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alcharagia posted:I prefer one big number over many tiny numbers because it makes me feel more awesome so I prefer Str/Vit v Multi-hit is objectively better because you pair it with +Stone and Grimoire and petrify and shatter the entire enemy party at once without them ever getting to act or respond because each hit gives an opportunity to petrify them. There's basically nothing to say about this map, you're at no risk of losing Unkillable to such weak enemies. That Switch trick is pretty useful if you're having trouble keeping the civvies alive. Hinako is definitely one of the best characters in the game. She's a focused Strength/Agility attacker. She's also got enough Magic to be able to cast Diarahan, which is a plus. Her downside is that she's a bit fragile compared to some other physical characters, but not terribly more than you'd expect of a Strength/Agility.
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Feb 2, 2014 00:06
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Daichi posted:
Daichi, that's not how you spell Hibiki. He is a hero though. Never noticed it till now, but why does Hinako have a tie?
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Feb 2, 2014 00:16
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Level Seven posted:Daichi, that's not how you spell Hibiki. He is a hero though. Oh, whoops. Script I'm using uses the Show Your Free Will name for some reason, so I have to replace 'em normally.
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Feb 2, 2014 00:27
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So, what the hell is Hinako wearing anyway, besides as little as possible?
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Feb 2, 2014 00:28
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Feinne posted:Multi-hit is objectively better because you pair it with +Stone and Grimoire and petrify and shatter the entire enemy party at once without them ever getting to act or respond because each hit gives an opportunity to petrify them. I don't care. Big numbers make me feel cool. 
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Feb 2, 2014 00:39
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Sylphosaurus posted:So, what the hell is Hinako wearing anyway, besides as little as possible? I think.
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Feb 2, 2014 00:56
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AradoBalanga posted:I just want to know what amount of illegal substances not only CREATED this design, but then later on approved said design. Seriously, Hinako. What in the name of YHVH made you think that....."outfit"...was a good thing to wear AT ALL? She wears that outfit because she really likes getting attention from guys. I think at one point she refuses to change into warmer clothes because otherwise she'd just be "another boring girl with glasses." AradoBalanga posted:A giant-rear end scarf. Probably something for part of her dance routine. Though I can't remember what it's called. MonsterEnvy fucked around with this message at 01:01 on Feb 2, 2014 |
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Feb 2, 2014 00:59
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Nthing the support for Hinako. She's a fantastic physical attacker and is one of the most level-headed people in the game, and one of the very few I didn't want to punch by the end (along with Makoto and one or two others). The design is ridiculously terrible but she manages to overcome it. Plus she messes with another character and I love her for it 
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Feb 2, 2014 01:08
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Hinako's outfit is sensible compared to Zero Escape's "big necklace = shirt" character design.MonsterEnvy posted:She wears that outfit because she really likes getting attention from guys. I think at one point she refuses to change into warmer clothes because otherwise she'd just be "another boring girl with glasses." It should be noted that she says this while at the top of Mt. Fuji. So she would literally rather die than change her clothes. That's some serious dedication.
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Feb 2, 2014 01:11
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Genocyber posted:I see you neglected to post Hinako's official art. I'm no expert on art or colour theory, but as I understand it secondary light sources can reflect light onto areas cast in shadow from primary light sources, albeit at a lower intensity.  According to the picture in the quote, Hinako has a lightbulb inside her vagina.
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Feb 2, 2014 01:26
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Yeah, I was just about to ask about that. I guess the sun really does shine out her rear end.
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Feb 2, 2014 01:42
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Genocyber posted:I see you neglected to post Hinako's official art. That outfit looks like it's a stiff breeze away from being an AO game.
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Feb 2, 2014 02:02
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The outfit is actually censored on the Atlus USA website. They obscured her image behind a text box and blacked out her top.
