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The Fate of All Living Things Some of the character summaries may, in fact, be super spoilery past the stat stuff. Might be a good idea to not read all of it unless you've caught up just in case. Stats  Hibiki Kuze, or the otherwise nameless main character, is the most flexible character of all. He has no innate weaknesses or strengths (both statistically and elementally), but as the main character his stat growth is dependent upon the player to decide. He can therefore be whatever you want him to be, but I prefer to make him magic oriented with emphasis on vitality for survivability. I usually place some points into strength and agility too, for if I want to use some of their skills and it's good for early game if/when I run out of MP. Not necessary though, and I know some people think it's dumb and pointless. To Hibiki, to live is to continue choosing.  Daichi Shijima is the best friend. At Fate level 1, he picks up an innate Fire resistance. Stat wise... he's not that great. He's kind of a strength/agility character, but he spreads himself far too thin to be good at it. He gives himself too much magic to be truly physical oriented, but not enough to be a decent hybrid and he gives himself enough vitality to survive it's to his detriment as he takes too long to kill anything. Notably, he will never max a single stat. I do not like using Daichi once I get people who aren't terrible. Sorry, Daichi. To Daichi, to live is to continue enjoying oneself.  Io Nitta is a classmate of Daichi and Hibiki, but not one they spoke to prior to the start of the game. Is the main character of a spin-off manga, Show Your Free Will, which retells the game from her perspective... kind of. It's not all that good, to be honest. Fate level 1 grants her resistance to Electrical attacks. Statistically she appears to be a mage, and she is really good at being a mage, but she almost always ignores vitality and agility. Unlike Daichi, she is a pure hybrid and will excel at either general strength combat (but specialists have her beat in parts of it) or blasting dudes with spells. Will max both strength and magic. Io fills any gaps your team might have, so she's a good person to use whenever. Definitely someone to keep around, unless you like other hybrid characters better. To Io, to live is to continue conveying one's intention.  Yuzuru Akie, better known as Joe, is the wanderer. He is the most laidback dude you will ever see and he is awesome. Has a sweet suit, and joined the party after they saved him from a bunch of demons. Fate level 1 gives him a resistance to Force (wind, basically). Despite being really good in scenes, Joe is not exactly one of my favourite characters to actually use. He puts most of his stats into Magic and Agility (small mercies: he does eventually max both of them). And even then he puts far too many points into Strength to not be wholly mediocre for a long, long time. I know some people really like this build but I really don't. It puts too much emphasis on killing enemy party leaders exclusively for too long, solely to avoid not dying horribly. No vitality means Joe is going to loving die if he doesn't one shot things. And he won't because all the good magic skills go to people who can use them better. Much like Daichi, he gets benched as soon as is realistically possible. To Joe, to live is to wander.  Hinako Kujou is the worst dressed. Appropriately (or maybe ironically) enough, she gains Ice resistance at Fate Level 1. Despite her appearance, she's a physical oriented character and she prioritises Strength and Agility above all else. This is a Good Build and makes her a Good Character. She's also likable in scenes in spite of her appearance which helps too. Really, once she joins (aside from whenever I need to switch around for a fight or two, or can't use her at all) she's probably never leaving the party because she's just that good. To Hinako, to live is to express oneself.  Keita Wakui is the brawler. He does one thing but he does it well (usually). He punches things, and they die. Joined the party on Day 2 after they saved him from demons at Osaka. Fate level 1 gives him Fire resistance just to further obsolete Daichi in every way possible. Very much the antithesis of Joe in that not only is he incredibly brash and quick to anger, but he ends up being actually kinda good in combat if you ever bother using him. He's sort of like Hinako in that his second physical stat is Agility but, unlike her, he forgoes maxing it to put more points into Vitality instead. Not explicitly the best physical attacker at what he does , but he's more durable than Hinako which helps his survivability and gives him a potential advantage. He also doesn't work on Agility for real for quite a while so he appears to be Vit based instead. To Keita, to live is to continue fighting.  Airi Ban is the child. Not much younger than the main party members, sure, but she's noticably the youngest. Unlike everyone else (so far) she doesn't really prioritise anything and this makes her okay at first... but doesn't do well for longevity. She will never max any stat and has no major benefits to compensate for this. She is, however, the first person to gain 2 elemental resistances at Fate level 1 (Elec and Force). I really, really do not like using Airi whenever I'm not forced to; I did it the first time I played the game, and I expected her to be really good... ended up supremely disappointed. She should be benched as soon as anyone even more remotely competent comes along, but not everyone necessarily is. Joe, for example, is worse at lower levels but shoots way ahead later on. Using Airi well is a balancing act, like Airi herself. An easier one, but one all the same. To Airi, to live is to continue searching.  