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Let's Play Chaos Rings! (The Good Parts) Chaos Rings is the first in a series of JRPG games developed by Media.Vision (familiar primarily for Wild Arms series) and published by Square Enix in 2010 for iOS platform. The game was initially released only for iPhone with iPad version following later. Further on, an Android version was also released, but only in Japan. Even though it's only been released on mobile platforms, technically and plot-wise the game is certainly on a level where it could have been released on, say DS or even PSP as a normal game without any issues. The game actually looks pretty good and features rather attractive character design. One of the later updates to the game even added voice acting (albeit only in Japanese). The game is in many ways fairly traditional JRPG (random encounters and all that), but it does feature some, let's say, more "modern" touches, such as: being able to save anywhere at any time instead of fixed save points; or the fact that early on in the game you acquire an ability to turn random encounters off when you want, thus allowing you to e.g. explore an area without getting constantly interrupted. On the other hand, when you want to grind you can turn them back on. Did I mention that this game is a bit grindy? Well, you can play through most of the standard content without really grinding too much but as expected for a JRPG it does feature some optional/hidden stuff and for this you will definitely have to level up a bit. But more on that as we come to it, however for now I'll mention that I do intend to show all of the optional or hidden content. I'm not going to say much about the plot here, since the characters also begin the story without knowing what is going on so it will be much more interesting to discover it together with them. With that in mind, if you played the game, please do not post spoilers in this thread as the plot is somewhat interesting (if a bit slow-ish to develop at first) and it would be a shame to spoil it. That's about all for the introduction, with just one final comment: I will try to include links to game music wherever possible--this game's score is in fact quite excellent and I encourage you to click on them to listen while you read. So let's get started!                                                                                                     ivantod fucked around with this message at 11:35 on Mar 11, 2015 |
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Sep 8, 2012 23:42
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    Let's... touch!  At the beginning, the game allows us to choose who we want to play as. Both teams consist of two people, and for now let's go with the pair on the left.           After that slightly ominous intro, we find ourselves in a strange room with a bunch of other people standing around, looking just about as befuddled as we are. ♫ Music: Agent's Theme ♫     Suddenly, a voice of a woman is heard from behind...      You don't want to tell me? Fine. Wouldn't be the first time a woman hated me. But I will say this. Try anything like that again... and I will kill you.And with this, we are now free to look around the big room.  This is how we move around:  Being a game for touchscreen platforms, of course we don't have a physical joystick available. However, we do have a virtual one--just put a finger anywhere on the screen and a virtual joystick appears under it! We drag in a direction to move and when near an object/person that can be interacted with we can push the "!" button in the corner to activate. Before we do anything else, let's talk to that woman again, maybe she'll give us some idea what's going on and why she's apparently trying to murder us.  Do you know what happened? All I remember is the sky getting pitch-black, even though it was the middle of the day. Nothing to say, huh. Hey... you didn't kidnap me and bring me here or anything, did you? ...No. But... you may be here because I wished you to be. Huh? What are you talking about? I'm so happy to see you again... Escher. How do you know my name? ... Hmph. This is pointless.We are not going to accomplish anything here. Let's talk to the other two; it seems that the big group has in the meantime dispersed around the area.  Now that you mention it... But then, why did I get stuck with her? That's true. You certainly don't look like a couple... Have you met her before? Never in my life!  We were attacking a castle when, all of a sudden, it grew dark well before evening. Our friends and enemies seemed to freeze in place and before we knew it, we found ourselves here. Yeah, that's about what happened to me. When you consider the couple factor, this situation becomes truly fascinating. Don't you agree? Fascinating? More like a pain in the... Ha ha, I see. I can understand that. But me, I was getting tired of my life anyway. Hey... can you feel that? Yeah... Someone's watching us. It must be the host that invited us here. And it doesn't look like they want to throw just any old kind of party. I can't wait to see what they have to say.At that moment, we are interrupted by a disembodied voice... ♫ Music: Downfall ♫  ...and then this appears above us:          Good news: at least we know everybody's names now! Our companion (who tried to kill us just minutes before) is called Musiea.   And where you will now fight for your lives. Did you say... fight for our lives? All of you here are but one sheep in two bodies. The person standing next to you will be your partner on this journey. Of course, we do not ask you to do this for nothing.  Well, he definitely seems interested now! But wouldn't that mean we would have to kill all these other nice people? That seems wrong... Me...? Pair up with... him? You may not refuse to compete in the Ark Arena. Likewise, you are prohibited from fighting until I allow it. If you break either of these rules, you will pay with your lives.  I am under no obligation to answer your questions. Hmph. You really think we're stupid enough to fight each other just 'cause you say to?              You may be the chosen warriors, but you are not yet qualified to fight in the Ark Arena. In order to qualify, you will first need to find and equip the rings beyond this door. That will be your mark. And with that, he disappears. Well, even if we don't really know what's going on, at least there is an immediate task for us to do...       After this scene, we are again free to explore. The door directly ahead is now available to use should we wish to proceed with the task of getting the rings, but we're not going to do that yet. Let's introduce ourselves to other "contestants" and try to gather some information. First of all, Alto is quite shaken by all this...   C-come on out already. This isn't funny, okay? You promised we would always be together... Garrick... (What a mess... Oh well. It's out of my hands now...)Note: lines in parentheses like this one are intended by the game to represent character's thoughts. Next, let's stop by Olgar and Vahti...   But they just keep saying vaguely mysterious things that tell us nothing. It may or may not be obvious, but this hall extends also to the left and to the right beyond the screen edge. So if we walk to the right...  ...we find Ayuta and Mana alongside two as yet unexplored doorways.   There is no way I could defeat them. Why was I even brought here? I'm just a stablehand... Still, now that I am here, I must keep Princess Mana safe. If I were you, I'd pray you don't get me as your first opponent.  ...My country... What happened to my country? I just pray it's all right... drat it! Isn't there any way out of here? Father... Mother...Let's check out the room on the right.  So it's just a bedroom apparently provided for the "contestants". But it does contain a chest at the far end.  And this is what we find in the chest. Some mulled vine! This is an item that revives a KOd ally in battle (exactly like Phoenix Down). This is good to have, although we'll have an easy way of buying them later. The name of this item (which literally translates to "burned vine") pretends to be in French, but really fails miserably at that. First of all, it should be "vin brûlé" without that extra "e" at the end and second, even that doesn't matter because mulled vine is in French most commonly actually called "vin chaud" instead ("hot vine"). Since the game app is multilingual, you can switch to French and you will find that in that version this item is indeed called... "Vin chaud". Oh well, we won't be using this very often anyway so... The other room is just another bedroom, containing nothing of interest. So we'll now go to the left side of main hall. And there we find a computer terminal (try to ignore for now the weird thing in the far corner, please).   But it just repeats what we already know from the Agent.  Over here, we find Zhamo and Eluca. Let's see what they have to say.  All we have to do is find it... There is only one door in this whole room, though. Either way we have no choice but to move on. I definitely didn't expect anything like that. Things are really getting interesting now. How can you say that! Our lives are at stake! Hey, I don't have any problem laying my life on the line to obtain immortality. I can't believe you... I wonder where that door leads to...Don't think we can avoid checking out the "thing" in the corner any more... ♫ Music: Merchant's Song ♫  Um, what do you mean by "in 10,000 years"?   