What Games are you playing 2016?

[Fenrir]

Devil May Cry is completely ridiculous right off the bat while Dark Souls tries to have verysimilitude and weight and stuff. Though to be fair the rolls have always been completely ridiculous - You don't roll in a fight. No. Bad.

I've ran with bows through all the games I think? They're there if you want to cheese a few enemies from a good vantage point before they get to you, but in an actual encounter, they're not incredible. Sorceries are the long range spells that cost a lot but are very effective, bows don't cost much and are much less effective.

[Fenrir]

[Grefter]

Bows are amazing in DS3 for the same purposes they always are.  Lots of fights setup to be devastating that are neutered by range pulls.  More so that DS2, I think there isn't really AI tying enemies together in this one where pull 1 = pull 6.

The Estus situation is super transitory.  If you keep on the curve of finding them for your area you end up with tons that heal for a lot.  Especially if you go for efficient Healing options. 

You were on the money with Chimes Cid they are ridiculous.  I still pack a heal though.

On Weapons Fen, they have base weapons setup aort of kid way between Quality and Raw.  Pretty much everything has trashy scaling and more strength in base power.  Eventually you can Infuse them for better scaling in whatever you favour at the cost of base damage.

After Cid talking about buffs I went and made a Raw Club.  I suspect just full Raw + tank stats might be a viable build now.  By +6 my Raw club was keeping pace with my elemental weapon after the split Defense stats.  Scaling probably beats it, but then you wouldn't have 40 Vigor, Vit, Endos.  Still might need a bit of Str to equip something.

I gave up on buffs because I keep my flame in my right hand and then went Simple, got myself a trinket shield to make Simple as well.  We Demons's Souls's mana Regen now.

[Fudozukushi]

Late Game Thingy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7SAF-So9Pc

Miracles may be dopey but boy howdy did I adore my miracle run in DS1.  Getting the lightning spear and just obliterating the boar in two shots was fantastic.  The knockback on kill effect was so large I was knocking dudes over walls from the opposite end of the area.  Just cut through bosses like a flaming chainsaw through butter.

Infusing is so completely random in effectiveness.  So many weapons get S scaling in Faith/INT if infused for those paths.  And then some weapons have worse scaling for one stat with the single-stat scaling than with the split-path scaling.

[hinode]

FE Fates: Birthright beaten. Difficulty was a significant step down from Conquest, although it did pick up somewhat lategame when all the enemies became promoted. Map design wasn't as interesting as Conquest, but it generally didn't reach the point of aggravating me. Worst thing it did was a couple of maps where it was easier to just have Corrin or Ryouma singlehandedly tank a large chunk of the map with just a Guard Stance support, but it never came close to the point where I was essentially two-manning the game, at least.

Hoshido Noble did not have a single skill that really interested me, so I opted for a +Str/-Mag Corrin who went Dread Fighter->Master Ninja. Shurikens were clearly not designed for a user with that much strength in mind.

Plotwise, it had nothing as remotely dumb as Conquest 15, but I thought the route suffered from the Hoshido cast being kinda bland by comparison. I felt like Elise was more interesting in her short screentime on Birthright that the entire Hoshido royal family, aside from maybe Takumi.

[Sierra]

Yeah sadly Lightning Spear is not that OP in DS3. I got to try it out today and it barely outdamages my bow (which I have minimum stats for and only the cheapest arrows). Like it's doing less with an upgraded talisman and twentysomething FTH than a pyro would do with Fireball right out of the gate. That said, it still has some genuine use in knocking fools back at range. I think the selling point is supposed to be the speed, really. There's virtually no casting time. I don't even need to have the Sage's Ring on, it just fires instantly.

Flinging dudes off of cliffs with Force is great fun, though. Often easier than fighting them legit too.

Re: weapon infusions, raw weapons are actually a really good immediate investment. Easy enough to ditch the infusion or switch it to something else later if you need to. Like, I'm running a raw lucerne right now and I'm pretty sure it's carried its weight more than my STR-scaling battle axe did first run (before I ditched it for the butcher knife). I'm not sure where scaling weapons get to be clearly superior. It happens eventually! But raw still looks like a solid bet for caster backup at any point since you can still toss buffs on it.

Speaking of lucerne, it's still great fun. The 2H R2 is that good old halberd spin, which is immensely satisfying to employ against the mob o' goons boss. After spending too much time this afternoon grinding through sunbro medals I realize that like nobody else actually uses polearms and that's sad. I almost always just draw hosts/phantoms that are using greatswords. Occasionally straight swords or uchi, rarely axes. Saw one other person using a halberd all day. Shoulda called it Dark Swords 3 I guess.

