What games are you playing 2021: Please don't bully cute, girly-girl alchemist

[Reiska]

Finished FF3 Pixel Remaster. 

So this is a really interesting remake, on the whole.  It's not strictly a remake of the NES game, for all that it draws all of its presentational cues from that version; it's more like a hybrid of the NES and DS versions that, on the whole, hews closer to the DS version - I would sooner bill it as a demake of the DS version that reverts to the original NES version's writing.  However, that doesn't truly capture the essence of what this version of the game is like *either*.  So I suppose the best way to address that is to just dive into what this version of the game is like in detail.

First, the cues it does take from the NES version.  The job unlock times are the same as they are on NES; you get Warrior/Monk/White Mage/Black Mage/Red Mage from the wind crystal, Ranger/Knight/Thief/Scholar from the fire crystal, Geomancer/Dragoon/Black Belt/Dark Knight/Evoker/Bard from the water crystal, Magus/Evoker/Summoner from the earth crystal, and Sage/Ninja from Eureka.  The jobs all have the same equipment access they have on NES, which means that Warrior/Monk can't equip anything of note found later than the floating continent and thus get clearly obsoleted.  Likewise, like on NES, Fighter/Monk have no special commands.  Enemies all have their NES version attack patterns as far as I can tell; they don't multiact or do any of the different stuff they do in the DS version.  Job level is de-emphasized as a stat like the NES version.

That's mostly where the similarities end.

Then you have the cues it takes from the DS version.  Enemy packs are still smaller than the DS version (but not *as* small; 4-enemy fights were common but anything above that was exceedingly rare).  Enemy stats are more like the DS version - stuff hits generally harder and has more HP all around.  Equipment stats mostly all follow the DS version, though some itemcasts added by the DS version were not retained.  The non-Wind jobs have much more in common with their DS version incarnations than their NES version incarnations - in other words, the original NES version's planned obsolescence of Wind jobs was retained, but all the later jobs kept their DS version enhancements.  However, they're not exactly the same as the DS version either - they did some things that were wholly original.  I'll just run down the job list and talk about what they did.

Warrior: Mostly like its NES incarnation: good on the Floating Continent, obsoleted as soon as Knight unlocks.  Very slightly weaker than NES in raw stats.
Monk: Exactly like its NES incarnation: good on the Floating Continent, obsoleted as soon as Black Belt unlocks.  Very slightly weaker than NES in raw stats.
White Mage: Basically identical to its DS incarnation.  The MP progression is more or less like the DS version, which is markedly worse.
Black Mage: Basically identical to its DS incarnation.  The MP progression is more or less like the DS version, which is markedly (and, for Black Mage, tragically) worse.
Red Mage: While it gets its upgraded spell access from the DS version, it's limited to its NES version equipment and thus falls off really hard.
Ranger: Basically identical to its DS incarnation; it retains the Barrage command from there with similar effect.  All told it was a pretty good job until the part of the game where bows fall off dramatically.  Arrows are non-consumable in this version, which is really nice. 
Knight: More like its NES incarnation than its DS incarnation, but it kept some of the Agility nerf the class took on DS (not all).  Doesn't get the token L1 white magic the DS Knight does.
Thief: I didn't use it much but it felt like it had combat capability closer to the DS version's incarnation in the midgame.  Its lack of late-game equipment upgrades means it'll get relegated to the trash bin like in the original though.
Scholar: Basically plays like the DS incarnation except that it lost the token L1-3 spell access it had.  It retains the DS version's doubled effects from using items, which I definitely got some mileage out of.  Having no late-game armor options dooms it long term.
Geomancer: Plays more or less like its DS incarnation; Terrain has a 100% success rate and never backfires.  Having no late-game equipment options dooms it long term.
Dragoon: More or less like its NES incarnation, which is good (the class took a notable stat nerf on DS).  It tops out at Holy Lance which is a little weaker than other jobs' options.  I can't remember if you can get multiples; if not that'll hold it back more since the Blood Lance drops off pretty hard in attack power.  It has endgame armor access so it should be usable all the way.  I never used the job myself (no, not even against Garuda).
Viking: Basically plays like its DS incarnation but has the stats of its NES incarnation.  Provoke is now called Draw Attacks.  I actually used one through most of the midgame as my second physical job along Knight and got a fair bit of use out of the command.  Still offensively inept for the most part.  It has the best HP growth if that's a thing you care about.  It has endgame armor access and endgame-quality weapons, but physical tanking isn't really a valuable niche in endgame.
Black Belt: Plays more like its DS incarnation but not precisely the same; it took a bit of an AGI nerf from the NES version but is stronger than the DS class.  They retain Boost and gained Kick, which they didn't have in either previous FF3 version; it's a basic MT physical that does around half the damage a basic attack would have done.  This is actually pretty useful and all in all I'd say the job is better than it was; lack of late-game armor dooms it in the endgame though IMO.
Dark Knight: Plays ... more or less completely original.  Statwise it has the same STR as NES and less AGI (but more AGI than DS).  It retains its NES version equipment issues, being basically unusable before Falgabard.  The DS version's Souleater is replaced by Bladeblitz, which does the same thing but doesn't cost HP to use (and doesn't hit as hard; it's basically a Kick clone).  They also don't have their token L1-3 spellcasts from the NES version.  Because of Bladeblitz, it more or less obsoletes Black Belt IMO once it's usable.  It has endgame armor access and two Eureka weapons dedicated to it, so it's pretty much the clear second best physical job for endgame barring Ninja (after Knight).
Evoker: More or less identical to its DS incarnation in almost all ways; the only change is slightly more L8 MP.
Bard: Plays more like its DS incarnation, but not exactly the same (in particular, harp damage works like NES, which is dramatically worse).  Song access is based on job level, and from reports on the forums, might be bugged.  I didn't use one myself.
Magus: Statistically closer to its (stronger) NES incarnation.  The MP progression is the DS version's except that its L1 and L8 MP were doubled.
Devout: Statistically closer to its (stronger) NES incarnation.  The MP progression is the DS version's except that its L1 and L8 MP were doubled.
Summoner: More or less identical to its DS incarnation in almost all ways; the only change is slightly more L8 MP.
Sage: Similar to its DS incarnation, but it has full summons instead of evoker summons.  Which, IMO, is honestly a downgrade, since this means it can't flex Odin's MT Protect or Bahamut's MT attack buff.  Their MP progression is mostly the same as the DS version but they have a bit more L7 and L8 MP.  Not worth using unless you like the sprite's aesthetic IMO.
Ninja: More or less like its NES incarnation, with the highest STR/AGI of all physical jobs and the ability to equip anything.  It has worse HP growth than NES, but this shouldn't matter by the time you get it.  Throwing shurikens is still the most powerful attack in the game by an order of magnitude; nothing else comes even close.  Ninjas in PR have a throw command but Shuriken is the only throwable.

This is a lot of words to say that I liked this version of the game overall and it's probably the version I'll turn to for future replays.  The rearranged soundtrack is EXTREMELY good.

[Dark Holy Elf]

FF5 - I did a fiesta this year, natural on a whim. Rolled out a team of Dragoon/Time Mage/Chemist/Beastmaster. Just missing Blue Mage to have the most guide-dangit set of jobs in the game!

I played the GBA version because I've never actually used GBA Beastmaster on a Fiesta and that class is just... so much worse in more recent versions, between the nerfed Strong Fight, nerfed 25%HP releases, and bug-fixed Calm. It'll be interesting to see what the latest version does to them, I think that's supposed to release in around a month?

