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Einander posted:I'll probably mess with codes and see if I can give Tony access to all equipment at some point, because gently caress it, gundog. Someone's gotta use Strahl Gewehr while Clarissa's grinding up all the passives she'll need. 
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Jul 18, 2015 02:14
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Einander posted:Which is why the no-name scrubs are getting dumped one-by-one every time a new story character joins up (except Dog, because Dog can't use an ARM). The generics are the best at everything statistically (which is boring) and don't have custom classes (also boring). Using the story characters instead gives you a pretty well-rounded party with some neat character-specific skills. Actually I think it's pretty interesting to view it in contrast with how SRPGs with generic units typically go -- there's usually no reason not to replace the generics on your team with special characters as you recruit them. In WAXF, there's space for using generics if that's what you want.
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Jul 18, 2015 05:44
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gently caress Gunner Clarissa, give us LaserDog.
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Jul 18, 2015 06:06
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A goal of laser death is always a just and proper one. I look forward to seeing you attain this goal. For the obvious "It was on a portable I never owned" reasons, this is the only Wild Arms game I've never played. As for the console ones, the only one I never got around to beating was-Heavy neutrino posted:I'm a huge fan of the series and I couldn't make it more than one hour into Wild ARMs 5. The writing was just disastrous on that one. I admit it was my attention span as much as anything that means I never got around to finishing 5, not the quality of the plot. Though I suppose it helped my sense of closure that you could see a major part of the ending a mile away even before grainy video hints. Props for combat pilotable Asgard and it having a Knight Blazer costume unlock though. Asgard in Wild Arms is always cool. Always 
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Jul 18, 2015 09:25
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The ending to 4 and 5 were admittedly really, really bad. I like both games, but their endings went against the spirit and tone of their plot.
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Jul 18, 2015 10:55
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Accidentally picked a fight with an entire continent. Just one of those days, I suppose.
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Jul 18, 2015 11:04
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Cake Attack posted:it works ive seen it, you can trust me, your pal cake attack Tomorrow, my friends, Wild ARMs XF updates with a Very Special Episode on the power of friendship, trust, and horrific blood magic.
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Jul 19, 2015 02:06
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So in this game universe, what's special about having an ARM? Or what even is an ARM? It seems like it implies a lot more than just owning a gun.
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Jul 19, 2015 10:20
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They do give the long form of what ARM means in this game, although I can't remember it off the cuff. It's basically a device that you can imprint your memories on, or download imprinted memories from another ARM with. The usual FF-style Job explanation, replacing "Crystal" with Wild ARMs.
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Jul 19, 2015 10:31
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Chuu posted:Or what even is an ARM? It seems like it implies a lot more than just owning a gun. Anime Robot Magic.
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Jul 19, 2015 19:55
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ARMs aren't guns at all in this game. They're weird high tech medallions that let you change classes by downloading skills or whatever. Every single person who ever fights at any point in the game has an ARM: they're incredibly common.
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Jul 19, 2015 20:45
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Act 1: Path of the Founding Knights Act 1-2    You'll notice that the way back to the first town is closed. Thankfully, there's a town after this... But the game is fairly prone to cutting you off from visiting specific towns at specific times, and between the weapon-locks on certain Originals and the maps that favor certain classes, it's not uncommon to find yourself without a weapon or armor that you need. Multiple save slots are a very good idea.  (new)       Guess word's already made it over here. Now what...? Perhaps this gang is more disciplined than they seem... Or perhaps-- You see something? Look!   The text bubble appears from the bottom-right instead of the bottom.     The white dog... Now he's attacking the guards! Labyrinthia, stop!Woman's Voice: Stop what?    ...    ... ...Hello. ...    But 34 years old? Come on! I'm only 17! You seriously think I look *that* old?!  ... ...That's not important, anyway! Trivial at best! What's important is, you're a terrorist plotting to overthrow the government, and you've got a bounty on your head that'd make any of us filthy rich! Overthrow the government?! Look, maybe I got in a little trouble earlier, but don't you think you're overreacting a bit?     (Huh...? So they didn't close the gate to catch us?) ...Hmm? This girl... She can't be the 34-year-old we're looking for.   And once we take you in, we'll have all the time in the world to book you for plotting against the government!  No changes in the party since last time (though White Dog is a little stronger).      But all you're doing is harassing everyone! Trampling all over the peace these people enjoy! Don't give me that nonsense, outsider! Just give it up already and come with us quietly! Labyrinthia! Let's drive these no-good thugs outta here! ...  As you can see, this time we're starting with just Clarissa and White Dog. The enemy party isn't too bad, for the most part... With one notable exception. There's two Fantasticas (support/melee) and two Gadgeteers (item users), and Glenn.  Glenn is pretty drat scary for an early enemy. Not only is he level 12 to everyone else's level 3, he's a Secutor. Secutors may be a basic class, but they're decently tough, they have a 25% chance to avoid incoming physical damage, and they get an additional +25% power modifier to both their Strength and their weapon power on top of their already best-in-game Strength modifier. A normal Secutor is something to pay attention to. Glenn here will do half of Clarissa's HP with every hit, and he'll take 25% max HP from Sacrifice, tops.  If you can't win a fight, then don't fight. The objectives screen is very important in this game, because this game doesn't have many maps that are just straightforward beatfests. Clarissa doesn't have an Original with the vertical range to hit the switch, so it's just a matter of waiting until Felius and Suspicious Woman show up--Felius has Upper Hand, which has 3 range and 10 Vertical Tolerance. It should do the job, and Suspicious Woman should have her own options. So the starting goal here is to take out the support troops--you get 1 CSP after the map for every enemy you kill (and some are worth extra). But like Rondo of Swords way back when, I'll be doing everything in my power to totally ignore the game's heavy hinting; if I can get through something by murdering everyone, I probably will. Running someone over to the switch is less interesting. I'll go for the "wipe them all out" condition, and if it's not plausible, then I'll do it as intended.  