Now, if only that were anywhere near the most unreasonable quest the game gives you.
I refuse to believe anything could be as unreasonable as beating the optional boss of DQ5 in 15 turns. Whatever they give me later may be crazy, but I doubt it will require 25 hours of grinding to even stand a chance.
Honestly, if it was something like that it'd be fine because at least it's something you'd have some kind of control over.
"Use Whistle to enrage enemies and then finish them off with a Critical Hit" is pure and total randomness. And even that isn't the most ridiculous from what I've heard.
Well technically for that couldn't you whistle and then use a critical-or-miss skill?
Off the top of my head, Fisticuffs, Fans, Spears, Bows, and Claws all have (at least--Fan is more I think) 4-hit attacks. The Claw one is probably the worst in that each hit does 25% of normal attack damage so it evens out to just being one hit. Swords have a 4-hit ability if you have a Falcon Sword equipped and use the Falcon Blade ability.
Thanks for all the responses. This is what i wanted to hear though, i don't need to have a 4 people with fisticuffs. Variety is very nice.
Now, if only that were anywhere near the most unreasonable quest the game gives you.
I refuse to believe anything could be as unreasonable as beating the optional boss of DQ5 in 15 turns. Whatever they give me later may be crazy, but I doubt it will require 25 hours of grinding to even stand a chance.
Honestly, if it was something like that it'd be fine because at least it's something you'd have some kind of control over.
"Use Whistle to enrage enemies and then finish them off with a Critical Hit" is pure and total randomness. And even that isn't the most ridiculous from what I've heard.
Well technically for that couldn't you whistle and then use a critical-or-miss skill?
Nope. It has to be a normal "Select Attack Get A Critical" Critical.
Wait do you have to use Whistle before using Sooth Sayer for quest 113? Because the quest SAYS NOTHING ABOUT ANYTHING OF THE SORT.
If it says they need to be enraged, probably. You either need enemies to build tension or be enraged. Honestly, the quests are incredibly vague. It's kind of disappointing.
Now, if only that were anywhere near the most unreasonable quest the game gives you.
I refuse to believe anything could be as unreasonable as beating the optional boss of DQ5 in 15 turns. Whatever they give me later may be crazy, but I doubt it will require 25 hours of grinding to even stand a chance.
Honestly, if it was something like that it'd be fine because at least it's something you'd have some kind of control over.
"Use Whistle to enrage enemies and then finish them off with a Critical Hit" is pure and total randomness. And even that isn't the most ridiculous from what I've heard.
Well technically for that couldn't you whistle and then use a critical-or-miss skill?
Nope. It has to be a normal "Select Attack Get A Critical" Critical.
Uhg, just got the DS that another friend is going to give me, but before that I was borrowing an original model. The DS Lite's controls... suck horrible ass. I don't get how they messed it up so bad. You can't move diagonaly in DQ with a DS lite unless you press down hard enough to crush a... a thing almost as hard as a nut. And the other buttons are less responsive as well, but mainly the lack of diagonal on the d-pad is what sucks. It actually becomes annoying to like... enter buildings and other complex tasks like that. Definitely gonna see if the owner of the old model will trade for my lite. He barely plays anyways so he'll probably say yes. Weird though. The screen and size are nice but man, what a sacrifice of interface. I guess they expect me to use the stylus, but there's no way I'm gonna do that when grinding while watching movies and stuff.
It's honestly just this game that controls like that. I've never had any other game that it was hard to do diagonals with. And, honestly? Even this one isn't as bad as you're making it sound. "Hard enough to crush a nut"? Really? Maybe there's something wrong with that particular DS if you're really having to press that hard.
It is the game itself that has wonky diagonals. I've done diagonals in other games on a DS Lite perfectly fine.
Also, the diagonals on the DS Lite dpad either have to be broken in or gotten used to. I had trouble when I started out on my DS Lite back in the day but eventually it loosened up. I've never tried another new one to test whether it was the pad or just me being unaccustomed.
