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That attack power and speed... Character 6 is Raquel making another cameo, isn't it.
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Aug 10, 2015 17:41
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| # ? Apr 26, 2024 00:20 |
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Edvarius posted:I'd agree with you on Charlton, but Edna... well, I guess this series has produced far worse villains than Edna. And if nothing else she gives Charlton somebody to look awesome in comparison to. They fulfill two very different villain roles, and both excel at their role. I'll leave it at that for now.
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Aug 10, 2015 19:30
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Mmm, politics. Let the impossible odds and unreasonable demands stack up like cordwood!
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Aug 10, 2015 22:34
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This map kind of shows how the design can get a bit overdone at times. It's not very challenging and the slimes taking zero damage until you get them out of the water feels contrived and a waste of the player's time.
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Aug 11, 2015 04:48
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Heavy neutrino posted:This map kind of shows how the design can get a bit overdone at times. It's not very challenging and the slimes taking zero damage until you get them out of the water feels contrived and a waste of the player's time. It's what caused me to stop playing the game here. Long and rigid puzzle maps are close to the worst thing you can do with a robust customization system.
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Aug 12, 2015 06:22
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Act 1: Path of the Founding Knights Act 1-6    (New) The scene opens with Levin frowning; he changes portraits as soon as he starts speaking.  Characters have a surprising amount of personality in their portrait variations. Clarissa's emoting is little details about her eyebrows and mouth, mostly; she has bigger gestures, but they're reserved for when she's particularly surprised or upset. For all that she's restrained about it, though, she has lots of different little ones. Felius, as the stoic, tends to just use three or so portraits (normal, narrowed eyes, closed eyes). Labyrinthia is more expressive and moves her head up/down more. And Levin is half knight (hand on his chest) and half bratty kid (hands behind his head, slumped shoulders)... But his shoulders square and his posture improves when he gets upset. (LPing this game requires a lot of attention to portrait details, because there are so many and the differences can be so small.)  You just don't get it, Father. You can't protect Elesius just standing around! You're the one who doesn't understand, Levin. You need to give more thought to what it would mean to mobilize the Royal Knights! We both want to protect this country! So why are you being so stubborn?  ...Father... Surely you understand what's happening in this country.(Should probably be noted that Levin's address here is less "Father" and more "Old Man." He's not a very proper speaker, even in these circumstances.) Our ailing king is powerless to stop the Council of Elder Statesmen from running the country as they please. Now squads of thugs calling themselves the Martial Guard are terrorizing the people they're supposed to be protecting! But the princess has survived her accident! She's returned to us! There's still some good left in this country. There's still a chance to save it! But we have to act! As a scion of House Brenton, I have a duty to stand up and fight this injustice! And as the lord of House Brenton, I cannot condone any man who would defy the will of the Kingdom of Elesius. ... There's a long pause.   We often argue when we speak, but I always thought our hearts were on the same side... ... ... Well, that's that. I'm leaving now. ... The men of House Brenton have pledged their swords to the kingdom since time immemorial. If you leave now, you will never be able to pass through our gates again. ...I pledge my sword to the princess! ... You may go where you want and do as you please...Levin leaves; there's the sound of a closing door. There's a long pause.  ......The music stops.   (New)  There's a long pause.  I'm very fond of this scene--the last four lines transform it from the standard cliche to something actually pretty touching.  (New)   ...So you're saying that the Council desires domestic stability as much as we do? Of course, Your Highness. Lord Charlton is well aware that, due to unfortunate procedural deficiencies, the Martial Guard is not fully under control. Such matters pain him deeply. His desire is to work hand-in-hand with you to resolve the issues, Your Highness. ... Then I will meet with him. Clar--  He will await you in the Guardian Shrine, in the mountains north of here. It is Lord Charlton's hope that the divine Guardians of Elesius will bear witness as the future of our nation is written before us. Very well. ...I cannot stand lies. I expect the Council to make its true intentions clear at the meeting. I am quite certain that it will, Your Highness. I have relayed the message from my master in its entirety. If it please you, Your Highness, I shall now take my leave.  And with that, he leaves and the scene ends. You'll notice that Clarissa has a new sprite in the Member list! Her wardrobe upgrade applies in battles as well. (No statistical changes, though.) There's nothing required in town, but the Shop does have one moderately important dialogue. I'd look at that one, if nothing else. Town Dialogue Start   The Council wishes to see you...? I would exercise extreme caution, Princess... [Talk] If you're going on a long journey, you'd best bring an ample supply of Heal Berries and Antidotes. An ounce of prevention, and all that. The people of Elesius have a religion based on Guardians. These animal spirits are embodiments of the power that guides the world. You can't see them, but they're supposedly all-powerful. All of the things that exist in the world have Guardians for them--a water Guardian for the oceans, a fire one for the flames, and so on. There's also a spirit for every human emotion, from love to bravery...even fear, too. It's all a bunch of gobbledygook to me, though... Those men in blue robes... I heard a rumor that they're part of the Council Chairman's private force. Creepy, isn't it?  If you're going to the Guardian Shrine, you'll need to pass through Fallen Fowl Swamp. The water over there was contaminated with minerals from the earth, turning it into a large, poisonous swampland. You'd best be doubly sure you have enough Antidotes to make it through there before venturing off. Any monster you run into is dangerous...powerful enough to outclass any human in brute strength. However, they all have their weaknesses, too. Discovering and exploiting these weaknesses allows us to fight on an even keel. So observe your enemy closely before striking.  This is a Council trap. I'm sure of it. I won't stop you if you think you know what you're doin'...but promise me you'll come back in one piece! [Talk] Don't worry. I'll keep everything to myself until the time is right to tell the truth. I feel bad putting all of this on your shoulders... but our country is counting on you. Don't take your eyes off 'em! They've got to be up to some kinda scheme... I dunno, I've just got a feeling they are! I'm sure the Alcohol Guardian is blessing his biggest follower with his deep insight! I...I think I might be his Chosen One! Oh my gosh! From here, you'll need to go over the mountains to the north to reach the Guardian Shrine. I hear some ancient ruins lie there, built back when Elesius was still a young nation.  Do you believe, Princess, that the Council is serious about holding discussions with you? You do remember that they tried to execute everyone in the village, right? I apologize, Princess, but I can't help but fear for your life... Princess, it's just too dangerous! You've only just come back to us! There's no need to expose yourself to such peril... ...Why don't you ask Master Levin from his support again?Synthesis is still unavailable. No new items in the shops, and while Antidotes are important here, I already have 12 from freebie rewards.   All the previous areas blocked off are restored, and the next area is open.     For reference, the Elementalist in red is El Jackson, the Geomancer is Samille. (They have special portraits in battle, but they're tiny.)  Bandit El Jackson: Hey, "squid with an ear o'corn" works too!     They seem awfully careless. I can't imagine the Council would use their troops in this way. They're probably nothing more than bandits. Bandit Samille: I think she's a bit long in the tooth to be called "girl"...         Our mission here is to wipe up all of these bandits...but that poison swamp is going to be a major hassle. Any unit that blunders into the swamp will be immediately inflicted with the "Poison" status ailment. Poisoned units lose a certain amount of HP with every turn they take. We should prepare a way to cure ourselves of poison, just in case. The bandits are just as aware of the swamp as we are. I doubt they will abandon their higher position without a fight... We'll need units with long-range attacks to deal effectively with these people. Another idea is to take some high-MOV units and have them act as a wedge for the rest of the party. If we could combine the two, building units with high movement range and long-range attacks, I think that'd be the best option. The right combination of classes and skills can make a party many times more effective than otherwise. Try out some setups and see what you discover. Everything in the map needs to die.   