assistant has an ironclad alibi and no clear motive. If you think there's something more to it, then you're absolutely right. ) Given stories traded at school playgrounds to get past some of the blocking points of the game, it's quite beatable, too, although there's one particular plot point which takes a long time to get to, is optional, and not really that relevant since the plot point it expands upon is frankly pretty obvious anyway. (Minor gameplay spoiler: After getting the clue about voices beneath the mansion and entering the maze, it's not worth your time at all to map the maze and find the safe, if you even have the key at all. There's just proof that the murder victim was a loan shark there - which we already know!) The final deduction seems a little out of nowhere, but I can see how you'd find it or guess it after going back to square one to think things over. Good stuff, fun little quick playthrough.
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Suikoden Tierkreis - Finished a replay of this. Got 108 stars this time.
It's an enjoyable game even if the gameplay is fighting to be the worst in the Suikoden series; I wrote about it when I first played it 13 years ago and my thoughts haven't changed significantly. I was struck this time that, even knowing it is coming, the story beats surrounding the erasure of the Magedom are incredibly powerful. It really signals the transition of the game from what was once somewhat light-hearted to the gravity of fighting against unadulterated evil. The game really owns just how awful this level of mass murder is (Sieg's "one million people" rant stands out, as do the visceral reactions of the Magedom PCs, as does a little vignette involving a NPC who got a gift for a wife he can no longer even remember) and damned if I wasn't psyched up in the recruitments after to put a stop to this.
The game's biggest weakness (excluding gameplay stuff, obviously) is probably that none of the characters really are great. Sieg is certainly good; a lot of main characters want to be him but he pulls it off better than most, because his positivity, determination, and desire to do right are all very infectious and it's the most believable thing in the world to me that he does get dozens of people to follow along with him; "immensely charismatic dweeb" is how I described him years ago and that label still fits. But while he's good, he's not that deep, and the same can be said of the game's other key players like Valfred, Liu, and Diadora.
Fire Emblem Engage - Finished a replay of this too, Maddening, mostly using different PCs from last time, and/or different emblem builds. Game was definitely a bit easier now that I know how it works, except perhaps a couple maps like Chapter 17 where not not having Corrin Ivy really hurts that much.
Alear 279/151 Wolf Knight / Eirika: Decided to try to build combat Alear this time. It worked well, Alear does have good speed and giving them the earlygame Energy Drop helped with snowballing. Eirika's a great all-round combat emblem with a bonus for being in cavalry and Wolf Knight's 6 move and knives and good speed fit it well. Kill leader which had more to do with my not using any other PC who joined before Chapter 7 so focusing a lot of early kills into them, and notably still had fewer kills than my big two from my first file (Ivy and Panette) where I had fewer competent builds overall.
Diamant 121/71 Successeur / Roy: Good until part 2 when he kinda falls off a cliff compared to folks like Merrin and Kagetsu, and was always one of my weakest combat units from there on. Got him Sword Power late so he could do damage but his speed was always lacking.
Jade 128/84 Griffin Knight / Sigurd: Jade has kinda mediocre stats but Griffin Knight makes just about anyone useful honestly, even at C staves (B would have been nice), and with Sigurd she could deal with some troublesome enemies, especially mages and mounted ones, pretty well.
Alcryst 148/118 Tirerur D'elite / Byleth -> Warrior / Marth: Speed's one of the better Byleth stats. Beyond that he's a sniper and isn't really great but shines more when there are fliers around of course. Later on I gave him Marth and sent him to Warrior instead, not much to say about that phase, it was fine.
Citrinne 199/127 Mage Knight / Celica: Instant promoted Mage Knight is very good, Citrinne was my dominant PC in late part 1. Doubles loads of things, and Citrinne herself brings bruising levels of power. As time goes on she doubles less and less which is sad but she always has great offence against armour which is no small thing. Mage Knight also improved my opinion of Celica; MK's big flaw is lacking staves so engaging just to use Recover is something I definitely did.
Ivy 172/95 Lindwurm / Lucina: She's not OP like Corrin Ivy, but she's definitely very solid, every stat Lucina gives is a stat Ivy greatly appreciates (Dex/Spd/Luck) and the 9 range chain attacks are lovely as well. Incfedibly mobile killing machine and statbot, Ivy does it all and I'm pretty convinced no team wouldn't be improved by her.
Kagetsu 165/103 Warrior / Leif (sometimes Roy): I played around with Vantage/Wrath for him but ultimately found it too finnicky; you really want more power for that build and Kagetsu's power is merely "solid". His all-around stats though just generally kinda rule so I ended up mostly using him as a competent killing machine with Killer weapons and the usual great Warrior chain attack possibilities.
Rosado 127/96 Wyvern Knight / Lyn: Although I left him in Wyvern Knight, I did class change him to get him swords because ugh, his build does not fit lance+axe. Lyn helps anyone obviously, so Rosado never felt like one of my scrubs, but sadly I can't say he's great, the starting stats are blah, and while he definitely improved with time he never threatened to be one of my dominant units.
Merrin 242/139 Warrior / Ike: Did I mention dominant units? Because here's the most dominant, probably. With Axe Power and Speed+ along with Ike, Merrin just literally had all the stats, could double and ORKO virtually everything, did mean things with Brave, could tank most things with Ike engage, and of course had 3 range chain attacks. Could take off a bar of the final boss's HP by herself, that was fun. Stat-wise Merrin is a slightly worse Kagetsu, but Ike is just a better emblem than Leif or Roy.
Pandreo 219/96 Sage / Corrin: Unshockingly the Corrin-user is also crazy good. Not as good as Corrin Ivy because he doesn't fly, but the fire dragon vein isn't the worst consolation prize (even if you can't canter after it). Pandreo also has good stats so yeah, a lot to like here.
Yunaka 115/82 Wolf Knight / Micaiah: Yunaka gets off to a good start but then falls off a cliff in part 2, thief is just not a great class honestly, and she's stuck in it until Level 21. I swapped to Wolf Knight around when I got Micaiah and she definitely came into her own some then, never really had great combat (surprisingly slow) but mobile Micaiah user is good, extra good when she gets the elevated staff rank (for Warp, Rescue, etc.) which is when she really pulled past Jade.
Second Dragon 23/12 Byleth: Rally Spectrum Byleth user still very good of course. Her combat is... okay but the lack of supports hurts accuracy and the 35 base HP which doesn't really grow sucks.
Royal Knight 0/0: Filler staff user, had some weapons but apparently never used them.
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Devil May Cry 5-
So... I guess this is probably the best DMC game? I dunno, maybe it's just having an affection for it being so straightfoward and streamlined. Makes it stand out, y'know?
But like any time I was going "huh this feels a bit awkward" I popped into the customization shop and went "ohhh there it is", it's a nice feeling. I suppose V doesn't work like that but I think for the amount you have to use him he's fine.
Anyway it's funny the series manages to keep going back to such similar wells and getting stuff out of it. It's neat. Just a very confident series, y'know?
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The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles: Resolve
Finally sat down and finished this off. I played through part 1 (Adventures) in 2021, but then stalled out in Part 2 Case 2 just at the end of 2021 / beginning of 2022. Went through Case 3 in bits & pieces, and then sat down and finished the rest of the game off in the past week or so. Short version: it's great! Definitely highly recommended. Just.. yeah, case 2 and early case 3 can drag a bit. Case 1 wasn't actually that amazing either, but it was short. That said, case 3 eventually gets rolling, and the final case was very good and compelling, so a strong finish! (The final case is also looooooong, but the good long.)
Random thoughts:
* The character work is REALLY good. I liked basically all of the main cast in part 2. In particular, Gina, who'd been a rather weak link in part 1, finally manages to find her stride. Herlock Sholmes remains a pretty great and unique take on Holmes. (Side note: good-hearted steampunk goofball is probably closer to accurate to Doyle than some of the modern versions that portray him as a huge jerk. Cough, cough, BBC Sherlock.) There's one "new" character whose presence is a bit jarring for.. reasons.. but I suppose it's basically obligatory.
* The game is of the Ace Attorney series, so certain tropes are still enforced. Seriously rolling my eyes at anyone telling me that this trial is obviously over, so there's clearly no need to do the cross-examination, right? I think that threat is a little stale by now, we all know I'm gonna do it anyway. Also, this is yet another AA where there's a cold case from X years ago tied to the Prosecutor Du Jour that becomes surprisingly relevant again in the present, just like Phoenix's first game, Apollo Justice, Dual Destinies, and Spirit of Justice. But hey, if it works, it works.
* I was a little worried that Case 3 would end up like Spirit of Justice's DLC case, as that DLC case didn't really make tons of sense. Both involve Implausible Science Fair Experiments Maybe Gone Right. Luckily, Case 3 does end up making a reasonable amount of sense, even if it has to invoke a particular trope to explain things that you can only fire so often. (Specifically, that the coroner & investigation team is just writing flat lies into the autopsy report.)
* One of CK's old posts from 2021 - on just the first half of the game, granted - took a rather "fuck the British Empire" take from the game. That was definitely a potential direction the game could have gone given how case 1 of "Adventures" works out with directly addressing extraterritoriality & racism, but.. not where the game ended up, IMO! Rather, this is definitely a game about how cool Victorian England is, and how cool it would be to chill out there. Sympathetic British characters all talk about how noble and wonderful the Japanese people they've met / meet are, and the nature of the game essentially has Japanese people being more true to Advanced Western Ideals than the British themselves at times, making the moral more "once the British understood we are just as awesome as them, we'll be gucci." Not gonna hold the side JP nationalism against the game too much, it's no different from classic 20th century Hollywood making Americans the star of everything even in stories set elsewhere, but the game definitely doesn't end up a critique of imperialism or anything. (There's a Polygon article from 2021 on the same point, although focusing more on one particular zany plot twist in the endgame, but I'd argue the point would stand even if that particular plot twist is thrown out as humor / bluff / etc.) Ah well. Chalk it up as a side effect of being a bit kid-friendly / all-ages appropriate, I guess.
* As usual, the game would have been helped a bit by a slightly larger cast so that the villainy options weren't so constrained. On the other hand, I get that you don't want to make people's brains explode, and the game is plenty long as is. Idk, hand Ryunosuke a dossier of like 3 Nebulously Bad Background Aristocrats who can just exist, and then surprise it's actually one of the people we met already and spent a bunch of time on, what a shock.
Spoilery comments / Nitpicks / things that don't quite work:
* I really do like that the big villain is a genuine vigilante who thinks they're the hero. It's a character trope that is very often played sympathetically, but hell, even the vigilante who is played somewhat sympathetically - the original Reaper - quickly gets corrupted. Yes, he really is killing "untouchable" baddies, but he's also on a general killing spree of people who annoy him or get in his way, so.. don't do this.
* The big twist with Mikotoba is hilarious. Suuuuure Iris really should have been able to puzzle things out, but it's still cool.
* The Iris's parentage plotline introduced in Case 4 doesn't make tons of sense. Dr. Wilson only went to Japan ~4 years ago or so, right? This doesn't really fit, and should have been easily verified by someone of precocious talents. Or did Sholmes seriously only tell Iris her first name, not her last name? The impression I got from Adventures was that she didn't really greatly know her father since he moved overseas and only knew him from reading his notes, not that she was totally in the dark.
* And while we're on that note. While Victorian England certainly was an era with random orphans of unknown birth, the game explicitly says that the Van Zieks family was from the creme-de-la-creme social calls. And apparently the Baskervilles had their own seal! I get that fiction likes people of unknown parentage because it's dramatic, but this side doesn't add up either, there should have been somebody somewhere to take Iris. It would have been so easily fixed, too - make it so she's a bastard daughter Klint had with some poor girl Les Miserables style. Then it would make perfect sense why she wouldn't have an inheritance, would need a special favor to have a good doctor see the mother, and why the respectable family wouldn't necessarily raise her.
* While I understand the "need" to resurrect Kazuma because by law, best friends must find themselves randomly rivals kinda sorta, it's still a decision somewhat at odds with having Adventures work. I don't necessarily mean on "how did Sholmes pull this off" grounds, just on, like, emotional / plot grounds. Luckily the game actually puts some thought into how such a revelation would change the game and Ryunosuke's motivation, so well done there, just still a tad jarring.
* While we're on that note, the world of GAA seems to be one where Japanese people are basically indistinguishable from Brits, in appearance or in accent. Van Zieks' new apprentice isn't obviously Asian, nor is the mysterious King of Bohemia sprawled on Sholmes's couch. This is… wishful thinking, and not what you'd do if you'd want to make racism a theme, but sure why not. (Also, it makes Case 4 make the British come off as very gallantly open-minded for the era. Can you imagine, like, two non-Europeans being entrusted with investigating high matters of state in 1890 America?)
* Speaking of things from Adventures slightly undercut by later revelations… wait, Yujin Mikotoba called Susato back to Japan not because of suspicious international conspiracies, but solely over the petty point of "protecting" Iris's heritage? Really? Eh. I guess they had to come up with something to explain it, but I don't buy it. (Of course, I think the characters were being monsters by not telling Iris immediately about Dr. Wilson's death, but chalk it up to characters in fiction, especially mystery fiction, being inexplicably cagy about such things.)
* I'd kind of presumed earlier on that some sort of diplomatic shenanigans would be involved, but it turns out to be a rather more personalized plan. Given that, Seshiro's villain motive makes a bit less sense. Maybe the plotline should have made him just friends with The Real Villain instead? The writers try to let him "off the hook" somewhat by saying he was ordered / pressured into it, but he lives freaking on the other side of the world. Additionally, to the extent there's blackmail, it's blackmail that cuts two ways and could rebound on Mr. Real Villain too. He's an important person (Minister of Foreign Affairs!), so it's hard to see why he doesn't laugh it off as "Hahaha couldn't interpret this telegram bye."
* The very lategame zany twist the Polygon article complained about referenced above, involving aid from an unexpected source - https://www.polygon.com/22612944/the-great-ace-attorney-chronicles-british-empire-critique-ending-analysis-spoilers - I was really expecting this to be a giant bluff. Mostly because Sholmes is portrayed as flat broke and considered a bit of an overhyped fraud, so him just preying on a stressed out person with some lies would make sense, it's not like we see this mysterious patron. That said, even if the twist is taken straight, it's fair enough. The idea that it'd take someone up top to really get rid of trouble is fair enough to me - that was one of the problems with Spirit of Justice, you can't use logic to convince someone who outranks you to stop outranking you. You're gonna need to use someone who outranks THEM.
This should unblock me for my large backlog of visual novel-y stuff... House in Fata Morgana? 428 Shibuya Scramble? Paradise Killer? The new AI The Somnium Files that got mixed reviews? Lots of options. Along with some of the new RPGs, of course... 8PT2? Hmm.
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Fire Emblem Fates: Revelation- breezed through all of this. So...
I think it was a bit unfair to play this in close proximity to Engage, because yeesh it makes the gimmick maps and the ways they don't work stand out way more strongly. I gather this was certainly the broad opinion when it came out too, but yeah no they reuse several of these ideas in Engage and put way more thought and execution into them. And of course, Fates HP plot means I sure was glad to be playing on Casual because I rather constantly underestimated how lethal enemies were, although even then it does kinda highlight how badly the royals leave the retainers in the dust. Just, absolutely destroyed, a few keep up or join at good levels so they can get contribute but it is just not even close (except Elise she's bad).
Anyway so I have said this the entire game but the writeup should commit, this game is kinda like if every plot point was treated about the way the orphanage scene in FFVIII was. I understand what, emotionally and thematically, the point of most of their plot decisions are, I get where they want to go with this, but they at so many turns just take a weird detour that only raises further questions. It feels like they just didn't have a chance to polish this script but like... in every regard this is presented as the 'real' story. Birthright is Corrin being groomed to be a 'proper' royal by Ryoma and falling apart when they just can't manage it in the end, Conquest is Corrin flailing at an impossible situation arising from Xander's stubborn pride, but Revelation is Corrin's choices and demeanor shining through and moving the plot forward. It's weird! It's like... poorly written as described but not even bad? Honestly I think I might like it the most of the three. but I am not sure why this game turned out this way.
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Doing a Challenge run for FF6, playing the Advance version since there are 2 bonus dungeons and I don't like playing hacks in general. Anyway, so the twist to this replay is that we're going to assign points to each character and use a ratio system for determining parties. I've waffled on some numbers during the initial hours of the game, but finally decided on what to roll with. Crucially, the challenge doesn't even take off until the party regroups back in Narshe since that is the first time you actually have control on who you place in the party. Also, because Magic is broke in FF6, I'm going to assign an Esper limit to each PC so that you can't just dump Espers on everyone. This I'm still playing around with but will probably have my final decision once I reach the top of Zozo. So the basic rules can be summarized like this:
1) Each PC is assigned a set number of "Ratio points". Parties cannot exceed a total of 8 points. The tiers for each PC are basically broken down as such:
5s: Terra, Celes (Obvious)
4s: Edgar, Mog, Shadow (Waffled on Edgar being a 5, but settled on 4 because his WoR is definitely weaker plus he will have one less esper choice than the girls)
3s: Sabin, Gau, Relm, Gogo (swapped Relm with Strago as Strago is more projecty)
2s: Sezter, Strago (Waffled on Sezter being a 3, but his main strength comes from Early Fixed Dice. And raiding Kefka's tower early is risky, so going to go with a lower value)
1s: Locke, Cyan (Waffled on Locke being a 2, but decided to go for a bell curve shape, so this works. Also, Locke is generally preeetty bad until late)
0s: Umaro (Is Umaro)
For the most part, I followed the DL Char ranking chart and modified it some based on my own playstyle and knowledge. Not perfect by any means, but a good place to start!
2) Each PC has a set number of espers they can learn from. Once they choose that esper, that Esper becomes off the table for everyone else and is theres. There are a total of 31 espers in FF6A, so the breakdown went something like this:
4 Espers - Relm only (Relm's a project and I think if you are willing to sink 3 points and time into her, she should at least pay off)
3 Espers - Terra, Celes, Strago (Makes sense plotwise and justifies the 5s for the girls. Strago is generally weaker than Relm as a pure caster so I want something else to help him out)
2 Espers - Basically everyone else
1 Esper - Locke, Sabin (Sort of a balancing decision. Sabin is basically used very often. Locke...I was going to give him a higher cost to start, but since he's dropped to 1, giving him only 1 esper to offset).
End Esper count = 4 + 9 + 16 + 2 = 31. Of course one of those comes from beating a Super boss and another is basically at the end of the game dungeon so hey. In practice, this is probably going to feel more restrictive.
Everything else is on the table. No use of obvious cheese stuff like Vanish Doom. The advance version doesn't allow it anyway. So far, I'm at the outskirts of Zozo. To the surprise of no one, Edgar kinda wrecks the WoB pretty hard. Using a team of Edgar/Sabin/Locke (4+3+1) and hardly taking any damage because Edgar just confuse locks everything so far. I've never done the tower climb in Zozo without Celes' healing though, so this will be fun.
KAN was probably the first time I've actually decided to use Gau because I couldn't just power through to the bottom with a team of 4. The split ended up being Terra/Sabin (5+3), Edgar/Gau (4+4) then Celes gets Locke and Cyan (5+1+1). Edgar and Gau basically demolished their battles since Brawler's Stone can hit most if not all the enemies and they can all be confused locked. Edgar also has BioBlaster as a fallback. Kefka then dies to Celes' team. Runic lock stops Kefka from doing anything dangerous, while Locke and Cyan go on the offense.
Zozo Climb: So nothing eventful happens until here. This is where the real fun starts since you usually bring with you a team of 4. In this challenge, that's not possible due to the ratio limitation. I run Edgar/Sabin/Locke. Edgar at this point, is still god. Noiseblaster wrecks randoms something fierce and lets Locke stock up on stuff. Sabin then does all the work. The main scare aside from the Dancer enemies are the Hill Gigas as they can do Magnitude 8 as a death counter. Without Celes, healing the entire party requires 3 Hi-Potions so they go down pretty quick if you get an unlikely string of counter rolls. Boss at the top died super quick. Sabin with 2 Earrings and AuraBolt dealt about 650 damage and Locke can pump out a little less than that but still very solid (550-600 without double Moonring Blades).
Opera: I forget where the switch to the ceiling was and end up with only about 3 minutes to stop Ultros from turning Celes into Wile E Coyote. Also, because the game forces me to use Celes and Locke, I have no choice but to run Cyan as the last person since every other available PC breaks the ratio cap. Doing the rat randoms with JUST Locke and Cyan is painful since they have no MT and Dispatch is complete random as to who it hits. Thankfully, Locke's double Moonring Blade set up is still strong enough to get kills quickly on the gold rats. I ended up getting to the target with just 13 seconds left on the clock. Ultros himself was also no slouch this tine. I had a limited supply of Green Cherries so Imp Song was actually of some concern. I also stupidly gave my Ribbon to Cyan instead of Locke so I couldn't just ignore it. At this point, I had assigned Kirin to Locke and Ramuh to Cyan in preparation for the long-game but Cyan's Dispatch was still the best damage I got. This meant I had to juggle between hitting Ultros with it, eating Acid Rain counters and healing myself. Probably the first time in a long while I had a tense Ultros 2 fight! He does eventually go down but boy did it take awhile. At one point, Cyan even goes down and I had to rush Locke to revive him despite being Imp'd.
Magitek Factory: Ugh. This place really sucks when you don't have Gau or the Figaro brothers. So Dispatch at least ignore defense. Thankfully. But the random targeting really leaves something to be desired. I have no choice but to hope Cyan targets the right enemy since the start of the dungeon, no one is really strong enough to pull even 2HKOs. Locke is even a more sad bastard here because all the enemies have high defense. So he went from dealing about 600 damage in Zozo to barely breaking 100. The randoms don't have a ton of damage other than the ProtoArmor but this makes them all horrible slogs. Once I get a level or two under my belt though, things get a lot smoother since now Cyan + Celes can 2HKO.
Shiva/Ifrit was an interesting battle. A lot of the danger can be mitigated with Runic. However, Celes is also my best damage dealer, so I sometimes forgo the defense and go offense with Ice on Ifrit to deal a whopping 800 damage. The rest of the fight is really about having Locke spam items for healing when needed, while Cyan does the heavy lifting. Enjoy this while it lasts, Cyan.
Number 24 and 128 are pretty sad. 24 basically goes down like a chump. I basically see nothing from him other than a basic L1 spell. Okay. 128 does better because I only have Locke/Cyan and he has three parts and Dispatch still has random targeting. However, 128 doesn't have high defense so double Moonring Blades to the rescue. Cyan chips in with the occasional Bolt 2, but I conserve his magic because of the following fight.
Cranes are tough. I forget which one absorbed Lightning and accidentally hit the wrong one with my first spell. Whoops. The also do a lot of damage since you are pincered. Locke has Cure 2 now though, so that keeps most of the team afloat. I have Sezter assist with Items while Cyan spams Bolt 2 until the right Crane dies to it. Cyan pulling out 1000 damage so early was not something I expected. Once one of the cranes go down, the rest is easy. I have Locke chip in with physicals while Sezter does the healing with Hi-Potions. Cyan then switches back to Dispatch spamming and the left cranes dies shortly after.
Picked up Mog, then did some Veldt training for Gau. Made way to the Seal Cave with Terra/Locke/Sezter
Sezter is pretty bad since Chocobo Stampede hits nothing, Flash doesn't even 3HKO and he lacks any spells. Still fine, because this area is mostly undead, so a lot of encounters was just "Drop Revivify or Phoenix Down". In the rare occasion where I wanted to save some supplies, Locke can deal about 300 x2 with 2 Hawkeyes and Terra can use Fire to light up the Zombie Dragons. Eventually Sezter gets strong enough to aid with killing Ings. Which is good because they were the enemies that were the most frequent but also cumbersome to deal with without the undead cheese.
Banquet sequence resulted in a max score, so I got all the goodies. Huzzah! Now on the way to Thamasa with Terra and Locke.
Thamasa: Strago joins up with Terra and Locke making for a perfect ratio score of 8. Flame House is basically the Strago and Terra show. By this point, Terra has Ice 2 and a Morph'd Ice 2 on Flame Eater basically 2HKOs him. Strago uses Aqua Rake on the adds and randos. Locke circle jerks the entire dungeon more or less.
Warring Triad Mountain: For the most part, more of the above. Aqua Rake is 2, Terra Fire 2 is good. Just have to watch MP. Locke's ST damage is passable, so I often have him hit something, the just use Fire to conserve MP. Also, I gave Strago the Heal Rod so he can heal my dudes without needing to have access to Cure. Ultros 3 is much worse than Ultros 2 and is basically a wuss. Morph'd Terra T2s really hurt and basically KOs him real quick. Afterwards, I have to carry Relm to complete the dungeon so we do as quickly as possible to get it over with.
The Air Force: In case it wasn't obvious, Terra is pretty much Godlike for the rest of the WoB, so she was the obvious choice here. I could run Sezter, Strago, Locke or Cyan as her teammates, or just take a ratio 3 Sabin/Mog. I settled for Locke and Cyan because both had Cure 2 and really, Morph'd Terra can handle most other stuff. The Air Force enemies can do quite a bit of damage, especially the Spit Fire. Luckily, having had Cyan learn Bolt 2 means he's not absolute deadweight and a Bolt 2 from Cyan + Locke physical is enough to kill one. As a bonus, these all carry Tinctures, so I spent my MP pretty freely. Ultros 4 is still a wuss because Terra. As for the Soul Cannon/Plane boss thingy, it also died really quick because Terra T2s and some occasional help from Cyan. Any actual damage they could put out, my two Cure 2 bots can handle it allowing Terra to go nuts.
Floating Continent: Really dangerous area. I'm forced to carry Shadow for a bit. Eventually realized that the escape point is near the end so I just killed Shadow off to run my 8 point party. Certain formations are real scary or tanky. The Platinum dragons are the only scrub enemies because they die to a MT Bolt 2 from Terra. As for the rest...Brainpans, Apocrypha are also weak to Lightning. So Cyan and Terra can MT and deal good damage here. They are still dangerous thanks to Smirk and the Level spells which can occasionally hit. Misfits are real dangerous and you should cheese them out because only Terra has Fira and when unfocused, the damage isn't enough and then Lifeshaver really hurts, so better to toss a Revivfy. Dragons are tanks. Lots of HP, can counter with Snort which can ruin all sorts of attempts at killing them. I usually just leave these to Terra and have Cyan and Locke be Cure 2 bots.
Atma Weapon - Terra carry basically. Morph'd Fire 2 does 5000 damage on neutral and thanks to the high AP value of enemies here, Terra has a really long Morph timer. Atma's pretty dangerous if you let it get going so I do cast Kirin to help with the heals and just have the Cure 2 bots do their thing. On free turns, Locke steals and was able to get a Ribbon from it, so very nice.
Escape Sequence - I murder Celes because who needs her when Terra can basically carry the team? Terra with T2s carry more or less.
WoR Time! I grab Sabin from Tzen to immediately give me an 8 point party.
Moblitz: Phunbaba's 1000 needles is the main concern, but the dude is no pushover. I don't have Cure 2, so unlike what I usually do, I have to recruit Sabin and get him to assist here. Celes basically keeps them both healthy while Sabin does all the damage. Takes awhile because one Aurabolt a piece deals only about 1200 damage and Phunbaba has 15000 HP or something. He does eventually die and I never even saw 1000 Needles this time. What a chump.
Figaro Caves - Sabin uses Fire Dance. With the Mag boosts from Stray, he can pretty effectively MT KO most enemies. Any stragglers get killed by Ice 1 from Celes.
Tentacles - So Edgar is auto forced here but he basically does one action and then nothing else because the Tentacles keep Seizing him. I imagine this fight to be a headache in an Edgar solo. So for the most part, this was a Sabin/Celes carry while Edgar used Bioblaster than basically sat there and circle jerked. Fire Dance + Ice 2 quickly kills 2 off, and once that happens, the rest of the fight is cake. Having both Sabin and Celes with RunningShoes equipped basically makes this a cakewalk.
Darill's Tomb - I go through most of the dungeon with just Sabin and Edgar. The enemies are basicallly freebies because all of the die instantly to Revivify except for the Malboro, who can get Fire Dance'd + Drill. DULLAHAN on the other hand is a real asshole. Lots of damage from Holy and Ice 3. And at this point I don't really have gear to try and ward this damage. With no Cure 2, I can't really keep both brothers alive because he deals damage way faster than I can heal. Charka helps but its basically White Wind so as soon as Sabin gets hit, it loses potency. I don't make it far before he blasts me with a MT Ice 3 and wipes me. On the 2nd attempt, I kill Edgar and use Celes instead. Celes equips RunningShoes again while Sabin goes double Earrings. The entire strategy is for Celes to be fast enough to Runic lock while Sabin does all the legwork with Aura Bolt. Like with Phunbaba, this takes awhile, but it does get the job done. Any damage Celes takes can be healed with Charka, while I let Sabin go below 50% before I blow a X-Potion or two.
With the airship, we can do basically anything else now. So first things first, I grab Bum Rush. Sabin is now the best damage dealer in the entire roster for awhile. I run back to Moblitz and have Phunbaba a second time with just Celes and Sabin. Different battle but same story. Celes keeps them both healthy and Sabin basically wrecks house. Then, I head towards Narshe to grab Mog and the Moogle Charm. I tried fighting the Ice Dragon but he basically murders me with Absolute Zero. Whoops.
After getting Mog, I get the Moogle Charm and cheat some annoying backtracking. I do Mt. Zozo next though to grab Cyan since Ratio 1 fillers acting as Cure 2 bots worked pretty well for the 1st half of the game. Getting Cyan is no issue. I fight Stormy here and using Terra and Sabin, I do manage to kill him in a close damage race. Terra was at 400 HP and Sabin was at 100. Bum Rush + Morph'd Tier 2s did its magic. After Cyan, I run to the Veldt and grab Gau, then trigger Shadow's recruitment. The Senior Behemoth dies to the same song and dance and it's undead form goes down to a P.Down. Then I make the trip to the Arena and finish off recruiting Shadow. So far so good.
I grab the Minerva at this point cause it's easy and a major piece of equipment for the ladies. Now that I have some better gear, I raid Kefka's tower just for the Fixed Dice because Sezter kind of sucks. He is still nothing special, but at least Fixed Dice make him "okay" instead of "Locke with no benefits". Afterwards, time to tackle to Phoenix Cave to grab my last Ratio 1 character.
The Phoenix Cave is real annoying. Settling on the two teams wasn't easy either. I wanted both teams to have healing and good damage, but due to the way I've split the Espers, this mean bringing Cyan along and Cyan's glory has long been gone. So I run teams: Celes/Sabin and Edgar/Shadow. I then give Seraph to Shadow to teach him some recovery spells. At this point, we're ready to go. The 1st floor enemies are real dangerous. Namely Nercomancers and Face. Face have Smirk and Stop goes through Ribbon. Yuck. They also have 1000 needles and my HP pools haven't reach 2K yet, so this is a clear 2HKO. Necromancers can Zombie, have powerful magic and even X-Zone. Luckily they are undead so you can cheese them out and should. A lot of the underground is more about MT and Sabin at this point is pretty much a beast since he is spending so much time with Stray. Air Blades or Fire Dance both can hit close to 2-3K damage, allowing for MT OHKOs. So Celes just does backup healing most of the time. On the other side, Shadow has his scrolls and Edgar has a couple of MT Tools. I do get T2s finally on the other party members and Bolt 2 to Celes thanks to the elemental shields. I haven't banned these, so might as well go ahead and use them! Although just because they can, doesn't mean everyone is good with them. Edgar's T2 is notably pretty bad in the Quartet, but its stronger than Flash, so it has merit. Also, this makes Maduin an interesting Esper since its short term power vs. long term benefit. I obviously chose the former since Terra with T2s rekt the WoB.
