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This whole segment renders the previous long scene about planning to infiltrate the castle entirely pointless. What happened to the diversion, and blowing up a part of the palace walls? Did the group just forget what the plan was as soon as they reached the city? Really, what was Flare (the creator, not the character) thinking here? Also it makes you wonder why Fina's mother hasn't been more proactive in helping the group. Previous conversations implied she can't keep her power high for very long anymore, and yet in this scene she can blast through hoards of enemies all day with no issue, even defeating that high-level boss Mahzok with no sweat. I know that "Wise Old Mentors Passing the Torch" is a well worn cliche, but with the fate of the world apparently at stake you'd think the Legendary Hero or whatever she is would take more a personal interest.
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Mar 31, 2014 13:30
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Nihilarian posted:Yes.  chaos rhames posted:the ability of this game to mix terrible fantasy poo poo with terrible anime poo poo will never stop being incredible. Brony Hunter posted:This whole segment renders the previous long scene about planning to infiltrate the castle entirely pointless. What happened to the diversion, and blowing up a part of the palace walls? Did the group just forget what the plan was as soon as they reached the city? Really, what was Flare (the creator, not the character) thinking here? SSNeoman posted:To-do list  Brony Hunter posted:Also it makes you wonder why Fina's mother hasn't been more proactive in helping the group. Previous conversations implied she can't keep her power high for very long anymore, and yet in this scene she can blast through hoards of enemies all day with no issue, even defeating that high-level boss Mahzok with no sweat. I know that "Wise Old Mentors Passing the Torch" is a well worn cliche, but with the fate of the world apparently at stake you'd think the Legendary Hero or whatever she is would take more a personal interest. 
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Mar 31, 2014 16:13
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Wait Sylph is a guy?
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Mar 31, 2014 17:57
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BlitzBlast posted:Wait Sylph is a guy?
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Mar 31, 2014 18:03
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I note that Hilde's second attack is a whip. A whip made out of ice. Which is weird considering how ditzy she is.
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Mar 31, 2014 18:42
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Tin Tim posted:
And this is the  I wanted to talk about. THIS FIGHT. THIS FIGHT.So Funei has the ability to split her Mahzok body into two and make a double contact Mahzok with "half the power". Problem is, Flare had to take out her Valkyrie sister Catyss and Dragon Summoner Sentinel de Riser, both very skilled fighters; one being her sister and one being her teacher. And yes, that's Sentinel with an S. Your party? Flare, Rain. Why? Because this wasn't Funei's first foray. Remember how Zestryss was mentioned to be a playable character? His leaving the party is due to Funei. Because Raymah wanted the glory he and Funei bickered and ultimately their division allowed Zestryss to break free from Funei's control through sheer will. So the Mahzoks collapsed the castle he and his wife-to-be were in. And that's how that happened. Anyways, this is a 2-on-2 fight that's made even worse by the fact that Sentinel still has his Dragon Gene at this point and due to that would summon Green Dragons to fight and defend him. Catyss had more or less the same skills as Flare, but acting in the vein of a non-playable character that happens to be the same class as a party member (surprise surprise, game trope), she has better skills and a much worse Heal. Catyss possessed by Funei would also have Holy Break, a skill that was supposed to lower your Holy resistance, but as far as I know the version that made it off of the Playstation RPG Maker had a slight bug that didn't make this work. Divine Impact still hurt, though, and could one-shot Rain if you hadn't been raising him. You won this fight by bringing Flare to low HP for a flag to trigger, where Rain would learn Freeze Nightmare which would affect the opponent's MP instead of the HP. From there it was a matter of defeating Catyss first so Sentinel would summon a Red Dragon in her place, and then he could be targeted without the Green Dragons interfering because "oh no, Green Dragons/Red Dragons hate each other". Yeah, you can imagine the errors the game would cause if you tried doing multi-target skills. That fight is probably the dumbest fight in the entire game because of how stupid it got. It wasn't the buggiest fight but it sure had a lot of problems, the least of which was dialogue in it. Fun fact: Gladius is the spear Flare got from defeating Catyss. Fun fact #2: This was Rain's second-to-last boss fight. thenightsshadow fucked around with this message at 18:57 on Mar 31, 2014 |
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Mar 31, 2014 18:54
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An interesting read, as usual. I'm guessing that Flare's first game never got an English release? Is it still available on the internet, even in it's original Japanese?
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Mar 31, 2014 19:02
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thenightsshadow posted:And this is the Though one question, did Flare actually had to kill her sister&teacher, or did Funei just leave their bodies when they were "beaten"? SSNeoman posted:I note that Hilde's second attack is a whip. A whip made out of ice. BlitzBlast posted:Wait Sylph is a guy? Nihilarian posted:Welcome to anime. 
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Mar 31, 2014 19:41
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I was going to say something, butchaos rhames posted:the ability of this game to mix terrible fantasy poo poo with terrible anime poo poo will never stop being incredible. someone else already did  Anyway, quote:I found this far funnier than I probably should. Hayami's new single target attack may be weak, but it is also a mind debuff! Mind affects both magic damage output and defence, so it should still be pretty handy on stuff like bosses with way too many HP. Shuriken poisons and debuffs agility, which is probably less useful since poison will rarely stick even on the bosses that can be affected by it.
