games · PS Vita

Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana Chapter 2 Screenshot Dump Part 1

I’m almost at the end of chapter 2 now. Man, it’s a long one! I took a butt load of screenshots. ^^; What you’ll see under the cutย is just a fraction. ^^;; I’ll highlight some and make a gallery out of the rest. ๐Ÿ˜€ Continue reading “Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana Chapter 2 Screenshot Dump Part 1”

games · PS Vita

Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana Impressions & Information

I’ve been checking my EMS tracking number for the package multiple times last week. XD Ys VIII finally came into my hands yesterday~! It was pre-ordered directly from Falcom so it came with some bonuses (like usual) along with the box set itself:

Ys VIII - Limited Premium Box with Other Goodies
๐Ÿ˜€ It came with a Dengeki special magazine featuring Ys VIII and Tokyo Xanadu eX+, Ys VIII mini soundtrack CD, and a Falcom 35th Anniversary metal book plate. The design of it has Feena holding on to the Black Pearl like on the title screen of Ys I.

Of course, I took photos of the box’s contents too. :3

Ys VIII - Limited Premium Box Contents
The game, Adol’s codex/journal, DLC code for Adol’s Silver Armor, and a metal die-cut book plate of Dana.

I’ve been pretty excited about the game and when I loaded it up, I was immediately blown away by the title menu screen.

Ys VIII Menu Screen
So gorgeous! *____*

Hopefully, Falcom will make a desktop wallpaper out of that stunning illustration. I’ve repeatedly noted on Twitter that I adore the artwork for this game. Where was this illustrator all this time!? And there’s no name anywhere on the promotional material. ๐Ÿ˜ฆ I guess I’ll see it in the credits.

At least, I hope so (because I want to search online to see if I can find more of the artist’s works. ^^),

About the game itself — I’ll TRY and keep it brief. No guarantees. XD Continue reading “Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana Impressions & Information”

annoyances · games · PS Vita

Ys: Memories of Celceta – Jack of All Trades Trophy is … Ugh

Ys: Memories of Celceta - Jack of All Trades Trophy Get. Yay.
Stupid grind-dependent achievements need to disappear from the gaming world.

I think, under ideal conditions — such as players spending an obscene amount of hours using each character, it’ll be possible to get the max skills trophy without feeling the grind. However, I doubt that that’s the case for many.

According to multiple Japanese walkthrough sites, skills unlock when characters reach certain levels. By level 50, Adol should have 12 skills and everyone else should have 10. Unfortunately, there is some other criteria that governs how they unlock.ย A quick Google search led me to a GameFAQs post where the author stated that obtaining skills is dependent on fighting tough enemies or enemies that are around your character’s level.

….. The in-game manual mentions the tough foes bit too. ๐Ÿ˜›

There seems to be a consensus that beating up enemies in the final dungeon is a pretty good way to get any missing skills. I wonder if attacking Foria-Daros will also cause them to unlock as well? The thing is level 59, after all.

Anyway, regardless of the method, I still hate these kinds of mindless trophies. There’s no real sense of accomplishment. In fact, all I got out of it was relief. ๐Ÿ˜› I mean, even with the Warrior Seal IV (which boosts skill EXP gain by +4) equipped, it STILL took a chunk of time. (Not sure if it took over an hour since I play on and off. :P) And all I did was rotate between characters, hold the R button + mash the respective button for the skill I wanted to level up over and over until the notice that it was mastered appeared. If I wasn’t going for the Platinum trophy, I wouldn’t have bothered with this at all because it’s a really idiotic “achievement”.

Incidentally, skill levelling has NOTHING to do with successfully executing them on enemies. You can attack air all you want and still master them. :E

games · PS Vita

Ys: Memories of Celceta 100% Map with all Harvest Point Locations (and Links to Pages with Chest Locations)

I might get some hate mail for this due to the way I’m providing the information. ^^ The thing is, it’s extremely time-consuming to piece together the map (and it doesn’t help that the map is wider at the bottom so moving the map down or up will mess up the perspective) and I’m way too lazy to manually redraw the bloody thing myself.

