|
 Chapter 1: Yudai (Part 1)
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2014 18:57
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 9, 2024 08:45 |
|
|
I refuse to believe Dororo isn't a girl until we get clear through this game and no reverse trap revelations occur. Seriously, kid's clearly designed as girly as possible.
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2014 19:35
|
|
|
Suikoden fans also know that there are 108 Star of Destiny (party members) in every game.
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2014 20:12
|
|
|
Derek Barona posted:I refuse to believe Dororo isn't a girl until we get clear through this game and no reverse trap revelations occur. Seriously, kid's clearly designed as girly as possible. Its funny seeing someone say this when one of Tezuka's many signature works is Princess Knight. SSNeoman posted:Suikoden fans also know that there are 108 Star of Destiny (party members) in every game. Which is another adaptation of one of the Four Great Masterpieces of Chinese literature, Shui Hu Zhuan or commonly known in English as Water Margin among other translations, whose plot revolves around the signature heroes of the Liangshan Marsh Bandits being reincarnations of the 108 Stars of Destiny.
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2014 20:46
|
|
|
If the game isn't challenging it does have creativity behind it. Gotta love all the designs of the monsters so far. Not everything is a Yokai it seems but there's a few of them in there, the Kappa being one who hopefully is only fighting in the river.
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2014 21:28
|
|
|
I think your fancy new poison sword actually does less damage.
|
|
#
?
Aug 8, 2014 06:38
|
|
|
George posted:I think your fancy new poison sword actually does less damage. Yeah, his Atk dropped 17 > 16 after he grabbed it, but the Poison Sword is Lv4 instead of Lv3, so... I think that matters? Also, judging from that description, it had better grant resistance against Hyakki himself getting poisoned, since it doesn't work the other way around.
|
|
#
?
Aug 8, 2014 11:33
|
|
|
Two videos in and I'm already in love with everything about this game. It's hitting all the right notes for me so far.
|
|
#
?
Aug 8, 2014 15:43
|
|
|
I think the Troll is actually kinda cute.  I hope he becomes our friendly big-head buddy.
|
|
#
?
Aug 8, 2014 16:06
|
|
|
The prologue said that the demons created a human out of Hyakkimaru's body parts. I'm interested in seeing this human, and if he/she has lost his/her organs as Hyakkimaru gained them back.
|
|
#
?
Aug 8, 2014 17:48
|
|
|
Supersonic Shine posted:The prologue said that the demons created a human out of Hyakkimaru's body parts. I'm interested in seeing this human, and if he/she has lost his/her organs as Hyakkimaru gained them back. That was something that sounded really interesting! Though I hope it just doesn't look exactly like Hyakkimaru.
|
|
#
?
Aug 8, 2014 20:18
|
|
|
Watch as it's Dororo somehow. ...Actually that would explain the whole being crazy badass for a kid thing.
|
|
#
?
Aug 8, 2014 20:25
|
|
|
Since nobody has done it yet... I'll be the shitlord coming to the rescue! Those umbrella yokai are called karakasa- generally hyphenated with something. Karakasa itself it referring to the fact that it's a paper umbrella. 
|
|
#
?
Aug 8, 2014 20:53
|
|
|
Zain posted:Since nobody has done it yet... I'll be the shitlord coming to the rescue! Those umbrella yokai are called karakasa- generally hyphenated with something. Karakasa itself it referring to the fact that it's a paper umbrella. Pretty much. You see them once in awhile in the more nippon-centric settings where they tend to be a common idea for a youkai. I always just go the Touhou route and think of Kogasa whenever I see one.
|
|
#
?
Aug 8, 2014 21:41
|
|
|
There was one of them in Kirby.  Jumpershoot was rad.
|
|
#
?
Aug 8, 2014 21:46
|
|
|
Always makes me happy seeing Yokai in games cause they're just so vast and unique.
|
|
#
?
Aug 8, 2014 21:54
|
|
|
Zain posted:Always makes me happy seeing Yokai in games cause they're just so vast and unique. Butt eye monster haunts you.
|
|
#
?
