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[JRPG]s Are Teambuilding Exercises

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Posts

  • shoeboxjeddyshoeboxjeddy Registered User regular
    Dragkonias wrote: »
    I love BBS cause Xehanhort is one of the most obviously evil video game villains ever and everyone is just like "You know that guy whose always got an evil grin? Can totally trust him."

    The phone only backstory game (Dark Road) tries to clarify that this is because Xehanort was the only halfway competent and loyal friend Eraqus ever had. His other friends either got massacred or were evil and betrayed the other ones (leading to said massacre). Unfortunately, that game being dog shit cut what was probably intended to be a 10-12 chapter story into a 5-6 chapter story, so most of it ended up on the cutting room floor.

  • captainkcaptaink TexasRegistered User regular
    Persona 4 Golden has a bunch of difficulty settings. The easiest one is really easy. Unfortunately, you can't change midgame.

    https://megamitensei.fandom.com/wiki/Difficulty#:~:text=In Persona 4 Golden, the,renamed Easy and Hard respectively.

  • SageinaRageSageinaRage Registered User regular
    Maddoc wrote: »
    Also I maintain that Kingdom Hearts isn't actually complicated, and any difficulty with understanding it is just due to the story being told kind of poorly

    This is my thought so far, but replace 'kind of' with 'extremely'.

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  • JarsJars Registered User regular
    man I'm getting my ass beat in ff9. I've already had 3 game overs and I just reached lindblum

  • PiptheFairPiptheFair Frequently not in boats. Registered User regular
    edited January 2023
    ff9 is one of the few actually challenging finfans

    it expects you to give a shit

    PiptheFair on
  • Fig-DFig-D Tustin, CA, USRegistered User regular
    It's harder to break in the early game too. Like FFVIII could be challenging if it didn't open up all it's systems so early, but it do, so go nuts.

    SteamID - Fig-D :: PSN - Fig-D
  • LucedesLucedes might be real Registered User regular
    Lucedes wrote: »
    KH3 cooked way too long is its main problem

    One of my best friends bought a PS3 in anticipation of KH3.

    the ten year delay between KH2 and KH3 led to me skipping an entire console generation, actually.
    i was specifically waiting for them to release KH3!

    instead i bought a PSP, a 3DS, and then eventually a PS4, because there were KH titles for them.

    KH3 taking so long might have been what led to me to mostly drop console gaming for portables?!

  • DiarmuidDiarmuid Amazing Meatball Registered User regular
    captaink wrote: »
    Persona 4 Golden has a bunch of difficulty settings. The easiest one is really easy. Unfortunately, you can't change midgame.

    https://megamitensei.fandom.com/wiki/Difficulty#:~:text=In Persona 4 Golden, the,renamed Easy and Hard respectively.

    I'm playing the new PS4 version and it does allow you to change difficulty mid-game. Outside of dungeons anyway, I haven't checked if it's possible in dungeons yet.

  • TofystedethTofystedeth Registered User regular
    PiptheFair wrote: »
    ff9 is one of the few actually challenging finfans

    it expects you to give a shit

    It doesn't help that it has the worst implementation of the limit break system in the series. And I'm counting 6 in that despite it being so barely there I didn't know it even existed for a long time until seeing it brought up in an FAQ.

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  • MNC DoverMNC Dover Full-time Voice Actor Kirkland, WARegistered User regular
    OK, so I'm nearing the end of Chained Echoes. Problem is that it's losing the fun. Up to this point, the game has been fun and respectful of my time. Just went though
    the destruction of the church

    and there were so many forced fights and each battle was a slog of enemy HP. I'm even using a guide to just streamline everything and it still feels like it's being stretched out.

    Looking ahead, the seems to still be more big areas with lots of fights. Unless someone can tell me I'm wrong and just finish up. Because...
    Another dream diving sequence?

    Like most JRPGs, I feel like about 5-10 hours could easily be removed or converted into side story for lore enthusiasts and the story wouldn't be hurt at all.

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  • TofystedethTofystedeth Registered User regular
    edited January 2023
    If you're at
    The dream diving sequence for Glen
    I think you're at the last thing before the end game. There's still a fair amount of optional endgame after that, but that's basically the last chapter go to final dungeon moment.