Jungo Torii is the man. Okay, but seriously he's the de facto Str/Vit dude which means (as far as we know so far) he has no real competition for how you wanna set him up. Unless, of course, you run Hibiki as such but that's kinda silly. At Fate level 1, he gains a resistance to Force. Joining with halfway to max Str already, it should come as no surprise that he'll get that to 40 with ease and his Vitality will cap too. His Agility is... okay. Usable, but nothing stellar. His magic, however, will get to 9 and then stop. Just give him a demon that can heal and he's basically an unstoppable juggernaut. Kinda makes sense, because he clearly has a learning disability. To Jungo, to live is to eat.  Fumi Kanno is the smartest character and is basically Jungo's antithesis. Much like Joe, she goes for a Magic/Agility build which on its own I don't like conceptually. She actually does it better than him, though, by putting points into Vitality so she doesn't die in one hit. On the flip side, this means she doesn't put points into Strength (like Jungo's magic, she stops at 9 Str) so if she runs out of MP or comes across a demon that resists her magic she's outta luck. Bit of a toss up, but on the whole I prefer Fumi to Joe. To Fumi, to live is to continue seeking.  Makoto Sako is an employee of JPs. Even before formally joining the party, she had helped out our party a few times. To say she works for Yamato, she's a pretty okay lady all things considered! At Fate level 1, she gained a resistance to Ice. Much like Io, she's a pure hybrid oriented character but with an initial emphasis on Strength instead of Magic. Unlike Io, she won't end up maxing both Strength and Magic though; her Strength gets to 40, but her Magic tops at 36. Those missing 4 points go into Vitality instead. To Makoto, to live is to be resolute.  Otome Yanagiya is a doctor who works for JPs. She's a fantastic mage for one reason: her secondary stat is Vitality. Further, she is the ONLY non-Hibiki character who runs Mag/Vit which means she basically has no competition ever. Even when running Hibiki as Mag/Vit, she's worth bringing along for her innate resistances once she hits Fate 1 and having 2 borderline unkillable mage gods is never a bad thing. Speaking of her innate resistances, at Fate level 1 she gains resistance to Electricity and Curse. To Otome, to live is to raise others.  Yamato Hotsuin is the leader of JPs. He runs a true-Hybrid style focusing on both Strength and Magic in equal measures. This doesn't really work out well in the short-term, but it does make him a force to be reckoned with at higher levels. On top of that, he has marginally higher stats than he should along with a natural resistance to Almighty attacks. His Vitality does leave something to be desired, however he compensates for one of these by being the only person to get a resistance to Physicals at Fate level 1. His only real weak spot, then, is that his Agility isn't exactly stellar but he's more than able to get the job done anyway. To Yamato, to live is to continue protecting.  Al Saiduq, formerly known as The Anguished One, is the enigma. On paper he doesn't seem to impressive in combat. He takes a balanced approach much like Airi does, but he just does it better frankly. Plus his HP and MP get extra boosts on top of what they would be from his stats so even though he won't get any stat to 40, he will get 999 HP. Not quite MP though. On top of that, his Fate 1 gives him resistance to Fire and Electricity along with immunity to Curse! Plus he gets, on average, more turns than anyone else in the party. Despite not fitting the mould of what I'd consider a great character, he's still very much worth using in spite of his faults. Fate Summary  quote:After unsealing a demon at Sensouji, he escaped harm thanks to Hibiki.  quote:She has decided to stay with JPs.  quote:He has decided to stay with JPs.  quote:an official civilian adjunct to JP's.  quote:He had his hands full with demons in Umeda, but thanks to Hibiki's intervention, he was unharmed.  quote:She defeated Megrez in the harbor alongside Hibiki.  quote:Went into a nest of rioters alone and was surrounded, but Hibiki rescued him from harm.  quote:harbor alongside Hibiki.  quote:harbor alongside Hibiki.  quote:You were notified of a death clip feauting her.  quote:family how to summon demons long ago.  quote:spiritual threats for generations as the leaders of JP's.  quote:He helped analyze top secret files from JP's, shedding some light on Yamato's plan. Ronaldo Kuriki is somehow in our Fate viewer. We’ve seen him a few times, kicked his rear end pretty thoroughly once before and had him help us out against a Septentrion boss (potentially two). Dude’s a complete wildcard; who knows if we’ll end up fighting with or against him next. At Fate level 1, he gained a resistance to Fire. Lotus Aura fucked around with this message at 23:58 on Jul 26, 2014 |
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Dec 7, 2013 16:51
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Sunday's Melancholy (I) Minor note: update may be a tad NMS and/or NWS depending on your/your boss's disposition towards actually seeing a bleeding teenage anime. And I don't mean the "pervert has a nosebleed" thing, either.  Other than that it's just another scenic day in Tokyo, Japan.  Highschool students have tests to worry about, because it affects their entire future. This is in no way similar to anywhere else, honest.  And like seemingly many [Music: Exploration]  A student enters the classroom and approaches with a smile...   So, how'd the exam go for you? There are LOTS of dialogue options, so to cut down on that I'll mostly be picking an option and having it in the dialogue as normal. If you ever see the guy on the left say something, it's one of the options for a choice there. Of course, there are some astounding options too so I'd be remiss to just leave those as text. And some also actually matter, so there's that too.  Perfectly. Ooh, someone's confident. Well, so am I: confident that I'm utterly screwed!A proctor who seems to looking for the boy calls out to him...   