Let's Play Some Motherf*$&ing Games: 2010!!!!!!

[Idun]

Just finished Fornstrand in the Last Remnant. Back in Athlum; shivered when I saw the duo I hated on the first disc.

[SnowFire]

Heavy Rain: Complete.  Feel slightly guilty for cheaty "check a FAQ and see if I just screwed up" in a few places but usually it was fairly obvious when "oh crap I didn't want to do that let me hit start real fast before it autosaves the wrong choice."  But great game.  High production values, does a fine job at giving you more options that matter than most games, and the plot is excellent.  Would definitely recommend it.

Minor nitpick (SPOILERS do not read really don't): So where were Ethan's visions coming from, the ones with kids drowning?  Coincidence?  And I guess it's also just a coincidence that the Killer decided to snatch Shaun just before Ethan had a blackout?  Unless the killer was constantly tailing Ethan which doesn't seem to be implied.  Not to mention that the letter was already in Ethan's house before the kidnapping occurred... okay, that's explicable, that's the Killer showing off I guess, but ack.  The big issue is the origamis he found in his hand...  I guess Ethan subconsciously identified himself with the Origami killer months before the game really starts?  I can respect red herrings to try and throw off the scent, but all this together seems WAY too convenient, especially when the Killer presumably didn't know about Ethan's problems (just that he tried to save Jason).  I assumed that either Ethan's wife or Ethan's psychologist had to be "in on it," or the Origami Killer themself, for a good length of time until I decided that they couldn't possibly be guilty because they never appear in the game after Chapter 7 or so.

Dark Holy Elf: You beat that sentinel in 1-7?  Impressive.  I don't recall seriously trying but I guess he's not as bad as advertised - I seem to recall testing claimed damage and he seemed to shrug off nearly anything that wasn't Sacrifice, so I never pursued that path.  I take it the mission instantly ends when all the enemies are dead even if you don't escape?

[Dhyerwolf]

The 99 turns one? Pretty sure it's all about escaping since theoretically you can beat and an enemy and still die in a theoretical roof in.

[SnowFire]

That's what I thought, but got the impression from the post that DHE thought all he needed to do was kill everything.  Granted, if you kill everything, then a lot fewer turns are being used, thanks to the extremely loopy "all turns are equal" mechanic.

[Dark Holy Elf]

FF6 Eviltype - Beat! No resets on the final battle, for all that it was terrifying. Main party was Terra/Celes/Relm/Setzer. Terra/Celes had Hero Ring/Ribbon, Relm had Gem Box/Gold Hairpin. Relm had the most key spells somehow (Life 3, Quick). All the girls had Flare and other usual stuff (Life 2, Cure 3, Shell, and Rasp/Osmose are especially notable for this battle, go Phoenix and ZoneSeek!). Setzer was definitely not as well-set for spells but that wasn't why he was around. He had Black Belt/Offering and helped tear through everyone but tier 3. Tier 3... I had a plan to blitz it but then I wussed out. Meteo one-shots people it hits, and even with Life 3 and so on this was mildly scary with Pearl Winds propping it up and Life 2 if I screw up and don't kill them at the same time. So I MP-killed the healer (wrong choice? Yeah, probably, but whatever) and then took out the main boss. It does cast Meteo at low HP, and this is scary (think it's a low-HP counter too) but I was nevertheless able to blast by it, pick up the pieces, and finish off the healer. Yay.

