Plot analysis time! Part 1.

Well, more like WMG time. Really. I have no idea what the plot really is since the game's not exactly straightforward about a lot of points and I don't have access to any clarifications that have have popped up in Japanese publications. Still waiting on someone to translate Grimoire NieR. But here's my take on it, and will be considered a WIP for a very long time. It may never get finished for all I know. Anyways, on with the show! First off, story summary.

So we know that the game begins with "Nier" and "Yonah" along in a broken city. They're hiding from the Shades/monsters, but they don't know where they're coming from. It's also snowing during the summer, so it's probably something called a "nuclear winter." However, the "snow" might not even be snow but salt instead. Salt features prominently in the game's reports and dreams from the Forest of Myth. It's also known that Grimoire Noir is there with "Nier," who he eventually asks for help with defending "Yonah." And then when all of the Shades have been taken out, "Nier" checks up on "Yonah" only to see that she has the Black Scrawl. My guess is that she either knowingly or accidentally come in contact with Grimoire Noir, and is undergoing the Gestalt process. In other words, her soul is being decoded to be taken out of her body. Oh, and she's been coughing all this time. Reason? She's probably suffering from the White Chlorination disease. Chloride is a pretty deadly irritant, usually in the form of mustard gas, but there's that mention of salt... Maybe her body's turning into salt? That could explain the subcutaneous tissue mutations mentioned in the loading screen reports. After screaming for help, the game fast forwards to the start of the game.


1312/~1400 years later (Gestalt/RepliCant)
Nier's been taking care of Yonah for a period of time already, taking on jobs to get enough money to lessen her symptoms. Eventually, he tells her about the Lunar Tear and she goes looking for it. At the Lost Shrine. Grimoire Weiss/Weiss/"Weiss-y" is also found there, sealed up, until Nier forcefully removes him from the barrier and awakening Hansel and Gretel. Yes, that's really their names. And then, here's the kicker. Not too many Shades attack you while trying to retrieve Yonah. They start attacking once you have Weiss. The Shades also don't look like they should be bleeding the way they do, and the fact that Weiss absorbs their blood. Noir did it as well during the prologue. So then, what's causing the Shades to attack you when in possession of Weiss? Probably because he's the "false truth" mentioned in the DLC? He's also been stripped of "his" powers, so he and Nier have to go looking for the Sealed Verses. This launches the first half of the game. Dark Blast and Dark Lance here.

Next off, to the Aerie in hopes of finding a Sealed Verse. This is an interesting town once you get to Ending B. The idea is to hunt down massive Shades because Nier believes that it's the key to finding the Sealed Verses and curing Yonah's Black Scrawl. But... You find Kaine. She's not exactly happy to see you. Eventually, a massive Shade does show up and you team up to take it down. Dark Hand here.

Back home, Yonah's feeling even worse, so it's off to Seafront to get a Shaman Fish. Coming here also kicks off a sidequest chain involving the lighthouse lady. Not important to the plot, but it's a nice side-story to go along with the world. It probably made a few people cry too. Oh, and the fisherman. The dialogue between him, Nier and Weiss is absolutely hilarious, but really hits you once you finish the entire chain in the second half of the game. Once you get the fish and the letter from the postman for Popola, it's back home, then to the Junk Heap to get your weapon upgraded before going back to the Aerie.

At the Junk Heap, you need to get the Titanium Alloy for your upgrade. You also meet Jakob and Gideon. After getting the upgrade, the brothers ask you try finding their mother, who's been missing for a week now. So, you go in while Weiss berates you a bit for "meddling" in others' affairs. Eventually, you make it to the deepest parts of the Junk Heap, face off against the boss there (a giant face and detached hands) and find the mother... with her lover. Dead. Weiss had a feeling that there was something going on, while Nier wanted to find her for the brothers' sake. Turned out that the mother wanted to elope with her lover as she had several items with her that hinted to that direction. Nier takes her perfume back to Jakob, and no matter what answer you give Gideon, he'll think that you're lying about his mother being dead. Jakob was already suspicious about her activities, but forgives her for it. He understood that she never wanted to stay there, and a little more info from Grimoire NieR, was actually abused by her husband. After all, she's human, and thus prone to mistakes. Dark Gluttony and next off, the Aerie.

Now that you're back at the Aerie, and you see many Shades. You help out Kaine here, taking out the smaller Shades then eventually the much larger one. It turns out that Kaine wants revenge against it for killing her Grandma (but you don't actually know that until the 2nd time through the game). Once she exacts revenge, she lands on a platform and intends to die there as she's got nothing left to live for. Nier will have none of that, and Weiss obviously disagrees. They eventually convince Kaine to accompany them as she tries to find meaning to her life. Off to Facade as she learns that Yonah has the Black Scrawl and there might be some info there. Dark Phantasm here.

So... You end up in Facade. You can't get in, until Kaine signals to the guards. Now comes the next problem, you don't understand a damn thing the people are saying! Not even Grimoire Weiss understands them. When you make it over to the King's Mansion, you can't get in due to the language barrier, so you go back to the entrance where you meet Fyra. She's mute, so she signs everything. Then gives you a tour while giving Weiss enough to go on about their language and dispensing a few rules here and there because of their Cloud Cuckoolanderness. When they try to see the Prince (the King's dead), it turns out that he's missing. And no one can find him because of all the rules getting in the way. Kaine knows of Rule 1024, and requests to rescue the Prince. Fyra even signs "Screw the rules!" and helps you get to the Barren Temple. She can't enter it due to the rules, so she heads back to Facade. While you're inside the Temple, you have to follow the rules or else... Kaine finds out the hard way and is transported elsewhere. So now you have to find both Kaine and the Prince. After going through the place, following rules (and hopefully not landing in the sand like an idiot), you fight a rather strange boss that requires either pretty good sniping skills, or the mentality to just smash everything in sight. As it turns out, the Prince was looking for a certain mask that the King is required to wear. Cue a funny little Zelda-esque fanfare. After taking the King back, Nier asks about the Black Scrawl. The King's father died from it and there haven't been advances in treating it. Dark Wall here and back to the Village to check up on Yonah.

