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[NovumAngel]

Platform: Nintendo 3DS
Developer: Cattle Call
Publisher: FuRyu, Atlus USA
Release Dates: NA & EU: March 27, 2018, JP: June 22, 2017
Genre: RPG
Price: $39.99, €39.99 (Digital Only in Europe, ~13,000 blocks). Demo available in NA/EU carries over, up to, 4,000 talent points to full game.
Official Website: Link

Metacritic: 73
OpenCritic: 76 (Strong)

 

[NovumAngel]

Played about 2 hours so far, kinda sucked that you had to repeat the Museum from the demo but it didn't take too long.

Also, the game doesn't mention it but if a party member faints in battle they can still be targeted by an enemy. Damage taken then will temporarily reduce their max HP until you rest at an inn. Leavrned that harsh lesson with Galil severly handicapped deep in the forest.

 

[sotojuan]

Picked up my copy this morning and been sitting at work looking at it. Can't wait to play it during my commute!

 

[staen]

Played about 2 hours so far, kinda sucked that you had to repeat the Museum from the demo but it didn't take too long.

Wonder why they didn't allow progress transfer as most Atlus demos, including The Legend of Legacy's, do.

Also, the game doesn't mention it but if a party member faints in battle they can still be targeted by an enemy. Damage taken then will temporarily reduce their max HP until you rest at an inn. Leavrned that harsh lesson with Galil severly handicapped deep in the forest.

Yeah, this was the case in The Legend of Legacy as well. Not sure why it isn't mentioned anywhere because AA does a much better job of explaining stats and mechanics than LoL ever did. Maybe they just assumed people played that game. Also, not sure if it's the case with AA, but in LoL, it was possible for your max HP to drop to 1 and if that character were to die again you'd get a game over screen.

 

[staen]

Did anyone bother to try and kill the water devils and spider in the beginning area? In the demo, I struggled against the water devils for quite awhile but managed to take a few down without realizing there were much stronger weapons available at the chaosium gem shop. Once I got the grave digger, I was able to 2 shot one of the water devils(~460 dmg per hit). Spider was a little trickier because both the spider and the enemies that accompany it can use an aoe attack. I think the spider itself doesn't have much health though. I'm hoping those chaosium gem weapons aren't too OP. LoL had this problem with being able to obtain incredibly strong weapons early game. There does seem to be a limited amount of obtainable chaosium gems in the demo at least.

Looks like my copy should be arriving tomorrow!

 

[NovumAngel]

Did anyone bother to try and kill the water devils and spider in the beginning area? In the demo, I struggled against the water devils for quite awhile but managed to take a few down without realizing there were much stronger weapons available at the chaosium gem shop. Once I got the grave digger, I was able to 2 shot one of the water devils(~460 dmg per hit). Spider was a little trickier because both the spider and the enemies that accompany it can use an aoe attack. I think the spider itself doesn't have much health though. I'm hoping those chaosium gem weapons aren't too OP. LoL had this problem with being able to obtain incredibly strong weapons early game. There does seem to be a limited amount of obtainable chaosium gems in the demo at least.

Looks like my copy should be arriving tomorrow!

I was in the forest and took a little detour to get a chest when one of them appeared in the water beside me. The characters made a big deal about it and suggested staying away from it but i was being stupidly brave and thought I could hug the wall and avoid it but sadly didn't. This is how I learned about the health thing I mentioned above btw, haha.
Where abouts is that gem shop? It was mentioned when I picked up the gem but it never mentioned where the shop was.

 

[staen]

I was in the forest and took a little detour to get a chest when one of them appeared in the water beside me. The characters made a big deal about it and suggested staying away from it but i was being stupidly brave and thought I could hug the wall and avoid it but sadly didn't. This is how I learned about the health thing I mentioned above btw, haha.
Where abouts is that gem shop? It was mentioned when I picked up the gem but it never mentioned where the shop was.

The gem “shop” can be found at the inn of the first town. It's actually sold by one of the beastfolk sitting at one of the tables.

I got destroyed the first time I fought a water devil too but I actively sought one out in the world map, which I think are actually harder than the one you fight in the forest. Thought I'd be fine since I had played LoL but I guess not. I was kinda thrown off when I saw that you cannot create your own formations at the beginning of AA but I believe you unlock this feature later.

