XenoGears, Stupid Question that No one will Know.

eatblueshell

So I started playing eve and in order to get in some playing time I had to get my girlfriend hooked on a game to keep her occupied while I played Eve.

First it was Azure Dreams. Which she Beat.

NOW I have her on Xenogears.

Problem is, I love that game and started playing as well, so here's the thing. As we have been playing, I have noticed that we don't level up the same, at level 44 I have something like 374 health, and she is only 1 level abck at 43 and has like 320 or some-shit.

I would assume that our attack and defense stats are different too, though I haven't compared.

Any ideas as to what causes this?

Magic Pink

Random level up stat increases I would guess.

Gyral

Been a while since I played but does the equipment have HP bonuses? She might have something different equipped.

Interpreter

It's been a very long time since I played, but if I'm remembering right the stats went up randomly rather than by set amounts when you leveled up. I'm not sure if there were any factors that caused this, or if it was just some random number generator adding stuff. Also, perhaps you used some stat boosting items that she missed somewhere along the way. Those are the only possibilities that I can think of.

Klyka

As far as I know the stats are random, that's what I remember at least.

Otherwise....Men are better at games? j/k

eatblueshell

Ah Ok. Well, that would make sense. That due to the Items I equipped it has effected the calculation for the Stats.

Maybe the programming pulls from the fields that have the equipment modified number as opposed to the Base Stat.

I always fit Defensive mods rather than Offensive mods, so if the game calculates heath increases by your defensive stats, that would explain why my health is so High.

However, Citan's Health is always higher it seems, and his defense is never better than mine, so it must take it from a multitude of stats. Perhaps Ether attributes effect it as well, which would explain why he always has more health.

Knowing that, I might have to test that one of these days and come up with a well rounded build.

Thanks for the ideas!

Unless of course it is Random, in which case its hopeless.

The way to test it would be to play with the same items at approximately the same time, and see what it produces,

fairweather

eatblueshell wrote: »

However, Citan's Health is always higher it seems, and his defense is never better than mine, so it must take it from a multitude of stats. Perhaps Ether attributes effect it as well, which would explain why he always has more health.

Citan is one of those overpowered characters you sometimes get in rpgs I think (like Cid in FF Tactics). He's always ahead of the other characters if I remember correctly for fighting outside of gears.

At the end though Fei was pretty much all I needed for fights. Everyone else's damage output in gears paled in comparison to what he could do it seemed.

I really need to play this game again. I've only gone through it once completely. I tried replaying it, but I only got as far as Kislev I believe.

Kagera

It's been so long since I played Xenogears it would be like a new experience again.

If only I hadn't traded it away.

DiscoZombie

don't any of the faq's on gamefaqs say anything about stats at level-up? I sorta remember the stats being somewhat randomized - like, some characters were more likely to get higher stat-ups in certain areas, but they were all random to a degree. Near the endgame, aren't there an infinite supply of mobs you can get stat-up items from? if you want to be anal retentive, I think you can max out or near-max out all your chars by farming certain monsters for stat-up items.

eatblueshell

Citan always had better Health, more potent Spells as well as more ether points, and just when you out damage him, he gets his silly sword and becomes fuck-awesome again. Not to mention he is Faster.

The only thing I can think of is that he takes more damage than you do. In the Nortune Sewers I was taking a whole 1 damage from most enemies and even the rotten sod only hit for 5 on occasion, where as it did in the 30's against citan.

However, moar health, moar attack, moar EP, better spells, better agility, fuck-awesome with sword = Overpowered. Meh. he is still one of my favorite characters.

eatblueshell

DiscoZombie wrote: »

don't any of the faq's on gamefaqs say anything about stats at level-up? I sorta remember the stats being somewhat randomized - like, some characters were more likely to get higher stat-ups in certain areas, but they were all random to a degree. Near the endgame, aren't there an infinite supply of mobs you can get stat-up items from? if you want to be anal retentive, I think you can max out or near-max out all your chars by farming certain monsters for stat-up items.

I looked at some of the guides, but most of them didn't say anything about it, and ones that might have are the longer, more convoluted guides that I don't have time to sift through.

Its possible about the supply of Mobs, Basically I just get to Level 80 as soon as I can and pwn with that last Deathblow. so I am not sure about the rest.

Blackjack

I am the only guy in the whole world that never used Citan.

