Let's Play / Master Classes Archive

I've never found a non-glitch team with greater damage output, faster killing speed and better defensive capabilities than Edgar/Terra/Locke/Mog.

From my last FFVIA playthrough:

Edgar



Relics: Master's Scroll (Offering), Miracle Shoes (Marvel Shoes)

4x9999 damage per turn from the back row. 8x with Quick. Haste/Safe/Shell/Regen from the shoes. Ultima Weapon (Atma Weapon dangit why did they have to change all the names?) ignores enemy defense, row placement and Safe status, and of course piles on additional damage based on the character's level and ratio of current HP to max HP. He also has impressive defenses and resistances.

Terra



Relics: Soul of Thamasa (Gem Box), Celestriad (Economizer)

2x9999 from Ultima. 5x with Quick. Lightbringer (Illumina) serves as a backup attack and stat booster. Check out her lovely Magic Evasion.

Locke



Relics: Master's Scroll (Offering), Merit Badge (Merit Award)

4x9999 from the front row without using Quick. The Valiant Knife works the same way as Ultima (Atma) Weapon, but the damage doesn't decrease when his HP is reduced because it gains power when he takes damage instead of losing it. It has a significant advantage over Ultima Weapon in that sense. On the other hand, Ultima Weapon can apparently achieve such high damage numbers that it can overcome the damage reduction applied when a character attacks from the back row, so it does have that going for it. At least, that's my best guess as to why it gets to a point where it works at full power from the back row and the Valiant Knife doesn't.

The Merit Badge is there just for fun. It allows him to wear Gau's new Dueling Mask, which gives him +40 Defense and Magic Defense, +10 to Evasion and Magic Evasion, +6 to all stats and also halves all elemental damage. He could equip a Genji Glove instead of the Merit Badge/Dueling Mask for extreme overkill, or he could put on a Ribbon instead, though the only time a character really needs that is when he/she is running solo.

Mog



Relics: Dragoon Boots, Dragon Horn

LOOK AT THOSE DEFENSE STATS. Look at them! That's 0 physical damage in the back row and minor magic damage. If I bothered to switch the Aegis Shield for a Force Shield he'd have even more Magic Defense and Magic Evasion, but that would knock him down from that 255 Defense score, which makes me so happy I can't give it up.

Oh yeah, and he does 1-4x9999 from the back row with Jump.

For maximum destructiveness, you can give him the Paladin's Shield or a Force Shield and trade the Dragon Horn for a Ribbon. He'll only get one attack every turn without Quick, but he'll shrug off everything except instant death attacks, most of which he'll evade anyway.

All right, I said before that I wanted to see someone do an LP of Hydelide, and the only person who volunteered was in the midst of their own very, very large one and had no idea what was in store for them.

I couldn't do that to an unsuspecting person. It is not a thing I would wish upon my worst enemy.

Ergo, courageously, I shall tkae it upon myself to Lets Play Hydelide.

May God have mercy upon my soul.

Guys, shit, he's having a seizure.

Quick, I'll hold him down, you get a spoon in his mouth so he doesn't swallow his tongue.

What the hell is Hydelide? Google and Wikipedia really aren't turning up any results.

Imagine Ys, and take away every single thing that made Ys enjoyable. All of them. Even most of the weird things that made Ys kind of unpleasant to play, remove them too. You're left with a bitter husk of an adventure game that involves bumping into monsters and lots of grinding.

There are those who say Deadly Towers or Heroes of the Lance are the worst RPG/adventure games on the NES. To those, I point at Hydlide and say "You are wrong".

Incidentally, turns out I was spelling it wrong all along, the title is actually Hydlide, missing the first 'E'.

Wow, that sounds really terrible. I thought Ys' battles were bad enough without making something worse on the same concept.

Fixed for my opinion. Hydlide is actually decent if you know what you're doing, and Deadly Towers gets decent with a map and the first two or so items.

Heroes of the Lance, on the other hand, is completely broken, controls, gameplay, everything.

Having discovered that the game was originally made in 1984, and only released domestically in 1989 has squelched much of my desire to crack wise about Hydlide.

I mean, it's like making fun of someones accent after learning that they are hydrocephalyptic.

I mean, sure, it's aged like fine milk, but there's no reason to draw attention to the fact.

I love you Hydlide, you keep on strugglin'

Forget Hylide, what about Virtual Hylide? I only even know that it exists based on a half-remembered magazine add from 15+ years ago...

Virtual Hydlide was the only other game in the series released over here. In japan there were about 3 or 4 others.

Had I a Saturn emulator, and a copy of the game, and the ability to run said emulator on my compy, I would consider doing it instead. But I don't have any of those things, so you're going to have to settle for the adventures of Jim, the Knight.

