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I think when we found out he is literally wearing a bikini on his head, any potential of seriousness with Piu-Piu went out the door. Sure, they tried to give him this backstory and all, and okay I guess, but ... bikinihead.
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Apr 12, 2013 23:38
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   The voice that says this is that of the "good" Theia (the one we've met in Ayuta's chapter). ♫ Music: Together at Dawn ♫ (Recommended)    And here are our characters, finally together.      It's kind of difficult to convey in English, but in Japanese voiced dialogue "you" is actually the plural, referring to all of them, not anybody in specific.             A pretty cool shot, everybody at once!       This is interesting, as it seems to make an implication that humans have managed to leave Earth and colonise other places in the universe. No specific details are provided, however.     The Qualia exceeds all human knowledge. I do not know for sure if you can succeed, even if you all work together... You see... Never mind, now that you are all here, there is no more need to say anything. The Qualia has started to move. Be careful.    What's happening...    This can't be happening! Our planet is... gone... You're kidding, right? So it's all over? I can't believe it... Everything gone... in an instant...       Zhamo... Our country is gone. What would be the point of fighting now? So then, what? We should just sit around and wait to die? I... I dont want that... Me neither! If we died now, what would we say to Theia? You're right. If we're going to die anyway, I'm going to go down fighting. Forget about the world or the future. I'm going to fight for myself. This is my battle now! You're right. It's not the results that are important. It's how we live our lives until the very end. Okay! I apologise for losing my composure. Let's see how far we can go! Just do your best until you can't any more. That's all anyone needs to do. Theia... are you seeing this? The warriors that we chose... have all decided on their own to fight for themselves. This is what we wanted. I'm going to fight too... for myself!! I believe in you all. I know that you will find a way to win. And I hope that a new, peaceful period will be born...        It really is now the time to fight. How will this fight go, you may ask?  Here's how. Qualia has several forms, and each one in turn will be fought by a different pair of characters (the game lets you choose which pair fights which form). The forms are actually not very different from each other except by having stronger stats. Unfortunately, this boss fight is designed to be challenging... if you don't do any of the optional content in game. So this means it will be extremely easy. Never the less, the Qualia has a couple of funky looking attacks, which I will try to demonstrate in a video below.  The first form (Qualia 450 THz) will be tackled by Vahti and Olgar.   There's not really much to see, is there?  I agree. It's hard to believe, but standing here before it now, I feel neither fear nor hesitation... It would seem those 10,000 years were not spent in vain after all. Here we go, Vahti! OKAY! As you can see, we can easily defeat this form in about two attacks!  The Qualia at frequency of 450 THz is around level 40 so the damage formula makes us practically invincible.  For once, the game is right.  We're creating history now! Indeed, a world without the Qualia... And the start of a history with no end in sight!   The next stage is Qualia 650 THz.  For this, we will take Shea and Ayuta.    Actually, I'm more amazed than scared. I can't believe I'm here, seeing the very thing that you and Theia have been trying to defeat... We really made it. Ayuta, let's do this! For Theia's sake as well as for ours! Yeah. I'm sure Theia will help us too. This is our fight to win! Let's take back our future! Still goes similar as always...  We can suffer a bit of damage sometimes, but it's negligible.  There are some weird looking attacks (check out the video below).     And soon we do.  You can click the link below to see the video of this segment, to get an idea about what this looks like and to see a few interesting looking attacks. VIDEO: Ayuta and Shea desperately fighting the Qualia! (make sure to switch it to 720px HD for much better quality!)  The next phase is at 550 THz.  Zhamo and Eluca will do this one.    I can't believe how thoroughly we've switched places. Because to be honest, I am pretty scared. Huh? I'm not scared of the Qualia. I'm scared of what I could lose if we aren't able to defeat it. What more is there to lose? Our country is already gone. I don't mean our country. There's something I don't even want to think about losing. It's okay, Eluca. We're not going to lose. We can win this. It's so strange... They're such simple words... But when you say them, they feel so real. You're right! We can win this! I know we can! Still no problem.     And here we go...   The last fight is against just "Qualia".  Musiea and Escher are the only ones remaining for this one.      We are destroying this thing!  Denied.    I may not have it in me to save worlds, but I do know this. Musiea, you are a part of this world. And if it means keeping you safe, I'm willing to die as many times as it takes. That's why I fight. You can't... Your life isn't just yours. It's mine now, too. So you can't just go throwing it away. I guess you are right. Okay Musiea, I promise I won't die. But that goes for you too, you hear me? So you'd better not die either! Got it!!  Well, looks like all four forms are defeated...  Bye bye!    Eh? What's this now?
