I'm only like 8 hours in, but for me a story is already a failure if I don't care for the characters. Because then why should I care what happens to them? A bad script full of melodrama, exposition that's hidden in the effing menus, characters that don't develop in a good or interesting way... what's the success here? "
You'll probably warm up to the characters more as you progress further into the game, though there are certainly some characters who only seem to get worse (*ahem* Snow and Hope).
Awesome review, I agreed with pretty much everything you wrote though I'd swap your opinion on the battle system for your opinion on the characters. I thought the battle system was dumbed down wayyyy too much for newcomers and it really just boiled down to repeatedly tapping X (or A) and occassionally swapping Paradigms. I thought Lightning was a fresh break from most spunky JRPG protagonists and I thought most of the cast, with the exception of Snow, were pretty likeable by the end of the game.
Hope you enjoy playing though the rest of Red Dead Redemption, it's a great game! :)
I was able to avoid using Vanille for pretty much the entire game (except earlier on when you have to use her) and found the best combination to be Fang/Lightning/Hope. Unfortunately, when you're farming for traps during the Endgame, Vanille is a must because the Death spam (glitch?) makes those battles go by pretty damn fast. Also I accepted the last C'ieth stone mission, so all Adamantoise's were transformed into Long Gui's which are much, much harder. >.< But that aside, her voice is incredibly annoying and she sounds like she's having a damn orgasm when:
If Hope is constantly on the heal, chances are that you're underlevelled. Saying that, you will constantly be switching him back to healing anyway (underlevelled or not) because some of Bathandelous' moves can be devastating and can easily reduce your character's HP to 25% . Otherwise, I can only really offer these 4 tips: - If you can survive long enough, have Hope start out as a Synergist and buff all the characters up as much as possible before switching to Diversity or Relentless Assault. - Destroy Barthandelous' other heads first! This makes the fight much easier. - Make Snow party leader as he has the most HP and so you're less likely to be wiped by a single attack. - Don't rush! This was easily the longest boss battle I'd encountered up to that point but desperately trying to stagger him will get you killed! (i.e. if you need to switch back to diversity, DO SO). Your post is 5 days old now, so chances are that you've already beaten him. But if you haven't, hope this helps. :P
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