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Apr. 11th, 2011 12:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
geebsYep, this is another DW7 post. But you knew once I got this game I'd be babbling about it non stop like I did the previous Koei games. Owel, first off, looks like I had some misconceptions about stuff I previously posted. Now, you still want to keep "skill points up" on your weapon (in the actual story in story mode, but not stage select versions of the story levels after you've maxed out the character for that level) even after you've gotten all of your skills just to continue to earn as much skill points as possible. But I guess my logic on how officers earned xp in story mode was a little flawed.
Long story short, its like this: Let's say you're playing the Shu story. The first character you play is Liu Bei (speaking of I will say he's one of the better character redesigns for this game. I mean, he's a little more Bishy, but that's certainly better than "boring mustache guy in green"), and he starts out with zero skill points. As he plays that first level or two, he earns skill points, which he can use to power himself up (which you can do in the middle of the battle in the pause menu). Now the next level, you play Zhang Fei or Guan Yu or whoever. Even if Liu Bei spent those points, whoever that next character is has a number of skill points equal to the total earned. Same for later officers, when you play new officers (or if you end up playing an old officer), the number of skill points they have when the level starts is equal to the point they've earned overall. Though in the case of officers you play again, in that case the points you spent are indeed spend. i.e., if I got 120 skill points playing Liu Bei in this level, but spent 70 of them, and the next level I play Guan Yu, and he earned another 160, I don't get have skill points if I play Liu Bei again, I'll just have the 160. (However, if I didn't spend those 70 points, it would be 280 when I got Liu Bei again)
One big implication this has is characters like Dian Wei, who you just play in the beginning don't get powered up as much as the officers you get late in the game. I mean, when I played through way, by the time I finally got to play Zhang He, Zhang Liao, or Jia Xu, I could basically power them up all the way right at the start.
There are some other interesting implications of the game system which basically makes newer characters and factions you play "easier" to pick up. It turns out that the weapons and seals are from one single pool. So once you get those weapons or unlock those seals, anyone can equip them, regardless of faction.
I mean, I beat Wei Saturday night, and switched to Shu. I know, I talk crap about the Shu a lot, but I still rank them over those river people. I mean, even though Liu Bei is a goody goody, I admire him for sticking to his principles. But other than Zhao Yun, the majority of his inner circle are a bunch of a-holes and pricks. I was actually wanting to do Jin next (I guess I still can, you can play multiple factions' story modes at the same time), but you get a warning if you do it without beating the other two modes. It tells you, "we recommend you do the other factions first before you play as Jin". I wonder what that's all about. I guess since the Jin are later, all the other faction stuff comes before its story? Of course, I've played the previous game so many times, I pretty much know the story by heart.
(The Jin are pretty cool though- it seems the majority of them are ex-Wei, as you actually have them as officers in the late Wei stages, but I think there's a Shu or two in there)
Anyways, while the skill points didn't carry over, the weapons and seals did. And since everyone can use almost any weapon, I ended up either buying some of the higher level weapons in the Wei game (even if the character I was using didn't have that as their primary weapon, because hey, there's nothing else to spend all that gold I had on, so why not buy a good backup weapon), or getting it from an enemy (like getting a really powerful version of Taishi Ci's twin rods from beating him on some late Wei stage). So while my Shu characters were fresh, they had like ridiculously powerful weapons and the powerful seals available (like attack up+++) to put in the slots. (Still have to save a slot for skill points up since they need the points)
Also started Conquest mode. Its a cool mode, its basically a large grid map with all sorts of different missions on it. But don't worry, its not something you have to do all in one time. You can unlock parts of the map, save and go back to the map later. You can also play any character you've unlocked (through story mode) and can switch any time. Indeed, its through this mode that you unlock the characters that aren't unlocked through story mode. Like I had to unlock Zhen Ji in this mode. Overall, its kinda like "free mode" but the battles aren't exactly like the story ones and you have to beat other battles and do other things to unlock some battles. But then again, that's kinda similar to previous games, where you had to play that level to unlock it.