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Feb 2, 2014 03:44
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Now, since I'm currently living here, let's have a quick lecture on what I call home in Japan: Tourist Osaka! (image: me) Osaka Castle: The first stop our heroes make is at Osaka Castle Park. If this were not a Super Secret Shinkansen, this is about an hour and a half's walk from south the normal Shin-Osaka bullet train station, crossing the Yodogawa river. (the large east/west river on the in-game map) It's easily the largest park in Osaka proper, and is placed more or less in-between Shin-Osaka and the next destination: Shin-Imamiya is the ghetto of Osaka and has a very bad reputation, largely deserved. It's roughly another 1.5 hours walk from Osaka Castle, and is the homeless neighbourhood of the city. Largely split up into 3 chunks - the border with Tennoji to the east (the trashy, dark, noodle bar filled inspiration for Blade Runner, currently being gentrified), the Shin-Imamiya area to the west and south (filled with cardboard box homes, alcoholics, day labourers, and dark alleys), and on its north side where the game actually takes place: Shin-Sekai. ("new world") I couldn't find any images that properly represent Shin-Imamiya's character, as it's not the kind of place I (nor apparently many other people) really want to be walking about with our cameras out in the open, but I think I painted an accurate enough picture.  (image sourced from here) Shin-Sekai is where you'll see Billiken, an American artists' invention (hello St Louis!) that somehow got imported all the way to Osaka. While you see Billiken around Osaka, Shin-Sekai exhibits him to an almost fetishistic degree. He adorns the area's plethora of restaurants, which largely serve beer and delicious fried food called kushi katsu. (beef slices, battered and fried, that you dip in sauce, a must-try in Osaka) It's a small area, you can go edge-to-edge in about 10-15 minutes of walking.  (image sourced from here ) Billiken's tag line, always in English wrapped around the base of the statue, is "The God of Things As They Ought to Be." Unlike that random street person, the people of Osaka do not take Billiken seriously. One last note before moving on: Osakans consider Shin-Sekai to be downright dangerous to be in. While I wouldn't wander through Shin-Imamiya by myselfat night, Shin-Sekai's restaurant and bar area are perfectly safe, the worst you'll get is a drunk salaryman or homeless person. There is a head Billiken shrine/statue, however, located in what juts out from the center of Shin-Sekai:  Tsuutenkaku ("Tower that Reaches the Heavens") was originally built in 1912 and modeled after the Eiffel Tower, but was torn down for steel during the war. Its current form was built after the war in 1956, and has stood to this day. The entire Shin-Sekai area is (supposed to be) modeled on European influences, with one half being London-flavoured and the other half being Paris flavoured. (literally a "new world" to the Japanese back in in 1912) I don't buy it for a second. Maybe 100 years ago there may have been a passing resemblance, but today it is distinctly Japanese, as well as distinctly Osakan with its mammoth outdoor mechanized signs and restaurateurs shouting at you to come and try their food.  (image source: Wikipedia) Next, Festivalgate. Demolished in early 2012 after going bankrupt and closing in 2007. It is now simply an empty lot, sitting next to Spa World at the southwestern edge of Shin-Sekai. (Spa World is a a neat, $10 all inclusive hot spring/onsen like experience, recommended after a night of fried food and drinking in Shin-Sekai)  (image sourced from here) Next, we finally arrive at Ebisu Bridge, and the Dotonbori area, about a 20-25 minute walk north from Shin-Sekai. (through DenDenTown, amusingly, Osaka's answer to Akihabara) I could easily spend the next 30 minutes telling you about how this is a fascinating place - the collision of upscale boutique shopping street to the north, cheap Chinese ripoff fashion to the south, the sketchy "entertainment" (cough) district just to the northeast that borders the main club/pub area of Shinsaibashi, and finally to the west lies Amemura - "American Village". (which is neither village nor American at all, although a great place to head to for foreigner bars, cheap drinks, cheaper food, and both capsule and love hotels) Nightlife starts at Ebisu Bridge - and often ends up with the Dotonbori canal, underneath the bridge, being a public toilet for those who drank a bit too much.  (Dotonbori Street, south of Ebisu Bridge. source: Wikipedia) The weirdness comes from the mix of all kinds of people. Tourists for the bright lights, the upscale shoppers from the north, teenagers bargain shopping from the south, prostitutes aggressively hunting salarymen customers on the bridge, and izakaya employees holding their menus asking customers to come with them to their restaurant. It's a very, very strange, loud, aggressive, bright, dirty area at the heart of southern Osaka's Namba core. Fun fact: the battle map does actually resemble Ebisu Bridge's layout. A few notes about Hinako being from Osaka, that don't really come across in the English version. We'll ignore the clothes. That's not very Osakan. Or human. Anyway. To us she's a character, to the Japanese, she is a personification of Osaka itself: brash, outspoken, and always weird, often times for weirdness' sake. (for example, a recent proposal to make the [public toilet, remember!] Dotonbori canal into a large public pool.) In the Japanese version, she very much speaks the Osakan dialect, known for being a bit crude and more emotive than the Tokyo dialect. It's considered somewhat comedic and lighthearted, and Osakans have a reputation in Japan for being comedians. Osakans like Osaka, and its people, to be a bit odd this way, and while Hinako takes the stereotype to an extreme the stereotype has its foundations in reality. Osaka's a bit less cold, and a bit more friendly, than Tokyo, and Osakans are proud of it. The game also models Tokyo in similarly realistic ways, but I don't have the time to run through that gauntlet and information and pictures about those areas are more readily available if you simply pull up Google. 
LiquidRain fucked around with this message at 04:05 on Feb 2, 2014 |
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Feb 2, 2014 04:00
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Genocyber posted:I see you neglected to post Hinako's official art. Why does there seem to be a light emanating from under her skirt.
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Feb 2, 2014 05:13
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SloppyDoughnuts posted:Why does there seem to be a light emanating from under her skirt.
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Feb 2, 2014 05:15
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SloppyDoughnuts posted:Why does there seem to be a light emanating from under her skirt. StevenM posted:I'm no expert on art or colour theory, but as I understand it secondary light sources can reflect light onto areas cast in shadow from primary light sources, albeit at a lower intensity.
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Feb 2, 2014 05:30
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SloppyDoughnuts posted:Why does there seem to be a light emanating from under her skirt.  The gates of heaven?
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Feb 2, 2014 05:32
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Oh, Hinako, that is not how clothing works. Best character, worst outfit.
