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GodofDiscord
Sep 5, 2013

Not the strongest, but the cutest.
I remember there being a level or room of enemies that I could not complete because the enemies would only take damage from items. This was while I was playing Cornelius mind you.
I don't remember if I beat Odin Sphere, probably not though.

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EponymousMrYar
Jan 4, 2015

The enemy of my enemy is my enemy.
Cornelius has nothing to deal with Ooze's so yeah, his only recourse is to chuck flame potions, which are decently alchemizable at that point in the game but it helps to know they're coming.

Unoriginal One
Aug 5, 2008
Same place where I got stuck for a bit. I was also playing on Hard, which was in and of itself a special exercise in masochism.



Edit: Well, no, thinking on it Hard wasn't that bad, it just got a bit sticky here and there. Did do a fair amount of grinding though, had to lean pretty heavily on potions from what I can recall.

Unoriginal One fucked around with this message at 21:35 on Jun 3, 2016

AweStriker
Oct 6, 2014

I got stuck at Gwendolyn's fight with Not Eggman. I'm not sure whether I should be ashamed.

Seyser Koze
Dec 15, 2013

Mucho Mucho
Nap Ghost

AweStriker posted:

I got stuck at Gwendolyn's fight with Not Eggman. I'm not sure whether I should be ashamed.

More that you should be glad you got out then, since he was the one boss who appeared on every route.

Feinne
Oct 9, 2007

When you fall, get right back up again.
Eight: News and Sisters

We open on Grosso discussing something with his allies, who we haven’t met yet.

Video- “Episode 3 Intro”

Watch


First, this clown.



Precisely. There is no time to waste.

Second, this lady.



Oh, you finally found it!?
We can finally stop that drat kid from playing Overlord.
Ughhhhhh! Relax! I’m talking to you, Majin that is sealed within my left arm!
Hurry! Get rid of that kid off the Overlord’s throne or else the Dark Force will explode!
Shut up, you damned psycho! You don’t have any of those things!
Be nice to each other, you two.
It won’t be long now. Let’s set out plans in motion as soon as we’re ready.
To the rebirth of the Netherworld! By us, the Krichevskoy Group!

Well that’s probably bad.



Anyway the Prinnies are on the ball today and are giving us the haps in almost real time.



That’s right, dood!
They’re a group who won’t accept a new Overlord unless that Overlord is as good as King Krichevskoy, dood.
That Grosso guy is like one of their leaders, dood.
What an idiot. No demon is as good as King Krichevskoy.
Actually, there is someone even better. And he’s standing right in front of you.
Sorry, Prince. I guess my eyes are really tired…
People still really look up to Daddy, huh?
It sure seems like it. His son hasn’t been as fortunate.
But Big Brother is the Overlord, right? He took over Daddy’s throne, right?
Well in his case, he just overpowered every other demon who was after it, and claimed the title of Overlord through force.
Which is why a lot of demons aren’t happy with the situation.
I see…
Then how did Daddy become such a respected Overlord?
I don’t know…

Including where Grosso’s secret base is.



Yes, sir, dood!
Okay, get ready to attack! This time, I’ll bring him to his knees and show him who the real Overlord is!
Aye aye, dood!

Normally we’d just end there, but I can do something cool and show off the Assembly while I’m at it.



So, normally Fuka and Desco from Disgaea 4 aren’t available in this game. But thanks to the joys of DLC, we can propose a bill to invite them to the castle. It costs 300 Mana, and fortunately is something the Assembly is in favor of inherently. As you see, we have a 93% success rate listed. When we head to the Assembly, Etna will give us a bit of an explanation.



The Senators are going to vote soon, so let’s prepare before that happens.
You can give them bribes, by giving them items they want to get them to approve your bill.
Blue Senators are leaning toward approval, and red Senators are leaning against approval. Try to pay off the higher level Senators.
If you give them a bribe, it will also affect the Senators of the same party to vote in your favor.
Just because a senator is leaning toward approval doesn’t mean they’ll vote that way. They are demons, after all.
Once you’ve finished, either select Begin the Voting or Leave Assembly.
Even though you won’t get your Mana back, choosing Leave Assembly may not be a bad idea.
Just try it out and you’ll see how everything works.

