Ogres, Empires, and a witch named Deneb

[Kelong]

Valkyrie Profile

It shall be engraved UPON YOUR SOUL!

[LoliSauce]

Valkyrie Profile

It shall be engraved UPON YOUR SOUL!

I AM FREYA!  Recall the name on your journey to Hel.

=>  You don't know how much I love you for saying that.  That's another of my all time favorite games, by far.  Sequel was pretty different, and even though they nerfed magic so horribly, it was still a worthy sequel.  Still, no rpg to date has captured me like the original Valkyrie Profile did.  I love everything about it.  The battle system, the way the characters all have intricate tragic stories, the little links between characters' stories, the multiple endings, the crazy post-game stuff, the music and excellent voice acting...fuck man...I could go on for days.

But instead of going on an hour rant about the game, I'll just leave off with the best quote ever.

They say one should not speak unkindly of the dead, so I say "Nice try".
(lol, I fucking love Lezard's voice actor.  He's so perfectly suited for his part.)

[Irovax]

"I thank you from the bottom of the gaping void in my soul."

[Kelong]

They say one should not speak unkindly of the dead, so I say "Nice try".
(lol, I fucking love Lezard's voice actor.  He's so perfectly suited for his part.)

Yea, that quote's the next best awesome after valkyrie's ENGRAVED UPON YOUR SOUL!
I prefer part 1 over part 2

[iHasAMeltyCheezBurger]

Aha! Just got my well groomed Angel knights turned to Seraphs. Hot damn, their Jihad spell is almost double the normal Seraph's damage! Now... if only I could get my sphinxes to combo cast, that what be grand... Then the witches come in really handy to counter those pesky rev dragons and cockatrice(i think it's going to be better than dragons or combo spells because the witch has better chances of pulling it off, specially if they're archer hybrids.)... never thought that a basic unit could still be so useful.

[abitofBaileys]

Is it just me or do people play Valkyrie Profile only because of the sprites and the full synchro? The KS was impressing, but too long every time. After the 10th battle the super moves get boring and you fall into a stupid click-marathon to finish the fight...

Well, that's my personal opinion, though.

[LoliSauce]

Aha! Just got my well groomed Angel knights turned to Seraphs. Hot damn, their Jihad spell is almost double the normal Seraph's damage! Now... if only I could get my sphinxes to combo cast, that what be grand... Then the witches come in really handy to counter those pesky rev dragons and cockatrice(i think it's going to be better than dragons or combo spells because the witch has better chances of pulling it off, specially if they're archer hybrids.)... never thought that a basic unit could still be so useful.

Actually ever since you mentioned it, I tried using witches a little more, and yeah, they do actually help out in specific situations.  I really would like to have witch combo magic, since it has status effects over an area of effect...but losing two potential attackers is just too depressing.  ;-;

On a happier note though, I am on final chapter now on scene 33 (I'm roughly 70 hours in) and I've gotten everything except enough stolen Saturos to make a demon unit (shooting for 3 saturos and one ogre, but I only have one saturos so far) and one more angel knight upgraded to seraph to round out my flying unit (gonna be sheen and two ravens in front row and two seraphs in back row).  Everything else is beautiful though.  My main unit is almost sickeningly strong.  It's comprised of Biske the Werewolf, Magnus, and a Dragoon in front row and a Siren and Lich in back row.  Biske is a beast, especially at night.  I never knew that his weapon's affects apply to his claw attacks in werewolf form, so him with that evil blade that you get from the battle with him is just unruly.  And that dragoon is ridiculous, since I class changed my best swordmaster into him.  With the helm of the fearless equipped, he's doing over 100 damage with a normal hit.  haha.  It's beautiful.

Also, I'm debating whether to put my newly acquired Princess character as lead for my Black Knight unit or my Freya unit.  They both sorely need an extra attack per round, though the Black Knights can still hold their own with the big boys even without it.

Btw, I'm pretty surprised with how much more fun playing this game with no healing units is.  It's my first time not using a single cleric/priest, and it makes things much more interesting during those hectic ambush parts in levels.  =>  I'm surprised I've only had like 6 deaths so far.

Is it just me or do people play Valkyrie Profile only because of the sprites and the full synchro? The KS was impressing, but too long every time. After the 10th battle the super moves get boring and you fall into a stupid click-marathon to finish the fight...

Well, that's my personal opinion, though.

