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Grandia (Any %) (Segmented)
Verifier Responses
Decision: Accept
Congratulations to Chris-X!
Also congratulations to these verifiers for verifying this game in less than 2 months!
Grandia (Any %) (Segmented)
Verifier Responses
Quote:
Ok, finished watching. Comments:
No cheating detected, A/V is mostly OK, with a few glitches here and there that I am going to assume were recording glitches.
General run comments:
- There was some debate that getting Alheal wasn't really necessary for the run, but I feel that its worth was vindicated during the run. There were a few battles in particular that I feel would have taken a fair bit longer without Alheal. That said, the runner claims that Alheal is learned at level 8, when it's actually learned at level 5, so the runner over-trained water magic and ended up wasting about 10 or so minutes in segment 15 due to that. I'm not sure if those extra 3 levels came even close to being saved due to the cast time decrease or the stat boosts from training the water magic beyond the level that was necessary. Healer is learned at level 8, and it was only ever used once, so that definitely did not pay for itself at all.
- The same segment above showed considerable sloppiness when the runner would go into the menu to heal and spam the confirm button to do the healing more times than necessary, causing wasted frames. The cost for this was likely at least a minute.
- One other spell the runner trained up for was getting Stram for Rapp, which I feel was completely unnecessary. It was only ever used once, and in the battle that it was used in (Baal battle during segment 84), Liete already comes with Stram, so I hardly think it was necessary to get it for Rapp as well.. especially since getting it required training up water magic as well, so there was a lot of wasted time here. During the time that the runner trains Rapp's earth magic, he also trains Justin's earth magic, which I don't see as necessary either. I mean, the stat boosts are nice and all, but unless that difference was life and death, I just don't see this being necessary at all. At the very least, if the stats were necessary, there should be a more efficient way to gain them in another way, because Diggin' takes forever to cast, and water magic on Rapp is never used in the run..
- There was a fair amount of hesitation during battles throughout the run, particularly when the runner ran out of SP on a character and would pause for up to a couple of seconds on a few occasions in order to figure out what to do. This was quite evident against the final boss, and there was a pretty significant case of this during the Hydra battle in segment 77, with quite a lot of very bizarre hesitation near the start and generally throughout.
That said, the planning was otherwise very good, and the strategies employed to kill the bosses and enemies along the way seemed very well thought out, for the most part. Execution, other than 1-2 pathing mistakes and some hesitation during battles, was pretty good as well.
Verdict: Accept the run. I think it's a fine initial entry for the game and a great starting point for future runners to improve upon. Verifier 2 did a great job of breaking down potential optimizations in terms of collecting mana eggs as well.
No cheating detected, A/V is mostly OK, with a few glitches here and there that I am going to assume were recording glitches.
General run comments:
- There was some debate that getting Alheal wasn't really necessary for the run, but I feel that its worth was vindicated during the run. There were a few battles in particular that I feel would have taken a fair bit longer without Alheal. That said, the runner claims that Alheal is learned at level 8, when it's actually learned at level 5, so the runner over-trained water magic and ended up wasting about 10 or so minutes in segment 15 due to that. I'm not sure if those extra 3 levels came even close to being saved due to the cast time decrease or the stat boosts from training the water magic beyond the level that was necessary. Healer is learned at level 8, and it was only ever used once, so that definitely did not pay for itself at all.
- The same segment above showed considerable sloppiness when the runner would go into the menu to heal and spam the confirm button to do the healing more times than necessary, causing wasted frames. The cost for this was likely at least a minute.
- One other spell the runner trained up for was getting Stram for Rapp, which I feel was completely unnecessary. It was only ever used once, and in the battle that it was used in (Baal battle during segment 84), Liete already comes with Stram, so I hardly think it was necessary to get it for Rapp as well.. especially since getting it required training up water magic as well, so there was a lot of wasted time here. During the time that the runner trains Rapp's earth magic, he also trains Justin's earth magic, which I don't see as necessary either. I mean, the stat boosts are nice and all, but unless that difference was life and death, I just don't see this being necessary at all. At the very least, if the stats were necessary, there should be a more efficient way to gain them in another way, because Diggin' takes forever to cast, and water magic on Rapp is never used in the run..
