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I replayed this game and Mission 1-4 annoyed the absolute hell out of me. No matter how many times I moved Vaan out of the way, he and all of his Espers kept getting killed instantly.
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Sep 1, 2013 19:44
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I played this game and a fatal error locked the game and hosed up my saved when I killed what I supposed was the last boss.
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Sep 1, 2013 19:50
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I remember this game and having a bit of fun with it and getting pretty close to the end before slamming into a brick wall that I just couldn't get past for some reason. Ever since then I've never really been motivated to pick it up again. Looking forward to seeing the rest of this. FYI Gilgamesh all the way.
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Sep 2, 2013 00:20
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I have a doctor's appointment later today, so i'll be ending the voting once I get home from that. Gilgamesh is pretty clearly in front by now, and I don't think that's going to change between now and then, but you never know.Fearless_Decoy posted:Joining the Gilgamesh bandwagon. Thanks. I'm still not sure where it stands compared to Revenant Wings, but it sounds pretty different. Hobgoblin2099 posted:I replayed this game and Mission 1-4 annoyed the absolute hell out of me. If all Vaan's Espers die, it's no big deal. The espers that spawn with him are pretty mundane in this fight, just focus on getting more Garchimacera out there. Maybe you should keep him in the corner and just do the battle with Filo and Kytes. Bring Vaan in at the end to pick off the Bangaa once they're at low health. SIGSEGV posted:I played this game and a fatal error locked the game and hosed up my saved when I killed what I supposed was the last boss. Never heard of that happening before. Sounds pretty painful. dijon du jour posted:I remember this game and having a bit of fun with it and getting pretty close to the end before slamming into a brick wall that I just couldn't get past for some reason. Ever since then I've never really been motivated to pick it up again. There's a couple of really bad brick walls in this game. I'll point out the levels that stumped me the longest when I get to them, just hoping I don't hit the brick walls the same way in this playthrough. 
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Sep 2, 2013 01:13
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Voting Gulgamish.
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Sep 2, 2013 01:18
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Since Balthier's ship is the Stahl, we'll make ours the Sully
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Sep 2, 2013 01:24
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The man called M posted:Since Balthier's ship is the Stahl, we'll make ours the Sully Strahl  And we shouldn't live in Balthier's shadow 
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Sep 2, 2013 04:39
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SSNeoman posted:Strahl Well, we wouldn't be living in his shadow. He'd have to start living in ours.
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Sep 2, 2013 05:26
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Alright guys, i'm going to cut off voting here and start working on the next update. Thanks for all the suggestions! 
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Sep 2, 2013 06:24
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And then your special rock turned on the ancient airship and off you went to a lost ancient sky kingdom! This game is turning out pretty darn Adventure Time-y, and I mean that in a good way.
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Sep 2, 2013 09:55
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Ba'Gamnon still has his chainsaw-staff, I see. I always liked that thing. I wonder if hoverboards are a thing now in Ivalice post-XII. I don't remember hover technology being in use beyond the airships. Regardless, I still love Ivalice and I especially loved the XII incarnation of it.
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Sep 2, 2013 10:40
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ok Amazing posted:If all Vaan's Espers die, it's no big deal. The espers that spawn with him are pretty mundane in this fight, just focus on getting more Garchimacera out there. Maybe you should keep him in the corner and just do the battle with Filo and Kytes. Bring Vaan in at the end to pick off the Bangaa once they're at low health. Oh, no no, I finished the game now. 100% in fact. I appreciate the advice, though.
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Sep 4, 2013 06:07
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FF12 Revenant Wings was such a cool little addition to the Ivalice world in my opinion. I've always been a big fan of JRPG characters having set roles, since it was another way their personalities could be defined. FF12 had a pretty interesting battle system, but I hated how the License Board basically turned all 6 characters into practical clones (IZJS goes a long way to relieving the clone syndrome, but the PCs themselves still aren't much different from eachother, but at least you can assign them different jobs). Revenant Wings feels like it finally explained what roles the PCs were supposed to play. Additionally, it has a pretty neat addition of having nearly every summonable monster in the entire series present. Plus some monsters and even some original summons, making it a veritable Pokedex of Espers. As a big fan of the summons throughout the series, this game just really felt like it played to a lot of my biases and I spent a lot of time with it. I even picked up the Japanese guidebook for it while I was living over there and spent some time translating its mechanics formulae and charts for Japanese practice. If any of that sounds interesting/useful to our LPer, they are welcome to the spreadsheet of numbers and formulae if they want to integrate some of it into the thread. (I would message them to you, but it seems you don't have messages enabled.)
