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The Valkyria Chronicles...Chronicle!  Part 1

Hey everyone, for now think I'm gonna use this blog to share my experiences playing games and other stuff, because let's face it, it can be fun to read about someone's first experience with something!  So regardless if you have no idea what I'm playing, have mastered it, or are just looking for something entertaining to read, hopefully you can find something to enjoy here.

So yeah, as you may have been able to guess from the title, I am currently playing Valkyria Chronicles for the PS3.  Valkyria Chronicles is a turn based strategy RPG with perma death features similar to Fire Emblem, though it's a little more forgiving on that note.  Your characters die if you can't get another character to them in three rounds or before an enemy unit approaches them. As a note, I will try to keep spoilers to a relative minimum or at least not go into details much, but I can't promise there won't be ANY so...just be aware of that I guess.

I'm already on Chapter 8 of the game so I'm gonna do kind of a quick TLDR for what's happened so far in the game to kind of catch you up or at least give you a bit of a gist as to what's happening.

YOU LIVE IN GALLIA TINY COUNTRY ATTACKED BY BIG COUNTRY WAR TIME, JOIN MILITIA MAGICALLY BECOME LEADER OF YOUR OWN UNIT FIND ENEMY COMMANDER AND BRAWL WITH HIM GET SEPARATED FROM REST OF YOUR SQUAD

And that's the important stuff : p So anyway, the start of Chapter 8 has you as the main two characters (Welkin and Alicia) trying to sneak past enemy grounds at night to get to safety.  The gimmick here, is that Alicia has a bum ankle and the enemy is firing Mortar shots at you every turn while you try to work your way through.  There are also search lights that if you run into will cause a mortar to be targeted toward your current location.

So this level I actually game overed on several times before finally succeeding.  The mission doesn't seem that hard overall and most of the game overs were stupidity on my part (Leaving Alicia in range of the Mortar without even thinking for one) and since you only have two main characters, either of them dying is a game over.  Biggest hurdle was a section with a scout (Speedsters) and a Shocktrooper (Heavy Hitter) and I tried to face them outright instead of dashing right by to the pathway by them (Didn't see it at first).  The first time I did that I completed the level so...failure by making things overly complicated : p

Following that, a couple of cutscenes happen, including Welkin and Alicia backstory, seeing how the rest of the team you are separated from is doing and a encounter with the opposing army.  After all of that, it's time for the second part of the chapter, which you start on the opposite side of the map from your team and have to make your way back to the tank and operate it while the rest of your team defends it until you get there.

So you want to talk stupidity, that was how I lost this mission about 3 different times.  There are a bunch of mines in the path of Welkin and Alicia as they make their way to the rest of the group and I was apparently blind and ran into pretty much every single one.

The mission becomes pretty simply once you get into the tank and can begin to really mount a counter offensive.  That being said, I unfortunately did lose my first party member before that could happen by the name of Wavy.  Put him up at a little outlook thing and I thought he was safe up there.  He was not and got knocked down from there right next to an enemy sniper, who quickly ran over to him and assured my first casualty of the run.

But yeah, tanks.  Bam bam, your dead.  That was pretty much the rest of the mission.

So yeah, this was a fun little first edition of this.  Hope you enjoyed reading this, I will probably keep doing it as long as I find it enjoyable. I'll put the current party and stats under a read more.

NEXT TIME: MEETING THE PRINCESS! I BET THINGS GO WRONG

Current team and levels

Scouts (GOTTA GO FAST) Level 8 Alicia Hermes Nancy Susie Fresia

Shocktroopers (BAM BAM) Level 7 Rosie Alex Salinas Nina Dorothy Jane

Lancers (FUCK TANKS) Level 7 Largo Walter Yoko Elysse

Engineers (FIX TANKS) Level 8 Karl Nadine

Snipers (EAGLE EYES) Level 8 Cezary Marina Catherine

The Valkyria Chronicles...Chronicle Part 2!

Hello again everyone!  In this edition, we go to a party and guess what, THINGS DO GO WRONG!

So we start with Welkin, his boss (Varrot), his old friend who's also in the militia (Faldio) and reporter lady (Ellet?) getting ready to attend a banquet where the princess will be there!  Comrades argue about why Gallia would possibly sign a treaty with the federation after they have always taken a stance of neutrality.  Did it ever occur to them that even with a wonder kid main character powered lieutenant on their side it's still probably a terrible idea to take on a nation ten times bigger then them on their own?

Anyway, Princess has the personality of a sleeping zombie and obvious political shadiness is going on.  Once we exit the party, Welkin and Varrot run into the princess and Welkin speaks ridiculously frankly to his countries royalty.  All seems to end well, but wait.

SHE GETS KIDNAPPED! 10/10! TWIST OF THE YEAR!

Anyway, mission is you need to stop the armored car that has the princess from getting to the bay and going to who the hell knows where.  It's night out and you get a limited amount of squad members to take with you (Rosie, Alicia, Nancy, Dorothy and Karl were the five I choose to take).  You need to shoot out the car's battery in order to stop it and can't use heavy weapons otherwise you'll blow up the entire thing.

I...may have done that on the first go around...kind of felt good though!

Anyway, execution is actually fairly easy.  You block off the route with the tank causing the car to have to take a detour.  On the second go, I already knew where it was going so I was able to have an ambush ready to completely annihilate the car with no issues and earn a B rank in the process.

Afterwards everyone essentially tells the princess to toughen up and she eats cinnamon rolls...so that's good.

Also shiny medals, those are niceeeeeeee.

So yeah, mission complete!  Til next time! Party members and levels will be below the read more.

Next Time: Blowing up a giant train? Blowing up a giant train!

Scouts (GOTTA GO FAST) Level 8 Alicia Ted (Replaces Hermes) Nancy Susie Fresia

Stormtroopers (BAM BAM) Level 9 Rosie Lynn (Replaces Alex) Salinas Dorothy Jane Nina

Lancers (FUCK TANKS) Level 9 Largo Yoko Elysse Nils (Replaces Walter)

Engineers (FIX TANKS) Level 8 Karl Nadine

Snipers (EAGLE EYES) Level 8 Cezary Marina Catherine

Deceased

Wavy (Chapter 8)

The Valkyria Chronicles...Chronicle! Part 3

Hello again everybody and welcome back.  Today's installment may be a bit longer, seeing as Chapter 10 of this game has 2 different missions, and neither of them are particularly short like chapter 8's was.

So our squad has gotten it's next assignment, liberate Fouzen and take out their massive battle train!  Wasn't aware battle trains are a thing but hell I'm not going to complain about that.  Before we can actually do that though, we need to sneak into some mine/concentration camp where our contact is waiting for us.  This leads us into a mission where we need to sneak by a bunch of lights and enemies in poor visibility to reach our destination.

This mission...took 2 attempts for me to get done and gave me several mini heart attacks throughout and my language may have gotten a bit...colorful at times while I was playing.  First thing I should mention, there is a little transportation cart you can have one of your units take that will put them right behind a bunch of enemy snipers so you can hopefully pick them off one by one.  Unfortunately, this was also a source of great frustration.

