WK's improptu 100% Playthrough

[Wolf Kanno]

I didn't talk about a spooky game challenge this year because I'm playing the scariest game of them all:
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In all seriousness, the job class thread had me thinking that my memory of X-2 is so foggy that maybe I should suck it up and actually try to play it again. Hell let's 100% this nonsense so I have less reason to ever replay it. I finished the game maybe two years after it released despite getting it not long after it came out because I'm not going to turn down a job system. Two years later I said fuck it and powered my way through to the end just to say I finished it. I couldn't even tell you my completion ratio. I'm sure it was in the 70s at best.

So now I've started a new playthrough. I'm playing the original version because my loathing of the Spira entries makes it obvious I didn't race out and pick up the HD collection. So no Last Mission, no two new dresspheres, and no monster collecting. Just boring old 2002 FFX-2 vanilla on the PS2. For the most part, this will not be as in-depth as other threads I do. I'm not going to put in the research like I do for my on-again-off-again FFV Let's Play. I'll likely do something similar to the The Zodiac Age thread with a plus and negative list. I have no delusions that this playthrough will make me like this game, but I'm hoping to come out of it with some level of appreciation. It's been so long, I've forgotten a lot. I will also be using a guide for this 100% completion because fuck this game and its obtuse requirements. I do imagine I will occasionally write up my general thoughts about the job classes though since it's the feature I like the most from the game.

I am currently in Chapter 1. I've collected the Black Mage dressphere, but I'm skipping past the two story missions and doing smaller ones instead. I finished Luca and saw Yuna explain what she was doing during the prologue. Mi'hen Highroad, and just reached the Youth League Headquarters.

Pros:

I do appreciate Shinra's glossary. Got me caught up on things quick.
I do like the contrast of Yuna narrating the plot in a nod to Tidus doing the same in the original.
While an non-traditional set of classes. The starting classes do get you in the thick of things.
Thief is a far better class in this game than it deserves to be. I feel like people at Square just love thieves for some reason.
I like being able to learn abilities midbattle.
While my general feelings of the FFX cast has always been either indifference of loathing, I do find Brother amusing for some reason.


Cons:

Man the male gaze in custscenes is creepy.
I wish I could shut off battle dialogue. The puns are going to kill me.
I can't figure out what the issue is, but I just don't feel like the classes have a lot of weight to them. Warrior and Black Mage feel underpowered to me, except they're not. I can't put my finger on what the issue is.
I'm still debating whether the combo system is a great idea or a terrible one. On the one hand, it adds a bit of strategy to combat, on the other it undermines the speed of the combat that is often praised.
I'm still not sold on the Garment Grid mechanic. I just feel it slows the combat down too much for meager rewards I would have been happier being added back to the jobs. Not exactly happy to know magic staples like Flare, Holy, and Ultima are locked behind a Garment Grid I'm going to have to waste several turns in battle to class change for the opportunity to use the spells. The early ones are especially annoying because you get accessories that grant access to some of the same magic and gives you statistical and defensive bonuses as well. Like I'm fine being limited to what you can access in battle but the bonus system doesn't seem worth it to me at the moment.

[Karifean]

Nice. Hope you enjoy~ having gotten a bit of distance from the game in the years since I deep-dove it I think I've gotten a bit more critical of it myself, so curious to see what you'll feel towards it.

100% still feels like such a trap in this game, but shan't be anything worse than following a guide hard.



Pros:

While an non-traditional set of classes. The starting classes do get you in the thick of things.



Agreed, they feel very distinct and let you experience the combo system as well as both charged and uncharged attacks relatively well. Songstress works on that front as well.




Cons:


I can't figure out what the issue is, but I just don't feel like the classes have a lot of weight to them. Warrior and Black Mage feel underpowered to me, except they're not. I can't put my finger on what the issue is.



I feel you on that. They are damage classes and functional as such but I think between the lack of hurt animations or any sort of HP indicator on enemies it can be real hard to get a feel for how strong your attacks really are. Doesn't help that you fight enemies like Iron Giants and Defenders super early. And the damage figures on these dresspheres just isn't inflated enough to feel really powerful on their own.





I'm still not sold on the Garment Grid mechanic. I just feel it slows the combat down too much for meager rewards I would have been happier being added back to the jobs. Not exactly happy to know magic staples like Flare, Holy, and Ultima are locked behind a Garment Grid I'm going to have to waste several turns in battle to class change for the opportunity to use the spells. The early ones are especially annoying because you get accessories that grant access to some of the same magic and gives you statistical and defensive bonuses as well. Like I'm fine being limited to what you can access in battle but the bonus system doesn't seem worth it to me at the moment.



Honestly, agreed. It's just a really awkward system made tedious by the fact that you can traverse the entire grid in a mere split second of actual battle time, since dress switching is instant and causes Wait Mode. If dress switching had a cooldown or something it'd be a more involved process at least, forcing you to plan around your dress switches, but as is it feels pretty poorly thought through.

For the most part the game is mindless enough that you can run merely off what gives the best 'equip' effects, part of why Highroad Winds GG is so convenient. Doesn't help that the game swarms you with GGs you'll never use. I do like the early game elemental GGs, but after that there's just too many, with too much of their bonuses locked behind gates that you don't want to activate.

[Fynn]

Good luck. I went in to replay it expecting it to be stupid but fun. Turned out not so fun after all :( I liked the music way better than last time though

[Wolf Kanno]

Chapter 1 is complete. Had to call it night because the game is starting to get under my skin.

Pros:

So far the Gun Mage might be the best class in terms of raw power. My Warrior has gotten better but it required some heavy stat manipulation with accessories and exploiting the combo system, but even then it can't quite reach the same consistent level of bullshit as Fiend Bullets. It's a shame so many of their Blue Magic spells are locked away until later chapters. Like White Wind is technically available, but I don't have any means of using Confusion to get the enemy to cast it on me.
With hindsight activated, it's now really obvious to see that Paine has a connection with the male trio. Just paying attention to her actions when you meet them makes it obvious.
The one treat of the Spira entries is just listening to all the voice actors I grew up with. Like it's scary how many of the VA people in this game are associated with either anime I grew up with or games I loved on the PS2.
While some of the outfit designs (like thief) are questionable. I appreciate the fact that SE went the extra mile and actually designed unique outfits for each character.
I stlll laugh about the pregnant Lulu model just being her old model.
I still chuckle when I see Kimarhi and remember how in my first playthrough, I had completely forgotten about him being in FFX.


