Games you're playing: The 2009 edition.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Grandia 3 "It's called cheating. Deal with it." edition:

Veja Ruins is very much a continuation of the Vejas Jungle. The indoor enemies are mainly Sasquatches, who are actually much more dangerous now that I am fighting more than two at once. The high-speed cancels are certainly scary. I also see a new attack, Boulder Toss, which is earth and not too dangerous. But they're not what this post is about.

Forest Protectors (3 resets):

Four battles, each against two of them. To get through this, obviously I need to get the fights down to the point where I don't just win with luck, but win with a consistent execution of strategy. Eventually, I do... all three resets came against the first Forest Protector fight I engaged. Once I beat one battle, I proceeded to beat the rest, despite not gaining any levels or anything else helpful between them.

So, yeah. 4000 HP, immune to magic (argh), and immune to IP damage and being aired/downed (so the main benefits of physicals aren't even present). 4000 HP isn't amazing by itself, but coupled with magic immunity it means they take a few good hits to go down, just enough to be a nuisance. A shame, because defeating one of them is usually enough to ensure victory. Unshockingly they're fast, but not screamingly so; well under 2PC anyway.

They have three attacks. Physical attacks do 200-300 and cancel. They're fast movers but not amazingly so; Dahna using Berserker physicals can actually outrun one. The real problem lies in their two special attacks. The first, and most common, is Omni-Laser. 500-600 to everyone, cancels. That alone is enough to be super-annoying; the damage isn't amazing but given that it's MT off one of two fast enemies it gets problematic fast. It also does insane IP damage. To give you an idea... I never fight them with less than Level 2 Passive Defence, and even so it knocks back a quarter of a turn - it could probably be infinitely spammed without Passive Defence. By just one of them. Scary thought.

Scarier truth is, it's not their best attack. The real danger is Forest Stench, which hits a large radius around the caster (I thought it was MT for ages) and inflicts All Stats Down. Defence Down adds ~200 damage to their attacks, Attack Down lowers offence, but the real concern lies in the Cold effect. I thought it was bad in the Mother Breed fight, but it's far worse here. I think the effect is even worse than half speed, and it also hoses an evade, a complication I don't need. Surviving enemies who suddenly get 3 to 4 turns to my one and have MT 3HKO is... well, I'll let you guess.

Much of the key to success here lies in the setup. After some experimentation, I realise the books to use are Paladin (Body 3, Tech 2) which surprised me because I figured I'd need as much Perception and Berserker as possible. Instead, the key skill is Passive Defence: Level 3 nulls IP damage, while Level 2 means I take way too much. This is essential to not get destroyed by Omni-Laser. Rounding out the skillset is Life Up (fairly effective at L3) and Warrior's Way (everything the golems do does hit Def).

From there, it's just a matter of focussing fire on one golem as much as possible. Omni-Laser and Forest Stench are both dangerous enough to be worth cancelling every time I see the chance, which means either techs (Homing Cards is particularly damaging) or criticals if I judge that they'll work. Otherwise, Berserker physicals work well. Something I discovered after some time is it's actually good if these are cancelled late in the string, because being cancelled gets you a turn much sooner than letting the attack run its course, which has interesting applications. Healing... I basically try to save as late as possible, since killing one is so important. If stats down hit, I try to weather the storm as best I can with healing, defending, cancelling, whatever it takes until it wears off... but it usually works best if I can at least kill one. Mercifully, Atk Down isn't very potent.


With them cleared, the dungeon is done. Hi Seiba. Thank you for your All Stats Up Orb, that'd have been 10x cooler if I'd had it for the previous battles. THE BONDS OF HUMANITY WILL ALLOW YOU TO BLAH BLAH BLAH. A Raven appears, and is completely fucking useless. Emelious appears and does horribly evil things and everyone is shocking because EMELIOUS IS EVIL this is totally a plot twist and scarring. Also Alfina flashback and Emelious cuts himself. Totally a plot twist, again. Some dolphin summons me.

No real new setup for the next dungeon, just some restocking. Oh yeah, because the Forest Protectors weren't enough, time for a FRUE BOSS FIGHT. Plotless boss, can't be that scary... ohshi-

Melc Crystals (5 resets):

32000 HP core, two 28000 HP arms/wings. He starts out as a golem, in which all three parts have about average speed. Additionally:

The golem's arms are fairly nasty mages. Hellburner is a solid 2HKO, Boomor isn't much weaker, and Fiora is the ever-annoying GT silence (no way to block Silence besides Gold Ring).

The golem's main body's money move is Hellmixer, which does over 1000 ST physical damage and absolutely insane IP damage. And cancels. It looks like wind/lightning, but it's not. Because Melc Crystals hate you. It also has two MT physical techs: Megaspark, 3HKOish Wind damage, and Cluster Change, which shifts it to Bird form. And, because Melc Crystals hate you, it also does some light damage to all enemies and cancels. Form changes don't need perks like that!

Bird has about triple average speed in all three parts. Fortunately, to make up for this it has about a third the damage in general. The wings mainly use Ripper, which hits a line for about 300 damage or so, but also have Zap, which does a similar amount of evadable damage to a small group. The main body has Feather Blizzard, which hits a group for about 400 physical damage (and isn't water elemental despite name/appearance). And Cluster Change, same as before, to go back to the golem.

Oh, and for fun, all its physical attacks have a quick hit effect (same speed as PC defend command) and all the ones used by the arms/wings cancel.

