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  Metroid Prime 2 Echoes. This game came out in 2004 as the sequel to the critically acclaimed Metroid Prime. It was bigger, had a new planet to explore, new alien races and an active plot thread instead of the mostly hidden backstory of the first game. But is it a better game that its predecessor? Well, opinions are divided. The game isn't as isolated as the first Prime game, opting for some actual cutscenes with dialogue. It also has a lot more "fetch-questing" than the previous game, a point that people already disliked about Prime. It also has a new system for your beam weapons and probably a little more backtracking than necessary. On the positive side, the environments are well-designed and beautiful, the soundtrack is lovely, there are brand new upgrades some of which are unique to this entry, and overall it still retains the explorational feel that makes Metroid the series so many love.  I like this game. Maybe not as much as I do with Prime 1 but I still like it. As I mentioned, it's a bit divisive overall but I think that despite its flaws it is still a Metroid game through and through. Hopefully I'll be able to make a case for this over the course of the LP. Faerie Fortune returns to help me tackle the game. Our format remains the same as the first LP: It will be a very casual but skilled playthrough of the game as we talk about a whole variety of topics that are only sometimes related to what we're doing. We hope you'll There will not be a sequence-break run of this game like I did with Prime 1. This game doesn't lend itself to breaking as much as the first game does. There are a few major tricks but I've never practiced them so I'm just planning the one main run. This time, we're playing the Metroid Prime Trilogy version of the games. It was a toss-up between the ease of recording through Dolphin or being able to use motion controls. Since I don't have to base my playthrough on a decision to sequence break the game, I figured I'd go ahead and use Trilogy. Plus, a few points and items in the game are a lot more fun with the Trilogy version of the game. The spoiler policy remains the same as it was for Prime 1. Feel free to discuss anything we've seen up to wherever we've recorded, but keep spoilers about anything we haven't seen or things about Prime 3 in black bars. Oh and while we're talking spoiler policy, let's extend the list of games to not talk about to include The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask because Fae's just started her blind LP of the game. Let's not spoil it for her! Seriously.                                             Campaign Posters: Some people drew political campaign posters for a mini-contest we held. FeyerbrandX:  Bruceski:  FeyerbrandX again:  Gimbal lock (contest winner) :  90s Cringe Rock: "  & paint, and I think I got the wrong LP?" Kurieg: "They were MY shoes!  " Rigged Death Trap:  FeyerbrandX:  "For those of you who don't do Golf With Friends, this is Fae's brain."  Chaltab: "Samus Aran as The Little Mermaid Suit"  Aithon: "Don't worry, Fae. Even Ship-chan sometimes gets a fever and has to take a break."  GhostBoy: "I regret nothing!  " Faerie Fortune: quote:Before the recording session: Tyty: "The enemy I can't power bomb"  "Grenchlers"  "The crappy puzzle for the item"  Ideas for a Metroid Prime Musical: Carbon dioxide posted:So uh, somehow I got into a discussion which ended with "The Phazon of the Opera is here... inside my Prime". Aithon posted:SAMUS: Shei-kun posted:Stop you? ThaGhettoJew posted:Andrew Lloyd Webber is awful. If it's gotta be musicals do some Sondheim or Gilbert & Sullivan instead. WilliamAnderson posted:I'd probably prefer "A Chozo Tar" but I am terrible at rhyming. ThaGhettoJew posted:Hmm... Bruceski posted:I am the very model of a Federation hunter gal Rabbi Raccoon posted:Here's to the metroids who munch Carbon dioxide posted:Pirate 1: It never gets old, huh? Ryushikaze posted:
FPzero (Me): "I can't believe Tyty's loving dead." 