Cons:

Man what is it about FFX and it's hatred of Mages? The one aspect I always felt hurt Lulu and Yuna was the fact they couldn't multi target their magic outside of Lulu's limit break or using doublecast. Now I let it slide a bit in FFX because the new matching game gimmick required it since Lulu can potentially just throw the whole system off its axle with multi-targeting. But X-2 isn't restricted by this constraint, so why nerf the poor Black/White mage like this? It's bad enough they have to deal with casting times again, in addition to just their painfully low HP and defense stats. Why does SE hate mages?
Okay, so why does Warrior get Sentinel but not Cover? Like the best aspect of the Warrior is that its an HP sponge and gets a purely defensive skill, so why no innate cover ability?
It looks like X-2 OG has the same Queue Issue that XII has where the game has a difficult time loading complex spell or ability animations. It makes the combo system hard to utilize, especially with mages since the queue can often delay the spell effect long enough to miss the combo timer window which seems to continue on even when the game chugs through trying to animate all the effects at once. I would be curious to know if the HD release removed this issue like the XII HD one did.
Holy hell are the requirements for the Trainer class counter-intuitive. No wonder I didn't get it in my first playthrough. I can't see Yuna talking like that to the Ronso.
Ugh, I hate the PR campaign. Hell the mini-games on the Calm Lands are even more garbage than the ones in FFX.
I love how the game just keeps throwing Garment Grids at me, and here I am sticking to Vanguard (the second one you get) because it gives you some minor offensive bonuses and has the second highest dressphere slots behind the starter one.
I feel the final mission of Chapter 1 in Kilika is a wonderful example of this game's inability to balance the contrasting tones of its various plots. The first chapter overall hits a strange roller coaster of wacky, goofy, bittersweet, political drama, charming, serious, and romantic. I'm getting serious mood whiplash here. The final mission of the chapter starts with an uplifting moment, plunges into a serious political issue, the girls are helped through a wacky puzzle, tries to turn dark, and then gets resolved in a comical way that winds up having some long terms issues in the later chapters. Like what the hell is going on here?


Job Class Analysis
Starter Classes

Warrior
Not a bad class, just underwhelming. You really need to gear the characters accessories to the class to get the most out of it which may limit what classes you can switch to since pure mage classes can't physically attack out side of the Berserk status. Sentinel is a decent skill of whom the main draw for it is that it allows you to farm AP for skills while also prolonging the fight. Sadly, without Cover or using a full warrior team, the skill is less useful except for situational purposes. Their swordplay skills are a mix bag as well. The Stat lowering skills are pretty useful when they work. The elemental skills don't do as much damage as I would like though and the charge time for all of these skills makes it a pain to time them into combos. Assault is amusing but hardly useful unless you're rocking a full melee team and just fighting random enemy fodder. The Delay attack confuse me a bit because they were tailored made for the CTB system. I can see how they could still work in this entry, but like the original, they sound more useful than they are in practice. The classes best aspect is the high physical defense and HP pool, meaning it's usually the last one standing in a bad fight. The costume designs are also swanky.

Thief
Way more useful than I would think. They'll stock you up on potions until you get the White Mage and Alchemist classes unlocked. The double attack makes up for their lower physical damage from warrior and with the combo system, I find they often do comparable damage. Thieves best aspects are their good support skills like Initiative and raising the enemy item drop rate.They also have some useful status magic protection and they can heal themselves. They're surprisingly self sufficient. My main gripe with them is like their awful design and the high cost of their skills. It's hard grinding AP for them at the beginning but eventually they become one of the best classes for drawing out battles.

Gunner
Easily the best of the starting classes. Gunner really shows off how the combo system is suppose to work. Trigger Happy is a broken skill and only gets better as you find means to crank up the attack power. I can't wait to find Cat Nip and trivialize everything that isn't an optional boss. Their special skills are also quite useful with a whole slew of abilities to deal with any enemy type. They have good HP and decent stats outside of an abysmal evasion stat. The class is also classy in how they dress. My only gripe may have to do with the fact the class is so good that it makes it hard to pull them from the roster and see what other class combos can do for you.

Songstress
The weird Tactics Bard/Dancer combo that people love to hate, want to hate, but is ultimately a great support class with their awesome stat buffing skills, great status debuffs, and some quirky abilities to have fun with like doubling HP or making all attacks critical hits. The main beef I have with this class is that all the awesomness is that gaining AP for this class seems more difficult than other classes. Partly because Dances take up a huge charge time limiting your overall actions and the step costs for the better skills. Even worst, two skills are locked behind quests making this class a pain to master. The costume designs are also fugly but the class is pretty great.

I'll do the Chapter 1 class assessments next time.

[Karifean]

Pros:

So far the Gun Mage might be the best class in terms of raw power. My Warrior has gotten better but it required some heavy stat manipulation with accessories and exploiting the combo system, but even then it can't quite reach the same consistent level of bulltrout as Fiend Bullets. It's a shame so many of their Blue Magic spells are locked away until later chapters. Like White Wind is technically available, but I don't have any means of using Confusion to get the enemy to cast it on me.



Yeah the availability of Blue Bullets is pretty staggered but doesn't feel as continuous or satisfying as FF7 Enemy Skills. Still, especially if you know where to look, the Gun Mages remains top tier DPS the whole game long, including into the endgame.



Cons:


It looks like X-2 OG has the same Queue Issue that XII has where the game has a difficult time loading complex spell or ability animations. It makes the combo system hard to utilize, especially with mages since the queue can often delay the spell effect long enough to miss the combo timer window which seems to continue on even when the game chugs through trying to animate all the effects at once. I would be curious to know if the HD release removed this issue like the XII HD one did.



Nope, still the same queue issue in X-2 HD, and IMO it's the main problem with the combat 'speed' of this game. Combo hitting long charged abilities often just becomes a matter of having a class ready to launch an attack and waiting for the right moment. Doesn't help either that it feels pretty unintuitive how characters that aren't being targeted by these attacks can still use normal attacks without issue, while characters that ARE being targeted are locked into place until the attack finishes.





Holy hell are the requirements for the Trainer class counter-intuitive. No wonder I didn't get it in my first playthrough. I can't see Yuna talking like that to the Ronso.



