/vr/ - Retro Games

>>5357148
Metal Gear Solid but with more magic

There’s some arachnid-looking dude who wants to overthrow the king or someone, and you’re special ops and have to stop them. The church also wants to stop him. Later on I think you figure out that the church is the bad guy after all, as is the JRPG custom.

>>5357148

I am the reinforcements.

Bug-man with assless pants slowly regains repressed memories during an attempt to take down shady religious sect.

The city was THE grand grimoire of Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced. Sydney was actually just a geomancer.

>>5357148
You work for the medieval CIA and they sent you with a rookie to quell the terrorists making riots at the medieval white house and to check what the fuck does the church want for them to get involved.

You go and see that the rioters use forbidden magic hidden to the world .

You meet the leader of the rioters, he kidnaps your rookie partner, he shows your suppressed memories and it turns out that you are kinda like Jason Bourne and the Church wants the power of the occultists. It results that The CIA brainwashed you to be a killing machine and they send a 3rd quadruple-agent to check that you lead them to the source of this power. which you eventually kill the guy because he's an asshole that wanted the power for his own as well.

The occultists say fuck you to the church and choose you to be the upholder of the forbidden hidden magic because you don't give a fuck so they set you to keep chasing the leader to the focal point of power, the church gets there first, they maul the leader, the templar leader transformed into a demon, you slay him and you don't get to know if your memories are true or false, but now you have all the darkness power and you decide to go on exile because the governments are corrupt and only will use the power for tyranny and you don't give a fuck.

It ends up with a cliffhanger, and we never got a sequel.

>>5357207
/thread

Ashley Riot, who is like a medieval double-0 agent, is sent after a cult leader, Sydney Losstarot, after robbing a duke's manor and kidnapping his son. This takes him to an abandoned city, Leà Monde, where an order of holy knights is also in persuit of Sydney. We find out that the knight's order's leader, Romeo Guildenstern, is after the power that Sydney holds, that Sydney is also the Duke's son, that the power he weilds runs in the family, and that Ashley's the man he is because his family was killed (maybe).

Romeo steals this power from Sydney, Ashley kills Romeo, and Sydney passes his power onto Ashley. And so began the story of the wanderer, the vagrant.

>>5357148
Goverment agents and the chuch are both hunting some heretic-terrorists (actually led by the duke's son, dun-dun-DUN), but everyone ends up fighting everyone over some forbidden power, and your memories might be false, but who can you trust when everyone's just using everyone.

>>5357148

>>5357225
>Bug-man
cannot unsee.
>assless pants
op said the plot though, not the plump.

Faggot goes to steal wines from a cursed city, ends up involved in some sort of fetish dress cult business.

>>5357227
You find out the Occuria were behind everything in FF12. It's suggested the Ashley played right into their hands.

>>5357148
Rosencratz is a dick

>>5357148
this image sums it all up

>>5357595
How bold

>>5357148
Shit is going down in melnibdsbdbdb, and Ashley Riot shows up because he is the reinforcements. His family is also dead. He’s chasing a blonde guy without a shirt who has some bitch following him. Ashley fights monsters and has cryptic conversations while he slowly swings his weapon at things. Some other guy named Rosencratz is also looking for blondie. Blondie reveals that his arms are actually detachable metal arms becus eye made a deal with the devil or something. Rosencratz steals blondies back tattoo, which was the source of his power. Ashley kills Rosencratz and gets the back tattoo for himself, because blondie was good guy all long nd Rosencratz was working for the evil church. The end.

I don't remember a lot. But I do remember Merlose was crazy super hot.

>>5357289

>>5357148
Man is sent to kill a dude at Lea Monde, turns out he discovers things about his past he is not really sure about, eventually another guy gets a lust for evil and attacks the original "bad guy" who turns out wasn't a bad guy at all. Main character kills the evil crusader and eventually embodies the powers of the dark just like the original "bad" guy did before him.

The end is total kino.

>>5357148
An abandoned magic city gets overrun by soldiers trying to capture a cult leader who has kidnapped the little boy of a powerful political figure and one of the soldiers realizes that he can use magic of the city for himself if he rips the tattoo off the back of the cult leader. He does this and becomes a powerful being that you, a brainwashed mercenary, must kill. That's really all there is to it.

>>5357614
*snif*

>>5357595
I chuckled when I noticed the hair extensions

>>5357646
>a cult leader who has kidnapped the little boy of a powerful political figure
It was his own brother, and he was protecting him because he's the only one of his family who isn't cursed. Also Sydney was looking for a worthy successor for the blood-sin, who ends up being Ashley.

