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NEWEST UPDATE 7/03/2017: Episode 27 and Dream 23 Hello friends and denizens of the various corners of the internet and reality, I am Sgt Thud. You may know me but you probably don't. I'm bad at introductions and have odd opinions about what games are good or not. Lost Odyssey is one of those games, and I'm going to be attempting to show it off for you all to decide if I'm wrong or not on it being a pretty good game. What is Lost Odyssey? Lost Odyssey is a 2007 JRPG developed by Mistwalker Studios and FeelPlus (a subsidiary of AQ Interactive alongside Cavia. Most of us know how that ended), and directed by Hironobu Sakaguchi, the man behind Final Fantasy. Its soundtrack is composed by Nobou Uematsu, also of Final Fantasy fame, and it's character designs are by Takehito Inoue, known for creating the mangas Slam Dunk and Vagabond. The game was released exclusively on the Xbox 360 which, let's be honest, did it absolutely no favors whatsoever, especially in Japan. Despite this, it garnered some fanbase for being fairly well written and having a more adult focused storyline. That just sounds like another Final Fantasy. Yeah pretty much, in the end. What's the format for this? This will be a video LP done with me and 3 friends as commentary(Sir Matthias C. Twinnings, a gentleman of Ruin, and the Frog). I will be explaining how the game works and pointing out important things, while my friends, who are mostly blind coming into this, yell over each other about how dumb peoples costumes are and how obvious the plot is. And how kissable Kaim may or may not be. I'm shooting for at least 1 video a week, maybe more if I get a backlog going. I will also include supplementary videos for the soundtrack and a part of the game called the Thousand Years of Dreams. Thousand Years of what now? The Thousand Years of Dreams is a collection of short stories written by a well known Japanese writer named Kiyoshi Shigematsu. Each one details an experience or encounter in Kaim's past and reinforces how much it sucks to be him. They are presented in game as a somewhat animated text crawl with ambient sound effects and thematic background art, kind of like a visual novel which is nice in-game, but tends to drag on a bit depending on reading speed. Each one is found in a specific place in the game by seeing something that sparks a memory in Kaim, and can be viewed at any time after by sleeping at an inn or other bed. I will be providing a simple transcript of each, unless there is enough demand to watch 8-15 minutes of slightly animated text roughly 30 times. Sounds interesting enough, but about the game itself, what's good? The cast is decently developed, mostly composed of older characters with no chosen hero impetus. The soundtrack is excellent, the voice acting is in general pretty good or at least entertainingly goofy, and the combat system is simple but requires some level of strategy making it easy to understand but not mindless. What's bad? The pacing can be a bit sluggish at times, the plot occasionally trips over itself, there's a character who thinks two thongs is a valid fashion, and there are two bratty children in your party that you can't ignore. Also there are random battles in a 2007 game. What's ugly? The game takes up 4 discs, has loading times constantly for everything, and the character models are a bit stiffly animated and fall into the uncanny valley at times. Additionally, the games framerate is not always stable and occasionally shudders. Also our recording is a bit er...rough for the first few episodes. We're all new at recording and things didn't quite go as planned. Will this be a 100% run? HAHAHAHAHA no. This is a JRPG, it has JRPG levels of sidequests and collectables and random stuff to completely miss by mistake. I'll do all the noteworthy stuff like optional bosses and the like, but I'm not going to collect every Seed or do every Errand. No one wants to do that; no one wants to watch that. Why do you sound like you've got allergies? Because I do, to basically everything outdoors. Sorry, I try to be as clear as possible. Whats the spoiler policy? Please refrain from spoiling. I don't mind speculation, but please refrain from talking about spoiler stuff. This game is 8 years old, but it's also not very well known, so the plot isn't super common knowledge. Black boxing minor stuff like mechanics or whatever is alright I guess. I think that about covers it, I hope I can bring some entertainment to you folks out there, or at least show off a game I feel most people don't really know about.  