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Post by Sarge on Dec 2, 2019 12:30:45 GMT -5
Yep, there are enemies that you can steal Gold Studs from (unlimited supply) and Speed Tabs (the wall things, so limited supply). You can get your favorites maxed out on speed.
Marle is the requisite healer-type, but one could argue (and many do) that the game is easy enough that you really don't need her in that role. Haste rocks, though.
Magus is a weird case. He's super cool, but as you point out, he doesn't have much combo potential unless you equip an item that enables Triple Techs, and even then, those are rarely worth it. I find my damage output works better with good single Techs, depending on who is in my team. Crono's Confuse works great as a single-target attack, as does Robo's Uzzi Punch.
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Post by Sarge on Dec 2, 2019 16:11:45 GMT -5
Alrighty, let's talk about Legaia 2: Duel Saga for a bit. I actually remember buying this game in a Sam's Club many moons ago, for around $20. I dumped a lot of time into it, and unlike the first game, which I've owned for even longer, I didn't tap out quickly at all. I hit a boss (actually, two bosses) that owned me. A few years back, I made another stab at them and got through the fight. Then I hit the casino town and promptly forgot about it again for several years. Our hero, Lang. Yep, he becomes super awesome, never gonna quit world saver. Never seen that one before.Well, now it's back. A lot I covered in my verbiage leading up to this, so I won't restate things. Just know that it does most things a lot more closely to a traditional RPG. Really, the only huge divergences are ones that have become commonplace in modern games: a crafting and cooking system. Which, actually, other games had before this as well, but a lot of RPGs were content to not go down that route. I hit on crafting, which lets you get some of the better weapons and armor (and there's a jewel you can equip to increase item drops, so use it!), but cooking also plays an important part. Outside of healing, it will also boost other stats based on what you cook. You always want to cook before rolling into a boss battle. Outside of that, the combat system largely returns intact, and chaining together moves can be fun. Battles can take a while, though, much like the first game. Unlike the first game, I feel like the game is calibrated better in allowing a full combo to typically wipe out an enemy, and you'll only fight a max of four enemies, if memory serves. Some combination moves increase AP, whereas the more powerful ones consume it. So you can either see-saw back and forth between draining and building back up, or find a steady state combo that keeps you at max AP or near to it. That's what I typically did, reserving the ultra-powerful Variable Arts for tough bosses. VAs require two people to pull the move, in a sort of combo attack that inflicts massive damage and bypasses defenses. I also mentioned Mystic Arts, which are a whole level more powerful. To give an example of the power disparity, on the last boss, a VA combo did around 100,000 damage with an attack boost. A single Mystic Art did 150,000 damage to another boss, and I don't even know if it was boosted! There is a skill that even lets you build up and unleash a 3x multiplier at the cost of one art block... so you could potentially one-hit KO the last boss. Seriously. Oh, right, art blocks. Like the first game, you chain together moves using the d-pad: left, up, down, right. Certain combinations of those moves produce special moves, which are the ones I mentioned earlier that either build or use AP. The cool thing is that one move can flow into another. For example, Lang could pull a very powerful Sky Fang Hyper Art (-50 AP, ends with Up), and chain with multiple Mountain Crushers (starts and ends with Up). That combo actually leaves you with only a 2 AP deduction out of 100 AP total! These are the jerks that stopped me the first time through. Ugh. Appearances can be deceiving, let me tell you.Graphically, the game can seem pretty sparse. It's not a looker in the same way Valkyrie Profile 2 is, but the in-battle character models look quite excellent. I was always impressed by them, considering the PS2's usual look for characters in RPGs. Sound design is pretty forgettable, and the plot is your usual world-saving, chosen one stuff that you've seen before. In fact, I'd say that outside of the battle system, that's what this RPG boils down to: a traditional JRPG that does some things well, but won't surprise you much. Still, I find the execution enjoyable, so finishing that 40-hour jaunt leaves me feeling a bit fuzzier than most. I'd give the game a 7.5/10. Worthwhile if you're a big JRPG fan, probably not if you don't care much for the genre.