>>5357671
apparently Ashley has some HIDDEN LORE that's only available if you slogged through the optional dungeon

>>5357671
Where does it even say that in the game? (not arguing I don't remember)

>>5357673
I don't remember the Iron Maiden having any 'lore', just an extra boss and some items.
>>5357740
Most of it is in the game, everything else is stated outright in the Ultimania guide which adds quite significant amount of extra story.
There's a translation here:
http://www.casualvillain.com/Vagrant%20Story/Ultimania%20Translations/

I can't remember any plot points besides Ashley's family being killed, yet this is one of the greatest games I've ever played.

Gameplay + Aesthetics > Story

I love the intro video, I don't even know who the dancer is supposed to be.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krY83viRbaM

>>5357783
>Ashley's family

>>5357673
I like this game, and have tried to do the save+ runthrough, but eventually I get bored. I end up starting from scratch again years later instead of following the completed save.

▲ ▲
▲ ▲ ▲

▲ ▲ ▲
▲ ▲ ▲ ▲▲

I I i
I I I _

>>5357790
I love that it's up to the player to decide whether Tia and Marco were his family and murdered, or an innocent family that he murdered.

Not only that, but when their "spirits" come to him before the fight with Guildenstern—is it really them? Or someone with powers of the Dark providing Ashley with exactly what he needed to hear in order to forgive himself?

the duke wants to rid his bloodline of the blood sin and he sacrifices one of his sons (sydney) to do it, lea monde is an obstacle course meant to filter the best candidate for the blood sin
turns out it's ashley because everyone else is an asshole

>>5357783
>Gameplay + Aesthetics > Story
This. I would add "writing" too, because even if you don't remember the story, you will probably remember the writing itself which I think added a lot to the setting. Everything that makes Vagrant Story is nice. Even something as simple as the dialogue bubbles add personality to the game.

I would say Vagrant Story is one of those precious games that don't overstay their welcome, and I would be more than glad to have another 100 hours of content thrown into it, despite the game consisting of nothing but dungeon crawling with story segments in between. Especially so because IMO the weapon crafting is a bit underused in the game, and crafting the ultimate weapons makes all enemies in the game an absolute joke.

Incomprehensible visuals built with jaggedy pixels.

Guildenstern is willing to kill Samantha if it means gaining power over the Gran Grimoire.

Grissom is driven to kill to avenge his brother's death (it doesn't work).

Hardin ends up dying to protect Joshua, to in some way make amends for letting his brother die (and probably also for selling out his friends).

Sydney and Bardorba commit suicide together to end the cursed line that would have fallen on Joshua had Ashley not been worthy of the blood-sin.

Speaking of Ashley, and his relationship with his supposed wife and son: he walks away from everything alive, but must live as a nomadic, wanted immortal who can never achieve a "complete death".

The whole game revolves around familial bonds and how they motivate the characters' actions. Merlose is our POV character who gets a big promotion by game's end.

>but what about Rosencrantz?

Rosencrantz is an example of a character without any familiar bond. He's completely out for himself. No one trusts him. He's double-crossing everyone. He dies just when he thinks he's about to win.

>>5357148
I skipped every single cut scene in the game. I just wanted to bash some heads in and craft weapons.

>>5358673
>Rosencrantz is an example of a character without any familiar bond. He's completely out for himself. No one trusts him. He's double-crossing everyone. He dies just when he thinks he's about to win.
He's another Riskbreaker like Ashley. The point is that he's what would have happened to Ashley if Ashley wasn't good enough and didn't have the mangrit to punch dragons to death.

>>5358507
Aesthetics and gameplay are not severable from story. They are all part of the same thing.

>>5357148
Ashley Riot is a Riskbreaker sent in to...... stab shit in a castle... something something valendia knights of the peace and duke bardorbas mansion. Merlose is your backup chick..... something something lots of shakespear references amazing atmosphere and music.
>>5357248
Nice.

>>5360235
For real. Can we let go of this nonsense? Would you read a comic for the words only? The art only? There are art books and novels if you only have time in your life for the simplest art forms.

>>5358673
Forgot about this bunch. Siblings in arms, or something.

I read that half the story was cut from the game.
And "The Phantom Pain" was either the subtitle or series name.