Ultimately, strategy notes come down to something like this:
-I set up to kill him with magic, because BOOMOR's multitarget goodness can't really be ignored here. However, in a first-time move, I don't complement this setup with a book of the same type. I once again use the Paladin Book, so I can block IP damage and have as much HP as possible.
-Alfina halves all elements and blocks all status, while Dahna settles for just a simple Fire Ring to not get raped by Hellburner and Boomor. This leaves her open to Fiora and full damage from Megaspark/Zap/Howlnado.
-Never have Dahna and Alfina on a line from the bird form. Both being hit by Ripper is <MMX4 Sigma voice> THE END. </sigma> (The bird really likes to spam that move.)
-I keep Diggin' up. Although the effect isn't that pronounced against the golem, it's really noticeable against the bird, who relies on many, weaker attacks. Diggin' taking 100-200 off attacks really adds up against the bird.
-Seiba's Orb is the trump card. Not only does it instantly cast All Stats Up on the party (WHY DIDN'T I GET THIS FOR FOREST PROTECTORS) but its ongoing effect gives free turns. Five of them, to be precise. Really underrated Seiba, he's hax. I use it against the Bird, who is more problematic, and try to save it either for a really, really bad situation, or being below half HP.
-New strategy I use for the first time in this battle: casting Resurrect on someone still alive who is about to die. I'm definitely micromanaging ongoing strategy now.
-Usual cancel the nastiest moves/move when you're about to be physicalled/defend when you're about to get pounded on by lots of stuff/heal-heal-heal/attack when you get a good opening applies.
-I use almost all my Healing Gems (1500 MT healing) in this battle. Alfina has Quick Draw to make them more effective. Not sure I'd even touched them before now, but here they become essential. Alheal no longer keeps up, although Dahna set up for magic makes a try at it.

So yeah. First nasty lategame boss conquered! Easily the toughest boss yet; only the Arcriff Excise Sigma comes especially close. I doubt they're going to play much more fair from here on, but we'll see. I leave to restock, since I badly need to after that fight, and then it's time for another nasty dungeon... next post!

[Luther Lansfeld]

I have an extra comment. FORM CHANGING SHOULD NOT BE MT DAMAGE AND CANCELLING THAT IS HAX!!

Also you forgot Alfina FAINTING at the sight of her OBVIOUSLY NOT EVIL brother being evil, which was the most shocking thing I've seen in years.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

I have an extra comment. FORM CHANGING SHOULD NOT BE MT DAMAGE AND CANCELLING THAT IS HAX!!

G3 bosses being hax. Is there any shock over that?

Also you forgot Alfina FAINTING at the sight of her OBVIOUSLY NOT EVIL brother being evil, which was the most shocking thing I've seen in years.

* Jo'ou Ranbu cues Alfina and Bianca singing "I Touch Myself" in a duet.

[Grefter]

Um wow, well done man.  Convinced you will get to the end of the game fairly easy now with only 5 resets on Melc Crystals.  I know you are good at this kind of thing but that is still damned impressive.

Also people didn't know about Gaea's Cliff Ribbon? >_>  This is something I thought was assumed knowledge.  Now I am spun out more than the time people didn't know about Darkness Crystal in Neclord's castle in Suikoden 2 (RUNE IS SO GOOD THERE)

[Luther Lansfeld]

Seriously, though. You already saw him kill Griff, laugh excessively evilly nonsensically, realize that he is fused with a dark god and he became fused with a dark god BECAUSE he was evil already, and Hect tells who of the other horrific things he did. And you know he killed all the other gods. And you faint because he killed another one? I mean I realize it's your brother but at some point you have to stop being shocked that he's evil.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Um wow, well done man.  Convinced you will get to the end of the game fairly easy now with only 5 resets on Melc Crystals.  I know you are good at this kind of thing but that is still damned impressive.

Honestly, after Elfboy survived the goddamned PS4 LLG, I'm pretty much sold on his ability to pull through just about any challenge that seems even remotely classifiable as theoretically sane in a RPG.

EDIT: Ciato, she also fainted when she was told about the story of bees and what they do when they grow up. By the time Alfina works out her Marysuecest issues with Emelious, she'll have died of impossibly low blood pressure three times over.

[Grefter]

Neither of these challenges is classifiable as theoretically sane.

Grandia 3 plot is much easier to put up with if you approach it the same way you should approach Tales of Eternia plot Alfina/Meredy have brain damage.  Alfina suffers from Anterograde Amnesia and doesn't realise she is over the age of 5 or any events that have passed since then.  She also has no sense of emotional control or correct response.  If you gave her a bunch of flowers and tried to kiss her she would gut you for sleeping with her father behind her back (Because he is HER man).

Meredy's brain damage isn't as directly apparent, it appears for the first half of the game that her translation is incomplete, but every other Celestian you meet can communicate just fine with you and she still speaks in that broken pidgin English the whole time, so she is quite obviously not all there in the head.  It explains a few other points, but it isn't nearly as offensively difficult to watch as Alfina.

You should still scene skip your way through G3.

[Luther Lansfeld]

But it is much more hilarious not to.

[Grefter]

It is only hilarious if someone is there to share the joke with.  G3 by myself was still one of the more difficult things I have sat through.  I would rather watch some kind of mix of 8mm, Grave of Fireflies and Old Boy all mixed together than G3 plot.

[Tide]

G3 Plot. That's really all that needs to be said.

Wild ARMS 3 - SUPER Clive edition. We just need to paint his horse green and give him a hat.

Rafitana: Has scripted AI! Read about this through one of the other boss guides on GameFAQs. Basically her first turn is always Copy Ability (which acquires base attack arcana) and then her second move is always Reflect. If you're faster, you can theoretically cast Reflect on Turn 2. However, Clive Speed. So Flash Hit equipped on turn 1 and cast Reflect ASAP. After that is done, the only real problem is outracing Sacred Blood. Restoring 4000 HP is actually kinda competent at this point - Clive only deals around 1400 at 100 FP and I need a crit to even reach 4k damage. However, I suspect from fighting her that the healing is also scripted (not set to activate every turn...I think it might be every 3 turns actually), which means she DOES eventually die. It just takes a long time. Thankfully, blocking weakness and then keeping up Reflect up makes things faster as Rafitana proceeds to commit suicide by repeatedly hitting herself with magic.

At this point, I kinda have a choice. I can go through the Abyss and pick up Zephyr. However, Zephyr has an unblockable guaranteed you lose move. He also has his summon move which deals quite a bit of damage (like 600 to 1800 base?). The more concerning problem is that he has 18000 HP like the other guardians. Unlike the other guardians, Exploder is bad. Very bad. If you take Clive's 100 FP damage, you'll see it takes at least 11 turns under those conditions of straight attacking to win. 11 turns of going through and not eating Exploder even once. Reflect helps some sure - but he's also faster. Which means that there is always a chance he gets Exploder off before I can cast Reflect. With that, I did a little roundabout method. However, this required me to keep playing in a somewhat unorthodox boss order...which you'll see below!

