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Illuyankas posted:fond memories of fifty hit chain strings of 1 damage with a sledgehammer on a giant crab No, see, after a certain point you just gotta get in the elevator and drop it down on the crab, it's scripted. Grayshift posted:A competent LP of Vagrant Story, delving into its batshit crazy mechanics, would be pretty cool. I'd settle for one that keeps a well updated second post with all the different characters' names, allegiances, and motivations. Never played it myself, but every LP I've read has eventually thinking "who?" every once in a while when a character returns out of the blue. Maybe its easier to keep track of when actually playing it. Tuxedo Ted fucked around with this message at 00:00 on May 14, 2020 |
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May 13, 2020 23:57
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Grayshift posted:A competent LP of Vagrant Story, delving into its batshit crazy mechanics, would be pretty cool. You, person on the internet, are in luck. Vagrant Story LP by FeyerbrandX
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May 14, 2020 11:17
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A competent SSLP of Vagrant Story, delving into its batshit crazy mechanics, would be pretty cool.
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May 14, 2020 23:38
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placid saviour posted:A competent SSLP of Vagrant Story, delving into its batshit crazy mechanics, would be pretty cool. I know someone actually did complete an SSLP of that game way back when in 2011-2012, but for some reason it was never archived. Good luck with the mechanics though. I can't believe a game from that era actually tried to use the FF2 leveling system with the weapons.
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May 15, 2020 00:45
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Shitenshi posted:I know someone actually did complete an SSLP of that game way back when in 2011-2012, but for some reason it was never archived. Good luck with the mechanics though. I can't believe a game from that era actually tried to use the FF2 leveling system with the weapons. Here's the thread, but you'll need to buy archive access for your account if you don't already have it.
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May 15, 2020 04:47
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Episode LXXXIX: Otherworldly Encounters.jpg)  Music: Hardcore to the Brain ~ Mid Boss in Japan .jpg) Our new chum Kurando has seen it fit to display his latent Harmonixer powers and fuse into Tsukiyomi -- a 3600 HP enemy retaining Kurando's Light Element. Considering how limited Kurando's damage output options were, this version of him is a contender. I mean like a maybe a say... Don Flamenco versus Lt. Colonel Terada's comparative Glass Joe. We'll get to his moveset in a minute. Let's hit some lore first! Tsukiyomi is short for Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto the Shinto god of the moon. Wikipedia on Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto posted:
It goes on from there but this is the sibling of Amaterasu and Susan-O. You know, the main character of Okami and Yosuke Hanamura's ultimate Persona, naturally.  .jpg) .jpg) I'm going to start glossing over the opening round gambit of buffs and shields unless something really egregious crops up. Shadow Hearts: Covenant's combat is basically solved at this point beyond gimmick bosses and... this ain't one. We want Arc-Gale to speed things up, Arc-Rage, and/or Arc-Surge to buff our damage output and Arc-Barrier and/or Arc-Shield depending on either physical or magical attacks are their affinity. And then Combo for days for increased damage output while stopping to heal accordingly. That's as sound a strat as you're going to get. Tsukiyomi is pretty drat strong with both physical and magical attacks so both Barrier and Shield aren't a bad idea. .jpg) The one thing that will likely change more often than not (well, maybe a little...) is Yuri's Fusion of choice. We're going to go with Somnion for this excursion. Sure, it'll take a bit more damage than other choices but it will make up for it with its extra innate damage output against the Light element and Yuri is sturdy enough to survive to the healing phase of a battle if he takes a good bump. .jpg) .jpg) Tsukiyomi is kind of a beast with its physical damage. It can easily take a targeted character down to critical levels of health in a single attack string. It also possesses a somewhat less damaging Evasion Rate decreasing version of its physical attack. Which... yeah, I think I can count the number of times characters has actually evaded jack poo poo in this entire playthrough on two hands so not feeling that too hard. .jpg) The transformed Kurando's only other attack is Hell's Light -- a Light elemental attack (I know, shocking) which is probably the weakest of his attacks at around the 150 damage range (unless it hits Yuri and then he's in for a 200+ HP damage hurting) but it does have the annoying trait of being a line of fire attack and when you're trying to pop off Combos for maximum damage output in a game where you cannot reposition characters, that can occasionally run into issues. .