PSLS’ Morning Wood Ep. 063: A Far Cry From No Delays

[stolenxnametag]

This week on Morning Wood, Chandler is looking greatly relaxed.


Geoff Keighley is the Rumor Master!
Following the insane (and incredibly disappointing) rumors for E3 2014, Geoff Keighley decided to pretend like he is Michael Pachter. Thanks, Captain Hindsight. We didn't already know that Sony could put on a better show than what was listed.

Not pictured: Dew Dorito Crunch

Far Cry 4
A new Far Cry is coming out, and it seems interesting! I've yet to venture into this series, but I always hear the most amazing things about it. Even the criticisms that I hear / read aren't dealbreakers, so I might actually try one of these games in the future. Which one would you recommend the most, @Chandler Wood?

Delayed Division
So The Division got delayed - maybe indefinitely. I'll be honest with you and say that I don't remember anything about it. I think the overhype of Watch Dogs drowned it out, and I accidentally started avoiding it. Whatever the case, if the "game" that has been started isn't even functional, then why did they ever bother telling us about it in the first place?

Trivia Answer Recap
In the dark ages of the forum, aka "When we first became public," a PSLS Trivia Competition was born. Round 2 took a very long time, and we found this week that nobody answered all of the questions correctly. How funny is it that a Google-able trivia quest was never completed? Here are the questions and answers:
1. What game did Chandler Wood obtain a Platinum trophy on before its official release?
Saints Row IV
2. Who were the hosts of PSLS’ first podcast?
Cross Game Chat hosts Adam Wolfe, @Lifewish, and Paulmichael Contreras
3. Who has been on every episode of Bad Gamers?
HAHAHA Nobody. Sebmoss did an episode all alone.
4. What was John VanderSchuit's original username on PSLS?
LinuxGuru!!
5. What year did @Heath join the PSLS team?
2010

Transistor / Sparkle 2 Reviews
I'm excited to play both of these games, mostly because Transistor looks amazeballs, and Sparkle 2 is enough to ease my occasional fixation on casual titles. I'm still curious about how the review is going to look for Sparkle 2, but I'm getting both of these games.

Lightning resistor...

Outlast: Whistleblower Stream
Do this! You don't have to do it on Thursday - just do it anytime! I love watching livestreams on my PS4, almost as much as I love playing the games.


Dangan Ronpa / FFX HD
I'm on a hiatus from buying Vita games until I finish the Final Fantasy X | X-2 HD remasters. Has anyone had any luck dodging the lightning bolts from the Thunder Plains on Vita? I think that's holding me back more than anything else right now. Oh, and that level grinding thing.

Final Notes
@D'yani, I hope you enjoy your first E3 conference! I'm super jealous. Also, you're getting into the Sony conference at your first one??! I demand to know your secrets!
Also, I'm still debating on whether or not to screencap some faces for your the Faces thread. :-D

 

[Chandler Wood]

As for Far Cry, I started with Far Cry 3, and Blood Dragon is a whole different beast, so I would say start with Far Cry 3 or just wait until 4 comes out, (though Blood Dragon is well worth a playthrough, I wouldn't exactly call it "Far Cry".

Review for Sparkle 2 is putting it in the "Nothing Groundbreaking" range (use our review policy to try to guess my score!). It's really yet another clone of match three marble shooters that you can get for a dime a dozen on your phone. Solid, but nothing to hold it above the crowd.

Working on the level grind on FFX right now. There is a trick to it in the monster arena, but it takes quite a bit of setup in weapon and armor customization, which is what I am currently trying to put together.

 

[stolenxnametag]

As for Far Cry, I started with Far Cry 3, and Blood Dragon is a whole different beast, so I would say start with Far Cry 3 or just wait until 4 comes out, (though Blood Dragon is well worth a playthrough, I wouldn't exactly call it "Far Cry".

So would you say that Blood Dragon is a far cry from Far Cry?

Review for Sparkle 2 is putting it in the "Nothing Groundbreaking" range (use our review policy to try to guess my score!). It's really yet another clone of match three marble shooters that you can get for a dime a dozen on your phone. Solid, but nothing to hold it above the crowd.

By watching the trailers of the game, I could guess within a half point of accuracy what the score was going to be on the game in accordance with PSLS Review Policy. The half point is what makes me excited to read the review.

Working on the level grind on FFX right now. There is a trick to it in the monster arena, but it takes quite a bit of setup in weapon and armor customization, which is what I am currently trying to put together.

I'm grinding levels for Yuna right now in the Monster Arena, but I'm going to try a second AP trick for Tidus when I get the stuff for his equipment.

 

[Chandler Wood]

So would you say that Blood Dragon is a far cry from Far Cry?


By watching the trailers of the game, I could guess within a half point of accuracy what the score was going to be on the game in accordance with PSLS Review Policy. The half point is what makes me excited to read the review.


I'm grinding levels for Yuna right now in the Monster Arena, but I'm going to try a second AP trick for Tidus when I get the stuff for his equipment.

Doing the Don Tonberry/ Overdrive->AP trick I assume? Any stat maxing (farming for spheres to fill in the grid's blank spots?)?

 

[stolenxnametag]

Doing the Don Tonberry/ Overdrive->AP trick I assume? Any stat maxing (farming for spheres to fill in the grid's blank spots?)?

With Yuna, I'm using the Don Tonberry trick:
- a lightly modified weapon [Overdrive->AP / Double AP]
- Comrade overdrive
- Tidus and Wakka repeatedly get murdered by Don Tonberry

When I run out of spheres, I go to someplace where I haven't captured all of the monsters and do that for a few minutes before going back. I usually make out really well since Tidus and Wakka have decent stats and can kill mostly anything in one hit. Also, I set Yuna's overdrive to Victor for these battles, so she'll still level up every other battle or three.