Some notes:
-Beastmaster has Control for randoms and a bunch of decent releases for bosses, though only being able to use one limits them. Highlights include instant death releases to kill Byblos (Page 32) and the fleet Gilgamesh (Aquathorn), Ronkan Knight to one-shot form 2 of Archeoaevis (the one with the real damage move) Yellow Dragons (25% HP) against Atomos and Exdeath, and my favourite, a Zu against Omniscient (50% HP because he's weak to wind). Beastmaster is incredibly underwhelming in bosses past that, but hey.
-I figured that Time Mage + Chemist is good excuse to do things at a low level. Once reached Ronka I started running from everything which didn't drop Chemist items. Still ended up getting to Level 24, most of the last few levels coming from the monsters-in-boxes in Moore Pyramid. There are way too many of those!
-Atomos was pretty scary. Even releasing a Yellow Dragon, the rest of my offence is so bad (Comet and Succubus Kiss were the only things doing more than like 400) that I had to use every Turtle Shell I had to do some semblance of damage before getting devoured.
-Since Time Mage was tied to Lenna the section of the game where she's gone was much nastier. Even the Gargoyles were no joke, and Melusine was an extremely long and painful fight, as I had zero Turtle Shells and Dragon Fangs left.
-Thank goodness for Meteor, the only reason final dungeon bosses didn't take a million years.
-Neo Exdeath was also an extermely long fight but had no way to threaten me outside of Grand Cross (which is funny, you'd think Almagest might be scary at Level 24, but Shell + double HP say nope). My offence was poor enough that I did see two, and the first inflicted Old on my only real damage-dealer... fortunately Meteor is one of the few magic attacks that ignores your level/stats, so keeps wrecking face just fine.
-I beat Omega very slowly with Calm + Trident (world 1 lightning spear) followups, with Chemist and Time Mage nonsense to keep me alive.

More detailed notes which are probably mostly of interest to me and a select few other nerds:
Stocked up to 25 potions before leaving for the canal/ship graveyard. More than needed (10 would be enough, probably) but it doesn't hurt to be safe.
Karlabos: Level 4. Used about 5 potions or so.
Siren: Level 7. I didn't bother with healing, accepted one death and threw two potions to finish the second time she went undead.
Magissa: Level 9. I broke my ice rod to finish her with no mess.
Garula: Level 10-11. Whip paralysis + high-def setup + healing staff = joke.
Liquid Flame: Level 12. Turtle him out of MP in the tornado form, then mostly use Gravity and a few Phoenix Downs to cut through the rest.
Karnak escape: I skip the final two chests. I get horribly unlucky with Iron Claw and miss my status attempts (running out of MP) so I have to break an Ice Rod to kill him in time. Oh well.
Ifrit: Level 13. Haste/Slow nonsense, plus releasing a Zu.
Byblos: Level 14. Released Page 32 sends him packing instantly.
Sandworm: Level 14. Time Mage Haste/Slow/heal turtle with a Zu to finish.
Cray Claw: Level 15. Equip lightning weapons, Time Mage heals a Tailscrew. Joke as always.
Adamantoise: Level 15. Equip Ice Bow from Cray Claw, use Time Mage turtling, release a Sand Bear.
Soul Cannon: Level 15. Break a Thunder Rod and followup with physicals on the Launchers, then haste/slow. Kind of a joke, he only gets off one Surge Beam and only barely.

Once I hit Level 17 in Ronka I stop fighting randoms. Level 17 gives everyone at least 400 HP, which I figure should be enough to beat everything left in the game. Maybe? We'll see!
Archaeoaevis: Level 17. Time Mage turtling, plus release a Ronkan Knight against form 2 to avoid Frost.
Titan: One reset when he MT OHKOs me. Break two rods and jump to avoid his death counter.
Manticore: Vulnerable to Stop/Slow and general Time Mage/Chemist turtling.
Purobolos: Can't be bothered with their nonsense, break rods three times and collect victory..
Gilgamesh: Typical Time Mage nonsense + cast Mute before dealing 4000 damage and he doesn't get to buff.
Tyrannosaur: Comet while Chemist heals.
Abductor: Stop and Gravity both work.

I actually fight Zombie Dragons in Drakenvale to try and get Dragon Fangs. I get seven of them, and also gain two levels in the process.
Dragon Pod: Level 19. Stop and Gravity both work.
Gilgamesh and Enkidu: Release an Aquathorn for Death on Gilgamesh. Had that failed... both can be slowed, Enkidu vulnerable to gravity, so I wasn't worried.
Atomos: Hardest boss so far for sure! He kills my dragoon Bartz first so I get a few turns of Haste, Comet, and Succubus Kiss (Maiden's Kiss + Turtle Shell). Once Bartz is about to be eaten I revive him and Atomos insists on either killing my Time Mage Lenna (unacceptable, she has by far the best free offence) or killing Bartz again, sometimes with double Comets. Very hairy. Eventually he kills both Lenna and Beastmaster Galuf (who had already released his Yellow Dragon for 5k). Revive Lenna, haste her again and finish before Atomos can eat Galuf. I used all six of my Turtle Shells and two Dragon Fangs (for Holy Breath).
Seal Guardians: Time Mage nonsense yet again, Hastega/Slowga, chip each one to a bit above their limit and then hurl Graviga after they take a turn and finish with whatever. Earth crystal I can cast float for and just mock.

At this point I go fight two more Zombie Dragons to restock to 7 Dragon Fangs. I also hit Level 20 in the process.
Gilgamesh: Level 20. Falls to standard Time Mage nonsense.
Exdeath: Hastega. Ether+Dragon Fang blocks elements. Elixir+Dragon Fang doubles HP (can survive Zombie Breath, not that I see it). Float stops Earth Shaker. Releasing a Yellow Dragon does 25%, otherwise a combination of Jump and Comet slowly chips him down, recasting Haste when Dispel counters come out (Dispel does not get rid of either of the Mix-based buffs I used).
Antlion: Back-row offence with Jump and a whip. This is the longest Antlion fight I have ever had, he lands several Discords quickly and I'm tickling him by the end; I have to use quite a few Hi-Potions!
Gargoyles: Beat on both Gargoyles until one of them uses Transfusion to sacrifice itself. Blessed Kiss (Maiden's Kiss+Holy Water) the other so it is berserked and can't use revive, though it also gets Haste which is unpleasant, so I release a Triffid to kill it at this point. Guess I didn't need Blessed Kiss.

Blitz the pyramid.
Melusine: Ugh this fight takes forever. In her fire- or ice-weak forms my only offence is Chemist Morning Star; in her lightning-weak form Dragoon can join in with Trident, and of course her physical-weak form is all hands on deck. I'm all out of Turtle Shells and Dragon Fangs so my options are limited, but at least Chemist can buff herself. ST Firaga or Blizzaga OHKO the other two (if they hit through Dragoon's Aegis Shield at least) so I have to revive a bunch, but I have enough Phoenix Downs.

I get the Fire Lash, Holy Lance, and Sage Staff as my first three weapons. At this point with my full party and Auto-Haste on my Time Mage I actually raid the Pyramid (Sage Staff is great here). The treasure chests alone get me three levels! Okay. Also enough money that I can afford Hermes Sandals on three out of four PCs.
Wendigo: Level 23. Block confuse with Time Mage/Chemist. Release a Shadow Dancer as first attack, otherwise just turtle and fish for damage with Holy Lance, Chicken Knife, Fire Lash, and Comet.
Minotaur: Both in the back row. Dragoon jumps with Partisan, Chemist uses Protect on herself then hits with Chicken Knife.
Omniscient: Time Mage casts Slow, then Comet until over 8500 damage dealt, then Beastmaster releases a Zu which hits wind weakness and does 50% MHP, dodging the limit range for a kill. Omniscient above his limit range does pretty close to nothing. Holy kills one person but that's fine.
Triton, Phobos, Nereid: Just spam the Magic Lamp, you can recharge it right after anyway.
Calofisteri and Apanda: Throw Meteors.

I fight the Dragon Aevises I encounter in the final dungeon; they're very common and my Dragon Fang stock rises to 11, which should be enough. I also hit Level 24, my final level.
Azulmagia: Release a Great Dragon, blitz with Meteor. Don't be Level divisble by 5.
Catastrophe: Float.
Twintania: Has a 700-damage Ice Storm (Resist Ice is PDown+Antidote, Ice Shield on Dragoon). Vulnerable to Stop once transformed.
Necrophobe: Take him seriously by mixing Death Potions (PDown + Dark Matter) to kill the barriers, then just revive to get through his physical stage.
Neo Exdeath: Slow the first form. Need Shell (Dragon Fang+PDown)+ Double HP (Dragon Fang+Elixir), can also mix to stop White Hole (PDown+Holy Water). Do the Shell mix last because it also adds Reflect which can ward off a stray Holy/Flare from form 1. Focus on killing Grand Cross part... to the extent I can focus at all when most of my offence comes from Meteor.
Omega: Resist Fire + Float shuts down most of his non-counter offence (just the odd stray Blaster and Delta Attack get through), I also use Dragon's Kiss for Heavy so that Maelstrom's not a threat, also stops all his non-Mustard Bomb counters in case I do see those. Calm + Trident attacks for offence, release one Great Dragon as well.

