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Caphi posted:tl;dr: The gameplay is what killed me. If an opportunity comes to do the writing part, shoot me a line. I'll think about it if I can get recording working; I've never been able to get that PC plugin working on my PSP. It's either that or restart my SRW3 LP and god knows I'd enjoy playing the Z series way more.
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May 14, 2013 07:16
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If nothing else, you could just do a translation guide on Gamefaqs or something.
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May 14, 2013 07:19
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Caphi posted:tl;dr: The gameplay is what killed me. If an opportunity comes to do the writing part, shoot me a line. If it's gameplay images you need, I could probably take care of that issue, too; it might be a bit slow since I'm still focusing on W, though (currently at mission 48, so it shouldn't take very long to wrap things up). I can connect my PSP to my notebook but I'd need the rundown on how to take pictures or movies either with Remotejoy or a Capture Device (do you use any, Caphi?). Brunom1 fucked around with this message at 19:23 on May 14, 2013 |
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May 14, 2013 11:24
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Dang.  SRWs are just really hard to LP, though your reason is pretty different then most.  I've been thinking about ways of LPing SRWZ, actually. But the problem is that only Rand's route has any translation summary on it. So yeah, I'm making a collab offer.
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May 14, 2013 18:06
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Aw man  I'm sad to see this one go, since when playing any SRW game I can never get past the first few missions before losing interest since I don't really like the gameplay. I really would have liked to see how this game goes on. On the other hand, I can completely understand why you would drop this. I once started a translation project on my own, and lost the will to continue about halfway through; if other people didn't come by to help I would have completely dropped the project, and even though it only took about ten months to finish it I was feeling burned out by the end. I can only imagine what it would mean to keep going on something you don't really want to do for more than a year. Thanks for playing this far, and best of luck for everything you decide to do in the future 
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May 14, 2013 18:47
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Caphi posted:Someone in one of the threads once threw out the idea of collaboration. If it ever happens, I'm still up for doing the translation; I know it would be the majority of the work on an SRW by many measures, but it's the part I actually enjoyed. If there's one part I can accuse of actually wearing down my soul, I think it was the actual gameplay, doing it and recording it and sometimes doing it over again; this is pretty tedious even when it's being skipped en masse (and I know that resentment was bleeding into the commentary). On the other hand, the quest of telling the story and taking even a distant shot at conveying the characters is probably what kept me going this long. The reactions to people like Watta, Setsuna, Lockon, and Esther are what will bring bittersweet tears to my eyes, and all the crazy upcoming gags and plot twists will be my regrets. You could always just, y'know, reduce the whole screenshots of mooks with 0 hp segment to just a single sentence along the lines of 'poo poo blows up' or 'even more poo poo blows up' with occasional notes on unit stats and attack videos. I'm pretty sure noone here would miss the gameplay segments, and its not like Z2's gameplay is high strategy or anything more strenuous than 'attack everything then watch everything suicide themselves into Chirico, Kallen, Amuro, Setsuna or your super robots on the enemy turn'. What I'm trying to say here is you could just leave out the gameplay and not many people would actually notice. Alternately, you could just upload the gameplay videos to Youtube or something and turn this into a hybrid LP. GilliamYaeger fucked around with this message at 22:42 on May 14, 2013 |
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May 14, 2013 22:25
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GilliamYaeger posted:You could always just, y'know, reduce the whole screenshots of mooks with 0 hp segment to just a single sentence along the lines of 'poo poo blows up' or 'even more poo poo blows up' with occasional notes on unit stats and attack videos. I'm pretty sure noone here would miss the gameplay segments, and its not like Z2's gameplay is high strategy or anything more strenuous than 'attack everything then watch everything suicide themselves into Chirico, Kallen, Amuro, Setsuna or your super robots on the enemy turn'. Man, if I knew I could actually get away with just the bookends, a few events, videos, and maybe some detail on a boss fight, I'd probably do it. Like, if you're saying I could literally go "two turns pass, the enemies all die, oh no, more enemies" I would do it and possibly focus more on writing (and the data size of each update would likely go down as well). All I'd need to know is that no one will mind, because like I said, I am primarily here to write the story. That said, I'm also a bit interested in DrPepper's Z idea, and wondering how to arrange that. I still have to figure out my video recording problem anyway. Since I'm here, and Brunom was interested in how I have my PSP set up (I'm not sure if that was only for Z2 alone, because I'm not actually trying to demand anyone play for me - on the contrary, I'm throwing out my card as a translator), it's just a PSP plugged in to a PC with RemoteJoy Lite between them. The program does screenshots and videos itself, and everything else is cheap manual post-processing (cutting out the facesquares and so on), which is possibly inefficient, but I still think I've come far since the LP started so it's only going to get better. Obviously the writing is all original, more or less, and to spoil myself I use this wiki, mostly to keep myself abreast of secrets, oncoming developments, and who has precombat lines so I know who to deploy.