Kefka is Kefka, I hate Revenger with a passion. Life 3/Shell of course is a given. Unfortunately Kefka is a douche and likes to use dispel, especially in phase 2. Phase 2 is hella scary. Goner one-shots everyone in my party though nobody once Shell is up, funny how that worked out. Eventually I figure out that recasting Shell is a hell of a lot more important than recasting Life 3, since the only thing that needs Life 3 if Shell is up is Havoc Wing, and eh. Life 2 is full revival anyway. Still, this phase is threatening as hell and I'm not 100% certain I wouldn't have won it if Setzer hadn't used a desperation attack, charming Kefka. Yeaaaah. I thought this might be an instant win but I wisely still rebuffed myself when it happened, because sure enough, HP loop for phase 3 knocks him out of Charm. Anyway, phase 3, with my superior strategy form the getgo, is definitely scary but less so than previous. Ultima, well. Does about 90% of my party's HP towards the higher end of its variance? Not enough, twinked Cure 3 is totally MT full healing. (To be fair, the party lacked HP boosters, but still.) Anyway, yeah, mostly just a matter of healing immediately and only attacking when Kefka can't counter from here. I think he actually loses some of his threatening skills in this phase (Revenger and Havoc Wing), making it arguably easier than the previous? Although that definitely wasn't my feeling last playthrough. Eh. Depends on the party, I think I had better healing this time, but less skillset awesome otherwise. Anyway, yeah. Was still a very relieving moment when I saw I'd beaten him.

Despite the lack of resets (I played very carefully and, I think, quite skillfully) I still maintain the final battle is the hardest challenge by Eviltype. Actually the only other thing that comes close to me is Goddess, so yeah, still definitely don't think the game drops off late!

I arguably made an error in not bringing one of Strago or Gogo for Big Guard. Crazy to think about. I don't think I've ever considered either "ultimate party" material ever in vanilla. But it's so helpful for any boss who kills repeatedly (which is a lot of lategame bosses) or Kefka due to Revenger. Setzer also feels immensely improved to me despite NO technical improvements because his physical setup which is kinda overkill in vanilla totally isn't here, nobody blitzes single targets half as well as he does.

Quick got shockingly little use overall, though I did use it once or twice as MASSIVE BAILOUT. MP cost is kinda prohibiltive without an Economiser. Congrats Sage, you got me to care about Economisers in FF6. Have a cookie.

I was around Level 35 this time, which is a little low. Not entirely sure why (I skipped Ebot's Rock but that really shouldn't matter much; didn't bring Celes on the FC which is of course a factor but shouldn't be -that- big, I've done it before), just odd luck for a while in there I guess. Anyway, FF6 is such that stuff tends to be quite beatable at lower levels, with only the MT defence-ignoring spells reaaally punishing you for lower levels. And I was above the threshold at which those would pull OHKOs.

So yeah! Not much to say, great hack obviously or I wouldn't have played it twice. I'm still rather impressed with how highly-balanced it feels.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Snowfire: Yeah, the battle has two victory conditions: routing or escaping. I'd have escaped easily even had that been the only victory condition, mind. The Sentinel is borderline physically immune, but goes down to magic well enough, though hardly quickly due to the HP. What makes him scary (I've fallen for this before) is that if you try to sneak past him, he'll use Heavy Strike and push you into the abyss for an instant game over. As long as you don't try to do this, though, he isn't scary; he won't move since he's trying to lull you into this trap.

Dhyer: I don't think the turns thing being based on individual turns is unreasonable. Labyrinthia even says that the fighting is causing things to collapse; fewer people means less activity and such. (This doesn't justify some later turn maps, but hey, I think it's more mechanically fun this way anyway personally.)

[Pyro]

Idun, you are playing LR 360?

Oh you poor, poor lost soul. Well, have fun with the base battles.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Alpha Protocol- I like G22, but I'm going to kill everyone else this time. It's... quite enjoyable how soon I got the "execute 4 major characters" perk.

If I end them, they can't pass on information about me.

[Bardiche]

Just realised there's a Mystery Gift Jirachi available for Pokémon. Whew, so close to the ending date, too~

[Dark Holy Elf]

1-7-B (Levin's return) (1 reset)

Levin is forced for this battle, separate from the others. Also forced is Clarissa.

Clarissa: Dandelion Shot; Elementalist OC, Elementalist EQ (book)
Elayne: Elementalist; Gadgeteer OC
Levin: Elementalist; Martial Mage OC, Martial Mage EQ (coat)

Hey folks, guess what Elfboy's favourite earlygame class is.

