Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Post
  • Reply
Greyarc
Dec 29, 2016



Let's Play Bravely Default: Where the Fairy Flies!

Bravely Default is a JRPG currently exclusive to the 3DS, created by small developer Silicon Studio and influenced/published by behemoth company Square Enix (published by Nintendo when released internationally). Though originally intended as a side Final Fantasy title, early in development Silicon Studio decided to make Bravely Default into a brand new franchise, mixing Final Fantasy elements with their own vibe.

What Is This Game About?
Friendship, beating up bad guys, being heroes, avenging destroyed hometowns, and saving shiny crystals.

Widely hailed at its release as being a worthy successor to SNES-era JRPGs, the truth is more rocky. Bravely Default has great strengths -- sweet background art, a lively translation, an upgrade of the Final Fantasy 5 job system, the ability to turn off random encounters -- as well as massive flaws, especially in the latter part of the game.

I can't recommend playing the game unless you are in the mood for melodrama, mind-numbing repetition, and an... awkward ending. Not as strange as a Yoko Taro game, but it makes an attempt.

How Will This LP Work?
This will be 100% screenshots (with a few pieces of concept art) and writing. Focus will be on showing off all major event paths in the game and entries from D's Journal (the in-game encyclopedia).

Spoilers?
No story spoilers for Bravely Default or its sequels. Talking about jobs mechanics is fine, just don't get into where the jobs come from until they're gotten. To keep things clear, here's a handy list:

Do Not:
-talk about the sequels regarding the story.
-talk about events that have not yet been shown in the LP.
-wink wink nudge nudge at future events if you know what's going to happen.

Do:
-talk about the stuff that's been shown in the LP.
-theory-crafting for what might possibly happen next, so long as you appear to be genuinely guessing.
-compare Bravely Default to other works, so long as it includes no spoilers and the off-topic conversation doesn't get too extended.
-talk gameplay mostly without restriction, so long as it does not include spoiling story.















Greyarc fucked around with this message at 08:33 on Feb 1, 2019

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Greyarc
Dec 29, 2016

Entry 1: New Game: The Fairy's Call





The save up top is the base for this New Game+ playthrough.

The only thing getting carried over for the LP are records of previously viewed cutscenes. Bravely Default has a ton of multi-choice cutscenes, meaning to catch them all you need multiple playthroughs.

Let's start.






The fairy is speaking directly to the player. This game breaks the fourth wall.

It won't come up often, but keep it in mind.







Usually games are a bit more subtle about massaging the player's ego.



there's something I'd very much like to show you.

But...








The game asks to play an AR movie here. Although it asks for an AR marker, if you have none, the game will play the movie for you anyway. If you try it at home, prepare to have an anime character invade your personal space.








Can you hear my prayers?



Wherever you are

Whoever you are...

Please, you must listen!

Everything around her shakes, sending her into a panic.



I've no one to turn to now but you...

The walls of the world are falling down around us.



All of us were fools.

Such a base and hateful snare...

Yet none of us saw it!



But now... I cannot abandon my injured friends to death.

You who hear my prayer...

You whom I've yet to meet...



If there is still time yet, save them!

My friends. This world!



Everything quakes again and a crack opens below her, causing her to trip and fall into a newly made hole. She just catches herself on the edge.



I beg of you.

Become my warrior of light!




And then she falls. That was certainly all out of the blue.

Side note: Bravely Default has several AR movies. Aside from this one, five others are viewable using AR cards available on Nintendo's website. The other movies are just fluff character bits, there's no missable plot info or such.

Next is the third and final opening movie.

Greyarc fucked around with this message at 02:18 on Mar 3, 2017

Greyarc
Dec 29, 2016

Entry 2: Opening Movie: Four Tales





A girl is being clothed while women speak in the background.





Something must be done!





The girl from the AR movie looks and sounds significantly less panicked here.







Servant and vestal to the crystal of wind.



Despite being a new series, this game remains firmly attached to Final Fantasy.













Lady Agnès!















That was character one. Three more to go.










I've no memory, you see.







But its pages hold no history--only the future.



Priorities.



