|
|
Post by nocturnal YL on Jan 31, 2019 14:30:54 GMT -5
Haven't shown up here for a long time, because I have nothing to say. "I'm playing Kirby Star Allies and Project DIVA Future Tone like always" isn't news. But that will change soon. I bought Nelke and the Legendary Alchemists. My hope is that this will serve as a bridge to the other Atelier worlds for me, and perhaps I'll use this as a way to judge if I should get Arland 1-4. I'll start playing it later. I think I recruited all units possible in a single playthrough, except for the guy in chapter 30. Otherwise, I never let any of my units die (another first for me with FE). My final rank was a B in both Lyn's and Eliwood's stories. My tactics rating never rose above one star. I don't know what that's based on, but being slow and cautious must not be it. I don't know if you read support conversations, but missing Renault (and his support conversation with Canas) would mean you're missing a rather interesting piece of information regarding Blazing Blade's worldbuilding. Your lineup wouldn't be "complete" in Eliwood's story anyway. There are a few Hector-specific units you can't get in Eliwood's route, including one of the pegasus sisters (and with it the Triangle Attack, but the use of three units of the same class can be difficult anyway). Anyway, that leaves The Sacred Stones as the only FE game I own that I haven't beaten yet, but I think I need to take an actual break from FE for a while. I imagine it won't be long before I get to it, though, because I'd like to do it before Three Houses comes out. I do wonder what would you think of The Sacred Stones. I doubt it'll leave an impression on you the same way it did on me, but I'm interested to see what others think of The Sacred Stones. |
|
|
|
Post by Nester the Lark on Jan 31, 2019 22:30:34 GMT -5
I don't know if you read support conversations, but missing Renault (and his support conversation with Canas) would mean you're missing a rather interesting piece of information regarding Blazing Blade's worldbuilding. I didn't go out of my way to build supports for characters I didn't intend on pairing up anyway, so I didn't see most of them. Your lineup wouldn't be "complete" in Eliwood's story anyway. There are a few Hector-specific units you can't get in Eliwood's route, including one of the pegasus sisters (and with it the Triangle Attack, but the use of three units of the same class can be difficult anyway). I'm aware there's also a chapter late in Eliwood's story where either one character or another will show up depending on certain conditions, but you can't get both of them. I didn't aim for either one in particular; I just recruited whichever happened to show up (and then never bothered to use him). I do wonder what would you think of The Sacred Stones. I doubt it'll leave an impression on you the same way it did on me, but I'm interested to see what others think of The Sacred Stones. I've made two separate attempts at it previously, one playing part way through Ephraim's route, and the other part way through Eirika's. (I also started a game at the same time as Shadow Dragon a couple of months ago, and played through the first 2-3 chapters of each just to see which one would grab me. At the time, it turned out to be Shadow Dragon.) I look forward to getting back into it, though, as I liked the influences it took from Gaiden. It is kind of ironic, though, that the last of my Fire Emblem games I get around to finishing will be Sacred Stones. And I admit, I do enjoy seeing fan art of Eirika and Ephraim together. They're a cute brother-sister pair.  |
|
|
|
Post by Nester the Lark on Feb 12, 2019 11:37:11 GMT -5
Since we'll be learning more about Three Houses soon, I might as well mention that I officially started my playthrough of Sacred Stones a few days ago. I'm still very early on, but I intend to take Eirika's route since it's supposed to be easier.