FPzero fucked around with this message at 23:47 on Mar 30, 2017 |
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Nov 29, 2015 00:54
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A Guided Tour of Tallon IV - Let's Play Metroid Prime  Metroid Prime was released on the Nintendo Gamecube back in November 2002, 13 years ago. It was created by Retro Studios, one of Nintendo's second party developers. It was the first game in the Metroid series since 1994's Super Metroid on the SNES. Many fans were excited for the series return but some were put off by the transition from the 2D sidescrolling of Super Metroid to the 1st person of Metroid Prime. Thankfully, the 1st person perspective turned out to be a good thing for most players and the series was fully revitalized. Two direct sequels to this game were released on the Gamecube and Wii before Retro went on to tackle revitalizing the Donkey Kong Country series. The game retains the isolated exploration that so many fell in love with in previous entries. The world has plenty of backstory to tell but only if you go looking for it. It's just you, a host of enemies and the remnants of an ancient civilization standing in your way of discovering what's really going on on the planet Tallon IV.  Metroid Prime is straight up my favorite game of all time. I love just about everything this game has to offer. It's not a perfect game, but it's pretty close. I've been toying with doing an LP of the game for years now but I've never wanted to do it solo commentary. I was talking about it with my friend Faerie Fortune and was telling her that if I ever did an LP I'd like to have someone along that didn't know anything about the game so I could play it and show them why I love the game so much. As it turns out, she fit my criteria perfectly and so we'll be tackling this LP together. I've played the game more times than I can count. I've done normal runs, sequence break runs and "speedruns" (they're not actual speedrun quality, just me playing as fast as I can). For this LP however, I'm planning to just play the game really casually and just show off as much as I can. It will be fairly relaxed as we explore the planet and discover its secrets. In a way, I'm playing to show it off to her and just happen to be recording at the same time. Later, after the main run is complete, I'm planning to play through a second time but this time I'll be using my full bag of sequence breaking tricks to get pretty much every single item out of its intended order. This will be a much faster run because I won't be stopping every few minutes to show Fae some piece of architecture I like for the 40th time. About spoilers: This game is 13 years old but I'd like it if we discuss later content in spoiler bars please until the main run is complete. Fae hasn't seen the game before at all and she's really enjoying discovering what the game has to offer as we play. Once we're on the sequence breaking run, there's no need for the bars. Additionally, while no plans for this have been made, depending on how this LP goes Fae and I might want to LP the other two Prime games so I'd ask that we don't talk about 2 or 3 in detail at all in this thread.                                                 Gyre: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGJtA2N8qx8 Faerie Fortune: "Hey FP you can shut up now I finally did it"  Phazon-Chan's delivery was successful  Never let Fae and Tyty talk  FeyerbrandX: "I think you should shake the ball again."  Samus accessorizes with one of Fae's scarves  Tyty: Where does a Metroid wear its shoes? On its head of course  Chips Challenged: Space Pirates are bad at technology  "Ya'll missed out on a Phazon Mines specialty."  Bruceski: "Poor Hive Mecha, he's so lonely. He threw you a party and everything." 
FPzero fucked around with this message at 06:02 on Apr 4, 2017 |
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Nov 29, 2015 00:54
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FPzero posted:Once we're on the sequence breaking run, there's no need for the bars. Well that answers the question of what version you're playing. I still remember the first time I played this. It was the first time I needed to have the brightness function on my TV off practically 0. Tried smashing my face around everything in the escape sequence. I think I actually made it through somehow.
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Nov 29, 2015 03:04
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I started this sub-series with 3 because it was for Wii and I had a PS2 instead when the GameCube was around, (I know it can play GameCube games but Australia's only  retro game store is an overpriced shithole I refuse to patronise) and while I did buy Trilogy I never got around to playing it, so combined with my interest in speedruns and glitches this LP should be a real treat. 
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Nov 29, 2015 07:04
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Metroid Prime has been high up on my list of favorite games ever since it was released and I've played it though a number of times, but I don't think I've stopped to admire the architecture often enough. I certainly didn't remember the asteroids being breakable either.
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Nov 29, 2015 07:50
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Metroid Prime is such a pretty game. It's definitely one of my favorites. I'm looking forward to this.
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Nov 29, 2015 08:50
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This is interesting to me, because I've seen speedruns of Metroid Prime and I know the gist of what happens, but I don't think I've ever sat down and watched it all the way through. At least not with someone explaining things to me as they go. LPs are always better when the person clearly loves the game.
