What Games Are You Playing 2013?

[Cmdr_King]

In fairness, the game was advertised as being about Roxas, setter of previous records in the field of intro length.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

I know you know about Final Fantasy 13. Don't tell me you expected good pacing from square after that.

[Meeplelard]

Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus (...that is a mouthful): Completed!  Final few boss fights weren't as bullshit; the Danmaku fight was a lot easier now that I knew how to dodge moves, the big skeleton demon thing was easy now that I knew "Spam every ranged weapon available" was a viable strategy from my first playthrough, and Final Boss...is a legitimately designed that doesn't rely on bullshit.  Weird that.


Compared to NGB...hmm...mixed, gonna say overall worse though.  While the addition of a new weapon (the dual swords) is neat, the game had enough variety as is, and the new weapon felt more like an extension of the Dragon Sword than legitimately new, and this game already had the Kitestu doing that as is.  Having the weapon of course isn't a bad thing by any stretch, just noting the appeal value is lower than it could have been.

No, the main thing that hurts NGS relative to NGB is Rachel.  Again, I like the idea of having chapters around another character, provided said character is legitimately different and fun to play as.  Rachel...is not that, at least not in a good way.  Here are her problems:

-One Melee weapon, which is the War Hammer, which is probably the worst "Real" Weapon in the game.  It's slow, awkward, and only good thing is it's UT, which is hard to pull off if essence isn't around (thankfully, Rachel doesn't use money much, so I guess that's a boon)
-A fraction of Ryu's mobility.  Ryu can run on walls, jump off enemies, gain extra height, etc.  Rachel has...a wall jump that offers no height boost, just changes the direction of her jump...in a game built heavily around Ryu's mobility being one of your main assets against certain kinds of enemies...joy...
-Useless ranged weapon.  I hit maybe once or twice with it, and all it does is knock the enemy away.  It's got no flexibility, the accuracy is abysmal, and it's kind of slow.  Contrast this to Ryu's Bows which can be used for hit and run, the Explosive Shurikens that are a nice quick 1-2 punch, or the general flexibility of the Windmill Shuriken, they genuinely compliment his style, and work for covering areas melee doesn't get entirely.

The enemies in this game are balanced to face Ryu, they are not balanced to face Rachel.  In the end, she's just a majorly gimped PC with 3 chapters dedicated to her and no attempt to adjust the game so she's better suited for it.  The fact that her missions are forced are why I consider this a straight up bad thing; if she was an added bonus campaign once you beat the game or something, I'd be fine with that.  TO BE FAIR, she has a good Ninpo when she finally gets it in Blades of Oroborus, which is kind of like Inazuma-lite, but only 2 shots by the end of her campaign...yeah...

Still, fun replay, and general thoughts of the game remain:

Awesome mook combat, poor boos combat, platforming segments are a bit "eh" and forced but inoffensive outside of maybe the final stage (which is short and no enemies besides the final boss, so it's not too offensive.)

Dunno if I'll get NGS+2; that one sounds like the extra characters are a little more well handled than Rachel was here at least. 


Oh, right, forgot to say that yes, the ADDED BOUNCE in this game is extremely notice-able.  The game does not do a damned thing to mask Rachel's cleavage physics, and in some cases, actually focuses on the "SEE WHAT WE DID WITH HER MODEL!? YOU KNOW YOU LIKE IT!"

[NotMiki]

Ni No Kuni: Is the spiritual sequel to DQVIII in pretty much every way, good and bad.

Hope I'm reading that right.

[Tide]

Fire Emblem: Awakening - Played Hard Casual. Done. Ninja reinforcements can suck it. Probably would've done Hard Classic otherwise >_>. Did a lot of bonus stuff and plan to still do more, so yeah, my timer's going up by the minute. Just doing what hinode is doing now and buffing up units/getting other kid characters.

All the kids sans Lissa's kid has been absolutely ridiculous. My Morgan joined the team with 2 capped stats at level 10. So she had the stats of a about a level 20/10 but being 20 levels under. This lead to hilarious situations at the end of the game, when she went around killing everything with Aether/Ignis or crit Ruins. Literally dropped her into a pack of enemies with a Paired up unit and watched her tear everything apart.

[Random Consonant]

FE13 - hard casual finished, top five were Miriel/Chrom/Robin/Sumia/Stahl.  7/10, ninja reinforcements being a thing needs to not be a thing like everyone else said but it still ranks as the third-best FE to me at any rate.

