Overwritten.net
Games => General Gaming => Topic started by: Quemaqua on Wednesday, January 17, 2007, 09:40:11 PM
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In more than one way. I've mentioned on a number of occasions that I really think the game is tops, and I think it was a huge achievement in design, story, presentation, art design, music, and gameplay. However, I never finished it. In fact, I never even finished a quarter of it. Why?
I got the game on my PSP, per the PSP thread that's floating around. Awesome, I thought! I can finally go back and play it again! I've been wanting to, and that's a great excuse. So I start it up, get all excited, and start playing and enjoying myself, until I run into exactly the same problem that I ran into the first time I played -- I completely suck and I don't know why. I actually just got to exactly the same point in the game where I quit on my first try, and I'm feeling the same pains. So I'm here hoping that somebody can maybe tell me what it is that I'm not getting, because it's obviously something.
I understand how weapons and armor adapt to different bad guys, but how are you supposed to deal with this? I mean, I've been switching my weapons out sometimes. I've got a sword for beasts, a dagger for the undead, and a big spear for humans, but even with a 6 on my sword for dragons there's this dragon boss in the mines that I more or less couldn't damage. I'm about 6 and a half hours in now. I made sure to cast the STR-DOWN spell on him and the EQUIP-UP on myself, and I made sure to get the fireproof defensive chain thing so that his fire breath thing didn't kill me in a couple hits, but I had no real way of damaging him. The fight was like a half fucking hour because I did almost no damage at all. I tried letting my risk get high and then using spells, I tried using items to keep my risk low... nothing worked. He was just always impossible to damage. I'd do like 1 damage per hit, maybe a little more if I got a chain going. And all his body parts always said 0/whatever% no matter what I did. And it's starting to get like this with a lot of other bosses. Do you just really need to have a sword with like a 15/20+ rating for the enemy type, or what? The enemies don't seem abundant enough to really get super high ratings consistently, and it seems like you'd need a lot of patience to go grinding away just to get a few more numbers on the weapon you wanted to use. And if you had to do that with armor too? Fuck, there's not enough inventory to have different weapons and armor for every different enemy type, not to mention it's already annoying as hell to have to access the menu every 10 seconds to switch my weapons out! And I really like how you can craft weapons and combine stuff, but that tends to fuck with the numbers when you make a new weapon and it doesn't have a great rating for whatever enemy type.
Anybody have any tips? I'd really like to get over the hump and actually enjoy this game, but I'm feeling like a dolt when it comes to the gameplay. There's just something that isn't meshing with me, and I need to find out what.
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Damn, I wish I could help but I haven't played that game since it first came out, took me awhile to beat it too. I remember that game having a high learning curve and difficulty though. Maybe look at an FAQ and see if there's an element of gameplay you're missing out on.
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I think it just plain wants me to grind enemies more to increase the weapon affinities. That's all I can guess. I mean, if I have a low rating on beast with a powerful weapon, it takes five hits to kill a fucking bat. If I have a high rating for human with the same weapon, it only takes a couple of good swings. At this point it's the only thing I can guess.
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Remember when I said Castlevania: SotN is the best game ever a few days ago? I totally lied, it's Vagrant Story. I've played through the game a few times, and there's definitely a trick to it. You shouldn't really need to grind at all to get through the main game, it kind of plays out perfectly if you know what you're doing.
The actual 'class' affinity isn't that huge of a deal, and in reality you only need to really use three weapons because of the way the system works. Raising one class will drop another class, so there is a combination of something like you have one weapon you use for human + Beast, one for Evil + Dragon, and one for Undead + Phantom. I THINK those are the combinations you can have on one weapon without lowering each other, but I'm not sure. Anyways, that's not really the big deal....especially with bosses. The big deal is the elemental affinity and the weapon type weakness. Specifically the elemental affinity.
I take it you're on the fire dragon. Scan it if you have that spell (I think you should). You also probably have a spell to increase the water affinity of your weapon....which is something you're going to want to do for this fight. If you don't have it, don't worry about going back to look for it, I don't think it's something you can miss. The elemental affinity and weapon type are the most important aspects, and you can find those weaknesses by analyzing the creature you're fighting. Just remember that attacking a fire based creature increases your weapons water affinity, but being attacked by it increases your armor affinity.
The part that may be a bitch is if your weapon is the wrong type for the boss. If a dragon is weak against piercing weapons and you're using a blunt or slashing weapon it's going to be an issue. On most bosses, this is more important than the actual class affinity. Analyze the dragon, but I'm pretty sure they're weak against piercing weapons (I remember using a lot of pole arms on them). If that's the case use whatever piercing weapon you have on you regardless of it's class affinity. See how much damage that does.
That said, a lot of bosses have a point weaker than the others. Check the tail, the neck, and the head. Beyond that, I think I remember that if you get in very close to the dragons they can't use their breath attacks (maybe try getting under the neck, close to the body so you're sort of behind or under the head), leaving them with physical attacks....which you can reflect back at them with one of your defensive chains.
I never really worried about the attributes of armor...I'd just use magic to boost the elemental defense if needed.
So, for this particular boss:
-Equip pole arm or spear.
-Put gem on it to boost class affinity if you have it (dragon stone or dragonite I believe)
-Cast elemental weapon boosting spell boss' weakness if you have it (probably water).
