guardians_song

Was feeling moody earlier, but felt better after playing the Pokemon: Team Rocket Edition hack up to the end of the first Gym.
(Warning: it's a hard hack. A VERY hard hack. I did myself no favors by accidentally starting the Gym before the route I was supposed to grind on, but still - GAH. Grinding is a must. ...With once-per-Gym Bullshit Clause, I did manage to survive it, though. But ONLY because I thought ahead this time and chose Ekans for the broken Wrap + Poison combo.)

Note: I can see why Fire Red hacks are more popular. Gen 1 hacks allow you to grind by holding down Turbo and going at x10 speed. FIRE RED hacks, however, give you the Versus Seeker. The Versus Seeker allows you to actually refight TRAINERS, which give out tons more Exp. than wild grunts.

...Probably amounts to the same grinding speed, but Gen 3 also has better graphics and such...

Still say it's unbalanced, though. I understand that it's good to have a hard hack and all, but there really should have been more opportunity to grind in the volcano area.
Anyway, I've also had the chance to play further in Etrian Odyssey Untold.

Must say, I like how they included the Gladsheim plot. Since everyone already knows the twist at the end of EO1 (of which this is a remake), it makes sense to just include it from the beginning. :P I also like the addition of characters with personality in Story Mode. Simon is pretty blah, but the others are lively enough.
(The lack of a spammable Party Guard is... very noticeable after EO4's "Spam and Heal" strategy. Fortunately, Front Guard is a decent substitute if the enemy doesn't specifically have attacks that hit the back line. And Light Formula is exploitable. [Once killed a Rare-Breed Giant Moa solely by having Arthur spam Light Formula after I inadvertently got the rest of the party killed off. He is now two levels ahead of the rest of the party in perpetuity. >_>])
(I gave Frederica the pseudo-Hexer Grimoire and the Highlander the pseudo-Ronin Grimoire. Rest of the party's Grimoires are geared towards boosting their Mine/Take/Chop levels, since I'm not about to waste valuable skill points on the farming techniques.)

I wiped a few times to Cerunnos, but beat him when I finally stopped trying to put Arthur in front for the Bloody Offense boost. (Yes, I put the flimsy Alchemist in the front against a physical-focused Stratum Boss. Don't ask. I'd only recently boosted the difficulty from Standard to Expert, and I was much too used to using Pain Formula against F.O.E.s.) Once I bound his arms, I eliminated the main source of danger to my Highlander, and so got to use the massively overpowered physical skills as I wished. He fell over relatively rapidly (compared to the attempts on which I wiped).

I'm working, too, but have been gaming more to stave off feelings of hormonal angst. (Which are reasonably light so far, mind. It's just that, as I get better-adjusted, the angst is more of the uncertain and lonely kind than the enraged, depressive kind... so even though the intensity's decreased (praise the heavens, hallelujah), the unfamiliarity is strange to handle. I'm adjusting, though! Will probably be accustomed to it by the time the next hormone-swing cycle rolls around.)

Hope you're all doing well!

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Hah, I have a crush on Simon. I love his voice, and he's so stable and smart.

Cernunnos annoyed me enough to change the difficulty from Expert to Standard for the fight. I was tired :P.

He is! It's just that Frederica's drawing my attention because of her involvement in the Gladsheim plot, Raguna's rather amusing (and has some development of her family back home), Arthur's mildly entertaining for comic relief*, and... Simon just is the least noteworthy out of the group. (Technically the Highlander is my least favorite party member, personality-wise. :P)

*I'm also interested in seeing if there's any more development of what happened to his hometown. Seems Simon's the main source of that plot now, if his comments in Gladsheim Area 2 were any indication, so I might switch the interest to Simon instead.

Cernunnos annoyed me enough to change the difficulty from Expert to Standard for the fight. I was tired :P.
I don't blame you. If nothing else, the Healing Rollers during an already-difficult Stratum Boss fight were just cheap. (I warded off the wolves during the Fenrir fight with Flash Bombs/Sonic Bombs. I wish there'd been an option like that with the Healing Rollers. I'm normally all right with boss-assistants, but the combination of
-high defense
-high elemental defense
-relatively high HP, given the two previous points
-defense-buffing
-healing for 180+ points a shot
-and, finally, BEING IN THE BACK ROW...

That was just dirty fighting, honestly. If Cerunnos had moved to the back when the Rollers came into play, I at least could have spammed Draining Thrust. :\ As is, I mainly got through because I had Amalawake (the TP-regenerates-every-turn tea) active and so had my TP regenerate enough to keep up my high-TP combos. By the end of it, I wished I hadn't sunk so many points into Fire Formula for Fenrir... would have been nice to have a few more points in Volt Formula.)

At least he seems to be the most annoying boss so far. The Queen Bee was blessedly free of evasion spam, for all that her minions were so fond of Gale. (I personally think evasion spam is the cheapest thing a foe can do. Especially since this game depowered the Snipes by no longer having them have 100% accuracy. It would be rather easier to bind the legs of the Patroller Bees if they didn't keep dodging the very attacks intended to do that in the first place...)

I think killing off one roller and keeping the other one head bound or asleep or etc. would work. Luckily, I remembered that he was weak to volt from the original Etrian Odyssey, and also that volt was generally the spell that the fewest enemies resisted, so I had like 3 points in it. Simon's poison skill also helped, and I have him using the Hexer grimoire, so he was able to remove the curoller buff. I almost killed Cern the first time on Expert, but it was just so annoying, and I had to use a lot of Nectars.

The Highlander is boring. If I can't create a character completely on my own, I would much rather have a hero with a strong personality than some dull halfway point.

I think killing off one roller and keeping the other one head bound or asleep or etc. would work.
True. I just forgot head-binding DID disallow magic use, and I was just so used to killing off the boss support that I forgot.

Luckily, I remembered that he was weak to volt from the original Etrian Odyssey, and also that volt was generally the spell that the fewest enemies resisted, so I had like 3 points in it.
I did eventually have 3 points in it due to pre-Cerunnos grinding (the Rare Breed Moa in particular). I would have gotten more, but eh, I just wanted him dead at that point.

Simon's poison skill also helped, and I have him using the Hexer grimoire, so he was able to remove the curoller buff. I almost killed Cern the first time on Expert, but it was just so annoying, and I had to use a lot of Nectars.
Ah, you gave Simon the Poison skill! I invested heavily into Immunize (in the hopes that it would be even half as broken as its original reputation), so I haven't had the chance to get the status skills yet. (To be fair, I am going to really love it once enemies start spamming elemental attacks. ...They haven't yet, though. :\)

Frederica was able to remove it, but it was still annoying to have the buff show up and have to re-debuff him. And Cern's annoying in general due to the occasional successful mass-bind and the counter abilities. Like I said, though, he got a lot easier once I stopped putting my main damage dealer in a location where he was in serious danger of high HP loss.

The Highlander is boring. If I can't create a character completely on my own, I would much rather have a hero with a strong personality than some dull halfway point.
Agreed. Potentially I could make the character less... generic by giving some of the ruder responses, but I don't want to do that. :\ I understand the principle, since apparently some JP gamers like out-and-out self-inserts these days, but it would have been nice to have a 'Give the Highlander an actual personality' option. As is, he's just sort of... generically nice. (Except when I misclick and have him inadvertently come off as a jerk, but that's more accidental comedic relief than any intentional attempt on my part to characterize him as more complex than 'Yay, heroism!')

Eh.

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