Someone's popular with the ladies.












Character two, resident goofball. Two more to go.






Please do me this honor... One final test of skill!









Yet, my father...



You've a long road ahead.







For your father,



you must apprehend her at all cost.



wear this at your side.
This is your finest blade. Ise-no-Kami.





We've switched from the sparring arena to Edea on the ship, being sent off by a cheering crowd of soldiers, including Master Kamiizumi and...



Dad's got a lion-like look to him.

Wait, what are the soldiers wearing...? I think their military needs a new armor designer.







One thing you can always count on Final Fantasy for -- fantastic looking but completely impractical airship designs. I don't want to imagine the wind chill she's facing up there.

We've got our priest-type, the Lothario, and the warrior-in-training. One more character to go.












Til is a ditz.



Tiz is acting appropriately like an older brother.



*Rumble*







Run, Til! Just don't trip and fa... oh, right. Ditz. :ohdear:

A flash of light later:



Let me go! We'll both fall at this rate!

I'm not losing you. Ever! Now hurry and give me your hand!



Another large quake, and...















Next, gameplay.

Greyarc fucked around with this message at 07:34 on Feb 24, 2017

Greyarc
Dec 29, 2016

Entry 3: Everything's Not Great



Obviously we're in for a light-hearted romp.



The screen fades in and out for a few seconds.





I serve as captain of the Caldislan guard. My name is Owen. Can you tell me yours?



You were found unconscious in the ravine near Norende.



Your village is gone.

A great chasm opened in the earth and all of Norende was swallowed up in darkness.

You were spared, but the others... Pray, do not think on it now. You need your rest. There will be time for mourning later.

Tiz says nothing, understandably. Owen leaves the room.





Aye, and all alone in the world. And past that solitude, what? Guilt at surviving? Pitiable lad...



Owen exits.



We switch back to Tiz, out of bed and now playable!



While standing/walking around, the 3DS lower screen displays a map of the area. White shows where accessible area. Yellow circle is player character. Blue shows area exits. Yellow exclamation shows where to go next for main quest. The marker on the left edge of the screen pops up a secondary menu, which I'll cover later on.



Standing in place long enough will zoom out the camera, showing off the game's often quite outstanding art.





No need to worry, ma'am and sir, Tiz has the fortitude of a JRPG protagonist.

But before we leave...





Tiz scrounges around in a planted pot for some loose change. Every bit helps when you've just lost everything and everyone.

Stepping outside gives us a pan of the city:











The staff icon indicates a magic shop, vial icon an item shop, and sword icon an equipment shop.

There are few interior areas in towns; checking the shop door brings up a shopping screen. Minimal, but it works. The pink hat icon with the tiny S next to us is the man in red, the Adventurer.



The Adventurer will appear all over, save our game, handle some online game features, and later act as a shop.



Huh? Not the Adventurer, I assume.



Ah-ha, it's our Don Juan friend from the opening movie. How long has he been loitering around Caldisla? RIght now he's speaking gibberish and seems wrapped up in his own thoughts.



Attempting to leave town to find adventure and glory in battle results in resistance from Tiz. Let's head to the castle first, chatting with the local populace on the way.



Good to know.

They're saying Norende's lost. No survivors. ...Huh? You're from the village?



Might have been when the nearby village fell into a 50-mile diameter glowing sinkhole.



A nice graveyard in the corner of town.



Someone left a potion next to the church door. Wouldn't want it to go to waste.

Also, a phoenix down was on the other side of the graveyard. Someone in this town has either a sick sense of humor or is very naive.





The in-game encyclopedia entries often have neat details, so I'll be posting those.



The entire sea? That should be cataclysmic.



The palace is at the top of the hill.





It seems like a relaxed court as far as visitors are concerned.

The kingdom is under attack from the Knights of the Eternian Sky at present.


There's a large lake to the southwest. The Sky Knights seem to have taken up camp there.



Hm, so things aren't peaceful in the kingdom at the moment. Let's speak with the king.



I offer my deepest regrets for your loss. I cannot ease your pain, but time may. Stay and rest all you need.

