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Latest Update: April Fool's Day 2013 What is dotHack? The .hack franchise isn't what you would call a mega-hit. However, there is an extremely loyal fanbase that buys everything .hack related. There is, not coincidentally, also a shitload of stuff that is .hack related. There have been several full-length anime series, at least seven games, four 45-minute one-offs that tie into the first series' story, more manga than you can shake a stick at, many novels, at least one actual MMORPG, and so many other kinds of merchandise that it boggles the mind. Unfortunately, CyberConnect (the company behind the franchise) have taken a "buy it all if you want to understand the full story" stance. This can get prohibitively expensive very quickly. About the Thread The primary focus of the thread is going to be playing through the first series of games, collectively "IMOQ" or Infection, Mutation, Outbreak, and Quarantine. In the last thread, we finished Infection and got started on Mutation. We're now here to finish Mutation, Outbreak, and Quarantine. Depending on how I feel at the end of Quarantine, we may even get into the GU series. Though that's quite a ways off still!  Please note, the games are very story-driven. Please refrain from posting any story-related spoilers. This includes future party members. If it's not story/party related, feel free to use spoiler tags. I would also appreciate it if the thread didn't turn into a CIA document from all the black bars in use.Will You 100%? I'll do my best to fill the Books of Ryu by the end of //Quarantine, but I can't guarantee any specific completion for the in-between games. I'll be glad to occasionally give updates on how much the books are filled in, and will generally be providing a full accounting at the end of each game to help track my progress. Just to note, I will not be going out of my way to get full item lists. That would be insane and prohibitive to actually finishing the series. Extra Notes Like I said before, the .hack franchise is very story-driven with some actually decent voice acting. Most of the "big name" voice actors in video games have at least one speaking role here. Expect to hear a lot of familiar voices as the game progresses on. Because of that, this will be a hybrid LP. I'll use screenshots to cover the majority of content, but some things (like cutscenes) will also be presented as videos. For special boss fights, I will also be doing highlight reels with commentary tracks by myself usually someone else. Text in italics is used for commentary that I've added. Bolded text is typically used for system messages or any narration done by Kite.  //Update 01 - Δ Bursting Passed Over Aqua Field //Update 02 - Δ Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground //Side Update 01 - Out-of-Game Stuff (Email, News posts, Forum threads) //Update 03 - Level Grinding (Several Fields) //Update 04 - Δ Expansive Haunted Sea of Sand //Update 05 - gently caress Mia and Elk //Update 06 - Θ Quiet Eternal White Devil //Update 07 - New and Old Friends //Update 08 - Investigations //Update 09 - Screaming Conspiracy //Liminality Vol. 1 - In the Case of Mai Minase (ANIME WARNING) //Update 10 - Θ Chosen Hopeless Nothingness //Update 11 - Finishing up Vol. 1  //Update 01 - Θ Soaring Sky Bounded Abyss //Update 02 - Rachel, Nuke Usagimaru, and Moonstone //Update 03 - Moonstone's Adventure and Λ Nameless Seeker's Prairie //Update 04 - Λ Resurrecting Confused Judgement //Update 05 - Cubia //Update 06 - Kite's Day Off //Update 07 - .hack//SIGN Reference //Update 08 - Wiseman's Quest //Update 09 - Λ Pulsating Worst Core //Liminality Vol. 2 - In the Case of Yuki Aihara (ANIME WARNING) BONUSES: //April Fool's Day 2013 - 
SourceElement fucked around with this message at Apr 2, 2013 around 03:06 |
| # ? Nov 20, 2012 00:26 |
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| # ? May 22, 2013 07:33 |
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Supplementary Lore: Edition One - The Tale of The One Sin Event - Why Orca is "pretty well known" in The World, by Senerio Edition Two - gently caress the Internet - How Pluto's Kiss nearly created the Fallout universe, by pointlessone Edition Three - Morganna - One player's tale of The God of The World, by Senerio gently caress the Internet Part II - The rise of ALTIMIT, by pointlessone Edition Four - Modified Characters - All about character models and why it's totally illegal to make your character look like an anime, by Senerio gently caress the Internet Part III - Players, admins, hackers, and "The World," by pointlessone Edition Five - Role Playing - Be whoever you want to be, by Senerio Edition Six - Gott Statues - Mistral discusses the finer points of item collecting, by Senerio Edition Seven - About Grunties - Hotaru explains how Grunties work, by Senerio Edition Eight - Optional Party Members - Senerio explains about optional party members and why they're awesome. About Magic - Nighthand explains the game's magic system. Physical Skills - Nighthand explains melee skills for the various classes. Edition Nine - Class Skills II - Nighthand explains Heavy Blade skills Edition Ten - gently caress the Internet Part IV - Before "The World," there was a man, a woman, and a beta, by pointlessone Edition Eleven - Class Skills III - Nighthand explains Long Arm skills Affection - berryjon explains the game's affection system in detail. Edition Twelve - gently caress the Internet Part V - "The AI Hunts" - pointlessone explains why the administration team of The World destroy all nascent AIs they come across. Edition Thirteen - gently caress the Internet Part VI - "Aura and the Black Box" - pointlessone shows just how creepy the creator of "The World" really was. Special Edition - Forums user FredMSloniker asked if I would capture all the Grunty Food audio, both English and Japanese. The image below links to a video with just that very thing! 
