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Pesky Splinter posted:Kikuta actually had story concepts for possible direct sequels to Koudelka (as opposed to Shadow Hearts semi-spinoff nature) if the game had been successful enough - and they carry on the tone of this game - but it's way to early to talk about that yet. Please PM me about this, or post it in the thread at the appropriate time. As someone who considers this game a piece of (really hard to play) art, this is too interesting to not know.
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Mar 25, 2018 06:26
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EagerSleeper posted:Please PM me about this, or post it in the thread at the appropriate time. As someone who considers this game a piece of (really hard to play) art, this is too interesting to not know. Seconding this, definitely dump this on us when it's appropriate.
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Mar 25, 2018 13:37
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Episode III: Welsh Hospitality.jpg) The dark scourge of stat chat and the mechanics malaise is behind us for the moment. Mostly. Let’s continue our exploration of this monastery grounds our duo has taken upon themselves to intrude into and rummage about for vague reasons. Koudelka was released far enough in the PS1’s lifecycle (just months before the PS2 was released) that survival horror-esque tech had advanced to the stage that stairs were within the realm of things that could be climbed with no loading screen. It is still a button prompt to use ‘em. But small wonders. .jpg) If you were curious as to what that lunchbox looking item on the floor was, it is a box of pistol rounds. Of course there are 20 rounds when pistols only can be loaded with six at a time. It’s like hotdog packs and hotdog rolls coming in different numbers.  .jpg) .jpg) Heading up the ladder does summon a quick loading of a new area. Hey. Quick quiz here. There is a collectable item on screen right now. It is actually a somewhat important one and the only real reason to crawl into this musty attic. Can YOU spot it?! I’ll give you a couple seconds. .jpg) If you guessed that cloth draped over a barrel that looks completely indistinguishable from a background detail, give yourself a pat on the back! Koudelka will actually look towards the item here as she passes by the barrel. The trouble is, Koudelka will also tilt her head toward room exits on occasion. So it’s easy to think she’s just trying to pivot her neck toward the ladder down. .jpg) The only thing you’d be missing is a minor little thing in the form of a map of the entire area. No big deal. Let’s venture into the menu screen to take a gander at our surroundings. .jpg) Welp. Seems like we’ve got the third floor licked. Seems a waste of parchment paper for a single room attic to get its own entry. Stick that poo poo in the corner of the second floor like it were Nemeton’s Hawaii or something. Sheesh. .jpg) .jpg) Well... that is one way to design a map. I suppose I appreciate all the rooms aren’t in a neat adjacent square configuration. But it does make it a touch hard to remember where the hell we’ve been or were going at a glance. But it isn’t like this game is beyond being obtuse for the sake of it. An X on the map indicates a room where a story event happened... I think. Rooms with check marks indicate rooms we’ve entered but nothing major happened beyond randomly punching giant bugs or pilfering wine. .jpg) .jpg) Before we depart this decrepit attic, it is imperative we nick this stale bread roll left for lord knows how long. Bread is the weakest curative consumable, healing only 150 HP. That  Music: Waterfall .jpg) Before the pair can escape the attic, another random battle is triggered. I won’t go into detail over every random battle. Just ones that feature new enemies, since the monster designer is the same one that persisted through the Shadow Hearts series and there are some... really bizarre and creative enemy designs. This is not one of those times... .jpg) Yep... That is just a floating trio of assorted chairs. It is called... EVIL CHAIRS! The Welsh – even their furniture is infused with pure malice. .jpg) The Evil Chairs smack Edward square in the jaw, inflicting the Silence status effect upon him. Personally, I’d probably yelp some “aww gently caress!” variant if a chair was smashed over my head. But I’m not a battle designer on Koudelka. Silence is, as in most RPGs, a status that prevents Magic from being cast. But since Edward doesn’t use that witchcraft nonsense...  Edward speaks with his fists. Werewolves are one thing. Giant bugs are another. But Evil Chairs? Hell no! gently caress that! Edward is having none of these evil rear end Welsh chairs’ bullshit. .jpg) .jpg) Barring that, it turns out wooden furniture, evil or not, is highly susceptible to being set ablaze. Take that shoddy stiff 1800s woodwork! We may see other evil furniture variants in the future. Of course Evil Furniture is its own genre of enemy in this game. Why wouldn’t it be? .jpg) The blood stained jester here accompanying the Evil Chairs is a Joker. This guy just exists to be an enemy buff and player character debuff nuisance. I’ve not actually seen this hopping boy do a real attack. But he’s useful to demonstrate debuffs on our characters. .jpg) .jpg) Here he used a Vitality debuff which lowered Edward’s vitality by 5 AP. Which means for the duration of this fight, unless counteracted with a Vitality Ability Fortify spell, Edward only has 121 max HP. So that’s a fun thing that can happen. Especially when coupled