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Feb 2, 2014 05:36
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legoman727 posted:Oh, Hinako, that is not how clothing works. Best character, worst outfit. Though that said her art isn't really accurately portraying what she's wearing, I'm pretty sure she's got that thing she's dancing with in the art wrapped around her kind of like a skirt with either end up over a shoulder/arm in the actual sprite. I mean she's still barely dressed but the actual sprite at least gave a modicum of thought to 'how the gently caress do you actually wear this ridiculous poo poo the artist drew'. So whether or not there is light coming from between her legs, you wouldn't see it because she's actually better covered up there than she seems. Seyser Koze posted:I still say this is better than Amane's shrine-maiden uniform having a miniskirt and sleeves which connected between her legs. I don't know given what was going on with her that was entirely appropriate costuming for her really. Feinne fucked around with this message at 05:48 on Feb 2, 2014 |
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Feb 2, 2014 05:41
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I still say this is better than Amane's shrine-maiden uniform having a miniskirt and sleeves which connected between her legs.
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Feb 2, 2014 05:43
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LiquidRain posted:
This is super interesting, and things like this are always fun to read.
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Feb 2, 2014 08:35
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KataraniSword posted:She's the best Str/Agi character in the game, the character I think you're thinking of is very much a Str/Vit build (and the best in their class there, too). It all comes down to how much you worship the power of Multi-Hit and its upgraded version over harder single-hitting physical attacks. After all, only one character can use Pierce until the absolute endgame when you can crack the Auto Skill version so you're basically forced to choose which one you want to use in cases of Physical strong/null/absorb monsters. Hell, Hinako along with the referenced spoiler character are why it's best to run the MC as a mage: you're handed characters completely optimized for physical builds already. The only real reason to build him along those lines is because you don't like those characters. Not liking Hinako and character-we-don't-have are grounds for calling you a terrible person, so I hope nobody actually does that.
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Feb 3, 2014 19:42
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Things must not be too busy yet in Osaka if a civilian can throw down with demons alone and survive.
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Feb 6, 2014 14:00
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Keita Wakui ~ Allegro In the interest of some variety, and getting rid of a minor bit of redundancy, I opted to fuse one of the three Kikimora I still had lying around with Hairy Jack. I picked the weakest of the three (the one that had 11 magic) and I can't say I really regret it. Kijimunaa is very definitely not better than a Kikimora on average, despite being a higher level, but it can deal more damage anyway because it is a higher level. Honestly, it's just because Glamorous just cannot compete with Devotion that Fairies are not as good. They're both spellcasters that heal, but Femmes just have the better racial skill. I also opted to fuse it because if I didn't we'd never really see it. You will never fight against even a single Kijimunaa.   With our new demon in hand, let's head on over to Bickman. Best get this out of the way at this point in time at the absolute latest, just to be safe. [Music: Exploration]    So this is the place... Is he not here? We're on time... Yeah... I don't see him. Could he be somewhere else?  Hmm, no luck. I went to take a quick look aorund, but I don't think Keita's here yet. Yeah... This is definitely the site seen in that death clip, though. Well, maybe he's running late because he got slowed down by the disaster. Oh, so it's like that here too? Huh... Hey, here's a thought I just had... What do you think? Great idea! Why, thanks! That's what I like to hear from our leader!  Who knows what this guy'll do!? Will you please at least ask him what this is about!? ...What is it? Oh, right. I haven't even explained it yet, hahaha! How far? Well, between Tokyo and Osaka, that covers the east and west. Other than that... Yeah, but that's my point! The mainland was hit, but what about other places...? East Timor, or the Demographic Republic of Timor-Leste, is an actual place that actually exists in Southeast Asia near Indonesia. As the name would imply, there is also a West Timor and both occupy the same small island (called, you guessed it, Timor). And part of West Timor is considered East Timor territory or something. It's all very boring and political. If you'd never heard of it before this game, you're almost certainly not alone: after all, the island is so small that less than 3 million people even live there. I would imagine a lot of people figured Joe just made up, but nope! Why Timor? Oh... I just like the ring of it! It's so... timorous! Hmm... Yeah, we have no idea what shape the country's in apart from what we've seen. See? Doesn't that make you wonder? I'm curious how things are in other places. Um... What is it?  Huh!? You mean of Timor!? Oh, no... Sorry, I wasn't thinking about Timor. But... we haven't gone anywhere open lately, right? Someplace around here should do fine... Ahh, sure, yeah. That'll get us a little closer to Timor. I had it too... Oh... You did? So were you just laughing at us behind our backs? Um... Daichi... I think most of us had figured it out... Oh. I guess it was just me left out in the cold, then...Daichi seems a little downcast... Hmm, well... Is there anywhere open like that around here? Somewhere open... Like a mountain or a river? Ah... The Yodo River's pretty big. We might be able to see some things, yeah. Then let's go! It's not too far. I'll show you the way! Follow me![Music: Silence]   Ahh, see now, this is a good vantage point. From here you can see... ...that things are, somehow, even worse than we thought originally.  [Music: Requiem]  Yikes... Is this for real...? N-No way... This isn't my Osaka...  Youch... Osaka got hit this bad...? I can't believe this... It's so much worse than I imagined. Wait...! Hey, does this mean that Tokyo's also...!? It's probably just as bad. Yeah... We couldn't tell, but maybe Tokyo was like this too...It seems the damage is quite far-ranging...  A war you say? Well, hmm, anyone got some spare Devil's Fuge? We might need it soon. There's no way rescue efforts could deal with this... Is this what Yamato meant when he said we couldn't be saved even if we waited around? Yeah... This is too much for anyone! And what with demons all over the place... Same here... I'm feeling a little lost. I think we should go back... Well, staying here won't do us any good, that's for sure.You leave the area...  Okay, time to see whether we save Keita now or wait just another half an hour and let him hang. quote:Keita Wakui... Well, that answers that I do believe. Quite thoroughly, too. The very-definitely supermajority have spoken, and Keita gets to live up to the title and survive. [Music: Exploration]  All righty... We're a little late. You think Keita's here already? Please be here...! This is our only chance to save him... Hm...? Hey, is that him!? Huh? Whoa, there he is!You follow Hinako's gaze to see Keita standing around...  She's part of our group. ...Suuure she is. I don't remember seeing her around earlier. ...There you are, Keita! We finally found you! Where the hell have you been!? What? None of your business. Leave me alone... Huh...? Man, shut up... All that yapping is hurting my ears. Wh-What...!? Ugh, this guy is such an rear end... *sigh* Well, at least we can rest easy. Hey, listen, Nicaea sent us a-- [Music: Countdown] ......!People are fleeing towards you... ...We'll talk about this later. You guys wait here. Huh...!? K-Keita!Keita rushed off towards the screams... Dude, not cool! What's his problem!? Now what do we do!? *gasp* The stairs...! What's wrong?  drat...! You're right! Gaaah... So the danger hasn't passed yet!? He's just about to get himself in trouble!? L-Let's go, Hibiki! If we don't, he's gonna die! We'll save him! You bet we will!Hinako runs off... Whoa...! You see that? We should hurry after them...  Huh...? What about you...!? Hmph, don't worry. That demon's my prey. So scram, you imbecile. A-All right... Thanks...  So... why are you doing this alone!? Don't you know what you're up against? ...Huh? Why did you come over here? I told you to wait. ...No, I'm going to fight! I can use demons, too! Tch... Fine, you moron. Holy crap, and here I thought we were safe...! ......! Hey, aren't there more here than there used to be!? H-Huh? There's a cell phone on the ground where the demon had been... So the cell phone is causing this...? Maybe it's a summoning app gone haywire.  Well, I don't mind that... It's nice that I can fight demons![Music: Challenge to the Fate]   Seems easy enough on paper. Just have to protect Keita and using Hinako is no big deal (I gave her every skill Daichi had). If anything this should be even easier than the previous fight, right? After all, Keita can defend himself! ...ahahahaha no.  There's 4 miasma spots on the map, and three are very nearby. Hibiki and Hinako can take out 2 of them immediately, whereas Io and Joe can attack a Gagyson each. The one Io's gunning for is even stood on the 3rd miasma for good measure.   Much like the fight at the Valgate, there's a new command in certain contexts here. The difference being that this is more than one time only, isn't optional-but-nice and that if we don't do it more demons spawn in at set points later in the fight. Not even good ones either, so you can't abuse it for easy grinding or whatever.  Io's gonna start the actual combat part of the combat, and be uncounterable right now.  It could have gone better, but at least it's kind of a start.  Over on the other side, Hinako deals with a second miasma and Joe begins to fight too. That this Gagyson is getting +10 Initiative despite being on the defensive should indicate at least one Makara.  Oh, and it's really obvious here that the AI loving hates your healers and will go out of its way to target Kikimoras almost exclusively. Even when they haven't really healed in this fight; the 2 Kikimoras I still had were lucky to not get destroyed in a single fight. They got attacked that often. It was weird.  They weren't focused on to the absolute exclusion of anything else, but it really stood out as being the main target above all else. Even, surprisingly, Keita.  Okay, so Keita's AI is the opposite and is dumber than a bag of rocks. He does one thing: he charges at the demons and he punches them. He's using Aggravate so he has a Touki of some kind. Makes sense, since it fits his thing. Must be a sort of good one like Bilwis or maybe even the next one higher right?  ...Come on! Come get me!Pfft, no. Dude brought a loving Kobold. Why does he have a Kobold at this point? Because this fight kinda hates you and it hates Keita too and it wants you to suffer at trying to let him live. Okay, yeah, that's kind of very hyperbolic but Keita does make your job more difficult. Helpless NPCs at least are managable because they don't get in the way. Keita does. And he just killed that Gagyson wiping out the Makara as well. You don't even get money when Keita kills anything, never mind the usual EXP loss! gently caress Keita.   His one saving grace is that he has a Kikimora and can heal. And if he really needs to desperately heal, he won't charge face-first at things. Most of the time.  A Hare of Inaba opted to run up to both Joe and Keita at this point. Because the demon AI knows it wins if it wipes out the annoying kid, it of course chooses to attack Keita.  