Valkyrie Profile Classic Jobs Part III
Jan. 12th, 2025 10:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
freshfeelingThis third session was played late on January 11th. It was the end of chapter 2, and maybe roughly half of chapter 3.
I had saved just before doing my Cave of Oblivion for chapter 2, so that was the first stop. I think it was the same "model" of cave that I had in chapter 1, and there was no treasure... but I decided to take a chance on fighting some of the advanced enemies here. This was good, I guess: I fought a high-level Dragon Zombie using a Dragon Slayer, and then tried fighting a high-level Harpy as well.
It took a few turns, and Shiho died, but we actually took this thing out fairly easily with teamwork! Everyone was able to contribute some damage, with Gandar's spells, and Jayle and Lucian's PWSes playing a role. Gandar only survived a Thunder Strike attack by activating the Guts skill.
I skipped the only other fight I encountered, and found absolutely zero treasure. We gained some levels though... and some confidence.
I took some time to build up Belenus and Lawfer both into good candidates with traits and relevant skills, and then transferred both of them.
I also took a short dive back into the Artolian Mountain Ruins to get the one chest I didn't get earlier, containing a Treasure Check. I then swapped the team around a little to equip the Treasure Check on Lenneth, since she is the only one who can use it. It seems that when Lenneth isn't in the party, her map-effective equipment doesn't seem to do anything. That's a bit of a shame.
Later, I expect to need to swap Lenneth in every so often to make use of the Creation Gem and Creation Jewel.
It was time for the sacred phase. Lawfer and Belenus were doing great, but I didn't inspect everything in too much detail. My performance was rated as "magnificent" and my prizes seemed adequate. I was most excited for the Extreme Guard, which would soon be equipped on Shiho.
In Chapter 3, I decided to start by entering Brahms' Castle but really just to do a treasure dive. This was a pretty good use of time, and I think I got literally all of the treasure (or close to it) without meeting Brahms. Almost all of the fights were very easy... and the one real outlier was solved with a Dragon Slayer.
Next up was Camille Village and the Oddrock Caverns. I remembered the gimmick and the enemies were all on the easy side - most still being wipable using Poison Blow or another strong spell. By this point, I could quite reliably activate my PWSes when I wanted to, particularly when I started by menu-casting Gandar's Fire Storm spell and comboing off of that.
I don't think the treasure in this dungeon was anything particularly exciting. Really, I think the next things that could make a substantial difference would be some kind of holy spell for Shiho (Sacred Javelin or Mystic Cross) and the Creation Gem.
Lucian was fantastic at drawing treasure from enemies in these last few dungeons. In particular, I feel like I've been getting a ton of spellbooks.
We fought some Dragon Zombies, and while I'm sure I could weather their attacks while Gandar whittles them down with his spells, I generally used the Dragon Slayer.
The puzzle of this dungeon is simple but I must've gotten frozen by ice beams or statues like a dozen times. It was occasionally frustrating.
The boss didn't offer a whole lot of challenge. I thought it was unusual getting general gameplay advice in a boss battle this far into the game. It sort of made me think of Xenoblade Chronicles 3, where you're still getting tutorials 10 hours into the game.
We didn't really need that advice.
It was a bit late; I wanted to just go ahead with Clockwork Mansion, which I have completely resigned myself to just using a guide for. Not that I can't do it, but it's just so quick when you know the way and figuring it out and getting lost isn't going to enhance my experience (nor yours). Is that a weird angle to take? If so, what's the distinction between using a guide for that dungeon being bad and just... having the game memorized from experience? I'll admit that sounds like a slippery slope. It is not my intent to cheat more generally. Maybe I'll suck it up and do it myself.
If I knew 100% that Clockwork Mansion was coming up in my next spiritual concentration, I would've just done it... but it's quite likely to instead be a recruitment, so I decided to stop at this point.
Once again, notice the experience/after values. Yes, I'm playing somewhat neurotically... and it's only paying off a little.
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I had saved just before doing my Cave of Oblivion for chapter 2, so that was the first stop. I think it was the same "model" of cave that I had in chapter 1, and there was no treasure... but I decided to take a chance on fighting some of the advanced enemies here. This was good, I guess: I fought a high-level Dragon Zombie using a Dragon Slayer, and then tried fighting a high-level Harpy as well.
It took a few turns, and Shiho died, but we actually took this thing out fairly easily with teamwork! Everyone was able to contribute some damage, with Gandar's spells, and Jayle and Lucian's PWSes playing a role. Gandar only survived a Thunder Strike attack by activating the Guts skill.
I skipped the only other fight I encountered, and found absolutely zero treasure. We gained some levels though... and some confidence.
I took some time to build up Belenus and Lawfer both into good candidates with traits and relevant skills, and then transferred both of them.
I also took a short dive back into the Artolian Mountain Ruins to get the one chest I didn't get earlier, containing a Treasure Check. I then swapped the team around a little to equip the Treasure Check on Lenneth, since she is the only one who can use it. It seems that when Lenneth isn't in the party, her map-effective equipment doesn't seem to do anything. That's a bit of a shame.
Later, I expect to need to swap Lenneth in every so often to make use of the Creation Gem and Creation Jewel.
It was time for the sacred phase. Lawfer and Belenus were doing great, but I didn't inspect everything in too much detail. My performance was rated as "magnificent" and my prizes seemed adequate. I was most excited for the Extreme Guard, which would soon be equipped on Shiho.
In Chapter 3, I decided to start by entering Brahms' Castle but really just to do a treasure dive. This was a pretty good use of time, and I think I got literally all of the treasure (or close to it) without meeting Brahms. Almost all of the fights were very easy... and the one real outlier was solved with a Dragon Slayer.
Next up was Camille Village and the Oddrock Caverns. I remembered the gimmick and the enemies were all on the easy side - most still being wipable using Poison Blow or another strong spell. By this point, I could quite reliably activate my PWSes when I wanted to, particularly when I started by menu-casting Gandar's Fire Storm spell and comboing off of that.
I don't think the treasure in this dungeon was anything particularly exciting. Really, I think the next things that could make a substantial difference would be some kind of holy spell for Shiho (Sacred Javelin or Mystic Cross) and the Creation Gem.
Lucian was fantastic at drawing treasure from enemies in these last few dungeons. In particular, I feel like I've been getting a ton of spellbooks.
We fought some Dragon Zombies, and while I'm sure I could weather their attacks while Gandar whittles them down with his spells, I generally used the Dragon Slayer.
The puzzle of this dungeon is simple but I must've gotten frozen by ice beams or statues like a dozen times. It was occasionally frustrating.
The boss didn't offer a whole lot of challenge. I thought it was unusual getting general gameplay advice in a boss battle this far into the game. It sort of made me think of Xenoblade Chronicles 3, where you're still getting tutorials 10 hours into the game.
We didn't really need that advice.
It was a bit late; I wanted to just go ahead with Clockwork Mansion, which I have completely resigned myself to just using a guide for. Not that I can't do it, but it's just so quick when you know the way and figuring it out and getting lost isn't going to enhance my experience (nor yours). Is that a weird angle to take? If so, what's the distinction between using a guide for that dungeon being bad and just... having the game memorized from experience? I'll admit that sounds like a slippery slope. It is not my intent to cheat more generally. Maybe I'll suck it up and do it myself.
If I knew 100% that Clockwork Mansion was coming up in my next spiritual concentration, I would've just done it... but it's quite likely to instead be a recruitment, so I decided to stop at this point.
Once again, notice the experience/after values. Yes, I'm playing somewhat neurotically... and it's only paying off a little.
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