Project X Zone - RED ZONE[A] (LTC do-over)

[eclipse]

FIRST NOTE: Spoilers will abound. I'll start with mechanics, then get to the actual content. You have been warned.

So, for those of you that haven't picked this game up yet (it's for 3DS), it's supposed to be a combination of SRPG and action. In reality, it's fanservice with gameplay. If taken at a turtle's pace, it's fairly boring. . .but when the speed is cranked up. . .

A turn passes when every unit on the field acts. Turn order is set at the beginning of a turn, and Speed determines who goes when. Enemy phase interactions are trickier than FE - a meter controls many things, and a certain percentage is needed to counterattack. The counterattack is weaker than a normal attack, but the good thing is that you're in control of it. During mid-lategame, it's possible to gain meter through counters. Bosses can consistently 3HKO people with specials, and normal attacks from everyone fall into the 5-6HKO range. Since your turns are interleaved with the enemy's, and most healing items work on units of your choosing, your guys shouldn't die.

Speaking of meter, it's used to control external skills, enemy phase interactions, and special attacks. The skills from meh (fixed enemy height pop-up) to vital (group healing, attack range extension, movement range increases). Enemy phase interactions contribute to how quickly turns are done (good counters will leave enemies at half or less, which means you can mop up with another unit). Special attacks are either attacks on a group of enemies or a very strong attack to one enemy - the former is good when there's a lot of low-health units that need to die, and the latter's good when there's a high-health unit that needs to GTFO.

Consumable items heal health, fill the aforementioned meter, and heal statuses. Equipment raises stats. The most important stats in this run (in order) are Attack, Speed, HP, Defense, and Tec (the last one controls you landing status effects. . .so no that great). I'll want to go first as often as possible, and do as much damage as possible. Defense makes some difference, but it's not really noticeable unless that unit's being ragged on by the entire enemy team.

tl;dr - I need to control my meter wisely and jack Attack

There's a lot more, but I've rambled enough. Turns will be counted as Turns(Finishing Unit Position). Let's go!

Prologue 1 - 3(1)

Hello introduction. Your firs goal is to beat up three mooks, tutorial-style. The first one can be ORKO'd easily. I get a couple of criticals, which increases experience gained (5% per attack with criticals in it). This is a really short intro chapter, and it's pretty hard to screw up.

Prologue 2 - 3(2)

Welcome to the prologues, which whisk you off to all sorts of different locations. This one forces a turn 1 rescue (revives units who run out of health). You're free to beat up one of the enemies afterwards, which is what I do. After a few more scenes, the goal of the chapter changes to defeating one of Juri or Dural. Hmmm. . .Dural has 18Kish HP while Juri has 12Kish. . .what should LTC dictate? I wail on Juri with Jin, then Akira, which brings her down to a bit over 4K HP. Ryu winds up in a stupid starting spot, and can't contribute to the boss fight, so I have him counter a generic enemy, then kill that enemy once it's his turn. Free items, yes! This also fills my meter, which allows me to finish this as soon as it's my turn again. I didn't need it this time!

Oh, right, boss (and later enemy note): Some of them will start off guarding, which means you need to smack them until their guard breaks.

Prologue 3 - 7(1)

This prologue introduces property destruction and solo units. The latter are free-floating single units that can join any pair, and add their attacks to the mix. They range from frustratingly hard to land (like the dude we meet here) to god mode (certain pairings do this, and I'll mention them as I get them). ANYWAY, after the quick intro, the objective changes. Unlike last time, the boss is all the way at the other end of the room. Two generic mooks run interference. I chew through them, and then tackle the boss. One Ether Pack S and Valor ensures that I have enough meter to use a super attack, and enough oomph to ORKO the boss. The boss will move only when both his minions die; I decided it was faster to beeline to him, even if it means skipping an item.

Best part of this stage: Jedah calls Kaguya a hot bimbo.

Prologue 4 - 3(2)

Part 1: GET TREASURE. Simple enough. The enemies can be killed on Counter, thanks to Dante's extra counter attack when he's got a solo unit tagging along. The second chest triggers the rest of the chapter, which is another boss defeat chapter. Toma shows up here, which makes beating stuff up faster. One full combo and super from him, and a normal attack from Dante ends the map. I miss out on several items that defeated enemies drop, but I'll have time to make that up later.

Prologue 5 - 4(1)

Hey, it's one of my favorite groups~! This map is huge, and Chun-Li's the only one that'll realistically reach the boss in any sort of efficient manner. I send Frank to get the spinning silver symbols (they're the equivalent of chests), while Chun-Li makes her way to the boss. Another unit joins the battle, and my meter is auto-filled to full. Like I'm going to waste it on the zombie hoard! I pick off the enemies, with my ultimate goal being the boss. During the solo unit swap, I place Heihachi with Chun-Li - his innate guard break chance works wonders against bosses. It kicks in during the boss fight, which allows me to finish the boss in two turns total (bastard didn't try to attack Chun-Li during turn 3).

