I’m trying to play both games slowly to avoid burnout, but it’s not really working. I’m not very good at this fancy new-age “self-control” stuff. So I thought, if moderation won’t work then it’s time to go the other route: play the hell out of both games. That I can do nicely.
UnchainBlades EXXiV: 65 hours, on the second floor of the Abyss Gate, the very final dungeon. My party is around level 45, all burst levels and most passives unlocked. I’m actually running out of stuff to unlock when I level up. The difficulty has risen quite a bit since I haven’t upgraded my armor in a while. I’m not in a hurry to upgrade either, because the higher difficulty suits me just fine. Plus if anyone’s going to die it’s usually Hilda, and she has an awesome passive skill that fills everyone’s burst gauge when she’s KO’ed, so I don’t shed many tears when she croaks.
As for the story, such as it is, well… I probably haven’t mentioned this before, but I don’t think dungeon crawlers need a story. If they must have one, it should be short and simple and told as early as possible so the player can get down to business. Dungeon crawlers are usually lengthy, energy-sapping and time-consuming affairs. I don’t need to deal with Bible story rip-offs and daddies who want to take over the world by impregnating their daughters and– wait, that was a spoiler, wasn’t it? Whatever, it’s not like the game is coming to the west.
Final push this week, then final roundup when it’s all over.
Arc Rise Fantasia: Forgot the hour count, but I lost yet another Rogress to Alf, then I delivered the peace treaty and now I’m fighting a hoard of zombie soldiers in Batrachi-thingy. I’d still be playing now, but I realized I only had 18 High Liquids to my name and I need at least 5 times that number to feel comfortable. I’m also kind of worried because they haven’t let me buy any new armor in a while. These chaps are really starting to reek.
Niko left my party, but he hasn’t betrayed me yet. Maybe he really was running away because he was scared? Poor thing. Come back, Niko, all is forgiven!
The story is okay, hasn’t really changed much. I ran into a bit of trouble when Prince Weiss made his big reveal: I rolled my eyes so far back into my head they got stuck! Okay, not really. But mentally, they’re still stuck. I mean, this has crossed the territory of cliche and is heading straight into parody. Are they even serious?
One thing I do like, though, is L’Arc’s attitude towards the whole gods and saving the world thing. He’s actually making efforts to think and decide for himself which path is the right one. He could stand to do a little less moping and spacing out, but his heart is in the right place. There are waaaaaay too many RPG heroes out there going “I fight for what’s right! And I know it’s right because this bimbo I met 5 seconds ago said so!”
Right, that’s enough for the update. See you next time I actually finish something.
If you like challenging dungeon crawlers, you might wanna try Elminage Gothic, that game is super difficult and hardcore.
Not too hard, I hope. Is that the one on PSP? I’m scheduled to play that pretty soon.
The original psp version is in full japanese, but there is an english PC version.
i finished the psp version using guides for the pc port and there is even an elminage gothic wiki
The Etrian odyssey series are a good option too, i played them on an emulator.
The second etrian odysseyis the hardes and the third hame has a more balanced difficulty.
shin megami tensei strange journey is another excellent choice, not too easy, not too hard
I’ve played Strange Journey. Played the demo of EOIV, didn’t like it too much. I’ve heard the 3DS remake of EOI has auto-mapping so I’m thinking of getting that.
Full Japanese is not a problem for me. But I think I’ll start with the English Elminage Original as planned and branch out later if I really like it. Thanks a lot for all the suggestions!
Every elminage for the psp is in japanese, but elminage original has an english translation, i played original first, then elminage gothic, elminage 2, 3 and finally elminage igun.
they all have the same exploration formula, so you can play them just fine even in full japanese.
Enjoy…