    Edit: I think. I don't exactly remember the exact order of events. Might be Tower then final dungeon?

    Tofystedeth on
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  • NaphtaliNaphtali Hazy + Flow SeaRegistered User regular
    MNC Dover wrote: »
    OK, so I'm nearing the end of Chained Echoes. Problem is that it's losing the fun. Up to this point, the game has been fun and respectful of my time. Just went though
    the destruction of the church

    and there were so many forced fights and each battle was a slog of enemy HP. I'm even using a guide to just streamline everything and it still feels like it's being stretched out.

    Looking ahead, the seems to still be more big areas with lots of fights. Unless someone can tell me I'm wrong and just finish up. Because...
    Another dream diving sequence?

    Like most JRPGs, I feel like about 5-10 hours could easily be removed or converted into side story for lore enthusiasts and the story wouldn't be hurt at all.

    if you want to make things go smoother, I recommend a party of sienna, robb, micah, victor. make sure everyone has AGI+ from the bandit class, give robb the party agility buff from monk? class, have sienna spam her agility buffs, micah use hers + her strength buff, victor buff everyone, and robb just leg bind (the -agility debuff) on enemies + use his agility buffs, and go to town. you'll start multi-turning enemies before they get off a turn. it makes the rest of the game a lot more straight forward. there are a few optional end game fights this wont quite be enough for, but if you really care to do everything just look up strategies then for those fights when these strats aren't enough.

    vampire class abilities that let you restore HP/TP also help too, but victor's TP restoration should be enough otherwise. longer fights you may want the vampire stuff though.

    Steam | Nintendo ID: Naphtali | Wish List
  • captainkcaptaink TexasRegistered User regular
    Diarmuid wrote: »
    captaink wrote: »
    Persona 4 Golden has a bunch of difficulty settings. The easiest one is really easy. Unfortunately, you can't change midgame.

    https://megamitensei.fandom.com/wiki/Difficulty#:~:text=In Persona 4 Golden, the,renamed Easy and Hard respectively.

    I'm playing the new PS4 version and it does allow you to change difficulty mid-game. Outside of dungeons anyway, I haven't checked if it's possible in dungeons yet.

    That's awesome. As per Persona usual, there's a LOT to do before the game really gets going, so being locked in to a difficulty from minute 1 was not great, whether too high or too low.

  • TofystedethTofystedeth Registered User regular
    edited January 2023
    Do the different agi buffs stack? I thought they just extended the duration of the existing one. I know for instance I ended up removing the passive poison etc from people because it was a weak poison and them getting hit by Robb's actual poison just extended the weak poison.

    Tofystedeth on
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  • CarpyCarpy Registered User regular
    I felt like that part was easily the worst area of the game. That trash is way overtuned and brutal, but the rest of the main game is easier.

    If you don't do any of the side quest stuff that just opened up then you have three areas left. The last two are mainly in Sky Armor so the fights go pretty quickly.

    And the
    mind diving sequence
    is longer than the first but didn't have much trash so it goes pretty quick.

  • CarpyCarpy Registered User regular
    edited January 2023
    Do the different agi buffs stack? I thought they just extended the duration of the existing one. I know for instance I ended up removing the passive poison etc from people because it was a weak poison and them getting hit by Robb's actual poison just extended the weak poison.

    Depends on the buff but a lot of them do, yeah. I main late game strategy was buffing the hell out of Siennas agi and then spamming Dragonfang which she can do pretty well with just her self buffs.

    Edit: you can also stack multiple passives that buff the same stat. Also the game doesn't make this clear but if you max a class passive you retain access to it even if you equip a different class emblem. Probably skills too but I never experimented with that.

    Carpy on
  • TofystedethTofystedeth Registered User regular
    My end game party was
    Glenn/Egyl
    Lenne/Micah
    Robb/Victor
    Sienna/Amalia

    Glenn for the single target debuff Atk and Def, as well as light/dark weapons for all, if appropriate
    Lenne with Angel of Tear to wreck enemies susceptible to magic. Micah for physical and AoE
    Robb spreading toxic and poison, swapping in Victor for the buffs
    Sienna for single target physical and bleed, Amalia for heals.

    Other than optional superboss, where I swapped out Glen for the lizard guy for his magic defense buff this worked for every fight.