Gadgeteers can lower your count towards your next turn in the same way that Clarissa's Encourage raises it--that happens every time they successfully whack you in melee. I keep five squares away.   Their only other option is attack items, and they both have a) poor magic and b) an extremely magic-resistant target... But Gadgeteer armor (Aprons) increase Reflex by 200% for one turn after using an item, so he can at least do it very quickly.  I consider my options. Current turn count has it going Gadgeteer-Glenn-Gadgeteer. Now, the Gadgeteer may use another item, or he may not... Either way, the enemy Fantastica won't be moving before Clarissa moves again.   No reason not to just blow him the hell up, then.  The damage scaling on Sacrifice in action--Clarissa's below half health, so she'd be doing less than half damage.   Instead, I move and heal. This shows something important: only Gadgeteers (or characters with a specific Gadgeteer skill) can actually use healing items on other people. (Revive items excepted, obviously.) This is a pretty big constraint until you get the second set of classes, because it takes you that long to get a non-item heal.  41 damage. Not bad against a 68 HP enemy!  Remember that "no form of healing other people" thing? Glenn is a Problem.     ...Sorry, Felius! Say, who's that? Hello there. I'm just a common outlaw on the lam. I'd be happy to explain in detail later, if you like....An outlaw?! I think I'd prefer you explain now... There's no time for that. Those mercenaries closed the gate in order to cut off our escape path and strike us from behind. A classic strategy, really. Even as we speak, Martial Guard support troops may be approaching from the rear... What?! What're we supposed to do, then?!   If we use an Original attack that can read high elevations, that should be enough to trip it and open the gate. My Lightning ought to suffice. There's a tutorial on map objects, but it's nothing that's not obvious.  Formation Arts critical! Clarissa's critical rate is really drat high.  This position a) lets White Dog potentially move up to open that chest (attack it in melee) while potentially letting him Formation Arts or to distract Glenn for a turn. He's got more armor than Clarissa and considerably higher HP besides, and in all bluntness he's also much more expendable. (yes I know I'm an awful person)  It ended up not mattering, because Glenn went after Suspicious Woman instead.  Oof. Look at that accuracy hit. Formation Arts do get an unseen to-hit boost, but... Ouch. Felius's low accuracy base stat means he's not great at dealing with evasive enemies, but that's why he has Upper Hand.  And THAT is the power of before-defense power boosts. Let's look at the turn counter. You'll notice that Clarissa goes twice before Glenn goes once.   (If you're curious, they made him totally immune to the obvious thing. I'm as sad as you are.) Sacrifice does 84 damage. Three or so should take him down, between all of the other characters here. Clarissa has three more healing items. This may be doable?  Our new party member is a fragile magey sort and she comes with three healing items (and one Antidote). Best to avoid any deaths here.  Two other enemies to contend with, unfortunately. Their damage is minor, but I'm more worried about them healing. Clarissa heals up. Felius moves up to complete a triangle Formation Arts, but unfortunately misses. White Dog moves up to block off Glenn from the enemy; don't want to let them heal him.   I want to see if I can avoid having Glenn hit Mysterious Woman every turn (she's rather slow), so I try out one of her unique skills: Replica.  Unfortunately, Replicas can't attack (don't even count as a character for Formation Arts!) and have absolutely no durability whatsoever, but they do make good distractions. Clarissa can't get a turn before Glenn attacks, so she can't Sacrifice safely. Unfortunately, I forgot about the Replicas-don't-count-for-Formation-Arts thing. This does show how Extra Critical works, though? This is the first time it's popped up, despite her incredibly high critical rate.  Good!  Bad! It did nearly no damage, true, but I don't want her anywhere near the enemy I'm trying to grind down here, not when Gadgeteers can heal so quickly.  Some cold-blooded calculation here. If I use Sacrifice, then Clarissa and Suspicious Lady are both in the range where one hit can kill them. Suspicious Lady is less evasive and more fragile than Clarissa, so I judge Glenn's a bit more likely to go after her... She does have Revive, but with the lack of healing that's not ideal either. If I sacrifice her, then-- Then it becomes null and void once I realize the lose condition is "anyone dies." Bah! Lame... Especially since we do have the Revive spell now.  So I wall off Miss Mage, because she's slow as hell, healing is currently self-only, and I don't want her to die--this is way too early to get a Game Over, even if I'm messing with gimmick win conditions.  Another Replica to wall, at least for a turn (the one right below Clarissa is the real one), and Clarissa gets behind there too--I want to be able to Sacrifice with impunity here.  46 of her 95 HP.  Very close, one more should do i--  wait, WHAT Einander posted:
Clarste posted:Wait, Attack Assist does nothing? What does the game say it does? Einander posted:When Felius and an ally are both adjacent to an enemy, attacking the enemy will sometimes trigger Felius to attack as well. It doesn't seem to work, though; I've seen reports that it just works very rarely, but... I'm skeptical. Cake Attack posted:it works ive seen it, you can trust me, your pal cake attack This is literally the first time I have seen Attack Assist work, ever, so I was totally willing to buy the line in the Battle Mechanics guide. Now I have no idea.  Video games!  Felius also activates the Defender passive on his Gauntlet, protecting the Replica for another turn.  I think I'm actually going to do this! On her next turn, Clarissa moves and uses her last Heal Berry.  Suspicious Woman nails Glenn with her Lightning spell, and Clarissa gets to show off one last wrinkle of the battle system. You see, every time you attack an enemy in a row, you get a Chain. If you don't attack, or if the enemy gets a turn, the Chain breaks. For every Chain past 1, you get a 4% boost to before-defense attack power. At Clarissa's current level, Sacrifice does 84 on Chain 1.   WITH Chain 3? 90, juuust scraping in to kill him. Felius's Upper Hand attacks between Sacrifices did about 40 damage of that missing HP, and he also did 50 more with Formation Arts, but Clarissa did about 240-280 of that even with having to heal between uses. Sacrifice is really powerful, guys! Especially considering how ridiculously fast Clarissa is. It's strongest at the beginning of the game, since the Elementalist class has all the straight-up power bonuses for non-elemental magic (except the critical-HP buff on Dandelion Shot), but it does become much more practical and much more versatile later on. And all of this is thanks to Attack Assist, which I thought was bugged and useless! If not for that, the Gadgeteer probably would have gotten to heal Glenn, and I didn't have another Sacrifice to use. Very storybook, isn't it? Then I spam Encourage to get everyone else (except White Dog, who opens the chest; it's just a Heal Berry) to the other side of the map and beat the Fantastica to death. He kept spamming Slow Down, which I can only interpret as a plea for mercy.  