Playin' any games today, Flying Nun? (WGAYP - 2011 Edition)

[Grefter]

Jansen is very usable during the times you are levelling him to learn his skills.  He is not Mack who buffs people and then just stairs at the fucking wall.  Cooke would be usable if a third mage was really desirable.  Three people spamming barrier moves is overkill though.  You did find out that the barrier skills are broken right?  They are.  Not much in the game will completely destroy them in one hit.  0 damage all the time bro.  Honestly I found throwing Sed in the front row was the best decision when you aren't learning skills from the mortals.  He has the HP to tank well enough and adds nicely to the GC.  ThePCformerlyKnownasPrince is also pretty usable for the same reasons, but I would rather someone else have his swords than him, so Sed it was since he keeps up with the equipment curve.

DLC has a Slots +20 or 25 skill or some stupid shit.  I did the DLC dungeon, it is pretty long and boring.  It is pretty much the Bahamut dungeon from FF8.  I died to the final boss.  Read about it being hard and went eh I have steamrolled all the other "hard" stuff at the end of the game, why not go for it.  Progress in dungeon lost because he is a puzzle boss.  zzzzzz fuck that and went and finished the game.

How am I handling SLRPG without knowing timed hits?  Save state abuse until I find it.  For most other things a walkthrough has me covered.  I am building characters towards being I am only level 5, build what.  I took a rank in all the stat choices with Mario so far and an extra in Magic.  The physical stat was chosen at level 2 because shit was hitting like a truck and I had no armor.  So you know, I just wanted the Def.  Mallow has been Magic and 1 HP buffer.  I will probably take 4 or so HP boosts over the course of the game and then Magic out the arse on everyone.

[Clear Tranquil]

Oh right dem barrier skills are smexy indeed. I'm not entirely sure now why I was more than three mages anyway. Probably a CT thing. Well for Jansen's case he was my most favourite character in the game and I just like him so >.> Looking forward to reading what you have to say about the game's remaining content Fenrir. Grefter is awesme. This is all I have to say~

[VySaika]

Patchy for fight MVP

I found this to be pretty consistently the case until the good physical cannons showed up (hi Yuugi) since they have the added benefit of not dying to a sneeze.

Speaking of...

Hi Yuugi! Join my team plz~

Wait...what do you mean you want to fight first. There was no boss icon here. Well, okay if you insis...

...um why are you OHKOing Meiling...and Remi...through Reimu's barrier...ohgodthatsmyface...

So yeah, fighting Yuugi did not turn out well. Got her to the stage where she uses Knockout In Three Steps, which I think is somewhat impressive considering she was OHKOing someone every time she got a turn. A few more levels and a good plan for her and I think I may have a shot.

[Sierra]

Yeahhh, more often than not recruitment will be done in true Gensokyo style: beating the crap out of someone until they're your friend somehow. Most recruitment fights are fairly harsh if tackled at the first opportunity. I want to say Yuugi had some elemental weaknesses, but memory escapes me (probably ice since her main gun is fire? It's been a while. She definitely has crap MDEF as a PC, so that's something). I'd check my file, but I forget how to run the damn thing.

[Fenrir]

Jansen's really the highlight of the game yeah. I think I like Kaïm more because of the dreams but that's it.

Sed and Tolten have really bad durability right now. Seth's HPs = 5000. Sed's HPs = 2000. And she has elemental resistance/absorption. The mortal tank actually has less durability than the immortal mages right now, and that's probably not going to change. (On a side note, I like the durability difference between Kaïm and Cooke. He's like... more than 10x more durable. Not the kind of thing you often see in RPGs at equal levels)


I abused those cover skills with Cooke in the earlygame right now yes, but they're kind of weak right now. I still haven't gotten the lvl 7/8 spells though.
Optional boss is a puzzle boss =


Just got the big ship that looks like a shoe. There's a lot of optional stuff to do but I don't know where to look!
I'm still not sold on how immortality is bad for you, which is an obvious theme of the game. The game only shows how being an immortal among mortal is awful (fair point) But i can't imagine that Kaïm's potential future with Sarah would have been that bad (had they not met Evil Eyebrow Dude, again)

[Luther Lansfeld]

Final Fantasy 4 The After Years – Evil Always Wins, Because Good is Dumb (Except When Evil is Also Dumb)

So we’ve got three chapters to talk about, and so little time!