Yonah's obviously worried, so she asks you to spend the night. You do, and then you get a really messed up dream. About the Forest of Myth and a Sealed Verse. Yonah also had the same dream... After learning more about that Forest from Popola and reading a really weird letter about a dream from them, off you go~ When you get there, you speak with the Mayor, then catch the Deathdream. Cue Interface Screw! Text adventure time! The mayor's dream is based on finding the origins of the Dreamdeath virus and how to exit it. Because it's based on what a human thinks and dreams about, the imagination is all it takes to cure it, but you're also bound by the rules of the words. The mayor is cured, then it's off to cure the other two residents. Dark Execution here. The woman's dream is really creepy... Almost straight out of a horror book. She was locked up in a castle that was being flooded and wanted to get out desperately. Nier breaks her out of the cell, and you proceed through the castle (north and east all the way). You encounter truly macabre sights like dinner guests pinned onto their seats in a rather spectacularly brutal fashion. Well, as brutal as you can get with only text. When you escape the castle, you find out that she's a woman, and she's cured. Off to the last guy. The dream starts off wandering through a desert until you reach the City of Art. Along the way, Nier's a complete idiot about seeing water/mirages, so much that Weiss smacks him with the cover. Inside of the City, it feels somewhat familiar to him... Full of skyscrapers, different building types, statues. All of it, "modern art." Then you're given a classic riddle to solve, then you free the final resident. Now... why would those sights seems so familiar to people who've never seen a city? Nier doesn't bother thinking much on it, and heads off to home after confirming with the mayor that everyone's free from the curse.

After getting home, Yonah asks if you could do her a favour: help her pen pal. Who happens to be a boy. In the Southern Plains. So off you go. At the manor, everything goes monochrome... and the butler Sebastian escorts you to the dining hall. Kaine falls asleep, you go adventuring! It evokes the feeling of the past survival horror games, like biohazard/Resident evil with the camera angles. Funny enough, the manor manages to creep out Weiss enough to make you go back to check on Kaine. She's also left, and more than likely gotten lost. After going through the courtyard with the "statues," you meet Emil. You get a map and you try to find Sebastian in his quarters. And there's a room that has a sink open its tap to fill it up with "blood." After finding the butler, it turns out that it was him writing the letters to lure Nier to the manor... to help them find a cure for Emil's eyes. He agrees, and they make their way over to the library. While inside to check up on the books, a sentient book attacks. Defeating the Red Book nets you Dark Whirlwind here. The book also explodes leaving a page about how to cure a petrification curse written in code. This gives Emil some hope. After going outside, Kaine has a little chat with Emil, telling him to petrify her if the Shade possessing her goes out of control and that his eyes have a purpose.

How that all the Verses have been collected, Grimoire Noir needs to be tracked down. Checking up on Yonah reveals that her cough had gotten worse, and she needs more medicine. Popola just ran out herself, so you need to get vapor moss. That's when you see Emil wander through the gates by himself... With a warning that there's a huge Shade attack coming, which strikes right when you hear about it. Cue massive boss fight that you probably shouldn't screw around in because those medium-sized Shades aren't that likely to drop Healing Salves. The giant Shade can revive/regenerate parts, so the only real strategy they have is to continue pushing it back while everyone gets to safety at the library. Unfortunately, the Shade reaches the library but you do manage to reduce its size to stuff into the basement. But before you can even think about celebrating, Nier gets stabbed from behind. It narrowly misses his heart, and Grimoire Noir appears with the Shadowlord. Noir tries to get Weiss to merge with him to bring about a new paradise, which garners a rather funny bit from Kaine, including calling him a "little bitch." He snaps out of it, and you proceed to beat up another book. Only this time, you have no magic and need to earn it back. The Shadowlord manages to get away with Yonah, which is really Yonah's Replicant, and Nier gets stabbed again. This time, protecting Weiss. They escape, Kaine's losing control and the Shade is threatening to get out. The only option is to petrify Kaine, so you do so...


Part 1 done.

Notes on NieR

... 124 046 rules in Facade, with the 124 047th passed the month before Fyra's tour. That's a lot of rules to remember. Anyways, noted down all the entries from the DLC pack, "The World of Recycled Vessel" or "15 Nightmares," depending on the region.


Door 1
This is the world of the recycled vessel, created to avoid the destruction of all.

The Black Scrawl. A lost destiny. A white book. A false truth.

A soldier of salt calling forth white death.
He is Legion, the man who plunged the world into darkness.

The dragon's corpse brought death to the world, delivering unto it the power of the devil.

The black sickness stains the future. They journey to return to soulless vessels.


Door 2
The apocalypse divided the world in two:
one that knows not day, and one which has never seen the night.

Black, and white. Thirteen pacts. The vessels' forms waver as they cross time and space.

The song of man has been drowned out. In its place, the scream of something inhuman.

The sky falls with the dragon. The world ends this day.

The puppet priest collects the accursed prayers and polishes the vessel.


Door 3
As long as this memory exists, as long as mankind has hope, a bloody battle will be waged over the holy domain of the body.

"Foolish human.
Foolish human.
Foolish human.

Foolish vessel."

All is paid. All is sacrifice.

Do not bring back the light.
Do not bring back the vessel.
Do not bring back the future.
Do not bring it back.

Every beam of light is an invitation to death.


I don't have much to say on this right now. All I know is that by the time you get to the 3rd Door, it's probably not her writing, but the Shade. The Black Scrawl appears whenever a Shade manages to reunite with its Replicant. There are also abstract references to the Red Dragon (Angel/Angelus and Caim), but it's not exactly telling on where the origins of the Black Scrawl and White Chlorination disease are from. The White Chlorination is most likely from Angelus, while the Black Scrawl only arose due to complications from Project Gestalt. Namely... The Replicants gaining sentience, and the souls going Gestalt too early, resulting in relapse cases. The original Gestalt was Nier (or whatever you named him), and the first known relapse was Yonah. It's also possible that the Black Scrawl appears when decoding the human soul, removing it from the original body, and when the soul is entering the designated Replicant body. Grimoire Noir is most likely the decoder and Grimoire Weiss is most likely the encoder, allowing for (hopefully) incident-free removal and transfer of souls into clean bodies.

Or you know, I could be completely wrong and should wait for Grimoire NieR to arrive in the mail to try deciphering the plot. No way in hell am I going to get the Drag-on Dragoon books since it's pretty much near impossible here. Or try playing at a sane time so I can actually understand what's going on.

It's funny how the entries don't have anything on what happened with the experiment weapons...