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Sep 5, 2013 06:35
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Hey guys, i've got a sprained wrist, and it's my dominant hand, so I haven't been able to update. Telling the internet wasn't a priority, but I'm feeling a bit better, came to check SA, it'll still be a day or two until i'm healed enough to continue work on the update (I have the gameplay footage recorded) but I can reply to people in the thread for now.Speedball posted:Ba'Gamnon still has his chainsaw-staff, I see. I always liked that thing. Fran rides a hoverbike in FFXII, the first time you see her. That's the only other non-airship hoverthing I can think of though. DjinnAndTonic posted:FF12 Revenant Wings was such a cool little addition to the Ivalice world in my opinion. I've always been a big fan of JRPG characters having set roles, since it was another way their personalities could be defined. FF12 had a pretty interesting battle system, but I hated how the License Board basically turned all 6 characters into practical clones (IZJS goes a long way to relieving the clone syndrome, but the PCs themselves still aren't much different from eachother, but at least you can assign them different jobs). I feel FFXII still let characters have a lot of personality, while working within roles players chose for them. Every character uses same weapons differently, and carries themselves in their own way. But it changes how you see a character's personality by what role you give them, it can't be helped. Fixed classes mean the characters are read in similar ways by everyone who plays, and it means you have to swap out who to use strategically, I prefer the fixed classes too. The guidebook stuff sounds super cool! I just didn't think to turn messages on, but i've gone and changed that now. Feel free to message me! ok Amazing fucked around with this message at 10:48 on Sep 6, 2013 |
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Sep 5, 2013 11:22
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Since we're playing a lackluster spinoff sequel, I say we call our airship Celsius.
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Sep 6, 2013 19:09
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The first thing I did with the information DjinnAndTonic gave me, I made a chart of the rock-paper-scissors melee-flying-ranged matchup! And added it to the second update, but i'll post it here too in case you don't want to go back for it.quote:
I'll explain the difference flying makes in the upcoming update, which i'm going to get to work on. People who've played Final Fantasy Tactics Advance or A2 might be able to guess what difference it makes though.
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Sep 7, 2013 02:58
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-nevermind-
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Sep 7, 2013 03:19
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I named the ship 'SideStory' in my game, I thought I was being snarky. I won't go into detail why just yet (not for several chapters really), but I have to say that Kytes & Tomaj are my favorite characters in the game.
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Sep 7, 2013 03:58
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Update #5: The Winged Galbana lilies are based on a real-world flower, and are what the Airship is named after. More importantly, they are the favorite flowers of Vaan's dead brother Reks. (Reks appears in the tutorial of FFXII, set 2 years before the events of that game. He dies in a dramatic fashion, which in turn gives some drama to the backstories of Vaan and other characters) It's cute to know Vaan's still thinking of his brother, although the detail gets lost easily because who remembers a minor character's favorite flower? Anyway, here's what they look like:  drat it i'm always getting those two mixed up. Soundtrack: Vaan's Theme (The Mosphoran Highwaste)   "It's perfect!"  "Aye-aye!" "Aye-aye!"  - Many of the places you'll visit, such as the airship's bridge, are filled with characters you can interact with. Some will give advice on where to go next, while others offer useful items and equipment for sale. - Soundtrack: Airship 1 (Near the Water)  When you're close enough to strike up a friendly conversation with someone, they get a cute little speech bubble over their head.   "You remember what Balthier said when we found the Cache of Glabados?" "Something about it having a connection with the eternal, right?" "You don't think the Cache has something to do with this airship, do you? That it brought us here?" "It just may have, Kytes. But what's it all mean?" "Whatever the answer is, I bet it's waiting for us on that island!"Talking to a character twice can prompt a different conversation. I'll transcribe these as one long conversation and won't point it out in the future.  Minor FFXII reference: Migelo is a Bangaa who runs an items shop in Rabanastre. He served as a paternal figure to Vaan and Penalo. "I just hope we get back to Rabanastre in one piece." "Take it easy, Penelo. I'm here. What could possibly go wrong?"  "Ya got me. But she seems to have accepted us as her crew. Guess we'll just have to see what happens."" What kind of monsters do you think we'll run into out here? Are we gonna be okay?" "Don't worry. It's just like hunting dire rats back home. Those never gave us too much trouble." "It's a long way down. If you don't start behaving, we can always show you the door." "Ngraah!"  "Think of the treasures we'll find. Not to mention a healthy supply of raw materials." "Yeah, so?" "You're not looking at the big picture, Vaan. We can use those materials to make new equipment, new weapons... all sorts of things. Those raw materials are treasures in their own right." "Whatever you say." "Well, just gather up what you find and bring 'em to me. I'll put 'em to good use." "Say Tomaj. I've been meanin' to ask you... Uh, why exactly are you here?" "That's a fine thing to say! I thought you'd be grateful for me help. Well, you will be soon enough!" Alright, let's not get ahead of ourselves. With all the optional conversations done here, all we have left to do it talk to Filo and advance the plot.  "You think anything's wrong with it?" "Maybe you should try using the Cache. It seemed to work before." "Aye-aye! Just let me know when you're ready to get under way!"  The control panel changes from blue to green, and the airship shudders to life! Soundtrack: World Map (Cerobi Steppe)  - Touch the screen in the direction you wish to move. The sirship can land at locations designated with a land icon. Approach named locations to enter them. Important locations containing missions that advance the story are marked with a flag. -  The world map is up on the top screen.  