Oh great now I have learned that while most of the time you get 7-9 bonus points for your character it's possible to roll a 40?! What the heck. Guess I got some character rerolling to do.
Lowers the points for others though, I think.
What does this mean? Rolling a 40 means all the other characters in the party's stats decrease?
I decided to reroll unless I got 25 or higher, that's a pretty reasonable target. I got 3 26s, one 28, one 30 and one 38!
If memory serves, when one of your characters gets a ton of points, it means the others will get lower ones.
Though it seems I'm dead wrong based on those rolls...
I remember back in good old Wizardry I, exploiting the fixed item drops of the first "boss" encounter. One of the items was a cursed something or other, which had a huge price tag when unidentified, but was worthless when identified. I'd happily go scrounging those over and over, and Boltac was happy to pay me 25k every time. Good times, good times.
So far I have similar "generic" complaints with this Wizardry as I did Elminage Gothic on the last page, however the presentation is much better and more consistent, I like the character designs. And it has some quality of life features like automapping and no consumable item just to view the map at least. Plus something about it feels simpler and more refined, Elminage Gothic felt messier. And the maps feel more logical, like real dungeons. I just wish there were actual room descriptions and landmarks from time to time.
I've learned that you can save scum chests. First I get a regular Dagger that I don't need at all, then on reload I get Shoes-1 and Shoes+5!
So far I have similar "generic" complaints with this Wizardry as I did Elminage Gothic on the last page, however the presentation is much better and more consistent, I like the character designs. And it has some quality of life features like automapping and no consumable item just to view the map at least. Plus something about it feels simpler and more refined, Elminage Gothic felt messier. And the maps feel more logical, like real dungeons. I just wish there were actual room descriptions and landmarks from time to time.
I've learned that you can save scum chests. First I get a regular Dagger that I don't need at all, then on reload I get Shoes-1 and Shoes+5!
One thing Elminage does right(like EO) is dungeon bgm. I get what they were going for, but it makes the dungeons feel dead.
Just starting up, really. Got my main character to 17, everyone else is around 7. The damage in Trials4 is absurd, the fighters randomly spew 100-200 damage at me, even geared as best I can be.
Still, making slow progress. Stupid main character has too low of vit/int to class change to Samurai, once I can, I'll be able to teleport down to grinding locations and back, that'll speed things up.
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cj iwakuraThe Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered Userregular
Well, after digging through Acquire's site, at least they haven't forgotten it...
@cj iwakura I'm noticing a lot of weird things in the game that conflict with your guide a bit, mostly with magic. Some things seem wrong in the game itself. Makes me wonder if this might be a different build or modification from the original PS3 release.
Ball of Light - does not wear off in darkness (but does in anti-magic fields)
Graupel Hail - guide says it's a group attack, in my game it's a single target
Ice Burst - guide and in-game say it's a group attack, actually targets all enemies (piddly damage)
Thunder Burst - guide recommends using it as a mage preemptive cast, but in my game no one is allowed to cast spells during a preemptive strike (screenshot of a mage in this case)
Cloud of Death - guide says it deals damage, in my experience it's an instant death spell only (or misses)
Wish - this thread claims it gives you three choices out of a pool of five. In my experience my three options are Restore Spell Power, Revival And Healing, and Maintain Spell, and I have no idea what can change these. These are offered on both a Mage and Bishop, I've cast it and rested at an inn, checked over the course of multiple battles, really not sure what can get you different options. Your guide lists dodge, spell power, and restoring magic uses, so that's two different from mine.
The PC version has all the DLC and Updates included, minus IIRC the "pay real money for in game items" stuff. I don't think we got some of the DLC before. Could it be that?
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cj iwakuraThe Rhythm RegentBears The Name FreedomRegistered Userregular
@cj iwakura I'm noticing a lot of weird things in the game that conflict with your guide a bit, mostly with magic. Some things seem wrong in the game itself. Makes me wonder if this might be a different build or modification from the original PS3 release.
