Tomorrow's the Day

Well, based on the poll, it's unanimous: I will make a Twitter for this blog, and I'll link to it tomorrow, as well as in every blog post from here on out, so that people who randomly stumble on my blog can follow the Twitter (if they wish), or people on Twitter can follow the blog (if they wish). I'm going into this with.. I don't know, with hopes that it'll benefit the blog more than anything. But I'll never know till I try, right? So it's going to be worth it.

Meanwhile, I'm reaching a big roadblock in Zestiria. Last night I... attempted to face Heldalf on Chaos mode, mainly to see how far I could get, but I kept trying. I could barely manage to reach phase 2, even with Ancient Nova spamming, and in phase 2, I got wiped out. Obviously my skills/equipment aren't up to snuff. But to avoid facing him on Chaos, I'm just going to do this the Symphonia way: With 3 additional playthroughs, but not immediately, since 2 playthroughs alone has been kind of taxing, and I should be catching up on my sleep and fixing my sleep schedule. Currently I'm working on Hexen Isle, to get the trophies related to it out of the way. I just faced Jade, and am halfway through, but the eventual fight with Sophie and Jade is going to be tough, but who knows, maybe I can pull a win out of nowhere.

Either way, I hope you're excited for the blog's Twitter, and I'll see you again soon.

Have a nice day!~

Why is Zestiria So Addicting?

I swear I just can't stop playing Tales of Zestiria (well, then again, I AM working on New Game Plus, following a 100% walkthrough so I don't miss anything, plus am going to spend a lot of time in postgame working towards whatever trophies I have left after I defeat Heldalf tonight), and I'm just making myself sad because I'm slowly going to be reaching the point where I have to accept the fact that I have to, before taking on the EX Dungeon, face Heldalf on Chaos mode, without retrying, for a trophy. Sure, I COULD just work around that and play the game 3 more times after this, but that would just be a huge waste of time, you know? I've seen videos and strategies, and so long as I can deal enough damage to his Armatized form, I should be fine. Seriously, that's the entire thing that worries me, being able to defeat his 2nd form. The first battle is straightforward enough, and the 3rd phase only lasts until you use a Mystic Arte against him. I've learned about how your stats level based on what's your highest-based stat. So, if your Attack stat is the highest, when you're seeing your equipment and such, you'll gain more points towards your attack upon level up.

And that's not just some theory or anything, the game specifically tells that to you upon reading the monoliths through the game. It's interesting to know, since I'm trying to get Sorey and Rose to have wicked attack power, while, at the very least, Lailah has high Arte Attack so Ancient Nova can do even more broken damage. Of course, having good Focus helps too, so you're not waiting as long to attack again, but thankfully I defeated the "shadow" versions of my party yesterday and retrieved my endgame equipment from my first playthrough, meaning I can only get better from here.

Anyways I just rambled, and I'm sorry about that. Here's hoping I can manage to defeat Heldalf a bit more easily tonight since I'm nearly 20 or more levels higher than I was in playthrough 1.

Have a nice day!~

So, About Zestiria's Final Boss... (SPOILERS)

*DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU DON'T WANT ANYTHING FROM TALES OF ZESTIRIA'S FINAL BOSS SPOILED FOR YOU! JUST WANTED TO MAKE THAT CLEAR SO THAT NOBODY CAN SAY THAT I DIDN'T GIVE A WARNING!!*

So, I beat Tales of Zestiria two days ago, actually, and currently I'm working on the New Game Plus playthrough, which will also act as my trophy wrap up. But there's something that I've come to realize after struggling with Heldalf in the game's finale. But before I rant, let me just say that I'm partly at fault for rushing through and not doing as much fighting in the end (I was level 56-57 when I beat the final boss), as well as not really doing better with my equipment, since that's what this game really focuses on. Of course, I could have also grabbed some Anomalous Orbs to boost my HP more, but still. I kind of regret having to rely on the "spam Rose's Dream Slasher until you win" tactic.

So, the first phase against Heldalf is simple, just fight him, watch his attacks, beware his Mystic Arte, etc. Pretty simple stuff, but then phase 2 just.. really bothers me. Now in most Tales games, when you can't beat the final boss, what do you do? Get better equipment and/or gain some levels, right? Typically you have the best equipment the game can offer you at this point, including weapons and such. But, that's where Zestiria starts to stagger, in my opinion.

Now don't get me wrong, the equipment and fusion and skills/stacking stuff is pretty in-depth and it can be fun, but it's still kind of luck based. I don't like the notion that having the wrong equipment is what makes me lose, but again, I should have prepared better, so I'll take some responsibility for my losses. But anyway, on to his 2nd phase.

In the 2nd phase, you have to damage him enough to make him charge up Indignation, which is indicated by a red text box on the screen as well as his incantation of the arte. In this time-frame of about.. 25-30 seconds, maybe, you have to unleash all the damage you can on him, about 30,000-40,000 damage, to make him stagger, at which point you have Sorey use Siegfried and use up one of his Seraphim. You repeat this until you've used up the last one, then you enter one last phase which just requires you to use a Mystic Arte on Heldalf to win. Before switching to the Rose tactic, I could easily make it to the 3rd charging, but I'd get killed before I could stagger him the 3rd time, every time. Obviously I wasn't doing enough damage, and again, I have a lot of fault in this. But this isn't even the worst part...

There are trophies linked to defeating Heldalf's 2nd form without retrying. From Moderate to Chaos. I have to beat him on CHAOS difficulty without retrying, for difficulty trophies (Thank god the trophies stack), AND I have to defeat his powered-up form on Hard mode! Those trophies alone are ones I'm dreading, so I better follow a nice guide on how to beat him, or get as powerful as I can with herb enhancements if I can.

Sorry, I just wanted to rant a little, because bosses based on DPS annoy me, and even more so when Indignation is an instant-kill and game over. Like I see why it's like that but that's unfair, in my opinion.

Have a nice day!~

The Twitter Explanation

So, I'm sure that some of you might be curious as to why I suddenly want to make a Twitter for the blog, especially since, after almost a year, I've never made any mentions or any sort of inklings that I want it. Well, to be honest, it was kind of a recent decision, after thinking about it a little bit. Now, look, I'm very satisfied with what I have already: Nearly 6000 page views in just under a year (22 days until the 1 year anniversary, to be exact), and 13 followers. But despite that, I - much like any other person who has any sort of following ANYWHERE, big or small - always has that want of more, you know? Because you want your passion/hobby to be bigger, especially if it's for people to see. You want it to grow and you want it to, well, become bigger than it is. And, well, I'd be lying if I said I didn't want it to grow anymore, because I do want it to grow more.

Twitter is a platform that is becoming more and more popular and accessible these days, and so many people use it. How cool would it be if someone just so happened to stumble onto my Twitter one day and found the blog, and liked it enough to leave a follow or something? That'd make my day - or week - for sure! It's small things that make me happy. Hell, my posts are lucky to gain anywhere near 10-20 views, on average, but that's still 10-20 people who decided to spend some time reading what I have to say, even if my thoughts are a jumbled mess, and I appreciate that so much, because this blog is a small distraction from the everyday stress that is life. Sure, my life isn't as annoying or ridiculous as a TON of people out there, and I'd never say that either.

But like.. I don't know. Like I've said in the past, certain YouTubers are inspirations of mine, such as Markiplier and Jacksepticeye, because they're just doing what they love, having fun doing it, and it makes people happy. Even if a blog isn't anywhere close to YouTube stuff, could you imagine if simply seeing me post each day was enough to make someone happy or feel better, all because they're reading the weird thoughts of a silly person behind his screen who loves Cyndaquil and video games too much? That alone would be the best thing I could ever hope for if people read my blog, you know?

