I had a referential quote in mind, but forgot it

[geebs]

Obtuseness for the day: Things sound crazy in a certain place up North. Heard something about a certain someone, and thinking about it now, it all makes sense. Its like ojv('Man, its obvious!') I mean, I used to wonder, "Why is this person like that?" And now I see why, and as I said, it was so obvious I should've seen it as only those kinda people talk like that.

If dreams are insight into the subconscious, I must have a crap ton of unresolved issues. As I've said, its never something nice and calming anymore. Its all stressful and full of inconveniences, and luckily I eventually realize I'm just dreaming before I get too stressed out. And its not a cool kinda stress. I can handle demons and zombies and ghosts and hostile aliens and roving gangs of thugs. Its all the mundane stuff like things get stolen or destroyed or missing deadlines that freak me out in the dream world.

Seriously, I know I've brought this up before, but is it me or have Veronica Mars and Claire Bennet been pretty close lately? And the former hasn't even shown up on the show yet (obviously, its already been filmed, but still)! In any case, they sure look friendly in some of those pics. qv('Alright!') Speaking of, what was the name of Quagmire's analogue amongst Joe's "cool friends" on Family Guy last night? With references like Parker and Portland, I assume it was some sort of synonym for a quagmire? I just couldn't make it out. But I digress. In any case, they're both of similar heights (albeit a little on the short side), but are both blonde. Since I care more about comparative heights than the hair thing, I'd go for the three.

Owel, getting to WO, since I've unlocked everyone and gotten all the skills, I'm working on 4ths. Its easy enough, I do it by twos. Get two characters up to 55-60 (they seem to get better drops the higher their level) and pair (what is the term if you combined two with one? Its not exactly a pair) them off with a high level character who already has a 4th (to do most of the workload if they're sucky characters, but at the very least to have as back up because hard can be dangerous) and do Shu 5-x. Its the board where you get Masamune by just holding the middle and protecting Magoichi while Zhu Rong and Xing Cai flank Masamune after he sends all his troops to hit you and Magoichi. I believe there's 4 to 5 weapon drops, and its a relatively quick board.

I used to do Wan Castle for 4ths, but its more harrowing since you have to protect frickin' maidservants, peasants, and village elders. Well, you can let them die, but I hate missing an objective. Its the same reason I don't do Wei 6-x. (at least not to get 4ths) Well, one, I think its harder because you have two officers to protect (Cao Pi and Zhen Ji) and there's a lot of people to kill. Technically, you can just kill two of the generals in the east, then charge into the base and kill Kotaro for three weapon boxes total, and then kill Dong Zhou to end the stage, but I hate winning a stage so cheaply.

But having played the stage so many times, I've gotten down a method for getting Zhen Ji. (I don't know if turdburgler will find this useful) Anyways, a decent horse helps a lot. The requirements are within ten minutes, you personally kill all the sorcerers and the fake Cao Pi.

To start, charge over to the east. (DO NOT kill the generals right there in front of you, you need them there for a reason I shall explain later) There's a group of three generals in front of the middle easternmost garrison. Kill them all. This will keep Zhen Ji out of danger and ensure she gets to the point where the fake Cao Pi will appear in a timely manner. Charge through that middle eastern fort and close the gate behind it. Depending on how long you take, the sorcerers might've appeared by now. If they're there, kill the sorcerer on your way out back to the main battlefield. Head to the northeastern most gate and close it. It is essential you close these two gates because they're like frickin' hornets nests.

Anyways, starting killing sorcerers in basically a clockwise motion. If you didn't kill the sorcerer in the middle eastern garrison, do it now. Then hit the southeast garrison and kill the sorcerer there. I usually head north and hit the middle garrison killing the officers and sorcerer there, then down to the southwest garrison near where you started. If you left that officer alive, your allies will be busy trying to kill him instead of kill stealing that sorcerer from you.

If you cleared out the middle garrison, its possible Zhen Ji reached the point where she meets up with the fake Cao Pi who tries to kill her. If she does, don't worry about it for now, her general will keep Cao Pi busy. For now, hit the midwestern garrison below the main fort of the bad guys. This is because Xiahou Huan and whoever are up there fighting by now and you want to kill the sorcerer in there before they accidentally kill it. After you clear that garrison out, head to the northwest. If Zhen Ji is being attacked by fake Cao Pi, kill him, if not, clear out the north middle garrison. If you killed all the sorcerers and the fake Cao Pi yourself, you should get Zhen Ji at the end. (She'll say something like, "I'll never leave your side again, my lord" and Cao Pi will reply, "I long to hear your beautiful melodies, my lady", signifying she joined your army)

All is not over yet! Make sure your commander is not being attacked (Cao Pi, or Cao Xiu if you're playing as Cao Pi), because I've had times where even though they were only surrounded by a few peons, they managed to get their asses killed. Even if you don't see red, if they're staying down there in the southwest, that means they're being attacked. Go to them and clear away any bad guys and they should charge towards the fort. Then kill everyone in the for to end the stage.

If you're having trouble making fake Cao Pi appear, its prolly cause Zhen Ji hasn't reached the right point. Cao Pi will appear after she reaches the northeastern hay field (or thereabouts). It may take a while though because you have to wait for all these stupid battle quotes to stop. As long as she's up there (clear out enemies around her to stop distracting her from reaching the fake Cao Pi point) he'll eventually appear.

Comments

[turdburgler.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've been using Shu 5-x to beef up character weapons with good powers and 3rd weapons lately. Because while I was paging through my selection of unlocked stages I noticed that one had a really low clear time comparatively.

There's only a few officers, a few objectives, and best of all it's a SMALL stage so even if you have to run across it for anything, you don't have 5 minutes of horse-riding to do.

I think I have it down to 3 minutes in change now.

[turdburgler.livejournal.com]

I also haven't gotten far enough in Wei to get to Zhen Ji's stage yet (or at least I haven't played it yet), so your post will come in helpful to me.

Sucks that there isn't much in the way of faqs on this game yet on gamefaqs. No walkthrus.

[geebs.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think Zhen Ji is 5-x. Actually Wei seems to get all the haughty-hots, Zhen Ji, Diao Chan, Oichi. (In case you were wondering about my categories: Noh and Okuni are the sexpots, Nene, Kunoichi, and the Qiaos are the cute jailbait, and SSX, Ina, Ginchiyo, Xing Cai, Yue Ying and Zhu Rong (oh, cool, xyz) are the butch warrior chicks. Am I forgetting anyone?)

[turdburgler.livejournal.com]

Da Ji is sexpot category.
Xing Cai is probably cute jailbait category.

[geebs.livejournal.com]

Yeah, its a nice little stage. The only problem is on hard or greater difficulty. If you fight too many generals at once (particularly when they all charge the center) they'll decimate you with their cheap-ass group infinite juggles. (You don't know how many times I've called SSX a c*nt and a bitch playing that level on hard!) You definitely need someone who can clear crowds quick to take with you on the harder levels.

Oh, did you unlock Masamune on this stage already? Because like you said, this can be a really quick stage if you choose it to be. But you have to stay in the center with Magoichi and protect him long enough for Xing Cai and Zhu Rong to charge up the sides and make Masamune talk about how brilliant Magoichi is for using himself as bait. Then you can charge up and finally kill him to unlock him.

[turdburgler.livejournal.com]

I think I did unlock him, but I was actually playing as Xing Cai and Zhu Rong, so maybe that helped. :)

[clevemire.livejournal.com]

Quentin? I know it was Parker and Portland.