The large island to the East is called the The Muruc Cahuac Skysea, and lives up to its name by being almost entirely covered in a brilliant blue lake.  To the north, is an island covered in greenery and framed in a jagged mountain ridge, the centerpiece of which being a mountain surrounded by a moat of air. Arda, Heaven's Pillar is the name of this island.  Tormelados, Isle of the Megalith, looks like grassy ribbons covered in large crystal structures. It is on the west of our world map.  We'll be exploring those as the game progresses, but right now, we can only land on the island in the south; Zephyr, the Windward Isles. So let's go there. Soundtrack: Vaan's Theme (The Mosphoran Highwaste)  "Aye-aye!" "Am I the only one having second thoughts?" "Thanks, Tomaj." "Just one thing before we go. I want each of you to promise you'll do something for me."Soundtrack: Penelo's Theme "What kind of promise?" "Being a sky pirate isn't all thrill and adventure, you know." "It's not?" "Not exactly." "If you know the answer already, why won't you just tell us?" "It's the kinda thing you have to figure out for yourself." "Well, I guess a little hint couldn't hurt. Part of being a sky pirate is hunting for treasure." "Hunting for treasure? That's it?" "It's a start."  "We can all write down our ideas in a log as we go along." "Um... no?" "I never even wanted to be a sky pirate." "Then we're agreed. Everyone will keep a log until we get back to Rabanastre." "Right. (Who put her in charge?)" "Yes ma'am. (What a waste of time!)" "What!? All right, all right. If Penelo's finished, then... let's go!"   If you return to the airship after Penelo's talk, there's some new dialouge.   Filo is right. Let's get to it!   Soundtrack: Field 1 - Battle 1 (Giza Plains)   "I didn't think we'd find our first treasure so soon!" "Hmm. Might as well take it, just in case." "If we found something this soon, just think how much treasure must be waiting out there!"      "Is he even a... a hume?" "Let's save him first, ask questions later!" - Objective: Save the wounded warrior! At least one ally must survive. -     Pretty simple, move all your units in and attack!      "Maybe all the people here have wings." "Over there!" - Move one of your group leaders to a Foraging Point and eat the berries growing there to recover HP. - On the top screen map, berries are represented as, well, red berries.  "Here, let me help you over there."  "I am well now, thank you."  "We're sky pirates, but don't let that give you the wrong idea." "What is this place? We came here by accident, and we don't really know where we are." "This is Lemurés. It is the land of my people, the aegyl."   "My companion." "She's in trouble!" "..." - Objective: Save Llyud's companion! At least one ally must survive. -  Now a tab for Llyud has been added. In many ways this battle is easier than the last. Berries are ample, and Penelo is here to heal you. Also, the battle only ends if everyone dies, so you don't have to babysit one unit.  - You can gather minerals and other useful resources by moving a group leader to one of the material nodes found throughout the map. Resources take time to gather, so make sure the area is clear before starting. -  I mentioned in an earlier update that Flying units interact differently with Ranged units, to balance out that they can fly. Well, this is the difference being able to fly makes. Flying units can go over empty sky, water, and other roadblocks Melee and Ranged units would be stopped by. They can take advantage of this as a shortcut, and become very mobile. And maybe a bit overpowered, without a strong weakness to Ranged units.  Penelo and Llyud both have abilities that you could set as their gambits now. Penelo's is Curaga, which provides area healing, by a noticeable amount.  Llyud's is Jump, in which he... well, he jumps into the air, and comes down on a foe. He can jump at foes which are outside the range of his regular attack, meaning he can use it to get the first strike.  These bones are a Material node. The green bars indicate how you're progressing in scavenging, when one fills, you get one material. Materials you get are displayed on the top screen, under the combat log. You can get a few materials out of each node.  To the north-west is another treasure chest. Treasure chests and Material Nodes share an icon on the field map, a yellow sack, so you'll have to pan the camera around to see what is what. Chests contain equipment upgrades generally, but sometimes other cool things. Not many, but a few chest items are missable. So grab every chest to avoid missing out!  There's no time limit to finish this mission, despite what the mission goal implies. It won't take you long anyway, but feel free to relax and explore a while if you want.    After showing you how much exp you get, the game will show you what items you got. Just showing it off.   "Yeah, but what was that all about, anyway? Who was attacking you?" "Sky pirates." "Sky pirates!?"Soundtrack: Suspicion (Auditory Hallucination)  "It is they who drive the Yarhi to their frenzy - sky pirates such as you."The camera pans across the Bosco Pampa.  "Behind this barrier we aegyl had dwelt here in peace for any thousands of years. But no longer." "Let him finish, Vaan!" "Not long ago, there came a great rush of Mist from the world below. This Mist breached the barrier. Our isolation was lost." "You don't think that could be--" "--the explosion of the Suncryst? Who'd have thought it could reach so far away?" "Now our very way of life is in jeopardy." "Tell ya what. Why don't we help you get rid of these sky pirates who are causin' all the trouble?" Soundtrack: Vaan's Theme (The Mosphoran Highwaste) "Not all of us sky pirates are bad, honest!" "We're not all that different from you. When we get into trouble, we help each other out."  "Then just show us where these troublemakers are, and we can get down to business." "They've set up camp in a temple not far from here. Come, I will show you." "That wasn't so hard, was it?" The Sun-Cryst exploding is something that happened in FFXII, and the fact it reveals this sky continent could be considered a ret-con. It's an event that happens late in FFXII, and brings a lot of other plot threads and events to a head, so a summary outside of what the game just told you would be filled with spoilers, tricky to write, and not really needed to understand what's happening here. So next time: We beat up some other sky pirates for a guy we just met! ok Amazing fucked around with this message at 10:27 on Sep 7, 2013 |
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Sep 7, 2013 10:25
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So is there a unique piece of music in the game? Also they are ripping FFT game sprites whole sale arent they?
