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I managed to get past the boss fight I was stuck on, thanks for the advice guys. Now all I gotta do I beat the final boss. I had a go at it last night, but I went into the fight controlling Zeke instead of Rex by accident and lost.

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5 hours ago, DragonFlames said:

They're really expensive sometimes and some of them lower resistances

Don'r bother with the buyable ones, they're really too expensive and you won't need them during a normal playthrough anyway. Instead choose between Quest & Story drops

 

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1 hour ago, Shrimperor said:

Don'r bother with the buyable ones, they're really too expensive and you won't need them during a normal playthrough anyway. Instead choose between Quest & Story drops

Alrighty. I did buy some to see what they're like, but I'm regretting it immensely, since almost all of them are inferior to the standard processors the CPUs already have. I should have spent that money on healing items, particularly SP-restoring ones, instead. My mistake.
The "Blaze" set looks amazing, all things considered. That it makes you extremely weak to Ice is terrible, especially on Purple Heart, who isn't very good against magic to begin with, but it's at least awesome to look at.

Also, I don't know if I'm just doing something wrong, but getting the materials to develop plans is harder than I initially anticipated. For example, I have a few that ask me to get Magical Fragments, but I have no clue where to get those. Maybe I just haven't gotten the right dungeon yet or I missed an "Add Enemies" plan for an earlier dungeon. Oh well. I'm guessing I'll have to grind shares in the future anyway, so I'm sure the materials will just gather themselves along the way.

Edited by DragonFlames
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9 hours ago, DragonFlames said:

But it does encourage a second playthrough, so it all works out, I guess.

Yeah, that's kinda important since, i don't know about Lulua and Sophie but Rorona and Totori are pretty short games. I clocked in at around 10 hours on Rorona and Totori's longer but i feel it isn't by that much (though i haven't actually finished it so who knows). I suppose it's because of the time-limit. 

9 hours ago, DragonFlames said:

Damn, every character in this game has something great and I can only ever have three in my party.

Only in ReBirth 1. ReBirth 2 and onwards increase it to four (plus the ones in backup so that's 8).

2 hours ago, DragonFlames said:

Also, I don't know if I'm just doing something wrong, but getting the materials to develop plans is harder than I initially anticipated. For example, I have a few that ask me to get Magical Fragments, but I have no clue where to get those. Maybe I just haven't gotten the right dungeon yet or I missed an "Add Enemies" plan for an earlier dungeon. Oh well. I'm guessing I'll have to grind shares in the future anyway, so I'm sure the materials will just gather themselves along the way.

In the Plans screen, you're able to check where you can find items. I believe there's also an indicator if you need to use a Plan to get them (such as add items or add enemies). If it doesn't tell you where you can get the items, then that means the dungeon hasn't been unlocked yet.

5 hours ago, TheGoodHoms said:

I managed to get past the boss fight I was stuck on, thanks for the advice guys. Now all I gotta do I beat the final boss. I had a go at it last night, but I went into the fight controlling Zeke instead of Rex by accident and lost.

Alright i've got two tips for you. First, if the final boss gets to low enough HP, it's launch and AoE almost-insta-kill. And by that, i mean it kills everyone except Tora but only if he's at max health. You can avoid it by timing a Lv.4 Special or Chain Attack at the right moment. Second tip and this doesn't involve the boss itself. This involves the game. Before you enter the final boss room, save and turn off your Switch. Not sleep mode. Turn it completely off. Wait a few seconds, turn it back on and resume playing. This is because, if you've been playing for a while, a memory leak issue with the Switch's hardware occurs and it basically will cause the final cutscene to run at PowerPoint frames. This happened to me. However, doing the method i just described prevents this.

It could also be an issue with earlier models of the Switch (i've had mine since day one) but i'd rather not have anyone take that risk.

Edited by Armagon
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1 hour ago, Armagon said:

Alright i've got two tips for you. First, if the final boss gets to low enough HP, it's launch and AoE almost-insta-kill. And by that, i mean it kills everyone except Tora but only if he's at max health. You can avoid it by timing a Lv.4 Special or Chain Attack at the right moment. Second tip and this doesn't involve the boss itself. This involves the game. Before you enter the final boss room, save and turn off your Switch. Not sleep mode. Turn it completely off. Wait a few seconds, turn it back on and resume playing. This is because, if you've been playing for a while, a memory leak issue with the Switch's hardware occurs and it basically will cause the final cutscene to run at PowerPoint frames. This happened to me. However, doing the method i just described prevents this.

