Odin Sphere: Mercedes's Story Comments~

Alrighty, I'm not gonna keep this long. Cuz I don't feel like doing a long post about it ^^; In essence, Mercedes is the princess of the fairy kingdom, Ringford. The kingdom is in a war with Odin over the cauldron. If he has it, the fairies will lose their phozons and won't be able to live. So then starts a war. Mercedes's mother is killed by Odin on the battlefield, which leaves her as the new queen. And she knows nothing about being a queen. Her cousin Melvin, sneaky dude, sees this as his opportunity to cause a revolt so he can become king. And that he does.

Mercedes takes what little troops she has that still support her as the new queen. They try to get Beldor, one of the wise men, on their side but Melvin has already acted to gain his aid. Beldor attacks Mercedes with Belial, the dragon. She defeats it, but the mean old wizard tries to kill her himself. Alas, he is stopped by a frog. Yes, a frog. This frog will continue to follow her around wanting her to kiss him so he become human again. Where have I heard this story before? xD But the frog is actually a pretty important person. With magic powers that come in handy.

Anyways, they end up stopping Melvin's rebellion even with their small number of troops. Mercedes is able to defeat his shadow knight, Oswald, and shortly after they are both sent to the Netherworld. Mercedes is slowly becoming a better queen. With the frog's help. And they know they need to stop Odin still from getting the cauldron. Only way to do that is make a stronger psypher that can destroy his. They need Brom, this great dwarf blacksmith, to do that. Unfortunately, he is in the Netherworld. Turns out Melvin sent him there. And Beldor knows where he's located. And the frog knows where the three wise men hang out. In the sewers of Titania. So, Titania be their next location. Oh man, but here is where you fight the most annoying boss fight ever. Beldor is just wow. And after Mercedes promises to pardon him of his crimes if he'll help them too. Anyways, in the fight you have to knock these swords back at him to stun him before you can pummel away at him. And dodge these stupid jumping guards at the same time.

So, she defeats Beldor and he's still being hateful trying to kill her until the frog suddenly turns him into a Pooka xD That was just hilarious. Pretty much leaving him defenseless now. The frog collapses after using the power and Mercedes gives him that kiss he's been waiting for. Much to her surprise he does turn back into a human. Turns out that frog was Ingway, the prince of Valentine. You know, Velvet's twin and the dude who cursed Cornelius. Turns out he was turned into a frog by Urzur. But anyways, he takes off because he has stuff to do but funnily enough they seem to have feelings towards one another. Beldor is taken back to the kingdom and forced to show them the way to Brom in the Netherworld.

They arrive there and Beldor takes off not wanting to show the way only to get taken by a Halja anyways. So, Mercedes continues on to rescue Brom and has to fight Queen Odette in the process. Lag fight ftl. But yeah, she does and they go back to Ringford. Brom has an idea about how to make the psypher stronger but needs the fire from the fire kingdom to do it. They go there, meet the king of Valentine again, have to fight Levanthan, the last dragon, again. Then they get the heck out of there and go back to Ringford. Brom finally improves Mercedes's psypher to be able to destroy Odin's then asks if he can take a break as blacksmith. He wants to go see Oswald to settle some things. So, off he goes and the rest of the kingdom prepares for war against Odin.

After an enlightening speech, they storm the battlefield, defeating all in their path. And finally she makes it to Odin. And might I add that the boss fight against him is incredibly easy with her. And after he badmouths her at the beginning xD She destroys his psypher. And he pretty much can't believe he's been defeated by this little fairy girl. Instead of killing him right then and there, because she doesn't want him to become a martyr, she makes him promise never to show his face to her again and to leave the cauldron and their kingdom alone. If not, then she'll have her troops invade his kingdom and he'll lose much more than he already has. He agrees to it and promises to uphold his word. Mercedes wins the war and saves the kingdom, avenging her mother's death in the process. And she becomes a true queen in the end.

Ain't that a nice story? Let me tell you, the next one is not as heartfelt. It's pretty dang sad. But hopefully it'll have a happy ending. Guess I'll see~

Etrian Odyssey 3!?

Yeah, this really shows how much I pay attention ^^; Did not know there was a third game till recently in this series. I mean it just came out in April in Japan. So, I guess I'm not too behind. Come at Atlus! Localize it! It's awesome xD There's a pirate class this time! And I really love this series. This one seems to have alot of sea exploration. It takes a totally different turn from the other two. Same concepts but different atmosphere. And probably other new added stuff. Do want~ I'll just have to wait and see if Atlus decides to bring it over. It shall be mine. And actually, I'd consider importing it if they don't localize it. But for now, just gonna wait.