Chapter 1 - 5(3)

With an Ether Pack S use, this could be 5(1), but it wasn't worth the resources. The first part can be completed in one turn. The second part requires chewing through some enemies. I drew them to the right, attacked the boss with Kogoro from the left, and whacked off about half his health (supers OP). This drew the boss to my guys, and an attack by Chun-Li on turn 5 dropped him low enough for Kogoro to clean up.

Chapter 2 - 3(4)

To obtain this count, I had to use one of my Ether Pack S. Had Akira walk away from Chun-Li and Kogoro, which put him in range of the boss. Paired Bahn with Akira so they'd be able to counter-kill the squishies (read: just about everything). I built up a good amount of meter this way, got some experience for them, and 2RKO'd the boss. Grabbed the chest before leaving.

Chapter 3 - 4(5)

To get this count, you MUST land a critical on the boss with Frank (since he's the only one who can get to her in any sort of decent time) AND get two supers in, or this will take longer. I got it via Dead Rising, but any attack will do. Used Frank's Skateboard to grab the two nearby chests, walked towards the boss, then used another Skateboard on turn 3 to attack her. The guys from Chapter 2 show up a little later, and Akira can grab the chest near the door (it contains a Devil Star, which is a VERY GOOD ITEM on this kind of run). The three newcomers did some self-improvement. Bahn went to Frank, for the enemy counter cancel. Tron went to Chun-Li for giggles.

Chapter 4 - 3(2)

Paired Bahn up with Chun-Li (counters) and Tron with Kogoro (second-fastest on the team, and for emergency heals). Chun-Li got the Blue Orb (HP) and a jacket I picked up (durability); Kogoro got some sort of gun thingy (damage).

Chun-Li was the closest, so she charged the boss, with Akira hot on her heels. The boss made my life easy by walking towards my guys. Reiji and Xiaomu made their grand appearance, BUT they were nowhere near anything relevant, so they got a little bit of self-improvement. One counter from Chun-Li, one super from Akira, a counter from Akira, and a super from Chun-Li ended the map. The Devil Star I gushed about earlier was used here, to finish the map.

Chapter 5 - 3(7)

This is the first of many rout maps. Lucky for us, Soma appears in the thick of things, and his team is extremely good at getting rid of pests. He made a dive for the nearby chest, while Akira ran for the other one. Everyone else worked their way towards the boss, while mowing down all opposition. Turn 2 was mostly spent getting rid of cannon fodder. The boss fell on turn 3, and it was clean-up from there.

Chapter 6 - 5(3)

The boss doesn't show up immediately, which is FUN. Once he shows up, Gemini shows up (I think she's the active one). Gemini can take out enemies on her own, so I had her go north, while everyone else booked it vaguely east. Akira detoured to the roof to get some more experience. Frank and his Skateboard triggered the boss on turn 3, which meant I could poke him on turn 4 and kill him on turn 5.

This boss has no concept of blocking, so he'll attempt to make it up with more HP (protip: NOT EFFECTIVE). Three supers is more than enough to send him packing.

Chapter 7 - 5(10)

This is a four-part chapter. The first part is short, and shows off Resonance of Fate. The second part warps everyone else in. The third part introduces Kite, and the fourth part introduces the boss. They are on opposite ends of the map. For this one, I had Soma, Frank, and Reiji book it to the boss area, while everyone else went towards Kite's location. This chapter was won by counters - the final enemy died to one, and the boss died because I got a little bit of damage in from a Soma counter (thus giving Frank just enough oomph to kill it). Grabbed all the treasure, to boot.

Chapter 8 - 6(10)

Like Chapter 5, the new guys start in the thick of things. Unlike Chapter 5, I can't one-shot the enemies, so I can't run straight into things as fast as I'd like to. I had Gemini and Chun-Li split to grab one chest while Zephyr and Akira went after the other one(s). Everyone else booked it over the bridge. The chapter objective eventually changes to "choose the boss to kill", and they have roughly the same amount of HP, so I went after whoever was closest. This could've been done in 6(9), but I wanted to feed Reiji the boss kill. He gained three levels off of it, so I think the slight delay paid off!

Chapter 9 - 4(24)

There's a zoo on one end of the map, so all my solo units went to the guys in the middle of it (that's Soma, Zephyr, Ryu, Reiji, and Kite). I had the other half of my team stick around near the beginning point, because that's where the map objective spawns (beginning of turn 4). Thinned out the zoo, beat up the boss, and called it a day. This mission existed to refill my item stock.

Battle Save results: Similar to this, but I traded better experience distribution for less available consumable items. I think the latter should make this more interesting. Since I miscounted the boss appearance turns, I'll keep this one.