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May 14, 2013 22:48
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I personally wouldn't care if you skipped the gameplay stuff when it comes to Z2. I'm here for the story-- MNeidengard's one-and-a-half steps removed summaries are a step too far removed for me, I can't stand them. This is much more interesting. You could also try to get in contact with the group working on a translation patch for the Z2 games and see if they need any help. I think they've already got one guy working on the story but I could be wrong.
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May 14, 2013 22:57
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Well, I had thought of it as me recording a session, and then you could watch and do your storytelling translating/summarizing. Then I could write up the game-play parts we could do a sort of dual commentary that I've seen some LPs do. Cause I really like showing off the gameplay parts of the games with the LP, but presenting the story saps my will to live. 
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May 14, 2013 22:59
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Caphi posted:Man, if I knew I could actually get away with just the bookends, a few events, videos, and maybe some detail on a boss fight, I'd probably do it. Like, if you're saying I could literally go "two turns pass, the enemies all die, oh no, more enemies" I would do it and possibly focus more on writing (and the data size of each update would likely go down as well). All I'd need to know is that no one will mind, because like I said, I am primarily here to write the story. That said, I'm also a bit interested in DrPepper's Z idea, and wondering how to arrange that. I still have to figure out my video recording problem anyway.
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May 14, 2013 23:19
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Endorph posted:I don't think anyone is here for the riveting gameplay of SRW. I mean, I have fun with it, but the gameplay's mostly an excuse to watch animations. This is admittedly the main reason I play the games. I've come to understand more Japanese and now fumble through the plots, but essentially it's a big theatre for me in the end.
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May 15, 2013 00:05
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Endorph posted:I don't think anyone is here for the riveting gameplay of SRW. I mean, I have fun with it, but the gameplay's mostly an excuse to watch animations. Yeah, echoing this. If you don't like to do gameplay sumaries or take ~300 images each update something like "these guys all attack Kouji. There ware no survivors" would probably be perfectly fun.
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May 15, 2013 00:48
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Around the midgame most SRWs tend to hit that point where the new shows and the fancy animations stop being fresh and the gameplay starts to break apart before collapsing into a quivering mess by the late game. I honestly was this close to starting a Z2.1 run giving a try to some of the weaker units, odder pilot assignments, and assorted gimmicks that tend to make the SRW midgame more palatable to play/watch. I'd be okay switching gears a little to help you catch the more interesting lines and plot bits along with showing off gameplay quirks. I don't know if a year from now on I will still be up for this, but sounds like you've got enough people willing to help out that rotating gameplay assistants is a possibility.
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May 15, 2013 01:06
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I'm guessing most of the people here have either played or are playing Z2 along with the LP. At least for me, I wouldn't have an issue if you want to start snipping through repetitive battle scenes - do as much as you need to keep things at a good size for you. Show off what you think is interesting and summarize the rest; I've started doing that on W a few months ago, editing out numerous fights against the same mooks and just going "X number of Y enemies attacked Kouji and died/were wounded". On the topic of image capture that could assist the LP, I did manage to install Remotejoy Lite on my PSP but a few issues presented themselves: I can't record audio and the quality seems a bit subpar. Are you using a cable to connect your headphone exit to your notebook to capture the sound, Caphi?
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May 15, 2013 03:04
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Honestly I was pretty much skipping the combat sections entirely so I would be completely ok if you just skip over them.
