Stats lagging badly.

They're lagging so badly that there's going to be at least a 30-40 point difference between enemies and Kyle when it comes to AGL in the coming encounters. Don't even THINK about his MANA stat. His HP is going through the roof though, which may not be a bad thing, but it apparently affects the other stats' growth rates. Since I got ahead in the remake (and here I thought I was going to finish the original first), the dragon races are up next, while I'm at Valhalla in the other. Best to choose the slowest dragon for fewer encounters since I can't indirectly control battle order. Yeah, I like the "Fixed Battle Order" that I enountered in MinSaGa and AnSaga. It's already a huge pain trying to bring the human's and esper's AGL up since it's not always guaranteed. In the remake, there's always a base 10% or 5% chance respectively to raise stats, with a 15(+)% bonus depending on battle conditions. I don't even know for the original. Can't seem to find any kouryaku sites that have such data. Perhaps no one cares anymore since the remake is out? Or it's just way too old... Almost 19 years.

To give an idea of how bad this is... Kyle couldn't hit Venus for at least 5 rounds of combat. That's his 14AGL vs her 52AGL. It's up to 15AGL now, after about 30 minutes of grinding in the Base World abusing Punches because they're cheap and can eventually be transferred to my little mecha for a little *ahem* stat tweaking. It needs to be higher...! I need a minimum of 40AGL to feel safe at this point, to maybe dodge and actually hit stuff to not waste uses. I forgot how many Gold Sword uses I wasted against her because I couldn't hit a damn thing. Good thing I managed to cut losses by just using Stone Gaze on her. First round win!

For now, I'll just focusing on raising stats.

Name	Kyle		Miri		Drak		Meka
HP	496	650(+)	315	500(+)	-	-	60	-
STR	24	40	4	4~10	-	-	0	-
DEF	0	10~20	0	10~20	-	-	6	-
AGL	14	40	10	30~40	-	-	5	-
MANA	3	20~30	25	40~50	-	-	0	-

Those stats are where I'd like to be before getting to the Dragon Race fights. Left Drak and Meka out of this mainly because their stats are completely variable based on what you change the monster to and what you put on the mech. Better stock up on some shields soon. Yay for having 0 base DEF and it being incredibly hard to raise. Managed to get a few points in SaGa2DS, but even that's pretty minimal (6 on my human and 3 on my esper). OBVIOUSLY I've been playing this game wrong, but it's an early SaGa where all your stats are derived from exactly what you did, not from innate growth rates+battle actions (MinSaGa) or weird influences (AnSaga). Well, it's more like I hate spending time grinding for stats.

Oh right. SaGa1. Well, just decided to start that up. Guess what I was greeted with... A BLIND IDIOT TRANSLATION. There's a bit of it in SaGa2 as well, but it's a bit better. There is a rather funny spelling mistake at one point, using a homonym for "here" from SaGa2. I wonder if they were serious about translating these games properly. The first thing that seriously annoyed me in the beginning wasn't the translation at all. That part was unintentionally funny because how badly everything was translated back then anyways. It was the tiles and the fact that the game just dumps you at the base of the tower with no real reason. It was just... boring. Nothing really stands out, and it's probably going to be pretty easy to get lost due to the lack of defining features for the areas. It's like I'm stranded in a desert or plains with a tower just there. Also didn't help that the sprite work was just plain ugly. Gameplay is pretty simple SaGa, but obviously lacking the polish of SaGa2. SaGa3 doesn't count. Way too traditional. Another funny thing... The JP ROM and EN ROM share the same save file, which was a weird surprise. That means that I can't have 2 separate runs going unless I get a little creative. Also got the game to corrupt itself in the JP version through what I think was the "inventory bug". It was fun seeing the tiles in all the wrong places.

Woo!

OK! I just beat one of the Death's Arena bosses and got a pretty nice prize from it: 雷神の剣. Sure, the Mythril Sword is comparable since both use STRx11 as their damage output, but I don't know the damage formula for the different categories of weapons. I think I might hit a road block soon in SaGa2DS. Didn't have much trouble with Venus, surprisingly. It was weird... I managed to put her to sleep for a few rounds, which I couldn't do in the original. On the RPGamer forums, specifically the thread about the import impressions, he said that Venus seemed to have gained immunity to Sleep. Didn't have Stone Gaze at that point, so I couldn't check if I could do what I did last night. I'll check in my 2nd run since I'm way past that point now and my other 2 saves are nowhere near it either.

