RPG Progress Report

[MrPopo]

The charging system also has that hilarious bug that speedrunners exploit to deal ALL the damage.

[noiseredux]

While y'all were debating Seiken Densetsus, I went ahead and started playing... Crystalis instead.

This was a game I've wanted to play since the NES games. A friend had it back then, and I watched him play some but I never got to try it myself. I'll tell you this: the SNK 40th Anniversary Collection is compiled with LOVE. My gawd. There's so many awesome goodies included. A full history of SNK through 1990 which includes slide shows and history on each game; galleries of promotional art, arcade manuals, strategy guides, magazines, ads; a soundtrack player... so much good stuff. I ended up digging through all that stuff for a while before I even started Crystalis. I'm lvl 3 now.

[Xeogred]

I've heard nothing but great things about that collection and they're even adding to it? For free? I wasn't sure on that.

Crystalis always looked legit to me.

[noiseredux]

yeah man since launch they've already added like ten more games. And if the gallery is any indication of what this collection COULD become given that it's highlighting their history thru 1990, then I'd wager that there are more games on the way. Fingers crossed for Fighting Golf. I played the F out of that game back in the day haha.

[MrPopo]

Crystalis is pretty legit, though late game you need to get used to switching swords a lot.

[alienjesus]

More Phantasy for me!

So I picked up in the new town with my new party member Amy. I walked to the next dungeon, a biolab and spent some time grinding there too - enough to equip most of my party with ceramic weapons (I love that ceramic weapons are somehow better than steel ones), except for Amy who only had one ceramic knife and one scalpel. The dungeon was pretty easy - it was actually mostly only 2 routes with a few short dead ends off of the main one. Enemies weren't too bad either - the blasters were back but now I outspeed them and kill them in 2 hits, so they're not really much of a concern anymore.

In the basement of the dungeon there were some annoying floors which damage you, but they don't seem to actually hurt much - only 1 hp per step, and I stepped on maybe 10-15. I found the key item mcguffin and got out of there.

After that, I went back to town and got given a new mission to ivnestigate why the biocontrol center was using energy to create monsters, and had a new visitor at my house. Some guy named Hugh joined my party, and got completely ignored because I couldn't be assed to level him up from level 1.

On that note - should I be trying to level up more people than my standard party of 4? Will I struggle if I leave others mostly unused? Keep in mind I know a few things that means I'll have to a little training - the upcoming spoiler that means I'll need to train up at least one new party member for example, and the fact that there's a thief I should definitely level up to 10 to obtain a key item. The question is more 'is there a downside to just sticking with a main party of 4, instead of grinding up equipment and levels for like 8 people?'

Anyhow, after my journey through the biolab, I've made my way south into a new area, where I found 2 new towns (and now have 2 new party members waiting at home...). Both have new equipment - some better weapons in the north and good armour in the south - but they cost a fortune. Seeing as equipment is more effective than levels, I figure grinding for the money is necessary - enemies hit quite hard around here. Back to the grind...

[noiseredux]

I like reading these because I replayed the game last year so it's still fresh in my mind to know exactly where you are.

I *think* I had to leveled up the "one other" and the thief for the same reasons you mentioned. That said, I didn't end up beating it either so don't go by me necessarily.

[MrPopo]

Aside from the Thief to get the save anywhere item and the one replacement member there's no reason to level anyone else.

[prfsnl_gmr]

Aside from the Thief to get the save anywhere item and the one replacement member there's no reason to level anyone else.

This is critical. It is the best item in the game.

[noiseredux]

But if he's playing on Switch then he can already save anywhere...