Ball of Light - does not wear off in darkness (but does in anti-magic fields)
Graupel Hail - guide says it's a group attack, in my game it's a single target
Ice Burst - guide and in-game say it's a group attack, actually targets all enemies (piddly damage)
Thunder Burst - guide recommends using it as a mage preemptive cast, but in my game no one is allowed to cast spells during a preemptive strike (screenshot of a mage in this case)
Cloud of Death - guide says it deals damage, in my experience it's an instant death spell only (or misses)
Wish - this thread claims it gives you three choices out of a pool of five. In my experience my three options are Restore Spell Power, Revival And Healing, and Maintain Spell, and I have no idea what can change these. These are offered on both a Mage and Bishop, I've cast it and rested at an inn, checked over the course of multiple battles, really not sure what can get you different options. Your guide lists dodge, spell power, and restoring magic uses, so that's two different from mine.
Yeah, some of that is definitely different. I'm almost positive Groupel(?) Hail was an AOE.
The PC version has all the DLC and Updates included, minus IIRC the "pay real money for in game items" stuff. I don't think we got some of the DLC before. Could it be that?
I think we did get all of it, the big gun was the Red Shadow of the Sister.
I never played the original release so I'm not sure what all was present at release, and wasn't sure which dungeons to explore. Basically there were three options from near the start: Dungeon of Trials, Shiin's Dungeon, and I think Deep Dungeon. Deep was obviously a killer, but the others felt about equal. I ended up finding maps for most of Shiin's so I thought that was the game telling me to progress through that one first, but things started getting really tough, and once I realized you're essentially expected to cast Arcane Map I discovered Trials was really easy and I probably should've done it first.
I'm not sure how this happened but somehow I ended up fully exploring all of Shiin's Dungeon up to finishing floor 8 without coming across what was needed for some quest, and then at that point I decided to do all of Dungeon of Trials floors 3-10 (had already done 1-2). I had most of the game completely explored and then had to look up guides for places to go back to. It wasn't squares I hadn't stepped in, I had already been to each location, so I'm not sure how I missed it. Just weird quest completion requirements.
Actually, wait...Researcher of the Heathen Gods is on a later Shiin floor, but you also have to finish your personal hero quest (which doesn't show up in the quest log which is ridiculous), and then you unlock Stranded in the Dungeon, which is on an earlier Shiin floor, and then the final quest goes from an even earlier Shiin floor to the end at random spots in the dungeon. So you're expected to get as deep as past the midpoint, and then re-explore the entire dungeon again and step on random spots that advance the story/quests?!
If I'm getting a correct impression of the story, it's basically
a retread of Bane of the Cosmic Forge, which IIRC was about a pen with the ability to rewrite reality, which is exactly what they've been talking about in the final quest.
It's pretty funny how the intro sets up a world and a universe with "in ancient times these ancient things happened and the ancient gods fought with an ancient evil" etc. but it turns out the entire game is just a couple fetch quests and a small story about a ghostly woman who fell in love with a king? It feels like the main final quest is something most games would have as a side quest, or minor quest partway to something bigger.
But I guess I didn't play this expecting a great plot, I just wanted to level up and map some dungeons.
Overall I like the dungeon design in this game. They were all designed with some level of thoughtfulness, each floor feels like it has a theme or motif at least in terms of the shape, even though there is next to no characterization for anything anywhere. Things like "grid of hallways with interior rooms" or "teleporters galore" or "complicated layout in the left half in search of the one corridor that leads to the other side." I know it's not much but I still felt like they were designed.
Enemy AI was weird to adjust to. Most games it feels like 90% chance of attacking the party, 5% chance of doing something weird, low chance of running. In this game it feels very random, like, 20% chance they will attack, 20% chance they will use a special ability, 20% chance of defending, 20% chance of looking around nervously, 20% chance of running. For every enemy, all the way through.
My team through the game has been:
Good Male Dwarf Fighter -> Bishop -> Lord
Neutral Female Human Fighter -> Mage -> Samurai
Neutral Female Porklu Thief -> Mage -> Samurai
Good Female Elf Mage -> Fighter -> Bishop (swapped to Fighter when one of the other fighters went caster for party balance)
Good Male Elf Priest -> Fighter -> Bishop (swapped to Fighter when one of the other fighters went caster for party balance)
Good Male Gnome Bishop -> Thief (became neutral in an encounter and I wanted a Thief in my final party so it worked out)
I'm not quite done with all these class changes but almost there. When I started I didn't know Bishop learned every spell, I thought it was more of an enhanced Priest. Just makes it a good endpoint for a few characters though.