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Sep 7, 2013 11:55
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Llyud's Jump is amazing because you can use it as a long-distance lure - not only that, many AI opponents will throw out their best abilities the first chance they get, so if Llyud is lucky, they'll throw them in thin air as he jumps back. I can't wait to start tactics splerging eventually. Micromanaging and maximizing use of Kytes and Filo is pretty satisfying.
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Sep 7, 2013 14:41
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Rigged Death Trap posted:So is there a unique piece of music in the game? Pretty sure there is no unique music in this game. But they're not ripping off FFT sprites wholesale. FFT's aesthetics are comparable to Revenant Wings, as both games use 2D sprites, 3D environments, and share the setting of Ivalice. But in FFT the sprites are taller, and use a more muted palette. To illustrate the difference:  A lot of generic monsters resemble those from FFT, Advance, and A2, but they have been re-drawn to match this game's style. Ivalice games have all shared a lot of enemy types and such anyways, so it's not a big deal.
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Sep 8, 2013 01:44
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FFXII seemed like a game with a lot of cascading changes throughout the world we never really got to see because of the narrow character focus. So having something like this just pop up makes a lot of sense.
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Sep 8, 2013 05:31
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Rigged Death Trap posted:So is there a unique piece of music in the game? There's at least one for certain.
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Sep 8, 2013 17:45
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Update #6 Auracite and the Yarhi - You can return to the airship at any time to outfit your party or talk to your companions. Revisit cleared areas to engage in melee battles and hone your skills. Visit areas with mission flags to advance the story. - You know, we should return to the airship now, because we now have access to...  ...the Ship's Log! Soundtrack: Airship 1 (Near the Water)  It's mostly just a big book of flavour text. Four flavours of text, in fact!   The Mission List is a summary of all the missions we've done thusfar. We can also discover there are a total of 81 in the game. Neat!  The Recipe Library is where we can view the contents of that book we got last mission. At a glance, this looks like an item crafting system, so I guess it would be ok for me to come out and say it's for an item crafting system that will be unlocked a bit further into the game. As usual, you'll get the specifics when it comes up. But it looks like there's a new item in there for everyone!  The Folio features worldbuilding words, about characters, locations, and terminology. All the entries in the folio have a purely informative "History" tab. Then, the "Lore" tab which gives information from the point of view of a character in the world, and features trivia mostly.  The Logbook is the diary everyone agreed to keep in the first mission of Chapter 2. This is entirely lighthearted bonus character building stuff. It's cute, funny, and helps you get to know the cast. Folio The Sky Continent of Lemurés
The Aegyl
Vaan
Penelo
Kytes
Filo
Tomaj
Llyud
Logbook First!
First Encounter
No Manners
From now on, at the start of each update, i'll post the new Folio and Ship's Log entries. There's usually not this many new entries, so no more big chucks of reading like this from here on out. Now lets see what everyone on the airship has to say, before heading on to our next mission.   "Don't forget to make one yourself, or you'll never hear the end of it from Penelo. So... is this all there is to being a sky pirate?" "Only now with the barrier down, sky pirates are havin' a field day up here." "Sounds about right." "So how'd this barrier get here in the first place?" "I don't know, but there's not much use worryin' about it now." "Fly first, ask questions later. Words for a sky pirate to live by!" "Why?" "Well, yeah. I mean, we never expected to find anybody out here." "Here we are born, and here we live and die. There is no 'why' to it." "Yeah, I guess. So now that the barrier's down, do you think you'll ever visit Ivalice?" "The world beyond Lemurés holds no interest for the aegyl." "That answers that." "What!?" "We're gonna give back the treasure?" "Of course we are, don't be silly. It belongs to the aegyl -- why shouldn't we give it back?" "The contents of those chests are aegyl offerings made to the gods to keep Lemurés safe. If we use these treasures to defend my land, surely no aegyl could voice complaint." "Sounds like we've got a license to plunder!" "You're incorrigible, Filo." "Ah, right, you missed all the excitement. Long story short, this place is getting overrun by sky pirates. We offered to lend a hand, help clean up the place." "That doesn't exactly answer my question..." "I'm sure you'll be up to speed in no time. Maybe you can even help us hunt down some of these sky pirates." "No time. My hands are full running the Good Ship Tomaj." "It's the Gilgamesh!"  - Auracite and the Yarhi. Clan Gilgamesh springs into action to rescue the aegyl Llyud. But they're in for a fight -- the sky pirates invading Lemures have arrived in force. - Soundtrack: Field 2 - Battle 2(State of Urgency) The Battle part of the song is playing during the intro cutscene.   "Ah, you must mean the Yahri that accompany them." "Well, whatever you call 'em, where do they come from?" "The power of the auracite gives them form."    : "It is clear they seek the auracite."   - Objective: Defeat all enemy leaders! At least one ally must survive. -   "Yeah, I think we've got those gates figured out."  The field is fairly straightfoward, with material nodes right at the start! As suggested by the last cutscene, taking control of the summoning gate, while collecting the treasures here at the start, is first off.   Beyond the archway is our first foe. Once finished up in the starting area, just send everyone in.  Once an enemy party leader dies, their dazed body remains on the field. Unlike the Espers, who just vanish. The same is true of your own party members.  