Princess Waltz: THE THREAD

Visual Novel Community Visual Novel Talk
#241

I jotted down some numbers from the 2nd and 3rd battles in an attempt to figure out how XP is awarded. The screen displays 4 numbers (represented as a column in my table). The first is a turn bonus, a bonus for completing the battle quickly. The second is a bonus for an overkill. The third appears to be a base value, an XP award you get simply for completing the battle–this probably increases for each battle as you progress through the game. The game then puts them all together and gives you the final number that’s added to your XP total. However, they’re not simply additive.

Data:

15 15 07 15 15 15 15
06 02 07 14 16 10 21
15 15 15 15 15 15 15
32 31 24 33 34 32 35

15 15
23 11
25 25
48 44

I’m guessing there’s several threshold turn numbers for each battle–i.e., complete within 5 turns and you get 15, 10 turns and you get 7, and after 10 the monster runs away and you get 0. I’m not 100% positive because I was too busy recording the other numbers, but I believe the overkill bonus as I recorded it is close to or the same as the damage of the killing blow - the opponents HP before the blow. I’m not sure how the total XP is computed, as a formula that worked with battle 2 did not work with battle 3. However, if you divide the overkill bonus by 5 for battle 2, and by 3 for battle 3, then add the numbers together, they add to the total (rounding up any fractions).

Conclusion: At least for these battles, the turn bonus seems to make a much greater contribution to XP awarded than the overkill bonus. If XP is similarly balanced throughout the rest of the game, then worry more about finishing the battle quickly and less about building energy (by saving cards each turn) for that wicked killing blow.

#242

This is why I frowned on the comparison in my review. Honestly I’m a bit miffed on the entire notion. I assume the FATE-Waltz comparison is because people didn’t completely play (or understand the plot, since PW was only recently translated) through both games, which would obviously reveal that they’re conclusively different (just thematically similar), or it’s a “sales pitch” thing. FATE and Waltz are as similar as an 8-bit Mario and Sonic game. They have stuff in common (stages, bosses, platform jumping), but to seriously compare them is rather silly and misleading.

In fact, I wouldn’t even classify FATE and Waltz in the same eroge genre. :expressionless:

Waltz does magnificent without needing to “glorify” it as something it’s not. FATE is FATE. Waltz is Waltz. Both are great, irrespective of what they have in common and what they do not. Using the whole Iris = Saber or Princess Waltz = Holy Grail War to explain the game is silly.

#243

I haven’t played the game myself, but I PMed Shingo asking about this a bit before the game’s release (not wanting to talk about it, even in spoiler tags), and he confirmed it.

#244

Ah.

On another sort-of unrelated note, I was throwing away my envelop that my game came in, and noticed there were something else still in it. It was a JAST memorial card thingy. Honestly, I was really surprised by the quality of the the card, it’s even better than most cards out there. I got Misako from Gibo - Stepmother - (never played the game), one side it says where she’s from and the other she’s wearing a wedding dress in a seductive pose. What’d you guys get?

#245

I now have a total of 3 of those memorial cards. 2 that i got from AX 2007 from the panel JAST had their and one from this order of PW. I don’t remember which two i have already but I got Yuuki Mikage from Cosplay Fetish Academy. Yeah I like the quality of the cards. I’ll think about getting the complete set pack later on…maybe.

Back on topic for PW. I had a weird occurrence when I installed the game on my main computer and was playing fine after activating the game. That was until I reached one of those transformation movies and the game would always lock up. Tried different things but nothing worked. Ended up re-installing windows so I’ll try again later this week. This will be my 3rd activation. Hopefully I won’t need to spend anymore of them.

#246

When I made the comparison between the 2 games, I wasn’t looking deep or anything (neither had I heard anyone else make the comparison). Simply at first glance, they have similar themes and presentation. Given, I play mostly H-RPG’s nowadays, but FSN and PW are the only 2 games I’ve played that make such frequent use of “still animation” and special effects as part of the ADV portion. PW has a card battle system; FSN has a card encylopedia for all the fighters with stat ratings–almost as if it had been intended to be a card battle game but they took it out. Both have a fantasy-like premise in a modern setting. Both feature combat between a handful of characters (primarily 1v1) with truly superhuman abilities, which is part of a pseudo-ceremonial tournament. And really, Chris does have one particular similiarity to Saber–or at least I have a strong hunch at this point that she does.

Again, my game repertoire is rather limited though, so what seems like striking similiaries to me may not be so to someone who’s played hundreds of the games. And guess what–most people making the comparison probably have only played the games in English. From an English gamer’s perspective, the two games are a lot more simliar to each other than they are to any other games currently available in English. Not that I’m defending anyone comparing the two games and finding something lacking in one because of the other…

