I definitely though Visages, which I did first, was harder. I defeated all the “masks” you were supposed to before fighting him and he was much harder.
I went to the Monolith in the North and I won’t spoil it, but I’m basically doing whatever you gotta do up there. You know, where the Paintress is and the big “33”.
Oof. When you finish the Monolith, don’t do it if you have anything else you need to be doing for the next half hour besides watch cut scenes. There’s a few moments where you get character control, probably just so you can save/quit if you’re late for dinner, but it’s quite the haul.
Random quibble: It would be nice if other elements got the same love as fire. Granted, that would explode the systems out even more but it’s kind of weird that you get “Do more damage on burning”, “Get more crits on burning”, “Marks can cause burn”, “Ranged hits can cause burn”, “Consume burn for extra damage”, “Change your stance when you hit burning”, etc and then “Well, here’s a couple lightning/earth/ice attacks, I guess”
I thought the overpowered fire was in-line with the story. I haven’t quite got to the full exposition yet (if there is one), but there’s been some mention of fire and being burnt by some characters.
That never struck me as tied to the elemental attacks, more just that fire is more likely to impact most people’s lives than rock slides or ice spears. And there’s still critters resistant or immune to fire. But it’s not a big deal to me anyway; it just felt odd to have four main elemental branches (plus light/dark) and only one “right” answer 95% of the time. Even if an enemy is weak to something else, fire is usually still a good choice due to all the lumina and weapon skills that tie into it.
I’m playing with a controller but reach over and use my mouse to Free Aim just because it’s easier. Last night I was fighting a bunch of guys with important weak spots and who were jiggling around like they were on their tenth cup of coffee. Aiming with the mouse was annoying enough that I can’t imagine what it’d be like if I was playing with just the controller.
Gamewise, I’m in “Cruise the map and visit all the places before wrapping it up” territory.
I have a Pictos that heals my characters 25% of damage that is inflicted by Burn. Before the enemy takes his turn, if he is burned, we get a bit of healing.
It’s a good one and I agree fire is very useful.
I feel like the Act III pacing has slowed down a bit. The whole map is open now so there’s a ton of places to go but, unlike Acts I & II where you were shepherded through based on plot, now it’s more “Will this location be level 50 or level 85? Guess you’ll find out!” A couple people had side quests and one was a reasonable challenge and one got me pounded flat three times before I put it on the Come Back Later list. The lack of focus is a little jarring. I moved the difficulty down to Story just to speed things along a little and because I’m more likely to be slightly out of my depth. Plus I feel reasonably vindicated to myself to have gone through the first two acts on default as an old man with old man reflexes.
On the other hand, I came across another Parry-Test critter and, after about a half hour of parrying something we could only chip damage, came away with a level 30 weapon when all my other stuff is still like 18-21. So that was amusing.
I went straight to the final boss in Act III. Now I’m into New Game+ which I’m enjoying more than the first play through. I will spend more time on side quests this time. I think the Naveron looking for a light was the only side quest I did before.
One of my daughters was watching me play last night and was asking me questions about the plot, which made me realise I didn’t quite understand the plot. Not well enough to explain it to her anyway.
My final verdict is that it’s up there with my favourite games. Having a relatively concise and focussed story is a big plus for me. Being able to finish a game in around 30-40 hours is ideal, otherwise I lose interest and move on to other things. The combat itself is enjoyable enough that I like just having fights over and over, a bit like Elden Ring. New Game+ probably needs a bit of polish to make sense of having access to all of the characters while the cutscenes assume you are limited to the one or two you have at the beginning of the story.
I messed around for a bit, finished everyone’s side quest and maxed relation then went for the ending. Was a bit overpowered by then but I was in both a state of enjoying the game and also wanting to move along and see it resolved so it was all good.
Enjoyed it a lot. More than I would have guessed really. The story, characters and voice acting really connected with me and I can’t think of a real slump I had playing it aside from Act III could be better plotted/defined.
I went with Maelle for my “official” ending knowing that it would be darker but then reloaded a save and did Verso as well just to watch both.
I am watching the cutscenes following the Act 2 boss(Paintress, duh).
I…did not see any twists coming because I avoided all spoilers and actually tried to just take the game as it came at me. Very satisfying little reveals, etc.
I guess it should have all been rather obvious, but I was happily ignorant and oblivious. I know there is an Act 3, but didn’t give much thought. I just assumed we’d be delayed in the big final paintress battle.
I’m wandering in Act 3 and not sure what the best course of action(s) would be.
I did two trials in the Endless Tower…only to get absolutely stomped by the next one. We are level 48 or so.
The game is seemingly designed that you’ll do Luminare before completing all the optional content as it’s balanced for around level 50-60? I went in closer to 80 and rolled it so if you want an appropriate challenge, do it before that. If you want to complete as much “story” as possible prior, my suggestion would be to do Lune, Esquie and Maelle’s side quests as those are around your likely level. Monoco’s is a lot tougher and you likely won’t be able to do it until afterwards. Then maybe do some previously inaccessible areas that have white portals. The red portal stuff is all meant for around level 70+ and will turn white as you hit the suggested level. If you’ve been assisting the white Nevrons, head to The Fountain to get your reward.
At some point, roll back to Luminare and complete the story. Then if you want to, noodle around the map leveling up and hitting the optional content that was outside your grasp.
I’m in the Act 3 stuff and wow, it’s a mixed bag?
I did something called the Crimson Forest and it was doable, but a pain in the but. The final boss of that area had two sidekicks who create rage and shields and you know what? I’m just about done with rage and general support guys who are along with bosses.
The boss was tough enough. I did not need extra support.
Now I’m in the “reacher” area that is Maelle’s sidequest area. It is much more fun. I can actually handle the dodging/parrying better and am getting a reasonable amount of XP from battles, which makes the whole thing worth it.
Maelle’s Breaking Rules skill is good for shielded enemies. If you can have another character make the enemy defenceless you can use Breaking Rules to take out all of the shields and get a free turn for Maelle to follow up with.
I’m on the super-duper optional mega boss (Simon) but don’t know if it’s gonna happen.
Simon basically one shots and launches super fast flurries of attacks. Maelle can’t one-shot or two-shot using her standard cheese builds. I saw some suggestions for super buffing her further using auto-death buffs on the others and the double damage buff from Sciel so I’ll give it another couple of tries tonight before calling it done. I did see a Free Shot build for Verso that looked hilarious but it assumes you’ve been dumping a lot more Lumina into him that I have (I’ve been doing it about equal for everyone) and he’s 100 short of being able to load in everything he’d need. I sure don’t care enough to scour the map looking for 100 more shards off merchants or laying around.
Sure is! There’s a certain charm, I suppose, in not knowing whether an area will be a cakewalk, fun challenge or face-crushing rout but… not a whole lot of said charm.
My general plan, I think, is to try to to any character quests like the Maelle one and see if I can finish those. After that, not sure. Maybe just head to the final boss region.
Edit: Does anyone’s in-game clock seem very different than Steam’s time? I have 34 hours in the game on Steam, but the in-game save file says about 28. It hasn’t been on pause or anything. It was never left on. I get some variance, but I’ve never seen such a difference. Steam’s time seems right to me.
My times are either 86 hours (Steam) or 71 hours (Game). That’s quite the spread and, like you, no significant time spend idling on menus or anything
Yeah, it’s odd. I really think Steam has the right time…
Maybe all the menu times don’t count in the game’s version of time.