What Games are You Playing 2018?

[Luther Lansfeld]

https://acain882.wixsite.com/magic/blog/tales-of-berseria-s-gender-politics-and-how-they-shape-the-game-part-1

I decided to write a thing about Berseria. The URL says it all.

[VySaika]

Huh...good read. Berseria might be worth picking up just to see all that for myself.

I've been playing a whole mess of Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires still(and streaming it a lot too!) since I'm trying to unlock everything on the PC version. Also playing some Throne of Lies courtesy of Alex-chan, and even won my first game as Prince(...mostly due to an Alch siding BD at the last second. But I was NICE to that Alch, so I'll take that as a win!)

On console, still plugging away at Yakuza Kiwami 2. Think I'm closing in on the ending stretch, but also that will be time for Sidequest Hell. After that, prolly either DQ11 or WARRIORS OROCHI 4 which I had no idea was even coming out until like last month! And it's out...next week!!!!

[Cmdr_King]

Bravely Second- fin.

I'm finding it hard to have thoughts about this that I haven't already talked about?  It's mostly an inexplicably clumsy game at every level writing wise.  Having a sudden 'empire' which is actually a flying warship and tens of thousands (TENS OF THOUSANDS APPRENTLY) of disgruntled soldiers out of nowhere pretty much irreparably breaks the core setting from the outset, although that was unavoidable just by BD not... being a sequel-friendly game if we're honest?  Granted this is a series which made an updated rerelease, then made the added features and story bits in that sequel an IN UNIVERSE RETCON from the ending of Second so like there's no rules and no consistency.  And removing Ringabell and mostly removing Anges completely breaks the party's dynamic, because Tiz was always the most boring of the four and Edea has no rapport with him to speak of.  Yew and Magnolia have a cute thing (more on that in a second), but neither Edea or Tiz have a terribly interesting relationship with either.
The returning Eternians were probably the most interesting part, but usually interesting as a window into the way the writers had no idea what even.  The concept is fine, and they managed to come up with something for each split, but about half of them are over trivial nonsense and the other half are moral dilemmas with... the most clearcut right sides I've seen?  Like I feel like you could present this as a psych eval and everyone who picks DeRossa or Khamer is verified as a terrible person best excommunicated from society.
While the empire should always be referred to with airquotes, the actual Asterisk holders are kinda interesting in C5 when you revisit them.  Like, you can see exactly what they wanted to do here, and why they did the returning jobs the way they did.  "The courage to try again" is less about learning from failure and more about redemption!  Second CHANCES, y'see.  So a set of people who were evil, but also wronged, having those wrongs acknowledged and given a chance to do things right this time.  Or two lovers, torn apart once they acknowledged their love, given a chance to reunite at last.  So on.
Like so many things in this game, they weakened their point by spelling it out in the finale I think, but on the other hand I AM a sucker for Persona-esque "rally the heroes so they can defeat a god" scenes.  Although again... BD trounced it in that department by incorporating your DS friend list.
It makes this game being so obviously worse than BD kinda tragic.  'We can do even better on the second game!'  But... well, didn't work out.  Did good enough for a third try though.

But actually I did legitimately enjoy the relationship writing?  I'm a sap I know, but fuck if my favorite seen isn't Ringabel, incognito, swooping in to save Edea in Florem.  I joked about French Moon Waifus the moment i started the game, but actually once everything's out in the open they develop the actual relationship in a fairly sweet, understated way.  and... yeaaaah okay the core plot of the game being what it was is pretty awesome.

Gameplay is an interesting spin on BD, like all your core setups from BD are pretty adaptable to BS but you'll also accident your way into even more fun stuff with the new jobs, and unlike BD I feel like you can get some good use out of just about anything rather than there being half a dozen jobs that you just punt off a cliff. Well, I guess Valkyrie kinda lost something, possibly just by being later?  BUt yeah.

Thought about dropping it a bit lower, but looking at my rankings 7/10 feels right.  Could change if I get in there and shuffle things more broadly though.

[Cmdr_King]

Bastion- Fin

Not playing this in the days it was fresh is certainly a missed opportunity.  A lot of the indie scene has been mining Bastion for inspiration both direct and indirect, which is a good policy but also makes it easier to focus on it as a game rather than a complete experience and... it does lose something that way.

Like structurally Bastion is super, super basic and you don't even see a boss until the latter half of the game, then after THAT they all get recycled at one point or another.  Considering the way they use narration that absolutely feels like a missed opportunity.  Like just the random lore dumps about the swamp gator were great, pity they don't really do that again!
It also just gets rude as hell, and while the narration gives you that cue of "uh yeah it's supposed to be, this is a dramatic moment" I'm not gonna lie, glad they had infinite continues mode here.  Even with the proving grounds getting good at Bastion would be kinda tedious I think, it's just entirely too easy to get swarmed an overwhelmed even with otherwise skilled play.

This is a rare case where I think the game does lose something if you know exactly how Zolf plays out.  Like knowing the bones of it is fine, but the presentation shifts they do is their biggest gambit to sell you on the overall themes and... yeah it loses something knowing the details before hand.  Been a long while since I felt that was true of a story really.


I've seen some videos summarizing Bastion as being about moving on, which is true, but there's an interesting layer under that.  Bastion is a game that gives you mechanical rewards for collecting mementos of the ruined city or building monuments to fallen organizations from the old world.  You the decision to reset everything is framed as just failing the same way over and over, but neither are you meant to just press on.  You're only at your strongest while fully understanding the past, and acknowledging the sins of your forefathers.  You'll never be able to foster the cooperation needed to truly move on until you understand how others have been hurt, and how to make amends.


At some point this probably would have nabbed an 8, but looking through my lists I can't say it hangs with most of the games I have on that tier, so 7/10 it is.

[Dark Holy Elf]

I really don't like the ending of either Bravely game. Not only are Ouroburos and Providence two of the most generic Big Bad Evil Gods I can recall (and with so little connection to the party that I have no issues spoiling their names despite the fact that neither is mentioned until lategame), but the fourth wall breaking both do falls extremely flat. Congratulations, by trying to threaten me, the player (or my friend list and save file I guess lol), all you do is remind me that you're just a powerless fictional character, which is a good way to make your evil god seem pathetic but that didn't seem to be what the narrative was going for. It's like someone played Undertale and liked certain lategame scenes there but had no idea what made them work.

I also strongly disagree on anything Ringabel-related in BS being good, and that's speaking as someone who liked him in BD. It mostly comes across as bad fanfiction of one type or another (i.e. it either seriously breaks the immersion of the setting or it's trying to set up a relationship without acknowledging how problematic that relationship would be even though BD already did!).

