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Sep. 14th, 2012 06:58 pm
Oh, all right. That seems fair.
Oh, all right. That seems fair.
(no subject)
Sep. 1st, 2012 07:45 pmBeen a while since I updated my video game journal, I know. I just haven't had a lot to report, I guess?
I tried to 100% EO3 and got extremely close--I am now completely done with everything that involves going into the Labyrinth, including map completion and defeating the Abyssal God. The only things left are the Elder Dragon sea quests, and then going around the sea and completing all the sea logs like fish and cargo and stuff. I kind of ignored those throughout most of the game, so blah.
I'll still do those at some point, because I can't just come that far and then not complete it, but for now, I apparently decided I was getting tired and needed a Tactics Ogre break.
On the Tactics Ogre side, I have done ... quite a lot of party reorganization. One or two extremely powerful characters just joined my party, and while I had to stop and reshuffle my ranks and do random encounters for a bit to work up their skill points and such and integrate them into the main party anyway, I took a careful look at the rest of my roster while I was at it. There were units that had been languishing on the bench for almost the entire game because their default classes weren't really what I was looking for, because I somehow forgot that you're allowed to change their classes, and also that there's a uniqueness hierarchy (even if you make them the same class at the same level and everything, statwise, completely randomly-generated generic units are just plain worse than named generic units, who are worse than semi-unique units, who are worse than truly unique units. There are only about one or two exceptions in the entire game.) As an example, I've had the Swordmaster Hobyrim just sitting there this whole time, because Swordmasters are kind of blah. It somehow didn't occur to me that the Ninja Hobyrim is not only better at being a Ninja than the random generic Ninja I was using this entire time, but he is of Godlike, almost game-breaking power in general.
So yeah, there has been a bit of a reorganization. In both screenshots, the ten characters in the top row are the ones I actually use--random situationally-appropriate combinations of 5-6 of them in small battles, all ten of them in large melees--and everyone in the second row and below is just sitting on the bench because I don't have the heart to actually dismiss them from my army. (And of the characters that are still there in both the before and after versions of the actual active ten, two of them changed classes, too, though you can't tell because they're both uniques. Though I suppose Canopus' being one level higher yet having less HP might be a bit of a clue that he's one of them.)
I tried to 100% EO3 and got extremely close--I am now completely done with everything that involves going into the Labyrinth, including map completion and defeating the Abyssal God. The only things left are the Elder Dragon sea quests, and then going around the sea and completing all the sea logs like fish and cargo and stuff. I kind of ignored those throughout most of the game, so blah.
I'll still do those at some point, because I can't just come that far and then not complete it, but for now, I apparently decided I was getting tired and needed a Tactics Ogre break.
On the Tactics Ogre side, I have done ... quite a lot of party reorganization. One or two extremely powerful characters just joined my party, and while I had to stop and reshuffle my ranks and do random encounters for a bit to work up their skill points and such and integrate them into the main party anyway, I took a careful look at the rest of my roster while I was at it. There were units that had been languishing on the bench for almost the entire game because their default classes weren't really what I was looking for, because I somehow forgot that you're allowed to change their classes, and also that there's a uniqueness hierarchy (even if you make them the same class at the same level and everything, statwise, completely randomly-generated generic units are just plain worse than named generic units, who are worse than semi-unique units, who are worse than truly unique units. There are only about one or two exceptions in the entire game.) As an example, I've had the Swordmaster Hobyrim just sitting there this whole time, because Swordmasters are kind of blah. It somehow didn't occur to me that the Ninja Hobyrim is not only better at being a Ninja than the random generic Ninja I was using this entire time, but he is of Godlike, almost game-breaking power in general.
So yeah, there has been a bit of a reorganization. In both screenshots, the ten characters in the top row are the ones I actually use--random situationally-appropriate combinations of 5-6 of them in small battles, all ten of them in large melees--and everyone in the second row and below is just sitting on the bench because I don't have the heart to actually dismiss them from my army. (And of the characters that are still there in both the before and after versions of the actual active ten, two of them changed classes, too, though you can't tell because they're both uniques. Though I suppose Canopus' being one level higher yet having less HP might be a bit of a clue that he's one of them.)