[Tide]

Divinity Original Sin 2: Definitive Edition -

Completed. My final play time according to the save file was about 120 hours. Not a short game by any means, but there was obvious idle time. I'd say a lot of time was also spent on menus, especially with the crafting. I wish it was a little less cumbersome. I had like 100+ bottles and pieces of paper, which are needed to make consumables, but I just never bothered since it felt so clumsy.

The final major plot battles were all quite good! I especially enjoyed the Megaman-esque re-fights with the Red Prince as well as Dycedarg's Elder brother in the Black House. Speaking of, that quest conclusion is so powerful and I wish more games could do this. There's a set up they do where they make you choose to snuff out a candle to weaken the space goat demon but doing so means you effectively delete someone off the face of the earth. The first two times they do it, the stakes are relatively low. You feel bad for it, but you can accept them cause all three individuals are relatively questionable when you snuff them out. Then they do this gameplay shot (not a cinematic) and you realize the scale of what you're actually dealing with and what it means if you want to continue with this ritual. You can refuse of course, but doing so means that the space goat demon is still fully empowered and he basically becomes a giant stat stick. Like imagine the XF worm boss after he eats a baby, except he starts the fight that way and doesn't have to eat a baby. Thankfully, it's DOS2, so there are some cheese methods here if you want to employ them. I decided to go on with it, and felt so dirty about doing so since it was like trading away personal morality and doing it meant doing the one thing the game constantly warned you about possibly having consequences in the future. Love it.

Kemm and the Devourer fights were good too but not as good as the before mentioned two fights, which were probably the chapter highlights. I'd say most of Chapter 4 fights are really good although it's other side quests could use some work (that stupid frozen cellar...). Then the final fight is just a treat. It's a large scale massive free for all between 3 parties and quite tough. Apparently that fight can also pan out in multiple ways depending on whether or not you've made any previous agreements with other characters (like the space goat demon) or if you agree to the antagonists' plan. There's also some gray morality here because what the antagonists are proposing technically isn't all doom and gloom. It is a way to fix the setting of the world, but the principles and methods aren't the same and all throughout the story, the game has been forcing you to make tough choices often about the lesser or evils.

I got possibly the best ending. My OC became a god and rallied people to fight the evil monsters in the world. Arx became the central hub of the alliance and battled onwards. Fort Joy became a medical facility to help those with Source problems. Driftwood became the merchant centre to fuel the war with weapons, rations and other supplies. The Lizards and Dwarves became forefronts of the alliance. The elves were skittish - probably because I killed the mother tree and have a tenuous alliance with the war front. For my companions and allies:
- Red Prince: Became king of his empire and was a renowned leader thanks to his journey with me. His allegiance to the divine never wavered
- Fane: Became an explorer and documented his various travels. Never stopped writing and had a newfound appreciation for the world.
- Loshe: Went back to being a travelling performing/bard. Her performances were often about the divine.
- Tarquinn: Got bored with this world and apparently went to another plane at some point
- Gareth: Retired and disbanded the seekers. Continues to seek meaning for his life now that he has put down his weapon
- Han: Became a respected, high ranking general in the alliance.
- Almira: Settled down in a village with her lover, never joined the war. Charmed all those around her but it was impossible to tell if it was natural or because she was a succubus
- Malady: Observed the fighting from afar. Still awaits to call on the favor I owe her for being Divine.

All-in-all, a really great game. I can see myself replaying this but it will be a while considering the massive time sink. You can also play co-op with his so doing a DL group play would be highly entertaining. IMO, probably a 10/10 game but time will tell. The game play is top notch and the story is very solid given its somewhat stock fantasy setting. My main complaints are all relatively minor nitpicks. Could be a high 9 but yeah - well worth your time if you have some to spare and buying the next time it goes on discount.

[SnowFire]

The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles

Finished up Part 1.  It was pretty good!  Definitely better than Spirit of Justice, and throwing in Holmes Sholmes was definitely something to send the series in a different direction.  I can see why people thought the game ended with a lot of balls up in the air, though - this is definitely part I of a set and ends on a pretty open note.  I liked cases 1, 3, and 4 quite a bit, although case 4 has some notable loose ends that might make it either dumber or more awesome depending on how part 2 goes.  Case 2 & 5 are okay, but I kinda don't buy some of the major ideas in them, but it's nothing as extreme as the silliness in some other PW cases.  And Case 2 is basically something of an extended tutorial to how GAA handles its investigation segments anyway.

* The game isn't super difficult - it's around PW3 level difficulty in general.  Granted, some of this is a byproduct of the cases making some degree of sense rather than some of the more bizarre moon logic incidents in the past.  The game also doesn't fall into the trap of handing the answer to the player via dialogue before they're allowed to feel smart and present it, but if you investigate every item closely and are suspicious of any new dialogue attained via pressing the witness and/or new evidence received, you'll mostly be fine.  There's a...  I hesitate to even call it a puzzle, but there's lots of "group testimony" in this game (this is actually not the most fantastical element of the proceedings, by far) with this idea that you can notice one witness acting weird when another witness talks.  However, this isn't the Apollo Justice "spot the panicking body part during a statement" thing; in every instance but one, the witness will make a noise and make a big obvious show of things.  This caused me to waste some time early when I somehow missed this and kept futilely pressing other witnesses over every tiny change they had in their expressions in every testimony, thinking I was supposed to find something more subtle rather than just wait for something obvious with a big exclamation mark in the witness bar.

* Similar to some of the other more recent games, there is a bit of a shortage of involved characters / witnesses in some of the cases?  Probably a side effect of the models requiring more animation than the old GBA / DS models.  Case 2 & 5 could notably have been aided by one or two extra people to add a bit more chaos into the mix.

* The music is pretty good!  The AA Chronicles version even lets you listen to some of the scrapped tracks..  good call, too, they picked the right versions to use, the unused versions are various shades of inappropriate-to-worse. 

* There is still far, far, far too much rambling about believing in your client being the greatest thing ever.  I get that this is a philosophical theme in the Ace Attorney games, but you really don't have to hit this point so damn hard, and it's not even that inspiring when it's best friends who are standing up for each other in Case 1 that inspires Ryunosuke so much?  I mean, sure, standing up for someone for whom you know their character isn't weird.  Oddly enough, it also combines this with the usual PW belief that "defending Actually Guilty people is bad and you shouldn't do it," which seems like it'd clash with the above, but at least it doesn't talk too much about that.  Thankfully, this game doesn't do what some Ace Attorneys do and have long paens to the majesty of the legal system - all of the courts are varying degrees of flawed here (as they should be to make things interesting!), so yeah, good call on skipping that.   

** This one is a bit spoilery, but to go into the "defending actually guilty people is bad" part more, the game acts like Ryunosuke is in Big Trouble in the third trial for his actions in the fifth trial.  What, if a lawyer was defending a guilty person, would that be Bad Somehow?  Lawyers are only for the truly innocent?  Is this endorsing the system in Spirit of Justice where lawyers whose clients are guilty are also punished or something?!  You realize that was in Khurain, not Great Britain, right?  Even if it might be "disreputable", lawyers factually defend guilty clients and don't really suffer.  Furthermore, in the third trial, Ryunosuke is canonically DIRECTLY APPOINTED by Lord Stronghart!  He didn't voluntarily take the role or anything, and he couldn't possibly be complicit since he literally wasn't even in the country to arrange anything bad.  To be sure, I can see people being itchy to frame him up for something stupid on pure racism grounds, but the idea that he's in trouble because the case was a mess makes like zero sense when he has about the best possible alibi of "literally being thrown into this shit as an outsider at the last second".  If he's in trouble for witnesses perjuring themselves, then van Zieks should be in three times as much trouble.  The carriage driver lied too, and that was a prosecution witness!

