Krosigrim

Dude... Ill likely be at the battle trophy grinding for 200+ hours alone, says the faq. Yes I am reading a faq. To hell with trying to find this shit out on my own, he has all the like trophies categorized in groups after the initial numerical list, and has suggestions and good Ideas, like combining routines for multiple trophy gathering. Each section is further broken down into average time required and the like. It seems pretty fair to say it will indeed take 200 to 250 hours... knowing exactly what the trophies are. 200 solo colosseum battles for each person for instance, if I remember correctly. Tons of little tedious things. Knowing EXACTLY what to do will take over 8 days worth of hours.

Battle Trophies... 900 of them... this game I think will require me to grind more than any other game. Trophies, from mundane to insane. Let the hunt begin!

Im liking this Castlevania. It was geared for PS3 so the frame skippage I mentioned is apparently due to the compatibility issues. Its basically a mix of every action/adventure game you have ever played. Like a linear Darksiders, without the Zelda parts. Onimusha/Devil May Cry + alittle bit of everything. For instance one boss is fought just like Shadow of the Colossus. Im early on, I play a bit then get back to Star Ocean. I dont want to beat it in a few days then never play it again. Id rather chip away at it and prolong the experience. Voice acting is alright. Patrick Stewarts narration is actually not perfect, which is hard to say since im such a big fan. He uses oddly used/timed octaves here and there. I dont know if it was the director that told him to do, or if it was his own fault, but over all he is a nice touch. The Doctor guy from Star Gate Universe is pretty good too. Its good to hear voices that you dont hear all the time. Honestly, there arent nearly enough voice actors. Every game uses the same selection of 20 ppl LOL Just like dubbed Anime. Liking it although my learning curve for such games is alittle weak. I just now started getting decent. Got sick and tired of getting blown up by bombs or hit out of my combos. I have a butting mashing complex when I play these games, It takes effort for me to watch and play dynamically. Dodging or blocking appropriately. As I said, the movements of attack are light years above any other game of its type. Animations look badass and powerful. They make the impossible look realistic, and badass. As opposed to Kratos doing awkward mortal kombat like movements animated by a guy who doesnt know how to do it right. This game, in my opinion, sets the standard for this issue. Liking it. Very pretty, pretty fun...

The final straw was when he was proving that the pic was actually him... he took another pic with a note that had some over the line content concerning a fellow members personal life, making lite of something most grave.

I liked Dawn of Dreams best. Black Oni and friends got it done.

Awesome!

Um... What? It is an Onimusha and Zelda Wannabe. Hell, its also more like Devil May Cry than GoW. This new Castlevania though... is almost a GoW wannabe. Whip an all. Looks great, except for the frame skippage I saw in between the first and second stage during the scene before the horse shows up. Didnt do that in the Demo. I like the game so far, the different combos I've seen are intuitive. Hitting jump after the first straight attack, thus making jump a separate attack possibility. Awesome idea and simple too. Other things like that. Ahh. Awesome looking combos in general. Puts Kratos to shame actually. Makes him look mortal kombat. Early on, the 3rd area is a bog. It has green swamp water that makes you walk real real slow. In the muck is this creature. Basically its a poor platform mechanic, wait for the bubbles to stop, move through. Since it moves so slowly through this muck, this whole part is boring and platform wise: Dull. Like I said, the game is gorgeous. Nice little things, like in the combo screen, every combo has a simple pencil animation. Inked artwork of every creature and character, pretty good artwork. Locales are great. But this is not Castlevania. I know its apples and oranges but it just doesnt have the right feel. Super Castlevania was linear, every good Castlevania was 2D... Perhaps when I finish this I will change my mind. Rated: So far at least a rent. Ask me later

EDIT: Information changed so... Um. I passed 160 Hrs!

