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voting secret mystery option
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Dec 4, 2023 17:30
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A. Sleep Aura is funny in that it's a scary enemy move and a future combo piece, but at base it's pretty useless. Being able to Sleep all enemies on turn 2 isn't really worth all that MP, especially when Sleep Bomb is free. Hunter does at least answer the question of "what secondary can I give my Rogue." Can't use any of the bow skills, but Hide helps manage aggro! It's not nothing. They're also a higher-damage option for randoms, so it's not a bad wandering-around class for your Rogue character. The Fancy Quintar is a scripted boss. It'll always use Quick after the same number of turns, and that number of turns is low enough that it's going to be very hard to survive it on Hard when you can first encounter it. It's probably the first real wall there, and I'd probably recommend it as the last thing you do before you finish up the things around the capital.
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Dec 4, 2023 18:32
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Leraika posted:voting secret mystery option
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Dec 4, 2023 20:59
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Voting secret mystery option, which I'm positive won't somehow involve Greenshire Reprise!
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Dec 4, 2023 21:17
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Also voting for sEcrEt mystEry option.
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Dec 4, 2023 21:37
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One of the issues with Chemist is that one of their abilities is "inflict a random debuff on enemies." That sounds pretty cool! The problem is that "confusion" counts as a debuff, and "confusion" means they will attack a random enemy target. So instead of swinging at your tank that you have built to grab aggro and eat poo poo, they'll swing at a random party member, which could be one of your squishy casters. This is generally not an ideal situation. Also I am voting option C.
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Dec 4, 2023 23:03
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Charity might be less mean to quintar if you take the obvious path
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Dec 4, 2023 23:42
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Chemist is a little strange. By this point you've gotten used to not being able to use your consumables in battle, and then here's a class that lets you use consumables mid fight. It feels bad to have a class whose primary contribution is letting you spend money to heal, at a time where money is not exactly infinite, but it's notable in that it includes one of the few methods of regaining MP mid-battle.
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Dec 5, 2023 00:07
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I don't think hunter is bad, necessarily, but it's one of very few classes that imo only really works as a primary. It's honestly kind of impressive how walled in it is in its own little ecosystem. Most weapon locked skills are at least kind enough to give you two options to pick between. But not Hunter, it's bows or nothing. And it's not just bow skills that are rare, there's barely any other classes that can even equip bows, period. Hunter is literally the only one we have so far. So if you want to run hunter as a secondary, you're most likely paying a PP tax just for basic functionality, and then on top of that you need a plan to mitigate the accuracy issues. It's a lot of effort for not that much payoff compared to just... running your hunter as a hunter.
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Dec 5, 2023 02:26
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Gonna vote B. Also, that was a fun update. Lots of cute and/or funny moments. Good work!
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Dec 5, 2023 04:40
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I'm voting for C because sometimes it's fun to see the basic obvious thing. 
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Dec 5, 2023 05:52
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Alright, looks like the non-secret mystery option won by a small amount. I'm gonna close the voting here and do some recording because my fever finally broke and I wanna play some good games.
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Dec 5, 2023 18:26
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Hunter got a lot of use in my playthrough as a secondary for a later class as a type of alpha striker build. Getting to delete or severely weaken a priority target always helps.
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Dec 6, 2023 04:31
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Their multitarget shot has some amazing synergies for grinding battles quickly with some future crystals. The raw damage output is quite strong.
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Dec 6, 2023 15:34
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I do wish a few more ability sets could use bow, but hunter is very good for my lazy brain which just wants to delete random encounters without too much fuss. Lots of damage very front-loaded is always handy imo, if not always the best for the hardest content.
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Dec 6, 2023 18:53
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Voting E. Isn't Enami just a double-transliterated Enemy?
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Dec 7, 2023 03:16
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Update 10: Greenshire Reprise  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA7lEZG1ktI Hamza: This place had better be tough. Vanessa: You never know, maybe that guard was just messing with us and this place is super easy.         Greenshire Reprise is made up of narrow valleys and tall ridges. Along with the local BGM and an increase in the local mistiness, it makes the place feel more spacious and ominous than it actually is.       Hamza: An enemy! Tau: Do you have to? We could just keep going west... Vanessa: Too late, he already jumped.    So the locals here are actually reasonably tough... and also completely optional. You can just walk along the bridges and skip the valleys entirely.      Cultists will vaporize you with lightning.     While the Familiars provide physical muscle and will use the Escape skill if their handlers are killed.       Vanessa: Tough enough for you? Hamza: ...yeah okay, that's my daily fill of getting my rear end kicked.      There are a few chests in the valleys, but not many. I would say it's a very skippable section, though it does look nice.             The waters at the south end of Greenshire Reprise are the same waterfalls that spill over the edge into Delende.        The full Cultist formations are probably the easiest thing to fight in Greenshire, because their lower defense means that if you've got enough fast AoE attacks, you can blast them all down before they get a chance to cast any spells.        Tau: ...I don't think this is getting us anywhere, let's just head back up top.      We're also being teased by chests that, as far as I know, we can't reach until we get our hands on more mobility options.     