J.A.B.C. fucked around with this message at 09:44 on Aug 19, 2013

• There are Desperado terminals and items (and at least one time, an enemy hiding in a box) hidden all over the place that don't show up in AR Mode. Usually, if you look at an area and think "it looks like Raiden can get up/over there," there's treasure to be had. Don't just rely on AR Mode to show you where all the loot is. The stages are pretty small--take your time and look around. Pay special attention to suspicious-looking cuttable crates, especially when they're up against walls.
  
  
• As with most of the other Metal Gear games, talk to everyone, all the time, especially after important events happen.
  
  
• Picking up an item when you are already at max capacity for it will give you some BP.
  
  
• If you're playing the game just for the story, don't be afraid to play in Easy/Auto mode. With some notable exceptions (MONSOOOOOOOON!), you can just mash the attack buttons and the bad guys will all get cut up.
  

Pneub fucked around with this message at 22:34 on Aug 21, 2013

Random Hajile fucked around with this message at 01:51 on Aug 23, 2013

• Save often.
• Be aware that the game includes many player-abusive JPRG tropes.
  
  • It's possible to lock yourself out of optional quests, and even entire optional areas, permanently if you do things in the wrong order.
    
  • Important game mechanics, abilities, tactics, etc... will be absent until you advance the plot far enough to reveal them; the early section of the game is a pseudo-tutorial which you're forced to run through on every subsequent playthrough. If you start grinding early, then it's possible that you'll give up in frustration before the game has revealed its full set of features.
    
  • It's possible to reduce the effectiveness of your characters by failing to specialize them properly. It isn't possible to truly gimp them, unless you deliberately disable ALL of their weapon skill and mystic arts.
    
  • There are hidden statistics and counters for factors such as skill progression, rare enemy spawns, companion weapon upgrades, etc... As a consequence, many gameplay outcomes feel highly random and you may be forced to replay sections (grind) if you're trying to achieve something specific.
    
• If you have a sufficiently-large union (4 members?) all using magic attacks, and they're the correct magic attacks, and everyone has enough AP, then the individual attacks get replaced by a ridiculously-powerful AoE attack (such as Blackout).
  
  • Very rarely, enemy unions will accidentally trigger the same effect (since they use the same gameplay mechanics as your unions). The result is usually a Game Over.
• I'd recommend switching the QTE triggers to automatic. The core aspect of gameplay is tactical; you'll see the various attack animations so many times that you'll probably stop paying attention to them (I sometimes found myself taking my hands off the keyboard entirely after pressing "Go"), and if you're using manual triggers then you'll probably miss them and get annoyed.
  
• Spend a few minutes on the wiki to learn about status effects. Stuff like poison can usually be ignored (since characters won't reliably clear it even when ordered to use recovery abilities, the per-round damage is low enough that you can usually finish the fight normally, and it clears automatically when the fight ends). "Cursed" is a much more serious problem.
  
• After major plot developments, you'll sometimes find that your union capacity has been increased. If you're powergaming, then you'll probably want to deploy as many unions as possible (but with fewer members in each). Large unions are more likely to be flanked, but they have a deeper HP pool which makes them more forgiving (incoming damage is partially divided among members, so the entire team tends to remain standing until the union HP falls below ~30%). Either way, be sure to recruit any highly-skilled mercenaries or special characters that you run across.
  
• Special characters will use their special ablities only when assigned as union leaders. You can organize your team however you want, of course. But if you're looking for "Limit Break" stuff then let the voiced characters take command.
  
• The crafting system is a giant pain-in-the-rear end. Last time that I played, I just used a memory editor to give myself 99 of each component. I don't regret doing so. gently caress grind forever.
  
• If you manage to capture an enemy alive (usually because you used the Knockout effect, but it sometimes happens randomly when dealing lethal damage) then you'll get an option at the end of the battle. "Split" means "split the monster open and harvest its rare components." "Keep" means "take it with us so that we can subsequently sell it to a chef for lots of money." This isn't a moral choice; the monster is going to die either way. Just decide whether you want the components or the cash.
  
• By default, party members manage their own inventory while you can equip only the protagonist. You can upgrade party equipment by performing incredibly tedious fetch quests for them at randomly-triggered moments. At other random times, they'll offer to replace their current weapon with something selected at-random from the party inventory (and you're not allowed to open the inventory to make a comparison; you're given only a Yes/No prompt!). gently caress that noise. You're a PC gamer, you have text editing powers. Assume direct control.

Neddy Seagoon fucked around with this message at 16:32 on Aug 23, 2013