You have to be a bit careful about how you initiate combat with water devils. I believe if their arms grab you to initiate combat, you cannot retreat from them. This was wrong. I think it's just the one in the forest you can't retreat from?

 

[sotojuan]

So I'm at the part where

Spoiler

you escape from the big bad daemon that the old man stalls and Renzo/Barbarosa stay to fight

. Few questions:

* Should I be focusing on one weapon type for each character vs many at the same time?
* What is the best thing to spend talent points on?

One thing I noticed is that the random encounters/critters are very weak and easy. Does this change? I don't mind it but I don't feel motivated to play around with strategy or line ups if I win in two turns by choosing a 1 SP attack every time. The problem with this is that fights that are hard, like

Spoiler

Druid in the Living Forest

I do not really know what to do aside from attacking or maybe moving people back. I barely managed to beat that enemy with half my party dead.

 

[DarthPablo]

This is the first rpg for the 3ds in a long time I won’t be getting Day 1. I loved LoL, but playing through the demo for this just didn’t do anything for me.

 

[staen]

So I'm at the part where

Spoiler

you escape from the big bad daemon that the old man stalls and Renzo/Barbarosa stay to fight

. Few questions:

* Should I be focusing on one weapon type for each character vs many at the same time?
* What is the best thing to spend talent points on?

One thing I noticed is that the random encounters/critters are very weak and easy. Does this change? I don't mind it but I don't feel motivated to play around with strategy or line ups if I win in two turns by choosing a 1 SP attack every time. The problem with this is that fights that are hard, like

Spoiler

Druid in the Living Forest

I do not really know what to do aside from attacking or maybe moving people back. I barely managed to beat that enemy with half my party dead.

I'm not as far as you so I'm not sure I can be of much help but there is a Japanese wiki. There may be some content spoilers and such in here:

https://kamikouryaku.com/alliance-alive

Also, if you aren't already, you should be using a shield+defense stance. Defensive skills in defense stance will cover your entire party.

This is the first rpg for the 3ds in a long time I won’t be getting Day 1. I loved LoL, but playing through the demo for this just didn’t do anything for me.

I was hoping to see some opinions of this game by others who also loved LoL. What about the demo did you not like? For me, the biggest concern is lack of difficulty. Impressions I've seen say the main game is pretty easy but with difficult side content.

 

[NovumAngel]

The gem “shop” can be found at the inn of the first town. It's actually sold by one of the beastfolk sitting at one of the tables.

I got destroyed the first time I fought a water devil too but I actively sought one out in the world map, which I think are actually harder than the one you fight in the forest. Thought I'd be fine since I had played LoL but I guess not. I was kinda thrown off when I saw that you cannot create your own formations at the beginning of AA but I believe you unlock this feature later.

You have to be a bit careful about how you initiate combat with water devils. I believe if their arms grab you to initiate combat, you cannot retreat from them. This was wrong. I think it's just the one in the forest you can't retreat from?

Cool thanks, I'll have to take a look.
I've only fought the water devil in the forest and you couldn't retreat from that one, I assumed it was because they had warned you not to go that way.

One thing I noticed is that the random encounters/critters are very weak and easy. Does this change? I don't mind it but I don't feel motivated to play around with strategy or line ups if I win in two turns by choosing a 1 SP attack every time. The problem with this is that fights that are hard, like

Spoiler

Druid in the Living Forest

I do not really know what to do aside from attacking or maybe moving people back. I barely managed to beat that enemy with half my party dead.

I've noticed this as well, going from almost one-shotting the common encounters to getting a challenge from anything else.
I didn't have as much trouble with

Spoiler

Druid in the Living Forest

(besides Galil succumbing to a horrible fate again) but that may have been down to a different formation, etc. and if that's how boss/higher level fights go in the future then I'm fine with that.

 

[staen]

Got my copy last night. The artbook isn't really what I typically expect from an artbook. Most of it consists of character profiles with one portrait, some info and some in-game screenshots....Legend of Legacy's artbook had actual concept art designs with artist notes but there isn't anything like that here.

I wasn't aware that after the museum

Spoiler

you're forced to start chapter 3 and take Renzo and Barbarosa. I wanted to wander around and tackle water devils with Galil and Azura again . Water devils are much more manageable with a party of 4. I chain battled two of them with no one fainting. I guess I could try my hand at fighting two at once. I've withheld buying chaosium gem weapons for now as they seem a little OP.