There are no boss battles (I skipped over the Flame Dragon), but the randoms area deadly enough that at one point, I run into Necrox2, Face and this umbrella enemy and ALMOST wipe from full health. Sabin got Zombie'd so I had to quickly off the Necros, then spent a large portion of time being Stopped and eating damage from the 2 enemies. At one point, I go down to critical with Celes and I am constantly praying that I don't get sprayed by 1000 Needles because my health was almost always below that while trying to recover. Everytime I res'd Sabin, Umbrella dude would use Flash Rain and kill him. Rude. I eventually decide to get Celes to a safe enough HP level and blast him to kingdom come with Ice 2. Turns out, having Zoneseek equipped for over 7 levels or something results in like 69 Magic Power so he kind of explodes. Finally, I reach the end and recruit Locke. Going to have to redo this area with Mog to kill the Flame Dragon, but hey, Progress!
I gamble one of the Behemoth Suits to get the Snow Muffler for Mog. With this and his magic set, he's now a tanky durable healer. No Magic boosting but we can make do without. Still vulnerable to magic though, so gotta be careful. With Locke, I go back to Narshe to grab Ragnarok. The choice between the Sword and the Esper is pretty obvious in this playthrough. Since Ultima can only be taught to one person through the Esper, it's use is otherwise pretty limiting unless you want to gamble on Metamorphisis for items. That sounds like a special kind of hell. Maybe if I'm like super bored or doing a regular playthrough and just want to power grind but it's pretty obvious that the sword is going to be the better option since it's available for 4 party members, 3 of which who are the game best characters anyway. I also run back and kill the Snow Dragon with Mog/Sabin/Locke. With my significantly better equipment, this was pretty easy. One problem though is that I still do not have a way to thaw Freeze quickly. I might end up assigning Ifrit to someone just for that since Esuna doesn't heal it and Ribbons don't block it, making it nasty when it hits. Tritoch dies similarly easily with my new gear. Sabin does all the heavy lifting while Mog just heals him as needed. Locke does like 14 damage from his physicals and is basically deadweight but we needed him to open doors earlier so whatever. Yeti cave opens up and it's time for Umaro. Tonberry is pretty scary with Step Mine counters but thankfully, I only run into one. Most of the other randoms get killed by Sabin using MT Razor Gale. Umaro goes down to the tried and tested strategy of Sabin carrying, but what else is new?
Earth Dragon - So at this point I'm feeling pretty confident. I go into this fight with Locke/Sabin/Mog/Umaro, thinking "Alright bro, what's the worst you can do". Get hit by double Quake and instantly lose everyone but Locke. Uh oh. I then play a war of attrition using Cure 2 to repeatedly bring Locke to a safe HP level and then attempting to Res Sabin so he can get off a Bum Rush before dying. I manage to get 3 hits in but eventually get overwhelmed. Second try, I cast Float on everyone before hand (should've done that initially) and laugh track all the way to the end. In most normal plays, I'll be running something like Terra/Celes/Edgar+1 and the Quakes can be handled with MT Cure 2s, but challenge runs always remind you that hey, enemies can actually do things sometimes.
Owzer's Mansion - I run Terra/Locke/Sezter. For the most part, this was largely the Terra show again. Tier 2s still kinda wreck randoms something fierce. For everything that survived, Locke/Sezter can usually combine their attacks together to get the kill. As for Chardy, when you realize what his gimmick is, the fight is pretty elementary. Morph'd Fire 2s bring the painting down real quick and Sezter added one or two high value dice rolls here for the finish. I grab Mog + whoever after raid the Cultist Tower of it's goodies.
Doma Castle - I run Edgar/Sabin/Locke. Sabin basically murders the entire dungeon on his own because his magic boosted Razor Gales basically do like 3500 damage so things basically die instantly. Edgar hits the Dream Stooge with the Air Anchor and Sabin slowly kills the other two with ST damage. Locke's physicals chip in a hit or two here but he's largely useless and just around as a warm body. As for Wrexy boy, I don't have X-Zone, so I can't cheese this fight. Luckily, he stupidly decides to possess Locke. Thanks dude. I prompt murder Locke, then Edgar uses Drill while Sabin attacks with Bum Rush. I forget why I didn't use Razor Gale. Probably because the numbers were pretty paltry and it's not like you can actually kill the adds. He doesn't possess another target so he eventually dies a somewhat slow death compared to all the other bosses thus far.
Zone Eater's Belly - I get crushed by the ceiling once because playing this on a phone doesn't have the best control scheme. Falling ceilings OP. Laggy, pls nerf.
Ancient Castle - The road down to the Castle is littered with enemies that have really high Magic Defense or something because T2s were barely breaking 100 damage even with 70 Magic Power Celes. The team I sent down was Celes/Locke/Strago/Umaro, so the lack of magic casting was offset somewhat because Celes/Locke/Umaro all have usable physicals. Just not anywhere near as good as the Magic I can sling. Strago learns some Lores effortlessly as I make my way, which is nice. The Master Tonberry isn't anywhere near as scary as the regular ones since he doesn't seem to counter with Step Mine (or if he does, it's a low% chance as I never saw it). The Gladius is kinda eeeh as a weapon, but sure, I'll take it.
Once we get to the castle, I immediately swap out Odin for Raiden because Meteor is just such a meh spell. Also, I'd probably end up with Crusader and he learns it 10x as fast, so whatever. I fight the Blue Dragon but he's kind of a chump and dies pretty quickly to the team's offense. I have Strago cast Haste and bounce spells off him due to him wearing a Reflect Ring as all the enemies have Auto-Reflect. Now, the Samurai Soul enemy, ooh boy. He was an asshole. Unfortunately, one has to fight him to get the Offering.
Samurai Soul has 3 really nasty abilities. The first is Assassin Blade. It is single target ID. This can be easily dealt with from a Phoenix Down, but being able to drop anyone in one hit is obviously some cause of concern here. The second is Throw X Weapon. Like Assassin Blade, it is single target. However, it is scarier because it cannot be blocked by ID immunity and deals like 7800-9999 damage. Celes does have Life 3 by now, so one could juggle Reviving with Life 3 Casts to hold ground and win by sandbagging. However, his 3rd threat ruins any thought of that. Gil Toss does about 1200 damage to everyone and I believe this damage focuses. So the less party members you have, the more damage it does. This makes him extremely deadly since you need all 4 characters alive at this point or the damage probably just wipes you. You also need them relatively healthy or you will be spending multiple turns juggling all the reviving again. I do beat him in one try by keeping Offense down strictly to Locke/Umaro. Celes occasionally helps, but she's usually busy between Reviving, casting Life 3 and the occasional Cure 3 as needed. Strago can't do much here, but ???? and the Heal Rod mean he can at least assist in some way. Plus Haste was good to give Celes more turns. At one point, I come extremely close to wiping when Samurai Soul does Throw Ashura on Celes -> Gil Toss -> CleanSweep. This sequence insta-kills Celes. Then as I lock in Locke to P.Down Celes, Gil Toss kills everyone but Locke who goes down to 107 HP. Locke revives Celes, then CleanSweep hits and kills Locke and drops Celes to 2 HP. So yeah, I win this one by the skin of my teeth. Good times.
Just a few quests left including the optional espers, namely revisiting some areas to wipe out some of the still existing bosses. Not sure what to do about Magimaster yet. I might bring Celes along since she's spec'd really well for that fight. Buuuut that means climbing up the tower legit and THAT sounds terrible.
Party thoughts and assigned Espers so far:
Terra (Maduin, -, -) - Even at 5 points, still the best character in the game. Very limited parties doesn't matter much when you can mostly one woman carry. I gave her Maduin due to the +1 Mag on level bonus PLUS Terra with Tier 2s and Morph can easily hit the damage cap anyway. So Tier 3s were kinda superfluous. Basically the best at damage. Even her healing isn't bad because of good magic power despite only have Cure 1/2. Tier 2s basically carry all the way through most of the game. I still have 2 empty slots yet and haven't decided on what else to give her.
Locke (Kirin) - Okay, for a Ratio 1, Locke is surprisingly good...as long as you give him the Genji glove. With it, he's able to do equal damage to the other chars most of the time. And with the Bandit's Glove, he can steal twice in one go which fattens up your inventory nicely. Downsides are many, but aside from being kind of glassy, Locke has no MT, so instantly he falls behind like everyone but Cyan. He's also extremely one dimensional since with only 1 Esper slot, he has no offensive magic. The logic for doing this was basically, "Well Cure 2 pretty much carries on healing, and you don't need super high magic for great healing with Cure 2", ensuring he can always do something as a Ratio 1 slot in. At ratio 2, he'll be pretty bad so maybe in the future he'll be Ratio 2 with +1 Esper slot or ratio 1.5.
Edgar (Bismark, Starlet) - Edgar wrecks the WoB something fierce. Noiseblaster is too good. Yeah he has other tools, but I haven't used them much. Maybe Drill or Chainsaw for a boss. I gave him Bismark pretty much strictly for the Vigor+2 at level up, in preparation of his late game. As a Ratio 4 though, he's pretty middling. WoB isn't hard enough that I feel not having him was a cmplete loss and in WoR, he a stretch in the middle (right after getting the airship) where he is pretty mediocre without any Esper boosts. I got more use out of him later once I got some better gear, but yeah, biggest surprise in the run so far. Probably should go down 1/2 a point to 3.5 and see what happens.
Sabin (Stray) - Does what he does basically. Even on a normal playthrough, you'll probably be largely using his Blitz's anyway, so the Magic Boost on level is probably more important. Snags OHKOs pretty easy and even MT OHKOs with Fire Dance earlier. Given his early join in WoR and the fact that you end up running smaller parties most of the time, one of the few things I didn't anticipate was how quickly you might level. And with Stray's +1 Mag, this translates to a lot of additional magic power, making Sabin something of a major powerhouse. He even has some decent healing for smaller parties thanks to Charkra. Probably should go up 1/2 a point to Ratio 3.5 instead.
Celes (Zoneseek, Phoenix,-) - So while I had Terra with more Short-Term, offense oriented build, Celes is basically the opposite. More defensive + status magic build. No Espers assigned until the start of WoR made her pretty weak to start. HOWEVER, the +2 Mag from Zoneseek let her quickly catch up. Once I got access to Elemental Shields, she can start producing actual damage since I have more than Ice 1 now that I can sling. A different build style might make her more worthwhile at Ratio 5, but yeah she's still really good.
Cyan (Ramuh, Unicorn) - Along the same lines as Locke, but not as worthwhile because Cyan falls off pretty quick. Dispatch at least is ITD so he's more useful than Locke in this challenge for the Magitek factory. I did give him Ramuh to supplement him with some attack magic for the long game. Otherwise, Unicorn for Cure 2 back up as with Kirin on Locke. He's about what you expect. For a Ratio 1, nice and easy to at least be a warm body who can toss healing around.
Gau (Siren, -) - Gau doesn't care too much about Espers if you plan on using some Rages. I plan so, so I'm not too concerned regarding his magic list. The tough part I think for using Gau is 2 parts. For starters, his training requires going to the Veldt specifically, where you don't get EXP and Gau gets very limited AP. So, if you want to get some extra levels or learn magic FOR Gau, you actually have to do 2 training trips. That's pretty yucky. But also adding to that, you then have to know what Rage does what. And with over 200 choices, that's tough if you don't have like Meeple FF6 knowledge. I've been referencing some guides but even still it's a hassle. In the future, he's probably better as a ratio 2. This will give you the incentive to use him more. I hardly bring him along because the need to grind Veldt for new Rages and the knowledge needed for the new Rages you get is a real mind tax. Wish there was someway you can tell in-game what each Rage would give you.
Shadow (Shoat, Seraph) - Shadow's reeeaal unique. He doesn't need L2s because Throw + Elemental Sabres are basically better AND he has Scrolls for MT. He can also get some hard to hit elements from Throw, so him and Edgar are basically best friends. As a result, his magic set ended up being heals + some status magic via Shoat. On the whole, Shadow is actually real good. Like I want to use him actively most of the time because he can put out real damage with relatively little investment into Magic/stats. The only problem is that he's super expensive. Sabres aren't cheap at 7000 Gil a pop. And yeah, late game there isn't MUCH to buy because storebought equipment gets outclassed by a plethora of actual good stuff. But 7000 a throw? On randoms? That drains money real quick. I'll still leave him as a Ratio 4 though.
Sezter (Phantom, Terrato) - Kind of bad. At least his weapon is long range. Flash and Chocobop are good but one doesn't do a lot of damage and the other is too easily avoided right now. Doesn't matter though since WoB Sezter is pretty forgettable regardless. His real value comes in WoR and he needs both the Offering AND the Fixed Dice. Granted once you get both, the game basically explodes, but until then, he's a slightly better Locke on account of having actual MT before elemental shields but not much else. I'd change his cost to like 1.5 or something.
Mog (Shiva, Golem) - Pretty unremarkable in the WoB since there is no real reason to ever even recruit him. In WoR, there are some fights in the Arena that benefit off his equip list. And "Physical tank healer" is actually valuable in Advance where M-Eva no longer functions as actual evade either. Dance is pretty obsolete at this point since Mog's entire job is to absorb physical hits and cast Cures when necessary. Moogle Charm is godlike but Mog's actual combat worth probably isn't worth a 4. Like Edgar, probably should be 3.5 instead.
Strago (Carbuncle, -, -) - Uh yeah, Strago should join the 1s. When you aren't actually grinding he joins way too late to get any WoB Esper time and since his recruitment first requires Relm, he's basically going to be delayed before rejoining. Overall, he's way more projecty than Relm because at this point, I still only have his starting 3 Lores. For contrast, at this point, I can basically turn Relm into a nuke relatively painlessly. Basically massively hurt being overpriced on points + late join doomed him from never being in the active party.
Relm (Tritoch, -, - ,-) - We all know the story here. Relm has no esper time in WoB, but assuming you get her faster than I did in WoR, she can start adding real value quickly since you start picking up some good espers. I have enough now that I can actually round out her spell list with stuff so that's probably the next step. Probably not worth a ratio 3 but a ratio 2 or even 2.5, probably.
Umaro - Well he's a meme more or less. I add him in because he's a warm body and warm bodies are valuable. But even at 1 point or 0.5 point, I'm not sure I'd ever actively bring him along. So yeah, 0 sounds right!
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Octopath Traveler 2
Finished all the chapter 2's now, I think? Plus Osvald's Chapter 3 which is actually just a Chapter 2, I'm not sure why they decided to pretend his first chapter is actually two different ones but maybe that'll become clear later.
Decent game but I do wish it didn't feel so samey compared to the first. The improvements are mostly superficial things that don't matter much (there are limit breaks of a sort, everyone has two path actions instead of one) and it feels like it carries over all my core complaints about the first game, such as it being so darn slow. And the gameplay might as well be a copy for the most part. That said, I was reflecting on this yesterday; I wasn't really that enamoured with the first game at this point either, just because the second quarter of the stories are mostly kinda underwhelming filler as you get to know your characters more. To some extent this is what you'd expect at this point in a story, but being hit with eight of them in a row tends to drag. The gameplay is also mostly too easy at this point, again in both games. Other thoughts on the stories so far:
-Ochette: hasn't really hooked me yet
-Cassti: Was already one of my favourite so far because of the combination of the core mystery being intriguing and Cassti herself being my type of character, but then the Winterbloom C2 got me in the feels on top of that, so yeah, clear favourite at the moment.
-Throne: There's definitely some potential here and Father is certainly detestable in the best way.
-Osvald: Mmm, revenge. Loved the portrayal of the prison. But the most recent chapter was... kinda fillerish? It depends on what the point of the revenge tale ends up being, I suppose.
-Partitio: In proud Octopath merchant tradition, he himself is quite endaring, but the story feels a bit muddled. Not nearly as muddled as Tressa's, at least, but.
-Agnea: The lower-stakes story is kinda refreshing, but it hasn't strongly hooked me either.
-Temenos: Temenos himself is delightful, I feel like I'm playing as a major villain but I'm not actually evil? Probably? Certainly isn't what I expected from this story regardless.
-Hikari: Pretty solid, Hikari himself is endearing and his Chapter 1 had a great hook. C2 is filler.
Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes
Played Azure Gleam at last. It makes me angry.
Played Scarlet Blaze as a palate-cleanser. Decided to do Maddening this time. Maddening starts out crazy overtuned, just winning the first mini-battle in Chapter 4 (the first where difficulty mode matters) was a major slog, and the first two story battles (C4 Garreg Mach, C5 Lonato rescue featuring a freaking terrifying Byleth) were both extremely difficult. But the further things went on the more it turned into a normal playthrough. The game was throwing A-rank weapons at me left and right so as soon as I got the ability to use those (Chapter 10, when you get Master Seals), it turned into a very recognizable game indeed, albeit still harder than any other difficulty of course (and I did lose several times to the lategame rescue map, C15).
Goldeneye
It's been 22 years since I've played this, but I really liked it back in the day and I'm enjoying it now. It's definitely not the type of game I would ever seek out as a new game now (first-person games are just too viscerally violent for me), but the game's strong design does shine through. Beat the stages on Agent, then went through them all again on Secret Agent. I think this game has one of best second difficulties for replays, because not only do the enemy numbers get better, but the missions themselves get more involved in ways which would just feel like a slog or frustrating on a first run, but add a lot of spice when you already have a sense of the stage.
Current progress is that I've defeated all maingame stages on Secret Agent, Aztec on Agent (seriously this stage is brutal even on the lowest difficulty), and have obtained all the maingame Agent and Secret Agent time trial secrets (including Statue which I'm very certain I never got back in the day, because I didn't know about using diagonal movement to increase your speed... video games you so silly).
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Nearing the end of what I presume is my FF6 ratio challenge. Still have MagiMaster, Kefka's Tower and prepping for the bonnus dungeons to go.
I go back and fight the Fire Dragon. He is...uh...bad at this point and basically goes down real easy. I then do some grinding for Lores/Magic for the last stretches of the game. Namely, I split up my espers pretty much so there's very few free slots. Terra takes Bahamut for Flare and then Raiden for Quick. Relm takes Palidor, Alexander and Leviathan for a mix of 5 elemental spells and Haste/Slow. Celes ended up taking Gilgamesh unintentionally.
Which speaking of, the bonus espers. So these include Leviathan, Gilgy and Cactuar. All 3 are boss fights so I get ready for them. Leviathan is pretty trash. Minerva + someone with Force Armor and Force Shield basically eat his Water MT damage for free. From there I roll Celes/Sabin/Umaro. Umaro dies on like Turn 2 but whatever, he's a meme anyway. Celes casts Life 3 on herself and Sabin for safety but really, I don't need it.
Next up is Gilgy. Unfortunately for me, Gilgamesh is a heck of a lot more competent than Leviathan. He's pretty similar to his FF5 form, with his Haste/Protect/Shell limit and Jump attacks...except his physicals hurt. A lot. How badly? How about 2400 damage in the back row? Yeah, so he instantly one shots peeps not under Protect pretty much. I initially try fighting him with just a 2 person party of Celes/Sabin/Umaro again, but this proves impossible because not only does Gilgamesh have a lot of damage, he also has unevadeable damage in Throw. My first attempt ended when he shanked me by throwing an Illumina at Celes' face. Whoops. Round 2, I decide to run a 4 man team of Edgar/Sezter/Locke/Cyan. Locke and Cyan are basically warm bodies. Sezter is the main damage dealer and Edgar heals and does the occasional assist. Battle starts, and I get a good rhythm going until Gilgy confuses Sezter. Uh oh. Sezter then murders his own team by cheating their pants off with Fixed Dice before Gilgamesh comes and boots his ass out of the fight. Lesson learned. ROUND 3 THEN - I load up Ribbons/Peace Rings on everyone, and try again. Cyan does have Protect from Unicorn so I start spamming that to help ward off some of the physical blows. Battle ends before Gilgy gets too obnoxious as Sezter does get lucky with a couple of high rolls on his first attack. On reflect, I might have been able to cruise here with Sezter casting Vanish or summoning Phantom since Gilgamesh is mostly physical. Ah wells.
Then there is Cactuar (or GIGANTUAR), who is a complete asshole. His whole deal is he spams 1000 Needles being a fast MF, he can do it very quickly. I believe he can double act with it, which is all kinds of fun. He counters physicals with Knockdown, a massive Havok-Wing like damage physical which basically kills whoever it hits (deals about 2800 damage from the backrow). And of course, he has the Cactuar evade and magic defenses so he's really tough to take down. The main issue here is that FF6 HP Pools just don't quite explode like they do in FF7 or FF8 (or even FFX to a degree). Most of your HP is within the low 2000s if you are around level 35-40 (which I think most of the DL agrees is pretty much endgame levels). So 1000 Needles twice in a row is pretty nasty! Initially, I run Celes/Sezter/Cyan/Umaro for a 4 man team and try to absorb some hits. It really doesn't do much good though because Umaro basically commits suicide as soon as the fight starts. I then proceed to die like 3 or 4 times when he triggers a counter attack and Cactuar mauls me with a string of 1000 needles. By the 5th attempt, I've benched Umaro because he's basically doing fuck all anyway. I keep Celes/Sezter/Cyan and strap everyone with Running Shoes to keep up with him. I fight a mostly uphill battle because Celes can never get Reraise to really stick for more than a turn. Sezter basically dies after an attack thanks to Knockdown and Cyan is uh...Cyan. His magic is bad so his Cure 2 doesn't really help me out here after Revival. Another 3 or 4 tries, I get a winning run where Sezter gets lucky and rolls some high numbers within the first two turns. So I'm thinking, "Oh he's probably dead". He then proceeds to counter attack with 10 casts of 1000 Needles. I had Reraise on only one person and obviously no one was at full health here since I was juggling my defenses between Cyan and Celes. I die to the last casting of 1000 Needles before he also dies. Double KO. So yeah, it's probably possible to win, just improbable since I have to be at full health will all 3 PCs and have at least one Reraise cast. Well, fuck him. I make Celes learn Quick from Gilgamesh Esper, grind a bit for more HP (Sezter notably has Terrator so he gets a sizable HP Boost on level), then strap Green Berets and Red Caps on my PCs. With this, I finally hit 3000+ HP. I fight him for like 8th time or something this time, string together a pretty smooth fight after the initial turn scare. Quick giving me superior turn economy means Cactuar's speed is no longer as impactful and I can keep my healing and Reraises on hand.
Probably the best fight of the 3 new Espers! Also probably would be way easier with a full team I imagine since you'll have more tools and options and better PCs for the job, but hey. A challenge is a challenge.
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Half-Life 2 Episode 1 (Steam)
Played through. I guess it was fine, I think the civilian evacuation sequence was the least enjoyable part.
On checking, I played through Half-Life 2 proper in 2017 and Lost Coast in 2020, so I guess check back some time in 2026 for my (minimal) thoughts on Episode 2.
Dragon Age: Origins (Steam)
Played through the main game. On normal, which may have been a mistake. But I guess I did beat it somehow.
I had previously been under the impression that Dragon Age was akin to a fantasy version of Mass Effect. Very much not the case.
Made the main character a Rogue which focused on bows as an analogue to playing sniper rifle classes in ME. Half the game later I finally came to terms with the fact that I barely ever had the character using a bow and stopped putting points into bow-related skills. I let all the other characters control their own levelups, which appears to have worked out well enough.
The first location I went to after the opening was Redcliffe, which was probably a bad idea. During the night sequence I could get through the upper battle easily enough, but consistently got worn down and destroyed by the lower battle. Eventually I determined that we were still able to travel back to the upper area during the lower battle and ended up surviving by getting some of the enemies to chase the party up there where we could get the stronger NPCs still guarding the upper area to help out, then heading back down to attract more etc. Of course this meant that all the weaker NPCs guarding the lower area died. Later read that I should not have gone here first.
Didn't really have this sort of trouble again for the majority of the rest of the game, at least. Mainly had issues when the party was up against particularly strong bosses or types of enemy (revenants), or when they were largely outnumbered (which is essentially what the lower battle here was, especially after the NPCs got picked off. One of the reasons for doing this sequence later was so that you could have a healer along to help prevent that). As far as being outnumbered is concerned, a significant amount of the time it was possible to alert part of the enemy forces and lead those away so as to not deal with them all at once.
The blood effects are very unnecessary.
I think the next thing I expect to play is Leliana's Song?
Glass Masquerade 3: Honeylines (Steam)
Cleared all puzzles.
The imagery is better than the maingame imagery from Glass Masquerade 2, but they annoyingly have all the puzzles using a fixed frame again. Further, in what's presumably an attempt to change things up, they've added a few separate rulesets to the puzzles - but it feels to me like the structure that had to be added in order to facilitate this has led to the puzzles actually feeling even more samey - and this is despite me setting it to select random rules for each puzzle. I think they have made some changes to the systems in patches since I finished so maybe things have improved in those regards?
Glass Masquerade 2 had some good expansions so hoping that 3 will have some as well.
リトルハーツ (Little Hearts) (Steam)
Played through. (On normal.)
Haven't played any other SRPG Studio games so not sure how much this game was using built-in features versus custom features.
Has some interesting features. Lots of weapons have skills attached: basic throwing weapons all have a skill which prevents them from criticalling, there are a few separate ranges of weapons which allow the user to make follow-up attacks (which can't be done normally), a lategame enemy-only range of weapons all have a skill which makes the weapons act as effective weapons if the user initiated the combat. There is a 'focused' status which can be applied in a number of ways, wears off after one battle (or staff use) and that has various effects - for example Killer weapons all have a skill which guarantees a critical if the user is focused (so long as they aren't going against the weapon triangles). Most of the top-level staffs can only be used if the user is focused.
Each of your combat units has a unique preferred weapon, which you can later upgrade. (Other weapons cannot be upgraded.) This isn't a large-cast game - there's around 17 units, and the units which are going to be usable on each map are always fixed. (Don't know whether the game has permadeath or not, but it seems like it shouldn't given these factors.) Have some weapon lists etc up at http://twilkitri.fewiki.net/stuff/Little%20Hearts.xlsx - bearing in mind the likelihood of my having mistranslated/mistranscribed/misunderstood things and/or condensed things in questionable ways.
Game very much takes the gloves off in Map 25, then again in Map 30, after being fairly placid beforehand, at least on Normal.
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Someone send me a link to the discord!
Anyways, I am trying to completed Octopath Traveler 2 before FF16.
I just beat all the characters chapters, so just need to find the path for the big bad.
Hikari, Osvlad, and Throne are in the 60s, but I would swap the 4th person in randomly, so the other characters are considerably lower leveled. Might need to do some grinding.
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Sonic CD (Anniversary Edition)- played this. It's... weird how even with the unified Genesis Mechanics the anniversary edition adds it still feels very unique, albeit not usually in a way that's better than its peers. I didn't dig too much into completion (I... do not grok the UFO stages at all), very much just a quick and dirty run, but the level design is a lot more back and forth than any of its peers, and a lot more focus is on unique boss mechanics (chases, races, the treadmill) than on either the stages or learning attack patterns. It's honestly not amazing, but it's interesting to see this peek into how the series might have gone if Sonic 2 hadn't been a bone-breakingly popular megahit by the standards of the day.
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Talk about 4 Job Fiesta drove me enough to try a variant for FFT. The format is meant to be similar to the FF5 one with various details below.
Ramza and 4 generics (with one oddball exception) Gender split can be whatever.
5 Jobs will become available over the course of the game. Once a Job is unlocked, at least one member of the party must have that Job as a primary class during story fights. Abilities and RSM can only come from those 5 Jobs or universal skills (detailed later). Guests are not restricted by this and can be whatever the hell they want.
Like all other challenges, the restrictions don't officially begin until Dortor.
Anything goes while grinding to unlock jobs with a few exceptions. Move-Find Item, equipment theft, and Invite and Brave and Faith altering are not allowed unless their corresponding Job is unlocked.
One job will be selected from the following groupings by RNG and become available on the following schedule:
Group 1: Knight, Archer, Priest or Wizard Available at start
Group 2: Monk, Thief, Oracle, or Time Mage. Available after Windmill Shed
Group 3: Geomancer, Lancer, Mediator, or Summoner. Available after arriving at Liionel Castle in Chater 2.
Group 4: Samurai, Ninja, Bard, Dancer, or Calculator Available at start of Chapter 3 (I'm playing on console so Mime is a "hell no")
Group 5: Any of the above plus Chemist. Available at start of Chapter 4
I also threw in Agrias, Mustadio, Rafa, or Malak into group 5 for spice. Haven't made any rulings on how to handle special characters; I'll mull over it if I roll one.
Universal skills
I chose to designate various skills from Squire and Chemist as universal and usable by anyone much like how all characters in FF5 can use Item. For Squire, it's everything but Accumulate. For Chemist, it's Potion, Antidote, Eye Drop, Echo Grass, Phoenix Down, and Equip Change. At a bare minimum, Gained JP up is allowed for quality of life.
Ramza's unique Squire stuff is banned. Unless Mediator is rolled in which case he's permitted Cheer Up once he learns Praise (purely for the convenience for Brave raising and only in randoms)
Probably forgot to mention something but feel free to ask. I rolled (with outside help) Priest, Monk, Mediator, Samurai, and Dancer for my 5 Jobs. And with that wall of text, onto the game.
For the first time ever, Ramza got plastered in the intro battle. Head Break landed on him which was followed up by the archers picking on him and the knight smacking him again. He was at critical but I had him run in to kill someone despite that and the last archer dropped him into the stone.
Gariland went to plan without disaster. Despite not intentionally farming for crystals/chests, Ramza got a crystal anyways for Potion and Equip Change. Maybe I should have though and at Mandalia because of how tight money is early on and every box is another item to sell off for added cash. Get enough actions for Delita to teach him Throw Stone, important for my plans this chapter.
Stopped by at the soldier office for my first three hires. Got two females and a male. I'm not aiming for specific Zodiac, just good Brave and Faith values, but can afford to skimp a bit since I can make it up later with the classes I rolled. Both females are Virgos and the male is a Taurus which is alright for my Virgo Ramza. Change all four units into Chemists and teach them Throw Stone and Phoenix Down. Also teach Delita Throw Stone and set Item on him.
Mandalia: Choose the usual option for the Brave increase. I am willing to reset until Algus doesn't die early as I'm relying on him and Delita for offense during the chapter and would rather he remain to get training in. Things played out in my favor on the first attempt though. Use Potion with Ramza as necessary but tried to be thrifty with them as money is super tight this early. Got two boxes despite not stalling so yay, another 100-150 Gil. All three generics have Priest unlocked by the time the battle is over.
After Igros scenes, back to Gariland. I scrape up the funds to get staffs for my priests and two Feather Hats. Do 2-3 randoms with a starting generic filling in the 5th slot until I have enough saved up to hire the 5th unit. As Dancer is one of the Jobs in this run, I opt for a 3rd female. She's a Gemini which could spell trouble. Bad compat with 3/4 of her allies and very vulnerable to Balk. Eh, I'll manage somehow.
Randoms are such a slog with just priests. Priests with rocks so they're better off than SCC priests but their offense is terrible. And this early in the game, running out of steam is a real risk with only 3-4 casts of Cure per unit. Gotta be careful to not have someone get ganged up on. Multiple Chocobos are a death sentence due to danger of attrition and 3 chocobos is might as well reset and spare oneself the agony. Getting those 2-3 randoms done felt like it took forever and then there were 2-3 more to unlock Priest on the 5th generic. At least I got two Holy Water drops, which were sold to fund equipment upgrades. And I was still not fully geared when I went to Sweegy before the monster levels could inflate further. Delita and Algus had their best stuff since they're the bulk of the offense but my priests were stuck with starting Clothes and one was left without Battle Boots because I didn't have the money for another set. I've been playing with a self-imposed restriction of no more than 3 Phoenix Down in one fight but so far it hasn't come up. For one, money is so tight at the start that I don't have extra funds for consumables. So I pretty much avoid using them. Also, I haven't actually set Item on anyone, relying on careful positioning and hoping someone doesn't get ganked by an ill-timed critical in randoms. Not that hard to manage when the inhabitants of Mandalia all rely one range 1 physicals for offense.
