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[Danthrax]

That said, the mechanics are pretty good too though, IMHO!
Edit - But I am impressed that this thread didn't die a quick death and totally lack any enthusiasm!

GAF has good taste for once? :lol

 

[Mejilan]

Though incredibly unlikely, I really hope it sells well enough to get a higher budget sequel!

 

[wsippel]

GAF has good taste for once? :lol

I wouldn't complain. This game deserves all the exposure and success it can get!

 

[WreckTheLaw]

Mostly I hope that Sega has a slow burn on their hands here. I think word will quietly creep out on forums and it'll be a sleeper hit.

Sidebar: What game other game does this oddly remind me of? Valkyria Chronicles. I don't know if it's the camaraderie between characters, the way tank building is like ship building, the hard-as-balls-until-you-learn-the-damn-mechanics boss fights or what, but the two strike similar places in my heart.

 

[speedpop]

I just enjoy the fact that I can play a game on the DS that manages to put in scope the size of the universe so well.

 

[vocab]

So someone sell me on this. Is the story good, is the characters good? I was watching some footage, and it reminds me of the PC games in the early 90's, and since space opera games are very rare, I would like to know about the overall quality of the game. I just don't want to blindly buy it, and get something shitty like Star Ocean 4.

 

[Fragamemnon]

So someone sell me on this. Is the story good, is the characters good? I was watching some footage, and it reminds me of the PC games in the early 90's, and since space opera games are very rare, I would like to know about the overall quality of the game. I just don't want to blindly buy it, and get some shitty like Star Ocean 4.

It really does feel like an early 90s PC game, or a really hopped up Amiga title. I mean that in the best way possible, as the gameplay never feels dated or stale in any fashion-it's just the combination of simple, fast battle mechanics, straightforward storyline presentation, and maybe the somewhat questionable font choices! :lol

Regarding the story, I'm only halfway through with Chapter Four and I'm finding the cast of characters pretty interesting, with each character having some unclear motivations and things they want to resolve, and with the behaviors of the character thus far always surprising (but not in that terribly inconsistent way that we see in games sometimes). I do want to know what's going to happen next. It helps that the theme is more 80's space anime than modern anime.

Anyway Drinky said that SO4 assaulted him with a catgirl at some point so on that point alone Infinite Space >>>>>>>> Star Ocean 4.

 

[Mejilan]

Honestly, the Star Oceans never really came close to space operas anyway.
This certainly does it way, way better.

 

[vocab]

It helps that the theme is more 80's space anime than modern anime.

I figured as much, and that's a good thing. Some of those ship designs are straight from Legends of the Galactic Heroes.

 

[Cow Mengde]

Ok, I finally broke down and bought the game. I've only played about an hour, and the combat really does seem pretty lame. But as I said, it's only been about an hour or so of gameplay.

 

[botticus]

Thankfully thing seem to be getting less annoying as time goes on, into Chapter 5 now. Combat is far quicker, outside of boss battles. Still some cases where there's no indication of where to go, but I figure quick Google searches will get me past those.

Is it just me or are fighters worthless? I haven't gotten my own yet, but judging by the two boss battles involving them, they're like gnats.

 

[Nekobo]

Ok, I finally broke down and bought the game. I've only played about an hour, and the combat really does seem pretty lame. But as I said, it's only been about an hour or so of gameplay.

Yeah, the first hour sucks pretty bad, especially with the lack of detailed practice tutorials. Once you finally got the hang of combat, it gets a little better. And then it starts getting good when you get to customize your ship and add crew mates.

So torn between playing this and Strange Journey. Uwaaargh

 

[Danthrax]

So I chose the direct route this time, thankfully didn't have to fight dudes on my way to the base and just had one battle at the pirate base itself. There were three enemies — I must have missed them the first time I played, I guess. Anyway, I targeted the one in front like you're supposed to and pretty much steamrolled them. =)

So now I'm in at the beginning of chapter 3, I'm about to choose which of the commander's missions I want to do first. I already got some medicine for some dude. who gave me blueprints to a couple shitty destroyers. I put like 4 hours straight into this game last night!

Oh and I bought an Orfey-class destroyer and pimped it out with all my cash... the thing is badass and I love how it looks, too. I'm kicking pirate ass, now! :lol

Ok, I finally broke down and bought the game. I've only played about an hour, and the combat really does seem pretty lame. But as I said, it's only been about an hour or so of gameplay.