Your Highness is so very kind, um... but my plan is to leave for the village straight away.

Admirable lad. But danger hounds the road to Norende. That gaping maw has drawn beasts of all stripe to it. It's overrun with monsters.





...Very well. Though it shames me to send you off alone.



I'll manage on my own. Thank you, Your Highness.

Do be careful, child. And know that you've a place here when you return.



And that'll do it for a start. Now we've got a goal. Next time, the first battles of the game.

--

Event Viewer scenes watched:
Awakening
Caldisla, Land of Beginnings
An Audience with Caldisla's King

Greyarc fucked around with this message at 07:35 on Feb 24, 2017

Pureauthor
Jul 8, 2010

ASK ME ABOUT KISSING A GHOST
So, first thing to note: I really love what they do with the backgrounds and designs for towns. Whole place looks like a watercolour painting.

Monk E
May 19, 2009
Cool nice to see an lp of this I considered getting it for awhile due to loving me some job system but never got around to it, also I could have sworn that this was a sequel to Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light.

EagerSleeper
Feb 3, 2010

by R. Guyovich

Pureauthor posted:

So, first thing to note: I really love what they do with the backgrounds and designs for towns. Whole place looks like a watercolour painting.

Same here. I was very pleased to see the main character walk around in a world that looked a lot like a Professor Layton game.:allear:

Greyarc
Dec 29, 2016

Monk E posted:

I could have sworn that this was a sequel to Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light.

The project had some of the same key players working on it, so it was rumored to be at first, but producer Tomoyo Asano decided to start a new series separate from Final Fantasy instead.

Cattail Prophet
Apr 12, 2014

So I never did get around to playing this, but I did play Bravely Second. It's my vague understanding that the sequel is pretty much a superior experience all around. Is this fairly accurate? I know the super tedious thing from this game gets implemented in a much less tedious and actually kind of clever way.

Like Clockwork
Feb 17, 2012

It's only the Final Battle once all the players are ready.

Ah, this game. It has some very, very good points and I enjoyed playing it greatly, but its flaws were enough that I didn't finish my NG+ attempt.

I look forward to seeing how you handle showing some of the more... Obnoxious? Mechanics of the game.

EponymousMrYar
Jan 4, 2015

The enemy of my enemy is my enemy.
This world's money is rated PG for pretty good.

Or they're pages of a really, really, really big book.

DoubleNegative
Jan 27, 2010

The most virtuous child in the entire world.
Hell yeah, a Bravely Default thread. I'm definitely gonna be following this thread, because this game is pretty good. Except when it's not, but even then it's still rad.

theshim
May 1, 2012

You think you can defeat ME, Ephraimcopter?!?

You couldn't even beat Assassincopter!!!
Despite its issues, Bravely Default is a pretty fantastic product.

Are you planning on linking the music? Because you really should. BD's soundtrack, composed by Revo, is one of the best game soundtracks I've heard to date. I also really liked the music for the opening video, as it works in the various leitmotifs of important story elements as it goes through the characters.

Definitely following with interest.

serefin99
Apr 15, 2016

Mikoooon~
Your lovely shrine maiden fox wife, Tamamo no Mae, is here to help!

Well this'll be a good read, I hope. I've heard a lot of good things about this game (and it seemed to be everywhere I went for a few months after it came out), but never actually bothered playing it myself. Time to see what all the fuss is about.

ModeWondershot
Dec 30, 2014

Portu-geezer
I will absolutely say that this game captures the feel of a 90's JRPG just about perfectly, though with enough modern improvements to make it seem a bit more tolerable as a game.

I'll look forward to reading your progress.

Greyarc
Dec 29, 2016

theshim posted:

Are you planning on linking the music? Because you really should.

Just a heads up, I will not be linking music or videos. Only plain and simple screenshots (and a few other related images).

But everyone's welcome to find the music somewhere else and jam out when we get to Hartschild.

Glazius
Jul 22, 2007

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

Clapping Larry
Yet nobody's keeping an eye on this kid in case he runs down a monster infested road looking for survivors of the sinkholcalypse?