Sweegy was slow but pretty safe. Have my team use rocks to soften up targets for Delita and Algus to kill and avoid extending too far that we end up in attack range of every enemy. Toss Cures as needed to prevent deaths. My priests do 3-6 or 4-8 with rocks so I'm depending on Delita and Algus to do the heavy lifting. Will go for a staff bonk if something's low enough and will get a turn before the guests but my units' focus is defense.
After the fight, head back to Igros for a set of Knight gear for Delita later and do another random (sigh) to finish up gear upgrades. By the time I'm back to Sweegy ready to challenge Dortor, two of the females have their Lv 6 MA point.
I'm likely to refer to my units by the custom names I gave them from this point. The common theme is characters that look like cats but aren't. Ramza is Nall, first female hired is Ruby. After that comes Artemis and Luna. And Felicia brings up the 5th slot. (more often seen as a catgirl but she does have a cat form so she counts, nya) I teach Raise to a couple of my units before entering Dortor but I hope to not need it as 30 MP isn't going to last very long.
Dortor 1: (0 resets)
It's intimidating with a gang of priests with the main risk being having enemies gang up on someone and dropping them. Artemis sits out being the highest leveled generic. I actually have two units with stronger staff bonks and I end up sending them up with Delita and Algus to help with the Long Bow archer, heh. Nall and Felicia advance on the ground with the eventual intention of baiting the close wizard into getting midcharged. The Wizard does oblige them on its third turn and foolishly leaves itself open to two staff bonks. It's a Pisces against a male Virgo and a female Gemini so it's left at 1 HP. But a rock from the roof drops it before it gets its spell off. On the roof, one priest knocked the archer off with a rock and Delita and Algus go to finish it off. This results in Algus being targeted by both remaining archers and the other Wizard. Clutch C. evade moment dodges one archer attack which enables him to live through the storm which would have killed him had all the attacks landed. Next round of actions involve the knight hitting someone, but it's not enough to kill, and the living Wizard being nice enough to go for a spell in range of two more midcharge staff whacks. And this time, they're enough for a clean kill leaving me free to Cure up injured units. Fight is pretty much under control at this point and it's just a matter of mop-up. Longbow archer drops a box and I do get the Long Bow out of it, neat. Delita and Algus finish up the Knight before anyone else's countdown expires. It's fine, I'm not planning on stalling out fights for crystals/chests unless I'm hoping for a specific drop.
After the fight, Delita learns Gained JP up and I change him into a Knight with Guts secondary for Sand Rat Cellar. He also gets the Iron Sword. I'll be leaning on him to help kill things in the next map as my own offense still sucks. Teach any remaining allies Priest, give the Linen Robe to Ruby, and that does it for preparations. Nall has enough Squire JP from spillover to pick up Gained JP up so I do so and set it.
Sand Rat Cellar (0 resets):
Not counting the reset from forgetting to set JP up on Delita. The plan on paper is to have Nall and Felicia support Delita and Ruby and Artemis supporting Algus, try to get the enemies to separate, and beat them down one at a time hopefully avoiding dying. At least before half the enemies are down. At Lv 6 with upgraded gear, my priests have over 60 HP so enemies generally need to land 3 hits to kill someone unless the monks roll high with Brave. Things go awry early when the Delita side monk decides to wander over to toss rocks at Algus. Things get really dicey when Artemis dies with most of the enemies clustered nearby. I do get a Raise and a Cure off on him but expect to see a restart in my future. Got really fortunate with enemies splitting up their attacks so there are no further deaths. At which point, my plan gets back on track and I slowly wear them down while healing as needed. Did need to play defensively though, sometimes tossing rocks and retreating instead of going for an immediate kill to avoid overexposing people. I tried for the Silk Robe drop but the Knight who had it was the fifth enemy killed so time to stall. Intentionally offer up units to the remaining Knight so he'd smack them and bait Delita/Algus into healing instead of attacking. It works and he stays alive long enough for a chest to appear. Only got the Buckler though.
I did win but it was a close one with 3 of my 4 units out of MP. Forgot to set Counter Tackle on Algus, which would have helped with wearing them down. Crystals for Artemis and Felicia. Dash and Heal for Artemis which slightly speeds up randoms. Felicia gets Weapon Guard, which is cool but I'm unable to use it in the constraints of the Fiesta format. And of course, Potion because I was too cheap to spend the 30 Chemist JP.
Afterwards, shop upgrades. I grab 3 more Linen Robes and 5 Red Hoods. Also a Leather Vest for Algus. Got into a random at Sweegy Woods, which is slightly less of a slog than randoms have been. Cures and Raise to get Skeletons into critical and hide in a corner. Black Goblins and Bombs have less HP than Mandalia monsters so there's less HP to grind down. And Artemis' Dash improves the damage output ever so slightly. I needed the money anyways so better here than Mandalia. Pick up armor upgrades for Delita at Igros. Got into a random at Mandalia, which I slogged through but maybe I shouldn't have taken it. Everybody has their Lv 8 Speed point afterwards. Which means the Priests at Thieves' Fort will go after my team and be able to rain down Bolt spells with impunity and I'm unlikely to be able to midcharge them.
Thieves Fort (0 resets): Delita is still in the same Knight setup from Sand Rats, just upgrades gear. Algus is an Archer with Item and the Long Bow. I remember to set Counter Tackle this time and also give him Move +1. All my units have Magic Defend Up as they're all at Job Level 8 from the last couple grindy fights and have more than enough to spare. Ruby sits out so there's one less target for Thieves to charm.
General strategy is still the same. Support Delita and Algus, stay mostly defensive, and soften up targets for Delita and Algus to kill. Black Magic Priest having best compat with Artemis made things dicey. She mostly has free reign to unload Bolts on my team. And I wasn't watching the AT list close enough and just when I'm wearing her down, other Priest gives her a Hi-Potion undoing all my work. Dammit. Had a couple of deaths which stretched my MP reserves but made it. I wanted to try for a Priest's Silk Robe but that one was one of the last to go down and all the support was wiped out before the end. Luna snags the Priest crystal that appeared, giving her Black Magic that I'll probably never use even in randoms, Hi-Potion (again going unused), and Dash so she can do slightly more in randoms. The Silk Robe Priest dropped a box but I only got her hat, meh. I had manipulated AI so that Delita/Algus would spend turns healing rather than attacking while stalling. Another side benefit: Delita got just enough Knight JP for Equip Armor.
No random fight on the path back to Igros. (thankfully, I was not looking forward to another Priest SCC pre-Holy slog) Rather than buy a 5th robe, I give Artemis the Leather Vest for Miluda 2. Delita has class changed into a Monk with Equip Armor and Guts secondary.
Lenalia Plateau: (0 resets)
The Priest slog: 4th rodeo. This one looks scary. Three mages that can cause all sorts of trouble. Everyone on my side goes before them so they'll have free reign to pick on whoever they want. Knights are less of a concern as they only hit for 25 but I can't ignore them as they're quite capable of bringing down someone weakened by attack magic. Then there's Miluda who I'll try to keep 5 panels away from until most of the enemies are down. On my side, I have Magic Defend Up, Cure and Raise, and Delita punching for 50. Needed to play defensively and try to avoid having the same unit get ganged up on. Positioning is important as well as paying enough attention to the AT list to realize that I have a double turn to safely get in range of Knights to staff bonk things and retreat before they can act. When I can afford to attack, the focus is to soften up targets for Delita to finish off rather than try to kill them myself.
Had a fortunate opening. Time Mage Hastes but a single Wizard. This could have been bad but the Haste had him come forward to go after my team. One rock weakened him enough for Delita to drop him on my second turn. This relieves a lot of pressure on my team. Still had a death or two thanks to the other wizard raining Bolt 2 on my units and a knight dropping a weakened target. He only started with 28 MP though so was out of gas after 3 casts. Some Raise followed by Cure got KOed units back into the fight though. Meanwhile Delita's third action was to punch the Time Mage for 50 out of her 54 HP so she retreats without her doing much to complicate the fight (her 2nd Haste spell missed and her 3rd on self wouldn't have mattered when she's running for a corner). After softening up a Knight for Delita to punch out, the fight was pretty much stablized. Still took a while to wrap up with my low damage. Got Delita to punch out the MP-less Wizard and the other Knight because my units do so little. Then it was a slow wearing down of Miluda. Easy stuff when she's alone, just heal up people that she hits. I helped Delita along with a bunch of rocks and the occasional Dash. Got some black magic from crystals as well as Dash for another generic but nothing of note really. Delita hits Lv 8 in this fight so he's going into the next one at 7 Speed.
Shops have upgraded so shopping time. My units are around Lv 9 at this point and with Silk Robes, some have the 56 MP for Holy. Huzzah. Pick up some gear at Igros as well, including a second set of armor for future use. Also bought a Small Mantle for Zekaden. Got one random on the way back to Windmill Shed but nuking two enemies with Holy really speeds things along.
Windmill Shed (0 resets):
I suppose I could have stretched this out long enough for Delita to take the 7 actions needed to reach the 300 Monk JP for Move HP-up. But that felt too risky with the threat of death from Crush Punch. And when I'm packing two people who have the MP for Holy, went for the assassination. I'm not counting the reset where I forgot to teach Nall Holy. Or the one whiere I misplaced a Cure because I forgot Delita would move before it would go off. Or the one where Delita got Stopped by the first Stasis Sword.
For the battle itself, first set of actions see me moving into position and Delita lobbing a rock at Boco. Enemies go. Wiegraf Stasis Sword on Delita, Boco pecks Nall, Monks punch Delita. My turn. Luna heals Nall. Felicia places a Cure where Delita will walk into it, other priests lob rocks at monks because they can and retreat, and Delita punches out Boco. Wiegraf stops Delita with next Stasis Sword and the monks punch Delita some more. At this point, I'm able to safely lock two Holies onto Wiegraf; the first is enough to send him running. Had Delita been unStopped, he would have gotten another action before the Holies go off but oh well.
Whew, this was a relief. I'd been dreading having to do this fight without Holy but my levels were just high enough to prevent it from turning into a slog.
At this point in the Fiesta, the 2nd class is available. Due to spillover JP, 2 of my units already have Knight unlocked and a third is in the 190s. Those two class change into Monks with Basic Skill to start getting that monk JP and two others change into Knights. Thanks to spillover, I have Monk unlocked on all five units in one fight.
Fort Zekaden (0 resets):
I went 3 priests and one monk for this one. Delita is a Squire with Item and Equip Armor. I meant to pick up a Mytrhil Sword for him but forget so he's stuck with an Iron Sword. I want him to have exactly 4 Move so might as well throw a Small Mantle on him. The intention is that Algus will move into a position to shoot him where Delita cannot reach him for a sword hit. This serves to draw Algus forward while the two chase each other around. Magic Defend Up on all my units just as a precaution though it's intended to be over before they're at risk for magic damage.
Well, that didn't quite happen. My units go first. Monk is in formation 2 and goes around the side of the fort while the priest back there comes towards squad 1. I move my squad 1 units just out of spell range of the closer Wizard. Algus moves to a lower elevation to take a shot at Delita. Delita then goes for a physical on Algus, whiffs his 72% swing. Enemies do their thing with a Knight whacking Delita and a Wizard frying him for 47 with Fire 2. At this point, I'm able to lock 3 Holies on Algus and there's nothing the enemies can do to stop it. Monk beans knight with a rock (yay, JP), Knights just move, and other Wizard locks a 70 damage spell on Delita but my Holies go off first and end things in two casts.
Chapter 1 end - Skills learned
Priest: Cure, Raise, Holy, MagicDefend Up
Monk: nothing yet
Universal: Throw Stone (all), Dash on Artemis and Felicia, Heal on Artemis, Gained JP up on Nall
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FFT Fiesta Chapter 2: (priest, monk, mediator, samurai, dancer)
Dortor 2 (0 resets):
Give Battle Boots and Item to both Gaf and Agrias. Bring both males to have one less Steal Heart target for the thieves. Males are monks with Gained JP up and Basic Skills. Females are priests with Magic Defend up. Agrias also started with Move-Find Item so might as well set that until she has Move +1.
Gained JP up may have been too greedy. Artemis gets focused down by the enemy forces early and I'm caught in a rez loop and not getting much offense in. Gaf and Agrias are very slow about targeting Wizards. Ended up with thieves downed first, then archers, which gave the wizards plenty of turns to rain spells on the monks. Did stabalize the situation eventually but it was messy and more deaths than I'd like for this map.
Buy two Mythril Vests and with nothing else on my shopping list, off to the next destination.
Araguay Woods (0 resets):
Choose to save Boco. 2 monks, 2 pirests. I choose not to use Holy here so that monks and Agrias can get more actions in. Boco doesn't get cornered by black goblin so routine beatdown. Agrias picking up a Phoenix Down is probably the most noteworthy event in this battle.
Nall learns Chakra after this fight.
Zirekile Falls (0 resets):
Strip Gaf off all gear except helmet and armor. Agrias is a Knight with Holy Sword secondary. 2 monk, 2 priest again with Nall as one of them. Another straightforward map of beating on enemies and staying alive. Delita shows up with Lightning Stab which speeds things along. Try to get Nall over to Ovelia for Chakra to fuel MBarrier goodness. No need for Holy. Agrias gets just enough actions to hit job Lv 2 in Knight and also has enough for Move +1. The rest of my team now has the JP for Gained JP up too.
Afterwards, time for a shopping trip. Dortor has Triangle Hats and Rainbow Staff for sale. Finally, some MA gear and a better staff for bonking things. Staff whacks are comparable to what 6 and 7 PA monks hit for. Also hike to Igros to grab a Coral Sword for Agrias; might as well take every advantage within reach. Got two randoms on the return trip to Zeland, which are welcome to obtain extra monk JP. I went with a 2-2 Priest/Monk split again and teach the monks Wave Fist and Chakra. Agrias is back to Holy Knight with Item and sets Weapon Guard.
Zeland Fort City (1 reset):
Choose to save Mustadio for bigger Brave boost. MagicDefend Up on my units. Mustadio goes right and shoots a wizard. Miss a killshot Wave Fist at 85% on that Wizard. Both Wizards target Mustadio and he dies. Game Over.
Next attempt, I switch to Gained JP up on the monks. Mustadio goes left and shoots a Wizard. The monks drop that Wizard but one had to hop over the wall to do it. Knight, archer, and other wizard gang up on that monk and drop her. I have Raise but need to watch CT so that she doesn't immediately go down again before using it. Meanwhile nuke the other Wizard with Holy. As Chapter 2 Monk offense is still low, takes a while wearing down the other enemies. Raise the fallen monk back up at a time where she can retreat. Make use of Chakra as an MP battery for the priests. Knights come up over the side of the wall to duel Agrias while most of my team is making their way through the doorway. I am lucky enough to obtain a Wizard Robe drop off the Lv 11 Wizard (will always have one) so that's useful. Got more crystals; Felicia picks up Heal, heh.
Make sure Mustadio is geared up. Change Agrias into a Knight with Holy Sword for the extra PA. I went with another 2-2 class split for the next fight. Magic Defend Up on all to soften up the incoming Summons.
Baraius Hill (1 reset):
My 7 Speed team moves before the enemies so I try to position the team to bait archers into coming closer. Mustadio lands an Arm Aim on the left side summoner. I nuke the close Knight with a Holy, send a monk towards the disabled summoner, and take a few swings at an archer while staying out of the other Knight's movement range. Sending someone after the summoner was a tactical mistake as she loses her Don't Act status right before getting a turn. Drops a summon on the monk after her and while it's not fatal, an archer puts the monk down right afterwards. She's dead in a bad position since I'm also trying to keep my allies alive and fending off summoner #2. By the time I get someone in Raise range, it misses and my dead unit crystalizes before I get another chance. Reset.
Next try has a similar start. Mustadio lands Arm Aim again on the same summoner. I try to bait archers into coming closer. Next round, Mustadio shoots the summoner, nuke the close knight with Holy again, heal up from arrows, and try to soften up an archer for Agrias to finish off. I don't make the same mistake with sending a monk after that summoner. Got some good luck on the next round as left side summoner goes for Protect on herself and the other summoner drops a summon but so-so Faith and Magic Defend Up means no deaths on my side. Mustadio lands a fatal midcharge gunshot on the left side summoner. Agrias and my team put the other summoner on the defensive and she spends her remaining turns on Moogle for herself or near death archers rather than offense. Got a crystal off the close knight which taught Armor Break, heh.
Arrive at Lionel and now the 3rd class has opened up. Teach Nall Move-HP up as he can spare the JP and I want it for Lionel so might as well. Return to Zeland for armor upgrades and two Battle Bamboos for the Mediator unlock grind. With Gained JP up, got it done in two fights with two Oracles at a time and the 5th unlocking Mediator through spillover. First fight was Mindflares at Zirekile, ick. Nuked most of them with Holy and thankfully, the only status they land is a Berserk on a monk. Random at Baraius was bombs and a chocobo, very mundane. With Mediator unlocked on all 5 units, Fiesta can continue. Bought a Platina Dagger at Lionel but nothing else there is of use to this party.
Zigolas Swamp (0 resets):
Mustado has Seal Evil so he made statues. Went with 2 priests, 2 monks, and 1 knife wielding Mediator. Priests MVP, monks help out with 36 or 40 damage Wave Fists, mediator is carried by the others and throws rocks for JP.
At Grog, snag a second gun and go with 2 mediator, 2 monk, 1 priest. Toss on Magic Defend Up on most of the team to soften incoming summons.
Goug Machine City (0 resets):
Got a good start with Mustadio landing an Arm Aim on a thief. The non-statused Thief goes down to my team ganging up on him. 5 Speed summoner gets three people for about 60 each, no casualties. 6 Speed summoner has no attack summons (as is usual). From here on, stay healed up and beat down enemies one at a time. Starting with attack summon caster, other thief, other summoner, and lastly the archers. It took long enough for a couple of enemies to crystalize but they don't yield anything interesting. Actually, nothing of note really occurs in this fight. It's dull writing about it and is likely nearly as dull reading about it.
Baraius Valley (0 resets):
2 Mediators, 2 Monks, 1 Priest. Both Mediators go on the Ramza side while priest and other monk go in squad 2. My whole team goes first so I soften up the Ramza side Wizard with a few gunshots while the other team positions themselves to lure their wizard forward. Agrias next, she obliges my planning with a Stasis Sword on Knight and Wizard with wizard dying. Enemies go. Knight tries Shield Break on Agrias, blocked. Lightning Bow archer shoots someone. Other Knight has Elemental and goes for a 20 damage Carve Model on Agrias. My turns again. Nuke the other Wizard with Holy. Mediators shoot at Lightning Bow archer (mistake, should have softened up the Knight that Agrias tagged earlier). Monks play medic with Chakra, a task sometimes compounded by uneven terrain. Agrias procs a Death Sentence on previously injured knight with Split Punch. Squad 2 tries to move in to help out,, leaving that archer for last. Another Shield Break attempt, miss. Enemies poke at me but nothing I can't handle. Finish up putting bullets into Lightning Bow archer. Next Split Punch lands another Death Sentence. Another Shield Break attempt, miss again and that was his last action. Last Knight can hit for 64 but he's unsupported now and Chakra can keep up long enough. It did take a while to be able to converge on the last archer, enough for some crystals to appear from the wizards. One yields Protect and the other gives up Shell, among the typical expected stuff. So now I have white magic other than Cure/Raise/Holy.
Return to Warjias for Brigandines and Wizard Staffs. Get prepped for Golgarand with Artemis and Luna as Priests, Felicia as a Mediator and the other two as monks. Teach Ruby Revive. Levels are around 14-15 and Nall has reached 8 PA in Monk.
Golgarand Execution Site (1 reset):
Virgos in squad 1 and the others in squad 2. I expected Gaf to go after Artemis because of mage HP and good compatability but he comes over to Night Sword Luna instead. Um, OK. Makes it easier for me as Luna can oneshot him with Holy. With Gaf taken out on round one, what could go wrong? How about Ice Bow archer having best compat with Artemis and dealing inflated damage to him? And a Hasted Time Mage being able to reach him and bash him into the ground before my team gets their second turns so I'm down a member early? And the other Time Mage raining down black magic from up high? And getting pinned by all three Knights before I've even downed a second enemy? Felicia does have Item and can Phoenix Down Artemis but I only have 5, having never bothered to stock up. I believe I made a tactical blunder with the mediator's target priority (crossbow archer instead of time mage) but still, fell behind early and just kept falling further behind in momentum until I gave up and reset when down to just the two monks standing and all three Knights still pressuring the team.
Next try starts out the same as before with Gaf Night Swording Luna and the crossbow archer plinking Artemis for 20. Nuke Gaf off the battlefield and no more best compatibility archer at least. Instead, I get a 74 Faith Time Mage who Slows him and the other Time Mage, who despite low Faith, keeps landing Stop at 40% on Luna. Cue scrambling like ants trying to stay alive and dreading Luna getting chopped up by knights while stopped. I made a positioning error when Artemis was trying to Cure Luna and any allies I could get into the effect range and Ruby got her armor broken. Crap. Keep playing on. Somehow, Luna avoids death and is able to contribute to the fight again. Though not before getting Stopped a second time before I'm tired of the Time Mage and have Artemis nuke her with Holy. From this position, I am able to successfully turn the tides of the battle. Starting with the other Time Mage who has been landing Hastes and Slows all over the place. This actually ends up helping me when Ruby drops several times. Because the CTs have been split, I get situations where I can Raise Ruby and she gets to act before any knights put her back into the ground. Ruby learned Spin Fist off geo Knight's crystal as well as some geomancy which may be relevant for the dancer grind later. Got Shell for a second character as well off a time mage crystal. Wasn't trying to stall; it was simply slow taking out all the enemies as the team's offense without Holy is low and it takes 2-4 Chakras to recharge the MP for 1 cast of Holy.
Back to Warjias to replace the broken armor. Got a random on the way out. 5 chocobos, ugh. First fight I make use of Threaten in as it generally takes 3 attacks to off one without using Holy and they're very capable of swarming. Random as Baraius Hill on the way too but it thankfully wasn't chocobos and my team is well rounded enough to pound through it.
Gates of Lionel (0 resets)
Nall is a priest and I run two monks and two mediators down below. MagicDefend Up on all because my team doesn't have the tools to take out the summoner on round 1. One Mediator has the Lv 18 Speed point which works in my favor. After opening gunshot on summoner, she retreats out of summoner range. 7 Speed archer goes to charge something on her which lets me have some midcharge hits on it (or just breaking the charge with Throw Stone knockback). Nall oneshots Gaf with Holy. Pretty much just play defensively this fight, kiting the knights as much as I can and not letting summoner and archers gang up on anyone. Summoner goes down on my team's second set of actions. Getting an archer out of play is the next priority. 6 Speed archer kept trying to steal Artemis' Green Beret. Got three attempts, all missed. Knight does break his gun after two attempts though, which is annoying. Pisces Knight is especially durable facing two female Virgos, a Gemini, and Taurus mediator punches. In the process of taking out everyone else, priority becomes feeding Nall enough Chakras to have the MP to Holy her for the win. Gafgarion's crystal teaches Antidote to someone, hilarious.
Office of Lionel Castle (0 resets)
Nall is a Mediator, Artemis a Monk, the three ladies are Priests. Use the PBF which has Queklain dropping a Nightmare on the dudes. One Sleep, one Death Sentence, not that the result matters. Lock 2 Holies on Quek, the third priest bonks the sleeping unit awake with a rock. Artemis was never doing much on offense with worst compat but I have him try a 30 damage Wave Fist anyways, miss. Nall shoots Quek for the JP. Holies go off, battle over.
New stuff learned this chapter -
Priest: Regenerator (Artemis and Luna), Shell (2 units, already forgot which), Protect (1 unit)
Monk: Wave Fist, Chakra (all), Revive (females), Move HP-up
Mediator: Threaten (Luna)
universal: Gained JP Up (all), Antidote (all)
Various class thoughts -
Priest: Chapter 2 is their time to shine. With all the MA gear that becomes available in C2, even their physical becomes decent. Holy will generally oneshot anything at this stage. Only enough MP for one cast but that's OK because they got paired up with...
Monk: C2 I feel is a low point for monk. Their statlines are such their HP isn't that much better than a priest at these levels. Their most important use is providing MP for priests with Chakra. Wave Fist still helps in dealing with randoms. Still hoarding monk JP for Hamedo so not a lot of their skillset online yet.
Mediator: Haven't had much playtime yet but right now they shoot things with guns and provide emergency item usage as needed. They have other uses that will come into play later on once they've earned more JP to use. Threaten weakens monsters when I see that they'll get a turn despite my efforts.
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Fell Seal:
On the last couple of fights, so I figure now's a time for a retrospective. Long story short, this game tries its best to be a modernized FFT, an entry that has some massive shoes to fill. Does it manage it?
Kind of.
Honestly, I'd say the game is overall somewhere in the "good" category. Part of this may be my nostalgia for FFT talking but I think part of it is that there's a certain 'spark' FFT has to it that FS can't quite capture. Not to say that it doesn't put up a good effort. Some of it is on the animation and sound design end, which...it's a smaller studio, I can't quite fully fault them. Other aspects I'd have to say would be certain aspects of the balancing. One is just that it takes a *lot* of doing to break out of certain damage thresholds. Some characters can set up for it pretty well, others you may have to spend a majority of the game trying.
There's some other aspects that *do* get to me though. Probably the biggest one is...mm. I know you can turn it off and for future runs I will, but I remember default having it so to that extent: items. More notably, enemies having access to an invisible selection of items for use. In FFT, at least, you could definitely identify Item Guy, and stop him from using Item. Here, anyone, even monsters can just pull out an item, and it's a frustrating bit of additional sandbagging. So yeah, if I do replay this (I may, with a class unlock reference handy), going to turn it off for enemies.
Another is just that enemies are going to generally have better AP access than you, which is particularly frustrating when you're trying to level new classes; you're going to generally be at a disadvantage compared to enemies for a notable part of the game. Doubly so with equipment scaling up for them ahead of when it does for you, to a degree that I suspect FFT doesn't do it.
All in all, though, I consider these more of gripes or annoyances, not necessarily dealbreakers. I'll give it probably a 7.5/10 overall.
[EDIT] Now that I've cleared, figure I can go over bosses and notable fights that stuck out to me. Will microtext this to avoid spoilers, though for a four year old game I'm probably overdoing it.
Demon Alphonse: Budget Queklain, or maybe just a HP-bloated Archafflictor. Either way, he's pretty much your starter boss. You get Bzaro as a free guest for this portion, and he's intimidating for newcomers, buuuuut...if you know what you're doing, he's not that scary. But he is meant to be the intro boss, for better or worse.
Katja 1: Frankly, Katja's fights aren't normally worth noting, I'm just noting this one because of the fact that this is one of the ones where the game actively cheats and pre-sets traps. At least the game warns you this time. The later two times it does this, in late C4, are so infuriating that I actively hate them.
Earthwyrms and Earthwyrm Queen: So, not gonna lie. I thought this was a pretty neat setpiece fight and I still kind of do in retrospect. The game was trying something different with this and frankly, I enjoyed the fight. Big, involved, had some surprises but they weren't rude in the way some other things were, felt like a proper bossfight. I liked it.
Septimue 1: What, the evil-looking guy was actually evil? I'm shocked and discredited! Anyway, frankly, the swarm of assassins he ambushes you with were far more rude than he was. Septimus was largely a punk, but also this is after Kyrie and Anadine had come into their own, so they were ready to carve giant chunks of HP off of him. I swear I remember one of the two taking off half his 700 health in one attack. Anyway, Septimus is a punk.
Godstear Wastes: Aeoths are frankly assholes, but more annoying in the long run rather than actually a threat. I almost always save them for last, with one noted exception. However, this is one of those maps with pre-set traps, and it doesn't have the decency to warn you. Seriously, fuck pre-set traps.
Mountain Temple 1: FUCK PRE-SET TRAPS FUCK PRE-SET TRAPS FUCK PRE-SET TRAPS FUCK PRE-SET TRAPS. IT IS NOT FUNNY OR CLEVER, JUST A FUCKING DICK MOVE.
Raife 1+Grim Eye: I...actually don't remember much of this. Raife hits like a truck, but Grim Eye was the one who had all the weird new spells. It was neat, but otherwise nondescript.
Septimus 2+Secunda: They're fought together, so I'll take them together. And Septimus is still hilariously the biggest punk of the lot. Seriously, the biggest threat he provides is adding more hits to the OFA dual-gun vampire being an asshole. More notable is Secunda, who is hilariously running a (albeit HP-inflated) largely legal dual-wield+Infused Edge+Wizard Magic setup. One that would probably take getting to NG+ to qualify for, but legal. Absolute nightmare to face, I think the only reason half my party members weren't Wounded after this had anti-wound items/skills on.
Raife 2: First count of Pounce on Bzaro absolutely screwing him over. Well, maybe second, the first one was the previous fight. This honestly wasn't that big of a fight overall, just mildly annoying with the demons. Archafflictors with the full-field status move are assholes. Especially when they use your own reaction to yank you up a cliff away from everyone else.
Primus: Primus is an asshole. He's an asshole who's likely designed and played by that smug prick who did 3.5e Batman Wizard shenanigans. The same one who runs Blue or Blue/Black decks in M:tG. The same one who thinks weaponized telefragging is creative. That asshole. Seriously why is half your arsenal literally instakills that ignore things like reraise. With the elite guards who turn into demons, this feels curiously like an inverted version of Elmdor's fight in FFT. I'm just mad about instakills here. I beat him, but the fight still felt cheap. Though I suppose part of my issue is just the fact that I have to deal with the Wounds afterwards.
Raife 3: This was...rough but I somehow got through without too much in the way of wounds. Think this was the last time in the game I brought Yates out, though. Amusingly here, he was running a copy of my Kyrie build, which...yeah. It's a good build. Bonus points for Katja somehow getting a miracle dodge against what was going to otherwise be a sure-kill attack. Oh and now that I think about it the werewolf was basically running the same build as one of my generics. Kind of hilarious that I somehow built two of the same ones I'm running here.
Maw 1: Oof. SHOULD HAVE BROUGHT SLEEP BLOCKERS. Holy shit this asshole loves to spam Sleep+Poison+ATK Down and it sucks. Sometimes blind comes out as well but...yeah, this fight is literally some convoluted bullshit with status and delayed AoEs flying everywhere, but I say that in a good way, honestly. Maw loves to throw out its AoE that inflicts Sleep+Poison+ATK Down+Blind, you've got an Archafflictor and Malcubus also throwing around bullshit. Everyone is imploding under statuses...until I ended up offing all the adds. Amusingly, while applicable here, Ecdysis was going to come up more in the finale...
Weirdly enough, Maw hits like a wet noodle most of the time, especially with its status attack that struggled to break 30 damage on most. Which I suppose is a welcome change from the instakills and absolute nukes. Fight still felt rough because you try getting bogged down in poison and sleep and sleep and poison and sleep.
Maw 2: Not gonna lie. First, I had panicked slightly when I realized this fight didn't let you have a save between this and the last one. This one is...to say the least, brutal for quite a few reasons. Most notably, Ecdysis. And this is where it felt like, in a way, the game was fighting back and telling me "hey, stop just tacking on the status reactions". Because it would do something that would proc a status reaction, move next to one or more PCs, and then just throw it on them. I honestly applaud the hell out of it.