with an enemy that can inflict Silence and long before we get any status ailment nullifying items (also mostly found from random drops.) .jpg) .jpg) I was actually wrong about there being no victory poses. It seems to be a randomly triggered event at the end of battles. Edward is very proud of himself despite getting a chair bashed over his head so hard it broke his jaw and a court jester wizard briefly giving him brittle bones. I mean he did punch those chairs real good that one time. Hurry it up with the celebration, Ed. These random battles already take a million years. Music: Level Up! .jpg) Edward manages to Level Up this go around. Koudelka did have that extra fight with the werewolf that he didn’t participate in. If you’re wondering, Koudelka (the game) is naturally one of those titles where KOed party members receive zero experience points at the end of battle. That never seemed fair. Getting knocked the gently caress out is certainly an experience. .jpg) We are going to pump Edward's Strength, Vitality, Dexterity and Agility to make him strong, take a hit better and be somewhat faster in combat. All good things for a punchman. Music: ENDS .jpg) .jpg) Our exploration of the third floor attic is concluded. Before we run into any more battles, let’s head back down the ladder and out the door downstairs. We’re now presented with a couple options to explore. There’s a door at the end of this path and also stairs leading down to the mansion’s first floor. But first... there is another item hidden somewhere in this shot. Can YOU guess where it is located? .jpg) .jpg) Naturally it’s in a hidden shelf behind the painting in the hall. Everyone knows the first thing you should do when entering any decrepit structure larger than a mobile home is to immediately tear down every painting or poster you come across. You never know when there is going to be a pile of gold bars, magnum ammo or medieval stabbing implements. .jpg) We’ll check on the Dirk in a moment. I’d just like to point out another mechanical quirk here before we do. You’ll notice that wasn’t just any Dirk. We acquired a Mystic Dirk. As well as a Dark Knife from that fight against malicious chairs and clowns. You see, every weapon drop or pick-up in Koudelka also comes with an elemental attribute randomly assigned (this was a Fire Dirk in an earlier recording.)  That’s right, there is an elemental alignment component to battles in Koudelka on top of everything else. This is absolutely not explained at all in-game or in the manual, for that matter. There is Normal (Non-Elemental), Fire, Water, Light, Dark, Air and Earth elements. Fire and Water, Light and Dark, Air and Earth are opposite elements and will take bonus damage from one another. Likewise, enemies of a particular element will take reduced damage or even absorb damage and gain HP from being attacked by the same element. I’ll note right now that there is no Scan equivalent spell in the game nor any visual cues for enemies’ elemental alignment most of the time. Just try and see!  You might notice Mystic isn’t included in the elements. That’s because there is also Mystic and Vital type attributes that can be assigned to weapons randomly. Mystic steals MP on strike in addition to doing damage. Vital does the same with HP. There is also Poison Hit of which you can guess the result. Paralysis Hit which can potentially stop enemies from moving or attacking. And Specialty Hit which gives weapons a 95% chance to not whiff (but they break faster!) Why don’t you just throw the Risk system from Vagrant Story or a stamina meter somewhere in the mix while you’re at it, Koudelka? You seem to have thrown in every other mechanic of the era. .jpg) Back on track, here’s the info on a Dirk. It’s an entirely unremarkable short sword. Stronger than a knife, I suppose. Not sure why you’d stash it behind a painting like that. But I’m not Welsh. What do I know? .jpg) .jpg) We are going to opt to head downstairs to the first floor for now. There are two doors in the corridor down here. The first one is our destination. As that leads to... .jpg) ...who say they are the caretakers of the Nementon Monastery. .jpg)  How unusual that you two have decided to come to our rural district. There is really nothing interesting here. It has gotten so cold outside, we weren't expecting any visitors... What with it being the late evening as well as the gate barred shut across the property grounds. <motions to table> The soup is all we have. Please have as much as you want. Oh yes, please. You’re quite fortunate Mondays is the only night we sit down to eat near midnight. Very old tradition, you see. Thanks! It smells great! <turns to Koudelka> Wouldn't you like some dear? Don't you like potato soup?.jpg)  <quickly raises hand> No! <lowers hand> Err... it's not that. I'm all right for now. Thank you for your hospitality though... No trouble at all. Please let me know if there is anything we can do. We are the only ones who live here and it's so rare we get any visitors. Ever since Aberystwyth outlawed roads the guests to the district dried right up..jpg) So are you two really the only ones that live here? ...Why do you ask? Well it was pretty foggy, so I couldn't tell for sure, but this it seemed like an old church or something. Seems a little big for just the two of you. You're right. As I recall we did introduce ourselves as the caretakers of Nementon Monastery when you intruded on our supper. But... In the ninth century, a saint from Ireland named Daniel Scotius built a place of worship here to appease monsters and evil spirits. That was how the Nementon