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I have learned two things about Mary Skelter today.

1.) Blood Devolution was a mistake. While it did allow me to redistribute previously spent skill points and only teach my characters skills they actually need, getting them back to their previous level before I used it (level 32, for reference) takes aaaaages. And I can't go into dungeons that are too high-level, because if I get ambushed, that's basically a game over, so I have to go to the first or second dungeon (I'm on the fourth right now, story-wise) to get them back up to speed. This is... going to increase the playtime by a lot. *sigh*
At least I got rid of some skills I wasn't using anyway.

2.) Paladins suck. They are meant to be tanks, but they do a poor job at that, because due to how the game works, their low Agility stat basically prevents them from using their Cover and Intimidate skills (the first lets the Paladin take damage for another party member, the second makes enemies more likely to attack the Paladin) before the enemy has a chance to attack. If you want to use these skills, you'd have to stack Agility-boosting equipment on your Paladin. But most equipment that boosts Agility in any significant capacity doesn't give too high bonuses to the defenses, meaning your Paladin won't be able to take too much damage.
Another death sentence is that the Cover skill doesn't work against AOE attacks, which most bosses are using. 
Yet another one is the Paladin's inherent passive that lowers all damage the Paladin will take in exchange for lowering any damage they'll deal. And of course, the latter what makes the class utterly useless in combat, so even an offensive role for your Paladin flies straight out the window.

It's a damn shame, too, because aesthetically, the Paladin class is actually really cool. It's Cinderella's best-looking class in fact, which is why I tried her out as one, which lead to the discovery above.
IIVN9jz.jpg
Alas, it wasn't meant to be.

But let me tell you, if Fire Emblem's Paladins looked half as good as this, I'd be using them way more often.

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I hardly used confuse artes in Sky, but in Zero I noticed they are really good.

And one arte looks like Emma's s-craft.

 

Also that comversation the morning after Lloyd and Elie had a little "rendezvous" was hilariously funny.

Little Tio was everything but not curious.

She's truly a detective.

Edited by Reisalin Stout
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6 minutes ago, Shrimperor said:

I don't think i ever played a RPG where tanking is useful lol.

Etrian Odyssey, arguably. But even there, it's usually preferable to just outright murder your enemies, because if you are ever in a position where the enemy can murder you outright, they probably will, tank or no tank.

6 minutes ago, Shrimperor said:

Well, there's Blanc in Rebirth 1, taking only 1000 damage while everyone else took like 8k damage, but that's it xD

I used Blanc mostly for her useful party-wide Defense buff in Re;Birth 1. In the other games, though, not so much. VII nerfed her significantly by making her that game's version of Radiant Dawn Ike: tanks everything physical but dies as soon as any magic-based enemy so much as sneezes on her.
Not to mention that my main squad in VII doesn't include Blanc, anyway.

Edited by DragonFlames
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2 hours ago, DragonFlames said:

2.) Paladins suck. They are meant to be tanks, but they do a poor job at that, because due to how the game works, their low Agility stat basically prevents them from using their Cover and Intimidate skills (the first lets the Paladin take damage for another party member, the second makes enemies more likely to attack the Paladin) before the enemy has a chance to attack. If you want to use these skills, you'd have to stack Agility-boosting equipment on your Paladin. But most equipment that boosts Agility in any significant capacity doesn't give too high bonuses to the defenses, meaning your Paladin won't be able to take too much damage.
Another death sentence is that the Cover skill doesn't work against AOE attacks, which most bosses are using. 

What!?! Did the developer even notice how EO always, barring shiny enemies or super-duper priority skills, give it's tanks guaranteed action priority when using their damage redirection and reduction skills? This even isn't exclusive to EO. Bravely Default is very cheeseable later on with a combination of a Spiritmaster's Stillness and three Ninjas using Shippujinrai.

 

2 hours ago, DragonFlames said:

Etrian Odyssey, arguably. But even there, it's usually preferable to just outright murder your enemies, because if you are ever in a position where the enemy can murder you outright, they probably will, tank or no tank.

For EO newbies, a Protector/Hoplite/Fortress/Dragoon is very recommended, and I'd say they're still good even if you aren't one.

I'd say specifically that the "reduces all damage taken for one turn for a given line by %" tank skills are excellent.

