Aaaand done! Branched a save file off at "A Banner's Worth" in case I ever get curious about Frederica's path there (and the last recruit) but the Golden Path was incredibly satisfying and well worth the replays.
I even sat through the entire opening title sequence thanks to the unlocked song.
A little over 90 hours all told, over three runs (one massively FFd).
I think my MVP was Archibald. That old dude does not fuck around and between his chance to insta-kill and his Inescapable Arrow move enemies just fall like wheat.
Andy JoeWe claim the land for the highlord!The AdirondacksRegistered Userregular
Finally getting back to this after finishing with Kirby.
Chapter VIII, Parting Ways:
Fought this entirely with ranged and support characters. Archibald and Hughette on one flank, Narve and Jens on the other, Correntin, Frederica, Julio, Geela, and Benedict moving between as needed. Serenoa didn't even do anything, I kept him in reserve to tank Rufus in case he made it to the gate but he got taken out first.
Aaaand done! Branched a save file off at "A Banner's Worth" in case I ever get curious about Frederica's path there (and the last recruit) but the Golden Path was incredibly satisfying and well worth the replays.
I even sat through the entire opening title sequence thanks to the unlocked song.
A little over 90 hours all told, over three runs (one massively FFd).
I think my MVP was Archibald. That old dude does not fuck around and between his chance to insta-kill and his Inescapable Arrow move enemies just fall like wheat.
My Benedict seems to always act a turn or two right before Archibald and the both act pretty much right at the start so… two turns? Don’t mind if I do.
Turn 1 dragon shield on your backline definitely feels good when TP generation is no longer a problem and you stop using tanks in favor of more killing power.
Finally beat my first runthrough, ended up going with Fred's plan.
Woof that final stage was rough.
Having the final and hardest stage on that path being an NPC escort mission? Yeesh.
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silence1186Character shields down!As a wingmanRegistered Userregular
After a 130 hours, I'm done with my second paythrough. Was 50 hours this time, compared to the 1st's 80.
Went with Roland's capitulation to Hyzante, and it was predictably terrible for everyone, despite the somewhat rosy ending. The suffering in the background was too much. Even without Serenoa surviving, Frederica's ending was better.
Turning it down to Very Easy and blitzing through a 3rd playthrough, and I might not turn in back up until the end of the 4th. We'll see. Getting a bit saturated.
I'm seven chapters into my NG+ run, and I feel like posting some stray thoughts.
Even with most of the early stages falling into a linear path, there's still a different feel to the repeats. It's not just the level scaling at play, but the fact that you get a much larger variety of party composition and advanced skills to throw at the enemy. There's kind of a perversity in being able to toss out things at your foes that you wouldn't have been able to on the first loop. That's not to say that the difficulty has become trivial, however. Since the absolute stat values are much larger, it feels like everyone's taking proportionally more damage now. My mages are very much getting wrecked by physical attacks due to poor defense values. And maybe it's my imagination, but Exharme seemed to be much speedier in the Chapter 2 tournament battle than he was in the first loop? All I know is that with a speed of 38, he was getting about 1.5 times more actions than my team members and just getting everywhere on the battleground.
The new Tavern mental battles have provided some additional variety for the early game. I did find the survival maps a bit annoying due to how long they took to complete.
With so many new party members joining up, the wallet has become quite tight to try and give everyone equipment and upgrades. Running Medina as a main healer is a bit of a money sink when story maps don't give out any more money than the first time around. But I'm going to stick with not grinding Tavern maps, and just budgeting where I can. Maybe I can sell some spare Sundry items or Resources once I figure out what I don't need. I also don't think I need to worry too much about keeping everyone's levels on par with one another, since it feels like being more than a couple levels under recommendation is less of a burden, now that overall level numbers are higher.
As a final note, I switched over the audio from English to Japanese for my second run. Maybe it's because I'm so used to the English cast, but I like them better? Or maybe it's because I like the English script more than the parts of the Japanese voice lines that I'm able to follow.
Selling spare Medals of Bravery is a good source, as only your Core 8 and your Ch3 recruits need them. Eventually you can similarly start unloading Medals of Valor.
But honestly once you are over lv35, grinding Field of Greed takes barely any time and can net like 10-15k per run.
I got the demo for this the other day. I've liked the two fights I've been in so far, but I haven't liked the hours of dialogue between them. I found myself skipping cutscenes, which is something I've never done in an RPG before.
Does it get any better on this front after the first few chapters, or does it stay dialogue dense throughout? I'm almost afraid that the game is mostly cutscenes with few actual combats, to be honest.
I got the demo for this the other day. I've liked the two fights I've been in so far, but I haven't liked the hours of dialogue between them. I found myself skipping cutscenes, which is something I've never done in an RPG before.
