Games you're playing: The 2009 edition.

[Clear Tranquil]

Depends on whether Djinn's on Normal or Expert too. Souji won't OHKO every boss on Expert and randoms are also more durable.

Maybe I'm just hopelessly biased too but I have a lot more respect for characters who can seriously shine on their own like Chie and Yosuke and hell even Naoto rather than just Souji does it (my Souji's mostly been on perma Yoshi mode first to learn HB and because Yoshi's so damned good since)~

(I'm also a lazy ass who only has 56% Compendium completion and hasn't experimented much with fusion twinks because there was so much else to do but ...)

[OblivionKnight]

On the other hand, while Kanji needs level 60 to get Mataru...that's when you start fighting bosses it matters for (Hippie, Killer, Eye, Pysch Case).  Other skills at that point include:

Yosuke - Masukukaja (60)
Chie - Power Charge (52), High Counter (61)
Yukiko - Samarecarm (59), Mediarahan (65)
Rise - Healing Wave (63)
Teddie - Marakukaja (58), Amrita (61), Samarecarm (63)...Mataru for him comes at 42!!!!
Naoto - Mind Charge (56), Blight (58), Mudo Boost (64)

So if you want Mataru, Teddie gets it waaaaaaay earlier.  However, as mentioned previously, Teddie's skill slots are a bit of an issue, especially with what you want him to do.  As a healer, he needs Amrita, Mediarahan, Samarecarm, probably Diarahan too.  If you want him as an attack mage, he needs the -dynes and Ice Boost/Amp.  Mixing all of them together works (so Mataru, Maraku, Sama, Amrita, Mediarahan, Ice Boost, Ice Amp, Mabufudyne...is still missing ST damage, as well as ST healing and the few other skills he has such as Ice Break, Traesto, and even Mediarama to a point).  So if you decide to make him pure support, that works...although support isn't too helpful for randoms.  Make him mostly a random smasher, and he'll suffer a bit in the support department.  Teddie is excellent, but mostly because he can do so much - it's just you need to decide what you want him to do.  Also, if he's your only Matarukaja user, he might not use it often in boss fights if he needs to heal...so you use another healer or Matarukaja user, which is basically the same thing. 

Not saying he's bad, but just because he gets it earlier doesn't completely count out Kanji.  Each character is pretty balanced and has decent use
- Kanji is high physical ST damage, has electric damage, and has great durability + Mataru for support
- Yosuke has a bit of everything and fewer issue with skill slots than Teddie, great stat spread, does the wind damage, can do physical damage if needed, dispels, early healer
- Chie does MT physical damage, early ice damage, great ST damage once she gets Power Charge, also has good speed
- Yukiko has loads of SP, quick MT healing, great damage, gets Salvation
- Rise is immune to all damage, which kicks ass
- Teddie has loads of useful skills, does the ice thing well, has neat weapons to supplement him
- Naoto has Mind Charge and the Almighty skills, and Dark/Light, along with the best weapon in the game (+5 all stats) and some miscellaneously relevent skill

Everyone's good is the point >_>  I'd say MVP in-game is PROBABLY Kanji, since his niche can be covered by everyone else.  But they're all good for different reasons.

[Clear Tranquil]

Yeah!

I mostly agree with everything you say and in your previous post too, I just like to rant (and because Djinn said he liked Chie too) ^_^

For Teddie I have -

Mediarahan, Mabufadyne, Matarukaga, Marakukaja, Amrita, Ice Boost, Ice Amp, Samarecarm =-)

Chie - Agneyastra, Power Charge, God's Hand, High Counter, Tarukaga, Mabufu, Ice Boost

Yosuke - Brave Blade, Diarama, Dekaja, Magarudyne, Masukukaja, Tentarafoo, Wind Amp, Wind Boost

Kanji - Elec Boost, Matarukaga, Maziodyne, Primal Force, Vile Assault, Elec Amp (final)

Yukiko -  Agidyne (current) Fire Boost,  Fire Break, Maragidyne, Mediarahan, Salvation, Samarecarm, Fire Amp (final)

[Fudozukushi]

Am I the only one who used Yosuke/Yukiko/Teddie?  Well, whatever.

The World to Reverse: After the hilarious crap that happened on SA, I decided to give this a whirl since it seemed interesting.  It's divided into two short stories.  Flanca, the one I played first, is about you playing as a young boy and his experiences in a bad town.  Hallucinate is about you playing a guy in a hospital without a leg, and the girl who keeps coming and saying she hates you.  Hallucinate is the better of the two, but Flanca's not bad.

Minor plot spoilers but lol like you care.