[MC50]

Finished Trails of Cold Steel. Note that I have not played any other trails game, except for about 6 hours of Sky, a few years back. This is a kind of long post.

I shouldn't have any major spoilers below. But there might be some little things (Gameplay discussion, characters that join you, etc.)

Final time was 77 hours. Though I left the game on a bit here and there. Went with Hard Mode, which felt like the right choice - it was a bit difficult early on, and the last boss fight felt kind of RNG, but everything inbetween was fine difficulty wise.

CHARACTERS/STORY

This game is slow. Especially early on, when I had no particular attachment to any character or the world - and it certainly shows some strong, "dislikable" character traits early on (Jusis/Machias, Alisa). Still, these are at least character traits - and the characters are fairly well rounded and reasonable throughout the game. The game has a lot of text - it's hard to not get attached to them at least a little, though I couldn't pinpoint when exactly it happened.

There are a lot of playable characters - which works and makes sense in the context of the story - but it does make you wonder what certain characters deal is.

Story otherwise was fine, they did an interesting world setting up a world that seemed bigger than your party. I hope that it continues this way, though I'm not sure how the ending of this game will lead into the sequel.

Really enjoyed the incidental NPC dialogue. I didn't go out of my way to view all of it, but I did try to sidetrack to talk to some of them before going to the next story point. I'm actually pretty impressed the game managed to make me remember the designs and names of a lot of incidental NPC characters.

GAMEPLAY

 - In general, I liked it. I feel the batlte system is solid, and the quartz customization reminded me of Materia that gave you more options. I really did enjoy it, though I wish there was more possibilities for different builds, I do like how the characters also have hteir inbuilt skills that make them not all just interchangable. I did kind of feel like S-Crafts were a little strong, but I have no idea how to balance that. It was still enjoyable, and never felt horribly broken in one direction or the other (Though I'm sure you could)

However, the boss design is fairly dissapointing. The boss of the second last chapter had a fun gimmick - I think the game needed more of those. Most are just "Protect against this status" or "Hope RNG doesn't screw you with them using their best move three times in a row." That's something I really hope does improve. The gimmick fights near the end of the game were interesting, and I assume there will be more of the min the next game - I'd also like to see where they go with those.

As an aside - Dungeons are kind of dull, very Suikoden like. Music is great, however.

Character thoughts (Gameplay wise) below. Note that I used some more than others, so they get more lines.

REAN
 - Awesome on-field attack.
 - Early game, his best use was trying for burns, and moderate AOE.
 - Mid game, I gave him Gravity Well and he sucked enemies together for the rest of the team to blow up.
 - Late game, I used Chrono Burst and Motivate x 2 fairly often.

Solid enough main. Didn't feel incredibly strong, but could always find something for him to do.

ALISA

- OK On field attack. - Good range, but if they notice you, you're in trouble.

Didn't use her a TON, but some of her craft moves are strong. The Insight one in particular, and of course the CP gain one. Unfortunately, her physicals are kind of pitiful, but her magic attack stat is fine.

ELLIOT

- Seemed a bad on field attack, but I never tried it enough.

Earlygame crutch. Still solid lategame as an attacking mage who threw out his regen skill now and again. Generally made the party when he was usable.

GAIUS

- Good on field attack. Slower than Rean but can circle enemies.

I found him very strong for the first "60%" of the game, his first Craft skill is fantastic for shutting down randoms, though he was nothing special against bosses. He weakened a bit later, but could perform an acceptable evasion tank role.

LAURA

Good on field attack. Seems to stun guys who are running right at you sometimes.

Obviously impressive early on, having your only S-Craft. Always solid when in the party at hitting things, and has good AOE moves - felt strong, but didn't use her much.

EMMA

See Elliot for on field attack.

Didn't use her a lot, though she forced her way into the party for endgame. Solid enough attack mage, never used her crafts enough to get a strong opinion on them.

JUSIS

Average on field attack. Seemed to be a slower Rean, but it was servicable when Rean was in the back.

Good attack mage - Alisa level. Also had Noble Command, which is a fantastic AOE buff to the party. Those two things alone made me use him often. Did have a weak S-Craft, as his STR is not that great.

MACHIAS

Pretty bad on field attack.

Seemed solid, though his damage always felt low. For a time was good at inflicting cheap status effects with his AOE basic attack. His MP recovery move was helpful, and his Accelerate seemed somewhat busable if you knew how to properly use it, thouhg you get it so late in the game its not a huge deal.

FIE

Good on field attack at range, but her close one has a bit too much lag.