And this bridge is why you need the Quintar before going this way, you can't cross this gap otherwise.     It's a jump that always challenges me more than it should, but if you jump off the railing instead of actually from the bridge, it's a lot easier.           https://soundcloud.com/vindsvept/never-to-return Charity: ...oh this music is so sad. Hamza: If an elf shows up and cries at us I'm logging off.           Down along the south side of the cave there's this rather excellent book, one of the few I've occasionally found a reason to use. Being able to get spells off faster can make fights a good deal easier and give you more of a chance to exploit slow spells like Reverse Polarity.         Vanessa: Oh thank God, a new zone already. That music was making me all maudlin.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUkDC--_7E4         Tau: At least now we know we're on the right track. Vanessa: The right track where? Tau: You know... onwards, forwards. Usually when we've been making progress we've bumped into those guys. Vanessa: Could just mean they're confused in the same way we are.      So the gimmick of this area is that you'll be moving up-river, jumping from log to log as you go, and something over half of the logs will have a flame on them, rushing back and forth. The flames don't chase you, so if you time your jumps right, you can hop over them and avoid most of them.  Of course, I intend to show off most of the enemies here, so I won't be dodging ALL of the flames.       Most of the enemies and formations here aren't individually powerful, but if you fight EVERYTHING you'll be going through I think something like ten or fifteen encounters before you hit a save point, meaning you'll probably be tapped out on MP and HP unless you come here late.            Which isn't to say that some of them can't hit hard on their own if you're careless.          Hamza: This is what an ideal area is like: lots of fighting, lots of jumping, no one talking!        There are also a couple of mean jumps, like this one, where the tree will obscure the flame, making it hard to dodge.         And of course if you miss a jump and end up in the drink, you'll get reset usually just in time to get immediately attacked by a flame.    Charity: ...that is an unsettlingly swole turtle.        If I hadn't tagged the Shelldin with a physical attack down condition, it would've bench pressed Charity into oblivion with a single hit. Vanessa: This is why people shouldn't flush their steroids, that's how you get angry, burly amphibians.            Hamza: ...do we have to dodge so many of the fights? Vanessa: We don't have enough recovery items for all of them, they all chip away at us. Tau: And I'd rather not get stuck grinding the first five encounters here over and over just so you can brute force your way through.        Charity: And, personally, if I never have a frog try to shank me again, it'll be too soon.          Hamza: So, would you guys rather fight one horse-sized frog or a hundred frog-sized horses? Vanessa: That's a completely nightmarish hypothetical. Hamza: Well since I'm not allowed to get into fights here, I have to pass the time somehow.     Tau: ...one horse-sized frog. Frogs aren't that scary. Charity: Frog-sized horses for me. I feel like you could just ignore them. Hamza: See, Vanessa? Everyone else is playing along. Vanessa: ...horse-sized frog, single big things drop better loot. Plus there'd probably be some fancy restaurant that'd pay big bucks for frog legs as big as your arm.          While you need a Quintar to get here, I don't believe any of the actual jumps up along the river require a Quintar to make, though some of them are certainly made easier by having one.     Tau: We made it! Charity: And what a lovely little cottage at the end!              Vanessa: I think ALL of these dorks have something wrong with them.              Vanessa: At least they're giving us presents, I guess... though they feel kind of like pity. The Courtyard Key, to me, makes it obvious that this is the intended path to take before going to Cobblestone Crag, but it's also not necessary at all. You can get to the Crag either through the Quintar Nest OR you can just get up on to the walls trivially and walk to the same place the Courtyard Key would unlock.  Tau: I wonder where they're going next... Vanessa: They're probably going to shadow us and then rush ahead and stand around dramatically just before we arrive the next place we're going. Tau: Doesn't it ever get tiring, being so cynical? Vanessa: Hey, you'll see I'm right.      Charity: Cute bears!  Charity: Cute little bear ears!    Charity: Cute little bear noses!   Charity: Cute little bear capitalism! Vanessa: What she means is yes, we want a ticket.  So, anyway, surprise, the "stadium" out in the water at the Seaside Cliffs is one end of the the Salmon Run minigame.     https://soundcloud.com/vindsvept/vindsvept-westward   The "trick" to getting ahead is primarily jumping BEFORE you hit a waterfall. The jump will give you a good bit more upwards momentum than just flopping into the waterfall and then swimming up it.   Hamza: Whoah, these fish can get some air! This rules!   Tau: Pffflllblargh! Surface! Surface!     Hamza: We're faster this way, just close your mouth!     Charity: Such a cute audience! Vanessa: They're bears, they're not watching us, they're watching the fish.      After a run up from the seaside, we end up back at the Salmon River.   The flames are entirely real and its possible to end up in a fight if you jump into them. Bumping into the logs is also a good way to lose a bunch of time, so either jump over them or swim under them.        With a "rental salmon," it's not possible to get better than a 10th place, I believe, so we'll have to take another crack at this when we have our own salmon. In any case, what I'm really here for is the consolation prize you always get.      The Poseidon Shard!        The Poseidon Shrine is just behind the Salmon Shack.     So now we can get the Poseidon Stone and have a permanent warp back here. It can both be used to break a bit out of bounds, in the sense of getting into the Overpass and some places I don't believe we're meant to get to yet, and simply as a way to return here once we get our own Salmon without needing to climb the river again. Speaking of, the Salmon is the last mount you're supposed to get, but you can actually get it from this point onwards. The secret is that while you're in the Salmon Run, you're on a timer... but there are no walls keeping you in the run. So you can technically swim to the exit of the dungeon that gets you your own Salmon, and grab it with the rental Salmon. I will not be doing that since it would completely gently caress the intended progression of the game, but it's funny that you technically can.    Before going to the crag, I'll take a quick step past the capital garden where our seeds have sprouted. What did we get?        Pretty much anything you can plant will result in a pretty nasty encounter if you plant it as soon as you're able.    Landslide is a mean spell.   In any case, the only real reason to beat this thing up is to get Nan's Secret Stew ingredients. Time to go use our new Courtyard Key.          The West door mostly serves as easier access to Enami and you can walk westwards across the walls and, I believe, end up at Lake Delende.              And the east door gets you an easier trip to Cobblestone Crag.  Tau: I bet that big demon is still around, how are we going to get past it? Charity: Don't worry, I planned for that. Tau: ...you made a plan? Vanessa: She made a plan and it almost makes sense.   