The Gnome Bishop -> Thief is kind of the least optimal part, he has awful, awful HP and doesn't seem well-suited to being a Thief, but oh well.
I still have a lot of tough stuff ahead to do as far as I can tell.
I haven't gotten very far in it, but my hero is the human male, and went Fighter -> Samurai. I'm almost definitely switching him to Bishop or something to grind a full spellset for him, I didn't realize Samurai only get 2 spells a level in this, that's nonsense.
Plan I guess is Fighter -> Samurai -> Bishop -> Ninja or some other melee to finish off, presuming going Bishop -> Some other class will leave me with 4 casts of each spell level.
Full team is the generic characters created, with only one change -- the Priest -> Bishop. All are Good, now.
I forgot that dying is an instant -1 VIT. So yeah, that uh, hurt. But switching classes didn't nuke my stats to racial base stats, so at least there's that.
I am finding that Samurai's special ability is awesome. A completely free group hit that's very powerful. I saw online that some people had parties with 3 Samurai and I can see why. However, that requires at least neutral alignment, or grinding for books. And I would say grinding for the good Samurai weapons, right now I have a pretty good one, and a lower tier one for a second Samurai.
Bishop's special ability is also awesome. Completely free shield from almost anything, even usable in anti-magic zones. Best with two Bishops using it every turn.
I've done all my class changing based on what maximizes spells, so like if they are going to end up with their casting cut in half like Bishop -> Thief, wait until they have at least 8 casts of everything, which I think was about level 25. Then I tithe to level 15, which feels like a good solid point to return to when everybody is in that 15-25 range.
I forgot that dying is an instant -1 VIT. So yeah, that uh, hurt. But switching classes didn't nuke my stats to racial base stats, so at least there's that.
I don't think anything tells you this, you just have to notice. I haven't been letting anyone die, just saving the game a lot.
Another terrible thing that happened to me was not realizing my party was full on inventory and opening like 3 physical chests on a floor that all were mysteriously empty...yeah, chests are empty if you can't hold anymore. I was wondering what was going on and finally figured it out.
Started playing Legend of Grimrock again yesterday, and I forgot how much I like this game. Going to try and actually finish it, and then start the second one and best it too. Not that I've beaten many other gridders, just the first two Etrian Odyssey's that I can remember, but I played a shitload of The Bard's Tale and Wizardry 2 on the NES and Wizardry 8 on PC. Ah fuck, I just remembered I bought The Bard's Tale remake a year or so ago so I should beat it too eventually.
Heyyy they just patched in turbo mode (fast dungeon movement) can be changed to hold or toggle, and they also added auto-battle (back) in, which is hitting spacebar on keyboard. Sadly just seems to be "everyone attacks" instead of programmable in any way...I would set it to fight/samurai ability/samurai ability/fight/magic wall/magic wall but that's just my team. :P
It might be variable within a couple levels but I think it's 16/17. The level I always tithed back to was 15 and I tended to not have it yet at that point.
Heyyy they just patched in turbo mode (fast dungeon movement) can be changed to hold or toggle, and they also added auto-battle (back) in, which is hitting spacebar on keyboard. Sadly just seems to be "everyone attacks" instead of programmable in any way...I would set it to fight/samurai ability/samurai ability/fight/magic wall/magic wall but that's just my team. :P
Oh thank for those QOL changes. Only wish there was a way to speed through the combat text.
Currently trying to farm the rare katana drop (called "Bushido Blade" in JP) from the Banshee on B1F of Trials. L+R+Start+Select, or the equivalent on your controller, works.
0.1% drop rate, I think?
JP Wiki died in 2017 sometime. The game actually has no online presence at all, interestingly.
Currently trying to farm the rare katana drop (called "Bushido Blade" in JP) from the Banshee on B1F of Trials. L+R+Start+Select, or the equivalent on your controller, works.