SourceElement fucked around with this message at Feb 1, 2013 around 11:47 |
| # ? Nov 20, 2012 00:26 |
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//Character List (Listed by order encountered.) Kite: A new player to "The World." He is a Twin Blade character class with light blue hair and is fairly short. He is the main character for the first four games in the series, and is thankfully not a silent protagonist. Always polite and friendly to anybody, he is quite easy to get along with.The player behind Kite is a 14 year old middle school student that enjoys playing soccer. Voice Actor: Mona Marshall (South Park, lots of anime)  Orca: An experienced player of "The World" who has been playing since the early days of Fragment. (The beta version of "The World.") He is a Blademaster character class, wearing very little armor and carrying a large sword. He is one of the two legendary "Descendants of Fianna," known as "Orca, of the Azure Sea." The title was gifted to him for being one of the players to defeat the unbeatable boss, The One Sin.All that is known about Orca's player is that he is named "Yasuhiko" and that he is in a deep coma. Voice Actor: Kirk Thornton (Naruto, Kingdom Hearts series)  BlackRose: Like Kite, she is also a new player to "The World." She is a Heavy Blade character class, and is very loud. She is quick to add her thoughts to any discussion going on, and is easily the most confrontational out of everyone Kite meets. She seems to have a personal stake in the goings ons in "The World."Behind the character, BlackRose is played by a teenage girl named Akira Hayami. She enjoys playing tennis more than anything else, and has two brothers: Fumikazu and Kouta. Voice Actor: Wendee Lee (Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, various other anime)  Balmung: Balmung is a legendary player in "The World." He is the other half of the "Descendants of Fianna," known as "Balmung, of the Azure Sky." He dealt the killing blow to an unbeatable boss and was rewarded with a cosmetic change for his character. That is where he got his trademark wings. He basically defines the term "White Knight" and all that it entails. Like Orca, he has been playing since Fragment.Not very much is known about Balmung's player. Voice Actors: Doug Erholtz (Official VA of Squall Leonhart, Bleach) (Voice of Balmung during Infection) Crispin Freeman (Lots of Roles) (Voice of Balmung for the rest of the series.)  Helba: Not very much is known about Helba. She is an infamous hacker and... that's about it. She always seems to show up when something big is going down, and always knows far more than she lets on. She seems to have taken a liking to Kite.Nothing is known about the person that controls Helba. They are obviously a skilled hacker, and they seem to have a vast number of resources at their disposal. Voice Actor: Mary Elizabeth McGlynn (Lots of Roles)  Mistral: Mistral is an item collector - she wants to collect at least one of every item in "The World." She ran into Kite in the dungeon of Δ Expansive Haunted Sea of Sand. There, she saw him use Data Drain on a bug, and thought it was a pretty cool skill. She's a bit of an airhead at times, but is a solid addition to Kite's team. She is a very bubbly individual, always using some form of smilie to show just how she feels at any given moment.Offline, Mistral is played by a young woman named Mayumi Kurokawa. One of her favorite things to do is cook, and she has exchanged many e-mails with Kite about cooking and shopping for cooking supplies. She claims to get the best deals when she buys food because she haggles the prices down. Voice Actor: Sandy Fox (Akira, Love Hina, Trigun)  Mia: Mia is a very mysterious character in the game. She's the only PC in "The World" that looks like an anthromorphic cat. This makes her an accomplished hacker, because character modification is quite illegal. She's the only Blademaster that joins Kite's party for a long time, as well. She is never far from her companion Elk, and has a fondness for Armoatic Grass. Despite being pretty blunt and no-nonsense most of the time, she is also an expert Troll and enjoys torturing Piros.Absolutely nothing is known about the player behind Mia. Voice Actor: Debra Rogers (Cowboy Bebop, Outlaw Star, Zone of the Enders)  Elk: Elk looks almost exactly like Tsukasa from .hack//Sign, making him a Wavemaster. He can always be found with Mia, and she is probably his only friend in the game. This makes him pretty fiercely protective of her, and he has been known to be outright cruel to people who he believes to be drawing her attention away. He's pretty insecure, always stammering when talking to others.The player behind Elk is a middle school student named Kaoru Ichinose. He's a little younger than Kite, at 13. Voice Actor: Brianne Siddall (Bleach, Xenosaga series, .hack//Sign)  Piros: Piros is the comic relief. He plays a Heavy Axeman character and seems to always be role playing himself as a great hero in "The World." He has a unique character design among all other male Heavy Axemen in the game - his PC doesn't have a helmet.The player behind Piros is named Hiroshi Matsuyama. He's in his early thirties and works as a programer for a large company. He has a love of strange food. Voice Actor: Daran Norris (Fairly Odd Parents, Lots of other roles)  Natsume: Natsume is another Twin Blade. Kite first met her when she posted on the forums about looking for the Spiral Edge. She's a bit naive, and is really down on herself. Despite that, she's very energetic and gives 100% to anything she does.Offline, Natsume is played by... Natsume Oguro. She's a 15 year old librarian, and (though she doesn't realize it at first) she knows Kite's player in real life. Voice Actor: Lia Sargent (Xenosaga series, Star Ocean 3, Cowboy Bebop)  Sanjuro: Sanjuro is a Heavy Blade, like BlackRose. He looks similar to a Ronin, or a wandering Samurai. He has an eye patch, and uses Katana-type weapons exclusively. He really hates