** As another related 5th trial spoiler, I have no idea why the court is all so fussed about Gina committing perjury in the 3rd trial.  She's a teenager who was threatened by a powerful person.  Considering all the crazy perjury that happens in AA games, this is pretty weaksauce.  There's also a weird idea that Susato's little extra action in the 5th case was..  bad?  Scandalous?  Tampering with the scene?  Come on, this was an emergency and the door was locked.  This was a perfectly reasonable course of action, not criminal even remotely.  She left it out of her description to the cops, sure, but heavens, she's a woman who saw a terrible event in the Victorian era, it was an attack of the vapours or something and it slipped her mind.  Good luck proving otherwise.

* From the cast, Sholmes & Susato are both great, which is good since they're pretty much the most important and chatty characters other than Our Hero.

* Gina doesn't work that great and is the main miss in the cast (well, maybe Iris, but I think that's more my personal dislike than her being badly written or anything).  She's escaped from the local tsundere reserve, and while her tsuny standoffish side isn't as over-the-top as some others (e.g. Franziska's whipping habit), they kinda forgot to give her some sort of positive qualities?  I get there's only so much time to establish characters, but the game essentially acts like she's friends with the gang, without actually including much of her being friendly or helpful or anything.  I get she's someone whose life runs on a healthy amount of distrust and fear of betrayal / abandonment, that's fine, but including at least a few small moments where she lets down her mask - maybe with Iris or something, idk - would have been nice.

* With a name like "Van Zieks", I really expected our prosecutorial antagonist to casually mention something about how he or his ancestors are actually Dutch or the like, which would make for a nice clash-of-outsiders.

* This isn't a complaint or anything, I know the reason, but it's vaguely amusing that Ryunosuke speaks perfect American English, while local leprechauns speak in Irish accents and gutter trash have working class British accents.  Sadly, a Japanese-inflected English accent tends to get used mockingly by shitheads too often, so Ryunusuke has his r's & l's surprisingly straight on his first day in Britain.

* Random other spoilery speculation: So were cases 2 & 4 really freak accidents?!  Considering that Asogi apparently had a guard to prevent him from being assassinated and was listed in the same group as the slain Dr. Wilson, that's a hell of a coincidence.  Case 4 also had "The Lion's Pride" bookmark which mentioned James & Mary = James Wilson & his wife Mary?  And the victim was apparently dead and clutching the book, but turned up alive at the hospital?  And wasn't the wife of the cop acting like she was some sort of actor when run into in the street, quoting Shakespeare?  The whole incident was so ludicrously unlikely that I do kinda hope it was arranged, although "bookmark designed to send wife into jealous rage at specific time" seems a bit of a stretch.  Also, I have no idea why Gregson was "protecting" Mr. Benedict in case 5.  I was assuming that Benedict was an informant for the government who'd been caught and turned to try to unravel the conspiracy to explain why Gregson was standing up for him, but the game never said that.  Lastly, Jezail is still afoot from case 1.  But if the British government really was working WITH Dr. Wilson, then I can't imagine her odds at the Shanghai consulate would be any good - they'd just execute her on the spot.  I guess we'll have to find out what it was that the Japanese & British governments were planning, and who was trying to stop them and why.

Looking forward to part 2!

[DragonKnight Zero]

FFX postgame: Almost Done

    FFX's postgame (or rather, conquering the monster arena) plays so differently from the main game that it feels distinct.  There are no long unskippable cutscenes (yay), there's no managing resources across multiple fights, certain equipment abilities that find use during the story are drop off a cliff in usefulness (such as Elem-Atk on weapons), and so on.   Monster Arena creations are, with a select few exceptions, immune to status options that make up most of Tidus, Wakka, and Auron's skillsets which lessens their utility and variety.

     Since I've taken so long to post anything about my postgame conquest, I've actually beaten all the Creations except for Nemesis which I haven't unlocked.  I found I didn't really go out of my way to stat grind or farm items for customizing onto armor.  When I beat Ultima Buster, my highest Defense character had 98 and it didn't matter anyways.  Highest M. Def was 138 but the last time magic defense made the difference in surviving something, it was around 80-ish.  Did acquire everyone's Celestial weapons and did refer to guides for info on the attack patterns of the Creations to make up for my lower stats.  Won't go into detailed accounts for every Creation; that's a topic on it's own.  Will make note of some strategies that saw a lot of use.

Sentinel Auron with Masamune; Stick Protect on him and activating Sentinel often has him surviving physicals that would kill anyone else.  Sometimes needed to inflict Power Break through Banishing Blade and/or have Deathproof on armor to achieve this.  Conveniently, he can obtain a non-random armor piece with Deathproof already so no dealing with customizing or random drops required.  For fights with lots of single-target physicals (or entirely so), I kept coming back to this.  Auron is uniquely suited to this because he'll get hit, then counter with a hit that is boosted in power because he just lost HP.  This is something no other character has access to; another character with Sentinel wouldn't have the same impact.  Sometimes used a variation for when a creation has overkill damage but it's all single-target.  Haste Yuna (with auto-Haste once I had it) and keep her on revival duty with 1 MP Life, set Overdrives of non-Yuna characters to Stoic/Comrade, and use lots of Overdrives.

Let the Aeons handle it; No it doesn't always work such as Couerlregina and its guaranteed death Hyper Blaster or Neslug landing Armor Break so any followup hit is fatal.  And sometimes, they lack the power to complete a fight by themselves.  But there are times where my characters lack the defenses to deal with a creation's offense and the Aeons do have the raw stats to pound the opponent into pyreflies.  Used for Malboro Menace, Vorban, Pteryx, One-Eye, Jumbo Flan, and Ironclad.  There are some other fights where they play a role but most of the rest of the time, I forget about using them.

Power of 9999 and Attack Reels: Anything with under 119988 HP dies in one shot of this without the hassle of getting Strength high enough or dealing with defense.

Banishing Blade: Used guides to learn which creations are vulnerable to Breaks.  Generally, they will have high resistance but not outright immunity which is where Banishing Blade has its unique capacity.

Quick Hit: The obvious tool didn't get used that much, mostly something I reach for when I'm dealing with a damage race.  Found it important for Tanket, Fafnir., Catastrophe, and Neslug and was a convenience for other fights but not a necessity.

Power of 9999 and Pray: Only really sees use at Shinryu and Greater Sphere but were really good in these two fights.  This is what allowed me to have Rikku solo Shinryu and is very convenient to have around for the Greater Sphere.

Hyper Mighty G and Auto-Life: Only really came out for Catastrophe (it's actions come in a set sequence) and Ultima Buster (everything it attacks with kills a character through sheer damage).  I didn't even learn Auto-Life on anyone other than at Ultima Buster.

And some notes on fights where the above tactics weren't enough or were interesting in other ways.

Stratoavis: The only fight where the Defend command is an integral part of my strategy.

Chimerageist: Was about knowing what was coming up and having the frontline protected by the proper Nul-element status when it hit.  Did this right after gaining airship travel so didn't have the raw stats to mindlessly crush it.

Abbadon: I specifically crafted Alchemy on a claw for Rikku for this.  Shell on the girls made the difference in surviving the big magic nuke.

Fenrir: Confuseproof on the highest strength character was a must.  With it and Protect on the strongest of Kimahri, Tidus, Wakka, there's not much Fenrir can do to this group decked out with Evade & Counter.

the super lizard - can't recall the name offhand: Used a few Antidotes since someone poisoned getting a turn and not curing it is bad and only had 3-4 Poisonproofs and not everyone has Esuna.

Nega Elemental: Not much it can do to a team protected by Reflect.  Dispel if it casts Reflect on itself and use offense that doesn't trigger Ultima counters and it becomes routine.

Fafnir: Only fight where I used Auto-Phoenix and felt it made the difference between victory and defeat.  Anywhere else, it can be convenient but didn't really need it or the creation can one-shot everyone with MT damage where Auto-Phoenix won't save anyone.

Earth Eater: This is the only creation where I get mileage out of Aeon Overdrives that don't finish off the target.  Most times, the Aeon will be a sitting duck after using a non-fatal Overdrive and are at risk of getting mauled by the power Monster Arena creations have.  But since an Earth Eater that's been knocked over only does damage with counters, if the Aeon Overdrive knocks it over, I can get the Aeon out safely for future use.  Kimahri's Nova is the second-biggest source of damage to a standing Earth Eater and it's for this fight I wish I had trained his Magic stat more.  This was a team effort between characters and Aeons.  Aeons have raw power but not enough durability to win on their own.  Meanwhile, the characters have cheap revival but struggle to inflict damage to a standing Earth Eater.

