Lurker > Fiop

I saw a merchant in Stormhail that had several really expensive, powerful weapons with a really low steal rate. I remembered from the first game that usually the most reasonable way to get these was to buy them. I even checked and he disappeared in night time mode. Good thing I didnt buy them, because it turns out he is there in night mode, just somewhere else. And it was really easy to mug him too. Gotta remember not to make big moves in a town until I explore fully in both day and night, heh.

TeamRocketElite posted...

Enervating Slash's description was mistranslated. It removes the user's buffs to deal more damage not the target.

Also, thanks for clarifying. Seems much less useful than I was thinking.

Using Evasive Maneuvers has helped with feeling overleveled. Osvald was my last character, so I didn't have this for awhile. I also got this for Castti so I can have it all the time now. All but one of the available chapters are now well over my party's average level (Castti is 34, Ochette is 30, and everyone else is mid 20s-ish). I also decided to head over to a level 37 area to get to Stormveil. It was fun to have more difficult fights, and I think I'm far enough in the game that there's enough options that the higher level battles can be doable.

Some of the basic setups to maximize damage for breaks from the first game work in this one too, which I can do now that I'm getting those abilities. I did a level 31 chapter boss without too much trouble. It helped that he had dagger weakness and three characters could hit that twice in one turn.

So, trying to understand what some of these abilities doCastti has an ability that gives three protection against enfeebling effects at the start of battle, however Ive seen her get hit with statuses with this active. I guess enfeebling means stat down then?

Also, the warrior ability Enervating Slash cancels positive status effects, but when Ive tried to use it against stat up, it fails to cancel it. Maybe this one is only positive effects, but I cant think of any positive effects that arent stat up that Ive seen an enemy do. Or maybe it just fails on bosses?

Black mages are really powerful in FFT, as long as you have a high faith unit, and ideally a female for better MA multiplier. I believe that class has the highest MA in the game, aside from maybe special classes. Level 1/2 spells can do a lot of damage. It's true that level 3's and 4's aren't as good, but if you're checking the CT to time things, it's perfectly serviceable to use a level 3. And once you learn one level 3 and find out it isn't that great, you'll just go back to lower level spells and save JP for Flare. (this is something like what I did my first playthrough, not knowing at all what I was doing)

I think it is a flaw that the more powerful, slower spells and abilities just aren't that good later in the game, when you finally can learn them, due to the fact that the charge time doesn't scale with the user's speed, and everyone's speed value gets higher as you progress. Though, the lower level spells still get enough of a damage boost to be okay. Maybe not the best for taking down those late game bosses, but you have Orlandu and others for that.

Granted, I could see someone not understanding how the system works, and the game doesn't always help with this. Like, understanding faith, and when buying equipment, not using "best fit" all the time, since, for armor, this only takes into account HP and not the often times more important stat boosts you can get (PA, MA, MP, speed).

Chocobo Hot and Cold gives some unique rewards if you do the whole thing. I remember it being reasonably fun too.

A Final Fantasy where you miss out on the -ga spells just wouldnt feel right. In addition to exploiting weakness, they can be more MP efficient than the most powerful stuff, so theyre still good.

I totally expected them to kill off Cassius at some point, for the reasons you mentioned. I guess this could be another way the writers were fighting against a common trope.

ZeldaTPLink posted...

I wonder what it takes to become a guild clerk.

This actually gets explored in a later Trails game.

Since you mentioned equipment, I'll mention that you're at the point in the game where some items in shops that are available now that won't be available later on. This was true for some stuff in disc 1/2 as well, which is unavailable now, due to some shops either changing their items or becoming inaccessible. However, I think the disc 3 items are the ones people miss the most. If you haven't already, get the Octogon Rod for Vivi from Esto Garza (I forget if you have access to this yet but if you don't, you will real soon). Also consider anything else that teaches an ability that looks interesting.

IIRC summons can't be used in Oeilvert.

My first playthrough I missed the part about the anti-magic barrier, and wanted each party to have a healer, so I sent Eiko there. She didn't do much. I remember Vivi being the leader of the other group.

