Finally got around to playing this while I was without internet. I seriously enjoyed it and was disappointed when it ended. I crave more and actually would love to get together with you guys at some point and beta Arc 5, if it's far enough.
I plan to write a review or something soon (but we know how I am with that). As usual, though, here are the notes that I took while playing. It seems mostly negative since that's just what I noted while playing. Trust me, I enjoyed the hell out of this one.
Now that I've played it, I feel horrible for putting it off for so long. I always tend to forget how much I actually like these games. They're totally beyond pretty much anything that's out there for RPG Maker right now.
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IT WOULD BE VERY NICE IF EACH ARC STARTED WITH A RECAP OF THE PREVIOUS ARCS. PLEASE AND THANK YOU.
dungeon 1 - under rellenia (skullhead minigames, then GOLEM RULES WOW!)
dungeon 2 - fun and impressive, but more could have been done with the two parties. the falling sand puzzle was great and the moving rope puzzle was FANTASTIC (makes me wonder HOW the fuck artbane designs this shit), but it definitely seemed like there could have been more done after, especially considering how much was done with the first dungeon.
talking before boss fights
I HAD A FEW totally random game-crashing SCRIPT ERRORS WHEN I TRIED TO CALL THE GOLEM (and once at the beginning of solik's speech, and once in the fairy hq and multiple times in the sewers (stack level too deep)). it happens when my background thing pops up, look into that, but also at other random times. FUCK STQACK LEVELS THEY ARE WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY TOO FUCKING C)OMMON GBFRSNVDAsc IF IT HAPPENS ONE MORE TIME BEFORE THE BATTLE FUCKING STARTS I AM STOPPPING AND GOING TO BED
I laughed aloud multiple times during Finley's dream.
Reading minds with Laurel was a great mechanic, one that I think could (and really should) be implemented whenever the characters are just walking around town. lots of it is very funny, there are some neat references and stuff, and there's room for more background and personality stuff. VERY SERIOUSLY consider adding this as a regular feature to the game, even where it not might be needed for story purposes.
bubba matters!
I love the addition of Bubba, especially since i've seen him grow from just a comedic npc to a fully playable character with some real depth to him. i like the mechanics that come with him too and what he adds to the game (his sense of smell, his drinking to learn no moves, etc). it'd be neat to see him learn different moves by swigging different types (or amounts) of alcohol. The animations for Waft and Belch were hilarious, not to mention I managed to pull of some really funny combos.
i find that my attacks miss a LOT, like a 50-50 ratio. this goes for regular damaging special skills (with status-inflicting skills, it makes more sense, but it's still a bit too much I think) it's frustrating and annoying. attacks should miss rarely as opposed to half of the time. it's very frustrating, especially in the long boss battles (while we're at it, it might be nice for some more descriptive skill descriptions about what they do... then again it might not be worth the flavor (which is often pretty amusing)).
WHY THE FUCK DOES POISON PREVENT SHROUD FROM CASTING HEAL SPELLS either that or you guys SERIOUSLY need a way to show when someone has multiple status conditions. this is VERY COMMON in the types of battles in this game.
fairy sidequest at the end, i never got the chance to go back and do it. it's natural to want to drop off the letter on the way out of town to go back to the fairy dungeon, but as soon as i dropped off the letter with the fairy, i was launched into the end-of-arc big cutscenes. and there's no way in hell i'm spending another two hours going back and fighting those bosses (and dealing with a hundred STACK LEVEL TOO DEEP ERRORS) to my extra save file
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More later, probably. If I get around to it.
