Sarge (GSQ5: Angel Land …): Nice to see that someone … Refa (Ys Seven is prett…): Oath In Felghana and Orig… Pharmd589 (So... it looks li…): Very nice site! Pharmb313 (So... it looks li…): Hello! egdfbef interestin… wogg (Ys Seven is prett…): oh man, super happy that … Dr. Sparkle (GSQ5: Angel Land …): Hmmmm... Kid Icarus is a… Red Hedgehog (GSQ5: Angel Land …): Alex B and I are the pres… Nicola Nomali (GSQ5: Angel Land …): I can only hope to see th… Refa (GSQ5: Angel Land …): Wow, this totally makes K… Nobbyworks (The problem with …): Damnit, someone beat me t…
This is the archive, folks. The current stuff is on the main page.
GSQ4: Taisen sphere
29 April 10 | 20:55 | Posted by:
Super Robot Taisen: For the Love of Giant Robots
Do you like robots? Really big robots, possibly built with a creamy human filling? Of course, technically a robot isn't really a robot when it lacks autonomous functions and requires a pilot, but you try pointing out that distinction to a dude whose "robot" is a few kilometers tall and has aircraft carriers for arms. Yeah, not feeling so brave now, are you, Mr. Nitpicker? Typical.
This morning on the train I started re-editing the contents of Year One, Vol. 2 in earnest. And then I got carried away. Since there's so much material surrounding Mega Man, Metroid, and Metal Gear (apparently we really dig the letter M?), I decided to create something akin to "complete" packages for each series. I've dug up old, old (as in, "toastyfrog.simplenet.com" old) reviews of games like Mega Man 8, forgotten reviews of Metroid Prime and Super Metroid from when the former was new, and even some never-before-published Battle Network content from the version of ToastyFrog Zine 6 that I threw out before starting on the version of the magazine that I also ended up throwing out until it was salvaged for Year One, Vol. 1.
Wading through all of this pre-1UP material has been sort of invigorating, much to my surprise. There's very little of it that I look back on and think, "Ugh, this is dreadful." The style is a bit different than how I write now -- it far more likely to ramble off onto pointless tangents, whereas I tend to get to the point more quickly these days -- but it's still some solid writing. For some reason I always look back and think of my younger self as some kind of mealy-mouthed nitwit with no discipline, so it's heartening to learn that wasn't really the case. Younger me's main shortcoming was a fairly myopic perspective on gaming, something that I am constantly struggling to overcome... though given how little free time I have for such explorations, I'm not making quite so much progress in that regard as I would prefer.
The point of all of this is... um, I guess that it's "book crunch time" for me at the moment. As happens every three months, I'm pretty much immersed in editing, layouts, and production. The end result should be worthwhile, though. I'm very happy to think that poor, lonely Year One, Vol. 1 will soon have a companion volume on the shelves to keep it company. And, ideally, the one-volume Year Two and (the likely two-volume) Year Zero (feature content predating the advent of the GameSpite collective) will be along in more rapid succession than the volume I'm currently working on.
Next up, though, will be Quarterly 5, which is going to be so good I feel a little faint just thinking about it. This is not hyperbole! It may be low blood sugar, though.
Or rather, once more into the forest. Labyrinth. Which is surrounded by oceans and therefore adjacent to a beach. I guess what I'm saying here is that I've previewed Etrian Odyssey III, and that's great. Incidentally, I asked an Atlus rep when the game would be coming to the U.S. He responded by punching me in the face, shouting, "That was for 3D Dot Game Heroes, jerk!"
In one of those crazy bits of timing, I also submitted the second subscriber bonus book for proofing. This is exciting, maybe!
The thing I hate most about being buried in work I don't really enjoy is... well, there are a lot of things I hate. But I really detest not being able to spend more time poking around the web and in books in search of interesting oddities from videogame history. So you'll have to forgive me for the fact that I keep getting distracted in my quest today to put the wraps on the new bonus subscriber book (which I'll be sending out for proofs tonight) in order to make quick, furtive outings into sites I haven't had time to visit in ages. One such site is Chris Covell's page of random Famicom-related scans, where I discovered this interesting little artifact:
Looks like Enix was originally intending to give Dragon Warrior a logo more in line with the Japanese version rather than the bland, generic script they ultimately went with. I couldn't begin to explain the change (storage concerns? Fear that Americans would be turned off by something even vaguely cartoonish?), but I like this rendition -- especially the use of the modified goddess crest for the W. It's kind of interesting that the series goes under its original title in the U.S. now, but aside from the Game Boy Color remakes, Square Enix still doesn't use the actual logo on the games' packaging.