Well, perhaps this one is just particularly bad but when I first started using it I thought 'I'll just have to get used to it'. Then I kept playing for a couple hours, said screw it and popped the game back in the other DS, and bam back to controlling like a dream. No effort involved in diagonals, nothing to break in or get used to. And the DS lite is old so if it's something on the plastic or whatever that has to be broken in it would already be. But seriously, it is as bad as I was saying. The upper diagonals are easier on it but the lower diagonals take a ridiculous amount of pressure and angle to function. And I wouldn't be surprised if it was only like this for DQ IX, but DQ IX is almost the only reason I got my hands on a DS at all so to me it makes the difference. In summary to me the DS feels like a gaming console for DQ and the DS Lite feels like a toy, albeit a more slick toy. I'm betting these issues are part of the reason they made the DSi and XLs and stuff, but I haven't tried any of those.
I just fiddled with the D-Pad on my Lite and I don't have to press down diagonally any harder than I do orthogonally. But maybe my Lite is "broken in" after years of use. Try borrowing another Lite or two and trying it out on them.
Yeah, we'll see. I'll have to do some testing if my friend won't trade. Anyways though, the fact that I've obtained any kind of DS for free is pretty sweet so I'm not really sour about it. Just thought it might be good for someone to know if they were also having trouble.
thats... not possible. my martial artist always goes first, so there is not any chance of that.
they are terrified instantly after the scream.
so what do i do?
thats... not possible. my martial artist always goes first, so there is not any chance of that.
they are terrified instantly after the scream.
so what do i do?
It doesn't have to be the martial artist who kills them.
Nope. I was able to do that quest by having my thief deliver the finishing blow after my martial artist used war cry. It might help if you spend the first round softening the Scarewolves up so that only one attack is needed to finish them off after a war cry.
So I'm over 6 hours in this game, trying to put as much time as I can as I plan to review it next week.
I just have a few questions, as I'm still fairly early in the game:
1. Will I ever get any story-type party members, or will I always be using custom-made ones?
2. Does equipping a shield affect two-handed weapons like poles or spears?
3. Will I always have to return to the Inn to use the Alchemy pot, or will I get the option to use it in the menu?
4. I had read that this was to be the hardest DQ game ever, but so far I haven't had any real trouble. Maybe it's because I have experience from DQVIII, but I've only lightly grind and haven't come close to dying yet.
5. Finally, what's the average length of the story? Standard DQ length (over 50 hours) or shorter than usual?
6. Finally-er, is there a New Game Plus? It really stinks that there's only one save slot. Who would erase it to start over after putting in 100+ hours?
Is there a place similar enough to the Liquid Metal Slimes, only with Metal King Slimes?
Also, for those playing still: Try and make sure to get at least one character with a crit-or-miss ability before the end of the game. You'll thank me for it.
So I'm over 6 hours in this game, trying to put as much time as I can as I plan to review it next week.
I just have a few questions, as I'm still fairly early in the game:
1. Will I ever get any story-type party members, or will I always be using custom-made ones?
2. Does equipping a shield affect two-handed weapons like poles or spears?
3. Will I always have to return to the Inn to use the Alchemy pot, or will I get the option to use it in the menu?
4. I had read that this was to be the hardest DQ game ever, but so far I haven't had any real trouble. Maybe it's because I have experience from DQVIII, but I've only lightly grind and haven't come close to dying yet.
5. Finally, what's the average length of the story? Standard DQ length (over 50 hours) or shorter than usual?
6. Finally-er, is there a New Game Plus? It really stinks that there's only one save slot. Who would erase it to start over after putting in 100+ hours?
1. Outside of the tutorial, there are NO story members. Only custom made ones. The only sorta-exception are the 3 default characters that the game randomly creates, they are nothing special but there's a tradition of keeping them and making them work. This plays into the multiplayer, where you can end up with 4 players total at the same time.
At no point in the game are any of your other PCs even mentioned (other than one specific scene where you have to go in solo). This is very much the story of the Guardian of Angel Falls.
2. No two handed weapons. Spear/Axe + shield works just fine. There is a reason maxxing out shields is considered very important once you start min-maxing to survive the grottos.