Charity: There's no way a demon would bother to chase down a cute penguin!     Vanessa: I'm still going to treat this as a stealth mission, mind you.   Charity: It's working so far!   Tau: ...I'm starting to have my doubts. The Crag Demon hovers out of view off the cliffs but will start chasing you any time you're not hidden behind something, which means that it'll occasionally just show up while you're in a very bad position and it's hard to tell where it's patrolling when you haven't aggroed it yet.      Vanessa: I think we're busted!  Charity: I can't believe a demon would try to hunt a poor, innocent penguin!    Charity: Call the quintar! Call the quintar!     You can't jump this gap without a Quintar, but you could almost certainly get a quintar down the Quintar Nest and out that exit and get it over here without getting the Quintar Flute. It's just easier this way.     Charity: Is it gone? It's gone! Vanessa: Stupid penguin outfit, it didn't help at all! Tau: Well, no, but it was pretty funny watching you run around in a panic while wearing it.             Vanessa: I'll give you ten silver if you shove Charity off the cliff, too.       In any case, the Cobblestone Crag leads over into the Underpass.             Hamza: Hmmm up... or down... up... or down... up- Charity: Just go up, please.               The way up is kind of a switchback that leans outwards more as it goes up, rather than leaning inwards. This is excellent because it means that if you gently caress up and fall you usually go into the drink and just reset.           This is sadly one of the other music tracks I couldn't find anywhere. But imagine it as being kind of Asian-y and relaxed, appropriate to climbing a mountain covered in what I presume are meant to be flowering cherry trees.         The switchback is meant to continue, but you can use the trees growing out of the mountainside to skip parts of it in a couple of places.        These chubby little squirrels are not any sort of threat, but this mountainside does have something scary.          Axebeaks are the scary part of this mountain. A single one isn't too bad, but still...      ...it will loving HURT if it hits. So, let's find the even scarier formation they're part of.             Two Axebeaks! The trick is not to get tempted by multi-target attacks and instead just focusing on killing one of them at once. It still takes me multiple tries to take these guys down.    This is how the first couple of tries end up, i.e. with the party getting torn apart by large angry parrots.     The reward is a nice enough knife for rogues, but since Vanessa's currently using a bow, it feels a bit anticlimactic.             Charity: I wonder what's going to be at the top... dragon's lair, maybe? Tau: ...a bit early for a dragon. Maybe a roc or a phoenix, though. Vanessa: Sure, but this climb has been sort of Asian-themed. Do they have rocs and phoenixes in Asian mythology? Hamza: Whatever is up top, we're gonna beat its rear end and take its stuff. Just as long as it has the decency to be a little bit challenging.             Vanessa: What the gently caress is a Yashiki? We'll find out next time.
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Dec 12, 2023 23:44
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It's some kind of manor or estate. "Rental salmon" is a phrase that will live in my head for a while, at least they aren't jumping lizards with no depth perception.
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Dec 13, 2023 00:59
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You can actually get a pretty decent finish with just a rental salmon if you really work at it. I believe I've managed fourth on one. Higher than that is probably out of the question, though.
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Dec 13, 2023 06:07
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The big thing about Shelldin is that they have an "act immediately after using a non-damaging effect" passive. It's a recurring trick some enemies have and all of them are cheating bastards. Mercifully it IS reflected on the action timeline, as you can see in those screenshots, so it's only going to blindside you if you aren't paying attention. The fact it means you can't use the damage prediction is annoying, though. It is very easy to take a wrong turn and go up a different waterfall during the Salmon Run, because there's nothing really marking the actual course other than the other racers. Sadly, a high finish with the rental Salmon mostly comes down to having other faster Salmon shove you forward, and it's just long enough to be a pain to retry. Going to Cobblestone Crag seems to be the main point where new players get lost. Most people see the scary demon and say "no thanks," I guess. Double Axebeak formation exists to convert you to the cult of Sleep Bomb. Sleep Bomb is love, Sleep Bomb is life.
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Dec 14, 2023 03:52
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When I saw "Nut Gobble," I thought that hey, it's a squirrel, maybe it's just a coincidence? And then I saw that the bird has "Pecker Slash." Nope, that was very intentional.
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Dec 14, 2023 23:02
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PurpleXVI posted:Vanessa: This is why people shouldn't flush their steroids, that's how you get angry, burly amphibians. To quote a certain purple masked ninja: "Amphibious, we're still reptiles.".
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Dec 15, 2023 19:59
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Update 11: Ninjas & Sand Tau: Wikipedia says... "some kind of manor or estate." Charity: So like Resident Ninja.    Welcome to the Ninja Yashiki, it has the same music as the trip up the mountain. There's only one flame here, but there are still combat encounters, for instance, you walk under this arch...    ...and this fucker on the roof drops down to stab you.   All of the ninjas kick off the battle with this skill which is their only real mean trick.     Because I piled +accuracy accessories on Vanessa, she can actually still hit them about half the time, but otherwise it's really just a matter of swinging away until the dodging ends and the murdering begins.   Monk Tau is also useful because one of the Monk skills has a guaranteed hit effect. Normally a guaranteed miss would take precedence, but because this skill technically just makes hits very unlikely rather than outright impossible, it still works.    Technically you only need to run into one ambush, since you need to hit the very first one, but I'll be bumping into all of them on purpose.      To the right there's this little sort of ninja training ground you can use to get up on the walls.      Once we have a way to get some extra jumping height, I believe we could use this wall to do a bit of sequence breaking, though we wouldn't necessarily want to.   If you try the other entry gate, you get ambushed by this other ninja down here, by the way.   If you spot him under there and walk up to him, he's got a bit of dialogue. He's the exact same as Moruto but has a different elemental seal attack.    Hamza: Ninjas are only fun if there are swarms of them. Vanessa: I disagree, ninjas are inherently rad, they're badass thieves.     Sukara has Counter as a passive ability that the others don't, making them marginally more dangerous.         