C-Euro
Mar 20, 2010

:science:
Soiled Meat
Hey I should go back and finish this game, it was fun but it has the issue (that other class-based jRPGs have) where you can't really mix and match jobs and skills until well into the game. In fact, the way the stats work in this game I almost felt like I was being punished for switching too many people's jobs at once.

Araxxor
Oct 20, 2012

My disdain for you all knows no bounds.

C-Euro posted:

Hey I should go back and finish this game, it was fun but it has the issue (that other class-based jRPGs have) where you can't really mix and match jobs and skills until well into the game. In fact, the way the stats work in this game I almost felt like I was being punished for switching too many people's jobs at once.

Yeah, unfortunately the effect the job level has was a bit too steep in this game. It did give a 1% boost to all stats per job level and all that. But the real kicker was that it had a severe effect on your hit count, which was a big part of where most of your damage came from. Bravely Second toned down he effect job levels had on your hit count heavily, so you could swap jobs more easily in that game.

Greyarc
Dec 29, 2016

Entry 4: Mostly Tutorials



This duchy/Sky Knights/Knights of the Eternian Sky seems to be giving the kingdom of Caldisla a lot of trouble. Nothing to do with us, though.

Now, how to get back to ex-Norende?

Hmm, it's a bit dangerous, but if you make for Norende, use the canyon pass.

Thanks, Captain Owen.



To prepare for the journey, Tiz risks catching fire to scrabble out some more cash from a torch. A vial of eye drops are stuck in the throne room's western statue. He also takes a complimentary potion from his former bedside, and finds an antidote someone stashed in the bush outside the inn.





They may be grubby, but no sense passing up free items and money.



A trip to the armory gets some upgrades, including the shiny new buckler seen here. Main and off-hand items are visible during battles. Our gear situation now includes:









Tiz has no need to equip The Best, he's still in tutorial land. Besides, that invisible rabbit fur trim pointy hat is snazzy.

Time to head out. but before that, what about the guy from the opening movie who was hanging around?



! He's knows Tiz!



...Nevermind, time to go.





Safe guess the giant black circle is ex-Norende. We're the fuzzy yellow dot, so we've got a ways to travel.

Tiz pauses to ponder the oily-looking ocean...





Until night falls. Enemy and town NPC availability vary depending on whether it's day or night.



This game has random encounters like many JRPGs. Where this game improves is in the ability to change, at any time with menu access, without penalty, the rate at which random encounters occur. This includes switching to -100%, which will stop random encounters from occurring altogether.

This feature will eventually be a necessity to keep the game tolerable. But for now, random encounters are fine.





Tiz finds a zombie. The basic battle system is the JRPG turn-based standard, with Attack doing a basic weapon attack, Abilities doing fancier stuff, Items allowing access to inventory, and Run (away).



We start with just one ability: Examine. Tiz decides to get a closer look at the zombie.



Examine shows HP, weaknesses, family (as in type of monster), and more. Zombie doesn't like fire or light, and is undead.



Zombie protests its privacy being invaded with its own special attack.







Luckily, Tiz the shepherd took out sheep thieves regularly, so this is no big deal.



6 money, 3 experience, and 1 job point. Although money and experience are good as ever, JP is key.



Jobs are what the game is all about, gameplay-wise. There are many jobs, you level the jobs using JP, you learn a new ability with every job level.



The dots on the wheel indicate how many jobs we'll get, eventually. But for now, we're stuck with Freelancer.



As with items and equipment, every enemy type defeated gets its own description.



North of town is the broken bridge we were told about.



Tiz takes his warm-up stretches very seriously.



He probably faced these when he herded sheep.





A basic slime. The enemies at this stage are not very exciting.



Here's the canyon pass Owen told us about. Norende should be just beyond.





Area maps fill in as we explore.



The ravine is mostly a single path.





The lower path leads to a potion in the chest.

Along the way, the game opens the Brave and Default battle commands. These allow a character to take up to 4 turns in a row (Brave) or save up to 4 turns while taking less damage (Default).



The BP counter under Tiz's face shows how many extra actions he can take that turn. With Brave and Default, that BP counter can be manipulated.