Monastery started, or so I've heard. Monsters. Is that right...? Yes. What about them? We Welsh have a proud tradition of the best in monsters and poltergeists in all of the isles..jpg) You might not believe this... but we saw a monster on our way here. Is that so? You saw it too? You mean... that monster has been around for a while? Hmm... Yes. The animated skeletons have been quite troublesome of late. ...This wasn’t any kind of skeleton. Oh? Was it the headless man then? Such horrid abomination. What...? No it was... Oh darling, he must have run into the Giant. A giant...? No that’s not... It was a warlwolf! Come again? He means a werewolf... <slaps knee> Ah. The werewolf! Terrible beast... Too true. It makes such a racket late at night while we’re trying to sleep. That’s not all... there were these giant insects! Oh, those are just native to the region. Such pests... And a chair floated up and hit me in the face. drat near broke my jaw! Rotten luck, that. Count your blessings it wasn’t the haunted end table. But I digress....jpg) Well, we have been taking care of the monastery for a number of years, but... From about six months ago... monsters have been appearing. We saw more and more every night. And I used to be a sailor, and I'm not afraid of any monsters! Back in my day I once bare-knuckle boxed a lizardman who roused me from my sleep while adrift. Showed him what for! Oh dear, what if something terrible happens to you. We almost got killed back there! And now we're out of bullets. I actually just picked up a box of about 20... That's not good. The monsters might try and attack you again. <starts getting up from table> I'll spare you some bullets. Thanks. That'd be great!Ogden gets up and walks off screen. He’s heard rummaging around in the background. .jpg) Looking after others. He's so wonderful like that. So, have you two been together long? Yes... Quite a while. Now all he does is paint and maintain this old building. That’s his daily routine. He could afford to do more work on the roof... What was that, dear? Nothing... But back in the old days...Ogden trots back with a box of revolver bullets. .jpg) Thanks Ogden. I owe you one..jpg) Sometime later, we’re abruptly dumped back into the previous hallway, presumably after Edward stuffs his face with potato soup and counts bullets to the gun he no longer is carrying. Ogden actually did give us an additional 20 bullets. So that was nice of him. Regardless, trying to re-enter the couple’s dining room gives us a prompt indicating the door is now locked with the “Red Key”. Not sure how video game protagonists can always determine a key’s shape or color just with a cursory glance at a knob. Anyway, the Hartman’s didn’t ask how the hell we got into their dwelling and don’t seem to have asked us to get the hell out. So we’re free to continue exploring. Let’s try the door at the end of the hall... .jpg) A crackling fire emanates from off-screen. Trudging up the nearby way too wide stairs leads to a final scene for this update... .jpg) Now this would make good rations. We'll take some with us. <walks up to table> I can't believe it... Are you still hungry? You’re really going to shove the first bit of bloody meat you find in some backroom table into your mouth? Weren’t you the one who snagged that loaf of bread from the attic? At least I usually know what bread was made out of....jpg) I didn't have anything to eat or drink for three days! Of course I'm hungry! Speaking of which, you wasted all of that food. What's wrong with you? Yeah... If it weren't poisoned then I would have had some. ...... ...Pardon? I said: If... the soup... weren't poisoned, then I would have had some. Got it? Not huge on potatoes in soups either, really. But the poison was the big sticking point. ...Poisoned? <crosses arms and nods> Heh... No way. Just a little bit. I smelt some poisonous plant..jpg) <clutches stomach> Uh... What's happen...? Ohh... <walks past Edward toward the fire> Oh... I can tell you how you will feel. In about half an hour, you won't be able to move your body. <retches and falls to hands and knees>.jpg) If you don't find an antidote you will definitely die. So... they were trying to kill us. But why..? Don't know... Could just chalk it up to Welsh cooking... But it seems they are quite used to doing it this way. Hmph... They must be hiding something. Ohhhh... ARGH!.jpg) Listen, Edward. I’m going to try and cure you now. But you have to promise that when I do you, won't get mad and rush back to that couple right away! Can you do that...? <foams at the mouth and rapidly shakes head in convulsions> I’ll take that as a yes. It is safer if we pretend we are dead and continue exploring this building. I think we'll find something interesting for sure....jpg) Tune in next time for further adventures in Welsh hospitality, preventing Edward from making GBS threads his pants and continued trudging about a dusty mansion with perhaps the first boss battle waiting in the wings as Koudelka continues.    Video: Episode 3 Highlight Reel (Voice acting is pretty decent in this game considering it's an RPG from 2000. It's at least significantly better than Final Fantasy X several years later.)   Ogden Render – Dude learned to how to do ties the same place Adam the Machine Man did... The Dark Id fucked around with this message at 01:28 on Apr 12, 2018 |
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Mar 25, 2018 20:36
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Really liking the party banter so far. Especially Koudelka. Girl just does not give a single gently caress about the idiot she's stuck with.
