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[Dedication Through Light]

Getting into chapter 13 now, I've heard this is a difficulty spike? Will it matter that I'm around lv 150, with 100% scratch ability?

I am loving this game so far. It's not traditional, but its got me hooked!

Difficulty Spike? Ive not encountered any, finished all the bosses through the final one (not yet) easily thanks to 100% scratch, and that 100% Stun.

--
Got stuck in Neverland last night, actually the fight with 5 of those Fairy enemies is brutally difficult in the second room (and my chars are level 300 (Zephyr), 260 (Vash), and a 240 (LeAnne)).

 

[Grampasso]

There something I didn't get about this game... Accepted the first mission, went out (someone in the town told me there was some kind of training ground or something like that near the city).

First step in the map I get a random encounter. Fine, it will be easy, I'm at the start of the game.

My characters don't manage to hit enemies a single time, game over.

The game is still in its box since the past Autumn.

 

[Abylim]

I also found this game pretty difficult in the first few chapters, especially chapter 4.
All I can say is, use the MG first always, then hit them with a HG. Honestly, I've spent the last 12 or so chapters basically hero running with a MG, then either shooting with a HG, or hero running.

It sounds simple, but its actually pretty cool. I'm still wanting more. Hopeing Neverland has some interesting things to throw at me.

If you're on the fence about playing it, my advice is play upto chapter 3, while trying to learn the battle system. If you still dont like it, then its not for you, but give it a shot. It's fun!

Oooh, and try and level the weapons equally, as in, use handguns machineguns and grenades to gain levels. It really helps you get to a point where you can dual weild machine guns. After I could DW MG's, the game got a lot easier.

 

[Grampasso]

I also found this game pretty difficult in the first few chapters, especially chapter 4.
All I can say is, use the MG first always, then hit them with a HG. Honestly, I've spent the last 12 or so chapters basically hero running with a MG, then either shooting with a HG, or hero running.

It sounds simple, but its actually pretty cool. I'm still wanting more. Hopeing Neverland has some interesting things to throw at me.

If you're on the fence about playing it, my advice is play upto chapter 3, while trying to learn the battle system. If you still dont like it, then its not for you, but give it a shot. It's fun!

Oooh, and try and level the weapons equally, as in, use handguns machineguns and grenades to gain levels. It really helps you get to a point where you can dual weild machine guns. After I could DW MG's, the game got a lot easier.

Uh... I'm not on the fence, I never even considered the possibility of giving it another shot (XD) since I put it down.
BTW thanks for the tip, if I ever feel the urge of playing it I'll follow your directions =)

 

[Abylim]

Baw, sorry! I read that somehow like you seemed interested, my bad =P

 

[Vally]

I'm stuck at Chapter 11, any tips on how to beat

Spoiler

Lagerfeld

? Most of the times when I try to shoot him with the machinegun he just teleports and I rarely manage to hit him, and the bunkers are pretty much useless since he always teleports right next to me. I love the game so far, but this fight is really putting me off :/

 

[Bisonian]

I dont have EXP rings on all of them yet but I did put the 1.5x on it, and two EXP rings on Zephyr (dual wielding MG) and one on my HG character. Gonna do ranks up to 40 today (35 all starred) at chapter 9. Any minimal level for getting through Neverland, or would I need to grind by that time...(if Im at around 67-77 now)

Well, for starters you need someone with level 100 HG and someone with level 100 MG. After that, you are really just accumulating health. I've read 10,000-12,000 is a good range to aim for for each character. (For reference, I ended up around 14,500 and that was more then enough). You will need to customize your weapons as well to maximize charge acceleration and speed.

After that, good tactics will win the day, here's a few for later on:

Your MG at level 100 will get 100% full scratch and 100% stun, you can guarantee to get that by running along the ground towards the enemy then jumping before him and holding it until the very end.

For your HG user, aim for tagging the scratch target for damage, then dropping about ~20 charge onto two different other enemies which should break their gauges and stun them. Between these two steps you should be able to stun 3 enemies per round of turns, and yes that works on any enemy.

Your third character will probably soak damage at the door while the other two go to work. Equip them with the health kit and have them run behind cover if they take too damage.