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May 15, 2013 03:26
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Brunom1 posted:I'm guessing most of the people here have either played or are playing Z2 along with the LP. I've actually never played a SRW game. The closest I've come is finishing one route in Battle Moon Wars, and playing Galaxy Frauline Yuna 3.
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May 15, 2013 03:36
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Son Ryo, Endorph, Ashsaber, Brunom1 and Kalion posted:various opinions Think this counts as noone minding glossing over the gameplay?
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May 15, 2013 04:35
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Also adding my vote to not caring much about gameplay. Maybe when new and neat things come up mention them, but otherwise I'd be skipping over most of the combat images anyway.
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May 15, 2013 06:53
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For me combat is just the banter and the swish new animations.
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May 15, 2013 07:10
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Honestly, if all you're doing is translating the dialogue, I'd get bored of it quickly. At that point it'd be less of a "Let's Play" than a plot rundown.
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May 15, 2013 15:36
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The problem is that a majority of people reading (or at least commenting) on SRW LP's have already beat these games once or twice. This creates a self-reinforcing loop effect where the only people following a franchise are the ones already into it, which kind of misses the point of an LP in my opinion. One of the most amazing things about SRW is how much of a gateway to Mecha in general it is, a thing that came up a few times in this thread, and it would suck to entirely take out the gameplay. Now I'd be fine with just getting an improved translation from the GFAQs one, but this doesn't do much for the people who haven't actually played the game and want to see with their own eyes that yes, Gurren Lagann is an absolute beast and oh my gosh did Kamina just yell out Inazuma Kick why yes he did.  Messing around with the units and pilots deployed would make the midgame slightly less repetitive, and might end up showing off stuff that even people who have beat the games don't know. Other things that could spice up updates lacking on the gameplay front would be series commentary like Omnicrom's thorough posts comparing the writing of the games to the originals here and in the W thread. Bottom line is, I think having less gameplay is fine, while trying to keep to whatever interesting bits can be shown. But it shouldn't be axed entirely. GimmickMan fucked around with this message at 17:12 on May 15, 2013 |
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May 15, 2013 16:56
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To be honest, if you wanted to discuss the gameplay, the best way to do it would be on a no-upgrade run or something similar where you actually can talk about the mechanics. Once you have a heavily upgraded team with all their Ace bonuses or whatever, it's inevitably going to make the game a little samey. Starting on NG+ was probably not the best idea for making gameplay interesting to discuss.
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May 15, 2013 17:17
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I certainly won't blame you. I didn't even finish Z1 since it felt like a chore to play once you get a full roster.
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May 15, 2013 17:33
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TK-31 posted:The problem is that a majority of people reading (or at least commenting) on SRW LP's have already beat these games once or twice. This creates a self-reinforcing loop effect where the only people following a franchise are the ones already into it, which kind of misses the point of an LP in my opinion. One of the most amazing things about SRW is how much of a gateway to Mecha in general it is, a thing that came up a few times in this thread, and it would suck to entirely take out the gameplay. I'm glad some people like me dropping tons of  on stuff.And yeah, SRW is a curious property in some aspects when it comes to gameplay. It's fun and the gameplay is solid enough, but there's a curious sensation of shallow depth. There's a lot of aspects and strategy you can apply, but experience quickly reveals that the depth isn't very deep. You can play around with choosing different pilots or running B-Listers or doing challenge runs, but with few exceptions strategy doesn't change in a big way. EX-Hard or No Upgrade runs require different strategies, but the strategies are often fairly simple nonetheless. A lot of this comes out because SRW at its core is a fan game, you watch it for the spectacle of the animation, the fun of seeing series favorites being awesome, and because the fanfiction is pretty good all in all. I enjoy the gameplay and I think it works well, but in some ways it's the weakest link in the game. If Caphi seriously cut back on gameplay I doubt it'd be a problem. Post attack videos, give some basic insight on how the map flows, and highlight the events and you'd still have a quality LP.
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May 15, 2013 18:20
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Yep, there's a lot of options but in the end it is pretty shallow because upgrading weapons completely breaks the game in two, moreso with Hot Blood. The addition of SR Points encourages you to be able to kill as many units as possible in very short turn counts, further making things worse. Once you're done with the treadmill of getting the required skills and upgrades for your top aces, all you've got left to do is... Do the same for everyone else. Yay. Now obliterating Dimensional Beasts (  ) is pretty satisfying, but the rest of the time you're just steamrolling everything else and that gets boring fast. I don't think it would take the fangame part out of the franchise as a whole if they just toned down how explosive the damage mechanics are, but that discussion is better saved for another time.
