Interdimensional Observer

…And the very next scene I get when playing pretty much says Blades don’t retain their memories. Thanks for the info to clarify why this is. A user-initialization memory wipe be darned. But… (Just putting possibly wrong speculation for the sake of speculation, not so much my vague predictions of what the main plot may involve, tucked away in its own space. Some spoilers included to this little game, not like it really matters here. Plus some XCX, which I flipped the sentence and its individual words of, on top of shrinking them down.) And as for how my journey has gone, nearly to the end.: And some other stuff: Lastly, some gameplay comments and questions:

That happened because Nils showed up and interrupted the brainwashed Ninian's gate-opening midway into the process. If it wasn't for him, the gate-opening would have been completely finished and it stable.

And then you have her Lucius support, which ends so: Lucius: Serra? Surely, we two, who have suffered so much, were meant to meet, destined by Saint Elimine. I am grateful to her for bringing you…to my side.Serra: Ohh, Lucius, I, too, am grateful… As I take it, it is the one case where a male and female both end happily celibate. Yay best friends forever who've taken vows against sexual intercourse! Which reminds me, Rhys and Titania, despite being in their C and B supports in PoR quite close, they can't end up together. I mean they don't have to, Rhys can be celibate, and Titania can pine for Greil to her dying days, but they certainly had chemistry that could've gone further. If RD had real supports, or at least lengthy Base Convos to compensate for the gameplay-availability issues of supports in this game, I'd actually like a followup to RolfxMarcia in RD. To see whether Marcia could go from seeing Rolf as a cute little kid/brother, into a young man she'd be willing to consider for a husband. T'would be better for her than the headache of Kieran, the only other option among the PCs I could see. Similar to RolfxMarcia, RebeccaxRaven seems like it might have had romantic potential. But I get the sense the reason it doesn't go like that is that Raven and Rebecca end up seeing each other more like little sis and big bro. PelleasxMicaiah, would it work? Or are they too caught up in liege-servant ties?

HectorxSerra, read this and tell me why Hector couldn't get a paired ending with her! And if you say "but Serra is a cleric!", she has paired endings where she weds three other guys. Only 3 paired endings max per character? Balderdash, Lyn has 5, 4 men and Florina. But Hector and Eliwood need an equal number of paired endings and Eliwood only supports 3 girls? Isn't it obvious what the last two lines of this support means?: Marcus: It occurs to me… When Lord Elbert became engaged to the Lady Eleanora… Why he was the same age you are now, Lord Eliwood. As a faithful retainer of Pherae, I must make haste to find you a suitable wife!Eliwood: M-Marcus!

Maybe you didn't understand its a dystopian novel where everyone is supposed to live unthinking intoxicated by all forms of pleasure including sex and drugs? If she ain't horny, she's not fitting into the dystopia and thus off to being recycled with her! It took my innocence of mind, not that I can ask for it back. Totally agree with Herina, it's "eek! Wait Florina!, eek! Wait Florina!, I'm scared, we all care for you Florina". No prelude to love at all. BoydxMist, besides preferring her with Rolf, I don't get why she cries into his arms at the end of their support, or why they had to say she cried at the wedding in their RD ending. In a prior era, assuming the two were kept apart much of every day due to the old gendered division of society and didn't interact too closely, with Geoffrey always maintaining his knightly demeanor and saw Elincia first and foremost as liege, it could be reasonable. Lucia, being female, could certainly be much more intimate with Elincia, learning the same lessons as her and with her in being a maiden, and being taught a little in self defense with a sword, which Lucia not being the princess was allowed to take further. Geoffrey probably headed off bright and early every weekday into his lessons as a knight, only seeing Elincia again at dinner, or when she made a rare visit to see him, or when he had the day off and was studying books on chivalry and military tactics. I'm in agreement on Sothe and Micaiah being weird, even if I grudgingly accept the evidence of their love ingame now.