Palom is a bitch. A bitchy bitch bitch bitch. He is a smartass to the Elder, is not dignified at all when sent to help out the Troians, and is generally a jerk to everyone. I like him. He acts like someone who is a early 20’s prodigy; someone who hasn’t quite learned to temper his ego yet, but has a good reason to be a little snooty. Even if he has silly girl hair.

So we climb the tower with Leonora and the two of them have some funny dialogue. Also wow Leonora is terrible.

So Troia gets attacked by evulz and Leonora wants to defend the crystal. Fine, but what she does is pretty clever. They steal the crystal and escape from the temple and warn us to get prepared for the magnetic cave or lodestone cave or whatever. This is a pretty solid tactic for dealing with soldiers and stuff, so I give them props for that; they can't wear their big bulky armor or wield weapons? Woot. So we travel through the cave and REFIGHT THE DARK ELF! AW YEAH. Died once, realized I had Slow, and then raped him.

Palom turns himself to stone again to try to keep the crystal from the bitch who attacks them, how original. Leonora saves him and the evil takes the crystal. Lame.

Porom's is next. They add a bit of character depth to her (the twin sister of a lazy prodigy, she is afraid he will surpass her and forget about her) after a silly flashback or two, I barely remember either of them, we kick things’ ass or something. Palom is a pretty good mage yo. Porom goes to get Kain, who is obviously not actually Dark Kain, and then we take him back to defend against crystal thieves!!! And then he steals the crystal. Plot twist, don’t let Kain near a crystal.

I think these two are probably my favorites so far; Palom and Porom are both characters that had room to grow because of being five in the original and I think they are fairly well done. I also like their art.

Next is Kain’s. This quest sucks ass, and not just because it’s about Kain. All of the enemies are piddling and easy aside from the one boss on Hooded Man/Ceodore’s. DARK KAIN is commissioned to steal crystals after fighting too many easy fights on Mt. Ordeals and fighting more easy fights in the Devil’s Road. Gahhhhhhhh, who designed this Kain killing things sequence, Scar?

Meanwhile, the Hooded Man and Ceodore continue their quest to elope (by this point Ceodore has fallen for Kain and will make sweet forbidden love to him, time to write a romance novel) run from the Baron soldiers and they see that Dark Kain is coming for the crystals. We travel to Damcyan quickly by climbing rocks. Ceodore falls off and Kain has to save him except Kain collects all the treasure chests instead and then insults Ceodore. Yes, just what he needed, to have lower self-confidence. Meanwhile, Dark Kain is cackling evilly at the thought of MURDERING CECIL. OH YES, I will murder Cecil and I will have sex with his wife and it will be fabulous! Fabulous! (He’ll be so pissed when he finds out that his turban-wearing side has already found a replacement.)

So Dark Kain attacks Edward and Edward releases a bomb on him. Except it doesn’t work and Dark Kain kidnaps Rosa while laughing like a maniac. Dark Kain is straight out of a Saturday Morning Cartoon or something (aside from the creepiness of wanting to have sex with a woman right after he murders her husband violently) with all his evil laughter and stupid lines. Hee hee hee …. Hahahahaa. I have Rosa now!! Yessss!! So he heads back to Baron with her and the crystals.

On Cid's airship, Turban Man, Cid, Eddie, and Ceodore rush to save the day or something and once they get to Baron the Hooded Man and Dark Kain fight. You mean the Hooded Man is Kain?!!??!!!??!!?!??!!?!!!?!!!?!?

OMG!!!

So Kain gets a spear back and kicks Dark Kain’s creepy crazy ass. He accepts Dark Kain as a part of himself and turns into a Holy Dragoon. Because of this acceptance, Ceodore edges far far away from him because wow you are fucked up man. (But he’s so pretty….) He is almost bishie enough to consider using in the final dungeon.