Strahl Gewehr knows not mercy, only blood.    Seems fair. Clarissa gets up to level 5, Felius to level 4, both of them get to level 2 of their respective starting classes, learning to transfer their skill sets to other classes. The music stops.    ...This should be far enough, I think... You sure fought hard back there, Labyrinthia!  I'm Labyrinthia--Labyrinthia Wordsworth. The dog is Tony, my beloved pet and stalwart companion. ... (New) Huh?! But...the name tag said Labyrinthia... Indeed. Because that's my name. Let's say, if Tony had a little accident somewhere--not that such a thing would ever happen, mind you--Rather than knowing the dog's name, wouldn't it be more useful to know the name of his owner? That's why I put my own name on his tag. Labyrinthia is one of my favorite characters just for that smug sprite. She is just so proud of herself.  You knew? She told me when we met earlier. That's why we arrived late to the battle. ... ... Well, I suppose it all worked out in the end.Some of these expression changes are incredibly subtle. The difference between Clarissa's "slightly embarrassed" and "smiling" portraits is a slight shift of her mouth and eyebrows. The writers are pretty good at signifying little emotional subtleties with portrait use (even if it means a lot more work for me). ...Anyway, we should introduce ourselves. As you probably already know, this is my traveling companion, Felius. And my name is... Wha...what is it? Surely you're not thinking that I look like a 34-year-old, too... ...I'm the one who's 34. But more importantly...  ...!!! (New)  What the heck are you doing?! First the dog, and now you...?! Your Highness?! It's really you! I never believed that you had perished, Your Highness! To lose our beloved princess to such an awful fate... I knew it couldn't be true! What? What are you talking about?! Tony, come here! It's the princess, Tony! It's been an entire year, but she's alive and well! But...I...I'm... My name is CLARISSA ARWIN!!The screen briefly fades to black.   No... Forgive me, I got excited... ... Well, anyway, I'm sorry--I wish I was your princess, but I'm afraid I'm nothing of the sort! Hmm... Perhaps you lost your memory in the incident a year ago? I understand that sort of thing tends to happen... As you say, Your Highness. However... Felius and I have only just arrived in Elesius. We've been chasing a man across Filgaia. We weren't anywhere near this continent a year ago. We were, let's see... That's right, we were traveling far to the south of here. Clearly this princess means a great deal to you, so I'm really sorry to disappoint you, but this "incident" you speak of had nothing to do with me... ...Ah, I get it. That's an excellent cover story! It's not a cover story! I'm afraid Clarissa is telling the truth. I wouldn't deceive you. I...I don't like lying. ... (That's a yawn. It's more obvious when the voracious hellmouth is accompanied by game's sound effect.)  No, it's all right. I'm sorry if I was a little harsh. I was just so taken aback... ... Anyway, thanks for your help at the checkpoint. Your quick thinking saved us all! Oh...? Truly? Your Highness! This...this is such an honor... Hey! Hello? I just told you that I wasn't your princess! Felius, say something! We've managed to escape our pursuers this far. Shouldn't we start looking for a place where we can lay low for a while? Yes, of course... They could catch up at any time. We were heading to Poliasha. If that works for you, you're welcome to join us.Despite the words, she's still using her frowning portrait, because she's annoyed about the Princess thing. I like little details like that. I'd be delighted. ... ... And with that, the scene ends. Next time, a quick mechanics talk update on Tony and Labyrinthia, and then Act 1-3.
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Jul 20, 2015 01:51
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Labyrinthia's an interesting one. She's got a couple of unique applications for the game, and she's smug as anything. Her voicework is absolutely ham upon ham, but I'll give her a pass for her theme music. Also,
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Jul 20, 2015 02:31
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Einander posted:This is literally the first time I have seen Attack Assist work, ever, so I was totally willing to buy the line in the Battle Mechanics guide. Now I have no idea. It seems some LP deity has smiled upon you instead of cursing you.
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Jul 20, 2015 02:35
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Man seeing all these spell names really makes me want another WF with the HEX system. That battle system is so good. And yes. Smite all these unwinnable fights 
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Jul 20, 2015 02:48
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I beat Glenn by turning Felius into a Gadgeteer and having him heal Clarissa's Sacrifice damage every turn. The AI is hardcoded to attack Labyrinthia's replicas in a lot of situations, so you have a lot of time before he actually starts tearing your team apart.
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Jul 20, 2015 03:16
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i hope you've all learned something about trusting your pal, cake attack, today
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Jul 20, 2015 05:31
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A broken clock is right twice a day? Which, in this case, means that even a badly-prepared cake can taste good? ...That analogy sucked.
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Jul 20, 2015 05:43
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In my personal opinion, Clarissa is the best character in the game. Once you've got access to enough classes to make a proper Crisis (aka Hyper Mode/Danger) build and manage to safely hit something with Sacrifice, little things like Clarissa's actual stats stop mattering (except for one rather important value) as she scoots around the battlefield oneshotting everything she can line up with. Hell, with the right skills Sacrifice actually increases in power as your HP drops! (though that only matters if you're using Dandelion Shot armor since it'll always do nothing at 1hp as far as I can tell) Of course, the downside is that she's running around with only 1 hit point (because of Sacrifice being needed to trigger all the Crisis abilities you've stuck on her) and thus even a stiff breeze will kill her...which happens depressingly often even with her evade jacked up as high as possible. And something tells me thats not the method you're using to make your Laser Beam Death Goddess - you certainly don't need Extra Critical with Crisis Clarissa and the Dandelion Shot's unique Crisis ability (Courageous Heart) wasn't on your checklist... Honestly, the thing I really love about this game is the sheer flexibility of its class system. There's just so many interesting ways you can stick abilities together on a character, enough to easily fill out half a roster of characters who all play completely differently to each other. Its just a shame that the really fun combinations are locked away behind hours of grinding... 