-Get in close
-reflect damage
-CHAIN ATTACK whatever weak point he has (head, neck, or tail)
-Boost equipment if you can't cast spell boosting your weapon's water element (if you cast both the later cancels the former)
That probably should do it. The whole game requires a lot of equipment management...which is very daunting at first, but once you get the hang of it you realize it's a lot easier than it seems. There's an easy way to do everything and the trick is to find it.
I may load an old save if I can find one and figure out what weapon class and type affinity combos are the best. Element isn't a huge deal since you can alter it with magic later on.
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Well this is all very helpful. Thanks dude. I think my problem was I wasn't focusing on anything much other than the class affinity, and I didn't even think about whether or not different things took damage from different kinds of weapons. I have no idea why that didn't enter my mind... I guess because it's several pages down on the list from the class affinity stuff. Also, my analyze spell has failed every damned time I try to use it, so thus far I haven't been able to analyze anything. Whoops.
But yeah, thanks again. I did manage to beat the dragon, it just took me a billion fucking years whittling away at him. I'm now at the guy that pissed me off to the point of quitting the first time I played -- some crazy fire phantom guy just after the dragon. I will use my newfound information to pound his ass into the ground. I'm not sure why it's taken so much effort me to adjust to the game's systems, but for some reason it just isn't quite coming naturally. Certain aspects are, I guess I was just overlooking some stuff in an effort to better understand the things I was more focused on. Hopefully now I can get on with it and enjoy it more properly.
Then somehow find the time to finish FFXII...
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I'm pretty sure the fire dragon is where I finally got the system the first time I played. I ran into the same problem and started looking at other things.
And yeah....those phantoms are a bitch. If you have any more questions, don't be afraid to ask. It's definitely a game worth playing all the way through.
Edit: I also know for a fact that you should have the water element fusion spell for this fight, but can't remember if it's in a chest around there or if you got it from a boss. It makes a huge difference.
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Looking at a FAQ, I realize that I do have it and just forgot that it was in my inventory. I should also have a water gem that I completely forgot about, so I'll be sticking that in something too. How I forgot this I have no idea, but I'm blaming lack of sleep.
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Yeah, that should make a huge difference. Anyways, I broke out my copy and started playing it again, from looking at my save I think the combination for class affinity on your weapons that I gave you before was correct (human/beast, ect).
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I wouldn't mind playing this game again, but this was another one of my PS1 games that was stolen. I think I still have the save file on my memory card though.
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...epsxe is great.
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Okay, so I beat the elemental dude with relative ease after equipping myself properly, and that was great. Then I ran into this goblin boss and he kicked my ass because I wasn't paying a lot of attention (got distracted by other things happening outside my PSP, heh). I tried him again and was noticing that things weren't going well because I appeared to be using the wrong weapon type. After trying several, nothing was really working. I tried the analyze spell right off, but for some reason it appears that I have no idea how to properly use it? After casting it, nothing happens. If I try to attack the creature again, there isn't any new info. If I look in the encyclopedia, there is no entry for said monster unless I've already beaten one, and it includes no clues as to elemental weaknesses, etc. So what the hell? Where do you get the information from that spell? Eventually I tried using a fire gem in one weapon and managed to do pretty decent damage, so took him down in a fair fight that was challenging but not too much so. It just would have been a lot easier had I been able to figure out his weaknesses with the spell that's supposed to allow me to do so. Apparently I'm just stupid and am missing something obvious.
Anyway... I seem to be faring much better in general, now, so I guess you managed to beat whatever it was I was missing into my stupid head for the other stuff. Now I just have to figure out some good combinations for armor, as my attempts at combining thus far usually don't offer much benefit. I thought I read somewhere that doing a piece of armor of one material with the same piece made of a greater material will equal one with an even greater material? I've made several cool blades and a few shields, but armor seems to be a sore spot.
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Sorry, forgot about this thread. The analyze spell is kind of weird. If you cast it and it doesn't tell you it missed you have to open the menu, go into the status part and hit one of the R or L buttons to switch from your status to that of whatever you just cast it on. You can then go through the information by (I think) hitting the other R or L button. You should be able to figure out what weapon and magic to use from that.
As for the armor combining, I'm actually not too sure of the details for it. I never got all that into it. I mainly just used the weapons I found and changed the blades and grips around. It's a huge part of the game, but not something I ever really got all that into but since I'm playing again I probably will. Key: don't forget to repair all your equipment every time you hit a shop.
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Yeah? I haven't repaired anything yet. I've been using the Imbue thing and... the other one, I forget the name. They add DP and PP to your weapons. I use those quite a lot.
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That should do it then, but if you're at a workshop, you might as well spend the five or so seconds to do it.
I still can't believe we never got a sequel.
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It does seem pretty insane. At least FFXII calls back some memories of it, though not exactly in the same way. Still, it reminded me of VS in some ways, so that was a pleasant surprise.
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Hooray for old thread resurrection.
Firstly, I'd like to point out the ninth part of the GameTrailers Final Fantasy Restrospective (http://www.gametrailers.com/player/usermovies/103399.html), which deals with my last post in this thread. It talks about how Vagrant Story does, apparently, take place in part of Ivalice, the world made famous by FFXII and Final Fantasy Tactics. That's pretty cool since it's the same creative team and has such similar art. I always felt they were spiritually linked, but it's nice to finally know that yes, they are part of the same whole, even if we don't know exactly how.
That brings us to other news - Tactics is being released again in North America on the PSP as Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions (http://www.gamespot.com/psp/strategy/finalfantasytacticspsp/index.html), which will have some extra junk, cool animated scenes with voice acting, and some other crap like a cameo by Balthier from FFXII.