The "damage redirection to one unit approach" taken by the Fortress* and Beast, is generally harder to use. Since having everyone/a line take reduced damage, is usually easier to handle than one character redirecting all damage towards themself. However, for teams with very fragile units, the redirection approach can be superior.

Using a good ailment or some binds to shutdown a FOE/boss altogether and escape most or all damage for a few turns of full offense, does end up being better I'd say than trying to tank them. Of course, the viability of this strat is dependent on team composition and on the particular game- you can't rely on shutdown as much in EOs IV and Untold as you can in V.

For randoms, I'd say it depends on the enemy composition and the number of enemies your Bind/Ail skills can cover. Though using a combination of both shutdown and tanking, or either + great offense (without setup required), works best for common enemies.

 

*Well, the Fortress benefits from the hardest difficulty of IV being easier than the others, my memories are really hazy, but the Fort had no major issues surviving randoms until the 6th Labyrinth. The Fallen One and weakened WS were even tankable if they didn't use their TEC-based attacks from what I recall. Subclassed Fan Dance gave a fair chance of living through multi-hits & target alls to boot, and I wasn't even using Weak Shield- which could've further halved incoming damage on many turns.

 

 

That reminds me, I made to the end of the 3rd Stratum of EOV. My Legendary Titles have so far performed as follows:

  • Phantom Duelist- Good with dodging, most of the time. But Lure has been used far less than I thought I would've. Four-slots free Lightweight is a lot less incredible than I thought, since most of the PD's skills demand a sword to be used. I gave them the Urumi for Phantom Swords and a 1-point Deft Thrust, the SP now goes to getting Phantom Swords to 9, and afterwards it will be Dodge Boon and some Union Skills that get point. Rays of Light disappoints as well, since I can't get many stacks of it during random encounters.
  • Blade Dancer- Reblossom and Layered Bloom are maxed. Points are now directed at Peerless Demon and afterwards I'll max Multi-Katana b/c it'll benefit Lure when I do use it. It's my one character that does powerful normal damage.
  • Shield Bearer- Divide Guard at 9 is all it needs, though Dragon Roar is at 9 too. It can die too easily even with Divide Guard, which is a problem, and especially because Nectars are annoyingly inconsistent to farm.
  • Spirit Broker- I've spread my SP too thin on this unit. I've gotten Fair Trade to only 2 and Zombie Powder to 4, I must improve FT first, since Zombie Powder even underinvested is awesome. I shouldn't have wasted 3 SP for a 1-point Life Exchange.
  • Divine Herald- The accessibility and healing of Holy Flame is great, and Haste Prayer has probably done a lot of good for my Phantom. Though I feel I waste this class's healing potential somewhat with the Dragoon on Divide Guard duty. Benevolence is my next goal, but it guzzles endless SP to get to.
Edited by Interdimensional Observer
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1 hour ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

What!?! Did the developer even notice how EO always, barring shiny enemies or super-duper priority skills, give it's tanks guaranteed action priority when using their damage redirection and reduction skills?

Yeah, action priority doesn't exist in Mary Skelter, because you can only select a character's action once their turn hits, which means - at least so far - this game favors hyper offense as opposed to a defensive strategy. You can pretty much slaughter every random encounter with a Destroyer and an AOE skill provided you have enough SP to use it. You also get ranged fighters that learn strong debuffs both for offense as well as defense AND they get AOE skills that are pretty strong themselves. With high agility, they'll also have pretty high turn speeds. Then, there's the Marshal and Speed Gunner classes that have a passive that lets them attack twice with normal attacks on occasion, which is great for removing anything left over after a slew of AOE attacks stacked on top of each other.
On top of that, the Blood Mage job offers a spell that always hits on weakness, which creates lots of Blood Splatters, which means your characters will enter Massacre Mode more easily to access the nearly broken Massacre skills, which are stronger versions of regular skills at approximately zero or at the very least negligible SP cost - also, hitting enemies while in Massacre Mode regenerates HP and SP based on how much damage you dealt in total on top of the Mode already giving you a good boost to your stats, so there is no disadvantages to entering it.

2 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

This even isn't exclusive to EO. Bravely Default is very cheeseable later on with a combination of a Spiritmaster's Stillness and three Ninjas using Shippujinrai.

My favorite tactic in Bravely Default, especially against bosses with pure physical attacks, is to have a Ninja redirect attacks to my Swordmaster and have the Swordmaster use their counter skills. Good times, good times. I guess tactics like these will become useless in Bravely Default 2, however, as action selection is also based on turn order.