You won't find a better selection or service anywhere else! Not that there is anywhere else here... Anyway, looking forward to your business!Oh god. This is weird. But anyway, this is actually a shop where you can buy items and equipment. Simple, like in a typical JRPG, monsters drop cash that you can then use here to buy items and better weapons and armour.  We can also talk to Piu-Piu some more (what kind of name is that anyway?)   Or was it my movie-star like charisma that drew you here? I'm sorry about that. I try to keep it under wraps, but there's just too much good stuff to keep it from getting out. And that goes doubly true the older you... Wait... what was I talking about? Hey... Are you... human? Huh? What else would I be? I see... Well, whatever. (I don't have time to worry about this... thing right now.) In fact he already has for sale a slightly better sword for Escher (and also one for Musiea, not shown here)! But we have no money to buy it with. Money in this game is called Ohnz and is usually represented by the abbreivation OZ (as you can see, in the top right corner it says zero OZ, sigh). As is typical for a JRPG, money is tight to start with, but soon enough we'll be swimming in it. Well then, it's finally time to check in with Musiea and perhaps make a move.   Hey, there's no point in hanging around here, right? I don't like being told what to do, but... I like the idea of becoming immortal. ... You can come along if you want. I'm used to looking after helpless women. ...This is revolting. I've traveled the country looking for him, and now... Fine. You won't escape me again. I'd watch your back if I were you. Hah! Now things are getting interesting.Well, it's time to head through the door! And through the door is...  ... our first dungeon, "The Clashing Grounds". We have to go through dungeons in order to unlock the subsequent ones, but once we finish a particular dungeon once, we can return to it any time we want by going through the door and making a selection from this menu. You may notice the four stars in the right corner under the dungeon name; I will explain a bit later what they are (hint: not a rating).  Not only that, but the game allows us to select what should be the level range of enemies. We level up the standard way, by gaining EXP from fighting enemies--I mentioned before that this game is a bit "grindy"; if we want to try gaining a few levels faster, we can select a higher enemy level range here since higher level enemies give more EXP, obviously. Of course that means that they also hit a lot harder, so it may not always be advisable to do this, especially now when our characters are only level 1 and don't have a whole lot of HP. The game kind of tries to limit you a bit here by unlocking higher enemy ranges only gradually as you progress through the story. So in conclusion, for now we'll choose the level range 1-10 because we would get murdered otherwise. Later on, this will change. Beyond the door, we find a snowy landscape that still has room for some chests with items!    ivantod fucked around with this message at 19:44 on Jan 22, 2013 |
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Sep 8, 2012 23:42
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So is this an action game or traditional turn-based? I could see adjustable difficulty if there was a player-skill element, but when it's just ramming numbers into each other it seems a bit weird.
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Sep 9, 2012 03:22
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Glazius posted:So is this an action game or traditional turn-based? I could see adjustable difficulty if there was a player-skill element, but when it's just ramming numbers into each other it seems a bit weird. No, it's turn based, like an older Final Fantasy. I guess you could say that the damage you do/enemies do to you is based on the difference in levels so you may not survive higher level enemies. Also, the higher level the enemies the more EXP they give so you level up faster, but you have to balance that with the damage you take. It's mostly to somehow control a little bit that you don't get overleveled at first, but to allow you to do so later on if you want to spend time grinding. There is one other thing there, but I will cover that in the next update.
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Sep 9, 2012 06:21
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Been looking forward to this since the sandcastle post. The UI shows it's a mobile game, and I can't say I like the font, of all things, but I'm curious to see where this might go.
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Sep 9, 2012 18:52
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Note: we'll be covering quite a bit of game mechanics in this update so I will devote more time to enemy fights than I normally would. Last time, Escher and Musiea found themselves in a strange hall, alongside a bunch of other characters, 10 in total, all seemingly neatly divided into couples. Escher has apparently never met Musiea before, but she seems to have a grudge against him for some reason. In any case, a strange being ordered us to go into a dungeon and look for some rings, so after entering through the door, we found ourselves here:  This first dungeon is called "Clashing Grounds" in English version. The Japanese title underneath is: "凍てつく天、灼炎の大地", meaning something like "Frozen Sky, Scorched Earth", in my opinion a considerably cooler name; incidentally also the name of the music that accompanies it. Before we go on, let's have a quick look at our characters.  A character equipment consists of a weapon, armour and jewel (accessory; we'll cover this in next update). Escher's weapons of choice are various kinds of longswords. He does not already come with a jewel, but we'll buy one shortly from Piu-Piu. The bit at the bottom, where it says "Human Warrior" is a Gene. Genes are this game's version of Magic/Skills. Escher comes already with a "Human Warrior" gene. Each gene can contain a maximum of 6 skills on it which we can learn during the game. New skills and new genes are acquired in a way which I will explain in a bit. For now, he has the following skills (shown to the left):  Physical block gives him the ability to randomly block a physical attack (it is a passive skill, always active); Trompe l'œil I will explain later. All gene skills consume MP when used.  Musiea uses rapiers to fight and is also designated as "Human Mage". This gene has the following two skills to start with:  So she already comes with a 1/2 MP skill which halves MP usage--this is obviously excellent to have as we'll definitely need to use MP against harder enemies. Her other skill is Mental Wall which reduces magic damage for the next five turns; this is not a passive skill, it must be cast in battle when needed. Notice that we don't have any healing skills yet; this is less of an issue than it seems. Finally, time to do some work. ♫ Music: Frozen Sky, Scorched Earth ♫  In the very first chest we already find an Emergency Exit, an item allowing us to exit a dungeon at any time and return to the big hall.  Soon, we come across a diamond shaped thing. This is simply a teleporter moving us to a different area of the dungeon. Speaking of which, have a look at that MAP button in the top corner! Looks like game is helpful enough to show us a map where we need to go... Let's see...  Aaaaa! Nope, this is really not a very helpful way of representing the dungeon at all; at least not until you have played the game for a while and understand how to map this against the real dungeon. Also worrying is the part that there are a few rooms designated with the "Puzzle" label. Well, nothing to do but move on.  Sometimes as we go, we'll come across a tiled area like this; it's just a connection between different parts of the dungeon proper and often contains chests with good items:  Keys are good to have; later in the game there will be locked chests. These are almost always worth opening as they may contain equipment better than anything we can buy!  Various kinds of Chocolate items are basically healing potions. Sometimes it's faster to use those rather than a healing skill.  Outside, we run into our first random battle against some mice.  I will explain briefly the battle mechanics. First and most important choice is whether we want each of our characters to act on their own, or in pair. Pair allows us some benefits, such as: higher damage; targeting a spell or item at both characters at once (and consuming only one) and so on. The drawback is that during this turn all enemy attacks will also hit both characters, so we need to balance it. Most of the time against trash mobs you want to use Pair to make things go faster, but it's definitely not a cure-all.  The action options should be self explanatory; "Genes" allows us to use MP-consuming skills, and the rest is standard.  Let's try a pair physical attack against the enemy. Mouse-type enemies all have names based on kinds of cheese, these low level ones are called Pecorinos. The turn based mechanic is very similar to Final Fantasy X, or more precisely Lost Odyssey in that you input everybody's choices first and then the game determines order of action based on stats. In this case, the mice are faster so before we can act, this happens:   As you can see, even these low-level enemies hit like trucks. However, revenge comes quickly:   Let's strike a victory pose:  As I mentioned, healing is not immediately essential to have. The reason is that we always get healed to full after every battle. However, our MP is NOT replenished until we return to the main hall, so we need to make sure for the time being to conserve it until we have enough to throw away. This is another reason why having MP 1/2 skill is good at this point. When characters use a spell in pair, this skill is applied to both of them, so they each use half normal MP.  