The Last To Post Wins!

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Assuming it's just another cold.

I don't have fever (yet).

Though I would have had as many cold in 2020 as in the past two years together.

2020 is a plague for me so far.

 

Also if I don't recover fast, I'll have to cancel my gastroscopie appointment next wednesday, which would really suck.

Edited March 14, 2020 by Falcom Knight

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Seriously I absolutely despise 2020 so far.

So much chaos going on at work, being sick so often and the Corona shit.

When I will be healthy again, it will be summer already, when I may sleep at > 30°C at night.

Oh yeah, I'm really looking forward for the next weeks and months.

 

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

If I have to criticize one little thing about Ryza, then this game starts a bit slowly.

It took a lot of time to get a world map (about 5-6 hours longer than in Lulua) and I have not fought a real boss yet.

A bit too much focus on quests than on combat in early game imo.

I hope to have a bit more action very soon.

[Codename Shrimp]

6 hours ago, Falcom Knight said:

Having sore throad and am sweating right now.

 

get well soon and take care of yourself!

6 hours ago, Falcom Knight said:

Also how to provide, if someone is in self-quarantine for at least two weeks?

by having provisions or having friends/family provide you, without direct contact.

Edited March 14, 2020 by Shrimperor

[DragonFlames]

That moment when you know "I'm f***ed"

I'm kinda sad you never get to fight these three together.
Though on the other hand, maybe it's better that way, because even on their own, they are very, very hard to actually bring down. Epic fights, though. Hard, but epic.
With a boss theme like this, it's hard not to feel hyped whenever they appear, and by fighting each of them on their own, you get to hear it more often, which is awesome.

19 hours ago, Shrimperor said:

 

I have been thinking about it for a bit lately.

An Alchemist class

Abilities:

• Ranged item use: Can use Items on allies in x (=Mag?) Range
• Weapon Repair and forging: Can repair and forge weapons during battle if there are enough resources in convoy.
• Create Tonics & Potions: given enough resources, can create Tonics & Potions on the battlefield (with stronger ones having a turn cost) and use them
• Item & Trading Canto: Unit can move & use one more action after using an item or trading. (Max 1 more action per turn)
• Explosive weapons: can turn broken weapons into explosives and throw them.

This would be absolutely awesome!

7 hours ago, Shrimperor said:

Me: heh, Sterk a scrub.

Game:

  Reveal hidden contents

So there's a Lvl3..

  Reveal hidden contents

against 'Perfecto Sterk'

  Reveal hidden contents

And...

  Reveal hidden contents

I keep getting rekt xD

I never made it past level two! XD
Sterkenburg "Sterk" Sterky Steckel Strudel Storker-bargen Cranach too stronk.

Meanwhile, in Rorona's version of the Arland festival, there is a tournament where you have to fight him in the final round. And it is very possible that you actually win that fight. And, lo and behold, the game actually recognizes your victory over him (take notes, Trails of Cold Steel 2 and 3. Take some damn, bold-printed notes).

3 hours ago, Falcom Knight said:

If I have to criticize one little thing about Ryza, then this game starts a bit slowly.

It took a lot of time to get a world map (about 5-6 hours longer than in Lulua) and I have not fought a real boss yet.

A bit too much focus on quests than on combat in early game imo.

I hope to have a bit more action very soon.

Yeah, Ryza takes a while to get going, but trust me when I tell you that when it gets going, it goes from 0 to 100 in no time at all.

6 hours ago, Falcom Knight said:

Having sore throad and am sweating right now.

*thinking*

Get well soon!

[Codename Shrimp]

6 minutes ago, DragonFlames said:

I never made it past level two! XD

Lvl 2 ez xD

Lvl 3 i tried 5 times yesterday amd couldn't do it.

But will never give up

7 minutes ago, DragonFlames said:

take notes, Trails of Cold Steel 2 and 3. Take some damn, bold-printed notes

I love how almost everyone i know after playing some games after Cold Steel games says that lmao.