Fei, Billy, and Bart for me, with Emeralda thrown in sometimes for added hair mace fun.

eatblueshell

Blackjack wrote: »

I am the only guy in the whole world that never used Citan.

Fei, Billy, and Bart for me, with Emeralda thrown in sometimes for added hair mace fun.

I never liked the whole Gun thing billy had going. So I rarely used him. I remember being pretty put off by the Ammo thing.

I used Rico a lot in the first half, later it was a pretty rotated party depending on the circumstances.

Future Blues

I spent a lot of good time leveling up that one character. Yeah, you know who.

Suffice to say, that particular Deathblow isn't really worth it.

DiscoZombie

in RPGs, I almost always use the main male lead, his love interest, and fill the rest of the party with chicks as available. Fei, the orange-haired girl he boned whose name escapes me, and Emeralda in this case. I think you could make a case for psychoanalyzing people based on their party choices in RPGs...

Mild Confusion

Oh man, Xenogears brings back memories.

I was a Fei, Bart, Citan guy myself.

Blackjack

DiscoZombie wrote: »

in RPGs, I almost always use the main male lead, his love interest, and fill the rest of the party with chicks as available. Fei, the orange-haired girl he boned whose name escapes me, and Emeralda in this case. I think you could make a case for psychoanalyzing people based on their party choices in RPGs...

But who was your final party?

Elly leaves after they do it.

Mild Confusion

Heh, Emeralda was Fei and Elly's daughter (kinda) so you had the whole family going there

cj iwakura

I think I may have actually used ChuChu at the end because of her healing ability, but I couldn't have been crazy enough to use her all the way through. Probably Fei, Citan, and... Bart? I forget, I need to replay that game very soon.

Blackjack

cj iwakura wrote: »

I think I may have actually used ChuChu at the end because of her healing ability, but I couldn't have been crazy enough to use her all the way through. Probably Fei, Citan, and... Bart? I forget, I need to replay that game very soon.

If you farm stat ups and give them all to Chu-Chu, she becomes just ridiculously overpowered, since all of her "gear" stats are based on her "normal" stats.

HadjiQuest

This and Front Mission 3 are two of the big PS1 games that I played a few times, but never beat.

Once the PS2 goes down to $99, I'm going to buy a slimline to replace my launch unit and get hard back into PS1 RPGs. Good times...

Mild Confusion

I couldn't stand Chu-Chu on the basic principle that I hate all things overly cute, especially furries.

Raiden333

You guys are going to make me replay XG, aren't you?

(BTW, to go a bit off topic, was Xenosaga any good? I never picked it up because I heard mixed reviews, but Xenogears was one of my favorite plots ever, and I could get Xenosaga for under $10.)

Magic Pink

Mild Confusion wrote: »

I couldn't stand Chu-Chu on the basic principle that I hate all things overly cute, especially furries.

Furries have not been, nor will they EVER BE, cute.

Small, fluffy animals, on the other hand, can sometimes be.

DiscoZombie

Raiden333 wrote: »

You guys are going to make me replay XG, aren't you?

(BTW, to go a bit off topic, was Xenosaga any good? I never picked it up because I heard mixed reviews, but Xenogears was one of my favorite plots ever, and I could get Xenosaga for under $10.)

It's awesome if you like cutscenes. I personally couldn't get into it. The plot was just too dense with not enough actual playing.

HadjiQuest

Raiden333 wrote: »

You guys are going to make me replay XG, aren't you?

(BTW, to go a bit off topic, was Xenosaga any good? I never picked it up because I heard mixed reviews, but Xenogears was one of my favorite plots ever, and I could get Xenosaga for under $10.)

I enjoyed it. There were a few times where the difficulty curve just jumped, but I remember Xenogears occasionally being like that too. I actually have all three Xenosagas, but I've only played/beat the first one. Some day I'd like to play all 3, all the way through, end-to-end.

Varega

Raiden333 wrote: »

You guys are going to make me replay XG, aren't you?

(BTW, to go a bit off topic, was Xenosaga any good? I never picked it up because I heard mixed reviews, but Xenogears was one of my favorite plots ever, and I could get Xenosaga for under $10.)

IIRC, the first Xenosaga is like 65% cutscene, 30% game, 5% grind.

cj iwakura

It's a testament to how much I loved Xenogears that I bought a PS2 for Xenosaga.

It didn't live up to my expectations, but that might've been impossible. It really had my interest at first, but it just turned out being good instead of a masterpiece.