Come oh great Devourer of Time! Sever the links of absurdity, make each legend an island onto itself! When Miyamoto began making the first Zelda, he certainly wasn't thinking "Do I put this game before Breath of the Wild, or after Twilight Princess? Actually, I'm going to put it on separate timeline before ALttP- no after OoT in bad outcome for it". I'm in the anti-timeline camp, thoroughly so. When the Legend of Zelda began doing real timelines, it was with Ocarina of TIme, which was supposed to be the Imprisoning War of ALttP's lore. But then came Wind Waker which changed this, it is directly dependent on OoT's outcome in the game. Yet the real problems began with TP, it did not have to be on a separate split timeline from WW. Why did they have to do this? I can't deny a love for the Hero's Shade, but they could have done this without the OoT split. Afterwards comes Skyward Sword, which was supposed to be a prequel to everything- albeit one which features in its lore a Link BEFORE the present one, thereby undermining its claim. It also invented Hylia and directly added the concept of reincarnation to the franchise, both of which I have problems with. And then Nintendo goes back to its already hairbrained OoT split and adds a third outcome, choosing to revive their formerly dumped plan of making OoT the Imprisoning War. And of this ignores games Link's Awakening, the Oracle duology, the entire Four Swords trilogy, Triforce Heroes, and the NES duo, none of which are required to belong anywhere. I'm fine with OoT-MM, WW-PH-ST, I'm okay with small all direct sequels and Four Swords, and I can accept OoT-WW as well. Likewise, I've appreciated small lore additions over time, like OoT inventing the Golden Goddesses, Oracle of Ages inventing three symbols, and then WW making those symbols into the Goddess Symbols. But constructing an enormous timeline that tries to weave together things which weren't really made to fit together and which even when Nintendo tries to do so, fit together only halfheartedly at best. What does it add? Having the OoT triple split? What does having FSA in the same timeline as TP add? Nothing is added really. The games don't display strong connections, only little easter eggs most of the time. These Hyrules aren't the same. The Trials franchise of Nihon Falcom all takes place in the same world, each game adds to the same one physical place. Hyrule's geography is always being spliced together anew- where the Dark Realm did Akkala come from? And when places show up again, we aren't getting different views of the same Death Mountain, they're wholly different volcanoes. ... Let each game, or small set of games, be its own legend. It's own tale of a Link, perhaps a Zelda, and perhaps a Ganondorf. Let all savor each story on its own, let each pick their favorites. Let each imagine them unfettered by bonds, these are but yarns after all, time real has no sway on how one places them, nor do others. If Rito and Zora coexist, the best thing to say is simply this is not the tale of the Hero of the Winds, nor of that hero's past or future. No Link recalls their prior feats, the courage of each, is their courage alone, their wisdom not derived from a collective mind, but from genius singular, and their power too, be but the power of one, save for when the Sages, Princess, and others too do offer their aid.

Can I include non-S Supports that don't exist, but should? Lucia-Mia would finally have given Mia the proper white-clad rival she wanted, since both are female and masters of the sword. Also, Innes-Ephraim and Raven-Hector, despite the formers being antagonistic to the latters, they don't have supports with each other, likely owing the latters hitting the cap of 7 possible support partners.

At least Manfroy has total victory in the 1st Gen, Nergal never has total victory. Nergal's attempts at manipulation always end in failure. This is not to worship Manfroy however, his second gen performance is problematic to say the least, particularly when he, for a moment, with kidnapping Julia, regains his 1st gen invincibility, only to inexplicably lose it again later. To repost a prior breakdown of Nergal's follies I made:

Nergal is not above bluffing, yes he takes less damage from that Forblaze attack than he should have, but then he later says this: Limstella: “Shall we begin the process right away?” Nergal: “No, I lost some quintessence from the injuries I took from Athos. To summon the numbers I need, I must have more essence. One must be fully prepared when dealing with dragons. If they wrested free from my control and killed me, all would be for naught.” He should have retained dragon-controlling power after the Forblaze hit if he was so strong. This also points out Nergal's biggest weakness- the man is mad. Sure all FE villains tend to be arrogant and that is a fault they share, but Nergal is outright insane and totally irrational. He tries to start a war in Lycia, which turns out to have been unnecessary because all he needed was Elbert's quintessence to open the Dragon's Gate. And if he hadn't tried to start his Lycian civil war, Eliwood and co. would never have discovered him and his evil plans. Precisely for his irrationality, I can't rate Nergal that high. His dark powers are great, and would make him stronger than Ashnard and probably Walhart. But in contest of the big bads, I'm sure Manfroy, although weaker, could do a decent job of restraining him indirectly due to his brains, and Sephiran, being more sane if possibly weaker, could also figure out how to work around Nergal and defeat him. As could Zephiel. Nergal is a wild beast, and unlike Grima, is only the size of an ordinary human.