I know that my posts are pretty lackluster, and I know that I run out of interesting things to say often, but if I talk about every game I own, well.. I'd probably run out of content quickly. And because it's summer, I haven't been drawing because, well, I'm really lazy during the summer, and I don't think many people can blame me for that. Also, wow, I've just been blabbering on and on. So much for a short explanation, eh? But then again, I didn't plan to type this much, but I'm glad I did. I like when people can see how I feel. it's almost like a journal, if that makes sense. But anyway, I think I've typed your eyes off for long enough.

Long story short, I think Twitter is a nice way to extend my blog and expose more people to it. Even if they don't follow or anything, it's still worth the effort, you know? I'll keep doing my best, and I know people will continue to read my blog, even if it's not too much. But it's better than nothing, you know? In the meantime, keep cool if it's hot, because the humidity is picking up over here. I'm continuing my quest through Tales of Zestiria, on my New Game Plus playthrough. I have a lot more trophies to get, but I know I can get it done. And then after, I think I need a nice break. Or a nice break from longer, taxing games like that, you know?

Have a nice day!~

Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World Trophy Guide

Welcome to the trophy guide for Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World! This one's going to be a doozy, much like Symphonia before it, but on the plus side, you don't have to do 5 playthroughs for this one! There's still some frustrating trophies, though, so be ready to work for this platinum. Below I'm going to link the guide I followed to achieve a lot of my trophies on my New Game Plus playthrough, as it helped me out immensely to get skits that I missed, do sidequests I missed out on, and just overall be a wonderful guide. So thank you to Vivi29 on gamefaqs for making such a helpful guide for us to follow. Either way, let's get started!

Vivi29's Guide

True Dawn of the New World You have obtained all trophies. This truly is the dawn of a new world!

You worked very hard to get this platinum, so I say congratulations to you! Now, take a nice rest from this game, you need a breather.

He's Emil Emil has obtained 10 titles. He seems to be doing alright.
See I'm Emil.

I'm Emil Emil has obtained all titles. He's not so bad, is he?
Below I'll list his titles and how to obtain them, since I feel it might be.. a little easier? Regardless, if you'd rather use a guide, the guide I used is above all the trophies for easy clicking. Trust me, it was a lifesaver for trophy-hunting.

Timid Boy - Default
Knight of Ratatosk - Story related
Prince of My Dreams - Story related
Ratatosk Mode - Story related
Marta's Knight - Story related
You Are You - Story related
Summon Spirit Ratatosk - Story related
Destined Partner - Complete Richter's Sidequest
Perfect Partner - Achieve the True Ending
Master Fisherman - Fish 100 times
Berserker - Fight at least 256 battles on Hard difficulty or higher, then talk to a Katz
Divine Swordsman - Complete Single Special Battle in the Coliseum with Emil
Monster Lover - Talk to a Katz after making 20 monster pacts
Prince of Monsters - Talk to a Katz after making 100 monster pacts
King of Monsters - Talk to a Katz after making a pact with every monster
Decipherer of the Seal - Complete "Treasure Hunter's Trophy: The Truth"
Master of Black and White - Conquer Gladsheim
Peeping Tom - Choose the "Males" option at the Communion Springs
Jewel Hunter?! - Complete the Lloyd's Mask Sidequest

Marta in Love Marta has obtained 10 titles. She's a 16-year-old in love with love.
See Super Marta.

Super Marta Marta has obtained all titles. She now knows what true love is.
I'll do the same thing I did with Emil here.

Mysterious Girl - Default
Former Vanguard - Story related
Too Much? - Story related
Sensitive - Story related
Trusting Girl - Story related
Iron Maiden - Story related
Pact of the Heart - Story related
Perfect Partner - Achieve the True Ending
Apprentice Cook - Obtain 5 recipes
Cooking Fighter - Obtain all recipes
Battle Princess - Complete Single Special Battle in the Coliseum as Marta
Procurer of the Secret Treasure - Complete "Treasure Hunter's Trophy: The Truth"
Master of Black and White - Conquer Gladsheim
Ironing Board - Choose the "Females" option at the Communion Springs

World in Discord Cleared chapter 1. Let's start off as friends.
Story-related, can't be missed.

Troubled Heart Cleared chapter 2. Let's get going Emil!
Story-related, can't be missed.

Footfalls of Tomorrow Cleared chapter 3. I think I see the light at the end of the tunnel!
Story-related, can't be missed.

Light and Darkness Cleared chapter 4. Our journey is not over yet!
Story-related, can't be missed.

Truth Behind the Mask Cleared chapter 5. Get some rest.
Story-related, can't be missed.

Dark Premonition Cleared chapter 6. I believe in you Regal.
Story-related, can't be missed.

Reawakened Memories Cleared chapter 7. I've hated Lloyd for a long time, but now...
Story-related, can't be missed.

Eternal Bond Cleared chapter 8. The final battle with Richter.
Story-related, can't be missed.

Normal Ending You cleared the story and obtained the "normal ending." Did your heart resonate?
(SPOILERS INCOMING FOR ENDINGS! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK, UNLESS YOU WISH TO REMAIN SPOILER-FREE, IN WHICH CASE, PLEASE GO TO "Yeah Phoenix!")
So, after defeating Richter, there are 3 battles, and the way you tackle them will ultimately decide the ending you receive. For the normal ending, you must let Lloyd and Marta defeat you in the first battle. Then, while playing as Emil and fighting Ratatosk one-on-one, you must lose to him as well, to achieve the normal ending. After, just reload your save and try to get the other endings, just to have them done with.

True Ending You cleared the story and obtained the "true ending." Their journey continues.
This is roughly the same as the normal ending, but you MUST win against Ratatosk instead of losing, or else you'll only get the normal ending, as well as some other things that the game keeps track of. First, don't swear allegiance to Lloyd in the beginning, and don't leave the Triet Ruins too much after going in. Then, don't get struck by lightning more than 13 times in the Temple of Lightning. If you don't lose the Centurions' Cores within those two temples, then you're on track, then just play as normal. Finally, beat Ratatosk one-on-one to reach the true ending!

Bad Ending You cleared the story and obtained the "bad ending." You sure you wanted to do that?
For the bad ending, simply defeat Lloyd and Marta in the first battle. It might seem difficult, but once you defeat one of them, the other should fall easily. Just be careful and you shouldn't have too much trouble. Defeat them to reach the bad ending... and have a feeling of personal guilt for the outcome, because it's sad.

Yeah Phoenix You defeated the Phoenix. It's a phoenix, so it's not really dead.
So, this requires a bit of legwork first. You have to complete Richter's Sidequest in order to unlock the ability to enter the Balacruf Mausoleum and fight the Phoenix inside. In Chapter 2, you must talk to Koton when you reach Hakonesia Peak. And in Chapter 4, you must go back to Hakonesia Peak and talk to Koton again as soon as you enter Izoold. Eventually you'll gain access to the dungeon, but don't feel like you have to beat the Phoenix while with Richter, because it's NOT an easy fight. If you're on New Game Plus, however, and you're of higher level and have tough monsters, you could easily take it on. Once you complete the sidequest, you can return to the Mausoleum whenever you wish, with a better team setup and everything.

Katz? Katz. You fulfilled "Treasure Hunter's Trophy - The truth." The truth is "meow," meow.
Starting in Chapter 5, you can undertake a series of sidequests titled "Treasure Hunter's Trophy." There's one in Chapters 5, 6, 7, and 8. You must beat the one in Chapter 5 to do Chapter 6's mission and so on. However, some people have reported that the mission doesn't show up after a certain point in their game in Chapter 8. I never had this issue when I played the game, and I followed the guide linked above. If you're concerned, then make sure you do the mission immediately in Chapter 8 once you can. Otherwise it's not a terribly hard mission, especially if you're doing it on New Game Plus.

Gladsheim Buster You conquered Gladsheim. You are a true warrior.
Oh boy, here comes some bias because I hate this dungeon. So, to start with, you can only access this dungeon on your 2nd playthrough or more, which is fine, that's pretty standard stuff, and it's not an issue. However, if you're familiar with Niflheim from Symphonia, this is basically Niflheim on steroids, for lack of a better term.