IIRC, the only actual requirement for it is that you talk to Kimahri specifically in both Chapters 1 and 2, doesn't matter what you answer him either. The other answers are relevant for the Chapter 3 Gagazet mission, and whether they construct Yuna's statue at the end. Seems to this day there's a lot of confusion around what is needed for what specifically. The chocobo ranch Ruin Cave is another one like that, it is *way* less restrictive than a lot of people think it is.

Agreed with the Gunner being the best of the starter classes, and it is so goddamn nice to have a class with no charge times on its moves as well. Songstress is really good too ultimately, both in Sing and Dance, and remains the only reliable source of some party stat buffs that exists. Stacking them up to maximum is actually DEF +10 stack means you take 1/6 damage from physical attacks, analogue for MDF +10. strong, but with the exception of the accuracy and evasion boosters (actually, Matador's Song is totally a Nocturne reference, isn't it?) it takes up to 10 turns to do so which is obviously way beyond the scope of 99% of the battles in this game - and in the remaining 1% you'll curse the fact that being KO'd or Petrified removes those buffs anyways.

[Fynn]

Just to get this out of the way: Paine is best girl

[Wolf Kanno]

I didn't get to play tonight, but I have been dwelling on how X-2's battle system diverged into two different ones with later FF installments. I feel like FFXII took what worked about the system and largely fixed what didn't. Whereas XIII tried to take the concept of the system and do something different with it while retaining the general feel and wonkiness of it. I may elaborate as I go along or save it for a future retrospective. :wcanoe:

[Karifean]

I'd be curious ^^

[Wolf Kanno]

I also find it interesting how downplayed the battle system is in interviews. I was trying to look up who developed the system and had to resort to looking at the credits at the back of the manual because even the Wiki only has an incomplete list of the game's credit on it. What was odd to me was despite the battle system being one of the most celebrated aspects of the game, no one talks about it in official interviews. They mostly talk about the novelty of having a direct sequel, an all girl party, and how much Spira has changed.

For those wondering, the battle system was developed by Takatsugu Nakazawa who is most infamous for developing the Draw mechanic for VIII after Ito left the project, and he then worked with Tabata as his Battle Director for Crisis Core, Lead Designer in Type-0, and being the father of the AXB system used in XV. In hindsight, I can see the similarities between AXB and X-2's battle system since both have a combo vibe to them.

I feel like Nakazawa is a bit like Nojima for me in that his ideas sound better on paper than practice. What I find more intriguing is watching Ito and Tsuchida take his ideas and go in different directions for them. Ito refined the mechanics (sped up charge times) and dropped the elements that didn't work (class changing, Garment Grid, combo system) while adding a controversial element (Gambits) that fixes the speed issue of the game overall. Tsuchida took the idea of Class changing and combo mechanics, and made it more functional by simplifying the class system and giving them specific functions to make class changing actually viable. Likewise, he got around the combat system's extreme speed by also adding in an A.I. system so you weren't stumbling around putting commands.

For personal preference, I feel Ito succeeded better by giving the player more control over the whole system. I still feel Tsuchida's Paradigm system would have worked better by giving the players a bit more control of the A.I. besides switching their sets.

Course I feel Nakazawa is improving, which is something I can't say the same for Nojima. While XV's combat is not my thing, it does show him learning from his past mistakes and he's been refining his ideas.

[Wolf Kanno]

Also, I am taking back my complaint about Mages in X-2. I was wrong, you actually can multi target with spells in this game it's just not quite as obvious. That's what happens when you shoot your mouth off about a game you haven't actually played in fifteen years. ^^;

[Karifean]

Also, I am taking back my complaint about Mages in X-2. I was wrong, you actually can multi target with spells in this game it's just not quite as obvious. That's what happens when you shoot your mouth off about a game you haven't actually played in fifteen years. ^^;

Oh, lol, somehow I missed the fact that you didn't realize you can >.<

Now that you elaborated a bit yeah I can see what you meant with XII and XIII in regards to X-2's ATB. All three games also have a general wonkiness around the speed of animations including cast lag/end lag/hitstun in active time combat, something that remains an issue to this day in FF7R it seems.

Class changing does feel a little... purposeless in X-2 given most battles are better tackled by a set trio than a morphing trio. And despite the novelty of it they never truly made good use of it. While XIII did fully embrace it so to speak, even there it only serves as an abstraction of using particular types of abilities in other Final Fantasy games, rather than being a full-on job class switch in the ways of X-2. I'm not sure X-2 would've been a better game for it if it had a bigger focus on mid-fight class switching though. It would probably just kill the pace of normal battles.

[Wolf Kanno]

Sorry I haven't updated. I'm knee deep into Chapter 2 and it's been a meandering experience.

Pros:

Tobli is my favorite NPC behind maybe Brother and Shelinda. Though Shelinda only gets my love because she's voiced by Sherry Lynn. Likewise, I'd normally find a character like Clasko annoying, but he's voiced by the charming Matt K. Miller. My love for Tenchi Muyo! is too strong to dislike either of them.
Duck Soup?
While all two of the three are fashion disasters, the the male trio tearing Spira apart are at least likable. Though I do find it weird that Nook gets the most screentime.
Finished Oaka XXIII's quest and now I can get infinite gil, and basic healing supplies!
I wish more classes had easy spammable skills to help level up quickly. While I've had Black and White Mage for a shorter time than the other classes, they are the easiest to level thanks to Focus and Pray.
I also find it weird that while the Cure family of spells have to be toggled to be used on the team, Shell and Protect don't.
I forgot how fun Sphere Break is. Can't wait for the tournament in the later chapter.


Cons:

Holy hell the monster's in Macalania Woods are a hassle. I usually curb stomp everything in this game, until I go there and then I'm on the defensive. I could probably curb stomp them as well, but I'm usually leveling classes and making things worse for myself.
I am starting to fall into the Tactics issue where I prolong fights too often to master skills. Makes the combat very sluggish.
I forgot how annoying calibrating towers was.
100% completion is tedious as fuck. I don't think this game should have made it a requirement to go back to every zone in the game every fucking chapter. The forced mini-games are somehow worse than the ones in FFX.
I am also remembering why I never finished the PR campaign or finding that guy a wife. Like seriously, fuck the Calm Lands and all it's stupid quests.

[Karifean]

Pros:

I wish more classes had easy spammable skills to help level up quickly. While I've had Black and White Mage for a shorter time than the other classes, they are the easiest to level thanks to Focus and Pray.