1 hour ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

For EO newbies, a Protector/Hoplite/Fortress/Dragoon is very recommended, and I'd say they're still good even if you aren't one.

I'd say specifically that the "reduces all damage taken for one turn for a given line by %" tank skills are excellent.

I'm actually more a fan of the Full Guard skill that protects your entire team from damage. I think they get it in Untold 2 and IV. Not sure though.
Far too often have I seen enemies just attack the Back Row when I tried to guard the front and vice versa, thus I have taken to using the Protectors in the Untold games' story modes as additional healers (especially in Untold 1: Protector gets a skill that regenerates HP and MP while walking around, which is awesome for the more advanced stratums) or just have them spam Shield Rush every turn in Untold 2 (which lowered enemy damage, which was great) - Untold 2's story mode party was pretty much perfectly suited for shutting down everything and using hyper offense, anyhow. My EOV, and Nexus teams didn't contain any dedicated tanks and I got by just fine, I believe.

1 hour ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Using a good ailment or some binds to shutdown a FOE/boss altogether and escape most or all damage for a few turns of full offense, does end up being better I'd say than trying to tank them. Of course, the viability of this strat is dependent on team composition and on the particular game- you can't rely on shutdown as much in EOs IV and Untold as you can in V.

Yeah, IV especially is very weird when it comes to its selection of classes, as none of them feel very good or strong in any capacity (the initial ones, at the very least). Ailments don't hit quite as often, but the skills to induce them cost a ton of MP, damage output is constantly low even when sufficiently levelled and you're basically screwed if you don't teach a Healer that skill that regenerates HP by walking. My opinion on EOIV in general is not the highest, though. It certainly overstepped some of my patience boundaries on more than one occasion.

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4 hours ago, Shrimperor said:

I don't think i ever played a RPG where tanking is useful lol.

Xenoblade and Pokemon come to mind. Xenoblade because having enemies focus on your tank while your other two (or three in X) party members beat the shit out of it is pretty useful. In Xenoblade 1, Reyn's Talent Art straight-up forces the enemy(ies) to target him. And Riki in Xenoblade 1 and Tora in Xenoblade 2 can both reach the HP cap natrually. 

Pokemon because you actually have a lot of good defensive options, not to mention good defensive Pokemon in general. It comes down to the Pokemon, sure, but there are Pokemon that can take super-effective hits and still live with enough HP with the right setups. And then there's Blissey and her gazillion HP (fighting Blissey in Gen 4 hahahaha). Though of course, with exceptions, Pokemon battles are always 1v1s so tanking in Pokemon isn't the same as tanking in other RPGs. But the principle stands.

Across more specific instances, i'm gonna have to echo Blanc's AoE defense buff.

3 minutes ago, DragonFlames said:

Yeah, action priority doesn't exist in Mary Skelter, because you can only select a character's action once their turn hits, which means - at least so far - this game favors hyper offense as opposed to a defensive strategy.

?

Isn't that like, normal? I've never played a dungeon crawler apart from Pokemon Mystery Dungeon and those games follow a different set of rules anyway.

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14 minutes ago, Armagon said:

?

Isn't that like, normal? I've never played a dungeon crawler apart from Pokemon Mystery Dungeon and those games follow a different set of rules anyway.

Etrian Odyssey games, Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk and - outside of dungeon crawlers - Bravely Default/Second as well as Shin Megami Tensei IV have a system similar to Atelier Sophie where you pick each character's actions first and then the turn plays out. Mary Skelter plays more like the other JRPGs like Final Fantasy X, Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth, Fairy Fencer F, Neptunia, Trails and other Atelier games that show you a turn order and you can choose each character's action when their turn comes up, which makes it - as far as I know - pretty unique among the Etrian Odyssey-like dungeon crawlers.

EDIT: Oh yeah, I forgot about Tora, without whom I wouldn't have even made it as far as I have in Xenoblade 2. RIP my memory.

Edited by DragonFlames
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Hahahahaha! I've done it!

The Queen finally died in her early 70's, like her father. Now I'm playing as her grandson. Sadly, since the bloodline fusion marriage was matrilinear and his wife is now the Petty Queen of Mercia, their children are in her court, away from my care. Oh well, such was the price to pay. Oddly enough, after two sons, they've had nothing but daughters.