Like the games didn't do anything right. Well, not far from the truth, i guess...

 

[Lightcosmo]

Thanks @DragonFlames and @Shrimperor for letting me know about that dungeon for leveling up! Right now, i'm only at 90, but it really made a difference!

 

14 minutes ago, DragonFlames said:

That moment when you know "I'm f***ed"

I'm kinda sad you never get to fight these three together.
Though on the other hand, maybe it's better that way, because even on their own, they are very, very hard to actually bring down. Epic fights, though. Hard, but epic.
With a boss theme like this, it's hard not to feel hyped whenever they appear, and by fighting each of them on their own, you get to hear it more often, which is awesome.

I remember these guys! I only remember two of them being difficult and one being pretty easy, though.

Edited March 14, 2020 by lightcosmo

[DragonFlames]

11 minutes ago, Shrimperor said:

XD
Aldi-Brot macht Waldi tot.

11 minutes ago, Shrimperor said:

Lvl 2 ez xD

Lvl 3 i tried 5 times yesterday amd couldn't do it.

But will never give up

It really is Atelier Lulua Z. XD

11 minutes ago, Shrimperor said:

I love how almost everyone i know after playing some games after Cold Steel games says that lmao.

Like the games didn't do anything right. Well, not far from the truth, i guess...

Oh, the games did many things right (gameplay, areas, characters, bosses, music (CS2's anyway)). I wouldn't have finished them otherwise.
It's just that that's the stuff most people remember, because it is that freaking annoying.

6 minutes ago, lightcosmo said:

Thanks @DragonFlames and @Shrimperor for letting me know about that dungeon for leveling up! Right now, i'm only at 90, but it really made a difference!

Glad to be of assistance!

6 minutes ago, lightcosmo said:

I remember these guys! I only remember two of them being difficult and one being pretty easy, though.

Yeah, the fire dragon, Trishula, is the easiest out of the three of them. I remember having a lot of trouble against him the second time you fight him, though.
We'll see how it goes this time.

Edited March 14, 2020 by DragonFlames

[Codename Shrimp]

28 minutes ago, DragonFlames said:

(gameplay, areas, characters, bosses, music (CS2's anyway)

Imo, CS1/2 didn't do the bolded ones well. Especially the gameplay.

@lightcosmo npnp^^

Edited March 14, 2020 by Shrimperor

[DragonFlames]

2 minutes ago, Shrimperor said:

Imo, CS1/2 didn't do the bolded ones well. Especially the gameplay.

Maybe it's because I haven't played the other Trails games so my only points of reference are other JRPGs, but I liked the gameplay in the CS games. Sure the quest system was a bit annoying with all the hidden quests if you wanted to go for max AP, but otherwise, I had a lot of fun with it. What I didn't have fun with was every time the games were like "yeah, you're playing card games now and you will love it!" because those minigames were horribly, horribly boring. Worst part is, the card game thing is mandatory in 3 if you want all the AP.

As far as characters go, sure, there are some dumb ones in there (particularly on the NPC, guest party members, and villains side), but there are a lot of characters that I liked, too.
I will admit that the stinkers stink particularly bad, and that the games needed more Kurts, Junas, Altinas, Oliverts, Fies, and Emmas, and fewer Lechters, Claires, Aurelias, Angelicas, Crows, Osbournes, Sharons, and Rufuseseses, however.
It's always a bad sign when the guest characters from other games in a series show up and you immediately like them more than the game's own cast (hello, Agate, Tita, Randy and Tio!).

As far as bosses go, I will say, other JRPGs have way, way, waaay better boss fights, but I can't deny that some boss fights in the CS games (CS3 in particular) are straight up hype incarnate. Then that hype gets ruined in the cutscenes immediately afterwards. Or the game's like "have a Divine Knight fight now, even though you could probably kill this boss without one. In fact, you already did, but hey, Valimar is cool (even though we established he's just as whimpy as the rest of your meaningless main cast)."

tfw your justification of why you think these things are well done turn into more gripes. Why the fuck did I buy and play these games again?
I mean, they had to have done something right or else I would've said "screw it!" after playing CS1 and never bothered with 2 or 3. Though I very nearly did say "screw it!" after 2, as you may know.