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May 15, 2013 18:57
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OGS2nd did a good job of keeping damage under control. No character learned Valor or any variation of such until endgame. Anyways, Caphi, if you want to talk about a potential Z LP, you can email me at DrPepperSA at gmail.com about stuff.
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May 15, 2013 19:29
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Dr Pepper posted:OGS2nd did a good job of keeping damage under control. No character learned Valor or any variation of such until endgame. That's standard practice from about Z onward. In Z very few people got Hotblood until late in the game, and the handful who got it earlier generally were picking it up around mission 35 instead of 45. Games like L and UX don't give Damage boosting spirits until very late and usually as the final spirit the character acquires. There are some small exceptions though, like Ryubi Tallgeese who has Soul as his first Spirit, but he's a secret character who joins really late in UX.
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May 15, 2013 20:13
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Omnicrom posted:That's standard practice from about Z onward. In Z very few people got Hotblood until late in the game, and the handful who got it earlier generally were picking it up around mission 35 instead of 45. Games like L and UX don't give Damage boosting spirits until very late and usually as the final spirit the character acquires. There are some small exceptions though, like Ryubi Tallgeese who has Soul as his first Spirit, but he's a secret character who joins really late in UX. Special mention also goes to Kamina in this game, who gets his Valor about ten levels or more before anyone else. Valor's pretty ridiculous this early in the game.
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May 15, 2013 22:21
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TheBystander posted:Special mention also goes to Kamina in this game, who gets his Valor about ten levels or more before anyone else. Valor's pretty ridiculous this early in the game. I cackled when I saw this, because it's so very appropriate. I really enjoy that side of SRW, where a character's personality is reflected in their spirit commands.
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May 16, 2013 00:46
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TheBystander posted:Special mention also goes to Kamina in this game, who gets his Valor about ten levels or more before anyone else. Valor's pretty ridiculous this early in the game. Well most games also have someone who gets super eartly Hotblood these days. In Z1 Kabuto Kouji was among the fastest to get that particular Spirit and that combined with Mazin Power and Double Burning Fire was kind of crazy on Setsuko's route.
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May 17, 2013 23:32
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Whee! Video recording is back, I tried glossing over like all the mook-squashing, play recording went fairly quickly and had way less pointless (I feel) reloading and screen-capping. We'll see if it was too much or not pretty soon. Thanks for putting up with my poo poo, everybody!
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May 18, 2013 02:00
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Caphi posted:Whee! Video recording is back, I tried glossing over like all the mook-squashing, play recording went fairly quickly and had way less pointless (I feel) reloading and screen-capping. We'll see if it was too much or not pretty soon. Welcome back, Caphi! Looking forward to the rest of the LP (and a certain villain's BGM to pop up...). 
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May 18, 2013 03:44
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 Really glad you're giving this another shot, it really can't be said enough how awesome you are for doing all this Caphi.