Chameleon Man: Chameleon Man has two attacks. Attack 1: Inflict Misery. Attack 2: Inflict instant death. He has no actual damage. You do have to block both due to him turning invincible. But uh...yeah. Competent he is not.

Schroedingers (Caging Tower): Fun fact - Wild Bunch requires Maya to be alive in order for it to be used. If she is dead, the other three will not use it. A couple of changes here. The main one being Wild Bunch. You want them to use this attack as it sacrifices Maya's potentially deadlier turn with Calamity Jane. In addition, you ward off three additional attack from Todd/Shady/Alfred. Basically, the 500 you take < eating 4 separate attacks. They love spamming this move, which is fine with me. Fiery Rage/Brave Seal/Lucky Hand set up. Gun down Maya immediately while the others use Wild Bunch and heal up as needed. This is easily managable. Once Maya is down (and this should not take long), take down Todd since he deals the most damage and has the ever present Healing Factor (although at this point, it vaguely sucks nuts in terms of healing). Then take down Shady and then Alfred. It's pretty simple when it comes down to it and is easily the least threatening of the Shroedinger battles. Funny that the solo makes one of the other moves that is normally threatening become the fight's very downfall.

Lombardia: Also vaguely sucks. She will spend three turns buffing herself before attacking. Casting Eraser on turn 3 removes them and drops her damage to somewhat pitiable levels. Also, it seems after 2 or 3 attacks in Mighty Might mode, she goes into overheat and basically takes 4x more damage than normal. Welp.

Kraken: At this point I have the Kramer dolls. Which means I can finally fight other bosses. Most importantly, to get rid of Zephyr without much fuss, I want the Comet Mark. Originally, I planned to use Attachment to get rid of Kraken...but attachment is also on Hope Shard. Oops? Well...turns out even with Attachment, it wouldn't have been the best way to do this. As you may know, Kraken's main claim to fame is Water damage. Very high water damage. Aqua Wisp has Water Ward innate. So he's auto locked on Clive as the medium. What you might not know, is that Kraken does not counter magic damage, but he does counter physical damage. Which means a magic set up is much preferred to taking down Kraken. So Lust Jaw/Love Charm become the remaining two mediums. Turns out this ends up being the optimal way of killing it solo to boot. Now then, equip the PS's Weakness/Life Charge/Water Ward/ATT Blocker. These are all innate. The oter other PS's do not matter as much but you basically need these 4. Once that's done, the first to do in battle is throw a Full Carrot. This will up your defense and allow you to Copy Ability immediately without triggerin any counters at all. From there, spam Maelstrom until it dies. If it uses it's physical, you should be able to eat 4 of them before dying. Which gives you actual ample time to utilize Life's Charge 25% healing. When defending, you can actually outrace Kraken's physical damage (...), which means he has no way to actually run you out of resouces. It took around 35+ minutes. But after a long and very harmless battle, it dies and drops the Comet Mark. Inadvertenly, I also got a 9.9x EXP Mult (...), which gave my levels just a small boost >_>.

Heimdal Gazal: Another secret boss. This one is in dissection facility and drops the Gold License, which halves the cost from everything money related. Yes, this includes ARM upgrades. Which is really important because I have like no money to fully upgrade Clive's ARM the way I want (15 SHT). Okay, so what's up with this guy? Uh...Dark damage. And lots of it. Also has a physical that 4-5HKOs. Sound familiar? Yeah. Well only this time, I have Comet Mark instead of Maelstrom to put him down. Doesn't take too long before it drops!

Sadas: This is actually kinda of funny. First, Sadas outspeeds Clive (non surprise, but it creates problems). Which means, he can fully suicide into me for 2400 damage. This is normally OHKO territory >_>. So it was kinda of a good thing I got some EXPs and levelled up from Kraken. With that in place, it high 2HKOs, but managable. You have to kill Sadas Jr. but you can't hit Jr until Sadas is gone. This isn't a problem because Sadas kinda explodes first thing against Clive, which leaves Sadas Jr. open for a beating. Turn order is Sadas Jr --> Sadas --> Clive, which is important because otherwise, it wouldn't be possible (Sadas explodes, Sadas Jr revives, Clive is ). So to win, all I really have to do is tank out Sadas' kamikaze tendencies and attack whenever possible. 2 shots and its down. Thankfully since that caliber of damage is very scary (much more than anything else to come for a while).

Melody/Malik/Leehalt: They all bring their tricks here. However, Clive's recent promotion to SUPER Clive, means that this is very much a pretty easy battle (and it probably is normally too). Leehalt doesn't have scanner, which means you only have to worry about Malik and Melody. Only 2 attackers and one person who you won't bother touching until near the end. Normally, you just set up POIZN Ward/Focus/Misery Ward/Disease Ward and your done (which means for me Brave Seal/Fiery Rage/Terra Roar) since that shuts off every trick. Then you kill Melody. Well same thing here. Except Clive kinda shatters the damage curve at this point. He deals roughly 7000 damage on a single shot. Needless to say! This did not last long. Once Melody is dead, target Malik with Lock On. He goes down in one hit as well. Then Leehalt. Well I still have 75 FP. So...cast Hyper, 3-hit Gatling. Oh look, Leehalt exploded. Totally didn't expect that.

Ephrem Zein: Okay, so now I have to make my way to the Abyss. This is the hardest portion of the game ever because I seriously have no clue if you can Continue in the Abyss. And because of that, it also meant that every ambush was basically very deadly since the other 3 PCs kinda suck. Just kinda. Well thankfully, the ambushed was mostly Gallows, who had enough HP to take a hit or two. I also got ambushed mostly by money eaters. OH NOES. Well it slows down my upgrade, not that Clive doesn't destroy worlds at this point. The boss itself...dies to your typical in game strategy. It cancels intercepts because Clive speed. Only now, I have 4x the attack power so it dies in 2 hits. Get ready to see that a lot.