With Tidus, I'm going to try a similar weapon (might go with Triple AP if I feel like farming for the stuff), but I'll try the loner trick instead. For the Loner trick:
- modified weapon [Overdrive->AP / Double or Triple AP]
- Loner overdrive
- kill party members, spam triangle indefinitely within a simple battle (perhaps in Besaid against one enemy?)


Off-topic:
I ran over to Besaid and accidentally met Dark Valefor. I murdered it by using Auron's Entrust ability to give Yuna a full overdrive and Grand Summoning Magus Sisters. Valefor was one-hit killed. Yuna, however, isn't strong enough to fight the other dark aeons yet. Magus Sisters weren't able to do enough damage to Dark Shiva, unfortunately, when I went to Lake Macalania to farm spheres. Instead of doing max damage with their Grand Summon ability, they were doing anywhere from 2x,xxx to 6x,xxx. Dark Shiva used the next 5 turns to kill them off, then murdered my non-summon party without them having a chance to retaliate. That's with Yuna's sphere grid maybe 60-75% complete. These dark aeons are going to be fun.

 

[stolenxnametag]

@Chandler Wood, have you finished your sphere grids yet?

I finally got the shit for modifying more weapons, so Yuna isn't alone in grinding. Here's my new setup for using the Don Tonberry trick. Note: I know there are better ones, but the payoff for grinding more isn't high enough for me to do it:

Yuna
Wing Wand:
- 4-slotted wand I bought in Calm Lands that starts with Magic + 10%
- Overdrive->AP
- Double AP
- One MP Cost

Arcane Ring:
- 4-slotted ring I bought in Calm Lands that starts with HP + 10%
- Break HP Limit

Tidus
Balmung:
- Sword that dropped with Triple Overdrive (maybe somewhere in Omega Ruins?)
- Overdrive->AP

Haste Shield:
- 4-slotted shield from Calm Lands with HP + 10%
- Auto-Haste

Wakka
Triple Score:
- Blitzball from a random drop that includes Triple AP
- Overdrive->AP

Fast Break:
- 4-slotted armguard from Calm Lands with HP + 10%
- Auto-Haste


Directions
1. Setup Yuna with Comrade overdrive, and put both Tidus and Wakka on Stoic.
2-a. If Yuna doesn't start the battle, have either Tidus or Wakka cast Haste on her.
2-b. If Yuna does start the battle, have her cast Auto-Life on whomever goes next, unless Yuna starts with 2 turns. If Yuna starts with 2 turns, have her cast Haste on herself before casting Auto-Life on her comrades.
3. During Yuna's turns, cast Auto-Life (at 1MP each!) on Tidus and / or Wakka, depending on who goes next.
4. Watch Tidus and Wakka get slaughtered by Don Tonberry's counter-attacks until he gets too close to do so.
5-a. Keep hitting him until he dies.
5-b. Flee.
5-c. Summon Anima or Magus Sisters to finish him off.

I like this setup because I don't run out of spheres too quickly when upgrading. When I run out of spheres, I go capture more stuff for the Monster Arena.

 

[Chandler Wood]

@Chandler Wood, have you finished your sphere grids yet?

I finally got the shit for modifying more weapons, so Yuna isn't alone in grinding. Here's my new setup for using the Don Tonberry trick. Note: I know there are better ones, but the payoff for grinding more isn't high enough for me to do it:

Yuna
Wing Wand:
- 4-slotted wand I bought in Calm Lands that starts with Magic + 10%
- Overdrive->AP
- Double AP
- One MP Cost

Arcane Ring:
- 4-slotted ring I bought in Calm Lands that starts with HP + 10%
- Break HP Limit

Tidus
Balmung:
- Sword that dropped with Triple Overdrive (maybe somewhere in Omega Ruins?)
- Overdrive->AP

Haste Shield:
- 4-slotted shield from Calm Lands with HP + 10%
- Auto-Haste

Wakka
Triple Score:
- Blitzball from a random drop that includes Triple AP
- Overdrive->AP

Fast Break:
- 4-slotted armguard from Calm Lands with HP + 10%
- Auto-Haste


Directions
1. Setup Yuna with Comrade overdrive, and put both Tidus and Wakka on Stoic.
2-a. If Yuna doesn't start the battle, have either Tidus or Wakka cast Haste on her.
2-b. If Yuna does start the battle, have her cast Auto-Life on whomever goes next, unless Yuna starts with 2 turns. If Yuna starts with 2 turns, have her cast Haste on herself before casting Auto-Life on her comrades.
3. During Yuna's turns, cast Auto-Life (at 1MP each!) on Tidus and / or Wakka, depending on who goes next.
4. Watch Tidus and Wakka get slaughtered by Don Tonberry's counter-attacks until he gets too close to do so.
5-a. Keep hitting him until he dies.
5-b. Flee.
5-c. Summon Anima or Magus Sisters to finish him off.

I like this setup because I don't run out of spheres too quickly when upgrading. When I run out of spheres, I go capture more stuff for the Monster Arena.

Nice! Sadly I haven't touched FFX in a couple weeks. I've had some mediocre Vita reviews to do, then D'yani got Murdered....


.....Soul Suspect for review, so she's been on the PS4 and subsequently the TV for the last couple of days. I may get a little bit of time to grind it out at the end of the week, but I'm not nearly as far a I would like.

 

[D'yani]

Nice! Sadly I haven't touched FFX in a couple weeks. I've had some mediocre Vita reviews to do, then D'yani got Murdered....


.....Soul Suspect for review, so she's been on the PS4 and subsequently the TV for the last couple of days. I may get a little bit of time to grind it out at the end of the week, but I'm not nearly as far a I would like.

lol. You would say it like that.