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May 18, 2013 05:04
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Okay, let's trim some fat and give this another shot. Introductions! GOONZ is ever so slightly surprised that the visitors from another world look like plain old humans, but why not? We have humans from planet Gishin and the Astragius galaxy, too. Speaking of things that are surprisingly exactly the same in the other universe, Gundams. Shinn kicks the elephant in the room, pointing out that his team was attacked by OZ for having the name of Gundam. In this universe, what are Gundams, exactly? The Meisters uncomfortably won't answer (the iron rule of Celestial Being is still not to stick your nose in other peoples' business), but Ozma assures them that we're the good guys. And don't forget, we did bail them out of a tight spot. All four of them ultimately agree to the no-snooping policy; the others convince Shinn that they still don't have the right to make judgments on the state of our universe, and they don't want to rock our boat. It's obvious to everyone that Shinn has a lot of respect for his three superiors. In particular, Shinn looks up to Kira and Athrun, but he has something special with Camille, who just says they've been through a lot. Z history lesson: while this world's quake was twenty years ago, it's been only a year since their world's big quake, which brought Shinn's universe and the one Camille was from together. Dimensional faults have strange effects on time as well as space, so it's not that surprising that the timelines of parallel worlds don't quite match up. Anyway, the joining of worlds send the political situation into chaos, and in the ensuing planetary war, ZEUTH emerged and brought Shinn and Camille together. But initially, ZEUTH was cracked into two infighting halves, and Shinn and Camille with it. Still, clearly, after the misunderstandings were all cleared up, ZEUTH returned to being one whole army and saved the world from destruction. Shinn says he just couldn't stand people causing strife and suffering for their own selfish ends, was all...  I don't think your ZEUTH and our GOONZ are that different. I don't expect you to believe the likes of us, but that's all we want, too. We're all fighting to bring peace to the world. Actually, I... Should keep your mouth shut. ...will do.ZEUTH still doesn't completely trust GOONZ, but this conversation has gone a long way towards convincing them we really aren't the bad guys. And wait until they meet those of us who will actually unironically call themselves heroes. For now, they'll fly with the Frontier.  And not a minute too soon, because we've got direct deployment orders from the top brass. Cathy reports that a Defold just blipped near the fleet, and we need to get the Quarter back there on the double. There's a pretty good chance it's the Vajra, which even ZEUTH knows about now, and it'll be a good chance to show them what we're really all about...  Chapter 25: The Way Back Shut (space route)  Guess what? It was the Vajra, and they're already through the fleet's defenses. The fleet's home defenders don't have the firepower to engage the bugs.  But then the Vajra scatter, a hole opens in space, and...  who are these assholes?  As usual, they were doing their own thing (in the red robot's case, the pilots were having a tea party) only to find themselves in their robot in space after a quake hit out of nowhere. One thing's for sure, though, the bugs they're surrounded by aren't friendly. Back at the fleet, Mishima seizes the opportunity to turn the fleet around and leave while the new robot distracts the Vajra.  Sol Gravion (Touga Tenkuuji, Eiji Shigure, Runa Gusuku, Mizuki Tachibana, Eina, Leele) Skills Counter L6 Will+ (hit) Predict Spirits (Touga) Focus Spirit Sense (Eiji) Accel Invincible (Runa) Vigor Trust (Mizuki) Scan Snipe Analyze (Eina) Gain Attune (Leele) Guard Luck Traits Blade Weapons Sol Graviton Missile (2 ammo) Sol Graviton Crusher Punch (8 ammo) Sol Graviton Cannon (8 ammo) Sol Graviton Bringer (10 EN, barrier) Sol Graviton Screw Crusher Punch (2 ammo, barrier) Sol Graviton Nova (40 EN, 115 Will) G Gladius Attack (50 EN, 125 Will) Heavy Gravity Sword (90 EN, 130 Will, barrier, size) Ace Bonus: Touga, Eiji, Runa, Mizuki, Eina, and Leele's maximum SP +10. Welp, I'm going to go all out and say I really like this dumb show. The devs might have too. Sol Gravion has a ton of special animations and retains ownership of pretty much all its moves. Granted, this is because the "every ZEUTH unit loses something" blow was absorbed by its partner unit, God ∑ Gravion, with whom it had a combination attack. And while the loss of the inimitable Sandman is grave, that still means Sol Gravion remains a fully functional Masami Obari super robot. The main thing about it, and this is legacy from Z, is that the main pilot, Touga, does not have any levels of Prevail, because he thinks he's a Gundam or something. This we will fix, because frankly, if I had to pick one ZEUTH robot to use in Z2... it'd be coming up really soon, but Gravion would give it some pretty stiff competition. Incidentally, Gravion at the beginning of Z functioned like Dancouga Nova on hard mode, with a higher Will requirement, a time limit that was actually relevant, and a pilot who, again, does not understand what kind of robot he's piloting. The Gran Kaiser was cooler than the Nova Eagle, though.  