I went CQ-BR-Rev. However, to adjust to the gameplay changes from Awakening, I'd do BR and then CQ. Rev is honestly a regret buy for me, it just isn't fun, and ends up being tedium. If you have to include it, from a gameplay perspective, I'd say after BR. In terms of story, which I didn't care about, Rev should come last. Each story is in some way cacafuego according to those who did pay attention to them, but Rev does reveal significant things not found on the other routes, and is effectively the best ending. Of the other two, BR should probably come before CQ, but it doesn't matter too much.

Actually it is part of Roy's plans to rule all of Elibe through strategically placed lovers. Sophia is the prophetess of Arcadia, Lilina is heir to Lycia's greatest sub-polity, Guinevere is Queen of Bern, Sue is the heir to one of Sacae's great clans, as Zelot becomes King of Ilia at the end of FE6, Shanna becomes a princess; Larum should have sway in the Western Isles, and Cecilia is one of the highest officials in Etruria. Roy has studied a lot, he knows military strategy, diplomacy, and politics, including the historical influence of women over the male elite. He is simply bringing that influence to bear in the most powerful and daring expression ever attempted in world history. The romance itself is a secondary priority, and he disowns his non-Lilina offspring from the Lycian inheritance for fear of Lycia's partition in war on his death, instead working to establish their places in their respective realms. Fortunately he is able to charm certain men into willing to be the stepfathers, and as far as the public knows, the real fathers, of his non-Lilina children. Except for Sophia, there she by Roy's advice creates a myth Arcadia is willing to believe that she conceived her children without a male, proof of her great powers.

@omegaxis1

When I checked the tutorials, I noticed there were none for Chain Attacks in my options, so then I realized I mustn't have unlocked them yet. My confusion likely stemmed from from the Blades having skills that require they perform Chain Attacks to unlock and me being frustrated I wasn't making progress on getting them. The game is nice enough to "???" requirements with killing enemies whose areas you haven't reached yet, but they didn't do this with Chain Attacks. Hope nobody minds if I continue to post all my rambling comments about this game here. I’ll throw it in spoilers to save visual space. Plus I mention XC1 spoilers in this particular set of musings.:

On the Medeus-Manakete thing, I don't see where it says he would stop being a Manakete. Because he would ever not be a Manakete in the first place once resurrected. Since Manakete is a state of being a dragon has to actively make themselves into, and I don't think Shadow Dragon Medeus would ever do that. I will agree that Elibean Dragons, barring the FE7 Fire Dragon in gameplay, aren't strong. I guess the FD however is actually close to being what Athos fought before he invented Forblaze and his friends the rest. Being that the FD is standing in an open Dragon's Gate having only at that moment crossed over from a world conducive to dragons, it likely hadn't suffered a forced power drop yet due to the post-Ending Winter magical environment. And with regards to the variety comment, of Archanea, Elibe, and Tellius, Elibe is probably the worst in its execution of dragons in the world. They are a thing of the ancient past now dead in Elibe save for a loli, a brainwashed girl, and a man in an actual dragon robe. Archanean dragons are more alive, if still near death, and have in lore far greater power and wisdom on display. Tellius's dragons aren't as strong, but still powerful, and while still aloof, their reasoning for aloofness was fairly good for me, they fit into their world without overpowering it.

Fair points. Although it too is the case that only the Binding Blade is effective on Idunn in gameplay, none of the Divine Weapons are. Even if it is never said in lore the Binding Blade is the only effective weapon against her, which likely isn't said because Hartmut didn't actually slay Idunn. And now that throws another wrench into Medeus. Does a brainwashed dark dragon not made for battle, but not only just resurrected and having enough power to mass produce inferior dragons, have more power than a raging-to-the-core-of-their-soul, battle-oriented, but not fully resurrected Shadow Dragon?

