Success

Not in real life, sadly, but in my Tactics Ogre game (yeahhhh!) So, after I successfully recruited Vyce (and Xapan the Berserker and Ravness the Valkyrie along the way ~ might as well ~ it wasn't hard at all) on the Law Route, I World-ed/time travelled forward to the Coda section to see whether I could now unlock the 4th and final post-game episode and -- Voila! -- a cool scene of Denam, Catiua and Vyce together again (Vyce dies in Chaos Route). Hurrah. So the next step is to level up Vyce (he is at Level 1 right now) to Level 40 or thereabout so the trio can finish the final quest ... battling for several ultimate/unique weapons. Golborza Plain here I come (again) for some auto-grinding.

I did have to re-do Episode 3 (the rescue Lanselot mission) for the THIRD time but this time round it was SO easy (I forgot my Lanselot is now powered up) he didn't even need my team's help to win. Which was a pleasant surprise.

So, what next after Episode 4? Maybe go back to the Law Route to recruit Ozma the Knight Commander (read she is v good) and kill Catiua in order to turn Denam into a Lord (read that is pretty cool too)? That's easy. But acquiring the Crest of Fire is where things are gonna get tricky because (I just realised) I'll need to OVERWRITE Chaos Route Chapter 4 in order to have the killing of Nybeth the Necromancer (and, therefore, the clearing of Palace of the Dead) registered in the final/ultimate Law-Route game save PLUS  going back to PotD for the nth time to finally take on Blackmore for the Crest of Fire AND Ogre Set and (maybe optional) re-do all four Coda episodes (or just San Bronsa Ruins) ... Is it worth the effort? Can I be bothered? 

Some Progress (3)

So I'm on the Law Route of Tactics Ogre ~ and having a ball. Now that my weapons are way more superior than those of the enemies -- so it WAS worth visiting the Palace of the Dead TWICE -- I can actually have fun fighting those battles. Instead of going straight to the bosses before my team is slaughtered, I can now take the pleasure of picking off the enemies one by one, and getting excellent drops (since everyone is now @ Level 40+). The challenge lies more with trying to understand how the game mechanics work ... I still have no idea on what happens after I recruit Vyce and whether I should enter the PotD for the third time for the final rewards (Crest of Fire and the several items I missed during the last run ... is it even worth going back ...)

Moving on ... read that Galaxy Nexus has now been released in Europe/US ... but no sign of it here in Hongkers. I still have the Nexus S, which I haven't used that much... the phone is simply too big to hold next to face ... just look Ridiculous. Maybe I should trade in three of my phones and have a major overhaul. I actually think the older models are better, at least they were small and you could actually place calls with it without looking like a wally. 

A Doppelganger

Every now and then, you run into people whom you thought you'd met/known before but, in fact, they are complete strangers. Yet they look kinda the same. Last night, I ran into a doppelganger of this guy I'd a major fallen out with many, many years ago. It kinda made me think, after all this time, "so what was that all about?!" The memory of what happened has all but faded but the feeling of animosity has stayed.

Tactics Ogre (Let Us Cling Together) ~ The Middle

Since the last entry I've managed to acquire more than 20 pieces of unique/rare weapons/items (BIG thanks to Col_Mobius and all the others who contributed to the Loot Spreadsheets on Gamefaqs.com), making my latest run in Palace of the Dead worthwhile. So, despite of the shock of not seeing Blackmore on Floor 100  (and, therefore, no luck with the Crest of Fire *sob*), last week has not been a complete waste of time. But as said, at least this run has been a lot more speedy than the last.

So, the plan now is: 

* finish two more floors in the PotD;

* use the World Tarot to go back to end of Chapter I to embark onto the Law Route (I took the Chaos Route in my first playthrough);

Vyce Bozeck

* recruit Vyce at the end of Chapter III; 

* World Tarot to Coda (Chaos Route) ~ and will probably have to redo Episode III (the Rescue Lanselot mission) AGAIN in order to bring everything up to date;

* train Vyce up to around Level 40 so he will be as powerful as the rest of my team;

* finish Coda Episode IV (assuming the condition to unlock this final mission is to have Vyce on the team but not actually alive in the Warren Report ~ very complicated situation here that I won't even attempt to explain...);

* World Tarot to Law Route Chapter IV to unlock PotD there;

* go into PotD AGAIN to kill Nybeth the Necromancer;

* World Tarot to Coda (which, by now, is fully completed)

* enter PotD one last time (but this time can skip two thirds of the floors using the activated Palace Guides) to kill Blackmore on Floor 100;

* get Crest of Fire and the Ogre Set

* THE END (hopefully) 

All Four Wind Weapons But ...