There is material node in the east corner here, don't forget to grab it before you fight the next guy!   Capturing the summoning gate here means summons won't have to walk all the way from the other summoning gate outside to get to here. It also means your opponents won't be able to use it! Even if you don't think you need a summoning gate, you should capture it, just so the enemy can't use it!   All the generic enemy NPC party leaders in this fight share the designs of character classes from Tactics Advance and A2. And we haven't seen the last of these designs either!   I didn't bother capturing this summoning gate here, the fight was almost over anyways. Once the last leader is dead, and our victory condition filled, anything else of our opponent's left on the field dies.   Llyud becomes my first party member with more than one ability! Soundtrack: World Map (Cerobi Steppe)     "It is said the Yarhi are the sword given us by the Eternal when He forged this land. Using auracite, we call them from the realm of illusion to do as we bid." "I bet that the treasure you found, the Cache of Glabados, must be a piece of auracite!" "Auracite, yes. Yet I sense an even greater power in this Stone."  "I think it's another piece of auracite." "It is. You can use these stones to forge new packs with the Yarhi. Take this. It is what we call a Ring of Pacts. With it you will be able to summon new Yarhi to your aid." - You obtain the Ring of Pacts! The following selections are now available on the World Map Menu: Ring of Pacts, Espers -   Before finishing up this update, let's look at our new goodies!  Here's our menu! The Primer is where tutorials are, I won't be showing it off. As for the rest of the non-self-explanatory stuff...  Soundtrack: Vaan's Theme (The Mosphoran Highwaste) Different screens of the menu play different music. Most menus will play this tune, with the Ring of Pacts menu being the exception. Not a new goodie: The equipment menu! Stats! Items! Weapons and Armour boost stats, and add elemental properties to characters. Accessories add buffs, protection against debuffs, and other special effects. Since accessories offer these rather than outright stat boosts, picking the right accessories for the job is interesting.  Soundtrack: Genjyunomori (Eruyt Village) - Use the Ring of Pacts to forge pacts with new Espers and enlist them to your cause. To enlist an Esper, first touch on of the glowing yellow nodes on the Ring. Each node represents an Esper. Once you've selected an Esper, touch Enlist to forge a pact with that Esper. Forging pacts requires auracite. You can rotate the Ring by touching the slide wheel found along its edge. Remember that you must add any new Espers you've enlisted to an Esper Troupe before you'll be able to summon them during battle. -  We can unlock a few lv1 espers right now. Some are Final Fantasy mainstays, like cactuars and bombs, but there's some more out there ones too. At this stage, it's best to unlock espers as you need them, so take a look at what espers your next foes are wielding before spending Auracite willy-nilly. Auracite is in surplus, there will be more than enough Auracite to unlock everything on the Ring of Pacts, but it's uncommon enough to tread with caution for now!  White Hares provide healing though, that's always handy, so I went right ahead and made a pact with them! There's a bit more to the Ring of Pacts, but for now, let's take a look at Esper Troupes.  - To summon Espers during battle, you must first assign them to a troupe. You can create up to three Esper troupes. Touch Modify to adjust the composition of a troupe. To enlist new Espers, touch Pacts to view the Ring of Pacts. When you've finished assigning Espers to a troupe, touch back. -  - You can assign up to five Espers to a troupe. However, an Esper cannot be of a higher rank than that indicated on its slot. - All our slots and espers are Rank I. You get higher ranking slots as you get the higher ranking espers.   Looking good. We'll test our new troupe in battle next time! ok Amazing fucked around with this message at 23:38 on Sep 10, 2013 |
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Sep 10, 2013 11:16
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I love how the White Hares are literally wearing White Mage robes. I keep hoping there are going to be Black Hares with glowing yellow eyes under a floppy brimmed hat.
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Sep 11, 2013 00:56
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Since we've met the five characters we'll be controlling for a very long time, here's a (somewhat rough) breakdown of how they all are: Vaan Medium HP and Strength, ridiculous Speed. Will likely be the fastest unit on the field at any given time. Learns mostly single-target abilities to debuff enemies and buff himself. Being the only Melee leader for the longest time in the game, Vaan will be a mainstay for most of it, and his speed is great when you need to get somewhere fast. Vaan's techniques are also useful on bosses, and a good micromanagement setup will allow him to become a walking thief of self-buffing, which if backed up by Penelo can go a while. Late game he becomes an attacking machine, slicing so rapidly his only problem is having to switch targets. On the flipside, Vaan is pretty fragile and due to his speed, can end up ahead of the group and dying quickly. Flying units will rip him to shreds pretty quickly and most Bosses will do so similarly. I pretty much leave him out of the way once I get another Melee ally. Penelo High Mind, above average Magic, low HP and Strength (the latter doesn't matter.) Specializes in area of effect healing, curing and offensive buffing spells, with only a single offensive and self-defense ability. Will also be pretty much the slowest unit on the field at any given time. Penelo's a bit of a one-trick pony, but she does so ridiculously well. No other ally in the game heals as well, and even when you do get access to other characters that can heal, Penelo being able to start out with two healing units is a massive boon and saves a bit of time. Great Mind means she also takes less damage from magical attacks, and her powerful offensive buffs can greatly augment a group of units. As