Aug 9, 2014 09:00
|
|
|
The aforementioned kappa also have a lot of butt-related details mentioned in their description that Western monsters just wouldn't touch. Yokai are definitely a whole different genre of horror, which I deeply appreciate and will be bringing up a whole lot throughout the LP as it will frequently be relevant.
|
|
#
?
Aug 9, 2014 10:07
|
|
|
I love the poo poo out of Dororo, and in fact, the anime is trying to get crowdfunded at the moment (http://animesols.com/video_sets/28). Though the manga has the tragedy of ending on...not so much a cliffhanger but Tezuka basically going "Eh, here's a stopping point, I have other magical stories to weave," and... well, aain not to take anything away from the guy but he kinda bailed. There is a live action movie that was made years later but it's better not to discus that. (Seriously. To anyone just now following this thread, don't watch the movie yet. It basically spoils a big plot point immediately or changes it, depending on your PoV) While purportedly, this game, the anime, and the film all have more concise endings than the manga, I will note, however, right off the bat that Hyakkimaru in most of the other sources did not have such a looming destiny starting off. The entire point was that his rear end in a top hat father was in fact, an rear end in a top hat father with ambition during the Warring States era and sacrificed his unborn son to 48 demons for military power. He was not tempted by promises of bringing order to Japan, nor did the demons seek him out and corrupt/brainwash him. Dude flat out found them and brokered this entire deal with them, which I feel is more of a powerful statement than this, and adds to Tezuka's commentary about human nature that is prevalent in Dororo.. In fact, the "each of you take a body part" was Daigo's own loving idea! He was, it goes without saying, pretty pleased with the results when Hyakkimaru was born...
|
|
#
?
Aug 9, 2014 14:02
|
|
|
On a random sidenote, with as big as that village map was, was there anything actually worth looking around for at all?
|
|
#
?
Aug 9, 2014 15:46
|
|
|
TKMobile posted:He was not tempted by promises of bringing order to Japan, nor did the demons seek him out and corrupt/brainwash him. Dude flat out found them and brokered this entire deal with them, which I feel is more of a powerful statement than this, and adds to Tezuka's commentary about human nature that is prevalent in Dororo.. In fact, the "each of you take a body part" was Daigo's own loving idea!
|
|
#
?
Aug 9, 2014 15:54
|
|
|
Most big maps have a demon or two tucked away somewhere. There are a lot of those guys! Though it's not always in your best interest to seek them out right away. Blood Will Tell was a PS2 launch title, or close to it, and boy does it show. It has an intermittently garbage camera, and it can be super tedious to play at times but in spite of all that I enjoyed the game. There's just something so... fulfilling about hunting down Japan's mythological bestiary to get your Achilles tendon and sciatic nerve back. If I could afford to bankroll AAA game development, I'd get Platinum in on a remake of this in a heartbeat.
|
|
#
?
Aug 9, 2014 15:59
|
|
|
Rangpur posted:Blood Will Tell was a PS2 launch title, or close to it, and boy does it show. It has an intermittently garbage camera, and it can be super tedious to play at times but in spite of all that I enjoyed the game. There's just something so... fulfilling about hunting down Japan's mythological bestiary to get your Achilles tendon and sciatic nerve back. If I could afford to bankroll AAA game development, I'd get Platinum in on a remake of this in a heartbeat. Slight correction, but it came out about 2004, fairly long into the machine's lifespan. Derek Barona posted:On a random sidenote, with as big as that village map was, was there anything actually worth looking around for at all? Not in this one, but later on, it's worth your while to scout around: only a few of the fiends are actually story-based, the majority of them are hidden. One of the big complaints about the game was actually how it was so hard to find some of the secrets. I know I needed to consult a guide more often than I expected.
|
|
#
?
Aug 9, 2014 17:16
|
|
|
I really love this game, despite it having some fairly severe rough spots on it (Camera control, Dororo sections, the hilariously lopsided difficulty). It's one of my favorite hidden gems on the PS2, second only to Samurai Western.
|
|
#
?