Iron Will
Atk: 200
Mag: +0%
Wgt: Very Light
Is also... missing half the blade. No one in their right mind would use it...


978-4757746619, 978-4757524682 - Books to order on BeNippon (because shipping from Amazon JP sucks).

>.O

I'm stunned at Gabriel's ENG voice. No wonder why I didn't understand a single word out of his mouth the first time through which lead me to drop him. It's so heavily accented that it takes a double-take to get what he's saying. AND HE'S FROM ATHLUM. He should sound similar to the other Athlumians. The residents from Celapaleis don't have much of an accent either, so he shouldn't. It's just really creepy considering that he tries to hit on several females and tries to act like a romantic.

... Leshau sounds like a meek Mao (Disgaea 3), but Vic isn't among the extra voices. Paris' voice is a definite miss. "I will make you proud." What. Why does Yuniver sound like he's been strangled? Haruko sounds like a old librarian. She doesn't look that old! Wyngale doesn't sound kooky enough. Wait. Is that JYB trying to lower his voice? I don't the other ENG voices well enough to pinpoint them on the other unique leaders. I'll make notes on other ENG voices after I've gone though all of them... After I stop playing NieR for a bit. Probably won't be any time soon since I'm planning on getting NieR RepliCant.



By the way, my friends are total enablers. Supporting (and somewhat gleefully) my idea of taking up comp sci. People can only guess where this is going to go.

Still not 100% done.

Ending D's ending theme sounds like extremely mangled Japanese. I think each of the 4 versions corresponds to a particular Ending you can get. Anyways, achieved Ending D at level 46 on Normal. The game's actually pathetically easy once you get the Phoenix Spear and even just upgrade it once. Or even just fully upgrading the katana Faith (relatively easy to upgrade I like spamming magic).


... And I think I glitched out of my trophies? Currently sitting at ~60%, and I can complete some fights in less than a minute, yet I can't get them. Might as well start a new file because I want the 100 Sheep trophy and other things... Don't think I'll be getting the DLC if I get RepliCant. Maybe. JP PSN cards are expensive to import. The pricing makes me cry. Either way, it turns out that I'm not the only one who glitched out, but it doesn't seem to be a common enough problem to be addressed. Still, it's annoying.

失ワレタ森

I must say... I'm quite pleased with NieR. Combat's OK, the quests are rather tedious, graphically not too impressive, and the music's awesome. One quest chain is quite a tearjerker, that's for sure. It involves Seafront, the lighthouse woman and the mailman. The old woman's afflicted with the Black Scrawl disease, and has been waiting for her love for 50 years to come back from his journey. So, she waits. All while receiving letters from time to time. She comes off as quite a bitch when you first meet her, but she means well. Eventually, you learn that the letters were written by the mailman and his father for the past 50 years. The entire town was in on it, just to keep her happy, because they knew that he was dead. She can't stand just reading the letters, and wants to leave the lighthouse to see her love. The mailman insists that she stays as she's the only one who knows how to operate the lighthouse. The mailman asks you to reason with her, but you find out about the disease and that she just wants to see him as a final request. You eventually see the parcel full of her letters after figuring out the conspiracy and are asked to deliver the final letter. You can keep the lie going, or tell her the truth. I opted to tell her the truth, and it turns out that she had the suspicion that the entire thing was a lie. She actually appreciated the effort the townspeople put in to keep her happy all this time, so she tells you not to tell them that she knew. To continue as she "were none the wiser." She eventually succumbs to the Black Scrawl during the quest "Closure," and that she had died with a smile on her face. I think this is one of my favourite quests from all the games I've played...



Also. The butler Sebastian. It was probably wasn't intentional, but amusing nonetheless.

Ah.

Rush really is taller than David. By a bit. But where's David's ring? They got his earring... Hm... Maybe I just missed it.

That One Stat...

I probably shouldn't argue with people on GameFAQs so much. There was a discussion about the Unique Parameters on the 360 board because someone was asking about it and because the ENG guide doesn't really say anything about it. Not surprising, considering how thin that guide is. Anyways, about those stats... One user said that in Korea, it was supposedly confirmed that the unique was used for Criticals and Critical Defense. I'm not buying it. He also said that the stat maxes out at 100 in the Asian 360 version. ALSO not buying it. I know that I can push the stat to 100 and beyond, but that's because I'm playing the PC version. Then he posts, saying that it maxes out when you max your BR. Now why the hell would you want to max your BR on the 360 version?! That's pure suicide if you're not prepared! BR maxes at 255...

Anyways, the reason why I even decided to say anything was because of the Critical Hit and Critical Defense thing. Since he also had the JP guide, he should be able to tell the difference between several terms: Critical Hit, Critical Offense, Critical Defense, Critical Trigger, Trigger Chance.
Critical Hit: Exactly what it says. Not influenced by a stat, but by Morale.
Critical Offense: The chaining of commands through the use of the Critical Trigger.
Critical Defense: The chance to Parry/Shield Bash/Counter through the use of the Critical Trigger.
Critical Trigger: The QTE sequences during a CO/CD.
Trigger Chance: Exactly what it says, the chance to use the Critical Trigger.

Each piece of equipment has a CO/CD value to it. Remnants tend to have fairly high CO/CD values. It can also be influenced by Morale, so the value (Trigger Rate) isn't fixed. The unique stat doesn't have anything to do with it. What it DOES do, is influence the commands you get in battle, and possibly how they would Reassess/Rethink during a battle. Obviously, this also means that you should construct your unions with unique parameters that work well together. Another thing, COs seem to happen more often because the game makes as many passes minus 1 as there are units in that particular union. If you have 5 units, then you have 4 passes for the Trigger Chance. The CD only activates if you successfully Block/Dodge, which is dependent on the unit's equipment and Morale. So unless the battles are matched unit for unit with the same conditions, you wouldn't see CO:CD at 1:1. Ever. Then there's the Critical Hit. It happens randomly, and the rate is affected by the Allies' Morale. Take that crazy battle against an Observer, which lasted 31 turns. Morale never rose above 50% in my favour, which resulted in practically no crits unless I got lucky with a CO (about 20 times). Contrast with another fight with 100% against that unlucky Dragon. Filled with massive numbers of crits. Now, that's about 6 playthroughs of that, so I think I know what I'm talking about. And he said that his friend told him that...