I completely disagree.  The character diversity is more than enough to keep battles interesting, and I like the game for its unique approach on character acquisition and the action based battle system more than just the pretty sprites.  The battle system in this is a hell of a lot more fun than most modern action rpgs, imo.  At least in Valkyrie Profile you have to actually figure out timing with each party setup to get all of your attacks to combo together, especially with the differences in enemy weight.  Also you have to try different variations depending on whether you are shooting to farm exp boosting crystals using combos that juggle or focus on getting CT reducing orbs using OTG combos.  Every other action rpg out there is just spamming X or whatever the attack button is, and then doing some command or menu hunting to use one of your few special attacks/magic.  It's a joke to even append 'action' to the genre.

[abitofBaileys]

Is it just me or do people play Valkyrie Profile only because of the sprites and the full synchro? The KS was impressing, but too long every time. After the 10th battle the super moves get boring and you fall into a stupid click-marathon to finish the fight...

Well, that's my personal opinion, though.

I completely disagree.  The character diversity is more than enough to keep battles interesting, and I like the game for its unique approach on character acquisition and the action based battle system more than just the pretty sprites.  The battle system in this is a hell of a lot more fun than most modern action rpgs, imo.  At least in Valkyrie Profile you have to actually figure out timing with each party setup to get all of your attacks to combo together, especially with the differences in enemy weight.  Also you have to try different variations depending on whether you are shooting to farm exp boosting crystals using combos that juggle or focus on getting CT reducing orbs using OTG combos.  Every other action rpg out there is just spamming X or whatever the attack button is, and then doing some command or menu hunting to use one of your few special attacks/magic.  It's a joke to even append 'action' to the genre.

Well, it's just my opinion. I didn't say that VP is bad or something like this. I just told my feelings from when I played it.

[LoliSauce]

^_^;  Eh, what can I say?  I get passionate about the games I love.  When I get like that, one my best friends laughs at me and tell me I could argue my way out of hell with the devil himself.

[iHasAMeltyCheezBurger]

Witches are mainly fillers, like... put dragon here, witch leads group, gremlin helps witch and dragonaire supports dragon. (Early level team, Strangely effective.)

I replaced most witches once I got Cockatrice. Having them in a flying pursuit unit Is EVIL! EVIL CHICKANZ!

[LoliSauce]

I don't much like cockatrices or gorgons.  Petrification takes away your exp gain.  =<  I'd rather have a flying unit with 3 ravens and a sphynx, or two seraphm replacing the sphynx.  Earlier I hear that having ghosts in the back of a flying unit is mad effective.

I never got into using dragons much either, even venerable ones.  They do such little damage and the chance of doing a status effect is kind of low.  I'd rather just lay on the damage thick.  Same with gremlins.  They have the possibility of causing sleep with abyss, but the damage is just so low.  =\  I end up using almost solely human units, with a few exceptions.  (I'll use undead as meat shields for casters, and I usually have one enchanter/golem unit and one beast master/cerberus unit)

Anyways, as of now I'm nearing the final couple missions.  I'm almost positive that I have a low enough chaos frame that I'll be getting the extra mission at the end against the Zenobians.  Also, other than not getting lucky enough to get a second angel knight so far (plus a sphynx's damage ends up outclassing two jihading seraphs anyways) I've managed to get everything I've wanted.  Here's my 10 units.

n/a	Lich	Siren
n/a	n/a	n/a
Dragoon	*Magnus	Biske

Siren	*Meredia	Siren
n/a	n/a	n/a
Skeleton	Skeleton	n/a

Diana	n/a	n/a
Black Knight	n/a	n/a
*Enchanter	n/a	Baldr Golem

n/a	Diana	n/a
n/a	*Leia	n/a
Paladin	Paladin	Paladin

n/a	Witch	n/a
n/a	*Carth	n/a
Black Knight	Black Knight	Black Knight

Archmage	n/a	Archmage
n/a	n/a	n/a
Cerberus	n/a	*Beast Master

n/a	*Princess	n/a
n/a	Europea	n/a
Freya	Freya	Freya

n/a	Ninja Master	Ninja Master
n/a	n/a	n/a
Ninja Master	*Vad	Ninja Master

Diana	Diana	n/a
n/a	n/a	n/a
Sword Master	*Sword Master	Sword Master

n/a	Sphynx	n/a
n/a	n/a	n/a
Raven	*Sheen	Raven

The Magnus, Meredia, and Sword Master units ALWAYS end up squadkilling.  They're just too strong.  Also, Europea and the Freyas are pretty badass with a 3rd attack per turn.  And somehow, even though their damage output shouldn't really be too great, Carth's Black Knight unit is surprisingly effective.  The witch ends up covering both of the Black Knight's weaknesses, strong magic and evasive units.  It ends up working perfectly.