Episode 1: Phallic War Machines - Youtube(Uncut) | Polsy(Uncut) Episode 2: Wrinkly Old Neck - Youtube(Uncut) | Polsy(Uncut) Episode 3: Forty-Five Minutes - Youtube(Uncut) | Polsy(Uncut) Episode 4: Grilgans Island - Youtube(Uncut) | Polsy(Uncut) Episode 5: Magic OSHA - Youtube(Uncut) | Polsy(Uncut) Episode 6: There's a Catch - Youtube(Uncut) | Polsy(Uncut) Episode 7: Expressive - Youtube(Uncut) | Polsy(Uncut) Episode 8: Switzerland - Youtube(Uncut) | Polsy(Uncut) Episode 9: Fond Farewells: Dailymotion(Uncut) | Polsy(Uncut) (Due to Youtube being a butt, the Cut Commentary for this episode is on Dailymotion.) Episode 10: Puberty is Weird - Youtube(Uncut) | Polsy(Uncut) Crimson Forest Boss Failures: Youtube | Polsy Episode 11: Super Mega Death Switzerland - Youtube(Uncut) | ]Polsy(Uncut) Episode 12: Praise be to Kelolon - Youtube(Uncut) | Polsy(Uncut) Episode 13: Blue Skadoo - Youtube(Uncut) | Polsy(Uncut) Episode 14: Mount Moon - Youtube(Uncut) | Polsy(Uncut) Episode 15: Underwear is Optional - Youtube(Uncut) | Polsy(Uncut) Episode 16-1: Ask Your Doctor About Magic Stroke - Youtube(Uncut) | Polsy(Uncut) Episode 16-2: Subtlety - Youtube(Uncut) | Polsy(Uncut) Episode 17: Editing Failure - Youtube(Uncut) | Polsy(Uncut) Episode 18: Bolshoy Vidalia - Youtube(Uncut) | Polsy(Uncut) Episode 19: Train Daycare - Youtube(Uncut) | Polsy(Uncut) Episode 20: A Place in my Heart of Darkness - Youtube(Uncut) | Polsy(Uncut) Episode 21: Jello Shots - Youtube(Uncut) | Polsy(Uncut) Episode 22: Engage the Ice Monster - Youtube(Uncut) | Polsy(Uncut) Episode 23: Talk About Anything But - Youtube(Uncut) | Polsy(Uncut) Episode 24: Stealing from Refugees - Youtube | Polsy Episode 25: Lizard Teamwork - Youtube(Uncut) | Polsy(Uncut) Episode 26: Money Money Money - Youtube(Uncut) | Polsy(Uncut) Episode 27: Family Matters - Youtube | Polsy  Hanna's Departure - Transcript White Flowers - Transcript A Hero's Return - Transcript In the Mind of a Captive - Transcript A Mother Comes Home - Transcript Little Liar - Transcript The Upstreamers: Transcript They Live in Shells: Transcript The Talkative Mercenary: Transcript Don't Forget Me Now, You Hear?: Transcript Letters from a Weakling: Transcript Evening Bell: Transcript Portraitist of the Dead: Transcript Elegy Island: Transcript Seth's Dream Part 1: Transcript The Hero: Transcript The Bread of Grandma Coto: Transcript So Long, Friend: Transcript The Tragedy of the Butcher General: Transcript The Story of Old Man Greo: Transcript Seth's Dream Part 2: Transcript Bright Rain: Transcript The Ranking of Lives: Transcript  Wohl Highlands The Gun Barrel of Battle The Capital of Uhra Neverending Journey Ipsilon Mountains Battle with the Demonic Beast Battle Conditions A Formidable Enemy Appears! The White Mothership Numara Palace The Capital of Numara Parting Forever Gongoras Plot Kaette Kuru, Kitto (Piano Version) March of War Crisis and Warning Theme of the Pirates Tolsa Village Witches Mansion Kaette Kuru, Kitto (Vocal Version) Space Distortion Dark Saint Escape! Sgt Thud fucked around with this message at 03:19 on Jul 3, 2017 |
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Jul 24, 2015 20:52
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[Reserved]
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Jul 24, 2015 20:52
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 Episode 1: Phallic War Machines - Youtube(Uncut) | Polsy(Uncut) It's the first episode! The audio is a little scratchy despite my efforts, but here we'll be covering the introductions and opening scenes of the game, and introducing our main character and the basic battle mechanics. MUSIC SELECTIONS Wohl Highlands The Gun Barrel of Battle Sgt Thud fucked around with this message at 02:58 on Jul 27, 2015 |
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Jul 24, 2015 20:55
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I never did get to finish this game. It has a certain charm to it that you don't see often in jRPGs in just how blunt the characters can be, and lots of lampshading going on. But it does tend to... wear on the player. The developers really expected the player to have the patience of an immortal in some ways.