Aaand... I'm trying to go through Vagrant Story again. I sort of failed last time. I got way further than I had before, but I still felt like things just weren't clicking perfectly and got frustrated. But I pulled out the big guns this time - I ordered the strategy guide from someone. I've heard it's a fantastic guide, so I'm hoping it'll clear up the remaining mysteries the game still holds for me. I've played tons of RPGs so I'm not quite sure what it is about this one that seems to confuse me so much, but I'm going to beat it, damn it, or die trying!
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I really hope they'll make a sequel to (or a remake of) Vagrant Story with updated graphics. The game is a great platform for 'cinematic' gameplay!
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If I remember correctly the only way you can tell it takes place in Ivalice during the game is because the author of the quote that appears on the screen in the start of the game is a character in FFT. I think.
That said, I'm ashamed you didn't get through it last time. You are a failure unfit to call yourself a man.
But yeah, it's really a game where you have to know how all the systems work or you're fucked. You pick up little shit along the way....the actual enemy type affinity of each weapon doesn't matter as much as the actual type/stat of weapon (blunt/piercing/slashing/metalic composition). How many weapons you need to carry to ensure that you have one that's ideal for any monster you cross, and how to make those weapons are just some of the things you end up having to think about.
Honestly, I think it may be one of the best rpgs ever. Complex storyline, great art, and one of the deepest combat/equipment systems I've come across in a videogame.
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Absolutely. That's why I keep going back and trying to figure out what it is I'm not getting. I always start out strong... like this time I'm kicking all kinds of ass. But then somewhere around those mines or whatever with the goblins and the fire demon dude it just slowly starts to go south for me. I felt like I figured out the weapon system pretty well, so I think maybe I'm just not giving enough attention to how well I use the chain abilities. Or something. I mean, there are so many little systems... the risk system, the affinities, the weapon system, the armor and weapon combining (which thus far has yielded for me both jack and shit on every try), and then after all that you have to actually put it into practice by using the right spells and abilities at the right times, actually getting your button presses timed properly so you can chain your attacks and defensive maneuvers, and then you have to manage your risk as well. I get everything individually, but there must be some weak link I'm not seeing that's causing my troubles. I'm thinking I need to swap out my chain abilities more frequently to fit the situation. I do fairly often, but maybe not quite often enough.
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Oh good god man, do NOT try to get into weapon or armour combining at this point. That's strictly an end game or consecutive playthrough thing. When you get a bit more comfortable with the game you should be breaking down weapons to their parts and combining blades with different grips and the like in order to take advantage of different gem slots, but leave it at that.
Risk is by far the most important aspect of combat in the game. Always try to keep your risk as low as possible. Honestly, a lot of the offensive spells are pretty much worthless - it all comes down to the healing spells, buffs, and whatever you call spells that act as negative buffs on enemies. And that analyze spell - that is the most usefull thing in the game. Did you figure out how to see the enemies stats after using it? I think I remember you having a problem with that at first (I certainly did).
Chain abilities are also pretty big, but your defensive abilities are more key. Always have the one equiped that enables you to cut damage in half if you get the timed button press, and the one that reflects damage. Swap the third one out for whatever elemental boss character or tough enemy you are fighting. As for the actual chain attacks, I'm pretty sure I almost always used the same three - which I totally can't remember now. I believe I had it set up so that even if I missed or something I could still inflict damage at the cost of risk. I'll look at a list of them and figure it out.
By far the biggest flaw in the game is the lack of an ability to bring up certain menus or swap weapons with one button. Seriously, the fact that you can't do that is just fucked in this game.
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Okay, so I won't bother with combining at this point. That's one less thing to think about.
I've definitely realized that defensive abilities are key. I'm working very hard to make sure I have relevant defenses happening, though my biggest problem seems to be magic damage because I can never fucking figure out when to press the button to defend. That's getting very frustrating. Some of the spells don't seem to have a logical climax in which to hit the key, whereas I almost never miss a melee attack. But even those stupid phantoms in the opening area always end up beating me down with spells because I just can't seem to get the magic absorb or reflect to happen. In that one room where the door locks and you're trapped with one that likes to appear in the upper areas where it's harder to jump and get to him, I always end up taking a ton of damage. That drives me a little nuts.
Anyway, I feel more confident in this run already, and I've already built several cool new weapons that seem better than what I had last time, and by the time I start running into trouble I'll have the guide to hopefully help me figure out where my weaknesses are and then I can get past that and just start playing for real. In theory.
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I believe I remember that exact phantom. You have it set up so you get the exclamation mark when you need to hit the button right? I know it's still tough with magic, but you eventually get the hang of it.
But talking about this phantom reminds me, you're going to need to set up a weapon to specifically tackle ghosts and something else. Actually, I can't remember the class you want to double up ghosts with, but I can find out for you. Anyways, I'm fairly certain they are weak against silver, but most of the silver weapons you find early on are either tiny daggers or staves. This is a bit of a bitch because the way they teleport neccesitates a long range option. Crossbow. You won't be able to get one that's silver for a while and you won't do as much damage, but that's where the chains come in.
You have me wanting to play this again, but I don't know if it will work out on my constatly restarting pc.
Unless...I can get it going on my laptop. Hmmmm.
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Heh, I'm playing on my PSP. It's all... tiny.
