Spreadsheets, err, EVE Online has little appeal to me these days – the PvP aspect would be nice, if not for the impossibility of forcing a fight. PSO2 isn’t out and will disappoint me but I’ll play it anyway because damn you Sega and your sexy Numans but it’s not out. WH40K: Dark Millenium, not out. EQ2 has gone free to play, and really – Skyrim’s fixed me for PvE. World of Snorecraft is finally in the die back stage. It’ll take a few years for that abomination to finally bleed out, but the entire MMO industry should celebrate when it does. Star Wars? Is it out? Do I care? Absolutely not.

Well, damn. What else is there? Oh, it’s Dark Age of Camelot’s ten year anniversary this year? And – wait, what? It isn’t dead yet?

EA hasn’t shut off the servers?

What do you mean, population increasing over the course of 2011?

…

EA Nonsense

Account systems for DAOC have apparently come and gone, and after signing back up I had to go through some hellish rigamarole to end up with my DAOC account moved to a Mythic Master Account which ended up being folded into an EA account. Annoying, but not that difficult. The real issue is – game accounts are separate from master accounts. That makes sense, and honestly, I give props to EA for this – individual accounts should have separate credentials. Security for the win. Yet there remains such a thing as too much security. To change a game account password, you need to know the old password.

The old password that you probably haven’t used since 2003.

There is no password retrieval function; only the change password form within the EA account page. There’s talk of a secret word, but even that doesn’t exist on the change password form. To change your game password, you need to unfortunately call EA’s support line, wade through menus to get to DAOC, sit on hold for forty five minutes (even if you call right at the start of the business day the day after Christmas!) and explain your situation. Infuriating, but to ElectronicBioMythicArts’ credit – their support guy was pro. He had me up and rolling with a temporary old password in about five minutes, after checking some info to verify I was who I said I was.

The Glory of Thidranki and Low Levels

You can’t think of DAOC without Thidranki Faste springing to mind. Thidranki is more active than I remember it being several years ago (the game was all but dead in the wake of clustering); to be sure, there are slow periods, but there’s seemingly always something going on – and this is without the /level command. Yes, that’s right – on Ywain, the new server/cluster, /level has been disabled. It’s annoying to not be able to quickly raise Thid alts – but at the same time, /level was one of the nails in the coffin of DAOC. Now that /level is gone, and seemingly perhaps with the 10th anniversary – you can actually find low level characters. Grouping is actually happening! With no shortage of lowbies, I expect there shouldn’t be an impending decrease in Thidranki activity.

In terms of levelling, taskmasters exist – from Catacombs, I believe? – and it’s now relatively easy to burn through levels. Get task, take short walk to dungeon, kill. Rinse and repeat. It is kind of sad that this leaves the heart and soul of Camelot’s lands abandoned – but let’s face it – PvE (while damned good for its day) was never the heart and soul of DAOC itself. Anything that gets people into RvR faster is a good thing. At the end of the day, rolling Hibs is the point of the game.

Clinical Trials of Atlantis Failed, Causing Heart Attack and Erectile Dysfunction in 100% of Subjects

…Seriously, even female players were suffering from ED.

I haven’t looked into it much yet, but from what I hear, ToA is entirely optional at this point. Purportedly, you can spend bounty points to get master levels and artifacts. I want to give BioMythArtstronics mad props for this, but I’m still bitter over the debacle that was ToA. ToA ended DAOC, folks. Oh, I know some like to quibble over numbers. The fact of the matter is, a few months after ToA was released, I was a top level guild officer in my guild because nobody else was left. My alliance was, in a word, gone. Veterans fled the game with increasing speed. At that point, Camelot still had an influx of new players – but that was already dwindling thanks to /level. By the time I left, it was rare to encounter a true, new low level player out and about in the starter zones. Population went into decline and never recovered.

I’m not going to rehash the reasons why ToA was such a damnably bad idea for DAOC. The point is, it’s fixed by virtue of being able to ignore it entirely. Would I sound entirely hypocritical, though, if I have the slightest bit of sadness over that? ToA was, after all, a masterpiece of MMOG design. For a PvE game. DAOC was not a PvE game. It had PvE, to be sure, but the endgame – the entire point of the game – was realm vs. realm conflict. While I am thrilled it’s optional – it’s not in the way of RvR… There is some tiny piece of me that is going to miss never again running Sobekite Eternal.

Welcome to the Suck!

Haven’t done much in terms of true RvR yet – I’m having far too much fun in Thidranki. Still, judging by DF changing hands, relics being moved and constant alerts about watchtowers, outposts and keeps – the frontiers are quite active. A cursory glance around community sites that remain shows 8-mantrain bitches whining about the zerg. Thank the gods – RvR means Realm vs. Realm, not butthurt sporting match. Right, my personal feelings about the tactical wisdom of numerical superiority aside – zerg. There are enough players active to zerg, my friends.

The better news is there are now buffing NPCs. Slip them some coin and you’ve got buffs. I still see buffbots; I’m sure buffbots are more effective – but this at least closes the gap. If you don’t want to/can’t dual box, you’re no longer at an extreme disadvantage.

Come Back, Damn You

DAOC isn’t exactly a healthy game. Ywain’s active population is comparable to any individual server back in the golden, post-SI days of the game. But that’s pretty much it – overall population is terribly low. The Herald is completely broken. Patches aren’t quite exactly regular. Graphics and the interface are pretty damned dated (though SI reflective water is still beautiful, and damn – can you believe we had that way back when?!)

Still, the most glaring flaws of the game have been fixed – and RvR at all levels is extremely active.

At ten years old, DAOC is ailing, but it’s in a stable condition. She’s not dead yet, folks. And for all the flaws remaining; despite the old school graphics and interface and mechanics… No other game has ever surpassed, compared or come anywhere close to DAOC’s RvR. This is fact. I know it. You know it. Everyone knows it. Even those who haven’t played DAOC know it, because the moment you drop the acronym, ‘DAOC’ on any other MMO’s community, there’s nothing but a cacophonous, soul-rending mourning over the pinnacle that has never been matched.

Chances are you have fourteen free days attached to your account. If you enjoyed DAOC in its prime, you owe it to yourself to use them. Draw once more your sword in defense of keep, guild and realm. And roll over those damnable Hibbies.

Fast forward past a play through of End of the Millenium, and I found myself un-custom-firmware-ing my PSP.

I’m amused – Sonic Team isn’t even mentioned in the title spam now. This could get interesting…

The Music

PSU always had strong music, and continues to do so – because most of PSP2′s music is PSU’s music. The notable exception is the opening song. I’ve never heard something more hideous. I thought ‘Save This World’ was bad – oh, wow, was I wrong. Looks guys, unless your game involves the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, your theme song should never self-reference the game’s title. End of story. Period. Fin.

I’ll tell you what it is, though, I’ve missed the open fields of Parum; I’ve missed the psuedo-western, “Where the hell’s my beef, because it’s what’s for dinner, bitch!” of Moatoob. Hell, I even missed some of the Neudaiz music.

