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freshfeeling) wrote2025-01-07 09:58 pm
freshfeeling) wrote2025-01-07 09:58 pm
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Valkyrie Profile Classic Jobs Part II
The second gameplay session of Valkyrie Profile using only Jayle the knight, Lucian the thief, Shiho the white mage, and Gandar the black mage, was played on the afternoon of January 7th, 2025. Contrasting the prior session where we finished all of the prologue/chapter 0 plus all of chapter 1, in this one we only did most of chapter 2.
Due to two minor interruptions in my stream, this was cobbled together from three parts, and for some reason my camera just went static for the last large chunk of that. The gameplay and audio is fine.
The first thing that came up was Salerno Academy, which I remember struggling with in casual play ages ago. Oh well, no reason to put it off, right?
The enemies here were very easy, and basically not worth noting at all. Jayle now had a two-hit weapon, and along with my mages' Wait Reactions, comboing was easier. I didn't go overboard with it, but PWSes were becoming more commonplace, as were good enemy drops.
Depending on the encounter, Gandar's spells (Poison Blow, Icicle Edge, or Fire Storm) either facilitated or instantly ended the fights. Really, every party member was pulling good weight except Shiho - although at least she finally had something to do.
I have played this game a good few times, but surely not for at least 10 years. In that time I'm sure I've watched a speedrun or two. Somehow I recalled most of how the puzzle of Salerno Academy worked. I used an Eye of Heaven in the early going to access the full map, and I'm really glad I did!
I was so nervous about having to backtrack past all of the vines that there was a point where I went to the end without checking an exit... only to find that, as I had suspected, one exit that was marked in orange was a one-way path to earlier in the area! I am so glad I was mindful of this possibility; I feel like I must've been burned by this before.
The boss here is a Harpy, which one might call "an insult to all natural birds".
The game tries to convince you to use magic and bows here, but Gandar couldn't attack on turn 1, and the Harpy cast Reflect Sorcery on that first turn. Jayle and Lucian were actually still able to fight it, but not incredibly effectively. I also risked casting Gandar's spells mid-combo and found that they weren't reflected. We were able to make some really good combos using this. Altogether, it wasn't a bad fight.
We won the very useful Bracelet of Zoe from this fight, which enhances the DME (HP) characters gain at level-up. Time to ramp up my micromanagement of character growth and equipment. Look what I did to the characters' experience values:
I also got the Faim Fenn sword, which I gave to Lucian. He had been often missing with Shining Bolt because it's a slower attack, and I thought it would benefit him to get his full three-hit combo even if the sword is a bit weaker.
We did recruitment scenes for Janus and Jun. After Janus', I decided to go back into Crell Monferaigne (sp? jk I'm not trying) to get both Janus' Raven Slayer bow, which is useless to us, and Llewelyn's pendant. I forgot, however, that having transferred Llewelyn already the pendant is no longer available. This was a bit of a wasted trip. Oh well.
Next up was Nethov Swamp.
The things I remembered about Nethov Swamp were: there's a part with a big drop off a cliff that you can't go back up which is right before the boss, and the boss is a rather tough Dragon Zombie. These tidbits and the auto-map (I didn't even use an Eye of Heaven) served me well here.
I partly recalled there being kind of separate section of the swamp before the cliff, and that's exactly how it was and this informed my exploration pretty effectively. Enemies here were mostly the same as Salerno Academy although it seemed like I was levelling more easily.
I was finding myself with some time limitations, but I knew I could quickly hammer out the rest of this place. I think I got all of the treasure, which included many skill books but nothing that was going to hugely impact gameplay. Eventually I identified the cliff part that I remembered and encountered the Dragon Zombie. After a few rounds of experimentation with Gandar's spells - which surely would've done the job eventually - I just had Jayle slaughter it with the Dragon Slayer sword.
We got the treasure here which included the Bark of the Dryad - which I think I remember the point of? It's really good but only matters later - and an Inscribed Fragment.
As I said at the beginning, I didn't quite finish chapter 2. I still need to transfer people before the sacred phase. Certainly Lawfer, but maybe Belenus or Jun as well.
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Due to two minor interruptions in my stream, this was cobbled together from three parts, and for some reason my camera just went static for the last large chunk of that. The gameplay and audio is fine.
The first thing that came up was Salerno Academy, which I remember struggling with in casual play ages ago. Oh well, no reason to put it off, right?
The enemies here were very easy, and basically not worth noting at all. Jayle now had a two-hit weapon, and along with my mages' Wait Reactions, comboing was easier. I didn't go overboard with it, but PWSes were becoming more commonplace, as were good enemy drops.
Depending on the encounter, Gandar's spells (Poison Blow, Icicle Edge, or Fire Storm) either facilitated or instantly ended the fights. Really, every party member was pulling good weight except Shiho - although at least she finally had something to do.
I have played this game a good few times, but surely not for at least 10 years. In that time I'm sure I've watched a speedrun or two. Somehow I recalled most of how the puzzle of Salerno Academy worked. I used an Eye of Heaven in the early going to access the full map, and I'm really glad I did!
I was so nervous about having to backtrack past all of the vines that there was a point where I went to the end without checking an exit... only to find that, as I had suspected, one exit that was marked in orange was a one-way path to earlier in the area! I am so glad I was mindful of this possibility; I feel like I must've been burned by this before.
The boss here is a Harpy, which one might call "an insult to all natural birds".
The game tries to convince you to use magic and bows here, but Gandar couldn't attack on turn 1, and the Harpy cast Reflect Sorcery on that first turn. Jayle and Lucian were actually still able to fight it, but not incredibly effectively. I also risked casting Gandar's spells mid-combo and found that they weren't reflected. We were able to make some really good combos using this. Altogether, it wasn't a bad fight.
We won the very useful Bracelet of Zoe from this fight, which enhances the DME (HP) characters gain at level-up. Time to ramp up my micromanagement of character growth and equipment. Look what I did to the characters' experience values:
I also got the Faim Fenn sword, which I gave to Lucian. He had been often missing with Shining Bolt because it's a slower attack, and I thought it would benefit him to get his full three-hit combo even if the sword is a bit weaker.
We did recruitment scenes for Janus and Jun. After Janus', I decided to go back into Crell Monferaigne (sp? jk I'm not trying) to get both Janus' Raven Slayer bow, which is useless to us, and Llewelyn's pendant. I forgot, however, that having transferred Llewelyn already the pendant is no longer available. This was a bit of a wasted trip. Oh well.
Next up was Nethov Swamp.
The things I remembered about Nethov Swamp were: there's a part with a big drop off a cliff that you can't go back up which is right before the boss, and the boss is a rather tough Dragon Zombie. These tidbits and the auto-map (I didn't even use an Eye of Heaven) served me well here.
I partly recalled there being kind of separate section of the swamp before the cliff, and that's exactly how it was and this informed my exploration pretty effectively. Enemies here were mostly the same as Salerno Academy although it seemed like I was levelling more easily.
I was finding myself with some time limitations, but I knew I could quickly hammer out the rest of this place. I think I got all of the treasure, which included many skill books but nothing that was going to hugely impact gameplay. Eventually I identified the cliff part that I remembered and encountered the Dragon Zombie. After a few rounds of experimentation with Gandar's spells - which surely would've done the job eventually - I just had Jayle slaughter it with the Dragon Slayer sword.
We got the treasure here which included the Bark of the Dryad - which I think I remember the point of? It's really good but only matters later - and an Inscribed Fragment.
As I said at the beginning, I didn't quite finish chapter 2. I still need to transfer people before the sacred phase. Certainly Lawfer, but maybe Belenus or Jun as well.
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