So, did you like rush through Star Ocean or did you try to find every little secret? Did you "cheat" by looking anything up online? The only thing I've looked up so far is how to get Mayu to join my inventor force (and found how to get the killer chef to join at the same time).
There are a couple things bugging me about this game. First of all, the enemies seem far too difficult in some areas. Maybe I'm dodging too many of them and not going up in levels fast enough. Or maybe I'm not spending enough time on inventing better weapons and armor. Or maybe it's just supposed to be this difficult (certainly more difficult than the Final Fantasy battles). I can usually handle myself alright unless the enemy starts healing itself... it usually heals itself all the way when it does heal itself and then there's no hope of finishing the battle alive for me. But when I fight in a team, I have a really hard time of keeping my teammates alive. I play Fayt at level 50 and they (Sophia and Peppita) are around level 30. Perhaps I'm just getting into some spaces earlier than I should. But the place I am right now is someplace I'm forced to be, and some of the enemies here are taking my teammates out in one well-placed attack, and then while I try to revive them they can sometimes take me down with a couple attacks. My attack seems pretty hefty, I can hit the enemy for about 30000 if I'm lucky, but normally closer to 8000. I'm taking advantage of elemental weaknesses to do so. But what I really need is better defense. Apparently level 7 defense and 7000 hit points is barely enough, but Sophia and Peppita are stuck back around level 5 defense and 2000 hit points right now. Maybe I just have to pick a better team. I think Cliff has more hit points and defense. I think I'm just missing some big pieces of strategy. I don't like having people fall unconscious and having to revive them so often. A long battle is fine, but I'm tired of falling in the middle so often. If that's the way it was deigned to balance out, it's a really annoying balance in my opinion.
The other thing that bugs me is the invention system. It's supposed to be this great way to make money, but often times it will take 3000 Fol to invent something even though it's only supposed to cost 300 per cycle. It takes away the 300, and then for no apparent reason, in the middle of the cycle, my Fol goes down by 3000 sometimes. That doesn't seem like a good way to make any profit. And what's the point of multiple lines? Fail faster and more expensively all at once! Why would I pay extra for that!? I've invented a couple valuable things, but much as I try, I feel like I pretty much break even. It may be nice to have a patent on something so I can buy it at 1/5th the price, but most of the things I invent I only need one of anyway, so there's no point in discounting them in the future. It bugs me that half the chests I find are filled with invention materials, and I can't open them because I can't hold any more because I can't see the point in using the materials in the first place. Why bother spending 500 Fol to improve by Natto when I could just buy another blueberry and blackberry at less than half the cost? Inventing just seems like a losing game. Maybe they expect you to cheat your way through with some kind of guide on how to be profitable/successful, but I don't like to play games that way.
Oh, and one more thing that really bugs me, falling unconscious because I'm out of
MP. That's just not right :x. I'm really used to games where you only really have to worry about HP when it comes to going unconscious. Anyway, I think this game isn't quite as well balanced as it could be. The balance is less rewarding than most games -- maybe that's just to prolong the agony/enjoyment as long as possible :twisted:.
Otherwise it's an amazing game. Very deep with it's hundreds of pages of definitions and libraries of readable books, and zillions of different items. I hope I don't miss too much going through without cheating.
Man, if someone could make a game this big and long with GameDev, who knows how many secret levels of star ratings they'd unlock
. Oops, did I say secret star ratings out loud? I mean regular old star ratings... and instead of unlock, I mean... earn... yeah, that's the ticket.
