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Mazed
Oct 23, 2010

:blizz:


chiasaur11 posted:

"I am Lenneth Valkyrie, your senior drill instructor. From now on you will speak only when spoken to, and the first and last words out of your filthy sewers will be "Ma'am". Do you maggots understand that?

If you ladies leave my service, if you survive recruit training, you will be a weapon. You will be a minister of Tyr praying for Ragnarok. But until that day you are pukes. You are the lowest form of life on Midgard. You are not even human loving beings. You are nothing but unorganized grabastic pieces of Jotun poo poo! Because I am hard, you will not like me. But the more you hate me, the more you will learn. I am hard but I am fair. There is no racial bigotry here. I do not look down on brunnmigi, landvættir , dwarves, or lindorm. Here you are all equally worthless. And my orders are to weed out all non-einherjar who did not die gloriously enough to serve my beloved Odin. Do you maggots understand that?"

This. This is beautiful.

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Derek Barona
Dec 8, 2009

WHO'S YOUR FRIEND?!
What Mazed said.

InfiniteJesters
Jan 26, 2012

chiasaur11 posted:

"I am Lenneth Valkyrie, your senior drill instructor. From now on you will speak only when spoken to, and the first and last words out of your filthy sewers will be "Ma'am". Do you maggots understand that?

If you ladies leave my service, if you survive recruit training, you will be a weapon. You will be a minister of Tyr praying for Ragnarok. But until that day you are pukes. You are the lowest form of life on Midgard. You are not even human loving beings. You are nothing but unorganized grabastic pieces of Jotun poo poo! Because I am hard, you will not like me. But the more you hate me, the more you will learn. I am hard but I am fair. There is no racial bigotry here. I do not look down on brunnmigi, landvættir , dwarves, or lindorm. Here you are all equally worthless. And my orders are to weed out all non-einherjar who did not die gloriously enough to serve my beloved Odin. Do you maggots understand that?"

FULL MYTHRIL JACKET

COME FIMBULWINTER, THE WIND WON'T SUCK---IT'LL BLOW.

ApplesandOranges
Jun 22, 2012

Thankee kindly.
We have two more dungeons to finish before the end of chapter 1.



The Forest of Woe is actually easier than the Solde Catacombs, so it's not a bad idea to do this one first. Ah well.



There aren't any tricks or puzzles to the Forest - wander around open chests, and explore every place. A few of the more valuable chests are trapped, but that's essentially it. A copy of the Icicle Edge spell can be picked up early on.



The enemies here are the same as in the dungeon in Chapter 0, with Dragon Servants as well. So nothing new here, Element Scepter Fire Storms will still blow away all enemies. Killing an enemy with a menu spell prevents you from comboing afterwards, so keep that in mind if you want to knock crystals or gems out of enemies.



Aside from Icicle Edge, the other useful treasures are a pair of Element Scepters, both booby trapped. If you've been keeping count, that's four Scepters we already have. :getin:



Also pointing out the Flare Crystal here because the chest is a bit hidden, but that's about it. Crystals will cast a corresponding menu attack spell when used as an item (in this case, Fire Storm).



There isn't much more to it, so let's skip to the dungeon boss.



OST: Confidence in the Domination





Our enemies are three Insane Yetis. To their credit, they have high health, sporting 5,200 health each. However, their attacks are weak, and the game immediately clues you in that they're weak to Fire.

You all know where this is going.



5k health means a few rounds of Fire Storms, but the fact that only the frontline Yeti can attack til we take out it out means this is barely even a battle. We could even bring Llewelyn and have our archers and Jelanda slowly snipe the two back Yetis, but roasting them with the Element Scepter is just much faster.



Lenneth and Arngrim having maxed First Aid means even the few attacks they land don't even faze us.





Burn in hell, blasphemer of souls.

At least they cough up okay experience considering the effort we put into the fight.



This is the work of an Undead. I sense a powerful force nearby. So this is causing all the snow. This is what happens when mortal creatures meddle with forces beyond their ken-

Lenneth destroys the orb thing and we're free to claim our artifacts.







The Extreme Guard is a nice gauntlet that reduces Fire damage by 50% and has a chance of counterattacking enemy attacks with fireballs. Pretty cool all-around. The Phoenix Feather auto-revives the character it's equipped to, but has a 10% chance of breaking each time. We'll keep it around for another day though.



The last dungeon is a special one. The Cave of Oblivion is a dungeon that re-appears every chapter. It can take one of four forms, with varying possible treasures and enemies.