As a result of this battle we got Mouse Genes. This is yet another of those genes that we can learn the abilities for. Right now it has no abilities, but we can learn them over time by fighting more enemies of this type. Other than their default set of genes, each character can equip three more. The default set is fixed, however and we cannot unequip it or swap the characters around or anything like that. Sorry.  Eventually we reach a teleporter that brings us to the...  ...first puzzle room. Sigh. So, uh, if you played Final Fantasy X you probably remember those annoying temple puzzles with moving spheres around. This is not quite so annoying and there are a few different kinds, just to mix things up. In this particular variant the idea is to collect all the gems and make way to the exit on the right side. We can touch on a blue block or a gem to swap our position with theirs (this does not pick up the gem, just swaps). The number of swaps we can use is show on top left ("Left:"). We start with zero, but every collected gem adds one. If this is confusing, I will be including short videos showing puzzle solutions for those who are interested. Puzzle Solution Video Solving the puzzle allows us to continue through the dungeon... straight into a random battle:   Unsurprisingly we earn Monkey Genes from this one. Soon enough we encounter a Deer type enemy and of course get the Deer Genes, alongside our first ability:  Cocytus is a water-elemental magical attack; this should be somewhat obvious from its name as Cocytus is the so called "River of Tears" in the Greek mythology underworld. There are three elements in this game and they follow the Rock-Paper-Scissors scheme that the game helpfully shows us during one of the tutorials:  There is one more detail which I will explain when we encounter an example of it. Soon after, we reach another puzzle room:  This is just a tiny bit more difficult than the first one, and solution is in the video. Puzzle Solution Video However, after exiting the puzzle room...     Kill me...? I see, you are still as evil as ever. Do I know you? Don't give me that! I know you are the one who attacked my monastery three years ago! Monastery? ...You killed the priest and all the sisters. They were like family to me... Oh, yeah, I did, didn't I. You evil...! No, wait, I let all the children get away. How are they doing these days? ...I've been taking care of them! I see. That's good to hear. A few more random battles and...  And a bit later...  Beast Wavelength skill is a passive skill that raises the success rate of the Escape command to 100%. After turning a corner, we run into this handsome fellow blocking the way:  Approaching him starts our first boss battle; each dungeon contains one at mid-point.  He IS handsome! I don't have anything to analyse his possible elemental weakness with, so we just go with a pair physical attack...  ...which doesn't do too badly. I decide to try the water spell...  But he is clearly not weak to it.  It is enough however, to turn the morale gauge into our direction. The morale gauge is the circle in the top left and it shows who has initiative in the battle. Doing damage turns it towards your direction. Whoever has the initiative does more and takes less damage so in harder battles managing this properly is essential. The skill that Escher has, Trompe l'œil helps here: it is a physical attack that turns the initiative gauge faster than normal, plus it has a very small chance of completely cancelling the enemy's next turn! Getting back to the fight... we just cast a water spell (Cocytus). However, in this game, using an elemental spell makes this the caster's characteristic, and therefore him/her/it weak to the opposing spell in subsequent turns! Which the enemy exploits:  Luckily, Musiea's magical power allows us to heal in full with just one cast:  We continue in a similar way for just a bit longer (this guy is mostly a chump), and finally, result:  He gives us enough EXP to gain two levels each and also Dragon Genes! This allows us to proceed into the second part of dungeon, but before we do that, I make a quick trip out to replenish MP and take the opportunity to buy those better weapons from Piu-Piu that I mentioned previously: Huh?! You say the dungeon monsters are too strong?! Fool! Don't give me that claptrap! Just buy some weapons and armor from me and teach 'em a lesson! A bastard sword for Escher...  ...and an Épée for Musiea. Finally we head on to the second part of dungeon...  ..which is definitely a bit scorchy looking, but I'm more curious about those bits of electronics that seem to be showing through in a couple of places?  We run into Mana and Ayuta here.   We are having trouble taking all this in... We wanted to know how you two were handling it... I just can't go along with this after listening to that. You're right. I agree completely. For one thing, why do we have to fight each other in the first place? And not only that, he said we have to go find some rings first... And I don't know if I believe our reward is immortality. I mean, how could they do that? You're right... The whole thing is suspicious. Oh, would you shut up already? Who cares about any of that? All I care about is getting eternal life and youth. If they're serious about giving it to us, then I'll do whatever I have to to get it.  Again, we are interrupted by the Agent:  drat. Where the hell is he watching from? I truly wish to avoid battle if at all possible... But if you ever try to lay a hand on Princess Mana, I will cut you without a moment's hesitation. It won't do us any good to argue now! I get the feeling that the more we fight... the more we will be unable to turn back.If we try going a bit forward, we run into this impassable path:  And soon enough, our first random battle here:  Needless to say, this nets us Slug genes and Bird genes. Slugs can be a bit dangerous in large groups when you are low level...  ...because they have the ability to poison you. Poison hits for normal damage plus 10% of your max health every turn for the duration of five turns.  I'm trying to conserve MP, so Escher is soon KOd, and then in the next turn this happens:  Luckily Musiea still manages to finish the last enemy in the nick of time (check her remaining HP):  But this nets us the Encounter skill. Now we can turn random battles on or off whenever we want like so:  The button now shows them turned off. In any case, after a bit of wandering around, our characters come across the next puzzle:  Puzzle Solution Video Solving this puzzle removes half the obstacle on the path:  And then we reach the second puzzle:  Puzzle Solution Video ...which finally makes the whole path passable. So obviously that's where we need to go.  There we find Olgar who apparently just finished fighting Alto for some reason.   Ah, ever so practical.   You are leaving this place, one way or another. So strong... Looks like that's it for her...     How come that Olgar guy didn't get punished? Maybe after Garrick was killed, Alto was no longer required to follow the rules... ...they must not have any use for those without a partner. Well, aren't you calm and collected. I do my best. (This guy...) (No use for those without a partner... If that's true, why would that be the case?) (I get the feeling there is still something we don't know about the rules...) With that, he leaves...  ...and we have a boss to fight!  A two headed tiger in fact!  As usual we open with a normal pair attack.  The boss responds by casting a fire spell on us...  ...but that's a really bad idea because we have an aqua spell that he's now definitely weak to. Repeat this one more time and...  ...we obtain tiger genes. Still not too many abilities for any of those, however.  After the battle, Musiea seems not too well.   Clumsy girl. Here, let me see it. Don't touch me! Hey, don't get the wrong idea. I just want my immortality, and I need to keep you around for that. Me, help you? Go to hell! Who cares about eternal life and youth anyway? I can't believe we are fighting to the death for something so stupid. You really don't get it, do you? There's only one reason why eternal youth works as a reward. Because everyone participating in this ridiculous competition wants to live forever. ...That's absurd. I do not want to live forever. If you say so.In any case, this nets us...  ...and it's for Escher:    And on that high note, we exit the dungeon and return to the main hall. 
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Sep 11, 2012 18:59
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Poor developers, they must have been starving.  Enjoying this LP so far. I remember this being a decent game, and having some nice backgrounds.
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Sep 11, 2012 19:19
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Mmmm, chocolate. This game looks like it has some neat ideas, such as the solo/pair thing and the way dungeon maps look. Looking forward to seeing more.
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Sep 11, 2012 21:36
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The dungeon design is pretty impressive, yeah. What kind of multiplier do you get with a Pair Attack, versus attacking separately?
