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December 7th, 2009
12:25 am - Romancing the Clone
Shantotto versus Shantotto...
( Read More... )
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November 29th, 2009
11:45 pm - Modernization
So...there was a Besieged going on. I haven't attended one in awhile, so I wanted in. Only that my game crashes every time I exited my Mog House in Whitegate. That's...problematic.
Since I have a copy of the latest Vana'diel Collection now, I decided a full reinstall may be in order. After all, it has been three years. Besides, how long would it take anyway? An hour or two?
Well, it ended up being about five hours. Woke up this morning around 9 and started patching. The time remaining was at 6 hours at one point. Well, it really wasn't 6 hours, because I finished around 1PM, but it was a pretty long time.
And of course, I didn't bother backing up my macros. I figured a bit of modernization may be in order anyway. Sure, I updated my macros every now and then whenever a new ability is introduced or (less frequently) a new piece of gear is acquired. However, my basic macro system hasn't really changed since...what, almost three years ago? That is a bit disconcerting.
So yeah, modernization. Of course, that means I am playing Red Mage in Campaign without even a basic macro set for soloing. Gah.
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November 23rd, 2009
02:28 am - Shantotto in Chains
All things considered, the Shantotto in Chains section of A Shantotto Ascension could have been a lot worse. Hunting down six different NMs in the Sanctuary of Zi'Tah and Ro'Maeve for six different key items sounds like a twisted definition of "fun," and the key items are not even guaranteed drops. But wait! There are multiple copies of all of the NMs at any given time, and they repop fairly quickly. What's more, these NMs are entirely passive until provoked; even the undead ones will leave you alone as long as you hold up your end of the non-aggression pact. Now, I know that "it could have been worse" is not exactly a ringing endorsement, but at least there were some good ideas behind the design here.
Each of the six NMs can only be damaged in a certain way. Some can only be damaged via magic, another only via piercing weapons. The first two were really easy. Blest Bones went down quickly to Enfire and Fire IIIs, and Skeleton Scuffler was rudely introduced to Hexa Strike. Steely Weapon is immune to all but ranged attacks. That may be tailor-made for my Ranger, yet I can't help but feel for those who didn't happen to have RNG/COR/SAM/THF leveled. Even though Steely Weapon wasn't difficult to kill, staying alive long enough to do the killing can be a challenge. On my fourth kill, I had to EES the damn thing since my shadows were down and I missed a critical Sidewinder. The key item promptly dropped.
Strangely enough, I had the hardest time with Holey Horror. The Holey Horror is only vulnerable to piercing damage. My prized Dissector (now that it's finally unlocked) deals slashing damage, I get that. And despite its appearance, my Buzzard Tuck deals slashing damage. Okay, fine. But I tried a couple of other swords out of desperation (Vorpal Sword and...Fencing Degen, if you must know), and apparently I don't have a single sword that deals piercing damage. My Beestinger can deal piercing damage, but the damage just isn't enough to matter. Not to mention both Gust Slash and Cyclone deal magical damage, so I can't even count on two of the better dagger weapon skills. If I had only unlocked Evisceration like a good little Red Mage... Wait a second.
I ran to Kazham and triggered the Evisceration quest. And I finally killed Holey Horror by dual-wielding a dagger of trials and the aforementioned Beestinger. Of course, now I have a dagger to unlock and a new quest to complete. I am so not looking forward to that Baronial Bat battle...
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November 17th, 2009
01:12 am - Enemy of the Empire
In fact, you're probably seeing double.
( Read More... )
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November 13th, 2009
11:43 pm - Woolly Fate
Inspired by my recent struggles in The World Ends with You... I am unable to import the image from my DS. Luckily, Altana Viewer came to my rescue.
( That is one menacing pachyderm. )
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November 8th, 2009
11:28 pm - Pachydermic Obstacle
Spent way too much on The World Ends with You over the weekend. I am still on the third day of the final week, mostly because I am totally obsessed with the pin-collection aspect of the game. One of the rare pins you can collect during the final week is Spider's Silk. However, Spider Silk is only dropped by the mammoth-esque blue noise (basically an optional boss) on hard difficulty. This unholy...thing is insanely difficult even on normal difficulty. Its seismic stomp attack interrupts everything, including healing animations. Sometimes Neku will get stuck in a state of being perpetually interrupted while trying desperately to quaff a cure drink—death usually comes swiftly after that. I am convinced that must be a bug (I had one of those auto-healing pins, so Neku shouldn't get interrupted in the first place), but the angry pachyderm is difficult to beat even without that unfair advantage.
Took me at least twenty tries to beat the damn thing on hard. And I repeated that feat just to prove to myself it wasn't a fluke. And now I have two Spider's Silks to play with. Yay.
Apparently, you can also get a rare pin by beating these three NPCs in a mini-game. I am, like, zero for seven so far...
