Barry of Wrath

[crawfors]

lmao!
have you now slain the Vampire?

[jincyk]

Yes!

[kimo]

I got the Mortal Flame from the Phoenix. But, where is the vampire? I've been away from playing on a regular basis, so I have forgotten what's next. The King is useless because he just keeps saying to "go the the forest NW of here" acting as if the party doesn't have the Mortal Flame. Is there something I haven't triggered? Or, is the vampire in Castle Tzimisce where those 2 idiots are now blocking?

Also, I didn't realize only Tinctures are available for purchase, so I think I have been using the HP/MP potions too often. Is this what the thief was meant to provide?

[Lady JJ]

I think you have to engage in battle with the vampire and have one of your players use the Mortal Flame on him to stop his regenerative powers.

Later towns will sell potions that will store 25, then 50, then 100 mana points. The thief only steals what's going to drop anyway, so no use wasting her turns stealing. Better to level up her skills.

Also, as your players reach level 30, don't waste the VE points on increasing ordinary stats (hit point, attack, etc). Only use them on the skills on the lower end of the list, the ones that will say 'learned' after you've used them. I made the mistake of using up all my VE points when Barry and Traz reached 30 and now I have 'learnable' VE skills that I can't take advantage of because I'm not earning enough VE points. Traz I can understand, but I've never taken Barry out of the rotation so I'm a little disappointed he's not earning enough. Lesson learned, though, for me. I didn't make that mistake with the other players. I only apply the VE points to the lower end of the list that show 'learned' after.

[kimo]

I think you have to engage in battle with the vampire and have one of your players use the Mortal Flame on him to stop his regenerative powers.

Later towns will sell potions that will store 25, then 50, then 100 mana points. The thief only steals what's going to drop anyway, so no use wasting her turns stealing. Better to level up her skills.

Also, as your players reach level 30, don't waste the VE points on increasing ordinary stats (hit point, attack, etc). Only use them on the skills on the lower end of the list, the ones that will say 'learned' after you've used them. I made the mistake of using up all my VE points when Barry and Traz reached 30 and now I have 'learnable' VE skills that I can't take advantage of because I'm not earning enough VE points. Traz I can understand, but I've never taken Barry out of the rotation so I'm a little disappointed he's not earning enough. Lesson learned, though, for me. I didn't make that mistake with the other players. I only apply the VE points to the lower end of the list that show 'learned' after.

Thanks for all that advice, it will come in handy. But where is the vampire located?

[MerryX]

@Kimo
From memory, I think the Vampire is in Tzimisce Castle guarded by the two idiots on the small island SW from the useless King. My notes are a bit spotty, I'm afraid Love your descriptors

Ahha, just seen Lady JJ's post and knew she'd have kept better notes to help And her point about the VE points are spot on - you can adjust the stats mostly with judicious equipping but the extra skills to learn are really important.

With the tinctures, I have just been buying them when I can afford. As you go along you get more gold and it's not a drama. I tend to load up on Mana tinctures and later potions as that can help keep everyone healthy. The thief, Yanna, can be useful for stealing but mainly it's the debilitating poison/venom. I wouldn't rely on her to steal enough for your team.

On another note, you sound crazy busy what with the weather events and work on the vineyard. My sister and brother-in-law are part owners in a winery out in western Queensland near Stanthorpe on the Granite Belt. I hear many stories of the continual work and worry of tending a vineyard interspersed with most recently black frosts, drought, floods, and fire I actually live on the Gold Coast down the southern end about 30-40 minutes from Surfer's Paradise How's that for a coincidence! And so far, no I've never been to Carnarvon Gorge but anyone who has gone says it is well worth it.

MerryX

[MerryX]

@ Crawfors
it's embarrassing but played for 97 hours
I loved all those relics especially the sword "Athos" with 1 of the relics on Barry and Melody really improved their stats on level up - both attack and Magic

@Catsmeow
I am quite sure my game play time is going to be similar to that - I think Crawfors LIED to us when he said rather humbly... "Players who are familiar with my games know I also underestimate the playtimes a bit ... my description says 20 but I expect you to be closer to 30+"
Either that or he vastly underestimated our tenacity and/or stubbornness

@Crawfors
I've noticed too a pattern where just when you think the game is coming to a close you add in a spin/additional challenge/quest to extend the fun I rather like that

MerryX

[kimo]

@Kimo
From memory, I think the Vampire is in Tzimisce Castle guarded by the two idiots on the small island SW from the useless King. My notes are a bit spotty, I'm afraid Love your descriptors

Ahha, just seen Lady JJ's post and knew she'd have kept better notes to help And her point about the VE points are spot on - you can adjust the stats mostly with judicious equipping but the extra skills to learn are really important.

With the tinctures, I have just been buying them when I can afford. As you go along you get more gold and it's not a drama. I tend to load up on Mana tinctures and later potions as that can help keep everyone healthy. The thief, Yanna, can be useful for stealing but mainly it's the debilitating poison/venom. I wouldn't rely on her to steal enough for your team.

On another note, you sound crazy busy what with the weather events and work on the vineyard. My sister and brother-in-law are part owners in a winery out in western Queensland near Stanthorpe on the Granite Belt. I hear many stories of the continual work and worry of tending a vineyard interspersed with most recently black frosts, drought, floods, and fire I actually live on the Gold Coast down the southern end about 30-40 minutes from Surfer's Paradise How's that for a coincidence! And so far, no I've never been to Carnarvon Gorge but anyone who has gone says it is well worth it.