Types, What Types?

Types are gone. Well, they’re still there, along with a kooky ‘Vanguard’ type. No more acro-whatsits, though. No more forte-thingamabobbers. No more mastern00bs laying dead on the floor at the mere sight of a Delp Slami.

Alfa’s done something half-assed, but with potential. You have four basic archetypes; and then… Then, you customize. Where this really shines is weapon selection – yes, you choose your own weapons. Finally, I can do true justice to my Numan heritage, and wield claws. Twin Claws; Single Claws; all S rank, all the time. BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD.

…Where it falls apart is class definition. I was expecting some sort of awesomeness whereby I could adjust attributes’n such; y’know, ensure my Numan was a true Numan. No such luck. Just a goofy, “Here’s a bunch of random passive skills you can select, in a very limited fashion.”

Well, it’s a start. Weapon selection alone is more than enough to make up for any other disappointment with the new class system.

I Shit on PSO: Photon Arts and Techs

…Are now lame. One of the more entertaining parts of PSU was the fact that you had to level Photon Arts and techs for them to be useful. In the short term, this prevented omni-characters. In the long term – look, it’s an online PS game. It’s a Diablo clone with fancy graphics. YOU ARE NOT GETTING AWAY FROM ‘GRIND’ HERE, SON. The PSU PA/tech system allowed for another level of character advancement – was it grindy? Sure. But it was the right kind of grind – quick, obvious benefits each time you leveled a PA or Tech.

PSP2 threw that away in favor of what I can only assume is an attempt to appease dimwitted retards who haven’t even played PSO since ’99 and thus can’t understand how lame and dated it really is. Both Photon Arts and techs are now drops. Need Renzan at 30? Good luck with that random number generator, hey?

To top it all, PP is no longer weapon-bound; it’s character bound. Lame.

So, About That RNG…

Synthesis is still completely missing. I didn’t really expect it back, after all, it was cut from PSP. But sorry to the bitch ass whiners – synthesis was one of the more brilliant features of PSU. Imbalanced? Oh, to all hell, what with gunners and techers only needing to succeed at synth period, unlike the rest of us and our horrible elemental percentages.

But the fact that you could get quality gear without being at the mercy of loldroprates… Huge.

It better be back in PSO2, or I swear, a black energy wave will be heading toward SOJ’s HQ.

But it gets better!

Grinding is now cash-for-goodness, rather than, “LOL YOUR WEAPON THAT HAD A 99% CHANCE OF SUCCESS FAILED, YOU LOSE. AHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA. LOOK AT ME, I R SONIC TEAM! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

…Uh. Yeah. Well, do like. Let’s hope PSO2 keeps the idea, and more importantly, learns how the hell to write remotely secure code. *coughh4xs3ta*

GO KILL STUFF K THX

Ah, the cafe. Alluded to by a horrible French … I refuse to call that thing a Numan. A place of… Well, shit, people just stand around doing nothing. But now you can get fun happy side-jobs, to go with your normal spamming of missions. A nice addition, and had it been on PSU proper, probably would’ve got people running the more obscure stuff. Liek.

WHITE BEAST

…I just ran White Beast. BECAUSE I COULD. Oh yeah.

Lol Character Imports

…Imported my PSP character. I’m a ‘former guardian’. Bitches don’t realize my PSP character was my PSU character, because I always feared SoJ/SoA were going to double team us with double penetration action and kill our servers for no good reason.

This is hardly the fault of PSP2, since – obviously, PSP != PSU in terms of story. BUT I WANT TO GAG LUMIA AND THROW HER INTO A PIT OF KAKWANE.

…It’s my guilt, really. To think my PSU character mentored an annoying little girl who turned into an annoying big girl. Gah. Well, in fairness, I was at the same time, you know, SAVING THE ENTIRE GODDAMNED SOLAR SYSTEM. But still.

…So what’s with the school uniform getup? I remember when Guardians were cool, man. Except for Lumia, who was like, way too young for the hooker-wear she got from Maya. But other than that, there was flavor, damn it. Now? Sheesh, no wonder why even a mercenary company named ‘Little Wing’ can get off by insulting the Guardians. O HAI, UR LATE 4 CLASS, SCURRY OFF WHILE I SAVE THE GODDAMNED SOLAR SYSTEM AGAIN.

Woot.

PSP2 used the word ‘woot’ in a grammatically sound fashion. This is good.

The fact that I was able to respond to someone with, “That’s how I roll.” is even better.

I do enjoy dialogue that isn’t complete crap, which I’m happy to say, PSP2 is following in PSU’s footsteps.

Racism and Clothing

…So apparently there’s now racial-based clothing (apart from clothes for meatbags and parts for the walking calculators).

I AM DISAPPOINT. Mostly because the most badass looking of the new threads is restricted to humans. Pah. Stupid humans.

End Rambling Rant

I’ve heard rumors that Sonic Team is nowhere to be found with regard to PSO2.

That alone has forced a revision in my, “How dare you ruin Algo?”, “Not now, not ever again!” take on another PS* game.

With any luck, Sega will be shoving PSO2 into the hands of Alfa. They could do far, far worse – indeed, such a move might be the smartest thing Sega’s done since putting out Skies of Arcadia.

Further Lameness/Awesomesauce

Two more things I’ve noticed. No, three things. Three things. Wait, four.

First, level-locked gear. Lame. Even PSO didn’t do that. Well, the original PSO didn’t do it. PSU didn’t do it either. I think. Oh hell, I can’t even remember now. But, look, level-limited gear is stupid, even when simply compared to stat-limited gear. With the latter, you can come up with some pretty interesting/bad builds if you absolutely, positively have to wield $FancyWeapon.

Second, empty boss boxes are back! …And it’s the lamest thing Sonic Team ever came up with. Pity Alfa didn’t fix it. Look, I know, getting a bunch of monomates after an epic, thirty minute boss fight (is this still even possible?) is… Kind of meh. But it’s still better than breaking open a bunch of boxes and finding squat.

Lightning Beasts. It’s been neutered. I don’t know what to say. I mean, I felt kind of strange dragging Lumia through LB. In PSU, I dragged her through LB a few hundred thousand times, so I’m figuring she was wondering what the hell was going on. But man, it’s gutted. Really gutted. The music is still there; the abandoned/overrun city feel is… There, I guess. But somehow the heart and soul of the mission have gone. Sad.

Armor switching: Did I mention how bad ass it is to have palettized and thus easily swappable armor? Beats hitting the menu/inventory/armor/load up all your units again/baaaah. A true win, this one.

Thinking back to the MW4 campaigns – Vengeance, Black Knight and Mercs – there’s one chassis that I always hated seeing. Not because it was dangerous; hardly. But because it meant I had to sit there pounding on it for aeons before it’d go down.

The Thanatos.

Or, thanks to MekTek, the Thanatos XT. The XT gets rid of the largely pointless missile arm and adds another far more useful ballistic appendage. Weighing in at 75 tons, this monster can pack a decent punch and take a sound beating before collapsing.