(Mostly, though, this reminds me how antsy I am to play Dragon Quest IX in English already.)
I can't really argue that the Star Wars trilogy jumped the shark with the prequel trilogies, but at least it Darth Vader overcame Lucas' best efforts to undermine the greatness of his character. If you gotta jump the shark, at least you should own the shark.
Sure, Darth Vader may be a whiny doofus now, but Shark Vader is pretty great.
After two and a half months of laying fallow, BakeSpite has seen no less than six posts today. Apparently Cat was just waiting for me to write something, at which point she pounced. So, if you like seeing amateur writing and professional photography involving food, I guess today is your lucky day.
In considerably less happy news, my suspicions about that bus accident yesterday were tragically accurate. Worse, there was a second MUNI fatality in as many days as someone fell onto the train tracks tonight. I'm feeling fairly concerned about my status as an active pedestrian in this city; it's starting to feel like L.A. around here, or something.
Walking to pick up lunch today, I came across a section of Mission Street -- an entire block! -- that had been completely shut down, cordoned off with police tape. All eyes were on a bus that was being hooked up to a sizable tow truck, and I couldn't help but notice that the bus had a massive, circular, spider-web of a crack on the driver's windshield... exactly at the height and shape one would expect to see if a pedestrian's head had struck the windshield at high speeds (or more likely the opposite). All in all, it was pretty unsettling.
Hours later, I came home and hopped on the elliptical machine for a workout. The next video on my Netflix queue, ever my loyal exercise companion? The episode of Lost featuring the flashback in which Juliette's ex-husband is struck by a bus at high speeds.
So that was kind of weird.
Anyway! That unpleasant coincidence aside, today was pretty nice. I've been really frustrated at work lately, because all my boring managerial duties and time-consuming podcasting responsibilities have done a serious number on how much time I'm able to spend writing, i.e. what I most enjoy about my job. Imagine my delight when, after a month of two of literary drought, I had three big articles dominating the site today. It was almost like I'm a real writer again. Hoorah!
I will celebrate by linking to them. So that you, too, may become angry about my opinions, reporting, and compiling of other people's thoughts.
Halo: Reach preview: I never particularly cared for Halo multiplayer until ODST's great cooperative modes. Therefore the greatest praise I can offer to Reach is that as I was drafting this article yesterday, I kept thinking, "Man, I really wish I were playing Reach multiplayer right now."
3D Dot Game Heroes review: Remember, in review terms, a "good" rating and a clear statement of personal enjoyment is secret code for "this game is complete garbage and you are stupid for owning a PlayStation 3."
Amidst all of that, I did still have time to die anticlimactically to the first boss of a game that no one had played for 20 years. So that was pretty special.
Incidentally, once GameSpite Year One, Vol. 2 is finished, the next episode of GameSpite Quarterly will feature a completely awesome article on Bio Force Ape. Among other things! It's gonna be rad.
Chrono Cross: Star-Crossed
I'm sure some hysterical zealot over at the Chrono fansites will flip out about this article, because while it's ultimately about how awesome Chrono Cross is, it is occasionally critical. And as every good fanboy knows, loving a game is an all-or-nothing proposition. Admitting that the games you like have flaws is like giving up the battle before you even take up arms! Blah, blah, blah.
I caught my first-ever "legendary" pokémon the other day, which has turned out to be rather less amazing than I expected. However, the fact that my pre-teen trainer Yukiko is carrying around what is tantamount to a god in a gatchapon ball on her belt raises some alarming questions, such as: Isn't it kind of a problem that my pre-teen trainer Yukiko is carrying around what is tantamount to a god in a gatchapon ball on her belt!?
I know, I know. Repeat to myself, "It's just a show game, I should really just relax." I'm probably just too accustomed to the Judeo-Christian monotheistic tradition and figure that just because something is a god it's, like, all-powerful and probably has better things to do than cockfight for ambitious children. Pokémon did originate in Japan, after all, a place where the "gods" of tradition tended to be more akin to animistic spirits. And if Greeks heroes could diddle goddesses, I suppose there's no reason that some little upstart punk couldn't impose on the guardian spirit of Johto's skies the need to spend a slice of eternity in Box 9 of Someone's PC.