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Jul 24, 2015 21:26
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Hmm, this game was made by the same group behind The Last Story. I think I'll check this LP out.
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Jul 25, 2015 05:50
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I've been requesting an LP of this for years, my expectations are high, don't gently caress it up
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Jul 25, 2015 05:54
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Oh man. I have so many opinions on this game, and I'm glad someone is going through the trouble of LPing it. I do really like the start of this game from a gameplay perspective, because it teaches you three important concepts that wouldn't come through in basic tutorials: 1. Some bosses will have gimmicks to them. 2. There is terrain in the game that can damage you. 3. You can interact with the terrain in various ways. And you can actually die in that battle with the phallic mech, but you get auto-resurrected anyway. You literally can't lose it.
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Jul 25, 2015 06:44
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Mraagvpeine posted:Hmm, this game was made by the same group behind The Last Story. I think I'll check this LP out. Yeah, but is there fashion?
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Jul 25, 2015 07:40
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Ometeotl posted:Yeah, but is there fashion? Sorry, no. I can't put Kaim in a fleshbutt pair of pants. The incredibly silly default designs will have to do. Dr. Snark posted:And you can actually die in that battle with the phallic mech, but you get auto-resurrected anyway. You literally can't lose it. See I didn't know that because I never tested it. I always just popped a heal if I was worried. JT Jag posted:I've been requesting an LP of this for years, my expectations are high, don't gently caress it up Oh god the pressure! I'll do my best, sir!
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Jul 25, 2015 16:36
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Happy to finally see an LP of this. Not sure if exclusivly video is a great idea but we'll see how it works out. The start is going to be slow though. This game starts you off with an opening to get you pumped, then a bossfight, then a tutorial section. And then boom, an hour of cutscenes, dialogue and walking around straight to the gut.
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Jul 25, 2015 16:40
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Man, good luck to you Thud; I couldn't finish this when I gave it my last try. The difficulty didn't wear me out, (meta-game spoiler)the Thousand Years of Dreams did  .
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Jul 25, 2015 17:02
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I've added these to the first update post as well, now that I've got the OST and can post the tracks of importance. From the first update we have the area theme of the tutorial region, and the standard battle theme. Have a listen! Wohl Highlands The Gun Barrel of Battle The second episode will probably go up tomorrow, and marks the last episode in which Matthias has microphone issues. He got a better mic afterwards and his sound quality stops sounding like static/a tin can. Thank you for bearing with us as we work out the kinks, most of us are new to this recording thing.
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Jul 27, 2015 02:58
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I really tried to like this game, but couldn't really get into it. I also found the character designs to be incredibly ugly. But as a few others said, this game does have a certain charm to it, so I'm interested to see what I've missed.
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Jul 27, 2015 19:03
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Ok so here's the deal. Our first audio recording corrupted and was missing a huge chunk. Then we tried to redo it and the recorder crashed. Then we did it a third time and Matthias's microphone cord snagged and started shorting, so he sounds likes a tin man. I did my best to make things audible and intelligible but it kinda caused some audio issues for the rest of us, so I did my best to find a balance. HOWEVER, right after this he got a replacement microphone and our audio for everything past this point is significantly better. I didn't want to make them re-record this episode a 4th time, considering it's mostly just cutscenes anyway, so apologies. I'll be doing episode 3 a bit faster than usual to make up for it and power us through the slow beginning of the game. Thank you all again for bearing with us as we find our stride here. That said, here's episode 2. We enter the capital city, see some nice scenery, learn how much stuff is just hidden in trash cans, and meet some old political guys talking about big sticks.  Episode 2: Wrinkly Old Neck - Youtube(Uncut) | Polsy(Uncut) Musical Selections The Capital of Uhra Sgt Thud fucked around with this message at 07:26 on Jul 28, 2015 |
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Jul 27, 2015 19:16
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Also thought of playing this game, thanks for lping it.