[Lightcosmo]

1 hour ago, DragonFlames said:

Yeah, the fire dragon, Trishula, is the easiest out of the three of them. I remember having a lot of trouble against him the second time you fight him, though.
We'll see how it goes this time.

I also overleveled by... a lot, so that could be why they were a tad easier for me as well.

I'm trying to do the challenges in Neptunia to get the stat boosts, and some of them are a pain! 80+ hours into the game and I haven't defeated over 500 enemies with a lot of the cast.

Also: I love the transformed battles themes, they are amazing!

Edited March 14, 2020 by lightcosmo

[DragonFlames]

3 minutes ago, lightcosmo said:

I also overleveled by... a lot, so that could be why they were a tad easier for me as well.

That helps a lot, of course. I was constantly underleveled for a lot of the game, so I probably remember some boss fights as being harder as they normally should be.

6 minutes ago, lightcosmo said:

I'm trying to do the challenges in Neptunia to get the stat boosts, and some of them are a pain! 80+ hours into the game and I haven't defeated over 500 enemies with a lot of the cast.

I haven't done those with many characters, either, I must admit. Part of that is because I tend to have a "main" team that I use a lot, so some characters get neglected a lot of the time.

4 minutes ago, lightcosmo said:

Also: I love the transformed battles themes, they are amazing!

That they most certainly are!

[Codename Shrimp]

7 minutes ago, DragonFlames said:

Maybe it's because I haven't played the other Trails games so my only points of reference are other JRPGs, but I liked the gameplay in the CS games.

My main problem with CS gameplay is imo the difficulty. All the games follow the same system, but in Sky it was challenging and i had to think almost every fight. I can count the number of challenging boss fights in the whole CS1/2 in less than one hand, on Nightmare. And add to that the modern Quartz system as well.. (which i ranted about a few days ago)

 

11 minutes ago, DragonFlames said:

As far as characters go, sure, there are some dumb ones in there (particularly on the NPC, guest party members, and villains side), but there are a lot of characters that I liked, too.

For me, Cs puts way too much attention on the characters i hate, including the main character, which every thing revolves around for some reason.

CS is much much much more Main Character focused than other Trails games, and when you can'T stand the MC, it ruins the whole experience.

13 minutes ago, DragonFlames said:

As far as bosses go, I will say, other JRPGs have way, way, waaay better boss fights, but I can't deny that some boss fights in the CS games (CS3 in particular) are straight up hype incarnate. Then that hype gets ruined in the cutscenes immediately afterwards.

And the easy difficulty takes me out of it as well. Like the game hypes the boss fights to be the hardest thing ever...

>Boss never attacks

and then after battle

''THIS ISN'T EVEN MY FINAL FORM''

14 minutes ago, DragonFlames said:

Why the fuck did I buy and play these games again?

For me, it's because i played the older games and wanted to continue the story, and consider the gameplay system to be one of the best jrpg wide. I knew i wouldn't bought CS if i didn't play Sky Trilogy before, as it already had signs of everything i hate (bland protag, school, bonding system, mechas, etc.). Only the Trails name made me get it.

8 minutes ago, lightcosmo said:

Also: I love the transformed battles themes, they are amazing!

WILL
BE
VENUS!

[Lightcosmo]

1 minute ago, DragonFlames said:

I haven't done those with many characters, either, I must admit. Part of that is because I tend to have a "main" team that I use a lot, so some characters get neglected a lot of the time.

I'll admit, I'm guilty of this as well. Even for my main party, getting those done feels like it takes a while. Something I really like about this game is how the characters all feel special, none of them feel too similar to use at all. The gameplay is spectacular for that.

