I Can Dig It

I had always worried that my purchase of Terraria on Vita would never see the update to the 1.2 content that was released for PC around the same time which basically turned the game into something far larger than the already expansive confines the game offered.  There was multitudes of new -everything-, and indeed, it was one of those things that threatened to turn the game into an entirely different one.  A game that I would never get to play (until I got myself a proper PC, which is still on the agenda because shit is expensive) and one that I really -did- want to play.

Thankfully, the 1.2 content was always promised to us on non-PC platforms, it was all just a matter of time.  And not too long ago, we did see that patch finally.

As expected, Terraria feels almost entirely different.  The trappings are the same thus far - you still want to establish shelter and dig down, you still want to summon the Eye of Cthulhu as soon as possible, and you still want to work towards finding the Corruption (or the Crimson) and destroying Shadow Orbs to spawn the Eater of Worlds. (or their equivalents)  You'll go through new biomes (The Ice biome is especially nice) and improved ones (the Jungle biomes are -incredibly- different) as you do it, but that's still priority one, since that is how you get the Nightmare/Deathbringer (again, dependent on Corruption or Crimson) Pickaxe, which you need to mine Ebonstone, Hellstone and Obsidian, which will naturally impede your progress.

Unfortunately, this is sort of where I'm stuck.  My world has the Corruption, which means the Eater of Worlds, and it has only two spawn conditions.  The first is by breaking three Shadow Orbs (which is repeatable) which will force it unto the world for you to fight and conquer.  I attempted this, and came to discover that the Eater of World has been buffed (I swear it has been) and thus my first attempt met with nothing even approaching success.  Humbled, I sought out better armor, more health and a lot of healing potions, thinking I could certainly best it a second time. 

I could not, and this presented something of a problem.

You see, there are only so many Shadow Orbs in a given world.  They do not respawn.  Thus, once you have broken them all....well, that's it.  Fini.  I am not sure if I have reached this point, as I have to mine with bombs to continue further (or buy purification powder, but bombs are so much more bomby) and actively search for other ones.  Though, there is meant to be that second method of summoning, and it is one that I looked into quite heavily.

All it requires is an item called Worm Food.  Worm Food is made of Vile Powder and Rotten Chunks, the latter of which are dropped quite easily from the Eater of Souls monsters that fly about the Corruption constantly.  Vile Powder, on the other hand, requires Vile Mushrooms that you refine into the powder at an Alchemy Station.  Nothing could be more innocent, as the Vile Mushrooms grow naturally in the Corruption and plentiful, though you can even make a quick and easy farm for them.  I did this, as I wanted Vile Mushrooms, and I wanted them yesterday.  It was with this that I discovered there was something very, very wrong.

All patches have a tendency to wreck things moreso than fix them, we know this, and it's especially prevalent in games that are so open like Terraria or Minecraft or the like.  This is the case with Terraria, as the 1.2 Content update for Consoles included a multitude of bugs which are currently being sussed out.  One of these bugs?  "Vile Mushrooms cannot be harvested."

This is the impasse that I'm more or less at if I cannot find more Shadow Orbs.  In truth, it makes me worry about the validity of my world post-patch, even, as I wonder just how much of it -can- be fixed (since there are tons of other issues that I hadn't even gotten to yet due to my single focus of getting past the EoW) and the fix for these types of scenarios tend to be "Make a new world".  I...am loathe to do this, as my current world houses a "Heaven/Hell Tower" (unfortunately, it is not made of Rock) that extends from the top of the world (as seen at the top of this image) and goes as far down as I can get so far, as Obsidian stands in my way.  It took a lot of effort that I am not particularly invested in reinvesting should that become necessary.  Though I suppose I -will- always have it.  In a...half-functioning world, should it come to the worst scenario.

There are worse things, I guess.

but no, if I didn't make it clear, Terraria with the 1.2 content is so fun you guys

Something Like An Update Post

As we all know, when it comes to things that are bad, they never come in, stroll around for a moment and then leave without so much as a second thought.  They come in with a few buddies, also bad, and hang around for a little while until you're ready to strangle something and you don't really care -what-.  That's been what it's like here since the last time I posted, and that's directly responsible for the -why- I haven't posted.  I'm still not in a good place as it is, but I realized that there are possibly people who use this as their sole venue to know if I, as a person, am doing alright or something like that, and it'd be kind of a shitty thing for me to do to -not- update those people if I can help it, which I can.  Because, you know, I'm just a nice guy like that or something I suppose.

The situation is thus:  I'm pretty alright.  I lost internet the night after I posted last, hence the first night of non-posting and it was kinda sucky for me and such, but nothing too bad.  The next day, we (by we, I mean my family) got some news that is....well, pretty bad.  I don't want to throw this out here because I don't need attention nor sympathy or anything like that, but suffice to say that there could be some severely bad news about a close family member in the coming week or two.  So that's been weighing on me since and it does wonders for keeping any enthusiasm or verve I could muster for anything at bay, which is why it's been particularly hard to even consider posting since I've just not been in it.  I'm still not, but I suppose I'm managing fine enough, might start again normally depending on how things go.  The other issue is that I'm sick-ish again.  Because, you know, why not.  Nothing beyond waking up with a surplus of mucus for now, but given how things are, I'm not liking my chances of getting better without getting a little worse.

I've been keeping busy, though, which is good.  Between the first and likely only chapter of Corpse Party that I played which I suspect has made me a worse person overall because of the things that are now in my memory that I cannot un-remember, Ragnarok Odyssey that has the most adorable Slimes that I have murdered by the hundreds already and Youtube videos on the Vita App (which I'm still not entirely happy with, and it could be fixed with just a little more 'robust' channel viewing, and by more robust, I mean any at all), I haven't had a moment to say that I am bored.  Of course, I have work, Final Fantasy XIII and the recently-finished Costume Quest  to thank for that as well, which is to say that it is a good time to do what it is that I do, I just wish the conditions were a little more conducive for enjoyment.