one might expect though, Penelo dies pretty quickly, though usually staying in the back is enough to keep her safe unless you get surprised from the back (expect that to happen often.) She can also be quite an offensive momentum killer, so if you need to kill things fast, Penelo can be a bad choice regardless of her buffs especially considering her slow movement speed. Kytes High Magic, above average Mind, low HP and Strength. Specializes in area of effect damaging spells. Slowish movement and attack speed. Kytes rips enemies' guts out, very very hard. He has the highest Magic stat among the leaders, and learns every elemental spell, allowing the player to always adjust his gambit once he learns them to hit the most common enemy type. The best part of Kytes is that with just a little micromanagement, one can chainfire multiple attack spells in a row, causing whatever is in the area to explode violently under mage death. Even most Melee units crumble. Kytes pretty much annihilates most groups of enemies, especially Flying units. As one might expect, Kytes dies pretty quickly if focus fired, but he has less of a problem about that as compared to Penelo. Really arguably the character with the best damage, if he has a bunch of meatshields in front of him. Filo Fast Speed, balanced Attack and Magic, below average HP. Focuses on area of effect damage and debuffs and buffs to support her own group. Uses a hoverboard, which in the grand scheme of things is not the most ridiculous weapon in the FF franchise.. Filo is... interesting. On one hand, Filo dies really, really quickly. She's almost as fast as Vaan, can fly so isn't limited by terrain, and since she's weak to Ranged units they will rip her apart. Expect to spend many maps with her face on the ground. On the other hand, while Filo needs a lot of micromanagement to be effective, she can be absolutely ridiculous in the right hands. Like Kytes, Filo can set up barrages of area of effect assaults, causing groups of Melee enemies to drop to their knees and those that survive to be easily debuffed. Filo also has amazing support abilities for her own group, including perhaps one of the most broken abilities in the game. She requires a lot of work if you don't want her to be dead weight, but if you're willing to put in the time, she's pretty amazing when she's not, y'know, taking damage. Llyud High HP and Strength, above average Stamina, nothing else important is really too low. Has an assortment of different abilities, but generally employs Dark Knight-like abilities that reduce his HP for various effects. Looks older in his portrait but surprisingly anime protaganist young in cutscenes. The tank of the group for a while, Llyud is the pick if you want a Flying ally that doesn't crumble like wet paper (see: Filo). He isn't as effective as killing, though Jump is more than adequate for damage and the best lure in the game, but overall he's quite sturdy. Llyud is a pretty good character, he can consume health for different effects, the most useful of which is to revive fallen leaders, and by keeping his health topped up he works really well, and he does learn a draining ability later on. There isn't that much to say about him, easy to fire-and-forget and overall a good character.
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Sep 11, 2013 01:55
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Nice writeups on the Leader PCs. Do you have any analyses on the Espers too?
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Sep 11, 2013 07:20
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Oh, interesting. Every party member gets their own deck of espers they can summon at the gates? So basically instead of skill development you're mixing and matching the Esper selection.
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Sep 11, 2013 09:44
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Glazius posted:Oh, interesting. Every party member gets their own deck of espers they can summon at the gates? So basically instead of skill development you're mixing and matching the Esper selection. Not really - every character is bound to the same deck, the three decks are just there for easy access in case you want to switch to a particular set in between battles quickly, like Paradigm Packs or Gambits. And I'd be happy to do write-ups for Espers if it's not a big issue that I spoil them (aside from those who are locked off at the beginning). The level 1 Espers are pretty boring, though.
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Sep 11, 2013 09:48
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ApplesandOranges posted:Since we've met the five characters we'll be controlling for a very long time, here's a (somewhat rough) breakdown of how they all are: That's a really nice write up! I've been struggling to find a way to get that info out efficiently and accessability, and you just nailed it! Mind if I link it in the opening post? As for espers, doing a write-up of those would be so super-duper cool of you, it's not really a big deal as long as you stay away from the ones locked off for now. Especially if you're just doing the level 1 Espers, go right ahead. Glazius posted:Oh, interesting. Every party member gets their own deck of espers they can summon at the gates? So basically instead of skill development you're mixing and matching the Esper selection. Troupes basically allow you to save three favorite collections of Espers, and you pick only one to use at the beginning of battle. If anyone is confused about any systems in the game so far, just ask, so I can address them in the next update. I'll add this info clarifying how Esper Troupes work, since we'll be seeing them and the Ring of Pacts actually in use then. DjinnAndTonic posted:I love how the White Hares are literally wearing White Mage robes.  5 minute sprite edit in Paint, anyone?
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Sep 12, 2013 02:03
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 That's adorable. Now just make a Red Hare, and then we'll throw them together in an avatar.
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Sep 12, 2013 08:30
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Update #7: Reinforcements New Folio entry: Zephyr, the Windward Isles
New Logbook entries: Bored
Eureka!