Does it get any better on this front after the first few chapters, or does it stay dialogue dense throughout? I'm almost afraid that the game is mostly cutscenes with few actual combats, to be honest.
You get one combat per chapter, on average. The rest is all gab and usually one exploration and/or voting phase. You can (and will) grind out skirmish battles for xp and cash once you unlock them (fairly early IIRC).
That being said, the plot isn't that bad once you've got past introducing all 40+ major characters. So yes it is worse up front but the relative amount of combat doesn't usually increase. I played through 3 times and only skipped scenes I'd already seen.
DragkoniasThat Guy Who Does StuffYou Know, There. Registered Userregular
Not gonna lie I may have sped through a few cuts cutscenes after I got the gist of what was going on.
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Andy JoeWe claim the land for the highlord!The AdirondacksRegistered Userregular
edited May 2022
Finished the Benedict route.
Aside from the Hierophant's move that targets every unit with 3 or more TP the final map wasn't too bad. Charged straight through and took out the boss. Needed some clutch healing here and there, though.
They say that a welfare state is the price to be paid to avoid peasant uprisings, although that may be too far ahead of medieval-ish politicians. However, I daresay the Roselle specifically are owed reparations. Take it from the Hyzantian treasury.
Brainiac 8Don't call me Shirley...Registered Userregular
I think I'm coming up toward the end of my first playthrough. I would love to do the golden route but I'm not sure I enjoyed this enough for more than one playthrough. I'll probably watch the true ending on youtube.
Brainiac 8Don't call me Shirley...Registered Userregular
I hit a bit of a wall. I was hoping to get through the game without having to do a bunch of mock battles to grind out levels...well that isn't happening. I'm re-playing a mock battle right now just trying to grind out levels.
For whatever reason, the protecting the Roselles mission is just really rough for me.
Eventually the only reliable way to get weapon upgrade mats is going to be exchanging Kudos for them, so you may want to just bank some now if there's nothing else you absolutely need.
Just beat it. Not sure if i liked it enough to do any NG+. I felt like the unit upgrades were pretty basic and i pretty much used the same abilities the entire game. The game was fine but definitely didn't hit me as well as octopath did.
Just beat it. Not sure if i liked it enough to do any NG+. I felt like the unit upgrades were pretty basic and i pretty much used the same abilities the entire game. The game was fine but definitely didn't hit me as well as octopath did.
Yeah this was my issue. Mechanically the game is pretty basic.
It's challenging sure...but it's challenging because of all the restraints they have on everything.
Finally finished the second playthrough, golden ending this time. I certainly didn't expect to get answers to Decimal's origin, but now that I did I'm surprised how easy it would have been to just completely miss.
(spoilers for both)
You have to take him to the final two battles of the game in Hyzante, against Lyla and Idore. The first battle he will recognize Lyla as his creator, and the next battle he will recognize that he was created as an early prototype for the Heirophant dolls and comes to the realization that all this time he was worried he was the failure, yet if these will-less puppets were the end result then he no longer considers himself a failure at all.
It's a shockingly missable piece of closure for him and a weirdly major piece of character lore for an optional recruitment, but on the other hand this game is pretty bad at individual character closure so it doesn't really surprise me.
As for the golden ending itself
Yeah typical "good guys win, bad guys lose, united future" stuff, not a big surprise there. Sure was nice to finally stick it to Gustadolph and Idore though, which they got off scott free in the other ending I chose. (though I want to know where this whole Demigod Idore plot thread went to in the non-golden endings - I guess they just couldn't help but have their "because anime" moment)
One thing I don't care for however is the lack of character interaction outside of the standalone cutscenes. Like Groma is 99% implied to be Avlora's former teacher but there's no interaction with them at all, nor is there any interaction with Maxwell and Avlora if you pit them against eachother in any encounter where you fight her. Weirdly though, there is an interaction between Maxwell and Gustadolph in the golden route if he goes to Aesfrost with Roland's unit.
I think the overall story was well done, but it does feel like they sacrificed a lot of potential character development/interaction for the sake of story coherence. Like Maxwell going from a major character to a complete non-element after his bridge showdown with Avlora even if you recruited him back into the fold(HE DOESN'T EVEN GET A REUNION CUTSCENE WITH ROLAND?!), or more majorly Cordelia disappearing from the story entirely after the chapter where she may be recruited whether or not you recruited her, especially after that whole fanfare with Avlora about resolving to become a stronger ruler. It really comes across like they fridged her just for the sake of fitting Roland's monstrously terrible ending into the game. (she shows up in the final cutscenes of the golden ending but she's basically furniture at that point, and doesn't do or say anything)
At least Avlora's cutscene with Hughette is a nice bit of closure you don't really get with the other routes, but man that's like pennies on the dollar in the grand scheme of things.
Overall it's in keeping with Asano's track record in that at least I like a lot more than I dislike about it, and I'll probably still buy his next game.