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Jul 27, 2015 19:42
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Audio Issues Sorted: Check! Allergies: Check! The Last of Uhra for a while: Check! Here's Episode 3! We get our plot and some backstory, meet our beginning party, and remember our families.  Episode 3: Forty-Five Minutes - Youtube(Uncut) | Polsy(Uncut) Sgt Thud fucked around with this message at 07:22 on Jul 30, 2015 |
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Jul 30, 2015 00:55
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JT Jag posted:I've been requesting an LP of this for years, my expectations are high, don't gently caress it up
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Jul 30, 2015 05:37
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Jansen is a cool dude. They give him a lot of great lines.
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Jul 30, 2015 08:35
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I'm glad you're doing this playthrough, I've always wanted to play this game but could never find it (If I did it was too much money and too low quality everything else) Edit: Only gripe is the audio quality of everyone commentating. Zain fucked around with this message at 15:55 on Aug 1, 2015 |
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Aug 1, 2015 15:21
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We found a few of Kaim's dreams during episode 3, so I'll be starting to post them periodically as well. I'll be including both a link to a video as they appear in-game, as well as the transcript if you'd prefer to simply read them. Hanna's Departure - Youtube | Polsy | Transcript Zain posted:I'm glad you're doing this playthrough, I've always wanted to play this game but could never find it (If I did it was too much money and too low quality everything else) Yeah I know. We're trying to get the quality to work, but what sounded good while doing the recording hasn't always come out the way we thought. I'm trying my best to clean it up, and I think it's getting better each time. Such is the life of working with people who have never had themselves recorded till now, I guess. We're not professionals, and we don't own several-hundred-dollar recording equipment like the superstars. Sorry, I'm trying my best.
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Aug 1, 2015 17:22
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I don't cry easy. A lot of things where, watching something, people say it drove them to tears, I didn't get close to feeling like that at all. But the Thousand Years of Dreams. There's so many of them that, I dunno, find a way to completely bypass my psychological defenses. Even ones I've seen before can be devastating over and over again.
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Aug 1, 2015 18:56
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The first dream story was sad, and I fear that the worst has yet to come.
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Aug 1, 2015 21:36
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Few things I wanna say. I actually am really surprised about how great the voice acting is in this game. It really feels, more than most games, like these are actual characters. And the VA's aren't just "reading from a script". Also WTF! Seriously!?! Lost Odyssey don't play with my emotions like this. I need some build up before you put up this tear jerker of a story.
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Aug 1, 2015 23:00
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I'd say a lot of the emotional impact comes from the subject matter. Lost Odyssey, especially the Thousand Years of Dreams, heavily examines themes of mortality and loneliness that are difficult for humans to handle on a fundamental level.
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Aug 1, 2015 23:04
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The writing looks like some sort of Indic script, like Devangari or something --- from my POV as someone who only knows its rough shape, anyway.
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Aug 2, 2015 01:56
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Zain posted:Few things I wanna say. I actually am really surprised about how great the voice acting is in this game. It really feels, more than most games, like these are actual characters. And the VA's aren't just "reading from a script". It's worth noting that the dub of this game was done first, actually. That may be part of why everyone sounds so natural.
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Aug 2, 2015 02:34
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I appreciate that this game has text sized for a normal human being.
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Aug 2, 2015 04:34
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Sgt Thud posted:It's worth noting that the dub of this game was done first, actually. That may be part of why everyone sounds so natural. Please tell me Japanese players found the VA work wooden and dry. Some reciprocation for FFX is overdue.
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Aug 2, 2015 06:27
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Oh man, my 360 died right after I got LO so I never got to play much. (I've been hoping it will make it to PC still) This brings back some memories, I never got very far so I'm excited to see how things carry on. For all it borrows from other games it manages to have a pretty unique feel. The Thousand Years of Dreams are great and helped with that.Rigged Death Trap posted:Please tell me Japanese players found the VA work wooden and dry. Its gotten to the level that, when a person in a game talks like a real person, I am genuinely surprised.
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Aug 2, 2015 09:23
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Kaim... has a hard life. He needs time to rest. He won't be allowed to.