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Jul 20, 2015 15:37
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GilliamYaeger posted:Honestly, the thing I really love about this game is the sheer flexibility of its class system. There's just so many interesting ways you can stick abilities together on a character, enough to easily fill out half a roster of characters who all play completely differently to each other. Its just a shame that the really fun combinations are locked away behind hours of grinding... Yeah, people praise the Final Fantasy games for having flexibility, but they've got nothing on the shear modularity of XF. Even the unique classes for each character give you lots of options for wacky builds, and that's before you just try to scrape together stuff from all the generic classes on their own.
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Jul 20, 2015 15:56
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My personal pick for the best character we don't have, but it's pretty close between them and Clarissa and the things they do are very different as a rule. Like holy poo poo Turn Cancel is stupid.
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Jul 20, 2015 19:00
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My personal pick is the one with the unique ATK buff in their class set, because it makes some truly outstanding things happen and was the only thing I really cared to have in my team on a consistent basis.GilliamYaeger posted:Honestly, the thing I really love about this game is the sheer flexibility of its class system. There's just so many interesting ways you can stick abilities together on a character, enough to easily fill out half a roster of characters who all play completely differently to each other. Its just a shame that the really fun combinations are locked away behind hours of grinding... There's an extremely fast way to grind class levels later on, which is convenient because all the spectacular setups require some of the really broken stuff that you get along with the final set of classes. Sadly it's pretty much triple-hidden in that it's in a random battle, it has a random chance of spawning, and I don't think the game tells you about its special mechanic. The bigger grind in the game, in my view, is money. Updating your equipment in this game requires an appalling amount of money, and really the only way to go about it is to put on the grinding gloves and do a whole bunch of random battles, unless like me you have absolutely no honor and no scruples about exploiting the game's variable underflow glitch.
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Jul 21, 2015 02:30
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Heavy neutrino posted:My personal pick is the one with the unique ATK buff in their class set, because it makes some truly outstanding things happen and was the only thing I really cared to have in my team on a consistent basis. Another Grasharaboras? But Tim isn't in this game!?
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Jul 21, 2015 09:28
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Cake Attack posted:i hope you've all learned something about trusting your pal, cake attack, today
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Jul 21, 2015 21:04
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Class Breakdown 2, Character Breakdown 2 New classes: Crossbreed, Arcanist Crossbreed See Tony. Arcanist Stat modifiers: code:Weapon: Fan. 1 Horizontal, 1 Vertical range. Very low attack, second-best magic, low accuracy, second-lowest weight. Grants Weapon Block while equipped (25% chance of nullifying incoming physical attacks). Armor: Ribbon. Low defense, very high resistance, low evasion, low weight. While equipped, all counterattacks inflict Analyze instead of doing damage (reveals Flying, Soft, or Hard defensive properties and reveals rewards for defeating enemy). Originals: Lightning (8 MP, N): 3 horizontal, infinite vertical range. 50% strength magical attack. Cannot be resisted. Against mechanical enemies, ignores defense and multiplies final damage by 150%. Revive (48 MP, Y): 4 horizontal, 4 vertical range. Revives target and places them in targeted hex. (Defeated units vanish upon death.) 120% strength magical healing, ignores target resistance. Warp (8 MP, N): 6 horizontal, 4 vertical range. User moves to targeted square. Replica (32 MP, Y): 3 horizontal, 4 vertical range. Creates a Replica in targeted square. Replicas have user's stats (with the exception of HP, which is 1) but cannot attack or use items or originals, and do not count as characters for the purposes of Formation Arts. Passives: Arcanist EQ (Arcanist 3) Can equip Fans and Ribbons regardless of class. Attack & AIM Down (Arcanist 4): If a basic attack by this character hits, it inflicts the Mesmerize status (multiplies Aim stat by 50% for 3 turns). Critical Extra Turn (Arcanist 5): The character gets a turn immediately after any turn in which she makes a critical hit. Distortion (Arcanist 6): If an attack would deal damage to the character that does not exceed 25% of her max HP, it instead deals 0 damage. Magic Effect +25% (Arcanist 7): Damage and healing created by magical attacks used by the character have their damage or healing multiplied by 125%. Damage that is calculated by a method besides the standard magic damage formula (e.g. Dangerous Matter) is not affected. Special (Mastered): +3 Skill Slots. New characters: Tony, Labyrinthia Wordsworth Tony Stats: code:If you're not hacking equipment onto Tony for laughs, don't use him. There's just nothing he can do that's very interesting, let alone effective. Labyrinthia Wordsworth Stats: code:If she does have support, though, her four unique Originals are all distinctive and quite powerful. Warp makes her THE most mobile character turn-for-turn--with Rush on, she can move three or four squares and then teleport six more. This means that even with her slower turns, she'll be in position roughly at the same time as everyone else, and staying stationary and casting helps with that speed. Replica has definite uses for distracting enemies (Operation Crying APC works just as well here as it does in Advance Wars), she has the only Revive spell (everyone else has to use items), and for most of the game she's the only source of Electric damage. Plus, Arcanist's final learnable passive means she's getting a virtually free 25% magic damage boost comparative to any other mage. Arcanist has good skills, even if it's a poor standalone class, and Fans are an amazing mage weapon. Gunner Clarissa spends most of the game biding her time until the last classes, but this goes double for Labyrinthia. See, while Critical Extra Turn would normally do a lot to compensate for her speed, magic can't critical and her physical attack stat is awful. There's gimmicks you can do with this**, but for most of the game it's wasted. But the last set of classes consists of four classes, and each of those classes has something that helps her a lot: a) the ability to critical with magic, b) the ability to double your speed for a turn when you kill, c) cast-after-movement magic spells and improved damage against elemental weaknesses, and d) a fast, fragile class with good magic stats. Until then, though, you aren't missing too much by just replacing her with a generic, because that speed is painful. She has no place in an absolutely-optimal team... But I have a soft spot for her, and I think the game's more interesting when you stick to a party of (human) story characters. There's enough other ways to break the game. * Labyrinthia has the second-lowest speed, but the character with the lowest speed has a passive that makes them go faster, so Labyrinthia has the lowest effective speed. ** One class's Special (use the class after mastering it) skill greatly increases critical rate, and this class has bows; there's a comedy gimmick Labyrinthia build built around just shooting people in the eyes all day to tank their accuracy, thanks to Critical Extra Turn and Attack & Aim Down, because nothing has immunity to Mesmerize. (Sadly, you can't refresh buffs, so there'll always be periodic turns where it wears off.) Einander fucked around with this message at 02:41 on Jul 24, 2015 |
