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Reached Chapter 11 in FFXIII yesterday~
i have a full team now, so i can switch out party members and change the party leader freely. my characters can also use any role, but i haven't bothered to teach anyone new roles because thesphere levels crystal point costs are absurdly high - level 0 nodes cost as much as level 3 nodes in a 'major' role, and the abilities/stat boosts are minimal, so there's not much of a point in doing so.
anyway, i have a lot options as far as party makeup and paradigms are concerned, which is both cool and confusing. you actually get all the characters together in Chapter 9, and the ability to change your party leader in Chapter 10; i haven't kept the same party together for more than 10 battles at a time, because i keep trying out new combinations and strategies.
this had made doing well and moving quickly a problem. :P every time your party changes, you have to reset your paradigm deck...the game generates 3 for you (one balanced, one offensive based and one defense based, as a general rule) but they aren't always ideal, and there are 2 spots still empty. SOOO i keep going back into the paradigm menu to re-build them, THEN i have to fight some battles testing out what i've made, THEN having to go back after said battle to make adjustments if i don't do that well...or died and hit 'retry.' (SPOILER: i have been retrying a lot.)
not to mention that at this point, the enemies have far more varied abilities than they did before, and more strengths/immunities - i suspect i am supposed to create some fairly specific paradigms to deal with certain enemy types. but this is difficult to do when you keep changing your party every 20 minutes. XD
ANYWAY, this means i have gotten a lot of 3-star battles and retries. i really should just pick a party and stick with it, but every time character learns some new stuff on the crystarium grid, or gets a bunch of stat boosts, or a new weapon, or i encounter a new kind of enemy...i get all excited and want to re-test every possible character/role combination i can.
i get the feeling that i will be on Chapter 11 for awhile. There isn't a 'world map' per se but the areas i can free-roam in are enormous, and there are mutliple areas - i've entered 3, but have only explored 1 of them fully.
there are also sidequests (finally) and apparently, i am supposed to find ridable chocobos in this chapter but i haven't encountered them yet.
the story is still ridiculous, but it's grown on me. the characters are, for the most part, enjoyable enough to make the requisite plot hysterics bearable, though i still think Snow's a douchebag, and while I don't hate Hope i don't really...care so much about his character development? it's not that i dislike it, either, i just don't find him particularly engaging so i don't really care when stuff happens to him. XD
the game also seems to have dropped character development for Lightning and Sazh completely, which is sad. :( at least it looks like Vanille and Fang are going to get some serious plot time now, so yay \o/
other nerd stuff:
-i have a PSP. it's a 1000 model and the screen has a few scratches, but it works beautifully. i managed to pick up Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions, FF Dissidia and Soulcalibur Broken Destiny for $20 a pop (and new, except for War of the Lions) but i have not played any of them much. I haven't even opened Dissidia yet, i did try the first battle in Lions (the translation, even this early, is clearly worlds better than the original PSX release) and poked around in SC's Gauntlet mode up to Chapter 10 before losing interest (it's basically one long tutorial and pretty annoying, even though it moves quickly).
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springkink has started another round of prompt-claiming. there's a bunch of FFXIII stuff this time around and...i think i might pick one or two up. idk how many people were submitting the prompts but i am encouraged by the variety shown. maybe this FF will not have pairing wank-
AHAHAHAHAAA WHO AM I KIDDING, OF COURSE THERE WILL BE WANK.
-Realism VS is permanent in L4D2, it has been so since Friday....and i've yet to play a match. i'm going on a camping trip later this week so zombbs, can we rectify this before Wednesday? ;0
i have a full team now, so i can switch out party members and change the party leader freely. my characters can also use any role, but i haven't bothered to teach anyone new roles because the
anyway, i have a lot options as far as party makeup and paradigms are concerned, which is both cool and confusing. you actually get all the characters together in Chapter 9, and the ability to change your party leader in Chapter 10; i haven't kept the same party together for more than 10 battles at a time, because i keep trying out new combinations and strategies.
this had made doing well and moving quickly a problem. :P every time your party changes, you have to reset your paradigm deck...the game generates 3 for you (one balanced, one offensive based and one defense based, as a general rule) but they aren't always ideal, and there are 2 spots still empty. SOOO i keep going back into the paradigm menu to re-build them, THEN i have to fight some battles testing out what i've made, THEN having to go back after said battle to make adjustments if i don't do that well...or died and hit 'retry.' (SPOILER: i have been retrying a lot.)
not to mention that at this point, the enemies have far more varied abilities than they did before, and more strengths/immunities - i suspect i am supposed to create some fairly specific paradigms to deal with certain enemy types. but this is difficult to do when you keep changing your party every 20 minutes. XD
ANYWAY, this means i have gotten a lot of 3-star battles and retries. i really should just pick a party and stick with it, but every time character learns some new stuff on the crystarium grid, or gets a bunch of stat boosts, or a new weapon, or i encounter a new kind of enemy...i get all excited and want to re-test every possible character/role combination i can.
i get the feeling that i will be on Chapter 11 for awhile. There isn't a 'world map' per se but the areas i can free-roam in are enormous, and there are mutliple areas - i've entered 3, but have only explored 1 of them fully.