3. You always have to go back to that specific inn. You get a teleport spell later on that makes it very easy to do. Thankfully, everything important is in that specific town later on -- Tag mode, multiplayer mode, DQVC, Krak Pot, save spot, fully stocked cure item store, and it's even where they shove in the post-game equipment store (there's a second weapon/armor vendor that appears in each store after the ending).
4. I almost suspect they lowered the difficulty for the US (I seem to remember hearing something about them doing that for DQ4/DQ5 DS) but no, the accusations of difficulty come in the post game -- the Grotto bosses will eat you alive, and the cameo bonus bosses (the bosses of previous DQ games) are just unfair. In one of the legendary Japanese maps that are popularly traded -- Masayuki's Map (legendary cause on the 15th floor, you encounter Metal King Slimes in every fight) -- the random enemies are stronger than the last boss. And they come in groups of 3.
5. I've got 65 hours in, and I think about 15 of those are post game. There is an achievement for beating the game at 12 hours (and another one for beating it at 300+ hours), but that DEFINITELY requires abusing multiplayer -- you basically join a multiplayer game, grind to 99, then have the other player join your game and bum rush the story. To be honest, if I started over, I could probably have beat it sooner the second time around, due to knowing a few more tricks about how to abuse the engine (tension being the most obvious one, weapon choice being the other). "Knowing" some of the alchemy recipes before the game tells them to you would allow you to make Gigasteel gear, for example, at a point in the game where it would be vastly better than you would normally have.
But that's true for any DQ game. Knowing to abuse Taloon's shop in preparation for Chapter 5 doesn't "count", for example.
6. No newgame+, unfortunately. They did this due to the multiplayer -- too easy to trade away an ultimate weapon, then reload your second save file.
I just have a few questions, as I'm still fairly early in the game:
1. Will I ever get any story-type party members, or will I always be using custom-made ones?
Only custom made ones.
2. Does equipping a shield affect two-handed weapons like poles or spears?
Nope, though I haven't tried it with Bow yet.
3. Will I always have to return to the Inn to use the Alchemy pot, or will I get the option to use it in the menu?
The Alchemy pot stays in the Inn I believe.
4. I had read that this was to be the hardest DQ game ever, but so far I haven't had any real trouble. Maybe it's because I have experience from DQVIII, but I've only lightly grind and haven't come close to dying yet.
The difficulty ramps up a bit with bosses that clear your status effects and in the grottoes difficulty can be extremely high. I've never died either, but one fight I logically should have and I've done a bit to make sure I don't die. Even if you do die though, unless you forgot to bank your stuff there's no real consequence so I suppose it all depends on how you define difficulty. There's more than enough stuff to progress forward in order to meet though, and if you want it there are plenty of challenges to be had like making a high DPS team and trying to kill stuff before it kills you.
5. Finally, what's the average length of the story? Standard DQ length (over 50 hours) or shorter than usual?
Definitely shorter than that if you're just 'going through', but obviously the point of this game is not to just go through, and I've put in around 60 hours and don't yet feel pressed to go to what I'm sure is the last location of the game. But I really love crafting an awesome team.
6. Finally-er, is there a New Game Plus? It really stinks that there's only one save slot. Who would erase it to start over after putting in 100+ hours?
No new game plus so that kind of sucks but the fact that you can always make new characters and that any character can be turned into whatever you want it to be with enough effort means you'd never need to restart for min/maxing reasons. I think this problem is also partially alleviated by all the DLC quests. Overall it's like pokemon more than a normal RPG. You just keep adding to your collection and strength and interact with friends and content.
It's really too bad about there being no party members. Yangus was one of my favorite party members of all time, so I was hoping to see if they would strike gold again with IX. The NPCs are all well-written so far, but it's not quite the same as having a companion with you at all times (the fairy's okay, though).
Having to return to the Inn to use Alchemy is kind of annoying, since you could do it anytime in DQVIII's menu. Fortunately, fast travel works as well as it did in that game, so it's not a real big deal, but still....
The thing that bugs me about the one save slot is regarding cutscenes, dungeons, etc. I'm the kind of guy who likes to keep separate saves of favorite RPG moments.