The layout is a similar concept, you're in a randomly-generated room - in Niflheim's case, each room was a 3x3 space, or 9 platforms, and you had to make it to wherever the warp points were to continue lower. Well... in Gladsheim, each room is now 8x8, or comprised of 64 platforms! This is already a huge difference, but here's the tricky part: You must find the 4 corners of the floor, without even knowing where you start from. And remember, each floor is randomly generated, so you can't just look it up. You need paper, graph paper, or something to help you. I used online graph paper, but it was so frustrating. I spent HOURS dealing with Gladsheim. The good news, I guess, is that there's only 9 floors to contend with, as the 10th floor has the boss of the place, and after you beat it, you're done in Gladsheim... hopefully, but more on that way down below. Also, just note that there ARE save points if you wish to take a break. There's one on floor 3, and one on floor 6.

Singled Out in the Coliseum Won the single battle in the Coliseum with a special battle. You must be really special.
In Meltokio, you can challenge the Coliseum, with each rank unlocking as you win the previous ones, so beating Bronze rank will unlock Silver, and so on. The Special Rank is tough, especially alone, so make sure you're past level 100 before attempting it! The same can kinda be said for Party and Monster formats, but for the monster battle, you have NO control over the monsters, except for being able to tell them which artes to use, so make sure you have a tough group of monsters ready. If you want to know what I used, I used a Galf Beast, Wolf Heddin, Ravenous, and Fenia. Note that each rank has a level restriction, so you can't just go in there with broken-powerful monsters. And the 4 monsters I listed are final-forms, which require you to have statues. Look for a synthesis guide to get everything you need to know about them.

Party All Night Won the party battle in the Coliseum with a special battle. Party on.
See Singled Out in the Coliseum.

Monster Idol Won the monster battle in the Coliseum with a special battle. Lots of special flags.
See Singled Out in the Coliseum.

Cooked My First Meal You cooked for the first time. There's always a first time for everything.
Simply go to any Katz and cook a meal for a monster. Simple and easy!

You've Changed Your monster transformed for the first time. It's a fresh beginning! Yeah.
When you look at your monsters in the main menu, by hitting Triangle, you might notice a little monster-face icon next to their portrait. This indicates that they're ready to evolve. Simply go to any Katz and cook some food for the monster, and it can evolve. What it evolves into depends on its level and its species, so experiment until you find what works best for you!

Let's Unison You performed a unison attack for the first time. Let's keep at it!
It won't take long to receive this, as once you can start using them, you'll be using them often, just due to how useful they are in battle, so you could almost say that this is impossible to miss.

Finality-Ratatosk Performed a mystic arte for the first time. It's time for a counterattack!
Once you can use the skill "Special," equip it and use an Arcane Arte, but hold your attack button (by default I believe it's X for attacks, and O for artes, so hold O) and Emil will use his Mystic Arte (or Marta if you prefer to play as her), and boom, another trophy down. Odds are you're going to use Mystic Artes a lot, so it kind of can't be missed.

Synthesizer You synthesized for the first time. Let's breathe new life into your possessions!
You can synthesize at any shop. Just check by every so often and see if you can make new stuff. Pretty simple trophy.

Hard is Hard Cleared the game with the difficulty set to "Hard." I'm sure you can do "Mania," too.
You can simply just set the difficulty to Hard when you fight Richter, so don't worry too much. But if you'd rather play the whole game on Hard, that's fine too.

Mania Maniac Cleared the game with the difficulty set to "Mania." I'm sure you can clear it on "Unknown."
By beating the game once, you unlock Mania difficulty. HOWEVER, you MUST play the entire game on Mania to unlock the Unknown difficulty! But considering this is probably New Game Plus, you shouldn't have much difficulty, especially with inheriting your tough monsters and getting exp boosting benefits from the Grade Shop.

Return to Normal Cleared the game with the difficulty set to "Unknown." What did you see in the unknown?
And, like Hard mode, you can just fight Richter on Unknown if you wish, but be aware that he'll be at his toughest on Unknown, so be prepared, and at a reasonably-high level!

Ultimate Unison You performed Ars Nova, Emil and Marta's special unison attack. Burn baby, burn!
Emil and Marta must have the Special skill equipped (You get it at level 30), and there must be one light and one dark element on the Element Grid. Then, just use a Unison Attack as normal and Ars Nova should activate. The main element in the middle doesn't matter.

Beginning Wanderer You've encountered 100 battles. Go and fight more.
See Forever Wandering.

Forever Wandering You've encountered 1,000 battles. Battle today, battle tomorrow.
Yep, 1000 battles, but the game keeps track of your encounters. Just try not to skip many battles, you could use all the exp you can get, same with Gald and Grade! And if you transfer battle data to other playthroughs, it helps a lot.

Hit Parade Your maximum hit number is 10! You're showing your love for combos.
See Hit Emperor.

Hit Emperor Your maximum hit number is 100! This is passion!
When Marta hits level 100, she gets Speed Cast 3. Have her equip all 3 and find a suitable place to spam Photon on an enemy (She'll cast so fast that you can endlessly use it).Personally, I did this in the Coliseum Single Special, and I had no problem getting it, but see what works for you. Make sure you give Marta equipment that can either boost her TP or cut her TP consumption to make it easier.

One Hundred You played for 100 hours. No seriously, you did.
Pretty self-explanatory, once your in-game time hits 100 hours, this is yours. Considering how long you'll be playing this game for, with 3 playthroughs minimum, you'll get past 100 hours without even trying. Of course you COULD just let the game sit for 100 hours, but that's a waste of time you could be spending making progress (BE SURE TO INHERIT GAME TIME FROM THE GRADE SHOP!!).

Professor Monster You completed the Monster Book. You must now know everything about monsters.
Despite what you think, this does NOT require you to have every single enemy listed in the book. In fact, this only applies to the monsters you can tame! So, technically, you'll be grabbing this while grabbing Master Engager.

Engager You have formed 10 pacts with monsters. Please be nice to them.
See Master Engager.

High Engager You have formed 150 pacts with monsters. Are you still having fun?
See Master Engager.

Master Engager You have formed pacts with all monsters. You are the king of the monster world.
Yeah, this isn't easy to do, honestly. However, evolving monsters counts as a pact, and each species has a final form, so to speak, which requires a statue. Honestly, if I were you, I'd reach post-game, then compile a list of all the monsters, then start removing monsters that you have already, then use a guide to determine what monsters evolve when and need what statues. It seems daunting, but I finished my list surprisingly quick when I did this, so you might be able to do it too!

By the Way... You watched all the skits. You are a true artist of conversation.
I would honestly just follow the guide up above, which I used when I did my New Game Plus run, for 100% completion. It lists every skit as the opportunity arises, and some skits have some weird conditions, such as reaching Chapter 4 without ever changing Emil's title, for example. Also... I mentioned in the Gladsheim trophy about beating it once? Well... the boss has a - by default - 5% chance to drop a Kismet, a weapon for Marta. Well... this weapon has a skit behind it when you obtain it. So, if you don't get the Kismet, you have to go through Gladsheim all over again, or reload your save on floor 6 and try again. It is IMPERATIVE that you equip all skills/items that make item drop rates rise, because I'd hate to see you have to suffer through Gladsheim more than once for a skit.

And that's it! This game, I won't lie, is a hassle to platinum, especially when there's a lot of things that you can miss, like the skits. But, if you're diligent, you can pull it off. On the bright side, it doesn't require 5 playthroughs like Symphonia did, so that's good, right? You only really need to do 2, because once you play the whole game on Mania and unlock Unknown, and grab the Mania trophy, you can reload and do Unknown, without a 3rd playthrough and wasting your time, you know? Ah well, hopefully this helps you get one step closer to another shiny platinum, and I wish you luck in your attempts!