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Apr 14, 2013 16:06
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Oh good. I was all ready to complain about how DUMB it looked, for a world-destroying being of pure thought.
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Apr 14, 2013 17:34
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Jalathas posted:Oh good. I was all ready to complain about how DUMB it looked, for a world-destroying being of pure thought.
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Apr 14, 2013 17:42
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I'm oddly okay with it as part of an all-devouring horde, though.
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Apr 14, 2013 17:45
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Sylphosaurus posted:Yeah, when I see it I don't exactly think "universe destroying horror" but instead "Pacmans Evil Cousin". I was thinking langoliers, personally.
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Apr 14, 2013 17:51
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Oddly enough a horde of that size doesn't seem the least bit threatening, considering they're all going to hit for 0 damage on a critical.
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Apr 14, 2013 17:54
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Ensis posted:Oddly enough a horde of that size doesn't seem the least bit threatening, considering they're all going to hit for 0 damage on a critical. But on the other hand you're stuck waiting 8 hours between turns because 5000 separate enemies are in the turn order. Elite fucked around with this message at 18:40 on Apr 14, 2013 |
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Apr 14, 2013 18:10
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Well, if the Qualia causes timelines to converge near it, I guess it's fair that it can pluck all of its alternative selves out of other timelines. I wonder why only four couples made it there, though. Doesn't that seem oddly low? I guess the couples are time composites of all their victorious versions or something -- Escher is every Escher who has ever won, and so is Musiea, and so on and so forth. If that's the case, though, some of them should be very confused in a little while, when they figure out that their pasts are now multiple choice.
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Apr 14, 2013 18:29
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Einander posted:Well, if the Qualia causes timelines to converge near it, I guess it's fair that it can pluck all of its alternative selves out of other timelines. No, I think the idea is there's always a winner, but these four couples are the only ones who cut their way through the Agent, Executioner, and Theia to get to The Final Door.
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Apr 14, 2013 19:07
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Einander posted:I guess the couples are time composites of all their victorious versions or something -- Escher is every Escher who has ever won, and so is Musiea, and so on and so forth. If that's the case, though, some of them should be very confused in a little while, when they figure out that their pasts are now multiple choice. From what I've seen in the game, I believe this is not the case. Every couple here is just the winner from their respective chapter. Hence, we have Shea and not Mana and so on. The people that walked through the big portal at the end of each part, basically.
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Apr 14, 2013 19:07
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Huh. Reminds me of some combination of Ghroth and the tribbles.
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Apr 14, 2013 19:28
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ivantod posted:From what I've seen in the game, I believe this is not the case. Every couple here is just the winner from their respective chapter. Hence, we have Shea and not Mana and so on. The people that walked through the big portal at the end of each part, basically. That's what I assumed. Parallel universes and time loops, this game has it out for causality like you would not believe.
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Apr 14, 2013 21:39
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Elite posted:But on the other hand you're stuck waiting 8 hours between turns because 5000 separate enemies are in the turn order. So that's what they meant when they said the Qualia eats time.
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Apr 15, 2013 03:43
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Elite posted:But on the other hand you're stuck waiting 8 hours between turns because 5000 separate enemies are in the turn order. That's when you hack the game to play on the Final Fantasy Tactics engine and set up Math Skill to nuke all 5000 of them at once.  ...seriously, though, I'm guessing that Deus Ex Machina's gonna happen and they'll just Cutscene their way through the horde.