Aug 9, 2014 17:56
|
|
|
Here is the Japanese and North American covers showing Samura's art on the Japanese version. And an illustration for the game by Samura. 
|
|
#
?
Aug 9, 2014 18:05
|
|
|
He even makes Dororo look like Rin.
|
|
#
?
Aug 9, 2014 18:48
|
|
|
Kaboom Dragoon posted:Not in this one, but later on, it's worth your while to scout around: only a few of the fiends are actually story-based, the majority of them are hidden. One of the big complaints about the game was actually how it was so hard to find some of the secrets. I know I needed to consult a guide more often than I expected. Your other option would be to constantly have Dororo in search mode and just take it slowly through the levels, I guess. Goddess knows I wouldn't have thought to knock down a tree at the waterfall if Fiendly hadn't shown it.
|
|
#
?
Aug 9, 2014 19:01
|
|
|
Derek Barona posted:Your other option would be to constantly have Dororo in search mode and just take it slowly through the levels, I guess. Goddess knows I wouldn't have thought to knock down a tree at the waterfall if Fiendly hadn't shown it. There's not really much reason NOT to have Dororo in constant search mode. Hyakki can usually handle enemies perfectly fine on his own, and grab his own items.
|
|
#
?
Aug 9, 2014 19:18
|
|
|
So what happens if you get Dororo killed while you're controlling Hyakki?
|
|
#
?
Aug 9, 2014 23:39
|
|
|
Rather than go into the minutiae of how manga/film/game are different from each other regarding Hyakkimaru's origins (as it's generally the same except for the film getting crazy with super alchemy and electricity (!!!) being thrown into the creation of his body) another key difference is again Hyakkimaru's lack of overall important destiny tone, but also human nature. That he was born without much, literally, was just a sign of his father's cruel and selfish ambitions; the manga really downplays how loving *amazing* it is that he has super intuitive senses to make up for a lack of regular senses beyond that his surrogate father finds it fascinating. Ultimately Jyukai thinks that it means he'll be able to grow up just fine. There is no extra person running around made by the Fiends (though I am curious how that turns out...) Hyakkimaru gets his child body and struggles to use it and live normally, but demons keep showing up and become annoyances or outright dangers to him and his surrogate father, to the point where Jyukai himself tells his foster son that it's probably for the loving best that Hyakkimaru leave. At least he built him the adult, full of swords and guns body before hustling him out the door, but it's really kind of depressing. Hyakkimaru only later finds out that if he kills the 48 demons, he'll regain his human body. The order in which he regains parts is also gonna be, I can tell, wildly different, but I'm not gonna get into that for fear of spoilers. His vocal chords and left eye being the first shown I can entirely understand from a game's perspective as being necessary first grabs, though I will say that manga wise, Hyakkimaru at the start had already regained 16 part (his hair and his bellybutton are the only two named.) Another key difference between the manga and the game, and also technically the movie, is how Hyakkimaru and Dororo meet, but it also brings up again some of the Manga's themes.. Dororo in the film and manga is intro'd as a thief always getting into trouble, but the manga is once more pretty hardcore about it: Hyakkimaru encounters Dororo getting the living poo poo beaten out of him by a bunch of roughneck adults who are sick of his thieving and annoying kid-ness to the point where once they were done kicking his rear end, they planned to wrap him in a straw mat and drown him in the river. Hyakkimaru saves him from humans, not demons (thought one conveniently shows up and starts killing everybody before Hyakkimaru puts it down). Here it's more like Dororo was part of a crowd fleeing a nearby Onimusha game, and in general the Game's setting is geared towards something more Onimusha-ish. Buncha demons and zombies and poo poo are running around making everybody miserable, whereas humans were the more prevalent 'monsters' lurking around int eh source material. The actual demons would invariably show up to make poo poo worse, or were behind metaphorical screens, having already planted seeds of discord...as we'll probably see. Dororo determined to steal Hyakkimaru's sword come hell or high water, however, is almost exactly the same sequence in any medium and always set up the characters' contrast nicely. His ability to take obscene punishment like a champ is also pretty much canon in every iteration of the series, because boy howdy, does he go through the wringer.
|
|
#
?
