kane_magus (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kane_magus) wrote2021-07-30 01:51 am
kane_magus) wrote2021-07-30 01:51 am
Entry tags:
So close to being done with Ni no Kuni
I'm not going to bother to do everything in the game (e.g. capture/evolve all the familiars, make all the alchemy items, get all the casino rewards, find the remaining 70 or so of the hidden chests on the overworld map, give a shit at all about Steam achievements, etc.), but I do at least want to finish all the errands and bounties and also complete the Solosseum fights, which should be fairly doable at this point, before I consider it "complete."
Unfortunately, aggravatingly, enragingly, one of the errands involves bullshit where you have to fight golden enemies that have a low rate of spawning so that you can get (or steal) crafting items from them, which also have a very low rate of dropping. I loathe shit like that in games. It is the grindiest of grindy horseshit. I'm going to complete it, though, because I already have the 5 required of the one item I need, and I'm now just trying to get 5 of the other, but it's still dogshit.
Beyond that, all I have left is to just kill some more bounty creatures and complete the other two errands (which also involves straightforward fights against boss-like creatures, from what I can tell) and the Solosseum stuff.
(EDIT) All that's left now is finishing The Conductor bounties, and then finding those last five rare items (which I decided to put aside until doing all the other shit, because it was too annoying at the time). Beat the Solosseum fights, which were pretty tough even for level 95+ characters. Also beat all the magimech things, which weren't so tough. (/EDIT)
(EDIT 2) All that's left now is getting three more of those fucking Scroll of Truth items. The two I got so far were from using that golden glim trick with Swaine (which guarantees rare item steal). Basically... you have to hope you get into a battle that involves a Golden Honky Tonker enemy in the Tombstone Trail, then use Oliver to cast Thunderstorm or Pulse and hope you get lucky and get a golden glim out of it, and if so switch to Swaine and grab it then use his special to steal it. Or, failing that, hope that a regular steal near the end of battle when the thing is almost dead and can't take another hit is enough to get it, though usually you'll get the other item it has, which sucks. Honestly, I'm tempted to just say to hell with it and move on to something else. I might give it one more session worth of trying to get the last three, then finally complete the final errand. Otherwise, shit on it. (/EDIT 2)
(EDIT 3) And then I got the last three Scroll of Truth items in like 20 minutes or so. That's just the way it goes, sometimes. Go figure. And, with that, I made the War God's Axe, took it back to the dude who wanted it, got the last few alchemical formulas that I'm never going to bother with, then lastly went back and got the final merit award (the walk around and refill health thing) which I'm also never going to use... then exited out and uninstalled. (/EDIT 3)
I beat Shadar and the White Witch, like, a fucking week ago or more. >_>;
Pretty much everything after Shadar almost felt a bit... tacked on, really (which I guess it technically was "tacked on," since none of it was in the original DS version of the game[1], including anything involving Pea or the White Witch/Council, even before the post-game). Also, I kind of feel like going from fighting the blatantly evil villain Shadar who, oh snap, it turns out he actually wasn't so bad after all... to fighting the blatantly evil villain the White Witch who, oh snap, it turns out she actually wasn't so bad after all... was somewhat thematically repetitive?
And while I'm complaining...
1) You should be able to change your fucking Tactics settings from the regular menu, rather than only during battle.
2) When you alt-tab out of the game, about half the time, it makes it where you can't click on anything on your desktop, and you have to alt-tab in and out a few more times (or, I found later, you can ctrl-alt-delete then cancel out of the lock screen) before you can click on anything. In any case, the point is that the game doesn't handle alt-tab properly.
3) Marcassin is pretty annoying with his "A fAmOuS vIcToRy!1!1!1!" or "jUsTiCe HaS bEeN dOnE1!1!1!1!" or "oUr BrAvErY hAs BeEn JuStLy ReWaRdEd!1!1!1!" after fights, even more so than Oliver's constant "NEATO!!!" or silly shit like Esther saying "Easy!" or Swaine saying "Huh? Is that it?" after fighting the end bosses.
4) I found Esther's head-tilt-wink victory pose a bit uncanny valley-ish at first. That said, whenever she's involved in the victory screen now, I always try to mouse-click during it such that it freezes on her with her eye closed. (It has the added benefit of cutting short Marcassin's longer victory quotes, if he happens to be the one talking at the time, which is nice.)
5) Oliver's huge "Jack the Giant Killer" eight merit cards award which supposedly "Unlocks Oliver's full potential as a wizard and a hero!" being... nothing but a simple 100 HP/MP boost... was pretty lame, I have to say.
6) It seems a bit odd that none of the errands post-Shadar involve the "Take Heart/Give Heart" mechanic that was so prevalent before that point. But then, I guess that makes sense, considering that it was supposedly Shadar who was doing it in the first place? (Though why he felt the need to keep repeatedly targeting that one traveling merchant couple, I have no idea.) It just makes all the post-game errands seem even more grind-y/busy-work-y, though.
Besides that, everything was great. Seriously, it was a wonderful experience, for the vast majority of it. That said, I'm not sure if I want to go straight into Ni no Kuni 2 immediately after this or play something else.
