Games you're playing: The 2009 edition.

[Xeroma]

It has to do with how many hits are in your combo, like VP1.

[Cmdr_King]

Staple of the VP series.  Each hit in a combo adds a +1% bonus to subsequent hits, so at the end of an SC chain you've got about a 25% bonus compared to the start of the chain.  Fairly significant.

[Soulgain]

Cool, Cool.  I guess I'll have to find some punching bags to get a combo pattern going, thanks peoples.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

I took Rufus out for Lezard when I needed magic attacks, but I'll put him back in before he lags behind too much.  I liked shooting arrows at enemies that were hanging in the air

Well, the main deal about archers is exactly what the Ciddy said: they can hit physical immunes with their elemental attacks, and they do that while dealing a ton more damage than the mages and off far better comboability. Soooooooo.

[Soulgain]

Yeah, I see your point.  If Archer's can do a Mage's job, and better! there's no real reason to use Mage's.  The ability to hit both immunes seems pretty handy, since I really was carrying Lezard just for those Ghosts, Bees, and whatnot.  I'm gonna have some combo testing to do with an Archer or two later today.

[hinode]

Oh, one detail I forgot about SRWK: Having the game constantly break up your squads for forced deployments is really annoying, especially if you've put a good deal of thought into making them. There are times when it feels like I'm putting more attention into the intermission menu then the actual maps themselves. This doesn't set a good precedent for the console-based squad games if I ever even get around to them.

Best units thus far are Strike Freedom, which is loaded to the gills with high powered ranged weaponry (including a MAP that averages 12 kills per use) and has built in 25% EN regen, and Dann of Thursday, which can casually kill 4 grunts per round now thanks to Van getting L2 chain attack along with its killer weaponry. Destiny and the two Jeegs are really good as well, but I'll get more in-depth on the units when I finish the game.

[Shale]

Yeah, you'll get used to that real quick in a game with full-on squads. Z at least has a really simple interface for forming squads (select unit, drag it to the squad where you want it), and Alpha 3 lets you save and load squad formations.

[SageAcrin]

And Alpha 2 avoids splitting your force completely.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

To note, depending on when you use a Soul Crush in a SC Chain, it also becomes stronger.

At least, in my experience -- Alicia's Nibelung Valesti is a lot stronger when used last when compared to using it as the first move. So it's also something to think about when you have two moves that get the same amount of/comparable amount of CP, use the weaker one first and the stronger one after.

Really, the only one you have to think about is the third one. Anyone can go first, almost anyone can go second, and your best attacker goes last. It's getting that 60 CP third that's actually tricky (off the top of my head, Rufus does it naturally, but most characters need a certain skill to boost their CP gain).

[Dark Holy Elf]

Yeah, in VP2, I think only Rufus and one SG character can get 60 without Heat Up, which makes those characters rather handy.

If you think the Kraken's difficult, just wait until you get farther in the game, heh. I found the game to be quite challenging, and before I actually -leveled-, it was a question of avoiding getting hit by an enemy while pummeling them ASAP.

Levels mean nothing, skills mean everything. Well, not quite, but yeah. It's worth noting that NG+++ runs (in which the game gets progressively more difficult, NG+ in VP2 boosts enemy stats and gives you nothing, so it's a hard mode) generally function as LLGs.

Just something to keep in mind if you feel like you're falling behind. Don't go grinding for levels, but mess with the skill system. In randoms, focus on breaking enemy parts so that they drop stuff, since stuff leads to better skills. As a warning though, the skill system is rather cumbersome.

Also, I found Kraken one of the tougher bosses personally, for what it's worth.

[Shale]

Kraken being the last thing you fight before Divine Time Giver is probably a large part of it. Enemy balance never quite recovers from that.

[Meeplelard]

Yeah, in VP2, I think only Rufus and one SG character can get 60 without Heat Up, which makes those characters rather handy.

Mages who have Tidal Wave (which accounts for Mithra and Aegis only, I think?) and...whatever the Earth one was (Animate Earth and Gravity Blessing don't, I know) do it too.   Of course, those are mages, and uh, we know how much THAT works in VP2 <_<

[NotMiki]

Finished Phantom Brave.

