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inthesto
May 12, 2010

Pro is an amazing name!

Glazius posted:

Is there any actual payoff for not killing the possessed villagers, or is it like one of those "game over if you kill one" scenarios?

You can kill them all if you really want to, but the gold/exp gain from doing so is total trash. Saving everyone also gives you a secret merchant and a recruitable character, so the tedium is almost worth it. Almost.

Also, apologies that the next update is taking so long. Settling in to the new job is taking longer than expected (mostly because I'm working overtime every drat day), but I haven't abandoned the thread, promise!

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inthesto
May 12, 2010

Pro is an amazing name!
Hey everyone, I'm not dead!

This isn't a real update, but have some lovely bonus content. This is what happens when I record cold without checking my audio levels. If people like my awful live commentary, I'll do more videos for boss fights, but otherwise consider this a stupid one-off I did to keep the thread going.

Ardeem
Sep 16, 2010

There is no problem that cannot be solved through sufficient application of lasers and friendship.
Wait, how do you have a list of broken characters in Shining Force and not include Mawlock?

RuanGacho
Jun 20, 2002

"You're gunna break it!"

Ahaha holy poo poo inthesto I thought I messed up bad when I let Julian eat the one tornado 3 in the SS cover of that fight but that was a pretty hillarious twist I was not expecting from your video.

Ok so my rendition of the orb was a little over the top but I'd argue modern screens make it less bad.

Kahn dying twice :allears:

MMania
May 7, 2008
That was hilarious! I think the level tries to lull you into a false sense of security right until the point where the Lich shows up, so good job, Camelot. Still, there is no drat reason Kahn is controlled by the AI, that's probably the worst design decision in all three scenarios. At least if you screw up a ruins map it was your own fault (for not counting squares three turns in advance).

Ardeem
Sep 16, 2010

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

MMania posted:

That was hilarious! I think the level tries to lull you into a false sense of security right until the point where the Lich shows up, so good job, Camelot. Still, there is no drat reason Kahn is controlled by the AI, that's probably the worst design decision in all three scenarios. At least if you screw up a ruins map it was your own fault (for not counting squares three turns in advance).

I'd have to give that coveted title to Donhort At least you only have to put up with Kahn running around like an idiot for one stage.

Taffy Torpedo
Feb 2, 2008

...Can we have the radio?
Slade's not even in the top five most broken characters in SFII. He just dies constantly - especially on Super.

inthesto
May 12, 2010

Pro is an amazing name!
I was just rambling off the top of my head to fill in time, and ShF2 is the game I've played the most by a long shot.

On reflection, Mawlock and Narsha almost certainly muscle Slade out of the top five, since he also has to compete with Kiddo, Cray, and some other characters I'm forgetting.

Taffy Torpedo
Feb 2, 2008

...Can we have the radio?
Claude and Chester in SFCD, and Karna - hell, all the healers - in SFII would be on my list.

There's not really anyone in SFI that I would call 'broken'. Zylo and Bleu I guess, maybe Anri as well, but they're more just 'really good' rather than 'broken'. I've never played SFIII so I don't know about that.

Also May in the game gear version of Gaiden II, with her ridiculous Freeze 3.

KataraniSword
Apr 22, 2008

but at least I don't have
a MLP or MSPA avatar.
I am my own man.

Stanfield posted:

There's not really anyone in SFI that I would call 'broken'. Zylo and Bleu I guess, maybe Anri as well, but they're more just 'really good' rather than 'broken'. I've never played SFIII so I don't know about that.

Due to how Genesis SF1's stat gains worked, characters could be blessed or screwed by the RNG almost as badly as Fire Emblem characters.

That said, Domingo is generally considered broken in Gen!SF1 due to having an unusually huge (for a mage) HP/Def growth, the ability to ignore terrain, the combo of Freeze and Boost, and the fact the AI prioritizes him as a target over everyone but Max. Bleu is basically SF1's version of Peter, stat-wise, except he comes too late to be useful without a little bit of Egress-grinding. They're actually the two characters that were given stat nerfs in the GBA game to make room for the New Bullshit in Town, aka Mawlock and Narsha.