(Not to be too negative, though, I did like some of the game's other plot ideas. You covered it nicely in your comments about the Empire's asterisk-holders I think. But yeah, overall I definitely felt there was more bad than good, sadly.)

[Cmdr_King]

I'm mixed on that aspect of the setting.  The impression I got in BD was Ouroboros was hopelessly out of his league, but in denial about the whole affair.  He could perceive you but nothing he could do would let him DO anything about it.  Providence, recognizing this, instead tries to mess with you by guilting you into giving up.

... really they're probably playing around with the dimensionality of God basically.  So the game characters are 4th dimensional, Altair and the like are 5th dimensional (they can transcend time), the evil gods are 6d beings that transcend parallel universes, but above them are yet higher beings, who can manipulate all the lower dimensions for amusement.  That sorta thing.  Whether they get explicit with it in Bravely Sword who knows.

Like as a quick gimmick it's an idea, but like everything else htey don't really know how to make it work.  Honestly the other bits of connectivity are a lot more interesting!  The scenes in BD where your friends list starts sending energy are pretty cool!  But they went a further layer up than they knew how to write.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Yeah, the friend list thing fell really flat to me. My friends aren't actually doing anything, and if they were I'd hope they would support me in better ways than "helping me" against a final boss that I'm finding narratively ineffective.

Like I can kinda get behind "power of teamwork" sequences against final bosses (though they can certainly be overwrought) in-universe since they make sense and there's that warm fuzzy feeling of people banding together to overcome the impossible. I don't think the out-of-universe equivalent works.

[Cmdr_King]

I think Bravely tries to square that circle by having those elements be simultaneously in and out of universe.  Like, the conceit is already that Ouroboros is eating dimensions to power himself and you just happen to let him get the last one he needs, so they try a sleight of hand and say "oh, these other parties are just dimensions he didn't get to!" but curiously they're named after your friend's list.  I dunno that it works, but eh, there's room there to not completely break the immersion.

[Pyro]

Both Bravely Default and Bravely Second's 'true' endgame gimmicks were so ridiculous that I developed extreme apathy to the actual plot. To be quite frank it felt so obviously a terrible plot step that I felt embarrassed to be watching it.

On the other end of the spectrum, Bravely Default's 'false' ending really pulled me in and honestly excited me. The game has you doing something it's been telling you the whole game NOT to do, with tension building in real time as to what is going to happen to the crystal and what Airy will do in response. The realization of that building expectation was fantastic, both because Airy felt like a truly frightening threat and because it was the turning point of everything in the plot that had happened to that point. Ouroboros doesn't have that kind of narrative weight, and the game's attempt to give him some flopped and made the whole thing seem ridiculous. I think a good comparison for the fourth wall breaking is introducing magic into some long-running TV series that had never presented it as a feature. It totally breaks the immersion.


Bravely Second incorporating the 4th wall breaking for it's midgame stunt was unfortunate, and the final boss' instance was comically ineffective. The other concern I had with the game was Kaiser's character being zig-zagged as hyper-villainous / sympathetic. In the beginning of the game he unflinchingly executes his brother, and yet they paint the relationship as a close bond later? In another instance he unfeelingly threatens his loyal servants with death for failing to win a battle. And yet after beating him everything is a-ok and the game paints him heroically caring for his underlings, even being overly friendly. The inevitable comparison between the roles of Anne and  Airy is very unkind to the second game's writing.

[hinode]

Portrait of Ruin: Holy shit the 5th level of Nest of Evil was a ridiculous difficulty spike, even moreso than the 4th. The double Creature room was insane, I had to resort to the stall for one minute and then run strategy so that I only used up half my potions instead of all of them. Next room followed that up with some enemies that OHKO'd me when I tried to fight it blind. I learned my lesson and closely followed a faq for every room from then onwards. Nothing wound up being all that bad, but I wasn't taking any chances. Abaddon died pretty quickly to Vampire Killer crit spam, but with the caveat that I'm pretty sure I'm overlevelled at this point (L62, which didn't stop the first two rooms from being hard as fuck).

I should get around to typing up general thoughts on the game later, but I wanted to get these thoughts written down while they were fresh, at least.

[Grefter]

Yeah, the friend list thing fell really flat to me. My friends aren't actually doing anything, and if they were I'd hope they would support me in better ways than "helping me" against a final boss that I'm finding narratively ineffective.

RIP there goes all I was bringing to the table.

[DragonKnight Zero]

FFT retrospective: Chapter 3 part 1

  Early Chapter 3 is where I put story progress on hod for a while.  I do most of the available propositions.  In the process.  Ramza learns Damage Split (yay), and Agrias learns Lightning Stab (usually doesn't happen this early).  Most of my generics are able to learn Concentrate which is my support of choice given the number of shields and mantles present in future fights.  No early Ninja Knives from ghouls, eh whatever.  Besides Ramza, none of my units have reactions other than Counter Tackle or Weapon Guard and no one has learned Move +2 yet.  Got to Lv 21 on some people which is rather high for me at this point and invited a random human for a Judo Outfit along the way.

  Goland is one of those fights that is actually easy if simply trying to win but I have a long list of equipment to steal.  Much of this depends on Olan using Galaxy Stop a lot and hopefully no Cancers on the opposing team.  The single Judo Outfit I had was enough to push my Aries female with Steal Weapon over the 192 HP threshold.  This matters because she can survive two gunshots at full HP while she's trying to steal them.  I had three different units with theft skills deployed.  Between them (and cooperative Olan), I got every item that I wanted.

  One proposition to do before the next story fight.  I came prepared to invite in case I ran into a human with a Judo Outfit (want more) and sure enough, ran into a Time Mage at Lenalia with one.  This was fun because I got to use Magic Break.  Kill off other enemies, break target's MP to uselessness, and throw out Invitation until it hits.  The time mage had worst compatibility with my inviter so it took longer than I would have liked.  Lots of scrambling around a cliff trying to lure the time mage into a position where I could toss out an Invite without him being able to reach the inviter for a staff bop.  Probably moved 4 or 5 times per invite attempt but it was safe like this.  All the while, the rest of the team chilled on the opposite end of the map while the time mage kept chasing the ninja trying to recruit him.  Got him eventually with that 12% chance.

  Keeping Alma from stealing my crystals is the trickiest part of the Zalmo fight.  In my winning attempt, he didn't have Raise 2.  Wizard Ramza with Magic Attack Up nearly soloed the fight.  Agrias was an Archer with Equip Sword and +3 PA from gear so she was a destructive force.  Between the two, there wasn't much for my Chemist and Knight to do.  Other than break Zalmo's stick to humiliate him anyways.  Monk stayed active keeping Alma's MP up for MBarrier goodness.  Easy to swipe Zalmo's White Robe from here.