Chapter 10 - 6(5)

The chapter objective says boss kill. The problem is that everything is between my units and the boss, and I can't counter them into oblivion/ORKO them with everyone. Thus, it turns into a slugfest where I have to clear out everything. I get a lot of experience for my guys (for illustration, a Q-Bee gives Akira two and a half levels), and despite being a side objective, I get Heihachi out of the way (he drops an equip, which is something my team wants). The boss is a minimum 4HKO, including Dante criticals. I nab four of the chests, which isn't too bad, given the insane size of Demitri's entry hall.

Chapter 11 - 7(16)

The first part of this chapter is walking and beating up mooks. The second half is barely ORKOing stuff and beating up the boss, who is in an awkward location. Speaking of, it's a 4HKO. WHERE ARE MY SOLO UNITS, I NEED THEM!

Chapter 12 - 7(16)

The first couple of turns are forced, so there's not much to do. The next bit is clearing out Cocoon Maidens and maybe taking out Vajra (I got an item which I think is pretty useful, and a bunch of levels off of that thing). Dante, Ichiro, Gemini, Kogoro, Chun-Li, and Ryu went up the ramp. This was a "choose your boss" map, and Eins volunteered himself to be 4HKO'd. Some of my units are finally getting their fourth attack, which should alleviate some of the stress I've had so far. It looks like Frank got his multi-attack!

Chapter 13 - 7(16)

AND AGAIN! The first bit isn't counted, and is a quick sweep-up of random critters. After that, the party ends up. . .you guessed it, the hell away from the boss. There's a couple of optional bosses, two units that could be bosses in their own right, some stronger generics, and a slew of cannon fodder between my guys and the objective. Used Dante to barrel through one side, while the other side (which had mostly everyone) went slower. The boss opted for the slower side, which was a solid 4.5HKO (I had Soma sneak around her and smack her one with no super, then four other units with supers ruined her day). By the time the map was finished, the only things left standing were the two optional bosses and one of the mechas.

Chapter 14 - 8(3)

FLYNN! MARCHING ORDERS! HOORAY!

This is one of several map sets where the party is split. This was a rout map, with way too many enemies with guard. I fed the bosses to the people who needed levels, and made sure to end the map with Midnight Bell. Zephyr hit level 19 with that stunt, and I think Gauge Crack would've been really helpful earlier! Because Chun-Li took out Shielder, I got their multi-attack, which probably saved a little bit of time.

Chapter 15 - 11(2)

ICHIRO! CPT. COMMAND - WIND! HOORAY!

Rather, I got this right before the level ended, which is partially why there's such a huge turn disparity (two extra bosses and a larger map didn't help, either). Grabbing the solo units means that I lost out on a couple of turns, but eh. Got most of the chests, so I have no regrets. Fed kills to Kite/Kogoro, so they'll stay relevant. Soma/Dante counter-killed things (the former had Bahn, the latter had help from Sanger).

Chapter 16 - 11(2)

The first couple turns is inconsequential. Then, it becomes a game of tag, with Haken being "it". Thanks to Marching Orders (Flynn is with Zephyr, so it's near-guaranteed that I'll get it off early in the turn), and occasionally Cpt. Command: Wind (Ichiro randomly speeds himself up), I can catch those yellow gremlins really quickly. I blow my supers on them, since their death triggers the last part of the mission. Kite, Kogoro, Reiji, and Soma hang around to take care of the blue boss, while Dante, Akira, Ichiro, and Jin go after the fat boss. Even with the numerous movement buffs, it took a turn of walking before I caught up to Skeith. The kills went to the guys who needed experience, so the next part shouldn't be too painful (I hope).

With the new influx of solo units, I got two of my preferential groups:

- Yuri, Estelle, and King Arthur: Yuri can guard break pretty quickly with his back move. Once the enemy's guard is down, I use his neutral attack (it's a small blue fireball). King Arthur opens with a lance salvo at about the same level, thus ensuring that the enemy is at a decent height for the majority of my combo. I use Yuri as a meter unit (as opposed to a straight kill unit), because Nurse eats up a huge chunk of gauge.

- Jin, Xiaoyu, and Batsu: Batsu will miss part of his combo if the enemy is too low. Jin can lift enemies a bit, which is usually enough for Batsu. The exception are the super-tiny enemies, but those die in one round anyway. Between their innate counter reduction cost (later) and Batsu's +1 counter attack, they make a very scary counter unit. They also get a self-movement buff and ZOC nullification, which means they WILL be in the thick of things!

Chapter 17 - 6(18)

I completely forgot that this chapter ends after blowing up the statues, or this would be more like 6(10). Most of the party went to the sides, while Kurt, Chun-Li, Kogoro, and Akira went straight up the middle. Killed everything but a couple of minions and the big guy in the center. Since this map was on the larger side, all-move spam was a must, as was Nurse. Clear times should improve, because I'm getting more solo units.

