Thursday, November 20, 2014

Some gameplay-related problems and glitches pertaining to Pokemon Gen 1 (Red/Blue/Yellow)

Pokemon Gen 1 was a very fun game, and the game that was the cornerstone of so many people's childhoods, including my own. But, let's face it, it had a LOT of flaws that needed ironing out. Here is a partial list of the gameplay-related glitches, programming errors and overall annoyances that run rampant in the first generation of the Pokemon series. This will be mostly in picture form, though if I see any errors on it, I will correct them in text at the first possible opportunity.

Little correction on Swift... Even Swift is capable of missing 1/256 of the time in Gen 1, meaning EVERY attack in the game without exception is capable of missing.
I think that's pretty much it for corrections at this point in time.


Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Lennus II: Apostles of The Seals Item Information and Monster Drops (in progress)

Here are a list of equipment items and their various effects when used in battle. All items that cast spells appear to use the lowest level version. This is by no means a comprehensive list, but here are the effects of some of the more notable ones:


Life Corsage: Heals 300 HP for entire party
Power Wrist: Casts AttackUp on the user
Power Shield: Casts DefUp on the user

Showy Tiara: Casts Barrier
Red Ribbon: Casts Suzowall
Sage Mask: Casts Wall
Sage Ring: Casts Spela
Warrior Ring: Casts AttackUp on the user
Speed Ring: Casts SpeedUp on the user
Bikini: Casts Wall
Flame Ring: Casts Suzun
Light Ring: Casts Kekun
Wind Ring: Casts Lelun
Mage Ring: Casts Gubo
Red Hot Cane: Casts Suzan
Thunder Cane: Casts Kekan
Tempest Cane: Casts Lelan
Sage Cane: Casts SkillsUp

Lennus II: Apostles of the Seals Mercenary List



Here is the list of Lennus II mercenaries and their positive and negative traits... It's still in progress, so there's not really as much information about many of these mercenaries as you'd probably like. Most mercenaries have higher stat growths past level 35-40, so my evaluation of each individual mercenary is likely to change as I find out more.
.
-The Andel mercenaries are Chest, Zock, Joad, Yuma, and Melina. All of them have their uses in Andel, but afterwards, you might want to find other, more powerful mercenaries.

WARNING: Make sure you recruit all of the Andel mercenaries at least once prior to leaving Andel. Any mercenaries you don't hire at least once are lost forever once you leave. Any mercenaries that have been recruited once before can be re-recruited using the Summon Tavern item or Hire spell.

-Zock has the most HP and can equip the most stuff out of the Andel mercenaries. He can also use
Suzan, Lelan and SpeedUp. Lelan tears apart many early-to-mid game bosses. He has the strongest start of the Andel mercenaries, but trails off in usefulness by mid-game, and ends up with the weakest stats among his colleagues in the late-game.

-Chest starts off the weakest, but has higher stat growths than Zock and Joad. He can also equip Slashers, which attack a group of enemies. He knows Kekan, Lelan and DefUp. He's good for the early game and passable for part of the mid-game, but you'll probably want someone with higher overall stats during the latter half.

-Joad can use Slashers as well, and is capable of casting AttackUp, which is always useful. However, his stat gains are rather mediocre across the board, meaning he drops off in usefulness by mid-game.

-Yuma uses Kekan and Kekun to great effect, though she can't use much equipment. She gains Wisdom very quickly, so she'll become a formidable caster with some training. She has decent Speed, and her Wisdom growth is the highest among the Andel mercenaries. She, unlike her previous, more well-rounded peers, may remain a viable option in the late-game.

-Melina is pretty much the same as Yuma, except she casts Lelan and Lelun. She is more useful than Yuma overall, due to many of the early-game bosses being weak to Lelan. Her stats are also more well-rounded than Yuma's, having better Speed and Stamina, but slightly lower Wisdom. She, like Yuma, can be useful in the late-game due to her high speed and wisdom.

Thursday, September 25, 2014

Chrono Trigger Technique Details

Here's the technique list, sorted by character, and with extra information wherever I think it belongs. Before getting to the list, here are a few terms, some borrowed from the JP version, that I use throughout the page:

Damage Types
体  Inflicts physical damage (or is at least considered physical for counterattacks). The kanji means "body", and seems appropriate enough.
天  Inflicts damage of Crono's element. Means "sky" or "heaven", not "lightning".
水  Inflicts damage of Marle and Frog's element. Means "water".
火  Inflicts damage of Lucca's element. Means "fire".
冥  Inflicts damage of Magus's element. Means "dark".
※  Inflicts non-elemental magical damage.
N/A  Doesn't target enemies.
-  Undetermined.
Targeting Examples
Ally  Any single ally   Aura, Cure Beam
Allies  All allies, regardless of positioning   Heal Beam, Aura Whirl
Enemy  Any single enemy   Rocket Punch, Drill Kick
Enemies  All enemies, regardless of positioning   Laser Whirl, Icewater
Zone  The target enemy and all enemies within a set distance from it   Whirlslash, Reaction Bomb
Near  All enemies within a set distance from the user   Circle Bomb, Double Bomb
Ray  All enemies along the ray from the user through the target enemy, even those beyond it   Wind Scythe, Sword Fling
Line  The target enemy and all enemies between it and the user   Flamethrower
Horizontal  All enemies along the horizontal line through the target   Falcon Slash, Line Bomb
General stat and damage algorithm information