After watching some hot chick dancing with a dragon, strangely-dressed man spends hours bashing skeletons and training dummies with various weapons.

>>5357148
Impostor syndrome goes a bit too far. Also progressive ideals as to what "female" entails.

I legitimately have never played Vagrant Story.

>>5362175
>strangely-dressed man spends hours bashing skeletons and training dummies with various weapons.
seems like starting a char on Ultima Online

>>5357331
Reminder that the VS director sorely regrets implying that there is any link between VS and FF12.

>>5357783
That's apparently Kildea.

>>5362267
I meant Kiltia, sorry. It's been a while since I've replayed VS. Fucking great game, though.

>>5362275
>>5362267
That's Müllenkamp, but she was a Kiltian preistess.

>>5362262
>implying
There's way too many connections to only be "suggestive."
FF12 certainly didn't shy away from the connections either.

>>5357148
A pretty boy travels through the sewers in search of booze for his gf while an even more effeminate pretty boy harasses him.

Homoerotic fairytale; the bad guy controls the dark by getting naked. See, "the dark" was a metaphor for censorship.
Good guy Sydney is all "Ain't no skin off my back" and Guildenstern was like "Oh, but it is..."

>>5361834
>the art only
yes absolutely
aesthetics>all

>>5357148
You're an amnesiac fuck sent by the FBI to hunt down heretics and shit.
Then you probably drink some strange wine in a century year old cellar while LARPing as a D&D warrior with S&M gear so you begin to see strange shit like your dead son, or wait, did you even have a son or was it some random kid? Or maybe you killed that kid and his family and the trauma is resurfacing after years of treatment, anyway it doesn't matter because you have a mission and Charles Manson doesn't die even if you kill him for some reason and you fight all kinds of weird shit while chasing him down, also he probably fucks your coworker, or maybe his friend does but that doesn't matter because she's a dumb bitch who got herself caught and you don't even know her so whatever.
Also the church sent their own guys to do your job because that's what the church does and seems they know more than you do, everybody says they know more than you do but FUCK these visions anyway, maybe you really shouldn't have picked up that dusty bottle just because you were thirsty, and then some colleague of yours shows up dressed in bondage gear and you kinda knew he was a fan of Queen but you really didn't imagine he also swinged that way, either way it doesn't matter because you're trying to survive against giant enemy crabs and every single bulb counts, or maybe it does't, you're not sure.
But then turns out Charles Manson is actually a really cool guy that is only trying to make you woke and the church guy is actually woke himself despite wearing a skirt that would be too much even for your grandma but in the end it was the demons all along and the church guy fucks up but you see your dead wife and kid again that give you the power of a family man to win against the power of darkness and the game ends there because they ran out of budget, but was it really your wife and kid? You don't know but you get a badass trenchcoat in the end and you can finally be a pretty girl too like you've always wanted.

>>5357331
This came out in 2000 and was being developed along side The Spirit's Within.
Final Fantasy XII began it's development - even though it would take 6 years.

The Phantoms = Occuria
The "Dark" = The Mist

In the movie The Spirit's Within "phantoms" emanate from the Leonid meteor impact. They're crudely rationalized as "alien ghosts"
As you probably know, in FF9, planets have their own crystals which circulate souls in the form of Mist which normally would flow like FF7 lifestream. The mist is absorbed or infused into soil, becoming what is called magicite or materia. Of course, FF7 had it's own alien invader Jenova and a meteor crisis summoned with black materia. In FF8, the crystal pillar (which also came from the moon) draws monsters from the moon in an event called "The lunar cry".
And in Final Fantasy XI online, black magicite is created when "darkness" aka "emptiness" is exposed to "holy light". "The darkness" can actually crystallize inside a person which then stops their aging and makes them immortal.

In the world of Ivalice, it's suggested that The Great Crystal is a similar meteor and the the ancient city of Giruvegan was built around it's crater.

Whats all this got to do with Vagrant Story? The recurring metaphysics of the final fantasy series explain the over arching history and evolution of Ivalice. How Judges and Jagd were created. The City of Lea Monde was a Jagd, a place filled with mist aka darkness.

The "Blood-Sin" essentially made Sydney the Judge of Lea Monde. Sydney is something inbetween. At this point in time, Judges weren't a thing so when I say he's essentially a Judge I mean the mullenkamp cult were "judges" in spirit. Riskbreakers are "judges" in body. And the Crimson Blades were "judges" in mind.
Those 3 elements would eventually come together over history in different degrees to form the Law and Judge Systems in the later Ivalice games.