*This game took me a total of 8 months and 2 weeks to finish, from the first trophy to the platinum with a small hiatus in the middle of it all. My first trophy was "Hit Parade" which was achieved on September 1st, 2015 at 11:43 PM. My final trophy was "Return to Normal" which was achieved on May 16th, 2016 at 12:45 PM, along with the platinum, "True Dawn of the New World." This platinum trophy is the 42nd platinum trophy I have received.*

Have a nice day!~

Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World

So, here we go, time for Symphonia's sequel. To be honest I do still own the original Wii version, it's just so.. weird playing a Tales game with a Wii Remote and Nunchuck, so it just felt much better when I played it on PS3. But either way, this game is a lot of fun. It may not be as great as Symphonia, but most sequels to great games get some kind of rep going for them, for better or worse. It's like if they suddenly made a sequel to Tales of the Abyss; I don't know if people would be happy or upset about it, you know? But regardless, that doesn't stop Dawn of the New World from being fun.

I happily enjoy the decision to let you tame monsters and use them in your party. In some cases, they outshine the original Symphonia cast, as they only level up and such between chapters, and once your monsters get powerful enough, you might not even use the Symphonia cast anymore. That was primarily the case with me, but of course when you have weaker monsters near the beginning, you're going to want help, like from Raine, since she can heal you efficiently. But once you start evolving monsters and figuring out what ones can really help you, it gets to be so much fun!

The postgame dungeon, only accessible in New Game Plus and onwards mind you, does give me some frustration, but that'll be explained in tomorrow's guide, but just trust me when I say you'd much rather go through Niflheim in Symphonia, go through Magnus Zero in Xillia, or go through the Illusionary Darkness in Xillia 2 - on Unknown difficulty. Yes, it's that frustrating!

Otherwise the story is nice and I enjoy the side missions you can do in each chapter, for some extra Gald or some extra equipment/items. It just feels nice to break away from the story, you know? But all the same, this game is still super fun to play, and if you loved Symphonia, you'll enjoy seeing familiar locales, hearing familiar music, and just have fun with another journey in the lands of Sylvarant and Tethe'alla!

Have a nice day!~

Sudden New Poll, It's Important!

So I've been thinking about this for some time and I think now is as good of a time as any to really make a decision on this, with your feedback, of course. I made a new poll for the week, and it asks if I should make a Twitter account for this blog, in order to branch it out a bit more. And by that, I mean I can post my blog posts every day and such, and maybe it could help me receive more/better feedback? I'm not too sure how it'll go, but it can't hurt to try right? As usual, poll ends in a week, and since it's important, I hope there's a lot of votes on the poll, since this could easily take this blog in a new direction. Either way, voting ends in a week, see you tomorrow for this week's trophy guide game, though odds are you might have a hint on what it is. See ya soon!

Have a nice day!~

Wow

So I don't check the page views very often because I don't feel that they're extremely important, but I just noticed that this blog is about to hit 5600 views! That's incredible, I don't even know when it passed 5000, but this is astounding that I've pushed that far, halfway to 10,000, in just under a year! Thanks, everyone who continues to view my blog, and thank you to the people who constantly still look at my old Fire Emblem Awakening post, I don't know how that's still so popular! You all rock, you know that?

Have a nice day!~

I Must Be Crazy

So, after finally platinum-ing Tales of Xillia 2 last night (you have no idea how good it feels to not be agonizing over Battle Challenges anymore), I took a short break before beginning Tales of Zestiria. How did I spend this break? By literally starting the foundations for the next 3 trophy guides (This means going as far as August 24th)! Yep, I put down the names and flavor text for all of them, so now I can work on them at my own leisure ahead of time. I also just wanted to point something out.

Tales of Xillia's trophy flavor text was cut down as I felt it was too long to place, but I started letting it slide. However, whenever I end up getting to Tales of Zestiria's list one day, I will NOT put the entire flavor text, because some of those are LONG, like super long! But it's a shame because some of those are funny, much like Xillia 2's flavor text, but I'm digressing a lot.

In other news, having a ton of fun with Zestiria, it's so much fun. I don't know how far into it I am, but that's fine, I don't want to know, I'm just enjoying it as is!

Have a nice day!~

Not Feeling Too Well

Hey everyone, I'm not really feeling too well today. I woke up with a wicked headache, and a shower didn't help all that much, and I'm kind of feeling sick, so today I'm going to take it easy and probably work towards finishing Xillia 2. I have 4 trophies left, with 2 of them being linked to the Battle Challenges (And with those, I only have 8 left. If I can nab a few that are giving me problems, nothing will stop me), and the other 2 being the trophies for Linked Artes and Linked Arte Chains, but here's the cool thing. Currently, for linked artes in general, I've done 3446/4050, which means that I only have 604 left to do, which isn't too bad! And as for linked arte chains, I've done 908/1350, which means I only have to do 442 more! And if I constantly do chains with 9 links, it shouldn't take too long, but those will be saved for last since I'll be doing linked artes a lot more for some of these challenges. Either way, wish me luck, because if I'm lucky, today is the final day for Xillia 2, and then I can finally play Zestiria!

Have a nice day!~

Illusionary Darkness

So I know I keep having late posts, but only because I'm in such a hurry to platinum Xillia 2. However, I'm currently working on the EX Dungeon, Illusionary Darkness, and it's.. a little frustrating, I'll admit, but NOWHERE near as bad as Gladsheim (I'm looking at you, Dawn of the New World!!). I guess it's just the whole "I have to go through this dungeon several times to complete it" thing, since there's 18 bosses to defeat, 2 for each character, and then of course you have to overcome Shadow Cress and Shadow Stahn so you can unlock the Tales cameo battle.

I won't talk about it too much, seeing as I'll go into detail about it in the eventual trophy guide that will come of Xillia 2, but still, it can be overwhelming. Call me crazy or cheap, but each time I reach a boss I put the difficulty back on Easy and make sure I use a Fruit Yakisoba for that 25% boost to my stats, it comes in mighty handy, let me tell ya.

Have a nice day!~

A Poll While It's Hot

So it's even more humid today than yesterday, so forgive me for late posts lately. Today's post is just a simple poll for the week, asking if you're looking forward to more Tales posts coming up, since I'm in the Tales mood lately. Working hard to breeze through the story in Xillia 2 before post-game and finally platinum-ing it, so I can FINALLY reach Zestiria, because watching a few skits from it makes me want to play it more so I need to get a move on. Poll ends in a week, as always, so I'll see you soon.

Have a nice day!~

Humidity Sucks

Sorry, everyone, I can't really come up with something good today, especially with the heat making me not want to do anything. Not only that, but I'm trying to make rapid progress in Tales of Xillia 2, so I can complete New Game Plus, as well as get the remaining trophies before I can finally start Tales of Zestiria, and let me tell you, I'm super excited to play it, you have no idea.. Keep cool, everyone, especially if it's really humid where you live!

Have a nice day!~

My Go-To Party Setups in Tales Games

So as I've mentioned a few times before, since everyone has their own play styles and because everyone has different tastes and such, we all kind of have different go-to party setups in the Tales games. I have played far from all of the games (But I'm very sure I'll be getting Zestiria today so that I can play it after I platinum Xillia 2) but I've played a nice amount, in my opinion. The same ex-friend who got me into Fire Emblem also got me into Tales so I should be thanking him again for introducing me to this wonderful series. Anyways, this won't be super-long but let's get started. Also, just to note, I'm comfortable using any character in my party and am able to switch characters around if need be, so I've definitely used them all in my parties. Just wanted to clarify.

So, my first Tales game was Tales of the Abyss. As I love playing as a character that goes up close and personal with enemies, and dislikes standing in the back of the action, I typically control Luke, and I like having a character that can use artes or physical attacks, so Tear is also always in my party. I enjoy putting another magic user in the party, one who primarily uses artes to deal a lot of damage, so Jade sits in the back, while I use my last slot to place Guy in, going toe-to-toe with enemies alongside Luke (me). I've just never found Anise or Natalia to be all that helpful when I've used them, but maybe if I put more effort into them, they could become amazing, you know?