Game was...ok, but not great.  The main character and story could be case studies in stark purity and singularity of concept.  That works fine for Marona as a character, but it makes for a godawful boring plot.  People hate her for no good reason.  She wins them over with her overriding goodness.  No plot twists of any sort whatsoever.  Lovefest ensues.  Yawn.  I can think of about 2 things in the game even close to worth a spoiler tag.  I mean, evil returns and good prevails.  There.  I ruined it.

Combat, in stark contrast to the plot, was needlessly complicated.  Kudos to them for doing so much interesting stuff with titles and customization, and keeping it balanced somehow, but it needed to be reined in somewhat.  Two gripes.  One, the whole possessing objects thing was really cool, but kinda a pain in the ass in practice, as was object death and stage physics.  Two, one of the cool things about N1 games is the items, and PB's are cooler than usual, but you have to move mountains to get good stuff!  Makai Kingdom took the exact opposite approach, and I'm quite glad it did.

[Tonfa]

Makai Kingdom had a substantial number of items that were NG+ only, you never had money until halfway through the game, never had mana until endgame, and the cool concepts like mechs were introduced too late. It had cool things but wins absolutely NO points for accessibility.

EDIT: Somehow I forgot torturously slow weapon level progression for skills.

[NotMiki]

That's true, but I would say in its comparative defense that MK's aftergame is probably larger than the game, so there's still a lot of use to those weapons.  I personally much prefer MK's random dungeons, and you can accumulate a huge amount of loot from them with ease, so I never thought money was much of an issue.

Not defending the weapon skill progression rate, though.  Damned if I know why they never fix that (I didn't find PB's variation, torturously slow progression on skill points, any better).

[Hunter Sopko]

P4- 9/17, about to head into the Lab. The school trip was hilariously awesome. Still kinda trailing in some of my S.Links, but Justice and Hierophant are at least where they should be. Going with Priestess, Lovers and Moon as my harem. Too bad you apparantly can't get Devil ;-;

[Shale]

Mega Man X Command Mission: Started, finished chapter 2.

Game's pretty fun. Piss-easy so far thanks to practically free healing and X hitting weakness on everything important in the last chapter, but fun. Plot is MEGA MAN PLOT, but Spider is awesome, and Chief  R has a robotic parrot sitting on his shoulder. What can I say, I'm easily amused.

[Meeplelard]

MK: Almost done with Chap 4! Yeah, haven't been playing this much cause of...

ToV: Just beat Zaude.  How'd I know that wasn't going to be the final dungeon?  Maybe cause the world wasn't completely fucked yet, and merely one of those "there's a 60% chance we're screwed" situations.  Now that we're up to "90% chance of everyone sort of dying spontaneously", the end should come relatively soon!  But this is a tales game, so it probably has at least one extra dungeon...

...I just hope I don't have to go half way across the world to get some special material cause some dumb shit scientist forgot to PUT IN A LENS for his telescope that happens to be attached to the big mega cannon.

[Clear Tranquil]

Thanks for the response Excal, Grefter.

Yeah the blocking system is what I had in mind as to valid complaint worthies, I can see why people might have problems there. Though personally I've never had much problems with it, well the first time I played SO3 I was pretty much completely hopeless at it or so I felt anyway, I just left my AI (Nel and Albel) to rack up cancel bonus combos on their own and controlled Sophia from a far, staying at range, hiding in corners, using her for healing, buffing and reviving and such. I overlevelled a lot, I was L60+ for the Sphere goons and over L70 for the final, still had problems though. Next time I controlled Peppita who is one of my favourite fighters *precisely* for the fact that Power Dance (or any dances) on X  can't trigger the enemy guard system when used in cancel chains with other, offensive skills. Or Maria, who just kills things dead.

As for fury costs, I've never seen them as much of an issue main game not with turning Berserk ON asap for everyone for up to 300% cancel combo chains depending on the move (some boss drops a minus fury factor piece of equipment too) but that's just me, not everyone's going to enjoy that playing style I guess.

Well you'll like SO4 then Grefter hopefully, dodging's supposed to be a major gameplay feature in that game - SO3 did have some dodging techs to play around with the sidestepping feature to some extent but apparently it's more of a factor in the new game.