KataraniSword fucked around with this message at 22:01 on Jul 27, 2013

inthesto
May 12, 2010

Pro is an amazing name!
Bleu had good growths, but his base stats sucked and he came in late. He was in the same class as Adam, where they'd be just as monstrous as Zylo and Guntz if you took the time to level them up, but you already have Zylo and Guntz so why bother? On the other hand, Peter had insane stats out of the gate, along with the best growths in the game.

Zylo, Guntz, and Domingo are easily the top three of Shining Force 1. However, it's true that, relative to the rest of the cast in their respective games, Zylo isn't quite as ridiculous as Claude, Cray, Ruburan, and Kiddo.

KataraniSword
Apr 22, 2008

but at least I don't have
a MLP or MSPA avatar.
I am my own man.

inthesto posted:

He was in the same class as Adam, where they'd be just as monstrous as Zylo and Guntz

I have never had Adam turn out good in any of my SF1 playthroughs, thus proving how much the RNG influences late-game characters in the first game. Pretty much every time I've tried to raise him, he's ended up worse than Hanzou, much less a dedicated attacker.

I think the biggest thing I'm noting is that mobility is everything in Shining Force; Ruburan/Slade/Guntz excepted, your best characters in the early games are the most mobile - Kiddo, Peter, Domingo, Zylo (who gets basically no movement penalties in forests or mountains, basically giving him wannabe-float status), Claude...

The thing is, as you said, Camelot is really bad at balance, and it seems like they knew how overpowered free range of movement got... and then "balanced" almost every other flying/floating character into uselessness. Birdmen in SF1 and SF2 are completely awful, MNST Kiwi has something like a 30% chance of wasting his turns and dies in a single spell of practically ANY sort, and Kokichi is pretty much as bad as Arthur without the ludicrous post-promotion statgains to make up for it.

Eldar is actually a decently good flyer WITHOUT being ludicrously overpowered, which is saying a fair bit.

EDIT: vvvv It's still, if I'm not mistaken, still a percentage chance of getting statgains at all, meaning that a single level-up can bring a character back into "useful", after about five to ten levels of lagging behind... but it could just leave them every bit as screwed as before.

KataraniSword fucked around with this message at 22:22 on Jul 27, 2013

AsInCoolAsA
Feb 25, 2011

KataraniSword posted:

Due to how Genesis SF1's stat gains worked, characters could be blessed or screwed by the RNG almost as badly as Fire Emblem characters.

Actually characters in SF1 had a average stat amount for levels. So a character will have nearly the same stats at level 20/20 game to game, give or take a few points. They will however gain monster level ups if they are lagging too far behind. And that's why we get crazy levels like +13 speed for Tao or +9 defense for Max.

Also keep it up inthesto. Loving this so far.

Taffy Torpedo
Feb 2, 2008

...Can we have the radio?
I wouldn't call Domingo broken - he gets Bolt pretty late, and being a mage relies on MP meaning he can become almost useless towards the end of battles. Don't know how I forgot about Guntz, he's definitely up there. Also, depending on what weapons you give them, Kokichi and one of the birdmen can be really good flying glass cannons.

I'm definitely in the vast minority of people who have played SFII but I don't think Slade is any better than slightly above average. He's 12th slot filler in most of my playthroughs.

Ardeem
Sep 16, 2010

There is no problem that cannot be solved through sufficient application of lasers and friendship.
Slade's amaizing reputation comes from that one time an Iom Doll got cut off. But, if that was all it took to be an actual amaizing character, all the casters, mace users, knife users, ninja, and one centaur per disk are equally overpowered. (Well, Dantares tends to be OP anyway even without the Ultra Lance.)

inthesto
May 12, 2010

Pro is an amazing name!
Slade? Iom Doll? You're definitely crossing wires here.

Ardeem
Sep 16, 2010

There is no problem that cannot be solved through sufficient application of lasers and friendship.
Iom Doll, Zeon Guard, Annoying Blue Thing On The Last Map With Too Many HP. :doh:

AsInCoolAsA
Feb 25, 2011

Stanfield posted:

I wouldn't call Domingo broken - he gets Bolt pretty late

Domingo doesn't get bolt in SF1. Shining Force CD is a different story though.

Taffy Torpedo
Feb 2, 2008

...Can we have the radio?