My next game was Tales of Symphonia, which I still enjoy a lot (and have nightmares about the time I did 3 playthroughs in a couple days to get those last items in the Collector's Book and get those trophies...), and as stated with my preference, I play as Lloyd, while typically using Kratos/Zelos to fight alongside me, as well as Colette for her light-based artes, and Raine for her healing prowess. Depending on the situation, I can easily switch Zelos/Kratos for Regal or Presea if need be, or even Sheena if it calls for it, like when you face the Summon Spirits. It's never failed me with that setup, ever.

Next on the list is Tales of Legendia, one of my personal favorites, despite only being able to borrow it from my friend. Since I never really got far into Character Stories in post game, my typical party was myself controlling Senel, with help from Chloe, Norma, and Will. I think this is what actually started my current play style, as I never wanted to change these guys once they were helping me out so much. So much fun though, a shame they won't port it or anything, I'd love to play it again.

Next, going in order, would be Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World. Since they're basically required, Emil and Marta are always in the team, with the other 2 slots being widely varied depending on the situations at hand. On the one hand, if the Symphonia cast are stronger than my monsters, they'd go in, but if my monsters are stronger, they'll be in the slots, and it's all varied and changes based on everything going on, so it's a lot of fun to mix and match, you know?

Jumping ahead, we have Tales of Graces f, and, no surprise, I always control Asbel, while keeping Sophie and Cheria within my party, and filling the "all arte" role with Pascal, because her artes and magic skills are broken and she's amazing. Like seriously, she just destroys everything, have you ever seen it? She's a must-have in your party.

Second to last, we have Tales of Xillia. My party probably seems a bit boring, as I always stick Jude and Milla in it, with myself playing as Jude, while getting magic support from Rowen, and magic/healing support from Elize. Again, this setup has never failed me, and I don't see it failing me.

Lastly, we have Xillia 2, in which I always play as Ludger, but my party is always shifting based on what's going on and where I'm at, but if I had to make a default party, I'd probably keep it similar to Xillia 1, with Gaius replacing Milla just as Ludger replaces Jude, and throwing in Rowen and Elize for support.

I have yet to play Zestiria, but I can definitely say that I'd be playing as Sorey, and I'd like Lailah and Zaveid in my party, and as for the last slot, well.. depends on how I come to like Dezel, Rose, Mikleo, Edna, and Alisha (even though Alisha leaves the party at some point. Heard all about that controversy) but I know I'll love it either way!

And that's really it for now, until I play more games. I'm sorry this post seems so.. boring, I'm leaving to see my best friend soon, so I hope you all have a wonderful day, and I know I will!

Have a nice day!~

That Feel When...

...you forget to type up a blog post, despite constantly reminding yourself about it earlier, but Tales of Xillia 2 has you so hooked and invested that you just can't help it. Seriously, Xillia 2 is getting heavy and really exciting. I can't wait to eventually do a trophy guide on it, just like with the first Xillia. As stated before, I'm hanging out with my best friend tomorrow, but it'll be later in the afternoon so I can get a blog post ready for tomorrow before I leave. It's going to be Tales themed so I hope you're looking forward to it. I'm sorry for the late post today, but ah well, distractions and stuff happen, you know?

Have a nice day!~

More Hype!

So, if you remember about a month ago, there was an orchestral trailer for Kingdom Hearts 3, and it was amazing. Well, yesterday, we received our new trailer, which was promised at the end of the previous one, in which it said we'd get a new trailer and a new world reveal during Japan's D23 Expo, and boy did it deliver! But first, just in case you haven't seen it yet, I'll link it just below, from the official Kingdom Hearts YouTube Channel.

And yes, the thumbnail itself gives it away. We finally have a Toy Story world! And this is something I've been dying to see for ages! And ever since I learned about Woody and Buzz being planned as summons for Kingdom Hearts 2, but were scrapped for unknown reasons, I was hoping even more. Their models in KH2 are untextured, but they're there, so it's something.

I won't really go over what's in this trailer, but it's amazing! If you love Kingdom Hearts, you've got to check it out, because it's amazing! We also now have a planned release for 2018, which I don't mind because this game looks beautiful and I sure don't mind the extra wait if they're trying to work super hard for this game. But anyways, check out the trailer, and let's stay hyped for KH3!

Have a nice day!~

Happy Birthday, Emma!

So today is my niece's 3rd birthday. She's 3 already, I can't even believe it's been 3 years already, it's insane. She's growing up so fast, she doesn't even look or sound 3, she sounds/looks closer to 5, honestly. But she has a shining personality that matches her heart-warming smile, and she deserves all the happiness she can get today. I miss her terribly, and I don't know when I'll be able to see her next, but I know she'll always be my silly little goofball, and that's fine with me. So Emma, I hope you have a wonderful day, and your uncle loves you so very much. I hope your day is filled with laughs and smiles, honey, you deserve that and so much more.

Have a nice day!~

Trying to Keep Cool

So the humidity is really bad today, and for the last few days, so I'm just going to focus on keeping cool today. I've been hooked on Tales of Xillia 2 and I'm trying to figure out a game for me to get when I see my best friend on Tuesday. I'm stuck between Tales of Zestiria, Ever Oasis, Fire Emblem Echoes, Hyperdimension Neptunia (provided they even have it), and plenty others, so it's going to be a tough choice, but we'll see what happens, huh? I'll be sure to get an early post out on Tuesday before I see him, even if it's nothing too much, you know? Until next time, keep cool and stay hydrated!

Have a nice day!~

Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch Trophy Guide

Welcome to the trophy guide for Ni no Kuni! I've already talked about how much I love this game, and for the sake of spoiling this beautiful story, I won't talk about the story-related trophies, sorry! And of course, as battle strategies and party stuff varies from person to person, I can't talk about that either. Just play the game the way you'd like to play it and enjoy yourself as you play. The trophy list has a bit of a grind for several of them, but you can grab trophies as you grind, because some of them go hand-in-hand or are related to battling and such. Anyways, read on!

Wizardry Whiz Awarded for becoming a master magician. Congratulations! You truly are a whiz at wizardry!

You know the drill by now. Go get those trophies, young wizard!

Out of this World Awarded for casting Gateway and traveling to another world.

Story-related, can't be missed.

En Guardian! Awarded for defeating the Guardian of the Woods and bringing him back to his senses.

Story-related, can't be missed.

Anchors Aweigh Awarded for obtaining the Sea Cow.

Story-related, can't be missed.

Fly the Friendlier Skies Awarded for befriending Tengri.

Story-related, can't be missed.

Wonder Wand Awarded for restoring the legendary wand Mornstar to its former glory.

Story-related, can't be missed.

A Tonic for the Djinn Awarded for defeating the Dark Djinn.

Story-related, can't be missed.

Council Trouncer Awarded for freeing the other world from the clutches of the Zodiarchy.

Story-related, can't be missed.

King of the World Awarded for defeating the Guardian of Worlds.

The Guardian of Worlds is an optional post-game boss that you can face after completing the errand "The Conductor," which is several bounty missions in and of itself. The questline has you re-battling the bosses you faced through the story, all re-colored to show that they're tougher versions. After facing and defeating every last one of them, you can face the Guardian of Worlds. I didn't have much of a problem against him on my first attempt, so you shouldn't either, but gain some levels beforehand, naturally. You can fight the Guardian any time after you beat him and he gets stronger with each battle, so be careful if you use him for grinding! Again, party and strategies vary from player to player so do what works best for you, and good luck!

Guildering the Lily Awarded for amassing a fortune of half a million guilders.

This is NOT cumulative. You must be holding 500,000 guilders at one time. This seems like a lot, but you can easily farm them in the last dungeon, as most battles inside can get you anywhere between 1,000-2,000 guilders. Plus, you can work on other trophies while you grind, AND this 500,000 can be used to easily grab two other trophies down below, so be on the lookout for call-outs to this trophy!

