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Psycho Knight posted:Anyway, possibly due to the fact that I’m 99% confident that this series can’t go any lower than trying to make Stockholm Syndrome look cute and romantic and funny, I’m pushing forward with the other episodes. We’ve hit bottom, so it can only go up from here, right? ...Did you forget where your avatar came from?
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Apr 8, 2020 05:39
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The Flying Twybil posted:Yep. It might make sense that with the weird facial physiology of Anime characters that their skulls are made of a rubbery cartilage-like material. It would allow for their mouth to expand to ridiculous proportions and move their giant eyeballs back into their skulls to make it look like they shrink in some expressions. The same logic could be applied to other cartoon characters such as Wile E. Coyote, but it still doesn't explain how he survives situations which would turn most other life-forms into a gooey paste. I shouldn't be posting at 1am..
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Apr 8, 2020 06:07
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The Flying Twybil posted:Cripes. That's, uh, going to leave a mark. A big, permanent one. It's okay, they're both terrible people.
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Apr 8, 2020 10:40
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Psycho Knight posted:
Given the musical note, this is probably a reference to this chart-topping 1978 song 'Letter from Canada' where they say 'Love letter from Canada' in English multiple times. 1978 is about right for what Mana would be into for her (implied, human-equivalent) age.
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Apr 8, 2020 11:24
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Just a final warning: Ending vote stops tomorrow. I'm not sure exactly when I'll close it (likely sometime at night, since that's when I tend to do my LP work), so sooner rather than later is probably a good time to vote if you haven't. We still have another dungeon to finish, but I was hoping to use the polling results as a bit of filler for that, which is why I'm closing it tomorrow. ----------------------------------------------------------- Polsy posted:Given the musical note, this is probably a reference to this chart-topping 1978 song 'Letter from Canada' where they say 'Love letter from Canada' in English multiple times. 1978 is about right for what Mana would be into for her (implied, human-equivalent) age. How in god's name do you find stuff like that? I've never heard of that song. Of course, I wasn't around in the 70's, but that era of music is where a decent chunk of my playlist originates from. I guess one of the writers or production staff was a big fan of it. Not that I have much room to talk, given what I've been doing for update titles since the CII LP. I'll go and edit that note into the update (at some point. I'm incredibly bad when it comes to procrastination). I'll also add in HerpicleOmnicron5's thing about the bread/panties deal. SSNeoman posted:So basically you want Sabagebu, OP! I mean, it would be funny. Am I wrong? You don't have to make it "canon" within the show. I would have been fine with them acting that way for one episode. Besides, it's not like this show hasn't been leaning heavily on gag stuff. BlazeEmblem posted:...Did you forget where your avatar came from? Listen, Pokemon Reborn is... special. We're not talking about a production studio full of people cashing a paycheque and just running headlong into a wall because nobody has any kind of coherent plan for this marketing tie-in they've agreed to. Pokemon Reborn is the work of a twisted group of obsessive teenagers that looked at a game made for all ages and said "But what if we made it 'mature'?" and genuinely believe in their little hosed up hearts that they can easily do a better Pokemon game than GF by having everyone in it be a walking shitbag of a human being. Just read my avatar, that is a quote from the Reborn site itself. They truly believe they are crafting a modern epic. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it can't be done. I'm just saying that there's no way that anyone on this production team had the necessary level of unsettling devotion to this project. We've got three episodes of this series left. I'm pretty confident we saw the bottom with Episode 6. The Flying Twybil posted:Cripes. That's, uh, going to leave a mark. A big, permanent one. mastersord posted:It might make sense that with the weird facial physiology of Anime characters that their skulls are made of a rubbery cartilage-like material. It would allow for their mouth to expand to ridiculous proportions and move their giant eyeballs back into their skulls to make it look like they shrink in some expressions. Exactly. Anime characters are just jelly creatures. They'll be fine.  mastersord posted:I shouldn't be posting at 1am.. AM night posting is almost as ill-advised as drunk posting. I'm pretty sure you can look at some of the updates I've written and tell exactly the point at which midnight passed. EDIT: So I decided to test the waters while I was doing Quest stuff in Ophiuchus. Turns out the game was hiding something from me.  Come on, Conception... Just screw you... Every dungeon doesn't have to be 15 drat floors. I also had to refight the Aquarius boss, which is making me fear the possibility of a boss rush that means additional sections of dungeon are being hidden from me. Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 12:48 on Apr 8, 2020 |
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Apr 8, 2020 12:13
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Psycho Knight posted:How in god's name do you find stuff like that? I've never heard of that song. Of course, I wasn't around in the 70's, but that era of music is where a decent chunk of my playlist originates from. That title sounded something like a Jimmy Buffett song, honestly. Psycho Knight posted:-Reborn- Listen, usually I can get a hollow laugh or a fleeting smile in spite of a terrible game or movie; bad media is a past time for me. Yet, I've tried reading the LP and I mentally cannot stand that thing for longer than 5 minutes at a time. The, and I'm using this word very loosely, game is just dire. Psycho Knight posted:Exactly. Anime characters are just jelly creatures. They'll be fine. This is overwhelming evidence, yet still not enough to convince me that animes are superior life-forms. Psycho Knight posted:AM night posting is almost as ill-advised as drunk posting. I'm pretty sure you can look at some of the updates I've written and tell exactly the point at which midnight passed. Same goes for me. Psycho Knight posted:EDIT: Oh boy, you want a slog? I've recently found a game that doesn't understand you need more than one combat mechanic and giant HP sponges to be passably fun. It never iterates upon the idea. Ever. The Flying Twybil fucked around with this message at 13:04 on Apr 8, 2020 |
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Apr 8, 2020 12:59
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The Flying Twybil posted:Listen, usually I can get a hollow laugh or a fleeting smile in spite of a terrible game or movie; bad media is a past time for me. Yet, I've tried reading the LP and I mentally cannot stand that thing for longer than 5 minutes at a time. The, and I'm using this word very loosely, game is just dire. Don't try and get into the Reborn thread. That's like trying to get into Hell. Those of us who are in are trapped there for eternity and any laughter or fun stuff you read about is just the result of a collective madness suffered by everyone inside.
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Apr 8, 2020 13:32
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Psycho Knight posted:Don't try and get into the Reborn thread. That's like trying to get into Hell. Those of us who are in are trapped there for eternity and any laughter or fun stuff you read about is just the result of a collective madness suffered by everyone inside. Sounds like sunk-cost fallacy to me. Or the result of a otherworldly possession. I wouldn't put either past that thing's capabilities.
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Apr 8, 2020 13:41
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Psycho Knight posted:How in god's name do you find stuff like that? I've never heard of that song. Of course, I wasn't around in the 70's, but that era of music is where a decent chunk of my playlist originates from. I googled ラブレターフロムカナダ and poked around a bit. Wasn't actually expecting it to be a song so that took me a minute to get to.
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Apr 8, 2020 13:43
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Ugh, the anime is such a shitshow. Like, it's not even close to the worst I've seen, but it was basically handed to them on a silver platter and they dumped it on the floor, stomped on it, and told everyone to just lick it up from there. There was absolutely no need for most of this garbage. Even if you cut out all the dungeon diving - which is kind of stupid but i get it - there was plenty there to make the full run and get through most of the events without cutting a bunch of poo poo (and adding filler in its place).