- There was a fair amount of hesitation during battles throughout the run, particularly when the runner ran out of SP on a character and would pause for up to a couple of seconds on a few occasions in order to figure out what to do. This was quite evident against the final boss, and there was a pretty significant case of this during the Hydra battle in segment 77, with quite a lot of very bizarre hesitation near the start and generally throughout.
That said, the planning was otherwise very good, and the strategies employed to kill the bosses and enemies along the way seemed very well thought out, for the most part. Execution, other than 1-2 pathing mistakes and some hesitation during battles, was pretty good as well.
Verdict: Accept the run. I think it's a fine initial entry for the game and a great starting point for future runners to improve upon. Verifier 2 did a great job of breaking down potential optimizations in terms of collecting mana eggs as well.
Quote:
OK, finally done watching the run. Marathon'd the last bit while watching Puwexil run FF9 
Audio/Video: Fine.
Cheating: None detected.
I'm not even sure how to begin this. There's just so much game here, yet there also so much cutscene. So I guess for starters I'll mention to any potential viewers that segments 20 and 90 are all cutscenes. If you want to see gameplay, skip those 2
Spells:
-As verifier #1 said, we debated on whether Alheal was worth it. And I have to agree that it was, but not until at least disc 2. I think it was only used two or three times in all of disc 1, and it seemed like more of a luxury than a necessity. I think the training could have been done a bit differently, given that little bit. Namely, test where the water levels would be at the points they'd be required. Justin needs Crackle for the Boss in the Volcano, and then Feena needs it as well for the Milda fight - but Crackle only requires Water 2. Having Water 5 by the Milda fight would probably be about optimal. This also raises the question of whether getting Alheal on both Justin and Feena is necessary. Liete comes with Alhealer, and it just seems like overkill to have Alheal on 2 characters when 1 would probably suffice. Anyway, back to the testing idea - it pretty much boils down to how far off of having the necessary spells the runner would be, then only grinding the rest early on to make up the difference.
-Also, as verifier #1 said, the runner overtrained Water to 8. Healer is learned at 8, not Alheal, and it was only used once in the entire run. Could have easily done without it. I won't comment on the menu sloppiness that was mentioned since V1 did a good job summing it up.
-Stram for Rapp: I also agree with verifier #1 here. Liete comes with it, and it honestly didn't seem to help THAT much. I think he easily could have gotten away without training earth or water on Rapp at all. Cutting Water from Rapp would also mean one less Mana Egg to collect. Earth is debatable, because the defense bonus can be useful.
-Training Earth for Justin didn't even look necessary at all. I know it's extra STR, but I think Justin only got to Earth 3? It's hard to tell without being able to open the menu and look. Could have probably skipped that Mana Egg too.
-Speaking of Mana Eggs, the runner mentions you need 10 to have all elements on the final 4 characters (Justin needs all 4, Feena and Rapp start with Fire). But the question is why?
--Earth for Justin is unnecessary save for stats.
--If we eliminate training to learn Stram on Rapp, Earth and Water become unnecessary. Earth might still be useful for the occasional Diggin', though.
--If he used all 10 Mana Eggs, then Feena would also have earth. He never once uses this, so the Mana Egg collected was pointless.
--On that same note, he trains Wind for Rapp, which is also never used.
So, Mana Eggs necessary would be Wind/Water for Justin, Wind/Water for Feena, maybe Fire for Justin, and maybe Earth for Rapp. That's 6 Mana Eggs, with 4 being the bare minimum. The time spent getting the extra Eggs could be eliminated.
I do have to agree with Verifier #1 on the hesitation as well in battles. This generally occurred when the runner ran out of SP/MP, and was trying to figure out what to do next. The only time I can seriously overlook it is in the Gaia Core fight, since the runner is pretty well taxed to the limit as far as SP and MP go, and coming up with Attack-All abilities to deal with the small tentacles on the fly becomes more difficult the farther into the fight he goes. In addition, he's about 20-25 minutes into the segment at that point. Given how hard that fight looked, I'm going to bet that his nerves were getting to him a bit.
With that out of the way, the rest I have to say is all positive. The boss fights were well thought out, and the items picked up seemed to all be good choices, save maybe for some stat boosters. Unfortunately, it's difficult to tell what he picked up due to me not knowing German
I actually have to disagree with the other verifier on pathing mistakes. I didn't notice any glaring issues at all, and those that may have looked like it I would wager were there to get around difficult or otherwise impossible to avoid enemies. Obviously the runner would have to chime in here to be 100% sure.