Decent enough, but her AOE's aren't quite as good as the next character's, so I tended to use him instead. A solid enough physical attacking character/evasion tank/random buster, but had to tweak her a bit for damage.

CROW

See Alisa for on field attack.

Really strong S-Craft. Really strong basic crafts for destroying randoms. That's basically all he does - but he felt MVP while he was available.

MILLIUM

Not sure about her on field attack. Didn't try it much. I believe it blocks your running around, though.

Decent enough... Good attack range, and her barrier let her tank a few things. Didn't seem to have a clear niche, though.


Enjoyed it overall - 8/10? Will play the sequel when it comes out - excited for story and gameplay changes.

Not sure what to play next. Thinking Bravely Second, though I haven't quite decided yet. I do still have Revelations.

[SnowFire]

MC50: Interesting stuff.  Disappointed to hear that the boss design isn't too special, alas.  I might be hitting up Cold Steel next after Birthright.

Fire Emblem Fates: Finished (for real).  Final map was a lot fairer after knowing WTF was going on.  (Actually finished a bit ago but slow in writing this up as usual.)

Conquest stuff
As a side comment, I'd complained a tad about Fates music earlier at least compared to Awakening.  I'm pleased to report that the music in the back third of the game is quite good and redeems itself a bit.  I very much liked "A Dark Fall" (Takumi, Hinoka, & Iago music) and "End of All" (frue final).  The English singer for the final is way better than the Japanese singer, too.

So, in my 2nd run...  first off, I actually cooked, which helped more than I'd expect.  I randomly had Peri who is apparently tied for best cook in the game ( http://serenesforest.net/fire-emblem-fates/my-castle/restaurant/ ), so everybody got +2 Str, +2 Spd, +2 Def or the like.  Guess she likes knives.  (Side rant: Yeah yeah I get the joke that Felicia is a terrible maid and the dark mirror of Jakob who is perfect, but did she really have to be tied for WORST cook?!  You'd think that a bad servant would still be better than, you know, the nobles, almost all of whom should basically have never been inside a kitchen before and basically be going "HMM, I wonder what happens if I do this?!")

(Gameplay spoilers again here)

Anyway, the first map actually has an enemy pair-up that will double & kill L21 Xander with physicals.  Impressive.  The enemies are just insanely badass, but their AI is cheeseable...  I also didn't understand how the stairs worked when I first fought the map, as I assumed that enemy reinforcements would spawn from 'em and ran off from them to fight the "Big Money" crew in a fair fight in the halls, which is unwise since they're insanely badass.  Anyway, if you run inside the rooms (/ get involuntarily Entrap'd in), the "Big Money" crew retreats back to guard the throne, which is a BIG MISTAKE (although stops "run through the stairs past" strats, I guess).  After surviving the rooms with your pair-ups, you can then swarm the Merchant & friends from the stairs in 1 turn, and as long as you respect Counter / Countermagic, they're not too bad!  ...unlike the murderous results if fought straight-up.  Stairs OP.

Re Elf's comment on the first half's boss being scarier, eh, not buying it.  Xander practically solos him effortlessly (~0 damage and bad accuracy), but more importantly, there's no big hurry.  The 2nd part boss puts you on a strict clock to kill him now now now, there might have been Hexing Rod shenanigans, and you only have so many tanks to go around (although Azura can cheat this a bit).  And both the bosses have Vengeance, so if you don't use a defensive Pair-Up, you're looking at a ton of potential damage soaring at you.  As for the map damage, yeah, I knew about the barriers, but that only helped for the first doom wave.  For the 2nd doom wave, I was trying to set up for my alpha strike on the boss next turn, which meant being close to the boss...  so it was either "eat it in my setup " or "run back behind the barriers into the self-destructing Faceless".  2nd time, I went through a turn faster, so was able to make my strike on the boss as he was charging up his 2nd attack rather than the turn afterward.  That did help a lot.

There was one reload other than messing around with different initial setups, and that was forgetting that the temporary barrier would be destroyed so enemy threat ranges were lying, and mispositioned Xander by 1 space allowing an enemy ninja to dive Elise and kill her.  Yeah not gonna feel sorry about battle save reloading for that.  No deaths otherwise, so I'm pleased to call it.