So, the Assembly is pretty straightforward. Senators have approval ratings that we can increase by giving them items (what sort of items they want depends on their race). The higher their approval, the more likely it is that they’ll vote in our favor. A Senator gets as many votes as they have levels, so higher level Senators are more valuable. Senators can also have status effects. They can be asleep (which means they won’t vote at all) or drunk (which randomizes the effect of bribes and their voting at the end). There is a Chairman as well, who can either swing things strongly for or against us (assuming they’re awake, which they’re often not). Anyway we have a 93% chance here and that’s a pretty sure thing.





Is this…the Netherworld? Is this a new dream!?
Big Sis! Desco is here, too!
Looks like we were summoned to an Overlord’s Castle of a different Netherworld…
What’s going on?
…Whatever’s happening, I don’t care! This is all part of my dream anyway! So, I’m gonna do whatever I want!
I’m gonna find the Overlord and destroy everything!
Desco, we’re the Strongest Sisters in the Netherworld! Let’s take it over!
Yes, Big Sis! Desco will do it!
System Message: Fuka and Desco, the Strongest Sisters in the Netherworld, have invaded the Overlord’s Castle!

Fuka and Desco join us at level 1. I’ll briefly show them here, and talk about them in more detail tomorrow in a character update.





Suffice to say that Fuka is pretty tanky and can do massive damage.





Desco, meanwhile, is very powerful but also very slow. It should also be noted they start out at 4 likeability with each other, what with being sisters and all.

Next Time, Disgaea D2: Breaking and Entering. We’ll bust into the Krichevskoy Group’s hideout and get into a rumble with some of them, it’ll be a blast.

Junpei
Oct 4, 2015
Probation
Can't post for 11 years!
Did Owain from Fire Emblem Awakening get turned into a... whatever that red thing is?

Seyser Koze
Dec 15, 2013

Mucho Mucho
Nap Ghost
It's clearly the salamander from Pani Poni, only angry and on steroids.

Rabbi Raccoon
Mar 31, 2009

I stabbed you dude!
I love the downloadable characters in these games. My favorite is grown-up Hanako in Disgaea 2. She finally achieved her dream!

Feinne
Oct 9, 2007

When you fall, get right back up again.

Rabbi Raccoon posted:

I love the downloadable characters in these games. My favorite is grown-up Hanako in Disgaea 2. She finally achieved her dream!

DD2's DLC cast definitely accounts for the most games, all sorts of weird poo poo made it into this. Like Eclair from La Pucelle, and Plumiere the Battle Princess of the Arcadias.

D5 meanwhile actually focuses it down a bit, with the upshot that 100% of the DLC is actually available in the main game. All the maps scale to be appropriate to the chapter you do them in level-wise which is super hot because it actually lets you play around with some of the more baller DLC characters for a bunch of the game. Never mind the DLC that you just get from the start like Metallia, who is as overpowered as she is foulmouthed.

Scalding Coffee
Jun 26, 2006

You're already dead
I don't see where nice portrait, future-boss is slow. She doesn't have anything lower than 100%.
Nice of the Senators telling us what Aye and Nay does to the votes, and color-coded to boot.

Ardeem
Sep 16, 2010

There is no problem that cannot be solved through sufficient application of lasers and friendship.

Scalding Coffee posted:

I don't see where nice portrait, future-boss is slow. She doesn't have anything lower than 100%.
Nice of the Senators telling us what Aye and Nay does to the votes, and color-coded to boot.

It's the 3 movement.

*edit* Hey Feinne, how about one of the updates as an explination of the stats screen and possibly how affinities work?

GhostofJohnMuir
Aug 14, 2014

anime is not good
Getting this much time with the original Disgaea's crew just makes me miss Mid-Boss. Axel can never fill the Mid-Boss shaped hole in my heart.

Feinne
Oct 9, 2007

When you fall, get right back up again.

Ardeem posted:

It's the 3 movement.

*edit* Hey Feinne, how about one of the updates as an explination of the stats screen and possibly how affinities work?

I might fold that into the next proper update, since we're about to be forced to go into the Item World anyway.

And yeah nobody can match the Dark Adonis, Vyers.

ddegenha
Jan 28, 2009

What is this?!

Feinne posted:

Eight: News and Sisters



Desco, meanwhile, is very powerful but also very slow. It should also be noted they start out at 4 likeability with each other, what with being sisters and all.


This just reminds me of how much fun Desco is, just for her battle cries. She's just so adorably earnest as she shouts about total annihilation.

