(Chapters 5 & 6 thread) Landfills Galore and the Infinite Forest Adventure

[Drift]

any tips on those scale-y things when the game tells you not to fight them?

[VeloZer0]

I didn't find them hard at all, they just take forever. Be sure to use Libra on the first one, I think they have an elemental weakness. Also be sure to buff/debuff right at the start before you start desperately filling the chain gauge, it is a long fight so it is worth it.

They don't do that much damage, but you won't be able to inflict any serious damage on them unless you stagger them. This usually takes a few minutes, and will most likely take two staggers to kill, so getting Initiative can be the difference between a 5 and 10 minute fight. (I don't remember how long exactly).

[Dignified Pauper]

also, use deceptisols or sneak up from behind and then they are cake.

[Freya]

I'm right after the whole Sahz thing cutscene thing. I haven't been able to play it as much as everyone else with their marathon gaming but i'm in no rush. I just got to the weather things but had to stop there. It's fun but I'm just not that compelled to make marathons out of the game.

[Del Murder]

I'm right after the whole Sahz thing cutscene thing. I haven't been able to play it as much as everyone else with their marathon gaming but i'm in no rush. I just got to the weather things but had to stop there. It's fun but I'm just not that compelled to make marathons out of the game.

Same here. I don't like blowing through the game because then it's over too quickly.

Bulbasaur wasn't that hard but I died once because I stopped paying attention to Lightning's HP for a few seconds.

The porcupines weren't that hard, they just take a while. I only killed one for the datalog entry because the rewards for the time invested aren't worth it.

[sr5punk]

best place to farm for cp and little items is the beginning of chapter 5 the gapra whitewood with the leeches. real quick battles, 104 cp and gummy oil drops. knocking out the cp real quick!

[eestlinc]

am I the only one who keeps getting crushed by the two giant boss things, Enki and Enlil?

[Crowseye]

I got owned by the two boss guys the first time.

(SPOILER) Enlil has some uber Raging Tempest attack that can wipe you (Enlil is Lightning-strong, Water-weak, and Enki is the opposite I believe). I think it's possible to kill him before he gets it off if you're fast enough. Anyway, you may want to use Spark Rings to help mitigate some of the damage.

After you're buffed with Sazh as a Synergist, seems best to just focus entirely on Enlil with Commando+Ravager and Ravager+Ravager until he's dead (and keeping your party's HP from getting too low by switching Vanille to a Medic temporarily of course).

Make sure you use Libra (or a Librascope, which is Libra on all enemies) so the AI knows what abilities to use for each Paradigm role. I believe Enlil has a weakness to poison so you might want to try having Vanille apply it on him as a Saboteur early in the fight while Sazh is buffing as a Synergist. You can try throwing on Deshell and Deprotect also -- a Saboteur has a similar effect on the Stagger bar as a Commando, but without nearly as much damage -- but don't waste the whole fight trying to do it if they don't stick (which is what happened to me the first time).

And as with many difficult enemies, getting Staggers and killing quickly is a key to winning -- the longer something lives, the much worse off you're going to be.

----

Anyway, I felt the story started to drag a bit in these chapters. We get a bit more character insight and some backstory, which is certainly nice, but the main storyline is still stalled until we get to Palumpolum and Nautilus. A couple of hours of exposition is kinda meh, particularly when you're being forced to fight with two unchangeable two-person parties.

I get the whole formula where you draw the audience in with an exciting introduction, then take a break which you use to introduce the characters more intimately, but following Chapter 4 this just seemed to take a bit too long for what we got IMO.

I'm also getting a bad itch to do something other than follow the maps to their end, except that I can't. Tried messing around with the upgrade system, but you still don't have enough of the nice base items, components, or cash to do too many cool things with it yet.

[Loony BoB]

I think it's well paced, if only because the length of the game overall is pretty insane.

[Aruu]

Crowseye, thank you so much! I was having so much trouble with those guys.

[eestlinc]

I can hang in for a while against those two but it seems like at some point in every fight, I accidentally heal Sazh when I meant to heal Vanille, and right when I do so, both bosses attack Vanille and I have to start again. Very frustrating.

[Aruu]

That's my problem too, every single time they both team up on Vanille; even if she's healing it gets her killed because they just both relentlessly go for her and not Sazh.

Ahh, frustrating!

[Del Murder]

Unlock her second accessory slot and give her two HP bands. That should keep her alive long enough for her to cure herself.

[Digital Phoenix]

The game is seriously starting to ramp up. About time too. I was losing hope for awhile, but now I'm really loving the battle system. I just think it's ridiculously easy. The giant Bulbasaur boss at the end of chapter 5 was hard as hell at first... I almost took him out without using the Paradigm Shift that causes Hope to cast Protect, Shell, and other defensive spells. I seriously thought I had him, but then he killed me. So close!

Then I used that one Paradigm Shift mechanic I mentioned earlier, and it was an absolute breeze. Everything so far has been ridiculously easy, but it is still fun. The chapter six bosses weren't so great, though.

[finaloblivion]

aaahh...just got out of that terrible smelly garbage heap with light and hope. and now im in some sort of bionic forest. still loving every second of the game...tired of reading bad reader reviews from people who consider FF XI to be one of the best games in the series...and im coming up on...a giant plant thing.