Zephyr: First move I thought was locked Phantasmal Heart - it's not. Which means I could've still lost if he casted exploder on me >_>. Doesn't matter. Anyway! This is what all that work against Kraken was for. First turn cast Hyper. Second turn, 2 hit Gatling, dealing 20000 damage. Yep, just BARELY enough to take it out in one round. Probably can go a few more turns before Exploder in reality, but hey. This gets past things without fuss.

Ose: Immune to physicals! Until you cast Ice on him. Oh well.

Malik/Melody: Standard fare. Block their status, take out whichever one first. Then gun down the other. Their damage can probably be decent, but it can't be harder than the 3 prophets fight. And especially not since I have Comet Mark goodness.

Wyvern: Even taking only one action a turn, it dies like a pansy >_>. Build up 100 FP (4 attacks or so), Draconic Gun Blaster. GG

Fafnir: Hitting any of it's weaknesses causes Fafnir to counter with Fafnir horn, which deals decent damage. However, he also falls to only 2 shots so it never matters.

Leehalt/Melody and Malik Clone: Malik Clone has no perfect evade. He's also more annoying than Melody. He dies first to a shot, and then Melody. Leehalt eats more Hyper'd Gatling because I do not want to find out if he has just 14000 HP and end up eating a 12000 Rule of Vengence in return >_>

Seigfred: Clive buffs himself until the end of the world. And then, attack, attack, oh look! OHKO crit that deals 34000 damage. Yeah, I could've stolen the Teardrop, but like Clive can use it ever? (Also more fun this way!)

Sagna Fred: Dies like all air battles. DRACONIC GUN BLASTUUUUUUUUUUUUU

Hydra: You could opt for OHKO crit damage again! Or, do what I do and attach fire to your attack, set up Aqua Wisp/Fiery Rage/Brave Seal with POIZN and Water Wards maxed. You may have to sacrifice one or two levels of Comet Mark here because Comet Mark's cost is insanely high (and for good reason!). 4 shots and it dies

Salamandra: Hey, remember that OHKO thing? Yeah. I don't know if Salamandra Burn causes status (Jet kinda died the one time Salamandra decided to use it), but as long as you block Fire, this is a easy fight. And what was Clive's optimum set up again? Yeah. Hyper/Gella/Lucky Card shinnengans. Hey look! Critical hit for 34000+ damage >_>. It explodes.

EDIT: I should note I also took the liberty to rename the Shroedingers. Excal is now Todd, the afro butler. Pyro is Alfred, NEB is Shady and Ciato is Maya and basically owns all three. Yes, this was the most important part of the update.

[Twilkitri]

Valkyrie Covenant-

Finished the C-path.

Threw caution to the wind and plumed two people during chapter 5 which ended up having no ill effects. Should have tried doing more but eh.

Game realised that difficulty was falling off and tried to make up for a bit, but then decided that that was too much effort and just went with throwing out consecutive maps with no chance to save in between them. Someone needs to be slapped.

I like how people that agreed with Wylfred's path were part of chapter 6 because that makes so much sense. Just like the whole denouement of that path, which is that Hel is a dick. The game appears to be trying to justify it by saying that Wylfred's actions were a key component in having the war grow to the size it did which I consider to be garbage.

Not sure I really consider it to be a bad ending since Wyl was resigned to it in the first place, he just didn't get exactly what he wanted out of it... and what he wanted out of it wouldn't have made a scrap of difference to anything at all regardless.

For a break I went on to


Professor Layton and Pandora's Box-

Finished.

On the plus side, there were no puzzles on the level of that atrocious chocolate puzzle from the first game.

On the neutral side, the story does not make as much sense as one might hope. Since the first game's story didn't either we still in fact can hold this against it, but I won't bother. THE GUY THAT DIED AND SET OFF THE WHOLE THING TURNS OUT TO NOT BE DEAD DESPITE A POLICEMAN AND A 'PROFESSOR' EXAMINING THE BODY WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM GAME

On the minus side, there were far too many characters
half of them barely exist
half of the major ones get written out ¾ into the game


It seems like there were less puzzles that existed as part of the background in this than in the first. While there is a good argument that puzzles-in-the-background is a worthless mechanic, it means that a good deal of the areas in this were kind of worthless. Not helped by the fact that were a lot more areas in this than in the first I believe.

The minigames were fine and a reasonable addition. The tea one could easily have been improved however. As it stood it was just try every possible new combination whenever you get a new ingredient, and whenever you need tea you either have it or you don't. Plus that people only randomly want tea in the first place leading you to have to walk in and out of the area until they do :rage:

[Shale]

The game appears to be trying to justify it by saying that Wylfred's actions were a key component in having the war grow to the size it did which I consider to be garbage.

Well, Hel and Ailyth started the entire war for Wyl's benefit, so he'd have more warriors to kill, so it's not surprising that they'd also lead him to places and situations where he could fan the flames.

[Tonfa]

So basically, the 2nd Ribbon is this ultra obscure thing behind a hidden wall, which is something FF7 never really uses again?

...I'd whine about this, but then, FF games have done this several times over (FF4's path to Ragnarok involved walking over an arbitrary invisible bridge, FF6 has hidden passages below South Figaro, FF2's Masamune...yeah) before FF7, so my reaction is really "Go figure"

Actually, this is not the case. You see the walkway on the other side of the wall, AND you see it's not a wall if you just look at it carefully enough. >_> I never thought that one was obscure.

And Final Turks are a solid boss fight, yes. Most notable for causing an unbelievable amount of grief to challenges.

[Scar]

(Jumping into a conversation about G3)

Are you guys talking about that boss that was in that island in the sky? If so I stopped playing that game after losing to him three times. Fuck Grandia 3.

~

Anyways, massive PSP update!

So I had so many games to choose from, but I didn't know where to start. So I just played all of them for a little bit.

FFT - People actually talked like this? I guess it's better then the original translation. Also, what's this? Extra scenes? Yes please! I'm in chapter 3 my whole team is around level 25, while Ramza is dancing alone at level 83 or so....don't ask I cheese him through every job (Tailwind its called now?) That and then focus for maximum JP gain!) The only thing is that makes randoms SUCK!

FF CC - Fun game, but boy are there a lot of missions. I tried to finish a group of them and I became overpowered in the main storyline. Abusable much? I still don't entirely get the slot machien and how it works. I kinda just am happy every time I level up. And also, I hope I get more slots for magic and equipment...