For those who brand Roy as overly weak, well this is from the end of the game, but it does exist. Insofar as it is canon, Roy fought Zephiel directly, probably being the one who is supposed to have canonically slain him. Of course, we'd then need to establish Zephiel's power level. But Zephiel would might be weaker than Medeus, so Marth would be superior to Roy, barring the Binding Blade. Idunn is certainly weaker than Medeus, being a soulless factory and not a dragon for actual fighting themselves. So to establish Zephiel's power level, we'd want to look at other humans, like Black Knights 1.0 and 3.0.

You certainly do have a lot on your plate, plus it might not be your thing, since despite being niche, SMT is one of the bigger RPG franchises. But if you many months from now find things are empty, it is there I'm just sayin'.

Wrong thread indeed.

Since you're emulating PS2 games here, you may want to try the Digital Devil Saga duology someday. Since emulation = free, they shouldn't be a bad litmus test for whether Shin Megami Tensei would interest you. You're not interested in buying DS/3DS games now, and experimenting with the future SMT5 on Switch would be a pricey test. The Digital Devil Saga games have the Press Turn system which Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne invented, and which has become the modern hallmark of the franchise's combat. Basically exploit weaknesses or deal critical hits to gain additional turns, missing or hitting a null/drain/reflect of an enemy causes you to lose turns. Now, Digital Devil Saga gives you a small team of fixed people to use instead of just a human protag and fusable demons, unlike in the main franchise. However, this in a way allows you to more gradually adapt to SMT, since you can learn the general combat system and the nomenclature most of the spells now, and learn fusion later, which could be a bit intimidating to a novice. Of the five playable characters you get in DDS1, each has their own weakness and stat spread, but they learn from the same possible skill set. The DDS games uniquely use Mantras for skill learning. Spend money to buy a Mantra (you must buy each Mantra separately for each character), and then earn Atma Points (AP) in combat to master the Mantra, this will unlock its skills that will go into that character's skill pool to be freely swapped in and out of the 8 slots they can fill for battle. For the plot, well Nocturne basically invented a multiverse for the franchise, and Digital Devil Saga exists in its own separate world, with its own independent mythos. There are a couple of references to SMTII, but nothing with meaning. None of the Law-Neutral-Chaos alignment stuff of standard SMT, but I liked the plot, despite a few issues. The Digital Devil Sagas are interconnected plotwise, DDS1 ends on a cliffhanger, which along with all the other lures DDS1 lays, are resolved in DDS2. So you must play it first to get the full story, but I wouldn't call either a mega-long RPG, probably more on the shorter side if anything. Each is fairly straightforward until near the end of DDS1 and to a lesser extent the end of DDS2. Having DDS1 data also unlocks some DDS2 bonuses, though the one from the ultimate superboss and the +5 to all stats (which is a minor boost really) will roughly quadruple your playtime; the other bonuses don't need such a colossal time waste and are nice to have though. If SMT being dark is an issue for you, well I will say that from the start, Digital Devil Saga delves into one little dark thing- cannibalism. However, the game spares you from graphic imagery, no slurping of intestines and playing with kidneys or anything. The heroes don't like doing it, they only do it because they have to. Concerning the quality of the games in themselves, they're good, at the least decent, certainly not bad. Or at least for me. Your results may vary. Nocturne, a mainline game, is in some ways superior, but I don't feel it is as suited for beginners. That and I heard Atlus is always on the lookout for the possibility of remaking it, for whatever a statement is worth, which given SMT has become a Nintendo thing again in recent years, a Nintendo system would likely be a host for it. Mobile also has access to SMT1 in English, the third game in the franchise (Megami Tensei and Megami Tensei 2 are the original games). It's based on the GBA ports of these Super Famicom games. Worth it? I wouldn't say so. It's a very dated historical curiosity at this point. ...Just one giant in-depth slight suggestion.

