RF Generation Message Board

PARTICIPANTS:
GrayGhost81
singlebanana
Disposed Hero
douglie007
Addicted
shaggy
Duke.Togo
EngineerMike

CHECKPOINTS:
Week 1: July 1st - 7th -- Travel to Bedoe and meet Volcanon
Week 2: July 8th - 16th -- Complete the Chess Board Battle
Week 3: July 17th - July 24th -- Defeat Cameela
Week 4: July 25 - July 31st -- Finish the Game

Syberia 2  ;)

Ha ha! Noooope.  But it is a follow-up to a game we've played before.

51 cents: sand in my blood?

*cackle*

'Bout time you guys got to Bioshock

Shining Force II or Phantasy Star II!

Bioshock is definitely on my short list...

[img width=540 height=260]https://kubuntugamers.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/nbajamwii-header.jpg?w=540[/img]

Not sure I'll be in RPG mode after a 2nd run through Breath of the Wild, but it would be nice to finally have PS2 on my "done" list...

Yes it would. If it were Phantasy Star II. 😉

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It's time to grind the month away.

Also if anyone can't find a copy here's a cheap way to play:

https://www.bundlestars.com/en/promotions/sega-genesis-pick-mix-bundle-2

I've been waiting 2 years for this playthrough!  No way I'm going to miss out on this one!

My Nomad is standing by, do I even need to say I'm playing?

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I played the first with you guys and I'll do the same this time!

I want in on this one. Surprisingly, I don't have a cart of this anymore. If anyone has one for sale/trade, hit me up.

It's also on that Sega Sonic Collection

I know, but I want to play the cart. Just found a decent deal on it, so it's on the way. Count me in.

Looks like I am going to be trying to finish Shining Force II, during my spare time, in July.

@singlebanana - Sorry to be that guy, but the picture on the 1st post is of the 1st SF's Main Cast...unless we're not being nitpicky about this. :)

Also, wouldn't it make more sense to play the actual sequel to the first game, instead of the SF2? The direct follow up to SF1 is Shining Force Gaiden: Final Conflict.

It never makes sense to play a Game Gear game... 😉

They were remade for the Sega CD as shining force CD. Had gaiden 1 and 2, the 3rd was up only in Japan on the gg

So I started this early because I will be on vacation the first 2 weeks of July.  A few observations, I found that moving is "too fast" for in the town.  I constantly have problems talking to the townsfolk because I shoot past them and than when I turn around, I shoot past them again.  So aggravating.  Also, is there a way in game to see what the items do?  I have several items and I can't figure out what they do from within the game.  Thanks.

I couldn't find any item desriptions either. I had to look up a guide. Weapons are the same way.

Hmm.. I'm not having the movement problem.  Are you playing on the Genesis or the Sonic Collection?

To determine what items do, I would just Google them or ask about it here.  Unfortunately, the manual only has a limited amount of information, which is kind of cool, since they wanted players to figure it out. There are some rather quirky items that you pick up through out the game. Some are permanent stat boosters, which I've heard should not be used until after promotion. And there are even some items that help you get better weapons toward the end of the game. Be sure not to discard anything before looking it up.  

I will be playing on my genesis

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Me too!  Come on battery, hold out!

I have only had one Genesis game battery go bad so far. It was a golf game, so not that worried.

You fellers need to take advantage of my battery replacement services prior to these playthroughs. I swapped a brand new one into my cart.

I've been playing for quite a while so am pretty far along, but I'll stick with the schedule and avoid spoilers.

First checkpoint is up for the start of July's playthrough tomorrow.

One thing I should mention is that there are times when you need to do a little grinding in this game. Unfortunately, the game is pretty linear in terms of battles and there are very few wandering monsters to level up on.  You can run into groups every once in a while, but spending your time running around and finding them could be taxing...  What you can do to level your characters is use your main character (Bowie's) spell Egress before finishing a battle.  This allows you to return to the last town you saved in, repopulates the enemies (if you have not killed them all), and allows you to take away any experience or rewards you gained in the previous battle.  There are some good places in the game to grind this way, so I think it's best to do this, especially before some of the larger boss battles.

Good luck to all!

I'm playing on the Sonic collection on the Xbox 360 and a word to the wise, if someone else is playing the other save slot, don't have them use the emulation save.  It reset my game back to the beginning once it is loaded.  Total suckage. :(  As for what the items do, that sucks.  I was hoping to not have to sit next to a computer to play.

How many are going to try and grind up to a higher level before getting promoted? I'm going to try this, I never have tried it yet.

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I did this with some of my characters. I took two of them to 40 before promotion. It took too long so I gave up on the others.

I've been trying to set aside some time for this game but there has been so much to do lately that it has been hard. With that said I'm almost to the first checkpoint.

Well, even so, you're still ahead. :)

I'm through the first checkpoint. I'm working towards the second.

I started the game and have been playing it some over the last few days.  I just reached Polca, so I think I'm getting close to the first checkpoint.  I've been playing pretty recklessly, which means that sometimes my main character ends up biting the dust and I have to replay the battle, but instead of rage quitting I just say that I'm 'grinding.'  Thanks to the 'grinding' though, my team is pretty powerful, and I don't have much trouble mowing down enemies now even if I'm playing recklessly.