Gran Trooper (Faye Xin-lu) Skills Prevail L5 Offensive Support L2 Defensive Support L1 Morale Spirits Gain Alert Strike Weapons Gravity Rang (10 ammo) Gravity Arrow (8 ammo) Lightning Detonator (70 EN, 125 Will, size) Ace Bonus: At 120 Will, casts Gain at the beginning of the player phase. Faye was an alternate pilot for Gravion that never got the chance, and probably would have been better at it, but therein lies a tale. The Trooper isn't a particularly bad unit, though, just very sidekick. She's got a set of flunkies that come out for the Detonator attack, but eh.   Wherever this is and whoever they are, nothing's taking Gravion down! Right! With me, fellows!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1ZKvCDUSdU By the way, this is Runa. She really likes drills. She came to the right place.  If we can't talk to them, then there's no point showing any mercy! All units, maintain formation! Show them the power of the Gran Troopers!      The Gran Trooper is a super-style support, kind of like Aphrodite, but not terrible. The bad news is, we already have Dai-Guard.  After a couple of Vajra go down, Sol Gravion detects a warship entering the fray!  But it's just us. The Gundams and Gran Knights recognize each other, of course. They settle the issue of the Vajra's intelligence for Gravion, and that frees them to give it their all. Meanwhile, this branch of GOONZ is sizing up their first visiting super robot. Team D hopes they can measure up to the Gravion. (Spoilers: no.) Ozma reminds the ZEUTH Gundams (notice I have deployed the ones that aren't sidekicks) that they don't have to fight on our account, but it's clear that the Vajra are as much a danger to them as to us - and if we're fighting, Shinn wants to pull his weight. Ozma tells Shinn he has the guts to qualify for his squad, and the existing Skull squaddies know that getting Ozma to put in a good word takes guts indeed. But first, we've gotta save Gravion! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Iu-f2grr0s This is the Lightning Detonator. Jack off!  GOONZ wipes up the Vajra within a few turns, but there were too many here to have been hiding all this time.  In fact, there are still more on the way!  Not only are there a lot more, but they've brought along a warship-sized Knight Vajra. And it looks like very one of these Vajra is stronger compared to the equivalent bugs we've fought before - the Vajra are improving. Crowe gripes that he'll have to rerecord all his combat data on them, though it almost sounds like he relishes the idea of selling it all over again.    They are, in fact, more accurate, and stronger, too. This powerup is permanent - it's the beginning of a new wave of Vajra for all of space.  I don't care how much stronger you get! I won't let you beat me! We have a real enemy to beat! And we've got to get stronger too!   Are you kidding me? They evolved this far this fast? This is bad. We've gotta exterminate them before they grow too much for us to handle!    A couple of kills gathers all the data Luca needs to confirm that the Vajra are now stronger in every measure.  But they're no longer all we have to worry about. Remember how the Red Dancouga peeled off from the Trinities? Because they're not with it, which means it wants a fight. Team D asks its pilot who she is and what she wants. The pilot says that the R-Daigun's mission is to defeat Dancouga Nova, and she couldn't do that as long as she was with the Trinities. Now that she doesn't have them to worry about, "I will defeat you here and now, Dancouga Nova!" Ozma reminds Aoi that our job is to eradicate the Vajra, but since the Daigun has gone this far out of her way, Aoi can't turn her down.  In fact, the mission is still to defeat all enemies before the sixth turn ticks, including the Daigun.  But with this map, it'll be better to focus on the Vajra and let the Daigun come to us.      As GOONZ chews through the swarm of Vajra, Setsuna's extra turn allows him to charge straight through them and take a slash at the boss.    And it looks like the Daigun isn't that threatening either.        Team Gravion follows through...  R-Daigun! We'll get our answers from you after we defeat you! Big talk! But it will be you who falls before the R-Daigun's might! Don't get me wrong, lady. I know how to deal with stalkers. Wha-? I don't know what your problem is with the Nova, but we don't have time to deal with your issues!     And that is a victory for Team Obari. R-Daigun drops a Sniper Kit, and Aoi stays her hand and lets Red go - if she'll fill us in a little. But she spits and leaves, probably to join the Trinities again. Rude.   Shortly, it is turn 5 and we have only the Knight Vajra staring us in the face.     Units obviously not to scale.  And good bug hunt, everybody. Jeffrey orders everyone to rendezvous with the Fleet, but the Fleet calls him first.  