Funnily enough, my galaxybrain moment here was somehow, after it threw out the HP->1 that it has (full-field HP->1 is also rude by the by), using everything to just get five out of six of my deployed troops healed up. After that it stopped doing anything threatening and...somehow by that point Katja somehow got a triple-turn on the final boss where she just kept stabbing it over and over and over. Those stabs somehow got her to be MVP, so...yeah.
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Octopath Traveler 2
I'm currently in the final chapters. I'll save story thoughts for when they're done.
On a gameplay note, it was way too easy for a while, but in the last few non-final chapters and now the final chapters, bosses have gotten way tougher. Some major caveats for this: I'm underlevelled, at least in the game's eyes. I'm not sure how this happened exactly. In Octopath 1 I reached the final chapters at Level 35 (main character at 45), while in Octopath 2 I reached the final chapters about 5 levels lower, despite the fact that the recommended level for the final chapters is 5 levels higher than in Octopath 1. I feel like I played the games the same way (that is, I tried to explore environments fully but also used Evasive Manuevers basically always) so I'm surprised at the difference. Either way, though, it means the game has suddenly found teeth, which is neat.
Goldeneye
Finally accomplished what I never did in my youth and beat all the maingame stages on 00 Agent. I no longer recall what prevented me from doing this in the original game, I'm pretty sure it was Control. That defence section definitely took a lot of tries to get right.
I didn't get the majority of the 00 Agent secrets; Bunker 1 and Surface 2 are simple enough, but most of the rest are either crazy tight times (Facility/Archives) or are already extremely difficult stages (Train/Caverns) so I don't figure those are happening.
Unsure if I'll bother with Aztec and finally unlock Egpytian.
Brigandine 2
Cleared Norzaleo, which means I've finally cleared all the routes. Was fun as always. Knight notes:
Rubino: He might be the weakest ruler save Talia (starts with just past 200 pool), but that says little, he's still solid at base and one of the best later, just very versatile and tanky.
Elena: Similar general outlook as Rubino. Her pool is slightly lower, her command range is lower, and doesn't have the tankishness, though archer is so good the comparison isn't a terrible one anyway.
Will: I think he's the MVP honestly. He starts way ahead of the kids in pool and only finishes barely behind, Ranger is a great class. Only downside is being obscure but if you know about him... watch out.
Grados: He has two downsides: one is that Norzaleo is easy early when he's at his strongest (you can conquer Gustava without ever having more than 3 borders), the other is the 3 command range. That said he's got monster personal bases due to being Level 23, and that includes pool which is comparable to Will and way ahead of everyone else at base.
Jiu: The nation's other tier 3 starting badass, she has 4 command area at least but far less pool than Grados, which is a losing trade, but she's still good for the same reasons.
Schizler: Competent personal stats, average pool. Not much to say about him, he got used but wasn't a star.
Maximillian: Pretty close to a Shizler clone except he joins half a year in, which obviously makes him worse but again, definitely used him as filler.
Jack: Shizler who joins at Level 8 instead of Level 17, which is obviously worse, but similar enough later. I made him a swordsman instead of a knight to be different (Norzaleo already has loads of knights) but I really missed Heal and he never really got reliable evasion so maybe this was a mistake.
Pick: Probably the only knight in the nation I found underwhelming. His gimmick is MP regen... but honestly, he has so much less MP than a bard that he'd need to regen quite a bit to just catch up to their base (probably around four or five turns). He has more int than them but that's a losing trade considering the loss of songs and the way lower HP.
Leonora and Theodora: Respectable enough projects on paper but I didn't really get them going. In Theodora's case she faces extra competition from the fact that I got Sylvie and Yuiri quickly and they're both just better, never mind Elena.
Brendan and Araina: Both filler, not great, 3 command range isn't a drawback they needed, but they're both usable enough with okay pool and starting in tier 2.
Klaus, Ferrick: Just bad.
Final Fantasy 5
I did another fiesta. Summoner! To be more precise, it was a meteor (full random) run which rolled Dancer, Summoner, Mystic Knight, and Knight in that order. Summoner is so OP the rest mostly doesn't matter much. Quick notes:
-Arguably the hardest part of the run was fighting Shiva; I decided to fight her before heading to Karnak (coming back with a fire rod trivializes the fight). One reset, then Remora's paralyze and Sylph healing pulled through.
-After that, the carnage begins. The run was pretty close to just a Summoner SCC for a long time. Shiva destroys the Fire-Powered Ship, Ifrit destroys Byblos, Sandworm doesn't counter MT, Ramuh destroys Ronka, Arcehoaevis is made surprisingly easier by CHOCOBO for the final form.
-And then you get Titan which is 110 power MT, already utterly stupid... which becomes 165 power at the first shop in World 2, for the robe-users at least. Silly. That said, World 2 is probably least dominant part of the game for Summoner. Sure, everything which doesn't float just dies, but there's a few notable things which do, including Enkidu and Blue/Yellow Dragons.
-Atomos might also have caused trouble but he's Mystic Knight's first time to shine, Sleep Spellblade and collect victory.
-Dragon fights in Exdeath's castle were the other trouble point in the game, especially in the lava areas which sap my HP. Blue and Yellow Dragons are not quickly killed or easily statused (petrify works on blues, but they have some resistance/evasion), and while Reds do die fast they can get off an Atomic Ray first which hurts! I didn't ever die to them but I came close.
-Exdeath and Melusine both reaaaally hate Golem + Carbuncle.
-And after this Syldra is just so, so dumb. Everyone can use Air Knives and toss out 3k MT whenever they want, it's not even expensive or anything.
-Once I clear the Pyramid and get my shiny shoes I decide to get Odin and Phoenix; Phoenix Tower has the added benefit of providing lots of easy exp for my team.
-I decide not to bother with any other dungeons, not even the Island Shrine. I'm good. Leviathan is too much trouble to get and Bahamut basically doesn't do anything Syldra doesn't.
-I largely just blow apart the final dungeon.
-Despite skipping lots of World 3 I'm still Level 35-36 by the end which is high enough, thanks to the fact that I never run since why bother when Summoners end everything fast anyway. Arguably an underrated part of the job, you just get money and exp so easily with them.
-Final showoff note: I beat Tree Exdeath and Neo Exdeath without taking a single point of damage or being hit with a single negative status effect. The first form misses a White Hole against a Ribbon or Aegis Shield (the only part of this strategy which is luck, not that Phoenix+Soft would have been a big ask) and then the second attack runs into Golem + Carbuncle. Almagest Part dies to Break Spellblade, the second shining moment for a non-Summoner job on this run. Syldra spam kills too quickly for Grand Cross to get off, while the other two parts are, again, walled by Golem+Carbuncle. I save lamp!Odin for the back part at the end but honestly it's not necessary, just guarantees I finish it in one turn instead of two.
Job notes:
-Knight is a slow but tanky Summon-caster. For part of World 3 I set Two Hands and Brave Blade instead, which actually outdamages Syldra against a single target if its evade isn't too high; I switch back to Summon for the end though. Knight also learns Equip Shield which is the best secondary to set for Summoner.
-Mystic Knight is not as tanky as Knight but still tanky, and is fast, outspeeding a number of enemies Knight/Summoner don't, so that's cool! It also has Break/Sleep Spellblade for a couple key moments.
-Dancer is a fast Summon-caster which can use Robes (for Titan), Ribbon (for stats / immunity), and Golden Hairpin (for MP halving) which helps excuse its bad HP. Dance is basically never useful on this run.
-Summoner is the best job in Final Fantasy 5.
Sonic the Hedgehog
Last played in 2002... not quite as long as Goldeneye but close! Not much to say; this is game I played a bunch as a kid and I still remembered the broad strokes well enough that I was able to beat it using only one continue, despite Labyrinth and Scrap Brain being rude. The final chase of Labyrinth is very stressful!
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We’re halfway through the year, so I decided to do some small write-ups about my favorite games I’ve played this year.
My game of the year this year has gotta be Metroid Dread, which is a fabulous return to the 2D Metroid staples while offering a fresh and fun experience. While the plot is only so-so, the gameplay is stellar. The boss fights are fun and engaging, the upgrade system and exploration is super great, and the atmosphere and setting work are top notch.
My second favourite of the year is probably Bravely Default 2. I haven’t beaten this game quite yet, but I’ve been having a blast with its fresh take on job systems, its change from turn-based in Bravely Default 1 to CTB in Bravely Default 2, and the quality of life features like adjusting in battle speed, retuning the Default system, and making cool boss designs that all feel unique and not just copied from BD1’s. I’m having a great time with the game so far! I will confirm my feelings when it’s completed, but it’s a great game.
My third favourite is probably Theatrhythm: Final Bar. I’ll be honest, this answer feels like a bit of a copout, considering that it’s basically the same game as games I already loved (the first two games) with some slight variation in the formula so they can sell it as a different game. Still, I am forever in love with the endearing chibi designs of the Final Fantasy characters, and what’s not to love about a game where you get to listen to FF music?
An honorable mention to Pokémon Scarlet, which I just finished and throughly enjoyed! It added a fresh coat of paint to a franchise that I've had a lot of trouble getting back into after XY; I love that there are encounters on the map, I love that you have more openness in what you do and when, there is a ton of selection of Pokémon catchable in the mainline (including ALL the Eevees!), and the game despite my skepticism had a plot that was at least heartwarming, if maybe not Oscar-worthy. Really loved this take on the Pokémon experience.
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FFT Fiesta Chapter 3 (priest, monk, mediator, samurai, dancer)
Before going anywhere, got to unlock Samurai. In addition to the usual gear upgrades, I also pick up a Mytrhil Bow, a Mythril Spear, and an Ancient Sword as people will be spending time in Knight, Archer, and Lancer during the grind. (already have a Platina Dagger for Thief) I also do a few propositions to get JP for the prerequisite classes while leaving any randoms to the second stringer squad of Rad, Alicia, Lavian, Agrias, Mustado, and the Chocobos. Also make my way down to Goug to replace the broken gun. Did about 4-6 grind fights to unlock Samurai on all 5 units. Did a bit of Brave boosting during those grind fights; team is around 73-75 Brave at the time I choose to mov on. Pick up 5 Asuras for Draw Out and head off to Goland, not bothering to do any skill grinding for my newly unlocked job.
Goland Coal City (1 reset)
"This is an easy battle, what could go wrong?" Thinking this was going to be easy peasy, went with two Samurai in this fight. Yeah, turns out mediator and thief both stabbing Olan midcharge drops his HP frightfully quick and he died before I could get the priest in position to toss a cure up at him. Olan waiting until his second turn to Galaxy Stop didn't help matters and it missed both enemies up on the roof leading to his death.
Next attempt, I'm more careful with my priest's positioning. Still start things off by focusing down the thief that comes to stab/steal from Ramza and then a chemist. Help Olan kill off the mediator as well as the other two thieves. The last Chemist, I intend to invite for his gear. Olan is generally helpful with Galaxy Stop. I gain the Main Gauche from the high level thief and the other Chemist's Mythril Gun from boxes. Mediator drops a crystal; monk Ruby snags it gaining Persuade and Negotiate. Um, sure, I don't really see either ever being relevant but still, free skills. Land the Invite before the other two thieves death countdown expires.
Lesalia (0 resets)
I'm running the two males as monks but only have one Judo Outfit for them, oh well. Teach Artemis Earth Slash. Only Nall can Chakra for 30 or more MP on Alma which complicates my intention of keeping the MBarriers coming but I'll make do. General strategy is keep Alma able to cast while beating up generics until Zalmo is opened up. Coral sword knight shows up with Elemental, making him a priority target. This could have gone badly if he landed status procs as I've been stingy with status healing so far relying on Alma's Deathspell 2 isn't ideal. (forgot she had it didn't you; it's OK, I forget all the time) But I'm able to get him down before any geomancy statuses land. My non-Holy offense is still slow so getting swarmed is a bit of a concern when enemies are approaching both sides of the balcony. Mediator Felicia lands a midcharge gunshot on Zalmo for 144 around this time though and (thanks to MBarrier Haste) quickly shoots Zalmo for a regular 96 best compat gunshot and he bails.
Getting that second Mythril Gun saves me a trip to Goug so all I'm doing is picking up the relevant equipment upgrades before heading to Orbonne. Judo Outfits are very welcome for monks and Holy Miters for preists and mediators, Chameleon Robes for manipulating Wiegraf AI (and instant death protection which will come into play in C4). Got to make sure I have enough spares in case things get broken/stolen. Have enough cash to afford an extra of key stuff so no problems there. Also grab two Germinas Boots.
Other prep: Teach the females Earth Slash. Nall buys Hamedo. Went ahead and taught Regenerator to the other two generics. Luna picks up Mimic Daravon and Invitation for UBS2.
UBS2 (0 resets)
Alma's Red Shoes go on the priest. Nall is a monk with Hamedo. Ruby is a Samurai with Punch Art. Artemis ended up as the Priest this rotation. Luna is the mediator and Felicia is a second monk with Alma's Barette. Enemies advance, one Lancer poking Nall because I was too lazy to change his starting spot in the PBF. Time Mages are leading off with Hastes, which could be worrisome but the first Hastes whiff. Nuke one Lancer with Holy, Nall Chakras himself, attack the Lancer who poked Nall with gun and Earth Slash the low offense mean they fail to drop him. I do take care to position Nall to bait a Lancer into trying attack him from the side. AI obliges and while Hamedo is blocked by shield, that one less hit of spear damage, which matters because one of the Partisan Lancers is a Taurus and has good compat with 3/5 of the team. Time Mage goes for a Haste on the Taurus Lancer. This round, I am able to get through the evasion and drop him while putting Nall and Ruby into the effect area. Miss on Nall because he has worst compat with the time mage, lands on Ruby. Artemis does some curing. Another spear poke baited into a Hamedo, shield guarded again. Next round of actions from my team, Luna puts the last Lancer to sleep with Mimic Daravon and I do some recovery while going after the Chemist and the Time Mages. They're kind of a nuisance with one having Stop and the other one with Summon magic. Turn order and positioning worked out favorably for me though with a Wave Fist from Nall and an Asura from Ruby dropping the summoner time mage without him being able to launch any Summons. Other Time Mage did land a Stop or two but it was too little, too late with him unsupported. Chased him down and ended him.
And all the while, third lancer has been snoozing away. Before I got around to dealing with him, Ruby got a Lancer crystal and a bunch of Vertical Jump skills. (possibly relevant during the Dancer unlock grind) Other Lancer dropped a box with his Ice shield, which I didn't even notice until later. Finally getting around to the last Lancer, had Ruby wake him up with Wave Fist and Luna lands Invite first try. Hey, I wanted that helmet and I'm not complaining about a free Diamond Armor and N-Kai Armlet.
UBS3 (0 resets)
After the dragged out previous battle, this was ultimately a straightforward assassination. Take out the Summoner with gunshots and Earth Slash. I still have one unit left to lob an Earth Slash at Izlude. Next round, I'm able to tag Izlude with Holy, another gunshot, and some more Earth Slash bringing him down to critical. The Germinas Boots were a huge help here for mediator and samurai, enabling them to line of attack they wouldn't be able to otherwise.
UBS1 (0 resets)
I had a unit with the Lv 23 Speed point so she was one of the monks. Chameleon Robe on the priest. Wiegraf goes and Stasis Sword on two, no Stops. Fantastic. 8 Speed monk Chakra on the two hit. Enemies go. Archer shoots the priest; others just advance. My turn: samurai moves two panels behind Wiegraf and Asura on him and archer. 2nd Monk Earth Slash on Wiegraf. Mediator shoots him. Priest uses Holy. The combined damage brings him down in a single round.
Power Sleeves are now buyable. Oh yes, this is a large improvement for monk damage. White Robes can be useful if expecting to face a lot of elemental damage. Bought one Gold Staff for completion though don't expect to be using it.
Grog Hill (0 resets)
Just a bunch of deserters in basic classes, oh shit they killed the mediator on their first set of turns. Priest uses Raise; other three units beat on thief and a squire. Enemies kill the mediator again.
Priest casts another Raise on mediator; other units finish off the thief. Chemists are still hanging out of reach to effectively gang up on them. Chemists and Archer snipe down the mediator another time.
Oh no, not again. Priest casts Raise on mediator. I'd like to supplement this with some Chakra but I need my other units' turns to finish off a squire. Enemies kill the mediator again and also down a weakened monk.
God damn it. This pattern keeps continuing while I try to concentrate enough offense on a Chemist to get it out of play. It takes another round or two and I do bring down a Chemist but at the cost of another unit getting sent into the dirt. Somehow, I manage to recover from having only a samurai, a priest, and three units on the ground but hoo boy is it a frustrating fight. Landing a Mimic Daravon on the other Squire is the start of the turnaround and I'm eventually able to get everyone back up and chasing down that pesky archer on the high ground. Whew, this was a rough one.
Yardow (0 resets):
After the mess at Grog, this actually went smoother. Nall and one other as a monk, 1 of each class for the others. Nall sets Hamedo while the rest are still making do with Regenerator. Magic Defend Up on most of my team in anticipation of summons. One Ninja comes up on wall to throw something at my team and the others do the usual. Malak charges up a Sky Demon Back with Rafa in its range; Sky Demon being exceptionally rare to appear given his Job level of 4. Samurai Chakras whoever got hit, Priest nukes the ninja on the wall with Holy, monks Earth Slash at lined up ninjas, and mediator tries to line up to take a shot at them. Rafa does some damage with Heaven Thunder, no kills though. Summoners toss Moogle at the injured ninjas. Next round has the ninjas filing out. I'm only able to kill one of them on my team's next round of actions and there's a Summon or two coming as well. It's alright though; ninja's next turn was swinging at Nall and Hamedo denied it. Take it down while doing some healing from the summons and Malak stick pokes. Battle is pretty much wrapped up with my full team up. All that's left is chasing down the summoners while staying ahead of their damage and Malak poking with stick for 40-50. Ninjas crystalize before I finish the mopup; leaving two boxes and one crystal which provides Stigma Magic for the lucky recipient.
Doing all the equipment upgrades entails traveling back to Dorter. Got some randoms along the way and did a bit of Brave raising while clearing them. Everyone is now between 75-78 Brave. After a bit of thought decide to grab a Bracer, which depletes most of my remaining funds.
Yuguo Woods (0 resets):
Was undecided on what to do with Rafa but did settle upon turning her into a Chemist for this fight. I won first try but still ended up redoing it to see if I could engineer something where Rafa gets more than one action. White Magic > undead and I have Punch Art support too so the victory was never in doubt. Still, I tried to have things play out where I got more midcharge physicals in and less getting multiple people caught in a single spell. I had Solution learned on the mediator but didn't end up using it on the winning attempt.
Change Rafa back to Heaven Knight with Item for the next battle. Nall has the JP for Blade Grasp so he learns and sets it. Pick up Invitation and Mimic Daravon for him as he's going to be inviting someone in the next battle.
Gates of Riovanes (0 resets)
Nall is a Mediator. Artemis and Felicia are monks. Ruby is the requisite priest with Draw Out secondary leaving Luna as a Samurai with Punch Art. (for lack of anything more impactful since it's not doing much with 7 PA) Luna is starting with Nall in squad 1. Generics are making do with Regenerator as none of them have the JP for Blade Grasp and Hamedo isn't going to be much help against the rain of arrows. Malak goes first, not in range to do anything as usual. Rafa also moves and does nothing on turn 1. My monks go and poke at the far left knight with Earth Slash while staying out of range. Priest does nothing. Knights amble towards my party while archers go and pick on Rafa. Their combined gangup sends her running and Malak follows.
I want a Crystal Helmet so I intend to invite one of the Knights. I pick the high level one with the Platina shield as my target. Nall's main role is to kite him and try to put him to sleep with Mimic Daravon. This leaves the other units free to beat on the other knights. It takes a while due to my low offense. Actually make use of Protect here as insurance against archers all picking on the same unit and dropping someone. Feather Boots knight provided the most trouble since I can't peck at him from outside his threat range with Earth Slash and his shield blocks most of my team's attack options. Things worked out for me though; got off a Holy without being pincusioned by archers and enough followup attacks got through the evasion so that he only got one swing at a Protected unit, keeping the overall damage manageable.
With two knights down and the third finally put to sleep after 4 tries (at 56% even because of good compat), time to chase down the archers. Just as feared, at one point all three archers charge up on Artemis. First arrow knocks him back with a critical sparing him the damage from the other two. Probably could have recovered even if they all hit but a welcome bit of random chance. While the rest of the team is trying to line up some offense, the archers are bunching up so I fish for some Mimic Daravon but am not landing any even when I can target 2-3 of them. And when I finally do land a sleep or two, the rest of the team has caught up and it's unneeded at that point.
I do stall out the fight to let the Earth Clothes archer crystalize. The knights have also crystalized so I send some units to pick them up. Felicia gets Secret Fist off one while Artemis adds Spin Fist to his Punch Art collection. No Earth Clothes by the way. All this stalling has given the snoozing knight time to wake up. Well, I needed him awake anyways to have Nall invite him onto the team. Those 144 swings on 4/5 of my team could hurt but 78 Brave Blade Grasp does its job, denying those painful physicals. Invite lands on the second attempt and battle is won.
Inside Riovanes (1 reset)
Priest Ramza with Draw Out setup here. Wizard Staff, Gold Hairpin, Chameleon Robe, Red Shoes gives 10 MA and the important silence immunity for Velius. Artemis is a monk, Ruby a mediator, Luna a second priest, leaving Felicia as the samurai. Magic Defend Up on all for protection. Artemis learns and sets Hamedo.
One Holy and one Asura take care of Wiegraf. Tried to bait a physical but he's not inclined to go for a 20% chance at 100 damage, instead sticking with Wave Fist for 60. Move-HP up is recovering 20 HP a move to undo some of that Wave Fist damage leaving Nall at about120/200 going into Velius.
Nall gets first turn so I have him toss another Holy at Velius. He gets the turn after that too so I have him retreat. Velius charges forth a locks a Cyclops on Artemis. Being good compat with him, it gonna oneshot him even with Magic Defend Up. Artemis lands a punch on Velus for 210. Luna casts Shell on herself and Nall. Two demons go, do nothing of significance. Ruby shrugs and shoots Velius for 96. Felicia Chakras Nall for a bit of MP. I have Nall not act on his next turn to realign CT as he's not getting off spells otherwise. Velius drops Loss on the priests, uh oh. Not good as it prevents me from Raising Artemis. Get a bit of luck as confused Luna charges an Esuna on Nall. Demons are closing in to do a bit of chip damage to non-confused units. Felicia Wave Fists Luna for 24 to break confusion. Ruby goes for a three demon Mimic Daravon... dammit forgot to teach it to her. Lands a Persuade at 35% but it still isn't enough in the end. Nall is finally free to Raise Artemis but Velius opts to smack Ruby into the stone as the demons have softened her up enough for a melee kill. I'm scrambling to try to bait Velus into Artemis' Hamedo. Demons are upon my remaining team members though and Shells are wearing off. When Velius Seals Felicia, I abandon hope and concede defeat.
Next try, I toss the Bracer on Artemis and remember to teach Mimic Daravon to Ruby but no other adjustments. Wiegraf is the same as before. Instead of having Nall use Holy right off, have him Move/Wait twice to get his CT aligned to be able to get Cure/Raise off without Velus interrupting him. Velius goes to nuke Artemis with Cyclops as before. Artemis midcharge punch with Bracer does 390. Holy from Luna takes off another 210 or so. Gunshot for 96 and Chakra for a bit of MP like the last attempt. Demons get a bit of hurt in with Giga Flare. Nall Raises Artemis. Velius doesn't take the bait instead punching out Luna. Well damn, Had carelessly left her where she'd take a Giga Flare and it was enough for a kill. I opt not to revive her. Artemis gets a 260 punch in. Felicia Chakras Nall for another 15 MP back. Ruby goes to Mimic Daravon on demons landing one sleep. Nall doesn't go for revival on his turn opting for support. This time, Velius obliges my manipulation and goes for a physical on Artemis. Hamedo for 260 wins the fight right there.
Riovanes Roof (4 resets)
Have Artemis sit out to reduce potential Allure targets. I stick on Chameleon Robes and Judo Outfits and Alma's Barrette for instant death protection in preparation for this fight.
First go: Elmdor Muramasas Rafa. Rafa pokes Lede with stick. Celia Shadow Stitch on Rafa. Lede kills Rafa with physical. If you've ever played FFT this far, you've probably seen this exact sequence dozens of times.
Next attempt: Muramasa on Rafa. Rafa pokes Lede. Assassins kill Rafa before anyone on my team gets a turn. Gave Over.
3rd try: Muramasa on Rafa. Rafa pokes Lede. Assassins kill Rafa before anyone on my team gets a turn. Gave Over.
4th try: This time Rafa tries a Diamond Sword at Elmdor and retreats. Celia goes for a Charge +1 physical. Lede targets Rafa with Ultima. To my dismay, my priest is a Virgo and a Cure will not do enough to save Rafa from the incoming damage (and Cure 3 is too slow). Wave Fist, gunshot, and 64 damage Wizard Staff whack are not enough and Rafa still dies, just 5 clockticks later than the previous failures.
So I'm pretty much not winning this way. Strategy change time. Swap out Felicia for Artemis to be the mediator. Have samurai Nall and the priest swap jobs as Nall is better suited for supporting Rafa having best instead or worst compat with Rafa. Also, as an added bit of insurance, I remove Artemis' armor leaving just his hat.
On this go, Rafa retreats with a Heaven Thunder on Elmdor. Celia goes for an Ultima on Artemis, just as I planned. Because the damage only brings him to critical, Lede is also drawn to Ultima him. Holy from Nall and Wave Fist from the monk are enough to bring Celia down.
New Skills
Priest: Cure 3, Esuna (most)
Monk: Earth Slash (all), Hamedo (Nall, Artemis, Luna)
Mediator: Invitation (Nall, Ruby, Felicia), Threaten, Mimic Daravon (all), Praise (Nall), Solution (Artemis)
Samurai: Asura (all), Blade Grasp (Nall)
That really is it for Samurai due to not getting lots of Samurai JP with all the assassination missions.
Class thoughts:
Priest: Enemy HP has been rising faster than Holy damage so not as dominating on that front. While not as much MA as I like in a caster class, Draw Out has strengthened the class' overall usefulness. Pulls decent numbers even with dinky Asura. The Speed multiplier does tend to come in handy only possibly being awkward on turn 1 against opposition exactly 1 Speed slower. Been getting by with the basic set of Cure, Raise, and Holy, only occasionally dipping into Protect/Shell/Esuna. (most fights status not being relevant, guarded by equipment, or something not covered by Esuna/Stigma Magic)
Monk: With PA armor showing up, this class is a lot better being one of the heavy hitters of the party. Higher levels means better relative HP too. Earth Slash is the main workhorse skill here with Wave Fist for floaty or earth absorbing targets. Chakra for HP/MP support with Revive as backup revival. Hamedo is very nice when one can bait the enemies into physicals.
Mediator: They get a gun upgrade this Chapter so they're a bit better. 64 damage at 8 range isn't a whole lot but usually enough to contribute. More of their skillset got use too. Invitation for nabbing early gear upgrades. Mimic Daravon to attempt to put groups to sleep. Praise for Brave raising. Solution to weaken undead wizards in Yuguo if I can't interrupt an incoming spell with brute force. Still mostly meh by itself as a class and debatably the weakest of the tier 3 options but the Brave raising pairs well with the powerful Reactions that Monk and Samurai have.
Samurai: To no surprise to a FFT veteran, Samurai is meh and very so-so with its own skillset. This is exacorbated by a drought of JP when rushing through the chapter. Blade Grasp is amazing of course but only Ramza acquired enough spare JP for it. Samurais ended up being inferior Monks due to me giving them Punch Art. Martial Arts would have helped, were I not so stingy with monk JP and also wanting Gained JP up on any Samurai to get them to Blade Grasp faster. Pretty much stuck to heavy armor for them; the Wizard Robe not feeling worth the loss of HP when they only have Asura learned.
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Dragon Age: Origins - Additional Modules (Steam)
Leliana's Song
Fairly short and quite enjoyable. Decent range of things to do, although the first segment is the only really open one.
The city guard situation in the first segment doesn't really make sense and I'm not sure if it's supposed to suggest that I wasn't playing it properly or if there just wan't much thought put into it.
This module also has fancy introductory animations for each of the major characters which neither the maingame nor any of the other modules have, which is weird.
The Darkspawn Chronicles
Short and fairly novel, decently enjoyable. Only note specific to the module is that it just stops once you prevent the maingame characters from winning, no information is provided as to what sort of impact this actually has on the world. Which was disappointing.
Awakening
The major one.
It vaguely wants to have a management sim aspect but it's not very good at it. You get one choice early on with regards to whether your soldiers should be protecting the major city, the keep (which is not in said city to be clear), or the farmlands - or if they should be spread across everything - but after this you never really get any information on what sort of effect this is having. A couple of later quests require you to divert some soldiers and it's very unclear what impact doing this actually has on your previous selection (if it even has any).
There's a large, gated-off section in the keep yard which is practically unused - if you make a particular choice during a quest then one person will start standing around in that section. Possibly suggests that there was more intended to be done with it that ended up being left out.
You can have the keep walls repaired & upgraded but the game doesn't let you see them from the OUTSIDE so what is even the POINT
All that aside, the main gameplay is largely entertaining.
I did experience noticeably more crashes while playing this module than I did while playing the maingame, which was annoying. Including one right after beating the final, so I had to redo that.
The Golems Of Amgarrak
Not a fan. Too many battles that put you up against a bunch of golems which each spend a lot of their time preventing your characters from being able to act. And one battle which put you up against four strong mages at once which liked freezing your characters and preventing them from being able to act. Additionally, unless your main character is a healer themself, you get very little in the way of magical healing for the module - and while as far as I can recall it does hand out a few high-level healing potions, it is only a few, so you'd better hope that you imported a whole bunch of others as well.
The battles outside of the problem ones were spread across the more usual range of difficulty at least. Meanwhile, the story was kind of mediocre and the mist section it opens with doesn't really make sense. Also the ending arbitrarily kills off the rune golem for no reason.
Witch Hunt
The plot problem with this module is that I don't think that the main character, as they had been run so far, would have any pressing interest in looking for Morrigan given she had specifically requested them not to. They give you a barely passable stand-in reason at the start of the module (getting back the stolen book) but ultimately don't let you actually run with that reason.
The library section is decently entertaining, but then you essentially just go through four small dungeons, at least some of which you've been through before, and you're at the end. Two of the dungeons have light gimmicks, one of them has a boss fight, one of them essentially has nothing notable. On the plus side, no battles on the level of the terrible ones from Golems.
I picked up Dragon Age II during the steam sale earlier in the month but I'm probably not going to play it for a while.
The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past (Wii U VC)
I had played the majority of this via emulation back in the day so I remembered a bunch of things, but still mostly enjoyable. Have the impression that I found it much more difficult when I was playing it emulated but if so it was probably just due to overreliance on savestates.
Word Rescue (Steam)
Played through this due to a lingering desire from childhood to see episodes 2 and 3. (I was never a big fan of Math Rescue so have no such desire for its registered episodes.)
It probably wasn't worth it.
The game should probably give you a free refill of slime when you die, some of the later levels (on Hard, anyway - which doesn't appear to actually impact the educational facet of the game, only the enemy count and so on) make it very difficult to actually get anywhere if you don't have enough on hand. (You keep whatever you had on hand when you die, so ultimately this leads to a situation where you try to reach a slime pickup then die so that you can get it again.)
Blaster Master Zero (Switch)
Very entertaining.
Got what appeared to be a bad ending, and on checking into it it was. (I had missed the Jump Booster.) So I had to backtrack aways then retrack to the final area again.
Which ties into an issue I had with the game: I would have liked for there to be some sort of fast travel.
Also, the controls for catching ladders are terrible, and that one jump based around that is bad. (The point where you have to catch a ladder while in a current underwater meanwhile is merely aggravating.)