It could also be an issue with earlier models of the Switch (i've had mine since day one) but i'd rather not have anyone take that risk.

I beat the final boss earlier this morning and to be honest it was probably the easiest final boss in the series. Maybe I'm just getting good at these games, but I was able beat it in one go. Thankfully I beat it without any technical difficulties, but thanks for the warning as a future reference. Overall I'm really happy I played XC2, but after some reflection it's still probably my least favorite game in the series so far. I will say it's the best game narrative-wise, but the gameplay has just enough things that annoy me to keep it from surpassing XC1.

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2 hours ago, DragonFlames said:

Maybe I just haven't gotten the right dungeon

It's usually that one in RB1. 
Also, there's a very useful steam guide for item drops and stuff

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=469482930

just ctrl+f anything you need 😉

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30 minutes ago, TheGoodHoms said:

I beat the final boss earlier this morning and to be honest it was probably the easiest final boss in the series. Maybe I'm just getting good at these games, but I was able beat it in one go. Thankfully I beat it without any technical difficulties, but thanks for the warning as a future reference. Overall I'm really happy I played XC2, but after some reflection it's still probably my least favorite game in the series so far. I will say it's the best game narrative-wise, but the gameplay has just enough things that annoy me to keep it from surpassing XC1.

Nice nice. And yeah, i'd argue that Xenoblade 2 is probably the easiest Xenoblade game (on default difficulty, Bringer of Chaos is super tough from what i hear), but that's probably because it doesn't have things like Xenoblade 1's level penalties. I'm actually quite curious to know why you'd put Xenoblade 1's gameplay over Xenoblade 2's. 

Edit: Oh, i nearly forgot. Read this. This is actual lore that came in a little booklet that was included in the Siren model kit that was sold in Japan. It's meant to be read by those who have beaten the game.

Edited by Armagon
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I bought Final Fantasy 7 from the e-shop's E3 sale with the knowledge that I will regret it since I made no good experiences with 6. 

But there are so many people who praise this series, so I definitely want to join the club of the ones who have beaten a Final Fantasy game.

Just noticed that the main character is the one who is in Smash. That underlines how much I know about this series.

Still I am focusing on Trails in the Sky first, and Torna is also in my backlog list. But I will try it from time to time... 

 

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3 hours ago, Armagon said:

Yeah, that's kinda important since, i don't know about Lulua and Sophie but Rorona and Totori are pretty short games. I clocked in at around 10 hours on Rorona and Totori's longer but i feel it isn't by that much (though i haven't actually finished it so who knows). I suppose it's because of the time-limit.

It actually took me 50+ hours to finish Lulua's main story with the normal ending plus some post-game stuff (not all of it, though), and 20-something to play through Sophie's main story, though I did miss a lot of stuff in the latter, so the game might actually be longer than that.

3 hours ago, Armagon said:

Only in ReBirth 1. ReBirth 2 and onwards increase it to four (plus the ones in backup so that's 8).

All of my yes!

3 hours ago, Armagon said:

In the Plans screen, you're able to check where you can find items. I believe there's also an indicator if you need to use a Plan to get them (such as add items or add enemies). If it doesn't tell you where you can get the items, then that means the dungeon hasn't been unlocked yet.

That easy, huh? I knew I missed something.

1 hour ago, Shrimperor said:

It's usually that one in RB1. 
Also, there's a very useful steam guide for item drops and stuff

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=469482930

just ctrl+f anything you need 😉

Thank you!

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3 hours ago, Armagon said:

Nice nice. And yeah, i'd argue that Xenoblade 2 is probably the easiest Xenoblade game (on default difficulty, Bringer of Chaos is super tough from what i hear), but that's probably because it doesn't have things like Xenoblade 1's level penalties. I'm actually quite curious to know why you'd put Xenoblade 1's gameplay over Xenoblade 2's. 

Edit: Oh, i nearly forgot. Read this. This is actual lore that came in a little booklet that was included in the Siren model kit that was sold in Japan. It's meant to be read by those who have beaten the game.

A very interesting read. I've always liked when developers use outside material to flesh out a game's world, so long as it's not necessary to understand the game proper at least.