[1] - On the flip side, Xanadu was an actual, visitable area in the original DS game, as opposed to having been destroyed in the backstory and otherwise not visitable/nonexistent in this version, apparently? I wonder why they cut that out. (EDIT) There was apparently quite a bit more that was in the DS game that was cut out of the later version, such as the dream world (accessed by sleeping at the inn) and a 100-floor bonus tower, among other things. (/EDIT)
Unfortunately, aggravatingly, enragingly, one of the errands involves bullshit where you have to fight golden enemies that have a low rate of spawning so that you can get (or steal) crafting items from them, which also have a very low rate of dropping. I loathe shit like that in games. It is the grindiest of grindy horseshit. I'm going to complete it, though, because I already have the 5 required of the one item I need, and I'm now just trying to get 5 of the other, but it's still dogshit.
Beyond that, all I have left is to just kill some more bounty creatures and complete the other two errands (which also involves straightforward fights against boss-like creatures, from what I can tell) and the Solosseum stuff.
(EDIT) All that's left now is finishing The Conductor bounties, and then finding those last five rare items (which I decided to put aside until doing all the other shit, because it was too annoying at the time). Beat the Solosseum fights, which were pretty tough even for level 95+ characters. Also beat all the magimech things, which weren't so tough. (/EDIT)
(EDIT 2) All that's left now is getting three more of those fucking Scroll of Truth items. The two I got so far were from using that golden glim trick with Swaine (which guarantees rare item steal). Basically... you have to hope you get into a battle that involves a Golden Honky Tonker enemy in the Tombstone Trail, then use Oliver to cast Thunderstorm or Pulse and hope you get lucky and get a golden glim out of it, and if so switch to Swaine and grab it then use his special to steal it. Or, failing that, hope that a regular steal near the end of battle when the thing is almost dead and can't take another hit is enough to get it, though usually you'll get the other item it has, which sucks. Honestly, I'm tempted to just say to hell with it and move on to something else. I might give it one more session worth of trying to get the last three, then finally complete the final errand. Otherwise, shit on it. (/EDIT 2)
(EDIT 3) And then I got the last three Scroll of Truth items in like 20 minutes or so. That's just the way it goes, sometimes. Go figure. And, with that, I made the War God's Axe, took it back to the dude who wanted it, got the last few alchemical formulas that I'm never going to bother with, then lastly went back and got the final merit award (the walk around and refill health thing) which I'm also never going to use... then exited out and uninstalled. (/EDIT 3)
I beat Shadar and the White Witch, like, a fucking week ago or more. >_>;
Pretty much everything after Shadar almost felt a bit... tacked on, really (which I guess it technically was "tacked on," since none of it was in the original DS version of the game[1], including anything involving Pea or the White Witch/Council, even before the post-game). Also, I kind of feel like going from fighting the blatantly evil villain Shadar who, oh snap, it turns out he actually wasn't so bad after all... to fighting the blatantly evil villain the White Witch who, oh snap, it turns out she actually wasn't so bad after all... was somewhat thematically repetitive?
And while I'm complaining...
1) You should be able to change your fucking Tactics settings from the regular menu, rather than only during battle.
2) When you alt-tab out of the game, about half the time, it makes it where you can't click on anything on your desktop, and you have to alt-tab in and out a few more times (or, I found later, you can ctrl-alt-delete then cancel out of the lock screen) before you can click on anything. In any case, the point is that the game doesn't handle alt-tab properly.
3) Marcassin is pretty annoying with his "A fAmOuS vIcToRy!1!1!1!" or "jUsTiCe HaS bEeN dOnE1!1!1!1!" or "oUr BrAvErY hAs BeEn JuStLy ReWaRdEd!1!1!1!" after fights, even more so than Oliver's constant "NEATO!!!" or silly shit like Esther saying "Easy!" or Swaine saying "Huh? Is that it?" after fighting the end bosses.
4) I found Esther's head-tilt-wink victory pose a bit uncanny valley-ish at first. That said, whenever she's involved in the victory screen now, I always try to mouse-click during it such that it freezes on her with her eye closed. (It has the added benefit of cutting short Marcassin's longer victory quotes, if he happens to be the one talking at the time, which is nice.)
5) Oliver's huge "Jack the Giant Killer" eight merit cards award which supposedly "Unlocks Oliver's full potential as a wizard and a hero!" being... nothing but a simple 100 HP/MP boost... was pretty lame, I have to say.
6) It seems a bit odd that none of the errands post-Shadar involve the "Take Heart/Give Heart" mechanic that was so prevalent before that point. But then, I guess that makes sense, considering that it was supposedly Shadar who was doing it in the first place? (Though why he felt the need to keep repeatedly targeting that one traveling merchant couple, I have no idea.) It just makes all the post-game errands seem even more grind-y/busy-work-y, though.
Besides that, everything was great. Seriously, it was a wonderful experience, for the vast majority of it. That said, I'm not sure if I want to go straight into Ni no Kuni 2 immediately after this or play something else.
[1] - On the flip side, Xanadu was an actual, visitable area in the original DS game, as opposed to having been destroyed in the backstory and otherwise not visitable/nonexistent in this version, apparently? I wonder why they cut that out. (EDIT) There was apparently quite a bit more that was in the DS game that was cut out of the later version, such as the dream world (accessed by sleeping at the inn) and a 100-floor bonus tower, among other things. (/EDIT)