Current games all look fairly decent, if they're your kind of thing:
Mighty Switch Force 2 (50 Gold Points)
Noitu Love: Devolution (90 Gold Points)
Severed (150 Gold Points)
Radiohammer (55 Gold Points)
I hovered between the game on its own and the lamp bundle last night, ended up not going either way. I can see me crumbling at some point though. I adore Luigi’s Mansion. I can probably do without the lamp.
I find a fair amount of this game really really tedious. In order to build up fight experience to charge specials for a boss fight I find myself beedling around for mobs. Even with max encounter, auto fight and low level dudes I’m spending ages to get prepped for the boss fight.
It’s annoying because I just want to move on with the story but this bit is just kind of dangling before the story and is taking way longer than it needs to be.
And the random streak breaking for the job points bonus can do one.
At some point (think in chapter 5) I just went for it and grinded all characters to max level and all jobs to max. Put on a Twitch stream and it isn't too bad. Search for "grind in chapter 5" and there are some setups that make it fairly painless.
Chapters after that have been easy enough, and I could focus on the crazy ride the story provides. No need for small mob fights anymore, just do whatever is actually marked on the map. Still need to finish it though, don't get that much time now my mom's here.
And sorry about the spoilers earlier, I thought I only mentioned stuff that was outside spoiler tags in the BD thread, but I guess that doesn't get that many readers.
I was just doing some cleaning up in the room today. Decided to put old handhelds in the loft. I was so surprised to find that despite not switching it on in years, my DS Lite has power! Showed as full battery but not sure how reliable that is. One of my 3DSes has power too and not used it in years.
and I died. And then I thought: fuck this shit you’re conning me with your mechanisms. I built a character and system that builds power over time and you plonk me back to square one when you feel like? Boo to the hiss. Is my only recourse now to cheat by w stealing a strategy that regularly 9999s a baddie? How am I supposed to know where this strategy is (you know there must be one because the game goes: hey are you regularly hitting 9999 damage? [answer no] THEN TRY this for more!!)
There’s a fair bit to be said about bravely/default’s battle mechanic and its relationship to future time but in the envelope of how the game just eats and eats and eats at your time with the same shit over and over again. The clever yak reading of this is that it feels like they had a
Spoiler:
20 hour game but reversed backwards in all the things to make it a 100 hour game. Repeat half the game four times, slow walking, a million invisible but necessary jobs to grind through, limiting points on specific experience points, a fucking ruined X button with the same questions etc around it - a task mindless but requiring just the wrong amount of attention
.
There are some nice twists though re: friends (although it’s an illusion that is easy to see through- maybe if the game was shorter and had some kind of procedural engine for each game).
And so I checked out, perhaps as it was going to get interesting, but the game really cashed in a lot of its patience points. Look if you’re gonna plonk a whole bunch of tedium in dont fucking book end that shit with a wall eh?
I’m on the boat. And I beat the first half handily - although I assume underleveled because I used an elixir - but died on the second part. I’m not sure there’s a level up spot on the boat.
So I'm back on Bravely's Bullshit, still enjoying it but taking chapter 8 slowly as it can be pretty exhausting. Fights so far have been close enough that I can't just go auto mode and watch Twitch.
One thing I'm scared about (guess second half of chapter 8 questions, I've cleared 3 blue dots and 2 yellow dots on the map so far)
Spoiler:
is that every fight ended with a "let's go and regroup at Eternia" (or whatever it's called), I'm really hoping that after clearing all the blue dot groups I don't need to go through them again at Eternia. That might actually break me
And another thing, I went through the BD thread for chapter 8 setups, and there was some talk about an optional
Part of me feels like that, other part of me can't put the game down.
Did a blue and yellow dot this morning, thinking I'd do the other one tomorrow, but I was back on it tonight.
Had trouble with the
Spoiler:
Black Blades
but just looked up an interesting sounding team on gamefaqs and went with that. Was a pretty awesome team and some combo's I didn't think of myself. Best one was a Ninja - Pirate. Use the free lunch from the Ninja to do that Amped Strike twice in a row (costs 248mp without free lunch). That was fun. Guess I'm gonna look up a new team for the next battle, just to see what other stuff people have thought of that I'm just not smart enough for to figure out on my own (and honestly, I don't want to spend the time doing that).
Ok, everything cleared, on my way to the end game I think. I don't know why I'm still playing a game that's actually calling me a fool for doing so, but here I am. Just doing whatever the game tells me to.
I'm even gonna peak into the (end of chapter 8 spoilers)
Spoiler:
new dungeon that has now been opened. I want the gear. Had to laugh when Ringabel mentioned the Phoenix fight / minus strike combo, think it was @Vela that used it in the dungeon that's coming now (yes I looked up what people used for end game the other day). Hopefully it won't take too long, not gonna do the extra boss there though, no real reward.
I've just been following a guide for the last part. It's relatively spoiler free, will of course mention the bosses but I knew them already. It's mainly tips for team set ups, I've cheesed through a big part of chapter 8. The mechanics are really good, just reading about strategies other people have used shows you quite a few ways of beating certain enemies. That's pretty ace.
3DS is on charge, hopefully have it finished some time tomorrow. It's been a great ride and there's so much going on, but I must admit I'm glad when it's over.
Dammit, people. Who was it who originally mentioned that you can get Luigi's Mansion via Nintendo.co.uk, and it comes with a hat* or lamp? Cos now I've ventured into the rest of the website, and you get all sorts of collectibles tat with games if bought directly from Nintendo. I especially want Captain Toad for Switch or 3DS as you get super cool** Toad and Toadette badges. WHAT HAVE YOU GUYS DONE TO ME AND MY WALLET.
*Which I thought was about three inches across, but no, it's an actual adult size hat. I COULD WEAR IT WHEN I GO FOR A RUN.
**Once again proving cool is relative and that I probably need to get out more.
For those with an open mind, wonders always await! - Kilton (monster enthusiast)