The Mokoi in this particular party is the highest leveled demon in the fight (15). In spite of that, it's not really that threatening on its own... Hang on how did he deal 5 damage to a goddamn Ogre? And his Kobold nearly died. I just... okay, look. Kobold's base level if 3. If I was to bring a Kobold here, it'd get loving slaughtered by anything and everything. Keita is absurdly lucky he runs on AI rules for demon damage and so it takes his current level. It still gets wrecked because it's a Kobold. It dies to a stiff breeze, never mind a Mokoi bearing down on it!  I realise I'm probably complaining a lot about this fight and it's really not that bad overall. In a straight fight, even with the miasma, it's pretty simple and generally fun.  I just wish Keita had at least a Bilwis instead of a Kobold because then he'd be tolerable and wouldn't need babying to make sure he doesn't kill himself. I'd also prefer him to not be AI controlled, because his AI sucks, but let's not wish for the moon here. Oh, and the Gagyson came off second best (the Hare died, of course) and Hibiki used Jambavan's Phantasm to skip past and break the phone.  In retrospect, I probably should've left  Alternatively, I should've just given Joe back the Bufu he had earlier. That'd help not completely botch something as easy as 3 Itsumades.  This is pretty shameful, considering it's 3 Itsumades and this'd be the worst party here were it not for Keita (I'm gonna stop harping on about that now). Still, it could be worse...  Meanwhile, Hinako ended up going up against what is probably the actually hardest enemy party here. That's pretty bad luck on her part, since we have no major physical attacks right now and her magic kinda sucks but she has no spells anyway. At least Heqet can sometimes freeze the Jambavan on account of its Ice weakness.  But to speed things up, Hibiki warps over there and murders one of the Jambavans and leaves the other basically crippled. Hinako should have no trouble now.  And to help Keita not get wrecked by the Hare of Inaba's party again, Joe wipes out the biggest problem and the Ogre too. The Hare got supremely lucky surviving with 5 HP. [Video: Keita Wakui ~ Tactical Genius]  ...So of course Keita doesn't take the unimportant kill he was effectively left, since not even he could screw that up. Instead, he pops Aggravate, runs over to an Itsumade, only manages to even hurt the one that was nearly dead. Frankly the only way that could've gone even worse was if Keita got poisoned in the process. [Video: End]  Hinako's sort of handling herself reasonably well against the thing that can step back and attack unabated. To say she's not quite come into her prime yet, she's doing pretty well. Her only really good demon on offense here is the Heqet and that's only because it has Bufu.  I realise I'm glossing over some of the less interesting bits about this fight, but that's because there's lots of turns waiting for the AI to do stuff here too. At this point, it's sort of mellowed out on that. Also, wow, Keita's lucky his Kikimora didn't die there. At least only the Kobold got poisoned!  It's also around this point that the one remaining miasma finally spits out a demon. These things take forever to do anything, and when they finally do? Not even really an issue.  Meanwhile, back in the important stuff, Hinako took out her Toubyou problem. This would've gone quicker, but there's a Kikimora in the other Toubyou party that kept throwing Devotions at it.  Joe keeps proving me wrong, though, because he's being remarkably competent and took out both said Kikimora and a Toubyou in a single skirmish. I swear he's not that great, but he's getting results so long as he keeps on doing that he might have some longevity after all.  Granted, he's not as good as Hibiki who's demons are even more up-to-date and deal in overkills. I should probably make more things for other people, huh? I'll get right on that after this fight.  Only showing this because I completely spaced and didn't need to let Io get hit here. This was monumentally stupid on my part.  It went pretty okay in spite of that. I could've easily killed the leader without worry, but eh rather not do that.  And Keita finally does something resembling useful and takes out the Toubyou. Would've rather had Hinako do it but at least he stopped being in the way at the end.  And I do mean "end." So long as no demons are around, we win the fight even if there's miasma left. Can easily handle the phone without worrying about it at this point after all. I swear it's not as hard or difficult as I made it sound. It's just that Keita is a hindrance more than a help. He's level 13, but his Kikimora is just a stock Kikimora (which is why he failed to do anything substantial with it) and his Kobold is level 10. And a Kobold.   We get a fair bit of EXP out of it though. Hibiki reached level 15 and we can use that and the Gagyson learning Elec Dance at the same time. Gonna fuse up one of my favourite early-ish game demons! [Music: Over the Brink of Death]  ..."Saved" me? What the hell are you talkin' about? U-Um... Keita? A-Are you hurt anywhere...? Huh...? You too? Are you all messin' with me? Hey, hold up. We're not messing with you, man. In fact... This vid... This means I was supposed to die? That's right.Keita looks straight at you... Alright... So that's what Nicaea does. It seems Keita believes his own death clip...  Yep, that's right! You better thank us, Keita! ...You never answered my question. What's your deal? Where'd you come from? What...? You? In JP's? Forget it, there's no way you could... No way I could what? Who was it that saved you just now, hmmmmm? ...Dammit. Ooh! Awesome! Hey, wait up, Keita! Whoa... They're gone. Whew... I'm glad we managed to save that Keita guy... Haha, yeah, good job, folks. Should we go after those two? They're pretty far ahead... You leave the area, following Keita... [Music: Exploration]   For saving Keita's life, and not pissing him off further, it makes sense. I don't like his Stage 1 resistance being exactly the same as Daichi's but it's functional enough I guess.  It's at this point we can finally buy Toubyous from the auction. We can also buy Mokoi because why bother making one that's good when you can make with pretty average str/vit!  I think I'll settle for making an Angel instead. Get rid of that Gagyson I've been carting around as well as a 5-star Knocker and an make one that has both Force and Elec Dance. It'd have Force Dance anyway, since its a skill it outright starts with, but Elec comes from Gagyson. Blood Wine, the Divine racial skill, is up there with Femme's for racial skills that I really, really like. See, it costs some HP to use but it restores MP to the entire party she's in. Obviously it's easy to heal up afterwards, so you really just get MP back. It's not enough on its own to give whatever party she's in infinite MP but it's definitely getting there.  Since we've spent a while fighting dudes, I think we should take a break from that and hang out with Hinako and/or go to the Shinsekai to finally meet up with Yamato again. Sound good? Sounds good. Lotus Aura fucked around with this message at 01:00 on Aug 11, 2014 |