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Post by anayo on Dec 2, 2019 18:46:15 GMT -5
Lookin' good anayo . Where's the mouse though? Or is that trackpad thing the mouse? Definitely wanna use a mouse with Quake! The trackpad is a Cirque Glidepoint Desktop. I found it complete in the box at Goodwill last year. It's a cute peripheral, but it's not very good, so I put it away and plugged in the mouse I found on 26 November. Anyway, I took you up on your advice and investigated how to use mouse aim in Quake. You have to press tilda (~) to bring up command prompt, then type +MLOOK and press enter. Bloody hell, this completely transforms the game! As a kid (then later as a nostalgic teenager) I would always play Quake on a keyboard. It made aiming up and down super awkward, so I mostly avoided it. But Quake with a mouse introduces a level of verticality that feels downright next-gen compared to Duke 3D. I've been re-playing Duke 3D since Sunday, so the contrast is really pronounced.
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Post by Xeogred on Dec 2, 2019 18:56:25 GMT -5
I can't even fathom Quake without mouselook. With Doom, I never play with vertical look, since it's pointless to me. The Build engine games auto-aim on the vertical axis as well, but vertical look helps in exploration sometimes. Quake though is a true 3D game, so doing that only with a keyboard sounds hilarious. Must have been how some people had to play back in the day though. I finished up all the sidequests in CT now except the Black Omen. Sarge, apparently you can do the Black Omen three times through? If you do it in a specific order. Wonder if it's worth it or not... definitely looks like all these bosses should be charmed though. I love just looking at this gorgeous tileset: www.snesmaps.com/maps/ChronoTrigger/ChronoTriggerBlackOmen.html
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Post by Sarge on Dec 2, 2019 19:06:37 GMT -5
Okay, had to verify, but I remembered there was some reason you couldn't do that. Items you snag, even in the future, are gone from the past versions as well. That means no farming Speed Tabs, and you can't get multiple Haste Helms, either. The Gold Studs are from normal enemies, so that isn't a huge deal. Bosses also disappear as well. anayo: Much like Xeogred, I can't imagine playing Quake without mouselook.
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Post by anayo on Dec 2, 2019 19:22:27 GMT -5
Quake though is a true 3D game, so doing that only with a keyboard sounds hilarious. Must have been how some people had to play back in the day though. yes some of us did lmao
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Post by Ex on Dec 2, 2019 22:03:20 GMT -5
SargeThanks for the thoughts on Legaia 2, I really didn't know much at all about this old JRPG until you started describing it. I am leery of combo-centric combat systems in JRPGs though, as they can often make random battles take way too long to finish. I'm thinking of the overlong battles in Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Endless Frontier for example. I seem to recall the original Legaia had this issue, and someone I knew who was playing the game quit playing it because of that. That said I like the screenshots you posted, so I think I'll obtain Legaia 2. anayoI'm glad you got mouselook to work in Quake. Indeed Quake was the first FPS I ever played that used mouselook in the modern fashion. Completely changed the genre for me!
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Post by Sarge on Dec 2, 2019 22:54:03 GMT -5
Ex: It's apparently quite cheap, too. Guess they made too many copies and not a whole lot of demand for it. Might explain how I got it in Sam's Club... I think the combo-heavy nature works a little better here because it doesn't rely on real-time inputs and juggling enemies. That gets really tough to do in Endless Frontier; one slip and they block and you've lost your combo chain. And like I mentioned, battles can take a bit longer than entirely necessary, but the game doesn't feel as grindy as the first to me.
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Post by Xeogred on Dec 2, 2019 23:06:02 GMT -5
I know those are probably rough screenshots, but phew that game ain't pretty haha. I see what you mean about the character models though, they look solid. I'll have to hit up the first Legaia someday. Always hear interesting things about it. I agree with the above though, sometimes combo based JRPG battle systems don't go over well with me. Legend of Dragoon always comes to mind, I recall the further you got into that game, the more combo extensions you got... which well just made the battles continually feel longer and longer! Never beat that one. And I can definitely assume you had nightmares from those two enemies, what a road block...
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Post by Sarge on Dec 2, 2019 23:15:07 GMT -5
Oh, man, I really dug Legend of Dragoon back in the day. And it still has some of the coolest CG scenes in gaming. I just wish someone would do a retranslation project to clean up the stilted dialogue.
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