Backstory:
So I originally bought it on release and played for about a day and didn't get quite far and found the battle system slightly constricting, sorta like an overly amorous boa constrictor only worse. But since I lost access to the interwebz the other day I picked my DSi back up and dusted off all the cobwebs it'd accumulated since I played Shin Megami Tensei Strange Journey and said Griefers it, I need to 100% this damn game if it's the last thing I do and so my adventure began, again.
Actual GameplayWarning: Contains Spoilers:
I left off with a stack of rubies and half a stack of emeralds and rather worthless kit with only the Freelancer Crown unlocked, yipee for me, I left off at roughly square one. After a short while I came upon this strange man who happened to be lurking in a random section of the desert who randomly trusted me enough to give us help in trying to find a city and a way out of the accursed desert it was in. After fighting one semi-easy boss I learned that even though he had amazing skills and better kit than my party he was still quite useless but even so I was sad to learn that he had to leave, but after a brief moment of grumbling "oh wth you bastard" I continued on and moved to another party entirely as the game loves giving you branched storylines at the beginning with the four main heroes joining and leaving each other for no real reason at all, but I digress. The second party had to deal with a pirate captain what's been usurped by a demon (that old story again? really?) and then having one of the party members be an overly curious and utterly greedy/stupid princess hellbent on exploring a dungeon no one in their right minds can be bothered to. After exploring the dungeon more party members left each other and the silly princess got cursed into a cat and killed trying to pass an animal-only passage I decided to keep walking around the last town and see if I missed something, and apparently I did. A stupid fairy was supposed to come with me and revive me when I died, killing herself in the process and giving me it's wing and a fairy map, stupid fairy. And so the story continued till I reach the legendary floating city where the Hero Rolan kept watch over the world, only to find that Rolan was an emo asshat who ignored any human who tried talking to him because he felt lonely after spending centuries alone on the flying city, boohoo, but gratefully a witch who just happened to be there told me about how I could go into Rolan's mind and fix him up good as new if I stepped into the magical spring conveniently placed a foot behind her. So I went into the emo bastard's head and had to chase down his silly little self in there and beat him senseless a couple times only to have two fire and ice dog-like demons lurking in the last room, so after killing them and doing slight clean up of their entrails I thought to meself "YES! My original quest to save my hometown which was cursed to stone by a witch can now be completed!" Then I briefly thought, "Well that certainly took some time to do but still, I'm only level 20, is this really the end of the game? Oh well, time to get out of this emo's brain before I get all emo myself." And then I run into the fake Hero's throne room only to find that he's now gone completely off his rocker and wants to kill me instead of shunning me like he used to, and after a slight moment of scratching my head thinking how I had fixed him yet he was standing here all crazy and ready to kill me I figured "What the hey, I want to live." And after a somewhat epic fight I beat him only to learn that instead of saving him, or the world for that matter, I'd just allowed all the Darkness to pour out of him and warp the real world, well Griefers.. Off I go on another journey around the world saving the same old cities of their same old problems and a few extra unforeseen ones including a city of priests that has the odd luck of being plagued by the demon Beelzebub. And here I stay since I've not finished the game yet.
Memorable moments so far:
Learning that there's only one shop in the world where kit can be upgraded (WTF, but I'm across the world in a life and death struggle and I need to give +9 stats to all my gear Now!)
Learning that the Elementalist job which at first seemed worthless is actually the best tank in any elemental-based boss fight can also give my black mage a superpowered boost.
Learning that the Black Mage class is the greatest thing since sliced bread for once in an FF game.
One-hitting the demon Asmodeus using an Elementalist's Amplify to boost elemental spells with a Black Mage using Spell Focus and casting Watera 2.6k damage in one attack? Win.
Beating Leviathan at about level 21-23 using the above combo except with Fira instead of Watera to exploit the wee beastie's elemental weakness.
Learning that I can buy potions and accessories for cheap, run a shop and price gouge those items for epic gil all within the same city.
More to come.
