Support NeoGAF

[Psxphile]

omg Schera's Moon door is so long
part of it was because I simply HAD to talk to all of the NPCs multiple times, so it's mostly my own fault


I made it a point not to take breaks when I'm doing a door when it's allowed but I almost had to tap out this time. I persevered, though.

 

[The Illiterati]

I just have to post that I'm loving this game so far, up to Chapter 5. It's by far my favorite game in the series. I think it's mainly because of the pacing. The other games had such slow beginnings, but this one gives you access to so many abilities right away. Then there's the Door mechanic, which allows you to dip in and out of story when you're in the mood, instead of perhaps piling on narrative in a linear fashion. Of course this is only possible due to the buildup of the last two games, but it really is brilliant.

Despite loving everything I've playing of Falcom's so far, I still never thought this game would be giving Persona 5, Horizon, etc a run for their money. This is such a gem!

 

[Gu4n]

omg Schera's Moon door is so long
part of it was because I simply HAD to talk to all of the NPCs multiple times, so it's mostly my own fault


I made it a point not to take breaks when I'm doing a door when it's allowed but I almost had to tap out this time. I persevered, though.

Every single NPC in that door is slinging chunks of lore at you, it's amazing.

 

[Dragoon En Regalia]

On to Chapter 6! I spent quite a bit more time in this dungeon just farming drops from the Arch-Devils and other enemies while leveling characters for parity. The end boss definitely went down quick and easy because I had stupidly powerful gear and levels for Ries and Estelle.

Spoiler

Celeste's AI copy is an interesting but sensible and fitting twist, and I knew that Phantasma had to be the "altered" dimension you accessed via the activated Tetracyclic Towers back in SC

.

Sun Door 2 and 4 are...interesting, and I feel like I lucked out playing both since I cleared them mostly on my first try. Fishing's something I practiced in SC, just following the hierarchy of bait and getting a good trigger finger, but I didn't expect so many missed rounds from my opponents. Without any advice from the OT (or knowledge of blackjack and poker), I beat Halle and Jack after a bit of adjustment. Maybe I'll learn how to play non-simplified versions of card games one day, but I'll settle for the cozy atmosphere and repartee in this Door.

 

[BassForever]

So for those of you who've gotten the full party how would you tier the party in terms of usefulness? Any characters who got noticeable worse or better from fc/sc?

 

[Holundrian]

So for those of you who've gotten the full party how would you tier the party in terms of usefulness? Any characters who got noticeable worse or better from fc/sc?

Don't have a full analysis but

Spoiler

Estelle, Richard, Tita, Kloe, Olivier I thought were top tier gameplay wise.
Not too sure about the others. I feel like there's a middle section where everyone seems super close to each other and then the end of the spectrum for me was Josette I just don't know how to build her.

 

[R_thanatos]

go to the door and enter again

I can't . It seems that i don't have the item anymore in my inventory .

 

[EndcatOmega]

So for those of you who've gotten the full party how would you tier the party in terms of usefulness? Any characters who got noticeable worse or better from fc/sc?

Way too many words about JRPG characters written during break:

Spoiler

Richard: absurd damage output thanks to the low delay after his crafts, high speed and damage anyway and AOE impede.
Sieg: Three locked orbment slots sucks but Lichtkreis Def buff is amazing on hard+ and Kaempfer is a lifesaver if the boss doesn't resist it. Less female-only ATS buff equipment but they still exist for his pet princess. Sanctus Nova does ridiculous damage now.
Kevin: Grail Sphere continues being a champ and has his AT delay/CP spread crafts. King support and not too bad at magic damage either. Attack S-crafts do great damage against demons too which is 90% of what they matter on.
Agate: Wild Rage 2 keeps on truckin'.
Renne: Highest ATS as far as I can make out so maximum Artes damage. Good random encounter clearing crafts. Her HP and Def make her a liability on a few boss fights though. Full line for Orbment.
Olivier: Slightly tankier than the other two mages with okay healing, and impede. No locked slots too. S-breaks kind of suck for damage, though.
Annelace: Unique sword gives her higher than Richard attack, has a decent self buff, a suction AOE, and AT delay. Just a great all-round physical attack package.
Joshua: Absolute monster if the enemies aren't immune to AT Delay. A little 'eh' otherwise. Full screen S-crafts are rare enough to be nice, though.
Tita: Most improved player. Her attack is high enough to actually hurt things now and the lack of healing early game makes Vital Cannon really helpful. Large AOE attacks with blind are pretty good too. Orbal Gear lets her survive and pack a punch in boss fights.
Scherezard: Heaven's Kiss is really, really good. Doesn't really do much else, though. Got an impede?
Julia: Mirageberg has a really low delay after it, it's pretty nice. Attack Orders is a good aoe buff even if you want to replace the speed with Clock Up EX if you can help it and she's a good mage.
Zin: True Distend lasts forever now and Taunt can actually knock off enemy Max Guards. Pity you don't get him till after the fight that matters on. Still does decent damage and is tanky as anything. Rest in peace Thunder God Kick Glitch, though.
Ries: Large AOE is good, ranged impede good, and her resurrection craft is great for fast revival and just trading CP to someone who can use it better. Good all around but missing a gamechanger.
Mueller: High str and pretty high chance to faint. Ragna Bind will drag people to you through Max Guard which is pretty funny, and can be used on a certain boss to stop him buffing his friends if Mueller goes first. Tails off as the other physical characters get more and more broken, though.
Estelle: Morale is good, impede is good, and has a slightly lower delay after her crafts than others (though she's not Richard fast). Her jack of all trades nature bites her a bit though due to how defences seem to work. Still works fine though.
Josette: why do you even exist