That's been the most noticeable with Costume Quest, which I finished in two sessions of plays, getting 100% of the trophies while I was at it.  (Of course, there's only 11 and they're pretty simple to get)  It's a light-hearted Halloween-themed romp that I played, in fact, because it was just Halloween and I did nothing else to celebrate than eat candy and....well, I ate some candy.  It was, in fact, delicious.  I suspect that any other time, I would be able to fully appreciate it for what it was, but instead I could only find the mechanics boring and grating, much like Final Fantasy 13's own, and glare at my screen whenever the FPS dropped noticeably as all Double Fine games seem to do, and do a lot.  It was fun and I liked it, but I also wasn't playing it to enjoy it, simply because I felt like, hey, I should play it because of that time and, when I played it about halfway through, because I was almost finished with it.  I worry that that might've hampered my opinion of it overall, which is why I decided not to continue with the Grubbins on Ice expansion, choosing to instead save that for the Holiday season, with hopes that my natural excitement during those times will help the game put an exclamation point on it.

I did purchase Assassin's Creed:  Liberations as well, and I have been avoiding playing it for much the same reasons as I've listed already.  We all know my opinions on the Assassin's Creed games, particularly AssBro and AssRev (though AC1 and 2 are both spoken of as well in those) and they are not ever universally positive when I'm in the best shape I can be.  So trying to go into such a game and expecting that I will walk away satisfied in the least is lunacy which I will not attempt - I want to like Liberations or at the very least give it a fair shake.  I'm in no position to do either at this juncture, but when I am, you will probably hear about it because that's sort of what I do.  With any luck (I notice that I say that a lot) I'll be back to posting tomorrow night, and there's some genuinely interesting things to speak of that's come up lately, so I'll have plenty of things to cover.

Second Look: Treasures of Montezuma Blitz

In this day and age, the days where patching a game after-the-fact has more or less become standard across all platforms, we normally only see minor tweaks here and there in that form.  Bug-fixes, tweaking a piece of code to improve performance, or simply introducing code for downloadable items.  Normal stuff like that.  It's rare that a patch actually does anything to improve a game in a real, tangible way, but when these instances crop up, they should be lauded and appreciated accordingly.  Especially when they take a game that wasn't much of one and injects a wholesale shot of fun into it.  And double especially when said update causes me to compulsively play a game I had previously stated something of a mild distaste for in the past because I find that I am actually enjoying it.  Somehow.  I say all of this because oh god, I'm sure you realize why I'm saying this by now.

Anyways, I don't know what it is, exactly, about the patch that has been introduced to Treasures of Montezuma Blitz that has made it so much fun, but let me assure you right off that it is, indeed, fun, despite being the same game in many ways.  Rounds are still a minute long (barring matching tokens that have time extenders on them), and it's still the same basic game, thought improvements on the XP system allow for growth on a ridiculous level.  (Note that I am Level 12 in the above screenshot, where the last time I was Level...0.  I honestly haven't played the game a lot)  The score system similarly seems to have been amped up as, once again if you refer to the first post about the game, I was impressed by a score of 36,800 points, where I have now gotten to the mid hundred thousands (446,200 here making me ranked first in my list for what will be a pathetically short amount of time because Radthanael and Aubvry will demolish that in short order) and while that's my 'bragging zone' (I believe I've managed 600k on one occasion) it's decidedly ridiculous how wide the gap has gotten.  Yes, I'm higher level and yes, I have perks now, but still.

Realistically speaking, for being the same game, it's practically an entire new one with the improvements that have been made, if you haven't gathered.  Where I criticized it initially for being too short, for taking too little of your time, I now find that, as default, the game almost refuses to let you go.  Free Lives are earned in ways that I can't even begin to comprehend, so the five you're normally given (provided you play every day, you get -bonus lives- if you skip a day) almost -always- amount to more than that which turns what could seem to be 5-7 minutes of gaming to, honest-to-god 20+ minutes.  That is, if you simply play until you're out of lives for the day, as I imagine everyone does.  Knowing that the gaming time is 'limited' drives me to enjoy, to wring every second possible out of it, and I've found, several times now, that I think "Oh god, how do I still have three lives left, I've played like five rounds!".  I said it and I mean it as such:  the game does not want to let you go.

If you've downloaded the game already (remember, it's free), then going back is certainly recommended.  Only if you have a lot of time to spend on it, of course.  As I've stated, not only will the game shower you with lives for all the days you've missed, but you'll earn about half of them as freebies in the course of play.  This is honestly the best method of understanding the game, really, since you almost don't have to worry about the fact that you can only play it for so long.  Chances are, that 'so long' might even be longer than you'd be willing to invest otherwise.  But if you can start and stop, then you have a stronger will than I, friend, or simply a distaste for matching jewel games.  For the price (of nothing), I certainly can't insist you exercise caution any longer:  get the game, if just for something to play when you have a few minutes here and there or when you're just sitting around, perhaps not really wanting to play anything else.  I don't rightly think that there's a way that you could honestly regret the decision to get it.

Have I mentioned that the game has trophies now, by the way?  Because it has trophies now.  I'm not sure just how it got away with releasing -without- trophies in the start, perhaps because of the fact that it is, indeed, free, but for whatever reason, it has them now.  It's a fairly short list (only one gold, no platinum) that will give you quite a bit of challenge if you decide you want to fill it out completely, so this isn't a game to grab to quickly inflate your trophy count, but they're there regardless.  And the game is fun, too.  I believe I stated that somewhere along the line, but I think I haven't stressed it enough.  So maybe I should just really lay it all on the line really simply.  The game is free and fun (now), so it's definitely worth a download and minutes of your time every day unless you just aren't a fan of the type of game.  Which is certainly understandable.  Or if you have an addictive personality because this game will likely be hell for you then.  I swear that I'm seeing things in match-three vision nowadays.  It's....slightly maddening.

Update!:

So, either because I am an idiot who misses things terrible, or they changed something with regards to lives during the patch, I have been referring to Treasures of Montezuma Blitz as a game you can only play once a day.  That is incorrect.  That is....quite incorrect, as the above picture shows.  Lives refill every few minutes so that in fact, you could play your five, put the Vita down, go off to make a sandwich or have a smoke or something, and come back to at least a couple more lives.  So, provided you don't have much else to do, Treasures is definitely a game you could spend the bulk of a day playing as...well, a game.  Without paying a bit, on top of it, provided you have a little patience.  I decided it would be better to include the above screen as an image, considering it's in the game, to show off how dense I can be sometimes.  Since, we all have our moments sometimes.

