Skies Of Arcadia...stupid discoveries & other ramblings
Doug Jacobs
high and super low.
So, I spent all day Sunday tracking down every last stupid discovery.
I don't understand how the game expected you to find some of them short
of making mad dashes through the approximate area while pounding the A
button in the blind hopes that you'll get lucky. (which, ironically
enough, worked in many cases.)
Worse still, because of the stupid encounters, finding things took
much longer than it really should have.
I ended up having to use a FAQ and map to figure out a few of them.
Stupid lame mid-air "invisible" discoveries... I mean, how do you *not*
see an island where the trees are growing upside down?
It might not have been so bad had the clues been a bit better, and you
didn't get stopped every 30 seconds for a (pointless) 2 minute battle.
I've heard that this game is going to be ported to the PS2 next year
some time. I really hope they fix the encounter rates - or better yet -
create an item that allows you to avoid them entirely. (Yes, I got the
"White Map" - big whoop. Even with Vyse equipping it, I still got stopped
every 45 seconds or so.) I also hope they give better clues for the
discoveries. I spent ~8 hours finding the rest of the discoveries on
Sunday (most of that was spent endlessly zig-zagging in High-Sky and Low-Sky
for obvious things.) I also wonder what they'll do about The Pinta Quest,
since there is PocketStation2 as far as I know. I can't see having to sail
around mindlessly for endless random battles to make enough money to build
your base (G100k) plus various upgrades (G$10k?)
You'd think with fish being so important (for income, etc.) that *someone*
would make a fishnet or something to make catching fish easier.
I also filled up the crew roster. Ah, finally a use for those millions in
gold I've been collecting from the Pinta Quest game. Does anyone know what
the max number for stats is? :) I just boosted Vyse's power by 400 the
other night. I can't wait for him to hit or shoot someone.
I've also apparentally maxxed out my base as well - which is a bit
disappointing. It was always nice to come back and explore the island
to see what had changed.
Some questions though:
* After finding all 64 stupid discoveries, Kalifa continues to hint at
other interesting areas. For instance, she mentions an island north of
Yafutoma with "useful small creatures on it." Eh? What's this supposed
to be? Smurf Island? :)
* I got "Dominigo's Title" after talking to Domingo when I'd filled up
the discovery book. What does this do? It's in my inventory, but I
can't use it or anything. Does it unlock something later on?
Anyways, I'm sitting at the underground entrance to the Grand Maw or
whatever in Valua. I've clocked just over 60 hours, and my characters
are in their 40s.
Sean X. Chang
"Doug Jacobs" <dja...@rawbw.com> wrote
> I don't understand how the game expected you to find some of them short
> of making mad dashes through the approximate area while pounding the A
> button in the blind hopes that you'll get lucky.
It didn't. The game tells you in the beginning that your compass spinds
around
rapidly when you're in the proximity of a discovery. Perhaps you missed that
bit...
Andrew Ryan Chang
>since there is PocketStation2 as far as I know. I can't see having to sail
>around mindlessly for endless random battles to make enough money to build
>your base (G100k) plus various upgrades (G$10k?)
On my current game, I've gotten Aika's "clear-em-out" super move
really really early, and it's made the ordinary battles go by pretty
quick. But even on my first run through, I seem to recall that 100K
wasn't all that hard to reach, cause I'd been fighting every battle I got
into and was most of the way there when I was asked for the cash.
>I've also apparentally maxxed out my base as well - which is a bit
>disappointing. It was always nice to come back and explore the island
>to see what had changed.
Well, you can buy cosmetic adjustments to your heart's content...
--
Oakley: Are you absolutely sure that's wise, sir? I mean, I don't want
to sound pretentious here, but Itchy and Scratchy comprise a
dramaturgical dyad.
-- "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show"
Andrew Ryan Chang
While true, I find that you need to be pretty much on top of it.
Heck, I found some invisible discoveries with both hints and a map and I
-still- had to pound the A button while flying around to actually register
the find.
Nick Zitzmann
Doug Jacobs <dja...@rawbw.com> wrote:
> It might not have been so bad had the clues been a bit better, and you
> didn't get stopped every 30 seconds for a (pointless) 2 minute battle.
That's why I spent most of my time flying above the sky. There's no
random encounters up there or below the sky.
> I've heard that this game is going to be ported to the PS2 next year
> some time. I really hope they fix the encounter rates - or better yet -
> create an item that allows you to avoid them entirely. (Yes, I got the
> "White Map" - big whoop. Even with Vyse equipping it, I still got stopped
> every 45 seconds or so.) I also hope they give better clues for the
> discoveries. I spent ~8 hours finding the rest of the discoveries on
> Sunday (most of that was spent endlessly zig-zagging in High-Sky and Low-Sky
> for obvious things.) I also wonder what they'll do about The Pinta Quest,
> since there is PocketStation2 as far as I know. I can't see having to sail
> around mindlessly for endless random battles to make enough money to build
> your base (G100k) plus various upgrades (G$10k?)