So, about that unique stat... I'll give an example. Emmy/David/Irina/Rush/Haruko. Love/Authority/Bonds/Bravery/Inner Strength. Sticking David that high up might have been a bad idea (coupled with a high UP stat, >100) since his Shards commands pop up quite frequently and sometimes dragging Irina into using IAs, but the other units work well together by focusing on Morale control, healing and buffing. So it's essentially a support union. An insanely powerful support union with 3 Shards users, Hundred Flowers for extra pain, 2 Weapon Arts, 2 dual-wielders with Swift SS arts, 2 Psionics users, and just general MAs spamming. And a summon. Squee. Contrast to another union I had. Having someone like Constance (Cynicism) as the leader pretty much resulted in a suicidal union that rarely healed itself while in Deadlock. Her UP seriously clashed with everyone else's stat. Accounts from other users had similar effects of having screwed up (read: unfavourable) commands depending on the leader and the general union composition. Like replacing Irina with Wyngale. You don't want to replace someone nice with a complete nutcase if you want Arcana spam! And having someone hardworking and another who's lazy in the same union... It's not apparent to newcomers, but it becomes glaring once you engage in higher level play such as low BR runs and other self-imposed challenges.



And my interest in NieR has jumped quite a bit... because I started listening to the OST. It seems to be mostly ex-NAMCO composers that have worked on Tekken 6. Eh, whatever. It's probably going to be the next game I play. Just don't know if it'll be NieR RepliCant or NIER/NieR Gestalt.

Working on the leaders...

I'm currently amused by the lone Psionics and Wards generic leader, Aquarius. She's pretty much like Paris, only that she can't really attack until she gains some combat arts, and uses a Katana instead of those Staves. She's already a Commander, so no class change for her. It also means that she can't change styles mid-battle either since she's locked into a Mystic class. I took a closer look at the classes in the JP guide, because the EN guide scans said absolutely nothing about classes. There's just no way in hell that I would buy that guide unless it was less than $10, because that's how much info is in the damn thing. Oh, and she DOES have one advantage over Paris: Weapon Art. She can learn to use 剣の一閃. Still, Paris is the better character to use for formation attributes, can serve as a backup healer, and has a better joining time (complete his quest chain early vs. after Undelwalt). Well, not to mention better Starting Unit BR (48 vs. 68) and arguably a better class (Paladin vs. Commander) despite it being a lower Rank (5 vs. 6). At least you can just hire her to get that Guild Adventure over and done with without having to train Pagus, Paris, Rush or Wyngale to become Commanders. Jorgen can learn Wards, but his class is locked due to special circumstances. There's also Milton, but he's already in the Gladiator class, which is also Rank 6.


Interesting note... Vinnery, one of the guys from the Melphina quest chain, was on route to getting the Mystic Pick (it does NOT look like a Scythe you nitwits), but suddenly upgraded to the Power Pick. I knew that it was the Mystic Pick because he was asking for Divine Metal, not Crimson Ore, and that I had stuck him in a Mystic union for the lulz. Lulz were had because of the Mystic route he was going on, but I then decided to develop him into a Guardian, which sent him on his merry way towards the Combat route. Maybe I should have waited for him to upgrade to the Mystic Pick first before training~



I got someone to shout "Emmy!" but I couldn't tell who it was. It sounded like David said something because it didn't quite sound like Rush. Not to mention that they don't quite like each other. Pretty sure it's Dave's line.

More later.

JP pronouns are fun!

Rush - オレ (オレがラッシュだ！)
David - 私 (formal), 俺 (towards Rush, and others later)
Emma/Emmy - 私
Blocter - 俺
Pagus - 私
Torgal - 私
Irina - 私
Loki - 俺
Baulson - 俺
Nora - あたし
Gabriel - オレ
Violet - 私 (わたし/わたくし, depending on the context. Watakushi is spoken when seizing her items)
Rhagoh - 僕
Allan - 俺
Kate - 私
Darien - 俺
Haruko - 私
Khrynia - あたし (also refers to herself in third-person. キルネア)
Caedmon - 私
Zolean - ワシ
Jorgen - 俺
Leshau - 僕
Gaou - 俺
Wyngale - 俺
Paris - 僕
Sibal - オレ
Maddox - 私
Glenys - 私
Sheryl - 私
Jager - 俺
Ghor - ワシ/わし
Roberto - 拙者
Yuniver - 俺
Leucetius - 僕


Snievan - 私
Zuido - ズイドウ (third person)/俺/オレ(used during his quest)
Hinnah　-　俺
Hannah - 私
Milton - ワシ
Young - 俺様/オレ
Ludope - 俺


Lukorra - おいら
Vinnery - 私, probably
Neo - 俺


Tornado Lotion Lv1 - ~4000 (3600 against Observer)

HOLY CRAP I CAN STYLE CHANGE WHILE A NINJA.

HOLY CRAP DAVE IS AWESOME FOR HITTING 170K WITH BLUE RAIN.

Takes until BR37 on Ransatsu to get Fornstrand to start at equal Morale...
Kate and Rhagoh can definitely be done at lower than BR50, easily, but the normal encounters in the lower area start at low army morale. Got the best reward possible in "Love Will Rise Again" because I just blitzed the bosses when the finally showed up. Balterossa then Royotia, 3 and 5 turns.

The Assistant: materials needed are far less than the 360 counterpart, and the numbers needed are correctly displayed in JP.

Xenophobia/Hoarfrost is physical, not mystic, according to the JP text. A lot of things seem to be translated wrong...

Vinnery's on the Mystic route despite having no mystic arts. Looks like just sticking them in a certain union will do that to them. Using mostly combat arts when you're supposed to be a mage is pretty bad, as it'll result in having a mage with a combat focus. Guess the guide was right about using commands to shift focus. If they've already asked twice, chances are, they're already set. Unless you immediately go out and act against your own orders...

Spawn tables...

Well... Got the Pale Leafhopper, that only appears when you get close enough, to spawn. But it spawned with conditions that aren't seen on the wikia. Now I'm seeing tons of Spiritlords and Dragons, with a Spiritlord/Oversoul in the Searing Cove. No rares on this map... Terrapests aren't visible when you first zone in. I think I killed about 18 of them by now, which is needed for the Ring of the Labyrinth guild. Still needs a while before that one opens up. Will probably end up opening the one in Elysion first since I don't want to finish Glenys' quest just yet. Just have enough generics for a full 18-member team. Going to give the uniques their weapons then leave them on the bench until they reach their "max" stats, then get them trained for the battles. I think I'm going to need more room on the bench. Then there's arts training, which I can't do if Sheryl's in the party... Well, I can hack her in for that purpose, then remove her when it's time to finish her quests.

