I've been slacking off on this for a few reasons. One: AP US History Review Packet. Two: The Soku tournament. Three: The Talkhaus Make a Good Level 2 Contest. Four: Laziness. Five: The SAT. Now that four of these are taken care of, it's update time!
Chapter 0- Finale: Hey, Listen!So, we've got party members and stuff. Time to go over basic game mechanics!
Our main menu. At the bottom, you can see your Evalution. Essentially, as long as this doesn't really drop too low, you're fine. It'll lower if you forget to send up Einherjar or don't do anything you're supposed to, but that's it. The menu also has options. Let's go over them one at a time!
Under Skill, we have three options: Learn, Set Up, and Traits. Learn lets us put Capacity Points (CP) into skills. There are four types: Reaction, Support, Attack, and Status. The first is a passive or active skill that helps in combat, the second are just passive skills, the third are unique attacks that you can use, and the fourth are just stat boosts. Levelling up will increase your CP to put into these.
Set Up lets you set up your skills. You can have two Reactions, one Support, and one Attack. Not too complicated.
Traits lets you spend CP to boost the character's Hero Value. I'll explain that more when it becomes important.
Use Item lets us use items, transmutate them into new items, or convert them into Materialize Points, which is our currency for the game. I'll let you know when I transmute items into new ones in the summary. Basically, each item can be transmuted into other ones (with some exceptions), but they're not too exciting at this point.
Divine Item is only available at Memory Camps and the World Map. This is our shop for the game. Obviously, you spend MP to buy or "divine" items. There are various different categories of items, but right now nothing is worth buying. The Divine Item menu updates with new items each Chapter, so it's worth checking out every Chapter and whenever you're running low on basic items.
Party lets us change our party formation. My general formation is Valkyrie (I'll refer to her as Valkyrie when talking about game mechanics and Lenneth when talking about the story) up front, a physical attack in the top and bottom, and a mage in the back. You can use two mages, but I don't do that until the bonus dungeon, because that's just me. One more thing: Valkyrie can't be out of the party, like Serge in Chrono Cross (except for New Game+, but that's an exception). So keep that in mind when setting up your party.
The Experience Orb lets us spend any Event Experience we've earned on our party members. I'll go over what that means when we first get that. Also, there's a Practice option so that you can practice your combos, but I honestly have never really needed to use it. You can if you want, though, because combos are the key to getting item drops, extra experience, and cooldown reductions (as you'll see soon enough).
Ability lets us see what order we use our attacks in. Right now, we each have weapons that let us use one attack only per turn, so we only have one attack. You can also set your Counter Attack (for when we get the Counter Attack skill later) and see your Purify Weird Soul. Each attack has a description that says how many hits it does and how much it adds to the combo meter, which is a good thing because it helps you figure out how to get a good Purify Weird Soul chain going.
Equipment obviously lets you change your equipment. You have your weapon, headgear, body armor, arm armor, leg armor, Decorations, and Possessions. The last two are accessories. The Decorations are accessories in the traditional RPG sense, while Possessions are a mix of special items, field effects (for Valkyrie only), and passives in battle. I'll go over Possessions more later.
Status lets us see the status of our characters. There are a few stats: Level, Divine Materialize Energy (our HP of the game, named so because it's the energy Lenneth has to use in order to keep her Einherjar summoned), Strength (affects ATK), Intelligence (affects MAG on characters that have it), Agility (affects AVD), Dexterity (affects HIT), Attack (physical attack power, for mages it is Magic, which affects magic attack power), RDM (or Reduce Damage, our physical defense), Avoid (our evasion stat), Hit Rate (our accuracy stat), Defend (determines blocking chance), and Resist (I believe this determines both magic defense and status defense, but I'm not sure). In addition to that, you'll notice that Valkyrie has a "Seal Value." That value has to do with getting the A Ending. I'll go over that when we get to the point where we have to start lowering it (read: Chapter 4).
Each character also has an innate status resistance. You can practically ignore it, but I'm just going to show it anyways because I can. The other two screens of the status menu just show the stuff from the Ability and Equipment screens, so I'll not show those whenever we get a new character.
So, let's go over our characters! As I've already shown, Valkyrie has good attack power and average evasion, but not really good Dexterity. She is technically a swordsman, but she can also double as an archer. In fact, once you start getting good bows, it's a better idea to have Valkyrie be an archer, as she's the best archer in the game. In the bonus dungeon, though, you'll want her to go back to swords, because swords outpace bows VERY fast there.
Arngrim is our first Heavy Knight, and the best one of the two we get in the game. He carries some really good attacking power and DME as well as a very powerful Purify Weird Soul, so he'll be in our party for a LONG time.