Remember that your scratch damage will heal while you hero run, so if someone needs to get some life back, have them run across the stage. Also, if a nasty attack is focused on someone (red bar or almost ready to fire), hero running with that character while they shoot will nullify it since you are invincible while it's going off.

You will still probably need to come up with some tactics against some of the encounters, but with everything above you should have no problems finishing it off. Good luck!

 

[Abylim]

I'm stuck at Chapter 11, any tips on how to beat

Spoiler

Lagerfeld

? Most of the times when I try to shoot him with the machinegun he just teleports and I rarely manage to hit him, and the bunkers are pretty much useless since he always teleports right next to me. I love the game so far, but this fight is really putting me off :/

Are you hero running?
If you are, and you're still not getting it, equip grenades, you can cheap this encounter pretty easily.
Equip Zephyr with a Machinegun and the Grenade Case which should contain Hand Grenade ++. You can
run and jump and lob grenades at him which will restore bezels, remove some of
his HP, and stop him attacking if you time it so he's in the middle of charging
up his attack. Land behind the red button and you can step onto it to erect the
bunkers halting his attack. He can teleport himself next to you if you don't
manage to stop him in time, and that will hurt if he hits you before you get a
chance to run away from him. (But even if you lose some bezels, don't give up
too quickly because you can still defeat him!)

 

[Vally]

Finally, I beat him

Yeah, I was hero running all the time and couldn't restore any bezels so I'd always die very soon, but throwing some grenades ++ just when he's about to attack with those spear things restores at least 3 or 4 bezels so that helped a lot. Thanks for the advice!

 

[Abylim]

Grats!

I'm going to continue today, looking forward to unlocking neverland hopefully!

 

[Dedication Through Light]

Wow finally, thanks to youtube and whoever did that video I was finally able to get through this section of Neverland. Took me so many hours. I hope the bosses in this place are less difficult than this.

 

[Abylim]

Just got my ass handed to me by these mannequin type things in chapter 13. they were in a red hex. Whoa, I need to put on some fire protection, and freeze em or something.
It amazes me that there would still be an encounter that can hand me my ass, when I'm 150+ =D

 

[toastyToast]

So I just started this today and I have no idea what I'm doing in battle.

After about 20 minutes I fogured out how to draw tge line things and everything was fine. Then I got up to the power plant area and that robot thing is wrecking my shit. Is it possible to take this thing down at level 5? I can kill the dogs but I keep finding myself running out of the line things and my characters become useless.

What is the general battle strategy? The game doesn't explain shit.

 

[Dedication Through Light]

So I just started this today and I have no idea what I'm doing in battle.

After about 20 minutes I figured out how to draw the line things and everything was fine. Then I got up to the power plant area and that robot thing is wrecking my shit. Is it possible to take this thing down at level 5? I can kill the dogs but I keep finding myself running out of the line things and my characters become useless.

What is the general battle strategy? The game doesn't explain shit.

You didnt go through the tutorials in the arena? I thought it was pretty helpful for figuring out how to play. The plan I usually employed was use the middle person to fly out, then the second person, then always do a 2 Resonance Point attack, using L1 to switch to whoever is the machine gunner to scratch the opponent first.

 

[orion434]

There something I didn't get about this game... Accepted the first mission, went out (someone in the town told me there was some kind of training ground or something like that near the city).

First step in the map I get a random encounter. Fine, it will be easy, I'm at the start of the game.

My characters don't manage to hit enemies a single time, game over.

The game is still in its box since the past Autumn.

This happened to me, who thought it would be a good idea to put the tutorial between the start and an area in which random encounters occur?

 

[thcsquad]

Well, you're completely overpowered. Not sure if this matters to you in one way or another.

Definitely. I'm not sure I was levelled that much when I beat the game.

 

[Dedication Through Light]

Finally finished the game and cleared just about everything. Either the final bosses were just a complete joke or I was just too leveled (300 Zephyr, 260 everyone else). Even the bosses in Neverland were just easy, just time consuming (healing scratch damage nearly instantly).

I have no clue what happened with the ending though, but I just have to replay to get the final two trophies, so I will pay extreme attention to the story to understand. Definitely in the top tier of RPGs Ive ever played (and actually my most played game ever, 170 hours or so, 16 hours more than my time in Disgaea 3!)