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Apr 15, 2013 13:34
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 Last time there was a big fight agains various iterations of the Qualia and then this happened: Looks like it's back and stronger than ever before! Whatever shall we do?              Well, that looks like a whole fleet of ships from... uh, somewhere.       Please try not to think too hard about the time-space related paradoxes that all of this involves. Just sit back and enjoy the fireworks!                       Correct. It is also possible to send you back to the exact place and time right before coming to the Ark... Then that's what I would like you to do for us. Are you sure about that? If we go back to that time and place, I'll still be supposed to cut off your head. But you won't, right? Of course I won't. Then there's no problem. But...      But, you two were in different locations at that time... If I send you back to them, you won't know where the other is. Are you sure about that? Yeah, we're sure. I now know that Musiea... that Aida is alive.     The game is really vague on the subject of exactly how much of a persons memory remains intact when they are returned to a particular time and place. For example, will Escher remember all these events? The game seems to imply that he will. Will he remember where Aida was? The game seems to imply no. So who knows.   But we won't be going back just like we were before. We're not immortal anymore, after all. This time, we won't have to watch our children grow old and die before us. That's true. I'm finally going to be a grandmother. Yes. Let us grow old together.    And there is only one couple remaining... But Ayuta is not from the same planet as Shea.       I've decided too. If I ever give birth to a girl, I'm going to name her "Theia". She will be a witness to the future of our world. Thank you, Shea.          And it's our favourite closing credits, with a slightly different picture behind them... I wonder...  Oh, right, of course it's him... So, I don't know about you, but... ...I wonder what will happen if I now try to... ...RELOAD THE SAVE GAME DATA ONE MORE TIME?
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Apr 15, 2013 17:41
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I don't know if I can handle secret Piu-Piu chapter 
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Apr 15, 2013 17:46
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It's an infinite runner where you collect...delicates and avoid actual women.
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Apr 15, 2013 18:07
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OK, one thing that bugged me the HELL out of the ending (besides the fact that the Qualia turns out to be an Eldritch Beachball): Zhamo wants to go back to the exact moment Eluca was going to kill him so they can overthrow the Divine King. Fair enough. One small detail...didn't they explicitly say that Eluca was going to kill Zhamo after she had executed HIS PARENTS? And the kid wants to back to THAT exact moment? Not say a few seconds before? WHAT THE HELL. I still really liked this game though.
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Apr 15, 2013 18:36
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Overflight posted:OK, one thing that bugged me the HELL out of the ending (besides the fact that the Qualia turns out to be an Eldritch Beachball): Zhamo wants to go back to the exact moment Eluca was going to kill him so they can overthrow the Divine King. Fair enough. One small detail...didn't they explicitly say that Eluca was going to kill Zhamo after she had executed HIS PARENTS? And the kid wants to back to THAT exact moment? Not say a few seconds before? WHAT THE HELL. I don't think he cares, he gets to overthrow a king. Look at how happy he is about it! quote:
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Apr 15, 2013 19:28
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Eluca's WTF face just proves my point further. :-P
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Apr 16, 2013 22:57
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Overflight posted:OK, one thing that bugged me the HELL out of the ending (besides the fact that the Qualia turns out to be an Eldritch Beachball): Zhamo wants to go back to the exact moment Eluca was going to kill him so they can overthrow the Divine King. Fair enough. One small detail...didn't they explicitly say that Eluca was going to kill Zhamo after she had executed HIS PARENTS? And the kid wants to back to THAT exact moment? Not say a few seconds before? WHAT THE HELL. Depending on how far through the execution they got this might be relevant. 5:01-5:42. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y1sN7gwAX4&t=301s Still we can eliminate your gripe if we say that the ark arena can move people through time but not in a way that allows them to rewrite their own actions. The don't really explain how time travel works here but it wouldn't be the first time travel story where you're not allowed to violate your personal causality or not allowed to meet your past self.
