seki108

Even the idiots have their day

The Bakartets (baka + quartet)---A.K.A.  Team ⑨---finally include Daiyousei in their combo attack and get their attack closer to the SRW attack they are referencing (second spoiler tag)

You can see the first version of their attack @2:12 in the video below.  I would time-start it there, but I wanted more to time-start why at this stage is called Nightmare Gensokyo.

A pure Boss-Rush stage, with 'nightmare' versions of every single major enemy boss boss you've faced prior to Stage 65, along with copies of Byakuren, the rest of the Buddhist crew, Mima*, and Toryhime**.   Plus, there are a few of most major annoying mob before Stage 65 here as well.  At least only Mima and Byakuren have spell cards to deal with........though all the bosses have between 20,000 and 35,000 HP apparently.   What a nightmare this will be.

*Technically,  you could face the Buddhist's as optional bosses in Stage 40 (Marisa route), but you weren't required.  Same for Mima on Reimu's version of the stage.

**A normal version of Torihime is now battlable in the bonus stages, but that's post-game

Sometimes, one of the best parts of reading doujin is reading the comments, especially on Danbooru (where pages are posted individually).  Unfortunately, I haven't been screencapping any when I went through any over the past few months, which I now regret.  This comment from a doujin on Dynasty Reader has convinced me to start this practice again.........it's just plain funny to me:

To have a waifu or not have a waifu, that is the question.................

.......that's been delaying me starting Stage 73 of FMW.   Sorry, I had to try clickbait once.       Yes, this is a mix between game mechanic discussion and a slight amount of shitposting to embellish it.  

Behold, as I waste more than a hour of my life typing out and getting pics for a post basically no one will read.....or fully understand since I'm explaining a game one other person on the site has played and I'm not very concise with my explanations.

Since the first game in the Fantasy Maiden Wars series, you earn WP points each stage:  10 for completing the stage (without getting a game over???) and another 5 for completing the Skill point for each stage.  Yes, WP stands for 'Wife Points'.   

Starting from the second game, you could use these WP points as a layer of upgrades (getting an extra bar in every upgradable stat), though each subsequent layer would cost more WP.  They are a good alternative if you are strapped for cash for reason.    Each time you invested a certain amount of points in a character, they would gain a Wife Level.

Overall, it can be either a way to show favoritism to your favorite character or way to make all your units usable without worrying as much about money.  But is having multiple waifu's really the correct path?  Shouldn't your One True Waifu get your love exclusively?  It turns out, if you are diligent enough to get 1000 WP points, you can max out one character to Wife level 10.   

She then becomes an unstoppable killing machine.........as long as she has a modicum of offensive capabilities and you don't play completely stupid.  Let's check the bonus for reaching that coveted title.  Do note, these bonus are the icing on giving that character 10 upgrade bars (assuming you don't also invest regular cash for basic upgrades)

To get a hint of the upgrade stat difference, let's look at the new unit Hisoutensoku, the one true waifu.  The first pictures shows the base level of upgrades (which are high, considering how late in the game it is).  The second pic will show how maxing out Hiso's Wife level will change it's stats,  with the last showing Hiso's almost full potential as a wrecking ball

However, power is not everything.  If their is one thing I learned during my SRW W playthrough, it's that over-upgrading a unit makes you (or at least me) less likely to use it, lest the game become too boring.  This also applies to uprading too many units just a bit too much.  This is why I haven't gone over 5 bars in any units weapon upgrades.   Therefore, if I'm not going to distribute WP points to my "mostly upgraded as much as I want them" roster and I don't want to max Wife level an offensive unit,  what will I do with them?

The answer is maxing out a pure support/utility unit with no real offensive capabilities.  Shinki and Yuyuko were out automatically, since they are credible offensive threats.   Lily White, while a funny prospect, is inferior to Daiyousei.....even if creating an offensive Lily Black is hilarious.   The two choices were then Dai or Kurumi.

Dai has 5 great support spells, four of which I use almost every stage.  Kurumi really only has 2, sharing one with Dai.  However, her other spell is the whole reason I chose to Wife Kurumi.....she's one of only two units that can restore other unit's SP.  With an extra 100 SP and 20% SP recovery for the whole stage,  Kurumi's viability as an SP recovery battery skyrockets.   

It's funny how Kurumi, who was next to useless in the second and third games (except for niche circumstances), has now become an incredibly useful unit in the last leg of the final game (since getting her to level 65 earlier than Stage 68 was a bit of a chore).  Enjoy your new spotlight Kurumi........and the prospect of actually doing more than 100 damage to bosses (seriously).

before

after

I forgot this Cybuster anime existed.   Even if the actual thing was between 'bad' and 'meh' from what I remember, the opening theme is fairly good.   At least the SRW OG anime came out eventually to make up for this weird adaption of the Cybuster/Elemental's story from the classic timeline.