    Had a couple bosses where I was like ooh I might have to retry this fight and then ended up winning a turn or two later.

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  • NaphtaliNaphtali Hazy + Flow SeaRegistered User regular
    edited January 2023
    as long as the buffs don't share the same name, they stack. while you can only get 50 AGI max on the character sheet from equipment/stats/passives, the in combat buffs exceed this cap and make you go silly. sienna + her agility scaling attack + buffs + one of leene's/glenn's elemental on-hit buffs... does silly things.

    edit: to be clear, you can stack passives (AGI+ if the character has it + another AGI+ from bandit class) but they patched the game after release to cap AGI at 50. it used to be even more broken

    Naphtali on
    Steam | Nintendo ID: Naphtali | Wish List
  • TofystedethTofystedeth Registered User regular
    Yeah I knew passives stack since those display in the character sheet. Interesting to learn about the in combat ones.

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  • NaphtaliNaphtali Hazy + Flow SeaRegistered User regular
    like you can go even more broken by using skills from the gems as they're effectively the same as passive skills, but you find/replace/upgrade equipment so quickly that system basically gets left in the dust and the dev has said they may completely revamp it at some point. I think at most at the end game, I put some damage bonuses on sienna's weapon since she was my primary carry (like a 10% katana damage buff gem) and that was basically it.

    Steam | Nintendo ID: Naphtali | Wish List
  • CarpyCarpy Registered User regular
    Yeah, the only gems worth thinking about are the weapon damage ones. I tried to keep one of each type and then upgraded it whenever I got a new weapon.

  • Raijin QuickfootRaijin Quickfoot I'm your Huckleberry YOU'RE NO DAISYRegistered User, ClubPA regular
    I need to get back to Chained Echoes…I just wish it would let me grind

  • rhylithrhylith Death Rabbits HoustonRegistered User regular
    I need to get back to Chained Echoes…I just wish it would let me grind

    Lack of grind doesn’t bug me but I agree since they tried to tune every fight for full resources it makes it to where you can’t go into that nice cruise control mode that jrpgs often allow. I will get back to the game for sure, but it isn’t as relaxing as I would like.

  • NaphtaliNaphtali Hazy + Flow SeaRegistered User regular
    edited January 2023
    you... absolutely can grind in chained echoes. basically once the game opens up to let you travel anywhere with the airship, you can return to almost any area, the enemies all respawn, and you can grind for points to level up skills/passives.

    you really don't need to do this to succeed in this game at all though.

    edit: I actually think the game's leveling/skills/encounters don't drain your HP/TP permanently aspects of design architecture are incredibly respectful of your time and effort

    editedit: you want cruise control for the game, try to pump agility/follow the team comps suggested above. it takes til about mid-game for the pieces to start coming together but it really makes most encounters rinse/repeat.

    Naphtali on
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  • EnigmedicEnigmedic Registered User regular
    I feel like all I really want in a game is basically ff7 battle square with multiple party members and you can unlock more abilities, spells, equipment, and there just be modifiers to the run. Basically a turn based, gladiator colosseum, rogue lite, boss rush.

  • MNC DoverMNC Dover Full-time Voice Actor Kirkland, WARegistered User regular
    Wait, class skills can stick? I put a class thing on each of the characters and never changed them up. Too late now.

    I’ve been avoiding all the side stuff, so if there’s not much left, maybe I’ll push through.

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  • Moth 13Moth 13 Registered User regular
    edited January 2023
    Finished Live a Live for switch and wow that game's real good. Highly impressed by the presentation. The art, voice acting, music, camera angles. It's my first HD-2D game and I was blown away. Of course, the bones of the game with all the different scenarios and the variety within were also great. Very experimental game even today and it was a treat to go through.

    Special shoutouts to the Megalomania beat drops. Always got me pumped up for the boss fights.

    Moth 13 on
  • TofystedethTofystedeth Registered User regular
    edited January 2023
    As far as grinding in Chained Echoes, when I was leveling skills I needed for the hidden boss, I used this spot in Orthane Grotto where there's a set of 5 bats. It's easily resettable since it's right by a doorway to a fast travel crystal, and a fairly easy fight by just spamming aoes.
    If you have both monk NPCs that give you bonus SP, you can get between like 6 and 19 per fight.

