Games you're playing: The 2009 edition.

[hinode]

The first time I fought them I got hit with the fire breath, boulder throw, and the punch attack all on the first round, before Kiryl/Meena could even move; I didn't think of the Sands of Time until later attempts, when they saved me a few resets on getting all the Pandemonic gear.

You should definately get some more levels, but even then taking some preventive measures in case of the worst case scenario round one helps.

[superaielman]

It's doable but tough. They have some variance in terms of AI use. What I'd do is open with Solo, Kiryl, Alena, and Meena.  Make sure Meena has a Meteorite Armband on.

Solo uses Omniheal, Kiryl uses Kabuff, Mina Insulates, Alena attacks. Go with Falcon Earings,  you want the ITD crits. Ditch Meena for Ragnar, repeat the previous round. Sap's nice and speeds up the fight, but I don't think you can afford it until you knock one of them out. Ragnar can either use the life stone to heal or attack.

[Shale]

That's pretty much my strategy in a nutshell, right down to swapping Ragnar for Meena on Insulate turns. It got me a decent way into the battle, but I just couldn't keep up. I also didn't have the Meteorite Armband, though. Initiative Omniheal would have been nifty.

[hinode]

It's doable but tough. They have some variance in terms of AI use. What I'd do is open with Solo, Kiryl, Alena, and Meena.  Make sure Meena has a Meteorite Armband on.

Solo uses Omniheal, Kiryl uses Kabuff, Mina Insulates, Alena attacks. Go with Falcon Earings,  you want the ITD crits. Ditch Meena for Ragnar, repeat the previous round. Sap's nice and speeds up the fight, but I don't think you can afford it until you knock one of them out. Ragnar can either use the life stone to heal or attack.

That's exactly what I did, except I swapped in Borya instead of Ragnar (on my successful run) and actually pulled off Oomph/Sap. Problem is, the first time...

06[01:09] * +hinode watches his party get nearly wiped out in ONE ROUND of attacks.
01[01:09] <+hinode> Well, I guess that answers my question!
01[01:10] <+hinode> Didn't even get a chance to put up Insulate or Kabuff!
[01:11] <@Ko-RomoComedyHour> Which boss, Nitorde?
[01:11] <@Ko-RomoComedyHour> ...
[01:11] <@Ko-RomoComedyHour> Hinode?
01[01:11] <+hinode> Foo Yung/Chow Mein.
[01:11] <@Ko-RomoComedyHour> Oh.
[01:12] <@Ko-RomoComedyHour> They're very random but not too hard if you're at a good level. What level are you at?>
01[01:12] <+hinode> 37-40.
[01:12] <@Ko-RomoComedyHour> Few more wouldn't hurt, though it does sound like you hit the bad rang eof luck there.
[01:13] <@SageAcrin> Meteorite Bracelet on the hero=needed at those levels.
[01:13] <@SageAcrin> (For healing.)
[01:13] <@SageAcrin> But yeah.
[01:13] <@SageAcrin> You had bad luck too.
06[01:13] * @Ko-RomoComedyHour nods.
03[01:13] * Ko-RomoComedyHour is now known as Kotono
01[01:13] <+hinode> Rock Throw+Punch thing+burning breath killed Kiryl and Meena on turn 1 and knocked Solo/Alena below 100 HP.
01[01:14] <+hinode> Not burning, but whatever the strongest fire breath is.
[01:14] <@SageAcrin> ...Rock Throw is his rarest move, punch is one of the rarest.
[01:14] <@Kotono> Pisaro and Cristo with Multiheal help, but you'll need Omniheal a bit.
[01:14] <@Kotono> Ouch.
[01:14] <@Kotono> That is bad luck.
[01:14] <@SageAcrin> The breath is not uncommon, but basically you ate the worst possible turn.

Shale: If you're willing to faq through the Pioneer Town sidequest, you can get a Meteorite Armband for free from it.

[superaielman]

The meteorite armband is godly on Solo in general; it really does shine in tough boss fights like that. I'd probably stick it on Meena there just to prevent her from getting her ass killed in round 1, but then I remember her HP is immensely improved in the remake.  She should be able to take a round of damage. You should be able to get an armband pretty damn quick in endor, assuming you don't have one already. (You can get back to the duo in 5-10 minutes from the midway point of the duengon.) Just conserve MP and have Kiryl use his ID/equip a hat of happiness on the way, most of the enemies in the C6 area are weak to it.