Feinne
Oct 9, 2007

When you fall, get right back up again.

ddegenha posted:

This just reminds me of how much fun Desco is, just for her battle cries. She's just so adorably earnest as she shouts about total annihilation.

Her Mounted Skill in this is "Death Co." :3:

MonsterEnvy
Feb 4, 2012

Shocked I tell you

GhostofJohnMuir posted:

Getting this much time with the original Disgaea's crew just makes me miss Mid-Boss. Axel can never fill the Mid-Boss shaped hole in my heart.

Axel more or less did for me. I guess he did that for other people as well which is why he shows up all the time.

Feinne
Oct 9, 2007

When you fall, get right back up again.
The Strongest Sisters:

Let's start with Fuka, the failed Prinny.

Fuka:

Weapon Skills: Fuka is S rank with Axes, A with Swords, B with Fists, C with Spears and Bows, and D with everything else. Give the girl an Axe, hitting things with heavy objects is what she was born to do.

Stats: Fuka has a laughably high ATK, solid HP, and decent DEF. Her SPD, RES, and SP are all a bit below average and her INT is as low as her ATK is high but who gives a drat, she's got Attack for days and will mulch the hell out of anything in front of her with it.

Evility: Fuka's Evility, Dream GIrl, reduces the damage she takes from special attacks by 50%. Since special attacks are the majority of actually threatening attacks, I don't think I have to explain why this is super amazing and lets you be crazy aggressive with her.

Skills:

Bomb-Bat-Stic: A decently strong attack with a fair bit of range, this lets her overcome the normally poo poo range of Axes basically right out of the gate. Yes it's not as powerful as the proper Axe melee specials but who cares, that's not what you use it for. It also does Fire damage, which can be nice or bad depending on the situation.

Glorious Hitter: Hits a small V shaped area at short but flexible range for okay damage. Again, is mostly nice because Axes struggle with AoE attacks.

Prinny Kaiser XX: Hits a large T shaped area with Fire damage. It's not super powerful honestly but it does hit a large and unusual area, and it's not like Fuka NEEDS powerful single target specials.

Desco:

Desco is of course a monster, so we skip the Weapon Skill section.

Stats: Desco has very high HP and HIT, and high ATK, RES, and SPD. She has no bad stats at all. She does have a quite short move rate (3), slightly made up for by the fact that she is flying type movement.

Evility: Desco's Evility is Final Boss Setting, which increases her attack power by 20% for every adjacent ally (so up to 80%). This can be tricky to get the full effect out of but even +60% is pretty nuts.

Skills:

Final Boss Arises: This attack hits a two-tile line on both sides of a tile at moderate range in front of Desco for okay Star damage. It's a great way to reach out and poke someone from the safety of a full Final Boss Setting effect.

True Godly Weapon: This attack hits a cross shape for Star damage in a small range around Desco. It's pretty okay, and again with a bit of work can fully benefit from Final Boss Setting.

Yog Sothoth: A really amazing attack that hits the 3x3 square in front of Desco for Star damage. You can't benefit from Final Boss Setting as much as you'd like but who cares you have a 3x3 attack without any work and that's all you need for cruise control to 9999.

Death Co.: Mounted Skill. Hits the three tiles directly in front of Desco. I'm honestly not sure if a Mounted character counts as being 'adjacent' for Final Boss Setting, if so that's kinda hacks but also hard to use since she can't use her normal Skills while carrying someone.

FractalSandwich
Apr 25, 2010

Feinne posted:

Evility: Desco's Evility is Final Boss Setting, which increases her attack power by 20% for every adjacent ally (so up to 80%). This can be tricky to get the full effect out of but even +60% is pretty nuts.
Something the game really doesn't make clear is that "attack power" is not the same as "ATK", and is also different from "damage". Even worse, the Geo Effects that are labeled as "ATK" in English actually affect attack power!

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe

FractalSandwich posted:

Something the game really doesn't make clear is that "attack power" is not the same as "ATK", and is also different from "damage". Even worse, the Geo Effects that are labeled as "ATK" in English actually affect attack power!

Okay, so what is attack power? Does this add percentage points onto the multiplier applied by skills or something?

FractalSandwich
Apr 25, 2010
Not sure. All I know is that +x% attack power doesn't translate to +x% damage. (It's usually a bit less.)

Nobody seemed to know when I first looked into it, but there might be better information online by now.