[Grefter]

They are only ninja on Hard yeah?

Also IMO all need to be replaced with Hardon Ninja reinforcements.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Correct, they only ninja on Hard (and Lunatic obviously). Unfortunately Normal is too easy for an FE veteran, and bad design is bad design regardless of difficulty level.

[Cmdr_King]

Having played on Normal, yeah, it is piss easy and the game is being honest when it says it is for people who don't know Fire Emblem. 

[Captain K.]

FEA:  Hard Casual beaten.  Good game, although I would have ragequit long ago if not for Casual mode.  Just echoing what others have said, ninja reinforcements are stupid, Counter sucks, characters/supports are good, story is bad.  I like the random Risen battles being available to level your lower level characters with.  Although I stopped doing them around Chapter 19 just so I could finish the game.  The game expects you to pair up, can't really imagine doing the later levels without it.

Characters!

The A-team:

Chrom (Lord 20/Great Lord 18)  HP57/Str37/Mag9/Skill33/Spd31/Lck28/Def27/Res8  Was a bit weak in the earlygame due to frailty.  Once he gets forced S support with Sumia he becomes considerably better.  Dual Strike+ pretty much guarantees two attacks on people leading to easy kills.  Still frail enough though that you don't want to just throw him out there though.  Married to Sumia.

Sumia (Pegasus Knight 20/Dark Flier 15) 44/24/18/32/40/26/13/22  Pegasus Knights are more usable here than in FE7 since weapon weight is removed.  Tons of archers in later levels made her somewhat less viable other than being support to Chrom.  Fast though!

Yattaf (Tactician 20/Grandmaster 13) 49/25/27/23/24/19/21/10  I made her + Mag - Res.  Turned her into a magic sword user with Levin Sword which wasn't half bad.  But pretty terrible stat gains left her in the realms of mediocrity.  Also didn't help that enemies go out of their way to target Yattaf and Chrom on hard difficulty, causing many game overs.  Married to Stahl.

Stahl (Cavalier 20/Great Knight 20) 66/41/5/26/23/23/36/6  Yeah, look at that strength and defense.  Had really good stat gains that made him very viable at endgame.

Lissa (Cleric 20/War Cleric 15) 51/19/22/26/23/31/17/20  Superfast leveling from healing early on helps immensely.  Later she became married to Donnel and raised a whole passel of younguns on the farm.

Donnel (Villager 30/Hero 17) 70/37/18/40/41*/48*/41*/24  Took him all the way to 30 on Villager, which was probably a mistake because he started capping stats around level 20 and was underwhelming when facing promoted enemies.  But then class change and it's like I NEED A HERO, HOO HOO!  Wow was he ever dominating at that point.  Never died after promoting, and could literally solo maps.  You know how it sucks having to start with weapon level E after class changing?  Not for Donnel, he was one-shotting people with bronze swords and axes.  Too awesome.

Miriel (Mage 20/Sage 20/Sorcerer 8) 57/9/31/38/39/22/18/27  And yet, I don't consider Donnel my MVP!  Miriel is just plain broken.  Huge Magic, Skill, and Speed on a mage?  Talk about someone on the design team making the perfect twink.  She was a critmonster, I actually felt bad about how much I was RNG screwing the enemies.  Married to Ricken.

Ricken (Mage 20/Dark Knight 16) 60/10/28/27/19/28/26/14  A more typical mage.  Useful but not overpowered.

Maribelle (Troubador 20/Valkyrie 14) 34/8/23/24/21/27/12/29  The usual worse-than-a-cleric healer, but tome use is a nice upgrade.  Married to Lon'qu.

Lon'qu (Myrmidon 20/Swordmaster 20) 54/28/8/40/44/24/20/8  A decent unit, he survived moderately well due to evasion.  Died quickly when he didn't evade.

Cordelia (Pegasus Knight 20/Falcon Knight 13) 52/29/4/27/32/20/22/19  Had great stat-ups.  Tanky pegasus knight what is this madness?  Married to Kellam.

Kellam (Knight 20/General 12) 57/29/4/17/21/14/36/14  Super pair-up partner.  Kept Donnel alive early on, made Cordelia even tankier later.  Had too many problems with accuracy when he himself was attacking.

