(no subject)
Note to self: gym trip before playing because you usually end up in no condition to move after yet another marathon session. x____x
Am around level 72 or so, 80 hours into the game. This is the second time writing this entry, after I accidentally closed the window and LJ didn't save a draft like it usually does, so I'll be mercifully brief.
Isle of Feres -
Pretty short dungeon despite all the different maps. I just followed Kouli's directions and tadaa, we were out in less than an hour with all items.
The rise of replica Hod and the replica facility - I didn't like the voice acting for the replicas. From what I recall of the playthrough of Tower of Rem I did in the JP game, replicas weren't meant to sound... half-dead. They were meant to sound half-alive (the distinction is slight but significant! I insist). My sister didn't like how Mary sounded, but I felt she was the only one whose voice actress struck the balance and found "creepy". Frings, on the other hand, sounded peremptory and brisk, and it was a bit of a shock just hearing him at all, not to mention it broke consistency with the other annoying sounding replicas. The scenes in the Cecille sidequest, and even his death scene, weren't voiced IIRC, and this is the first I recall ever hearing him - oh wait, did he speak while meeting in Grand Chokmah?
Sword Dancer was pretty easy - was over in less than a minute X3 We were level 69, after all, and both Jade and Guy tossed Mystic Artes at him. I was slightly suicidal and used a party of Jade, Guy, Anise and Natalia, and I think I forgot to turn Natalia's strike artes off >___> but it turned out fairly well because Natalia heals faster than Tear, and most of the time Sword Dancer was stunned from attacks or spells. I stole the Sunlight Chamber off him pretty fast - on my 5th try, and he didn't damage me sufficiently to scare me while doing so, so I just pummeled him after that and let Natachan heal me. Guy's really cheap Severing Wind > Dragon Tempest chain came in handy like always, and the newly-discovered Infernal Prison > Searing Gale combo was pretty fun to spam even on a solo enemy. :9
With the Persian Boots, Luke has 810 AGI!! :OOOO~ And I'm still pumping AGI for Luke (to +90). The most-balanced character award will probably end up with Tear or Jade, though; they're the ones likely to get Glory in this playthrough while I've given up with Luke (he has no P.Def or F.Def or ENH at this point) and I have to push Guy to a very high level >wwwww>
...actually, I might try to get all AD Skills in this playthrough, because it's such a pain to get +200 P.Atk/+90 AGI in the next playthrough just to get Add Combo 4. D:
Mushroom Road -
So the sister goes off and makes lunch after Sword Dancer, and I attempt to find Mushroom Road. Just as well she does, because the time she comes back with lunch for both of us (and after she's made lunch for my sister and her guest) is the time I've just started on the dungeon. She declares she has no interest in Asch, but I suck so badly that she can't even miss anything :(
Asch is so weak in this dungeon I could cry ;____; He deals 150s while Guy and Luke, with better swords (by 300 P.Atk!), are hitting for 800-1k damage. I couldn't take controlling him so I caved and switched to Luke; cleared most of the dungeon (see; areas requiring Mieu Fire) before I decided HAY LET'S SEE BOTH "endings" and exited again to buy strawberries and milk in Keterburg.
Loving Son title is merely a title, unlike in the Character Book, which has Asch with his hair pwning his face. WHY. I so wanted to have him run around in that!!
The dungeon is pretty tough! I had to heal between every battle and usually during battles because enemies can deal 600 damage in a hit, ouch when you only have 4.8k hp to play with and double ouch because this usually comes in a multi-hit chain. ;____; Without cooking, we might have died - used Fruit Cocktails (Anise's Strawberry Mix!) and Cake (Anise's Strawberry Shortcake!) to keep TP levels up. Unlike other dungeons, we couldn't simply spam physical attacks, so it was rather fun :) Also because enemies can counter out of a stagger chain and are not easily staggered by simple physical attack chains in the first place so Artes were necessary. I kept going from full health to 1.6k HPs in a few seconds - thank goodness for Center. I died more than once because I stopped watching my health or/and Natalia couldn't heal all at once >___> And stupid Luke kept using Apple Gels because his AI is very dumb and keeps getting hit.
We ditched the use of Tear completely because she was too slow. :D;;; For some reason, she's our most-used character, beating out Luke by a whole 10%. I decided this needed rectification!! so I swopped in Natalia, discovered she healed much faster and reliably (Healing Circle LOSES because I have to GET IN IT), and the rest was history.
