This is going to be a short one. Just some helpful tips for when you're in the final stages of the game, in the city of Insomnia.
The photo below shows the location of the entrance to the hideout in the city of Insomnia. At one time, I was roaming both ends of the map trying to get back to the hideout. This should save you some time.
A few months ago, I bought Final Fantasy XV Royal Edition because it was on sale. I have played the standard edition before, when it was available on Gamepass. But I never really got past the first few hours in the game. This time around, after having bought it, I resolved to actually finish the game.
This game is such a quirky RPG. Maybe it’s because I haven’t played a lot of Japanese RPGs since Final Fantasy 10. Maybe these features are already in other games nowadays. But I found this game to be a departure from what I expected a Japanese RPG to be. It's like going on a road-trip adventure with your best friends, where you and your friends look like you belong in a K-pop boy band. You could say, it's like a boy band got their own action adventure RPG made for them. Weird, but good.
The game takes place in a fictional world, but is based on our modern world. Almost like a parallel universe. There are cars in the game. There are activities like camping and fishing. Cooking and eating food is a notable part of the game. One of the characters brings along his camera, which he uses to take photos and selfies throughout the game. Characters carry cellphones and would occasionally get on a call in the game. It’s not what I expected from a Japanese RPG. But man is it a good game.
Bought Elden Ring last November. I struggled with it during the first few hours of the game.
I tried taking on the Tree Sentinel, who roams around at the starting area of the game. The Devs must have put that boss there as a preview of what's to come and maybe just for laughs. Because unless you are a very skilled player, you are not going to be able to defeat that guy, no matter how hard you try. I was both a newbie to the game and an unskilled player. I could not defeat the Tree Sentinel. Just at this very early part of the game, I already died more than 10 times I think.
Anyway, so I moved on and tried to follow the golden markers. I ended up at Gatefront Ruins. Instead of resting at the next site of grace, I only touched it and moved on to fighting the enemies at Gatefront Ruins.
^ This was a very noob mistake, because if I had rested at that site of grace, I would have unlocked the ability to level up. As it is, I kept racking up runes (they are like XP, used to level up), but had no way to make use of them. I could have made my life easier by leveling up, but didn't know I could do that.
I then spent multiple hours trying to clear the enemies at Gatefront Ruins to no avail. I could not defeat the Knight with the Spear and Shield.
^ What's hilarious is that, this guy was not even a field boss. He was just a regular enemy, granted, he was the strongest enemy at the ruins. Couple that with my mistake of not unlocking the level up feature, it's hilarious to look back and think that I could have made the fights against him so much easier.
Character Name: Edgewater Class: Soldier Playthrough: 1st
Just had an encounter with Spacers (basically space pirates) while traveling to a different planet. At first, they were happy at having someone to bully. But after realizing that I was flying the Razorleaf, the ship that belonged to The Mantis, they apologized and grav-jumped away LOL. This surprised me as I didn't know that would happen when flying the Razorleaf.
The Razorleaf...
The Razorleaf is a starship that was piloted by The Mantis, a space vigilante. If you finish the quest line for The Mantis, one of the rewards you get is the Razorleaf. You also get the Mantis armor set, which is one of the best armor sets in the game IMO.
Character Name: Edgewater Playthrough: 1st
To finish the “Check out your ship's inventory” mini quest in Starfield, you need to find the Cargo Hold in your ship and intentionally take out an item from the Cargo Hold. It is not enough to just browse the contents of the Cargo Hold.
This is Neon, the 2nd or 3rd big city I visited in the game. From the outside it looks like some big fish market out in the middle of an ocean. But from the inside...
Note: This game log is a few weeks behind. What I have written below were my early thoughts on the game. It's more of a first impressions post than a game log, but it is what I've written down on my journal. I emphasize the word early because it would seem, from what I've written below, that I hate the game, or that it's no good. But my viewpoint changed as I kept playing and kept leveling up. Just to note that at the time of this writing, I've actually already finished the game. Anyone that's a fan of single player RPGs will enjoy this game.
Character Name: Edgewater Playthrough: 1st
Still playing Starfield and the initial excitement I think has worn off a little. Below are a couple of my thoughts on the game.
The dialogue Persuasion system/minigame seems unfinished, or clunky, or at times broken. Some of the conversations end up with unrealistic results. At one point the person you're talking to is adamant about pushing their point of view, then you say something very minor, then all of a sudden they have a huge change of heart and now they're agreeing with you. It seems very unrealistic to me.
I had one such conversation with a gang leader, whose gang was holding up a bank and had hostages. I used the Persuasion system to try to get them to back down and release the hostages. My initial dialogue choice was a hard stance, basically saying something to the effect of, “Hey man, no one is going to bail you out, you might as well release the hostages because the Marshal is not going to agree with your demands.” To this statement the gang leader responded with something like, “You want to be a hardass? I can be a hardass too. You either cater to our demands or we'll kill the hostages.” At this point, I was convinced there was no way to persuade the gang leader to release the hostages.
First ever playthrough of Starfield. Here's some backstory on my character to help set the tone for the rest of my playthrough. Note that this is mainly for my reference as I continue playing the game.
My character's name is Edgewater. He used to be a Soldier before deciding he wanted to try living life as a regular citizen. He heard of a mining expedition in the planet Vectera and decided to join the crew. And this is where the game starts...
One of the earliest scenes in the game. My character was about to head out into a mine with Supervisor Lin and Heller.
Headed down into the mines. You can play Starfield in first person view or third person view.
I got only a few hours left before I take my annual break on blogging. Before I run out of time, I want to talk to you about this awesome game.
I bought Hogwarts Legacy for my wife on the Xbox. I myself wasn't actually interested in this game. I thought the game was a bit over-hyped, plus it came with a lot of controversy surrounding its development. So yeah, I didn't really care for the game early on. But after seeing my wife play it and seeing her go through the sorting hat ceremony, I was intrigued.
So I eventually gave it a try. What I found was a really compelling game. The game developers did a great job of bringing the Wizarding world from the Harry Potter books to life. My wife is really addicted to the game now. And if I'm being honest with myself, so am I.
Bruno Fernandes and Donny van de Beek, both have the Creative Playmaker playing style now in my Master League season. What a welcome change it has been for my 4-4-2 diamond formation.
Previously, both players had the Hole Player playing style. This meant that once we get the ball on offense, they would try to rush forward to get into an attacking position. This leaves my CMF/DMF with no one to pass to in the center of the field. Without being able to get it to my AMF, I cannot do play-through passes to my CF or SS. But with the Creative Playmaker playing style, they would actually get into a position to receive a pass from my CMF, LMF or RMF. This allows my offense to flow through the middle. And it allows me to use them to make the final through pass that can lead to goals.
This is not to say that having a Hole Player AMF is useless in a 4-4-2 diamond formation. You just have to play a little differently. Meaning you have to anticipate the forward run by your AMF and play the long ball, or play through the wings.
Having the Lightning Rod (single target) and Updraft Tome (AOE) makes it easy to take down Redstone Golems in the game.
I for one am a big fan of the Lightning Rod and use it as much as possible in any Minecraft Dungeon build I make. It is in my experience, one of the best sources of single target damage in the game. And since it has a very low cool-down, you can use it frequently against tough enemies.
Me and my son defeated the Tempest Golem a few months ago (this game log is months behind). The key was to focus on clearing out one zone at a time. There are two of them in the boss fight against the Tempest Golem. And it also helps to have lots of AOE damaging artifacts, like the aforementioned Updraft Tome, and some other ones like the Harvester and Satchel of Elements. Once you clear out the two zones that spawn enemies, the Tempest Golem will be vulnerable to attacks.