You forgot your things! Oh, crap! I forgot all abut my stuff!Daichi goes over to the entrance to pick up his forgotten belongings... You left your exam slip and cell phone at your seat. I was lookig everywhere for you. I'm really sorry about that! Thank you! Oh yeah... There's something I wanted to show you! Wanna see? Of course. Heheheh, I knew you would. Here, give me your cell.Daichi takes your cell phone...   Nicaea is most likely named after the place called, well, Nicaea. It doesn't exist any more but when it did it was the capital of the... Empire of Nicaea, as well as serving as a temporary capital for the Byzantine Empire for almost 60 years. It's used for something a bit... different here, though. Ta-da! Cool, huh? You heard of this Nicaea thing yet?  "Images of... death"? You don't know? Sign up for this thing and you get to see the scene if a friend dies! Remember the guy who died in a car wreck last week? I forget his name... Well, his friend who signed up for this site saw it happen! Give it a try! You just need to enter your name to get started. All right. [Music: ???]  Hibiki Kuze is one of two "official" names for the main character. It was used in the anime, the manga of the anime and the prequel manga for the anime. I picked this one over the other because Hiro Kageyama won't fit. The surname is 8 characters and the max you can use is 6.    My name is Tico, and I will be your curator. It's an honor to meet you.You sense a rather odd presence from the screen... On this website, those you are bonded to by fate... Meaning those you not only encounter, but become deeply connected to in the future... The manner of their passing will be reported to you as a movie clip viewable onsite. Now then, haVE a nICE daY...[Music: Exploration]  Not at all. Woah, seriously? Well, I signed up yesterday too. I hope we see something soon! Okay, so... you don't have any afternoon exams, right? Are you free now? Let's go to Shibuya! There's this store I want to check out. Okay. Cool! Let's go![Music: Silence]  [Music: Exploration]  Q-Tront is based on an actual area in Shibuya, naturally. In this case it's quite obviously QFront. In an amazingly specific attention to detail, it appears to even have the same billboards and everything. Most places will follow this pattern, so I won't bother pointing them all out, albeit without even changing a letter.  Man oh man, we bought a lot of stuff. "We?" Okay, so it was mostly me, but... you didn't have to point that out! Hey, did you see the Aberzombie shirt I got!?  ...Though I gotta pass my entrance exams before I can think about that. Hmm... What's wrong? Uhh, well... it just occured to me that even if I do pass the exams... I'll be a college student, graduate eventually, and then... Jobs are for suckers! I feel like there's this cloud over me. And there's nothing I can do about it. How very childish. Well, no sense in brooding over it! Come on, let's go home! This screen comes up a lot and is basically a hub to pick where you're off to next. There's usually more than one option and the top-screen always shows roughly where in Japan your destination is located. The map isn't really necessary ever, though; by the time it might be, it's redundant if anything.   Oh, hey, that reminds me. Is that game out yet- Hm!?Daichi is staring at something... You follow Daichi's gaze to a girl with bobbed hair...  She's smart, cute, gentle, innocent, modest... They don't make 'em like her anymore! She's really something... Everyone looks up to her. Well, she is cute. I'm sayin'! Yeah, whaddaya want!? Can't you see we're in the middle of... fantasizing... Oh... Sorry. I just noticed you were wearing my school's uniforms... I-Io!? Wh-What a coincidence...!Io seems to want to say something... Yo. Sup? I came a little late... I was wondering if everyone was still there.Daichi shoves you to one side... Of course! You're in the clear! There are some afternoon tests, so anyone applying for public universities should be there! ...Good to know. Thanks.Io still seems to have something left to say... You'll get the questions later. Huh...? That's amazing. How did you know I wanted the sample questions...? But yeah... Of course we can get the sample questions if we ask for them at school. Thank you. I was starting to panic. Anyway, I didn't mean to bother you two. Well... ......? Uhhh, well... Um... Yikes, that was freaky! Funny we'd all get one at once. Guess we're on the same wavelength![Music: Dark Clouds]  You begin to look at your cell phone, but are distracted by Io's mutterings...  What is this...? Creepy... Did something happen? Let me see.You borrow Daichi's cell... [Music: Silence] [Video: Death Clip]  You should really just watch this.  [Music: Crumbling Routine]      http://lpix.org/1498246/038.png  /  [Video: End] [Music: Exploration]   ...I think you're in this too.Io is looking at Daichi...  Io nods... Ugh... Seriously? This is way too elaborate for a prank... Oh, the train's here. Let's see...[Music: Silence]  It's like the clip! Run! O-Oh, crap... The train-- Aaaaaaaaaah![Video: The Trainwreck] Again, best to just watch this.         [Video: End] Frankly, I think it was a very bold move on Atlus' part to kill off the main characters within the first 10 minutes. Lotus Aura fucked around with this message at 16:17 on Dec 8, 2013 |
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Dec 7, 2013 16:52
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Depending on what Dragonatrix talks about and obviously only if he's okay with it I've got quite a bit of fun insight on how to really crack this game like an egg and what does and doesn't work well (if you followed the sadly deceased LP of this game from a while back you may recall that I'm insane and did pretty much the most painful run from a gameplay perspective that you can do as a first cycle) in a run like that. It's really wildly different in a lot of ways from what you can get away with in a normal run. And yes, it's ballsy for them to let you name a character then just kill everyone we've met so far, that's ATLUS for you.