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Mar 31, 2014 21:20
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Tin Tim didn't demonstrate it, but at least in the translation, at the place with the number code, when you push the lever it just pops up an entry box for you to select the number. The original game is more like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yxc7CaC9wsQ Also, some dialogue we passed over regarding our previous visit: 
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Mar 31, 2014 21:59
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Polsy posted:Tin Tim didn't demonstrate it, but at least in the translation, at the place with the number code, when you push the lever it just pops up an entry box for you to select the number. The original game is more like this: Man the original version of this game looks and sounds like arse. There's nothing more unappealing than the default RPG Maker backgrounds and music.
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Mar 31, 2014 22:14
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Brony Hunter posted:An interesting read, as usual. I'm guessing that Flare's first game never got an English release? Is it still available on the internet, even in it's original Japanese? No, it's not available, as far as I know. There was a Playstation RPG Maker "game" before and the first game was "released" on that console.
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Apr 1, 2014 00:12
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Polsy posted:Tin Tim didn't demonstrate it, but at least in the translation, at the place with the number code, when you push the lever it just pops up an entry box for you to select the number. The original game is more like this: vilkacis posted:Hayami's new single target attack may be weak, but it is also a mind debuff! Mind affects both magic damage output and defence, so it should still be pretty handy on stuff like bosses with way too many HP. Also, I'm trying to crank out the next update ASAP, because I'm really anxious to see your reactions. I'm off to band practice right now, but maybe I can finsih it when I get home later.
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Apr 2, 2014 18:59
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Haha, WTF?  Let's find out what awaits us down here...  .png) "...Garudia!"  "So you have finally come this far..Humans...I got good news for you. Sacred Dragon Flare may successfully rescue your queen." .png) "That also means your comrade would fall, but you're very calm." "She was expendable right from the start. As long as she keeps Flare busy, I won't expect any more from her." .png) "What!?"  "I won't let you lay a finger on our Gaiares!" "Heh! Gaiares? Why would I bother to waste my energy on that ruin?" .png) "Don't try to fool us! Otherwise why would you be here?" "Alright, then why don't all of you just take a look at...THAT?" .png) "Ah!?"  loving DUN DUN DUN!! Yep, Gaiares was somehow under Factoria all the time. And do you wanna know something cool? It doesn't really matter any more! Just let go and stop thinking about it! It's done   "......."  "OMG-! It's the lost capital!! The sunken city of Gaiares!?" "Correct, the place had no use for us. However with little rumors, I turned it into the perfect bait to get your attention." "You wanted us instead!?" .png) "But why..."  "We came this far for..." .png) "Then what is this all..." "Did you sink the city?" "No, I had the pleasure of witnessing its fall." "Cut the crap!!" "Heh heh! Can't you see what's going on by now?" "!?" "The ruin is right under Factoria Castle! What makes you THINK that we would do this without destroying Factoria first?" .png) "I know! That doesn't make sense! They would've just let Gaiares crash into Factoria!" "Which means the Kingdom of Factoria..." "...was built right on top of the sunken Gaiares capital?" "And the current Factorian royalty has been hiding the truth from their people...how clever?" "Then why the Warp Device? If not to repair'n use it?" "Repair? Now look who's full of crap here?"  "(Was he lying to confuse us? Then why they...?)" It's okay, Fina. You're just as confused as the rest of us.  Also, the Warp Device suddenly does things... "Ale? The Warp Device is moving." .png) "Eh? Still active?" "(Ryle, can't you just warp us into Gaiares now?)" "(No! That's too risky! The gravity field is unstable.)" "Enough chatter! Forget about Gaiares, you won't be going there anyway. I already have arranged a much better place for ALL of you. To another DIMENSION that is!!" "What!"  .png) "The Warp Device!?" "It's working!?"  "Oh no!" "It's bad! Everyone RUN-!!" "W-what?" "You modified the machine!" "Bingo. Now it can be used as a "Dimensional Cannon"-! Wiping ALL of you out from this world!! Finally got my drift? You are my first target practice~" "drat you! Let's get outta here!" Okay, I quickly have to interject here. So, as it turns out, Garudia's grand plan was to lure us here and blast us to another dimension with his cannon. Makes total sense and isn't dumb at all, right? Well, if you take the trope of the mustache twirling villain as the benchmark, it kinda sorta does make sense. Like, a real evil villain wouldn't be content with just killing his arch enemies. No, he would come up with a ridiculous plan to get his personal vision of revenge. Also, there is still a piece of the puzzle that we don't know about, and that will actually put a lot more sense into Garudia's actions. With that said though, I still think that it's dumb.  Anyway, here comes the cannon  "Begone! Humans!!" .png) "Ackk-!......?"   "What the!? It's Teleport! So it was you! Flare Delstar-! Argh, you warped the blast away!!"  All hail our Lord and Savior, Anime Jesus .png) "Lady Flare!" "drat it! It was so close!! Funei you idiot! Can't even stall her long enough? Hm!" *waved hand signal*   "R-Raymah!? 3 of them!" "Maybe they look the same as Raymah. But they are much stronger! You'll all die here!!"  "Well it sure beats fighting Funei!"  "Look who's gonna lose now!" "But be careful! Garudia didn't bluff for nothing!" .png) "My Magical Octogram shall come in handy!" "We gotta take the device back!!" .png) "Sylph! Hilde! Ready to fight!!"  "Mm~ bullets bullets~" "You won't take down Factoria that easy this time!!"  This version of Garudia looks a lot more dangerous than last time! "You'll pay for messing with the entire kingdom just to lure us out!" "I made you look good by doing that, and you are complaining about it!?" "You bastard!!"  "Ryle! Don't get into his mind game! Just focus on how to win now!" "....Ah." "Bullets loaded, safety lock off! Ready to attack!!"  "Oops, forgot to unlock the trigger lock~" .png) "You won't get away from this!" *clinching fists* "Everyone! Let's kick these bastards out of Factoria for good!!"  Okay, unsurprisingly, this is another cutscene battle. However, this one can actually be hard, because Garudia is tough and can also dish out some solid damage.  His first action is to cast an elemental shield, which makes Latyss and Mariel almost useless. Mariel still has her gun skills, but Latyss is completely out of the fight due to that shield. The other girls wouldn't have fared much better, as his shield also protects against Holy. Ryle and Caris still can do some damage with their sword skills, but Garudia's defense reduces their damage too. Your best choice is to just cast all your buffs, and stay defensive for the first part of this fight. "What's wrong? Can't keep up with me? Come on, last time you did better than that!" "What's going on!? He didn't even get a scratch!" "Or maybe it's because I was holding back last time?" "You're kiddin! We were using our full power!" "Tsk!" "In that case, we are in big trouble!" "Now that is the biggest denial you humans have had for centuries! You think you can match us in strength! And you convince your tiny minds by picking on only the weakest class of Mahzoks!? No wonder you never learn!!" "As individuals, we may be weak. But don't forget we can unite our power and transcend anything even CHAOS!!" "......" "Maybe we don't know how to fully utilize it yet, but we got no choice but to keep on fighting! And I'll transcend you even in the slightest moment when it's possible!!" "Interesting! Then show me that power of yours!!" .png) "You bet I will!!" "(Maybe he's giving us hints?)"  "(Hmm...maybe he got an idea.)" "!?" .png) "Finally I can see why you were almost invincible!" "!?" "(Here goes nothing!!)"   "Arg!?" "(I never got the move right, but it worked finally on time.)" How fortunate that Ryle is secretly learning new sword techniques. I guess he does that when we aren't looking "No damage? I don't think so! You were merely self-regenerating at very fast speed." .png) "Can't recover fast? Of course you can't! I aimed at your core!! Like the heart in our body, your core materialized when you engaged the contact!" "Ar...gh! This is!" "You thought we were ignorant about the anatomy of your kind?" .png) "Whew...so he saw through everything."  "Now you've turned me into total counter mode!" "Not bad Ryle! Let's finish him off!!" "Curse you!" Nobody told you about it, but Garudia was actually immortal in the first phase of the fight. He still has his shield, but any damage done from this point will stick, instead of being healed in secret.  Ryle's new move is your best option at this point, though Caris' skills also do okay. That is, as long as you don't use her skills that are infused with fire, because the shield will negate them too. "You just don't give up, do you!?" .png) "Like I said, you can't overpower us!" "I didn't want to use this. But you leave me with no choice." "It....doesn't look good at all!" "Oh no!" "Umm...!*gulp*"   I wanna say that we already saw this skill before. Maybe during the fight with Graphost? I'm not sure, but it seems familiar. "What!? The ultimate defense against any form of physical attacks!" "Now your attacks are totally useless against me. I also added my Barrier Field so your magic poses no threat as well!" He means the shield spell that he casted in the beginning, jfyi. "Now he's impenetrable!!" "That means there's nothing we can do?" .png) "I can't use React Wind to lift that Aegis Barrier!" "It's not over yet! We must continue to fight!!"  This phase of the fight can be dangerous if you haven't been paying attention to how the game works. Garudia will shrug off all your attacks, and there's nothing you can do about that. So, what do you do then? Well, you heal&defend until the plot rescues you .png) "drat it! So is this the end of our road!?" "There's no way you can win this time!! But you should be proud of being able to fight us this far!" "(I can't give up now! But is there any way left!? What can I do? Their lives all depend on me!)"  Oh no, don't tell me...  This is the most unexpected callback ever! I actually voiced a good and long "Whaaaat" when I was recording this part, true story. "Not in my dreams would I have expected that this stupid questionare could come in handy like this." "Warp!!" "What the!? Passing through Aegis Barrier!" "How!?" "With Warp!" "Did he just charged through with the spell on!?" "Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!"    "I-Impossible!!"   "Now I'll finish you!!" .png) "He did it! Both barriers are gone!" "ATTACK!" "Now the barriers are gone! Sylph! Hilde! Use your full power!!"  "Hilde! Come on!"  "Sylph~ She's quite an abusive summoner~"  "I told you!" "Garudia! You're OVER!!" "Are they really human!?" Now Garudia is hosed, simple as that. Everybody does full damage again, so I just unload on him until it's over.   "But we Mahzoks won't give up this easily...It's not over...YET!"  It's over for you though. "...Other more powerful Mahzoks..." "Where's Lady Flare?"  "So everything's been settled? Then I better finish them as well."  .png) "EEK~ With just ONE hit!?" "Well then, let Meldia take care of the Warp Device." "Thank GOD she'S on our side...~" The girls in Ryle's party get two att points, and beating Garudia also gives out 10 Victory points. Which is neat, because we're close to the point where I'm going to use them to get some special gear. Oh, also, how about pretty much all of our plot points being thrown away? That was great, right? Well, I don't want to leave you hanging in the air like that, so I'm going to end the update with the short discussion that follows up on completing this part.  "But we were very close to become the first victims of the Dimensional Cannon. Thanks to the early warning from her Highness." Here is something I want to point out, when the Queen talked about the "real goal", she was referring to Garudia's cool plan. We still don't know what the Mahzoks as a whole are planning   "And I'm so glad that Queen Elizeh is safe now." "Yes, we would not be here now if she was killed." "I know why. Because Mahzoks need a live body in order to engage contact." "That's only the case for regular Mahzoks. Funei is different. She can take over even dead corpses." "Even the dead people?" "Huh? Then why didn't Funei kill the Queen?"  "Maybe she couldn't stop the body from decompose." "I see..."  "(She didn't get it at all.)" "By the way, what will happen to the sunken city?"  "Mages from Meldia shall arrive within 2 or 3 days. They'll handle the rest."  "Actually I was surprised to find out that Ryle is the 2nd royal prince of Factoria~" .png) "Well we kept it from Lady Flare." .png) "I've never seen her surprised like that before."  "I know, I haven't seen her like this in years!" "I didn't know either~ Why didn't you tell me~" "But you already heard it from Lord Zestrum back in Meldia Castle! You forgot??" "...Oops! I forgot~"  "Even Miss Orubia this time~" "....I wonder how long they will stay like this?"   "Congratulations!" "Some day you'll make us freeze to death I swear!"  Oh Mariel, will you ever stop being the punching bag of the group?  "Poor thing~" .png) "Had no other choice. She better learn the lesson, I mean otherwise..."  .png) "I wonder what this jumping "thing" is doing here." "I know, as if it's alive."  "Let me put it away. Too much distraction."  "Very rare to see someone who can live inside a chest~"  "How sad....that is~"  Here the crew babbles about not really knowing what to do now. Fina wants to train and make everyone stronger, while Latyss points out that we never actually visited the Abyss. Training sounds good to me, and we don't really have a reason to go to the Abyss anymore.  Oh yeah, there is also that...  "M-Me...?" "There is one more gateway other than the one to Gaiares. It's the gateway to Dracoheim, where the "Dragon Arms" are kept." "THE Dracoheim!?"  Oh yes, she wants Fina to become the next Sacred Dragon! Of course, Fina is all worried about not being able to control her powers, because she destroyed her house that one time when she tried to power-up her sword. But her mother says that getting the Dragon gear won't transform her right away. She can still make use of the stuff without becoming the next Anime Jesus. The rest of the group also says that going there now is a good idea, because the Mahzoks otherwise could ruin the place before we can get there.  Nope, gently caress you. The decision is made.  Ryle still has the mental image that Rollslay gave him, so we can just warp there. Also   
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Apr 3, 2014 01:22
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Look, if you can't expect circuitous revenge plots from the villains in a 2D RPG, who can you expect circuitous revenge plots from?
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Apr 3, 2014 01:35
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I think the game is intentionally loving with the player now. I mean you got to this point, you might as well enjoy the ride. Doesn't anyone wanna see what's IN Gaiares? EDIT: 
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Apr 3, 2014 03:29
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Tin Tim posted:
Addendum to the above. Who's the dead one? Catyss or Sentinel?
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Apr 3, 2014 03:52
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Well I guess that's one way to resolve hanging plot threads.
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Apr 3, 2014 07:28
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Glazius posted:Look, if you can't expect circuitous revenge plots from the villains in a 2D RPG, who can you expect circuitous revenge plots from? The whole cannon thing just was a bit too complicated for my taste, you know? I guess it's because I know the true motivation behind it. Ya'll will know it too very soon, and boy, do I have to write some words about it. SSNeoman posted:I think the game is intentionally loving with the player now. I mean you got to this point, you might as well enjoy the ride. "Enough chatter! Forget about Gaiares, you won't be going there anyway."  thenightsshadow posted:Addendum to the BlitzBlast posted:Well I guess that's one way to resolve hanging plot threads.  Also, the next part is recorded and processed. I just have to divide the like 500 images into two reasonable updates. All I'm saying about it is to the max!
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Apr 14, 2014 16:52
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I'm going to miss Garudia. If the gameplay wasn't such a pushover, then he might have made an entertaining midboss at least, what with his dastardly, moustache-twirlingly evil plans and his giant warp death ray.
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Apr 17, 2014 15:56
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The Anime Intensifies After freeing Factoria from the Mahzoks, we get dumped back into our room at the Inn. You'd think that we get a bit more feedback after saving everyone, but there actually isn't a whole lot to discover.  The folks around don't really realize what went down.  Even if some got the short end of the stick  And Ryle's family doesn't have more than two sentences for him, so it's easy to just gtfo and go straight to the Abyss. But there are actually a few important things that you can easily miss here.  Gohu still guards the throne room. And while he feels bad for getting mind-controlled, he has something neat for Hayami.   "It's...for sessha!?"  "The whole world's fate lies in your hands. This is the least we could do, Gomen! (sorry)" "...Thank you. Sessha accept it with great honor."  Ah, there is that final upgrade for Hayami I was wondering about!    A nice thing about Hayami's new sword is that it's one-handed, so you can pair it with another good sword for maximum attack power.  Her new move is also pretty good! Aside from that, the shop in town also has new gear.  That's real easy to miss, because I'm pretty sure no shop ever changed its offer so far.  Yeah, you can buy ALLCorsets here. That's kinda busted and defeats the purpose of the earlier secret!  I didn't buy any though, because it would trivialize the game even more. And I'm going to do that with other things anyway. Aside from rounding out everyone's armor, I pick up the Katana and it pushes Hayami's attack to 300. Which actually sets her ahead of the party for a change. Well, since we're done here, let's head over to the Abyss.   There are a couple of gaps in the way, and Latyss uses her magic to get us past them. We saw that enough times by now, so let's instead check out the enemies here.  Just a recolor.  We already saw two of those guys during the last part, but the Abyss Bird is new. Dunno if it has any skills, as it didn't survive long enough.  A chest on the way hides a new gun module for Mariel.  "It's VERY heavy with bomb shells~ But the firepower is the best!" Sounds cool, let's give it a spin.  Nice! Yeah, it was a crit, but it's still powerful enough on normal hits. Also, it actually gives her a new skill.   