Hallucinate is better because it has an actual "True End".  There's one that's clearly meant to be the right end.  While in Flanca there's no real closure after you hit every other end(that I know of).  Which really is a big miss on Flanca's part, because a "True End" there would probably make it better than Hallucinate.  Course, with the way the story goes it would be kind of hard for a "True End" anyway.

[AndrewRogue]

Dragon Age: Harkan has made it to Redcliffe to speak with Arl Eamon, but, alas, times are troubled. Much to Morrigan's chagrin, Harkan offers aid to the people and the group offers to stand firm against the undead hordes that approach.

Yea, night approaches and Harkan and his companions stand bravely against the hordes of walking corpses and manages to stand his ground with the knights. But no! More pour in from over the lake, forcing them to abandon their post to defend the chantry! The teeming swarms of the undead flood over the defenders and everyone is slain.

*LOADING, TRY AGAIN*

Yea, night approaches and Harkan and his companions stand bravely against the hordes of walking corpses and manages to stand his ground with the knights. But no! More pour in from over the lake, forcing them to abandon their post to defend the chantry! This time they approach with more organization and better planning and seem to have things under control, right until they run out of healing items and the bastards don't stop coming ever. The teeming swarms of the undead flood over the defenders and everyone is slain.

...I think I might need to try a different tact here.

[Magetastic]

Dragon Age: Harkan has made it to Redcliffe to speak with Arl Eamon, but, alas, times are troubled. Much to Morrigan's chagrin, Harkan offers aid to the people and the group offers to stand firm against the undead hordes that approach.

Yea, night approaches and Harkan and his companions stand bravely against the hordes of walking corpses and manages to stand his ground with the knights. But no! More pour in from over the lake, forcing them to abandon their post to defend the chantry! The teeming swarms of the undead flood over the defenders and everyone is slain.

*LOADING, TRY AGAIN*

Yea, night approaches and Harkan and his companions stand bravely against the hordes of walking corpses and manages to stand his ground with the knights. But no! More pour in from over the lake, forcing them to abandon their post to defend the chantry! This time they approach with more organization and better planning and seem to have things under control, right until they run out of healing items and the bastards don't stop coming ever. The teeming swarms of the undead flood over the defenders and everyone is slain.

...I think I might need to try a different tact here.

Where's the lighting them on fire? Seriously. Where?

[DjinnAndTonic]

- Rise is immune to all damage, which kicks ass

What? Rise can actually -do- something in this game? I'm confused.

The only reason I am having qualms about changing my party around is because I just like Kanji, Chie, and Yosuke the best as characters, not as PCs. And since I know I'm not gonna feel like keeping everyone fully leveled as time goes on. I like Teddie and Yukiko too, but just not as much as the others. Naoto I just don't care for.

I'm probably leaning towards trading out Kanji for Yukiko because getting Electric damage and Matarukaja on Souji is easier than switching out for Healing and Revival all the time. And putting Teddie into a team with Chie is just wasting my elemental variety. Chie may not be a great Ice-damage dealer, but the only reason I use magic is to hit weakness anyway. It was why I preferred Kanji since he doesn't rely on MP. Yosuke and Yukiko are both kind of -ugh- in this case as I tend to my dungeons all in one sitting, so being MP-reliant is a HUUUGE drawback to me, especially since they can't get Invigorate or anything. I'm hoping Yosuke gets a better physical skill soon so I can stop using magic all the time. His big use to me against randoms is Tentarafoo for the dangerous ones, and Magaru for the wind-weak ones. I tend to ignore his big wind damage most of the time to conserve MP. Would be more useful with a big HP-using skill.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

- Rise is immune to all damage, which kicks ass

What? Rise can actually -do- something in this game? I'm confused.

OK's Rise ranking hype. Nod, smile and latch Shion/Alma yaoi onto his forehead.

[OblivionKnight]

Yosuke gets Brave Blade.  A bit weaker than God Hand.  ST physical skill.

[DjinnAndTonic]

I'm curious if Rise -can- actually do anything in-game though? I notice the stat topic lists her as having a 1-damage physical? Even if OK's being crazy, I'm curious where this comes from?

Is there an option to make Rise attack somehow?

[superaielman]

No, OK is being crazy.

[Taishyr]

OK is being crazy.

[Magetastic]

She heals you after battles! >_>;

At least, I think she does. Eventually. My memory might be wrong about this. I haven't seen her in action for a good while now.

[OblivionKnight]

Mechanics-wise?  Yes, that's what damage she would do with that set-up >_>

[Sierra]

Am I the only one who used Yosuke/Yukiko/Teddie?  Well, whatever.

