I have decided to begin my ninth test run of Seiken Densetsu 3. I was hoping to finish FF12 first, but with LTTP moving along so quickly, I cannot wait any longer. The party will be identical to the one I used in my third test run. However, I'll be making the aforementioned changes to my notes. I'll also be optimizing things better for recording sessions.

Being a magic-focused party, that will certainly change the combat dynamic for this LP. I'll also cover the elemental day system in depth, which is of critical importance. There will still need to be some melee, particularly early on, and even later, to make grinding move along faster. I'll rethink how I want to distribute stat gains. Unlike my first LP, I will be skipping dead ends and talking to unimportant random NPCs, to help things move along faster. This will help compensate for the lengthy spell-casting times. I'll at least check out buying the gunpowder, but if it's too tedious, I won't sweat playing it normally.

Recording this LP should be much easier and higher quality this time. Last time, I used Camstudio, which can only record in .avi format, which has a 2GB file size limit. Unfortunately, Camstudio doesn't automatically create new files and simply allows them to become corrupt without telling you. Now that SNES9x uses DirectX, I can use Fraps (and have since Arcana), so that I can record longer single segments without breaks. This will probably be more apparent to my brother and I, since we had to wait a couple minutes for each segment to be processed by Camstudio. Fraps can also record at a greater fps, since I don't have to worry about file sizes with it.

I'll probably vary the length of the episodes between 10-15 minutes, except the intros, if necessary. Uploads should be more regular this time, since my work schedule is always much slower in the winter. One great benefit of having already recorded an LP is that I'll have advance knowledge of how long it will take me to do something. This way, I can plan things much better and know how much my brother and I can record in one session. I do have some questions about increasing the efficiency of the LP.

1) How can I better condense the late-game grinding? That was a big problem for us in the first LP. We could only record a couple episodes before I would need to grind again. I could do more grinding at once. However, that would increase the total grinding time, since I'm fighting weaker enemies. Plus, they would give out less total money, so I would be on an even tighter budget than I already was.

I could create save states in advance with the grinding already done. However, I like to record my LPs with the files I use during that LP, not with advance saves. My stats would be different too.

2) What do you think about seed farming? Again, it seems tedious, but I don't think there's any avoiding it. You absolutely need the ??? Seeds to get the class change. The problem is that if you wait until they become common drops after defeating all the God Beasts except Zable Fahr, then there's no way you'd be able to win them. At best, you would be Level 38 and the enemies would be Level 43. That would far more irritating than farming them as rare drops earlier, and they're not that rare, if you've got Hawk.

As for Weapon/Armor Seeds, I think those are mandatory too. Obviously not Angela's weapon, but the others would need them. Everyone needs the armor, especially without Heal Light this time around. The final dungeons are just too long to go taking that kind of damage without the ultimate armor or Heal Light. It can be done. I did it on my first two test runs. However, I feel that it's far more irritating than going through the efforts to just farm the seeds while level-grinding.

What do you think? Thanks for your help and support.

1) Make grinding longer in earlier parts I guess..?

2) It's nothing. Just do it.

3) Should Strength or Spirit be my third priority for Angela for the mid-game? Normally, you would think that Spirit would be better for her, but I'm not so sure. It would only increase the damage of her Saint Beam. The problem is that in the God Beast dungeons, there are only two enemies weak to Wisp, and one of them is in the ultra-short Corridor of Wind. Saint Beam is nearly useless in the mid-game. Its only benefit is that its base power is slightly greater than the basic elemental spells. Spirit would also help against Lightgazer for spirit-based magic defense.

With Saint Beam so useless, I would think that it couldn't hurt to put Strength on third priority after Vitality and Intelligence. This would be useful at the Forest of Wonder and Ancient Ruins of Light, both of which have very few enemies with elemental weaknesses. It would also be very helpful against Dolan and Lightgazer, which are already probably the hardest two of the first seven God Beasts.

On the other hand, investing in Strength may not be in the "spirit" (pun intended) of the LP, being a magic-focused party. However, even with a pure magic party, you can't avoid using some amount of melee, even late-game. I tried using Strength for Angela before, and she was as functional as Carlie. Not great, but with buffs and debuffs, it worked reasonably well. Certainly better than a useless Saint Beam, which won't shine until the final dungeons. What do you think?

I'd say go for Strength. Don't worry about it being less magic-focused. Technically, the only way it could be a PURE magic party is if Dark Carlie was in, and you've said you don't want to bring Carlie along more than once. So already it's not "pure"--what's the harm in bringing in a little more strength?

I don't think you can have a pure magic party without reducing its effectiveness. You would then have to lose buffs or debuffs in the mid-game, since Carlie doesn't learn a magic defense debuff until her final class change. I'll use more than enough magic to distinguish my strategy from the previous LP, though it's simply more efficient to have some amount of proficiency in melee, as well.

