Editor
welp
I guess I know what I'm never doing!
They're talking about the ACTUAL Holy spell. (Which is the only variation of Holy that exists in the game)
They could have just told me that and saved me a lot of anguish. <_< [/spoiler]
---
"There's a pony in the shop, but don't buy it. It might do something unfortunate to you." ~from the first Summoner's Seal topic
Liberal Arts Major
The original Boss creation Catastrophe is the easiest of the original bosses, and gives out 50k AP (150k if the character has Triple AP) everytime you kill it and only has like, 2m HP or so. (Lowest of the Originals, and does the least damage of them)
It's pretty easy when Bahamut does 99,999 hp each hit >_> (Doesn't take that long for him to be hitting that hard really)
Also, IIRC, the characters AP required to gain SLvl caps at around 8-10k. It doesn;'t scale past that.
<->
"What the fuck is Alice doing in Wonderland anyway? Who the fuck told her she could leave the god damn kitchen in the first place?" -Random guy on Xbox Live
http://www.backloggery.com/kodan882
Editor
BOSS FIGHT:
YUNALESCA
First form down in six seconds.
BOSS FIGHT:
YUNALESCA II
Second form down in 20 seconds.
..........I might have overleveled.
BOSS FIGHT:
YUNALESCA III
I think the best part was when Bahamut's Mega-Flare did over 26,000 damage to her.
...
welp
At least I won't need to grind ever again. Presumably.
So yeah, Yunalesca says that the Final Aeon will die with her, so we just killed Spira's only hope. Why? I don't see how. We can just lie about it. I mean, the whole last hope thing was a lie to begin with. It doesn't matter if it's gone, we'll just say it still exists and nobody will be able to tell the difference. Yunalesca says that even if we killed Sin for real, Yu Yevon would just create a new Sin. ...sigh. We ask who Yu Yevon is, but then Yunalesca dies before she can answer.
Yuna is in awe of the fact we just defeated Lesca, so Tidus takes the opportunity to plug his amazing "kill Sin really, really hard" idea. And then, after that, we're going to stop at Milliways, because if you've just done two impossible things, might as well top it off with dinner at the restaurant at the end of the universe. The party exits, but Auron hangs back to talk to Tidus.
Auron: I am also an unsent.
Wow.
What a shock.
I certainly didn't see that coming.
Auron: You are not surprised?
Between all the hints and Seymour stating it outright, no, I can't say I am. It was supposed to be a secret?
Auron says that after getting his ass kicked by Lesca, he somehow made it down Mt. Gagazet and to the outskirts of Bevelle, where he found Kimahri, and delivered Braska's message just before dying. (I didn't mention it, but Braska's dying wish was for Kimahri to go find Yuna and blah blah blah. Presumably, it wasn't Kimahri specifically, but Auron, and then Auron passed it along to Kimahri.) He then wandered Spira rather than going to the Farplane, and managed to hitch a ride on Sin into Zanarkand. Why? Because Jecht's dying wish was for him to watch over Tidus.
Jecht [to Auron]: You were always such a stiff, but that's what I liked about ya.
lol @ "such a stiff"
Heading outside... oh hi there Sin. He's pretty much just here to be like "son. i am disappoint." and then wander off. And then the airship shows up! Finally!
So, the party's brainstorming. Kimahri suggests we find Maester Mika and make him talk. (What's this? Kimahri contributing to the plot for the first time the entire game? Amazing.) Wakka, Lulu, and Rikku think that if we play the Hymn of the Fayth, Sin will become docile, because that's what happened at Macalania Temple. ...I don't recall that. Didn't that encounter with Sin lead to us getting thrown onto a desert island halfway across the world?
Anyway, I can now take the airship to the end of the game, or screw around and do some optional content. [/spoiler]
---
"There's a pony in the shop, but don't buy it. It might do something unfortunate to you." ~from the first Summoner's Seal topic
Liberal Arts Major
YUNALESCA III
I think the best part was when Bahamut's Mega-Flare did over 26,000 damage to her.
Pffft. >_>
You didn't overlevel. Not by a long shot >_>
I just beat YUnalesca. Bahamut's Megaflare did 61,391 >_>
THAT'S over leveling Yuna. [/spoiler]
<->
"What the fuck is Alice doing in Wonderland anyway? Who the fuck told her she could leave the god damn kitchen in the first place?" -Random guy on Xbox Live
http://www.backloggery.com/kodan882
Editor
Oh, how sad. He thinks we got the Final Aeon. Instead, we killed Yunalesca. Owned? Owned. He explains that Yu Yevon is a dude who crafts armor out of souls of the dead. That armor is called Sin. Then Mika ascends to the Farplane, not willing to stand by and watch Spira be destroyed. Cowardsville - Population: 1.
Fayth appears and says he needs to talk to us. He thinks our plan to distract Sin with the Hymn of the Fayth then go inside and beat up Yu Yevon might work... with the help of our aeons. Apparently Yu Yevon was an ancient summoner blah blah blah strongly implied he's the one continually summoning Dream!Zanarkand. But if he dies, the dream will end. Tidus is okay with this. Yuna demands to know what's going on, but since Tidus was just so pleased when Yuna kept secrets from him, he refuses to tell her. HEALTHY RELATIONSHIP ZONE.
We convince Shelinda to get all of Spira to sing the Hymn of the Fayth at the right moment, and also to pick us up a replacement cartridge of headlight fuel.
But for now: SIDEQUESTS!!
-Jecht Shot GET!
-Besaid Jecht Sphere GET!
-Cloudy Mirror GET!
-Into Remien Temple... oh hi there Belgemine.
Belgemine: I'm the Elite Four. The entire Elite Four.
She's also yet another unsent. It seems like this is just their go-to plot twist now. Seymour? Unsent. Mika? Unsent. Kinoc? Unsent. Auron? Unsent. Belgemine? Unsent. Kid who wants to grow up to be a blitzball? Unsent.
BOSS FIGHT:
BELGEMINE
VS. VALEFOR
Ixion'd!
VS. IFRIT
Shiva'd!
VS. IXION
wtf. How dare you use strategy. But yeah, Ifrit'd.
VS. SHIVA
Bahamut all up ins.
VS. BAHAMUT
DiamondDust Rebellion'd. (My Shiva and Bahamut are both better than her Shiva and Bahamut. /laugh)
...I decide not to push my luck any further for now. <_<
-Celestial Mirror GET!
(also, I found a Guado guy who apologized, saying that the Guado were the ones responsible for the fiends attacking the stadium in Luca at the beginning of the game. .........THAT JUST RAISES FURTHER QUESTIONS!)
-Saturn Sigil GET! (I've got some choice words for whoever designed this minigame. Also, this is a rather esoteric reference even by my standards, but I love how the blue butterflies are Touhou player characters and the red butterflies are Snake from Brawl.)
-Thunder Plains Jecht Sphere GET!
-Spirit Lance GET!
-Saturn Crest GET!
-Powered up Spirit Lance GET!
-Godhand GET!
-Masamune GET!
-Nirvana GET!
-Moon Crest GET!
-SS Liki Jecht Sphere GET!
-Luca Stadium Jecht Sphere GET!
-Jupiter Crest GET!
-Mars Sigil GET!
-Powered up Masamune GET!
Okay, enough of that silliness (for now)! It's time to head to Sin. The plan is to attack Sin's weakpoints for massive damage, then use the airship's main gun to blast a hole in it so we can climb inside and defeat Yu Yevon.
BOSS FIGHT:
SIN (RIGHT FIN)
So, it starts out as a ranged fight, but you can pull in to damage it at close range. However, if you do so, it'll hit your entire party for 1000 damage each turn, and start charging Gravija, which is... bad news if it gets it off. I won this mostly with Wakka and Lulu (spamming Doublecast) at long range.
BOSS FIGHT:
SIN (LEFT FIN)
...However, by now, I had a much better plan. Pull in close, Hastega, Armor Break, and LET THE REAPING BEGIN!! Auron, with his limiter removed, can do over 30,000 damage with a basic attack.
At this point, Brother says that the main gun is busted.
Cid: Aw hell... We need to pull back! The main gun is broken!
Tidus: Fuck you, I'm the MAIN CHARACTER! *jumps onto Sin's back*
Cid: o_o
BOSS FIGHT:
SINSPAWN GENIAS
Absorbs magical attacks aimed at Si-oh, Auron killed it in a single attack. I see.
BOSS FIGHT:
SIN
36,000 HP? That's two attacks from Auron! Good thing he has Quick Hit!
We jump back onto the airship as Sin falls from the sky. I love how they show the citizens watching Sin fall with looks of complete amazement on their face. It's like, yeah, we just killed Sin with swords, blitzballs, magic, and a goddamned repurposed cruise ship. You've been sacrificing people for nothing. Deal with it.