I've noticed from fighting the water devils that one of their attacks seem to target more than one row. I use Azura as support and saw she was getting hit a lot in the “all around” formation when my tank in front was the one being attacked even though she's positioned all in the way in the back. When I switched to the “great wall” formation,which places her two rows over instead of one, she wasn't getting hit by the water devil's charge attack anymore. Row positions relative to others(and probably just proximity in general) seem important and not just whether you're in the front/back.

Even though the water devil having an aoe attack may seem obvious , I've noticed sometimes enemy aoe attacks sometimes don't hit both of my characters and other times they do despite being in the same formation/positions. It may be targeting a different character and possibly has a triangular like aoe that I often see from my own skills but I can't really tell.

For talents, I feel SP regeneration and lowering SP on skills are the most important. Being able to continually rely on strong defense/healing skills is extremely useful in tougher fights.

I'm not sure if it's mentioned in game, but choosing who your lead is outside of combat affects the comments they make slightly. It's more like different flavoring than actual different content from my experience. Some examples from the museum:

Spoiler

 

[staen]

So I fought the enemy you guys were talking about and had similar experiences. There isn't much you can do in that fight aside from just dealing as much damage as possible and occasionally healing. Most of its attacks seem to be magic based and the shield skills don't seem to work against them. If the enemy targets Azura or Galil with their single target spell, they're pretty much dead. It did ~200 dmg with its spell and neither of those two had anywhere near that HP. Its AOE also seems unavoidable. It is an optional fight though and you may not want to take on all optional fights because

Spoiler

some of these optional enemies can be recruited to guilds later if you don't kill them

 

[PrinnyBomb]

Didn't realize this game had already come out! Will have to run over to Best Buy and hope they still have launch copies in stock

 

[staen]

Tackled the water devils and the spider with just 2 characters again. I was a good deal stronger in the demo than in the main game, so I was wondering how it'd feel without having grinded or used chaosium gem weapons. Only 2 characters without any custom formations feels very limiting. I found the best thing to do is just try to disperse the damage between the two to allow your damage dealer to consistently deal as much damage as possible even if it comes at the cost of one the characters fainting. As long as I get sufficient damage done, it doesn't matter how badly wounded my characters are. This is different from LoL, where harder battles could last a long time so you had to focus a great deal on keeping everyone alive and safe.

I think the game devs' intention with placing chaosium gems in the lakes are that you actually fight the water devils to obtain them. But you can easily runaway from the enemy, causing them to disappear, then just pick up the chaosium gem and leave before they respawn. In the North Cape Cave, they use water devils as an obstacle towards loot a little better as it is hard to avoid them without getting into a chain battle. I don't really like the idea of abusing retreat so I actually fought my way through the water devils in both the lakes and the cave, which was pretty rewarding. Awakened a strong G. Sword skill, ”Crushing Blow”, that ended up being the deciding factor in taking down my first water devil without

Spoiler

Barbarosa and Renzo

Not sure how I want to build Galil and Azura right now. Initially kept spear/sword on Galil, then switched to sword/shield then switched to sword/G.Sword. I think the highest single target damage weapons are the G. Sword and the Axe, so I needed at least one of those for tougher fights. For Azura, even though she has low AGI, and therefore may not be the best healer, I'm still making her my signimancy user as it seems to fit her character. Not sure what I want to do weapon wise, but FOC apparently affects bow/spear damage too so those are probably ideal. Some people tested this on gfaqs, and apparently AGI affects pierce damage, not FOC. I was actually wondering why people kept saying Renzo was bad with a bow when I had good results with him. Just assumed I was so early game I couldn't tell.

Was poking around the Atlus site and saw different stances(“positions”) are in. Was worried they weren't as I haven't seen them mentioned:

 

[staen]

Switching your lead also affects NPC dialogue sometimes, like when talking to beastfolk with a human vs other races. From the Burning Realm:

Spoiler

 

[NovumAngel]

Finished up the Burning Realm with a little bit of a struggle. Ran into a few water devils along the way and Ignace's max HP was cut to less than half of the max, granted I probably could have prevented some of that , but yeah trucked along anyway and beat the boss on the second go after some adjustments.

Up to Chapter 13 now, finally have a 5 person party together so it's time to start messing around with the formations a little.