Almost.

So we meet E. Cecil and he greets us warmly, especially Kain. ESPECIALLY KAIN?  Oh come ON. I guess he loves his cute crystal thief with prettiness.

And the quest ends~

Time to play as ninjaz!

[Anthony Edward Stark]

I'm not at home right now, but for those of you who are, Old World Blues is up on Steam. Get it if you like robo-scorpions.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Final Fantasy 4 The After Years – Evil Always Wins, Because Good is Dumb (Except When Evil is Also Dumb)

There are so many Kains and Cecils and Hooded people in this description that I was thoroughly confused. Time to go play Kingdom Hearts because I think it may have less hooded figures in it!

[Luther Lansfeld]

Cecil doesn't exist; he's been replaced with E. Cecil. And Dark Kain and the Hooded Man have fused into yaoi bishie man. Life is so much simpler now.

And yes, this plot is as nonsensical as it sounds.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

The real twist is that Kain is just Cecil's second personality. That's why his only ability that is worth using keeps him off the field for most of the fight.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Cecil doesn't exist; he's been replaced with E. Cecil. And Dark Kain and the Hooded Man have fused into yaoi bishie man. Life is so much simpler now.

And yes, this plot is as nonsensical as it sounds.

And I didn't even see any mentions of Golbez, who could only increase confusion due to his penchant for wearing cloaks and being genetically related to Cecil.

[Grefter]

What the fuck Ciato.  Gods you are terrible at this.

REFIGHT THE DARK HOLY ELF! AW YEAH. Died once, realized I had Slow, and then raped him.

Fixed that shit right up for you.

[Dhyerwolf]

Jansen's Doublecast: Prepare to be suckered. Actually, wait, you bought the DLC and I think that has a fucking No Charge skill to make the canyon split of balance that much worse? That might actually make it worth it.

Seth's clothing at least looks like a modified gladiator costume.

[Grefter]

I was thinking school girl or modified peasant blouse to have a plunging neck line and cut off at thigh length, but I guess that works.  I got plenty of use out of Double Cast at end game.  it took both the charge reduction skills, but it was possible to get double casts of the strongest elemental spells off.  Also more barrier is good barrier.

Lufia - Got up to Gratze Kingdom.  They have put the flower girl plot in Gratze Kingdom.  This is taking a bit of mental gymnastics to get used to.  Will they put the Ruby Angel in here as well?  Time will tell!  I would have guessed they might have dropped it if they hadn't have had Bertie and Bootie in before.

[Clear Tranquil]

What the fuck Ciato.  Gods you are terrible at this.

REFIGHT THE DARK HOLY ELF! AW YEAH. Died once, realized I had Slow, and then raped him.

Fixed that shit right up for you.

... it took me more than a few seconds to get this. Clearly my training in DL corruption/life skills is not yet complete (or something)

Have fun with the ship that looks like a shoe Fenrir I remember the vehicle control in LO being kind of awkward but at least you can use the ship for ice!smashings to get closer to some areas of the coasts that you couldn't before and then drop into your sub from the ship and get to in land lakes/etc and get to dungeons/villages you couldn't get to before~

Breath of Fire III-

Endgame statistics/final boss recap -

Ryu (L42)
Seeking Sword
Spiked Gauntlets
Dragon Helm
Dragon Armor
Titan Belt/Titan Belt

(HP.AP: 243/180/Power: 335/Defence: 222/Intelligence: 142/Agility: 52

*18 Dragon Genes
*Shiny Ryu innate spells
*Bone break

Skill set up- Focus, Super Combo, Double Blow, Sirocco

**
Rei (L39)
Slicer
Spiked Gauntlets
Sun Mask
Force Armor
Speed Boots/Titan Belt

(HP/AP: 194/78/Power: 245/Defence: 201/Intelligence: 96/Agility: 75

*Shiny Rei innate spells
*Weretiger

Skill set up- Counter, Multistrike, Mighty Chop, Demonbane, Shadow Walk, Myollnir, Blizzard, Inferno, Typhoon