[Shale]

I've completely cleaned out the frontier town, so I got one there. My casino luck has been complete shit and I missed a bunch of one-chapter monsters, so no more are coming, though.

[superaielman]

1 is plenty. Just have on Meena. You can always get a desperate full revival out of her farewell or whatever the fuck it's called skill for a second wind.

[Shale]

....and beat. Leveled up once across the board, didn't see much in the way of breath attacks (lots and lots of Wave of Ice, though. Annoying as fuck.), and had some good luck with criticals. Yay!

[Niu]

ToVs- Finally got started playing this.

It was quite shocking to see that furry from the Tales of Ten Hours to be this cheap. But consider Majinken spam is fun, I don't really mind.
While Jade is just lackluster all around depsite I try to have more Koyasu goodness, but I am sorry Jade, I'd rather use a good character instead.
Kongman is cheap, way too cheap. Steel Body is simply unfair. Cless is up there too, Gekiha is a bit too good here.... and then there is the whole you can now cancel out of ougi level skill thing. Kukanshouteni suddenly become an ambush wonder, and intercancelling between Shusa Sanskuha and Hoou Tenshyokya out right hurts.
But Mint, as one of the last few characters to get, you really don't need to be here.
Harold.... is nerfed. Getting to the detail would be painful so I'll skip. In various sense, Arche is the better mage now.

Barbatos.... everyone hates Barbatos, like he always is. Consider he is the only villain villain in this game so he automatically gets blame for tons of things. Which is nice, allow me to beat him up various routes. But that is not the point, KOREZO WAGA OUGI SANRENSATSU!!! is back, I am happy now. Oh, do I have to mention that he can't use item?? And his hi ougi automatically triggers whenever someone pick an item up? And even someone use a Hour Glass, that he is still going to use the hi ougi after it wears off? ...Only he can be this persistent in magic countering....

Yuri is lahlah I have so many hits as usual. But what I really cared about is this particular title he can get that is called "The Beautiful Black Hair...."

Judy is no longer mad I-No, the lack of jump cancel and air dash cancel, plus the existence of the ceiling, she is brutally nerfed. Well, better than Rita, who is no longer special as every mage can go over-limit with no charge time now.

Which is also you should never ever let Dhaos go over-limit when fighting him. There is this twisted change done to tetra Spell. Instead of of quadra casting the weakest four elemental spells. It is now Divine Power plus, spamming Ground Dasher, Cyclone, Tidal Wave, and Explosion. Just it takes forever to cast. even with all charge time reduction gear and skills equipped on him, that thing still take 6 seconds to cast, aka useless... just don't ever let him go over-limit. You'd rather eat Million Assault than that.

Syng is now the new I-No, all his tech let him stay in air for decent amount of time, and his ridiculous projectile and pseudo projectiles are spammable no matter how high or how low he is. He sometimes felt like an archer.

Speaking of archer, Chester gets a new hi ougi, shock.

Oh, and Kratos/Cless yaoi, if wasn't ToVS got released so close to Komike, Kratos/Cless would be the new phenomenon around the Tales booth. Oh well, there is still the Tales Garden event to look forward to.

[Xeroma]

How did you get your hands on that Niu?

[Cmdr_King]

Prinny-  Been alternating between standard play and Asagi mode.
Standard mode has a pretty managable curve so far, clearly getting harder but still in a range where poking at it for a while gets the job done.  Completed four of the first 6 stages so far.

Asagi mode starts Kaizo and then ramps up slowly.  Only on the third stage, but for the first two Asagi herself is a pushover, it's all the stages doing the work there.  I have an acute burning hatred of archers.  Fuck archers.  (Super-Corn is also mighty, but largely because I have a bad twitch habit of jumping INTO attacks.  That and, far as I can tell, they're an immovable hazard, not an enemy)

Enjoyable anyways though.  I think I know now where all the comedy writing for Disgaea 3 went <.<

[Niu]

How did you get your hands on that Niu?

I have the actual disc, and give in and upgrade to 5.55

[Xeroma]

ugh

[kokushishin]

All you really need is Psaro and Alena to stay upright to handle the chicken and egg.  The other two characters should be support/healing although you can usually get away with having another attacker.

Lucida Shard cures confusion but it is only available at certain stages of the Pioneer town.  I saved one for Alena as her gold tiara also resists confuse.  The final version in and of itself has a ton of useful but expensive stuff. 

