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Bloodly
Nov 3, 2008

Not as strong as you'd expect.
Penn was given field training at the point where he was gotten. Long, certainly, but not a poor idea since he does turn out alright once he catches up. You can take that from personal experience.

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inthesto
May 12, 2010

Pro is an amazing name!
I actually did that on my first run through this game, and doing that chewed up more time than pulling this stunt did:



In the interests of not stalling out the thread for two or three weeks, I'll relegate him to his "proper" training point.

Ardeem
Sep 16, 2010

There is no problem that cannot be solved through sufficient application of lasers and friendship.

Bloodly posted:

Penn was given field training at the point where he was gotten. Long, certainly, but not a poor idea since he does turn out alright once he catches up. You can take that from personal experience.


You didn't mention the training montage.

Bloodly
Nov 3, 2008

Not as strong as you'd expect.
I'm still minorly annoyed that playthrough never finished so close to the end-I dropped money on getting him Archives when he said he needed/wanted it to get it started again.

TerryLennox
Oct 12, 2009

There is nothing tougher than a tough Mexican, just as there is nothing gentler than a gentle Mexican, nothing more honest than an honest Mexican, and above all nothing sadder than a sad Mexican. -R. Chandler.
Does that picture of Eldar have breasts on it? Now I can't unsee them. I understand the stinkup in the Starbound thread.

Love the LP, been a Shining fan for a while but the last one I played was the GBA remake of Shining Force which is surprisingly good. Has Sega done anything with this IP lately (last 5 years)?

Heren
Jul 11, 2012
Enjoying the LP so far inthesto! You did a great job with Shining Force 2 as well. I like how you handle being informative with the mechanics while still having good commentary on the story - I'm especially interested this time around because while I was a big fan of Shining Force 2 I've never played 3 at all.

Since TerryLennox mentioned the GBA Shining Force: inthesto, I saw maybe 2 updates of an LP you did for it elsewhere. The 10-Yogurt screencap makes me think I'm missing out. Do you have any other stuff for Shining Force or other games around the net somewhere?

Ardeem
Sep 16, 2010

There is no problem that cannot be solved through sufficient application of lasers and friendship.

TerryLennox posted:

Does that picture of Eldar have breasts on it? Now I can't unsee them. I understand the stinkup in the Starbound thread.

Love the LP, been a Shining fan for a while but the last one I played was the GBA remake of Shining Force which is surprisingly good. Has Sega done anything with this IP lately (last 5 years)?

To answer your questions: Yes, Eldar's armor has boobplates and Yes Sega has been making Shining games, but they've mostly been action RPGs and not released in english.

inthesto
May 12, 2010

Pro is an amazing name!

TerryLennox posted:

Does that picture of Eldar have breasts on it? Now I can't unsee them. I understand the stinkup in the Starbound thread.

Man, you are in for some disturbing revelations.


Heren posted:

Enjoying the LP so far inthesto! You did a great job with Shining Force 2 as well. I like how you handle being informative with the mechanics while still having good commentary on the story - I'm especially interested this time around because while I was a big fan of Shining Force 2 I've never played 3 at all.

Since TerryLennox mentioned the GBA Shining Force: inthesto, I saw maybe 2 updates of an LP you did for it elsewhere. The 10-Yogurt screencap makes me think I'm missing out. Do you have any other stuff for Shining Force or other games around the net somewhere?

I started an LP of Shining Force GBA a while back, which you can find here (archives required). I had to stop it due to a hard drive meltdown, but there's a fair chance I'll redo it after I finish this game (in three years from now).

Nephrite
Aug 18, 2006
Lipstick Apathy
Well, if you don't want to take the effort to do it when he shows up, you can always just use This and save yourself a good deal of time. :)

Kacie
Nov 11, 2010

Imagining a Brave New World
Ramrod XTreme
Thanks for LP'ing this!