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Sep 11, 2012 23:38
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Oh my goodness I VERY excited for some Piu-Piu all up in here. Might I suggest some links in the first post?
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Sep 12, 2012 01:04
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Bacter posted:Oh my goodness I Yeah I think the games are not too bad, especially if you manage to get them during a sale they are worth they money. The story, while maybe not worlds greates epic, is certainly interesting enough to keep you playing, characters look great, battle system is pretty good and requires some strategy against harder enemies and so on. For a JRPG you could do a lot worse than this. As I said, I feel that this game could have been published on a DS for example and it would not be out of place (although it would have had worse looking graphics there  ).Added the links, thanks for reminding me!
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Sep 12, 2012 06:37
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Last time we went through the "Clashing Grounds"/"Frozen Sky, Scorched Earth" area and obtained a ring for Escher. Along the way a number of things happened, most notably Olgar killing the now partnerless Alto and the Agent doing more or less nothing about it. Musiea is still intent on killing Escher for attacking the monastery where she was living and killing all priests and sisters. He does not seem particularly remorseful about that.  In any case, we are back in the main hall.  Before we go and talk with our competitors, though, let's have a visit with Piu-Piu.    You know, I really hate the agent! At first, I though we'd be able to get along well and I treated him in the same gentlemanly way that I treat all my friends. I may be a little self-absorbed, but I am also a highly social creature who doesn't easily get stressed out. But that jerk took one look at me and said "This thing is not fit to walk the halls of this divine and holy place." And then he confiscated my top-secret super-awesome collection. Can you believe that? I mean, seriously! Then he said I could only bring one box of my "stuff". Stuff? That "stuff" was my painstakingly gathered treasure!! Then on top of that, he went and scattered it throughout the dungeons. Now, why would he do that? Even if it is just "stuff" to him, that's littering and he knows it. Anyway, if you find some of my collection, could you bring it back to me? I'm not asking this as a favor; I'm willing to shell out some serious cash! That's how important they are to me! Especially those 3D ones... Once you try those, believe me, you can never go back! Okay, I'm counting on you, friend!!No you are not imagining things, he is really talking about his porn collection, though not in so many words. However, this actually a useful hint, as we really can find various "Piu-Piu's Collection" items in chests scattered in dungeons. They have no other use to us except for the fact that they sell for quite a bit of money, which will help us in the beginning of the game (i.e. now).  In fact, I already found a couple of those items in previous dungeon! As you can see, they sell for 5000 OZ which not insignificant at this point in the game! So now I can buy new and improved equipment for Escher and Musiea.  A new (unimaginatively named) sword for Escher...  ...and a new rapier for Musiea. Espada ropera is a kind of a sword developed in Spain in 15th century, very similar to a rapier.   Also some new clothes...   And finally two Garnet rings, one for each of our characters. Equipment in this game only has influence on stats as shown on the purchase screen. There are no hidden abilities or anything like that. A sword is just a sword, the only difference is the attack power. But some of the equipment has cool names.  You may have noticed these cardboard cutouts of women around Piu-Piu. Let's up the creepiness factor by about 1000x by asking him about that...    My little butterflies here will catch you, no matter where you go. They're like pitcher plants. They may look great and give off amazing aroma, but once inside, they'll melt you alive... Anyway, let me introduce you. This is Catherine, and this is Jodie... But these are papier-mâché... Whoa! Escher! I get it. You want to get your hands on my leftovers, right? Thanks to my generous nature I don't have a problem with that, but the girls are all "We don't want narcissistic pretty-boys who like to dress in black and think they're cool stuff when they're clearly not!" Sorry friend, but it's out of my hands. But... But, these are papier-mâ...  Well, as expected, this was incredibly creepy, but possibly worth it for the "pretty-boys" line! Anyway, we are finally done with him/her/it, and we should say hi to our competitors.     She is the princess of our country. I am... a stablehand that works for their family.Interesting, wonder why that little bit of hesitation there? (Hope I don't end up having to fight Escher. He looks like he'd be a tough oponent.) (Musiea looks like she'd understand what I'm going through.) Back in the central area, we find Eluca and Zhamo. A female warrior, eh? No, here I am the partner. He's the warrior. Zhamo will be the next king of our country. Eluca is the head warrior. Don't underestimate her because she's female. She's the best warrior of our country. (This timid kid was chosen as one of the strongest warriors around? Eluca looks like a much more capable fighter.) (I can't believe I have to fight for my life with these people) (Escher and Musiea... These two look like they'll end up killing each other without any help.) And finally right next to them, we find Olgar and Vahti.  You two are... Married. Yes. That's quite an axe. You know, bigger isn't always better. I didn't choose this weapon; it chose me. I can't imagine using anything else. (This guy is dangerous. Definitely going to be the hardest opponent. There's no doubt we are going to end up fighting him in the last battle. Vahti looks like she's a bit stronger than Musiea too.)These two seem just as mysterious as always. Oh well...  And then, we are again interrupted by the agent.  We need to get one more ring, for the second half of the couple.  The new dungeon has quite a cheery name, "Ancient Path of Death". But we have no choice but to go there. Also note that next to the "Clashing Grounds" we now have two stars filled in, but the other two are still empty. We'll see what that means although not for quite a long while yet. This game is many things, but nobody can accuse it of being short!  We are definitely going to up the enemy levels this time; we have gained a few ourselves and need to start leveling up faster. As is typical for a JRPG, every subsequent level requires more EXP to reach.  And so here we are. Despite the name, it looks a lot more inviting than the previous one. The Japanese text in this one, "死に至る太古の道" actually means the exact same thing as the English text, so no issues with translation here. However, they still managed to mess it up a bit. The dungeon was called "Ancient Path of Death" on the selection screen and here it is called "Ancient Path to Death". Unfortunately, the English localisation is occasionally a bit sloppy with silly errors like that. There is one particularly hilarious mistranslation of a weapons name from Japanese and I'll make sure to point it out although that too is in the distant future still.    I had my reasons.That's not an answer. Tell me. I have a right to know. ...You don't know what your priest really was. He pretended to take war orphans out of kindness, then turned around and sold them as slaves. That's what he was really up to. Needless to say, the sisters were in on it too. How dare you! How dare you insult their memory like that! I was hired to take care of them after they betrayed someone they shouldn't. Apparently your greedy priest broke his contract without telling anyone. You expect me to believe that? I have no reason to lie. You must have noticed other children suddenly disappearing. They didn't disappear! They left because they had been adopted! ...So you believed everything they told you without question?  So. Next time, we'll explore the new dungeon and find out what new weird things will happen. Also, new puzzles (yay!).
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Sep 15, 2012 20:55
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You know, at first I thought "oh, Agent robbed the merchant of everything to stock the treasure chests? That's actually kind of a neat twist" but it turns out it's just his porn collection. Japan.
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Sep 16, 2012 00:09
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Am I the only one who's getting some Dangan Ronpa vibes from this story?ivantod posted:Yeah I think the games are not too bad, especially if you manage to get them during a sale they are worth they money. The story, while maybe not worlds greates epic, is certainly interesting enough to keep you playing, characters look great, battle system is pretty good and requires some strategy against harder enemies and so on. For a JRPG you could do a lot worse than this. As I said, I feel that this game could have been published on a DS for example and it would not be out of place (although it would have had worse looking graphics there I'd probably buy it if it wasn't loving iOS only (seriously, what the hell?)