AsInCoolAsA posted:

Domingo doesn't get bolt in SF1. Shining Force CD is a different story though.

Huh.

Well then he's even less broken than I thought.

bobbertoriley
Sep 6, 2011

Stanfield posted:

Huh.

Well then he's even less broken than I thought.

Nope. Instead, he gets Boost, which makes him even more broken. And as mentioned earlier, his high HP and Defense make him a great aggro target, even after he's run out of MP. This kinds decreases near the end game, but up until like Chapter 7 or so he's perfect at it.

I've always found Musashi to be extremely brutal. You just need to get a running pimento or mobility ring on him, and he just slaughters people. Anything I'm really missing about him that wouldn't make him extremely broken, such as Claude and the others?

Shiki Dan
Oct 27, 2010

If ya can move ya toes ya back's fine
Low HP means he can't take hits, plus low agility means that faster characters can run circles around him and kill things quicker.

Zurai
Feb 13, 2012


Wait -- I haven't even voted in this game yet!

Mushashi has always turned out extremely well for me when I've given him the movement items instead of Guntz.

Taffy Torpedo
Feb 2, 2008

...Can we have the radio?
I guess it depends on your definition of 'broken'. I don't really see a character as broken if they have a significant drawback like low movement. I mean, there are characters that are ridiculously good without stat items, so needing one automatically puts you lower on the list. At least Guntz has spears and (I think?) no movement penalty.

If we include stat-ups then Gerhalt moves into broken territory in my mind. 7 move with no movement penalty, significantly more survivability than Slade (who also has 7 move and no penalty) and no weapon, so he can get the massive boost from the power ring/Attack spell, and that's with just a pimento.

bobbertoriley posted:

Nope. Instead, he gets Boost, which makes him even more broken. And as mentioned earlier, his high HP and Defense make him a great aggro target, even after he's run out of MP. This kinds decreases near the end game, but up until like Chapter 7 or so he's perfect at it.

Boost also costs a hefty chunk of MP - which is worse on an offensive mage who needs the MP for damage - and comes really late in the game. Domingo is a really good character, but he's not broken.

inthesto
May 12, 2010

Pro is an amazing name!
Part 15: This is what happens when I don't do my homework

I'll just spoil this right now: I make an embarrassing mess of this next fight. I did a much better job my first time then during this playthrough. Let's begin!



First, let's pick up this goodie back in town. We're not going to need it now, but we'll mail it over to scenario 2 where it'll be useful. Back to the mansion we'd been fighting in front of.




: I cannot begin to fathom why anyone would dare to challenge a Vandal, but it's your life to throw away.

Yeah yeah, I spoiled his portrait. I'm too lazy to dig up a temporary smiley for him. It's not like he's going to be a major character anyway.

: The Vandal is at the far end of the second floor. He must have set several traps for us.

: That voice! You have brought a monk of Elbesem with you! That was not in the... Ahem! This is unexpected. Humph! I shall still destroy you!




: I don't care how it feels, Kahn! Let's go wipe the floor with this Vandal!

Julian, you're going to fit in just fine. :unsmith:

: Don't act rashly, Synbios. This is no ordinary opponent. Be extremely careful!



Only six dots on the map. If you've guessed that there's a lot of enemy spawns in this fight, you guessed correctly. For now, all we have to deal with are skeletons, which Dantares and Cybel can deal with easily.







Dantares picked up his second level in spears during the last fight. Super Charge starts like the rank 1 lance charge, but he then brings the lance straight down on his target's skull. It kills the skeleton in one shot and I am supremely pleased.




Yawn.




At this point I'm thinking “I don't remember this fight being too hard. I know there's a lot of spawns, but how bad could they possibly be?”



:getin:



Breaking this thing is kind of important. Remember, there will be barrels that block off doors, and if you don't bust them during the fight, you won't get access to whatever they're blocking off.



Let's mosey on over here and...



Oh no.




There's these guys too, but the lich is way more important.






gently caress JESUS




:fuckoff:



Cleaning up all the spawns.



Also, more dudes spawn at the staircase. :gonk:





I'm bad at this game.



Apparently I'm a dumbass who forgot to take screenshots. This is what happens when you climb the stairs and make it to the door at the top.



Would it be inappropriate to make a Joe Biden joke here?