I'd (attempted) to play Shining in the Darkness on my Sega Genesis ages ago, and got stuck pretty quickly. Several years later, I caught pneumonia over the summer in college, and with the handy advent of emulators and FAQs, finished it. I was very intrigued by Shining Force, and got that -

And wow. I'd never played a SRPG before. I loved it to pieces, even though I don't think I was particularly good at it. I then grabbed Shining Force 2, and...while it seemed better mechanically, the plot was much more meh.

However - a friend said Shining Force 3 was coming, with three different main characters! I was super excited.

Then the Saturn flopped, and the game didn't seem to make it to the states, and I gave up on ever playing it.

So I'm thrilled to see it now. Unfortunately, it seems to be in that awkward era where the 3D is clumsy compared to a beautiful 2D sprite animation - but I'm determined to enjoy it none-the-less. :)

And oh gods, the rail-switch level. :stonk:

Ardeem
Sep 16, 2010

There is no problem that cannot be solved through sufficient application of lasers and friendship.
There, FINALLY got through switching point without the archers between the tracks deciding to turn around and murder the refugees. Now I don't have to worry about stupid AI tricks for for the rest of the chapter.

Also, I didn't know that save editor existed, if I had I might have voted to keep Garosh alive and just fix his HP every time he leveled. (I'm sort of tempted to get it just to change half of the Centaurs back to their naming scheme.)

Rascyc
Jan 23, 2008

Dissatisfied Puppy
There's actually a really good Shining in the Darkness sequel for Saturn as well.

vvv Yeah, and yeah I meant in gameplay.

Rascyc fucked around with this message at 19:18 on Jun 20, 2013

Bloodly
Nov 3, 2008

Not as strong as you'd expect.
????

Are you thinking of Shining the Holy Ark? I wouldn't call it a 'sequel' except in raw gameplay(Not that that's a bad thing). If anything it's a prequel(of sorts) to this. Saying more is spoilers.

Aces High
Mar 26, 2010

Nah! A little chocolate will do




Even though I think is has been covered many many times in the previous threads I figure I will ask again for my sake. The story as I know it is that Shining Force 3 as released in North America was not the complete game whereas in Japan it was released to completion. What is the reason behind why we only got half (I guess in this case 2/3) of a game instead of the whole thing? Is this a Mother 3 type scenario too?

geri_khan
May 16, 2009

Fucking blocks... I'm gonna climb the shit outta you!

Aces High posted:

Even though I think is has been covered many many times in the previous threads I figure I will ask again for my sake. The story as I know it is that Shining Force 3 as released in North America was not the complete game whereas in Japan it was released to completion. What is the reason behind why we only got half (I guess in this case 2/3) of a game instead of the whole thing? Is this a Mother 3 type scenario too?

We only got 1/3, and it was really just a case of there not being the will or market to bring it over. Saturn was dead in the west. As bitter as I was about only getting SF3 Scenario 1, I guess we're lucky we got that much at all.

Taffy Torpedo
Feb 2, 2008

...Can we have the radio?
1/4 technically, because of the premium disc.

Does anyone know if the translation patch works with the japanese version of the game? 'Cause that's the only copy I own.

Ardeem
Sep 16, 2010

There is no problem that cannot be solved through sufficient application of lasers and friendship.
If I recall correctly, it only patches the english version of disk 1, but the Japanese versions for the rest of them.

And the premium disk hardly counts as a game in its own right.

inthesto
May 12, 2010

Pro is an amazing name!
The translation patch actually has to be used with a US/EU version of disc 1, IIRC. It'll patch discs 2 and 3 just fine, since those are the only versions available.

inthesto
May 12, 2010

Pro is an amazing name!
Part 13: This guy sounds familiar



Yeah, we tucked them in good night. Forever. :unsmigghh:





: Hear you out! Hah! I hardly think you are in any position to make requests. And even if you were, I don't think my friends in the Empire would be pleased were I to let you go. I could never betray my associates. I am most sorry, but accept your fate, and don't make this difficult.

So, the Empire's in on Domaric's kidnapping. Huh.



: You have your orders, Dantares! Run them down!





: I would have preferred to avoid violence, but we're too close to that bridge. Synbios, take them out!

