James Mason's Blog -or- The Journal of Contemporary Lunacy

Suikoden II - 108 Stars of Destiny and Nanami/Jowy ending PSX  I'd been at the end of Suikoden II for a year on my latest play-through but couldn't bring myself to finish it. I've finished it so many times before that this time I was more focused on building my ideal party(-ies), in particular optimizing the rune users. I also wanted to experiment with some characters I'd not used much in the past.  In the end, safe in the knowledge that I could always return, I took my party of battle hardened rune masters to the end game. Sierra, Rina, Nina, and Tengaar provided the magic power; (Hero) is, of course, a bit special and handles magic and physical stuff; and Victor rounded out the party as a bit of a traditional tank. Han bet the farm on a good old fashioned one-on-one duel. It didn't go well for him... Culgan and Seed were jerks until the end. They form a pretty potent combination, with some nasty magical attacks (they attack twice each per turn as well). After a qu...

Part two of my Lunar Eternal Blue play-through for #JRPGJuly After getting to the bottom of the Blue Spire and subsequently having Lucia weakened, it's time to make our escape. Unfortunately, the guardian statue at the entrance as come to life and isn't in an accomodating mood. (Part one is here) Best not to fight the Guardian until Gwen learns Rust Weapon! If Gwen has reached level 12, he will have access to Rust Weapon, which will negate the guardian's otherwise powerful physical attack (it buffs periodically but Rust Weapon cancels it out nicely). Gwen learns Rust Armor earlier, which also cancels out the guardian's armor buff. Poor Lucia's 1HP means she doesn't stand a chance if she's in the wrong place at the wrong time... After getting past one guardian, the ante is well a truly upped with 4 more appearing. This is what they call "fighting a losing battle" but Leo and his battleship come to the rescue. Leo to the res...

I decided to start off #JRPGJuly by continuing the replay of Lunar Eternal Blue that I'd recently started (I was only 45 or so minutes in, so I'm practically starting from scratch here). Apart from the opening, this is the first significant dungeon of the game. There is a healing statue near the mid-point and HP and MP potions are also available (in chests and as drops), so it's a good introduction to combat without being overwhelming. Hiiro's first AoE special attack - very useful early on "Hey, a shiny crystal. I wonder what's inside?" *gack* [un-impressed expression] Hiiro is immediately taken with Lucia but she has no time for idle chit-chat - she wants to be taken to the Goddess Althena right away. Hiiro doesn't really know how to accomplish this but offers to help anyone. Anything for a pretty face, huh? Ruby is suitably un-impressed with her lovestruck partner. Look at those stats! Shame they don't last...

It's #JRPGJuly - the time of year to really focus on those JRPGs in your playlist or backlog and share some screenshots, anecdotes and (quite possibly) rants. I've been nursing along several JRPG play-throughs recently but without any strict focus due to travel, other things on the go, and my crippling inability to focus ;) Here's a quick list of possibles and probables: I have my umpteenth play-through of Suikoden II [PSX] nearing the end - 30+ hours in and with all 108 characters recruited. I've also spent some time re-playing Grandia [PSX] with the (relatively) new and complete un-dub patch. Feeling nostalgic, I started a replay of Lunar: Eternal Blue [PSX] last week Lufia II [SNES]. I'm several hours in but stopped playing for a while due to how formulaic and "samey" things were feeling. Might be worth going back for another look. Phantasy Star [SMS]. Holds up incredibly well for a Master System game. Warrants some more hours of play....

Without wishing to make too much of what is very much a first world problem, it was a bit of a miserable experience growing up as a fan of JPRGs in Australia (end elsewhere in PAL territories). Limited local releases It wasn’t that we missed out on obscure or fringe titles either - the “big hitters” of the genre, Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest were completely absent from shelves. The very first Final Fantasy to see a PAL release was VII on the PlayStation. Dragon Quest took even longer - the PlayStation2’s Dragon Quest VIII was the initial appearance for the series (the number was even dropped from the title, something that also occurred with the EU/AU/NZ Nintendo DS releases of Dragon Quest IV, V and VI. Presumably this was done to prevent any confusion but I like to imagine marketers saying “what other Dragon Quest games?” while whistling innocently. Interestingly, some titles did still slip through the cracks. Lufia II [SNES] appeared as simply “Lufia” (the first game, wh...