Chapter 18 - 6(11)

Stupid Toma shows up in the middle of everything, and I'm not allowed to kill him. The party is split again, but the map is really small, so I'm not as reliant on movement. In exchange, enemy density is impressive. Frank's multi-attack is the reason why my turn count is as, uh, low as it is. All three bosses were 3.5HKO'd (Jedah's closer to 4HKO, but for whatever reason he picked a fight with Dante, who has Sanger as a solo and one more counter attack, so that made life easier for me).

Chapter 19 - 8(1)

This would've been 7, but ONE STUPID GRUNT ROBOT stood off to the side and refused to join the battle. Phantom was a clean 3RKO, and Seth/Dural didn't take much more (I got lucky and stunned then quite a bit). Used Reiji's Lightning Kata in conjunction with Flynn's Marching Orders to cover ground as fast as possible. Chun-Li's multi-attack came in handy, because there were a ton of generics between me and the end of the chapter.

Chapter 20 - 7(16)

As if to mock this playthrough, this map included stupidly narrow corridors, along with enemies scattered like marbles. Even with enhanced movement, it took a very long time to get to where I needed to. This would've been much lower if ONE STUPID GRUNT ROBOT hadn't split from the group to go sightseeing. The bosses went down faster than last chapter - Prelude was a nice 3RKO (because Reiji with an attack boost hits like a truck), and the other three was easily 4RKO'd. The biggest speed bump was Due, because she waltzed into a corridor. Skeith went down on turn 3.

Chapter 21 - 9(6)

This is one of my favorite chapters, because of the title and the references to various zombie games. I equipped Kite with a Null ZOC accessory, had Flynn follow him, and made him sprint like it was a draft. Even with the constant move boosts, the earliest I could reach Aura was turn 7 (Marth syndrome RIGHT HERE folks. . .unless I theoretically blow up Nemesis before Kite gets there, BUT that would require Kite to be in back of everyone, which isn't happening). Dante/Chris could counter-kill the weaker things, and Frank/Chris could also ORKO with their multi-attacks. I burned through quite a bit of XP boosters, because Marching Orders ain't cheap! This is the first of three maps where your party is split all over the place.

Chapter 22 - 11(6)

Like Chapter 21, this is a tag match. UNLIKE Chapter 21, the tagger is stupidly slow, and Spd x2 on top of Cpt. Command: Wind is a hell of a lot of strain for one chapter. Got to Aura on turn 8, then turned around and massacred everything. Somehow managed a 4RKO on Vajra, despite his stupid high defenses. I swear this map's saving grace is Heihachi and his innate guard crush! A new solo unit shows up, and it's a preferential pair. . .sort of. Toma/Cyrille/Bruno stick together, because Cyrille creates an ice field with her down attack, which makes the enemy stay put. In turn, it means that Bruno won't bounce them all over creation. Neneko may be a royal pain in the ass, but at least I can make her work with a couple of different people. Bruno. . .not so much.

Chapter 23 - 9(2)

This is sort of a tag chapter, but instead of talking to Aura, you need to gib a specific boss. The boss looks like pudding and has the same durability - Reiji with Sanger's Valor did nearly half its life. Gemini went Tyrant of Texas, and wiped out the mooks near the boss. Haken and Kagura were caught out by the reinforcements from behind, so Jin had to use himself as a shield until Ulala's passive kicked in, which allowed everyone to escape safely. This was probably the closest battle out of all of the three, but it's a hell of a rush on LTC!

Chapter 24 - 6(15)

Half these turns were spent walking towards the main event. Used a lot of items, for the sake of mowing down a lot of things with guard. The end result was Kite gaining three levels off of Saya's rear (this should've been 6(14), but Yuri didn't need the experience as much). All the bosses were 4HKO'd, and Reiji's insane output was reserved for Due.

Chapter 25 - 9(6)

Half of this blessed chapter is half of my split team walking towards somewhere relevant. The other half was in the thick of things, and took a while to take care of it, too (even with Frank bombing things with multi-attacks). Rushed everyone to the boss congregation area, and fed the final boss enemy to Haken, so he'd stay relevant. This was the cheesiest scene, by far. The reason why I got a count this "low" was because Ichiro with an attack boost does impressive damage to whatever he faces (like, he's almost on Reiji's level).

Chapter 26 - 7(8)

This could've been 7(3), but I wanted to feed the kill to Akira. Chris/Dante sprayed the map with their multi-attacks, and everyone else kind of cleaned up. Once Dural was left with a couple of minions, I had Kite and Akira rush to the other side of the map (uh, Kite ran, while Akira took his sweet time). By the time Nemesis started to attack, I had something like seven people there to wipe out his group. The first "casualty" of this run comes here, in the form of Toma (Nemesis went cheating bastard on him, and he was knocked out). Though it was tempting to leave him like that (for being a generally annoying dipshit), I revived him for Cyrille's sake.