Nope, that was my final party as well.

Andy: I died there the first time as well. Have your party hang back during the first wave; the knights at the top of the hill are perfectly capable of repelling all the enemies during that section. Should lessen the drain on your resources, at least.

Anyway...I've been checking out the other intros in DA. Seems all of them have an NPC or two show up later in the maingame, which is sorta neat when you've already completed the game and recognize these people from somewhere they'll wind up later. Well, except for dalish elf, which seems to contribute no one of relevance. We're all shocked about that, I'm sure.

[Excal]

Eh, using who you like characterwise is a perfectly fine reason.  I know that helped me tie break when I got down to my final party.

As for what I'm playing.  Recently beaten FFV, and am giving it a break before I get around to the aftergame.  The translation was superb, the final classes, were fairly forgettable.  The Gladiator seems like a slightly better version of the DQ8 crit skills, the Oracle is ATB Up and that's it, and the Cannoneer, well...  I'm generally opposed to classes where you need to constantly buy their class in a shop on general principle.  Especially if it's not something like FFT Samurai where you're going to be buying it anyways.  Bartz went physical, Lenna went physical/utility/summoner.  Galuf/Krile went Mage/Utility, and Faris did the Pure Mage thing, grabbing White/Time/Red Mage and Oracle.

Since then.  SMT3 is still stuck at Matador.  I'd consider grabbing some Physical resisting/immuning Demons, except the issue is that he's one shotting the Demifiend with Def Down + Andaluca.  So, I'm guessing my level needs to be higher than 17.  Either that, or that 6k Magatama gives Phys resist/null, and I'm going to have to just hunker down and get it.  Either way, grinding is in my future, oh yay.

Gave Mother 3 a try, and beat Chapter 1.  Seems like it replaced the humour with drama.  And they're actually good at drama...  who knew?  Little bit into Chapter 2, may or may not continue with this in near future.

SRW-J is restarted.  Haven't really touched this since I SRWed myself out a while back when I finished OG2.  Just in the middle of Ch13, Nadesco Route.  Akito is fairly clearly my MVP right now, though I will admit that in large part this is because I've been feeding him tons of cash, if not the best equips.  As it is, he's personally about as effective as the average Super Robot (with the exception of Mazinger) by himself, and steps up when he's in the middle of the Aesti Swarm.  Mazinger is probably second best, as it's the only Super Robot that can take a hit without spamming Guard and Invincibility.  I mean, each group has their own tricks, but the Aesti's are pretty damn good at supporting/terraining their way down to a 25% base chance of getting hit, before Concentrate enters the picture (other Reals are...  not faring anywhere near as well, with hit rates starting closer to 80-90% and lacking the awesome supports the Nadesco Units have, as well as the awesome defenses)  and in the Supers, Mazinger Z takes about half the damage of the other Supers, which just becomes even more insane when Potential starts kicking in.  Can't wait to get it back, actually...  And third best seems to be Belzelute.  A 9 range attack paired with Hit & Run means I can often attack without worrying about counters or being left behind.  And when she does start in the thick of things, twin supports is also helpful.

[dude789]

Gave Mother 3 a try, and beat Chapter 1.  Seems like it replaced the humour with drama.  And they're actually good at drama...  who knew?  Little bit into Chapter 2, may or may not continue with this in near future.

I'd say go for it, it's fairly short and the story is very good. The humor is still there, just be sure to talk to all the NPCs you meet to see all of it.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Eh, using who you like characterwise is a perfectly fine reason.  I know that helped me tie break when I got down to my final party.

I sorta agree. If you actually cared about efficiency period, you wouldn't even have rotated PCs. It won't kill you to just use your favorite party anyway. I did indulge in some degree of inefficiency anyway by using Naoto as a party member when she joined anyway just because I like her, so.

[AndrewRogue]

Am I the only one who used Yosuke/Yukiko/Teddie?  Well, whatever.

Nope, that was my final party as well.

Andy: I died there the first time as well. Have your party hang back during the first wave; the knights at the top of the hill are perfectly capable of repelling all the enemies during that section. Should lessen the drain on your resources, at least.

Anyway...I've been checking out the other intros in DA. Seems all of them have an NPC or two show up later in the maingame, which is sorta neat when you've already completed the game and recognize these people from somewhere they'll wind up later. Well, except for dalish elf, which seems to contribute no one of relevance. We're all shocked about that, I'm sure.

The knight segment is easy, honestly. I'm pretty full up when we get to the militia. Then things just sort of go to hell.