Shaky is a somewhat useful effect, since it makes enemies lose their next turn. Anyway, Latyss helps us cross more gaps...   ...and then we go through a series of pointless teleporters.  On the way, we end up in another sci-fi room. The water is actually a healing spring, but our eyes should get drawn to the chest.   Yep, this is just coincidentally lying around on the way. And it's actually going to become kind of a trend, because Flare probably forgot to properly space out the endgame weapons, and now they'll just get dropped into our lap in rapid succession After a few more teleporters...  ...things start to look a little weird. The ground here actually has a neat effect. There is a static image moving around, which gives the impression that the ground is glowing with  This is a puzzle room. And while it looks intimidating at first, it's pretty simple.  The game tells you that you have to place the four horses on the glowing spots. You move them with the buttons, but since both rows will always get moved, you need to use the four pillars in the middle to block the statues that you want to stay put. Just push one of the pillars next to each horse, and then figure it out from there.  It's really not hard at all.  After that we get back to the glowy floor, and now we're going to face a puzzle that's actually not a piece of cake and needs a bit of brain-power.  The console gives you this hint, and that's all you'll get. It should be pretty obvious that you need to use your friends in the following puzzle, but there is more to it than that. This puzzle presents you with several choices where you can pick from multiple members of your group, and you will not know if you made the right choice, because you can progress either way. Except that you can't solve the last step if you made a wrong choice on the way, and won't really know why. It took me a few tries to figure this out, but you need to come up with a solution that uses each of your members once. Every other configuration will not work. Once you realize that, it's just a bit of trial and error to see who is available for what choices. The first obstacle is a column that blocks our way.  Hayami did some cutting for us before, so this one isn't too hard. I'm not going to show how the girls do it though, since we saw the basic animations a bunch of times by now. Then we encounter a patch of darkness.  Both girls seem like a good choice here, but you want to pick Orubia. After that, we find a pillar of ice.  This one can be tricky too, because Fina pipes up and says that she also knows fire stuff. You can maybe pick either her or Caris, as we'll see later, but I chose Caris. The next obstacle is a pillar of fire.  Latyss already helped us in the castle, so this one is easy. There is also a bit of bickering with Hilde, because she really wants to do it instead of Latyss.  Whatever, just get on with it.  Remember what I said about the game just dumping all the good stuff on us? "Something is wrong?"  "...The same eerie feeling when we picked up this bimbo~" *pointing at Hilde* "Sylph~! How could you~" "Another new elemental?" "This time a hot-headed dude~" "Yuck~ It's Flam~"  "Mm? Sylph and Hilde? What are YOU doing here?" "So hot~" "We're with Latyss now. By the way how did you got trapped into a magic wand?"  Sure you have, pal. The elementals then proceed to bicker some more, until Flam joins us.  And we also get the staff.   If you don't know about a certain secret, then this will probably be Latyss' final weapon. It's a good one though, so don't break your head about it.  Flam also gives Latyss two new fire skills.   I can't see much difference between them though Anyway, back to our puzzle.  There is a pit here, and a switch on the side. So we have Mariel shoot it with her god-like aim. And the last obstacle is a large metal door.  Fina can just cut through it. And as I said before, you can maybe pick Caris if you let Fina do the fire thing earlier, but I didn't try.  If you did it right, Ryle can interact with the wall. If you didn't, he won't do anything and you have to figure out why.     "Well, let's go. The magic circle over there must be the entrance." "Yeah let's go!" Except...  "Ack!!" "OUCH-!!" "Kya!"  lmao "What the hell is this!? There's some kind of wall in front of me!!" "It hurts~ It just messed up my pretty face~" "I hit my nose on this invisible wall~" "Wall? Where!!? I don't see any!" "What's going on?" "And somehow I can't use my Warp in here! There's no way we can get in." Yeah, do you remember how Flare kinda said that you need the Dragon Gene to enter this place? No? Well, if you'd paid attention, you wouldn't have bonked your heads into an invisible wall  Our heroes figure this out eventually, and decide to just guard the entrance while Fina does her thing.  Shut it. You're the hero now.  So, now Fina is on her own. But since there are no encounters in here, there's no real trouble. We have to go through another pointless teleporter chain though, so let's just skip that.  Can you see that little orange thing on her right? There are energy bolts going up and down here, and they all have different speeds.  You need to guide Fina past them, and getting hit actually hurts quite a bit. You have to do this twice, with more teleporting in between, and eventually you'll arrive in the heart of this place.   "Dragon!?"  "Fina Delstar?" "(This dragon..gives me creeps..)" "You seem cautious. But why? We are allies since way back in the Demonic War." "..Why are you here?" "We decided to fight against the Mahzoks. And I'm here to guard the Arms."  "....I see. So this is another way..." "? What did you say?"    "Any dragon can enter this place. Including you..." "DARK DRAGON!! Traitor of dragon clan, who sided with the Mahzoks!" "...Perhaps I underestimated this kid too much. She seems to be more powerful than I expected." "(Shoot! I should've expected the Mahzoks gaining access like this!)" "Like you already have realized, I can kill you with ease. Curse the Arms which are protected by some kind of impenetrable barrier. I would have just finished you and your friends outside!" "Even if I'm gone, my mom is still alive!" "Keh Keh Keh! Of course I know that!! And I also know that Flare isn't capable of using Cosmos Eternal now."  That is the super move that Flare used to defeat CHAOS in his own dimension, jfyi. "Otherwise she wouldn't send you over here to become the new Sacred Dragon!" "(But no Mahzok I know is powerful enough to need the use of Cosmos Eternal!! Unless it's...)"  Nope, still not telling "You'll DIE here before that happens!" "I don't think so! Rune Disaster!" "So that's the missing part of the Draconic Buster!" "(Couple of Divine Impacts should do it!)" "Garrrrr!!"   "Waa~ (He's trying to stop me before I can use it!)" "Just like the previous battle with Raymah, I can see your typical pattern here. Try to get me by surprise huh?" "(This is BAD! If he keeps using flame breath on me, I won't be able to charge the move!)" Kudos to the Dark Dragon for breaking the cycle of Anime. When I was young and watched DBZ, I always wondered why they let their opponents power up all calm, instead of just punching them into the face immediately? Oh wow, while I'm writing this, old DBZ is actually on the Tv. Goku is still a kid and Krillin just died because Picolo is still a grumpy old evil guy. drat, it's been years since I saw this stuff, maybe I should...  Whoops, time to pay attention again "Huh?"    "You are Fina Delstar right? Thank you for saving 2 young clansmen of ours." "2 young clansmen? Who are they? And what about you...?" "Only the dragons or the ones with the Dragon Gene are allowed to enter the temple. Haven't you figured it out yet little one?" "That means you are a dragon!? And the people you mentioned were those green dragons at elven mine!" "They weren't dead back then, thanks to the cunning act by that young man named Ryle." "OMG! You mean they're alive!?" "Also we were able to find our little ones taken as hostages." Okay, wait a minute, full loving stop. WTF? This is the most ham-fisted retcon I've ever seen! If you don't recall this, look at the end of update 18. Ryle had to kill the Green Dragons, so that their kidnapped children would not get murdered for their failure. He made a huge loving deal about the emotional trauma that this caused him, and we clearly saw how he cut them! But whoops, he apparently came up with a super sneaky plan on the spot and everything's fine. Deal with it!  "Yes. I would like to witness the birth of the savior for a new era!" "In spite of MY presence!?" "Of course. Not that it's an easy task. Because your power is a force to be reckoned with. Fina, I'll buy you some time! Release all of your power through the Dragon Gene! Once the Dragon Arms have reacted to your will, you shall become the Sacred Dragon!!" "B-But you make it sound so easy~" "Remind yourself WHY you have come so far! And don't be afraid. Trust your heart~" "O-Ok! I'll do it..!" "Trying to stop ME!?" "By all means necessary." "I won't allow that to happen! DIE DRAGON LORD-!!"  "Fina, don't think about other things! Just concentrate on the Arms!!" "Are you gonna be alright gramps!? He's VERY tough you know!" "Stop worrying about me! The world is depending on you!!" "Nonsense, that won't happen as long as I'm here!"  And here our new friend tells us what this battle is about. Fina can't do anything because she's charging up, and the Dragon Lord needs to keep her alive. It's still one of those cutscene fights, except that there is a very real possibility of dying because the Dark Dragon doesn't gently caress around. This is also the part of the game where it stops being nice, and suddenly decides that bosses should be kinda hard. If you haven't trained Fina before this point, she'll probably get nuked instantly.  The Lord has a bunch of cool spells at his disposal, but you probably won't have a chance to use them because you need him to cast constant healing.  I still managed to grab his default animation though. So, as in the other cutscene fights before, there are a bunch of lines that get triggered eventually. Fina doesn't really know what to do, and is also overwhelmed by the fighting, so she can't connect with the Arms.   "But why!? Why aren't the Dragon Arms reacting?" "...." "Too late now! You're all OVER!!" "Dragon Arms-! Please answer my calling! He'll get gramps if it's too late!" "Give up!! You don't have the potential!" "Yes I do!!" "It doesn't matter, I'll make you give up!!"  Fina is right. The first phase of the fight is just about survival. And again, it really isn't that easy because the Dark Dragon has several hefty flame attacks. "Like I said before! You're just a kid with the Dragon Gene, nothing more!" "drat..." "...Fina. The Arms will refuse to respond as long as you only seek their power." This will lead to one of the funniest dumb things in the game, just wait. "!!" "The Arms have their own will like us, and you were treating them as mere tools!" "Lecturing at a time like this!? Too late for that!" "Don't forget! Your will must reach their hearts!!"  lmfao "You guys...I'm sorry! I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. But please help me and my friends! I need you in order to protect everyone-!!"  Yeah, the Arms start to glow in their chests after Fina apologized for hurting their feelings. Seriously, lol "Nice try! Now DIE!!" "HELLSFIRE-!!"  The Lord buys Fina more time for chumming up to the Arms. "Ack! You foolish OLD MAN~" "Shut up and watch this!" "Ahhhhhhhhhh!!"  Glowing orbs come out of the chests...  ...and converge on Fina.      It's...it's..so..sugoi  I also like how one of her eyes clips through her hair  Of course, she also gets a new Face-set. "Finally things are going well." "Arrrrrrg! drat YOU!!"  "Get down gramps! I'll take care of him from now on!" "Please be easy on him. I don't want to see you becoming the next god of destruction!"  "I will! The Arms can control their own power." "Let's see how much power you can handle! I can still kill you since you don't have full control of your power yet!!" "...Better watch out for the power which even destroyed CHAOS." "To hell with you! DIE-!!"  And we're back in the fight! "I'll make sure to finish you off before you can fully use your power!!" "It may sound like bluffing, but I won't lose to you!" "Even after you've become the Sacred Dragon, you are still an amateur Valkyrie!" "...Fine then! You'll soon find out the painful truth!" God drat, they should have called him smack-talk dragon. Well, as he's finally done, let's take a look at Fina's new skills.  Huh. Turns out that they actually didn't really change. The only skill that got improved is her Divine Impact. And she herself also hasn't gotten any stronger. This can kinda throw you off, because the dragon can still wreck her in two or three hits. But don't worry! You only have to hold on for a little while longer... "As I expected, you are unable to pull out much of your power!" "...." "Keh Keh Keh Keh~ Read your mind?" "*grin*" "!?" "Haven't I told you to watch out for my power?" "So what!"  And there is is! The line we have all been waiting for. Maximum achieved. "WHAT!? Impossible!" "That means I can use a particular spell you might know already...You see I got the Draconic Buster and Rune Disaster in my hands."  "Rune Disaster-! Draconic Buster-! Unite at once!" "!! The swords!" "This is the true form of the Draconic Buster~!!"   And there is that new skill. It's very similar to what her mother can do, and will see a whole lot of use in the near future. "Arrrrrk!!"  "I don't got a lot of time! I'll finish you with the next one!!" "H-How dare you...!!" Fina is lying, and the next one won't actually finish him.  Oh, she also has full regen for this fight, so it's just a matter of spamming her new move until it's over. "Can't believe she's only using 10% of her max power~" "And it's the reality. No way you can win this time." "drat it!" "I'm not fighting alone. The Arms and I, we are one team!" "I must kill you no matter what!!"  Nope, get out! The Thermal Suit is a new armor for Mariel, btw.  "How could this happen...I, Dark Dragon, have been toyed by a little girl..."  "Whew~" "Your name is Dragon Lord right? Think I heard that name from my mom when she was young..." "I am the 2nd Dragon Lord. It was the previous Lord who helped Flare and later passed away."  "I see..." "Hm Hm! Never thought I would meet someone like you again in this realm."  "What...do you mean?" "I admire your kindness from heart. Not many can do that anymore." "Gramps..." "Now get going! You should know the real purpose of the Mahzoks by now!!"  There have been a few strong hints in the last part of the game, but it still will not be said right away. And even if you already can guess it, there is still a layer to it that you honestly can't know about. But don't worry! The next update will have the big reveal, and I'm going to write some words about it. You can count on that one "Farewell my child! Don't worry, we will fight against the Mahzoks ourselves." "I wish we could fight together!" "Not quite yet. You see there are many who don't want to get along with humans." "That's so sad..." "But your awakening shall bring new hope." "You mean I'll motivate others to join the cause!?" "Correct. You'll become a symbolic figure for the public to rise." "Maybe I was better off not becoming the Sacred Dragon~" "That's the destiny you chose to lead." "I know. No more sorrow in people's hearts!!" "Good luck on your journey!!"  To and beyond!
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Apr 22, 2014 18:26
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I was all "oh this is a cool dungeon". Then that wall happened and I was all "oh this is gonna go to poo poo like right now"quote:And then Fina became a Gundam. Love that the rest of her armor is basically unchanged.
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Apr 22, 2014 18:47
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Tin Tim posted:Nope, get out! The Thermal Suit is a new armor for Mariel, btw. About time she got authorization.
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Apr 22, 2014 19:56
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Is Fina wearing boxing gloves now?
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Apr 22, 2014 20:48
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Nihilarian posted:Is Fina wearing boxing gloves now? I now refuse to see it any other way. 
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Apr 22, 2014 20:51
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That was impressively anime right there. Seriously now, was 'I was only using 10% of my power!' not scratched off of his Bingo card or something?
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Apr 22, 2014 21:33
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Tin Tim posted:
You definitely need to go up here, which also takes you somewhere different, you missed out. Though I totally missed all that stuff back in the town, never would have expected something new to show up there (or anywhere). Polsy fucked around with this message at 22:17 on Apr 22, 2014 |
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Apr 22, 2014 22:14
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SSNeoman posted:And then Fina became a Gundam. Love that the rest of her armor is basically unchanged. Nihilarian posted:Is Fina wearing boxing gloves now? Polsy posted:You definitely need to go up here, which also takes you somewhere different, you missed out. I have a save that's kinda close though, so I'm going to go back and record it for a mini update before the next one.
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Apr 22, 2014 23:16
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That bit where you have to dodge projectiles as Fina? I vaguely recall there being some hidden treasure you can only get by allowing yourself to be hit by certain projectiles, but don't quote me on that, my memory's hazy.
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Apr 22, 2014 23:18
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Brony Hunter posted:That bit where you have to dodge projectiles as Fina? I vaguely recall there being some hidden treasure you can only get by allowing yourself to be hit by certain projectiles, but don't quote me on that, my memory's hazy. E: Haha, you're right. You can even get two treasures in that section. That's super sneaky! Tin Tim fucked around with this message at 14:42 on Apr 23, 2014 |
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Apr 23, 2014 14:31
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time! Alright, finally, my favorite character and technically the saving grace of the first game: Dragon Lord. Or should I say, Sentinel de Riser's teacher that he betrayed. Sentinel could use Green Dragons for himself, but that kinda was an aberration of how things were supposed to be, and it's because of him (in his possessed state; you're kinda told not to use the Green Dragon stuff when you use him in a temporary battle) that the Dragons don't even trust Fina in later generations. This Dragon Lord here is actually kind of a wimp. He has a spell of every element, including Ancient, but his overall usefulness to the plot is much worse. It's almost as if his appearance is in this game to establish a sort of continuity with the story. However, there is one thing that has been rumored about the canon of this game. What if Sentinel de Riser survived body possession by Funei and ended up succeeding the previous Dragon Lord? Some things point to that, like the Ancient Spell "Mega Energe" (I'm near 100% certain that it's supposed to be "Mega Energy" or something similar to that) and the ability to cast Estak Shadow, a Dark Spell that Sentinel did have (and no one else did), but some other things don't make sense; Sentinel used a Twin-blade, this Dragon Lord uses a Staff.