The way the whole showdown with Ho-Oh played out was undeniably, intrinsically Japanese in character, though: Surrounded by a bunch of kimono-clad women, the nobility of my character's spirit summoned the mighty beast from the pages of obscurity and into reality, at which point I beat it into submission. "Wow, you're really great!" said the ladies. "You had the purity of heart to summon this force of nature! And then you completely enslaved it, as is only proper."
I would really love for Nintendo to convince Hayao Miyazaki to direct the next Pokémon flick. I feel like he might have some interesting things to say about it.
Hey, I think I am finally getting the hang of this finger painting thing. The quality of my work is almost as mediocre as it is with more traditional media now, rather than simply being downright awful. The iPad still has some weird quirks, though, like the way it auto-corrects "simply" to be "simony." If my blog posts randomly slip into Catholic dogma, I swear it's not my fault.
And this will be the last Pokémon doodle, swear on my pen-pal's pancakes. I've just taken an interest to the franchise lately, and not even particularly because of the games themselves. Sure, HeartGold is well-made and scratches a certain compulsive itch, but it really isn't incredibly different from the last who-knows-how-many iterations of the series, and I don't expect the upcoming Black & White generation will change much, either. Game Freak sort of painted itself into a corner by including the entirety of the first-generation world and bestiary in Gold & Silver, because now incorporating all brazillion* existing critters into each new chapter along with all their extant moves in addition to a bunch of newcomers is simply expected of them. I suspect the next gen derives its titles from the fact that the sheer weight of each game's content will cause them to collapse into a black hole or a white dwarf, destroying the very fabric of the universe's free time in a tragedy of cosmic proportions.
No, what I find truly interesting about Pokémon is the culture surrounding it. I spend more time reading forum threads about the games than I do actually playing them, because they've developed an amazing fan culture.
Back when I was in college, lo those many millions of years ago, I was wandering with a friend through the aisles of Toys R Us, mainly because there wasn't much else for a tea-totaling, non-football-loving person to do in a small West Texas city on a weekend. Eventually I stumbled upon a sad little corner of G.I. Joe figures, all ignored and dilapidated in their horrible neon packages and bizarre Street Fighter/Jurassic Park tie-in sub-lines. Across the aisle was a vast number of Power Ranger toys, flooding the shelves and clearly selling at a much faster clip than the Joe toys based on the relative levels of dust on each. It was a moment of revelation for me as I realized the stuff I grew up knowing and liking was completely irrelevant to an entire generation of kids. To them, all the toy tie-in cartoons I watched after school were about as interesting as Howdy-Doody or Soupy Sales had been to me.
Fortunately I had enough of a sense of perspective back then not to feel old about all of this. I mean, I was still in college. Rather, my curiosity was piqued. Eventually, I reasoned, the kids who grew up watching Power Rangers and such would be adults, and they'd look back on the media of their childhood with the same fondness as I regarded the Joe comics I'd read as a kid. But Power Rangers seemed so asinine relative to the better days of Larry Hama (who, P.S., is awesome); would the next generation of humans really have nostalgic fondness for this stuff?
In Pokémon, I have my answer. Of course childhood nostalgia is a powerful force for our self-absorbed society; I was simply looking to the wrong catalyst. I don't doubt there are kids who pine for Power Rangers, but I suspect they're seen by their peers the same way people my age regard guys who swear Thun-Darr the Barbarian was a work of sublime genius. No, the true motive force for nostalgia for the fledgeling nerd-adults currently finishing college or muddling away at their first jobs is Pokémon. Which, I have to say, gives me a little more faith in you guys.
HeartGold and SoulSilver seem to have kindled that spark of nostalgia among people who counted the original Game Boy versions among their first videogame experiences, and understandably so. Pokémon as a game -- disregarding all the ancillary material, none of which seems particularly worthwhile -- was a dense creation, a tiny Game Boy cartridge crammed to bursting with creatures and content. And there was a fascinating streak of darkness about it all, like the creature Parasect, which looks like a hermit crab but actually is a zombie insect being controlled by the shell-like mushroom on its back. Grim!
Pokémon was crammed so full of content, in fact, that it was incredibly glitchy, resulting in hidden treasures like Mewtwo and terrible mistakes like MISSINGNO. That unique combination of refined gameplay, rich in-game lore, and a profusion of glitches that toed the line between deliberate secret and borderline disaster was a fertile playground for young imaginations.