Final Fantasy Tactics Update 2: In Which I Forget I'm Only in Chapter Two

The second proper update to my Final Fantasy Tactics playthrough brings us to the end of Chapter 2 because I wasn't paying attention to the actual flow and story of Chapter 2 at all and thought it went completely differently than it ended up going.  It also sees my team (Minus Minerva) hilariously overleveled to an actually embarrassing degree because, again, I really totally forgot I was in Chapter 2.  And when I say 'hilariously overleveled', I mean everyone's coasting around 60.  When the max is 99.  Whoops!  This is also where I point out that I've accidentally gotten most of the team close to their Master Class already because I am bad at planning, but oh well, no reason to fuss on about it; nobody is -at- their Master Class just yet, it's just everyone is various levels of "ALMOST THERE", and then it's about 30 levels of coasting to 99 when I can stop worrying about XP and such and really set everyone up to their Master, rather than throwing the Squire set on everyone (for Focus spamming for guaranteed JP).

Chapter 2 is really where the story picks up for FFT, obviously, as the first chapter is all just prologue as I discussed in the first update, and it's just really setting things up.  Starting in Chapter 2, Ramza's party really strikes out on their own to do what they have to do (or at least think they have to do) and end up making quite a few powerful enemies, some for better reasons than others.  It's more or less this stuff that makes me think I should do a side-update or something that basically throws the whole story of FFT out there as I get to it, but I am....entirely too unorganized for that.  But to throw out random bits of it here would also be doing the story of the game a disservice.  I can broach things simply/vaguely here, I suppose, and give myself an in for more complexity later.

The Zodiac Stones, or 'auracite' as it's sometimes referred to by the characters first show up here and quickly show off why they're possibly wanted, and -then- at the end of the chapter, show off -exactly- why they're wanted.  Obviously they contain a power if they're referred to by a special name like 'Zodiac Stones', but I'm not going to say just to what extent or anything.  Regardless, there's a whole lot of intrigue and backstabbing going on over them and because of those antics Ramza's ever-dwindling group of miscreants ends up public enemy number one to a lot of groups, which is what comprises much of the story of Chapter 3.  But I will state that Chapter 2 (I believe) features the first of the few extra missions inserted into War of the Lions (fairly seemlessly) specifically for the remake.

It's a common theme that, despite Ramza being the focus of Final Fantasy Tactics, Delita, his childhood friend, is actually the main character of the game.  This is only further reinforced by War of the Lions insistence on featuring Delita in every single one of the new cutscenes made specifically for this game as well as the increased amount of time spent telling his story which includes a new mission where you actually play as Delita.  This isn't much of a spoiler, but Delita, at a certain point in the game, has Princess Ovelia with him as he's running about, doing his Delita business.  Unfortunately, at this point, there's a price on the Princess (safe return, of course) at this point and they happen to wander across some ruffians willing to cash in.  A knight, archer and Black Mage, specifically.  While you can only control Delita and his only partner in this is Ovelia (who, in my play, actually -killed- two of the three because they were left with crap for HP after a single hit from Delita) the battle is terribly easy, but does add a little bit to the narrative, making it enjoyable and worthwhile.  And, like I mentioned, sometimes something awesome happens like the Princess caning two dudes to death.

On that note, it's probably best if I just go ahead and begin with the actual Character Update portion here.  As I've hinted to, there's been quite a bit of progress, most of it unintentional, but it all works out regardless.

Counter to Chapter One's support role, Mogs has been one of the two main offensive members of the team, with a Chakra to Haplo or whoever needed a heal here or there.  Truly, I have a little over a half a notebook page of entirely different murder scenarios that Mogs has carried out, even if I am being a little too pedantic with some of them.  Such as "Killed Story Human" and "Killed Story Human with Martial Arts" (As in, one of the Monk's abilities, likely Shockwave).  Still, I maintain that it's important to make these distinctions because they're entertaining, especially here when I'm doing these breakdowns.  Mostly because I can recall specific situations like the random encounter with three Mindflayers and a Panther in which a Mindflayer decided it was a good idea to Berserk Mogs on turn one.  Obviously, when a character is Berserked, they move to the closest thing and attack, and I don't know if FFT: WotL just has an "Enemy before Ally" priority or if he was actually closer to a mob than not (I doubt that though), but this was a very, very poor move as Mogs proceeded to murder the shit out of every single Mindflayer while Sakura (also berserked) punched the Panther to death.  ....More on that in Sakura's section.

Mogs is unique in Chapter 2 because he started and ended the Chapter as a Monk with no class change in between.  Whether it's because I don't want to move him into something else because I quite enjoy him punching shit to death, or because I think he's more or less set exactly how I want him (I.E. Mastered) I haven't quite decided yet.  I would actually kind of hate for him to be -done- already, but it is entirely possible that I decide not to move him into anything else.  We'll just have to see on that.  He did end up with Move +2 over Teleport which I think I prefer since Teleport always has a chance to fail which can really screw you in crunch time.  Or it could work and make a level impossibly easy.  More the former, though.  Obviously, he has gotten Ninja and has acquired Dual Wield which means he punches twice with every regular attack.  Most of the time, this second punch is unnecessary but it was required to end the Boss of Chapter 2 in a single action (which was -awesome-.) so it worked out.
# of Jobs Had: 1 (Chapter 2), 4 (Cumulative)
Jobs Mastered:  0 (Chapter 2), 2 (Cumulative)
Most Important Achievement (Chapter 2):  Killed the Boss of Chapter 2 (With the only action taken in that battle)
Progress:  (Almost Too) High

Haplo didn't get too many accolades in Chapter Two because, more or less, he didn't do a lot of killing, but rather was the Support character to end all Support Characters.  He started as an Orator so as to get the abilities that raise Brave and Faith values (Temporarily, though every 4 Temporary Point Nets one Permanent point of gain, meaning several battles of spamming to get 90s in Braves and Faiths) and then went into Mystic because I'm pretty sure I thought they had a better raise skill but was wrong, which meant I remedied that by throwing him into Time Mage with Orator skillset secondary.  'When in doubt, Haste' became his motto and when everyone was sufficiently faster, that's when he'd start talking people up, making sure they became more courageous and more faithful to the word of Ajora.  I didn't record every instance of this (in fact, no instance of this), but everyone walked away with Brave and Faith in the 90s or top-tier 80s depending on what they needed.  (So, basically, Haplo and Sakura got Faith while everyone else, still including Sakura got Brave.)  After accidentally Mastering Time Mage, I threw him into Black Mage since that's one of his Master Classes and he was fairly close to Mastering that anyway.  Following his stint in Black Mage, he went into White Mage where he closed out the chapter in.

