見てはいけないモノを見てしまった
Jun. 18th, 2013 23:10![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mokasuiOops.
Anyway, I finished up Stan's Side and started a new Lion's Side playthrough in Tales of Destiny. Spoilers through all of Stan's Side and through Lion's Side up until you get going to Aquaveil. Also spoilers for a thing that happens to Stan before Tales of Destiny 2, but if I recall correctly that thing is revealed very very early in the game so if you've played it for more than an hour you probably know about it.
Dymlos is a big fat horse! I tried to fight him as Stan at first and failed pretty miserably because honestly, I suck as Stan. So I gave him my Narikiri Lion doll. Needless to say, I fought him for about five minutes at ? health before my brain exploded at the constant Hadou Meppuu and the fact that he was still not dead. Internet to the rescue. Apparently you HAVE to use Stan to kill him. Gah. This is like Tiamat in Xenosaga... I don't believe they warn you in that game either, that you need to bring Jr. and Shion if you ever want to be able to kill the stupid boss.
Anyway, after suffering through that, it was time for Junkland and Trash Mountain. I love spamming Rebirth Crusader here, and how cheerful Philia sounds about blowing the whole place up. I'm also pretty sure the reason Stan dies after ToD is because of how long he stands right above a stream of poison gas from underground in one of the scenes here. It's easy to mistake death by poison for death by Barbatos, since that's a thing he does.
And as much as like Rebirth Crusader spam... I don't like this dungeon. The enemies are unexpectedly cruel. The zombies rush for your casters like they're wolves or something, the gas clouds spit gross junk everywhere and fly annoyingly high, the shades cast BLACK HOLE (which only Philia could actually survive since I couldn't remember the timing for it, having seen enemies cast it in this game only very rarely) and then the stupid leeches can just tear through your frontline and health if they take turns eating you. Even worse when you've got the spawn with 7 leeches and a shade. Ugh.
no. :(
Seriously speaking though, yes. It's sadder if you lie to all these cute maids, man. I'm also glad I did this subevent with Marian. I don't know if I've ever done it before. It seemed vaguely familiar, like maybe I'd done it in my first playthrough, but I either totally forgot about it or couldn't read enough to fully understand it back then. It makes me feel better about the whole thing to have Marian actually agree when Rutee tells her to just leave if she ever becomes unhappy waiting for Lion there, since her unhappiness is the last thing he'd want. Now I just need to get over Chaltier. It's hard to, though, when you can't take the only canon material regarding what ultimately happens to him seriously.
It's not much better, anyway. I'm just gonna be sitting in this corner crying forever about talking swords, guys. Don't mind me.
Enough about that. 15 Holy Bottles! 15 Holy Bottles and I still had to go through a ton of random encounters in Dycroft! 15 Holy Bottles is not enough even if you know exactly what you're doing with the puzzles. Ugh. The place is just so huge that there were a few chests that took me a whole Holy Bottle just to go grab and get back to where I was before. I do like the puzzles here a lot, though, in particular that last area's puzzle.
Miktran was terrible. I wasn't looking forward to fighting him again since he was such a jerk on my first playthrough, but I figured it would go better this time since I'm better at the game than I was. Nope. First form was even harder than I remember, and I feel like my combos in his second form with Bakujin Kyousatsu, Flare Tornado, and whatever Stan was always doing were usually cut short somehow.
I think it was because of Float Gravity. It did help with combos a lot early on, but I'd been feeling disappointed by it since seeing it ruin Houryuu Zankouken on zombies in Heidelburg. By the time I fought Dymlos I hated Float Gravity with a fiery passion. It must have been what was messing with my combos since Miktran Excessive was actually HARDER for me this time than I remember it being my first time. I don't even know how I managed to beat it.
Anyway, Lion Side start! I didn't actually plan on replaying this at first, but I kept missing Chal. Dat Swordian Device. I mean I shouldn't run around yelling at everyone about how Clemente is the best when Chaltier is the actual best, right? And screw Woodrow. I never have him in my party even in Arcana Ruin. I use Kongman more than I use Woodrow. I guess it seems like he might have some pretty neat attacks from when you fight the Shadow Woodrows in Dycroft, but eh.
I even like Kongman as a character better than Woodrow. Woodrow is one-dimensional like Kongman and Chelsea, but unlike those two he's not amusing or entertaining in any way. I don't even know anything about Igtenos since he can only talk really late in the game and then he... barely says anything anyway. I can only assume from what he does say that he's all srs business and no real personality just like Woodrow. So I really can't be bothered checking out his attacks. Point is, I don't care if I go into Arcana Ruin with him neutered and no Igtenos. So that's exactly what I'm going to do.
So, uh, I started the playthrough. I planned on just doing it on Hard primarily, but I couldn't handle the lack of CC and changed it to Chaos almost immediately (at least while on my way to Harmentz). Much easier to kill stuff, paradoxically. Thank you, Extend Chain, I will never play this game without you ever again.
