Dragging them along...

Holy crap, Rush already learned Spring Squall. Or 霧雨斬り, since I currently have the JP text displayed. Only managed to use it twice so far due to its incredibly high cost at BR11. Thanks to that and 無心の太刀, Namul Niram fell really quickly. Probably only had about 15 000HP. Ran along, struggling along the way with pathetically weak soldiers to past the meeting in Nagapur. Didn't think that I would get there that quickly, but now I have to be a little more mindful about which quests that I might close off since the Aqueducts are coming up pretty fast. I think I'll do what I did last time: leave the Cosmos Maiden quest chain alone since that'll net me the Rank 6 fight. It won't be easy on Hard Mode, but it'll certainly be better than contending with ~2M HP.

Made it up to BR18, and trying to use the Wisdom's Echo grinding spot, but I can't get past linking more than 7 enemy symbols. They simply don't have enough HP to survive anything, nor do they have the equipment to block and reduce damage. They're also really not that bright, not reassessing the situation "properly." It's probably because of how low their respective unique parameters are at the moment. One of the first things to do is raising BR, learning Blackout, and upgrading equips. Actually, they still haven't asked for/cloned their HP and AP/Speed accessories yet. It's seriously compounding on their lack-of-HP problem. Wonder what BR I need to be before they get those accessories...? Or is it because I haven't crafted any of them yet? Either way, their weapons come first. I need that defense rating up! Too bad I can't just craft a bunch of weapons for them to take.


Oh, I also got the Bayonetta patch. Runs MUCH better now, although the load times are still a little on the long side. What's weird is that sometimes the loading can't keep up with what I'm doing... It skipped slightly while doing a few torture attacks, but it's nothing major. Just something I noticed. Oh, and it was Sony who made the patch, apparently. Wonder why, even after Sega saying that it's not possible to fix the load times and texture quality... Either way, not complaining!

Speaking of Sega, End of Eternity's now out, and it apparently plays like VP2. Sorta. Might pick up the JP version because the NA boxart is hideous.

It took 3 playthroughs.

Bravery and Loyalty. That quest is kicking my ass right now, but at least I got a Bandit and rare monster kill! THREE PLAYTHROUGHS BEFORE I FINALLY SEE A BANDIT IN A DUNGEON. ... Maybe I'll get back to it at another time. For the time being, getting through different bits, but I know that I should get this quest done since it has a time limit. Needs to be before the Nest of Eagles fight, but that shouldn't be too bad. After all, Wisdom's Echo opens up before it, just after David's meeting in Nagapur. I'm going to need all the grinding I can get for those soldiers. I'm not sure how I'm going to manage the unique leaders' skills since they're so many more of them.

Rush hit the Wizard class, which isn't too bad for a unit that has a Dual-wield Katana specific art right now. Managed to use it ONCE. Freakin' high AP cost at this point of the game. Because of having the 2 Ragna-rocks, he's also managed to learn Divine Echo/Kiss of Life and Reboot/Second Chance. Like hell he's going to be able to cast those anytime soon. Still, it's pretty funny. I've decided to stack the unions to have them survive a little longer, but it also means that I can't flank stuff as often. I'm hoping that I don't screw over some of their classes right now. As for unions, will probably end up using Jewel of Undelwalt a lot for the Herbs users. The bonus is better than what the Hourglass formation gives. Either way, it's not going to matter all that much because I'll be using the Mystic Seal formation for grinding. Oh, Lythete learned Eye Cream naturally. Managed to get him use Antivenin multiple times by stacking unions in the Gaslin Caves and telling Rush to NOT use Cure/Refresh. Now, all that's left is to get them to learn Vivification Herb/Tincture to make sure that they can start reviving. Can't do much about Hartshorn because it's a Rank A Lotions art. The enemies at the Ivory peaks are more than enough to KO the 5-member soldier-only union. I don't want to move either Rush or Emma over there... I need to move forward some more before hiring more soldiers. I'm being a little slow because of training Emma and Rush for their section. Admittedly, it wasn't bad on Normal, but considering how much harder everything hits on Hard, I'm not taking that many risks. I also want to get Rush to hit either STR59 or INT59 to get the Ninja class benefits. The bonus to Dual Wield should give some advantage against Namul Sin and Niram Sin.