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Dec 7, 2013 17:02
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I wonder if their dress regulations stipulate that they must have something with blue-and-white stripes on it.
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Dec 7, 2013 17:12
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If this was a real Atlus game, that scene would have had a 10% chance of happening every battle and been an instant game over.
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Dec 7, 2013 17:37
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Oh boy this game series again, I do believe neither the first game nor it's remake was never finished along the first attempt of this one. Hopefully everything will work out fine this time around because I was getting into the last attempt at this one.
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Dec 7, 2013 19:40
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Yes, now I no longer have to feel bad about abandoning my LP of this. Freedom. Anyway, if there's anything from my attempt that could help you, just say the word. (Character portraits, transcriptions - albeit transcriptions written up in BB code), that sort of thing.
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Dec 7, 2013 19:43
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Cake Attack posted:Yes, now I no longer have to feel bad about abandoning my LP of this. Freedom. I need to go dig out your thread in the archives myself so I can just c/p some of my poo poo shooting about earlier Unkillable problems.
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Dec 7, 2013 21:01
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I love Atlus and I love this series. They can take all the time they want on the remake, I'd much rather wait for a better game than get an unfinished one now. I'm a little surprised to see this after your last lp Dragonatrix, but I'm definetly not complaining. I look forward to seeing where this goes and I hope it goes some of the places the last lp was heading.
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Dec 8, 2013 01:40
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Oh hey, we get to go through all this again! Looking forward to this, Dragonatrix. At least we can be sure this won't go down the messy path that was the anime adaptation, right? Right?
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Dec 8, 2013 01:55
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Feinne posted:I need to go dig out your thread in the archives myself so I can just c/p some of my poo poo shooting about earlier Unkillable problems. Incidentally, I went and did your first run myself after the last thread was abandoned and it was actually super fun. I like this game a lot and will probably be yelling about how good one skill in particular is. I might also passive-aggressively snipe at the anime adaptation, which was both garbage and poo poo.
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Dec 8, 2013 01:57
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Like a lot of people I was a big fan of the last one and really sad that Cake Attack burned out on it. It was pretty funny, even with a lot of the mechanical stuff flying over my head. On the other hand, it makes Archives pay off more than usual so that's a victory. vv I know what you're hiding. 
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Dec 8, 2013 02:11
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alcharagia posted:Incidentally, I went and did your first run myself after the last thread was abandoned and it was actually super fun. Yeah, to really get the fun from it you've definitely got to do it as a first run, you get too much overpowered stuff in an NG+ for it to really be a challenge. It definitely teaches you some fun things about how the game's AI chooses its actions and tricks to just straight break the game. I'll be interested in your opinion on which map is actually the hardest when we get on a bit. Feinne fucked around with this message at 02:22 on Dec 8, 2013 |
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Dec 8, 2013 02:19
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Looking forward to seeing this one finished.
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Dec 8, 2013 02:33
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I tried the first Devil Survivor a few years ago and didn't really like it but i've been meaning to give this one a try looking forward to your LP
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Dec 8, 2013 03:19
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After a friend complained to me how bad the first DS was, I never really thought about ever giving the sequel a shot. It was only the last thread of this game convinced me to go out and try it myself, and boy am I glad I did. I really love this game. Here's hoping this thread makes it all the way! And that the thread picks the whacky option all the time; it's the only real way to play this game.
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Dec 8, 2013 03:37
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Slight correction, Mohiro Kitoh (who did the boss designs here) only did one of the Angel designs for one of the recent Evangelion movies, not the original show. Serious  there, I know, but I've seen a lot of people seem to think he was a main designer for the original show.As for the game, as much as I like it, I've never been able to get into it properly. Also, the battle theme for the last game was much better. Maybe they're connected 
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Dec 8, 2013 04:05
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Personally, I prefer the first game over this one, but I am glad that someone is willing to try LPing this again. Every other time someone has tried to LP one of these two games, they never got though it, although Cake Attack got pretty far in his attempt. I hope you manage to finish this. Although, if you do drop this, somebody must make a Nicaea clip of the post where you announce your dropping of it. This isn't going to affect your Lux-Pain LP, right  ?
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Dec 8, 2013 04:34
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Cake Attack posted:Yes, now I no longer have to feel bad about abandoning my LP of this. Freedom. You brought us Estelle instead. Much as Devil Survivor's pretty nifty, it's the logical and correct choice. That said, series is pretty daunting to LP, hoping Dragonatrix can stick it out! Be cool to see some of the paths I didn't do.
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Dec 8, 2013 06:35
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Oh, hey, DS2 LP! Cool. I'll just look at this post and... ...are you testing whether people actually look at the music links or something? I feel like I'm in the middle of the basketball passing Gorilla video here. Edit: As I was going to say before I was distracted by Dark Einander fucked around with this message at 06:44 on Dec 8, 2013 |
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Dec 8, 2013 06:42
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I think that was caused by a Chrome extension I have messing things up when I edited something to be a bit more coherent. Mustn't have noticed. (Should be fixed for most people now though.) And, yeah, I'm using the AlphaWiki point guide for most things to ensure that we can get any ending. v Would be, yeah. That one should be fixed now too. I'm gonna have to remember to turn that off before double-checking updates from now on! Lotus Aura fucked around with this message at 07:02 on Dec 8, 2013 |
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Dec 8, 2013 06:46
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Dragonatrix posted:I think that was caused by a Chrome extension I have messing things up when I edited something to be a bit more coherent. Mustn't have noticed. ...wait, is that where the "butt" in the line "I feel like there's this butt over me. And there's nothing I can do about it." came from?