DLC stuff
As for DLC...  there...  isn't much, yet?  It's all DLC seemingly aimed at the main game progression and is scaled to your current level or slightly less.  Nothing like "here are some extra chapters balanced to be fought after the final boss."  I don't really care about grinding stat-ups or promotion items when I'm finished already, so whatever.  Except!  "Hidden Truths" was pretty good, except that two plot points in it are pretty dumb if you think about them (but fine in passing).  That was some enjoyable DLC, possibly because I'm more invested in the Awakening kids than a considerable amount of the new Fates cast...?  And while my favorite kind of story isn't usually the "mystic powerup" tale where some god comes along and makes normal heroes EVEN AWESOMER, I have to admit, for that type of story, Hidden Truths was pretty good.  You get to see the kids before & after their Dragon Vein power up, and then you can pick one of 'em to get a SUPER power up (replay value, try 'em all?).  Although how come they don't have Dragon Blood for the normal game, though?!  I guess they're slow-playing it.

Also, I guess that if you were dead set on using Laslow, Hidden Truths basically is a solid excuse to give him the Fell Brand so he can get Rally Spectrum.  That's...  still awful late, since that's L15 if you switch early to Tactician/Grandmaster, L19 if you do it after Axebreaker...  but something.  He's pretty awful normally but I guess if you were insistent on Fancy Footwork hype, that's the way to get it that doesn't involve massive Seal shenanigans.

Anyway, to be clear, I liked Hidden Truth as it stands on its own (albeit robbing us of a perfectly good excuse for Boss Lilith!), but as for the oddities / nitpicks / plot holes...  (DLC spoilerz?!)..

*  I get that measuring divine power level is hard and inconsistent in ACTUAL human mythology, and I'm willing to give a lot of leeway here.  Anarakos has the power to greenery up the dead world of the children & bury the bodies which I thought was actually pretty nice - the kids are not really fighting for a direct reward, but to make the world a better place, and give the dead world a bit of honor.  This is cool, even if it grants Anarakos a ton of power.  But...  he doesn't know the NAME of his child?!  Or inexplicably neglects to tell the kids this crucial piece of information?  Wat.  It'd almost make more sense if he didn't know he had a kid and Mikoto had just run off.  But if he knows he had a kid but neglects to figure out minor details like "what is their name", sheesh.  This is presumably why the kids just picked random princes / princesses to server in Nohr hoping they'd gotten the right one!  This isn't a big deal, this is one of those weird soap opera type plot twists anyway. 

* Lilith.  Okay, EVIL LILITH is amusing enough, and like I said, works fine for this episode taken alone.   But...  it really, really doesn't work with the rest of the game.  The one plot point that sorta got to me in Conquest was Lilith's death, as bullshit as it was (SURPRISE Avatar will run away from the battle despite never doing this before, then random Faceless attack into random heroic sacrifice.  This is terrible setup.).  They then doubled down on it right before the final chapter, which practically sets Lilith up as Aeris, a potential true soul match that had some fatal destiny, but her ghost will always love you from beyond the grave.  This was touching in its own forced way, certainly more so than any of the ludicrousness involved with the Hoshidan noble siblings & their armies.  But...  this is entirely killed by making it so that Lilith was Corrin's SISTER!  Argh!  Now it's either the creepy siscon incest vibe or, more reasonably, a particularly Japanese thing that doesn't translate of siblings being codependent in weird ways.  Anyway, Fates mostly gets right the noble sibling relationships - these people are allies to each other, not servants.  It's so weird to think of a younger sister just solely dedicating herself to helping out her [brother/sister] whom she doesn't even really know yet.  Don't you have any aspirations of your own?!  And you haven't even been "saved" by Corrin yet!  The idea of Corrin being nice to an animal and getting a surprise reward because the animal was a god is a fable that has been told a thousand times in every culture, and has moral resonance - be nice to people, you never know how you might be rewarded.  Now Corrin being nice is undone as well, as Lilith was planning on serving him anyway - a classic bad writer thing of overdetermining a motive.  I dunno, it rubs me the wrong way.  Elise idolizes Corrin, respects Xander & Camilla and asks them advice, and jokes with Leo about his stiffness.  I mostly buy it.  She doesn't go around saying "WHAT DO YOU WANT MASTER", though!  (even if you upgrade her to a Maid out of some fit of madness)  Sigh.  And even if she's too shy to explain the truth, you'd think that the Awakening kids would be... highly tempted...  to spill what's going on here in the main game, as Lilith would have some really useful information about WTF is really going on that could save some lives.

EDIT: * Oh yeah, one 3rd issue, though this isn't nearly as large as the above, and really is just a nitpick.  When Corrin & Kana go crazy, they just become kinda mindless monsters attacking anything around them.  When Anarakos goes crazy, he...  splits himself in two, and the evil half has coherent thoughts and plans and such?  Considering how crazy Takumi acts by the end, I wish they'd been a little more consistent to hint at what was going on - either make Anarakos more of a random force of destruction (consistent with Takumi going all MURDER BETRAYAL KILL RARGH), or make it so that Corrin / Kana activate their "dark side", whatever that means, when they flip out - so they're slightly more in control, but also more evil.  Still, more of a nitpick here.


