What do you think of Shadowhearts. I think it is absolutely class for an RPG from Japan!! Especially after the impressive start with Koudelka (although with Koudelka, you was only in one location and it also felt like Resident Evil, but without the zombies and other freaked out creeps). Also has anyone seen Shadowhearts II yet, I've looked on the Japanese website and it looks wonderfull!!
and you can see the characters in Shadowhearts II. I got a selection here:
(From the left is Lucia, Nicholas Conrad (the main bloke in the game), and Veronica Vera)
There at about 18 characters shown on the website. They are, Nicholas Conrad (main bloke), Kallen Koenig (main girl), Kurando Inugami, Urmnaf Bort Hyuga, Geppetto, Blanc, Joachim Valentine, Lucia, Anastasia, Jeanne, Rene Curtis, Veronica Vera, Roger Bacon (from Koudelka!!), Albert Simon (from Shadowhearts I ????), Pieerre Mazymell and Gerard Mazymell (both are homos, no offence to gays ), Edward Lawrence, Great Gama, Carla, Sarah, Ernest Seaton, and Edgar. (In total twenty-two people!! But most are probably non-playable characters).
Whenever I play PSO, I am always hearing these terms and am now getting asked them. What the hell do they mean? I'm not normally into trading very much, I just like to get into the game. I presume it is trading or something?
The following items, (mainly extremly rare ones) are usually obtained with the armor shop code, these are the items you can get using the code.
blue ring (old DC version - banned on GC)
brightness circle
custom barrier ver.00
d-parts ver1.01
db's shield
god/ability
god/arm
god/body
god/legs
god/mind
gods shield byakko
hp/revival
hunter's shell
hunter wall
kasami bracer
love heart
parasite wear:de rol
parasite wear:nelgal
perfect resist
proto regene gear
ranger field
ranger wall
regene gear adv.
regenerate gear
revival garment
rico's glasses
s-parts ver1.16
sacred guard
safety heart
secret gear
secure feet
shield of delsaber
spirit garment
tripolic shield
virus armor:lafuteria
They are not detected by SONIC TEAM as it is not considerd a hack.
When you put the code in, and load it up, and go to the guard shop, it will sell you the above items.
Ok, these are the basic rules and general tidbits of knowledge you NEED to know when playing challenge mode. Im gonna try to break everything up all nice and neat like.
Materials
This section is for the materials and who uses what ones, etc
Power
Hunters (start by giving to the weaker hunters i.e HUcaseals, HUmar, in stringent circumstances, you may need to favor your HUcast like in C9 for example)
Def
Generally Forces, though Hunters greatly benefit from these as well but FO is your first choice. IF given to a HU, droids are the first to receive as they actually usually have less defense and, since theyre doing more damage most likely, they are more valuable.
Evade
HUNTERS HUNTERS AND HUNTERS, i cannot stress that enough, no other class requires these at all. If no HUs are present then the FO would take it cause theyre more fragile and cant risk taking hits. HUmars are the first to receive this.
Mind
Obviously FOs, if theyre no FOs present, then the HUnewearl is your best bet (or HUmar if there are no HUn)
Luck
Hunters or Rangers, seeing as they hit with physicals constantly, Hunters are your first choice though because criticals are 1.5 times the damage and RAs never hit that hard in Cmode ever.
HP
Nearly always FOs, Rangers to. Generally never Androids though because all of them get better HP than any Human or Newman counterpart (save maybe the RAcaseal).
TP
Force, or whoever your designated magic caster is
Exceptions:
There are always exceptions to this (except for Evade, thats a constant), for example, if there are 4 HUs, its pretty much whoever gets what uses it. Never hoard in a case like that, always try to keep the party even but the rules are less strict in cases like that. Use your best judgement for your particular situation, if you have a HUmar doing more damage than the HUcast, then give the HUmar the def mat because he is more useful to the party. Common sense dictates. And dont forget, communication is essential.
General Conduct
This is how you should act before, during, and after the challenge (especially useful if youre playing with JP)
Before
Always welcome JP players with Word Select "hellos" and "Nice to meet you"/"Good to see you". JP are suckers (not in a bad way) for courtesy. Also if you know bits and pieces of Japanese, speak to them, they appreciate when you try to learn their culture. Some good phrases to say are "konnichiwa"=hello, "gomen nasai"=sorry, "Genki desu ka?"=are you well. Those three are pretty much the useful ones, if you know more japanese then obviously speak to them. Another important thing is if you have a character class join your game that you dont need in your team, ask them to leave but in a nice way, always use word select to say "sorry". Of course there are those jerks out there that get mad to you anyway but dont dignify them by yelling back.
During
If you have something you want to give to somebody else, drop it by the door to the next room. If you arent aware of that door, try to drop it near the person. If you come across a puzzle you dont know how to solve (like switches on the floor) DO NOT try to solve it, let someone who knows do it, even if it seems obvious to you, oftentimes in cmode there are many tricks and traps that damage the whole party. If you are out of scape dolls and the team really wants to try and finish, drop your stuff and disconnect, no sense screwing the whole team out of a victory just for your sake, most times theyll retry with you if youre nice enough to do that. If you have to leave for any reason during a challenge, always drop all your stuff near the closest player, it will be VERY useful to them.
