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I'm a few months late, but this Caledor guy never stops LOL.

I've been working on a video of my journey of Reloaded + Hard Mode for TLA because I thought you finally finished updating it, but you sure did prove me wrong (:

Here's to hoping a few months of work won't be outdated too quickly (joking of course, we appreciate you!!)

Hmm. Some interesting points here. The tear stone actually is a good replacement imo. Even if you get it later on you can forge a ring or something.

But, if we want to get a little bit crazy- the idea I'm toying with is the rusted sword that turns into the Robber's Blade can swap with the Vial.

I'll try not to make this a wall of text, but my thought process behind this is: You get this from a chest that you need Parch for at the end of Aqua's Rock. If you go to Aqua's Rock as soon as you get the boat (which honestly, most veteran players that this mod is aimed at probably do) and get this rusted weapon immediately, you still have it for such a tiny amount of time before it is outclassed. Main reason for this is where the Lightning Sword is obtained though; right below Yallam where you have to go to use the blade anyways, and is also blocked by Parch (Burst too, but Tundaria Tower is so short that makes Burst being an obstacle irrelevant)

But maybe the real solution here is slightly buffing Robber's Blade. Lol.

TL;DR Tear stone good, consider Robber's Blade?

So I said I wasn't going to suggest anything and mainly focus on bugs BUT

[spoiler]I lied.[/spoiler]

Since this game has a Vial nerf (rightfully so IMO, that item is way too good in vanilla based on how easily accessible it is) It makes that chest in Air's Rock that requires Frost after you get Piers kinda... meh. It's really not worth the back track- I'm thinking this might be okay to switch with a forge item, one you can get as a drop around this part of the game; like a stardust or something. Thoughts? You can always keep it as a Vial too. Lol.

Jeez, I don't think I've been gone that long but it's crazy to see these conversations taking place!

Anyone starting a TLA 1.78 run. I'm not really going to focus on balance suggestions this time (I've done that enough lol) But I'll look out for bugs and oddities. Of course I'll speak my mind if I feel strongly about anything as always. 

I'll try to keep up with this more often so I don't have a 5 page backlog to read next time haha.

Do I need to transfer data from gs1 for this rom hack??

No. This is a rom hack of both games. You do not have to transfer anything, but you have the same limitations you would have in vanilla if you don't transfer. IE. Missing Djinn, no Dullahan, etc.

Awesome! I'll definitely patch and head back into it (now that pokemon is becoming a bit boring hehehehe)

That makes more sense. I was like 1.5x seems way too strong. Haha.

I'm back quicker than I thought. This time I actually found a bug (unlike last time lol) Guardian's Ring is halving max HP. I'm pretty sure the value for the HP multiplier is set to 0.5 when I'm pretty sure the value for the item should be set to 1.5.

[Journey]

I'm wrapping up TBS, so I'll share my thoughts now, as they are mostly unlikely to change with just Doom Dragon left. I know TBS isn't your focus, and TLA is where all the work goes, so I'll keep it brief. I tried to think about the game a little differently from a balancing design prospective so hopefully it's somewhat useful.

One think I'd like to mention is it's been almost 10 years since I've played vanilla, so honestly it's hard to remember what I'm comparing the base game too. So if I get some details wrong, bare with me.

Journey

• I always go to Imil before going to Kolima. So Imil is a grind and struggle where as Kolima is easy peasy. I should probably play them in their intended order one of these days huh?
• Okay so here is one of the few things I wanted to mention from a balance/experience perspective. For some reason the wild encounters around Tolbi don't yield more exp than around Kalay, even though it's a fair bit later in the game. What's weird to me is that monsters in Vault Cave seem to give more exp, than around Tolbi when I feel like it should most certainly be the opposite. Maybe I had some bad luck with encounters or vanilla wasn't balanced very well here? I honestly I have no idea and it's not that big of a deal, I just thought it was worth bringing up.
• Classes this time ended looking up like this:
  : Black Knight (6 1 ) Primary Damage dealer. He also has pretty decent speed with this layout too.
  : Luminier (6 1 ) One of my favorite classes for Garet in the entire mod. Garet is slow, so healing and res on him I find so useful. Makes it so the character lives after they get res'd most times (lol)
  : Augur (6 1 ) Unfortunately, Ivan got the leftovers this time around. Though healing at the beginning of the turn is vastly useful.
  : Wise (6 1 ) I tired not to overdo party healing, but I always have to have one. Often go with Mia because Mythril Circlet is a thing.
  