Now that the gang's back together again, I've got the last two groups that I absolutely must have:

- Kite/BlackRose/Juri: For whatever reason, Kite's back attack will track Juri's wonky solo attack. Unlike Toma/Cyrille/Bruno, I don't need to freeze the enemy in place. Their special pre-battle conversation is amusing.

- X/Zero/Saya: Saya gives them mobility and a solo attack that doesn't have a weird hit box (sorry Imca). With this, they become my search and destroy unit, with the best combination of range and damage (Dante does something similar).

I'd like to find Neneko a nice home, because her conversations make me smile. I've got a few different groups from the last time I played, so if I fall in love with any of them, I'll post them.

Chapter 27 - 6(8)

Immediately issue Marching Orders, and have the guys downstairs sprint upstairs (I remember being caught between the two bosses once, and that wasn't fun). The guys on the second floor split up - half of them stuck around for the bunny, and the other half headed for the section that would be occupied by Vile. Vile's minions met the Tyrant of Texas, and melted. Because of the way everything was timed, I was able to kill Vile and Phantom on turn 6, while leaving my Ether supply relatively untouched. All the bosses can be killed in about four solid hits - three if I can get Soma with an attack boost to do it. Cannon fodder is one to two rounds, depending on what it is. They're useful for refilling my meter.

Chapter 28 - 6(18)

So this chapter was supposed to be one large, messy map where you're ambushed all over the place, all while keeping Kite alive and running. Equipped Kite with a Null ZOC charm, kept Marching Orders up, and let him run right past Jedah. I had Rikiya accompany Soma, and the result was enough damage to 3RKO Ries-whatshername. Both Astaroths were fairly easily 4RKO'd, and Jedah learned why pissing off Ichiro/Ryu was a terrible idea. On turn 6, I freaked out because there was a generic that I couldn't counterkill, or reach for that matter. It attacked Ichiro, and I had just enough meter to counter-super it to death. Totally worth it! Reiji's damage output is still insane - he's close to 3RKOing Shielders, and those guys are supposed to be beefy!

Chapter 29 - 6(21)

Kite put on a repeat of Marth. . .er, in this case, he dressed up like Marth, and attracted all the enemies to the left. This allowed the group on the right to casually mosey over and rescue Zero. Made sure to get some hits in on Vile before moving on to the second part of the map. Skeith Zero plops himself smack in the middle of the bridge, so I made sure to keep a bunch of guys there to beat him up. Soma currently holds the damage record at 42K - that's enough to 3RKO the hardest boss.

Chapter 30 - 7(6)

Part of your party starts in the middle of things, part of them are kinda close, and part of them need to sprint to be relevant. Soma books it up the right staircase to get everyone's attention, while a large group heads towards Vajra. The guys in the middle pick off enemies, then beat up two of the Dural statue things. By the time turn 7 rolled around, only Selvera was left standing. X/Zero broke my damage record by killing her (43K).

Chapter 31 - 7(13)

What is it with ONE STUPID GRUNT UNIT that wanders off? The sheer number of enemies made up for the large stage size, and Oros Phluxkthis went down one after the other. The stupid bird things will climb the banisters to avoid being counter-attacked, so I couldn't six-turn it. Ryu/Ken tied the max damage output by wailing on Eins (43K). I suspect Heihachi's guard break may have had something to do with this.

Chapter 32 - 7(2)

Your party is split. Again. Due to everyone's staring positions, a couple of units will have to wander off to the far corners of the map to mop up. The majority of the enemies have paper defenses, and are clustered in the center, which makes multi-attacking them ideal (it's usually a OHKO). After some time, Raptor and Nemesis will appear. Since Raptor is almost always surrounded by grunts, he took a bunch of multi-attacks, then regular attacks (since I didn't want to waste any more meter on him). Nemesis was 4RKO'd, and his cronies 2RKO'd. They kept attacking Dante. . .y'know, the guy who hits like a truck and has four counter-attacks. . .yeah.

Chapter 33 - 5(19)

No, you idiots, Toma isn't cute! This chapter's highlight is Morrigan's contribution to the story (which, IMO, is more significant than half the cast combined). Ahem. . .