After
If you and your team did well, suggest exchanging Guild Cards, most JP wont exchange unless you prove yourself as a really good player so dont bother them unless you do really well. Always say "Nice Playing with you" on word select. Again, common sense dictates, just be polite.
Classes
Of each job class, this section will tell which class is good to use in Cmode, which are not and why/why not for each
Hunters
Good to use HUmar
Has the second best strength of the Hunters, has the capability to use magic, has adequate defense and accuracy and evasion. Good Hp, all and all, can take hits and deliver them just as well. My personal character of preference
HUcaseal
Awesome accuracy, evade, and combos for most weapons are good. Good Hp, good attack, and the use of traps is essential, especially in TA games
HUcast
Theyre iffy due to their extremely low accuracy but the highest strength and hp in the game comes in handy. Adequate defense and evade and again, the use of traps is very helpful. JP tend to use these because they know what theyre doing so i suggest you know the same before attempting this class. They are either incredibly useful or useless, and can only be that useful if you know how to use them.
Bad to use
HUnewearl
The only thing this girl has to offer in the regular game is high MST and you never reach the point of that in Cmode. Crappy accuracy, the worst attack of the hunters, low MST (not as bad as HUmar but again this is supposed to be her saving grace), overall just bad. I would suggest only using this girl after youve gotten VERY used to Cmode
Rangers
(a quick note, rangers are the worst class to use in cmode, theyre never strong enough to deal substantial damage and none of them have good MST, this applies to all of them so dont use a RA until you are very experienced with Cmode. A positive side note though, due to them being distant from enemies mostly, their lack of good stats is not generally an issue other the fact theyre taking up the spot of somebody who couldve been more useful. You cannot rely on the distance thing though as there are many enemies how have ranged attacks.)
Good to use
RAmar
Probably the best choice of the RAs. He gets the second best strength (albeit, not very good) and the most accuracy of any class in the game. He can cast magic (though it sucks), and his defense/evade is at par. His HP is ok...
RAcaseal
Pretty much the second worst of the Rangers BUT, her ability to see and shoot traps from the start is a must sometimes. None of her stats are particularly any good but as i said, then tends to be the case with Rangers in general.
Bad to Use
RAcast
Grant it hes the strongest RA but hes got the worst accuracy of them and whats the point of having a RA that cant hit stuff lol. As i just stated, he has pretty good strength, his hp is above average and his defense is ok.
RAmarl
The WORST class to use ever. I dont just mean of the RAs, i mean PERIOD. This girl has nothing to offer a team except being cannon fodder. Her hp, strength, defense, and evade all suck, her accuracy and mst dont get even adequate until the later levels.
Forces
(a side note, no Force is really good or bad to use as they each have certain situations they can be useful in, hence, i will only put the Pros and Cons of each. Also, this is a given but, since they are fragile you have to be careful and if youre gonna be a FO you have to know that many of the big monsters will be handled by you so know ALL of your elemental weaknesses to each monster.)
FOmar
Starting with Challenge 2 i believe (in ep1) and Challenge 1 (ep2), the FOmar (and all forces) starts with Shifta and Deband. Seeing as this is his speciality, it is useful. However, his Hp, def, strength, and mst are very low. He actually has the worst MST of the Forces.
FOmarl
Not very useful to use in cmode because she only gets boost on Deband and Grants(you dont even see that until like challenge 9 and its only level1). Take her if shes the Force that joins your team but not as a first choice because shes not very good in the stats department (on level with the FOmar)
FOnewm
Pretty ok to use starting in C5(ep1) and C3(ep2) when you start getting Mid level and High Level techs, which are his speciality. Pretty ok strength (for a FO anyway) and the second best mst of the Forces. So overall he is a good choice for beginners at Forces.
Fonewearl
The most fragile but most effective as a force because she gets basic techs boosts (which you always have) and the highest MST. Most JP play as FOnewearl which should tell you that you have to know what youre doing to be one. They can be very useful if used right.
Important note to all Forces:
TP conservation, something i learned from being a FO four times through cmode. It is essential that you know the placement of all the health rings and time your level ups to come right around when you run out of tp. Also (this applies especially to TA games), die for TP if you are nowhere near leveling or a health ring and out of fluids. Obviously this is a last resort even in TA games but its an expert technique and if used right (and if the other teammates are good enough to survive without their doll) it is the only way to get TA level times because the Forces can constantly blast magic at stuff. Only use Fluids when you have no TP. No exceptions to this. No point wasting them if youre about to level or there is a health ring around a corner that you forgot about.
Any other things i forgot to put in ill edit in later. Hope this helps.*
GOLDIE and I are going to play Lv I of Ep II challenge mode, and we'd like to know if anyone would like to join us? We'll wait about an hour or two for a reply.
