Breath of Death VII - Beaten! It was definitely Cthulhu minus in most ways. The most noteworthy differences:
-While CStW writing isn't my favourite thing in the world, it at least is there. BoD7 very much feels more like a Dragon Quest in that dialog and plot is very sparse. The player characters have so little agency in their "quest" (they learn the goal during the final boss sequence!) it feels like it's making fun of something, but I'm not certain what. Needless to say this didn't work very well for me.
-No defend command is very strategically limiting. Cthulhu made the two variations on defend of huge strategic importance, for it to be gone entirely feels like it rips the heart out of some of the strategic decisions you could make. Of lesser but still notable importance is the lack of the insanity mechanic. There are just fewer interesting choices as a result. (Also, no party choice.)
-While I'm never sure how I feel about save points vs. save anywhere for a dungeon mechanic, I will say that BoD7 had considerably too few save points. On a couple occasions I lost 20 battles' worth of progress. It really encourages you to retreat to a save point often... which also acts as a recovery point and thus removes a lot of the resource management if you do this. I definitely feel Cthulhu letting you save more often and thus avoid this problem was a better choice.
Anyway I don't mean to sound too negative on the game, it was certainly still fun. Zeboyd definitely has some good ideas: tough individual encounters, enemy offence rising 10% each turn to punish turtling, and varied, interesting, well-documented skillsets all contribute to a battle system with solid tactical decision-making which was enjoyable for the short little romp that the game was. Also if you're going to only have one battle theme, a la FF1, at least BoD7 has the sense to make it a good one. 6/10 I think.
FFX - Tough set of bosses for the challenge at last!
First was Seymour Flux, who could OHKO everyone over 2x over at once with Cross Cleave. But with Protect and defending before the attack is used (it's a called shot), it was survivable! Sadly he calls the shot by using Dispel a turn before, but I could get around that by switching out my tanks prior to Dispel being used. Below half HP he can use Total Annihilation which just KOs everyone no matter what and can't be blocked by an aeon, but fortunately poison prevents him from going into limit mode, so I did that and then blitzed him.
Then I beat Sanctuary Keeper, which was tough because he had a 1000-damage MT overdrive (i.e. not reduceable by Protect/Shell/Breaks/etc.) which he uses on the opening turn and at set intervals thereafter. Only Auron can survive it and it inflicts confuse/sleep sometimes so yeaaah this isn't really an option, have to block it with an aeon. Aside from that he is mostly about getting around his healing, which you can do by reflecting him and switching out or dispelling anyone he casts reflect on.
Spectral Keeper had a OHKO counter even through Protect but shenanigans to get people out of his facing helped. Also by now I could 4HKO him with Yuna's or Lulu's Doublecast. >
Yunalesca's Mind Blast was extremely damaging, pretty much had to cast Shell to survive it, use what little confuse protection I had, stay healed and pray. Of course staying healed when she zombies you repeatedly is its own annoyance, and Mega Death prevents just de-zombieing everyone. Hairy but I know her pattern so it was manageable.
Currently collecting Jecht Spheres because why not. Already making plans for another playthrough, might check out the Steam version and finally get International content + hey frameskip and remastered graphics are cool, right?
Super Mario Kart - Sorry guys I've officially stepped into the
nostalgia zone, currently doing 150 cc auto-mini for reasons I probably shouldn't have to explain.