On my first go through, I sent one of my scouts (Fresia) along that path, not realizing it was a one way trip and I wouldn't be able to send back up.  She did alright for a while but along the halfway point she got shot down so I had to frantically rush my other scouts to her position in order to save her.  That mission ended when a tank and two lancers about out of the void at the end of a bridge near the end of the level and killed my main character.

The second go around I thought I was smart. "Fresia can't take hits, so let's send someone more sturdy along that path!" So I ended up sending a shock trooper, Lynn.  Unfortunately, her movement points ran out right as she got to the back path, which meant she was a sitting duck and got shot down on the very first turn.

As I mentioned before, you have 3 turns to get to a fallen team member before they are gone for good.  This pretty much meant sending the rest of my team forward in a mad dash into danger to save her, dodging enemies and mortars in the process. Granted, most the time I just had my tank sit in the middle of the mortar range and shake the hits off, so that was fun.  Eventually, Alicia was barely able to reach her on the last turn possible so all was well.

The rest of the mission was fairly easy, the tank can just kind of breeze through the rest of the mission until the magically appearing tank and lancers at the end, which I was prepared for this time and handled appropriately (I may or may not have allowed the phrase "fuck your shit, jackass" to work its way into my vocabulary at this point : p).

SO YAY, MISSION COMPLETE!

Anyway, we then meet Zaka, our contact and he reveals he has a bomb that he will plant on the bridge that the battle train is on and then we detonate it and then it dies.  At this point, we have some character development take place and while I won't go into specifics, the characters really are starting to grow on me.  They're kind of the normal quirky you would expect from a JRPG, they are presented more like actual people instead of more "HAHA LOOK HOW DIFFERENT AND QUIRKY OUR CHARACTERS ARE" kind of way.  The developments in the characters have been good so far too so I'm interested in seeing if that continues.

Anyway, mission 2 of this chapter is a longgggg one.  Have to make our way up one side of the map to shoot out a bridge to stop reinforcements from piling up, which allows Zaka to plant the bomb and then we have to make our way all the way across the other side of the map and shoot the detonator to blow up the bridge so the battle train plummets to a watery demise. Blurble blurble.

OH, and did I mention that said battle train is firing mortars and other assorted cannons at us the entire time while it meanders lazily back and forth across the bridge?  Well it's doing that.

Surprisingly, I actually found this mission pretty easy.  I did fail it the first time (Left my tanks battery open and it got one shot by another tank) but really it's not that bad.  It's a slog but the battle train really isn't that fierce unless you blatantly try to run from it when it's in range, then it seems like it's cannons just have an endless amount of bullets that they will fire after you and will chase you into hell itself.  

I mean yeah, five or six of my squad mates got shot down at some point but I was able to get to all of them so...no issues : p

When all is said and done, the battle train meets a glorious demise at the bottom of the river!  Can't celebrate too long since unfortunate plot things happen afterward but yeah...that's chapter 10!  Oh and Zaka joins.

So yeah, you know the drill by now maybe, possibly.  Party after the read more.

NEXT TIME:  BEACH PARTTTTTTYYYYYY

Tanks (NOW A CATEGORY) Welkin Zaka

Scouts (GOTTA GO FAST) Level 9 Alicia Ted (Replaces Hermes) Nancy Susie Fresia

Stormtroopers (BAM BAM) Level 9 Rosie Lynn (Replaces Alex) Salinas Dorothy Jane Nina

Lancers (FUCK TANKS) Level 9 Largo Yoko Elysse Nils (Replaces Walter)

Engineers (FIX TANKS) Level 10 Karl Nadine

Snipers (EAGLE EYES) Level 9 Cezary Marina Catherine

Deceased

Wavy (Chapter 8)

So I bought some games

Went by a used video game store today and a few games for the PS2.  These include...

Dragon Rage: A game I had literally never seen before but you play as a dragon so...automatically awesome

Zone of the Enders: A game I had at least heard of.  It's some kind of space mech shooter and made by Hideo Kojima of Metal Gear fame so...could be good.

Gladius: A game I literally thought I had to be misremembering from my childhood.  It's a Gladiator based Turn based strategy rpg that I played a demo of like...12 years ago.  Very excited to find it again and at a pretty decent price.

So yeah, gonna test these games out and see what I think, may chronicle my progress throughout whichever one I decide to progress in first.  

That's all, BYE PEOPLE!

Following up on the Purchased Games

Alright, so I've head some time to sample all three of the games I purchased yesterday so figured I'd post my thoughts here as a bit of a follow up.

Dragon Rage: Welp...it doesn't speak well for this game that it game out 8 months after Zone of the Enders and is pretty much inferior to it in every way (Controls, music, graphics, etc).  I think the moment that best defines this game is in the tutorial when the voice tells you what to do but gives you no hints as to what button to press to actually do it.  On the bright side, the dragon handles terribly but at least actually looks like a dragon...and you get to brutally tear sheep to pieces for sustenance soooo, that's something : p

Zone of the Enders: The most impressive one so far.  Very smooth controls and looks great for a game that came out pretty early in the PS2's lifespan.  Plot isn't overly clear yet and I'm seeing some Evangelion similarities (PILOT THE DAMN ROBOT SHINJI/LEO) but it's certainly a lot of fun to play so I'll be keeping at it.

Gladius: Not entirely sure what to make of it yet since I'm still in the tutorial phase of the game.  Playing the Ursula path first (Was going to anyway before I noticed the difficulties marked it as the easier one) and I'll be curious to see how the plot develops.  From the opening cutscene, basically some witches showed up to a barbarian king and were like "You're going to have a daughter and she'll bring about a catastrophe or something" except then a son was born so he through them out.  However, apparently his wife wasn't done giving birth or something and then Ursula was born and the king was like "oh shit" so they went into hiding.  So yeah...that's a thing.

So yeah, there you go everyone.  While Valkyria Chronicles will still be my focus, I'll probably be dabbling in all of these games to some extent so I'll be sure to post updates when I do.  Ta ta for now!

ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED!?!? Gladius Part 1

Alright, so the trip to the beach in Valkyria Chronicles is proving to be a bit more hazardous then expected so I’m going to be focusing on Gladius for now until I have more time to focus on Skirmishes and upgrading my tank and stuff.

So Gladius, turn based Gladiator RPG and it’s pretty enjoyable so far.  Battle system is pretty standard turn based stuff with the exception of time button presses to do maximum damage.  Basically, you run a gladiator “School” (Well, your brother does but your the main character so screw him) and you recruit new members and go around to different arenas to earn certificates of worthiness so you can compete in the big time games.

Oh and some witches are stalking you and talking about dark gods, but I’m sure that’s not important.  Feel like I should reiterate, playing as Ursula, barbarian lady with magical powers.

So nothing to exciting in my progress yet, traveling to different arenas and earning certificates in battle. Sometimes the battles are different then standard battles though, like point battles (however much damage you do is how many points you get) and king of the hill (HOLD THE TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN) for instance.  Also fought a big ass wolf, so that was fun.