And the score is the biggest waste of the London Philharmonic of all time. Mitsuda did, what, six songs for Xenosaga I? II's is far better, and that's sad, considering it wasn't even a Mitsuda score.
(I consider Chrono Cross one of my favorite OSTs ever, so I don't get what Mitsuda was on when he did Xenosaga. Maybe it was an off period.)

Blackjack

The second Xenosaga is 65% cutscene 30% terrible combat, and 5% nonsensical outfits.

The third one is about 45% cutscene, 45% traditional turnbased battles, 5% ridiculous censorship, and 5% nonsensical outfits.

Raiden333

Good to know. Cutscenes don't bother me, I'll check it out.

cj iwakura

One Xenogears tradition Xenosaga did keep: tough boss fights. I always dreaded fighting bosses in Xenogears, but the story afterwards was usually worth it.

The second seems much easier from what I've played of it, but it's also got a better battle system.

Actually, I like everything about II more, except the story.

Mild Confusion

You know, I never played Xenosaga episode 3, I was so disappointed with Episode 2 that I have yet to get around to it.

I think I was expecting too much though. I was looking for a prequel or sequel/retelling of the Xenogears story, but all the connections are very vague if there at all. I know that it's because if the Square Enix IP problem they had, but still.

On the other hand, I have heard great things about episode 3 and episode 1 was pretty good.

And Magic, I can't help but look at your name and avatar and feel that you are biased to all things cute :P

HadjiQuest

cj iwakura wrote: »

One Xenogears tradition Xenosaga did keep: tough boss fights. I always dreaded fighting bosses in Xenogears, but the story afterwards was usually worth it.

The second seems much easier from what I've played of it, but it's also got a better battle system.

Actually, I like everything about II more, except the story.

Most people hated Xenosaga 2's battle system.... I've heard only bad things about it.

However, I've also heard the game is a lot shorter and more streamlined, and I think I've heard that there's less grinding as well.

cj iwakura

Xenosaga 2's battle system is more like Xenogears': action-based, so I enjoy it a lot more. I hear III's combines 1 and 2's, so it must be the best.

eatblueshell

Well, I had my girlfriend start playing Xenosaga before Xenogears, A) so she wouldn't get tainted by the awesomeness of Xenogears, and so that i could play vicariously though her. I hadn't played it, but I wanted to hear the story, turns out that it just isn't as captivating, seeing as the voice actors are a whole lot of fail.

Sigh.

Blackjack

cj iwakura wrote: »

Xenosaga 2's battle system is more like Xenogears': action-based, so I enjoy it a lot more. I hear III's combines 1 and 2's, so it must be the best.

Three's is nothing like either of them. It's a completely normal, turn-based, menu-driven battle system.

fairweather

I just spent the last half hour or so going over the wikipedia pages for Xenogears thanks to this thread. I really need to play it again.

I played a little bit of Xenosaga, but I stopped very early on and never picked it up again. I'd love to see a good mecha based rpg game come out sometime though. The martial arts combat paired with giant robots made Xenogears different from all the fantasy rpgs that I played.

Mild Confusion

Xenogears battle system is really good. The way combo points and deathblows work really makes it fun. It kinda plays like a turn based kung fu game if you can imagine such a thing. The mech (or gear) fights are just as well done.

The story however is the best thing about Xenogears. Of coarse, we all know that. You know, this would be a great game for Squar to re-release on the PSP.

fairweather

The one thing that seemed odd to me was that the whole system of saving up points and then using them to create a massive combo didn't seem to be of much use other than in fights where I needed to finish an enemy quickly before they get healed. It seemed like just using points each turn for an attack did the same damage as saving them up and doing a string of the same attacks.

Was there any sort of bonus to stringing attacks together that I missed?

DiscoZombie

fairweather wrote: »

The one thing that seemed odd to me was that the whole system of saving up points and then using them to create a massive combo didn't seem to be of much use other than in fights where I needed to finish an enemy quickly before they get healed. It seemed like just using points each turn for an attack did the same damage as saving them up and doing a string of the same attacks.

Was there any sort of bonus to stringing attacks together that I missed?

I'm pretty sure the right combos did considerable additional damage. some of them also did elemental damage; I don't remember if any had any status effects as well...

eatblueshell

Huh. I never knew that the right combination of Deathblows did extra damage, or had elemental effects?

You are speaking of the AP Combo's where you build up points and then select several deathblows to do on one turn?