#buff my defense in other ways but always be lucky and regaining hp with every hit

[orcelito]

me being like "im easily making ~30k gold a day in stardew, money has kinda lost its meaning, what more is there to achieve?" and kinda losing interest just slightly then i go to ginger island and i reach the forge and suddenly Nothing Else Matters Except Reaching That Forge Again

[crystalelemental]

Unit Teambuilding - Ball Guy

Hey guys, who do you think the first male NPC character added in will be?  I know some people were counting on Punk.  Maybe the Backpacker from Gen 7 that works with Kiawe?  Maybe Youngster Joey?

No.  It’s Ball Guy.  I hate memes, actually.  And don’t think I don’t see the extra meme layer.  “But he’s a Pokeball guy so-” there are other Pokeball Pokemon, and they gave him the Amoongus on purpose!

General Overview So Ball Guy and Amoongus.  Apparently a Poison support, where his trainer move applies randomized effects, then gives all three of restoring 10% HP from himself, removing all status conditions from the team, and +1 crit for all allies.  The random effects are listed out better on Absol-utely’s page, but it’s a wild drop table of a 75% chance to roll a +1 team buff to a random stat, a 10% chance for either stacks of both moves up next or restoring 20%HP, and a 5% chance for Supereffective Up Next for the team.  He gets two tiles that can potentially boost offenses.  Potentially.  Also random along the core five stats.  Everything this dude does is wildly randomized, to the point of uselessness.  So why is he limited?

Because Clear Smog.  Clear Smog removes all buffs from an opponent.  It’s only 2MP, but he also applies a status to whatever hits him, choosing Poison, Paralysis, or Sleep at random.  When he hits a foe that’s afflicted with status?  Regains 1MP.  So Clear Smog is infinite reuse so long as your foe can be hit with one of these status effects, and his trainer move can be refreshed infinitely as well.  The big question on my mind is, does it allocate intelligently?  Like, Tornadus for example.  If Tornadus hits, is this considered always paralysis, or will it sometimes roll Poison and do nothing?  If the latter, Ball Guy is wildly inconsistent even in his one niche use, and is possibly the least worth it unit ever designed.  If the former, though?  Now we’re talking about potential Gauntlet use.  And his grid has built-in Vigilance, Impervious, and Interference Immunity.  With Status Immunity as a lucky skill, he covers every conceivable base.

Ball Guy is fascinating.  Like, if it were any actual character, I think I’d be in love with a kit like this.  It’s so bizarre and niche, yet has wildly strong coverage options.  Like, this shit?  This dude is a king in Gauntlet.  In one grid, you get Vigilance, Impervious, Interference Immunity, Status Immunity Lucky Skill, and +1 to both defenses each time you use Clear Smog, on a guy with 300+ defenses and 800+ HP when EX, who can also heal 10% HP every other action if desired.  Against any stage, you can drop tools to get Master Healer and make it 20%.  This guy is a delightful tank who, over time, can build up just about anything.  And since his trainer move can be called, I’m inciting violence by saying “It’s like SS Blue but if Blue were in any way consistent.”  But, there is a tradeoff.  This dude is absolute garbage in CS.  Slow-ramping defensive buffs means he can and will get bowled over by offensive parameter CS.  He takes six turns at minimum to cap crit for the team, which is unreasonably slow.  He can only work with the most self-sufficient of strikers.  His ability to apply status also means he has to neglect the no status parameter that’s often free money, but what status he hits is random so he doesn’t support units that need something specific like Emma.

All this to say, Ball Guy has merit, but was hit with a wild amount of inconsistency that would be exciting to my primal instinct to cause mayhem, but given how expensive this month was, I don’t think I can justify it.  Like, sure, he has some neat applications for Gauntlet, but like...what utility does he have above the Galar Champions?  Against Leon?  Against the upgraded Gloria?  Even Anni Raihan got an expansion that makes him an ideal tech for two types of weather.  Ball Guy just can’t compete with the strength of what else is available right now.  Sorry, Ball Guy.  Another time, perhaps.

EX and Move Level? Oh yeah, he’s support, so 3/5 would be demanded.  And it’s...pretty necessary.  Without the obscene tools on his 3/5 grid, Ball Guy is really bad.  You’re losing out on the tools that make him viable, and keeping only the inconsistencies.