Other discoveries: Luke's AI is DUMB. VERY DUMB. KEEP GOING. First of all it likes getting close to enemies then getting stunned out of artes. I can forgive that, because Luke's artes are pretty slow (especially after you've used Guy) and Luke's normal physical attacks are also pretty slow and easy to stun out of. BUT THEN HE LIKES TO OVERLIMIT when 1) there is a single enemy left and 2) it is close to death, and 3) DOES NOT USE RADIANT HOWL 70% of the time, wasting the overlimit. Asch's AI, on the other hand, is much smarter. First of all, he doesn't seem to take that much damage, and then he overlimits right at the beginning of the battle or not at all, and overlimit = Rending Saber 100%.
Also, Natalia will heal you only if you drop to less than 1.8k HP, but she makes an exception for Asch, who is healed at 2.4k HP or so >:D~ Hearing Asch say "Please!" freaked the fuck out of me, though. I didn't know whether to giggle or, well, be scared. SOU HOARSE ;____; Also it is like Luke's because it is very needy and will use Apple Gels if ignored, but infrequently.
Also, I think you can only get Asch thrice in this dungeon ;____; The first, third, and fifth times we entered, though it's supposed to be random. After Luke, of all people, notices that "he loves you" and tells Guy off, Asch vamooses (I call EMBARASSMENT) and he never appears again. Luke usually remarks "No Asch, huh..." if Asch isn't there when entering the dungeon, but after that it never happened again - similar to after the dungeon was cleared (with either boy). I suspect it would have been no different if Natalia was the onscreen character >____>
The Asch "ending" is... typical of Asch. He's "not doing it for you" and has "no intention of getting friendly" with you, but hands over the Rugnican Deathcap anyway and says "Take care of Mother."
WAH WHY IS HE SO DUMB. WHY DOES THE ENDING KILL MY POOR HART DEAD. ;____;
Grand Chokmah, Baticul, Cheagle Woods and battle with Arietta -
PEONY~~~~
Jade really doesn't like explaining anything, and again pushes it to Guy to explain.
Nice one, Luke. But LISTEN to the people around you and stop with the self-pity! GOD. So lucky - a completely supportive party! I want a personal Guy too ;____; - and so unappreciative. (Then again, Asch is also similarly stupid - it's not as if Natalia wouldn't have gone with him if he'd take her?)
I stole Doll of Rare Genius on the second try~ So we pounded the Liger and then Hresvelgr and then Arietta to death. Another battle done in under one minute. ♥
from ruaki at JF: the pointer WINS.
also, your birthday in Abyssworld!
Link of the day: WOW I sure missed out on MGS.
Am around level 72 or so, 80 hours into the game. This is the second time writing this entry, after I accidentally closed the window and LJ didn't save a draft like it usually does, so I'll be mercifully brief.
Isle of Feres -
Pretty short dungeon despite all the different maps. I just followed Kouli's directions and tadaa, we were out in less than an hour with all items.
The rise of replica Hod and the replica facility - I didn't like the voice acting for the replicas. From what I recall of the playthrough of Tower of Rem I did in the JP game, replicas weren't meant to sound... half-dead. They were meant to sound half-alive (the distinction is slight but significant! I insist). My sister didn't like how Mary sounded, but I felt she was the only one whose voice actress struck the balance and found "creepy". Frings, on the other hand, sounded peremptory and brisk, and it was a bit of a shock just hearing him at all, not to mention it broke consistency with the other annoying sounding replicas. The scenes in the Cecille sidequest, and even his death scene, weren't voiced IIRC, and this is the first I recall ever hearing him - oh wait, did he speak while meeting in Grand Chokmah?
Sword Dancer was pretty easy - was over in less than a minute X3 We were level 69, after all, and both Jade and Guy tossed Mystic Artes at him. I was slightly suicidal and used a party of Jade, Guy, Anise and Natalia, and I think I forgot to turn Natalia's strike artes off >___> but it turned out fairly well because Natalia heals faster than Tear, and most of the time Sword Dancer was stunned from attacks or spells. I stole the Sunlight Chamber off him pretty fast - on my 5th try, and he didn't damage me sufficiently to scare me while doing so, so I just pummeled him after that and let Natachan heal me. Guy's really cheap Severing Wind > Dragon Tempest chain came in handy like always, and the newly-discovered Infernal Prison > Searing Gale combo was pretty fun to spam even on a solo enemy. :9
With the Persian Boots, Luke has 810 AGI!! :OOOO~ And I'm still pumping AGI for Luke (to +90). The most-balanced character award will probably end up with Tear or Jade, though; they're the ones likely to get Glory in this playthrough while I've given up with Luke (he has no P.Def or F.Def or ENH at this point) and I have to push Guy to a very high level >wwwww>
...actually, I might try to get all AD Skills in this playthrough, because it's such a pain to get +200 P.Atk/+90 AGI in the next playthrough just to get Add Combo 4. D:
Mushroom Road -
So the sister goes off and makes lunch after Sword Dancer, and I attempt to find Mushroom Road. Just as well she does, because the time she comes back with lunch for both of us (and after she's made lunch for my sister and her guest) is the time I've just started on the dungeon. She declares she has no interest in Asch, but I suck so badly that she can't even miss anything :(
Asch is so weak in this dungeon I could cry ;____; He deals 150s while Guy and Luke, with better swords (by 300 P.Atk!), are hitting for 800-1k damage. I couldn't take controlling him so I caved and switched to Luke; cleared most of the dungeon (see; areas requiring Mieu Fire) before I decided HAY LET'S SEE BOTH "endings" and exited again to buy strawberries and milk in Keterburg.
