- Brad

The Oracle, Brad Lohr - October '99- 01:00 PDT

SEVEN!.. Yes. Seven! Seven's a cool number. I've been fixated with it recently. Anyways, it's actually right now 8am.. only about 5 hours after I finished last night's column.. and I'm up again. Feelin' okay though. And had some spare time before I took off to school, so I checked my mail, saw some stuff worth doin'.. and well, I'm writin' the column early. You won't see it of course, until later this evening.. but anyways, I'm writing it in at least 2 parts. I don't think I'm going to get finished in 15 minutes ;)

And now... nearly 16 hours later in the day.. (wow, for you, time flew, but I've done a lot today!..) I'm semi-coherent. I'm here. I'm answering questions. I'm not falling asleep until I finish this time.. promise!

.. Oh yeah. Don't forget to send in Fanart-based questions. TODAY. I do Thursday's column Wednesday night.. so if you don't get them in soonlike, well, then you may never get your chance to talk with Aimo, or our very own artiste especiale... Lorelai. Lore will be around to answer questions, Aimo will be around to answer questions, I'll make fun of you guys, you make fun of me, they'll sit back and watch. Well, they might answer questions too.. but only if you send them in.

*proffers column*

Yo Oracle,

I'm playing Star Ocean 2, and I've been beaten countless times by the final boss. I can hurt him while he is alone, but when he joins with that angel, it's only a matter of seconds until he kicks my butt... Do you know how to defeat him ?

Luiz Carlos Buiatte

Brad:
Now this is a good question. 'Why?' You ask. Well, to start out with, it's not FF8. *cheer*. I mean, I know you all are playing FF8.. but come on.. expand thyself. Not to mention the fact that FF8 had a trifiling amount of difficulty compared to SO2. Therefore there is much less shame in asking for help. Especially on Indalecio. He's one tough mo-fo. I'm sure other people will have other strategies on taking him out, but I was killed many times by the exact same thing you are suffering from. I went through the first 9 wise men like buttah. Like BUTTAH. No sweat, tore them down like they was laundry on a line. Then I get to Indalecio, and go "Hah-ha!" .. and he killed me.

FAST.

I stood there afterwards and went. "Oh. Ouch". Proceeded to try and take him out probably 7 or 8 times with no luck. So I did what any real gamer would do.

I cheated.

Not really cheating, since it's totally in the game.. but I still feel dirty for it. I used the jewelry making skill, I'm pretty sure you use Claude and some Crystal. If you don't have Claude's Metalwork up to the max, you might want to spend some time doing so. Next, start bangin' out Crystal into Jewelry while Orchestra is playing. Every once in a while (I'm pretty sure I got 4 within the first 20 crystals I wasted ..'enhanced' .. ) you get this ring. A ring that takes magic damage, and instead of going "ow", you go "thanks". Because it heals you when you get hit with magic. ANY magic. Well, maybe not 'any' magic, but a darn good portion of the nastiest stuff that he throws at you. I beat him within a couple minutes after that. Also, putting Bunny Shoes on anyone with a serious attack is very helpful. (Need more Bunny Shoes? get a couple million G (come on, it's not that hard.. publishing, publishing!) and go to the Bunny Races. Instead of trying to pick the bunny that will win, bet for Bunny Shoes (or whatever item you want). Probably one out of 8 times, the Bunny for a rare item comes in, if you just keep betting for the item you want. I've earned 3 or 4 pair of Bunny Shoes this way.) (See new Star Ocean Screens, I took a screenshot of it when I did it.)

I have a fairly embarrassing problem... well, I went and bought FF Tactics when it first came out, and all was good. Until I got to the execution site battle, that is. Y'know how long ago FFT came out? Well, I still haven't beaten it. Got frustrated, put it aside, gave it to some guy to play, he couldn't beat it either... so, in all your gaming wisdom, could you give me the key to beating this battle before I beat up my PSX? (bad idea, I know.) I probably have to change jobs on people, sigh... which ones do I need? (has the feeling she'll probably have to just start the game over)

Oh yes, is there any way to get back out to the world map once you're in Ultimecia's castle? I went in and beat all the bosses, yada ya, but quickly died in the final battle cause the stupid angels kept taking my good people with the +80 HP GFs on em before I could revive em. I suppose I can't go back and get Eden now... I figure I should also stock up on more magic for everyone, but that castle is getting on my nerves. Oh well.

Thankee for any help you can give!

