Hm... haven't posted in a while. Bought Dissidia and MK2 in the past month, both completed (with MK2 having the frue ending gotten). Thoughts...
Dissidia: Not on the hype train as everyone else. Not that it's bad. Just find some of it pointlessly tedious. However! If you wanted FF fanservice, the game delivers and you most likely won't be dissapointed. Not interested in it as an actual figher - it'll probably end up the same way I treat brawl basically. Something to kill time, but I won't actually be trying to learn anything complicated/getting uber equips which are borderline silly at points. That's around it. Finished one of the bonus quests, 5 DOs and the main game itself.
MK2: Whoo boy. This took around 68 hours for me to finish fully (which is quite a bit compared to Dissidia's 20ish or so). Doubt I can do as much analysis as Snow already did, but eh, these are just my closing thoughts.
Basically take MK1, add even more insanity into the cast (...) and make some switches to the Grow Book mechanic and character skill sets. That's the summary in one sentence. For a more detailed, summary...keep reading! Spoilers below. Also hueg post.
SPOILER WARNING
The battle system is basically better, but you don't get a 6 man team fully until the very end, which I felt hurt the support system a little (MK is a type of game that benefits from having a bit larger of a cast size), although not by much. How is it better? Well...
1) I really did like how they made the earlier learnt skills not complete deadweight as already pointed. Initial skills easily still have use towards the end. Common skills feel like they're more usable. Although for the most part, healing common skills are largely pointless I found and the status ones not much better.
2) The other thing is Ether levels play a much larger part. You definitely have to do some resynthing since sometimes the items function better at a certain ether level range, but you would want to hit ether level 100 at least one to open up the third spot in the grow book. While the stat boosts themselves are not important unless you accumulate the total, they help you in getting titles, which are awesome in everyway. These all help to make the cohesion between the grow book, alchemy and the actual battles much better integrated.
3) AP management. Most would disagree. I actually enjoyed having AP somewhat more restrictive since it makes it necessary for you to decide what you want to upgrade. This makes for certin interesting choices (for example, getting Support Attack UP before getting a skill upgrade) and definite changes to each person's individual gameplay and experience. Although some skills are easily garbage (Hi Ph.Attack+30 for mages), the decision making adds some strategic element to it.
4) Bigger focus on the support mode gauge (Unite mode), thanks to intimate guards and intimate attacks. Both provide some really neat in battle decisions as opposed to MK1 having only support attacks and support defense. Making the support mode more important (what the MK series differentiates itself by) certain made it more fun.
I'll admit that after 68 hours, it gets pretty tiring, but for the most part the game was largely enjoyable. I do have some compaints, the biggest one being what the hell at the text shrinking in size. I plugged in MK1 just to check the font size comparison and yeah, this font size is just unbareable. It doesn't sound like a big deal but it certainly is annoying. Another thing which Snow already touched upon was the way the frue ending path was handled. This was just stupid. I can understood why they did it, but it doesn't make it anyless stupid. I'll give them credit in the sense that Ulrika route and Raze route have several chapters where different things happen so basically, its not 9 chapters of the same thing all over again, but requring you to replay a route (while blocking out certain portions of the grow book by making materials impossible or very hard to find) is just a bad design choice. Why they couldn't have just given you the option of continuing the extra chapter and auto distributing a set amount of AP to certain abilities or even giving you all the PCs you didn't use with a set amount of starting AP is beyond me. The game's plot also suffers from a similar problem as MK1's. Well okay...to be fair...Raze route's plot has that problem. Ulrika route's plot is actually handled better in terms of pacing, but if you consider the frue ending into the picture, the pacing suffers similar terrible problems. Hopefully, you are playing MK2 for battle systems or off-the-wall characters. There is no srs bsn here. Overall, feels like an improvement in MK1. There are some problems which I already pointed out, but the game probably sits at around a 8/10 for me. Could potentially be lower, but I'm looking at my 7s, and definitely felt I had more fun with MK2 so the 8 stays.