(no subject)
May. 13th, 2011 10:09 pmFor whatever reason, playing a game like Tactics Ogre has really made me aware of how the balance of class and weapon usefulness can be so... different between games.
Never was this made more clear than when I heard someone playing through Dragon Age II at the same time get into a fight, start to make an "oh crap" sound like he was in trouble, only to stop and say "oh, they're just archers."
Just archers? Just archers? Did he not know just how much serious business archers were?
Oh, wait, no, he didn't, because he wasn't playing Tactics Ogre.
Well, here, let me put this way:
That is an archer calculated to hit someone with 151 max HP for 142. Granted, it's a cleric (the Squishy Wizard rule is definitely still true) but still. Someone who is at 100% full health will be left with nine hit points assuming no deviations from the calculation, and will be outright killed in one shot if it's a critical hit.
Oh, that reminds me, archers have a skill that turns their next shot into a guaranteed critical hit.
Right now, by far the best units on my 8-9 or so person team are Arycelle (my archer,) Canopus (who is currently his own unique storyline class that's basically an archer that's not quite as good but can move up to five tiles instead of three--I'll make him a real archer when I'm high enough level to unlock the move+1 ability) and good old Hissy. Oh, that reminds me. Lizardman berserker with hammers as a weapon of choice. Cannot go wrong with that. Hammerkind Lizerkers are unstoppable melee death machines. So yeah, he's definitely up there too.
Never was this made more clear than when I heard someone playing through Dragon Age II at the same time get into a fight, start to make an "oh crap" sound like he was in trouble, only to stop and say "oh, they're just archers."
Just archers? Just archers? Did he not know just how much serious business archers were?
Oh, wait, no, he didn't, because he wasn't playing Tactics Ogre.
Well, here, let me put this way:
That is an archer calculated to hit someone with 151 max HP for 142. Granted, it's a cleric (the Squishy Wizard rule is definitely still true) but still. Someone who is at 100% full health will be left with nine hit points assuming no deviations from the calculation, and will be outright killed in one shot if it's a critical hit.
Oh, that reminds me, archers have a skill that turns their next shot into a guaranteed critical hit.
Right now, by far the best units on my 8-9 or so person team are Arycelle (my archer,) Canopus (who is currently his own unique storyline class that's basically an archer that's not quite as good but can move up to five tiles instead of three--I'll make him a real archer when I'm high enough level to unlock the move+1 ability) and good old Hissy. Oh, that reminds me. Lizardman berserker with hammers as a weapon of choice. Cannot go wrong with that. Hammerkind Lizerkers are unstoppable melee death machines. So yeah, he's definitely up there too.
(no subject)
Mar. 24th, 2011 10:10 amYep, I was right. TO has sort of a Darius Twin-esque binary branching system for its alignment chapters, so 1 leads to 2[Law] or 2[Chaos], and either can go back to 3[Neutral] but 3[Law] or 3[Chaos] requires being and staying on that path. So, um, just having finished 2C and having to choose between 3C and 3N, it looks like it's chaos for me, again. This really wasn't what I expected to happen going in to this game--remember when I said that when I was recruiting new generic units (usually via coaxing enemy generics to join me, such as Ardei and the Hawkmen) that I'd target the Lawful or Neutral ones because they liked me more and started out much more loyal, while Chaotic ones wouldn't give me the time of day?
Actually, amazingly enough, that's still true for the generics, although it turns out certain storyline characters that ended up joining me for real are a lot more susceptible to plot choices. In that regard, I actually chose wisely--most of the non-generic units either don't care or slightly approve of the 3C route, and the one person I actually use heavily enough to care about (someone who has the potential to join you in 2C and makes a fantastic archer if the recruitment works out) pretty much automatically starts loathing you to the point of being an extreme desertion risk if you choose 3N.
Even without checking what everyone else thinks, though, it was a distressingly tough choice this time around, especially when thinking back to the comparatively brain-dead decision at the end of chapter 1. (All you need to know about that one is chapter 2L is subtitled "I will fear no reproach" and 2C is "The world can be set to rights." By contrast, 2C ends on kind of an "actually, no it can't" note, and thus you get to choose between 3N--"There will be sacrifices"--and 3C--"Greed and ambition rule, while dogs and swine serve." I am not making this up.)