Yeah classes that use normal attacks kinda get shafted for AP; at least until you get the Treasure Hunt GG which gives you Mug passively, which besides giving you items is also just an attack command that gives 1 AP when used. Straight up the best way to level most dresspheres I find. Make sure you get it in the Sphere Break tournament if you can (go for Item coins during the match with Shinra).


Cons:

Holy hell the monster's in Macalania Woods are a hassle. I usually curb stomp everything in this game, until I go there and then I'm on the defensive. I could probably curb stomp them as well, but I'm usually leveling classes and making things worse for myself.




Macalania can be quite a difficulty spike yes, in every chapter actually. Chapter 3 has insanely powerful enemies reside there. Kinda fun though.





I forgot how annoying calibrating towers was.



God yes, it's a seriously hard minigame. I still do the 10th tower by writing the inputs down on a notepad.





100% completion is tedious as smurf. I don't think this game should have made it a requirement to go back to every zone in the game every smurfing chapter. The forced mini-games are somehow worse than the ones in FFX.
I am also remembering why I never finished the PR campaign or finding that guy a wife. Like seriously, smurf the Calm Lands and all it's stupid quests.



I admit I find it hard to be mad about that when it comes to completion %. It is "100%" after all (and actually, is not truly 100% even then lol). Though admittedly it's all part of the reason I just don't do 100% runs anymore. Screw the percentage counter. If nothing else at least you can knock out the Calm Lands quests in two chapters (400 PR points is all you need and IIRC you can get well over 200 in a chapter).

[Wolf Kanno]

Sorry I haven't updated in awhile. Haven't had the chance to do much. I also apparently forgot to save after finishing Oaka's quest, and then proceeded to spent the loot I had for it to buy a bunch of accessories. So I'll have to do that all over again next chapter. I finished Clasko's mission, got my first game overs, and finally unlocked the Alchemist class. I've also learned I should have been doing more for the PR campaign so I'm hoping I didn't screw myself for that one. While I can agree 100% shouldn't be easy, I just wish it wasn't so damn tedious in this game.

I did promise some more Dressphere observations:

Black Mage - Not a bad class if a bit bare bones for my taste. They have the same issue as Warrior and just lack any "oomph" to their magic, but unlike Warrior, they have some built in ways to get round that besides accessories. It's nice the class has Focus and MP Absorb as easy to gain skills. It's a shame that Focus is almost a requirement to make their spells viable before you get Soul of Thamasa. The class is a bit of a glass cannon though. I'm a little disappointed by the magic selection as well. Black Mage has always been a bit more for me than just the trio elemental spells. Overall, not a bad class but a little disappointing.

White Mage - A useful class for sure, but largely because most classes so far are on the flimsy, low-HP side of things. It's nice to have a class that can keep topped off. Cure is useless though due to Pray. The higher spells are a bit more useful but like Black Mage, the class has oomph issue that needs some heavy customization to boost. I do appreciate that Protect, Shell, and Reflect are team cast spells. So this class is great in a pinch. I think my biggest issue is that the class is strangely more fragile than usual for healers in the series. My only other issue is the classes total lack of offensive capabilities without an accessory or Garment Grid hooplah. They are a pure support class which is only annoying due to having a party of three.

Gun Mage - As usual for the Blue Mage class, this one is stronger than it looks. Scan is useless and it's upgrades are worse but the FFV veteran in me is used to this. Fiend Hunter bullets do what I wishes Warriors elemental swords would do in terms of damage. The only the real issue is that the Fiend Bullets only cover about maybe 2/3rds of the monster classes and the most obnoxious fall into that last third. I'm still early with Blue Bullets, but the spells election is already looking stronger than Kimarhi's efforts even if there is some overlap. The only issue is that the spells tend to have a higher cost than I feel they deserve. The other issue is that the game has no effective means to get an enemy to use their ability. I'm annoyed White Wind has been available since Chapter 1, but I can't get an enemy to use it on my Blue Mage because I don't have access to Confusion (which is why Black Mage should have had a better spell selection) and there is no Control ability in this game. Throw in the fact this game has a few more "once and they're gone" spells and this becomes a bit of a nightmare for completionist. Even more annoying, each character has to be hit with a spell to learn it which makes this a mixed bag for me. I appreciate the real offense with the class, but it has some annoying issues with its main function.

Alchemist - Just got this but I can already see where this is going. This biggest issue with the class it it's ridiculous AP cost, but that's balanced by how broken this class can be in practice. Mix is as powerful as it was in FFX so no complaints there. The real brokenness comes from Stash, which allows the Alchemist to use any of it's per-designated item skills for free which included Phoenix Downs and Elixirs. Granted the take more time to use than a normal item but a free item is still a good use and FFX has some overpowered items. Even the free Potion one is useful at this point in time and that's even before we talk about how the support skills increase item potency and boost the speed of using regular items. The guns they use also make them decent fighters as well and the class is surprisingly more solid defensively than is usual for the Chemist class. Overall, a better class than people give it credit for.

[Karifean]

RIP saves. Somehow I'm just assuming it's Queen Coeurls that got you killed.


I've also learned I should have been doing more for the PR campaign so I'm hoping I didn't screw myself for that one.

You actually can't permanently screw yourself at least since you can always still grind out PR points you're missing on the Sky Slots. Costly on gil though and still pretty tedious so better not to count on it.


Gun Mage - As usual for the Blue Mage class, this one is stronger than it looks. Scan is useless and it's upgrades are worse but the FFV veteran in me is used to this. Fiend Hunter bullets do what I wishes Warriors elemental swords would do in terms of damage. The only the real issue is that the Fiend Bullets only cover about maybe 2/3rds of the monster classes and the most obnoxious fall into that last third. I'm still early with Blue Bullets, but the spells election is already looking stronger than Kimarhi's efforts even if there is some overlap. The only issue is that the spells tend to have a higher cost than I feel they deserve. The other issue is that the game has no effective means to get an enemy to use their ability. I'm annoyed White Wind has been available since Chapter 1, but I can't get an enemy to use it on my Blue Mage because I don't have access to Confusion (which is why Black Mage should have had a better spell selection) and there is no Control ability in this game. Throw in the fact this game has a few more "once and they're gone" spells and this becomes a bit of a nightmare for completionist. Even more annoying, each character has to be hit with a spell to learn it which makes this a mixed bag for me. I appreciate the real offense with the class, but it has some annoying issues with its main function.