Anyway, the following screencaps are from the Japanese version which is identical to the localized one. I did this to help myself get the damnable Stupendous Scavenger trophy since I couldn’t figure out which point I was missing for the life of me. There are so many images due to the fact that the back button, marker button and other shit cover up parts of the map as you move it around.

Take note that there are some harvest points that overlap such as the two mineral points in the dead-end area in the eastern most part of the Forest of Dawn in the second screenshot.

Harvest Points

Please ignore the chests since not all of them are shown!

As for the dungeons, here’s the list of the quantities of materials found in each location:

  • Casnan Mine – 2
  • Waterfall Cave – 6
  • Forest of Dawn: Sunlit Ruins – 6
  • Forest Labyrinth – 2
  • Ancient Burrow – 11
  • Underground Ruins – 6
  • Jade Cave – 10
  • Misty Peak – 4
  • Sacred Beasts’ Lair – 6
  • Mt. Vesuvio: Snowy Peak – 15
  • Colonia Artifact Laboratory – 6

Chest Locations

There are several Japanese walkthrough sites that do make note of them although I’m not sure how accurate they are. If you’re curious, do a Google search forย ใ‚ปใƒซใ‚ปใ‚ฟใฎๆจนๆตท with the termย ๅฎ (treasure) or ๅฎ็ฎฑ (treasure chest) next to it.

Heh. I just did a search myself and came across this blog posts which shows all chests in the dungeons only. It has screenshots to help you locate them!ย http://huteikigame.blogspot.ca/2012/10/ps-vita_18.html

And there’s this page with the handdrawn world map showing chest locations AND harvest points. However, please be aware that there’s every chance some information might be missing: Great Forest area and The Primeval Lands

games · PS Vita

Ys: Memories of Celceta Pre-Final Dungeon Thoughts

Taking a break from posting about Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen since I’ve spent most of last week blowing through Ys: Memories of Celceta. I do have an entry typed up on another computer for DA though so I’ll upload that later. :3

I’ve been playing the game on Hard mode since I recall Normal being kind of a walk in the park where I didn’t have to use potions very much nor did I die very often. But it’s a different case with this difficulty mode! I’m surviving the bosses and the large enemies thanks to potions. ^^;;; It’s only cuz of them that I was able to best Duren in the duel. XD However, the worstย battle I had was with the Tower of Providenceย boss’ first form. Holy crap. I was hardly able to avoid any of its beams. ^^; I wish I could Flash Guard and Flash Move at will. ๐Ÿ˜ฆ

But! I only got Game Over once so far. XD And it was only because I was stupid and got too close to an attack by one of the large enemies in the Forest of Dawn. 9__9ย I dread to think how absolutely terrible I’d play against the optional boss in there. XD It was a pain in the ass already on Normal.

Anyhoo, I’m currently finishing up a Danan quest and also beefing up equipment for the fights in the final dungeon. IIRC, when I was playing the Japanese version, I actually left the final dungeon to reinforce stuff and then went back in.

Continue reading “Ys: Memories of Celceta Pre-Final Dungeon Thoughts”

games · pondering · PS Vita

Ys Celceta – Final Thoughts on the Game

Ys Celceta - Finally got the Platinum Trophy
Yay~! Got my Platinum Trophy today~! ๐Ÿ˜€

Played through Celceta twice — once on Normal and once on Nightmare. I gotta say that it’s a pretty fun game but there are some issues that I wish Falcom would fix (via downloadable update):