So, we finally have our first flying unit of the game. When I said she had terrible base stats, I wasn't kidding:




Yep, she's behind Masqurin in attack. Granted, Masqurin has rank 2 with her weapon and Eldar is at rank 0, but that's still pathetic. We're going to need to spoon feed her a lot of experience, because she's more or less a required character for the entire game.



The map is another linear one. No new enemies except the boss, and very straightforward. It's as if Camelot is apologizing for Switching Point.



Shiraf himself is a pretty beefy guy, but since I've been really combing through the game for accessories, he's not a real threat. Don't believe me?




Without that protect ring, Synbios's defense would be 11. With it, Shiraf is going to be doing something like 2 or 3 damage a swing. Cybil also has 17 defense. The army is extremely tanky with all these accessories I've been collecting, and it's making the game a lot easier than it should be. Not that Shiraf is a difficult boss, but he's trivial by now.

Also, Shiraf's name seems familiar. Wish I could remember where I've heard it before.




First things first, we're going to have to toss the battle bracer onto Eldar. See, the thing about Shining Force games is that the amount of experience you receive from attacking is proportionate to how much damage you deal. If somebody falls behind, they're going to stay behind unless you specifically designate units for them to kill. It's why birdmen have had a lot of trouble in Shining Force history – they get mediocre attack as a trade-off for their flying abilities, and have difficulty keeping up in levels as a result. Either that, or they become Claude, Peter, or Kiddo. But let's not talk about those characters.




The first batch of enemies is a dark mage and a pair of dwarves. Since the dark mage made a bad decision in whacking Synbios rather than casting a spell, we're in the clear. Dwarves are easy now that we have three sword users.





Eldar's weapon, while called a “wing”, still counts as a sword type. While they generally have less attack than the standard swords that Synbios uses, it also grants its user a defense boost. Fliers need this badly, as they don't benefit from terrain bonus, so we're going to keep Eldar on wings. They also have some cooler weapons down the line, which I'll be sure to fetch.




lovely mage AI is making this even easier than it should be.



While we're on a train rooftop, I'm not really sure what this netting is supposed to be and how they're walking on it. I may be going through this battle quickly in the update, but the advancement was very slow in play time, because I was trying to feed kills to Cybel and Eldar. If I haven't mentioned it before, killing an enemy gives you a flat amount of experience, regardless of how much damage you dealt.



Past the netting is the engine car. Once you approach, Shiraf starts hightailing it to the back. It doesn't make much difference, but it's slightly annoying.




And then these guys spawn, but who cares. They deal no damage and...



Yeah, this has been the situation for a while now.



Just look at this clusterfuck! This is what happens when you're trying to give every kill to one or two members of the party. None of the enemies do enough damage to matter, so it takes a while to mop it all up.



Killing a bunch of dudes doesn't get Eldar a level, but it does snag her a rank in wings. She's looking a bit better now. Not good, but better.






Finally, a good capture of Sonic Wave! Unfortunately, the animation isn't very exciting. The higher rank criticals for Synbios are going to be equally boring.





The camera kind of starts to really suck at this point. There's a one-tile wide corridor going straight down the car, but due to the huge engine on the train and the rail on the opposite side, it's kind of hard to see anything.



The view gets a bit better as we push our way up. As long as we can peace out the mage quickly, the fight's all but over. Assassins don't do much damage outside of their poison, but even if we get hit by that, we've got a lot of spare antidotes lying around.




Maybe I spoke a moment too soon.



Hey, stop that. I have to level her up. :mad:





Um, okay. :stare: Synbios never hit nearly this hard early on in my last playthrough, so there's an anomaly here somewhere.





The first rank wing critical, called “Twister”. It actually looks identical to Demitri's uppercut in the Darkstalkers series, if you're familiar with non-mainstream fighting games.



At some point, Shiraf decided to go attack a leader unit instead. Except, he picked the wrong one. Or the right one, considering he'd barely be scratching Synbios' armor.