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Mar 25, 2018 20:57
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While the battle mechanics are obscure, messy and somewhat oppressive, I think it kind of fits the tone of Koudelka. I mean, I get that it's not that fun to play it, but it's an interesting mess to look at. Goddamn, Koudelka's ice cold here.  I love Edward's "...pardon?" and that little laugh. The VAs did a good job selling Koudelka relishing the reveal, and Edward's disbelief at the monsters and that he got poisoned. Speaking of which, since the Hartmans fed them potato soup, I'm guessing they used Solanine as the poison?Also: The Dark Id posted:
I think this might be Edward here.
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Mar 25, 2018 21:08
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Koudelka warming her hands by the fireplace while Edward is in agony is one of my favorite scenes.
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Mar 25, 2018 21:09
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Waterfall is an odd choice for battle music. It really doesn't fit in with the atmosphere of the rest of the game.
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Mar 25, 2018 21:23
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So weapons have elemental abilities and durability? And there are attacking bits of furniture? Surprised they didn't add character astrological signs, a platforming sequence, and a collectible card game at this rate.
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Mar 25, 2018 21:29
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I feel sorry for the poor son of a bitch who wrote the GameFAQs guide explaining all of the game's mechanics, item properties, etc. I do enjoy that little bit of dialog at the end, though.
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Mar 25, 2018 21:32
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Jet Jaguar posted:Surprised they didn't add character astrological signs, a platforming sequence, and a collectible card game at this rate. Or instead of RISK from Vagrant Story include limb damage or... I can't think of any other weird gimmicks besides all the others listed.
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Mar 25, 2018 21:36
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I'm sure they could have shoehorned blood types in there too, but decided against it because those hadn't been discovered yet in 1898. It just wouldn't be realistic. Evil furnitures are one thing, but blood types are a serious matter in Japan.
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Mar 25, 2018 22:05
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I always felt like this game as a horror game should have had different elements than the classic 4.
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Mar 25, 2018 22:17
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Hey, you know who becomes monsters? The vengeful dead. ...wait, poo poo. How long have those people been operating?
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Mar 25, 2018 23:33
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Koudelka is already an amazing character
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Mar 26, 2018 00:00
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Debuffing VIT lowers maximum HP, eh? How workable would that be as a strategy against something with full HP? I'm guessing not very.
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Mar 26, 2018 00:33
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ultrafilter posted:Waterfall is an odd choice for battle music. It really doesn't fit in with the atmosphere of the rest of the game. It may not fit but I love the tune anyway.
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Mar 26, 2018 00:36
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Epicmissingno posted:Debuffing VIT lowers maximum HP, eh? How workable would that be as a strategy against something with full HP? I'm guessing not very. I'm not positive, but I think debuffing VIT on enemies only lowers their physical defense.
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Mar 26, 2018 00:46
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Jet Jaguar posted:So weapons have elemental abilities and durability? And there are attacking bits of furniture? And yet, no Limit Breaks. By the way, I'm guessing there are more hot dogs in a package because it's more likely someone would eat a hot dog plain than a bun.