Noticing a few differences between the JP and EN settings. The JP version colour-codes a lot more stuff, namely the Classes. It actually highlights which ones are Combat/Combat+Mystic/Combat+Item/etc., unlike the EN version, which just highlights that when you achieve the first level of the class. Then it just changes to all yellow once you hit the Legendary level. The "LOOP CHANCE!" and "OVERDRIVE!" text graphics are also different. It's more rounded in the JP version. The text speed is also slightly faster, which is nice, but I wish that it was that fast in English.

Also, while reading the "Discussion" sections of some pages, my curiosity has been piqued. I want to stick Dave and Wyngale (and maybe Leucetius because he's afraid of Dave) in the same union to listen to what they say. Apparently, Dave changes what he says from time to time based on who's in the union. I want to hear him say "scream for me." I generally would prefer a party full of nutcases.

Random note, but I've downloaded the Ar Tonelico 3 soundtracks. There seems to be more corrupted Hymmnos this time around. It's kinda... unsettling.

Yeah, Hard mode is hard.

Well, that almost took too long. Finally got past Blackdale, and even beat the Fiery Idol in my first attempt. Didn't think that would happen... I should have recorded that since it was a pretty good run. Never have I been so happy to see Rush get deadlocked by the Idol... Didn't really have to lower enemy Morale, but I did notice that it didn't take as long to kill it. Weird, since it has more HP this time around. About 10 000. I even used the same set-up from my Normal run, although with considerably more skills. As in, I can smack it around with Wield/Weapon arts right now (Third Eye, to be specific). If I had trained with the Shielding Glaive from the beginning, I think I would have a Weapon Art by now, but I wouldn't be able to use it due to lack of AP. What I don't get is how I ended up in the Healer class. While his INT hit 35 first, I really don't think that Remedies was his significant Mystic group. If anything, it should have been either Hexes or Psionics, since I was abusing those like crazy before the class change from Ranger for Morale earlier in the game. Oh well.

Well, time to start assembling my soldier army again! And try to steer certain ones towards specific classes...? It'll be hard, but I'm pretty sure that it's doable.


Oh, and good news. Bayonetta's getting a patch to allow us to install the game into the HDD. Yay. Maybe I'll go back to it now. After all, I still have Hard mode to get through.

Hard mode time?

Defeated the Enlightened Seven at a somewhat high BR. BR73. So it wasn't a soldier-only kill, but I replaced a soldier with a weaker unit. A newly hired Khrynia because I was curious about her voice clips. Needless to say, I want to shoot her, but there no bows in-game.

Recorded the final fights twice... Rank 6 and Rank 8 at BR75 and BR76 respectively. Didn't think that there would be such a difference with only 3 quests remaining. I think it's because the Rank 8 fight is triggered purely based on whether or not you complete the "Things Unchangeable" quest. Either way, the final boss fight wasn't exactly easy. OK, lying. Rank 6 was a complete push-over, whereas the Rank 8 one was somewhat challenging. I think I did considerably worse when I had Rush in the union simply because I didn't have enough unions with a Cachexia/Bewitch user. Because he was the one with Cachexia and Bewitch. Meaning... I didn't bother with the skill grinding.


Anyways... started my Ransatsu Maniacs run. It's... uh... hard. I really don't know what else to say. Maybe I shouldn't let Rush dual-wield just yet. Problem is... I don't want to give him the Parrying Tataraichi. One, it looks ugly. Two, it's a Power-based weapon. And three, I don't care about the Weapon Art. Or... I'll just let him have it on his off-hand. The off-hand gains half the EXP, so it's not that big of a deal. I have more than enough materials for the time being. Or the Shielding Glaive? It won't affect the progression of his Katana arts, until I get past that part and get the full party. Or... I could just not care considering that I'll be using the soldiers. I'm only going to do selected quests simply because I don't want to deal with the Rank 8 Conqueror without the Uniques.