You do get a subtle clue - the compass starts to spin when you get near
a discovery, even an invisible one.
And we still don't know how Sony's going to handle a PocketStation 2.
Remember, the first PocketStation didn't get released outside of Japan,
which meant we got several games over here where some features couldn't
be unlocked.
> I've also apparentally maxxed out my base as well - which is a bit
> disappointing. It was always nice to come back and explore the island
> to see what had changed.
Oh, your base will change soon... It will change soon... Just continue
to play the game and you'll see.
> Some questions though:
>
> * After finding all 64 stupid discoveries, Kalifa continues to hint at
> other interesting areas. For instance, she mentions an island north of
> Yafutoma with "useful small creatures on it." Eh? What's this supposed
> to be? Smurf Island? :)
I've never heard of that one. There isn't anything north of Yafutoma
except for that mountain.
> * I got "Dominigo's Title" after talking to Domingo when I'd filled up
> the discovery book. What does this do? It's in my inventory, but I
> can't use it or anything. Does it unlock something later on?
That's probably just some item that proves you did something. Final
Fantasy V and VIII have items like that.
Nick Zitzmann
ICQ: 22305512
"Democracy is a very delicate tool, and if you try to impose democracy without the basic civil society that supports it, you get yourself into a serious problem." - Edward Walker, former US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs (2000-2001)
Doug Jacobs
> "Doug Jacobs" <dja...@rawbw.com> wrote
No, I know about the spinning compass, but even then some of the clues were
pretty obscure... Most of the discoveries I came across by dumb luck.
The last, and most annoying, discovery I got was the #*%!@) "wander birds."
The clue simply said that the stupid things were found north of the mountain
near Yafutoma. Unfortunatly they said nothing about the stpuid things
moving around... In fact, the FAQ I ended up looking at suggested just
sitting still until you see them flutter by.
Another example was the inverse island which is located "somewhere south
of the dark rift." Oh, that was helpful... This "island" appears out of
nowhere when you find it. The dash&mash method worked the best for me here.
Doug Jacobs
> In article <tsp5die...@corp.supernews.com>,
> Doug Jacobs <dja...@rawbw.com> wrote:
>> It might not have been so bad had the clues been a bit better, and you
>> didn't get stopped every 30 seconds for a (pointless) 2 minute battle.
> That's why I spent most of my time flying above the sky. There's no
> random encounters up there or below the sky.
Yeah, I do that now, but it seems to me you don't get that enhancement
until pretty late in the game. It's nice to fly from point A to point B
with no stupid battles or enviornmental bothers though :)
>> I've heard that this game is going to be ported to the PS2 next year
>> some time. I really hope they fix the encounter rates - or better yet -
>> create an item that allows you to avoid them entirely. (Yes, I got the
>> "White Map" - big whoop. Even with Vyse equipping it, I still got stopped
>> every 45 seconds or so.) I also hope they give better clues for the
>> discoveries. I spent ~8 hours finding the rest of the discoveries on
>> Sunday (most of that was spent endlessly zig-zagging in High-Sky and Low-Sky
>> for obvious things.) I also wonder what they'll do about The Pinta Quest,
>> since there is PocketStation2 as far as I know. I can't see having to sail
>> around mindlessly for endless random battles to make enough money to build
>> your base (G100k) plus various upgrades (G$10k?)
> You do get a subtle clue - the compass starts to spin when you get near
> a discovery, even an invisible one.
True, but that wasn't much of a help in some cases... Maybe if the "spin"
area was larger (or the compass started spinning slowly from far out or
something.)
> And we still don't know how Sony's going to handle a PocketStation 2.
> Remember, the first PocketStation didn't get released outside of Japan,
> which meant we got several games over here where some features couldn't
> be unlocked.
Yeah, that bothered me on the PSX. Even so, the only thing that the
Pinta Quest does for you is give you lots of cash.
>> * I got "Dominigo's Title" after talking to Domingo when I'd filled up
>> the discovery book. What does this do? It's in my inventory, but I
>> can't use it or anything. Does it unlock something later on?
> That's probably just some item that proves you did something. Final
> Fantasy V and VIII have items like that.
Well, that's annoying... I spent over an hour (total) looking for those
last stupid discoveries. Yay...me?
