Fire Emblem Shin Monshou no Nazo – Casual Mode for life!

fire emblem shin monshou_frontNow that I have finally experienced the joys of Casual Mode Fire Emblem, I am never playing Classic Mode again. Ever! It is seriously not worth the annoyance and frustration. In fact I marvel at my initial negative reaction when I heard of casual mode. “No perma-death?! What a travesty! It shouldn’t even be an option! How can you still call this Fire Emblem?!” And actually it’s not very FE-like without the perma-death, but WHO CARES??? As the saying goes, don’t knock it till you’ve tried it. Now I’ve gone casual I’m never coming back.

So I loved Casual Mode, but this Fire Emblem Shin Monshou thing itself wasn’t all that. It was a thousand times better than Shadow Dragon, but you’d have to go a long way to find a less enjoyable SRPG than Shadow Dragon, so that’s not saying much. The graphics are a little less depressing, the maps are much more interesting, there’s none of that “kill your characters to get sidequests” nonsense and they added in some support conversations as well. These most likely weren’t in the original FE3, and they’re nowhere near the supports in newer games in terms of length, interest and quality, but they’re still fun to read. Do please go on, this is most interesting →

L2 Love x Loop – Battle system

logoL2 Love x Loop is one of the earliest games I wrote about when I started this blog. Back then I honestly intended to play it. Then it came out and the reviews were not very flattering, to say the least. So I put it off and put it off and put it off and before I knew it 5 years had passed. I had completely forgotten about it, actually, until I played Kamiyo Gakuen Something-something Kurunuigyaaah earlier this year. Like Kamiyo Gakuen, L2 Love x Loop is by Idea Factory, features character designs by Minako Iwasaki of Rune Factory fame and was thoroughly panned when it first came out. Since there’s no way on earth Love x Loop could possibly be worse than Kamiyo, I have finally mustered up the courage to try it. Do please go on, this is most interesting →

La Corda d’oro – Yunoki true ending and Hihara date ending GET!

02_kazuki_hiharaI’ve been playing a lot of La Corda d’oro lately, but not much else. Oh yeah, and I also finished Ouendan for like the 20th time. Ouendan 3DS when?

Yunoki’s true ending was quite easy. Just stalk him nonstop and earn lots of bravo points and it all works out somehow. I only had 863 rivalry from him going into the final selection, but I guess winning both that and the final prize were enough to tip him over the 1000 mark. There’s nothing special about his true end vs. a date end except the true ending is animated (sorta) and has more scenes. Yunoki turns out to be an annoying, bullying jerk, and I don’t recall any indication that he was really in love with Bolo Yu – or with anyone but himself – so I don’t why I bothered getting his best ending.

Hihara I liked a little more. He was a decent guy, and at least he blushes when he starts to like you more. Unfortunately despite my best stalking efforts, and despite getting both his love and rivalry points to 1000 I still failed to get his true ending. Maybe it’s because I never gave him presents? But I’m pretty sure presents are 100% optional, so what gives? Ugh, too tired to think about it. Date ending is fine, we’ll go with that.

Now, at long last, I think I’m finally ready to play something new, I just can’t decide what. I’ll probably pick up where I left off in Wild Arms 5. Or maybe not. *yaaawn* so sleepy. I’ll sleep on it and decide tomorrow.

Elvandia Story solo run – Dark route (spoilers)

img_0I did say I wanted to play something crappy, didn’t I? I also felt like playing an SRPG. And not just that, but I wanted something tried and proven to be horrible but not too horrible (which ruled out Hoshigami). My choices were either Tactical Guild or Elvandia Story and since I’ve already finished all three TG routes, ES it was.

As I mentioned in my last post on Elvandia Story, there are three routes in the game: Light, Dark and True. True is the “mankind needs no gods” ending where you purge the continent of the menace of gods once and for all. That’s the ending I unwittingly got last time. I don’t even remember what happened after I beat the gods, but it wasn’t a bad ending IIRC. Which is all right, but a bad game would be best crowned with a bad ending, don’t you think? That’s why I chose to play the Dark route this time. This was accessed easily enough by having the right character (Valmon) stand in the right place (behind everyone else) in the right chapter (chapter 6). Good luck knowing that without a FAQ, btw. Do please go on, this is most interesting →

La Corda d’oro – Tsuchiura GET!

ryotaro tsuchiura2I got Tsuchiura’s date ending, at least. A date ending is a slightly inferior but much easier to get ending that only requires about 600 Love Points. The ultimate end would be the ‘perfect’ ending, but the requirements are a pain. Not only do you need 1000 Love Points and 1000 Rival Points but you also need to view several randomly occurring events for each potential suitor or you can kiss the ending good bye.

That’s why although I would have loved to get Tsuchiura’s perfect ending, I’m not going to go back and give it another try. Maybe later in the future, but not any time soon. Stat raising + event hunting just became too much trouble after a while. For example, raising your sadness stat is supposed to help with getting Tsuchiura, but it seems you have to raise it a LOT before it makes a blip on his Rival radar. That’s weeks of spamming the same interpretations over and over again on top of all the regular practice I have to do. Furthermore, despite all my efforts at speaking constantly with Ryo, I only managed to trigger 3 CGs by the end. The Japanese FAQs suggest that some events are time dependent, e.g. before selection X or Y. Other events are stat dependent, i.e. you have to have X love points and Y rival points. And the only way to know all this? FAQ your way through or buy the strategy guide. Do please go on, this is most interesting →