Yeah, the beginning of the game is kinda slow and a little confusing, but after three hours or so, you pretty much get the hang of it and are HOOKED.

It helps that the theme is more 80's space anime than modern anime.

I just enjoy the fact that I can play a game on the DS that manages to put in scope the size of the universe so well.

I think both of these comments are pretty apt.

 

[Mejilan]

So I chose the direct route this time, thankfully didn't have to fight dudes on my way to the base and just had one battle at the pirate base itself. There were three enemies — I must have missed them the first time I played, I guess. Anyway, I targeted the one in front like you're supposed to and pretty much steamrolled them. =)

Well done. I assure you: targeting the wrong enemy ships is not a mistake you're like to repeat. I had similar problems with the first major boss, not realizing that you automatically target the flagship regardless of its position. I grinded, grinded, grinded until I was sufficiently leveled (lucky?) to take it out without engaging its escorts! :lol

It was only while getting the shit kicked out of me in chapter 2 random encounters that I realized what I was doing wrong!

 

[Cow Mengde]

BTW, was anyone surprised by the first logo that appeared on screen when you turn on the game? Nude maker? Seriously?

 

[Reknoc]

^^ Nope, but then I was super hyped for this game so I was constantly checking information out about it before release.

Picked this up today, not very far but I'm enjoying it so far. Yuri seems like a pretty cool character.

 

[ag-my001]

BTW, was anyone surprised by the first logo that appeared on screen when you turn on the game? Nude maker? Seriously?

I'll be honest, when I first skimmed over the OP, seeing "Nude Maker" and "Yuri" made me double check that I was on GAF and not somewhere else from an accidental spam click.

 

[Mejilan]

BTW, was anyone surprised by the first logo that appeared on screen when you turn on the game? Nude maker? Seriously?

They're the primary developer of the game.

 

[Cow Mengde]

^^ Nope, but then I was super hyped for this game so I was constantly checking information out about it before release.

Picked this up today, not very far but I'm enjoying it so far. Yuri seems like a pretty cool character.

I was on a media black out.

 

[justchris]

I love this game. I've gone to bed late every night since I got it on Tuesday. I'm about halfway or more through Chapter 4, and really looking forward to where the story goes next, although I have a few ideas. This game really is classic space opera, all it's missing is the religious sect with strange powers.

Once enabled, dodge is "on" until your next skill/attack. It'll instantly negate all barrage damage, but it does leave you open to taking extra damage (and crits) from normal attacks.

Don't know if anyone's mentioned it, but this is not true. Dodge only seems to greatly increase your Mobility against Barrage attacks. On the occasions when I've watched the full animations (I like to do that for major story battles), sometimes on dodge 1 shot out of 18-30 will get through. So its not complete protection, but it's pretty hefty.

EDIT: If you feel the need to grind, encounter rate is very, very low when flying between two neighboring areas. If you fly between two areas that have 3 or 4 points in between without stopping, encounter rate rises dramatically. Also, Cruise Speed affects encounter rate. Want to encounter more enemies, take off ship mods that increase Cruise Speed and remove your Engineering and Navigation officers (I think they're the ones who affect Cruise Speed).

Do the exact opposite of this to decrease encounter rate.

 

[WreckTheLaw]

Thankfully thing seem to be getting less annoying as time goes on, into Chapter 5 now. Combat is far quicker, outside of boss battles. Still some cases where there's no indication of where to go, but I figure quick Google searches will get me past those.

Is it just me or are fighters worthless? I haven't gotten my own yet, but judging by the two boss battles involving them, they're like gnats.

Fighters are outstanding (nearly broken) from chapter 7 or 8 and forward. At 32 hours into the game I could launch my 60 fighters, do 150+ damage per second to any ship, and pull out of range and win most fights. But yeah, where you're at they're pretty worthless.

 

[Nimyh]

I seem to be stuck in chapter 2.

Spoiler

I've gone all over Lutsk, got that Efimov guy to join me as well as the two mercenaries in that tavern, got a second destroyer.. and that's it, nothing seems to happen when I visit the Efimov building or the Lutsk Base HQ (already met the commander in space).

