About Code Breaker...

Since there hasn't been much to report on the demo for the past week I thought I'd make a post about my game in Code Breaker so yous guys can see what the sequel is like.

The biggest things to note are that there's an entirely new class (in addition to the 2 hidden classes in Hazard), the Summoner, the level cap has been raised to 40, there's a new tier of spells (level 8 ), and since the game supports importing Xth 1 characters, you're assumed to start at level 15.

I was using the default party throughout Xth 1 but I got sick of the Samurai, the Spiritual Paladin (bad combo unless you know precisely how to utilize her) and the Fighter and replaced them with a new front-lines Standard Paladin, an Athletic Ninja, and an Elegant Summoner. Problem is, it's really hard in Xth 2 to level up level 1 characters from the very beginning. You need about 150,000 xp (or its equivalent in GP) to get someone up to an adequate level, and I had about half that - and 3 new characters.

But, I'm stubborn, so instead of going back to Xth 1 and grinding them up easily, I wandered around in the first floors of Morimoto B and Students Passage (these two dungeons are intact, but the monsters are higher level) for about 6-8 hours, no joke, until my characters were around level 13-15. Another reason why you should, if you're planning on changing your party layout, grind up in Xth 1 is because the equipment that drops towards the end of the game is better and more utilizable than what you'll find in the beginning of Xth 2; that, and you have access to the genome armors, which are no longer deployable in Xth 2.

So despite that, I finally had a party set up the way I wanted it and went on my merry way. The first thing I noticed about Xth 2 is that there's more exposition, the characters more or less come into their own in a way they didn't really do in Xth 1, and the plot is really cool. It's fine in Xth 1, but it's actually quite intriguing in Xth 2 and definitely feels a bit more epic. The second thing I noticed is that there's quite a bit of undead. The first two major dungeons are a graveyard for dead American soldiers (complete with Black Zombies and White Zombies) and a haunted hospital attraction at a theme park that underwent Abyssal. So the creepiness level is definitely increased.

There are a few other things that make the game overall easier to play, but for the most part its the same tried and true system. Here's some shots of my unfortunately geared party at a little under halfway through the game:

Spoiler:

That's Ares, Dominic (used to be Issei), Kagemi, Ran, Chun, and Miriam Avocado.
Ares looks like an idiot but I can't give him better stuff for a few levels. I love the way everyone else looks except Miriam - that's not the gear I have her equipped with in dungeons.

Just something to look forward to while you play through Code Hazard

Out of interest, can you port your characters over to Cross Blood, or is it a separate thing entirely?

Also, love the ludicrous cyberpunky outfits in this series. It's like Tron threw up over a copy of Shadowrun 3rd edition. Kagemi looks a little cold there though.

Interesting about the imported character bit. In a way it is an homage to Wiz1-3, since you were really expected to transfer your party between those games too. (later PC games got a bit more lenient, and in some cases gave new parties a massive xp / loot boost at the start, such as Realms of Arkania - Star Trail)

The Summoner definitely looks interesting -- and it looks like the summoned monster-du-jour doesn't take up a party slot either, right? (just like in later Bard's Tale games with the summoned monster slot) Will probably mix up my fairly pedestrian paladin/samurai/archer/wizard/cleric/scholar group a bit.

Static wrote:Also, love the ludicrous cyberpunky outfits in this series. It's like Tron threw up over a copy of Shadowrun 3rd edition.

Word. Ran needs at least an Ares Predator, though... also, yay for random floating disks! They're like the 20xx version of Ioun Stones.

That said, I actually use the blood-code graphics for my characters, which may or may not be heresy... or it may just show how lazy I am when it comes to character customization.

I forget what her chest armor is supposed to look like, but I don't care. If you combine any non-unique item with a Source Shift item, you get a SO [whatever]. If you have an item that you like the appearance of, but want better stats, combine it with the SO item (like I did with this bikini). I think it has the stats of a Shadow Cloth. The bikini item's stats I believe are nonexistent ^^

Nope, you can't import. Cross Blood Abyss (tentative title, what do you think) starts you off at level 1. It takes place in the same universe but its about a different team. It's like a gaiden game.

Edit: Read the wiki, apparently monsters scale to your own level. In Xth 3, the cap is the same as Xth 2, but there's an extra difficulty mode which I assume increases the level of the monsters Guess I'll have to see.