Tell me now or lose a fan...

[Flibbo]

what i find sad is that he threatens us with "...or lose a fan"
...i think lun can deal with that

[itsdave693]

MAN you guys are harsh. The poor guy just asked a question.

Okay, well maybe he sorta gave The Way an ultimatum. I'm sure Lun appreciates feedback. I'm not gonna quit playing the series if I see another endless blitzkrieg of identical troops of enemies, but it is something I thought could have been done more creatively. If perhaps, the Blood Lyn (or any of the other human factions) had their combatants divided by function (e.g. healer, condition-enflicting-guy, etc.) rather than rank, and enemy parties were comprised of different combinations of them, you would have to change your strategy depending on which you're up against. Having them use certain moves only when certain others are present would require an additional level of strategy. After all, aren't the Blood Lyn supposed to have a Blood Brother/Sister thing going on? Aren't they supposed to complement & complete each other?

I know that The Way's focus is on plot and setting (which were absolutely superb, by the way), not the fighting. However, it's not THAT hard to work the plot and setting into battles. One of the things that draws me to the series the most is the incredible atmosphere of the entirely original world Lun has created. The story that takes place within it is awe-inspiringly consistent with the culture and mythology of the Wanderers. If the battles were made to this standard as well, the game would be *perfect*.

Then again, Lun isn't getting paid (until Square-Enix offers him a Ferrari and a mansion to do a state-of-the-art console port), and none of us have any real bargaining power. So I'll quit nitpicking.

[Parhelion]

It didn't bother me. It's one of the only areas where you fight the same enemy type over and over again, so looking at whole series it kind of changes things up a bit. Besides, with Hurricane Cut each battle only takes a few rounds anyways.

If I could make just one minor suggestion for the next revision of the game, it would to implement some sort of system so that the next time that cocksucker tries to load The Way his monitor explodes and it burns off all of his hair. Fucking n00b.

Edit: I think thats possible in RMXP, by the way.

[Impossible]

It's true that the enemies in the Way get very repetitive and strategies never change, but this guy couldn't even BEAT the enemies, and The Way is really easy.

[Impossible]

If I could make just one minor suggestion for the next revision of the game, it would to implement some sort of system so that the next time that cocksucker tries to load The Way his monitor explodes and it burns off all of his hair. Fucking n00b.

Edit: I think thats possible in RMXP, by the way.

DAMN YOU PHPBB! WHY MUST YOU PREVENT ME FROM SIGGING AWESOMENESS FOR A MERE CHARACTER LIMIT?!

[LunC]

The Way could certainly have better battles, but as some here have already ascertained, the majority of my efforts go into other areas.

I try to error more on the "too easy" side as far as battles go, but some still have trouble it seems.

If you like, send your save game as an attachment to lun@crestfallen.us and I will solve all your battle problems for you.

Later on I am planning on giving players the option of playing the game via "Story Mode" which will eliminate most battles and make others extremely easy.

Lun

[Impossible]

If I get really sick of the battles, I just turn on the Skip Battles Debug for a few minutes. I always do every story-related battle... Story Mode definitely sounds like a good idea.

I also think there should be a Hard Mode, for the people that get every notch item and get really sick of easy boring repetetive battles. The most common "challenge" in battles is caused by cheap status effects. It just reminds me why I hate Final Fantasy, which just has **** gameplay and no chance of improvement.

But of course, Lun is spending so much time on the story and graphics, I think more battle variety can wait until the series is done. The monster creation contest was a good start, though.

One other thing - Besides the Lexus/Red Zero/Cetsa battle style being used as a cheap plot device to prevent giving Cetsa her own moveset, it's really underpowered. XL costs really need to be much lower for someone who can get virtually no XL (and has to steal from others to do so) - what was it, five turns to use the only special attack they have? I never touched their special abilities.

[War]

I actually like to go through and battle. The Way has a very unique and somewhat fun battle system. I guess some people don't see it.

[Grand Admiral Thrawn]

I bet he fled from the spestas in ep 1

I fled from spestas in Ep2, Marna Stretch, but only because I was out of notch items. I try to avoid batles when I have no notch items available, so I don't waste my CTP.

[Impossible]

The Way's battling would be fun if the enemies had more variety and difficulty. You can't lose with the Illuminati anyway.

[fwacho]

AS Lun mentioned earlier... take it easy on teh new guy... If you want too you can wait around till story mode is avaiable (It plays much faster but still need de-bugging) this is actually in the works and has been done to some dregree in the first episodes to sped alpha testing... be patiant gentlman and ladies... not every one is as gifted as thou.

[Evan100]

I like the multiple battles sometimes(its a good way to build up your tactical and strategy skills).Plus if I get bored I just turn on debug battles.Even then I still turn it off to fight the bosses.(power is one thing without the strategy to back it up its meaningless)

[Kyle]

Lun, if you are reading this, PLEASE DO NOT make The Way even easier. I actually enjoy going through dungeons, leveling up my auras and notch items. If you make it even easier, what's the use of having tons of notch items and powerful auras to level up?

I suggest the following:

Story Mode: Easy encounters or the ability to stop them all together, except for boss battles and encounters tied into the plot.

Normal Mode: Medium difficulty encounters that should provide an adequate challenge for those of us with medium stats.

You designed a game over screen for a reason, didn't you? People NEED the challenge or fighting becomes a burden. I believe there are only two kinds of players: those who ONLY want the story and those who want to go through the game as a regular RPG, which includes challenging but not overly difficult battles (read: not battles that take 5 minutes).

Having said that, what The Way really needs is more diversity when it comes to enemy encounters. For fantasy locations such as caves and forests, let your imagination run loose. Create 5-6 different enemies and create encounters out of many different combination of those (with 5-6 enemies you can easily get 10+ viable combinations). Right now you usually have around 2-3 combinations, which kind of renders all the different defensive auras useless. I'd like to think about which one to equip for a change, taking into account status effects enemies can incur.

I can only hope the next episode will have me fight because Rhue and co need to survive, instead of fighting to fill up non-story parts.

[Deltaway]

I have absolutely no complaints about the battle system. Multiple enemies let one find the best strategy, and figure out sequence combos that work best with one's XL gain.

I think the worst part of the game is the post-destruction Estranta. The game-play and story of it is fine, but the music selection makes it too depressing, and makes the repetitive battles much less enjoyable. I think more of a "gee, let's get out of here before something big attacks us" tone in the music would help...

[Telephalsion]

I think the music fits the setting, considering thousands of people just got kille and a few are probably being slaughtered as you walk around looting their houses, it's very depressive