There is one available at a certain number of Silver Emblems being obtained. Although this requires clearing the higher levels of boss battles and raids to unlock, as Silver Emblems are very rare on the Beginner difficulties. Otherwise, by completing boss battles and raids, you get a number of light purple-ish cards called Blazons, exclusive to this event. For every 2 you have, you can do a Blazon Summon, and you can use up to 20 in a single summoning session, for a total of ten summons per session. Among the rewards obtainable via Blazons is the 5* fire dragon Pele. Your chance of initially obtaining Pele is low, like less than 1%. However, the Blazon Summon is what I've heard called a "Box Summon". To explain this, imagine whenever you summon, you're sticking your hand into a box you cannot see inside of, and when you take it out, you won't know what you will have grabbed. How is this different from an ordinary summon? For a Box Summon, like the Blazon Summon, there are only a finite number of objects in the box. Once you take something out, it won't be replaced. The Blazon Summon has 367 items in it, so eventually, if you keep summoning, you'll get a Pele, since there won't be anything left in the box. That kind of extraordinarily bad luck would require a total 734 Blazons. Now once Pele is obtained from a Blazon Summon, you can choose to reset the contents of the box, adding duplicates of everything you took out of the box back into it, including another Pele you can obtain! However, apparently in this game the box will add 100 more non-Pele items after being reset the first time, and this would likely be true of every subsequent reset. After I believe the fourth reset, you can no longer reset the box. Meaning the maximum number of Peles you can get from this event is 6- five from Blazons plus the Silver Emblem one. That is enough for a fully unbinded Pele and an extra. I personally was fine with just having one Pele, that is all I need. Presumably once my teams grow stronger over this game's lifespan, I'll find it easier to tackle the higher level event challenges, thus earning more of the resources- Blazons and Emblems will not be carried over once this event ends, which I need for more Box Summons, in less time. Thus creating the possibility of me desiring to get multiples of the future 5* dragons these events may offer.

You leave out where weapons fall into this schema. Probably the second or third most important thing though. Elementals can only be equipped by a character of that element apparently, which makes me not want to make them until I have a strong and separate neutral weapon for a given type first. Since otherwise I'll have a weapon only a 1/5 of my characters in a given weapon type can use. Although looking at how the weapon evolution trees go, neutral, in a move to force grinding, stop existing pretty quickly. Celliera and a Pele get! Just grinded the Standard Boss Battle, which I could consistently do even if near-death a bunch of times. Celliera getting 20 Friendship per Standard Boss Battle didn't make it very time consuming at the end. It took until I was down to 167 items in the box before I got Pele and the additional Paladyn Defender in a single session. I was disappointed when I realized the Summon Vouchers the Emblems gave were of the 1 summon variety, none were of the 10 pack type. At least it killed my desire to get them. Now I think I'll chill on this game until another event. I play for the dallies, and continue the story, but otherwise I'm done with this first event- not too bad.

I'll agree. I always do like it when they do this. It doesn't have to be an automatic A, but at least a C please, unless you join really early. I feel sorry for Juno, not only does she have terribad stats on paper, but her Sword rank is E. To add greater insult, her parallel character in Dayan has much better base stats and C Swords. Making Jill Lances and Haar Axes is fine for me. Lance Fliers are admittedly much more frequent in FE than Axe Fliers are, but it would distinguish these two characters from the same game. As long as Tanith doesn't get stuck with Lances, Swords for her, Sigrun and Marcia get Lances, and the Peg fliers in Tellius are perfectly balanced between Sword and Lance.

Did I miss a datamine or something? Or is this just a random thought? I've been trying to cut down on my SF time so can I focus more on schoolwork. And that has in particular meant cutting my time to nil/near nil on the FEH board, since this is the scourge of my being, the tempting incubus of my online self which saps my essence away. Never mind I've been playing Dragalia Lost and XC2:TtGC to fill some of the time not wasted here. But lets see: When I ranked characters in PoR, using the full 1-10 scale with perhaps some brutality, Jill was like the lone 10/10. Introduction, recruitment, supports, base conversations, boss convos- all working to develop this totally optional minor character. If every character in FE had Jill's treatment, FE's rosters would be the best in the universe, if at the cost of a development team being 2:1 character writers to every other staff. Tauroneo is a little underdeveloped- more of the Four Steadfast Rider past, but I do like him. RD gave him some good spotlight as well. Sure I'd go for him. Zihark- The Navarre who isn't in the least bit edgy, just a well-rounded, likable guy. And he has a fairly well-explained past as opposed to mystery for mystery's sake. Either he or Rutger is the best in terms of character in the archetype. I'll lean Zihark b/c I haven't played Binding yet and lean towards Tellius. Nailah- If only we knew more of Hatari, and she had actual Supports. Nonetheless, her personality as a cool and strong woman is established ingame and it is likable. Her appearance, if impractical in a desert due to sandpaper winds and intense sunlight making exposed skin really really bad, it works and Volug dresses similarly, so no overtly sexist designing here. Lastly, I do like her and Rafiel as husband and wife, if only their marriage was outright stated at some point in RD. So yeah, I'd summon for this set. But I'm preparing for Ilyana to throw a maggot-ridden apple into the next Tellius banner.