Team 1: Ball Guy, SS Hilda, Tech Ninetales SS Hilda’s perfectly self-sufficient on offense, and just needs Cobalion’s gimmicks checked.  Ball Guy’s guaranteed random status means he can always hit Cobalion for something, facilitating SS Hilda’s damage.

Team 2: Ball Guy, Elesa, Volkner/Tech Lickitung Provided his skill works in the way desired, Elesa’s grid expansion allows her to answer Tornadus really effectively, between much improved DPS with better healing and less recoil.  Volkner is Terrain, Lickitung is defense debuffs.

Team 3: Ball Guy, Shauntal, Viola/Tech Lickitung Uxie has high resistance to status that can cause problems if it builds to immunity.  With random application, Ball Guy ensures Uxie will always be hit with some kind of status.  All we need then is the trap condition, which Viola or Lickitung can provide.  Shauntal is a fairly self-sufficient buffer, and should in theory be able to handle it.

Team 4: Ball Guy, Alder, SC Ingo/Ramos Azelf’s debuffing of defenses can be really severe, but Impervious blocks those debuffs outright, allowing him to theoretically stay in the game, despite his pathetic healing.  Alder self-buffs perfectly and can hit really hard.  SC Ingo powers up the Bug stuff, but Ramos is the sleep chain that carries.

Team 5: Ball Guy, NY!Lisia/Diantha/C!Marnie, SS Wally/Erika Cresselia and Latias, as the problem children, are the most significant options answered by Ball Guy’s Clear Smog.  NY!Lisia and Diantha are good self-sufficient buffers with the Fairy typing that allows them to hit Latias’ later phases hard.  Champion Marnie obliterates Cresselia, and thanks to Buddy move, is pretty efficient at trucking the sides in Latias’ fight as well.  Wally is Fairy Zone, but also should be split up, so maybe consider Erika for special defense drops instead.

Final Thoughts “Did you really write more for Ball Guy than Champion Bede?”  Look, Bede’s easy to apply and is broad in his utility.  I don’t have to write many for people to get the picture.  It’s when someone has specifics that we have to talk, and Ball Guy only has specifics.  And he lives and dies by those specifics.  But also, if you pull him, tell me how sick it is.  I’m genuinely curious if he felt worth it to those who got him.

[orhinge]

Games Update!

Felt like mentioning a few games I've played recently.

Nier: Automata

I... don’t know what to say about the game really, and i’ve seen too many people do great pieces writing about it. Really don’t feel like I can add to the conversation.

Yakuza 0

It’s a wonderfully quirky game, but I must admit the gameplay just hasn’t clicked for me yet. This is my first Yakuza game, mind you, so I suspect that really is all there is to it, I just need to figure out a good style for myself. Have not finished yet, in case you couldn’t tell. Planning on getting back into the game at a later date.

Persona 5

I’ll be the first to admit i’m pretty new to the series, my introduction was 4 Golden and I never played any SMT, let’s leave it at that, so take what I say with a grain of salt.

It really is a wonderful game, and an interesting contrast to 4. While I will say I preferred 4′s main villain, I still don’t fault the game for it. 5′s main villain works more as a symbol really, but they work very well as such. Far as the rest of the characters, i’m not going to go into comparisons between the two games. Really they just all work in my opinion.

The gameplay is prettier and spruced up, it’s funny really because the game has a lot of RPG elements I've never liked. Enemies return when you leave an area, you don’t recover MP/HP after combat (well, later there’s a method to regain a small amount but still), so it feels in essence you’re being bled dry, while it sticks this niggling idea in my head that I should grind as much as possible when I DO have resources to be strong enough for later (supposedly the grim reaper foe can pop up in Mementos if you spend too long, but I never encountered them in my playthrough).

Then outside of that, you got the whole time mechanic, you get two “actions” per day, sometimes only one, or even none on some story-based events. (although you can also shop around as a “free action” as it were). Buffing your stats, ironically doesn’t actually affect your combat skills (although some areas that buff your stats also reward you with currency), but they are required to perform some social links that do reward you with benefits from in-combat abilities for yourself or party members, to allowing yourself to create a daily item as a “free action” (that can actually be quite expensive, but doing more stuff in a day is always a plus!), along with the awesome character moments they lead to which is honestly the real prize /bleedingheart.