Did I ever mention how much more I like Zack then Cloud? This game is awesome.

FF Dissidia - Holy hell in a hand basket, I just don't get the characters yet. I played through Cecil and Firion's story arc I guess and neither were the easiest to pick up. Unlocked Kefka, Sephiroth, and Jecht and of those Kefka is REALLY weird. I do like how everyone has their own play style. I can see this game is going to take some time to get used to. Plus the fact that I see some characters start getting some moves in their 20s and up and my highest character is 14 or something. Got a ways to go!

WA XF - Me likes after the first battle, but I feel I should play this game stand alone without any other interruptions.

ST 1st D - I don't like the automatic setting in fights. Semi isn't much better easier, is there a manual setting? Either way, this one is on the backburner.

Persona - Ah, the butterfly...it's been awhile, but then again I never did beat the ps1 game and this one looks a little more polished. Also, Nate has black hair! It's already an improvment. Also...wasn't one of the kids black in the original?

JDA (I guess that's the abbr?) - Game lokos fun even if fights are a little slow, but that one skill Jeanne gets that lets her go again after killing someone seems very abusable. Will get to this one after WA or something.

~~

Either way I am liking the psp purchase. I have plenty of fresh new games to lay and then I get to sit back and enjoy some throwback nostalgia. Good times for all!

~~~

in other rpg news my friend just picked up Secret of Mana for the Virtual Console. Yes, he owns it for the SNES, but no mutli-tap. He has three classic controllers and so this time was the first time I played SoM with three people! It's like three times as good! As usual the stuck me with deciding who to be. I choose the girl, which no one else seemed to want to be...

Bwa hahahahaha The fools! Seriously, they thought making me the healer was a good idea? Also, we just picked up Undine, and I now spam ice saber on our weapons making everything a winter wonderland! You might tell, but they are regretting passing over the girl right about now.

Up next is the gnome cave I think? I dunno, we play under the influence which just makes the game that much more challenging/fun!

[Grefter]

(Jumping into a conversation about G3)

Are you guys talking about that boss that was in that island in the sky? If so I stopped playing that game after losing to him three times. Fuck Grandia 3.

That is indeed Melc Crystal boss that the Elf has beaten in the latest update.

[OblivionKnight]

Grind moar

[Meeplelard]

FF CC - Fun game, but boy are there a lot of missions. I tried to finish a group of them and I became overpowered in the main storyline. Abusable much? I still don't entirely get the slot machien and how it works. I kinda just am happy every time I level up. And also, I hope I get more slots for magic and equipment...

DMW is, simply put, completely random.  Your Limit Rating or whatever its called (thing that goes from Normal, High, etc.) ups the odds of getting a Modulating Phase.  If a character has a x# on their portrait (happens during some plot events), you're more likely to get their limit.

As far as what things do...
Outside of Modulating Phase, numbers grant various effects; in general, triples of a number or a 7 anywhere will have different results.  The results are always beneficial, mind.
Faces mean nothing unless you get 2 of them, then a Modulating Phase occurs.  During this, if any numbers match up, your Materia will level up depending on the number (so 2 1s means your first slot Materia matches up.  You only have 4 now, but you'll get 6 eventually, so 5 and 6 are useless); getting 3 of the same number = 2 level ups.  3 7s yields a level up; this actually is NOT random, but rather, CC has a hidden EXP counter, such that when you hit a threshold, your next modulating phase will force a level up.  This means that depending on luck, you can level up 3 times in a row in Modulating Phases, if you went through a whole bunch of enemies without a single limit.
If the middle face matches up with the two side ones, you'll get a Limit Break, depending on character (So 3 Sephiroth's = Octaslash.)

When you get a special scene or something, this typically means you'll get a stronger version of the limit; when this kicks in, its totally random.  There's also Summons and Chocobo Mode, which can replace whatever Limit you expect with something else, which again, are random.

Does that help?  Essentially, DMW is, as Grefter put it once "You're overpowered, and there's a slot machine that makes you more overpowered at random points!"

FF Dissidia - Holy hell in a hand basket, I just don't get the characters yet. I played through Cecil and Firion's story arc I guess and neither were the easiest to pick up. Unlocked Kefka, Sephiroth, and Jecht and of those Kefka is REALLY weird. I do like how everyone has their own play style. I can see this game is going to take some time to get used to. Plus the fact that I see some characters start getting some moves in their 20s and up and my highest character is 14 or something. Got a ways to go!

Cecil has a dual style nature, of course he's going to be somewhat complicated (though, they made his story a 1 star mode, so it has easy enemies, map formation, etc.)  Firion's somewhat more expert, requiring getting use to playing a sniping and reactionary game, more so than attacking head on.

Cloud's probably the best for beginners, being straight forward and what not.  Squall's pretty easy to handle as well, as is WoL.  Tidus isn't bad outside of some awkward initial HP Attacks (they're not bad, but the hit boxes are a bit unintuitive, so they take getting use to.)  Terra's also pretty straight forward, though rather different at the same time.

Most of the villains are gimmicky, and take more getting use to.  Sephiroth and Garland are the only really straightforward villains; everyone else is best to hold off on until you've gotten more use to the battle system in general.  Playing through the 10 Destiny Odysseys should give you enough of a handle on the heroes granted.

[Shale]

The one thing not completely random about DMW is leveling up. There is actually a hidden EXP value that has to reach a certain point before you can gain another level, and while you're not guaranteed to immediately get a 777, the longer you go without leveling up even though you've got enough EXP, the more likely it gets.

[Crystalgate]

Final Fantasy V: Lost Lenna and got her back. That's more or less where I am now.

The Throw command is ridiculously powerful and sometimes ends battles immediately. Enemies have however progressed to the point where they usually survive one of the scroll throws. Other than that, characters are getting close to mastering classes.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

LFT - Out of boredom, I picked this up. Initial thoughts:

- I'm still making Ramza a mage, and doing so alongside picking up a Priest utterly trivialized Mandalia Plains. I had utterly ridiculous luck with my starting generics, though: two females with over 70 Faith (one of them with 74), a 61/69 who is currently my Priest and a 74 Brave (now 76) Squire, who is now beelining through Archer for sexy Thief action. Still pondering what to do with Ramza besides having him sit on Wizard for now. One of my females will probably go the Time/Oracle route, while the 74 Faith one I'm pondering to dual-build with Summoner/Wizard. The males are going to be more interesting to figure out, though, since there's a multitude of physical builds to try.

- WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO TO THE RADIUS ON POISON LAGGY.

- I want a Thief really badly.

- I should ask Tonfa about the fix on the graphics weirdness.

So far, so good. It's FFT with freshness, so it can only lead to good things. Ramza is a Capricorn, by the way.

[AAA]

Knights of the Old Republic-Saved the Wookie, then wandered around for a bit just looking for stuff. Unfortunately the game glitched out on me afterwards and crashed so I stopped playing.

Saints Row 2-So I played more of this! Did a bunch of the Ronin missions, I believe I've got only one or two more to go before they're wiped off the map.

Game is just a ton of fun. Has more polish than GTA in certain aspects, like having checkpoints for multi-part missions. The story started out hilarious but then got kind of serious, but you can still cover people's houses in septic waste so it's all good.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Saint's Row 2 is basically what GTA4 should have been.

[Tide]

Wild ARMS 3: Super Clive Challenge comes to an end

Gespenst: Requiem. lol

Asgard: Need to have Fallen Ward equipped here. His damage is 5HKO territory so uh...this ends up not being too much of a problem. Worse comes to worse, you can buff yourself and cast Permanance but it's never really necessary.

Nebiros: Well I get to use underlevelled characters for this. But since he is all LOLELEMENTALATTACKS and you can choose which one hits you...it's just much easier to inflict a weakness on him and then solo him with Gallows >_>. Fire/Wind/Earth/Water seems to be his most often provided choices. So make sure one medium can block those.

Tiamat: I killed 3 disasters before. It would be best to kill more of them since the summon animations take a while. It also has a decent amount of HP. 36000 means it can take 4 Clive shots if I don't heal at all. ATT Plus is needed. I finally burn the Prism Crown here on Love Charm and use that along with my physicals and beat it down.

Beatrice 1: Brave Seal has Focus, which blocks Sleep. That is enough. Dark Matter deals like 200 damage so whatever. ATT Plus, cast Hyper, 2 turn afterwards

Beatrice 2: See above!

Nega Filgaia:
Form 1 - Uh...doesn't do anything except counter. Which means buff buff and then permanance. Cast everything so I have free choice between medium switching. Which you will see happens a lot.
Form 2 - I think this was one of the resetting forms. But ATT Plus maxed out with Hyper here goes to work and 2 turns.
Form 3 - Fiery Rage/Lust Jaw/Love Charm. This allows Clive to cast 1000+ damage Devastates. No replay needed!
Form 4 - Four lizards that use elemental damage. Fiery Rage/Love Charm/Brave Seal. Elemental Ward from Prism Crown here goes to work. 4 attacks, reload once.
Form 5 - 2 dragons that both get OHKO'd >_>. So um...lol
Form 6 - Think this was a resetter. Doesn't matter. I don't think he actually casts it until turn 4. And 3 turns is enough since Clive 2 rounds
Form 7 - Remote competence from Arcana Disaster. But then...lol ELEMENTAL WARD CHEESE. So he ends up being utter fail. ATT Plus goes to work
Form 8 - Okay. Finally, a form that is more annoying! The damage is basically blocked by Elemental Ward, but the trouble is actually getting to hit him due to Sacrifice. I end up having to cast a Summon here. First one...I forget to cast Weakness so it doesn't deal a lot. Second one however, does it though
Form 9 - At this point, I have only 1 MTC left. So I need to make that one summon count or I have to use Reset since that gimmick is still present in this form. Then I found another trick with Clive speed. Basically, set up such that when you kill the second Messenger, you are SLOWER than Nega Filgaia. So in other words, don't equip Gale Claw. Next turn, adjust your speed with Gale Claw so that you become faster than Nega Filgaia. You'll get a free shot at Nega Filgaia while he is not protected by the Messengers. What happened? Well basically - when the messenger die, Nega Filgaia had already spent his turn so he can't revive. However, the very next turn, Clive becomes faster than Nega Filgaia which gives me a free shot. I deal enough damage before casting a summon to put it down.
Form 10 - Well, 3 shots is enough. I spent turn 1 stealing he EX. File Key, but then Elemental Ward goes to work. It can cast a NE spell when all 4 tentacles are up, but that takes way too long before it ever becomes a problem.

Overall thoughts:
The Clive solo is definitely quite interesting. If nothing else, the lack of speed causes definite problems in several early fights. It's also more of a thought excercise since there are times when certain gimmicks require certain set ups in order to get by - the example that comes to mind is Balazs. Otherwise, utilizing your attack - ST at that makes certain enemies more noticable since you can't simply rando smash as quickly. Battles for the most part were pretty fun - although Danger battles need to die. Playing it through, it basically beats a few things into your head. Most notably being that:

a) WA3 Speed is actually pretty important.
b) WA3 SHT upgrades are ridiculous if you don't grab the gold license. Hint: GET IT.
c) Elemental attacks > randoms. Elemental Wards > Bosses.
d) MT is love if you can spare it

Point b particular is notable weakness in the Clive challenge. While Ginny can get her magic stat stronger via mediums and levelling up, Clive needs actual Gella cost which becomes ridiculously expensive and as such, becomes harder and harder to improve. Point d is also pretty notable. Certain fights such as Shroedingers would be a lot better if you actually had some sort of reliable MT attack. Not having and going last means that you usually end up eating more attacks so relative durability is actually not what it states on the screen. Regardless, it was fun. Would I recommend people to try it? Sure, although having some foreknowledge is probably a good thing. The overall difficulty is probably around averagish. There are some definite hard fights, but thanks to mediums and gears, its not difficult to turn late game enemies into mulch.

Medium thoughts:
Just some tentative thoughts on which medium is better in a ranking style. YVMV, but really, tailored to the Clive solo perspective. Some may be surprising. Some may not!