Anyway, the party talks about how it's not over because Yu Yevon is still alive... which doesn't match up with the whole "Yu Yevon turns the Final Aeon into a new Sin each time" story because there is no Final Aeon, thus Yu Yevon has nothing to turn into Sin, thus Sin should be dead for real, but hey. More EXP for me if I have to kill Yu Yevon too.
Alas, it will have to wait for another day! [/spoiler]
---
"There's a pony in the shop, but don't buy it. It might do something unfortunate to you." ~from the first Summoner's Seal topic
Liberal Arts Major
Kinoc wasn't an unsent >_>
He was alive until Seymour killed him.
(also, I found a Guado guy who apologized, saying that the Guado were the ones responsible for the fiends attacking the stadium in Luca at the beginning of the game. .........THAT JUST RAISES FURTHER QUESTIONS!)
Not really. Seymour >_>
He just became a maester, what better way to become well-liked by the people then saving everyone at a Blitzball game?
This is a small spoiler, but THIS raises further questions. His aeon, Anima? Is actually a FINAL AEON. Which brings up the question as to how the fuck does it not kill Yuna or Seymour when summoned?
It can also be found at Baaj Temple, located at the following coords on the airship map:
11-16 X
57-63 Y
BUT, in order to get it, you need to have used the Destruction Sphere and earned the prize in every temple.[/spoiler]
<->
"What the fuck is Alice doing in Wonderland anyway? Who the fuck told her she could leave the god damn kitchen in the first place?" -Random guy on Xbox Live
http://www.backloggery.com/kodan882
Editor
He was alive until Seymour killed him.
Oh, I guess that's true. I thought it was implied that he was, but you're right, Seymour couldn't have killed him if he was.
This is a small spoiler, but THIS raises further questions. His aeon, Anima? Is actually a FINAL AEON. Which brings up the question as to how the fuck does it not kill Yuna or Seymour when summoned?
.........Yeah, I'm not even going to TRY to figure that one out.
--
All right, FFX. I'm gonna try to beat the game tonight. No promises, though.
Okay, on top of the airship, Tidus and Yuna talk. blah blah blah
Yuna: You won't... go away, will you?
But then Rikku interrupts. Sin has gone into its Safer form. Time to take it down. Again.
BOSS FIGHT:
SIN
Sin moves progressively closer to you as the fight goes on, and you have to beat it before it opens its mouth all the way. Not a tough fight, though I couldn't really cheese it with Auron for some reason.
into sin
oh hi there seymour. I like how Seymour has absolutely no plot relevance anymore. He's like a random encounter, or Jenova. Just shows up, gets beaten, and vanishes without a trace.
BOSS FIGHT:
SEYMOUR OMNIS
Good music zone. He can cast Firaga four times per turn, once for each Morphasm or whatever they're called, presumably. That, and Dispel. I never saw him cast anything else because I killed him so quickly. I don't know why Auron has decided to start dealing less damage than Tidus and Wakka despite having higher Strength and a better weapon, but uh. It's annoying. (Note: I would later learn that Auron's Celestial Weapon powers down when he's at full HP, and powers up as his HP decreases, which would explain it.)
Yuna finally sends Seymour. Good job, but WHY DIDN'T YOU DO THAT ANY OF THE LAST FIFTY FUCKIN' TIMES.
Moving onward... oh hey a sphere collection minigame. Totally dramatically appropriate. And now I'm transported to Jecht! wassup man.
Jecht: You're late, Auron.
"YOU'RE TOO SLOW!"
Tidus: I hate you!
NOT THE TIME TIDUS
d'awwww father/son bonding. ah well. jecht says that once the fight starts, he won't be himself anymore and won't be able to hold back. how convenient.
BOSS FIGHT:
BRASKA'S FINAL AEON
Quick Hit lol
THE FINAL BOSS:
BRASKA'S FINAL AEON II
Quick Hit lol (so broken)
Jecht tells Yuna to call the aeons and then fades away as a ball of red blackness attacks us. So, let's do that, then.
BOSS FIGHT:
SIN VALEFOR
One-shotted by Wakka lol
BOSS FIGHT:
SIN IFRIT
One-shotted by Auron.
BOSS FIGHT:
SIN IXION
First attack missed, second attack one-shotted. Lousy Auron and your lousy accuracy.
Incidentally, this whole scene would be a lot more powerful if the aeons were ever portrayed as actual characters with whom the party had an emotional bond. I mean, I barely even used them, so I'm not even upset from a gameplay perspective, which is... sorta ruining the moment, I'll admit.
BOSS FIGHT:
SIN SHIVA
One-shotted by Auron. Sin Shiva is a Twi'lek.
BOSS FIGHT:
SIN BAHAMUT
I still don't get what the point of this even was. We're purposely giving Yu Yevon new bodies just so we can kill him over and over. But the end result will be Yu Yevon having no bodies to possess. Which is... exactly the same as what would have happened if we hadn't summoned any aeons to begin with. I just don't know what the fuck is even the point.
Also, one-shotted by Auron.
Tidus bids his farewells to everyone, saying he'll disappear when this is over.
Tidus: I know it's selfish... but this is MY story!
"It just focused on Yuna a good 95% of the time! Honest!"
BOSS FIGHT:
YU YEVON
What a stupid way to end a game. The boss heals 9999 HP every time you damage it. Unless you can break the damage cap, you just have to wait for it to kill itself with Gravija, while you survive through infinite Auto-Life. Very dumb.
Anyway... Yu Yevon disappears. Again: what was even the point of that. But whatever. Yuna performs the sending. Auron disappears. Sin disappears. The fayth all disappear, and with them, the aeons. Zanarkand itself begins to disappear, as does Tidus.
Yuna: I love you.
"I'll never forget you, Person-I-Never-Learned-The-Name-Of."
Tidus jumps off the airship ("I'VE DECIDED TO JUMP TO MY DEATH INSTEAD OF DISAPPEARING.") and sees images of Braska, Auron, and Jecht before vanishing completely.
Cut to Yuna on a pier, whistling to the ocean. Yeah, yeah, very sad. Lulu tells her it's time to go. Oh, I see, she's giving an address to the people of Spira. As if she wasn't a traitor to the entire world last time we checked? But whatever. I guess killing Sin forever is a huge get out of jail free card or something. Basically, her speech is a generic "we've all lost something but blah blah blah we can rebuild. never forget the people who died. peace out y'all."
heyyyy a credits song that is not out of place. amazing.
........AND THEN AFTER THE CREDITS WE SEE TIDUS WAKING UP IN THE OCEAN. augh. I WAS JUST ABOUT TO GIVE THE GAME POINTS FOR NOT DOING SOMETHING LIKE THAT. terrible.
........So yeah. That was a little bit anticlimactic - not the game, the writeup - but uh... I guess I'll give my final thoughts on FFX now. Though I'm still planning to do the bonus dungeons maybe.
So, the story and characters. I don't hold either of them in particularly high regard. The only consistently good, likable character was Auron. The story's foreshadowing was heavy-handed, a lot of scenes were just confusing, and the dialogue was unnatural at best. I mean, I don't really dislike the story, it's just kinda... there. There were enough genuinely awesome moments to keep me interested, at least.
Um, the game world. I don't mind that there's no world map. I didn't mind it when Pokemon did it so why would I mind it here. I do have a serious problem with the lack of dungeons, because dungeons are like the best part of RPGs. There were a few places that could pass for dungeons - Bikanel Island, for one - and, surprise surprise, those are more or less the best places in the game. But overall, it felt more like they stripped out everything except the world map, because you're generally just going from Point A to Point B all game. And going from Point A to Point B is the function of, guess what, a world map.
The battle system. I have absolutely nothing bad to say about it, except maybe that it should have been strictly turn-based instead of involving light ATB elements. Using an aeon's Overdrive was prohibitively punishable unless you could guarantee the enemy's death or set it up in a way that wouldn't kill you, because otherwise your opponent would get like 56 turns in a row afterward. And it was compounded by the fact that the bar in the upper right hand corner that showed the turn order was not always accurate, for no apparent reason. But aside from that minor grievance, this was pretty much the perfect battle system. It's fast-paced - really fast-paced - and the difficulty level (until I overleveled) was pretty much spot on. There were times, even after my over-grinding, during random encounters, where I had to just stop and go, "okay, how do I get out of THIS?" I can't think of many RPGs where I've had to actually plan out my next move because I'm facing death otherwise.
(For instance, one fight in the final dungeon: I had Yuna, Auron, and Tidus on the field, against two enemies, a mushroom and a flying eye. Auron was dead and Tidus was confused. It was Yuna's turn, and the turn order would have Tidus moving next, then the monsters. My default response would be to summon Bahamut and nuke everything, but alas, Bahamut died earlier to save me from a King Behemoth's Final Attack-Meteor. I eventually decided to cast Esuna on Tidus, then use a Phoenix Down on Auron on Tidus' turn. Seems like a simple enough solution, but trust me when I say that if the RNG had been unkind to me I could have been TPK'd there.)