"More like Pokemon than a normal RPG" is kinda scary, considering Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 2 uses DQ9's engine and is sure to hit statewide sometime this year or next. I put something like 170 hours into the first one and finally just used a cheat device to powerlevel my team instead of grinding for days on Metal King Slimes. If I hadn't, I would have literally spent another 200-300 hours just grinding away.
DS games with tagging seriously need to have an option for you to do tagging *while* playing games. That would solve a heckuva lot of problems right there.
DS games with tagging seriously need to have an option for you to do tagging *while* playing games. That would solve a heckuva lot of problems right there.
This. Yes. God Yes. If I'm walking someplace, I walk while playing my DS. The only time I'm in Tag mode is when I'm in class or otherwise busy enough that I can't ignore the general world around me to kill metal slimes.
So ending today with:
99 of each item to make Ear Cozies (22770 profit each run)
17000 gold (need 30000 for a silver shield for a quest, then need to start gearing up)
MC: Mastered Axe, now working on Virtue (paladin skill), Fource (Armamentalist) and Courage (warrior). He's melee damage, has already mastered Guts and Acquisitiveness (Thief skill).
Alonso: Working on Guts (Gladiator skill), mastered Courage and Ruggedness (Ranger skill) today. Alonso is destined to be my second DPS, apparently.
Cassie: Mastered Faith (Priest), Virtue, working on Spellcraft (Mage). Sage is next for her, once we unlock it.
Meredith: Mastered Courage, Virtue, Guts. Working on Litheness right now (cause someone has to, I guess). She is my tank-type character.
Virtue is nuts to master. Huge defense and HP bonuses. Guts is similar, but for raw melee damage. Apparently Luminaries are actually a replacement / evolution of the Priest, and Sage is a replacement / evolution of the Mage. Very odd. EVERYONE is getting Sage's skills, however, as mana is freaking important, and the sage ability? Change Jobs anywhere and something like -60% to the cost of anything that uses mana. On top of huge passive mana bonuses.
Yeah, the SECOND I get that class I'm sending everyone to the Liquid Metal Slimes area and grinding till I master it.
Money is tight in game. Most of the stuff in stores is 30,000+ and MUCH better than what I beat the game with. It's going to take me a few hours of simply grinding my way through equipment lists -- and that's not even considering the fact that all this 30,000+ equipment can be Alchemied up to a better version.
But then again, the same has been true for a while -- I skipped grinding money for a very long time, working instead on getting to the post game. Being able to do the ever stupid Psyche Up + Double Up + Dual-Edged Slash combo for 1800 damage kinda messed up the balance.
Sorta, anyway. It instantly killed my main character every time I did it, and if it didn't work, well, helloooooo lifestone. But, when it did work, boy howdy. (Disruptive Wave, which every post-game boss has, is one of the reasons it's so hard in post-game: This trick and related tricks don't work.)
The fact that I lucked out with random drops and was able to make an Inferno Sword the second I got the recipe was definite class.
Weapons I might be able to skip -- Falcon Swords are just better all around than non-Grotto drops, from what I hear, but who wants to run around with 3 characters in Falcon Swords and 1 healer with a staff? Eww. But armor? Yeah, the enemies in the Masayuki grotto do 250+ damage a hit to my Paladin. Time to grind.
Uhg, just got the DS that another friend is going to give me, but before that I was borrowing an original model. The DS Lite's controls... suck horrible ass. I don't get how they messed it up so bad. You can't move diagonaly in DQ with a DS lite unless you press down hard enough to crush a... a thing almost as hard as a nut. And the other buttons are less responsive as well, but mainly the lack of diagonal on the d-pad is what sucks. It actually becomes annoying to like... enter buildings and other complex tasks like that. Definitely gonna see if the owner of the old model will trade for my lite. He barely plays anyways so he'll probably say yes. Weird though. The screen and size are nice but man, what a sacrifice of interface. I guess they expect me to use the stylus, but there's no way I'm gonna do that when grinding while watching movies and stuff.
The stylus controls really aren't that bad, I've used them while grinding and watching TV a lot. They're worth a try if nothing else.