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Jul 23, 2015 01:17
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Act 1: Path of the Founding Knights Act 1-3  With Clarissa and Felius having reached level 2 in Dandelion Shot and Halberdier (respectively), the game gives you a short tutorial on changing out skills. In short, a slot is a slot is a slot; you can equip Move+1 or Dandelion Shot Originals without penalty, there's no limitation on points. You get more slots as you level up. (Unfortunately, using other classes' Originals does take up two slots instead of one and you only start with three additional slots, so that's a a damper for a while.)  As before, the road's closed off behind us.  (New)  Also as before, I'll be covering all the non-essential dialogue first. Town dialogue start   Welcome. We may be a humble fishing village, but hopefully you'll enjoy the ocean view, at least.The shop here also sells Labyrinthia's starting weapon and armor. The rest is the same. [Talk] When you change classes, you'll be stripped of your weapons and armor. Watch you don't run into battle unarmed afterwards. Oh, also... If a unit leaves your party after joining it for a while, he'll give all his equipment back to you. If the unit rejoins your party later, he won't have any weapons or items equipped, so don't forget to outfit him again. It all boils down to this simple advice: Always make sure to check your units' equipment before going into battle. The Martial Guard is running roughshod over this kingdom! It's driving me nuts! I came to Elesius because I heard they were recruiting talented Drifters, but do they actually expect me to work with those thugs?! I wanted a battle I could justify risking my neck for...one that would build a reputation for me if I emerged victorious! Isn't that what being a Drifter is all about?! Did you guys come here from overseas, too? Well, in that case, here's some news for you. This came as a huge surprise to me, but unlike pretty much any country ever, they don't sell ARMs in the shops in Elesius! Apparently ARM sales were prohibited by law about fifteen years ago! And what's worse, the shops don't even have any Access Points! So basically, if you want to buy a new class, tough luck! You need official permission to use Access Points, and there's a ton of paperwork involved! It's like, are you serious?! I mean, ARMs are all over the place everywhere you go in Filgaia. What a pain in the neck this place is.And that's the arbitrary explanation for why classes are plot-locked.   Sorry, we're closed for now. Muehlen, the owner, is over in the capital, and I'm watching the place for him in the meantime. I can repair household goods, but synthesizing weapons and items is still a little beyond me. I saw a monster in the woods by the road on the way here. They say there are all kinds of monsters who've taken up residence in the kingdom. I suppose I could go monster hunting if I get hard up for cash...  As I look at your face, I can't help but recall our dearly departed princess. I can't believe it's been a year since I first heard the terrible news... Lady Alexia personally visited Poliasha once. I remember all the villagers gathering to greet her... Well, I better go tend to the boat I have sitting in the dock. Once that's taken care of, it'll be time to start preparing for the Ocean Guardian Festival...Town Dialogue End  It's a little late for lunch, I suppose, but how about a quick bite together? I'll be over there with Tony in just a moment. It's the two-story building at the far end of this street. Just follow the savory scent--you can't miss it!This conversation adds the Inn to the list of locations.  Wait, is that the Confederate Battle Flag in the background? No stars, but... Weird.    What?! You dunk the whole slice of bread into your soup?  Not really. I would hate for you to think that we were all so, um... What? What's wrong with that? It's way more tasty this way! You think so too, Tony, don't you? There's the sound of Tony eating. Fade to black, fade in; Clarissa clears her throat. Well, now that we've had something to eat, maybe we could get back to that explanation you were going to give us...  Ah, yes... The explanation... Is it...difficult to talk about? No, it's just a long story. ...All I know right now is that you're a fugitive on the run and I happen to look like a dead princess. I can see how that might not be easy to explain, but think about us--how are we supposed to know what to believe? I do see your point... Well, I'll do my best. (New)  Time for a backstory dump. Narration: While most of Filgaia had been mired in endless strife, the kingdom of Elesius had amended its customs to pursue policies of peace. The driving force behind this effort was Hrathnir, the current king. But just as everyone had begun to anticipate a new era of everlasting peace, a single incident cast a pall over the entire kingdom: The death of the Princess Royal, Alexia, about one year ago. The stresses of leadership had taken a toll on King Hrathnir's health... So the princess led a small contingent to search for medicinal herbs in the mountains, where she was caught in a landslide. It had been thought that King Hrathnir was suffering from nothing more than fatigue, but after the death of his daughter, his condition worsened, leaving him unable to lead the nation. In his place, the duties of governance fell to a council of advisors whose membership was drawn from the highborn houses of Elesius: The Council of Elder Statesmen. But the Council's policies differed from those of King Hrathnir. They preferred to rule through coercion. The Martial Guard was formed under the pretext of ensuring domestic tranquility. But in truth, they act as an arm of the Council, able to wreak havoc and suppress dissent without the approval of the king. Now, the peace and tranquility that Elesius had enjoyed is slipping away, slowly but surely, leaving a palpable sense of unease in its place.  I agree, Tony.  The king's declining health, the Council's rise, and the formation of the Martial Guard... But it all stems from the death of the princess one year ago... ...And...that's the princess you say I look like? Not just "look like". You may as well be identical twins. And I would know, having had the privilege of serving as Her Highness's tutor. The same jade green eyes, the same honey-colored hair... This isn't good... Your resemblance to the late princess, you mean? ...Elesius looked so tranquil, but now we know there's darkness spreading over it... And there may be some who choose to hide in that darkness... Yeah...  