Owain (Myrmidon 20/Swordmaster 20/Bow Knight 5)  80/40*/27/42*/41*/51*/33/27 What happens when Donnel has a child?  Even more brokenness ensues.  Yeah look at all those capped stats.  Skills were Miracle, Vantage, Aptitude, Astra, Swordfaire.  I thought Miracle+Vantage would be an awesome combination.  Turns out he never got to use it - enemies never lived long enough to hit him that hard.  Was also an amazing character.  Down, sword-hand!  Really surprised nobody has avatared him yet.

The B-team:

Cynthia (Pegasus Knight 14)  Existed solely to give Owain an S-rank Pair Up.

Anna (Trickster 7)  Trickster is a neat class, and she was usually my +1 on maps where an odd number of people were available.

Sully (Cavalier 20/Paladin 2)  Was actually quite good.  She only stopped being used because she didn't end up with a marriage partner.

Gaius (Thief 20/Assassin 1)  He was pretty sweet.  Bwa ha ha!

Virion (Archer 20/Sniper 4)  Strong but dies too much.

Vaike (Fighter 17)  My god he sucks.  He makes Dorcas look good.  Dies to a sneeze.

Didn't use the other characters enough to bother writing about them.

[Fenrir]

FF4 Interlude: Finished. I was expecting something bigger, judging from the bestiary. Turns out the boss bestiary is 90% final boss.
The final boss was the only thing that wasn't utterly pointless... And it wasn't hard or anything. Just weird with no closure... yet. (The closure in TAY is likely to disappoint)
Rydia is already useless in the main game (Letting her die and not ever resurrecting her makes the whole game easier, I feel) and she was even more worthless there. Palom was GOD next to her.

Persona 2 IS Pseudo solo challenge: Yeaaaaah so this was basically the worst idea.
Having to wait 1+ turn at the start of every battle to have the enemies kill the other party members
Going through a one hour dungeon then dying because of ID
Taking 1 damage from everything otherwise
I'm dropping it.

Path of Exile: Lvl 49 witch, 1100 energy shield, 1 life.
Things have been easier as of late, but the pyramid's coming....

[Meeplelard]

TAY doesn't actually follow up the Interlude much at all.  I think the only real connection is if you bring Rydia to a certain point, it says a plot point that is very "Wait what?" inducing, and the Interlude was suppose to explain that.

Of course, all the Interlude ended up being was just mucking around FF4 dungeons, so as you said, the ending is literally the only thing remotely significant, and it's kind of a stupid thing anyway. 

IN TRUTH, it was a cheap gimmick to get people to buy FF4PSP, to make the deal seem sweet.  Put minimal effort into an extra campaign and hype it up, in case people played both FF4a and FF4TAY; apparently having 2 games in the FF4 Equivalent of HD graphics, bug fixes, remixed music, all on one disc, on a portable console wasn't enough. 

(It probably took them all of like 2 hours to program the entirety of the interlude, since it's entirely made of re-used FF4 Assets.)

[Anthony Edward Stark]

If I'd known, I would have just linked you to the LP. It's more entertaining than the actual Interlude and much quicker to get through.

[dude789]

Fire Emblem Awakening:  Doing Normal Classic. It's actually harder than I expected because they made a whole bunch of balance changes so that relying on experience from past FE games can trip you up a bit like the first pegasus knight being healer level frail (they were never tanks, but she feels especially bad).  Also, I think my Avatar is getting a bit RNG screwed. Random battles can also be surprisingly difficult and I like how weapon choice feels like it matters a lot more in this game so far. 

[Hunter Sopko]

KH 358/FUGrefter: Finished. Pretty much everyone knows how I feel at this point. A couple decent scenes at the end, but does not justify its running time. Would've rather mediocrity throughout than an unnecessary slog to something decent. The scenes do manage to put the game over BtB and PS1 though! SO2 and At1 still have a new game they can look down upon though.

Prolly will jump into GoC6 sometime soon. Not sure when. Midterms and MUN stuff this week.

[hinode]

FE13: Chapter 18 completed on Hard Classic. Ninja reinforcements are conceptually lame, but at least playing through Normal meant I know what's coming beforehand and can take measures to mitigate them. I've been clearing a lot of stages quickly enough that either reinforcements never showed up or only on the last turn, when my team was well out of their immediate attack range. I wonder if encouraging aggressiveness was actually the design intention with a lot of the reinforcements in this game, though there are certainly less cheesy ways of doing so (see: Yen'fay stage). Definately not looking forward to facing them on Lunatic, in any case.

