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freshfeelingThis was played on April 24, 2023. Pretty close to when I actually wrote this! It's an actual time-relevant post, for my first time on this site.
After two sessions of pure grinding - totaling probably a little bit over 3 hours - it was time to do stuff.
Okay, I lied. Just a little. To get back into the swing of things after a few weeks off due to family commitments and illness and whatnot, I did one run at the grinding room I did in the last session.
I started by reviewing the party's stats, which started as I left it in the previous session.
Bart has only 32 base strength. This goes up a bit when his giant equipment is on, which also reduces his growth potential. He has a Dragon Helm, Dragon Armor, an Ice Shield, and a variety of swords. He may still put on a Giant Glove when I'm not trying to gain strength, too. Bart also has 34 agility and 14 mana.
Fari has 47 agility (base!) and 23 mana. She has a Gold Glove and Dragon Armor and sometimes slips on some shoes for a stat boost.
Kril has 22 strength, 39 agility (boosted slightly by a Kimono) and 31 mana. She can also wear Hermes Shoes for an agility boost or Hecate Shoes for a mana boost.
Lenn has 25 agility (also boosted slightly by a Kimono) and 49 mana. His 49 mana is his base value; he has had reliable mana growth, which makes sense since his damage carries me in probably a majority of battles. Like Kril, he has footwear options.
Before too long, I did that hilarious part where the Sho-gun has the meeting with Echigoya.
Then we fought the dirty scums. I set Fari to slash Echigoya in a single hit, which I thought would reduce the chance of him using crazy weaponry against us. This fight went much as planned (although I still did the thing where I accidentally shielded in a surprise round) and was pretty easy. We got more-or-less the best possible set of outcomes, too. Echigoya dropped the Abacus, which is just a rare, weird flavour weapon but I decided a thief should be able to use it, and the entire team gained useful stats. Bart even gained a rare defense point from using his Ice Shield. Now that's what Hatamoto battles are supposed to be like!
We grabbed a Heal Staff which will be very valuable for Kril, and moved on to Edo Castle. Edo Castle went relatively smoothly, although I definitely didn't recall the layout very well. The treasure I wanted most in there was the Ninja Glove, which I gave to Fari. Besides being a general upgrade, it also gives weapon resistance. I also got a Body Potion, which Kril drank, as I reasoned keeping the healer healthier was a good idea.
I ran from a lot of battles to preserve some resources, and fought a few. A couple of times, enemies got the drop on me which resulted in some scary situations. A boulder turned Fari to stone at one point, which is scary, but as long as it isn't Kril it's fine.
I also ran into groups with Ninjas. Ninja was a boss a few worlds ago, and I wasn't sure if maybe this battle wasn't runnable. I tried running twice and the enemies were kicking my butt... and I decided to just let it ride to start the battle properly rather than have to struggle through and heal up. So, this was a TPKO! I think it may have been my first since Ashura.
What was funny about that was I finally availed myself of Odin's revival services, and then when he revived me the battle was, by the numbers, quite a bit harder. There were more Ninjas and Knights, anyway. But the re-fight was done without incident.
I got the Samurai Bow, which is normally very exciting to me but I am not able to use it by my job-related rules, and then I engaged the Sho-gun. I was really worried about the confusion he inflicted on me using Riddle but confusion really isn't too disabling in this game. In fact, my confused party members never actually worked against me in any way.
Next was Magnate! I was a bit worried about this one. I gave Kril her Heal Staff, as Magnate has a lot of unblockable, full-party attacks. I negected to give Bart an improved weapon like the Dragon Sword so he was using his Flame Sword. I also chose not to give Lenn the Flare book, so he mostly used Thunder. The main obstacle here, really, was that I had very few agility weapons on hand for Fari to wield, and she ended up having to stab him with a Dagger for under 100 damage per turn.
Despite this, the battle generally felt like it was "stable" and going well. Every so often, Magnate would get an action in before Kril using the Heal Staff. Bart was knocked out first, followed by Lenn on the next turn. This left the battle as Fari using her 80-damage Dagger and Kril healing. It was slow, but stable. And eventually we won.
I realized after beating Magnate that I hadn't even considered my equipped magi. Oh well. It was probably fine.