Speaking of confusion - I love that status effects are a bigger part of the game. Love it, love it, love it. I probably inflicted at least one status in the majority of my fights, one way or another, and my default solution to boss fights was to figure out if they had a status vulnerability that I could exploit. I sent numerous characters through Wakka and Auron's parts of the Sphere Grid because I wanted to spread around those status moves. It's such a step up from "oh hey, my character knows Poison, Curse, Confuse, Paralyze, Sleep, Stun, Silence, Doom, Instant Death, Petrify, Blind, Frog, Chicken, Cow, Red, Green, Blue, Up, Down, and Heart Murmur, but I'll never use any of them because all generic enemies are too weak to be worth the effort and all bosses are immune to every single status ailment."
I love that you can swap out characters for no penalty. I love that you can summon aeons and issue them a command on the same turn. I love the Sphere Grid, even if it's got a couple of notable flaws.
It probably doesn't require mention, but I certainly love the game's soundtrack.
tl;dr: The amount of stuff I love about this game vastly outnumbers the stuff I dislike.
I want Final Fantasy X-0.
That is all. [/spoiler]
---
"There's a pony in the shop, but don't buy it. It might do something unfortunate to you." ~from the first Summoner's Seal topic
Liberal Arts Major
>_>
Or, you can hit it with Zombie Attack and let it kill itself with Curaga.
Oh, I see, she's giving an address to the people of Spira. As if she wasn't a traitor to the entire world last time we checked? But whatever. I guess killing Sin forever is a huge get out of jail free card or something.
Yevon collapsed >_>
Using an aeon's Overdrive was prohibitively punishable unless you could guarantee the enemy's death or set it up in a way that wouldn't kill you, because otherwise your opponent would get like 56 turns in a row afterward.
This is why you summon an aeon just to use it's overdrive and let it die >_>
Hence why a lot of the bosses are a piece of cake. You get 5 main aeons, and each of them usually do 9999 damage by the mid-game unless you haven't been using Yuna. Except Bahamut, who's capable of doing 11-12k easily when you first game him.
And it was compounded by the fact that the bar in the upper right hand corner that showed the turn order was not always accurate, for no apparent reason.
It is accurate in that not ALL actions use up one turn and that's it. Certain actions have different speeds.
Switching Weapons/armor, items, Escape, the Special skills (Use, Cheer, etc) are some of the "fastest" in the game, whereas some things are the slowest.
For example, Flare is powerful, but it will delay your characters next turn. Likewise with Ultima. Ultima can take you from "Cool! This character gets 3 turns after the next enemy attacks!" to "Wow, what the fuck happened? I thought I got 3 turns! Now the boss needs to attack 3 times before that character can attack again!!!!"
Delay Attack/Buster, while also delaying your enemies turn, will also delay the character who used it. [/spoiler]
[Spoiler for My own playthrough, click to show]I've discovered a couple things. >_>
Wakka > Auron >_>
Personality wise, Wakka still sucks. But, stat wise? Wakka beats the shit out of Auron >_>
I only have Wakka and Auron halfway around their own sphere grids, and Wakka pretty much > Auron.
The only area where Auron > Wakka is the fact that Wakka's base over-drive sucks and his celestial weapon is a pain in the ass to get.
Kimahri actually has a use early-ish in the game. As a mage.
Take him down Wakka's path, and park him next to the first Level 2 Lock and save his SLs from there on out, when you get a Level 2 Key Sphere (The Al-bhed Tank is the earliest you get one) unlock it.
This new path leads right into Lulu's sphere grid, right near the -aga spells. Take him down that path and poof. You have early access to the -aga spells. And if you over kill Seymour in Macalania, you get 2 Black Magic Spheres, which you can use to either give 2 -aga spells to Yuna (Reccomended), or to Lulu (Not reccomended). [/spoiler]
<->
"What the fuck is Alice doing in Wonderland anyway? Who the fuck told her she could leave the god damn kitchen in the first place?" -Random guy on Xbox Live
http://www.backloggery.com/kodan882
Liberal Arts Major
SEYMOUR OMNIS
Good music zone.
More like "So much wasted potential" music zone. The first 15 or so seconds of Seymour Battle is amazing. The rest of the song isn't. And the first 15 seconds isn't part of the loop. augh.
Anyway, you should have gotten Anima before this fight, because if you summon Anima against Seymour here you get dialogue out of him.
THE FINAL BOSS:
BRASKA'S FINAL AEON II
Quick Hit lol (so broken)
Yeah, I didn't overlevel in FFX, so this battle was actually kind of difficult for me. Well, difficult might be the wrong word, I needed a certain attack pattern to not happen to my team, because they could not survive it if it happened. So it was semi-luck based.
BOSS FIGHT:
YU YEVON
What a stupid way to end a game. The boss heals 9999 HP every time you damage it. Unless you can break the damage cap, you just have to wait for it to kill itself with Gravija, while you survive through infinite Auto-Life. Very dumb.
Or you give yourself a Bad End by inflicting your own party with Petrify!
The only consistently good, likable character was Auron.
IIRC, I ranked them Auron > Rikku > Narrator!Tidus > Tidus > Yuna > Kimahri > Lulu > Wakka
The battle system.
The best FF battle system.
I love the Sphere Grid, even if it's got a couple of notable flaws.
The Sphere Grid is so awesome.
It probably doesn't require mention, but I certainly love the game's soundtrack.
I'm not actually sure which is my favorite FF soundtrack. Probably between FFT, FFVIII, and FFX. But I can't rule out FFVI either.
The amount of stuff I love about this game vastly outnumbers the stuff I dislike.
FFX is the best FF not named FFT! [/spoiler]
---
xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Editor
I don't think I ever found a use for Zombie Attack the whole game.
I guess that was it. <_<
It is accurate in that not ALL actions use up one turn and that's it. Certain actions have different speeds.
Switching Weapons/armor, items, Escape, the Special skills (Use, Cheer, etc) are some of the "fastest" in the game, whereas some things are the slowest.
For example, Flare is powerful, but it will delay your characters next turn. Likewise with Ultima. Ultima can take you from "Cool! This character gets 3 turns after the next enemy attacks!" to "Wow, what the fuck happened? I thought I got 3 turns! Now the boss needs to attack 3 times before that character can attack again!!!!"
Delay Attack/Buster, while also delaying your enemies turn, will also delay the character who used it.
Yeah, but when you place your cursor on an attack, the bar changes to show you what'll happen after you use that attack.
In theory.
For instance, summon Shiva and select her regular, elemental attack that I forget the name of. If it's like my game, it'll show the turn order going from:
Shiva
Enemy
Shiva
Enemy
etc
To:
Shiva
Shiva
Enemy
Shiva
Enemy
...But then Shiva only gets one attack before the enemy's next turn anyway.
Am I just reading it wrong or something?
More like "So much wasted potential" music zone. The first 15 or so seconds of Seymour Battle is amazing. The rest of the song isn't. And the first 15 seconds isn't part of the loop. augh.
Eh, I still like it.
Anyway, you should have gotten Anima before this fight, because if you summon Anima against Seymour here you get dialogue out of him.
I have a save from before entering Sin, so I could still try it. <_< [/spoiler]
---
"There's a pony in the shop, but don't buy it. It might do something unfortunate to you." ~from the first Summoner's Seal topic
Editor
BOSS FIGHT:
GEOSGAENO
Well THAT went badly.
Okay, again, but with Stone Ward equipment this time.
MUCH better. Fuck you, Geosgaeno.
...hahaha. And he dropped a No Encounters weapon. Fantastic. Although I somehow already got a piece of No Encounters armor somewhere, but still.
.......oh fuck I forgot about Zanarkand's Destruction Sphere. Okay. brb.
...
back now.
Anima GET! It's sort of weird that they went with the "Seymour was just power hungry" angle instead of, I dunno, "seeing his mom sacrifice herself to become a fayth pushed him over the edge and made him want to end the cycle of death in any way possible".
And now, the Cavern of Stolen Fayth. Apparently someone stole the fayth from a temple so that summoners couldn't sacrifice themselves blah blah blah. More importantly: one of the summoners Lulu was a guardian for in the past died here.
We reach the end of the cave and find an unsent. It's Lady Ginnem, the summoner Lulu was guarding. =/ Yuna tries to perform a sending, but Ginnem uses some kind of anti-sending pressure wave to stop her. Huh. Ginnem summons Yojimbo.
BOSS FIGHT:
YOJIMBO
yeah, he never even got an attack off.
I end up hiring Yojimbo for 200,000 gil.
Okay, back to Remiem Temple.
BOSS FIGHT:
BELGEMINE
VS. YOJIMBO
Let's go... Anima! yojimbo more like yojimbowned
VS. ANIMA
Hey Belgemine, protip: you have to pay Yojimbo. <_<
Okay... I grab the Magus Sisters, and now it's time to finish this.
VS. MAGUS SISTERS
Mega-Flared.
Belgemine: You have already surpassed your father. There is nothing more I can teach you.