[Cotigo]

Gave Mother 3 a try, and beat Chapter 1.  Seems like it replaced the humour with drama.  And they're actually good at drama...  who knew?  Little bit into Chapter 2, may or may not continue with this in near future.

I'd say go for it, it's fairly short and the story is very good. The humor is still there, just be sure to talk to all the NPCs you meet to see all of it.

Yeah.  Itoi can pull the serious off when he wants to.  There are parts of the game that he changed simply because they were too dark. 

If you liked Earthbound, it's worth a shot because it's really short and you'll probably enjoy it.  If you thought Earthbound was the greatest thing since sliced bread and that Mother 3 should be almost exactly like it then you're kind of in for a disappointment, though.  Or so I've heard.  I liked both.  Itoi should write a novel because it would be surreal as fuck and awesome.

[Magic Fanatic]

Gave Mother 3 a try, and beat Chapter 1.  Seems like it replaced the humour with drama.  And they're actually good at drama...  who knew?  Little bit into Chapter 2, may or may not continue with this in near future.

I'd say go for it, it's fairly short and the story is very good. The humor is still there, just be sure to talk to all the NPCs you meet to see all of it.

Yeah.  Itoi can pull the serious off when he wants to.  There are parts of the game that he changed simply because they were too dark. 

If you liked Earthbound, it's worth a shot because it's really short and you'll probably enjoy it.  If you thought Earthbound was the greatest thing since sliced bread and that Mother 3 should be almost exactly like it then you're kind of in for a disappointment, though.  Or so I've heard.  I liked both.  Itoi should write a novel because it would be surreal as fuck and awesome.

It is a short game, yes, and completely enjoyable.  I went through the whole thing in a mere 20 hours, and not once did I find myself dreading playing this.  Earthbound is another family favorite game, so there's inspiration there, too.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Mother 3's a pretty good game, but it hits its high point in Chapter 1, beyond a doubt. It's an amazingly well-constructed stretch of game and sadly it never equals it.

More partial to EarthBound myself, but that's partially sentimentality on my part and partially because instead of a generic "RAR TECHNOLOGY IS TEH BAD" story, it's a fun collection of digs at JRPGs.

[Excal]

Didn't care much for Earthbound myself.  Finished it, but that was more a completion thing than anything else.  That said, yeah...  fully expecting that Chapter 1 is not to be equalled, and that he did, in fact, survive the end of it, despite it being more poignant if he did not.

[Niu]

Antiphona's Choi... I mean Marl's Kingdom 4-

I am wrong in thinking the battle system is similar to MM. The battle system is actually U.SaGa gone wrong.
But anyway, game beaten. Marl game is still a Marl game. It lose all difficulty after a while.
But what a rushed game, with everything cramed and skipped, but that's kinda what happened when the game was revised totally, twice, before release. I should have expected this when I found out Sopei is not directly in charge of this.....

[Clear Tranquil]

Oh I'm all in favour of Djinn using everyone he likes and letting us know how it goes >_>

Djinn - I did mention Yosuke was an awesme item boy. I tend to just have him, Chie or even Teddie toss whatever's lying around but if you're willing to stockpile all the ST, MT and revival items from the store to compliment his Diarama with Blessed Hands he probably becomes a solid dedicated healer. I imagine that would be hideously expensive though. However I think you mentioned you'd found a way to farm money early on and items can also be used to score elemental weaknesses (again I often toss these w/th Yosuke/Chie/Teddie depending) so if you're willing to stockpile moar you'd also have that. Then you could use Kanji =-)

I dunno if the elemental items become storebought though (I haven't checked)

Eh, using who you like characterwise is a perfectly fine reason.  I know that helped me tie break when I got down to my final party.

I sorta agree. If you actually cared about efficiency period, you wouldn't even have rotated PCs. It won't kill you to just use your favorite party anyway. I did indulge in some degree of inefficiency anyway by using Naoto as a party member when she joined anyway just because I like her, so.

When Naoto joined on my first run I thought she was awesmeness incarnate and the best thing since sliced bread >_> She was faster than everyone else, had no weaknesses, picked up an awesme weapon, was owning things left, right and center with ALMIGHTIES (I'd also found a Moon Potpourri in her dungeon so yeah <_<) more than anyone else. Including bosses. Naoto was punting out more than anyone else for some reason (I ended up with Yosuke, Naoto and Teddie on that file) probably because I hadn't fused awesme offence with Souji nor had Amps, etc for the other two ( I consider this grinding! =() She also always taught those darn hands a lesson they'd never forget which I'll love her forever and ever for <3

I never even really experimented with the whole ID thing until this second run either~