One of these will be attended to in the next game.
Blaster Master Zero 2 (Switch)
Also very entertaining, mostly.
So while there's fast travel between zones after a fashion now, they've gone too far and now fast travel is the only way between zones. (And since it involves traversing area maps the fast part is variable/debatable.)
No improvement to the controls for catching ladders but there are at least no situations as bad as that one jump in the previous game this time.
The game is noticeably more difficult than the previous game, which from my perspective is a downside.
Has a pretty great section towards the end, albeit one which has a bunch of infuriating smaller sections throughout it.
I should probably wait until Zero 3 is on sale before picking it up - feels like it isn't very obvious when items on the Nintendo store go on sale though.
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Octopath Traveler 2 - Completed. Game clock was around 75 hours. Unlike OT1 there is a final boss that doesn't feel like a superboss and a clear ending point.
In terms of gameplay this is basically more Octopath 1. The biggest changes are positive ones which increase character differentiation. In Octopath 1, "Olberic with Hunter sub-job" and "Ha'anit with Warrior subjob" were virtually indistinguishable. OT2 adds a couple new layers. First of all, everyone gets some sort of battle ability innately which in general are more meaningful or relevant than a lot of OT1's (like the hunter's releases are spammable and thus much more useful). Then, everyone gets two skills, one midgame and one near the end, unique to them, and a few of these are very good. Finally, everyone gets a "latent power" gauge (similar to a limit break) which lets them do something extra when it's filled.
My biggest complaint about the game's gameplay is that otherwise it's very similar to OT1, and in the midgame I was a bit bored because bosses were things I felt I'd "solved" already in OT1, and thus very easy. The game does some more interesting boss design things later, which is nice.
In terms of story... mm. It's definitely a game where "vibe" carries the story more than the actual writing, which is definitely a bit shaky. I still appreciate the "eight short stories that all secretly connect" story structure, it's definitely unique and doing its own thing. I don't have a strong feeling about whether OT1 or OT2 is better in this regard. I feel like the average story quality is almost the same, but OT1 had larger variance - I liked Primrose's story better than anything in OT2, but disliked Tressa's more than anything in OT2 as well. Your milage may vary.
Actually let's do a quick comparison! Which story I liked more in each game, by class:
Cleric: This one's close. I like the Temenos better than Ophilia, but Ophilia's story about what draws people toward exploitative cults hit home better than OT2's not-all-that-engaging mystery.
Scholar: I like both characters although they're very different! Cyrus's story is better than Osvald's though; Osvald's gets off to a good start (the prison is great) but Harvey is just too evil and kinda unconvincing to be an interesting antagonist and that's basically all that's going on with the post-prison parts of the story. The ending where Osvald just abandons his daughter and leaves a woman to do the emotional labour part also really rubbed me the wrong way. I assume/hope there's an optional quest I missed which resolves this but that's not good enough IMO.
Merchant: Easy win for OT2. Partitio's story is a bit wobbly at points (both his C1 and a certain deus ex machina NPC) but ultimately it builds to an excellent ideological confrontation with a memorable antagonist. Partitio himself just has sky-high charisma, his infectious optimism actually convinces the Main Plot Villain associated with his quest to re-think her choices and indirectly saves the world, and you know what? I buy it.
Warrior: I don't think Hikari's story has anything quite as juicy as Olberic vs. Earhardt but otherwise it's much more solid, every major player is memorable and Hikari himself is very endearing.
Dancer: I will say that Agnea's low-stakes story about the power of self-belief which ends in a metaphorical dance-off battle is neat and unique but yeah obviously have to go with OT1 here.
Apothecary: Cassti ultimately probably had my favourite of the OT2 stories, I particularly enjoyed the side chapter dealing with an NPC's end-of-life... and of course the whole twist surrounding Malaya and Cassti's backstory. Her antagonist has the manic charisma reminiscent of Simeon or Matthias from the first game and is good fun, and also works well as a dark reflection of Cassti while tying into the main themes. Is good.
Thief: Throne's a bit frustrating. I really liked the story with Father; Chapter 1 and 2 build him up in delicious fashion and then 3's a... decent enough conclusion. By contrast Mother is not great, too cartoonish. And then Throne's final chapter is a mess in an attempt to tie to the overarching story that ends up feeling very weird and not in a good way. So I guess this is probably a win for OT1.
Hunter: Definitely preferred OT1. Both Ochette herself and her story are quite bland; the decision to make the antagonist entirely offscreen (until a single flashback in the unified ending) does the story no favours. Ochette herself is reasonably likable at least but it doesn't really carry a story.
Gameplay notes on the PCs:
Ochette: Loses Ha'anit's broken Arrowstorm but otherwise, yikes, they majorly buffed capturable monsters, mainly by making them infinitely spammable, so you basically get an expanded skillset which includes a whole bunch of very powerful effects, of the player's choice. There are two midgame-damage-curve breaking story ones, and aside from that there are lots of breaking options, MT buffs, you name it. Her latent power is flexible and provides early access to MDef Down which is otherwise difficult to access, though not one of the OP ones. What is OP is her second unique skill, which lets her spend 48 MP to tripleact her monster summon which is just stupid. My own choice of secondary job for her was Warrior just go give her even more damage/breaking options, but honestly she'd do well with anything.
Cassti: So my embarrassing admission is I didn't figure out I had access to an enemy-targeting version of Concoct until the end of the game (I knew there would be one, just figured I'd learn it at some point... no it's just hidden in the menu, oops). Anyway Concoct is great, and her latent power makes all the ingredients free which is wonderful for hoarders. Also wonderful for when you get the "grants BP" mix ingredient (I only ever got one, I used it dozens of times). Concoct is busted. Her own skillset provides some appreciated axe damage shenanigans which are an improvement on Alfyn's. Final class for her was Armsmaster which is just favouritism more than anything, but the ability to do huge damage on non-Concoct turns is certainly nice since Concoct means she kinda rules regardless of what you do.
Throne: Thief does a little bit of everything offensive as in OT1: debuffs and damage of different varieties, with Aeber's Reckoning being a nice MT smash move (even better in this game because it's easier to buff speed). But what really pulls her into "really damn good" territory? One is arguably the best latent power in the game, allowing just straight doubleacting. (You still boost the two turns individually, so it's not OP for damage, but it's ridiculous for utility.) The other is her first unique skill, which does MT dark magic damage. This would be useful if that's all it did, for breaking reasons, but what makes it OP? It causes every enemy to miss with their next physical attack. Even bosses. This turned at least one final chapter boss into a joke. For a secondary I gave her hunter because Leghold Trap and Precise Shot are both great to use with the extra actions she gets.
Osvald: Clearly the devs agreed with me that Scholar was too strong in OT1. In OT2, it loses its tier 2 spells at base... but you can get access to them by casting a buff! Obviously this is a significant nerf. Anyway, Osvald is still a good source of magic damage and particularly late in the game once you get a bunch of +mag gear this can be quite potent. Osvald's latent power allows him to focus his MT spells for extra damage and that's neat enough but obviously not one of the better ones. His unique skills aren't too great either. So... worst PC but not bad, definitely has a niche. I gave him Merchant secondary because another PC who can use Donate BP is always good; if his good magic damage isn't useful in a fight he'd always have that.
Partitio: Is the merchant, which means he has Hired Help which I assume is good but I basically ignored again, and Donate BP which is just one of those really game-defining skills. His latent power, though, competes with Throne and Agnea's to be the best. It fills his BP gauge. Oh yeah and Merchant gets a passive which fills his latent power gauge at the start of each fight. So for most of the game I had him using Inventor (MT physical damage of any weapon type) to do big damage to randoms. At the end of the game I used Arcanist which gives access to a certain cheese combo from OT1, though it's not as broken in this game for a few reasons.
Agnea: There are more ways to buff in this game so that's a bit of a nerf to Dancer; it's now one of the less appealing subjobs IMO. Agnea herself, though, is still real good. One reason is her latent power, another one of the really good ones, which can make any skill MT. Obviously this includes her Dancer buffs. Early on I did subjob Hunter with her because of MT Leghold Trap, later I did Apothecary for MT healing+revival. Why did I move off Leghold, you might ask? Because Agnea's first unique skill is completely busted and basically has that effect itself: it's MT wind magic (like Throne's, I would use it even if had no effect past this) which causes all player turns to go before all enemy turns next turn. Yes this is stupid in this system.
Temenos: Cleric still providing useful MT healing we know and love; items compete well enough at certain points but the ability to boost the healing (or MT revival) means in a real pinch, this skillset is gonna shine. Temenos himself otherwise is notable for a good magic stat, which leads him towards the Scholar subjob... but the real reason to use Scholar subjob on him is something else. Scholar in this game gets a "3-5 (boost to 6-8)" hits vs random targets which on Osvald is fine but on Temenos? Temenos's latent power causes any hit to break shields. So yes, 6-8 hits of shield-breaking on a boss is ridiculous. I don't want to imagine fighting his own final boss without him.
Hikari: The extra skills and latent powers cause most PCs to feel "buffed" compared to OT1, but Hikari might be the biggest buff of all. It's not because of his extra skills, even though the second one is literally just "Brand's Blade, but more damage, and divided into two hits where one is MT". It's not his latent power, even though "do Brand's Blade-like damage then act again at the end of the round" is obviously very good. No, the real game-breaker is that he gets five skills of your choice from duels. And two of them, gained from story events, are 2-hit MT sword and spear attacks which do huge damage and carry him through the game. Fill out the rest with utility of your choice; I was particularly fond of the "analyze, but show two weaknesses instead of one" as well as various good breaking options. Really good PC. I did subjob Cleric because he was my main and thus always in my party, and that's a skillset it's nice to never be without.
Overall, I enjoyed the game. As mentioned in an earlier post I think it's a bit too long and definitely kinda lags in the second quarter of the game (kinda like OT1). I don't feel strongly about whether it or OT1 is the better game, but in general I think they're in the same area and if you liked one, you'll probably like the other (and vice versa).
Fell Seal - Beat a Alchemystic SCC. Was pretty fun, and not super-hard, though it easily could have been super-hard if not for a couple things!
One of those things is crossbows. It's funny, when I've used this class before I've always used them as a mage and given them staves (which range spell range by 1). For the SCC though, staves are nearly useless, crossbows are god and let me actually kill things I want. Offence is pretty low so it often takes a good 5 or so attacks to bring down one enemy, letting my entire team easily do this is huge.
The other thing is Mystic Shield, their frankly kind of overpowered reaction skill which absorbs one hit as long they have MP. This hugely pushes their durability and means that I almost can't lose to a single enemy.
Other skillset notes:
-Side Effects is a neat passive, granting a little bonus healing to buffs and bonus damage to debuffs. The effect on buffs is obvious, but the added damage to Corrosive and Noxious Bombs is actually really useful. As an extra bonus, the bombs still don't trigger "Critical" reactions (Rebirth/Quicken) even if they deal damage which is super useful for avoiding those.
-Resistance Expert means they have loads of res. Magic damage generally isn't too scary.
-Mass Barrier is the star of their active skills, letting them block one status, AOE. Since damage is mitigated by Mystic Shield this is huge for surviving. Enemies which deal lots of status at once can still go through this and are a huge pain. It's only 8 MP so I can always use it and it always leaves me with 2 MP Mystic Shield, perfect.
-Mass Shield and Mass Aegis also cost 8 MP, the defensive buffs are modest but can be fine filler actions. Aegis in particular makes my res really high and will sometimes even let my MP survive a hit from magic.
-Mass Renew is a neat extra source of healing, though at 12 MP I need to get two consecutive turns without taking damage in the middle to use it. Mass Haste, similarly, costs 16 but is a nice offensive boost. Regular Haste I don't use much, but it's situtation to transfer turns to a more useful character.
-Refresh is neat; I didn't use it much early but later I used it quite a bit to refresh statuses on lots of people, particularly noteworthy if one of those statuses is haste since Refresh at 8 MP is cheaper than re-casting Mass Haste. It also triggers Side Effects, though only once no matter how many statuses it adds.
-Soul Tendrils plays an essential role but is not very good. It's basically a non-elemental Level 2 spell, but it costs 22 MP (the equivalent wizard spells only cost) 14, which is obviously a lot (need 3 turns in a row without being hit in the middle). Still, that's how I deal damage to enemies with Evade Attack, or Pektites, or enemies who immune the element of my current crossbow, so sometimes you have to make do. Mass Insight is nice to buff its damage, I try to use it if I anticipate needing Soul Tendrils. Its only other effect is to buff Side Effects slightly, but that's not the worst bonus.
Battle notes:
Iirzk'tara Gorge: 1 injury
Baaz Island: 1 injury
Strangled Cove: 2 injuries
Gelligh 2 (Septimus): 1 reset, then 1 injury
Bardvig Aqueduct: 1 reset, then 1 injury
Kapawka Jungle: 2 injuries
Godstear Wastes: 1 injury
Mountain Temple 1: 2 injuries
Mountain Temple 2: 2 resets, then 4 injuries
Crossroads 2: 1 reset, then 3 injuries
Illuster: 1 injury
Cataracta Citadel: 1 reset, then 3 injuries
Immortal Council Chambers 2: 2 injuries
Gelligh 3: 1 injury
Mount Nevanzer: 2 resets, then 2 injuries
Nervanzer Wellspring: 1 reset, then 0 injuries
Grandia 3 - Currently doing a challenge run, will detail notes when it's done.
Final Fantasy 3 - Playing the PR version. Game's a good time.
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Final Fantasy 3 - Beat the pixel remaster. Levels were 46-47, game clock was a bit over 14 hours. It's wonderful how brisk this game feels. It's not as if the game lacks gameplay content (dungeons, bosses, jobs, etc.). Even if it had a meaty story it would be less than 20 hours long. (Unfortunately the story is pretty laughably bad, but oh well.)
It's almost certainly the definitive version of FF3. Auto-saves, battle speedup/auto-battle, and encounter control are very nice. Job sickness and capacity are both gone and while I'm not sure if that's positive or negative it does mean the game more than ever just leans into "no, really, just use whatever is best RIGHT NOW", and honestly I think that probably makes a lot of sense.
Class system is closer to NES than DS but does maintain at least a few of the DS job features to give certain jobs relevance (Viking, Scholar), so that's nice. Enemy design is definitely closer to NES overall which means randoms have definite teeth. Bosses keep any skillset additions from DS but are back to single-acting, that said some have been improved (particularly Xande who lost his "wastes every other turn on Libra" AI, and also Titan who is just legit pretty strong if fought ASAP like I always do).
I played the game without using White Mage or Devout, for I think the first time ever? It's not optimal necessarily but it works pretty well. Aside from that I also had an "only one Ninja, only one Sage" restriction but in this version that's honestly not much of a restriction.
Job notes!
One interesting thing is that this version kinda pulled back on non-mage jobs using magic. In NES, Ranger and Dark Knight could use some low-level magic. In DS, those jobs lost that, but Knight and Scholar got some instead. None of these jobs have magic in this version. It's a slight nerf to some of the jobs but honestly they all manage. Ranger is the one I'm least sold on needing this nerf.
Fighter/Knight: They're basically the same job in this version. A bit of a slow start (probably the worst job for Djinn's cave actually?) but then you just keep getting better swords for elemental weaknesses, draining, big damage, you name it. Auto-cover is very cool, proactive tanking in a game this old! Got used as late as Two-Headed Dragon. I used Knight all the way to the end this time and actually it did slightly more damage than Ninja with Ragnarok/Excalibur because of job levels, though obviously couldn't use Shurikens.
Monk: Solid early job, the nunchuks make it peak at physical damage for the first few dungeons. Black Belt I didn't actually use this time, it feels mostly in the shadow of Thief?
Red Mage: Gets its DS spell charges instead of NES, thank goodness. Used all the way until Eureka. Interesting little job. Obviously good out of the gate between Wightslayer and having most of the advantages of both Black and White Mage, remains good through the end of the FC with things like Ice Helm, and then Ice Rod + Ice Staff to itemcast boosted Blizzard for free (something the other mages can't do). Starts falling off around Goldor... but then you get Rune Staff (itemcast Blizzaga) in Salonia and honestly that gives them good spammable damage the entire rest of the game. Late the "only has 1-3 shots of Curaga" finally starts catching up with them but really only, like, Eureka late. The really high JL does help their healing a fair bit; hit JL 99 so that was cool.
Black Mage: The game advises using three for the earlygame mini dungeons and honestly that's probably correct, their int means their spell damage gets pretty good. Falls off around Goldor in the usual fashion, and status isn't great in this version so they weren't wonderful through e.g. Cave of Darkness but they were usable.
Magus: Deals nice big spell damage. Shuriken aside, their Flare outdamaged any physicals in this version fairly easily, thanks to Haste being nerfed to its DS version. Very solid in their availability.
Scholar: Items blow up bosses. I only used them as far as Kraken (after which point they become too squishy for their "hit randoms with books" strat) but honestly you could probably switch someone into one right before each boss the entire rest of the game and do very well.
Ranger: Exist in their usual niche of okay backrow physical damage for the tree and Cave of Tides. Doesn't feel like they'd age well in this version but I didn't try.
Thief: Great back-row damage for the Goldor arc as usual. Afterwards you could get some decent damage out of knives but only decent and they'd be squishy so I don't see much point.
Geomancer: Free magic damage if you don't have spells (e.g. Magic Circle Cave mini-dungeon) or are out of MP. Can do frontrow melee but you probably shouldn't.
Dragoon: Hi I heard you want to beat Garuda. Also Blood Lance is very good. One of the best physical jobs after getting them, at least until Eureka weapons they can't use, but Blood Lance Jump saved me as late as Bahamut who is really rude in this version.
Viking: Great honestly. Initiative provoke that works on all physicals (no immunity, though it does have a natural miss rate of around 1/3). Strap on two shields to null damage and breeze through many randoms. For bosses or against magic enemies you can switch to hammers/axes which... since this game moved away from DS's "agility as godstat for physical damage" they are actually competent at, though not the best.
Dark Knight: As usual, godly in the Cave of Darkness. Fine later although their lack of armour options compared to Knight/Dragoon/Viking means I'm not massively enamoured. Darkside is gone and replaced by Bladeblitz which seems to be just "weaker MT physical" and there are worse things to have.
Sage: Lower JLs mean that dedicated mages can still do some things better them but they're still the endgame Red Mage, being able to do everything, and they're back to having the better summons and don't have the glacial speed of DS so that's obviously good.
Ninja: Physical job with lower JLs which can use literally everything, and shuriken doing twice as much damage as anything else means it'd be obviously sub-optimum to not use at least one.
Didn't use White Mage, Devout, Evoker, Summoner, Bard, or Black Belt this run.
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FFT Fiesta Chapter 4 - Part 1
(Priest, Monk, Mediator, Samurai, Dancer)
Story progress is getting put on hold to grind up Dancer for the three females. I also purchase an Ice Brand, a Partisan, and another Platina shield so facilitate this. One geo and one lancer per battle while the other three train in various other fiesta jobs as my whims dictate. Nall spends some time in Squire too to finish up Move +1. As a side benefit, the generics get enough spillover Squire JP to learn Move +1 themselves.
Some of this training is done on the way to Goug as I need to go there anyway to unlock the Colliery series of fights. Running into a flock of 7 chocobos at Baraius Hill was particularly miserable but I managed to power through. Also did some propositions while having the second stringers handle any randoms that pop up in the duration. Of course it's during this themed playthrough that Alicia nabs Fire 4 from a crystal when I'm not able to take advantage of it in the constraints of the playthrough. The grind takes place over three days of real time due to not having the attention span to do a lot of it at once. And when I finally pick up Beowulf, I choose to run back to Goug to do the contest proposition there.
One consolation prize is that 4 out of 5 units accrue the needed Samurai JP for Blade Grasp with the 5th close. Did a bit more Brave raising with the team at 78 save a straggler at 76. Team is about Lv 29-31 going into the next story mission. I've finished the Fiesta and there were barely any resets in all of Chapter 4 so I'm not posting a number unless it's something other than zero.
Colliery 1
Luna doesn't have the JP for Blade Grasp. She does have the needed JP for Hamedo and Equip Gun though so I set both and give her a Mythril Gun. Mediator also set Hamedo for added fun. Luna is the dancer and has the lowest HP so the AI loves going after her only to be shot instead. Between Blade Grasp and gun Hamedo, the enemy chemists don't land a single shot while my side dismantles them.
Colliery 2
The main reason I'm doing this sidequest is to nab the spell gun on this map. General plan is chasing down the Blaze Gun chemist, Solution once or twice, then spam Invitation until it lands. Leaning on Blade Grasp to keep my team safe from the magic gun. First shot lands 153 through Blade Grasp, which does slow my team down a little in taking out the close thief and behemoth to heal from it. Dancer is using Nameless. Second Nameless frogs the far behemoth so stop dancing after that and move on to other actions. Leave behemoth be while I have the team converge on the chemist and take out other thief when I have an opening to gang up on it. Beowulf helps disable the chemist with some Don't Act. Takes 4-5 tries before landing that invite. Grabbed crystal from first thief before beating up the frog, got some steal skills that won't see use.
In hindsight, I should have given the Dancer Talk Skill to double up on Invitation attempts. She's not doing a whole lot with other secondaries as it is.
Colliery 3
Ruby gets slotted as the dancer again so sets Equip Gun and Hamedo again as she's still a bit short for Blade Grasp. I need to keep her out of dragon range; the others have Magic Defend Up and White Robes so I'm not as worried for them. Monk, Mediator, and Dancer in squad 1 with Priest and Monk in squad 2.
The dragons are the biggest danger but I need the Chemists down first before I can really effectively remove them. On squad 1 side, gun Hamedo plus a followup shot from spell gun toting Mediator should be enough to off that Chemist though if needed, dancer will chip in another shot. Rather have her doing Nameless Dance though. On squad 2's side, Holy is the plan with maybe a bit of softening up with 24 damage Earth Slash from the samurai. Blasted dragon kept hovering too close to the Chemist for a safe Holy nuke. All up to RNG as for how helpful Beowulf is with landing Don't Acts.
Had some epic bad luck with the dancer getting two Nameless Dances off between ATs with the first frogging a dragon and the second unfrogging it. Still won but geez.
Colliery 4
Only 4 deployment slots but 5 jobs, hadn't thought about how to handle this situation. Leaving out the 5th rolled job makes enough sense though. So no one in dancer for this fight (though still allowed to set it as a secondary and use any learned RSM) Germinas Boots on at least samurai, mediator, and Beowulf so that they get in faster. Straightforward slaughter of enemies. They did land a Death Sentence on someone but it's simple enough for the priest to Raise the victim after it kills them. I guess Reraise could have helped too, had I remembered it (had the surplus JP in pirest).
Welcome Reis and Beowulf, who will spend the rest of the game unused on the formation screen.
Luna finally has the Samurai JP for Blade Grasp so all 5 units set it for the next fight.
Dougula Pass
With Blade Grasp, the Wizards are the most significant threat. The closer one is taken care of with a monk Earth Slash and a midcharge from the Samurai, Mediator chipping in if needed. Nameless Dance frogs the other wizard on the first attempt. Pretty much a straightforward beatdown of the remaining units after that. Priest supports or nukes with Holy, mediator shoots people with Black Robe boosted spell gun, monk bashes, samurai attacks or Chakras priest. Lancers first, then whichever of knight/archer is within kill range, frog last. No crystals, murdered them too fast.
Bervania
Going for the assassination on this one. Artemis turn as the priest; teach him Kotetsu. Luna is a samurai with Black Robe and Equip Gun to tote the Blaze Gun. They go in squad 2. They're specifically arranged to manipulate the AI in a particular manner.
Battle start. Ninja goes to throw something at Artemis, Blade Grasp. Meliadoul moves onto the box and does nothing. My monk goes, does nothing of importance. Artemis walks to Meliadoul's side and Kotetsu for 132. Enemies go. Arrows whiff. One summoner charges something to hurt the monk on roof. Other summoner has Germinas Boots and charges a summon on squad 1. My turn. Mediator shoots Meliadoul for 80. Dancer whaps summoner with carpet. Samurai shoots Melly, get an Ice 2 for 206. More than enough to send her running. No broken gear, just as planned.
Finath River
3 reds, 3 yellows. The high level on my formation screen was 33 so I was somewhat worried about 9 speed reds overwhelming my team. Samurai, mediator with spell gun and Black Robe, and dancer did have enough offense to take out a red chocobo per round. Combined with Magic Defend Up on most of the party (and enough help from Nameless Dance), this proved to be enough to keep up. On the other side, nuke the closest yellow with Holy (with monk chipping in damage if need be), then move them over towards squad one to help support. Minor oops is that priest Artemis actually had Kiyomori learned but I forgot to use it, which would really help out with survival. Monk helps hurt stuff, is an MP battery with Chakra, or dances Nameless Dance. Dancer has White Magic and tossed a few cures as needed, though the priest was the main medic.
Zeltenia
Fly would be relevant here, except I don't have anyone with the JP for it. Delita didn't have Lightning Stab so no quick kill to be had here. Ended up going the long way. Took out the two closest knights before I had the opening to gang up on Zalmo.
Bed Desert
One of the few times where I was looking forward to this fight. Normally, I dread dealing with Balk. This time, I have the tools to humiliate him. Set up my female Gemini as a priest with the Blaze Gun, a Black Robe, and Hamedo. (also Equip Gun) Because of best compatability, Balk will be drawn to shoot at her and Hamedo punishes him for trying, mwahaha. I also teach the monk for this fight Stigma Magic.
At the start of the fight, Balk's first shot gets through Hamedo for 175. Manageable, she's still alive. Monk Stigma Magic on everyone but Nall. Priest heals herself. Enemies go, with archers taking shoots but evaded by Blade Grasp. Mediator Nall Antidote on self. Samurai Wave Fists Wizard. Dancer starts up a Nameless Dance. Balk shoots priest again; Hamedo for 140. Nameless goes off frogging a Knight. Monk Chakra on priest. Priest shoots other knight rather than risk putting Balk in critical and him retreating behind the support. I was planning to bury the wizard with midcharge hits from mediator and samurai but the little punk Poisons the samurai instead. Balk goes again to shoot at priest, Ice 3 Hamedo takes him down to 30. Archer shoots at dancer, Blade Grasp. Archer shoots at priest. Hamedo but the gunshot hits my samurai, annoying. Nall gets his turn now and caps Balk with no further fanfare.
North Wall of Bethla
Or whichever one has the summoner and lnacers. Blade Grasp is a massive help against the rain of arrows and, later on, lnacers. Monk shows up with Earth Slash so I gravitate towards taking him out though I want the Summoner gone too. Summoner gets off a Shiva on two people but between Magic Defend Up and Kiyomori (actually remembered I had it), it gets reduced to 22 and 33 on the targets. First Nameless Dance Stops him and he doesn't live long enough for a second cast as I opt to Holy him out of existence. Straightforward matter of wearing everything down and healing up from the few arrows that get past 78 Brave Blade Grasp. At one point, I want to Secret Fist a lancer (first time I'd considered using it) but he had a Defense Ring to shut that idea down. Really, game. Used some Slow Dance when it was just down to one archer and the user wasn't in range for anything else. Finish opposition and move on.
Bethla Sluice (1 reset):
I had a reset here. Not because I was in danger of losing, but because one of the switch knights snagged a crystal when I wasn't paying enough attention to his movement range. (and not realizing they would actively seek them out even if it takes more than one turn)
Monk, priest, dancer in squad 1 with samurai and mediator in squad 2. Opening round sees the predictable enemies shuffling around, archers shooting at people (Blade Grasp), left side wizard starts charging something big on team 2, and close knight walking up to Ramza and swinging (Blade Grasp again). Team 1 opens with Earth Slash and Holy on knight and dancer using Nameless Dance and team 2 offing the wizard midcharge. First use of Nameless puts an archer to sleep and silences the other wizard. Hahaha, living wizard is now a non-factor. Team 1 kills one knight and puts the other in critical before making their way up while the samurai's goal on squad 2 is to ascend and start lobbing Earth Slash at the switch knights. Monk does the same. I aim to put them into critical HP to get them to move off the switches rather than go for kills. Sleeping archer does eventually wake up (whether from wizard bopping it or just enough time passing) but doesn't land a hit until I'm one Ramza turn from ending the fight. Only one crystal from the left side wizard; Luna learns a Fire 4 she'll never be using. (a second one, geez game dangle this in front of me during a themed game why don't ya) I do end up killing the Ultimus Bow archer. All told, enemy survivors are three knights in critical, one archer, and a silenced wizard. (maybe not the wizard, he could have been caught in Earth Slash and Draw Out AoE, forgot)
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FFT Fiesta Chapter 4, part 2
(priest, monk, mediator, samurai, dancer)
Some very welcome upgrades after Bethla. Flash Hats are fantastic. Black Costumes will be very useful in some upcoming fights. Kikuichimonji is nice not so much for swinging (though still an improvement) and more for its long rangel Draw Out. Only Nall has the spare samurai JP for the skill at the moment but it's something. Finally get to restock on various katanas; haven't been in a trade city since before the Colliery series. Also opt to bring my stack of 108 Gems up to 3 along with buying two more Angel Rings. Had around half a million Gil before, spent around half or so before proceeding on.
Germinas Peak
The ninja is the primary target to eliminate; everyone else is mostly shut down by Blade Grasp. I actually messed up and didn't do quite enough damage to take him out, was fortunate he only did 80 to the dancer before retreating. The enemies tended to spread out in ways that I'm not multihitting them with Draw Out or Earth Slash, necessitating taking them down one at a time. Did get one instance where I was able to tag multiple with a Kiku, very satisfying damage from priest Nall with Wizard Staff, Flash Hat, and Red Shoes. Mediator did most of the damage; spell gun, Black Robe and 81 Faith enemies lead to disgusting amounts of pain. Holy was not relevant, CTs just not lining up. The few Nameless Dances used didn't land anything more significant than Sleep but even one snoozing enemy is a decent help.
But when it comes down to it, this is a very routine "beat down the enemies without getting killed myself" exercise. Got a box from the ninja, finished fight before any other death countdowns expired.
Poeskas Lake
Maybe I shouldn't have tried to off the lower level Revenant so early as it led to an undead Archer taking the high ground to take shots at the units busting that ghost. Thus making it more tiresome to chase down that runaway spirit. Basic battle plan of beat down the ghosts then chase down the undead humans. Blade Grasp turns away the many incoming arrows. Did get a cool moment where I reflected a Cure 3 off the samurai's Reflect Mail all the way across the map onto the undead summoner, which sent it into critical and it ran away without getting to do anything. Undead oracle is sent to critical with a single Ice3 from the mediator's spell gun (boosted with Black Robe again) and joins the undead summoner in huddling in the corner. While I was able to entice one archer to come to lower ground, the other stayed up high in the enemies' starting area and was an annoying git to close in to beat down. One ghost revived but was quickly beaten down again. Dancer did some Slow Dances as slowing the undead also delays how quickly they rise back up. Summoner got nailed twice, oracle once. None landed on any archers though which were the ones I most wanted to slow down. Ironically, oracle was the last enemy to go down. It did attempt a Blind Rage, which makes a comical "too little, too late" moment and got killed before it went off. On the plus side, everyone has reached Lv 35 for the Speed point.
Gates of Limberry
Everyone gets some form of status protection, be it Black Costume, Chameleon Robe, or Reflect Mail (turns away Apanda Bio spells). Monk is female so has the Barrate. Celia opens with Shadow Stitch on Nall. (whatever, don't need him) Lede can't reach anyone for Shadow Stitch so comes down and charges Ultima on the dancer. Gunshot and a Kotetsu from the priest take her to critical and ends the fight right there.