Belgemine says that it's time for her to go, and entrusts Spira's salvation to Yuna. Yuna performs the sending. *salutes* Belgemine, you were the coolest gym leader/Elite Four in the whole game.
...
Moon Sigil GET!
So, I've got the Jecht Shot now, and this means:
VS.
THE AL BHED PSYCHES
0 - 3, Aurochs win. Fuck yeah, Jecht Shot. Attack Reels GET! [/spoiler]
---
"There's a pony in the shop, but don't buy it. It might do something unfortunate to you." ~from the first Summoner's Seal topic
Editor
One level has you make a love potion for a witch so that she can make a troll fall in love with her. The potion requires something sweet, something slimy, and something beautiful.
...So I made the potion out of sugar, a slug, and a cheerleader.
......
I don't know how exactly you're responsible, but I blame you for this, Japan.
---
"There's a pony in the shop, but don't buy it. It might do something unfortunate to you." ~from the first Summoner's Seal topic
Editor
SARCOPHAGI ARE NOT CLOTHES
why would you even think that
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"There's a pony in the shop, but don't buy it. It might do something unfortunate to you." ~from the first Summoner's Seal topic
Editor
COME for the writeups that detail how terrible I am at this game!
STAY for the meticulous recording of level ups!
WATCH as my standards for what constitutes a good level up sink lower and lower as the game goes on!
MARVEL at the jokes that you've probably heard at least once already, because I couldn't resist saying them as the game was being livestreamed!
[Spoiler for Fire Emblem 6, chapter 1, click to show]Starting it up. A lot of stuff is still in Japanese. Pretty much all "event" text, like the opening text crawl, is in Japanese. Plain text is in English, so it's still totally playable, but yeah.
We're introduced to the world of Elibe. It's a piece of crap, basically. But everyone is living in pseudo-peace until Zephiel, King of Bern, starts wrecking shit up for no reason. Should've killed him in FE7, I'm telling you.
Roy, son of Eliwood, the (not) main character of FE7, is studying abroad in Ostia, probably majoring in How to Not Be a Failure so as to not repeat the mistakes of his father. Heeeey Hector has a beard. Wonderful. Hector's daughter, what's her face, was going to visit Roy, but then Eliwood told Roy to return home. I don't see why, I'd think that he'd be safer in Ostia by virtue of it having Hector. Anyway, he's returning home with his knights and an Ostian knight named Bors who is a fatty. Oh, I guess Fatty is responsible for Lilina, Hector's daughter, so maybe she's with them too. I dunno.
Roy reaches the outskirts of Pherae aka Eliwood National Park when plot starts happening.
Chapter 1 (yeah chap titles are in Japanese)
So some very derp bandits are attacking Eliwood Manor and the surrounding villages, and Eliwood currently has an Incurable Cough of Death and thus is even more useless than usual. Oh and I guess Lilina is with him? Fine, whatever. He says that they'll just wait out the attack until Roy arrives to deal with it. You don't even have enough soldiers to deal with a group of level 1 brigands? Eliwood, I hate you slightly more than usual.
All right, let's see who we've got. We've got Roy, the world's worst lord except maybe all those other terrible lords (*coughmarthcougheliwoodcoughmicaiahcough*). We've got Lance (green) and Alan (red), aka Those Two Cavaliers. We've got Bors aka Fatty. We've got Wolt, the archer, who's sorta cute so I might use him. And we've got Marcus, who is even worse in this game and won't be getting any EXP because I gave all his weapons to Roy.
So I send Marcus to a nearby village and receive 5000 gold, while Alan and Lance advance to the north. Lance crits against a brigand just because he can, on a 3% chance, so Lance is cool with me. And Alan shouted "WHAT!" in a cutscene, so that's great too.
Lance is my first character to get a level up, and he gets... +1 Speed.
............
god, this is a bad omen, I know it
NPC: YOU! Guess what? Money is important!
...welp, add this NPC to the pile with the kid who wants to be a blitzball and the fairy who talks to plants.
Alan level up. HP, Speed, Luck. God, these characters. Fucking worthless.
Lance gets another 3% crit, but also nearly dies because he's a graduate of the Edward school of blocking axes with his face. Thankfully, he lives.
Wolt level up. HP, Strength, Skill. ...Better.
You can tell this game is harder than FE7 because the boss of chapter 1 has a Steel Axe. Roy and Wolt still flawless victory him, though. Roy level up, HP, Strength, Skill, Speed. Roy, you're okay by me! For now!
Eliwood tells Roy that he must follow the age old tradition of taking an army to defend Lycia's borders. ........THAT'S NOT A FUCKING TRADITION. What the fuck else would you do when another country tries to conquer you. Eliwood you are the dumbest type of wood.
Eliwood also sends Lilina back to Ostia to rule in Hector's absence. Lilina tells Fatty to accompany Roy, and Eliwood sends Merlinus with Roy as well. The first order of business is to meet up with a mercenary group on Bern's borders. AWAY [/spoiler]
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[Spoiler for Fire Emblem 6, chapter 2, click to show]Chapter 2
We are informed that the village Roy is heading to is currently in a state of turmoil.
Hot chick Miledy (enemy unit) is berating some fat bastard (also an enemy unit) about losing Guinevere, also known as the princess of Bern. I swear, these princesses. Keeping an eye on them is like trying to herd cats.
Miledy, being a wyvern rider, flies off in a huff. Of course, Fat Bastard knows exactly where Guinevere is. She's imprisoned in the basement, and Fat Bastard is devising a plan to sell her to the highest bidder. But... her servant has escaped! oh noes. welp. more allies for me.
Indeed, a healer chick shows up to ask our assistance. Merlinus is like "no wai" but then the enemy attacks us first so Roy is FORCED to slaughter them. In self-defense. I swear it.
Roy: Miss Ellen, you can find some place to hide.
Ellen: Excuse me I never told you my name.
Roy: ...
Ellen: ...
Roy: Awkward.
Just as the fighting's getting started, some cool dudes show up. They're the mercs that we hired. Dieck, a Merc. Thany, a Peg Knight. And Ward and Lot, aka Those Two Axemen.
Wolt level up. HP, Skill, Speed.
I'm left in sort of a tricky spot, because the mercs showed up between the main enemy force and the enemy force with which Roy's group is presently engaged. I'm worried that no matter which way I send them, Thany will get slaughtered. So, I decide to pick off an hilariously weak Soldier for fun, but apparently you can't move again after attacking as a mounted class, so I'm forced to advance against the greater enemy force with my weaker half of the party. Awesome.
Roy level up. HP, Luck, Defense, Res.
...Lance gets YET ANOTHER 3% crit. This one was totally unnecessary, too! And he gets a level up... HP and Strength. Gaaaaaaah, LAAAAAANCE!
At this point, I decide that it will probably behoove me to beat a retreat with the secondary party and regroup with Roy's party, if for no reason other than the fact that continuing to fight the enemy group means battling them while they're on forts. Not my idea of a good fight!
However, the enemy follows me, spreads themselves too thin, and the retreat quickly becomes a rout instead. owned bern owned
Thany level up. HP, Luck, Defense. ...Defense on a Peg Knight is always good, but Strength is better tbqh.
Ellen level up. ...Luck and Res. God. What is WITH these level ups? Do characters in FE6 just suck, or am I unluckier than Eliwood is for being born Eliwood?
Thany level up. HP, Strength, Skill. Good level up imo. Thany, you're okay with me.
Alan level up. HP, Strength. >_< Alaaaaaaan.
So let's see. The boss is a knight named Rude, which means my options are pretty much limited to a Hammer that came with Ward, an Armorslayer I got from a village, and Roy's Rapier. The Armorslayer... can probably only be wielded by Marcus and Dieck, both of whom are high enough levels that I don't want them killing this guy. Ward is Ward, so Roypier it is.
...Roy gets a crit on a 13% chance, but then misses his second attack. Partial credit. Roy then hits, and gets a crit for the overkill factor. Rude the Fat Bastard dies. Should've sent Reno instead. Roy level up - HP, Skill, Speed, Defense.
Before seizing the throne, I get one more Ellen level up for good luck. HP, Magic, and Speed. ...Decent to good, considering her Magic is now 2, which is twice as good as 1. ...what an awful healer. Even Priscilla isn't this terrible.
Merlinus: Master Roy! We have rescued a woman trapped in the basement!
Roy: That must be Ellen's Mistress.
Fire Emblem: Lesbian S&M Edition
(much better game)
Incidentally, I like how Ellen was the nickname I gave to Eliwood, and now it turns out there's an actual character named Ellen.
I'm altering my theory to state that this is Eliwood, keeping tabs on Roy. Explains why her Magic is so sucky, too. (That reason being because she's Eliwood, in case you were wondering, not because Eliwood is a melee unit.)
Guinevere: My name is... Guinevere.
Roy: Guinevere?! That's impossible! That's the name of the Princess of Bern!
"And no one else in the whole world has that name other than her! I know this because I know everyone in the world! So there!"
