Aveyond: Lord of Twilight, Final Fantasy VIII, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, .Hack//

I've finished Aveyond: Lord of Twilight.  It's the first 'chapter' in the third Aveyond game.  There are four 'chapters' each of which cost £6.99.  The first game in the series, Ahriman's Prophecy, is available for free, but the quality is terrible.  I downloaded it, but the font used is illegible, so I gave up on it fairly quickly.

According to Steam I spent around 20 hours playing this game, although my final save file was just under ten hours, so while some of those 20 hours were me dying and reloading the game, some of them were just me leaving it open while I did something else.  There were many elements of it that I liked.  I liked the characters and I like that the plot feels almost Shakespearean.  I also liked the 'realism' - the environments in the game felt realistically large, there were loads of cities, and, after killing something, you had to search its corpse for loot.  However, there was one big flaw and that's the fact that this isn't a complete game.  There are subquests you can start in this game but not finish until the sequels.  There are chests you can find which you can't open until the sequels.  Finally, the plot just doesn't advance well.  It doesn't feel like a satisfying character journey or ending.  Honestly, I resent the fact that I'll need to pay another £20.97 to finish the story.  I can't remember how much I paid for this first one, but since I probably got it off Humble Bundle it was probably between £1 to £3.  For 20 hours of gameplay, assuming I paid £1, that's 5p per hour, which is 10x as much as Final Fantasy X and X-2 (400 hours to finish the first, second, and third games, all of which cost me £19.99 on Steam).  This game is pretty good, but this first chapter wasn't worth 10x as much to me as Final Fantasy X, and then they want another £21 for the rest of the story?  Fuck right off.  If they pop up on Humble Bundle at a discount, I might spring for them, but I am not paying £6.99 for a 20-hour segment of a game that doesn't even feel like a full game in its own right, and I am definitely not doing that three times in a row.  Knowing that that was what I'd need to do to finish the story just made me resent playing this one.  Oh, also there's only one achievement.  Since there's no indication of which side quests you can finish in this game and which ones need to wait for the sequel, the achievements could have been a way of giving you a hint.  The game just does not reward exploring, because you don't know which blocks you can breach during this game - for example, you do gain a way of blowing through doors blocked with planks, but you don't learn how to pick locks - and which subquests you can finish in this game, or which need to wait.  After the first hour or so I just followed a guide.  Oh, that reminds me - I did like that the puzzles had an element of randomness, so even if you followed a guide there were still some things you had to work out yourself.  That was a nice touch.

The description of the game also claims that "laughing is not optional".  It absolutely is.  The dialogue is human and realistic, but it's not particularly funny.

I've played - and enjoyed - the .Hack// series, which had a similar set-up.  Four chapters, each sold separately, adding up to a complete story.  I enjoyed those games a lot more, and I think a big part of it is that they did feel like complete games, with satisfying story arcs.  I paid more - about £10 for each if I recall correctly - for each one, and I didn't resent that.  I've replayed the series multiple times, and each one came with an episode of an anime series, telling another story that happened alongside the events in the game.  I also enjoyed a sequel manga and the longer anime series, but the biggest difference between .hack// and Aveyond is that each of those things felt like seperate stories.  They were all sparked by the same event, but each had their own events and character arcs.  Plus, my ending save files generally had about 20 hours on them, so they offered approximately twice as much gameplay.

Anyway, in summary, Aveyond: Lord of Twilight is an enjoyable game, but it is not worth £27.96 - the price for all four games without any discounts - and while, theoretically, you could just pay the £6.99 - still way too much - to enjoy just one game, the game is not designed for you to do that.