  • Character AI — They can get super goofy at times and run around in circles. It’s easy to stop this by switching to control the character but still, it shouldn’t happen. This isn’t as offensive as the stupidity that’s been brought over from Ys SEVEN where the characters will ignoring enemies to continually try and get at a material they can’t reach at a harvest point. Again, a switch to the character will solve it but come on, why would they even do that in the first place?
    .
  • Bugs — There are times where player input will be impossible. I actually managed to reproduce an issue in the Silver Space (็™ฝ้Š€ใฎ้–“) where all characters will become frozen (from being hit by a beam from a 3-faced monster) and all user interaction became nullified. The enemies will continue to attack but you can’t do anything like access the menu and the characters won’t unfreeze. :\ There are also cases where the game will show you an outstanding treasure chest in a dungeon that doesn’t even exist as well as chests that don’t show up on the mini map (on a second playthrough onward) even though all the other ones in the vicinity do. >_>
    .
  • Inability to skip cutscenes on new game+ — It’s kind of annoying to have to sit through everything even with the fast-forward option on. I suppose there’s just too much extra code to include to give the option to skip scenes entirely. Or maybe Falcom’s just too damn lazy.
    .
  • Slowdown — It’s noticable in certain areas of the Forest of Dawn where there’s a lot of enemies. I think there’s a part in the Path of Plateau where it happens too even though there isn’t a bunch of enemies. I take it the background and stuff play a part in that one.
    .
  • More variety for the group configuration bonus. — Uh … forgot what it was called and too lazy to check the manual right now. ^^ (I already stored the game away.) But like, there were only 2 types, IIRC — one which had something about damage and another for increased frequency of obtaining rare items. I think the bonus should have been character based instead of weapon type. :/

General thoughts:

  • Like Ys SEVEN, the battle system made the game. Battles are fast and really fun! I can’t remember SEVEN too well but I’m pretty sure they honed the mechanics in this one.
    .
  • The dungeon designs are all right. Not all that crazy about them since there’s still a lot of “hand-holding” where everything you need to access another area just happens to be nearby and all. No real challenges or skill needed at any point. Honestly, even though I’m not all that great with platforming, I do like the designs from Napishtim, Felghana, and Origin a lot more than SEVEN and Celceta.
    .
  • I wasn’t all that crazy about the Personal Actions since if you ended up disliking a character and never using them, you’d be forced to swap him/her in just use his or her PA. Even so, I do kind of wish there was a dungeon that made you use every single Personal Action (except maybe Dulen’s since all he does is open chests). ^^
    .
  • Totally wasn’t crazy about the puzzles in the game because they felt kind of tacked on; like they existed only to make use of the Vita’s touch screen. There were also too far and few of them which makes me wonder why they were even included.
    .
  • Michey is … ugh. Such an ugly design. :/ Stupid Falcom. Please don’t make that thing your official mascot.
    .
  • Part of the northern area of the Forest of Dawn sure could have used a waystone. ย All in all, they were located in convenient spots.
    .
  • I really liked the way side quests were handled where you can see where the quest giver is on the mini map as well as the location of targets were. Well, the latter is true for most of the monster elimination quests. I believe SEVEN had you running around towns and speaking to everyone unless you were using a walkthrough which would tell you who to specifically look for.
    .
  • Easy mode is hilarious. I think the G.Pikkard spawn rate is insane since it only takes a few screen refreshes for it to appear and you can easily kill it if you have beefed up characters and equipment from a previous playthrough. There also seems to be a lot more monster carcasses that remain on the screen + much MUCH easier to get rare drops with the Silver Axe equipped. When this game gets localized, I am so starting on Easy. XD (I only did a new game+ with it for Time Attack and Boss Rush. XD)
    .
  • Nightmare mode is a bit of a joke if you have maxed out characters and near maxed weapons + armour. ^^ ย I barely had to use potions in any battles even though I totally suck at flash guarding and executing flash moves. ๐Ÿ˜› I just roll around like crazy. ^^;

If I think of anything else, I’ll add it later. :3

games · PS Vita

Ys Celceta – Being illiterate can kind of suck when it comes to side quests

Edit on December 12th 2013: I decided to update the Shopkeeper for a Day info with the official English translations.

Good lord, I must have redid theย ่‡จๆ™‚ๅบ—็•ชใฎๅ‹Ÿ้›† (Hiring Temporary Help) a.k.a. Shopkeeper for a Day in the official English version side quest in Selray 3 times last night. I only discovered this when I reached Highland and completed the final quest needed for the merchant trophy; the game didn’t give it to me. >_>

The biggest problem was the second last customer since, being rather illiterate to Japanese, it made it difficult for me to understand which of the nuts I should be selling. All I was doing was matching text. But due to the fact that none of the other kanji matched any of the red text that Dulen repeated, I didn’t know I was supposed to just select the same type of nut that was supposed to get off-loaded onto customers at a discounted price. In short, I was looking for the phrase “ๅ€คๅผ•ใ” (“discount”) which shows up as a response to the final customer, IIRC. (See the screenshot below.)

