Ack wrote:you have to do your absolute best to beat it before you get to ask for a new choice.
Oh boy. I'm gonna put in a few more hours - just in case the game miraculously gets better - but I'm pretty sure I'll be calling it quits. Jade Cocoon just isn't very good at all.
In fairness, most of my complaints aren't really specific to this game but highlight why I'm not crazy about post 16-bit JRPGs. Jade Cocoon is slow and plodding. The visuals are ugly. The voice acting in unneeded and embarrassing. Pre-rendered backgrounds look alright but your character is enormous and crosses each screen in about 5 seconds. Cutscenes are long. There's tons of dialogue. Nothing about the story is captivating or interesting. In the first hour I fought two battles, one of which I lost. Tank controls are the final nail in the coffin.
I don't mind tank controls but the rest of that sounds pretty awful.
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Crimson Shroud - I got very lucky last night and got the required random item drop after only my second attempt. (I'm talking about obtaining the Obsidian Daphne from the Skeleton Mages.) I feel very fortunate about this considering I've read about multiple people quitting this game after five or six hours of grinding for it. (I got mine in less than 15 minutes.)
Anyway, I'm on chapter 3 now, and from what I understand there's only 4 chapters. So maybe I'll have this beat tonight and can slide on over to Tactics Ogre: LUCT. Crimson Shroud is pretty damn cool, but it's got some serious issues I'll address in a review.
I'm trying to knock out Lagrange Point before FEF: Revelation comes out. I've got rank 5 weapons on three party members and the fourth still has a few levels before she gets the same. The weird thing is that I feel like the game actually gets easier the further you get along, as hitting the next weapon rank breakpoints can be taken advantage of immediately with the Satellite Base and the difference in power is IMMENSE.
Blizzard Entertainment Software Developer - All comments and views are my own and not representative of the company.
After spending 5 hours with Lagrange Point, I thought it was a really cool game conceptually, aesthetically, and especially aurally.
It's just the insane encounter rate killed it for me. The encounter rate is extraordinarily high, even for an oldschool JRPG. I was just too casual for the necessitated grind, I admit it.
Yeah, the encounter rate at the beginning takes a toll because you are still in the grinding/leveling mode. I've reached the point where I one-shot everything, so the encounter rate just becomes a way for me to stay appropriately leveled and get cash; I turn on the turbo function of my controller and hold A while I navigate.
Blizzard Entertainment Software Developer - All comments and views are my own and not representative of the company.
FFVIII progress: First disc is down if somewhat anti-climatically. Squall getting a cutscene Ice3 to the chest is hardly Aeris dying but whatever. At least the pace picked up a bit and the assassination attempt was quite exciting, even if Quistis does her best to pointlessly fuck it up.
Anyway, it gave an excuse for Laguna to pop up again which is a good thing because Laguna is an actual character with motivations and feelings beyond shrugging and looking cool. I do have some issues with these dream sequences though. Firstly, while the one that begins the second disc is well placed, the two previous sequences have disrupted the flow of Squall and the gangs own stories, what with them just falling over apropos of nothing. The one in the Centra ruins was particularly jarring because I got lost for ages there trying to figure out how to escape and by the time I got back to Squall I'd forgotten where I was up to with him.
Secondly, I find it odd that when the game was being planned and written that no one stopped and went "you know what, Squall and Rinoa are really two dimensional compared to Laguna and his troop. Why don't we make the game about him instead?". Again this is like Assassin's Creed 3 where a side character completely steals the show from the stock action protagonist. It's no way near as bad as AssCreed 3 in this regard to be fair but I still find it odd.
Gameplay wise, I'm getting to grips with it more. It still weirds me out having to upgrade weapons and I hate enemies that level with the player. It breaks suspension of disbelief. Did that venus-flytrap looking monster also go on a quest to defeat the sorceress and level itself up? Is there a secret monster gym where they go to pump up their stats? So far it's not as bad as Oblivion was for it (so many goblin warlords) but it still annoys me. As a mechanic, it also has the effect of making it seem like you're not really progressing much at least in terms of the battles.
Overall though, I am enjoying it more than I thought I would. It's got that addictive quality where I do want to see what will happen next. I got as far as when the Balamb garden first takes off. The in-game clock says I've put in 20 hours but I can probably knock 1-2 off for cig/food/toilet breaks and times I've had to quickly consult a FAQ.
MrPopo wrote:I turn on the turbo function of my controller and hold A while I navigate.
I did that and I also set the emulator's speed to turbo mode, and I still found the encounter rate to be a chore.
Hey but more power to you man, if you beat this one you'll be in a unique club. I mean it's kind of like actually beating STED: Iseki Wakusei no Yabou. People talk about it, very very few actually do it.