  Seemed to work well this time around! But TBS is never the struggle. TLA I play in hard mode so that one is always tricky to figure out what works. I always end up going tri-elemental classes in that game so we'll see what I lean towards soon.
  

Bosses

• I struggled on 0 of these this time around, I think that's because I've been playing the game for a while so I know what strategies work, but I'll play devil's advocate here and agree with what most comments say: Hydros Statue is probably the hardest boss in the entire game. Almost every time I play this I have to set up my djinn differently, which is a good thing! But I do think this boss is mighty difficult without AoE healing which is hard to achieve with what Djinn you have up to this point.

  Toadonpa

• This boss kicked my @#$ then I realized I forgot to grab Hail near Tolbi. Oops. This is one of the harder fights in the game though if you go and do it as soon as you can.

  Deadbeard

• I don't know how much control you have over most things with the editor, but out of the 4 or so times I've played this mod, I've almost exclusively won this fight due to Deadbeard running out of PP. I really don't remember this happening in vanilla, but like I said it's been a while. I think this is possibly a side effect of the ton of balancing you've done for player skills, and as a result, Deadbeard's PP costs have gone through the roof. I can beat this fight at level 25, (which I think is pretty low/on par for this fight) once I get at least one character with Wish Well it's pretty easy. Though I'm not sure how difficult you want it to be. I guess my suggestion here is to see if you can up his max PP if you can, so it's not so easy to stall until his PP is drained. I don't even think this is a difficult boss in vanilla and I'm not sure how difficult you want to make it, but yeah. I'm beginning to ramble here, so moving on.

That's more or less it! Like I said, didn't want to go too crazy with this game because TBS isn't the focus. Hopefully you found something helpful or at least it was entertaining to read.  

To be continued in TLA! (However long that may take hehehe)

Hey Caledor,

I've been playing through very slowly since the latest version came out, I wanted to skip a Broken Seal this time around, but meh.

But hey! I found a bug! It's easy fix I'm sure.

In TBS, If Ivan is equipped with 6 Venus Djinns, he actually becomes a Spellblade, which is one of Isaac's classes.

Okay, so I was wrong. I can replicate a similar change in class with Mia, but I just wasn't experiencing a different class change with other characters with 6 Djinn so I assumed it was a bug. Also seeing Ivan with Ragnarok may have contributed to that. Lol

I'll have a complete write up later once I'm done with GS1 before GS2. See you then!

Hey Caledor,

Where is the doc located? Can't seem to find it.

Thanks!

Did you make a new game for this mod? iirc Caledor did some tweaking on innate psyenergies and things don't work properly if you don't start a new file on the patched rom.

I have no idea why you may have this issue though, consider I exclusively played on the latest version and didn't have that problem.

A temporary fix: You can hack a Frost Gem in to your party. :P

Super late reply, but now I agree with how this works, the item's actives and stuff. Just took a little while to wrap my head around it.

The Champa bug is in vanilla, yes. That's why I said I don't know if it was even if your power to fix it.

Clotho: I'm honestly not sure actually. Probably so, that's just the first item I've come across where I tried to use it in battle.

[Holy Knight]

Okay, got it. I see what you are saying with Holy Knight's direction overall, and it makes much more sense when you put it that way.

Fateweaver's I disagree with, and my original thoughts stand, because this class comes off as more support to me. I can respect your direction, because there is merit to what you are saying.