Then I sold all of my very-useful-but-not-suitable treasures including the Samurai Bow 😥 and geared up, including some new agility weapons for Fari.
I knew Nasty Dungeon was next and I decided to do as much of it as I could, recognizing I could either Teleport or Pegasus magi my way out as needed. I acquired and promptly discarded a lot of treasure, due to inventory constraints and my job-related rules.
List of things I got that I kept or used:
I was surprised as how easy it was. I waffled about doing this, worrying that it may undermine the challenge - and, like, it did - but ultimately I did it out of interest, justifying that ultimately it was kinda the same result as grinding (which sucks). If you think that invalidates the run, then I guess that's just, like, your opinion, man.
With the newly-boosted agility, Fari was scarier than ever. While I didn't max everyone's agility, Fari's did end up at 99. At least she definitively has her niche, now! That agility boost definitely made finishing Nasty Dungeon more viable, with a damage increase for some characters and our run success being boosted as well.
Throwing out so many goodies was hard to me. At one point I bemoaned not having the Lloyd's Beacon spell from Might & Magic: World of Xeen which allows you to set a spot you can teleport back to later. Really, I ought have complained about not having that game's Item to Gold spell, which allows you to sell anything on-the-spot. I said, "It's gonna be fun making a little write-up of this for my blog, talking about picking up Samurai Bows, Missiles, Hyper Cannons, Tanks and being like, 'Fighting back tears, I discarded the contents of each chest, holding out for one Mage Armor and an Arthur Armor that I'm not sure I'm actually going to use, all while getting a random encounter every four squares on average'."
Next is Odin's World. I chose not to take a break to sell things as I didn't want to spend ages travering maps and I knew I had the weapons I needed. Instead, I elected to skip every single chest in Odin's castle and reasoned I would come back if it seemed like it would be useful later. Thus, we made a beeline for Odin. These were our HP totals entering Odin's World:
Odin actually got a surprise round against me, during which Bart was dispatched by his animal friends. I also forgot to give Kril the Heal Staff again. Fari targetted and took out Sleipnir in two attacks, while Lenn took out the OdinCrows using his Ice spellbook. The battle seemed generally stable, when for some reason I said aloud, "Now, Gungnir is pretty crazy. If he takes out Gungnir, somebody dies.". ~1 second later,
But about two rounds later, we won regardless.
At this point, I really wanted to rush to get Xcalibr, which I thought was pretty realistic. We ran right through the Minion battle. Minion wasn't much of a roadblock, although I remember that fight being rather different than it actually was. I remember them being weaker, like kind of a non-boss-thing, and I remember there being two of them (which makes a sort of sense, since Apollo summons two giant chickens in the cutscene). The battle was sort of uninteresting, anyway. Nobody died!
In Final Town, we bought Bart some Ninja Gloves and finally let go of our Giant Gloves, and went onto the Final Dungeon. There was nothing particularly noteworthy here, besides one part where Kril got petrified. As our healer, this sucked! I ended up realizing that Elixiers can heal status effects, but Tents can't, so that's an interesting minor distinction between them. We picked up some things that don't do us any good, like a Karate, a second Arthur Armor, and a Robe (?). Then, finally...
I was very excited for this! Given its strength, reusability, and ability to hit groups, this was going to radically improve the way our combats are conducted henceforth.
Quickly after that, we ran into WarMach.
It went well! It threw a lot of missiles at us, but with Bart's Xcalibr, Fari's crazy agility, Kril's Heal Staff, and Lenn's early death due to missiles, everything worked out nicely!
I gave Kril the Heart magi and saved up for the final stretch!
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After two sessions of pure grinding - totaling probably a little bit over 3 hours - it was time to do stuff.
Okay, I lied. Just a little. To get back into the swing of things after a few weeks off due to family commitments and illness and whatnot, I did one run at the grinding room I did in the last session.
I started by reviewing the party's stats, which started as I left it in the previous session.
Bart has only 32 base strength. This goes up a bit when his giant equipment is on, which also reduces his growth potential. He has a Dragon Helm, Dragon Armor, an Ice Shield, and a variety of swords. He may still put on a Giant Glove when I'm not trying to gain strength, too. Bart also has 34 agility and 14 mana.
