RPG Progress Report

[Valkyrie-Favor]

I started playing Atelier Totori Plus based on that one offhand comment. So far it's easy. The game systems seem to have a lot of potential, but in JRPGs that potential is rarely realized. Let's see how it turns out because I like this game and I want it to be awesome.

The music is pretty cool, except for the town theme, and the character art is gorgeous. A scenario about trying to get a job and find your mom is pretty refreshing - and who knows, maybe it'll be more challenging than slaying the Demon King usually is.

The 3D is laughable though and I wish they had stuck with 2D backgrounds if not 2D characters. GUST put all their resources into making petite 3D moe girls - meaning lame environments - and they still failed! Senran Kagrua on 3DS looks way better. Models look alright from behind but when they zoom up on the faces...LOL

I'm just about to get my adventurer's license and begin the game proper.

[pierrot]

I'm looking forward to seeing how the game handles...dragon-based abilities

Really poorly. Little more than as a means of plot progression. Easily the worst in the series.

BoF II has grown really sour on me over the years. it was one of the first JRPGs I'd ever played, and I loved it at the time, but the story is beyond trite, the battle system will get you well acquainted with the "auto" button, and aside from the Shamans, HQ, and Katt, it's a painfully mediocre game. It does look pretty nice, but if it weren't part of a series, I think I would feel very comfortable in telling people to disregard it.

Also, yes. Fishing gets much easier with better rods.

[BogusMeatFactory]

So I have been playing Chrono Trigger for the first time this past few weeks and I am currently at.....

The point where Crono has died and I have Magus on my team. He mentionst here is a chance I could revive Crono, so I will probably work towards that

I plan on working through the rest of the game tonight on my stream (cue shameless plug) regardless of how long it will take me!

Overall, I am enjoying the game, but, like with many RPGs, there hits a point where I just want it to be over and lose interest. I think that streaming and talking with people and sharing the game experience will help push me forward to completing it, but it has become a chore...luckily, there has been no grinding up to this point so YAY!

[MrPopo]

I'm looking forward to seeing how the game handles...dragon-based abilities

Really poorly. Little more than as a means of plot progression. Easily the worst in the series.

Oh yeah, I forgot that part of Ack's post. The dragon abilities are terrible in BoF2. It's probably an overreaction to how amazing they were in BoF1. In BoF2 the dragon abilities are a one-shot spell that uses all your MP and does damage proportional to the percentage of your max MP it used. Also, the tier of transformations is supposed to be elemental, but due to a bug is not, so it's three spells that merely differ in visual effect.

[BoneSnapDeez]

I still feel I'm in the railroad portion of the game, but I am hoping it opens up soon. I hear there is some kind of city-building mechanic. For those of you in the know, what is this like, and how does it compare to the "city building" of games like Secret of the Stars?

The city-building in Secret of the Stars is a complete joke. Much like the entire game.

Successful city building in BoF II will net you all sorts of useful abilities and stuff.

I love BoF II. One negative aspect though:

Unlike the first installment, I consider BoF II to be a "guide game". There are tons of hidden items, characters, whatever. It's not stuff you'll run into on a normal playthrough unless you explore every square inch of the game.

Also - like the first game there is more than one ending. However, unlike BoF I, you can lock yourself into a bad ending about halfway through part II. Just a heads up.

I will be starting Thousand Arms fairly soon.

[alienjesus]

More Atelier Totori Plus. Making some progress now, managed to renew my adventurers license, so I'm in the final 2 years of in game time. Some slight spoilers ahead, and I know Valkyrie is playing too, so I'll post them in a tag.

Built a ship, going out into the ocean exploring. Meant to be fighting some kind of big fish which might be the first non-optional boss in the main storyline (although the main storyline in itself is optional too).

I've decided to stick to a party of Totori, Mimi and Sterk for the most part now. When I get the character endings I'll swap the other 4 in. Sterk is just the best team mate - he hits hard, takes hits well, has a good amount of MP and LP (stamina essentially, determines how many days he can travel before he gets a temporary stat drop).

Mimi I'm mainly using because her ending requirement require her to hit a very high level, the highest of all the partners. I kinda like her anyway. She's the speedster of the group, she hits quite hard, but she doesnt take hits well.

Of the other 4 characters, Rorona is probably the best due to her area of effect attacks and ability to use items. Mel is solid and can soak up hits all day, but she's lacking in MP for fighting bosses. Marc is a bit mediocre, hes decent alright but doesnt excel anywhere. Gino just sucks.

Totori is pretty meh overall. My teammates tend to soak up all her hits for her, and now I can purchase bombs she can be decent in a fight, and with better weapons she can deal some damage to enemies now. She's still a bit of a wimp though.

[Ack]

Ooph, you guys aren't exactly making me look forward to this. Well, hopefully this shaman thing will prove to be amazing, because beyond the physical appearance, this is starting to sound a bit more mediocre than I had been told.

Anyway, I got a little further last night, and Sten has joined my party. I have just defeated a monster in a well and saved the townspeople of Capitan, and I have to walk back to where I left Rand and Bow. Sten is not a very good character, and he's really only staying in my party for his special ability. I want Rand back! I prefer my heavy hitters!

Also, just as I knew would happen, Katt has usurped Ryu's place as level leader. At this point, her XP cap for reaching level 13 is lower than his XP cap was for reaching level 12. This is getting ridiculous.

[alienjesus]

MORE Atelier Totori Plus.


I got the condition fulfilled for the regular ending I think. Major storyline things happened. I have another task to complete now, but I'm not sure the game will throw much more storyline at me after that.

The storyline boss kicked by ass the first two times. I finally beat it though, after buying recipes for better metal and cloth and making much much better weapons and armour - 30% extra damage, defence, attack and hp boosting, lightning elemental, lightning resist (useful as the boss casts lightning spells) and health sapping. Pretty awesome equipment now.

I have slightly less than one year of in game time left. I have some sidequests I want to finish (beer brewing, fishing festival) and then I'll get whatever ending I get. As I said before, I have saves at the start of year 4 ready to come back and get character endings another time. It seems that in terms of difficulty, character endings go like this:

Gino - Only needs to reach level 25
Sterk - Gino needs to reach level 25
Rorona - Totori needs to reach Alchemy level 50. I'm almost there myself and I've not really been trying.
Mel - Sidequests need to be fulfilled that require Mel to be a reasonable level, probably about 30.
Marc - Sidequest and a tough boss need to be beaten requiring Marc to be a pretty high level
Mimi - Mimi and Totori need to hit level 50. This one takes some dedication. I'm not even level 40 yet. She also needs to help beat the Flauschtraut storyline boss, and needs to take the ship with you the first time - the only missable character ending requirements

There are other conditions too, but they're all easy enough. The Chim ending, rich ending and true ending all seem tougher to achieve than most of the character endings. So many endings, and a PSN trophy for each one

I really enjoyed this game. I kinda wish I'd forked out for Atelier Meruru Plus whilst it was on the sale too. I guess I'll wait til the next time it 's on offer.

[Valkyrie-Favor]

damn how many hours are you putting in every day? I haven't even played since my last post.

[alienjesus]

damn how many hours are you putting in every day? I haven't even played since my last post.

3 or 4....or 5...

I'm pretty addicted.


It's nice though, it;'s been a while since the last time I really got this into an RPG. I was starting to wonder if the genre just wasn't doing it for me any more.