Main Story = OK. Extras? Not so much.

Well, that was odd. I tried to take on The Lost without recording it, and I won without any problems. Then when I was recording, lost on all attempts. Hm. Well, I can challenge it again after a bit. After I clear the Ancient Ruins. Which, incidentally, is what I did not too long ago. Lost on my first attempt against the Demigod, then struggled for about 20 turns. Then went ahead with attempting to beat the Idols. Didn't work out too well. The Charged Idol wiped out the party quite handily with the Tempest Insignia. The Idols get a move before and after every turn, whether or not you use Cachexia, I think. I should be able to stop the Insignia moves with Cachexia though, and at least I know that they're Mystic attacks. I think the only way I'm going to survive it is to have insane amounts of HP, something I don't have. And I can't play defensively because of lacking Wards and other arts.

Really, all that's left now is to finish off the main story, and the remaining 3 quests (The Cosmos Maiden, Kosmosfest and Things Unchangeable). I'll keep the file around to level up some more before heading off to face against those DLC bosses again. I'm fighting most of them for the first time too, so it'll be interesting. Definitely not push-overs when using soldiers because the move pool just isn't there for reassessing the situation. It'll be even worse in Hard Mode. Probably will degenerate into brute forcing everything. I think I'm going to allow myself to use generic leaders, but it's going to be "along the way" thing. The rogue Athlum soldiers, for the sake of the run, will count as soldiers and not as leaders. Wonder why all of them have the "Cowardice" unique parameter? It better not screw up their Rethink process.

Probably won't chronicle much more from LasuRemu, unless something really comes up. Or I'll just continue fangirling over certain things. *ahem*David'seyepatch*ahem*

This sucks.

... Hamauzu left Square-Enix, and more are expected in the next few months. Sekito...? Please don't go? Well, it's not anything can stop them from leaving. It just means that I'll have to hunt down whatever they're composing for. Wonder what he's going to work on next...


Still grinding on Bai Ze. Trying to spark Frost Tincture and Cyclone Cream for my item users. It's just really annoying because it takes a while to achieve the level required to learn it. Even more annoying with Lotions users because all but Eye Cream are situational. Hartshorn requires KO'ed unions, and the rest of them deal with statuses. At least they're learning their wield and weapon arts fairly quickly. Still trying to spark Cerulean Rain for Mayfield, but still no luck. I don't have a clue what his Wield and Weapon levels are at the moment either. They should be around 15... Eh, whatever. Still need to actually spark it.

Note: Selecting Support at BR69, 9999Chain and Ragna-rock equipped netted 12EXP. Base EXP is 3?

EDIT: Never mind.. Base EXP is 4 (2 for selection and 2 for execution). +200% from Ragna-Rock means x3 EXP gain. If executed, he would have gotten 24EXP.

Knocked you down!

The Fallen has fallen! Purposely ran around collecting materials for creating then disassembling equipment to improve the army's stuff. Also purposely gave Rush the Nightbloom to keep both Irina and Emmy from asking about it. About half the katana users have upgraded to the Mithril Katana now (Damascus Katana in JP). It's weird with Mayfield. He starts with the Spatha customizations, which are Power based weapons, but his upgrade tree leads him directly into the Bluesteel line, which is Speed based. At least until it reaches the Shielding/Enchanted customizations, which are only available to unique leaders and guild leaders. It's dumb, but oh well. It's actually not that big of a deal because his main purpose is to use Hexes like crazy. So now he has Mighty Knee Splitter, Mighty Cutting Lunge, and Nimble Blue Streak. Well, he did. It's moving towards the Speed route now.