 

[staen]

Haven't gotten to play much so I'm still on Chapter 8. Some minor Ch. 8 spoilers

Spoiler

So I know it was meant to be a joke, but I was wondering how believable it was that Tiggy kept referring to two Daemons as her servants. Aren't Daemons on top of the social hierarchy? But then you get to the Blue Oasis and see that the social structure is completely broken down here so something like two Daemon being servants seem a bit more plausible.

I'm glad offensive magic doesn't seem like garbage in this game like LoL, though I suppose it is still early. Sorcery Sword is pretty cool too even though it's kind of a hassle to use in regular battles. Vivian seems pretty weak without it but does 4-5x damage with it. I haven't tested it yet, but I'm assuming using Final Strike with Sorcery Sword doesn't actually damage any of your physical equipment? Because that's a pretty neat use. Just summon it, if you haven't already, when you get ignition and get a free final strike.

I've come across a few situations where you're offered choices. I'm assuming they only affect side content, but it's kind of nice to have some actual choices in a jrpg.

At the Blue Oasis, did you guys

Spoiler

kill the monster or let it leave? I decided to just kill it. Ordered to do a job, gotta get it done .

Also, what choice did you guys make at the hunting ground?

Spoiler

I chose to kill the hunters. Then kill the beasts. Spare no one! I'm not sure what happens if you choose to not kill the beasts because they don't look like special npcs that can join guilds...

 

[NovumAngel]

At the Blue Oasis

Spoiler

I let the monster go, after killing off the Dryad I thought I'd let this one go just to see what happens. We went back to report on the job and the guy messes with Tiggy telling her initially that she didn't fulfill her end of the bargain so she starts storming off only for him to give us the part anyway.

About the hunting ground

Spoiler

I'm guessing that was in the Burning Realm somewhere? I must have missed that one unfortunately.

I have to say that at the moment I'm really liking the party members, it's usually the norm to have a couple you don't like, but the dynamics and interactions between them is well done and, as you mention, pretty funny in some parts.

 

[Turnip Truck]

Great OT! I'm poking my way through the demo right now and I like it so far. Is it helpful to have played LoL first, or can I get through this without having played the predecessor?

 

[staen]

Great OT! I'm poking my way through the demo right now and I like it so far. Is it helpful to have played LoL first, or can I get through this without having played the predecessor?

As far as I can tell, the two games are unrelated so no need to play through LoL first.

 

[staen]

Currently on chapter 15.

For the Blue Oasis, I'm wondering if

Spoiler

it affects anything with Blue later down the line? Kinda weird that we get the same result regardless of our choice there

I didn't think the water devils in the burning realm were that bad. Much easier than the water devils in the rain realm, but I think there's a big difference in party strength. The

Spoiler

boss at the end on the ship is at least a lot tougher than the boss you had to fight as galil/azura.

Did you mess around with Tiggy's blast/precision mode? The unique weapon skills houndkiller/wyrm blast are really powerful. Unlike regular arts, it doesn't seem like you can level up their position levels but their base damage seems so much higher than regular skills. Usually did around ~300 damage with them. Thought something was wrong with her precision mode at first but I think the weapon unique skills are just that strong...Also did test sorcery sword final strike. It does seem to just use up the sorcery sword but since the battle ended I didn't see if I could resummon it again. I don't see any reason why you couldn't. Final strikes are pretty ridiculous at this point in the game....Had to withhold using final strikes/tiggy's unique weapon skills to give myself a bit more challenge for tougher fights, but they come in handy in random skirmishes. Did you fight the giant butterfly in the burning realm? I think it was probably the hardest fight I had there

Spoiler

with maybe the exception of the boss at the ship

Choice in Ch. 12/13(can't remember which chapter it was)

Spoiler

Did you kill the beastfolk outside the pub or just left them alone? I killed them at first just to see what would happen, then reloaded and decided to not kill them, but I didn't see if this gets you a different reaction when heading inside the beastfolk garrison. Killing them reminded me a lot of what a certain incident in Baldur's Gate, where doing the seemingly right thing just leads to more bloodshed.

A lot of JRPGs usually do end up having some annoying characters for me too, but I've felt the cast is perfectly fine in this game. Also, the moment when

Spoiler

the ship reaches Galil/Azura and they meet up with Tiggy and co. is pretty great.