Soundtrack: Airship 1 (Near the Water)  "That's what Balthier said, right?" "And if the Cache is really a piece of auracite, then that legend must have something to do with Lemurés." "Hm... Do you think Balthier knew about Lemurés all along?"  "The Yarhi." "The Yarhi are the sword of the Eternal. They live in the World of Illusion." "But we can summon them here using the auracite, right?" "Exactly. Sort of like Espers." "And the Eternal taught the aegyl how to summon the Yarhi so they could defend themselves." "Yeah, that's what it seems like. Was there anything else you wanted to talk about?"The choice menu appears again. "Auracite." "Auracite is a powerful type of stone that we can use to summon Yarhi. If we gather enough auracite, we can use it to forge pacts to summon new Yarhi." "That's what the Ring of Pacts that Llyud gave us is for." "Yup." "Since I used the Cache of Glabados to summon Yarhi, that means it must be a piece of auracite, too." "I thought I hear Llyud say it was different somehow, but it must at least be something close. Was there anything else you wanted to talk about?" "Maybe some other time." "Okay. Just let me know if you need a reminder."  "But i'm working on something to remedy that." "Oh yeah? Let's hear it." "I think i'll save it for a surprise. Just leave the running of the ship to me. Compared to managing the Sandsea, this'll be a breeze." "Holy laws?" "If you attempt to call a Yarhi that is beyond your ability to control, you will be destroyed." "Harsh law. I guess it pays not to get in over your head." "In this, as in all things. We aegyl have had growing difficulty in controlling the Yarhi. It puzzles me that these sky pirates from the underworld should command them with such ease." "The World of Illusion is everywhere, and it is nowhere." "I don't think I understand." "It is not a place within our world, but another world parallel to our own. The portals between our world and theirs are what we call summoning gates." "So the auracite Vaan has -- the Cache -- is that a portal to their world too?" "That's right. I used this to summon Yarhi all by itself." "Though it is possible to summon the Yarhi using auracite alone, there are limits to the Stones' power. Summoning gates are a far more effective means of summoning great numbers of Yarhi." "If the Yarhi are from this 'realm of illusion', then that must mean they're some sort of illusion, too." "I took a look at it, and there sure are a lot of different Yarhi to choose from. How're you gonna decide?" "I dunno, Filo. Which ones do you think would be good to have?" "That's easy! The big, strong, scary ones!" "Naturally. So, you enjoying all this excitement?" "Are you kidding? This is the best adventure ever! We're finally honest-to-goodness sky pirates!" "Yeah, pretty fun, isn't it?" "Do you think we can make pacts with all the Yarhi on the Ring?" Our destination is the Fane of Gucuma Qul, again. Let's go deeper in! Soundtrack: Dungeon 1 Field - Dungeon 1 Battle       - Only group leaders can activate switches. Don't send an Esper to do a leader's job. -   "Then that's where we'll find the leader of these sky pirates." Soundtrack: Vaan's Theme (The Mosphoran Highwaste) - This is the Battle Party Screen. You can assign group leaders and modify Esper troupes from this screen. Touch enemies with the style to assess their strengths and weaknesses, then assemble your battle party accordingly."  Before every battle, we'll now get to see this screen. This screen lets you plan ahead, do any setup, and save before battle. You can also see some important details, like if the mission contains summoning gates or not, on the top screen. One thing this screen can't tell you is in what proportions foes appear, which is actually an issue in some fights. Not in this one, though. Our foes mostly have no elemental advantages, but they do have two Espers with elemental weaknesses.   So I unlock two Espers on the Ring of Pacts to counter this. An Esper's nature is the type of attack it uses. It's weaknesses and resistances are fairly self-explanatory. Not all espers with the same nature have the same weaknesses and resistances. I find differences in Type usually make a bigger difference than natures, but having an advantage in as many forms as possible couldn't hurt. Aquarius won't prove too helpful, as you'll see.  Now we can select our new Troupe to use in battle. Troupes allow you to save and pick a favorite team, and you can switch between them between battles. With the setup all done, let's begin combat!    Soundtrack: Dungeon 1 Field - Dungeon 1 Battle The initial Espers at the beginning of battle are summoned to leaders that share their type. We have two flying leaders, and two flying Espers, so they get 1 of each flying Esper.  The Ramih are the reason I unlocked Aquarius, but you may be able to see, they're an even match. They're both flying type, and they're both weak to each other. Lots of Enemies in this fight resist confuse, which is not a factor in anyway. I left the map in this screenshot to show it off.  An Aquarius proves to be the first casualty of the fight. Because there are no summoning gates here, keeping your Espers alive should be on your mind. Moreso than it should in a course with gates, that is.   The first enemy leader is to the west, up a set of stairs. The espers flanking him are weak to Earth, so Kytes and his cactuars provide good support.   Zoom! All the enemy leaders in this battle run off after they've been defeated.  The road through is linier, and made even more so by the switches. The switches are just something new to do mostly, they don't change the feel of battle much.  The foraging points are floating blue glossy fruits.  After opening some chests, enemy Espers will spawn behind you. They're so easy to defeat, they're not even a disincentive to open a chest.   This guy up here has some White Rabbits to back him up, so...  ...So they're not doing anything.  So they didn't do anything! Doesn't matter. There's a switch behind them, but White Rabbits can't attack, so you don't need to murder them even. I mean, I did murder them, but I didn't have to.  It's at this stage I realized I missed a chest right at the start of this course. I left in the map so you could all revel in my forgetfulness. Look at it, all the way back there.   Yeah I went back for the treasure chest.  Nothing great in it either. Ah well.  Now, after that detour, it's time to go through the last door!      Soundtrack: Boss Battle 1 (Slash of the Sword)  All our Espers have vanished, so I guess it's up to the party leaders to defeat this guy!   