This really reminds me of FFT, which I mentioned in my last post, but I suppose I should explain further. I always thought the Death Corps, despite their ominous name, were an intriguingly sympathetic villain faction in that game. Despite the PSX version's dodgy translation, it did a good job presenting an intriguing conflict between Wiegraf (their leader, a total idealist) and basically everyone else (who realize that Wiegraf's stubborn refusal to stoop to their level is running the organization directly into the ground; they're going to die and it's all his fault because he won't do what's necessary for survival.) A perfect example of this is when a subordinate named Gustav kidnaps a high-ranking Marquis for ransom because they desperately, desperately need the money, while Wiegraf is arguably even angrier to hear the Death Corps did this than you are. Either way, you're sent to rescue him, and arrive on the scene just in time for this.
Yeah, I always thought the Death Corps were neat. I didn't imagine that switching from FFT to TO would allow me to be them, though.
Actually, amazingly enough, that's still true for the generics, although it turns out certain storyline characters that ended up joining me for real are a lot more susceptible to plot choices. In that regard, I actually chose wisely--most of the non-generic units either don't care or slightly approve of the 3C route, and the one person I actually use heavily enough to care about (someone who has the potential to join you in 2C and makes a fantastic archer if the recruitment works out) pretty much automatically starts loathing you to the point of being an extreme desertion risk if you choose 3N.
Even without checking what everyone else thinks, though, it was a distressingly tough choice this time around, especially when thinking back to the comparatively brain-dead decision at the end of chapter 1. (All you need to know about that one is chapter 2L is subtitled "I will fear no reproach" and 2C is "The world can be set to rights." By contrast, 2C ends on kind of an "actually, no it can't" note, and thus you get to choose between 3N--"There will be sacrifices"--and 3C--"Greed and ambition rule, while dogs and swine serve." I am not making this up.)
This really reminds me of FFT, which I mentioned in my last post, but I suppose I should explain further. I always thought the Death Corps, despite their ominous name, were an intriguingly sympathetic villain faction in that game. Despite the PSX version's dodgy translation, it did a good job presenting an intriguing conflict between Wiegraf (their leader, a total idealist) and basically everyone else (who realize that Wiegraf's stubborn refusal to stoop to their level is running the organization directly into the ground; they're going to die and it's all his fault because he won't do what's necessary for survival.) A perfect example of this is when a subordinate named Gustav kidnaps a high-ranking Marquis for ransom because they desperately, desperately need the money, while Wiegraf is arguably even angrier to hear the Death Corps did this than you are. Either way, you're sent to rescue him, and arrive on the scene just in time for this.
Yeah, I always thought the Death Corps were neat. I didn't imagine that switching from FFT to TO would allow me to be them, though.
(no subject)
Mar. 22nd, 2011 10:49 amGood Lord, I see why the point of Tactics Ogre's story used to be billed as "think everything all the way through, choose very wisely, and be prepared to live with the consequences" before the World system came about. (And even then it's still like that for your first time through; The World just lets you start exploring what was on all the other plot branches and stuff you didn't take after you already beat the game once.)
Based on what I had heard about this game and what I knew about Ogre Battle's story (in which it starts out as a rebellion against a clearly evil oppressive empire, but you have a reputation meter and there are tons of nuances and such for how you play determining whether you're a liberator or just the other conqueror or somewhere in between, etc.) I expected the message of Tactics Ogre to be something like "dewy wide-eyed idealism is easy enough when all you want is to maybe stop being brutally oppressed a little, but when it turns into full-scale war, have fun trying to get through the decisions you'll be making at every turn with your morals intact." It turns out I was right and that's pretty much exactly what it is.