 

[Bisonian]

Finally finished the game and cleared just about everything. Either the final bosses were just a complete joke or I was just too leveled (300 Zephyr, 260 everyone else). Even the bosses in Neverland were just easy, just time consuming (healing scratch damage nearly instantly).

I have no clue what happened with the ending though, but I just have to replay to get the final two trophies, so I will pay extreme attention to the story to understand. Definitely in the top tier of RPGs Ive ever played (and actually my most played game ever, 170 hours or so, 16 hours more than my time in Disgaea 3!)

You were way overlevelled. That and the fact that you can stunlock the last "bosses" make it kind of silly.

For the story recap, I went to wikipedia to fill in the blanks. It has a very comprehensive analysis of what goes on. I have no idea how they figured it out from what's presented in the game, but it's pretty excellent.

 

[∀ Narayan]

I definitely plan on playing this game to the fullest within this year.

 

[Kronotech]

I keep finding myself running out of Hero actions and going into "danger" mode mostly with bosses and higher level baddies. It happens with regular battles from time to time and when it does, it's a big circle of:

Baddie hits me, knocks crystal out, heals self, I knock one out, baddie gets it and heals self, and repeat until I realize it won't go anywhere.

Any tips for those scenarios?

My typical regimen is machine gun runs to the left/right giving chip damage, handgun follows the opposite side damaging the chipped, and then tri-attack to the others. Bosses are where it hurts, when you can't recover from "danger" unless you kill an enemy right?

 

[Dedication Through Light]

I keep finding myself running out of Hero actions and going into "danger" mode mostly with bosses and higher level baddies. It happens with regular battles from time to time and when it does, it's a big circle of:

Baddie hits me, knocks crystal out, heals self, I knock one out, baddie gets it and heals self, and repeat until I realize it won't go anywhere.

Any tips for those scenarios?

My typical regimen is machine gun runs to the left/right giving chip damage, handgun follows the opposite side damaging the chipped, and then tri-attack to the others. Bosses are where it hurts, when you can't recover from "danger" unless you kill an enemy right?

You recover bezels when you do enough damage to clear a gauge or destroy a gauge. You should charge your handgun up enough so you can do gauge breaks in order to recover bezels. You also dont need to always do Hero runs as well.

 

[Jhoan]

Wow finally, thanks to youtube and whoever did that video I was finally able to get through this section of Neverland. Took me so many hours. I hope the bosses in this place are less difficult than this.

What did you do to take you out the Tank, the 2 turrets, the 2 fat gunners and the 2 skinny gunners in the middle hex of the first section? I haven't been able to get past that one at all and I have a level 100 MG user (Vashyron) and late 70s HG users. I've looked at the Let's Play videos on Neverland that this dude with a German accent did and I still haven't been able to take them out and that guy's party members were all at level 300.

 

[Dedication Through Light]

What did you do to take you out the Tank, the 2 turrets, the 2 fat gunners and the 2 skinny gunners in the middle hex of the first section? I haven't been able to get past that one at all and I have a level 100 MG user (Vashyron) and late 70s HG users. I've looked at the Let's Play videos on Neverland that this dude with a German accent did and I still haven't been able to take them out and that guy's party members were all at level 300.

I always focused on the gunners first since they have the most annoying and damaging attacks. Always tried to get full scratch damage on them through a hero run up to the platform and then immediately back down since they dont heal that scratch damage down. Then a HG to get them both. Then the tank. Then after that moved them behind that bunker (kept Leanne as bait in that alcove since one of the turrets would try to fire at her and would miss due to the placement of the ledge, and slowly took the turrets out with everyone at a far distance away. Well thats how I did it even though it took long.

 

[Kronotech]

You recover bezels when you do enough damage to clear a gauge or destroy a gauge. You should charge your handgun up enough so you can do gauge breaks in order to recover bezels. You also dont need to always do Hero runs as well.

That sounds like something I could add to my tools. I think I've been focusing too much on only using Hero actions. Thanks partner.

 

[toastyToast]

You didnt go through the tutorials in the arena?

I went to the arena and I kept being told that they weren't ready for me yet so I went ahead and finished the chapter.

Is there a way to access the tutorial in chapter 1?