Defense Chief Leon Mishima thanks us kindly for keeping the Fleet safe. He confirms Jeffrey's suspicions that these Vajra haven't been hanging out in the Earth Sphere since we got here, which can only mean they're slipping in through the fractures in space left behind by the Birth of Calamity. This means the dimensional ripples go out as far as orbit, and while we already knew the Vajra had self-contained Fold systems, it's now clear that they've learned to Fold between universes where the dimensional barriers are weak. The question remaining is, why are they Folding after us? The Vajra, at least, aren't talking. Neither is Mishima. Now that the Quarter is under the same banner as Celestial Being, he can't risk being associated with us any longer, and not even the sanction of the Peacekeeping Council - not an official move by the U. N., mind you - will change that. Jeffrey's ship is officially on its own. Cathy and Bobby protest, and Sumeragi offers to cut ties with the Quarter rather than let the fleet do it. But Jeffrey would rather cut himself off from the Fleet of his own volition. He knows that Mishima is right, and besides, his duty now is to remain by his comrades' side. Ozma asks the pilots' opinion, and the Skulls will all follow Jeffrey gladly. Jeffrey then offers ZEUTH the choice to remain with either the Fleet or his ship. Kira speaks for ZEUTH when he says that they feel the same as the Skulls. But he also wants to hear more of GOONZ' story. Camille adds that while they may have been with us for a short time, that time means something. Don't misunderstand - ZEUTH will ultimately choose their path for themselves, but first, they want to learn as much as they can from us. Jeffrey and Sumeragi understand and agree - they won't force ZEUTH to remain with us indefinitely, and when they leave is up to them. The Skulls take one last look at the Frontier, because they won't be seeing it again for a while. Alto reflects that when he lived on the Frontier, he always dreamed of flying in a real sky. "I found that dream on the Earth, and I understood a little bit what it really means to fly. Farewell, Frontier Fleet. I'll be back when this world is at peace..."  Berlin - Mishima fills Grace in on the same stuff we just learned about the Vajra. Thanks to the Calamity Birth, the Vajra have gained the ability to jump from world to world - and how does Mishima intend to atone? It was he who gave Limonesia the Fold technology they needed to complete the project. Oh yes, she knows about that. Mishima's surprised, but why should he be? Did he not think she'd look into where he got all that Fold Quartz he paid her in? Or should she say, all that DEC? She'll keep it under her hat, for now. Letting those dealings get out would be just as bad for her, after all. But, well, she'll have more favors to ask of him in the future. To begin with, a bit more Fold Quartz. He should have plenty from those Vajra, right? And continuing to feed her their intel on what the Vajra are up to. Mishima has no choice but to agree, but what does she need all that Fold Quartz for? She supposes he should already know. DEC-derived energy is under research in this universe, and she's heard it from several grapevines while doing Sheryl's marketing. "She is my dream. I'll make her queen of this universe, no matter what it takes." With Mishima gone, Grace reflects that while the bugs have come over through the cracks of the Birth, so have a few bars on her Super-Dimensional Comm. "I can even contact them across the dimensional walls," she thinks, abusing pronouns as the Japanese love to do. "All that's left is to raise the Little Queen, and wait for my theories to become reality..."  And then she laughs and laughs.  Right as Sheryl walks into the room and asks just what is so funny. Grace changes the subject quickly: how is Sheryl feeling? Just fine, the singer replies, thanks to Grace's medicine. Good, because both of them are looking forward to Sheryl's Germany tour. With the world quivering under the threat of the Imperium, it's more important than ever to raise their spirits. And Sheryl Nome, the woman even Ranka Lee wants to be, is just the girl to do it. Speaking of Ranka, Bird-Human just opened in Berlin, and Sheryl's planned to do a double feature against its premiere - Grace doesn't miss a trick. She's even embedded GOONZ intel on the disc Sheryl has, as asked. But right now, Sheryl needs to take her medicine and get some sleep. Big things are coming up. Bwahahahaha...  We return to the Ptolemy as GOONZ finishes the long long story to ZEUTH. Kira can't pass judgment on whether Celestial Being is in the right or wrong (earning a glare from Setsuna), but he sees where they're coming from all too well. He tried the same thing once, trying to destory all weapons of war, and on the flip side, he can see that Celestial Being is changing in a changing world. The Imperium has forced their hand - taking the long view, their mission is to bring peace, and right now, the Imperium is the greatest threat to peace out there. ZEUTH may not fully understand, but they think they can trust us. "Besides," Lockon says darkly, "we'll have to face judgment for what we've done eventually." But then he adds, "We'll do all the good we can until then." The other Meisters, and Team D, feel the same way. Eiji has one question: he wants to hear Sumeragi say that they are carrying on a fight against humanity. When Sumeragi gives a clear yes, that's all he needs.  