Otherwise, I'll post future comments in the general Fire Emblem thread.
|
|
|
|
Post by nocturnal YL on Feb 16, 2019 14:03:01 GMT -5
EDIT - Post too long, here's the short version: Spent last week editing Project DIVA FT gameplay video. I almost maxed the ranks in that game (purely aesthetic, no gameplay effects whatsoever), so I spent early February trying to actually max them out, and succeeded. YouTube playlist here (videos #198 to #254 are from early February); overall list showing which songs I've perfected and links to videos here. See just this vid for a look of my current (rather low by rhythm gamer standard) skill level. Will probably move to Nelke and the Legendary Alchemists after this. I'm too early in that game to tell anything, but it looks like corners are being cut. Original post: Here's an update from me… and it's not about Nelke and the Legendary Alchemists. I have barely started playing that, because I spent the week editing my Project DIVA FT gameplay videos. If you don't know already, I save replays whenever I get a perfect in a song. For whatever reason (probably distribution rights), said replays do not have the songs in them, only containing sound effects and system music. Which means I have to manually put the music back, and that in itself is a tedious process, since the edited video would sound weirdly off if I miss the manually-placed music by 2 frames (1 frame in the video) or more. Thus a whole week of video editing. (I did it for my own amusement; I don't mind whether other people watch them.) Background info: In Project DIVA Future Tone, the player has two progress bars to keep track of their aggregate performance: FS-Rank and CT-Rank. Each rank corresponds to 100+ songs (FS (Future Sound) for songs from DIVA and DIVA F, CT (Colorful Tone) for songs from DIVA Arcade and mirai, roughly), and to raise the ranks, the player needs to break their own records and have their difficulty/ratings contribute to the rank. The max rank is 39. Getting CT-Rank 39 would take perfecting most EXTREME ★7 songs (or equivalent). There's quite a bit of wiggle room. Reaching FS-Rank 39 would take perfecting about half of the EXTREME ★8 songs, which is quite tedious. Also, EXTRA EXTREME doesn't count since it's considered a bonus feature. At the beginning of February, I was at CT-Rank 38 and FS-Rank 36. I was targeting CT-Rank 39, thinking that FS-Rank 39 would be well out of reach. A week later, I proved myself wrong by raising both ranks to 39. I almost ran out of FS songs I can reasonably attempt to perfect, so I guess I was lucky. My attempt in the first 9 days of February can be seen in videos #198 to #254 of this playlist. See also this list for songs I've perfected thus far and links to the corresponsing videos. Some highlights here. They don't look that impressive in video form, but imagine having to actually play these on a DualShock 4. I can't miss any single note by more than 0.07 seconds. (See manual for controls) Also tried a few EXTRA EXTREME songs after reaching my goal. Hopefully I can perfect the second one (missed only 3 notes!) when I get back to this game, and then I can claim to have perfected an EXTRA EXTREME ★9 song. (And no, I do not have any intention to reach this level of craziness.) For now, I'll move on to Nelke and the Legendary Alchemists for real. I think. First impression says it's obviously a budget title (it's not a main series game, after all), with obvious tricks to cut corners in voice acting and 3D character motion.
|
|
|
|
Post by Nester the Lark on Feb 17, 2019 12:52:15 GMT -5
Quick update on what I'm playing: Fire Emblem: The Sacred StonesI'm only at the start of Chapter 8, so I'm making slow but steady progress. But something I realized from playing Shadow Dragon and Blazing Blade is that I kinda need other games to bounce off of while playing a Fire Emblem game. If I try to focus only on Fire Emblem, then I tend to get burned out faster. As for the game, I was a little concerned about my current playthrough because I was getting a lot of weak level-ups with only one or two stat boosts, and I was afraid of ending up under-powered. Things got much better in Chapter 7, though. Otherwise, I'll post more detailed thoughts in the general Fire Emblem thread as I get further into it. SNK Heroines: Tag Team FrenzyWell, now that I've finally played it, it's... actually about what I expected: cheesy, but fun. It's no King of Fighters, but I'd say it's worth the cheap price I paid for it. More detailed thoughts will be put in the SNK thread. Daemon X Machina: Prototype MissionsBeen playing the demo that came out after the Nintendo Direct, and I'm not very good at it (I've never played a mech combat game like this before), but I am intrigued by it. I like the mission-based gameplay because it gives me a little bit of a "Wing Commander with mechs" kind of vibe. I really like the striking graphical style. It's taking me a while to get a grip on the gameplay, but the fact that I'm compelled to keep playing it is a good sign. Not sure if I'll buy the full game, but I'm definitely enjoying the demo. Anyone else playing it?