Cybuster really isn't Cybuster without it's sword or Masaki in the pilot seat

Remember when the Great One was shot of a cannon before she obtained her greatness?  R.I.P.

Oops, I never wrote anything for Stage 72.  I'll do a short thing, I suppose.   I might do another, intermission post later, since I haven't started the next stage due to not knowing for sure what to do with something.  

This stage introduced a new variation of the annoying sheep mook, the giant Red sheep.

With 2000 armor, L size, and over 15,000, these would be annoying HP blobs in other circumstances.  Adding in a danmaku field that keeps my units from getting within 4 spaces of it (unless it moves closer) just adds a layer of annoying.  Giving it a Post-Movement with a long range can be quite deadly if you packed too many units close together.......or if two of them fire on the same area.  It would have been bad if they got next to another unit (since they have Support Defend level 4), but it never happened this stage.

With how highly accurate both the black and the white sheep mooks are, having enough units damaged could lead to a minor case of swarming.........though the main thing that kept happening was them either shooting down the healing that was going solo, wasting the Alerts (100% dodge) of a unit, or double hitting the ship.   This was also the main attraction of the first part of the stage, Hisoutensoku, to deal with at the same time.

As per Super Robot tradition (at least in SRW terms), Hisoutensoku is bulky unit with high damage potential, boosted further by a high level of Prevail+ (as HP drops, Accuracy, Evasion, Defence, and critial hit rates increase).  While this is more inflated as an enemy boss, the main reason for it's survivability and damage output against you is it's LL size. 

Like SRW, FMW goes by a size scaling system, with each level difference creating a 10% difference.  For example, LL units have both 10% damage increase and a 10% accuracy decrease against size L units;  L units meanwhile have a 10% damage reduction and a 10% accuracy increase.   Since most units are size M  (two less that LL), most had a 20% damage debuff.    While a skill "Ignore Size" can be purchased, it usually isn't worth for M size units it since this is literally the first enemy in 72 stages this big (aside from the optional battle against the Palaquin ship on stage 40); it can be useful for size S (and the one SS) unit though.                Most finishers do have a build in "ignore size", but Hiso still has it's natural bulk.

After almost beating Hiso (but not finishing it), it shuts down, but the spirit inside it seems to have been awakened by Sanae's cries (or her just generally being in danger).  Still have a few stages to wait to find out what really happens, since the translation LP is on Stage 69.   Anyway, onto the main boss of the stage, Giant Catfish.  Yep, despite being nothing more than a dream of Meiling's (presumably) in the fighting game that introduced it, having an antagonist that can essentially bring life to dreams makes Giant Catfish a real threat.

While it has less Armor and HP than Hiso, it is also LL size, two MAP attacks, and has 3 spell cards to boot (essentially, 4 HP bars).  It's overall gimmick seems to be bogging you down, with each spell card activation shaving off some of your front units HP............adding to that, each spell card makes the amount of HP required to take any action become higher.    Thankfully, at this point in the game, it's perfectly possible to take down two spell cards in a turn, even with only halfway upgraded units.     It would have been a different story if I didn't bring enough units with healing spells (which a good 1/3 to 1/2 of the cast has) and a unit with Bonds (every units back 2000HP), but that is usually necessary for emergencies at this point.

The one Giant Catfish attack I have a video of.  It seems that they took a cue from the game that created it, making his attacks kind of generic (in both name and design) but hard hitting

Well, I finished Stage 72 and will write something about it either later tonight or tomorrow.

Finally glad to have Hisoutensoku, even if it is near the end of the game.  Revel in the emulation of 70's/80's  Super Robot themes:  

Also, an odd preview for the next stage.  Naturally, it's going to be a nightmare.  I feel like you might either appreciate or draw some kind of inspiration from this @Candy.  Is this an area in Everland, Vanilla?

Next Stage:  Nightmare Gensokyo

After some more doujinshi reading, I'm finally going to get around to finishing Stage 72.

I never imagined a doujinshi would make me shed tears over a freaking steam locomotive but damn was I proven wrong.  Given the fact that both of the works by Gensoukoumuten that I've read so far have been solid 10/10's, I have high hopes for the rest of of the works in their series.  

http://danbooru.donmai.us/pools/2754?page=1

Since you've been looking at more RT stuff.  It's not RTAA, but just Achievement Hunter animated