I haven't played the demos, can someone explain something to me? Say there's an NPC, can you use all 8 abilities on them? Or are certain NPCs only effected by certain abilities? And if you use for instance both the thief and the merchant, are the end results of their abilities the same(like you get the same item either way), just one good, one bad, or are there more differences? This is the part of the game I'm wondering most about.
Sorry for the bother but when I go to "hear a tale" it only shows primrose and says "in progress", does it mean that I am currently in Primrose's quest now ? I started with Olberic of course
I'm a little concerned on the level of difficulty in this game. Boss fights seem easier than in the original demo.
I wonder if most of the actual hard battles are gonna be saved for high level fights while most other fights are fairly simple to overcome. What seems to be making it easier is the abundance of good items you can find that increase your stats. I found a chest piece in the Mansion that Therion is stealing from that took away a lot of the danger when it came to the boss fight.
To be fair, I've yet to try out battles with a full party and I know the games scales it's enemies for your party so maybe it gets more challenging with more party members.
I'm a little concerned on the level of difficulty in this game. Boss fights seem easier than in the original demo.
I wonder if most of the actual hard battles are gonna be saved for high level fights while most other fights are fairly simple to overcome. What seems to be making it easier is the abundance of good items you can find that increase your stats. I found a chest piece in the Mansion that Therion is stealing from that took away a lot of the danger when it came to the boss fight.
To be fair, I've yet to try out battles with a full party and I know the games scales it's enemies for your party so maybe it gets more challenging with more party members.
It does get more challenging as you get more members. I remember journalists at the preview event, who were given a full party in their mid-20s, said the combat was difficult—even random encounters.
I haven't retried Primrose or Olberic's bosses, but I don't believe they lowered the difficulty. I played Alfyn, Therion, Ophilia, and H'aanit, and Alfyn and Ophilia's bosses (done solo) were easy just by virtue of their ability to perpetually heal, while H'aanit's boss was fairly challenging even to my party of three.
Essentially, you can go through every character's introduction up until they have to go to their dungeon by agreeing to seeing the beginning of their tale.
refusing to do so is really just if you have already done so and want to go straight to finishing their first chapter by heading to their boss.
I wonder though... every character starts with a purse of thousands of gold and a few healing items, essentially their starting inventory, at the beginning of their tale, and those carry over to the party inventory after beating their introduction... do you still receive that stuff if you choose to skip? or does their inventory not merge, because it only actually starts to exist when you play their intro?
if they don't, then I would advise playing their intro and just skipping past cutscenes to start collecting everyone's money and items.
What I'm curious of is do you actually need to get the 8 characters? Like I see the chapter 2 for the hunter and cleric on the map, a much higher level for them (25 and 27) but couldn't you just grind away and get there without the other people?
I'm really interested in seeing how all of this actually works in the end.
I went for Therion as my starter for that lock pick ability and turns out his hp/sp steal skills are kinda broken. Stealing also makes it easier for me to outfit my other party members. I got H'annit and ended my 3hr run right next to Ophilia.
I think I'll just go with a rogue path playthrough since I already got 2 of them. Which is Therion, Primrose, H'annit and Cyrus. I'll just have to use one of my 2nd jobs for a polearm weapon.
It does get more challenging as you get more members. I remember journalists at the preview event, who were given a full party in their mid-20s, said the combat was difficult—even random encounters.
I haven't retried Primrose or Olberic's bosses, but I don't believe they lowered the difficulty. I played Alfyn, Therion, Ophilia, and H'aanit, and Alfyn and Ophilia's bosses (done solo) were easy just by virtue of their ability to perpetually heal, while H'aanit's boss was fairly challenging even to my party of three.
Seems like you could make it as easy as you want by building your party for healing/longevity, really. Breaking/Boosting isn't that complicated, so doing damage is straightforward.
Essentially, you can go through every character's introduction up until they have to go to their dungeon by agreeing to seeing the beginning of their tale.
refusing to do so is really just if you have already done so and want to go straight to finishing their first chapter by heading to their boss.
I wonder though... every character starts with a purse of thousands of gold and a few healing items, essentially their starting inventory, at the beginning of their tale, and those carry over to the party inventory after beating their introduction... do you still receive that stuff if you choose to skip? or does their inventory not merge, because it only actually starts to exist when you play their intro?
if they don't, then I would advise playing their intro and just skipping past cutscenes to start collecting everyone's money and items.