On a related note, this makes the plot pretty darn similar to Ys: Memories of Celceta and its variants, so much so that I have to wonder if all of them aren't based on some particular bit of Japanese mythology.  Is there some Japanese god who chills with the King/Emperor for awhile and spreads good fortune, but then randomly gets multiple personality disorder and either splits himself in two or just goes Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, but gives the descendants of the royal family the key to calm him down again?  I wouldn't be surprised...

On another related note while I'm whining about maids in the plot...  can I whine about Flora?  Not particularly being into the maid fetish, I liked her the most of the servant set, because she isn't actually a maid - she's more like a spy.  This is actually cool; I'm much more interested in the secretly awesome badass who's pretending to be a maid.  Except that once she joins, her support convos & avatar invites totally forget about this!  She just lapses back into competent meido 100%, eager to please the Avatar at all costs with no desires of her own.  I get that this turns on some of the JP audience, but sheesh, can't you at least include the other part of the plot you wrote for her at the same time?

Birthright
It's okay so far.  Using an intentionally over-broad party (only really ignoring Hinata, Silas, & Reina so far) and a slightly dopey Avatar build to keep things interesting, since I heard that Birthright was easier than Conquest.  Avatar is +Lck, -Res; she just lucked into this awesome sword one day.  There's definitely a lot more AI willing to charge to their deaths and do 0 damage on Hard in BR; this showed up sometimes in Conquest, but usually on the likes of Faceless.  A lot more AIs are vanilla "attack someone who gets in range, otherwise stand still."  With a few also having "Charge forward suicidally on turn X."  Ah well.

At the opera house mission.  For giggles, I had Corrin fly away with a Pegasus Knight and abandon her allies to their fates, getting a turn 3 victory.  Did not save afterward, of course, and will do it legit now, but having the escape condition be Corrin-only was a little TOO nice I think.

[Grefter]

Dark Souls 3 - We went to the end of an optional path and went to a palace afterwards.

Something I am loving the ability to pinch hit in to with Pyro build is Bleed spells from dark Miracles.  It doesn't matter how much damage they do really, but the bleed procs thick and fast on stuff that fire seems questionable on.  Sometimes I still do it on bosses even where GCFO would still be good damage because the boss is capable of being bled, the projectile for Dorhy's Gnawing is fast, shoots straight and has some okay tracking so its safe and fast and shreds.  Being paired with a Katana user might be contributing, but still at least 2 late game bosses so far has been shredded by it.  Up to +10 Pyro Flame now, 40/40 Int/Faith, 30 Attunement.  Going for HP from here on out I guess.

Bleed is the new Poizn?

[Fudozukushi]

Hahaha, Poise literally doesn't work.  There's an pointer that sets it not to work.  Hahahaha.

[Fenrir]

I don't want to very slowly kite enemies one by one with bows. That's what Peter from accounting would do not LEGOLAS

Souls remains unfortunately vastly inferior to its competitor Dragon's Dogma in the archer panache department and that's a shame.

[SnowFire]

His name was Bob, not Peter.

http://markrosewater.tumblr.com/post/115862260783/did-bob-from-accounting-ever-make-it-out-of-the

[jsh357]

Hahaha, Poise literally doesn't work.  There's an pointer that sets it not to work.  Hahahaha.

I saw that this morning. Wondering if it was an intended change or not. It seems like the game would be ridiculously easy with DS1 Poise, but it would help to differentiate heavy characters. Apparently Greatshield wall builds are super broken in PVP, and Poise would probably just make that worse. (I wouldn't know for sure; I'm not paying Sony for internet play)

[Fudozukushi]

Alas, my shield-only run will not be repeated.

[Niu]

MILLIUM

Not sure about her on field attack. Didn't try it much. I believe it blocks your running around, though.

Decent enough... Good attack range, and her barrier let her tank a few things. Didn't seem to have a clear niche, though.

her niche is being the game's best attacker with highest raw offense. And her S-Craft is a full screen MT the same time with very high damage multipliers.
She can be optimize with a fast CP recharge set up and proceed to spam S-Craft over and over. Be it random or bosses.

Her field attack is very sluggish and can block your way. But is compensated by she has high chance of stunning any type of enemy, even by hitting the upfront.

