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                        It's not outside the norm to see bizarre re-imaginings of classic works. Whether it's a retelling of Othello based around basketball or a somber Korean dark comedy being turned into a claymation, musical, sometimes great things can be remade with a little imagination. Now it's questionable if this is always a good idea, especially when a re-imagining happens in the form of either video games or anime. Which brings up to the topic of this LP, Sword of Etheria (or it's original Japanese title OZ, which is just a shortening of Over Zenith). Released in 2005 by Konami, the game takes place in a magical fantasy world where gods rule the planet with an iron fist and an army of super powerful beings. What caused the gods to turn on humanity and just why are they pillaging the countrysides is a mystery lost to some forgotten event hundreds of years ago. Caught in the middle of all this is a young boy and his friends who are having to fight for survival and each other against overwhelming odds, but things are not as bleak as it seems because it's not long before the boy finds some help in the oddest of places.    The members of OZ, the god's crack team of top tier soldiers called in for only the most dangerous of jobs. The team consists of their level headed leader Cain, the cold and calculating Almira, and the hot tempered hunk Leon. They start the game called off to some top secret mission for the gods....but something goes terribly wrong.    Our protagonist, Fiel (or Feel in Japanese) is your standard amnesiac hero with a dark past and a hidden power. He's protector and life long companion of the innocent Dorothy who always seems to be stumbling into trouble. Also they have a flying, talking, sassy cat named Toto. He's kind of an rear end in a top hat.    With the original OZ team disbanded due to their failings in the past, the gods saw it fit to find an even more dangerous group of Katenas to replace them. The new OZ consists of the cruel insectoid, Vitis, the bratty, ranged weapons mistress, Juju, and the grizzled old wolfman, Galumn. discworld is all I read fucked around with this message at 08:18 on Dec 16, 2015 |
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Oct 3, 2015 23:47
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| # ? Apr 24, 2024 14:31 |
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    Hey there everyone, it's time to try a little something different. Now I know three updates might seem like a lot, but the start of the game is a bit glacial and tutorial laden....and short? So this is realistically getting all the opening story and tutorial out of the way. Also just as a bit of feedback, how would people feel if I didn't speak during the wordy text dialogue bits? I can easily summarize them after they're done and just leave in a time stamp when they're done because I know they aren't the most exciting things in the world but I want to leave them in in case people do wish to see conversation choices or things like that. And finally, I'll probably be looking for co-commentary partners for later updates, so if you feel like joining in for some rambling nonsense then feel free to hit me up in here. discworld is all I read fucked around with this message at 23:58 on Oct 3, 2015 |
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Oct 3, 2015 23:48
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Over Zenith, huh? They literally named the game 'over the top.' I'm sure this bodes well for this being a grounded and realistic story 
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Oct 4, 2015 05:28
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A re-imagining of the Wizard of Oz? I'll check this out, if only to see how much they take from the original story.
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Oct 4, 2015 05:36
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Crigit posted:Over Zenith, huh? They literally named the game 'over the top.' I'm sure this bodes well for this being a grounded and realistic story Mraagvpeine posted:A re-imagining of the Wizard of Oz? I'll check this out, if only to see how much they take from the original story. Also if there is any feedback you guys have, since this is kind of a new type of game for me to LP, then I'm all ears. I'll probably try to have the next video with time stamped text dialogue, just to give it a try.
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Oct 4, 2015 06:21
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I'm liking the way they adapted the wizard of oz and just replaced the original female lead with some superficially tin mannish figure. What a bold creative decision.
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Oct 4, 2015 08:42
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 With our new party member things start to go a tad bit smoother. Also I put the blow into deathblow...cause I suck.
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Oct 10, 2015 09:27
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It's kind of distracting how the character portraits randomly disappear during the dialogue cutscenes.
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Oct 10, 2015 15:40
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Black Feather posted:It's kind of distracting how the character portraits randomly disappear during the dialogue cutscenes. Yeah, I've noticed that too. What's up with that?