Final Verdict: ACCEPT.
Reason: Though there were some errors (both planning and execution-wise) I don't feel they are enough to warrant a reject, considering how much time could be saved vs. how long this game is. I feel this is a good first entry for this game.
Audio/Video: Fine.
Cheating: None detected.
I'm not even sure how to begin this. There's just so much game here, yet there also so much cutscene. So I guess for starters I'll mention to any potential viewers that segments 20 and 90 are all cutscenes. If you want to see gameplay, skip those 2
Spells:
-As verifier #1 said, we debated on whether Alheal was worth it. And I have to agree that it was, but not until at least disc 2. I think it was only used two or three times in all of disc 1, and it seemed like more of a luxury than a necessity. I think the training could have been done a bit differently, given that little bit. Namely, test where the water levels would be at the points they'd be required. Justin needs Crackle for the Boss in the Volcano, and then Feena needs it as well for the Milda fight - but Crackle only requires Water 2. Having Water 5 by the Milda fight would probably be about optimal. This also raises the question of whether getting Alheal on both Justin and Feena is necessary. Liete comes with Alhealer, and it just seems like overkill to have Alheal on 2 characters when 1 would probably suffice. Anyway, back to the testing idea - it pretty much boils down to how far off of having the necessary spells the runner would be, then only grinding the rest early on to make up the difference.
-Also, as verifier #1 said, the runner overtrained Water to 8. Healer is learned at 8, not Alheal, and it was only used once in the entire run. Could have easily done without it. I won't comment on the menu sloppiness that was mentioned since V1 did a good job summing it up.
-Stram for Rapp: I also agree with verifier #1 here. Liete comes with it, and it honestly didn't seem to help THAT much. I think he easily could have gotten away without training earth or water on Rapp at all. Cutting Water from Rapp would also mean one less Mana Egg to collect. Earth is debatable, because the defense bonus can be useful.
-Training Earth for Justin didn't even look necessary at all. I know it's extra STR, but I think Justin only got to Earth 3? It's hard to tell without being able to open the menu and look. Could have probably skipped that Mana Egg too.
-Speaking of Mana Eggs, the runner mentions you need 10 to have all elements on the final 4 characters (Justin needs all 4, Feena and Rapp start with Fire). But the question is why?
--Earth for Justin is unnecessary save for stats.
--If we eliminate training to learn Stram on Rapp, Earth and Water become unnecessary. Earth might still be useful for the occasional Diggin', though.
--If he used all 10 Mana Eggs, then Feena would also have earth. He never once uses this, so the Mana Egg collected was pointless.
--On that same note, he trains Wind for Rapp, which is also never used.
So, Mana Eggs necessary would be Wind/Water for Justin, Wind/Water for Feena, maybe Fire for Justin, and maybe Earth for Rapp. That's 6 Mana Eggs, with 4 being the bare minimum. The time spent getting the extra Eggs could be eliminated.
I do have to agree with Verifier #1 on the hesitation as well in battles. This generally occurred when the runner ran out of SP/MP, and was trying to figure out what to do next. The only time I can seriously overlook it is in the Gaia Core fight, since the runner is pretty well taxed to the limit as far as SP and MP go, and coming up with Attack-All abilities to deal with the small tentacles on the fly becomes more difficult the farther into the fight he goes. In addition, he's about 20-25 minutes into the segment at that point. Given how hard that fight looked, I'm going to bet that his nerves were getting to him a bit.
With that out of the way, the rest I have to say is all positive. The boss fights were well thought out, and the items picked up seemed to all be good choices, save maybe for some stat boosters. Unfortunately, it's difficult to tell what he picked up due to me not knowing German
I actually have to disagree with the other verifier on pathing mistakes. I didn't notice any glaring issues at all, and those that may have looked like it I would wager were there to get around difficult or otherwise impossible to avoid enemies. Obviously the runner would have to chime in here to be 100% sure.
Final Verdict: ACCEPT.
Reason: Though there were some errors (both planning and execution-wise) I don't feel they are enough to warrant a reject, considering how much time could be saved vs. how long this game is. I feel this is a good first entry for this game.
Decision: Accept
Congratulations to Chris-X!
Also congratulations to these verifiers for verifying this game in less than 2 months!
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