Of course, I missed out on all of that at the time. So it's been fascinating to read forum threads in which I see other people's shared childhood experiences refracted through the lens of adulthood -- a small window into what life might have been like if I'd shown up a decade later than I did. And, also, a lucid insight into what has ultimately proven to be a pretty fascinating videogame creation, despite my first impressions.
* A brazillion is a complex number. It is the numeral one followed by a number of zeroes identical to the current population of Brazil.
Star Ocean The Last Hope: The Lost Hope
I have tried so hard over the years to like the Star Ocean games, and at every turn I am painfully thwarted by the fact that I completely freaking hate everything about them. I kind of hate tri-Ace games in general, to be honest, despite my best efforts. At least after reading this article I don't feel quite so much like I'm missing out on something as a result.
I think I am slowly, slowly finding my virtual finger painting mojo. But man, I would kill for a good stylus.
It seems that drawing inappropriate Pokémon pictures on public transit has become the raison d'ętre for this here iPad thing, and so I present to you my latest, um, masterpiece. Fortunately I had an empty row on the plane last night, so no one called an air marshal on me for this one.
The interesting thing about these games is just how open they are to different approaches. For instance, my ATB collaborator Kat mainly sees Pokémon as a vehicle for proving her superiority by humbling others in combat. Others live to catalog the utter minutiae of the franchise, or to break the games as brutally as possible through ruthless exploitation of programming oversights. And myself? I just like collecting. I don't collect games anymore, but no one said I couldn't collect things within games.
These are the loopholes by which we live our lives.
A little while ago I caught the infamous Ditto, a fairly worthless little creature that I named Limbaugh. Because it is a fat blob called "Ditto," you see. The one interesting thing about Ditto, of course, is that it transcends mere polyamory and will happily procreate with very nearly any creature you send it to the Route 34 day care center with. I'm not sure how the other creatures feel about that, but if they want to complain I am afraid they'll need to learn to express themselves more effectively than by simply repeating their own names over and over again. So now I have an army of valuable trade fodder for the GTS, all named appropriately (i.e., a Chikorita named "Swap Thing"). I'm gonna fill that index, or at least die lose interest trying.
Of course, pokémon don't have to use Ditto for reproduction, but at this point I can't remember which critters were caught and which were spawned by an overly friendly purple blob, and I don't want to run the risk of pairing a beastie with it's own parent. You gotta have some standards here, folks.
GSQ4: Final Fantasy XI and the horrible, awful, no-good pun title
13 April 10 | 10:11 | Posted by:
Final Fantasy XI: A Linkshell to the Past
OK, now I cop to the fact that the vast majority of article titles in GameSpite Quarterly 4 are in fact terrible puns, and that this is my own fault. But what I have inflicted upon this poor article is utterly reprehensible, and I apologize deeply. Please do not hold my poor judgment against this article, which is in fact quite good despite the grim burden with which I have afflicted it.
I took a week off from HeartGold so I could try out the import version of Etrian Odyssey III. What I discovered in that time is that EOIII is different from the first two games, though similar enough that I can really do some damage to myself through cockiness. So, now I'm back to HeartGold to wait for a version of EOIII in which I better understand how to make proper use of the enigmatic skills of the Pirate and Farmer classes; the import version will be kept in reserve here at the office in the unsavory event that Atlus decides to defy logic and money and not bring it to the U.S.
As for HeartGold, I'm very nearly through the "main" game, needing only to slog through a ridiculous last-minute instance of being jerked around by game logic before I can claim that eighth badge. I've decided to let my compulsion for collection shine through by pursing as large a collection of critters as possible. This aim has been greatly abetted by the advent of the Pokéwalker, which has saved me a tremendous amount of effort in acquiring pocket monsters; all I need to do is walk around town and press a few buttons and, hey, new entries in my bestiary. Since I walk a lot anyway, this is hardly what you'd call a terrible onus.
The downside to this, unfortunately, is that my PC boxes are crammed full of completely useless extra pokémon I've accumulated in this manner. For every rare Kangaskhan to wander into my sights, I have about a dozen Ghastlies. I suppose I could just let them go, but that seems to fly counter to the entire purpose of the series, which is a naked celebration of acquisitive materialism. Simply abandoning a possession, even a needless one that I came to own with nearly zero effort on my part, is anathema to the Pokémon spirit. It's a shame the series is so darned sanitary and kid-friendly. I'd love to be able to turn my extra monsters into items -- toss 'em through the meat grinder to concoct a delicious pokésnack, for instance.