I don't make any setup changes on my two attempts, just a matter of minimising the hits enemies get against me as I blast them down from range. Levin has more than enough firepower to take down everyone on his own side, ditto the other two. Everyone has berries to heal and can pull back some if needed (enemies come to you to eat their death, anyway). None of the classes I'm using (hell, none of the non-Halberdier classes available right now) have great durability. In hindsight I think I should have deployed Felius and plugged the gap where a bunch of enemies come from, since he really is that durable at this point, but eh, winning run I didn't feel too threatened anyway, so might as well get the combat bonuses for someone I intend to use more.

Of note, there's a Secutor who starts close to Clarissa who resists all elements. He of course gets Sacrificed.

1-8 (Magnus, he who makes you care about VP) (1 reset)

I buy some nectars.

Clarissa: Dandelion Shot; Elementalist OC, Elementalist EQ (book)
Elayne: Gadgeteer; Elementalist OC, Elementalist EQ (book)
Vin: Secutor; Fantastica OC, Elementalist OC

10 enemies to cut through here, and it's quite a bit of trekking to get through the map. With Object Attack and 3-climb classes this can be shortened, but I don't feel like doing this, especially since, as always, I want to defeat as many enemies as possible.

Several enemies are Sentinels, which ensures Elementalist use for optimum damage. Resources are a little tight for this battle as such, but nothing too bad. I approach enemies carefully so I take very little damage, but still lose most of my VP during the course of the battle. In hindsight I probably should not have equipped defensive gear on Clarissa or Vin (the apron is too good to pass up) since I so rarely took damage, but so it goes.

Magnus is a tricky bastard, because he adds (target VP - target max VP) to his already competent Secutor damage. We can't have that shit going down. Mystic a Nectar. At this point I discover Item Effect Up doesn't affect Nectars. Fortunately I have a second, but... am out of MP to mystic it with, so I just give it to Vin who needs the VP most. Magnus resists all elements, so Sacrifice goes to work, with Clarissa hiding a stage below so Magnus can't reach her. Vin also smacks him around with some Hard Smashes after using Slow Down, and Elayne decelerates him. Vin grabs the Gella Card treasure right before the closing Sacrifice.

Oh, and the reset I had? Came from putting the Nectars ON THE WRONG PC. Yeah, I mistakenly put them on Vin instead of Elayne, forgetting who had Gadgeteer OC. The first attempt also had Elayne as an Elementalist instead of Gadgeteer, hence the mistake. I decided I didn't need the extra firepower/resources to get through the map, and turned out to be right, albeit not with too much space to spare.

Tier 2 classes open up! Not too impressed with this batch, but I imagine Sacred Slayer, at minimum, will see some use, as will Heavy Strike, although the 24 MP cost is a little alarming.

[Yoshiken]

Sunday 11th July:
 - FF6: Oh man I am so far behind schedule it's not even funny. Anyways, blitzed through Owzer's Mansion using Nightshade h4x, saved before Chadarnook. I've realised I've been pretty good at not hoarding items in this playthrough, which is strange for me - I'm usually one of those people who doesn't want to use, like, Elixirs in case I need them on the final boss (and then end with about 20 in my inventory after beating said boss.) AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Okay. Wow. Chadarnook starts off as the Woman, changes after Gau smacks her once. From here, the demon proceeds to: get Charmed, AuraBolted twice (for about 2k each), Drilled twice (for about 2k each), misses himself three times and... oh yeah. Morphed Terra Fire2s twice for about 9k on each. Total damage taken in this fight: 0. Man, I love the h4x here. Relm get! So, I now have my main 4, but I want a full party of 12. I think I'll skip Shadow and Umaro - I'm getting Gogo for more NightShade spam and Mog for Moogle Charm, so it's two of Shadow/Umaro/Locke, and I think Shadow and Umaro give me the least - at least Locke gets me Phoenix! So, off to the Tower of Fanatics to pick up Strago, then off to get Gogo, since that takes all of 10 minutes. ...Or, y'know, it might've, if not for the FUCKING ANNOYING ENEMIES. Seriously, I remembered the enemies here being harder than most, but.. not quite this much. DERRRP. Forgot to save at the save point. Got crushed by a ceiling. Got killed by TapDancer/Coverts on the next two runs and decided to save this dungeon until AFTER I've got Locke/Mog.
In other recent news, I also hate the Phoenix Cave, having got lost several times and needed to backtrack through half the freaking dungeon. Eventually died thanks to ignorance and being left with NightShade Gau against 4 enemies and chip chip chip chip *Charm* *Charm* *Charm* *Charm*

