|
I can't believe Yuri is loving dead.
|
# ? Sep 11, 2018 17:49 |
|
|
# ? Apr 28, 2024 18:03 |
|
Wow I don't remember any of that cutscene. I guess I was so jazzed about finally beating Calamity I just skipped it or something. Sounds like the sort of silly thing old me would have done. Also happy fifteenth anniversary of Drakengard I guess
|
# ? Sep 11, 2018 18:04 |
|
Surely I am not the only person wondering if the CG artists for that cutscene weren't quite sure how to do hair, or if they were massive Cure fans and demanded to stick Robert Smith in there somehow, in some form.
bladededge fucked around with this message at 22:26 on Sep 11, 2018 |
# ? Sep 11, 2018 22:24 |
|
probably lack of rendering hair ability, because I sure remember attempts at making realistic hair that moves in cutscenes was a major bragging point if you can nail it, but if you don't the results are dire (Hell it's still someone that's difficult to do in modern engines, given Reboot Tomb Raider and Disney's Moana both bragged about hair tech)
|
# ? Sep 12, 2018 00:56 |
|
So does Alice never show up again, does Yuri stay a demon for the rest of the game, or did she just lie to us at the end? edit: Don't actually answer this, it's rhetorical. GimmickMan fucked around with this message at 07:55 on Sep 12, 2018 |
# ? Sep 12, 2018 07:52 |
|
Earlier in either this thread or maybe towards the end of the Koudelka one, someone mentioned Yuri and Caim getting along. This chapter end scene is pretty much what I thought of when thinking about that. "Killed the evil magic man and stopped the summoning, but then some other person just pops in and picks it right back up and now there's an angelic god-demon thing? No hesitation, sass the villain, and fling yourself at that sucker to try and make it into an upgrade!" I think they'd have fun swapping stories. The Dark Id posted:For our troubles the party a splendid Cash settlement and a massive dump of EXP. Also, not sure "cash" should be capitalized, but I'll leave that to your judgement.
|
# ? Sep 12, 2018 10:23 |
|
Confident predictions: - Yuri's mind graveyard opens up and the party will enter it. We get to see what's behind that huge door. - The Japanese Army will continue to be mostly useless, but will provide key info about Col. Hyuga, leading to unlocking the mind graveyard. - Alice and Bacon are blood related, since they're the only British characters. - We'll be thrown into the middle of World War I. The remainder of the game will hinge around Roger Bacon trying to prolong the war. Less confident predictions: - Zhuzhen died. - Shanghai is rebuilt as Neo Shanghai with anti-demon laser towers. - Roger Bacon is a blood descendant of the Koudelka Roger Bacon. But he didn't (Koudelka spoiler)inherit full immortality so has been plotting to attain the missing piece, requiring a lot of killing. - Yuri's parents are both alive and will appear from the mind graveyard door. - Alice and Yuri's parents together have the power to summon the Koudelka Roger Bacon, who will save the day. - Yuri will die, but he somehow gets Alice pregnant first.
|
# ? Sep 12, 2018 19:48 |
|
TalkLittle posted:Confident predictions: I like reading these. As old as this game is, it's fun to see the take of someone with a fresh perspective.
|
# ? Sep 12, 2018 21:13 |
|
Zagglezig posted:Also, not sure "cash" should be capitalized, but I'll leave that to your judgement. Surprisingly, it probably should be!