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Apr 8, 2020 15:37
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The Flying Twybil posted:Sounds like sunk-cost fallacy to me. Or the result of a otherworldly possession. "Sunk-cost fallacy" should be the subtitle of Pokemon Reborn. Polsy posted:I googled ラブレターフロムカナダ and poked around a bit. Wasn't actually expecting it to be a song so that took me a minute to get to. Ah, I see. Probably should have tried that myself, but I just immediately assumed the "Girlfriend in Canada" trope. I thought for sure that's what it was referencing. Raitzeno posted:Ugh, the anime is such a shitshow. Like, it's not even close to the worst I've seen, but it was basically handed to them on a silver platter and they dumped it on the floor, stomped on it, and told everyone to just lick it up from there. There was absolutely no need for most of this garbage. Even if you cut out all the dungeon diving - which is kind of stupid but i get it - there was plenty there to make the full run and get through most of the events without cutting a bunch of poo poo (and adding filler in its place). That's the amazing thing about this series. It was only going to be 12 episodes. 12 episodes of material is piss easy to do when you have 13 heroines to focus on that each have their own character routes already established. Even if you didn't want to go through each of their routes (in order to not spoil everything about the game... even though they do that with several characters, like Yuzuha), you still have more than enough material. Episodes 1, 2, 11, and 12 are already accounted for (intro and exposition for Ep. 1&2, climax and ending for Ep. 11&12), which means you really only need material for Episodes 3-10. That still amounts to each Maiden only getting about 10 minutes each. And that's without any of the dungeon stuff! If you somehow needed more material to fill time, then it's laughably simply to just do up a scene of Itsuki and the Star Children in the dungeon fighting a boss. It baffles me that not only did they skip so much of each Maiden's character, but they felt like they could throw in padding. Like you said, this is the kind of project that's handed to studios on a silver platter. It's like being a YouTuber and getting a deal with a game publisher. All you have to do is follow the guidelines they give to you and you can cash that cheque. Spike Chunsoft provided them with pre-established characters, story, and even story lines. But they decided to dump it all on the floor and wing it while occasionally picking things out of the pile as reference. Then again, this is Gonzo we're talking about.
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Apr 8, 2020 18:23
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Update XX: All the burdens gone; Open the chest once more Song Title Reference: Dark Chest of Wonders - By Nightwish This is it. The last Star Labyrinth/Impurity God/whatever the gently caress we need to seal or kill in order to be done with the prep work. After this, it’s nothing but Ophiuchus standing between us and the end of this LP… well, the story portion of it anyway. There’s still some extra updates after, including the last 3 episodes of the anime… but that’s future PK’s problem.  Pisces is the final Labyrinth. I’m not sure how much story content the ending will be composed of, so after we finish up here, we’ll be heading to Ophiuchus for a little bit just to scope things out. That way we’ll be able to get straight to the 13th Phantom next time.  It has a Yuzuha theme. That’s about it. The only thing I can find to say about it is that the little fins coming out of the columns look like Yuzuha’s hair.  I will say that the Pisces Blessing room has one of the better effects. This might have been one of the better labyrinths to start with, because early on you don’t have access to skills like “Remove”. That said, these rooms only appear occasionally, so it’s not going to make or break your run.  The only equipment we pick up in here is from an Item Shrine. It’s a minor upgrade to the Holy Tree Lance, but in a strange sense. Holy Tower Lance has much higher MAT than Holy Tree Lance (as well as slightly higher ATK), but it has much less LUC (310 less). However, it adds the Light element attack that Holy Tree Lance didn’t have. Usually weapons of the same design just have better stats instead of pros and cons. Oh yeah, and Holy Tower Lance is based on Tokyo Tower instead of Tokyo Skytree. They didn’t tweak the design (Tokyo Tower has an Eiffel Tower design, with a square observation deck/base. Skytree has a circular deck/triangular base closer to the CN Tower), but the name and the colour scheme match with Tokyo Tower.  This dude looks so doofy and I love it. Mana tells us that Infideles has a good balance of offence and defence. It also has attacks that can drop speed, which can pose a decent threat. Speed is the one thing in this game that you don’t want to be reduced.  