Pirates ftw!

Other character classes:
Prince(ss)
Shinobi
Pirate
Phalanx
Monk
Warrior
Zodiac
Ballista
Beastking
Farmer
Shogun
Android

Got some interesting stuff. This is totally different from the first two games. Really is. Totally new character classes. Please Atlus... please... xD

Etrian Odyssey final comments~

Yep, I finally finished post game. And man, the 6th stratum was dang tough. No doubt about that. Freakin' warp panels and pitfalls everywhere making it hard to navigate. And FOE's everywhere. Anyways, there were these three dragons in the game that are like really difficult to fight. At first I thought they were optional. But when I got to the 30th floor of the dungeon I found out you had to defeat them in order to access the final boss of post game. Luckily, I had already done that xD Because I wanted to kill them anyways. First, I'll go over my final team of peeps then talk a bit about the dragons and final boss.

In no particular order:

Thunder (Landsknecht) Lv. 70
Hp: 675
Tp: 166
Atk: 305
Def: 136
Str: 105
Agi: 69
Tec: 53
Vit: 75
Luc: 75

Equipment:
Duegar, Demon Mail, Star Charm, Blood Gage

Skills (Lv): Hp Up (10), Tp Up (10), Atk Up (10), Def Up (2), Axes (10), Swords (10), 2-Hit (3), Allslash (10), Blazer (1), Freezer (1), Shocker (1), Crush (10)

Rami (Protector) Lv. 70
Hp: 695
Tp: 236
Atk: 296
Def: 167
Str: 96
Agi: 62
Tec: 68
Vit: 78
Luc: 75

Equipment:
Duegar, Holy Armor, Holy Aspis, Star Charm

Skills (Lv): Hp Up (10), Tp Up (10), Def Up (8), Shields (10), Fortify (5), Antifire (5), Antivolt (5), Anticold (5), Smite (10), Stalker (10)

Fenris (Survivalist) Lv. 70
Hp: 718
Tp: 212
Atk: 303
Def: 111
Str: 83
Agi: 107
Tec: 76
Vit: 60
Luc: 82

Equipment:
Arc Drawer, Jazeraint, Dyed Boot, Blood Gage

Skills (Lv): Hp Up (10), Tp Up (10), Agi Up (5), Bows (10), Ambush (10), Trickery (9), Quicken (3), 1st Turn (1), Multihit (10), Apollon (10)

Aika (Medic) Lv. 70
Hp: 603
Tp: 239
Atk: 162
Def: 101
Str: 53
Agi: 67
Tec: 88
Vit: 53
Luc: 82

Equipment:
Mystic Rod, Rune Tunic, Circlet, Fur Boot

Skills (Lv): Hp Up (10), Tp Up (8), Atk Up (10), Healer (10), Scavenge (1), Cure (3), Cure 2 (3), Salve (3), Salve 2 (10), Immunize (10), Caduceus (10)

Leon (Troubador) Lv. 70
Hp: 609
Tp: 220
Atk: 241
Def: 95
Str: 60
Agi: 69
Tec: 74
Vit: 53
Luc: 85

Equipment:
Failnaught, Jazeraint, Star Charm, Tiger Boot

Skills (Lv): Hp Up (10), Tp Up (7), Songs (10), Divinity (10), Bravery (10), Erasure (3), Recovery (5), Stamina (10), Blaze (1), Frost (1), Shock (1), Relaxing (10)

Arcadia (Alchemist) Lv. 70
Hp: 455
Tp: 322
Atk: 155
Def: 89
Str: 46
Agi: 67
Tec: 96
Vit: 46
Luc: 68

Equipment:
Mystic Rod, Rune Tunic, Town Medal, Fur Boot

Skills (Lv): Tp Up (10), Fire Up (10), Ice Up (10), Volt Up (10), Scavenge (1), Fire (3), Flame (10), Ice (3), Freeze (10), Thor (10), Warp (1)

Alright, Arcadia is just an honorable mention ^^; Because she only helped get me through the final stratum. That was filled with nasty enemies with high physical defense but very vulnerable to magic. Like my powerful physical stuff only did 1-5 damage on them. So yeah. Incredibly helpful. But I didn't take her into the fights with the dragons or Primevil, the final post game boss.