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

1-7-B (Levin's return) (1 reset)

Levin is forced for this battle, separate from the others. Also forced is Clarissa.

Clarissa: Dandelion Shot; Elementalist OC, Elementalist EQ (book)
Elayne: Elementalist; Gadgeteer OC
Levin: Elementalist; Martial Mage OC, Martial Mage EQ (coat)

Hey folks, guess what Elfboy's favourite earlygame class is.

SECUTOR

Ahem. Man, those XF logs are so much more entertaining to read now that I know what they're about! Speaking of which, need to play moar. I'm only at 4-2!

[Yoshiken]

Monday 12th July:
 - FF6: Phoenix Cave didn't prove to be half as problematic today! Locke get, Phoenix get. From there, went to grab Gogo, and that dungeon seemed relatively simple now too. Hunh. Got Mog as well, finishing up my party (screw you, yeti and ninja!) Just about ready to tackle Kefka's Tower now, but firstly, equipment! Checked through all 12 of my characters, equipped them with the best I could, then went searching around the world for the best equips I could buy. Nikeah proved to be useful, but only stocked swords. What gives?   Albrook is even more useless.. AHA! Thamasa, maybe? ...Turns out, Thamasa is useless, despite being the obscure place that you leave 'til the end of the WoR. I just need one good katana for Genji Glove/Black Belt Cyan. ;_; After getting some better armour from Kohlingen, I give up on getting a weapon for Cyan and go to the tower. Teams are Locke/Gau/Relm/Setzer, Celes/Gogo/Cyan/Strago and Terra/Edgar/Sabin/Mog, in that order. ...aaand dead before I even need to switch teams. Alright, try again, swapping Terra and Locke, since Terra and the Figaros are all pretty good. Aaaand dead again. God fucking dammit, I hate the damn Outsiders. Forget it, that can wait 'til tomorrow. For the rest of today...
 - FFX-2: So, I always start this from scratch - using an NG+ on a challenge just seems like cheating to me - so I'm actually gonna be relying on a lot of Songstress/White Mage abuse early on. Add in the fact that I'm gonna be doing next-to-no sidequests and I'm really gonna struggle on levels at some points. Thankfully, it's also a hilariously easy game to break, and I'll make sure I get Full Throttle early on, at least, so I won't have a problem on it. Blitzed through the opening and Gagazet, stealing a few accessories from the Leblanc Syndicate, and then arrived in Besaid. Got through plot scenes before stopping for tonight.


Anyone able to tell me where I grab the Moogle Charm? I'll probably grab it if (when) I die again, 'cause I freaking hate the Outsider fights still. >.<

[superaielman]

Right behind the spot where you recruit Mog, literally.

[Meeplelard]

I think its also worth noting that Cyan maybe one of the worst characters to run any sort of Weapon Based set up with unless he's using the Tempest.  Weapons are generic and offer no real boosts.  Heck, Tempest aside, he's basically worse than Sabin in everyway in this regard, and Sabin's like the perfect example of "NOT A PHYSICAL CHARACTER DESPITE THE ARCHTYPE AND STATS".

