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Post by Xeogred on Jun 26, 2021 16:46:06 GMT -5
This might be the brick wall end of my Valkrie Profile run.
One of these two bosses will 1-2 shot Janus. They do a lot of fire breath attacks, so I got some armor on Lenneth and Arngrim to cut that down some. But it's still not enough.
You have to kill BOTH of these things at the same time, otherwise the one standing will just revive the other back to 100%. It takes probably like 20+ turns to kill one of them, to put in perspective how beefy and long this boss battle can be.
I've given it a genuine three shots. Spent more experience from the Exp Orb to get a few levels and tried tinkering with my equipment and stuff in between. I know dying just puts you out in the overworld and you can keep playing, but I think this has just made me completely lose steam with this one.
And I beat Front Mission 4 this year, which was brutal. But unlike that one, Valkyrie Profile's hard mode just seems completely unbalanced in my experience.
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Post by Ex on Jun 26, 2021 20:27:06 GMT -5
]And I beat Front Mission 4 this year, which was brutal. But unlike that one, Valkyrie Profile's hard mode just seems completely unbalanced in my experience. Balance really is the key. I definitely appreciate difficult games and serious challenges, as long as they are fair and balanced. Front Mission 4 does fall into that category. However, it reads like Valkyrie Profile's hard mode falls into the unbalanced bullshit kind of difficulty. This is very unfortunate, because I honestly believe if you'd played this game on Normal difficulty, you'd have had a much better time with it. I did find it odd that you chose to play a new-to-you RPG on hard mode right out the gate. But I understand somebody lied to you.
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Post by Xeogred on Jun 26, 2021 20:45:20 GMT -5
Blame GameFAQ's I guess: "There's really no point in playing this game on anything but hard mode." "Yes, play on hard. Seriously - that is the only viable option." "Hard mode, while stretching the game a bit longer, is actually much more fun that normal mode." "Hard mode is by far the best choice. You'll get everything that the game has to offer +characters +dungeons +items the other modes are a shorter and incomplete version." "Never ever play easy mode. it's a complete waste of your time."
Saw these kind of responses in some reddit threads too.
Yeah, 99% of the time I'm going to play on the default difficulty. But for years I was warned how stupidly cryptic this games' best endings and gated content was. So I finally gave that idea up and didn't want to spend more of my time reading guides alongside playing this thing, but then through all that additional research it kept sounding like hard mode would be easier and more fun with extra content. Whelp, learned my lesson again. IGNORE 99% OF THE INTERNET!
Don't want to bash one of Sarge's faves too much though. Maybe I'll pick it up in a few days and just leave that dungeon. Or I'll give normal mode a try someday down the road. I own Valkyrie Profile 2 as well...
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Post by Ex on Jun 26, 2021 21:38:27 GMT -5
Whelp, learned my lesson again. IGNORE 99% OF THE INTERNET! I also really enjoyed Valkyrie Profile, so it's not just him praising it. If you'd played VP on Normal without a guide, I firmly believe you'd have had a much better experience.
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Post by toei on Jun 26, 2021 23:26:39 GMT -5
Xeogred I thought it sucked, so you're not alone.
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Post by Sarge on Jun 27, 2021 0:30:01 GMT -5
Do you have someone else you can use besides Janus that won't die so quickly? Sounds like they're mostly immune to magic, too, unless you have something to really boost that up.
I think this pretty much cinches that I'm going to make a hard mode run again one of these days, just to see how it holds up to my memories and if it truly is superior. I saw a lot of folks saying hard mode was actually easier, so... I don't really know what to believe. There's no question there were some very challenging moments in the normal mode.
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Post by Xeogred on Jun 27, 2021 6:11:42 GMT -5
Do you have someone else you can use besides Janus that won't die so quickly? Sounds like they're mostly immune to magic, too, unless you have something to really boost that up. I think this pretty much cinches that I'm going to make a hard mode run again one of these days, just to see how it holds up to my memories and if it truly is superior. I saw a lot of folks saying hard mode was actually easier, so... I don't really know what to believe. There's no question there were some very challenging moments in the normal mode. I have Kashell that might be good in his place. Beyond that though I think I need a magic user that has heal. I still have MP and EXP to burn but I never spend all of it per chapter...
But yeah I'd rather be more curious to see you or someone else replay this on hard, to confirm or deny if I'm crazy. I could just leave that dungeon but it feels like a wash and it's inevitable I'm still going to run into some random enemies and probably most bosses that have gimmicks and one shot me at times. So all my nitpicks kind of just exploded at this point.
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Post by Chema on Jun 27, 2021 8:33:07 GMT -5
I played through the first four stages of Double Dragon II before quitting. I get what they were going for with the control scheme, but it only made the jumping sequences infuriating. I don't like losing lives because I wasn't able to press A+B at the right time.
So I switched to Gargoyle's Quest. Now, this is an impressive game. It took me a while to figure out that I could let Firebrand stop floating by pressing A, but once I did I couldn't stop playing.
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Post by Ex on Jun 27, 2021 9:34:00 GMT -5
the jumping sequences infuriating. I don't like losing lives because I wasn't able to press A+B at the right time If the jumping mechanism bothers you that early in the game, it would absolutely infuriate you once you reach the areas where you're jumping across moving gears and conveyor belts over insta-death spikes. When DD2 on NES was released, 2D platformers were all the rage, so TechnÅs tried to hybridize that genre into this beat 'em up. I'm glad to read that you enjoy this one. The game's only 3-4 hours long, you'll likely have it beaten quickly.
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Post by paulofthewest on Jun 27, 2021 14:48:16 GMT -5
Completed Dragon Warrior 4 (NES) today (after a marathon of gaming yesterday.)
Pros (most of these are vs DW1/DW2): + 8 Diverse characters, each character with enough uniqueness that they fill a different role in combat. + The addition of chapters over the previous installments helped break things up and keep focus on the story. + A world map (thank goodness!) + Better direction on the next plot device and where treasure is located. + Quite an epic story for an 8-bit NES cart. + The AI for characters is on the better side (especially for the age of the game.) + Polished combat system: There is strategy to your party and I never had to "just level up." + Never had "stupid death" situations like in DW2. With few surprise exceptions, every time I died it was poor decisions or poor planning. + Taloon! This guy's combat antics are fun and useful for the dungeon crawls. My favorite was "Taloon wags his finger. Enemy is dazed!"
Cons: - Chapter 1 is borderline boring (especially the story.) This is a big issue since it was the start of the game. I thought about stopping, but the game play was good. - Some of the later story was not explained that well (why is Saro so evil?) I'm sure they touched on it, but it could have been presented better. - Still had to lookup certain parts on where to go next, a fortune teller or plot arrow would have helped. - Once in Chapter 5, you can only control the main character, the rest utilize an AI. Lack of character control is =(. - Chapter 5 was an explosion of length and breadth (probably 60+% of the game is chapter 5.) Chopping it up into pieces would have helped a lot. - While the map helped a lot, adding city/spot locations would have helped more. I eventually broke down and used a labeled online map.
8.25/10 (NES version): This is a solid JRPG featuring memorable characters (Taloon!), an epic story, and a well polished battle system for the NES. The game does suffer from some story issues, unnecessary game length, and unmanageable sprawling world map. Clean up the dialogue, chop up Chapter 5, add some labeling/plot arrows to the the epic world map, then the game will be looking at 9.0+ territory (which I have yet to issue on this forum.)
Final Party with levels (which cruised through the final dungeon): Hero (36), Ragnar (36), Alena (37), Taloon (39). The party only died once on the final boss.
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