PKers, and views himself as a wandering hero.Sanjuro's player is actually a Japanese teacher from South Dakota. He plays on the Japanese servers to improve his skill in the language, by playing with those who are fluent in it. He is a huge fan of Samurai films starring Toshior Mifune. The character's name came from "The Hidden Fortress." Voice Actor: Steven Jay Blum (Every Role Ever)  Gardenia: For some reason, Gardenia has a fan club. The first introduction we get to the character is through her fanclub circlejerking each other on the forums. She finds the club annoying, and the only reason she joins with Kite is because he's both persistent, and not a member of the fan club.The player behind Gardenia is a High School senior, and president of the Naginata Club. She loves flowers, which explains her name. Voice Actor: Carolyn Hennesy (General Hospital, Dawson's Creek, Click) //Character Class Descriptions (courtesy of berryjon) Twin Blade Wave Master BladeMaster Heavy Axe Heavy Blade Long Arm SourceElement fucked around with this message at Nov 27, 2012 around 00:20 |
| # ? Nov 20, 2012 00:27 |
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//Update 02 Hello everyone! Are you all ready for something resembling excitement? I hope so! Today there's no time wasted, we jump straight into the game and right into the waiting arms of a cutscene. Video:    The video is worth watching if only to hear Mia's voice actress stumble her way through chatroom-speak. What might sound like the video slowing is just how stiltedly Mia is speaking. That threw me off for a while before I realized what was happening. : ??: Ever since that Noise incident, Mia's input system is acting up.: Eye m shoe r et wheel get fixed event you ally. 8 knee weight, wear R u go ink?: Huh? Oh, to a Protected Area.: The one that was on the Board? Λ Dolorous Evil Eyed Widow?: I'm going to head there too.: Welt zen...: Mia, I'll say it. Invite us when you're gonna go to Λ Dolorous Evil Eyed Widow. We might find Aromatic Grass. Mia's intuition is usually right. Mia taught you how to hack the gates, so she has a right to go, right?: Uh... yeah...Video:   I don't care if it's schadenfreude speaking or not. I can't get enough of text-speak Mia.  We also found this pretty kickass armor off a passing player. For the remainder of the update, I switch back and forth between this and the Quakebeast Fur because there are a fuckton of Darkness-element enemies in the next few dungeons.Anyway, there were a couple of posts on the board last time that were practically flashing neon signs saying "NEW PARTY MEMBER HERE." So let's check them out; first up is Rachel's area.  Video:  Rachel is another character that I do not like. Her voice grates on me. It reminds me too much of Fran Drescher. I probably won't be using her if I can help it.  : Anne has a Basin Shield and wants a Paper Cloak. Bate has a Plastic Sword and wants a Mad Opener. Catherine has a Mad Opener and wants a Basin Shield. Dick has the Paper Cloak and wants a Love Archery.Everyone: Exactly. : Which means... Give Anne's Basin Shield to Catherine, and give Catherine's Mad Opener to Bate. Take Bate's Plastic Sword... Oh no. No one wants the Plastic Sword.Anne: So what now?! Bate: Don't you have any extras? Catherine: What a waste of time...! Dick: This is all I get?! You've got to be kidding! : If everyone ain't satisfied, you can't consider yourself "pro." There should be a Love Archery somewhere in this dungeon. Could you go find it for me?: Uh. OK.I brought Mia and Elk along for the hell of it. While I didn't grab a screenshot of it, I did outfit them with whatever weapons the shop was selling. While this made them functionally more useful, it is still Mia and Elk we're talking about. Combined, the pair of them are smart enough to be functionally retarded. Anyway, this dungeon pissed me off. There were enemies that could stunlock you with high damage Thunder spells coupled with high physical damage enemies that took full advantage of you being stunlocked. Eventually I decided "fuckit" and data drained one.    Yeah, the Bracelet leveled up. Drain Arc is a neat little skill that can be best described as "multi-target Data Drain." It's not handy very often, but it's an awesome skill to use nonetheless.  : ...?...On the second floor, in the hallway before the stairs going down, we met someone trying to act cool. He gated out after ellipsis-ing at us. Weirdo. Anywho, checking the Gott Statue nets us a Love Archery and some minor treasure.   : This must be it. I'll take it to B1.: Oooh! That's it! The Love Archery! But who should I give this to in order to make everyone happy...? I wonder... Could you hand this out so that everyone will be satisfied?Dick: This is it?! If there's no Love Archery, I'm outta here. I'll take the Paper Cloak, though. Trade him the Love Archery. Dick: Yeah, this is what I wanted! OK, here you go. You now have Paper Cloak. Dick: See ya! Anne: So what's it gonna be? I'm not trading my Basin Shield without your Paper Cloak! Trade him the Paper Cloak. Anne: Sure. This is an equal trade. You now have Basin Shield! Anne: Talk to you later. Catherine: What a waste of time. All you have to do is trade Basin Shield and Mad Opener! Trade her the Basin Shield. Catherine: He-y! You already have it! Well, here ya go! You now have Mad Opener! Catherine: O-kay! Well, see ya-! Bate: I ain't moving until I trade my Plastic Sword with a Mad Opener! Trade him the Mad Opener. Bate: I'm so grateful! Thank you! Now, here's yours. You now have Plastic Sword! Bate: Later! : Well, it always seems to work out. But it's sooooo draining. I'm sooo tired...!! Without you, I don't know what would've happened. So how about teaming up with me, huh? : Catch you later.That was far more annoying than it had any right to be. At this point, I got tired of Mia and Elk and decided to go on their little adventure just to be rid of them.   