Board 8 > SaveEstelle/LeonhartFour in Different Houses: Life is Frasier Edition [SELF]

(+) Yeah! (+)

a wise decision
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Trails 3: Auto-Guard is the least useful/most annoying effect, yeah. It works for you too though so you won't take damage either if the enemy lands on that turn and tries to attack. Otherwise, yeah, you just have to eat the turn or use it to cast or buff or whatever so the turn isn't a total waste. ...I'm trying to remember if it blocks healing too. I don't recall it doing so but you may want to test that if you get a chance in case I'm remembering wrong so it doesn't bite you down the line.

Agreed that Ries's S-Craft being unavailable for the beginning only to just pop up is a bit silly. I like her S-Craft though. Really I just like her skill set in general. Templar Sword so cool.

I really like the theme in Grancel, it's one of my dark horse favorites that I don't think anyone agrees with me about. Really like the atmosphere it sets.

Quick travel and the better equip screen also the best.

LeonhartFour posted...

I decided to eat at Arby's today, so when I pulled up to the drive-thru window, the dude there asked me if I wanted any sauces when I gave him my card, and I told him no. Literally ten seconds later, when he gives me my card back, he asks me again if I want any sauces and I again tell him no.

get home and open the bag and lo and behold marinara sauce

what if you had gotten home and discovered you had changed your mind

you sure would have felt foolish if that lone hero hadn't decided to act
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If I ever need ketchup, I have it at home. Any other sauce, I can do without.

And yeah, I tested healing on Auto-Guard rounds to see if it works, and it does, thankfully. I don't think the enemy has landed on one of those rounds yet. I had to run from a battle against a solo enemy because it had the Insta-Death effect coming up and I couldn't circumvent it without using an S-Craft, which I wasn't going to do. So stupid.
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In Trails the 3rd, Josette might actually be viable this time around, perhaps solely because of her ability to steal now. Just stole an Attack 3 from the boss in the Grand Arena. It helps that her stats don't suck now, too. That Bobcat mini-game in her Sun Door did kinda suck though. Hopefully the mini-games aren't all that rough!
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Oh hey, and now I have Joshua back, too! I wasn't expecting to get him so early, honestly. I figured he and Estelle would be among the last ones just as a tease for fans. I still think Estelle will be closer to the end now that he's here, but maybe not! I like his new design, too, although I do miss the cool scarf.

We're inside Grancel Castle now. I've brought Julia along for this entire chapter because it felt "right" to have her here for all of this. I'll probably swap her out once we're done with Meta-Grancel though just to mix things up. I do appreciate how much better they've balanced the characters so far though.
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Trails 3: The Bobcat minigame was the roughest IMO. Also tbqh, Josette's best for her Remote Ability IMO. poor josette
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Oh hey, that Insomniac Spider-Man game finally has a release date. That's pretty exciting since that game has looked really good from the little I've seen of it.
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Josette's the character I like least in 3rd compared to her appearances in the first two games, so I didn't really mind her still being mediocre in combat :p

I think I had Julia in my party for a pretty big chunk of the game.
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FFXV story DLC now pushed back to 2019, which is sad

But at least we know who they're focusing on now: Ardyn, Aranea, Luna, and...Noctis?
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I'm continuing to read through the last Hyouka book, and there's another Ibara-centric story, this time focusing on the manga club. I suppose people liked all the drama associated with it from the Culture Festival arc.
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Josette's passive ability of increasing drop rates for items and sepith is really nice, and the negative penalty is pretty inconsequential. She's certainly pulling her weight this time around!
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All right, Chapter 2 of Trails the 3rd complete! Looks like I was right and it was indeed a Meta-Grancel instead of the real thing. The Lord of Phantasma (hereafter referred to as the Lord of Nonsense as per his own suggestin) shows up and explains a little bit while trolling everyone a bit. Then we have to fight another devil, and even though the boss fight isn't very hard, everyone acts like we barely survived. By the way, that creepy remix of the Grancel was pretty great. Also, Gilbert randomly ended up in here somehow. This guy just can't stay out of the way.