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Oct 10, 2015 15:46
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No idea; the game just does that. I thought initially it might be an emulator problem but that doesn't seem to be the case.
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Oct 10, 2015 21:33
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 It was only a matter of time before Steven Blum appeared.
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Oct 17, 2015 08:00
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It's really neat how you actually have to interact with your team members while fighting instead of them being reduced to chipping away enemy health while you do the actual combat. Having the AI primarily be there just to set up and continue chaining seems like one of the better ways to do it & while I'm sure some other games have done something similar I can't really think of any, which is a shame.
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Oct 17, 2015 12:20
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Finding this game pretty interesting so far. I really like how they made teamwork integral to the gameplay as well. After seeing a fair few action games with party members that act as little more than meat shields, it's pretty refreshing and I'm not sure why I haven't really seen the system used in other games. It makes me wonder why this game fell under the radar.
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Oct 17, 2015 14:17
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Is it possible to buy everything in the shop, or does it get too expensive and isn't worth it?
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Oct 17, 2015 16:47
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Mraagvpeine posted:Is it possible to buy everything in the shop, or does it get too expensive and isn't worth it? Hel posted:It's really neat how you actually have to interact with your team members while fighting instead of them being reduced to chipping away enemy health while you do the actual combat. Having the AI primarily be there just to set up and continue chaining seems like one of the better ways to do it & while I'm sure some other games have done something similar I can't really think of any, which is a shame. Limopalise posted:Finding this game pretty interesting so far. I really like how they made teamwork integral to the gameplay as well. After seeing a fair few action games with party members that act as little more than meat shields, it's pretty refreshing and I'm not sure why I haven't really seen the system used in other games. I just hope in the end I'm presenting it in a somewhat fun and competent manner...especially considering there's still like 15 stages of game to go.
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Oct 17, 2015 21:42
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Talpa Ruga is probably a play on "talpa" (mole) and "tartaruga" (turtle), since they seem to have some sort of hard shell on their back.
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Oct 18, 2015 19:54
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 Hooray, a new location and an interesting, difficult boss. Also we save some children and deal with the first real nasty traps of the game. Black Feather posted:Talpa Ruga is probably a play on "talpa" (mole) and "tartaruga" (turtle), since they seem to have some sort of hard shell on their back.
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Oct 23, 2015 10:21
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Leon is such a softy.
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Oct 23, 2015 16:23
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Leon seems kind of adorable, really. Definitely not how I imagined him to be at first. And that boss looked like fun, I'm getting increasingly tempted to hunt down a copy of this game.
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Oct 24, 2015 00:11
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Black Feather posted:Leon seems kind of adorable, really. Definitely not how I imagined him to be at first. But yeah, I think the game is going the direction that while people might seem one way on the exterior they're probably a different way deep down. You just got to beat them savagely to reach that inner core. And that boss can be great if you've gotten a hold of combat and understand how to fight it. It's hard to explain how frustrating it is to try to knock the flying guy out of the air to find out it's nigh on impossible, or trying to get to the guy while he's dazed only to have the larger fellow bum rush over and knock you out of the way...or even worse getting ready to knock the dazed guy up, only to be grabbed by the larger gent. I actually find most of the bosses are pretty fun, even if most of them boil down to 'find something to juggle, work up your tension, and deathblow'. Still I'm wondering (and hoping) that the change to subtitles telling when the text dialogue is done is working out better than the first two videos of me rambling and trying to fill dead air. I hope the plot isn't lost or people can easily skip it if they want.
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Oct 24, 2015 03:16
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I definitely appreciate you notifying when the dialogue finishes, and while I usually watch the cutscenes anyway, I think you do a good job of contextualising what's happening afterwards for those who skip it. And it's nice to see the game utilise its unique mechanics to make pretty interesting bosses like that.
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Oct 24, 2015 03:44
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 It's time to meet the fearsome and awkwardly named new members of OZ. Also rollerblading frogmen.