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Mar 26, 2018 01:24
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I love the last scene with Edward poisoned, while Koudelka gives no fucks  This scene meeting with Odgen and Bessy is one of the few with any actual behind-the-scenes photos. Studio Recording  Rehersal session  The idea behind seeking to mocap the cutscenes was twofold, according to Kikuta - it was something that he hadn't really seen in JRPGs before, and would allow very expressive movements to facilitate the drama - and would drastically cut down on the work of hand animating over an hour's worth of cutscenes, with multiple people on screen at a given time, and recording dialogue. They tried a short experiment in Japan and were super impressed with the results, but there was one problem; the script necessitated that up to four people interacted at one time, and according to Kikuta, that technology in Japan just wasn't capable of that at the time. Fortunately for him, one of the guys he worked with on Sōkaigi, put him in touch with some US contacts, who allowed him to put his propsal to Futurelight, which had previously worked on the 1997 US Godzilla, doing mocap work, which was mostly unused outside of a few scenes. They were apparently really interested in doing Koudelka as a technical project, as they had never previously mocapped and recorded up to four people at a single time. All the actors were sourced locally from near the studio, while a few worked for Futurelight itself.  From Kikuta's old blog They apparently went through over 100 auditions before ending up with Vivianne Batthika as Koudelka. According to IMBD, her only other notable acting gig was on some show called The Bold and the Beautiful as a bit part - I'm guessing her background is mostly either amatuer dramatics, or theatre work. She's one of the few actors from this game where there's information on where they are now; she's an investment manager.  She's actually seems a pretty good actress, I hope IMDB find more stuff she's actually in. Kikuta was impressed with how she could switch between being very sassy and cold as Koudelka, while also showing a spark of warmth in the performance. He was also impressed with her professionalism. Michael Bradberry played Edward, and that picture is one of only three pictures of the handsome devil out there. He was in some teen series called Undressed - and the source of the only non-Koudelka photo of him out there:  You had one job Undressed blogger who I stole this picture from. One job to take a not weird screen grab of the guy's face. He's also credited as doing voicework in Warcraft III (and its expansion). Other than that, there's loving zero information about what the guy is doing now. Shame, because he's also pretty good and not terrible. He apparently kept the mood light when they were experiencing technical difficulties during the production. Bessy was played by Denise White. Koudelka is her only credited role according to IMDB. Also zero information about what she's doing now. According to Kikuta she was apparently very friendly, and motherly towards the rest of the crew. Ogden was played by Gavin Carlton  This dude. He's even got the beard. He's got quite the background assuming IMDB is correct; mostly worked in VFX, some acting roles with another member of Koudelka's cast, and some general production work. Another nice person, according to Kikuta. Rehersals were performed at a nearby hotel with a meeting hall rented for the purpose, and the game was mo-capped at Santa Monica Studios, LA, over the course of four days. Kikuta was present at the rehersals semi-directing, assisted by a guy called David Waldman - who spoke Japanese, and liased with the cast and crew. Apparently where they recorded the mocap was less of a studio, than a converted factory, and wasn't properly soundproofed, leading them to have to periodically halt recordings, due to the sounds of low-flying aircraft and other external noises. Pesky Splinter fucked around with this message at 21:02 on May 16, 2018 |
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Mar 26, 2018 01:38
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I take back what I said about the flawed voice acting after watching that summary video. Bessy comes off as a great (faux-)concerned lady of the house while Koudelka is dripping with a "told you so" tone while Edward is in pain from poison. It helps that they acted these scenes out before putting them in the game, instead of just putting them in a recording booth.
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Mar 26, 2018 02:13
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Pesky Splinter posted:According to IMBD, her only other notable acting gig was on some show called The Bold and the Beautiful as a bit part "Some show"? Shame on you, The Bold and the Beautiful was one of the most popular soap operas of its day. Damned kids
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Mar 26, 2018 02:20
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The VA work is really impressive to me cause the vast amounts of works of the time (especially the ones where Japanese stuff got localised with english voices) generally ranged from flat to outright garbage. So much is conveyed in voice acting and with good direction and a clear view of what you want from your scenes you can end up with some fantastic stuff. I do appreciate the door being locked after you meet the couple. They just gave you bullets! They'd hate for you to come back and use them on them when they can go collect them off your corpse later.
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Mar 26, 2018 02:47
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ultrafilter posted:Waterfall is an odd choice for battle music. It really doesn't fit in with the atmosphere of the rest of the game. This game's soundtrack is great, or it would be if it was for a standard JRPG. As it stands I have no idea what tone it's trying to set.
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Mar 26, 2018 03:32
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Sum Gai posted:As it stands I have no idea what tone it's trying to set. In my playthrough that dirk was Vital, and shortly afterwards I discovered one massively idiotic thing about the drain damage in this game. I hope, we see it in full glory.
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Mar 26, 2018 04:47
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Kind of getting an Aya/Kyle from Parasite 2 dynamic with this pair.
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Mar 26, 2018 04:54
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Wow, those cutscenes are really well done. Koudelka's VA just loving nails it when she's telling Edward that he just ate a ton of poison, it's great.
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Mar 26, 2018 05:03
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SelenicMartian posted:Welsh. Not enough sheep, vowels, or resentment of the English, I'd think.
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Mar 26, 2018 05:04
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So when do you strip everyone naked and give them 2 shields apiece
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Mar 26, 2018 05:05
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get that OUT of my face posted:I take back what I said about the flawed voice acting after watching that summary video. Bessy comes off as a great (faux-)concerned lady of the house while Koudelka is dripping with a "told you so" tone while Edward is in pain from poison. It helps that they acted these scenes out before putting them in the game, instead of just putting them in a recording booth. Sounds like they never used a recording booth at all and just used boom mics during the mo-cap sessions; you can hear clothes rustle and shoes click as they move, and voices get lost a bit when actors turn away from the mic.