The next game on my list is actually The Banner Saga, but I just bought several more games from Humble Bundle; 1bitHeart (99p), Désiré (£2.15), Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy (£14.99), PSYCHO-PASS: Mandatory Happiness (£9.99), and The Sacred Tears TRUE. (£3.24).  I've noted down the prices because I quite like "cost per hours of enjoyment" as a way to compare games.  I'm going to play the Phoenix Wright games next, because I have been waiting for them to arrive on Steam for just the longest time.  The whole point of trying to play through all the games I own is to make sure I'm actually, you know, getting value out of the things I buy, so it would just be silly to avoid playing the game I just bought.  I've also been replaying Final Fantasy VIII (and reviewing my guide) and I'm in the end stages of that, so I'll probably finish that as well before starting on The Banner Saga.

Completing Dot Hack Part II

Slowly ticking off subquests.

• Get all party members affection to 1000 and complete email chains.
• Get ultimate weapons for everyone (and complete the post about it!).
• Complete Ryu Books of 1000.
• Complete Item quest.

For the Ryu Books I need to do the following;

• II: More all field portals opened.
• III: More trades.
• III: Trade with every character (missing: Hirami, Mayunosuke, Mutsuki).
• IV:  Missing 22 monsters. 

For the Item Completion quest, I've completed the Grunty Food, Virus Core, Items, Scrolls, Treasure, Head Armour, and Twin Blade lists.  That leaves;

• Body
• Hand
• Leg
• Blademaster
• Heavy Blade
• Heavy Axeman
• Long Arm
• Wavemaster

Completing Dot Hack

I finished the main game a lot quicker than I actually expected to.  Now for the subquests.  What I've got left to do now is;

• Get all party members affection to 1000 and complete email chains.
• Complete Goblin subquest (only Martina left).
• Complete that area that both Blackrose and Terajima have invited me to.
• Get ultimate weapons for everyone (and complete the post about it!).
• Complete Ryu Books of 1000.
• Complete Item quest.

For the Ryu Books I need to do the following;

• II: More all field portals opened.
• III: More trades.
• III: Trade with every character (missing: Neja, Nekoski, Acerola, Borscht, Yuckey, Hirami, Yuji, Cima, Crest, Mayunosuke, Mutsuki, Oborozukiyo).
• IV:  Missing 22 monsters.  
• VI: More Gott statues.

For the Item Completion quest, I've completed the Grunty Food, Virus Core, Items, Scrolls, Treasure, and Twin Blade lists.  That leaves;

• Head
• Body
• Hand
• Leg
• Blademaster
• Heavy Blade
• Heavy Axeman
• Long Arm
• Wavemaster

I figure I'll do the item completion first, and that should mop up most of the other stuff.

So, What Am I Up To?

I'm playing .Hack//Quarantine, and I have to say, I'm flagging.  I kind of want to just get on with the subquests already, but I'm not far enough through the game to have access to all the areas, and there's not much I really want to take care of before starting the completion quest, which I am actually kind of looking forward to, even though it seems like a lot of work and backtracking.

I've stopped religiously opening every dungeon portal, since there's no further reward for it beyond increased items/cash/levels.  At Level 95, I'm only getting a handful of exp per portal, I have over 1.5 million gp, and I don't see any point in collecting items which aren't the best weapons until the item completion quest opens.

(Incidentally, I did make a post about the best weapons, but it involves a lot of '&'s, and stupid blogger keeps turning them into '&'.  I'll figure it out later).

I've also been playing Crash Team Racing, which I've completed before.  The ideal goal is to get all the platinum time trials and CTR tokens, as well as write a spoiler-free guide detailing that.  I'm using Dingodile, because he's fast and he's my second favourite after Coco.

My goals for .Hack/Quarantine and the series in general are as follows;

• 
  
• Every character with decent armour and the best weapons.
• All character's affection at 1000.
• Item Completion list filled in.
• Everyone at level 99.
• All Ryu Books filled.
• Koeji (Kite) has best stats possible.
• All subquests completed.