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Apr 17, 2013 02:11
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 You know what, I think we should be brave and reload our game again! Let's do it with our friends Escher and Musiea!  Incidentally, here you can see how long it took to play through the game, even when you know exactly what you're doing!  So we are dropped back into the Ark Arena. I think we should talk to Piu-Piu, it has been a while, we should check what he has to say!  Wait, what, what kind of challenge do you mean?     A Super Bikini, hm? You know what, I don't care about his bikinis. Let's say NO to this.    Wait, his first arena battle? Is he talking... about wanting to fight us himself?  You acted as if you were interested in and you let me down so easily... You treat me like I'm so little!? Like, a little girl who is naive, do we need her in this world? No need? That's what you were thinking! You have taken away a lot of things that were valuable to me! You think you are allowed to do anything as long as you have money!? I curse you! You will be fed up with hearing me say "No" I will keep on cursing you! You enjoy it!!Ugh. By the way, I have on purpose transcribed the above lines with keeping in all of the spelling and grammar errors present in the original, because it certainly seems the translators were a bit drunk when doing this part! Sentences running into each other, missing words, you name it--it's there. In any case, it's probably better to say yes...  ...so let's do that!    So what does this...  Yes, folks. If we want the Super Bikini, we're going to have to fight Piu-Piu.  If you thought that this is a joke fight, I assure you that it's most definitely not! Piu-Piu is in fact the strongest enemy/boss in the game! He is on level 100 and has about 200,000 HP. And a particularly nasty trick up his sleeve that I will show in a moment. Escher and Musiea are both level 79 as we saw.  So our first attack is not too bad. If it were not critical it would be less, probably between 10,000-12,000 HP or so, but still OK.  He hits hard (also attacks twice per turn), but nothing we can't deal with really.  But the biggest surprise comes at the end of the turn! He has a permanent regen that gives him back 10,250 HP at the end of EVERY turn! Sooo..... Unless you go and level up your characters like crazy, ordinary attacks are NOT going to work as you really need to outdamage his healing by a decent margin if you don't want this to last the whole day! (Especially since you will have to spend some turns on healing, etc. which will allow him to completely catch up back to full health if you don't have a sufficiently large margin!) Luckily we have just such a thing in our arsenal:  Basically, pick any of these physical attack skills--this one guarantees a critical hit (at the expense of going last in a turn, but that's fine).  When the morale gauge is on our side, this gives us quite a nice attack figure. And so after a while of this, with strategic healing etc., we get to see this:  You can watch the video of this whole fight below! There is probably no need to watch the whole thing, but I do recommend at least skimming through it because Piu-Piu's voice is pretty funny (this is the only part of the game where he is actually voiced). VIDEO: Escher and Musiea in the quest for super bikini! (make sure to switch it to 720px HD for much better quality!)   He gives quite a lot of money and EXP as a result.   In fact enough for both of our characters to gain several levels even at this point in the game.  More importantly, we get what we came here for: the super bikini!  This is an accessory we can equip on a character for a large boost of all stats. Here you can see what happens if Escher puts it on--yes, both characters can equip it, but we only get one item, so we have to choose who we will give it to. Actually, the game is finished, why would you even want this? Well, there is the matter of New Game+ in a few different variations, so this may be helpful. Personally, I don't feel this game has a big replay potential, so I am not going to bother, but there it is if you want it. In any case, Piu-Piu has a few comments about this turn of events:           And just one more final thing...   You can actually fight Piu-Piu with each of the four couples and as a result, get one bikini for each couple that you can then use in NG+. And with this, you have really done basically everything there is to do in this game and obtained the maximum possible completion percentage (I will show you in a moment what that is). As another "reward", once you defeat Piu-Piu with all four couples, the game's title screen changes to this (not sure if it's a good thing or not, though):  (this is the complete version of picture previously seen on the "The End" screen!) Which finally, finally, brings us to... the scenario screen. This screen shows you the percentage and the details of which parts of the game you have completed so far. This is what it looks like for the fully completed game; when you have only started, all the boxes are completely blank and only fill in when you complete an area/fight. Unfortunately it does spoil the fact that there are four chapters and not only two, but what can you do (it also seems to indicate the correct order of chapters to play them in!). Additionaly, the Piu-Piu bits at the bottom only get added if you finish everything else, including all optional content--so you have to get the 100% completion first, and then you can fight him for 2% per couple, yielding the final maximum of 108% that you can see below! So here is the screen as it looks at the end of the game:  So now then. You might have noticed that there are some loose ends/unexplained references in this game. Worry not, that's why there is "Chaos Rings Ω", the prequel to this game, which tries to give you a bit more insight/explanation about some of the events that preceded the ones shown here. Whether you will LIKE the explanations or not, is another story, but it is there if you want it. What that means for us, is that after a few days break, we'll continue right here in this same thread, straight into Chaos Righs Ω, to complete the story. That game is not very long, somewhere between 1-1.5 lengths of a chapter from this one. Once that is done, I will give a few thoughts about what I think about both of these games in general. So, don't go anywhere and "please look forward to it"! 