We luck out and get fairly weak enemies. Some games can even throw monsters from Chapter 8 right at you from Chapter 1 on. The best way to deal with a hard Cave of Oblivion is to transmute Element Scepters into Tomes of Alchemy - they instantly wipe out an encounter, and you'll get gobs of experience in the process.



Vermins are the new enemy here. Aside from flying, they aren't too notable, being just slightly tougher and hitting harder than the other enemies in this chapter.



They also cough up decent experience.



The cave is fairly short, and you'll have to notice the side paths and crannies to probe for treasure. It's actually possible to manipulate the RNG so that the cave will have all its possible treasure, but we don't really need to. One of the cave formations doesn't even have any possible treasure.



We score two items on this run - a Mithril Ore and a Broken Blade. Neither are of use to us now, but the latter will be very nice later on down the road.



Let's move onto transferring our Einherjar. Belenus had a small lead at the beginning of the vote but Llewelyn soon easily overtook him. And notice he just barely meets the Hero Value after I maxed out all his traits. Darn it Llew. Well, I guess you were slightly useful in the end.

We have a few periods afterwards free, so I just run around, popping into towns and talking to NPCs.





Once you use up all your periods, Freya summons you to give you your report on how badly you screw up.

---







Hmm.

Our current situation is... If things do not improve, I'm afraid we are doomed. Do you wish to know the status of our Einherjar?



Freya is prone to exaggeration. But... yes, let's see how Llewelyn is doing.



...Huh. That's not bad. Incidentally, it's possible for Einherjar to lose battles in Asgard, and some of them might even die. Ways to help circumvent this are sending them up with high Hero values and having at least some basic equipment.

Lenneth, about your performance...

Send us warriors brave and true.

That's Freya speak for 'well, you passed I guess.' If we had sent up Belenus instead we would likely have done much better.



Freya will give us some MP during the Sacred Phase. We'll get more if she's happy - MP isn't really going to be a major problem anyway, but this will help.

The Lord Odin is pleased with you.



We get all our possible rewards from Odin, and there are some really fantastic goodies in there. The Supreme Crossbow is going to be a fantastic weapon for Lenneth, and Wait Reaction is brilliant. I'll get into it in a future update, but I'm sure many people in the thread will talk about it as well.

Lenneth, I have a request to make of you...



We need a warrior skilled in battle tactics. Send us someone with a good knowledge of artifacts.

And here's our Einherjar requirement for Chapter 2. Belenus will be able to match this fairly easily, but let's see if we can't get more Einherjar this chapter.



---



And thus begins Chapter 2. Let's see who we're going to visit, shall we?



Listen: Spiritual Concentration 4

"Arngrim did what? This is some sort of mistake!"

"Hey, let's all go together. There's no reason to go in alone. If we all go, then-"

"Dying for justice and lofty ideals is pointless!"

"You're talking about Arngrim again, eh? About him being 'special'?"

"I will not run away!"




Listen: Spiritual Concentration 5

"And what will your soul project upon this dark cave?"

"Please..."

"..Argh.."

"Please lord, do something!"

"Huff, huff..."

"My brother!"

"Please protect my brother!"

"I will live on, for my body was but a vessel."




So... where are we going first?

ApplesandOranges fucked around with this message at 19:10 on Mar 26, 2014

dis astranagant
Dec 14, 2006

Wow, I forgot that HE was guaranteed this early.

Overrated Sage
Aug 9, 2011

Atelier Iris in a nutshell:
"yay Veola pl- oh dammit main plot again"


Some kid falls off a boat and drowns, gets kicked out of the party because no one likes him, and all of the sudden he's a "19th level god" who's kicking rear end up in Asgard.

That's...curiously uplifting. Even in this twisted world, the most unlikely people can make a difference. I'm not sure how I feel about that.



Anyway, one of the spirit dialogue things mentioned Arngrim so I think the choice is clear.

Bloodly
Nov 3, 2008

Not as strong as you'd expect.
19th is one of the lowest ranks, mark you.

quote:

Lenneth, about your performance...

Send us warriors brave and true.

That's Freya speak for 'well, you passed I guess.' If we had sent up Belenus instead we would likely have done much better.

She ALWAYS says this for this first one. Only later does it vary.

Mors Rattus
Oct 25, 2007

FATAL & Friends
Walls of Text
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2014-2018

Yeah, but given that Llewellyn's Hero Value maxes out at just over 40...well, he's doing as well as we could hope. If we sent him up later, they'd just point and laugh.