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November 4th, 2009
11:17 pm - Remembering Final Fantasy VIII
I don't know what compelled me to look up Final Fantasy VIII yesterday—during work, no less!—but I am glad I did. While scouring the internet for anything even remotely connected to Final Fantasy VIII for reasons unknown, I stumbled upon this amazing article that beautifully encapsulated the things I've always said about the game. Final Fantasy VIII reveals everything subtly, so much so that it is almost to the game's detriment. For instance, the game never bothers to spell out the nature of the relationship between Squall and Laguna—you either figure it out or you don't. Now, personally, I think the whole Laguna/Squall thing is pretty transparent anyway. Although apparently it is not transparent enough for some people...
Reading the article brought back some treasured memories. Final Fantasy VIII was special to me precisely because puzzling out things like the Squall/Laguna connection (no matter how transparent it may be) is so rewarding. It's one of the rare games that gives the players any kind of credit. "Hey, you're not a kid anymore; you can figure things out. So...figure things out." Of course, it also helps that the game features some truly complex characters. It may be tempting to look at Seifer as nothing more than a reckless bully and Squall's adversary, but he is so much more than that. One of my favorite scenes in the game occurred right after Squall, Zell, and Selphie became official SeeD members. And who was the first person to congratulate the trio? Seifer, of course.
And now I have this sudden urge to revisit Final Fantasy VIII, 10 years after its original release...
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October 29th, 2009
11:46 pm - Year Six
Yep, a Year Six post. To think, last year around this time, I was openly wondering out loud if there will be a Year Six entry. Yet here is it, a Year Six entry!
Of course, much has changed over the past year. My Ranger is 75 now. I also finished two of the three add-on scenarios, and I suppose I will try to finish the last one whenever it comes out—no point stopping now. Yet despite those minor accomplishments, I am mildly bored with the game. Quistie's various misadventures just aren't all that exciting these days.
Not to say I am leaving the game behind or anything. I have invested too much time and energy on Quistie to do that now. However, more than ever I wonder if there will be a Year Seven entry next year. That, and I can't help but secretly look forward to Final Fantasy XIV, even if the previews are strangely underwhelming*. I assume there will be an open beta for that, and the possibility of becoming a noob again is intoxicating. Then again, perhaps the day I leave Quistie behind should be the day I leave MMO behind forever.
Either way, it has been a remarkable run.
* : Personal opinion! I guess the pretty graphics did nothing for me.
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October 26th, 2009
11:01 pm - Incompletes Will Be Destroyed
Saved the game right before the battle with Sho Minamimoto in The World Ends with You. The battle isn't too hard, but I can easily lose if I screw up. Of course, dropping my characters to level 10 (to increase the drop rate on a rare pin) isn't helping things, either. I will give it a couple more tries after updating this.
Yesterday's SE Apollyon run went okay, I suppose. We timed out after clearing out everything on the third floor. The kraken boss on the second floor did a number on us. I tried to kite it away from everyone to buy time. Except that 1) most people were already busy eating dirt at that point and 2) I didn't do a very good job of kiting. I tried to sneak a nuke in there...and well, you can guess what happened... On the bright side, we got a PLD AF+1 item on that floor. Divinius happily claimed it for his now-shinier Paladin.
And a bit of baseball stuff. Sigh, my beloved Dodgers missed out on the World Series yet again. The Yankees advanced to the World Series on the AL side, but I don't hate them nearly as much as I hate the Angels, so even I can't complain about that. And gosh, Mike Scioscia has to be the most overrated manager in the game today. I can't fathom why he would pitch around Derek Jeter like he's the reincarnation of Babe Ruth—not once, but twice! Of course, Scioscia also insists on giving Gary Matthews Jr. meaningful at bats in pinch hitting situations, so maybe he's just completely crazy.
Back to face Minamimoto!
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October 22nd, 2009
10:32 pm - I Am Back!
Been back since Monday night, actually. Of course, being away for a week (puppysitting again) means that it's a struggle to get back into the swing of things. Somewhat predictably, I am starting to play FFXI more regularly again (splitting my time between FFXI and The World Ends with You). Absence makes heart grow fonder, I guess.
While running around in Castle Zvahl Baileys working on my dissector latent, I ran into Duke Haborym:
Never fought any of the Demon NMs before. Duke Haborym isn't really hard or anything. However, his regular hits can really hurt—there were a few anxious moments where I was only able to stand upright thanks to the Utsusemi shadows. Fortunately, Duke Haborym is a Dark Knight, and he's not a particularly good one. Every once awhile, he would feel the need to cast a spell or two. Why he would even bother with spells when he can just smack me for ~300 points of damage is beyond me. I almost laughed when he casted Absorb-CHR. He dropped a scythe for me and nothing else.
After Duke Haborym, I looked around for the other NMs. Marquis Allocen wasn't up. I wanted nothing to do with Grand Duke Batym. Marquis Amon was around. I was concerned about fighting Marquis Amon—being a Black Mage, he can potentially ruined my day with an untimely ga-spell or two—but I ended up pulling him anyway. It was not a good pull, as a gore demon decided to join the fray. I slept the link after taking a few hits. Now I could have kept going, sleeping the add repeatedly... Instead, I used my scroll of Instant Retrace to get the hell out of there.
Hey, it was late and my heart really wasn't in it. Running away is the best part of valor. Really!
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