Out of the blue, I stripped it down a bit and managed to toss on:

• ECM
• LAMS
• IFF
• 4 Heat Sinks
• 2x Clan Gauss with a spare ton of ammo each
• 2x Clan Extended Range Large Lasers
• 13.5 tons of armor

I wasn’t booking about the field, what with a mere 63 kp/h; but the Thanatos is fairly agile – 360 degree torso twist, and no problem climbing steep terrain. With an alpha strike of 51 points at 800 meters, it’s no assault, but people take notice when you hit them.

The Thanatos has a really odd looking chassis. It’s fairly wide, which one might think is detrimental – but I noticed damage spreads pretty evenly. The aforementioned full torso twist means it’s easy to assist your enemies in spreading their damage all over your mech, even as you’re retreating. The center torso is fairly flush with the rest of the chassis, so there’s no obvious target sticking three miles out of the front of your mech. The arms are nice and thick, but not terribly long, making them more difficult to slice off than one would expect of a heavy.

Initial trial run was a few minutes in length – tail end of a map, with no shortage of targets or ordinance thanks to spawn camping by the other team. I was able to dodge a great deal of incoming fire, while taking full advantage of already weakened armor on the opposing assaults. Seeing some potential, I stuck around for a full game, where my kill/death ratio was dead even. Point value sucked – I could’ve done more in a light, to be sure. But sometimes, you just want to make the other team die.

I’m probably going to play with the configs a bit more – given the recycle times of the CERLGLs and the fact that the principle armaments aren’t producers of heat, I may strip the heat sinks and see what I can do with either a bit more speed or some other supplemental weapon. Debating stripping IFF to make another ton available – IFF does have an effect on unskilled players in the middle of a brawl, but I find it’s not all that useful when sniping – and especially now that MekTek’s flooded us with mech choices. A halfway decent player will quickly learn what chassis and names are on his side and which chassis and names he should be shooting at. ECM and LAMS are definite keepers – missile boats are still out there.

• Vampiric Gaze
• Insidious Parasite
• Spiteful Spirit
• Mark of Pain
• Suffering
• Weaken Armor
• Chilblains
• Resurrection Signet

Equipment was Kaolin Accursed Staff (<3), elite armor with +3 curses and the rest health/armor runes/insignias.

16 Curses, 10 Soul Reaping, 8 Blood Magic.

Heroes:

Hero #1: Jora

• Savage Slash
• Sever Artery
• Gash
• Final Thrust
• Healing Signet
• “Watch Yourself”
• Charge
• Resurrection Signet

Armed with a Deldrimor Sword and assorted health/armor runes/insignia, +3 Swordsmanship.

16 Swordsmanship, 10 Tactics, 8 Strength

Hero #2: Livia

• Tenai’s Wind
• Jagged Bones
• Animate Bone Horror
• Death Nova
• Putrid Bile
• Blood of the Master
• Resurrection Signet

Armed with stock weapons, and health/armor runes/insignia, +3 Death Magic.

16 Death Magic, 10 Soul Reaping, 8 Air Magic

Hero #3: Ogden

Stock hero.

Henchmen:

• Devona
• Cynn
• Professor Gai
• Jamei

Luxon Attack:

Downed a birthday cupcake and two +5% morale candy canes.

Henchmen to the right, heroes to the left. Everyone on their respective stairs. Took Jora on excursions to ice siege turtles. Concentration was on the turtles, rangers were often left for cleanup since we were at risk for adds which the two of us couldn’t handle efficiently.

After all six turtles were dead, I took Livia and Ogden with me to quickly polish off the remaining rangers.

Afflicted:

Downed a birthday cupcake.

Left side was henchmen, right side was heroes. Two juggernauts at the left side, one at the right. Parties were between hills with the juggernauts a bit more forward. Important to have strength on the left for the initial attack, it’s a doozy – but Devona and Cynn supported by my curses seemed to do an ample job. Had a couple of close calls with warriors/etc. getting through and going for the tree singers; keep a sharp eye out and prepare to call targets.

After the initial wave, things went quite smoothly with myself alternating between which gate was being hit the hardest, throwing devastating curses out to the clustered groups of soon to be removed Afflicted. Last group had the two warriors sneak in on the left and wail on a treesinger; I was expecting it and they went down quickly. I then moved Livia to the left gate just because I’m paranoid (what if that wasn’t the right final two warriors? ;)) and moved the henchmen to the right to help wipe up the bosses.

Game, set, match. I actually think this was a bit easier with a Necromancer instead of my Assassin; I was able to stand far behind the lines and simply toss out curses, whereas I was (perhaps due to my kick-ass Grenth costume) more inclined to play the action hero with my Assassin, shadowstepping to the rear to gank monks and such.

Assassin:

• 11 + 1 + 1 Dagger Mastery
• 6 Shadow Arts
• 12 + 1 Critical Strikes

• Unsuspecting Strike
• Fox Fangs
• Death Blossom
• Death’s Charge
• Shadow Refuge
• Optional (Breath of the Great Dwarf)
• Optional (Word of Healing)
• Critical Agility

The only time I’ve found it necessary to have a secondary on an Assassin is for perma, and frankly, I’d rather just grab my heroes and lay waste to an entire area – it seems far faster to generate platinum by doing that, than by farming specific drops.

The optional slots are entirely optional – you totally don’t need them. I left Word of Healing on my bar by accident after capturing it for Ogden, as it were. As for Breath, I like it due to killing burning and providing a quick party heal. It’s pretty useless in this mission.

CA, SR and some form of shadowstep are critical for this mission. CA should never leave your skill bar at any time, to be honest, it’s just that awesome. But you’re going to be doing a lot of solo-vs-small group combat; what you do is CA, SR, shadowstep, start Death Blossoming.

You also want energy-sucking blades – I’m currently using Pywatt’s Talons (which just look awesome), but Droknar’s Daggers will do in a pinch too. I picked up Pywatt’s due to the enchantment bonus, when I started playing around with Perma – but I like to keep it around for CA, too. And since you should always be using CA, you should always get your damage bonus, to boot.

In terms of armor, I’m running full Survivor. The HP really helps out. I’ve got a Rune of Superior Vigor thrown in, which is of supreme importance – but feel free to spend ~4k instead of 22k and get the next level down – missing 9 hp isn’t as important as getting at least +41 hp.

Hero #1 (Tank):

I used Jora for this, simply because she’s the only hero I’ve invested in so far. She’s set up with mostly +hp/+armor stuff, but any tank (M.O.X. even) will do in a pinch. But for interest:

• 9 + 1 Strength
• 12 + 1 + 2 Swordsmanship
• 9 + 1 Tactics

• Sever Artery
• Gash
• Final Thrust
• Savage Slash
• Shield Bash
• Watch Yourself!
• Healing Signet
• Resurrection Signet

…This is a completely random build; I’ve never played a Warrior, haven’t looked into decent builds, and I haven’t been buying/capturing skills for Jora. Should note she’s wielding a Murakai’s Blade – the energy regeneration is near useless with this build, but I plan on giving her a much cooler weapon whenever I can upgrade her to Deldrimor armor. Yes, I’m vain, and want my heroes to look imposing, damn it.

