I feel like I already won the game when I introduced the textiles guy to the idea of making pants. The rest is adventure saga gravy for historians to ponder, while they wear variations on the theme of durable, yet fashionable pants.
ciderpress otm (as usual) that the miniature biographies of NPCs is the best part, but the travel banter between party members is all but tied for first, and I don't want to make a choice
― Paleo Weltschmerz (El Tomboto), Wednesday, 12 September 2018 04:22 (five years ago) link
There's so much nuance in these stories that got overlooked. Well, and there's a lot of stuff that's not nuanced at all!
As far as I can tell, this entire continent is a collection of failed states where hacks and charlatans and bandits do as they please, while the working folk die in poverty and the rich sit idle. Let's also put a nail on it - everyone who is rich got their via inheritance or theft. On top of that, you have a network of disgusting sexual abusers and pimps, highly politically connected, some Big Pharma, and I swear I had to fight one of the Koch brothers last night over the land rights to some shithole mine.
Who wrote this game? How is there not a MAGA chud outbreak of death threats against the people behind it? I'm only 42 hours in. Please tell me there's 100 hours more.
― Paleo Weltschmerz (El Tomboto), Saturday, 15 September 2018 03:08 (five years ago) link
(violently incapacitating the Theranos-wannabe was almost as fun as stabbing Primrose's pimp to death, but, as above, nothing is going to match the latter tbf)
― Paleo Weltschmerz (El Tomboto), Saturday, 15 September 2018 03:11 (five years ago) link
I should probably point out that I got on the computer to revive this thread for none of the reasons mentioned above. I just wanted to share that I LOL'D IRL at:1. Cyrus apparently has the brains AND the looks - he should make some money2. Ophilia, per travel banter, is not interested in either, and wow Cyrus sucks at talking to girls3. omg how many "Cyrus is murderously awkward" story segments can there be? Can it be in the hundreds?
― Paleo Weltschmerz (El Tomboto), Saturday, 15 September 2018 03:20 (five years ago) link
Cyrus should just go all in on terrible hair and cargo pants, like his new pal Alfyn. Then the girls will just go "ugh" and he can focus on his puzzles.
― Paleo Weltschmerz (El Tomboto), Saturday, 15 September 2018 03:28 (five years ago) link
OK well it turns out that whole story was soaked in so much blood only an academic could come out the other side with even a modicum of sanity. Forget pimps and snake oil pushers, we're on to ritual killers with deliberately fucked up modus operandi.
Also, I think I figured out how the apothecary class is useful, sort of?
― Paleo Weltschmerz (El Tomboto), Saturday, 15 September 2018 05:15 (five years ago) link
Alfyn’s concoct unique can be super clutch with the right ingredients at the right time. My partner loves poisoning people
― faculty w1fe (silby), Saturday, 15 September 2018 08:20 (five years ago) link
it's good for getting breaks - though I haven't mixed every combination yet, it seems like he's the only character able to hit any given elemental vulnerability, on top of inflicting status debuffs
― Paleo Weltschmerz (El Tomboto), Sunday, 16 September 2018 20:42 (five years ago) link
yeah concoct basically does anything, in small amounts and if you have the right ingredients. the actual apothecary skill package is not that great though Amputate is the highest damage single target attack in any of the base classes iirc
I feel like I already won the game when I introduced the textiles guy to the idea of making pants.
― ciderpress, Monday, 17 September 2018 00:45 (five years ago) link
I met that guy today in the dance hall, en route to finding the dancer shrine and knocking out some side quests. I’m getting all the secondary jobs and finishing off the last of the Chapter 2s today.I like where H’aanit’s story is going. I have no idea what secondary job to give to Therion. Hunter?