The dungeon was completely unremarkable. It was full of enemies that we all saw back at the end of Infection and they haven't gotten any stronger since.    Even the "boss" of the dungeon was just a data bugged variant of one of the monsters we fought in the dungeon proper. Though it did have a nasty little trick up its sleeve: it was completely immune to magic spells. Thankfully, unlike the Parasite Dragon from Infection, we were able to break its Magic Tolerance with a Beast's Bane. With Elk able to cast spells on it, the monster was barely able to put up a fight.   : Here you go, Mia.Elk gave Aromatic Grass to Mia. : Wow! Thanks!!: By the way, how do you use that?: There's no use for it. We just collect it.: ......: You think it's futile? Ah, but futility is a necessity. A system without futility is very vulnerable. The key in opening a new gate is futility. Just because there's no use for it, is it futile? Sometimes the existence itself is enough.: Hey, Mia!: Oh? I guess it got fixed.: Yeah!: Congratulations! Though, that was amusing in itself.  : Elk!!: I liked Mia a lot better in chat speak mode.  She didn't recite the daily word from her Word-of-the-Day Calendar repeatedly in a nonsense speech that was meant to sound deep and meaningful.Video:  : The Ts chuloo!: Oh...: Dam Ett...  : But... I didn't see any girl-like character... I guess I'll start again...At this point, I started offering to trade with everyone I passed. I found a couple of pretty good items that were worth trading away whatever it was I traded for them.   For Mistral, a new necklace that gives her a spell that's as game breaking as it sounds for this early on in Mutation. For BlackRose, a new armor that's pretty drat good as well. I believe both items were item level 44, so that's one hell of an upgrade this early on!  Finally, I spent about 20 minutes tracking this little bugger down. Why?  Something that will shoot Piros' affection through the roof without any extra effort on my part. What did s/he want for a weapon as amazing as that?  A hunk of ice.   Anywho, this field can mean only one thing: everyone's favorite blood sport!      That was refreshing! Now time for something that will be considerably less fun. Rachel's little trading sequence was only the first potential new party member that posted on the board last time. There was one other, as well. Nuke Usagimaru wanted us to come alone to a level 30 field. Video:  Morgan: Let's start, already! Nece:: C'mon, make me laugh. Sasaki: Countin' on ya! Q: I'm a bit picky when it comes to performances. Melon: Oo-hoo! I think the localizer meant to put "woo hoo!" here, but both onomatopoeias work.  : O-K, so shall we get started?!      : Sorry to keep you waiting! : You're the only one?! 'Tis an actor's job to perform, even with just one audience member. Show's on at B3. Come along, now.I never really used Nuke enough to form an opinion about him when I first played the games. I think I was still partially bitter about the solo dungeon crawl. Anyway, before we're too far into the dungeon, we run into a familiar face.  : ......: ...?...Guess he didn't like Nuke's comedy routine, either.   For some reason, the bottom floor is completely devoid of enemies. It's also devoid of a Gott Statue. No points for guessing where Nuke set up shop.  : So, how's my technique? Now this is what I call graceful. Am I right or what? Special techniques are cool only when you use them at the precise time. Don't overuse 'em.: He calls it a show, but maybe he needs some help?The "boss" dies from two Rai Don spells.  : Thanks to your intrusion, the talk show was a success. So lighten up, OK? : All right, see ya!Finally, because Gardenia asked us so nicely last time, let's investigate that area she sent us keywords to.   : There is.: Oh... One of you guys in the thread mentioned this kind of monster as being a pain in the rear end. I have to agree with you. It has obscenely high physical damage, and I'm pretty sure it drains SP away as well. Guess what enemy the dungeon just loved to throw at us.  Eventually, Kite asks Miss Taciturn a simple question. : Do you like flowers, Gardenia?: Why do you say that?: You pick the fields with flower names and you talked about flowers the last time we met.: Must I explain?: Only if you'd like...: Well then don't bother asking. Don't let her go Kite, she's a real winner, that one. Further ahead in the dungeon, we meet everyone's new favorite talkative individual.: Aah.: Hm...?    For once, the Gott Statue wasn't our goal. The empty room just in front of the group was the real destination. Notice that there are no gold portals inside the room on the map.   The only thing inside the portal was one of the weak coffin monsters from the surface and throughout the dungeon. I have no idea why Gardenia called it strong or why she used the plural form of monster.   : Why...?: Huh?: I feel cheated when I don't receive equipment from the treasure boxes.: Yeah, it happens sometimes.: Use that as you wish.: Gardenia... Are you looking for something?: No, it's just...: Just?: It's just I'm here to seek revenge on the monster that got me before. Mission accomplished. Let's go.Anyone know if the Crystal Stone has any special use like the Ice Bar did? I can't find the answer anywhere I look. Just to be safe, I stuck it in storage for the time being. I also bought Nuke a spear and a pair of socks from the weapon shop, which boosted his affection clear to 200. (No really, the weapon shop sells ninja-style socks.) Gardenia also received a spear and Kite's old Quakebeast Fur. That kicked her affection from 60 to somewhere close to 300. What I'm saying is, if the party members like them so much, everyone will receive new pairs of socks for Christmas!  Anyway, that's all there is to the game for now. Time to check the board and our e-mail.  Λ Nameless Seeker's Prairie is added to the Word List.  It was popular in certain circles, but the site it was on bit the dust, so I couldn't gather much information about it. Fragments of text data apparently got traded for a lot of money among the die-hard fans. But I don't know if that's true. The entire thing is just filled with mysteries. IF anyone knows anything, please post.  