Normally, an action like attacking brings the counter down to -1, then every turn adds +1, allowing a normal attack every turn.
Tiz -> Monster -> Tiz -> Monster.

If we Braved once as shown, taking two attack actions in a row, we'd then have to wait 2 turns to get back to 0 BP.
Tiz -> Tiz -> Monster -> Monster.

It'll really shine once we get more abilities.









The place is littered with goblins, including their more advanced brethren.



Tiz vanquished all who dared get in his line of sight.



Second area map. The treasure opposite the first contained 200 pg, a valuable donation to the buy-one-of-everything-in-the-shops fund.





In the third and final area, a green adventurer and the yellow plot marker await.


Next time: The second playable character and a boatload of double entendres.
--

Event Viewer scenes watched:
None

quote:



Continent of Caldis:
Surrounded by the North Caldis Sea, Etersen Sea, and the Sea of Corsairs, this small continent is almost completely covered in a mountainous region known as the Norende Heights, but on the east coast, there is a narrow flatland area with a thriving city.

Blessed with a mild climate and warm ocean currents, this land has four beautiful seasons and bountiful fishing and forestry.

Greyarc fucked around with this message at 07:35 on Feb 24, 2017

Pixeltendo
Mar 2, 2012


Looking forward to this LP, having beaten the game last year it's certainly special in good and bad ways.

Aces High
Mar 26, 2010

Nah! A little chocolate will do




I'm going to enjoy this, I've never been a huge FF fan but I read about this game and decided to buy it based off of reviews saying it had a lot of personality. Only downside about this being screenshot only is we're going to miss out on some hilariously on-point voice acting

Pittsburgh Lambic
Feb 16, 2011
One particular detail I liked about Edea's intro: She only lost the fight with Kamiizumi because her sword snapped, so she was given the sword that broke it. She's a dangerous little bastard.

Nuramor
Dec 13, 2012

Most Amewsing Prinny Ever!
So how do you 'activate' wether you're using Brave or Default? That screenshot wasn't very conclusive.

ThatPirateguy
Mar 18, 2015

Nuramor posted:

So how do you 'activate' wether you're using Brave or Default? That screenshot wasn't very conclusive.

You use the shoulder buttons to either brave or default. You press L to brave up to 3 times and pressing R to default which just skips the character's turn so he can defend.

Xander77
Apr 6, 2009

Fuck it then. For another pit sandwich and some 'tater salad, I'll post a few more.



Pittsburgh Lambic posted:

One particular detail I liked about Edea's intro: She only lost the fight with Kamiizumi because her sword snapped, so she was given the sword that broke it. She's a dangerous little bastard.
Huh. I had no idea that was what happened, due to lack of video links. Then again, I generally feel there's something off about the way things are conveyed here.

Greyarc
Dec 29, 2016

Aces High posted:

Only downside about this being screenshot only is we're going to miss out on some hilariously on-point voice acting

Yeah, the voice acting in this game is fantastic. They're especially good for the comical bits. And boy am I glad Ringabel's voice isn't like the Japanese VA, who uses a deep exaggerated macho voice.

Pittsburgh Lambic posted:

One particular detail I liked about Edea's intro: She only lost the fight with Kamiizumi because her sword snapped, so she was given the sword that broke it. She's a dangerous little bastard.

Darn, I hadn't thought of it like that. I should've kept that screenshot in. That fight scene was difficult to show without dumping in a ton of images; it really should be watched in video form.



Nuramor posted:

So how do you 'activate' wether you're using Brave or Default? That screenshot wasn't very conclusive.

Aside from the L/R thing ThatPirateguy mentions: there's a screenshot earlier in the post showing the menu commands (Attack, Items, Run...). Brave and Default are two of the options.

Xander77 posted:

Huh. I had no idea that was what happened, due to lack of video links. Then again, I generally feel there's something off about the way things are conveyed here.

This is my first time writing an LP, so I'm learning on the fly and things might be rough. If there's something specific bugging folks, let me know and I can attempt to fix/acknowledge it.