.Hack//Sign Ghosts in .Hack//Outbreak (Spoiler Free)

Throughout .Hack//Outbreak you can see fragments of the anime series .hack//sign (assuming that you've seen all the scenes at Delta Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground in Mutation).  Simply go to these places, in the following order, and talk to the ghosts.  You'll get items for this, but I'm not listing them.  You will get several Golden Grunties (permanently raises HP by 30) as well as several excellent healing items.  All of the places are root towns, so I'll just list the server rather than specifying that every time.

I have to tell you, this is a lot more fun once you've seen .Hack//Sign!

Set 1

1. Delta.  In the alley by the magic shop where you first met Mia. 
2. Theta.  Behind the Grunty farm.
3. Delta.  Under the bridge, near the weapon shop. 
4. Lambda.  In front of the Grunty farm.
5. Sigma.  Between Elf Haven and the Grunty Farm.
6. Theta.  Behind the recorders shop.

Set 2

1. Lambda.  Near the Snakey Grunty. 
2. Sigma.  Between the weapons shop and the magic shop.
3. Theta.  Near the magic shop.
4. Delta.  Under the bridge near Elf's Haven shop.
5. Sigma.  Between the item shop and Elf's Haven.
6. Lambda.  Behind the Grunty Farm.

Set 3

1. Theta.  Near the item shop. 
2. Delta.  In the alley by the magic shop where you first met Mia.
3. Lambda.  Near the Snakey Grunty. 
4. Sigma.  Between the recorder and Elf's Haven.
5. Theta.  Near the Grunty Farm.
6. Lambda.  Near the Noble Grunty.

Set 4

1. Sigma.  Between the recorder and the Grunty Farm.
2. Delta.  Under the bridge near Elf's Haven.
3. Lambda.  Near the Noble Grunty.
4. Sigma.  Between the Chaos Gate and the magic shop.
5. Theta.  On the bridge near the Grunty Farm.
6. Sigma.  Behind the Grunty Farm.

Set 5

1. Lambda.  Between the Bony Grunty and the Snakey Grunty.
2. Sigma.  Between the recorder's shop and the weapons shop.
3. Theta.  Near the recorder.
4. Delta.  Under the bridge by the magic shop.
5. Lambda.  Between the Snakey Grunty and the recorder. 
6. Sigma.  Behind the magic shop.

Set 6

1. Delta.  In the alley between the weapons shop and the magic shop.
2. Lamba.  South of the Chaos Gate.
3. Theta.  By the weapons shop.
4. Sigma.  Between the Grunty Farm and Elf's Haven.
5. Theta.  Near the item shop.
6. Delta.  Near the weapons shop.

Set 7

1. Theta.  Behind the Grunty Farm.
2. Delta.  In the alley by the magic shop where you first met Mia. 
3. Sigma.  Between the Grunty Farm and the weapons shop.
4. Lambda.  South of the Chaos Gate.
5. Delta.  Walking between the item shop and Elf's Haven.
6. Sigma.  Behind the item shop.

Set 8

1. Sigma.  Behind the Grunty Farm.  You'll need to leave Fort Ouph and come back after seeing the last one before she'll appear.
2. Delta.  Walking between the magic shop and the weapon shop.
3. Theta.  Near the item shop.
4. Sigma.  Walking between the item shop, Elf's Haven, and the recorder.
5. Lamba.  Between the Snakey Grunty and the recorder.
6. Delta.  Near the magic shop.

Set 9

1. Delta.  In the alley by the magic shop where you first met Mia. Again, you must leave the server after seeing the last scene and come back.
2. Theta.  Behind the Grunty Farm.
3. Lambda.  South of the Chaos Gate.
4. Sigma.  Between the Grunty Farm and the weapons shop.
5. Sigma.  Between Elf's Haven and the Grunty Farm.  Remember to log out and back in or otherwise leave the server between scenes.
6. Theta.  Behind the Grunty Farm.

.Hack - Goblins

Infection and Mutation

Throughout the Dot Hack series, Goblins will challenge you, via the board, to play tag with them.  In other words, they are speedy little creatures who run away from you.

