April Modern Community Playthrough - Magical Starsign

[Fleach]

Aww... that's sweet.

[singlebanana]

I also went with the girl and named her after my daughter.....who I share a pink DS with (courtesy of GrayGhost). Anyone go dark magic? I went with light and curious to see what the difference is.

[Fleach]

I went with light magic. That way I can heal party members. I think dark magic lets you steal HP.

[singlebanana]

I went with light magic. That way I can heal party members. I think dark magic lets you steal HP.

Yeah, that is my understanding as well. Just curious if anyone is going that route. I'd like to hear about that experience.

[GrayGhost81]

Is everyone ready for the week two checkpoint? I'll be posting it at some point tomorrow.

I think after playing over ten hours into this game I have to bring up two major gripes I have with that game that are preventing me from having that "can't put it down" feeling.

1. The music sucks. Ok sucks is a little harsh, but the music is mediocre at best and not suitable for headphone listening for extended periods of time. I've been playing it either silently or listening to music (Daft Punk's album "Discovery" is recommended, both as appropriate BGM for this game and pretty much every other moment of your life). If the music was better I could zone out and play this game for hours on end. Playing without sound makes the timing in the battle system a little more difficult too as a lot of the timing is aided by the sound effects.

2. The boss battles are sooooooooooooooooo unbalanced. So there you are, driving along, driving along, then all of a sudden the kids are yelling from the back seat "I gotta go to the bathroom, daddy." "Not now damnit!" TRUCK TIRE. "I CAN'T STOP!!!" I would say the game is pretty easy to moderate in general. Then you get to a boss battle and get your ass handed to you again, and again, and again. "Help! There's a cliff!" and your family's screaming "Oh my god we're burning alive! Oh I can't feel my legs" It has nothing to do with your level or strategy. In comes the meat wagon. And the medic gets out and he's like "Oh. My. God." New guy's in the corner puking his guts out. When you start a battle and two of your party members get insta-killed on the first turn, something is out of whack, or out of balance if you will. All because you wanted to save a couple of extra pennies.

This game is great but I for these two reasons I'm not just plowing through it like Banana Man.

Is anyone else playing yet?

[douglie007]

I'm at the check point not to bad, I need to find 5 more rainbow shells

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[singlebanana]

Yeah, I'm at checkpoint 1 already. I've put it down for a few days just to take care of some "life stuff, " but I am enjoying it quite a bit and eager to get back to it.

1. As for the music, I don't think it's too bad and from what I have played, I can say that it gets a little better as you move through the game. Let me say this, since I don't play a considerable amount of modern titles, I really don't have anything to compare this game to in terms of sound/music quality. This is the first RPG I have played on the DS, I'm sure you have a lot more knowledge in this area Ghost.

2. I don't think the boss battles are unbalanced, but they sure as hell can be tough. Ghost, you and I talked and in our discussion, and noted that we went to planets in a different order (something you can talk about if you want). As a result, you had one less party member for at least one of the boss battles and mentioned that you had to grind a good bit to win that fight. I'm just curious as to whether or not this got easier after picking up you next toon? I remember being led to the planets in a specific order based on info I got from NPCs, but in order to not run into this problem, perhaps the game should do a better job of only allowing you to select a certain planet to go to next.

Also, I find that switching up the placement of my characters (the rows) for individual planets and boss battles is very beneficial in terms of inflicting damage and in mitigating it. I also buy the latest and greatest armor in every town I walk into. Not sure why, but I've never had a moment where any of my party was insta-killed by a boss. Regardless, one thing I like about the game is that boss battles are easy to see coming and you have the opportunity to save immediately before them. I've really only had trouble with one boss battle in the game so far, but ended up winning on around the 4th try once I learned the fight and made some adjustments to my party. I actually enjoy the challenge of these battles and feel they are more balanced because they aren't easy and require a bit of a learning curve.

[Fleach]

I haven't figured out the timed attacks yet, but I haven't noticed any difference when I was trying and when I wasn't.

At this point in the game I've restored power to the base/ship thing with the robots inside but haven't explored it. Will play some more later today.

I don't have an opinion on the music because it's not great enough to stand out. After a few minutes of playing I don't even realize the soundtrack.

My big complaint is: Why is this on DS and not a smart device? This would have been an awesome tablet/phone RPG.

[Disposed Hero]

I got a late start on this one.  I'm still only about 15-20 minutes in (I've only done the little tutorial battle so far), but I plan to start devoting some time to this one.  I went with dark magic since it seemed everybody else went with light.  According to what I've read, I think going dark is supposed to be more difficult, but I'm alright with that.

[singlebanana]

@Fleach - If you want a hint in terms of the timed attack, I can give you a hint on how to get the most out of your magic.

Spoiler (hover to show)

Tap the character who is casting with the stylus right when the circle of symbols spinning around them is about to stop spinning and go into them. If  the timed attack is activated, your character will glow the color of their symbol/element and cast a more powerful attack.

@Disposed Hero - I'm really glad that you are going with the dark magic. I'll be curious to hear your thoughts on playing that way. I also wonder if it changes the ending.

[GrayGhost81]

Week two is up. I haven't had too much time to play the game lately so Singlebanana helped me with this checkpoint. Hope everyone is enjoying the game.

[douglie007]

Got all 6 and saved, so far I like it, very fun.

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[singlebanana]

Got all 6 and saved, so far I like it, very fun.

Nice! Yeah, it's a quality game. Kind of cutesy at times, but not overbearing and a lot of fun.

[Fleach]

Last night I completed the Dragon God Cave. I thought I was starting to see a formula to this game, but a quick check on a walkthrough (I didn't read anything other than the table of contents) proved that things will be shaken up a bit soon.

How long is the second check point? I'll probably have to blast through it in one sitting on Sunday.

[singlebanana]

It should be about the same in length as the first one. You may go through it a little quicker since you have a better handle on the game though.