Don't forget that a lot of accessories have useable effects! This only fetches 3 experience for Synbios since he's not flagged as a healer, but it's better than the flat 1 you always got in previous games.



After some surround and pound with a bit of first aid from Grace, let's see if we can't get the newcomer a level.





Having weapon advantage is great.



Oh hey, more stuff to throw into storage until the end game.



: How could I be defeated? If I die, the bandits will run rampant, slaughtering everyone. You will regret this, Benetram!

: Tell me one thing, Shiraf. I suspect you knew long beforehand that the peace conference would fail.

: How did... why would you think that, Benetram?

: Bandits from Dusty were after us before we had even left Saraband. That seems a bit convenient to me.

: I guess the rumors about you are not unfounded, Benetram. I commend you for your intuition. No matter how you try, and even if you manage to get back to the Republic, you are doomed. The die is cast.

That last line sounds familiar. Where have we heard that before?



Ah ha! Now that we know that's Fiale, there's got to be some kind of connection between Bulzome, the bandits, and the Destonian Empire.

: If we discover the truth, and rescue the Emperor, there are some in the Empire who will listen to reason.

: You expect Prince Medion to come through for you? I doubt you can even reach Barrand. Even if you reach General Rogan, the Seagate won't set sail safely. Remember that! The prince will be your stumbling block!





: My lord, please. At this rate, the train will...

: You are right. If we give in, who knows what will happen to the Republic. Dantares, hurry and go talk to the engineer. We must convince him to stop the train!

I like to imagine that Dantares busts into the engine room, skewers the engineer, and then stops the train by smashing everything in sight.



And with that, the train stops.




: Zero, you have returned. Was everything all right back there?

: You should trust me more, sis. But to tell you the truth,the news that Shiraf was defeated helped us greatly, though it was still a hard fought battle.

Us? There's just Zero here. I'd like to assume that Zero just took them all out by himself, but we're going to know that was impossible in scenario 2.

: I commend your effort, Zero!

: The stranded passengers are now our responsibility, aren't they?

: I also worry about the passengers, but they'd be in more danger with us. Leave them with railroad security.

: Well then, what shall we do? We can enter Barrand from the northern mountain region. Then we could return to the Republic through the narrow valley.

: It looks like a detour, but that route may be the fastest.

: So we're going north from here.

: What's going on, Julian? You have a smirk on your face. You're a strange one.

: Do you know much about this region? To the north is Quonus Village. If I remember, it's said to be cursed.

Cursed? Now where on earth did you hear that?






No way this could turn out poorly!

: Oh no, it's my first time in Destonia, Aspinia, and Quonus Village. Hmm, the cursed Quonus Village...

: Let us get going, my Liege. We must reach Quonus Village before the sun goes down and moon comes up, otherwise we will end up sleeping under the stars.

: Synbios, there's something Shiraf said that I can't seem to get my mind off of. He mentioned Prince Medion. Should something happen to him, the peace in the Republic will... Listen Zero, I must ask you for yet another favor. Fly over to Prince Medion, and then guard him well. If anything happens, you let us know.



Zero will never stop being adorable. :allears:






Instead, they were greeted by a border guard unit placed there by Prince Arrawnt to protect the train station. To avoid a battle with the border guards, Synbios and his allies left. They ran into Prince Medion at a rail switching point. Thw two nobles cooperated to protect a band of refugees whose lives were in danger. The Synbios army then boarded a train, and ruined a gang of bandits' bid to take over the train and its cargo. But the destruction of the rail tracks forced them to disembark. Now they head north to Quonus Village.

NEXT TIME: Camelot still hates us!

Nephrite
Aug 18, 2006
Lipstick Apathy
At least the reward for doing the next battle perfectly is worth it.

Ardeem
Sep 16, 2010

There is no problem that cannot be solved through sufficient application of lasers and friendship.
Two things: First, you missed a mithril at the front of the engine, and second, what makes Shiraf dangerous is that he's got rank 1 maces and is the first baddie with a special attack.

inthesto
May 12, 2010

Pro is an amazing name!
Blech, I even knew I skipped that mithril, but forgot to mention it while I was writing the update. The game gives you way too many of the drat things.