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Sep 16, 2012 00:28
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Heavy neutrino posted:I'd probably buy it if it wasn't loving iOS only (seriously, what the hell?) The game does in fact have an Android version, but it's only available to buy on Japanese Play store. From what I've read the that version is quite heavily DRMed (online activation, IP check and what not) to make sure it can only be bought in Japan/run on a Japanese phone and is practically impossible to buy if you are not there/own such a phone. Also, unlike the iOS version which is multilingual, this one only contains Japanese text. I believe SquareEnix has cited too much piracy on Android as a reason for not releasing their games on that platform outside Japan. As for Piu-Piu, yeah the first reaction is for sure the usual "WTF, Japan!", but oddly enough this whole nonsense does tie in with the main story in the end (but it will take a while until we get there). It does feel slightly jarring at first since the rest of the game's story is fairly serious and played straight.
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Sep 16, 2012 08:48
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Had a bit of a chat with our fellow competitors last time, alongside quite some creepiness from the resident creep, Piu-Piu. Now is the time to go and get the second ring, presumably for our companion Musiea. And so we find ourselves in this nice looking place, with not such a nice name.  The map is again seemingly useless, although as I mentioned before, with a bit of practice you can learn to read them.  Throughout this whole area we'll be criss-crossing back and forth over this river and the waterfalls. Also I got an item here from a chest, it's a Serum, which replenishes our MP. This has a bit of a limited use because (a) most of the time we'll want to cast a spell in pair with Musiea and (b) Musiea already has a MP Half ability.  Of course, soon we run into our first random battle... with a couple of apes. I decide to do a pair attack, and this will demonstrate some of its benefits. As you may remember, Escher as an "always-on" physical block ability which gives him a chance to block an enemy physical attack.  So when the first enemy tries to attack, this happens.  Even the rate of activation is not that low, because the second enemy's attack suffers the same fate.  More importantly, it earns us the Analyse ability which points out any weaknesses/characteristics that an enemy may have. This is especially useful for boss fights.  In one of the subsequent battles, our repertoire of elemental spells continues to fill out. Needless to say, this is a fire spell.  Even in this area there are still bits of electronics showing through the nature.  Let's not forget the puzzles, though, because soon we reach the first one. This one is more conventional block moving puzzle. Basically, you can move any block in any free direction. Once moved, the block will travel until it hits an obstacle, or an edge. If it hits you (if you are standing in its path) the whole puzzle resets to the beginning. The remaining number of moves is, as always, in the top left. Puzzle Solution Video  There are still a number of these corridors...  Here, in one of random battles, we get the Sexy Pose skill. This is passive skill, that when equipped gives us a few % discount at Piu-Piu's shop. I am not even going to say anything about this. The skill is definitely equippable by both male and female party member. In any case, this is only worthwhile until your money earning rate surpasses the spend rate.  Soon after this, it is of course time for the second puzzle. Puzzle Solution Video  In the next battle we get the Steal Item skill. This is useless. The only seemingly worthwhile items can be stolen from bosses, and even they are pretty worthless (I will cover this later on). You can finish the game without ever needing to use this skill.  Eventually, in one of these tiled corridors, we come across Eluca and Zhamo.    If you want to be a warrior, act like one. ...How can I do that? There is no big secret to it. You just have to fight without fear of death. That's it. I would never want to fight someone who could do that. Escher... Thank you for teaching him what it means to be a warrior. Hey, I didn't do anything like that. And make no mistake. I don't care if you're kids; if I have to fight you, I will kill you. I wouldn't have it any other way. You know Escher, you resemble Eluca a little. Huh? How? Ha ha... That for example. My country can't afford to lose Zhamo now... ...nor can I. Getting out of the corridor leads to the midpoint boss of this dungeon; which is apparently a giant turtle with a forest growing on its back. Oookay then.  No better time than now to use the Analyse command. It shows us that the boss has a characteristic of Gale and weakness of Blaze.  Luckily the Cremate spell covers exactly that situation, so...  ...this battle won't last long.  The boss can barely touch us now...  ..and the end result is inevitable. As expected we get the Tortoise genes. Note: I don't really cover every single gene plate/ability that we get as they are not always that interesting. I will however point out some specific uses of particular abilities that help in defeating the game. As before, we'll pop out of the dungeon for a bit, primarily to replenish Escher's MP which is still a little bit on the low side.  Here we for some reason find Mana standing alone. Where is Ayuta, I wonder?   I could really think of several other things about this whole place that are considerably more bothersome than that. My gosh, you're right. I hadn't noticed. Why would they do that? ...Perhaps they don't want us to see outside? Hey! Musiea! ...What? Don't go getting friendly with someone we may end up having to kill! ...It's none of your business who I get friendly with!Oh well. Let's go see what our favourite creep is doing.  Again this thing about 10,000 years. It would be nice to know what that is all about. So what can I get for you today? You that know you *have* to buy something before you leave? Although, if you insist on leaving... you could just leave Musiea behind. The only thing I care about are money and women, and Musiea is my kind of woman. Come on, Musiea baby! You are always welcome here!Ugh. Let's go. Time to move on to the second half of this dungeon.  It's a bit icy/crystaly (can't really tell).  The path to the left is blocked with some kind of crystal structure...  But if we go round the other way, we reach this overhang with a conspicuous looking boulder on it.  But of course. Pushing this down will destroy the thing blocking the path. So we can now return there.  And there we find our mysterious friends Olgar and Vahti fighting some monsters.    Yeah, you know, a wager. Whoever kills the monster first, wins. What do you say? Interesting. Very well, I accept. And so we are thrust into a standard battle with a couple of monsters.   In fact, I manage to deal the finishing blow on both of them (by using the Cremate spell). Unfortunately, the conversation that follows will always be the same, no matter how well you do in the battle.   Oh yeah, Good to see that this axe isn't the one swinging you around. (This is bad... I didn't think he'd be this strong...) Well, don't let it get you down. Here, I'll tell you a little secret. The reason I was able to kill it so quickly because I already knew its weakness. Its weakness? How could you know that? Simple. This is the second time I've fought them. What... how is that...? You'll have to figure that out for yourself.As mysterious as always. Also, annoyingly, this conversation is happening just after we got the Analyse spell and the game here completely ignores its existence. But oh well.  In any case, we can continue past the blockade now...  ...and, inevitably, it leads to a puzzle. I must apologise for the fact that this and the next video are without sound. Unfortunately I had a mishap with the recording software and lost the sound part. Normally I could just replay this part again, but the game only keeps one save, and by that point I had already saved the game again, so I would have had to start from the beginning to record the puzzles with sound. Puzzle Solution Video  In any case, solving the puzzle leads to another blockade, so we head the other way into a corridor.  And here in a chest we find this.  It is a clothes upgrade for Musiea, and it is slightly better than what she currently has. This happens relatively often that you find weapons/clothes in a dungeon chest better than what Piu-Piu is currently selling and we'll see it at least a few more times.  Soon, it's time for the last puzzle in this dungeon. Puzzle Solution Video  And then we reach another boulder. We already know what to do.  So we can now pass through the path.  In one of the battles, we learn the Counter skill. This is unfortunately an active skill, so you have to actually cast it and then you will counter the next enemy attack. Not super useful, as you can instead simply attack twice for a similar result. However, there is a similar PASSIVE skill called "Auto-Counter", which is way more useful and which we'll get a bit later.  After that, we finally reach the boss area, but...   Stay back! Is that... blood? ...Dammit... once I become immortal... So, you're sick? Well, don't expect any sympathy from me. It serves you right. At that time the boss finally decides to appear...  Well, what can you do. Let's fight it.  It's a huge elephant, which uses various kinds of stomps as its main attacks.  But Escher's Trompe L'œil is not bad against it.  Eventually it casts a wind spell on us.  Which we counter with expected results.  This is inevitable. Of course, we gain Elephant genes.    *wheeze* *cough* If you want to kill me... now's your chance. I'll pass. If I killed you now I'd be just as cowardly as you. Hypocrite. If I were you, I wouldn't hesitate. Why you...! ...Shut up! I'm not a hypocrite! Then kill me! You hate me, right? I said shut up! I won't do it, I'm not a coward like you! I guess getting your revenge doesn't mean to you as much as you thought. And he runs off back to the main area.   Musiea gets her ring, finally. What happens now? Let's return to the big hall.  There, Agent appears again with ominous words.        So, you know how in TV show previews they sometimes say "In next episode, someone dies"? Well, looks like that's where this is headed too.......