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Mar 26, 2018 06:19
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Man, I thought you wanted to stop doing LPs? It's nice to see the game that started Shadow Hearts, although I assume we'll have nothing here like, say, the Metal Gear Blanca sections. (Blanca is a Shadow Hearts 2 character)
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Mar 26, 2018 06:31
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Keldulas posted:Wow, those cutscenes are really well done. Koudelka's VA just loving nails it when she's telling Edward that he just ate a ton of poison, it's great. Right? I definitely recommend watching the summary videos for this one, rarely do you hear such natural-sounding dialogue in games even today. Also thanks, this was a very cool read.
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Mar 26, 2018 10:08
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Omobono posted:Man, I thought you wanted to stop doing LPs? Shhhh, don't remind him, we're hoping he forgets about his retirement plans and just keeps doing them 
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Mar 26, 2018 14:37
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Edward is going to be our designated  monkey isn't he?
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Mar 26, 2018 15:13
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Oh, interesting. It's because they were trying to motion-capture everyone that everyone voice-acted together. I think they did that for The Last Of Us too, didn't they?
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Mar 26, 2018 17:38
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Glazius posted:Oh, interesting. It's because they were trying to motion-capture everyone that everyone voice-acted together. I think they did that for The Last Of Us too, didn't they? Naughty Dog's done that for every game they've done post-PS2. On a related note, can't wait to see how the "speed-run" bonus thing works because I tried to get it to work the last time I played Koudelka and couldn't because I am dumb.
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Mar 26, 2018 19:12
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This game is such a weird mish-mash of bad ideas and good effort.
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Mar 27, 2018 01:00
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Bricoleur posted:This game is such a weird mish-mash of bad ideas and good effort. Honestly I think that makes it pretty much an ideal LP game. We get to boggle and laugh at the terrible gameplay, skip the tedium that said terrible gameplay causes, and marvel at how good the cutscenes actually feel. So, uhhh thanks The Dark Id for taking the brunt of the terrible gameplay for us.
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Mar 27, 2018 09:34
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This is a game I replay annually because of its bite-sized length and amazing cutscenes. The effort they put into the writing and directing shows.
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Mar 27, 2018 13:26
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Episode IV: A Man of Faith.jpg) Between scenes we’ve successfully prevented Edward from succumbing to the wrath of Welsh cuisine and resume our exploration of Nemeton Monastery. Quite the expansive kitchen they have here, no? There is a knife on the blood soaked table Edward thought was a good idea to eat scraps from. It’s the same sort of knife Koudelka began with so we’ll opt out of looking at its description. .jpg) .jpg) There are a couple of exits out of the kitchen. The one in the northeastern corner leads to progress. So we’ll skip that one for now and check out the northwestern exit, behind the counter. But first, an important discovery... .jpg) Cheese has finally returned to us! Always a cause for celebration. Cheese is a consumable that restores 250 HP, making it slightly better than bread. That’s just science. One decent thing the game does that I haven’t mentioned is every item pick-up comes in multiples. We actually got three pieces of cheese. Granted... the amount we picked up is randomized. But hey... it could just be one item and that’s a wrap. .jpg) .jpg) Heading out from the northwestern door from the kitchen leads us into a courtyard of sorts with a moss covered well. .jpg) As we all know, all Welsh wells are universally haunted. In this case, by humanoid ghosts known as Shams which come packing a whole array of elemental spells exclusively. Ghosts can’t punch people. That’s just ridiculous. .jpg) Ghosts can, however, be punched. Not all ghosts, mind you. Just those in Wales. Do not attempt to punch a ghost in any other region in the British Isles. Scottish ghosts are absolutely not susceptible to fisticuffs. It will go very poorly for you if you try to duke it out with a Scotch Ghost. .jpg) We’ll investigate the well momentarily. First let’s check out the item discarded nearby. That may look like a Green Herb at a glance. But everyone knows Green Herbs are native to the Arklay Mountains in the Midwestern United States. And Notspain... And death camp islands in South America. And Antarctica... Occasionally on cruise ships. The Balkans. China. Louisiana... But definitely not Wales. .jpg) Instead, this is a Panacea the designated status effect curing item of the game. There is actually a curative item exclusively for Poison. Just poison. Everything else needs chowing down on one of these to be cured. .jpg) Returning to the well, there isn’t much that can be done here at the