Our reward for finishing up this Grancel recreation is naturally Kloe (and Sieg too)! That's good news because there's a Star Door that I need Joshua and Kloe to get through, so I'll be doing that one very soon! Speaking of which, I finally got that one Star Door open that I needed 100 battles to get, and it's basically a report on some giant salt pillar that explains where Kevin got the arrow that killed Weissmann (with the ironic twist that Weissmann was from the town that was turned to salt by the pillar; kinda feels like the intro to Nier here!). I also enjoyed that they talked about Weissmann a bit, but apparently, Kevin didn't tell anyone that he killed him because Joshua and Kloe were both unsure of what happened to him after the Aureole disappeared. Ries tried to tell them, but Kevin interrupted and stopped her from doing so, which was interesting. They've also brought up the possibility a couple of times that maybe the Aureole has something to do with what's going on, but I kinda feel like that's a red herring. Who knows though!
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Leonhart4 posted...

Josette's passive ability of increasing drop rates for items and sepith is really nice, and the negative penalty is pretty inconsequential. She's certainly pulling her weight this time around!

It is! Just it requires her to sit on the bench to use! poor josette. >_>

Trails 3: Salt Pillar report is low key one of the most horrifying things in Trails. Just imaging some massive thing appearing out of nowhere and turning half a country to salt. yikes. Creepy Grancel Castle theme also pretty good, yeah. 3rd's OST is pretty great tbqh. I like a lot of the songs on it. Best normal battle theme, for example, but a lot of the better songs are still to come~
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Trails 3 a top tier OST.
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eh it's honestly been a little too over the top at times for me (sorry but Trails FC will always have the best normal battle theme)

that's part of why I enjoyed the creepy Grancel theme since it was a little more understated
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Also I actually think the default battle theme of Trails 3 is the worst of the Sky games honestly. One of the only weak points of the OST.
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ya well =(
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I remember when I started 3rd and thought Fighting Right On was the main battle theme

needless to say I was very disappointed when I reached Chapter 1
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Janus5k posted...

I remember when I started 3rd and thought Fighting Right On was the main battle theme

needless to say I was very disappointed when I reached Chapter 1

100% this though.

I think I even specifically commented on that when I was doing Trails 3 write-ups here!
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Okay, that Joshua/Kloe Star Door was just about perfect. That's why they're two of the three best characters, with Estelle rounding out the top three by showing what happened to Josette's goggles, which explains the visor!

But now it's time for a split party dungeon, huh? This should be...memorable one way or the other. I had to scrounge up enough Mira however I could to buy new equipment for everyone, too.

Parties: Kevin/Kloe/Julia/Tita
Ries/Joshua/Josette/Mueller
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Trails 3: Yeah, I was gonna say that I was sure you'd love that Joshua/Kloe Door but didn't know if that counted as a ~hint~. It's definitely an excellent one. One of my favorites and I kind of wish it was the SC end in a way, it had the resolution I felt SC lacked.
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3rd best Sky OST yeah. Tons of great songs.
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I love Trails 3 from a story perspective, but sometimes it does things I'm not such big fan of from a gameplay perspective. This split-party dungeon was one of them. Bleh.
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In Geass, the Mao plot was more self-contained then I expected it to be, but I guess he was too much of a wild card to keep around for this story.

I guess it's the only way zero's identity could be revealed so early so he could erase the heroine girl's (can't remember her name) memory. Seems like it'll be hard to keep up this facade though! We'll see.
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You mean Shirley?
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There we go.

I can't believe I forgot such an angelican name but here we are
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Mac Arrowny posted...

3rd best Sky OST yeah. Tons of great songs.

it's definitely the third best so far

my favorite songs so far are the ones they play from previous games

makes me happy every time I go through once of these doors because I know it's going to play The Dream Continues at some point

Anyway, I've finished the Silver Road, which wasn't too bad except for those stupid enemies that self-destruct with a wide area move that can cause insta-death. The boss fight was pretty cool, and I was really glad I gave Joshua one of the CP-boosting accessories because Phantom Raid saved the day here.

I think I'll save the Golden Road for tomorrow though.
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huh a shamisen reference in Frasier

who'd have figured
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I'm holding off on starting it because I wanted to play the game first but did you start the Persona 5 anime? The first episode came out today.
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Team Rocket Elite posted...

I'm holding off on starting it because I wanted to play the game first but did you start the Persona 5 anime? The first episode came out today.

I did not. I was unaware the first episode came out today, so I guess I'll watch it later!

Kind of a bummer it's not getting a simul-dub, but oh well. Can't win 'em all!
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Speaking of which, I finished the first dungeon in P4

So far it's not as good as P5, but there's still time to catch up
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LordoftheMorons posted...

