RPG Progress Report

[BogusMeatFactory]

So playing more of Xenoblade Chronicles...

I am at the Bionis' leg and found the refugee camp. I spent a lot of time in Colony 9 doing missions and feel pretty comfortable to move forward. Met up with the refugee camp and got a new party member and a multitude of more side quests! This area is enormous and it boggles my mind how I am going to traverse all the nooks and crannies. They really did an amazing job creating such a surreal environment and, so early in the game, I am simply enamored with all the little details!

[Xeogred]

Wow my brother, the game has just started basically. lol

Hope you don't get burned out, the story ramps up a lot a bit later and gets oh so awesome. The visuals and music continue to be breathtaking as well. Still perhaps my favorite OST from last gen.

Anyways, I'm digging Lightning Returns a bit more. But this has to have hands down the worst story, dialogue, and writing I have ever seen a game. Is this supposed to be poetic? Cringeworthy is an understatement. I really wish there was a "Turn off Hope" option too. Yet I still keep playing it...

[MrPopo]

3rd Four Job Fiesta job: Bard!

Between Black Mage, Mystic Knight and Bard, this is DEFINITELY a much easier run then last year. I might try and take Omega on this time!

Oh wow, that's quite the party so far. You should definitely give Omega a try. Mystic Knight + Bard = Omega is your bitch.

I did a Random registration, and my jobs (in order) were White Mage, Summoner, Knight, Blue Mage. Yeah, real funny Gilgabot, giving me Blue Mage at the end of world one so now I have to take on Prototype to get Flamethrower and Missile. Starting with 4x White Mages was looooong. I was never in danger of dying to anything, but it just took forever to kill the bosses on Dragon Mountain and Garula. Then exploded Shiva and Liquid Flame with some rods. That felt good.

Oh yeah, realized I can snag the Brave Blade, stick it on my Blue Mage with Equip Swords and have him Goblin Punch from the back row for all times I don't want to just use magic without having to worry about never running. Going to leave my Knight as a two handed powerhouse with Excalibur and then the WM and Summoner will dip into each other's stashes.

[Jagosaurus]

Mission 29 of 38 in Ghost Recon Shadow Wars.

My characters are leveling up. The leveling is restricted a bit (won't let you heavily power 1 character up, have to spread out your upgrades).

Also, you don't gain true XP. In battle kills lead to special moves for that mission (think summons in a traditional RPG). Your upgrade "points" come from completing objectives rather than XP.

I forget who warned me but you were right... the AI is tough & knows they only need to kill 1 party member to make you fail. In that aspect it's actually tougher than Fire Emblem's permadeath... core party member dies, mission over.

Overall a very cool military strategy game but a tad light on RPG elements. Would've like see them fleshed out a bit more but I can't complain... a very unorthodox Tom Clancy game & quite a surprise. Great title for $10! Nice addition to the 3DS library. I think it'll eventually be compared to Advanced Wars.

Edit: ... or compared to XCom now that I think about it.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Ys is done! My time at the final save (after the final boss but before the credits roll) was 3:02. That may be a new record for me.

Onward to Ys II!

[TheSSNintendo]

Just got the Efreet summon in Tales of Phantasia.

And in Legend of Dragoon, I made it to Lohan, and am about to get that plant to heal Shana from her poison.

[alienjesus]

3rd Four Job Fiesta job: Bard!

Between Black Mage, Mystic Knight and Bard, this is DEFINITELY a much easier run then last year. I might try and take Omega on this time!

Oh wow, that's quite the party so far. You should definitely give Omega a try. Mystic Knight + Bard = Omega is your bitch.

I did a Random registration, and my jobs (in order) were White Mage, Summoner, Knight, Blue Mage. Yeah, real funny Gilgabot, giving me Blue Mage at the end of world one so now I have to take on Prototype to get Flamethrower and Missile. Starting with 4x White Mages was looooong. I was never in danger of dying to anything, but it just took forever to kill the bosses on Dragon Mountain and Garula. Then exploded Shiva and Liquid Flame with some rods. That felt good.

Oh yeah, realized I can snag the Brave Blade, stick it on my Blue Mage with Equip Swords and have him Goblin Punch from the back row for all times I don't want to just use magic without having to worry about never running. Going to leave my Knight as a two handed powerhouse with Excalibur and then the WM and Summoner will dip into each other's stashes.

I need to see my 4th job before I decide my final set-up, but I imagine that the Bard will be running black magic.