 

[Dedication Through Light]

I went to the arena and I kept being told that they weren't ready for me yet so I went ahead and finished the chapter.

Is there a way to access the tutorial in chapter 1?

The tutorial at the second desk in there is available.

----------------------
Just started the second playthrough, wonder how fast I can get through just doing these story missions. Probably run from every battle since there's no benefit really if my characters are already maxed...

 

[johnsmith]

I'm on mission 4, and I can't believe I already spent 10 hrs on this game.

It's not very good, and I have 0 motivation to keep playing. It's too damn hard, and I'm not finding the battle system fun in the least. I'll probably stop playing it as soon as Portal 2 comes out and never come back to it.

There is literally no story to speak of yet. The character interactions with the 3 main characters are funny, and I like the voice actors, but there's just not enough of it to keep me playing.

 

[P90]

I'm on mission 4, and I can't believe I already spent 10 hrs on this game.

It's not very good, and I have 0 motivation to keep playing. It's too damn hard, and I'm not finding the battle system fun in the least. I'll probably stop playing it as soon as Portal 2 comes out and never come back to it.

There is literally no story to speak of yet. The character interactions with the 3 main characters are funny, and I like the voice actors, but there's just not enough of it to keep me playing.

I wanted to like this game, but the battle system was far from intuitive. In theory, it looked quite interesting and unique. After about 4 hours of frustration, I packed up the game and sold it.

 

[Dedication Through Light]

Wow really? Anyway finished the game a second time. The second playthrough took literally less than 8 hours (I guess thats the benefit of being max levelled and running through everything since there are so many bezels!).

The story was definitely better the second time than the first since I could pay attention to everything in quick succession and battles were still fun even though I was maxed and not getting any benefit. 183 hours for my Platinum Trophy. lovely rpg.

 

[Teknoman]

Battle system and soundtrack/environment design are really nice...but it does kinda suck that there isnt much of a main story. Really like the dynamic battle music during boss fights. Whenever I jump back in, really going to have to look at the tutorial again.

 

[Leucrota]

Battle system and soundtrack/environment design are really nice...but it does kinda suck that there isnt much of a main story. Really like the dynamic battle music during boss fights. Whenever I jump back in, really going to have to look at the tutorial again.

I have found the battle system to be like riding a bike, you never really forget how to use it for the most part, but you will have to have your memory jogged on some of the specifics. I am not very good at video games and I am not finding this game too hard.

The only thing I do differently than most people I guess is grinding in the Arena. I can imagine the game may be somewhat hard if you just try plowing through the story. I also like having all of my characters with approximately the same level in every attribute.

I don't much care there is not much story because I hate the stories in almost every single game (except Mass Effect) or don't understand most of them anyway (Bayonetta).

 

[Jhoan]

I finally beat Neverland after staying up until 5:30AM to do it and it was worth it for the Gold guns and the levels, so I'm satisfied. Unfortunately, I haven't decked them out with Long Scope Elites because I had to get Armor Piercing Rounds (which are awesome and extremely important for anyone who just got the game), so I'll get them as I grind for the stars.

Spoiler

Sullivan and the girl with wings were a huge pain in the ass and I was using 2 level 100 SMG users, with one rocking the Gold SMG and a level 100 HG with 2 gold gun; it took me about 5 tries to beat them by spamming Hero Actions, Tri-Attacks and stuns but it was good, although the panda, pig and reindeer costumes for beating them was a bit of a let down, even though the best reward of the dungeon were definitely the gold guns. They were definitely a lot tougher than Rowen; Rowen was a joke compared to those two. The cutscene dialogue was o.k I guess, kind of redundant.

Now to finish getting all the stars in the Arena and get to and take out the rank 50-1 boss (I'm currently at Rank 48-2), and then the NG+ run should be a breeze.

 

[show me your skeleton]

mannnnn this game seems to be created with the full intent to punish the player, particularly at the beginning. is it even possible to recover from 'critical condition'? why on earth is the auto-attack when your turn ends an accessory, not the default? the battle system is fresh & interesting but i feel you're thrown in the deep end right from the get go.

 

[Boss Doggie]

I don't much care there is not much story because I hate the stories in almost every single game (except Mass Effect) or don't understand most of them anyway (Bayonetta).