To easily defeat the first few goblins, use spells.  For those with Magic Tolerance (Martina) use a Beast Bane first.  Speed Charms are also pretty useful.  Both of those can be bought at the magic shop.  They're all weak against wood spells. 

Outbreak

In Outbreak, the Goblins suddenly become a lot more difficult; it's very hard to hit them with spells, and there are three instead of one per level.  It helped a lot, on the first two, to use Knight's Blood, Warrior Blood, and Speed Charms.  Bring spares, these things take a while.

By the time I got to Jonue T, it was insane.  I found that using a Knight's Blood, Warrior Blood and a Speed Charm (from the item and magic shops respectively) on Kite, and then focusing on one and using a skill whenever I got close enough really helped.  You'll generally only get one hit, but it'll be for about 250 if you're at level 70 with Sora's blades.  Once you've got one of them, that'll only leave one to heal and one to chase, so it will go a little faster.

Albert T was a huge drop in difficulty.  Wear the Ladies Mail from Sigma Unusual Ghostly Remnant, use a Hermit Blood (increases magical accuracy), a Warrior Blood (increases physical attack), and a Hunter Blood (increases physical accuracy) on yourself, cast Mumyn Lei on one of them, run up to it, and get in as many hits as you can before it wakes up.  It will wake up within seconds.  All you do is get it in your sights (use R2) and rinse repeat.  Since the Alberts will cast spells on you, they will sometimes lock you in place for a few seconds.  Just focus on one, and when there are only two left, it's a lot harder for them to do that.  The last one should go down quickly.

Martina T was also quite easy.  Beast Bane, sleep spell, wood spell, repeat.  The healing is a little annoying, but, again, it gets easier as you  whittle them down.

Elements in .Hack

There are six elements in the .hack games which are opposed in the following pairs;

Thunder <> Darkness
Water <> Fire
Earth <> Wood

Thus, if an enemy has an 'Earth Tolerance' hit them with a wood spell.  Remember you can press square and direct your allies as to exactly which spell to hit which monster with.

(This is mentioned on the board, in the game, but I keep forgetting during battles!).

Why There Are So Many Games I've Never Completed

Remember that the tick marks on the list to the right only mark the games I've completed every bit of (or as much as was possible and fun) in order, not all the games that I've completed!

Still, there are quite a few games that I've owned for years and never finished.  Final Fantasy VI, for instance.  Often, I just seem to lose interest when it comes to the subquests section.

Right now, I'm enjoying .hack, and writing down and clarifying  stuff about it.  But I still want to go play Persona 4 again, and do a speed run of Final Fantasy IX, and I know that, if I do, I won't come back to .hack for a while.  And, when I do come back to it, I'll probably want to start over from the beginning, and then I really will never finish.

Ryu Books of 1000

The Ryu Books are key items that you receive when data-draining in the .hack// series.  You will get one for every ten data drains, up to Ryu Book VII.

The Ryu Books track various statistics, and will reward you for hitting specific numbers, ie, for meeting Grandpa five times.  You can get all of them in the fourth game, Quarantine.  Otherwise, a few more rewards unlock each game, as listed below.

The rewards consist of images and music with which to decorate your desktop, and videos of cutscenes, which you can view after gaining the data flag, ie, finishing each installment.  The rewards always unlock in the same order, no matter which achievements you get.

I was originally going to list all the achievements you can unlock, and which game you can first get them in.  But, really, that's boring and it's been done before.  I'm only listing the highest numbers you need to get, so you know what to aim for.  You'll only unlock the final reward in Quarantine, but you won't miss any if you hit these numbers then.


Ryu Book I
Chronicles Areas and Playtime

• 210 Areas Visited
• 60 Hours Playtime.

If you struggle with this, just hop in and out of a few areas, then leave the PS2 on overnight.  But, really, you shouldn't struggle.