... no sign of Blackmore on Floor 100 in the Palace of the Dead *sob*; which can only mean he'll only appear after Nybeth the Necromancer is dead, meaning I will HAVE to cover his story line, which I've thus far avoided. So what does it all mean? 

A face lift that went horribly wrong for
Nybeth the Necromancer

Well,  what's left to do in this latest PotD run is to complete the Ji'ygla Set and get all the exclusives between floors 90-115 and that's it. Blackmore, Crest of Fire and the Ogre Set are all only available when Nybeth is defeated. That, in itself, isn't really an issue (my team is now powerful enough to take on almost anything -- bar the Divine General, I guess -- without much difficulty). What IS an issue is the prospect of spending another 200+ hours on completing bits that I didn't touch during the first run of the game. The way forward, as I see it now, IS to go backwards: World Back and take the Law Route (the alternative to the Chaos Route I took), to get Vyce to join the team and then basically -- and this is the hard part -- re-do the entire Chapter Four (to, of course, kill Nybeth) AND Coda Episode One, Two and Three AND all/most of the side quests inc., oh yes, PotD, like, for the nth time (but don't think I have to do the horrid Cressida side quest in Law). Practically, replaying the game but with a better equipped/high level team. Do I have the energy for that? Much that I love this game (and have been blogging WAY TOO MUCH about it) ... it's one hell of an undertaking ... but will I also be able to resist the temptation of getting that one extra piece of exclusive item (I'm a bit fixated on the Crest of Fire right now ...) and to unlock the fourth and final Coda Episode?

Some Progress (2)

I hope I AM making progress ... am now halfway /breezing through Palace of the Dead ... the ultimate rewards for this (final) run will be getting the Ji'ygla's Set (maybe also the Ogre Set) and the Crest of Fire ... I already have two of the three Jiggy items. BUT have read in order to get the Crest of Fire (from Blackmore on Level 100, with all four wind god weapons equipped), I need to have beaten Nybeth. WTH !?!?! I hope that is just misinformation because I'm NOT doing the Nybeth/Cressida quest in order to come back to the PotD for the THIRD time ... no no no no no... So there is just this possibility of me walking away with just the Jiggy set. I don't care much about the cursed weapons ...

After finishing the PotD (maybe in a week), then will finish the second part of the San Bronsa Ruins and I'm, like, done with Tactics Ogre finally. 

I'll be so bored ... have played the demo version of FF Type-0 but it's a bit difficult not being able to read Japanese. 

Tight Hamstrings, But...

Well, I was going to write on how this particular workshop series on Iyenga Yoga (which I had over the past five days) wasn't as interesting as I'd wished because there were parts that were way too advanced for me but then I remember what one of my teachers said and about having hang-ups. So, instead of writing about how I couldn't do this and that, I decided to focus on how I physically felt (less thinking, more feeling!) and the observations I had about my body.

First of all, I thought I could twist my body until last weekend. To do a full twist, one has to turn not just the shoulders back but the entire torso, which can be extremely challenging. One way of deepening the twist is to suck in the tummy (doing the "bandha"), creating more room for movement and, subsequently, further lengthening the spine. It looks so easy in writing/theory but, in practice/reality, it's, like, omg I cannot turn any more. With help from the assistants, I was able to rotate the body a lot more and my body DID feel the stretch, particularly in the hips and entire back. It also made the body feel SO relaxed afterwards. 

No Sweat!

One interesting observation (but it's not something that I am unaware of ... it just became much more pronounced during the workshop): an imbalance in the left and right side of my body. When I try to get into utthita hasta padangusthasana (above), the right hand side always seems close to impossible. The hamstrings are tight and the hip area rigid. Even with help of the back of a chair to lift up the leg, it still takes me 2-3 minutes to get into the pose. On the other hand/side, despite of my protruding hip bone, this pose feels a lot easier on the left. What IS important though is, when I am in the pose (no matter how long it takes me), I get a nice workout on the hamstrings and sacrum/lower back area and it feels amazing.

So, yes, less hang ups and more enjoyable.

Tactics Ogre progress report: other than one drop that was supposed to drop but never dropped (after almost two hours of trying), have got a few more exclusive items as well as my first Necromancer recruitment! About to hit the first shop in PotD ...