What have I missed? I even tried going back to Ropesk :lol

 

[botticus]

Fighters are outstanding (nearly broken) from chapter 7 or 8 and forward. At 32 hours into the game I could launch my 60 fighters, do 150+ damage per second to any ship, and pull out of range and win most fights. But yeah, where you're at they're pretty worthless.

Good to know, then I won't skip over a carrier whenever they offer one to me.

I planned to get a better anti-air destroyer when going up against carriers, but I accidentally bought another cruiser instead. So I've been pretty well rocking it with that pair and my battleship. When do you get access to 4th and 5th ships in your fleet? I'll be more inclined to buy replacement ships when I don't have to worry about selling an old one right before getting the ability to continue to make use of it.

 

[WreckTheLaw]

Good to know, then I won't skip over a carrier whenever they offer one to me.

I planned to get a better anti-air destroyer when going up against carriers, but I accidentally bought another cruiser instead. So I've been pretty well rocking it with that pair and my battleship. When do you get access to 4th and 5th ships in your fleet? I'll be more inclined to buy replacement ships when I don't have to worry about selling an old one right before getting the ability to continue to make use of it.

You get fourth in chapter 9, and I haven't gotten fifth yet... and I"m in... chapter 13? Somewhere in there. Prices continue to go up for even things like cruisers and battleships. That said, at that point you can also fill up Borodino's and Junkyards (this cruiser you can make in chapter 9) with super big holds and do laps to make money once.

Oh, and once you get a carrier, jam it up with the best multi-role fighters you can find and you won't need anti-air at all.

 

[justchris]

I love the characters in this game. No sooner had I read about

Spoiler

Help 2.0

in this thread when I triggered the event for her. And she certainly seems useful,

Spoiler

"My hands are 7,000-degree thermal cutters and I can shoot laser beams from my eyes."

:lol

Even the NPCs have real character to them and aren't as paper thin as in some JRPGs.

 

[Danthrax]

I seem to be stuck in chapter 2.

Spoiler

I've gone all over Lutsk, got that Efimov guy to join me as well as the two mercenaries in that tavern, got a second destroyer.. and that's it, nothing seems to happen when I visit the Efimov building or the Lutsk Base HQ (already met the commander in space).

What have I missed? I even tried going back to Ropesk :lol

It's kinda hard to say based on the information you've given... have you

Spoiler

gone to the actual planet called Lutsk (as opposed to the Lutsk Base) and checked out the Lodgings and the HQ? I believe you need to talk to the commander at the HQ on Lutsk, then talk to him again in his lodgings (also on Lutsk), where he will ask you to meet a dude on a nearby planet in the system. So you go to that planet and talk to that dude in the tavern.

Have you done all of that yet?

If you have, then after that

Spoiler

you need to talk to the commander again on Lutsk in his lodgings. He'll say they have to analyze the chip you got from Tatiana's brother, which will take a while. At this point, you can fly around doing side missions and whatnot. Once you return to Lutsk and talk to the commander AGAIN, he should be all like "Hey we finished analyzing that chip, here's a mission briefing all of a sudden on our plan to attack the pirates. You will help us?" Then you go attack the pirates.

Does any of that help? =P

 

[carlos]

Near the end of chapter 5, 9 hours in, love the game, except for those times that you have no clue where to go next and the constant grind since everything is so expensive.

Not to mention that the game is sometimes damn unforgiving and can kill you quickly if you're careless. One time right after a tough story battle, I got caught in an unescapeable battle before I managed to reach the closest planet to heal

Oh, and Mejilan, I noticed way back in the thread that you were having problems getting commands to register with the touch screen, it's happened to me since I started, so I believe it might just be a problem with small hitboxes... (crosses fingers)

 

[botticus]

Near the end of chapter 5, 9 hours in, love the game, except for those times that you have no clue where to go next and the constant grind since everything is so expensive.

Apparently I've had more of those times than you do since I'm in the middle of Chapter 5 with over 15 hours clocked. :lol

 

[I should be doing hw]

Holy fucking shit at the ending to Ch. 8. I thought this game was awesome already, its now fucking amazing.

Spoiler

Yuri the Man! Holy shit, that was a ballsy move in the story department! So awesome

 

[WreckTheLaw]

Holy fucking shit at the ending to Ch. 8. I thought this game was awesome already, its now fucking amazing.