But yeah, recruitment!  Every arena has a section for this where you can buy gladiators either temporarily (one battle) or permanently add them to your school.  Apparently, animals are quite intelligent in this universe and are capable of  negotiating fees for gladiators to pay for their services.  Naturally I added Zod the bear to the roster and I love him and I will never let him go and he will be my right hand bear and murder everything.

So yeah, that’s the notable progress at the moment.  Currently at the ice arena place so I think I’ll be hanging around there for a while.  Bye bye everyone!

ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!?!?! Gladius Part 2

Hey everyone, been a few days since I was able to do an update but I feel like I’ve made enough progress that another one of these was in order.

Plot wise, there still hasn’t been a whole lot of development.  It has essentially been, encounter witch, witch says ominous thing, Urlan tells witch to screw off and for Ursula to not listen.  Probably the most interesting development was when we were tasked to go find a Galdr, Sigi, who is apparently responsible for singing or something to keep the dragon that the Mordare arena is hosted inside of dead. You have to trigger a random battle outside of Roanar where she is being attacked by 6 Mongrel Shamans and you know, keep her from dying.

Not gonna lie, lost that battle the first time and the second battle was cutting it close but I managed to succeed. After we return her, she and Ursula have a talk about sensing something in each other and Urlan interjects again,only for Sigi to maintain that she means Ursula no harm and wishes her well.

So yeah, outside of that I kind of stumbled throughout the area of the map I have access to going to each arena and knocking off their challenges one by one. I only have the Mordare tournament to go now to qualify for the regional tournament.  Currently have a 5 member team with four of their levels maxed out at 5 (Level caps for current school rank, will go higher when I beat regional tournament).  Let’s get a little more in depth shall we?

Ursula: Main character who is an interesting mix of a barbarian and a witch with her moves. She’s honestly pretty badass with her moveset right now, with multiple spells that can hit from range and multiple opponents at a time, as well as a move that buffs her stats (mainly making her super dodgy). Her biggest flaw for me so far is that her combo meter goes very fast and I have a hard time timing the button presses for her.  Other then that though, can’t complain.

Urlan: The elder of the siblings is much more straight up brute then his sister, for better and for worse.  A little slow and bulky but can certainly pack a punch.  He doesn’t really have any super useful abilities at the moment aside from him being my first party member to get a three hit combo, which obviously wrecks shop.  Not great but can certainly handle himself at the moment.

Zod: Bearrrrrrrrrrrr. Okay, he started kind of weak at first but could still take hits.  Now he is an absolute murder beast and I love him.  He is capable of shrugging off pretty much any blow that comes at him while dishing it back with interest at this point.  He has a combo attack that can dish out good damage as well as a special move that wrecks that only takes 1 special point (did I mention you get 1 special point replenished each turn?) and has an ability that reduces the amount of damage he takes, making him even more impenetrable.

Oh, and did I mention he has a counter attack?  He has a counter attack.  Zod kicks ass and I love him and he will forever be my murder bear.

Bestla: My wolf buddy who just recently reached the current level cap.  Very swift, but certainly not the most sturdy or effective from an offensive standpoint. Main use so far has been getting to top of the hill in the king of the hill battles or similar situations.  Has been getting some more useful abilities, such as a combo attack, being able to heal herself...

Oh, and ripping throats out, so that’s a plus.

Sim: Saytr who I just recruited fairly recently.  Still trying to figure out his strengths a bit but he’s definitely got some assets that I can use once I figure out how to use him.  Seems very quick and deals decent damage for being a lower level then the rest of the squad. Has some buffs and some range attacks as well but neither of them seem super effective yet.  Kind of a jack of all trades so we’ll see how he develops.

So yeah, that’s the update on gladiator land!  Thanks for reading everyone!

ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED!?!?!? Gladius Part 3!

Hey everyone, made some more progress here, and some actual plot progress as well!  So let’s get into it!

Okay, so I didn’t realize I needed to beat the ice arena too and thought I only needed to beat Mordare to be done with the Nordagh region.  Luckily this was only a matter of taking longer and not being much harder.  Once that was done, it was back to our home tourney to dominate and become the regional champs.

Afterward, we finally get to see Ursula and Urlan’s father!  And he praises them and everything before asking to speak to Urlan in private.  By private, we mean in the exact same place while Usus and Ursula walk about ten feet to the side so...yeah. King Orin basically say’s he’s disappointed that Ursula has an interest in the games and is worried about the witch’s discovering her.  Ultimately, Urlan convinces him to let her travel away from their region and the witches since they are going to hunt her either way.

Ursula magically hear’s none of this so...whatever. Anyway, we head to our next region, Imperia, which is where our Mentor Usus is from so he can guide us and all of that jazz (note, there is no jazz in this games soundtrack).  6 tournaments in this region to beat so got to get to work! We run into some asshole who thinks we can’t fight because we are savages and all that.  Dunno, savagery has been working pretty well for me with the massive axes, and the bear and the wolf but what do I know?

Anyway, Ursula runs into a downtrodden looking young man who doesn’t reveal his name (but is clearly the other main character, Valens) and the two talk for a bit.  Ursula offers her support and a chance for him to join our school (he declines) and they totally awkwardly flirt for a bit.  He runs off while Usus insists we go to some shoreline arena, which has Ursula excited.

After an initial challenge, we go outside to see two dark magic people demanding Ursula comes with them.  Obviously this isn’t going to happen so a fight breaks out on the street.  Valens comes to our aid and assists in the fight before offering our place to stay at his gladiator school.  Usus is excited to do this when he realizes Valens is the son of his old friend.

Of course this takes a sad turn when it’s revealed that Valen’s father is dead, but it does prove to be a catalyst for him joining our team.  And thus team beast mode has their third human onboard...booooooo.

One of the arena’s is one where the opponents are almost exclusively beasts, which I obviously find very enjoyable and some nice teasers for future party members hopefully. I recruited a Mongrel (Goff) here as well and while I’ve only used him once, I expect him to round out the team nicely.  Also one arena hypes up Channelers as some big bad tough opponent but I’m not seeing it, they’ve fallen pretty easily so far and are really slow and more annoying then anything.  Also ran into an arena where lava can hit you soooo, that’s fun : p

So yeah, gonna leave party member summaries and updates under a read more. Til next time people!

Ursula (Level 7) No big updates here.  Has some new equipment that’s helped her pick up the offense and has a second combo now.  Gotten better at timing her combo as well so that’s made her more effective.

Urlan (Level 7) New weapons, more boom, still goes down easily when ganged up on.

Zod (Level 7) The undeniable badass and leader of this team.  Just shrugs off most hits while countering for about triple the damage they do to him.  I don’t expect him to remain this badass throughout the run but for now he’s the creature I can send into any situation and expect him to come out on top.

Bestia (Level 7) Has a counter attack when she dodges now and has a second combo.  Still more about speed then power but is certainly becoming more reliable as time goes on.