Loving Son title is merely a title, unlike in the Character Book, which has Asch with his hair pwning his face. WHY. I so wanted to have him run around in that!!
The dungeon is pretty tough! I had to heal between every battle and usually during battles because enemies can deal 600 damage in a hit, ouch when you only have 4.8k hp to play with and double ouch because this usually comes in a multi-hit chain. ;____; Without cooking, we might have died - used Fruit Cocktails (Anise's Strawberry Mix!) and Cake (Anise's Strawberry Shortcake!) to keep TP levels up. Unlike other dungeons, we couldn't simply spam physical attacks, so it was rather fun :) Also because enemies can counter out of a stagger chain and are not easily staggered by simple physical attack chains in the first place so Artes were necessary. I kept going from full health to 1.6k HPs in a few seconds - thank goodness for Center. I died more than once because I stopped watching my health or/and Natalia couldn't heal all at once >___> And stupid Luke kept using Apple Gels because his AI is very dumb and keeps getting hit.
We ditched the use of Tear completely because she was too slow. :D;;; For some reason, she's our most-used character, beating out Luke by a whole 10%. I decided this needed rectification!! so I swopped in Natalia, discovered she healed much faster and reliably (Healing Circle LOSES because I have to GET IN IT), and the rest was history.
Other discoveries: Luke's AI is DUMB. VERY DUMB. KEEP GOING. First of all it likes getting close to enemies then getting stunned out of artes. I can forgive that, because Luke's artes are pretty slow (especially after you've used Guy) and Luke's normal physical attacks are also pretty slow and easy to stun out of. BUT THEN HE LIKES TO OVERLIMIT when 1) there is a single enemy left and 2) it is close to death, and 3) DOES NOT USE RADIANT HOWL 70% of the time, wasting the overlimit. Asch's AI, on the other hand, is much smarter. First of all, he doesn't seem to take that much damage, and then he overlimits right at the beginning of the battle or not at all, and overlimit = Rending Saber 100%.
Also, Natalia will heal you only if you drop to less than 1.8k HP, but she makes an exception for Asch, who is healed at 2.4k HP or so >:D~ Hearing Asch say "Please!" freaked the fuck out of me, though. I didn't know whether to giggle or, well, be scared. SOU HOARSE ;____; Also it is like Luke's because it is very needy and will use Apple Gels if ignored, but infrequently.
Also, I think you can only get Asch thrice in this dungeon ;____; The first, third, and fifth times we entered, though it's supposed to be random. After Luke, of all people, notices that "he loves you" and tells Guy off, Asch vamooses (I call EMBARASSMENT) and he never appears again. Luke usually remarks "No Asch, huh..." if Asch isn't there when entering the dungeon, but after that it never happened again - similar to after the dungeon was cleared (with either boy). I suspect it would have been no different if Natalia was the onscreen character >____>
The Asch "ending" is... typical of Asch. He's "not doing it for you" and has "no intention of getting friendly" with you, but hands over the Rugnican Deathcap anyway and says "Take care of Mother."
WAH WHY IS HE SO DUMB. WHY DOES THE ENDING KILL MY POOR HART DEAD. ;____;
Grand Chokmah, Baticul, Cheagle Woods and battle with Arietta -
PEONY~~~~
Jade really doesn't like explaining anything, and again pushes it to Guy to explain.
Nice one, Luke. But LISTEN to the people around you and stop with the self-pity! GOD. So lucky - a completely supportive party! I want a personal Guy too ;____; - and so unappreciative. (Then again, Asch is also similarly stupid - it's not as if Natalia wouldn't have gone with him if he'd take her?)
I stole Doll of Rare Genius on the second try~ So we pounded the Liger and then Hresvelgr and then Arietta to death. Another battle done in under one minute. ♥
from ruaki at JF: the pointer WINS.
also, your birthday in Abyssworld!
Link of the day: WOW I sure missed out on MGS.