The dragons were just easy to manipulate really. All of them used some sort of element. Wyrm was fire, Drake was ice, and Dragon was volt. Basically, you spam either Antifire, Anticold, or Antivolt every single turn. Depending on who you're fighting. Because that will block their elemental attack completely. If you don't, you'll get torn apart and lose almost all your team from one shot of it. Because it hits all. From then, it's Apollon/Multihit with my Survivalist, Immunize every 4 turns and heal with Salve 2 in between, and Allslash with my swordie. With Wyrm I had to constantly spam Bravery in order to keep my team from getting confused. Basically, I manipulated him into using a skill that removed beneficial stats xD It was pretty humorous. He did attack sometimes but it didn't do that much damage thanks to Immunize. With Drake I didn't have to worry about that. I just kept having to use Erasure to knock off his defense up stat he kept doing. And with Dragon I had to constantly recast Immunize and Relaxing because he had a move called Corruption that got rid of them. They were tough. And you pretty much had to block and manipulate stuff to survive. Otherwise, they'd destory you in one shot.

Now, let's talk about Primevil, the ugliest boss I've ever seen. Seriously. Look at this thing:

Not my screenshot obviously xD But dang. Anyways, he was annoying as heck. But funny thing is he always attacks in the same pattern. If you figured it out, you pretty much had him other than the physical attacks he had. And you had to use a boosted Immunize. Even with a normal Immunize his physical attacks hurt bad. And they hit more than once. If I had gotten unlucky someone could have died. Actually, someone did die once but I quickly fixed that. Basically, know what turns he uses an elemental attack on and use the right Anti skill to block it. He has so much dang Hp though. Like 90,000. So, it took a while to kill him. And I almost ran out of Tp on some people ^^; Thunder did run out. Luckily Rami and Aika didn't. Twas a good fight though.

And that's pretty much it for Etrian Odyssey. The first game anyways. I be playing the second game now. The only things that carry over from this game to that one are the Town Medal and Town Crown. The Town Medal you get for beating the game in general. Like just beat the final boss. The Town Crown you get by filling in the monster and item compendium completely. Which means you have to do post game. And that's just way too annoying and alot of work. Ain't doing it~ I'll just take my Town Medal and go. On to other things.

Odin Sphere: Cornelius's Story Comments~

Alrighty, I finished his story not long ago. It got pretty dang challenging towards the end. He definitely had the most annoying final area ever. Nothing in Gwendolyn's story came close to that amount of annoyance >_< Slimes that can only be killed using Napalms and wizzards that disappear all over the place and you have to chase. Plus the final boss of his story is just beyond frustrating. Without Napalms anyways. Cuz that's what I did to beat him xD Lag and flying debris do not mix. Some boss fights are just bad like that. Queen Odette certainly is. Ah well.

Anyways, lets talk a bit about what happened in his story. Cornelius is the prince of Titania. One of the big kingdoms/military power/etc in the world of this game. He's apparently in love with Velvet, the princess of Valentine, which you'll remember was in Gwendolyn's story. As Odin's daughter from an enemy nation. He gets turned into a Pooka. The bunny looking thing in the picture above. And I think he's cute like that ^^; But apparently everyone else looks down on them in this game. He's fun to play as to me. Like out of the three characters I've used so far he wins in that category. His story is all about him trying to turn himself back to normal so he can return home and face Velvet again too.

The act of turning him into a Pooka was a curse set up by Ingway, Velvet's twin brother, and the sorcerer, Urzur. He was like a head sorcerer I guess in Titania. Well respected by the king. Ingway did it so he couldn't see his sister anymore (Cornelius's father didn't want him to see her anymore either) and Urzur wants the secret power of the Titanian royal family. Which in the end both end up wanting it. Cornelius does alot of running around thanks to these two. And almost gets pwned badly by a dragon. Wagner was definitely an annoying boss fight. But anyways, he meets up with Pookas in the kingdom of Valentine, thanks to Wagner, trying to turn themselves back to normal by collecting all the coins of Valentine. He finds out how Valentine was destroyed in the process as well. Their own king used the crystallization cauldron and brought ruin to the land turning the survivors into Pookas. Though Velvet and Ingway somehow escaped this curse.

This king somehow makes his way back from the Netherworld and is trying to control the cauldron again. He has the ring Titrel which controls it as well. But Cornelius manages to stop him. Twice actually. And one of those times he saves Velvet from him. Though she doesn't know it's him obviously. So he ends up just going back to the Netherworld because he doesn't have much power after all that. But he does inform him that the power of the Titanian royal family can turn someone into a terrible beast. And that his grandfather used it to stop the kingdom of Valentine in a war long ago. But he went out of control and Cornelius's father had to kill him. He killed him with the sword Cornelius received in the Netherworld. It's then he realizes that's who gave him that sword while he was there. That was the voice he heard.