Speaking of generics... I noticed that a bunch of the katana-wielders are very fond of asking for Tataraichi customizations, and that they don't stop at the balance stage. They go all the way, but only if you steer them into that direction. One of them is going for the Parrying Tataraichi and she's capable of using Mystic Arts. Probably because I've been using her as a melee unit instead of her Remedies. I'm only grabbing a ton of generics right as placeholders until I can started on recording their WAs and other specials. One thing I won't do is set it to Yakety Sax. Maybe.

Gaou says something like ”は、俺か?” when claiming an item... Leshau says a lot when he gains stats or a skill. Baulson has a really long status quote. Gabriel needs to shut up at times. Yeah, I haven't exactly used these guys before. Never really had to. Loki: やった！やったぞ！ when claiming an item. Maybe I'll compile a list at some point...?

And there's a type of compensation EXP thingy going on... I gave Rush a bunch of skills at Lv. 1, then checked on the trainer to see what had happened by the time we reach the Gates of Hell. Turns out he gets 25EXP to EVERY skill he has available to him, as long as it's set to Lv.1 or higher. That amounts to every Rank C Item Art to reach Lv. 2, and for Lotions to obtain Clearance Lotion. What I didn't get though is why he got Medical Heal. Not complaining, but it's kinda weird since he never sparked it in the first place.

*insert expletive* YOU.

The Fallen killed the team at the end of Turn 5. Rain of Blades, physical. Massive "ow" on the remaining 2 unions, which one was half-dead anyways. Also, way to steal the most painful move from Saruin. Next attempt was with several weapon upgrades later... And just decided to suicide the team at Turn 9, because seriously? They're not going to survive ANYTHING that's coming at them. So I just used a trainer to OHKO the Remnant. Didn't really hang around the Ancient Ruins since my patience with the Items Only team was wearing thin. Since I can just use the trainer to expand just how many people I have in the reserves, I can take on those challenges pretty much at any point. It just means that I have to grind in the Ancient Ruins because I'm doing my Girls-only battles. A funny thing that happened during the final battle was Reversal! playing way too early. Rank 5 since I didn't complete enough quests, and I didn't want the fight to drag on too long. Actually, I think they would have outright died at the Rank 8 fight. Healing capabilities are way too low to counter anything the Conqueror could throw at them. He summoned the Lob Omen, which was quite a pain. Kept using Mystic Mine to kill off unions. I have no idea why it went from Nisus straight to Reversal! even though it took about 10 extra turns to kill him off. His portrait wasn't even flashing red. Doesn't matter, started my new run and have the saves there in case I want to investigate it.


By the way, I'm still laughing at how they translated トールハンマー as Hammer Toll. I think that the [Thunder]+5 effect would have been a pretty big clue to have it translated as THOR Hammer instead. I think they're pronounced the same in JP, hence the confusion and misnaming. Drill/Mr. Diggs sounds like a pigeon...?


010B3030 02 -> 03. Fixes Mystic Focus "bug." Need hex editor for this. HP and MP values are fine for the PC version since there aren't any real caps to speak of.

Time: 2:07'08"77
1776935
+4: 157
+5: 29
+6: 57
+7: 8
+8: 3
x2: 270
x3: 86
x4: 30
x5: 12
x6: 1
My best score in Panel de Pon so far... I suck at this game. And managed to get a +12 right afterwards, but then screwed up so I ended up losing.

How frustrating.

Oh blazing hell... The multipliers for the 360 version are all over the place. Some of them have +8% and others have +10% at *weapon*+1. That just throws a wrench in almost everything. Bluesteel is definitely following the same route as the PC... As is the Wand/ハードロック. A bunch of others have the +10% route. Unfortunately, there's just not enough info to make a concrete conclusion on the matter. Not even the guides go into it in any sort of depth. What makes it even more frustrating is that getting those upgrades just takes too long. You need to whack something 250~300 times PER upgrade. That's normal attacks, not skills.

Also, the flattest "What" I can muster: Ninja Theory, the guys behind Heavenly Sword, are apparently working on DMC5. Uh... from what I remember, they didn't have a jump button in Heavenly Sword, and the combat was rather slow and clunky when compared to DMC4. And DMC4 was flawed to hell and back. The first one is still, and probably forever will be, my favourite. DMC2 is OK if you just look at it as an action game and not a DMC game. DMC3 was rather... I don't even know. It was good, but completely unbalanced. It's supposed to be hard, but it should be logical and gradual, not "I really want to throw my controller at the TV" hard by the time you get to the 3rd mission. Anyways, that's the newest rumour that's gotten many people a little be unsettled. And I believe that could be an understatement.

That's all for now. I did play something while eating dinner, but it's really nothing to write about. Just playing someone else's file for the hell of it. And wondering about the lack of quests finished. At least I know that Baulson is still up for hire, seeing as his quest is still open despite passing the Nest of Eagles.

Solved.

Normal/Remnant equips: +7%/+10%/+13%/+15%/+18%/+20%/+23%/+25%/+30%.
Ancient/Auld/Antique: +5%/+8%/+10%/+13%/+15%/+18%/+20%/+23%/+25%.


Why they're different, I don't know. But at least that's done. Should have been done a long time ago. I guess it makes a little sense for the rarer weapons to not strengthen as much, seeing as how you wouldn't want to use them in the first place. Most of them have sub-par stats. Anyways, those are the PC values, obtained using a trainer to change the weapon modifiers. Used 2-3 samples for the 2 categories, so I'm fairly certain that I have the right values there. It's important to note that the game TRUNCATES the final value, not round. Many games do this, so I'm not too surprised about it. It's also easier to just chop off numbers to the right of the decimal point than to round up or down depending on what rules you impose on the system. It'll probably take too long for someone to find all the 360 modifiers, unless someone is willing to go through the trouble of using 2 Remnants, at least 2 normals and a few Antique types. I'd be more than willing to during the summer... if I had a 360 to use. But alas, I don't. Nor am I willing to buy one just for the sake of testing this.