[Dark Holy Elf]

Genji Glove is generally fairly poor in the WoR anyway (no shield leads you to taking double the physical damage you normally would, to say nothing of losses in areas such as elemental defence, MDef, and MBlock), and if I were going to run a Genji Glove/Black Belt setup, I'd choose a character who could use the Drainer to repair the large amounts of damage they'd be taking.


Anyway, XF updates.

1-9-A (detector use)

Before this battle, tier 0 equipment is storebought. Yay. I already have the sword from 1-7, and I also pick up a halberd (just for the next battle), two books, a shield, an apron, and a brooch, all versions that emphasise the obvious offensive stat (ATK/MAG) or EVA.

Not much to say here, I deploy Clarissa and Levin as Excavators and the map pretty much works like normal.

1-9-B (Mathis, the armoured sacred slayer) (1 reset)

Three PCs here anyway, all forced. So this is pretty much a normal playthrough. This battle isn't trivial anyway, so is worth noting.

Clarissa: Sacred Slayer; Dandelion Shot OC, DS+Elem. EQ (book/brooch)
Felius: Halberdier
Levin: Elementalist; Martial Mage OC, Martial Mage EQ (coat)

The first three enemies aren't too much trouble, Blast even one-shots two of them. Part of me wonders if dashing past them wouldn't be a better idea, but I kinda doubt it, you don't want them sneaking up behind you as you deal with the boss.

The second group of enemies is three Sacred Slayers, one of whom is Mathis, a deceptively tanky boss. He has the hard attribute, 556 res, and 40% resistance to all elements, so very little works at all effectively on him; you're basically stuck with either using anti-hard weapons (axes, halberds, and hammers at this point) or Sacrifice. Physical OCs don't work here regardless of weapon, which always seemed mean. And of course, assuming you leave him for last, you have to deal with his ridiculous 2x speed boost from all his dead allies, and bust past that healing. In hindsight, I probably should have made Levin a Fantastica for Slow Down, even despite the large hit his damage would take, because his damage would probably still be adequate for everything else and controlling the boss is fairly key.

Regardless, despite one reset in which I failed to keep track of my HP and he doubleturned me for 50 damage each time and killed Levin, he's manageable enough. I lower him to just above half HP and then find a turn where both Clarissa and Felius are both going to go, and they can finish him off. Levin tries to chip in with Cancel Strikes but never actually hits, and Mathis is immune to Rob Turn; still, such tactics are fortunately unnecessary.

Clarissa mostly used Encourage in events leading up to the boss (unless she was called on to heal), making this the first battle I've made notable use of that ability.

1-10 (Rupert on the cliff)

This battle is a complete joke. I'm not even going to bother listing my skillsets beyond the fact that Clarissa spent time in Sacred Slayer, Elayne Gadgeteer, and Vin Secutor, and even that is barely worth noting due to the amazing 4 CSP you get from this battle.

Kasselratt gets two-shotted by Elayne's elementalist spells, and everyone else gets wiped out with similarly little difficulty. There's even a cliff to abuse if it were needed. Not sure what they were thinking with this battle. I don't bother with Rupert although I guess he is worth slightly more Exp! Whatever.

1-11 (puzzlez)

All Felius and Levin, pretty much a normal playthrough here. I have them as Excavators with Halberdier/Martial Mage OC for mobility and ranged attacks for all the puzzle maps, then Felius as Secutor and Levin as Sacred Slayer with Martial Mage OC equipped with a book and coat for the battle at the end. It's not really too challenging, just need to watch HP since one death is game over.

Notably, generics gain exp/CSP from this battle, as they do every battle in the game... definitely a small advantage they have in that every plot PC misses some battle/exp/csp time during 1-9 (Labby), 1-10 (Felius and Levin), and 1-11 (Clarissa and Labby). I make use of this time to give both my generics Geomancer OC.


Not really the most exciting section I'm afraid. Currently I'm focused on planning for 1-14, the one where you defend the town.