[LostSoul120]

Because of this thread I must now play Ogre Battle 64, it was the hardest game for me to find one of the best purchases ever.

Other games I never stop playing would include: Disgea 1 (best story EVER) & 2, Makai Kingdom (I find the "story" useless gameplay rocks tho), Phantom Brave (Lost the disc ), That first one in the series I can't remember the name of atm, Shadow of the Collosus, Trackmania: United and Sunrise, Diablo 2, Dark Cloud 2, Front Mission 4 and I can NEVER stop playing EVE.

Ok so that's a lot of games... I never really finish one before I move onto the next, I have way too many games on the go. Will I ever finish any of the again? 

[LoliSauce]

Because of this thread I must now play Ogre Battle 64, it was the hardest game for me to find one of the best purchases ever.

Other games I never stop playing would include: Disgea 1 (best story EVER) & 2, Makai Kingdom (I find the "story" useless gameplay rocks tho), Phantom Brave (Lost the disc ), That first one in the series I can't remember the name of atm, Shadow of the Collosus, Trackmania: United and Sunrise, Diablo 2, Dark Cloud 2, Front Mission 4 and I can NEVER stop playing EVE.

Ok so that's a lot of games... I never really finish one before I move onto the next, I have way too many games on the go. Will I ever finish any of the again? 

=>  Good man.  I'm huge on NIS games too, but Makai Kingdom was too rushed and Phantom Brave just wasn't as fun as the Disgaea games were.  You should definitely definitely check out Soul Nomad.  Think Ogre Battle, but with the NIS flair to it.  It's pretty awesome.  Shadow of the Colossus is badass, as is its predecessor Ico.  And I really want to play Front Mission games, as I've only played the demo for Front Mission 3 and it was soooo cool.  I just haven't gotten around to getting any of them yet.  ;-;

What's Trackmania though?  I have no clue what that game is, lol.  Same with EVE, what's that?  Diablo 2 I fell out of interest with eventually, and Dark Cloud 2 I never really could get into.  *shrugs*  I guess I don't get as much into dungeon crawlers these days, with the exception of Vagrant Story.  Speaking of which, I really need to play through that again sometime...

[Keith]

Trackmania is a racing game with physics that will make a seasoned Mario Kart player punch holes into the wall. The focus is more on tracks with all sorts of crazy stuff going on as opposed to outright racing a bunch of people on a track.

[LostSoul120]

Kieth hit the nail on the head, Trackmania is the only racing game I know that constantly uses halfpipes and loops. I have a penchant for a good dungeon crawler so thats why I play D2 still so much. As for EVE... Well its an MMO with spaceships that is centered around the economy mostly... Yea... I like weird games.

[LoliSauce]

Kieth hit the nail on the head, Trackmania is the only racing game I know that constantly uses halfpipes and loops. I have a penchant for a good dungeon crawler so thats why I play D2 still so much. As for EVE... Well its an MMO with spaceships that is centered around the economy mostly... Yea... I like weird games.

OOOOHH!  EVE Online!  I remember now.  I got free beta passes for it back in the day and gave it over to my little brother.  I don't remember if he played it or not, but if he did, he must not have liked it much.  He never mentioned anything about it to me really.  I don't play MMOs, but he's all about them, so whenever I go over to his place to hang out he ends up showing me the latest ones he's playing.  It's pretty fun to just see the mechanics of each and watch him play some, but I could never get into that sort of game myself.

And as for Trackmania, it sounds pretty crazy.  I can't say I get into racing games much unless they're destruction derby types though.  *shrugs*  They never seem to really hold me.

[motoh]

EVE online is at the same time the most marvelous and most vile community I've ever dealt with.  It's utterly open PVP system lends itself to a strange form of honesty that lets you know you're playing with a nest of scorpions, but you can be one too.

~M

[LostSoul120]

I'd say grab a copy of TrackMania if you can find it. Cost me like $20 of United, buy purchase ever. Got a track editor and a huge online community with huge amounts of new tracks to dl. Great fun if you can find it, unfortunatly it's by a french company (Nadeo) and I haven't seen it around here cept for the one time I saw it sitting on the shelf at walmart.