Freya is only with us for this dungeon, but she's got incredibly high stats for only being level 2 (which is not something that will happen with everyone else, mind you). There's not really much to say about her, besides the fact that her attacks are hard to include in your combo due to them having huge delays. Her Purify Weird Soul is also best left for last in a Purify Weird Soul chain, as it does not add enough to the combo meter to even allow a second one to go if her's goes first. To make up for that, it's extremely powerful, and by the time it goes last, it will deal huge amounts of damage.
Jelanda's our first mage of the game, starting out with Fire Storm and Heal, if I remember correctly. As a mage, she has Magic Power instead of Attack, as I've already said. She's also unusually strong against Ice despite starting with Fire spells. Huh. Also, look at that Resist. That's pretty damn high, if you ask me. We won't really be dropping Jelanda until much later, when we can afford to swap her out with another mage (and there's no short supply of mages in this game. I think it's the class with the most members in it, if I remember correctly).
Configure is options. You might want to set the text speed to be faster if you don't want to have to sit through all of the text. I should also do it because it makes taking screenshots easier.
So, onwards to the Artolian Mountain Ruins! We have our first dungeon themes here:
Distortions in the Void of Despair. This is how you kick off the first dungeon: Badass music.
Of course, being the tutorial dungeon, Freya has to tell us what we're doing even though I already know.
Okay, essentially, enemies are not random. They show up as icons on the screen, much like in the games I've already LPed. Just touching them will make either you or the enemy randomly go first. If you go first in this manner, however, you start with a one turn cooldown on all of your special moves, so don't rely on that. Hitting an enemy with your sword (X button by default) lets you go first without a cooldown penalty. Getting touched from behind makes the enemy automatically go first, I think.
There's an enemy icon right there. Let's hit it!
Whoa, trippy battle transition.
And we have our actual battle theme of the game:
Fighting the Shadowy Gods. This is just a classic battle theme.
Anyways, let's get a little more in depth with the combat, shall we? As you can see, we have a meter that says "CT" underneath our DME meters. That's our "Charge Turn." In other words, it's our cooldown. If it has something in it, then that character can't use their Purify Weird Soul or, in the case of mages, magic. Using a Purify Weird Soul or any magic spell will fill up the meter, so take note of that.
Also, this is our first enemy: The Lesser Vampire. It isn't that special, but later on it will be able to use Hydrophobia, which inflicts Poison. Right now, it's cannon fodder.
Filling up that meter on the left there will let you use your Purify Weird Soul (known in later games as Soul Crush). These are incredibly powerful special attacks unique to each character. If you fill up the meter again with the Purify Weird Soul, you can chain another one into the combo, which lets you keep going. The combo meter will not be as full each time you do an additional Purify Weird Soul, so it's harder to chain further attacks in. Getting all four off in one combo can take a little bit of planning, but it will inflict a LOT of damage. Also, each successive Purify Weird Soul will be stronger than the previous one, for two reasons. One, each hit on the hit meter adds 1% to the damage of the next attack. Two, I think each Purify Weird Soul gets an additional damage modifier if used later in the chain (I'm not positive, though. Someone should really let me know if that's the case).
So, here's Arngrim's!
"I grow tired of you."
"Finishing Strike!"
"Final Blast!"I'll try to find videos for the Purify Weird Souls and add them into the summary whenever we see new ones.
"It shall be engraved upon your soul!"
"Divine Assault!"
"Nibelung Valesti!"Sorry you can't see it well, but Valkyrie sort of summoned three giant spears and impaled the Lesser Vampire on them. Another thing with Valkyrie's PWS: It actually changes depending on the weapon you equip on her. She has three "levels" of Nibelung Valesti. This is the first level version. She'll get the second level from weapons eventually. The third level is mainly seen in the bonus dungeon.
And we win! Simple as that. I'll explain "Magic Gem" when we get some.
New enemy here: Ghast. It's a little more powerful than a Lesser Vampire, but not by that much.
"Prepare to be cleansed!"
"Divine Assault!"
"Ether Strike!"As I've already mentioned, it's very powerful, but adds only 10 to the combo meter. Save it for last.
I know how to look for treasure, Freya.
Oh, this is actually useful.
Eyes of Heaven are basically like the map item in most Zelda games, except you have to use it in order to reveal the rest of the map. It's not really too useful, and they actually convert to a good amount of MP.
Oh my god, shut up, Freya. I'm not stupid.
Look, we opened a door. Amazing.
Shut. Up.
"This is divine punishment!"
For now, the Purify Weird Soul of a mage is just whatever spell they have as their attack spell (Fire Storm, in this case) cast three times. Fire Storm in this way doesn't do well as a PWS because the second blast generally misses. Mages can access a more powerful PWS in the form of Great Magic, but we won't be able to use that for a while.