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Andy JoeWe claim the land for the highlord!The AdirondacksRegistered Userregular
Golden Route Chapter 18, Part 1
I had Erador, Hughette, Geela, Jens, Piccoletta, Ezana, Lionel, Archibald, and Decimal in Benedict's regiment. Erador went out and tanked the first wave, then lured Exharme into a fire trap with a bit of help from Lionel. Jens delayed advancing unuts up the narrow path on the right side with traps while Hughette picked them off from a rooftop, everyone else mostly stayed by the starting area and hit enemies with ranged attacks as they advanced. Tried out Ezana's ultimate weapon skill just to see it, hit four out of the entire enemy party.
Andy JoeWe claim the land for the highlord!The AdirondacksRegistered Userregular
edited May 2022
Golden Route Chapter 18, Part 2
Had Anna, Rudolph, Hossabara, Maxwell, Flanagan, Groma, Trish, Quahaug, and Avlora in Roland's regiment. Teleported Trish to the top of the gate with Quahaug, she managed to nail Gustadolph with a fire arrow. After Quahaugh did a ton of damage with in due course and Gustadolph retreated from the front lines, but Anna got him with a Deadly Blaze out of stealth and Maxwell finished him off.
I was pleased to see there was special dialogue when Gustadolph entered combat with Groma, Avlora, and Maxwell. Nothing for Rudolph, unfortunately.
Andy JoeWe claim the land for the highlord!The AdirondacksRegistered Userregular
Golden Route Chapter 18, Part 3
Had Serenoa, Correntin, Julio, Narve, Medina, Milo, and Giovanna in Frederica's regiment. Just turtled near the platform, had Serenoa block take on units coming from the right while hitting everyone that came from the front with magic, with some Moon Jump-assisted back attacks from Milo. Managed to hit Kamsell with a full-powered Sunfall, that was very satisfying.
And now that the party is all reunited, and because I did so much grinding after the separation, I have 14 character stories to go through.
Really struggling with how plot heavy this game is. I'm on Chapter 4 and have only done a few non-mock fights. I know not all games can be as great as FFT but man FFT had a great balance of story and combat.
Andy JoeWe claim the land for the highlord!The AdirondacksRegistered Userregular
Golden Route Final Chapter
Ah, the pre-fight philosophical debate in grand JRPG tradition.
I was tempted to rush Idore, but ultimately I found success advancing slowly with the whole party. My ability to defeat enemies far outpaced their respawn rates.
When I got my units in range of Idore he went down fairly quick. If this was a Fire Emblem game he'd have had two or three times as much HP easy.
And finally a PSA: Don't quit out of the game right away after beating the Golden Route, because afterwards there's a new title screen and music.
I tried several times to beat the level where you have the opportunity to burn your own houses to kill the general of the Aesfrost army without using the traps but her HP was so high and after 3 waves of reinforcements my units are usually gassed.
These maps are so much more cluttered than FTT that turtling is generally fairly effective. Get like two or three melee guys to gum up some stairs, rotate defensive buffs with Benedict and just pile on the mages and nuke everyone from high ground. Alvora's army even has the courtsey of staggering themselves in waves and taking forever to get across the map so you don't get overwhelmed.
By the end of the map my army was hiding at the topmost house, only one melee could hit Serona in front at a time and the rest just had to sit there watching while eating AoE.
Jesus Christ this game doesn't let up. I've had to retry 7 times now on the map with Rufus and protecting Roland. Dude drops in 2 hits even though he's way over the recommended level. There's literally nothing I can do to win this bullshit map.
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A little over 90 hours all told, over three runs (one massively FFd).
I think my MVP was Archibald. That old dude does not fuck around and between his chance to insta-kill and his Inescapable Arrow move enemies just fall like wheat.
Chapter VIII, Parting Ways:
My Benedict seems to always act a turn or two right before Archibald and the both act pretty much right at the start so… two turns? Don’t mind if I do.
My favorite trick with 1st-turn Benedict is putting a Dragon's Shield on him and 4 other units if the opening positioning allows it.
Woof that final stage was rough.
Turning it down to Very Easy and blitzing through a 3rd playthrough, and I might not turn in back up until the end of the 4th. We'll see. Getting a bit saturated.
You can actually just completely ignore that.
It's kind of hilarious how Travis's suplex attack moves the target behind him, because it sets up Serenoa for a counter from the back every time.
The new Tavern mental battles have provided some additional variety for the early game. I did find the survival maps a bit annoying due to how long they took to complete.
With so many new party members joining up, the wallet has become quite tight to try and give everyone equipment and upgrades. Running Medina as a main healer is a bit of a money sink when story maps don't give out any more money than the first time around. But I'm going to stick with not grinding Tavern maps, and just budgeting where I can. Maybe I can sell some spare Sundry items or Resources once I figure out what I don't need. I also don't think I need to worry too much about keeping everyone's levels on par with one another, since it feels like being more than a couple levels under recommendation is less of a burden, now that overall level numbers are higher.
