100% Orange is cheating. I beat Ragu O Ragla with it and now I feel bad that I didn’t fight him fairly. (Well, I did fight him fairly, and lost.) As far as I can tell, there’s no way to lose with that badge on a healer, unless you really go out of your way to do so.
Also, I believe Volsung only powers up on the second or further playthroughs, I had my whole team at 100 the first time through and he was still at his weakest form.
I beat Ragu without 100% Orange today. Admittedly the tactic I used was just as cheap, but you have to use some form of cheapness, or be extremely lucky and extremely patient.
Basically, I abused EP/DP. I honestly never even looked at these stats before, but it worked! Here’s my setup.
Dean: Sherriff Star, Violator, Moon Medium.
Rebecca: Sherriff Star, Terrace Tiara, Sea Medium.
Avril: Sherriff Star, Dual Cast, Terrace Tiara, Sky Medium.
Basically, have everyone on a Ley Point (preferably Fire/Water) until Ragu comes up next to you. At that point, use a Great Apple on you and Celesdue on Ragu. Then keep on wailing at him with Dean (Violator-powered attack), Rebecca (regular attack) and Avril (dual cast Hi-Blast), stopping long enough to use Extend on both you and him. Essentially, you will keep knocking his turn back so he never actually gets one. And because of that other little-known aspect of the battle system, chain combos, your damage will keep going up until little old Avril is doing 20,000 HP damage with each spell (and she does two per turn) and Dean is doing comparably with four Violator attacks. I kind of felt bad for him after about forty turns of this. 8p
Ooh, that’s so sneaky! I’d be much happier if I’d beaten him that way.
I don’t see how it can be cheating to use something that exists within the game to beat a Boss. I can understand wanting to face them on equal terms, and I usually do so, I’d rather use strategy to win. But after all the trouble I’ve had with fights in this game, and how boring most of these Hidden Bosses are (Difference from other Bosses in the game: they have like 10 times the HP. Whoop-de-dooh) I’m glad there’s something like the 100% badge, even if it really sucks otherwise (You take very little damage BUT you also do little damage AND you can’t heal AND you heal others of only 100 points AND you revive the others with 100 HP. Honestly, if not for these Bosses I wouldn’t use it at all.)
Surprise-fast Report: I just killed off Angol Mois. And FAST! Using the 100% trick, it took like ten turns to bring it down. Whoa! The Elephant lasted longer. But hey, I finally got my Sol Niger quest reward- a weapon for Rebecca that is her best one in everything BUT Attack stats (?) Still, I’m gonna use it, it was hard enough to earn.
I have by now done enough Pillar Bosses to earn another of the Ex Files rewards. Not sure which yet. I intend to do them all anyway, now that I’m confident I can take down Chef Ragu. Oh btw I did get killed once despite the 100 trick (while fighting the Furfurs) it took so long to get them both that Carol actually ran out of HP, believe it or not, even at 100 per turn. But I was SO close to winning (it had like 9000 HP left) that I tried again right away and won the second time.
Btw, I’ve also been collecting the Golden Angel armors, too. Some are better than the ones I had, but not all of them. Still, it’s a nice tribute to the series. I have only one left to get (Lilka’s.)
neither of Greg’s poutfits really suited him, I thought. His build is too big for Jack’s outfit, and Gallows… it just looks bad. However, I can not let Dean out of jet’s oputfit, sicne he looks damn good in jeans. Oh, and Lav Avril as the Sword magess.
AAAAAAANND RAGU IS TOAST!! (Or is that spaghetti? 
) Whatever, I BEAT HIM!!! :biggrin: But man, was it a close call- even with the 100% Trick, by the last round Carol had only 156 HP left (!) which meant she could only revive Dean and Rebecca once or twice more before falling herself. Still, using Finest Arts, Rebecca finished the walking carrot off right then. Whew (Btw, is it me or is this Boss based on Zeton, an old Ultraman monster? Bah, nobody here will get that reference. 
)
Anyway, now I have… THE OMEGA. Now THIS is a Badge! Can’t wait to put it on a Sheriff Star-equipped Dean and let him cut down those annoying Bosses, Bwahaha. Though the only hard one I have left now is the Black Box… Hersvulgar and Prime Val are pushovers.
BTW, I also finally opened all the Abyss chests, that’s 11 chests less to look up. I think there are two duplo chests in Inferno I couldn’t get the first time, that would make thirteen. Which would leave like 7 chests (I’m pretty sure I got every chest in every other dungeon, at least the Gamefaqs guide was good for that) so they must be in the overworld. Good thing I have the Sonar Kit now. prepares for a long ride in the Monowheel…
I’m in the Black Box now… I don’t want the answer, but can anyone tell me a hint for what time to set the clock to? I can’t find any reference to it anywhere in the dungeon. Although I did miss a rather obvious hint in Tower O, so I may just be temporarily blind again.