As for gameplay in XC1 vs. XC2 I'd say the big thing that informs my opinion isn't specifically the gameplay itself(I actually grew to really love the combat once I got used to it), but it's the multitude of systems surrounding the core combat and exploration that bothers me. I'll just start with the elephant in the room, the randomized core crystals are just awful, whatever 5 Star Blades I managed to pick up are the only ones I ever used because once you've got them the common blades are worthless outside of Merc Missions. On a personal note I got screwed over by the crystal RNG hard during my playthrough, I never once pull a 5 Star Blade anytime I got my hands on a legendary crystal which is frankly absurd. I also thought that the Blade's field skills made exploration super tedious, it's not fun having to open up the menu and equip blades to open a door or break open a barrel only to then open up the menu again just to put the Blades you wanted for combat back in your squad. Then add equipment, aux cores, weapon chips, and at least 3 or 4 more types of accessories each having their own separate pages into the mix and it all becomes way to obtuse and more time is spent in the menus just doing prep work than there reasonably should. Aux cores are especially bad since you have to go back to a town to be able to equip them which I find mind boggling, ether crystals in XC1 could be equipped as soon as you got them and you can very quickly get a portable furnace to upgrade them freeing you from traveling back to town in the middle of exploring. I guess the main thesis here is that XC2 had me spending way more time scrolling through menus optimizing my loadouts more than any other game before it. In XC1 you have weapons, armor, and augments all on the same menu, XC2 does not and as a consequence wastes significantly more time. If they had just consolidated certain aspects of customizing your characters it would have bothered me way less than it does, I just want to get back to climbing mountains and slaying monsters as quickly as I can is that really too much to ask for?

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4 hours ago, TheGoodHoms said:

A very interesting read. I've always liked when developers use outside material to flesh out a game's world, so long as it's not necessary to understand the game proper at least.

As for gameplay in XC1 vs. XC2 I'd say the big thing that informs my opinion isn't specifically the gameplay itself(I actually grew to really love the combat once I got used to it), but it's the multitude of systems surrounding the core combat and exploration that bothers me. I'll just start with the elephant in the room, the randomized core crystals are just awful, whatever 5 Star Blades I managed to pick up are the only ones I ever used because once you've got them the common blades are worthless outside of Merc Missions. On a personal note I got screwed over by the crystal RNG hard during my playthrough, I never once pull a 5 Star Blade anytime I got my hands on a legendary crystal which is frankly absurd. I also thought that the Blade's field skills made exploration super tedious, it's not fun having to open up the menu and equip blades to open a door or break open a barrel only to then open up the menu again just to put the Blades you wanted for combat back in your squad. Then add equipment, aux cores, weapon chips, and at least 3 or 4 more types of accessories each having their own separate pages into the mix and it all becomes way to obtuse and more time is spent in the menus just doing prep work than there reasonably should. Aux cores are especially bad since you have to go back to a town to be able to equip them which I find mind boggling, ether crystals in XC1 could be equipped as soon as you got them and you can very quickly get a portable furnace to upgrade them freeing you from traveling back to town in the middle of exploring. I guess the main thesis here is that XC2 had me spending way more time scrolling through menus optimizing my loadouts more than any other game before it. In XC1 you have weapons, armor, and augments all on the same menu, XC2 does not and as a consequence wastes significantly more time. If they had just consolidated certain aspects of customizing your characters it would have bothered me way less than it does, I just want to get back to climbing mountains and slaying monsters as quickly as I can is that really too much to ask for?

I know how you feel with getting the blades, it didn't like me either. As far as field skills go, I actually liked them a lot, it made it feel much more in depth being able to interact with the field and stuff. I do agree Xenoblade 1 is a bit better than 2, though. Simply cause the battles felt much more impactful, storyline wise. Good summary, here though.

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7 hours ago, DragonFlames said:

It actually took me 50+ hours to finish Lulua's main story with the normal ending plus some post-game stuff (not all of it, though), and 20-something to play through Sophie's main story, though I did miss a lot of stuff in the latter, so the game might actually be longer than that.

50 hours feels pretty long for Atelier standards. Maybe it's even the longest game by a significant margin. Hmm. Maybe i was right about the time-limit being the factor on most Atelier games being pretty short. Time-limits don't really leave a lot of room for one to take their time.

4 hours ago, TheGoodHoms said:

I also thought that the Blade's field skills made exploration super tedious, it's not fun having to open up the menu and equip blades to open a door or break open a barrel only to then open up the menu again just to put the Blades you wanted for combat back in your squad.