[Codename Shrimp]

Honestly, the only game i have a main party in is Fire Emblem, due to the main party already being big enough with ~15 Characters xD

In normal JRPG i tend to switch around every Chapter.

Edited March 14, 2020 by Shrimperor

[DragonFlames]

1 minute ago, Shrimperor said:

My main problem with CS gameplay is imo the difficulty. All the games follow the same system, but in Sky it was challenging and i had to think almost every fight. I can count the number of challenging boss fights in the whole CS1/2 in less than one hand, on Nightmare. And add to that the modern Quartz system as well.. (which i ranted about a few days ago)

Makes sense, makes sense.
I personally don't mind games being a bit on the easy side, so the laxer difficulty wasn't really that much of a dealbreaker.

2 minutes ago, Shrimperor said:

For me, Cs puts way too much attention on the characters i hate, including the main character, which every thing revolves around for some reason.

I agree here. This is a general thing, but when I despise the characters a story decides to focus on, then I'm not going to enjoy the story as much or even at all, depending on the level of hate (my opinion on a certain Fire Emblem game can attest to that).

5 minutes ago, Shrimperor said:

And the easy difficulty takes me out of it as well. Like the game hypes the boss fights to be the hardest thing ever...

>Boss never attacks

and then after battle

''THIS ISN'T EVEN MY FINAL FORM''

This is where my major problem with the gameplay and storytelling lies, too, but I think I mentioned this a lot before.
Now do you see why this is the point everyone complains about? XD

7 minutes ago, Shrimperor said:

For me, it's because i played the older games and wanted to continue the story, and consider the gameplay system to be one of the best jrpg wide. I knew i wouldn't bought CS if i didn't play Sky Trilogy before, as it already had signs of everything i hate (bland protag, school, bonding system, mechas, etc.). Only the Trails name made me get it.

I'll admit, I didn't know what to expect from CS1 at all when I first got it. I just thought the cover looked cool.
This of course makes my question of "why the fuck did I even play these games?" even bigger...

11 minutes ago, Shrimperor said:

WILL
BE
VENUS!

The best one!

8 minutes ago, lightcosmo said:

Something I really like about this game is how the characters all feel special, none of them feel too similar to use at all. The gameplay is spectacular for that.

Agreed.

2 minutes ago, Shrimperor said:

Honestly, the only game i have a main party in is Fire Emblem, due to the main party already being big enough with ~15 Characters xD

In normal JRPG i tend to switch around every Chapter.

It's my usual approach to any JRPG I play. I play around with all the characters to get a feel for them, then I pick out who felt best to me and form a party out of those. If I like a character a lot, it usually secures them a spot in my party and if I don't, they're out of the party no matter how good their gameplay performance may be.
The only exceptions to this were Dragon Star Varnir and the two Nights of Azure games, because those kinda mandate switching your party around every so often.

[Codename Shrimp]

2 minutes ago, DragonFlames said:

I personally don't mind games being a bit on the easy side, so the laxer difficulty wasn't really that much of a dealbreaker.

 

The thing is.. ''on the easy side'' is a huge understatement xD

Like, i choose Nightmare difficulty for a reason xD.

It shouldn't feel like i am playing Sky easy.

3 minutes ago, DragonFlames said:

(my opinion on a certain Fire Emblem game can attest to that).

Now i am curious xD

4 minutes ago, DragonFlames said:

(my opinion on a certain Fire Emblem game can attest to that).

Play Estelle the Bestelle and the question will get smaller xD

5 minutes ago, DragonFlames said:

then I pick out who felt best to me and form a party out of those.

I only do that in the final dungeon. Pick my fav. both Story and gameplay wise.

[DragonFlames]

12 minutes ago, Shrimperor said:

The thing is.. ''on the easy side'' is a huge understatement xD

Like, i choose Nightmare difficulty for a reason xD.

It shouldn't feel like i am playing Sky easy.