4) Was Lise ever told to go to Wendel? I don't think she was. Maybe I missed it somehow. I played through her intro and after seeing the king's dead body, she just ran off. Why would she go there? She has no need of magic. They couldn't know anything about Elliot or taking back Rolante.

Doesn't she say in her internal monologue that she remembered hearing about the priest from her grandmother or something?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=playe...G2XYgTVU#t=820s

I was close.

Oh, okay. I must have glossed over that. Nevermind.

On a side note, the sound effect for the Golden Goddess statue is a little off on my new computer. It's not horrible, but enough to bother me. My settings are exactly the same as on my old computer, so I don't know what the difference. I suppose I could always just record on my old computer, for the sake of consistency. Thoughts?

Are you sure it's the computer? Sounds more like an emulator issue or something. It doesn't seem like a computer issue if it's something so isolated.

You could always post a .wav of it, and we'll see for ourselves.

I don't usually grind until about the cave where you get the Booskaboo. I don't usually farm seeds until after defeating the first 7 god beasts. I find that I can defeat the first seven god beasts without needing to class change. Then I usually save all my later level grinding for the final area before i go fight the boss.

How do you get your ??? Seeds then? It must be incredibly difficult to kill those L43 enemies at L38.

I just got Holy Ball for Angela. The sound effect there is screwed up too. I tried tweaking ALL of the sound settings, to no avail.

I just tested it out on my old computer. Apparently, this is a problem with SNES9x v1.5.3. When I tried it on v1.5.3 with the exact same settings, it had the same problem. Wow, that is a HUGE problem. 1.5.1 doesn't support DirectX, so I couldn't use Fraps to record it.

Would someone else be able to test this to see if it is indeed a problem with 1.5.3, or if I can change something to make it work? Recording with Fraps is SO much more convenient than Camstudio. However, if that means having screwed up sound, that is completely unacceptable to me.

Thanks a lot.

Seems more tolerable than the screen stretch problem before 1.5.1.

I have zero experience with hacking, but I think I know someone who can.

Compromise: Try 1.5.2? I don't remember noticing a difference between your LP and my own playthrough as far as that sound effect goes, and I was using 1.5.2. I can confirm 1.5.2 has DirectX support and that Fraps works with it.

I just tested 1.5.2. Same problem. I greatly appreciate the suggestion, though. Thanks anyway.

UPDATE: Posted something in the SNES9x forums. I'll see how it goes.

I've just tested Snes9x 1.52, ZSNES 1.51, and bsnes 0.75, all three had about the same sound effect for both the full healing, and Holy Ball. Maybe that's in fact more accurate to the original console version? Though I guess I am really not that sure what I'm listening for.

No, I'm certain it's the wrong sound effect. I know because they used the exact same sound effect in FF5, and it didn't sound like that on the Playstation or GBA versions. I just tried it on ZSNES, and it gave me the same problem.

I'm going to try and record a video of the problem with Fraps. It's going to be an unlisted video, because I don't want to get ton of random comments on it. I may even just delete the video when I'm done with it. When I've got it ready, I'll post a link here.

I would say to check the official SNES9X forums, but apparently "Trend Micro Internet Security" (which I have for some reason) says that the site is untrustworthy. Maybe it got hijacked or something. Regardless, unless you're using Linux you might want to stay away from that site, sadly. :(

I've been there. I'm talking to someone about the issue.

SNES9x v1.5.3 Tech Demo

Here's the video. If you have a solution, please let me know. Thanks a lot.

My sound's a little off on ZSNES, but it isn't all that bad. I just go ahead and endure the slight compromises.

As for Angela's stats. It really depends on where in the storyline you are at the first class change. If you do the class change after gaining the 5th of 8 elemental spirits, with only a bit of light grinding you can get Angela up to level 20 or 21, and she will learn Saint Beam after both Ice Smash and Fireball are attained. (Sometimes she can learn Saint Beam BEFORE one or both of the final two L1 spells, especially likely if she reaches the 5th spirit at level 17).

Why is this important? In the Moonlight Forest there are Dark Battums and Black Fangs that are weak to Holy attacks. If taking the Sorceress, I typically boost Spirit once before entering the Forest and a second boost if I level up while exploring the forest. That gets her up to about 380-400 damage, enough to one-shot the Black Fangs. Since they are the most dangerous enemy in this region, that powerful ST holy-elemental spell really hits the spot!

If I take the Delvar, though, it's all about INT. Then VIT is probably second place and STR in third, except MAYBE one boost to Spirit shortly before the Moonlight Forest.