"No, I don't think I have Laser Suits either. Haven't checked though." Well the Laser Armor recipe is obtainable through creating recipies. It only takes 4 Laser Oscillator, 2 Gnomestones & 1 Aurora Rings + (card) The Laser Weapon was a reward for one of the gem quests in the sanctuary on EN II. Just remember not to modify the Laser Weapon... yet. Not until you know why. You said before, something about the Palace of Creation being a bitch. Yer team is all around 91 and you did state that a battle is usually over before anyone hits Rush. You must mean its long and tedious. There is a neat little thing I just did that I didnt realize. I made my very first weapon into a fol increase monster... and had 14 slots left. I put 14 Grim Reapers which are purchasable in a shop in EN II... made the weapon stronger than any weapon I had before I beat the game. I can just imagine what it would be like if you put some attk up and HP damage up on it. OH OH OH!!! About a hidden mining spot I just found. Edited

I... I cant believe how powerful I am. And I'm far from done. I found something out that is quite ridiculous. The extra hit on attack stacks damage. I have a setup, with 3 so I hit 4 per swing, 2000, 4000, 8000, 16000. Just like that per regular swing. Add to that, and ability to crit... Agozer, Wish you'd beat it already so we can talk shop. Next week is too far away. What other quests have you done from the Sanctuary on EN II?

"may be old news to some" Indeed. Im amazed it still works! Its been months on months since I first hear about it.

Annoying? That was badass. You speak nonsense.

THAT WAS AWESOME!!!

Indeed! I stopped playing for a year. I was watching some stuff on the subject of space. History of the telescope, Astral Physics, Particle Physics: Higgs Boson, Dark Matter, Supermassive Blackholes etc. Anyway all this stuff sparked a renewed interest in the game so I fired it up. The mechanic of the actual game is great. The story, not so great. The dialog, even worse. But what makes the game what it is, is so fun I am so certainly glad I started playing again! If you have it, I suggest getting back on it. The item creation that makes Star Ocean = Star Ocean is pretty cool. Im having a blast, and I just spent the last day experimenting.

Nope, not on this version apparently. Holy shit Agozer... I got ridiculous stuff and it doesnt actually take much effort. It is by no means the best you can get by far, but for what I need to do... it had better work. Edit: Back to the drawing board. Just found out I passed the cap on crit + stacking. This means my equipment will be even more ridiculous!

First bubble lift. Thats the only one I got. I hate how you cannot select an enemy directly in battle. Sometimes it just doesnt seem to want to change targets. Anyway, Im currently grinding for items to craft & synth with. Some are easy, common drops like Lightning Gems. There are other things that take some time, but all of this will be worth it. Im making some stuff thats just plain ridiculous. Im actually amazed at how much time im going through to complete this task. I knew it'd take some time, but I've been at this for hours.

"A fosse within an azure forest" Fosse: 1) A moat or defensive ditch in a fortification, usually filled with water. 2) Any ditch, trench, or canal. Azure: 1) The blue of a clear or unclouded sky. 2) A light, purplish blue. 3) Heraldry: The tincture or color blue. 4) The clear, cloudless sky. I had to Dictionary.com "Arrgent" from the first one. That clued me in instantly once I saw the definition. I figured Id do the same for you just in case. Even if you know the definitions, perhaps looking at it again will help. This is the one that was the trickiest. So... tell me you didnt mod your Laser Weapon... And I found 2 secret mining points on my own. On Nox though, I was sick of hugging the wall... even with that list, can only find 1. Their description is left to interpretation...

Well Bacchus and Arumat make a recipe for it. The laser weapon you get, assuming you did the quests from the sanctuary in EN II... is the only one you get. No recipe. If you have one I hope you did not mod it. If you havnent. Do not. I dont want to tell you why. Im trying my best not to spoil a thing for you, I hate when people spoil things for me. But your better off leaving it alone for the time being. Much lvl advancement! Edge is level 142, Bacchus is 139, Etc Etc. I have a ridiculous combo with Bacchus. Its not even fair. (Burst lvl 20) Black Hole Sphere: You know how this works... slowly sucks mobs to a center. Irradiation: This is great as it has a slight delay... Force Breaker: Once Irradiation hits, this has already been launched due to the delay of the previous move. Justice Savior: Ridiculous!!! Now assuming you have a big mob, once Irradiation hits your (Burst) mode fills and you hit it as soon as its full. The rest of the attacks are critting like mad and you still havent pulled out the Justice savior... which peppers those dummies with 2 over the top vulcan cannons. I also have the (add a chance to hit per attack) on him sooo0o0o0oo0o0o0o. Basically, I spam this and Rush does not go down... it stays at 100 and continues to crit alot as all these moves in this sequence hit multiple multiple times. While all this is going down, the enemies are in a neat ball and everyone else is hacking/zapping away. I win battles at around 300-700 hits. Well there is so much I want to discuss but your not at a place where I can really say much. Right now... I am on a quest (of my own design) to make uber gear. There is a lack of total information at gamefaqs. I stumbled across this from the board there. Translated: Japanese Wiki for Star Ocean TLH This is set to the Mining locations and what these veins contain. I cannot find any lists like this elsewhere. The faqs are incomplete and I didnt know where to find Wind Gems. They dont drop from creatures and you cannot buy them. Says here they are at the mining locations in the Sanctuary at EN II. I cannot find maps of the hidden locations, and the descriptions I tried on Nox were not perfect. Why hasnt anyone made a map?