I don't think Samurais can use sword magic on katanas, so I guess that will just have to stay on the mystic knight alone if I get Samurai. At least the samurai has a lot of cool stuff to offer the other classes. Dancer can run sword magic though, and I might slap equip ribbon on my black mage if I get her. Obviously I'll stick dance on my magic knight too. If I get Dragoon, I will be sad, because that's probably my least favourite class, and they literally don't team up well with anything. If I get chemist I'll probably run mix or drink on everybody except the bard.

[WallCrusher]

For the past few days I've been playing FFX HD for PS3. I beat the game a while ago but something has convinced me that it'd be a great idea to try and beat the Dark Aeons and the other superbosses, thus my time has been spent grinding to build my stats and customize gear. So far I have defeated Dark Valefor and Dark Ifrit and am planning to take down Dark Ixion next. Let me just say that so far I still feel very unsure as to whether or not I can make it through to the end. I spent the past two days preparing for Dark Ifrit and he was still able to one-shot my guys. Thankfully I was able to still win (as noted), but still. I am absolutely dreading the likes of Dark Anima...

Also on the Final Fantasy scope I have recently gotten into A Realm Reborn. Never tried MMOs before but I've been enjoying it. Of course, it really helps to know others who own the game as well.

[MrPopo]

For the past few days I've been playing FFX HD for PS3. I beat the game a while ago but something has convinced me that it'd be a great idea to try and beat the Dark Aeons and the other superbosses, thus my time has been spent grinding to build my stats and customize gear. So far I have defeated Dark Valefor and Dark Ifrit and am planning to take down Dark Ixion next. Let me just say that so far I still feel very unsure as to whether or not I can make it through to the end. I spent the past two days preparing for Dark Ifrit and he was still able to one-shot my guys. Thankfully I was able to still win (as noted), but still. I am absolutely dreading the likes of Dark Anima...

What's your armor look like? When you get to the Dark Aeons there are two kinds of attacks:

1. The attacks that can be brought down to sub 9999 with Auto-Protect and 255 defense. Sometimes you might need 5x Cheer to get the attacks into this range (Ultra Null-All is the best way to do this)
2. The attacks that are going to one-shot you without maxed Break HP limit + Auto-Protect + 255 defense

The first category is easily taken care of, and combine with Auto-Potion to leave yourself at full HP. In many cases they can be dropped to below 4999 as well (important for the next point). The second category tends to be attacks on a timer/trigger and are easier to either dodge with an Aeon (for full party attacks) or let Auto-Phoenix keep your party up.

The biggest thing you'll start to run into is that they are going to begin getting status effects on their attacks, with the worst being Stone. They deal enough damage that if they Stone a party member they'll shatter, so you'll need Ribbon/Stoneproof.

[dunpeal2064]

@BMF: Aww yeah, Xenoblade! I love that one. Such a vast world. As someone who was once addicted to MMOs, I really enjoy the fusion of that style into a nice JRPG world. Like Xeogred said though, that game has potential for burnout, but it does just get better and better.

@Xeogred: Can't wait to hear more on Lightning Returns. Sad to hear that the story isn't all that, but if the game is still worth playing with a bad story, it must have some really interesting gameplay! Did you play through XIII-2 before Returns? As one of the freaks who quite enjoyed XIII, I've been a little nervous to continue into the "series", but Returns is sounding quite nice.

Okay, my RPGs!

Pokémon Y: A close friend of mine finally caved in and bought a 3ds xl, mainly for Pokémon. He wanted me to play (again) with him, so for a compromise (since just playing the game didn't sound too appealing), we decided to both start up a Nuzlocke challenge run, while also being "rivals". We are just going for core Locke rules, and in each major city we will battle each other. For any decision in the game (sex/type, starter, og starter), we used coins to determine the outcome. Somehow, both my friend and I ended up with Chespin as our starter, and Bulbasuar as our OG starter.

So far, I have: Chespin, Pidgey, Pansear, Bidoof, Litleo, Combee, Bunellbee, and Bulbasuar.

We've had two matches so far... and, netting those two fire pokemon has really given me an unfair advantage. This is my first Nuzlocke challenge, and so far it has been a blast. Quite an interesting way to approach the game, and doing this makes me want to check out some other self-imposed random challenges, like perhaps the Four Job Fiesta!

Also started Bravely Default (again, but started over). Currently in the first dungeon, feeling like the game has clicked a bit more with me this time. Its silly, but something about the chibi 3d character models really turned me off at first. It reminds me of the DS FF remakes, which had the same affect. Getting over that, the characters are actually seeming quite nice so far, voice acting is fairly good. Surprisingly, the game isn't a total cakewalk. This first dungeon has had my blind, poisoned, and on the receiving end of 170+ dmg attacks (Max hp is in the 300 range right now). Can't wait to see how the game develops from here.