I am going to finish up two games this week so I can start their sequels:
Devil Summoner 3: Raidou Kuzunoha vs The Soulless Army: 14 hours into the game, just saved Tae from the Dark Summoner and also defeated his minion in our first battle. This will take longer than DDS.
Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner: 22 hours into the game, already defeated Vasuki after taking the elevator at Karma Temple.
I was playing Final Fantasy XII until yesterday, I switched back to resuming my new cycle in Persona 4 as that the rainy weather here matches that of the game. I found Final Fantasy XII to be rather similar to that of Monster Hunter as that for quite a few hours, I did almost nothing but leveling up the way you do in Monster Hunter such as running around on the field, then attacking monsters nearby or fleeing when the situation deems it necessary.
Spoiler:
Since I used the AR MAX codes to max gil and license points.. At Lv6, I had about 1200HP and 90MP with Lv3 Quickening abilities, so I went and fought the Wild Saurian Lv29 and ended up dying as that it only does 2200-2900 damage when it has 6000+ HP. I retried a few times, some involved using ethers but it was still failure. I entered the Storage 5's sewers to hunt down a Wraith as my fourth mark but that also ended up pretty bad when I decided to not save game when I had my chance as that I thought my Lv3 Quickening would easily wipe out the enemies but.. I ran into something that appeared to be your typical sewer toad but.. My Lv3 Quickening only does little damage to it. Originally, I thought it did 99% damage but then I realized that the blue health bar was my own and that it had an orange health bar which looked as though it still had 90% HP after taking a critical from me. It turned out that it was a Lv24 Lizard and it wasn't alone the second time I tried to fight it after restarting my earlier game save and then saving game at the sewers. A monster that had similar shape and size of the Lizard attacked with poison-infecting hits and I quickly recognized it as the Malboro of previous FF games. It was a Malboro Overking at Lv36. By then, I was around Lv14 but still.. It only took them to hit me twice before I had to used lots of high potions to flee as that my attacks were doing 0 damage to both monsters.
As soon as I left the area with the save, I was ambushed by the Wraith I was supposed to hunt. I thought the Wraith would be pretty weak but I was wrong and it dealt like 600+ damage before I adopted some strategies which resulted in vanquishing the Wraith after 10 minutes of long battle involving repetitive tactics. After that, I also did an elite mark involving a Cluckatrice and three golden chicks of it. That battle was easy as that it only did about 25-30 damage per hit but I got attacked 3-4 times per turn. Apparently, I wasted my Lv3 Quickening on a golden cockatrice thinking that it was the Cluckatrice to find out moments later that it was merely just a chick of the Cluckatrice, I had to spend over 10 minutes of attack and heal. By the way, the Lv3 Quickening only did about 85% damage to the little golden chick meaning that if I had used it on the Cluckatrice, it would probably do even lesser damage.
Now that I have 4 marks, 1 elite, and 20000pts, Basch has joined me permanently after a long cutscene in Lowtown. This generally means that I will be doing more monster hunting as that two Lv3 Quickenings is better than one. Since I will be doing more monster hunting, I might as well play Persona 4 instead. It is so much more interesting to save Amagi-san from Shadows than to waste time hunting down monsters after monsters.
I am also playing Castle Fantasia 2 ~Seima Taisen~ Renewal. The game is somewhat similar to the Growlanser series which I still have not finished. I am midway in Growlanser III and I have a clear game save file for Growlanser II which will allow me to summon Wein and Riviera later in the game. After Growlanser III, I will start Growlanser V. As for Castle Fantasia 2, the game is similar to the Growlanser series in terms of both the gameplay and the story, not mentioning that the character designs are also quite similar except that there are no fairies in Castle Fantasia 2, whereas there are quite a few throughout the Growlanser series. The story focuses on an era of military conflict and war which in Europe which is exactly what Growlanser is about except that there were supernatural elements in Growlanser which don't exist in Castle Fantasia 2. The battle system cannot compete with even Growlanser II, not mentioning that the sequels had much better battle systems.
Like Growlanser II, you only get to spend time with female members of your team as opposed to Growlanser III which allows you to spend time with brother-in-arms. As Wein Cruz of Growlanser II had pointed out, "It is good to spend time with brothers-in-arms as that it would raise the overall morale of the team but since it is rare to have an opportunity such as this, I should spent it with a lady instead." Aside from Wein, the rest had endings with male members of the team as the multiple endings of the Growlanser series. However, it has nothing to do with BL or yaoi.
Aside from these games, I was originally planning to finish Digital Devil Saga this week as that I am quite close to the end already. I took out Vasuki at the bottom of the Karma Temple. Once I finish it, I will start the sequel with a clear game save that includes Heat joining my party later in the sequel. Although I don't like Heat as that he doesn't get along with the protagonist Serph but it is better to keep Heat on my side as opposed to some new guy. More over, his stats are better than the new guy, I assume.
I will also try to finish Devil Summoner 3: Raidou Kuzunoha vs The Soulless Army and start the sequel as that a clear game save will earn me some bonuses at the start of the game which makes the game easier. Since I am only 14 hours into the first game, I doubt I will be able to finish it in a week or two..
I am also playing Ar Tonelico 2: The Melody of Metafalica, already 38 hours into the game. However, this game is longer than the rest.. Maybe, not as long as P4 but.. I am still on Phase 3 and doing Jakuri's cosmosphere.. I have yet to run into the Raki glitch but instead.. My game froze during Alfman's speech on Infel Pira earlier in the game during the semi-cutscene. This game is somewhat like the Growlanser series but the battle system isn't very good and all the girls seem to be somewhat twisted, even though this game seems to be much more popular than the Growlanser series which not many had even heard of, unless they are fans of Atlus. Atlus's two greatest series would be Shin Megami Tensei and the Growlanser. Nonetheless, I will resume AT2 once I am done with the other games.
Aside from all these games, I also have other games to spend time on but those aren't RPGs.
2009-05-26, 11:36
Graphic Designer
it's really entertaining so far, I'm a level 8 Necromancer/Mesmer.