Vandals are supposed to be immortal... but he seems much weaker! We should be able to defeat him, Synbios!

Let me first use the Elbesem Orb on him. With it, I can weaken his defenses.

If you forget to use Kahn's equipped item, you can still beat this guy, but he takes reduced damage from everything. I forgot to use Kahn my first time around. Annoying, but doable.




A succubus spawns, which we need to kill ASAP. Abdark himself is beefy, but his stats alone aren't anything to worry about.



This happens too.



It's not the only one.





But this is what I really need to watch out for. Thankfully, it's not a huge gently caress-off area effect like Muddle 2, but it's still nothing I want to deal with.





This special attack from Abdark drains life, I think.




Archers are supposed to ignore flying evasion! :argh:




Remember when I said I didn't have trouble with this fight the first time around? Guess I'm having it now.






:hellyeah:



Let's take care of this charming rear end in a top hat.




And then this.



:unsmith:



Apparently he takes damage too. Whatever.




Ouch.



And he regenerates life too.




:wtc:



At least she's worth good experience.



Naturally, after he kills one of my best damage dealers.





A tenth of his life in one go. Dantares, you're still okay.




Abdark still has a few tricks up his sleeve.



:gonk:




At least Abdark flies.



This is pretty much how the rest of the fight goes down. Surround and pound.





More attack bonus from Synbios. :toot:



:: It wasn't your power that defeated me. I only succumbed to the power of Elbesem! Don't think your allies are so great! I'm not nearly as strong as my brothers.

Yeah, whatever Raditz.

:: Your monk's meager powers will be useless against them!

A less Vandal? So it is true. You can't be Galm.

:: Galm is one of the strongest Vandals. To think a pathetic mercenary is plotting to seek out Galm and actually thinks he can defeat him. That's humorous... Don't take us Vandals lightly!

Why did you form an alliance with Garvin? And how did you know we were coming?

:: Why do you want to know these things? Benetram, are you by any chance...

: The Bulzome Sect is now making its move. Bulzome is a Vandal, who was a king who ruled this area long ago. You seem to be a servant of Bulzome. Are you helping to resurrect him? Has Bulzome awakened already?

:: Bulzome, your enemies have come! They are trying to prevent your awakening! Avenge me... Ugh!

When Garvin first came forward with steam technology, I was immediately suspicious of a possible tie between him and the Vandal.

I see. The Vandal civilization of a thousand years ago had technology such as this?

So both the Republic and the Empire have just been manipulated by Garvin? Even the abduction of the Emperor by the Bulzome Sect?

I don't know, Dantares. I have yet to see all the details. There is still much to be understood.

We met through chance, but if your destiny is to fight the Vandal, I'd like to travel with you for a bit longer. How about you, Julian?

Since the danger of the Vandal is averted for now, I can now stay with Synbios' army. But, if Galm...



To be sure, he was an old and weak Vandal, yet the Synbios battalion came out victorious. I underestimated you.

You are the Bulzome high priest Basanda! Were you the one responsible for leading us here?

HA HA, I see that almost becoming a victim of a Vandal has not changed your charming vitality and directness, Sir Dantares.

So you are a Bulzome high priest. I, Kahn, a monk of Elbesem, promise to one day settle the score.

I see, an Elbesem monk! Benetram, I commend you for acquiring such an interesting tool. You are not yet worthy opponents, but... Perhaps I should show you a nifty little tool of my own I acquired recently.

A tool you acquired?

You will see it soon, I promise. Please take good care of it when you do.



Terrible evil power... she is no normal enemy. We seem to bump into the most ineresting opponents.

If a dominant Vandal is going to be resurrected, chaos will sweep over the land. We'd best be prepared, or at least try to be prepared.

I think our first priority is to get out of Imperial territory. We've been so preoccupied with Vandals and Bulzome that we forgot where we are... It is almost dawn. Synbios, the village should be back to normal. As soon as possible, we must depart.

And that concludes all the plot for this update. But wait, there's more!






There's some goodies to be found in Abdark's mansion. The spot where I searched in the last screenshot is suppoed to hold a Dark Matter, but you have to look for it during the fight. If you check afterwards, there's nothing there.



Hello, what's this?





I don't remember what the correct answer is here.