This is a defeat boss map, and said boss is way up in an inconvenient place. To do this, everyone on the left not named Kurt/Riela needs to RUN up the stairs, while everyone on the right does the same. Flynn must get Marching Orders off as fast as possible, as well. This should split the enemies, which should make things easier for Kite. Speaking of, it is essential that he gets Ap Corv before doing this, or he'll need to rely on crits to get rid of the generics between himself and the boss. This means that I missed everything in the pool, but screw the Wigglytuff wannabe and its cohorts. The optional boss should start chasing the group on the right, which means it can be used to refill meter, so the guys going after the objective can spam supers. It'll take at least three hits (one being an Ap Corv-powered full super courtesy of Kite) and a Reiji multi-attack to bring her down. If Chun-Li, Jin, and Kite aren't doing enough damage, stick the highest damage equips on them and try again. Chun-Li will most likely have to Yawn, as well.

Current damage record is Kite at 45K on Ries-whatshername

Chapter 34 - 5(21)

That sound you hear is the fourth wall crumbling (KOS-MOS, T-elos, and Imca). Speaking of walls, the Sakura Wars wall gimmick is back. Unlike the other wall chapter, this one will fall on its own fairly quickly. Your group is split, but there's a load of enemies between them, and most of them can't be OHKO'd by multi-attacks. There's not much to say about this chapter, as it's basically a slugfest.

Chapter 35 - 16(10)

Screw EVERYTHING about this chapter. I've only got seven people to work with, this map is gigantic, and I need to visit all the side areas because it's a bloody rout (and I can't do it stupidly, because Eins and Drei are off to the side, and need to be dealt with). Luckily, I had Dante, Reiji, and Ulala - I spammed the everliving daylights out of Lightning Kata, while keeping my meter up, to give my guys a chance to cover more ground. Jin with a Drill Arm went to deal with Eins, Chun-Li and Gemini killed Drei, Toma and Kurt cleaned up the middle, which left Dante and Reiji to deal with Jedah all the way at the top. Jedah himself wasn't particularly tough - a solid hit each from Dante and Reiji put him in manageable range. The stupid part was getting people around the map, and all the counters I missed because enemies hit my guys with Down/Stun. Ended the map with Dante's multi-attack - Jedah was at a sliver of life, as were two of his guys, and they were all in range (somehow). Did I mention that the treasure sucked? No? Well, the treasure sucked.

To give you an idea of how stupid this map was, here's a rough breakdown of everyone's job:

Jin - Take Bahn and the Drill Arm, and counter/solo his way to Eins, then smack the boss around WITHOUT using a super. This is as tedious as it sounds.

Toma - Help clean up the enemies that appear at the party's spawn point (there's several of them, and they don't go down easy). Normally, this would be Jin's job, but I wasn't sure if Jin would finish in time. I think he could've gone up with Kurt, so they could climb faster.

Kurt - Get rid of those little red flying annoyances, and kill things so everyone else can move it.

Gemini - Evangeline when possible, build meter for everyone else, go with Chun-Li because there's no way Drei is going down quickly to one person.

Chun-Li - Beeline to Drei.

Dante - Do whatever it takes to get to Jedah. Used Sanger's Invincible to keep him alive, as everything attacked him.

Reiji - Spam Lighting Kata, so that Ulala's passive kicks in at the beginning of the turn, allowing everyone else to move farther. Get to the top of the tower and beat the crap out of Jedah.

Chapter 36 - 19(3)

Even if my turn count is worse, I don't mind it quite so much. Again, there's a couple of side areas that should be visited, and at the very least, Skeith should go down (he holds a really nice equip). The difference between this map and the previous one is that there was a lot less time spent walking. Enemies were all over the place, and those stupid Glares kept inflicting Down on Soma. The only move buffs were from Kite and Frank. Soma went solo up the right (away from Vajra), and Chris/Haken went up the left. Akira/KOS-MOS spammed their speed skills and led Vajra on a merry chase, attacking him whenever I needed to refill my meter. Stupid requirements aside, I got a lot of neat stuff.

Current damage record: Kite on Nemesis, at 51K. That's 2.5HKO range.

Chapter 37 - 15(3)

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN EVERYONE MOVES LIKE THE WIND! My increased movement was hindered by Vile's stupid trigger (it's pretty far out of the way) and quite a few enemies sporting 2-3RKO health. To offset this, I get Kogoro (Tenzai Style: Ripple), Imca (Anti-Armor Mastery), Zephyr (Gauge Crack), Yuri (I forget which of his skills does this), and a Drill Arm, so the only unit that had to deal with guarding is X/Zero (and even then, they kind of didn't give). A boatload of guard crushing and movement later, and I obliterated the map.

Chapter 38 - 11(5)

Everyone has cooties or something, because your group splits up again. The enemies rush you, so I don't need to spam movement quite so much. There's quite a few tough cookies, and Yuri's multi-attack came in handy (took out Seth, one of the Durals, and some other cannon fodder). There isn't much to say, because it turns into yet another slugfest.