Man of Steal Awarded for successfully stealing 50 times.

Swaine has a couple of stealing trickshots under his belt, but the one you'll use the most often is Mugshot, which, when successful, will steal one of the available items from a monster, the list of which can be seen in your bestiary, for easy reference. This does include rarer items, but note that unless Swaine grabbed a golden glim, your odds of getting a rare item are pretty slim. Note that I received any and all rare-steal items WITHOUT the golden glim, so it's certainly possible. Anyways, after 50 successful steals, you'll get this trophy. You'll know you got this trophy when the screen has a message saying what you successfully stole. Note that once you steal from an enemy, you can't steal another item from that same enemy in the same battle!

Glim Reaper Awarded for gathering 2,000 glims.

Glims are the small green, blue, and gold orbs that you see in battle as you, well, battle. The green ones restore HP, the blue ones restore MP, and the rare gold ones restore both and allow you/your familiar to do a special move! Note that your character or your familiar have to be the ones collecting the orbs, not the others. So, for example, if you're playing as Oliver or his familiars, and Swaine or one of his familiars gets a glim. It won't count towards this total.

Having the Merit rewards "Jackpot" and "Jackpot II" will be a huge benefit. Jackpot makes more glims appear during battle, and Jackpot II makes any glims automatically be collected by you at the end of battle (and these ones at the end of battle, using Jackpot II, they DO COUNT!), so get these as soon as possible!

Little Battler Experience Awarded for winning 1,000 battles.

Yep, 1,000 battles. But you're going to wind up getting a lot of battles done between the main story, post-game, and especially while working towards several trophies. To name a few, this includes: Guildering the Lily, Man of Steal, Glim Reaper, Viva the Evolution!, and a bunch more. Basically, this trophy is going to be earned while you're doing the stuff for most of your trophies, to be honest, so don't worry about this too much, it's pretty simple.

Overfamiliar Awarded for maximizing a familiar's familiarity.

See Pedigree Breeder, as these two trophies literally go hand-in-hand with each other.

Pedigree Breeder Awarded for training a familiar to its full potential.

So, this will take some doing, and take battling in the process. When you go to your Familiar Cage, you can feed your familiars. You can give them food for boosting their stats, which increases their familiarity. You can feed them stones to make them metamorph when they're at the right level. You can also feed them gems that bestow abilities and moves on them. Feeding them food will bring their familiarity up little by little, and each time a stat is raised, they gain 1/10 for their stat boost caps. As you feed them good, also, their little heart icons fill up, and when a new one is being started, you gain 10 more stat boosts, up to a total of 50. You must get the familiarity to the max in order to get the full potential, which is why I said these go hand in hand. What I said sounds like a bunch of garble, I'm sure, but it's way simpler than it sounds. Just keep feeding your familiars treats, and then do some battles so they can eat more, and these will be yours in no time.

Viva the Evolution! Awarded for managing 10 metamorphoses.

When a familiar reaches a certain level, the game will inform you that they can undergo a metamorphosis, or evolution. Each familiar has a certain sign: Star, Sun, Moon, Planet. These signs accompany the drops that are needed for evolution. A familiar evolves twice. Once into a second form, and then once more into one of the two 3rd forms, typically with one based on support and one based on strength. Your choice is your choice, as you can easily grab another of the species to get that other evolution you didn't choose. Trust me, you'll be doing this A LOT during your loooong grind for Familiarologist.

Familiarizer Awarded for taming 20 different species.

See Familiarologist.

Familiarologist Awarded for taming 250 different species.

This will be done post-game while you grind out your other trophies. Each species you have counts as one different species, and so every species counts for 4, in a sense. One for the normal form, one for the first evolution, and two for each last evolution. You have to get a LOT of familiars for this, and do a lot of evolving for this, too. A later merit reward makes enemies a bit more susceptible to being Serenaded by Esther, so definitely grab that one asap, you're going to need it! You can track your progress with the magic Telling Stone. There are over 250 tameable familiars, and the ones you get from tickets do count, as well as the golden variants!

Boy Scout Awarded for running 15 different errands.

See Humanitarian of the Year.

Humanitarian of the Year Awarded for running 60 different errands.

In Swift Solutions, a building in basically every town, you can undertake errands as you progress through the game, and complete existing errands to unlock follow-up ones. Some require you to make items in your Alchemy Cauldron, so make sure you're able to obtain items or equipment, and some of these later ones are pretty demanding with very, very rare materials, so be careful!

New Sheriff in Town Awarded for completing 10 different bounty hunts.

See Bounty Hunter.

Bounty Hunter Awarded for completing 40 different bounty hunts.

Bounty Hunts are found in the same building as the errands (Swift Solutions) and you can take on more as you go along in the game and, naturally, finish existing hunts. After completing all of them, this is yours. Note that a certain post-game mission is linked to the bounty hunts. See King of the World for more details on this particular mission.

Super Hero Awarded for collecting all the merit awards.

As you complete errands and bounty hunts, you collect stamps. After filling out certain amounts of stamp cards, you can redeem them for rewards, such as the Jackpot ones I mentioned earlier, but also other wonderful ones. Check them out and pick the ones you feel like you need as you go. Either way, you're going to be obtaining all of them eventually.

Pop Pop Fizz Fizz Awarded for alchemizing 10 different items.

See Mad Scientist.

Mad Scientist Awarded for alchemizing 120 different items.

For an item to count as being alchemized, you have to have made it in your cauldron, even if you've already owned the item (so having a Hamburger doesn't count unless you've actually alchemized it). There are over 120 items to make, so some of the rarer material recipes can be skipped, but 120 is still a vast majority of the recipes in general. As for materials, well, the game doesn't tell you where to find them unless you've used the material in a recipe you've successfully made, so that's kind of annoying at times. I'll be honest, I got this trophy BEFORE the 250 familiars trophy, as I grinded levels for that trophy while doing this, so kill two birds with one stone, okay?

Treasure Hunter Awarded for finding all hidden treasure chests.

After obtaining the spell "Seek Fortune," you can find hidden red chests in the overworld. This trophy pops when you open them all. After using the spell, check your map so you can get to the locations. This seems hard but it's not too bad. There are 100 hidden chests, if I remember right, and your progress is tracked by the Telling Stone, so check it out if you're curious.

Globetrotter Awarded for setting foot in all secluded regions.

This basically means all caves and hidden forests and such. Basically walk and go to EVERYWHERE you can, especially when you have access to the Sea Cow and Tengri, then you can go anywhere. Plus certain items, chests, and errands have you going to these secluded places, so definitely check everywhere.

Raising the Stakes Awarded for collecting your first prize at the casino.

See High Roller.

High Roller Awarded for collecting all of the tickets for the Mem-O-Vision by winning big at the casino.

This is where Guildering the Lily comes in. If you're worried about gambling stuff in games, simply use your hard-earned guilders to simply buy casino chips and buy all of the Mem-O-Vision tickets to grab the trophy, because that's what I did and I saved a whole lot of time by doing so. Plus, in the casino, you can obtain a couple of familiar tickets so definitely get them if you can.

Solosseum Slugger Awarded for winning your first bout in the Solosseum Series.

See Solosseum Supremo.

Solosseum Supremo Awarded for becoming the champion of the Solosseum Series.

As you progress through the game you can do more of these. As strategies and party setups vary between players, I can't give you a great strategy, but having some tank familiars like a Demoloceros can really come in handy. Otherwise, be at a high, if not maxed out, level and give it your best for those last rounds!

Magic Maker Awarded for learning all of Oliver's spells.

Besides learning every spell throughout the story, you have to meet with Horace in places through the story to receive additional spells by using Spirit Medium to speak with him. Since talking about Horace would bring up some spoilers, I won't talk about it further.

Prima Donna Awarded for learning all of Esther's songs.

Earned when Esther hits level 65 and learns the Anthem song.