Hero #2 – Livia – Minion Master – N/E:

You simply need an MM for this mission – two would be better, but one does well in a pinch. Livia’s my Necro of choice – I really need to get around to upgrading her a bit.

• 9 Blood Magic
• 12 Death Magic
• 9 Soul Reaping
• 3 Earth Magic

• Jagged Bones
• Animate Bone Minions
• Blood of the Master
• Death Nova
• Well of Blood
• Glyph of Lesser Energy
• Churning Earth
• Eruption

I’m tempted to kill Well of Blood from this build, since Livia often uses it far too often, when I’d prefer she raise a larger army. Still, she seems to add a hell of a lot more kick to my party these days.

Hero #3 – Ogden – Healer:

Definitely need a hero healer, simply because you want to split into two groups, and your hero group will need healage.

• 12 Healing Prayers
• 3 Protection Prayers
• 12 Divine Favor

• Word of Healing
• Orison of Healing
• Ethereal Light
• Healing Touch
• Signet of Devotion
• Healing Seed
• Draw Conditions
• Resurrection Signet

I didn’t give Ogden a non-signet rez after reading an interesting article about the merits of heroes with rez. It made some damned good points about the time/energy cost of rez spells, and how they will end up causing a wipe instead of just having a single group member lying on the ground until your current predicament is solved.

Still, this is a long battle – you might want a rez, but disable it and use it manually if you do take it.

Henchmen:

• Devona (<3)
• Aidan
• Eve
• Jamei

The important thing here is Devona (she’s an arsekicking machine and can hold a line for a decent amount of time) and Jamei. Everything else is negotiable, though I like Aidan because being a Ranger, I’m figuring he does some interrupting or something. Interrupting the bosses/monks is a good thing.

The Mission

Phase One

In the first phase of the mission, you’ll be fighting off Luskan, err, Luxon, invaders. (Yes, I went Kurzick solely because Luxon reminds me of Luskan, and I hate those damnable Luskans.) This is the easy part. This is the really easy part.

Place your party at the top of the stairs to the right. Place your heroes on the left stairs – Jora near the bottom, Livia and Ogden near the top.

Sit back and relax until you get warnings about siege turtles. Who’s going to kill siege turtles? You’re going to kill siege turtles.

On approach to a turtle, activate CA and SR, shadowstep to a ranger, and begin laying waste to the rangers – keeping an eye on your health and activating SR as necessary. You want to whack two or three of the rangers before hitting the turtle, simply because their damage really adds up when you’re solo. If you have good armor/skillz, you can survive it, but this is a long mission – you’re better safe than sorry. Once you’ve killed some of the DPS, slaughter the turtle. Make sure you keep an eye out for reinforcements if you’re on the north or south slopes – generally they run by, but aggroing a pair of elementalists can really ruin your day.

After killing a turtle, check the situation – feel free to mop up the rangers if you’ve the time. If there’s another turtle up, go kill it, if not, return to the central area and help out your teams or smoke a cigarette.

Phase Two

This is where things get hairy. Immediately upon cutscene completion, you need to get to work on placement – you can activate the three juggernauts, and you want them, but they move slooooooow and you’ve got Afflicted en route.

Place your party on the right – behind the gate – between the two hills. Grab a single juggernaut and put it in front of them.

Place your heroes on the left – again, behind the gate. Jora should be in the center. Ogden can go on the hill to your right – often times, if he’s not busy, he’ll run over to help your other group with healing. Place Livia on the hill to the left. You want the other two juggernauts with Jora.

Sit back, make sure your insurance forms are filled out, and wait for the balloon to go up – you won’t wait long.

The first waves consist of mixed groups on both gates – your party shouldn’t have any problems with the right gate, but do keep an eye on them. The left gate is your glorious chance for failure. You end up with a lot of Afflicted stacking up really quickly, including ranged afflicted and a devastating boss. If possible, you want to be in the thick of things on the left gate – try and take out the initial rush as soon as possible, to provide ample fodder for Livia. Step back, wait for the boss to charge, take him out. Then quickly play cleanup – shadowstepping, if necessary, to the back lines of the Afflicted to take out their ranged/monk support. WATCH YOUR HEALTH AT ALL TIMES! It’s very easy to die here – be very careful when attacking the Afflicted rear. It may make sense to not attack the rear before you eliminate some of the Afflicted on the front lines – you don’t want them swinging about and nailing you when you’re down the stairs – concentrated ranged fire from the numerous rangers, mesmers and elementalists will roast you.

The next few waves are general mixed groups, and should be light. Keep an eye on your hero and henchman parties, assisting where necessary – your assistance will again usually be in the form of shadowstepping to the rear and laying waste to support. Also, as you lose juggernauts, now’s a good time to re-activate them (they’ll be at the north tree – the one to the right) and re-place them.

The final wave consists of two bosses hitting the right gate. At the same time, you’ll have some very minor action on the left – I believe a pair of Afflicted Warriors. Livia can deal with those on her own; so at this point you can either move Jora, Ogden, or both of them to the right.

In terms of the boss fight, your job is simple – sit back, let Devona/etc. take aggro, then shadowstep to the rear and execute the Afflicted Monk. Once that’s done, cleaning up the two bosses is simple – I suggest taking out the ritualist first. The assassin boss didn’t seem like much of a threat, he simply took some time to take down.

Enjoy the Master’s reward – what a nightmare.

Final Thoughts

This is the roughest mission I’ve done solo. There have been some missions in EotN I simply couldn’t solo – kicking Cyndr’s butt, for example. There have been missions that were impossible until I figured out the correct tactics – A Time For Heroes, for example – I paid 1k for my first run; my second run was done on the first try thanks to clever placement, and myself doing nothing during the fight but spamming Breath of the Great Dwarf and Pain Inverter.

Still, this monstrosity, I ran probably a dozen times before succeeding.

The most important things to keep in mind while running this mission are to watch your health – don’t sacrifice yourself for the sake of quick damage. You’re doing a lot of soloing, and you can’t afford to bring Ogden to you if you bite the dust on a siege turtle or behind a line of Afflicted. Second, preparation and knowledge is key – knowing which team needs your assistance, why they need it, and when they need it, is the key to victory.

And keep an eye on your health at all times!

Nine down, four more to go… Ugh!

Also, orioncd.ini should basically just contain a single line containing the path to the CD.

Ah, the tribulations of attempting to get Moo2 running under Vista Ultimate. The installer won’t run, of course, so it was necessary to simply copy the entire disc to drive. Setting the .exe’s to run in Win 95 compatibility mode was the first step; next was copying dplay.dll from the DIRECTX directory of the disc to c:\Windows\SysWOW64

That allowed the game to start, at least, without issue – other than a missing orioncd.ini; the contents of which are noted above.