Anyway, new person in charge, it was time for another Reconquista war. First, however, I took advantage the Byzantines were dealing with a revolt to snatch the Balearic Islands away from them. I simply had to take Mallorca. Menorca apparently was set free, somehow. Since I had usurped the Kingdom of Valencia title from the Umayyad, from which the islands are de jure part of, the count was all too happy to be vassalized. The Duchy of Mallorca is a prime place for me to establish a Merchant Republic. Just two counties, and prime spot for them to expand east into the rest of the Mediterranean. Though they will have to compete with the other MR's in the area. Although I also made another MR in Lisboa. Also two-counties big, and the Atlantic coast is usually devoid of MR's, so no competition for them.

In any case, after that I enacted the next Reconquista war. I decided to make the biggest blow, taking Seville and Granada. Now I have the 80% county requirement to form Hispania! Although, first, I need to snatch away the Umayyad's kingdom-tier title: which is Andalusia. Since Hispania can't be formed as long both religions (Christians and Muslims) control at least one of each kingdom title.

Also, curiously, the Reconquista vassalized a few counts in Africa. Don't know why, since they're all Muslims. Hmm, I'll think on what to do with them... some other day.

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9 hours ago, Armagon said:

Traditionally, the US Special Editions tend to be better than the UK ones. Let's let them have this one.

Well, now I need to get the U.K version too.

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3 hours ago, DragonFlames said:

Yeah, IV especially is very weird when it comes to its selection of classes, as none of them feel very good or strong in any capacity (the initial ones, at the very least). Ailments don't hit quite as often, but the skills to induce them cost a ton of MP, damage output is constantly low even when sufficiently levelled and you're basically screwed if you don't teach a Healer that skill that regenerates HP by walking. My opinion on EOIV in general is not the highest, though. It certainly overstepped some of my patience boundaries on more than one occasion.

IV was my first, as I expect it was for many. But in QoL it's now comparatively lacking, and the absence of multiple save slots stops me from doing a second run of it, even if I want to try a Link team with a Dancer too.

As for classes, Nightseeker, Imperial, Arcanist are the strongest three I'd say, though Imperials come late and are mostly for bosses. Sniper and Bushi are lackluster, but everything else their main job sufficiently.

 

3 hours ago, DragonFlames said:

Etrian Odyssey games, Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk and - outside of dungeon crawlers - Bravely Default/Second as well as Shin Megami Tensei IV have a system similar to Atelier Sophie where you pick each character's actions first and then the turn plays out. Mary Skelter plays more like the other JRPGs like Final Fantasy X, Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth, Fairy Fencer F, Neptunia, Trails and other Atelier games that show you a turn order and you can choose each character's action when their turn comes up, which makes it - as far as I know - pretty unique among the Etrian Odyssey-like dungeon crawlers.

I'd separate SMTIV b/c it alternates all player actions, and then all enemy actions, due to the Press Turn system.

I think I'd say I prefer selecting everyone's actions together and then letting the actions play out according to speed stats It feels better that way, particularly in case of extreme instances where a fast character can get more turns than a slow ones.

 

3 hours ago, Armagon said:

Reyn's Talent Art straight-up forces the enemy(ies) to target him.

And Dunban's Peerless aura, I don't remember if that ever killed me, but it is a weaker Mad Taunt aggro effect with a damage buff for Dunban. My old strat starting a battle controlling the guy was Peerless + every attack I threw on him, followed by Serene Heart during the subsequent cooldown period.

 

For XCX, you had two Arts on foot (three, but one- Infuriate- was Cross exclusive and basically redundant with Decoy Round) that could inflict the Taunt debuff: Trash Talk on the Shield, Decoy Round on the Assault Rifle. 

Decoy Round was single target. Trash Talk was AoE- which might cause the AI to not use against a lone foe and to attract peaceful nearby unwanted company. The cooldown vs. duration of the debuff was 22.8 vs 14.0 for Trash Talk and 22.8 vs. 12 for Decoy Round at level 3. At level 5 it was 18.0 vs. 14.0 for Trash Talk and 18.0 vs. 18.0 for Decoy Round. Extend Taunt Augments are very easy to craft (not that I ever made on ingame) and very strong for boosting duration by 5-25 seconds.

