Dota 2 and The Internationals

Dota 2 has been the talk of the vast majority of dota community for months, and the anticipation to see the suitor of the current warcraft 3 custom map DotA finally reached its peak last week when Valve held their own tournament at Gamescom 2011, Cologne, Germany, dubbed "The Internationals" where Dota2 made its debut to the public. The tournament which grants a massive 1 million dollar to the winner, featured 16 well known international Dota1 teams to battle over 5 days (August 17th -21st).

The tournament, which used group stage format before proceeding to playoff in double elimination format, concluded last Sunday which saw Ukrainian powerhouse and one of the tournament's favorite, Navi clinched the top spot, beating the unexpected Chinese team EHOME in the best-of-5 grand final.

Tournament info:

• Dota2: The Internationals (participated teams, bracket, VODs etc)
• Gosugamers: Photo
• Gosugamers: post-tournament picks/bans statistic

Final standings:

1. NaVi ($1,000,000)
2. EHOME ($250,000)
3. Scythe.sg ($150,000)
4. MYM ($80,000)
5. Moscow5 ($35,000)
6. iG ($35,000)
7. OK.Nirvana.int ($25,000)
8. MiTH-Trust ($25,000)

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I was very unfortunate not being able to fully follow the tournament due to work, though I still managed to get the update every now and then, as well as watching Video on Demands (VODs) of a few interesting games. To be honest it was not the tournament that I was looking forward to. But rather, like many others, it was the very dota2 itself. After months and months of waiting, we finally got to see what Dota2 looked like, what the heroes, items, icons looked like.

My impression toward Dota2 after watching The Internationals is rather mixed. The overall graphic is actually nice, because of the cel-shading touch to the 3d environment which made it easy to my eyes. The way the map layout (Neutral creep position, juke spots etc) looked almost exactly like in Dota1 made it even better. But there are also many things about the graphic/design that I do not like. The UI (User Interface) is way too bland and boring, with some space wasted between the hero avatar and the minimap/inventory (like HoN). The dots on minimap is kinda too small and hard to see, and that's a problem to a person like me. I also wish the color scheme of sentinel (now the radiant) and scourge (now the dire) is modified because at the moment I have difficulty differentiating sentinel and scourge's creeps -_-

A typical Dota2 screen: main game (left) and picking phase (right)

Some of the hero models were nice (Doom and Nightstalker got my award for best models), but some others were terrible. Storm Spirit is too small, and I REALLY want a Panda model : ( Earthshaker now looked like a chimpanzee running around with a totem. Mirana's "dog" is awfully designed, while Antimage need his head changed, or at least made him blindfolded. It's definitely going to take time to get accustomed to these new model, and over time we might forgot the fact that Rhasta and Dazzle were trolls. The courier model kinda looked retarded, but I somehow like it : ) There are also various effects/icons (eg Radiance aura, ES ulti, Nevermore's Raze etc) that I think need to be changed, and I definitely hope the full (?) version of Dota2 which is likely to be released next year to be slightly different than what we saw at Gamescom. The image of all currently available heroes and items can be viewed at this website. You can also comment about their models, and who knows, someday the critics might reach to Valve so that they changed/modify the models that the community think didn't suit the hero.

graph for difference in gold earned

As for in-game feature, there's some adjustments, but one thing I like is the stats/graph that show the difference in gold earned by both team, which give a mild indication of which team had the advantage at that point of time.

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The Internationals

As I previously said, I didn't pay much attention to the significance of winning or losing the tournament, because the game itself is still in beta phase with over half of Dota1 heroes unavailable, which means some of the current metagame featuring the mainstream picks (eg Omniknights, Broodmother, Invoker and Batrider) can't be used at its fullest. But that being said, I still enjoyed the tournament, because the tournament still produced some interesting games. And the fact that everyone's favorite shoutcaster TobiwanKenobi was there to shoutcast for Dota2 made VoD viewing much more fun. Gosugamers user vertigo compiled the VoD links to some of the best moments/matches of the tournament in this thread, so check it out.