**
Nina (L40)
Beryl Rod
Spiked Gauntlets
Silver Tiara
Holy Robe
Wisdom Ring/Wisdom Ring

(HP/AP: 132/247/Power: 148/Defence: 178/Intelligence: 259/Agility 52

*Nina innate spells

Skill set up-War Shout, Influence, Cure, Barrier, Shield, Resist, Sanctuary, Meditation, Magic Ball, Mind Sword

Final Boss- She didn't really manage to do much as mentioned before, she was more or less a joke. While I was setting up the Speeds with Rei and other buffs w/th Ryu/Nina I saw her physical attack, a MT elemental spell, Evil Eye (which missed) and Venom (which I promptly had Nina use Cure on for status recovery to Ryu/Rei with her next turns, also shoring up their healths in the process) Once Rei had stacked the Speeds on his self, Nina and Ryu my team all starting EX turning not just Rei, Shield was up, Barrier was up and once Nina got the War Shouts going it was time to go to town. As I mentioned earlier though I didn't even use the real broke on the final with no dragons/Kaiser/Bonebreak or Weretiger abuse. I stuck to Focus > Focus + Super Combo abuse with Ryu, Shadow Walk spam and the odd physical from Rei while I kept Nina on standby for healing from the odd times the final time got a turn. I saw more base physicals (which missed) another MT elemental spell and finally she started using Holocaust, I thought oh crap here it comes but then it didn't hit as hard as I thought it was going to. By the end of the fight her turns were so few and far between I thought the speed advantage I have here is rather silly I can afford not to worry about healing/defence too much and even had Nina get in on the action with Meditation X 2 and Myollner. She only got to do that twice in between Ryu/Rei turns before the final went down though~ The final's offence remained more or less fail right to the very end (well she did manage to reduce Rei to ~5HP with Holocaust once yaay!? Except I'd been skimping on the healing by then and Rei wasn't at full HP in the first place >.>)~

The moral dilemma at the end storywise was interesting and did make me think a bit. I think I saw where the final was coming from and I did feel a bit bad about sending her down. Are she and her sister really ded? Also was Peco always the tree or did that somehow just happen while I wasn't paying attention?

Garr ;__;

Thanks to Sage, Meeple, Grefter, Snow, Trance and super for all the advice/information/general help and encouragement they gave me with this game. Thanks to Ciato and NEB for the encouragement and comments too I really enjoyed it despite there being three mandatory for progress sound related puzzles in the game~

[Grefter]

The ships controls are not so much awkward as the ship takes so long to do anything that you have forgot what you are doing, why you are holding or a controller or that you are even playing a game before it actually gets anywhere or does anything.

SLRPG - Beat Belome with a 60ish super jump.  Oh wait slow down haxorz.  Mostly getting a feel for Super Jump and how it works (and contemplating Super Suit for broken).  that uh one shot Belome.  So I saved that state for later and loaded and earlier one to fight him for reals.  He was still pretty easy.  Rats are also easy.  Laggy is numbing me into a false sense of securom. 

Also there was a treasure chest that screamed a love heart at me.  That was a thing.

Generally speaking I am building up Jump a lot, Mario does not attack.  He Jumps.  I am overlevelled because I ran into rats when I didn't have to because I have enough Flower boosters in my inv to regen Flower points that I feel it is a waste not to grind up Jump.  Hits for about 100 at the moment.

[Clear Tranquil]

So what should I do next - optional BoFIII stuffs/break it harder with my hammer, finish SMT: Nocturne/Lucifer's Call, start Tactics Ogre, start Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2, buy FFV or torture myself with FF2?~

[DjinnAndTonic]

I vote SMT3 or FFTA2~

Started a bit of Bahamut Lagoon on a whim. Looks to have some really neat ideas. I wonder if I'll ever run out of Square SNES RPGs I Should Have Played Ten Years Ago? I still haven't tried Rudra no Hihou.

[OblivionKnight]

Play Lucifer's Call next - much cooler name.