That pair of Taunt-having Arts (and some more for Skells) are the only form of enemy aggro control in XCX, maybe. The game didn't explain aggro at all in the manual, and there is a total absence of aggro increasing or decreasing passive skills when I think about it. So while I first went into XCX thinking the XC1 aggro system still existed, I think it doesn't exist at all now, just Taunt, I've read a few people saying that. A questionable move for sure.

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3 hours ago, DragonFlames said:

Etrian Odyssey games, Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk and - outside of dungeon crawlers - Bravely Default/Second as well as Shin Megami Tensei IV have a system similar to Atelier Sophie where you pick each character's actions first and then the turn plays out. Mary Skelter plays more like the other JRPGs like Final Fantasy X, Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth, Fairy Fencer F, Neptunia, Trails and other Atelier games that show you a turn order and you can choose each character's action when their turn comes up, which makes it - as far as I know - pretty unique among the Etrian Odyssey-like dungeon crawlers.

I see. Well on paper, that shouldn't stop you from using defensive options in Mary Skelter so the fact that defensive options aren't that good in that game is probably due to the game's design rather than how the turn order plays out.

8 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

That pair of Taunt-having Arts (and some more for Skells) are the only form of enemy aggro control in XCX, maybe. The game didn't explain aggro at all in the manual, and there is a total absence of aggro increasing or decreasing passive skills when I think about it. So while I first went into XCX thinking the XC1 aggro system still existed, I think it doesn't exist at all now, just Taunt, I've read a few people saying that. A questionable move for sure.

So apart from Taunt, the only way to draw away aggro is to just deal enough damage? Yeah, that is pretty odd. Could result in some pretty deadly situations.

_________________________________________________

A game i've always wanted to play went on sale, so i picked it up. As much as i've wanted to play it before, i couldn't due to to reasons

  1. the original release was on Wii U
  2. The Switch port is $60 normally and i didn't want to pay full price for it

The game i'm refering to is

EVNAnlcUcAI33Fs?format=jpg&name=large

For the past three years, i've pretty much solidifed myself as a "JRPG" guy. Not every game on my Switch is a JRPG though. I have Smash Bros of course, Astral Chain which is a God-tier action game, and some indie games, all of which are action platformers and Metroidvanias.

Until now, i did not have a single pure platformer. I've played Mario Odyssey but that was borrowed. That was in 2017 btw. Mario Odyssey was the last pure platformer i've played to completion but i genuianly can't remember the last pure 2D platformer i've played. God, it's been so long. I've heard great things about Tropical Freeze. The only other DKC game i've played was Returns on 3DS (Ninty, when are the DKC games coming to SNES Online?) and that game was really good so i'm hoping Tropical Freeze lives up to it.

Edited by Armagon
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Made a little progress on DQIV. Just went through the Diabolic Hall. Now it's off to Mamon Mine and fight the Lord of the Underworld, Estark!

Though that will be for another day.

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Final Fantasy 7 Remake came out today. But the law of equivalent exchange demands something in return.

That's why SMT 5 is never coming out.

5 hours ago, Shrimperor said:

Is Mario Kart considered weeb nowdays? xD

I mean, it has Link in it haha.

But yeah, I think the only "non-anime" games I have on my Switch are Tropical Freeze, Mario Kart 8, Celeste and Stardew Valley.

Not sure where Smash falls into this tbh.

Edited by Armagon
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12 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

IV was my first, as I expect it was for many. But in QoL it's now comparatively lacking, and the absence of multiple save slots stops me from doing a second run of it, even if I want to try a Link team with a Dancer too.

My first EO game was Untold The Millenium Girl and I instantly liked it. Then I got IV and I didn't enjoy it half as much as I did Untold.
I think my biggest problem with IV is that it suffers from the worst case of early game hell I have ever experienced.

11 hours ago, Armagon said:

I see. Well on paper, that shouldn't stop you from using defensive options in Mary Skelter so the fact that defensive options aren't that good in that game is probably due to the game's design rather than how the turn order plays out.

On paper, it doesn't, and you do want someone who can provide healing in your party. Though as I outlined, the Paladin job in particular absolutely needs equipment to boost its Agility, which leaves its defenses lower than I would like for a class meant to take hits.
And why would you need a tank when you can do this every other battle?
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WDLwwve.jpg

2 hours ago, Armagon said:

Final Fantasy 7 Remake came out today. But the law of equivalent exchange demands something in return.

That's why SMT 5 is never coming out.

Don't jinx it!

Edited by DragonFlames
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