This game is such a blast from the past for me.  I never owned it, but I rented it several times from the local Blockbuster when I was a kid.  It's funny how I still remember some of the events of this game so clearly.  I think fleeing Grans Island and helping build New Granseal is one of my most memorable moments from any game.

Shawn and I were discussing the game the other day and one of the things he mentioned really liking about the game is that even if you die, you still retain all of the experience you earned from the battle.  Definitely a game where it doesn't hurt to fail.

So its been a rocky start, but I am in there! After some unsuccessful starts on the Retron 5 (game would reboot every time it tried to load up the battle screen), I switched to OG hardware, which looks awful on my smart tv. Esthetics aside, I have also had to remind myself, that this is not Fire Emblem.

I found myself restarting the first few battles when my characters were dying. Then I realized this isnt Fire Emblem, and a priest can revive my dead team mates.

I am glad to be playing this game, although I really should have started last month, cause with my work schedule in July, I will be struggling to keep up.

I'm loving this, I have my handhelds at the ready and 2 systems with a new pair if the hdretrovision cables god it looks good even with out the framemiester.  

I pasted the first checkpoint, and trying to get to the hidden village to grind.

Spoiler (hover to show)

 there is a hidden village of the elves and it has a battle ground that you can battle over and over to get some more xp.

I am going to try and get Pete and my hero up to 40 before promoting, more if I have time.

This has to be the 4th or 5th time I have played through this game, and it never gets old.  I'll be in trouble if Sega releases it on the phone.

[img width=700 height=525]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20170706/8e858a21e000bdbe99fe68b4a3e1a107.jpg[/img]

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I've made it a little further.

Spoiler (hover to show)

 I've grabbed a certain sword and I'm on my way to battle a certain someone. The kraken fight was tough.

I lost that battle a few times Addicted.  Had to do some grinding and position my troops at just the right spots. It was quite fun. ;)

Also, errybody playin' getting Karma this month.........even Duke.  :facepalm:

@singlebanana:

Spoiler (hover to show)

 The battle would be easy if you could sit back and let your ranged attackers take care of everything. The head and hands attacking two squares across causes issues.

I'm not getting Karma bombed into oblivion this year? :D

I tried making the check point for the week. I am close.

Spoiler (hover to show)

 I am at the cave before Mt.volcano.

Its tough working 12 hour days and trying to game in the evening. I can usually manage to get in an hour or two before my eyelids start getting heavy on me. I should be able to get to the checkpoint tonight.

I started grinding to 40.  :-\ So slow.

Passed the second checkpoint. Still grinding.

Just passed the second checkpoint. Taking a small break right now, to watch Stargate.

You do lose half your gold, though, I believe.

I completed the game. Loved it!

I am so close to finishing the game, I saved on my nomad before heading to the last area so I could play it on a tv

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I finally passed the second checkpoint yesterday.  I'm now at the point where I have more total characters than my main party will allow (other than when Elric joined, but dumping Kiwi was an easy choice), so now I have to make the difficult decisions of who to cut and who to keep.  The guide I reference says to dump Luke, but I feel like he's pretty valuable right now.  I may end up cutting one of the centaurs.

I chose to take Karna at Creed's mansion since I thought I could use the extra healing, and since both Sarah and Karna can be promoted to Master Monks, I don't have to sacrifice offensive power to keep them around.  I have also been promoting everyone at level 20.  I don't have the patience to grind characters up to higher levels :P

I've been meaning to chime in here, as I finished the game about a week ago.

My initial impression of the game was very good. It was really hard to put down and I was playing it constantly. Something about strategy or tactical gameplay always has an addictive quality to me. The problem is, I usually hit some kind of breaking point where I all of a sudden no longer want to keep playing. It's very weird, honestly. I was trying to explain to Rich that the battles were overwhelming me in some way. It wasn't they were too difficult, but knowing how many there are in the game at the point I was at made anxious about completing the game in a timeframe I was happy with. So, at a certain point a little more than halfway through the game, I turned cheats on and blasted my way through the rest of the game.

I absolutely feel that if this wasn't a playthrough game, I would have taken all the time I needed with it and savored it a lot more. I really did love mostly everything about it. It's definitely a case of "it's not the game, it's me." I was grinding like crazy in the beginning and I think I burned out on the game real quickly.

I ended up keeping Karna as a Vicar since you I didn't want to end up with 3 Master Monks and one Vicar. She turned into my main healer, and she became insanely overleveled just from using Boost all the time. It made it easier to keep her around than Frayja.

Yeah, I might do that.  I haven't promoted Karna yet, so I'll give the Vicar class some consideration.

I finished the other day, I saved my special promotions for the people I saved from Creeds they had a hard life, thought they needed something special in their life

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I'm just starting this back up after finishing with jury duty. I'm hoping to play this weekend.

Wife and kids out of town this weekend. Plan on making a big push.

Well, I made a nice push into the game this weekend, though I spent the majority of my time doing some heavy grinding prior to the chessboard battle.  I'm currently up to the battle with Zalbard.

