First of all, grinding becomes very difficult with 2 members so in general I’ll build up with a few extra characters to make the process go faster - or just use the speedup function on an NES emulator. Each gate / castle battle though should be defeated with the set officer limit, 2 or 3. Because each battle is vastly difficult, you will need to rack your brain to figure out which officers give you the best chance. Often times it isn’t a tiger officer because of the low soldier counts so you will need to be recruiting quality officers from the enemy. Like Li Ru for example, who is one of the best tacticians you can get for a while despite his low STR. Li Ru’s value lies in his total TP which is crucial in the Dong Zhuo region, arguably the hardest part of the game in a 2-person challenge.

Chang An is probably the toughest battle you’ll face for a while, with Li Ru and someone like Guan Yu. Chances are you’ll need to level up quite a bit to defeat Dong Zhuo, Lu Bu, Jia Xu and Zhang Ji. I had to level up all the way to 474 soldiers for Guan Yu (and the Tong Xian tactic) to defeat those four. Shortly after you will learn Yan Re and then you should be able to blaze through Yuan Shu’s region (literally and figuratively).

Li Ru can then be ousted for a more balanced officer like Xu Zhe aka Dan Fu. The Bow and Trident will help a lot too, ensuring that you do not have too much difficulty getting through the Yuan Shao region. At least until the Ji Zhou battle. I like to leave this alone until I finish Jing Zhou, which is easier despite a challenging battle at Chang Sha Castle. Recruiting Pang Tong should make the Ji Zhou Castle battle extremely easy, and should set you up well for the Shu Region. Abuse the Bei Ji tactic for Pang Tong, especially if you can use Hong Shui on your enemies.

You might want to pair Zhang Ren, Yan Yan or Ma Dai with Pang Tong around this time because of the soldier difference. While those three officers are not as talented as Zhao Yun or Guan Yu, their soldier difference is a big help.

Once you get into Wu, you should be close to having An Sha. Ma Liang has the highest INT for an An Sha tactician but you might want to use Fa Zheng who is just a little behind in the INT category but has 2000 extra soldiers. Use him until you can get someone good in Wu like Lu Su, Zhou Yu, Kan Ze, Zhu Ge Jin, etc. Defeating Zhou Yu is not as hard as you think - just have Fa Zheng / Lu Su be tactician and pair whichever one you have with Zhu Ge Liang. With any luck you should be able to An Sha Zhou Yu early on in that battle, and then Kan Ze.

No trouble until you reach the Sun Quan Battle at Jian Ye. Do your typical An Sha strategy on Tai Si Ci and Lu Sun. Then use Gui Huan to retreat and have Zhu Ge Liang be the tactician in this battle. Sun Quan should then be a pushover - just cast Bei Ji on Zhu Ge Liang, and have him spam Huo Shen to quickly denounce Sun Quan.

As you enter Wei, you get Jiang Wei at Guang Ling Castle. You now have your two best characters for his 2 man challenge, in Zhu Ge Liang and Jiang Wei. Jiang Wei should be the tactician most of the time so An Sha can be used by those two characters. Fighting Cao Pi however you may wish to have Zhu Ge Liang be tactician so you can use Jin Xian to heal and do the Bei Ji - Huo Shen / Shui Long strategy to maul all officers with Cao Pi including Cao Pi himself.

Which brings us to the Si Ma Yi battles. Chances are with two characters you will have a hard time sustaining your TP if you are using Ce Mian. My only luck in the 2 person challenge fighting Si Ma Yi was by An Sha-ing his officers and then hoping and praying that Si Ma Yi does not Wan Fu himself and restore all of his soldiers. With only two characters attacking, and weak characters at that, Wan Fu is likely going to happen a few times unfortunately. Bring Power Pils and use them when he gets below 25000 Soldiers or so. Don’t waste them before that though otherwise you’ll run out if he Wan Fu’s himself.

How about a one-man challenge? i’m sure lots of battles could be completed with just one character but I’d have a hard time believing beating the game is possible using one character in every gate / castle battle!

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Final Fantasy IV DS walkthrough FAQ is on the horizon, with it’s US release just a week away.  To pass the time in the meantime, I’ve been playing FFVI Advance on my DS.

As usual with the Advance ports of SNES FF games, not much has been added to the gameplay.  For the most part it is the same with some changes, notably at the end.  What sticks out most going through the game, is the translation.  You forget how poor the translation is in the SNES version until you play these ones.  You are given an ample amount of detail with what is going around you, instead of having to guess what to do at times.  For example once you solve the puzzle in Darill’s Tomb, you are given more than a vague hint as to what happened.  Back in the old days, these translation issues led to having to use a guide so you could find everything; this is much less the case now with an improved translation used to better explain what is going on around you.

Some things bug me with the translation, like all of the enemies with changed names (so I have no idea who I’m using half the time with Gau’s Rages) and a lot of the classic names that have been banished.   Phantom Rush for Bum Rush?  How could they do away with a classic like that.  Sabin’s Blitz names are all lame now.  But of course these are just minor offenses.

