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silverthunder) wrote2008-07-27 12:28 pm
silverthunder) wrote2008-07-27 12:28 pm
Entry tags:
Gaming Stuff
I've been working out on the Wii Fit (as well as sticking to my regular diet) for almost two weeks now. Thus far, I have lost about 3 pounds. Not bad at all for a half hour workout a day. And it's fun - I actually want to keep doing it. I have been full of energy almost all the time since I started, too. It's awesome.
I am also obsessed with my DS, which could also account for some of this weight loss (I forget to snack when I'm playing). At first I just played Harvest Moon DS Cute on it, but I found a game called Etrian Odyssey II: Heroes of Lagaard and got addicted to it as well.
You create your own characters from these really neat character models. There are 11 different classes, and each class has two male models and two female models. You can make up to 30 characters and just have them sit in your guild in case you need them for anything. I made all 30, just because I love making characters.
You need at least 5 characters to make a party. You can put the characters in either the front line (more likely to be attacked by enemies) or the back line(safer for mages and ranged attackers). There are three slots in each line, so you can't just stick everyone in the back line; at least two have to be in the front. Online resources also recommend having a separate party as a an 'item' party where you put a lot of skill points into collection. But I'll get to skill points later.
I made a very basic balanced party to serve as my main. I have my Landsknecht, which is a warrior who fights with a sword or an axe. My weapon of choice is the axe. The Landsknecht is a melee damage dealer who has a fairly good balance of defense and offense, so she sits in the front line. I called her Kelly, and she's the head of my party. The second member is a Protector, and he provides the defense for the party. Protectors are clad in armor and fight with swords (and shields, of course) - and because they provide the defense for the party, they sit in the front line. I called mine Cody.
Then I have my Medic, the healer of the party. This is kind of self-explanatory; he uses magic to heal people and they protect him from being killed since he has almost no defense. Naturally he sits in the back line. I called him Athynn, which is the name of my character from Final Fantasy XI. Beside him, I have my Alchemist, who does attack magic. She does elemental magic damage to enemies, and she's the most powerful damage dealer in my party. She also has very little defense, so she sits in the back line. I called her Messen, which is short for Messenjari (I didn't have enough space for it) - Cody's character from FFXI.
My last member is a Gunner - self-explanatory again, but he can also shoot bolts of fire, ice, or thunder which makes him useful against enemies who are weak to different elements. He's not as powerful as Messen, but he has a little more defense and his skill qualifies as piercing so he's also useful against enemies weak to piercing attacks. He also has abilities that cure status ailments like poison from the whole party. I can't believe how useful this class is. Why don't more people praise it online? In any case, my Gunner's name is Terran, a name I was going to use for a story I had started to write but never finished.
So, after I put together that party I ventured out into the rest of the game. This one is called a 'dungeon crawler' - your characters wander around in this area called the Labyrinth and fight monsters. You have to make your own map, too, which I really enjoy. It's fairly easy to do. There is one city, and there are various areas you can go to around the city. If you're not in the city, you're in the Labyrinth. It keeps things from getting complicated. You can pick up quests and missions, go searching for items, or you can just fight monsters to level your characters.
Abilities for characters come through skill points, and you start with three skill points per character at the beginning. Each time the character levels, they get one more. There are a number of abilities you can put skill points into, but there are some no-brainers. For example, my medic would be kind of useless if I didn't give him 'cure'. And my protector would not be much of a protector if I didn't give him some shielding skills. Plus my alchemist and gunner can't do any of their abilities without skill points put into. It took me a while to figure out how to distribute skill points so that my party actually had skills.
The other thing about skills is that they all cost TP. Characters start out with a finite amount of TP each. My medic, alchemist, and gunner all have equipment that increases their TP but the fact is that you start with a certain amount and it doesn't regenerate after you use it. If you want to regain any TP, you have to use items - and you don't start with those, you have to find them. So TP can turn into an issue.
The items to regain TP (and HP) can be found by using searching skills. There are three different types: take, mine, and chop. Item points are scattered throughout the map (they need to be found and marked when you're creating your map), and it'll tell you when you approach it whether you can take, mine, or chop at that specific location. You need to have at least one character in your party with that skill unlocked in order to collect items at those locations. It takes away valuable skill points so everyone online recommends not using your main party to collect items.
So... basically you have to make a second party. They still need basic skills because they'll run into monsters, but you max out their searching skills as fast as you can so they can collect more items per day. They're a bit of a weak party because of this, but meh. Doesn't matter.