Speaking of which, I finished the first dungeon in P4

So far it's not as good as P5, but there's still time to catch up

P4's intro might be the weakest part of the game (although I still like it), so it's (mostly) only up from here.

although the dungeons never really get as good as P5's except for one or two

Anyway, not sure what to say after the first episode of the P5 anime other than...it's basically the same as the game so far! I guess I'll spoil this one thing just to be safe, but they did have a cool little bit where Igor inwardly asks Ren (Joker's name here) if he made a mistake in helping out that woman when he sees Ryuji about to get killed by Shadow Kamoshida, and he says, "It wasn't a mistake," and then BOOM PERSONA
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Chapter 3 of Trails the 3rd complete! Golden Road was much easier than the Silver Road, both in terms of the random enemies and the boss. The Schwarzritter dude shows up after everyone is reunited and spouts a bunch of cryptic nonsense as usual (although he does tell us that the ghost in the cube is the hermit for whom the Hermit's Garden is named, so that's handy), except it's clearly not that cryptic to Kevin, who overreacts to it all and pretends like they're all bluffing.

Afterward, we get some more backstory on Kevin becoming a knight, and Rufina talks with Lady Carnelia about him developing a Stigma of some sort (and it seems Lady Carnelia has one, too). They reference Rufina meeting Loewe in passing, too. Apparently, Rufina's great fear is that Kevin is too kind for his own good, although we've not seen much evidence of that so far! We got two sealed spheres for completing the split-party dungeon, and our reward is Zin and Olivier (now wearing his Erebonian prince garb, to my delight).

After some more discussion, Ries decides she's going to sit this round out. Kevin chases after her, and she calls his bluff on...well, pretty much everything. Joshua takes over as the second-in-command, and he has a really interesting conversation with Kevin where he reveals he knows more about the guy than he's been letting on. Joshua also expresses gratitude for Kevin helping him escape Weissmann's mind control, and he says it doesn't matter to him whether he had an ulterior motive for doing so or not. The end result was the same either way, and that's all that matters to him. That's why he's the best Trails character.

On the next plane, we find ourselves at Le Locle from the Trails SC prologue. This seems like a good spot to find Estelle or perhaps even Anelace, maybe both. Before that, I found exam results in a treasure chest for some reason, but it's apparently what I need to open a Moon Door for Kloe, so that works for me!
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Trails 3:
LeonhartFour posted...

After some more discussion, Ries decides she's going to sit this round out. Kevin chases after her, and she calls his bluff on...well, pretty much everything. Joshua takes over as the second-in-command, and he has a really interesting conversation with Kevin where he reveals he knows more about the guy than he's been letting on. Joshua also expresses gratitude for Kevin helping him escape Weissmann's mind control, and he says it doesn't matter to him whether he had an ulterior motive for doing so or not. The end result was the same either way, and that's all that matters to him. That's why he's the best Trails character.

I love this conversation so much. Kevin tries all that distancing stuff like early SC Joshua with Estelle and his "pawns" metaphors to the Capuas and Joshua's like "yeah bro, i went through this phase too." Joshua so good.
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Getting an upright Judgement card near the end of a dungeon when I'm like 75% through my SP is a pretty great feeling

Are there any SP restoring accessories like in P5 here?
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Also, ended up staying up way later than I meant to
Wish these dungeons had intermediary save points...!
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No, I don't believe there's any Invigorate items in P4. The trick usually is to constantly buy out the sodas from the vending machine on the main street as one of them sells SP recovery sodas, at least for early game.

I agree the existence of checkpoints would have been pretty nice.
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LordoftheMorons posted...

Are there any SP restoring accessories like in P5 here?

Yes. Although they are not as easily obtained.

I forget if the game outright tells you or not but the primary way you expand the equip shop's inventory (outside of standard weapon/armor upgrades over the course of the game) is by selling a certain amount of enemy drops to him. Generally speaking, every enemy drop leads to a piece of equipment. Glancing at the FAQ, it does note this in its dungeon thing with the item each enemy drops, the item it results in, and how many of that drop you need to sell to the guy to make it available.

You can get the Invigorate 1 Accessory (Mage's Mark) by selling 10 Magic Cloth (Drop from Phantom Master) in the second dungeon. At that point the accessory would be available in the shop to buy. The only other Invigorate Accessory you can make available this way is the Invigorate 2 one and that's pretty much at endgame so yeah.