SIm (Level 7) For some reason, the Satyr is easily my quickest member.  Has picked up Jug Bonk, which is for some reason the most satisfying move to pull off.  If you time it correctly, Sim hit’s them over the head with his jug, doing heavy damage and stunning them.  Still very fragile but his offensive capabilities have definitely improved

Valens (Level 7) Pretty much Ursula without the shiny magic and some additional sword skills.  Nothing too special but he can buff himself just like her, making him very capable of bringing the pain.

Goff (Level 7) Our new Mongrel friend.  Still haven’t quite figured out everything there is to no about him, but he seems quick, not the weakest on the offensive end and with some buffing capabilities (can increase his defense) so we’ll have to see how he develops.

ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED!?!?!? Gladius Part 4

Hello again peoples!  Progress has been made, allies have been gained and many asses have been kicked and mauled!  Let’s get to the recap.

There is a much more difficult spread of missions in the Imperia region, including some tournaments (due to my...somewhat undiverse team...) that forced me to temporarily recruit members to complete certain tasks.  It was honestly a pretty nice balance between challenging but not to the point where you wanted to bash the console in with a hammer.  I did however, recruit some new members to the team, which I will get into at the bottom of this.  The most notable though (to me) is Langston, who is a Minotaur and my first heavy class and is quickly becoming one of my new favorites.

Once we clear out the Imperia region, there is surprisingly little fanfare and plot as we head into the Windward Steppes.  We do see Ursula having the same dream again, though this time it is extended and we see more destruction and beasts before it just kind of slowly pan’s up into the sky and relaxing music plays?  So...not entirely sure what that’s about but alright.

Oh, and then there is a brief scene where a narrator talks about Mutis raising an army for the dark god.  Full disclosure, I kind of wasn’t paying attention to the scene until I heard the name Mutis so I could totally be missing some things here.  I’m not entirely sure we’ve met Mutis but if we have, he’s the assclown who taunted us in Imperia and if not, he was an old war buddy Usus met that was still kind of an assclown.

Anyway, once we get to the next region, it is revealed you can’t compete in the games here unless you have an archer...so that’s arbitrary as hell, but it’s apparently an economic thing somehow...so whatever.

As our group makes it’s way through the camp nearby, we are introduced to a cocky archer lady by the name of Eiji who overhears us lamenting our lack of archer.  She pulls off some fancy arrow tricks with three apples and wins her way onto the team.  She’s kind of portrayed as a trickster so not sure how permenant her addition to the team is, but she’s useful enough for the moment and she helps us earn our symbol to compete in the region and gives intel about the other arenas.

Oh, and Ursula and Valen’s relationship is getting shoved down our throats some more.  Also Urlan still distrusts everyone because he can.

Anyway, that’s all for the major updates. Character section below will only discuss those who are either new or have some important updates that I feel like touching on.  Thanks for reading!

Current squad is all between levels 10-11 at the moment, so let’s get into some specifics.

Zod (11) Zod will also have a place here as long as he continues to be my favorite : p. While admitiedly, he is beginning to lose a bit of his offensive luster, he can still take hits like nobodies business.  Also has Hibernate now, which allows him to recover HP...assuming i ever remember he can do that.

Goff (10)) The Mongrel is very much a glass cannon.  Very quick and has some nasty combo’s to mess people up but falls very quickly in battle.

Langston (11) MINOTAUR!  Slow, bulky, can’t take hits quite as well as I would have imagined.  That being said, hits EXTREMELY hard and has a four hit combo which will one shot damn near anything.  Has proven to be a very nice trump card for missions I fail the first time without his assistance.

Eiji (10) Our new archer friend took me a little bit to figure out how to properly use but I feel like i’m getting the hang of her.  While he melee attacks are (understandably) weak, she can move and attack from a range and has some more powerful longer range attacks.  Also has some status moves but I haven’t really messed around with those yet.

Ekaterina (10) A plains cat who is kind of like a mix of Zod and Bestia (wolf).  Is very fast like Bestia but hits a bit harder.  Unfortunately, seems to be less durable then her and has a smaller pool of moves, for the moment.

Also just recruited a level 11 Ogre (whose name I forget) and haven’t used them yet.  A heavy class so expecting them to be fairly similar to Langston but I’ll let you know when I actually get to use them.

ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED!?!?!? Gladius Part 5

Hello everyone!  More progress has been made and just one region remains to conquer before the high tournament at Caltha!  Or you know, the world ends, whichever comes first.

Anyway, The Windward Steppes proved to be a difficult region to conquer, partially just due to the enemies being tougher, and partially due to the increasingly strict demands for which classes could be used in certain leagues.  For one battle in a specific league I had to field a team entirely of temporary recruits to complete it.

That being said, starting to get a little more selective of which units I send into battle.  Before it was a pretty even spread, but now I’m definitely starting to favor the units that bring about the most success. If I had to split the team into teirs, it would probably be this

Tier 1: Zod (Bear), Ursula (Main Character), Eiji (Archer) and Langston (MINOTAUR) Tier 2: Urlan (Barbarian), Valens (Other Main Character), Bestia (Wolf) and Ekaterina (Plains Cat) Tier 3: Goff (Mongrel), Sim (Satyr) and Vagka (Ogre)

Not to say that the bottom tier can’t be useful, but they either can’t bring the pain like the others or in most cases, just aren’t as survivable as the rest of the team.

Onto plot progress, as we were headed for the championship tournament of the Windward Steppes, we see a group of dark affinity warriors on the world map.  The dialogue seemed to hint that they would show up in the tournament but they didn’t so that makes this scene pointless for the moment.  Though admittedly, that could just be me being bitter that the game froze on me the first time the scene triggered and I lost 2 hours of progress.

Oh yeah, and before that we ran into some dark witch that tried to tempt Valens and Urlan but Ursula chased her off.  Pretty sure she’s the one that is later shown in a cutscene trying and failing to resurrect the dark god so..all is well in the world clearly.

Speaking of Urlan (kind of), he was even more grating in this last section then usual.  Critical of every type of fighting style that isn’t of the ‘run straight ahead and bash things’ variety.  He also was very critical of Imperia, stating that Nordagh has been fine without interference or advice from imperials for centuries.  Me thinks young Urlan is forgetting that his mentor and his father’s advisor is from Imperia.

Anyway, when we get into the Southern Expanse, we see some guy being attacked by muggers.  Because we don’t listen to Urlan in this group, we run over to help him out.  Once he is safe, he is introduced to be a man by the name of Gwazi.  Urlan realizes his opinion is useless to me and we quickly recruit him.

So yeah...setting up to go rock this region of the game and earn that spot in the high tournament!  Or reserving a ticket for getting murdered by the dark god, we shall see.

Oh and recruited a Cyclops, wheeeeeee!

Going Digital!  Digimon World Dawn Part 1

Hey, guess who’s got a new game?  DID YOU GUESS ME?!?!  BECAUSE IT’S TOTALLY ME!

Ahem, so yeah, my copy of Digimon World Dawn for the DS showed up yesterday and I got to start playing it today.  I have a pretty long history with the Digimon games, playing all five of the playstation games and beating all but Digimon World 2.  It’s very much a love hate relationship, as in I love them and then they try to tear apart my heart and soul with murderous, monotonous gameplay over and over again.