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Dec 8, 2013 07:01
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please don't change that dragonatrix
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Dec 8, 2013 07:03
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Requesting thread title change to "[Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2] -Show Your Butts-"
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Dec 8, 2013 08:26
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Maybe you should turn off that 'cloud --> butt' extension you're using. (There is such an extension, and it exists primarily because 'the cloud' is one of the silliest buzzwords to come out of Internet companies over the years.)
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Dec 8, 2013 10:17
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Sunday's Melancholy (II) [Music: ???]  Unfortunately, this is how you will die. And, yet... If you still wish to live, your "demon summoning app" will surely come in handy. ...Well? Are you going to give up on living? We just got took a falling train face first. Pretty sure we're dead and just hallucinating right now. Yes. Let me die. Don't make me say it twice. I see... So you would like to die. Are you sure you won't regret this decision? Let's end this.  Umm... I'm beginning to think we might've picked the wrong option here.    Well, that's kinda weird and it's nice that it lets us pick the immediate game over at least. But let's, uh... can we have a do over?  Don't be ridiculous! ...Of course. Your strong will to live has been confirmed. [Music: Silence]  [Music: Countdown]   I'm called Obariyon. Don't go dying just yet! I'm supposed to kill you. Ugh... Whooooooah! What the hell is that!? Mm... Yeah, that's the spirit! The timing couldn't be better... I'll battle you all at once. S-S-Seriously!? There are monsters in front of us and behind us...! What... What should we do? Like this... Let's fight! I don't see you coming up with any ideas, Daichi! [Music: Desperate Situation]  Defeat conditions just grant an auto-game over if they're met. In this instance being the tutorial fight you'd think it'd be impossible to lose, right? Well, yes. Mostly. There is one way you can realistically fail here and whether it happens or not is down to pure luck.   Die already! I've got other stuff to get back to. Being the first fight and all, it's more or less scripted so as to ensure you don't get absolutely wrecked by having stuff gang up on one person. This works by making it so that the first 2 turns are more or less predetermined. What the hell?! Don't come near me! Don't![Music: Attack]  Actual combat itself is done on a second screen with something closer to a traditional JRPG combat system. All 3 of our characters only have these two options right now, and in a weird twist I'm having Daichi guard here.  See, Poltergeist's first move is always to cast Bufu. It's the basic ice spell, very ho hum. What isn't immediately apparent is that because it's an ice spell it has a chance to inflict an ailment (it's pretty low but I dunno exact odds of it).  See, all ice spells - including Bufu - can inflict Freeze. Freeze does exactly what you think it will do; you cannot do poo poo, and you take extra physical damage if hit. There's also a much higher chance of it being a critical hit too. You can still get frozen in this first fight. If it happens, Daichi is a lot more likely to die (you can still win but it requires being a bit smarter about things). There's no way of healing yet, and he cannot oneshot a Poltergeist because he's level 1. Of course, this is an absurdly rare situation that will almost never come up so there's not much point to worrying about it. It just seems oddly fitting that the tutorial fight can still murder you if you get unlucky and/or treat it like a stock tutorial.  Either way, by default you only get 1 turn per fight. This holds true for everyone, but you can get at least one more via Extra Turns. As far as we care right now they're affected solely by speed and something called Initiative. We'll look at that shortly.  This means we actually get to attack this time, and since the Poltergeist only has enough MP to cast Bufu once we're no longer in anything that even vaguely potentially resembles danger. [Music: Desperate Situation]  I-I-I'm not just gonna die! I don't want to! That's pretty good... for a human. But can you defeat me? Whether we can or not doesn't matter right now, since Pixie can't even get close enough to do anything. This'll work out in our favour later, I'm sure. I'll chase you wherever you go. If I can beat you, I get to go free.But for now it just means rather than worry about the easiest thing here Obariyon waltzes down and attacks Hibiki. Your life against my freedom. What's more important...? Freedom! Careful, Hibiki! These guys are really going to kill us![Music: Attack]  And it is always Hibiki on this turn. Likewise, the Poltergeist will only ever attack Daichi. This is just to stop either one of them from being overwhelmed and giving you an outright unfair game over before you can do anything. And considering the Obariyon has no abilities whatsoever (Bind doesn't count in this fight)...  It also means Hibiki gets to attack, but just the once. Obariyon and only Obariyon gets to attack twice in this skirmish. [Music: Desperate Situation]  Waaaah! I'm completely surrounded! What am I supposed to do...!? Of course, its now our turn and we can learn quite a few things from this fight alone. Most obvious of which is that turn order is not static and your actions affect it. It also means we can get revenge on that damned Obariyon and smack it around a bit ourselves now.  