Working on filling out the Renki list as well, but I really like one of the Katana ones; it hits a group of enemies for moderate amount of damage, is physical, and I don't have to waste a Bazooka for it. Most of them aren't visually impressive like the Skills in Romancing SaGa, but the relative amount of damage is MUCH more impressive. Seriously, averaging about only 100~200 damage for a normal attack, and a fully chained Renki? OVER 1500 DAMAGE. Rare, but worth it.

Anyways, road block. New world, haven't explored it with the original yet, and I think I'm lost. Doesn't help that during the dragon race that I finished the fight with exactly one member KO'ed and one other near dead. And finally learned what Limit Drive does, somewhat. You take less damage, dodge more, and for some reason, you might be able to act twice? It's really not something you want to happen since you need to take extreme amounts of damage for it to activate, lasts 3 turns, and I only had about 450MaxHP at the time. So encounters are starting give me a bit of trouble, and quickly approaching the 10 hour mark. So no, you can't beat this game in under 10 hours unless you get really lucky with stat ups and meats for monster evolution.

I'll get to posting another LP entry soon... Just haven't been motivated to do it lately. Blame it on SaGa being so brutally fun to play. It's not to say that DMC isn't in the same boat, just another take on it. An RPG take is what I needed after doing effectively 100 hours of DMC4. Maybe I should finish the other 6 MinSaGa playthroughs at some point?

It really is harder.

So... I got my ass kicked in SaGa2. It's going to get kicked even harder in SaGa2DS. Just got to Apollo's world, and there's a Coliseum. I couldn't even beat Ashura with help from the Muses! Figures... it's Death's Arena/Soul Castle. And that new "Destiny String" system for chaining attacks? You better know how to use it REALLY well by the time you get to the very last battle. If you've never used it, then it's apparently a lot closer to what the original battle was like. Use the system and be ready for a world of pain unless you have really high stats. According to some, having a Meka in the party might become a liability at that point.

OK, I'm not actually stuck in SaGa2DS. Just wandering around in the underwater volcano. However, I'm stuck/hit a roadblock in SaGa2. Venus is giving me quite a hard time right now, and I have no idea how much HP she has. Not exactly sure what my stats should be.

Currently:

Name	Kyle	Miri	Drak	Meka
Species	Human M	Esper F	Sprite	Meka
HP	496	315	218	366
STR	24	4	17	10
DEF	0	0	22	52
AGL	14	10	31	5
MANA	3	25	32	0

So, those are the stats I have right now. I didn't feel like listing my equipment because there's up to 8 slots per character, and I'm always strapped for cash when it comes to equipment. Everyone is so SLOW, except for Drak. Miri's skill set might be important... Wonder if I can petrify Venus/use Stone Gaze? I know that I can't seem to put her to sleep.

EDIT @ 01:37: ... What the hell. Stone Gaze outright killed Venus! No damage, just killed her with the status effect. Still, I need to grind for some stats soon before everyone ends up slaughtered.

Oh. I see.

Yep. I figured out what triggered the flag. It's either very clever or they really got lucky with the programming. Of course, I'm keeping in mind that SaGa games are a complete mess when it comes to their programming (not that I can program...). Seriously, you can beat SaGa1 in less than 5 minutes if you know what you're doing and know how to take advantage of how the game glitches. And the chainsaw against God that's not supposed to work.

Anyways, the flag triggered because of using a very specific cheat to obtain all the Map Abilities before the story event (or finding it) required to get to it (I think, almost there). The Map Abilities are tied to the 秘宝, so if you hack in the abilities first, the game will think that you also have the corresponding 秘宝, and some of those might be tied to certain story events, thus setting off the event flags. It wasn't that hard to confirm. All it took was a little cheating with stats (since that doesn't affect anything else) to get to right after fighting Ashura, since that's supposed to set off the next event: Going to the next world to find the Micron to help Kai. So... while the party was in the Isis Temple, I saved, then activated the "Press select for all Map Abilities" cheat. Then... confirmed that I had all the map abilities in the menu and went up to Kai. Lo and behold, she thanks me for helping her even though I did absolutely nothing. Just that sets the event flag as "complete," and thus completely screws me over from continuing because I'm missing pieces of Magi to get through the next door. Woo. Still, better than fiddling around with that "Trash Can bug" and being left with no pieces of Power Magi. I'm literally left with no Power Magi in the original.

... Need more Kero for equips!

So... I found out why I seemed to not get ANYWHERE for the past hour or so. Seems like I did something or other that triggered an event flag way ahead of schedule, so now that quest is considered "completed." That's not good, since I don't have enough MAGI pieces to get through the next door. Where was I stopped? Good thing it wasn't too far into the game. About 4~5 hours into it. The event flag I accidentally triggered was about going into Kai's body (Ki, for those more familiar with the original release known as "Final Fantasy Legend II") to deal with whatever's causing havoc in there. And to get several pieces of MAGI. And I had just beaten the crap out of Ashura. Cue sarcastic chuckle.