Samille, mid-map, and El Jackson, at the end, are bosses of sorts. Samille is a Geomancer, a class that specializes in hex-related Originals. Most notably here, he can block off certain hexes from being moved through. Weapon-wise, he has Throwing Stars, which are 4-range projectiles. He's more annoying than threatening. El Jackson is more dangerous, but that doesn't have too much to do with El Jackson himself.  Five Elementalists! They're on a plateau 4 Height above the next-highest points, and the highest Jump any human character can manage at this point is 3. This means they can only really be attacked by Elementalist spells and Felius's Upper Hand, because no one can actually walk up there. (Technically, Labyrinthia can Warp--it has a VR of 4--but this isn't exactly a good idea.) One neat detail, though: That plateau is Height 7. The swamp is Height 0. Elementalist spells have a maximum vertical tolerance of 6, and Upper Hand has a Vertical Tolerance of 10. Felius can kill the ones on the right with total impunity from the swamp! He and Clarissa will probably handle that.   The level forces you to use Elementalists so you can actually win at the end (unless you want to use a LOT of elemental Gems or rely entirely on Felius), and Elementalists don't move quickly. The Swamp does not help with this. The level is more tedious than difficult, really. On the plus side, Labyrinthia gets through this level just fine, thanks to Warp. (This is somewhat of a pattern with gimmick levels in this game: "it's a pain, except for Labyrinthia, who just teleports around it.")  Kelvin learned Elementalist Originals last time and he won't be long for the party anyway, so he's shuffled into Gadgeteer for the map. He loses a lot of magical punch in the process, but it ensures he'll be actually relevant. Randolf is here to a) help with the beginning of the level and b) show what this level does to those poor, poor Elementalists.      Clarissa, Felius, Randolf and Kelvin take the left side. Sasha will follow along in a moment, once she Rushes Labyrinthia.  Depending on how quickly the left side advances and clears out the enemy, she'll either Warp to the newly vacated island or just Warp straight across to the island in front of Samille. Warp is really, really great for maps like this.  One really annoying wrinkle of buffs in this game is that they can't be refreshed. Say I cast Rush on my Elementalist. It has two turns, so if I realize that I need to cast with the Elementalist on their third turn, then I can't Rush them again after they take their first action. I need to wait until after their second turn, when it wears off. This doesn't sound too limiting, but when all of your Rush casters are doubling as your fighters, it tends to cause a lot of annoying little management misfires when you cast Rush a turn too early. This enemy Elementalist would be dead if Randolf managed to cast, but his Rush wore off before I could, thanks to an inopportune double turn.  Gadgeteers and Fantasticas can avoid the Swamp by jumping up here, but it's three Height above the rest of the path and Elementalists have 2 Jump. They have to go in the swamp.  Plus, Samille tends to do this anyway, because he's an rear end in a top hat. Shut Out locks the target hex for twenty turns: nothing can go in or out. This shuts down the only way through without jumping in the swamp. Thankfully, unlike character-based statuses, this is twenty TOTAL turns, because Hexes don't have turn speeds. A twenty-turn status would effectively last nearly all map.  So Clarissa Encourages Felius, and he takes a dive.  Labyrinthia Warps up in front of Samille, both so she can get closer to the end and so I can fulfill a cunning plot:  Multitasking!   Clarissa blows up him the hell up for that. It's an effect that only gets more annoying as the map goes on, because fewer enemies means it effectively lasts longer.   Labyrinthia will handle things while everyone else works on actually getting there. Randolf is going to find this problematic. See, the area right before the raised pillar in the path is 3 Height, so he can't jump down in the swamp from there, and the fences to the left of that raised area aren't decorative--you need to go down and right. And the swamp slows movement. Even with Drifter turnspeeds, the map will probably be more-or-less over by the time he's able to contribute.  Felius is Shut Out and also poisoned, so Clarissa uses Rob Turn rather unconventionally. There's nothing that says you can't target allies with it, even if it still only has a 75% success rate! ...then Shut Out ends by the time he actually gets his turn. Oops?  