MadHat
Mar 31, 2011
Hai-Lan is an interesting place, There are a set of 3 Einharjer which can show up in Chapters 2,3, and 4 but the order we find them is random.

But that is for another time since going to Artolia will get us some Arngrim related stuff!


Also Wait Reaction is magical, literally as it only applies to mages!

a cartoon duck
Sep 5, 2011

Bloodly posted:

19th is one of the lowest ranks, mark you.

For comparison, Lenneth is considered mid-level as a 6th rank goddess. I think the lowest possible rank is 20th, so Llewelyn is just barely above divine cannon fodder.

Man, it's been a while since I played this on Normal, I completely forgot about the forest dungeon here. It'll be fun seeing all the dungeons I forgot about again in this LP.

Sientara
May 27, 2012

Mors Rattus posted:

Yeah, but given that Llewellyn's Hero Value maxes out at just over 40...well, he's doing as well as we could hope. If we sent him up later, they'd just point and laugh.

Don't forget he gets +2 HV per level, so to send him up in chapter 2 he needs to be level 7 or higher. Either send him up early or not at all.

FeyerbrandX
Oct 9, 2012

Wait Reaction can be summed up nicely in two words: :getin:

Anyone who calls Lenneth the Goddess of Death hasn't seen anything yet. The blessed agony of Wait Reaction is the last thing they will see.

I didn't think you got it this early though, I remember end of 2 or early 3. Maybe since I only played normal and hard.

dis astranagant
Dec 14, 2006

That first einherjar we're getting this chapter is pretty :getin:, as well.

Penakoto
Aug 21, 2013

I think both upcoming ein's are pretty great, definitely two you can keep around for awhile.

Penakoto fucked around with this message at 23:26 on Mar 26, 2014

IAmTheRad
Dec 11, 2009

Goddammit this Cello is way out of tune!
The cave of oblivion was an rear end in a top hat to me. Sending me against a chapter 3 enemies guarded by 2 chapter 4 enemies as the first enemy that I came across in there. Let's just say that not even the most powerful tactics managed to take them down. And if you lose when inside the cave, you can't go in there again in the entire chapter. I did not want to transmute my scepters in order to have absolute victory.

dis astranagant
Dec 14, 2006

Sure you do, just keep one on your mage and don't let him break it. You'll get better ones soon enough. Equipment doesn't exactly have a very long shelf life.

Keldulas
Mar 18, 2009
I do like the general system for Freya giving you information on what's going on up there, but does anyone find the bar-graph kind of... weird? Did she lovingly draw that for Lenneth or something?

Mr. Trampoline
May 16, 2010
Weren't there little cutscenes during the Sacred Phase that elaborated on what your Einherjar were doing? Or did those only happen during later chapters?

dis astranagant
Dec 14, 2006

There are. One for his commendation and the other for his animal rescue.

booksnake
May 4, 2009

we who are crowned with the crest of wisdom
I want to see Hai-Lan first for a purely selfish reason: I used that guy for basically the entire game my first run through. Not because of his strength in battle, as I eventually replaced him in my second run with dudes with more combo hits and such, but he was really easy to pick up and use. Like his timing, hitboxes, and movement felt really intuitive and non-finicky to hit with.

Other guy is cool and has that long-running plot, though.

Mazed
Oct 23, 2010

:blizz:


Overrated Sage posted:

That's...curiously uplifting. Even in this twisted world, the most unlikely people can make a difference. I'm not sure how I feel about that.

That's definitely part of what makes this story compelling, and how it stands out among most JRPG plots. The einheriar get even more disparate the further along you go, with some pretty unlikely situations that are only possible because you're trying to round up sincerely everyone with potential, their mortal lives and affiliations be damned, to hopefully make the end of the world less horrible (from your factions' perspective anyway). While there's still plenty of melodrama, nobody quite overstays their welcome either.

a cartoon duck
Sep 5, 2011

Keldulas posted:

I do like the general system for Freya giving you information on what's going on up there, but does anyone find the bar-graph kind of... weird? Did she lovingly draw that for Lenneth or something?

Even gods need hobbies. Freya's love for charts, graphs and statistics is the entire foundation of the Aesirs' war effort.

Rabbi Raccoon
Mar 31, 2009

I stabbed you dude!
In all the years I've played this game, I've never found anything worthwhile in the Cave of Oblivion.

