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Eminent Domain posted:This has been a pretty fun romp, just about done with first playthrough. If you don't go to Hyzante at the beginning of the game you miss out on the "good" parts of the place, which are shown to really make an impact on Roland. But yeah even so it feels ridiculous, especially considering he's one of the characters who visits the source (on my playthrough anyway). I also found the "meritocracy" aspect of Aesfrost to be a totally informed attribute since aside from Avlora everyone who's anyone is a close relative of the archduke.
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Mar 22, 2022 12:12
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So you’re saying it’s a country that has a reputation valuing freedom above all else even though it’s subject to the same sorts of power dynamics that result from wealth and control being largely concentrated among a select few? Sounds familiar…
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Mar 22, 2022 13:07
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Yeah like Aesfrost is a meritocracy to an extent, the game makes this really clear whenever anyone talks about access to the archives. But you're not gaining power from the Duchy with Gustadolf at the helm. And Gustadolf trusts his family more than most. I never really saw him as a mustache twirling villain though. The twins, yes, but Gustadolf invades Glebrook with good reason. He knows that with the right positioning and enough time he can make a play to control the entire continent and that scans with his belief in meritocracy and might making right. Like he's not doing that just for the sake of being cruel, he's doing it because he genuinely thinks his way of life is better. (Well that and more power = good by that same way of life)
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Mar 22, 2022 13:13
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I'm relatively early into my playthrough, but I'm kind of in awe at Roland's ability to make stupid decisions on a constant basis. I'm absolutely going to follow whatever choices get me more Roland Is A Stupid Himbo content.
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Mar 22, 2022 14:00
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Natural 20 posted:Yeah like Aesfrost is a meritocracy to an extent, the game makes this really clear whenever anyone talks about access to the archives. But you're not gaining power from the Duchy with Gustadolf at the helm. And Gustadolf trusts his family more than most. Going to Aesfrost on my 2nd playthrough, they make a point about how being so far removed from the source makes salt much more precious and expensive than it is elsewhere, and that it's causing problems for everyone internally. Gustadolf absolutely just sees the whole situation as an open door he has an obligation to try and walk through. Also, and just sitting here reading posts and thinking, it occurred to me how both Aesfrost and Hyzante develop explosives over the course of the story. Aesfrost, with its deep source of knowledge can blow up salt but can't get their hands on enough to actually do it on a grand scale, essentially settling for a small-time mining operation and one big artillery round. Hyzante, with all the biggest scientific minds in the land and all the salt they could ask for, never even consider using it this way and instead just blow up slaves. "Why are you blowing up slaves? You could be blowing up salt??" Why would we want to blow up salt? We can sell salt. We can't sell slaves. Huxley fucked around with this message at 14:10 on Mar 22, 2022 |
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Mar 22, 2022 14:07
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Natural 20 posted:Yeah like Aesfrost is a meritocracy to an extent, the game makes this really clear whenever anyone talks about access to the archives. But you're not gaining power from the Duchy with Gustadolf at the helm. And Gustadolf trusts his family more than most. Also Hyzante would never accept an alternative source of salt. So the moment Dragan finds the salt crystals, a war with Hyzante will come sooner or later and Gustadolf would rather strike according to his timetable, not Hyzante's. I'm on NG+ now, and I feel like going to Aesfrost paints them much more positively than going to Hyzante paints Hyzante. I mean Hyzante is all "kill the heretics", you have the ice mage defecting under false pretenses (instead of being sent away with Sycra's blessing like Rufus), you've got the mysterious secret experiments wing of the hospital, and the whole thing is culty as gently caress.