Terrence Huey
> until pretty late in the game. It's nice to fly from point A to point B
> with no stupid battles or enviornmental bothers though :)
It's nice.. but not exactly what I wanted... especially since most of the
discoveries are within the normal world map anyway, so the stupid thing
doesn't help you.
Doug,
I know you haven't finished Arcadia yet, but given your time with
Grandia II and Arcadia, which do you like more so far? (I'll ask you this
again once you finish :P)
> True, but that wasn't much of a help in some cases... Maybe if the "spin"
> area was larger (or the compass started spinning slowly from far out or
> something.)
Yeah, I agree... even when I had some clues and knew exactly the area I
needed to be, I couldn't find the exact location of some discoveries.
> Well, that's annoying... I spent over an hour (total) looking for those
> last stupid discoveries. Yay...me?
You got 'em all? Well, um... congrats :P I never got that far with
discoveries, as I was long sick of that random battle crap after a few hours
of disc 1...
-T
Nick Zitzmann
Doug Jacobs <dja...@rawbw.com> wrote:
> Nick Zitzmann <nick...@eskimo.com> wrote:
> > That's probably just some item that proves you did something. Final
> > Fantasy V and VIII have items like that.
>
> Well, that's annoying... I spent over an hour (total) looking for those
> last stupid discoveries. Yay...me?
I only did the discoveries up to the point where Domingo would join my
crew, as well as the one necessary to get the third Abirik Cham (boy,
that one was tough to find, being invisible and all).
Doug Jacobs
> It's nice.. but not exactly what I wanted... especially since most of the
> discoveries are within the normal world map anyway, so the stupid thing
> doesn't help you.
Exactly...
There is an item you can get that sounds like it might reduce the
encounter rate, but I didn't notice much of a difference. Worse still,
you can't get the thing until you've gotten a large number of discoveries.
> Doug,
> I know you haven't finished Arcadia yet, but given your time with
> Grandia II and Arcadia, which do you like more so far? (I'll ask you this
> again once you finish :P)
It's a tossup, so far:
Story: Grandia2, hands down. Wow. A dark (tinged) story. It's not all
happy happy...well, at least part of the time. IMHO, they wimped out
in some places. SOA isn't bad...but it feels sort of like Silver Star
Story. "I'm wanna become an adventurer! Ahrr!" Gee, what do you think
happens? Definite shades of SSS here :) This isn't a bad thing...to
be honest, I don't think I could play through Grandia2 right now. There's
enough negativity and pain in the world for me.
Characters: Grandia2 again. SOA's characters are pretty 2 dimensional.
You've got Alex, er, Vyse, his chirpy, perky friend Aika, and the demure,
reserved Fina. That's about it... Meanwhile the main characters in
Grandia2 had a bit more to them.
Battle System: Grandia2. There's a bit more strategy to it with timing
attacks and things like that. Magic is actually useful and not as expensive.
SOA, meanwhile, merely requires you to learn a few special moves (that one
of Aika's in particular...) I personally find magic mostly useless since
it uses SP, and you can just as easily use a spell box (which are cheap)
or other item to get the same effect. The different colored moonstone
stuff never really grabbed me. I only change colors to learn spells.
I've only encountered 1 fight in which the color really made a difference.
It would also help if you could easily tell what "color" the monsters
were as well... Then again, when 95% of the stuff you meet dies in one
attack, who cares what color it is? I really wish you could skip the
spell sequences, like you can for the special moves... (and I wish more
games let you do this as well - take note Square!)
Side quests: SOA. Grandia2 really has no side quests to speak of. Oh,
there's that one side dungeon, and the game you play in that one cave
underground, but, eh... SOA does do a great job protraying a sense of
discovery and adventure. Though overall, I feel a bit like Peter Pan :)
Music: Toss-up. A few tracks from Grandia2 grabbed me, a few tracks from
SOA grabbed me. None of the music (so far) seems out of place, but none
of it has *grabbed* me like the music from FF6, Xenogears, or the Chrono
games has. (Xenogears is still by far my favorite, with the last segment
of Chrono Cross a close second.)
Overall, I enjoyed/am enjoying both games, but would give Grandia2 the
edge over SOA. If only SOA didn't have as high an encounter rate in the
sky (and/or you could acquire something to reduce sky encounters) I'd
rate them about equal.
>> True, but that wasn't much of a help in some cases... Maybe if the "spin"
>> area was larger (or the compass started spinning slowly from far out or
>> something.)
> Yeah, I agree... even when I had some clues and knew exactly the area I
> needed to be, I couldn't find the exact location of some discoveries.
>> Well, that's annoying... I spent over an hour (total) looking for those
>> last stupid discoveries. Yay...me?
> You got 'em all? Well, um... congrats :P I never got that far with
> discoveries, as I was long sick of that random battle crap after a few hours
> of disc 1...