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Apr 17, 2013 20:51
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 Well that was a thing. At least you've completed the primary game - an interesting look even if I don't own any device that would play this. Were you also playing to LP Chaos Rings 2 or not?
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Apr 17, 2013 21:22
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Wait a drat minute, what was that screen that was posted in this thread with the evil-looking Piu-Piu in the dark Ark Arena then?
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Apr 17, 2013 22:07
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Tallgeese posted:Wait a drat minute, what was that screen that was posted in this thread with the evil-looking Piu-Piu in the dark Ark Arena then? You mean this one? I have absolutely no idea. 
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Apr 18, 2013 01:25
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That video of the fight was definitely interesting... "I love you guys!" Qualia in your FACE!!!
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Apr 18, 2013 06:39
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You know, seeing the giant fleet of battleships really makes me wonder something. The Ark has basically been looping people back in time when it could have been looping knowledge. Ten million years of technological development... Looks like that's what took out the Qualia in the end anyways.
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Apr 19, 2013 16:09
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The knowledge that the Qualia could, in fact, be fought, immediately led to the creation of parallel time universe loops where they spent 10,000 years making sweet space battleships. This feels like Civ when swordsmen fight tanks, somehow. It's almost like the entire game was designed to let them pull a deus ex machina victory. And if you think it's coincidence that translates to god from the machine ... 
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Apr 19, 2013 16:47
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         Sorry. Never mind. We're not allowed to stop or look back, not until we finish what we set out to do. If one hundred children are to die, do you not want to save one for the future, even if it means sacrificing the other ninety-nine? This is the path we have chosen. Yeah, I know. But the end might come sooner than you think. Really? Did you notice something different this time? No, no. It is simply a hunch. A woman's intuition, if you will. A hunch, eh? And what is wrong with that, pray tell? Nah, nothing. Your "hunches" are pretty reliable, actually. And if you're right... ...then this might be it.          What is it, Theia?   Oh, it's another female voice. But whose?  Meanwhile, at another location...    ...weather is pretty nice.   A strange contraption making its way through the sea. Reminds me a bit of vehicles from the "Lost Odyssey" game actually...  And here we meet first of our characters. What's that, you can't see where he is?  Right here!  As you can see, his name is Vieg.  And finally we get a location title. And with it, the first problematic translation, awesome! This is actually not a battleship named "Napur", but in fact a battleship belonging to a country of Napur (yes, the countries finally have names now!). I am not sure why the error even happened here, since the next two lines of dialogue make this clear anyway. But in any case, the full name here (ナーパル帝国要塞戦艦) really means roughly something like "Armoured battleship of the Empire of Napur", but I can forgive that since it's too long to fit on the screen anyway.  But that's enough chit-chat, Vieg here has a job to do, and that involves climbing up to the turret.      And here it is obvious that Napur is the name of a country.  A bit further up, and...  ...here we are.   And we'll attack it with... a sword? Heh, why not.       Welcome to the first boss fight! We need to defeat this massive and dangerous looking turret with only a sword! This also reminds me of "Lost Odyssey" which featured more or less exactly the same kind of beginning where the main character defeats an armuored tank with just a sword!  We deal reasonable damage to it.   On the other hand, the turret barely hits us, and in fact, usually misses. Considering our position, this is not unreasonable--it is not meant to hit something standing right in front of it!  