If nothing else, the Int/HD versions did alleviate the Confusion issue somewhat since Festivalist and Psychic both give very early access to the status ailment. In vanilla your best bet is Lady Luck in Chapter 3 I think, which is also iirc where you get access to a number of new potential blue bullets that make the class shine even more.


Alchemist - Just got this but I can already see where this is going. This biggest issue with the class it it's ridiculous AP cost, but that's balanced by how broken this class can be in practice. Mix is as powerful as it was in FFX so no complaints there. The real brokenness comes from Stash, which allows the Alchemist to use any of it's per-designated item skills for free which included Phoenix Downs and Elixirs. Granted the take more time to use than a normal item but a free item is still a good use and FFX has some overpowered items. Even the free Potion one is useful at this point in time and that's even before we talk about how the support skills increase item potency and boost the speed of using regular items. The guns they use also make them decent fighters as well and the class is surprisingly more solid defensively than is usual for the Chemist class. Overall, a better class than people give it credit for.

Tbh it's widely considered one of the best dresspheres, and rightfully so, since yeah, Stash is where the game's midgame challenge just ends. It just... ends. You'll see what I mean very soon if you haven't already, but really, it takes until the end/postgame until this class starts to struggle remaining near the top. The worst part about it is that it takes almost zero effort.

Don't forget to have at least 1 chocobo captured by the end of Chapter 3 if going for 100%. It unlocks some Chapter 4 scenes that give a few %.

[Wolf Kanno]

Yep, those obnoxious Queen Coeurls got me in the Clasko quest. :lol:

[Wolf Kanno]

I got me some uniforms and I'm sneaking into Leblanc's Chateau. Did the cringy mini-game and got in on the first try, so yay for that!

Pros:

Now that I have the Gold Hairpin and Soul of Thamasa, Black Mage is going to be awesome.
I am not far from getting the best dressphere in the game that isn't Mascot.
Time has been kinder to Leblanc and her cronies for me. I'm finding them far more entertaining this time around compared to the first time.
Finally got an upgrade for the Vanguard Garment Grid which is now my new default.
I find it amusing that despite DVDs being very common place at the time frame, SE chose to make Spheres like magic video cassettes that have been left in a dusty warehouse for too long. Interestingly enough, it reminds me of the data spheres in Secret of Mana.
The dialogue for Kimarhi is amusing because the correct answer is to always tell him to suck it up and figure it out himself. I'm having P2 flashbacks.


Cons:

I love how Leblanc is trolling me with her Blue Magic. :stare:
I don't know why, but I feel like this chapter dragged on way too long.
I find it amusing that the game has been frequent with just having palette swap enemies teaming up with each other. Kind of rubbing it into our face how small the enemy variety was in this game and FFX.
I love that we get a jump button in this game and it's only for the new areas for the most part.
I am so used to having control of the camera. I didn't realize how much this would annoy me but several times so far I've wanted to move the camera to look at something only to be reminded of the fixed camera.

[Wolf Kanno]

Chapter 2 is finished and Chapter 3 has just started.

Pros:

Got my favorite Dressphere Dark Knight
I also gained the amusing Lady Luck dressphere.
I managed to win two really great Garment Grids, Treasure Hunter (Mug), and one that lets me cast white magic.
I got to beat a dog at sphere break.
Though a bit tedious, I made sure to finishe the tower puzzle to get the Ribbon treasure.


Cons:

Drill Shot is a wonderful example of why Gun Mage is not as good as other Blue Mage classes. The skill itself isn't bad, it's just a pain in the ass to gain it, easily missable without a guide, and becomes even more frustrating when you realize you have to get hit with it three times so it drags a fight out way longer than it should be. Basically you get this off a of boss you only fight twice in the game. One who is very aggressive and fast, as well as one that has the defense of wet paper. His spell Drill Shot only activates if you change his HP by either damaging him or healing him 10 times, at which point he'll use the move on the character who last manipulated his HP. That's a little excessive for a mid-tier, single target Blue Magic spell. The only saving grace is that it's easy to manipulate him to get him to attack who you want so you're not wasting even more time making him hit the right person. Seriously though, I'll never understand why the series never let Blue Mages share their spell list after FFV.
The one major flaw with Sphere break is that the RNG can totally screw you over. When I battled the dog, I got a session where they kept pulling 1s, making it impossible to reach the 40 quota within 15 turns goal since using the inner coins doesn't count towards your quota and you have to start a round using one. Not a big deal when it happens once or twice outside of breaking your echo bonus, but a little annoying when it happens seven times of your fifteen turns.
I'm a little disappointed how badly they nerfed Bahamut for shock value. Considering how OP he was in the original, it's a shame the devs chose to make him the first Dark Aeon you fight in the story and a total wimp since you're barely a quarter of the way through the game. Even though he's my least favorite incarnation of the King of Dragons, it was sad they made him a warm up boss.

[Jessweeee♪]

fun fact playing this game made my family think i was a lesbian

Also yeah i can't stand collecting blue magic when the spell list isn't shared. Or, at least let me use it against my own party so they can learn that way if not.

[Karifean]

Pros:

Got my favorite Dressphere Dark Knight
I also gained the amusing Lady Luck dressphere.



I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with the Dark Knight. It's decently powerful but sacrifices a lot of speed for tankiness and comes in around the same time you get other strong attackers (Samurai, Berserker, even Lady Luck) that are significantly faster. Combined with the infinite healing from Alchemist, the dressphere overall is pretty encouraging of *very slow* playstyles which I don't think is where X-2's combat particularly shines, so it kinda sucks. That being said, it is pretty badass.

Grats on getting the Ribbon. There's a lot of nifty little optional treasures to get in that area. I remember being mindblown the first time I realized I could go up the chain wires behind the towers other than the one you come down on and find some decent chests up there.


Cons:


Drill Shot is a wonderful example of why Gun Mage is not as good as other Blue Mage classes. The skill itself isn't bad, it's just a pain in the ass to gain it, easily missable without a guide, and becomes even more frustrating when you realize you have to get hit with it three times so it drags a fight out way longer than it should be. Basically you get this off a of boss you only fight twice in the game. One who is very aggressive and fast, as well as one that has the defense of wet paper. His spell Drill Shot only activates if you change his HP by either damaging him or healing him 10 times, at which point he'll use the move on the character who last manipulated his HP. That's a little excessive for a mid-tier, single target Blue Magic spell. The only saving grace is that it's easy to manipulate him to get him to attack who you want so you're not wasting even more time making him hit the right person. Seriously though, I'll never understand why the series never let Blue Mages share their spell list after FFV.