 

[Psxphile]

Spoiler

Sieg: Three locked orbment slots sucks but Lichtkreis Def buff is amazing on hard+ and Kaempfer is a lifesaver if the boss doesn't resist it. Less female-only ATS buff equipment but they still exist for his pet princess. Sanctus Nova does ridiculous damage now.

What was even the Thunder God Kick glitch anyway and why was it beneficial? I played through SC twice and didn't notice anything off about it...

 

[evilalien]

What was even the Thunder God Kick glitch anyway and why was it beneficial? I played through SC twice and didn't notice anything off about it...

It would do a hit for each enemy being hit which was not at all intended behavior.

 

[EndcatOmega]

What was even the Thunder God Kick glitch anyway and why was it beneficial? I played through SC twice and didn't notice anything off about it...

It hit for each enemy targeted. Get a clump of 4 enemies together and it would do quadruple damage on each.

 

[jman2050]

Is it just me or is Richard just completely OP in this game?

 

[Dragoon En Regalia]

Is it just me or is Richard just completely OP in this game?

His craft delays are stupidly short, meaning he can simply attack more often (which counts a lot more than much higher STR but with less attacks). I nearly ran Chapter 5 with him before realizing this was going too far.

 

[ThatChairMan]

Is it just me or is Richard just completely OP in this game?

Completely. Give him a +CP recovery accessory, buff with Clock Up EX, then just use Ogre Slash or Divider for days.

 

[EndcatOmega]

His craft delays are stupidly short, meaning he can simply attack more often (which counts a lot more than much higher STR but with less attacks). I nearly ran Chapter 5 with him before realizing this was going too far.

Eh, DEF seems to be a flat subtraction off the damage formulas from what I can tell (not sure though) so a single strong hit can sometimes be better than a lot of tiny scratch attacks despite the CP gain. Like how Agate was the only character who could even reasonably physically damage the endgame enemies in FC.

It's just, well, Richard does a lot more than 'scratch' damage.

 

[Arthea]

I keep losing that capua shooting minigame, I must be doing something wrong, I run out of fast shots (I actually can't shoot at all even if rules say it's slowed, until I let some of the bar recover) the moment I most need it,when there are many targets on the screen, I also assume I'm simply not seeing something because I get hit and don't see by what at times.
send help

 

[ThatChairMan]

For the Nightmare Arena, is Anelace the only one who gets an upgraded weapon from being brought to it?

 

[EndcatOmega]

For the Nightmare Arena, is Anelace the only one who gets an upgraded weapon from being brought to it?

I believe so.

I still brought Zin to that for a bit because I turbo'd past the prompt at the beginning, I'm an idiot.

 

[Nyoro SF]

Moon Door 5 confused the ever living hell out of me. Does the

Spoiler

'320 years old'

mean anything lore-wise? Any response would be welcome.

 

[EndcatOmega]

I would suggest you do hard mode arena.

It won't answer your questions but it'll make everything potentially more confusing!

 

[jman2050]

Chapter 6 Guardian 3

Spoiler

Visual representation of my mental state progressing from first turn 200CP grail sphere until total annihilation.

This is the first time since the SC prologue where I almost regret choosing Hard mode.

EDIT:

Spoiler

Had to use ALL FOUR of my Zeram Capsules and I still just barely won by maybe a turn or two. What a ridiculous fight.

Richard is the MVP of all time.

 

[vkrili]

Chapter 6 Guardian 3

Spoiler

Visual representation of my mental state progressing from first turn 200CP grail sphere until total annihilation.

This is the first time since the SC prologue where I almost regret choosing Hard mode.

EDIT:

Spoiler

Had to use ALL FOUR of my Zeram Capsules and I still just barely won by maybe a turn or two. What a ridiculous fight.

Richard is the MVP of all time.

