• Tag Archives Fantasy
  • Lords of Xulima – Early Game

    How refreshing. Based on all the warnings about stocking Food and limited resources I was very worried at first about this game, but as it turns out the hunger system is easily abolished through modding and only the XP is limited (which is barely worth noting since quite a few RPGs have limited XP).

    Once the needless hassle of the farmville simulator elements is removed it’s quite a lot of fun and reminds me most of, interestingly enough, the modern King’s Bounty games. You can pick up simple quests, find containers filled with loot scattered about, and encounter static enemies with listed difficulty classes which you can either temporarily avoid or fight (with exceptionally difficult/impossible groups blocking access to areas/items you’re not supposed to reach yet).

    The very beginning is tough since you won’t have many skills and your accuracy will be awful, but once you hit level 5 or so battles start getting notably easier since you have more options available (assuming you built your characters correctly and didn’t waste skill points). At the moment I’m about to enter the Tower, having cleared the beach/forest/cave/mausoleum/roads (apart from the Ogre/Mushrooms obviously) with a level 5/6 party consisting of a Paladin (Evasion-focused), Cleric, Summoner (Golot, Raznet, & Valvet), Thief (shurikens/swords), Bard, and of course the Explorer (not being forced to take the Terrain skill let me easily build him fighter-ish). Early fights were a real slog due to the anemic damage but now the defensive synergies are starting to come together and I’m finally able to upgrade some weapons.

    Of course that’s by no means an optimized party composition (their stats are though; Speed all the way) and I definitely would not suggest anyone try it on any difficulty other than Casual/Normal unless you want to do a lot of reloading. It’s nowhere near focused enough with weapon types scattered between bleeding, wounding, and stunning. Instead I suggest checking out multiple class guides to get a feel for the few absolutely necessary things to do (like always raise Speed each level, and max out Learning if you’re like me and want to decimate late-game) and then put together something that looks fun.

    Speaking of which, I’m kind of torn whether or not to keep playing with this party or start up a new one using two Arcane Soldiers and a Mage (since this one has 0 magic apart from the Cleric). By default the AS class isn’t very exciting, but I believe that can be fixed by simply tweaking a couple skill costs. I also want to modify the Explorer skill costs a bit and tweak the Nalaet summon to work as a Cleric substitute… so that you’re not effectively forced to run a Cleric in every party… but I’m not sure if the AI would still work with altered skills. We’ll see how things go.


  • Elminage: Gothic

    There are two kinds of difficulty, fake difficulty (primarily arising from having the adversaries cheat) and real difficulty. This game unfortunately includes both varieties in a particularly tedious and hassle-filled combination.

    On the one hand it features enemies that can do all the same things your characters can (including instant-death attacks) in great numbers (encounters range up to groups of 18). This is real difficulty. On the other… it also gives enemies abilities your characters can’t possess (even if you Summon Contract them; such as formation switching), gives them infinite spell casting, resets your attributes to the racial (not class) minimums if you multi-class, has equipped items reduce your free carry space, completely disallows resting outside of town, and restricts having a basic map to a specific spell/item (L1 Mage/Magic Map). That’s all fake, artificial difficulty.

    The two real deal killers are the map system, since the environmental graphics are incredibly bare-bones and floors are filled with miles of identical walls and doors which inexplicably auto-close behind you (more fake difficulty), and lack of a dungeon-based resting system which makes primary spellcasters dead weight most of the time… unless you had the fore-knowledge to make them Dragonewts for the Breath attack. It also doesn’t help that leveling is unexciting; apart from gaining new spells (which you’ll rarely use in normal encounters) the only other useful level-up abilities come from ‘mastering’ a class at level 26+.

    If all that wasn’t enough though, there’s also the technical issues. Sometimes left-clicking won’t work as a selection command (such as when transferring items between characters) and you have to use the relevant keyboard command instead (Enter by default), using the ‘repeat last round commands’ function does not repeat the character ordering if you set it, the identify/disarm traps menu is a clunky mess, and the town menus are an unintuitive labyrinth.

    So no, I don’t think I’ll be playing any more of such a highly random and deliberately antagonistic game. Some resources if you decide to attempt it:

    Useful Information and Walkthrough
    Cheat Engine Table (GoG Version)
    Age Stat Growth and Spirit Pact Information (GoG Version)


  • Risen 3: Titan Lords

    Honestly, though I know it’s not quite fair, I feel like I got ripped off by paying $6 for this game.

    Visually speaking it’s on par with Arcania (despite being released 4 years after) while the combat, though not as clunky as Risen 2‘s, brings to mind the first Witcher.

    If the above weren’t bad enough it suffers severely from a limited progression system, a general lack of combat variety, and several painfully gimmicky set-piece battles (naval combat & the Ore Titan). Consider that the very first tutorial fight is almost identical to the penultimate boss battle, and then take into account that even at 180 Slashing with the best Slashing weapon (or 180 Crystal Magic with an Elemental Attack spell) the weakest enemies in the game take 2 normal hits to kill. There is little sense of progression and you never feel truly powerful even with maxed-out stats.