PC/boss thoughts:
Raze:
The token sane guy in a group of absolutely batshit insane people. I don't know, I really liked Raze. Yeah, he was a jerk. But I imagine being stuck in a group of crazy insane people like that, I would probably have wanted to facedesk myself repeatedly until said desk was broken. The fact that Raze DOESN'T do this, but some how manages to respond to each increasingly bizarre situation is certainly impressive. Although the fact that he was stuck with both Lily and Whim for 10 years probably does help with that! Part of Raze's charm to me is just how blunt he is at times, which certainly made me smile. Yeah, he whines and complains, but I'm pretty certain I would to if I was stuck in his situation. The other thing that makes Raze cool to me is I guess because he IS the token sane guy. With a cast as crazy as MK2, you need one of these guys around to kind of hold things together. Raze does this. His interactions with Lily and Whim make him even better.
As a PC...hm...Raze isn't exactly outstanding. Not top of the cast for certain. Definitey has his periods of early lag. Basically until he picks up Falling Leaves, he's kinda meh. After he picks it up, he's still not as good as the other characters on his route. Once he picks up the upgrade to Falling Leaves and gains Twin Calibur, he takes a huge jump up in use. Found his Support Attack mostly useless (what did it do? Knockback?), but having a Support Defense that is MT and adds to the unite gauge definitely makes him better than some of the characters who only have ST guards. Drive Calibur is largely impractical on Raze's own route due to the hueg SP costs, even with support switching. Becomes more of an option on the Extra Chapter. Even on the frue ending route, Raze is probably somewhere around 6th or 7th in terms of usefulness as a PC. He at least adds durability though, which my end game team was pretty crappy in! Also, the support defense was the main reason for using him as a final 6th person. The special intimate attack with Ulrika is largely for show... I think (did it have a bigger mult?). No comment on his super passive (OPB revival). It has some use I would think, but uh...Raze is not one of the PCs who is more likely to die :| So!
Lily/Whim:
I'm throwing in Whim along here since she was pretty much part of the active cast. As a duo, Lily and Whim are awesome. They easily work off each other in terms of interaction. Throw Raze in there and the other cast members don't even need to be around for the entire scenario to turn into an absolute trainwreck. The situation is simple: Lily really wants to get into Raze's pants. Her imagination is also insane and her ideas along with the snobbish attitude lead to some absolutely disastrous scenarios to which Whim openly comments on but gets scolded on regardless. Having Whim along also ends up benefitting Raze as a character since they both have to put up with Lily's antics. Of course, Whim is also much less sane Raze (although still more sane than Lily), so you basically have one insane person commenting on another insane person's decisions while the token sane guy looks onward. It is as hilariously trainwrecky as you would expect.
As a PC, Lily is really good. I knew way ahead of time that I would add her to the final six. What does Lily have? Lots and lots of MT/GT attacks that hit pretty damn hard. She's also surprisingly quick, which helps to clench that first turn and she has an awesome support defense (Null one element + MT Guard? Hell yeah). ST damage wise, she has it and well, mages function better than the fighters since they can use C.Skills much better, so I found the ice reliance less of a problem than Snow. The charge up skill that ignores immunities is also a very team beneficial option which definitely helped with some of the gimmick bosses in the Extra Chapter. Oh yeah, did I mention her SP costs were very reasonable? Cause they are, and it adds to her awesome.
Et:
Quite possibly the most unbalanced person on Raze route. She also has insane strength which uh...leads you to wonder how exactly Enna managed to survive his childhood without being locked away in bandages. Et is insane...that's pretty much it and it says a lot considering the rest of the cast. Everything she does is for fun, although at times I seriously wanted to just smack her silly for the extreme stupid that she ends up putting the cast through (Hi giant avalanche). Think Gust might have overdid on her, but she is still better than GOTO (...)