Seems like you'll have to play through each character's introduction, at least, just to reach the recommended level for everyone's Chapter 2s. Beyond that, who knows what the scaling/structure will allow.
I'm in the same boat, which is frustrating because this is a game I wanted to love and could definitely use the support. It's critical for unique 3rd party exclusives to do well on the Switch to ensure continued support, but if I'm not sold on the game then that's also a problem. What a dilemma.
Started with hunter, worked through cleric and scholar intros before timing out.
All three stories were interesting, and all three characters have engaging mechanics. They made a nice team too. Based on how leveling works, wondering if, maining hunter, I need to do intros for all other 7 characters before being ready to hit hunter Ch. 2. I really like jumping between characters in RPGs, so don't mind doing it this way, but I can imagine some might want to follow one character's story through, then go back and dig into another, etc.
Regardless, my hype grows. This increasingly seems like the sort of lost SNES classic I've been longing for.
Once you get through each characters intro scenario and get control to wander around wherever, there's no more plot for that character, right? You can just go recruit other characters and do a couple sidequests?
You don't have to recruit everyone to be able to play chap 2. There is an enemy that gives 1000 exp and a couple of fights with it will easily get you close to level 20.
Having said that, it would be good for story interactions to get all characters.
Once you get through each characters intro scenario and get control to wander around wherever, there's no more plot for that character, right? You can just go recruit other characters and do a couple sidequests?
I just got all 8 characters w/ a save file time of 1:47
I bet you can get it down to below 1:30 if you find & kill Cait early (with save scumming... there's one part that kills speedruns if you're not lucky). + I didn't really have much of an idea what I was doing besides abusing strong stuff. My route was terrible
Once you get through each characters intro scenario and get control to wander around wherever, there's no more plot for that character, right? You can just go recruit other characters and do a couple sidequests?
Haven't started the demo yet, but is this due to a limitation of the demo, or well...what is the structure of the full game meant to be post-introductions?
I started with Therion, beat the boss (pretty easy) and am now in H'aanit's village. I wonder if there's any way you can increase the chance to steal stuff from NPCs or if you just have to savescum. I fell in love with this game when it was first shown and that love is still there. It looks absolutely wonderful on the Switch screen and more games should utilize similar art style, it's gorgeous.
Haven't started the demo yet, but is this due to a limitation of the demo, or well...what is the structure of the full game meant to be post-introductions?
You can only play chapter 1 of each character in the demo. So once you beat chapter 1 that's all the story you'll see for that character. In the full game chapter 2 should start after you beat their first chapter.
I started with Therion, beat the boss (pretty easy) and am now in H'aanit's village. I wonder if there's any way you can increase the chance to steal stuff from NPCs or if you just have to savescum. I fell in love with this game when it was first shown and that love is still there. It looks absolutely wonderful on the Switch screen and more games should utilize similar art style, it's gorgeous.
Failing to steal really doesn't lead to that bad of consequences. You get 5 tries in each town before your reputation goes down. Idk how much it costs in other towns, but it only cost me $2,000 in Alfyn's village to reset my reputation and get 5 more tries.
Failing to steal really doesn't lead to that bad of consequences. You get 5 tries in each town before your reputation goes down. Idk how much it costs in other towns, but it only cost me $2,000 in Alfyn's village to reset my reputation and get 5 more tries.
I just got all 8 characters w/ a save file time of 1:47
I bet you can get it down to below 1:30 if you find & kill Cait early (with save scumming... there's one part that kills speedruns if you're not lucky). + I didn't really have much of an idea what I was doing besides abusing strong stuff. My route was terrible
Played about half an hour as Cyrus. Thoughts:
•Visuals are nice, though I wish highlights were a little less bright and less of the screen was darkened by the vignette
•Frame rate gets choppy in certain areas which seems bizarre
•Combat is fun, but I hope it gets a little quicker to complete random encounters as the game goes on
•Really dislike the "press to skip" implementation here. Missed a few cutscenes because I was holding the run button as the scene began.