FrantzX
Jan 28, 2007
Attack can refer to one of two things:

1) The stat 'ATK'
2) The stat or combination of stats used in a formula. This can be ATK for most physical attacks, INT for magical, HIT for gun attacks, or even ATK & SPD for fist attacks.

Feinne
Oct 9, 2007

When you fall, get right back up again.
Yes, "attack power" is a generic term for whatever stat/stats you're using to attack with. It doesn't actually increase the damage you do by the listed % because it applies before the enemy's defenses are taken into account, which is actually good because it means it can make an attack actually do damage instead of doing fuckall.

The actual calculations are really quite complicated and predicting how much benefit you'll gain from something is kind of hard beyond 'you will gain benefit'. It's much easier to predict what'll happen from a regular attack, skills add a Power factor that makes things much trickier and is probably why it generally will feel like you're not getting as much effect out of the % increases as you feel like you should be.

Evilities and skills and such that increase the ATK stat will actually specify as such, for example the Braveheart buff is very clear that it increases ATK and not Attack Power.

Feinne fucked around with this message at 06:21 on Jun 5, 2016

Scalding Coffee
Jun 26, 2006

You're already dead
Does terrain depth still figure in how much damage a character deals or feels?

Feinne
Oct 9, 2007

When you fall, get right back up again.

Scalding Coffee posted:

Does terrain depth still figure in how much damage a character deals or feels?

I think it only does if there is an Evility to that effect in play now but don't quote me on that.

FractalSandwich
Apr 25, 2010

Feinne posted:

Yes, "attack power" is a generic term for whatever stat/stats you're using to attack with. It doesn't actually increase the damage you do by the listed % because it applies before the enemy's defenses are taken into account, which is actually good because it means it can make an attack actually do damage instead of doing fuckall.

The actual calculations are really quite complicated and predicting how much benefit you'll gain from something is kind of hard beyond 'you will gain benefit'. It's much easier to predict what'll happen from a regular attack, skills add a Power factor that makes things much trickier and is probably why it generally will feel like you're not getting as much effect out of the % increases as you feel like you should be.
I thought that might be all it was, but there were so many unknown variables when I was testing it that I couldn't be sure. I did start seeing weird behaviour where attack power seemed to give less of a benefit to more powerful skills, and I couldn't tell if it was because of the skills themselves or the effects of Defence. Of course, it wasn't a rigorous scientific study or anything. I was just eyeballing it based on the length of the damage prediction bar relative to the target's name.

thetruegentleman
Feb 5, 2011

You call that potato a Trump avatar?

THIS is a Trump Avatar!
So, I got Disgaea 5 recently, courtesy of Feinne's high praise for it, and I've got a question: is there any DLC I should get for it? I haven't actually bought any DLC for any Disgaea game before, so I've got no gauge for the quality, and PS3 DLC is/was usually ridiculously pricey: I've always waited until something has all the DLC released in one go for JRPGs, like when Record of Agarest War was on sale after coming to Steam...but poo poo on consoles never seems to get less expensive, so there isn't much point in waiting.

Incidentally, the PS3 emulator is pretty drat close to being able to play all the Disgaea games, so I'm hoping that leads to the PS3 games getting put on Steam, where the DLC will likely be priced like a normal game instead of a Freemium one.

Feinne
Oct 9, 2007

When you fall, get right back up again.

thetruegentleman posted:

So, I got Disgaea 5 recently, courtesy of Feinne's high praise for it, and I've got a question: is there any DLC I should get for it? I haven't actually bought any DLC for any Disgaea game before, so I've got no gauge for the quality, and PS3 DLC is/was usually ridiculously pricey: I've always waited until something has all the DLC released in one go for JRPGs, like when Record of Agarest War was on sale after coming to Steam...but poo poo on consoles never seems to get less expensive, so there isn't much point in waiting.

Incidentally, the PS3 emulator is pretty drat close to being able to play all the Disgaea games, so I'm hoping that leads to the PS3 games getting put on Steam, where the DLC will likely be priced like a normal game instead of a Freemium one.

You should get Metallia for sure, since you get her without doing a map and she's A M A Z I N G. I got the Season Pass because you got Pleinair with it but I am an Disgaea Enthusiast so ymmv.

Let's talk about some more monsters. Update likely tomorrow, it'll be brief and mostly game mechanics stuff.