My collecting party ended up being all girls. It just worked out like that. It consists of a protector and a medic, like before, but I used three new classes for the other slots. My protector's name is Asia, another name I was going to use in a story that never happened. My medic's name is Alex (from the same story, coincidentally enough). I also have a Ronin, who took the place of my Landsnecht as the melee damage dealer for the party. She can use a skill which has a chance to instantly kill an opponent, which is useful because this party is slow at killing things and I don't want them to focus on that anyway. Her name is Najiba, another name from a story that never went anywhere (the same story as Terran, actually).
I included a Hexer in this party, which is basically an enfeebler. They cast spells like 'attack down' and 'defense down' and slow and poison and sleep and other things like that. I'd read online that Hexers are way better than Alchemists. This must be personal preference or dependant on the party setup, because I'd much rather have an Alchemist in this Hexer's place. The Hexer enfeebles the enemy, yeah, but they sure don't make the killing process faster. In any case, though, my Hexer's name is Laqueta - a name that anyone who has read 'Piece of a Legend' will be familiar with.
The last member of my collecting party is a Survivalist. This is basically an archer, but they also have useful skills that increase drop rates and nullify the effect of a surprise attack. They can also enfeeble the enemy somewhat with their attacks. My Survivalist's name is Farin, another name from the story that Terran and Najiba were from (are we sensing a theme?).
I am seriously considering swapping my Hexor out for a Dark Hunter. The Dark Hunter is supposed to be a fairly powerful DD, and they will be able to do the elemental attacks that a lot of enemies are weak to. They carry whips and use a lot of dark magic and they dress like dominatrix types. Thing is, I'd have to level up the Dark Hunter with my main party and it screws up my experience level there. So... thinking about it, but not sure. If I do, my Dark Hunter's name is Taylor - yet another character in the story with Terran. So then it'd really be a major theme.
There are two other classes available that I haven't mentioned. The first is Troubadour. The character designs for this one are so cute, and I really wish I could use one in my party. They are dancers and singers, and their abilities give the party some status boosts and can also give the enemies status ailments. The second class is War Magus, a kind of mix between Troubadour and Medic and Hexer. They can do cures and give status boosts, and they can curse the enemy with status ailments the way Hexors do. A lot of people really love this because it can be whatever you need, but I prefer to keep my healer strictly for healing so as to preserve his TP in case of emergencies. Also the Healer can do a high-level whole party cure, can revive dead party members, and has an ability called TP regen that I want to get as well. I can live without the status boosts if I have to, and I'd rather have my healer be in top shape to keep everyone alive.
So... gameplay. The basis of the story is that this whole city is suspended by this huge tree whose roots reach down for a long ways. The Labyrinth is actually inside the tree, and there are six stratums (levels, sort of). In each stratum there are 5 floors - so, you have thirty floors in total of space to explore. What you do is explore each floor and build your maps as you go around. You run into monsters randomly and fight them. There are also monsters called Foes lingering around - they're sort of like boss battles. You have to defeat them to continue to other parts of the map in some cases.
The battles are all turn-based, which means every party member gets a chance to do something - and the monsters each get a turn as well. The monsters will drop items, but this can be conditional. Sometimes you have to kill a monster on the first turn (the first round of 1 turn per member) to get a certain item to drop. Most of these items can just be sold and then you use the money to buy better equipment for your party. Some of them can be used in various quests, though.
Quests are a quicker way to make money or obtain gear or items than by killing monsters and selling the drops (drops don't usually sell for much). You go to the bar and check a bullitin and it shows you things people in town want done. Once you complete the quest, you go back to the bar and present your results and you get whatever reward was promised. It's pretty straightforward.
Another thing you can do to make money or receive rewards is go to the palace and get some missions. You have to do the first mission in order to pretty well do anything, but after that I haven't seen any missions. I think you have to get a bit further than I am (first level in first stratum) to have access to any more. But it's a good idea to go to the palace and report any new monsters or items you've seen. I don't know what the point of that is yet but it's probably there for a reason.
In short, I really, really love this game (as you can see from the tl;dr blurb above). The website done by the company (Atlus) is pretty nice too - a fancy flash site with pictures of the characters you can choose for each class and even a section with some cute comics featuring some of the things in the game. If you're at all interested, it can be found here.
