FFVII Crisis Core – Part 23: Fill ‘Er Up

Summary: More missions recovering stuff for Shinra, and some thoughts on the side missions overall.

FFVII Crisis Core – Part 22: Death Machines

Summary: Not as exciting a session as the title indicates. Did some missions hunting down Genesis’s and Wutai’s forces, and got to see the limit breaks for Aerith and Cissnei.

FFV Four Job Fiesta! - Embrace the Random

Played some at lunch today, and gotta say... Geomancer and Dancer aren't the most reliable classes, but when they hit, they hit HARD.

 Just fought Gilgamesh on King Xezat's fleet east of Exdeath's island, and ripped him apart. Lenna the Mystic Knight was using Drain to have her attacks keep herself alive. Faris's Geomancer kept nailing these Tsunamis, Big Waves, and Waterfalls for massive damage. And Galuf, poor dancing Galuf, got off a few astoundingly powerful Sword Dances. Just obliterated Gilgamesh.

 For Faris especially, a lot depends on the zone. Her Gaia attacks in forests are pretty mediocre, but in caves she dominates with Cave In for thousands of damage. For grinding in swamp areas, she often one-shot kills many monsters with a quicksand type deal.

Even if they're not the most reliable bunch, it's fun as hell when it works. :)

FFV Four Job Fiesta! - Dancing into Galuf's World

Got the final earth crystal: Dancer.  Ugh.

I mean, it's not AWFUL, but my line-up is now Knight, Mystic Knight, Geomancer, and Dancer.  And given that it's a #natural run, there's no job mixing.  Faris is just a Geomancer, Galuf is just a Dancer, etc.  There's no healing, and two of the jobs (geo/dan) are heavily randomized.

Well.  It'll certainly be a unique play for me. :)

FFVII Crisis Core – Part 21: Flower Girl

Summary: Aerith and Cactuars and everything’s awesome.

FFV Four Job Fiesta! - Wind, Water, Fire

Got rolling on the fiesta.  I've made it up through Castle Karnak, and am only posting now because this was my first real challenge: the Living Flame boss of Karnak.  (I'm playing this on my iPhone, so no screenshots - unless y'all know of a way to take screenshots on an iPhone?)

GilgaBot gave me some strong jobs so far in my natural run, but a dearth of healing.

Wind (Bartz): Knight
Water (Lenna): Mystic Knight
Fire (Faris): Geomancer
Earth (Galuf): Not yet there.  He's still freelancing.

This is only my second playthrough of FFV, so I am far from knowing all the tricks and gimmicks to make this an easy run.  I've mostly stuck to getting to a new town, grinding up until I can buy all the magic and armor and weapons I need from the town, and then continuing through the story.

First part of the game has been smooth sailing (no pun intended, Faris) so far.  The Siren was a bit tricky, but not TOO bad.  The forests around Karnak with packs of wolves were nice for gil grinding.  Potion healing is... not great, and the controls on iPhone are not great either, but passable.

Living Flame nearly killed me because I wasn't keeping everyone topped up with potions, but eventually ran her out of mana and won in a battle of attrition.  Escaped the castle, tweeted at Gilgabot, and got my next job.

@Coldrun_MN can now use the Fire Job 'Geomancer'. YES! NO MORE TILE DAMAGE!!!!

— FF5ForFutures (@FF5ForFutures) June 26, 2015

FFVII Crisis Core – Part 20: On the Head of a Pin

Summary: A long session, but felt awkward to cut it. Zack and Cissnei team up. Then Zack and Sephiroth team up at Mako Reactor 5 to pursue Angeal and Genesis. Some backstory throughout about Project Genesis. All parties, and the scientist Hollander meet. Many wings fly free.

FFVII Crisis Core – Part 19: Mech Mutiny

Summary: Genesis’s forces assault the Shinra Building, turning the mechs guarding the place against Shinra somehow. Zack encounters the Turks we know, plus a new one (hard as it is to believe, the first female character in Crisis Core): Cissnei.