Mana Khemia

  Picked this up on random recommendation from Sopko.  Like it and when I like something, I have lots to say about it.  I enjoy the item crafting aspect and would do it even if stat growth wasn't tied to it so strongly.  This post is here because I want to document the Synthesis 4 assignment since it's not really mentioned anywhere online that I know of.  Given it only shows up if you fail to acquire enough units in the first two sessions of Chapter 7, it's understandable most won't encounter it.  I wasn't aware of it except for a hint from another source so I intentionally tried for it while tearing through Clear Game.  Assignment is to synthesize a Nectar.  A Nectar with desirable Ether effects.  Kind of tricky to do, getting both Effect+ and Aromatic at the same time.
  Of course I reverted back to earlier save after trying this.  I want those marathon rewards more.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Tales of Berseria - Beaten.

Short version: Wow, that was good. Play this game. To emphasise this: I do not like Tales gameplay. Never have, still don't. I consider this game excellent anyway. It's absolutely one of the best-written, and more importantly most interestingly written RPGs ever made.


Quick notes on non-writing things: game took me 52 hours, I finished at around Level 55 (maybe underlevelled? I avoid lots of encounters). Gameplay mostly didn't get in the way and I did enjoy Velvet's therion powers at least (played as others sometimes, but the game feels like it's missing something). It's not actually very interesting though. The game has adjustable difficulty modes; I played on Moderate which made me stay awake but that was about it, which is fine because anything harder would probably up enemy HP more than I wanted. I died to duel Shigure due to being a Rokurou rookie, and also to the Teresa/Oscar chain boss battle, which I found easily the toughest in the game. On the other side of the difficulty spectrum there's the "real" Shigure fight in the volcano which was just a complete joke? Didn't even use a Life Bottle. Life Bottles are OP and you only lose when you run out, kinda weird balance. Music is generally kinda mediocre but I liked a few pieces (see also: my opinion on TotA's OST). Visuals I don't have much to say about. I appreciate the goofy fashion options. Voice acting/direction is really really great and this helps bring the writing to life in a huge way.


Okay, that out of the way, let's talk about writing. I'll guard the worst spoilers but I assume from here on out if you're reading this, you have some interest in hearing what makes the writing good, which naturally has to cover some plot and character points.


ToB is about quite a few things, but at its core it's about human behaviour, I think. Every character in ToB acts in a way which alligns with their interests, often selfish ones. This applies to both the party members and their antagonists. Many of the major characters go through character arcs of figuring out what it is they want to do, what it is they want from life. Velvet, Eleanor, Phi, and even (surprisingly) Magilou grapple with this in a big way, as do various NPCs (I hadn't thought about it until writing this, but it's a common theme even among some of the bit characters living in towns). Remarkably, this applies to the antagonists too. Every one of them is a thinking, breathing person with their own reasons for doing what they do, and when it doesn't allign with what their leadership does, they're very willing to do things their own way. And even more remarkably, every one of them has quite human reasons for what they do; there are no card-carrying scenery-chewing baddies here, nor anyone with stupidly blind loyalty to the leader of the Villain Totem Pole as is too common in RPGs.

The protagonists are unuaully "bad" for an RPG; the antagonists are unusually "good". You'll probably find yourself siding with the protagonists for a variety of reasons (not least of which is that you spend far, far more time watching them and growing to love 'em, but also it's hard not to hear Magilou's big speech to one of the villains late and go "right on"). Certainly that's how I felt. The game does want you to consider the moral ambiguity of what your PCs are doing, and understand where the antagonists are coming from, even as it invites you to choose a side. (And I can't fault the last part, since if you really wanted to side with the antagonists you'd probably find the game very narratively unsatisfying after all.)


Character notes:

Velvet is really great. Absolutely one of the all-time great RPG protagonists. The sense of loss and betrayal she goes through is palpable (the end of the prologue ripping everything away from her), setting the stage for her "roaring revengeathon" as Magilou puts it. She's often not very nice! But she is very humanized throughout, particular as various things make her remember the person she was before.

She gets all sorts of powerful scenes in the mid-to-lategame as she grapples with what she's become (e.g. her reaction to Teresa's accusations after she kills Oscar, her complete breakdown as Innominat torments her with memories of Arthur, Celica, and Laphi) and has to completely rethink why she is doing what she does and what her correct course of action should be. I can't think of many heroes who go into the final battle with such complicated feelings for the antagonists.

Like I'm sitting here legit wondering who I think is better as far as main characters go. I dunno that I have an answer.


Rokurou's much lighter on character development certainly! He wants to be a great fighter and that means beating a guy to prove it. In a way he's a bit of a mirror for Velvet; both are warrior daemons with loose morals and both really just want to kill a guy, but they're opposites in other ways: Velvet is a creature of blazing intensity, laser-focused on her revenge, whereas Rokurou has a cheerful demeanour and a lighthearted approach to most things. And where Velvet has a damn good reason for doing what she wants to do, Rokurou's seems to defy understanding to all but him and his target (a fact Eleanor comments on).

His actual plot isn't too intriguing but I like what he brings to the party. He has good interactions with Velvet, Phi, and Eizen in particular... even gets some with Eleanor late.


Magilou is fantastic. She's a consistently funny troll, and is very good at saying the things which are on-point and skewer other characters' behviour. Not to say the game isn't willing to poke fun at her too, because it certainly is; the other characters treat her exactly as you'd expect (we don't get hero worship of her for undeserved reasons like a certain previous Tales character).

Her irreverence of course is largely a mask to the fact that she doesn't give a shit. As the game goes on, she learns to give a shit again, to the point where her lategame verbal smackdown ("Those ideals are twisted! Can a flower hold beauty if it does not wilt?! Can a wolf be satisfied with eating grass?! The thought makes me retch! As do those who wish for it, and those content to live in shackles!") is a beautiful cathartic moment. It's rather fascinating to watch the mysteries surrounding her slowly unfold, they're strung along nicely and tie in with other major events in the main plot like the powerful sequence in Aball Village.


Phi is also pretty damn good. We've all seen the "learning to be human" trope and that's pretty much what Phi does. The relationship between him and Velvet is fascinating to watch. One of the major themes of ToB is that humans are fundamentally selfish but that this selfishness can still lead to good, and we certainly see that in how Velvet essentially "raises" Phi and encourages him to chart his own path through life. A big part of Velvet I didn't yet touch on is her big sister/motherly side (on full display in the prologue) and it's neat to see how that rubs off on Phi and makes him grow into a heroic person, ironically more heroic than both his adopted and biological parent. And damn but the scene where he pulls Velvet back from the brink, making her see that she is loved and that life is still worth living, pulling her back from despair is freaking great. There's other good stuff both before and after that but that scene really puts the exclamation point on the character. All you need is love.