    That’s not to say the game is hard… because it’s not. While your damage is fairly anemic, it’s pretty easy to become effectively invincible with high enough resistances. So all in all the game ends up being the worst of both worlds; people who want a challenge will dislike it because it’s practically impossible to die, while people who want to play powerful characters will also dislike it because the combat is awkward and enemies just never die fast enough.


  • ArcaniA: FALL of SETARRIF

    Thoughts while playing the stand-alone expansion to ArcaniA:

    – Huh. The graphics look slightly improved.
    – Character animations have definitely improved.
    – The geography has changed. Weird.
    – All of my skills, equipment, and inventory were imported. Nice.
    – A few items have changed stats; Belial’s Scythe is mage-focused now.
    – What’s with this odd procession of fighting every single creature in the main game?
    – Oh no, not more dungeon tunnels.
    – Lockpick mechanic is gone… not that it matters.
    – Why is there so much powerful loot just lying around?
    – I guess it’s there for new characters.
    – Oh good, there’s more to this than endess red-lit tunnels.
    – Harpies huh… guess they didn’t want that female demon model to go to waste.
    – Panthers! Guess this wasn’t a total copy/paste job after all.
    – What a bizarre city layout.
    – I wonder if there are any merchants in this expansion.
    – If the antagonist never sent so much free XP at the hero, do you think they would win more often?
    – Ah, the ol’ “collect a bunch of crap scattered across the area to continue” quest. Yay.
    – A trader! Who sells… nothing but bandages and arrows. What the hell.
    – Playing as other pre-made characters as a change of pace is pretty gimmicky at the best of times.
    – This is not the best of times.
    – Oh, two more silent traders. I’m starting to think it would’ve been better without them.
    – I liked my old armor better. The things I do to kill enemies with a single Firebolt….
    – Possessed enemies can apparently melee attack through walls. Spooky.
    – A spoiled rich girl… can this day get any worse?
    – Rhetorical question; of course it can.
    – Lester’s voice acting has taken a major dive.
    – Actually, all the character’s personalities have taken hits as well.
    – Maybe all those people complaining about VA and characterizations were confusing this with the main game?
    – So. Many. Tunnels.
    – At least the trader in this mine sells something (potentially) useful.
    – So. Tunnels. First red tunnels, then gray tunnels and now… green tunnels. Such variety.
    – Why is it, again, that all these temple guardians are attacking the goddess’ chosen one?
    – Oh, it’s because a demon has corrupted them. When/how did that get down here?
    – Through the perfectly accessible back entrance staffed with two silent vendors of course!
    – “Is it my hair!?“. Maybe this was worth playing after all.
    – What color tunnel will it be this time? M-multi-colored!?
    – Traps! How unexpected.
    – Nice to see that Slay still works on trolls.
    – Sure am glad I maxed out Inferno damage. Nothing like killing 5+ enemies from across the screen.
    – What, no villain monologue? Weak.
    – It uses the same moveset as the last endboss! And the ending is just as abrupt!

    Yeah… so… don’t buy this unless you really like the combat system.


  • ArcaniA: Gothic 4

    If you’ve heard anything about this game, it’s probably something along the lines of “It’s not a real Gothic game!“. That’s a lie, as it absolutely is a successor to Gothic 3 in just about every way… albeit a simplified one.

    Leveling-up has been reduced to raising combat abilities alone (as non-combat ones have been removed); three each for melee/magic and two for ranged. The spell system has also been simplified into three 3-tier main spells and four or so rune varieties, which act like infinite-use scrolls. While these changes are drastic, they’re perfectly in-line with the simplifications made between Gothic II & 3 (and nothing much is lost with the spell count reduction besides summoning, as only a handful were ever any good anyway).

    Two less severe changes are the switch from giant open maps to a mix of large maps and dungeon/corridor-like areas, and the flattening of the difficulty curve. The map change will be an issue of personal taste, and personally I felt Gothic 3‘s huge map quickly wore out its welcome while the sequential large maps to explore in here ended up more manageable (though the dungeon sequences are pretty bad). The difficulty change is what I suspect caused the most wailing and gnashing of teeth, as no longer can you wander into an enemy that will one-shot-kill you with no warning (unless you’re playing on the hardest difficulty with a glass canon equipment setup). However, melee is still king at early levels while magic still ends up more efficient late-game.

    Things that haven’t changed, despite some of the baseless complaints that I’ve seen to the contrary, include the protagonist personality (still sarcastic), the character depth (the side-characters are exactly the same as they were in the two prequels… Lester might actually have more of a personality here), and the voice acting quality. Some other things that haven’t changed are the quests (decently varied and most of the main ones give you multiple ways of completing them) and the combo->dodge->combo melee style.

