Valkyrie Profile Classic Jobs Part X
May. 28th, 2025 09:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
freshfeelingLast time I played this, I ran into some serious issues on account of a few bosses including the boss of Tombs of Amenti using great magic. This time, on May 28, I managed to finish a solid few dungeons without any issues! It seems like the concern-to-fun balance just keeps oscillating.
The first place we went was the Forest of Spirits to get the Accursed Flame Gem repaired. There's a fair bit of exploration involved in this place since you need to fight three mini-bosses to get four items, but there's not really a dungeon gimmick so it wasn't that bad. That said, the Mandragora enemies gave me a few close calls!
I don't think I took a single picture of the first visit, other than maybe this one of Gandar not crashing the game by using a non-great magic PWS:
I did a return trip to beat the (second) Cockatrice and claim the artifacts, but they included a greatsword and a bow so that really wasn't very helpful. Actually, the Sylphan Robe is a nice acquisition: Shiho put that on. After getting the goodies, I got a bit lost in the repeating forest screens but I kind of doubt there was anything important there.
Next, Lenneth found a Cave of Oblivion. It was fairly boring. I fought some enemies, but avoided most. I enjoyed fighting a Dragon Zombie that Lucian could only do 0 or 1 damage to.
Despite this, these enemies are no longer challenging. It was actually kind of cool wailing uselessly on this dragon while Shiho and Gandar recharged their spells, because I accumulated so many magic gems.
Other enemies here were stupid though, like those terrible Vermin birds.
We ended chapter 7 and went into chapter 8! That's exciting. I reset a couple of times to see if I could get a second Gram, but I mostly got Ice Coffins and realized that I may have a situation where saving just before the end of the chapter left me unable to modify my luck. After a few tries of that I just went with the Ice Coffin and figured I could probably make a second Gram by now anyway.
We got to see Lucian killed by Loki.
But actually, he's okay.
Then, I did exactly as I said: transmuted and converted items until I had over 100,000 materialize points to get a second Gram for Lucian. It's a pretty nice upgrade, actually!
Next, we went into Palace of the Dragon.
This area was all fine, although I ended up looking at Captain K's guide a little because I mis-used one of the astronomy stones. Also, the part with the guardian statues was a bit annoying - though not as bad as the floating heads in Tombs of Amenti. The fights were all very, very easy here.
As I said, I wasn't that bad at the guardian statue part. It was a real "wtf moment" for me when one walked through a wall and even the doorway vanished afterward.
When we encountered Gandar, I was nervous he'd use great magic, so I planned to bring a big offensive and take him down quickly. He started the fight with a Fire Lance and then we beat him in one round.
I really wanted Gandar to finish the fight with Gandar but it didn't work out that way.
I got some prizes here, including Great Spear Dinosaur, but nothing amazing.
After this, I did another Cave of Oblivion that was even more useless than the last one, and then (thankfully) got the Arianrod Labyrinth. Although I'll admit to using Captain K's guide to fast-track it a little, it's a fun dungeon. I made a couple of navigation errors but understood the structure of it well enough to correct fairly easily. The fights are still easy for my team, but they're a bit interesting.
I met a new giant eyeball guy (with demon hipster chicks!), and those fights are usually exciting, but I easily one-rounded the battle.
The first place we went was the Forest of Spirits to get the Accursed Flame Gem repaired. There's a fair bit of exploration involved in this place since you need to fight three mini-bosses to get four items, but there's not really a dungeon gimmick so it wasn't that bad. That said, the Mandragora enemies gave me a few close calls!
I don't think I took a single picture of the first visit, other than maybe this one of Gandar not crashing the game by using a non-great magic PWS:
I did a return trip to beat the (second) Cockatrice and claim the artifacts, but they included a greatsword and a bow so that really wasn't very helpful. Actually, the Sylphan Robe is a nice acquisition: Shiho put that on. After getting the goodies, I got a bit lost in the repeating forest screens but I kind of doubt there was anything important there.
Next, Lenneth found a Cave of Oblivion. It was fairly boring. I fought some enemies, but avoided most. I enjoyed fighting a Dragon Zombie that Lucian could only do 0 or 1 damage to.
Despite this, these enemies are no longer challenging. It was actually kind of cool wailing uselessly on this dragon while Shiho and Gandar recharged their spells, because I accumulated so many magic gems.
Other enemies here were stupid though, like those terrible Vermin birds.
We ended chapter 7 and went into chapter 8! That's exciting. I reset a couple of times to see if I could get a second Gram, but I mostly got Ice Coffins and realized that I may have a situation where saving just before the end of the chapter left me unable to modify my luck. After a few tries of that I just went with the Ice Coffin and figured I could probably make a second Gram by now anyway.
We got to see Lucian killed by Loki.
But actually, he's okay.
Then, I did exactly as I said: transmuted and converted items until I had over 100,000 materialize points to get a second Gram for Lucian. It's a pretty nice upgrade, actually!
Next, we went into Palace of the Dragon.
This area was all fine, although I ended up looking at Captain K's guide a little because I mis-used one of the astronomy stones. Also, the part with the guardian statues was a bit annoying - though not as bad as the floating heads in Tombs of Amenti. The fights were all very, very easy here.
As I said, I wasn't that bad at the guardian statue part. It was a real "wtf moment" for me when one walked through a wall and even the doorway vanished afterward.
When we encountered Gandar, I was nervous he'd use great magic, so I planned to bring a big offensive and take him down quickly. He started the fight with a Fire Lance and then we beat him in one round.
I really wanted Gandar to finish the fight with Gandar but it didn't work out that way.
I got some prizes here, including Great Spear Dinosaur, but nothing amazing.
After this, I did another Cave of Oblivion that was even more useless than the last one, and then (thankfully) got the Arianrod Labyrinth. Although I'll admit to using Captain K's guide to fast-track it a little, it's a fun dungeon. I made a couple of navigation errors but understood the structure of it well enough to correct fairly easily. The fights are still easy for my team, but they're a bit interesting.
I met a new giant eyeball guy (with demon hipster chicks!), and those fights are usually exciting, but I easily one-rounded the battle.
The boss of this area, Dark Lord, thankfully uses little or no magic... but he sure is bulky. I got his demon companions down quickly but Jayle and Lucian were plinking away at his HP for a long time waiting for Gandar and Shiho to recharge.
He's not too shabby on the offense, either! I was glad to have used Sap Power on him, and I had to throw out a few items to keep everyone upright. It was by no means trivial, but we won.
The prizes here were... not fantastic. I think when we have Creation Jewel items it's hard to find anything truly exciting. Every so often we get something good, but with our limited character options even some things that would normally be great are unusable. For example, I don't have any idea what to do with the Secrets of Zolon, if anything.
This was a good play session. All that's really left is another hard chapter 8 dungeon and the actual endgame stuff! We will probably conclude this next time.
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He's not too shabby on the offense, either! I was glad to have used Sap Power on him, and I had to throw out a few items to keep everyone upright. It was by no means trivial, but we won.
The prizes here were... not fantastic. I think when we have Creation Jewel items it's hard to find anything truly exciting. Every so often we get something good, but with our limited character options even some things that would normally be great are unusable. For example, I don't have any idea what to do with the Secrets of Zolon, if anything.
This was a good play session. All that's really left is another hard chapter 8 dungeon and the actual endgame stuff! We will probably conclude this next time.
<< First | < Previous | Index | Next >