0.1% drop rate, I think?
Somehow I just plain ended up with this along the way. Must've been floor 6 or something, another place with banshees?
Several people on Steam say that after the patch it seems the bonus points you can roll are nerfed. Someone tried for 6 hours to roll over 25 and could not. This affected me too. As I said last page I committed to rolling 25 or higher and ended up as high as 38 without too much trouble. Yesterday I tried to roll over 25 and just plain could not get it. This is frustrating for rolling up a ninja, which is what I was trying to do...I had to tithe him up as a bishop first and watch his stats like a hawk until he qualified.
EDIT: Also seems like the Wish spell is coded wrong, you do indeed get offered 3 options out of 5 possible, but they are always labeled as the same 3 things. You don't know which you are getting out of the 5 until you choose it. At least, that's how it seems.
My main character is a Fighter -> Samurai -> Bishop -> Ninja, geared with Mjolnir and decent enough Ninja gear. Level 45. Has 4 casts of each spell, which lets me buff and port with him. I've mapped out the bottom two floors of both dungeons. Am starting to be able to dip my toes into the DLC dungeon and the like, although some of these mobs still can drop me in a single go if they want to. Status effects are bullshit in this.
Got a Sacrifice Tag, which increases the encounter rate to 100%. Great for grinding. Hoping to get the other one that makes enemies under my level not appear, if I get that I'll rush through mapping everything real quick, but it's an item they used to sell via RMT so the drop rate is like 0.1%.
Got tired of grinding for that, so decided to start getting some of the quests done real quick.
Rest of my party is geared pretty good, although they're all level 15ish, heh. Samurai has Muramasa, Fighter has Aurora Blade (need to turn her into a Lord), Mage has... whatever, Bishop has a Holy Mace.
Going to probably go
Fighter -> Bishop -> Lord
Samurai -> Bishop -> Samurai
Mage -> Bishop
Priest -> Bishop... and stay there? Maybe go Lord?
Thief -> Ninja
If Shiin 10 and Deep 1-2 are just brutal and there's a 2/3rds chance of every random battle wiping you out without extremely careful management, is it really just a matter of leveling up more and it'll eventually become trivial? Or is it just going to be hell regardless, and you might as well save and load constantly through the entire exploration?
"Leapers" (lol reapers) are just inevitable death. I go to Deep floor 2 and a group of slimes melts me for 1700 damage per hit. I first did the end of Shiin and start of Deep at about level 20, and now I'm up above 30, and absolutely nothing has changed. I don't want to waste time getting to 40 or 50 hoping it will get manageable/trivial and find that it's still the same way.
I don't think there are enough tools in this game for managing encounters. Status effects can't be applied consistently enough. There isn't a spell that prevents encounters, or enough kinds of temp-buffs that can change the battle - really it's just Magic Wall. No spell to block instant death effects, no spell to seriously mitigate damage for a few turns. Not a lot of options, it's just "hope your entire party can NAL Burst before they kill you."
If Shiin 10 and Deep 1-2 are just brutal and there's a 2/3rds chance of every random battle wiping you out without extremely careful management, is it really just a matter of leveling up more and it'll eventually become trivial? Or is it just going to be hell regardless, and you might as well save and load constantly through the entire exploration?
"Leapers" (lol reapers) are just inevitable death. I go to Deep floor 2 and a group of slimes melts me for 1700 damage per hit. I first did the end of Shiin and start of Deep at about level 20, and now I'm up above 30, and absolutely nothing has changed. I don't want to waste time getting to 40 or 50 hoping it will get manageable/trivial and find that it's still the same way.
I don't think there are enough tools in this game for managing encounters. Status effects can't be applied consistently enough. There isn't a spell that prevents encounters, or enough kinds of temp-buffs that can change the battle - really it's just Magic Wall. No spell to block instant death effects, no spell to seriously mitigate damage for a few turns. Not a lot of options, it's just "hope your entire party can NAL Burst before they kill you."
That's endgame in a nutshell. Hope you attack before they do, save often, reload if you get wiped.
You think that's bad, wait'll you see The Red Shadow.