Eternal Sonata - Finished. Mostly sticking to my original impression of the game - win for the graphics, music and fighting - however going to completely agree with everyone else now that the story becomes complete and utter fail. Crescendo and Serenade just ... ugh. Ending levels Salsa, Viola, March all at L54 - final boss ran me out of reviving items, I only packed like two or three. So finished the fight off with just two characters. Party analysis/review of full battle roster later. Apparently I have a post game to do~

(though after finishing the game I reloaded a pre final save and spent ages wandering around trying to find it >_> I had a vague idea it might have something to with the missing wooden head Goro. Now at least I know exactly where to go. Thank you internet <_<)

[Grefter]

Oh I liked SO3 well enough in spite of the shittiness of the combat system.  Shields mean sweet fuck all to ranged attacks so I just threw a cheap Nel twink at the game and watched it explode while letting the aftergame fall by the wayside.

It isn't Fury costs.  It is enemies regenerating Fury while you attack, so by the time you get to 250% combos most enemies are back at 100 Fury just at the wrong time (ie when you try and melee them with a Normal instead of Strong attack, bam, fucked).  The best moves in the games being ones that don't trigger those or trigger it safely is rather telling (Scatter Shot hype goes here).

Still I liked SO3, just you seemed to be wanting feedback and Excal is actually a teddy bear and not a critic.

[074]

Soul Nomad: Battle 46.  FUCK PYROMAGES.  FUCK PYROMAGES.  FUCK PYROMAGES.

Oh, and FUCK TERROR BLAZE.


That is all.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

I never had trouble with shields, but I had a reduced fury cost setup on Albel and used strong Vampiric Flash to destroy any that popped up with AoE. I think it used like... two fury per tick?

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

VP2 - Forest of Spirits, got an Elvenbow and a Shiny Rupture. Enemies officially fail at life. However, I'm thinking that going three archers+Heavy/Light might be more efficient at points in the maingame due to less weapon crunching. On the other hand, I've been manslaughtering the game with Supreme Crossbows since C3, so it's probably moot.

[WanderingMind]

Thanks for the response Excal, Grefter.

Yeah the blocking system is what I had in mind as to valid complaint worthies, I can see why people might have problems there. Though personally I've never had much problems with it, well the first time I played SO3 I was pretty much completely hopeless at it or so I felt anyway, I just left my AI (Nel and Albel) to rack up cancel bonus combos on their own and controlled Sophia from a far, staying at range, hiding in corners, using her for healing, buffing and reviving and such. I overlevelled a lot, I was L60+ for the Sphere goons and over L70 for the final, still had problems though. Next time I controlled Peppita who is one of my favourite fighters *precisely* for the fact that Power Dance (or any dances) on X  can't trigger the enemy guard system when used in cancel chains with other, offensive skills. Or Maria, who just kills things dead.

As for fury costs, I've never seen them as much of an issue main game not with turning Berserk ON asap for everyone for up to 300% cancel combo chains depending on the move (some boss drops a minus fury factor piece of equipment too) but that's just me, not everyone's going to enjoy that playing style I guess.

Well you'll like SO4 then Grefter hopefully, dodging's supposed to be a major gameplay feature in that game - SO3 did have some dodging techs to play around with the sidestepping feature to some extent but apparently it's more of a factor in the new game.

Eternal Sonata - Finished. Mostly sticking to my original impression of the game - win for the graphics, music and fighting - however going to completely agree with everyone else now that the story becomes complete and utter fail. Crescendo and Serenade just ... ugh. Ending levels Salsa, Viola, March all at L54 - final boss ran me out of reviving items, I only packed like two or three. So finished the fight off with just two characters. Party analysis/review of full battle roster later. Apparently I have a post game to do~

(though after finishing the game I reloaded a pre final save and spent ages wandering around trying to find it >_> I had a vague idea it might have something to with the missing wooden head Goro. Now at least I know exactly where to go. Thank you internet <_<)

I kept on asking "How can the story get any worse" in Eternal Sonata and then came the ending.  Ugh.  It felt longer than 40 minutes.

[Hunter Sopko]

P4- Another marathon session in which I had to pull myself away. Went from 9/17 to 11/1. Cleared Secret Lab in one night, then mostly worked on S-Links. Haven't been back in to do the bonus bosses for Void Quest and the lab yet, but I've maxed my party's S-Links, as well as Justice and Hierophant, so that's really more important.

Hilarious game is hilarious, though. Genuinely funny. Really enjoying it.