Gunslinger Awarded for learning all of Swaine's trickshots.

Earned when Swaine hits level 68 and learns the Deadshot trickshot.

And that's all for the Ni no Kuni trophy guide! I hope it helps you get closer to the platinum and I hope you enjoy this wonderful game as much as I did! I'll see you again soon!

*This game took me a total of 2 years and 4 months to finish, with an obvious hiatus in the middle of the trophies I hunted, from the first trophy to the platinum. My first trophy was "Out of this World" which was achieved on May 3rd, 2014 at 10:37 AM. My final trophy was "Familiarologist" which was achieved on September 27th, 2016 at 2:37 PM along with the platinum, "Wizardry Whiz." This platinum trophy is the 45th platinum trophy I have received.*

Have a nice day!~

Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch

Boy do I love this game, so much. First off, let me just say that, yes, the anime-styled art and cutscenes are all produced by the legendary Studio Ghibli! If you don't know who they are, they were behind such films such as My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, Howl's Moving Castle, Spirited Away, and more. Totoro was actually a huge part of my childhood, I had the movie on VHS and I loved watching it often. But that's just a small reason why I like this. It's kind of funny how I came to own this game.

So my sister and I were heading to GameStop a couple years back, and they were having a thing where, I think, if you got 3 games, you'd get a 4th one for free. She was wanting to get a new copy of Skyrim for her fiancé, and I tagged along since it was a nice day, weather-wise. While we were there, one of the employees described this game to me, which I'd only seen in a few pictures online, and I think in Game Informer. It seemed really interesting, and I love RPGs so I was sold, and then I also got Deadpool (which will be another guide another time) while my sister got Heavenly Sword and then managed to get Skyrim for free. It was a nice day, gaming-wise!

But back to Ni no Kuni. This game exceeded all expectations and I was extremely hooked on it, playing this way more than playing Deadpool, and managing to play it when my sister wasn't trying to play Heavenly Sword (and failing/raging at it, at that). But this game is so much fun!

I won't go over any plot details because this is a story you NEED to experience without me spoiling it for you, it's that wonderful! But I believe the guy at GameStop asked if I liked Pokémon, and told me that it "sort of like that, mixed with a typical RPG like Final Fantasy." Now obviously this is not super identical to Final Fantasy or Pokémon, but you get the idea and he was honestly pretty spot-on. Recruiting and raising - and even evolving - Familiars is a lot of fun, and there's SO MANY KINDS! Some are cute, some are strong, some look kind of ugly, and so on and so forth, it's just so good!

If you're able to, download the demo on the PlayStation Store and give it a shot. I know that I'd have tried the demo if I knew about it before that GameStop trip, but take it from me, this game is beautiful, and I can't wait to try the sequel one day!

Have a nice day!~

Getting Ready for More Guides

So it's pretty humid, oppressive, and muggy today, so I'm going to just continue picking what Thursday's trophy guide is. You'll find out tomorrow based on what game I post about, as is the usual. I hope you all have a great day and I hope you're all keeping cool!

Have a nice day!~

Next Poll with a Question

So, after doing the 3 Chao posts, I just wanted to make a new poll and ask if you'd like to see more of those kinds of posts, where I do some explaining of silly things like that? As always, poll ends in a week and I'll see you tomorrow!

Have a nice day!~

Raising Chao for Beginners: Part 3

So, we're here at the last part of this little primer on Chao, even though I'm not the best with explaining stuff like this, but then again, everyone has their own ways of doing things. Anyways, today's post will be brief, as we're only going to talk about the Chaos Chao and how to obtain them. So, let's get right to it.

What is a Chaos Chao?

A Chaos Chao is a Chao that is immortal, but is meant to be the rarest type of Chao, and to some they're bragging rights. There are 3 different types, one for each alignment. There's a Neutral one that looks similar to Chaos from Sonic Adventure. There's a Hero one that looks like an angel, and there's a Dark one that looks like a devil. Obtaining them is time-consuming, but if you're up for the task, here's how it's done.

Obtaining a Chaos Chao

So, the process is the same for each Chao, it's just different based on alignment. There's all sorts of ways that people talk about, but I'll talk about the way that worked for my 3 Chao. So, let me list them off.

- First, before anything, your Chao must be on their 3rd life or later, meaning that they must reincarnate at least twice before you can do this.

- Next, get the Chao and decide what alignment you're going for. Let's say you want a Devil Chao. So, in this case, we'll use a Dark character like Shadow.

- Next, you must give your Chao one of every animal, no Chaos Drives! I've read that you can give them more than one animal, so long as there's a balance, but one of each worked best for me, since I was worried I'd mess it up.

- Finally, give it a Dark Fruit and wait for the evolution (or a Hero Fruit if you want an Angel Chao), and bam, you have a Chaos Chao that is immortal and is awesome!

Beware, though, as your Chao can no longer breed or reincarnate for better stats, so make sure you're happy with your Chao and how their stats are before you do this! It's a similar process for Hero and Neutral, but Neutral requires that balance between characters, so be careful. I believe it's roughly the same in Sonic Adventure but I haven't ever tried.

And that's it, that's how you obtain a Chaos Chao, and that's it for my Chao lessons for beginners. I know these weren't amazing, but I really hope these helped some of you aspiring Chao-raisers and I hope that it helps you get started on raising your Chao the way you want to raise them. Thanks for reading and I'll see you again soon!

Have a nice day!~

Raising Chao for Beginners: Part 2

So yesterday we went over the basics for Chao-raising, so now we're going to take some time to talk about stats and alignment, so today's post will be a bit more brief than yesterday's post but still, I hope this helps. Again, please note that this is mainly referring to Sonic Adventure 2, but everything still has a way of working in Sonic Adventure.

The Importance of Stats

So, stats generally dictate everything for your Chao, from their ability to swim, to their ability to literally walk on their legs and run. But how do you know if the stats are good or not? Well, unfortunately there's no way of knowing in Sonic Adventure (if the Dreamcast device tells you about stats, I have no idea, I've only ever played Sonic Adventure DX), so we'll talk as if this is in Sonic Adventure 2.

Take your Chao out of the garden and go to the Chao Kindergarten. Inside you'll find several doors, one of them is for the Chao Doctor. Simply go inside and look at the medical records for your Chao. Once it shows up, your Chao's stats, type, etc. will appear on the screen. You'll notice letter ranks next to each stat: S, A, B, C, D, and E, with E being the worst, and S being the best. Your Chao's stats are determined at random (unless you're breeding but that's a topic I have no knowledge on since I don't try to go for an all-S Chao), so it's really not up to you. But how do the ranks function?

Well, let's say your Chao has level 5 in Swim and Level 8 in Run. Swim is an A-rank, while Run is a D-rank. Even though its Run stat is higher in level, because the Swim stat has a better rank, the overall skill will be better, and it really shows as the stat levels up more and more. But there's all sorts of ways to raise your stats, and one way that's the most efficient way, in my opinion.

Raising Stats

So, as I talked about yesterday, you can give your Chao animals and Chaos Drives to boost their stats. Chaos Drives have a fixed amount of experience they give to a stat, and animal stat boosts can vary, and some animals even take exp away from a stat (but they will never "level down," so to speak, so don't worry), but animals are probably the most efficient way to boost your stats. More on that shortly.

The other way to boost stats is with a couple of fruits. Fruits are generally only for raising Stamina, which is used in the Chao Races (although I don't know exactly how it works in Sonic Adventure). When your Chao is racing, you can cheer them on, but their stamina bar will go down. It will naturally go down as the Chao is racing, and if it empties, your Chao will become painfully slow, like enough that if it doesn't have a great lead, your Chao will most likely lose that race, so be careful. The Stamina stat can also be ranked anywhere from E to S, but it's not extremely important otherwise. You don't need to put it way up to 99 or anything, because that's just overkill and a huge waste of a lot of time, in my opinion. Without caring about the rank or level, getting your stamina anywhere between 250-350 is more than enough to win any and all of your races if your stats are maxed out, and again, more on that shortly. The shaped fruits, mushrooms that you can buy in the Black Market, and the fruits found in each garden can boost your Chao's stamina by about 4-5 blocks on the exp bar, meaning you need to feed them approximately 3 fruits to make a bar go from zero to the next level. The other fruit you'll want to look for is a Chao Fruit, which boosts Stamina and every stat in bits and pieces, so it's really handy if you want to try to do it all in one. And sure, your Chao might keep tossing the food away but eventually they'll finish the food, but if you feel bad about force-feeding them, then that's okay too. Do what makes you happy, you know?