Pittsburgh Lambic
Feb 16, 2011

Greyarc posted:

Darn, I hadn't thought of it like that. I should've kept that screenshot in. That fight scene was difficult to show without dumping in a ton of images; it really should be watched in video form.

The fight's neat to see. Edea attacks like a whirlwind and Kamiizumi just stands there, calmly defending even when Edea's doing poo poo like flipping overhead to attack from behind. Then, she charges in underneath Kamiizumi's guard, raises her sword to block the overhead strike, and her sword breaks.

Any way you could provide GIFs of stuff in the game?

Commander Keene
Dec 21, 2016

Faster than the others



I doubt it. From what I gather, the way TC is getting the shots for this LP is kind of like playing a game with one finger on the "Print Screen" button, but a lot slower and somewhat less reliable. Getting enough shots to make even a short animated GIF would not only be nearly impossible, but extremely time-consuming.

Greyarc
Dec 29, 2016

Bingo. It's technically possible, but practically speaking, unfeasible. I've learned to work with my method otherwise, but this is one of the big downsides.

Glazius
Jul 22, 2007

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

Clapping Larry
Good lord that's a lot of jobs.

Maybe it's just seeing them all lined up like that that makes it seem so many.

Epsilon Moonshade
Nov 22, 2016

Not an excellent host.

Oh my, a BD LP. I am so looking forward to this. :allears:

I played through this game twice, believe it or not - it's definitely something you should do if you have the game, because there is so much loving foreshadowing. If someone spoils one particular part (if you played, you prooobably know what I'm talking about,) they deserve to get straight-up banned for it. The no spoilers policy is a very good thing here.

Greyarc posted:



The in-game encyclopedia entries often have neat details, so I'll be posting those.

It took reading that description for the Phoenix Down in BD for me to realize that it's referring to "down" as in feathers. :eng99: I've been playing FF games and their like for drat near 20 years.


Glazius posted:

Good lord that's a lot of jobs.

Maybe it's just seeing them all lined up like that that makes it seem so many.

No, don't worry, it's just a metric fuckton of jobs. The neat part is that they all have their useful bits depending on your gameplay style. I won't get into specifics, but warrior or mage types are all viable (though not necessarily optimal) choices towards the endgame in my experience.

ultrafilter
Aug 23, 2007

It's okay if you have any questions.


Glazius posted:

Good lord that's a lot of jobs.

Maybe it's just seeing them all lined up like that that makes it seem so many.

I count 24 slots total (including Freelancer), which is only two more than the FFV SNES release had.

At a high level, how does the job system for this game compare to the one in FFV?

Araxxor
Oct 20, 2012

My disdain for you all knows no bounds.

ultrafilter posted:

I count 24 slots total (including Freelancer), which is only two more than the FFV SNES release had.

At a high level, how does the job system for this game compare to the one in FFV?

Most of the broken stuff you can pull off in this game was actually intentional, for one.

Epsilon Moonshade
Nov 22, 2016

Not an excellent host.

ultrafilter posted:

I count 24 slots total (including Freelancer), which is only two more than the FFV SNES release had.

Huh. Maybe a lot of the FF5 classes being lovely/subpar made me forget that. You're right (double-checked on GameFAQs,) but I genuinely didn't remember that many classes.

ultrafilter posted:

At a high level, how does the job system for this game compare to the one in FFV?

Two somewhat different systems, although there's quite a bit of crossover in the job names. I suspect Greyarc will cover the jobs in better detail once we get our first job, and I don't want to steal their thunder.

Short version is that you can bind a job's command set (abilities) to another class, but that's really the only benefit you get from that. You do get all the abilities though, so you don't have to bind only steal (for example) from the thief class.

You can also bind other skills (separate from your secondary job) you get from leveling up a job to a character (which could be anything from a weapon proficiency to a counterattack to "gently caress everything below my level in random battles.")

Ramc
May 4, 2008

Bringing your thread to a screeching halt, guaranteed.

You should totally link the music because it is incredible, especially the stuff around the human bosses.

I loved this game and everything about it, even the tedious stuff.

