prfsnl_gmr wrote:It took me almost eight and a half hours to get 103% in DKC3, which was a little longer than I was planning on spending with the game. It’s a really solid platformer, however, and I think it plays even better than DKC2. The levels are also better designed, and from a pure gameplay perspective, I think DKC3 is probably Rare’s best work on the SNES. As I mentioned earlier, the whole thing feels a bit off-brand, though. Neither Donkey Kong nor Diddy Kong make an appearance; many of the enemy models are different; it is set in some sort of European resort town; none of the music from DKC or DKC2 is in the game, etc. (Aesthetically, the game seems more like Banjo Kazooie than DKC3.) Accordingly, while I think DKC3 is probably the better game, DKC2 is probably my favorite game in the SNES DKC trilogy.
I’ll probably do a PS1 game next. What should it be? King’s Field or Silent Hill?
I'm glad you liked it. It definitely gets looked at as the black sheep of the bunch, but I share the opinion that it's the best game of the trilogy. It's also my favourite but I won't begrudge someone for preferring the other 2 - all 3 games are pretty great.
I'm STILL working away at Fire Emblem. Turok is currently somewhat on hold whilst I work through the mammoth task that is Fire Emblem 4. I started Turok because I was struggling to get into FE4 a bit, but I'm starting to get into the swing of things now so trying to use my momentum whilst I'm enjoying the game as much as I can. I'm on chapter 8 now, which means I'm 2/3rds through the game (there's 12 chapters, and chapter 8 is actually the 9th one - the first was called 'prologue' not chapter 1). Chapter 7 was an absolute monster after the breezy and quick chapter 6 - it took me 50+ turns just to feasibly beat it, before worrying about sending people back to level up in the arena and similar. Chapter 8 looks hopefully a bit quicker - it's certainly a more direct route through the map.
Anyhow, my units range from level 7 to level 20, with most being about level 10-13. Seliph is level 20 and promoted to horseback, which is sweet, as one of the reasons chapter 7 was so long was waiting for his slow ass to move around the battlefield to capture castles. Now he can move twice as far practically. I made use of the paragon ring to feed him double exp, especially in chapter 6, to speed the process up. He's now sold it to Leif, who is the lowest level party member currently (Patty is probably next for the paragon ring...) - I know he'll be good when he promotes because he is basically the same class as Raquesis in gen 1, and she got like +8 in every stat and access to all weaponry, and a horse, and pursuit. So he's definitely the next candidate, to go from shitty to great when he promotes.
And here's thoughts on the MVPs of my party currently - and those at the other end of the spectrum...
MVPs:
- Seliph is great all round and higher level than everyone else.
- Lakche and Ulster are the go to combatants, especially the former. Decent stats and abilities all around - slightly low HP though.
- Oifey is great all round, and Shanan is the most ludicrously OP combat unit I've ever seen in Fire Emblem
- Ares is decent generally, but he has the ridiculous sword that has 30 might and grants 20 skill and 10 resistance, which pushes him over the top
- Fee spends most of the maps flying around on her own - and yet I've never had to worry about losing her as she's too fast to hit and doubles everything. Been lucky with stat growths too
Not so valuable people:
- Lester is fine stat wise, but he only has access to weak iron and steel bows currently because he didn't inherit any good weapons from his dad. He also got decent but not exceptional skills (miracle and pursuit) so hes just OK.
- Patty is a thief who currently can't reliably dodge, has low attack despite her dad being Holyn, and no pursuit as of yet. She should be better after promoting
- Leif is kinda screwed by his forced parentage currently, meaning he is a foot soldier with no pursuit - a pretty terrible combo. Luckily he should be redeemed when he promotes, but that's gonna take a while...
The oddities:
- Arthur and Tinni are kind of odd units in that they are decent, but could be better. I used Lex as a parent, which gives them Vantage (attacks first always if below half hp) and Wrath (always criticals if below half hp) as a combo, which could make them deadly - but currently their low magic and weak tomes make the strategy unreliable - too many 50+ hp enemies who don't go down to a single critical wind spell unfortunately! Because Lex is their father, they also have high hp & defence and low resistance, especially arthur. This is a bizarre combo for a mage!