Intoner Two

Two of my beloved titles came to mind when I could think of elements to nitpick about (is merely that because I don't mind them even with these flaws). Persona 3: -Why are the two most gameplay elements (lack of direct control for allies and the chance to get worked over by the Tired status (or worse, Sickness)) completely alleviated in the portable version of this game and none else? Grrr... (That will prove less of a problem after my securing of a fresh PC following my upcoming tax return, at the least.) -Also, while I enjoy the BGM of Tartarus (how it literally becomes more epic as one ascends further); there are truly too many floors and splitting up is kind of dumb since again, outside the PSP port's fixes, you don't reap the full rewards from that feature (making the team hand over their yen correctly should have been addressed before the first build's release but, hindsight). Summoner 2: -This game was such a treat for me as it is one of the few Western-developed games I enjoy fully, but there simply isn't enough of it. It sort of triggers my OCD that I have no idea what the true character exp lvl cap is (want to say 50 since accounts have stated people could reach at most lvl 36 and I personally never passed 33 as far as I remember). Which is honestly silly because almost everyone completely masters their skill lists by lvl 24 and the exp required to lvl up slows to a super crawl, requiring literally over a million points post-30. -The game is rather imbalanced but that's part of it's charm. I kind of wish that Krobelus could be kept in the party even if the script wouldn't acknowledge him (Star Ocean 4 treatment, essentially). I'm so salty over the loss of his super supportive Holy skill line for Yago's Fire skill line (good coverage but Maia forever bests him there anyway because of her Discipline line granting fantastic boosts to the spells); but that's just my opinion.

I'm highly anticipating FE: Warriors and today I felt like theorizing Heroes-style units in homage to several of the characters featured in Koei-Tecmo's Dynasty Warriors (with some nuances referencing the RotK novelization). Here's a few I've assembled with the current game balance in mind. (A few feature unique skills, of course.)

With regards to representing series' mechanics in beat-em-up gameplay, I feel the weapon triangle could be implemented in a fashion similar to Samurai Warriors 4-2's way that most enemy officers resisted Godspeed attacks, not fully blocking them but taking less damage and generally not being stunned by such attacks; you can just switch up your attack then to compensate. Something to that effect with a bad weapon matchup. I really want to see L'Arachel, if any character, in the game because she'd fit right in a multiverse setting in general (slightly my biased opinion though I can dream) and her personality just writes itself almost into such a hamfisted plot that could develop.

Well, I do know that the arte learn-rate was seldom below 30% after all calculations which factored in a possible negative Luck (since the games' devil arms weapons could reduce luck, as did some normal equipment); and that was why sometimes you could finish a fight or two and still not have actually "learned" the attack you would have, even after meeting the usage requirement (and the T/S tree condition in Symphonia). I have found that the probability of getting a Toss Hammer when using Colette's Pow Hammer/Hammer Revenge EX to occur, however, never exceeds 1/12. That also applies to every hammer that appears in Pow Pow Hammer and/or Hammer Rain (Para Ball doesn't use the hammer animation). Any who, I agree that Luck not having an easily predicted effect, as a stat, makes it rather dumb, so its removal is a benefit in general.

Just felt like actually answering this statement since many years ago I read multiple sources concerning the games' battle formulas. (particularly, Symphonia and the Destiney PS2 remake). From memory, the stat affects the base chance of learning an arte/tech in-battle if it was not automatically unlocked on leveled up (primarily in Symphonia, Abyss and any title where using a prior arte multiple times was required before unlocking a higher arte or combination arte). With high luck, the new arte would usually be added on the first weapon swing or spell completion from the character. It also slightly affected the added effects of artes procuring (such as the success rate of Item Thief/Rover or the random chance of getting a Toss Hammer which inflicts poison 100% if hit and not immune) or resisting a status ailment. Luck randomized itself every time one rested at an inn or on level up, to my knowledge. Much of the Titles post-Abyss have circumvented Luck by adding more effects to artes to be acquired upon repeated usage and artes with random elements (like most of Patty Fleur's) can only be influenced by the presence of skills or character-specific mechanics. Oh, and it did have a slight influence on the odds of scoring a critical hit, but elemental weaknesses typically did the job of pumping out higher numbers more efficiently that the Luck stat generally could be ignored most of the time, hence what I presume prompted the full removal of the stat in the games' menus and system.