Paragon(s) I guess I should have drawn more comparisons between other classes, let me look at some other ones you've created and see how other healers are treated, I'll have to re-evaluate it and report back.

Edit: Mia's Druid class is very similar to what I proposed with the Paragon changes. She has Cures, Wishes, Revive, Remedy, Gaias, and Froths. Though she was probably designed this way because she was innately designed as a caster, and not an attacker, like most of the male cast.

As for the bugs and stuff:

• I'll have to think on Salamander Tail and see if I can come up with a suitable replacement to recommend for you.
• The Champa Bug you can just google for more information on it, I think it's basically if you visit Champa before Briggs returns, it writes a flag incorrectly that the Feizhi event is completed, and thus the event never plays.
• Honestly I've had almost no trouble with Hard Mode overall except for Djinn fights, and well, that Dragon Fight I just mentioned. I figured out quickly that you can hard reset to stun and poison the Djinn, the fights are winnable most of the time. Worth noting I haven't even attempted any of the four superbosses yet, though.
• Another Edit:I figured out some more information about the Clotho's Distaff. You made Spirit Ring so it can't be used outside of battle, and I completely agree with that change. Though it can still be used in battle, even when not equipped. This, is fine, but Clotho's Distaff doesn't follow the same properties. Well, that's what I thought until I realized there clearly is some sort of bug here. Clotho's Distaff can be used even if it's not equipped, as long as the person holding it is eligible to equip it. Example: Jenna is wielding a Masamune, but is just holding a Clotho's Distaff. She can use the Clotho's Distaff's effect. Garet is wielding a Darksword, and is also just holding a Clotho's Distaff. He cannot use the Clotho's Distaff effect.

[Holy Knight]

Hey Caledor, I'm finally winding down on TLA. While I do have one or two bugs or other proposed changes, I'll save those for the end. The main point of this post is about the classes and their tweaks. I've been heavily experimenting with them and I have some changes to suggest. Obviously it's your mod so you can do what you want with the information at the end of the day. I'm going to try my best to make this formatting not so terrible on the eyes, forgive me if it is.

I would like to point out all my characters are level 42. I wanted to make sure I knew what the entire class consisted of psyenergy-wise before I suggested changes. Secondly, I know there is a limit of what you can put on a class (I believe it's 16) so I've kept that in mind with the changes I'm purposing.

Time to get into the nitty-gritty.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Holy Knight/Saint Knight ( - )

Proposed Change:
Switch out Plume Edge with Odyssey/Tyrfing.
Reasoning:
This class being a tri-elemental, actually has no Venus representation at all, aside from Revive. Swapping out Plume Edge with something Venus-based fixes this issue and makes it more similar to Paladin/Templar, where there is an offensive set of psyenergy for Venus and Mars, along with Plume Edge.
(Paladin is or   -   )
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fateweaver/Divine Mage ( or - )

Proposed Change:
Switch out Bind with Raise.
Reasoning:
The current identity of this class focuses on healing and buffing the team, with minimal offensive psyenergy. Bind doesn't really seem to fit what this class is trying to achieve in battle. Raise brings a bit more Mars to this class (which is currently only seen through Guard and Protect) and fits better with the healer/support role.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Protector/Paragon ( or - )

Proposed Change:
Add Remedy (Removing Cure Poison and Restore), as well as a set of Mercury-based offensive psyenergy. (Such as Froth, Froth Sphere, and Froth Spiral.)
Reasoning:
This class honestly just feels somewhat incomplete. It's lacking a lot of late-game power that a lot of other 2 /7 classes have. I believe you only want Remedy on a hybrid of Venus and Mercury classes, and this class fits that mold. Removing Cure Poison and Restore means there are 3 open slots, which would be perfect for a Mercury-based offensive psyenergy, since the class currently only has Plume Edge, Thorn, Briar, and Nettle as it's offensive psyenergies.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Protector/Paragon ( - )