|
# ? Sep 13, 2018 09:42 |
|
Episode XXXVII: Terry No Guard New Music: Atmosphere - Blow Up (Europe gets a punched-up intro to the map theme.) Welp... That all happened... So, who is ready for a big change of scenery? Our Shadow Hearts adventures in Asia have come to an end. I mean... it's not like we can very well go back to Shanghai again. It being a smoking crater and all now... As such, the second half of the game will shift gears to Europe for the remainder of the game. Specifically, we'll be heading to Prague. Which I believe in 1913 would have still been part of the Kingdom of Bohemia in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Before we start backpacking across Europe, let's take a look at where our useless Score stats stand at the beginning of the second half of the game. Though, I dunno if I'd say we're halfway through the game. Europe definitely has more overall content than Asia. I feel like we've been stuck at the distance from Tokyo to Yokohama for a while now... In any case, let's jump into Prague and see how the hell we ended up 8,500 km away since the end of the last chapter. New Music: City (Very moody.) Ah... A half-year time skip. That'd probably do it. We can see pretty much the entire Shadow Hearts rendition of Prague in this shot, making it look like a tiny hamlet you could jog through in about five minutes. Prague in 1913 would have had a population of around 230,000 people. It was a pinch larger than what is shown here... <laughs> Yes, and that was just too funny! He thought it was a poltergeist? It was just the lady next door doing aerobics! I don't know... The way she was stretching haunts me. I'd break my hip trying that. Aww... And I was all set to get you a leotard to start practicing. Now the thought of that is giving me the willies... Heh heh heh… Ah, the world’s a peaceful place. As long as you just push everything from a half-year ago out of your mind... <far off stare> Yeah... Anyway, what do you say we get a bite to eat and then unwind a bit? Are you asking me out for a drink? <laughs> You know me too well! Ha ha ha… Since Yuri is How did the exorcising go? Another case solved? Impressive! It was just a lady doing jumping jacks in the next apartment over. How Oh... You still got paid, right? Darn straight! We're not taking a day's long walk pro-bono. Ha! Nice. From exorcism to finding lost objects, we're ready to help you! We're the fastest, cheapest, and most skilled exorcists around! Call Alice and Zhuzhen today! ...is what the battered notice says. So, Alice and Zhuzhen haven't skipped over to Asia and started up a ghostbusting spin-off series. I mean, Shanghai might have been a disaster that killed tens of thousands of people. But nobody knows they were involved with that. Zhaoyang Village and Dalian had their ghost troubles solved fairly handily with few incidents. It makes sense to stick with what worked early on. Anyway, getting into Prague proper we find a man with the rare talent (well rare outside of video games) of sleeping standing up. Let's wake him up. He might have something important for us. Ha ha... <becomes Lottery Member No. 08> Well, I don't sleep like this all the time, you know. What'll ya do? ...Yuri told me about this once and I thought he was just messing with me. Some advice. Even if you fall asleep right after eating, you won't turn into a cow. Don't worry! O... kay...? I'll keep that in mind. Since Guard Hamas seems to have narcolepsy, his Lottery Judgment Wheel spins veeeeeeeeeeery slowly, making this one of the easiest Lotteries to score the Red Hit Area prize. Which nets us... Man, nothing about this item is correct. You'd think between the name and item description that this accessory would buff strength and possibly auto-inflict Berserk or something. Nope. Berserk status only results from depleted SP and the earrings themselves add +20% HP. It has nothing to do with physical strength. That said, a twenty percent increase in health ain't bad. We'll slap those on Alice since she is lagging about a level and a half behind Zhuzhen and could use the bump. One can never be too vigilant against the threat of rogue wolves. They're a MENACE! But beyond that, the building right behind this guy can be entered to progress the plot. So instead, we'll skip right past that and continue down the street for some loot. There's an awful lot of consumable items in this game that speed up/slow down/gently caress about in general with the Judgment Ring and boy do I never feel compelled to waste a turn using one of 'em ever. There's probably a good reason like 2/3rds of them get purged from the loot tables by the time the sequel rolls around. I never minded taking care of wolves and thieves, but ghosts? I'd rather not get involved... And birdmen... I've always had a deep-seated fear of being attacked by birdmen... That's why we'll call you if we have any... supernatural encounters! <thumbs up> By the way, there is another Lottery Ticket hiding somewhere on this screen. Can YOU guess its location...? Gold star if you went with hidden behind foreground trees. I personally would have gone with one of the lampposts. Anyway, let's get back to that bar and get some R&R. Sadly, Alice and Zhuzhen don't seem to have a hokey Prague Exorcists storefront we can poke around in. As I age, I too walk