Oddly enough, the inside of the dojo, yashiki, place, is probably the place where you get ambushed by people with swords the least. It's exactly complicated enough that you feel smart for finding paths but not so complicated you feel like you're playing Baba Is You.       Tau: Did we miss a secret path or something down here? Hamza: What we missed... was jumping.       Hamza: We have to out-ninja the ninjas at ninja'ing to ninja their ninja ninja ninja ninja. Vanessa: You can just stop.           You can't get up without doing that little bit of platforming outside, and there are also a few surprises in here.      Our first katana, it'll be a while before we can actually use it. Now, there's actually a hidden ambush in here if you go down into the dark.    An NPC samurai! Vanessa: Ugh, samurai, they're just pretentious fighters. Hamza: Wearing sweet armor and wielding a big sword is cool...     The Samurai gimmick is that they have a number of AP-requiring skills that are free actions and drop "combo" tokens on an enemy for one turn. And the more combo tokens are on a given enemy, the harder their "finisher" moves, the "Ken" attacks hit.    He completely obliterates Vanessa in a single turn. Hamza: Hell yeah! Samurai! Cool poo poo!  Hamza: Not so cool I'm not gonna beat you up, though.     The way down to the "hidden" part of the ground floor is behind the stairs up.   Which yields up this odd book that gives you extra AP per turn. I think I can see some sort of Cleric+Monk skill where you wield the Art of War so you can use the Monk's apex skill that runs off AP and has damage based on Spirit, one of the Cleric's strongest stats, more often.        We still gotta keep going up, though, and there are no more stairs, however, if we go out on the balcony, we can still find a way.   If you're on the right or left side of the building you can make the jump up to the higher level.      And then we get us a boss fight. Oh boy.    Kuromanto's skills are all ones we've seen before. A normal attack(that he almost never uses), a multi-target physical attack, a multi-target fire spell, the dodge ability the ninjas outside used and a spell that makes the target die in a couple of turns unless the condition is removed. The first fights, well...    He beats my rear end pretty badly! I get him decently damaged but he wins in the end.      The main problem is that the only way I can see to beat him reliably requires a Rogue, so I need to switch Vanessa over, and I need Tau's full mana pool, so they're back to being a Cleric again for this fight. After that, I still get dunked on a few times because while I can neuter Kuromanto with Trick Slash and Eye Gouge, when I need to make a bunch of "empty" swings to wear off his dodges first, it can be hard to time. However! There's still a ~20 to 40% chance for some characters to hit, and sometimes they get in a hit when they shouldn't, so instead of prepping Kuromanto for being blinded or interrupted, Hamza just ends up doing damage or something, goddammit. I also end up having Tau need to throw out some Lucky Dice to attract aggro.     The run at him that actually works ends up going surprisingly smoothly, Kuromanto can't one-shot any member of the party, and as a Warlock, Charity is able to remove the Death Sentence from Hamza(who's Taunted Kuromanto into being the target for any single-target attacks) without Tau needing to take a break from multi-target healing with Sun Bath(Tau's secondary remains Scholar).   Hamza: Paper? He dropped paper? Charity: Now if only we could unlock a class that can read.    Predictably we get the Ninja here. Ninjas are... one of my least favourite classes. All of their abilities are powered by Scrolls, and they have access to a number of elemental attacks, as well as the dodge-boosters we've seen(including one that allows them to no-sell magical attacks, too). They have access to a ton of elements, which makes them flexible for hitting weaknesses, but their limited number of scrolls(max 30, and I do not think there are any scroll pouches) make them somewhat of a liability on longer dungeons, and they have no multi-target or condition-causing abilities. They also get the ability to dual-wield(though to not make it totally busted they lose 35% of the attack value on each weapon), so you could if nothing else use them as a primary class to get more physical bonkery or have a mage wield two wands for more Mind.  Hamza: That was a pretty cool fight, even if we got a lame class- Vanessa: I'm so turning into a Ninja next. Hamza: -but I think there's more we can do here. Tau: This is absolutely not where we're meant to be. Hamza: Good. I love going where I'm not allowed.     From the yashiki's roof, you can escape into the Overpass. You can't really do much with it... but it's there, it's the principle of it.       There's an Overpass Scrap, and this pool will have a purpose later.     Charity: Ugh, this place is so barren and drab... hey, is that some grass down there? That looks kinda neat.    So, if you like not dying, for a good while, any time you spot grass in the Overpass... you haul rear end away from it. Why? Lemme show you. Vanessa: Oh joy, we get to be lab rats.   There'll usually be a gray flame, a Quintar Egg or several, hanging out near the front, and then inside, a deep red flame!     The Quintars out here, uh, will just absolutely dumpster us. There's nothing we can really do yet.  Tau: Well, the mountain was a dead end- Vanessa: Emphasis on the dead. Tau: -so this must be the way to progress, onwards!    Charity: The purple lanterns are a nice touch. I wonder where this goes? Hamza: Down. Charity: I mean, yes, but down to what? A mysterious cave? Mysterious water? Mysterious mysteries?    https://soundcloud.com/schematist/last-samurai-21-days-of-vgm-day-17 The music here is another melancholy track. I feel like it conjures up a mental image of mists and darkness.       We descend all the way to the sea, which is far enough down that if we drop off the cliff from the top it takes multiple seconds before we get down there and drown.    Charity: A goat! Finally some kind of normal animal! C'mere goat.      As soon as we interact with the goat, it walks into the wall and sort of... glides up it. I guess to suggest goatish abilities to climb near-vertical surfaces. Charity: Noooooo, goat, come back. I just wanted something normal...     Hamza: Feels like this place is falling apart.         Hamza: Even with the Quintar there's no way we can jump over to those stairs.  Tau: Hey! Can you throw us a rope? A ladder? A cutting remark? Anything? Hello? Vanessa: Either she can't hear us or she doesn't care.      Tau: A dead end and a shrine stone for a shrine we haven't visited yet. Vanessa: Seems obvious we're meant to use it, but where the heck is it going to bring us? Charity: Hopefully somewhere a bit less depressing.   When we use the Mars Stone, we get a fade to black instead of an immediate arrival.  And another quote from the creator before we get to arrive at our location.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elpocD1WwRY The version used in the game is without lyrics.   Hamza: Where the hell is this?    No one in here saying Hail Mars. This place is ruined.      There's only one intact structure in the Poko Poko Desert, but ruins are scattered across it.       Hamza: No people and no buildings, but at least we still have fights!    