You know, I can't even remember finding silver weapons. At least definitely none in the opening area (wine cellar/catacombs). And yeah, I have the exclamation mark for timing, but it's still like half impossible with most spells. And I haven't really used ranged stuff much. I manage with the phantoms most of the time, just using a sword. It's only bad in that one room where you can't get to the fucker before he gets a spell off. Otherwise I'm fine with them.
Damn it... talking about this is making me want to play right now, but I'm gonna' go play some Quake 2 with the guys. Must play...
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Yeah, silver weapons must not come into until later. I do seem to remember that the audio cue might help for spells, but it's hard to say.
I know exactly the room you're talking about though. I"m fairly certain it's been a bitch a couple of the times I played through the start of the game. I specifically remember the first.
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Finally figured out analyze.
From a guide:
This is pain to understand at first so let me explain.
If you go into the main menu and the status you will see the status
of Ashley. Press L1 or R1 to see the other occupants of the room.
You will see how most of there stats are covered with ?? or ???. To
fill in these blanks cast Analyze. Once cast it will let you see
things like what armour it's wearing, what weapons it's using, it's
HP and MP and many other helpful things such as elemental affinity.
If you're thinking "That is so obvious, how didn't I find that out?"
don't worry I didn't know how to work this spell until I had around
50% of the map revealed on my first play. Stupid me...
I had no idea you could see enemies from there. Like none at all.
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The game just got a whole lot easier for you then.
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Apparently not. I just went against the Wyvern in the abandoned mines, and I can't figure out how to damage him like... at all. The analyze says he's weak against blunt, but it does like zip damage with the blunt weapon I have, and nothing else does much either (except a little bit of edged on his tail). But I've beaten him before... what the hell?
This is the kind of shit I'm talking about. I literally just sat there at that fight for like a half hour. Staying a live is cake as long as he doesn't breathe fire on you, but nothing I do does any damage. I could just sit there reflecting his attacks all day like I did with the golem, but I seem to miss the counter for that a lot.
... I wonder when my guide gets here.
EDIT - Well, basically all GameFAQs tells me is to either do what I was doing, or a couple alternate strategies, all of which I tried that did absolutely nothing. Even with my risk at zero none of my weapons hit for shit. I wonder if they're all out of DP or something? I generally have the two skills that add PP and DP when you use them, and I use those on normal enemies almost constantly, so I don't see how that's possible. I guess I just need to keep reflecting his attacks and going for the tail. But boy, it's sure taking a fucking while. I don't remember it being nearly this bad before.
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That's strange. I remember the tail being good. I also have a feeling that when it says blunt is high it means it's blunt defense is high or something like that. For some reason I always remember using piercing (spears and stuff) on dragon enemies.
Also, what gems do you have? Any that would help out against dragons?
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I do, in fact, have one. It just doesn't seem to help much. The only thing I can figure is maybe my DP is low or something. I made a really super-badass edged weapon, and I know I'm reading the weaknesses correctly as the tail is the only part of the thing I can seem to damage at all... it just seems like peanuts compared to what a weak spot should be. This thing is basically just invulnerable to everything else, though, so I guess it's really what the weak point is supposed to be. I think what was throwing me is I just kept looking for something better as I don't remember him being all that troublesome before. This run has been a lot more successful than my past ones, actually. Nothing until now has given me much pause (with exception of that damned phantom we talked about, who I went back in to beat again today at work just for fun since I finally got some new abilities to render his attacks ineffective... and somehow I figured out when to block the aqua spell of his).
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Yeah, some of those enemies you really have to chain to death. Your original damage miht be miniscule, but if you chain as much as you can you'll keep adding more (bit by tiny bit). The downside is that it costs risk, but I guess it has to be done.
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I sort of suck at chaining, though. My biggest so far is 9, and I don't think I ever did any better than that on previous tries, either.
Also, I'm finding weird little things that throw me. I just slaughtered like 10 guards as though they were nothing at all, but amidst those 10 were 2 that for some reason seemed to have no apparent weakness. The others were all weak to my custom iron rapier blade (piercing), but I didn't cast analyze on them or anything. Just went in and started swinging. But those other 2 didn't seem to have any weaknesses, so I analyzed them and found that they had very little... but they had maybe -5 in one thing. Yet for some reason, when using the corresponding weapon, I still got a prediction of 0dam/##%, even if I had casted prosasia. So yeah, there are still some things I don't get, but on the whole it's going pretty well now. I think I've got most of it down.
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I've never gotten chains up to huge ammounts, but you can eventually do damage with even the small ones. Sorry, I still have to look at the list of available chains in order to help you out, I'll try to do that tonight. I'll also see if I can get this going on the laptop. It'll probably be fun if we both go through and it's hard to think back and explain stuff about this game because there's just so much.
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It's really amazing that a game 7 years old with very dated-looking technology can not only be as well directed as this game is, but as perfectly localized and as ridiculously gorgeous. This has to be one of the best looking games I've ever played, even now. It just does what it does exactly the way it should.
Anyway, I think I've finally gotten over the hump now. I got my ass kicked a few times today, but I also realized very quickly why that was and rectified it, and took out another couple of bosses without much issue. It seems to be settling in at long last, and I'm finally getting to see more of the story, which (to my disbelief) remains as compelling as the opening. I also sat at the menu long enough to re-watch the *actual* opening, which I'd forgotten about (was eating something at the time), and I remember talking to this one guy who loved the game and never realized that scene was in there. Never quite understood why they did it that way, as that scene is awesome.