I love the first boss fight on Lion Side, though. It's so vicious. I tried it on Chaos at first, and, well. I guess I can only manage that with double CC. I just went down to Hard after that and got it on my second try (I always forget that their first actions do actually change with the difficulty level). Maybe could have done it on Evil, but I didn't want to go through that again. I love how Chal reacts after the fight. "oh jeez oh man oh no we totally beat the crap out of them i'm so screwed." Actually I love Chal in general, but, well, you know.
... the bees in Straylize Forest gave me a game over. I don't like bees, guys. Went ahead and played on Evil for Straylize Temple though, aside from the crystal fights since they're always annoying. Everything's just funner with more CC, so I think I'm just going to play on Evil whenever I'm in a dungeon that doesn't have very difficult enemies. Like this one.
The pirate ship and Batista are a lot easier with Kongman. I never really bothered using him outsie of the one dungeon where you lose all non-Stan Swordian users and Arcana Ruin. But since the enemies are weak to strike, it goes a lot better with him around. And Batista got air juggled into oblivion, although I think that was less Kongman and more the fact that I carried over attacks (didn't want to be deprived of my level 3 Blast Calibers for Stan/Rutee/Philia, after all). But he does have some nice attacks for that, and his AI is better at using them than Mary's AI is at using hers.
Bullets for random small things now!
• love those ultra low-res textures where the Eye of God used to be at Straylize Temple.
• Hugo seriously sounds like a goat or horse or something.
• barukku kikin seems difficult to say. Too many k sounds too close together. Then again, I'm the one who can't even handle saying "Kikuko." Maybe they should have had Kikuko Inoue say barukku kikin a billion times instead of Hikaru Midorikawa. Surely she'd be an expert at it. ... except I have no idea if anyone else actually has a hard time saying it or if it's just me. It seemed awkward when Lion was saying it, but...
• Lion spends way too much time conversing with maids.
• Hugo is actually kind of cool looking in art. Like his original design and how he looks in the DC manga look pretty cool. I guess it's because you can actually see his facial hair, but it seems a bit silly for that to make all the difference.
• The real reason for playing Lion Side isn't for more Lion. It's for Chal. The skit where he freaks out about having to deal with Dymlos and Atwight being obnoxious and possibly lewd, the skit where he practically DEMANDS that Lion go and get Ice Candy and enjoy it and tell him all about it, the one where he goes on about how his beloved bocchan was so cool that the girl he saved in Noischtat surely has fifty crushes on him now... I can't handle it.
... I think I need to replay ToD2 again after this to look for certain things.
Anyway, I finished up Stan's Side and started a new Lion's Side playthrough in Tales of Destiny. Spoilers through all of Stan's Side and through Lion's Side up until you get going to Aquaveil. Also spoilers for a thing that happens to Stan before Tales of Destiny 2, but if I recall correctly that thing is revealed very very early in the game so if you've played it for more than an hour you probably know about it.
Dymlos is a big fat horse! I tried to fight him as Stan at first and failed pretty miserably because honestly, I suck as Stan. So I gave him my Narikiri Lion doll. Needless to say, I fought him for about five minutes at ? health before my brain exploded at the constant Hadou Meppuu and the fact that he was still not dead. Internet to the rescue. Apparently you HAVE to use Stan to kill him. Gah. This is like Tiamat in Xenosaga... I don't believe they warn you in that game either, that you need to bring Jr. and Shion if you ever want to be able to kill the stupid boss.
Anyway, after suffering through that, it was time for Junkland and Trash Mountain. I love spamming Rebirth Crusader here, and how cheerful Philia sounds about blowing the whole place up. I'm also pretty sure the reason Stan dies after ToD is because of how long he stands right above a stream of poison gas from underground in one of the scenes here. It's easy to mistake death by poison for death by Barbatos, since that's a thing he does.
And as much as like Rebirth Crusader spam... I don't like this dungeon. The enemies are unexpectedly cruel. The zombies rush for your casters like they're wolves or something, the gas clouds spit gross junk everywhere and fly annoyingly high, the shades cast BLACK HOLE (which only Philia could actually survive since I couldn't remember the timing for it, having seen enemies cast it in this game only very rarely) and then the stupid leeches can just tear through your frontline and health if they take turns eating you. Even worse when you've got the spawn with 7 leeches and a shade. Ugh.
no. :(
Seriously speaking though, yes. It's sadder if you lie to all these cute maids, man. I'm also glad I did this subevent with Marian. I don't know if I've ever done it before. It seemed vaguely familiar, like maybe I'd done it in my first playthrough, but I either totally forgot about it or couldn't read enough to fully understand it back then. It makes me feel better about the whole thing to have Marian actually agree when Rutee tells her to just leave if she ever becomes unhappy waiting for Lion there, since her unhappiness is the last thing he'd want. Now I just need to get over Chaltier. It's hard to, though, when you can't take the only canon material regarding what ultimately happens to him seriously.
