April 2019 Together Retro: Monster Raising (NOT POKEMON)

[MrPopo]

New girl in the DS remake is best girl.

[noiseredux]

So, note to self (and noise): buy gear for those monsters you aren't using. You may need them eventually.

super glad you told me this. Thanks!

[BoneSnapDeez]

My progress in Dragon Quest V has slowed quite a bit. I've been busy. Great game, but I'm reminded of why I don't hit up the long JRPGs like I used to. This is going to eat up the entire month.

My lead character, Dave, is level 48.

I have two kids! And I've been grinding to level them up. Both have a decent range of spells, but their offense/defense lags behind some of the monsters.

My slime knight continues to be a total boss. He's almost even with the lead character, stat-wise. noise, I hope you picked up one of these dudes. If not, you'll be fine. But he sure makes life easier.

I have a full caravan and I've rejected some recent monster offers. The "problem" here is an issue I see in other monster-raising games. New monsters may have the potential to be better than what I have... if I'm willing to put in a ton of time leveling them up from their starting point of level 1 or 5 or whatever. I don't want to do that. I'm still attached to the dudes I've been travelling with thus far. I still have the slime! He's level 49 or 50, solid HP/MP, great gear. Still use him as back-up, as his offensive capabilities and spells aren't up to snuff, but he's decent in a pinch.

[noiseredux]

My progress in Dragon Quest V has slowed quite a bit. I've been busy. Great game, but I'm reminded of why I don't hit up the long JRPGs like I used to. This is going to eat up the entire month.

yeah. I think the game is awesome. But when I got to that town and met the blue-haired girl and looked at the world map I was like "damn, I'm 11 hours in and have barely STARTED the game yet." Then I got super busy. And for whatever reason decided I wanted to pop in Etryian Odyssey Nexus last night. Ugh.

[MrPopo]

I'm about halfway through Revelations: The Demon Slayer. It's definitely a short game; it's probably about the same size as FFL1/SaGa. I finally got my third human party member, though she joined about 10 levels down from the party. I had done some grinding in order to buy all the equipment available (and it seems like you're supposed to do that given how the shop lists progress, and it doesn't take all that long), and in the process got my party pretty buff. I've been dumping all my stat points into strength, and nearly have capped it on my main dude. As a consequence, my monsters are mostly good as meat shields and healbots (the ones with a heal spell). My main character will do 4-5x the damage of an equal level monster. What's really hurting them is both that their stats are more balanced, but also that they don't get gear. And since this is an earlier MegaTen game the fusion doesn't include spell transference, so it's entirely just fusing to get bigger dudes. But since I have a full party I now only can run three monsters, instead of the five from before. And it appears that I'm going to start getting some special monsters which will hopefully pull more weight.

[pierrot]

New girl in the DS remake is best girl.

From a purely personal "type" standpoint I'd be inclined to agree, but there is only one acceptable choice of bride in DQ V, and it's Bianca. Choosing anyone else is extreme dereliction of one's duty as the arbiter of MC's life.

Blue-haired girl (forgot her name) is better off that way, too. What becomes of her DS version sister if she isn't chosen, though?

[MrPopo]

No idea. I've never taken Bianca in the DS version.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Bianca is the only girl worth marrying. Period. Not the girl who lives with her dad. Not the random DS thot. Bianca and only Bianca.

[pierrot]

Technically Bianca was living with her dad, too, though--.

[MrPopo]

I feel bad that Bone can't see the true charm of Deborah.