His stints in Orator, Time Mage and Black Mage were all enough for him to Master all three classes, almost completely on accident as Orator and Time Mage aren't even in his final build, but, screw it, they helped me.  Currently, he's a White Mage with Time Magic as a secondary because it's still useful, but once he masters White Mage, he'll.....pretty much be done, honestly.  At that time, I might just say the hell with Time Magic and throw Black Magic secondary on him to ride it out as his Master, but I'm not sure.  We'll see how it works out when I get to that point.
# of Jobs Had:  5 (Chapter 2), 11 (Cumulative, includes multiple stints in the same Class)
Jobs Mastered:  3 (Chapter 2), 3 (Cumulative)
Most Important Achievement (Chapter 2):  Continued being the Best Support Character and also Toaded Nine Different Enemies during his run as Black Mage
Progress:  Almost Complete(!)

Where Saki-Chan was my Goddess of Chaos in Chapter 1, she emerged as the Unquestioned Master of Murder in Chapter 2, taking up a full notebook page of paper with different exploits of killings and job changing.  Seriously, of the 26 lines on this piece of paper, six of them are entries of non-destruction.  Sakura started Chapter 2 as a Geomancer, on her way to get it to level 8 which was a requirement for Dark Knight.  As is Level 8 Dragoon, Ninja and Samurai, on top of Mastering Knight and Black Mage, both of which were done last chapter.  Another semi-hidden (I believe) requirement is that she needs to have killed 20 things and left them dead long enough to turn into a Crystal or Treasure Chest, meaning they are irrevocably dead.  It will come as no surprise that this was accomplished well before it needed to be, so that when Samurai Level 8 was finally reached, Dark Knight instantly became available.  Which she instantly went into because goddamn Dark Knight takes a lot of JP to master.  Way more than I anticipated, but it shouldn't be too bad.

Now, I have to let you guys in on what is quite possibly the most badassest thing I've ever experienced in Final Fantasy Tactics in all of my attempts at playing it.  Now, I know that the Monk is a dedicated class to punching shit to death and that's awesome, and when I switched Sakura to Samurai, I had no Katana to give her so she could wield nothing but her fist.  I briefly considered throwing one of the many "Equip (weapon)" skills onto her to give her -something-, but recalled "Brawler" which is basically "Equip Monk Fist" and thus brilliance was born.  Sakura as a Samurai running around and punching shit to death is just....just amazing and was definitely the overall highlight of the chapter.  While she has a sword now as a Dark Knight, I will always fondly remember her days as the best samurai in FFT ever.
# of Jobs Had:  5 (Chapter 2), 8 (Cumulative)
Jobs Mastered:  1 (Chapter 2), 3 (Cumulative)
Most Important Achievement (Chapter 2):  Punched Eleven(!) Story Humans to Death as a Samurai.  Really, the whole Punching Samurai bit.  19 things in total fell to a fist of hers.
Progress:  High

Much like Chapter 1, Kasey has resumed being the Behind-the-Scenes Sleeper guy, not going over-the-top with murder like some people, but has managed to get in a number of clean kills unopposed.  He and Emily share a spot for the least amount of Job changes in Chapter 2 (aside from Mogs with 0) simply because I'm sticking them with their preferred classes as I try to figure out just what my plan for them is.  I'm still leaning towards them being Equipment Destroyers, but I still haven't tested whether they can do that at range yet which means they've more or less been at a stand-still since.  I've been considering putting Kasey into Thief secondary since Archers are fairly fast (I believe) and I'm pretty sure Steal works off of Speed in this game as it does in others.  Still, the idea of an Archer is to be -away- from an enemy, not right next to it, which makes that idea seem counter-intuitive even if it matches the stats.  I'm sure there's a right right here that I'm not thinking of, but eventually it'll come to me and all will be glorious.

Indeed, most of Kasey's jobs have been -about- speed, which is why I'm thinking about it so heavily as I imagine he has higher base speed than most, or at least I would hope as much.  Between Thief, Ninja and Archer, he should be a point or two above everybody, but I might just be hoping more than thinking on that.  Still, he's more or less built as a support fighter now and even if I threw him into Monk, Dragoon or Knight to finish off to level 99 it would likely be too little too late.  Which is why it's time to think about what I've got to work with.
# of Jobs Had:  2 (Chapter 2), 6 (Cumulative)
Jobs Mastered:  2 (Chapter 2), 4 (Cumulative)
Most Important Achievement (Chapter 2):  Was the only person to kill one thing, let alone three things, with a Shuriken.
Progress:  Undecided (High)

Again, much like last Chapter, Emily's job has remained more or less unchanged in being the secondary Fighter when necessary (I.E. when Sakura isn't a direct physical class) and one of the designated shields for the formations, given her armor, reaction ability and Shield offer a great rate of blocking, not to mention the high HP she has regardless.  Always using terrain to the advantage, I tend to find some way to wedge Mogs and Emily between the units that might not be able to take the hits (Kasey and Haplo primarily being an Archer/Ninja and Mage respectively) and it works quite well.  Emily has been put in primarily Physical classes all the while, which means she's pretty hardy which is good and having defaulted to Dragoon for the majority of the chapter (after switching from Monk post-Mastering it) only amplifies that exponentially.  I think I'm more apt to put the Rend skills on her, especially if they work at range with the spear, if simply because a lot of the physical characters will be the ones to run up to her, try and attack, get blocked and leave themselves open to getting their shit wrecked.  Literally.  And if needed, that one extra tile of reach could always come in handy if something -needs- destroyed right away.

You can't say that I haven't had Emily use the Dragoon skill-set to its fullest either.  Even with Sakura as a Dragoon for quite a while, Emily has far more Jump-Kills than she, which obviously means she wins the class.  And it's only fair, after all she wanted to be a Dragoon.  I built her -into- Dragoon, not the other way around, so it's a perfect fit, which means I don't know if I'll actually shift her out into anything else.  She already has Knight Mastered anyway, which is where the Rend skills lay, but again, I haven't tested her mettle with them yet.
# of Jobs Had:  2 (Chapter 2), 6 (Cumulative)
Jobs Mastered:  1 (Chapter 2), 3 (Cumulative)
Most Important Achievement (Chapter 2):  Jump-Killed 10 Foes, Including One of the Major Antagonists (Kind of) of Chapter 2
Progress:  Undecided (Possibly done-ish?)