[Fenrir]

Dark Souls 3: got sharp sellsword twinblades +4.m and 35 dex. Kicking ass. Thieves really got the short end of the stick compared to mercenaries. But they have slightly less magic stats so gopd if you want to minmax I guess?
Starting stamina is already pretty good and I don't know why you'd level it up besides convenience. Unless you use shields of course.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Playing Skies of Arcadia again.  Trying to get the settings for it in Dolphin running smoothly.  Weirdly, it runs smooth all the time except for at the very start of battles, where the FPS drops to 7.  Experimenting with settings to fix it seems to have corrupted my save so I need to go back to a state, which means that I am replaying the intro again.

You know what should be a mandatory feature in RPGs?  Like, even more than scene skip?  The ability to skip the inevitable hour where you have to run around town and talk to people in your peasant village, and just go straight to the part where it gets set on fire.

Maybe have the game open with a dialogue choice.  "Well, time to go to work!" where you play the intro and "I hope my house isn't on fire"

[SnowFire]

Playing Skies of Arcadia again.  Trying to get the settings for it in Dolphin running smoothly.  Weirdly, it runs smooth all the time except for at the very start of battles, where the FPS drops to 7.  Experimenting with settings to fix it seems to have corrupted my save so I need to go back to a state, which means that I am replaying the intro again.

You know what should be a mandatory feature in RPGs?  Like, even more than scene skip?  The ability to skip the inevitable hour where you have to run around town and talk to people in your peasant village, and just go straight to the part where it gets set on fire.

Maybe have the game open with a dialogue choice.  "Well, time to go to work!" where you play the intro and "I hope my house isn't on fire"

I was hyping Ori & the Blind Forest earlier, but that game in fact has such a feature.  You can just pause and click "skip prologue" to go straight into things (for all that you should only do this in a replay, of course).

[Grefter]

Poise literally making me rage so hard.  You know that cornerstone of Dark Souls circle jerk of "The game is fair, at its base all the enemies use the same system as the player"

Well now they do except for poiselol

Also Tide literally ruining PoFEmblemon for me by letting me know you can have third generation children.  I thought breeding was okay even with the hidden EVs and inherited moves from mother/father was okay and controlled mostly by making children rank up to a usable level and being limited to core units breeding. 

Kids can have kids. 

Fuck this game.  THANKS TIED.

Serious FE Conquest post - I think my fun units got a bit stat screwed and that makes me sad like FE games always do.  Limited Exp makes catch up sad.  I don't want to use the DLC on this mode even though it apparently scales the enemy up (?).

I am still playing super dooper easy mode, so its not a problem, I can literally zerg with unpromoted level 10 dudes even in Chapter 16+, but still, feels bad.

Elise was getting mad level ups.  Level 19 - 20.  0 stat level up.  Waste of all that healer XP grind.  So much salt that this is a tale told on the Dead Sea scrolls.  That said she completely fucks shit up as a Strategist with the +2 Disrobing Gale I built for Odin.

[Sierra]

That's hilarious but perplexing. Why would they even include the stat if they deliberately made it do nothing? At least Bloodborne doesn't even pretend that poise exists.

Offensive miracles continue to be astonishingly bad, like maybe post-nerf DS2 bad. I think my bow is legit outdamaging Lightning Spear at this point and I am, again, at minimum requirements for that weapon. Emit Force is so incredibly slow that you'll never hit anything with it. It's also on par with Lightning Spear for damage. I understand wanting them to be utility spells rather than another flavor of OP ranged offense (like they were in DS1, the lightning equivalent of sorcery really), but this is ridiculous. The ADOG miracle would be okayish comparitively (low bar though) except for the huge wind-up and the fact that it's melee. I'm definitely hitting a damage wall with the midgame bosses so resorted to Other Dudes, and I'm amazed I even took ADOG down after my summon died 25% into the fight. The game seriously needs to give me a fucking faith-based weapon buff already. I don't think I can get one until I get back to the castle, you know, past another one of the hardest bosses, unless of course I want to covenant grind for Darkmoon Blade OH WAIT NO those knights are a huge bitch to deal with on this build. It was easier for pyro to stagger them with rapier R1 spam than it is two-handing a polearm. Okay? I could maybe switch my weapon over to blessed if the scaling is finally starting to catch up, but last time I checked, raw was still better (I'm at 29 FTH now). Hey Fudo, can blessed weapons be buffed?

Kinda looking forward to being done with this run so I can roll DEX and use those all twin weapons already. They look so cool, I tried swinging the Sellsword's Twinblades around a little and they promise to be amazingly fun.