Eizen is probably the weak link of the party overall. I will say that I love his role as party nerd. He kinda wants to be an aloof loner but that image goes out the window as soon as you get him talking about, say, the history of soap and its relationship with class in Midgand. One of his primary purposes is of course just exposition; when other characters don't know something and Magilou doesn't feel like telling, he's the only logical choice, and he'd old with a huge wealth of knowledge so it does make sense! But I really like how the game plays him; it's both funny and very true to how some people are in reality.

I have less good to say about some of his own plot. Zaveed is largely annoying (although I did like how the game drew a contast between his "no killing" philosophy and... well, the ToB party) and Aifread barely exists and most of Eizen's serious plot is wrapped up in those characters, or in his Reaper's Curse, which sadly is kinda terrible? "My luck is objectively, measurably bad" is a difficult plot point to do right (because it defies how the universe works in a way I find difficult to square) but when the outcomes of this "curse" tend to be "bad things happen, but never in a way that actually hurts anyone" it's just ineffective. I think if the writers wanted to run with this plot point, they should have owned it; give him a parade of dead friends and family.

Still has good interactions with the other PCs because ToB character interaction, it's really good.


Eleanor is a darling and a badly needed voice for good on the team. Her development mostly moves down a predictable path, and she lacks the strong connections to the antagonists that some of the others have (which is a shame, because she easily could have had a stronger one for obvious reasons!). Still, she nicely shows how a highly moral person could go from a member of the Abbey to a close friend of the Abbey's antichrist figure. She's another character who bounces off Velvet well, being at first strong rivals but you can definitely see the friendship blossom as the game does on, and the scene where Velvet asks her to take care of Phi after she dies is a poignant conclusion to this.


Bienfu is - maybe somewhat surprisingly - actually pretty funny! Felt like the game knew exactly how much to use him. He's a tremendous buttmonkey and kinda gets abused by Magi-"certifiably a bad person"-lou but he earns just enough of it by being a bad person himself that you don't feel too bad for him (plus he's a drama queen and exaggerates everything. Biieennnn!)


I enjoyed most of the antagonists too! Arthur is of course the star. Reason is everything... except ultimately even he is just as selfish as the rest, as his "reason" is just a mask for his despair, a convenient excuse for how he wants to remove the capacity to do evil from humans after humans were evil enough to let his wife die. i loved how the scenes in the Earthen Historia, and finally his own admission at the final battle, reframed what you thought about him and his motivations. Melchior has great stage presence; I always wanted to see what he would do next, and I liked how he was a "true believer", a good person in his own way who truly believed that humanity needed to be purged of sin. Teresa is a model exorcist praetor who chooses to sacrifice all of that for her brother, and her election to go with emotion over reason and her connection to her brother make her a compelling foil to Velvet. Shigure sadly is a bit disappointing; when the game teases that he wants to fight Artorius I had hoped there would be more there than "likes fighting strong foes" but so it goes, like brother like brother I guess. And Innominat... not much screentime but damn if he doesn't make an impact. The twist there is one hell of a gutpunch, such a good one that I, like Velvet, just didn't want to believe it.


There's a lot more I could talk about, and maybe I will at some point, but I think that'll do for now. The game grapples with so many themes effecitvely: emotion vs reason is the biggest, but selfishness, what makes life worth living, gender, family relationships, and more all dot so many scenes. On top of it all, quite apart from just being a well put together plot with outstanding character work, ToB is a game with things to say, and asks its player to reflect on those.

Probably an 8/10 for me since that's as high as games get my without liking the gameplay (see also: where I rate Suikoden V), but obviously I think very highly of it and would recommend it to anyone who likes writing in their JRPGs.

[Pyro]

Wow. A part of me wishes you had played Tales of Zestiria so you could appreciate the apparent contrast in writng quality.

But I wouldn't want you to suffer like that.

[Dark Holy Elf]

There are benefits to avoiding this series until you hear good enough things about one to take a plunge on.

ToZ was not that one.

Nor am I sure when the next one will be. ToB still has some issues with being a bit longer than it needs to be and I just can't get into this series gameplay-wise (to be clear, Berseria has better gameplay than Abyss or Symphonia, but still such that if the writing had been bad I'd have dropped it a few hours in hours in) so I'd need good reason to believe the next Tales game is also a knockout on writing before I pick it up.

[Luther Lansfeld]

https://acain882.wixsite.com/magic/blog/tales-of-berseria-part-2-let-the-lord-of-chaos-rule

I wrote a little bit about the parallels between ToB and Wheel of Time. This may or may not be Super-bait.

[NotMiki]

Tales of Berseria - Beaten.

Some ToB thoughts.  Ain't read WoT so I can't say anything about that.

For my money Phi's character arc is perhaps the best of its kind.  It's the kind of gradual development that Tales is well-positioned to deliver but usually falls short on.

Magilou's English VA is amazing.  I think I've said that before but I can't say it enough.

Zaveed subtracted from the game.  Quite consistent with what little I saw of him in ToZ, he's just an infuriating character.  His pacifism is directly at odds with his I'm-not-gonna-explain-anything-cuz-I'm-too-cool schtick.  And he never really gets called on it.  He could have been a good foil for the party, but he's too annoying to be an effective messenger for his philosophy.

Agreed re: Eizen.

Speaking of never getting called on it, I was disappointed that Magilou didn't verbally own Melchior harder.  He preaches virtue but he's a fucking monster, you're allowed to call him on that!  That also applies to Artorius and Laphicet - all three of them created Velvet to be a hateful existence on purpose, and all three of them scorn her for being that hateful person.  The PCs failing to verbally own all three of them for their hypocracy was a disappointment.

I really liked what they did with the lady who becomes the surrogate mother of that girl (it's been a little while and the names of both are escaping me).  It's a relationship that Velvet basically creates for entirely selfish and artificial reasons, but that overtakes her emotionally so that by the end she genuinely wants to protect mother and daughter.  It's great, and feels really natural, and it feels like the backbone of a third act that grounds and humanizes Velvet and the party without ever feeling like a very special episode or a cop-out.

Anyway, good game verging on great in places.  If you only took 55 hours, I assume you didn't do much sidequesting?  I wouldn't say it adds a ton (especially Eizen's) but it sure adds a lot of time.

[DjinnAndTonic]

ToB Sidequests: Rokurou's is pretty important for solidifying what his role in the game is (apart from giving you another male character, another daemon character, and another bossfight). Both NEB and Ciato keyed into his role as a mirror of Velvet, but his sidequest goes into just how much of his story mirrors Velvet's before Velvet ever meets him, and explains a bit of why his response is so different. Also, his comparative reaction to trauma can definitely be read as part of the gender commentary that ToB plays with.