Λ Detestable Vengeful Messenger is added to the Word List.  If you use these two well, it gets pretty easy to collect items. The items you can get in an area are directly related to the area level, but the enemies get stronger, and it get spretty dangerous. If you choose a negative word for Monsters, the rate of appearance for items in the area will not change, but the difficulty of the monsters that appear will decrease. Also, if you choose a positive items word, you can increase the rate of appearance for appearing items in that area. The words that I know are: Part B: Bounded -10 Part B: Evil Eyed -8   I'm starting to get tired of the quiet, mysterious loner trope. Gardenia was fulfilling that role in our team nicely, thankyouverymuch. Λ Bottomless Guffawing Raw Ore is added to the Word List. : Moonstone...? Oh, is he the guy I've met several times in the dungeon?        Normally I don't show off both of the two possible choices for sending e-mails, since one is "be a dick" and the other is the obviously right choice, but this was too good to pass up showing.  However, the "right" response is this next one.   So yeah. You can see just what a new spear and a used piece of armor can do for affection. Next time: we'll finally get to talk to Moonstone face to face for more than a second. BONUS Addendum a year later: Hello again! Been a long time and so much has changed since the thread was sadly abandoned and reopened. For instance, I somehow lost the save file that covered this specific update. So I had to replay it and approximate as much as I could. As a result, some things changed. You could consider most of this odds 'n ends. Just stuff that changed between play-throughs or stuff that I caught while grabbing screenshots this go-around.   Some additional chatspeak Mia dialog. Respectively "Right, let's go." and "Thank you. I feel so embarrassed thanking you like this." The first one is from calling her Member Address, and the second is from giving her the sword detailed below.    New weapons for Mia and Elk. The weapons shop in town sells these for relatively cheap and I figured that trying to keep them semi up-to-date on equipment might make them stop sucking. It doesn't work. Also risky chests around this time start to contain those gloves. Evasion on your Wavemasters probably can't hurt, and Elk gets this pair. No worries about Mistral. She'll get her own pair before too long.   Finally, some new toys for Kite. Sure, the weapon cuts his accuracy, but the raw attack is worth it. The turban is also amazing if only because of the fact that you get the next Repth spell upgrade for yourself.
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| # ? Nov 20, 2012 00:27 |
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//Update 03 Greetings everyone! I know it's been a long time, so just bear with me. If you need a refresher on what's recently happened in the story, I included the previous update just above. For those of you with exceptional memories, or just the Archives upgrade, let's press on! We begin, as we often do, on the desktop.    Blackrose made mention last time about enjoying swimming.    Kite seems to enjoy picking on his friends. The "Creature from the Black Lagoon" remark was from the wrong e-mail to send. I thought it was too funny to pass up including.     Meanwhile, Gardenia is juggling two different conversations with Kite. The top conversation is actually supposed to happen in Infection, but we only got the requisite amount of Affection just recently, so it's happening now.  This ends Gardenia's Infection e-mail chain. A lesser person might make a crass joke about the suction cups remark, but I like to pretend we're better than that.    At least we're starting to see the beginnings of some sort of personality underneath Gardenia's cold exterior! Gotta take every victory we can get, especially now that we've got another cold silent loner type on our team. Speaking of Moonstone, he wants us to investigate a level 35 area. Right now Kite is level 36, so while he and Mistral could theoretically carry Moonstone all the way through the dungeon without much difficulty... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpOLIcVy-Ig (You should watch this to understand why this is a Bad Idea.) Y'know what, let's go get Moonstone some levels. I can't pretend I still understand the Chaos Gate system, but there's a dot in the Magic Portals section of this field and despite being only a level lower than the field Moonstone wants us to visit, the monsters are pathetically weak. It's a perfect spot to get some easy levels for him with very little risk involved. The field was largely uneventful. Moonstone gained three levels somewhere down in the dungeon and he got some equipment.   The Yosetsu & Fuyou weapon are the same pair of hooks that Kite is using.  Also Mistral shows for the first time of several in this update exactly why I love her character. Anywho, back in town after clearing out the dungeon, I stop by the shop to ensure what's coming will be as smooth as possible. Selling all the crap we got in the dungeon got us a not insignificant chunk of change, enough to pay the premium the weapon and armor shop is asking on equipment. As such...    Our resident loner twin blade gets a set of dark equipment to match his stellar personality. This has an unintended side-effect however.  Moonstone's affection shoots to the second highest among all of Kite's friends. Strangely enough, neither Blackrose nor Mistral are the highest.    Gardenia is. Giving gifts breaks the affection system in hilarious ways!Anyway, if you watched the video that I linked above (and you really should if you haven't) then you will understand just why I dread doing Moonstone's introductory mission. But this wouldn't be much of a LP if I didn't do the mission, so... Video:  : Annihilate all monsters in the dugeon.: Do you mean destroy all the monsters in the dungeon? As I promised in the bonus section of the last update, Mistral got her own pair of gloves so she wouldn't be jealous of Elk.    