Anyways, while monitoring the trainer, it turns out that you can only spark a higher level of the same tech once per battle. The rest of the EXP gained would be added after the battle's done. Not too sure about the art modifier though. I think it follows the same rules, but since there are only 5 levels of the modifier, it would be pretty rare. Power: Mighty/Peerless. Speed: Nimble/Swift. Unmodified. More grinding against Bai Ze for more testing? Either way, it'll be good to get the army's arts to the Peerless/Swift modifier, and sparking their weapon specific arts. Still don't have all that many for the mystic users, so that'll need some working on. Unfortunately, the Esoteric skill found on most of the mystic units (save for the poor guy stuck as a Druid) brings up the mystic commands quite often.

Moved on... All that's left is to finish up sidequests, and get to the final boss. I have "The Cosmos Maiden" and "Kosmosfest" left to deal with. I think that's about it. Then there's the superbosses... Demigod and The Lost Remnant. Those ones are NOT going to end well at all. Well, more directed at The Lost, because I have 5 turns to kill it, compared to the 10 for The Fallen. I killed The Fallen on the 8th turn, so... Saying that I'm screwed might be an understatement. Sure, equipment's better, but I still need to deal with how quickly the unions are moving. I need to make sure that the Cachexia unions flank it. Unfortunately, Chamberland's union (the most damaging Hex user) is way too fast unless I purposely hang back. I wonder if the Mystic Henge/Shield formations are going to be necessary for this...?


I've already started planning my Ransatsu Mode run(s). Going to deal with both a Unique Leader (record full run) run AND a generic run (only boss battles). Still haven't quite decided if I'll go all soldiers, or go ahead with hiring generic leaders. The good thing about the generics is that some can dual-wield and have larger movesets to choose from. Money isn't a problem, so I can hire away~ But doing a soldier-only run would be more challenging. Need to manage not having all that many mystic units. I think I'll cut out an Herbs user, reduce Hex users to 3 and sub in a few Potion users? Not sure if that'll be enough to take advantage of the Buff Duration ability because only the Scouts and Hunters would have it. And based on the party composition, that'll only be 5 party members. Still, I'm extremely annoyed that there aren't any Shards users amongst the soldiers. Just need to keep 3 Invocations/Evocations users around for Blackout. Animalcule is near useless... Low damage and somewhat dodgy occurrence rate.

Learn Hartshorn already!

Grinded, but also went ahead with completing a few quests. I think I'll just finish off the Wisdom's Echo side quest to open up "The Fated One," which upon its completion will allow me to recruit Jager for the UFO?! quest. Also raising my BR quite a bit through the quests and fighting everything in my path... Mostly because I'm looking for materials to upgrade the army's stuff. Looks like I won't be upgrading that quickly until past Undelwalt, so I'll just be moving on.

Didn't do too badly during the Six Bases and Koenigsdorf fights. Blasted through the base assault just fine, but The Seven did prove to be a bit troublesome. Milton was definitely the worst. If he uses Iron Will, it's like he used Overdrive along with status buffs. There's also his sword, which has the Instakill effect, and its occurrence rate seems to be 100%. Oh, and he always targets the union leader first. Didn't Raidlock Ludope by accident this time, but he still used Galaxy. Hinnah and Hannah weren't too bad, since Twin Snowpetal didn't quite wipe out everyone. Also kill them within a turn or 2 of each other, so no crazy Overdrive madness or reviving. The other 3 bases were easy compared to those 4.