One game that particularly amazed me is NaVi vs EHOME final game 2, which many others also voted as the best game of the tournament. This game has everything Dota2 can offer (it also has Pudge getting picked!), and it was evenly matched, going back and forth with both teams exchanging kills in each team clashes, and it's hard to tell which team is going to win until the last moment. NaVi always has 2 or 3 kills advantage throughout the game, but EHOME had significant gold and roshan advantage midway through the game. The game also had some of the best moments in the tournament, coming from Puppey's Chen - amazing micro to use dominated screep to block the enemies and save himself from being killed, then on many occasions later, he saved his allies by teleporting them back to base with Test of Faith. Totally amazing stuff pulled by Puppey.

Now that The Internationals is over, we're back to Dota1, and I can't wait for ESWC, WDC and our own's SMM : )

Valkyrie Profile: revisited

After finishing P3P some months ago, I decided to play an old game that really grew fond on me – Valkyrie Profile Lenneth. Technically it is my second playthrough, because I’ve played and finished the PS1 version before.

A bit of history about Valkyrie Profile and me: I was introduced to Valkyrie Profile series back then when the 2nd installment, Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria was released for PS2 (around 2006 I think), and it instantly became one my lifelong favourite jrpg due to its unique gameplay, beautiful graphic and (loose) usage of Norse mythology. Then I tried to look for the prequel game Valkyrie Profile 1, released for PS1. But the game was extremely scarce at that time (because of many reasons, such as the being released at the end of PS1 era/beginning of PS2 era), and it was not until quite some time after I finished VP2 (around end 2006) that I was fortunate enough to find a copy of VP1. Needless to say, I completed the game, getting all three endings as well as getting a bit of journeying into Tri-Ace’s typical secret dungeon, Seraphic Gate. But I still had unfinished business with the game (especially regarding Seraphic Gate), so after quite some years, I’m back to VP1, this time into the ported version on PSP, Valkyrie Profile Lenneth.

During the stone age of this blog, I’ve written some lousy, half-ass reviews (here and here) of the Valkyrie Profile franchise, but never write something exclusively for VP1. Now that I’ve finished the PSP’s VP:Lenneth, I decided to give a more elaborate thought on the game (not to the extend of a full review though), and the many thing that brings the memories of VP1 and VP2 from the old days...

Title: Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth
Developer: Tri-Ace
Platform: Playstation Portable (PSP)
Genre: jrpg
Release date: July 2006


Story

As mentioned, the basic story of VP1 revolves loosely around the Norse-Scandinavian myth. Lenneth, a reincarnation of an unfortunate girl named Platina, was awakened in Asgard by Odin to do her duty as the second Valkyrie - descend to human world Midgard and recruit potential Einherjar, then send them back to Asgard to prepare for Ragnarok - the end of the world, and the war against the Vanir. That's pretty much the base of the story, but the plot can expand into a very personal issue between Lenneth, Loki, and her past memories as human; and this part of story can only be achieved if you do specific things during the course of the game and aim for the Ending A. Anyway despite being the first of the Valkyrie Profile series, the story of VP1 actually occurred some few thousand years after the events in VP2: Silmeria.

This brings us to the endings. The game has three endings: Ending A (good), B (normal) and C (bad). (spoiler alert) Obviously Ending A is the best and something that made the game has its “story”, but it require a bit of planning in order to be achieved. Though I personally never liked this ending, because I don't like that "man". Ending B was a bit dull if you ask me, because it’s all about Valkyrie and her duty as Valkyrie: go to Midgard, recruit Einherjar, send someone before the end of chapter, and at the end of the game, fight the battle of Ragnarok at Jotunheim. Ending C is about Lenneth failing her duty as Valkyrie and hence banished to kingdom come by the mighty Freya herself. While it is not a nice ending at all, it’s worth to watch at least, plus if you’re confident enough, you might want to try beating Freya, although she is extremely hard to beat, probably even harder than the Ethereal Queen at Seraphic Gate.