Though I didn't mention anything, in the level grinding dungeon, we found the sword in the images above. Our only Blademaster (that I'm willing to use more often than once per game) is Mia, so I'm gonna hang onto it for her. Who knows, this may be the weapon that makes her stop sucking. Once inside the dungeon, Kite helpfully restates our goal for us.  This is not a place to vacation, despite the sunny weather and Fire element. Evils live here that best not be spoken. Armor Evils. Video:  (You should proably watch this as well. It's only 13 seconds long!)I can hear you laughing now. But SourceElement, you say, what could be so bad about them? They look like a generic bad guy. Watch the attached video to understand. They will make you cry. The dungeon is chock full of them.   At least the dungeon is thankfully short. The top floor is the longest, and only because there's a split pathway making you go two different directions before continuing down to the second. On the third floor, we have the opportunity to check out the Gott Statue before entering the last room. There's some fairly decent goodies inside!     The Hands of Ronin will make an excellent gift for Blackrose, while the Mage's Soul is a nice freebie to get, considering how expensive those tend to be from vendors! Once we finish the last room in the dungeon, Moonstone speaks up.    That wasn't nearly as painful as it could have been. Frequent savestating may have been in use because I'm not trusting anything to the RNG when Evils are involved. From last time, you may recall a post on the forums that pointed us to Λ Nameless Seeker's Prairie as a protected area. Mistral is already in our party, so we grab Blackrose and set out to do some SysAdmin sponsored investigating.   Naturally it's locked, but only requiring two B cores is pretty cheap considering. Nothing of interest happened in the field, so we'll skip into the dungeon when I finally remember that I have a gift for Blackrose.  That right there is basically the only thing that happened in the dungeon. It is a level 32 field after all, and the main trio are all level 37-ish at this point. To call it a challenge would be laughable. Though I do want to make special mention of these little shits right here.  Hysterias were also in Moonstone's dungeon. They are your typical glass cannons in that they can put out a lot of hurt at once, but will die from so much as a stern glance. Their primary attack is a level 2 thunder spell that they won't stop chain casting, which hurts somewhat, but locks you down for a long period of time because of the cast animation. The last room in the Moonstone dungeon had five of them. Once on the bottom floor, we encounter the purple mist signifying a data bug or boss fight.  Seeing as Mistral's SP was still low from the last fight, I rested in front of the gate to recover it. While doing so, I grabbed some status shots of the party.    Not doing too bad for being fairly early in the game! A small amount of level grinding really can help smooth over rough edges. Video:  The entire boss fight is captured in that video, which shows just how much of a powerhouse Mistral really is. It also serves to confirm that data protection is only broken after a set amount of damage is dealt, not the number of hits like I had previously believed. If you do watch the video, there is some minor stuttering that couldn't be helped. It's a definite downside to emulating and I apologize .  The scorpion with wheels takes the initiative and starts to attack Sheraton. : Oh, no, no, no. He's getting beat up.: I feel a kinship...Mistral seriously wrecks the data protection with two casts of her summon spells. She's quite powerful!  And approximately ten seconds later, the monster is dead.  Sheraton: Hello. Do you have End? I want End. Someone give me End. : Hey... are you all right?: Yes! I'm Mr. In the Way. Nice to meet you!!   Can I just reiterate how much I love Mistral? She's such a massive goof that you can't help but laugh. : What was that? It didn't look like... a regular player... Maybe Lios would know something. Let's get back to the town.Back in town, I disband the party. Before we contact Lios, we have an extremely important thing to do.    Yes. Yes I can.   Now that we've covered our requisite goblin slaying for the update, it's time to inform Lios of whatever it was that happened. Naturally, we have new e-mails to attend to as well.         From now, for the forseeable future, the shot with the Send e-mail bit on the bottom is the correct choice for affection e-mails. Kite's reactions to Moonstone's messages are just too funny to not include. Back in Carmina Gadelica, Lios is waiting for us.   : Report the situation of the Protected Area.: The infection is spreading. There was also one Data Bug. A player was attacked, so we defeated it. Wait! A player in a Protected Area?!: That is probably failed data. They are immune to the protection. But a Data Bug... hmmm... that's worse than I expected.: Failed data? So, it's not a person?: Of course. (I think he meant to add not here, otherwise the sentence makes no sense.) It is useless meaningless data. There is nothing more or less. We will initiate the follow-up investigation. I will inform you of your next orders later. Well, I think that about wraps us up for now. As soon as Lios gates out, we get another e-mail notification. Can't wait to see what the latest news from Moonstone is.           Λ Ressurecting Confused Judgement is added to the Word List. I apologize for my re-introductory update for being so dry, but this is the most logical ending point for the update without going into super overtime to accommodate stuff in the next one. Believe me when I say that things will be almost exciting again soon!