Huh... No human would ever dare enter this mansion. Something must be amiss. Wait! The unique aura of the master... How come it's gone? I see... the master has been defeated. How could a Vandal be defeated? But there is no mistaking that! I can't stay put like this!




 I created this because I dreamed of the day I would finally be free. Now the day has come, and I can put this to use. I'm going... I'm going to run around outside with this thing!

And then he runs off. Sure hope we don't find him in a den full of paopigs or something.



I've always been proud of being a magician. But now my pride has been shattered. Republic or Empire matters not to me. To get revenge and regain my pride, I shall help you fight your war! My magic is a collection of the finest secret techniques. I shall show you my magic's real power.



And just like that, we get Masqurin's tag team partner.

For the record, Noon here is one of the rewards for saving all the villagers two fights ago. One of the other rewards:




We get a merchant that sells all kinds of good accessories! :toot:



Oh yeah, we also get this. :stonk:

NEXT TIME: It's much sadder after you've played scenario 2

inthesto fucked around with this message at 05:09 on Jan 2, 2014

Bloodly
Nov 3, 2008

Not as strong as you'd expect.

quote:

This special attack from Abdark drains life, I think.

Regret Hit is HP-To-1.

quote:

Oh yeah, we also get this.

Not a bad item. Female-Only, raises the Counter rate. Males have their own variant, the Loincloth(Can't remember it's true name). Raises Crit rate.

Ardeem
Sep 16, 2010

There is no problem that cannot be solved through sufficient application of lasers and friendship.
I think the images are out of order at the very begining of the post... And I haven't messed up that fight so badly since the first time I played... Now I just grind the bats and skellies until everybody is promoteable.

Shitenshi
Mar 12, 2013
Since we're almost at the promotion point, and we already have a prepromote in the form of Noon, I'm curious if the trick from SF1 still works. Specifically where you grinded your characters way past the promotion level, and then promoted them, giving them not only godly stats from all the grinding but also easy to gain levels from being put back at level 1 against enemies that you normally wouldn't face with a freshly promoted unit, essentially making you twice as strong as you were supposed to be.

Bloodly
Nov 3, 2008

Not as strong as you'd expect.
Not really. You don't gain much in terms of stat gains past 10, and the cap's 20. There's also the problem of what you're going to get the levels off as the EXP drop-off hits pretty quick. Healers can do it.

There is zero reason to hold back on promotion, indeed pretty soon most standard equip will require being promoted.

Glazius
Jul 22, 2007

Hail all those who are able,
any mouse can,
any mouse will,
but the Guard prevail.

Clapping Larry
This still feels kind of early to be fighting a dude with triple-digit hit points. I guess the super crits help on that front, a little bit.

Aces High
Mar 26, 2010

Nah! A little chocolate will do




It has been so long I had forgotten that there were supports in this game. Since we saw how you did in this version of the fight how did you fair originally?

Kinu Nishimura
Apr 24, 2008

SICK LOOT!
Hey, remember when this LP was happening?

Good times.

Aces High
Mar 26, 2010

Nah! A little chocolate will do




yes and my question still stands dammit :colbert:

inthesto
May 12, 2010

Pro is an amazing name!

Shitenshi posted:

Since we're almost at the promotion point, and we already have a prepromote in the form of Noon, I'm curious if the trick from SF1 still works. Specifically where you grinded your characters way past the promotion level, and then promoted them, giving them not only godly stats from all the grinding but also easy to gain levels from being put back at level 1 against enemies that you normally wouldn't face with a freshly promoted unit, essentially making you twice as strong as you were supposed to be.

As previously mentioned, levels 11 - 20 don't get you jack for stats. It's programmed that your stat and EXP gains go down the drain after level 10, and it actually takes spellcasters longer to learn new spells unpromoted rather than promoted. It may be tempting to hold off from promoting to squeeze out every last stat gain, but it can really shoot you in the foot, especially in scenario 2.

Aces High posted:

It has been so long I had forgotten that there were supports in this game. Since we saw how you did in this version of the fight how did you fair originally?

While I forgot to use the Elbesem Orb for a few turns, I also didn't get hit by Charm (which is and always will be the worst thing in the world). I still lost a fair number of characters, but it's less embarrassing since it was my first playthrough. I didn't have much of an excuse this time around.