Also, I never knew that Shiraf had a rank in maces. You can't check those stats on enemies, and I've never had him proc a critical on me. That must make his base stats absolutely terrible.

Glazius
Jul 22, 2007

Hail all those who are able,
any mouse can,
any mouse will,
but the Guard prevail.

Clapping Larry
Maces? Those are actually a weapon class? Who uses them? Warriors, priests?

Ardeem
Sep 16, 2010

There is no problem that cannot be solved through sufficient application of lasers and friendship.

Glazius posted:

Maces? Those are actually a weapon class? Who uses them? Warriors, priests?

They're the same weapon group as axes, so mostly Battlers/Warriors use them. Axes generally have higher attack... and I forgot what the actual advantage for maces is, might be better effects on crit.

Piest/Clerics use the same ank/rod/wand group of weapons as mages. Most people swap Grace to using an ank when the first one shows up and then keep her there because she starts with most of a level of knowlage for it and most of them give support spells.

Losem
Jun 17, 2003
Slightly Angry Sheep
Also don't wings increase counter as well? It really is worth it to keep Eldar with wings extra defense never hurts and the attack difference is so little you almost can see it, but then again I don't think I have ever leveled her in swords.

Ardeem
Sep 16, 2010

There is no problem that cannot be solved through sufficient application of lasers and friendship.
The + counter ability on the wings is mentioned in the item description, but other than the revenge mace, I don't think any of them outright state an effect like that.

inthesto
May 12, 2010

Pro is an amazing name!
Welp, bad news, thread!

I moved across the country, and guess what piece of machinery didn't survive the trip? :v:

It was a good run.

I'll see if I can't replace it before the thread falls intothe archives

Raitzeno
Nov 24, 2007

What? It seemed like
a good idea at the time.

inthesto posted:

Welp, bad news, thread!

I moved across the country, and guess what piece of machinery didn't survive the trip? :v:

It was a good run.

I'll see if I can't replace it before the thread falls intothe archives

Between you and Sylphid over in the Arland Atelier thread, it seems like moving to another state is a death sentence for an LP. Is the Curse taking on new aspects...?

inthesto
May 12, 2010

Pro is an amazing name!
Also, the advantages to maces are status effects on all crits and the fact that you pick up some really good ones in the main plot

RuanGacho
Jun 20, 2002

"You're gunna break it!"

Update 14: The Art of Doing Nothing



inthesto hates the next battle and agreed that in order to keep the LP alive and help him not have to rush while settling into new surroundings for an LP, I would guest post an update, quality is not guaranteed.


We've arrived in Quonos Village and Synbios' forces are in their HQ.



: I have the power to sense good and evil... This town certainly has been cursed.

: Hey... We don't need that kind of talk, Grace. Please don't say such things.

: Odd, where is Julian?

: Yes... You're right, Lord Synbios. I didn't notice until now, but Julian is not with us.

: That's pretty strange... He was with us outside the village. I wonder... did something happen to him?

: Grace, I asked you not to say stuff like that! I... I don't like all this creepy stuff.

: Really? Sir Dantares, the supreme knight of the Republic, is frightened? I'll have to remember this.

: Julian on the other hand doesn't seem to fear being out and about.

: Well... Julian is an able swordsman. I guess he should be all right on his own... There is something strange here... We might as well look into it. Go with Grace and take a look around.


At this point we're freed to walk around, lets take everyone's read on the current situation.

: Everyone is worried about Julian. No one dares take a nap. I suspect you can't sleep either... But you should try to get as much rest as you can.

: ZZZZZZ...... Aahh! Who... Who is it! Oh, it's you, Lord Synbios. Please don't scare me like that! I'm just a little edgy right now. I'm a centaur, and we are able to sleep standing up. But with all the noise you made, I woke up, and can't seem to get back to sleep. I might as well stay awake now.

: I know I sounded tough to Sir Dantares, but to tell you the truth, I'm not good with this creepy stuff either. Why do we have to spend the night in such and eerie place?

