Wild ARMS XF: CompletedWhew, so I've played roughly 100 hours of this game, thanks to the Jap + Eng versions meshing together. Jap was obviously harder due to being unable to read anything. Eng version got smashed. I had a couple of resets (on the two really stupid maps anyway), but in general, the game is begging to be smashed. No thanks to Creeping Chaoses that appear around halfway through the game and make it easy to max out some classes. The bosses in general are decent and even really good if you don't twink. But as I did, splat~
Where to start? I think this is probably the one Wild ARMS game where I really enjoyed the plot. As in, it was actually really good. Shock. Between the little themes, flashbacks, and some of the hidden plot twists, the game really rocked on this front. There are some plot holes (more on that later), but for the most part, story's good.
Characters were decent. The cast was mixed with some good, some meh and fail. Specifically, Spoiler PC and Ragnar are good (one's realistic in how she behaves. The other has good motives and tends to have a good amount of character and charisma). Levin's an idiot, but he gets a couple of nice scenes. Clarissa and Labrynthia are there. Clarissa's decent above averagish. The plot pulls together her motives together, but she just didn't inspire much out of me. Labrynthia didn't impress. Felius basically sucked! The villains play similar, with Charlton being very good, Rupert having some style. Chelle existed and Edna fails. Meanwhile, Weish wins the stupidest villain award for the day. More on this later too!
Now gameplay! I think for the most part, the game worked fine. They balanced classes, although some classes have ludicrously good skills while others are junk in general. Map design was mostly horrible. They needed to be much smaller on average since movement time alone hogs up a huge amount of time. VP was also unnecessary and was more of nuisance than anything. Random battles or quests are also kind of boring. Item synthesis is uninspiring as it felt really slapped together if anything. In terms of tactics though, the game delivers since you often need a good balance or certain classes will be more prominent in certain levels. They also managed to fit puzzle maps into it, which is interesting. The actual combat was good, since you can mesh a lot of skills together, although this leads to some of the most broken set ups imaginable. Bosses who would normally be durable crumple after 2 hits >_>. So the challenge is kind of sort of there. But not really at the same time. Enjoyable overall, but I'm a bit disappointed since the flaws need to be stated.
Overall...it felt like the final act wasn't really needed. Just group it together with Act 4 and it would've worked fine. The final act felt sloppy and also made one of the villains who was kind of good in the early going to become utterly retarded. Game is decent, but not impressive. 7/10 sounds around right. Probably the lowest score I've given to a WA game minus the original. Again, the map design really frustrated me and made the enjoyment level lower than what it could've been. That was probably the biggest thing. On to actual characters...
Clarissa - Her tale comes together and makes sense! In the beginning she mentions how she hates lies, you don't really find out why until much later. She's typical in that she's much more idealistic than imaginable. Her early game character and her late game character don't differ much in terms of that aspect. Although having her assume the role of false princess in the beginning was a interesting gesture. Otherwise, don't have really much else to add on her as weird as that sounds. The hidden plot twist was full on win. Scenes with the spoiler PC were always good. Gameplay wise was mostly support. Encourage was awesome. So was Sacrifice, although I had much better tools later on. Infinite horizontal range for sniping and Decelerate win as well. DL wise is completely different in that she relies mainly on Sacrifice. See Pyro's post in the XF stat topic.
Fierce/Felius - Was basically there. He had some backstory, but it was largely full of meh and his early game character is about as interesting as a rock. BUT EPIC STORYLINE WITH WEISH. If only Weish didn't end up being a total idiot. In the end, his subplot was resolved, which was nice, but his character was still largely uninspiring. In game, his stats are suited to being a frontline fighter, and he was my boss destroyer easily. Thanks to Amplifier/Hyper/Invoke existing. Giving him Secutor EQ and Six Shooter was hilarious. DL wise, kind of boring. Disarm exists, although the skill is largely useless in game >_>. Otherwise, he has physical durability and some semblance of damage. Which is passable.