Exhibited: the other problem with relying on Elementalist magic to finish the map. Remember, all Elementalists have a 25% chance of activating Magic Block and stopping any incoming enemy spell. So when you finally troop your mages through the swamp, you still have a 75% hit rate, tops. This map is pretty dickish all around, really. Clarissa moves up and Encourages Labyrinthia, who takes a potshot at the Elementalist on the lower level. She takes a couple of spells, and the Elementalists move closer to her.  Her magic is juuuuuuust high enough to eliminate this enemy outright, so I go for it. Kelvin moves up and heals her, which accelerates his next turn due tp his Apron.  Clarissa, still being Clarissa, criticals the Elementalist, barely killing him.  Unfortunately, you can't use Originals to open chests--it has to be a normal attack. That means that at this point in the game, only Tony can open this chest. It contains a Revive Fruit, which is nice but not really important.  The rest of the map is pretty predictable: I use Slow Down and the mages Assume the Position (surround Clarissa, who Encourages them repeatedly) while Felius treks to the dock to Upper Hand the boss. El Jackson resists everything, so magic doesn't really do too much to him, especially since Randolf never actually gets there to help. El Jackson, with typical AI acuity, decides to spend his rare turns casting Fire on Labyrinthia, who is 50% resistant to it (and 0% resistant to everything else). Nicely done!      Everyone gets up to level 9 or 10 after the battle. Clarissa and Felius reach Fantastica Level 3, and Kelvin reaches Gadgeteer level 2.  Bandit Samille: Hey...you don't remember this happening before, do you? I can't recall it all too well... Something about pretending to be the Founding Knights...? Bandit El Jackson: Eh, who cares about the past? Not me! Even if it was a beautiful age of glorious, gleeful abandon...! Bandit Samille: Well, you can act as unflappable as you want, but we're still gonna run away, right?   When a government begins to falter, its people descend to pitiful depths... I love this line. They're as much victims as anyone else... Victims of the twisted chaos in this kingdom. ...We've got to finish this task... And I'm ready to do whatever I can. (New)   Between the poetic language and the address to an empty room, this is very theatrical. I could totally buy this part as a play monologue.  This Alexia who claims to be the princess is an imposter--it is the only possible explanation! Unless... Could this be a scheme of Charlton's to discredit me? To topple me from the Council?!  Honestly not sure whether that was a scream of frustration or whether she suddenly heard him approaching--there's no accompanying footsteps SFX before he shows up or anything. I...I'm just talking to myself! And how dare you question me--it's no business of yours! Then I shall be on my way. But next time you have a conversation with yourself, I'd appreciate it if you would lower your voice. It's only natural for my interest to be piqued when I hear my own name. Grrrrrr... Charlton! What's going on with that imposter princess?! "Imposter princess", indeed... ...The situation is being taken care of. Why are you dragging your heels on this?! Hurry up and kill that swindler! It's not quite that simple... --! Why are you so certain she's an imposter?   That...that's... ... Yes...I was the one who got rid of her! I buried her alive under a mountain of rubble! That's how I know! Heh...that's right. It was you, wasn't it? ... You're a frightening woman, Edna. Or perhaps it's not just you. Perhaps all women have a side like that...? ...    You briefly regain control here. This is basically where the chapter ends, since there's a short scene, a chapter transition, and then a battle; I'm not sure why they didn't prompt you to save here, as the current division means you can get stuck at the battle if you only use one save slot. Game design! No music when you enter.    We've arrived a bit early. It seems no one from the other side is here yet. ...  We came to a place like this with Mother a long time ago. ... Do you remember, Felius? Yes... Of course I do. The screen flashes white for a moment, and the following pictures show briefly. For full effect, look at each for about a half second, tops.     The music stops.   (New)     Interesting noting the little translation differences by ear: in the Japanese, she specifically points out that the shrine is glowing with the same light.   It fades and lights again three times, then fades away entirely. It stopped... ... What was that? It was like the shrine was whispering... Let's ponder on that later. The meeting with the Council is supposed to start soon. We must prepare. End of chapter. Next time, the Guardian Shrine.
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Aug 13, 2015 01:00
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I can forgive a lot of a story if, when confronted with an obvious trap, the characters just outright say "it's a trap," and don't try to pretend that anyone could fall for it.