The balance of offence and defence is fairly on point. Infideles doesn’t have crazy MAT, but its regular ATK is pretty beefy and it’s DEF/MDF is serviceable. I recommend taking the magic route in this battle, if possible. Infideles will actually take advantage of speed, so you don’t want to drag this fight out too long. Of course, this is if you wind up fighting it earlier on. At the stage we’re at, we could easily drag this battle out for as long as we felt like and still not come close to biting it. A quick note: Infideles actually has 2 magic attack elements. Water and Earth. This isn’t a huge deal (you’d be pretty foolish to roll into the Pisces Boss with a majority Fire team), but it does mean that Wind (or Dark, if you have it) will be the only safe defensive element. Earth is supereffective against Water teams and Water will be supereffective against Fire teams. Light and Earth are also options if you want Neutral defence. Attacking is much simpler. Just try and bring along Dark or Earth spells.   There’s also the mandatory Crater enemies to deal with. They should always be the first targets, since Bosses can’t bring them back.  Oddly, despite getting a Chain Drive off immediately, Infideles and the Craters don’t suffer any turn delay.  Team A(wful) MECUNITEs and takes out the two Craters. Then Team C eats fish tail for nearly 2k. That is fairly scary. Even more so when you remember that this is reduced damage (Team C has Earth element defence). On top of that, Infideles then gets another turn right after Team Cs. He seems to have a very short delay on his actions. It’s not as though his speed is insane, so there must be something else going on.  Seeing as how Infideles likes to try and cripple speed, I decide to take the same approach and have Team B use a team skill called Snail Wind. Snail Wind is a strong attack that can also lower SPD and MAT by 10%.  Also, Team B has a frankly stupid Crit rate. So that’s a bonus.  Still not a challenge, but I will applaud Infideles for at least providing some resistance. It at least took a few swings on its way to hell.  Mana has a few words for us now that we’ve taken out all 12 Impurity Gods.  Great. Now that that’s done, we can focus on Ophiuchus. Come on, Itsuki. Let’s go back to the surface.And that’s it. Back to the world map. I turn in the final boss quest and check out what I have left to do in terms of regular quests. I’ll be honest with you, I was intending to complete all the quests to see if any special ones popped up, but there is a small detail that I forgot about when it comes to quests. I went to check the database after this and see how many ??? quests were left. Turns out I only have 56% of them done. How can I be missing that many when there’s only 4 or 5 Ophiuchus quests open at the moment? Turns out that the Star Maidens have 3 quests each to dish out (except Alfie), for a total of 36. Do you remember waaaaay back at the start of the game where it was mentioned that Star Maidens will sometimes call up Itsuki and ask him to fulfill a request? Me neither. But apparently that is something they can do (although it has never happened to me throughout this entire game). From what I read, it happens randomly when they call you either in a dungeon or when you are in the middle of an event with another Star Maiden. Also, the quests are repeatable, so you could wind up getting a quest you’ve already completed. Fun stuff. I’m not doing that. At least that is what I am currently telling myself.  I will have that Photon Blade for Itsuki though. I swear it. Anyway, the shop finally has new equipment in stock that we don’t already have better versions of.  Not all of them are better, but there are a few. Guto is a straight upgrade to Itsuki’s Bat weapon. A big upgrade in fact (+400 ATK. I later find an upgrade to this in Ophiuchus called Guto Luck which gives Itsuki a +680 to LUC).  More importantly, we are finally free to buy up the stat fruits. They are incredibly expensive, but at this stage of the game money isn’t good for much else. The remainder of our equipment upgrades will be coming from the Ophiuchus Labyrinth. I wind up blowing 1 million on five Power Fruit and five Speed Fruit for Itsuki. I make sure to hang on to 500k in the off chance that more healing items are required. Now, I’ve been saying all this time that we’re stocked to the gills on healing items of every type. So why would I start getting concerned about inventory now?  Because of this. At first glance, Ophiuchus is only a short five floor dungeon.  