We are done here quickly. Since some of the boss fights in this game have funky looking attacks, I will be occasionally including the videos... such as in this case! VIDEO: Sword vs. Turret: Who will win? (make sure to switch it to 720px HD for much better quality!)  Are you kidding me! Defeating this boss gives us 2 EXP? Seriously?    This reminds me of something...       Looks like it's the Qualia...   Ah, yes, we know how this works... I think you know where he was taken!              You can watch this brief opening sequence in a video below if you prefer. I highly, HIGHLY recommend that you do so, as it's pretty awesome looking! VIDEO: It is happening again! (or... uh, for the first time?) (make sure to switch it to 720px HD for much better quality!)   The good old snowy dungeon...  And two figures running through it...  One of them is Olgar...  Suddenly a new challenger appears!  And the other is Vieg. Looks like Vahti is around too. Nice.    So it's a boss fight! It's only been a couple of minutes since the last one!  This is still not too difficult...  ...even though this enemy hits harder; but we have the pair attack now.   So, we won. And with it another measly 2 EXP. This is starting to be annoying.  We also got the Goat genes!  Whew. Nothin' like a little exercise after a nap. What in the world are these things, anyway? I've never seen anything like them. Blast if I know. Anyway, I say we're done scoutin' around. Let's head back. Right. Let's see how the ladies are doing. There is a conveniently placed teleporter here.  Even though the rest of the dungeon exists, we are not allowed to go and explore it. The only option is the teleporter.  Yes, this place I know very well. There's Ayuta, but I am not sure who are all the others.  Here are Olgar and Vieg returning from the dungeon...  Ayuta with somebody and two other unfamiliar people.  And I guess these two are Vahti and Rachel.    We came out on a silvery white field. We're definitely not in our kingdom any more. Hmm. I've heard of lands like that in the North. I wonder if that's where we are. The thing I am worried about are those strange beasts we saw roaming around out there. And they were pretty ornery too. From what we saw, looks like they'd attack ya whether they were hungry or not! We might have to fight through them to escape this place. Vahti, how are you and the baby doing? We're doing fine. Just try to be careful. I couldn't stand it if anything happened to either one of you. For the sake of both mother and child, we have to get out of here as quickly as possible. Vahti could go into labor at any time now. I don't want us to be here when that happens.    Okay. Now we are finally back in control. First let's have a chat with Olgar and Rachel...       The air is thick with it. Haven't felt anything like it in years. One thing is sure, though. It's comin' from whoever calls the shots around here. *shudder* Gah, it creeps me out. Good thing I've still got my youthful bravado to shake it off. This is no place for an old man. But, dear, you are not exactly the fledgling you used to be. Huh? What are ya talkin' about!? I'm only forty-one. I'm in the prime of life. I feel like I could soar to the skies!Well, by JRPG standards, he's positively ancient! Excuse me, but you're forty-three. Do try to remember, won't you, dear? And, "prime of life" or not, you're about to become a grandfather, don't forget. Hey, come on, you two. Don't you know what kind of serious situation we are in here? Do YOU? How can any of us know? Okay, fair enough. But that's all the more reason to--- Look, I say we go by what we know, not what we think we know. The menacin' vibe is gettin' stronger. Whatever's behind it is comin' this way. I say we meet it head on and make it cough up some answers. Tsk. Vieg, don't let this doddering old fool talk you into doing anything rash. Your caution and circumspection are why we entrusted our daughter to you in the first place. I know. And don't worry. I could never be like Olgar, even if I wanted to be. In any case, Vahti is in no condition to be gallivanting about. The slightest injury right now could seriously harm the baby. It's up to the three of us to protect them. Hmm... This could get ugly. Before I lost consciousness, I saw the sky covered by darkness. It was so sudden. I wonder if it had anything to do with what happened to us.So let's see now how is Vahti actually doing.      