[Meeplelard]

Genji Glove is generally fairly poor in the WoR anyway (no shield leads you to taking double the physical damage you normally would, to say nothing of losses in areas such as elemental defence, MDef, and MBlock), and if I were going to run a Genji Glove/Black Belt setup, I'd choose a character who could use the Drainer to repair the large amounts of damage they'd be taking.

Pretty much agree with this, yeah.  Though, last playthrough, I did run Genji Glove Terra throughout most of the WoR, but then Terra feels the loss of Shield less than others due to a variety of reasons; naturally that applies to Celes too, though Celes doesn't get Apocalypse in the aftergame, so when choosing to raise one Physical vs. Magical, if you do that , the whole Apocalypse vs. Save the Queen factor makes it obvious who gets what (though, if you get 2 Illuminas, this entire argument is moot.)  

Honestly, Terra, Celes, Edgar and Locke are the only characters I could see using Genji Glove to any real use.  All 4 get Drainer and Illumina, as well as Atma Weapon if you really like, and some extra minor stuff like Man Eater, Gradeus and Excalibur (ok, the latter is shit outside of FF6a if only cause its around for all of 5 minutes...well, no, its good if you beat Goddess before Doom I guess?) for weapon swapping purposes; the former 3 also get Ogre Nix and Locke gets Valiant Knife, to further compliment Illumina for raw damage, meaning the whole 2 hits thing may matter more, as "Break 9999 without Charge Times, Gem Box or Offering" is a neat little boon, if not largely relevant.

And of those 4, only Terra and Celes can really make up for the loss of a shield thanks to the Minerva covering the elemental concerns (and adding 10% M. Block as an extra bonus), especially since Edgar should just go Dragoon if he wants a big physical damage set up, and unless you're using Setzer, Locke probably should be that primary candidate for Offering.

Anyone else though, you'd have a hard time convincing me would make any real use of Genji Glove.

...ok, FINE, I'll submit that maybe if you get 2 Dragon CLaws, Sabin attacking an enemy weak to Pearl could be useful...I guess.

[Excal]

Finally managed to get SRW@ to work, and so have been playing that.  Gotten up to Chapter 17 with Kusuha as my main on the Real Robot Route.  Kusuha, Kamille, Combattler, and oddly enough, Slaygar in his Core Booster, have been my MVPs so far.  Though, Raideen is putting up a fight now that I have him.  The Mazinger Z is not only oddly ineffective so far, but is also feeling the Giant Robo muscling in on its turf.  Style-wise, it's easy to see how this is a pretty old version of things, I mean, just the difference between the sword attacks, especially Discutter, between @ and @G is huge, but it's still there.  If nothing else, they had fun with the attack sequence for Berserk EVA-01.

Anyways, mostly playing this for three things.
1) Want to see the SRX Team in action on the playstation.
2) Evangelion in a SRW.  Probably my favourite super robot series, so yeah.
3) The SDF Macross.  Dunno why, since I've never seen the original Macross in any of its forms, just Plus.  But I do.

Willing to lable this as two .5s at this point as I've played through the first episode of Evangelion, but not actually recruited them, or the SRX team yet.  And while I've gotten two SRX levels, not gonna be truly satisfied until lategame where the SRX itself should show up.  Though it does amuse me that even the R-Gun's first appearance here blows out the OG1 R-Gun.

Anyways, not likely that I'm going to be improving this checklist anytime soon as I've had my fill of the game for a bit, and will be swapping back to LFT for a bit.  Izlude was cocky, and I'm looking forward to getting him and his little Gate too.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Cataclysm- Redridge is now unbelievably fucking awesome.