I do agree that after the Moonlight Forest, though, Holy-elemental spells aren't very useful for the next 15-20 levels. So the Sorceress should focus on INT as well. If your main character is Carlie or Kevin but Angela's also along for the ride, Saint Beam is great for the Black Fangs in the Beast Fortress while Dark Force works wonders on Silver Wolves.

I also tested the tech problem on the SNES GT emulator, to no avail. It seems quite bizarre that every emulator would have the same problem. My contact at SNES9x suggests that this may be how the sound effect was intended on the original Super Famicom. I would highly doubt this, though.

Final Fantasy 5 used the exact same sound effect. I recall it sounding the way it did during my LP. Do you know a way I can check this? I remember the sound effect, but not what caused it in Final Fantasy 5.

Thanks a lot.

Have you tried making a test video using Camstudio in the exact same situation? Perhaps the problem lies with Fraps.

Edit: I re-read your other posts. I'm just slightly confused about one thing: does the sound effect "glitch" happen without recording or with recording? I can only assume it's happening regardless if your recording or not. I'm not sure why it would sound one way for the longest time and then suddenly sound differently another way.

Yes, it happens with or without recording. For some reason, the sound effect only plays correctly on SNES9x v1.5.1.

Those sound effects didn't really bother me, to be honest.

Same here. Nothing strange about them at all for me.

Okay, I've tried four different emulators, including SNES9x, ZSNES, SNESGT, and bSNES. All of them play the sound effect the same way as SNES9x v1.5.3. I can't imagine that they would all be wrong. Evidently, all the test runs and the first LP I did had the sound effects incorrect. I'm just going to have to get used to it.

and I find that..actually fucking hillarious. I dug up my old SNES9x emulator yesterday and tested out some sounds myself, and..they sound like they do in your recent test video on my end. My guess? You had some weird sound synth activated and just didn't realize it it. Somehow turned it off between LP's :<

No, they completely overhauled the sound chip emulation in SNES9x v1.5.2. That's why it sounds different.

Tested on my SNES emulator on my PSP, sounds just the same as 1.5.3. I'd say that's the real sound. Maybe you could make a video of the old 1.5.1 sounds for us to compare.

he could do that, but I really doubt anyone's going to have a coniption about this whose viewing the videos. Given the vast majority of people won't remember the sounds well enough to pick up a diffrence, those who do played it recently, which means their almost SURELY emulating it themselves and having the same problem :<

All of my old videos used SNES9x v1.5.1. You can check any number of those to hear how it sounded. I believe I did use Carlie's Holy Ball at the Moonlight Forest.

Well, if those new sounds are indeed the correct sounds, look on the bright side: this means you can use 1.5.3, Fraps, and record the next SD3 LP easier then the first one.

I was thinking about the early game grinding. In my previous test run with this party, I didn't acquire Undine until after I class changed. As a result, I learned that spell AFTER learning Saint Beam, which effectively wasted one of my early levelups. What if I mitigated the grinding, so that I wouldn't reach Level 18 until after acquiring both Salamando AND Undine? The problem is that I want to be at Level 18 when I'm right next to a Mana Stone, so that I don't have to go out of my way to class change. I would either have to be at Level 17, acquire the sixth spirit, and grind up to Level 18, or I would have to be just below Level 18 to mitigate the grinding, which would be very difficult to manipulate.

I class changed after acquiring Salamando in my last run. Unless you held back on some of the grinding wouldn't you runs the risk of surpassing level 18? I say do it the way you normally would. Because then you lose out on a level.

Is it any help to say that I've also heard the sounds like that on my Emulator for forever now? Trust me, I used to have way worse sound problems, like beeps in place of instruments in songs. Star Ocean suffers similarly, too... but that game is just buggy as all hell.

I'm not sure how that grinding would work out. I suppose if you just avoided every non-trap enemy on the way, maybe grinded halfway past level 15 at Bucca instead of stopping right at it... it might just work out in your favor. Everybody's playthrough is different, though. A little testing is essential. But I don't know, try what you will.

If you goal is to learn all the advanced spells at the earliest possible level (Explode @ Lv. 23), you need to get the fifth elemental spirit at level 16 and the sixth spirit at level 17. A more typical approach is to get the fifth at level 18 and make it through Explode at level 25 instead, with Saint Beam sometimes being learnt before the sixth basic-level spell.

Actually it probably would have been better to go for Undine before Salamando in the first LP you made, then save Salamando-first for this LP. Both Sahagins and Sea Dragons are weak against fire if you have the Fireball spell. But in the desert you have a more roundabout mix of elemental weaknesses to deal with, so you can't clear screens quite as effectively even if you have ALL the relevant spells including Ice Smash.

If you choose to learn all six basic spells before class changing, please be sure to get most of the way to level 19 before entering the Moonlight Forest, because Saint Beam is excellent against Black Fangs!