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) Beyond that, stay the course and stay healthy. I almost made a practice social distancing joke but I've already had a discussion with multiple people how much this plague and the fallout from it if we get past it, is going to poison the comedy well for years to come and naw. Don't go there! Stop yourself early! Don't go down that lovely low hanging fruit pit! Slap your friends doing it. Nip that in the bud, before it's too late! Music: Result ~ Victory .jpg) .jpg) Defeating Tsukiyomi nets us the usual post-boss fight bounty and another Magic Crest. Valak comes with Barrier and Bright Banish (a high-end Light magic spell we saw a while back.) Nothing too special. Now, Kurando. You have some 'splaining to do! Music: ENDS .jpg)  <moans> Kurando!! Wake up!! Oh, Lady Anastasia. You okay? What happened, anyway? Since when can you use Fusion?! You KNOW that is my deal! I'll let this slide but I swear if I see you start punching people... Well, you see, I came to the graveyard, then suddenly I felt dizzy and everything went black. <looks around frantically> Wha?! Master! Princess! Where are they?!.jpg)  Get ahold of yourself. We're inside some kind of boundary. One false move could get us killed. A boundary?! <nods> That's right. We've all been sealed inside this strange otherworld! I hope this isn't one of those punishing your past sins sorts. I have some things I did back in the mid-70s that I am not proud of... If that's the case I should be OK. Hmm... Unless all those sketchy people I lured to that island to feed to Carla's cat count against me. That ABSOLUTELY counts against you! Well, shucks..jpg) Kurando, they used you as bait to finish us off. ...I think this is more about getting after my master than you. Oh. Right. Him... Yeah, that makes sense. Sorry, I'm just so used to everyone being after me and my friends. How do we get out of here?Yuri stands up. .jpg) I say we find the one who sent us here and do a little friendly persuading. .jpg) Kurando has now unlocked a skill beyond slicing things with his sword. He still cannot use Crest Magic since I guess it's just Harmonixers are barred from that in general and it's not just that Yuri is a dumbass about magic. .jpg) The thing is, unlike Yuri who gets a massive variety of versatile Fusions for any situation, Kurando... only gets the one. And a second fairly late game one. Which still leaves Kurando as by far the least versatile character of the party. To be honest, we're probably only going to use Kurando in the main party for this dungeon just to give his new ability a proper shake and then he's destined to join the bench for the most part. .jpg) Tsukiyomi can be powered up just like Yuri's Fusions using Soul Energy. At the base level, the Fusion powers up Kurando with:
Which isn't a decent spread of stats. We're going to go ahead and power up Tsukiyomi to Level 8 to unlock all its abilities so Kurando gets more than physical attacks and that Hell's Light spell. Which bumps his stats up to:
.jpg) Now that Kurando's innate ability has been revealed, his character profile page has also updated. Look at that! He finally gets a name and not just "Mysterious Swordsman." Music: In Darkness of a Labyrinth ~ Dungeon .jpg) OK. It's time to explore a mystery foggy otherworld named err... well, Otherworld. I have to confess that reading the word "Otherworld" makes my mind immediately turn to the buttrock track of the same name from when Sin attacks in the opening of Final Fantasy X. My brain is POISONED! Anyhow, there seems to be a save point ahead and... wait, no... That can't be right... .jpg) How are you two setting up shop in another dimension?! ...Oh, how did we end up wandering into this mess when we were headed for the city?! Oh well, not to worry. Were you planning to set up shop in the middle of the graveyard? Wherever there are customers... Now, then, what will it be?.jpg) The increasingly unlikely located merchants aren't selling anything new from when we were back in Yokohama, so we'll just move on. Past the brothers' shop, we find two shrine gates. One with a blue star and one with a red star. If we head through the one with a red star above it... .jpg) .jpg) We are teleported back to the start of the dungeon. Going to be one of those kinds of dungeons, huh? Not to worry. After Battleship Mikasa, this place is a totally decent, easy breezy affair. Going under either of those gates triggers random battles. So let's get the obligatory brief overview of that business taken care of, eh? .jpg) Music: Deep in Coma ~ Battle in Japan .jpg) Naturally, if we're in some strange Japanese flavored shadow realm we're going to need to face some Japanese folklore flavored baddies. Gaki a rather weak Fire elemental enemy with a mere 125 HP. They enjoy smacking people around and firing off the Red Cradle AOE magic. They're complete pushovers but usually come in groups of 2-3 to make up for it. Gaki, more commonly in other regions known as Preta in other regions, are a common type of ghost found all over in East Asia countries' folklore. Wikipedia on Preta posted:
.jpg) Next up we have Noh Masks which come packing the Dark element and a slightly higher HP than the Gaki with 150 health. These dirty sheets covered with spooky masks like to spam magical attacks such as Arc-Mirage and Evil Summoning. They can also go in for a physical attack that has a chance to inflict the Panic status effect. Again, with their extremely low HP, they're not much of a threat. If you have an even cursory knowledge of Japanese culture you've probably seen a Noh mask before. They're usually not actively attacking people on their own, to my knowledge. Now someone WEARING a Noh mask and doing some dirt? That's another story. .jpg) Last and definitely least, we have a Pera-pera which is just a Japanese flavored reskin of those Fortune Stick enemies from back on Manmariana Island but with 118 HP and a Water elemental affinity. These just sort of bounce over and whack people in the face. It allegedly has the Hail Crash magic spell but I never saw it use that once. The most troubling thing about these is that if they LOVE setting up Combos and will do so as soon as they get a turn and anyone other enemies are still remaining. "Pera-pera" is a Japanese onomatopoeia for the sound of flipping paper. .jpg) While none of the random battle enemies are remotely dangerous on their own, this dungeon tends to just toss way more baddies than usual in every fight. Like at bare minimum there will be six to eight each time we throw down. As such, Tsukiyomi can mop up using Hell's Light and its directional AOE as every battle has at least half the crowd clustered up in a bunch. After having to slog through having to do at least three turns per battle due to all the beefy mechs back on the battleship, I'll take a bunch of random battles where most fights are done in a single turn and are a minute long tops. Music: In Darkness of a Labyrinth ~ Dungeon .jpg) .jpg) Back to it! If we go down the blue star path then we are allowed to proceed further until we get to another cross-section with a similar dilemma. Only this time, there's a creepy little kid... ghost... dude hanging out. Once again, the red star path will teleport us to the beginning of the dungeon, so let's go blue. .jpg) .jpg) Magic charm. Got it. Now, where could we possibly use that? .jpg) If you guessed that first blocked path, you would be correct! .jpg) This leads to another split path (pay no attention to all the looted chests they're entirely just common junk.) The path to left just makes a huge clockwise loop back to the right gate. There's an item of little consequence if we take the long way around but ehh. It's much quicker just head right, which leads to... .jpg)  [Child Guardian Twin, Sakichi] Round and round and round... Still lost, are you? If you don't want to get lost, all you need to do is pick one of us twins! He he he....jpg) .jpg) The right path connects to the big circle I mentioned, so let's take the left path into offshoot going toward the center of the circle where we find a second charm to dispel warping dungeon gimmicks. Terrific! .jpg) .jpg) Now it's just a matter of the classic Shadow Hearts 2 dungeon backtrack to dispel that second red star gate and proceed to the end of the dungeon. See? That wasn't bad at all. Music: Serious Mood ~ Unrest .jpg) ..... <looks around> Ha ha ha! Hee hee hee! ?!.jpg) I am Garan, oracle, and guardian of the great Empire of Nippon! Huh? What? You would do harm to my country! You and Kawashima's little dog, Kurando! I'll send you all to hell!.jpg)   ...... What's the matter? Are you so afraid you cannot speak? Hee hee hee!.jpg) Music: ENDS .jpg) .jpg) We did need to fill the void Lenny left behind of jobber villain that no one ever takes seriously and Garan is sliding into that role nice. Tune in next time as we discover... he's actually pretty drat strong but I mean, just look at him... It's like Chiaotz from Dragon Ball's wrinkly gross grandpa. We need a better class of villain in Nippon.    Video: Episode 89 Highlight Reel (You should watch this.)    Tsukiyomi Concept Art - In the name of the moon, I shall punish you!  Noh Mask Concept Art - What delightful boys.  Otherworld Concept Art - At least it didn't try to punish Yuri for the sins of his past. I mean, he's already got the Graveyard for that.
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May 28, 2020 12:24
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Sorry for the hiatus for a few weeks. Needed to get my head screwed on straight. We should be back to our regularly scheduled program. Unless June is somehow a worse month than May. And what's the chances of that...? <stares into the middle distance>
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May 28, 2020 12:26
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Tsukoyomi is also notable for the bizzare story of why there is night and day.Mythopedia posted:The Death of Uke Mochi
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May 28, 2020 13:20
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It's been quite a while since I played this, but I'm pretty sure Kurando never left my party after this point. I'd make a team with nothing but harmonixers if the game would let me.