I have to admit, this experience isn't as enjoyable as my playthrough of the original Shining Force two years ago.  I've always been a proponent of older games and have defended grinding in them, but grinding in tactical RPGs like this is the pits...

First of all, the leveling system is a bit frustrating. Instead of all of the characters sharing experience per fight, it's based on a characters' actions within a battle, and more experience is given to finishing off an enemy. Leveling is easy for more offensive characters, but healers and toons that do less damage suffer. You're always playing the game of, how hard can I hit this enemy without killing it so that my weaker cohorts can possibly finish it off.  Secondly, unlike normal RPGs where you are quickly thrown into battle, in these tactical RPGs, fights take so much time to set up and it takes multiple turns through each toon to actually make contact with enemies. Sometimes you spend more time moving in a battle than fighting.  Don't get me wrong, I love this aspect of the game, it just does not lend itself to grinding.  So why am I hard on SF2 as opposed to the original?  I did not have to grind at all in the latter.

With all this said, I am still really enjoying my time in the game.  There is so much to love about this series in regards to the story, the incredible spritework, and the loads of unique features/gameplay elements.  When I can move from battle to battle, I really enjoy my time playing the game, but when I get bogged down in grinding, I have to walk away much more often.

The game really does require some grinding, but towards the end I had Bowie and Peter doing almost all the work for me. You can level up Karna like crazy by casting Boost a lot, and that makes her a great healer. The game feels like you should worry about leveling all your characters, but honestly in the end is was much easier not to.

@Duke.Togo: I had a feeling you didn't need to grind but I wanted to get as much out of this game as possible.... even if the slow pace of the battles can be an annoyance. I'm still enjoying the game a lot and most of my grievances have been minor.

Yeah, unfortunately you do have to grind. I'm playing on normal (the lowest setting) and had to grind a fair amount just to take on the Kraken. 

I agree, I'm having a lot of fun with the game and I don't want my negative comments about the slow pace of the grinding to be a full reflection about how I feel about SF2 as a whole.  It's brilliant and I am really enjoying my time with it!

Speaking of the Kraken and some of the other boss battles, let's talk about them. :D

There battles definitely have some difficulty spikes, and I feel the Kraken is the first big one. The map makes maneuverability nonexistent, and the spammy water attacks mess you up fast. It forces you to really slow down and be methodical about the fight.

Yeah, this battle was especially tight in terms of movement.  I actually enjoyed this restriction and thought it gave the game a nice touch of variety.  Taros had an interesting twist as well, which I thought was kind of cool.  Probably really annoying to early players of this game though.

We're rapidly approaching the end of the month and I have still not progressed much past the second checkpoint, so it looks like I won't be able to finish the game before the month is over.  I've had a lot going on lately so I haven't had as much time to spend with the game as I would have liked.  I still intend on finishing it when I can.

As far as my impressions up to this point:  It's more Shining Force, so what's not to like?  I'm not sure why, but even though I feel like the second game is technically superior in many ways, I think I still prefer the first game.  I'm not sure if maybe the battles in the second game are larger and thus more exhausting, but I feel like I get more fatigued playing this game than the first.  Overall, it's a great game, and I can see why I kept coming back to it so much as a kid.

When I first got the raft, I sailed to the south instead of to the east and ended up fighting the Kraken earlier than I had to.  It took me a few tries, and on the last try I basically ignored as many tentacles as I could and went straight for the head, but I eventually beat him.  Then I found out I had gone the wrong way.  Oops...

I'd be curious to hear about some of the other battles, but it seems progress on this one has been slow for some. The chess board fight springs to mind in particular.

For the chess fight, I played very defensively and tried to draw the enemy units to me.  This worked a little too well however, as the King unit rushed me early in the battle, and I took him out pretty easily to end the fight.  I think I only encountered the King and a couple of Pawns during the entire battle.

Yeah, very interesting battle for me as well.  I went up the right side of the board slowly. Probably lost about 4 fighters in that fight and took out around 6 chess pieces before the King overcommitted.

I went up the center and tried to draw pieces out as well, but the queen and knights came out quick. I had even done some grinding before that, and had to work at it. I can imagine it would be rough if you hadn't and didn't get lucky.

I'm still chipping away at this title.  I went on vacation last week and was lucky enough to be able to take my Sega Nomad on the road with me.  Lucky, except for the 2.5-3 hour battery life of 6 batteries........  Anyway, I played on the road on the way down and when I got to our beach house, I was able to plug in.  I made some really awesome progress mostly at night and during my youngest's naps, and ended up only 4 battles from the end by the time my vacation was over.  Over the last two days, I have been bringing the Nomad to work and I managed to take out King Galam at lunch today and egress before my final confrontation with Xeon.

Should be pretty brutal, with Banana (yeah, that's my Hero's name) promoted at 20 and now around level 26. Wish me the lucks!

Took me two attempts, but I managed to finish ole Zeon off last night. Also completed the "special" ending. Great play through!

Good job Rich!  I'm still working on the game myself.  Just finished the battle where you recruit Higins, so I probably still have quite a ways to go.

Had no idea you could recruit this guy...