Unfortunately, Hibiki does gain an extra turn now... but the Obariyon still does too. This leaves us in a precarious situation, but one that is not as problematic as it seems.  Since Daichi's next, he can either take out the Obariyon leaving Hibiki completely safe or he can try his luck with the Poltergeist.  The latter is the smarter option, though. There's no danger in it and its still very likely to result in the demon being taken out.  And at the end of every fight which results in an opponent being killed, we get some EXP and Macca (money). Since we're only level 1 right now this gives us a level up and level up gains are mostly static which is pretty nice all things considered. Ugh... I lost. Well, I guess I'll be your demon. The monster vanishes, leaving its mysterious words behind...  W-We did it...? Y-Yes...! We did it! We might survive this yet!And now we have Io's turn so she can finally do something.  No... Why is this happening!? That means she can drag the Pixie into the fray, and we can see roughly what Initiative is. As a general rule, whoever is doing the attacking gets a +5 bonus (though it can be bigger), and whoever is being attacked gets nothing. This is important for a couple reasons, the most relevant right now is...  It means that Io gets an extra turn but the Pixie doesn't. This would not necessarily hold true if the Pixie's agility stat was higher than Io's however.  Also Io having a slightly lower strength than Hibiki or Daichi means she deals a relatively consistent 9 damage instead of wavering around 10 or 11. The next turn goes back to... Hibiki. Not moving at all means you can do stuff faster. This isn't a good strategy for most fights, and in fact the vast majority of the time staying in one spot is a Bad Idea, but when it works it does so quite well.  Since we started the fight, we got to attack first. This means Obariyon dies.  And because the Obariyon was level 2, it gives more EXP than the Poltergeist did. More important is that Hibiki doesn't get a stat up on this screen.  Instead, being the main character, he is the only person whose growth is flexible. Since a stat maxes at 40, Hibiki can potentially max 2 stats and get to either 29 or 30 on a third... if you completely ignore one stat entirely. This is a fairly bad idea, though, because that's actually very limiting and closes off many options later. Regardless of what you choose to do, it's worth getting Vitality and/or Agility upto either 12 or 15. Strength or Magic is a judgement call based on what you want to do, really; personally I prefer Magic but you can do either reasonably well. Physical is arguably even better, but there are people who do it really well already anyway. Of course, even if you pick Magic it's worth geting Strength up to 12 at most (you can get away with less though), and getting some Magic if you pick Strength so you don't need to cart around a dedicated healer. Or to put it simply: every stat is useful in its own way. Going completely balanced is a pretty bad idea, though!  With the Obariyon finally finished, we can just pass our turns until either the Pixie or Io does something.  Since Io's planted right in front of the Pixie (and the pixie is more interested in her anyway) this means that no matter which one goes first, we get the result we want.  Namely the Pixie dies and we win the fight.  For good measure, Io gains a level as well. A human beat me!? Argh, I'm so mad at myself! Whatever... Use me well, okay?  At the end of every fight, we get bonus EXP and money for good measure. This is enough to push Daichi and Io up to level 3, and all three get fairly close to level 4 too. [Music: Countdown]  Those were demons. Demons!? What are you saying...!? Don't be stupid![Music: Silence]  [Music: Requiem]   And then... those monsters appeared... Dammit! Calm down! I-I can't calm down! You saw the death clip too, didn't you? This is bad... really bad! What's going on!? ...I'm scared. Can we get out of here first? Let's go up to street level. Oh... yeah! We have to hurry and go up! [Music: Crumbling Routine]  I'm getting the impression that, uh...  Things up here might not be better than they were down there.  If anything, they seem even worse.  People are gathering at the intersection, now destroyed beyond recognition...  Oh... Look! The display... At around 13:00, a large-scale calamity, reportedly a verical shock quake, occured. There are no details yet, but massive casualties have been reported inthe city. Once again, at around 13:00-- Hey, why'd it get cut off!? What happened!?Anxiety is spreading amongst the nearby pedestriants...   Honestly. The media in this country can't do anything right... ...No good. I'm not getting any cell service. The TV app isn't working either... No... ...What should I do? I need to get in touch with my parents... Ah... hey! Io!?A moment later, Io returns... It's no use... The public phones are dead, too... I asked a cab driver, and he said his radio wasn't working either. That's odd. Hm...? What's this? Hellooooo? What the hell!? I can't delete it... What's going on here!? Dammit, what's happening!? Everyone knows demons don't exist! So what was that back there!? Those monsters in the subway... They just-- An unfamiliar woman addresses you from behind... Huh...? Um, sure. You came up from the subway, didn't you? What did you see down there? Huh? What did we see...? W-Well, the train crashed, and... ......!? S-Something else...? Th-That's... Umm... ...... ......! Why? (Hang on... Something's weird about her... I don't think we should get involved.) What's the matter? If there's a problem... Oh... No, it's just...! You quickly put distance between yourselves and the mysterious woman's gaze... [Music: Connected Hearts]   Yeah... She was kind of scary. I wonder what her deal was... She was suspicious. Well, it's good we got away, but what do we do now? I need to go back home... I'm