Also, don't buy FF5 - emulate FFVa!!!!

[superaielman]

Play FFTA2, it's a good game.

[Luther Lansfeld]

Play the TO remake, it's a good game!

[Magic Fanatic]

So what should I do next - optional BoFIII stuffs/break it harder with my hammer, finish SMT: Nocturne/Lucifer's Call, start Tactics Ogre, start Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2, buy FFV or torture myself with FF2?~

I'm gonna throw my lot in with FFV supremacy.




Legend of Legaia - Been playing through this again.

Going through Rim Elm was easy enough.  Save Mei, get a Gimard, get the Point Card, done.  Didn't buy a Survival Knife because I can get one for free in Drake Castle.

Ground up to L5 getting Gimard to L9.  Went through Drake Castle without using any items, and wound up getting to the Throne Room bedroom with red on both HP and MP.  At that point, one unguarded Tail Fire would've given me a game over, but I was feeling gutsy.  Haven't run away at all so far.

Get to Mt. Rikuroa, and the game switches to Noa.  With her first battles, I go fight the Black Pueras first, freak out when I find they're immune to Tough Love for some reason, and then just smash their faces in with Rushing Gale.  Terra was free healing, so I took advantage of that fact and killed everything there.

Mist came, blah blah blah, I hurried through until Terra joined my party so I have infinite healing works.  Picked up a free Nail Glove for Noa kind of on the World Map, and Rikuroa was pretty much straightforward and forgettable on Noa's side.  Get to the Genesis Tree, switch to Vahn.

Wind up halfway accidentally grinding here trying to get Vera as a spell, because healing without items is awesome.  Doesn't matter, as Vahn only wound up being level 7 when I go up to fight Caruban.  Speaking of, he went down in one Gimard spell and two Tempest Breaks...  In fact, Noa, being a level lower, was successfully competing in damage against a L9 Gimard spell.  What the hell.

So, Noa gets Terra on her wrist to be more awesome, and we go back through Drake Castle.  Yawn, boring, got the Platinum Card, and then other chests I couldn't before getting Noa.  Marketplace was cool, got a free Fighting Robe for Noa and ten Healing Shrooms.  Left.

Went to Biron Monastery, and just mashed through there.  Got Gala into my party, and holy crap did I seem to forget that he's almost useless.  Four art blocks after spiriting until level 8 or 9 is terrible.  Took a detour to get Gimard for Noa and Theeder for both my good characters, and then went into the West Voz Forest.

Wind up accidentally overleveling in here due to the sheer factor of Nighto not wanting to be shoved into Meta, despite Vahn having an Ivory Book equipped.  Also got Vera for Noa in here, which far extends my dungeon survivability.  Did I mention that Vahn's Vera is L9?  Mei's Pendant is awesome.

Biron Monastery explodes, Gala leaves and comes back, and then we go through East Voz Forest.  Gizam is surprisingly a lot easier to shove into Meta and Terra.  The double Viguro fight winds up giving me an honest-to-god reset - then I stick the Ra-Seru Egg on Noa, and everything is peachy again.  Ozma hatches, but fails to fix Gala's uselessness right away.

Went back to Biron, and bought Gala all his armor.  Ran out of money for the other weapon upgrades and some armor, but oh well.  I then noticed a trend that characters don't get clothes until after they get their Ra-Seru.  I try not to think about this too much.  Go over to the Mist Generator - trying to get Gala caught up on spells is nightmarish.  He winds up getting his fifth art block trying to get to the second floor in any space of time of sanity while getting all the chests, at least.

One elevator, and I get a free sword for Vahn to make up missing out on buying him his new weapon.  Awesome.  Gala FINALLY picks up Vera here, and then upgrades from "Complete Useless" to "Healbot".  Solo battle with Songi was...  A lot easier than I remember, and has probable cause to make me think that Gala has a somewhat legal claim to the Mettle Ring, as useless as it is. (AP Gain Up 1 is still not that useful).

