Urge to kill... rising...
May. 20th, 2004 07:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
terryclothI'm getting royally pissed off by La Pucelle Tactics, now. Around chapter nine, they start introducing the inherently annoying mechanic of 'win this map without hurting any of the enemies'.
The first time you run into it, it's not so bad. The people you aren't supposed to hurt are really hard to kill anyway, and you just have to kill the boss, who tends to want to be in the front lines anyway. Later, you have a reprise where the boss runs away from you, and you only have one character, but your one character is powered up and has long ranged attacks, so there you go.
THEN you get to Chapter 10. After fifty million hours of cutscenes, in which the empire's witch-hunting guards are made out to be complete scum of the earth, deserving to be wiped out to the last man, you finally go up against them... and Alouette says, 'you know what to do, Prier'. 'Yeah yeah, I know. I won't hurt any of them.'
ARGH.
The guards are weak. Strong attacks, but weak defense, and low hit points. So you can't bring out any of your strong characters, or they'll die from counter attacks. That's manageable -- you can swap out weapons for extra armor. And in fact, for the first couple maps, it's not *too* annoying (aside from the fact that you're not actually getting to, you know, play the game, instead just having to run away from everything).
But then you get to the third map, where one step away from your base panel, the enemies are lined up completely blocking your path. And behind them, more enemies block all the other choke points. So as soon as you let them have a turn, assuming you have anyone outside your base panel, you're instantly swarmed with enemies two deep. That you're not allowed to hurt.
In disgaea, this would not be a problem. You'd have your monk punch them to other squares, or use your spear-guys to hop over their heads, or just pick them up and throw them. La Pucelle doesn't have any of that.
Did I mention that when you run away from a battle, you don't get to save before the next one?
After running to the previous map and back about six times, I managed to figure out that if I left a decoy in ONE SPECIFIC square, the guards would happen to open a path along the bottom of the map, which looked like a high-jumping character could take to sneak to the exit... but no, there was a six-inch high rock blocking that path, so of course you can't go that way.
Eventually I just turned it off in frustration. I think I'm going to just play it again (at least it let me save after the damn cutscenes), kill EVERY SINGLE FUCKING GUARD, and accept a 'bad ending' for that chapter. Grrr.
The first time you run into it, it's not so bad. The people you aren't supposed to hurt are really hard to kill anyway, and you just have to kill the boss, who tends to want to be in the front lines anyway. Later, you have a reprise where the boss runs away from you, and you only have one character, but your one character is powered up and has long ranged attacks, so there you go.
THEN you get to Chapter 10. After fifty million hours of cutscenes, in which the empire's witch-hunting guards are made out to be complete scum of the earth, deserving to be wiped out to the last man, you finally go up against them... and Alouette says, 'you know what to do, Prier'. 'Yeah yeah, I know. I won't hurt any of them.'
ARGH.
The guards are weak. Strong attacks, but weak defense, and low hit points. So you can't bring out any of your strong characters, or they'll die from counter attacks. That's manageable -- you can swap out weapons for extra armor. And in fact, for the first couple maps, it's not *too* annoying (aside from the fact that you're not actually getting to, you know, play the game, instead just having to run away from everything).
But then you get to the third map, where one step away from your base panel, the enemies are lined up completely blocking your path. And behind them, more enemies block all the other choke points. So as soon as you let them have a turn, assuming you have anyone outside your base panel, you're instantly swarmed with enemies two deep. That you're not allowed to hurt.
In disgaea, this would not be a problem. You'd have your monk punch them to other squares, or use your spear-guys to hop over their heads, or just pick them up and throw them. La Pucelle doesn't have any of that.
Did I mention that when you run away from a battle, you don't get to save before the next one?
After running to the previous map and back about six times, I managed to figure out that if I left a decoy in ONE SPECIFIC square, the guards would happen to open a path along the bottom of the map, which looked like a high-jumping character could take to sneak to the exit... but no, there was a six-inch high rock blocking that path, so of course you can't go that way.
Eventually I just turned it off in frustration. I think I'm going to just play it again (at least it let me save after the damn cutscenes), kill EVERY SINGLE FUCKING GUARD, and accept a 'bad ending' for that chapter. Grrr.