What might that be? Well... When we first met, you said that you were a fugitive on the run...? Ah. So you're still stuck on that... Well, of course I am! How am I supposed to relax when I'm sitting across the table from an escaped fugitive? I can understand that... Well, I'm afraid it's true. I am indeed an escaped fugitive, a terrorist, and an enemy of the state. Perhaps even now, agents of the Council of Elder Statesmen are hunting me down? That is quite a statement... The incident with the princess a year ago... I too originally assumed it was a tragic accident, but I now know that it was an act of treachery. Do you have proof? Nothing I can show, but I've heard the Council admit to ordering it with my own two ears. I see... So they've branded you as a criminal in order to suppress what you know. But since my escape, I actually have been conspiring with other rebels against the government. So I suppose I really am a terrorist now. Mother, Father, forgive me... ... ...Is that something a prudent person would ask? Huh...? Oh...that. Well, not really, but... I appreciate the sentiment, but I'm afraid I would have to refuse your assistance anyway. Your resemblance to Her Highness Alexia is so striking that even I mistook you for her. Were you to remain here, I fear that resemblance might get you entangled in some very dangerous situations. And I would hate for you to think ill of my beloved Elesius because of it. As long as we're here, we might as well stay in the inn tonight. But when morning comes, I'd suggest departing Elesius as quickly as possible. ... If nothing else, Labyrinthia is being more rational than you, Clarissa. She's made an accurate assessment of the situation you'd be placing yourself in. Ahem. But the decision is yours, Clarissa. ...Yeah... Only the Inn has new dialogue.   Those Martial Guard bastards come rolling into town and completely bash up the place, calling it a "security crackdown" or whatever... They could come again at any time... If I were you, I'd prepare for the worst with those guys. To be honest with you, I don't know how much longer I can stand quivering under the shadow of that armed gang... This is a red !, so "Yes" will start the lead-up to a battle. I don't have any shopping to do, though, and classes can be changed on the prep screen. After picking "Yes"... The room upstairs is all yours. I better see you all here in the mornin'--I cook a mean breakfast!The music stops.  Are you awake?  (New)  And there's something else I need to apologize for... ... Even though we're on an important quest, I failed to think things through, and I almost got us sidetracked again... That impulsive streak of yours... I know that it's coming from a good place. But it's a dangerous situation and, really, the politics of Elesius are none of our business. Maybe I'm being reckless... But the urge I feel to help as I learn more about this country... It can't just be me. I think Mother would've felt the same way. Don't I have a duty to keep Mother's dream alive? It's your dream too, after all. I know you're always striving to honor Mother's wishes as well, Felius. We really have become a family, haven't we? Indeed we have. Let's make Mother's dream come true one day, okay?  Fade to black. The music stops... And then there's the sound of an alarm bell being rung.  What is it?! Get dressed, now! Labyrinthia is waiting downstairs. (New)  What's going on...? The town has been set aflame... Oh no! Because of us...?!  I dunno what y'all have done, but this hasn't got nothin' to do with you. ...But... They're tryin' to make an example out of us. This ain't the first time Poliasha's burned--it happens all the time 'round here. There was some trouble over the tax levies a little while ago. They're probably lookin' for revenge. Attacks like these have become a fact of life in Elesius. Y'all slip out through the back door, and leave the rest to me. They'll be here soon, so hurry! But what about you?! It'll be too suspicious if I'm not here when the soldiers arrive. Besides, I can buy you more time that way. And didn't I just tell ya? They're taxin' the hell out of us. It wouldn't be good business for them to kill me. Not that I'd go quietly if they tried to drag me somewhere, mind you! But... We can't just... She says she'll be okay--we should trust her. Even if we did stay, attempting to fight off the Martial Guard would only bring more trouble to the lodge. At the moment, retreat does seem to be our best option. ...Truly, the more I look at you, the more I realize how strongly you resemble the princess. That's why we can't let the Guard get their hands on you! I won't let the people of Elesius suffer through that tragedy again. We're miserable enough already. I'm so sorry, Ms. Ellen. Forgive me... I'll put the night's food and lodgings on your tab. Come back sometime and pay it off, all right?    ... Right now, the only place the roads 'round here lead to is Creedmore Prison.  ...Though it doesn't look like it'll be that easy...  D.E.R. is short for "Direct Event Report". It's a full analysis of the current situation and the way a battle will likely unfold. Relying on my D.E.R.s will help you make the tactical decisions needed to overcome even the most hopeless-looking of situations. They'll also serve as a guide to what the best equipment, items, and classes will be for the battle ahead.The map rotates in a full circle. Let's take a look at the Tactical Map we'll be fighting on.   It's important to note that the Martial Guard forces that attacked Poliasha seem quite powerful. If we attack them head-on, we may be faced with heavy casualties. These blocks can be moved by a Fantastica using the Object Attack skill. If we can barricade the road with these blocks, we might be able to outflank the enemy without crossing a single sword with them. I think that would be the most effective approach to escaping from this map. ...It's extremely important that you adjust your units' classes for the battle situation ahead. You can change classes on the Tactics Screen before each battle, so keep my D.E.R.s in mind before setting foot on the battlefield. All of the DERs go roughly like that. The game's very good about pointing out map gimmicks and warning you about changes or recommended methods.  Clarissa and Felius both hit Class Level 2 last map, and Labyrinthia came with Arcanist level 2; at the moment, none of them really need any particular passive from their unique class, so it's best to shift them to something else.   The two fighters shift to Fantastica. Fantastica is a combination of support and combat; they can slow down enemies, damage enemy MP, make all Originals cast-after-movement for two turns, or set accuracy to 100% for one turn while buffing skill activation and critical rate. Their physical and magical stats are both decent, but more importantly, they get a passive that boosts before-defense Formation Arts power by 10% and an armor that increases Formation Arts final damage by 50%. Plus, they have a surprisingly good Magic modifier (equal to Dandelion Shot), so Sacrifice stays strong enough to bust out in a pinch. As a result, screw Secutors, Fantasticas are where it's at for early game melee characters. If you're far away from the enemy, Rush mages so that enemy frontliners go down in a hail of spells; if you're close, get into formation and beat them senseless. Rush is so good that you'll have Fantastica Originals on your melee characters basically all game. Plus, as a nice bonus, Class Level 6 awards you with the CSP Up passive, and Fantastica having CSP Up on all the time lets you get there surprisingly quickly. Unfortunately, Object Attack (which lets you break or move map objects) is Class Level 7, so for most of the game, you end up having to switch to Fantastica if you need to use it.  