into establishments and loudly announce to the patrons my intent to go take a poo poo. I suppose Alice can kill some time bothering other customers while Zhuzhen attends to nature's call. Hmm. I heard some town in the Orient was destroyed, but... ahh, what's it matter? Oh, is that right...? What a shame. I'm sure they did everything they could to stop it. Meh... Probably another sorcerer summoning a dark god. It's one of those deals every other year with those Orientals. ...... ...No, I can tell just looking at your face. I guess not. Oh, you'll find him... eventually. Men always come back when they feel lonely. This is a little different... Listen, hun. It doesn't matter if he skipped out in the middle of the night or turned into a Dracula or what have you. Just give it time and it'll work itself out. Take a load off and relax awhile. Don't mind if we do. The table next to Owner Gismot just happens to have a free bottle of Priest's Wine. Let's see what we've got here... ... ...This is literally blood and muddy water in a flask. I've heard of watered-down swill before, but this is ridiculous. It does restore 100 MP and 6 SP for some reason, though. Are you getting acquainted with the town? Certainly, looks like your business is going well. That reminds me... I should get back to work. Let me know if you need anything. Do you need anything? Peddler Rosa is offering quite a few new items in here "Time is Money" shop. But, we're going to refrain from purchasing anything at the moment. There might be another discount card in the near future before we head into any combat heavy zones. In any case, speaking with Peddler Rosa is the trigger for Zhuzhen finishing up his massive dump and progressing the story. Huh? Oh… It’s just that… I can’t believe it’s been half a year already. I asked Margarete to bring me to Europe, but… <turns away> What… what if he’s… dead? Don’t be ridiculous. You know that kid’s not the kind to die so easily. Even if he HAS been absorbed by a monster, so long as his soul remains alive, we’ll meet again. Sure, we might have to put him down in a monster possessed form but... Hey, closure! ...That isn't helping. And besides, your sixth sense tells you that he’s still alive, right.? <shakes head> I’m not sure, but that’s how I feel. Don’t you believe that if we continue our work, we’re bound to run into him again? Yes… I did. I have a good feeling that any day now we'll catch a brea— A disheveled man rushes into the bar. The owner approaches him. Are you OK!? Umm... I heard I could find some exorcists here. That timing was a little too on the nose for me... <concerned grunt> The spirit detectives approach the man. If you came looking for us, I assume you need something exorcised? Just so we're clear, we do "exorcism" -- as in getting rid of malcontent spirits and apparitions. It is NOT "exercise" – we cannot help your town if they've gotten out of shape. You're still upset about those guys in Olomouc wanting us to help them work out? A gluttonous man's paunch is a problem I cannot help with and walking half a day to find out about it is not a good use of my sunset years.[/i] Y-yes! My name is Terry. I came from Bistritz, a small village east of here. I run a general store. Bistritz?! That’s quite a trip! It must’ve been a hard journey… By the look on your face, I’d say you must have had good reason. Why don’t you tell us your story? R-right. It’s… it’s like this. My village is attacked by vicious monsters every night… Vicious monsters?! What scale of vicious monsters are we talking here on a scale of 1-10? One being a malevolent cloud of gas causing mischief to ten being an indescribable cosmic horror that drives a man mad and strict him blind just by gazing on them. At least a six... six and a half! <strokes chin> A six and a half is no joke... Tell us more. They’re… they’re not human. No matter how many bullets they take, they don’t die. So many villagers have lost their lives… Andy... Joe... Billy... Mai... They're all gone. I heard a rumor about you from a friend, so here I am. Are they ghosts or demons, I wonder…? Go on. Tell us everything you know. Well, Bistritz is a small village located about two days walk east of here. A lord used to rule the village, but his bloodline died out some three hundred years ago. The strange thing is that since the attacks began, there’ve been lights seen in the castle windows. Are the monsters and the castle related in any way? I don’t know. There’s no history of any of our liege-lords ever attacking his people. My great pawpaw once said something about bloodsucking incidents once, but his mind has been going for years... However, in the off chance that it does involve the castle, I would like you to investigate. I’m here on behalf of my village to ask for your assistance. Will you accept the job? <shakes head> So… it would seem that you’ve got two assignments for us. One, getting rid of the monsters attacking the village. Two, investigating the lord’s castle. Yes… Even at this very moment, the monsters are preying on my village. I’m so worried about my wife and daughter… You’re our only hope. Zhuzhen and Alice huddle up. Margarete should be back soon, too. You know how antsy she gets if she doesn't get to shoot a monster for a few days. This should work out well. <nods>All right, leave