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Nidoking
Jan 27, 2009

I fought the lava, and the lava won.

Glazius posted:

So on a scale from "easy" to "dead before the screen transition finishes", how easy is the end boss going to be?

Two tries, but it worked out because there was something rather important that the boss didn't do the first time through.

Mraagvpeine posted:

Is this LP going to end on part 100?

That was the original plan, but there's too much bonus material to make two very long videos. So there will be 98 parts to the main LP (plus a second version of one of the videos) and four bonus videos.

By the way, if anyone's not celebrating today with friends or family, it might be a good time to review the key videos from this chapter to refresh your memory on what happened before we got into the endless run of quests. That's the intro video and the first combat video for each part - Keats' first part and Ellen's second part. Or even just Ellen's second part. I've got a brief recap at the start of the boss video, but it's necessarily very brief.

Nidoking fucked around with this message at 16:10 on Dec 24, 2014

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Nidoking
Jan 27, 2009

I fought the lava, and the lava won.
It's Christmas in my time zone, so I hope it's a good one for anyone out there who celebrates it. It's based on a much older tradition that I don't think was Celtic specifically, so I don't know how many people reading this thread have heard of it. Anyway, it's a time for giving, so I'm giving all of you an extra video today. It's the most combat-intensive video, probably, because most of it is me fighting the final boss of the game. The final mysteries are beginning to unravel...



Chapter 7 Folklore Youtube

Chimera-gui
Mar 20, 2014
After all the hell Phutcampus has gone through over the years before Ellen found him, I'm so happy that he was one of the folks that saved the day. :3:

racerabbit
Sep 8, 2011

"HI, I WANT TO HUG PINS NUTS."
:frolf:
Did not see that boss coming at all. Scarecrow's origin* I had guessed, but not his motivation.

*tagged for those who haven't watched the video.

Renoistic
Jul 27, 2007

Everyone has a
guardian angel.
I beat the boss on my first try, but it took FOREVER. Even if it's a bit too long, it's one of the most visually interesting and intense bossfights I've seen in an action RPG. I never saw the boss coming, though.

Renoistic fucked around with this message at 06:34 on Dec 26, 2014

Nidoking
Jan 27, 2009

I fought the lava, and the lava won.
I knew ahead of time that the attack that killed me was unblockable, and had I acted on that knowledge and dodged it, I think I would have beaten it on my first go as well. I also think the LP as a whole would have been poorer for it.

Nidoking
Jan 27, 2009

I fought the lava, and the lava won.
This is it. The final video of the main playthrough. In this video, all questions are answered, at least as much as they ever will be. This is the end of Folklore. Thank you all for watching.



Finale Youtube

This is not, of course, the end of the thread, but I have no set schedule for the bonus videos and will post them whenever they're ready. I haven't yet decided what I'll LP next, but I'll announce it here when I've started. I guess I could let the people who've stuck with me through nearly two years of Folklore help me decide, but I've got a front runner that I need to investigate on technical grounds next week, and if it works, I'll have to record the entire game before posting any of it. Otherwise, I may just post my short list here and leave it up for discussion. Until then, I hope you've enjoyed the game and that the bonus material will continue to entertain and educate you.

Mraagvpeine
Nov 4, 2014

I won this avatar on a technicality this thick.
Thank you for playing this game. It's really quite the gem.

Zanzibar Ham
Mar 17, 2009

You giving me the cold shoulder? How cruel.


Grimey Drawer

Nidoking posted:

I knew ahead of time that the attack that killed me was unblockable, and had I acted on that knowledge and dodged it, I think I would have beaten it on my first go as well. I also think the LP as a whole would have been poorer for it.

A bit late, but what's crazy is that I could swear I saw you block that attack a bit earlier, so when it got past your guard I was extra surprised.

Gonna watch the epilogue right now, but just wanted to say thanks for LPing this. It was a cool mystery!

racerabbit
Sep 8, 2011

"HI, I WANT TO HUG PINS NUTS."
:frolf:
Thank you for the LP, Nidoking. The game turned out differently than I thought, and really was great!

Chimera-gui
Mar 20, 2014
Thanks for the LP Nidoking, this was great.

NGDBSS
Dec 30, 2009






Thanks for playing! One of my roommates owns a copy of this plus a PS3, so hopefully I'll be able to follow along on my own.

Childre Inarabitta
Jul 22, 2007

Frozen Funeral Death Rabbit
Thank you for sticking through with this LP. This has taken an incredibly long time to finish but I'm glad you did! I was only able to stomach the game's grind up to Hell Realm, so while I did enjoy the story I never finished it. I'm really happy to finally know the game's ending!

PRL412
Sep 11, 2007

... ... MINE
Great stuff! The item/karma grinding is a tall order, but it was nice to see all the folks getting their time in the sun.