•Speaking of cutscenes, I'm not sure I follow what is happening. Near the beginning of the demo I walked down the left set of stairs in a large hall. Once I reached the bottom, a cutscene began that disappeared every NPC and made two new ones appear. Cyrus vanished and then re-walked down the stairs, now on the right side. Is this a flashback? A dream? It seemed to happen in real time. A few scenes have played out this way and they continue to confuse me. I don't understand where they are placed in the narrative. They seem to happen spontaneously as the story unfolds but are weirdly presented, with distinct color casts and sudden changes to NPC positions.
•The music is excellent, definitely my favorite part of the experience so far
•Underground area is nice and evocative, though the visuals are not always consistent—blurry 3D models of stalactites clash with the rest of the art
•What the heck is happening with his "investigate" power? Why does a flamboyant cape flip reveal the troubled relationship between two guards? Why does that relationship cause hidden items to begin glinting in the environment? Inexplicable relationship between all these things.
I played two hours, I got the knight and the merchant.
Pros:
- The music is good, I liked the music of Primrose's town (haven't recruited her)
- The traversal is fast enough
- Dungeons aren't too annoying
- I actually liked the merchant's first chapter, her voice and personality is cool
- UI outside battle is slick and mostly fast
- The water effects are cool, esp. in Rippletide
Cons:
- The writing is boring, I feel like I'm going back to "4 Heroes of Light" levels of sleep-inducing dialogues. I wanted to stab my eyes out with Olberic
- Took me two hours to get two characters in my party. That's too long and I have to spend even more time to get a full party
- The battle system has literally no depth but I'm only two hours into it. Fighting trash mobs with only one character isn't fun but I have to wait until it opens up.
- This game is trying to constantly harass my eyes, the demo still doesn't have the options we were promised to tune down the post-process effects. That's "My first Unity project" level of effects cranked to 200% because it looks cool.
- UI in battle has no personality, text feels too tiny when shopping
- Olberic's special ability is disappointing, I challenged a lot of people and I hardly got anything funny or interesting out of it. They all have only one-liners, I challenged Philip's mom after he was kidnapped, she just said she also needs to learn the way of the sword. No context-sensitive dialogues.
- The environments already feels they're repeating themselves, I'm already sick of caves and grottos.
- No specific dialogue when you pair playable characters together, not even a single piece of dialogue during their chapters 1 outside of "oh you'll help me?"
I need more time to have a decent opinion on it, but this demo isn't convincing me. I don't feel like spending 60€ on this game so far if only because the battle system isn't grabbing me as much as I would have liked to. I'll do that third hour later in the day and see if I can at least access to Olberic's second chapter and see if the plot picks up, maybe try Primrose because I heard good things about her.
I didn't find Primrose's story particularly amazing, so all the praise for her intro comes off as hollow to me. if anything Olberic's start was significantly more fun for me
Anyone find anything besides the bow in Whistling Cavern? I found a couple grapes and stuff, but that was all of note. There's a locked chest which I can't open, I'm assuming that's a thief thing. Room seems like it just has the 3-4 chests and that's it.
Your next objective should always be on the map. If you finished chapter 1 then chapter 2's location should appear. But in this demo you can only play each character's chapter 1 so you migth as well just recruit the other characters and do thier intro's in the 3 hour time limit
Anyone find anything besides the bow in Whistling Cavern? I found a couple grapes and stuff, but that was all of note. There's a locked chest which I can't open, I'm assuming that's a thief thing. Room seems like it just has the 3-4 chests and that's it.
Wait until you get Therion. He can unlock all locked chests. There may be an unlock treasure chests in the thief's skill tree but we don't know yet what the job skill trees have.
Alright, I've played through all the stories, and I'm thinking about my main party. obviously you should swap and change characters around to experience their stories, but because of that ease you really don't miss things easily, since you can always change characters to access stuff you missed before.
one thing that might be important to note is that the first person you start with, is ostensibly your Main Character. you start with their journey, but more importantly, they CANNOT be removed from your party.
I'd advise playing each story in this demo now, and choosing somebody you're comfortable always having in the party.
I'll throw down every character, trait, and benefit of main-charactership for future convenience right now.
Ophillia: the Cleric
Path: Guide others to where they may be needed most, provided your experienced enough to do so
Talent: Any you guide can be summoned in battle for a short time to aid with attacks and their unique abilities, and can be summoned several times before going back whence they came.