Great addition of CGI Movies

VP: Silmeria has everything contained in the original VP1 with little to no change: same graphic, same gameplay, same game content; basically a more straightforward port than Persona 3 ported to PSP into P3P. But one interesting stuff added for VP:Lenneth is the 12 CGI movies replacing the many cutscenes that originally exist in the original VP1. These movies were definitely beautiful (I think you could find them on utube). Some were unimpressive (eg Lucian’s blues moment), but a few others definitely caught my attention. Among them are the cutscenes at Brahm’s castle, showing Lenneth’s marching through Brahms’s throne, only to find the crystallised Silmeria alongside him. Another scene that got me really excited is Alicia(!)’s appearance in Dipan, a cutscene that was much similar to the one we see in VP2 (with her appearing from the crowd when King Barbarossa was about to be guillotined by Hrist), except that the Alicia in those scene was…well, less cute I guess.


Seraphic gate, as usual

Being a Tri-Ace's game I always anticipated a great extra dungeon with super hard bosses waiting inside. IIRC VP1 is the among the first Tri-Ace’s game that introduced this kind of extra dungeon, and most importantly, the two iconic, trademark Tri-Ace’s super bosses, Gabriel Celeste and her sister Ethereal Queen. Seraphic Gate later reappear in Infinite Undiscovery and VP2, with GC and EQ reappearing in Star Ocean 3, Star Ocean 4, Radiata Stories, Infinite Undiscovery and VP2. Seraphic Gate in VP1 was a completely separate dungeon/mode that detaches itself from the main game, accessible from the main menu once we reach the final save point in Ending A or B. Kind of a shame because unlike VP2 where SG is part of the main game, this means whatever we accrue in Seraphic Gate (the extra characters, uber weapons etc) can never be brought into the main game.

Anyway, exploring Seraphic Gate in VP1/VP:Lenneth is only enjoyable if we play in Hard Mode because there are secret rooms in this dungeon that can only be unlocked by certain items obtained only from Hard Mode dungeons (yes, in this game there are a number of dungeons that were only available in a specific difficulty only), and these unlockable includes uber characters Freya (!), Brahms, and the mad scienti- ops, mad mage Lezard Valeth; and extremely overpowered weapons/gears like Holy Wand of Telos, Ether Laser and Eternal garb. Then the final challenge, Gabriel Celeste and Ethereal Queen. The monsters in the area round Ethereal Queen are the hardest in the game, and it's very unlikely to survive these fights without Auto-Item and Guts. Speaking of Auto-Item and Guts, these are arguable the two most important equipped skill in the game. Why? Because in VP1, many bosses can kill you easily with their special attack (aka PWS/Great Magic), and Auto Item skill helps immensely to immediately brings back the dead or heal the low hp allies when using item/spell manually will cost a turn. I have never played a game where healing items are significantly more important than the spell counterpart. Oh, Ethereal Queen's special attack, Empress Massacre can deal about 1 million damage to any single character -_-

Nevertheless, I ended up beating EQ 10 (!) times, getting a Tri-Emblem as the first reward, 8 Book of Riddles (which absolutely has no use) in the next 8 times I beat her, and an Angel Slayer, the strongest weapon in the game in the 10th battle. Those who explored Seraphic Gate in VP2 will remember this pattern, and in fact, the Book of Riddles that we got in VP2 had similar message as the one we got from VP1's Seraphic Gate. Another returning SG features from VP1 to VP2 is the "hamsters", a tiny, cute little animal in SG that like to appear in groups. Unfortunately, they were also the most dangerous, the hardest enemy to beat in the game, because....they're too small!!