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May 28, 2020 13:33
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And this in a weird month when they just started coming out with the Sailor Moon Redraw meme.
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May 28, 2020 13:56
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Imagine your old lady kicking you out the house because you wouldn't eat her friend's poop
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May 28, 2020 14:04
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I ended up keeping Kurando as he's pretty decently strong, Gepetto and Lucia were my permament benchwarmers for reasons.
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May 28, 2020 14:22
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Joachim- Gepetto, do you mean your 70s or the 1970s? Gepetto- um, yes? [:drumroll: but no one laughs.] Sorry. There are some really nasty Japanese myth monsters this game could use. I look forward to the giant skeleton and Jojigomi spider woman whose exact names I can’t remember- if they appear, that is. Memory is hazy, like the mist around wherever we are. I always took Lenny seriously when I played this game. More so than Garan anyway. I usually had Kurando in my party when Joachim’s lack of speed drove me nuts. Anastasia would take over in magic heavy dungeons.
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May 28, 2020 16:11
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The Dark Id posted:Gaki, more commonly in other regions known as Preta in other regions,
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May 28, 2020 17:55
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I always went all-in on Kurando's simplicity. He can (realistically) only use Attack? Slap a Mind's Eye on him and use the gamble ring. He hit HARD. Also, I will always remember this next boss; not because the boss itself is notable to me, but because I drew a sparkly Za Warudo the first time I ever fought it. Quadruple rewards from a boss fight were quite nice.
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May 28, 2020 18:26
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Poor Garan had the misfortune of meeting an adventuring party that's already seen all manner of bizarre and terrifying creatures. To them, his only distinguishing trait is that he's ugly as sin.
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May 28, 2020 20:36
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I quite like that the party is so inured to everything that they give their opponents the respect they deserve, which is usually none.
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May 28, 2020 21:25
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The Dark Id posted:
And a couple of tra-la-la's! That's how we laugh the day away in the Merry Old Land of Oz! Very funny! I am not a munchkin!
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May 28, 2020 23:32
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Glad to see you back, Id. "Tsukuyomi was born from a mirror made of white copper in Izanagi's right hand." Well, that explains a little detail from Final Fantasy 14 I never thought anything of before. 
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May 28, 2020 23:45
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Supersonic Shine posted:Poor Garan had the misfortune of meeting an adventuring party that's already seen all manner of bizarre and terrifying creatures. To them, his only distinguishing trait is that he's ugly as sin. There's one other trait of his that they're going to be focusing on soon.
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May 29, 2020 02:39
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Omobono posted:I quite like that the party is so inured to everything that they give their opponents the respect they deserve, which is usually none. It's pretty much a defining feature of the game from the Rasputin fight forward and it's just great. This game gets real, real good in the back half but that's a big part of what makes it so good.
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May 29, 2020 02:43
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Garan and Kuranado seem like they were expecting to just be starting a new game. They had no way to prepare for being dropped about halfway into Yuri Wacky, Tragic Roadtrip: Part 2.
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May 29, 2020 02:51
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Glad to see you're alright
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May 29, 2020 10:06
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achtungnight posted:Joachim- Gepetto, do you mean your 70s or the 1970s? I think the joke meant the 1870s since this is the 1910s.
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May 29, 2020 11:09
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Am I the only one who thinks Kurandos fusion would look right at home in Xeno gears? I mean, it kinda looks like an Omnigear, or maybe one of the angel enemies.
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May 29, 2020 20:55
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You have unlocked [Soul of Sufal Mass]!
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May 29, 2020 21:24
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I think it's a mistake to equate "not as good as Yuri" with "not good." Kurando is an extremely powerful character if you keep his fusions leveled properly. Don't confuse quantity for quality. How many of Yuri's fusions do you really use? How powerful are they compared to Kurando's? Kurando is not a benchwarmer-level character. 
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May 30, 2020 03:42
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...! posted:I think it's a mistake to equate "not as good as Yuri" with "not good." This. His mechanic is good at what it does right out of the box, while the others require some work, or in Lucia's case outright garbage and too RNG-reliant.