|
|
|
|
Post by nocturnal YL on Feb 21, 2019 8:56:28 GMT -5
Haven't played any of the free games mentioned in Nintendo Direct. I'm now completely sucked into the world of Nelke and the Legendary Alchemists. I was worried about playing a town management game at first, but it's actually a turn-based, linear game that feels rather lenient. Fire Emblem: The Sacred StonesI was a little concerned about my current playthrough because I was getting a lot of weak level-ups with only one or two stat boosts, and I was afraid of ending up under-powered. Things got much better in Chapter 7, though. I wouldn't worry for getting a few bad level ups, but I usually just hit L+R+START+SELECT if that happens early on in a chapter. I also avoid Tower of Valni and (later) Lagdou Ruins until I clear the whole game, for multiple reasons (extra character unlocks, not wanting to bring units too weak in, FE8 needs no grinding anyway). But The Sacred Stones is easy enough that you shouldn't worry too much. |
|
|
|
Post by Nester the Lark on Feb 21, 2019 14:09:32 GMT -5
About the early weak level-ups, the same thing happened when I played Blazing Blade, so I was wondering if it was typical in the GBA games to not get a lot of stat boosts early on.
Contrasting with Shadow Dragon, I seemed to get really good level-ups throughout the game. But I realize it's random, so maybe I just got lucky.
|
|
|
|
Post by nocturnal YL on Feb 21, 2019 15:02:19 GMT -5
Level ups are random and have linear rates (there are peculiarities like class base growths and holy blood bonuses in other games, but this applies to all GBA and Tellius games). Normally, you don't get smaller growths because you're early in the game. Growths in The Sacred Stones aren't bad, so 1- or 2-stat level ups are outliers, though not that uncommon either. |
|
|
|
Post by nocturnal YL on Mar 14, 2019 9:45:22 GMT -5
Still playing Nelke, as usual. It's been a month. I'm spending almost all of my free time on it.
I'll save detailed discussion on Nelke when I do finally decide to talk about the Switch's first two years, which should happen after I finish this game. The main goal is to reach turn 100, and I'm at turn 65. There are many other smaller goals (failing these would lead to a game over or deprive me of the true ending), but I cleared most of it so now it's mostly in free mode.
One thing I do notice is that it reminds me a lot of the earlier Fire Emblem games I played, except that you go from preparation screen to another preparation screen, never doing any combat 90% of the time. Nelke and the Legendary Alchemists involves long-term planning, an RNG that hates you, a huge list of characters, barely fitting characters with tasks (during mid-game anyway; early- and late-game is easy), staring at grids for extended periods and grinding character friendship levels one conversation at a time.
Nelke is kind of tedious and it still feels like the development team was low in resources, but it has good music (better than the last game's, I'd say), plots that befit the Atelier brand, and I'm glad we have all the series' main characters drawn in the style used in the Mysterious series. Would recommend to those who like Atelier, but non-fans shouldn't use this as an entry point to the series.
|
|
|
|
Post by nocturnal YL on Mar 24, 2019 16:24:53 GMT -5
Well I finally reached the ending of Nelke & the Legendary Alchemists. I missed a lot of the optional character events, which should take a while if I do try to get them.
Don't know what will I play next. Probably Atelier Lulua. For some reason Gust thought it's a good idea to have two Atelier games released in the span of two months.