It is fun playing a portable port of this game, and one that does not lag and load like the PS1 Port of FFVI (FF Anthology).  That said when there are a lot of things going on in the screen (like flying around, or being somewhere with lots of sprites) leads to a bit of slowdown.  Nothing egregious but definitely noticeable.

Currently I am in the Dark World, after just getting The Falcon.  RPG’s are always best at this point, where things open up and you can do a lot of different things in any order you choose.  As usual I’ve been spending some time near Maranda fighting the Cactuar’s and Hoover’s (though they have some dumb new name now too).  However I’ve had to save often because I run into the Gigantuar Esper while I’m there, and it slaughters me.  Moves too fast and spams 1000 Needles on me.

You can just use the Final Fantasy VI Walkthrough FAQ for Advance since the game largely is the same.  Or you can buy Final Fantasy VI Advance if you have not done so yet.

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Persona 4 is coming after all to the United States, on December 9th 2008. Persona 4 will be hitting Japanese stores in a matter of days for the Playstation 2 console. ATLUS had a successful showing with Persona 3 and Persona 3 FES so expect Persona 4 to be well received despite being late in the PS2’s tenure.

P4 will be coming with a music CD for just 39$. Each character can acquire Personae in this one and to the delight of many Persona 3 fans, you can control your allies in this one! Not being able to control characters like Yukari and Mitsuru led to a lot of problems in Persona 3, with them wasting turns on Ice Break Wind Break and Mind Charge for example. In turn this will lighten up the difficulty a bit but this could be compensated for by ATLUS with having tougher bosses with more potent attacks, higher attack power, etc.

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Chrono Trigger is coming out on the Nintendo DS.  It is official news not a rumor, so all the old school Squaresoft / Chrono Trigger fans can rejoice. Square Enix states to look for Chrono Trigger DS to make it’s way to North America for the Holiday Season of 2008-09.

Chrono Trigger DS will just be a port of the Super Nintendo / PS1 version, as there are complications in the licensing for a full fledged remake to be possible at the moment.  Still, people have been yearning for activity in the Chrono Trigger series and this will provide that, maybe even leading to a remake later.  Keep in mind the PS1 port of Chrono Trigger was badly flawed with the long loading issues that plagued many PS1 games.

Square-Enix started with a teaser page for Chrono Trigger and most figured out a remake / port was on the horizon.  At na.square-enix.com/ctds/ is a clock, reminiscent of the Chrono Trigger clock.

Many consider Chrono Trigger to be one of the most complete games (and certainly RPG’s) on the market ever.  In battle it uses the Active Battle System to keep you on your toes along with various techs for each character to use.  Great music, great visuals, great characters with a sufficient back story for each, a stimulating story with a dozen ways to complete the game, and plenty of side quests along the way and at the end to please the hardcore RPG gamers who want to get everything!  Save Magus?  Restore Frog to his former self?  Revive Crono?

While Chrono Trigger is a port to the DS, there are some new features that will be present.  For example, the game is on a portable handheld system for the first time and there will now be two screens with touch pad function.  An added dungeon will be present along with wireless internet gaming to add even more depth past the one player journey.

Square Enix has been busy with the release of Dragon Quest IV DS and Final Fantasy IV 4 DS on the horizon.  Just when it seemed Square Enix was done with news, we get a report of Chrono Trigger DS coming within 6 months.  The game is wildly popular and valuable, as Chrono Trigger SNES is $50+ still on Amazon.  Or hunt old school RPG’s by registering with eBay.

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In other news I thought I lost my Nintendo DS when I went to the hospital for a few days.  But then I found the DS somewhere in my house and I am thankful.  With Final Fantasy IV DS and Dragon Quest IV 4 DS on the horizon, I definitely want this console more than any of my others.

More news, Lordyuanshu has a kid and his name is Brendan.

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After a little under a month of working on Persona 3 FES The Journey Walkthrough FAQ, it has been completed.  Within are all the correct answers for the social links, all 100 Elizabeth Request guides, Boss strategies, and additional FES content in the Journey has been documented along the way like the nightly walks with Koromaru to meet social links, find items, and so on.

The experience going through the Journey was more enjoyable and fresh than I thought it would be.  That said I played through Original Persona 3 from when it came out in August until I finished a few weeks later, so it has been some time since picking it up.

It’s really helpful that if you carry your Persona 3 quest over, you do not have to build up your Academics, Charm and Courage.  This allows you to see many more social links and overall it allows for a smoother flow as you are playing, instead of having to spend weeks at a time studying to get those Academics up.

Because you need to spend less time on those characteristics (or no time at all) the challenge of the game has been reduced slightly.  You have more time to train in Tartarus, despite the fact that you can get tired on the day before the full moon in Persona 3 FES.  But there is a Hard Difficulty Mode for FES.

