Any of you guys play this shit? It's extremely difficult. I was able to figure out a lot of the mechanics by feeding the Japanese strategy guide to an AI, but even knowing the mechanics doesn't make it much easier. You can find the Japanese version of the game on Steam and there's a complete English patch (though I got a prepatched copy as one does).Basically, it's an RPG/simulator, where you have to build your character while making enough money to stay afloat. You start out with delivery jobs where you make a circuit of various cities and try to run from random ambushes, then when you have enough money to buy armor, you get some companions and start dungeon diving. But there are a lot of newb traps that make your run difficult or frustrating, and it isn't very clear how to use the interface. Tips I learned from the guidebook or figured out:>you need to start with at least 30 dex to run from monsters, otherwise you can't make money in the earlygame>you need to start with at least 30 int to cast spells, otherwise you can only earn int exp by using items, which is slow as fuck>there's only one character in the entire pseudo-randomly-generated set with those two stat values, so pick them>the little orbs next to your stats fill up as you bank potential skill points, up to 10; go to the trainer to cash them out, you save time and money by letting it fill all the way>there are items at the shop that let you detect enemies and they're essential for exterminate quests>if you don't walk into enemies head on, your party formation will be facing the wrong way and you need to use the rotate command to get back in order or your mages will be obliterated>weapons have ranges and you can't use a short range one from the back row. Weapon ranges aren't listed anywhere, you just have to guess
>>4006932The big problem I'm facing right now is that I can't figure out how to gauge an enemy's strength without getting into combat, dying, waiting through the death cutscene, selecting "I don't want to continue playing in this world", going back to the main menu, then reloading my file. This happens once every 5-6 minutes of gameplay and I've given up on the game entirely unless something in the guidebooks I'm scanning fixes it.The game has godlike aesthetics though, and I really want to beat it, so I hope the search turns something up. There are all sorts of super expensive items and difficult quests I'd like to be able to try out but can't unless I get basic combat working.
It's not really a difficult game, the combat is braindead, dungeons are brutally simple, what fucks you over when you start the game is that there's no real way to gauge how good your characters are and the game doesn't ease you in in terms of encounters, you can totally get wiped out in the first encounter because you started in the wrong place and got a bunch of bandits ambush you while you're traveling to the nearby town, you have to learn all the idiosyncrasies on your own and you can't really assume much since the game doesn't explain much.It's fundamentally a sim/management hybrid with "nonlinear" progression, the trick is to save often and sloooowly grind your way into victory by starting off with solo delivery quests, buy better stuff with the money you get from those and once you get better stats and equipment you can think about dungeon crawling and maybe bounty hunting, early on you should avoid those two things like the plague, especially bounty hunting because most bounties are full parties of fully decked advanced characters that can instawipe you.The other problem with the game when you just start is that your main issue is and always will be money management, you need money for everything including traveling, many people fall into the trap of hiring party members immediately which completely fucks you over because now all of your money is shared between party members so your finances spiral out of control because you can't gain money fast enough to offset all your expenses and end up broke and unable to afford better stuff, this creates a rather unpleasant loop of very, very slow grinding for money as it's the only thing that actually matters in the game.
>>4007123Is there a way to tell how strong enemies in random encounters are without just fighting and dying? Or a way to auto escape or literally any option but fighting and dying? Or do you need to grind up the best gear the shops sell with deliveries? Because I saved up $10k and bought what I thought was a decent kit, and I still get housed by every dungeon I try on the first battle. I found one full of vampire bats I could clear but there was no treasure. The extermination quests aren't replacing the spawns for me either, so I can't do them, idk if it's a glitch.