I accidentally skip the cutscene but FE's autosave system to the rescue! Guinevere wants to find a peaceful solution to the war, so Roy is taking her with him to meet Hector. yay. [/spoiler]
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[Spoiler for Fire Emblem 6, chapter 3, click to show]Chapter 3
Roy gets a message about how Bern has three elite generals called the Three Dragon Lords. Brenya and Narshen attacked Castle Araphen and nearly decimated the Lycia Alliance Army (so, they reduced it by 1/12th or some such, I assume). Roy, of course, is dumb enough to keep heading there anyway, instead of, I dunno, not heading into certain defeat, but oh well.
Cut to the villains. Hector has been captured by Zephiel after being on the losing end of a fight with two Dragon Lords. He asks why Zephiel is doing this and receives generic villain reply #26. Zephiel throws Hector in the dungeon. Brenya questions Zephiel's alliance with Dark Priestess Idoun, but he tells her to shut up, essentially. What a fantastic ruler.
So Roy is going to assault the castle and free Hector, and to that end, he has recruited the help of Chad, a
...Hmm, so this chapter is interesting. I have to split the party (gasp) to go recruit Lugh, aka Man Nino. I didn't realize this on turn one however, so now I need to play catch up. Ah, well, shouldn't be a problem as long as Lance can solo that part of the map.
Chad level up. HP, Strength, Skill, Speed, and... Res, I think. Might've been Defense. Either way, fuck yeah! Made only slightly less awesome by the fact that-
oh holy crap he survived YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS. okay, that was my bad, I did NOT think these fuckin jobber Soldiers could deal 10 damage to ANYONE.
Alan levels, HP and Strength. yay.
...Thany crits for no reason after Chad misses and fails to kill a soldier. Go team worthless. Thany level, Skill Speed Luck. Sure is Pegasus Knight in here.
Hey fantastic, all the high ranking enemies (Zephiel, Idoun, Narshen) are leaving. Generic boss dude is in charge now. We have got this. (You can tell Narshen is an asshole because he asks if it's okay to kill women and children, and implies that he's going to rape a young girl. Subtle, Fire Emblem.)
Lance level up. HP, Skill, Speed. He's also having trouble with the part of the map I sent him to. Dammit, Lance, you failure.
...Yeah Lance would have very possibly died that turn if the enemy AI wasn't terrible. God I suck at this game. <_<
Wolt levels. HP, Strength, Speed, Defense. Good level zone.
Chad levels. HP, Strength.
Ellen levels. HP, Magic, Luck, Res. Very nice. By now, Lance has picked up Lugh and reunited with the main army, who are having trouble progressing due to enemy cavaliers.
Lugh levels. HP, Skill, Speed.
And again! ......HP. LUUUUUUUUUGH!
...And again. Skill and Defense. Augh.
So Hector says that Roy must lead the Lycia Alliance Army - what's left of it - in his place, and then dies I guess. *salutes* Hector, you were the most badass character on the whole continent. [/spoiler]
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"There's a pony in the shop, but don't buy it. It might do something unfortunate to you." ~from the first Summoner's Seal topic
Editor
Roy is passing through the Laus territory, governed by Duke Eric, also known as the son of a surprisingly important villain in FE7. Gee, I wonder if he's evil too. Let's find out.
So Narshen goes to talk to Eric, praising him for joining with Bern, and demanding his gift. Eric brings out Clarine, a girl who came with him because he said he'd take her to meet her brother, Klein.
Narshen: My lady, I shall play with you instead of your brother.
Clarine: Hahahahahaha! You? Instead of my brother? Take a good look in the mirror.
Implied incest? In a Fire Emblem game? Never!
(all actual dialogue, btw)
At this point, Narshen receives word that Roy retook Castle Araphen, and so he makes a quick retreat.
So the enemy has a ton of horsemen, which makes sense, but is going to annoy me. Ah well, better get started...
Lugh level up. HP, Skill, Speed.
Chad level up. Speed, Luck. URGH.
Alan level up. HP, Skill. I'm really tempted to look up these characters' growths. Probably like 20% in everything.
Thany levels. HP, Speed, Luck, Res.
Somewhere around here, one of the mercenaries working for Eric, a myrmidon named Rutger, helped Clarine escape. She made a beeline for Roy and then joined the party when he agreed to protect her.
Lance levels. HP, Strength.
Lot levels. HP, Defense, Res.
Ellen levels. HP, Speed, Luck.
Oh right, I forgot that reinforcements in FE6 can move the same turn they appear. Ahahahahahahaha what an awful game. *reset*
Okay, beginning of chapter save state activate! (because I don't want to deal with navigating Japanese menus and risk erasing my game, that's why)
Lugh level up. Magic, Skill, Speed, Luck. I approve. Chapter's already looking better than before.
Chad level up. HP, Strength, Skill, Defense. yessss
Thany level up. HP, Skill, Speed, Luck. ...I'll take that, but really, any of the other stats would have been preferable.
Alan level up. HP, Strength, Defense. Still 0 Res -_-
Lance level up. HP, Strength. Hrm.
Wolt level up. HP, Skill. These just keep getting worse and worse.
Okay, got Clarine again.
Ellen level up. .........Luck. AUGH.
Okay, got Rutger. He joined us because he hates Bern. blah blah blah. Now to just... not die.
Lot level up. HP, Strength, Speed, Luck. SEAL OF APPROVAL.
Amazing. Wiped out all but one enemy, who I trapped so he couldn't attack my healers. Dieck is handling all the pirates like a pro. Thany got the Angelic Robe. Chapter couldn't possibly be going better.
Chad crits to kill the last horsey and gets a level up. HP, Skill, Speed. Ehhhhhhhh.
Clarine levels. HP, Magic, Speed, Luck. I approve. I'm also kinda-sorta done with the chapter and just support grinding/using the boss and Marcus to give Clarine some EXP. And I'm not even sorry about it.
Another Clarine level. Speed, Luck, Res. Not ideal, but I'll take it.
And again. HP, Skill, Res. This level sucks though. I'm not even gonna try to defend it.
Once more! HP, Magic, Speed, Luck, Res. AWESOME.
And an Ellen level! HP, Magic, Skill, Res. Trying to make me pick you over Clarine, eh? Not gonna happen unless you get several more Magic levels in a row...!
And this, this is great. You're gonna love this. MARCUS levels up. And gets one point of Luck. How lucky could he possibly be if I've let him get attacked 100 times with no weapon? lulz
One last Clarine level up. HP, Magic, Speed. Magic means good level.
Roy kills the boss and levels up. HP, Speed, Luck. UGH. Roy, you are not as good as Clarine. Or as sexy. You're definitely more feminine though :-*
I conquer the place and the Eliwood National Park's borders expand yet again.
We're heading to Ostia. Guinevere says that her brother has started this war, and dragged the Dragons into it, for the purpose of "liberating" Elibe. So basically:
Zephiel: wat ever elibe is just a dum pink cotinent *liberates you* ha i am the game you people are just the players now bumpo conutie voting
...goddammit, I don't know why I just drew that connection. I'm never going to be able to unsee it now.
Zephiel: wat ever i always new eliwood wasnt roy anyway
It really is like shooting fish in a barrel. [/spoiler]
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"There's a pony in the shop, but don't buy it. It might do something unfortunate to you." ~from the first Summoner's Seal topic
Editor
-I finished Super Scribblenauts, and am now tackling the Advanced levels in small sets in order to maintain my sanity. Do you know 15 "scary" adjectives off the top of your head? I certainly don't, but Super Scribblenauts assumes I do! It's great, and I'm not even being sarcastic.
-I've sort of been neglecting FFX, though to be fair, there really wasn't much left that I was planning to do. Play more blitzball, do the last bonus dungeon, get all the Jecht Spheres, and that's pretty much it.
-I'm pretty far into Fire Emblem 6, but like I said before, I'm waiting to post the writeups, so yeah. Fire Emblem 6 is an annoyingly good game though. Annoying because we didn't get it. It stands a very good chance of beating out FE7 in my mind, and last I checked, Fire Emblem 7 was like my... 31st favorite game of all time? Yeah. If I do another list like that I'll almost certainly cop out again and just combine the two into "Fire Emblem: Elibe" or something and stick it somewhere in the high twenties, though, because I'm a lazy cheater.
-I've been playing Kirby's Epic Yarn. My (very angry) prior suspicions have been confirmed; this is, in fact, a Kirby game. It's got Kirby in it and everything. It actually plays a whole lot like a next gen Kirby's Dream Land 1, which is great for me, someone whose childhood, in terms of video games, can pretty much be summed up as "Kirby's Dream Land 1 and Pokemon RBY".