Chapter 39 - 9(1)

I'm pretty sure it's possible to do this in at least 8, but my coordination is going to shit. It's so bad that I'm having problems landing Valkyrie attacks, and she's not that difficult! Five enemies need to be killed - the Astaroths, then the ladies, then Jedah, in that order. Everything else is optional, but some of them will get in your way (like the red flying things that start on the map). I grabbed treasure from the back of the room to the front (since I have to travel to the front of the room anyway). With Soma on one side and Dante on the other, things went down quickly. Jedah himself is extremely squishy - three solid hits will do him in.

Chapter 40 - 5(21)

Don't let the enemies scare you - they make up for their HP with defenses that would do toilet paper proud. Most of them go down in three solid hits (or two very solid hits and a counter, if Kite's the one doing the wailing). I basically picked things off, one by one. As a bonus, I didn't use a single XP item!

Final record damage: X/Zero on some poor schmuck, at 57K.

Chapter 41 - 9(17)

See the chapter objective? He's got roughly twice the HP out of everyone you've seen so far, and his counter is a near-OHKO of just about anyone (in Reiji's case, it WAS a OHKO). I handed Alisa off to Kogoro, so they could trigger the second half of the mission (well. . .as soon as Alisa showed up). The second half involved running Gemini, Reiji, Kogoro, and Kite to the boss, so they could chip away at his health. I suspect the boss' counter is based on the amount of damage done, because the only one that did Tons of Damage ™ was Reiji (and guess who ate the OHKO?). Kite landed the finishing blow, and even that hit for less than 40K damage. The remaining fodder was just that. Speaking of, some of them will regenerate, which means that it's a waste of time to focus too much on them.

Character breakdown

Edited August 4, 2013 by eclipse

[deleted35362]

So, how much do you like the game?

[Breezy Kanzaki]

Fanservice with gameplay sums up this game pretty well, especially with later characters. Totally plan on following this. :)

[Jedi]

Sure didn't take long for someone to attempt LTC of this game haha. Good luck Clipsy.

[IceBrand]

I just finished both of the demos and I have say, I like what I played. The gameplay takes awhile to get use to but when you learn it feels so smooth and satisfying. Side note the boss in demo A dresses like a slut.

[eclipse]

So, how much do you like the game?

Since I have my favorites in this game, A LOT. I want to pick up God Eater because of this game (since Soma's one of the more palatable young men in the game).

Fanservice with gameplay sums up this game pretty well, especially with later characters. Totally plan on following this. :)

I hope you enjoy it~!

Sure didn't take long for someone to attempt LTC of this game haha. Good luck Clipsy.

Thanks! I played it at about FE pace, and got bored. LTC puts more emphasis on strategy/meter management, which is why I went this route.

I just finished both of the demos and I have say, I like what I played. The gameplay takes awhile to get use to but when you learn it feels so smooth and satisfying. Side note the boss in demo A dresses like a slut.

You can say that for. . .uh, a lot of the characters. If you're not comfortable with half-dressed women, this game probably isn't for you (either that, or do what I do and spam the men-only teams).

[deleted35362]

So, what is an LTC?

[eclipse]

So, what is an LTC?

Low Turn Count. There's a turn count meter on the bottom screen. My goal is to finish maps ASAP, using everything short of battle save abuse to do so.

[Breezy Kanzaki]

There are a few pairs that I say have close to zero fanservice, but the others, yeahhhh. Also yeah the God Eater team is awesome, as you could tell from my avatar. Good luck with the later missions, like 22 I think, that one was a pain for me.

[IceBrand]

I don't have the full game but do all characters have solo or do only certain characters?

[Excellen Browning]

If this ltc doesn't include Sanger Zonbolt, I'll be extremely disappointed.

[JSND Alter Dragon Boner]

I want this game sooo badly >_>

[eclipse]

There are a few pairs that I say have close to zero fanservice, but the others, yeahhhh. Also yeah the God Eater team is awesome, as you could tell from my avatar. Good luck with the later missions, like 22 I think, that one was a pain for me.

Thanks! The missions that gave me the most problems were a couple of the ending ones and Chapter 19.

I don't have the full game but do all characters have solo or do only certain characters?

There's set pairs, and a bunch of free-floating solo characters. You can have a solo character tag along with any pair. Some groupings are better than others (my favorite Prologue one is Frank/Hsein-Ko/Rikiya, for the sheer hilarity of their lines).

If this ltc doesn't include Sanger Zonbolt, I'll be extremely disappointed.

See that Valor mentioned in Prologue 3? THAT'S SANGER!

I want this game sooo badly >_>

Yes, you do

Edited July 6, 2013 by eclipse

[JSND Alter Dragon Boner]

but sanger will leave

It has always been like that since his third appearance in og1

[eclipse]

but sanger will leave

It has always been like that since his third appearance in og1

You don't have the game, silly

[Breezy Kanzaki]

Just a question, how many chapters are in this game? I'm on 25 on my first play through now, so I am wondering.