I'll certainly agree that luck can be rather superfluous at times unless it affects near every calculation (which it does in some of the Wild Arms entries, though instead of growing it is randomized at specific clock or input-based intervals). My least favorite stat is Speed. I think it has too much sway in dictating whom has the upperhand or who contributes the most in many RPG battles. So, I like games where it has little impact (if any) to battles. I don't mind it determining priority if combatants are generally all allowed to act before the next "turn" occurs; Golden Sun or even the Persona games do this well, among others. If someone is being lapped in the turn queue, then either they should be much more stronger to justify the limited turnaround rate. Or the faster characters should be somewhat limited at least in one key aspect that they appreciate the slower man/woman's contribution. Or perhaps, have the slow characters be especially talented at making their faster comrades even deadlier with potent support skills or something, to encourage waiting on them to make some battles that would be unwinnable otherwise, a breeze.

Zhou Cang? Zh-Zhou Cang!!? Wha? Then they better add Liao Hua if they're going with former Yellow Turbans associated with Shu. (really think him and Wang Ping would be great adds to Shu, on my personal bias) But I'll admit, they surprised me. Always hyped for the new faces.

Oh, I understand. I mentally considered games with ATB style to be "turn" based since you do technically wait for your chance to input a command rather than freely move and attack at your own discretion as in what I consider as an action role-playing title.

I have a slight preference for Action RPGs since there are few turn-based games in which the game-play mentally excites me as much as the prior. I enjoy the challenge of dictating precisely when to make certain actions, and one of my personal pet peeves involves acts of repetition. Usually, action role-playing titles give me a great deal of unpredictable and non-repetitive elements when engaged in the battles, which is a great feeling as opposed to the somewhat routine approach to most battles in turn-based rpgs. Even tactically stimulating encounters can oft be trivialized by using a tried and tested approach, yet, action games rarely present the precisely same encounter twice, even if the opponent seems predictable (Tales of is really good with this variance on their higher difficulties, in my opinion). Do I fully despise the tried and true approach to those types, though? No, but it is often helped if they have something that engages me beyond just their battles; or even if they manage to present some of the story through the battles (the Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel and Final Fantasy IX are good examples of my favorite turn-based rpgs that do both of those points adequately, for me). Still, really enjoy the somewhat chaotic tension many action rpgs manage to present and the satisfaction of overcoming it.

Lately I've been enjoying the Neptunia franchise by Idea Factory & Compile Heart, so I thought I'd craft a hypothetical class based on my favorite major character in those games, Blanc. White Heart A Goddess from an Outrealm nation called Lowee. Subjugates those who'd threaten her people with axes or clubs. Innate: Critical Evade +10 Max Stats: HP Str Mag Skl Spd Luk Def Res Mov WpnLvl 65 37 25 29 25 32 40 33 7* - S * - Base Mov is 5. Pair-Up: 2 Str 4 Def 2 Res Class Skills: Lvl 1 Hair-Trigger "Hit & Crit +15 when enemy triggers battle and user's Health < 50%." Lvl 10 Defense Support "Adjacent allies take 3 less damage and enemy's follow-up attack speed -3 during battles." Lvl 25 Mental Support "Adjacent allies' Rally and non-combat support skills with effective range are extended by 1." Lvl 35 Hard Break "Skl% chance of rendering the enemy unable to move nor attack for 1 turn after battle* with the user." * - Blanc must be able to counterattack for this skill to work.