But yeah, given the anti-magic barrier, you really want all the mages in the 2nd party (Eiko, Dagger, Vivi, and Quina, though I guess Quina has a good enough attack to be passable in the other team)

So, I just got the boat and am kinda surprised and delighted this is in the game. I wasn't expecting to be able to explore with it. Though I'm still underleveled for exploring with it, so it'll have to wait - all I did was just go a short distance to get a really nice staff.

Despite it being a trope that you often get one of these in RPGs, I wasn't expecting Octopath to get it. It doesn't *need* it per se, but I think it adds a nice touch.

colliding posted...

because the battle system is so good

Ha, I agree with this. Even when I'm a lot stronger than the enemy, it's still fun to try to plan to break for weaknesses, or try to get in a steal, collect, or capture.

I have all the characters and am halfway through at least getting to chapter 2 towns now. I'm feeling kinda overleveled for some of these chapters. I think most of the leveling is coming from exploring between towns. I usually try to be thorough to make sure I got all the treasure, which means back and forth and extra battles. Even in low level areas, the XP really adds up. I'm trying to run away from battles more, at least in easy areas. Though if a Cait appears, I just can't help myself...

Perhaps things will catch up anyway, later. I think what I did in the original was to try to do chapters that were roughly around my average level, rather than just doing the lowest first. Perhaps I need to do more of that now. Still not really even using Castti's mix skill that much, since a lot of times I can win without it, but perhaps that'll change.

I do remember the original having a very tough final end game, which I didn't even beat (since I didn't feel like doing all that stuff without saving in order to have just one attempt at the true final boss).

I remember Schera, among others, doing no damage with her regular attack for much of the game, playing on Hard. Later Trails games are better about letting everyone be able to do something with their attack, even spell casters.

Yeah, Josette has got to be the worst party member in this game. I thought Tita was the worst in the first game, at least at end game (the only time you can choose party members), but she wasn't nearly as bad as Josette.

Making slow progress on my end. Made it through Castti's chapter 2. Her interaction with Edmund was pretty funny. Also along the way also did one of Ochette's chapter 2's, and also Hikari's chapter 1. I have some interest in the chess world, so I want to call him "Hikaru" in my head.

Anyway, regarding Hikari, his story seemed kind of cliche at the start but I will say I did not expect the townspeople to get (presumably) slaughtered like that. I was tempted to save money by not bribing anyone so I could do it for free with Castti, but glad I didn't do that. Also kind of cool that his "starting town" is also his chapter 4 town - I talked to him before exploring at all so I didn't expect that.

Also found the guilds - I was wondering when I would get access to the main classes as subclasses. I gave Apothecary to Agnea and Warrior to Castti. I don't really think Warrior complements Castti that well, so I think I'll look for something better later - just wanted to give her some extra weapon types. Partitio seems like he could make better use out of Warrior skills. Hopefully whatever subclass rotation I decide doesn't end up being exactly the same as what I did for the original Octopath, whatever that was. Also, found Inventor, which I gave to Temenos so he had more weapon types for investigations.

The poll option specifically says "once per year". If I had seen Star Wars 20 times when I was 20, then once per year is accurate. If I answer the same question at 35, and haven't seen it since then, "once per year" is no longer accurate. That may be in play, as that particular option dropped a lot more than the countless one.

FF8 is the only FF I played through last century that I haven't played since. Anyway, it really feels like the battle system works better if you're playing it blind. Then you can get kind of a natural progression until you figure out how to break it yourself. You are indeed expected to break it to some extent, and if you don't get a good handle on it, you can get soft-locked around the Sorceress Adel fight towards the end. Also, at the same time there's so many hidden things most people would have a real hard time finding without a guide (e.g. Obel Lake sidequest stands out here, Card King quest, and a lot of the cards including that Quistis card). It came out at this weird time when the internet was just starting to get big but wasn't yet, which maybe influnced some of these design decisions.

ZeldaTPLink posted...

I mean at this point I've caught the pattern

That's a dangerous thing to say about a Trails game. I mean, not specifically the fight Enforcer in same chapter thing; truth be told, I don't remember this one way or another. Trails sometimes does throw things out of left field, though.