Tried taking on the Fallen only to die horribly after the 5th turn. Used Rain of Blades, killed the remaining 3 unions I had. Going to need to revise my union plans to lower Morale like crazy. Or get Cachexia onto every. Single. Hex user. Can't get into the Ancient Ruins until The Fallen's been taken care of. It's also a required quest, so I'll be stuck at that for the next little while. The farthest I can go is getting Undelwalt onto the map, but I can't go in unless I finish up The Fallen. Or else it disappears. Much like progressing your ER too quickly in MinSaGa. Come to think of it, I never figured out the BR in MinSaGa, which governs what types of enemies you'll encounter. I think I'll be abusing Bai Ze for grinding now because I want to deal with Glenys's chain of events. Off to the Flaumello Tower! After I actually finish the "Wisdom's Echo" side quest. Also should remember to use the Mystic Seal formation to bolster defenses (OK, not really) while rendering my attacks to practically useless (ATK/MYS and Strength/Intellect = 0). Need to train arts to increase activation speed...! Not sure about using the Mystic Henge or Mystic Shield against The Fallen. Main problem with Henge is that the M.DEF increase isn't all that much; up to 15% because I don't have any Sovani soldiers. Shield DROPS the M.DEF of the 1st and 5th positions (~40%), but boosts 2-4 to 120%.


There seems to be a lot of German thrown around here, and Hamauzu isn't part of this game! Actually, I noticed the German the first time through. Didn't feel like mentioning it.

And people are downloading the save file I posted on GameFAQs. Huh. No complaints about it either... But now someone else wants a different save file. Well, more like requesting. Too bad it's a unique leader run with a high BR and lots of stuff done. I'm nowhere near finished my current file to get to where he left off, so I won't be helping out this time. It's always nice to hang around GameFAQs during certain times. It's really the only way to avoid any sort of idiocy. The Bayonetta board was really nice too, until a few weeks before the NA release. SaGa games, JP-only Tales and games that have been released in Japan but haven't been localized for the North American market yet. Those are the games and times that are not likely to be completely populated with idiots. Come to think of it, what happened to that Eternia-loving moron VeghEster? Can't really complain, since he was such an annoying poster, comparing everything to either Eternia or Symphonia. REBIRTH DOES NOT PLAY LIKE EITHER OF THEM. And some moves may have had their properties changed when included in a different game. Or even have the same Romanized name, but are completely different when looking at the Kanji. Example: Luke's Reppashou is different from Veigue's Reppashou, even though both use swords. Leave the answering to those who've played the game in question.

Full (soldier) party get!

Yay, got 18 active members now. So now it's grinding time, which is boring and unnecessary to record, to bring the newest members of the team up to par. I just need to get the party poisoned at some point to get a certain someone to learn Eye Cream already! I think 3 Lotion users should be enough. The only problem is that Eye Cream doesn't heal for all that much, unless you have a 5-person union, and that it takes forever to get Hartshorn. Just having Lotions users is helpful just in case those Remedies users (which I have 3 of... normally I have 5+) end up silenced and require help being cured.

So, during the grinding... Lavelle, one of my Invocations users, learned Assault Flare/Wildfire. I was also making a few observations with the trainer. Turns out that there's experience to be gained if you just select the command. So you get EXP when you select the skill, actually go through with the skill, and possibly get a bonus if you kill with the skill. The only thing that's up in the air at the moment is whether or not you get the EXP for the individual skills if you accidentally trigger an Arcana. Guess I'll be watching the trainer a little more closely during another grinding session. I don't know when I should stop with the grinding though... I can't get to the Ancient Ruins until I pass Darken Forest and beat The Fallen, but I doubt the team can take on The Fallen at this point. Not unless all the Lotions users can clear most of the statuses. Oh, one of them FINALLY learned Bewitch, so that's a plus. Lowers Morale much more than Dispirit, and I can train it while trying to spark Cachexia. Of course, that's only one out of 5 Hex users. There's a serious lack of Psionics (Morale control), Wards (buffs damn it!) and Shards (5000HP heal?) users amongst the soldiers. Continuing with upgrading their equipment as much as possible. Clearing as many quests as possible. Capping what the uniques say when they upgrade their stuff. And why are Rush's responses to David different from everyone else? "Aw, I can't say no to you." and "No." Everyone else is some sort of variation of "Sounds like a plan." and "Kinda busy, sorry." They were really playing up the Ho Yay, weren't they?! Responses vary quite a bit as well. Ranges from being insulted to "OK, maybe next time." to "I-I see... I'll do my best not to falter in the field, then..." <- Dave's response to "No."