PC wise...Et is weird. She has awesome ST damage along with speed. That alone should clench her into the final team, but I opted not to use her and chose Raze as a 6th PC instead. The big reason being Et's GT/MT is not really all that good and her Defense Support is pretty crappy compared to Raze's. Would she have been a better choice? Mm...possibly! The final on the frue chapter didn't seem to be spamming MT damage left and right, and the 4 bosses before it were taken care of by the other 5 PCs easily, so she could have easily made the spot. Might even argue her as being above? Although not certain on that point. Was the MPV on Raze route though. The damage was just NUTS
Yun:
Second token sane guy on Raze route, which wasn't really needed since Raze was already there. Thankfully, Yun is inoffensive. However, he's just kinda there. Which is better than being offensive, but uh...waste of space? Quite! His subplot was again inoffensive. It didn't really add much to him (does explain a few bits), unlike the other character's CQs...it was pretty much just there. Most bland character of this cast easily.
PC wise, he's unimpressive, but not completely suck. Blasting Cloth is a good option since no one on Raze route can debuff. However, this is pretty much ALL he has since his double up skill is garbage and Fiery Fist gets outclassed eventually. He's much worse off than Lily since he can't utilize CSes as well due to having a lower Magic stat. His defensive support as well as offensive support is also pretty garbage. The knockback is kinda okay, but no, it doesn't do enough to really boost him considering how much worse his skillset is compared to everyone else. At least he has HP...wait, Raze already has that AND a OPB auto revival. So uh...yeah! Well at least he's a PC, which means by definition, you can only go so low on the MK cast scale, since by existing, you are at least doing something! Also? Not Goto. So not completely suck!
Puniyo:
Crazy little girl. Other character CQs definitely show how insane some of her ideas are. But then again, since she was raised by Punis, you really can only expect so much on the sanity scale. Her interaction is made better by the other characters around her and not by her Puni Brothers (surprisingly). I guess this is because you can really only take so much srs bsn MK - which I think they might have tried a bit too hard at various points in her CQs. Raze does however, become an honorary Puni. We should now hype him getting slayed by Puni slaying weapons thanks to Puniyo's CQs!
Definitely one of the most dynamic shifts in usage as PC. She goes from meh to What.the.fuck. Seriously. She definitely takes a while to get going before learning her passives and while during that phase, she really doesn't have much other than healing. It's good healing mind, but it competes with Items which you can purchase, has lesser recharge time and SP costs. So on the whole, its not a huge advantage. Then she starts gaining stats and her passives and uh... *game explodes*. So for starters, Taro's Sterness (Dual cast) is insanely broken. Having equipment that boosts the damage by 20% + something that increases effect by 33% + Lily's Glaceration skill if needed to bypass immunities = 3500 damage when she gets a turn x2. Things explode retardedly quick. This isn't throwing in the fact that you later have someone who can M.Def bust along with the Boost spell. Yeah. Also Puni Ball? The strength of the enemy (along with their weakness) determines what elemental attack is used. So if you do things correctly, she can enter into boss battles with 3 top tier elemental spells ready, use them back to back, and get like 2000 damage off each in a relatively short amount of time. Then you throw in the best Support Defense in the game (100% Guts for the whole Party + sets everyone to Guard) and she suddenly becomes pretty much the game best PC. Yeah. Holding her back a bit is the frailness (worst HP in the game I think?) and somewhat sluggish. But it doesn't matter. If you switch her in and she gets a turn, bosses die stupidly quick. Well at least there's bit of the early game lag.
Ulrika:
Was most likely dropped on her head as a kid. The fact that she has no parents in the current time supports that theory. But at least the game knows she's an idiot and everyone else openly mocks her for it. Best interaction was most likely with a mixture between Chloe and Raze. Which is kinda surprisingly. Granted, Ulrika route PCs consist of the likes of GOTO which would automatically make good interaction difficult. Well I guess the interaction with Pepporoni was decent but not having Ulrika mocked for her stupidity isn't as awesome.