Field Skills are actually the worst part of the game, i agree with you there. It is entirely possible to do a no randomized Blade run since every Blade the story gives you (Wulfric, for example) will have the Skills necessary for you to get past those Field Skill checks but it still doesn't make it any less annoying. Spirit Crucible Elpys is arguably the worst area in the game because of it (i'd say Temperantia is worse if only because of how barren it is for Xenoblade standards).

4 hours ago, TheGoodHoms said:

Aux cores are especially bad since you have to go back to a town to be able to equip them which I find mind boggling

Tbh, i didn't really mind this. The only Aux Core i really used was crit-heal for the Crithra build. 

Personally, i didn't mind going through the menus as much but i totally understand the criticism.

Torna ~ The Golden Country actually fixes some of the issues you have with Xenoblade 2. Aux Cores are ready to use the moment you get them, Field Skills are very rarely used in the main story and relatively easier to level up, no Core Crystal summoning and you go through menus significantly less. It's a significantly shorter game by Xenoblade standards but, if you ever get to it, i get the feeling you'll enjoy it. Torna is basically a compact amalgamation of certain aspects of the three Xenoblade games that came before it: the designated battle roles of the characters and Talent Arts of Xenoblade 1, the satisfying combat of Xenoblade 2 and the sidequest quality of Xenoblade X.

 

 

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Soooooo I'm playing Octopath Traveler I've been stuck on Olberic's first boss for half a year now, because no one is an irritating boss like Gaston. I'm recruiting everyone "in order" so I have Ophilia, Cyrus, and Tressa (recruited in that order) in my party in addition to Olberic. I don't feel like level grinding and trying again will just make me lose motivation to continue playing, so what is the most efficient method of winning?

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2 hours ago, Armagon said:

50 hours feels pretty long for Atelier standards. Maybe it's even the longest game by a significant margin. Hmm. Maybe i was right about the time-limit being the factor on most Atelier games being pretty short. Time-limits don't really leave a lot of room for one to take their time.

You're right, but I tried to do everything on my first playthrough, attended every character event and synthesized nearly every item. Perhaps that inflated my playtime by a lot. It won't change the fact that the main story itself is longer than Sophie's, however. Not that that's a bad thing, mind you. Lulua's story is fantastic, even without playing the other Arland games first.

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So as i was heading to fight the not final boss of Atelier Totori (fighting the true final boss gets you the true ending but i doubt i have enough in-game time to do that), i realized that i'm extremely underleveld. Mainly has to do with the fact that weapons and armor have to be crafted unless you get lucky with monster drops, unlike Rorona where you could exchange vouchers for good stuff. I've just been relying on Sterk this whole time. I can't do that anymore so now i just have to craft the good shit and level up really quickly because i've got like one in-game year left.

In the off event that i fail and end up getting the bad ending, i'll just look up the true ending on YouTube and then start Meruru. Totori is far from a bad game and i am enjoying it but while the game on the technical side is better, Rorona was a more enjoyable experience. These are just preliminary thoughts, i'll go more in-depth once i get to the end, regardless of what i end up getting.

I'll start sorting this out tomorrow (well, much later today, it's past midnight).

14 minutes ago, DragonFlames said:

You're right, but I tried to do everything on my first playthrough, attended every character event and synthesized nearly every item.

I'm probably gonna do that too. Only reason i haven't done it Rorona and Totori is because, well, time-limit. And there's no Song of Time like in Majora's Mask that puts me in a loop so that i can get everything in one playthrough.

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2 minutes ago, Armagon said:

So as i was heading to fight the not final boss of Atelier Totori (fighting the true final boss gets you the true ending but i doubt i have enough in-game time to do that), i realized that i'm extremely underleveld. Mainly has to do with the fact that weapons and armor have to be crafted unless you get lucky with monster drops, unlike Rorona where you could exchange vouchers for good stuff. I've just been relying on Sterk this whole time. I can't do that anymore so now i just have to craft the good shit and level up really quickly because i've got like one in-game year left.

In the off event that i fail and end up getting the bad ending, i'll just look up the true ending on YouTube and then start Meruru. Totori is far from a bad game and i am enjoying it but while the game on the technical side is better, Rorona was a more enjoyable experience. These are just preliminary thoughts, i'll go more in-depth once i get to the end, regardless of what i end up getting.

I'll start sorting this out tomorrow (well, much later today, it's past midnight).