Ryu Book II
Chronicles Magic Portals

• 1700 Magic Portals Opened.
• xx Field Portals Opened.
• 75 Dungeon Portals Opened.

If you struggle with field portals, just go to a low level area and open a few.  For field portals, Lambda Lonely Ghostly Feeling.  Three.  You're welcome.  For dungeon portals, try Theta Chosen Corrupted Spiral, which has six.


Ryu Book III
Chronicles Players You Have Met

• All Players Met.
• xx Trades Made. 

If you just talk to a handful of people as you run around the root towns, you should meet most of them without trying too hard.  Some characters won't appear until the game has been completed.

  
Ryu Book IV
Chronicles Monsters

•  All Monsters Fought.
  

There is an excellent bestiary here.  When you reach Quarantine, simply look up any monsters you've yet to meet and go exploring.  Don't bother doing it earlier; you'll probably run into them anyway, and the effort will be redundant.


Ryu Book V
Chronicles About Your Friends

• 350,000GP in Gifts.
  

I hit twice that just by making sure everyone had the best weapons in each game.

Ryu Book VI
Chronicles Treasures

• 1500 Treasure Boxes Opened.
• 1400 boxes, cask, jars and bones destroyed.
• 85 Gott Statue Treasure Opened.

If you leave and re-enter a room, boxes and casks will reappear. Try Omega Chosen Solitary White Devil for Gott Statues; a two floor dungeon, with no forced battles.

Ryu Book VII
Chronicles the Spring of Myst and Symbols

• 55 Encounters with Monsieur.
• 55 Encounters with Grandpa.
• 140 Symbols Activated.

For Symbols, try Omega Bigoted Snowflake's Capsule.  There are two immediately to the west of the dungeon entrance. You'll easily meet enough grandpas and monsieurs while completing the item list.

Ryu Book VIII
Chronicles About Grunties

• All Grunty Foods Collected.
• All Grunties Raised.
• 230 Grunty Foods Obtained.

See my post here for where to find the food and the stats for the Grunties.  You should pick up enough Grunty food easily if you just grab a few whenever you go past.

Subquests and Extras in .hack//Mutation

I'm only including things that you won't find by just reading the board.

Scenes from .Hack//Sign

Go to Delta Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground at specific points, and you'll see scenes from .Hack//Sign,

• At the beginning of the game.
• After Lambda Nameless Seeker's Prairie.
• After receiving the keywords for Lambda Dying Madness Haunted Land.
• After Lambda Scattering Fossil's Milestone. 

You receive Golden and Silver Grunties for viewing these, which permanently raise your HP and SP.


Keywords from the DVD

Lambda Capricious Unending Corridor.  You can find the Gemini Soul in one of the treasure chests, a twin blade weapon with negative attack - good for data draining.  Also Chinese Food which you can trade with Annri for the Key Axe.

Areas They Pull You Out Of

Mutation is better at this than Infection, but there are still some areas that you get pulled out of before you can get the Gott Statue treasures.  That annoys me.  A lot.  They don't even have anything good, but they're THERE, and I want them.

Lambda Dolorous Evil-Eyed Widow - Statue has Slayers, Yellow Candy, and Ivory Barette.
Lambda Nameless Seeker's Prairie - Statue has Spirit Armour and Yellow Candy x 2 (I think it was spirit armour.  In fairness, it was very uninteresting, whatever it was).
Blooming Promised Walkway -Segmentart, Mage's Soul, Yellow Candy.

Grunty Food & Stats

Once you reach Theta, you'll find grunties, little piglet like creatures whom you can feed.  Once you've fed them enough to raise their size enough, they'll turn into a specific kind of grunty.  In Mutation, you can race them, and in Outbreak they will search for either food, portals, or the dungeon entrance on the field when you press circle.

In each new game, go back to earlier servers and check your grunties trade items.  The ones in Carmina Gardelica and Fort Ouph will get another Golden Grunty and a Silver Grunty to trade.

