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

[Shlup]

You got out with light and hope or with Light and Hope? Could go either way. xD

[eestlinc]

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

Vanille doesn't have the extra accessory ability in her crystarium yet. Sazh does, but not Vanille. I have both of their crystariums maxed out.

edit: so previously I was going after Enki first (the lighting-weak one). I switched to going after Enlil first (the water-weak one) and succeeded on my first try. I didn't do anything else different, except maybe keeping Vanille on Medic more often. Go figure.

edit 2: Accessory shows up in Vanille's crystarium after you win the battle.

[Shoeberto]

I... beat Bulbasaur and the twins first try without much difficulty. Overall I haven't had much difficulty at all in this game, except for a few random enemies that totally gang up on me.

Sazh is breaking my heart.

[Aruu]

edit: so previously I was going after Enki first (the lighting-weak one). I switched to going after Enlil first (the water-weak one) and succeeded on my first try. I didn't do anything else different, except maybe keeping Vanille on Medic more often. Go figure.

That's what I ended up doing, I kept Vanille on Medic for the entire battle, and Sazh as Ravager. I was about to switch her to Ravager too once one of them had died, but it turns out Sazh pretty much owned them both before I could.

What's awesome is that I got five stars for it; I was so expecting to have lost loads for not switching roles.

Sazh's backstory is heartbreaking.

[finaloblivion]

lol made it out with hope and light...light and hope...either way, i'm alive. the green forest is so breathtaking, and the weather orbs are a nice touch to the gameplay. so i have a minor concern to those who've finised ch 6...

(SPOILER)the chapters are taking 1 to 2 hours on average, and they mostly consist of one dungeon...the story's moving along nicely but im @ ch 7 and thats pretty much halfway as far as chapters go! PLEASE tell me the chapters become longer than this?!?

other than that, i love this game and everything about it. the relationships between the characters and their back stories are so compelling and emotional and quite frankly some of the best that ive seen in a squeenix, or any, game for that matter. kudos to them...after discovering sazh's backstory i just got yanked very hard into seeing how things play out. and ive read the narrative is dissappointing! its one of the strongest things this game has going for it! can i get a woot woot?

[Crop]

I just want to say that I really dislike Vanille and Lightning. I find them both so annoying.
(SPOILER)I love the fact that Hope has had some major character development, he got on my tits at first, but even though it's only taken chapter 5&6 to make him grow, it doesn't seem rushed or anything at all.

[Wolf Kanno]

Finished Chapter 5 and starting 6.

I'm grateful Hope is less whiny and more angry and Lightning finally showed real personality for once. Still, this was probably one of the longest chapter for me cause I am not feeling either character. Hope is less obnoxious than before but I feel it will only be a matter of time before he pisses me off again.

The Bulbasaur fight was pretty tough cause the SOB kept going after Hope and lord knows he's fragile. Not that Lightning isn't any better. This chapter really seemed to just drag on with the high point being the flashbacks with Snow and Serah. I don't know what it is but I find their relationship to be quite touching and not the usual corny (I mean its still corny but less so than previous entries) FF melodrama that Squenix tries to pass as decent romance.

The high point of this chapter was unlocking Launch ability for Lightning. The battle system has now reached DMC homage mode.

Looking forward to Chapter 6 cause I want some back story on Sahz as well as hopefully make Vanille less annoying and more interesting. I'm just a bit annoyed the plot seems to be gearing up a whole play on the Wakka/Rikku relationship from FFX using Sahz and Vanille.

Editga: Finished Chapter 6 and was pleasantly surprised. The boss battle was pretty easy and I'm definetly loving Poison. I'm very happy that Sahz's back story has more twists to it than I was led to believe. The revelations concerning Vanille in Chapter 7 just makes it even more interesting to see how their journey is going to end.

[Karifean]

I'm currently in the Macalania Woods Impersonator in chapter 5, Lightning took over the lead a while ago. Lol, it's fun to get pre-emptive strike on Behemoths and let Lightning bounce 'em till they die. Leveling up Lightning's weapon to Lv. 10 is... wow.
I trained a bit in the beginning of chapter 5, which led to me now collecting CP with Hope and Lightning without being able to spend them... yet. Fortunately, Sazh and Vanille get 'em as well.

I wonder... do you frequently use Lightning's EidolonOdin in battles? Cause I don't, it seems like a waste of MTP and time to me. I'd probably summon him in boss battles, though, but I haven't fought any with Hope'n'Lightning since the end of chapter 4.

Oh, by the way, is it worth leveling up the weapon you get for Lightning in the woods, even if you've leveled the previous weapon to Level 10? Same with Hope's (though his weapon isn't even Level 5).

[Wolf Kanno]

Summons have mostly proven to be a waste of time imo. Their amusing to play with but just using a good Paradigm set up is usually way faster.

[Loony BoB]

From what I've read, there are good times to use summons although I personally never did. I probably would have on occasion if I had thought to - I just kind of forgot about them altogether, to be honest! But the benefits - ie, everyone returns revived and with full health and all status' healed and the enemies are heavily damaged while you're at it - aren't bad at all.

[Raistlin]

I mostly just use them as a break, usually after my first stagger runs out in a long boss fight.

[theundeadhero]

The chapters of character development and backstory.

I really enjoyed these chapters. Hopes development into someone who's more mature made the game more enjoyable, and I liked that, but I find it a bit less realistic. Considering the previous circumstances the way he acted before was exactly what I would expect someone in that situation to be no matter how much it was annoying.

Lightning keeps rocking as always.

Vanille, not much change which isn't bad but (SPOILER)the Sazh cutscene that shows her next to her son while he's lost has me really really curious what's up and then with the end of the chapter scene I expect to find out soon.

Sazh is still my favorite. He works his role perfectly. I love the little bluesy music they always play in the background whenever he's the focus point of a cutscene. It works well with him. I was glad to learn some of his backstory. I can't wait to learn more.

The Day X cutscenes really make this game amazing. They really show characters with some depth to them.

The boss at the end of chapter 5 killed me a few times. Then somehow I managed to destroy it in two minutes just after the first stagger. I have no idea how. Laughed pretty hard though when afterwords the crystarium expanded and I had enough CP to max out everyone's roles after the expansion. Then with the character switch I maxed out all their roles.

The chapter six bosses didn't prove too much. Came in using items to up all my stats, with Vanille as a Saboteur and Sazh as a Commando. After a round switched up to Commando - Ravager and the first boss was down before I knew it. Then I switched to Saboteur - Commando for a round to debuff the other and it was right back to Commando - Ravager. I never even needed to switch to Ravager - Ravager, the gauge built up fast and it was over before I knew it. 5 stars. Of course there were the few instances of making Vanille a medic to heal up.

Haven't used any of the Eidolons yet. I never really do.

[Wolf Kanno]

They are not really worth using except for the odd side effect they have of restoring your whole party for free.