I think we somehow inflicted Stun on the enemy! When stunned, an enemy cannot act. It only lasts for one round, but it will also end if the enemy is attacked again after being inflicted with it.
Yeah, even Valkyrie's super jumps won't get us up there.
Crystals are... interesting. They let us freeze enemies in their tracks so that we can avoid battle, and they can serve as platforms. Use the square button to make them.
Crystals obviously look like this. You can shoot a crystal at a crystal to make it a little larger. Small crystals will crack if jumped on once, and will break if jumped on again. Large crystals will crack if jumped on twice, and will break if jumped on after that. If you shoot a large crystal, it will explode, which will send Valkyrie flying back if she's near and leave some dust behind. You can jump in this dust and use it as a platform, but it'll last only five seconds (unless you're on it, which in that case it stays until you jump off of it).
We. Know. That. Already.
Again, we know. I'll show off some of the other uses of crystal as I need to use them.
We can't get around this pillar... yet.
Okay, new mechanic! Those orbs you see can get knocked out of an enemy if you hit it while it's knocked down. Those will automatically reduce Charge Turn between your characters, so that'll help you get your magic and PWSes off more.
I took this a little late, but you can barely see a treasure chest knocked out on the ground. I think you can get treasure chests from hitting the enemy in the air, but I'm not sure.
Magic crystals I know you get when the enemy is being hit while in the air. They'll increase the amount of experience you get after battle by a set percentage per crystal.
And we get a Vegetable Seed. Okay...
This is our map, by the way. It's accessed via R2. If you use an Eye of Heaven, all of the rooms you haven't seen will show up as blue rectangles.
Pongos are a bit more dangerous. They hit somewhat hard and have a good amount of HP, but a good chain should take them down.
Uh, sure?
Upon hitting this twice, it falls over.
And we get Event Experience!
I'm aware.
This chest actually has a trap in it! I missed the screenshot, but it basically was a massive explosion. There are three types of traps: explosions (either large or small), spray (either freezing or poison), and arrows (either normal or poison). Essentially, flee form explosions, duck under spray, and jump over arrows. That's it.
Hey, an Element Specter!
It's the first weapon that allows Great Magic... but it's breakable. However, if you use menu magic with it, it won't break. So, what does that mean, you ask? I'll answer that as soon as I get into another battle.
Our first new spell!
Okay...
Oh, really? I don't know how reading it equals learning the spell. Shouldn't it take years of research or something? Ah well.
Oh yeah, we'll be getting skill books too. Some are more useful than others.
Here's an example of floating on the crystal dust. I honestly don't think this is how you're supposed to get the treasure above, but it's how I did it. I think the proper way is to blow up a crystal on a nearby platform to launch Valkyrie over, but this works too, even if it takes longer.
Hey, our first Valkyrie-exclusive Possession! These Possessions can only be equiped by Valkyrie, but they grant special field effects. This one will make a blue orb float around you when there's unopened treasure chests in the room you're in.
I have forgotten to show off the battle menu. Essentially, you can skip your turn, use items, reequip yourself, use magic, reorganize your formation, and run away.
Breakable staves won't break if menu magic is used. So, Jelanda can essentially wipe out everything without too much effort at this point and won't even risk breaking the Element Scepter.
Goodbye, Lesser Vampires.
And we've made it to the end!
Looks pretty empty to me... by the way, our pre-boss theme for the game plays here:
Turn Over a New Leaf (Rhythm version). I have no idea why it's on the second disk when this version of the song is used before every boss battle except the final one, but I'm not going to judge the person who organized the soundtrack of the game TOO much.
A vampire! Look, dude, I don't really know what you've been doing, but I don't think it's good...
Of course.
Hell yeah, it's undead slaying time!
Well, we kind of trudging our ass over here because you have been causing enough of a disturbance to show up in Spiritual Concentration, so you really shouldn't be amused.
Well, we dealt with all of your flunkies, so I'm pretty sure we can deal with you.
Gee, thanks.
Oh, really?
Now, we won't get this sword properly until later on. It does allow Valkyrie to hit three times, though, and it's MUCH more powerful than her Antler Sword. So let's put that thing to use!
Looks like the Elder Vampire has some bodyguards. This might be dangerous...
And here's the only tutorial directly from the menu that I'll be showing. Essentially, if an enemy blocks, you can keep up your combo. By pressuring the enemy in this way, you can perform a Guard Crush and automatically inflict Stun on the enemy. For these guys, who I assume have a very good DEF, that's pretty much the only way to deal with them. Another note, though: Magic attacks automatically cancel an enemy's guard, so hitting with a magic attack and then comboing off of that will let you deal damage without having the Guard Crush the enemy. This of course means you won't end up Stunning the enemy, but sometimes it's a better option.