Meanwhile the one time I picked Nightmare, I got my rear end handed to me. XD

12 minutes ago, Shrimperor said:

Now i am curious xD

My feelings on Fates can be summed up in one simple picture

because from its story to its gameplay to at least 95% of its characters, that game has everything I hate. And the characters I hate the most are the ones that are the most present in the story, hence my mentioning it when I said that if I hate the characters, I can't really enjoy the story anymore.

Edited March 14, 2020 by DragonFlames

[Codename Shrimp]

3 minutes ago, DragonFlames said:

My feelings on Fates can be summed up in one simple picture

And here i thought you would mention a less controversial game XD

3 minutes ago, DragonFlames said:

I got my rear end handed to me. XD

Play Sky hard for maximum fun tbh. Makes you use the whole battle system without much hair pulling

Don't try Sky Nightmare of CS Nightmare was that much trouble xD

Although, Sky SC prologue on hard was pretty damn frustrating. Makes you hate ''Eins! Zwei! Drei!'' since that's the last thing you hear before game over xD

Edited March 14, 2020 by Shrimperor

[Interdimensional Observer]

16 minutes ago, Shrimperor said:

In normal JRPG i tend to switch around every Chapter.

This is usually my preference, except if I have/need a certain team for boss slaying. For Tales of Symphonia, I always remember I made one team for going through a dungeon, the second for fighting the boss at the end. For Xillia I rotated out whoever most recently gained a level. It's more fun changing things up in a game where it's a viable option than sticking to a single team.

 

 

---

The 5th Stratum boss was surprisingly easy on Advanced with mid-60s characters. I did have someone die on the last turn, but otherwise, if narrowly in some cases, I managed to avoid a single casualty. Aureole Oracle came in handy this one time, it negated the boss's most damaging, telegraphed and scripted attack. I should be able to trigger the 3rd Stratum superboss's Combustion carefree too, since Aureole should be able to convert it to healing.

It's amazing how fast you can get through floors if you have them pre-mapped b/c NG+, it didn't take long to get to F28. Even on Advanced, the 6th Stratum enemies aren't too strong so far, surprising for the no-holds-barred final "optional" stratum, weird, because my first run found the 6th Stratum's enemies far more brutal. Is a Chain team with a Dragoon simply better at managing the 6th than a Binds/Ailments team with a Botanist?

Soon, I'll begin grinding those six-eyed freak clones for money and EXP, I need the levels before trying the superbosses. Except for Primordiphant, I delayed on that and can do it now. Finishing up this old EOV run won't take much longer. Might not bother Formaldehyding the conditional drops if I don't need them for some superbosses.

[DragonFlames]

4 minutes ago, Shrimperor said:

And here i thought you would mention a less controversial game XD

Well, what can I say? When I hate something, I hate something, when I like something, I like something. No matter how controversial it may be. That's just me.
Hey, that rhymed!

4 minutes ago, Shrimperor said:

Makes you use the whole battle system without much hair pulling

That's always the best kind of difficulty, I feel like.
Even better when the game teaches you the intricacies of its battle system through its design (shoutouts to Shin Megami Tensei IV for having mastered this).

Edited March 14, 2020 by DragonFlames

[Codename Shrimp]

3 minutes ago, DragonFlames said:

Well, what can I say? My opinions rarely match up with the general public's.

hating fates matches the general public's opinion though xD

On more Trails talk, i can't wait to see you meeting Anelace aka Cutielace aka Estelle's gf

 

Edited March 14, 2020 by Shrimperor

[DragonFlames]

Just now, Shrimperor said:

aka Estelle's gf

Is it like this?

[Codename Shrimp]

Just now, DragonFlames said:

Is it like this?

Nah, more like friendly rivals, but there's that one very popular scene where Estelle confuses Anelace's words for a confession and the community meme'd the hell out of it xD

Meme'd to the point of modding extra Estelle x Anelace scenes in lmao

Also, Cutielace OP

She does S-Craft damage with normal attacks XXD

[Codename Shrimp]

She's the granddaughter of Rean's Master, btw.