worried about my parents. Oh... Yeah, good point. I'm worried about my family too. This guy here's in the same class, and... You already know, huh? Uh, no she doesn't What's gotten into you all of a sudden...? See, what did I tell you- Huh? Uhh, well...An odd silence drifts over the group... Ooookaaay then. On to the next subject... So we'll be fine, since our houses are in the neighborhood, but where do you live, Io? For reference, I think it's about 10 miles (give or take a little bit) from Shibuya to Ariake. That's dangerous. Huh...? Ohhh, you're right. I didn't even think about that... All right... We'll make sure you get home safe, Io. Really...? I don't mind, you know. I'd feel kind of bad imposing on you... Don't sweat it. Safety in numbers, right? Um, okay... You're sure you wouldn't mind...? Leave it to us. Then, let's get going. Ariake... Will we need to take a train or bus? Are they even running? Hmm, okay. So... parks and shelters, huh? Let's try our luck with those![Music: In The Devastated Town]  On the one hand, we have more than one place to go this time around. On the other hand, it's still just an illusion of choice because we need to do both of these events to progress. Might as well do them in the order presented here.  Yikes... Look at all the people here. We won't get near the station like this... In the name of cutting costs, you'll occasionally notice things like this. There are some portraits just taken from Devil Survivor 1 and dropped wholesale in here. They don't normally stand out that much (and are generic enough to not matter anyway) but ones like this are particularly egregious about it.  I repeat, Shibuya Station is not in use at this time! Only select individuals may enter...A gathering crowd is voicing their frustration, and the mood is turning ugly... I guess the station's closed... The trains probably aren't running because of all this. It's too congested. Yeah... The roads are choked with cars, too. I doubt they'll be moving anytime soon.Just as Io says, there are even abandoned cars in the intersection... What's the problem? Ughhh... I can't believe this. This is nuts... Daichi...? Um, what's the matter? I was hungry, see, so I went looking for a corner store. But they're all closed... Everywhere I tried, it was no use. They all said, "now's not the time." Wow...! That must have been tough... Um, so were you able to get anything? Actually... It might have been a good thing you got all that bread now... Huh...? Why's that? O-Oh yeah, that's right! That was exactly the idea, Io! Man, I'm good! Well, here you go! You guys' share of the bread! heheheh...  Wow... Are you sure? Thanks, Daichi. But... what now? From the looks of things, transportation will be down for a while... If they're being used as shelters, maybe we can rest there and get some info! Ah... You're rght. Let's do that, then.You leave Shibuya Station, chatting with Daichi and Io...  We're going to go straight into the Refugee Camp next. Pay no attention to the two new events for the time being.   Dammit, we can't even get inside the park! What's up with this...?A woman comes up behind you, looks at the state of the park, and starts complaining...  Hey... You hear that? It sounds like she's already been to the other parks. I don't know... Oh... Um... Io seems as if she has something to say... What is it? It's just... Well, doesn't something seem off? Maybe they can't? Is that it? But, ever since we left the subway station... We haven't seen one TV news copter or anything like that flying overhead... Yeah... But not this time. We haven't seen or heard them. Yeah... Something's not right. With this many people here, the quake must've been huge... ...I don't like this. No cars, no trains, and no shelter... W-Well, it's out of our hands! Let's pull ourselves together and try our luck elsewhere. Who knows, maybe we can find an easy way back home, or somewhere safe to stay! Oh... Yeah, okay. Let's do that.You leave Miyashita Park along with Daichi and Io...  Okay, so you see that clock in the corner? It's not for show. Not only does time progress as we're doing things (with some exceptions), but there are certain events that occur at set times too. Usually you're railroaded into doing them because they have plot importance or something.  Mentioning this now, because there's something coming up at 16:00 that we cannot avoid. That gives us enough time to complete 3 more events. There are 4 left available. This is a bit of a problem as you can imagine.  So, what I want you to do is pick the event you don't want to do. Or, if you'd prefer to look at it another way, the one you least want to.  That can be done here.
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Dec 8, 2013 16:48
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OK, I'm sorry, but those breasts are just ridiculous. I know,  , but come on.
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Dec 8, 2013 17:04
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I thought this game was pretty great. While I like the first game's story more, this one handled character interaction better and generally made the maps much better. It's essentially comparing P3 to P4 as far as I'm concerned.Junpei Hyde posted:
Welcome to Devil Survivor 2. It will get worse before it gets better (it will never get better).
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Dec 8, 2013 17:36
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Junpei Hyde posted:OK, I'm sorry, but those breasts are just ridiculous. I know, Oh good I'm not the only one that was bothered by that. The "Strange Woman" had the same problem.
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Dec 8, 2013 17:41
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Might as well inform you all that it never gets better.