I love the moments, which is part of what makes it frustrating. I second-guess my every action, some actions (like going to the gym, which gives you a hp boost) fall by the wayside because dagnabbit, I want to upgrade all the social links! But I need to buff my stat, but where do i buff that stat, how can I best buff that stat, I can hang out with this person now but I can’t upgrade their social link, could I be upgrading it now had I done something else? Oh no! I was given the chance to read a book on a train as a free action, but i have no books! Or I had books, but it turns out they were about going to places I had already unlocked. It also means the idea of leaving a palace before finishing the second i’m in is a travesty, one that tried my darndest to avoid doing after the first. Not helping is that going into a palace or mementos consumes both daily actions, and in the case of mementos you can occasionally be “surprised” by another encounter one needs to do for a social link, but you can complete multiple quests in mementos at once! But how long do you save up the quests before doing them in one burst? AAHHH!

Ultimately, most of these worries will fall by the wayside once I get around to doing a second playthrough, since you get to keep your stats and i’ll have more then enough time to get to know all the social links, but that nagging feeling remains. And in spite of all i’ve said, the game still somehow works for me. I ended up giving all my characters SP bangle accessories over time. SP is king, with SP you can recover health AND do the moves you need to fight your way through areas. If you want to complete an area in one burst, recovering SP every round really slows down the bleed you get fighting through foes... Or you can be the phantom thief you’re meant to be and only fight when necessary while avoiding others. Course, then it’s a crapshoot whether you’ll be leveled up enough to take on the boss (or bosses in some cases), so do as you will.

Honestly i’m disappointed in myself for some of these “complaints”, it really is just me being sad that the game isn’t made just for me. I’m sure many Persona fans love the resource management and the strategy in planning out your actions for the day. And ultimately, to a degree I think I still enjoy it. I love the game. It really is more personal issues then issues in the mechanics/gameplay. Just felt like mentioning it nontheless. Hey, this is my blog after all XD.

The Surge

Sci-Fi Souls! Wooh. I feel like giving a bit of advice to the game, even though i’m not great at it and haven’t even finished it yet. Still, maybe someone can learn from my mistakes.  I’ll try to minimize spoilers like i did with the previous games, but there might be some vague allusions to plot. Also, note that i’ve been going with a slow, single-rigged weapon for most of the game, so I can’t give much combat advice for faster weapons.

First up, think Demon’s Souls rather than Dark when it comes to the safe zones for levelling up. There’s one per area, and you don’t find more but rather shortcuts that lead back to it. So keep your eyes out for those shortcuts, or your death will lead to a much longer backtrack then it needs to.

In general, similar to Souls remember to always move cautiously and keep your eyes open for enemies waiting in ambush (and in one case a hole in the ground that leads to your death... not that i’m bitter.) and alternative directions to go. Alternative directions hide rewards, better entryways that can turn an ambush against itself, shortcuts, or show you where a future shortcut or area may be (and yes, you do return to some older areas). If you don’t know which is the “main road” and which is the “alternative” one, don’t be afraid to turn back and give the other one a peek after strolling through it a bit.

If you’ve been following the game, you’ll probably already know with human enemies that dismembering limbs can get you items, from what I can tell you only get them by going for armored body parts, going for the unarmored areas may give you some scrap or lesser items, but if you want the whole limb, you need to go for the armored part (they say it just matters how much “damage the part has taken”, but if there’s a small chance you can get the whole limb even hitting an unarmored part, I haven’t been lucky enough yet.) Not only does going for the armored part do reduced damage, but it also decreases the stun effect your attacks have on an enemy. With a big weapon you can essentially stunlock a human enemy to death if you hit their unarmored part, but be ready to block or dodge their counterattack if you’re trying to get their gear (don’t stay back too long though, or you won’t have the energy needed to perform a dismember!)

Wearing an entire set of gear gives a buff, one I assume depends on the gear in question. I’ll admit, I haven’t experimented with my gear to find out exactly what the buff my set has actually does, but it’s there.

When you wield a large, heavy weapon like I do, it’s usually best to start off a battle with a charge attack (that is, leap at them and attack), it isn’t quite as damaging as a regular attack (it’s close though), and it consumes quite a bit more stamina, BUT it is a heck of a lot faster then a regular attack. Far too many times I found a foe could hit me as I was winding up with my bigass weapon and there wasn’t much I could do about it. Most of the time my character could power through thanks to hyperarmour, but the damage is there, and it’ll add up over time. 