    For grinding money, in Shambala there's a unique monster bird that drops gold and sometimes platinum nuggets. And you can fight it in sky armor so the fight is super quick. Basically just teleport to crystal, fly straight to it, murder and repeat. Can kill it 2-3 times in a minute.

    Tofystedeth on
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  • TcheldorTcheldor Registered User regular
    Enigmedic wrote: »
    I feel like all I really want in a game is basically ff7 battle square with multiple party members and you can unlock more abilities, spells, equipment, and there just be modifiers to the run. Basically a turn based, gladiator colosseum, rogue lite, boss rush.

    You could check out Chorono Ark. It may scratch that exact itch.

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  • Andy JoeAndy Joe We claim the land for the highlord! The AdirondacksRegistered User regular
    edited January 2023
    Fire Emblem Engage Chapter 8

    It initially looks like the foes are going to come up the sides, but once they break the barriers they actually mostly try charging through the middle. Concentrated most of my forces there, with a couple units on each flank. Prioritized fliers on the sides as ballista targets because I didn't like being unable to predict who they'd go after.

    Drew Ivy into ballista range, which was basically tactical suicide on her part. I realized belatedly that you're probably intended to use Roy's Lancereaver on her because she equips a lance as an Emblem weapon, but I used his big fire AOE on a grunt just to see the animation.

    Andy Joe on
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  • JarsJars Registered User regular
    I do not like this quina, no sir

  • JarsJars Registered User regular
    man I totally thought freya was going to be a red mage. big fake out there

  • cj iwakuracj iwakura The Rhythm Regent Bears The Name FreedomRegistered User regular
    Jars wrote: »
    man I totally thought freya was going to be a red mage. big fake out there

    Don't you miss when FFs used to have character themes?
    (Or RPGs in general, really)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2rlLC4N9u4

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  • BahamutZEROBahamutZERO Registered User regular
    I mostly just miss Uematsu's work to be honest

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  • manwiththemachinegunmanwiththemachinegun METAL GEAR?! Registered User regular
    Having only played the Windows version of FF15, I'm enjoying the replay as much as the first.

    The plot is average, but the character interactions are superb.
    The action is a bit mashy, but fun, and if you don't like it you completely alter the combat mechanics by switching characters.
    Iris is the best waifu.
    The villain is your trolling Hamlet uncle.
    Your top priority is saving the world, and pimping your ride.
    You hunt a Behemoth to make the perfect cup of noodles.

    There is the standard JRPG quest thing going on, but most of the game you ignore all that and just have a big dumb adventure with the boys.

  • DragkoniasDragkonias That Guy Who Does Stuff You Know, There. Registered User regular
    The Royal Edition did a lot for the game...like it doesn't save it from the fact that it's obvious they ran out of time and like the entire midsection of the game is cut out but it at least makes it a bit more enjoyable.

    Also I legit enjoyed the ending run probably one of the better ones of a FF. Just that getting there is quite rough.

  • manwiththemachinegunmanwiththemachinegun METAL GEAR?! Registered User regular
    edited January 2023
    Yeah from like, the Leviathan fight onwards its all gas no brakes to the end of the story. There's like, 40 hours of side content you get access to in like, chapter 4? And that comprises about 80% of the length of the game.

    It's also, like, vital to play the DLC chapters in their respective chronological order alongside the main story. FF15 had a super weird and chopped up development... but I still can't help but like it.

    manwiththemachinegun on
  • ShadowfireShadowfire Vermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered User regular
    Warp Strike is a mechanic that is super cool as long as you don't put any thought into the physics of how it would actually work, and it made me love the game. Noctis is pretty great, Prompto is a good boy, Gladio is a great bro, and Ignis is rad as fuck. All the elements are there, the execution was bad, and it's frustrating, but I still love the game despite all that. They almost discovered a new recipeh.

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  • cj iwakuracj iwakura The Rhythm Regent Bears The Name FreedomRegistered User regular
    It's utterly maddening that we don't get to see Demon Slayer Iris in the last part of XV. Did they not want to ruin her pristine best girl image or something?

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  • KamarKamar Registered User regular
    I convinced my roommate to pick a picture of Iris like a weirdo for the humor of it

    not realizing how much funnier it would end up being later

This discussion has been closed.