I guess I'll settle for putting them up for grabs on the Global Trade Station to be traded by some bored Japanese kid eager to fill his game with the American equivalents of his beloved creatures. You may scoff, but some dude gave me their high-level Japanese Dragonite in return for one of my surplus captives, which went a long way toward easing the annoyance factor of that last gym. God bless people who are even more obsessive-compulsive than I am.
You'll have to pardon the jankiness of the image below, here. I am still trying to sort out this whole iPad thing, and, I dunno, fingerpainting is a little tougher than I expected. Anyway.
Last night I happened to catch the "Best of Both Worlds" two-parter episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation and it caught me by surprise. I haven't seen an episode of TNG in quite a while, and I didn't realize just how very '80s the visual design was. Late '80s, sure, but definitely of its time, in retrospect. It seemed so futuristic back in the day, but now all I can see is feathered hair and terrible pastel color schemes. TNG looks as dated today as the original series looked when TNG debuted. And that is weird and alarming and makes me feel very old.
I mentioned as much on Twitter, which elicited a curious batch of responses: Everyone assumed I was talking about the visual effects and went to bat to defend the model work. The model work is fine, though! A nicely-shot miniature will always look more convincing and more alive than a CG rendering, and that's certainly the case with TNG. Some of the other visual effects were pretty iffy, like the way the attack on the Borg cube appeared to have been executed entirely with 4th of July sparklers, but the little tiny fake ships, at least, were really quite nice.
No, the ships were fine. The people, though... they were somewhat less than fine. Even disregarding some of the more egregiously terrible wardrobe decisions, like anything ever worn on-set by Marina Sirtis, TNG has a datedly flat and distressingly out-of-date visual aesthetic that places it firmly in the realm of late '80s/early '90s TV design, just as Captain Kirk and his ship full of ultra-saturated primary colors and silly triangular sideburns (and, yes, all those analog knobs) place his exploits smack-dab in the '60s. And no doubt modern Trek will prove to have its own contemporary quirks that'll make it look perfectly dated 25 years down the line.
That rainbow tunic of Wesley Crusher's, though? That'll never go out of style.
Hey dudes, remember me? In better days, I update this site. Normally on a daily basis! But I'm kind of taking the week off. I hope you'll indulge me.
See, about a year ago, my fiancée and I decided that we should totally get married on April 10, 2010. This plan was in effect right up until sometime last September, at which point she became incredibly ill while working on the road and was let go from her job since her photography is physically demanding and requires someone in perfect health. Her employer was not the understanding sort, and since she was simply a contractor there wasn't much she could do about it.
The last six months have been pretty tough for us, because I've been working just about every waking moment in order to support us; San Francisco, you see, is a very expensive place for two people to live on one person's gaming press salary. Expensive enough that we had to postpone the wedding indefinitely, until such a time as she can find another job and we can dig ourselves out of the hole that we're currently in.
Cheerful story, huh? Anyway, under happier circumstances I'd be getting married in a few days. Under real-world circumstances, I'm not. But my family had already bought tickets to San Francisco for this week, so I decided to take the week off from work and hang out with them so as not to stew in my sense of frustration. Normal updates will resume next week, when I am feeling less bitter about life.
My nephew, who is six and thinks video games are completely rad (although I had to explain the meaning of the word "rad" to him today) has long labored under the belief that I create video games rather than simply write about them. I've never had the heart to let him know that I am a mere media parasite, in part because he has no idea what in the world it means to be a media parasite.
Anyway, he's in town today with the rest of his family, and he has decided to finally begin pressing the issue. He's been asking me to create a game for him for a couple of years now, and he simply won't take "I don't think I can" for an answer. This afternoon he wanted to know when I'm finally going to make his game.
"What is this game you want to make?" I asked.
"Um," he said, scarcely believing his good luck that maybe I was finally going to begin assembling his dream creation for him. "It's... you have an arrow, that's a rocket ship. And you have to shoot meteors. They come from the side."
I could be mistaken, but I'm fairly certain that a game like this is easily within the realm of possibility in WarioWare DIY. We'll give it a go tomorrow, and if it works out, that means Nintendo will have made me into a superhero in the eyes of at least one human being. You'd think they'd include that as a bullet point on the package.