Spoiler

Yuri the Man! Holy shit, that was a ballsy move in the story department! So awesome

Spoiler

Totes. Been waiting for people around the net to get this far so I can see their reactions. Plus, I love that we get Platinum and NudeMaker logos as if it's the beginning or end of game. It makes the whole first act feel like a delayed intro.

 

[Hazaro]

So I watched the GB Quick Look.
Does combat get any more deep than front/mid/back and rock / paper / scissor meter gauges?
How many ships can you have at once?

 

[WreckTheLaw]

So I watched the GB Quick Look.
Does combat get any more deep than front/mid/back and rock / paper / scissor meter gauges?
How many ships can you have at once?

Just ask the half dozen people here who have posted asking for advice getting past the first or second bosses. If it were so simple as that...

 

[Hazaro]

Just ask the half dozen people here who have posted asking for advice getting past the first or second bosses. If it were so simple as that...

Didn't want to risk some spoilers in the few hundred posts here.
Does the system rely on the same Normal/Dodge/Barrage mechanic?
What does distance determine, etc.

Thanks.

 

[Danthrax]

So I watched the GB Quick Look.
Does combat get any more deep than front/mid/back and rock / paper / scissor meter gauges?
How many ships can you have at once?

You can have up to five ships, but you control all of them as one fleet. But you can target individual ships in your opponent's fleet and your opponent's fleet targets your individual ships. You lose if your flagship is blown up, but not if your other non-flagship ships are blown up. You get fighters and special attacks in addition to Dodge, Normal Attack and Barrage. There are various stats you need to manage when buying and updgrading your ships, all of which affect combat.

In other words, the combat is deeper than it looks on the surface. You won't even understand it entirely until you've played the game at least a couple of hours.

Didn't want to risk some spoilers in the few hundred posts here.
Does the system rely on the same Normal/Dodge/Barrage mechanic?
What does distance determine, etc.

Thanks.

Distance determines whether you're going to miss or not, basically. If a target is outside your range, you'll waste an attack — you won't hit it at all. You can outfit your ships with guns that have longer ranges, or radars that increase range.

 

[Hazaro]

You can have up to five ships, but you control all of them as one fleet. But you can target individual ships in your opponent's fleet and your opponent's fleet targets your individual ships. You lose if your flagship is blown up, but not if your other non-flagship ships are blown up. You get fighters and special attacks in addition to Dodge, Normal Attack and Barrage. There are various stats you need to manage when buying and updgrading your ships, all of which affect combat.

In other words, the combat is deeper than it looks on the surface. You won't even understand it entirely until you've played the game at least a couple of hours.

Alrighty, thanks.

 

[I should be doing hw]

Spoiler

Totes. Been waiting for people around the net to get this far so I can see their reactions. Plus, I love that we get Platinum and NudeMaker logos as if it's the beginning or end of game. It makes the whole first act feel like a delayed intro.

Spoiler

At first I thought the game was over and that I would have to wait for a sequel or something. But then it said Yuri the Man and I let out an audible "Oh shit!".
The logos really gave me a Resident Evil 4 vibe with the whole delayed intro thing. I love that kind of thing.
How far into it are you now? I only just got the suit and died twice trying to Melee that ship. Are there any characters I could miss out on coming up? I don't want to fuck up again and miss loads like I did in Act 1. I like how this is sort of a reboot, even though I assume you get your crew back to some degree.
Oh and did you side with Nova or Kal...whatver? Nova's was pretty epic and you get heaps of cash out of it too.

Though incredibly unlikely, I really hope it sells well enough to get a higher budget sequel!

I thought it had sold well-ish in Japan? I remember somebody posting here saying it listed in some sales thing in the US or something so that could be good news, depending on if that even happened and to what degree it matters though :lol

 

[WreckTheLaw]

Spoiler

At first I thought the game was over and that I would have to wait for a sequel or something. But then it said Yuri the Man and I let out an audible "Oh shit!".
The logos really gave me a Resident Evil 4 vibe with the whole delayed intro thing. I love that kind of thing.
How far into it are you now? I only just got the suit and died twice trying to Melee that ship. Are there any characters I could miss out on coming up? I don't want to fuck up again and miss loads like I did in Act 1. I like how this is sort of a reboot, even though I assume you get your crew back to some degree.
Oh and did you side with Nova or Kal...whatver? Nova's was pretty epic and you get heaps of cash out of it too.