Nidoking
Jan 27, 2009

I fought the lava, and the lava won.
Thanks for the kind words, everyone. I have one more item of prepared content for chapter 7 to post today, so while the videos for the main playthrough are complete, it wouldn't be a finished LP without the Bestiary entries for Ellen and Keats. I don't know whether I would have bothered grinding for Karmas without guests, though, so I wouldn't have built the appreciation I have for some of the Folks. I'm always looking for ways to turn more of the gameplay into viewable content rather than editing it out, so this has all worked out very well. As for bonus videos, I've got the first one done but think I should sit on it for a bit, because I had a rather annoying setback yesterday when several hours of recordings were corrupted beyond simple repair, and I didn't feel like trying to extract pieces of the videos that might have been good or hoping that the parts I needed would be usable - I just deleted them and will probably try again later this weekend, capturing in smaller segments in the hope that that was the problem. I'm probably not going to end up covering absolutely everything with the quest repeats - I plan to complete the ones where I got Folks as rewards, but not necessarily rare items, and there are some with interesting dialogue available that I didn't know about previously, but I don't know whether I want to spend that much time checking every quest to find the few that are worth presenting. If my capture hardware or software is completely horked, then I might even have to skip that entirely, but I'm optimistic for now. I also need more hardware for the game I wanted to LP next, so I have to decide where to go from here. Game Republic did one other game that I want to LP someday, but I may need a steady co-commentator for that, because it's even slower than Folklore and much sparser of story. There are also a few graphic adventure games I want to cover, including a return to the Gobliiins series now that I know how to make an LP semi-competently, and I've been trying to come up with an interesting way to do something with Hyrule Warriors, mainly for those who are on the fence about buying it. It would be nice to do something short, though. I should be back with more Folklore videos pretty soon, in any case.

Nidoking fucked around with this message at 14:46 on Jan 3, 2015

Nidoking
Jan 27, 2009

I fought the lava, and the lava won.
It's time for the final bit of grinding, and the final update with JamieTheD and educational content. First, however, since the Folks in this video will be completely new to you (and they were mostly new to me as well, at the time), you might want to read the Bestiary entries for them, as well as the remaining few DLC Folks that weren't tied to a particular chapter.

Ellen

Keats

And now the final grind and what little lore there is for this meager set of Folks.



Dungeon Trial Folk Grinding Youtube

I've got all the footage I really need to cover the remaining portions of the LP, although the coverage of quests will be slightly less than comprehensive. I think you'll get the idea. I've edited the videos and just need to find the time to do commentary, which has been tough lately partly due to real life but admittedly mainly due to Hyrule Warriors. I only have one weapon left to unlock and it's really bugging me. I'm hoping to continue posting one video a week, but that remains to be seen. I promise not to start working on my next LP until this one is complete, though, so I'm not neglecting anyone.

GimmickMan
Dec 27, 2011

Finally caught up after like a month and I think everyone else has already said pretty much everything I wanted to say. You guys are troopers for doing these long grinding videos and making them palatable edutainment.

Glazius
Jul 22, 2007

Hail all those who are able,
any mouse can,
any mouse will,
but the Guard prevail.

Clapping Larry
Huh. So was Keats Herve, in the same way Ellen was Cecilia?

I don't exactly want to go back and watch, but did Keith get Mnemosyned a lot of Herve-centric memories?

Nidoking
Jan 27, 2009

I fought the lava, and the lava won.

Glazius posted:

Huh. So was Keats Herve, in the same way Ellen was Cecilia?

I don't exactly want to go back and watch, but did Keith get Mnemosyned a lot of Herve-centric memories?

Not in the same way, certainly. Ellen was Cecilia grown up under a new name, having forgotten most of her childhood through a mechanism that's never really explained but can be imagined easily. Herve died as a child, and Keats was a being created from Cecilia's projection of what he would be like when he grew up. What portion of Keats was based on Ellen's memories as opposed to the memories of Herve that were collected in the Netherworld is anyone's guess.

I don't remember most of the Mnemosyne memories being things that either Cecilia or Herve would have witnessed. We saw Ryan talking to Harriet privately, for example. I believe that, whatever the explanation for everything that happened, we have to agree that the Netherworld exists within the game universe and contains memories, including some which aren't known to any living person but can still be accessed by a Messenger.

Nidoking
Jan 27, 2009

I fought the lava, and the lava won.
Dungeon Trial is really, really dull. It's the same Folks you've fought in the rest of the game, but instead of beautiful landscapes with interestingly-designed rooms, you're fighting in identical square rooms with empty corridors between them. The game requires that dungeons have empty corridors instead of being filled with rooms. Some people take that farther than is required, but no matter what, you're running through empty corridors between fights. And you have to do a lot of fighting to earn the decent rewards. I stopped when I had all of the Folks and only played one more run with each character, specifically to record this video. You can decide for yourself if this is something you want to do, if indeed you have the game. Otherwise, do what I did and have a TV with something interesting to watch on it while you run through dungeons.



Bonus video: Dungeon Trial mode Youtube

The final two videos will actually be additional content from the main game, and mostly limited to the interesting parts, so stick around for those.

pick-e
Aug 10, 2014
I like the look of the whole two/three Dungeon Trial rooms, but yeah that would get dull quickly. The "battle" rooms seem smaller than your standard story mode fighting areas so against the right mix of buffed Folks battles could potentially get heated? Despite the limitations there's bound to be some interesting dungeons out there. It's just a shame that this mode is just as grindy as the main game and even more of a shame that when/if it goes offline its Folks will be unobtainable.