I introduced Minerva in the In-Between Update to explain why I hadn't updated in a while and it's kind of a blessing and a curse that I introduced her at all.  A blessing because I needed Extra Characters (and still do, especially now with most of my main team possibly -done-), but a curse because in training her up some (Only to level 20) I ended up doing a lot of grinding for everyone else at the same time which is how I got into this Over-Leveled, over-prepared state to behind with.  Regardless, I don't regret it, but I'll have to be a little more careful with how I raise my Extra characters from here out.  At least until I get my main team to Level 99 at which point it won't really matter.  Unfortunately, all that grinding was mostly just Focus-grinding which means Minerva has no accolades to speak of besides being Berserked by the same Mindflayer that Berserked Mogs mere turns before it got its face punched in.  Just that and the job changes she went through on her way towards her Orator class, which she still hasn't reached unfortunately, as she got to Mystic before I put things into High-Gear Story-Clearing mode.

Nothing else to really say about Minerva yet unfortunately.
# of Jobs Had:  5 (Chapter 2 and Cumulative)
Jobs Mastered:  0
Most Important Achievement (Chapter 2):  Exists.
Progress:  Low

Chapter 2 came and went with a blur which is kind of unfortunate for the various reasons I described above.  Hopefully Chapter 3 will be a little better paced and I'll actually remember the mid-way point of it so I can split it into two updates, but I can't guarantee anything.  I know I'll be picking up at least one more Extra character during the course of Chapter 3 as well, which will entail the same pitfalls as getting Minerva held, so I'll have to be a little wary of that as well.  Still, it'll work out, I'm sure and I can't wait to get it all figured out on the way!

Final Fantasy Tactics Update 1.5: Why No Update?

It has been a while since the last update and I do have to start this off by stating that I do apologize for that.  The reason for it is purely technical; I've mentioned it a few times but my PSP is really running on Empty in these long, long months before the Vita comes out and I'm encountering quite a few issues with the device itself.  The analog nub just had long worn out and floats; whenever I open the internet browser, the 'mouse' just goes straight down or sometimes straight down and to the right and will always head that way and nothing I do fixes it, though I can stop it from doing as much if I press and hold the bottom left corner of the device (where the nub is) which is, as you can imagine, less than constantly feasible.  The only problem this directly presents is that, without fixing it, the map has a tendency to move all by itself (as you control the map rotation with the nub) which is quite disorienting, however I've also had some problems really accessing menus, presumably because the PSP is registering too many inputs.

On top of that, the battery is, understandably, really really past its prime.  I've said it several times before and will likely say it again:  My PSP is a 1000 from before the 2000s were even announced.  It is old.  And I've never modded it or anything, so it's just been a regular old PSP-1000 for years.  It is understandably old and worn-down and, to paraphrase Metal Gear Solid 4, has 'had a hard life', but that doesn't make it any less bothersome to me.  I have, however, discovered that using my PSP Theater Experience Nyko Case (it was cheaper when I bought it) has not only the handy benefit of extending the battery life, but has completely solved the issues I have with the analog nub when it concerns Final Fantasy Tactics.  This is a boon, of course, and while it's a bit unwieldy, I'm more than happy to go with it since it helps me enjoy a game I want to enjoy!  Discovering this has, of course, led to me actually getting to play the game once again without having to glare in frustration at it.

Unfortunately, I have this update marked 1.5 for a reason as there really is -little- to update here; I've grinded some (too much, possibly) and got some of my folks closer to their master class, but not enough that I want to divulge the information here.  At least, not about my main party.  I have, however, picked up one of the 'extra' characters I've alluded to possibly getting along the way (that isn't a Unique character) and have been working on building her up for....really no reason at this point.  I very highly doubt she's going to see much combat, but I just want to have her around anyway, if just for the 'lulz' as kids these days put it.  I believe I discussed her briefly in my last update or some other post, but she is Minerva Metzinger of the Metzinger family that I created....pretty much around her, despite being the youngest of them.  So I will go ahead and talk on her for a bit.

If you can't tell (as in, if you don't have any experience with FFT), the picture being used for her is that of an Orator (or Mediator in classic FFT) which would suggest that that is her Master Class, as I have done in the past.  And in truth, I'm not sure if it will be; though it very well might be.  She's going to be a Samurai/Mediator blend, I know that much and since the Samurai picture is already taken by Sakura, I sort of have to default on Mediator.  While I've decided that she'll be sort of a 50/50 of both classes, I do still have to figure on what she'll be in everyday walkabout, which has me leaning towards Samurai for the better HP and better Base Attack, but I'm worried that it just won't be necessary in that I plan on having her either use katanas or guns, and I'm not sure which is the base.  So either I have her as a Mediator with "Equip Katana" taking up a slot, or a Samurai with "Equip Gun" doing the similar, with one having the secondary of the other.  And as I've mentioned, it really does sound silly, but it's more thematic than it's meant to be adhering to the principle that states "All characters must be as 'good' as possible" which is a theory that I generally subscribe to, hence why I think having her around is 'important' even if it's not.  I need to break that habit to really have fun with games sometime, so there's no better way than to do that in a game that's so easily broken as FFT is.

There will likely be more 'Extra' characters of this sort, as well as the sort that has Unique sprites that I will be using in very utilitarian ways only, as my main party will be my -party- for as often and long as possible.  I'll touch on them whenever I feel it's necessary for you to know about their growth, if any.  You'll notice that I didn't mention much about Minerva -currently- as she is more potential than anything at the moment.  Started as a Squire (as they all do), and has moved into Knight to unlock some other jobs.  Once I see what all she can get access to without a bunch of job-hopping, I'll have a better picture of how I can work out her growth, but for now there is very little done for her, hence no real update beyond introduction and theory, as I did with the rest of the party to start.

Hopefully I'll have update 2 proper in a reasonable amount of time here.  No guarantees, but I can actually play the game now and I have the desire to do so, so there's not a whole lot standing in my way!  I need to start actually advancing the story anyway as I am far outclassing the equipment available to my characters currently and it's getting a little annoying to say the least.  Which is why I believe Extra character 2 might be a thief of some sort, in case I get lucky with them deployed and run into a random encounter with a human opponent since, well, they tend to have appropriately leveled equipment and that's certainly one way to upgrade. 