: They're all so superstitious... I wish they'd all just grow up. I'm not afraid at all... Really...

: Didn't someone say once we reach the village we can eat? Well, where's the inn?! And the people?! I'm not afraid, I'm just HUNGRY! And I'm starting to get cranky!

: Did anyone find Julian? What could have happened to him? Maybe a wild beast got him...

: I wonder if Zero managed to find Prince Medion, or is he still flying around the Empire... Who knows where he will end up... Zero is my little brother... I worry so very much about him.


This is our chicken, an able bodied and ultimately important part of our force. How else will we get fresh eggs on the road?



This town seems to be completely empty and immediately as soon as you start walking around things start happening that indicate all is not right.

: While we're searching through this village, keep an eye out for Julian.


A door ominously opens and slams shut, this immediately riles up Grace.

Turning around the corner the local goods have decided they have the best inventory system:






Moving along...

At this point in Symbios' place if I were not already comfortable with animal people and wishes coming true to miraculously heal the sick I'd be pretty sure I was on some sort of hallucinogen.



Even the Church is empty and there seems to be a fairy hanging out up front.


Well that's nice of you :unsmith:


There is nothing to do but progress into the graveyard/mansion. Honestly who designs such a thing? Have you ever known such a place to really exist outside of a funeral home? Sure Ted, come on over, just make sure you don't kick over Nana's tombstone when you round the corner! But I digress.


Taking Grace's advice we turn around but suddenly a wild NPC appears in this grey wash of desolation.






: This is not a ghost town. It is... ruled by an evil spirit.

: Who are you?

: My name is Kahn. I am an Elbesem monk in search of a key that will save the world.

: So, you ARE an Elbesem monk...!



: Ho! Now we finally meet face to face. You have been following me for a long time now. I had meant to greet you... sooner or later.



: I see I have worried you, Synbios. Well... I've finally reached my destiniation, but I couldn't sit still. You, monk... Your purpose here is to defeat the Vandal monster that rules over Quonus?


: Did you say Vandal? Can't be..! The mythical rulers of darkness? It just can't be that they exist!

: Julian, wasn't it? You seem to be quite knowledgeable in this area. My travels have just happened to bring me her, but this is obviously your chosen destination. Is it your intent to fight the Vandal?

: What's wrong with you, Julian..? The Vandals don't exist, but even if they did, how do you know you can defeat one?

: My father was brutally killed in the Kingdom of Enrich by Galm, a Vandal who most certainly does exist. I've been searching for Galm ever since.
Julian is actually making a reference to Shining the Holy Ark here, Galm was a Vandal in that game and it is largely implied that he is a child NPC you meet in the game.

: You have dedicated your life to avenging your father's death, but are you willing to dedicate your death as well? Vandals are very powerful...

: Vandals...

: Something's happening! Terrible evil spirits... Could it possibly be...? We better call everyone together.

: There is no need for that, Grace.



: When you did not return in time, we came out to look for you. Then we heard your voice.

: I had not known that a Vandal was behind the rumors of the cursed village of Quonus. Nor did I know that Julian was searching for it.

: I am sorry that I used you, but let's focus on the fighting for now. If we live, then you can chew me out.

: Wait. something's wrong... These kyon-shi... They aren't truly dead, and they're being controlled from the mansion!

: I see... to avoid fighting our forces, he's sent a bunch of peons to fight for him. Heh, heh.. Vandal, you are a coward!

: You don't quite understand. These kyon-shi are actually the villagers under a spell! We can't fight them, as it will kill them and really turn this into a ghost town. Leave them to me and I'll handle it.


Here is the map of the battle field, there's a big pond in the middle of it that makes me further incredulous of the design of this area, apparently there's no zoning laws in Quonos.
Throughout the fight as you progress in the map, several enemies will burst out of the gravestones, giving you actually something to do. You may be confused why I say that but they really aren't kidding, you can mass slaughter the whole town by killing any of the kyon-shi.