>>5368661
pretty cool
>form the Law and Judge Systems
I hated this system in newer games

>>5357148
A man pursues a cult leader named Sydney who has the Blood Sin on his back, a powerful magical sigil. As his pursuit continues against the man he realizes that Guildenstern is the true enemy, and a much greater threat than Sydney who isn't really a bad guy in general. Sydney simply wants to find someone who will take the Blood Sin and not use its dark powers for good or ill. Guildenstern forcibly removes the Blood Sin from Sydney, grafts it to himself, and uses its power against Ashley in a rather epic showdown. Ashley claims the Blood Sin for himself, considering himself worthy of it as he has no use for its powers, and is of enough strength to keep it out of anyone's hands.

>>5368661 (Continued)
The story was cut in half. But there are remaining elements that you can infer from the encyclopedia entries. Such as the Dark Crusaders (magic armor golems once used in a "Holy War") that Grissom of the Crimson Blades was able to summon once he got a taste of "The Dark" or "Mist" that gives everyone special powers.

This is what made the city so dangerous, and why the Duke wanted it destroyed. You find out that Sydney is actually the Duke's son. Sydney and the Duke were working together to erase the city and Mullenkamp cult from history.
Because the story is unfinished we don't fully know what Sydney's motivation were. He kidnapped his little brother, probably to spare his life. Their father, the duke, was willing to make sacrifices and damn his own soul, but Sydney worked to save his father from himself.

When Sydney's cult assaults the Duke's manor, Sydney is actually looking for a special dagger that is the only think that can kill an immortal like himself. Presumably it's made of nethicite, but that's a stab in the dark (pun intended).

Vagrant Story takes place sometime between Tactics and FF12. The Duke and the Crimson Blades are working to suppress knowledge of magic. Magic would become regulated with a licence board in FF12 and Law Cards in the Tactics Advance series, but anyone with an understanding of how the magicks work can escape it's control for good or abuse the system for bad.

Some people think FFT takes place in the far future because they were digging up airships and the other fantasy races were apparently "extinct". But that data entries all suggest that it was in the past.
Seeq, Bangaa, and even the masked Garifs are all present in Lea Monde. They're just named Orcs, Lizardmen, and Ogre respectively.

>>5368776
>But that data entries all suggest that it was in the past.
What data entries?
In FFT the discoveries mention that there used to be a lot of airships flying around in the past and moogles are extinct.
The Ultimania guide gave a timeline that mentions a 'cataclysm' between XII and Tactics.
Did something change recently with the FFXIV raids? Because I'm pretty sure XIV's Ivalice is in a different universe. Or are ALL the Ivalices in different dimensions just mildly influencing one another?

>>5368661
The multiverse they've set up with XIV is so fucking lame. Carrying over themes like crystals, mist, and warriors of light is one thing, but literally linking them all together kind of reduces each of the games. Setting XII in Ivalice was a mistake, it also really should have been its own setting instead allowing canon and timeline autism screw things up.

>>5368776
This is purely literary connection, but the corruption of the Crimson Blades is also seen in Final Fantasy X.
Only instead of seeking forbidden magic they use forbidden technology.

Different setup, same story. In FFX-2 you learn the back story of Paine. She was a recorder for the Crimson Blades that went into the Den of Woe, which was full of Pyreflies (Snowflies in Vagrant Story) which made everyone crazy and their commander is possessed by a phantom. Again, this is just the same final fantasy metaphysics under a different name.
In Vagrant Story, only Neesa survives to tell the tale. FFX-2 get's a happier ending.

The "sin" and "the blood-sin" were both metaphors for a sacrificial martyr. In FFX the summoner has to pick someone they love most to become the "final aeon" and defeat sin, but it's secretly a scapegoat which keeps sin eternal. The "yevonites" were aware and perpetuating "the spiral of death", as the leaders were unsent phantoms

And of course a staple of Final Fantasy is the job system, which as lore tied to crystals. FFX uses spheres, but same difference.
We see subtle allusion to the job classes in Vagrant Story. Geomancer, Summoner. Pretty sure "compulsion" is a mediator skill.
Sydney can see people's pasts - that's not given a name. Hardin has a farsight scrying ability. Callow Merlose is Heart-Seer.
Ashely, Samantha, and Joshua have "phantom soul". It looks similar to Hardin's scrying ability, and if they're on the same wavelength they can read person like a seer. But it's basically Astral Projection. Their soul (or heart) can leave their body and they can carry other souls(heart) within them. A "Phantom Soul" is needed for "the rites".
This is why Guildenstern sacrifices Samantha. She loved him heart and soul, and this basically equates to FFX's Fayth & Aeon rite.
This is why Ashley was protecting Joshua.
Ashely really did kill an innocent mother and child, but he carried their soul inside him as if they were his family.