Vaan's been knocked out! And this Esper is getting me good! Those other sky pirates have a reason to celebrate, looks like.  Soundtrack: A Scheme (Little Villain)           "See for yourself."Soundtrack: Boss Battle 1 (Slash of the Sword)  "Aye, enjoy the spectacle while you can. The worm will turn!" "Did you see that!?" "Ba'Gamnan's obeying you?" "I call it Ba'Gamnan's Bane. Just a little something I threw together. I suppose you could say Ba'Gamnan works for me, now. Go easy on 'im." "Me neither, but i'll take all the help we can get." Llyud's Revive ability can bring Vaan to his feet again. Revive drains 25% of Llyud's Max HP, but usually (and definitely in this situation) the advantage of fully restoring the HP of a fallen ally is worth it. Our enemy retains the damage we did to him, and with Ba'Gamnan on our side, victory is close!  Soundtrack: A Scheme (Little Villain)   "What are we going to do with him, Vaan?" "We use Espers to fight for us. Why not him?" "Do you think we can trust him?" Soundtrack: Battle 1 (Giza Plains) "Brave words, boy. If it weren't for this blasted muzzle, i'd carve my name in your bones!" "That's just the fear talking. You can dish it, but you can't take it." "Muzzle or no, let's have at it, boy!" Before closing up the update, its (finally) time for a spiel on where Ba'Gamnan was in FFXII!  Ba'Gamnan is a returning character from FFXII. Like Filo and Kytes, he appears early, and fades into the background, except for a late-game optional sidequest. Ba'Gamnan is far more memorable though, as he's a minor antagonist. Ba'Gamnan sees Balthier as his nemesis, and attempts to lure him into a trap by kidnapping Penelo ( ). Initially, it works, in that it lures Balthier. But Ba'Gamnan's plan fails, as the party engages him in battle. Or runs away, you can choose to run or fight, and running away will still advance the plot. His siblings fight alongside him in this battle. There's a bit more too it, but that's enough to give you the jist of Ba'Gamnan's role. In the optional sidequest involving Ba'Gamnan, he posts up a bill hoping to lure Balthier, and you defeat him for good. Except you don't, or he wouldn't be here now!On a side not, Ba'Gamnan's weapon is called the Ba'Gangsaw. That's a pretty cool name! Anyways, if switches weren't a cool enough gameplay mechanic for you, we've got something else special waiting next time! (I'm not joking, the upcoming gameplay mechanic is really nifty.) We'll also get to use Ba'Gamnan in battle. ok Amazing fucked around with this message at 10:51 on Sep 13, 2013 |
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Sep 12, 2013 12:19
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I never noticed this before. I wonder if that was a Mateus reference or just an accidentally similar battlecry.
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Sep 12, 2013 12:37
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Yeah, you can link to my ramblings if you want. I'll probably talk about the level 1 Espers tomorrow and decide where to go on from there. I wasn't sure if listing the abilities the characters learn'd be a no-no, but if that's fine with you I can ramble about them too. Ba'Gamnan's has some interesting abilities, but really you'd use him because playable Bangaa, man. Also you need to show Penelo's art at some point because it's apparently fanservice.
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Sep 12, 2013 15:38
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Yay we got Bowser.
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Sep 12, 2013 18:16
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Rigged Death Trap posted:Yay we got Bowser. Ha! Yeah, pretty much. A giant ring chainsaw is about on par with a big spiky shell and fire breath in the coolly evil department. Does he have special moves that throw it around?
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Sep 12, 2013 22:42
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I'd be afraid of spending time leveling him because he's a shoe-in for getting free and betraying you later. But I don't know how this game handles "leveling" insofar as whether you can waste your time doing it, or if everyone just levels equally.
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Sep 12, 2013 23:48
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Schwartzcough posted:I'd be afraid of spending time leveling him because he's a shoe-in for getting free and betraying you later. But I don't know how this game handles "leveling" insofar as whether you can waste your time doing it, or if everyone just levels equally. The map gives a fixed amount of experience - any leaders who don't take part also gets experience, but less - I can't remember the percentages, but it might be about a quarter to half of the original amount. Ba'gamnan is basically a mix of Warrior and FFXI Dark Knight - he picks up skills like Berserk, Souleater and Drain. Plus he learns an ability called Ba'syphon, and has an amazing victory animation. He also learns Bad Breath, so take that how you please.
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Sep 13, 2013 00:13
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ApplesandOranges posted:Yeah, you can link to my ramblings if you want. I'll probably talk about the level 1 Espers tomorrow and decide where to go on from there. I wasn't sure if listing the abilities the characters learn'd be a no-no, but if that's fine with you I can ramble about them too. The abilities aren't that much of a spoiler, so go ahead, but i'll be discussing them as they come up myself. If you still want to talk about them, that's your call though. I'll be using Ba'Gamnan, of course, because i'm sure a lot of people want to see that! That's a bad reason to ask to see a character's official art, but I will post Vaan and Penelo's official art with the next update. I've been meaning to post it anyway. Schwartzcough posted:I'd be afraid of spending time leveling him because he's a shoe-in for getting free and betraying you later. But I don't know how this game handles "leveling" insofar as whether you can waste your time doing it, or if everyone just levels equally. People who don't participate in battle get reduced experience. Since somebody is going to be sitting out of the next fight, i'll do the maths as to how much less exp they get, but I think they only get a quarter of what everyone else gets.
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Sep 13, 2013 08:15
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