As a final note, I switched over the audio from English to Japanese for my second run. Maybe it's because I'm so used to the English cast, but I like them better? Or maybe it's because I like the English script more than the parts of the Japanese voice lines that I'm able to follow.
But honestly once you are over lv35, grinding Field of Greed takes barely any time and can net like 10-15k per run.
Does it get any better on this front after the first few chapters, or does it stay dialogue dense throughout? I'm almost afraid that the game is mostly cutscenes with few actual combats, to be honest.
You get one combat per chapter, on average. The rest is all gab and usually one exploration and/or voting phase. You can (and will) grind out skirmish battles for xp and cash once you unlock them (fairly early IIRC).
That being said, the plot isn't that bad once you've got past introducing all 40+ major characters. So yes it is worse up front but the relative amount of combat doesn't usually increase. I played through 3 times and only skipped scenes I'd already seen.
They say that a welfare state is the price to be paid to avoid peasant uprisings, although that may be too far ahead of medieval-ish politicians. However, I daresay the Roselle specifically are owed reparations. Take it from the Hyzantian treasury.
On to NG+!
Nintendo Network ID - Brainiac_8
PSN - Brainiac_8
Steam - http://steamcommunity.com/id/BRAINIAC8/
Add me!
I'm not saying "don't do this," mind; just make sure you get the whole thing.
For whatever reason, the protecting the Roselles mission is just really rough for me.
Nintendo Network ID - Brainiac_8
PSN - Brainiac_8
Steam - http://steamcommunity.com/id/BRAINIAC8/
Add me!
Next frustrating part (about chapter 15/16)
Selling Board Games for Medical Bills
There might be more coming but not a ton, especially this late. Keep checking the Encampment.
Nintendo ID: Pastalonius
Smite\LoL:Gremlidin \ WoW & Overwatch & Hots: Gremlidin#1734
3ds: 3282-2248-0453
I definitely farm everything so my shop is sold out (both kudos and money).
Selling Board Games for Medical Bills
Groma did well for me but you really have to put her at risk.
Yeah this was my issue. Mechanically the game is pretty basic.
It's challenging sure...but it's challenging because of all the restraints they have on everything.
(spoilers for both)
It's a shockingly missable piece of closure for him and a weirdly major piece of character lore for an optional recruitment, but on the other hand this game is pretty bad at individual character closure so it doesn't really surprise me.
As for the golden ending itself
One thing I don't care for however is the lack of character interaction outside of the standalone cutscenes. Like Groma is 99% implied to be Avlora's former teacher but there's no interaction with them at all, nor is there any interaction with Maxwell and Avlora if you pit them against eachother in any encounter where you fight her. Weirdly though, there is an interaction between Maxwell and Gustadolph in the golden route if he goes to Aesfrost with Roland's unit.
I think the overall story was well done, but it does feel like they sacrificed a lot of potential character development/interaction for the sake of story coherence. Like Maxwell going from a major character to a complete non-element after his bridge showdown with Avlora even if you recruited him back into the fold(HE DOESN'T EVEN GET A REUNION CUTSCENE WITH ROLAND?!), or more majorly Cordelia disappearing from the story entirely after the chapter where she may be recruited whether or not you recruited her, especially after that whole fanfare with Avlora about resolving to become a stronger ruler. It really comes across like they fridged her just for the sake of fitting Roland's monstrously terrible ending into the game. (she shows up in the final cutscenes of the golden ending but she's basically furniture at that point, and doesn't do or say anything)
At least Avlora's cutscene with Hughette is a nice bit of closure you don't really get with the other routes, but man that's like pennies on the dollar in the grand scheme of things.
Overall it's in keeping with Asano's track record in that at least I like a lot more than I dislike about it, and I'll probably still buy his next game.
I was pleased to see there was special dialogue when Gustadolph entered combat with Groma, Avlora, and Maxwell. Nothing for Rudolph, unfortunately.
And now that the party is all reunited, and because I did so much grinding after the separation, I have 14 character stories to go through.
I was tempted to rush Idore, but ultimately I found success advancing slowly with the whole party. My ability to defeat enemies far outpaced their respawn rates.
When I got my units in range of Idore he went down fairly quick. If this was a Fire Emblem game he'd have had two or three times as much HP easy.
And finally a PSA: Don't quit out of the game right away after beating the Golden Route, because afterwards there's a new title screen and music.
By the end of the map my army was hiding at the topmost house, only one melee could hit Serona in front at a time and the rest just had to sit there watching while eating AoE.
Of course I win it without losing anyone after I post here to vent. As is tradition.