Exists as the cast's support character pretty much. Elemental Barrier is awesome. Healing Respite is also very awesome (but way too freaking costly in AP). Her damage? Uh...non existant outside of Intimate Attack/Finishing Attack. That double up skill is just useless in game for removing enemy time cards when Advanced Interceptor exists. So unless you are using it for damage (which I didn't), she basically has none >_>. Wel CSkills! And at least Magic Hammer is easily spammable (also her best damage at that) and Cannon Ball has wide AoE and adds pretty much every status in the game. I used her as a 5th PC for mainly supporting reasons. You can easily easily replace her with someone else (Et would be a good choice here) an rely on items for the support. Although you can't replace Healing Respite, which is just way too awesome. Also? Her attack support was awesome. Lowers enemy M.Atk and M.Def. With team full of mages, you can imagine what happens.
Chloe:
Openly mocks Ulrika. And the rest of the Ulrika route PCs. And the teachers! Awesome. Despite all this, she is just as equally unbalance thanks to her incantations of doom. Each of her CQs were hilarious since you got to see how messed up each person on Ulrika's route would end up being. Is it as disastrous as Lily CQs? Not quite! But its pretty damn awesome regardless. Throughly entertaining even if only due to the sheer mockery value of the rest of the cast.
As as PC...has some of the same problems as Puniyo. Early game lag...and then...uh...Game best damage in one skill. Demon Lord Summoning does HORRIBLE horrible things to enemies let alone the Greater version. It doesn't start out that good since at one hit for 45 SP, its not efficient. HOWEVER. As it starts improving to 3 hits, the o_O value subsequently also increases. It also helps that her analyze is superior to Raze's, costs less (...) and she has the best supports in game. The Attack support means you can switch her out even if she is somewhat injured since she will drain the enemies health, while the defense support is MT Guard + Dark immunity. Also, her equips are equally powerful and she can also fall back on CSes. MVP on Ulrika route, and second PC of choice for the final 6.
Pepporoni:
I have mixed feelings about Pepporoni. On the one hand, he adds some humour value due to clearly trying to be something he isn't (and trying hard but failing horribly at that). On the other hand, there's so much build up for him that never goes anywhere. We learn that he clearly isn't a fairy, and that he also isn't a mana most likely (although we don't know! Extra Chapter certain questions this). He somehow knows Tetri and the Dark Mana and also can withstand Reicher when Ulrika ad Raze cannot. So who is he? We don't know! The game never goes anywhere with this, despite the fact that they try to do something with it. So in the end, all we get is the humourous side, which is nice, but a lot of wasted potential. Still, each of CQs clearly show what a blundering idiot he is as he ends up doing things that only results in proving even more of the fact that he is retarded >_> This is impressive.
Probably the second most valuable PC on Ulrika route? Durability! Damage (albeit charge time)! However, largely earth reliant. So he is effected by the double edgeness. He also really only needed his two early skills to really bring on the pain. Hammer Shot and Hyper Pound. The former is instant, has a much bigger noticable Knock Back effect than whatever Yun had and costs a measly 20 SP or so. The latter is a double up but deals insane damage and can ID. Sure he has other skills that when upgraded also become instant, but you really only need these two skills for him to just utterly wreck stuff on Ulrika route. His SP pool is somewhat low, but its not a huge problem. His supports are okay. Not impressive (Greatly reduce all damage for defense and randomized 7 hits of earth damage for attack) but certainly servicable. Didn't use him as part of the final 6 since the charge on some of skills made me go :|, and I already had a team built on foundation for magic rape. Support wise, loses to Raze for sure on the Defense Support and his offensive support just didn't match Enna's. Speaking of which...
