Miscellaneous

Downtime and the Emergency Status Page

Alright, so the site was just down for the last few hours because of a database problem. Everything should be running smoothly now.
Since I was inundated with messages about my site being down during the last few hours, I decided to take a page from the hosting company’s book and create an Emergency Status Page on Blogger. Basically, if this site goes down, just check that site for updates (so bookmark it or keep it on your feed). I may even post entries that I finish if the site still happens to be down at that time. Hopefully this’ll be an effective way of keeping everyone up-to-date.

Miscellaneous / Random Musings

Random Musings – Xenosaga III Demo Edition

I just finished playing through the Xenosaga Episode III: Also Sprach Zarathustra Demo. Thoughts about it:
-It covers one area and takes about 30 minutes to finish.
-Everything is on foot, meaning that there are no E.S. battles in the demo.
-There are the FMV-style widescreen cutscenes and then there are the talking heads-style cutscenes, akin to something you’d see in a visual novel or dating sim. The image I linked is not in the demo, it’s just an example.
-The playable characters are Shion, Miyuki, Caan, KOS-MOS, Jin, and Momo. They start at levels 4, 4, 5, 5, 5, and 4, respectively. HP/EP are 297/99, 256/95, 472/94, 516/88, 540/94, 252/105, respectively. Those Ether Point numbers seem a bit high to me, so I assume they boosted them for the demo. By the end of it, my characters were about level 8.
-Characters gain exp even if they aren’t in the active battle group. It appears that they were getting 80% the experience points.
-The only Ethers they start you off with is Medica S (4 EP), which only Miyuki and Momo have. You find various other Ethers during the level.
-Outside of battle, the square button is still used to destroy obstacles and objects.
-In battle options include: Attack, Arts, Ether, Item, Finishing Technique, Defend, Change, and Escape. Arts are special attacks that require Ether Points. Finishing Technique requires Two Boost Bars.
-The stock system is gone. The boost system is still in place. In general, I’m not a big fan of the new battle system because they took out the event slot system. I can see the battles becoming mundane really quick.
-In the demo, you encounter Segment Address No. 8, but you don’t have the key to open it.
-There is no save point in the demo.
-The boss at the end is kind of hard – it had a lot more HP than I had anticipated. It also did an attack that was ~250 dmg to all.
-The sound of Shion’s shoes is really loud and is probably the most annoying part of the demo. You change her out and make Momo, KOS-MOS, or Jin the party leader. I found that the sounds of Jin and Momo running to to be the least annoying. Miyuki and Caan cannot be party leader.
-On the other hand, the transition to and from battle is VERY smooth. I was very impressed by this.
-Miyuki is one of my new favorite characters.
-After finishing the demo, there is a long trailer for the game (one that I had not seen before). It’s pretty cool.
-The above images are courtesy of IGN, but are scenes/battles/enemies I saw in the demo. Jr. was NOT in the demo.