Final Fantasy Tactics Update 1: The Fuss About Flashbacks

The first update of my playthrough of Final Fantasy Tactics actually comes with the first chapter (of four) completed.  While saying that might suggest to you that Final Fantasy Tactics is a short game, I assure you that it is not.  The first chapter is simply a bit difficult to play around in, as the inventory selection is very limited, so much so that changing to some jobs will leave your character unarmed due to a lack of a basic weapon (unless you decide to switch your support skill to "Equip (Weapon type)" which is highly unadvised, as JP is precious so JP Boost should likely be on your character until he or she is right where you want them.  The distinct lack of locations to visit is a big part of the problem with Chapter 1 as well, as only three "Friendly" locations are open, with the rest of seven spaces being openly hostile (meaning random encounters could occur, and also counting the last story mission location), so on top of nothing to buy, there's very little places to -buy- -nothing-.  The game just basically funnels you to complete the first chapter ASAP, it feels to me, is the point I'm getting at here.

The other real big oddity about the way FFT starts is, without spoiling too much, the actual first battle you participate in is in the "Prologue", where you then go into a flashback and that is Chapter 1.  The oddity here is that your main character (in my case Mogs) is level suck for the prologue fight, yet you spend the entirety of Chapter 1 getting him, assuredly, to a higher level.  (Again, in my case, er....32.)  Not only that, but your team is assuredly different, even if you've just used the basic scrubs that come with Chapter 1 (which I didn't; I stripped them, fired them, sold most of their clothes/equipment and recruited my team) than those that fight in the Prologue fight, which, dare I say, would be incredibly one-sided otherwise.  I get that it's just supposed to be the tutorial fight, and it wants to drop you right into the story, but that's always not sat well with me, so I wanted to vent about it here.

Anyway, the majority of Chapter 1 was, unsurprisingly, spent grinding, grinding, grinding, grinding.  Perhaps a bit too much, admittedly, given that I got to an average level of ~31 and my team has already put quite a lot of work into the groundwork of reaching their desired Master Class.  (Which is what I'm going to refer to each final build as.)  I'll cover that a little more in-depth with everybody's progress breakdowns, but suffice to say that this has been a success, as they say.  For the sake of mentioning it, the only reason that Update 1 was the entirety of Chapter 1 was, essentially, the reasons I already described here and that future updates will not be so far into the game.  While I don't want to have a lot of posts about this series and have them every other day, I'm envisioning at least two updates for Chapter 2 and 3 each, and probably three or four for Chapter 4, since Chapter 4 is (obviously) where a lot of the endgame stuff occurs, which I will be participating in.

The final difficulty, really, with doing an 'update' for Chapter 1 is that...well, not a whole lot happens.  What -does- happen is just to set up the story for the rest of the game and it can only really be explained, spoilers or no, as "Political intrigue and shady dealings occur".  The only real spoilers involved would be stating who the involved parties are, and even then that doesn't do a lot since everyone's roles shift dramatically over time and the course of the game, sometimes several times over.  I can try and do a side-update to these main ones that explain the story of FFT (with spoilers that will be marked, so only those who are truly curious/already know or have played the game would dare wander) if I think it's necessary, but I think the bulk of what'll get described here is the important bits.

Anyways, on to the aforementioned important bits:  My team breakdown.  (Note:  Non-Unique members will use their Master Class Portraits)

Mogs, which is me the MC of course, has been playing a lot of support despite being the only member of the team to take solely physical jobs, and at a definite focus as well, since he's only changed jobs three times.  (Squire to Knight to Monk)  Mostly just using Focus to JP-whore and ensure the others get spillover JP from his jobs (Which is a vital tactic for your planning), he's also seen more use with Chakra to give MP back to my spell-casters and general healing than he's felled opponents, though he does have quite a kill-list.  (For reference, I've been taking notes of, well, note-worthy events:  Killing (enemy) with (weapon), being downed, being charmed, etc. and his only noted actions are Killing.)  The most note-worthy thing he's done is holding the 'title' as it were for killing the most story humans. (For noting purposes, I've excluded the prologue battle and the first Chapter 1 battle as neither offers me the opportunity to use -my- team.)

At the end of Chapter 1, he walked away with both Knight and Monk mastered, which is, well, kind of a big deal, especially since his Master Class will be a Monk.  Still, he lacks entry into the Ninja Job entirely which is vital for his build and I'm still debating if I want to give him just a big Move + Skill (Probably Move +2) or Teleport from Time Mage Spillover (which I have yet to get yet).  Still, that decision is a bit far off for now, as is most of the more important ones.
# of Jobs Had: 4
Jobs Mastered:  2
Most Important Achievement (Chapter 1):  Killed Most Story Humans (8)
Progress:  Average

Haplo has been one of the more frantic characters of the team, in that, being my main magic guy, I've had him have a go in just about every Magic (Or at least Chemist-Side) Job that I have.  If it has "Mage" in the Job Title, he's been it assuredly, so long as I have it that is.  Started as a Chemist, he pretty much immediately moved into Black Mage to assist Sakura with getting spillover JP for the hefty JP Cost of Mastering the Black Mage job.  He didn't stay too long, however (though, long enough to grab Thunder, Fire, Blizzard, Blizzara and, my current favorite, Toad) before moving on into Time Mage to grab Haste to ensure the team can outpace the enemy (without relying on Tailwind from Mogs).  Dual-jobbing Time Mage with Black Mage was quite fun for a time, though the only really note-worthy things he did in that time was Haste everybody. 

Then, when my healing problems became an issue to maintain, I threw him into White Mage since, well, that's going to be his Master.  Cure was gained as well as Protect (not much to worry about in the ways of Magic just yet), so as a White Mage with Time Magic as a secondary, he's been the ultimate support character, outclassing even Mogs with that task, even though he relies on Mogs for MP refills.  He's also had stints in Mystic and Orator, mostly just to give everyone spillover JP enough to unlock vital jobs, and is currently an Orator because I just now realized I should be min/maxing everyone's Brave and Faiths appropriately.
# of Jobs Had:  7
Jobs Mastered:  0
Most Important Achievement (Chapter 1):  Killed a Panther with a Stone toss and is the Ultimate Support Character
Progress:  Slow (Mage Mastering is the longest Mastering)

Sakura has, in all honesty, been my little Goddess of Chaos.  Not only has she killed the most things, by far, but she's also caused the most havoc with status effects and has taught me to love Toad.  Sakura's journey in Chapter 1 has been almost as stable as Mogs' with the same amount of Job changes, but, starting out as a Squire and then moving on to Knight, then the shift to Black Mage means that her Job Change spanned the sides and thus, was just a little more eventful.  At the start, when everybody (but Haplo) was a Knight, it really made getting Knight mastered for just about everyone (but Haplo) really really easy.  And while it was nice having four Front-Liners, it had to end eventually and when Sakura changed to Black Mage, I learned that really fast. 