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Mar 22, 2022 14:33
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The status quo when the game starts definitely benefits Hyzante the most and Aesfrost the least, so it makes sense the latter would be a lot more interested in technological development. That said Hyzante is the leader in medicine/medical research, which the game treats as nearly as big of a deal as Aesfrost's archives. Both nations crack down on their researchers at various points to prevent their knowledge from benefiting the other countries. Glenbrook in comparison kind of feels like it doesn't have much of an identity aside from being ye olde fantasye kingdome situated between the other two that the protagonist can be from. I just feel like the game sells Aesfrost as "A northern land, rich in iron, ruled by the Archduke's dynasty that is renowned for meritocracy and ideals of liberty" and if you just got rid of the italicized part absolutely nothing about the game would change. Hell, the saintly seven have a better claim to meritocracy since all of them except the hood guy who barely exists are shown to be pretty renowned and/or accomplished in their fields. I still went with the Aesfrost ending on my first playthrough since they seemed less evil than Hyzante and Frederica's thing seemed like a silly fantasy (although this is a fantasy game so I'm sure it's actually true). Also because I like Benedict. The Moon Monster fucked around with this message at 14:53 on Mar 22, 2022 |
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Mar 22, 2022 14:50
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The best character in the game in Anna. That is all.
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Mar 22, 2022 14:58
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Kanos posted:I'm relatively early into my playthrough, but I'm kind of in awe at Roland's ability to make stupid decisions on a constant basis. I'm absolutely going to follow whatever choices get me more Roland Is A Stupid Himbo content. I dunno man, his path for the final decision is a tough one to swallow. I’m not looking forward to choosing it on one of my playthroughs.
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Mar 22, 2022 15:42
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poemdexter posted:The best character in the game in Anna. That is all. 
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Mar 22, 2022 15:54
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So, thinking about it now there's no weapon triangle or anything in the game, does the name just reference the three routes/nations?
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Mar 22, 2022 16:00
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In Chapter XV, I did not go with Roland on either of my playthroughs, so I think I am missing a part of the picture of Glenbrook. By all accounts, based on how Roland and Serenoa talk about Hyzante and Aesfrost, inequality is horrible in Glenbrook. We just never see how the commoners live because we're always rolling with the aristocracy. Both townspeople and leaders are impressed that Serenoa seems to actual care Really, each nation has horrible inequality, just manifested in different ways: -Aesfrost: might equal right. Pros: This means the strongest can rise up the ranks, like Avlora or Groma, and take/are given power to match their strength. Cons: The weak suffer, and those not "worthy" don't get opportunity, the arts are probably non-existent. And if your skill is not considered helpful to improving the Duchy, then you go away, no books for you. Hypocrisy: The Duchy leadership is made up of brothers, a sister and an uncle. -Hyzante: Belief equals right. Pros: If you believe in the Goddess, you are considered equal and will be treated fairly. Cons: You HAVE to believe in the Goddess. Otherwise, you're a heretic and should burn. Magically. Hypocrisy: *gestures wildly to the Roselle* -Glenbrook: Birth equals right. Pros: If you are born into the aristocracy, you have it made, even if you are a total failson. Cons: Born a serf, remain a serf. Sure, you might get as high as being part of the royal guard--but you're still just a soldier. Allows for an insane amount of corruption among the higher classes. Hypocrisy: In this narrative, none, because the corruption is baked in. Reik posted:So, thinking about it now there's no weapon triangle or anything in the game, does the name just reference the three routes/nations? Prowler fucked around with this message at 16:07 on Mar 22, 2022 |
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Mar 22, 2022 16:05
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Reik posted:So, thinking about it now there's no weapon triangle or anything in the game, does the name just reference the three routes/nations? It definitely sounds like they had to name the code repository something and then everyone called it by that name and oops that's what's going on the title screen now.
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Mar 22, 2022 16:05
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Reik posted:So, thinking about it now there's no weapon triangle or anything in the game, does the name just reference the three routes/nations? Also the previous game in this style was Octopath Traveler so they want to keep some sort of numerical link? I expect the next game to be Sept/Hex-something Mustard Iceman fucked around with this message at 16:07 on Mar 22, 2022 |
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Mar 22, 2022 16:05
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All of those are reasonable answers, I think the SRPG scene is just so dominated by fire emblem lately I closely associate triangle with weapon triangle in these games.
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Mar 22, 2022 16:09
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Mustard Iceman posted:Probably the three convictions and all of the ways they show up throughout the game. Dodeca Squadron
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Mar 22, 2022 16:09
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Didn't Three Houses not even have a real weapon triangle anymore?