Tharja is pretty clearly my best PC right now, high defense+Nosferatu+Merc/Hero pair up boosts means she can reliably tank huge swarms of enemies that everyone else would need RNG luck to survive. Julius would probably be ahead if I reclassed him to Sorceror instead of Dark Knight after picking up Rally Spectrum, but I am shunning Dark magic on him for some mostly-frivolous flavor reasons.

[Luther Lansfeld]

FE13 Lunatic Casual beaten. It was pretty ridiculous, relied on a small number of characters and crazy strats in general to get through the game without using randoms or other methods of grinding. One of the general themes of the playthrough was that money was a major issue due to missing almost all the chests, but I managed to snatch some Bullions here and there. Sold pretty much everything I owned that wasn't immediately useful, Silver Axes/Bows were a nice source of money late since only Basilio could use either. Robin was Speed+ Skill-.

Prologue - Mostly tried to grab Robin and Chrom a couple of levels by picking people off, otherwise Fredrickpremacy. Gave him Robin's Bronze Sword.

Chapter 1 - Around 20 resets. The guy with a Hammer was a real bitch and I spent most of the battle running from him. Sully insta-doubled and killed by myrms which was no fun. Turn 1 was my first real use of extending movement with Pair Up; having Fred pair with Robin and then Switch to kill some dudes on the left really helped.

Chapter 2 - Around 30 resets. A complete trainwreck of epic proportion. Turn 2/3 was a bloodbath, Sully/Stahl/Virion meeting demise, Miriel lives long enough to give Fredrick his Iron Axe, Vaike supports Chrom until his life is needed to save Chrom. Most of the resets were on the first half of the map, although I had two once I got to the second half. Keeping Lissa alive is very important for turn economy. Fred still got 3-4HKOed by the enemies on the map, so his death could definitely happen.

Chapter 3 - Around 7-8 resets. Earlygame is pretty douchey. Paired up Fredrick with Kellam and took his Javelin. Noticing a trend of Fred stealing everyone's shit? Swept the left side with Fred and friends, had non-Fred folks deal with the right so they could level, paired Chrom with Sumia so he could level, paired Robin with Miriel for ALL THE MAGICS. Sully/Stahl pairing as well, and Virion as always croaked.

Chapter 4 – 1 reset. Pretty easy, just have to bait the enemies at the right time. Worked on my Chrom/Robin pairing and levelling mostly. The main mistake I made was not deploying Lissa, who is needed to make Chrom/Robin usage easier. Everyone but Miriel lived.

Chapter 5 – 7-8 resets. Managing to get Elwind to Robin helps. Otherwise mostly Fredrick owning things and other party members dying at useful times. Think I paired Chrom with Sumia so he could double Wyverns with Falchion. Think I had Fredrick, Robin, Chrom, Sumia, Miriel, and Lon'qu alive.

Chapter 6 – 2 resets. Got a little lucky the time I won with a Chrom/Robin double attack to finish Vally and Validar going for Marth rather than me at an opportune time. He was right in the entranceway to Em's room but for some reason decided to go for Marth instead, buying me a couple of turns. He is very personally impressive on this mode, especially since Fredrick died before I engaged him. Only had the duo left of my PCs.

Chapter 7 – 0 resets. Very easy.

Chapter 8 – 0 resets. + points for Nowi being one-rounded and then Robin saying “Oh, she's a dragon? We could probably use her help more than she could use ours!” lulz. Otherwise Sumia/Robin/Chrom/Fred smash. At this point I Master Sealed Robin, who is now my best PC.

Chapter 9 – 3 resets. Unlike in Hard, the enemies move to pincer you in the same turn that the Wyverns from the top reappear. Pretty scary stuff, but Robin with Elwind manhandles Wyverns.

Chapter 10: 3 resets. Fairly obnoxious, missed the Seraph Robe but got the other Thief items (I missed every freaking Seraph Robe in the game.) Gregor managed to grab like five levels wielding a Killing Edge on a fort vs. Wyverns while Chrom/Robin/Fred fought the jerk boss. The introduction of Tharja, too, which is very important!