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Feb 7, 2014 17:25
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Osaka Tourism, Part 2 Say hello to Osaka Bigman:  Located at the southern exit of the Hankyu Rail Lines in the Umeda district of Osaka. Why is it called Bigman? Hell if I know, but it's written write there on the big TV. Centrally located to all rail companies and easy to pick out, it's a popular meeting point. (though it seems this photo in particular wouldn't suggest it, every time I go through that pedestrian junction it's rather crowded) Umeda at large contains 2 noteworthy areas. The developers decided to pick a rather strange source for their view of Umeda, and as such I can't replicate what the game shows you directly, but you will definitely notice that the game faithfully represents Umeda Sky Building:  Sky Building sits at the northern edge of Osaka, and features both a glass elevator as well as a glass-encased escalator (that Y-shaped set of girders near the top), and an oval-shaped rooftop terrace and viewpoint awaits any visitors. It's a bit away from the real hustle and bustle you see sitting in ruins in the game, as you can see by this photo taken from the rooftop:  If Namba, the Dotonbori area, and Ebisu bridge are the down and dirty, boozey, sexy siblings of Osaka sitting to the south, Umeda is the rich, successful, glitzy model living up north. They create two poles that form the central core of Osaka, with generic offices and government buildings sitting in the stretch inbetween the two. In my opinion, Umeda tries a bit too hard to be Tokyo, and I prefer the, uh... unique charms of Dotonbori over the crisp linens of the overpriced pasta restaurants near the Burberry stores you find in Umeda, but it's still a great place to have fun once you get off the beaten path. Venture a ways away from the glitz and office towers and you'll find plenty of izakayas and great restaurants in Osaka's fantastic Kita Shinchi and Fukushima (unfortunate naming) districts. Osakans themselves generally align themselves as either being a north person (Umeda) or a south person (Namba). Also worth noting, something that's been completely ruined by demons in the game's portrayal, is Osaka's really awesome Japan Rail main terminal:  The architecture inside it is really awesome, though not quite up to Kyoto levels of awe-inspiring. In the interest of not overloading this page with images, and because I had to go to bed 30 minutes ago, the ferris wheel you may have noted in the screenshots is real and is integrated into the HEP Five shopping complex about a 3-5 minute walk away from Bigman. You board on the 7th floor of the teen-focused mall and up you go! It's become somewhat of a recent icon and sits at the gateway between East Umeda (bars and restaurants) and central Umeda (office towers) and acts as a landmark for the shopping complexes that sit at its feet. Take note that at the end of the latest update, we're headed to Shinsekai! I covered Shinsekai previously and will be visiting there in-person tomorrow. I'll attempt to find some good photos to take if folks are interested in that area more! LiquidRain fucked around with this message at 18:35 on Feb 7, 2014 |
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Feb 7, 2014 18:27
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Ah, so now to Keita's map. We're still not in a situation where losing Unkillable is a serious risk, because as Dragonatrix noted Keita's party is the only one that's at serious risk. With the way the map is designed, Dragonatrix's strategy of pairing the party up and pushing up either side in twos is solid and how I go about things as well (it also lets you split people off slightly to deal with the miasmas). One thing I would do slightly differently is the rate of advance, Dragonatrix sort of rushed ahead of Keita and ended up with Joe and Hinako a bit too far towards the middle and it left Keita more vulnerable than I'd generally prefer him. Always keeping someone in Keita's vicinity while there's demons close enough to engage him helps you stop him from being as risk and also stop him killstealing you. There are a couple of parties that are moderately threatening but they're very vulnerable to magic so you should just be able to blow them up really. Don't worry, things start to get a bit more interesting soon. Now let's talk about Keita. Keita Wakui- Keita is a really interesting character. He's sort of a hybrid physical attacker, he has a high enough Agility to use Strength/Agility skills (I'm pretty sure it doesn't matter that at 99 he's only got 37 Agility but certainly he won't add extra hits to Multi-Hit as quickly as Hinako does) and he puts almost nothing into Magic, so he's also got a bit more Vitality than Hinako. This doesn't just translate into stronger defenses and a bit more health, it also lets him get some use out of a set of physicals that benefit from health (though not as well as the character who does that, who we haven't met yet). It's also sort of his flaw, though, he's got one of the lowest Magic stats in the game and this leaves him unable to support his party with healing in the way Hinako can. Keita is really good honestly, but I generally prefer Hinako for the role of real physical attacker. He's also kind of a prick.