― El Tomboto, Sunday, 23 September 2018 20:28 (five years ago) link
Hunter’s pretty good to get the weapon diversity for Therion, and leghold trap is something to do with him on a dead turn
― faculty w1fe (silby), Sunday, 23 September 2018 20:37 (five years ago) link
he will be lego trapping so much
― El Tomboto, Sunday, 23 September 2018 22:33 (five years ago) link
OK here's the final roster before I get those extra special jobs I'm not supposed to know about yet:
Ophelia, the Holy Apothecary, batmanCyrus, the Scholar of TradingTressa, the Merchant of ThieveryOlberic, the Warrior of the DancePrimrose, the Twerking ClericAlfyn, a Pharmacist and a ScholarTherion, the Thief of HuntingH'aanit, the Huntress Of Fighting
I would be interested to know what other folks ended up with (MINUS THE SECRET JOBS THAT COME LATER)
― El Tomboto, Sunday, 23 September 2018 22:45 (five years ago) link
scholar tressa was my favorite one, the merchant passive that halves magic costs is a big deal there and the merchant defensive / regen skills are good on casters
i had alfyn as a warrior since the apothecary class is statted as more of a tank healer than a caster healer
― ciderpress, Sunday, 23 September 2018 23:30 (five years ago) link
also tressa's black mage outfit is stylish was another factor
― ciderpress, Sunday, 23 September 2018 23:32 (five years ago) link
was gonna say Alfyn looks rather striking in his cosplay
― El Tomboto, Sunday, 23 September 2018 23:39 (five years ago) link
given that Ophelia is my protagonist, I'm comfortable with my not-entirely-optimal support skills arrangement - there's a ton of fun in this game that's buried in all the different ways you can min/max the PCs.
I also like the cognitive dissonance involved in Thief Tressa and Scholar Alfyn
― El Tomboto, Sunday, 23 September 2018 23:42 (five years ago) link
yeah there arent really any bad combos other than mixing the pure physical and pure caster ones
― ciderpress, Sunday, 23 September 2018 23:58 (five years ago) link
Even with that, it's a grinder, and there are some equipment sets that I can see making those actually viable, albeit not so convenient
― El Tomboto, Monday, 24 September 2018 00:15 (five years ago) link
I’ve made Olberic a cleric and I’m gonna keep trying to make that work
― faculty w1fe (silby), Monday, 24 September 2018 00:19 (five years ago) link
just as long as you understand that as soon as you're out of the picture he's going to move to Central America and become a bartender and barely even talk to his family anymore
― El Tomboto, Monday, 24 September 2018 01:02 (five years ago) link
Dancin' Olberic with Eye for an Eye equipped is lots of fun when a foe uses a multiple strike technique on him. The first time it happened I thought the game had hiccuped
― El Tomboto, Wednesday, 26 September 2018 20:19 (five years ago) link
obv any character with that skill does the same thing but when it's Olberic it def feels like cheating, e.g. they shoot him with 4 arrows for like 120 damage tops and then it's just murder time
― El Tomboto, Thursday, 27 September 2018 01:32 (five years ago) link
I dunno 'bout you fellas but if I were the king of the lizardmen I'd feel pretty fucking embarrassed gettin' cut to shreds by a nun, two dancers, a druggist and some rando amateur travelin' pastry chef
― El Tomboto, Sunday, 30 September 2018 03:52 (five years ago) link
It's rare, in my experience, that RPG level-up events coincide in cinematic fashion with RPG narrative events, so it seems necessary to memorialize what just happened:
- Olberic got enough JP in his 3rd chapter dungeon to get the Warrior's Divine Skill- I decided to let him build BP while stacking physical attack buffs (if you played this game without providing Olberic the opportunity to pursue his dreams as a dancer, you missed out)- thanks to Eye for an Eye, he got the Break right on time- Brand's Thunder, Erhardt eats it
I love this game.
― El Tomboto, Sunday, 30 September 2018 04:43 (five years ago) link
I finished all the chapters 2 and I have Cyrus at 35, a couple people at 30, the rest 24-27 or so. Probably just going to do miscellaneous grinding and shopping for another session or two. Most of the sidequests are too enigmatic to really be able to just sit down and try to solve some so that’s not really gonna help much.
― I have measured out my life in coffee shop loyalty cards (silby), Saturday, 6 October 2018 03:33 (five years ago) link
My partner managed to kill a Cait in one lucky fight where she had a surprise round a while ago, some of her dudes leveled up like twice.
― I have measured out my life in coffee shop loyalty cards (silby), Tuesday, 9 October 2018 18:13 (five years ago) link
i played this game for almost 60 hours and never managed to kill one of those
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 9 October 2018 18:13 (five years ago) link
might grab this in the EU e-shop sale
can you turn off random encounters?