Before I move on, I may try to complete the characer events in Nelke first. This game doesn't have much post-game contents, and I doubt I'll ever replay it. It's not as good as regular Atelier, but it's definitely great to see a story that involves all main characters from main series Atelier.
|
|
|
|
Post by Evie ❤✿ on Apr 19, 2019 7:17:08 GMT -5
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate usually. I don't know if I want to aim for all the Spirits though, but sometimes like to grind for SP to afford the enhancements for special spirits which transform. ✿
|
|
|
|
Post by nocturnal YL on Apr 21, 2019 17:41:55 GMT -5
Finally started playing Atelier Lulua. During this time I was waiting for the game to ship, and I got physiclaly ill and didn't want to start a new game in that state. I also had to finish getting all minor characters in Nelke for me to consider the playthrough complete. Premium Box images hereI played just a little, but it feels good so far. The story had a slow start, but is everything I expect from the Arland subseries. The game itself was a huge improvement from the previous entries: Lydie & Suelle had blurry graphics (even worse on Switch handheld and PS Vita) and somewhat long loading times, and Nelke fixed the graphics quality but had severe lag issues. Lulua on the other hand loads very quickly (sometimes the "Now Loading" screen doesn't even appear when moving between completely different areas) and has excellent graphics (I think Lulua on Switch looks even better than Lydie & Suelle on PS4). It also has a more modern UI (but with smaller text, it feels like the game was designed with PS4 Pro in mind) and a smooth system menu (which I think actually runs at 60 fps) that's very easy to navigate. The only complaint I have is that there's no chat log in cutscene conversations, something games from 15 years ago had. I don't think (yet) it'll become my favourite Atelier in terms of story and perhaps game mechanics, but the vastly improved quality really appealed to me. |
|
|
|
Post by Evie ❤✿ on Apr 22, 2019 8:53:44 GMT -5
Atelier is a series I feel I would naturally like, but don't know much about or which game to start with. I'm sorry to hear you became ill and hope you've recovered now. <3 ✿
I may start playing the new Toejam & Earl game later today, to see if I like it.
|
|
|
|
Post by nocturnal YL on Apr 22, 2019 14:51:41 GMT -5
Atelier is a series I feel I would naturally like, but don't know much about or which game to start with. I'm sorry to hear you became ill and hope you've recovered now. <3 ✿ I'm alright now, thank you. My general advice regarding Atelier is to start with any modern Atelier (Rorona or later) you're interested in, even if they aren't the first games in their respecive subseries. The games are kind enough to fill you in with enough information to understand the story. Besides, it's always the titular alchemists who are the centre of attention, and they're always new characters. Just don't start with Nelke, which is (a) a crossover mostly made for fans, and (b) does not feature Atelier gameplay. Atelier games also run out of print pretty quickly, so at this point your best bet is probably Lulua. I could write forever on this series. Maybe yet another topic after I complete Lulua? I also started playing a bit of Trials Rising, the latest entry in the Trials series and the first on a Nintendo system of any kind. It's surprisingly fun, at least for the first 10% of the game. Imagine playing one of those motorbike-themed browser games, except that Trials features 3D graphics with large, wide backgrounds. It's also surprisingly smooth on the Switch. Its graphics aren't perfect, but the game knows very well which details to sacrifice when the frame rate is about to fall. Being a Ubisoft title, it's something of an in-game purchase hell, but feel free to ignore those, since they mostly don't affect gameplay. |
|
|
|
Post by nocturnal YL on May 1, 2019 2:43:37 GMT -5
I'm about… in the latter half? Of Atelier Lulua.
I still can't comment on the story (there are still many pieces missing at my current progress), but everything else — the music, the UI, the graphics quality, the smoothness of the overall flow, the relative lack of fatal bugs (which plagued some of the older games) — point to this game being possibly the best in the series so far.
スーちゃんには申し訳ないけど、『ルルアのアトリエ』のほうが好きだよ。
Of course, this still leaves the story. For all I know, this game could pull a Ys VIII at the end and dampens my mood a lot, but I have more faith in Atelier, with two games that I really liked thus far.
|
|
I think I recruited all units possible in a single playthrough, except for the guy in chapter 30. Otherwise, I never let any of my units die (another first for me with FE). My final rank was a B in both Lyn's and Eliwood's stories. My tactics rating never rose above one star. I don't know what that's based on, but being slow and cautious must not be it.I don't know if you read support conversations, but missing Renault (and his support conversation with Canas) would mean you're missing a rather interesting piece of information regarding Blazing Blade's worldbuilding.