I then go back to the Biron Monastery, heal up, and buy leftover equipment upgrades.  Go back in the Mist Generator, climb down, and then promptly hand Zeta his ass.  Gala's damage was so poor that I just relegated his turns to Healbotting, while Vahn and Noa did all the damage.  For a Noa with seven art blocks, I noticed that Super Javelin did just as much damage as a Frost Breath/Mirage Lancer with an extra hit.  Super Javelin is also cheaper on AP, so I stick with that.

Current levels are...  Either 12/12/11 or 13/13/12, I don't have my game playing right now, but the next part is going through the Ancient Wind Cave to the Seccubus Islands.

[Luther Lansfeld]

Final Fantasy IV The After Years - Because I Block Out Good Gameplay, Apparently

So I forgot that I did Rydia's quest already. Hers is pretty fun. You have four PCs. Rydia, who doesn't have Summon because of evulz but still has Black Magic, Luca who has Big Throw (a row ignoring thing), Calca, who has random attack spells/status, and Brina, who does random nice things like healing, status healing, or Protect/Shell. At first glance, I thought Calca was quite a bit better because he was doing a lot of damage to randoms sometimes, but once I fought the Evil Wall and Brina used Curaja and Esuna randomly I realized that she was better for bosses since Calca just used status magic.

Item supply was a problem in the dungeon because I was poor and didn't have many Phoenix Downs and Calca and Brina die a lot. No reliable healer doesn't help either. Evil Wall was very fun. I only had one stone curing item and Brina was dead from the start, so... I died. I revived Brina and healed her, which helped a lot because she can heal for mass damage occasionally as well as cure stone occasionally. Calca hit the boss for like 80 three times out of his like 30 turns. Golfclap for him. The fight was very long due to not having great damage, but it was manageable.

The second thing we do is go in a cave to get some item. We encounter a boss there who is very interesting. If you cast Fire on him you die because he uses 1200 MT damage on you. He does this anyway normally, but you have time to cast Blizara on him before he does it and stop it, so that's what you do. I died to him like three times before I figured out that you need to properly plan Rydia's turns so you can cancel his evil before he kills everyone.

This story doesn't have a plot. Summons are enslaved to the evulz, THE MAN IN BLACK appears randomly, Luca is cool, etc. I love that her class is Shop Hand instead of Princess like Ursula (Ceodore starts as a Prince as well).

[Fenrir]

The shoe ship is hard to navigate but that doesn't matter too much!

I got the absolutely ridiculous Slot + 10 and "Immunity to every status ailment" accessories. Got every special treasure, found every pirate, finished Tolten's sidequest (then gave the sword to Kaïm. Sorry), found every dream.
9 seeds missing only. I don't think I'll bother unless some guy tells me where every skill left in the world is or something. (that would make little sense though)

It's too bad sidequests are of the Chrono Trigger / Shadow Hearts variety instead of Final Fantasy. (You get access to a ton of optional areas lategame with uber equipement, the bosses and enemies there being very weak) All those skills are overkill. Bosses with 5x more HPs and damage would still be reasonable.


BoF games have boring aftergame most of the time.
Nocturne is good, but how far from the end are you? I think it might be hard to get back into.

I'd say, play FF5 if you want a light game and TO if you want a serious game. FF5 is very light, and TO is very serious. Both are good games! Play FFTA2 if you really want to slowly build an army of uber gods of battle (though it isn't as good as Lost Odyssey about that, I'm afraid)
There's no reason to play FF2 if you haven't played those and have access to them!

[superaielman]

Front Mission 5- Hard mode. Jesus christ, Hard mode.  FM5 itself is a reasonably challenging game, though you can crush it later once you get a handle on the system and smartly set your skills. Hard mode is just a goddamn struggle to survive in every battle. I've never been pressed this hard in an SRPG once I got good at it; the jump in challenge is comparable to the jump from FE8 to FE10. The enemy gets much better gear, there are more enemies, and they go from standard SRPG AI to kick  your fucking ass in mode. You need to stick together and very smartly position your troops just to avoid getting overwhelmed the offense.  It's been a blast so far, and I can't wait to see how crazy the later missions get.