Paperio
Mar 1, 2012

Ramc posted:

You should totally link the music because it is incredible, especially the stuff around the human bosses.

I loved this game and everything about it, even the tedious stuff.
Seconded. I would not mind that one song being posted every single time it pops up. Hearing it during the demo sold me on the game almost completely by itself.

Greyarc
Dec 29, 2016

Entry 5: Meet a Special Character



Here...



Keep this with you always. This is hope, you see. It's from those who care about you.



This device allows Bravely Second, which gives extra turns during combat. It's powered using SP, which are gained every eight real-time hours the game is in sleep mode. You can also spend real money to get some instantly, but that's completely unnecessary.

Anyway, Norende should be just through that entry next to the adventurer. Maybe Tiz is right. Even if the chance is slim, there might be someone left to save, something left to salvage--








Or not. Wait...



There is someone there.

Can you hear my prayers?



Familiar lines.

Can you see the wound torn open before me?

Please, let the walls of the world collapse no further. Let me be strong enough to stem this flood.

She then prays silently.







If you know something, tell me. Please. What caused that chasm?

Did anyone else survive? Surely at least a few others... I need information. Anything!



I won't accept that all those lives have ended. Not without a search!



You alone survived. I am sorry. I am sorry...



A strange mechanical noise comes from above...





...and we switch to this odd crew.



I've the eyes of a hawk, ha ha! And the nose of seven wolves!



Now stop yapping and go fetch.



What a pair.



...! The Sky Knights! I thought I'd covered my trail...!



What? Why!?

I'll not involve an innocent bystander.





Aah!

Gah, cannonfire!? This is madness!

Ngh...





And with that--





We have our second party member.



She comes equipped with a new type of armor. She's not a fighter-type, it seems.

Nowhere to go but back through the ravine.





While under cannonfire.




With two party members, it's easier to show off one of the most basic uses of the Brave/Default system: Everyone Braves three times, then attacks 4 times in a row, all in one turn. Without Defaulting it'll reduce BP to -4, but so long as all enemies die during that turn, there's no downside -- BP resets between battles.




The game encourages this type of play with Battle Bonuses. The orange and green bonuses listed (for winning the battle in one turn and taking no damage, respectively) give corresponding bonus EXP and JP. You can also get chain bonuses for doing this multiple battles in a row. This'll come in handy for grinding later.



Further down the ravine path, we find out how the Saturday Morning cartoon duo are doing.

There are only two tactics a real warrior needs! Frontal assault, and death by frontal assault!

Hah! Listen to yourself. In a froth over a little girl.





Mmm, good boy. Bring her back, and I may just reward you. But be quick about it. I'm opening fire as soon as I forget about you, and I've a short memory for dawdlers.

Y-yes'm!

The soldier runs off... and jumps down in front of our heroes.



Pause.

They don't seem like the type to listen.

Here they come!





Despite the dramatic opening, Sky Knight soldiers are only slightly stronger than the other enemies around here.



Will Tiz and Agnès (yes, her name was mentioned in the opening) make it out alive? This update's getting split into a smaller portion to spare the first page, so we'll find out later.


Next: PLOT, :words:, and endless '.......'

--

Event Viewer
Main Scenario:
A Maiden's Prayer
On the Precipice of Despair
The Sky Knights Attack!
The Sky Knights Descend


quote:

Norende Village:
This small settlement is situated on the Norende Heights that stretch across the continent of Caldis. Its people are primarily involved in forestry as well as animal husbandry that makes use of the expansive mountaintop plains across the region.

The narrow byway that runs alongside Norende Ravine at the upper reaches of the Caldis River is little used, even by the locals, for it is dim and dangerous even by day.




Greyarc fucked around with this message at 07:36 on Feb 24, 2017

Pureauthor
Jul 8, 2010

ASK ME ABOUT KISSING A GHOST
The two goofballs in the airship are The Best.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Kemix
Dec 1, 2013

Because change

Pureauthor posted:

The two goofballs in the airship are The Best.

Seriously. Kinda wish they had more screen time. I'd love to watch them bicker like an old married couple for a bit, just as a gag.

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Post
  • Reply