Chapter 11: 5 resets. I had a lot of trouble with the early-map mages. Robin is not very durable to magic at all and she was who I depended on to kill everything. A lot of my PCs (Sully, Fredrick, Sumia, Anna, Tharja) died fending off the various awful and rude reinforcements, especially that Hero. I hate that guy! Think Chrom reached 20 on this map.

Chapter 12: 5 resets. This is the point where the game generally changes dynamics; emphasis on swarms increases. This map has lots of knights and cavs, so the Beast Killer is Fred/Sumia's best friend. Believe I Second Sealed Fred into a Paladin at this point. My primary strategy was clogging holes, killing off the guys from the right and left, and just setting up a defensive position. Ended up slugging the boss with Libra, one of the last times Libra was a useful offensive unit. Robin/Chrom S support kept them alive for the most part. Promoted GREGOR after this battle.

Chapter 13: 10 resets. The fort reinforcements are very rude. Thought this map was borderline impossible until I realized it was Defeat Boss, so Gregor attacked him followed by double Levin Sword from Anna. Done!

Chapter 14: ~25 resets. Paired Robin with Anna, Lucina with Gregor, Panne as a Wyvern Knight with... someone, Sully maybe? Chrom with Gaius the speed granter, and had Fred and Sumia on Pegasus killing duty with Beast Killers. Had Robin in the range of about 10 Pegs on Turn 1 with Elwind out, killed them, followed by just trying to clogs holes and not bait those on the left. After heavy losses I ended up pairing Chrom and Robin and leaving Anna and Lucina together, those two died and then I survived the rest of the map alone. Robin got to Level 15 Grandmaster on this map so I Second Sealed her into a Swordmaster.

Chapter 15: 0 resets. Rescue staff Say'ri, feed Lucina kills to get her promoted. Levin Sword sadly deceased in this battle. Also got to train Chrom in Lances, which is pretty key for future strats.

Chapter 16: 15 resets or so. Mobile magic users and reinforcements out the ass. Used stealth to cart Chrom and Robin over with Cherche and Sumia while having Tharja and Anna pairing take on the world with Nosferatu.

Chapter 17: 15 resets. Too many open sides for my underlevelled as fuck party, tried a variety of strats, at first tried to just go through like Hard Mode, but the valkyrie reinforcements/the ones from the boss's room just come and wail on you in the hall. Turn 1 is rather crucial in making sure that you have minimal losses; I set it up where the right side was defended near Chrom, killed the guys from the center on Turn 3, while the left side of Lucina and Tharja and friends (Lucina paired with Anna, Fred paired with Sumia) trying to survive. Picked off the archer with Tharja/Anna as well. Ended up just having to blitz as fast as I could to the boss before the reinforcements blocked my path and having Tharja with Nos defend the door as Chrom and Robin tried to take down the over-evasive boss.

Chapter 18: 7 resets. Mostly realizing that, again, three pronged attacks don't work on this game. As with many other maps, just knowing what pace to move at helps a ton. Got a lot of mileage out of baiting mages with my Javelin out, and Chrom gained a lot of levels. Killed the boss with Lucina. Also, hey dawg, I know this is your brother's sword, but it's so shiny...

Chapter 19: 40-50 resets. Holy mother of god this map is hard. Finish as many enemies off as possible with the scrub brigade (Fred sadly is part of said scrub brigade, even if he can hit bitches with Beast Killer, thus making him better than most of his friends.)Mostly ended up with Chrom/Robin pairing with Chrom sporting a Javelin/Short Spear standing on a fort with Tharja/Say'ri with Nos(standing NEXT TO Robin is important, because Robin helps Tharja null the crit of the enemies on the map.) I used up 106 charges of Nos, good thing it is storebought. Used a lot of Amastu as well. Tharja hit her level cap on this map, so I had to Second Seal her back to Level 1. <_< Chrom is a Paladin now as well, and Robin is a Trickster after getting Swordfaire. Chrom also has an A in Lances now!

Chapter 20: 25 resets. Ended up not killing Cervantes for the Ephs. Turn 1 is holding a line (Chrom/Sumia, Robin/Say'ri, Lucina/Fred) in the middle, Tharja/Anna killing the right side, and having Hammer and Armorslayer users try to take out/distract the left. Trying to dash up the area (down the hallway to the right, since open spaces do not favor me) is imperative because I needed to book it before the 15 dudes come from the bottom on turn 4 or whatever, ended up having Lucina/Say'ri pairing after sacrificing Fred/Sumia, and had Tharja/Anna dash with Robin/Chrom to Valhart after Lucina valiantly fended off people. Valhart killed Tharja and Anna but left Robin/Chrom alive long enough to wail on him.