The desert has a number of cactus enemies with Counter moves responding to physical damage, which is rude, none of these enemies have any notably special skills otherwise.   Not that this means they aren't tough, Pinching Pincers are absolute powerhouses in terms of damage. Like an idiot, I figure I can get to safety without reviving Vanessa and Tau, just using the Quintar to dodge encounters, but...        Charity: ...this is just a badly spelled Cactuar.  It's like the little cactuses we already fought, but now the counter is multi-target and thus a lot nastier. You do NOT want to hit this guy with anything physical unless you've got him blinded first. Of course, I entered this fight with one of my casters dead, so I had to rush and have Charity revive Tau and Vanessa and try to pull out a win.  Not that it doesn't come at the cost of a few party members beat up.         Hamza: ...okay those were some spicy fights, but we should be safe up here for now. Charity: Is there anything out here but sand and enemies?    Charity: I think I see something to the south... at least it's different from more desert. Hamza: Fingers crossed the Quintar can keep us out of trouble for that long.            Welcome to the Sara Sara Bazaar, once again another track I can't find uploaded anywhere. It's a chill, strings-heavy track with a drum backing, or perhaps the other way around, I'm bad at describing music.  Not incorrect advice, if you wanna dodge most of the fights, you need your quintar ready.       ...and here's one of the odder bits in the game.                  Tau: Well, that was a thing that happened. If you have the Fresh Salmon and the Rotten Salmon from the fishing shack back in Delende, this guy gives you a pretty decent Rapier for your time. You can just buy more Fresh Salmon if you need, and if you've somehow tossed the Rotten Salmon, you should be able to get it back from the Lost & Found, since I don't believe there are any further opportunities to interact with the Scam Salmon Seller(tm) after he bolts.     Nan really is everywhere.            The main reason to pay to use this inn is so you can get this staff, which is a pretty nice upgrade for Tau as a Monk, but would be pretty meh if you weren't rolling a Monk on anyone. However, the idea of leaving behind a piece of equipment galls me deeply.  Vanessa: Ah, one of these guys again. Let's see what's new.             Vanessa: ...you know, these guys feel kind of arrogant, like they know the world better than we do. Tau: Quest, though. Hamza: And he's also gonna give us stuff, I like stuff. I know you like stuff. Vanessa: ...yeah, which is why we're still gonna do it.         Charity: A tram key? Does this place have trains? Tau: Technically a tram isn't the same as a train. Charity: Train-like. We gotta keep this place in mind.      More stuff we need to find in the Poko Poko Desert. We'll get started on that next update, but it's a lot tougher to do than it seems if you don't know what you're doing, and some of it is still a bit pinchy.        The Sara Sara Bazaar also has some docks.        Tau: ... Charity: What's up, Tau? Tau: This... thing. Charity: This orc pirate? Pirates are kinda cool, they're like sea ninjas. Tau: It's the orc part! We haven't seen any elves or dwarves or anything so far! Everyone's a human! Why are there orcs? Why?!      Once we've interacted with the merchants in Sara Sara, the merchants back in the Capital also start selling their stuff, which is a nice way to avoid you having to travel back to merchants in the rear end end of absolutely nowhere to buy the Zorgosword or whatever.          There are 24 classes in the game, we start with 6 of them, thus 18 crystals, and we currently have 8 of them, so this is a while off unless we can find another way to get a pass.  Not just an off-hand comment. Actually relevant.         This guy gives us access to gold upgraded armor, though we still don't have access to gold upgraded weapons. This also transfers to the smiths back in the capital.   More of the goons again.           Something weird here is that I swear the ferry's meant to actually be there in the water so Chloe's comments make more sense, but it's not there. I don't think it spawns until we get the ferry pass ourselves, though, but I swear it was here the first time I got here originally.              Up here is a semi-hidden shop that lets you turn smaller consumables into bigger ones in exchange for money, mashing a bunch of the weaker ones together.   And a map for somewhere we haven't been yet, hmmmm.           Now we could go out into the desert and get started, but the update's already running long, and there's something back in the capital I don't want to miss.    First, the notice board has gotten updated.         Vanessa: You know when someone tells me not to do something, it makes me want to do it. Hamza: Off to the castle, then? Vanessa: Absolutely.     Vanessa: Guards, huh? Hamza: If someone's guarding something, that just means it's important and they should be beaten up and their stuff taken. Tau: Come on, do we have to fight everyone? Hamza: Just everyone we're allowed to. Tau: Well, I'm convinced that if we just take a little break, sanity will prevail. Right, Charity? Charity: ...I do kinda want to see what's in there, it might look cool! VOTE A: Kill the guards. B: Be nice and don't kill the guards. We'll be going to the desert afterwards in either case.
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Dec 25, 2023 03:20
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Dec 25, 2023 07:52
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A, murder. The Art of War is one of the few useful book weapons, because there's a couple of mage classes that use AP. Sure, you don't have either of those classes yet, but books don't improve magic damage anyway, so the book's passive is the only part that matters. Unlike some games, dual-wielding works for physical skills in general instead of being locked to the Attack command. Aside from that Ninja's pretty bad, but at least (like Hunters) they have knives. It's pretty common for your party Rogue to wander among the classes with Rogue secondary locked to the slot, and if the class already can equip knives, then hey, you've saved a few passive points on Equip Knife. If you're only doing Rogue things with them anyway due to the class's aggro management requirements, then Ninja's the best chassis for a while yet. If the Fancy Quintar was when bosses start to get mean then the Desert is when normal enemies start to get mean, especially since the enemies there move fast enough that you need a Quintar AND to be good at dodging. Being there without the Quintar Flute would not be a fun time. The Bazaar Quintar rental is neat because Desert Quintars move notably faster than normal Quintars. Being able to rent Desert Quintars there is kind of pointless, though, what with rented Quintars disappearing the moment you dismount. But if you're real bad at dodging enemies then I guess every bit helps?
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Dec 25, 2023 09:26
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'Tis the season for copious amounts of violence. A.
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Dec 25, 2023 10:54
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Huh. I assumed that particular bulletin board message was triggered by poking around the castle yourself. Because it's totally possible to have done that already at this point. Speaking of which, B nice, it's pretty trivial to bypass these guys by the time it matters anyway.