Eleanor's is also just good for finally giving her some catharsis and tying up her subplots with Kamoana and Phi.

ToZ:
I am still playing this with my friend, and it is still pretty garbage, but constantly reading into ToZ's (bland, uninspired) message with the various lenses gleaned from ToB DOES help a bit. The presentation in ToZ is just shit, but there are some interesting things you can pick out about the nature of the setting and how the roles of Shephard and Lord of Calamity evolved (or more specifically, kind of DIDN'T) over time. I may be seeing a bit of Utena influence in this regard that isn't actually there, since the plot of ToZ is so overly dependent on archetypes it almost comes off as an analysis of how rigid and inhuman archetypal narratives are...

I can't decide if I am insulting it enough or not. Either way, don't subject yourself to this unless you just have too much free time on your hands and REALLY love ToB...

[Dark Holy Elf]

I did some of the sidequests (Eleanor's and Magilou's for instance, and bits of others as I stumbled upon them) but not all. I assume the other reason for the lower time was that I avoided lots of battles generally.

Otherwise, good points, I generally agree!

The voice work of the major characters is generally superb, but yeah nobody more than Magilou. It really helps bring their interactions to life and sells both their day-to-day conversations and the biggest dramatic scenes.

I hadn't actually considered the depths of the hypocrisy of Artorius and co. there but you're spot on and it is kind of a shame we didn't get a scene like that. I kinda get why it didn't happen as the protagonists themselves have complex feelings for the antagonists there. In Magilou's case she consistently brushes off the terrible things Melchior does to her (e.g. for an obvious present-day example, we see how much she suffers holding him off at the dimensional rift but later just jokes about having to listen to his boring conversation) and her "you suck!" speech to him later instead focuses entirely on her problems with his ideology rather than his personal failings. I think the point might be that the petty personal failings of Arthur and Melchior aren't why the PCs are fighting them, but rather their grander plan, and this opposition would occur even if the villains were perfect moral paragons otherwise. But I still agree that I would have liked to see that verbal owning anyway!

Well-put on Zaveed. I don't have too much to add, except something related to him that I forgot to mention in my previous post: Siegfried. Can we NOT have "shooting yourself in the head" as a way of powering up, video games? Like ever again? Thanks.

[SnowFire]

Have you heard of the Caligula Effect?  It's the psychological desire to do crazy shit precisely because it's forbidden, or stupid, or unusual.  It's also a PS Vita RPG that had a Steam version come out recently, done by some of the people from Persona 2 apparently, but eh, that's pretty low on the priority list, I'll probably never play it.  Why do I bring it up?  Well, what game should I play next?  Go back to the critically acclaimed Nier Automata?  Back to Tales of Berseria, which had Elf & Djinn's great writeup, and a personal endorsement from a good friend of mine?  Maybe resume getting my ass kicked by evil dinosaurs in Ys 8?  Do something offbeat and quirky with Golf Story or finishing up Night in the Woods?

No, I started Dragon Quest XI, despite NotMiki & Ephraim's less-than-enthusiastic reviews.  May God have mercy on my soul.

 --
Octopath Traveler

Beat the postgame boss a few weeks ago.  Fun times, glad they had at least 1 boss that wasn't going to play nice and do some brutal nasty I'mma kill you now moves.  While I appreciate the game wanting to make the fight more tense with some "you will have to start all over again" stakes, just add a damn save point before it, game.  The boss rush before the final was a bit of a waste of time, if you have any trouble with the old bosses you aren't beating the postgame final.  I beat it the first try, but it'd have been frustrating had I lost, which I came damn close to.

Went with Sorc Tressa (Runelord Transfer Rune cheeze seemed unfun), Warmaster H'aanit (she needed a boost, since holy crap capture rates for endgame monsters suuuuuck and aren't very good even if you are patient), Runelord Ophilia (Dancer subclass, what I had on Ophilia before, goes from good to pathetic in the postgame after you get auto-buff skills & face lots of dispelling), and Starseer Primrose (she needed *something*, and was still kinda bad).  Huh, ended up with all the ladies in the postgame classes, didn't notice until now….  although only in Tressa's case was it really favoritism.  Also, sheesh, Scholar falls off hard in the postgame, what used to be great damage is now pathetic - Cyrus was basically on strictly support duty.

Also, after checking speedruns, I see I missed out on two OP mechanics: Turns out Tradewinds Spear & Primeval Bow of Storms STACK for some brutal Ventus Saltares.  I only had one on Sorc Tressa, with the other going to Primrose.  Also, BP Eater is way better a passive than I assumed, it's just a straight-up giant damage boost that I should have equipped.  Oh well, made the fight extra exciting, and that's okay.  Also, while I accidentally had my scrubbier team in the tougher fight, they were also the team that was more multi-target focused, which sorta worked out - checking the Internet after the fight, the 3 sub-parts really unload once you kill a single piece, so killing all three at around the same time worked out pretty good.  I had Sorc Tressa / Cleric Olberic / Runelord Ophilia / Thief Alfyn for fight 1, which they wrecked, and Warmaster H'aanit / Apothecary Cyrus / Starseer Primrose / for fight 2.

--
Azure Striker Gunvolt 2

Finished Gunvolt's path, then the final final confrontation for both paths.  Pretty enjoyable, with a few major qualms getting in the way.  Since I think only Meeple & NotMiki played the series, for what it's worth, the developer for this is Inti Creates, the same company that did Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon, which I know various people around here liked.  (For all that Gunvolt is a different kind of platformer... dying against Curse of the Moon randoms is perfectly understandable, Gunvolt randoms exist solely to get styled on and die horribly.)

* Difficulty: Game is too easy.  Okay, Gunvolt's path was more difficult than Copen's, since his mechanics are somewhat balanced in having to choose between offense and defense, and at least one boss is reasonably dangerous and I wiped against (Jibril, evil tsundere).  And the true final bosses you can credibly lose against, although they're still way easier than Gunvolt 1's final final boss.  But yeah.  For those who aren't familiar with the series, there's a mechanic called "prevasion" where basically you get auto-ninja dodges, energy permitting, and only start taking real damage if either you're out of juice or (as Gunvolt) are currently using your electric attack.  The good news is that this truly does help make you feel like a badass.  That bad news is that this makes it incredibly difficult for anything that isn't a bottomless pit to kill you if you play defensively and keep your energy high.  There are a few boss attacks that can overwhelm you, but it isn't common, and even the fake final boss can't stop you from walling basically all of her stuff, with only the final-final bosses packing a bunch of stuff that straight up ignores prevasion.  That said, the game is also too hard if you want it to be - you can just unequip the prevasion accessory / skill and congratulations, the game is now brutally hard with all the crap flying around everywhere you now need to actually dodge.  And the special runner / competition modes have you at level 1 with horrible equipment and no prevasion, so good luck you will likely die etc. there.  So I guess I shouldn't complain too much, but it's a violent difficulty shift - the equivalent of going from playing Super Metroid with 20 energy tanks and 4 reserve tanks to playing with 3 energy tanks.