My end game party, and some of the "Book of Riddles". Now, why Nanami instead of Lezard, you ask? Because I like Nanami's battle quotes XD

The full text of the Book of Riddles:

1. Congratulations on clearing it! I thank you for playing the game so much.
2. Wow, you cleared the Seraphic Gate 3 times...What else are you hoping for?
3. Did you finish the game again? I'm so happy that you like the game this much. But there's really no reward...
4. Do you want to play more?! There's no reward, is there? Why don't you do something else already?
5. Are you getting sick of this yet? Unlike Star Ocean, you can get only to level 99...
6. What game should I play next...
7. maybe next will be STAR OCEAN The T???d Story...
8. I'm back. Can't believe I have to do it 9 times... Anyway, I only have one more to do. If I finish that...

p/s: Whenever I watched Etherealsky’s Cool Edition, I always smile at the Mystina part (at 2:13), because indeed, I kinda feel sorry for her because while other major characters reappear in VP2 (Lenneth, Odin, Freya, Lezard, Brahms, Arngrim etc), she was left out. Well, Lucian also was left out but he was never my favourite character (despite the usefulness of his Slash Bolt in battle) I’d rather not having him in VP2.

MYM vs Navi F4F3

Last 2 weeks, one particular game caught the attention of competitive dota community. Or to be exact, the non-chinese community. It was game 2 of Winner Bracket Final of Farm4Fame3 between Danish-based MYM and Ukraine-based Navi. The game was rated Replay of the Week on Gosugamers, with over 11 pages of comments cumulated in just a few days. I admit that since WDC last year, I barely followed European scene and I never watched any European game this year, so for the first time, I feel compelled to watch this so-called epic game of MYM vs Navi.

Events: Farm4Fame3, Winner bracket final
Maps/version: Dota-allstars 6.72f, version 1.26
GameMode: -cm
Length: 82:07 minutes

replay download: [gosugamers]

VOD: [Tobi's Joindota] (amazing shoutcast, really)

After watching the whole game (Tobi's VOD, that is), I would agree that the game is worth the RR status because of the epic comeback. It was indeed an epic game – Navi managed to claim mid and bot rax and took MYM’s Tree of Life’s health to just below 200, but somehow MYM managed to defend and crawl back to steal the victory. A recommended game to watch, but IMO it did not deserve the RotW status as labelled in Gosugamers, because the game is filled with many unnecessary mistakes that almost cost MYM the game, but certainly cost Navi, and some that I'd like to point out:

• Base-rush by both side @44 min. It was a judgement mistake by MYM to have Windrunner going for top rax alone, while the whole of Navi went for mid. In the end MYM claim 1 rax in exchange of their own 2 raxes, and almost the Tree itself. MYM certainly could play it safer by having Windrunner TP back to base to help defending against Navi’s push. But if not for this decision, we would never see the epic comeback, no?

• The biggest mistake in the game – Alchemist’s item choice. Whether it is good to get a Manta Style and keeping that Vanguard late in the game is debatable, but not getting a BKB when he had 8k gold in his pocket is a big mistake. So many times Alchemist was rendered useless in battle because he was repeatedly hexed by Tinker and Windrunner. If he had got the BKB, he could probably finish the low-HP Tree of Life (at 57:30 game time). Now you might say MYM had Beastmaster’s Ulti that can counter BKB, but Navi’s Broodmother (who was virtually useless all games because of BM's Ulti) also got a BKB, so Beastmaster can only Ulti/disable 1 of them, and the rest of MYM (who had tons of disables in Tinker, Windrunner and ES) cannot do anything to the other BKB’d hero. I would even say Dendi's Venomancer also should try to get a BKB.

Nevertheless, it was still an entertaining game to watch particularly if you watched the VOD with Tobi’s shoutcast, his energy simply made any game worth to watch. Kudos to MYM for the great teamwork shown while defending their base, especially Mania's Earthshaker’s many great stuns and ultis.