Random stuff zone:

Greirat survived this time and I have no idea why. I did nothing different than last time in this regard.

Fudo: I meant to count the phantoms in this zone, but I forgot! But I guess the total should be five if you're right? I'd definitely agree that one of them is wearing what looked a heckuva lot like Dancer's helm.

Outrider beasts are still bullshit.

Apparently you can draw 2x Blue Sentinels into your world at once! Gref, you might want to slap on Way of Blue covenant if you keep getting invaded, I've had reasonably good odds of getting a helper (of course, I can still never get fucking summoned for it myself).

You know what annoys me on replay? Dealing with the Sable Church lot. They make me choose between vengeance and fashion and that's awful. Hey Fudo, does the Dark Sigil/hollowing go away when you hit NG+? I'd assume so, since it's technically a key item. I don't want to spend like ten levels' worth of souls to get my real face back if I don't have to.

What else looks more and more ridiculous the more I know about the game? The gesture and ring trophies, which are both obnoxiously trollish. First off, they're mutually exclusive due to conflicting NPC quests. Second, I've been told that the ring trophy requires collecting all the +1/+2 varieties you get in NG+/NG++ (Fudo, confirm?) Third is that the patented Fromsoft NPC quest design style is back in full force from DeS and DS1. Here's an example that I stumbled through by accident without realizing I had even inadvertently hit some excruciatingly specific timing windows and done something really obtuse through dumb luck (so when it didn't work out the same way next playthrough, I had no idea why not). This is how you get the Proper Bow gesture (which is actually my favorite way to say hello):

-Be embered when you enter Crucifixion Woods so you can get invaded by and defeat Yellowfinger Heysel. Good luck not dying to human invaders first since that's a designated PVP zone.
-You have two options for your next zone: the cathedral or Farron Keep. You have to go to the cathedral first to do this right.
-Find the Fingers of Rosaria covenant in the cathedral. This isn't hugely difficult to find, but it IS in an optional wing of the zone.
-Join the covenant.
-Donate 1x covenant item. This can either rank you up in the covenant, let you reallocate your stats, or give you the opportunity to rebuild your character model, doesn't matter which one you choose as long as you contribute the item. I did the latter not knowing it was actually a necessary step for something else.
-Yellowfinger Heysel will then appear in Farron Keep as a summon and will give you the gesture upon being summoned. Hope you're human again! Hope you haven't killed the local boss yet! Hope you didn't grab the other two NPC summons in this zone that give you gestures, because then you won't see her sign either!
-(Joining the covenant locks you out of completing Sirris's sidequest, since that quest cannot be completed before fighting the Farron Keep boss, and this is why gesture/ring trophies are incompatible on the same NG.)

That is some convoluted shit right there. And it worked out for me purely because I needed to get a haircut.

None of this is serious complaining since gestures, trophies, all bragging rights stuff anyway. Just pointing out that wow, byzantine obscure NPC interactions still a core tenet of Miyazaki design philosophy. (DS2 really didn't go in for stuff like that at all.)

[Grefter]

Greirat.

It is getting Siegward out of the well.  Greirat has a bit of dialogue if you Talk to him.  Patches kills him otherwise seems to be

Good idea on Way of the Blue now that I am fully Sunbroed out.

RE: Chievos Was the mutually exclusive Sirris and Leonhart?  Because I am dead certain they aren't mutually exclusive, just the timing is a pain in the arse.  I think you can at least do the Bridge summon of Sirris quest without the item that getting the item that unlocks Irithyll from the Deacons unlocked.  The summon is just on the bridge after you kill the Sifagator.  I forget if you need to progress a boss before the sign will show up again in the Pit of Hollows?

Also on NPC quests.  Siegward made me both super happy and so mad.  The final step seems so easy to miss which would make that boss fight fucked (wowowwwwwowowowwwww at anyone that solos it), on the other hand goddamned everything else in that quest makes me so happy.  Even though I embarassingly missed that the pronunciation is 'Seegvard' not 'Seegward' until the last step in the quest.

They make me choose between vengeance and fashion and that's awful.

I forget that you have such great taste in music so often.  Also they give you the cure for what ails you bro, just give up a ring slot for fashion.  It isn't hard.

