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"More RPG goodness"

Lover of all things RPG that i am (apart from anything with Final Fantasy X or X-2 in the title) i thought i'd bring to your attention a couple of more great RPG titles in the wings that will hopefully reach the shores of Europe (if not ah well i'll have them anyway :-D)

First on the list is Radiata Stories done by the folks at Tri-Ace who did the great Star Ocean 3. It keeps the same battle system from SO3 and you can see the enemies before they attack so you can decide whether to charge in or save your energy and give them a miss.

It apparantly has a playable cast of characters of around 150 characters although whether it'll be like Suikoden 3 where quite a few of them were only support characters and not actually fighters remains to be seen.

Speaking of which it does seem to have quite a similar graphical feel to Suikoden so should be quite impressive visually if that sort of stuff determines whether you buy a game or not.

Release date is January in Japan so probably be waiting a while for that one :-D



and next to bring your attention to is the successor to the great Shining Force series on the Megadrive - Shining Tears.

First off graphics zealots (damn censors) may as well go now as you won't be getting ultra realistic 3D graphics with this one, instead you get the far better cartoony style graphics which are very crisp and smooth (i prefer this and sprites to the FFX style graphics anyway)

Big selling point i think of this is the co-op 2 player mode, so if you and a mate have about 40-50 free hours you can give it a blast :-D

One thing putting me off slightly is that they've done away with the strategy elements of the previous games and gone for a more action orientated style of fighting, but then i liked it in SO3 so maybe i'll like it in this.

Release date is March 2005 for America so at least there'll be a english version sooner then Radiata


and lastly the grand daddy - Dragon Quest VIII (Dragon Warrior in the west)

again using cartoony, cel shaded graphics my favourite RPG series finally comes onto the little black box. Still has pretty much the same battle system as old so basically it's good old turn based combat with random encounters although larger more powerful enemies appear on the screen (kind of like Ruby weapon in FF7 in a way) follows the traditional RPG mantra of head into town, talk to people and buy stuff, leave town, beat up monsters until you get to another town. Lovely :-D

big improvement though over the old games which may seem small and quite a weird thing to mention in this day and age is the fact you can now speak to characters with a press of a button instead of having to go to the menu and selecting 'Talk' very glad they've added that in, it was the only thing i hated in the previous games.

January/Feb American release date for this me thinks. Again can't wait.

Ah, of course.
I completely forgot you could chuck the enemies into eachother.

FinalFantasyFanatic wrote:
> So, anyone tell me:
>
> Where's the best place to level up early on.
> Laharl's only at level 12, and I've got a load of weaker people
> around levels 6-9 that I need to get up.

Early on i'd say Lavish Hall at Dinero Palace just stack up the enemies but make sure you can kill that enemy once you've combined them otherwise your stuck. That's a good tactic to do at the moment. Episode 5/3 is a good place as well as it's all invincible apart from one square which you can chuck the invincibility panel onto to finally kill the enemy. That helps you raise your weapon proficiency by just smacking the enemies. But really the best place to level is the item world, just make sure you don't go into too strong an item.


> And I've forgotten all about how the item world and the residents etc
> etc works. I had it nailed back in August or whenever I was playing
> it last.
> :' (

Most items contain special enemies called specialists, these guys give you stat boosts to your weapons. So for example a Gladiator with a number of 50 would increase your attack stat by 50. If you subdue these specialists by killing them they double in power so that 50 Gladiator would become a 100 one. Once subdued you can move them from the item and put them in whatever item you like so if you want to help Laharl's power you can put them all on his items.

Each item has a item general/god/king etc on the 10th floors. If you defeat them it gives you an extra bonus to your weapon. And for every floor cleared you gain stats on your weapon.

Got any other questions just ask FFF

So, anyone tell me:

Where's the best place to level up early on.
Laharl's only at level 12, and I've got a load of weaker people around levels 6-9 that I need to get up.

I'm up to the blazing cavern, the 4th one down I think.
It's got an enemy power + 20% thingy on all the squares - I just turned around and left pretty sharpish.

And I've forgotten all about how the item world and the residents etc etc works. I had it nailed back in August or whenever I was playing it last.
:' (

:D

Turns out it was the good ending, I think...

Damn you spoiler coin! ;)

I'm not going to remember that by the time I get it.

Kawada wrote:
> congrats, what ending did you get?

I don't knoooooooooow!

How do I find out (I sound like such a n00b).

Umm... Flonne got turned into a flower then Laharl asked God to "exchange his life for hers".

Sounds like a pretty "Good Ending" to me :D.

I'm gonna go check the DJB guide.. Let's see...

I've got a few days off college ... so I might get back in Disgaea. Maybe.
Or Star Ocean 3 - still got that to go ... but I never really got into it.

Disgaea, then.
Yus.

Stats, come to me.

congrats, what ending did you get?

Jade Empire.

Completed... At last.

Now I can get on with FFIX and FFX.

Fun fun fun...

Might have to play Disgaea a bit more though. See if I can unlock everything :D.