>>5368805
You can think of FFTactics in 2-ways.
"It actually happened" in which case history (and in-game call backs) places it before Vagrant Story and FF12.

Or you can think of it as a story narrated in the future from Arazlam Durai's perspective. "The discoveries" are made by Durai. When it says "moogles are extinct" that means in Durai's time, not the time of the Lion's War.

The Artifacts in FFT are also the same artifacts in The Legend of Mana. The Mana Series takes place in Fa'Diel, but it's understandably a distant cousin to Final Fantasy. Final Fantasy XI is Vana'diel.

You can see Arazlam Durai (FFT narrator) and Marche as exploring individual lands of Ivalice that were store in artifacts just like what you do in The Legend of Mana series. The player connects the artifacts however they like a the map. Or even the Kingdom Heart's series, as all the worlds are separated but are implied to have exists as one world.
Keeping something in your heart is a recurring theme of the fantasy genre that turns a metaphor inside-out.
The idea is that you explore a story world by connecting with it, and then you make the connection to other places. As the story is written in stone, so does the world exist in that stone. Beyond the crystal is emptiness. A void. Unwritten pages. It's a meta component of the online games that the world continue to exist and new stories will be told so long as the players keep playing.
It's also a common theme to write write your own destiny (or history). But one needs to control "the world crystal" or artifact to do that. In Vagrant Story, the City is the Gran Grimoire. In FFT its the Durai Papers. In FFTA it's Mewt's book (Omg, just realized his name is "mute"). Once you latch on the the symbolism, you see hidden meaning in everything. Like in Final Fantasy Mobius, everyone is getting stored in crystal and there's a voice guiding everything called "Vox" who wrote the "law" of palamecia. The Vox spell cures Mute

>>5357331
>>5362262
>>5363374
https://twitter.com/yasumimatsuno/status/85673940906807296

>>5368661
>>5368776
>>5368886
>>5369067
Pure autism.

>>5369191
>implying writers are the voice of god.
He doesn't own the franchise. It's like Stan Lee made all these comic characters FOR Marvel. Marvel an do whatever they want with them. Stan Lee couldn't do anything with spider-man or any other character without Marvel's permission.

When a game company hires a writer like Matsuno they give them a storyform to write from. That's what gives franchise it's identity. It was never a completely original vision, and his wishes are irrelevant. I imagine Matsuno wishes he could separate VS from Final Fantasy so that he can promote a spiritual successor: Unsung Story without Square-Enix. That's the danger of working for someone else and pouring your heart and soul for something you don't own. You can't take it back.
I'd say it's ironic given the story themes, but not everyone is a "heart-seer" to recognize when an author is speaking to them.

>>5369354
It's not even clear what Square is actually doing with Vagrant Story, just conjectures from severely autistic people like the guy a few posts up. Timeline and canon obsession in video games is a disease.

>>5357614

>>5369354
>The writer isn't an authority on the writing of a game
This is some next level mental gymnastics.

>>5371327
It's called IP. Intellectual Property. Vagrant Story belongs to Square-Enix not to Matsuno. Like, I know the education reform decided it was a lost cause to teach fundamental understanding skills in hope that the non-retards would develop that on their own.
I mean, I don't expect everyone to be an expert in business and law. But if I have to break out a dictionary and explain what a "company" is, then I have 0 confidence in your comprehension of a simple tweet, and even less with anything with-in the actual story.

>>5369191
This is saying he originally wrote it with a different setting in mind but marketing had designs of their own. 'Cause, guess what? He doesn't get to make all the decisions by himself.
I can understand that much without the context of the post he's replying too. Why can't you?

Besides, there are too many "references" to ignore that tie it all together. And even before FF12 came out, Matsuno confirmed in a 2004 interview that FFT and VS were set in Ivalice.
At the time, the only thing connecting the 2 was a fictional quote by Durai and an item called Agrias' Balm that mentions The Zodiac Brave Story.

>>5371832
They also mention King Arthur's Knights, so I guess Ivalice is set in Britain. Square hasn't established if VS is in the same setting as FFT and XII either, Matsuno's comment is all there is.