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Feb 7, 2014 18:59
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Feinne posted:He's also kind of a prick. 
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Feb 7, 2014 19:02
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So, we have reached the end of episode 3, and this is where the anime went off in its own direction: they let Keita die. In almost the same way as his death clip, tumbling down stairs. After being hit with a big attack meant for Hibiki from Botis, that is. Also, Hinako was already a JPs member by this point, having joined along with Keita. And yes, Joe STILL hasn't been introduced yet in the anime by this point. Other than that, Keita....is annoying. I get that he's supposed to be the "jackass who gets better over time due to experiences", but his introduction really doesn't leave a lot of room for the player to actually give Keita a chance. Doesn't help that his team in this update doesn't help Keita's case either.
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Feb 7, 2014 23:27
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AradoBalanga posted:So, we have reached the end of episode 3, and this is where the anime went off in its own direction: they let Keita die. In almost the same way as his death clip, tumbling down stairs. After being hit with a big attack meant for Hibiki from Botis, that is. Also, Hinako was already a JPs member by this point, having joined along with Keita. And yes, Joe STILL hasn't been introduced yet in the anime by this point. If I recall correctly. He does not get better at all unless you let a certain other character die and it makes him decide to be less of a jackass.
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Feb 8, 2014 02:19
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MonsterEnvy posted:If I recall correctly. He does not get better at all unless you let a certain other character die and it makes him decide to be less of a jackass. You remember semi-correctly. What happens is that Keita has two sets of events - ones where you learn more about his reasons for acting how he is, and ones that involve interactions with another character. Those sets of events are mutually exclusive.
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Feb 8, 2014 02:32
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Feinne posted:Ah, so now to Keita's map. We're still not in a situation where losing Unkillable is a serious risk, because as Dragonatrix noted Keita's party is the only one that's at serious risk. An important note to mention here is that playable character parties that are allied units dying in battle do not actually count against Unkillable, which is good because when I did Unkillable one of said units died and I was terrified. I've never actually had much trouble with this map. I have a lot of trouble with Hinako's introductory map sometimes because, as mentioned, I never use Switch ever because Apis does not exist on my itinerary, and sometimes if you're just going at a good pace Hinako will die without you being able to do anything about it because she is a dunderhead. Most allied units are. The best of them just have a good chance of being able to fend for themselves, really. It's never a 100% guarantee, sometimes your mission objective buddy will just die and oh well, better luck next time shitlord! (Nothing will ever be as horrible as Devil Survivor 1's escort missions though. Haru.) This map, however, doesn't have any enemies that are particularly threatening- the Toubyous are the only things that can do anything nasty and they're not very threatening offensively. So you're basically not at risk at all.I have also never used Keita but unlike Hinako, who is a character I just have never bothered using despite her being pretty cool, I will never use Keita because he is a stupid douche with a dumb face and a bad attitude.
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Feb 8, 2014 02:34
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KataraniSword posted:You remember semi-correctly. What happens is that Keita has two sets of events - ones where you learn more about his reasons for acting how he is, and ones that involve interactions with another character. I missed that other character on my first playthrough, so I got the "better" version of his story. That brief scene in the anime still makes him more likable than he was in the game.
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Feb 8, 2014 03:08
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Echo Cian posted:I missed that other character on my first playthrough I'm sorry.
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Feb 8, 2014 03:11
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alcharagia posted:I'm sorry. Me too.  I'm doing better this time!
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Feb 8, 2014 03:12
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One thing about the miasmas is that breaking a phone can sometimes earn you a skill. Never a skill that's particularly useful, but it's a pretty cool mechanic.
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Feb 8, 2014 04:00
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Echo Cian posted:
Yeah, The Animation at least tried making him a nicer guy, and he got a little buddy like with Hibiki towards the end, but it all pretty clearly trying to make you feel sorry for his death scene. And if you've played the game, then its really not enough. On the bright side he is voiced by Romi Park, so that's nice I guess?
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Feb 8, 2014 07:11
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I've never heard anyone else who agrees, but I like Keita the most of the three best physical fighters. He feels very optimized--high strength to be good with the straight physicals, enough Agility to use the multi-hits well and act early, and his Vitality is high enough to be survivable (and passes an incredibly important threshold at exactly the right moment). Sure, he's kind of a prick, but he's good at his job.