Labyrinthia switches to Elementalist. Elementalist is the basic mage class, having access to one spell of each basic element, and it has both the highest MAG stat mod and the +25% stat passive for it.  Everyone also equips their respective starting class's Originals.  (New)  ...'Course, if you feel like puttin' up a fight, I'm not gonna stop you. It'd sure help make the job feel a bit more worthwhile! Besides, I'm gettin' pretty sick of patrollin' the outskirts of town anyway!  The four enemies directly in front this time, the ones you're supposed to run from, are level 20... But they also all have a hell of a lot less HP than the level 12 enemy of the last map. More importantly, Labyrinthia is an Elementalist and there's a chokepoint. That's really not something three Secutors and a Fantastica are equipped to deal with.  The most important thing about elemental weaknesses and resistances is that they apply before defense. This is another part of what makes Clarissa the game's best magic tank: on top of her game-best magic defense, she's 20% resistant to all elements. (Tony is 40% resistant to all, Felius is 50% resistant to Ice, Labyrinthia is 50% resistant to Fire.) Notice how all of the enemy's Resistance and Weakness modifiers add up to zero? That's how generic characters work, both allied and enemy, and that's part of what makes Elementalists powerful--unless the targets has perfect 0% modifiers on all four, you'll be able to hit some kind of weakness on most targets, though the strength varies. In general, you'll be able to hit at least a 30% weakness on every enemy.  Clarissa's job here is, as usual, to get everyone else to where they need to be.  Felius's first action on nearly any map from here until the very end of the game will be "move forward, use Rush on Labyrinthia"...  ...followed by Labyrinthia (whenever she gets a turn) move+Warping to wherever she needs to be. Rush lasts two turns and allows all Originals to be used after movement (it's a two-turn Assail, if you've played SRW)--that's enough for her to Warp up front, move+cast one spell, and then anchor herself in place to cast for a while.  Felius gets in the checkpoint. Labyrinthia has an extra turn while I wait for the Secutors to climb into the chokepoint, so she uses it to make a Replica. May as well save him a Heal Berry, the Secutors hit pretty hard.  Clarissa will be spending the rest of her turns using Encourage. Felius, when he doesn't need to heal, will be using Slow Down to keep the Secutors nice and manageable.  Garte here is 9% weak to Earth, so this is roughly "normal" damage.  He's 66% weak to Wind.  Elementalists are Not To Be hosed With. The four Elementalist spells can carry mages most of the game, just on virtue of randomly-distributed enemy weaknesses.  Secutors have two weapon types available, swords and axes, and you'll notice the enemy here has an axe. The choice is between "average strength but accurate" and "high strength but inaccurate," and everyone that isn't Felius wants Swords; your accuracy isn't that great in this game. (Felius has Upper Hand, so accuracy is less of an issue for him.) Labyrinthia hits the enemy who missed Felius (the one she hit last turn killed the Replica instead), doing 91 of his 180 HP.  Turn order before Encourage.  Turn order after Encourage. There aren't many actual chokepoints in this game, because Encourage breaks them in half. Felius gets a third Slow Down off, and now all of the Secutors are slower than Labyrinthia.  The enemy Fantastica cast Invoke this turn, granting perfect accuracy and a much higher critical and skill activation rate! ...for the Secutor who didn't move up to hit Felius. Fantasticas have a pretty great move set, but enemies are no good with it.  Before the enemy Secutor can get another turn, Labyrinthia casts, Clarissa Encourages, Felius uses Upper Hand, and Labyrinthia casts again for the kill. The enemy Fantastica moves up, so Tony jumps off the cliff, circles around, and sets up a Formation Art.  Predicted damage.  Damage with Formation Art, the Fantastica +10% Formation Art before-defense damage boost, and the +50% to final damage boost from Fantastica armor. I messed around to see how much Clarissa would do with a three-person Formation Art against the same enemy, and it's around 90 damage. Fantasticas are scary if you let them get into a Formation Arts setup.  Just the one Secutor left after this. (Note that Clarissa's down to 1 HP after using Sacrifice now that she no longer has Dandelion Shot armor on.)  And that's the second "run from this fight!" section down!  What you're supposed to do is have a Fantastica hit this cylinder from here, using the Object Attack passive that lets Fantasticas break or move objects.  Doing that will make it slide one space forward to block off the path forward, and the central alleyway has no exits; the enemy isn't smart enough to use Object Attack, so they'll be stuck there. Then you circle around the left side of the map, which also exits and which is only guarded by two level 3 enemies.  The path is also blocked by three barrels, which would be great for abusing if the enemies were more threatening. You can't climb on top of barrels, they have to be broken by Object Attack, but Labyrinthia can warp between the barrels just fine.   Labyrinthia got three Secutors and a Gadgeteer, Clarissa got two Fantasticas. Not a bad magic death toll.  Lucky Cards are consumable items that inflict EXP Up, which will increase your EXP multiplier by 1.0 after the map ends. (Dying will wipe out both the EXP UP and CSP Up statuses, so be careful of that.) They're one of those items that you tend to hoard; you get new skill slots every 10 levels, so using a Lucky Card to ensure you hit that level a little faster isn't a bad idea.  Seems fair. (I think EXP bonus is a factor of a) passive skills activated, b) Originals used, and c) enemies killed, but I'm not sure. It's complicated.) Clarissa hits Level 8, Felius and Labyrinthia hit level 6, Tony hits level 5. Both Clarissa and Felius reach Class Level 2 in Fantastica and learn Fantastica Originals.  (New)      ...They're probably being taken to prison. What for...? It's a warning from the Council, I imagine: If you try to fight us, you'll end up like this. They're using the prison as a threat. By the virtue of its merely being there, it acts as a deterrent, sapping any would-be dissidents' wills to fight. ... ...Isn't there anything we can do to help this country? I want to do something! I want to rescue the people who have been so kind to us! Is that such a terrible idea? Only you can decide what you want to do, Clarissa. All I can offer is to protect you while you pursue those goals. If your hope is to restore peace to Elesius, you'll find no more fervent ally than I. If you insist on going, please let me join you. While I may not look it, I'm actually a very capable woman. I'll show you just how useful I can be. Tony has occasional textboxes throughout the game, but it's almost always "..." instead of the usual "Woof" or such you'd get from the usual fictional dog. He's surprisingly quiet.  Next time, a breakdown of the four generic classes initally available (Secutor, Fantastica, Gadgeteer, Elementalist), and then the grand prison break.