>>5371832
Matsuno was literally the ONLY person who made the connection in an interview, references to FFT were otherwise easter eggs, then he changed his mind about Vagrant Story being connected to FFT. No one else in Square Enix said anything, there was no promotional material connecting them, and Vagrant Story isn't even mentioned in the FFXII Ultimania while FFT is.

>>5371962
Pretty much this. Until another scenario writer steps in and refutes Matsuno, the sole establisher of the link, there's nothing else to go off of beyond conjecture via references, which isn't enough. References are merely just that, or else we'd be stuck considering fanservice games like Dissidia or FF14 as ultimate canon.

In the case of games like FF14 that brazenly, openly reuse FF12 assets and characters and themes, they put extra emphasis that things like this are merely references to spark nostalgia and absolutely nothing else. Japanese aren't as hung up on 'canon' shit.

>>5357148
Manchurian Candidate but way more shakesperian.

>>5372015
>japs don't care about canon

Well try to get that in the thick skull of the westerners.

The mental gymnastics is amazing, specially in regards for something as eclectic as Gundam

>>5372859
It's not "westerners", it's autism + internet.

>>5372015
Matsuno himself said that marketing had different plans. Learn to read.

>>5371946
>They
See? Matsuno isn't the only voice in the choir. Why pretend like his is the only one that matters? Also, I like how we're use laymen terms like "easter eggs" and "references" but if you replace it with vocabulary that actually mean something, motifs and allusions, the discourse straightens itself out. Does it really need to be explained that Matsuno can btfo and Square-Enix can continue expanding the history and setting of Ivalice and write new stories indefinitely until they sell the IP rights to someone else or it becomes public domain.

It's like, the "wall of autism" here was talking about storyforms and metaphors. There was never any mention of canon and continuity until >>5368813 replied with a reinterpreted context. And >>5369191 quote mining half a tweet.

Isn't it ironic? The people accusing these observation as "autistic" are the ones inventing arguments and expressing an unholy need to persuade what is "right" and "true" and to dictate how people think. Tell me that's not Asperger syndrome or OCPD.
They don't have to capacity to entertain multiple view-points or modes of thinking. Everything they don't believe in is unacceptable and "wrong".

>>5373026
>Matsuno himself said that marketing had different plans. Learn to read.
What Matsuno said was that his idea was that VS is not in the same setting as FFT and XII, but Square might have other ideas. That's it.
>See? Matsuno isn't the only voice in the choir.
Why the half assed attempt at a gotcha? What's the point?
>but if you replace it with vocabulary that actually mean something
They mean the same thing.
>>5373026
>"right" and "true" and to dictate how people think
You're guy bringing up IP ownership, my dude.

>>5373056
The point is that you don't get the point but you're argue anyways.

>>5373065
good old circular logic

>>5357783
I agree that there's something special about the game.

The first hour or so in the caves is so fucking unnerving to me. When you finally catch up to Sydney and he drops this whole mindfuck of a speech about who the sheep here really is, it's wild.

That said, I can't figure out how to progress in the game because my weapons all end up doing like 1 damage to everything and I don't remember having this problem as a child when I played it.

Maybe, if Matsuno didn't want FF12 cementing Vagrant Story in the world of Ivalice, he shouldn't have left halfway through development and let Akitoshi Kawazu take over. He didn't write the setting. he didn't write the metaphors. Hell, he didn't even write the characters, Guildenstern and Rosencrantz are pulled straight out of Shakespear with not even a name change. Matsuno's titles "Writer/Director" is not the same thing as Executive Producer. If you're looking for the voice of god for a final say in things - that's Akitoshi Kawazu.

>>5373219
I had that problem too, just because the stats in this game are so convoluted.

The easiest strategy, is to equip djinn gems, which you'll come across normally. 2 of them should give you an Air stat of 60. Plus whatever air value the blade already has. Then You cast a Air Boost spell which doubles that elemental stat. Plus a str buff.

There's lots of other factors but get that one stat high enough and you'll be dangerous against most enemies. The final boss, is BS. You absolutely must have a high-range weapon. It's really hard to catch him with a dagger. If you're lucky, you can kill the boss in 1 chain. I always fuck up. To save yourself from his 1-hit KO attack you need the absorb damage reaction skill. But that takes a few resets to learn the timing. Ideally, you chain and kill him without giving him a chance to use it.