[Yoshiken]

Tuesday 13th July:
 - FF6: Okay, completely changed the teams. Teams are now: Terra/Gau/Locke/Cyan, Celes/Gogo/Mog/Setzer, Edgar/Sabin/Relm/Strago. Died on the first fight with Celes team on the first run, which means... well, the team with CYAN is good enough to get through its first section! Hooray! This time, no dancing with Mog locking myself into shitty status that doesn't even work on the Behemoth I'm against. Second run, I run out of MP as I reach the end of Terra team's first section, so go hunting for good Osmose targets. Thankfully, the room I'm in has enemies that do 2000 damage and die or NOTHING AT ALL if they have no MP left. Fun! Also saw a Desperation Attack for the first time in this playthrough here. >.> Yay Riot Blade! Team Celes is somewhat more challenging to use, still, but gets through to Atma on this run, which makes for the first single-part boss I've fought since getting the NightShade Rage. Gogo gets Charm in before Atma gets a turn and the fight turns into "Yay, I can restock my MP with Osmose!" I'm dreading the point where I actually have to FIGHT A BOSS now. (Seriously. NightShade is broken as all fucking hell. This is fun!) Anyways, opened up the path for Team Terra and then moved to the switch by the weights before going to Team Edgar. Fighting enemies is weird now, but Bum Rush and Cure spam takes care of things easily enough. ...Or maybe not! Like I said, fighting bosses was something I was dreading, and Inferno shows why. Took out Strago early, and then Edgar/Relm couldn't keep their health up while trying to bring him back. Sabin eventually got chipped down as well, and I am ;_;. Second time, I keep Strago alive long enough to take out both arms, then realise OH HAI ZONESEEK BOSS IS SPAMMING BOLT GUD IDEER RITE? So yeah, fight became somewhat trivial after that - Relm and Strago spam Cure2, using Osmose when needed, and Edgar/Sabin spam Drill/Bum Rush. Stuff happens, I continue on, reach the other switch by the weights. Aaand switch to Team Terra and.. die?! What the hell? ;_; Okay, try that one again from post-Inferno. Okay, that run was much better. Got to Guardian with Team Celes, Gogo hits Charm on turn one. Seriously, NightShade is freaking broken, and I love it. Save point after Guardian - yay! - and I run off to beat Poltrgeist. I then.. get stuck. For FREAKING AGES. Because I forgot to hit the switch down from where Guardian is. DAMMIT. >.> Moving on from there, I hit Goddess with Charm from Gau and that fight is over in minutes. Now for the non-lame team, Team Edgar, vs. Doom, which is still kinda lame, just in a "Bum Rush and heal" kinda way instead of a "NightShade and sit back" way. Falls pretty easily, and I sort out equipment, Espers and relics for the final fight. Relm has now been replaced by Gogo, because double the NightShade OR Bum Rush hax is fun! So I effectively have the two brothers and two flowers in my team. So. Kefka1 has 3 obvious parts, 2 of which get Charmed within seconds. The other hand isn't doing all too much, and this round's over pretty quickly. The next one has 4 more obscure sections, and I lose track of which one Gau's got Charmed. I lose Sabin and Gau at one point and Edgar has to restore some MP, but I eventually end with one part Charmed while I heal up, and then move on. The next has two sections, and gets in a WhirlWind/Pearl Wind before I can Charm it - Gogo then Charms the female side while Gau/Edgar/Sabin take care of healing. Next thing, the woman uses.. Calmness? And DIES?! uh. kay then. THE FUCK?! ASFADHGFJHGFadsdfhgfj. Okay, so the other half used Calmness after that, did nothing to itself. Then used it on Sabin, killed him, then died. urk. Edgar/Gau/Gogo/Relm for final form. At least this only has one part - first turn, Gogo Charms him. Game, set, match. It's pretty funny seeing Kefka kill himself with Havoc Wing. So, that's 1 game down in 2 weeks - I'm seriously behind schedule, but I'm actually making some progress now, at least.
 - FFX-2: Gathered the numbers and entered the Besaid cave. Blitzed that place, although nearly died against the boss. Grabbed the sphere, left, etc, etc, this is all hilariously easy. Off to Zanarkand, blitzed through PLOOOOOT and.. actually struggled on the randoms. hrm. Got a Garment Grid from Isaaru and entered the cave and.. wait, there's no save point in this dungeon? Fuck, I didn't save earlier 'cause I thought there was. White Mage Pray spam doesn't work when the boss attacks the White Mage repeatedly, and Paine falls eventually. Game Over, last save was back in Besaid, fuck that, will continue tomorrow.