[Talaysen]

Enjoyable anyways though.  I think I know now where all the comedy writing for Disgaea 3 went <.<

Into Disgaea 3?

---

Brave Story - Beat up some emo demon king.  Then LOL PLOT TWIZT!!1  Seriously, what?

Probably sidequesting time or something.  I randomly ran into a couple and went ahead and did those.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

The Witcher:

THE GODDAMN SWAMP. There's these plant things that pop out of the ground right beneath you and throw a billion poisoned thorns at you a second. As a result you will die if you stop running at any time outside of safe places like the village.

[Clear Tranquil]

P4-Frue final dungeon. This is the game that never ends~

I love it though. Reminds me of WAo way back when and how excited I was every time a new place popped up. Which was a lot. Rambling the world map ... and randomly stumbling upon something. Awesme.

P4 good ending was well good. Credits were nifty. Defeated killer/Ameno Sagiri at L72~
Only "hard" thing about it was SP issues. I tried at L68 and ran out but it was close. I'd nearly ended it. So I rambled around fighting things while I thought about what I wanted to do. Ended up raiding Heaven for Chest Keys and then doing save/reload tricks until I winded up with two Soul Foods and two Chewing Souls in stock. Turned out I only needed one of each to finish off Sagiri though. That means I have Soul Food saved for the frue!final.

From what I've picked up from peeps it's going to be tough regardless. Since I missed out on max Tower what's my next best bet? Lucifer any good?

[superaielman]

No. Depending on your SP, it may be worth it to use Yoshi anyway and level him up. Failing that, stat down the final. You should be okay.

[Hunter Sopko]

Yeah. Trumpeter is nifty for making the end much easier.

[Twilkitri]

Etrian Odyssey - foiled again

I have been blocked from my explorations by the necessity to find and kill some hidden bosses. Why are you abusing me so much this strata, Etrian!


Rogue Galaxy - vacation over

Ultimately the detour scored Jaster a vaguely ugly outfit. Now back to the plot. Going after the Key Piece on Zerard next.

[Talaysen]

CT:  I used Odin for offense against the final.  Much better than Yoshi there, really (though the SP issues might be painful).  You don't have any Somas?  I know I got like three throughout the game.  If you have those MT buff items, use those to save on SP as well.

Twilkitri:  Uh... I hope you have a properly skilled Protector (and possibly a Troubadour but that's not required I don't think) or you're going to have some issues with those bosses.

---

Phantom Brave: We Meet Again - ...they took out the Equip% display?  That or I just can't find it anywhere?  What the hell, N1?

[VySaika]

I don't even want to think about playing EO1 without a Protector. Or a Medic. Oi.

[Twilkitri]

I do have a protector, although I obviously can't speak for whether it's 'properly skilled' or not. I will say that for 90% of the game so far it has effectively just been a warm body. Don't have a bard.

[Shale]

DQ4r: okay, done. Got all the Pandemonic Gear except the helmet, because I didn't feel like fighting two meaningless rounds against Foo Yung and Chow Mein before getting another reward, and then dealt with Aamon. Didn't realize I wouldn't be able to switch people midfight, so I came in with Solo, Psaro, Ragnar and Alena as the party. Psaro had healing duty at first, switching over to Solo for Omniheal spam once the final forms showed up, and Ragnar and Alena attacked every turn. It worked out pretty well; the super-final form managed to kill Solo and Ragnar with a Magic Burst the turn after I ran out of Omniheals, and it looked like I was screwed, but then Psaro's next hit killed him and all was well.

[Talaysen]

Gatewalker: Protector isn't actually all that important in the maingame, really.  Going without a Medic would be quite tough though.

I do have a protector, although I obviously can't speak for whether it's 'properly skilled' or not. I will say that for 90% of the game so far it has effectively just been a warm body. Don't have a bard.

Then it probably isn't.  Well, you might figure it out by yourself if you try the fights.  If you don't care to figure it out on your own:

You need Lv5 in the three anti-element skills (Ant-Fire, Anti-Cold, Anti-Volt, I think they were called).  Going any higher than that is a bad idea.  Important for the F30 boss as well.

Also, Protectors specialize in being warm bodies.  That's kinda what they're there for.

---

Phantom Brave: We Meet Again - Chapter 4 now.  Man, I forgot how much of a dick Walnut was.