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Sep 20, 2012 23:15
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Well, that's a bit quicker pace than I expected. Unless the arena's got some kind of qualification stage in it or something.
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Sep 21, 2012 20:11
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We obtained finally the second ring, one for Musiea. It would appear the now we need to go into an arena and fight Olgar and Vahti to the death. This does not sound too good, especially since they seem to know quite a bit more than they are saying...  So... the main hall once again.  Before we talk to other people, let's get Piu-Piu out of the way.   And that means, you have to prepare yourselves for whatever consequences that may bring. I'll be honest; I like you guys. So go out there and win. If you're not confident in your chances, just go back to the dungeons and toughen yourselves up.Yeah, we're doing fine, no need to grind at this time. And of course, you can always buy more equipment from me.This, we WILL do, however. Skill's not enough to get you through a fight like this; you need lots of luck as well. But if you've worked even one iota higher than your opponent, that'll make lady of Luck that more likely to smile on ya. I'm usually all happy and cheery, but these battles even get me down. I don't want any of you to lose... It cuts my customer base in half! In any case, as before, we can now get a better weapon for Escher. The kind of unusual name of this weapon prompted me to check the Japanese version of the game... and sure enough there was a surprise waiting. If you switch to Japanese, this sword is called: 百人斬り (hyakunin giri) which basically means "to kill a hundred people". I was wondering where this kind of name comes from and it turns out, this is based on an event that may have happened during Japanese occupation of China in 1937 (accounts differ on whether anything actually happened and if so what). You can read a more detailed article about this on Wikipedia. This makes it pretty clear why the name was changed in other languages.  And a new rapier for Musiea.  Also, clothes upgrade for Escher.  We are however not buying the clothes for Musiea because the ones we found in the dungeon are still better!   As always, a couple of upgraded gems.   Ok, now back to the serious business.   It makes me think that my entire life... has just been leading up to this moment. I guess when it comes down to it, we're all stuck in the same boat. Is fighting and killing all you can do? ...I'm sorry, but... Soon I will see for myself whether or not what I saw in that battle had value... Now we have to fight Ayuta... And as much as I hate to do it, I'll never be able to beat him if I'm not ready. Until we find another way out of here, I will just have to get over it and do what I must to survive. I can't afford to die now! As I see it, Ayuta and Eluca are about evenly matched. You and Mana will be the keys to getting through this. Can you handle that, Zhamo? It's my destiny to become the king of our land. So if this is a trial I must overcome... in order to become a king capable of bearing the fate of his people... Then I will rise up to meet it!So much for that.  As usual, we find Ayuta and Mana on the other side...    Mana... I don't want you to die. And I know Ayuta feels the same way. So please... Don't just give up without a fight. Even if this whole thing is ridiculous, you can't give up and die without even trying... Musiea... I just want to live... And go back to my country... I wish I didn't have to fight Zhamo. But, I must keep princess Mana safe... no matter who my opponent may be. The same goes for you Escher. I will fight to the death to protect her. I'd watch who you say that to if I were you. I don't see myself losing to a mere stablehand. And if I were you, I'd wait to defeat Olgar before saying things like that.ICE BURN! Oh ho! You want to settle this now? Fine. You'll make a good warm-up. Stop it, Escher! Have you lost your mind!? This is neither the time nor the place! (Before coming here, I had never so much as held a sword.) (And yet, my body moves on its own, as if it already knows what to do.) (It's like I've been fighting my whole life...) (What am I anyway?) (No, this isn't the time for that. Right now, all I can do is focus on the battle at hand!)And finally, we go and have a chat with our upcoming opponents, Olgar and Vahti:     The... second time? But everyone who loses in the Ark Arena is killed, right? Which would mean... Yes. We are the victors of the last tournament. That would mean that... you are already immortal! Then, there's no way we can win against them! Don't get scared. If they really can't die, we just have to cut them up in little pieces. It'll be a sight to see if I cut your head off and you are still alive.  But deep down, he was a good, kind boy. Huh? What the hell are you talking about? You can't be more than 10 years older than me! Are you treating me like a kid? No. You just reminded me of one of my own. Oh. Okay. So what is he doing now? ...He died. So long ago, I can barely remember when. Olgar has really taken a liking to you two. Escher, Musiea, I promise you, there is light to be found even in the heart of the battle. That was... somehow strangely optimistic in the end.  There is nowhere else to go...  ♫ Music: Ark Arena ♫ The music theme for this part is pretty awesome, you should definitely check it out!  And we find ourselves in yet another strange places. What are those blue things behind, I wonder? Still, we have a conversation to finish...   A foolish reason. What about you? I have people waiting for me. Oh? I take care of war orphans. So I can't let myself die here. You will never defeat us with motives like that. And why's that? ...Have you ever thought why this tournament is being held? What do you mean? Who is making us fight? And for what reason? ...I don't know. And as long as I win, I don't care. I have been thinking about that constantly since we won the last Ark Arena. And today I may have found an answer. An answer? Really.  Time to fight I guess. But everything seems somehow off and strange.  If you thought that the fight will somehow be avoided, unfortunately that is not the case. We actually have to fight them for real. But no worries, purely from the gameplay side, this is actually not hard as you'll see.  I like to open with a pair attack. We'll focus on Vahti first as she has less HP.  She casts a fire spell...  And what's this? She just healed for exactly the amount we damaged her for!  No matter, let's retaliate with a counter-spell.  And again she heals for exactly the amount of damage she took! Well, of course... she's immortal, isn't she.   How? We are not doing any damage because we are not working together. Why don't we try attacking them simultaneously? Me? Work together with you...? We don't have time for that now! Either we work together, or we both die here! Fine, I'll give it a shot.Again this annoying battle/plot discrepancy where you are doing one thing in battle where the plot requires something else--obviously I have been doing pair attacks since the beginning of the battle and it made no difference until now when the game tells you it will make a difference. Ah, well.  Anyway, we attack again, and...    And from here on, you can simply go all out.  After a few turns, Vahti is KOd.  Now we can focus on Olgar. Physical attacks such as Trompe l'œil are perfectly fine here.  A few turns more and... victory?    ...Would you like to know what exactly happened in the last tournament? Nah, that's ok. If we really needed to know, you would have already told us.You can't be serious with this! Heh. I see... ...Perhaps, you two... are the ones... who can change our fate.          I don't want to keep living if it means I have to take someone else's life...! Don't you dare say that! There is no greater dishonor you could do to Olgar and Vahti's memory. As a result of the battle we learn Olgar and Vahti's special abilities.     Out of these, probably the most useful is "Critical First Attack". It ensures that our first attack in any one fight is always going to be a critical--doing up to 2x more damage than usual. This a passive, always-on skill. Bind is like Silence in Final Fantasy and it has too low hit rate to be really useful. Magic Block is the equivalent of Escher's Physical Block skill and is a passive skill that sometimes randomly blocks a magic spell attack; this is also useful since you don't have to cast it. Obviously the first two skills are for Escher and the last two for Musiea.  And so here we are once again. Appendix: A comment was made about the game proceeding faster than expected through the plot. Well. In fact there is a screen where you can see the current completion percentage. I have so far avoided showing that screen as it's kinda spoilery. But I can at least show you the number, percent of game content that we have completed so far after defeating Olgar and Vahti:  So. In fact the reality is quite the opposite of what was assumed above. The plot is proceeding at a fairly slow pace and I wouldn't mind if it was moving a bit quicker! Not only that, but as a matter of fact the maximum completion percentage you can achieve at the end is MORE THAN 100%!!