Anyway, with Dota 2 The Internationals coming next week, pitting the best teams from all over the world, I am still not convinced that MYM or Navi (or any other non-Chinese team) could beat the Chinese. Yes the Chinese scene went through the Great Shuffles several times this year, but you don't often see them doing unforced error/miscommunication that could cost the game, like what Navi did many times in this game, and their grand final game. I hope I'm wrong though, because I do want to see that for once, a non-Chinese team could reach the top in an international LAN event.

p/s: I actually want to cover Tyloo's victory over iG at last week's WCG, but the replay is still not out -_-

Yousei Teikoku - Mischievous of Alice

Title: Mischievous of Alice
Artist: Yousei Teikoku
Release Date: July 27, 2011

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Track List:

• 01．Mischievous of Alice
• 02．emergence
• 03．Mischievous of Alice (instrumental)
• 04．emergence (instrumental)

Download link: [HF/FSN]
*download link will be added later*

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It's been quite some time since Yousei Teikoku release any major single (the last one being Gothic Lolita Agitator, last December. So when Mischievous of Alice was released, it surprised me in several ways. For one, the songs in this single kinda gave a different feeling than those we listened to in recent years (notably Baptize and Rebellion Anthem). Mischievous of Alice (the song) is obviously the highlight of this single (and an awesome one at that), but how long has it been since we listened to a ballad (?) song like Emergence? I swear the last time I listened to that kind of song from her is when she was still in Denkare (and there's many of these songs in their release). Not saying I didn't enjoy it, but I certainly enjoyed Mischievous of Alice a whole lot more.

Persona 3 Portable, MaleMC Route

The last time I played Persona 3 Portable (last year, playing as female MC), I mentioned that I was planning to replay the game as Male MC in the future. I didn't have the chance to do so, until about a few months ago when I leave my ps3 behind to work, leaving my PSP as my sole entertainer (unless you count DotA in my laptop). The reason I wanted to replay the game a second time is exactly as I previously mentioned: Getting 100% persona compendium, max all Social Links that I failed to finish the last time I played FES on PS2, and the ultimate challenge, beat the secret bosses (Margaret and Elizabeth) on Maniac (I only did half of the Vision Quests during my FemMC play).

Also, when I first began my 2nd playthrough, I planned to use a different party than what I used for FemMC (Yukari, Akihiko and Mitsuru), but as it turned out, I ended up sticking with the same 3 people in my party. And the reason is mostly based on my assesment on each character's ability to dungeon crawl and boss battle. Only on certain bosses (especially Margaret) I changed my party members..

• Yukari - She's simply the better Healer in the game (not counting MC), and she can provide good wind elemental support if needed. Ken is another alternative healer, but his combat prowess isn't that great (Samsara is miles better than his single target Hamaon, although I favor Alice's DieForMe more), and I personally had issue with this kid (especially because of his SL with FemMC).

• Mitsuru - I was planning to switch her for Aigis later, but in the end, I still kept her to the end. She's not a great physical dealer, but she's one of the best magically. Ice boost+Amp+Magic Charge+Bufudyne pretty much become my 2nd major offensive damage against many bosses.

• Akihiko - He's my mainstay early in the game because many monsters/bosses are weak to his Zio, and later in the game, because of his debuff skill, which I always use against bosses.

• Aigis - I planned to use her instead of Mitsuru, but IMO her physical skills weren't that great until much later in the game, and she didn't have elemental spells to exploit enemies's weakness (which is why Mitsuru is better). She's a great buffer, but those skills (the multi-target ma- buffs type) also come late in the game. So in the end, she's out of my party for almost the entire game, except against Margaret.

• Junpei - Probably the best physical attacker in the game, nice buffer (Rakukaja) with an elemental attack (Agi) for weakness exploit. But again, he only shines when he learnt Vorpal Blade (level 74), and only on certain date (for his "great" condition). One of the people I actually don't mind switching in and out while dungeon crawling, but ultimately didn't use him much. Nevertheless, he contributed A LOT in my fight against Margaret. On a side note, Spring of Life is kinda a waste of skill slot.
  