1) Brave Seal: No brainer. Brave Seal boosts HP and ATT by notable amounts. Great stats for Clive to have boosted. He also comes with innate Focus, which blocks all ailments that don't linger after battle. This includes Instant Death. Thus, Brave Seal becomes very awesome for this reason alone. His other selling points include Hyper, which just rapes the shit out of bosses even more so. It's not useful against randoms because very few randoms can take a Clive physical twinked before hand. Bosses who are hardier though, sure. Distortion is also kinda nice if you want to fool around with defending and Life Charge. His summon attack is kinda garbage though. Also SOS Support got me killed against Tiamat. I don't know what happened, but I think the game kinda glitched and skipped my normal turn when I didn't have FP to cast any support spells - Glen and Tal can probably attest to this.
2) Fiery Rage: Also a no brainer. Although Fiery Rage gives a really good run for Brave Seal's money. It's big thing aside from upping ATT was Devastate. Yes, this spell is awesome since it has double the mult of other elemental magic. Having Fire Ward/POIZN Ward as good too since these two things were commonly spammed by most randoms and enemies. It's also owns Melody in that one form in Yggdrasil!
3) Love Charm: Boosts an arguably more important stat than Lust Jaw/Aqua Wisp in raising MGR to be higher. Not that MAG wasn't important in some fights, but the magic defense was usually a more preferred stat to boost otherwise. Rafitana had a few other things making her stand out than just stat boosts. Weaken for one is totally awesome since it can raise your damage by as much as 3x when it hits and Life Charge, a commonly overlooked PS is insanely badass. It restores 25% MHP when maxed out during guarding. Since guarding also reduces damage, it's an effective way to heal since the amount of damage you take ends up being reduced. Berries do not do this. Towards the end, it was healing almost as much as a berry anyway (around 750+) when Green Thumb wasn't there, so it was usually a better choice. It also doesn't use resources and its a nice freebie everytime you end up needing to reload anyway.
4) Lucky Hand: Luck is a very cool stat since it makes the probability of other PS's that are chanced based go up. Luck Boost ends up being very awesome as a result. It also increases critical hits and evade, both of which are very awesome when they happen. It's other uses are rather limited otherwise, but yeah, that one skill is often enough to consider equipping.
5) Gale Claw: Surprised? Well, you shouldn't be if you followed along some of my boss battles. Some of them were overcome but utilizing Gale Claw's innate boost of +30% to speed (and later 50%). It was a very niche medium in terms of equipping, but when its uses are needed, it is amazing. Of course, having two elemental wards (which are again, broken against bosses) and Quicken/Turbulence being good spells to cast doesn't hurt its case either
6) Lust Jaw: Another niche type medium. It's main use comes from utilizing weakness once a weakness is applied. Some bosses are flat out immune, but those that aren't getting horribly blown to bits afterwards. It also has Dark Lucied which is a nice spoilage type move. More importantly, it was another good medium that boosted magic and magic defense.
7) Moon Spark: Even more specific in its niche. Moon Spark's main money move was Sleep against the Huskarls. Past that, most of its spells were just not that useful. Oh and Eraser on Fortune Gear Janus and Grav against Angolmolis...but you get the point. Actual stat boosts were decent in MGR and HP and innate Dark Ward was pretty cool too since Dark is another commonly used element.
8) Hope Shard: Kinda underwhelming. I guess attachment arcana is kinda neat, but you need to have the element you want to attach before hand from the medium with that element. Sometimes, this is a hassle. More importantly, you have other attack boosting spells to compete with such as Hyper and Valiant. And if bosses were immune to Weaken, then Attachment's worth further goes down. Permanance was cool though. Past that, I got no other use out of it. Force Charge is awesome on paper. In practice...I'm not sure since I'm usually not hurting for that immediate extra FP, although I guess it wouldn't hurt.
9) Aqua Wisp: Early ATT Blocker and having two elemental wards are its big selling points. Early Heal is also nice, but its not too significant in actual hard boss battles. Otherwise, you use it for the MAG boosts. Later has competition from Lust Jaw and Love Charm, which means it gets even less screen time. But at least it comes up every now and then when magic is needed.
10) Flash Hit: Flash Hit often gets mocked by me since it raises freaking HIT. I still mock it even now. It's main selling point and sole saving grace is that it has one of the most awesome spells in WA3 - Valiant. It also does raise HP, so it doesn't deserve all the bad rap it ends up getting. At the very least, it makes one of its own spells more awesome!      
11) Terra Roar: Uh...well this is pretty close between Cosmic Cog. Terra Roar wins in arcana selection and having Earth Ward though. Fallen Ward might come close (yes, it's worth that much), but Protect is a neat spell, especially once you get Permanance, and it raises a much better stat than the Cosmic Cog's broader but weaker stat boosts in HP. It is otherwise, pretty useless.
12) Cosmic Cog: C.Cog's big thing is Fallen Ward. Once you get Brave Seal, there is no more use for Cosmic Cog because none of its spells are useful. Replay is not applicable in a solo, so basically, it has nothing to offer. The stat boosts are also kinda weakish too. I never used it once Brave Seal became available.

Thoughts on Skills/Gears:
Mm...breaking this down into Gears I ended up using...

ATT Plus: This thing is so awesome. It's one of the few ways to make Clive really awesome. It's also fairly easy to get just because Kraken is such a damn easy boss. Of course, it does have a significant cost. T get more out of it, you have to use 10 PS points for each level. Ouch. This means that you can't even equip it at full and hope to get full protection for some time simply because you won't have the points for it. Once you use it though, you realize there is a good reason for this. Outside of outright immuning physical attacks, getting x4 mult on your standard physical makes things very PAINFUL for bosses. Most of them end up dropping in two hits flat. One of better gears out there for sure, although not the best. That belongs to...

Elemental Ward: This thing. In other games it might not matter, but Prism Crown's Elemental Ward shuts down many types of boss offense, it isn't even funny. Its cost isn't even that high. 4 PS per level. Not to mention that you can avoid the general hassle of needing to hussle between mediums to get optimum elemental coverage once this skill becomes available? Yeah. There's a good reason why this skill is in one of the last few chests in the game. It also sees a lot of use even in the last dungeon that you actually get to use it for. Definitely unbalanced in PS point cost - but becomes very very awesome because of that.