I chuckled.

 

[Dedication Through Light]

mannnnn this game seems to be created with the full intent to punish the player, particularly at the beginning. is it even possible to recover from 'critical condition'? why on earth is the auto-attack when your turn ends an accessory, not the default? the battle system is fresh & interesting but i feel you're thrown in the deep end right from the get go.

Well later bosses do enough damage to essentially clear out 7+ Bezels. Its possible to recover when its just one enemy foe since their AI sometimes gets wonky and they stupidely get stuck near walls or chase bezels while the MG can still do plenty of damage on a gauge (though I hate how the HG will miss or the grenades will sit on the ground unexploded). Though since we can infinitely retry fights (money becomes no object), it isnt that much of a hassle.

 

[show me your skeleton]

sometimes i feel i'm just about ready to get rid of this damned game, haha. arrgh.

 

[toastyToast]

God freaking damn. An entire hour spent trying to take down the Tesla Tortoise and I finally beat it in critical condition. Shit was intense.

Was I underleveled? My party were all on 7. I had to execute my plan to a T and I just made it.

This game is fucking awesome.

Fuck this.

 

[Jhoan]

God freaking damn. An entire hour spent trying to take down the Tesla Tortoise and I finally beat it in critical condition. Shit was intense.

Was I underleveled? My party were all on 7. I had to execute my plan to a T and I just made it.

This game is fucking awesome.

Fuck this.

I think so; I think level 9 or 10 would have been good. Have you been grinding in the Arena and customizing your guns? Since you're in the beginning of the game, focus on increasing charge acceleration and charge speed. As for getting out of Critical Condition, there are optional battles on the over world that increases your Bezel Shards by one half as well as through the story boss battles in case you don't know. You got pretty lucky. At that the early point in the game, you should have one MG user and two HG users. Vashyron is the best character with the MG as he gets 5% full scratch at an early level and don't forget about the fact that you have grenades and a magazine case too.

In other news, I took out the rank 50-2 boss after a couple of retries, so now it's on to star grinding through the ranks and I've gold starred all the bronze ones and a little bit of the silver one so I'm up to 22-4; it's gonna be a while before I get all the stars as it's very time consuming, but at least I'm getting levels up through it and the battles are relatively short because my characters are overpowered and the gold guns.

 

[Dedication Through Light]

I think so; I think level 9 or 10 would have been good. Have you been grinding in the Arena and customizing your guns? Since you're in the beginning of the game, focus on increasing charge acceleration and charge speed. As for getting out of Critical Condition, there are optional battles on the over world that increases your Bezel Shards by one half as well as through the story boss battles in case you don't know. You got pretty lucky. At that the early point in the game, you should have one MG user and two HG users. Vashyron is the best character with the MG as he gets 5% full scratch at an early level and don't forget about the fact that you have grenades and a magazine case too.

In other news, I took out the rank 50-2 boss after a couple of retries, so now it's on to star grinding through the ranks and I've gold starred all the bronze ones and a little bit of the silver one so I'm up to 22-4; it's gonna be a while before I get all the stars as it's very time consuming, but at least I'm getting levels up through it and the battles are relatively short because my characters are overpowered and the gold guns.

I had just focused on the arena as I played through the game, decreased the games sound and like blasted the radio. I think I was getting through each rank in about 45 minutes. The most time consuming part is just switch to have a character grenade, really slows down the speed of a fight...oh and 50-10 took me a long time even at max levels...I dislike the placement of all -10 enemies.

 

[Jhoan]

I had just focused on the arena as I played through the game, decreased the games sound and like blasted the radio. I think I was getting through each rank in about 45 minutes. The most time consuming part is just switch to have a character grenade, really slows down the speed of a fight...oh and 50-10 took me a long time even at max levels...I dislike the placement of all -10 enemies.

I was going to go through the ranks as I went through the story but decided against it and now I've clocked in almost 111 hours with another 10 hours or so to go for the stars because I understood how to link hex terminal effects late in the game so that ended up costing me a bunch of time. I'll turn down the SFX next time I boot it up.