Nidoking
Jan 27, 2009

I fought the lava, and the lava won.

pick-e posted:

I like the look of the whole two/three Dungeon Trial rooms, but yeah that would get dull quickly. The "battle" rooms seem smaller than your standard story mode fighting areas so against the right mix of buffed Folks battles could potentially get heated?

Some of the rooms I had the most trouble with were either Bullseyes and Barragers or Bullseyes and Hawks. Those guys can fill a room with attacks like nobody's business, and there's no good way to fight large numbers of them at once. Ellen made do with Habetrot and Mabinogion, while as Keats, I was running around and launching Automata every chance I had. Those were the rooms that usually cost me the health bonus.

GimmickMan
Dec 27, 2011

There's not a lot of room (:v:) to explore with level design either, just customizing the folks that show up. Maybe some kind of co-op or competitive mode would have made it more fun. But I guess this is better than nothing.

Nidoking
Jan 27, 2009

I fought the lava, and the lava won.
I'm still cranking out videos, so unless there's some other thing worth watching on this lovely (snowy, depending on where you are) Superb Owl Sunday, you might want to see what I found in the quests that I felt was interesting enough to make a bonus video of. For the most part, a bit of dialogue changes here and there, a few rewards have been replaced with more mundane items, and I have a better idea of how to beat some of the quests I didn't do so well on the first time around. It's not a long video, but it brings me closer to completion. Next time will be the final Folklore video I ever plan to make.



Quests bonus video: Youtube

Nidoking
Jan 27, 2009

I fought the lava, and the lava won.
All good things must come to an end. So must this LP. This video covers little of interest, particularly since the last scene is something I really should have covered in the LP proper, but it's our final sendoff for this game. I said it in the video, in the description, and hopefully at least a few times in the thread, but thank you for taking this two-year journey with me.



Final bonus video Youtube

From here, I'm afraid I'll have to take a short break due to work obligations, which would make it difficult to establish a startup schedule for a new LP in the short term, but I plan to cover another niche game which has managed to find quite a foothold in popular culture recently and gain a bit of long overdue relevance. It's been done to death by now, but I remain convinced that there can never be too many LPs of Psychonauts, so I hope you'll keep an eye out and join me for that.

And is anyone really concerned about the character list in the second post? I never bothered to update it, but I think adding much more would spoil bits of the plot for new viewers once this gets to the Archive. I've got character portraits for some of the Halflives, which would probably be good to add, at least.

Mraagvpeine
Nov 4, 2014

I won this avatar on a technicality this thick.
Concerning the character list, outside the Halflives like you said, you skipped on some human characters like: Pub Master (you could say he gives you daytime quests), Charlotte, and O'Connell (with him you could just say that he's some creepy guy who watches the place where Ellen is staying in the village).

Other than that, thanks for the great LP.

Zuzie
Jun 30, 2005

I got this for a Ratatta on GTS.


Thank you for the LP, I'm kind of in awe at how comprehensive it was. Great job of showing off a game that I've never even heard of before.

racerabbit
Sep 8, 2011

"HI, I WANT TO HUG PINS NUTS."
:frolf:
Thank you for this LP, Nidoking! I am pleased that a game I (and many reviewers) wrote off turned out to be such a gem! I still wouldn't have the patience to finish it, though.

I'm looking forward to seeing your take on Psychonauts!

pick-e
Aug 10, 2014
This was quite the long lasting and enjoyable LP but all tales must come to an end. Great job showing off a pretty okay game, and dropping a load of mythology info during the grinding videos. It got me to finally sit down and replay Folklore and while I don't think it's a hidden must-play gem, the games a decent romp with obvious PS2-era roots and a great soundtrack. That chapter three split and how it leads to some different discussion just as some of the quest repeats do were all pretty nice. Always a good thing when games go the extra mile like that. However, throwing a trailer complete with "coming 2007" as the games demo reel is tacky as heck. Did the EU/Asian region versions of Folklore also do this?

Zuzie posted:

Thank you for the LP, I'm kind of in awe at how comprehensive it was. Great job of showing off a game that I've never even heard of before.
This to. Barring some obscure japanese language wiki and the devs themselves, this LP beats the pants off of any other resource for information on the game! I wonder if the save file timer really did get maxed out throughout the course of this whole thing...

GimmickMan
Dec 27, 2011

Come for the charming game, stay for the in-depth information and mythology chat. Thanks for showing this off, Nidoking.

Glazius
Jul 22, 2007

Hail all those who are able,
any mouse can,
any mouse will,
but the Guard prevail.

Clapping Larry
Yeah, this was a quality exploration of this simple-lookin' game. Thanks for putting up with everything.

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Nidoking
Jan 27, 2009

I fought the lava, and the lava won.
I should probably link my Psychonauts thread in here, shouldn't I? Here it is in case anyone wants to follow and didn't spot it from the main page. Still gotta grab those character portraits and finish up the second post so I can send this to the archive, but I'm not really in any rush - plus, since I archived all of the files, I'll need to change the pathnames in some scripts and index files to access the raw videos for good screenshots. Maybe next week.

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