A Curious Case of the Threes: Etrian Odyssey and Shining Force

So I beat Etrian Odyssey III last week. The last boss actually wasn't too tough; I brought along some restorative items and was fine on my second try. My first try would have succeeded had I had any revival items, because the bastard got a lucky hit on my monk, meaning he wasn't able to heal at all for the last quarter of the bosses health. He wasn't difficult at all, really.

But I must write about the horrible, horrible 19th and 20th floors of the final stratum. You see, I thought the first two floors of that stratum were pretty fun! There were rooms where you couldn't see anything on the radar, and had to map them completely blind (i.e. without the little arrow icon to show you where you are). I enjoyed that and thought the puzzles with the FOEs in those rooms were hard but fun! But then the game throws in warps. Warps where you travel into a square one way, and then it teleports you to a set place on the map. Which wouldn't be so bad IF I HAD ENOUGH UNIQUE ICONS TO PLACE TO MARK EACH INDIVIDUAL WARP GODDAMMIT! But no! There are like 20 different warps on both the 19th and 20th floors and I have to use the stupid little pink arrow, write a letter, and then zoom the map in every time I go to those floors to figure out where the fuck I'm going to end up. The mapping system was not built for this and it's really annoying.

That aside, I've played two floors into the bonus stratum, and I don't know how far I'll be going. There's slippery floors and damage tiles, and I've already had to go up and down multiple floors to make progress. In other words, mapping the place is a pain, and the really powerful (and sometimes just weird) enemy lineups don't help. There is an enemy whose only purpose is to switch the positions of two of your characters!

But anyway, I think that will be it for Etrian Odyssey III around here for a while.

I've played a few more battles into Shining Force III and I'm still enjoying it. There is an unique little feature where if two of your characters stand next to each other, every so often their "Friendship" will go up - which confers bonuses to them if they are ever near each other again in the future. For example, Synbios, my main character, and Masquirin, my Wizard, are "friends" and get an attack boost (for Synbios) and a magic boost (for Masquirin) when they stand next to each other. Little icons even pop up over their heads when there is a bonus to be conferred! Which is awesome and means I'll likely use these bonuses.

Anyway, as far as moving around the towns and such go, I'm really impressed by what Sonic Team did with the little old Saturn. The load times in this game are good - so good, in fact, they eclipse even current gen games. When you go in and out of a house, or in and out of battle, there is virtually no wait time - a little more than the Genesis Shining Forces, but for a 32 bit console, they are pretty much nonexistent. I've heard (I think on Retronauts) that Sonic Team used the sound processor to kind of rope extra data along whenever you move in and out of areas/battles, so I suppose that's why? I'm not sure, but either way, it's MUCH appreciated. I expected to have to wait seconds at a time for anything to happen (like in the PS1 Final Fantasies) but I do not have to wait long, here. Even saving is really quick!

Plotwise? Well, you know. Standard Shining Force fare, I would say, so far. There was a peace conference between two countries, and a third party came in and kidnapped the leaders of one of the countries and made it look like the other country did it. Hijinks ensue! But I've heard it gets pretty interesting, so we'll see.

I've been enjoying the music so far, although it isn't as bombastic as the Shining Force II soundtrack. That's okay, though. I haven't heard anything bad yet.

Except the voice acting. Some of the worst I've ever heard. And the guy in that link? I don't even have him yet! I'm not looking forward to it... Why even put voice acting in the game if it is going to be that godawful? I mean, even back then, when voice acting was so new, you HAD to know how bad that was. So terrible. But, spirits help me, I must play more!