This table shows where you can find Grunty food as well as decoding how the grunty asks for things. These aren't the only places you can get them, just places where I've found them easy to locate.

Food	Description	Hint	Location
Bearcat Egg	Really Sour	In a very fancy gallery	Theta Quiet Eternal White Devil On the big room on the right, on the 1st floor of the dungeon.  Two more on B2, in the big room and in the t-shaped room just north of it.
Bloody Egg	Like Blood	In the stomach of a very scary monster	Delta Chronicling Pagan Sunny Demon There are two in the first two little rooms on B1 of the dungeon.  Just run in and out of the dungeon a couple of times.  Complete the time trial here first.
Cordyceps	Cold and Spicy	Near a large statue of Buddha	Theta Quiet Eternal White Devil From the dungeon, go straight east till you hit one of those fire switch things.  Go south from there and you'll find three.
Golden Egg	Really Expensive	Inside an important story	Delta Buried Pagan Fiery Sands In the first room of the dungeon.  Just run in and out a couple of times if you need them.  Really though, they show up in most dungeons.
Grunt Mints	Minty	Near a very hot square face	Delta Raging Passionate Melody. There are some just south of the dungeon.
Immature Egg	Really Bitter	Deep in a really dark labyrinth	Theta Chosen Hopeless Nothingness In the first room after the entrance.
Invisible Egg	Really Salty	Inside a very deep cave	Delta Putrid Hot-blooded Scaffold There's one in the first room north of the entrance, and two more in the rooms to the east and west, as well as a golden egg in the room to the north.
La Pumpkin	Really Sweet	By a big coccoon	Theta Great Distant Fertile Land You'll find five or six just to the east of the dungeon, and three right in front of the entrance, near a symbol.
Mandragora	Noisy	By a pointy tower	Theta Beautiful Someone's Treasure Gem There are three just north of the dungeon entrance.
Mushroom	---	In the shadow of mushroom boulders.	Delta Putrid Hot-blooded Scaffold There's one just outside the entrance to the dungeon.  Just wander in and out a few times.
Oh No Melon	Really Sweet and Round	Near barnacles	Delta Buried Pagan Fiery Sands There are some just west of the dungeon, and a few more to the south of it.
Piney Apple	Crispy and Sweet	Deep in the green forest	Theta Soft Solitary Tri Pansy There are three in the small areas to the south, and one in the northernmost area.  This is also a very good area for getting all the field portals open.
Root Vegetable	White and Spicy	By a wall at the end of a maze	Theta Soft Smiling Fort Walls You can definitely find some earlier than this, in an area you have to visit.
Snakey Cactus	Juicy	Near ribs that were once an ocean	Delta Discovered Primitive Touchstone You can find two just to the east of the dungeon entrance, in the ribcage.
Twilight Onion	Raw and Spicy	By a very old, strange weapon	Delta Hideous Destroyer's Far Thunder There are some to the east of the dungeon.
White Cherry	Cold and Sweet	By a very old pillar	Delta Detestable Golden Scent.  You have the benefit of no portals here.

You can unlock three grunties per server.  There are easy ways to get them, but I find it more interesting to give it whatever it likes, then adjust the stats when it starts asking for Golden Eggs.  If you want the recipes, look at the wiki.

Types

Iron Grunty (Theta)

• Size: 30
• Body Odor: 3 to 17
• Rebel: -2 to 12
• Brutality: 13 to 27
• Intelligence: 8 to 22
• Purity: -2 to 12 

Your grunty wants to grow up to be an Iron Grunty.  Give it whatever it likes, and that's what you'll get.  Once it has the iron stats, it'll only ask for Golden Eggs.  Your Iron Grunty will take you to the Dungeon Entrance, in the field.


Poison Grunty (Theta)

• Size: 30
• Body Odor: 0 to 20
• Rebel: -5 to 15
• Brutality: 10 to 30
• Intelligence: 5 to 25
• Purity: -5 to 15 

The poison Grunty will take you to magic portals, on the field.