Just about every enemy type will pop up throughout the course of this dungeon and they will be of the highest-level palette swap. There are some slightly weaker versions thrown into encounters as helpers of the strong one, but all of them are beefy enough to tank several hits from any of your teams. There will be no God’s Poking happening in this dungeon. Because of that, it’s rare to come out of a battle completely unscathed. Even taking advantage of Chain Drive, Itsuki and the kids were regularly taking a beating. You’ll need to heal everyone up after every two or three battles (sometimes after each battle). This means that potions are going to start quickly vanishing. The Ophiuchus Labyrinth is also not a fan of those little HP/MP/Status Cure checkpoints that other labyrinths have been littering around. I don’t think it’s possible for them to show up at all in here. The only bonus points have been shops.  The good news is that Ophiuchus is where all the good poo poo is hiding out. Throughout the first five floors basically every Star Child received an upgrade, either in the form of a weapon or armour. Mokino here is wearing a Haze Ninja Garb, Raitzeno got Libra Mail, Neoman got Lucky Armor+, and Blaze got special Bondsman-only armor called Heart Full Plate. Those are just some examples. I’ll show off everyone’s final loadout once we are sitting in front of the final boss, because I’d imagine weapons and armor will be changing rapidly over the course of this dungeon.  Now, as for the dungeon itself. When I got to floor 5 I decided to make a save and just see if the portal was going to lead straight to the final boss. I was relieved to see that Ophiuchus was only 5 floors, but I was also suspicious of that fact. It couldn’t be that simple, could it? Turns out it wasn’t. No, Ophiuchus is indeed 15 floors, just like the other labyrinths. The game just fucks with you by only showing Section 1 at first. Upon hitting the portal on floor 5, the message above is displayed. It’s slightly different than normal, as the usual message involves an “evil” presence or something. What makes the presence familiar?  Yeah, we’re fighting the boss that we just defeated earlier in the update. I’m not sure how the game decides which boss to use or if it just pulls out the last one that you defeated. I recognize its face, but it’s giving off a more powerful aura. Great… Well, we beat it once before. We can do it again. Come on, everyone! Itsuki, don’t let your guard down! It’s the same fight we just had, except now Infideles has Crater D enemies with it. As for the boss itself, I think it’s supposed to be stronger, but these stats look the same as the first time. I compared the two side by side and this version of Infideles is 2 levels higher and some of its stats are maybe 100 higher. Weirdly, it’s DEF and LUC are somehow lower than the last time we fought it.  Oh well. This is the same as before. Although Infideles managed to put up less of a fight this time for some reason. Strange. Just... please Conception Plus, please let this just be filler. Don’t make me refight all 12 Impurity Gods again in reverse order or something.  Well done! I knew you had it in you, Itsuki! It… it was… nothing. Huff… Itsuki, you okay? You look tired… We should head to the surface for a little bit. N-No, I’m fine… I can keep going. Don’t worry about me. No, we’re turning back. Unlike other labyrinths, this place will suck away your life force.I hear that. Isn’t there a proverb on Sora for this? Slow and steady wins the race, right?That saying is based on a story about a cocky hare that would have totally kicked the poo poo out of that tortoise if not for the fact that he was an arrogant prick. Slow and steady didn’t get the tortoise the win. Hubris caused the hare to lose.  The enemies are even stronger from here on. Don’t be a daredevil, Itsuki. Return to the surface and get some rest. This is for everyone, not just you. …Okay. Fine. We’ll go back and rest.And then we’re forced back out to the world map again. That’s everything worth looking at for now. If I snag any nifty new equipment during my remaining quest grinding then I’ll point it out before we tackle the final boss. The rest of Ophiuchus is just going to involve me battling all the same monsters and possibly fighting another recycled boss while hunting for cool new weapons (I ended up fighting Pseudothei again as the Floor 10 Gatekeeper. It was far from being a threat). Which brings me to the next point. As we are just about to go up against the dreaded “13th Phantom”, we need to make a decision on how this is all going to end. I don’t know what’s going to happen to Itsuki or the Star Maidens or Granvania or anyone else in this game. What I do know is that each Maiden gets some kind of individual ending event (they all have one ??? event after their Final Bonding Event). Because I think Harem endings are loving stupid, a final Star Maiden poll was created in order to decide which character ending would be the canonical one for this LP. The results were—  …not quite as close as I thought they would be. This may have been the result of everyone only getting a single vote. I wanted to let people have 3 each, but the polling site doesn’t have advanced options like that. Either I gave everybody a single vote, or I let them all pick however many choices they wanted. I felt this was the better option.  