Also, I'll be fixing the screenshots later today and hopefully have a new update by the end of the week. Real life's been jerking me around real hard lately, hence the lack of updates. Sorry!

Ardeem
Sep 16, 2010

There is no problem that cannot be solved through sufficient application of lasers and friendship.
Here's hoping you'll have better luck with the IRL stuff and it's good to see this LP moving again!

Vander
Aug 16, 2004

I am my own hero.
Yeah, we look forward to you coming back!

inthesto
May 12, 2010

Pro is an amazing name!
Part 16: What was I doing again?

Sup thread. I'm not dead. Let's move on.




An Imperial and a Republican army, moving so close to each other without engaging? How odd.

That's about all there is of interest in this town. What do our comrades have to say about the poo poo that's just gone down?




Obright: Not too great at reading people.



And Masqurin is focused on what's really important.



We also pick this up in the back of the city. It's originally named “Brain Food” and raises MP by a random amount. The patch renamed it to “Bright Honey”, as that was the name of the MP boosting item in older Shining Force games.

After gearing up at the store (Irene gets the Power Undies, Masqurin and Noon each pick up a Defense Bracer, and Masqurin gets a Bronze Rod), we're just going to get on with the story.



The Empire may have soldiers there, but at least it is Republican territory.

If we have the home ground advantage, then we don't need to be afraid.

We can't let our guard down, Synbios. As Dantares said, Barrand province is overrun with Imperial troops. It seems they're prepared for us as well. Look, a large force guards the bridge. How will we deal with a force that large?





There they are, the Synbios force. I have heard news of them and their exploits for some time now. I respect his skills greatly, and for that reason, I shall crush him so that he may die in battle!

Franz may be the first Imperial general we've met who has his head screwed on right.

I can't believe he brought such a huge army.

I'll prove that he needs it. Everyone, forward!

To mount a frontal assault when so badly outnumbered is not exactly wise, Synbios. We must stay north, maintain our mobility, engage them on our terms, and keep them scattered!

Is that so?



Benetram uses a lot of fancy words to say “Just stay on the road because they're really spread out.”

Since we've been tussling with skeletons and zombies for a while, a fight with the Imperial army brings us a bunch of new enemies:







Imperial knights are more or less chump fodder. Kaiser guards have better stats, but they hold swords and the two best characters of the game have lances. Mega loaders are just slow as tar. Master mages pose some threat, since Freeze 2 can really cause some damage, but as we've seen before, mage AI is pretty bad in this game. Franz himself is a bucket of HP, but nothing special beyond that. All in all, this is a fairly straightforward fight, except for being so outnumbered.



Noon's stats. He started promoted and with only one spell. Luckily, his base spell set is pretty good, Freeze 1 will do enough damage, and his support synergizes entirely too well with Masqurin. More on that when it comes up.



All there is to do for two or three turns is just run everyone north. The enemies stay perfectly still until you approach them. However, when you hit a certain point on the road:




Spiriel sure is carrying a curious entourage there.

The gods! He sent for reinforcements even with such a huge force!

If only the Imperial army were that functional. :laugh:

I have my suspicions that the following conversation was mangled in translation. Anyone who's played Scenario 2 will probably know what I'm talking about.

What? General Spiriel? I wasn't notified of this!



Worth noting here is that Spiriel's text scroll is extremely slow, to notify us that she's not all there. In any other game, the excessive ellipses would have tipped us off, but apparently that's normal speech patterns in Shining Force 3.

Spiriel, you're acting strange. Weren't you purusing the Republican army? You were reported missing.

Must hurry... urgent... get to... Elbesem Statue...

She almost seems possessed. Possibly some Bulzome magic? Could they be using her to destroy it?

Destroy what, Kahn?

The Elbesem statue in north Barrand province. It is the guardian which protects us from a Bulzome invasion.

What happens if it's destroyed?

If the statue is destroyed, Elbesem Village will be in grave danger. Please hurry, Lord Synbios! We mustn't let them get there first!