Why: Having an extra helping hand in combat can be fantastically helpful in keeping up with particular needs, and people you guide will occasionally take damage for you as well!
Clerics heal everyone's wounds and nullify Spells, which means she can be counted on to always aid the party's survival.
Cyrus, the Scholar
Path: Scrutinize the folk around you, gleaning information both informative and beneficial, however with a chance of permitting annoyance and a loss of reputation.
Talent: Whenever you're engaged in battle with enemies who have vulnerabilities yet to be uncovered, a single one from each relevant enemy type is revealed at random at the start of battle.
Why: Scrutinize offers many useful opportunities to gain items, expand store inventories, or even empower other Path actions, and with careful risk management, nearly all these opportunities will be open to you immediately.
Scholars focus on the elements of Fire, Ice and Lighting, but always strike all opponents, and can do so Twice with the stronger attacks. you will never be won't to expose elemental vulnerabilities.
side note: Elemental attack stacks with all weapons equipped, unlike physical, so with time Scholars (and other magical classes) can be heavily versatile and dangerous.
Therion, the Thief
Path: Steal whatever you fancy from others, and never go without a free item or equipment upgrade. Even Priceless items are within your reach! provided you don't get caught, that is.
Talent: Locked chests dot the landscape, impenetrable to all... not names Therion. they hide powerful, very valuable things, and are always within reach to you.
Why: even with high failure chances on many items, there are still many chances to gain extra cash and provisions by stealing from any character crossing your path.
never need to swap out a character to get those locked chests!
Thieves are very self sufficient in combat, healing both health and SP by striking with powerful double attacks, and syphoning from their total damage. always having access to attack and defense reducing skills can also make many battles much less severe.
Side note: Stealing, Capture, and snagging pocket change all become more effective as the enemy's vulnerabilities become exposed, their health withers, and as they are inflicted with Ailments. keep that in mind, and you can always count on getting that little extra.
Olberic, the Warrior
Path: Challenge anyone you see fit to a one-on-one duel, making use of all your skills to defeat your opponent, and claim victory, among other things. some will be out of reach until you've grown more experienced, however.
Talent: Should your allies require a shield, you shall be there! not only can your defend command be charged with BP, but doing so allows you to take single target damage on the behalf of your allies, with more reduced damage the more powerful you make it.
Why: as a man who constantly challenges others to personal fights, you can be guaranteed to be consistently stronger then your allies, which in turn will aid you in picking more fights. you'll also be more privy to unique rewards from these fights as well.
Defending your allies when breaking isn't an option will always be available to you, and as such justifies purchasing the best possible equipment on your main character, as everyone will benefit from it.
Warriors mainly tend to their own strengths, powering up their blows and either raining spear blows on enemies, or decisively striking with a blade. they are meant to embody a slow build to a well-times defense, or a climactic blow.
Side note: All those you Ambush or Challenge are unique, and as such may be more dependable for quickly and easily procuring specific items when crossed with the appropriate role.
Primrose, the Dancer
Path: Entice any and all you meet to follow your lead, and travel alongside you. while it may occasionally fail to attract positive attention, Everyone is at least somewhat coercible.
Talent: Those charmed by your beauty will be willing to fight for it as well, and can be summoned to aid you for a short time, several times, until they lose faith and return home.
Why: While it can always fail, Entice can always succeed, and there are several dangerous people around the world that can be convinced to make your fights much easier, more quickly then you can eventually Guide them.
Dancers are very proficient with Dark magic, and can be counted on to empower the entire party's offensive ability, so consistently having one can do wonders for shortening a fight, or at least taking advantage of a climactic opportunity.
Side note: outside of certain Talents, Wind and Shadow belong to single classes, and while they won't always be necessary, it can be good to consider them if rounding out your versatility strikes you.
Alfyn, the Apothecary
Path: Inquire about local happenstance with your charming, positive personality, gaining insight into people, and into unique opportunities! while some, however, may only open up to the experienced, you can be assured that your smile invites no trouble.
Talent: As you travel the land, you will come into the possession of Components, smaller pieces of a much larger item only Alfyn can create and use. you can Concoct these item during the heat of battle to unleash unique, versatile and sometimes breathtaking effects, and as you discover them, you will find yourself with a much expanded set of abilities, provided you have the right ingredients.