The game starts and appears to run okay. No real problems yet, other than the mouse cursor being kind of… flickery.

I can say that things look ugly on a 30″ monitor, but, well… When you’re blowing up low resolution that much, you can’t expect otherwise.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some galactic conquest to attend to. With my hawt Elerian science chick. Research labratories FTW!

The level cap has increased again, joy of joys, now I have to suffer through even more levels of Wartecher. There’s a number of new S2 missions, which pretty much demand higher levels or paying detailed attention. Detailed attention is fine; it should be paid when running in groups, but being on the PC/PS2 servers, there are no groups. ;)

Still no supplemental update. That’s going to be a mixed bag when it hits. Wartecher is getting a significant boost, purportedly – but so are other types. Nothing will change in the Wartecher vs. the world arena – however, more ATP is always a welcome thing.

Shops are barren of good stuff; my kingdom for an Igg Crown. Did pick up a few low-end (~20-28%) Serafi-Senbas – figured it was about time, because Whithill Wings are out. I haven’t been waiting for this unit eagerly so much as it’s easy to get and/or cheap to buy, makes one nigh on invulnerable to Megid, and has HP regen. And isn’t the hideous Puyoment Aura. ;D

The Innocent Girl mission it comes from… Is *the* mission now, end of story. It’s terribly difficult until you know what enemies to take out first (Wikkos), know where to stand to avoid overpowered laser death traps, and comes with at least 200% increased experience points. To say nothing of dropping Olpads, polymers, and Par Walna like goddamned candy. Did I mention the MAG badges? Probably easier to wait for MAG+ (coming real soon now(tm)), but it’s an added bonus if you need to hit the new cap. It’s also a good wealth generator – meseta drops easily, and always in 1k+ packages.

The nice thing is you don’t need to complete the mission to get a decent reward – the last fight may be a bit difficult due to the fact that if you move, you’re likely going to eat laser death. Dying there will get you Rank A, and plenty of bonus boxes once you progress the storyline of the mission enough.

Definitely a mission you want the following for:

• High % Light Weapon
• High % Ice Weapon
• Dark Armor
• Fire Armor
• Endurance bonus unit

There’s a room which ends up with a number of those… Man, I can’t remember the name – the weird megid shooty Hive things. I can only imagine the piles of Masterclass bodies that litter the field from that room. Female numan endurance + Whithill wing == megid invulnerability, though – I’ve pretty much sat there for five minutes eating megid, with no ill effect (other than needing to cast resta :p)

It’s a fun mission; I’m usually sick of missions after the first few runs, and yet I’ve run Innocent Girl a few dozen times already. The scenery changes from block to block, and it’s got just the right blend of easiness vs. instant death to make it exciting enough to not fall asleep to.

Not to mention, it’s Wartecher friendly. The big stuff is melee friendly, there’s some small stuff if you really just have to use techs, and the Wikkos make you feel like your decent MST score is worth something. (Still, watch out for the Foi/Diga combo; you will likely not survive it.)

First, they try to pawn it off on having a low job level. So sorry, nobody forced you to switch classes. And job level has nothing to do with it – I’ve seen a good level 1 Masterforce rape everything that got near her, courtesy of her taking the time to level her techs to 41. Really, look at the stats – job level really has little to do with the power and survivability (or lack thereof) of masterclasses. Next, they try to pawn it off on, “Well, my techs/PAs/bullets are low!” This is the actual truth – these classes are completely pointless if you haven’t put the time in to raising your techs/etc. However, random parties are not the place to bring your newly masterclassed butt in with level 20 PAs and techs. You know what I did when the masterclass patch hit? I started a buff party. A buff party that lasted long after I left – it was still up and running the next night.

Now, here’s my problem. I took responsibility for myself and levelled my buffs. I had then at 20 long ago, even though I only ‘needed’ them at 11 due to how buffs work. Conversely, I raised them all to 30 this time, even though I only ‘needed’ 21 – and I even took the time to level up another set of discs for an alt so that the AFs and GTs in the group could count on my body to help their experience gains. Anyway, I took the time to do this. The Acrotechers and Guntechers and Wartechers in my group took the time to level their techs.

Everyone expects AFs to have top-of-the-line buffs. Everyone now expects me to have top-of-the-line buffs as well, too. Well, except for the players that haven’t yet heard that Wartechers are now more useful than store-bought items. :p Fair enough – it doesn’t take much effort to level most techs, or most PAs, or even most bullets. However, if I’m expected to have my techs and PAs levelled, then the n00bclasses better have their’s as well. Otherwise, yes, I’m going to be rolling my eyes and making smarmy comments, and damned be the elitist trash who’s feelings get (butt) hurt as a result.

I make exceptions, really. I don’t expect Masterforces to have all their techs at 50 over night. Primary attack techs, though, should really be at 41 – there’s not much of a point to the class otherwise. I expect Fighmaster to have decent weapons and decent PAs, and not throw mobs all over the goddamned block. I expect very little out of Gunmaster, to be honest – Gunmasters are the ‘worst’ of the masterclasses, so to speak in terms of their capabilities. Not in terms of ‘awesomeness’ mind you, but whereas there’s still compelling reasons to remain as a Fortefighter, an Acrotecher or a Fortetecher – Fortegunner has little going for it compared to Gunmaster. ‘sides, if you can spew out level 31+ rifle bullets at an increased speed, that’s good enough for me. Then again, I am biased toward loving gunners.

But if you come into a party with level 20 attack techs as a Masterforce; if you run around as a Gunmaster with level 8 lasers; if your solution to everything as a Fighmaster is lolbroga, then yes, I’m going to be irritated. Not irritated enough to boot you; certainly not enough to insult you personally. I try my hardest to avoid spreading the elitist trash disease that infects even the PC/PS2 PSU servers. But yeah, I’m going to be snorting and rolling my eyes. Deal with it.

And another thing – no, it’s not acceptable to die to the point of using up ten scape dolls per block in a party, except in very rare (megid related) circumstances. Lying face down waiting for Giresta or a Moon Atomizer is not helping the party, no matter how much you’d like to believe it is. Megid’s an exception – sure, I’ll buy that. Masterclasses have absolute crap for endurance. But if you think switching to a masterclass – which was your decision, and then dying constantly is being fair to your other party members; if you think that doesn’t give, say, Wartechers the right to make smarmy comments; most importantly, if you think that the rest of the playerbase owes you something because you chose to suddenly become a mastergimp, then piss off. You have no clue.

Rant over. Now, on to the awesomeness:

I’ve finally breached 120. This, combined with level 30 support has turned Wartecher from ‘Meh’ into ‘Meh?’ Survivability continues to be epic – I soloed Scarred Planet S2 at ~118 – before the new support level. (Let’s see a mastern00b try that!)

But the combination of S2-level mobs, support 30, and the disappearance of the Fortetecher class has called for some changes to my palette and play style.