MerryX

@MerryX
Thanks very much. I thought that newly acquired key from somewhere was probably the next step. I am now up north in a town with many goodies for sale ... finally. I was confused because that King kept telling the party to go to the forest NW of his castle.

Yes, @Lady_JJ keeps incredible notes. That's also the reason I like a PDF game guide to use for entering notes. She and I beta test games for occasional people on another site (rpgmakerweb) and we always seem to catch different things while trying to find game glitches. One of my favorite things about this game has been mentioned by her earlier; the lack of game issues and complaints during the first days of a release.

So, what are the odds you live in the Gold Coast area? It's not like it's a small country. Yep, farming of any kind is basically legalized gambling. And grapes are no exception. I might have been to the wine area you're talking about since there's not many wineries in QLD, but I definitely remember a fantastic Port winery in Roma. The have port wine with an average age of 50-75 years old.

Carnarvon Gorge is definitely worth a look if you ever get a chance and enjoy hiking.

[crawfors]

how are we doing out there?

How are Barry and friends? LOL

[MerryX]

how are we doing out there?

How are Barry and friends? LOL

Yes, yes we're still here beavering away - or at least I am. Currently, finished Balrog and got the Holy Glove so I'm taking some time to level up everyone to around Level 50. I want to keep my options open about who to use in the final team.

As time is going by, I am appreciating a few more subtleties - e.g., Eber is actually pretty powerful and much lighter on the mana usage than Ailey and Paragon. Currently I am trying to level up Saya to see if she/he develops further although I am not always keen on a "loose cannon" who I can't direct their game play. I may be wasting my time there but I'll give it a go.

I am sooo tempted to sneak over to 7th Star to try it out but I am resisting...so far

MerryX

[crawfors]

oh heck! you are pretty close to the end.
i promise you'll get more than enough levels in the pyramid! hahaha

and seya- yeah she's kinda useless at high levels- i actually thought about not letting her be playable in the second half of the game, but i figured eh, what can it hurt.

i wouldn't waste time leveling her though.

[crawfors]

you also asked why it felt like you leveled faster in the second half with the new group---
answer:

because you do!
the way i scaled it, was so you could progress the game a bit faster and catch the new group up to the old group

so at lower levels (krump/paragon etc) you're getting higher experience than Barry's team did from the same difficulty of monsters.

[kimo]

Just experienced my 1st party split and now have a king in charge. At least I finally found out who could use that Vampire claw. I like that bosses/mini-bosses drop major items that make them so difficiult. But I have never had to restart a boss fight because battle balancing is good, if you use a good strategy.

Is there any issue with using the best weapons/armor available to equip the king's party? It sounds like the new party will be used for quite a while. I just don't want to lose stuff during a future party change.

This game just keeps getting better. Challenging, not boring enemy encounters, good story, and the closest game quality to what Indy creates. Other developers take note. @crawfors is creating games that make yours pale in comparison.

And for every one who has not played this game, the demo is 2.5 hours or so. It may be a bit higher than $14.99, but the content/play time is definitely worth the price.

And if you like exploring, there are optional places like an ice cave filled with goodies. With some luck, you can often "Escape" from battles when you get tired of the encounter rate.

[Lady JJ]

@kimo-There are lots of good equip to find from now on so don't worry about saving anything in inventory. The only thing I might save is that Zodiak relic you find in the King's bedroom. You'll find another pretty quickly after your next party, but it helps to have both as soon as possible.

[MerryX]

oh heck! you are pretty close to the end.
i promise you'll get more than enough levels in the pyramid! hahaha

and seya- yeah she's kinda useless at high levels- i actually thought about not letting her be playable in the second half of the game, but i figured eh, what can it hurt.

i wouldn't waste time leveling her though.

@Crawfors
Yeah, I finally caved in on Saya in the Nexium dungeon before I took on the boss. Barry was spending a fair bit of time keeping her alive as I couldn't get her HP up as well as her experience.

So, currently the state of play for my final team is -

Barry (63)
Melody (60)
Eber (63)
Traz (61)

All are fully levelled up on the Learned Skills so I didn't see the point in continuing to grind levels.
The other characters are -

Ailey (50)
Saya (42)
Paragon (51)
Ivanka (50)
Yanna (40)
Cosmo (40)
Madae (40)

I reached the final chamber entrance last night but I was tired so decided to wait until this morning to play the final part when I'm fresh so I can savour the goodness

I almost got trapped on the lower level of the Pyramid as my mouse was refusing to cooperate and let Barry go up the stairs!! That was a shocker as I went round and round for a while thinking I'd succeeded in boxing myself in by falling through the trap door and not being able to get out!!

@Kimo
I can't remember any horrified feeling of "DAMN, where's my xyz!!" when the teams changed. From memory you continue to pick up good gear sufficient to feel well equipped

However, with the party splitting up is when I was grateful I'd spent time levelling everyone up together before the split as you don't know who you'll get stuck with
FYI - Saya can also equip the Vampire Claw (but not much else except accessories and relics).

MerryX