Kirby can't inhale enemies, but he CAN grab them and throw them, which is functionally identical, except that now you destroy them automatically and have to press a button to hold them, instead of the other way around. Kirby can't copy his enemies' powers, but when you throw a grabbed enemy, it will become a projectile that takes on certain properties, like piercing through multiple enemies, for instance. In effect, you get one-shot powers instead of different forms. Most of the levels also end with a segment where Kirby transforms into something that may or may not resemble a power he's had in the past, such as the perennial favorite UFO Kirby. These serve two purposes: one, they make whiners shut up (okay, actually nothing can ever do this), and two, they pull a SMG and make the levels very, very different from each other. I've played two worlds so far, and no two levels have been alike. It's fantastic.
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"There's a pony in the shop, but don't buy it. It might do something unfortunate to you." ~from the first Summoner's Seal topic
Liberal Arts Major
As it turns out, I've been replaying Fire Emblem 7 on Eliwood Hard Mode. Well, I'm nearly done with that, but I was thinking I'd do Hector Hard Mode after that. I could do writeups for that when I get to it. The only thing that has got me hesitating on that is that I'm not entirely sure if I'll finish. I don't mean because of the difficulty (though I suppose that can't be ruled out entirely) but more because once the semester is over, I planned on playing a ton of other games that I just haven't really had the time to devote to. So, if I don't have HHM beaten by then, I'm not entirely sure what will happen. I'd like to say I wouldn't abandon it entirely, but my already erratic pace would likely slow even more. Of course, if it happened that I was close to the end, I could easily finish it, but I have a bad feeling this might become an issue earlier in the game than I'd like.
So, a poll: Should I do writeups for FE7 HHM anyway?
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Editor
CG7 and I abandon stuff all the time. It's totally not a problem!
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"There's a pony in the shop, but don't buy it. It might do something unfortunate to you." ~from the first Summoner's Seal topic
Editor
Halo: Combat Evolved - $5
Mega Man 10 - $5
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled - $2
'Splosion Man - $2
All XBLA.
OoT didn't let me down when I gave it a second chance. FFVII didn't let me down when I gave it a second chance. Hopefully Halo won't let me down when I give it a second chance. >_>
I've been working my way through Mega Man 10 normal mode. So far I've killed four Robot Masters, which is the farthest I've ever gotten in a Mega Man game. <_< Admittedly, I suck at this game, so I've had to basically spam items to survive, but... oh well.
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"There's a pony in the shop, but don't buy it. It might do something unfortunate to you." ~from the first Summoner's Seal topic
Editor
Wily's Castle is left, and I have no idea how I'm gonna get past it. I imagine it will involve buying dozens of extra lives, E-Tanks, and so forth.
Edit: I wanted to make this joke earlier but forgot to, so here goes: Chill Man is one cool motherfucker.
There, now you're all suffering as much as I am.
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"There's a pony in the shop, but don't buy it. It might do something unfortunate to you." ~from the first Summoner's Seal topic
Liberal Arts Major
[Spoiler for FE7 HHM Notes/Preparations/Predictions (and Chapter 10 of Lyn's Mode), click to show]
All right, so a few things I should mention first, I have a tendency to plan these runs out in advance, a habit built out of me trying to maximize supports when I was trying to fill out the Support Conversation log, but it holds for this too.
My plan is that my eventual army will consist of: Lyn, Eliwood, Hector, Nino, Raven, Guy, Serra, Fiora, Jaffar, Matthew, Ninian.
Which is to say it'll basically be the return of my EHM team. However, it's likely I might give a few levels to some others when I can either out of necessity, or to see if I have any backup plans in case someone gets RNG screwed. Likely candidates include: Florina, Canas, Dart, Rebecca.
Also, yes, that is Nino you see up there. I'm not sure how viable that will be. I plan to use her, but I wouldn't be all too shocked if I'm forced to abandon that notion. If that happens, there are decent odds on Jaffar not making the team either. But we'll find out when we get there.
I've also set up a very preliminary support plan. As I learned in EHM, this is not the place to be getting supports for anyone outside your army. So, I've got it all contained within those initial 11. The plan is, so far...
Nino: Jaffar A
Jaffar: Nino A
Guy: Matthew A
Matthew: Guy A, Serra B
Fiora: Eliwood A
Eliwood: Fiora A, Ninian B
Lyn: Hector A
Hector: Lyn A, Serra B
Raven: [No one]
Serra: Hector B, Matthew B
Ninian: Eliwood B
I may be willing to sit around on maps to grind those supports up, but I'm undecided on that. This is most definitely not a ranked run, as I plan to go to all maps, including 19xx, and recruit everyone (except Karla, because the only way I'd bring myself to train Bartre is the Arena, and I don't want to use that here.)
So, yeah, now for some predictions:
MVP: Fiora
Anti-MVP: Eliwood
Hardest Map: Battle Before Dawn
Final Tactician Ranking: C Rank
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And now, I'll note that I'm starting from a save I've had at Chapter 10 of Lyn Hard Mode (At least, I think it's Lyn Hard Mode, doesn't really make any difference) forever, so I can skip the prologue, or most of it. I told myself I'd redo it for HHM, if only because the stats could probably be a little better, but I really, really don't want to replay it, even if it'd only take a short time.
I'll show the stats of the relevant units as they are coming into the map:
Lyn:
Level 10, 53 EXP
31 HP (Presumably Lyn received the Angelic Robe earlier)
10 Strength
14 Skill
14 Speed
12 Luck
4 Defense
2 Resistance
Florina:
Level 10, 16 EXP
21 HP
9 Strength
11 Skill
14 Speed
9 Luck
5 Defense
6 Resistance
Serra:
Level 5, 73 EXP
21 HP
3 Magic
7 Skill
10 Speed
9 Luck
2 Defense
6 Resistance
Matthew:
Level 9, 40 EXP
24 HP
8 Strength
7 Skill
17 Speed
4 Luck
3 Defense
2 Resistance
Nils:
Level 5, 13 EXP
17 HP
1 Strength
0 Skill
15 Speed
14 Luck
7 Defense
6 Resistance
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I'll also note that looking at the rest of the units, this probably is Lyn Normal Mode. Wallace is promoted, and that's the only explanation I can think of for that. Oh well.
On to Chapter 10!
Chapter 10
So, the 5 listed units from earlier are the only units I'm actually going to deploy. Everyone else would be a waste of EXP, except perhaps Erk, but even if Nino doesn't work out, Pent would probably be a perfectly fine substitute.
Florina already failing me, then again, I'm probably expecting too much of her to clear practically the entire south of the map. Oh well, that's what Vulneraries are for.
Matthew gets the first level up, and gets HP, STR, SKL, and SPD. Which is great, except I have a bad feeling that I shouldn't have left Florina by 3 enemies even on top of a fort, so let's see it all go to waste.
...I spoke too soon. Florina instead decides to dodge all 3 attacks, kill everyone on the counter (she had weakened them all last turn) and even dodged and countered a fourth unit that spawned beginning of enemy turn.
Serra levels up next and gets HP, MAG, Luck, RES. I'll take that. The same heal also gets her to B-Rank in staves.
Lyn drops an 8 use Iron Sword to take the Energy Ring because I forgot I don't have item storage in this mode. Whoops.
Nils gets HP, SPD, and RES, but more importantly is now just one level away from Level 7.
Florina fights another 3 enemies and gets a level out of it, but only gets HP and SKL.
Lyn gets HP, SKL, SPD, and Luck after attacking Lundgren.
And she gets another level up for defeating him. Everything but STR. I know I shouldn't be complaining, but if you just had to miss one stat, couldn't it be, I dunno, practically anything else?
On that note, now that the field is cleared, time to hand out that Energy Ring. Really, it's only between Lyn, Matthew, and Serra because Nils obviously isn't getting it, and I don't expect Florina to make the main team. However, I also can't say if Matthew will promote, and using it on Serra just seems weird, so it goes to Lyn.
After she uses it, Nils gets a level up giving Lyn another action. HP, SPD, Luck. With that, he's at Level 7, so I can try for 19xx later and have no more reason to stay here. Well, that ended up working nicely time-wise.
So now this joke chapter is out of the way and we can move to HHM proper. [/spoiler]
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
Does the game always act like you pick Eliwood after you make the choice for which mode you're going to play? Or is just because I pressed "No" to "Do you want to continue playing?" last time?
Anyway, let's get this started.
...did a normal enemy soldier just hit hector for 6 damage?
...do i have no healing items?
this will be so much fun.
Hector levels. HP, Skill, Speed, Defense.
i just had to attack a knight with wolf beil with a displayed hit chance of 60% [True Hit = 68.40%] that would kill hector on the counter.
hector dodged because he is so clutch. knight dropped vulnerary.
hector early front runner for MVP tbqh
Matthew levels from stealing a Lockpick from an enemy Thief. HP, Speed, RES.
...
...
did that thief just steal hector's vulnerary
is this serious
did that actually happen
Hector levels on a counter. HP and Res. no that is not what i need from you hector. well maybe that res will save me later.
The Thief tries to attack Matthew, that doesn't end well for him. Matthew regains the vulnerary. And hey, it got a use back from when Hector used it before it was stolen. Hector gets a second vulnerary for the team by defeating an archer.