Well, Franz is an Imperial general and Spiriel clearly isn't in her right mind. Maybe the White Knights will take a direct order and






Well then. This just got a lot easier. That clump of soldiers Franz has in the southeast of the map? Spiriel's white knights are going to massacre them, and they won't fight back. This is entirely scripted, and there's no way to stop it. It makes the fight pretty easy, though you have to sit through a bunch of AI battling that doesn't matter, and frankly I could use the extra experience they would have forked over.



Once again, we can check stats on enemies we're not supposed to be fighting. Spiriel really isn't much tougher than Franz. If she were to replace Franz in this fight somehow, we'd probably still be able to take her down.



Every turn, Spiriel and her Bulzome buddies will march towards Franz. After two turns, we get this.



drat Spiriel! Now she's done it. They have broken through the southern camp. If we Imperials keep fighting amongst ourselves, it will give Synbios the advantage. Let the Spiriel army pass. I shall deal with her later. Just crush the Synbios army!

In your dreams, buddy.




Why don't we check out what Noon can do?





Not bad at all. In any other Shining Force game, where magic doesn't scale on invisible stats, a mage coming into the mid-game with nothing but Freeze 1 would be useless. Noon's going to prove pretty good, especially once I grind out his support with Masqurin.



There's more kaiser guards than imperial knights, which means an abundance of swords. That means Dantares and Cybel are going to be doing a lot of work. Once again, enemy axes are absent, and sword users get the hose.




A couple of enemy spawns that don't matter one lick. We'll just continue to tussle with the first set of enemies when this happens.



No, not the ground texture failing to load. Hitting level 10. :getin:



Spiriel's army continues to swarm Franz's.



Synbios is pretty beefy by now. Even with weapon disadvantage, he's not taking much damage. He's turning out much better this time around than in my previous run.



However, in my hubris, I forgot that Masqurin is still easily killed, even with a defense bracer.




:doh:

Since Masqurin is only level 8 and I want everyone to hit 10 by the end of this fight, I'm going to have to egress and restart the fight.



But what the hell, I may as well clear out as many mooks as possible to maximize experience gain. By the time I run away, Synbios, Dantares, Irene, Hayward, and Grace have all hit level 10. What does that mean?



:pcgaming: IT'S MOTHERFUCKING PROMOTION TIME :pcgaming:



See, when you hit level 10, you can promot a character. This changes their portrait, sprite, battle music, stat growths, and allows them to equip more powerful weapons. Here's what's cool about promotion in Shining Force 3: The game actually encourages you to do it as soon as possible.

The first incentive is that stat growths from levels 11 – 20 are really bad, and will generally only contain one or two stats. This prevents the problem Shining Force 2 had, where the more you delayed promotion, the more free stats you had in the long run. The second incentive is that casters will learn their new spells faster after promotion. This prevents the problem Shining Force 1 had where mages had to go through ten levels of not learning squat after promoting. The third incentive:



:sbahj:

Contrary to Shining Force 1 and CD, where stats take a universal 10% cut upon promotion, Shining Force 3 actually boosts your stats upon promoting. The hidden snag is that the game tends to have a difficulty spike right around promotion time, which means if you don't promote at all, you're going to have a very rough time.

Enough of that, let's check out everyone's cool new portraits.



Okay, back to the battlefield. Now that a few characters are promoted, this will make it much easier for me to separate out who needs experience and who's around to take hits.



Promoted characters rock some new threads, too. Check back in the character breakdowns if you want to see the promoted art.



Battle models are slightly different too. The attention to detail is just lovely.



The promoted characters are going to stand around and soak up damage while I feed experience to everyone else. A boost to defense in the range of 2 – 4 points is a gigantic difference at this point in the game.

Off to the side, you can also see Eldar getting swarmed, which would be bad news, but!



Irene looks good in lavender and gold.




Meanwhile, Kahn punches a few mans...



...Eldar takes advantage of the weird AI thinking Julian is a hero...



...and Synbios no longer gives any fucks.



After four or so turns, Spiriel and crew walk right by Franz and disappear. It's not possible to catch her.



Masqurin also hit level 9 and got a new toy to play with. Not Dispel, that comes from her weapon. Spark (formerly known as Bolt) comes in real early in Shining Force 3, and it's awesome.



Obright, being slow as molasses, takes a while to catch up. Thankfully, the boss uses a lance, so Obright can leech experience there.