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Dec 25, 2023 15:49
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Cattail Prophet posted:Huh. I assumed that particular bulletin board message was triggered by poking around the castle yourself. Because it's totally possible to have done that already at this point. I never actually encountered them on my first playthrough, so I believe at some point they may actually despawn.
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Dec 25, 2023 16:33
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For those who have been in the "tempted to get this game but not sure" group, it's one of the many games in the Winter Steam Sale. Sure, it's not a lot off given it's already pretty cheap, but 25% discount might be enough of a drop to make you want to gift it to a friend too. If that's your thing. Anyways, tangent's done. Voting for A, but show the path you could have taken to spare them after.
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Dec 26, 2023 05:49
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I really liked Ninja because it confirmed to me that the dev definitely played FFXI
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Dec 29, 2023 13:14
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Chillgamesh posted:I really liked Ninja because it confirmed to me that the dev definitely played FFXI Ninja actually saved my rear end this next update, which I'm somewhat huffy about because that makes it notably harder to insist that it's a trash badman class.
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Dec 29, 2023 13:24
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Magic evasion is a powerful enough effect that I'm willing to forgive a lot. I feel like you're also overestimating how high enemy hit rates get in practice; utsusemi + perfect dodge is pretty consistent IME. Totally agreed on the elemental seals being underwhelming, though. I feel like they either need to not cost scrolls, or the status effect needs to last longer. It's just too hard to consistently get value out of one turn debuffs when they only offer offensive utility.
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Dec 29, 2023 16:56
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Update 12: Sand 2 Hamza: Alright, I won Rock Paper Scissors, so we're going to see what these guys want, and if they give us sass, we're going to fight them.   Hamza: This legally counts as sass.        Tau: They're really high strung. Charity: They'll either have a heart attack or log off. Vanessa: Also FYI get ready, Hamza's about to attack those two guys.   So, we're not winning this fight right now. These guys are WAY faster than us, and generally any enemies that act before you are bad news.   Orchard starts out by weakening Tau and murdering Charity.  And then Little H. drops a multi-target attack that clears out everyone except for Hamza. Love to see it.   Orchard is a very strange Ninja/Hunter mix, which means he can't use most Ninja skills and since bows are always two-handed, can't really benefit from the Ninja passive either.   Little H. is a more straightforward pure Samurai whose basic attack is a multi-target Cleave instead. He's got a passive effect that gives him +30 AP at battle start which lets him whip out all the brutal Samurai combos near instantly, which is probably what he'd do on his second turn if we didn't all get owned by Orchard next.  Yeah, not happening for the time being.  Back to the desert. Tau: Well, I feel like we all learned an important lesson. Charity: Not to attack strangers for no good reason? Hamza: No, we learned to min/max and grind before we attack strangers for no good reason.    Until you get a map of the Poko Poko Desert, it's a deceptive area where it's easy to get lost and confused. One of the BIGGEST things to know, though, is that the two exits from the Sara Sara Bazaar do not actually lead to the same area despite both saying they drop you into the Poko Poko Desert. Rather, the right exit drops you into an elevated section of the desert that can't be reached from the lower part of the desert(with our current mobility options). Thinking they were similar got me very confused my first time playing since I kept looking for stuff that wasn't there, heading out of the western exit every time.      Our first goal will be to find the lost child, since that's the easiest. Just get out of the eastern gate and stick to the right wall all the way.   The desert still has plenty of formations and several enemies we haven't seen yet.          Occasionally these sandstorms start, blurring up the screen and spawning a type of enemy that to the best of my knowledge does not otherwise spawn, and which is extremely aggressive, targeting you well beyond the range of what other enemies do.     This ain't it, though, the Tusk Thruster is just a burly single-target enemy.      Also I think that bar one, all the ruins have some sort of loot. Silver upgrade materials, new gear, etc.            This is about the easternmost part of the desert.        Hamza: How does a kid make it all the way out here without getting eaten by monsters? Vanessa: Forget about how, consider why. There's no candy, toys, comic books, videogames or other kid stuff out here. Not even other kids to play with. Hamza: Yeah, probably possessed by a demon or something. Oh well, there's a reward for getting him back.       Tau: ...is he going to get back okay? Hamza: He somehow got out here okay, so he's probably tougher than we are.     Just west of the boy are some rocks to platform off of. Pretty much any time there are isolated chunks of rock in proximity in the desert, you can use them to platform somewhere.    Mostly showing this place off because I got attacked by a new enemy here.   Despite having a number of nasty spells, the Chimera actually goes down like a chump after a single casting of Haze(single-target low-damage spell that weakens damage output for a few turns).    After that I jump down and get lost in the desert for a while. Vanessa: Whoah, is that...      Vanessa: LET ME IN! LET ME IIIIIIN! There's treasure in there, I know it! Hamza: Come along now, we'll probably find the key eventually. Vanessa: But what if the treasure gets bored and leaves without me.              Lots of ruins. I'm looking for the right one, but without a map it's more or less impossible to intentionally find anything in this loving sandbox.   While searching, I also get ambushed by the sandstorm-specific enemy.    Most if not all enemies that know Star Glow start the fight by self-buffing with it, giving you some time to murder them before they blow you up with a big spell. They're not very threatening as single enemies because you can just pour all your murder on them.   Finally I find the ruin I want. Advancing in the desert requires switching on your Platformer Brain.        If you find what you're looking for, you can also backtrack to a place to get started on getting to it, but simply going to the tallest places you can all the time will otherwise serve you well.      What I hate about the desert's platforming, though, is that you need the Quintar for some jumps, and it has a bit of slipperiness to its movement, and if you drop down once, you need to backtrack and start over because there's nothing underneath to kill you, just sand.            Tau: That's two out of three of these trinkets.  There's also something to collect if you go south after reaching the ridge rather than north.             