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Do you mean the run through the castle or manor or whatever it is?
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No, the pre-opening. If you leave it at the menu and just watch. Eventually you get to see Riot's briefing with the VKP snobs, and it's all sinister and dark and stuff.
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....
I don't know if I've ever seen that.
DAmn, well....looks like it's time to try ePSXe on here for sure.
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Seriously? Well, that just brings me back to wondering why they chose to do it that way, because you aren't the first to say that.
But yeah, watch it. It's cool.
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Ok, I watched it. I take that back, I have seen it - but probably when I first played the game in 2000 or so. Still, thanks for pointing that out because it really does add quite a bit to the begining of the game and I totally forgot about it.
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I'm about ready to throw my PSP through a wall right now. I finally get over the hump and start really getting through the game, I'm having a great time, making the right decisions, all is right with the world... and the game crashes. After this one boss fight, it just... dies. Screen fades to black, next scene wants to load, hangs with one note playing in the balance and then just shuts the PSP down.
Okay, I try to re-rip the .ISO using a newer version of popstation, but that's no good because it has a different savegame ID and copying over the save files causes the game to not load. Fuck. I copy over just the memory card files, but the game won't recognize them (probably due to the IDs not matching up). I try re-ripping with the old (incorrect, coincidentally) ID and then it works with the old save... but crashes in the same spot. So I don't know what the fucking problem is. All reports indicate that VS is supposed to work fine, and there's one guy who logged more than 100 hours into it on his PSP. What the fuck gives? I downloaded another version which I'll try, and I could always try to rip my own CD to see if the ISO is bad or something, but in either case I can't use the fucking savegame I've been using, and there's no way in bleeding hell I feel like starting over again for the billionth time.
EDIT - Well, this may not really help me if it ends up happening again (god forbid during actual gameplay), but I was able to just skip the cutscene and watch the 2nd half of it on YouTube. So it's all good, really. I just hope it doesn't try to pull this shit again. Nothing else has happened in 11 and a half hours, so I'm hoping it won't again.
EDIT x2 - I'd just like to add that this game owns my life completely now and I am helpless against it. If it told me to go jump off a cliff, I think I would have to. I am in awe.
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It is easily the game that justifies the existence of both the original playstation as well as SquareSoft. Perhaps the greatest injustice in the world is the fact that it has never received a sequel or the attention it deserves. I personally find it a bit of a slap in the face that other action RPGs of much less quality and vision such as those found on the PC constantly receive more acclaim from the gaming population.
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This thread forced me to track this game down. I'll be trying it out after I get tired of Eternal Sonata, maybe even before then.
Edit: Zounds! My own page. Woohoo!
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Heh, I actually suggested to you elsewhere that you maybe consider FFXII or VS, Cobra, if you were looking for something less restrictive and more involved after ES. VS is an amazing game, truly, and exactly what dungeon crawlers should aspire to... except with a lot more to it than you'd ever give a dungeon crawler credit for. The difficulty may indeed be prohibitive, as if you read the rest of this thread you'll realize that I had a hell of a time getting past the learning curve, but if you're willing to stick it out and learn the ropes, it really does reward you for it. The story is intriguing and well told, the dialogue is believable, the characters are unique, the music is great, and I think it may truly be the best looking game on the PS1.
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So I think I've entered phase 3 of my learning relationship with VS. GPW gave me the good advice to ignore weapon affinities (i.e. the way the weapon "learns" to kill things of a certain type the more you use it against that type) and just stick with weapon damage type (blunt, piercing, edged). This helped in the early game where I was having difficulty, as most enemies seemed to be weak to one type of weapon. He also said that combining materials isn't really something you have to do until a subsequent play through the game and you can ignore it on your first run, which got me to stop worrying about it and that was nice. It helped me figure the basics out.
However... I think I've now decided otherwise. I wanted to see how big an effect the affinities had since the *elemental* ones always made life a hell of a lot easier for me against certain enemies and bosses, so I had a sword I'd been using a lot, and it already had a pretty decent rating against humans, and I just concentrated on using it for a while... and now that it's at around 55+ for it's human rating, the thing kicks some pretty serious ass. Granted, it's still fully possible to run into guys that aren't weak to that armor type, hence the weapon won't do any (or much) damage, but this is easily rectified with a couple shots of Degenerate/Tarnish whilst casting Prostasia on myself. This eats up more mana than just trying to use a more suitable weapon, but the advantage is when a human character is weak against that blade type, the thing goes through them like butter. So I do just as much damage as I ever would previously against the guys who defend better against the weapon as long as I soften them up with negative spells, but on the whole I I do considerably more damage, and more consistently. And I hear things get especially wicked once a weapon reaches an affinity of 99, which I'm fast approaching.
Also, the combining system is actually my friend now, and this is completely because of my discovery about affinities. When you combine two blades in a workshop, they may or may not form something new and cool. Generally speaking, whatever you forge won't be as nice as whatever the best blade was. So if you have a Kickass Blade +3 and a Decent Blade +1, you're probably going to end up with a Pretty Nice Blade +2. However, the blades will also share affinities, and this is key. You need to upgrade your equipment to stay potent as you progress, but that means losing all the affinities you've built up on your weapons if you're going that route. It was a conundrum to me until I realized that by combining blades, you can make better weapons out of your old weapons and still keep their affinities (or even increase them in some cases). So my standard one-handed Iron Rapier with a 55+ human rating became a "Knightly weapon" two-handed giant freaking axe that does almost twice the damage, has better range, and a better agility rating (somehow) yet remains just as proficient at killing humans as it did before. By combining blades this way, you can maintain or increase your affinities and still get new gear... not to mention you can seriously move up the food chain in terms of unique blade types if you combine the right stuff.