The master mages have a pretty large aggro radius, so it's important to check your formation when they come rolling in with Freeze 2. Getting three or more characters hit with 10 – 12 damage is pretty crippling at this point in the game, especially if it's done back to back.



I get really lucky in that the second mage can't quite reach Cybel, sparing her life.



Since I don't really want to deal with more area spells, why don't I just seal off the mages and pick them apart?




Naturally, both of them resist. This is where I hit load state for a better idea.



Since the enemy was kind enough to line up for me, why don't we give Spark a spin? It costs 8 MP at rank 1, which is a drat lot compared to Blaze's 2 MP.



But hey, it's an area effect!





:gonk:



:shlick:



Once that's all taken care of, it's just Franz and friends. Those white knights in the back? No need to worry about them.



They just follow Spiriel across the bridge.



One of the kaiser guards and the mega loader jump out early, making them easy to pick off.



Unless the boss joins in on the fun.




Ow. Also worth noting that Franz has a slightly different palette than other knights.




I park Synbios right in front of Franz, since Synbios has a higher defense value, but Franz is having none of it.




Obright is does a good job of hacking up Franz's HP, though.



One round of beatings and he's at half HP. Franz is a pretty easy boss. I don't know why the game threw you the bone with Spiriel, because the fight wouldn't have been much harder even if you had to fight that third group of enemies.



Franz, however, can summon holy light and make Julian disappear. Almost. Like our characters, bosses have access to critical attacks. Lance users get Dominion Ray which will blind characters on top of doing tons of damage. Try to keep weapon advantage on bosses, because boss criticals are not nice.



Grace fixes everything up just nice, though.




Well poop. Looks like Julian's not getting promoted after this fight.




Thankfully this was right after Eldar hit level 10. Before you go thinking that I had trouble with this boss, I intentionally kept most of my characters off of him, so everyone who wasn't level 10 yet could get there. By the end of the fight, everyone except Julian and Obright hit it.



or for the love of




Yeah that's right Franz. You respect Synbios.



And you bow before the superior centaur.



Not a bad haul! And Cybel hits level 10 too!



You never defeated me, Synbios. Remember that! Hail... Destonian... Empire! Ugh!

Perhaps General Franz was correct. The Spiriel army's intrusion may have aided our victory, Synbios.

Aid we didn't need, but certainly accepted.

General Franz's death will be tough for them to take. And the fact it was caused by one of their own... We have no time for sympathy. If the statue Kahn mentioned is in danger, we must protect it, Synbios.

Everyone is quite exhausted. If we can afford to, we should rest a while.



Considering I have a bunch of people to promote, hell to the yes.

Hmm, though we are in a hurry, we could stock up on supplies and rest. Perhaps it would be wise.

We get to the next town which is a copy/paste job every time the game needs a placeholder for you to save and buy stuff. We'll explore it next update, but let's just get to the important part.



:getin:

Full portrait roll out:



Kahn's got a new hat, Cybel has attained the proper glare of disdain for her lessers, and Masqurin's popped her collar.

NEXT TIME: Setting up the plot to go off the rails!

inthesto fucked around with this message at 16:37 on Jan 8, 2014

Black Balloon
Dec 28, 2008

The literal grumpiest



Oh, well that's a pleasant surprise. Glad you're continuing this.

Khisanth Magus
Mar 31, 2011

Vae Victus
Have some broken portraits in there.

Also, are you using the retranslation of scenario 1? You probably mentioned somewhere whether you were or not, but I'm feeling lazy. Dunno if it changed anything in this particular conversation, but it did strive to get rid of most of the bad localization, particularly that which contradicts the later games.

Also, I may just be lucky, but basically every time I've played scenario 1 Synbios has ended up a complete beast who can tank and give no fucks doing so while also dealing good damage.

Khisanth Magus fucked around with this message at 18:50 on Jan 2, 2014

Ardeem
Sep 16, 2010

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

Also poor General Franz, he's like one of five or six of the imperial generals who arn't utterly terrible people and then he gets backstabbed by another one of them. It gets even more tragic when we get to Senario 2.

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DJ Ramshackle
Nov 26, 2009

Not really a DJ

not quite a ramshackle
Happy New Year and good to see this back, loving the new threads for the characters.

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