Th-uban: Rainbow murders the party but my Aeons are buff and one with 255 Defense and Shielding reduces it to about 200.  Convergence will kill off an unlucky target with sheer damage.  But it's single-target and characters have cheap revival (1 MP cost Life).  So characters and Aeons need to taking turns absorbing the nukes while I reflect a lot of Flares to avoid the counter (which also maims the party at the defenses I had).

Neslug; Only fight where I used Lulu's Fury.  I ended up using the girls for the "break the shell' phase.  Yuna and Lulu both have access to 1 MP cost Dualcast Ultima so Trio of 9999 was mostly for gems from Rikku but it also made Fury with a Lv 1 spell a viable option.  I had Copycat on Yuna and Lulu though that was overkill for the sake of overkill.  It's not like they were in danger of running out of MP with their Celestial weapons when they came in with over 700 so Lulu using a 1 MP Copycat to mimic Yuna's double Ultima instead of 4 to use it directly is novelty.

[Cmdr_King]

Great Ace Attorney: Adventure-  Fuck the British.

Anyway GAA was conceived as one game that had to be split in half and most of the overarching plot reflects this, some more than others.  That said this does a lot of work to establish overall themes, which are
A) how readily corruptible institutions are
B) Fuck the British
C) Fuck us for trying to be like the British
D) Being a defense attorney is just Judo
in some order.
Otherwise, Dance of Deduction is great, Susato is the best assistant full stop.  Van Ziecks is ehhh even aside from the overt racism but he has time given the "this is one story split in half" element, so sure.

I think the Athena/Simon dynamic keeps Dual Destinies above this one but otherwise yeah, this is pretty great.

[Niu]

NEO: The World Ends With You - I have finally completed my own wonderful record and at 99% completion. 100% should be done by this weekend.
What a blast, had been playing this none stop for the past three weeks. Worth the over decade wait, but still have areas that's left to be desired.
I am completely satisfied on the gameplay, music, and art style front. 10/10 in those areas. And the aesthetic in general has completely surpassed the first game. It is actually fund to come up with various ways to destroy your enemy in the flashiest ways possible.

The story, albeit good, is somewhat unbalanced, as they are trying to save everything for the third week and everything until then is a build up for that. So the story doesn't feel as motivating compare to the first game where each week have something that keeps your focused.
Lack of interesting side character/quests also is a step behind from the first game. Lack of interesting quests like the ramen sub plot or the mabusura somewhat killed that impression that Shibuya is a city that has its own inhabitant doing its own things. Which is a really a shame, they have some interesting NPC this time but didn't really use them.

Character wise, it is like the first game, very to the point, but didn't explore more past that. But it end up hurting the general impression more this time around, as the game clearly tries to cook up the drama with Ayano and then Kanon. But really didn't deliver much due to lack of characterization. Rindo and Fret's transformation would have more impression two if they can reflect together on their issue in week 2.
That said, compare to Neku, the problem they are trying to discuss this time through Rindo is much more relatable, and the character transformation makes much more sense. It really has that feel that everything fit into the right place after all the plot elements are laid bare after week 3.

Finally, has the singer making mistake in the songs a series tradition now? Satisfy had glaring singing mistake back then, and they didn't even fix it when porting it to Switch. This time it is Shibuya Survivor that contains some very obvious error, almost felt like they did it on purpose.
But Transformation has sounds like 200x better than before, so I won't complain.

[DragonKnight Zero]

With 27 fiend species to go to unlocking Nemesis, I took a break from FFX unplugging the PS2 and plugging in the PS3 to take care of some Atelier loose ends.  Like stat topic status tests.  Unlocking Nemesis is a level of tedious busywork that makes uncursing shields look fast by comparison.

Silly Aeon names: Shiva is Elsa for the obvious character reference.  Obvious to a more mainstream audience anyways so maybe not an obvious assumption here.  Anima got renamed Galamoth (from CV: SotN) because my brain was having a hard time coming up with many skyscraper sized monsters.  The Magus Sisters are now the Prismriver trio of Lunasa, Merlin, and Lyrica because I wanted to make a gratuitous Touhou reference.

I got a free Zamato.  My compatibility couldn't have been higher than 75 either.  To put it into perspective how unlikely that is, I had about a 7% chance he'd attack for free at all and then there was a 1/32 chance at best the RNG would roll high enough for Zamato.  Super improbable outcome there.

When I finally taught Yuna Auto-Life and went into a fight to cast it, the first time the game froze up.  This is not a common occurrance, even though it's a used copy.  Don't think my FFX disc has frozen before.  It's like the game took offense to the idea of me using Auto-Life.  Incidentally, there was no problem the next time so seems like a freak occurrance.  Which gets used in only one fight since my plan for Nemesis is to build up Yojimbo compatibility to 90 or more then pay him 2.1 million Gil and reset until I roll that 5% chance.

[Cmdr_King]

Great Ace Attorney: Resolve- Okay I think collectively these are the best Ace Attorney games.

Ryunosuke has a clear, clean arc in a way none of the main protagonists over at Wright Anything ever got, and because of this he produces the sorts of Ace Attorney moments I absolutely love with regularity.  Like, one reason I rate Simon so highly is he's really good at inducing the "both attorney's realize the wild speculation is spot on and start tag teaming to draw out the truth" state, and Ryunosuke basically learns how to do that on his own.  This goes double in the last trial, where because what you realize is that Ryunosuke during the course of the two games has surpassed Kazuma in experience and ability, and seeing him so methodically lead the trial where he realizes it needs to go is great, and seeing him try to bring the best out of Kazuma is so much fun because it's such
a flip from the series norm.

The first game played fast and loose with case structure, which is one of its strengths, and the second game definitely continues that.  However, while some of this is definitely the same "we're going to play with this to maximize impact or otherwise serve the needs of the story", some of it is also almost certainly artifacts of splitting the story across two games and/or the budget being slashed.  I'd be curious to know if Case 1 was always intended or if they added it to help give it a "so the first game came out two years ago here's a refresher" function, and case 2 kinda reminds me of the DLC case in Dual Destinies, where you could slot it into the game no problem but cutting it didn't have any real repercussions to the story.  And then of course Case 4 and 5 is one trial split up in a new way because... well I get it, honestly, it's hella long.  It also removes the jury which is a SHAME because the jury was a fun mechanic, and the London Juror RNG accidentally inventing expert witnesses a number of years early was always fun.  But again, I get it, because it needs to mirror the Backstory Case.  That said, there definitely feels like an element of "we wanted some of this backstory to come up earlier but we didn't have time and money to build a case around revealing it naturally"

THere's a lot fewer case-specific characters this time, which... well refer to budget, but the new characters they do get in are fun.  Gorey for life *nod*

Anyway yeah, I'll just be over here waiting for people to get through these now.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Monster Sanctuary: A Pretty Great indie title that combines Pokemon and Metroidvania. Has turn-based combat that happens when you hit an enemy, so shades of Valkyrie Profile are mixed in too.
It has a 100+ collection of monsters to grab, each with a unique skill tree and build. I'm genuinely impressed how much depth they managed to squeeze into every mon compared to something like Pokemon or Yokai Watch. Each monster has their own field skill too that ties into the metroidvania-style exploration.

The big Djinn-bait part was of course the sprite designs, but the whole package seems like something that would be a hit with the DL crowd. They just announced free DLC for it too, so apparently the game is doing well. I do wish it had a less bland-sounding name, though.

Ys IX: Monstrum Nox
This game... I swear, Ys apparently hit puberty and became goth. It's so weirdly over-the-top and gothic and it feels completely out of place in this franchise. I can't really get over the tonal shift, but the new gameplay additions make for a smooth ARPG experience. Just started, but I'm vibing with it despite (or perhaps because of?) the off-putting style.

Dragon Quest VI
Stylistically opposite, but equally weird for its franchise. I watch Reiska play some of this last year and the strangeness of the story stuck with me, so I've been slowly poking at this one as well. Dream Logic is weird, and I do not envy the localization team who had to make this plot makes sense, given how much of the mystery seems to rely on the vagueness of the Japanese language. Finally got 3 party members, so I haven't seen much of what the game has to offer mechanically yet, but it's Dragon Quest, so it'll probably be pretty straightforward, but reasonably well balanced.