Upon returning to the Pookas, he's informed that a dragon is attacking Titania and sacrifices are being made to it. He quickly returns to Titania to find his father and Urzur. And Urzur's plan is revealed. He wants to bring Cornelius's grandfather back from the Netherworld and turn him into a terrible beast again. His father tells him that Velvet is being offered to the dragon in the sewers so he runs off to save her. In the sewers he finds Urzur and Ingway again. Arguing this time because Urzur hasn't held up his end of the deal. Which was to give Ingway the power of the Titanian royal family for turning Cornelius into a Pooka. Urzur is pretty much like I had no intention of keeping my end of the deal plus I have the ring of Titrel. But funnily enough it's a fake given to him by Ingway. So much backstabbing xD So, Urzur threatens to kill Velvet right then and there. Ingway heals Cornelius and tells him to go rescue her while he deals with Urzur.

Enter a very annoying boss fight. As I said earlier. Major lag. After an already annoying last area to get to him. So anyways, you beat the dragon, whose heart was being controlled by Urzur, and upon defeating him that spell was broken. In the end, the dragon gobbles him up and takes him to the Netherworld with him. Pretty dang hilarious. Velvet is saved and Cornelius returns to the castle. His father wants to give up the crown and make him king but he refuses. Because the people would never honor a Pooka as king. He tells his father to be strong and live up to his heritage and leaves the kingdom to continue the cause to break the spell and turn him back to normal. But before leaving, he makes his way to the forest to meet up with Velvet and tell her the truth. He tries to leave telling her she can't be with him anymore now that he's a Pooka. But she doesn't care. He's still Cornelius to her and she loves him no matter how he looks on the outside. He promises her eternal happiness and they leave together to go back to the Pooka Village to help the Pookas collect the coins to turn them back to normal.

Ain't it sweet? Twas a nice ending there~ Um, his story had some bosses I fought on Gwendolyn's path in it. Like Brigan, Queen Odette, and Belial. Just at different points in time. I mean I fought Queen Odette first in his story and last in hers. Course the difficulty is different. And what's funny is you fight Belial last on his and first on hers. I loved his story though. Definitely my favorite character thus far. Anyways, the next story is Mercedes, the fairy queen. And she's proving to be difficult to use for me ^^; But I shall update when I finish her story. Keep going!

Pokemon Black and White info~

As you can see, info was leaked today from CoroCoro. About the starter Pokemon mainly. But there was other information like the region name (Isshu) and the protagonist characters are supposed to be older. This region is supposed to be far away. Whatever that means. How far away it is from the other regions remains to be seen. Not gonna go into much else other than the starters because alot of information still needs to be verified as truth.

Um, the grass starter is supposed to be a snake like thing. It's the green Pokemon obviously in the scan. And honestly, that's my favorite right now. It's so cute and I love how it looks. The fire starter is the pig xD I'm sorry but a fire pig just cracks me up for whatever reason. And the water starter is a sea otter. Though it doesn't really look like an otter to me.

They all end up as dual types. The snake becomes grass/fighting, the pig becomes fire/dark, and the otter becomes water/psychic. So, it's balanced out basically. I'd love to see their evolved forms too. They're probably pretty awesome looking. But so far, my eye is on the grass starter~ That's probably the one I'll pick. Seems this generation has also changed my notion of always picking the fire type. Just like Johto.

Alright, that's all I have to say about this. It's a Pokemon update day xD I'm out again~

Tales of Eternia initial thoughts~

Alright, I've had this game for a while now. It's the imported European version for the PSP in case anyone was wondering. Cuz finding the original PSX game under the wrong title of "Tales of Destiny 2" would be impossible xD Anyways, I have played the game before. I just kinda dropped it and just now go back to it. After a few years ^^;

It's pretty much your standard Tales game. Not too different from the old games like Phantasia and Destiny in how it plays. Battle system wise it's quite simple. 2-D of course so you can only move left or right. You can run to position yourself behind the enemy. Basically, you'll just run right past them. Very useful to take down enemies hiding in the back that may be spell casters. Um, the physical fighters like Reid and Farah have two different stats you build up to learn new skills. Reid has Slash and Thrust and certain weapons utilize more over the other except for swords which are pretty much the balanced weapons. Farah has Punch and Kick. All the weapons I've found for her are just balanced in general. And like all Tales games, to learn new skills you also have to use the ones you've learned a certain number of times.