    Notes:
    – Use a guide to find the collectibles, as some are hidden maliciously.
    – Don’t sell anything that doesn’t have ‘Loot’ in its description; keep a scythe if you want the Belial reward.
    – Sold items disappear the moment you close the dialog.
    – Oddly enough, the Belial Scythe is only useful for Ranged builds.
    – There does not seem to be any sort of respec option.
    – Once you hit a Magic Power of 85+ you can switch over to a Firebolt-first strategy.
    – Inferno deals the best magic damage while Slay-enhanced lightning is a good finisher.
    – Raising both Ranged and Magic is somewhat redundant.
    – Blocking is pointless.
    – Locked doors are tied to quests, and some of the tunnels in the North Stewark area will remain inaccessible depending on which main path you choose.


  • Divinity: Original Sin II – Endgame

    Eh. Much like the prequel it stays pretty much the same from beginning to end. If the gameplay of the first two acts doesn’t grab you, then the concluding two will be something of a slog. It is commendable that there are several callbacks to your earlier quest choices though.

    An addendum to the earlier list of things to be aware of:

    • Lucky Charm loses its usefulness the moment you start out-leveling the areas you’re exploring.
    • Try to only sell equipment to non-equipment vendors.
      • This makes it far easier to browse the new vendor re-stocks.
    • Immediately after getting off the boat in Act II, head straight for the northern graveyard entrance.
      • Tarquin’s quest has some sort of built-in timer that can cause it to become missable.
    • Get Spirit Vision as soon as possible (first main quest off the boat) and keep it active at all times.
    • Many quests have obtuse solutions, so be prepared to look up answers.
    • If you complete the majority of the quests, and don’t kill off the various neutral characters, expect to reach level 21 in Act IV.
    • Expect your quest journal to be a mess, as objectives can and will update out of order.

  • Divinity: Original Sin II – Early Game

    There’s honestly not much to say about the sequel to Divinity: Original Sin. At this point, having escaped the first island and explored a bit around the first town, apart from the size of the areas it comes across as essentially just a refinement of the previous game.

    Which while certainly not a bad thing does make you wonder why it was ‘in dev’ for so long. Some things to take note of:

    • Once off the first island, at about level 8, you’ll gain access to a repeatable and completely free respec option.
    • Due to the ally-enemy-ally turn ordering, only one character needs high Initiative.
    • Lucky Charm is extremely good.
    • Polymorph is more effective for mages than going above 3/5 in the specific elemental schools (if the bonus point is added to Intelligence).
    • When using Thievery, it’s more efficient to buy a bunch of items and then steal the gold rather than directly stealing the items.
    • There is no highlight key for interactable objects, like containers, so you’ll be doing a lot of manual scanning for stuff to click on.
    • Don’t play above Classic difficulty unless you know exactly what you’re doing.
    • Unless you notably out-level your opponents do not fight them ‘fairly’.
      • Most ambushes will engage a character in conversation first, use this opportunity to have the other characters set up death traps or teleport the speaker far away from its allies.
    • Unless you’re going with a pure-physical or pure-magic party, make sure all characters have some method of dealing with both physical and magical armor.
      • The existence of Evasive Aura makes going pure-physical dangerous.
    • Movable/interactable objects (including doors) do not block line of sight.
    • Useful, searchable, crafting guide: www.irodemine.com/divinity2/divinity2.php.

  • Shingeki no Bahamut: Virgin Soul

    Nina Drango has journeyed from her small village to the capitol to make money as a bounty hunter. There she finds that the recent surge in human prosperity has been built upon the backs of enslaved demons and becomes tangled up in Azazel’s plan to overthrow the king.

    An action-drama with a sizable amount of comic relief in the form of exaggerated character behavior and a small romance subplot. Though this takes place 10 years after Genesis it has many re-occurring characters, so while it’s not necessary to watch that to understand events here it will help.

    More Information:
    Amazon
    aniDB
    Wikipedia


  • Made in Abyss

    The Abyss, a gigantic pit discovered on a remote island filled with mysterious creatures and artifacts, is the last unexplored place on the planet. Along its edges a town has grown to accommodate the increasing number of explorers hoping to find their fortunes, within which is a young girl named Riko who has her sights set on reaching the furthest depths of the Abyss to reunite with her mother.

    An exploration/survival-themed drama with child-protagonists that deals with progressively more serious situations as it advances.

    More Information:
    Amazon
    aniDB
    Fansub.co
    Wikipedia


  • Isekai wa Smartphone to Tomo ni.

    As restitution for being accidentally killed by God, Touya Mochizuki is allowed to have one wish granted before he’s reincarnated into a different world. He asks to be able to keep his smartphone, which is granted with the restriction that it will be unable to affect anything in the world he came from. With that vast amount of information at his fingertips, along with the superhuman abilities that God gave him as a freebie, he quickly begins to attract the attention and admiration of various people.

    An exceptionally light-hearted harem comedy with a small amount of action and ecchi.

    More Information:
    aniDB
    Crunchyroll
    Wikipedia

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