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Dec 8, 2013 17:46
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Dragonatrix mentioned main character builds in the update, so let's talk about character builds in general for a moment (as our party members will also all fall into one of these categories). As noted in the update, a character can max out two stats and then has enough to float the others a bit. So, we'll characterize the builds by which stats they max out. Strength/Vitality: The classic physical damage build. It's all about doing big damage with physical attacks (especially ones that get extra damage from our health total) and taking hits well. Unlike original Devil Survivor this is a pretty viable build for the Main Character, though it's got some issues that I'll discuss later as we are introduced to more party members. Without going into huge detail I agree with Dragonatrix that there are party members who do this just as well as you can and with how skills work in this game it's basically impossible to run more than two physical characters. Physical attacks are Really Good in this game, though, so you want someone who's using them. Strength/Magic: A versatile build that can use both physical and magical attacks well. I wouldn't suggest this for the Main Character for a few reasons. It can leave you a bit fragile, and to me the marginal benefit of the added versatility is kind of limited. We'll also end up with a several characters who do their stats like this, so if you feel like you have something you can gain from it it's easy enough to carry one along. Strength/Agility: This is a new build in Devil Survivor 2. It relies on a new type of physical attack, one that gets extra hits based on our Agility. This build has simply amazing capability to do physical damage. The big problem, though, is that we get several characters who can do this well and we definitely can't support more than one character of this type. Characters of this type are either a bit fragile or really skimp on magic, either of which has its own problems. Magic/Vitality: To me, this is the King of Builds. It focuses on raw magic power while also giving you a lot of durability. Ideally you take the barest minimum of Strength for whatever skills you want and sink the rest into Agility. So, the strength of this build really is that you can support multiple characters like this quite easily. Indeed, you don't really get enough characters like this in my mind. I'd use an entire party of Magic/Vitality if that were even possible. The only real downside of a Magic build is that you do need to pick and choose elements for most of the party, and it does rely somewhat on skills that let you restore your MP. Magic/Agility: This is another strong build in principle, that relies on having powerful magic attacks and always going first. Honestly I'm not a fan, because if I wanted to put 40 points into Agility I'd also want to just go Strength/Agility. It's certainly viable, though, and the same notes apply as to the Magic/Vitality build. Agility/Vitality: No party members use this build, and you shouldn't either because it has poo poo offense. Spread: This build, as it notes in the name, spreads stats out and doesn't try to max anything out particularly. It doesn't excel at anything, but it's equally not bad at anything. As Dragonatrix noted it's probably not a great idea to go with a build like this. There are a few party members who build themselves like this, one of whom I kind of like and another who is actually forced on you in one ending path. Once we've actually seen some skills and characters I'll have more to talk about in this regard. As far as notes on the 'Unkillable' run (where you don't lose any human characters in combat) you can't lose it on this tutorial fight, because you Game Over if anyone is defeated.
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Dec 8, 2013 18:23
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Honestly, I never noticed how unrealistically the girls in this game are drawn until it was pointed out to me. I guess it was because the game was good enough for me to just overlook. And it helps that the girls are all pretty great characters in their own right, which is a far cry from the first DS. I hated every female in that game except for Haru. I can't think of any girl in this game, or any character for that matter, that I hated more than Cosplay Girl from 1 (though some in this game do come pretty close.)
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Dec 8, 2013 18:44
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Junpei Hyde posted:
It's the artist, Suzuhito Yasuda. There is another game he has drawn for called Caladrius and it has the same problems with gigantic breasts.
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Dec 8, 2013 18:53
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The problem with the breasts isn't the size - well, okay, they are huge, but that's pretty normal - the problem is that they don't have any weight to them at all. It's like they're being lifted upwards by some invisible force.
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Dec 8, 2013 18:59
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Junpei Hyde posted:
And of course the anime adaptation decided to include this little....artistic choice as well. As for the recycled portraits...the police officer one, that's from a DS1 plot point, right? Trying to recall Cake Attack's LP where it was mentioned and my memory is a bit fuzzy on that.
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Dec 8, 2013 19:47
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Yeah... the character design in this game is hilariously inconsistent, but the female PCs are especially bad. Every single one of them has that slight problem, capped off with the design for that one thing Dragonatrix has thankfully banished to the shadow realm. Meanwhile, the NPC models look like they could be PCs at points. Also shut up, Midori was the best. 
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Dec 8, 2013 19:48
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AradoBalanga posted:As for the recycled portraits...the police officer one, that's from a DS1 plot point, right? Trying to recall Cake Attack's LP where it was mentioned and my memory is a bit fuzzy on that. Yeah, the incredibly creepy face that guy makes has a lot more context in that game. Why they didn't bother drawing at least a new head for the guy, I have no idea. Surely it couldn't cost that much? It's not like they didn't draw a bunch of new NPCs anyway.
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Dec 8, 2013 20:01
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Endorph posted:The problem with the breasts isn't the size - well, okay, they are huge, but that's pretty normal - the problem is that they don't have any weight to them at all. It's like they're being lifted upwards by some invisible force. It seems more like they've got oranges stuffed in their shirts. Pureauthor posted:Might as well inform you all that it never gets better. Characters will get better and outfits will stay reasonable...for the most part. But yeah that's not gonna change. Moving away from bad character design though there's one thing I wanna bring up though. This gif looks really bad. He looks like he's gone through Vector Magic or his face is slightly melted chocolate. If it's just a gif thing then don't mind me. I couldn't find another one of it to compare it too so here's a picture.
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Dec 8, 2013 20:05
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I mostly try to ignore the issues with character art, but... Seriously, why does this generic character design look so much better than most of the actual characters? Screw Io, let's go recruit Shallow Girl. I never liked her stat distribution anyway.
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Dec 8, 2013 20:14
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