Cid: search area 16 with your Gun Tools (Detector and Missiles) until you find a colored flames whose positions indicate the numbers you have to use. Note: there’s three flames, and another clock puzzle after that one. According to Gamefaqs, anyway (I’m not there yet.)
OK, totally missed that bar. And the second puzzle is practically impossible to figure out on your own. I got the clue after the fact, but there’s no way I would have cottoned onto it by myself.
Just a note, I ebat Ragu without the orange. Man, that was a fun fight. Dean tended to spam a lot fo heavy Crushes combined with Dual Cast, so he got two for one. Add to that the Terrace Tiara, he was fine as far as MP goes. Carol acted as my usual healer, and I gave Chuck the Moon Medium for this fight so he can replace Ragu into certain Hexes. When he was about to cast either ultimate fire or ice attack, i amanged to get either Ragu into the opposite hex so his attackw as halved; at least two characters into the SAME hex, so it was halved; or both, which cut down the damage to very little. It was close at times, and thank GOD I gave Carol the Goat Doll, but I’d do it again in a minute.
I’ve looked everywhere and I’m still three chests short of completing the Black Box quest. Frustratin’, ain’t it? sigh I WOULD have found them all by now if searching with the map provided had been easier, since I had all the coordinates. I’ll try looking in the more remote areas tomorrow, and if I don’t find them I’ll skip this and proceed to the last two hidden Bosses, then go end the game.
Just finished the game myself. The ending was actually kind of neat, though not really powerful. I have to say that my overall impression of the game is like a picture of a face which was cobbled together from ten different pictures of gorgeous people. Each individual aspect is beautiful, but the final picture is rather jarring. I just feel like there’s something missing here. I didn’t get the same feeling playing this as I did the others in the series, even though the story and characters are leagues ahead of the others. I kind of felt like I was just coasting.
It’s hard to pin down, but while everything about the game tells me it should be a great one, somehow it failed to be anything above average-to-good. And I couldn’t tell you why for the life of me.
Couldn’t play today, I had to help my best friend at his house again (he’s redecorating.) And tomorrow we’ll have work (as in the paying kind- HOPEFULLY) So I might have to continue playing late tomorrow or on Tuesday. Anyway, the end is near. After I finish the game I’ll post a full review here. Though I already had a few bones to pick with it, as you might have noticed from reading my posts here. But I’m REALLY enjoying the story; my biggest grip is that the gameplay gets in the way of the story’s logic, as with the Sentinel battles.
Beat it today. I thought it was a great ending. I loved seeing the action sequences, especially the Monowheel battle, and Dean’s duel with Volsung. If my characters are at the point where they could take on God and win, then I damn well want to see some awesome battle scenes!
Ok, game completed. Everything except the Black Box quest, which I only had 3 chests to go. But I made a second save before the final tower, so I can go back and try to get them some other time. (without the Box, I don’t get two of the Ex Files, nor the secret Knight Blazer costume for Dean.)
Btw, I started a new game JUST to check what was carried over, and it seems all items did, which means I can now play from the start with all weapons and all armors (except the second set of School costumes that I never bothered to get) and all Dragon Fossils. Which means my characters will now be so ridiculously powerful I should blaze through everything except the mightiest bosses. You still start at level 1 however, and have to do all those dungeon puzzles again… nah, not right now, thanks.
Anyway, the only thing left for me to do now is write my post-mortem of the game, if only so I can weight what the experience meant to me. Read it if you like. But warning, this contains BIG spoilers:
[SPOILER]The theme of this story was obviously racial injustice. Although they used a lot of euphemisms (eg, “The Wall between the races” reference) and avoided going too far (the Veruni did not use women as their sex slaves, for example… that we know) it was still surprisingly serious for a game of this kind, which was otherwise happy-go-lucky. I think the combination worked, even if having the ultimate enemy be the actual embodiment of hatred was kinda hokey.
I liked all the main characters, to the point I really wanted to see the resolution of all their plotlines, and that more than anything carried me through the game. All the characters had flaws, but not bad enough that they were ruined for me. Though the whole “you can win if you don’t quit!” motto got old after a while, especially since all the faith in the world will not help you win without a plan, and most of the time they had none.