I'm also glad that the made the L button a confirmation button in battle, so you can play the game one handed if the situation arises.
I'm only about level 14 so far... but I ran into some of those Metal Slimes you chaps are always talking about. That was nifty, killed a few for some free levels.
So, I'm not seeing the point of my Warrior... It's not like he's being focussed... so he's definitely not filling a "tank" role. Is there a provoke or taunt method?
Whipping Boy (8 points in Warrior tree--the last one, can't remember its name) lets him take a hit for a party member; Whistle (28-ish points) enrages the enemy so it focuses on him. Paladin is the real tank, but you have to do a quest that requires you to use Whipping Boy so at least make sure you unlock that on someone.
You can also just put the other 3 in the back row and they'll be targeted less.
I'm only about level 14 so far... but I ran into some of those Metal Slimes you chaps are always talking about. That was nifty, killed a few for some free levels.
So, I'm not seeing the point of my Warrior... It's not like he's being focussed... so he's definitely not filling a "tank" role. Is there a provoke or taunt method?
Whistle
Death Cab For Albie on
...we made it cool to wear medallions and say hotep...
DS games with tagging seriously need to have an option for you to do tagging *while* playing games. That would solve a heckuva lot of problems right there.
I could have sworn the 3DS would have some type of built in tag mode. The system would be the one doing it rather than the game. You could save mutiple games saved this way so you could walk around in tag mode with more than one game at a time.
Posts
Well technically for that couldn't you whistle and then use a critical-or-miss skill?
Thanks for all the responses. This is what i wanted to hear though, i don't need to have a 4 people with fisticuffs. Variety is very nice.
If it says they need to be enraged, probably. You either need enemies to build tension or be enraged. Honestly, the quests are incredibly vague. It's kind of disappointing.
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
Fiddlesticks.
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
Also, the diagonals on the DS Lite dpad either have to be broken in or gotten used to. I had trouble when I started out on my DS Lite back in the day but eventually it loosened up. I've never tried another new one to test whether it was the pad or just me being unaccustomed.
Im fighting scarewolves, i scream at them, my martial artist beats them up... NO CREDIT!
I dont get it. i kill them the turn after... i make it so no one else hits the scarewolf ever... nothing.
never any credit.
3: this quest.
they are terrified instantly after the scream.
so what do i do?
It doesn't have to be the martial artist who kills them.
edit- nope it works. huh stupid quest is stupid
Switch: US 1651-2551-4335 JP 6310-4664-2624
MH3U Monster Cheat Sheet / MH3U Veggie Elder Ticket Guide
EDIT: Whoops, responded before I realized it wasn't the last page after refreshing. But yeah, the martial artist doesn't need to kill em.
yes. make your next fastest guy wear a bunny tail and a mercury headband. you dont need to beat the monk, just the wolf's speed.
Switch: US 1651-2551-4335 JP 6310-4664-2624
MH3U Monster Cheat Sheet / MH3U Veggie Elder Ticket Guide
I just have a few questions, as I'm still fairly early in the game:
1. Will I ever get any story-type party members, or will I always be using custom-made ones?
2. Does equipping a shield affect two-handed weapons like poles or spears?
3. Will I always have to return to the Inn to use the Alchemy pot, or will I get the option to use it in the menu?
4. I had read that this was to be the hardest DQ game ever, but so far I haven't had any real trouble. Maybe it's because I have experience from DQVIII, but I've only lightly grind and haven't come close to dying yet.
5. Finally, what's the average length of the story? Standard DQ length (over 50 hours) or shorter than usual?
6. Finally-er, is there a New Game Plus? It really stinks that there's only one save slot. Who would erase it to start over after putting in 100+ hours?
Blog||Tumblr|Steam|Twitter|FFXIV|Twitch|YouTube|Podcast|PSN|XBL|DarkZero
Also, for those playing still: Try and make sure to get at least one character with a crit-or-miss ability before the end of the game. You'll thank me for it.