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Oct 30, 2015 10:18
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I could swear I heard Juju's voice somewhere else, and was that Izzy from Digimon?
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Oct 30, 2015 14:35
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Just spotted this, half-way caught up on the videos. I'm reminded of volleyball as I watch the juggling back and forth - the receive, set, spike dynamic of launching, passing, and then deathblow activation.
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Nov 3, 2015 07:35
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I imagine that the usefulness of the conspicuous scarf comes in your allies drawing enemy attacks. For one thing, it doesn't seem like enemies attacking your allies interrupts their attack assists, whereas Fiel seems to pretty easily get stunlocked. I'd imagine it's also pretty useful to be able to stack defense equipment on one dude and have enemies focus on him, while the rest of your squad loads up on attacking items.
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Nov 3, 2015 10:34
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Captain Bravo posted:I imagine that the usefulness of the conspicuous scarf comes in your allies drawing enemy attacks. For one thing, it doesn't seem like enemies attacking your allies interrupts their attack assists, whereas Fiel seems to pretty easily get stunlocked. I'd imagine it's also pretty useful to be able to stack defense equipment on one dude and have enemies focus on him, while the rest of your squad loads up on attacking items. Kacie posted:Just spotted this, half-way caught up on the videos.
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Nov 3, 2015 18:52
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 When you go fly fishing for lava bass you gotta make sure you bring the right dog to rustle up the prey....just make sure that dog doesn't hold some grudge against you. Also a bonus video showing the alternate boss fight you can have: Juju Boss Fight (which boss fight depends in part to which new member of OZ you defeated in the previous stage)
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Nov 6, 2015 07:26
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 Things go about as well as you'd expect when facing off against a god.
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Nov 14, 2015 07:32
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Yeah, this really did not go well at all...
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Nov 14, 2015 20:27
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 It's time to get back to the basics...and remember that it sucks to be basic. Also graboids.
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Nov 20, 2015 09:14
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I'm guessing that if you had the Juju bossfight, you'd have Leon here and Juju would find you at the end?
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Nov 26, 2015 08:32
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Only three episodes in, but I'm getting a lot of Chaos Legion vibes from in this, in the sense that it seems like a very diet version of Devil May Cry. The story is super PS2 era dramatic/enigmatic as well.
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Nov 26, 2015 09:57
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 Happy Thanksgiving! I'm going to drink myself stupid. Shei-kun posted:I'm guessing that if you had the Juju bossfight, you'd have Leon here and Juju would find you at the end? RealSovietBear posted:Only three episodes in, but I'm getting a lot of Chaos Legion vibes from in this, in the sense that it seems like a very diet version of Devil May Cry. The story is super PS2 era dramatic/enigmatic as well. discworld is all I read fucked around with this message at 10:31 on Nov 26, 2015 |
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Nov 26, 2015 10:17
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This game really likes showing you Toto's butt, doesn't it?
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Nov 28, 2015 08:28
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 Here's a double update; one weird arena, a sweet rear end boss fight and a returning friend. It's truly a magical chain of events. Also for the two who might be interested, the song used is from a really fun horror core band called Calabrese: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULEYckKnBaw
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Dec 10, 2015 10:49
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Leon's reappearance  Shounen as gently caress.
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Dec 13, 2015 06:42
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Shei-kun posted:Leon's reappearance
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Dec 13, 2015 06:56
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Niggurath posted:Well he is a beefcake with a heart of gold. Still.....what the hell is Galumn? "I won't let them control me I WILL JUMP INTO LAVA JUST TO SPITE THEM"
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Dec 13, 2015 07:35
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It seems that the rest of the LP is up on YouTube. I'm thinking it's not intentional.
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Dec 15, 2015 19:53
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| # ? Apr 24, 2024 14:31 |
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Mraagvpeine posted:It seems that the rest of the LP is up on YouTube. I'm thinking it's not intentional.
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Dec 15, 2015 19:58
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