Armor:

No major changes here, though I have started buying elemental armors. 20%+ is fine. Anything more is a waste. At ~120, only five things could kill me:

• Not paying attention
• Batteries falling out of my controller
• Megid
• Attacks capable of delivering 3k+ damage (Hi, Ma Brain’s power arm!)
• Go Vahra orgies

Armor does nothing for the first two. For megid, the only thing that’d help would be an extra slot, and my thoughts on those will follow. For the last two, higher elemental percentage won’t do squat. If Ma Brain is capable of smashing you, a few measly percent won’t make the difference. And you should never leave yourself in a position to receive four simultaneous attacks from leaping Go Vahras. (And if you do, armor again will be unlikely to save you.)

Slot types remain unchanged – head, arm, body. For megid, I had pondered an extra slot just for more endurance against S2-level SEED, but the mastern00bs have ensured that dying constantly is perfectly acceptable. Given that a female WT character is already fairly immune to megid compared to a great many characters, combined with instant-masterclass death to megid… I still see no need to waste outrageous amounts of meseta on armor along the lines of a Serafi Senba.

Head, I’ve actually swapped out – I had removed my +TP unit for a Har / Quick during my buffing party run and completely forgot it was in there. I still prefer +TP over Har / Quick for day to day use – Noszonde and Nosdiga are slow as all hell and Har / Quick does not make enough of a difference there to be worth sacrificing damage. It’s insanely useful for Diga, however, which has become my new best friend during this GBR.

Arm, I’m still using +ATP/-ATA. I intend to replace it with a Lumirus / Kaos Knight as soon as I find/buy one. (In terms of buying, I’m waiting for post-GBR, when prices will inevitably fall a la Paradi.) Moving to fighting level 150+ creatures at level 115 has given me more zeros than I would like; however, the increase in support tech levels pretty much nullifies the difference. As I’m now approaching level 130, I believe I can swap in an L/KK with no ill effect.

Body remains the general purpose anti-effect slot. Currently, I don’t leave home without Freeze and Stun resists. Freeze is the general purpose here – all four of the GBR missions have freeze-capable creatures. Stun is swapped in for Grass Assassins and Ma Brain. (I’m tempted to swap it in for SEED Ardites as well, but since they can freeze *and* stun, it’s really a toss up.)

Weapons:

I’m finding myself using single claw/Shato and Tesbra/Shato combinations more and more. This has to do with the disappearance of the Fortetecher class, and the comparative rarity of Acrotechers – Wartecher has certainly taken on a much greater support load. The Shatos usually have a combination of Resta and Giresta. In the case of the Tesbra, it alternates between Diga/Nosdiga and Nosdiga or Noszonde and a debuff for tagging. I generally go with the Noszonde/debuff for Illusionary Shaft – I’m polite and don’t feel the need to instantly kill low-HP creatures that are providing 500% experience before my party members have a chance to hit them. :P

Twin Claws are still my mainstay, with Renzan remaining my PA of choice. Renzan is useful in any situation, from crowd control to spike damage to singular large targets. (Especially since it’s capable of multi-hitting on those.) Despite the increased support workload, I find a level 30 Giresta still allows plenty of time for twin claw action, once you learn to let the constantly dying masterclasses fend for themselves.

I’m also considering upgrading my buff equipment from the current… purple something or other TCSM and Magical Wand. Purple is good, and the Magical Wand is hideous; but as much as I love the combination, level 21+ buffs eat through PP far too quickly. Pity we still haven’t gotten the single-photon-charge-charges-both-weapons fix.

Techs:

I’ve finally picked up Giresta, as at level 30, it finally makes sense to own. Took all of fifteen minutes to raise to level 30, too – no excuse for not having it there. Since I’m now finding myself in parties without any other support character, healing is now falling to me. I’m happy to say that level 30 support is up to the challenge.

To quote that annoying iPod commercial that I still haven’t gotten out of my head, Diga is my hot, hot sex. For day to day use, I still prefer Nosdiga, but Diga is glorious on large, slow-moving targets such as Grass Assassins and Ma Brain’s arms. The latter is most important, because if you’re soloing or dualing Ma Brain at the S2 level, at level ~120, you really need to take out an arm to be able to deliver the damage necessary to win. Especially if you’re partnered with a Fortegunner instead of a tech using class.

Man, that was an epic fight.

NPCs (hah):

The next installment of the story line missions allows one to gain Karen Erra and Ethan Waber’s partner cards. Do it. Ethan massacres hordes of small to medium creatures, as does Karen. Karen’s a bit on the fragile side, but as Sega ripped off my PSO character when designing her (seriously, all that’s missing are S-Beat Blades – speaking of which, Sega, can haz S-Beat Blades in PSU nao k thx?), she’s the logical choice for a partner NPC when soloing.

That said, I still prefer the Tonnio/Leo combination when dealing with… annoying enemies. Sleeping Warriors, for example, with the three Svaltus fight at the end. As I doubt the melee-on-large-humanoids bug will ever get fixed, I find it far less annoying to merely spam Diga/Nosdiga and Resta whilst two nanoblasted beast NPCs tear the living shit out of the Three Annoyanceteers.

In General:

So far, I’m liking the current batch of changes. WT support levels at 30 were long overdue. With the time and money I spent getting a full palette of 40%+, decently-ground claws during the MAG rewards, my melee is… acceptable. Still meh, but once I throw an L/KK in, I should be good to go. The death of Fortetecher as a class and rarity of Acrotechers combines with increased support levels to give Wartechers a very solid role in a party. It’s the equivalent of Rika vs. Raja – sure, everyone loves Raja, but he’s really not that necessary to have in your party when you already have Rika. Unless you need very bad puns, then Raja wins hands down.

My big fear here was that WT would get level 30 support and… it’d be completely pointless, as FTs and ATs can do support better. Masterclasses, for all the idiocy involved therein, have pretty much ensured this isn’t the case. Hopefully, the mass exodus of FTs and ATs won’t turn into a mass exodus from MF. I’m doubting that, though – unless a player is a complete putz, MF’s insane numbers should be very attractive… And force HP was always something to sneeze at, so the lower HP of MFs shouldn’t make too much of a difference.

I’m actually very happy with Wartecher now. I’d still like S-rank single claws, but as it stands, Wartecher has finally become something similar to Nei and Rika – which is what it should have been from the start.

My primary character became a female newman wartecher. This is natural, given my primary character in PSO was a HUnewearl, who was based off a character of mine from a Cyberpunk game. (Combined with two parts epic win due to the influence of Nei and Rika, of course.) I’ve grown to love my wartecher, despite the fact that the class does nothing well. What it can do is, everything.

Tips for surviving as a female newman wartecher:

Armor:

Make sure you have a head, an arm and a body slot. Extra slots are for gimmicks – and you can wait to play with gimmicky crap until you have a Serafi Senba. Prior to that, you want a head slot to increase your casting ability. Your tech damage is far more impressive than any other wartecher – but it’s still got nothing on a full blown techer’s ability. (Which in turn, will still suck in terms of damage output.) A cheap unit will boost your tech damage dramatically.