Halls of Limberry
The three 108 Gems go on the mediator, priest, and samurai. Monk gets the Barette. Only Dancer is vulnerable to Blood Suck but with her low HP, don't expect that status to become an issue. Mediator gets Hamedo while the rest I go with Regenerator as I anticipate being hit by lots of things that bypass Blade Grasp/Hamedo. Magic Defend Up on the team. Mediator Nall sets Item. Samurai Artemis has Punch Art secondary. Dancer sets Draw Out and has a Flash Hat and Red Shoes for the added MA. Priest goes with the standard Draw Out.
Magic Defend Up on all may have been a mistake; leaving it off the dancer may have been a better option. I completely messed up on baiting Ultimas. Elmdor Muramasas the girls, confusion on the Dancer. (not good as I'm losing her Kotetsu damage) Lede Shadow Stitch on Artemis. Celia goes for Throw on Nall; gun Hamedo intercepts. My turn. Nall shoots Celia, sending her to critical. Priest Felicia launches a Holy at Elmdor for 304. Monk Earth Slashes Elmdor for 60. Confused Dancer attempts a 40% physical on Celia, whiff. Enemies turn. Elmdor offs Felicia with a physical. Lede instakills the stopped Artemis. Celia finishes off the dancer and runs away.
At this point, I screwed up. Should have had Nall Phoenix Down Felicia instead of shooting Lede. Another 60 Earth Slash on Elmdor. Elmdor and Lede gangbeat the monk. (another misstep, Hamedo would have saved her). It's a full HP Nall and a field of corpses. Have him Phoenix Down Felicia who gets an immediate turn due to CTs synching up and launches a desperation Kotetsu on Elmdor and Lede. 132 to Elmdor drops him low enough to run.
So I won but it was a messy one with so many errors on my part. Also, the rare instance of Phoenix Down making the difference between victory and defeat: the first time that's occurred during this playthrough.
Limberry underground
Preparations: Chameleon Robe on Priest and Samurai. Black Costumes on the others. Black Costume users all get Angel Rings too. Hamedo on monk and samurai; Blade Grasp on others. MagicDefend Up all around. Red Shoes on Priest. Germinas for Samurai. Nall (the Priest) also learned Heaven's Cloud.
Mistake #1: Throwing people with 3 Jump into the water is a terrible idea; they're forced to take the long way out. Should have just taken the lumps from skeleton physicals.
Mistake #2: Having the dancer open up with Nameless Dance. She gets put to sleep by Nightmare before one activates. A Slow Dance would have gone off before Zalera's second turn.
Mistake #3: Poor target prioritzation. Would probably be smarter to get undead into dead or critical rather than go for a round 1 Holy on Zalera just because it would hit in time.
Zalera has too much HP for a blitz strategy to be successful. So I went with a defensive one based around drawing lots of Nightmare and hoping for Death Sentence while wearing down the opposition. Mostly worked out, given that I still won first try, but execution could have been improved. Maybe then I wouldn't have ended up in a situation with 4 sleeping team members and only the mediator awake. At one point, Zalera drops a Confuse 2 on two of the sleeping units along with Meliadoul. Game really had it out for me because Melly,
A. Had Battle Skill set.
B. Had Head Break learned.
C. Saw fit to attempt Head Break on sleeping Dancer, connecting on the 2nd attempt. Goddammit, my Flash Hat.
That was the only broken gear too; the undead knights took a few swings but thankfully missed.
Bone Snatch came back twice during the fight. Other skeletons stay dead. Undead knights were put into critical at some point and they retreat into a corner until Meliadoul wanders close enough to smack them. All the while, I'm scrambling to keep people awake and unconfused with Stigma Magic and Esuna (first time I actually use Esuna all game) and taking what shots I can at Zalera. There was a Spell on the Samurai at one point. She has Stigma Magic for extra insult. Still, Zalera doesn't really have the needed offense to kill anyone in one shot as long as I keep HP above Flare 2 range so just keeps spamming status while I have Chakra and white magic so I have the resources to outlast a war of attrition. Dancer eventually gets turns and connects a Slow Dance or two, tilting things ever so slightly more in my favor.
After a long time, Zalera does flit over to the gravestone side of the arena. This makes me nervous as the Living Bone had dropped a crystal over there. To my horror, it looks like he'll snag it before I can get any of my units to grab it. If I hadn't landed a kill with one last Heaven's Cloud and Zalera had picked it up, I would have reset in indignation. This fight took nearly an hour and this is without any of the stalling I often do in normal play, just to give a sense of how drawn out this fight turned out.
Meliadoul is added to the roster only to sit there unused. I do have one other stop to make before plowing on. Hike back to Zhargidas for Thief Hats and replacing the broken Flash Hat just because. The random on the way there had a funny moment where enemies were bunched up for a 3 target Mimic Daravon that hits two in spite of its poor accuracy. This is also the only time I've bothered with Mimic Daravon all chapter, crazily enough. Anyhow, the other reason I'm at Zhargidas is that I want a Blast Gun and the rare battle at Germinas Peak is available now. So I'm going to invite some chemists. Set up the Dancer with Talk Skill secondary to double up on invites (the only time I set Talk Skill as a secondary all game), save, and prepare for a lot of resets.
Amazingly, I get the desired battle on the very first try. The Blast Gun chemist is present and there's a Glacier Gun and a Blaze Gun to be had as well. With Blade Grasp on everyone, I'm not too worried about getting shot up but I put up a Shell before reaching them anyways. Start up some Nameless Dance as well hoping for something useful. Both monk and dancer are using it. Only relevant status was a confusion, which was still useful as it cost them a turn to clear it. I needn't have worried about damage. With Blade Grasp and my high Brave, the gunners weren't inclined to shoot my team at all, favoring 5 damage Dashes instead. Mediators did Death Sentence my priest at 35% but that's all they got done before taking them out. Start spamming Invitation and support as needed, for both my team and the chemists I'm trying to invite. I would have been content with just the Blast Gun but I was able to successfully invite all three without the invited ending the fight by killing off the last enemy side unit. Did spend a few Phoenix Downs on the chemists and the invited also guzzled some of my Hi-Potions but the payoff was very worth it.
My formation screen was already full before the fight and I do need a slot to add the new recruits so.... bye Malak. Add them one at a time replacing each other and I have three more shiny spell guns to play with.
Didn't get a single fight on the way to Igros; too bad, I would have like some more Samurai and Dancer JP. Before entering, I set up the monk and dancer with Equip Gun and a spell gun for each.
Igros
Fly would be relevant here, if I had anyone with enough Dancer JP to grab it. Priest Nall can't really do anything at 10 Speed without eating a midcharge swordskill so he just advances. Mediator gets a shot on Dycedarg with the Blast Gun and advances under the ledge. Dycedarg uses Stasis Sword on Nall, no Stop. Monk and Dancer cannot get line of sight on Dycedarg so start up Polka Polka, intending to weaken Dyce's swordskill damage. Of all the things Zalbag can do, he decides that stealing Dyce's Aegis shield is a fantastic idea (groan). It lands but I would have preferred a physical. Knights shuffle around doing nothing of great importance. Samurai Artemis uses Kiyomori on himself, Nall, and mediator. Polka Polkas go off, hitting various knights but missing the one target I care about. Nall has enough time to get a Cure off on himself. Mediator runs under ledge and shoots Dyce again. As I've carefully positioned my team to prevent multi-hit swordskills, Dycedarg Stasis Swords Zalbag, no stop. Still no line of sight for monk and dancer and they continue with Polka Polka. Zalbag is still above 20% HP so he chases down his brother and lands his 140 physical. Knights are going after Zalbag if they can but shield evade works enough to keep him upright. He does have a fatal Charge +2 targeted on him. But mediator gets a turn before it resolves and shoot Dyce down to zero HP first. Meanwhile, Nall had locked a Holy on the same space in preparation for phase 2.
Monk and dancer switch to Slow Dance; one of them connects which is welcome. Adramelk's first turn is to nuke the monk with Holy. Nall brings her back with Raise. I just leave her at half HP and sure enough, Adramelk tries to off her with a 21% physical, Blade Grasp. As for offense, monk does more damage with spell gun than Punch Art. Samurai has bad compat so his role is to be an MP battery with Chakra for priest. Priest favors Holy if MP is in a good place and CT lines up and Heaven's Cloud/Kiku if it isn't depending on positioning. I avoid bunching up for Loss and Adramelk obliges me by going for another 21% physical on the monk. Three turns is all he gets before the barrage of spell guns and magic take him down.
Outside Morund
Another map where Fly would have mattered but still had no one with the JP for it. The non-Virgos in team 2 had a blast. Set them up with spell guns and Hamedo and bait the mediators into gunshots. Team 1, had less fun. Samurai with Punch Art, priest with Draw Out, and Dancer with Draw Out: they have issues with vertical tolerance while the summoner and geomancers have no such issues with height differences. I'd given them Regenerator since there's very little they face that's subject to Blade Grasp/Hamedo and of course, the ninja geo just has to show up with Throw, something that Blade Grasp/Hamedo would help against. Priest Luna doesn't have the JP for Kiku so when enemies do line up, I'm not in prime position to exploit it. MagicDefend Up keeps the damage from getting too heavy but there's still the matter of the priest undoing damage and status effects from geomancy slowing things down. Samurai keeps CT in sync with summoner so it was the first to go down with a midcharge physical plus some added damage. The rest kept harassing team 1 and diverting turns for recovery until team 2 could make their way over for fire support. One mediator boxilized before fight was won.
Hall of Morund (1 reset):
Yes, there was a reset here. Not because I was losing but because I'm not accepting a broken katana on a fight won in three actions. Nall is naked except for Feather Boots. Rofel walks up to swing at him, Blade Grasp. Dancer Luna goes to Rofel's flanks and Kotetsu for 132. Monk Artemis Earth Slashes Nall, Rofel, and Vormav: 96 to Rofel. Priest Ruby Kikuichimonji and the same targets: 240 to Rofel sends him into the carpet. Bye-bye Shrine Knights, no broken gear.
Underground Chapel:
Zombag will focus on Ramza above all else. It's his turn to be the samurai so I give him 108 Gems and Hamedo. Monk gets Equip Gun and a spell gun, the others already have some form of magic based offense to bypass Defense Up. Kikus and Earth Slashes take the Ultima Demon out of play before it can go. Archaic Demons aren't able to inflict casualties thanks to MagicDefend Up. They only live for one turn before going down and then I turn my focus to Zombag. All the while, he's been failing to break through Hamedo, though his evasion has also been on and none of the counter swings get through. While keeping Ramza around as bait, Threaten Zombag once and pummel him with spell guns and Draw Outs. One Zombag swing does break through leading me to divert the monk to Chakra Ramza. (Reflect Mail may have not been a good idea here) but I still wear him down decently quick, finishing the kill with a Holy when he's low enough for it to kill. May have used a Slow Dance somewhere during this but it wasn't important to the outcome.
On the way back to Dorter, I deliberately trigger a random with the goal of getting everyone to exactly 80 Brave. As a secondary objective, see what white magic I can pass on to the designated priest blue mage style. I actually get Cure 4 on the first try. Protect 2 and Shell 2 I only tried once or twice each before finishing off the enemies and moving on. That 72% hit rate doesn't help things; shameful that the "advanced" versions have lower accuracy than the lower tier Protect/Shell.
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Super Robot Wars V- fin!
So overall you can feel, playing this, both that it's the first game to hire native english-language editors (rather than just hoping that SEA english speakers were close enough) and that they'd just come off a big saga and weren't quite sure what the next game really wanted to be. It's overall pretty rough around the edges in a way that's only marginally distracting, but does stand out a lot at first if you've played any of the three later games that borrow heavily from its mold. The series selection also has just a lot of casts that are here as hangers-on without much in the way of native plot, so you get a little bit of UC gundam but not really because 00 really fills most of the gundam slots, but really only Cross Ange and Might Gaine have serious plot focus which... not always the best. And then there's the Yamato, the entire endgame is crafted around it, the OG plot is crafted specifically as an homage to the original version of Yamato so that Yamato is still the real main character. And in absolute fairness Yamato is pretty hype and they do a great job of letting it be the star.
it does however confirm for me I am super not going any further into the past for this "spending money on SRW" project, I can wait for a new one or maybe relearn the dark arts and play some GBA/DS era games.
Game does end very strong though, both of the last two maps were super hype, especially on the IF route. But it's rough enough before that that even coming straight off finishing it up I'm putting is cleanly below the rest I've played recently.
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Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille Zur Macht (PS2)
Played through. Was mostly enjoyable.
The AGWS system doesn't seem especially well thought out, although to be fair I didn't really interact with it outside the sequence where Jr's team is using them by default. I was initially keeping the frames and generators up to date but I ended up stopping doing this because there was no reason to ever actually use them, so this was effectively wasting a significant amount of money. AGWS equipment, on the other hand, I hardly touched because the interface was terrible. ...and ultimately when I tried to use one later on, when Jr. was doing no damage to Simeon, his AGWS also did no damage to Simeon. I had also tried to use them against Ace Pilot's AGWS earlier, when they were much less outdated, and they were promptly flattened, although I guess that turned out to be a superboss.
And, you can buy new AGWS units for ludicrous prices. Given this and the costs to keep the regular units up to date the game seems to have thought that I should be getting much more money than I actually was or something.
The enemies in the second major area in Song Of Nephilim were incredibly rude and I ended up using Seraphim Bird on them every battle. (Maybe this is the sort of place where AGWS were supposed to be useful, although given you need to spend turns getting into them, that would be very tedious.)
Not sure when I'll get to Episode II, although certainly not before the first batch of Pokémon DLC. Since I have a PAL copy it presumably isn't going to recognise my clear save from I~
Blaster Master Zero 3 (Switch)
Played through, was good.
They have fixed the problems with catching ladders, and re-connected major areas while retaining fast travel, so that's those problems down. It's still more difficult than I'd prefer.
Another pretty great ending sequence.
Quake II - new campaigns (Steam)
Quake II 64
I had no interest in replaying the regular Quake II campaign, but I'd heard that Quake II 64's campaign was noticeably different. It turned out to be even more different than I was expecting, though. (Which was welcome.) Just a breezy linear set of individual levels rather than sets of interconnected levels.
It does end abruptly with no message/fanfare/anything, which is weird.
Call Of The Machine
While I found it enjoyable for the most part, overall I would have preferred it to be shorter.
Favourite unit of levels was probably Corpse Run which had some good opportunities to really leverage Q2's AOE weaponry, least favourite is Ruined Earth because of there being too many jumpscares.
While this campaign does at least have an ending message, the ending itself is still pretty weird.
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SO2 demo is glorious and I can’t wait for the full game to drop in November.
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This Way Madness Lies — Completed the game on ‘Challenging’, the second highest difficulty mode.
This game really feels like the culmination of what makes Zeboyd good — tightly balanced gameplay, light-hearted storytelling, and well-balanced characters — and adds magical girls and Shakespeare. Honestly, the game feels like it caters to my interests in such a complete way. Definitely the best gameplay effort from Zeboyd, as well as graphics and character design, and the writing is definitely good at being funny filler.
Beatrice was one of my MVP characters, who has multi-target offensive status (poison/defense down/attack down/charm) and a crazy-high ailment inflicting stat. In addition, this game features the ability to see an enemy’s ‘ailment HP’ which lets you know how close you are to being able to inflict the status. Charm is quite powerful even though it only lasts one turn, since the enemies tend to do massive damage to themselves. Poison is also quite good, especially MT Poison for randoms who can be pretty durable.
The other was Paulina, who is a great healer with several good moves, has multi-target Unstoppable (a buff that lets you go into negative HP for one turn) on her Hyper turns, and has one move that lets you inflict status for an extra turn on an enemy that is currently statuses. Combined with Beatrice’s Charm on bosses, the enemy will often do massive damage to themselves or their support. (And yes, you can charm bosses).
Imogen is forced but she’s a good all-around unit, similar to other Zeboyd main characters. She has healing, light magic, charm, and turn shift. Would be a compelling choice even if she wasn’t forced.
My fourth choice (besides Imogen, who is forced) for the final dungeon was Kate, who is a good defensive tank character with some fun general tricks up her sleeve, such as attracting attacks, buffing defense, and being able to heal herself out of Unstoppable with attacks. She also has a weird White Wind-like healing move which can be useful if your characters are pretty far into the negatives. I also like that her design reminds me of a FE pegasus knight.
The other charcters are Rosiland (who is a mixed fighter/healer, and is pretty good but doesn’t fill the healing niche as well as Paulina because of the lack of MT Unstoppable), Viola (who is the damage character, but doesn’t have a whole lot of other tricks), and Miranda, who feels like a discount version of Paulina, at least the way I play because I like buffing and healing and statusing. She has a skillset that changes laterally whether she is Hyper or not, which is an interesting idea but in practice I didn’t find her toolkit as useful as the other PCs. You could probably run them on the same team and Miranda could fill other roles, but not as well as other characters. None of the characters are bad though.
Interesting to note that they brought the full choice in abilities back to the game, as opposed to Cthulhu Saves Christmas which had three randomized skills in each battle. Cosmic Star Heroine felt very patterned/monotonous because the same combination of abilities were largely used to beat everything, but this game I feel like the enemy compositions matter a lot more and you pay attention to them. It helps that the status HP is visible! Great change.
Music is also a step up from the previous games.
I’m currently replaying the game on NG+ and I turned up the difficulty to the highest setting. I’m about 1/3 through since I’ve been button-mashing through cutscenes and I know where to go. :)
Great game, recommend to anyone who likes traditional turn based RPGs!
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Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Let's talk about playthrough #18 (also working on 19, will save that for a later post).
Did an all women run. That wouldn't be particularly difficult since there are no shortage of good female PCs (if you play CF and choose female Byleth, I think most people would agree the best four or five PCs available are women? Possibly more?) So I put a spin on it, reviving my the randomization process I used for one of my recent runs. The modified ruleset is as follows:
-Only female PCs may be deployed or set as adjutants. If a male PC is forced (e.g. for a paralogue), he should take no actions.
-Each female unit is randomly assigned two skills (excluding authority) to train in. Once they are seen, a third may be chosen.
-Characters may not use any weapon or magic in battle that is not one of these three skills.
-Any advanced or master class can ONLY be qualified for if the two highest (or only) skill rank requirement(s) of that class are from the list of skills a character can train in. e.g. to qualify as an assassin, the character must be training sword+bow. To qualify as Bow Knight, the character must be training bow+riding (but not necessarily lance). etc.
-A character can not qualify for a one-prerequisite class (e.g. swordmaster, warlock) using their chosen third skill.
-A character can train other skills for the purpose of recruitment and class certifications. Note that all beginner and intermediate classes are still on the table, so characters can still get useful skills like Death/Fiendish Blow.
-Authority is not affected by this run; anyone can train that however they want.
-Maddening NG no grinding etc.
Anyway, Crimson Flower of course. Here's the full list of PCs. The first two skills in brackets are the two I randomly rolled, the third is one I chose to round out their build.
Byleth (Sword/Flying/Axe): Pretty standard Wyvern Byleth, swords are a neat option for Creator Sword and then Windsweep for certain bosses. She got terribly speed-screwed but she hit hard, at least, and it's very VERY difficult to have a bad female wyvern in this game.
Petra (Lance/Axe/Flying): Standard wyvern #2. She got loads of defence in addition to her usual great speed so was just amazing all-around. Probably my strongest unit? Her or Dorothea.
Edelgard (Bow/Faith/Axe): Edelgard is good, Sniper is good. The combination is... still one of my better units but the limited move definitely hurts on her, like yes she kills things very dead but has a bit more trouble reaching them especially on terrain-heavy maps. Probably the least I've ever used Raging Storm. I completely ignored Faith on her, as seems in character.
Dorothea (Fists/Reason/Faith): Fairly standard Dorothea with her ridiculous Reason list and Physic as usual, only noteworthy thing is she had the highest magic in my party, thanks RNG, Dorothea with cast-best magic makes every other mage in the game look bad and I'm here for it.
Lysithea (Sword/Riding/Reason): Lysithea with no faith spells is unfortunate but still very effective at murdering cavalry, armour, and low-HP enemies. Valkyrie is a wonderful fit for her giving her some much-needed range flexibility.
Constance (Armour/Flying/Reason): Underwhelming until she reached Dark Flier because her speed was just wretched and she had no faith and no really cool reason spell like Thoron or Dark Spikes. Dark Flier and Bolting both went a long way toward helping her, though she was always a bit shaky on accuracy, because there's basically no such things as a bad Dark Flier, and certainly not one with as much magic as Constance.
Mercedes (Faith/Armour/Reason): Again a very standard Mercedes. She was one of my lesser-used characters not because she's bad, but because she's a bit boring and I had so many other units with Physic; still there were maps I really appreciated (or missed) Fortify.
Marianne (Sword/Faith/Reason): Probably the easiest build for a recruited Marianne. She was a lot like Mercedes, another unit whose defining feature was Physic, trading Fortify for Thoron, Soulblade, and Silence. Probably a winning trade overall.
Bernadetta (Fists/Faith/Lance): Usual tale of Vengeance being very cool in Intermediate tier and almost useless thereafter, her fists could kill things just as well 90% of the time. She also had Physic, which is cool! Rescue at A faith and ~15 magic is too late and too low-range to be that useful, but hey.
Leonie (Fists/Faith/Bow): War Cleric #2. Had an expensive build since I couldn't start on Fists/Faith until she was recruited (and she's hard to recruit super early because of her B support being locked, I got her in Chapter 6) but I still wanted Point-Blank Volley. Still, like Bernie, she punched things well, had Physic, and PBV could kill things fists couldn't quad (especially those lategame fliers). Worse than Bernie until they were both War Clerics but better thereafter.
Hapi (Bow/Fists/Faith): War Cleric #3. Honestly her build was just too crazy expensive, needs A fists for Aura Knuckles, B authority for Edumund Troops to hit reliably with them (her dex/luck are pretty bad and she had almost no supports) and had banes in both, and of course I also wanted A faith for Warp. Useful at various points for cheesing monster maps and always had Physic, and certainly blossomed at the end, but clearly not her best build.
Ingrid (Reason/Armour/Sword): Mage Ingrid is interesting and I might have done Dark Flier if Constance hadn't drawn it (only one Nuvelle Fliers), so instead I just used her sword boon + Thoron access to be a good dancer, not much to say.
Annette (Axe/Riding/Armour): Definitely made a mistake with her, I should have chosen Reason as her third just so she could be a bit more useful in Chapter 4-6 (I got her early with Lysithea due to both sharing a recruitment method) and she was obviously destined to hit the bench regardless.
Shamir (Faith/Flying/Bow): I could have chosen Axe or Lance for her third and made her another flier; perhaps I should have. I figured she might end up on the bench though so I decided to let her use bows and be good short-term filler in Chapter 6.
Manuela (Lance/Bow/Faith): erm yeah, I didn't think there was any salvaging lance/bow Manuela. Was never deployed except her paralogue.
Anna (Axe/Reason/Faith): Mostly healed people as filler in Chapter 3-6. This might be the most I've ever used Anna!
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I'm glad to hear the gameplay holds up in This Way Madness Lies.
The premise and pixel art looked interesting, but I'd somehow managed to miss that it was a Zeboyd game. Which generally feels like a positive even though Cosmic Star Heroine is their only game I've liked without reservation. Addressing the one strat fits all issue with CSH by way of enemy composition sounds super encouraging.
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Star Ocean 2 Remake has brought me back from the dead. So yeah, try the demo. It's amazing.
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I'm glad to hear the gameplay holds up in This Way Madness Lies.
The premise and pixel art looked interesting, but I'd somehow managed to miss that it was a Zeboyd game. Which generally feels like a positive even though Cosmic Star Heroine is their only game I've liked without reservation. Addressing the one strat fits all issue with CSH by way of enemy composition sounds super encouraging.
I would definitely play This Way Madness Lies if you liked CSH!
Speaking of, I just finished the NG+ playthrough. I ended up lowering the difficulty to the second highest again after encountering a particularly nasty random encounter that I couldn't beat. NG+ was fun and it was cool to see all the late late late game abilities and be able to play with them in an environment that put of a fight. Finished with the two playthroughs in about 23 hours.
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I would definitely play This Way Madness Lies if you liked CSH!
Speaking of, I just finished the NG+ playthrough. I ended up lowering the difficulty to the second highest again after encountering a particularly nasty random encounter that I couldn't beat. NG+ was fun and it was cool to see all the late late late game abilities and be able to play with them in an environment that put of a fight. Finished with the two playthroughs in about 23 hours.
Nice! A more bite-sized JRPG experience sounds great.
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Star Ocean 2 Remake has brought me back from the dead. So yeah, try the demo. It's amazing.
So I've been hearing that they changed up how mages work if you actually control them? Like, you can still menu cast like other PS1/PS2 era SO or Tales mages but if you wanna control her Celine is now a cancel monster kinda like Nel? I haven't really been able to confirm that though.
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So I've been hearing that they changed up how mages work if you actually control them? Like, you can still menu cast like other PS1/PS2 era SO or Tales mages but if you wanna control her Celine is now a cancel monster kinda like Nel? I haven't really been able to confirm that though.
I tried out controlling her in Krosse Cave. Spells have a cast time which is visible as a charging circle. Even the fastest spells have some charge time, so you can't cancel. Maybe with Motormouth skill? Also of note there is now a Break Damage Limit skill which helps mages a lot.
I mostly play mobile games these days. Currently playing (in order of quality/enjoyment):
Unknown Knights
Watcher of Realms
Idleon
AFK Arena
Marvel Snap
Also playing Street Fighter 6 on PS4, although not too active on it. As much as I love fighting games, I've kind of aged out of them. My reflexes are shit now, so even if I know what the opponent is going to do I can't react to it. I guess I could switch to Modern controls, but I'd have to give up my dignity!
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BAD END THEATER (Steam)
Short CYOA-style game where you take control of one of four characters, and the other three characters take their own choices per preset traits. Once you've played through a trait-based choice as a particular character you can then set that trait to on or off for them when you're replaying as one of the other characters. You're also given flowcharts which fill out with the general progression of each character to help look for things you've missed, although they're a bit simplified. (Not the sort of flowchart which lets you start playing from midgame points to be clear.)
A klnd of inherent problem where you've got four characters which interact in often-violent ways is that a bunch of the nominal bad endings end up being scenes that you've already seen from other perspectives, and the change in perspective isn't always enough to prevent it from feeling repetitive.
That aside, I thought it was pretty good.
Inscryption (Steam)
The main game was pretty fantastic. I haven't tried Kaycee's Mod, and I'm not likely to, although I can see the appeal.
I assume everyone is already aware of the game given it's a few years old now, and no real complaints are coming to mind, so not sure what else I can really mention.
Negative Nancy (Steam)
Another CYOA-style game, this time the gimmick is that it's entirely dialogue-based and whenever you get the chance to respond you can only either say 'No' or not respond at all. So you've got the normal situation where 'No' is treated as a denial, and also people might treat it as an affirmation if they asked a negative question, or they could treat it as you expressing disbelief in what they just said, and so on... and not responding could have people assuming you agree with them, or thinking that you're ignoring them, and so on. On the few occasions where somebody asks you to physically do something not responding is also treated as the cue for the PC to go ahead and do that thing.
The game is split into three proper episodes and one kinda-bonus episode.
Unfortunately it gets very repetitive if you're trying to see a lot of each episode. There is a fairly significant amount of reactivity but it feels like only in particular sections of each episode, so even if you might find something new in one part you end up then going through a low-reactivity section again afterwards, and episodes are decently long. There's also no especially good way to skip through text, at least that I found.
You can make mid-episode saves, but you can only have up to three at a time, and you're generally not going to know where a good spot is for one ahead of time.
I replayed each episode for all the available achievements, and called it done at that - I'm fairly sure that there is still a lot of content available in them that I didn't see, especially the third episode, but I don't really want to have to go looking for it.
Pokémon Scarlet - The Teal Mask (Switch)
Kitakami does not put its best foot forward, the storyline starts off quite flatly. I also started off with already having ~100 of the 200 pokémon in the Kitamami Pokédex from the maingame, which feels like a fairly wild misstep, although to be fair I don't remember how full the Isle of Armor Pokédex was when I got to it in Sword.
The storyline does pick up steam aways in, but then manages to fall flat on its face at the end. It does at least leave me interested in where Indigo Disc is going to go, I suppose.
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Marvel Snap
POG.
Shameless self promotion - check out my analysis down by the Games Discussion Forum. Always cool to see other SNAP players (and yes, I also play SNAP - why do you ask)
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I have a love/hate relationship with SNAP. It has the same problem Ben Brode's previous game (Hearthstone) had. Players only use meta decks and there's no creativity. You can see one card in an opponent's deck and know what their whole deck composition is. Last month the only decks you ever saw were Kitty Pride Bounce, Galactus/Alioth, and standard Destroy (because it's dead easy to play and lazy people default to it). Then they nerf some cards and release some new ones and you get a different 3 decks to play against every month.
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Yeah, I tell Grefter pretty much all the time that Ladder can get fucked. I would happily only play friend mode if more people played and I could connect with people easier cause then I can try some newer fresh deck ideas. Last month was the Loki train along with Galactus because Alioth was basically old Spider-man. Currently, it seems like Elsa is making bounce come back.
I play primarily 3 decks - Nimrod Destroy, Surfer and Zero Shuri. All three have some different deck compositions, which keeps things fresh.
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Finished up Persona 5 Strikers. It was enjoyable primarily as a vehicle for the cute-as-a-button AI party member Sophia and being downright hilarious frequently enough to keep me smiling.
The action gameplay didn't do anything for me. The game didn't have enough variety or surprises to keep things fresh.
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The amount of careful thought put into every single design choice in the so2 remake has me super pumped for it. Less than a month till release.
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Just beat Monster Sanctuary.
It's more or less Pokemon meets Castlevania Symphony of the Night. That sounds phenomenal, and the end result is... quite good.
Exploration was fun, and tying most movement powerups to acquiring new monsters felt thematic and rewarding.
My biggest knock was that the system wasn't quite flexible enough to allow for each battle to feel significantly different. I used two 'mons from the starting area all the way to the end, and another from the second area was my party's powerhouse all the way through the final battle.
That third 'mon in particular did more or less the same thing in a hundred battles. My strategies evolved around it, but "fireball or poison bomb for single target," "flamestrike or poison cloud for multitarget" never stopped being a thing.
I have a love/hate relationship with SNAP. It has the same problem Ben Brode's previous game (Hearthstone) had. Players only use meta decks and there's no creativity. You can see one card in an opponent's deck and know what their whole deck composition is. Last month the only decks you ever saw were Kitty Pride Bounce, Galactus/Alioth, and standard Destroy (because it's dead easy to play and lazy people default to it). Then they nerf some cards and release some new ones and you get a different 3 decks to play against every month.
Isn't this true of any competitive ladder in a CCG, though? I'd be shocked to see an MtG Standard metagame more diverse than 1-3 dominant decks and 1-3 meta counters.
I've only ever seen one effective way to circumvent it, and that's to play Draft/Sealed/Arena/whatever the "Limited" format of the game is. But of course, that requires either playing a cube draft or shelling out whatever the in-game (or out of game) currency is for every play.
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Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Decided to do a no-reset, no-divine pulse run, i.e. ironman. No messing around otherwise, I go for some pretty optimized setups:
Byleth: Soldier -> Brigand/Pegasus -> Wyvern Rider -> Wyvern Lord
Sword Prowess, Axe Prowess, Death Blow, Darting Blow, Alert Stance+
Cichol Wyverns, various accessories such as Speed/Evade Ring
Extremely good. Soldier is for Reposition to make Chapter 13 easier (she'll be able to move Dimitri out of the starting area without drawing in the snipers). Not much to say, this is the bog standard best build in the game and she does it very well. Often had Flayn as an adjutant for extra power/evade, could one-round almost anything, dodgetank if necessary.