So I forgot to note that I got my Sunbro rewards.  It is fucking stupid that the hand in for that stuff is so late in the game.  I mean clearly you should hand them in near the Watchdogs place.  I will test out Great Lightning Spear and tell you how much it sucks.  Also had to do some win trading with Red Sign summons to even get the 30 medals even with constantly killing each boss twice.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Poise literally making me rage so hard.  You know that cornerstone of Dark Souls circle jerk of "The game is fair, at its base all the enemies use the same system as the player"

Well now they do except for poiselol

Also Tide literally ruining PoFEmblemon for me by letting me know you can have third generation children.  I thought breeding was okay even with the hidden EVs and inherited moves from mother/father was okay and controlled mostly by making children rank up to a usable level and being limited to core units breeding. 

Kids can have kids. 

Fuck this game.  THANKS TIED.

Serious FE Conquest post - I think my fun units got a bit stat screwed and that makes me sad like FE games always do.  Limited Exp makes catch up sad.  I don't want to use the DLC on this mode even though it apparently scales the enemy up (?).

I am still playing super dooper easy mode, so its not a problem, I can literally zerg with unpromoted level 10 dudes even in Chapter 16+, but still, feels bad.

Elise was getting mad level ups.  Level 19 - 20.  0 stat level up.  Waste of all that healer XP grind.  So much salt that this is a tale told on the Dead Sea scrolls.  That said she completely fucks shit up as a Strategist with the +2 Disrobing Gale I built for Odin.

My Elise did the exact same thing. Two zero stat levels and a one stat level in the last three levels. Very disheartening.

[Grefter]

Oh and just to clarify, I didn't mean she wasn't worth using after a 0 stat level up, just that the 19-20 grind is kinda blech and that after all these years the fact that you can still get 0 stat level ups feels mega shitty.  It costs you nothing to give at least +1 HP if you roll 0 and it hurts so much less.  (Also HP scales on PCs versus enemies in this game is cray as fuck so I don't have much cares about it bumping that up a fraction.)

If I was going to complain about people being in the trash heap that would have been Silas who got so many 2 stat levels I just gave the fuck up.  I had him in the party and got him to 20 and then when was going to level him up went "wait why was I using him again?  I got Xander 2 maps ago and Peri was right there".  I think Peri has better stats 7 levels lower.

I also want to complain about Selena's Str growth, but not sure if its just FEmale swordsperson Str Growth plot or not.  Using her anyway because fuckdatshit.txt

Edit - I also was on the fence about whether to make her Hero or Bow Knight.  Bow Knight kinda bad, but could just be a shitty knight.  On the other hand she didn't get the Mag to lean on Levin Swords either.  So is Hand Axe >>> +move?  I went with Hand Axe and assumption that Hero has better str growth.

[Sierra]

Grefter: that boss fight actually isn't a problem solo! There's a spare sword at the back of the room. I messed up the quest first time and handled the boss alone just fine.

For Greirat, I seriously did nothing different this time at all, I don't understand it. Pyro and cleric runs both I did get Siegward out of the well before entering Irithyll and sending Greirat out again. In neither case did Patches ever ask me about Greirat. I can't think of any circumstances here that were different.

Leonhardt/Sirris: They're not mutually exclusive, you can just deal with Leonhardt after Sirris. Sirris is mutually exclusive with the Proper Bow gesture because the latter is available in such a strict window that it requires you to join the covenant before Sirris's quest can be completed, thus invalidating her quest since she hates you once you join the covenant. So gestures or rings, pick one per run.

Also this is where I admit I have no such great taste in music and have no idea what song that is and just saw it in Ciato's sig.

[Grefter]

Well we can fix one of those things.

I saw fire, when I looked in my lovers eyes,
Woooaaahhhooo,
I saw, the devil dressed up in disguise,
Woooaaahhhooo,
And you know it gets hotter than a microwave oven,
When you and I commence the lovin',
And you like what I'm doin',
And I like what I'm doin' to you,
And everybody's happy, happy tonight.

I'm a man, and I'm torn between vengeance and fashion,
Woooaaahhhoooo,
And I'm tryin' so hard not to get caught up in the passion,
Woooaaahhhooo,
And you know that my suit cost more than your house,
I'm a scoundrel, a lover, a murderous mouse,
And that looked good in your bed,
And you think that I'm lookin' good,
And everybody's happy, happy tonight.

She's a girl, and she's got so many crazy ideas man,
Woooaaahhhooo,
She wants to push the button, and execute this innocent man,
Woooaaahhhooo,
And you know she's depressed in her wedding dress,
She's gonna have her rings removed,
And I like the way she's lookin',
Yeah she's lookin' like a hundred dollars,
And everybody's happy, happy tonight.

For the boss fight, I knew about the sword.  I really don't want to imagine A) running to get it and B) managing the boss between attacks even if you just suicide ran to pick it up.

I could see it working if it was something akin to Fallen Hero, but wow nope as it stands.