I think I got lucky a whole lot. Most of the time, I'd be skimming along,
only to get sidetracked by some fish (ooh! fishies! gotta get them all!)
and the compass would start spinning. Oops, found one... There were,
however, about 5 that I just could not find without the FAQ. All of them
were invisible in mid-air.
About the only reward I see so far is that Fina has learned all her spells,
with the other characters maxxed out on at least 2 or 3 colors. (Vyse seems
to be an idiot when it comes to magic though.)
Doug Jacobs
> I only did the discoveries up to the point where Domingo would join my
> crew, as well as the one necessary to get the third Abirik Cham (boy,
> that one was tough to find, being invisible and all).
Spice Island? Yeah, that was one of the ones I used a FAQ for.
There's supposedly another Abrik Cham you can get...but you have to download
something from Sega's website, and as I don't have dialup access to register
my Dreamcast online, I'm not going to bother. This apparentally lets
Cupil morph into some sort of super-strong form, which ironically makes
Fina the best fighter in the game (higher attack strength than Vyse with
his best weapon.) I think I'll be OK without it, though.
Andrew Ryan Chang
>There's supposedly another Abrik Cham you can get...but you have to download
>something from Sega's website, and as I don't have dialup access to register
>my Dreamcast online, I'm not going to bother. This apparentally lets
Doesn't booyaka.com have the save files you need? (I suppose this
assumes you have some sort of online access for your DC, or at least a
Nxus-type memory card).
--
Skinner: Oh, relax, kids, I've got a _gut_ feeling Uter is around here
somewhere. [chuckles] After all, isn't there a little _Uter_ in all
of us? [chuckles] In fact, you might even say we just _ate_ Uter and
he's in our _stomachs_ right now! [laughs] Wait...scratch that one.
Nick Zitzmann
Doug Jacobs <dja...@rawbw.com> wrote:
> There's supposedly another Abrik Cham you can get...but you have to download
> something from Sega's website, and as I don't have dialup access to register
> my Dreamcast online, I'm not going to bother. This apparentally lets
> Cupil morph into some sort of super-strong form, which ironically makes
> Fina the best fighter in the game (higher attack strength than Vyse with
> his best weapon.) I think I'll be OK without it, though.
Actually, there are only three abirik chams.
There is a 30th regular cham, though, that is only available as one of
the SoA downloads. If you get the Hamachou Island download, then it
unlocks an island floating over the Dark Rift where you'll get the final
cham. If you feed Cupil all 30 chams and all three abirik chams, then
he'll turn into the game's ultimate weapon. I actually did this, and
it's fun to watch in action. It probably makes the final battle a little
easier, but I haven't tried finishing the game with it yet.
I have the broadband adapter, though, and no dialup 'net access, so I
had to get the additions from a third party. They work, though...
Andrew Ryan Chang
>There is a 30th regular cham, though, that is only available as one of
>the SoA downloads. If you get the Hamachou Island download, then it
>unlocks an island floating over the Dark Rift where you'll get the final
>cham. If you feed Cupil all 30 chams and all three abirik chams, then
>he'll turn into the game's ultimate weapon. I actually did this, and
>it's fun to watch in action. It probably makes the final battle a little
>easier, but I haven't tried finishing the game with it yet.
I had Cupil's final form in my last game, and IIRC it puts Fina a
bit above Vyse offensively, not _way_ above him. But yeah, it's fun.
--
"I yused to coudnt spel injunear, now I are one."
-attribution ?
Nick Zitzmann
arc...@sfu.ca (Andrew Ryan Chang) wrote:
> Doesn't booyaka.com have the save files you need? (I suppose this
> assumes you have some sort of online access for your DC, or at least a
> Nxus-type memory card).
Last time I checked a few months ago, Booyaka.com doesn't have the three
enhancement saves for the US version of Skies of Arcadia. They have the
Japanese version saves, but they don't work with the US version (I
tried).
Doug Jacobs
> Doug Jacobs <dja...@rawbw.com> wrote:
>>There's supposedly another Abrik Cham you can get...but you have to download
>>something from Sega's website, and as I don't have dialup access to register
>>my Dreamcast online, I'm not going to bother. This apparentally lets
> Doesn't booyaka.com have the save files you need? (I suppose this
> assumes you have some sort of online access for your DC, or at least a
> Nxus-type memory card).
I don't have dialup access anymore, nor do I have a BBA, so my DC is
basically "offline only". I also can't see spending the money for a
Dex-Drive like device either - especially if it's only for one game :)
Sorry, Fina, but I'll just have to pump you full of Pantus Seeds (or whatever
those things are called.)