So yeah, this game was awesome and then just got even better. I had a two-handed great sword I was using against dragons and lizard types, but it was bronze and fast becoming obsolete. It still worked because of its affinity, but I knew a newer weapon could be better. Turned the thing into a Hagane (steel) one-handed sword that I can use with a shield, and it's faster and does a ton more damage.
Idol initially expressed mild displeasure at the thought of no loot pinatas in this game, but let me tell you, building your own gear is so much more satisfying. Nobody tells you how to do it, you just fiddle around until you figure out a combination that's going to work out well. I got several new shields out of combining as well, and a few pieces of armor. Affinity seems to matter a great deal less when it comes to defense, or at least it would just take far too much time to build it up... so I haven't paid attention to that. I've just tried to avoid having a lot of negative affinities on my gear, which hasn't seemed to be that big of a problem. But yeah, building your own weapons is great, and it's even cooler because you spend so much time tempering them in combat. After all that, watching them bloom into an even better weapon is just really satisfying.
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Yeah, good call on the affinities. I don't think I ever got close to having a weapon anywhere near a hundred, but using the one weapon for two enemy type system I probably got up there. The other key thing is the gem slots. You can get gems to raise each affinity a certain ammount, so in boss fights it's usually a good idea to switch it around from one to the other if you need to.
But yeah, it sounds like you're handiling the learning curve now. That's the thing - when you're first starting there's almost way too much stuff to worry about. You can simplify the game substantially by not messing with the affinity types too much, while also avoiding getting too far into the combining aspect of weapon creation. You won't be as powerfull as you can be (which will keep you the fuck out of the optional dungeon in a later playthrough), but you can get through it as long as you get good with chaining and using your defensive skills.
As for armour affinity; I've played through the game completely four times I believe and made it a fair bit through at least a few more and I've never worried about it. I think some people do because they want to create the ultimate armour, but who the fuck wants to carry around three copies of everything and constatly having to switch between them? That's just me.
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Yeah, the armor thing is just too much micromanagement for me. Weapons is doable, and even that can be a little annoying at times, but anything beyond that would be too much.
I continue to love this game with every hour that passes, even though sometimes it also makes me want to kill myself. Today for instance:
I hit a save at a workshop and do all kinds of cool stuff. Get some new weapons and armors crafted, get some nice class affinity bonuses, all that good junk. I feel like I'm on top of the world and can handle anything. So I go to the neighboring area because I haven't explored it yet and it seems like the logical next step, and there's a new enemy type. Little doll demon things. Yay! I dispatch them post-haste with my giant demon-slaying katana. No biggie. Then all of a sudden there's this horrible harpy thing with a disturbing head, and it gets an intro like a boss. I'm not using a good weapon, so the first few hits don't do much, and I switch out to other gear while the stupid bird does nothing but "Drain Mind" on me over and over. I'm about to hit it again, when suddenly it casts "Banish". This spell is, for all intents and purposes, instant death. Drains HP to zero, you either defend in a timely manner, or you die. I died.
Fuck.
Okay, so I try again. This time, two hits with my new super-mace (which is meant for humans but apparently does tons of damage to the harpies) and the thing is gone. I get my stuff, and I guess it wasn't a boss after all. Just a new enemy. Yay. I head into the next room. I don't know what the guy in there is, but he looks like an elemental just with a skull mask or something. I prime myself with some spells and such, whip out the new phantom-smashing axe (high light affinity and undead class, though phantom is pretty decent also for the time being), and run up to him. He casts a spell called "Radial Surge", and it does a multitude of good-sized, smaller hits, essentially killing me in a single strike.
Fuck.
So I get back into the game and go at it again. This time I'm smart and I make sure to equip all my magic protection stuff so that his spell can't destroy me in one go. So I go through the first couple rooms, kill the harpy, then take the guy out. He tries the spell again, but instead of multiple 50s and 60s popping up around me, it's 10s and 13s and a couple misses. Sweet. He gives me stuff, and I move on. Then I run into more harpies, which don't pose much of a problem, and then (to my surprise) another of these phantom guys. Only it isn't a boss. I run up to him to kill him, thinking he must surely be a lot easier, and he promptly kills me in one hit with the same damned spell as his big brother because I had my evil weapon (the katana) out and no shield (which had the magic protection stuff).
Fuck.
Back to square one. I do the run over again, but this time kill the other phantom guy. Okay, no big deal. I'm learning. So where the hell is the save? A few more rooms and I run into another boss, this one like the Dullahan and other possessed armors. He isn't too bad, and a couple negative spells later, he goes down quick. Save must be right after, right? No, it's another phantom guy with his doll girlies. Damn it. I kill those, and the worst is over. Got a dead end, and a key, and the key unlocks the way out. Sweet. I head out and start pissing off some harpies that respawned after the boss died, and I'm killing them just for laughs because they're so easy. Except... wait, there are several of them, and after a couple of unlucky misses, my risk is a little high. Oh, no big deal. I'll just run away for a sec and wait for --
Fuck.