it to us. We’ll eradicate these monsters for you. Y-you will? Oh, thank you!! We'll have to assess the situation further before naming a commission price. I'll warn you, investigating anything more robust than a Doom House has quite the bonus fee. I hate doing the Doom Houses. A haunted castle is going to cost you folk. Sure, whatever it takes! We’re waiting for one of our companions, but once she arrives, we’ll go straight to Bistritz. Wonderful. I’ll head back and tell them the good news! Just wait for us to get there, okay? We’ll be right behind you. <nods> Certainly... Excuse me. Terry exits the bar. Owner Gismot approaches the duo. A traveler once told me he'd gotten into a fist fight with a pack of warlwolves out that way once and barely escaped with his life. Do you mean "werewolves"? No, he was quite insistent on "warlwolves" and then went on some tangent quoting some poet. Strange fellow. He bought several entire bottles of liquor off me at full markup insisting there was no better way to cure injuries and something grumbled something about the Welsh before taking off. I’ve heard the same. It’s always been a poor village… I’ve never heard anything good about it. No handsome guys from there either. That scruffy stranger was on the hotter end of the spectrum and yuck. G-good to know, Yuria. Heh. We’re well acquainted with monster dens, constantly wandering into them back in Asia. As long as there are no more cat demons. I've had quite my fill of those and I'm fresh out of anti-cat powder. Zhuzhen, do you think Terry will be okay? I have a bad feeling about this… Now, now, stop trying to scare me. Margarete will be here soon. Then we’ll be off. Prague is safe enough. Surely, he'll get by waiting for just a few hou— Music: DOA What was that?! It can’t be!! Now THAT timing is too on the nose. <increasingly concerned grunt> To the north, we go! Urrggh… m… monsters… <takes fighting stance> What… what’s this terrible evil I perceive?! Music: NDE - Near Death Experience The Prague exorcists are set upon by a pair of Birdmen. Their only skill is pecking a single member of our party for around 20 HP of damage and potentially inflicting Silence in the process. Zhuzhen is having none of that poo poo and can instantly immolate the pair of them with Ogre Flamedance before they even get the chance to attack. Perhaps he started a partnership with Alice, so he would no longer the most useless member of the party in battle. Music: City Ugh… Th-they… followed… us… Please… save the village… Mi…chelle… Nina… Terry! …Hrrk! Hang in ther— BARF! <dies> <frown> Never mind... drat! We were too late… Alice stands back up. There’s nothing we could have done. We could have told him to stay in the bar for another two minutes. Well, yes... but... Hindsight and all that... Don't beat yourself up over it. That evil I was feeling… this was no ordinary monster. You felt it too, surely? That bloodsucking hag could have killed us, too, if we weren’t careful. Yes… it’s the first time I’ve felt such evil in Europe. What do you think she was? Some sort of vampire? Pah... Don't be absurd. Vampires are just an old wives' tale. Zhuzhen, I don’t think we can wait for Margarete. I think you’re right. Maybe the two of us should go on ahead to Bistritz. …Yes. Despite that conversation, we're immediately tossed back into the bar afterward. This is the last chance to do any item purchasing. But like I said earlier, I think we're good. Everyone does have some new dialogue. So, let's chat before we depart. Hmm. It seems the world is getting noisier. Back in my day, men had the decency to scream in terror during decent daylight hours. People these days... That man died... And woke up my wife. That's why I'm back in this bar again. ...... It's in such a remote area, there's no telling what kind of monsters you'll encounter. I can't believe monsters showed up in this town. Thank God you were here to protect us... I'll pray for your safety. I'll let Ms. Margarete know where you went, don't worry about that. OK. Just don't let her open another tab on our account while she waits for us to get back... I've learned my lesson on that one. If we return to the scene of the crime, the people of Prague wasted no time cleaning up Terry and that generic guard's corpses. There's a familiar face hanging out here. Well, technically two familiar faces, I suppose. The man near the signpost is Europe's version of the Silent Peddler. We still have quite a bit of walking to do before we can unlock that grand prize. We'll get there eventually. Alongside the Silent Peddler, it seems Wanderer Meiyuan has also made his way to Europe. Yuri sacrificed himself trying to stop Shanghai from being destroyed! Whatever helps you sleep at night. We'll definitely be skipping on Meiyuan's services here. In any case, that's it for this short Part 2 intro chapter and Prague in general. For now... Tune in next time as Zhuzhen and Alice's adventures continue in Chapter 12: Cursed Bistritz. It'll be very Halloween season appropriate. That might very well be the shortest chapter in the game. But we did get a couple new Library entries. Such as... MONSTER: Someone performed a Mortal Kombat Fatality on that bell ringer schmuck. NPC: * Was a loving husband and father. Terry Portrait – That definitely looks like a guy named Terry.