Anyway...we start our quest by selecting the Japanese pack, which consisted of Coronamon, Reppamon and Karatenmon.  Apparently we are part of the light fang organization and all are running late for some kind of important battle.  We’re in a hole, down 2 matches to none and need me to win three in a row...pressures on!

Except not really because everyone on our team is incompetent as hell and we wreck our three opponents in a row.  This puts us in the final as we face off against another member of...Night Crow, I think it was? That battle is actually kind of difficult but nonetheless our team prevails!  Partying and drinks all around!

However, this is short lived as some freaky dark energy egg that can’t stop cackling breaks in and dedigivoles pretty much everyone and crashes several parts of the city.  Even our team is effected even though we are home, which forces Reppamon and Karatenmon to dedigivolve to Kudamon and Biyomon.

Anyway, our guild leader is completely at the mercy of the nightmare egg when we show up.  It seemed like this would be a hopeless boss fight but it was actually very easy...quite the plot/gameplay segregation there.  Anyway, rebuilding time and three members of Light Fang are not satisfied with this, so they run off into login mountain and completely ignore orders...I’m sure that won’t bite them in the ass.

Inevitably, we have to save their asses from a pissed/brainwashed Aquilamon (one of my favorites so I would have been perfectly okay with him murdering them, but alas) which was a relatively tough fight but not too bad. Our team mates are punished with doing the rest of the work themselves...serves those losers right.

Anyway, we are introduced to to the concepts of quests after this and our helpful Digimon at our home, Gatomon, apparently really loves tea...so yeah, that’s a thing.  Rest of the time was basically just spent recruiting more Digimon and starting out my farm so I can raise my team to be the best it can be!  There are a lot of mechanics in this game, so hopefully I can keep up with it all.

Anyway, enjoying the game so far and eager to see how it develops!  Also, I’ll be playing this along with Gladius and not replacing that game (in fact i’m about to play that some more after I post this) so...no worries for anyone who was enjoying that playthrough.  

Anyway, current Digimon will be posted after a read more...see ya everyone!

Current squad

Biyomon: L17 Terriermon: L7 Kudamon: L18 Hawkmon: L17 Lopmon: L1 Coronamon: L24

Farm Digimon

Monodramon: L16 Kokuwamon: L12 Palmon: L7 Demidevimon: L6

Going Digital! Digimon World Dawn Part 2

Hey everyone!  I’m here with part 2 of my impressions and progress on Digimon World Dawn.  Honestly, probably made too much progress before doing this update but whatever.

So, plot!  Our guild leader, Glare (Little Ominous name for the leader of the Light Fang’s but whatever) orders us to go with two veterans to a new location to figure out what’s going on.  The mountain itself wasn’t too challenging but things got a little hasty at the end.  Once again, a laughing demon egg shows up to ruin our day and first throws a Sassaromon at us (who get’s easily dispatched) before attempting to throw something much larger and several Sand Yanamon at us.  Luckily our back up shows up to handle the hoard while we dismiss the big boss.

So that brings us little info other then laughing eggs like being evil.  Next, we are sent out to Loop Swamp, which was the first real typical sharp difficulty curve that Digimon games like to pull so far, both in enemies and stupid terrain.  This was made somewhat easier by the fact that I slowly scouted out the terrain while grinding my team up to make sure they didn’t repeatedly get their asses handed to him.

At the end of the long winding bull shit loop, we encounter my favorite character of this game so far by a large margin, WaruSeadramon.  Basically, his interaction with you boils down to “Hey, got that virus you ordered to destroy the town.  Wait, you aren’t the client? Fuuuuuuuuuu” We then defeat him in a boss fight and he gives us a shiny in exchange for not telling the Union about his actions.  Secret’s safe with me bud!

Unfortunately, the character I’m playing as was not as much of a fan as I was and promptly rats him out.  This leads to speculation that the Dark Crows may be up to something (the rival gang I suppose) since communication is cut off from them.  This means we get sent to Resistor Jungle I believe to meet up with the Dark Crows and see if we can figure out what is going on.

Predictably, this goes worse then imagined as the Dark Crows we encounter were brain washed (WOOOOOOO). After promptly kicking two of the underlings asses, Sayo (the girl we fought at the beginning) shows up to bail one out and claims we are the villains and the Dark Crows fight for justice.  We bat her back with relative ease and Glare calls in to tell us all to get the hell out of there.

So that’s that as far as plot goes so far.  I will say though, there is kind of an interesting dynamic going on between co Light Fang leaders Glare and Ophanimon.  Pretty much every interaction between them has one of them giving an opinion on the situation and the other just spouting elipses.  I feel like one of them is going to be involved with the reveal as to what’s going on here so I’ll be interesting to see if that’s the case or if I’m totally just reading too much into this (probably the case)

As for game mechanics, starting to see where the grindyness comes in to play here.  Not only do you need to level up your digimon (which isn’t THAT hard...yet) you also have to make sure they get experience of the right type to make sure they can keep moving up the evolutionary level.  Luckily, I’ve figured this out relativley early on and have been devoting a fair amount of time to it and I feel like my party is cruising for the moment.  We’ll see if this continues though.

Anyway, enjoying the game so far and looking forward to playing more.  Team below the read more!

Current Party

Raremon: L11 Firamon: L38 Dinohumon: L34 Lopmon: L19 Guardromon: L1 ToyAgumonB: L11

Island Digimon

Reppamon: L37 Kotemon: L21 Dorumon: L21 Impmon: L19 Candlemon: L19 Garudamon: L11 Piximon: L1 Flymon: L36 Grizzmon: L31 Gwappamon: L7

ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!?!?!? Gladius Part 6

I told you I was still playing this, and oh boy do I have some progress to report this time!  Just warning now, this will probably be the longest edition of this yet and will contain spoilers for what I’m assuming is rapidly approaching the end of the game.

So anyway, we continue our journey to kicking the asses of every region in this game.  Luckily, this is made pretty easy in this last area by only having two different tournaments to conquer.  Granted the battles themselves weren’t exactly easy...but we’ve preserved through worse so of course we are victorious!

After beating both of the tournaments, we are interupted by a cutscene of Gwazi mourning the loss of his village.  Ursula offers to go to the alter where the affinity stone is that can cure their drought problem but he refuses of course since he is under our orders.  Of course, Ursula being the kind boss she is orders him to take us there.

Along the way, we are treated to a weird little thing where Eiji tries to tell Ursula what is bothering her.  Unfortunatly, this get’s misinterpreted as Ursula assuming Eiji has feelings for Valens and she obviously doesn’t want to hear any of that.  Eiji then laments that it may be just as well since they would all hate her if they knew the truth

MYSTERIOUS

Anyway, we continue on our way toward the altar while Urlan complains, asking “Why are we doing this again? BECAUSE WE ARE GOOD PEOPLE URLAN STOP BEING AN UNLIKEABLE ASSHOLE.

We arrive at the location to see nothing of the sort that Gwazi mentioned.  Suddenly, three summoners appear and Gwazi is revealed as a traitor.