...

I'm much further than that in the original, so... Just encountered an asshat known as Venus. Need to really get moving on raising AGL stats because it's getting harder to hit anything using the Human Male. Also need to start using the shields (or start buying them)to raise DEF stats. Can't keep relying on armor to cover that anymore since the difference is getting a little too big. As in, my tank is DYING CONSISTENTLY. Of course, that may also be because of not raising his MANA stat enough. Still at the default 3, but getting spell books is really expensive.

More SaGa2

Still going along in SaGa 2's original, but I also decided to move ahead in my SaGa2DS file as well. Then I got lost. I think I went to the wrong world, and now I have no idea where I'm supposed to head. Holy %$&^%, how the hell do I get lost that early in a game?! Only took a little less than 3 hours. It also seems like my stat growth is slower in the remake... 

Moving along in the original, I have 32 MAGI pieces now. Unfortunately, my curiosity surrounding a little glitch has left me with no pieces of the Power MAGI in my inventory in one of my save states. Which is pretty bad. Why? My Human Male depends on it for damage, although I should probably stick the Speed MAGI on him, give him a Whip/Rapier/other AGL-based weapons to start upping his pathetically low Speed. Of 5. Damn is this game a grind fest, but completely variable due to the mechanisms. At least my monster is now something more respectable... A Sprite with Sleep, Thunder and Cure. Yay for a secondary healer. Won't be changing that around for the next little bit. So... I have to redo that entire little bit again, but this time, I'll be training his speed! And maybe getting better equips for my little meka? The little guy's fallen behind quite a bit. I need something that can REALLY punch a hole in something. Buy him a Katana? It's only 6800GP, but I don't remember where I last saw those. The Giant's Town? That place is also a fairly good training spot for cash.

Oh! TGS '09 in a day (according to Japan's time from time zone differences)!

Ahahaha.... EAT THE MEAT.

So... Sa・Ga 2 秘宝伝説 GODDESS OF DESTINY was released not too long ago in Japan. Through some rather... shady means, I've been playing that while also working on assignments. Since it's also Sa・Ga's 20th anniversary this year, I've also started playing the original Sa・Ga games from the GameBoy era. Well, more specifically, SaGa 2's original. Probably will get around to playing SaGa1 and SaGa3 at some point.

Just got to the 2nd World in the original since I decided to finish that one first before moving on with the remake. Honestly, I don't know which version is harder, but I seemed to get my ass kicked more often in the remake, which is kinda funny. Perhaps it's due to using a different party set-up? Original: Human Male, Esper Female, Meka, MiniDragon (which is now a BabyWyrm). Remake: Human Male, Human Female, Esper Female, Minidragon (which is now a Red Bone. With CURE?!). It's probably because the Meka's my main source of damage output. I LOVE USING GUNS. Will probably restart the remake for a more balanced party, and to abuse the system a little bit...

Yeah, I'm having a lot of fun with this game. Yes, it's harder than your typical JRPG, mostly because of the monster evolution that's pretty much trial-and-error until you either read a guide or remember. Luckily, the remake features a "Meat Dictionary" (what...?) to keep track of possible evolutionary paths your little monster can take. Oh, and the weird stat growth. It's kinda like MinSaGa's, only almost completely focused on the weapon type and not the character's growth rates, which is practically non-existent except for HP. That's based on class, but I haven't seen my Meka improve. At all. Also heard that you should be able to finish it in 10 hours? Uh... yeah, NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. Even the veterans are having trouble with it.

Just taking a little break...

Yeah, didn't think that I could get all that up so quickly. Turns out that the assignment I'm working on isn't too bad, for now. Anyways, while browsing around the DMC4 boards (PS3 side, obviously), I happened to see a thread about the novels. I've been curious to see a translation for some time now and someone over at Devil's Lair has done just that. Let's just leave it at "some parts actually make sense, and others? WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU GUYS ON?!" Really doubt that the novels will be considered canon, seeing as how nothing seems to make that much sense in terms of a timeline. For some reason, I really like the idea that Nero's DT is his soul literally hanging around him. 

What it stands at right now?
Eva's death, Vergil supposedly dead/disappears-> 9 years to DMC3 manga-> year to DMC3->something or other to DMC1->I don't even know to DMC!anime->16~17(+) years after DMC3 to DMC4 since Nero's about 16~17.
Here's where it might get tricky... Trish, when she breaks Dante's doors with his bike (he doesn't get a break, does he?), she says that he lost his brother (Vergil) and mother 20 years ago. Uh... does she mean 20 years after DMC3 or after the demon attack when they were about 8? Yeah... Best not to think too hard on these things. Besides, the other 2 novels weren't canon! Though, I kinda wished that the DMC1 prequel novel was. It was an interesting read. And whatever happened to Enzo? Ran off to Bayonetta?