Spoiler

I sided with Kal. You get a few good recruits - Poppas and the other Kalymnos soldier from the security agency, and some guild type recruits too. It all ends with this big showdown where the political arm of Kalymnos has this for-the-greater-good plan to destroy an entire Nova Nocian planet in order to end the war swiftly. The other Security Agent dude whose name I forget is all for it until you and Poppas convince him that his hatred is counter to what his father - who committed suicide after a project co-developed with the Novas failed - would want. In the end he gives his life to save 1.5 million people. It's prettttty epic.

I'm in Yuri the Man chapter 4 now. Let's see. In chapter... 3 I think you get Mariana, who sold you the suit. She's somewhere in the main area where you end up. Like always just check every planet and tavern.

Oh, in chapter four (I think) there's a pirate base that has a floor where if you choose left or right you auto-die. There's a way around this by talking to someone in a tavern on a nearby planet.

In chapter 2 you can get different ships and crew depending on certain choices. Same for chapter four - there's actually a three way branching path there.

By the time you hit chapter four you'll end up with more than enough crew. As it is I have people with 25+ in some stats sitting on the bench. It's frustrating, actually.

Let me know which choices you make, especially about the upcoming Escando sector.

 

[Nimyh]

It's kinda hard to say based on the information you've given... have you

Spoiler

gone to the actual planet called Lutsk (as opposed to the Lutsk Base) and checked out the Lodgings and the HQ? I believe you need to talk to the commander at the HQ on Lutsk, then talk to him again in his lodgings (also on Lutsk), where he will ask you to meet a dude on a nearby planet in the system. So you go to that planet and talk to that dude in the tavern.

Have you done all of that yet?

I'm pretty sure I was already on the planet by that name (rather than the base) and that there was nothing of interest in there but I'll give it another try. What a silly thing to miss, thanks :lol

 

[I should be doing hw]

[Spoiler talk

Spoiler

Really? That Kal branch sounds cool actually. Do you get cash at all from them? You get 20 grand from the Nova guy. Plus extra stuff. The characters you get are pretty lame, the main one is a Nova engineer with a bowl cut and he's your typical flustered type. The other is another engineer that's a chick that he likes. In this branch Kal set off the satellite and it turns out the planet that its gonna hit (the names in this game suck ,I can never remember them :lol) has a massive laser on it. So bowel cut 'sacrifices' himself so set off the laser whilst everyone evacs, the chick turns out to be there too and she saves the day. They end up surviving though so I guess its less emotional than the Kal one. I really wanted Poppas though, he was cool. Couldn't say no to the cash though :lol
The guild extras was a Popeye lookalike and some guy with a pompador/emo type haircut. Can't wait to replay this game already.

 

[WreckTheLaw]

spoilsville

Same guild recruits here. I'm using emo-cut as one of my lead pilots still, and popeye is on artillery chief duty. Also yeah, no money on my route at all. I think the better crewman is the payoff.

 

[I should be doing hw]

I'm thinking you are right, seeing as I'm pretty sure I lost a portion of my money after...that happened? Also, do you know when you can get new blueprints for a battleship? I have that Palas which is the one with the uber-long laser. I want another, better one though seeing as I can have 4 ships now.
Minus spoilers, have any ship recommendations for future battles? Like more AA or fighters or anything? What ships are you running at the moment?

 

[WreckTheLaw]

In general:

AA is worthless, period. It costs too much to use, and it takes up a slot that could be winning you the battle sooner. Have a healthy supply of multi-role fighters

Spoiler

(Intigra are the best so far)

and you are in the clear. By around where you are now I was building up my fighter fleet, and in a chapter or two from there was launching 60 fighters that did 150+ damage per second. Fighters hit your target (and it looks like occasionally other targets in the enemy fleet? I'm not sure on this), and they ignore formation, so if you're ever in serious trouble just launch at the big bad and get the hell out of range. They're basically incredibly powerful DoT weapons that make up for their incredible effectiveness with the fact that they're super expensive. 60 of them at 500 a pop... Well, I coulda had another real ship for that, eh?

I advise save/loading in order to check out every ship. Always make sure it has enough mod slots for you before purchasing.