Unsure how many people know this but I learned about a day or two prior that the Stack x16 bonus skill (might be called Infinity?) is one which causes the character to never stop attacking as long as they have SC and continue pressing artes button. Which is pretty neat but might take some effort to do. Fortunately it can be done pretty easily lategame. The steps are, essentially... 1). Get any Lord of the Land to at least Blessing lvl 6 (or whichever one says "Allows Lord of the Land to Bless equipment that have been fused to +10 or higher," something like that). 2). Set a Normin to this Lord of the Land with the skill you want to get a stack 16 for (something that reduces SC cost or replenishes it would probably be pretty darn swank). 3). Begin farming equipment in the domain with the skill you want. Fuse as much as you can and begin blessing the items. What blessing does it changes the item's variable name (i.e. Calcite, Adamantine, Feldspar, etc.) to "Unnamed" (I think?) and the top skill will become x2 (meaning you literally get the skill twice, in NG+ files, x2 or x3 skills can be permitted to count that many times in stacks/unions while they normally cannot, nifty!). What's more important is that Unnamed items can be fused to any other item of the same type (umbrella, hat, ring, whatever) AND these items blessed by your Lord of the Land can be inherited through multiple playthroughs using the Grade Shop. 4). With patience and a bit of luck (but mostly patience), you can have your 16 Chein blessed items and totally school Chaos difficulty bosses. (and laugh as they one shot the terrible AI, lol)

It's like Graces mixed with Xillia 2. In terms of learning artes, they're based on the titles as you probably figured out (and well this is just if anyone's unsure). There's this internal counter based on the level and effect of titles the character has equipped/trained that affects the learn order but you'll probably have unlocked everything eventually just dicking around. Like, the Wind Seraph will start with their Mystic Arte but won't have their HP healing spell for a while until you level their other titles. Skills are the funky part though. All equipment skills you see in item slots are cumulative (i.e. two items equipped with Attak will increase your Atk by 8%). And then how they end up displayed in the skill board affects what bonus skill(s) one gets (game has several skits talking about it). Title effects do not grant bonus skills. Basically the game rewards one heavily for fusing items with potentially strong effects (or just helpful ones like extra elemental or status resistance). When you equip stuff, just watch the little diamonds pop up in the skill board. If a box appears around one, a bonus is created from a Stack (the cumulation effect I mentioned). If two or more symbols are adjacent horizontally, it's an Element chain bonus. Finally, a whole column of symbols creates a Union. Generally, the greater the Stack, the longer your Element chain or the further right the Union is, the better the bonus skills are (but that obviously aren't the most practical thing). Anywho~ I rather like the game so far, myself. It's the first Tales of title where I actually use the protagonist the most so far in battle (though I also enjoy playing as Edna at times). I feel the characters all have their entertaining points and don't dislike nor feel any one is unimportant.

I liked what the official strategy guides for Blazing Sword and Sacred Stones did (if I'm remembering correctly, I haven't read mine in a while). They gave an indication of the characters' growth rates represented by letter rankings. The closer to A, the more often the chance the stat in question went up. I feel this is fair, it gives you some semblence of how the unit will turn out but is not promising you anything either by spoiling hard numbers (I expect the writer(s) of the English guides just compared files with friends and family who were playing their copies to gather an educated guesstimate). And by comparing those to base stats, one can decide if they truly want to invest in the character on a long-term basis. Or they can better choose how they want to allocate their resources. Another fair point is the one Dan made--it can be challenging and feel rewarding to use characters that may not seem as great statistically, and that's often much more feasible to a person than throwing themself onto a higher "difficulty" setting. (quotations as difficulty is entirely subjective)

Since the localized name, Cordelia, does have a minor Shakespearen reference tied to it, my opinion is that maybe Matoi will get a similar treatement. I'd be optomistic towards her being named Helena, although I feel likewise odd because her father is Hoshidan so. Perhaps maybe Erica because its a flower and the letters are all a part of Cordelia, too. And that's more belivable name for the culture. I think Crimson may be named any of Amara, Cinna, Carmen or Ruby given they all at least fit the trend of the name and are more normal sounding to English speakers for a lady's name. Maybe Foleo will get called Leonard, maybe, or some other name that means lion that I'm not thinking of but can be suiting. I do think some of the Hoshido characters will get similar treatments to (T)Subaki like, maybe, Midori(ko). Perhaps.