Even though it may look like we're just another gang of thugs taking advantage of the mess. Uh, I'm actually a-- Just stop. Yessir.ZEUTH once again feels that GOONZ are kindred spirits. They were also an army that pulled itself together from different backgrounds, sometimes even fighting each other, to fight for the whole world's peace and prosperity. GOONZ isn't so noble yet, but Kira says that at first, ZEUTH wasn't, either. But they feel lucky to have crossed paths with GOONZ. They'll definitely stay with us for a bit longer. Eiji introduces the Gran Knights. Touga is Gravion's main pilot, a finely tuned fighting machine in the cockpit and a flighty airhead out of it. (Luca is the first to notice - Touga shares his voice, Jun Fukuyama, with both Luca and Lelouche). Afterwards are the limb pilots, who get less words in this game then I would have liked. What's up next? Sumeragi wants to check on things down surface-side, and they need to resupply anyway, so they're swinging by Dragon's Hive. While they're there, ZEUTH can reunite with their fellows on terra firma, so they might as well start thinking about where they want to go next. The other side has at least ten ZEUTH pilots and their robots, and Camille is still wondering about that. There must be a great power at work here, maybe an intelligent one, and if ZEUTH can trace it to its source, maybe they can find a way home.  Tanaka lets the mysterious commander know that GOONZ is coming home, but he may not be here when we get back. He's got business to take care of...  With his partner in crime, Final Dancouga's pilot, and their manly-jawed new guest, who seemed cool as a cucumber even after being pulled through the dimensional warp - he says that it would have been "unbecoming" to be terribly shocked. In fact, he almost seemed like he expected to have been dumped out where he was, which he attributes to "the pull between the seals carved into you and into me." What? "You could also very well refer to them as curses."  Finally, they turn on the fricking lights. The long-haired man introduces himself as F. S., commander of the Dragon's Hive, and the visitor as Klein Sandman... Accursed Wanderer.  Oh look it's this rear end in a top hat.  Heh. Bearers of SEED, Newtypes, and the Scarlet Fang with the power to forge worlds. All marked with the Stigma... this is an interesting mix of ingredients. He should be drawn here as well. I should go welcome him. I will return you to your unending hell, Accursed Wanderer... If everyone's okay with this, we've got a great one coming up. I've been waiting 12,000 years for this bit. It'll be fun! Caphi fucked around with this message at 05:46 on May 18, 2013 |
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May 18, 2013 05:06
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That worked pretty well, in my estimation! Also Gravion. Never watched it, but goddamn, that mech was amazing. The fact that it had an army of subpilots helped.
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May 18, 2013 05:09
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Honestly, I used to scroll quickly through the combat parts because it's a lot of the same. But this update was paced near perfectly.
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May 18, 2013 05:22
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Yeah. Gravion was one of Z's better supers in a game with a lot of good ones, and it was easily one of my regulars. I look forward to our next arrival though... This pacing is working wonderfully, by the way. Hope this is making it easier on you too!
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May 18, 2013 05:26
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Good to see you back int he groove of it! This update was perfect!
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May 18, 2013 05:28
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Echoing the remarks on the pacing. Good Job. I also liked Gravion, dumb as it was. It was just fun.
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May 18, 2013 05:36
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That's pretty good to hear. Everybody wins! I admit to liking Gravion with some reservations, but it's one of those shows where if it doesn't make you giggle a lot you'll just think it's the stupidest loving thing. Also, Obari breasts. It can't exactly take on Marriage of God and Soul Godannar, but it's up there. At least there aren't any tit robots, and it tries to go dark in the second season. Also, I legit miss Sandman's God Sigma Gravion. It's not coming back until Restoration.
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May 18, 2013 05:38
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