Dimitri: Fighter -> Archer/Brigand -> Paladin
Lance Prowess, Battalion Vantage, Battalion Wrath, Hit+20, Move+1
Goneril Valkyries, Critical Ring
Dimitri's super build is as powerful as ever, but I do have to be very careful about it; numbers below 100 on either hit or crit are dangerous. Dedue adjutant helps keep his hit and power up. Generally he's able to reach key numbers on most enemies who aren't armours, monsters, or bishops (yeah, screw Miracle). Enemies with battalions are also dangerous. But some threats he just defangs wonderfully, particularly in the final battle.
Dedue: Soldier -> Brigand -> Wyvern Rider -> adjutant
Competent enough pre-timeskip, usual good start, Vengeance can sometimes see good use. In late part 1 he starts really falling off and is not good upon return but fortunately Dimitri needs an adjutant then.
Felix: Fighter -> Brigand/Archer -> Sniper
Bow Prowess, Str+2, Death Blow, Hit+20, Bow Crit+10
King of Lions, March Ring
I had planned to make him a Bow Knight but he got speed-screwed so I changed my tune and switched to just ye old sniper build. Was good in the usual ways the build is, and obviously has a very solid earlygame as well (especially since he was actually speed-blessed rather than screwed early).
Sylvain: Soldier -> Brigand -> Paladin -> Dark Knight
Lance Prowess, Reason Prowess, Death Blow, Move+1, Swordbreaker
Gloucester Knights, Accuracy Ring
Mostly did Swift Strikes stuff with him, with extra Physic and Seraphim and armour-slaying capabilities as well late. He was fine, never one of my better units but got the job done.
Mercedes: Monk -> Mage -> Dark Flier
Reason Prowess, HP+5, Mag+2, Fiendish Blow, Black Range+1
Nuvelle Fliers, Caduceus/Healing Staff
So fun fact, I certified her for Gremory and intended to switch her into it for the final battle but I forgot. Didn't pay for it anyway, I was able to win before running out of her key spells. Dark Filer good, Physic good, Fortify only occasionally good but very useful when it is.
Annette: Monk -> Dancer
Sword Prowess, Reason Prowess, Axebreaker, HP+5, Sword Avoid+20
Blue Lion Dancers, Fetters of Dromi
I mostly benched Annette past the earlygame but decided to make her the Dancer just so I could have one at Reunion at Dawn. Not sure if this was a good choice or not. Anyway Annie being both squishy at base and underlevelled meant she died pretty easily for a dancer, but hitting A authority easily is nice for Goddess Dance (yes yes, in theory a non-dancer uses it better so you can dance for someone more times in one turn, but I didn't feel like killing anyone else's stats).
Ingrid: Fighter -> Brigand/Pegasus -> Wyvern Rider -> Wyvern Lord
Axe Prowess, Str+2, Death Blow, Darting Blow, Alert Stance+
Galatea Pegasus, Evasion Ring
Dodgetank (got online earlier than Byleth) and good midgame combat, though not too special outside those two roles as she was speed-screwed which limited both her offence and defence compared to usual. Oh well.
Dorothea: Monk -> Mage -> Warlock -> Gremory
Reason Prowess, Mag+2, Fiendish Blow, Black Range+1, Black Tomefaire
Timotheos Magic Corps, Magic Staff/Healing Staff
So I've never gotten S+ on someone not named Shamir before, but her build was so cheap and I was done most others by mid part 2 so I figured, why not? I actually got it by Chapter 20 and it let her one-shot the ballista users with Meteor, awesome. Going for a low-move build with her meant she shone less than the other mages in some ways, but the usual perks of Physic and good charm and Meteor to help out her supporters are always nice.
Lysithea: Monk -> Mage -> Valkyrie -> Dark Knight
Mag+2, Fiendish Blow, Uncanny Blow, Dark Range+1, Move+1
Macuil Evil Repelling or Kingdom Healers (Blessing), Thyrsus
Her skillset was so stacked I dropped Prowess. This was a big mistake for the final battle where she got targetted by the final boss a bunch and faced a bunch of crit, I was very lucky she didn't die. Anyway does all the Lysithea things otherwise, damage and more damage and Seraphim and mobility and Warp.
Leonie: Brigand/Pegasus -> Sniper -> Bow Knight
Bow Prowess, Death Blow, Darting Blow, Close Counter, Move+1
Duscur Heavy Soldiers, Goddess Ring
Great stats, could kill things close up with PBV or at range. Often had an Alois adjutant for extra raw power. Not much to say about her, she's good. The Goddess Ring was for keeping her crit avo outside of the crit range of enemies like Warriors and Snipers.
Catherine: Brigand/Pegasus -> War Cleric
Kingdom Armour
I'd planned for her to run Gautier and Brawl Avoid as another tank. Sadly, she died in Chapter 11 as the only truly significant death of the run (which is funny that it came in Chapter 11, one of the easiest), as I missed the possibiity of a mage with a gambit dealing extra damage, enough to complete a 2HKO on her. Oh well!
Her death also took the Impregnable Wall battalion with her, sadly. C'est la vie. I do find most of that battalion's best uses are in part 1 anyway.
Seteth: Paladin
Indech Swordfighters
Seteth was not a planned team member, but with Catherine dying I decided to train him after all. He was the eleventh unit so I was often benched, and his Swift Strikes could only kill weaker enemies. Still, he had the important job of slapping Retribution on Dimitri (and often Byleth/Ingrid).
Marianne: Bishop
some Stride battalion
Underlevelled filler twelfth, used Physic and Silence and Stride. Died to the House Varley reinforcements in the second to last map because they came a turn earlier than the wiki claimed. This was very sad, but ultimately didn't impact my team much.
Manuela: Bishop
some Stride battalion
Underlevelled filer twelfth #2. Actually quite useful in the final battle because her personal helps others null the final boss's crit. Manuela herself could be criticaled though. Also threw out a key Silence and a couple key Strides. Earlier she also was Dorothea's adjutant at times, particularly before Dedue returned.
Noteworthy maps/events:
Prologue: SO. I made a mistake in the prologue and Dimitri took a bunch of hits on a forest, failed to dodge any of them, and then I couldn't heal him enough and he died. IRONMAN RUN OVER. So technically, uh, the run I finished counts as my second try! Fortunately I was able to prevent Byleth or Dimitri (or other loss conditions) from ever dying again. Still, this seemed like a bad omen.
Chapter 6: I took "no resets" seriously, and that includes realizing I make setup errors. In the case of Chapter 6, I realized midway through I'd forgot to send any keys on my group heading through the eastern halls. No problem, I'll send Byleth through the teleporter in the central west room to bring them some. I know enemy stats well enough; Byleth will be able to take the archer and cavaliers that appear.
Or so I thought. What I didn't remember is that the archer would be able to hit Leonie who was the hall below, injured. I puzzled for a while before hitting on the solution of sending in Ingrid after Byleth who could barely tank both cavaliers, and could rattle the archer with a gambit, but it was several minutes of staring at the screen and then doing everything I could to make the option as accurate as possible (might have used Rally Charm as well, I forget).
Chapter 7: I took a unit death on Gronder 1 when I made a big offensive push to kill/gambit the Deer cavalier swarm (including NotLorenz, NotLeonie, and Ignatz) and Lysithea ended up dying after that. Fortunately, this map has Casual Mode, so I got her back at the end. :)
Dorothea/Ingrid paralogue: another case of "setup errors cause problems down the line", I did a bunch of battalion swapping and forgot to give Ingrid one. This resulted in a situation later which surprised me, where Ingrid would barely die to two attacks I was not expecting would do so, and I discovered it only after I left her in range, with few methods to correct this. Ultimately I was able to bait the enemies with other units who could only be targeted once, but it was definitely a turn I sat on a while, again.
Chapter 11: I consider this map one of the easiest in the game and I got a bit cocky. The dark mage has a weak tome (Miasma?) and I didn't stop to consider he might switch his gambit attack which does more damage, completing a 2HKO with a demonic beast on Catherine. Oh well.
Chapter 17: I made a mistake with canter here (must have used up extra move) and accidentally left someone in range of Edelgard's Raging Storm. I had to pull shenanigans with dance, trading a new accessory (Goddess Ring) to try to kill Edelgard that turn, and it involved Leonie (one of the few people who could take a hit from Edelgard) chipping her for someone else. Even with the Goddess Ring Leonie still faced some crit, and if that had happened it'd have been awful. Half my team had already acted so I had no better options. Fortunately Edelgard did not crit.
Endgame: Battalion Vantage+Wrath has its ups and downs (I basically did not want to use it when gambits were present) but in this map it 100% saved the day, Dimitri put in huge work in the throne room and against the reinforcements. Not sure what I'd have done without it, probably tried for dodgetanking but it wouldn't be 100% so I'd be very nervous. Besides that, the usual strategy of killing Myson on turn 1 with a sniper and gambiting both demonic beasts so they can't combine with the ballista user to kill the sniper pays off.
Overall the run was quite enjoyable! I wouldn't really recommend it for just anyone because 3H Maddening has some kinda nonsense reinforcements and only because I already knew about all of them (and was willing to look up the one or two I wasn't certain of) did it feel fair. But there's something very enjoyable about managing all the little things that can go wrong and aiming for strategies which reduce risk as much as possible.
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Yes, I still play games other than Gacha. Just very slowly and not many recently -
Marvel Midnight Suns - I actually played this in January of this year. Only recently finished late August because I was dilly dallying (also getting used to life without MIL helping us out). Pretty good title actually if you like X-Com or Marvel! The game is a SRPG and is actually probably the best RPG I've played that utilizes comic book characters outside of like Marvel Heroes because all of the characters play pretty much uniquely. It obviously takes some pages from the High School mode ala Personas with the Hangouts and Abbey exploration. But aside from that, this is pretty much a gameplay oriented game. There's not much you can do for characters since Captain America is going to act like Captain America. It will be kind of weird for example, if Wolverine didn't act like a gruff loner most of the time. Still, this game does banter right and the character conversations are all really good. And again, since it is a gameplay game, the combat is excellent. The two complaints regarding Midnight Suns basically comes down to 1) Bad Character balance (Blade is pretty much the worst of the cast by a large margin) and 2) Only a handful of Marvel heroes are playable for obvious reasons. There are roughly 16 playable characters if we include the DLC so adding any more to that is probably a chore.
Trails to Reverie - This one I just finished. So let's start with the good: This is actually self contained Trails game. It doesn't end off in a cliffhanger and the plot itself is actually pretty coherent. Where I think it really shines is how it carry through the continuity established - especially the last scenes in the game which ties things ALL the way back to Zero. It also really appeals to me because I am a big proponent of things such as alternative realities and the game tickles that fancy well. Like the overarching plot isn't anything new, but the execution of this was just done brilliantly. Another thing, because this game uses largely established characters and environments, we have significantly less fetch quests and side quests. Instead most of the rewards are all combat related, which suits me just fine since I sometimes find those quests to either be really drawn out or boring. Here though, you just go around smashing monsters and you get rewarded for it.
As for the bad: Well, the final boss sequence is just really infuriating. I can't really go into detail without spoiling more, but let's just say there were so close to making it all character combat and leave it at that. Also, because the game ties things all the way back to Zero, this means you have to play a full 6 games in order to get the full impact and implications of the reveals at the end. 6. Trails. Games. My god, if I have to sink 600 hours again into any series, I doubt I will ever do it. It's kind of like Detective Conan, where if you start now and have to read up to Chapter 1000, the barrier (heh) seems unsurmountable. What's more, because there are 51 Playable characters, the cast borders onto Chrono Cross syndrome where it is difficult for anyone aside from the main leads to really get any character growth or screen time. Pretty much if you distilled the game down to just Rean, C, Lloyd and a few supporting companions, the game would largely be unchanged. The entire premise of lumping this many characters in is obviously done for fanservice reasons and I kind of wish they did more there.
As for the combat - I am happy to report, THEY FINALLY FIXED IT. The Chrono Burst being able to cast onto itself has existed since CS1 and it was absolutely degenerate in CS4. I think they realized their stupidity though and actually went and patched it. I have never been happier seeing the phrase, "Chrono Burst cannot be cast on the same turn". This, coupled with splitting up your PCs and making a lot of the MT Turn Shift Brave Orders cost a whopping 5 BP means that most of the Infinite Loops that existed are all but dead. This is important for a game that is largely combat oriented since you really don't want the selling point to devolve into something so degenerate. ON THE OTHER HAND - it's not like they fixed every infinite loop. No. Notably, the Machias Infinite Loop *still* exists. It's harder to use now because Chrono Burst cannot be cast onto itself as well as CP Inflation but you can definitely still do it with some creativity. The worst part is that because Juna also has a similar skill, you can GT Turn Shift between Machias and Juna for equally degenerate shenanigans. This is largely inefficient but the point is that it shouldn't exist in the first place. Then there is the fact that a lot of other really borke stuff hasn't been addressed at all. For example, in the entirety of the CS Saga, Alisa has always had the Heavenly Arrow Craft and it is really stupid in how good it is because it covers both offense and defense at the same time. AND THEY NEVER ADDRESSED OR NERFED IT. I guess when you have infinite loops running up the wazoo, you have bigger priorities to clamp down on, but this is still pretty egregious. So overall, this is probably the best Trails combat has been since late game Azure but it is still full of really stupid stuff, which THANKFULLY, they kept all in the later parts of the game.
Overall, really enjoyed it. I am of course, super disappointed that the game lacks any sort of shipping scenes I can do for Rean x Towa though. So yeah, 0/10 - do not play.
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Logiart Grimoire (Steam)
Picross from the Picross e/S/etc. company with a tech tree theme. In the sense that you start off with simple puzzles which solve to soil, fire, water, etc and you get access to more complicated puzzles by fusing solutions you've acquired so far, for a simple example soil + water provides access to clay, for a more complex example human + sword + armour provides access to warrior. Complicating things are that each puzzle both has a rank (out of 11) and a category (which there are also 11 of), so you also need to go up ranks and gain access to additional categories to access puzzles.
Unfortunately, you can't just try to fuse solutions ad hoc. You have to select individual puzzles which you have access to that haven't been unlocked yet, and you will be given clues as to what components are required for it. (The game makes clear which puzzles you have the components for vs. which you don't.) I can understand the need for the current system to the extent that you get far too many components for it to be feasible to try to unlock every puzzle via an ad hoc system, but if I have components that look like they should be fusable I feel like I should be able to just request for them to be fused and seeing if that results in anything.
Also, a lot of creatures require 'Heart' as a component, which feels like a misstep. (In the sense of it leading to heart being overused as a component.) Fusion involving creatures is also often kind of whimsically set up, e.g. goat requires heart + paper.
Puzzles go up to 40 x 30, which is a bit too large for comfort for mouse controls, at least on my monitor. I probably should have checked for if there was an alternate control scheme.
Ultimately I thought it was pretty great despite those concerns. The game is currently in early access so I'm not sure if there's still anything substantial yet to be added. Separately, they still need to do a followup to Pokémon Picross (despite there no longer being a reasonable system for one to made for).
Fit For A King (Steam)
Only picked this up because it was in an on-sale bundle with something else I wanted (Astrologaster), was subliminally driven into playing it by people talking about Ultima while it was still fresh in my mind.
Did one playthrough as comparatively non-evil, where the summit ended in a draw, then a completionist one as comparatively evil where the player character 'won'. (Never actually ended up executing anyone so ultimately the main evils in question were 'reforming' the church and bankrupting the kingdom.) Those both had a decent amount of amusing moments.
Started on a third playthrough with the aim of initially going to the summit with the minimum, then reloading and going back with incrementally better setups to see how the summit changed, but this quickly got onerous. I also got distracted into seeing the ending descriptions for each different entity you married/divorced but that ended up getting annoying to set up as well.
Ultimately I'm left with the impression that it's a game that's designed to be replayed but isn't actually that entertaining to replay very many times. Still, the first couple of playthroughs were fine.
There are probably too many hidden chests, those could have done with being toned down a bit.
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Rhapsody II- finished this after kinda... getting distracted for a couple months.
This is a strange game to talk about because they didn't like. Change it at all for this collection as far as I can tell. It's just a straight port of the DS version, which was basically the PS1 original with a new battle system? Or at least I thought all three of the Marl games got that, not just the original Rhapsody. Anyway so like, this is just a major step up from the original in most any major metric, and I do overall like it more. And on top of that unlike the original I can look at this and go "okay I see how we got from here to La Pucelle to Disgaea. The lineage is a lot more clear.
But I have to admit nothing in this one has quite the punch of Cherie's scenes in the original. And it does share the issue the original has where as it goes it feels less unique and interesting as the 'real quest' starts, but it takes WAY longer to get to that point and the actual questing is more varied. It also has ways of kinda disappointing you out of nowhere because it'll set up for Crea having a giant, obvious crush on Kururu then have her immediately fall back to cheering on Kururu's heterosexual love life. Although it does make it such a shame that the game wasn't released back in the day, a lot of the more questionable elements only stand out now BECAUSE it's like 25 years later.
But yeah like. I dunno it's pretty short and a lot of what's there is really very charming but also I kept getting hit with hard PS1 jank and going "eh I'm good I'll marathon the rest tomorrow" and then not playing it for a week. It keeps feeling like anytime I can talk about what it's doing well I have to add an asterisk y'know? For instance there's definitely a sense at the end of the game just kinda... stopping, probably because they'd already started work on the third game and wanted to leave stuff for it to get into. Or maybe they were just still learning how to make a jRPG, I dunno.
but yeah it is good, if you're like... inclined to even pay attention to this sorta thing in the first place I don't think it'll disappoint. It's just weird to break down like this.
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Mario series introspective
I decided to do a replay of a bunch of 2D Marios to celebrate/amp up for the release of Super Mario Wonder on the 20th of October.
Super Mario Bros. 1 (1985, NES) - A classic. Obviously the game has some warts and clunkiness, particularly its sliding/jumping which is a lot less smooth than later entries in the series. Still, I give the game credit for establishing a lot of the Mario traditions that persist to this day, and there’s something fun about the way that the game encourages you to collect coins meticulously and you have to be very diligent/careful about extra lives or else you will be sent back to the beginning of the world. (I know you can cheat for infinite lives but I don’t bother myself.)
I don’t necessarily want the series to bring that stuff back, but it’s a nice change of pace if you want something a little more hardcore.
Lost Levels (1986, Famicom) - I had never played this to completion before. The game is a huge pain in the ass and is honestly such a great tale in making a sequel that is too faithful to the original/feels like a romhack of the first game/a total disaster. The game starts out at around World 7 difficulty-wise and only gets harder from there. You’d think this would be appealing to a hardcore gamer nerd like me but it’s not honestly. By about ¾ in I wanted to throw the game in the dumpster.
Super Mario Bros. 2/US (1988, NES) - When you are so much better than the actual sequel to a game that you get retconned into being the sequel. Anyway, wonderful game, delightful design, music, and I love how the four characters all feel unique to each other. Also, getting to play as a female character was a total dream for young Amy, who often found herself alienated from games due to being forced to play a dude. (And floating is OP, so young Amy also was lucky to use a great character.) I’ve played SMB2 about 30 times so no revelations here but the game is great as always.
Super Mario Bros. 3 (1990, NES) - This game introduced quite a few of the modern conceptions of what worlds look like, and the more overpowered/accessible powerups to help you power through stages. It still has some warts and quirks but it’s a lot more smooth of an experience than 1. It’s the first game that feels like it is part of a world with its cute little world map. Also, World 8 is hard as shit, but in a fun way.
Super Mario World (1991, SNES) - The first game with the large power creep, with both the cape, which is even more overpowered and level-skipping than the racoon suit, and of course the loveable Yoshi, who you can take out of stages and also find blue Yoshis to fly around with just a turtle shell. Yoshi has multiple powerful ways of disabling enemies, can take a free hit, and also can let you jump higher. The game probably was a little too over-the-top with its overpowered stuff, but it’s still fun. One thing I really like about it is that its worlds feel more connected/coherent than many of the other games in the series, and I liked the boss fights in this game with the Koopalings.
Super Mario World 2/Yoshi’s Island (1995, SNES) - I guess depending on your definition this is either a game in the Mario series or the first game in the Yoshi series. Having a game where Yoshi is the hero is pretty great though, and I love the fluttering mechanic. The levels have a lot of creative energy put into them and I absolutely adore the game’s artstyle – it feels unique and gives the game a lot of character.
New Super Mario Bros. (2006, DS) - 2D series revival! After 14 years Mario discovered that it's still cool to make 2D games. Anyway, the game does seem like it is trying to draw back on the series roots, having Fire Flower as its most powerful item. The biggest additions are wall jumping (which at this point has been a big part of a variety of other series, including MMX) and the mini mushroom, which is particularly important in DS because it gives you access to worlds and stages that you would not otherwise be able to do. Interesting series reboot.
New Super Mario Bros. Wii (2009, Wii) - This game brings back a little more of the wonk from 3/World; the Coptorshroom is fucking ridiculous. This game is super fun and has great stage design; I love the creativity put into the stages and the tricks you have to do to get coins. It would be even better if you didn’t have to use the sideways Wiimote as the controller (hint hint Nintendo, re-release this game). Still, great entry into the series, and one I greatly enjoyed replaying.
Super Mario 3D Land (2011, 3DS) - The first real meddling with the traditional 2D formula aside from the pure 3D Marios, which honestly feel like a different genre. The levels are structured more similarly to the 2D games, but it’s imprinted on 3D environments. I really like bringing back the raccoon suit and making it less OP/reflavoring it to be more like a small float. Some very cool/interesting stage design. I noticed that it does a lot of funky things with 3D perspective which sometimes freaks me out and I feel dizzy. It’s a fun little game, but feels like a beta of 3D World which takes its good points and adds many many more.
New Super Mario Bros. 2 (2012, 3DS) - Honestly the worst game I’ve played in the series since Lost Levels. It doesn’t really have any cool or unique mechanics, and its gimmick is COINS which is a terrible gimmick because too many coins devalues coins. Ha ha. The stages are uninspired and easy. I did the entire bonus world with only losing like two lives, which is nuts. Just a thoroughly uninspired entry in the series. Maybe most of their juice was going into…
New Super Mario Bros. U (2012, WiiU) - Colorful, joyful, great stage design, love the squirrel suit, diversity in stages, challenging bonus content, great final boss. A total treat to play from start to finish. The Switch version even has the option to play Toadette! I really enjoyed how the game incorporates Yoshi and the Yoshi babies without making them overcentralizing. Final boss was very fun. Probably my favorite game in the series since SMB3?
Super Mario 3D World (2013, WiiU) - Scratch that. Now this game, this game fucking rules. Diverse stage design, great gimmick maps (double cherry is my personal favorite, and also love the mind-bending blocks that change direction when you jump), the ability to play Peach, the oodles of bonus content, the great difficulty curve, and the final boss fight is inspired. I absolutely love the cat suit – diverse in both combat and in exploration, and fits the 2.5D environment so well. And Champion’s Road, well, is the hardest stage in Mario history. Please make a sequel, Nintendo. I'm begging you.
Overall ratings: 3D World > 2 > 3 > NSMBU > NSMBWii > World > World 2 > NSMB > 1 > 3D Land >> NSMB2 >>>>>> Lost Levels
Overall, it has been quite fun to revisit the 2D/2.5D series. I pre-ordered Wonder already.
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The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
I mostly ignored this game when it came out. Why wouldn't I? Zelda has for years been that series that is beloved by a certain core of gamers that just doesn't really appeal to me much. I've tried a few since Zelda 2 (which I liked! Because I like sidescrolling adventure games) but never actually beaten any (besides the two warriors spinoffs).
But I ended up enjoying this? Just a very fun environment to explore; it's great how you can see something then try to find a way there, and you're never really walled or gated by things. And it's just such a customizable experience on top of that. I figured out pretty quickly that talking to all the townsfolk and doing quests for them bored me so I mostly (not entirely) stopped doing that and it works fine!
It actually reminds me a bit of Zelda 1, but the huge 3D world is way more fun to explore than the old 2D one, and the combat is obviously a lot better too. And so many approaches to it work! Also there are 4 "castles" instead of 8 and... you can skip them if you really want! (Though I certainly didn't.) I ended up sinking around 50 hours into the game, completing 69 of the shrines (I liked finding them on the world map, but some of the weird quests about them didn't really engage me) and getting all the memories (though I had to look up the exact location of the one in the final dungeon because dear god exploring that area is appropriately terrifying).
Not sure how to rate it but this is game I very much look at and say "yeah I get the hype". And apparently I'm not alone since it sold about 4x any previous Zelda game, wow.
Grandia 3 - Beat an Initial Equipment, No Egg Fusion, No Escape challenge run. For a long time I had No Orb and No Attack Items in there buuut Melc Crystals laughed at my feeble attempts to pull this off.
This was very hard, possibly in surprising ways:
-lower offence and defence is obvious. Defence... doesn't actually matter that much though, like even at the end only weaker moves like Xorn's basic physical hit notably harder than they do against endgame armour. Offence matters a lot. Basic physicals are pretty bad. Techs and stronger spells still do pretty good damage but it is reduced.
-While armour defence doesn't matter, armour special properties definitely do. No protection whatsoever against status or elements makes a lot of fights harder.
-Boots raise speed. I was slower than I'm used to, especially late.
-Skills suffer immensely. Of the main cast only Ulf has a book and it's a pretty mediocre one. (Hect has a pretty good one.) Lack of Passive Defence means I just get destroyed by heavy IP damage; Xorn was a nightmare for this reason. (I once saw Xorn get seven turns in a row against one character because he kept targeting them, it was wild.)
-Lack of mana eggs mean spells charge slower and are less effective on top of that and this is just huge. I think it's fair to say Dahna is the MVP of the run entirely because she starts with an egg that gives +2 fire levels.
Attack items definitely saw use on this run, though never dominated like I thought they might. Yuki and Alfina I usually kept equipped with Quick Draw + Item Mastery (mercifully, Item Mastery is still effective untrained, at +30% item damage/healing), and I'd have used more copies of those skills if I'd had them. Healing items are great but the 9 limit definitely hurts. I did so much item restocking this run, e.g. in Emelious's dungeon I left to go do a full shopping trip after each of the first two bosses.
The hardest fight by far was Melc Crystals. I really despaired for the run when I got to them, ended up relaxing some rules and it still took 19 total resets. Lack of elemental defence really hurts in this fight, and the lower defence is also unusually important since the bird relies on fifty million weaker attacks to get the job done.
Xorn definitely second, as mentioned the total turn fuckery you face with no boots + inadequate skills is just something else. Eventually I figured out that feeding Ulf SP tonics to deal damage was a waste of time and started feeding Alfina instead because Armageddon, even running off Alfina's starting staff and thus doing under 2000 damage, inflicting slow is just so huge. 8 resets here.
No other boss had more than 1 reset. Kornell/Violetta, Violetta 2, and Emelious were all pretty scary but manageable. Actually the third hardest thing in the game was almost surely the Hyudras fought in Melc, overcoming their regen was a huge pain. The hallway of pain right before Xorn was also... a thing, but I didn't actually try to beat the two hardest formations there (Excise Sigma + Last Keeper fights).
PC notes:
Yuki: So Yuki largely sucks at damage and is item/utility boy. Two of his techs are still worthwhile exceptions, though, Whirlwind and Dragon Slash. Dragon Slash even broke 3000 damage with Wow cast! I think this might be the only run I've gotten it to PSPRP (i.e. maxed out).
Alfina: Early on Crackle is a workhorse since she has +1 water, later on she is largely itemgirl. Goes through a Energy Drive phase in the second to last dungeon and has Armageddon for Xorn.
Ulf: Ulf is the only character who can kinda do non-tech physical damage and often had a hunter skill as such. Bigwheel (especially this), Red Lotus, and Dynamite Rush all saw notable use too.
Dahna: They call her double-D Dahna, the extra D is for Damage. Because she does almost all of it, Boom/Helburner/Boomor/Heaven's Gate are all workhorses. Since her initial equipment is better her speed is also average instead of bad. MVP.
Hect: Okay Hect is the obvious MVP while she's around, she has an egg which boosts all elements and endgame gear, Astraea Zap is huge fullscreen damage and Heaven's Gate erases single targets, Crimson Shock and Armageddon are great as always.
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Figured I'd just post about random stuff I've been playing lately.
Yakuza: Like a Dragon
- Everything except the gameplay is good, which boils down to "use your best attack over and over", which yeah, is the case for some old games too, but the fights usually don't take so long.
- Job Levels should not increase stats, or should do so by a much smaller amount. It makes experimenting feel difficult.
- Gameplay is very basic JRPG. It does have fun animations.
- Side story stuff should increase your power a bit.
- Why can't you save in dungeons? Or at least suspend save? A dungeon can be 30 mins, have 20 minute cutscene before the boss, and 20 minute cutscene after the boss, with no chance to save. You can't even say it's for pressure as it has a mystic quest type Retry system. Odd.
- I'm having fun, it's a good game, but the gameplay has a lot wrong with it. But it was their first attempt, and I think most of these problems are fixable, so I am curious how a sequel would be.
Megaman X Command Mission
On the other end, we have this.
This game ONLY has gameplay.
It's solid. Encounter rate is probably too high. You can tell they were rushed at the end. Got the Ultimate Armor before the last dungeon and it broke the game over its knee, oops.
But it has good boss fights. Your characters only have 3-4 moves each but it feels more tactical, like my choices matter.
I had fun? It has lots of flaws but it depends on what you're looking for.
Fire Emblem Engage
Quick Plot notes - I think it's okay. It's not great, but it's not horrible. I think the cutscenes are weird because they kind of just stand around as stuff happens?
Like I think it was easier to forgive in the older games when it was just like their heads or some art so it was easier to abstract it, in this they are clearly just standing around when like, someone laughs and walks away and its kind of silly.
But it's fine. Main guy has great voice acting. I dunno how the girls is, but guy sounds great. Actually, voice acting is good in general.
Not a big fan of the Somniel inbetween junk. It IS better than Three Houses in that if you skip a lot of it it doesn't feel like you're completely doomed, but it's still not great. The ideal - of course, in my opinion, would be to "let you walk on the level you beat like you can in the game and talk to your guys there, and then just go to a menu base to do all the rest of the stuff."
You can keep those weird minigames like pushups but make them doable whenever and when you clear them you got the bonus, that's it. Like Pushups give you +1 Max HP to the main character and that's FOREVER and you can only do it once, that sort of thing, so it's less pressure and you can decide if it's worth doing whenever rather than "fear of missing something you'll need" I personally think that would be more fun.
The games also a little long? We played 120 hours. That's a LOT. And that's with minimal failures. Though I wasn't bored of it or anything so that says something.
But the gameplay in this game's great. I love how player phase focused it is. I love how the triangle matters more (though shockingly I STILL feel like it didn't have THAT big an impact despite how many changes they made to it), I love all the crazy abilities you get with the emblems, it's a lot of fun and gives you tons of variety, and the difficulty almost always felt good! Played on Hard Classic, I think we only had to time crystal two or three times? It felt perfect for what I like out of Fire Emblem. (Though I'm also a lunatic who likes high difficulty FE12)
Great Gameplay, OK Characters, a little one note sometimes, Game needs more cool dudes (there ain't enough). Worse story then three houses, by a lot, but a lot more fun gameplaywise, though both are good games and it completely depends on what you prefer. I had a lot of fun.
Pokemon Scarlet/Violet + Teal Mask
New Pokemon designs are still good.
The game is basically just a boss rush. Trainers have no reason to exist.
Endgame story is pretty good.
Performance is bad but doesn't bother me THAT much, though in minigames like Ogre Oustin', it's like... pretty bad.