I'm probably gonna do that too. Only reason i haven't done it Rorona and Totori is because, well, time-limit. And there's no Song of Time like in Majora's Mask that puts me in a loop so that i can get everything in one playthrough.

I'm getting the impression that the time limit in Totori is a lot more strict than in Rorona. Good luck in your endeavors!

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8 hours ago, Armagon said:

Torna ~ The Golden Country actually fixes some of the issues you have with Xenoblade 2. Aux Cores are ready to use the moment you get them, Field Skills are very rarely used in the main story and relatively easier to level up, no Core Crystal summoning and you go through menus significantly less. It's a significantly shorter game by Xenoblade standards but, if you ever get to it, i get the feeling you'll enjoy it. Torna is basically a compact amalgamation of certain aspects of the three Xenoblade games that came before it: the designated battle roles of the characters and Talent Arts of Xenoblade 1, the satisfying combat of Xenoblade 2 and the sidequest quality of Xenoblade X.

It's good to hear Torna makes so many improvements. I have purchased the DLC yet, but I always knew that I would get around to it eventually, I'm just tight on cash for the moment so it's not going to be for a little while.

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7 hours ago, DragonFlames said:

I'm getting the impression that the time limit in Totori is a lot more strict than in Rorona. Good luck in your endeavors!

Thanks.

The time-limit in Totori is both more strict and less strict than it is in Rorona. Rorona had it's time-limit segmented every three months. Totori gives you three years and then, if you get Diamond Rank on your license, another two years. The main issue early on is that you can only rank up your license in Arland. So if you're exploring anywhere in the Alyana region, that's 20-ish days you'll be spending to get to Arland so you can rank up (since the world map is an actual world map, like, 2D Mario style as opposed to just a menu like in Rorona).

Once you hit Diamond Rank and time hits June of the 4th year, you're able to craft an infinite use warp gate that lets you warp between Arland and Alayna without losing time so that makes it easier. But by then, you only have two years left for the other main goal: finding Totori's mother. That's one year less than getting Diamond Rank.

 

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So, going further into Neptunia Rebirth 1, I have unlocked a bunch of dungeons and with it, a whole bunch of item plans. My crew is at levels 48-52 right now (45 wasn't enough to get through the next story dungeon), and enemies in those new dungeons go down pretty easily while giving out decent amounts of EXP. I'm happy about that, especially since this means I get to farm some tough monsters for their drops and boatloads of EXP they give; a particular one at Mechtro Factory gives 18k EXP per kill and is easily beatable in 2 EXE Drives plus a few normal attacks.

I also just noticed that I already clocked in 30 hours. Where the heck did that time come from, especially since I've been busy with university stuff as of late?
Regardless, I'm still having a ton of fun with the game (perhaps too much), and I'm already looking forward to Rebirth 2. And Neptunia RPG on the 25th.

3 hours ago, Armagon said:

Thanks.

The time-limit in Totori is both more strict and less strict than it is in Rorona. Rorona had it's time-limit segmented every three months. Totori gives you three years and then, if you get Diamond Rank on your license, another two years. The main issue early on is that you can only rank up your license in Arland. So if you're exploring anywhere in the Alyana region, that's 20-ish days you'll be spending to get to Arland so you can rank up (since the world map is an actual world map, like, 2D Mario style as opposed to just a menu like in Rorona).

It's like that in Sophie and Lulua, too. I formulated that badly when I first told you about the world maps. My bad!

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*inhales* Ok so. I didn't beat Atelier Totori. But i did watch the remainder of the cutscenes on YouTube. Man, i haven't done that since Xenosaga Episode II (though thankfully, Atelier Totori's combat is actually good). At the rate i was going, my chances of beating the boss needed for the Normal End are extremely slim and there's no way in hell that i'd have enough time to even get the True End. Apparently, most players don't even get the Normal End on their first playthrough. There's a reason why the only thing that carries over in NG+ is your equipment. Because synthesizing is the only way for you to get new weapons and armor without relying on rare monster drops. The game expects you to get the bad ending first and then go for the Normal/True End on your NG+. Yeah, i'll do that one day. I'm just kinda salty right now.

The game isn't bad. Characters are on par with the ones in Rorona, dungeon design and a general technical standpoint is better. Music has more variety too. And a bit of a minor spoiler

Spoiler

That scene of some of the character from Rorona meeting up as adults and talking about old times was really good. I love scenes like this.