Fari has 47 agility (base!) and 23 mana. She has a Gold Glove and Dragon Armor and sometimes slips on some shoes for a stat boost.
Kril has 22 strength, 39 agility (boosted slightly by a Kimono) and 31 mana. She can also wear Hermes Shoes for an agility boost or Hecate Shoes for a mana boost.
Lenn has 25 agility (also boosted slightly by a Kimono) and 49 mana. His 49 mana is his base value; he has had reliable mana growth, which makes sense since his damage carries me in probably a majority of battles. Like Kril, he has footwear options.
Before too long, I did that hilarious part where the Sho-gun has the meeting with Echigoya.
Then we fought the dirty scums. I set Fari to slash Echigoya in a single hit, which I thought would reduce the chance of him using crazy weaponry against us. This fight went much as planned (although I still did the thing where I accidentally shielded in a surprise round) and was pretty easy. We got more-or-less the best possible set of outcomes, too. Echigoya dropped the Abacus, which is just a rare, weird flavour weapon but I decided a thief should be able to use it, and the entire team gained useful stats. Bart even gained a rare defense point from using his Ice Shield. Now that's what Hatamoto battles are supposed to be like!
We grabbed a Heal Staff which will be very valuable for Kril, and moved on to Edo Castle. Edo Castle went relatively smoothly, although I definitely didn't recall the layout very well. The treasure I wanted most in there was the Ninja Glove, which I gave to Fari. Besides being a general upgrade, it also gives weapon resistance. I also got a Body Potion, which Kril drank, as I reasoned keeping the healer healthier was a good idea.
I ran from a lot of battles to preserve some resources, and fought a few. A couple of times, enemies got the drop on me which resulted in some scary situations. A boulder turned Fari to stone at one point, which is scary, but as long as it isn't Kril it's fine.
I also ran into groups with Ninjas. Ninja was a boss a few worlds ago, and I wasn't sure if maybe this battle wasn't runnable. I tried running twice and the enemies were kicking my butt... and I decided to just let it ride to start the battle properly rather than have to struggle through and heal up. So, this was a TPKO! I think it may have been my first since Ashura.
What was funny about that was I finally availed myself of Odin's revival services, and then when he revived me the battle was, by the numbers, quite a bit harder. There were more Ninjas and Knights, anyway. But the re-fight was done without incident.
I got the Samurai Bow, which is normally very exciting to me but I am not able to use it by my job-related rules, and then I engaged the Sho-gun. I was really worried about the confusion he inflicted on me using Riddle but confusion really isn't too disabling in this game. In fact, my confused party members never actually worked against me in any way.
Next was Magnate! I was a bit worried about this one. I gave Kril her Heal Staff, as Magnate has a lot of unblockable, full-party attacks. I negected to give Bart an improved weapon like the Dragon Sword so he was using his Flame Sword. I also chose not to give Lenn the Flare book, so he mostly used Thunder. The main obstacle here, really, was that I had very few agility weapons on hand for Fari to wield, and she ended up having to stab him with a Dagger for under 100 damage per turn.
Despite this, the battle generally felt like it was "stable" and going well. Every so often, Magnate would get an action in before Kril using the Heal Staff. Bart was knocked out first, followed by Lenn on the next turn. This left the battle as Fari using her 80-damage Dagger and Kril healing. It was slow, but stable. And eventually we won.
I realized after beating Magnate that I hadn't even considered my equipped magi. Oh well. It was probably fine.
Then I sold all of my very-useful-but-not-suitable treasures including the Samurai Bow 😥 and geared up, including some new agility weapons for Fari.
I knew Nasty Dungeon was next and I decided to do as much of it as I could, recognizing I could either Teleport or Pegasus magi my way out as needed. I acquired and promptly discarded a lot of treasure, due to inventory constraints and my job-related rules.