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Apr 23, 2014 14:50
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Tin Tim posted:Maximum It was all worth it for this moment. 
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Apr 23, 2014 18:44
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We're pretty much in the endgame, right? Fina can't possibly get another power-up... Or can she? The possibility scares me. 
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Apr 26, 2014 01:02
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Erlkonig posted:We're pretty much in the endgame, right? Fina can't possibly get another power-up... Or can she? Final battle power-up, like what happened with Flare. If this doesn't happen, I will buy an embarrassing avatar for one (un)lucky user. You can  me on this.
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Apr 26, 2014 01:05
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I'm hoping for the Sacred Double Dragon. Especially if a Frog ripoff joins the party so we can have Sacred Double Dragon and Battle
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Apr 26, 2014 03:28
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All the anime. It's beautiful The conclusion of the Gaiares was pretty great too. I hope Flare was as tired of that mess as we were and decided to wipe the table clean and decide it was Waifu Power Up Hour. Apologizing to the gundam suit with the "I'll protect everybody" spiel is probably my favorite part of the last couple updates for just being maximum bonkers.
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Apr 26, 2014 07:15
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Honestly, I'd rather have all the endgame equipment in the final dungeon than scattered around the world and only showing up when you use the last save point.
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Apr 27, 2014 16:32
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Glazius posted:Honestly, I'd rather have all the endgame equipment in the final dungeon than scattered around the world and only showing up when you use the last save point. Hold on, now that you have grabbed the object by the door of no return in the final dungeon, turn around and leave so you can recruit Zed and take them on all the sidequests you haven't done ye-you already did them all before entering the final dungeon? Well you didn't need to rank up their 'gets stronger the more fights character is used in' attack anyways  Wait, wrong game. Wrong remake. But man am I glad I looked up that spoiler the first time before running a chunk of sidequests and bonus bosses.
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Apr 27, 2014 23:48
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SSNeoman posted:Final battle power-up, like what happened with Flare. If this doesn't happen, I will buy an embarrassing avatar for one (un)lucky user. You can This is actually legit true. I'm going to show it off soon, but Fina also has 10% in her inventory title, and it'll soon climb up to 30% Glazius posted:Honestly, I'd rather have all the endgame equipment in the final dungeon than scattered around the world and only showing up when you use the last save point.
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Apr 30, 2014 22:42
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Whoops Part 2 As it turns out, I forgot a few small things during the last update. Thanks to Polsy and Brony Hunter for pointing it out!  I forgot that the top teleporter does send you to a different place, instead of back to the middle.  Oooh, a lone chest!   Ah yes, this guy. Remember all the way back in the beginning of the Lp, when I pointed out some annoying talking enemies that just suicide into you? Well, this is their self proclaimed king. This is sort of like an optional boss fight, except that the Mega Dasher is weak. "What a BGM~" He also has epic background music  "I'm as fast as the speed of light, as splendid as the comet, and as brilliant as the sun!!" "Umm...why do keep running like this~" "Now you shall taste the true fear from my power!" "Ok ok, I'm already scared. Just leave me alone PLEASE~"  The Mega Dasher has some mediocre attacks, and will also heal after a few rounds.  .png) "drat! He recovered!!" "Don't even try to compare ME with the other losers! I only fight like a man, no running away, no suicide, and no other pathetic stuff!!" "Calling your own family losers..." "Like I said! I have transcended all other dashers! I'm THE PERFECT DASHER~!!" "I don't care! Just beat it!!" "Hell no! It's my stage! And I'm the main hero!" "...~"  But since the dasher only heals once, I stomped all over it.  Oh but we did it for a reason!   "Type01 is a high precision laser cannon, very accurate and lethal! Type02 is a high power laser gun, so it inflicts more damage with strong recoil." Yep, Mariel just straight up got a laser cannon. Let's check her new animations and skills.  Mariel just has a need to show off when I record her animations And here are the two skills that Mariel learned.     They aren't bad, but also not that spectacular.  Switching to the Type02 also doesn't change a whole lot.  Her default animation is cooler, but that's pretty much it. I really couldn't see much difference in the damage output between both types However, what skills Mariel can use depends on her gun part. And tbh, I like the launcher module more. Anyway, another thing that I missed was a secret item drop during Fina's little section before she gets to the chamber with the Arms.  If you get hit by this fireball in the first section...   This is real loving sneaky! And it's also kinda important, because Fina couldn't equip any of the other accessories so far. Also, since I'm a nosey player, I figured out that you can get a second item drop during this part!  This is at the end of the second fireball section.   No toot this time, because this item is worse than the other. The dubious "dodge chance" really doesn't make up for it. I'll see if any other members of the group can wear this. And lastly, Mariel has reached her final love tier a while ago, but I didn't show her thoughts.   And she still wants that date
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Apr 30, 2014 22:43
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