Total Ward: Surprisingly not as awesome despite the number of frequent status attempts. Why? The answer is simply because the Guardian Lords have updated version of status wards that also cover multiple statii at once. Some statii are also never worth devoting a gear slot to (Bronze, I am looking at you), so those upgraded versions are usually enough. It also costs 5 PS points, where as Elemental Ward only costs 4. Oh, and its also irrelevant for the final series of battles and has to compete with Status Lock existing. Yeah. Not a bad skill, but not as awesome as you would think.

SOS RFX Boost: A niche use skill but very awesome. At one level, boosts speed to 1.5x when you're at 20% of your health or lower. At maxed level, it boosts it by two. Throw this in with Gale Claw and Quicken and you get a whopping 4.5x mult to your RFX. Even a total slug like Clive ends up being fast once you do that. It's also good since it allows you to outspeed and heal if you need to. Again, Niche, but good.

SOS Guard: Theoretically has better use than SOS RFX Boost due to Clive speed. However, in practice, that level of speed boosting makes even Clive fast, which makes this skill not as useful. It does only cost 3 points though! Bargain.

Focus: Comes on Brave Seal and is probably one of the more awesome skills out there. Focus blocks Confusion/ID/Sleep/Glass/Bronze/Paralysis. Outside of Bronze, all of them are deadly, so this is a pretty worthwhile trade for 4 PS points. And since its innate, you don't *actually* have to waste gear slots for all those status blocking items and can leave them to say elemental rings instead

Auto Reload: You kinda have to know how to use this to make it effective. It saves a turn guarding and its only real use ever IS for Clive due to his low bullet count. Som fun facts: If you attack bare handed, you always have a chance to auto reload as long as one level of this skill exists. At max'd level, the base chance for auto reloading is 18.75%. With Best Luck, boost this value by about 2x from experience. Having a 40% chance to auto reload your ARM when it runs off and deals around 14000 a turn without needing to waste anytime guarding becomes pretty awesome. However, the downside of course, is that if Luck is not at Best, it kinda becomes a waste. It is also a waste if you're using Finest Arts or if you've upgraded more bullets. Fun skill, not overtly as useful/practical as I thought

ATT Blocker: This skill is pretty awesome. It adds an extra chance to avoid physicals at 18.75% chance when maxed. Double when Luck is good. Which means on anyone with at least some evade (like Clive), it gives physical enemies absolute fits. Blocking the status effect of an attack if this triggers is further neat, although that seems even more detailed than anything I've experienced this playthrough. Worth the 2 points per level? Sure.

Luck Boost: Also commonly overlooked. Luck does some really notable things in WA3. Most notably it effects evasion chances and critical hits. It also effects PS's. You should ALWAYS ALWAYS max this skill whenever possible. Other things it does that I know of: Effects chances of the chests being properly disarmed, effects status rates when they are not 100% status, effects duration of status buffers. Sometimes a battle is lost because Luck isn't at the appropriate level. 3 PS early on is kinda expensive, but its worthwhile later on when you have actual PS points to spend.

Life Charge: More effective than standard as I noted since you take reduced damage while doing this. The only catch of course is that the amount you recover is pretty shoddy. But its a nice way to restore HP at the end of randoms or during boss fights when damage can be controlled better via bffers and what not. Only equip when you need to actually guard of course.

Weakness: Pretty good. The one thing that gets me about this skill of course, is that sometimes, you need weaken to hit. Not all enemies are vulnerable to it, which means that Weakness becomes non applicable for that fight. However, it's probably still more cheaply priced than it should be worth. It costs only 2 SP IIRC. Meanwhile, compare that to ATT Plus' 10...yeah

Critical Hit: Unreliable for it to be of definitive use, but nice if you have the PS for it. It raises the damage mult of a crit to as high as x4 (basically 2x that of a regular crit, which is around x2 already). At 2 PS, it's pretty cost effective. Check your luck before equipping though. If it is at Bad or Worst, don't bother

CounterAttack: Overpriced even at only 2 PS. The problem is, your counter chance is so low (18.75%) when maxed, which gets effected then by luck. Further bigger problem is that enemies usually at least have two attacks, usually a status or something elemental. This means that you can usually block the status 100% or elemental damage 100% in trade of a 18.75% chance of counterattacking. Even when this is Clive, the trade is pretty obvious. Of course, it also doesn't let you counter MT or spells so that's even worse.

FP Save: Pretty good when you first get it. Of course, gradually loses worth as your levels rise. It is most notable for letting you cast Sleep on turn one against the Huskarls. At 2 PS cost, it's probably a bit underpriced (Replay at only 50 FP normally is kinda wtf), but yeah, worth gets less and less so this is probably balanced.

Power Cancel: Very cool normally. Didn't see much use during the solo run since I was usually better spending my PS on other skills (most notably status/elemental guards). Since your always going last, being able to cancel your action and make a second better action for the situation at no cost is huge. I guess with one person, sometimes you already have preplanned an action so you usually don't need to take corrective measures. 5 PS is probably adequately priced since its a pretty notable advantage otherwise.

Other Elemental blockers/Status Blockers: All have varying uses at varying points. Done correctly though, you only need status blockers for the ones that aren't innately blocked such as Confusion/Misery/Glass/Paralysis). However, you will most likely need to adjust your medium's ability to block elemental damage at some point since Prism Crown arrives very late and it is difficult to get appropriate coverage otherwise. As for cost values...status wards are okay. Elemental Wards probably need to be doubled or something since they are very broken when used appropriately - they can neutralize most offense. The fact that they practically shut down RAGU3 is pretty telling.

Whew, end of overly long post. Hope you had fun reading along the solo and what not. It was fun.

[NotMiki]

DDR: beat Paranoia Survivor on Heavy.  Game only came out 4 years ago!

[Hunter Sopko]

Final Fantasy- Finished. I can totally see why people enjoy this game. It's simple enough not to grate on you, and the replay value is pretty decent. Can't honestly give it too high a score, but it was a nice game all told.

Probably will start up Atelier Iris soon, maybe work on finishing Spectral Souls too.