On an unrelated note, after redoing the battle with Angela for an hour wondering why she was so much more powerful, I think I finally figured out a winning strategy (I like to figure things out for myself :P). Losing to Angela repeatedly made me realize the ridiculous overpoweredness of stacking cards of the same element. Pick a color and make it your dominant color for the extra stacking bonus, plus the increased chance of drawing that color. Accrue 3 cards of your dominant color and build levels on those 3 cards. Use the remaining 2 disposably simply to stall while those build levels–use more than 2 as necessary simply to get rid of cards that are blocking your dominant color cards from spawning. Once your 3 cards have good levels, wait til 1 of the 2 disposable cards spawns as your dominant color, giving you 4 of the same color. Here’s where the skill Feint, acquiriable with Agility 8, is very useful if not essential. It makes your next initiative round an almost guaranteed win with even 1 card (provided your agility is decent–it should always be your top noncolor stat). Use the 5th card that’s probably not the same color as your others for initiative with feint. Then just let the 4-stack bonus of your dominant color do the rest–it should instant kill whatever enemy you’re facing. Well anyway, it worked on the only enemy I’ve tried it on so far. :stuck_out_tongue: But the strategy is theoretically applicable no matter what enemy you’re facing. Color doesn’t matter, because weak field element or not the damage it does is ridiculous, and the bonus of feint is pretty amazing. Stats shouldn’t matter much either, as long as your agility is high enough to win initiative with 1 card + Feint. With enough charging, enemy HP shouldn’t matter either, it’d just take longer. Mostly, the trick would just be surviving long enough to pull it off–5 turns was enough for Angela. Bad luck of the draw could add a turn or 2 probably. Add skills like Flash for even more ludicrous effect. I pulled off a >100 dmg attack roll earlier than the second princess battle, within 5 turns, using this tactic with Feint + Crush (add +10 for each blue card). That awards a nice chunk of Overkill XP. :wink:

#247

I don’t get it…

Bad End??? What the Hell!!!

…Who!!!..I mean What!!!..But…But…

…Awww Crap. :?

#248

I believe that just happened to me ten minutes ago, completely normal, just keep on playing :lol:

#249

It seems pretty much everyone is getting confused by that bit of the game.
On a gameplay related note, I’ve noticed a moderate error: The Flash and Slash skills are reversed. All descriptions (pop-up tip, and the two areas relating to skills in the “help” section" refer to Flash as applying to green cards, and Slash as applying to red cards, but it is the other way around. If you pay attention to the bonus point indicators you can catch it though.

GnatB, I took up your little challenge and crushed it. Here’s how I accomplished it (I plan on trying again with other princesses forming Iris): First of all, I chose Angela. My stats with her for the final battle were 16 Agility, 19 Weapon, 6 Armor, and 10 for all card colors. I took Rage, Feint, and Overdrive in to the battle. On the first round of battle, I used Rage in order to up all of my card skill values to 12 for the battle. I battled for awhile, taking a few hits while I increased two red cards to a value of 30, as well as lowering the “Super Elder Guardener” to 129 HP. Finally, I was dealt cards resulting in my hand being all red. I used the lowest value red card in combination with Feint, and won initiative even though his hand color was green. Finally, I was in luck that his defense hand was blue. I used all four of the remaining red cards in my hand, in combination with Overdrive, to inflict a mindblowing 330 base damage (that is to say, damage before subtracting the value of the opponent’s hand and armor). Needless to say, I crushed him. Unfortunately, there is no special reward in store for accomplishing this, aside from the self satisfaction of having achieved this feat. It is a real shame too, I would have loved to have seen just how much bonus XP I would have gained from that much overdamage.

#250

Ok, I completed the routes for Lun Lun, Suzushiro, Liesel, and Angela but I still haven’t “found out” who the wisley princess is. Why isn’t she unlocked? This is driving me nuts. What am I suppose to do to get the wisley princess route?

#251

choose each other girl 1 at a time
that is how i got her

Spoilerized by your friendly neighborhood spoiler patrol. ^^ - Shingo

#252

hmm I haven’t tried that yet. thanks, i’ll give it a shot now.

EDIT: That was it! :smiley:

Just finished PW.

#253

Just a quick note that thanks to the help of a customer we’ve managed to determine the cause of (and a fix for) an error that a few customers have been having, where the game crashes right before a transformation sequence video should play. The problem is a conflict with the FFDShow video codec, and can be remedied as described at the following link:

viewtopic.php?f=15&t=5637&start=0

#254

I just started the game. For people complaining about install times, it wasn’t that bad for me. 9 minutes from DVD and <4 minutes from an ISO on a USB drive. The game seems to freeze the first launch every time on my Eee, but it runs fine the second time after I kill the process. My main laptop doesn’t have that problem, so it’s probably a driver issue.

I must have gotten too sensitive to looking for errors after Suika since after playing for about an hour or two, I already found lots of stuff I would change if I were editing it. :lol:

I can’t believe honorifics still aren’t used. MG switched over to using them quickly after fan demand. APC also had some. Seems like a more concrete company policy should be formed. I hope Kazoku Keikaku uses it.

The game is entertaining so far, but I don’t think I’ll get finish it anytime soon or even get to a card battle since I should be studying for finals now.

#255

I was wondering how many routes does this game have ?

#256

Essentially, the game is a single route with a very small bit of variation at a certain point in the story that mainly results in you getting a scene with one of the girls. However, don’t let this discourage you. Even with this fact the game is quite worth it.

#257

So only one ending ? That sort of kills the replayability I would think.

#258

there are 5 scenes that change the game a bit based on the choices you make in chapter 18
chapter 19 will be named after the princess you choose the most o r the beast princess if you choose all 4

#259

Thats reassuring that atleast there is a variance of the storyline, was worried for a moment :3

#260

Yeah, I had that same issue on first launches, but strangely after a few days of the problem, the issue disappeared? No idea what I did.

I have to agree with you, I really WANT to see honorifics, I think it’s a very integral part of the story, since it helps you establish what kind of relationship is between the characters. I don’t know why they don’t use it here, maybe shingo can chime in on that. If PP was ever to poll on if it should be included, my vote would be yes.