So Arie’s will be the canonical ending for this LP.     As a consolation, Alfie, Mirei, Ruka, and Femiruna will get detailed endings in an extra update. They were the only Maidens (along with Arie) to get more than a single vote. Which kind of surprised me to be honest. Well, not so much Alfie, I guess. Alfie remained neck and neck with Arie throughout the entire voting period. Alfie was certainly popular, but I think the late reveal that she’s (supposedly) only going to live for 10 years may have given some people pause. I can’t make much sense of the other top Maidens. All three were part of the Top 6 since the second vote (Mirei has always been in the Top 6), so it’s not necessarily surprising to see them here. I think what I find strange is that they all beat out Farun. Farun really seemed like she was becoming the thread favourite during the Final Bonding Event updates. In comparison, Ruka and Femiruna’s routes seemed to sputter out and didn’t build much excitement. I think Mirei’s has generally been pretty neutral. Maybe the Farun supporters just shifted to Alfie/Arie or something.  In case you're wondering, I will be showing the ending CG for each Star Maiden. The other 8 Star Maidens will get short summaries of what happens in their endings and the CGs will be posted.   The only other surprising thing about the poll was that both Reone and Lillith/Lillie came out of it without a single vote. Reone’s brother thing had been resolved and I thought her final events were really nice. Definitely a turnaround from the middle where we were all being creeped out by her brother complex. Lillith/Lillie have always been one of my least favourite, but the last few events seemed okay. I figured somebody would have voted for them. The weirdest part (to me) is that Tarua ranked higher than them. Sure, it was only because she got a single vote while they got none, but still.  Tarua. Oh well. Everyone has their own preferences, I guess. Point is, we’ve got everything out of the way and our path is clear. Next time: We put an end to the 13th Phantom and save the world! …Begrudgingly.
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Apr 9, 2020 14:45
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Mirei kind if grew on me as the game progressed. After they were done with her mad science guinea pig poo poo, she was actually shown to be a pretty good person with her own outlook. I think for both Reone and Lillith their shtick wore thin for a lot of people so even with a strong finish we were just sick of their poo poo. I don't really care for Farun or Femiruna but I see I'm in the minority tbh
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Apr 9, 2020 17:08
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SSNeoman posted:Mirei kind if grew on me as the game progressed. After they were done with her mad science guinea pig poo poo, she was actually shown to be a pretty good person with her own outlook. I voted for Mirei for the same reasons you listed above. Not to mention she actually has plot relevance- it was probably some of the last updates that changed my mind. That, and if anyone deserves to bail on this garbage world, it's her given how much they've stepped on her over time. I mean, I kinda liked Farun at first. She reminded me very much of a friend I used to have, but her plot never really did anything else in my eyes and eventually turned to a plain "meh". Femiruna could've had my vote, but her route ignored plot points I thought would've been more interesting and Itsuki started getting a bit creepy with it at the end. I honestly could've sworn Alfie was going to win though. I didn't particularly like her too much, which I'm very apparently in the minority on that. I'm even a bit surprised with myself by not liking her because I typically like the fun characters.
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Apr 9, 2020 17:34