If Shiin 10 and Deep 1-2 are just brutal and there's a 2/3rds chance of every random battle wiping you out without extremely careful management, is it really just a matter of leveling up more and it'll eventually become trivial? Or is it just going to be hell regardless, and you might as well save and load constantly through the entire exploration?
"Leapers" (lol reapers) are just inevitable death. I go to Deep floor 2 and a group of slimes melts me for 1700 damage per hit. I first did the end of Shiin and start of Deep at about level 20, and now I'm up above 30, and absolutely nothing has changed. I don't want to waste time getting to 40 or 50 hoping it will get manageable/trivial and find that it's still the same way.
I don't think there are enough tools in this game for managing encounters. Status effects can't be applied consistently enough. There isn't a spell that prevents encounters, or enough kinds of temp-buffs that can change the battle - really it's just Magic Wall. No spell to block instant death effects, no spell to seriously mitigate damage for a few turns. Not a lot of options, it's just "hope your entire party can NAL Burst before they kill you."
I was running solo as my Bishop -> Ninja, and Shiin 10 / Deep 1 got better around level 35-40, 1500 hp or so. There's still some real bullshit in there, mostly of the confusion variety.
There are some samurai/ninja mobs that are clearly a check to make sure you have a Bishop using Magic Wall each turn. They move faster than even my max stat Ninja, hit for ~1000-1500, do every single status effect, etc etc. Before switching to Mjolnir and dropping so much dodge I was starting to dodge them, though.
Baphomets are the same way, they're faster than anything and drain 3 spell casts per hit.
Not sure if Lord's big shield skill does the trick, either. I know in Elminage and... Class of Heroes? it was important. I have some really good lord gear from deep 1 and shiin 10, just waiting on having enough gumption to make said Lord.
There is a way to farm HP on your characters, btw. What you have to do is get yourself level drained. Your HP will not go down, and it will go back up when you level again.
There's a Banshee that supposedly can drain you on level 1 of Trials, but I haven't had any luck having her do it. My ninja just dodges too effectively.
If Shiin 10 and Deep 1-2 are just brutal and there's a 2/3rds chance of every random battle wiping you out without extremely careful management, is it really just a matter of leveling up more and it'll eventually become trivial? Or is it just going to be hell regardless, and you might as well save and load constantly through the entire exploration?
"Leapers" (lol reapers) are just inevitable death. I go to Deep floor 2 and a group of slimes melts me for 1700 damage per hit. I first did the end of Shiin and start of Deep at about level 20, and now I'm up above 30, and absolutely nothing has changed. I don't want to waste time getting to 40 or 50 hoping it will get manageable/trivial and find that it's still the same way.
I don't think there are enough tools in this game for managing encounters. Status effects can't be applied consistently enough. There isn't a spell that prevents encounters, or enough kinds of temp-buffs that can change the battle - really it's just Magic Wall. No spell to block instant death effects, no spell to seriously mitigate damage for a few turns. Not a lot of options, it's just "hope your entire party can NAL Burst before they kill you."
That's endgame in a nutshell. Hope you attack before they do, save often, reload if you get wiped.
You think that's bad, wait'll you see The Red Shadow.
Deep floors 1 and 2 were terrible, but then 3, 4, 5 were all easy (relatively). I think this may have been an intentional choice to make combat more survivable since it was a
multi-floor puzzle of going up and down between all three floors with and anti-warp zones blanketing the area so you had a long path to travel to continue exploring those areas.
But then 6 is right back to instantly killing you. I don't know if I'll finish exploring. From what I've heard I probably definitely won't finish the final boss, but I don't even know if I can finish exploring the floors.
If Shiin 10 and Deep 1-2 are just brutal and there's a 2/3rds chance of every random battle wiping you out without extremely careful management, is it really just a matter of leveling up more and it'll eventually become trivial? Or is it just going to be hell regardless, and you might as well save and load constantly through the entire exploration?
"Leapers" (lol reapers) are just inevitable death. I go to Deep floor 2 and a group of slimes melts me for 1700 damage per hit. I first did the end of Shiin and start of Deep at about level 20, and now I'm up above 30, and absolutely nothing has changed. I don't want to waste time getting to 40 or 50 hoping it will get manageable/trivial and find that it's still the same way.