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe

Rabbi Raccoon posted:

In all the years I've played this game, I've never found anything worthwhile in the Cave of Oblivion.

As ApplesAndOranges alluded to, you can get a poo poo-ton of experience early on by cheesing the encounters there.

Sientara
May 27, 2012

TooMuchAbstraction posted:

As ApplesAndOranges alluded to, you can get a poo poo-ton of experience early on by cheesing the encounters there.

Also, it is best to save before entering one. Some Caves will kill you outright in earlier chapters, and you only get one chance at them. The best loot I've gotten in a Cave is great magic capable scepters, status-preventing accessories and stat-boosting items.

Bloodly
Nov 3, 2008

Not as strong as you'd expect.

quote:

Not because of his strength in battle, as I eventually replaced him in my second run with dudes with more combo hits and such

The bolded is odd to me. The character deals pretty much the most hits of any PWS. So why would you switch him OUT?

dis astranagant
Dec 14, 2006

Because his normals make Llewelyn look good and the other guy is quite literally the best einherjar.

AfroSquirrel
Sep 3, 2011

dis astranagant posted:

the other guy is quite literally the best einherjar.

But Phyress is only in VP2?

SodomyGoat101
Nov 20, 2012

AfroSquirrel posted:

But Phyress is only in VP2?

You misspelled Zunde.

FredMSloniker
Jan 2, 2008

Why, yes, I do like Kirby games.

Mr. Trampoline posted:

Weren't there little cutscenes during the Sacred Phase that elaborated on what your Einherjar were doing? Or did those only happen during later chapters?

dis astranagant posted:

There are. One for his commendation and the other for his animal rescue.

Could we get these added to the LP, ApplesandOranges?

Sientara
May 27, 2012

I wanted to ask if you would be alright with me posting some of the PSP save backgrounds as we meet the character in them, like Llewellen here:



I should have most of the characters saved.

FeyerbrandX
Oct 9, 2012

^
huh, reminds me of Barbra Streisand.

ApplesandOranges
Jun 22, 2012

Thankee kindly.

FredMSloniker posted:

Could we get these added to the LP, ApplesandOranges?

I actually saved over my Chapter 1 save, so not for this chapter, sadly; I'll keep an eye out for them for this Sacred Phase.

Sientara posted:

I wanted to ask if you would be alright with me posting some of the PSP save backgrounds as we meet the character in them, like Llewellen here:



I should have most of the characters saved.

No problem! Feel free.

Anyway, I want to start working on the update tomorrow, so I'm closing the poll. It was close, but Hai-Lan got a come from behind victory.

UmbreonMessiah
Nov 1, 2011

~Hey, I'm grump!~
I'm...yeah, I'm just a grump.

ApplesandOranges posted:

Anyway, I want to start working on the update tomorrow, so I'm closing the poll. It was close, but Hai-Lan got a come from behind victory.

Yesssssssssssssssssssssss :unsmigghh: Don't get me wrong, the other choice is great, but I absolutely love the Einherjar we're going for now.

W.T. Fits
Apr 21, 2010

Ready to Poyozo Dance all over your face.

ApplesandOranges posted:

Anyway, I want to start working on the update tomorrow, so I'm closing the poll. It was close, but Hai-Lan got a come from behind victory.

Awesome. Ever since I first played this game, this guy's been one of my favorites. Mechanically I realize there are likely better options, but I don't care because he's just so drat cool. :allears:

Sientara
May 27, 2012

It appears I am missing Valkyrie for sure, I'll try to get her later.

Odin:


Freya:


Arngrim:


Jelanda:


Belenus:

Rabbi Raccoon
Mar 31, 2009

I stabbed you dude!

Freya is the ultimate diva.

TooMuchAbstraction
Oct 14, 2012

I spent four years making
Waves of Steel
Hell yes I'm going to turn my avatar into an ad for it.
Fun Shoe

Rabbi Raccoon posted:

Freya is the ultimate diva.

She also has one hell of a dislocated hip there.

Mazed
Oct 23, 2010

:blizz:


It's actually her thigh. Here's the full picture:



The character concept art pieces are outright beautiful, though unmistakably anime. What's especially good is some of the armor designs.

The artists responsible were Koh & Yoh Yoshinari. Yes, the Panty & Stocking and Kill La Kill Yoh Yoshinari.

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AfroSquirrel
Sep 3, 2011

Rabbi Raccoon posted:

Freya is the ultimate diva.

You're just jealous you don't have a hat as sweet as hers.

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