Why: While it may be unfortunate that some information is locked away until you grow stronger, all other information is consistently available to gain and benefit from, which in large towns can be an absolute godsend and time saver. Concoct will always open opportunities to break and debuff opponents as long as you can consistently find the right items to use, and I mean break; most of the smaller effects thus far have been very weak multi-attacks of various elements, less for damage, more for opportunity.
Apothecary's are super helpful against Ailments, as the same move that heals them for one, further inoculates then from further Ailments for a short time, which is fantastic in fights where your entire party can be potentially shut down with Knockout or Sleep. They also have an all-hitting attack that's stronger the weaker their health, so they can put up a good fight too.
Tressa, the Merchant
Path: Purchase whatever goods you desire, using your understanding of market value, a little off the top for profit, and the occasional haggling down you can get away with occasionally, with better results at higher levels! however, some items are priceless, and cannot be parted with.
Talent: As you make your way around, you can pick up the odd change left around by clumsy merchants and unfortunate adventurers, supplying you with the extra capital necessary in merchantry affairs.
Why: many special items, and cheap items, are in the possession of the worlds people, and will forever be within reach provided you're careful with your coin. Being careful, however, is a heck of a lot easier when you're literally stumbling onto coin everywhere you go, and while it's unknown if it's a one-time discovery, or a consistently findable occurrence, you'll never be light in the wallet by the time you visit a new town.
Merchants can make use of their coin to buy help, greatly expanding their abilities provided they have enough to spend. HOWEVER, this doesn't just count for gold! EVERY BP SPENT BUYING HELP ADDS ANOTHER STRIKE AGAINST ALL FOES! making merchants break-masters! they can even be relied on to make the most of rare encounters, multiplying the amount of gold gained in a boss or rare fight with a well timed pinch of pennies. they also have dominion over the tradewinds, as an elemental specialty.
H'aanit, the Hunter
Path: Ambush anyone you cross paths with, putting their martial might against your most powerful asset, the Beasts you have tamed. while you are never burdened with a requirement of expertise, this comes at a grave cost; no natural skills or attacks can be used in an ambush, save for items, defense, and your trusted animal companions, and should their formidable power not be enough, you will lose respect for your conduct should the battle be lost.
Talent: A true hunter, through and through, can rely on the beasts in their travels to fight in ways they cannot. through legitimately one of the most powerful instant death attacks seen in Role-Playing Games, you can Capture any animal you've weakened through damage, Ailments, Break, and understanding of weaknesses, and instant conquer it, gaining all regular rewards. however, as the name implies, you also Tame said creature, and can add it to a retinue of Six animal allies to be counted on as an ability. they may be utilized several times, without SP cost, and with the chance to power them up through BP, before departing back to their habitat.
Why: Let's just forget about Ambush and her regular skill set for a sec. Capture is broken, period. even if you don't intend to keep an enemy you've weakened, if they can be captured, you can hit them, and get a high chance to just defeat them instantly, letting them go afterwards, and still get everything they were going to give you. this is immensely useful in regular encounters, where most enemies are wild animals of some kind, and should you Capture a tough one, congratulations, you just gave yourself another weakness you can exploit. She is much riskier to use then Olberic for fighting people, considering you cannot easily build a consistently useful skill set, but makes up for it with the wildly dangerous opportunities available should you regularly attempt to capture opponents.
Hunters are usually known for two things, Hitting random enemies with multiple arrows, and hitting every enemy multiple times with arrows. one of their best abilities actively empowers that approach for everyone, by improving both accuracy and critical hit chance, driving anything vulnerable to arrows straight into Break-City.
Side note: Warriors also benifit from the hunters party buff, as they have a similar ability for spears
I hope that these synopses help you decide on who you want to have in your party forever, or at least whenever. it was fun writing this!
Your next objective should always be on the map. If you finished chapter 1 then chapter 2's location should appear. But in this demo you can only play each character's chapter 1 so you migth as well just recruit the other characters and do thier intro's in the 3 hour time limit
Apologies if this has been asked before but how exactly does the 8 stories/characters/saves work? Each character has a separate story/save put it overlaps with other characters (ie one universe with 8 overlapping stories that you can switch between)?
As for the demo started playing as hunter and wasnt wowed. Her starting area is very drab. Sounds like other characters have more engaging starts hence my question.