Chapter 21: 15 resets. Ended up doing this as slow as molasses, took 29 turns, just turtled out all of the stupid reinforcements, got all of the treasure! Noble Rapier ended up just being sell-bait since I classchanged Lucina into a Swordmaster. Hooray for Fortify though. Tharja/Anna Chrom/Robin Lucina/Say'ri only relevant people as always. :p

Chapter 22: 2 resets. Brave Sword Assassin/Valflame Valk was Turn 1 reset, had another on at some point. 51 speed swordmaster also killed me once, uguu. Pretty easy though.

Chapter 23: 3 resets. Not as hard as I had feared, due to Javelin hax and Chrom having the high move from Pally. Mostly ran around, positioning myself to be hit by the people I wanted to be hit by. At some point in the last few chaps Chrom passed Robin in awesomeness, which is amusing since he was the second wheel earlier.

Chapter 24: 1 reset. Once I realized that all the Wyverns had Swordbreaker, Tharja/Nos hax had to reappear.

Chapter 25: 25 resets. Dark Flier reinforcements for the big jerkfaces. >_< Realized that blitzing the boss with Chrom and Robin was the best strategy;  in particular, some nasty guys appear next to the boss on Turn 7. Mostly had Tharja/Anna tank the mages, Lucina/Say'ri tank the Griffons with Basilio/Flavia tanking the top with Hammer, used Rescue staff with Robin to summon Flavio/Basilio nearer to kill stuff on the right, moved quickly up the right while having my allies kill things/die, particularly Tharja on a fort killing Dark Fliers. Killed the boss on Turn 6.

End: 1 reset. Rescue staff abuse to get my peeps close to the boss, Turn 2 was Lucina and Chrom attacking the boss while the others tried to off enemies and EVERYONE DIES but Chrom, Turn 3 was Chrom Aether-critting the boss for 96 damage. Kind of lucky, but I'll take it.

Overall there was a lot of death. Many maps ended with only two-five people left.

Final levels:

A tier:

Chrom 20/20/11 Paladin (41 STR, 41 speed, 46 luck, 33 def, 24 res)
Robin: 20/15/15SM/4 Trickster: (34 STR/44 speed/40 luck/17 both defenses)
Lucina: 20/15/3 Swordmaster: (35 STR/40 speed/38 luck/26 def/19 res)
Tharja 20/20/16 Sorcerer (47 Mag/41 speed/21 luck/35 def/19 res)

B tier:
Fredrick: 15GK/5 Paladin: (26 STR/25 speed/12 luck 17 def/13 res)
Panne: 15/10WyvernRider/4 Griffon Rider (31 STR/31 speed/20 luck/23 def/9 res)
Gregor: 20/10 Bow Knight (30 str/26 speed/18 luck/19 def/5 res)
Say'ri: Level 7 Swordmaster (23 str/33 speed/25 luck/15 defenses)
Sumia Level 20/7 Falcon Knight (19 str/32 speed/27 luck/13 def/18 res)
Morgan, stats are irrelevant, Rally Spectrum monkey
Anna: Level 12 Trickster (16 STR/27 Magic/27 speed/35 luck/13 def/16 res)
Basilio: Level 12 Warrior (39 str/29 speed/24 luck/25 def/10 res)
Flavia: Level 12 Hero: (32 str/36 speed/27 luck/27 def/14 res)
Libra and Lissa just heal and die

Fredrick and Chrom/Robin/Tharja MVPs.

[hinode]

Okay, FE13 chapter 23 is the first time I've gotten fucked over by the ninja reinforcements. Didn't realize that killing the boss neither ends the stage nor the reinforcements, for once.

Time to see if blocking the stairs will work, I guess. If that doesn't then I'll have to push everyone north and play defensively until reinforcements ends, at the cost of making the stage about three times as long to complete.

Edit: Yep, it worked. Should've done it the first time, but I thought it wouldn't be necessary and I could push my healers closer.

[Fudozukushi]

I suppose if I ever play FE13 on a higher difficulty all my too many playthroughs of FE6 might be useful.