I've started to play this game now. It sounds like I'm about to leave the second place, I have what I assume is all three teams now. Although the absence of anyone with this Digging Field Ability I see I need for some instances, suggests perhaps another Blade for Addam coming in the future. So far, I'm enjoying the game. Everything but combat: Music light and jazzy, not as good as XC1 so far, but good. The two places visited so far look nice, if a little basic and in need of more creativity. Not being able to jump and climb Run speed even before the little crafting bonuses is fairly fast. XCX had slow running, but that was because sprinting and Skells existed. The problem with sprinting (and Skell drive mode) though was it being assigned, with no ability to change it, to pressing down on the left control stick. I think the constant need to sprint was what ultimately forced me to buy a replacement control stick because the left one began having issues of moving left far too easily and right too resistantly due to becoming loose or something. If XCX gets ported, they best change that. Too much of the clock seems to be hours of darkness, but that is only because I haven't toyed with time changing really right now. Used to it a lot in XC1, but XCX restrained that to specific locations, so I got used to not unless I really wanted to. It feels like the map could use a few extra landmarks, and maybe I just need to spend more time adjusting to this one, but I think the old XC1 map system was better. The XCX one was interesting with it being on the Gamepad and being able to set probes and fill in every hex, but as a map for actually trying to read and navigate the terrain? It was bad and needed more place labels on it. Collectibles now have a use as crafting materials and not just collectibles you fill a compendium with. Not like I'm doing much crafting though, don't want to waste materials I might need/better use elsewhere later. Related to the above, the consolidation of collectibles into fewer spots that give multiple items was a good idea. Even if these are as plentiful as there are clouds in the sky, although it seems like you need a lot to get the rare mats for crafting. Perhaps owed to the fact this is just a little prequel story to a bigger game where everything I imagine gets fleshed out more, and which normally a person would have played first, I feel the plot doesn't give much in the way of expose for the world. Although I am getting an idea of things, I'm not wholly lost. Blue evil religionists, humans, artificial intelligent constructs, multicolored mascot potatoes, and beastfolk. Not hard. Although this plot seems to deal with something which upfront seems a like a world catastrophe from the opening sequence foretelling the coming conclusion of events- the lost of a floating continent. Yet the plot isn't getting too serious or focused besides the backroom villain scenes so far. The MaloMart menace is spoken of, but not felt yet. All the little things with the children feels filler to ease into the more serious stuff, which I hope is starting soon. The characters seem likable enough so far. They all look okay to me (why'd they get Nomura though for Jin? Did he ask? What does having his name on here do for the game?). None has really shined as a character yet, and I question why they killed off Lora's mother right at the beginning and don't even show what she looks like in flashbacks, but this is just a nitpick. Combat: I do like the tag team setup, allows for a lot of characters on the field without it being too many attackers at once. The replacement of temporal cooldowns with auto attack ones, effectively