geebs | (no subject) (Reply)

On story mode: They changed the way story mode works, and I like it! Now when you start story mode, you're not stuck on a multi-level path, unable to do anything else until its finished. You can re-do a board, or do new boards as they're unlocked or quit out and play free mode and just come back later. I guess each story mode has at least 19 levels (or maybe its 17? I don't know the exact number. But you have 10 levels normally. But every level after 1 you have a choice of 2 maps, like after you beat level one, you have a choice of level 2, or level 2-x. And choosing 2 doesn't mean you can't choose 2-x. After you beat 2, you can do 2-x, or you can do 3 or 3-x, and so on.

So what's the diff between story mode and free mode then? In story mode, you're limited to that family/group's levels and people. I'll have to check it again, but the character select screen is divided into Shu, Wu, Wei, SW1, SW2, and other. But as I said, the SW characters were scattered amongst the three kingdoms. Like I think Mitsunari is available in Wei's story mode. Speaking of, heh, in Wei's story, Cao Pi actually pledged his loyalty to Orochi. Not because he likes the guy, but its one of those, best stay out of his way by kissing his ass until you gather enough power to successfully back stab him sort of things. But Mitsunari is also allied with Orochi. Anyways, in the beginning, Cao Pi and Mitsunari don't like each other, but as the story progresses, they become fast friends.

On weapon fusion: I was worried when I was powering up these level one weapons, it would be wasted when I got l2 or l3 weapons. But you can fuse between levels. Of course, you want to pick the higher level weapon as a base, because it has the higher base attack. But you don't want to fuse them outright! Remember, when adding slots, you can't put weapon bonuses on slots you just got. So if you have a level 1 weapon with 8 slots filled, and you get a level three weapon, you want to fuse the level 3 weapon with other weapons until you get 8 slots, then you can fuse them together and put what you have in the slots of your level 1 weapon into it.

Also, besides slots and bonuses, with each weapon you fuse, you can add +1 attack, but only to +20. Actually, I guess its not +1, but up to whatever the attack bonus is on the weapon you're fusing into the base weapon. So if you have your level 1 weapon with +15, and a level 3 weapon with +5, you can purchase up to +15 attack (to make it an even +20!) Again, you want to use the higher level weapon as the base. This is because if you did the level 1 weapon as the base, and fused it with the level 3 weapon, you'd still get the +20 attack, but it would be weaker because the level 1 weapon has a lower base attack.

On skills: I believe each character has 4 skills they can learn. But there aren't 79 times 4 skills. There's a small subset, and they stack. Like if one character learns power, your power skill is one. You have to learn power for another character to get power +2. It can go up to 20. I guess its a clever way to get you to try more people. But you can always pick a 1 star board and put it on easy difficulty just to learn the skill. Like I said before, its usually not anything difficult, its like kill 100 enemies within a certain amount of time or without using musou, or your health dipping a certain level.

An interesting skill is cavalier. There's no longer saddles or horse buying, your horse is dependent on how many ranks you have in cavalier, getting red hare at max rank.

Oh, speaking of horses, now pressing select will call a horse for any character, usually the last one you used, or if you're too far, a horse of the level of your ranks in cavalier. This is way useful!! There were times were you had to mow through a bunch of guys, and going that direction took you away from your horse. Now you can just whistle for it!

On attacks: The characters here have a lot more variety in their attacks. They have their traditional combos and charge combos and jump attacks and musou attacks. But like I said previously, every character is divided into power, technique, or speed categories, giving them different abilities. Power characters don't get knocked back if they get hit while attacking and unleash a powerful attack when you hit r1. Speed characters can double jump/jump out of their attack combos, and unleash a combo when you hit r1 (or do a rushing combo attack if you hit r1 and a direction). Tech characters can hit r1 to counterattack after they've been hit and taken damage and have special attacks where r1 can be substituted for triangle (you have to go into the menu and look at their move list) and hit for big damage.