I beg to differ, the skill is pretty bad. It's just a double damage normal attack, with a charge time. It'd be one thing if it was quad damage at a higher MP than Fiend Hunter to act as a sort of general purpose replacement, but as is it's pretty worthless and sort of a completionist's trap. Doesn't help that Baralai is arguably one of the first boss fights with actual fangs to it.

At least the other two missable skills are both endgame and are defense-ignoring and two of the most powerful physical and magical attacks in the game. And yeah I agree, skill list should be shared. It's annoying to split it for no reason.

[Fynn]

fun fact playing this game made my family think i was a lesbian

Also yeah i can't stand collecting blue magic when the spell list isn't shared. Or, at least let me use it against my own party so they can learn that way if not.

lol I wonder why

First time I experienced the Leblanc massage sequence was when my mom’s student came into the living room and had to wait because my mom wasn’t there. Since the lesson hadnt started yet, I just resumed playing. I was not prepared for what was coming, and I don’t think she was either. Worst part os my mom came back and I had to quit without saving, meaning I had to do it again later

[Wolf Kanno]

I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with the Dark Knight. It's decently powerful but sacrifices a lot of speed for tankiness and comes in around the same time you get other strong attackers (Samurai, Berserker, even Lady Luck) that are significantly faster. Combined with the infinite healing from Alchemist, the dressphere overall is pretty encouraging of *very slow* playstyles which I don't think is where X-2's combat particularly shines, so it kinda sucks. That being said, it is pretty badass.

Grats on getting the Ribbon. There's a lot of nifty little optional treasures to get in that area. I remember being mindblown the first time I realized I could go up the chain wires behind the towers other than the one you come down on and find some decent chests up there.

I will have to get back to you on that assessment. DK was pretty much my prime attacker in my first playthrough. I don't remember much about any of the classes after this one. The tankiness is certainly useful, but the real draw is the built in Ribbon the class has with most of it's support skills giving it natural defense against the worst status effects. I'll come back after I've played with the other classes.

Where I do disagree is that while X-2 is speedy, I feel most of its mechanics and classes work against that speed. I can see why XII and XIII chose to automate the system, because it's frustrating how inefficient the system is with the human element involved. X-2's combat often feels like trying to direct a runaway car. It's fast for sure, but unwieldy.





I beg to differ, the skill is pretty bad. It's just a double damage normal attack, with a charge time. It'd be one thing if it was quad damage at a higher MP than Fiend Hunter to act as a sort of general purpose replacement, but as is it's pretty worthless and sort of a completionist's trap. Doesn't help that Baralai is arguably one of the first boss fights with actual fangs to it.

At least the other two missable skills are both endgame and are defense-ignoring and two of the most powerful physical and magical attacks in the game. And yeah I agree, skill list should be shared. It's annoying to split it for no reason.

To be fair, I haven't used the tech since I got it. I probably overinflated it's usefulness since I was basing it on what it did to my party. ^^;

Baralai is more annoying than anything. The permanent haste effect, the fact his gets multiple actions per turn, and his annoying attack that drains your MP and casts stop on your party make him annoying. But with less than 3500 health he's a bit of a joke. As I kind of mentioned, the challenge was keeping him alive. My Gun Mages could hit him for 1200 damage with a back attack. It was unreal.

I feel the more annoying aspect here is that a few of the spells I'm still waiting to get are left overs from FFX that weren't terribly great to begin with. Seriously, I had to wait until Chapter 3 to earn Seed Shot and Flame Breath? I may have to change some assessments by the end of the game.

[Wolf Kanno]

I have actually been playing this in between my mad bouts of Sekiro... I'm a good ways into Chapter 3. I got stuck on the Machina Madness missions because I kept failing to get the Rikku scene I'll need to make it easier to pin her as the culprit in the mystery mission in the next chapter. I need that Ragnarok accessory because it's shiny and I want it. So having to redo that mission a few times left me little time to go further than I wanted. I did get to spend more time with Dark Knight, Alchemist, and Lady Luck classes, as well as earn Seed Shot and White Wind for the Gun Mage classes. I'll probably write up a thing about the three of them soon. From the look of my guide, it seems like Chapter 3 is when the game just starts handing out dresspheres left and right because by my account, I have three more heading my way very soon.

I haven't even touched the Special Dresspheres, mainly because I remember them being kind of crappy for the amount of effort it takes to summon them and some of their stats seem to be based on how many dresspheres you transformed into before being able to use them. I'll likely wait until the end of the game to really play with them.

[Karifean]

I have actually been playing this in between my mad bouts of Sekiro... I'm a good ways into Chapter 3. I got stuck on the Machina Madness missions because I kept failing to get the Rikku scene I'll need to make it easier to pin her as the culprit in the mystery mission in the next chapter. I need that Ragnarok accessory because it's shiny and I want it. So having to redo that mission a few times left me little time to go further than I wanted. I did get to spend more time with Dark Knight, Alchemist, and Lady Luck classes, as well as earn Seed Shot and White Wind for the Gun Mage classes. I'll probably write up a thing about the three of them soon. From the look of my guide, it seems like Chapter 3 is when the game just starts handing out dresspheres left and right because by my account, I have three more heading my way very soon.

Yeah between Dark Knight (end of Chapter 2), Berserker, Trainer, Samurai, Lady Luck, and arguably Alchemist still, you get basically a full second batch of dresspheres at this point, although all of them are optional so if you're playing blind chances are you'll miss half of them.

(Also you can get Rikku caught without that scene but it's definitely a lot easier with it - DO NOT forget to have Shinra drop his commsphere topside after the mission as well though!)


I haven't even touched the Special Dresspheres, mainly because I remember them being kind of crappy for the amount of effort it takes to summon them and some of their stats seem to be based on how many dresspheres you transformed into before being able to use them. I'll likely wait until the end of the game to really play with them.

I never do either. They are definitely powerful, it's kinda like summoning an aeon in FFX but having three parts to each give commands to and are kinda totally self-sufficient. They're absolutely viable (at least before the postgame, they kinda fall off then since you don't get stats from your accessories on them), but imo not very fun either, so *shrug*.

[Jessweeee♪]

ooouuuuu the commspheres. those things really screw you on a 100% run. I had 3 guides open at one point because they all missed some teeny tiny details here and there.