Also: Holy crap is this game Grind-Heavy.

Due to a big thing happening this weekend, my Let's Play probably won't start until Wednesday as every spare moment once I get home has been spent on the phone.

I'm not stopping my SRW playthrough, but I've got two exams this week plus work, so eeeh, maybe something for Friday night.

Good news to see that you guys are still planning on doing yours, I was beginning to wonder if I needed to start another LP to keep the subforum from stagnating.

I'd move up my OoT playthrough, but I'm really enjoying the time off so...yeah. Stagnate away. I'm probably going to start in December sometime, just so you all know.

Theoretically, I could beat Hydlide and finish the text bit by this afternoon, but playing that much Hydlide is hazardous.

That said, I am willing to start posting what I DO have done in interest of keeping the forum afloat until the other peoples get prepared and settled to continue theirs.

It helps that Hydlide is a short-ass game.

Honestly I'm surprised it took this long for TT to get burned out on LPs. Seriously I had figured a month, two months tops.

I'm actually working on the last Suikoden update from work. It's really really long.

Burning out?

Geez, I'm nearly done Hydlide and I've been kicking around ideas for the next two I want to do.

Could it be... I have found an enjoyable hobby?

It's not burned out! It's a breather.

I haven't been posting mostly because I've been blindsided the past while by a bout of insomnia and was too tired physically to write them. I've got the screenshots, though, so enthusiasm is certainly not a problem on my end so much as it is exhaustion.

Honestly, it's mostly that things are starting to settle down into a routine now than it is people burning out on them. Sure, some people are having trouble finding time to right them with school back in session, but updates are still coming, and people seem to enjoy reading the threads, so there's still some enthusiasm for the concept. The slowdown should start to level off soon once everyone figures something out, and odds are we'll end up with a sweet spot for update pace, for both the people reading them as well as writing.

(Also

Congratulations! Take whatever time you need to sort out your business; I doubt anyone's going to pester you about it.

(And

No problem, take your time. Lord knows I've taken more than my fair share off before.

I'm not burned out at all; I haven't even started on my second but I'm already brainstorming ideas on what to do after I've finished with it.

Mario RPG, though. I'm really excited about it. That one's going to be so good you'll have to invent new words to describe it. I've read through my FE7 LP a couple times while bored at work in order to come up with ways to make the next one better, and I'm overloaded with ideas. It's gonna be awesome; I'd start right now except that a) I don't want to jump the queue, and b) I know I'm going to have school-related things to deal with over the next two weeks that could possibly interfere with it, so mise well get them out of the way first.

I'm working through mine right now! and I'm still following half a dozen. No burn out! I'm looking into doing the video LPs now too, especially now since Youtube raised the video limit to one gig! Though I'm a little shaky on how Brickroad did it , I'm interested in that!

Let's keep the LPs coming

Actually, would anyone mind if I started posting Hydlide?

The sooner I get that terrible, yet misunderstood, game behind me, the happier we'll all be.

So guess who's a terrible person/being rammed with school and work?

Hint: He's also supposedly doing a Pokemon Emerald LP!

Yeah, I uh, I feel incredibly bad about crapping out on Maple's story and not saying anything about it. School has sapped my will to write updates, which sucks because I have ideas for the next... ten or so. However many it takes.

Suffice to say, my enthusiasm has not died down, though I do wish I had chosen something... less intensive for my first time. Like Oregon Trail. So I'm officially declaring a hiatus.

(Also, would someone please do Oregon Trail? Please please please?)

I just want to say that it looks like this one new LP a week thing is really working. The "in progress" and "on haitus" lists have really been cut back, and more seem to be making it into the "Finished" list.

For those of you guys who have worked at reigning this in, thanks for making it a legit part of the forum rather then a burn-and-die fad (as it was very close to becoming).

Suikoden is done, homies. Put me back up on the list for early '09 when I'll give RHEM a try.

Suggestion for someone insane: Planescape: Torment. There's no way you could ever screenshot or transcribe all dialogue, so you'd have to summarise a lot, and come up with an interesting way to tell the story that was not just bullshit SA "humor".

I'd also like a callback on the huge list of "proposed" games. Find out who is still genuinely interested in running their game, and who isn't.

There's actually a really well-done Planescape: Torment LP that's ongoing at SA right now.

This is a great idea. I'm obviously still down for OoT, and if I figure out how to get a video LP to work, you can count on my snatching up Starfox 64 too. But, again, that's still up for grabs while I wrestle with the technology issues.\

Edit: Um...OP. It looks like someone semi-beat you to it.

Those JACKALS! Stealing the sequel to my game before I even have the capability to play it! This... INJUSTICE will not stand!

It's official. OP and Shane are gonna fight. Today, after class, near the jungle gym. BE THERE