* Style: I'm not that big of a shonen anime fan.  And when, say, the LOH Trails series dips its toes in shonen tropes, I feel it usually more detracts from what the series does well then enhances it.  That said, I actually liked Gunvolt 2 on this.  Gunvolt, somehow, really commits to the shonen style and makes it work, something which is aided by it being an action game - when an RPG character does some cutscene super-duper-attack with explosions everywhere a la Trails S-Crafts, FF9 Trances, whatever, and then a big number pops up and you're done, it is inherently a little unimpressive.  When a boss yells out their anime super move and you get to personally dodge giant water harpoons or blood blades or whatever, or you yell out your own super move and instantly knock off a third of the boss's health, the effect just works.

* Music: When George Lucas made Star Wars, the original, he requested a certain style of bombastic orchestral music but had no idea what he was getting.  It was a pleasant surprise that he ended up with one of the best film scores ever from a then-unknown John Williams.  I suspect the unhappy version of this story happened here: the developers knew they needed J-Pop on a budget, found some unknown musicians, and got…  some mediocre-eh-whatever J-Pop.  It's a shame because the story certainly puts its heart into selling you that this music is the greatest shit ever, complete with getting to sing into the DS microphone yourself (!), but it's just kinda there.

* The Female characters: I think Ciato had a comment about Fire Emblem Olivia: the term "waifu" is overused, but if it still means anything, Olivia probably qualifies as a waifu.  Well…  damn near all the females in this game, certainly all the friendly ones, are pretty much just waifus, moe blobs whose sole desire is to help and/or please one of the two protagonists.  (And hell, even one of the villainous girls has a crush on Gunvolt.)  If they have anything approaching character interaction with others, it is petty jealousy over who Gunvolt is paying more attention to.  Basically, it isn't passing the Bechdel Test.  (I'm actually willing to cut some slack to two of the four female supporty type characters for this actually making some sense - e.g. Lola is an AI solely designed to help boss Copen out - but the likes of Nori have no excuse.)

The ending to the game is also kinda freaky, although in fairness, the game seems to realize that it's pretty messed up and has Our Heros appropriately angsty about it, rather than brushing it off.  (Imagine if FF7 Marlene randomly died, but then the spirit of Aeris possessed her and created a crazy, amnesiac merged person, causing both Cloud & Barret to wander the land as angsty loners distraught they couldn't save either one.)


So yeah.  Fun times, nice & fast to playthrough while still having replayability if you decide you love it and want to beat it on ranking modes without prevasion, but a few chinks in the armor.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Now that ToB is done, it's back to Fire Emblem! More Sword Conquest updates:

Black and White (C18): One of those maps where the trickiest thing is getting your foot in the door. The northwest entrance has an Enfeeble staff and some reasonably strong Heroes/Sorcerers, the southwest has some armour knights (Armourslayer to the rescue, first time we face armoured foes since C13), the southeast has a bunch of cavalry, including a Beastslayer (frustrating because so many of my units are mounted) Once I'm able to get in the door things aren't too bad, Levin Sword Corrin and Xander are both important here. The only other notable thing is Silas misses a 97 hit at one point and the counter leaves him one hit from dead, but it also leaves the surviving enemy (a general) in range of Azura, and he goes for a ~60 hit on her instead of the ~90 on Silas for some reason, and misses. Well, that helps. 1 reset here total.

Kitsune Lair (C19): In which we use almost exclusively bronze swords and their forged variants. Beastbane is common on this map, which puts a premium on units who aren't weak to it, like Corrin, Shura, Selena, and Laslow; other units do see some use. Otherwise I take this map pretty slowly, with lots of backpeddling when the foxes with pass do their "charge while being invincible" strategy to get behind my defences. The toughest group is the one right before the boss, which do overwhelm me once and the second time I'm able to tank through just enough of them with forest def pairup Def Tonic Laslow, and sweep in and finish. Jakob reaches Tomebreaker on this map so I switch him over to Strategist.

Bright Smile (Soleil paralogue): I decide to get her at this point. Quickly rush to various chokepoints. Corrin + Shura with Jakob/Azura support takes out the entire northwest (mix of Levin Sword and bronze) with its mages and berserkers. Xander, Camilla, and Selena are responsible for the east with its berserkers and bow knights. Silas and Sophie take some heros from the southeast. Laslow and Peri recruit Soleil whom I promptly promote to Bow Knight (L4); she with a Peri pairup is able to alternate chewing through some sorcerers and holding off some heroes, switching off with Laslow at one point. Elise supports both south groups. I get a big scare when the boss rushes in, I chokepoint him then too late realise he has Pass and will sneak through to kill Elise, but Freeze Staff to the rescue. Also in this fight, Jakob's Tomebreaker actually pays off as he has to hold off in a pinch the sorcerers who appear from the starting point. He also learns Inspiration.

Winds of Change (C20): The wind map is always a challenge and not having fliers makes it even worse. Oh yeah and there are two swordcatchers for me to worry about. The first is on a falcon knight who charges with a group of fliers; I usually end up baiting her with someone she won't double and who will hit back hard like Camilla, then finish with whatever. The second is with a large group of enemies in the east, on a spearmaster, whom Xander can avoid a double from with +Spd, and largely he tanks everything else. Sweep in and clean up. There are also quite a few mages on the map who are quite fast, but they're doublable by Swordmaster Corrin with +Spd and a killable on counters by the Levin Sword. I send Corrin west to deal with them. The ones from the middle of the map have Counter so are best chipped down with Siegfried or Kodachi (on either phase). Most of the challenge of the fight of course comes from the wind itself and navigating it. Fuga himself is a big pain because he has a lance and sits on a throne, and has Seal Str/Spd/Def (gross) to screw over anyone who wants to fight him. I actually die once to him because I don't realise he can gain 3 atk by switching to a sword instead, which makes the difference. Awful to lose at the very end of such a long map. Fortunately I win on my next try (probably the 5th or 6th).

Second storebought Levin Sword! This one goes to Camilla, who has easily the #2 magic since I've benched Leo.