Anyways, quests. The Assistant is going to be annoying. The previous 2 runs were completed through cheating. Basically, I couldn't be bothered with hunting down the materials with a low Dig Count. Need to finish Wisdom's Echo to take on The Fated One. I think the last part of the Paris-Charolette romance is open, so I guess I can deal with that one at the same time. Just worried about The Fallen since it's window of opportunity is very small. Darken Forest to Undelwalt. Either way, I want to be able to take on the DLC bosses too. The Lost (Remnant) should be a sizable challenge. Exactly like The Fallen, only you have to win in 5 turns or less.



Played the End of Eternity demo on the Newcomer mode. I tried it once before, but it was a little confusing because I wasn't sure what did what. But... I think I have an idea now. Oh, and Shimono Hiro voices Zephyr, so there's a reason to import it~ I'm going to hold off ordering it for the time being though. There are other games coming out as well; 3D Dot Game Heroes in May, may pick up FFXIII in English, End of Eternity, Last Rebellion, Sengoku BASARA 3, FF Versus XIII, KH:BBS, etc. Yeah, lots of games this year. There might even be a few gems that are unknown at the moment. But yeah, after getting a hang of the system, it was pretty fun. Definitely on my watch list.Speaking of demos...



I played the Dante's Inferno demo during the break but didn't think too much of it. The marketing campaign for it is just... I don't know what to think. It's great that it's getting lots of attention, but the type of attention that they're going for is just plain stupid. Right, the most important part of it, gameplay. I've never played God of War before. Shocking, isn't it? Well, shocking for someone who regularly plays DMC (and now Bayonetta), and enjoys doing crazy things in games. So when other people started saying that it was a God of War clone, I was completely lost. The only thing I know about it is the QTEs that happen during combat. Naturally, I don't like QTEs all that much, being primarily an RPG kind of gamer. Didn't really encounter too many during the demo, but the game was just... I just didn't like it. The controls were OK. I personally don't like having the Dodge command mapped to the right analog. Much rather have it like DMC (lock-on+direction+jump) or Bayo's (option of DMC's or R2+direction). It was also very easy to just spam attacks. There was no incentive to make the combat look good, or to even vary combos. Of course, it's been about 3 weeks since I've played it, so maybe I'll boot it up again to refresh my memory. And skewer the game even further on a later date. >:3 I'm not evil~

Mission time. Still.

What. I got the Limit Breaker trophy without using a summon or an accessory that allows me to deal more than 99 999 damage (I think it's the Genji Gloves). Characters are limited there, while Summons can initially break it. Well, it's one less trophy to worry about, so I'm not really complaining. Also didn't need to waste any TP on it, so it's all good! The Adamankelis thingys are getting easier to beat. They don't one-shot Hope anymore, but the larger ones with tusks still do well over 6000HP worth of damage with Protect on. That's enough to kill both Hope AND Lightning. There goes me and my healer. Fang has enough HP to survive that while Jamming the target. I think I might spam Mission 12 many many times because it's easy and it gives out 10 000CP. It also spawns a bunch of Cie Corpses for some more easy CP. And since I'm in Gran Pulse, the draw distance determines when the enemies respawn (which is pretty fast). Oh, encountered the Sabotender/Cactuar. I need to use Sneak Smokes to get to them because they run off so quickly if they spot you. Gives out 5000CP, but I don't think I'll be hunting them that much. Not until I can buy a huge number of the Sneak Smokes. Or I can just spam a certain spot on the map... 5000CP/10000CP every 2~3 minutes!

Also having extreme trouble against the Neochu/Mission 55. It's accompanied by several Picohus, which can be respawned by the Neochu indefinitely. So you have the Neochu killing people and the Picohus interrupting everything you're trying to do. Fun, isn't it? Trying to kill it with Vanille's Death, but I think I'm going to need those Dash Shoes first. In the mean time, just going around doing as many missions as possible while maxing my Crystarium Board. The Grow Egg's going to be used for the secondary roles because the costs are so freakin' expensive.