― there are no good podcasts (||||||||), Monday, 24 December 2018 15:53 (five years ago) link
no
― ciderpress, Monday, 24 December 2018 17:22 (five years ago) link
sounds like it’s not that much of an issue because the battle system is so good
― there are no good podcasts (||||||||), Monday, 24 December 2018 17:24 (five years ago) link
Yeah this is a game primarily about hanging out with the battle system. I've found that you don't necessarily have to spend extra time leveling up your guys to beat bosses, as long as you don't have a mental block around burning through recovery items. (I did before I started playing this game lol)
― I have measured out my life in coffee shop loyalty cards (silby), Monday, 24 December 2018 17:34 (five years ago) link
reading this thread has given me much relief as i am about 11 hours in, have 7/8 characters through chapter 1, and was genuinely concerned that none of these 8 people were going to ever interact with each other/would just endlessly travel from solo plot to solo plot, never speaking, never explaining why they're together, just an archipelago of every-man's-an-islands forever taking a knee while anything significant happens in their walkmates' lives
― suggest boban (Will M.), Tuesday, 15 January 2019 20:32 (five years ago) link
there's some tales skit style conversations in chapter 2 onwards but outside of those it's as you describe
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 15 January 2019 20:36 (five years ago) link
ah nuts. well at least there's the little skits, better than nothing
― suggest boban (Will M.), Tuesday, 15 January 2019 20:37 (five years ago) link
this is out on steam in june, surprising since i figured nintendo had partially funded it but i guess not
― ciderpress, Monday, 15 April 2019 17:19 (five years ago) link
I'm finally playing this, have finished all the first chapters & just Therion's chapter 2. Do I need to grind all my characters to the same level more or less? It seems like it because Therion, at only level 15, sucked in the chapter 2 battles. And the other ones not in my primary party thus far suck too. I don't really just want to grind the underleveled characters in non story parts if I don't have to, but do I have to?
― L'assie (Euler), Monday, 10 June 2019 14:33 (four years ago) link
and if I do have to grind random encounters, is there some reliable place to do so? I was in the desert yesterday boringly grindingly away, but I can't keep doing that, it will drive me batty.
― L'assie (Euler), Monday, 10 June 2019 14:34 (four years ago) link
you do have to grind a bit because it doesn't have bench exp yeah. definitely the worst part of the game. you can kind of circumvent it by having 3 'main' party members carry a rotating 4th underleveled one through their stories. the postgame superboss is the only thing where you need to grind all 8 chars up to high level and that's totally optional if you're not a completionist, i checked out before it.
― ciderpress, Monday, 10 June 2019 14:38 (four years ago) link
I did the rotating 4th under leveled one on therion chapter 2 & I beat the boss but it took an hour!
― L'assie (Euler), Monday, 10 June 2019 14:43 (four years ago) link
did you find the secondary job shrines yet? chapter 2 bosses and onward are tuned expecting your chars to have those
― ciderpress, Monday, 10 June 2019 14:44 (four years ago) link
I just found the mage one! near the therion town. I haven't been looking for the others yet, sounds like I should.
― L'assie (Euler), Monday, 10 June 2019 14:46 (four years ago) link
Ophilia is my main & I gave her the mage second & with 200 spell points she's now a capable master
also equips, especially weapons, are more powerful than levels in this game, so seeking out good ones from npcs in the chapter 2 towns may be worth the time. iirc you can hand a strong weapon to an underleveled char and they'll contribute decently as long as they're not so low level that they're getting one-shot.
― ciderpress, Monday, 10 June 2019 14:54 (four years ago) link
I tried to steal all I could in nobleville but therion's percentage for the good stuff was only 8% :(
― L'assie (Euler), Monday, 10 June 2019 14:55 (four years ago) link
or you can always just give one of the supportive secondaries to an underleveled char e.g. dancer or cleric and have them contribute that way
― ciderpress, Monday, 10 June 2019 14:56 (four years ago) link
it still sucks that the game doesn't have bench exp when almost all other JRPGs have moved to having it in the past 10 years but there's enough of these ways to mitigate it that it's not as bad as it could have been
― ciderpress, Monday, 10 June 2019 15:00 (four years ago) link
Going around the chapter two cities tonight w an under level party was good, grinding without feeling pointless as I open up map and find new cities and shrines. I found the starseer one though and holy fuck
― L'assie (Euler), Monday, 10 June 2019 21:44 (four years ago) link
oh yeah don't bother with the ones in the outer ring yet, those are for the endgame. i think my party was level 40ish when i beat them
― ciderpress, Monday, 10 June 2019 23:24 (four years ago) link
I made it to the final boss last night, and it sucked. I haven't lost yet, maybe I can win it, but it's so tedious that I don't think I want to. I just put the machine to sleep after about half an hour, realizing that I have to somehow coordinate killing the dumb nodes it grows. Ah well, the game was pretty good until here! My party ended up in the 58-65 range, with Ophelia, my main, pushing 75 I think.
― L'assie (Euler), Tuesday, 16 July 2019 08:28 (four years ago) link