Yea ... I have seen far too many games set up like this fail hard. It is so hard to implement a good platforming environment in 3D. Both PS2 Castlevanias were crap. Look at Darksiders. I cannot find anything to really gripe about in it. Mechanics are tight, coulda used real puzzles though: the puzzle elements were a joke. A very solid, well built game. Lots of though and effort, lots of pre planning and tweaking. But even though it is good, I dont see playing it again anytime soon. It is spent and boring. To me, no replay value. My point is even when something is done well, it doesnt make it great. I hope hope hope it impresses me. EDIT: Just played the demo. Excellent presentation! Even the camera work is done excellently. Picking it up tonight. + a shirt... yay

EDIT: 2 disks?! Damn 360 and their lil disks. Well the old Nes versions were on the hard side but Super Castlevania was beatable. Just challenging. Great game. This Castlevania is like the ones on PS2 and Onimusha combined. Plus whatever else I dont know about it. What do you mean you understand? You dont understand why everyone likes them or the games themselves confuse you?

As I stated before, it is horrible. I blame the content. I bet it sounds so much better in Japanese... as in I wouldnt hear what theyre saying, but reading it as it stands here in my version would still be bad. Well are you back to playing it? You said you hit the 8th room, you werent far from advancement to the next leg. Have you made laser suits yet? I just did post game. Their easy to make, have 16 (slots) and a blank effect board. I put 4 Hyper potions in one and a ton of Crystal and or Solid Gear dropped by undead in the desert. You would not need to do this yet but remember Laser Suits for later. I've been playing with Synthesis and I need to read it their is an invisible cap to % increases for Fol and XP. I have two weapons with a combined increase of 240% But when I started getting alot of Fol tiles... the numbers didnt add up. Oh wait, now I get it, it didnt combing the %. The weapon bonus just gives you the cash right off, but the tile bonus adds at the end, and only added the % of the original Fol ammt. I guess, I'll have to either read or experiment and do the calculations myself.

This is what I have learned, things you may want to know. Filling orders out at shops count as actual quests. If you didn't complete the ones on Aeos before it was sundered, like me, you'll have to playthrough again to get everything. As far as I know, there is not a New Game +. What I do know is that when you start a new game, it gives you the option to keep the collection data from previous playthroughs. When you beat it it asks if you want to save the data. I imagine that if you beat it, save data, then play a ton in post game... then dont beat it again... if you start a new game the data you collected ,post game, will not carry over... I guess. So beat it again before starting a new game... to be safe. Also in new playthroughs it gives you the option to keep Faize in your party instead of Arumat. This doesnt effect the story, in cut scenes Arumat will be there like normal. This is how you would complete Faizes battle trophies.

Castlevania is already here... Hope its good!

Yea I beat Arumat. Yea I like Arumat much better anyway. He doesnt have platform shoes, He doesnt act queer, Doesnt look gay, Stronger, kick ass looking moves, acts cool/is cool. [queer as in ninny & gay as in emo] Well get back on it, beat it. We have things to discuss.

Yeah, have had it for a long time now. I'm just before the final boss, trying to tie up some loose ends. I too. I have beat it twice. Second time on the hard diff. Good game. It mixes aspects, or rather borrows heavily from 'ole good goodies like Zelda & Onimusha/Devil May Cry... to name the most prominent. Decent enough story but the gameplay is real nice. Once you get accustomed to the flow of battling, you straight own shit. Once you beat it to completion, which doesnt take much, its done. Toast. I have no wish to play it again... especially after beating it twice in a row. Good game.