[Wolf Kanno]

Started this back up again. Just did the first part of the Cactaur Nation quest and I backtracked to get a few more Blue Mage skills including the awful Fire Breath skill and significantly better Heaven's Cataract (damages and lowers magic and magic defense) and the Storm Cannon (Group attack that calculates damage by User's Lv*30) so at least the class now has some better crowd control options. I am definitely digging the Lady Luck, Dark Knight Alchemist combo. It give me the same joy as an FFIII team of Dark Knight, Viking, Bard, and Evoker I used for a little while. While not exactly a great team for boss battles, it is a great team for dealing with trash mobs. I am running into some issues now since I switched Rikku and Yuna's classes with Yuna now being LL and Rikku being an Alchemist so I need to relevle them to regain Tantalize and Mega-Potion Stash. Paine is close to mastering DK and I'll switch her over to Berserker after that. I am a little annoyed by the fact certain enemies only appear in certain chapters. Specifically yhe fact the enemy that knows Mighty Guard appears in the first two chapters (when you have no access to Confusion) but now that I have three classes with the ability, said enemy is gone until Chapter 5. It's not even like Mighty Guard is OP in this entry.

[Karifean]

Nice to see this back as well ^^


Started this back up again. Just did the first part of the Cactaur Nation quest and I backtracked to get a few more Blue Mage skills including the awful Fire Breath skill and significantly better Heaven's Cataract (damages and lowers magic and magic defense) and the Storm Cannon (Group attack that calculates damage by User's Lv*30) so at least the class now has some better crowd control options.

Brings to mind that FFX-2 has two distinct kind of magic attacks. Specifically regular Black Magic is set up so that the move's own power constant is a huge deal, with the caster's magic stat and level being comparatively less important. While almost every other type of magic skill - including Fire Breath and Heaven's Cataract - scales with level and magic stat like a strength skill would, growing in power a lot over time. So the further up you go, the more Fire Breath will just leave the Firaga spell in the dust, for instance. Bit of a shame for the Black Mage job in the midgame but they get thrown a bone when you get to Garment Grids giving access to Flare and Ultima if nothing else.


I am a little annoyed by the fact certain enemies only appear in certain chapters. Specifically yhe fact the enemy that knows Mighty Guard appears in the first two chapters (when you have no access to Confusion) but now that I have three classes with the ability, said enemy is gone until Chapter 5. It's not even like Mighty Guard is OP in this entry.

It is a hassle yeah but I'm pretty sure you can get Mighty Guard from Garik in the Gagazet mission of this chapter. Of course what confused enemies use is random and who they use it on is also random so this kind of thing tends to be a patience game more than it ever should've been. Having some kind of Manipulation ability or learning the skill simply by witnessing it (or at least having the Blue Magic list shared :stare: ) was a real good call in earlier FF games.

[Wolf Kanno]

Yeah the Gun Mage has been a weird class so far. I think only the TA version of the class felt weirder. I do need to check an algorithm faq at some point because I do find the damage algorithms to be a bit weird. Also, why the hell is Stash Ether such an expensive skill? Sure ethers aren't exactly common, but they're also not terribly useful either. Of the four classes I can think of that need it, three of them can gain an MP absorb skill. There is also a Garment Grid that gives you Osmose for the fourth class (white mage) and later on you can gain Garment Grids that let you use Black/White magic innately regardless of your class so you can easily partner it up with a class that can already use said abilities and not have to worry about it. I feel Mega Phoenix and Ether should have switched.

I have been playing with Garment Grids that let you use other skills. Yuna is equipped with one that lets her use White Magic and Paine has one that let's her use Warrior skills. Rikku has one that lets her use Mug which has been nice to rack up AP for the slow Alchemist class. I was hoping this would seriously open up the gameplay more but it's been a bit disappointing instead. White Magic is not as useful as Alchemist Stash skills and largely serves as a backup for when they go down. Even then, it's faster to use an item then cast the spell. Warrior is also more situational than one would think. Dark Knight is just a better class overall. I've also started working with Berserker and I'm remembering why I don't like the class in this game. They made it into a serious glass cannon. Great for trash mobs, but if you encounter something with high agility/hit or something incredibly tanky with high HP and attack power, and the class goes down super quickly.

I'm currently grinding some AP for classes while raising Chocobo levels. I need a few at Level 5 so I can unlock some things later. When I have more time to dedicate to the game, I'll be going to check on the Chamber of the Stolen Fayeth to rescue some snotty nosed tourists.

[Karifean]

I'm currently grinding some AP for classes while raising Chocobo levels. I need a few at Level 5 so I can unlock some things later. When I have more time to dedicate to the game, I'll be going to check on the Chamber of the Stolen Fayeth to rescue some snotty nosed tourists.

You can't get Level 5s before Chapter 5 actually. The max level of chocobos you catch can never go higher than the chapter you're currently in. You can do some pre-work now but the bulk of your chocobo ranching usually needs to wait for Chapter 5. At that point you can also check a chocobo's max level by just talking to them directly inside the ranch, which is handy. And never forget that you can savescum dispatch results just by saving directly before talking to Clasko >_>

[infinite draws]

I absolutely love X-2 not as much as X but just about almost because I unlocked almost everything there is to get in X-2 and i felt that X-2 had more to offer with all the secrets that you can find. I am very proud to say that I have it on Vita and that i recommend it to others to enjoy and experience yet the world in mix review would side less with this game but I love it regardless. I love X way more but X-2 has a place in history for everything you can get and to be honest if only they had "shared" the secrets before release it would have changed EVERYTHING.

[Wolf Kanno]

I'll do a quick assessment of Dark Knight and Lady Luck since I'm flailing on updates and now that I have a new PS3 controller, DMC4 is likely going to be my main thing for awhile.