I don't think there are enough tools in this game for managing encounters. Status effects can't be applied consistently enough. There isn't a spell that prevents encounters, or enough kinds of temp-buffs that can change the battle - really it's just Magic Wall. No spell to block instant death effects, no spell to seriously mitigate damage for a few turns. Not a lot of options, it's just "hope your entire party can NAL Burst before they kill you."
That's endgame in a nutshell. Hope you attack before they do, save often, reload if you get wiped.
You think that's bad, wait'll you see The Red Shadow.
Deep floors 1 and 2 were terrible, but then 3, 4, 5 were all easy (relatively). I think this may have been an intentional choice to make combat more survivable since it was a
multi-floor puzzle of going up and down between all three floors with and anti-warp zones blanketing the area so you had a long path to travel to continue exploring those areas.
But then 6 is right back to instantly killing you. I don't know if I'll finish exploring. From what I've heard I probably definitely won't finish the final boss, but I don't even know if I can finish exploring the floors.
It's pretty easy to push through, just save often and brace yourself for random wipe outs. The final boss can go down real fast if you're lucky and get some of those crazy four digit crits.
Posts
If memory serves, when one of your characters gets a ton of points, it means the others will get lower ones.
Though it seems I'm dead wrong based on those rolls...
RIGHT after buying the Katana for her. Darnit.
Edit:
Holy balls. 3F Spirits dropped it, btw.
Yeah, you can get a ton of money real fast by exploiting appraisals. Especially in the DLC.
I've learned that you can save scum chests. First I get a regular Dagger that I don't need at all, then on reload I get Shoes-1 and Shoes+5!
One thing Elminage does right(like EO) is dungeon bgm. I get what they were going for, but it makes the dungeons feel dead.
34:10 is a good example.
Still, making slow progress. Stupid main character has too low of vit/int to class change to Samurai, once I can, I'll be able to teleport down to grinding locations and back, that'll speed things up.
https://store.playstation.com/ja-jp/product/JP0048-NPJB00099_00-WIZDL0000000001R
Ball of Light - does not wear off in darkness (but does in anti-magic fields)
Graupel Hail - guide says it's a group attack, in my game it's a single target
Ice Burst - guide and in-game say it's a group attack, actually targets all enemies (piddly damage)
Thunder Burst - guide recommends using it as a mage preemptive cast, but in my game no one is allowed to cast spells during a preemptive strike (screenshot of a mage in this case)
Cloud of Death - guide says it deals damage, in my experience it's an instant death spell only (or misses)
Wish - this thread claims it gives you three choices out of a pool of five. In my experience my three options are Restore Spell Power, Revival And Healing, and Maintain Spell, and I have no idea what can change these. These are offered on both a Mage and Bishop, I've cast it and rested at an inn, checked over the course of multiple battles, really not sure what can get you different options. Your guide lists dodge, spell power, and restoring magic uses, so that's two different from mine.
I think we did get all of it, the big gun was the Red Shadow of the Sister.
I'm not sure how this happened but somehow I ended up fully exploring all of Shiin's Dungeon up to finishing floor 8 without coming across what was needed for some quest, and then at that point I decided to do all of Dungeon of Trials floors 3-10 (had already done 1-2). I had most of the game completely explored and then had to look up guides for places to go back to. It wasn't squares I hadn't stepped in, I had already been to each location, so I'm not sure how I missed it. Just weird quest completion requirements.
Actually, wait...Researcher of the Heathen Gods is on a later Shiin floor, but you also have to finish your personal hero quest (which doesn't show up in the quest log which is ridiculous), and then you unlock Stranded in the Dungeon, which is on an earlier Shiin floor, and then the final quest goes from an even earlier Shiin floor to the end at random spots in the dungeon. So you're expected to get as deep as past the midpoint, and then re-explore the entire dungeon again and step on random spots that advance the story/quests?!