• Koromaru - No comment, I haven't use him at all Persona 3. No reason really though. Blanca was my main party back then in Shadow Hearts Covenant (until Anastacia joined the party), but I didn't really feel doing the same thing for Koro.

• Ken - I hate this boy, nuff said.

• Shinjiro - well, do I need to tell why?

Social Links

Part of the reason why I wanted to replay MaleMC route is because I wanted to max all SL, which as mentioned before, I failed to complete during my P3 Ps2 run. That run was totally messed up, I remembered failing to complete Mitsuru's SL, getting reversed on Kanji's Magician and Chihiro's Justice, as well as not completing many others (such as Moon, Star and Fortune)...total chaos ==

So just like my FemMC run, in the end I managed to max all SL in my MaleMC playthrough, and I didn't think I missed much from my unfinished PS2 run. Gourmet King Nozomi's Moon and Doctor-wannabe Keisuke's Fortune SL were downright boring, Rival athlete Mamoru's Star is okay at best, Kanji's Magician SL was kinda refreshing (though Junpei's Magician for FemMC was way better), Aigis's Aeon was also boring although it didn't change much from the FemaleMC (or vice versa), but most importantly, as awkward the SL were developed (from learning to act like commoners to lover), I really like Mitsuru's SL, probably my favorite Social Link on MaleMC play, with Yukari's Lovers came close in 2nd. Anyway, apparently the script from P3FES were ported straight into P3P without any change, because in P3P, the game still stated that the girls might get upset if we two (or three, or more)-timing when in fact we can form as many lovers as we want without hurting other SL.

My three main Persona in P3P MaleMC: Super Alice for sweeping the Tartarus w/ Morning Star, Siegfried for physicals, Orpheus Telos for Liz and Marg.

Maniac, Monad and Vision Quest...the unfinished business

Maniac mode isn't as hard as I thought after all. I was expecting something gruesomely challenging like Star Ocean 4's Chaos mode, but what I experienced from Maniac mode is that enemies hit you harder, and (probably) the most important thing that affect your Maniac play, the MASSIVE increase in Persona compendium cost. Even a low level persona like Apsaras and Angel can cost a lot more than you earn during your exploration in the first block of Tartarus. This essentially means before we exit Tartarus, we need to carefully prepare our persona library for the upcoming few weeks, rather than relying on compendium. I even thought that I might not be able to get 100% compendium due to the ridiculous price of the high level persona (some would cost more than a million yen), but luckily higher floors loots and battle coins gave a lot of money that in the end, I can even resummon a level 97 Messiah (which cost near 2 million) over and over again to get his heart item. Oh, and I got an Omnipotent Orb in my second try. Lucky bastard : )

100% compendium \o/ Apparently the compendium data is still carried over even in Maniac, hence the Orpheus I got from my FemMC run count as the remaining 1% (we only get 99% persona completion in each play)

And finally, the last challenges that P3P offered, the Monad and Vision Quest, aka beating Elizabeth and Margaret. Needless to say, I managed to beat them thanks to the very detailed and specific pattern that the boss use. For Margaret, it's all about dealing enough damage during her first physical phase (and I got Junpei in great condition on Jan 28th to help with Vorpal Blade), and past that phase, it's all easy. Elizabeth (or Theo) is slightly more difficult, but beating her is more about luck than skills, especially when we're nearing her ~10,000+ hp threshold. I personally had a more difficult time with Elizabeth because in many of my attempts, she would always seem to crit me to death at least once. Only then I found the answer to this problem - Enduring Soul... -__-
With Elizabeth beaten, I got my 2nd Omnipotent Orb, but do I really need it? Nyx is no longer a challenge by this point, and playing a New Game+ on other than Maniac mode with all these goodies carried over will totally kill the fun, considering I'm at level 99, and therefore making any battle in Tartarus meaningless.

So, will I ever returned to P3P? Likely not, but who knows. But I gotta say P3P was pretty enjoyable, even though it didn't have The Answer.