[NotMiki]

Astalon: Tears of the Earth

Astalon's mechanically basically a metroidvania but its heart and soul are in 90s anime fantasy and rpgs.  It's by the folks who did Castle in the Darkness, and it brings that same kind of idiosyncratic retro-but-not-like-other-retro design.  some of the art is done by the author of Dragon Half, and you'll pick up some distinct similarities to music from FF4 and PSIV.  I'm sure there are many other references in the game, but they're all really well-integrated.  Nothing feels gratuitous or out of place.  I love it.  Mechanically it's excellent - you control one of three characters, each with their own skillset, and you swap between them depending on your exploration and combat needs.  This works really well in the context of the game.  The only letdown in the game is that the plot payoff in the end is a little weak compared to the groundwork that's laid.  In any case, a game well worth your time if puzzle platforming is your deal.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Ys Seven: On an Ys kick for some reason. Haven’t played one since 6, so I thought I’d dig into things after 9 seemed so fun.

Ys Seven is apparently the base engine for “new Ys” which actually has a whole adventuring party instead of just solo Adol, so it’s more up my alley. Currently at the part of the game where the shady merchant is deliberately jacking up prices on the medicine for a deadly epidemic ravaging the countryside… and that certainly hits different nowadays. Dogi literally has to be held back from punching the guy’s skull in, but honestly I was like “do it, Dogi. end him”. Why does my happy fantasy RPG not allow me the fantasy of beating up greedy capitalists?

[Dark Holy Elf]

Banner of the Maid - Fin (about 33 hours?)

I first heard rumblings about this game in the FE community a year or two ago. I'm pretty sure that at first I completely ignored them because I hear maid and I assume it's pandering to maid fetishes. Which isn't really fair at all but that's what happened. Anyway it's not that, the Maid is in fact a reference to the Maid of Orleans, who apparently had supernatural powers. As do a bunch of other women in France circa the revolutionary war.

Writing stuff first: the core story concept is actually pretty cool, AU French Revolution where the Royal Family held onto power a few years longer due to magical powers, but Robespierre still comes to power and is a firm believer in guillotinin'. Cue a civil conflict in which legendary general Napoleon and his less famous sister (our protagonist, who spoilers has Maid powers) come to the fore. The game is held back chiefly by its translation being not good. It's... functional, in that the names are all correct French and usually you can mostly understand what's going on but a lot of scenes don't work as well as it feels like they should as a result. The game also does feel a bit incomplete at points, with some cool ideas that aren't actually developed or elaborated on.

Game's kind of got an odd ending too. You settle things with the main antagonist of the final arc in the second to last chapter. It would be an odd fight to end on because it's a bit plotty (reasonably well-done plotty, to be clear, but...). So they throw in one more fight which is basically an epilogue and it's one last "normal" fight which mostly establishes that a whole bunch of antagonists are still around and kicking and huh this is setting up a sequel I guess. And then the game just ends.

Haven't heard anything about said sequel yet. Would obviously play it, though, because the game's good. On that note...


Gameplay stuff: the core gameplay is recognizably Fire Emblem despite the FFT/TO visuals, there's a doubling mechanic and counters. There's also a weapon quadralateral which works quite well (unlike Dark Deity's messy attempt). Both class design and weapon triangle effects stack to the point where you really want a balanced team because good matchups are great and bad matchups suck; this also lets some middling characters find a niche just because there aren't many options for certain classes. Map design's... generally pretty good? Game's willing to throw in defend/arrive/escape maps along with your usual routs and boss kills, and the game has SRW-like bonus challenge objectives on most maps. There's terrain, the way the classes play differently from each other is fun, the skill system's pretty enjoyable (similar to Fates or Heroes before the latter transformed into word vomit). Heroic Attacks are also a neat enough mechanic adding some spice to the system, basically a limit break you can use once your morale gauge fills up with extra atk/damage, and also sometimes has other effects. Some commands can also consume morale to do cool stuff.

Like I dunno I can't say any one thing blew me away but it was still consistently fun throughout. Almost surely an above average FE on pure gameplay (and I don't say that easily!) though a bit weaker on the replay side probably since the roster isn't that much larger than the deployment slot count, the promotion options are limited, and not that significant, and the stats are non-random, so it'd be a similar experience each time.

Art's nice too! Music is pleasant but rarely stands out. Of the two FE-likes I've played this year I would generally recommend this one over Dark Deity, unless you love branching promotions and support conversations a lot (and there are worse things to like, so eh, throwing it out there!).


PC notes. I missed at least one PC so this list is not exhaustive! I hope you don't love good male PCs because there aren't very many of those.

Pauline: If I had to pick I might be inclined to rank her class as the worst one. Second worst move (and the only one worse has innate 4 range), iffy ranged options (there's a single 1-2 musket that I found). Pauline's pretty good anyway because of her ability to give the entire party 3 atk on the demand and decent enough all-around stats to make some tanking strategies work. The "heal 20% HP on a kill" skill is cool though, especially the times you can get your numbers high enough to one-round on enemy phase, makes her great at mixed tanking.

Lannes: On the other hand his stats are worse so yeah, take all my criticisms about the above class without the good points.

Dutheil: Uh he's even worse. His speed is heavy cavalry-level (see below), his atk is mediocre... I guess his defence is good but it's really not enough. His gimmick is he restocks weapon durability. I didn't really find this worth it but it might be for some playstyles. Keeps him out of the basement at least.

Nicolette: Bad start (promotes four levels later than most PCs so she's stuck at 4 move that much longer!), but quite good stats once she gets rolling. +4 atk/spd against higher levelled opponents stays periodically relevant forever and lets her do that one-round healing thing.

Murat: Light cavalry. In Misandry Revolutionary France, men are usually worse than their female counterparts. Murat is the biggest exception and easily the most useful male PC in the game. He has game-best speed and is in the most mobile class (7 move + a 3-move canto), and his personal skill is really good: effectively gives him +10 hit and +20 evade, and also buffs nearby ally sword-users similarly. Extra important given that he specializes in killing the dodgiest enemy type, but even aside from that he tends to be a great dodgetank. Damage isn't wonderful but that's okay.

Charlotte: Murat with better Atk but without the cool personal. So obviously worse but still a mobile speedster (with better offence even) and works very well in tandem with him.

D'Eon: He's a Jagen reference, and one of the worst ones I've ever seen. Joins at the start and is Level 5, but he's basically the same as Murat's Level 2 stats (Paline/Lannes are comparable too, just arrayed differently). So he's not even really much of a jagen. Then everyone catches up and his stats are just the worst in the game forever. LVP.

Adelaide: Okay now we can actually talk about light infantry properly. Dodgetank time! They get an evade boost innately, as well as two huge situational boosts: one when attacking from an enemy's side/back on player phase, and then one for the first combat of enemy phase after attacking on player phase. Adelaide is the best in class because her personal grants her a further 15 evade against enemies with more HP Than her (light infantry is the lowest-HP class, so this is almost everything). Really the only thing that stops her running wild over some formations is weapon triangle effects and the fact that later on enemy heavy cavs start sporting stupid hit on player phase. Really fast and decent Atk too, and midgame you get storebought 1-2 range at no power loss which is great. And then Canto. Yep.

Ernestine: Adelaide but balanced because of lacking the super personal. Similar otherwise but not as invincible. Still usually worth using but depends on enemy composition.

Cosette: A slightly different take on light infantry: lower move and without the dodgetanking, but innate 1-2 range. Cosette's personal essentially gives her an atk boost and results in someone who just has MEAN Atk+Spd (highest total in the game). So uh great offence and 1-2? Sign me up. She's a bit squishy (can dodge well with WTA and is okay against guns but bad against swords) but so what? Oh yeah and this version of light infantry also gets a very silly skill that gives her a second turn after a heroic attack, super useful.

Laure: I probably used her less than she deserved. She does join a bit underlevelled but her Atk is really high, like game-best? A bit slow for the class though, which does hurt. What really sells me on her is that her personal skill lets her buff both her own range and that of nearby gunners by +1 for one turn which on the already high range class is obviously neat. 4 range? Sounds good.

Therese: On the other hand, she sucks, worst female PC surely. Robespierre-approved anti-royal propaganda. She has Laure's low-speed-for-class combined with lower Atk than Cosette or Laure (in fairness, still pretty good). Just why use her when the other infantry are better? Oh and she's underlevelled.