Your arm slot should be reserved for the best ATP unit you can afford. I’m currently using a +ATP/-ATA unit, and I do see more 0′s than I’d care to. People like to insist that you won’t see 0′s unless you’re fighting something far too high level for you – well, that’s kind of the point of playing a wartecher. However, it’s a tradeoff. I think the higher ATP makes up for it. (And I’m jonesing for the release of Lightning Beasts S2 so I can pick up a Lumirus / Kaos Knight.) At any rate, this is where your money should primarily be spent in terms of armor units – melee will be your primary method of attack, so get the best unit you can afford.

Your body slot will be used for the resist of choice for the given mission you’re running. You want to eliminate the possibility of your being frozen, put to sleep, paralyzed or otherwise disabled. Wartechers have great defense, but they don’t have hit points to spare. If you’re incapacitated, chances are, you’re dead. If everyone else is incapacitated and you’re not, you can either laugh at them or be nice and use a Sol Atomizer or three.

In terms of armor itself, I prefer high EVP over high DFP. The reason being, EVP is already ridiculously high; it seems stupid not to take it to the extreme. Of course, EVP means you have a higher chance of photon arts being interrupted – this merely means you can’t be a mindless button-mashing tool. Let the window-licking fortefighters attack from the front; use even an ounce of tactics and you’ll never suffer interruption of your PAs.

Weapons:

First, get a cheap but not terribly bad wand and TCSM. These are for your buffs. As a WT, nobody will want your buffs – yet. We’re supposedly getting support raised to 30, at which point, they’ll potentially be worth stopping to cast. Until then, you should cast them whenever you’re soloing – you might as well raise them as you go, rather than trying to raise them from nothing once the change hits. They’re also better for soloing than item-based buffs. Wartechers might be able to solo anything in the game, but they do it slowly.

Pausing to cast buffs adds little time, especially compared to using four separate items. You can’t afford to waste that many palette slots on buff items, so you’ll need to open your menu if you use buff items, or use megastarides. I dislike megastarides, due to the hp drain effect. I’ve remained standing during some boss fights simply because I don’t use megastarides – with a sliver of health that would be eaten by the hp drain.

Get a decent bow. Pistols are far more awesome, and bows will make people scream, “LAWL SPACE ELF!” at you – but pistols suck in terms of damage and range. A decently grinded Ulteri is ideal and cheap.

The rest of your pallete should consist of a mix of twin weapons and single weapons paired off with a TCSM or RCSM.

I don’t use RCSMs that much; however they are useful in a few situations. TCSMs are a must. You are not a techer, despite the deceptive type name of ‘wartecher’. Pulling out a wand is asinine in all but one situation – fighting machines. When fighting machine-type enemies, your tech damage will almost always surpass your melee damage. In that case, and that case alone, a wand is acceptable. (And I recommend an Uransara – they should be much cheaper in the immediate future thanks to the Neudaiz GBR.) For general melee-resistant enemies, you’re better off pulling out your bow than relying on your techs.

For TCSMs, grab decently-ground Shatos. These are where resta, debuffs (if used/useful for the mission in question) and a general purpose offensive spell or two will go.

Twin weapons are what you’ll primarily use in melee. You have a choice between knuckles, claws and daggers. Spears are for chumps. Go with claws, or you’ll make Nei and Rika cry.

For twin claws, go with Tenora claws. Your twin claws serve one purpose and one purpose only – massive damage. Conversely, you want Tenora vs. Yohmei out because Tenora claws have a much higher ATP. PP is of no concern with twin claws – they regenerate PP like nobody’s business. A couple of normal attacks and you can pull off a three-step PA.

Conversely, you might consider Yohmei claws for your single-handed weapon choice. The extra PP will come in handy here, since single claws do not regenerate PP nearly as quickly as twin claws. They do, however, look even uglier (if possible) than Tenora claws, and you really won’t be doing much melee with single-handed weapons regardless.

Make sure your PM is a melee type. You’ll be synthing a lot of melee weapons, and very little armor or tech equipment. It’s more cost effective for you to have a melee PM, since that’s where you’d be spending the majority of your meseta in terms of equipment.

Plan to spend a small fortune synthing high elemental percentage twin claws and single claws of every element. Melee characters get shafted when it comes to equipment – gunners and techers need merely succeed synthesis in order to have kick ass gear. Melee characters, however, have to synth over and over again, in an attempt to get high elemental percentages.

Fortefighters can get away with playing around with 30% elemental weapons – they do massive damage regardless. You don’t have that luxury. Plan to synth and synth and molest your PM until she delivers you 40% or higher weapons – you need as much damage output as possible, and the easiest way to get it is by elemental percentage.

Conversely, consider restricting yourself to A-rank weapons. Yes, you heard me. If you’re lucky, you might pull a 50% synth out of your PM on the first try. What’s more likely is you’ll go through twenty to thirty attempts before pulling out a pair of 42% twin claws. Unless you’re trading sexual favors to the Sonic Team staff, you really aren’t likely to have the meseta to try and do that with S-ranked weapons. And then there’s grinding – A-ranks are a hell of a lot cheaper to grind. The ATP difference between A and S-ranked claws is minimal, and you should already be ameliorating that by using Tenora claws.

That said, if you can get your hands on S-ranked twin claws with effects and a high elemental percentage, do it. The extra damage from a virus effect, for example, is very appreciable. Worry about getting high elemental percentage twin claws of every element first though. You’ll thank yourself when you can run any mission at your highest efficiency, rather than blowing all your money and being stuck running White Beast.

General Advice:

Use resta whenever you feel the need to. There are a great many bad techers out there who cringe at the idea of breaking their nails. Conversely, you and the rest of the melee group will often be out of range for healing by them. This is where you are full of win.

Always carry 20 Sol Atomizers. If you’re smart, nothing in a mission will disable you. You can then partake in the ignoble duty of freeing the mouth breathers of your party from whatever it is they’ve managed to get themselves afflicted with. While not the most entertaining way to spend time, you can turn yourself from, “Do we really want a WT along?” to, “Hey, it’s X! Quick, invite X!”

Always carry Star Atomizers. There are times when you really don’t want to whip out a TCSM in order to cast resta; when those times occur, you also generally do not want people dying to the right and left of you. Monsters tend not to waste time attacking dead fortefighters, rather, at that point, they’ll be attacking you.

Don’t mindlessly spam PAs. This should go for any class as well, but as a WT, you want to be reflected upon as skilled, not a n00b. Twin claws, for example – renzan whatever – it’s often beneficial to simply run through the first to second stages of the PA over and over again. Kozmali, for example, if knocked down/up/whatever, disappear and relocate. Rather than play hunt the monster, you can sit there hammering on it until it’s dead. If a techer in your party is laying down area-of-effect spells, or a fortegunner starts CHARGIN’ THAR LASA, you do NOT want to scatter creatures to the four corners of the map.