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Nov 29, 2015 15:06
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Oh shi, Metroid Prime. Yeah I'm on board, definitely, and I'll be on board if you keep going with the following games. Really digging how you're going about it too. I'm looking forward to the rest! Something I like to say in regards to LPs, is that you don't know your favorite game half as well as you think you do until you've seen someone else play it. So this is a great opportunity for sure.
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Nov 29, 2015 18:10
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Oh this is gonna be good. I'm already impatient for the next update. I had no idea you could shoot the asteroids either  And yes, Ridley did appear in Super Metroid. He was actually the first enemy you fight in the game! (And was also a boss toward the end.)
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Nov 30, 2015 05:32
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Play pinball with Metroid? Nintendo should make a game. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metroid_Prime_Pinball
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Nov 30, 2015 07:18
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I always wanted to play this game, but it was when Nintendo was in that "more buttons = more fun" phase and could never get the hang of this game. I'll be watching this with interest.
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Dec 1, 2015 16:52
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Well I'm glad people are enjoying the LP so far. We're certainly having fun making it. We start exploring the planet. The real game starts here. This episode still has framerate issues but it's the last one with them. I'll put the bonus episode up in a couple of days and then after that numbered episodes will continue going up twice a week.
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Dec 1, 2015 17:11
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I just want to say that I'm catching up on the Pikmin LP and that was fantastic timing because I just reached the post where you talk about Frog Nuggets.  It's kind of odd that you get missiles before even the Morph Ball, at least going off the original Metroid and Super, but I suppose the Morph Ball has somewhat of a more significant effect in 3D.
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Dec 1, 2015 17:45
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One thing I really like about Prime is the way it builds an atmosphere so well. The little tutorial level is a neat little horror/mystery segment where you're investigating a derelict vessel trying to find out what happened and fighting off the remnants of its mortally wounded crew. And then when you finish the tutorial the game dumps you in that little clearing with lots of rain and water features to do the water on visor effects, lots of trees and growing life, all those pretty blue glowing things, and the pretty meandering soundtrack above it. The whole thing makes you feel like you're on this big, beautiful planet and now you're just going to go off and explore it.
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Dec 1, 2015 21:36
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How speed runny are we talking? Will it be a low%/normal% run? I haven't really been anywhere near doing Prime in anything resembling fast, but was able to do Super Metroid faster than it was expected to be done.
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Dec 1, 2015 23:31
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I probably should have clarified a bit better in the video but I think we got distracted. I shouldn't have said speedrun as much as I should have said sequence breaking. It'll be a faster run but not a speedrun by far. My best time is 2 hours 30 minutes ingame time and the World Record is somewhere just under 1 hour. The second run will be an exploration in how many ways you can get items out of their intended order. I expect it will probably take about half the time the main run does, maybe less.
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Dec 2, 2015 00:53
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Yiisssssss, Prime 1 is the poo poo. I'll take any LP to just sit back and gush on this game. Looking foward to more.
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Dec 2, 2015 02:13
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Hey FP, it's DD. Glad to see you finally start the LP you've been wanting to do. Only complaint, maybe make the video's public for easier phone watching? 
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Dec 2, 2015 03:06
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The little touches in video games are amazing. Like if they didn't have rain drops plinking off of Samus' arm, most people wouldn't care. The fact that they bothered is disproportionately worth SO much to me though. Man, War Wasps are terrifying even in the game. I have a complete phobia of bees.
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Dec 2, 2015 04:05
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SystemLogoff posted:Hey FP, it's DD. Glad to see you finally start the LP you've been wanting to do. I'm happy to be doing it too. I've been wanting to do this game for years. I forget they were set unlisted so I went ahead and made them public. I have my defaults set to unlisted because I've been uploading footage for my Danganronpa LP at the same time and I'm purposefully keeping those unlisted. I'll make all future episodes of this listed publicly as well.
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Dec 2, 2015 04:26
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Metroid Prime is a very very pretty game that does some really neat things. Retro Studio at the time was a bunch of tech wizards who are the only people that really figured out the little purple lunchbox. The water droplets when you look up in the rain is still really impressive looking to me. These really subtle effects are actually missing from the Wii Prime Triology iirc.