...Okay Urlan, you were right...for once.

This battle is actually kind of a pain, since it starts with you, Urlan and Ursula against Gwazi and three summoners who will pretty much immediately all summon, leaving you at 3 against 7 which is not favorable and it’s game over if Ursula dies.  Took me 3 attempts but I emerged victorious.

Oh, one thing I forgot to mention was during the first league, we ran into Valen’s old friend Ludo appearing working for the dark legionnaires.  He talks some trash to Valens, saying that his school was trash but he must know that since he jumped ship as well...okay, point Ludo but it’s irrelevant since we kick his ass.

After that region has been conquered, we head to Caltha to take on the High Games. Everyone is suitably impressed and pumped and Usus has more life in his voice here then any other part of the game.  With our dream team selected, we take part in the five battle series to be the very best!

Team: Ursula/Zod/Eiji/Langston/Bestla

First battle was arguably the trickiest, with a bunch of imperials and a commander, who constantly buffed their stats.  Luckily, Zod can pretty much take anything thrown at him so we are triumphant.  Round 2 goes by without even breaking a sweat, round 3 was a little tricky due to all the archers ganging up on Zod before he was in counter range and four was easy despite it being an all insect team (HATE THOSE).

The final battle pits us against Ludo’s team once again.  Honestly, he’s not THAT hard.  He doesn’t hit hard, he’s not particularly bulky, his only saving grace is that he is dodgy as hell and if you don’t time your button presses correctly he will dodge pretty much everytime.

WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!  BOW DOWN TO BEAR GOD ZOD AND HIS FOLLOWERS

And then...the world went crazy

We flee from the arena in Caltha (Which was really pretty by the way) as the sky grows dark.  The giant statue that watches over the proceedings proceeds to come to life and destory the royal box, along with the King and everyone else that was inside.  

As everyone else flees, one man stands to face the rampaging staute...Muutis.  He queels the beast with a single stroke before being named a hero to Imperia and becoming their leader.

EXCEPT IT WAS ALL A RUSE BY HIM AND EVIL WITCH LADY.

As our group contemplates this, Eiji reveals her dark secret for real this time, that she was hired by Muutis to watch his back as he retrieved whatever macguffin he needed to pull that gambit off. It’s then revealed that they are heading straight for Nordagh so we hurry back to defend our country and King/father from the impeding death.

Oh, and Usus warns us that every battle will be to the death so...any recruits that aren’t the four main characters will die if they fall in battle from here on out...fantastic.

Unfortunately, evil witch lady beats us to the punch and we walk in on her zapping the shit out of the king.  She flees when we appear and leaves us to battle her minions, forcing us to use Ursula/Urlan/Valens/Eiji. We dispatch them quickly before another cutscene starts with Ursula and Urlan talking to their soon to be dead father.

Orin reveals the truth that Ursula is actually Urlan’s twin and that she has some magical abilities and should go seek out the Galdr for information.  Urlan is against this but is, like at every other point in the game, talked into it by Ursula.  Usus agrees and decides to hold off the Imperial forces BY HIMSELF.  Good lord he’s a badass.  Anyway, Urlan and Usus leave which leaves Ursula and Valens to share a tender moment.

They also may or may not have kissed...I may have been looking down and looked up just in time to see the scene fading...

Anyway, we journey to the Galdr and after a laughably easy battle, Ursula finally get’s the secret’s of her powers revealed.  Not only is she the darkness...BUT THE LIGHT.  She is the last Valkyrie and has the ability to stop the Dark God, along with Valens, who will take the place of his father as the previous Valkyrie’s guardian.  CONVENIENT.

Anyway, we make our way to the old Valkyrie city that is now ruled by Cyclops to go retrieve a staff that belongs to the Valkyrie.  However, once we arrive, the Cyclops King does not approve and we are thrown into battle again.

EXCEPT THIS TIME WE CAN FINALLY CHOOSE OUR PARTY AGAIN! URSULA/ZOD/LANGSTON/EIJI GO!

What follows, is a very cool sequence of battles where the Cyclops king will summon the affinity god of each of the four elements (Fire/Water/Wind/Earth) and you have to take them down.  The creatures are huge, taking up a whole 3X3 area. 

Luckily, they also go down pretty easily, with the exception of the Wind one who was a tank.  The designs were really cool though and it was probably my favorite moment of the game so far, definitely suitably epic.

Left to his own devices, the Cyclops King charges us himself.  We charge into battle and get about half of his health down before he can attack...taking off over half of Zod’s health in one shot.

SHITSHITSHITSHITSHIT!

Luckily, he spends the other two turns he get’s trying and failing to use status effect spells, allowing the bear god to escape unharmed.  Once that ends, Ursula picks up the sword and get’s a nifty power up and new wardrobe.  She announces that we need to go to where the Dark God had last risen, being the place where he will be more powerful and the ideal place for our enemies to attempt to summon him.

However, that will have to wait til next time.  But yeah...this picked up and I am excited to finish it!

ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!?!?!? Gladius FINALE

You read correctly folks, this overlooked gem has been conquered!

Finally on the world map again, we make our way into Roanor, where we are once again greeted by Ludo.  Valens and he exchange some words before we throw down for the last time.  What proceeds is a pretty easy battle where our main four outnumber Ludo and his two lackeys.  Despite Valens getting triple teamed to start and quickly defeated, we down the former friend with ease.

Following this, we finally meet Muutis face to face.  He brags about how he will control the dragon and doesn’t care about what happened last time before facing us in battle.  Despite him having us outnumbered, his team falls quickly, treating us to a cutscene of him struggling to his feet while Nephellia (WITCH LADY) approaches from behind.

BAM, STABBED IN THE BACK!  Muutis cries out before going limp and Nephellia thanks us for playing our parts before a warp tunnel opens up below him and the Dark God emer-JESUS WHAT IS THAT?

Okay, it may be worth looking up the dragon from Gladius because it looks insane.  It’s basically a three layered beast with a bunch of soldiers sticking out of the bottom, four faces in the middle with some weird six armed lady above them and then the Dragon on top of that.

So yeah, needless to say it is quite the sight : p

The first stage of the battle we have to use Ursula and Valens along with three members of our choosing.  Obviously I roll with Zod, Eiji and Langston.  This however...does not go well.  There are eight soldiers to beat and the dragon is breathing an area of effect fire attack that will hit anyone who isn’t right underneath it.  The soldiers can also counter attack and hit both spots infront of them with a knockback effect.

The first time, everyone died except Ursula, who has regen when she get’s to critical and the soldiers couldn’t do enough to finish her.  However, the thought of losing Zod and Langston did not sit well for me so I decided to restart with a much better plan.

Instead of lumping everyone together, I spread everyone out (and subbed Urlan for Langston) so that the fire wouldn’t hit a large member of party members.  Each of the four melee units would pick a side and focus on two soldiers at a time while Eiji would hang back for as long as she could avoid the fire and provide support.

This was going better, Valens still got knocked out quickly but Urlan was able to handle his wall with Eiji’s help and Ursula was doing fine.  Zod was hanging in but struggling.