The noble members of El Spite have returned to battle the labyrinthine forests of Etria -- and, also, the Japanese language. They're learning new skills and specializations along the way. Yukiko trained hard as a Protector, but now she's become a Phalanx: A similar role to be sure, but one focused on the art of spear-wielding and plotting defensive formations. Rose has taken up a more drastic change. Formerly a Gunner, she's abandoned arms altogether to become a Monk, retaining her role as a team powerhouse, but now doing it from the frontlines... with her fists. And also healing her comrades as needed. Toasty remains the feeble weakling; though no longer a Medic, his new role as Farmer mostly seems to involve him trying to put enemies to sleep only to have it backfire, leaving him useless and vulnerable. Perseph moves from Alchemy to the similar mystical artistry of the Zodiac class, dealing elemental damage to all. And Miaow sees the biggest change of all, forsaking the Hexer way, affecting a tan and some snazzier hair color, and specializing in the crossbow equivalent of a squad assault weapon as a Ballista.
(The rest of guild El Spite is deeply disappointed with Miaow, because they had translated バリスタ as "Barista" and were looking forward to delicious coffee to keep them caffeinated during those long nights of dungeon-diving.)
Yes, that's right. I've maintained the same guild members across three different Etrian Odyssey games now. You want to make something of it? I like these guys! We've been through a lot together.
Speaking of Etrian Odyssey... the GameSpite bonus book is still in the works, but it's run into a slight snag. Namely, my attempts to create a comic were really terrible. So I will whip together a replacement feature in its stead and have that wrapped by the end of the month. Also by the end of the month, I hope to have GameSpite Year One, Vol. 2 submitted for press proofing. Editing is well underway! GameSpite Quarterly 5 will probably be delayed a month or two as a result, but people keep asking for Vol. 2... and I would like to have its weight off my shoulders in any case. Please look forward to more details. Extra content for Vol. 2 will include a couple of all-new articles by me, as well as some long-lost (but formerly very popular) articles dredged from the corners of my hard drive....
I really appreciate that the members of Talking Time got together this year and decided to make a concerted effort to ensure April 1 would not be a complete travesty. In fact, it is quite the opposite thanks to the debut of no less than three different promising NES-era Let's Play efforts. As they say in Weekly Famitsu promo banners from 1984, エキサイチングだぜ！！
Of course, there are many other Let's Play efforts underway. These three simply represent a concentrated dose of mind-blowing radness.
In other awesome news, I learned today that Yasumi Matsuno has a Twitter account. Of course, I can only read little snippets of what he writes, but a whole bunch of his posts obviously concern Queen. So, yeah, that's kind of great.
Super Robot Taisen: For the Love of Giant Robots
Chrono Cross: Star-Crossed
I know, I know. Repeat to myself, "It's just a 
Star Ocean The Last Hope: The Lost Hope
Final Fantasy XI: A Linkshell to the Past
As for HeartGold, I'm very nearly through the "main" game, needing only to slog through a ridiculous last-minute instance of being jerked around by game logic before I can claim that eighth badge. I've decided to let my compulsion for collection shine through by pursing as large a collection of critters as possible. This aim has been greatly abetted by the advent of the Pokéwalker, which has saved me a tremendous amount of effort in acquiring pocket monsters; all I need to do is walk around town and press a few buttons and, hey, new entries in my bestiary. Since I walk a lot anyway, this is hardly what you'd call a terrible onus.
The noble members of El Spite have returned to battle the labyrinthine forests of Etria -- and, also, the Japanese language. They're learning new skills and specializations along the way. Yukiko trained hard as a Protector, but now she's become a Phalanx: A similar role to be sure, but one focused on the art of spear-wielding and plotting defensive formations. Rose has taken up a more drastic change. Formerly a Gunner, she's abandoned arms altogether to become a Monk, retaining her role as a team powerhouse, but now doing it from the frontlines... with her fists. And also healing her comrades as needed. Toasty remains the feeble weakling; though no longer a Medic, his new role as Farmer mostly seems to involve him trying to put enemies to sleep only to have it backfire, leaving him useless and vulnerable. Perseph moves from Alchemy to the similar mystical artistry of the Zodiac class, dealing elemental damage to all. And Miaow sees the biggest change of all, forsaking the Hexer way, affecting a tan and some snazzier hair color, and specializing in the crossbow equivalent of a squad assault weapon as a Ballista.