So, after that long-winded explanation, what's the most efficient way to raise stats? Well, if you're against using glitches, just jump down to the next segment. I'm sure you've heard of the Stat Glitch, which allows you to endlessly reuse animals to quickly boost your Chao's stats up very high, or max them out. It's simple to do, and once you get into the rhythm of it, you'll be a pro in no time. First, you might want to give your Chao something to eat so it's sitting and so that it won't move and potentially ruin the glitch. Next, grab the animal you want to give to your Chao (You can use Chaos Drives as well, but I wouldn't recommend it, as they bounce and float in the air, making them a bit harder to use) and face the front of your Chao the best you can. Stand a little bit away from the Chao so that when you drop the animal, you're not giving it to the Chao, it'll sort of fall at them, so to speak. Once you get it right, place the animal in front of the Chao. It will take the stat boost from the animal, but the animal can be used again, which normally can't happen. This is the glitch that many people use to boost their Chaos' stats very quickly, mainly to grab those Emblems. if my explanation wasn't very great, look up any video on the subject, especially if you're a visual learner.

Alignment

Whew, now that the previous segment is over, we can quickly talk about alignment. Basically, this is how you make your Chao evolve into a Hero Chao or a Dark Chao. It's not as complicated as you might think, and we'll go over it briefly. I'll talk about Sonic Adventure 2 first, as Sonic Adventure also has a way to do it but it's not so simple, but not ridiculous though, so let's go.

So, let's just assume you'd like a Hero Chao, and we have the newborn default Chao in the Chao Garden. Well, your Chao's alignment is set upon its first evolution at the age of 1 (3-5 hours), and when it evolves, the type of Chao - Neutral, Dark, or Hero - is set for the rest of its life, there's no changing it. We'll use Sonic as out Hero example.

As you use Sonic to care for the Chao, notice how it's slowly turning whiter? That's the Chao's alignment slowly shifting towards "Hero." And if you did the same thing with, say, Shadow, the Chao would turn darker and slowly turn black. However, if you balance out the care with Hero and Dark, the Chao will be Neutral instead. Anyways, back to Sonic.

If you keep caring for the Chao as Sonic (or Tails or Knuckles, since they're also Hero characters), eventually your Chao will evolve into a Hero Chao upon its first evolution, with the type depending on the trait with the higher stat number, or at least that's how it's always been for me. Along with this new Hero Chao, you unlock the Hero Garden, which also has a Chao Egg if you'd like to have another Chao to raise. And when you do the same with a Dark Chao, you get the Dark Garden.

Really quick, in Sonic Adventure, as every character is classified as a hero, the only way to shift your Chao's alignment is to give them Hero Fruit or Dark Fruit. Otherwise it's the same way of evolving, only that getting a Neutral Chao is a lot easier to do because of the fact that the character you use doesn't have an effect on the Chao's alignment.

So that's all for this part. I know I rambled for a while and I apologize for that, but I hope that this helps you even further. Tomorrow we're going to finish up with the topic being the legendary Chaos Chao, so I hope you look forward to that!

Have a nice day!~

Chao Raising for Beginners: Part 1

So since a majority of people said they've never raised a Chao before, I was kind of thinking I could do a few posts on raising Chao, even though I'm certainly no expert on the subject, but I know, at least, enough to get by and enough to get the Chao-related Emblems in Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2. Note that while everything is fundamentally the same in both games, I'll be using Sonic Adventure 2 as my basis as that's the game I spent the most time raising Chao in and the one I'm more familiar with as a whole. But with that said, let's just start with the basics, eh?

What are Chao and how do I find them?

Chao are these small, blue creatures (as pictured above) that act like a virtual pet of sorts. They come in all sorts of colors and forms, but the one shown above is the default look for any young Chao. In Sonic Adventure, you can find them within the 3 Chao Gardens. One is within the left-hand elevator in Station Square's hotel lobby; one is found in a Mystic Ruins cave near Tails' Workshop; and the last is found in the Egg Carrier, after going through the door by the floor tiles (which you have to push down in order to spell out EGGMAN), and can be accessed via teleporters in each garden for quick travel.

In Sonic Adventure 2, you can enter the Chao Garden by breaking a blue Chao Box, grabbing the Chao Key, and making it to the end of the stage without losing the key, which happens if you die. From that point onwards, you can access it from the Stage Select screen, but only with characters you've gotten the Chao Key with (so if only Sonic and Knuckles have entered the Chao World with the Key, only they can be selected from the Stage Select menu).

What's the point of raising a Chao?

For the most part, it's a side activity that you can do to pass time, and if you like games where you can raise a virtual pet in some capacity, then I think you'd like it a lot.

But otherwise, if you're trying to collect every Emblem, then the Chao Garden is a required stop on your journey, as there are 5 Emblems to collect in Sonic Adventure from the Chao Races, and there are a total of 9 Emblems in Sonic Adventure 2 (5 are Chao Races, and the other 4 are Chao Karate, which only applies to Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, or the Battle DLC pack in the 2012 re-release on PSN and XBLA), so if you're trying to get all of those Emblems, you better have some time handy!

How do I raise a Chao?

To be 100% honest, that falls on you, as everyone raises their Chao a little bit differently. Some people try for a specific type of Chao. Some people go for all-S stats for the "perfect" Chao. Some people work for the legendary Chaos Chao (more on that in another part). Some people just raise their Chao with whomever and see what happens. How you raise your Chao and what they become all depend on you.

For starters, by defeating enemies, you can collect animals and Chaos Drives to give to your Chao (Chaos Drives only exist in Sonic Adventure 2, just to note), which in turn will boost one of their 4 main stats: Swim, Fly, Run, and Power. These stats dictate how well a Chao can do in each category, which will be tested in the races you do. For example, a Chao with a high Run stat will outrun most of the other Chao, and a Chao with a high Power stat can climb walls much faster than the rest. Naturally, you're going to want to raise the stats as high as you can.

The 5th stat is Stamina, which is naturally the hardest to raise, as the stat only goes up when you feed your Chao any type of food. In a sense, Stamina helps your Chao evolve faster, as once they reach somewhere around level 10 in Stamina, they evolve, unless you wait it out, but more on that another time.

Do Chao die?

Yes, in time. A Chao's full lifespan is 5 years, which translates to roughly 20-25 hours in real time. Time only passes while you're inside the Chao Garden, mind you. During this time, your Chao will evolve a couple of times as they grow up and gain skills and even change form. When Chao die, one of two things will happen.

If your Chao enters a white cocoon, then your Chao is dying, and will be gone forever. This will only happen if you didn't love your Chao enough, and abused it and hurt it and made it upset. Most likely you won't see this, but it's worth mentioning still. However, if your Chao enters a pink cocoon, it will die, and when the cocoon dissipates, there will be an egg left behind that this same Chao will emerge from. This is reincarnation, and when they reincarnate, Chao start from scratch, with the stat grades being the same (if they die and have an S in Fly, they will still have that S in Fly), and with 10% of their overall stats being kept (So if their Swim stat is 1,000 when they die, they will start off with 100 in their Swim stat upon birth. It probably sounds a little complicated, but it's not too bad once you get the idea.

That's all for the bare basics. Tomorrow we'll get into some stuff with stats and character alignment, so I hope you look forward to that. I'll see you again soon!

Have a nice day!~