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Mar 22, 2022 16:11
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Blackbelt Bobman posted:I dunno man, his path for the final decision is a tough one to swallow. I’m not looking forward to choosing it on one of my playthroughs. I'm fully expecting it to be a beautiful disaster.
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Mar 22, 2022 16:14
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Mustard Iceman posted:Probably the three convictions and all of the ways they show up throughout the game. The three nations and three convictions are both part of it. Also OCTOPATH is an acronym consisting of the first letter of each protagonist’s name, in addition to the game consisting of eight paths and all that.
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Mar 22, 2022 16:19
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SuperKlaus posted:A possible weakness of SRPGs without job systems or randomized generic squadmates is that you spend big chunks of game time without a full squad load out or the ability to meaningfully tailor your squad. I'm thinking of good old Shining Force 2 - though I love it to death - and how a team comp dream of say "four centaur cavalry" or "two blaster mages" is only a dream for too many missions. It's just a shame because Shining Force 2 improves over its prequel in just about every way except the part where you have to play like half of the game before you can actually build a team for yourself because so many recruits are backloaded.
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Mar 22, 2022 16:21
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They legit previewed Octopath with a placeholder name and got good mileage out of keeping it, so they pretended to do it this time. The next original IP is going to be named like, "Paradigm Adventure v2.3" and the name will have been workshopped harder than any WoW expansion pack or FF spinoff in history.
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Mar 22, 2022 16:21
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Prowler posted:Didn't Three Houses not even have a real weapon triangle anymore? It didn't come with the weapon triangle built in but it still had breaker skills you could learn to re-introduce the weapon triangle for a character, but it was really only useful in the highest difficulty setting.
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Mar 22, 2022 16:26
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I streamed the first two chapters of the game yesterday on New Game ++. I started on Hard. The opening attack, Roland gets hit for a little over half his health with Trish's opening attack. The battle ended with me only taking out maybe 2 of the bandits. Always nice to lose horribly to an audience... ("I swear, other people have the same issue with this battle!") I dropped down to normal. Made some dumb mistakes, wound up beating the battle with just Benedict, Geela, and Frederica--and only because Trish's AI broke. The first battle is VERY poorly tuned on hard and New Game+. Yikes. Meanwhile, I absolutely slaughtered everyone in the next fight and lost no one. Guess I'll be going back to hard....
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Mar 22, 2022 16:29
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Does Erikahave some kind of crazy dodge ability? I'm at theBlow up the boat mission and two different times I've set Roland up with four dragons and it's missed her. We're talking like an 89 percent chance to hit I think.
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Mar 22, 2022 16:40
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Reik posted:So, thinking about it now there's no weapon triangle or anything in the game, does the name just reference the three routes/nations?  If you take a look at this diagram I think you'll agree that...
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Mar 22, 2022 17:23
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The final decision made actually also served as a realization for all three routes as the one major non aligned decision they make is the move that solidifies their conviction Benedict choosing not use to use the wildfire against Alvora is the morality path because Alvora chooses honor above treachery. Also to an extent he honors Symon's last wish by choosing a moral path and doing what is right for Seranoa rather than himself Frederica doesn't make any utility decisions until this route where she gives up her dream of finding Centralia for a dream where Centralia will exist in Norzelia by revealing the truth nature of the source rather than just smashing the symbol of the goddess. Roland's liberty decision of showing his face to Svarog was Roland casting aside his fears and weakness of impulsiveness to do the right thing and give Svarog the right to kill Gustadolph since it was Dragan who was the first casualty of this war, not his father and brother.
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Mar 22, 2022 17:49
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Just got Groma. Wish I had gotten her sooner. She's fun.
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Mar 22, 2022 17:58
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poemdexter posted:Dodeca Squadron Dodecadungeon. OC do not steal -- I've got pages of notes about things in multiple of 12 (12 classes, 12 skills per class, 12 bosses, 12 floors of dungeon, 12 options each with 12 value settings...). Feel free to steal 'cause I'm exceedingly unlikely to finish that project. Pun driven development is a thing and Triangle Strategy could use more strategic triangles. Nobody even calculates castle wall height using bowstring, shadows, and the Pythagorean theorem!