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The Flying Twybil posted:I mean, I kinda liked Farun at first. She reminded me very much of a friend I used to have, but her plot never really did anything else in my eyes and eventually turned to a plain "meh". Femiruna could've had my vote, but her route ignored plot points I thought would've been more interesting and Itsuki started getting a bit creepy with it at the end. I don't want to get into it in detail because I'm saving that for the update where I give my final thoughts on the characters and stuff, but I'll just say that Femiruna is the one I considered to have the most wasted potential. Her route starts off with some many different paths that the writers could have taken, but in the end they chose to boil everything down to "masochist". The Alfie thing caught me off guard at first, because I thought you were one of the people that really liked Alfie. Then I remembered that you might have mentioned something a long ways back about how her route was getting kind of uncomfortable or something. I thought Alfie was going to win as well. I thought she was going to win handily. But I think what really held her back is the fact that this game barely acknowledges her existence. She wasn't integrated with the story at all, or even with the other Maidens. That's despite the fact that her entire existence is directly related to the plot. Also, from a personal standpoint, what stopped me from considering voting for her is the "10 years to live" thing. I know that the message behind it is hopeful ("Make the most of the time you have"), but I'm a massive sucker for "happily-ever-after/romantic" endings. Knowing that about Alfie, the only thing that comes to mind for me is "bittersweet". It doesn't matter how the game presented it (i.e. "10 years is a long time to Alfie because she's a Star Child, so she's more than happy with that lifespan"), all I can think of is 10 years going by in a flash. SSNeoman posted:Mirei kind if grew on me as the game progressed. After they were done with her mad science guinea pig poo poo, she was actually shown to be a pretty good person with her own outlook. Mirei would have been my second choice if I had managed to do that "3 votes per person" idea. I voted for Arie in the end (which shouldn't surprise anyone. She's been one of my favourites since the very beginning), but Mirei came very close with that last story scene. If I hadn't already cast my vote at that moment, I likely would have ended up flipping a coin between her and Arie. As for why, I'll go in to detail about each character in a post-story bonus update. Same as I did for CII. In update news, I just got through recording the final boss, ending, and all the Star Maiden endings. Not sure when I'll have the final update ready (FFVIIR comes out tomorrow), but I don't expect it to take especially long. The endings aren't quite as rushed as CII's were, but they still aren't absurdly long. I will say that the 13th Phantom put up a fight. It wasn't a good fight, but it was better than the last 8 or 9 Labyrinth bosses. Also, I added in Polsy and HerpicleOmnicron5's notes in the last anime update. This is more of a note to myself that I didn't forget to do it. Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 21:19 on Apr 9, 2020 |
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Apr 9, 2020 21:10
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Update XXI: The hero always saves the world; The villains get what they deserve; The boy will always get the girl Song Title Reference: When I am King – By Great Big Sea  Let’s finish this poo poo! Please! I want my free time back… so I can… do stuff… Listen, I’m probably just going to sleep a lot because of the whole lockdown thing. But it’s still my free time, drat it!  Before we get to it, here’s a look at everyone’s final loadout. I snagged the Photon Blade+ from that quest for Itsuki.  It’s pretty sweet. It’s ATK is not as good as the Guto line of weapons that precede it, but it does have Light element attack, which is amazing for an Itsuki weapon as he has a stupid level of ATK even without the boost from Guto. Photon Blade+ does give a bonus to MAT, but that’s fairly useless to Itsuki since he doesn’t use magic (I think Terra might count, but that attack sort of sucks. An extra 1000 to MAT won’t change that). Other than that, he’s also got God’s Gift Armor+. It still doesn’t have the insane speed boost of that armour I had been stubbornly clinging to for half the game, but the increase in DEF and MDF was just too great to not equip. Finally, I keep him equipped with the Cheetah Ring in order to nudge up his speed.  Team A(wful) is equipped as such: Rose (F Bondsman) – Mother: Arie Holy Tower Lance Feel Mail Dance God Necklace+ Riela (F Paladin) – Mother: Lillith/Lillie Holy Tree Lance+ Gaia Mail Blessed Charm+ Isabel (F Astromancer) – Mother: Farun Shining Planet Stellar Shine Grand Earring Yuffie (F Ninja) – Mother: Reone Storm Talons+ Callisto Armor Dance God Necklace+  Team B is kitted out with: Polsy (F Hunter) – Mother: Femiruna Scale Raid+ Nature Feel Rapid Ring++ Neoman (M Dungeon Master) – Mother: Mirei Fuma Great Battleaxe Gaia Mail Rapid Ring++ Twybil (M Ninja) – Mother: Reone Death Talons Phoenix Garb Rapid Ring++ Raitzeno (M Magic Knight) – Mother: Reone Star God Sword Libra Mail War God Necklace+  Finally, Team C is rocking: Slaan (M Paladin) – Mother: Mirei Holy Tree Lance Thor Scale Rapid Ring++ Anni (F Astromancer) – Mother: Alfie Ruin Stick+ Stellar Shine Grand Earring+ Mokino (M Ninja) – Mother: Arie Storm Talons+ Four Gods Garb Rapid Ring++ Blaze (M Bondsman) – Mother: Sue King’s Lance All Feel Rapid Ring++ Team A(wful) is Magic Attack focused, Team B relies on Criticals and enemy debuffs, and Team C is general purpose. In terms of nifty new weapons, here is what I wound up collecting during my travels through Ophiuchus.  