I honestly did not expect this going in (the Tarot questionnaire introduction, very similar to Ogre Battle before it, had me pegged as basically Lawful Good, and to this day Lawful units still generally like me more than Chaotic ones do) and I could still be wrong on this, who knows, but it's starting to look like I might be ending chapter two by picking the Chaos route again, because basically everything is horrible and apparently the only thing left to do is just be some ineffectual rebel group who values means over ends and will never go anywhere beyond just being annoying to whatever faction is in the lead, because they'll never "do what is necessary" or whatever to ascend. Basically I've turned into Wiegraf from FFT (or at least how Wiegraf was in chapter 1) in that regard.
In the mean time, I somehow managed to bump the loyalty of Canopus from :D down to :) and my own sister from :) to >:| in the process. Oops.
Based on what I had heard about this game and what I knew about Ogre Battle's story (in which it starts out as a rebellion against a clearly evil oppressive empire, but you have a reputation meter and there are tons of nuances and such for how you play determining whether you're a liberator or just the other conqueror or somewhere in between, etc.) I expected the message of Tactics Ogre to be something like "dewy wide-eyed idealism is easy enough when all you want is to maybe stop being brutally oppressed a little, but when it turns into full-scale war, have fun trying to get through the decisions you'll be making at every turn with your morals intact." It turns out I was right and that's pretty much exactly what it is.
I honestly did not expect this going in (the Tarot questionnaire introduction, very similar to Ogre Battle before it, had me pegged as basically Lawful Good, and to this day Lawful units still generally like me more than Chaotic ones do) and I could still be wrong on this, who knows, but it's starting to look like I might be ending chapter two by picking the Chaos route again, because basically everything is horrible and apparently the only thing left to do is just be some ineffectual rebel group who values means over ends and will never go anywhere beyond just being annoying to whatever faction is in the lead, because they'll never "do what is necessary" or whatever to ascend. Basically I've turned into Wiegraf from FFT (or at least how Wiegraf was in chapter 1) in that regard.
In the mean time, I somehow managed to bump the loyalty of Canopus from :D down to :) and my own sister from :) to >:| in the process. Oops.
(no subject)
Mar. 18th, 2011 10:15 amOf course Tactics Ogre has crafting. Clearly I just wasn't consumed enough by the game already.
I want to show another screenshot of how my party is developing these days, but... TO's system of character/class advancement actually seems to strongly favor and encourage using actual important plot characters (once they join you as legitimate units) to fulfill the generic class roles. When the cleric Donnalto and his random (but not quite random enough that they don't have names and profiles and entries in the Warren Report) bodyguards Sara and Voltare joined me early on in chapter one, Donnalto directly replaced my old cleric and Sara directly replaced my old archer. Apparently one's stats are directly proportional to one's relevance to the story, though, as Sara has just been rendered obsolete by the addition of a certain chapter two archer who... well, let's just say has a bigger role than "Donnalto's bodyguard." And I've already told you how awesome Canopus is in this game at every turn....
It's really the exact opposite of FFT, where the important characters had their own unique custom class in place of Squire and no one ever used a named character in the role of a generic (you either used Agrias because you wanted her Holy Sword skills or you used an archer or something, but no one ever turned Agrias into an archer, that's just crazy talk.) In TO, no one in my party as of yet has a custom character-specific class (Canopus used to with his being a Vartan, but I recently got the ability to turn anyone else into Vartans too so long as they're hawkmen, so it's now a race-specific class rather than character-specific.) The named characters are just particular examples of non-particular classes (Donnalto starts as cleric, Sara starts as an archer, etc.) but they're just better. (Well, okay, I did replace Donnalto with a generic hawkman cleric, because I decided after Qadriga Fortress that giving my main healer the ability to fly was fairly important. Other than that, though.)
Whew, sidetrack. Anyway, I wanted to show off my party again, but due to how this is affecting everything, it would actually be a bit of a spoiler at this point and I imagine that will only get worse from here.
I want to show another screenshot of how my party is developing these days, but... TO's system of character/class advancement actually seems to strongly favor and encourage using actual important plot characters (once they join you as legitimate units) to fulfill the generic class roles. When the cleric Donnalto and his random (but not quite random enough that they don't have names and profiles and entries in the Warren Report) bodyguards Sara and Voltare joined me early on in chapter one, Donnalto directly replaced my old cleric and Sara directly replaced my old archer. Apparently one's stats are directly proportional to one's relevance to the story, though, as Sara has just been rendered obsolete by the addition of a certain chapter two archer who... well, let's just say has a bigger role than "Donnalto's bodyguard." And I've already told you how awesome Canopus is in this game at every turn....