I was playing on PSP. I don't remember any sort of autosave. I know I lost progress a couple times because I had a bad battery that would sometimes shut off the PSP. I don't recall whether I was plugged in or playing on portable mode for that particular scene, though.

ZeldaTPLink posted...

Estelle is put under some illusion where shes still a kid and her mom is still alive.

I remember this scene feeling really tense, since I had just beaten the boss and it had been awhile since I saved. I was really hoping I wouldn't stumble onto another boss or something. These moments seem to come up less in more modern games that are better about letting you save.

LttP

Tetris

FF5 is good but also one of the FFs I have the least desire to replay. Its best asset is the gameplay + job system, but if I feel like playing a game with a job system, there's probably a new game I haven't played yet I can play instead, like the Bravely series.

Yesmar_ posted...

Is Cloud/Pikachu '02 the match with the biggest turnaround if held today?

I also wonder about Final Fantasy Tactics Advance vs. Fire Emblem, from the 2004 games contest. FFTA doubled FE then, and I think that match easily flips now. Not sure if its a bigger turnaround than Cloud vs Pikachu.

I made a little progress. Recruited Agnea, so now I guess I have a "legitimate" way of getting free items from NPCs. Also, in her starting town, there's a Beastling in a hidden room that's super powered for this stage of the game and the allure chance was around 60%. The Beastling one-shot some enemies with that bow attack in a level 15 or so area. Probably not going to be alluring a replacement for awhile. I don't want to summon the Beastling that often though since I'll need to go back to allure again.

Also did her chapter 2 since it was in a chapter 1 town, and her chapter 3 has a pretty low level requirement so I may do that soon. Still haven't been to any chapter 2 towns yet, but that's what I'm planning on next.

Mario 64

Kong

Donkey Kong

Ff7

Super Mario Bros

Guile

Dr Kawashima

Gear

Mario

I voted Chicago in the final, but almost voted for Buffalo entirely because of the Buffalo sentence. Probably would've voted it over some of those other cities because of that.

Estelle Bright (The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky)
Crono (Chrono Trigger)
Bowser Jr (Super Mario Sunshine)
Marle (Chrono Trigger)
Rosalina (Super Mario Galaxy)
Luc (Suikoden)

ZeldaTPLink posted...

Which thing?

I believe that's referring to Agate no longer being a forced member pretty soon.

Each Trails game has some books with short stories, and they put the ones from some of the previous games in libraries altogether, and have you collect individual chapters of some other ones. I've read many of them, but not all of them. Don't think any are must reads but may have some loose nods. There's also often a reward for collecting all chapters, and they're often missable, so I try to collect them if I can.

IIRC, Julia in that fight has an impossible orbment setup since she has the high level stuff but not the low level stuff that she should have also had.

pjbasis posted...

2 and 3 as well! To your point I am always curious why 1 isn't thrown in with them unless they actually have nostalgia for it.

I would place 1 above both 2 and 3. I didn't play any of them until Final Fantasy Origins for the PSX and FF3DS, so I wouldn't say it's nostalgia.

I think it comes down to 1 being a simpler, quicker experience, which I think just works better for these games today. 2 has a decent story but the weird leveling and magic system. 3 I had fun with at first but I think it went on too long and the final dungeon in particular was just kinda bad.

The original NES versions are likely really dated at this point, but I never played those versions, so I can't speak to them.

Virtue

Trails 3rd spoiled some of the party members ahead of time in the game itself, just in the loading screens. So, I feel like you're not losing much from that game at least if you already know the playable characters of that game.

I remember seeing a big Trails thread about Renne on this board awhile ago, that I avoided since I was in the middle of a Trails playthrough. Now that I've gotten through CS at least, I feel better about reading these.

Fire
Smash

Chicago

-
Mario

Tetris

Also, getting all the summon magic in FF4 could be pretty grindy, since several of those are very rare enemy drops.

I wonder what the difference is between "treasures" and "hidden items".

Final Fantasy VII