Ys Celceta - The one randomly generated condition in the ่‡จๆ™‚ๅบ—็•ชใฎๅ‹Ÿ้›† side quest
Pay attention to what seed/nut/fruit Ray wants you to discount and sell.

The circled text is randomly generated every time you reload/play this side quest. I believe it can be ใƒใƒˆใฎๅฎŸ, ใƒฉใƒ‘ใƒญใฎๅฎŸ, or ใ‚ขใƒชใ‚จใƒ€ใฎๅฎŸ.

Here are the replies you should provide to each customer (taken from http://ysc-psvita.game-cmr.com/data/quest/detail/8.html. Please take note that the list of items for getting all 6 replies correct is slightly wrong.). Edit on December 12, 2013: Updated with official English translations.

  • Customer #1๏ผšๆœจ็ถฟใ‚’ใ™ใ™ใ‚ใ‚‹ (Bottom choice)/Recommend cotton
  • Customer #2๏ผšใพใ‘ใ‚‰ใ‚Œใชใ„ (Top choice)/Refuse
  • Customer #3๏ผš่‡ช่…นใ‚’ๅˆ‡ใฃใฆๆžœๅฎŸใ‚’ใ‚ชใƒžใ‚ฑใ™ใ‚‹ (30G) (Top choice)/Buy a fruit for her (30G)
  • No one around๏ผšๅคงใใชๅฃฐใงใ€ๅ…ƒๆฐ—ใ‚ˆใๅฎขใ‚’ๅ‘ผใณ่พผใ‚€ (Top choice)/Call out to try attracting more
  • Customer #4๏ผšโ—‹โ—‹ใฎๆžœๅฎŸใ‚’ๅฃฒใ‚‹ (This should match the type of seed that Ray mentions)*/sell whatever is in high supply/demand as mentioned by Ray
  • Customer #5๏ผšโ—‹โ—‹ใฎๅฎŸใ‚’ๅ€คๅผ•ใใ—ใฆๅฃฒใ‚‹ ย (Ditto)*/discount whatever Ray instructed to

* These types of nuts or fruits will be different for everyone as they’re randomized upon loading the game so I hope you paid attention. ^^

If you get all the answers right, you should be rewarded with theย ็‰นไธŠ (known as Extra Large) set:

Ys Celceta - The best reward for Ray's quest
Your aim is to get the ็‰นไธŠใ‚ปใƒƒใƒˆ which has ใƒใƒ‹ใƒผใƒใƒผใ‚ทใƒงใƒณ x5, ใƒ“ใ‚ฟใƒผใƒใƒผใ‚ทใƒงใƒณ x5, ๆฏ’ๆถˆใ—่‰ x5, ้บป็—บๅ–ใ‚Š่‰ใ‚’ๅ„ x5, 3 each of the whateverใฎๅฎŸ, ้‡‘ๅ‰›ๆฎป x 2, ่ถ…็กฌๆฎป x2, and ใ‚ซใ‚จใƒซใ‚จใ‚ญใ‚น x2.
In English, these would be Honey Potion X5, Bitter Potion x5, Antidote Powder x5, Anti-Paralysis Potion x5, Chito Nut x3, Raparo Fruit x3, Arieda Fruit x3, Indestructible Shell x2, Hard Scale x2, and Frog Extract x2.

Random, unrelated thoughts:

For this playthrough, I opted to do Selray first and then Comodo. One thing I noticed was this:

Ys Celceta - Encountering an Explorer in the Woods of Strays
Spotted this guy at the Woods of Strays instead of Leo & company after completing Selray first. :0

And I also noticed Pigeon and Rabbit appearing too. I can’t recall if they showed up in this area during my first playthrough where I went to Comodo first.