Spell casters in the group are different and have an even more interesting way to learn new spells. Another similarity is the gathering of "craymels" or as you've probably heard in other Tales games "summon spirits." You know, Undine, Efeet, Gnome, Sylph, etc. Yeah, those things. You capture them in this game for a purpose obviously in the story but this is also how your spell casters gain new magic. Meredy has a craymel cage and Keele has one. Depending on which craymel you put in their cage, and you can switch them around, your spell casters will have different spells. Not only that, the craymels level up the more you use their skills and you can summon them in battle when a gauge fills up. Also, there is something called Fringe in this game with the craymel cages. It's basically combining the craymel's power by putting them in separate cages to create new spells. It depends on what craymels you have in the cages too. As they level up, they gain new spells which you can fringe to create. It's really fun and interesting. You just have to decide what spells you want and which spell caster you want using it.

Okay, that's enough about the battle system. Because other than that it's just utilizing the right tactics to win. The boss fights in this game are rather challenging. The craymels certainly were. And one particular other fight too. Story line wise, it's reminding me of other Tales games once again. That's not to say it's bad though. There's a slight discrimination feel to it. And with it revolving around two worlds each with different craymels, it's reminding me alot of other Tales games. But the story is pretty good so far and there have been some funny moments xD No complaints from me about this game as of right now. It's fun and it's not boring so yeah.

I've had fun with every Tales game I've played. And I enjoy the series. When and if I'll ever get to play another one remains to be seen. But I shall update again after I finish Eternia~

Odin Sphere: Gwendolyn's Story Comments~

Alright, I actually finished her story in Odin Sphere either in December or January. I can't remember which ^^; It's been a while. I was still on Christmas break I know that much. Anyways, don't read past this point unless you want to be spoiled on her story or Odin Sphere in general.

Obviously, her story is the first one you do when you start Odin Sphere. She's a valkyrie and when you first start you find yourself immediately on the battlefield. Gwendolyn is Odin's daughter and she fights for him in his valkyrie army of sorts, which is currently in a war with another nation. What are they fighting about? A magical Crystallization Cauldron that could give either side enormous power. And Odin wants it. Right at the beginning she finds her sister dying on the battlefield. After they exchange their last words, she gives Gwendolyn her spear and dies in her arms. After going back and reporting this to Odin, he doesn't seem all that distraught that one of his daughters has died. Which kinda ticks Gwendolyn off a bit.

After some key story points, there's always a little bird that talks to her. It probably represents her conscious and what she really thinks. Though she refuses to admit the stuff it says alot of the time. She wants to be noticed and recognized by her father but after certain events are revealed that desire begins to diminish. It starts when she meets Velvet, daughter of the former princess of Valentine. Who she comes to find out is her half sister because Odin apparently fell in love with the princess of that nation and had a child with her. Brigan (might have spelled that wrong), one of his generals, discovers this and threatens to make it known that Odin had an affair with someone from an enemy nation should he not let him kill Velvet. Odin doesn't want her to die but that becoming known would ruin him pretty much. So Brigan goes off to kill her.

In comes Gwendolyn wanting to be recognized by her father again. She goes off to stop Brigan and ends up killing him. Upon returning to her father, he is grateful that she stopped him and saved Velvet but has to give her the ultimate punishment of a valkyrie warrior. She is stripped of her pride basically and has to commit her life to a man. Who in this case actually does love her. She got lucky in that regard xD Oswald, the shadow knight as he is called because he made a deal with Queen Odette of the netherworld to gain power, gives her a ring. Not just any ring though. It's the ring that controls the Crystallization Cauldron. This is given to her out of love and is a symbol of that. But her father also needs it to control the cauldron. Now she's caught in between her feelings for Oswald and her commitment to her father. In the end though she chooses to give the ring to Odin.

This obviously heartbreaks Oswald when he finds out. And because of this, he allows himself to be dragged back into the netherworld to repay his debt to Odette. At this point he sees no reason to live anymore. Gwendolyn, having been restored to full power by her father for giving him the ring, travels to the netherworld to save Oswald. And might I add that the final fight with Odette is extremely annoying as heck. The game lags in this fight because so much stuff is going on onscreen. Anyways, she ends up saving him and refuses to give her father back the cauldron ring because of what it represents. Finally, she breaks free of her obsession to be noticed by her father.

Twas a pretty interesting story. Some nice fights too. Brigan was pretty annoying to fight. The two dragons you fight in her story aren't too hard. Odette takes the cake for most annoying fight though. Anyways, Velvet and Oswald are also playable characters who have their own stories. And they definitely connect with this one. All the stories connect in some way. 5 in total.

Currently, I have started the second story, for Cornelius. I don't know what connection there will be between it and the others. Guess I shall find out~ More updates to come as I continue through this game.