The kyon-shi themselves aren't that threatening but being that we just signed up for the pinic in a bog club their damage delt is completely one sided. Your entire force will spend the majority of the battle staring at the nonsensical mansion graveyard bog.


Kahn is AI controlled in this battle, he has a special orb that makes him able to defeat the villagers without killing them. It has the same area of effect of Blaze 2 but it's insanely good luck if you've ever got the staggering villagers more than 3 blocks from each other, they're just not motivated to move much :effort:




The animation is all flashy and reminiscent of an earlier time when people made jokes about Japanese cartoons causing seizures, this image gives you the basic idea of what it looks like but I felt like it wouldn't be a proper LP if you didn't share my suffering times a dozen kyon-shi almost exactly as it really is.







:pcgaming:That's better!:pcgaming:






The kyon-shi are not power hitters but you need to keep your team healing occasionally so in the rare instance that you charge around looking for ways to die you don't managed to get mobbed by two whole enemies at once.


Pictured: Dantares the great contemplates the nature of bogs.


His riding up to that location actually triggers the first tombstone spawns, these vampire bats will be around for a few battles so I'll let inthesto talk about them.


I feel a need to impress upon readers just how dull this battle is, you spend 80% of it with your party just shifting around acting like this is a great place to hang out to ominous music. I thought about making a joke about everyone taking drugs and just kinda stumbling around going "whoa man" but I'm too classy to do anything but over explain such a joke.


Dantares and Eldar make a pact to kill everything that moves and meets the criteria of "Not a villager under evil magic spells." It takes several turns of the force milling about before this comes to fruition.


I wanted to take a moment to point out that Kahn has the worst Cestus ever, I am pretty sure that just about anything they could have rendered on his arm would have been better than weapon that makes Barrett of FF7 look nominally scaled


As we round the pond a skeleton appears, he is not around long enough for me or the force to recall as Dantares and Eldar go berzerk trying to get dibs on it and any Vampire bats they can approach.




:black101:


:black101:


Eldar is helping :unsmith:


This right here is what upsets people most about this fight, if you have been spending time trying to keep your force strong and tough you get this ridiculous situation where a kyon-shi attacks Symbios and he decides to counter, beating the crap out of our magic zombie in a single hit, if it was Dantares we'd have lost one.


Kahn's AI follows Symbios all over the place, resulting in a situation where not only is your force hanging out doing nothing, you have a ping pong of Kahn chasing the leader around as if fully aware of the new vow of pacifism they have all embraced and intent on making it as painful as possible.






Yeah that's right, take care of that and get back to me. I'll be in my office.



Eventually everyone makes it to the mansion side of the map and then the first major threat appears.


The Lich!

At this point I've barely been paying attention so long I put no thought into sending Julian in to beat on the new and imminent threat to our well being.
The Lich knows this.

: Tornado 3!

Wait, what? :stare:


Julian?


Julian No!


Cybel quickly retaliates with a critical to avenge Julian's sudden vampire bat tickled death instigated by the lich.


Alright, he should be about done.


The Lich introduces itself as the first enemy that casts heal.




Hayward quickly gets tired of this nonsense and jumps up with his own critical to put the battle to an end with an ice arrow.

After the battle


: I'm still sensing evil energies from within. If we want to revive Quonus Village, we must brave the dangers, and enter this unholy mansion.

: I'm well aware of the dangers, Kahn. I came here to defeat it, and I'll fight it even if I have to go in alone.



: Goodbye? You're kidding right?

: Synbios is right. Listen, both of you, did we ever say we wouldn't fight the Vandal? The Vandal can plunge this land into darkness. It is the enemy of all sane men. We cannot run from this. But are we ready to face it now? Now is not the time to be rash and leap into things prematurely. Proper preparations will prove to be our best ally.

: In any world, there are men of purity. Your courage is impressive. For now, allow me to join forces with you.



: This fight will be quite difficult. Once we are all healed and prepared, then we will return to battle this Vandal.

Our village is not massacred, but the people are not free, a vandal lurks in the mansion and we're just now starting to learn that it's not just politics we have to deal with but supernatural evil as well.