Ys Celceta - Encountering Rabbit and Pigeon in the Woods of Strays
Do they show up if you go to Comodo first? D:
    • Nightmare’s been a breeze so far thanks to me maxing out Adol and Dulen and majorly reinforcing their equipment (as well as Carna’s) from the previous playthrough. The only issue is that boss battles and some of the larger monsters still take a while. The only boss that gave me problems so far is the one in the Tower of Divine Guidance. The second battle is fairly easy but the first one is terrible for me since I can’t dodge or flash guard in time. ๐Ÿ˜›
      .
      Oh yeah, guarding in Nightmare is quite horrible since your still get a chunk of HP lopped off. Of course, it’s not as bad as not guarding at all but still. ^^
      .
    • Finalllllllllllllly. I got it~~!

      Ys Celceta - ็ง˜ใ‚ใŸใ‚‹ๅ•†ๆ‰ Trophy Get!
      Yay~
  • .Check out the time. XD
    Ys Celceta - 83 hours and still going~! XD
    Most of the time was from the first playthough + some idling. I gotta check an earlier save to see how many hours I had pumped in in that one. The Nightmare run is definitely going MUCH faster. I’m guessing I only have 20 hours on this so far?

    Oh dear lord. My first playthrough clocked in at 75 hours. What the hell did I do? I know I didn’t really grind at all and if I did, it was only for materials and there’s no way I put in so many hours for grinding.

Android · games · iOS · PS Vita

Pot-pourri Post: Ys and Tiny Farm

Just some quick updates~!

Ys Celceta

I embarked on my Nightmare run recently. With maxed out Adol and Dulen + massively upgraded ultimate weapons and armour, the trek across Celceta has been fairly quick. The only problem are the bosses. ^^ The first boss took about 10 minutes to defeat. ๐Ÿ˜› It took me a bit to clue in that I was supposed to get its stun gauge up. Once I started spamming skills instead of simply slashing its body, the battle went a bit faster.

I also reloaded the Clear Game data on Easy to get the Time Attack and Boss Rush trophies. XD Here’s a small gallery of images of my achievements~! :3 Tiny Farm images are mixed in since I have no idea how to exclude them. >_>

Tiny Farm

Tiny Farm Halloween Special~!
The Dracula Cow and Zombie Alpaca!?

The Halloween promotion is in full swing now~! And again, there’s some cross-breeding weirdness! The special animals this time around will complete the Halloween Level 2 Collection.

Tiny Farm - Halloween Collection!
I’m still missing the piggy to get the ghostly sheep. ๐Ÿ˜ฆ
Tiny Farm - Level 2 Halloween Animal 1
Breed the Dairy Cow and Black Cow for the Dracula Cow~! (And wow, a Bell as a reward this time!)
Tiny Farm - Halloween Level 2 Animal 2
Breed a Red Reindeer and Alpaca~!

Like the Pirate Animals, the option to cross-breed will probably not be available after the promotion is done. ๐Ÿ˜ฆ

Edit:
image

Been seeing people complaining that they weren’t getting the cross-breeding option. Maybe some people haven’t updated their game yet? :/ I still haven’t managed to get either of the level 2 Halloween animals. Hopefully, I will soon… And then somehow get the skeleton pig from an egg or candy~~ I really want the ghost sheep. ๐Ÿ˜ฆ And I really wish it could stay as a baby cuz the baby and young sheep are much more adorable than adult sheep. ^^

Update on Oct 29th: I got my Dracula Cow! It only took a billion tries!!!

Tiny Farm - Dracula Cow w/ Parents~!
Woo! No more need for the ugly Dairy Cow. Well, at least in the near future.
Tiny Farm - Dracula Cow Get~!
Tiny Farm – Goofy looking Halloween cow~!

For what it’s worth, my Black Cow was at Level 32 and the Dairy Cow was Level 17. Next up will be the Zombie Alpaca.

Tiny Farm - Second Halloween Animal Objective~!
Tiny Farm – Another Bell as a reward! :0!!!!