Anyways... Got absolutely nowhere in the past sessions of play~ Not even the Eldritch Dragon is falling to my army. So all I've been doing so far is just arts training on Bai Ze. Really don't think that my army's going to get anywhere if I tried to grind using the Wisdom's Echo exploit. The next best places would be the Second and Sixth Paths in Siebenbur, but even that has its limits. The absolute best would be the Ancient Ruins, but I can't access that until I kill The Fallen. I could stick the item into my inventory, but I actually want to beat it and have Wyngale ready for hire. The one thing that I'm having trouble with is Faye's lack of willingness to change wield styles mid-battle. I have all of her One-handed arts open, at Peerless, yet she refuses to use them by sticking with Mighty Triple Axel II. Weird.

EDIT: I KNEW IT. The 360 modifiers are different. For one, the +3 modifier is 15%, not the 13% that's found in the PC version. I think the +1 modifier is a little higher at 10%. This needs further testing... Might have to ask a friend about it.

EDITx2: Finished over at my Wikia profile. Now gathering the numbers/EXP required for each level.

I need a new SaGa game to play.

Six Bases and Koenigsdorf are done! None of them were that much of a problem at BR39~45. I think there's no way around gaining almost 1BR per base. I think I gained 2BR during a quest, but I don't remember which one it was. Well, either way, I haven't been upgrading their equipment, but decided to give Faye the Shielding Hawkwind and Might Splitter. It turns out that the generics don't ask about their equipment focuses, so I really don't know how the game decides what route they take. Maybe it's through their actions? I know that the JP guide has a little chart explaining that if you give them a certain focus but act against it, then they would start moving towards that focus instead. Like this: You tell them Mystic, but spend time either A) being an idiot by acting in Balance, B) focusing on hammering them with Combat Arts/weapons or C) actually doing what you're told. For ~10 battles. That's apparently all it takes for the focus switch to take place. So A) would lead to a more balanced Mystic type (could be bad), B) would just confuse them into becoming a Combat-based unit (REALLY bad), while C) is probably the intended path (self-explanatory). Now, that's only the 1st talk. The second talk can even further complicate things, but that's the idea. Not sure how badly it affects the PC version though. I'm pretty sure that a lot of the Common/Generic Leaders alter their focus depending on what they do, which isn't all that hard since they never seem to ask. It's just damn near impossible to alter it easily. Faye going Mystic when she has no MAs to speak of? Yeah, that'll go over well. She'll still be dual-wielding though. Of course, this can be bypassed if the unions are organized properly.

Actually, I've also made it past the Darken Forest events. Yay for seeing many of my units fall victim to the Enthralled status. Funny enough, they managed to kill a few of my unions. Not so fun, especially knowing that one of them could quite possibly use an AoE attack. Singleton's Snowfall immediately comes to mind. Now, the next order of business is to beat The Fallen. I really don't think I'll be able to kill it within 10 turns. I lasted 6 turns, but didn't get anywhere near the damage I needed to deal by then. I was short by at least 200K. It also kept blocking a good deal of Item Arts directed against it. It also killed Wyngale pretty early in the fight (2 turns, it's a record!). BR50, as a note. It's possible to kill much earlier, but we're talking about a bunch of ragtag soldiers here. With no MAs to speak of. Quite literally the bulk of the damage being dealt is from bombs, traps and weird mystic combinations of items. And all of them can be blocked quite easily at BR50. For the time being, I guess I can beat the everlasting crap out of Bai Ze for arts training. Doubt that I'll get anywhere fast with stats until the Frosthold FortressAncient Ruins open up, which requires me to beat the Fallen in the first place. I completely forgot about Duke Ghor's quest, but I don't really care at this point. With a trainer, I can change the BR accordingly with a new file to take on simultaneous runs.


So I also decided to visit the 360 boards... And what's this about hitting themselves with Arcana? Sounds rather amusing, and even more reason for me to try the 360 version. I want to see all those glitches and bugs with my own eyes! I already knew about fussy Torgal, but I didn't know that it was that bad. The Leraje Princeps bug was already pretty bad in my book (stops him from upgrading for a VERY long time or until you give him something better), but being stuck with both the Halphas and Gremory Dominus customizations when you tell him to go all Combat? That's really bad. Hawkarang hits for considerably more damage than Cerulean Rain due to their damage modifiers. And going by the 360 weapon stats, there's really no reason to not go for the Halphas Dominus. Overall, the stats are better. Doesn't really matter as much on the PC, since you'd be focusing on the WA more, which still leads to the Halphas Dominus. The only reason you'd go for the Gremory Dominus is to get Cerulean Rain and because of the higher MYS stat. But knowing Torgal, going mystic isn't the best choice. It feels kinda sad that the 360 board is more active than the PC board.

Also decided to grab a little something off the net, but much to my surprise, there was really nothing there. I couldn't even find any of the game's internal data. There was an empty folder for audio and the video. No textures, no voice clips, nothing. Must be the way they organized the data because the PC discs are vastly different. To the point that the disc sizes are insanely different. Maybe there's something on the 2nd disc. I want to see if I can replace the critical files from the PC version with the 360 ones. It's too much of a pain to try altering the PC files to emulate what the 360 is like. Not to mention they changed the scaling so that it doesn't hit you as hard. Unless you're playing Hard Mode.

Note: Celeron D 356 (3.33GHz), LGA775, 9400GT 512MB, 512MB RAM.

Exam period and requests.