The Elder Vampire can use Fire Lance for massive damage, but other than that the rest of this fight isn't too bad.
You can notice up at the top that the square button (which represents Valkyrie) has three attacks under it. This serves as a reminder to how many attacks you've got. You actually don't have to use all of your attacks in one combo in a turn. You can actually have a character save some attacks to start a different combo on the same turn. Whether you want to do that is up to you and the situation (for example, some enemies can revive others if they're all not killed on the same turn, so breaking up a combo willingly is a good idea in such a situation).
Let's see Valkyrie's new and improved Nibelung Valesti!
Whoa, that's new.
Oww. Well, we won't be able to use this version again for a while, but eventually we'll be able to use it on a regular basis. And there's a third version after that, as I've already mentioned. The Elder Vampire dies quickly after this.
That's that.
After a boss fight, you'll get these treasure chests. They are Artifacts. They're special.
They even have their own theme, which is called...
Artifact. Very creative, guys.
Anyways! I think the Sealed Box can be transmuted into something, but I forget what. I'll wait a little bit on doing anything with this until later.
When I first played the game on Normal, I never took any Artifacts because of this. You will lose five Evalutation for every Artifact you take.
However, you can take every Artifact in the game and never worry about Evaluation. As long as you send up Einherjar each Chapter, you're fine.
It's a better sword than what I have, I guess. Not too bad.
And that's everything! We also have a post-dungeon clear theme that plays after you choose what to do with the Artifacts:
Blameless Thoughts. It's pretty cheerful, but let's not focus on that. All of the enemies we haven't killed will now be gone, so we just need to walk back to the entrance.
Thank goodness, I'm getting tired of those forced tutorials.
Yeah, I know that.
It keeps going on and on, doesn't it?
Right...
It's not as if time will never stop. That's a given.
Uh, okay? I think it's more important for us to focus on getting work done, but sure, I guess.
Yep, we have a time limit. Every time we enter a town or dungeon or use Spiritual Concentration and find something, Periods are taken up. When all of the Periods of a Chapter are over, the Chapter ends, Freya checks up on us, and then we start a new Chapter. At the end of Chapter 8, though, we don't get checked up on: We go IMMEDIATELY to Ragnarok, wherein we'll go to the final dungeon. So, look forward to that!
Huh? Arngrim seems like he would be pretty good up in Valhalla. They take all kinds, last time I checked.
Are you seriously going to introduce morals into this thing? Last time I checked my Norse mythology knowledge, as long as you died well in battle you went to Valhalla. Well, I guess Arngrim committed suicide, but he's still a brilliant warrior! And he would have probably died in battle if it weren't for your interference anyways!
Well, there is a specific reason why Arngrim isn't allowed into Valhalla, but that's not explained in this game.
This basically means we'll get our Einherjar back when Ragnarok begins. Good to know, I guess.
Him/her? Okay...
And seven more times before then. But yeah, Ragnarok.
Okay...
So, even though original Norse mythology didn't really cover the morals of Einherjar, we're going to have to worry about it ourselves.
Actually, it doesn't matter much as long as you send them with something (as in don't strip them completely, but give them some low-tier stuff and you'll be fine).
I've played this game three times before. I DEFINITELY understand.
We can also ask the sprite what Freya wants from us for an Einherjar (and you want to ask now because Freya didn't specify anyone... which is kind of rude).
So send up anyone, huh?
Okay, Hero Value. Yeah. Has to be at least 40 for this Chapter. Hero Value goes up through both levels and through putting CP into Traits. That's really it. There will always be a Necessary Hero Value each Chapter, in addition to other requirements.
Also, I'll only be sending up one Einherjar per Chapter. Sending up more will grant you bonus MP per Chapter, but not much else. As long as you send up one Einherjar that matches all of the necessary requirements, you'll get all of the best items.
DAWN OF THE FIRST CHAPTER. Well, that's it for this update. Next time, we'll tackle Chapter 1 and see what Einherjar are out and about.
Summary: Treasure: Iron-Barred Key, Eye of Heaven, Vegetable Seed (x3 treasure, x1 drop), Element Scepter (Jelanda), Foxglove, Fire Lance, Nighshade, Quartz Gem, Savory, Angel Curio, Treasure Search (Valkyrie), Book of Everlasting Life
Artifacts:
Sealed Box, Jewelled Blade "Grimrist"
TPKs: 0 this update, 0 overall
Frustation: Actually, I don't think I need this section.
I said I'll try finding some videos for the Purify Weird Souls. I'll link those at some point, but not right now.
One last thing: I'm pretty sure I covered everything properly in terms of the game mechanics, but if I missed anything could you let me know? I'm a little uncertain on the specific mechanics on how much each successful Purify Weird Soul gets boosted based on chaining position.