My main issues, aside from what i described in the first paragraph, is the general lack of QoL and how the time-limit is rather poorly designed. Items you synthesize automatically go into the container. You aren't given an option to put them in your basket like in Rorona and that threw me off so many times. So many times, i'd have to waste days backtracking because i made an item i needed to beat an area boss only to realize i don't have it in my basket. 

Having Arland be the only place where you can upgrade your license kinda discourages exploring in the Alyana region, as it takes about 20 days to get from Alyana Villager to Arland. That coupled with the fact that everything on the field takes time is ehhhhhhh. This is irrelevant once you get the Warp Gate but that's a late game item. 

But yeah, if Atelier Rorona is an 8/10, then Totori is a 7/10. Characters are on par with each other but it's the game part that bring it down a level.

Onto Atelier Meruru. I found out that Atelier Lulua does not have an English dub. I don't mind but i wish i kinda new that from the start because i would've played Rorona and Totori with JPN voices. Oh well. Which is why i'll be playing Meruru with JP voices.

10 hours ago, DragonFlames said:

It's like that in Sophie and Lulua, too. I formulated that badly when I first told you about the world maps. My bad!

Ok this is important? Do they have random encounters on the world map? Totori did this and i wasn't really a fan.

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For those 2-3 Atelier fans posting a lot here (the franchise doesn't interest me myself), I stumbled on these two things some time ago, they might be of interest to you. The first is on general ideas of the franchise, and the second is a year-old popularity poll.:

https://www.siliconera.com/2018/11/04/atelier-series-creator-reflects-on-what-an-atelier-esque-game-is-like/

https://www.siliconera.com/2018/08/23/here-are-the-top-40-atelier-characters-as-voted-by-fans-for-series-20th-anniversary-poll/

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Played a bit of Atelier Meruru. The QoL from Atelier Rorona is back. Good. Don't really know why it was gone from Totori. Actual world map is also a thing here and seeing as how Lulua and the unrelated Sophie also have this, my guess is that this is a mainstay and Rorona's world map of being just a menu was an exception. That or Totori started the actual world map and every game since followed through.

I'm actually struggling a bit with the Japanese voices. Not hearing Totori speak English is putting me off a bit. On the flip side, the character Rufus in Japanese is voiced Takehito Koyasu a.k.a Dio Brando. So that's already a benefit to using JP voices because Koyasu's voice is extremely recognizable and now i'm gonna have to request my friend to draw Rufus in Dio's clothes summoning The World. I've already asked her to do the same with Olivier from the Trails series so i'm wondering if she's willing to do it again.

Another improvement from Totori, on the combat side of things, is that Meruru doesn't die in two hits nor does she deal pathetic damage. The first two that join both have AoE attacks so that's good.

Right now, the absolute worst part of Atelier Meruru is a certain song. I can't find it but it reminds me of Yoshi's New Island songs and that is not a good thing. Yoshi's New Island soundtrack is a violation of the Geneva Convention. Thankfully, it's just that one song, everything else is fine.

44 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

For those 2-3 Atelier fans posting a lot here (the franchise doesn't interest me myself), I stumbled on these two things some time ago, they might be of interest to you. The first is on general ideas of the franchise, and the second is a year-old popularity poll.:

https://www.siliconera.com/2018/11/04/atelier-series-creator-reflects-on-what-an-atelier-esque-game-is-like/

https://www.siliconera.com/2018/08/23/here-are-the-top-40-atelier-characters-as-voted-by-fans-for-series-20th-anniversary-poll/

I didn't see the popularity poll but it's interesting how there's different tones for each Atelier subseries. I always got a Rune Factory vibe from these games (to the point where it fills the Rune Factory void in my heart) and Rune Factory (at least RF4, not sure about the rest) never really had darker tones. Some serious stuff, sure, but still mainly light-hearted and slice-of-life. So i find it interesting that Atelier has that in the form of Arland but also actually more serious plots like the Dusk series, which i'll try out someday (after i finish Arland, i'm taking a break from Atelier and finally play a Ys game).

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1 hour ago, Armagon said:

Ok this is important? Do they have random encounters on the world map? Totori did this and i wasn't really a fan.

No, they don't, actually. I just wanted to correct myself that there is indeed a world map, not just a menu.
Random encounters on a level select world map... what the actual hell?