|
# ? Sep 13, 2018 19:53 |
|
And that's probably the fastest start to death in this game.
|
# ? Sep 13, 2018 20:58 |
|
"Guy who's in the game for maybe three minutes? Get that man a portrait and unique model, stat!"
|
# ? Sep 13, 2018 21:02 |
|
Alice and Zhuzhen are certainly an odd couple.The Dark Id posted:A gluttonous man's paunch is a problem I cannot help with and walking half a day to find out about it is not a good use of my sunset years.[/i] Looks like you missed a tag here.
|
# ? Sep 13, 2018 22:26 |
|
The Dark Id posted:Just so we're clear, we do "exorcism" -- as in getting rid of malcontent spirits and apparitions. It is NOT "exercise" – we cannot help your town if they've gotten out of shape. Missing [i] at the beginning of this section.
|
# ? Sep 14, 2018 00:06 |
|
I wonder if there was going to be stuff about the party travelling west to Europe - would explain why Kowloon got so much work but ended up jammed in as a sidequest.
|
# ? Sep 14, 2018 00:56 |
|
Picayune posted:"Guy who's in the game for maybe three minutes? Get that man a portrait and unique model, stat!" That is odd compared to them reusing a model for Sea Mother.
|
# ? Sep 14, 2018 01:35 |
|
That old lady's smile is creepy as hell. I think that's the first portrait NPC who looks like an actual serial killer.The Dark Id posted:How Oh... You still got paid, right? 1. I don't get this. 2. Did you mean to say they skipped off to Europe?
|
# ? Sep 14, 2018 01:40 |
|
Prague’s theme is one of my favorites in the series.
|
# ? Sep 14, 2018 02:23 |
|
Do you think Margarete is following any orders/making reports or is she just going along with magic monster stuff for a few more months and her superiors are cool not having to deal with her explosive-based plans?The Dark Id posted:Peddler Rosa is offering quite a few new items in here "Time is Money" shop. First one looks like it should be "her". Also, pretty sure you don't need that comma in the second one.
|
# ? Sep 14, 2018 07:35 |
|
Zagglezig posted:Do you think Margarete is following any orders/making reports or is she just going along with magic monster stuff for a few more months and her superiors are cool not having to deal with her explosive-based plans? She nuked Shanghai! Paying her expense account is a small price for her staying the gently caress away from home.
|
# ? Sep 14, 2018 08:35 |
|
So what exactly was Dehaui hoping to achieve? "Haha, you fools, you thought I was doing the Demon's Gate Invocation to nuke my enemies in Japan, but I'm actually doing the REVERSE Demon's Gate Invocation to...nuke myself, my house, and all my minions?"
|
# ? Sep 14, 2018 09:05 |
|
CountryMatters posted:So what exactly was Dehaui hoping to achieve? "Haha, you fools, you thought I was doing the Demon's Gate Invocation to nuke my enemies in Japan, but I'm actually doing the REVERSE Demon's Gate Invocation to...nuke myself, my house, and all my minions?" Theoretically he intended to have control of the god he summoned, while Bacon just didn't give a single poo poo.
|
# ? Sep 14, 2018 09:26 |
|
Basically, what Yuri tried to do and failed at? Fusing with the demon to control it? That was also Dehaui's plan, give or take a fusion since he's not an Harmonixer. Because summon a demon in your enemies' home, you nuke them for a day. Summon and control it in your house, you nuke them for the rest of your life.
|
# ? Sep 14, 2018 09:51 |
|
The Dark Id posted:My great pawpaw once said something about bloodsucking incidents once,
|
# ? Sep 14, 2018 10:35 |
|
Yeah, Dehuai was trying to make a contract with the Seraphic Radiance.