Proposed Change:
Add Remedy (Removing Cure Poison and Restore), as well as a set of Venus-based offensive psyenergy. (Such as Thorn, Briar, and Nettle.)
Reasoning:
This one kind of goes without saying, since it's basically just a flip-flop of the proposed class change right above.
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That is all I have for class-related discussion, moving on to other bugs/changes:

• Getting a Salamander Tail from the Hammet transfer quest instead of an Orichalcum just feels so bad. I know why you made the change as per your original post and wanting the Dark Matter and Orichalcum to be post-teleport, but the reward almost doesn't seem worth-while now. Maybe a decent weapon/armor or even like a stat-up item would feel better than a Salamander Tail.
  Edit:I will mention this even though it's kind of petty- It makes more sense in terms of lore for Hammet to send bars of gold instead of a Salamander's Tail, but I get that doesn't really fit very well for the balance you're trying to create. My original opinion still stands, though.
• Not sure if this is intended or not, becuase I'm not too sure how it works in vanilla, but you can only use Clotho's Distaff if it's equipped.
• Have you ever tried fixing or looking into why the transfer event with Feizhi breaks upon entering Champa early? Not sure if you even have control over that I just thought it was worth mentioning to me because it happened this playthrough...
• Lastly, I'm playing on Hard, (I'm sure you're only really balancing the game on Normal), but the Twin Dragons fight before "activating" the Mars Lighthouse is INSANE I had to grind 10 levels before my team was up to snuff. Not to mention not having that last Mars Djinn is more of a handicap then you might think...

Anyways, that's all from me! I'll be stopping by frequently as always to see how things are progressing with the mod. Thanks for making the mod again! Good luck!

Cool. I figured it was something similar, I've seen the agility fail but the damage part was where I thought it might be a bug.

I think I found a bug in TLA.

Using Mud on Orochi(?) (The Serpent in Gaia Rock) does nothing to him. No damage or agility dropped. I've done it 3 separate times and nothing.

@Chrono i tried briefly but i couldn't replicate the bug. Try patching a clean rom again and let me know if it keeps happening. Good luck with TLA!

The first time I caught it, I had trouble replicating it as well, but then when I saw it again I took screenshots because I knew I might not come across it again. Not a huge deal in terms of a bug though!

I don't remember Hydros a Statue being as deadly and unpredictable as Killer Ape; but it IS definitely very difficult to kill.  It's got a lot of HP, and has a bad habit of dragging things out with repeated Pure Ply castings.

Killer Ape did give me some trouble, but I just remember Hydros Statue spamming Aqua Breath and wiping my team, even with a 2 wish setup.

[can't]

Hey Caledor,

Just finished up my play-through of GS1, so I'd thought I'd let you know how that went.

The only bug I caught is, well, weird. I'd imagine you can't fix it. Just a side-effect that happens from editing the game's code.



Here is an image of me transferring a Djinn from Isaac to Ivan, nothing seemingly weird here.



Though, if I tab over to Ivan's stats before actually moving Djinn, you can see the stat changes are completely different from the initial preview. The second picture is actually what will happen. Not sure if this one is in your control, but I'd thought I'd show you regardless.
Edit: I'd like to mention that this happens in more than one place, this is just one example.

That out of the way, here are my thoughts and suggestions.

• Hydros Statue seemed a bit tough, but maybe I just suck? It was a while back but I got wiped quite a few times and didn't really struggle with any bosses for the same length of time as this one.
• Similarly, Deadbeard seemed too easy, though maybe level 31 was a bit high so it just seemed that way.
• The change to Vine (not sure when you made it, hadn't played in a while, lol) make a near-useless Djinn extremely valuable. I think it actually might be too strong on Mia/Ivan due to the damage it outputs vs. their attack stat, especially if you consider it's AoE.

I think that about covers my thoughts. Moving on to the Lost Age! Gold Password and all. I'll let you know how it goes!

Good luck in continuing your mod!