Hector defeats Wire and gets another level. HP, SKL, DEF, RES. Eh, I'll take it because oh god def, but i want str and spd so much.
Well, this is looking to be very, very fun. Oh yes.
[/spoiler]
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Editor
...
did that thief just steal hector's vulnerary
is this serious
did that actually happen
XD
oh, those wacky enemy thieves
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"There's a pony in the shop, but don't buy it. It might do something unfortunate to you." ~from the first Summoner's Seal topic
Liberal Arts Major
Eliwood is on the field. Well, we're totally screwed now.
Hector levels again. STR, SKL, SPD.
Matthew levels. HP, STR, SPD (Capped), Luck, RES.
...And Rebecca dies. Great. Silly me forgetting bandits can move over peaks. I'm not too mad though because I had to take a risk with Serra that looked like it was about to cost her because she got hit with what had to be a Displayed ~30% hit.
Well, let's try that again.
Hector levels, this time STR, SKL, SPD, DEF. Yay!
Matthew levels, this time HP, STR, SPD (Capped). Ah well.
Eliwood levels, HP, SPD, Luck, RES.
Hector levels, HP, STR, SKL, SPD, RES
And right about now I need to get Hector's team to run the other way because the boss is about to reach them and I still need to use the shop/armory.
Eliwood already at 1 HP. already working on locking up that anti-mvp award i see.
Sold the Red Gem from last chapter, bought an Iron Sword and 2 Vulneraries.
...
this boss has 36 HP.
why did i not notice that
Serra levels. Just SPD. serra why would you do that to me
Matthew goes to fight/delay the boss because the boss has a 0 hit rate against him and Matthew doubles for 8 each (Well, 9, but the boss is on a forest).
Hector finishes the boss (I would have actually sent Eliwood to do so, but looking at it, Eliwood would have been at risk of being OHKO'd even at Max HP and no way I would risk it.)
Instead, I let Eliwood fight the last bandit on the field, who curiously, did not move at all as long as I stayed out of range. Actually, that isn't entirely accurate, I didn't think Eliwood was ready for this kind of responsibility yet, I also sent Bartre over to help him. [/spoiler]
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
Hector levels first turn. Just HP. Hector... =(
Eliwood levels. Just defense. Classic Eliwood.
Matthew levels up. And gets nothing. taking after eliwood i see.
After barely getting Marcus close enough to the village with the Mine to draw the bandits to him and not destroy it, I think I'm going to withdraw most of my army to a better defensive position for now.
...
...
guy is mobile?
what
okay, maybe i'll have to change my strategy a bit
Okay, Guy recruited. In retrospect this wasn't so bad, because I was only withdrawing earlier because I wanted to make sure I wasn't drawn into Guy's range by pressing forward and forcing all the enemies with 2-range weapons to attack from spots I couldn't follow.
Rebecca levels after getting hit for most of her HP. HP, STR.
Eliwood levels. HP, SPD, Luck.
Hector levels. HP, SKL, SPD, Luck, DEF
Oswin (who has been basically soloing the upper west corner, in case you were wondering) also levels. HP, Luck, DEF
Serra levels healing who else but Eliwood. MAG, Luck, DEF.
Eliwood levels. HP, STR, Luck, RES.
Guy levels. HP, SKL, SPD, DEF.
Hector criticals on the boss to kill him. And I wanted to see if I could give him to Eliwood. Oh well.
Hector levels. HP, STR, Luck, DEF, RES.
Since the map is cleared, I'm going to grind Matthew/Guy, Matthew/Serra, and Serra/Hector supports.
Bought Two Hand Axes and a Heal Staff.
Serra levels while healing some damage left over on the team. MAG and RES. [/spoiler]
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Editor
It's a fun game, but I wouldn't say it's particularly noteworthy among the beat-'em-ups I've played, and my knowledge of the genre is by no means inclusive. Three big flaws jumped out at me:
1. It's possible the combat system is really deep and I just didn't notice, but from what I could tell, you've got two buttons. One jumps and one attacks. Okay. That's fair. But the one attack button can do wildly different stuff, from normal attacks with your weapons to repeated kicks to grabs to throws. What decides what happens when you hit the attack button? I dunno. I played through the whole game and its inner workings were just as much of a mystery as when I started.
2. The graphics make it way too fucking hard to see what the hell is going on, all the time. There is so much shit to keep track of and it's all really distracting. It's also just about impossible to tell where, exactly, enemies ARE, within three dimensional space, especially in relation to you, and it's made ten times worse with flying enemies.
3. There's one level with traps every two feet. It's obnoxious as hell, and it's made worse by the fact that you have basically no mercy invincibility. Most enemies - at least on Normal difficulty - are too dumb to take advantage of this and combo you to death (and they could absolutely do this without effort if they were smarter), but when traps are thrown into the mix... ugh. Add in that traps are frequently also impossible to determine the exact location of (see above), and... yeah. It can make for some irritating moments.
That said, I paid $2 for it and I consider that money well spent. God knows I've spent far more than that on far worse games.
For the record, I've never played the original Turtles in Time, so I don't know how it stands up to that or if any of these flaws were present in the original as well.
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"There's a pony in the shop, but don't buy it. It might do something unfortunate to you." ~from the first Summoner's Seal topic
Liberal Arts Major
I can already tell I'm not going to finish this playthrough. Most importantly, I don't have the amount of free time for this I thought I would. Also, I underestimated how much more time the writeups are adding to this.
All right, let's get this started. I have a feeling that clearing the map will not be an option, but I'll try to act like it is and probably have to restart with it!
I get the Matthew/Guy B Support first turn because it's both convenient, and because even if I don't get around to the other supports now, this is the only one I currently have that needs A Rank.
Also get Hector/Serra B.
Matthew levels. HP and DEF.
I like how Marcus can't even double a bandit now. How nice. Well, in spite of that, Marcus succeeds in his mission to get to the NE village.
Guy levels. HP, SKL, SPD, Luck.
Okay, turn 4 assessment. Clearing seems out of the question, the only question is how I want to handle everything else now.
Guy is currently holding the entire SE corner by himself, which at the moment is 5 enemies I can see, 4 are bandits, but that nomad trooper concerns me. Oswin holds the west side of the start island, and Matthew is the sole unit in that part of the field, but he's under half HP. Hector and Eliwood are guarding the north side of the center island, with Serra standing next to Eliwood because he needs healing every turn because he's Eliwood.
I'm thinking it may be best to pull Matthew back to join up with Guy now.
Eliwood levels. STR, SKL, Luck, DEF. ...actually not that bad.
Sending Marcus back to rejoin the center island.
Hector levels. Just HP. augh.
Rebecca levels. HP, STR, SPD, RES. Not bad at all. Rebecca has been standing behind Oswin sniping at the things attacking him the whole time.
...And it's over. Victory. [/spoiler]
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
I finally have the Battle Preparation Screen back. A+ chapter already.
After rearranging items (I need more Iron Swords so much), here's my deployment:
Hector, Guy, Serra, Eliwood, Matthew, Oswin, Rebecca, and Marcus.
Eliwood levelled. HP, SKL, DEF, RES.
...Erk are you insane, why are you going that way. *sigh*
Oswin levels. HP, SKL, SPD, DEF, RES.
Guy levels. HP, SPD, Luck.
...Erk, why do you continue to do this?
Recruited Erk, but he's left himself in the range of two enemies, and he's probably screwed. Let's see what happens.
Erk has survived somehow, but now Marcus of all people needs rescuing. He went by himself to get Priscilla, and well, not only is he losing, but he's three Hand Axe uses away from being unarmed. Sending Hector to back him up. Marcus also bought an Iron Sword to get out of losing WTA to practically everyone chasing him.
Rebecca levels. SKL and SPD.
Serra levels. HP, SPD, Luck.
Erik is mobile? lololol for once I may be glad that it's raining.
Forced to recruit Priscilla. Marcus at 4 HP and no Vulneraries? A plan that involves healing Marcus by leaving Priscilla in enemy range? Can't go wrong!
Priscilla survives and despite Eliwood's inability to double bandits, they're too stupid to take advantage and destroy the village Erk started by! Rain is gone however, so now everyone needs to run away pretty much.
...Well, now things are getting interesting. Priscilla attacked again, down to 2 HP again. Merlinus is at 5 HP after being attacked by Two Peg Knights, and that's after dodging both of them once each on their double attacks. Hector and Marcus are probably going to have to fight Erik. Running just isn't going to keep Priscilla alive.
Probably going to lose Merlinus. I can't beat all 3 Peg Knights with Oswin, Matthew, and Guy, because Oswin is lol Oswin.
ahahahahahaha the peg knight runs away.
Marcus gets hit for most of his HP by Erik's Horseslayer, but survives.
Hector defeats Erik and levels. HP, STR.
Guy levels. HP, SPD, RES.
Serra levels. MAG, SKL, Luck, RES.