The Monster Mash, Part 2

Lantern:

These are the scarecrow/jack-o-lantern monsters, by the by.

Stats: Lanterns have moderately higher than average ATK, low SP and SPD, and very low RES. They're vulnerable to Fire as well, with no resistances. If that sounds kind of poo poo it's because it is.

Evilities: Lantern Evilities mostly have to do with status ailments.

Bad Trip - 50% chance of inflicting status ailment when attacking. Watch the hell out for enemy Lanterns with this Evility, it tries to inflict EVERY status and generally will stack several on you, especially when on a map with Mothmen. It's kind of blah when you use it, though, because you generally prefer enemies to be dead.

Registry Reverse - Reverse + and - element values of adjacent units. A weird niche ability that turns weaknesses into resistances and vice versa. It can be okay I guess, but doesn't make Lanterns not poo poo.

Reverse Ailment - Reverse the effects and damage from status ailments. A really weird Evility. I'm not even sure what it does with Sleep or Stun, but it certainly does make Poison into a heal over time and Deprave into a stat buff. I'd probably take this if I wanted a Lantern. Which I wouldn't. They are very blah.

Skills:

Jack Knife Jr. - Hits the two tiles directly in front of the Lantern for minor damage. It's okay, but not anything special.

Daniel Jacks - Hits a single target a tile past the tile directly in front of you for okay damage, but again nothing very special.

Jack the Ripper - Hits a single target in melee range for good damage and can cause Deprave, if this came earlier it could almost make a Lantern okay.

Jackpot 4 U - Hits a single target in a close range for extremely high damage. This is actually a very good skill but doesn't really justify how terrible the stats and just overall skillset of the Lantern is.

Jumpin' Jack - Mounted Skill. Hits a single target in close range for high damage. Because boy Lanterns need more single target skills.

Spells: Lanterns learn Target Lock, which increases Hit. Nothing wrong with this but nothing terribly right either.


Slumber Cats:

Stats: Slumber Cats have high SPD, okay HIT, reduced SP, DEF, and RES, and low HP and INT. They resist Fire and are weak to Ice. They also have an unusually high critical hit rate.

Evilities: Slumber Cat Evilities all reduce the damage they take from certain opponents.

Weakening Aura - Decrease damage taken from humanoid units by 50%. Probably the strongest of the three choices, but all three are okay.

Softening Aura - Decrease damage taken from monster units by 50%. The monster version, also good.

Cute Aura - Decrease damage taken from female units by 50%. This one feels niche but about half of character types are in fact female so it's pretty okay.

Skills:

Cat Setaria - Hits a target in melee range for minor damage. Better than a regular attack but very meh.

Burning Hairball - Hits a target several tiles away for fire damage, gives you some range which is never bad.

Combo Attack - Hits a single target within a couple of tiles for good damage, fine but still just single target.

Blue Sky Surfer - Hits all the tiles in melee range of the Slumber Cat for good Wind damage, it's pretty okay though very high level for effectively Blazing Knuckle.

Cat Umbrella Spin - Mounted Skill. Hits a cross just in front of the Slumber Cat for decent damage and can cause Forget. It's an AoE, though, always nice.


Zombie:

Stats: Zombies have high HP, but reduced SP and HIT, moderately reduced SPD, and greatly reduced INT. They're somewhat resistant to Ice and very weak to Fire.

Evilities: Zombie Evilities are based around restoring their HP and SP.

Predation - When dealing damage with attacks, recover 10% HP. This is pretty okay, though restoring HP is generally easy and you're generally taking more than the little chips of damage that this will heal.

Soul Eater - When dealing damage with attacks, recover 10% SP. This is much stronger, since restoring SP is much harder than HP and Zombies are already low on SP.

Corpse Cannibal - Recover HP and SP by units defeated x 10% when defeating units. In theory this is really good, though Zombies are very average attackers.

Skills:

Poison Bite - Hits a tile in melee range for okay damage and causes Poison. It's pretty okay if you're using a Zombie I guess?

Rotten Headbutt - Hits a tile several tiles in front of the Zombie for okay damage, never going to complain about a bit of range.

Zombie Tornado - Hits three tiles in front of the Zombie at a slight range for okay Wind damage. It's an AoE and that's always good.

Zombeam - Hits a cross within a small range for okay damage and Poisons. AoE is again always good.

DIEmension Slash - Mounted Skills. Hits a four tile line from the Zombie for good damage and can Poison, and is an amusing joke. Zombies actually have non-awful skills, honestly.