As for EVE the open PvP makes for some interesting encounters and career choices. I used to be a pirate but that didn't turn too much of  profit, lotsa fun tho. I can' even count the number of threat mails I got from people after I killed them. Of course when you have pirates you get anti-pirates (worst group of people ever, think of a zealous pirate) and rarely anti-pirate hunters. Of course all of thise goes on outside of empire controlled space. Amazing game really. OH! Best part: Skills are trained over time, not based on how much you play. Right now I'm training Jump Drive Operation to level 4 so I can fly around a carrier and make my own jump portals.  A carrier costs 1.3 billion to buy tho. 

Oh and now that I think about it... I kinda suck at Ogre Battle 64, mostly near the start, any advice?

[LoliSauce]

First thing that helps a lot is the units you get at the beginning based on the questions at the start.  Otherwise, training up soldiers (which is a pain in the ass unless you know how to exploit it) and getting a few strong monster classes early on help out a lot.  I usually end up getting a Wyrm, Hellhound, and Golem (I only get a golem if I have a Doll Master leading the unit though, they're too sucky otherwise).

For soldier promotion...well here's some quick tips.  Because later on down the line you're going to be primarily using human classes.  Anyways, for each individual soldier you get 2 promotion points when you end a battle with a win.  So, each full soldier unit (a full soldier unit counts as 3 soldiers) gives you 6 points, so with a squad that has four full soldier units, you can get 24 promotion points per won battle.  Since it takes 100 points to promote a soldier, it takes at least 5 battles.

The hard part is getting wins with such a weak unit.  The great part though, is sometimes you come across units that are primarily cleric, and you can spam battles against them and get easy wins.  I remember there's one exploitable battle in Scene 2 (the first Volmus Mine mission), where you can fight a squad charging from the north that has two clerics and a sole fighter that's in back row.  So they only get one attack per round, but can heal up all the damage you do.  So you just get in repeated fights with them, rank up your soldiers into fighters/amazons (I suggest having one male and one female leader, each with a full four soldier units in their squad for easy promotion purposes).  Then each time someone ranks up from soldier, you make them retreat back into headquarters, switch out the fighter/amazon with another soldier unit, and send them back into battle to rank up another one.  lol

It's a little time consuming, but trust me.  It saves you sooooo much time and effort later on if you can amass a lot of human characters early.

[LoliSauce]

Lol, I finally beat it and got the bad ending.  Getting that extra battle against the Zenobians and their awesome army was pretty intense.  They had every godly unit besides a Princess and Lich.  I even saw a couple of their squad structures that mirrored my own.  @_@  That one battle definitely made it worth it to shun so many great story characters and get a shit ending, imo.  Well, that and being able to get both Biske and Carth.  lol, Carth's damage output is on par with an Ogre, I'd say.  I think his natural strength is the highest of anything in the game.  haha  And Biske in werewolf mode gives all of his stats such a ridiculous boost.  It'd be broken if it wasn't only accessible during the nighttime hours.

[iHasAMeltyCheezBurger]

Well, Carth... he's got the Terror Knights Growth stats all his life, I'm sure that'll give him the most terrifying force amounted in a single slash attack.

And the Zenobians, they won the first game, so i think it would only be natural for them to have properly formed units.

[LostSoul120]

I be loading up the cartridge now to play some Ogre Battle 64. It's going to be epic. Thanks for all the tips! It's been far to long since I've played.

[LoliSauce]

Well, Carth... he's got the Terror Knights Growth stats all his life, I'm sure that'll give him the most terrifying force amounted in a single slash attack.

And the Zenobians, they won the first game, so i think it would only be natural for them to have properly formed units.

Yeah, their stat growth is so beastly.  It's pretty scary how they can almost match a paladin's 3 attacks per turn with just their 2.  It's too bad that neither end up being able to really compete with the offensive dynamo that is the swordmaster.  Their strength and dexterity growth just leads to uncanny attack power, accuracy, and evasion, not to mention they wield one of the strongest weapon classes in the game.  If their defense wasn't such shit, it would be downright broken.  That's why I always make my best swordmaster into a dragoon when I finally get the sword of tiamat.  olol 

And LostSoul, have fun man.  I know I do every time I go back to replay.  If you've got any other questions, hit me up.  I'm a fucking encyclopedia of knowledge when it comes to that game.  haha