Black Mage, as a job, takes by far the most JP to Master (rivaled only by Summoner I believe) but it's also a really easy class to be in, since it's rather fun.  As I said, she's done well enough at causing destruction, but I've found that, on my many many many bouts in the Mandalia Plains, turning Chocobos into Toads just rocks.  Chocobos, on the whole, are always fearsome enemies, whether it's because Yellow ones can heal for free or the later Red and Black Chocobos can destroy you with spells (also free), you hate seeing them in the line-up, so neutralizing them (since Toad is permanent unless they're hit with Toad again or healed otherwise) is doubly-enjoyable.  By the end of Chapter 1, Sakura did manage to Master Black Mage, so I had to scramble and think of where to put her next.  Geomancer got the bid, as it's a fun class and she needs Job Level 8 in it (as well as a few other classes) to unlock Dark Knight, which is vital to her Master Class.
# of Jobs Had: 4
Jobs Mastered:  2
Most Important Achievement (Chapter 1): Most overall non-story kills (17) and Most Toaded Enemies (7)
Progress:  Keikaku Doori  (I'm honestly baffled that I Mastered Black Mage already.)

Kasey has, for lack of a better term, been my solid, behind-the-scenes, sleeper physical guy so far.  While Mogs has always been the -main- Physical guy, Kasey's jobs has been mostly the same, with the exception of Archer and Thief which are playing up to his Master Class strengths.  Much like everyone else, he quickly made the shift from Squire to Knight and stayed there until he mastered it, which was where I started wondering just where to take him.  Archer is....well, one of the easiest 'required' (in the mindset of my goal here) classes to get, so it was right there waiting for him when he mastered Knight.  So, for a little while at least, I had him in Archer if just to get a couple Aim abilities to have while I figured out what to do with him.  Eventually, I realized that Thief was necessary for my plans and, being an Archer, speed is fairly vital (I -think- certain classes affect Base Speed gain for level ups) so he went into that.

Even as a Thief, however, his front-line position has never been contested, and he's felled quite enough foes with the knives a thief must use, which is more than welcome.  Though he's mostly been sharing the same jobs with Emily, he's just had more opportunities for the kill, I suppose.  Thanks to all that Thievery (Note:  None of my Thieves have stolen anything yet), he unlocked Ninja and is currently one of those.  Again for the speed, the spill-over and because innate Two Swords is just so good.
# of Jobs Had:  5
Jobs Mastered:  2
Most Important Achievement (Chapter 1):  Killed (Story Character Spoiler).  (Hint for those who've played the game:  Screw this character.  This is the only reason why it's so note-worthy is because that guy sucks.)
Progress:  Above Average

Where Kasey has been my behind-the-scenes guy, so has Emily in a sense, but in a less overt way.  She's been somewhat of a Utility character thus far, taking on Jobs just for the Spill-Over while always keeping her own Master Class in mind.  After Knight, she made the jump with Kasey to Archer and then to Thief.  Eventually, however, she then went into Geomancer to bring everybody up in levels for that, and ultimately found herself in Monk.  With her Master Class being Dragoon, I've been considering the speed element, which is why she's spent time in Archer and Thief.  If I'm right and Jobs affect base Speed growth, then the naturally abysmal speed of a Dragoon can be offset by these early gains.  If not, there's always Haste.  Her going into Monk is purely for her own benefit, however, as Mogs had already mastered it and, while I enjoy having another person to Chakra around, I'm hoping her Monk levels helps her PA growth in the overall, so she hits that much harder when she stabs things from two tiles way and/or jumps on them from across the map.

She likely would have been a Dragoon already, but I do worry about the Speed gains a little and Dragoon is one of those jobs that is just impossible to buy for in Chapter 1.  No spear is available for purchase and, while I might be able to scrounge one up somewhere (I don't know for sure) I haven't found one.  The other option would be to throw on "Equip Sword", of course, but that's cutting into the sweet sweet JP gains severely.  But for now, she's just fine and fills whatever spot necessary well.
# of Jobs Had:  5
Jobs Mastered:  2
Most Important Achievement (Chapter 1):  Most Panthers Killed with a Sword (5)
Progress:  Above Average

Overall, I think I've done pretty well with my team management so far.  If anything, I've gone a bit out of my way, rather than being behind 'schedule' (which is impossible, but you know what I mean) and the surprising progress I've made more than shows for it.  My team's overall level has stayed fairly close (I'm averaging it at 31, even though I have 3 32s, a 31 and a 30), so nobody's really getting left behind, which tends to happen in the first Chapter, given the majority of your story battles only offer four slots because you're generally dragging a guest or two along.  In those situations, I've rotated Kasey and Emily in and out of the fourth slot to combat that and tried to use Tailwind to catch them up in a random battle afterwards, and I'd say I'm doing fairly good. 

The only real hurdles I'm seeing is Sakura's overall journey to Dark Knight and Haplo's Journey to Mastering Black Mage (Or at least getting all the spells), but aside from that, this is looking like a smooth travel.  My next update should likely be about half-way through Chapter 2, and I almost shudder to think at the progress I'll have made by then.  I also believe I'm going to make a few secondary characters to fill certain roles (a Treasure Hunter for one), and may feature them in the next update as well.  But until then, that's been my run at Final Fantasy Tactics so far!

Final Fantasy Tactics Update 0: How I Will Update My Progress

I've dipped my toes into War of the Lions in the past couple days and, while I don't have a lot of headway made, I do have some, so I have been trying to think about how I can broadcast that here.  Text is, unfortunately, my only possible means of conveyance, so how I go about it is crucial; I can't do a lot, really, but I figure the least I can do is offer the updated stats of everyone involved, how/why they have what they have, and possibly relay any stories of interest they come across.  As such, I'm going to be keeping notes of what happens every battle I fight in, who killed who, healed who, etc. and will figure out some manner of making that entertaining here.