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Aug 2, 2015 10:00
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Rigged Death Trap posted:Please tell me Japanese players found the VA work wooden and dry. From what I can gather, the English dub was generally considered the better one. Jansen in particular is boring in Japanese by comparison. vvvv: His actor is credited as one Michael McGaharn. You may know him as the voice of Knuckles the Echidna in Sonic Adventure 1 and 2. He's not done anything since Lost Odyssey though. Sgt Thud fucked around with this message at 18:47 on Aug 2, 2015 |
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Aug 2, 2015 12:39
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I don't know who Jansen's voice actor is, but however much they paid him they didn't pay him enough. He could have easily been a really annoying character but his VA is just fantastic. And the Thousand Years of Dreams are finally here! I ended up really liking those (which surprised me) because not only are they legitimately well-written stories on the mortality of humans, they also characterize Kaim in ways that the main story doesn't focus on. I might come back to that later when a few more stories are added.
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Aug 2, 2015 16:55
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Hey, a Lost Odyssey LP! I think there were a couple of other attempts but those were screenshot--so this one may have a better chance at finishing. I remember reasonably enjoying playing this game when it originally came out--it has an absolute metric ton of subquests, some of which are not as interesting as others (but I'll leave that discussion for when we come to it so as not to spoil). The one thing i do remember very well is that it shipped on 4 DVDs but in a 3 DVD case, so the last one was packaged in a paper sleeve and just thrown in the case. This had the consequence that many copies had the fourth DVD scratched to the point of it not working or being very flaky and taking even longer to load the stuff than the first three (and let me tell you, loading times in this game are something else). I did manage to go through the game and most of the subquests, but it was always touch and go with that last disc! Rember this was in the days BEFORE HD installs were possible on 360! Another thing that I remember is that this game is very old school regarding how many save points you get! Not quite as bad as FF3, but not too far from that either! Anyway, good luck and looking forward to the rest of the videos. P.S. I definitely agree with you guys on at least one thing: this is a Final Fantasy game in everything but the name. I mean, seriously Angel Plume vs. Phoenix Down? They aren't even TRYING to hide it!
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Aug 3, 2015 19:32
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Man, remember back in the day when people would say 'Don't do a video LP of JRPGs' ? Boy how the times change. I am already into this LP and having multiple people around is my favorite type of LP to listen to.
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Aug 3, 2015 20:38
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RareAcumen posted:Man, remember back in the day when people would say 'Don't do a video LP of JRPGs' ? Boy how the times change. There's some exception to that rule. Like some of the SNES era RPGs and even some PS1 ones are not that great to LP. Say if someone wanted to do a VLP of the Breath of Fire series. That'd be kind of a mess without some sort of interaction - so a group or what have you.
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Aug 3, 2015 21:26
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This is really good so far. I appreciate that, although Lost Odyssey is a game with some pretty big flaws and hiccups, you're not just ripping into every aspect of it like you usually see in group-commentated LP's, especially of JRPG's. It's refreshing and fun to listen to! I dig the optimism. I never finished this game but remember enjoying what I did play, I'm really looking forward to seeing the rest.
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Aug 4, 2015 21:00
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OddObserver posted:The writing looks like some sort of Indic script, like Devangari or something --- from my POV as someone who only knows its rough shape, anyway. It certainly is Devanagari, but as far as I can tell it's just gibberish - the prominent text at the beginning doesn't seem to read as anything in English or Hindi.
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Aug 5, 2015 18:23
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vdate posted:It certainly is Devanagari, but as far as I can tell it's just gibberish - the prominent text at the beginning doesn't seem to read as anything in English or Hindi. From what I recall different places in the game use different "non-latin" alphabets, so I am pretty sure we'll soon run into Tamil and others. ivantod fucked around with this message at 21:30 on Aug 5, 2015 |
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Aug 5, 2015 21:27
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Alright, time to actually get out of the town for once and do some stuff. Today we climb a mountain, complain about complaining, and throw people's soup. Episode 4: Grilgans Island - Youtube(Uncut) | Polsy(Uncut) Music Selections Ipsilon Mountains Battle with the Demonic Beast Sgt Thud fucked around with this message at 16:39 on Aug 6, 2015 |
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Aug 6, 2015 00:50
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I wonder how many people quit the game after reaching this boss.
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Aug 6, 2015 02:16
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