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Mar 22, 2022 18:22
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Elephant Ambush posted:Just got Groma. Wish I had gotten her sooner. She's fun. Her Weapon Skill is okay, but looks fantastic. I like that they namedrop her at the beginning of the game, so you think she's just some old, dead general...
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Mar 22, 2022 19:02
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It's sort of amusing how House Wolfhort basically picks up every single legendary warrior in the land. Edit: and also a child who is good at juggling Fangz fucked around with this message at 21:25 on Mar 22, 2022 |
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Mar 22, 2022 19:30
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Elephant Ambush posted:Just got Groma. Wish I had gotten her sooner. She's fun. Groma owns, I love how she's doing the martial arts "Come on" pose in her menu art. I enjoyed her side story too
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Mar 22, 2022 21:50
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Finished the game last night. On the whole it’s a fun little entry to the tactical RPG genre, but there are parts of it that feel incomplete or lazy. The core features of this game are so detached from one another. The exploration is so unnecessary, the mock battles are flavorless, the character recruitment feel incidental, and the story cutscenes are loving interminable. It’s like four separate teams worked on each and no one wanted the labor of getting them to collaborate. It probably made project management a heck of a lot easier but this doesn’t feel like a coherent game at all. The promotions and the equipment also seem tacked-on. What I do like are the battle mechanics — shoving, archers, provocation, hind attacks are all fun to use. I also love the quality of life stuff like no permadeath and the fastforwarding button. Each battle feels satisfying, if not distinct. I still feel like there’s this gaping hole in the shape of FFT and the GBA Fire Emblem games, and no one has filled it yet. With these new entries to the genre it’s always one step forward and two steps back. It may just be that these games are harder to make than they look. Jeanne D’Arc on the PSP was so slick but it lost momentum big time in late game, as I recall. And that was made by Level 5.
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Mar 22, 2022 23:05
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Vegetable posted:Finished the game last night. On the whole it’s a fun little entry to the tactical RPG genre, but there are parts of it that feel incomplete or lazy. I feel like this is an issue with the studio because they also did Octopath Traveler and that game also suffered from similar disjointed issues.
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Mar 22, 2022 23:50
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DalaranJ posted:
Let me tell you about purestrain salt…
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Mar 22, 2022 23:58
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do u believe in marigolds posted:I feel like this is an issue with the studio because they also did Octopath Traveler and that game also suffered from similar disjointed issues. this game was artdink, octopath was aquire. what they share is the lead producer. personally didn't found the game that disjointed.
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Mar 23, 2022 00:04
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I don't think mock battles are any less flavorless than like a random encounter or whatever. They come off ok imo.
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Mar 23, 2022 00:11
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And there are several of them, up to level 47(?) I think, with varying scenarios and objectives.
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Mar 23, 2022 00:22
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Prowler posted:Her Weapon Skill is okay, but looks fantastic. I like that they namedrop her at the beginning of the game, so you think she's just some old, dead general... I really like that they drop that archibald had a huge crush on her during the war lol
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Mar 23, 2022 00:37
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Vegetable posted:Finished the game last night. On the whole it’s a fun little entry to the tactical RPG genre, but there are parts of it that feel incomplete or lazy. I don't agree that these features are disjointed, but I do think they needed a bit more time to cook. Exploration is fun! It's not robust enough. I wish they had done more with it, tbh. I do absolutely agree that the character recruitment is super flavorless and perfunctory. I'd so much prefer to have the optional dudes recruited on specific paths and have ties to the story directly. Some of them already do, but not enough. For that to really work, paths need to diverge for longer and earlier, probably. And for your final point, I don't really think this game was trying to be FFT or Fire Emblem. It draws too much from too many games in attempt to create its own niche. The feel of the story is certainly in that vein but nothing else really is. Personally, I think that the game has issues but is largely greater than the sum of its parts. They really nailed the combat mechanics but things like character development felt really anemic for me. I think there is definitely a TON of room for improvement, that's for sure.
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Mar 23, 2022 00:45
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Just had a vote where I couldn’t convince anyone to switch sides and lost the vote. Serenoa’s convictions must be lacking if I can’t even convince Anna.
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Mar 23, 2022 06:05
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