Understand your damage output. My fortegunner was, at level 60, capable of out-damaging my level 105 Wartecher. We’re talking a mid-level FG with low-level bullet PAs, here, vs. my WT with high elemental percentage weapons. Did this sadden me? Sure. Then I realized something: my FG does steady, regular damage. If and when the shit hits the fan, my WT will be cackling over the smoldering corpse long before my FG has even got the target to half health. Spike damage is almost always more useful than steady damage output – fights last seconds, rarely minutes.

Use offensive techs sparingly. Techs are near useless for anyone who isn’t an actual techer, and only acceptable for actual techers because their melee and ranged damage output sucks so completely. The main exception is, again, fighting machine-type creatures. The only other exception are mixed fights with ground and air creatures. In that case, pulling out your bow will gimp you versus ground targets. Instead randomly pop off Noszonde while continuing to engage the ground targets in melee.

Make a fortegunner as an alt. Even those of us who sneer at Sonic Team and utter the names Nei and Rika at them like curses get fed up with how bad newman wartechers are in terms of effectiveness. I find fortegunner to be the best diversion; you get to see how bad your damage as a wartecher is in general, but you also get to see how nothing equals the wartecher for sheer survivability and versatility. Fortefighter would also be an acceptable diversion, however, lasers are freakin’ sweet and can’t possibly be passed up.

Play in small, random parties as often as possible; you’ll have more fun that way. A tight-knit group that’s put together with specific classes in order to provide the maximum efficiency possible… Will simply not include a wartecher. It’s a sad fact of life. However, small random parties, where key classes are limited or completely missing are the most fun you can possibly have – simply because you’ll be doing everything and making the party wonder why they’re suddenly getting their arses handed to them after you leave. ;)

I’ve had a nice, leisurely mini-vacation in the middle of July. Throughout June and July, WorkHabit ceased conventional hosting operations. We’re on to bigger, better and much higher-paying things. The important thing to note is that as a result of this, somewhere in the middle of July, I had two weeks where I was sitting on my butt getting paid to do very little. It dawned on me that it would be a good time to finally finish Xenosaga.

I had previously come into possession of XS I and XS II. XS III, I had to purchase on Amazon, which I did without a second thought. This is slightly disturbing, because I fear I’ll have to go to great lengths to pick up a number of other PS2 games I haven’t yet gotten around to purchasing.

Now, XS I was a great game. XS II was… Horrible. Oh, the story was great, that can’t be debated. But the game play and a great deal of the music was absolutely hideous. You know game play is bad when your following title has to claim, ‘Shops and money are back!’ as a core feature. Not to mention, shortly after the release of XS II, it was decided to cut the series down from four planned installments to a mere three.

The good news is this: While XS I was great, where XS II was a tragedy visited upon fans of the series… XS III is epic. I was bilked out of ~$45 on Amazon for a copy; having finished it, I would have gladly paid ten times as much.

The game is scored entirely by Yuki Kajiura this time around, and it shows. Now, there are some who label Kajiura as repetitive. Frankly, she can be repetitive all she wants; I do in fact demand she be repetitive. Kajiura composes the voice of the Gods themselves. The opening FMV instantly shocks the viewer’s mind into the proper mood of the entire game, from the very first note. I’ve no doubt that it is a foregone conclusion that only Kajiura could have pulled the score of XS III off successfully – and it is indeed her divine talent that has made XS III worth suffering through XS II for.

The XS I (Yasunori Mitsuda) and XS II (Kajiura, for cutscenes) soundtracks, while containing some truly masterful works, had their share of what I like to call ‘happy cheese’ music. XS III has nothing of the sort. The entire soundtrack is grim and somber – even the single track which sounds slightly happy – ‘We’ve Got to Believe in Something’ – becomes very much the opposite, when placed against the plot behind the battle during which it is heard. There is, perhaps, one exception – echoes of ‘Fatal Fight’ can be heard during a single E.S. battle. Of course, this is from the XS II soundtrack. I don’t believe that it diminishes the mood of XS III’s score at all – single battle, and you can imagine exactly what sort of battle that is, and more importantly, who is involved. It is the last battle between the two.

Getting back to the opening FMV, it is very important for another reason – it sets the stage for something whining Squaresoft fanboys will either love or hate, and fans of Xenogears itself should adore. Whereas XS I and XS II had mere echoes of Xenogears – III is steeped in it. The mood-setting, burnt sienna old film look is the first ‘gears-ish item on the menu, and used to excellent effect. More importantly – every throwback to Xenogears is tastefully done. Directly pulling visual elements of Xenogears into Xenosaga could have ended very badly, as you might imagine. It did not – real thought had to be put in to the matter. It’s almost as if Monolith is apologizing for Xenosaga II, and giving us some free Xenogears goodness to assuage our outrage.

The plot… Is brilliant. It is, of course, the tale of Xenogears – which was a tale of humanity. Eternal Recurrence, the horrors of the past, the struggle against the megalomaniacal by those who merely want to live – XS III fills in the gaps and ensures that the basic plot of Xenogears is there. Pleasantly enough, it changes all details, proving that it is a tale worth repeating in a different light; from a different view. Though I hate to return to it again – from the very opening FMV on, the game is one continuous ‘WTF?!’ moment. Even the second disc of ‘gears couldn’t pull that off. (Though I realize it might have – had Square not cut time and the budget in order to pimp FF VII.)

Gameplay ignores Xenosaga II, grabs the best of Xenosaga I, slaps on some goodness from Xenogears, and runs off with it toward the horizon. Character combat is far more similar to I than II, and improved to boot. E.S. combat… I didn’t mind AGWS combat from XS I and XS II, really, but III goes back to Xenogears for its inspiration, and is the absolute most fun you will have in a giant, Anima-powered killing machine. The E.S. battles are always entertaining – even the boss fights which last a great length of time. Protip: Take Jin. Jin in an E.S. is reason enough to play XS III, regardless of everything else.

If XS III has one failing, it’s that it ends the series, and ends it in such a manner that you fully comprehend that there will never again be a game that satisfies you on the same level. It’s like finishing your first burger from Dante’s in Boston: You become acutely aware that never again will you experience the like. (Actually, it’s exactly the same, except you probably won’t be in tears by the end of the Burger of the Gods, as you will be with XS III if you have any freaking empathy at all.)

The first three days after ending the saga, I spent wandering around doing housework, for lack of anything better to do. I then tried to play .hack. I tried even going back to Xenogears. I eventually, instead, went back to work. Not because I had to (well, I do – income is a good thing to have, I understand) – but rather… Everything else pales in comparison. The game is perfect to the point of making one think the failure of Xenosaga II was a good thing. Could Monolith have produced Xenosaga III without botching XS II so badly? Would they have had the same drive and passion, intent on making up for their past mistake?

The Xenosaga now-trilogy, I think, can be compared to Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies. The first of both were a brilliant start. The second of both went downhill fast. But where ‘The Return of the King’ ended with a single woman clapping, very briefly, before she noticed the appalled silence all about her (true story)… Xenosaga III is the unthinkably perfect ending to the greatest story to ever be visited upon us by a series of games.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to do the dishes. It requires fine adjustment of one’s power output.