If I'm getting a correct impression of the story, it's basically
It's pretty funny how the intro sets up a world and a universe with "in ancient times these ancient things happened and the ancient gods fought with an ancient evil" etc. but it turns out the entire game is just a couple fetch quests and a small story about a ghostly woman who fell in love with a king? It feels like the main final quest is something most games would have as a side quest, or minor quest partway to something bigger.
But I guess I didn't play this expecting a great plot, I just wanted to level up and map some dungeons.
Overall I like the dungeon design in this game. They were all designed with some level of thoughtfulness, each floor feels like it has a theme or motif at least in terms of the shape, even though there is next to no characterization for anything anywhere. Things like "grid of hallways with interior rooms" or "teleporters galore" or "complicated layout in the left half in search of the one corridor that leads to the other side." I know it's not much but I still felt like they were designed.
Enemy AI was weird to adjust to. Most games it feels like 90% chance of attacking the party, 5% chance of doing something weird, low chance of running. In this game it feels very random, like, 20% chance they will attack, 20% chance they will use a special ability, 20% chance of defending, 20% chance of looking around nervously, 20% chance of running. For every enemy, all the way through.
My team through the game has been:
Good Male Dwarf Fighter -> Bishop -> Lord
Neutral Female Human Fighter -> Mage -> Samurai
Neutral Female Porklu Thief -> Mage -> Samurai
Good Female Elf Mage -> Fighter -> Bishop (swapped to Fighter when one of the other fighters went caster for party balance)
Good Male Elf Priest -> Fighter -> Bishop (swapped to Fighter when one of the other fighters went caster for party balance)
Good Male Gnome Bishop -> Thief (became neutral in an encounter and I wanted a Thief in my final party so it worked out)
I'm not quite done with all these class changes but almost there. When I started I didn't know Bishop learned every spell, I thought it was more of an enhanced Priest. Just makes it a good endpoint for a few characters though.
The Gnome Bishop -> Thief is kind of the least optimal part, he has awful, awful HP and doesn't seem well-suited to being a Thief, but oh well.
I still have a lot of tough stuff ahead to do as far as I can tell.
Plan I guess is Fighter -> Samurai -> Bishop -> Ninja or some other melee to finish off, presuming going Bishop -> Some other class will leave me with 4 casts of each spell level.
Full team is the generic characters created, with only one change -- the Priest -> Bishop. All are Good, now.
I forgot that dying is an instant -1 VIT. So yeah, that uh, hurt. But switching classes didn't nuke my stats to racial base stats, so at least there's that.
Bishop's special ability is also awesome. Completely free shield from almost anything, even usable in anti-magic zones. Best with two Bishops using it every turn.
I've done all my class changing based on what maximizes spells, so like if they are going to end up with their casting cut in half like Bishop -> Thief, wait until they have at least 8 casts of everything, which I think was about level 25. Then I tithe to level 15, which feels like a good solid point to return to when everybody is in that 15-25 range.
I don't think anything tells you this, you just have to notice. I haven't been letting anyone die, just saving the game a lot.
Another terrible thing that happened to me was not realizing my party was full on inventory and opening like 3 physical chests on a floor that all were mysteriously empty...yeah, chests are empty if you can't hold anymore. I was wondering what was going on and finally figured it out.
I want to say level 10 or 15?
It might be variable within a couple levels but I think it's 16/17. The level I always tithed back to was 15 and I tended to not have it yet at that point.
Oh thank for those QOL changes. Only wish there was a way to speed through the combat text.
Currently trying to farm the rare katana drop (called "Bushido Blade" in JP) from the Banshee on B1F of Trials. L+R+Start+Select, or the equivalent on your controller, works.
0.1% drop rate, I think?
JP Wiki died in 2017 sometime. The game actually has no online presence at all, interestingly.
https://web.archive.org/web/20170214055146/pukiwiki.a.la9.jp/WIZ-torawareshi/
It's entirely possible I have gone too deep.
Somehow I just plain ended up with this along the way. Must've been floor 6 or something, another place with banshees?
EDIT: Also seems like the Wish spell is coded wrong, you do indeed get offered 3 options out of 5 possible, but they are always labeled as the same 3 things. You don't know which you are getting out of the 5 until you choose it. At least, that's how it seems.
O... oh. That's why it was so hard to ID.