Eternal Stairway (C21): Relatively easy, abuse dragon veins to keep control of the stoneborn and kill them with magic swords. The three faceless with Swordbreaker near the start pose their own painful problems in hitting them, but at least they're early then there are never any more. Otherwise the battle tends to be "decide whether to activate a DV or kite stoneborn ranges with squishy folks at the start of each phase, then execute a plan" and while it's never easy, it's easier than the surrounding maps for sure.

Sakura (C22): Hana is a monster. I fight her three times and she ends one run and the two I get past her I use rather different approaches. She has way too much evade (which affects my counter-avoiding attacks) and starts on a forest, but luring her off means she's hitting someone. She also has 37 speed so it takes considerable effort just to avoid her doubling someone, and a Rend Heaven which ensures each strike is a potential mid-high 2HKO even against solid durability. The usual WTA and Wary Fighter approaches are out. Anyway a lot of it involves getting in lucky shots at range 2 (with atk support) then finishing her (she is frail at least) with bronze. On another run I also bait her successfully with a +Spd Corrin though it's risky. Otherwise the fight is mostly a matter of breaking walls for each side and quickly eliminating each group with prejudice, and dealing with the fact that on some late turn there's a huge swarm of reinforcements (on the winning run I refine my strategy so that I'm finishing the fight there anyway). Yukimura is respectable but doesn't pose any Hana-level problems since his offence is more manageable (even with his one shot of Spendthrift). Sakura herself I'm able to take down on the final turn, not too problematic either.

Possessed (C23): Man this fight takes a while. Normally I flier-skip Hinata, no such luck here. Hinata's group seems imposing (Hinata, two pairups and two solos, all under Rally Str/Def and supported by Takumi's ballista) especialy since Hinata is a pain for me (he has Magic Counter for Levin Sword and also reflects damage done by swords/lances/axes below half health) but can be broken by lunging him off of his gate, then finishing him with whatever. I use Camilla for the lunge then a Xander/Peri/Sophie wall with durability pairups and Inspiration to withstand the other enemies, then mop 'em up. Oboro's group is even tougher, but I do win first try: Xander climbs the stairs to hit someone and tank enemies, lures Oboro over. Xander retreats down the stairs, Oboro retreats. Xander goes up again and softens some more, and this time I'm ready to rush everyone else in the eastern section and hold off Oboro's group at the two chokepoints (they have anti-chokepoint tactics like Lunge to watch for though). One Swordcatcher in this group which must be kited then eliminated with prejudice, plus FOUR more on some Master of Arms reinforcements which come from the back, but none of them start equipped and I kill them all on player phase. Takumi himself is easy-peasy, I have Xander set up to deal with him but I send Corrin in with a Bottle (+10 dodge weapon that can crit) and she just one-rounds Takumi anyway. On that note I picked up Swordfaire in this fight.

Hinoka (C24): Lots of mages, and the only way to one-round them is with Levin Swords. I make sure Camilla and Corrin have enough Spd (and in Camilla's case, Mag; Corrin having Swordfaire means that's no longer a concern) to one-round the mages on counters so they don't pile up. The same build also takes out the Onis, convenient! Beyond that, Rally Resistance from my Strategists and Inspiration/etc. lets my combat duo tank through most any combination of those two. Pegasus knights are a far greater danger; the Kinshi Knights aren't too tough with their WTD and lower stats but Falconknights aboslutely are; the Bolt Naginata ones almost ORKO Xander and the Silver ones are just a pain to kill and hit everyone reasonably hard (especially those they double). My dragon vein use does cut their move to 4 as long as I'm ready to use those right after Hinoka does, at least. Setsuna is very dangerous since she has Swordbreaker and Pass; I bait her with Camilla then have Camilla move into melee (activating her -20 evade Heartseeker) and finish her with Xander; dicy but luckily for me it works on all my later runs. Azama can hex people, not much to do about it other than try to make sure he doesn't hit key people, giving him other targets until it's all gone. After the third DV use I rush in and murder both him and take out Hinoka; Corrin and Camilla are both just fast enough to avoid being doubled, Draconic Hexand Heartseeker do their thing, and I'm able to take her down with healthy respect for Luna and healing ready to go. Like 3-4 resets total? More than most maps that aren't Wind, anyway.

Ryoma (C25): For the first time ever, I win the duel! I give Corrin three Speedwings, Tonics for all her relevant stats, and lucky for me she procs speed on the level she gains early in the fight, letting her reach 31+1(Yato)+8(Speedwings and Tonics)=40, Ryoma has 36 but Draconic Hex knocks him down -2 to 34 which recovers to 35 next turn. Woohoo doubling! With Duelist's Blow and my own silly swordmaster evade he only has ~18 hit on me, so I'm able to slug him down in around 8 turns or so. I miss out on some money but doing this map in a few minutes instead of an hour plus is worth it.

Endgame approaches. Camilla is L20 (asterisk on her level as always), Corrin L18, a few other heavilly used PCs have hit 15 (Xander, Soleil), most others around 10-12 with healers/Azura lagging that. I have a new unit slot now, not sure if I'll throw it to another healer, a pairup bot (Charlotte? Gunter?), or recruit another kid (Siegbert? Kana?) We'll see.

[Laggy]

There's been way too much Saga talk lately and I haven't actually given the game a proper playthrough in, well, years. So why not, let's dive back into this lovable mess of the game. But not without hilariously impeding myself with self-imposed challenges of course.

I am playing under the following handicaps:
- Stat-Up Value for all enemies is set to 0. This effectively caps stat growth to a minimum (not technically a hard cap, but enough of one.) For reference, this is the Gameshark code to enable this:
d01a6806 03e0
d012c078 0001
3001eda3 0000
- Restricted from using more than 1 Mec, 1 Mystic, and 1 Monster (restriction applies separately, not together; I can run 1 of each) in the party. This pushes me to use Humans who are most impacted by the stat growth handicap.
- Not allowed to purchase equipment or items from shops. Period. This includes the Junk Shop in Scrap. This acts as a limitation on Mecs, mainly (don't worry I'm sure they'll still be broken as fuck). Also I can't spam MaxCures forever or whatever. Magic shops and Gozarus are fine.
- Mesarthim is banned. LifeRain is broken, and she outclasses every Mystic in the game by a not small amount because of it; she would always be the obvious recruit for the Mystic slot otherwise, which would limit variety.
- OverDrive cheese is banned, as is TimeLeap. This probably means I won't use TimeLord but oh well.
- I need to reach BR 9 before the final boss.

We'll see if I have the energy to go through every PC route (that'd be ideal) with this. I may also add or relax restrictions if I feel like they make a run more fun.


Lute

Because why not, I wanted to test quickly that the Stat-Up Value Gameshark code worked as intended.