It's really the exact opposite of FFT, where the important characters had their own unique custom class in place of Squire and no one ever used a named character in the role of a generic (you either used Agrias because you wanted her Holy Sword skills or you used an archer or something, but no one ever turned Agrias into an archer, that's just crazy talk.) In TO, no one in my party as of yet has a custom character-specific class (Canopus used to with his being a Vartan, but I recently got the ability to turn anyone else into Vartans too so long as they're hawkmen, so it's now a race-specific class rather than character-specific.) The named characters are just particular examples of non-particular classes (Donnalto starts as cleric, Sara starts as an archer, etc.) but they're just better. (Well, okay, I did replace Donnalto with a generic hawkman cleric, because I decided after Qadriga Fortress that giving my main healer the ability to fly was fairly important. Other than that, though.)
Whew, sidetrack. Anyway, I wanted to show off my party again, but due to how this is affecting everything, it would actually be a bit of a spoiler at this point and I imagine that will only get worse from here.
(no subject)
Mar. 12th, 2011 09:00 amPlayed a bunch of EO3 last night. Finished mapping out every last corner of B14F, and stopped just before going down to B15F. I gained a level, which is easily my favorite part of this game. I added another point to Monarch March, Antifire, Cloudbuster, Party Heal, and one of those goofy useless prerequisites just so I can eventually unlock Kubikiri, respectively.
Then I put down the DS and picked up the PSP and did the first fight of chapter two of TO. That put pretty much everyone's class level (that I was actually using) up to 9, so I went to the nearest town and raided the shop along with playing everyone's skills and such. I'm working on getting everyone except the Cleric either Truestrike I or Trueflight I (depending on whether they're a melee or ranged attacker) since accuracy has been a bit of a problem for me lately. Ardei needs it most of all, since his pre-Truestrike deal was that apparently being a Berserker withHammerkind abstratus allocation Hammer-type equipment means he hits hardest of anyone on the team by far, but he was only getting something like a 67% calculated chance to hit when attacking people directly from behind with a height advantage. (Unless it's the somewhat underwhemling Dexterity of lizardmen that causes that? Well, either way.) So yeah, that should help, hopefully. I also had the Wizard completely abandon Fire Magic in favor of Water Magic. Just about every field (for the first eight levels, anyway) has an equivalent and near-identical missile-type damage spell and indirect-type damage spell of their particular element, plus one or two status effects, but Water gets something for Wizards at level 9 that not even an equivalent level 9 Cleric can do: an effect 2 (that is, plus-shaped area of effect instead of one single target) heal.
It has come to my attention that I like games about distributing skill points amongst generic units.
Then I put down the DS and picked up the PSP and did the first fight of chapter two of TO. That put pretty much everyone's class level (that I was actually using) up to 9, so I went to the nearest town and raided the shop along with playing everyone's skills and such. I'm working on getting everyone except the Cleric either Truestrike I or Trueflight I (depending on whether they're a melee or ranged attacker) since accuracy has been a bit of a problem for me lately. Ardei needs it most of all, since his pre-Truestrike deal was that apparently being a Berserker with
It has come to my attention that I like games about distributing skill points amongst generic units.
(no subject)
Mar. 11th, 2011 09:35 amHmm, it appears that the choice I made at the end of TO's first chapter led me into the "Chaos" version of chapter two. I really hope that doesn't bite me too hard--I had made it a point throughout chapter one to only recruit Lawful and Neutral units and specifically shun Chaotic ones, since their feelings toward me were already strongly biased toward Law (Lawful units pretty much automatically loved me, Neutral were meh, Chaotic would sooner die than give me the time of day, which would have made recruiting them a bit of a trick anyway even if I had actually wanted to) so I just assumed that meant I was destined to walk a lawful path. I GUESS NOT. As of the beginning of chapter two, everyone's loyalty is completely unchanged (all my Lawful party members still love me, all my Neutral ones are meh except Hissy Ardei whom I must have scored the equivalent of a crit when recruiting or something since he's much more warm to me than any other Neutral unit) but I'm going to have to keep a very close eye on everyone I care about from here on in, I guess.