If you have a Fencer, the Dueller is VERY good for a while. The guaranteed crit means that the Nighthawk skill, which does an additional 150% crit damage, can be used for some real gnarly alpha strikes on something that needs to die turn one, or you can use Swallowtail to do a boosted chunk of damage to everyone on the field.             Elsewhere a ruin holds the "Butter Cutter" a nice dagger with a special attack. One of its oddities is that the "reduce to 1 HP rather than killing" effect also seems to apply to skills, though that may also be an odd artifact that only pops up when it's dual-wielded by a Ninja. Not having to sacrifice first turn damage to get a Steal in is nice, but making a normal attack also means getting your Rogue some Threat, so it goes best with a different dagger-wielding class.          There's also a hidden axe nearby. A lot of higher-tier axes have bonus AP at start of combat effect, which can be extremely useful. 4 AP isn't the biggest thing, but just getting a bit ahead of the game in terms of getting your big attacks out can be a big deal, and others give even more.      Hamza: Nnnngh, can't... jump... high enough... Vanessa: Maybe we should just head back to the Bazaar and cash in that quest before you strain something, big guy.       Vanessa: ...well I asked why he was out in the desert, the answer was darker than I expected. Tau: Ferry pass, though, progress! Vanessa: We're not leaving here until we get into that goddamn pyramid.         So the last token can't be reached unless you head out of the East gate, from the West gate it's completely inaccessible.          If you do head out of the East gate, though, just stick left instead of right, and take every chance you can find to get higher, and you'll easily get to it.     Mostly I find the Poko Poko Desert a great example of how denying the player a map can make an area that's in reality not particularly huge, feel massive. So time to head back and hand them in to Reid.             Vanessa: Okay, these guys may be weirdos, but at least Reid is okay with me. Now let's go rob a tomb!   Charity: I've loved old ruins like this ever since I first played Tomb Raider. Vanessa: Oh, I guess they look cool enough. Charity: You really just like them because there's loot in there, huh? Vanessa: It makes number go up.    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKgTe8wpazI I really love the theme for the Ancient Reservoir. Vanessa: ...a crystal already? Whoah. Charity: Whoah? Vanessa: Yeah, think about it, a crystal's usually been the reward for an entire dungeon, if they frontload the crystal... then the reward at the end has to be even cooler. Charity: Probably just some swords with big numbers. Vanessa: Mmmmmm, yes.    Dervish is one of my favourite caster primaries. Its passive ability is that any amount of AP it regenerates, it regenerates just as much MP, which is very useful for longer areas or fights, since it's at minimum 6 per turn, possibly more depending on equipment and events. Additionally it has a good selection of Wind and Earth offensive spells.         The room also has a couple of hidden items, one high that I just found, and one low that I always miss and only remembered on rewatching my footage.     Before heading into the Ancient Reservoir proper, I also turn Vanessa into a Ninja(Rogue secondary) and Charity into a Dervish(Shaman secondary), Charity equipped with the Art of War which means she recovers 12 AP and thus also 12 MP per turn.    See? There's that hidden chest I missed, at the top of the stairs sort of slipped into a crevice on the top step. Cruel.     Charity: Ooooh! Mystery desert water! Under a pyramid! That's cool. Vanessa: Oh, I agree, that's the sort of opulence that promises big treasures. Maybe some kind of vault...     There are two directions to head at the start of the game, with the Reservoir being split into roughly three sections. I'll take it from right to left since that's the opposite order you want if you want to complete the dungeon, but the right order if you want to loot everything.    Most of the enemy flames are also underwater and leap out at you as you pass. About the closest this game gets to unspottable, unavoidable random encounters.    Gaulems are unexceptional single-target attackers. I don't think they feature in any larger formations and are no threat on their own.       The navigational gimmick here is that the floating boxes in most rooms will either float around on the surface or disappear and re-appear making them harder to platform off until you know the trick.    On the right side of the Reservoir, all the chambers are collapsed, just containing a bit of loot.          Sand Claws are like Gaulems but with all melee attacks and one of them can paralyze. Once again not threatening on their own.   The Ancient Reservoir is a bit interesting is that a lot of it almost feels designed for a mobility option we don't have yet. With our own fish this place would be a lot simpler to get around.         Ah, yes, it's not a jRPG without a suicide bomber enemy that looks kind of like an orb. And like usual, it's a learnable skill, too!   Hamza: Aurgh! Why'd you let it hit me?! Tau: So I could learn to... blow myself up? Um. Hamza: Let's never speak of this again. It does massive damage but it's very doubtful in terms of utility because, you know, it kills one of your characters.        Charity: More dungeons should have water features in them, they're cozy. Vanessa: They'd be nicer if we were able to swim. Charity: Maybe we'd be better able to swim if our packs weren't full of rotting Quintar eyes. Vanessa: I keep telling you there's no "drop" options for quest items.               This little bit of platforming is a lot easier than it looks. I still fumble the gang into the drink, but, you know, it'd be easy for someone who wasn't an idiot.      Can't have a pyramid desert dungeon without mummies. The Bandages are superficially unthreatening, but they're still a DPS check. They have a normal attack, a paralyzing physical attack(Wrap) and a self-heal boosted by their passive effect, which means that if you can't kill them fast enough, they have time to wear your down.  Still a dead end, though.      This looks into the left branch, which we need to loop back to reach, so let's visit the center branch.            The Sand Blaster... blasts people. I would consider it to be the sole enemy in the Ancient Reservoir that's threatening on its own, because it has big numbers.       Tau: Well, they wouldn't put switches here if we weren't meant to press them. Vanessa: It could be a trap of some sort. Tau: ...this is a jRPG, not the Tomb of Horrors. Vanessa: Good, because if you ever run that module again I'm sticking my head in a blender.     Charity: Ooooh! Another cute goat!   Charity: Augh! Okay, okay, I won't pet your cute little head, or scratch your cute little ears or...    The Ancient Reservoir isn't too labyrinthine but it's worth coming here first to get the map if you get lost easy. Anyway, time for the last branch.     Half these crates dip in and out of the water. The trick is to only jump towards them when they're already underwater and rising, otherwise you WILL miss them.         These gratings prevent us from reaching any of the buttons directly. Rude.           Charity: Some sort of floating platform in the water? Vanessa: More like a big slab of rock, like those big switches... Hamza: I'm gonna jump on it.    