The only weak point in the story was that the gameplay did not really fit in well with the story. For example, each character had an enemy that represented some personal limit they had to overcome; good, except that instead of defeating them one-on-one or as a team, they had to do BOTH, one after the other, and that made little sense. I kept waiting for Elvis to say, “sorry Guys, I don’t want to hurt you but I’m a Game Boss, so…”
The time-loop was never explained well; it just came across as a McGuffin to make Avril’s story be tragic… and yet, in the end, she did not really disappear but rather was replaced by her original self, before she had emotions. It was like the writers could not make up their minds as to losing her forever or not, and went for the middle ground instead. I really wanted a scene where Dean realized his own feelings, too. Oh well, that leaves room for a sequel, I guess.
The gameplay almost drove me away from the game. The WA games have always been notorious for their difficult puzzles. In V they were easier to me, except for the ones involving jumping, especially on floating blocks that moved or vanished. As I mentioned before, I’m having vision troubles (I need new glasses and I can’t afford them now) so playing those puzzles too long gave me a headache. Add the fact that I am acrophobic (yes, it’s true) and those 3D graphics made the falls WAY too realistic for my taste, and you can see why I was NOT having a fun time with the puzzles.
The combat system was OK except that I found most of the spells useless, since the status effects, good and bad, stayed in the hexes rather than on the characters. And as I mentioned so many times in this thread, my characters just seemed to be too weak, I’m assuming it was because I did not adjust the ARMS correctly, thought I had little idea of how or when to do it. Oh, and I kept forgetting to use the best Badges because they were always at the bottom of the list (OK that was THEIR fault, it’s a dumb idea.) And to finish ruining my playing experience, the chests in the overworld are invisible, forcing you to stumble around looking for them. That REALLY wasn’t necessary. And why o why couldn’t we control Asgard directly?? Honestly, this has been my worst gameplaying experience in years. Would having bought the official guide first had helped? I think so.
The graphics in the game were great. The parts that were supposed to look real (like the overworld) were exquisitely detailed. However, the characters looked like the typical Anime ones… which fit in perfectly with the adventurous (and cute) parts of the game. I think it was a wise choice.
I liked ALL the music in the game, with one exception: the Mythismere theme. I know it was supposed to sound dreadfull, but it really got on my nerves after a while, especially since I made Mythismere my default base (since I could synthesize badges there.) The voices, on the other hand, annoyed me at first. I can swear I have heard Dean’s in several cartoons, and Carol’s voice was REALLY annoying. Good thing you had the option of limiting their use.
In conclusion, WA wa far harder to play than I expected, enough that I would have quit it midway had it not been because I really wanted to see the story and the ending. (Oh btw, if you check the character guide that you gain after the game, you can find out details of what happened to the characters after the story- odd that they were not included in the ending itself.) Oh, and the cameos of characters from other WA games was a great way to celebrate their 10th Anniversary. I can’t wait for WA 6![/SPOILER]
Next up on my playing list: Final Fantasy 12. (And THIS time I have the guide!)
Yeah… that all makes sense. Personally, I enjoyed the gameplay because it was interesting without being too challenging, whereas the story ended up being a bit lacklustre to me (though still miles ahead of the previous offerings in the series).
I did an IMDB search of Wild ARMs 5 characters… here’s what jumped out at me personally:
Dean: Luke/Asch (Tales of the Abyss), Reks (FF12), Kevin (Xenosaga 3), Steve (Rogue Galaxy), Keigo (Bleach). He’s quite versatile, and did a really great job in some of those roles (Luke particularly).
Rebecca: Nel (Star Ocean 3), Mary (Xenosaga 1). I knew I’d heard that accent somewhere. 8p Man, but Nel and Rebecca are so totally different characters!
Avril: Alicia (Valkyrie Profile 2), Rukia (Bleach), Tatiana (Last Exile), Sophia (Star Ocean 3), Dojima (Witch Hunter Robin), Kotori (X).
Greg: Dylan/Brahms (Valkyrie Profile 2)…not much else.
Chuck: Lezard (Valkyrie Profile 2), Dist (Tales of the Abyss), Dion (Star Ocean 3)
Carol: Roger (Star Ocean 3). She’s been in South Park too - and Fraggle Rock!
Nightburn: Reeve (FF7:DoC), Largo (Tales of the Abyss), Chad (Bleach)
Kartikeya: Leon (Kingdom Hearts 2), oddly enough.
Fereydoon: Jade (Tales of the Abyss), Saix (KH2), Jin (Samurai Champloo), Matthews (Xenosaga)
I always find it interesting how versatile some of these voice actors are. A bunch of them have been working since the early '80s; I see repeats of things like Akira, Last Exile, Wolf’s Rain, and most of them were in FF7:DoC as incidental voices, as well as a bunch of newer titles like Disgaea, Phantom Brave, and Atelier Iris.