turning everything into XC1 Talent Arts, works for me. Hope there are auto attack accelerator accessories/cores eventually, even if they're rare. Speaking of equipment, I like that it appears to be more horizontal (expansion of options/variety- no/minimal power increase) in some ways than vertical (increase in power, no/minimal increase of options/variety). Accessories and chips do get stronger, but there are a good deal of options for the limited accessory slots, and Driver weapons appear to be purely horizontal so far. The passives learning of Blades is different, I like it. I can tell this system was tailored for a shorter game, as were those skill trees for the Drivers, but I don't mind. Only having three arts per character while in the Vanguard, excluding the Talent Art and Specials, at first sounds quite small. THREE ATTACKS?! That is going to get so samey! -Except it isn't! The weaknesses of some other games with more: Sure I might get like 30 spells/attacks for a Final Fantasy character in a given game, but is it really better? A bunch of those spells are just going to be vertical improvements on the old ones, which then I'll never use. Like Fira replacing Fire. Or Haste with Hastega. Even Tales can have this issue, not so much among the physical artes in those games, as among the spells. Similarly, some of those spells are just going to be the same thing in power and cost, but targeting a different weakness. And provided a character gets both of those, like a Black Mage getting Fire, Blizzard, and Thunder, in practice they might as well be one spell. Status ailments? Pffff! How useful are they? In a lot of RPGs, they just clutter the skills list. I'm not denigrating these games too much. Bravely for instance does have real skill variety, I'm simply pointing out what may be an unnoticed fault of them. The strengths of the XC2: TtGC system: With the tag team system, you get effectively nine arts under your control at any time. Rearguard arts expand this somewhat (I wouldn't call it an outright addition of nine, since in a way they're "passive" with their significantly longer cooldowns), as does the Switch Arts, Talent Arts, and Specials. Being real time, as opposed to turn-based, things are faster paced. Keeping track of the timing for when to pull off certain arts is tricky, for me at least, but the strategic benefits are good. In a sense, I see simple movesets more tolerable in a realtime JRPG as opposed to a turn-based one, since the addition of timing can make the simple less simple, or at least justifiable due to the need to also pay attention to timing, and more engaging. This said, the combat is being a bit overwhelming to me, but I'm growing into it. I don't think I'll ever truly master the system due to the chaotic elements of it- the BTLS sequence will only rarely and with good fortune be executed in full. My other major combat issue so far is Chain Attacks. Nothing lives long enough for the full assaults, and what does, and the few chances I've had to try, have typically ended with somebody dying just before I can really pull off the Chain's third stage. Also, what are these 16 critical paths for Chain Attacks the game speaks of? It says one of them, but doesn't inform me of any other. Is it just expecting me to mash Specials together and hope for the best? Could I at least have a little log keeping track of which ones I have pulled off? And the game speaks of elemental strengths and weaknesses. Are they fixed relationships? Or does it vary on an enemy by enemy basis? Is Earth always effective on Wind, or can one enemy that uses Wind be weak to Earth, and a different Wind enemy weak to Thunder?