Scalding Coffee
Jun 26, 2006

You're already dead
Does Corpse Cannibal count for dead friendlies?

Feinne
Oct 9, 2007

When you fall, get right back up again.

Scalding Coffee posted:

Does Corpse Cannibal count for dead friendlies?

It just says 'units' defeated so I'd suspect it does actually.

Feinne
Oct 9, 2007

When you fall, get right back up again.
Nine: The Item World

Looks like it’s time to chase after Grosso!



Oh no. If we can’t use the dimensional gate, how are we going to talk to Grosso?
Ugh…I can’t believe this!
What are we gonna do, Big Brother?
Well we shouldn’t just waste time here… Maybe we should spend some time in the Item World…
I heard that the Item Worlder just finished her renovations.
When you’re ready, talk to Minato the Item Worlder.

Yeah if you’ve played a Disgaea game you probably saw this forced Item World journey coming.



It’s an Item World ocean! This is a pristine frontier of dreams and treasure!
It can be dangerous, so make sure you’re prepared!
If you want to go to the Item World, select Go to Item World.

Before we even step into the Item World we can see one new feature, just like the hospital there are now rewards for finishing a certain number of Item World floors (though we haven’t revealed any yet).



I bought a decent staff for Flonne, and that’s what we’ll use. Let’s look at the interface.



This tells us what floor we’re currently on (in this case floor zero, Innocent Island), how many floors the Item World has total, and what level the residents start at. This is actually a good time to talk about item rarity. Items in DD2 are either Common (white), Rare (green), or Legendary (gold). Rares and Legendaries have both higher base stats AND deeper potential Item Worlds (Commons have 30 floors, Rares 60, and Legendaries 100). That said, DD2 has a bit of a trick to its rarity system. See, if you clear the Item World of a Common item, it actually increases its rarity to Rare and resets to Floor 0 while keeping all its current levels, and the same thing happens when you clear a Rare. High tier Commons are suddenly really amazing if you’re feeling up for clearing 90 floors to upgrade them to Legendary. Alright, let’s actually go into the Item World now.



From here, you can choose which ship to ride, and well as heal your units.
Once you’re ready, talk to Popo, the Ship Captain.

They mentioned Ships and yes, Ships have returned from prior incarnations. Ships control how deep we can go into the Item World (we start with a rowboat that lets us go to 30) and I think there are times when you want to throw poo poo onto them? These things kind of run together. We mostly get new Ships by defeating Pirates in the Item World, which lets us steal theirs.





Anyway normal Item World floors are straightforward, there are random enemies and Geo Symbols and a Mystery Anchor somewhere, if we kill all the enemies or move someone onto the Mystery Anchor we finish the map. Do keep in mind you only get bonus items if you actually clear all the enemies. We can only leave the Item World either by clearing ten floors, or using an item called a Mr. Gency Exit. Speaking of every ten floors, on such floors we face a mini-boss (either the Item General, Item King, or Item God depending on which floor it actually is).



Item Generals/Kings/Gods are generally much stronger than the enemies around them, but in turn their defeat will cause the item to improve more upon leaving the Item World. It should also be noted that you always get a Mr. Gency Exit from the first slot of the bonus meter on a boss floor, further encouraging you to clear them. After finishing a boss floor one way or the other, we go back to Innocent Island.



Innocent Island now contains some chests, a hospital (exactly equivalent to the normal one), a special shop that sells entirely random items (which can be Rare or Legendary), and a guide who allows you to either move on or leave the Item World. We’ll be leaving here, because we’re not strong enough to push on.



Items gain one level for every floor we’ve been through, and this can further be increased by various special rooms or other factors that we can encounter. More levels is more, that’s most of what you need to know on that front. There’s more to the Item World but for now I think that’s good enough.

I had a question as to the stats, so let’s actually go analyze a stat screen. I’ll bring back our friendly new friend Fuka from last time.



Our stats are:

HP: Run out of these and the character is defeated. Mostly increased by Muscles, special armor items.

SP: These are spent to use Skills and Spells. Mostly increased by Orbs, special armor items.

ATK: Attack power with weapons based on strength, including Fists, Swords, Spears, Axes, and Bows. Also controls monster regular Attacks. There are Belts to increase this.

DEF: Defense against physical attacks. If it doesn’t base itself off INT, it’s probably reduced by this. Most armor increases this.