Amanda

Brad:
Well, it's been a while since I played FFT, but I remember the battle. Not a fun one. So I refer to our resident FFT master, Ryan Amos, to give you guidance. He wrote a very nice guide through FFT, and the page that corresponds to your problem is here. Have a look at that, and always remember. Choose your ground, keep your sides covered, and let them advance to you. Then tromp them as they get inside/near your lines. Works better in Tactics Ogre when you've got 10 people instead of a paltry 5, however. :)

-Rydel

Brad:
I haven't heard of this before this letter.. anyone have any more info on this? Sounds interesting, but does the pocketstation have an IR port or something? Who knows. All I know is that I can do that kind of stuff with my Palm IIIx. ;) .. not that I know how to operate a television anyways. I can work the one in my room.. but I never watch TV. Ever. .. so I can't for the life of me work the one in the living room. Durned complicated things.

2. Stop whining about writing CGI you pansy! I spend 60 hours a week writing perl/CGI code. Welcome to the wonderful world of programming.

Later.
Todd

Brad:
I dunno, I've had a lot more floppies go bad than MemCards.. but I guess the point is you can save the stuff on your hard drive.. so go buy the thing, kids. It's good for you. .. As for my 'pansy' CGI whining..well, well, uh, well, I don't just do CGI stuff.. well, mostly that at work now. For a good 10 hrs a day, nowadays.. but I also take 15 units at school, and work RPGamer late at night while you're off partying or .. something yeah. :/ No you're not. You're a gamer geek! You don't party.. you play Tactics Ogre until the wee hours of dawn... damn. I wish I could play Tactics Ogre till the wee hours of dawn.... who'd want to party instead of that?.. bah!

Brad:
Eeesh.. "I want it and I want it now!" pretty princess syndrome, pretty princess syndrome! .. I would REALLY not expect to ever see FF1-4 hitting U.S. shores. Not only would they have to translate 3 of those games, (they never liked the translation on 4 that was done..)... but well, those are old games. The graphics aren't "way cool".. and probably not enough to keep the newer audiences buying. But then, they said we'd never see 5 on U.S. shores either... you never know.

Spank

Brad:
I personally really like Grande Finale. If it had "Cyan" (the Doma town music).. I'd pay like $40 for it. I love that piece. But it's got some really good stuff on it, and the orchestration is absolutely wonderful. If you liked FF6's music, you will love Grande Finale. Very worth the buy.

Unfortunately, I missed most of the Playstation RPG's, except Beyond the Beyond.

And I was wondering, could I play Suikoden 2 without playing Suikoden, and understand it? Cause, I don't want to miss Suikoden 2, but I can't find Suikoden anywhere.

Moogle of Death

Brad:
Heh.. well, the fact is, I think you get more out of Suikoden 2 after playing the first one, but there isn't anything huge that you just won't understand vast portions of the game due to lack of knowledge about the first one. They stand apart, but you will get a little more fun out of 2 if you've played 1 all the way through.

-The Fugue

Brad:
OoOh, I want to be the Toccatta... nevermind. Anyways, if you're just going after the FMVs, and you're perfectly happy with the ROMs, well, I'd say save your money and grab something else. They just aren't THAT special. And there's only like 5 total on the CD. If you're a collector, or if you just want to play 5/6 on the console, and not on a keyboard.. well, grab it. Otherwise, don't waste your money, and then after wasting your money, pollute my mailbox about how disappointed you are. You've all been warned ;)

Dude,

I have a question about FF8 (suprising? hardly)

I'm on disc 3 and when I try to get Bahamut in the Under Sea Research place, and make it to the core I have to answer questions. After the second question, he asks if I beg for mercy, and when I say never (which my friend told me was the correct answer) I get attacked by another Ruby Dragon, but it is always a back attack even when I use the alert ability and it uses breath right away, and to my backs it always does 9,999 and I just can't survive. Am I too high on levels and it's super powerful? Or do I need to do something specific before I fight it?

Help, help, give answer. I'll send ya a whole case of orange soda if ya do. How's that sound?

Tlorrel Silverwind

Brad:
The first thing you are asked, you choose choice 1, (I'm pretty sure on most of this..).. the 2nd, choose 2. And on the 3rd, choose 3. You say, "But there's only 2!", well, try going down again. Sneaky Squaresoft monkeys, hiding Bahamut like that. And trust me, the 'king' of dragons is NOTHING compared to those lv100 ruby goons... ..those things piss me off. NOW GIMMIE ORANGE SODA

Hey, I love a fellow bishounen, but that one was goin' a bit far.

~Bishounen Zach~

Brad:
... I never knew! Underneat that boyish haircut.. Templton is a GIRL!? .. how.. .. odd. :o Kinda explains the whole boo-hoo someone burned down a forest syndrome.. but.. on the other hand.. yikes. Anyway.