Dash attack and you can usually stunlock your foe long enough to kill, or at least do a large chunk of damage before you retreat or block. Alternatively you can try to play a bit more defensive, and just make sure you only attack after your foe has tried and failed to hit you, but with some faster foes (or maybe you’re taking on multiple and they just don’t leave a big enough opening) your attack is just THAT slow and they can just go again while you’re open. Honestly, I think just a tiny attack speed increase for the slower weapons wouldn’t be amiss. Not a massive one, but just a small tweak.

That being said, I might think this way because I haven’t mastered blocking, which the game does advice heavier rigs to do over dodging. Blocking is a little different from souls. First up, instead of slowing down stamina regen, it outright drains stamina, so you can only do it for a short period of time before needing to recharge. Also, there’s actually only a small window of time where your “block” can work against bigger attacks (about the only attack that i can block after that small window seems to be drone charges or similar small attacks) and leave them open for a counter. There’s no other “parry” button, you just need to time your block right. You can also “duck” or “jump” while blocking to avoid some attacks, although I've had limited experience with it so can’t judge how effective it is.

Weapons also all have separate “combos” of R1 and R2 presses. If there’s a menu where it tells you what those combos are I haven’t found them, so you should either look it up or just play around with the buttons and experiment. In the tips in the game menu it mentions timing the presses right in the combo also decreases stamina drain, which I might look into at some point, and you may wish to as well.

At a point in the game you’ll notice some green smog that seems to do damage to you. Honestly this was probably just me being silly, but in case someone else makes the same mistake note that it isn’t the smog perse as it is the blue gunk on the ground that is damaging you, if you be careful and dodge the gunk you won’t take damage. Wish i’d known that earlier...

Later in the game, there’s a robot enemy that has a “tail”, taking out the tail not only limits the foes actions, but gives you an item that can give your rig more power in exchange for a slot. If you’re like me you’ll struggle a lot through the area where this enemy is and collect a lot of them, you can actually sell them back at base for 1000 scrap each, which isn’t too bad.

That’s about all the advice I have for the moment, I've also got a few minor complaints.

That damn tiny gap in the second area tunnels that make you fall to your death, darn you! darn you!

There’s a robot enemy on wheels where the back wheel is it’s weak point. Charging this foe, even with it’s back turned, is a grave mistake as it turns nearly in an instant. It’s just a frustrating feeling that I can’t ambush these buggers, even with my dash attack you’re not fast enough and hit armor and, most likely, a nasty counterattack. Maybe it’s just me, but it feels kind of cheap (the main way to best them isn’t great either, mainly just strafing around them waiting for them to make the mistake of attacking and just smack ‘em in the back. You can’t execute bots anyway so there’s no benefit in attacking the armored parts from what I can tell (well, apart from when that part is it’s weapon anyway).

The third boss has three parts that annoy me. First up,locking is pretty impractical with them, all well and good, except when you attack an enemy you lock onto them, so i find myself having to delock every time i hit the bugger. In hindsight, maybe there’s something in the options menu that removes it though... I’ll have to check later.

Second, theres a point in this boss fight where you learn the annoyance of hitting enemies that spend most of their time above you, it’s really awkward trying to hit them, lockon doesn’t really work (once again, i found it easier to delock after every hit), and since my weapon’s combo is based around enemies being on the ground, i essentially have to pause after every attack to make sure he doesn’t try the second part of the combo, which will miss by a mile! Blaaaaargh.

Third, for a poor bugger like me who died multiple times to this boss, collecting the scrap is a bit awkward. You have a “load bar” when you’re collecting it, except it doesn’t seem to work properly when you drop down into the boss fight and doesn’t actually pick it up even when the bar finishes. A couple of times i’ve been smacked to the earth for the sin of trying to pick up my stuff before I started fighting him. Actually, speaking of, there seems to be some unavoidable falling damage just entering the boss arena when you fall in. Isn’t much, but it’s there. Seems like a bit of an oversight.

Oh! And not a complaint, but I noticed while trying to beat the boss that along the way i’d suddenly start regenerating a little health briefly and have no idea why. Just weird, I think it has happened elsewhere too. Maybe it is what my gear does? Except i’m pretty sure it does something else, and it isn’t consistent, a healing symbol pops up and i just start veeeery slowly healing.