I've started to play this game now. It sounds like I'm about to leave the second place, I have what I assume is all three teams now. Although the absence of anyone with this Mining Field Ability I see I need for some instances, suggests perhaps another Blade for Addam coming in the future. So far, I'm enjoying the game. Everything but combat: Music light and jazzy, not as good as XC1 so far, but good. The two places visited so far look nice, if a little basic and in need of more creativity. Not being able to jump and climb Run speed even before the little crafting bonuses is fairly fast. XCX had slow running, but that was because sprinting and Skells existed. The problem with sprinting (and Skell drive mode) though was it being assigned, with no ability to change it, to pressing down on the left control stick. I think the constant need to sprint was what ultimately forced me to buy a replacement control stick because the left one began having issues of moving left far too easily and right too resistantly due to becoming loose or something. If XCX gets ported, they best change that. Too much of the clock seems to be hours of darkness, but that is only because I haven't toyed with time changing really right now. Used to it a lot in XC1, but XCX restrained that to specific locations, so I got used to not unless I really wanted to. It feels like the map could use a few extra landmarks, and maybe I just need to spend more time adjusting to this one, but I think the old XC1 map system was better. The XCX one was interesting with it being on the Gamepad and being able to set probes and fill in every hex, but as a map for actually trying to read and navigate the terrain? It was bad and needed more place labels on it. Collectibles now have a use as crafting materials and not just collectibles you fill a compendium with. Not like I'm doing much crafting though, don't want to waste materials I might need/better use elsewhere later. Related to the above, the consolidation of collectibles into fewer spots that give multiple items was a good idea. Even if these are as plentiful as there are clouds in the sky, although it seems like you need a lot to get the rare mats for crafting. Perhaps owed to the fact this is just a little prequel story to a bigger game where everything I imagine gets fleshed out more, and which normally a person would have played first, I feel the plot doesn't give much in the way of expose for the world. Although I am getting an idea of things, I'm not wholly lost. Blue evil religionists, humans, artificial intelligent constructs, multicolored mascot potatoes, and beastfolk. Not hard. Although this plot seems to deal with something which upfront seems a like a world catastrophe from the opening sequence foretelling the coming conclusion of events- the lost of a floating continent. Yet the plot isn't getting too serious or focused besides the backroom villain scenes so far. The MaloMart menace is spoken of, but not felt yet. All the little things with the children feels filler to ease into the more serious stuff, which I hope is starting soon. The characters seem likable enough so far. They all look okay to me (why'd they get Nomura though for Jin? Did he ask? What does having his name on here do for the game?). None has really shined as a character yet, and I question why they killed off Lora's mother right at the beginning and don't even show what she looks like in flashbacks, but this is just a nitpick. Combat: I do like the tag team setup, allows for a lot of characters on the field without it being too many attackers at once. The replacement of temporal cooldowns with auto attack ones, effectively turning everything into XC1 Talent Arts, works for me. Hope there are auto attack accelerator accessories/cores eventually, even if they're rare. Speaking of equipment, I like that it appears to be more horizontal (expansion of options/variety- no/minimal power increase) in some ways than vertical (increase in power, no/minimal increase of options/variety). Accessories and chips do get stronger, but there are a good deal of options for the limited accessory slots, and Driver weapons appear to be purely horizontal so far. The passives learning of Blades is different, I like it. I can tell this system was tailored for a shorter game, as were those skill trees for the Drivers, but I don't mind. Only having three arts per character while in the Vanguard, excluding the Talent Art and Specials, at first sounds quite small. THREE ATTACKS?! That is going to get so samey! -Except it isn't! The weaknesses of some other games with more: Sure I might get like 30 spells/attacks for a Final Fantasy character in a given game, but is it really better? A bunch of those spells are just going to be vertical improvements on the old ones, which then I'll never use. Like Fira replacing Fire. Or Haste with Hastega. Even Tales can have this issue, not so much among the physical artes in those games, as among the spells. Similarly, some of those spells are just going to be the same thing in power and cost, but targeting a different weakness. And provided a character gets both of those, like a Black Mage getting Fire, Blizzard, and Thunder, in practice they might as well be one spell. Status ailments? Pffff! How useful are they? In a lot of RPGs, they just clutter the skills list. I'm not denigrating these games too much. Bravely for instance does have real skill variety, I'm simply pointing out what may be an unnoticed fault of them. The strengths of the XC2: TtGC system: With the tag team system, you get effectively nine arts under your control at any time. Rearguard arts expand this somewhat (I wouldn't call it an outright addition of nine, since in a way they're "passive" with their significantly longer cooldowns), as does the Switch Arts, Talent Arts, and Specials. Being real time, as opposed to turn-based, things are faster paced. Keeping track of the timing for when to pull off certain arts is tricky, for me at least, but the strategic benefits are good. In a sense, I see simple movesets more tolerable in a realtime JRPG as opposed to a turn-based one, since the addition of timing can make the simple less simple, or at least justifiable due to the need to also pay attention to timing, and more engaging. This said, the combat is being a bit overwhelming to me, but I'm growing into it. I don't think I'll ever truly master the system due to the chaotic elements of it- the BTLS sequence will only rarely and with good fortune be executed in full. My other major combat issue so far is Chain Attacks. Nothing lives long enough for the full assaults, and what does, and the few chances I've had to try, have typically ended with somebody dying just before I can really pull off the Chain's third stage. Also, what are these 16 critical paths for Chain Attacks the game speaks of? It says one of them, but doesn't inform me of any other. Is it just expecting me to mash Specials together and hope for the best? Could I at least have a little log keeping track of which ones I have pulled off? And the game speaks of elemental strengths and weaknesses. Are they fixed relationships? Or does it vary on an enemy by enemy basis? Is Earth always effective on Wind, or can one enemy that uses Wind be weak to Earth, and a different Wind enemy weak to Thunder?