So, I basically said "Screw it" and played some LasuRemu. Sad thing is, I wasn't even playing my saves. I helped someone get past the Nest of Eagles at BR40. I was never that high in any of my runs, but I always had better stats and better weapons. It was a little jarring to say the least when I loaded it up just to see a bunch of underleveled units. Stats and Abilities. It almost made me want to say "Just restart." Still, got through it just fine. Purposely tried to abuse David's Gae Bolg spam, but that didn't really work out at all. He only used it when the battle was almost over, and only managed to kill off Roeas and the remaining mooks. Castenea did not prove to be a problem at all, which was a plus. At least the person requesting help finally said thanks. Three days later. Anyways, I did another person's request, which was to get past the Nest of Eagles from the beginning of the game. Was supposed to be a reconstruction of the person's file, but he didn't give me anything to go on, so I played the way I would normally play if I were just starting out. Which leads me to this: WHY THE HELL IS DAVID'S UNION ALWAYS DYING?! HIS UNION ISN'T EVEN LACKING IN HP! IT'S LIKE HE HAS THIS INTRINSIC FACTOR THAT BASICALLY SAYS "HIT ME DAMN IT." *sigh* Final stats? Rush has Swift Devil's Due V. He's a freakin' powerhouse with that, along with decent Mystic Arts and Item Arts. He's really lacking in Remedies this time around, but only because I wasn't bothering with too much training. Managed to get enough people that can revive other unions. Stuck Emmy and Dave in the same union since Dave can revive while Emmy can do massive healing. I've already upgraded their weapons almost as far as I can get them, so this guy is going to be fairly well off. Only problem is? I didn't minimize BR. Then again, this is Normal mode we're talking about, and I've already minimized it in terms of how many necessary encounters while gathering materials. Well, I think it was worth the effort. The user said thanks the day I posted the save, so it's all good. I can't believe that I managed to almost perfectly mimic the guy's progress. Maybe even better than his original too with BR and equipment. Turns out the guy was gathering all the unique leaders, so that was an interesting point he made. Playing at x3.0 speed was pretty interesting too.



OK, I lied. I did play my own file. Got past the half-way point. Also did a little number crunching. Turns out that the +9 modifier gives a 30% truncated boost to equipment. That's a sizable stat boost... Still not enough to save the Nightbloom's horrific DEF and MDEF values, but it's not like I'm using Rush as a tank in the first place. It took forever for Faye to take the Shielding Hawkwind and Might Splitter, and even longer before she decided to request the Black Belt. The Base fights are up next, and everyone's getting their equips upgraded now. I'm still not actively looking for their components. Interesting thing: Faye didn't ask about her equipment focus. She's gone Combat, but with the Shielding Hawkwind in her main hand. It technically should be the Might Splitter, but it doesn't really matter. I doubt that the [Combat Arts]+5 would stack between the 2 weapons. So now she's just training up the One-Handed wield style for Hawkarang, which I should have been doing from the start. Now she's pretty far behind, but managed to get Triple Axel. I probably should start abusing Bai Ze soon for training all of their combat arts. Hired 2 soldiers with Remedies and a wield style learned, in case I really need someone to take care of some healing.

I should just hurry along with the file. Want to really start the unique run already... But I also want to make sure that I start gathering some data about the soldiers' weapons too. Their upgrade paths are somewhat different from the 360 version, and can result in a weapon capable of a weapon art. That's my reasoning to deal with the it. Sure, no one uses them, but it only helps with fleshing out the wiki. Already got that upgrading Faye's Combat Tomahawk to the Baalukian requires Iron Orex3, Spider Silkx1 and Natural Oilx1.

Go multimedia here with my fandoms?

I wonder if I should just include other fandom stuff here. You know, manga and anime instead of just limiting it to games? I find myself watching and reading it a lot more lately, simply because I haven't had much access to my games by my own volition, even though I'm using my monitor at the moment. Just that the computer's not on. I still need to figure out a better way to record from my consoles. That TV tuner card isn't going to cut it and it's an ATI card. I have an nVidia card, so go figure. I just don't feel like clogging up my LJ with that kind of stuff anymore since I tend to write about RL things and use it to watch any fandom related things. Which reminds me, I need to join the Kuroshitsuji communities. And find something for the costume already. I now know that Sebastian's vest is purple according to the manga's character guide. So that's what I'll go with.



And I'm still helping out on the boards. Maybe I shouldn't help out while doing my papers? I'm almost finished my part, but I still need to write up another 2-5 pages for the other. Still, the question I'm answering isn't too bad. It definitely reminds me of when I started the game. I had, and probably still do, have a rather strong dislike of using Item Arts. It'll probably change once I get full access to Shards. I've never used Shards extensively before, so maybe my opinion will change then.Still, no LasuRemu for me until after some of the exams blow over.

Played a little FFXIII before heading to bed because I just wasn't feeling tired at all. The fact that I woke up at 11.30 is a moot point because that's what I always do on Sundays. Grinded some more, pretty much finished Hope, Lightning and Fang's primary roles. I think I'm almost done with the other 3, so just starting on their secondaries. Kept a save before heading into Chapter 12, in case I need to deal with more grinding. I'm only grinding because I can't read JP that quickly, so that slows down my command entry by quite a bit. Not to mention that the JP and EN names are different, so it's somewhat easy to mix up at times, or trying to find the command, but it's not there. It's going a bit smoother now, although I can't seem to remember how I beat the Ochu and Pikochus.

One funny thing... I've managed to get one person to like Hope a lot more! He was annoying at the beginning because of all of his whining, but when you look at things from his perspective, it becomes a little more understandable. But from a gameplay perspective, he's awesome, if you can stand the fact that he's THE most fragile mage. Ever. Good thing he can buff himself before letting loose a whole lot of pain. Got him started on the Jammer role so that he can help out with debuffing the enemy. While Fang does a good job, her best role is Attacker and her magic stat is easily one of the worst. Yeah, my team includes the 2 extremes and the most balanced character. Go me.

Also, I'm still a little annoyed that the 480i/480p output is so bad. I remember hooking it up to the (really old) bigger TV, and it looked horrible compared to my small monitor. I could hardly see the text! So I'm refraining from using that TV to play games. It probably needs to be replaced at some point. There's a few caption boxes burned into it... Two lines worth. It's really bad.

Busy...

Hm. It's been 10 days since I last typed up something here. Then again, I have good reason for not having much to say. You know, uni life, assignments and other miscellaneous things. Instead, I've been helping out at the Last Remnant boards more than I would really like to. Then again, I've kinda done that on the Tales of Rebirth PSP board too. It's now largely abandoned because they've moved on. That, and Namdai has no intention of localizing the title even though it's another chance for them to release the damn game! Passed over in favour of Tales of Legendia, not that Legendia's a bad game. It's just a bad Tales of entry, that's all. Been hanging around the SaGa boards instead, so...