[Grefter]

Tales of Graces fffffffffffffffffffff- I just talked with Fourier in her lab for point of reference for where I am up to.  Dug the name drops with Fourier, Poisson and Gauss.

What I am not digging is how much "The first Tales Game you can really play as a Mage" gets a kick in the taint once you try to use higher level spells.  I mentioned earlier I am using Malik because Asbel is consistently being the biggest sack of tools this side of Leon in the Tales series. 

First of all as is series staple you get bumped out of spells the moment something looks at you.  This is kind of okay if not for a few of the later things.
Second up, enemies start off targeting player 1.  Without fail.  This makes the first few seconds of every fight a dodge fest while you get footing and your party members hit dudes to reset their AI. 
Thirdly, crowd controlling enemies is not a thing that happens.  You can fight 5-6 enemies at a time.  You are going to get hit out of bigger spells even if you combo into them (at this point you can only realistically combo 2 skills early fight, 3 late fight, but at that point Ether Flare is overkill).
Fourth and this is really what makes all the above a thing, ENEMIES SPAWN RIGHT UP YOUR ANUS.  I don't remember if this is just a thing that is happening in Fendel, but constantly I am getting into fights with 5-6 dudes.  You start targetted a dude on the other side of the map and can see 2 of their buddies.  What you don't see is the 3 harpies spawned right behind you.

The number of times I have been hit out of an Ether Flare just before it goes off is aggravating.  Oh a bug hit me for 9 damage.  Better stop doing anything.

Fifth of all and the absolute kick in the balls and the 100% reason I think you aren't meant to be playing a Mage unless you are like player 3.  Miracle Arts (or whatever they are calling them this time).  Miracle Arts can go get fucked buy a middle aged used car salesman who isn't really trawling for a rent boy, but just someone that will take a beating for money and doesn't mind getting turkey slapped.

Here is why Miracle Arts can go fuck themselves.  Eleth Burst is the perfect time to get your spam on.  You combo up to a 4 CC skill and spam to your heart's content.  You feel like a god.  Until someone uses a Miracle Art that is.  Then your cast not only gets interrupted BY YOUR OWN PARTY but your combo that lets you unleash the wrath of the gods themselves with super fast casts?  That gets reset.

But it is cool you are playing as that douchebag Asbel anyway right?

[Fudozukushi]

I think you can turn off the other characters Mystic Artes if you want to.

[Cotigo]

Huh.  I'm surprised that there's not some sort of equipment or skill to make you not get hit out of casting nearly as often.  They had that all the way back in Tales of Symphonia if I recall.

[Fudozukushi]

Huh.  I'm surprised that there's not some sort of equipment or skill to make you not get hit out of casting nearly as often.  They had that all the way back in Tales of Symphonia if I recall.

It's called Iron Stance in Graces.  I know how it works for Asbel so someone else will have to shed light on how it works for casters.

[DjinnAndTonic]

You can definitely turn off Mystic Artes for any characters you don't want using them. There's a bunch of equips that grant Concentration (I think that's what it's called in this one?) that prevents getting knocked out of your spells. You can also forge Gems that grant this effect to insanely high levels such that basically nothing short of death interrupts your casting. The mages also get a lot of titles that grant this effect on a per-spell basis, so it's worth checking which of your spells have it attached and stick to those earlier in the fights.

Though yes, the game still favors Player 1 being a Melee character. I usually play Malik myself, but I've always been playing with a group. Even as player 2 or 3, enemies that spawn behind the PCs are annoying, though a lot less so when you have the camera angle set up to see the whole field instead of the default zoom-in you probably have it set on for 1-player. Also, note that enemies can't spawn behind you if you sneak up on -them- when initiating an encounter. If you don't like the opening dodgefest, get better at sneaking up on encounters. You'll also start with a fuller CC meter, making opening casting a lot easier.

[Grefter]

Sure, I could turn off mystic arts and lose out on a few thousand damage.  Or I could put them on manual (no) or I could just use Asbel like the game clearly wants (no).

It interrupts the gameplay but, like you saw with FF13, I won't sacrifice significant gameplay advantage just to make the gameplay flow better.  I would sooner put the game on Easy and stop giving shits.

Have not seen Concentrate gems (by that name or another?).  Assume they are kind of rare like Rise and Exceed?   (That is having only got 1 or 2 of each at this point and regretting using them before I got a grasp on what was happening with that system).