there are also sidequests (finally) and apparently, i am supposed to find ridable chocobos in this chapter but i haven't encountered them yet.
the story is still ridiculous, but it's grown on me. the characters are, for the most part, enjoyable enough to make the requisite plot hysterics bearable, though i still think Snow's a douchebag, and while I don't hate Hope i don't really...care so much about his character development? it's not that i dislike it, either, i just don't find him particularly engaging so i don't really care when stuff happens to him. XD
the game also seems to have dropped character development for Lightning and Sazh completely, which is sad. :( at least it looks like Vanille and Fang are going to get some serious plot time now, so yay \o/
other nerd stuff:
-i have a PSP. it's a 1000 model and the screen has a few scratches, but it works beautifully. i managed to pick up Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions, FF Dissidia and Soulcalibur Broken Destiny for $20 a pop (and new, except for War of the Lions) but i have not played any of them much. I haven't even opened Dissidia yet, i did try the first battle in Lions (the translation, even this early, is clearly worlds better than the original PSX release) and poked around in SC's Gauntlet mode up to Chapter 10 before losing interest (it's basically one long tutorial and pretty annoying, even though it moves quickly).
-
springkink has started another round of prompt-claiming. there's a bunch of FFXIII stuff this time around and...i think i might pick one or two up. idk how many people were submitting the prompts but i am encouraged by the variety shown. maybe this FF will not have pairing wank-AHAHAHAHAAA WHO AM I KIDDING, OF COURSE THERE WILL BE WANK.
-Realism VS is permanent in L4D2, it has been so since Friday....and i've yet to play a match. i'm going on a camping trip later this week so zombbs, can we rectify this before Wednesday? ;0
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no subject
Date: 2010-05-24 10:16 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2010-05-24 10:17 pm (UTC)From:Chapter 10 is when you'll finally be able to choose anyone. :|
no subject
Date: 2010-05-24 03:21 pm (UTC)From:Your layout is pretty!!
no subject
Date: 2010-05-24 10:33 pm (UTC)From:it's all pre-made stuff b/c i'm too lazy to make graphics and edit code myself XDno subject
Date: 2010-05-25 02:50 pm (UTC)From:lol it's still pretty. :3
no subject
Date: 2010-05-24 07:03 pm (UTC)From:I can't remember how far along Ch 10 is on the Gauntlet, but for me it was worth the slog just to find that Ivy had been keeping Statue Siegfried in a cupboard after taking him home at the end of SCIV. :3 Other than that, it's nothing to write home about, but it means I can still play SC and GoW while the tv is broken.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-25 12:09 am (UTC)From:i have been poking around gamefaqs a little bit (avoiding story spoilers, just checking to see what i should expect gameplay wise) and i guess chapter 11 is the best place to go xp farming. soooooo i'll probably be doing the same.
as for the Gauntlet, i just finished escorting Raphael back to his castle and fought um...his Amy dolls. i have the sneaking suspicion that Chapter 9 was more loli-licious than the translation let on... .___.
and lol. i remember reading on a forum somewhere about Siegfried being
a willing captive!held by Ivy but for some reason i thought he was in the basement. o.Oi am sad i have to go through like a billion tutorials to get to that point though. rararoajweroaerjwper ;[
also i'm totally shipping Hilde/Cassandra now IT IS TOO CUTE NOT TO.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-25 07:07 am (UTC)From:Now that is truth, which is why they are so annoying, but it's always about Teh Pain! with those two, so bleeding melodramatic. Lightning almost gets to sit in their camp but she's far too warrior to make such a big deal out of it. I agree with you about Sazh and Vanille though - for a while the only characters I actually liked, that said I'm quite fond of Fang though, she's the only one who doesn't seem to have 'issues' even though it hints at even worse tragedy for her.
LMAO! I complete forgot about that part! Oh no I completely agree, the text didn't quite match up to the images now did it? I get the feeling the whole thing has a lot more fan-service than would have been acceptable in the west if there'd been a much better translation.
The pictures did make me laugh though, and it was nice to see a less serious side of SC - I mean Yun Seung conked on the head by Aliens? And yes Cassandra and Hilde, who may have been joined at the hip since SCIV's little featurette comic about the game. :D
no subject
Date: 2010-05-24 09:44 pm (UTC)From:I've had some re-tries already though. ^_^;; Hehe.
Are there any L4D2 prompts? 8D
LET'S PLAY REALISM VERSUS. <3 I have to work tomorrow, so I can't stay up super late tonight, but tomorrow night the sky's the limit. :3
no subject
Date: 2010-05-25 12:28 am (UTC)From:the difference now is that there's a good chance i'll be retrying any given random encounter now. XD in the earlier chapters, there were enemies i knew would give me a tough time and i could plan specifically for them, but now its like...every battle has like a 50% chance of destroying me.
though it probably wouldn't be so hard if i stuck with one party for awhile instead of switching everything up at the drop of a hat. XD
no L4D prompts. i thought about submitting a few, but i totally wasn't paying attention to the deadlines, so submissions were closed by the time i thought of a few.
tuesday night i can't stay up as late as i normally do since we're leaving wednesday, but it won't be until the afternoon so i should have enough time to play some quality VS matches :D