Bony Grunty (Lambda)

• Size: 40
• Body Odor: 13 to 27
• Rebel: 3 to 17
• Brutality: 8 to 22
• Intelligence: 8 to 22
• Purity: -2 to 12 

Grunties in Lambda want to grow into Bony grunties; just give it whatever it asks for.  The Bony Grunty will take you to the dungeon entrance on the field.

Snakey Grunty (Lambda)

• Size: 40
• Body Odor: 10 to 30
• Rebel: 0 to 20
• Brutality: 5 to 25
• Intelligence: 5 to 25
• Purity: -5 to 15 

The Snakey Grunty will search for magic portals in the field.

Aqua Grunty (Lambda)

• Size: 40
• Body Odor: 8 to 20
• Rebel: 8 to 22
• Brutality: -2 to 12
• Intelligence: 13 to 27
• Purity: 3 to 17 

Grunties on Sigma want to become Aqua Grunties.  Give them whatever they ask for.  Aqua Grunties will take you to the dungeon entrance on the field.

 Milky Grunty (Lambda) 

• Size: 40
• Body Odor: 5 to 25
• Rebel: 5 to 25
• Brutality: -5 to 15
• Intelligence: 10 to 30
• Purity: 0 to 20 

Milky Grunties will search for magic portals on the field.

Rocker Grunty (Omega)

• Size: 40
• Body Odor: 3 to 7
• Rebel: 8 to 22
• Brutality: -2 to 12
• Intelligence: 8 to 22
• Purity: 13 to 27

 Grunties in Omega want to become Rocker Grunties.  Give them what they want. Rocker Grunties will take you to the dungeon entrance.

Wooden Grunty (Omega)

I couldn't find any information for the stats on these.  According to the wiki, the stats are identical to the Rocker Grunty, which obviously can't be right.  So, I used 4 Cordyceps, an Immature Egg, and enough Golden Eggs to raise its size to 40.  The one stat that differed from the Rocker Grunty with this method was the Rebel, which can therefore be as low as 7.  Wooden Grunties will take you to magical portals on the field.


Noble Grunty (All)

If your grunty's stats do not fit the requirements for the other two grunties on the server, it will become a Noble Grunty.  Noble Grunties will search for food on the field.

.hack// - Spring of Myst

Affects of weather on springs;

Weather                      Weapon             Armor
-------                     --------           -------
Day                            +2                -1
Sunset                         +1                +1
Night                          +1                +1
Cloudy                         +2                -1
Rain/Snow/Thunder              -1                +2

I found this info in this FAQ. It was contributed by Neo987. You should take a look, it has lots of good stuff.

Disasteriffic!

My PS2 - which, admittedly, is about eight years old now - has stopped playing PSX games. This is extremely irritating.

So, I'll be playing .hack// instead.

Completion Project Update

I spent a lot of time fishing in Breath of Fire III this morning, then cracked and played Ehrgeiz for a bit. What I like about Ehrgeiz is not the fighting so much as the mini-rpg. I like the dungeon trawl, and the systematic kind of exploration. That's what I like about the .hack// games and Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter. It appeals to my analytical side.

I'm not playing Ehrgeiz properly, as such - I'm just playing around with it for funsies, and, so that when I do it play it properly, I have an idea of how to do it well.

Things I've learnt so far include the fact that it is quite easy to get out of your depth very quickly, and a pain to go after your characters, especially since your inventory is with the other one.  Each floor doesn't contain enough monsters to level both of your characters up as much as they need, so I'll probably have to spend some time level grinding on each one.  I'll probably alternate; get Koji to two, Clair to three, Koji to four, Clair to five, and so on.

Another issue with the game is the fact that your inventory is tiny, especially since it includes food, healing items, weapons and armour, and piles of coins that you need to drop off at the bank frequently.

Oh, and the dungeon is randomly generated each playthrough.

I still like it, though.