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Sep 22, 2012 22:54
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I'd always wanted to test this out, as most iOS games serve as good time wasters and nothing else (even the majority of the RPGs are extremely shallow plot wise) and was incredibly disappointed when my old 3G couldn't run this game. However I'm upgrading to a 4G in the near future and will be playing along. How many hours have you put into the game as of the most recent update?
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Sep 23, 2012 00:10
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Defeating Olgar and Vahti just 8% into the game is pretty surprising, I must admit. I wonder what the game has in store after we defeat all of our current opponents.
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Sep 23, 2012 00:22
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Baron Von Baragon posted:I'd always wanted to test this out, as most iOS games serve as good time wasters and nothing else (even the majority of the RPGs are extremely shallow plot wise) and was incredibly disappointed when my old 3G couldn't run this game. However I'm upgrading to a 4G in the near future and will be playing along. One thing to be careful about is that this game is not "universal" on App store, it has separate versions for iPhone and iPad so make sure you don't buy the wrong one. The screenshots you see here are taken from iPad version, so I would expect that on iPhone it probably looks a bit more cramped due to different resolution/aspect ratio. Also, it's probably worth wating a bit to see if it will go on sale because it does from time to time. CrookedB posted:Defeating Olgar and Vahti just 8% into the game is pretty surprising, I must admit. I wonder what the game has in store after we defeat all of our current opponents. ) that we didn't participate in. Of course, question is what this means in terms of game's overall plot since based on that percentage there is obviously a lot more to it than that--we haven't begun to even scratch the surface on that subject.
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Sep 23, 2012 01:27
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8%? Okay, now I'm really curious where the plot is headed.
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Sep 23, 2012 04:59
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Now does that include Zhamo and Eluca's story, too?
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Sep 23, 2012 05:29
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alcharagia posted:Now does that include Zhamo and Eluca's story, too? Yes, 8% is calculated based on full game content including everything there is in it to see (so including all optional stuff and so on).
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Sep 23, 2012 05:49
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I bought this game back when I had an Ipod touch, but never got very far in it because I can't really get into mobile RPGs. Still, this game looks fairly interesting, and I would have easily bought it if it were a PSP/DS title, so I'm enjoying this so far. The plot is interesting so far, I kinda find it funny that most Square games have pretty good writing except for their main franchises Anyways, keep up the good work.
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Sep 23, 2012 06:00
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I'm not sure whether to qualify it as a plot hole or something, but there were originally 5 pairs. Either they were expecting one group to freak out or the initial matchups would be uneven.
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Sep 24, 2012 01:46
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In the end, there was no avoiding it, we had to go and fight Olgar and Vahti to the death. We won, but they had a strangely relieved attitude about all of that. We also learned that they have in fact won the previous Ark Arena tournament thing. The details on that are, too, still fairly murky. The other arena battle was fought between Ayuta/Mana and Eluca/Zhamo. Who won? Well, take a look what we see upon returning to the main hall... So Ayuta and Mana are dead too, since Eluca and Zhamo apparently won that fight... Let's talk to them.   ...Yeah I guess it does. I'm not quite sure how to handle it. ...Where's Mana? Gone. She is no longer with us. I see. She managed to wound me. It was a hard-fought battle.Typically, we are interrupted by the Agent...   Ask yourself: why is your partner the person here with you now? Find the answer to that question, and you shall find your proof. For without it, you will be unable to take part in the final battIe. Proof of our partnership...?  A quick visit to Piu-Piu. He does not have any new equipment for us at the moment, but let's see if he has any comments to what just happened.  Believe me, baby, I know just how you feel. When l think about how haIf of those luscious bosoms are gone now that the fist round of battles is over, it just about breaks my heart... Hm? It doesn't look like I'm crying! Hey, I can't help what I look like!And back for some more chat with Eluca and Zhamo. Well, it's not like there's anyone else left to talk to, is there?   We still can't hold a candle to the Agent, and now we know there's someone even higher than him... Well, since we're stuck here anyway, I'm going to get stronger and stronger until I can crush him. And if there's someone behind him, I'll just crush them too. Besides, we don't know for sure that they're stronger than the Agent. Yes... That's true. Whether by your hand, or by ours... They will get what's coming to them. For Ayuta, Mana, Olgar and Vahti's sakes as much as ours. I'll drink to that. Out of everyone here, I can't believe I'm making a pact with you. I must be crazy.    They must be mutated forms of some sort. There are several animals in my country that look very similar to them. Of course, the ones here are far more ferocious. Some of them resemble animals from my country as well. So... These monsters are... Whatever they are, by fighting them, we continue to grow stronger and stronger,far beyond what we previously thought possible. And you think that The Agent is enjoying that too? I think he might be. And not only that, but those places that looked like mountains and forests are actually just walls. Everything in here is fake. Even if it does look uncannily real.Yes, we kind of noticed that. But it's not very well maintained and seems to be falling apart a little bit.   Given all that, this whole Ark Arena might be nothing more than a big puppet show. (Ark...? What is that? it sounds... ominous.)  Ok. As mentioned by Agent, we have a new dungeon to visit, and here it is:  It is called "Ocean of Origins".  As always, we'll bump up enemy power by one step. The thing to know is that the enemies level up slower than you do, and just around this time is the point where our characters will be starting to get overpowered compared to the enemies of the same level. For now, we still need to be careful just for a little while longer.  Well, here we are. The Japanese name "太母の慈愛、背徳の寵児" has not a whole lot to do with this translation--it means something like "(Grand)mother's love, fall from grace of the favourite child." I'm guessing it was too long to put in that selection box--all other languages use the "Ocean of Origins" version.    Where'd that come from? Don't get the wrong idea. It's just that The Agent said we needed proof of our partnership... That's the only reason why I'm asking. I never picked you to be my partner. I don't know the slightest thing about you. And the only thing I know about you... Is that you killed my priest and the sisters. Olgar and Vahti are married, Ayuta is Mana's loyal servant, and Zhamo and Eluca trust each other completely. ...So what are we? I don't know.  As usual, the map...  And here we encounter our first locked chest. We need a key to open it. Sometimes keys can be found in the chests and Piu Piu also sells them for 2,500 OZ. It's usually worth having a couple with you as the chests may contain a weapon or clothes upgrade in them. You can't really just bring enough for the chests you know contain good things, because their content is more or less randomised every time you enter the dungeon (they restock).  And soon it's time for the first puzzle. In this kind of puzzle, there are blue and red blocks and you can make either all blue ones transparent or all red ones transparent. Transparent blocks don't prevent you from going through them. So you need to swap them back and forth and collect all the gems before exiting. Puzzle Solution Video  After exiting, we run into a chest containing the Water Lily...  ...which is a small weapon upgrade for Musiea. Hey, why not?  Soon after that, the second puzzle. Puzzle Solution Video  And then we are on a path which looks like it's leading to the mid-point boss fight...  ...and sure enough. So I'll just show you what happened here, without much commentary:     Oh well. We get fish genes from this guy and can move on to the second part of the dungeon. Well, in a moment anyway.   