My Alpaca is Level 100 and the Red Reindeer is Level 12. I haven’t gotten the Zombie Alpaca yet and I’m hoping it’ll take less tries because I need a total of 12 Love Points for each breeding session. >_>

But … I’ll still be out with that skeleton pig from the Level 1 collection. :\ Guess I’ll keep trying with the candy or something. I doubt I’ll be able to make use of the Eggs during these last few days of the promo since I’m saving up to get the ghost lamp thing. ^^

2nd update on Oct 29th: I got my Zombie Alpaca today! ^o^~

Tiny Farm - Zombie Alpaca Get~!
Tiny Farm – Zombie Alpaca Get~!

Sadly, I bred the parents again but it didn’t work. ๐Ÿ˜ฆ Only regular reindeer and alpaca kept popping out. I do want another zombie though!

There’s more objectives after the breeding’s done~!

Tiny Farm - Prank #1~!
Tiny Farm – Not sure why this objective is labelled as a prank since you’re doing something good to a neighbour. ^^
Tiny Farm - Prank #1 Done~!
Tiny Farm – You just need to find three separate neighbours that have Witch Sheep and give them love~~~~~

And then …

Tiny Farm - Prank #2~!
Tiny Farm – Love the skeleton piggies~!

Sigh. Still out on one animal. ๐Ÿ˜ฆ At least the Valentine one will be easier since I have all 3 Level 1 animals. (Come on, you KNOW they’ll do a Valentine promo again.)

Tiny Farm - My Halloween Collection
Tiny Farm – The missing pig. :((((((((((((((((((((((((((( BTW, I didn’t get the Ghost Deer since … well, you know, pig. ๐Ÿ˜›

Edit on November 1st:

  • Halloween Prank 3 was to give affection to any three Zombie Horses you find among your neighbours. I was busy yesterday so I didn’t get around to uploading the image. Actually, there probably isn’t any point since I can just type out the descriptions. ๐Ÿ˜›
  • Halloween Prank 4: “Give love to the Dracula Dairy Cow in neighbor farm 3 times.” Like the other ones, you just need to find the animal in 3 different farms.
  • Halloween Prank 5: “Give love to the Zombie Alpaca in neighbor farm 3 times.” Same tip as the last one.

The rewards for all of these are 1 Halloween Candy, 1 Bell, and 30 XP.

Edit on November 2nd:

  • The Last Halloween Prank:“There is an animal that can’t wait for Halloween because it loves candy. Shall we find this animal and ask if it received lots of candies in Halloween? Hint: This animal’s dialogue”. Oddly, the description ends there. ๐Ÿ˜› But the objective is “Give love to the ‘animal that like candy’ in neighbor farm once.’ I swear, I think they have people from Com2uS Korea doing the translations. Anyway, reward is EXP +30 and Bells +3. The animal you’re looking for is:

    Tiny Farm - The Answer to The Last Halloween Prank
    Tiny Farm – The Answer to The Last Halloween Prank: It’s a Talking Spotted Pig~!

Its level doesn’t matter. I just took a screencap of it from my collection. :3

Edit on November 6th: I asked Com2uS on Twitter yesterday if the Skeleton Pig could be bred at any time of the year or just during the Halloween promo and it’s only during the promo. :(( At the time of the reply, there was just over 2 days left. But!!!! Look what happened!!!!!!!

Tiny Farm - Skeleton Pig Get!
Tiny Farm – Stupid pig. It took me so many tries to get this. I got it by breeding a Lv 100 Talking Pig with a Lv 5 Talking Pig.

And then …

Tiny Farm - Ghost Sheep
I finally got my sheep. ~.~

Finally~~

Tiny Farm - All Halloween Animals ... For Now
Tiny Farm – All Halloween animals … for now. Who knows if Com2uS will add a 3rd collection next year or not?

Now I can go back to giving Love Points to other animals instead of them Talking Pigs. Truthfully, I was going back and forth between 2 Talking Pigs and 1 Talking Pig x a Brown or Black Pig since I read that you can get a Skeleton Pig with the latter method too.

Whee~! Ghost Sheep~~~ Of course, I got the Ghost Deer as well but it’s not cute enough for me to care about!