Do you think they could be the ones who brought us here? No, I don't think so. Somebody else brought us here, somebody we haven't met yet. As for the reason, who knows. Vieg, I'm scared. I have a really, really bad feeling about all of this. I feel like we are caught in a nightmare, a nightmare we'll never escape... Don't worry. I'll protect you and the baby, no matter what happens. Besides, Olgar's here. You know better than anybody what kind of wild beast your father is when he gets riled up. And your mother is here too. You don't have to worry about a thing. Thank you, Vieg... and you are right about my mother and father too... Whoever did this, I'm gonna make them pay for messing with my people. At least we're all together. Finally, we should go to the other side of the hall where the rest of the people are. First, let's talk to the unknown couple.  Wait. A. Second. CYLLIS? Cyllis Mackenzie, perhaps? Now I'm definitely interested!        She seems nice enough, but her companion is a bit strange.  No, I disagree. We need to find out as much as possible about what happened to us. But there's not guarantee they mean us no harm. And they look very powerful. Yorath, stop being so rude. ... I am terribly sorry. He's always so protective of me, you see. Let us talk again later. I hope we can return home soon.And now, let's see what Ayuta is up to this time...                Ha, I think we know whose voice that is! * * * In any case, welcome to...  As I have already mentioned a few times, despite its name, this game is actually a prequel to the original and gives more details about the events that lead to those we have seen in the first game. You may or may not like the explanations, and some of them maybe don't even make much sense, but nevertheless it's a fun game to play. It is partially based on recycled assets from the previous game, but there is also quite a bit of new content and generally all new stuff tends to look a bit better (new graphics are noticeably better for sure). In particular new boss fights are a lot more interesting to watch as most bosses have some unique looking attacks. So I will try to provide videos for those whenever possible. The main story has only one chapter and the length of it is a bit more than one chapter from the original. There is (of course) some extra content, but it is organised very differently in this game. This, we'll talk about when we come to it. Another slightly unwelcome change is the rebalancing of difficulty/EXP. As you already saw, the amount of EXP we get for defeating enemies has been reduced by a factor of like 5-10, so it's much more difficult to gain levels. At the same time the boss fights have been made noticeably harder and in a few of them you suffer additional handicaps (e.g. not allowed to heal when morale gauge is not on your side). The game is short enough that this is not a big deal, but the feeling of being completely overpowered will definitely not be present. I am honestly not sure I would have been able to finish the first game on this level of difficulty without getting seriously frustrated! Again, we'll talk about this as it comes up during gameplay. So, here is what the title screen looks like for this one... 
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Apr 23, 2013 19:22
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waiiiit. Olgar is about to become a Grandfather, and Vahti is in labor. .........WHAT. I know separate universes and poo poo but this just clashes with what we already know.
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Apr 23, 2013 21:35
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Rigged Death Trap posted:waiiiit.
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Apr 23, 2013 21:44
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NGDBSS posted:Check update 40 and the hair color. "Vieg" here is the main game's Olgar; he probably assumed his father-in-law's name for as-yet-to-be-revealed reasons. Man I'm glad you posted that, my  alarm was going off just like Rigged Death Trap. Good point.Also was it ever explained way back in the mists of an early update why the Moon has an enormous hole in it or is that a new as yet unexplained thing? Furthermore, that title screen: ahahhahahaha. Subtle.
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Apr 23, 2013 23:35
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Psion posted:Also was it ever explained way back in the mists of an early update why the Moon has an enormous hole in it or is that a new as yet unexplained thing? I would assume that was the Qualia's doing.
