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Post by Sarge on Aug 8, 2019 15:44:57 GMT -5
Rastan is great, but yeah, not the easiest game.
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Post by Xeogred on Aug 8, 2019 16:44:43 GMT -5
So I remembered what my White Whale target was; Rastan, the original arcade version. Whenever I've played it before, it's kicked my ass pitilessly. This game is so hard that you get a congratulations screen when you beat the first level. I mean, what are you even supposed to do about the bats? So maybe I'll take it on soon, though who knows if I can beat it. I wouldn't mind a thank you.
In Gradius V when you get a game over, you get a digitized voice that says one of the two following phrases:
"You need more practice."
"Come on, we're just getting started".
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Post by Xeogred on Aug 8, 2019 17:57:04 GMT -5
I got to the final level in Gradius V today.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
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Post by Sarge on Aug 9, 2019 0:20:07 GMT -5
I'll go into detail tomorrow, but The 7th Saga is down for the count.
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Post by Ex on Aug 9, 2019 0:39:28 GMT -5
I'll go into detail tomorrow, but The 7th Saga is down for the count. Nice job! - As for me, I played Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! tonight. It didn't take me all that long to make it back to Tyson, about an hour and some change. Despite not playing this game for years, I still remembered the tells and gimmicks needed to overcome Mac's opponents. All the other fighters proceeding Mike are pretty easy (with the exception of Mr. Sandman - just because of how insane fast his uppercut barrage is). Even Super Macho Man wasn't all that difficult; did you know he was actually the original final boss in the initial Famicom version? But yeah then I got to Mike and he beat me to smithereens. It's almost comical how exponentially more difficult Tyson is compared to all the other boxers before him. I mean, not even Mike Tyson can beat Mike Tyson:
I'll give it another shot tomorrow. I'm just glad this game gives you a password right there at the Tyson fight.
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Post by Sarge on Aug 9, 2019 0:55:05 GMT -5
I have that code seared into my head. You might have a different one since you went from the beginning, but 007 373 5963 will get you there.
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Post by Xeogred on Aug 9, 2019 6:34:27 GMT -5
For as popular as Mike Tyson's Punch-Out is, I think I've only played it once or twice at a friends in the past.
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Post by Ex on Aug 9, 2019 9:27:26 GMT -5
For as popular as Mike Tyson's Punch-Out is, I think I've only played it once or twice at a friends in the past. IMO it holds up surprisingly well. It's a very well crafted experience. Honestly it's less of a boxing sports game, and more of a rhythm puzzle game.
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Post by Sarge on Aug 9, 2019 11:04:17 GMT -5
That's exactly what it is. Until the end, where the rhythm becomes more of a dance of pain, but even that gets better past the first 1:30.
So, I'm going to do this piecemeal, since I don't want one large mega-post. My overall review of The 7th Saga will come later; I want to recap a bit of my experience last night.
I hadn't actually planned on beating the game. To be honest, when I started, I didn't even really want to boot it at the time; I was pretty tired. Still, I did, and I found myself making fairly rapid progress. My stat-boosted Valsu helped some, although given his actual strengths, most of his boosts weren't as handy as you'd think. He was still mostly on healing/buffing duty. Past the point of no return, you don't have access to the runes. Those are what can help you survive onslaughts without wasting valuable casting or item resources. Having to drop back to the old "use the Power spell on Lux and burn 8 MP" shtick took some adjustment, as did not having a free healing resource.
After poking around in the first town, I found my way to the next one, then the next one. I eventually made my way (via airship) to Melenam, which is on a fairly small continent. There, I got my awesome Lux stat boost, and I had enough cash to buy the couple of upgrades that are there for Lux. After poking around, I hit the next town over, and get Valsu's (very expensive) equipment. Note that the in-battle defense boost only applies to the core Guard stat, not armor, so Lux benefits the most from the boost, just like the Power spell with attack.
I delivered a letter from a mother in the town to a guy in the research lab back in Melenam, which lets me see the cool research project they've been working on... that taps into the power of the Dark World. Nope, no issues here at all. Just a giant, world-ending Tetsujin built to take on Gorsia that will never, ever go rogue. (There's a lot of hefty foreshadowing of this.)
Well, now I'm stuck, so I wander the continent a bit. It's small, but didn't find anything new, and ended up looping back to Melenam... with alarms blaring. Of course. I wonder what's wrong, y'all? Take out the thing, but guess what? We gotta evacuate! The whole continent goes under the sea. Whoops. We land on a new continent, which just happens to be where Gorsia resides. Convenient, that. I stumble on a small town/whatever, and I'm told about good ol' Saro and how they sense him in the cave to the west. Go there, take out the bosses, and by the end of the whole deal, I get all the Runes back. Yay! But they don't do the same thing now. They're only for the battle with Gorsia, and they allow you to weaken him to make the fight beatable.
I figure, heck, I'm this close, why not go for the end? So I do. And... hoooooo boy. The enemies in the castle are so strong that they can one-hit KO me. This gon' be a problem. I definitely took a few wipes. So the whole time was me running from every battle, but more so trying to avoid all of them, because failing to run means you're dead. There are lots of doorways to duck into to reset the encounters, and I took liberal advantage of them. I get to Gorsia, and immediately get pasted. I then did something that's a no-no, I restored a state at the start of the battle. I know, I know, but I'll fix that in a minute. This time, I properly set up my defense first, use the Runes, and through a long, protracted battle, beat him. But it bothered me, so I started from the last town and went through the sequence again. I managed to dodge every single battle in the castle (woot!), get to Gorsia, and paste him again, but even more easily. He was dumb enough to waste some turns on Petrify spells right off. I gots Mirrors to defend against those, so free turns!
Honestly, the best spell to have in this fight is one that only Valsu can get, and that's F.Shield. It will block a single spell. Given Lux's vulnerability to them, having that in place keeps him from getting whacked all the time, freeing him to take his Defend-Attack shots. Valsu just keeps healing and buffing, occasionally chugging a Recovery to get all his HP/MP back. I think my final levels were around 36/37, so I definitely could have grinded more, but those guides that tell you to build up to 50 or 55? Ridiculous. I know Lux + Valsu is one of the strongest combos, but even without it, that's a lot of levels.
Sorry for the long blurb, but I feel like I needed to get that out of my system. I don't usually give a blow-by-blow, and even this one isn't as detailed as some. I recommend folks check out that LP I linked earlier. It makes for fascinating reading.
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Post by Ex on Aug 9, 2019 11:40:05 GMT -5
I then did something that's a no-no, I restored a state at the start of the battle. Do you mean you restored a save state? Are we allowed to use save states to take down our White Whales? If so I'll have Iron Mike knocked down in a jiffy!
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