FFV Four Job Fiesta! - Introduction

The Final Fantasy V Four Job Fiesta is underway!  I'll be trying my hand at a natural run.  More on what the hell I'm talking about inside. :)

FFVII Crisis Core – Part 18: The Student Becomes the Master

Summary: One of the best mission campaigns I’ve encountered. Challenging, funny, and strangely inspirational and touching. Zack mentors a new SOLDIER Third Class having a hard time adjusting.

FFVII Crisis Core – Part 17: Get Back, Hojo

Summary: The war in Wutai has ended. Zack gets promoted to SOLDIER First Class, but seems grumpier than usual. He goes through some tests with the horrifying Hojo. I dip my toe into the mechanic of Materia Fusion.

Fitness Stuff - 6/18/15

Ate dinner in today.  It was a microwaved meal with some cheez-its, but a step up from the mindlessness beforehand.

Went for a walk, about 1.70 miles in 35:50.

More tomorrow.

FFVII Crisis Core – Part 16: Flare-Up

Summary: Months later, the war with Wutai is over. No sign of Angeal or Genesis. Zack does some missions, clearing out Genesis’s troops and tracking down the Bahamut and Odin materia.

FFVII Crisis Core – Part 15: Monsters

Summary: SO MUCH SHIT WENT DOWN. Genesis appears as a poetry-citing powerhouse, Angeal seems to have switched sides, Shinra bombs Banora to dust, and all this is confusing as hell because we’re on Team Evil so our bad guys are really the good guys unless they aren’t.

FFVII Crisis Core – Part 14: Save a Genesis

Summary: Zack and Tseng head to Banora to find out what’s up with Genesis. It’s his and Angeal’s hometown, and has been overtaken by Genesis’ clones. Zack’s true identity as a bouncy puppy is known by all and it’s wonderful.

FFVII Crisis Core – Part 13: In Da Club

Summary: Zack follows-up on some missions and joins some SOLDIER-related fan clubs.

Hiatus

On vacation visiting family this week.  Back next Monday with more "Crisis Core" - see you then! :)

FFVII Crisis Core – Part 12: Stoned

[Quick note: I'll be on vacation from Wednesday through Sunday, so probably just a couple of posts this week today and Tuesday.]

Summary: Zack heads back to explore the Shinra building briefly, and completes a series of missions for Mako stat boost stones.

FFVII Crisis Core – Part 11: Tonberry Fields Forever

Summary: I complete the Tonberry Quests. Have to fight through SO MANY TONBERRIES. The story itself is a let-down, and the Tonberries become more standard tough monsters than the brutally punishing pain-machines from earlier in the series, but the mechanics are active and engaging. The Master Tonberry goes down and joins my DMW.

FFVII Crisis Core – Part 10: Tonberry Crossing

Summary: Some more general monster and item hunting, but Zack kills a wandering Tonberry and unlocks an awesome-sounding quest line.

FFVII Crisis Core – Part 9: Zack, Getter of Stuff

Summary: Not the most thrilling session. Only a quick stop in Hojo’s Laboratory before hunting down some materia and items on Shinra’s behalf for... reasons? I guess killing monsters and getting loot is part of the corporate agenda.

Fitness Stuff - June 3, 2015

Morning weight: 271.2

FFVII Crisis Core – Part 8: Office Rivalry

Summary: Nothing doing at the Sector 1 Station, so onto the next mission series. SOLDIER undergoes a series of escalating challenges from Shinra’s security forces.

FFVII Crisis Core – Part 7: Out on the Town

Summary: Completed the challenging “Pursue the Remnants” sub-campaign. Then Zack heads out to explore Midgar’s Sector 8.

FFVII Crisis Core – Part 6: Remnants of Wutai

Summary: Sephiroth saves Zack, and Angeal disappears. A month later, Tseng shows up to join Zack on a mission to Genesis (the missing First’s) hometown, but I get sidetracked by a barrage of new missions first to clean up the remaining Tamblin forces.