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Feb 8, 2014 11:19
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Einander posted:I've never heard anyone else who agrees, but I like Keita the most of the three best physical fighters. He feels very optimized--high strength to be good with the straight physicals, enough Agility to use the multi-hits well and act early, and his Vitality is high enough to be survivable (and passes an incredibly important threshold at exactly the right moment). The problem is that the added boost to Vitality results in him actually reaching Agility thresholds a little bit slower than Hinako, meaning she'll end up rocking the multi-hit skills significantly earlier than Keita does. In addition, while he gets near the top, I don't think he actually maxes out Agility, whereas Hinako does. In other words, Hinako will generally work better with the build, but Keita's perfectly servicable at it, with the added (somewhat nice) Vitality boost. I'd rank him below Hinako but I can see why there'd be argument over it. He's still better than Daichi, statistically, for sure, and actually hits his strength cap faster than Hinako does. It's just too bad he's a douche.
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Feb 8, 2014 17:08
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| # ? Apr 27, 2024 03:58 |
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National Crisis Let's have a nice, relaxing break from constantly battling demons for a while. Instead, let's just chill with Hinako for a bit. [Music: Countdown]   Just come over here! I told you, I can't leave my assigned post. But someone's hurt! We need your help here! Help is on the way. Hold on until then.[Music: Silence]  Huh...? Who are you...?[Music: Heroes Have No Fear] still rocks, still should click it.  Someone's in trouble. They need help. You're here. So what's the problem!? You shouldn't have any reason to hesitate! B-But... I can't act on my own without any orders...! What...!? It's your job to help the people you can, while looking good to your superiors. You're not making sense... Fine. You mess with one Osakan, you mess with all of them. You got that? Uh... ...F-Fine. All right, all right... Over there! Towards Doutonbori...The SDF soldier runs off along with the woman... [Music: Exploration]  You're a good negotiator. Of course! I was brought up among hagglers! Doesn't matter how much money you have, haggle away! ...Well, I'm gonna go see if I can help those people too!Hinako walks away...   Like with Keita's resistance doubling up with Daichi, Hinako doubles up with Makoto. The difference, though, is that Hinako comes a lot earlier than Makoto so it doesn't feel quite as redundant.  Looks like we're hanging o- uh, stuck advancing the plot now. Let's go do that then.  [Music: JPs -Geomagnetism Research Department-] Here we are... The Osaka branch, JP's main office. It's an amazing facility... I can't believe there's something like this in Osaka... It's the same as Tokyo. Oh, Yamato-- Er, Chief Hotsuin. Yo, Yamato... I brought Team Tokyo. Am I done here? Thank you, Wakui. You may return to your duties. Don't mind if I do. Keita leaves... Hinako steps forward towards Yamato... I wanna fight alongside you guys. Can I join? I'll prepare a room for you. You can be briefed there. This way, please. Looks like I'm really one of the gang now! Well, I'll see you guys later!Hinako follows the JP's member out...  Not enough information.Yamato smirks... Haha... Cleverly put. It seems you have some insight into the problem at hand... Huh? Problem? W-Wait... What are you getting at...? You don't know? Then how about this? [Video: National Crisis]  [Music: Crumbling Routine]  Hey, it's Shibuya. We already know that's wrecked since we were there earlier.     Is that Nagoya? Things are bad even out there?      ...Beppu. Almost directly in the center of Oita Prefecture. Oita... In Kyushu!? Wh-What's going on...? You see here the state of the six cities we have reports on. No... How could six places all be...? You misunderstand. These are the conditions of the six cities that we know of. Wh-What's that supposed to mean!? What about everywhere else? Uhhh... So that means...[Music: Requiem]  The human race is currently undergoing an unprecedented crisis. No... That... It can't be...Everyone is at a loss for words... What should we do? ...We don't know that at the moment. Ha... Haha... Hm...? A-Are you serious? There's no way I'm believing that. I-It's gotta be a lie. I mean... We did come here to find out what caused the disaster, but this...  ...Easy there, Daichi... Ngh... Someone... tell me this is all a lie!Daichi runs off... Ah! D-Daichi! Joe leaves the area... Joe... ...Leave them. They'll have to face the facts sooner or later. It's just... I can't believe something like this could happen...Io leaves the area...  You should think this through as well... whether to continue on or wait for death...Yamato leaves... [Video: End] [Music: In The Devastated Town]  This seems like a rather odd time to get a new gameplay function, but Add-Ons are actually pretty cool. They give neat extras during fusion, but I'm the kinda moron who never uses them unless necessary even though you really should. They can make already good demons phenomenal, they can make even normally bad demons usable. We don't have any right now, though, and the game never explicitly tells you how you get them. It's just through not loving in combat; they're effectively tied to macca bonuses. There's a fair few Add-Ons (some of which are way better than others, of course) so we'll look at them in detail as/when we get them.  For now, we've managed to find a spare moment when the plot isn't bearing down on us. Might as well take this opportunity to decide who we spend some time with! (  )There's enough time to hang out with 1-3 people, so bear that in mind when voting. BUT since there's too many permutations to list them all this time around, just vote for however many you want to see and depending on proportion I'll pick the top 1-3 accordingly.
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Feb 10, 2014 03:38
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