RPG Progress Report

[Ack]

Cosmic Fantasy 2

Made it through the first couple of towns and first dungeon. Recruited another character (some sorceress girl). She has a key that's gonna open the door to the next dungeon.

Damn this game is old school. Lots of grinding, and there's no indication as to what weapons are better than others (I guess the more expensive ones have better stats).

Things are "medieval" so far, but I have a hunch that I'll be headed off to space soon. Getting a Phantasy Star vibe from this one.

Thanks for returning the thread back to normal.

So, I have never played any of the Cosmic Fantasy games. What would you compare them to? You said old school, but do you mean like Dragon Warrior/Phantasy Star/Final Fantasy old school? Or more like Ultima/Wizardry old school?

[BoneSnapDeez]

Combat is just like Dragon Warrior - still enemy portraits and no portraits of your characters. Typical battle commands: attack, item, magic, defend. Lots of grinding at the beginning of the game. High encounter rate.

Atmospherically, I'm getting a bit of a Phantasy Star vibe. Like I said, I predict I'll be heading off into space soon.

I played for awhile tonight. Made it through two additional dungeons (caves), the second of which took me about 45 minutes to find. Exploring the world map is a bit frustrating, as it's mostly nondescript open space and the enemy encounter rate is so high. Think I'm heading through a passageway next to a (hopefully) more exciting new area.

[Ack]

Well, in Secret of Mana I just defeated Thanatos' Vampire friend and now have been offered a truce from the Emperor...yeah, not buying it. But I'm not too worried, as in my quest to build up my characters, I've apparently overpowered them a bit. The boy, girl, and sprite are all level 42. I only have access to four of the magics right now, but all four are at level 4, and all characters have all eight weapons at level 4, with the spear and bow types at level 5. I also just got a sword, whip, and boomerang orb, so those are now being built up to level 5 before I advance, which means I may well be level 43 or 44 before I go to that meeting. At this point, I'm managing to walk over most bosses, or at least steamroller them with magic spells until they die.

Good times.

[o.pwuaioc]

Well, in Secret of Mana I just defeated Thanatos' Vampire friend and now have been offered a truce from the Emperor...yeah, not buying it. But I'm not too worried, as in my quest to build up my characters, I've apparently overpowered them a bit. The boy, girl, and sprite are all level 42. I only have access to four of the magics right now, but all four are at level 4, and all characters have all eight weapons at level 4, with the spear and bow types at level 5. I also just got a sword, whip, and boomerang orb, so those are now being built up to level 5 before I advance, which means I may well be level 43 or 44 before I go to that meeting. At this point, I'm managing to walk over most bosses, or at least steamroller them with magic spells until they die.

Good times.

Everyone dies.



Just kidding.

Leveling up everything is definite overkill. I prefer, when playing solo, to just stick to three items: sword/whip for main player, spear/bow for the girl, and axe/javelin for the sprite. The bow and axe can also be interchanged with the javelin. This way all characters have a main weapon and a ranged weapon, and the difficulty is preserved.

[Ack]

Yeah, and now that I have Flammie it has gotten worse, because I just got access to the armor in Gold Town, which basically doubled my defense.

[BoneSnapDeez]

The magic system in Secret of Mana is so broken. You can basically just spam every boss until it dies. Same thing with Secret of Evermore.

The game would be so much more balanced if you actually had to aim spells (like in Zelda, Ys, etc).

[MrPopo]

The magic system in Secret of Mana is so broken. You can basically just spam every boss until it dies. Same thing with Secret of Evermore.

The game would be so much more balanced if you actually had to aim spells (like in Zelda, Ys, etc).

SoM is even more broken than that. You lock bosses down until you do 999 damage, then release them (since that's the cap), then lock them down again, thanks to how abuseable the magic system is.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Cosmic Fantasy 2..........

What a frustrating couple of hours.

One thing about this game that really irks me is the fact that characters leave your party constantly. I had a sorceress girl with me who decided "I have to look after this old man now, see ya!" So I'm all alone as the lead character (Van) and I start getting my ass kicked. Later on, I find a town and two guys join me. Nice!

So I scale this tower with two other dudes and a couple of floors from the summit dumbass Van gives some "this is my battle to fight, I must go alone!" speech and the other dudes bail. Back to getting my ass kicked. I reach the tower boss and he's impossible - literally, it's one of those unwinnable RPG battles. So he beats me down and instead of killing me he sends me to future where I'll be forced to live under his oppressive rule (what?!).

Suddenly out of nowhere, the "medieval" part of the game ends as I'm now watching a cutscene of some anime babe showering in a spaceship (you see dat ass but the boobies are covered by steam... classy). She commences to land on a planet and then......

..................................

The PC Engine Duo decided to freeze. Lovely!

I restart from my last save, and ascend the tower again. This time I press start to skip the shower scene (never thought I'd say that), say a few prayers, and the game smoothly transitions to the next area. So now I'm playing as a girl in a futuristic world. No sign of my man Van. Oh, and of course the girl is weak as hell and every encounter takes away 1/3 to 1/2 of my hit points. I hightail it to the first town I see and save. Think I'm done for the evening.

[TheSSNintendo]

Kinda slacked off on playing Final Fantasy V Advance for a bit. Started playing the other day, and made the mistake of adventuring to the castle basement of Walse and ran into the Jackanapes monster. Reloaded my save, and now I'm about to head to Karnak.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Cosmic Fantasy 2

Cute space girl, Babbette, joined forces with.... a cat. Then she got kidnapped. The cat teamed up with my original character (Van) and Babbette has been rescued. Now I'm making my way through some ice world. With three characters, the game is ridiculously easy right now.