I'm sure it's not really something that interests everybody, and it's not like it's going to be "Let's Play:  Final Fantasy Tactics - Text Adventure Version", since I'd rather not spoil the story aside from bits where it's nearly impossible to do so (or it's vital to do so, in one important case), but I always feel something of an element of -real- adventure when playing FFT, which is something I don't get from a lot of other games, so I really kind of want to share that feeling somehow.  And since I was so much a fan of how I got to do the last FFT post, I imagine that format will be used heavily with some variation to highlight each member of the team.

The irony of typing this all out might be that I may have discovered what keeps me from finishing Final Fantasy Tactics whenever I play it, and it might be a very egregious error.  With all the emphasis I've been putting on the characters, it wouldn't surprise me to surmise that I get it in my head that the 'goal' of playing FFT is making the team I want, which would make that the end-point.  Which it obviously isn't.  And while I can't simply state that the goal is to beat the game, I can try to force it by making a bet on who's going to get the finishing blow on the final boss.  We'll just have to see!  With this update deal and that new idea in mind, that should hopefully be enough to take down this new White Whale.

With that said, this is update Zero in that all I'm really doing is stating the mission plan and giving the bare-est bones type of update as possible.  Everybody (but Haplo) is a Knight.  Haplo is a Black Mage.  That is all.  I could get into the finer details by going on about how Sakura has actually (thankfully) resisted the charms of a Thief already, Haplo has killed a panther by hitting it in the head with a rock from a few squares away and everybody (including my main character) has fallen in battle at least once because god-damn- if the first few random encounters before you really get a power base aren't hard as hell.  I could.  But, until I really get the delivery for that solid (and because I don't have all the details at the moment), I'd actually prefer to leave this as it is.  Basically just saying I started the game, I'm going to update the progression here character-by-character in a vein similar to the introduction of this 'challenge', if you will, and that it's going to be fun.

Because it will totally be fun. ....Once I finally get some damn abilities.

Home To Get Remodeled

Today in the Playstation Blog, another revamp in the ever-shifting entity known as Playstation Home was announced, set to take over somewhere in the timeline of "Fall" of this year.  Before you roll your eyes and move along, I should point out that the things mentioned are actually fairly cool and, if executed properly, might just do a little to raise general opinion of the....game?  App?  Social Networking device?  Which, in the end, could only be a good thing, clearly, since developers seem to think Home is still worth cursory support (given that Sony and everyone involved actually likely makes a good bit of money.  There's a reason MMOs can survive on micro-transactions alone, you know.) and I'm sure at least some of us would like to experience those side efforts first-hand.

The breakdown of the update is that there's a huge overhaul in progress so that the areas you've come to know and...k...know (or not, should you have never ventured into Home) will likely be gone (the first-party areas, that is; Central Hub, the mall, etc.) and will be replaced by areas bigger and shinier and newer, where the existing games and game spaces will be moved to different parts of what I'm calling "Home Island" because, well, look at it.  Sure, you kinda see the picture branching off into land at the back, so it's probably not an island, but Home Island sounds better than Home Peninsula.

The above appears the be the revamped Mall section of the "Hub" area which....compared to the (semi) current mall is pretty much a stark improvement in every way.  (For the record, yes, I did, at one point, just run around in Home and take pictures with the in-game(?) camera you got to show them off.  Sorta did a mini-Let's Play (Explore?) of Home for a friend a while back.  That's why I have some pictures to share.)  Admittedly, I don't quite remember how the Mall had changed from that picture to the last time I was there, but it wasn't too much of a change, which it certainly needed.  Still had eight storefronts (Or ten.  Man, I am abusing parentheses) some posters here and there, the video board and the four lonely chess boards at the top that were either always occupied or never occupied.  There was never any only one game going on, they were either full or a ghost town.

I know with this whole map set up above, that I'm hoping for areas that actually....well, link to each other.  The old/current Home did/does a fairly good job of it with the first-party things, as your apartment links to the Central Hub, and the Central Hub links to the Mall, Movie Theater and Bowling Alley.  But there were other areas that were just designed to be Home hang-out areas that just never were connected, despite the possibility of it and the actual design of the areas.  (Doors off on the borders of the areas that could have lead somewhere, etc.)  Basically, the map has never really felt cohesive, since to get most places, you had to whip out your PSP Tablet Computer thing and pick a spot from the XMB-themed menu to teleport there.

Not a lot of information has been shown off besides the pictures linked here (and a few more in the article proper) describing, in only the barest of bare details, the surrounding areas of the Hub where most of the games will be located come Fall.  In the comments of the article, the Director of Home did his best to assure everyone that the spaces paid for/downloaded and etc. will all still be available past the update, so I would imagine the game spaces that exist currently (inFamous' Empire City area, Uncharted 2's giant mini-game extravaganza, etc. etc.) will all still be around, just shuffled about.  How they'll be 'blended' into the environment is beyond me, of course, so we'll just have to see how that works out.

On top of that, another little detail was slipped out ever-so-slightly, that a "questing system" will be implemented into Home itself, allowing for a more game-like feel to Home itself, for those who need incentive to actually do something in Home after starting it.  If there's anything to be excited for, or at least look forward to from this upcoming update, it would be this, as, if there was anything Home needed, it was clearly direction, which hopefully the questing system will put in.  And not in a "Go play some mini-games" way, but in a way that truly bids you to go out and check it out, see what it has to offer and, perhaps even appreciate it for what it is.

Behold!  My decoration skills!  (Kind of.)

If you haven't guessed it already, I've always had something of a shaky relationship with Home as, in all honesty, Home has the stigma of "having little to do in it" for a reason, though admittedly an exaggerated one at this point.  There are, of course, mini-games to do, reward items to earn, and places to visit, if just to see how it all looks, but there's no real incentive to do it unless there's an item involved, and then the only incentive would be if you want that item to decorate with.  Unsurprisingly, I enjoy having options while decorating, and we know I enjoy some decoration, so I did find myself going through the motions, doing this and that to get the virtual items, even if I was never going to use them.  Because, hey, who knows!  I could have used them.  I still can, all things considered.

This is why I may, admittedly, be looking at this upcoming update to Home with a little more optimism than most.  Then again, with the way the 'gamer crowd' has panned Home (as we have panned so many things in the past, like Cell Phone games and achievements), it could be that others are just looking forward to this with entirely too much blind pessimism and aren't even looking to attempt it after it's changed; simply falling back on prodding at it because Home manages to be one of the things you can still make fun of and not really face much opposition.  We won't really know how to make heads or tails of it until it's out, of course, so until then!