Apparently all harpies can cast Banish. SON OF A BITCH. This is taking like 20 minutes each time I go through this, and I'm getting a little fed up. So I do it all over again, beat the two bosses, beat the phantoms, and am very cautious with the harpies now, casting Magic Ward whenever I don't kill them before they have a chance for action. I get to the door that leads to the next area, and am very happy. Surely a save awaits me. I'd go back and save at the one where I last saved, except that leaves this particular area and everything would respawn, and that would be just as annoying as fighting the bosses again. So I press on through the door, and... no, it's a dark elemental. FUCK. Fortunately I went on a different path earlier in the game, facing one of these before I technically had to (as there's an optional area you can go through which most people probably end up doing first), so I knew what to do. His first spell took a good chunk out of me because I wasn't ready, but I recovered and proceeded to brain him thoroughly. Cool. Through the next door, and I'm back inside the city walls north, where lizard guys like to hang out. These guys haven't posed a problem because I have a decent dragon weapon, but I just realized that when I last converted it I turned it into a super-powered dagger. That may not have been smart, because the lizard guys have lances and like to run away after each hit, and the dagger has no range at all. I'm worried... but fortunately, it all turns out okay. I don't have as much trouble catching them as I thought, and I end up the victor after all. I head out of the walls, find a nearby save point, and turn off my PSP with a huge sigh of relief.
Man what a great fucking game. It's so good that the expletive really does need to be there, or the statement just doesn't seem potent enough. Great fucking game. What's so brilliant is that your character doesn't really need to level up, you do. Either you anticipate things and play smart, or you die. It's that simple. *You* need to evolve, not your character. His equipment gets better, he gets more tools to vanquish the enemy, and more abilities and such, but if you don't figure out how to use them effectively, they might as well not even be there.
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That review needs a lot more cussin', Que. :P
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Meanwhile, back at Square One . . .
OK, so I have this yellow limb in the little silhouette of my guy in the lower-left corner. HP is full. (It regenerates slowly.) I know I have cure items, but those are rated in HP. I don't need HP. I need to fix my stupid arm. What do I do?
The buttons feel wrong. I would have chosen X (bottom) to attack and circle (right) to back out or cancel. I need to get used to this, or remap in ePSXe.
It is, after all, my very first attempt to play this. I'm all thumbs, and not in a good controller way.
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Argh, all this talk makes me want to play again. Now I need to find where I put the disk. I know I couldn't have lost it.....
Buh, I'll just go back to Final Fantasy Tactics...
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So you don't know the answer to my yellow-arm-itis?
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Healing spells and healing items will repair your body parts, but regeneration won't if I remember correctly.
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OK, thanks. That's just, strange. Full HP, but I'm still hurt somehow.
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No worries.
And yeah Que, I never thought about it that way but you're totally right about how you have to learn and evolve instead of your character doing so. All of the enemies become extremely easy if you have the right equipment and go about attacking them the right way, the entire point of the game is almost to find out what works. The last few times I played the game I did it through ePSXe, so I haven't run into the save point frenzy, but thinking back to it, there were certainly some intense moments the first time I played it on my PSX. Getting the hang of defensive skills is what made the huge difference for me.
If you're already into affinities and weapon building this might help you out; There's a dummy for each enemy type spread out through the game. Attacking it will increase the affinity of each weapon, and it's a great way to practice chaining as well.
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I've heard rumors about that, but have only found one at this point (and forgot where it was, heh). I'm sure I could look it up easily enough.
Cobra, that's one of the other systems that can be a little overwhelming at first, though it shouldn't be too big of a problem for you until about halfway through the game. The various limbs on you and your enemies have their own individual "health" states. It goes from blue, to green, to yellow, to orange, to red (I think), and red is *bad* (it's "dying" status). If any of your parts get down that far, you're going to start suffering from pretty major consequences. I can't remember what they are, but legs hamper movement, I think head hampers ability to cast spells, and left arm is defense while right arm is attack power (or something like that). But like I said, this shouldn't be a big issue until about halfway through the game, because that's when enemies can come close to literally one-shotting your limbs into dying status if you aren't careful. You may come across an enemy who doesn't do a ton of damage to you HP-wise, and who is fairly easy to kill, but if they actually hit you, your limbs suffer the consequences. It's really just another strategic element to worry about. But again, don't worry about it too much now. You'll wrap your head around it by the time you get to where it really matters, I think. Just remember that any kind of healing item will heal the status of your limbs, but just standing around won't. You're going to get in the habit of healing after nearly every battle where you actually get hit, most likely, at least once you get past the early game.
[EDIT - Also, MP recovers by standing around about twice as fast as HP, so you'll find yourself naturally using a couple heal spells just because it's always faster.]
And yes, the button setup is weird. Well, for us. That's actually the standard setup in Japan. Where X is always "go" for us and O is "back out", it's just the opposite over there by default. O is go, X is out. I think you can swap those in the options somewhere, but I could be wrong. In ePSXe though, it should be easy enough to swap them if you have to. I've played enough games now that use this standard to have just adapted (though it's weird using it on PSP, because the PSP controls are naturally the opposite... so I end up backing out of the menu to start the game sometimes, heh).
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I actually wish the system had more of an effect on the game in both an offensive and defensive capacity.
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You know, this is a nice looking game. And I don't even turn texture filtering on. I like the pixely-ness of the textures. They were so low res they are essentially pixel art anyway, and filtering messes that up.
Just thought I'd say that. I have a soft spot for gritty PSX textures like this (also seen in Tomb Raider).