Oscar: Heavy cavalry are what FE armour knights want to be: really high in one defensive stat, HP, and Atk, but bad speed and the other defensive stat (in their case, against guns). But they're better than armour knights because (a) great move instead of terrible, and (b) they get a passive early which reduces the damage they take from doubles. Really good when facing groups of enemies doing sword/cannon damage for tanking, kinda iffy the rest of the time.

Desaix: Just worse than Oscar, both due to lower Atk/Def but also due to missing a chunk of maps. Would potentially be really bad except this is your only option for a second heavy cavalry, so I ended up using them a bunch anyway.

Philipp: Odd PC. Like Murat and Charlotte he's light cavalry, but he uses rifles like the light infantry, which gives him more range. His class also gets a skill which expands range further, so this means he has 7 move (once he promotes... like Nicolette his promotion is late though), 3 range, and canto. So sometimes he's useful just to run in, plink an enemy to aggro it, and run out, breaking certain formations. Of course the key word there is "plink": his atk is bad and his speed is bad for his class (similar to heavy infantry).

Charles: Unpromoted unit with five maps to go yeah no thanks. Basically a Philipp clone if caught up. Second worst PC in the game?

Paulette: Artillery. Really different than other PCs, low move (but can take a second move instead of acting), and 2-4 range. Nice Atk too, but awful speed. Can hit hard, but is very vulnerable to things that reach her due to being easily doubled (her bulk usually lets her take one double-hit in a pinch). Still the ranged offence is nice, certainly more of a niche than most FE archers. And the ability to drop AOE stun on heroic attacks (50%, admittedly, but still) is gravy.

Lafite: Paulette but joins later/lower-levelled with worse Atk. Decent if you need a second artillery of course, but still forms part of Team Misandry Victims.

Aimee: The first of the two healers. They're good because "healer" really means "all sorts of utility moves". Choose your three favourites and go to town. The best of them include a 4-per-battle Dance, a +2 move buff, a 4 range Move-5 debuff, and a morale buff, in addition to the requisite healing options.

Eugenie: Utterly powercreeps Aimee and the only reason Aimee has a use is that often you'll want to use both! 6 move instead of 4. No other difference between them is gonna offset that, but Eugenie also gets a defensive buff command (which she can do on the same turn as something else) as well, just to rub it in. I don't know if she's the best PC but you hardly ever don't want to deploy her.

Lategame Super PCs: Are great and should be deployed in their small availability, both buff everyone around them in very noticeable ways just by existing (and themselves for good measure). But really not available enough to rate.

[NotMiki]

ENDER LILIES:

Was good but not great.  Very pretty game, good music, good combat, passable exploration for a metroidvania but kinda rote, weak plot that feels like a pale imitation of its obvious influences (Nier/Drakengard, Dark Souls).  I really liked the difficulty and combat balance - every new zone and boss felt like a challenge, and all of your weapons and sub-weapons were situationally useful, and the game really encourages careful thought about which combinations of abilities are well-suited to a zone's combination of enemies or a boss' moveset.  The plot is disappointing; you play as a pure and innocent girl, a priestess whose duty is to take on the burden of corruption in the world.  And that's fine but it never develops into anything with any real depth or intrigue.  Unlike Nier/DS, when you uncover the world's history during your travel, it's just kinda there.  It's a tragic story but to me at least it didn't resonate emotionally.  With a better plot and a little more subtle exploration it could have been great.

[Cmdr_King]

Oh, shit, I didn't put anything here.

Hades- Fin!

So, Hades is *mostly* a master of being frustrating in a motivating way, which is nice.  Honestly the only genuine flaw with the game I think is it's way too easy to create a crippling backlog in dialogs, even for characters who don't have conditions for showing up in the House (Nyx in particular is central to too many sidequests).

Everything else is really good?  Yeah I don't wanna get too into the weeds on this post but I also felt like making some sorta marker here.

[Random Consonant]

Banner of the Maid - oh hey I also noticed this a couple years ago and didn't pay much attention to it (for different but probably also unfair reasons, the plot is a bit more grounded than I was expecting despite the premise, for instance) but turns out it's actually pretty decent for what it is.  I'm not 100% of it squeaking into my top five FE experiences all things considered but it makes a decent enough argument to be there.

[Cmdr_King]

Shovel Knight (Shovel of Hope)- Fuck this game.

[Pyro]

Bravely Default 2: Fin. I don't feel too much like taking on more trial bosses.

The game was good, with a few things holding it back from how great it could have been.

The game's selling point is the fun combat and it delivers. A CTB with the brave Default system is fun. Enemies use the system freely and it is a joy to unleash an offense blitz to head them off or a healing turn-around after they cry havoc. The flaw here is how opaque the turn system is. You can kind of see when things get turns soon but it is hard to figure what moves have recharges and so difficult to really develop a strategy around managing turns. Pity.

The job system is back and always fun to play around with. I always think the game should hold its cards a little closer to its cheat about class abilities you haven't unlocked to build excitement for discovering new things, but it is convenient for planning jobs. The game tempts you perhaps too much to increase JP gains with the Freelancer passives... There is already an incentive to sacrifice immediate power for the sake of more learning. Compounding that kind of removes a bit of the fun of actually combining those 5 passive slots. Its a player's choice but it is hard to resist... On a side note, Thief Godspeed strike is far too good. Enormous damage and it repeats!? Salve Maker is also still a king of healing and restoration. Too much better than any alternative really.

The equipment system was good and encouraged tradeoffs of weight, stats, and plentiful passive affects that were refreshingly consistent (hats resist status, shields elements, etc.) Figuring out how to best set up without violating the weight limit could be rewarding in its own way.

The game's plot was serviceable. Very standard save the world fare, with some mysteries thrown in. The game has that darker feeling than a lot of similar games. Wiswald... My god are the Red Mage/Ranger scenario some of the darkest/saddest stuff I've seen in an RPG. The Rimedahl section was also fairly tramatic too. The story wasn't as strong as 1 by virtue of not having that wonderful twist. They could have fleshed out some points relating to the crystals "normal" uses vs their seal use. It could have made for a more interesting plot than the generic world saving.

The characters were likable and fun to watch. Not deep, but the voice acting sold me on some of them. Gloria got her dutiful princess down with a good bit of flavorful character traits. Elvis is a lovable dweeb. Adelle is cool and has a great future when she marries Martha. Can't say I like Seth. Not sure what the point was with him as he just... Went along for the ride. He didn't seem to care about his circumstances.

The villain cast had personality certainly. I believe I enjoyed dealing with them all except for the three in chapter 4. That whole chapter felt off storywise... As if it didn't really belong. But the rest had motivations that made sense* and memorable scenes. The boss fights also had a good threat level and fun going on. And great music.

Music is fantastic and I especially enjoyed the exciting boss themes enormously. Including the one masquerading as the second halve's random battle music. The use of character themes in thr music feels like cheating to achieve the desired effect, but in a good way.

[NotMiki]

Iconoclasts

Finished this, and it's great.  This is a metroidvania (more or less) action platformer entirely made by one guy over the course of a decade.  And it's brilliant.  And it has the feeling of a game designed in 2008 because it definitely has some of the DNA of Cave Story and Iji in it.  Art's stellar, music's fine, gameplay's good, puzzles of which there are many range from annoying to excellent but they're all fair, bosses are a real standout.  The plot's where the game really excels, and there's a lot of it (and it frequently takes you away from being able to freely explore the map, which is why I think the game didn't make as much of a splash in the metroidvania circles).  I don't want to say too much about it but it does a stellar job of worldbuilding, characters have unique voices and the dialogue's great, and the bad guys are detestible in the best way.  Got to 100% in about 13 hours, including a cool bonus boss, a normal run would take about 10.  Completionists fear not: no chests are permanently missable.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Brigandine 2 - Beaten as Guimoule.

Fun fun; this is my fifth path now.