[eclipse]

Just a question, how many chapters are in this game? I'm on 25 on my first play through now, so I am wondering.

41 total. The last few are. . .uh, painful if you're attempting LTC.

[Breezy Kanzaki]

Also, what's your opinion of the music in this game? I like it a lot, especially considering my favorite pairs have awesome music. And a couple of solo units have great music, one being Sanger and the other being be certain knight.

[eclipse]

Also, what's your opinion of the music in this game? I like it a lot, especially considering my favorite pairs have awesome music. And a couple of solo units have great music, one being Sanger and the other being be certain knight.

A Brave New World or bust! It's nostalgic, but some of it gets repetitive (or maybe that's because I abuse Dante too much).

[Shengar]

Damnit, I want this game so much just for the Valkyria Chronicles 3 cast. Sega, why wouldn't you let them get localized?!

How is the game time actually if take you do it casually?

I just finished both of the demos and I have say, I like what I played. The gameplay takes awhile to get use to but when you learn it feels so smooth and satisfying. Side note the boss in demo A dresses like a slut.

Well, don't expect every game come with FE standard in character design (even Awakening is tame compared to what I've seen outthere).

[eclipse]

Damnit, I want this game so much just for the Valkyria Chronicles 3 cast. Sega, why wouldn't you let them get localized?!

How is the game time actually if take you do it casually?

Well, don't expect every game come with FE standard in character design (even Awakening is tame compared to what I've seen outthere).

I think it's upward of 60 hours. Some of the later chapters are stupidly long.

[eclipse]

From here on out, chapter updates will be in their own posts, and I'll see how many I can port to the main post before I hit the character limit.

Chapter 1 - 5(3)

With an Ether Pack S use, this could be 5(1), but it wasn't worth the resources. The first part can be completed in one turn. The second part requires chewing through some enemies. I drew them to the right, attacked the boss with Kogoro from the left, and whacked off about half his health (supers OP). This drew the boss to my guys, and an attack by Chun-Li on turn 5 dropped him low enough for Kogoro to clean up.

Chapter 2 - 3(4)

To obtain this count, I had to use one of my Ether Pack S. Had Akira walk away from Chun-Li and Kogoro, which put him in range of the boss. Paired Bahn with Akira so they'd be able to counter-kill the squishies (read: just about everything). I built up a good amount of meter this way, got some experience for them, and 2RKO'd the boss. Grabbed the chest before leaving.

Chapter 3 - 4(5)

To get this count, you MUST land a critical on the boss with Frank (since he's the only one who can get to her in any sort of decent time) AND get two supers in, or this will take longer. I got it via Dead Rising, but any attack will do. Used Frank's Skateboard to grab the two nearby chests, walked towards the boss, then used another Skateboard on turn 3 to attack her. The guys from Chapter 2 show up a little later, and Akira can grab the chest near the door (it contains a Devil Star, which is a VERY GOOD ITEM on this kind of run). The three newcomers did some self-improvement. Bahn went to Frank, for the enemy counter cancel. Tron went to Chun-Li for giggles.

Chapter 4 - 3(2)

Paired Bahn up with Chun-Li (counters) and Tron with Kogoro (second-fastest on the team, and for emergency heals). Chun-Li got the Blue Orb (HP) and a jacket I picked up (durability); Kogoro got some sort of gun thingy (damage).

Chun-Li was the closest, so she charged the boss, with Akira hot on her heels. The boss made my life easy by walking towards my guys. Reiji and Xiaomu made their grand appearance, BUT they were nowhere near anything relevant, so they got a little bit of self-improvement. One counter from Chun-Li, one super from Akira, a counter from Akira, and a super from Chun-Li ended the map. The Devil Star I gushed about earlier was used here, to finish the map.

Chapter 5 - 3(7)

This is the first of many rout maps. Lucky for us, Soma appears in the thick of things, and his team is extremely good at getting rid of pests. He made a dive for the nearby chest, while Akira ran for the other one. Everyone else worked their way towards the boss, while mowing down all opposition. Turn 2 was mostly spent getting rid of cannon fodder. The boss fell on turn 3, and it was clean-up from there.

Edited July 7, 2013 by eclipse

[Jedi]

From what I hear Chun-Li and Morrigan are riduclous right out the gate. Also I can't wait to hear more of the stuff you do when the Sakura Wars and Megaman X peeps show up :P

[IceBrand]

I love the special Zero and x have, the team work and the armor at the end are really awesome. Those two are my third favorite team next to Dante and that guy from Darkstalker, and the God eater pair.

[Jedi]

I love the special Zero and x have, the team work and the armor at the end are really awesome.

The funny thing [or sad rather] is. I can pretty much name which game and Maverick/Armors all their moves come from in their attacks haha.