Charity: Ooooh, it's like a raft! It moves surprisingly fast once you get on it and it gets a chance to build up a bit of speed, but keep your eyes open...   Because you want to get off midway during the ride and hop into this alcove. You also want to get to the end later, but for now we want to get off here.      You go down the stairs to reach the raft, to the lowest place in the Reservoir, then up the stairs from the alcove, to reach the highest place in the Reservoir, which can feel a bit confusing.         Tau: Where the hell are we going?    This is one of the more troublesome formations, because you want to kill the bombs fast, but if you ignore the Sand Claw for too long it can paralyze your mans. And the bombs tend to start off by Barrier'ing one of their number after which it queues up an Explode, this means if you don't start murdering fast, you have a high-defense bomb ticking down to an Explode.   Here we are, right above one of the switches! If you jump down on the right side of the chamber, btw, you need to head back and restart because you can't get to the button. I totally didn't learn that the hard way.            One out of two required buttons!      If you ride the raft all the way to the end, you get to the second button instead.        Circle the room to get to the bottom, but there's a side bit at the top.             The reward is this item that lets you swap magic resistance for physical defense, there's also a reverse version in here somewhere.          And we're two for two on pressing big buttons. If you just go straight for the buttons, you can avoid most of the encounters in here.       Vanessa: ...I didn't know you were that sad, goat. Charity: I don't think he, uh, wanted to end it all, I think I see... plants down there?          Charity: Is something upsetting you, buddy? Something scary up ahead?       Charity: ...I don't think goats eat meat, do they? That looks like a bone.        Charity: I think that thing's eating the goats! Hamza: Sounds like an excuse to punch it in the face!           These two work simply: The Possessor summons Masks and does damage, the Masks paralyze party members until killed, the Possessor uses Atmoshear so you can't focus down the masks fast with single-target attacks.   First showing of Tau's new Monk skill, which generates extra AP and guarantees a crit on next attack. It works well to get the big punches out faster and harder.   The masks keep paralyzing Hamza, and then Vanessa and Charity keep blowing up the masks.    Hamza and Charity have enough AoE attacks to make Atmoshear not particularly scary, and Vanessa outputs most of the spike damage.    High Resistance + Magic resistance buff = no damage.       One mask survives the death of the Possessor for one whole turn, and we get a nice suit of armor from the fight and then...  Charity: We did it, Hamza! We saved the goats!  Vanessa: ...I'm not sure they're happy about it. Did we do the right thing?   Charity: ...a bell? What happens if we ring it?        Well, it gives us an Ibek mount. The Ibek adds another block of height to our jumps, but requires a "charge" before it gets its full height.   It'll open up some new pathways for us. But for now lets get out of here.               It's sort of a soft Ibek tutorial because you can't get out without using the Ibek's higher jump.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjoxsVV6fFo The Sara Sara Beach exists west and east of the Sara Sara Bazaar, not a very large area to the east, but we're here now. Also from up here and with the Ibek we can harvest a ton of pickups, especially silver pickups, from the cliffs.    Tau: There's Astley again! Vanessa: If they give us something nice like Reid did I might actually start liking them.            Tau: ...I think they just gave us regicide. Hamza: Astley is cool with me now. Charity: Since we're on this nice beach... what's farther down it?       It's the goon squad again. With the Ibek we can actually reach them before we fight them.    Not very clever, but, you know, it fits.       The main difference is that Doist is actually pretty scary now.        I take them lightly the first time around and it does not go well.  Hamza: I refuse to let those dicks beat us. We're going back as many times as it takes.      With Vanessa going first, I force Doist to target her with a Fuzake, this prevents him from murdering a caster.   Tau then gets to Sleep Aura them, which lets me murder them one by one at my own pace.       And once again we steal their lunch money.   Hamza: ...well what now? Tau: I can think of a few options.          Tau: There's something different to the east, looks a bit spooky. Charity: I like eerie stuff.     Tau: And with the Ibek, we can probably progress in the Meat Tunnel. Vanessa: Heh heh heh. Hamza: Pffft. Tau: Grow up, you two.   Tau: Personally I think we should just take the ferry to Shoudu Province. It's clearly where we're meant to go.   Tau: And obviously, the beach goes the other direction, too... Vanessa: I'd hate to leave any loot over here behind... but I'll have to think about it. Charity: I think we should all think about it for a bit before we make a choice. It's a big decision! END SESSION VOTE A: Head East along the beach to the burned-looking area. B: Head West by the ferry to Shoudu Province. C: Head Up and Down to western Sara Sara Beach and the Meat Tunnel.
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Jan 3, 2024 03:01
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Go West, young man. I dunno, I just want to know what this Shoudu Province is all about.
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Jan 3, 2024 03:19
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The ibek is my mount of choice for precision platforming. In addition to the extra height, it locks you in place while charging its jump, which makes it a lot easier to inch towards the edge of blocks without falling off.
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Jan 3, 2024 05:23
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Up and down and all around!
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Jan 3, 2024 06:42
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meat tunnel, heh heh
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Jan 3, 2024 06:53
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Let's go C the beach!
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Jan 3, 2024 07:23
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let's go to the beach beach nicki minjaj
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Jan 3, 2024 07:25
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A. Go East. Did the exact same thing with the bazaar exits on my first playthrough. Good to know I wasn't alone on that, with how dumb it made me feel. Ugh Dervish. It has debuffs on the basic magic as well as its high charge time high damage spells! But I don't count it as a class with full debuff access because the Power Down effect spell is Earth elemental, with the typical "misses flying" modifier. (But the magic attack debuff wind spell doesn't have the 90% Wind miss chance. Favoritism!) Its role compression is a good idea, giving you both high magic damage along with the vital debuffs, but focusing on Wind and Earth is a problem. Sometimes Wind will miss on the 90% hit chance or an enemy you need a power debuff on will be flying or your charge times will be too long.
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Jan 3, 2024 07:48
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