Even more surprising than that, though, is that Canopus is apparently still important. In FFT, when someone stopped being a Guest and joined your party legitimately, you could rest assured that they have pretty much been written out of the story at that point, and will be awesome to have in battle but no more important (or even present) in the cutscenes and such than the generic people and monsters you recruited. This is because actual recruits can be removed and the game has no way of knowing how gently you're going to treat them. Aside from non-main-plot bonus side stuff that specifically has certain character prerequisites (you need to still have Mustadio around in chapter four if you want to start the whole chain of sidequests to get Cloud, for example,) the game just doesn't have the resources to plan for "if this character is still around or if he isn't" forks in the main story. Like, what if a certain character was supposed to say or do something critical at one particular moment, except that you dismissed him from your party or got him permanently killed like three chapters ago? Thus, a character legitimately joining your party was basically the plot letting you know that it's done with him. If they want a character to ally with you but still contribute to the plot later, that's precisely what the Guest system was for! (Guests can't be killed or dismissed, they just stay with you under CPU control until they die, betray you, or just wander off to go do something else, or the plot is done with them and they join you for real.)
TO has what I thought was the exact same system--in fact, my team is now two Guest units lighter after making that end-of-chapter-one decision there--except Canopus joined me for real a long time ago, yet now he not only showed up in chapter two's opening cutscene, but the plot now has us off to go do something that was basically his idea. WHAT. HOW
Even more surprising than that, though, is that Canopus is apparently still important. In FFT, when someone stopped being a Guest and joined your party legitimately, you could rest assured that they have pretty much been written out of the story at that point, and will be awesome to have in battle but no more important (or even present) in the cutscenes and such than the generic people and monsters you recruited. This is because actual recruits can be removed and the game has no way of knowing how gently you're going to treat them. Aside from non-main-plot bonus side stuff that specifically has certain character prerequisites (you need to still have Mustadio around in chapter four if you want to start the whole chain of sidequests to get Cloud, for example,) the game just doesn't have the resources to plan for "if this character is still around or if he isn't" forks in the main story. Like, what if a certain character was supposed to say or do something critical at one particular moment, except that you dismissed him from your party or got him permanently killed like three chapters ago? Thus, a character legitimately joining your party was basically the plot letting you know that it's done with him. If they want a character to ally with you but still contribute to the plot later, that's precisely what the Guest system was for! (Guests can't be killed or dismissed, they just stay with you under CPU control until they die, betray you, or just wander off to go do something else, or the plot is done with them and they join you for real.)
TO has what I thought was the exact same system--in fact, my team is now two Guest units lighter after making that end-of-chapter-one decision there--except Canopus joined me for real a long time ago, yet now he not only showed up in chapter two's opening cutscene, but the plot now has us off to go do something that was basically his idea. WHAT. HOW
(no subject)
Mar. 7th, 2011 10:06 am
There, that's more like it. Now I'm ready to further the plot.
Oh, and since I'm now more familiar with just how easy it is to transfer screenshots with this connection and everything, here's an old one I took of that stupid fortress level that alerted me to the fact that I need more Hawkmen in the first place. The fact that Canopus was literally the only person in my entire party who could actually keep moving (and wasn't completely stopped to the point of being de facto removed from the battle) whenever an undead enemy parked on the stairs was part of why that fight was so hard.
Fun fact: Movement distance comes from your class--Clerics and Wizards will always be slow as hell, even if they're a Hawkman, due to only being capable of a rather pathetic three tiles of movement per turn. Jumping distance (which is important in a stage like this as it determines whether you need the stairs or you can just jump up the wall) mostly comes with the class as well, but vertical distance is where the fact that Hawkmen can fly allows them to ignore the rules and scale any wall ever. Which kind of would have helped if more people could have done that in that particular battle.
(no subject)
Mar. 5th, 2011 08:05 amHooray, one of the race-specific "attempt to persuade target enemy to switch sides and join you" skills (in this case, my Wizard's Reptile-targeting COAX) finally worked!