Quarantomb & Pluvi Isle
Liquid Metal Slime
Bowhole
Metal King Slime
Tower of Nod
Platinum King Jewels
Can be found in various Grottos. *To find the grottos, the player must have a treasure map*
Metal Medley
The Magmaroo & Bad Cave
1. Outside of the tutorial, there are NO story members. Only custom made ones. The only sorta-exception are the 3 default characters that the game randomly creates, they are nothing special but there's a tradition of keeping them and making them work. This plays into the multiplayer, where you can end up with 4 players total at the same time.
At no point in the game are any of your other PCs even mentioned (other than one specific scene where you have to go in solo). This is very much the story of the Guardian of Angel Falls.
2. No two handed weapons. Spear/Axe + shield works just fine. There is a reason maxxing out shields is considered very important once you start min-maxing to survive the grottos.
3. You always have to go back to that specific inn. You get a teleport spell later on that makes it very easy to do. Thankfully, everything important is in that specific town later on -- Tag mode, multiplayer mode, DQVC, Krak Pot, save spot, fully stocked cure item store, and it's even where they shove in the post-game equipment store (there's a second weapon/armor vendor that appears in each store after the ending).
4. I almost suspect they lowered the difficulty for the US (I seem to remember hearing something about them doing that for DQ4/DQ5 DS) but no, the accusations of difficulty come in the post game -- the Grotto bosses will eat you alive, and the cameo bonus bosses (the bosses of previous DQ games) are just unfair. In one of the legendary Japanese maps that are popularly traded -- Masayuki's Map (legendary cause on the 15th floor, you encounter Metal King Slimes in every fight) -- the random enemies are stronger than the last boss. And they come in groups of 3.
5. I've got 65 hours in, and I think about 15 of those are post game. There is an achievement for beating the game at 12 hours (and another one for beating it at 300+ hours), but that DEFINITELY requires abusing multiplayer -- you basically join a multiplayer game, grind to 99, then have the other player join your game and bum rush the story. To be honest, if I started over, I could probably have beat it sooner the second time around, due to knowing a few more tricks about how to abuse the engine (tension being the most obvious one, weapon choice being the other). "Knowing" some of the alchemy recipes before the game tells them to you would allow you to make Gigasteel gear, for example, at a point in the game where it would be vastly better than you would normally have.
But that's true for any DQ game. Knowing to abuse Taloon's shop in preparation for Chapter 5 doesn't "count", for example.
6. No newgame+, unfortunately. They did this due to the multiplayer -- too easy to trade away an ultimate weapon, then reload your second save file.
1. Will I ever get any story-type party members, or will I always be using custom-made ones?
Only custom made ones.
2. Does equipping a shield affect two-handed weapons like poles or spears?
Nope, though I haven't tried it with Bow yet.
3. Will I always have to return to the Inn to use the Alchemy pot, or will I get the option to use it in the menu?
The Alchemy pot stays in the Inn I believe.
4. I had read that this was to be the hardest DQ game ever, but so far I haven't had any real trouble. Maybe it's because I have experience from DQVIII, but I've only lightly grind and haven't come close to dying yet.
The difficulty ramps up a bit with bosses that clear your status effects and in the grottoes difficulty can be extremely high. I've never died either, but one fight I logically should have and I've done a bit to make sure I don't die. Even if you do die though, unless you forgot to bank your stuff there's no real consequence so I suppose it all depends on how you define difficulty. There's more than enough stuff to progress forward in order to meet though, and if you want it there are plenty of challenges to be had like making a high DPS team and trying to kill stuff before it kills you.
5. Finally, what's the average length of the story? Standard DQ length (over 50 hours) or shorter than usual?
Definitely shorter than that if you're just 'going through', but obviously the point of this game is not to just go through, and I've put in around 60 hours and don't yet feel pressed to go to what I'm sure is the last location of the game. But I really love crafting an awesome team.
6. Finally-er, is there a New Game Plus? It really stinks that there's only one save slot. Who would erase it to start over after putting in 100+ hours?
No new game plus so that kind of sucks but the fact that you can always make new characters and that any character can be turned into whatever you want it to be with enough effort means you'd never need to restart for min/maxing reasons. I think this problem is also partially alleviated by all the DLC quests. Overall it's like pokemon more than a normal RPG. You just keep adding to your collection and strength and interact with friends and content.