ANYWAYS. Helping other gamers. I'm surprised I haven't snarked any of them yet. I guess it's mostly because they're all newbies to the game, so it's probably better not to get too sarcastic with them. Unless they ask a dumb question, then they were asking for it. There's still the occasion when someone asks if their computer/laptop can handle running the game. My patience for such questions is wearing quite thin now, since the demo's quite readily available for download and testing. DAMN IT YOU GUYS, SEARCH THE NET FOR IT AND TRY IT OUT. Or look up the recommended specs. *ahem* Also,I can't believe that I replied to a post saying that I was a girl. He seemed a little surprised, although it's understandable. After all, there are no girls on the net and the fact that my handle is rather ambiguous. There's really no need to be a GIRL anyways. Well, it also doesn't help knowing that people can never guess whether or not I'm a girl based solely on my typing patterns and interests. Until I bring up my preferred ships. I don't engage in shipping wars, so...



Found the Kuroshitsuji costume online... It's going to cost a bit just to get the top. I have enough black pants to last quite a while, so I just really need the vest/waistcoat, shirt (because that collar is weird...) and the tailcoat. I can't believe that I'm agreeing to dress up as a butler! Oh and gloves. I don't have white gloves. Still... it means that I get to act like a total jerk while smiling~

*yawn*

... Someone's asking about how to deal with the E7 battle. Stated BR, but didn't say if he was playing on Normal or Hard. That bit might actually be critical here. And he focused on getting rid of Snievan first? That's a first for me... Practically everyone I watched so far tries to off Milton first so that they can do Morale control with Snievan. Much easier to deal with since it's easier to heal after getting capped in the face or hit with Curse since he's not likely to Instakill an entire union twice. Eh, whatever. Looks like their question was answered.

Hm. I just haven't played anything lately mostly because of the impending assignments that need to be dealt with right now. Two 10-page papers isn't that fun to look at. Sure, they'll be double-spaced, but still. Then again, I actually had fun writing my 10-page report on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). It was a fascinating topic. These ones? Not so much. And I just haven't felt like playing anything lately. I still haven't bothered ordering End of Eternity, been busy fangirling over Baccano! and Durarara!!, with interest in Vamp! and Etsusa Bridge being tickled a little bit. Too bad light novels are such a pain to translate that there are hardly any licenses over here. Good thing that the fans are pretty dedicated. Besides, I want to see batshit insane Japan (Etsusa Bridge) since batshit insane America has been done and is still going (oh silly Claire, and Baccano!).


I seriously need to start drawing something now. Add another character that OnoD voices, and now I really want to do a costume switch. Let's see: Snow, Sigma, Shizuo, David. Funny... the oldest is Shizuo at about 23~24 and arguably the skinniest, youngest is Sigma at 17. Three of them are blond. The other... I have no idea what colour that is. Wait. I forgot the demon butler. And I'm listening to him singing.




BACON LETTUCE

Various notes on the leaders...

Redone here.

Bored, should really be asleep right now.

Hm... kinda tempted to hire Faye. Dual wields axes, can have Hawkrang if she masters the One-handed style. Black belt can help with upping damage even more ([Dual Wield]+5 and [Axes]+5). Is a generic. And she can heal with items (Herbs and Lotions). Doesn't cost too much to hire, and she can come fairly early. Too bad she's in Celapaleis, somewhere that I don't visit that often unless I'm restocking on supplies and checking up on Rhagoh for his quests. Still, she's a candidate for another run. Maybe I'll hold off from doing the UL run until I can get the mic working properly without sounding like a complete idiot. I'll still probably record a bunch of random things though. Hopefully I can optimize the run even further since I want to beat everything at the lowest BR possible. Lots of Bai Ze then,huh? Good thing she has decent starting morale, at 67. Compare that to Rush... who starts at 45. Pretty high for a generic... I'm really curious about her upgrade paths though. Would she be willing to request the Shielding Hawkwind if I tell her to down the Combat focus? She needs to be in the Combat focus in order to take the belts, that's for sure. Having the Shielding Hawkwind and Might Splitter could be quite beneficial for her damage output seeing as how the Hawkwind customization has much better stats, and the Might Splitter imparts [Combat Arts]+5. Combine that with the Black Belt, and that's quite a few bonuses right there. Of course, it doesn't apply to actually using Hawkrang since it's a One-handed WEAPON Art, not Combat Art. Still, having the Peerless modifier on Dual-wield arts is great. Too bad she'll be pretty slow because of it, using Power modifiers and all.

Who else to consider... I always hire McGrady. Maybe I'll give him a Glaive this time so he'll get the Heaven's Door WA. Making him go Mystic will help amp up his Remedies. Problem with all the Generics is that none of them will have the "Special" attribute. So... it's going to be like the soldier run, only that they'll actively say stuff to you and can somewhat mold them to your liking. ... I also have no idea who has Hexes or Psionics. Eh... whatever. If I can deal with my current run with no Hexes, then I can deal with it using generic leaders! It would help though... although I think I'll be speed running the thing because I'd like to start hearing my party's voices. I'm really starting to miss Rush shouting all sorts of things while Emma's scolding him or being sarcastic about his performance on the field. "Hey1 Look at what I've got!" - Rush, when he sparked Life Powder during the Niram Sin/Namul Sin. "It's about time..." - Emma. And I wasn't really that low on health either... Actually, I just really miss Dave's voice.


So I guess it's decided. Next run will be using generic leaders, and the one after that will be using Unique Leaders. Hopefully I can get some... interesting lines out of them~ And stuffing all those Sovani into a union just to see how they react to one another.



Going through the 聖剣伝説４ OST... Tracks: Burning Spirits (Itou/Sekito), Reminiscence (Itou), Shadow of Vine (Sekito), Goblin's Beat (Itou), Red Wyvern (Sekito), Seeking the Light (Itou), Rondo of Sand (Itou), The Fool's Dance (Itou), Roar of the Iron Clump (Itou), The Final Decisive Battle (Itou), The Child of the Sprite Tribe (Soken), Don't Hunt the Fairy (Soken), The Darkness Nova (Soken), Irwin on Reflection (Soken). Disc 4 stuff, only the SK4 edits.

The OST really sounds like it was composed right after completing the ミンサガ OST. Lots of similarities, mostly because it's the same 2 composers involved in it, so it's really not that much of a surprise. Still, it sounds very SaGa like, not very Mana like... Maybe because the Mana music I usually listen to is from 下村陽子, and she did Legend of Mana, the only Mana game I've played to completion. With a partner because it wasn't my idea to play it.