It's not much better, anyway. I'm just gonna be sitting in this corner crying forever about talking swords, guys. Don't mind me.
Enough about that. 15 Holy Bottles! 15 Holy Bottles and I still had to go through a ton of random encounters in Dycroft! 15 Holy Bottles is not enough even if you know exactly what you're doing with the puzzles. Ugh. The place is just so huge that there were a few chests that took me a whole Holy Bottle just to go grab and get back to where I was before. I do like the puzzles here a lot, though, in particular that last area's puzzle.
Miktran was terrible. I wasn't looking forward to fighting him again since he was such a jerk on my first playthrough, but I figured it would go better this time since I'm better at the game than I was. Nope. First form was even harder than I remember, and I feel like my combos in his second form with Bakujin Kyousatsu, Flare Tornado, and whatever Stan was always doing were usually cut short somehow.
I think it was because of Float Gravity. It did help with combos a lot early on, but I'd been feeling disappointed by it since seeing it ruin Houryuu Zankouken on zombies in Heidelburg. By the time I fought Dymlos I hated Float Gravity with a fiery passion. It must have been what was messing with my combos since Miktran Excessive was actually HARDER for me this time than I remember it being my first time. I don't even know how I managed to beat it.
Anyway, Lion Side start! I didn't actually plan on replaying this at first, but I kept missing Chal. Dat Swordian Device. I mean I shouldn't run around yelling at everyone about how Clemente is the best when Chaltier is the actual best, right? And screw Woodrow. I never have him in my party even in Arcana Ruin. I use Kongman more than I use Woodrow. I guess it seems like he might have some pretty neat attacks from when you fight the Shadow Woodrows in Dycroft, but eh.
I even like Kongman as a character better than Woodrow. Woodrow is one-dimensional like Kongman and Chelsea, but unlike those two he's not amusing or entertaining in any way. I don't even know anything about Igtenos since he can only talk really late in the game and then he... barely says anything anyway. I can only assume from what he does say that he's all srs business and no real personality just like Woodrow. So I really can't be bothered checking out his attacks. Point is, I don't care if I go into Arcana Ruin with him neutered and no Igtenos. So that's exactly what I'm going to do.
So, uh, I started the playthrough. I planned on just doing it on Hard primarily, but I couldn't handle the lack of CC and changed it to Chaos almost immediately (at least while on my way to Harmentz). Much easier to kill stuff, paradoxically. Thank you, Extend Chain, I will never play this game without you ever again.
I love the first boss fight on Lion Side, though. It's so vicious. I tried it on Chaos at first, and, well. I guess I can only manage that with double CC. I just went down to Hard after that and got it on my second try (I always forget that their first actions do actually change with the difficulty level). Maybe could have done it on Evil, but I didn't want to go through that again. I love how Chal reacts after the fight. "oh jeez oh man oh no we totally beat the crap out of them i'm so screwed." Actually I love Chal in general, but, well, you know.
... the bees in Straylize Forest gave me a game over. I don't like bees, guys. Went ahead and played on Evil for Straylize Temple though, aside from the crystal fights since they're always annoying. Everything's just funner with more CC, so I think I'm just going to play on Evil whenever I'm in a dungeon that doesn't have very difficult enemies. Like this one.
The pirate ship and Batista are a lot easier with Kongman. I never really bothered using him outsie of the one dungeon where you lose all non-Stan Swordian users and Arcana Ruin. But since the enemies are weak to strike, it goes a lot better with him around. And Batista got air juggled into oblivion, although I think that was less Kongman and more the fact that I carried over attacks (didn't want to be deprived of my level 3 Blast Calibers for Stan/Rutee/Philia, after all). But he does have some nice attacks for that, and his AI is better at using them than Mary's AI is at using hers.
Bullets for random small things now!
• love those ultra low-res textures where the Eye of God used to be at Straylize Temple.
• Hugo seriously sounds like a goat or horse or something.
• barukku kikin seems difficult to say. Too many k sounds too close together. Then again, I'm the one who can't even handle saying "Kikuko." Maybe they should have had Kikuko Inoue say barukku kikin a billion times instead of Hikaru Midorikawa. Surely she'd be an expert at it. ... except I have no idea if anyone else actually has a hard time saying it or if it's just me. It seemed awkward when Lion was saying it, but...
• Lion spends way too much time conversing with maids.
• Hugo is actually kind of cool looking in art. Like his original design and how he looks in the DC manga look pretty cool. I guess it's because you can actually see his facial hair, but it seems a bit silly for that to make all the difference.
• The real reason for playing Lion Side isn't for more Lion. It's for Chal. The skit where he freaks out about having to deal with Dymlos and Atwight being obnoxious and possibly lewd, the skit where he practically DEMANDS that Lion go and get Ice Candy and enjoy it and tell him all about it, the one where he goes on about how his beloved bocchan was so cool that the girl he saved in Noischtat surely has fifty crushes on him now... I can't handle it.
... I think I need to replay ToD2 again after this to look for certain things.