moment. All Koudelka can do is peer into the well’s depths. If you look closely, you can see there’s a shiny golden object at the bottom of the well. Didn’t we lose something like that during the intro? Nah... Must be a coincidence. .jpg) That is all we can do with the well. For now, let’s return to the kitchen and head through the other exit, leading to... .jpg) The... tool storeroom? I mean... that’s not what I’d put right next to the kitchen. But I’m not a Welshman from the late 1800s. So what do I know? A couple new items crop up in this room. There’s a bottle to the right of Koudelka which is... .jpg) Now remember: Red wine restores a significant amount of health and stamina. Rose wine restores magical abilities. When drinking, please be responsible with which restorative agents you are sampling. I’ll have to get back to you what box wine restores... .jpg) We also have another melee weapon – a hammer. This is actually an extremely fortunate pick-up as the RNG gods decreed this is a Fire Hammer. This might make an upcoming encounter tremendously easy. .jpg) Speaking of encounters, this storeroom is guarded by a Spectre. You wouldn’t know it by a glance, but Spectres are electrical ghosts which falls under the banner of Light Elemental. Not that we have any means of inflicting Light damage at the moment, which it would absorb like the spirit of a malicious Pikachu. .jpg) As everyone know, fists deal only in the Punch Element of which electrical beasts have little in the way of defenses. Setting them on fire works as well. Or even shooting ‘em. Turns out ghost busting was significantly easier in the 1800s. .jpg) On the far end of the room is another door leading further into the building next to a couple of rusted over boilers. Another weapon is discarded on the ground here – a pipe. .jpg) Fun fact: All weapon elemental attributes are randomized based on the second they’re picked up. I mean literally, the second the timer is on will randomize what the elemental type it is assigned. I decided to test this messing with the emulator. Picking it up immediately after the save state resulted in a Fire Pipe. Two seconds was a Water Pipe. Five seconds was a Mystic Pipe. This was 100% consistent with several reloads. Not that I was planning on save scumming an elemental type. Just worth peeling back the insane layers of randomness this game employs occasionally. .jpg) Heading into the next room, we find a dimly lit greenhouse of sorts with an unconscious man lying on the floor and an ominous message as soon as we enter. The prompt “...Something’s not right...” is Koudelka being nice and informing us there is a boss battle present further in this room and we should prepare accordingly. So that’s a rare nice thing the game does for the player. .jpg) We’re going to do a tiny bit of prep work here such as topping off Edward and Koudelka’s HP/MP as needed. We’re also going to mess with the Formation of the party. Koudelka is going to hang out in the back in most instances as she is our designated caster. Edward, however, we’re going to move up to the front lines in and center so he can go start punching enemies as quickly as possible. As you do... .jpg) We’re also going to equip Edward with that Fire Hammer we just picked up. You might notice equipping this weapon buffs several of Edward’s stats. That’s another weird randomized quirk of weapons on top of their elemental attributes. They’ll buff (and in some cases debuff) several skills on equip. Just equipping Edward with this hammer gives him nearly a 100 extra HP. But that will all go away if the thing happens to break. There is no downside to giving him a huge boost against a boss, even if we’re sculpting him toward punchman duty against random encounter jobbers. .jpg) Seems the definitely not third playable character who is on the boxart is still breathing, just passed out. There is nothing we can do for him at the moment until we sort out whatever evil presence is plaguing this garden. .jpg) ...a giant plant attacks you! New Music: Incantation Again (You should probably listen to the boss battle music at least once.) .jpg) .jpg) Behold the first boss of Koudelka, the giant plant of the Nemeton Monastery garden – err... No, its name is actually just “Giant Plant”. Audrey 0 here comes sporting 1500 HP which is a step up from the 150-300 HP enemies we’ve been facing thus far. But... not really. .jpg) Giant Plant, being a err... plant is highly weak to being set on fire. Which is very fortuitous since that is the only offensive spell we happen to possess at the moment. We’ll just get Koudelka on top of casting that, so she can at least feel like she’s participating a tiny bit. .jpg) I say that because Edward has a Fire Hammer. A hammer that does fire elemental damage. This is not a tool that is friends with a giant flammable overgrown weed. We’ll just need to trot Edward up there and... .jpg) ...There goes nearly a third of its total HP in a single strike. This isn’t a particularly hard boss. They’re thankfully putting on the kiddy gloves briefly in the same game that has a random battle that can kill you in the second room. But this just makes it kind of a sad joke. .jpg) .jpg) Giant Plant has some Earth based spells that it really seems like it wants to hit Koudelka with here. But due to its distance and Koudelka having more PIE from that level-up, she just completely no-sells it. .jpg) .jpg) That said, the spell casting distance also makes her Flare pitifully weak. But a double digit damage spell gains just as much EXP as one that hits for full damage. So that’s fine. .jpg) We need to move Koudelka closer to the Giant Plant if she’s actually going to remotely help out. That’s because the boss lacks the ability to move anywhere from its initial placement at the far end of the grid. Since it’s a plant. Roots aren’t really the best for movement, as it turns out. Go figure. .jpg) .jpg) The Giant Plant’s only other attacks is vomiting spores in anyone in its proximity’s face for 40-60 HP of damage and a Poison status inflicting. I don’t think that is going to put Edward’s molten hammertime out of commission anytime soon. .