Spoiler

 

[Massicot]

I like how that's the only (?) fight in the game that allows you to retry on an easier difficulty.

 

[Pellegri Testament]

I like how that's the only (?) fight in the game that allows you to retry on an easier difficulty.

Guardian 4 let's you do so as well.

 

[Nyoro SF]

I like how that's the only (?) fight in the game that allows you to retry on an easier difficulty.

*starts battle*
*boss hits the ground so hard that it creates a gigantic quake explosion that launches characters 50 yards into the air and does 10k*

TIME TO SWITCH SOME CHARACTERS

 

[desmax]

Anyone uploaded Star Door 14 on youtube?

I don't feel like going through all that effort

 

[James]

Hey, has there been any statement or evaluation on how well the is game selling? I don't have a lot of cash atm, but am worried that this release may need all the support it can get.

 

[EndcatOmega]

I am told (though haven't tried) that Tita can trivialise guardian 3 on any difficulty.

Spoilers for fight and door rewards:

Spoiler

he is not immune to the Orbal Gear charge knockback. He doesn't really have long range attacks other than his S-craft.

 

[Pellegri Testament]

Hey, has there been any statement or evaluation on how well the is game selling? I don't have a lot of cash atm, but am worried that this release may need all the support it can get.

https://steamspy.com/app/436670

Considering it's been out for a week at this point and only about a third of the people who played SC (38k on Steam, who knows on GoG, and lol at PSP numbers), beat it, it's doing about as expected. It held it's place on GoG's top sellers for longer than on Steam, but the userbase there is a fraction of what Steam's is.

Unless more people start finishing SC or even FC for that matter, the sales potential of 3rd will always be low. They're not about to rope a significant amount of people into buying the game when it essentially requires you to have played 2 long rpgs to even be able to understand what's going on in it.

 

[Jolkien]

Wonder what kind of sales they need to make it a decent profit since earlier in the thread Sara said it was a small team doing the 3rd, and how much they'd need to finish bringing the series here but with Cold Steel 3 I'm not sure they'd have the time to bring Ao and Zero if they ever do, if only wishing made it so. I have two copies of FC,SC and 3rd so I did my part and I'll buy both Cold Steel on PC as well (got the Vita version)

 

[Tonton]

Moon Door 5 is so sweet and cute

 

[hosannainexcelsis]

"Sorry, I'm good at a lot of things, but pretending to be something I'm not isn't one of them." Sure, Kevin. Sure.

 

[Loz246789]

Spoiler

Loewe is 3 for 3 in kicking my butt,
forcing me to git gud, and also reminding me how great both action quartz and earth wall are.

I'm not quite at the end of chapter six, but despite the lack of plot I appreciate the fact that Falcom just went "Well, it's almost the end of the trilogy, is there anybody left who

Spoiler

deserves a boss fight

? All of them? All of them. Good idea."

 

[SolVanderlyn]

Star Door... 8, I think (Olivier and Mueller)

Spoiler

The way this ties DIRECTLY into Cold Steel is insane. This is the kind of buildup we were getting concerning Harmonia in the Suikoden series, except it was actually realized a few years down the line. It feels completely natural. The writing in these games is superb.

I am growing more and more curious about Lechter. I know some story beats from the Crossbell games, but I've largely avoided major spoilers for the most part, so I'm really wondering what he was doing over there and if he played a larger role than he did in 3rd/CS.

 

[Ascheroth]

https://steamspy.com/app/436670

Considering it's been out for a week at this point and only about a third of the people who played SC (38k on Steam, who knows on GoG, and lol at PSP numbers), beat it, it's doing about as expected. It held it's place on GoG's top sellers for longer than on Steam, but the userbase there is a fraction of what Steam's is.

Unless more people start finishing SC or even FC for that matter, the sales potential of 3rd will always be low. They're not about to rope a significant amount of people into buying the game when it essentially requires you to have played 2 long rpgs to even be able to understand what's going on in it.

I think you also need to account 3rd possibly increasing FC and SC sales (like SC did for FC). Those games need to be seen as whole, because they're so interlinked.
Guess we'll see if there will be an effect during summer sale.
Hopefully the Cold Steel release will also boost Sky sales. Since I think Cold Steel will attract a larger base then Sky due to it being newer and looking better. I can see people stumbling upon Cold Steel, liking it and then becoming interested in Sky.

...I still think not having the games in a complete-your-collection-bundle is a waste though, but what do I know how much this is on Xseed and how much is due to the contract with Falcom.

 

[jman2050]

Oh

Oh my

Star Door 15

Spoiler

I was actually spoiled on this particular plot point and that was still significantly more messed up than I was expecting. For such an otherwise optimistically toned series, when Falcom wants to go dark they go DARK.

Figures that they would put this door in the deepest parts of hell.