List of things I got that I kept or used:
- Power Potion (on Kril)
- Body Potion (on Kril)
- Speed Potion (on Lenn)
- Magic Potion (on Kril)
- CatClaw (for Lenn)
- Elixier
- Dragon Sword (for Bart)
- Tent
- Muramas
- Defend Sword (for Bart)
- Wizard Staff (for Lenn)
- Ice spellbook (random drop from Sorcerer, for Lenn)
- Arthur Armor (for Bart; not sure if he's going to use it)
- Vampic (for Bart)
- Mage Armor (new, hacked-in item replacing Parasuit, for Kril)
- Sun Sword (for Bart)
- Tent
- Glass Sword
- Ogre Axe (invalid with jobs)
- Dragon Armor (I already have it on everyone that can use it)
- Vulcan Cannon (invalid with jobs)
- Laser Gun (invalid with jobs)
- Jyudo (invalid with jobs)
- Tank (invalid with jobs)
- Missile (invalid with jobs)
- Dragon Helmet (Bart already has one)
- Samurai Bow (invalid with jobs)
- Selfix (invalid with jobs)
- Robe (garbage)
- Karate (invalid with jobs)
- Hyper Cannon (invalid with jobs)
- Gungnir Spear (invalid with jobs)
I was surprised as how easy it was. I waffled about doing this, worrying that it may undermine the challenge - and, like, it did - but ultimately I did it out of interest, justifying that ultimately it was kinda the same result as grinding (which sucks). If you think that invalidates the run, then I guess that's just, like, your opinion, man.
With the newly-boosted agility, Fari was scarier than ever. While I didn't max everyone's agility, Fari's did end up at 99. At least she definitively has her niche, now! That agility boost definitely made finishing Nasty Dungeon more viable, with a damage increase for some characters and our run success being boosted as well.
Throwing out so many goodies was hard to me. At one point I bemoaned not having the Lloyd's Beacon spell from Might & Magic: World of Xeen which allows you to set a spot you can teleport back to later. Really, I ought have complained about not having that game's Item to Gold spell, which allows you to sell anything on-the-spot. I said, "It's gonna be fun making a little write-up of this for my blog, talking about picking up Samurai Bows, Missiles, Hyper Cannons, Tanks and being like, 'Fighting back tears, I discarded the contents of each chest, holding out for one Mage Armor and an Arthur Armor that I'm not sure I'm actually going to use, all while getting a random encounter every four squares on average'."
Next is Odin's World. I chose not to take a break to sell things as I didn't want to spend ages travering maps and I knew I had the weapons I needed. Instead, I elected to skip every single chest in Odin's castle and reasoned I would come back if it seemed like it would be useful later. Thus, we made a beeline for Odin. These were our HP totals entering Odin's World:
Odin actually got a surprise round against me, during which Bart was dispatched by his animal friends. I also forgot to give Kril the Heal Staff again. Fari targetted and took out Sleipnir in two attacks, while Lenn took out the OdinCrows using his Ice spellbook. The battle seemed generally stable, when for some reason I said aloud, "Now, Gungnir is pretty crazy. If he takes out Gungnir, somebody dies.". ~1 second later,
But about two rounds later, we won regardless.
At this point, I really wanted to rush to get Xcalibr, which I thought was pretty realistic. We ran right through the Minion battle. Minion wasn't much of a roadblock, although I remember that fight being rather different than it actually was. I remember them being weaker, like kind of a non-boss-thing, and I remember there being two of them (which makes a sort of sense, since Apollo summons two giant chickens in the cutscene). The battle was sort of uninteresting, anyway. Nobody died!
In Final Town, we bought Bart some Ninja Gloves and finally let go of our Giant Gloves, and went onto the Final Dungeon. There was nothing particularly noteworthy here, besides one part where Kril got petrified. As our healer, this sucked! I ended up realizing that Elixiers can heal status effects, but Tents can't, so that's an interesting minor distinction between them. We picked up some things that don't do us any good, like a Karate, a second Arthur Armor, and a Robe (?). Then, finally...
I was very excited for this! Given its strength, reusability, and ability to hit groups, this was going to radically improve the way our combats are conducted henceforth.
Quickly after that, we ran into WarMach.
It went well! It threw a lot of missiles at us, but with Bart's Xcalibr, Fari's crazy agility, Kril's Heal Staff, and Lenn's early death due to missiles, everything worked out nicely!
I gave Kril the Heart magi and saved up for the final stretch!
<< Start | < Previous | Index | Next >