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May 30, 2020 03:48
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I mean it's worth noting that none of the SH:C characters are bad. Gepetto is probably the weakest of the lot and has the least interesting gimmicks but he can be very strong. Lucia being a joke in the LP doesn't change the fact that she has absolutely gamebreakingly powerful oil combinations. It's just that most of that isn't really necessary in SH:C.
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May 30, 2020 03:49
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SH:C's combat system has a lot of depth, but you can ignore all of it in favor of buffs + combos.
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May 30, 2020 05:00
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Lucia also just has a naturally really high magic stat. Stick a bunch of crest magic on her and go to town.
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May 30, 2020 06:48
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Between most of the other characters being either looking good on paper but being gimmicky as hell (Joachim, and to a lesser extent, Lucia), or being mage types (everyone after Joachim), a watered down Yuri looks loving amazing by comparison as well as in his own right. Just have Blanca and Karin act as buff bots while the Harmonixers fuse and go to town.
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May 30, 2020 07:52
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Alright. Maybe I'll give Kurando more of a swing this playthrough. Karin and Blanca are not leaving the main team though. Karin is too all-around good and Blanca is excellent utility plus Soul Comet is key in Combos because it has a 100% hit rate and bounces enemies to exactly mid-hit level so almost any follow-up will connect.
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May 30, 2020 09:16
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The final party seems to always be Yuri, Karin, Blanca, then pick one of Anastasia, Joachim or Kurando, no matter who plays this game. Gepetto and Lucia's design are pretty bad.
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May 30, 2020 10:27
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I can understand the idea of a high-risk, high-reward character, but I can’t fathom the designers’ thought processes in making a character whose gimmick can straight up kill the entire party at random like Lucia. Gepetto sounds like a good idea, at least before you recruit the others, but was doomed from the start since the main, mandatory character does his element switching gimmick far better than his creepy puppet ever could. Kuranado, so far, is just a strictly inferior version of Yuri.
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May 30, 2020 10:37
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Blanca should never leave the party because he's the Best Boy.
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May 30, 2020 13:48
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I ended up running with Yuri, Joachim, Anastasia and Kurando myself. Not a huge amount of synergy to that but also it meant my party was punchman, the gay wrestling vampire, the sassiest girl in Russia, and the bishie swordsman who could turn into a goddess. What I’m saying is this game is great and this cast is great.
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May 30, 2020 14:18
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The other point against Lucia is her aromatherapy is powerful, but in the days pre GameFAQs it's an even bigger pain in the rear end to get it there due to now many combos you needed to try - especially as order of oils matters. And as everyone said, when Lucia's tarot goes bad, it can instantly end the game or might as well - the rewards are high, but a wrong card can undo progress, especially if you save infrequently. If you plan on using her as a straight mage via crest, you might as well as use Karin or Anastasia who has a more reliable skill or one that's more versatile respectively. What makes someone like Seltzer works is 1: His whiffing never kills the party or puts them in a perilous position, and 2: you can game the system a bit by figuring out the timing of the slots or with an accessory that ups his chances. You can at best get a glittering card, but that doesn't tell you if it's upright or reverse, and a glittering reverse card is the worst thing to draw. If you have a better way to see what card is reversed before drawing, it would do a lot to make her gimmick more viable as it becomes a matter of learning the timing to avoid those.
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May 30, 2020 14:51
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Geostomp posted:I can understand the idea of a high-risk, high-reward character, but I can’t fathom the designers’ thought processes in making a character whose gimmick can straight up kill the entire party at random like Lucia. fwiw, Setzer and Cait Sith of Final Fantasy game also have a special ability that can instantly kill the entire party. Granted, only one result does that and that got phased out by the PS2 era for Final Fantasy (Selphie and Wakka's slots can't hurt the party at all, the only negative effect for Lady Luck's Slots in X-2 is reducing your HP by 75%, which sucks but isn't instant death... even in 4 Heroes of Light, the closest equivalent is just losing all of your MP (or fully healing your enemies), which sucks still sure but it isn't instant death or an equivalent), so...
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May 30, 2020 17:45
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| # ? May 24, 2024 16:39 |
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LiefKatano posted:fwiw, Setzer and Cait Sith of Final Fantasy game also have a special ability that can instantly kill the entire party. They completely removed the slot machine aspect of Tifa's limit breaks in FF7 Remake, so I would imagine that Cait Sith's will be altered in Part 2. They'll likely remove the instadeath rolls at the very least.
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May 30, 2020 18:51
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