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| # ? Nov 20, 2012 00:27 |
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Oh my god it's back. I think i gave up my quadrilogy-playthrough that this LP inspired somewhere in part 3. Or at the beginning of 4. I still have the email chain "guide" i wrote for part 2 and 3 for you somewhere, haha. Let's see if we'll get there this time.
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| # ? Nov 20, 2012 00:42 |
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Just so you know, even with archive access, your older links don't seem to work. Glad to see this back!
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| # ? Nov 20, 2012 01:34 |
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TheBystander posted:Just so you know, even with archive access, your older links don't seem to work. Glad to see this back! Hm, that's troubling. I've gone through and fixed the broken links. They should all link back to the previous thread now. That shows what happens when you try to be fancy and link directly to the postID!
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| # ? Nov 20, 2012 01:58 |
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Sweet! Glad to see this back after all this time. Might want to make it clearer in the OP that the older posts require archives (putting up a warning before the update list, rather than after the first update in Mutation). But that's just a minor suggestion.
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| # ? Nov 20, 2012 02:09 |
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Yay, this thread is back. Was wondering about it the other day.
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| # ? Nov 20, 2012 02:48 |
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I was just thinking about this game Saturday night. You read my mind!
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| # ? Nov 20, 2012 03:54 |
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So glad to see this back in action! I didn't even realize a year had gone by since the other thread ended. Time to read through the older updates so I can remember who the hell 2/3rds of the party members are.
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| # ? Nov 20, 2012 04:00 |
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Maybe someone with Archives access could throw the quote the posts and import them into Baldurk's SSLP Test Poster, like Quovak did with Chrono Trigger? That seems like a quick no-muss-no-fuss way to make the old content accessible for anyone without archives. That aside, I'm also glad to see this started again. .hack is an interesting series, but it's more more interesting to see than to play...
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| # ? Nov 20, 2012 04:06 |
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It's actually possible to completely wipe out all the monsters in a dungeon? I thought the random encounters just kept going forever.
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| # ? Nov 20, 2012 04:37 |
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Oh man I am so happy to see this thread resurrected. Godspeed, SourceElement.
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| # ? Nov 20, 2012 05:04 |
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Alright! I have been looking for a great dotHack LP. Looking forward to seeing this one finished!
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| # ? Nov 20, 2012 05:32 |
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Alright, this LP is back! I keep getting disappointed that people keep getting burnt out LPing the first .hack// series(which I can't blame them for; the gameplay is a huge slog, especially compared to the GU games), but maybe you can get a bit further since you've had a break. Nuke is probably the blandest optional party member you'll get, although whether that's better or worse than "..." and "HIIII listen to my annoying voice" is questionable.
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| # ? Nov 20, 2012 05:56 |
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Holy poo poo you're doing an LP of IMOQ? You poor soul. These games are my purgatory. When I die, if I have to perform some penance for my sins, it will involve marothoning this series. I love the characters, story and atmosphere but holy poo poo the loving gameplay is so bad.
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| # ? Nov 20, 2012 06:09 |
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Einander posted:Maybe someone with Archives access could throw the quote the posts and import them into Baldurk's SSLP Test Poster, like Quovak did with Chrono Trigger? That seems like a quick no-muss-no-fuss way to make the old content accessible for anyone without archives. 'kay. All the archived links in the OP now point to SSLP Test Poster links. I knew I'd been keeping my original copies of the posts around for a reason! Fake edit: The supplementary lore stuff will remain as archived links mostly out of laziness and a desire to not have a test post page full of paragraphs of flavor text about the dotHack universe. SourceElement fucked around with this message at Nov 20, 2012 around 06:45 |
| # ? Nov 20, 2012 06:42 |
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Glazius posted:It's actually possible to completely wipe out all the monsters in a dungeon? I thought the random encounters just kept going forever. There's only as many encounters as there are enemy symbols for the field/dungeon. So yeah, you can clear them, and there are Book of 1000 rewards for doing so for both the field and dungeon, if I remember right.
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| # ? Nov 20, 2012 06:53 |
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The Worst Internet is back! Seriously. The Worst.
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| # ? Nov 20, 2012 07:27 |
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Just before this thread petered out last time, I actually meant to ask if you could post the save for my own playthrough, because Infection is seriously boring to plow through (barring Skeith and his wonderful boss theme ). Still, glad to see this back. Maybe it'll convince me to go and watch the ROOTS box set I've had sitting on my shelf for the last year or so.
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| # ? Nov 20, 2012 09:46 |
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I missed this the first time, and this is excellent. I never did finish this series, made it to Quarantine, and just never finished. This will be great to replay!
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| # ? Nov 21, 2012 19:22 |
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Oh good, you're back. I was hoping you'd come and finish this. Best of luck to you. Also, Gardenia is still the best character.
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| # ? Nov 22, 2012 07:38 |
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S-Alpha posted:Oh good, you're back. I was hoping you'd come and finish this. Best of luck to you. "Octopi are kinda funny. You can't blame them for anything." That line has been burned into my mind. The first time I played through the series, Kite's response there had me cracking up. In a game filled with bizarre characters, it's nice to see Kite isn't too vanilla.