Having to return to the Inn to use Alchemy is kind of annoying, since you could do it anytime in DQVIII's menu. Fortunately, fast travel works as well as it did in that game, so it's not a real big deal, but still....
The thing that bugs me about the one save slot is regarding cutscenes, dungeons, etc. I'm the kind of guy who likes to keep separate saves of favorite RPG moments.
Blog||Tumblr|Steam|Twitter|FFXIV|Twitch|YouTube|Podcast|PSN|XBL|DarkZero
Joker 2 is gonna kill me.
Switch: US 1651-2551-4335 JP 6310-4664-2624
MH3U Monster Cheat Sheet / MH3U Veggie Elder Ticket Guide
This. Yes. God Yes. If I'm walking someplace, I walk while playing my DS. The only time I'm in Tag mode is when I'm in class or otherwise busy enough that I can't ignore the general world around me to kill metal slimes.
So ending today with:
99 of each item to make Ear Cozies (22770 profit each run)
17000 gold (need 30000 for a silver shield for a quest, then need to start gearing up)
MC: Mastered Axe, now working on Virtue (paladin skill), Fource (Armamentalist) and Courage (warrior). He's melee damage, has already mastered Guts and Acquisitiveness (Thief skill).
Alonso: Working on Guts (Gladiator skill), mastered Courage and Ruggedness (Ranger skill) today. Alonso is destined to be my second DPS, apparently.
Cassie: Mastered Faith (Priest), Virtue, working on Spellcraft (Mage). Sage is next for her, once we unlock it.
Meredith: Mastered Courage, Virtue, Guts. Working on Litheness right now (cause someone has to, I guess). She is my tank-type character.
Virtue is nuts to master. Huge defense and HP bonuses. Guts is similar, but for raw melee damage. Apparently Luminaries are actually a replacement / evolution of the Priest, and Sage is a replacement / evolution of the Mage. Very odd. EVERYONE is getting Sage's skills, however, as mana is freaking important, and the sage ability? Change Jobs anywhere and something like -60% to the cost of anything that uses mana. On top of huge passive mana bonuses.
Yeah, the SECOND I get that class I'm sending everyone to the Liquid Metal Slimes area and grinding till I master it.
Money is tight in game. Most of the stuff in stores is 30,000+ and MUCH better than what I beat the game with. It's going to take me a few hours of simply grinding my way through equipment lists -- and that's not even considering the fact that all this 30,000+ equipment can be Alchemied up to a better version.
But then again, the same has been true for a while -- I skipped grinding money for a very long time, working instead on getting to the post game. Being able to do the ever stupid Psyche Up + Double Up + Dual-Edged Slash combo for 1800 damage kinda messed up the balance.
Sorta, anyway. It instantly killed my main character every time I did it, and if it didn't work, well, helloooooo lifestone. But, when it did work, boy howdy. (Disruptive Wave, which every post-game boss has, is one of the reasons it's so hard in post-game: This trick and related tricks don't work.)
The fact that I lucked out with random drops and was able to make an Inferno Sword the second I got the recipe was definite class.
Weapons I might be able to skip -- Falcon Swords are just better all around than non-Grotto drops, from what I hear, but who wants to run around with 3 characters in Falcon Swords and 1 healer with a staff? Eww. But armor? Yeah, the enemies in the Masayuki grotto do 250+ damage a hit to my Paladin. Time to grind.
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
The stylus controls really aren't that bad, I've used them while grinding and watching TV a lot. They're worth a try if nothing else.
I'm also glad that the made the L button a confirmation button in battle, so you can play the game one handed if the situation arises.
Not that I would need to play it one handed.
Stupid sultry liquid metal slimes.
So, I'm not seeing the point of my Warrior... It's not like he's being focussed... so he's definitely not filling a "tank" role. Is there a provoke or taunt method?
You can also just put the other 3 in the back row and they'll be targeted less.
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
Whistle
I could have sworn the 3DS would have some type of built in tag mode. The system would be the one doing it rather than the game. You could save mutiple games saved this way so you could walk around in tag mode with more than one game at a time.