RPG Progress Report

[Ack]

Hmm...so that's votes for Breath of Fire 2, Live A Live, Secret of Evermore, and Super Ninja Boy...

Breath of Fire 2...well, I beat the first one a few months back...I don't know. I actually know very little about this game. How long is it, what's combat like, how does it compare to the rest of the series?

Live A Live is a favorite of mine, and it is episodic, so I could play a bit and then set it down.

Secret of Evermore. I haven't played this in forever, and I never did beat it despite having owned it when I was a kid. As I recall, there were some issues with it being vague with the story and what you are supposed to do quite often.

Super Ninja Boy I actually started playing a few months back. The problem I have is with the platforming segments. I'll need to look up a manual, because there are many necessary moves to learn that I do not know. This is the main reason I put it back. I enjoy the RPG aspects of it.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Breath of Fire 2...well, I beat the first one a few months back...I don't know. I actually know very little about this game. How long is it, what's combat like, how does it compare to the rest of the series?

Combat is very similar to the first game.

There's an added layer of complexity in part II, as there are some town building and "shaman" (fusing characters together) elements.

Like the first game, there is more than one ending - but here it's based on irreversible decisions made halfway through the game. I recommend a walkthrough for this reason.

[noiseredux]

FFII... maybe I'm just tired, but I'm not even sure how to get started. Meaning, this feels a lot less obviously linear than the first game. I don't really know where I'm supposed to be headed to "start."

[noiseredux]

alright, snapped out of it in FFII. Figured out where I was going. So yeah headed up to that town that's got guards everywhere and snuck into the bar with the password I was given, got the Ring and headed back to the castle. So far the game seems alright, but definitely already has an odd "loose" feel to it. I suppose just the whole level-up thing is throwing me off a bit. Without knowing what level my characters are, it makes it a bit hard to guage how much grinding I want/need to do I think. Anyway, we'll see how it goes. Though this might be one that really demands a walkthrough.

[MrPopo]

You actually should be fine if you talk to people and have a map of the overworld to know where the various towns are. The game is very good at telling you "you need to go here, now you need to go here" if you're talking to the NPCs.

[noiseredux]

You actually should be fine if you talk to people and have a map of the overworld to know where the various towns are. The game is very good at telling you "you need to go here, now you need to go here" if you're talking to the NPCs.

and you bring up something I meant to mention. In first PSP remake if you press Circle + Select it brings up an annotated world map. The instruction manual for the second game says the same feature is present, but when I pressed those buttons nothing happened. I'm wondering if its just early in the game and I have to like 'find' a map or something that will then allow me to use it in-game or if I'm just doing something wrong or if the manual is a F'ing liar and they left that out of the final game.

[MrPopo]

You needed the ring that you now have. I think the description for the ring even mentions the trick. Similarly, in the first game the brooms in Matoya's cave would tell you how to access it.

[prfsnl_gmr]

You actually should be fine if you talk to people and have a map of the overworld to know where the various towns are. The game is very good at telling you "you need to go here, now you need to go here" if you're talking to the NPCs.

I agree. Also, if I recall correctly, the very tip of the penninsula south of the capitol has some very strong monsters that you can use to beef up your party pretty fast. You may also want to try beating the hell out of your own characters a bit to power up their defense and hit points...Basically, if you come out of a fight with you HP and MP depleted, then you will get some stat boosts.

[Xeogred]

Secret of Evermore. I haven't played this in forever, and I never did beat it despite having owned it when I was a kid. As I recall, there were some issues with it being vague with the story and what you are supposed to do quite often.

Very much so, not nearly as easily linear as Mana and even when SD3 branches off it's probably easier to figure things out.

Did you ever make it to the trading/goods part? That's just look-it-up worthy stuff right there. Still love the game, but yeah it can be puzzling sometimes.

[Ack]

Yeah, I may end up pursuing a guide for that stuff. But it is so far a moot point because I have ended up playing Live A Live!

So I cleaned my Live A Live cartridge (as I always do before starting to play a new game) and booted it up. I have already completed the Cowboy section, though it is one of the shortest as I recall. I have played through about 90% of this game before, so mostly this will consist of me remembering what to do. I am now working on the Robot chapter.