Elizabeth’s new requests are pretty fun, as a few of them involve you getting special items from various characters in your dorm, like a cloth to wipe glasses from Shuji Ikutsuki! There are also more weapons and items to find, along with Persona Fusions and Persona group attacks that are required for more Elizabeth Requests.

Recently I put all of Persona 3 FES The Journey Picture Guide into a txt file.  This has been sent into Gamefaqs or you can just see the Persona 3 FES Journey Walkthrough FAQ here at lordyuanshu.com.

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It turns out the rumor about Square Enix reserving Chapters of the Chosen for Dragon Quest IV DS turned out to be true. About a month from taking the name Chapters of the Chosen, Square Enix has announced that on September 16th 2008, Dragon Quest IV DS will be hitting North American shores. Join Ragner, Alena, Cristo, Brey, Mara, Nara, Taloon and all the other classics from Dragon Warrior IV.

This is much anticipated news as many consider Dragon Quest IV / Dragon Warrior 4 to be one of the best games of all time, and at the very least an elite NES RPG. Dragon Quest IV was going to be re-released for the Playstation 1 but it did not leave Japan.

Other news of interest is that Square Enix announced Dragon Quest V DS and Dragon Quest VI DS. Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride and Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Reverie are scheduled for release but just with the ‘coming soon’ date. Still, it is a pleasant surprise that Square has for sure said these Dragon Quest DS RPG’s will be making it across the shore to North America.

Dragon Warrior IV Walkthrough FAQs

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Persona 3 FES Walkthrough FAQ Guide

Persona 3 FES will reach North American stores tomorrow April 23rd 2008. 100’s have already preordered this on Amazon through lordyuanshu.com because games like this released by ATLUS there generally is not much more than a few copies at any given store (and only EBGames / Gamestop tends to have them anyway).

FES is a great addition for fans of Persona 3 that want 30+ hours of added content, and P3 FES is perfect for those who heard about how great Persona 3 was and didn’t have a chance to play it. First of all, it is cheaper than Persona 3 is still, and that was / is not the easiest game to find anyway. You get to play through the main quest along with all the additions that come with. New Personae to collect. New social link and characters to meet. New costumes for your characters and weapon fusion to add even more customization to your characters. More plot scenes with your characters. And a ton of minor tweaks (more games you can play at the mall, going to the shrine takes up a day activity, you get tired during the day before the full moon).

Episode Aigis is an extension of the normal Journey and there are no more social links. That said you do learn a lot more about the characters in your party. But Aigis meets Metis, her sister, and afterwards it is more journeying to get rid of the Abyss. Personally I am more looking forward to the enhanced regular journey but the Aigis quest looks like it explains a lot more of the story and should be a fun dungeon crawling experience. Buy Persona 3 FES, it is a steal for 29$ and if you watch eBay you can find even better FES deals.

Persona 3 Walkthrough FAQ Guides at Lordyuanshu.com

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There were a few more releases on 4 - 21 - 2008 for the Wii Virtual Console. Another quality Phantasy Star is added (still not 4) in Phantasy Star III Generations of Doom. This is often heralded as the best Phantasy Star in terms of difficulty balance. It still shares some of the same grindy qualities that the first few Phantasy Star’s instilled into the series, but it is no where near as hard as P Star 2. That said it still requires a ton more work going through than Phantasy Star IV, where building up levels is only needed in a few particular areas.

Rhys is the hero of Phantasy Star 3 Generations of Doom and his lady is stolen from him at the beginning of the game. Then the search begins to find her, and eventually the Generations of Doom part comes in as you choose who to marry / have children with for a few generations (including Rhys’ kid). The storyline is not tied together like 2 and 4 for example.

Then of course there is River City Ransom that was for the Nintendo NES but is now for the Virtual Console. This was made by Technos back in the day. It is often times considered one of the best action games around for the NES though it is rather short. Still it is action packed to say the least with all kinds of weapons and characters to mess with you.

Phantasy Star 3 Walkthrough FAQ Generations of Doom

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Of course we have had the Lordyuanshu Dynasty Warriors 6 Walkthrough FAQ up for a while with pictures, descriptions of characters, unlock unlockable characters, DW6 Stage strategies and so on.

I have been getting a lot of emails asking for a .txt version of the Lordyuanshu DW6 guide so I went ahead and did it. It is more simple to read having it all on one page in text in front of you at once, or to print off.

Everything from the website version is compiled inside and submitted to the important places (aka Gamefaqs and our friends a Kongming.net). Lots of other emails come in asking for walkthrough FAQ submissions but I tend to ignore them

Also I have been getting feedback on my walkthrough a few days after submitting it to Gamefaqs. Just want all those users who emailed in to know that in due time I will look over any omissions or questionable strategies (I think my DW6 Fan Castle Wei Side needs a few more run throughs on hard to stop the flood and finish all three targets).

Dynasty Warriors 6 Text Walkthrough Guide. This FAQ should only be here, Gamefaqs, and at Kongming.net.

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