I am also obsessed with my DS, which could also account for some of this weight loss (I forget to snack when I'm playing). At first I just played Harvest Moon DS Cute on it, but I found a game called Etrian Odyssey II: Heroes of Lagaard and got addicted to it as well.
You create your own characters from these really neat character models. There are 11 different classes, and each class has two male models and two female models. You can make up to 30 characters and just have them sit in your guild in case you need them for anything. I made all 30, just because I love making characters.
You need at least 5 characters to make a party. You can put the characters in either the front line (more likely to be attacked by enemies) or the back line(safer for mages and ranged attackers). There are three slots in each line, so you can't just stick everyone in the back line; at least two have to be in the front. Online resources also recommend having a separate party as a an 'item' party where you put a lot of skill points into collection. But I'll get to skill points later.
I made a very basic balanced party to serve as my main. I have my Landsknecht, which is a warrior who fights with a sword or an axe. My weapon of choice is the axe. The Landsknecht is a melee damage dealer who has a fairly good balance of defense and offense, so she sits in the front line. I called her Kelly, and she's the head of my party. The second member is a Protector, and he provides the defense for the party. Protectors are clad in armor and fight with swords (and shields, of course) - and because they provide the defense for the party, they sit in the front line. I called mine Cody.
Then I have my Medic, the healer of the party. This is kind of self-explanatory; he uses magic to heal people and they protect him from being killed since he has almost no defense. Naturally he sits in the back line. I called him Athynn, which is the name of my character from Final Fantasy XI. Beside him, I have my Alchemist, who does attack magic. She does elemental magic damage to enemies, and she's the most powerful damage dealer in my party. She also has very little defense, so she sits in the back line. I called her Messen, which is short for Messenjari (I didn't have enough space for it) - Cody's character from FFXI.
My last member is a Gunner - self-explanatory again, but he can also shoot bolts of fire, ice, or thunder which makes him useful against enemies who are weak to different elements. He's not as powerful as Messen, but he has a little more defense and his skill qualifies as piercing so he's also useful against enemies weak to piercing attacks. He also has abilities that cure status ailments like poison from the whole party. I can't believe how useful this class is. Why don't more people praise it online? In any case, my Gunner's name is Terran, a name I was going to use for a story I had started to write but never finished.
So, after I put together that party I ventured out into the rest of the game. This one is called a 'dungeon crawler' - your characters wander around in this area called the Labyrinth and fight monsters. You have to make your own map, too, which I really enjoy. It's fairly easy to do. There is one city, and there are various areas you can go to around the city. If you're not in the city, you're in the Labyrinth. It keeps things from getting complicated. You can pick up quests and missions, go searching for items, or you can just fight monsters to level your characters.
Abilities for characters come through skill points, and you start with three skill points per character at the beginning. Each time the character levels, they get one more. There are a number of abilities you can put skill points into, but there are some no-brainers. For example, my medic would be kind of useless if I didn't give him 'cure'. And my protector would not be much of a protector if I didn't give him some shielding skills. Plus my alchemist and gunner can't do any of their abilities without skill points put into. It took me a while to figure out how to distribute skill points so that my party actually had skills.
The other thing about skills is that they all cost TP. Characters start out with a finite amount of TP each. My medic, alchemist, and gunner all have equipment that increases their TP but the fact is that you start with a certain amount and it doesn't regenerate after you use it. If you want to regain any TP, you have to use items - and you don't start with those, you have to find them. So TP can turn into an issue.
The items to regain TP (and HP) can be found by using searching skills. There are three different types: take, mine, and chop. Item points are scattered throughout the map (they need to be found and marked when you're creating your map), and it'll tell you when you approach it whether you can take, mine, or chop at that specific location. You need to have at least one character in your party with that skill unlocked in order to collect items at those locations. It takes away valuable skill points so everyone online recommends not using your main party to collect items.
So... basically you have to make a second party. They still need basic skills because they'll run into monsters, but you max out their searching skills as fast as you can so they can collect more items per day. They're a bit of a weak party because of this, but meh. Doesn't matter.
My collecting party ended up being all girls. It just worked out like that. It consists of a protector and a medic, like before, but I used three new classes for the other slots. My protector's name is Asia, another name I was going to use in a story that never happened. My medic's name is Alex (from the same story, coincidentally enough). I also have a Ronin, who took the place of my Landsnecht as the melee damage dealer for the party. She can use a skill which has a chance to instantly kill an opponent, which is useful because this party is slow at killing things and I don't want them to focus on that anyway. Her name is Najiba, another name from a story that never went anywhere (the same story as Terran, actually).