How are you doing on livability? I think one of the big turning points for me was when I got my livability to a point that I would literally never be above one tenth of the tiredness bar. Keeping that thing in control can really keep even the worst "random" battle from eating you alive.

Specifics:

Soon after chapter 8 (

Spoiler

aka, YtM chapter twoish

) you should find bps for a cruiser called the Junkyard. It has CRAZY mod slots.

Other than that it's sort of to taste. At least one carrier - I use one with only two guns, but it does its job just fine. I have two battleships - but one of those battleships had been a cruiser (and before that a destroyer) for the last few chapters.

When you go to

Spoiler

Escando

you will run into ships with super serious durability. Fighters are the way to do this

 

[Woo-Fu]

I created a money-making fleet.

1 Battleship
4 Junkyard Cruisers

The cruisers have holds, accounting office, and shop.

Makes 500-800 per waypoint.

Made the ~80k I spent outfitting the Junkyard cruisers in about 10 minutes.

Spoiler

Escondido Lane has the rare Hestia transport encounter which is good for 3500 or so, but very few waypoints. Hinwald Sector right next door has a lot of waypoints and I make 10k or so per loop before encounters.

 

[ag-my001]

I was wondering about that: are some modules sorta "shared" between the fleet? For instance, it makes sense that each ship needs a radar module to fire farther, or a crew cabin to have enough hands on deck. But what about the modules that increase "livability", as I think the game puts it. Could you set one ship up as a pseudo-resort to keep fatigue low on all the other ships, or does each vessel need to see to its own needs?

 

[botticus]

Are the chapters getting significantly shorter as they go, or am I just spending far less time fighting and wandering aimlessly? I think I just went through chapters 5-7 in the time it took me to do chapter 3 or 4.

 

[Hyunkel6]

Any tips/strategies for the space battles? Are there any clues when the enemy spaceship is about to use barrage or normal attack? It seems to me that the battles are primarily based on guessing and luck.

 

[botticus]

Any tips/strategies for the space battles? Are there any clues when the enemy spaceship is about to use barrage or normal attack? It seems to me that the battles are primarily based on guessing and luck.

In general, no you don't know. I tend to prepare for barrages and deal with normals. Other than boss battles I think it pays more to focus on your own offense, getting as many normal attacks in as you can then dodging and countering barrages.

 

[Mejilan]

Oh, and Mejilan, I noticed way back in the thread that you were having problems getting commands to register with the touch screen, it's happened to me since I started, so I believe it might just be a problem with small hitboxes... (crosses fingers)

It's definitely not my touchscreen failing, as I first feared. Since first posting about it, I've played about half a dozen touchscreen-heavy games, including Spirit Tracks, and at no point did I have any problems with the touchscreen not properly registering commands. So either the game's got iffier hitboxes than it should, or there are compatibility issues between the game and my flashcart. I'll try playing off the original retail cart later today and compare my experiences.

 

[ag-my001]

Any tips/strategies for the space battles? Are there any clues when the enemy spaceship is about to use barrage or normal attack? It seems to me that the battles are primarily based on guessing and luck.

The colored outline of the targeted ship will tell you what moves they are capable of. If you see them turn from yellow to green, that means they have used Dodge, so you shouldn't use Barrage until after they do something else. If it turns red, they'll likely use a Barrage of their own. One strategy is to use Dodge, then build up to Barrage. Hopefully they'll use Barrage and miss, but if not you just take the Normal hit. Immediately after, you use Barrage so they can't dodge it. Admittedly, this is just through the first two chapters, so I'm sure it'll change up later on.

 

[Hyunkel6]

In general, no you don't know. I tend to prepare for barrages and deal with normals. Other than boss battles I think it pays more to focus on your own offense, getting as many normal attacks in as you can then dodging and countering barrages.

The colored outline of the targeted ship will tell you what moves they are capable of. If you see them turn from yellow to green, that means they have used Dodge, so you shouldn't use Barrage until after they do something else. If it turns red, they'll likely use a Barrage of their own. One strategy is to use Dodge, then build up to Barrage. Hopefully they'll use Barrage and miss, but if not you just take the Normal hit. Immediately after, you use Barrage so they can't dodge it. Admittedly, this is just through the first two chapters, so I'm sure it'll change up later on.

Thanks. I played a little more, and think that I am slowly getting more used to the battle system now.