Straight to Owmi, I recruit Hamilton and her broken TwoGun goodness and overpowered initial stats. Then it's off to Devin to start off Arcane/Rune quests, back to Koorong to talk to the skeleton to trigger Gen's recruitment, then Scrap to pick up the bar crew (Gen/T260/Mei-ling/Riki). I realize that I don't really remember what everyone's initial stats really look like so I go on a bit of a recruiting spree. Lute doesn't have access to any mystics other than TimeLord off the bat (and he/Mesarthim I've essentially struck off from being able to use) and screw it, I haven't actually used a proper monster in ages so I grab Thunder (plot relevant in Lute's quest!!!!!!)

This results in the current party after yanking equipment around and shuffling (I got in some random encounters with birds at Koorong but that's about it):



Mecs are still very fair you guys

More when I actually try to remember this game and what I want to do first. Grab the DuelGun in Shingrow, grab Light magic... I'll probably let Lute grab Arcane (for Shield) and Rouge sticks with Rune. Stop by IRPO to try to kill the dragon (lel), Sei's Tomb for the shield and Magatama, maybe the Kusanagi.

[Laggy]

Lute continued

I go to Luminous to grab the Light gift first since that's a pretty safe bet, and the labyrinth gives some goodies anyway like a SanctuaryStone. For fun I decide to trigger the dark red light fight since I haven't done that in ages either and oh hey this looks like a +BR modded fight... two Rockbaboons that OHKO literally everyone in my party (because oh right mecs and monsters can't enter and I have two PCs that are naked, oops) and a PrimaDonna. Well. Then.

I thought StunShot had initiative but no of course it doesn't (that'd make it almost as good as SharpPain!) and Hamilton can't act faster than the baboons who proceed to kill Rouge before he can try Implosion off the bat and murder Lute for good measure. Mei-ling tries to revive Rouge for the longshot ID chance to recover but they do a good job of killing him every. single. time. And wipe 15 minutes in, yes, good, this is what I was looking for.

Okay I go in this time and don't trigger the damn encounter - oh wait dark blue was a trap too? FORTUNATELY this one is much easier and just pits me against a LivingGlove that dies to two attacks, okay great and wow I really don't remember some things. I eventually walk out with the Light gift, 400 credits, a MoonlightRobe, a SanctuaryStone, and grab FlashFire for Rouge.

Next I go to Shrike to raid Sei's Tomb for goodies, I think I can handle two DeadKnights (FlashFire OHKOs), and I finish looting the place. Because I like poor life decisions I go fight Sei immediately rather than hanging onto the goodies.

Insolent wretch! Now taste the sword of the ultimate knights! oh look Lute at 6/10 LP before the fight starts. BattleSong+DoubleSlash combo kills Rouge before FlashFire goes off, then nonstop ThunderThrusts just sort of own everyone else, Level 2 combo from the DeadKnights laugh at even Mecs, and Thunder's GaleAttack by itself doesn't cut it.

Second time in I swap out T260 for the lead position and she facetanks it like a pro (Kusanagi still hurts but she lives). Everyone but Rouge and Thunder defends, FlashFire takes out the adds and.... oh wait I remember this being a bad idea actually - YES IT IS A BAD IDEA MinionStrike MT OHKOs the party. Right. Hm. So I need to kill all but one off, FlashFire isn't a good idea here. Next attempt goes poorly as well, T260 and Lute both die before their actions, Rouge doesn't live next turn either and Hamilton... well...



Subsequent next attempts go similarly poorly, I can off three of the DeadKnights but ultimately people fall like flies and beating Sei's regen is actually a serious issue, it basically isn't happening without combos (Hamilton's gun techs + GroundHit works, but Hamilton bites it as fast as anyone else). Backpack goes on T260, everyone else is just made too much out of paper to ever make use of it; I start blowing the starting MagicStone to whittle the knights down some without killing them like FlashFire does. I trade 3 PC deaths for 3 kills (T260, Lute, Hamilton go down), fortunately Thunder absorbed Heal and initiative healing is a godsend. Rouge picks Hamilton back up with StarlightHeal to begin the chain revival - Hamilton and Lute got stuffed with Cures in their inventory beforehand so they can at least stall some rather than be one time targets, but then Sei's shield becomes a MASSIVE ISSUE, blocking even SunRay and GroundHit (comboed to boot!) and giving the last DeadKnight breathing room to pick off people once again. And damage headway is difficult between his DeathSynthesis and HPDrain.

I rethink again and toss Hamilton the Backpack, giving T260 another sword for tankishness since her gun techs aren't doing anyone favors here beyond combo potential. Since T260 is really the only person who can take more than 1-2 hits it feels crucial to keep her up to draw fire. Hilariously the first turn goes great as T260 eats a Level 4 combo of DoubleSlash+ThunderThrust+ThunderThrust+ThunderThrust (over 1200 damage), getting massively overkilled only to be picked up by RepairKit at the end, and SunRay+GroundHit go off as planned to one knight, resulting in the first turn ever where I don't have any net casualties throughout this entire fight. Next turn goes similarly well as attacks bounce off T260 (HPDrain even misses, mecs op) and two more knights die to MagicStone, SunRay and GroundHit being distributed. Fight FINALLY under control, SharpShot starts getting incorporated into combos with SunRay or GroundHit to deal 1.4kish damage (whereas GroundHit alone only does 450, barely beating Sei's natural 295 hp regen). The shield still proves as obnoxious as ever (and WP is a concern, Thunder only has 40 at the moment) but fortunately not enough to eventually prevent the kill.

Lute of course has no sword skills learned so he can't even USE the Kusanagi yet (not without locking him out of being able to spark skills). Why did I do this again?

[Dark Holy Elf]

yessss

-Why are you usng Lute

-StunShot does get initiative once you get QuickDraw, was probably what you were thinking of. It isn't as accurate and misses flying enemies but otherwise is still pretty cheesy!

-Just FYI under the rules you set SILENCE is going to be one of the better characters since he's available early and is actually allowed to gain stats normally. Too late for this playthrough of course since you already did Luminous.

-No really why are you using Lute, you can take him out and one of his weaknesses is his base stats are lower than those of other humans, which is amplified here.

-Thunder should be a Trisaur for key fights early. Just keep BoltBreath near the top and absorb random stuff and you should get to it before long.

-Lute's Shield spell will be garbage since its effectiveness is based off the caster's stats, why are you using him

-Giving up SacredSong was indeed a poor life decision since with humans nerfsticked that was gonna be your best MT damage for a long, long time.

-On the other hand the Sei war story was great so better for us I suppose!

[Dhyerwolf]

-Why are you usng Lute

To up the masochism level?