The Last Story: New Game+

I’m pretty certain that I won’t stick with it till the end. I rarely do when it comes to replays and maybe even moreso now with the bosses being incredibly meaner. Was hoping for some added or extended cutscenes or something likes super awesome NIER but I got none of that so far. I DID choose the dialogue choices that I didn’t last time (it’s odd that I remembered with my crappy memory) and I THINK I got something a bit more out of Syrenne by choose “Well … ” in place of “Erm …” at the tavern.

What the? A bunch of weapons and equipment can be upgraded further now! Dang. :O Wow. Boosted a few up armour and greaves to +20 but it can still go on. X__x I was wondering how it was possible to survive the beefy bosses …

Oh no, the joke weapons. ^^; I wonder how powerful they can become? Kekeke. Leek +10 and a Chair +10. Mwahaha.

Ended up giving Lowell the Frying Pan.

Oh gee, forgot about the quest that had you running all over the city exchanging items. Pretty sure it’s impossible to start this until you have access to wander around the castle though. Gonna make a list of the people involved in the quest for myself:

1. Boy at the bottom of the staircase closest to the fortune teller wants Ariela’s handmade lunch.
2. Sweaty man near appraiser in Artisan’s Way needs the Absorbent Towel.
3. Standing lady near the tables with parasols in the Castle Gate Plaza wants Rules of Nobility or whatever.
4. Snobby lady on the second floor of the castle wants a gem.
5. Kid in the castle library is looking for a book.
6. Final exchange happens in the castle dungeon.

Edit on Sept 8th: Since I’m no longer playing the game and didn’t actually finish this list, here’s the complete chain of events and all the people + items: http://laststory.wikia.com/wiki/The_Starving_Boy

OMG. The 2 ladies washing clothes near a well northeast of the Fountain Plaza slap Zael if you stare at either them. (They both react the same way.)

Hmmm. Don’t think I’ve ever ran around the city at night before meeting Lisa. Turns out the performers that pop up in the Epilogue show up at this point too. Oh yeah, I definitely didn’t run around the last time or else I would have noticed this:

• Oddly, all these people are averting their eyes away from the fireworks (^^):  https://koukoupuffs.wordpress.com/2012/08/29/the-last-story-new-game/avoidingfireworks/#main
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• Cool. A kid on the east balcony in the Central Plaza gives you Fireworks x 10 if you use seek on him.
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• LOL. Threw a basket of apples onto the ground and now Zael and Lisa are slipping all over. XD I’ve never done this to her before. GAH. This is so brutal. You know how she’ll rapidly run back to Zael’s side if he happens to go further away from her?  Well, she did it like 3 times and slipped all 3 times as well. XD It was more hilarious than usual due to the speed that she was moving at. I wish I could record this but VirtualDub doesn’t work all that great for me when it comes to vid capping.
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• Found another weird looking cat. D:
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• Kind of wondering if it’s possible to get the swimming ability before the whole fireworks thing. I sort of doubt you’d be able to swim around in the river during the night though. Wish I tried it earlier but I didn’t think about it until now and I already saved. Blah.
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• Practicing flash guarding right now with the monster summon circle at the bandits’ warehouse. :3 (Flash guard is a term from Ys SEVEN where you guard the moment an enemy attacks. If you attack immediately after a successful flash guard, it will always be a critical hit. It’s similar in The Last Story too~~ Flash guarding is pretty much the only way to fight bosses in Nightmare difficulty in that game (judging from gameplay vids. I would never attempt it myself since I’m terrible at timing blocks. ^^).) …. Gee, you can pretty much rapidly tap the guard button and it’ll work most of the time. 😛
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• Muh. Dancing reptid. ^^;;

———–

Moved the random tips from previous post to this one instead.

Random tips (for first playthrough and beyond):

• Do your best to stare at people (re: use seek on people around the city and whenever red crosshairs appear, keep it locked on the person until he or she reacts). You get items sometimes~! Some examples are the elderly man just outside the northern part of the Central Plaza, the performer with the acordian at the Castle Gate Plaza, and the old man feeding pigeons at the Fountain Plaza.
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• The items that give party HP, strength, defense, etc. boosts around the city re-appear.
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• You can only get a maximum of 8 ladies from the “About love” option from the fortune teller. 😦
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• Always approach frogs from their backs. (Capture 3 frogs and return to the kid at one of the piers to gain the ability to swim in the river. Not sure when this is actually available though.) I think the frog initially gives you boosts too but later on, after my 5th catch, I kept getting Golden Scales. >:/ Edit: Seems like this is available right when you get to Lazulis City. Just talk to the kid and then run back to the fortune teller to start frog hunting.
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• If you make an effort to talk to Mina in the Market (she’s in the northern part of the Market near one of the western stalls and the encounter changes every few chapters), you’ll eventually unlock a potentially useless bit with Mini the cat. IIRC, Mina gives you something in the epilogue but I have no idea if this is related to how many almonds you feed the cat or not. I just kept shoving almonds at the cat whenever I went by there. I even did 10 almonds in a row once to see if the cat would give Zael anything. (It doesn’t.)
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• When you unlock the master archery mini quest, you can redo it over and over to boost your arrow attack strength. Of course, like all NPC mini quests, it won’t be available again right away. (The trigger for this is on the second floor of Ariela’s Tavern. Unsure of the timing of its availability. :/)
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• It’s a very good idea to complete as many mini quests and such before chapter 30 or 31  — whichever is the one that sets off MINOR SPOILERS the knighting cutscene END MINOR SPOILERS — since the game will put you on a path that’ll keep you from doing anything until after the main story ends. And even then, there are some things that will no longer be doable. For example:

1. Do all your swimming before chapter 30 or 31 because the option to do so afterwards will be gone. Likewise, if you want to beat up them cave cougars and collect the goodies in the cave at north waterway, it has to be before the specific chapter.
2. Arena Season 2 kicks in around chapter 21, I think.  Season 3 is in the Epilogue where you will no longer have access to 1 & 2 so milk them before chapter 30/31.

• The Dragon Man is oddly still available post-story. o_O; And if you have any 5 Dragon Skins or even 10 Dragon Skins, you can get yourself some more Dragon Armour & Greaves (assuming you already did so at some point in the story).You can also still grow and harvest pumpkins.
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• When escaping from the final dungeon, do not dally in the area with the bridge because, unlike everywhere else before it, IT WILL COLLAPSE ON YOU and you will be greeted by the Game Over screen. 9_9