Teal Mask is weird. I started out interested, I liked the setting, and then suddenly it just speedran to the end of the plot. And there wasn't much to it other then a two hour jump around and some easy battles (I even traded in some appropriate level Pokemon), but it's not like there's anything inbetween that (There's some new old Pokemon, but it's not like I'm interested in catching, say, Sandshrew again)
Trainers are even more pointless. They're actually lower leveled then the wild Pokemon. It's so funny that you can see the bandages around the trainers in these games. My guess is, they were scared of people running into a trainer that stomps them that they couldn't run from, so first they let you forfeit (did you know you can forfeit to trainers in this game?), but that still didn't go over well, so they made you have to talk to them to battle them - (Though I always thought people liked when some random level 80 monkey crushes them in area 1 in Xenoblade so long as its signposted well enough) - but trainers dont give more EXP then wilds, so they put another bandage in - some guy giving you items if you beat all the trainers on a route, making them another checklist rather then an obstacle (not that they were ever super hard, but c'mon.)
I dunno. I like parts of this game, I think it does some things well. Tera is a good mechanic except there's no chance to really use it in game (not even a battle tower equivelant. Frustrating! Raids are the closest, but they're limited time events, not a challenge to work towards.)
Why is everything slow? Stat raising effects take way too long. They took Set mode out of the game, which just makes everything take longer as I mash no to if I want to switch. Frustrating???
Online... I usually play online, but it's really hard to play online in this game. Most people probably think it's easier, and yeah, if you just have one time in mind and never change it, it is easier.
But that's not how online battling usually works. Generally, you have to adjust your team. Changing Tera Types, in particular, is a HUGE hassle in this game. And even TMs are a pain in the butt, you'll have to go our of your way to knock out a bunch of Croagunks for a TM that's one time use and you had better not change your mind or you have to do it again! I don't get it at all. I'd much rather grind out 48 BP for an infinite use TM, because it's done at that point rather then giving me decision paralysis and making me go back to the grind whenever I want to make changes to my online team.
Like, a big part of battling online is making adjustments to your team based on what you have trouble with, and you won't know until you've battled. You have to grind raids or wild Pokemon - interact with content that I'm not interested in if I'm trying to play online - to make those adjustments, and it's hyper frustrating. I've played online since Battle Revolution, and I haven't touched it much this gen (which sucks because it's actually pretty good outside of this)
Sure, IVs and natures are easier (which is good) although getting in game money is a huge, boring pain. It's always two steps forward, two steps back.
I really don't understand. Do they want you to level up 10 different Rhydon's with different Tera Types and natures? I thought a big part of Pokemon was the attachment to your individual guy?
Oh, the towns mega suck now. Honestly, the three things I like the most about Pokemon are - Random NPC dialogue - Battle Tower Equivelant - Battling Online - And two of them are basically gone and the third has a more frustrating barrier, so... I'm kind of down on this game, even though I really don't want to be.
Anyway, I ranted a lot on various games. I've played more over the year, maybe I'll post later. Even the games I have the most complaints about I enjoyed, it's usually just easier to find things to complain about, I think.
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I love Yakuza Like A Dragon/7, but the gameplay definitely trends toward the basic side. The central problem is that it draws inspiration for its job system from Dragon Quest (where it's usually kind of annoying) rather than Final Fantasy (where it's always great). I found a decent variety of attacks worth using, though; mostly the decision boiled down to costly AoE vs. cheap single target.
In any case, I'd rather play mid JRPG gameplay than mid ARPG gameplay, so still an upgrade! At least using healing items takes a turn, compared to Kiryu devouring an entire inventory of Staminan when he gets scratched.
The save-in-dungeons thing applies to most of the series, unfortunately. Even though they do the retry from checkpoint thing, too! I think a lot of the rough patches of the gameplay will get improved with the next entry, but that one is probably too much of a tradition. For some reason.
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Yeah, don't get me wrong - I'm having a lot of fun with Yakuza - about 60 hours in at this point - I enjoy almost all of the side content, I like the plot and characters, and it's a unique setting for an RPG - I think it's a fun game.
But yeah, lots of little things in the RPG combat that I hope they change up a bit. It doesn't need to be super balanced (that's basically impossible with so much side content) but just having more stuff feel cool or good to use. I had Adachi in Bodyguard for a long time and it's a really lame class, but changing him out of it felt like a big loss of lots of progress. (Did eventually, it was the right decision)
I actually like Dragon Quest games, but they're usually pretty tightly balanced, from my memory. Oh, while I'm nitpicking, they should take out the "Kasuga dies = game over thing" that's Persona, not Dragon Quest! (Yeah, he has a Life 3 ability that I recently learned that is useful for that, but it seems like a strange decision and I'm terrified some random boss is going to instant death me 10 minutes into a boss fight like I'm fighting the FF13 last boss lol)
I did play Yakuza 0 before - I liked that game quite a bit, though yeah I agree, not like the gameplay is anything special there either haha, like you said pause the game and drink 5 Staminans, definitely better.
And c'mon, spare me a suspend save! I have work the next day! : P
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I'M PLAYING STAR OCEAN 2 AGAIN FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE 2003 WHEN MY HOUSE GOT ROBBED AND MY COPY OF THE PS1 GAME GOT STOLEN AND IT'S AMAZING AND THIS REMAKE IS AMAZING AND EVERYTHING IS AMAZING
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Star Ocean 2 R: played it on universe, it's great. not quite all i asked for but i got like, 95% of what i theorhetically could've wanted out it so not gonna complain.
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Save Me Mr. Tako: Definitive Edition (Steam)
I initially started playing this as something to do when I wasn't playing Xenosaga II, but it quickly ended up taking over. It ended up being significantly longer than I was expecting. Also goes to some unexpected places.
Very lightly early Kirby in style. (No floating though. Even underwater.)
You get different abilities with different hats, but rather than being extractable from enemies they're primarily either given out at locations which require you to have the abilities in question, or at every checkpoint you get to select a single hat to equip from every one you've previously had. Getting hit once typically causes you to lose your current hat, or to die if you're not wearing one. You can have a hat in backup which you will automatically switch to if you lose your current hat. (Unfortunately there isn't a simple way of switching your current and backup hats, although it is generally possible if you have some room available.) There's also some mechanics for being locked into specific hats when the game really wants you to be using particular ones (in which case you won't lose them by getting hit, but you will still die if you get hit enough.)
Lives are plentiful, which is good because some of the bosses & enemy gauntlets you end up against will quite happily burn through them. When dying in a boss fight you actually come back without having lost any progress against the boss, which feels unusual, but I'm certainly not complaining. On Classic difficulty, you get limited to a cap of 9 lives - meanwhile on Normal difficulty, I died something like 40-50 times against the first phase of the final boss. I never actually determined what was damaging it and what wasn't, but somehow ended up getting through. I assume that if you game over you do not keep your progress.
Some of the later levels end up getting a bit too long for my preferences.
Think it's pretty great overall.
Glass Masquerade 3: Honeylines - Wings & Tunes (Steam)
It's more Glass Masquerade 3.
Previously, I had commented on the main game that despite them adding a few different rule options to the puzzles and a way to randomise them, the puzzlefeeling was very samey, which I put down to how the puzzles had been restructured to actually allow the rule options in the first place. Well, alongside the DLC release there was also a patch which corrected an issue with the rule randomization. To elaborate a little, there were essentially three rule options added for how the pieces get distributed to the player, and three rule options added for how the pieces should be cut - and the problem with the randomization was that if you had both of these set to random, it would only actually roll the one number and use that for both choices. So the first distribution option would always be used in conjunction with the first cut style, etc.
So, that probably wasn't helping.
(There is also a fourth distribution style, classic, 'just give me all the pieces at the beginning', which doesn't appear to be a valid option for the randomizer, so from my perspective they still have problems there.)
I do think that the structure changes are still a part of the problem, though. They've also added more variety to one of the cut types in the interim but there isn't really anything they can do to add variety to the other two cut types.
Xenosaga Episode II: Jenseits Von Gut Und Böse (PS2)
I had been thinking while playing how much better the skill & mech systems were in this game than in XS I (mechs moving ludicrously slowly notwithstanding). Then the game ended. And most characters had only just started learning any level 3 skills, and the mechs had been comparatively underused. So. Probably still an improvement for the systems to give you the impression that they were going places.
Battle system has some points where it takes the gloves off again, and points where it puts them back on, similar to the first game. Unlike the first game the Erde component attacks are all terrible for some reason??? so can't rely on those for anything, but happily the game never gets to the same style of enemy sets as in Song Of Nephilim until after you get Erde Kaiser Fury in the postgame. (Of course then I found myself using it in the majority of battles it was available, which isn't brilliant.)
Beat Dark Erde Kaiser, no desire to bother with the remaining superbosses or GS missions.
I can barely remember anything about Febronia from the first game outside of that she was at that church. I assume that the plot points involving her might have made more sense if I had more immediate context. Possibly I should look for a summary online.
Anyway, thought the game was generally enjoyable. Will get around to XS III at some point but not immediately.
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SO2R: Finished on Galaxy mode. Characters were Rena/Claude/Celine/Ashton/Welch/Bowman/Dias/Noel. Endgame party was Noel (controlled), Bowman, Dias, Celine. Beat
Indalecio Gabriel around level 90.
I did a lot of item crafting, but more in a "fill in the pokedex" way than a "break the game" way. I did make a few fun things though like https://imgur.com/a/ypm015n
Speaking of breaking the game, there's about a million new ways to do so. I tried to avoid almost all of these, so the game was still pretty challenging. Hardest fights were Zaphkiel and Metatron (Wise Men #1 and 3).
Formation-wise, I used Free-fight in the early game (bonus XP) and Assault Shift for the rest of the game (gives bonus crit and items affect all). Items! Items are amazing now. They're cast by you, the player, rather than the character you're controlling. So it doesn't matter if the character is paralyzed or whatever, items are still usable. You can do tricks like start casting a healing spell, then use an item to resurrect an ally right before it goes off. They revive and get a quick heal. There's also a factor that reduces the cooldown time between using items. So yeah, use them items.
Character notes:
Noel. Probably the worst character in the game, but he's usable. His spells seem to have a much longer cast time than Celine (Hasten Speech included). He gets Energy Arrow for early multi hits, but it's slow to cast. I mostly just used Fohn Wind and Cure All. Earthquake was his only spell breaking the damage limit, but it's super slow.
Celine. Quite lovely. I had Faerie Ring and Light Cross on her so MP was never an issue. Put her AI on kill all the things and she did. Just stands at the back of the screen and rains AOE hell on enemies.
Bowman. Relatively unchanged from the original. Which means he's still good, but didn't get the buffs that others got. So he's more of an "average" now.
Dias. Also relatively unchanged from the original. BUT! He may benefit more from the remake than others. His weapon from the Fun City Arena doubles his damage. That wasn't great in the original since 9999 was pretty easy to hit anyway. But now with Break Damage Limit, he can hit them high notes so pretty.
I didn't use Welch, but I hear she got some major upgrades and is either #1 or 2 best character in the game. Ernest and Precis also reportedly got major updates.
Overall it's an amazing remake of an already great game. I'm probably forgetting a dozen things I wanted to gush about. But let's talk about the one thing (the only thing!) I didn't like.
The voices.
Japanese got a new voiceover, but English didn't. They're using the PSP version voices. Some of these are okay, but there's a lot more misses than hits. Claude sounds like he's 12 years old. The Wisemen fights were extremely disappointing, especially Michael who is now speaking his lines rather than screaming maniacally like the PS1 version. Certainly this isn't a dealbreaker considering how amazing the rest of the remake is, but it's an ugly blotch on an otherwise beautiful painting.
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Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem- fin
This is a pretty middling FE, certainly weaker than GBA but better than the other remakes. Probably Better than FE6? That area. It’s got a handful of interesting maps but overall is kinda there, at least on normal. It’s probably more interesting at higher difficulties in a vacuum but not sure I’m down for that so here we are.
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This Way Madness Lies
Beat on the second highest difficulty. More Zeboyd goodness. It's a lot like Cthulhu Saves Christmas, which was already good! I liked that the larger cast, and I also liked the Shakespeare nerding spliced with magical girl adventure. It's the easiest Zeboyd game to recommend to someone who isn't a big nerd for RPG gameplay.
But I am a big nerd for RPG gameplay and that's the game's real draw. Characters are constantly getting new skills and passives which change how to play, which helps the game avoid feeling too stale. Compared to Christmas, I think the two biggest gameplay differences are both interface ones, which is weird? The big downgrade is the turn gauge is invisible (as are your party members when not active, and thus their status ailments), so uh have fun trying to remember the turn order to decide if e.g. it's worth healing stun or if the afflicted PC already lost their turn from that. The big upgrade is that status susceptibility (and other stats) are now visible, so now you can really see how the Zeboyd status system works and make informed decisions based on that. It's great!
Otherwise, the skillsets are interesting, the way characters play is interesting, it's fun trying to pull off good combos while enemy damage ticks ever upward as an encroaching threat. Just a very fun time.
PC notes:
Imogen - Locked which is unfortunate but she's extremely good. Strong unites, the attack buffing is strong, good damage options, good status options (charm which doubles damage dealt? Yikes)... she's pretty much the second best at everything (best at buffing), and incredibly versatile. The passive which sets unite damage to 100% when hyper allows for some pretty quick clears.
Paulina - The healer. I'm not super enamoured of healing in this system but Paulina is good enough at it to make it work and feel valuable, and she has so many ways to make it work, like really powerful regen to open the fight. Has some okay damage options (either bear or ice) but you have to pick one to build around, and even then it's not exceptional; you're using her for the healing.
Viola - Physical damage. Her money move is "physical attack, take another turn" and her second money move is "use the previous attack again", hi there tripleturns and quick hyper/unite acceleration. So she can do pretty good damage. That's all she really does that I cared for, and she's not the best at it (at least against multiple foes, might be against a solo but this game does not have hard solo fights generally).
Rosalind - The multitarget damage specialist. Multiple unites that do this, loads of good damage which exploits elemental weaknesses. Interestingly her big spells become ST during hyper mode, which would be a major downer except you can throw out a unite then if you want MT. Oh yeah, the "next unite does 100% damage" item on her was pretty ridic, and she has neat status options too.
Miranda - She's weird, in that her hyper mode moves aren't better just different. She also gets an ability to switch to/from hyper mode. So she's trading power for versatility. On the whole this is a losing trade; the near-lack of MT hurts in this game, and even her ST moves are often unreliable. Overall probably the LVP, but she does so many things you can definitely find uses for her anyway.
Beatrice - The status whore. Love this girl. MT poison alone is so incredibly valuable, and then there's MT stun, MT disarm, MT charm, speed buffing, and some vaguely passable damage options once you've thrown down status but realistically those are just finishers at best. Her Hyper is interesting in that it's supposed to be turn 1, 6, 7, 12, 13, etc... but any "next turn is hyper" effects can see her with three hyper turns in the space of the first three rounds which lets her gain control of fights early really early if needed. Probably the best non-Imogen PC.
Kate: The defender/tank. I didn't really use her that much, I found the lower offence offset any gains that defensive play would offer; the usual thing where the longer the enemies live, the more ways they'll find to fuck you up (their damage rises, and they start landing more statuses the way the Zeboyd system works). But she seemed neat enough anyway.
New Super Mario Bros.
Watching a bunch of Mario games inspired me to revisit this, beat the game 100% again. Then I beat it a few more times clearning the minimum number of levels (took around 35-40 minutes), which mimics the way I played Mario when I was young and they didn't have save files. Fun little nostalgia run. This game's stage design remains really good!
Brigandine 2
Beat a hard mode file as Mana Saleesia, which I hadn't done before. Most used PCs were, in roughly this order: Rudo, Emma, Kyle, Katri, Veyta, Titania, Selena, Monica, Aisha. It's a rough set of knights: Kyle's good but has 3 command area, Katri is a sniper which I love but bad magic pool, Veyta joins late/underlevelled. Fortunately Rudo is crazy good, Emma is solid and got a bit supercharged when she got some stupid +1 move spear.
Beat the game in 21 turns which is my fastest ever, pretty proud of that. I also managed a zero-reset run... right up until the final boss where the enemy force just gunned down Rudo in a way I didn't even think would be possible (he had nearly 900 HP). Oops! At least that was on the first meaningful turn, I took the fight apart on the next try.
Tales of Berseria
Line counting run! In the second third of the game, just got the rhinostagros.
Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright
Remembering my last year's run fondly, I decided to roll another random team. I decided I would choose my route based on the identity of the first two characters rolled (excluding universally available characters): the first two were Saizo and Hinoka, so Birthright it is!
Team:
Corrin (+HP, -Def, Fighter)
Sakura
Jakob
Saizo
Mozu
Hinoka
Setsuna
Azama
Kaden
Ryoma
Felicia
Dwyer
Pretty stacked as you can see, Jakob/Saizo/Hinoka/Ryoma are all amongst the best units available on the route IMO. I turned Jakob into a Paladin because I have so many staff users and he's been kicking ass, MVP so far. Just finished Chapter 12.
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Edna & Harvey: The Breakout (Steam)
Point & click in the 'has responses (of varying degrees of humour) for a lot of incorrect actions (but not all)' vein. Main characters not as sociopathic as I was expecting going in, although far from free of it.
The interface isn't brilliant, and some animations are pretty bad. An enhanced edition has been released (not as an update) since I originally bought this so maybe it does a better job with those.
Early on you get introduced to a mechanic where the main characters flash back to Edna's childhood to remember things that she's forgotten, which seems interesting at the time, but then it only ends up getting used twice more across the game. I think there should either have been one or two more of those sequences, or if that wasn't possible, the rest of the game should have been shortened so that they were more of it proportionally.
Ninja JaJaMaru: The Lost RPGs - Ninja JaJaMaru: The Ninja Skill Book (Switch)
NES RPG somewhat similar to DQ1/2 (I imagine, not having played the NES versions of those).
Structured a bit atypically - after finishing Quest 1, when starting Quest 2 you're delevelled back to level 1 and lose all your equipment and get a basic set - then the same again after finishing Quest 2 and starting Quest 3. When moving on to Quest 4 you keep everything you had at the end of Quest 3, though. (Quest 4 is essentially just an endgame sequence and you can't actually get any new equipment in it in general, except from random drops possibly).
You can actually select whether you're starting from Quest 1, 2, or 3, so not sure if you started with Quest 3, whether you'd follow the same process into Quest 1 and Quest 2 and then enter Quest 4 with what you had at the end of Quest 2, or if you'd just go on to Quest 4. Each of the main quests has different equipment sets past the early items, and the characters also get partially different sets of Jutsu. One concern with that possibility is that Quest 1 is to some extent flagged as 'the first one' so I'm not sure if it'd make sense to rotate into it after completing a different quest.
The way text scrolls is terrible and was persistently annoying for the first couple of sessions of play, although I guess I ended up acclimatising to it.
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Fire Emblem Fates - Birthright Lunatic random team. As mentioned earlier, I rolled up a team of 12, and got a very strong team. As a result no fight caused me massive headaches, a reset or here or there to be sure but that was about it. Unit notes follow (battles/wins in parentheses):
Azama (20/15): Great Master. Mostly just a staffbot, he could do a bit of combat after promotion because his stats are pretty good but the weapon rank means that "pretty good" isn't too special. The extra bulk sometimes comes in handy. I had too many healers this run, probably, and should have promoted him earlier.
Dwyer (28/19): Butler. Got him just after Ryoma, before Chapter 14. Could have gone Strategist but I figured he woudln't get Inspiration. Again, maybe I should have promoted him earlier. Otherwise, see Azama, with worse stats but shuriken are cooler than spears in a few ways so that was nice.
Sakura (50/35): Onmyoji. Yet another healer! Tomes gave her a bit of offensive niche and Horse Spirit is great, so she actually got the most combat of the promoted healers by quite a bit. And her defensive aura was nice. I promoted her a little earlier than the others.
Felicia (97/77): Strategist. Early Inspiration is sexy as always. Got her as the second servant and for a while she was just staffbot #4 but as time went on I leaned on her combat more and more, she actually was my fourth best combatant by the end with her high magic/speed, Horse Spirit, and res-targeting.
Kaden (101/77): Kinda mediocre. Bet than last run since he was my only fox so got exclusive access to all three weapons, but for the most part he's just a worse ninja/swordmaster.
Hinoka (210/105): So I realized this playthrough that getting her to A+ with Setsuna (easy) and promoting her to Kinshi gives her Quick Draw so she has a ridiculous player phase, +4 atk / +5 spd on her already good stats. Ultimately moved her over to Spear Master for the lategame maps where flying isn't too special and Bow Knights are everywhere. Saw a ton of use throughout the game, always had great stats, her 1-2 range being iffy (either Javelin or Bolt Naginata) is her biggest weakness compared to the top types. And then she has that great +2 damage aura.
Setsuna (144/107): Sniper. Generally killed things pretty well once she got rolling. Doesn't have that much strength but speed + high Yumi power + Quick Draw is nice. Pursuer is great but only for a one full-size map. Bow lock is obviously a bit limiting. Solid physical pairup stats are nice as an option.
Mozu (137/108): Kinshi Knight. Had a bad start but I gave her the second Heart Seal and she got rolling as a competent Kinshi. Never really had amazing combat but competent enough.
Corrin (192/114): +HP -Def, but the RNG would make me believe she was -Spd instead; she gained like 4 speed in her first 20 levels, awful. Practice Katana could only go so far. Probably the worst Corrin I've ever had, though still not bad precisely, the flexibility of swords or dragonstones is nice. But more often her supportive contributions (+2 atk/def/res to either type of support partner) were what mattered.
Jakob (236/118): Paladin. So my team for Chapter 7 was Corrin/Jakob/Sakura and I didn't really want two staff users, so I heart sealed him to paladin immediately. He has extremely solid combat for a long time, unquestionably top three until everyone promoted, and respectable enough even at the end.
Ryoma (147/129): Swordmaster. Y'all know what he does. His performance in the game's hardest maps (IMO, Chapter 23 and 25) can not be overstated; he could intercept and one-round whole groups of enemies. He's definitely not invincible but figuring out how much he can safely delete (which is more than you might kneejerk from his stats, because of how he fills up the dual guard gauge and his personal buffing his durability) wins fights. I feel pretty confident calling him the overall MVP of this playthrough and Birthright in general. The only unit who hit Level 20, and also barely reached S rank in his weapon without an Arms Scroll (Hinoka and Setsuna got there with help).
Saizo (261/157): Ninja Master. Saizo is excellent as well. The lower attack (due to shuriken might and only average Str) is his main downside compared to someone like Ryoma, but he's even more durable (against physicals at least) and a wonderful enemy phase contributor, while also being good on player phase both against the very squishy (due to one-rounding them) and very durable (due to debuffs/poison).
I could have been more aggressive with my reclassing/money use; I had well over 20k in hand at the end of the game so I could have done things like have Jakob dip into Strategist for Inspiration or perhaps just forge some weapons up a bit more. But it's fine, this team was strong enough that I didn't need to be very fancy.
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Marvel Snap: I have 20/46 Rian Gonzales variants. Never going to catch up at the rate they're releasing her cards.
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Baten Kaitos- abused VN mode in the HD remaster and saw how this played out. I have to admit I might have really disliked the game playing it straight because it goes hard on "we are going to fill this hallway with encounters to cover up that this dungeon is 5 screens long" and bullshit backtracking puzzles. I guess that's just kinda the cost of having VA and the gorgeous prerenders in that era. And honestly the cast and story are kinda... there, aside from some sharp writing here and there... right up until the end.
The final boss and what comes after in BK1 is just this pure, ongoing melancholy that made me go "oh that explains a lot" when Masato Kato's name came up as the scenario writer. Like, actually, 1000 years as a dismembered, soul-damaged corpse is a lot even for a rampaging god. Even that creature has earned a peaceful rest. I wish the game had done a little more to really build up to that in other parts of the game rather than getting lost in the "let's exposit justifications for our cool background locations" sauce but being there at all... yeah, that's cool.
And also like. Damn y'all. Just another thing from the deep backlog dusted, even if in a cheat-y form.
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Sonic Superstars- Haven't quite cleared the last boss on this, but I'll get around to that.
Thing is, almost all the bosses in this are so bad. There's like one I actually thought was pretty fun, which also was in basically the best stage, Cyber Station. That's one's not bad, and the overall stage is just neat, full marks.
Some of the problem is some wonky physics, which is nothing new to Sonic but does feel uncommonly bad here. There's one boss with a like... a compacter or something like that, that one's especially bad.
The Zones themselves are mostly good, ranging from genuinely pretty neat to explore like Cyber Station to some stuff that's' just kinda an average Sonic 2 stage. But yeesh, the bosses are just not fun, entirely built around dodging for like a full minute at a time then having a narrow little exhaustion frame to hit them, it's one thing for the final boss to do that but this is constant and that's just... not how a Sonic boss should work. Honestly if the bosses were remotely fun or at least unobtrusive this would probably be a step up from Sonic Mania but... yeah, they really drag down the experience.
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Cthulhu Saves Christmas
Replayed this, as is appropriate for the season. Great fun. Is it more fun than This Way Madness Lies? ... maybe? I decided to write a comparison, focusing entirely on the gameplay because eh that's why you're playing these games. I think they're both pretty cute for what they are writing-wise.
Anyway, thoughts on the comparison:
-CSC only lets you set four abilities, with the other three appearing randomly. Overall I'm pretty neutral on this, and appreciate both games more for the difference. I like that TWML lets you make more than four choices, but I also like how the randomization of CSC shakes up battles just a bit... and maybe more significantly, lets me preview how the abilities I didn't take actually work. Sometimes I've liked one of them and have shifted it into my main set as a result!
-Both games have one major interface advantage. CSC lets you see the turn order (as well as what status effects are active on your PCs), while TWML lets you see enemy stats, which is particularly important for status. Really wish we got both!
-I think CSC's boss design is probably slightly stronger, I feel every boss in that game has a very clear identity. But they're reasonably close in this front.
-CSC has r'lyehlationships which give you choices of stuff to get, which is neat, but you also miss a bunch of stuff as a result and the choices are blind and based on name.
-CSC has equipment, TWML has traits. Equipment can be found in various ways, traits are gained only by level. Traits are a bit more flexible since you can choose any three.
-Probably my favourite thing in TWML's favour is how abilities "upgrade" at certain levels, which can cause you to shuffle in an old ability again.
-TWML has party choice past a certain point, which is fun.
Tales of Berseria
Finished a replay of this. Really couldn't muster energy to care about the gameplay so I left it on the default. One day I need to figure out why I just don't vibe with Tales gameplay at all, but that's probably giving it more thought than it deserves.
Anyway the game was a great joy to play again knowing all of its twists and turns. The core story beats of the game are excellent, Velvet is super-compelling in particular. I don't have much new to add but way the game deconstructs and skewers the idea that reason is the highest human virtue remains really good.
I also did all the sidequests this time and honestly I was almost tempted to lower the game's score a bit just for that. While there's some good stuff in there (in particular, Rokurou's sidequest gives some important context for his character which is kinda hand-waved in the main plot) there's also some of it that is very cringe, namely anything when Zaveid is on-screen. What a terrible advertisement for ToZ he is.
Fortunately after that I got to play the conclusion of the game and it rules, one of the best final confrontations in gaming tbh. So the game can stay where it is.
Stray Gods
What if an Ace Attorney case were also a musical?
I enjoyed this a lot! The setup of the game is that the Greek Gods are real and still living secretly in the world. One of them dies in your arms in the opening and you are assumed by the other gods to be their killer. In Ace Attorney-like fashion, you are guilty in their eyes unless you prove yourself innocent. (It makes more sense than AA at least.) Cue visiting locations, talking to lots of deities / mythological figures, and figuring out what the heck actually happened and why, before you face your trial.
The complicating issue is that the protagonist has inherited the powers of the god who died, and that god is a Muse, who can inspire others to sing what's in their hearts. So the major adventure-game moments of the game are musical numbers, where you inspire people to sing and then nudge them in the direction you want. Apparently there are a crazy number of variations in how the songs can actually go.
The game is not intended to challenge; in fact as far as I'm aware it isn't possible to truly "fail". But there are certainly branches in character relationships and fates, and of course major ones in the ending.
In that sense perhaps the better comparison for the game is something like AI: The Somnium Files (or other Uchikoshi games, but AI is the best parallel I think). It's a really compelling yarn, but it doesn't really provide even Ace Attorney levels of gameplay. While speculating in advance of what's going on is a lot of fun, it's not really necessary. That said, the game very much sets up its own lore in service of the story and mystery, and does so very well.
Where the game probably excels most is that the characters are compelling. The protagonist, Grace, is of course a bit of a cipher for the player, but with oodles of good dialog choices she's a very enjoyable one. The other major characters are pretty much all very well-done, and coming to understand them, and the unique perspectives they have due to their long history, is perhaps the great joy of the game. The game is also rather unabashedly queer and there are romance options, so that's fun too.
As far as "games that basically don't have gameplay" go, this is certainly a good one. Recommended.
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Persona 5 Strikers- It's funny how I started playing this when it came out, then got distracted due to some controller issues, then set it down for like two years only to pick it back up because of a silly fic idea.
So there's just a ton of ways this is really a "y'know what we can do better than that" response to the original Persona 5, and while I am not gonna say I like it's riff on musou gameplay more than a proper jRPG, they do do a pretty good job of looking at the narrative and thematic ground they covered in P5 and doing it more thoughtfully, not just as writers but within the narrative itself; the Thieves had some regrets and second thoughts about what they did before, and decide to try and do some things differently. It does often come across as more cheesy, but that's okay, they're teenagers. Teenagers are allowed to be cheesy.
Sophia's great. It's fun for me when Sophias are good. While people will joke about Wolf and yeah, a little bit he's the 'main character' at times, the end of the game shifts more definitely towards Sophia's plot just like it started and that's fun.
(Praise Accepted~)
Otherwise there's not toooooo much to say really, it's very much "more Persona 5".
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Pokémon Trading Card Game (3DS VC)
Primarily a replay, although I'm not sure if I've ever actually played the entirety of the game from the start through before. Generally entertaining although given that my final deck was 80% my original deck (Charmander & Friends) with Dragonair & supporting cards added in in place of some of its less necessary ones I suppose I can't be said to have really gotten into the spirit of the game. Collected all the cards available in the VC version.
I've never actually gotten around to playing the sequel, I should probably do that some time.
Pokémon Scarlet - The Indigo Disk (Switch)
At BB Academy, the 'B' stands for Busywork. Both of them.
The plot is sparser than the plot from Teal Mask, especially for the parts where you're at BB Academy itself. It does at least continue on from the Teal Mask plot & tie into the main game to an extent.
The problem is that a lot of things at BB Academy are paid for with a new BP currency, acquiring it is comparatively slow, and several of the things you're going to want to spend it on cost a significant amount. Also, most of the postgame appears to be gated behind BP costs - I haven't touched any of the parts in question yet as a result as I was already fed up with collecting it.
Super Panda Adventures (Steam)
Fairly breezy world-map-based platformer. You can get upgrades which allow access to more areas in levels you've been to before, but given the number of levels I hesitate to refer to this as metroidvaniaish. Does not have any way of tracking whether you've collected everything in each level unfortunately.
I feel that some of the plot lands a bit more awkwardly these days than it would have 9 years ago.
The final boss was a major difficulty spike over pretty much every other boss in the game and took me a fair amount of attempts to beat.
Also replayed Commander Keen 1 again but that hardly deserves its own section. Didn't try the randomizer again. I've formed a tenuous conclusion that given I replay the game for its breeziness, using the randomizer would actually work at cross purposes to that.
The Walking Dead: Season 2 (Steam)
Finally got round to this after playing the original season in... 2014.
The impression that I have is that it's generally more stressful than the original season, which does match up with the time interval between the two, but makes for a less enjoyable experience.
The situation at the end of my playthrough was Clementine & AJ in Wellington.