GUESS WHO FINALLY REMEMBERED HE CAN HEAL HIMSELF?!?!?!?

So yeah, using Hibernate I was able to keep Zod alive and get him to finish off his wall before he and Ursula teamed up to finish off the wall Valens failed miserably at handling.

Once the soldiers fall, we are treated to a cutscene of the dragon beginning to sink into the ground, putting the four faces into the firing range.  After a brief chance to change equipment and purchase abilities, we are ready for round 2!

Round 2 was much easier, the face’s themselves don’t attack but summon hell cats to go after you.  They must have gotten the memo that Zod was the danger beast as they triple teamed him right away.  The faces have poor defense though so they were quickly demolished with no one going down this time.

After another cutscene, the Dragon is all that’s left.  The team assembles and we charge into what is...a laughably easy final battle.  The dragon has no defenses and seems to be unable to stand any hits (Eiji’s long shot doing 250 to him).  His attack animation was pretty neat though, where he basically ate Urlan and took about 200 HP from him.  After 2 rounds, Eiji strikes the final blow, sealing our victory!

As the dragon fades back into hell or whatever, Nephellia...does a twirl before disappearing...alright.  Ursula begins to float into the sky as Valens cries out for her, revealing that for peace to be established, a sacrifice must be made.  So she floats into heaven or something while also putting the other Valkyrie spirits at rest.

This then cuts to Ludo and Nephellia plotting their next move and making out...not the most rewarding note to go out on but whatever.

So yeah...that was Gladius!  It was a fun game and I’m glad I was able to pick it up!  I may play Valens story at some point but I think I’m done with this game for now.  Got to finish up Digimon Dawn and then we’ll see what I play next from there!

Going Digital! Digimon World Dawn Part 3

Progress has been made, Digivolutions have been had and plots have been developed!  Let’s get going!

Our quest for information continues as we are told to head to the Palette Amazon.  When we arrive, we see Gideon speaking to a bunch of our fellow Light Fangs, announcing that we don’t want to fight any Night Crow members should we run into them.  The two shit heads who run off at the start of the game make jokes and promptly get told to shove it.  Gideon seems to have his head on straight though and knows something isn’t right about all this...don’t like his idea of keeping all the information amongst ourselves before consulting with Glare but whatever.

After everyone else leaves, Gideon talks to use that he thinks something is up with Ophanimon and Glare and that we should be careful.  Duly noted!  Anyway, Palette Amazon is...really boring honestly, not challenging and doesn’t really have a selection of digimon that I am particularly fond of.

When we arrive at the end, we are greeted by a Spinomon that has been apparently kicking our seniors asses.  He’s also revealed that he is accomplices with Waruseadramon so he’s already A-Ok in my book.  Doesn’t stop my team from kicking his ass though : p

Anyway, a little while later, we get called back into our office by Litton, who’s second in command along with Anubismon (who has a nifty design). He reveals to use that the chief and Ophanimon have gone missing and has designated us to go to Thriller Ruins and investigate.  

This...is where I pulled a little bit of a dumb.  I brought along my...C team, assuming that would be good enough since I had been cruising through the game since Loop Swamp. Anyway, we arrive in the back of the area to see some symbol pop up before 4 Tsukiamon ambush us.  We handle them easy enough but then Gaiomon pop’s up, asking if we are the tamer that has been interfering with his plan.  Of course it wasn’t us! *shifty eyes*

Except then Waruseadramon shows up and totally calls us out...fair enough.  Spinomon shows up and it appears like we are going to be triple teamed before Sayo shows up and...mocks us?  Yet Gaiomon get’s pissed and sends the minion after her?  Okay...guessing a translation error here but we’ll roll with it.

Anyway, Gaiomon is reasonably tough and because I brought a weak team, I lost the first time (Despite a strong effort from my PIximon) so we come back with the A team and demolish him.  Unfortunatley, this all proves to be for naught as we can no substantial information from this.

Eventually, our group get’s tired of waiting around and we call a group meeting at my place to try to get to the bottom of this.  Eventually, we decide to invite Sayo over to see if she’s heard anything in Darkmoon City.  She shows up almost immediatley and reveals that everyone is acting weird and she pretty much hasn’t been back to town because of it.

She gives us the password to Access Glacier and we head off to scout it out.  apparently, it leads to Macro Sea through some Mario esque pipes and then back again.  We eventually running into Sayo confronting a Grimmmon, who we fought early in the game in Limit Valley.  In the background, we can see several of our guilds members, including Glare and Ophanimon who have fallen under the effects of the brainwashing.

Sayo attempts to stand up to him but is put under the same spell.  We rush in to save the day...only to fall into the same trap.  But what’s this?  It doesn’t effect us for some reason!  Grimmmon is exasperated but decides to flee and let someone else do the dirty work, resulting in us having to fight a brainwashed Ophanimon.

She is actually surprisingly tough, dishing out decent damage and taking very little from our own offense.  Still, we eventually prevail and she, Sayo and Glare snap out of it and the others are taken to be treated.

When we return to base, Glare thanks of for being one of the few that can actually get shit done.  He then entrusts us to take care of Sayo while her city isn’t safe and that is where we leave off!

You know the drill, Current mons under the read more

Current Squad

Divermon: L1 Jijimon: L1 Flymon: L29 Impmon: L22 Kotemon: L11 Lopmon: L24

Island Digimon

Cyberdramon: L42 Quilnmon: L42 Dorugreymon: L41 Guardramon: L 25 Flaremon: L41 Tortomon: L38 Extyrannomon: L22 Garudamon: L12 Triceramon: L9 Grizzmon: L36 Datamon: L10

Digital Transformers!  Storm watches Digimon Xros Wars

Hey everyone, felt like it had been a little bit so I figured I should post something.  Still playing Digimon World Dawn but I’m pretty much just grinding to be prepared for the end game so no major updates to report there.  I have however been watching the one season I hadn’t seen of Digimon, Xros Wars though and thought I would give some thoughts.

I’ll be honest, I expected to find this season pretty meh at best, and it definitely started that way to me.  The action wasn’t really interesting and the writing and motivations seemed...contradicting to me at times (Syoakmon stopping to shoot the bombs cause it missed once so Shoutmon has to throw his body at every single one from then on, Dorulumon not being interested in others after proclaiming to the group to leave his Cutemon alone, etc).  

That being said, it really started to catch my interest after that little Dorulumon arc and it really took a step up in quality to me.  I just finished episode 30 and am pumped to see where the series continues to go from there.  It’s definitely very different in a lot of ways from past seasons and largely get’s rid of some of the familiarly mechanics, but if you can get by that, I think it has some pretty good strengths.

For one, there is a lot more variety in the supporting cast then most seasons I would say and it feels like even the minor members of team Xros Heart get at least a couple of chances to shine.  I would also say that the human characters are deceptively interesting in this season as well.  Taiki is probably my second favorite goggle head (behind Takato) and Kiriha and Nene have both had my interest as well.  Zenjiro and Akari I was less thrilled with for a while but they have both taken some decent steps forward with their character development.