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Aug 13, 2015 01:25
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Keeshhound posted:I can forgive a lot of a story if, when confronted with an obvious trap, the characters just outright say "it's a trap," and don't try to pretend that anyone could fall for it. I still find the overall story pretty 'meh', but the interaction between the characters is incredibly charming. I'm kind of glad I'm reading it and not listening to it if all the VA is as bad as the one clip Einander uploaded -- I feel it would actually take away a lot of the charm.
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Aug 13, 2015 02:39
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To be honest, I don't really like Clarissa's "princess" costume and would have preferred her original outfit with the hat and all that.
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Aug 13, 2015 02:47
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I like Clarissa for being the rare female JRPG protagonist. And a good one with her own motivations and drives, who's personality gets her caught up in the plot.
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Aug 13, 2015 03:00
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Wow, how did I miss that Etrian Odyssey Untold 2 had come out last week? I will do my level best not to let it distract me from steady updates, but it's an Etrian Odyssey, so I am afraid I can make no promises.Chuu posted:I still find the overall story pretty 'meh', but the interaction between the characters is incredibly charming. I'm kind of glad I'm reading it and not listening to it if all the VA is as bad as the one clip Einander uploaded -- I feel it would actually take away a lot of the charm. The Japanese voice acting is actually pretty good, though, so I just use that instead. Clarste posted:To be honest, I don't really like Clarissa's "princess" costume and would have preferred her original outfit with the hat and all that. I don't really like the dialogue portraits as much (the outfit's a little awkward, somehow), but I think the battle sprites are better.
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Aug 13, 2015 12:34
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This is the one map where Tony is actually useful; with his high climb stat and resistances he can pretty much just jump up and waste the elementalists on his own.
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Aug 13, 2015 12:59
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In some ways, the overwhelming ham of the voice acting adds to the charm as much as it detracts. 
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Aug 13, 2015 15:11
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El Jackson is a great name.
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Aug 13, 2015 16:11
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vilkacis posted:El Jackson is a great name. Especially when paired with Samille. Yes, they most certainly did that.
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Aug 13, 2015 16:43
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I haaaaaated this map. The poison swamp was bad enough, but did they have to place all those enemies up out of reach, too?
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Aug 13, 2015 17:06
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So far, all I'm hearing about this game is "the job system is really fantastic(a), but the level design is probably the most ridiculous, forced poo poo they could manage". In other words, it fits in just fine with most Yasumi Matsuno games. 
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Aug 17, 2015 23:35
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The ruins activated. ...huh. Well, drat if that don't portend something. No clue what it might be, though. Still, it'd be nice for the power of archaeology to come in handy at some point.
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Aug 24, 2015 02:32
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Short version: LP on break until mid-September while I work on building a backlog, do SF2 post-LP pre-archival stuff, wait for my work schedule to return to normal, and play Etrian Odyssey Untold 2 way too much. Longer version: I mentioned a business trip near the end of my Saga Frontier 2 LP, and I'm actually still on that business trip! (It was more like a short-term relocation, really.) Part of said business trip was changing my work schedule to something more demanding. It initially wasn't too bad, and I attributed my post-SF2 sluggishness to no longer having an LP schedule to meet, but at this point I have to admit that I'm just worn out. (In related news, people that bang around in hotel rooms at 5:30 AM need to die in a fire.) So I'm taking a break on updates until I get back and things slow down, which should be mid-September. In the meantime, I'll build up a backlog and work on some cleaning-up of my previous LP, which I still haven't gotten around to doing. I will also play lots of Etrian Odyssey Untold 2, which is as much of a leap over the first Untold as EO2 was to EO1. EO is my absolute most favorite series! You should play it, if you aren't already. Sorry for the schedule slip and the break. The LP will get done--I enjoy the hobby and I've completed three so far on relatively steady schedules even through some pretty big life changes, so I'm not going to break the streak now.
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Aug 25, 2015 23:43
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Taking a break from delivering free internet entertainment?! Unacceptable behaviour!   Well, good luck with the business and all. I'll keep an eye out for news about mysterious fire-related deaths in hotel rooms 
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Aug 26, 2015 20:48
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| # ? Apr 26, 2024 00:20 |
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I hope you enjoyed your vacation.
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Oct 10, 2015 16:30
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