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| # ? Nov 22, 2012 08:25 |
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Wow, this is back. I'll have to hunt down my old notes. Well, for starters, I can't blame you for hating on Rachel. Character aside, she trades a good chunk of physical defense for physical evasion. A quick look at pretty much any status screen can show you how bad of a trade that is. Nuke, if you can put up with him, has a substantial edge in physical defense, putting him in line with the heavy armor classes. My notes also say he has a slight edge in magic attack as well, but it's small enough to be insignificant. Moonstone is Kite, but worse. Base stats should be the same(sans stat boosters), but he lacks Kite's all-around element growth and huge base status resistances.
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| # ? Nov 22, 2012 14:21 |
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Yes! You're back. Thanks for doing this, now I won't have to dig up my copies and slog trough all the grinding myself.
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| # ? Nov 22, 2012 23:03 |
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I played the first 3 games in the series, but didn't ever bother to get the fourth. I kind of hope that you will reach that part eventually. So I am glad that you returned.
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| # ? Nov 23, 2012 00:20 |
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I fuckin'...these games. THESE games. I like 'em. I do. They don't like you, they don't really make it easy to like them, but I like 'em. They made me think MMORPGs were the coolest of the cool (and boy was I in for crushing disappointment) and the nonsensical storyline seemed really deep and neat when I was 14, but nothing about these games, their sequels, their universe, world, characters or mechanics makes any goddamned sense whatsoever. And we still have two full games before we get to the lunatic crescendo of this digital soap opera. The rabbit hole is deep, and we have but teetered at the precipice.
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| # ? Nov 23, 2012 00:39 |
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RentCavalier posted:I fuckin'...these games. THESE games. I still maintain that the lunatic crescendo doesn't occur until GU vol. 3. There is simply no way that the script was read by anyone who wasn't involved in whatever circlejerk was happening in the office. Granted, things do get extremely dumb by the end of Outbreak and maintain course all through Quarantine. But yes. I wanted to wish a happy Thanksgiving to all the American readers out there. Happy Thursday November 22nd to everyone else. I'll see what I can do to have an update ready for tomorrow or Saturday when everyone is waking up from their turkey-induced comas.
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| # ? Nov 23, 2012 01:42 |
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RentCavalier posted:I like 'em. I do. They don't like you, they don't really make it easy to like them, but I like 'em. They made me think MMORPGs were the coolest of the cool (and boy was I in for crushing disappointment) and the nonsensical storyline seemed really deep and neat when I was 14, but nothing about these games, their sequels, their universe, world, characters or mechanics makes any goddamned sense whatsoever. And we still have two full games before we get to the lunatic crescendo of this digital soap opera. The rabbit hole is deep, and we have but teetered at the precipice.
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| # ? Nov 23, 2012 07:19 |
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Haifisch posted:Things make slightly more sense if you're willing to plow through the various anime, manga, and novels of the series(or if you're sane and just read a wiki for the important stuff). But only slightly. You'll get a lot of "oh, X also appeared in Y!" moments, at least. I think if you're going to pay attention to anything from the tie-ins, it should be the shows, if only because they're probably the easiest to find and follow. All the other stuff you have to fit in a timeline, while with the two main shows (SIGN and ROOTS) are immediate prequels, and actually have some impact on the games, from what I remember - nothing big you'd be missing out on, but they do explain certain details a hell of a lot more clearly than the game does.
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| # ? Nov 23, 2012 14:27 |
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These games man, these games as much as i want to play them i simply can't afford them. Chances are I'd skip the quad and go straight to GU since it has reasonably good gameplay at the cost of a lesser storyline.
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| # ? Nov 23, 2012 15:39 |
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I thought I only played the first one but I'm remembering poo poo from number two as I read the LP. I can't remember if I ever finished it but I know I never finished the whole series. Can't wait to see what is going on.
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| # ? Nov 24, 2012 17:14 |
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These games... It's good to see them back, but I'm worried I'm going to want to play again, and since I've got a PS3 now that'd mean starting from the begining for the... fourth time? Also, I can't remember if you said anything about playstyle in the first thread, but it felt weird to watch your videos and see your characters running around unbuffed. Also Gardena is only the second best character,  is best.
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| # ? Nov 25, 2012 02:16 |
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Yes! it lives again! Once again, I am available to commentate for any and all bossfights! ((totally not just posting to help push to page 2.))
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| # ? Nov 27, 2012 00:22 |
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Holy crap, I never thought I'd live to see the day this LP revived.
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| # ? Nov 27, 2012 00:31 |
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Okay, next update will assuredly be tonight. I'm about halfway done with going through my recorded footage and pulling poo poo out. Hope y'all like it image-heavy! But that's not the only reason I'm posting. Given that it's gonna be fairly image intensive and such, would it be too much trouble for y'all to push this thread into page 2 so I don't completely overload people's browsers in a few hours? As thanks, have a short preview of what's coming.   poo poo gets real. (  If you know what's coming, don't spoil the fun! )
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| # ? Nov 27, 2012 02:33 |
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Oh boy, oh boy! More of this. I still haven't gotten around to finishing this series though I've beaten the GU games a few times times.
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| # ? Nov 27, 2012 02:37 |
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| # ? May 22, 2013 07:33 |
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I'm hoping to get to the 4th game in this series, I played the first three with vigor but my PS2 died before the 4th one came out and I never got around to playing the last one in the series. Here's hoping I can actually see how this thing ends...
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| # ? Nov 27, 2012 03:21 |
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