Accordion Man fucked around with this message at 17:30 on Sep 14, 2018 |
# ? Sep 14, 2018 17:26 |
|
Shanghai probably is quite peaceful at this point. The crater might even have stopped smoking by now.
|
# ? Sep 14, 2018 17:29 |
|
McDragon posted:Shanghai probably is quite peaceful at this point. The crater might even have stopped smoking by now. Accordion Man fucked around with this message at 17:34 on Sep 14, 2018 |
# ? Sep 14, 2018 17:32 |
|
Ehh, whether an entire city to burned to glass between 1900-1950 is a mild anachronism at best
|
# ? Sep 14, 2018 18:21 |
|
Accordion Man posted:Yeah, Dehuai was trying to make a contract with the Seraphic Radiance. I just don't see what the difference is between it and the non-Reverse one.
|
# ? Sep 14, 2018 20:51 |
|
Everybody in Europe would be too busy worrying about when/if The Great War is going to happen to care about what happened in China.
|
# ? Sep 14, 2018 21:12 |
|
Tallgeese posted:I just don't see what the difference is between it and the non-Reverse one. I assume one is directing it externally and the other is becoming it
|
# ? Sep 14, 2018 22:26 |
|
Tallgeese posted:I just don't see what the difference is between it and the non-Reverse one. Sounds like one is a "bigger deal". Maybe summoning a much more powerful entity. The difference between dropping an atomic bomb and a hydrogen bomb?
|
# ? Sep 14, 2018 22:32 |
|
Tallgeese posted:I just don't see what the difference is between it and the non-Reverse one. It sounded like the difference is that the Demon's Gate Invocation summons well, a Demon. While the Reverse Demon's Gate Invocation summons the opposite of that, a God.
|
# ? Sep 14, 2018 22:38 |
|
A Reverse Demon's Gate Invocation has more words than a mere Demon's Gate Invocation, so it's better.
|
# ? Sep 14, 2018 23:08 |
|
Zanzibar Ham posted:A Reverse Demon's Gate Invocation has more words than a mere Demon's Gate Invocation, so it's better. QED
|
# ? Sep 15, 2018 01:10 |
|
Hunt11 posted:Everybody in Europe would be too busy worrying about when/if The Great War is going to happen to care about what happened in China. Unless it's July, not really. The war was very much unexpected even by some of the parties involved in bringing it about. And China was a drat big market and imperial playground- an entire city disappearing along with the legations would stop the entire world.
|
# ? Sep 15, 2018 01:25 |
|
Eopia posted:It sounded like the difference is that the Demon's Gate Invocation summons well, a Demon. While the Reverse Demon's Gate Invocation summons the opposite of that, a God. A reverse Demon's Gate Invocation should've sent something to hell instead of summoning it. Now, an Inverse Demon's Gate Invocation...
|
# ? Sep 15, 2018 01:54 |
|
Neddy Seagoon posted:A reverse Demon's Gate Invocation should've sent something to hell instead of summoning it. Now, an Inverse Demon's Gate Invocation... And then there's your Transverse Demon's Gate Invocation for when you need to slide a demon slightly to the side because it was messing up your feng shui.
|
# ? Sep 15, 2018 02:15 |
|
The "demon" versus "god" thing is probably the best we'll get as a theory. It's a weird point of importance since the game never explains the baseline of it but hey, can't deny the results! When the "normal" one happened Shanghai didn't get leveled.
|
# ? Sep 15, 2018 02:20 |
|
|
# ? Apr 28, 2024 18:03 |
|
TheLastRoboKy posted:The "demon" versus "god" thing is probably the best we'll get as a theory. It's a weird point of importance since the game never explains the baseline of it but hey, can't deny the results! When the "normal" one happened Shanghai didn't get leveled. Actually, that's why it's confusing. If I recall, Zhuzhen has already said that Ben Hyuga had to absorb the thing summoned by the Demon's Gate Invocation, and died as a result. It sounds like they do the same thing.
|
# ? Sep 15, 2018 02:30 |