Also this seasons version of Greymon is badass.

So yeah, enjoying the season so far, though still plenty more episodes to go for things to turn sour.  Hoping that won’t be the case though and so far I would recommend it to any Digimon fan who may have missed/skipped this season.  It’s certainly at least worth a test watch in my opinion.

Digital Transformers! Storm Watches Digimon Xros Wars Part 2

Okay, so I may be getting somewhat addicted to this show.  Have watched through episode 54 now so...this post may be quite a bit more spoilery then the last so...you have been warned!

Have to say, the whole Death General arc was pretty interesting, even if it did have some pacing issues at times.Starts off well enough with the dragon general to show you how strong they are (forget his name) even if he’s a little bland himself.  Then there was NeoVamdemon who...wasn’t that interesting in himself, but it was also the first time that the series didn’t wimp out and actually have an ally die so that was good enough.

Then there was Zamielmon...fuck that guy and fuck those two episodes, whose only remote purpose was to begin preparations for the next episode, Yuu’s proper introduction.  This, by all means was suitably epic and engaging and had me really excited for the coming episodes!

And then Yuu and Darknightmon proceed to disappear for the next ten episodes or so.  Dissapointing, but the next couple of death general’s weren’t too bad.  I liked Splashmon’s deceptive games and Kiriha and Taiki both suitably outsmarting him.  Olegmon’s mini arc was a little meh but it was nice to see some more development for Balistamon.  

Then Gravimon’s arc happened, which was probably the most interesting of all the death general.  The action was awesome, tearjerkers were involved and the general had an awesome gambit to win that I felt wasn’t overcome in a complete BS manner.

And then we had the showdown between Yuu and the three main characters...which was also completely epic and I think really helped solidified this season as one of my favorites.

I don’t have too much to say about the rest of those episodes, my minds honestly kind of a blur at this point.  I will say it was nice to see everyone get some screentime in the final battle against Bagramon though and I’m looking forward to seeing what the last third of this season brings to the table!

Going Digital!  Digimon World Dawn Finale!

After many hours of grinding, work, grinding, heartbreak, grinding, grinding and more grinding, this game has been defeated!

I had surprisingly taken care of more plot then I expected in the previous update so there are really only two plot missions for this update.  One was to go to Proxy Island to meet up with...whoever the leader of Kowloon Co was (the leader of Waruseadramons group).  This leads us into an area that is disappointing in pretty much every single category.  Not fun to navigate, not many interesting digimon and not a good exp spread either...love you too Proxy Island.

After stumbling around for a while, we eventually sneak up on Waruseadramon...singing...about how he’s not such a bad guy...did I mention that I love him?  Anyway, he takes us to his leader and we fight Gaiomon again...who is no match for us obviously at this point.  And honestly...I forget if we had to fight there leader or if he just agrees to help up.  After forking over 100k bits, he agrees to have his company work on a bridge to help us get across to Darkmoon city so we can end this!

Which leads to the intensive hours of grinding in order to get my ideal team for the finale!  However, tiredness of grinding, lack of good Holy exp areas and just general bullshit caused me to shuffle the team around a bit, finally leaving me with this final team.

ImperialdramonBK Eaglemon Gryphonmon Saberleomon Jijimon Dorugoramon

We go talk to our leader and he reveals that All the Night Crow members are crowding at the edge of the bridge looking to come in after us.  Glare tells Waruseadramon to come up with a lock to keep them out while we sneak in.  Spinomon successfully does this while Sayo and Waruseadramon have some very stealth adventures together.  And by very stealthy, I mean not stealthy at all, leading them to entrust us with the task of sneaking in and saving everyone!

I WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN WARUSEADRAMON!

Anyway, once in Darkmoon City we need to defeat three different tamers in order to get a master ID to get into the admin room or whatever.  This is where I may have overgrinded just a tad, as it took just one round of attacks from my team to defeat each of the three tamers.

We head into Night Crow’s lair before being thrust into a fight against a possessed Chaos Gallantmon, who predictably falls easily.  However, now that we’ve injured him, that means Chaosgallantmon can break out from his spell...apparently I don’t freaking know. This leads the little floating core thing that possesed him to float off into the final dungeon.

After being thanked by the leaders of the opposing team and them admitting I’m the only one who can save all their sorry asses, I head into the final dungeon!  Again, pretty easy, a little confusing but certainly not the worst area in the game as far as that’s concerned.

Oh look, it’s Grimmon again...woooooo.  Anyway, he get’s possesed and turns into...some thing and the final boss fight begins!  And this is where I DEFINITELY realized I overgrinded when his hits are doing about 20 damage each...Thanks for overpreparing me, every other Digimon game ever...

Anyway, he falls and then digivolves and tries to put us under some kind of spell.  Of course, this is where THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP BAILS US OUT!  Luckily, the last boss is at least a little challenging, being able to wrack up over 100 damage per hit and put our team to sleep so i got at least a little resistance.  Nonetheless, he falls and we are victorious and are treated to credits that lasted longer then both phases of the final boss fight combined!

So yeah, That was Digimon World Dawn!  A pretty fun game, if a bit on the easy side.  Then again, I suppose one of the Digimon games had to be easy eventually : p

Have a couple ideas for what I’m going to play next, neither of which are RPG’s!

Digital Transformers! Storm Finishes Watching Digimon Xros Wars!

Yup, after putting it off for long enough, I have finally completed the sixth season of Digimon!  You know the drill, probably some spoilers in this write up so...you’ve been warned.

So the third part of Xros Wars is...different.  I wouldn’t call it bad necessarily, but it is a step down from the first two parts.  It’s very episodic in nature and doesn’t really develop a plot for a large part of the episodes.  The plot and development was interesting when it happened, but there was too few of them on the whole.

Some of the more stand alone episodes were...iffy at best.  One that immediatly comes to mind is the Betsumon episode, which my beef with can be summed up very simply by this paraphrasing of the plot.

Tagiru: Gumdramon!  Fight for your friend! Gumdramon: He abandoned me and doesn’t even remember me, how about no? Tagiru: NO! *Punches in face repeatedly* FRIENDSHIP!

Speaking of Tagiru, him as a protagonist was...alright.  I actually didn’t mind him as much as I thought I would and Gumdramon was a nice partner for him as well.  I’m sure there were a quite a few people dissapointed in Taiki taking a bit of a back seat in this arc but I actually kind of liked getting to see him in more of a mentor/advisory position.  

Also Shoutmon’s desgin upgrade for this season was awesome.

Something I haven’t talked about throughout these post’s but I really probably should is the music.  I pretty much love all the insert songs that get played for each digixros/digivolution and some of the themes are absolutely great for getting you pumped for the epic moments.

So where would I rank Xros Wars out of all the Digimon seasons?  Pretty favorably actually!  I would probably have to put it in sort of an interchangeable depending on the day tie for second with Savers and 02 (And without the third season, it may be second by itself) with Tamers still my all time favorite.  Really glad I finally got myself to watch the series and I enjoyed the experience!