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Dec 2, 2015 21:34
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I believe what's missing from the Trilogy version are mainly some beam-related particle effects because of the changes they made to aiming: they were having trouble rendering the effects in the correct spot since the cannon arm now moves based on the Wiimote. I don't think it was confirmed by anyone official, but it makes sense. Apparently some kind of water rippling effects are missing too, but stuff like droplets on the visor are still there.
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Dec 3, 2015 05:07
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I'm glad faerie fortune comes from the same school of thought where you call all video game characters by the title of their game.
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Dec 3, 2015 05:16
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If I remember right, I believe the beam effects are essentially 2D sprites that are overlaid on top of the arm cannon and ever so slightly scaled and stretched to match the cannon movements. Since the cannon in Prime 1 doesn't really move that much even when manual aiming with R, the scaling wasn't very noticeable. With the free cannon movement of the Trilogy version however, it probably wasn't possible to save the effects without making them into full 3D models like Prime 2 and 3 did. That said, I don't know why they didn't just do that, nor why the effects like water splashes and ripples were removed.
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Dec 3, 2015 05:18
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God I loved the Metroid Prime series so much. I spent a bunch of time playing around with the cannon and environments to look at all the neat effects. I think my favorite visor effect is from Metroid Prime 2, though.
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Dec 3, 2015 10:21
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The first Bonus episode. Its a rerecord of episodes 1 and 2 in half the time with a stable framerate and nonsense commentary. ...Except we're not out of the Technical Difficulties Woods yet! I somehow forgot to record game audio so enjoy a bunch of music dubbed in over where the game's soundtrack would be. Songs used: 0:23 So It Begins... - Vig - https://youtu.be/cqWqHnz8w5A 2:17 Metal Fatigue - Children of the Monkey Machine - https://youtu.be/uJH-qY_bJbE 3:09 Tension (Power Cut) - Metroid Prime 3 - https://youtu.be/FIkg13bR05Y 5:48 Incoming Kraid - Mozzaratti - https://youtu.be/bu7wjWXWsVc 6:44 Escape - Metroid Prime 2 - https://youtu.be/Unkrc1saV2A 10:56 Nemesis - HaunterShadow - https://youtu.be/MlWgp-1gc5A 11:48 Unnamed Frontier - Pyro Paper Planes feat. VikingGuitar - https://youtu.be/YvfE0gPpUeY 13:16 Item Room/Item Acquisition Fanfare - Zack Parrish - https://youtu.be/2nUzNfUk_KQ 13:31, 17:13 Dead Brinstar - HaunterShadow - https://youtu.be/O6WemqBRObk 15:38 Battle with Miniboss - Metroid Prime 2 - https://youtu.be/hh_PlMv8Nlc 17:06 Item Acquisition Fanfare - Stephen Wells - https://youtu.be/RFIb-kusG5A
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Dec 3, 2015 16:55
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This is a total tangent (I'm still in the middle of watching the video), but the escape theme disappoints me a little. I love the melody, but it skips half or more of the series (including my personal favourite, Super) and of the actual renditions of the themes, which are only in half or less of the series, one is 8 bit (not intrinsically bad but I'd love to hear a modern rendition) and the rendition from Prime 2 - I dunno, I can't put my finger on it but I'm not a fan. (Bracketed clauses, rendition!) E: I had another edit calling it "breathy" but that was a moronic description written from memory of it playing five minutes earlier. I am way too tired to accurately describe what I mean but the style isn't great for what's supposed to be an alarming, in-your-face theme. Since I've gone and written so many  about this one piece of music I'll try and make it useful by pointing out that the YouTube link for the escape theme has questionable spoilers about Prime 2 in the title.
AlphaKretin fucked around with this message at 17:32 on Dec 3, 2015 |
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Dec 3, 2015 17:15
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I found a Metroid bento, but it's spoilery so these will have to do for now. 
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Dec 3, 2015 17:52
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Your randomness is why we love you Faerie
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Dec 3, 2015 18:12
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As for an organic place to bring up Bento boxes, I remember someone describing the cherry blossom area of Brinstar being a place Samus would kick back and have some green tea. If that isn't Bento Box material I don't know what is.
