Project tokkybot: I found the Zoona

Current character level: 23 Current class and level: Ranger 7 Massive jump in levels there, mostly thanks to getting the secret bonus mission: Phantom Fissure. I ran Sacred Stream C, the party was open so other low level peoples could join if they wished... Ah well, their loss. I could only run PF on C, but the rewards and EXP…

Project tokkybot: Where did all the Zoona go?

Current character level: 19
Current class and level: Ranger 4

Quite a jump in level there, eh? I played with tokkybot ver.2 for a bit last night and this afternoon, taking in a multitude of environments from the grassy plains of Parum to the harsh deserts of Moatoob. De Ragan fell, Zolagoug fell, Onmagoug fell, even the mighty Dimmagolous fell, all without too much trouble. I bested them all twice, just in case I got an easy spawn on the first run – hence the massive increase in levels, but I won’t have much time to continue Project tokkybot over the rest of the weekend.

“Where did all the Zoona go?”, I thought to myself as I ploughed through Valley of Carnage C, Mine Defence C, System Defence C and Desert Terror C. Those missions used to be full of them! Come to think of it, those missions used to be a challenge compared to the low level Parum and Neudaiz runs. All of Moatoob was toned down early on in Phantasy Star Universe’s lifespan. Where there was once multiple Bil De Vears there is now a group of Naval, three Drua Gohra’s replaced by three Jishagara. I remember the days when every room in Desert Goliath contained at least three Grinne Bete C! Awesome fun, especially for weak Techers!

Project tokkybot: Completed it on EASY

Current character level: 9
Current class and level: Ranger 2

I didn’t really complete PSU on easy. When I used to work in Game they had a no fuss 10 day return policy, and this one guy used to come in on a Friday and buy all the big new releases, then come back on the Monday and ask for a refund stating that he’d “Completed it on Easy”. Surely games like Halo and Ninja Gaiden deserve to be ramped up to the highest setting and savoured for the mammoth challenge they present? Completing it on easy then not playing it on a higher difficulty is a bit of a cop-out! He never kept a game as far as we could tell. I’ll come back to this later.

Project tokkybot: 100 Damage!

Current character level: 6
Current class and level: Ranger 1

After last nights debacle, I thought I’d need some new weapons. As the plan is to go Gunmaster, I’d concentrate on Rifles, Shotguns and Twin Handguns for now. Laser Cannons have to wait until I’m a Fortegunner, and that seems a long way off yet!

Yet another thing that makes starting now alot easier than it was originally is the shop search function. Using player shops before the Ambition of the Illuminus expansion was painful to say the least… But we knew no better! Finding the best price meant trawling through every player shop on the list, making a note of each price as you went. You could even miss the cheapest price of an item if it wasn’t on the first page of results! The new shop search, combined with the fact that there are alot more weapons on the market, for much cheaper prices, means I can snap up some real bargains.

Project tokkybot: Getting started

First things first, I thought I should open up all my travel options so I can move freely between planets. This involves running to each different area in each of the main cities, for example on Neudaiz you need to enter the Guardians Branch and the Yohmei Shop. The most obviously difference since starting the game back in November 2006 is that Moatoob is open – Yes, Moatoob was once locked! Also, I’ll definitely need Goggles, so I went up to the Guardians HQ and started Episode II: Chapter 1 – The Mask. I was not prepared for how dangerous level 1 Gohmons could be, and there was no way I’d be able to defeat a Zoalgoug! Still, seeing as I had already secured my Goggles, I quit out to live another day; Laia Martinez’s Partner Card is in no way condusive to my aims.

Project tokkybot is underway!

First, some background.

Those who play Phantasy Star Universe with me will already know this, but for everyone else, here’s the deal. I have two characters at the level and job cap (currently 140 and 20, respectively), and they both multi-class. Ruby is an Acrotecher, Fortetecher and Guntecher, with a view to going Masterforce when it is released. Scarlet is a budding Fighmaster, with current roles as an Acrofighter, Fortefighter, Fighgunner and Protranser. Although to be fair she doesn’t use those last two classes to their potential as she only uses melee weapons and a Handgun here and there. As you can see, there is something missing. A Fortegunner.

tokkybot was once my main character, a Guntecher, but over time I got into Technics and when AoI was released I got heavily back into melee (the “Just Attack” technique swung it for me – so much damage!). I decided as they both used Bows, buffs and debuffs and to save having to level up two sets of PA’s, that it would just be easier if I consolidated all tokkybot’s PA’s on to Ruby. So I was left with a level 100 character with little to no Photon Arts. I did toy with the idea of making her a Fortegunner/Gunmaster, but for some reason it just felt wrong having so many low level PA’s on a high level character.

This is where tokkybot ver.2 comes in.

Hello again

First blog style post since we’ve got the ol’ WordPress up and running again.

What’s going on? Not much. I caught the 8 British minutes of the Olympics Closing Ceremony earlier. Sure, it wasn’t as spectacular as the parts choreographed by the Chinese, but it had a charm all of it’s own. The sheer spectacle of the Beijing opening and closing ceremonies would simply be too hard to match, let alone top, so London had better come at it from a different angle. I’ll be interested to see how it compares.

Right now I’m just waiting for Dexter on FX, starts in 15 minutes, after that I might go play some PSU.

Damn Sega Team, ruining my moan

If only I'd started this blog a month or so ago, then there would still be no content in PSU and I could have had a moan at the Sonic Team back-room staff and Sega in general for giving us very little content for the past two months, and as you'll come to learn, I do love a good moan.…