Whoops.

Well, I was planning to have my first post up by last night, but.... I got distracted by actually playing DMC4. You know, since DMD mode is now ready for playing? Slowly working through the mode, since everything is quite literally out to kill you now. And can block quite a few of your attacks. And using Busters aren't completely foolproof anymore. Currently VERY happy that I decided not to record this. Doubt that I would even get past the first mission, let alone the rest of the game with a choppy framerate and input delay. Already had to use continues against Berial, which was embarrassing. Bael left me with practically no health left after the fight, but I still SSS-ranked the mission.

With that said, hopefully it'll be up by tonight. Then... we'll see from there because I already have a few assignments that are going to be piling up soon and still want to keep my skill level from deteriorating. If I have even more time, I could add some alt text to some of the pics. Just need to figure out which pics and then edit the html.

Onwards to death!

Well, I've finally unlocked "Dante Must Die!" mode. I feel... somewhat proud of this accomplishment, considering how bad I am at action games. Hell, I'm even pretty bad at hack-and-slash games! So... It didn't take that long for me to get through Son of Sparda mode. About 2~3 weeks, surprisingly. I never finished DMC1's Hard Mode, but that's mostly because I refused to projectile-chip against Nelo Angelo 3. You can chalk that up to pride and extreme stubbornness. Everything else is manageable though! Maybe not so much now because I don't remember what the enemy patterns are like. DMC2... Let's not say anything about that one. DMC3? ... I'm not touching that one for a bit. Might go back to it eventually though. Finished it on Normal, but still slightly traumatised by the difficulty. And the enemies. Really not fond of the designs at all, including their attack patterns.

Onto more important things... I think I might be able to get the first post up soon if I start capping tonight. In the meantime, here's some lulz-worthy play from Heaven or Hell mode.

Done!

Alright! Done recording! Time to fiddle around with capping and splitting up the video files for upload. This run has been extremely embarrassing, and probably not a true representation of my actual skill level. Honestly, the lag was bad enough to screw up the very, definitively last battle that doesn't even have a boss HP gauge. Yeah... I just didn't bother timing how long THAT fight took. It involved almost dying a lot and actually using items. Ugh, I can't believe I used ITEMS. And all 3 Gold Orbs from the Sanctus battle. That basically tells you that I've pretty much given up at this point. Probably didn't help that I played without any lag whatsoever (and MAX-Acting A LOT, almost 1 MAX-Act per 5-7 Ex-Acts performed) yesterday afternoon, then proceeded to start recording without playing around to readjust to the poorer conditions.

May want to re-record Missions 9-11 because I freaked out about what happened with Mission 6's audio (turned out it was just a playback problem that solved itself), and not have them separated into segments until it's needed.

Ham to ham combat...

Yeah. SO... I was recording Mission 17. Got to the infamous ham-to-ham combat scene and RIGHT when Dante finishes his line ("... is such sweet fortune!"), THE POWER GOES OUT. I freakin' lost 20 minutes of gameplay footage right there! Excuse me while I headdesk multiple times, then proceed to re-do everything thus far. Oh, I should also mention that I had to reinstall the stupid program, again.

EDIT @ 17:04 - Whee. Finished that and Mission 18 without problems! Well, depends on what you would consider "without problems." Really do not want to do the Savior battle again... So tedious with the jump pads, and I don't even want to know how many Stylish Pts. I'm supposed to get from smacking around Bianco and Alto Angelos. ... What? I need 5000 points? Screw that...

OK...

I was hoping to get one mission on here by the 1st, but you can see how well that went. Anyways, proceeding with the recordings at the moment, and maybe I'll be able to find a program that'll let me chop up .wmv files nicely. A lot of them run well over 10 minutes right now, and I'm not exactly willing to re-record all 8 of the missions I've done so far. Input lag sucks. Frame skipping sucks. Seeing that the program is dropping ~34% of the recorded frames while only recording at 29.97fps sucks. The game freakin' runs at 60Hz! At least it does on the HDTV, so it should be about the same here.

Anyways... Hilarity will probably ensue starting next week by the looks of things. Trying to get all the missions recorded before uni starts up again.

EDIT @ 17:46: Looks like I have to re-record one mission. The sound ended up doing something really weird. After a certain point, it just ended up a few octaves lower. Really weird. Ah... I'll just re-record it, but the LP will still be based on my hilariously bad run.