Eliza is extremely good, very likely the best non-Rudo knight I've used so far. Psychotically high magic pool (she could literally gain 0 ever and she'd still be roughly tied for #2 in her own country at endgame, but instead her growth is A-rank). Very accurate/evasive compared to most frontliners (but way bulkier than swordmasters or assassins). Offensively versatile due to the combination of a good physical and attack magic (with the MP to use it); I was impressed by how she can sit on the frontline and therefore actually be in range to nuke with Exablast in a way most Wizards can't. Post-promotion can occasionally pull silly things with React and the "hit everyone around you" move, too. Is locked to a crazy amount of red orbs so she doesn't like fighting blues, though.

Competent collection of support knights too. Darian is just generically solid in most ways; starts high levelled and competent. Biggest knock on him (and the Knight line in general) is that 4 move is a bit disappointing in a comparison with Eliza. Cain is a lower-levelled Darian who gets super-high rune later, so he actually made my final party. Low enough level but high enough Agi that you could probably get him over to Thief if that's your fancy? I didn't. Kate isn't quite as good on magic pool as these guys but Assassin is a better class and she gets there more easily than anyone else save Della. And Mu'ah is basically "what if Pluto started six levels higher" (same mildly below average rune, but otherwise competent Wizard), which seeing as Pluto is one of the contenders for the admittedly not-to-impressive title of #2 Mirelva knight, is pretty cool.

I wasn't super-impressed by anyone else but Diana (changed her over to archer so I'd have one, the stats are competent even if the rune isn't), Conrad (middle-of-the-road Knight with no real flaws), Sugar (solid enough other than her bad starting level/rune, 5 command's a neat bonus for a mage), and Patricia (slightly worse Sugar in a different default class but same basic idea) all saw decent use. Leanne's okay but 3 command on a mage is bad times so Sugar is preferable. Rose and Marcosias are mediocre filler but usable. Faye is terribad. Avenir and Vayne are bad but not Faye bad.


Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia - Also replaying this, on Hard Mode (not a great idea with how rusty I was, I died 3-4 times to the tutorial fight. Ruvas Forest andn Skeleton Cave were also terrifying as usual). At Dracula's Castle. Game is still great.


Metroid Dread - I got the Morph Ball! If you're used to early Metroid you'd think this is early; it isn't. Not much else to say so far, this game is delivering Metroid goodness well. I have one complaint but I'll hold my tongue on it because the game still has potential to improve here, and it's not a big one anyway.

[Cmdr_King]

Final Fantasy Legend- did this on and off for the last month or so, just did all of fourth world and the ending bits tonight. I played with extensive use of maps and such so nothing too fancy, did a two mutant, one human, one monster setup. Monster almost never worked right, didn’t settle into a usable form until world 2 and never managed to get ahead of the curve. One mutant ended up being fast utility and the other the mage, although honestly the game feels like by the time you can get a build truly up and running suddenly it’s the endgame and well, there’s only like 6 viable weapons anyway and only two are good on mutants.

Still a neat overall but experience, although I gather that FFl2 already adds a BIG thing later SaGa games had that I missed, being able to shuffle skills so they can’t be unlearned arbitrarily. Although I imagine I won’t play that until next year sometime.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Metroid Dread - Just under 8 hours. 45%? I think.

Initial impressions: definitely in the conversation for the best Metroid game. You can definitely see the influence of all three of Super, Fusion, and Samus Returns on this game and if it doesn't quite take the best parts from each, it's not horribly far from it.

Controls are wonderful, bringing back the free aim of Samus Returns. Boss fights are generally great; they feel very Mega Man X-ish in that they'll probably mangle you a few times but the game expects you to learn and master them. They're generally a joy, and the best part, you respawn near them if you die, ready to dive in again, without the giant load times of transitioning between areas. The killer robot sequences are surprisingly enjoyable for what they are; there are usually a lot of ways to navigate them but they hit the right notes for the fear that they're supposed to inspire, vaguely reminiscent of the SA-X.

I don't think the small-scale exploration of getting through tricky areas is as good as Fusion's and I don't think the greater map is as enjoyable as Super's (the teleporters were a big mistake, IMO, losing some cohesion in the world... I'm not talking about their use for fast travel, that'd be fine, but how you're supposed to use them as part of the mainline progression, complete with their bad load times) but there's still a lot of smart design evident, making you puzzle where to go next while being clever enough that you're never really likely to get lost (generally speaking, the game knows exactly when to lock you in an area to force you to proceed). Apparently there's a bunch of sequence-breaking if you're into that. Remains to be seen if I will care (probably not).

My biggest complaint about the game is it is a bit slow-starting; a lot of the core Metroid goodness is always there but the initial plot is a bit uninteresting. Once the shit hits the fan around halfway through I started getting much more engaged with what was going on. And it doesn't hurt that most of the better boss fights start showing up then too. Story ends up... decent enough, there's one kinda cool plot development. Samus being reduced to almost-silent is a mistake though.

Obviously a game I'll revisit a bunch!


Also replayed Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (for the... fifth time?) and XCOM 2 (for the second). Against OOE I discovered that the "run fast" glyph is amazing against Death, always a neat feeling when you can make these discoveries. Game remains a joy. For XCOM 2, I definitely enjoyed the replay a lot, even if the game is a bit tiring and buggy at points, and makes me appreciate dual RN more than ever. But I definitely should have replayed it sooner than I did, it's certainly engaging.

[superaielman]

Did you use war of the chosen for the replay?

[matthewhyden181]

I am currently playing video game right now is minecraft.

[DragonKnight Zero]

FFX - It's finally over

    Ground out the remaining captures, unlocked Nemesis, then pay off Yojimbo and hope it uses Zamato.  22 resets later, I land that 5% chance and have the Mark of Conquest.  Nemesis will still be there if I ever decide to pursue an honest win but for now I just wanted it done and over with.  Auron finally unlocked Comrade overdrive mode when I was nearly done with the capturing.  Other than buying up the Music and Movie spheres and unlocking a few last overdrive modes, I am done with this file.

Rikku and Yuna have the most sphere grid coverage at the end, maybe pushing up to 70%.  On the low end are Tidus and Auron who have traveled less than 50% the full grid, with the others somewhere in the middle.  Rikku has the highest Strength at 156 though the top spot traded characters a few times over the quest to conquer the Monster Arena.  I have farmed enough stat spheres to max out the big 4 core stats (except maybe Magic) but only placed around 20-25 by the time I was done.  Only Rikku and Yuna hit 9999 HP by the time I beat Ultima Buster and stats stopped really mattering but everyone but Lulu has reached 9999 by the time Nemesis unlocked.  As for my other stat threshholds

Magic: Yuna with 169
Defense: Lulu's 133
Magic Defense: Lulu at 160

    Great battle system but the optional content can really be a slog.  And given how tedious or frustrating the optional content can get, not inclined to replay this a lot, if at all.  I suppose Expert sphere grid is very well suited for replaying the story content and trying out different builds that cover less than 25% of the sphere grid.  Doesn't apply to my version though, just a side thought.  After the fact, I realized I could have picked it up on PS3 but unlikely to bother.

Lingering gameplay thoughts:

  Looking back, there are some things I realized after the fact.  My Auto-shell placement was really awkward and I think a better use would be to stack it with Mag. Def + factors to really get the best mileage out of it, namely living through devastating magic attacks.  I've already mentioned how I feel Kimahri is better off focusing more on Magic until he hits about 95-100 to max out Nova.  Would have been better off giving my one Break Damage Limit customization to him to turn him into another dualcast Flare caster.  Placing Auto-Protect and Auto-Shell could have gone better (no regrets about giving my one shot at Auto-Haste to Yuna).  Auto-shell goes better on characters with a magic defense stat to speak of, not as useful on Tidus and him spending a very long time at 7 M. Def.

As far as status protection goes, one Confuseproof on the strongest of Tidus/Wakka/Kimahri is a must.  Deathproof on someone with Sentinel (generally Auron) is also near essential.  Enough Stoneproof to go around (5 or more) makes life a lot easier.  Poisonproof is really good as well in the fights where poison status appears.  Anything else is nice but not really needed.  Either the status is attached to single-target physicals (Sentinel), the fight can be left to Aeons, attached to attacks powerful enough to KO who they hit anyways, or can be dealt with without much hassle.  Unless intentionally seeking a win on Malboro Menace without Aeons, grinding status protection is almost always an unneeded time sink.  Deathproof on most people is nice for Earth Eater but I didn't go out of the way for it; got lucky with armor drops in Omega Ruins while going through it.