Lennus II: Apostles of the Seals Experience Chart

The level cap is presumably 99. This game can be beaten at level 34-35 with some difficulty, though you should probably be around level 38 for an easier time. Characters start requiring well over a million EXP to level up at level 40, and this number only increases exponentially from there, before seemingly stabilizing at level 64. Seriously, read past the line break to see just how utterly ridiculous level grinding can get in this game.

Once you reach level 46, the EXP to next level starts getting weird and begins to roll over. The EXP counter is not capable of handling integers greater than 16777215, apparently. So, for levels 46 and above, I will continue to post the real total EXP and additional EXP required to level up, and in parentheses, I will post how many times the EXP counter rolled over so far for every level plus what the game says is the next level EXP requirement. It's still a work in progress, and it takes an incredibly long time to gain levels after about level 50, so finishing it might take a while. So, without further wasting of your time, here is the Lennus II Experience Chart.



Thursday, August 21, 2014

Lennus II: Apostles of the Seals Boss Information

Lennus II Bosses (note: all HP figures are estimates, and I am most likely wrong on several of them. Also, there are a few early bosses whose weaknesses, EXP and Gold I forgot to fill out when I fought them)

10/8/19 EDIT: Might play through this game again sometime in the near future. If I do, I'll dig through the game code and add the bosses' stats in full. Then, I might make another post with every enemy's full stats.


Tainted Clutch
HP: 500-600
EXP: 6
Gold: 30
Notes: Attacks one character for 30-50 damage. Often crawls back into its eggshell, wasting its turn... Until you reach level 8, in which case it starts spamming Lelun and hitting all characters for around 100 damage. Beating the boss may also trigger Lejun spam from future Tainted Clutch encounters as well, though I'm not entirely sure on this.

Doughren
HP: 2600-2700
Weakness: Lelan
EXP: 30
Gold: 250
Notes: Can attack for 60-80 damage to one, Often casts Lejun on all characters for 100-120 damage, will eat monster eggs to heal 300 HP when low on HP. As long as you're at least level 5, you should beat him without much difficulty.

Lennus II Apostles of the Seals General Information

Here is some detailed information on the sequel to Paladin's Quest known as Lennus II: The Apostles of The Seals, released in Japan for Super Famicom in 1996, and translated into English by Dynamic Designs in 2008. The reasons for this game not being released stateside are unknown... But it's probably because the Playstation, Sega Saturn and Nintendo 64 were already shifting into high gear here, and they figured people didn't care as much about new games for the SNES anymore. Another reason could be because Paladin's Quest wasn't really all that popular in the US.  A third possible reason is the fact that this game has some sexually suggestive situations and dialogue. But, at any rate, this game and its predecessor are both pretty good, and worthy of consideration by any hardcore RPG fan, and I'm disappointed that Lennus II wasn't released stateside, yet, truthfully, if it was released overseas, they'd probably give it a pretty shoddy localization and the translation would probably be pretty horrible just like they did with Paladin's Quest. At any rate, you should try this game out if you haven't already, and, for that matter, you should also give Paladin's Quest a try as well if you like challenging RPGs, but that's a topic for another time.

Status effects:
Poison: Causes afflicted characters to take approx. 1/40 of their max HP damage every few steps while walking around. When this happens, the screen flashes red and becomes all blurry, a somewhat loud sound effect signifying damage plays, and movement stops for a second. Clear this status effect immediately, if only to avoid irritation of the eyes, ears and in general.
Stun: Afflicted character can't perform any actions. This usually resolves within a round or two, and wears off at the end of battle.
Daze: Basically a combination of Confusion and Silence. The afflicted character can't cast any spells, and will instead randomly hit enemies or party members (including him/herself) a random number of times without using any of his/her equipment. This can be a pretty devastating status ailment if a strong physical attacker like Nikita or Polock is affected by it. This doesn't wear off at the end of battle, but it does usually resolve within a round or two of battle.
Moldy: Randomly disables item commands. This is effectively the same thing as, and probably the inspiration for, the Rot status from Legend of Legaia. Spells work perfectly fine, but this can be a huge problem for predominantly physical attackers.
Eaten: Some monsters can eat a character, taking them out of the battle for several turns, and draining their HP periodically. It shows the character sticking halfway out of the enemy's mouth during the duration of the status effect. Also, 10% of all damage done to an enemy that's eating a character is also done to the character being eaten.
Stone: Character is a statue and therefore can't act. This status only occurs once as part of a scripted event, and is never seen again to the best of my knowledge.