Aug 10, 2014 00:29
|
|
|
By the way, I should mention that you missed a little hidden area in the video! When you're going up the little narrow pathway up the mountain, at one point you can double jump back on the roof of the segment immediately behind it. If Dororo is in search mode, he'll speak up when you get to it. There's nothing too special up there (About a dozen medicines and a Flashing Blade), but I thought it worth mentioning.
|
|
#
?
Aug 10, 2014 01:13
|
|
|
Kaboom Dragoon posted:Slight correction, but it came out about 2004, fairly long into the machine's lifespan.
|
|
#
?
Aug 10, 2014 02:02
|
|
|
I suppose actually having a sixth sense is helping Hyakkimaru understand things about the world like that roiling purple mist in the throne room.
|
|
#
?
Aug 11, 2014 03:46
|
|
|
Rangpur posted:Correction noted! In that case it would be more accurate to say it feels like a launch title. You aren't remembering the PS2 launch very well.
|
|
#
?
Aug 11, 2014 04:15
|
|
|
GenHavoc posted:So what happens if you get Dororo killed while you're controlling Hyakki? He gets right back up and keeps kicking rear end. He's controllable by the second player as well, so if you ever get into a secret boss battle you aren't leveled for, you can just have Hyakki run away and Dororo go up and punch the devil in the eye until it dies. He's just like Tails from Sonic 2. Infinity Gaia posted:By the way, I should mention that you missed a little hidden area in the video! When you're going up the little narrow pathway up the mountain, at one point you can double jump back on the roof of the segment immediately behind it. If Dororo is in search mode, he'll speak up when you get to it. There's nothing too special up there (About a dozen medicines and a Flashing Blade), but I thought it worth mentioning. Can he even double jump yet? TKMobile posted:stuff It's worth noting that Japanese stories have had a theme of petty humans being worse than demons for a long time. Also, check out the world of Blood Will Tell: it's this washed out, blasted netherscape, like Japan on the moon. It's rad and stylish and fits the grim tone really well. MartianAgitator fucked around with this message at 12:14 on Aug 11, 2014 |
|
#
?
Aug 11, 2014 12:09
|
|
|
MartianAgitator posted:It's worth noting that Japanese stories have had a theme of petty humans being worse than demons for a long time. Also, check out the world of Blood Will Tell: it's this washed out, blasted netherscape, like Japan on the moon. It's rad and stylish and fits the grim tone really well. Oh, I know, I'm just noting that the game takes certain liberties with Tezuka's social messages and commentaries from Dororo to streamline the story. I'm not saying that the game is worse for it, EXCEPT on how they changed Daigo from being the aggressor in this story to more of a pawn, just that the narrative is very different for it. The changes are likely to try to suit the story better for the action game this is... ...but seriously, Daigo's change is kind of a big deal.
|
|
#
?
Aug 11, 2014 15:55
|
|
|
A Lot of people posted:Daigo's an rear end in a top hat Yeah, I've never read the manga, never played the game, never saw any adaptations, but if you tell me that the father that sold out his unborn child for a deal with demons for power doesn't come back at some point, you can color me pretty drat surprised. Also, the proper term for games like Zelda is "Legend of Zeld-ish"
|
|
#
?
Aug 11, 2014 22:46
|
|
|
MartianAgitator posted:Can he even double jump yet? Yup. I know this with total certainty because my most used early game strategy against bosses was to double jump and use the buzzsaw move with the arm swords. And because I remember getting that item, I guess.
|
|
#
?
Aug 11, 2014 23:56
|
|
|
 Chapter 1: Yudai (Part 2) Surprisingly, I need to include this for reference: 
|
|
#
?
Aug 13, 2014 03:20
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 9, 2024 08:45 |
|
|
Really, at what point is anyone not expecting the mysteriously sinister looking nobleman/woman to be the evil monster in question? It's basically a test of whether you're a protagonist to try and spot them.
|
|
#
?
Aug 13, 2014 04:51
|
|