INT: Attack power with magic and magic weapons such as Staves and Books. Glasses will often increase this.

RES: Defense against magic attacks. It also increases the power of healing spells. Orbs increase this.

HIT: Determines our chance to hit enemies. It is also factored into the power of Bows and Guns. Glasses increase this.

SPD: Determines our ability to avoid attacks. It is also factored into the power of Fists and Guns. Shoes increase this.

MOV: How many tiles we can move in a turn. A really slow character might only have 2, whereas a really fast one can be close to double digits. Shoes increase this.

JUMP: How much of a positive elevation change a character can manage in a single move. Characters with poor jump will struggle on vertical maps. Shoes increase this.

THROW: How far the character can throw. No equipment changes this. For a monster, this tells you how far they Receive. Basically a friendly monster will throw for a fixed distance in front of it when something is thrown on top of them.

COUNTERS: How many times a character can counter in a turn. Some weapon types change this.

CRIT: How likely a character is to score a critical hit. Items can change this.

Next to the stats are the character’s elemental resistances, nothing really to that. Right above those are the Aptitudes, which are really important. Any equipment we put on a character has its stats multiplied by these. So for example Fuka will turn a gross Axe even grosser, but even a really great Staff is going to give her somewhat disappointing amounts of INT.

Finally, we see the Weapon Mastery levels. I’ve been reporting them, but here’s where you’d see them on the UI. Please do let me know if there are any questions.

Next Time: The Raid. Let’s storm Grosso’s castle.

Feinne
Oct 9, 2007

When you fall, get right back up again.
Not going to lie that Atelier Sophie is probably causing the next update to be slightly later than it would have otherwise been, I am perfectly comfortable with a time system that doesn't have a time LIMIT attached to the game itself and equally comfortable with a game that's mostly just faffing about messing with poo poo.

Seyser Koze
Dec 15, 2013

Mucho Mucho
Nap Ghost


I can feel the sarcasm washing over me.

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe

Seyser Koze posted:



I can feel the sarcasm washing over me.

I always liked the Item World, but to each their own, I guess.

Feinne
Oct 9, 2007

When you fall, get right back up again.
The Item World isn't really necessary until the postgame and if you can't handle time consuming things the postgame conveniently isn't for you.

No character update today, all the time I would have done it got eaten by my internet being down all day.

Also if you own a PS4 and ever think 'man I do not chillax enough' buy Atelier Sophie, it is literally 'Chillax the RPG'.

FractalSandwich
Apr 25, 2010

Feinne posted:

Also if you own a PS4 and ever think 'man I do not chillax enough' buy Atelier Sophie, it is literally 'Chillax the RPG'.
I could stand to chillax a little more, but I have all the same doubts about it that I had about Nights of Azure.

Ardeem
Sep 16, 2010

There is no problem that cannot be solved through sufficient application of lasers and friendship.

Feinne posted:

The Item World isn't really necessary until the postgame and if you can't handle time consuming things the postgame conveniently isn't for you.

No character update today, all the time I would have done it got eaten by my internet being down all day.

Also if you own a PS4 and ever think 'man I do not chillax enough' buy Atelier Sophie, it is literally 'Chillax the RPG'.

"Accidentally" getting in a fight with the big cat at the farm gathering point when it was 10 levels higher than my party was less than chillax, but I managed to throw items at it until it died.

cokerpilot
Apr 23, 2010

Battle Brothers! Stop coming to meetings drunk and trying to adopt Tevery Best!

Lord General! Stop standing on the table and making up stupid operation names!

Emperor, why do I put up with these people?
Hey Feinne are you going to show off the special game overs?

Scalding Coffee
Jun 26, 2006

You're already dead

TooMuchAbstraction posted:

I always liked the Item World, but to each their own, I guess.
If the music was good, then it was good. I could stay in D2, but D1 felt draining.

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Feinne
Oct 9, 2007

When you fall, get right back up again.

cokerpilot posted:

Hey Feinne are you going to show off the special game overs?

I generally don't unless there's a really good reason for it (like the ones in Makai Kingdom that were actually tied to getting characters). I might, but I'm not sure how interesting they are in DD2.

Update tomorrow with the first three maps of Chapter 3, I actually need to tear myself away from fuckin' around to record the rest of it. Didn't help that we lost power for a lot of the afternoon.

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