I included a Hexer in this party, which is basically an enfeebler. They cast spells like 'attack down' and 'defense down' and slow and poison and sleep and other things like that. I'd read online that Hexers are way better than Alchemists. This must be personal preference or dependant on the party setup, because I'd much rather have an Alchemist in this Hexer's place. The Hexer enfeebles the enemy, yeah, but they sure don't make the killing process faster. In any case, though, my Hexer's name is Laqueta - a name that anyone who has read 'Piece of a Legend' will be familiar with.
The last member of my collecting party is a Survivalist. This is basically an archer, but they also have useful skills that increase drop rates and nullify the effect of a surprise attack. They can also enfeeble the enemy somewhat with their attacks. My Survivalist's name is Farin, another name from the story that Terran and Najiba were from (are we sensing a theme?).
I am seriously considering swapping my Hexor out for a Dark Hunter. The Dark Hunter is supposed to be a fairly powerful DD, and they will be able to do the elemental attacks that a lot of enemies are weak to. They carry whips and use a lot of dark magic and they dress like dominatrix types. Thing is, I'd have to level up the Dark Hunter with my main party and it screws up my experience level there. So... thinking about it, but not sure. If I do, my Dark Hunter's name is Taylor - yet another character in the story with Terran. So then it'd really be a major theme.
There are two other classes available that I haven't mentioned. The first is Troubadour. The character designs for this one are so cute, and I really wish I could use one in my party. They are dancers and singers, and their abilities give the party some status boosts and can also give the enemies status ailments. The second class is War Magus, a kind of mix between Troubadour and Medic and Hexer. They can do cures and give status boosts, and they can curse the enemy with status ailments the way Hexors do. A lot of people really love this because it can be whatever you need, but I prefer to keep my healer strictly for healing so as to preserve his TP in case of emergencies. Also the Healer can do a high-level whole party cure, can revive dead party members, and has an ability called TP regen that I want to get as well. I can live without the status boosts if I have to, and I'd rather have my healer be in top shape to keep everyone alive.
So... gameplay. The basis of the story is that this whole city is suspended by this huge tree whose roots reach down for a long ways. The Labyrinth is actually inside the tree, and there are six stratums (levels, sort of). In each stratum there are 5 floors - so, you have thirty floors in total of space to explore. What you do is explore each floor and build your maps as you go around. You run into monsters randomly and fight them. There are also monsters called Foes lingering around - they're sort of like boss battles. You have to defeat them to continue to other parts of the map in some cases.
The battles are all turn-based, which means every party member gets a chance to do something - and the monsters each get a turn as well. The monsters will drop items, but this can be conditional. Sometimes you have to kill a monster on the first turn (the first round of 1 turn per member) to get a certain item to drop. Most of these items can just be sold and then you use the money to buy better equipment for your party. Some of them can be used in various quests, though.
Quests are a quicker way to make money or obtain gear or items than by killing monsters and selling the drops (drops don't usually sell for much). You go to the bar and check a bullitin and it shows you things people in town want done. Once you complete the quest, you go back to the bar and present your results and you get whatever reward was promised. It's pretty straightforward.
Another thing you can do to make money or receive rewards is go to the palace and get some missions. You have to do the first mission in order to pretty well do anything, but after that I haven't seen any missions. I think you have to get a bit further than I am (first level in first stratum) to have access to any more. But it's a good idea to go to the palace and report any new monsters or items you've seen. I don't know what the point of that is yet but it's probably there for a reason.
In short, I really, really love this game (as you can see from the tl;dr blurb above). The website done by the company (Atlus) is pretty nice too - a fancy flash site with pictures of the characters you can choose for each class and even a section with some cute comics featuring some of the things in the game. If you're at all interested, it can be found here.
no subject
I only briefly noticed that the female Protectors are wearing real armor, which is... yanno... unheard of. Girls with armor that isn't a bikini or flowey robe? Never! Except Wendy (http://www.serenesforest.net/media/fe6illust/s/wendy.png) and Meg (http://www.serenesforest.net/media/fe10illust/e/meg_en.png), and they kinda sucked in-game.
I might have to steal this from my sister when she's done playing and try it myself. *cackle*
no subject
Those two characters you linked to look like they would be annoying just based on how they're standing. ^^; Not warlike at all.
You should play it! Our guilds could be rival groups in my little odd fanfic world. Or something. I dunno, I'm kinda crazy...