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Jul 24, 2015 02:54
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Getting a little repetitive here, I know, but click the drat music links. A lot of good ones show up even this early. These first few fights are pretty railroaded - small cast, very limited class pool and options - but I like that the game opens up a lot. I also want to say that even if they did literally nothing besides Rush, Fantasticas would still be an excellent class. 
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Jul 24, 2015 03:25
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Hell, if memory serves the next map has my vote for Best Song in the Game. This map here is when I realized how awesome Sacrifice was. Labby was drat near bouncing off with Lightning (I kept everyone in base class until I learned their EQ skill unless the game absolutely forced a class change), while Clarissa chugged heal berries and killed every L20 enemy, hiding behind Felius the whole time. It was fun.
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Jul 24, 2015 04:15
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The properly named Fantasticas are definitely fantastic. Rush and Invoke are going to be the basis of your gameplan for practically the entirety of the game; the latter in particular is grotesque when you get the passive that Einander mentioned earlier that allows Originals to deal critical hits and a specific Original that has a very low basic hitrate. Elementalists are more or less dedicated one-shotters; in fact, if you make a generic with top-level MAG and RFX, they'll go around getting two turns to Felius' one, one-shotting drat near everything they hit. Generics are kind of overpowered, come to think of it. CmdrKing posted:Hell, if memory serves the next map has my vote for Best Song in the Game. In my view, that title is co-defended by at least five different soundtracks. The music is just that good.
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Jul 24, 2015 10:23
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I've never progressed far into the game, but I've always wondered what Felius' deal is - for some reason I've always thought he's a robot or something, unless he's just a generically cool blue-haired anime boy, I guess.
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Jul 24, 2015 12:57
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I kind of wish this game committed to the western theme more, but JRPGs seem to have a real hard time breaking the habit of falling back on their old cliches. It's probably going to turn into the same old pseudo-feudal setting in all respects save for a few different aesthetic choices.
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Jul 24, 2015 13:28
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Yeah the game that actually stuck to the theme the most was Wild ARMs 3, and even that one had a healthy amount of mecha anime themes mixed in. Wild ARMs XF sticks to its presumed theme about as well as Star Ocean does. In fact, it's practically the same as Star Ocean -- prologue happens in Western town/space, suddenly oops we're in medieval Europe, might as well get settled in.
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Jul 24, 2015 13:32
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That's not how you soup! Sure it is! Back me up here, dog! Always nice to see "escape" maps that can still be properly "won" if you know what you're doing.
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Jul 24, 2015 14:35
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vilkacis posted:Always nice to see "escape" maps that can still be properly "won" if you know what you're doing. So, of course, I beat them. Very, very difficult, but 
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Jul 24, 2015 15:15
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I remember trying this game and not getting past the first map because of the incredibly awkward hex targeting (figuring out whether something is in a straight line from Clarissa? Not easy) and abysmal voice acting. Now I'm trying it out again, and it's pretty fun! I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing in regards to optimization like Einander is doing, and the pre-battle menu interface has some truly awful design, but there's definitely a really good game in here.
Panic! at Nabisco fucked around with this message at 19:21 on Jul 24, 2015 |
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Jul 24, 2015 17:43
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theshim posted:Yggdra Union BF13 is still my favorite. You're sneaking through a canyon in the fog, avoiding most of the incredibly powerful enemy army...and, if you want, you can try to fight them, but the game isn't kidding when it tells you to run the hell away. But in that case, the game punishes you for taking the  way - you can't get to BF 14i and 14ii if you fight.All you get "punished" with in this game is more EXP.
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Jul 24, 2015 18:06
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BlazeEmblem posted:But in that case, the game punishes you for taking the
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Jul 24, 2015 18:07
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A better point may be how many similar fights in yggdra are unwinnable due to some combination of high and protect
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Jul 24, 2015 19:08
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Cake Attack posted:A better point may be how many similar fights in yggdra are unwinnable due to some combination of high and protect ...looking at that just drives home yet again how ridiculously arcane and inscrutable Sting games are.
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Jul 24, 2015 20:09
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theshim posted:...looking at that just drives home yet again how ridiculously arcane and inscrutable Sting games are. Speaking of, I wonder why nobody's LPed Hexyz Force yet?
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Jul 24, 2015 20:47
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