Labrynthia - Hey! An intelligent PC in the cast. That's a good start. She wasn't much other than that though. She had some good scenes with Charlton and King Hranthnir, but other than that she didn't do much. She's more entertaining than Fierce at least. In game, she was LVP (aside from TONY) since she was slow and couldn't do that much damage. She worked as a heavy support mage though. DL wise...um...DOPPLEGANGER. Yeah. Weapon block and Distortion I guess gives her some wins, but that speed/durability combo is entirely epic.
Levin - He's more of an idiot and way too gung ho in the beginning. Gradually shapes out better, which is good. The subplot between him/spoiler PC/Clarissa could've used some more expanding on. But the scenes he got with Ragnar from that were awesome. Levin's entire thing with his dad worked in that, towards the end Eisen really did need a good slap upside the head. Glad to see who was more sensible out of that duo >_>. In game wise, broken as hell. He's not impressive in physical or magic attacks, but he has lots of speed and movement, two stats that are much harder to work around. So he becomes a highly twinkable character. Blast being 1.5x stronger than regular magic and can be used after moving was horribly wrong. And Cancel Strike works on bosses. IT WORKS ON BOSSES >_<. So you could shape him into one form or the other and he would still kicks loads of ass. DL wise, Cancel Strike+Assault Rush both exist. Blast is largely unimpressive now, but has 100% innate accuracy. Which is good, since his base accuracy also sucks.
Ragnar - He's very likable. Aside from Laby, he's the only one who's more or less acute to what's going on. Ragnar's scenes with Chelle/Levin made him work. Former adding more to his motive and serious side, while the latter works more on his comic relief side. Also possibly has the most realistic motive out of everyone else. And he turned out pretty well since his revenge plot was soon dropped for something else that worked a lot better. In game, Hyper does horrible things to people. He's already pretty strong, so that + Orbital Ring will slice most randoms in one or two hits. Ravaging Rush being able to push enemies back was also good and it deal loads of damage from it. His only big thing in game was low MP, which could be worked around. DL wise, Hyper + Ravaging Rush = ow, pain. You either kill him with some sort of ranged attack, start off faster than him, or be really physically durable because otherwise, he just rips you apart.
Spoiler PC - Awesome. The scenes with Clarissa set a new high in yuri undertones. But otherwise, she's probably the most realistic out of all the characters. One of the scenes where Ragnar asks what she would do with Elesius before he renews his pledge demonstrated this. Her response was more along the lines of "I can't promise that I would be able to make it better, but I give you my word I work towards the same ideals as my father and I will do everything in my power to bring it down", which I felt was better than a typical "Yes, no worries guys. We will succeed" type of schpeel. The various deaths of people relating to her and her reactions from those worked out really well. Of course, the hidden plot twist is also associated with her, so that wins. In game, WAY THE HELL TOO SLOW. There are ways to curb this thankfully. But that speed really really hurts, and is what makes Fierce a better boss slugger than her ultimately. DL wise, initiative + 2HKO. Weaknesses hurt, speed hurts even more, and less ways to curb the speed problem.
Rupert - He had style. And the game does a fairly good job of making him quite despicable. And then of course, when you finally get to fight him, they make sure his defeat comes as a direct form of nemesis. He wasn't part of the Final Act fiasco, which helps his character some. For the most part, he appears as a lowly scum who worked off his own philosophy, and yet that gets him killed in the end. DL wise, not as strong as his ingame counterpart, who had Crisis RFX. Crisis RFX works because every enemy you kill perma boosted his speed, which lets him tear apart your units. He dies to a good old speed busting of course. Crisis RFX is also useless in the DL. So he has...something. I'm not sure what. Maximum Risks exists! Someone test it. *pokes Pyro*
Charlton - aka. the competent villain. His last stand and battle was good. One of the mid C.2 scenes between him and Laby also worked out. Out of all the villains, he was the one that didn't make you want to take a 2 by 4 and smack them in the face with it. Lots of charisma from him as well. Owns Edna...pretty much the best villain out of the entire set. DL wise...depends which form I think? His last one has MT 2HKO with disease attached to it. Its nasty as hell in game. DL wise probably works out the same. Or he goes with his second to last form, which has the ability to summon cronies everytime he's hit (I think its like an auto 40% or something). And those cronies don't die unless you hit them with Sanctify (auto regenerate everytime and get stronger). So either way, he's a threat, which is nice.