His name isHissy von Lizardpants Ardei, and I shall love him until he becomes obsolete until the "can't please everyone" nature of plot decisions I'll be making accidentally kills his Loyalty and he deserts the unit forever.
Hmm. Now that I've figured out how recruiting enemy units works (there was a bit of trial and error in how to get the projected odds of success over 0%) I should go to that one battlefield that has the Hawkman units in random encounters and pick up some of those. As previously mentioned, Canopus (No. 2 in that screenshot there) can fly and that makes him awesome in this game, but even he can only do so much by himself if the enemy ever gets particularly good at locking down key battlefield access points for everyone else.
His name is
Hmm. Now that I've figured out how recruiting enemy units works (there was a bit of trial and error in how to get the projected odds of success over 0%) I should go to that one battlefield that has the Hawkman units in random encounters and pick up some of those. As previously mentioned, Canopus (No. 2 in that screenshot there) can fly and that makes him awesome in this game, but even he can only do so much by himself if the enemy ever gets particularly good at locking down key battlefield access points for everyone else.
(no subject)
Mar. 2nd, 2011 11:25 amGood lord, Qadriga Fortress was hard. I've heard others say that is this game's Dorter Slums, and now I understand why. I finally won, but it was an intense battle that was basically won by a buzzer-beater lucky shot that fulfilled the "defeat the enemy leader" Instant Win Condition. I had to defeat a relatively squishy mage who had the advantage of being heavily guarded by a freaking cliff-side of a fortress (which he and his archers naturally start on the top--and we all know what happens when archers have the height advantage in FFT/TO-type games,) a bunch of undead who had a nasty habit of parking themselves on the one single narrow pass that was a gradual enough that my units could have actually climbed it in every area (note: even when they're dead and lying there you can't walk past/through enemies in TO, or at least undead ones, so this was a really good way to make the highest portions of the fortress where the mage was hanging out completely inaccessible,) and the ability to summon more units out of thin air if anyone actually got close.
To sum up: his archers freely rained death on me from all angles, and his stupid enemies who could block the only staircase even in death managed to split the battlefield in three. My three healers, wizard, and one of my archers couldn't even get off the ground at all, everyone else except Canopus was stuck in the middle area of the fortress proper, and only Canopus (who can fly) alone could make it to the corner where the mage was hiding.
The only reason I survived was because I taught everyone Field Alchemy I and everyone who had the possibility of it as a sub-skill (Knights, Rune Fencers, etc.) healing magic, so being cut off from all three of my actual dedicated healers didn't spell instant doom for people stuck in the middle. Canopus managed to get the mage down to about 30 HP before getting nuked, but considering it was just him by himself against the mage and his ability to make more enemies at will, it was about as good as I could have expected. I only won because my other archer, who was in the middle section, managed to walk around to the side and get positioned for a shot that would arc pretty much straight up, and just forward enough to clear the wall and hit the mage. The trajectory checked out, so all I had to fear was his worryingly high dodge/block rate (even attacking him from the side, the shot was predicted to have a 46% chance of success.) My party pretty much would have gotten its world rocked (including KO'd units like Canopus at risk of losing a life if their countdown ended) had the battle continued any longer, but the archer actually pulled it off, pinging the mage for 40 and giving me the win.
Moral of the story: ARCHERS. Make sure they have Trajectory and the kind of bows that arc instead of firing in a straight line. Those are just better. Also, have two or three Clerics and give everyone else some means of healing on their own on top of that, just in case. Also, Canopus rocks.
No, really. I freaking hated Canopus in Ogre Battle because the entire Hawkman family was almost completely useless for my play style, yet I needed to recruit Canopus anyway (even just to leave him in the back of the unused reserve) just to get the better ending options (at least I think he was required for them...) even though he was by far the hardest and most Guide Dang It character in the entire game to recruit. In Tactics Ogre, he stops just short of literally falling into your lap (he literally just shows up for no reason before this one battle starts and asks to join--permanently, as a real unit, not a guest--at the end of it, so pretty much all you have to do to recruit him is not get him killed and then say "Yes") and in this game he is suddenly the man.