I agree, it's pointless to put 6 more battles to fight on top of the 4 required to move up the ranks. I see what you mean by the -10 battles; they put the enemies all the way in the back so that you have to go out of your way to reach them. That Argos monster is a pain in the ass as are all the monsters of that type. I could only imagine it getting more annoying once I equip grenades onto one of my characters. My the grenade levels for my characters are (V)28, (Z)30, and (L)28 so that's gonna be annoying to level.

 

[Mikhal]

mannnnn this game seems to be created with the full intent to punish the player, particularly at the beginning. is it even possible to recover from 'critical condition'? why on earth is the auto-attack when your turn ends an accessory, not the default? the battle system is fresh & interesting but i feel you're thrown in the deep end right from the get go.

In order to get out of Critical, you have to kill an enemy or destroy a part of their body in order to acquire a Bezel. I think that once you figure out when you gain/lose Bezels, the fighting becomes easier since you can plan out your strategy better. I went through over half the game Hero Dashing and Tri-Attacking my way recklessly into battles only to end up losing all my Bezels and dying. Don't be afraid to lose Resonance Points. Skipping a character's turn and losing Resonance is a lot better wasting a Bezel trying to set up an awesome Tri-Attack that didn't end up killing anyone and pushing you into Critical.

A trick I never figured out till way too late in the game is that If you ever happened to Gauge Break an enemy with your Handgun, that'll Stun them for a short period of time while ALSO splitting their Health Meter into pieces (you'll see lines in the enemy's health bar). You'll get a Bezel for each piece you take down and you can usually Gauge Break them even more to split their life into even more pieces.

 

[Boss Doggie]

To be honest, you don't get much flexibility with three shards at the start. It gets better when you get your first spare bezel though.

 

[Leucrota]

God freaking damn. An entire hour spent trying to take down the Tesla Tortoise and I finally beat it in critical condition. Shit was intense.

Was I underleveled? My party were all on 7. I had to execute my plan to a T and I just made it.

This game is fucking awesome.

Fuck this.

Same thing happened with me at that boss (who is designed so fucking awesomely).

After that, I started to grind in the Arena until I got bored at the beginning of each chapter to make sure I wouldn't get stuck all the time.

 

[Leucrota]

So should you grind to get a certain color hex to link the power up terminals. Have ~30 level characters, but I am not getting enough of the same color hexes to waste some on linking terminals. So should I, or does it become easier later?

 

[whalleywhat]

I think a big revelation I had about this game was that you could reorder your characters so that the one who did scratch damage always started in the middle. Proper strategy is probably more important than leveling.

 

[Skilletor]

Man, there's a lot of stuff to learn in this game.

I'm getting bodied in the opening hour. It seems like everybody gets turns before I do. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I went through the tutorial (very helpful), but these level 4 gunners charge much faster than my characters.

Basic help?

 

[Dedication Through Light]

So should you grind to get a certain color hex to link the power up terminals. Have ~30 level characters, but I am not getting enough of the same color hexes to waste some on linking terminals. So should I, or does it become easier later?

I grinded in the beginning but it wasnt necessary with how benevolent the arena is, the only necessary hexes are the straight blue ones, which enemies end up dropping later on and in the arena. Its the enemies in the crystal cave that give that hex type and I ended up just constantly trying to get enough to at least get EXP boost to the arena as well as the item drop and EXP rings).

Man, there's a lot of stuff to learn in this game.

I'm getting bodied in the opening hour. It seems like everybody gets turns before I do. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I went through the tutorial (very helpful), but these level 4 gunners charge much faster than my characters.

Basic help?

The first focus should be on customizing your weapons for better charge speed, acceleration, and increasing bullet capacity, getting another gun is vital two so one can dual wield. Hang in there!

 

[Skilletor]

The first focus should be on customizing your weapons for better charge speed, acceleration, and increasing bullet capacity, getting another gun is vital two so one can dual wield. Hang in there!

Not frustrated.

I know I'm missing something, I just don't see what.

 

[semiconscious]

I think a big revelation I had about this game was that you could reorder your characters so that the one who did scratch damage always started in the middle. Proper strategy is probably more important than leveling.

i played this game (& loved it) back when it was released, &, yes! - one of my biggest 'd'oh!' moments was simply realizing this ...

 

[Dedication Through Light]

I think it took me to close to 100 hours in the game to do the L1/R1 trick during and before Hero Runs to change characters.