Dark Knight - Easily my favorite class in this game so far. Part of the reason is that it was the first time the class ever showed up in a playable fashion since FFIV. I mean now, the class is everywhere in the series, but at the time, it was the first time the class had been a player controlled in nearly a decade. The main draw of this class is its tankiness combined with its sheer power. The class has the best natural defenses of any of the classes I'm currently using and it's attack power feels slightly higher than the others. It's innate skills it can learn gives status protection from many of the worst status effects meaning this class is great to combo with an accessory or Garment Grid that offers healing abilites. Hell even the magic stat of this class is no slouch though hardly ideal. Darkness is also just an excellent skill that is great for trash mobs and good against bosses as well since it's non-elemental. The HP cost is fairly low and its also bugged so that 0 Mp cost abilities will negate the HP cost completely making this class better. It's basic attack is also strong and it comes with some useful spells for dealing with enemies and keeping the DK alive. Charon is a throwaway skill, but Black Sky is a pretty good ability and I love the fact it's basically the Meteor spell. It's biggest drawback is how slow it is, but I feel that can be mitigated by the team composition. I never noticed the class being slow while using a team of Alchemist (also a slow class) and Lady Luck (can often muli-attack depending on how good your reels are) whereas I can see teaming it up with a Berserker or Thief would make it painfully obvious how slow the class is. Still, the class beats out these other classes due to it's high survivability and innate protection from several status spells. This is something I've noticed to be a problem with this game as it seems like the combat and classes are really based on a YOLO concept with even traditionally beefy classes like Warrior and Berserker often feeling flimsier than necessary. I'm not surprised this class is often a mainstay for endgame bosses, it really is in a league of its own so far.

Lady Luck - A fun class built on high risk and high reward. Easily it's best qualities is access to it's innate skills which double XP, Items, and Gil as well as making all attacks critical hits. The Dice moves are fairly broken like they were in FFVI, and much like Wakka's Overdrive, the reels are devastating when you get them to line up just right. I do find the item reel to be a bit pointless but the other three are pretty awesome with the melee reels giving you some nice physical attacks with debuffing properties, Magic gives you access to Black Sky and freaking Ultima, while the Random reels can go everywhere from having them cast a basic cure spell on the party to an auto-win move that doubles all your rewards in addition to just winning the fight for you. Granted, Dud is a serious drawback as it will remove 75% of the party's health when activated, but considering the reels are susceptible to the same cheat you can use for Setzer's reels, you can generally avoid this. The class also teaches a skill to raise Luck (crits) and one that can Confuse a whole group of enemies at no MP cost. You also can get Bribe, but I've never found that skill useful outside of item farming late game crap in FFX. I would say the only true drawback of the class is it's low health and defense. It hits surprisingly hard for a class using playing cards, but it's HP and defense are comparable to the Alchemist and pales in comparison to beefier classes like Warrior and Dark Knight. Reels can also be a pain for people since using them without the exploit is dangerous while using the exploit is going to offset the rhythm of battle since you'll be going all MM1 on it. The class also might be the worst dress. I mean they look like cocktail dresses that got fed through a wood chipper. Only Pannacotta Fugo would say their outfits are magnifico!

[Wolf Kanno]

Did the Cavern of the Stolen Fayth missions, which turned into a huge issue. Granted, I caused a lot of my own problems here. I opted to rescue everyone at once instead of just grabbing who I could and making multiple trips back. I had a damn Lure bracelet on so I was getting constantly harassed, and my PS2 controller has seen better days with the should buttons and specifically the Start button not being as responsive as they used to be so I could use the exploit on Lady Luck and saw a lot of Dud reels. I did manage to get Stone Breath for the Gun Mage class and when I finally got around to fighting him, I managed to defeat Yojimbo on my first try despite almost getting a full party wipe out due to my Alchemist getting killed the round before he used the move. I still find it funny that the earliest Aeons you battle are the game breakers.

I checked back on my chocobos, and I had to save scum because I lost all but one of them. Reload later and I only lost one, which I can live with though I now need to hunt me down a Timid Chocobo or two.

I then jumped to Mt. Gagazet where I finally acquired the Trainer class that I had missed during my first playthrough. I then opted to climb the mountain instead of using the teleporters so I can gain some AP and levels... which turned into an old school playthrough due to not taking off the Lure Bracelet. I was getting attacked every two steps and this is one of the longer dungeons in the game. Took me two hours to get to the save point towards the top and I gained seven levels for my party without using Lady Luck. I also managed to learn all the AP skills for Gun Mage, teach everyone Stash Mega Potion and Phoenix Down, and I'm not far from having everyone master Dark Knight. Yuna also managed to master White Mage. While I'm going to leave Alchemist until I acquire some of the AP Up accessories/Garment Grids, I am thinking of spending some more time here to finish mastering up a few classes since I'm using the Mug exploit and the areas weak ass monsters to speed this process up. I feel the biggest issue with the job system in X-2 is that it borrows a bit too much from FFT and makes skills way too expensive. Like I would really like to enjoy Berserker but all of its actual good skills are hidden behind a high pay wall. At least Alchemist throws you a bone and makes Mega-Potion and the double item potency skills inexpensive even if Stash Elixir is the most expensive skill in the game. I also want to play with the Trainer class a bit and maybe master Lady Luck for fun and levels since I would like to hit Via Infinito head on once it opens up. Garik and his planned genocide are just going to have to wait.

[Jessweeee♪]

Via Infinito :ohdear:

I finished it somehow...it was not a good time

[infinite draws]

If everyone knew about the 'secrets' at launch, there maybe much more of a fan following of the game then there is today. I have all the secrets which makes my play-through(s) so much fun to enjoy---but i think they make it more profound for someone to find themselves. It's nowhere near the level of X's story but i think X-2 has the better "extra" material included for a player to uncover.

[Jessweeee♪]

Yeah, doing a 100% run is wild. So many tiny details...so much torture to uncover them all lmao

[Wolf Kanno]

Going to start this back up again.

[Fynn]

Oof

Good luck

[Wolf Kanno]

I escaped from the grind loop that Job Systems have a terrible habit of trapping me in, and finished beating up Garik on Mt. Gagazet. This was funny, because the first time through the game, when I wasn't really trying to go for 100% and was just blazing through, I remember this fight being the first real hassle for me because I was underleveled. This time? I'm around Lv. 60 and have most of the jobs at 50% development, so the little bitch didn't know what hit him. I wish I could have set it up to have him cast Mighty Guard on me, but I don't think I even could if I wanted to. Had some fun checking out Trainer and Berserker. Was definitely more impressed with one over the other, but I'm going to give the weak one a little more time to grow on me. I need to go get my Samurai class as well.

[Christmas]

You doing the remastered version? Heard the monster taming thingy is a pain in the ass. :(

[Vincent, Thunder God]

This I can comment on.

The remaster soundtracks aren't as good.

[Wolf Kanno]

You doing the remastered version? Heard the monster taming thingy is a pain in the ass. :(

Nope, OG version.

[Vincent, Thunder God]

How's it going lately W.K.?