Why were we chosen as partners...? If only we knew that, we might be able to find this proof. Remember what the Agent said? We won't be able to go any further unless we know more about each other. Hmph. I'd like to know who came up with the idea for this stupid system. Fine, I'II tell you. Believe it or not, I was born into the nobility. But I was stolen by thieves when I was still a baby, so I didn't exactly get to know it very well. The thieves were a lot nicer than you'd think. After they found out they weren't getting a ransom for me, they took me in and raised me themselves. They taught me tricks of their trade. Everything from martial arts to pickpocketing Of course, they did beat me almost every day. One day, after I had turned 14, I was rescued by some knights working for the nobility. They killed all of the thieves right in front of me. For a while, I was in shock. For all their faults, they were still like family to me. When I got back to high society, all I found was discrimination and dirty looks. Everywhere I went, people looked down on me as the "tainted one". Now that I think of it, there was no way a kid raised by thieves could make it there. I decided to run off on my own, and I ended up working as a "cleaner" for an underground organisation. I swore from then on to make it on my own. * * * Maybe you can see why I don't like talking about myself now. Anyway, that's my story. I killed your priest as part of one of my jobs. Even if what you say about the priest and sisters is true.. It doesn't change the fact that they took me in and raised me when I lost my parents. And it doesn't change the fact that you killed them either. That's true. I know how you feel. I sympathize with your hardships. But, I still can't forgive what you did... Yeah. I know.Popping out of the dungeon quickly brings us to Piu-Piu who is a bit preoccupied with something at the moment...    The second part of the dungeon brings us into that building that was kind of visible into the distance.  You may notice that there are two items visible in the bottom left corner. We need to find them to be able to proceed to the boss. It's kind of silly as they are actually given to use as a reward for solving two puzzles, so this is kind of the same as before when puzzles were imply blocking our progress. This time they are in dead-end rooms, but instead yield items which allow us to progress. I don't see a difference personally.  The place is falling apart, it seems.  In one chest, we find clothes for Musiea, but they are the same as what she already has. No matter, they'll sell for a couple of thousand to Piu-Piu, so it's still worth it.  Soon, the first puzzle of the second half of dungeon. These red/blue puzzles are actually quite easy. Puzzle Solution Video  We are rewarded with the first of two items, a gem.  Shortly after, we walk past a locked door. Needless to say, this door will unlock once we have both items.  Along the way, we run into this guy in a random battle. This type of enemies are named "Billiken" (apparently, Billiken is a thing; who knew?). In any case they are important, because they are rare, but when defeated give you loads of money, or loads of EXP. This one in particular, gives loads of EXP, which is exactly what we need right now.  Even better! I have this item in my inventory that I picked up somewhere in a chest, and look what it does! It doubles EXP received in battle. OF COURSE we are going to use it. Billiken is defeated quickly, and this is the result:   Definitely worth it. Normal enemies at this point give about enough EXP for one third of a level so this is quite a lot more. In case you are wondering, Musiea is a bit behind on EXP because of that one battle where Escher fought with Olgar without her.  In any case, we run into Eluca and Zhamo defeating a monster...  (And the speed with which he's managed to do it. A true natural if I ever saw one.) (And Eluca's determination to protect him too is amazing in itself.) (Watching them fight together reminds me of Olgar and Vahti...)  Did you two find your proof? Not even close. I'm actually kind of jealous of you two. Can we really go back to our homes once this whole thing is over? We cannot trust the Agent. But then, what can we do...? The Agent... I need to be strong enough to defeat him. Second puzzle... Puzzle Solution Video  ...and second item. Now we can go back to that door.  And behind the door...  ...is, of course the boss.  Escher's first attack goes totally awesome. This guy is actually the first boss that can be a bit dangerous. He's quite fast so the order of turns may sometimes surprise you. I actually died once or twice to him while I was recording this.  He hits kinda hard with his physical attacks.  But I luck out a bit as Musiea blocks his magic at one point.  And you know what comes as a response to that!  And so.  He gives us Celestial genes. These are kind of special and contain unusual spells such as "Revive" and so on.  Escher is not looking too hot.    Where is it?! Where?! *hack* *gasp* No... I can't... die yet.And with him coughing and wheezing we return to the main hall.   Yeah... It's in my room... Okay... Hang on.  (... What am I doing? What do I care if he suffers?) (Wait. Could it be...) (...that I don't want him to die?)    So, one more dungeon to go, and one more fight after that, presumably against Eluca and Zhamo. We'll see how that goes.
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Sep 27, 2012 23:52
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Huh, so they're just going to kill off Ayuta without resolving his plot hook? Maybe it works out differently if you play as Eluca.
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Sep 28, 2012 00:39
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Heavy neutrino posted:Huh, so they're just going to kill off Ayuta without resolving his plot hook? Maybe it works out differently if you play as Eluca. I'll try not to sound spoilery here: remember that there is still 90% of the game left to play? That's a lot of stuff still to happen. What I'm really saying is it's too early to worry about unresolved plot points.
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Sep 28, 2012 06:14
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So what were the indoor areas in that dungeon? Places that were built over the ocean and have been falling apart? Or is there really not a lot of thematic consistency to the dungeons you run through?
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Sep 28, 2012 20:52
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Glazius posted:So what were the indoor areas in that dungeon? Places that were built over the ocean and have been falling apart? It's some sort of castle built on the water that's half fallen into ruin by this point. You can see it here in the distance: Basically the idea is that the whole place seems to be falling apart a little bit, with all the bits where metal/electronic parts are showing through the earth surface in dungeons and so on. It was also kind of mentioned in the dialogue in the last update.
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Sep 29, 2012 06:30
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Escher and Musiea are probably long lost siblings or something.
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Sep 30, 2012 20:32
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Edit: probable spoilers sorry
Ohtsam fucked around with this message at 21:59 on Sep 30, 2012 |
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Sep 30, 2012 21:55
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Please don't.
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Sep 30, 2012 21:56
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Hey guys, I have the next update almost ready, but since we are only a couple of posts away from the next page it would be nice if you could help out to get there since this one is already quite heavy with images and I'm not sure that adding one more full update to it would be so nice! You know, make our browsers happy and all that!
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Oct 3, 2012 18:48
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I love making browsers happy. My iPad's 4G plan is running out fast because of the Square-Enix SSLP kick I've been on lately, anything to assist.
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Oct 3, 2012 18:55
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Well, this game is wracking up a body count at an alarming rate. Not many people left...
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Oct 3, 2012 19:19
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ivantod posted:Hey guys, I have the next update almost ready, but since we are only a couple of posts away from the next page it would be nice if you could help out to get there since this one is already quite heavy with images and I'm not sure that adding one more full update to it would be so nice! Happy to oblige, keep up the good work. Its a pretty good game that gets overlooked a ton.
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Oct 3, 2012 19:30
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I didn't even notice until now that the thread is still in its first page.
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Oct 3, 2012 19:35
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I have an inkling of an idea of how the story is going to set up, but I have neer seen this game outside of this thread so I don't really know for sure.
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Oct 3, 2012 20:24
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