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Dec 3, 2015 23:51
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Those bento look fantastic. The pikmin are adorable carrying that fruit. Botany is pretty cool but alien botany is cooler.
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Dec 5, 2015 17:10
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In terms of missing intro items, you also have the There are a couple of areas I can imagine Fae was stuck on after getting the Morph Ball in Super. The two rows of breakable blocks where the entrance to Kraid was in Metroid 1 can be tricky, and the old escape shaft is some frustratingly unforgiving platforming.
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Dec 6, 2015 15:31
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Ooooooh I was wondering where Drewseph got the 3 bomb idea for Super Metroid Redesign. Seriously, this game is so pretty. Almost makes me wanna buy a GameCube. You're doing a great job FPZero, keep it up!
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Dec 6, 2015 16:47
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Listening to Faerie Fortune describe things makes me wish I could draw anything resembling Samus, because I want to draw her in her Power Suit with a Goron Tunic now.
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Dec 7, 2015 08:05
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Shei-kun posted:Listening to Faerie Fortune describe things makes me wish I could draw anything resembling Samus, because I want to draw her in her Power Suit with a Goron Tunic now. Or Link with gigantic shoulders.
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Dec 7, 2015 08:08
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It really sounds like something from an Awkward Zombie comic.
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Dec 7, 2015 08:24
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Shei-kun posted:Listening to Faerie Fortune describe things makes me wish I could draw anything resembling Samus, because I want to draw her in her Power Suit with a Goron Tunic now. Fun fact about me describing things actually, I've never played a Fire Emblem game so FP gave me a sprite sheet for a bunch of FE6 (I think?) characters and had me describe them. It was about an hour of me describing such memorable characters as Spud, Nigel Thornberry, Red Goku, Deputy King and Cotton Candy Elemental and it was a really really fun time.
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Dec 8, 2015 10:52
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Faerie Fortune posted:Fun fact about me describing things actually, I've never played a Fire Emblem game so FP gave me a sprite sheet for a bunch of FE6 (I think?) characters and had me describe them. It was about an hour of me describing such memorable characters as Spud, Nigel Thornberry, Red Goku, Deputy King and Cotton Candy Elemental and it was a really really fun time. FP is currently ROM hacking FE 7 (in addition to doing two LPs of different formats, holy poo poo!), so while I don't mean to presume that would be my guess. I'd love to see a side by side of the sprites and your names for them.  E: i hope spud turns out to be one of the useless ones AlphaKretin fucked around with this message at 12:04 on Dec 8, 2015 |
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Dec 8, 2015 10:56
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It was FE7 that we did because 6 has less good portraits and way more repeats. If I remember right, Eliwood became Red Goku, Hector was Blue Goku, Dorcas was Spud, and Florina was the Cotton Candy Elemental. Nigel Thornberry was some boss and I don't remember who Deputy King was. Sadly there's no recorded audio of it or anything so putting names to portraits wouldn't be possible right now. I might put all of Awful Emblem's portraits on a sheet and give them to her some time. Also I am bad about taking on many projects at once, yes. ----- We fight a boss and explore cool vaults.
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Dec 8, 2015 16:56
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Fun fact: Bomb slots don't need you to put the bomb actually in the slot. They check if a bomb goes off nearby if the morph ball is inside. So if you watch speed runners playing this game you'll often see them actually drop the bomb off a little bit early, outside of the bomb slot, so that the bomb goes off faster/switch is activated sooner. Likewise, Flaahgrah's bomb slot weakpoints are actually active at all times, you just can't get through the channels. Speed runners will do some crazy jump to just set the morph ball right next to the bomb slot and drop bombs Flahgraah's bomb slots just check for nearby detonations and don't need Samus to slot into them. Also, there's later pirate lore about the pirates trying to recreate Samus's morph ball. It...does not go well. It's a mystery even in-game too. Alkydere fucked around with this message at 17:54 on Dec 8, 2015 |
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Dec 8, 2015 17:50
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