 

[JeffZero]

Went ahead and bought the game. I won't be able to play it until I have hardware that can run it (I still have just this Chromebook for now) but after FC/SC blew me away and made me smile during such a tough time in my life last year there's no way I'm not supporting this company.

 

[Theswweet]

Went ahead and bought the game. I won't be able to play it until I have hardware that can run it (I still have just this Chromebook for now) but after FC/SC blew me away and made me smile during such a tough time in my life last year there's no way I'm not supporting this company.

If you can install WINE on Crouton, I've got the game working on my prefix. Just an FYI.

 

[JeffZero]

If you can install WINE on Crouton, I've got the game working on my prefix. Just an FYI.

I'm afraid I'm a complete newb when it comes to plenty of computer stuff and I had to re-read this message like five times before I could even parse it enough to do a Google search, haha. But now I'm looking at the program and it seems like it might be worth the effort of learning the trade. I think I'd need to install Ubuntu...? *continues doing research*

Thanks for the heads-up though.

 

[Theswweet]

I'm afraid I'm a complete newb when it comes to plenty of computer stuff and I had to re-read this message like five times before I could even parse it enough to do a Google search, haha. But now I'm looking at the program and it seems like it might be worth the effort of learning the trade. I think I'd need to install Ubuntu...? *continues doing research*

Thanks for the heads-up though.

WINE = Windows emulation layer, NOT an emulator but basically functions similarly to one allowing Linux users to run Windows programs
Crouton = ChromeOS is already a flavor of Linux, but locked down. Crouton is a program that lets you switch between ChromeOS and Ubuntu (a fully featured Linux distribution) with the press of a button. You can install WINE on Ubuntu.
Prefix = aka, WINE prefix. You can make tweaks to how WINE runs to tailor it to dofferent programs, and having separate WINE prefixes allows for deeper customization while leaving your default WINE settings alone.

It's a little complicated, but after a little tinkering it's not too bad! I've played all 3 TitS game ueing WINE.

 

[Gu4n]

Star Door... 8, I think (Olivier and Mueller)

Spoiler

The way this ties DIRECTLY into Cold Steel is insane. This is the kind of buildup we were getting concerning Harmonia in the Suikoden series, except it was actually realized a few years down the line. It feels completely natural. The writing in these games is superb.

I am growing more and more curious about Lechter. I know some story beats from the Crossbell games, but I've largely avoided major spoilers for the most part, so I'm really wondering what he was doing over there and if he played a larger role than he did in 3rd/CS.

Star Door 8 is definitely more build-up toward the Erebonia arc than the Crossbell arc, but a superb build-up nonetheless. Stellar localisation work once again.

 

[BassForever]

Wonder what kind of sales they need to make it a decent profit since earlier in the thread Sara said it was a small team doing the 3rd, and how much they'd need to finish bringing the series here but with Cold Steel 3 I'm not sure they'd have the time to bring Ao and Zero if they ever do, if only wishing made it so. I have two copies of FC,SC and 3rd so I did my part and I'll buy both Cold Steel on PC as well (got the Vita version)

Once Xseed has finished localizing Cold Steel 3 there will probably be a pretty large gap between the next Kiseki game announced/released in Japan and the time when can Xseed startto localize it. During that gap is when they can target Zero/Ao for release. As fans we can be greedy since Zero's fan translation by Guan and co should be out long before then.

 

[encephalon]

Were there ever books released of the scripts to the Sora games? I know there are for Zero and Ao.

 

[Cqef]

Were there ever books released of the scripts to the Sora games? I know there are for Zero and Ao.

Definitely.
http://www.falcom.co.jp/mailorder/catalog/b49.html
http://www.falcom.co.jp/mailorder/catalog/b58.html
http://www.falcom.co.jp/mailorder/catalog/b67.html

 

[Marche90]

Star Door 8

Spoiler

My mind is blown. And I actually appreciate experiencing the games like this, because I can see how greatly they were foreshadowing the Cold Steel games, whereas I might have forgotten a few pieces here and there had I played the games in order and in time from when they were released

Also, this makes me hyped as fuck for the games set in Calvard.

 

[Aaronrules380]

Nightmare arena final round
*looks at opponents*
welp

 

[Loz246789]

Spoiler

HOLY COW this battle theme is so Ys it's amazing. Definitely a strong contender for the best track in the game so far.

 

[Aaronrules380]

And as soon as I beat the last opponent in nightmare arena my computer froze D:

 

[Rhapsody]

Spoiler

HOLY COW this battle theme is so Ys it's amazing. Definitely a strong contender for the best track in the game so far.

I was thinking Ys too when I got to it lol

I'm pretty much at the end now. This game's been quite a ride. I'm going to really miss it.

 

[Thud]

Nightmare Arena lives up to its name.