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Apr 23, 2013 23:54
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Psion posted:Also was it ever explained way back in the mists of an early update why the Moon has an enormous hole in it or is that a new as yet unexplained thing? It's actually because of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTc9sLmOR0A.
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Apr 24, 2013 06:20
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Wow, so the Qualia is actually menacing when you can't see the stupid looking body. Good to know.
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Apr 24, 2013 09:03
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The hole punched through the moon is a wonderful little detail that I hope we get a real explanation for. I'm kind of surprised they got out into the snowy wastelands so early. Maybe Papa Olgar and Olgar-In-Training broke down the door?
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Apr 26, 2013 08:47
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 Last time, Ayuta and Vieg were about to get into a fight, but were interrupted by what should by now be a very familiar voice... And, yes, indeed...   ...it is our, uh, future friend the Agent. As you will notice, he sounds a little different in this game.          So, nice introductions, as always.   You have been brought here to fight--with your lives at stake. Fight for our lives? Wait just a minute. That would mean... ... Of course, I do not ask thee to fight for nothing. Whichever pair is still standing at the end will be rewarded by immortality. Immortality? The person next to each of thee is thy partner in this journey. Together, thou might very well survive...As you can see, the Agent has acquired a massively irritating "the olde English" accent! ...but alone, thou art a mere forlorn lamb, lost on a path that will lead thee to despair.Aaaaa, make him stop, please!  Vieg and I are partners? And Olgar and Rachel are partners. You cannot refuse to take part in the Ark Arena tournament. And fighting each other when you are not commanded to do so by me is also prohibited. Violation of these rules means death. That's ridiculous! Why should we fight each other? We're not gonna do that. I shall answer no questions. Thou must only obey my commands. ...For somebody with such a funny face, you sure do talk a big game. Are you the boss of this place? I am the one who speaks for the Master. Whatever. It seems to me that all our problems would be solved if I took you out. Isn't that right? Vieg, wait. I do not comprehend thy question. Shall I take it to mean that thou dost not wish to participate in these battles? You are as bird-brained as you look. Figure it out for yourself!      So, it's a boss fight. They sure do throw them at us in this one!     Well, let's see how this goes...  Wow, ok, so we did 0 damage to it!  That does NOT look good!  Nope, we're dead. Obviously, this is not a real fight, and you can't win. Your characters are level 1, and the Agent is, if I remember correctly, level 50. And you know what that means with this game's damage calculation formula!      Good to know our old (future) friend, the Executioner, is still (already) here to do his duty! (Sometimes when I write a sentence like this, I almost feel like Dr. Dan Streetmentioner.)              So, it's going to be the whole family against the Agent, it seems.  I can almost see the wheels turning in his head...  Ah, yes, of course.   So that means... we actually have to...? Never! Each of thee is a chosen warrior, but thou art not qualified to fight in the Arena just yet.Oh man, he's going to tell us to go get the rings, isn't he? First thou must go through that door and bring back two rings. The rings will serve as proof of thy worthiness. Rings? And why should we do that? Only one pair of you will be entitled to live. For the other three pairs, death is inevitable. You must kill each other until one pair remains. Only the victorious couple will receive the Master's blessing. If you wish to live, you must follow this bloodstained path together, two souls as one, to your destiny. Otherwise...            It's a good thing she does not have a (future) history of lying about this kind of thing, isn't it? Oh, wait... So next time we'll have a bit more chat with the other participants, and then it's off to the dungeon. Even though it starts more or less the same as the original game, the plot here will eventually diverge into something different, so don't worry about it too much. Finally, before we are done, lets just have a quick look to the left...  Oh no, that's what I was afraid of. Piu-Piu is here again... Let's just hope that HE doesn't speak in že olde Englishe too!
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May 3, 2013 21:56
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So who are the returning champions for this round? Ayuta on his own, because everyone was terrible last time?
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May 4, 2013 11:14
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Seems like the correct response to 'hmm, I can't kill all of you' is 'better find some new participants then, bye'
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May 4, 2013 14:55
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