Matthew/Serra B Support and Matthew/Guy A Support also gotten as I let the one remaining enemy cavalier sit where he is.
Map complete. I'm still not sure how I got out of that without casualties! [/spoiler]
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
Deployment (8/9): Hector, Guy, Serra, Eliwood, Matthew, Oswin, Rebecca, Marcus.
Boss has a Dragonshield, which means he needs to be defeated.
Hector levels. HP, STR, Luck, DEF.
Rebecca levels. HP, SPD.
Matthew gets a Silver Axe from a chest.
Eliwood levels. HP, SKL, SPD.
Guy levels. HP, SPD, DEF
Matthew gets a Mend from a chest.
It all of a sudden occurs to me that it is Turn 5, and with only 7 turns, I really need to get to that boss. However, the front lines, where all my competent units are, have no chance of getting there, I think. Not without causing Serra to get annihilated.
You know what this means, don't you?
Oswin going on a solo mission the back way with a Horseslayer. aww yeah.
this is going to fail terribly.
Guy just turned on God Mode and made two dodges at 5 HP.
Matthew levels. HP, STR, SKL, Luck, DEF. I think. I admit I may be wrong because I was watching the rest of the enemy moves.
...And it's all for nothing. Oswin can't one-shot the boss with the Horseslayer, so oh well. Restart.
Same deployment as before, but now I brought Erk too for some extra firepower.
lolz lost first turn thanks to failwood (With the initial deploy, I could have Marcus bring Eliwood to the central room on Turn 1, but this time I had to let him to do that with Erk, and Eliwood got swarmed by 3 knights.)
let's try that again.
Matthew levels. HP, Luck, DEF, RES.
unless he puts that luck to good use he's going to be destroyed because he jobbed to a javelin to get that level. well let's see.
even though it was guy who died this time, it was a team effort.
i have never seen such mass jobbing since... since well eliwood last time.
Erk levels. MAG, SKL, DEF, RES.
Hector levels. HP, STR.
Eliwood levels. HP, STR, Luck, DEF.
Matthew gets the Silver Axe.
Eliwood is jobbing to axes. I wish I could say I was surprised.
Matthew gets the Mend Staff.
Guy levels. HP, SKL, SPD, Luck, DEF.
Oswin levels. HP, Luck, DEF.
you are now manually realizing i made the same mistake before involving not being able to beat the boss in time.
restart.
Eliwood levels. HP, STR, SKL, SPD, DEF.
okay, normal tactics have not been successful.
it is time.
to become.
legendary.
Oswin and Marcus are going the back route to the boss.
Hector, Eliwood, Serra, Erk, and Rebecca are guarding the front a front that is 3 spaces wide. Guy is taking over on the west gap.
Matthew gets the Silver Axe.
Hector levels. HP, STR, SKL, RES. I think.
Matthew gets the Mend Staff.
Guy levels. HP, Luck, DEF.
Erk levels. HP, SKL, Luck.
Marcus levels. HP, SKL, SPD, DEF, RES.
erk whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy everything was going so well.
restart.
well sounds like the problem to me is that i'm not going all out on offense. let's change that.
Matthew levels. STR, Luck.
Erk levels. HP, MAG, SKL, DEF, I think.
damnit matthew.
it's great because you can tell the longer this goes on the more i'm abandoning any sense of true strategy.
restart.
Matthew levels. STR, Luck.
Eliwood levels. SKL, SPD.
This will be over soon, I'm getting so annoyed I just made a terrible move and Guy and Matthew are beyond doomed now.
eliwood beating them to it. classic eliwood.
I really should stop. The quality of my play has dropped off the map by now.
restart.
Start Difference. Equipped Marcus with weapons at the battle preparation screen now.
Matthew levels. Just SKL. Whatever, if that's the price I must pay for victory, so be it.
Eliwood does perhaps the first clutch thing ever and dodges a Javelin at 1 HP.
Erk levels. HP, MAG, SKL, SPD.
Eliwood levels. HP, SKL.
(Have a bad feeling about Hector missing a Nomad Trooper with a Wolf Beil.)
wtf i checked that guy range time and time again how did he get matthew
this game
restart
Matthew levels. SKL.
i'm not sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing that i basically know the outcome of turn 1 in terms of who will hit and who will miss because of how the rng works.
Erk levels. HP, MAG, SKL, SPD.
Matthew gets the Silver Axe.
Erk levels. HP, MAG, SKL, DEF, RES. man erk really wants to join the team with this performance.
Marcus levels. STR, SKL, SPD, RES.
hahahaha that enemy thief is so pro.
this needs some context. I haven't been saying it because it hasn't been noteworthy, but an enemy thief opens a door on the front right side of the room you're guarding. Every other time, he's opened the door, then run away, presumably towards the treasures Matthew is in the middle of taking, or if they're already gone, it just flat out leaves the map. This time though? He charges the undefended throne. He was a square short, but oh man, that was a surprise. Rebecca (1 HP, part of a Save Erk operation) and Erk got him.
Hector also aggro'd the boss during Operation: Save Classicwood. Let's see if I can get out of this mess. That enemy thief may have derailed everything.
Matthew gets the Mend.
Guy levels. Just SPD.
Hector levels. HP, SKL, Luck, DEF.
Turn 6. This could get kind of tough. 3 enemies near the throne, no one of note really able to defend it.
but this
is the stuff
of legends.
First off. Marcus v Boss. this has haunted me for too long.
owned boss owned
dragonshield get
oh great. to defend the throne i must block it.
with rebecca.
lets do this.
i was terrifying close to thinking marcus would ruin this run.
last turn.
it is time.
Serra levels. MAG, RES.
victory
ahahahahahaha
Do you want to know the worst part of all of this?
I can't truly call this map hard. If all I cared about was the actual chapter objective of "Defend the Throne for 7 turns" this would be laughably easy. It was only because of everything else I wanted to do it got like this. [/spoiler]
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?
Liberal Arts Major
Well, after that last trainwreck of a chapter, things have to get better? Right?
Deployment (8/8): Hector, Guy, Serra, Eliwood, Matthew, Oswin, Marcus, Erk.
I think this is the first map where they switch to the superior Map Theme in Hector Mode. aww yeah.
Oswin and Marcus are going to be on Merlinus guard duty, I think, everyone else is going to be off doing whatever. Except maybe Erk, he might hang with Oswin and Marcus. He's around just to field some extra firepower.
lol losing Sain on Turn 1. You'd think I'd have realized One Ballista and Two Peg Knights was too much. But apparently not.
restart.
Florina with a clutch dodge against a Thief, who if both his attacks hit, would have killed her (she got attacked by 4 units this turn)
Erk levels. Luck, RES.
Matthew steals a Lockpick.
Florina HP, RES.
Well, Lyn's group being such jobbers may cost me here. In order to protect the village by them, I think I'll need to put Florina in serious danger.
Wait, nope. Hector saves the day.
Guy levels. RES.
Eliwood levels. SKL, RES.
well it's clear we've entered the terrible level up zone this chapter.
Well, it seems the moment of truth has arrived - Can Oswin really hold off those guys by himself? My gut is "No" so I better get help over there...Probably will send Florina at the least, but I want to make sure the center of the map is secure first.
Matthew levels. HP, STR, Luck.
Oswin jobbing it up. Things getting dangerous up there (Oswin has not been hit yet, but 4 enemy cavaliers are sitting there.)
Well, this could be a disaster. Erk got charged and hit and is down to 9 HP. Oswin missed on a counter. Now 6 Cavaliers are there.
Erk levels. HP, MAG, SKL, Luck.
Oswin levels. HP, SPD, DEF.
Serra levels. MAG, Luck.
I'm also now sending my whole army minus Guy to Oswin's stand, they probably won't make it in time to change anything, but it'll make me feel better. Guy remains to make the enemy waste Ballista shots.
Merlinus hit once, now at 11 HP from 20 HP.
Next turn, Merlinus dodges.
Now Classicwood and Hector are closing in on being able to help, but Classicwood may have to withdraw already.
Merlinus with more epic dodging. Reinforcements seem to have stopped, and now practically my whole army is here.
Lyn levels. HP, STR, SKL, SPD, Luck. yesssssss.
DAT CLASSICWOOD. MISSING ON A 85 DISPLAYED HIT (or was it 95, that'd be more embarrassing, but i think it was 85) PUTTING THE TEAM IN JEOPARDY.
classic eliwood.
well this could get kind of tough. looks like i'll need to use that
wolf beil unleash
Hector levels. HP, STR, SPD, Luck.
classicwood missing an 84 hit chance this time, only this time it didn't mean anything other than classic eliwood.
Hector fights the boss for a while before I realize Lyn isn't as high a level as I thought and I give her the boss.
Serra levels healing Lyn after she wins. HP, MAG, SKL, Luck.
Now just grinding Lyn/Hector Support.
Lyn/Hector C Support gained.
victory.
[/spoiler]
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xp1337: Don't you wish there was a spell-checker that told you when you a word out?