They're also possible drops from rare (gold) chests starting... at some point. I'm scanning the item tables in that FAQ and I don't see one until fairly late game (Invigorate 2) but I could have sworn they start dropping earlier (with Invigorate 1 obviously.) This is also the only way you can get the Invigorate 3 Accessory from endgame territory.

So yeah, not simple at all like P5. There's a way to (tediously) grind out SP restoration items starting at the second dungeon, IIRC. Prior to that, the best way is the soda machines as mentioned. IIRC, TaP Soda is the best, restoring 10 SP opposed to the other ones restoring 5. You can buy 5 a week, and they restock on Mondays IIRC. You also get an expensive-ish way to restore SP too that the game will hand to you eventually.
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LordoftheMorons posted...

Also, ended up staying up way later than I meant to
Wish these dungeons had intermediary save points...!

If you use a Goh-M to leave a dungeon, you can jump back to the floor you were last on.
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also the game becomes way more manageable after the second dungeon

second dungeon is probably the toughest one in the game
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Oh, also, if you decide to go down the rabbit hole of unlocking items from the shop, I may be able to help a bit. I ended up handwriting some notes about every drop in the game, including enemy locations and drop number that I compiled by cross-checking a number of guides and then error correcting on my own through checking what happens in the game. I recall noting some errors in item number and making notes on (IMO) better locations for encounters.

Could be that this guide is okay on that front since it's more recent than when I would have compiled all this but yeah. Also I'm guessing I checked this against P4 Golden but with one notable exception (which is notable enough that I remember!) I'd be surprised if it changed.

but as someone who went down this rabbit hole (multiple times!) i am obligated to implore you not to do so

there is no hope down this road only despair

Unlock the Invigorate 1 accessory, if you like, sure! but 95+% of the unlocks are useless.

(also iirc Vanilla P4 doesn't even carry over shop unlocks in NG+ so it's pointless. This was a change in Golden)
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Finished Fall of Hyperion! It wasn't as good as the original, but it was still really enjoyable. It does feel like a pretty definitive end to the story, so I dunno what I'll do about the other two books. I might wait a while before giving them a try.

Character rankings: Consul > Brawne > Dure > Moneta > Ummon > Kassad > Sol > Gladstone > Hoyt > Masteen > Martin

Updated female character rankings:

Nagato > Maya > Yakumo > Kurisu > Chizuru > Yukiko > Fina > Aqua > Makoto > Shoko > Mitsuru > Yui > Takano > Yachiyo > Shiori > Eru > Wagatsuma > Ritsu > Akane > Pepper > Brawne > Amy > Rin > Namine > Mitsuha > Peach > Botan > Sophia > Yurippe > Mikasa > Eureka > Art3mis > Valentine > Mizuno > Zelda > Vera > Elizabeth > Yuri > Cora > Kotori
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Grinding for the 3 SP accessory seems very slow (especially now that the fear attack misses my characters most of the time)

Might try for another half hour and see if it speeds up at all, but I guess it's probably not worth it if it would take hours and hours (up to 1/10 right now...)
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Mac Arrowny posted...

3rd best Sky OST yeah. Tons of great songs.

Cry for Me, Cry for You is a strong ass opening number
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LordoftheMorons posted...

Grinding for the 3 SP accessory seems very slow (especially now that the fear attack misses my characters most of the time)

Might try for another half hour and see if it speeds up at all, but I guess it's probably not worth it if it would take hours and hours (up to 1/10 right now...)

I don't remember SP being such a major concern later in the game to think this is at all worth it.

Although Golden adds a few QoL things to make SP more manageable, so I could be misremembering how different it is in the original.
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I've always thought Trails in general has pretty weak OP music honestly. Even the ones I actually like (3rd, Ao, Cold Steel 1) are only OK at best imo.

Ok Cold Steel 1 I actually might be willing to call good after listening to it again just now. Liking it more than I remembered when actually playing the game.
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I played the original. SP is definitely easier to manage as the game goes on. I tended to always hit up the vending machine for drinks just in case I needed them in a pinch. A lot of them went unused as I just didn't need them anymore by the end of the game.
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Yeah I guess it probably isn't, but my luck has improved a bit over the last half hour. Up to 5/10 now...!
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10/10

About an hour, not as bad as I thought it would be...!
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You can get Invigorate on Personas too. That's what I did.
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