But yeah, you also have little cities on the map you can go to and interact with people (including the other characters). They're very small cities, but it does break the monotony to get items and characters and weapons by having your character walk around and talk to a merchant rather than just simply using a menu.
Long story short, its like this: Let's say you're playing the Shu story. The first character you play is Liu Bei (speaking of I will say he's one of the better character redesigns for this game. I mean, he's a little more Bishy, but that's certainly better than "boring mustache guy in green"), and he starts out with zero skill points. As he plays that first level or two, he earns skill points, which he can use to power himself up (which you can do in the middle of the battle in the pause menu). Now the next level, you play Zhang Fei or Guan Yu or whoever. Even if Liu Bei spent those points, whoever that next character is has a number of skill points equal to the total earned. Same for later officers, when you play new officers (or if you end up playing an old officer), the number of skill points they have when the level starts is equal to the point they've earned overall. Though in the case of officers you play again, in that case the points you spent are indeed spend. i.e., if I got 120 skill points playing Liu Bei in this level, but spent 70 of them, and the next level I play Guan Yu, and he earned another 160, I don't get have skill points if I play Liu Bei again, I'll just have the 160. (However, if I didn't spend those 70 points, it would be 280 when I got Liu Bei again)
One big implication this has is characters like Dian Wei, who you just play in the beginning don't get powered up as much as the officers you get late in the game. I mean, when I played through way, by the time I finally got to play Zhang He, Zhang Liao, or Jia Xu, I could basically power them up all the way right at the start.
There are some other interesting implications of the game system which basically makes newer characters and factions you play "easier" to pick up. It turns out that the weapons and seals are from one single pool. So once you get those weapons or unlock those seals, anyone can equip them, regardless of faction.
I mean, I beat Wei Saturday night, and switched to Shu. I know, I talk crap about the Shu a lot, but I still rank them over those river people. I mean, even though Liu Bei is a goody goody, I admire him for sticking to his principles. But other than Zhao Yun, the majority of his inner circle are a bunch of a-holes and pricks. I was actually wanting to do Jin next (I guess I still can, you can play multiple factions' story modes at the same time), but you get a warning if you do it without beating the other two modes. It tells you, "we recommend you do the other factions first before you play as Jin". I wonder what that's all about. I guess since the Jin are later, all the other faction stuff comes before its story? Of course, I've played the previous game so many times, I pretty much know the story by heart.
(The Jin are pretty cool though- it seems the majority of them are ex-Wei, as you actually have them as officers in the late Wei stages, but I think there's a Shu or two in there)
Anyways, while the skill points didn't carry over, the weapons and seals did. And since everyone can use almost any weapon, I ended up either buying some of the higher level weapons in the Wei game (even if the character I was using didn't have that as their primary weapon, because hey, there's nothing else to spend all that gold I had on, so why not buy a good backup weapon), or getting it from an enemy (like getting a really powerful version of Taishi Ci's twin rods from beating him on some late Wei stage). So while my Shu characters were fresh, they had like ridiculously powerful weapons and the powerful seals available (like attack up+++) to put in the slots. (Still have to save a slot for skill points up since they need the points)
Also started Conquest mode. Its a cool mode, its basically a large grid map with all sorts of different missions on it. But don't worry, its not something you have to do all in one time. You can unlock parts of the map, save and go back to the map later. You can also play any character you've unlocked (through story mode) and can switch any time. Indeed, its through this mode that you unlock the characters that aren't unlocked through story mode. Like I had to unlock Zhen Ji in this mode. Overall, its kinda like "free mode" but the battles aren't exactly like the story ones and you have to beat other battles and do other things to unlock some battles. But then again, that's kinda similar to previous games, where you had to play that level to unlock it.
But yeah, you also have little cities on the map you can go to and interact with people (including the other characters). They're very small cities, but it does break the monotony to get items and characters and weapons by having your character walk around and talk to a merchant rather than just simply using a menu.
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Date: 2011-04-11 04:00 pm (UTC)(but weapons and seals are different and apply to all chars in all families)
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Date: 2011-04-11 04:57 pm (UTC)