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I think this is the best looking game on the Playstation. It's really very pretty, even now.
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Oh, I think it's easily the best looking, both technically and from an artistic standpoint.
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It's on the dark side for me. I'm using the brightest settings on my display, which I normally only use for movies with a lot of muddy dark scenes. And it's still too dark. I can see everything, but it does not look pretty. Does it get into brighter areas later?
I want to play this some more. With so much other stuff, it's hard to dedicate the time to it.
Edit: I'll try to come up with a custom NVidia profile for this if all else fails. I'm not a fan of sending the desktop into ultra-bright mode to compensate for stuff that doesn't handle its own lighting well. I wish the emulator plugin would let me ramp up brightness.
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What plugin are you using? And can you post a screen shot? The start of the game is dark because you're in a dungeon, but it shouldn't be that bad.
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Yeah, I haven't noticed any problem at all on my display. The game can be dark, but it shouldn't be hard to see or anything. Looks pretty much fine on my install of ePSXe. Not sure what plugin I'm using though.
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Pete's D3D driver 1.76.
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Pete's Open GL 1.72 I also tried the D3D plugin (same version). No help. I guess I'm going to have to play with the video-card's settings.
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ePSXe is far from perfect. I always have funkiness with it. Wonder why they stopped development? It's such a great start, and it seems like things could improve with just a bit more work.
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They stopped development (unofficially) because the emulator had hit the point where any further improvements take so much effort for very little reward. Officially, I don't thnk development has stopped, or at least that's what the creators claim - hence their reason to not make it open source.
It might not be perfect, but it's pretty close. I've used it for all my ps games since probably 2001 or 2002. I've run into a total of one game that had a major problem - Valkyrie Profile. You couldn't use save states. Well, you could, but at the risk of freezing your game sometime in the future. To be fair, every single emulator has this problem with this game, but frequency is another issue.
Beyond that, the problem so many people have with it is that there are so many options and you literally have to change them for every game. I don't think there's really any way around that. If you're switching games a lot, use a front end loader that saves settings for individual games, but in my expierience if you spend enough time doing it and do a bit of reseach, you can get almost every game very close to perfect.
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My big issue is sound. There's almost always something off somewhere. VS is mostly perfect, but the rain is fucked up, and the part in the opening when the gate closes and Ashley looks back... it sounds horrendously strange.
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Footsteps and other percussive effects were way off for me until I switched to the P.E.Op.S. DSound driver 1.7. I was using Pete's DSound 1.14. I don't know if this will end up breaking more things than it fixes. I have more audio drivers here than video. I haven't updated any of them in so long. I need to go look and see what's new. The emulator may no longer be under development, but the independent drivers might be.
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The sound is fucked by default in this game. The best way to tell I find is by checking the part right at the start of the game where Ashley cuts the stop in the gear for the gate or drawbridge before entering the manor. Save a game right before that, and load it up after fucking around with the sound options. If that sounds normal, it's good. I've had it close perfect or near perfect before, but I've also had a bitch of a time remembering what to change to get it there so I'd give up. The forums at ngemu.com are great for questions regarding ePSXe settings, but the actual site sucks.
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This was on sale on PSN a few weeks ago and I bought it for like $3. Currently playing on the Vita.
1.) It works great on the Vita. This is pretty much what it's made for. That said, the last couple times I played I did so in ePSXe aaaaaand...well, it's hard to go back to not having save states. Not in a "shit, I just died, better load up that save from 30 seconds ago" kind of way, but more in a "I want to stop right here now" sort of way. Sure, I can just suspend the game, but it's kind of not the same. Save states and I have no problem playing for 20 min at a time. Save points and I still feel the need to get to the next one. Weird. I just ran through one of those time trial gauntlets, beat the boss at the end, and then died on a normal enemy and lost about twenty minutes. Not the hugest deal, but it reminded me how much die and lose time in later areas if you go about things the wrong way. Again, part of the fun, but at this point in life, with a backlog about a million miles long and so much limited time, it just seems kind of a waste because I know I'll grind through certain sections like they're a chore. At that point, why bother?
2.) I don't think I'm going to make it all the way through. I'm like 9 hours in and remembering things coming up, and really, it just kind of seems daunting. I love it, but it needs to be refined, and getting older and having time being more valuable, it makes it harder to put up with the little annoyances (that I used to not notice). LET ME FUCKING QUICK SWAP WEAPONS
3.) This is Dark Souls before there was Dark Souls. I liked Dark Souls but couldn't get too into it - I almost liked it just because it was quite a bit like Vagrant Story in a lot of ways - exploring, etc, but also how you had to get better yourself. Not in the same reflex-driven way, but you had to know what to do where and what weapon to use on whom, etc.
4.) There should be a remake or a sequel one day. The world is about ready.
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And deleted. I'm just going back to FEZ.
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Wuss.
... but I know what you mean. I've sort of felt that way every time I've thought about going through it again since I still didn't beat it last time. Great game, but I think there are just so many systems to learn the ins and outs of that it's a little too daunting for its own good. I have no doubt I'll play it again someday. Just not sure when that will be.
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Hello, and welcome to last decade. I had forgotten that I had played this at all. I must have wussed out early, Que. Haha! FF XII I remember vividly, and fondly. (Thanks again, Que!)
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You're welcome, and I'm glad! This brought back so many memories. Can you believe it's been 7 years?
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7 years. Sounds Biblical. So much has happened in that time too, though in some ways it feels like it flew by.