Enna:
The token sane guy on Ulrika route. However, if Raze was a jerk, then Enna is probably even more of a jerk. Well granted that he had to put with Et, I can hardly blame him. He ends up sorta like Yun. More or less not very interesting. His entire CQ is about him improving his physical abilities as opposed to relying on his machines. Most of them are just uninspiring though. It does however lead to godlike Et boss form! Otherwise, he's just kind of there and makes snide comments here and there.
Very valuable as PC. Advanced Interceptor becomes more awesome as the game goes on. Would I trade it in for Purifying? Probably, since AI requires Enna to be onfield at all times, which means he can't switch out. However, the duration is also better and it removes even infinite charge spheres. Wow. Enna, unlike the other PCs of fighter mold is also not stuck with just wind/lightning elemental attacks. He has a couple of other physical abilities in the mix, which makes him more versatile and not suffer a drawback if enemies greatly resist wind. Chose him as the 4th PC since he had a good combination of power and support options. His defense support is nice since its basically Et's defense support with the ability to occassionally turn cancel. When the turn cancel kicks in, its a huge advantage. His offensive support is equally awesome since it reduces enemy defense. The wind elemental attacks also had good AoE, so he has his bases solidly covered. Also? He has PAWNCH.
Goto
Ugh. Furry who turns other people into furries. Also he has a scene in his CQ that mixes homosexuality (okay), naked men (getting worse), pedophilia (...) and furry (*shoots whoever designed this CQ*) all into one mix. This alone gets him minus points of infinity and burn forever in hell. He has the most interaction with Pepporoni, but most of it also just shows how stupid he is. That side is okay. The other side that GUST tried to build off him failed horribly though and needs to burn in a fire.
Suck as a PC. Game worst easily. Worst support actions (STEALINGZ OMG) in game and total complete lack of damage (LOL DIGNITY DUNK) along with non impressive durability means he has literally nothing but a warm body. He has...TRIPLE VOLLEY - which he can't do anything with. Okay. But but GOTO ROMANCING? Nevermind the fact that the move takes ages to fully charge and when not fully charge blows goats. Yeah. Gust was smoking some heavy crack when they gave Goto his skillset. Because seriously, he fails on all fronts.
Final PC ranking:
1. Puniyo
2. Chloe
3. Lily
4. Enna
5t. Raze/Pepporoni/Et
8. Ulrika
9. Yun
Infinite Failure. Goto
As for Bosses...
RANK SCUFFACOW. It is a cow with a giant satellite cannon on its back. The amount of YESZ is immeasurable.
Raze route final has one of the most bullshit moves ever in COVERS THE TURN GAUGE LOLZ. Except you know, you can kinda figure out where everyone else is based on how red the spheres are and when you select the target, the sphere target FLASHES. Um...yay. So basically it just makes the battle take much longer as you are checking positions and always making sure you have a defense support ready. Also? Brave Symbol bait. God help you if you get stunned though, since you are in so much shit.
Ulrika route final needs to be handled with MT and lots of it. Unfortunately, Ulrika route PCs do not have much of this outside of Enna. Chloe's good, but her MT comes from C.Skills. Goto is pretty much a warmbody for the entire thing and with only 4 PCs, this fight is pretty damn hard (but awesome). Easily would've game over'd here at one point if not for Guts triggering in for Ulrika and pulling off Healing Respite. I had at one point 5 Meteors coming down in a row >_> Yeaaaaaah.
Frue Final is largely disappointing. Damage is okay, but the real reason why he is meh is because he's most ST. His big charge move of death is pretty impressive but he only got it off once. So uh...lol? It doesn't help that at this point you likely have AP overabundance and can invest the extra into stat boosting seeds. Whee 700 MAG Puniyo Dual Casting + 3 Puni Balls for like 11000 damage before he acted.
On the whole, Ulrika route basically had all the plot bosses sans like 1 (boo). But Raze route had awesome boss designs (Scuffacow versus Hippopressor? In).
And with that, done. Told you it would take a while.