1 hour ago, Armagon said:

*inhales* Ok so. I didn't beat Atelier Totori. But i did watch the remainder of the cutscenes on YouTube. Man, i haven't done that since Xenosaga Episode II (though thankfully, Atelier Totori's combat is actually good). At the rate i was going, my chances of beating the boss needed for the Normal End are extremely slim and there's no way in hell that i'd have enough time to even get the True End. Apparently, most players don't even get the Normal End on their first playthrough. There's a reason why the only thing that carries over in NG+ is your equipment. Because synthesizing is the only way for you to get new weapons and armor without relying on rare monster drops. The game expects you to get the bad ending first and then go for the Normal/True End on your NG+. Yeah, i'll do that one day. I'm just kinda salty right now.

The game isn't bad. Characters are on par with the ones in Rorona, dungeon design and a general technical standpoint is better. Music has more variety too. And a bit of a minor spoiler

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That scene of some of the character from Rorona meeting up as adults and talking about old times was really good. I love scenes like this.

My main issues, aside from what i described in the first paragraph, is the general lack of QoL and how the time-limit is rather poorly designed. Items you synthesize automatically go into the container. You aren't given an option to put them in your basket like in Rorona and that threw me off so many times. So many times, i'd have to waste days backtracking because i made an item i needed to beat an area boss only to realize i don't have it in my basket. 

Having Arland be the only place where you can upgrade your license kinda discourages exploring in the Alyana region, as it takes about 20 days to get from Alyana Villager to Arland. That coupled with the fact that everything on the field takes time is ehhhhhhh. This is irrelevant once you get the Warp Gate but that's a late game item. 

But yeah, if Atelier Rorona is an 8/10, then Totori is a 7/10. Characters are on par with each other but it's the game part that bring it down a level.

Onto Atelier Meruru. I found out that Atelier Lulua does not have an English dub. I don't mind but i wish i kinda new that from the start because i would've played Rorona and Totori with JPN voices. Oh well. Which is why i'll be playing Meruru with JP voices.

That does indeed sound not as good as I was hoping it would be. If that was me, I'd probably have given up on the game a long, long time ago.

Lulua's lack of an English dub threw me off at first, too, since Sophie had one, but the Japanese is really good, so no problems there for me. There was one instance where I didn't expect that voice to come out of that character (mostly because the character is supposedly 35 years old at that point), but everything else I was totally fine with.

31 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Actually surprised by some of these. Then again, I don't know every character in the franchise, so... yeah. I do see why Totori and Rorona would be so high up though. Gotta admit that it makes me kind of happy Sophie won. Still surprised, however, since her game wasn't as well received as some of the others'.

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25 minutes ago, DragonFlames said:

Random encounters on a level select world map... what the actual hell?

Yeah, it's stupid. There's also RNG stuff like finding items, which is good. But then if you're going through certain places, like a desert or tropical islands, then the RNG might be like "oh no, the weather's too hot. Totori lost 5 HP". It's dumb, i don't get it.

Megadimension Neptunia also has a level select world map with random encounters (which can be turned off in NG+) and it's also annoying there, though the battles actually flow better since there isn't really any character that dies in two hits and most deal reasonable damage so it's not as annoying as it is in Totori.

But like, if your JRPG is the kind where you initiate battles by touching the enemy, why are you putting random encounters?

25 minutes ago, DragonFlames said:

That does indeed sound not as good as I was hoping it would be. If that was me, I'd probably have given up on the game a long, long time ago.

I wouldn't blame you. Even as someone who doesn't mind time-management, the time-limit in Totori isn't that good, even though it worked amazingly in Rorona. Remove the time-limit from Totori and literally the entire game becomes better. Had there been no time-limit, i actually would've taken the time i needed to prepare for that certain boss.

Honestly, the worst part of all this is that i'm playing the DX versions. So there's literally no reason for Totori to be lacking the QoL that both Rorona and Meruru have. This is the second enhanced port of the Arland trilogy. C'mon Gust.

Again, Totori isn't a bad game but i have a feeling i'll be ranking it at the bottom of the Arland series.

Semi-off topic but here's a fun fact. Gust is a character in the original Hyperdimension Neptunia and Mk.2 (the original version of ReBirth 2). She got cut from Victory (the original version of ReBirth 3) and the ReBirth game due to license issues, i think. I don't remember exactly what happened but Gust ends up being replaced by RED. 

 

Edited by Armagon
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Logged a total of 150 hours of (sporadic) playing on Octopath Traveler. Have beaten the final boss, too. Now playing Ys VIII and Dark Souls while waiting for Bloodstained.

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