Edit:
...
bwhahahahahahahaha
Yep, LoLs in a nutshell.
Got a Sacrifice Tag, which increases the encounter rate to 100%. Great for grinding. Hoping to get the other one that makes enemies under my level not appear, if I get that I'll rush through mapping everything real quick, but it's an item they used to sell via RMT so the drop rate is like 0.1%.
Got tired of grinding for that, so decided to start getting some of the quests done real quick.
Rest of my party is geared pretty good, although they're all level 15ish, heh. Samurai has Muramasa, Fighter has Aurora Blade (need to turn her into a Lord), Mage has... whatever, Bishop has a Holy Mace.
Going to probably go
Fighter -> Bishop -> Lord
Samurai -> Bishop -> Samurai
Mage -> Bishop
Priest -> Bishop... and stay there? Maybe go Lord?
Thief -> Ninja
"Leapers" (lol reapers) are just inevitable death. I go to Deep floor 2 and a group of slimes melts me for 1700 damage per hit. I first did the end of Shiin and start of Deep at about level 20, and now I'm up above 30, and absolutely nothing has changed. I don't want to waste time getting to 40 or 50 hoping it will get manageable/trivial and find that it's still the same way.
I don't think there are enough tools in this game for managing encounters. Status effects can't be applied consistently enough. There isn't a spell that prevents encounters, or enough kinds of temp-buffs that can change the battle - really it's just Magic Wall. No spell to block instant death effects, no spell to seriously mitigate damage for a few turns. Not a lot of options, it's just "hope your entire party can NAL Burst before they kill you."
That's endgame in a nutshell. Hope you attack before they do, save often, reload if you get wiped.
You think that's bad, wait'll you see The Red Shadow.
I was running solo as my Bishop -> Ninja, and Shiin 10 / Deep 1 got better around level 35-40, 1500 hp or so. There's still some real bullshit in there, mostly of the confusion variety.
There are some samurai/ninja mobs that are clearly a check to make sure you have a Bishop using Magic Wall each turn. They move faster than even my max stat Ninja, hit for ~1000-1500, do every single status effect, etc etc. Before switching to Mjolnir and dropping so much dodge I was starting to dodge them, though.
Baphomets are the same way, they're faster than anything and drain 3 spell casts per hit.
Not sure if Lord's big shield skill does the trick, either. I know in Elminage and... Class of Heroes? it was important. I have some really good lord gear from deep 1 and shiin 10, just waiting on having enough gumption to make said Lord.
There is a way to farm HP on your characters, btw. What you have to do is get yourself level drained. Your HP will not go down, and it will go back up when you level again.
There's a Banshee that supposedly can drain you on level 1 of Trials, but I haven't had any luck having her do it. My ninja just dodges too effectively.
Kinda wish Mary Skelter 2 had a PC port. I went physical for that via LRG and am going quite mad waiting on it to ship.
Starcrawlers is just $5.
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
I should really boot that back up.
Is that turn based?
Speaking of lists, apparently Steam is now selling bundles of... genres and tropes?
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/6808/Gridbased_Crawling_Bundle/
Mary Skelter 2 Physical just shipped.
Yes, as @Donnicton said. Fully turn-based, and not a hybrid like Grimrock or Zanki Zero.
I really enjoyed. It's not without its jank. But the whole is pleasantly more than the sum of its parts.
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
Also Stranger of Sword City.
Twitch | Blizzard: Ianator#1479 | 3DS: Ianator - 1779 2336 5317 | FFXIV: Iana Ateliere (NA Sarg)
Backlog Challenge List
Deep floors 1 and 2 were terrible, but then 3, 4, 5 were all easy (relatively). I think this may have been an intentional choice to make combat more survivable since it was a
But then 6 is right back to instantly killing you. I don't know if I'll finish exploring. From what I've heard I probably definitely won't finish the final boss, but I don't even know if I can finish exploring the floors.
It's pretty easy to push through, just save often and brace yourself for random wipe outs. The final boss can go down real fast if you're lucky and get some of those crazy four digit crits.
Sadly, nope. Still only on PS3.
Steam: TheArcadeBear