And as for the Genji Glove use, Cyan had minimal magic and I wasn't gonna spend an age teaching him spells when I didn't need to, so I just gave him the most useful crap I had. It was Genji Glove for extra damage on someone I couldn't give a crap about survival on or STAR PENDANT. (Okay, not quite, but close.)

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

1-10 (Rupert on the cliff)

This battle is a complete joke. I'm not even going to bother listing my skillsets beyond the fact that Clarissa spent time in Sacred Slayer, Elayne Gadgeteer, and Vin Secutor, and even that is barely worth noting due to the amazing 4 CSP you get from this battle.

I have to ask, what -is- the winning condition on that fight anyway? I went in, killed a couple losers, my Fantastica got the chest and then Clarissa killed an Excavator guy and lololol fight ovar.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Defeat four enemies.

Yeaaahhh.

[DomaDragoon]

Breath of Death VII: The Beginning - An RPG that I bought, downloaded, played, and beat (Except the aftergame dungeon) in less than six hours with all my characters at L32. I'm giving serious consideration to putting this in my top ten games of 2010.  If you own an X360, you should buy this game. It's 80 points ($1), it's a DQ/EB-style RPG without (much) grinding, it lets you customize your level-up bonuses to a degree, and it has a French Zombie Edge Eblan.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Defeat four enemies.

Yeaaahhh.

... yeah I don't get it. Man, beating Rupert would be -reasonable enough- even.

[SageAcrin]

Quick got shockingly little use overall, though I did use it once or twice as MASSIVE BAILOUT. MP cost is kinda prohibiltive without an Economiser. Congrats Sage, you got me to care about Economisers in FF6. Have a cookie.

Cookie~

Yeah, the massive bailout value is why I love that it's still in and that I didn't change it's effect.

It's actually practical...ish...with a Golden Hairpin, I recall trying that at points. Issue is, of course, that you need to somewhat hamstring offensive setups to field a Hairpin.

So yeah! Not much to say, great hack obviously or I wouldn't have played it twice. I'm still rather impressed with how highly-balanced it feels.

The weird thing is when I went back to it recently(I have a 1.1-b1 on my HD that needs to be playtested, that includes all the skillset changes I plan for the final version. I still need to rewrite Sketch...sigh, that'll be interesting, thinking of making it mostly show off enemy weaknesses as a kind of hint system. What the hell, that's almost how it's portrayed plotwise. Also need to tweak a few equips...I didn't even know where a Rising Sun was found, for instance. >_>), I was kinda shocked by how few things felt off.

I thought sure I'd disagree with more of my decisions with a fresh mind going into it, one that barely remembered them, but I don't. I did a lot of Esper spellset changes(Why yes Fenrir 10x teaching Drain IS very me. As is me making two +2 Speed Espers. Namely Raiden and Ragnarok. ahahaha.), but I didn't have that option in FF3USME when I first made it.

Most of the changes are to, of all things, status...and making statuses stand out more individually. Specifically making ID and ID-check things stand out more. I have no idea if some of these tricks are going to work, I'm trying to shove off Gravity and a higher end ID check onto two statuses that I have no idea if I can make them play nice with it. Only thing I plan on ever changing status-wise is making a few more enemies null Muddle. (This is more a commentary on the fact that nearly nothing blocks it.)

The rest is to making Strago a little more versatility oriented and a little less one-note. (You'd be amazed how mediocre L5 Doom *still* is if you make it ignore all immunities. I'm hoping to make Dischord have the same check as gravity attacks, we'll see how that works when I bother playtesting this thing. >_>)