Hope you didn't think I was going to do the mansion for you inthesto :getin:

Next time: Existential Evil enjoys summer homes

RuanGacho fucked around with this message at 23:41 on Jul 9, 2013

Ardeem
Sep 16, 2010

There is no problem that cannot be solved through sufficient application of lasers and friendship.
Dantares has another line if you talk to him again in the HQ where he's all :ohdear: about the ghosts and Masqurin teases him about it.

As for the fight itself, keep Irine far, far away from the Kyon-shi, as she has a high chance to counter, and her friendship bonus raises counter chance.

And hang in there inthesto, you're all done with bullshit exicution stages until this chapter's thief map.

CatsPajamas
Jul 4, 2013

I hated the new Stupid Newbie avatar so much that I bought a new one for this user. Congrats, Lowtax.
I do appreciate that the game makes just about every other map a non-standard battle, but a battle where you primarily do nothing was not a good design choice. Even when Shining Force II had the battle against Tauros although the Hero was the only character that could damage the boss the rest of the force could at least take out everyone else, instead of standing around doing nothing.

Thanks for doing the update RuanGacho! Not bad at all.

Hellioning
Jun 27, 2008

I am suddenly glad I am not epileptic.

inthesto
May 12, 2010

Pro is an amazing name!
A big thanks to RuanGacho for holding down the fort and letting me use my fast forward button for this fight. Honestly, this fight wouldn't be nearly as tedious if we could just control Kahn, but I don't draw comparisons to Thracia 776 for no reason.

Also, anyone unfamiliar with the game's script now has a decent idea of how many loving ellipses I edit out of every update.

Kinu Nishimura
Apr 24, 2008

SICK LOOT!
I remember from the last LP that Kahn is a pretty rad dude who punches the undead to redeath so I can't not like him. I sure hope he's, like, actually good.

RuanGacho
Jun 20, 2002

"You're gunna break it!"

Kahn is a fair to good character, I voiced my resentment about him mainly out of a quiet decade old ache that this game get a western localized remake very badly. Maybe it's time has passed as far as the western market's appetite for SRPGs not released by NIS but when I day dream about a Shining Force Strategy Anthology made of the 3 central titles of the series I imagine Kahn would look more like the benders from the Avatar series than the cestus that shouldn't be.

marshmallow creep
Dec 10, 2008

I've been sitting here for 5 mins trying to think of a joke to make but I just realised the animators of Mass Effect already did it for me

inthesto posted:

A big thanks to RuanGacho for holding down the fort and letting me use my fast forward button for this fight. Honestly, this fight wouldn't be nearly as tedious if we could just control Kahn, but I don't draw comparisons to Thracia 776 for no reason.

Also, anyone unfamiliar with the game's script now has a decent idea of how many loving ellipses I edit out of every update.

What on earth possessed them to build the encounter this way? Kahn joins you anyway, so why not have him declare his loyalties at the start rather than the end?

inthesto
May 12, 2010

Pro is an amazing name!
My best guess is that Camelot wanted to flex some more robust map designs, and not all of them panned out. If Kahn joins up for the fight, then you have nothing more than trash mobs that get one-shotted by your new character. Leading around the AI to clean it all up is more challenging, unfortunately it makes things even less interesting.

I don't blame Camelot for trying new things, considering there's maybe two fights in pre-ShF3 history that are tactically interesting. Just don't get too ruffled yet, because it's going to get a lot worse in scenario 2.

Glazius
Jul 22, 2007

Hail all those who are able,
any mouse can,
any mouse will,
but the Guard prevail.

Clapping Larry
Is there any actual payoff for not killing the possessed villagers, or is it like one of those "game over if you kill one" scenarios?

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Ardeem
Sep 16, 2010

There is no problem that cannot be solved through sufficient application of lasers and friendship.
All of the Kyonshi are villagers, so if you kill one of them you might not have a store clerk to buy weapon upgrades from. Also one of them is recruitable into the force.

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