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) Nope... it’s napalm all the way down for poor Giant Plant. Thus takes care of the first boss of Koudelka! They won’t all be that easy. But nobody is going to blame a boss in the first half hour of the game for being a pushover. Music: Level Up! .jpg) .jpg) Koudelka gained another level thanks to this boss fight. We’ll just pump the same stats as last time. We’ll probably swap AGL for VIT next time just to make her a bit less squishy. But that’s about it. .jpg) Additionally, we gained a new magic spell – Geyser, the Water Elemental magic attack. I guess plants need to be watered and that’s why a giant plant would yield that. I dunno. I’m not a botanist. .jpg) We also gained a key item, the Icon’s Necklace. No idea what this does or why we would want it. But we may as well bring it along anyway unless we want to fancy up a random statue with some bling or unlock a hidden passage to a secret lab. You know how these old creepy mansions can be. Music: ENDS .jpg) Now that the first boss of Koudelka has been sorted out, I suppose we should investigate what is the deal with the KOed man we skipped past earlier. .jpg)  Ahhh... My head... Ooh... What happened? Oh... Yes, that's right. That monster... Ugggh... Ugh... Is this guy some kinda priest? Can already tell he’s going to be a real piece of work. Says the man I’ve already had to save from dying twice in an hour....jpg) <looks over Koudelka and Edward> Who on earth are you two? Hey! We rescued you and that's your way of saying thanks?! Little did I know that thieves these days were into rescuing perfect strangers. You....jpg) Koudelka stops Edward from kicking this guy’s rear end. Look, there’s no reason to immediately assume this guy is a total dick just yet. Maybe he’s just having a rough day. And... to be fair, they both did break into this place with Edward expressedly saying he was going to gently caress up a one-percenter’s workweek. .jpg) <helps up the man> My name is Koudelka. And this is Edward. Would you mind telling us how you ended up collapsed down this path?.jpg) <rubs head> My name is James – James O' Flaherty. I've been searching for something and it took me to the monastery. Little did I know it had become a breeding ground for... demonic spirits. Then how did you get in here dressed like that? Through the main gate, of course. The caretakers welcomed me with open arms. That husband and wife team? And the food? Was there no poison in your food? That is no way to speak of the local cuisine, even if it is an... acquired taste... No, Padre. I mean actual poison. What are you talking about? Are you out of your mind?! These caretakers tried to poison and kill us. That's not funny! I find it inappropriate for you to try to dupe an upstanding member of the Christian faith! You can go check out that kitchen if you want to see a couple liters of potato soup I ended up having to puke out... Let’s never speak of that again... Just sayin’... So nothing happened to you then? Of course not! Not until I encountered that monster. Yeah...? And we are the ones that took care of that monster! Far be it from me to expect any word of gratitude from you! I see. But I can tell from your appearances that the power of faith alone wasn't enough to smooth things out with that monster. Father, pretty sure you got your rear end kicked by that thing so hard it knocked you out. Was Jesus out here personally fighting it off from eating you until we arrived? Funny, I didn’t see him. It wasn't the kind of problem that faith alone could solve. Ugh! <turns back on them>.jpg) <looks over the water font> Look at this plinth... It's broken now, but holy water ran from it until recently. But I’ve... become distracted. Almighty God, please give me the strength to ward off these monsters..jpg) I can see that we have wasted our time here. Mhm. Told you this guy was going to be a piece of work... Mhm... Let’s go, Koudelka. <both start walking away>.jpg) Just a minute... <turns back and impatiently crosses arms> <turns impatiently puts hands on hips> Although I am under the protection of the Lord... it doesn't hurt to take precautionary measures. I think I will go with you. <look at each other> We’re gonna regret this. I am regretting all of this..jpg) And so our third and final party member, Father James O' Flaherty, joins the party. Tune in next time for more ghouls, goblins and increased animosity out of our trio as Koudelka continues.  Video: Episode 4 Highlight Reel Skip to Cutscene: Click Here.  James O' Flaherty Concept – Christianity is all about the sweet sideburns. The Dark Id fucked around with this message at 01:30 on Apr 12, 2018 |
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Mar 28, 2018 00:32
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| # ? May 21, 2024 10:25 |
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Oh boy, just what we needed! A preachy religious rear end in a top hat! I'm having flashbacks to Verdelet already 
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Mar 28, 2018 00:45
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