Recorded and proceeded further. Now onto the "second" disc, but I don't have the full party just yet. I really don't want to kick out Lythete because he's been built up for a while now, but his Lotions really suck. Still stuck at Antivenin, and it's way too situational to use. Maybe solo a few of those flies? Either way, it's almost time for the full party to be assembled.

This might also seem really weird, but I want someone to lend me a 360 while I rent Last Remnant on it. I'm really curious to see how screwed some characters were in the game. Like Paris. Besides his unbelievably crappy voice, his arts seem to be extremely lacking. Starting with only Remedies? AS A GUEST CHARACTER?! It's a good thing that the PC version gives him Psionics (well-developed too, up to Addle Maledict II), Double-handed (staff) arts and Remedies.

Another thing... WHY DO SO MANY PEOPLE HAVE STUPIDLY HIGH BR WHEN GOING TO THE NEST OF EAGLES?! Seriously, I only was around BR23 when I approached that, WITH taking on sidequests and using only soldiers. Even lower with one of my parallel games (which I don't have a save of now) while using uniques. Now I'm seeing someone as BR63, and one at BR47. What the hell guys. I think people are usually around BR30-ish, but definitely below 45.

Why am I still up...?

Emmy's got a cool render!

Completing "The Hero" and "The War of a Thousand Years" together or separately yields different entries in the Quest log...

Separately
The Hero: The hero-turned-monster is done for! Balterossa is safe. Go me!
The War of a Thousand Years: I killed the monster! The qsiti seems to think there's some kind of conspiracy, but who cares! The important thing is-I rock!

Together
The Hero: The hero-turned-monster is dead. No one really knows how he transformed into that thing. Not my problem, I guess.
The War of a Thousand Years: I killed the monster and the ancient hero. I don't know why they kept fighting all these years. Isn't there a better way to spend time...?

I like these little details~ Also, the tone of Rush's notes when completing the quests. Pats himself on the back when dealing with them separately. WTF-ing and scratching his head if done together. I don't think there are any other quests that do that.

Also just got the JP guidebook recently. And they're right. The soldiers have illegal upgrade pathways for the 360 version. That's just plain stupid. Good thing that was changed in the PC version. Or at least I think it was... Seriously, that book is almost thicker than a phone book! It was heavier than the Ookami OST, which is 5 discs! If they had released a PC version guidebook, I would have bought that instead. There's no info on the DLC (360) monsters, and the newly updated stuff from the PC version. I guess listing every single freakin' change would have taken up at least 5 pages. There are weapon stat changes, wage changes, different things have new requirements, some things don't cut each other off (At Hatred's End not required for Things Unchangeable anymore), etc.

More later, after I browse through the book some more and getting a few more segments recorded. I think I'm going to need that hard drive.


Got to Chapter 13 in FFXIII. I think I accidentally put myself in a somewhat unwinnable situation. The enemy groups don't give out that much CP, and are pretty damn hard to beat as well. Good thing I have a save back in Chapter 11 where I can just head outside and start grinding for CP. Maybe also take on more missions to get the Dash Boots. I have an idea on how to get them, just need to get enough materials to level up the Hermes Boots as well. Not sure if it's a good time to start farming for Traps either. It's not like I need the 3rd tier weapons right now, but I should at least get more weapons upgraded so that it's not such a pain to kill everything. Even the normal encounters are driving me insane. Yeah, I'll just restart from Chapter 11. It's not like I lost that much time. Plus, I get to watch the intro to Chapter 12 again! That's always fun.

So the to-do list would be to max out Crystarium Lvl. 9 before heading to Chapter 12. That way, I can start getting some of their secondary roles (which are unbelieveably expensive) levelled up somewhat with the Grow Egg. Pretty sure that the CP gains cap at 999 999, so I need to be careful about that.