To sum up: his archers freely rained death on me from all angles, and his stupid enemies who could block the only staircase even in death managed to split the battlefield in three. My three healers, wizard, and one of my archers couldn't even get off the ground at all, everyone else except Canopus was stuck in the middle area of the fortress proper, and only Canopus (who can fly) alone could make it to the corner where the mage was hiding.
The only reason I survived was because I taught everyone Field Alchemy I and everyone who had the possibility of it as a sub-skill (Knights, Rune Fencers, etc.) healing magic, so being cut off from all three of my actual dedicated healers didn't spell instant doom for people stuck in the middle. Canopus managed to get the mage down to about 30 HP before getting nuked, but considering it was just him by himself against the mage and his ability to make more enemies at will, it was about as good as I could have expected. I only won because my other archer, who was in the middle section, managed to walk around to the side and get positioned for a shot that would arc pretty much straight up, and just forward enough to clear the wall and hit the mage. The trajectory checked out, so all I had to fear was his worryingly high dodge/block rate (even attacking him from the side, the shot was predicted to have a 46% chance of success.) My party pretty much would have gotten its world rocked (including KO'd units like Canopus at risk of losing a life if their countdown ended) had the battle continued any longer, but the archer actually pulled it off, pinging the mage for 40 and giving me the win.
Moral of the story: ARCHERS. Make sure they have Trajectory and the kind of bows that arc instead of firing in a straight line. Those are just better. Also, have two or three Clerics and give everyone else some means of healing on their own on top of that, just in case. Also, Canopus rocks.
No, really. I freaking hated Canopus in Ogre Battle because the entire Hawkman family was almost completely useless for my play style, yet I needed to recruit Canopus anyway (even just to leave him in the back of the unused reserve) just to get the better ending options (at least I think he was required for them...) even though he was by far the hardest and most Guide Dang It character in the entire game to recruit. In Tactics Ogre, he stops just short of literally falling into your lap (he literally just shows up for no reason before this one battle starts and asks to join--permanently, as a real unit, not a guest--at the end of it, so pretty much all you have to do to recruit him is not get him killed and then say "Yes") and in this game he is suddenly the man.
(no subject)
Feb. 25th, 2011 11:13 amTrying the Tactics Ogre PSP remake now. I never played the original Tactics Ogre (though I did get like half an hour into Knight of Lodis once) but I'm already hooked by the story just from having played the original Ogre Battle (AKA March of the Black Queen--also, it was more like the PSX Limited Edition, but shh) and seeing the story continuity nods from there. Specifically, crossing paths with the now-outcast mercenary team of Warren, Lans (well, Lanselot in this version, but shh) and Canopus early on is instantly intriguing, as now I want to know what they did or what happened to them to make them fall from grace or if this is just an undercover operation of some sort or what. Even in-game characters point out that Warren and Lans[elot] were right by Tristan's side the whole time during the Xenobian revolt and how in the world could Tristan banish the people that basically singlehandedly put him on the throne (a question Lanselot sort of evaded and Warren responded to by denying that was him) which A) confirms that the Tristan ending of Ogre Battle is canon, I guess, and B) really makes me want to know what their deal is.
With how much the events of Ogre Battle are actually relevant to this game, I just really hope I'm not missing out on anything too terribly important by having missed out on Person of Lordly Caliber (billed as episode 6 of the Ogre Battle saga, whereas March of the Black Queen is episode 5, and this one is 7.) It'd be kind of embarrassing if I was all worked up about the intrigue here only to be told "um yeah, the entire point of Person of Lordly Caliber was basically to have an entire game about how Lans and Warren fell, stupid :(" or something.
With how much the events of Ogre Battle are actually relevant to this game, I just really hope I'm not missing out on anything too terribly important by having missed out on Person of Lordly Caliber (billed as episode 6 of the Ogre Battle saga, whereas March of the Black Queen is episode 5, and this one is 7.) It'd be kind of embarrassing if I was all worked up about the intrigue here only to be told "um yeah, the entire point of Person of Lordly Caliber was basically to have an entire game about how Lans and Warren fell, stupid :(" or something.