Edna - Utter failure. Gets owned by pretty much all the other villains except Rupert. Also gets owned by spoiler PC, verbally and physically. Fails in that, she's the type of person in real life who you really want no association with. Her death is at least comical though.
Weish - Um...let's see. He starts off too much MYSTERAE, but gets better. The Death Merchant concept was nice, since he wasn't a typical assassin, but merely one that produced vastly dangerous merchandise. Of course, when his scheme was revealed, it was kind of cool in that hey, it makes sense! And then the Final Act came in and everything that the game has built on him crumbles apart. To sum it up, I'm just going to C+P my convo with Pyro. Don't read if you don't like spoilers.
SPOILER ALERT!
<Pyro> Also.
<Pyro> "..." to his stupidity.
<Pyro> Yes, begin the armageddon BEFORE YOU HAVE SECURED YOUR ESCAPE!
<Pyro> Brilliant!
<Tide|lastone> ...
<Tide|lastone> Y'know, here's something else I was wondering
<Tide|lastone> If Weish rebuilt the Lombardia
<Pyro> Yesss?
<Pyro> Why didn't he change the pilot system?
<Tide|lastone> Why didn't he just override the fact that he needed Fierce's biopatterns to run the machine
<Pyro> Don't ask me.
<Tide|lastone> Yes exactly
<Tide|lastone> ...
<Tide|lastone> BRILLIANT PLAN
<Pyro> Weiss ain't the brightest fucker on the planet.
<Tide|lastone> LET'S REBUILT THIS VESSEL SO THAT IT WOULD LOCK ME AWAY FROM IT
<Pyro> He based his last strategy on beating the people who whupped his ass... 3 times before.
<Tide|lastone> THEN AROUND 1000 YEARS FROM NOW I WILL HOPEFULLY SEE MY ARCHNEMESIS, KILL HIM AND HOPE THERE IS NO RESISTANCE
<Tide|lastone> THEN I SHALL START A CATASTROPHE BEFORE I MAKE MY ESCAPE PLANS
<Tide|lastone> NOTHING CAN POSSIBLY GO WRONG
He becomes a total, complete joke of the villain. I think the game designers realized this too and had him killed off comically. His in game variant was also very unimpressive in the end, since he lacks the move/jump to do anything. DL wise...fairly nasty. OHKO charge move and he has a good chance at pulling it off since he won't die to a hit! Depending on when you take him. His last form might since the durability fails (less than Charlton, but Charlton had better gimmicks). But he's still fast all around, so he's likely sitting around the middle/heavy border.
Chelle - Interesting conversations between her and Ragnar. She needed those since she's not much with out it. With, at least there's a hint of development and you develop sympathy towards her. I wasn't too impressed however. Felt like she still needed more screen time (ironically, she gets a lot, but ends up doing not much with it). DL wise, has Jeremy 2's gimmick, combined off the ability to kill someone in a single hit (battle cry --> Move --> wait --> Predator Barrage = splat). Also with his non fail durability at that point. Chelle might be worse thinking on it (she has 1500 HP or so, which is REALLY low for a boss that late) but still wow. Let her live and you're in trouble. Luckily though, no Hyper Weapon (which is the Ragnar variant).
Persona 3 FES - The JourneyYay! Restarted this. June 28th I think now. Maxed out Magician and Emperor. Chariot is at 7 or 8. Moon is at 6. Strength is at 5. Everything else is kind of low. But I'm thinking working on Heiro/Hermit over the summer and Moon can be worked on during exam week. Need to start Preistess and Fortune really. I also have a sword of 340 power fire element thanks to the weapon fuse system, at a point in the game where only +80 attack weapons exist. Smash. But the challenge before hand was still there.
The AnswerAlso started this. For some reason, Aigis feels a lot weaker than Minato, despite having the same ability. I don't recall my physical attack being that important in the journey, so I have no idea what happened. Bosses are now harder, not due to increased damage or hard mode BS. But rather they removed the fact that you can go to a save point, reheal before fighting an area boss. I question this decision (feels like a sloppy polish issue to me) but whatever. Game is still decent. I died at least 3 times now though. Yay random criticals.