I think this is purely a joke weapon for Itsuki, because it has absolutely miserable stats. I have no idea what the hell it’s referencing. My immediate guess would be Famitsu, but there’s also a bassist known as Fami on YouTube. I kind of doubt this is a shout out to her, though. She doesn’t seem to be a major presence online and it doesn’t look like her guitar videos have been around since 2012. They could have added this in Plus, but I think the safer bet is that this is a Famitsu Magazine reference. Either way, it’s not worth using at all. I still haven’t figured out if “ATK 50% Down” is an inherent property of the weapon, or if it means that the weapon can apply a debuff to the enemy (this game is terrible for explaining stuff like that and it’s very difficult to test). Even if it did have that effect as a debuff, it more than likely doesn’t work against bosses, so it’s still useless.  Speaking of shout out weapons, I managed to track down the missing enterbrain weapons. Blaze is actually using this one, because it has amazing ATK. No speed or defence bonuses, but I’m willing to sacrifice that for the attack increase.   Then there’s the axe and claw versions. I considered giving someone the claws because they have great attack, but the massive loss of speed for Ninjas made me ditch the idea. That’s it for equipment. I completed every quest except for the Star Maiden quests. I’m sure those quests offer up some crazy awesome weapons, but I was not willing to sit down for hours constantly reloading my save file and trying to get RNG to cooperate for 36 quests. You want to know what’s even worse about those Maiden quests? You can only have 1 active at a time. Fuuuuck that.  Thank merciful heaven that I didn’t do something stupid like say this would be a completionist run. Promising something before knowing what I’m getting in to is how this LP came to be in the first place.  Let’s go. It’s time for us to get off this godforsaken planet.   That thing looks loving awesome. This is the 13th Phantom?! It has a huge Impurity Energy reading… Don’t go getting my hopes up, Mana. I don’t want to get excited only to end up stomping this thing 5 minutes later. [***] I am… Chaos… Who… are you? God’s Gift. I’m here to put an end to you![Chaos]: You dare interfere with my rebirth…? Itsuki, we have to call Nar! We have to do the sealing ceremony right away!Maybe don’t shout that at the top of your lungs, Mana. He can clearly understand us.  Yes! Pull a Wake! Do it! Itsuki?!*Itsuki tries to bum rush the embodiment of Chaos single-handedly* [Choas]: I am… Chaos… Desirer of despair for all existence… Desirer of the end of all existence… The bringer of chaos to all…  Gaaahhh!And Itsuki immediately gets bodied. Oh well, it was worth a shot. Maybe if you had given control of the battle to me. Itsuki, snap out of it! Dammit… I can’t be this weak… I’m supposed to defeat it… I’m supposed to be the hero… I’m still thinking about it. Give me a minute. I hate this world… but I like the Star Children… but I hate Mana… but I like the Star Maidens… some of them…  All right. Let’s do it. Let’s save the world… I guess. [Chaos]: Grrrooowwwlll!  It’s the 13th Phantom, Mahiru. You were told about it in advance.  This is the 13th Phantom… Nar! Itsuki is over here!”He immediately lost his heroic resolve after getting hit once!”  Oh no, Itsuki! Please, help Itsuki! Why the hell are you here?  If Itsuki dies, the Grand Star Offering will be gone forever! Hold on! Itsuki’s hurt!Spoiler alert for Mahiru: He’ll be dead soon so it won’t really matter. Mahiru, stay calm. The only way to save Itsuki is to seal that Impurity. We must conduct the ceremony now. Do you understand? B-But! O-Okay… Begin the ceremony!  That’s actually a cool effect. Ahh! Mahiru, Itsuki is fine! Cast the spell right now!”The screaming means its working!”  Nar! How can you say he’s fine like this?! Guaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Mahiru! The spell! Guaaaaaaaaah! Ahhhhhh! May light fill this space. May darkness be erased… Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh! Arrrggghhh!You doing okay, Itsuki? Just hold on a little more, then it’ll all be o— Wait, that’s right. You’re going to be devoured by Impurities for 1,200 years after this… Never mind. Mahiru! Stop it! Itsuki… He’ll die at this rate! No… Mahiru! But! But he’s! Continue! You must continue if you wish to save him! May the spirit become the Grand Star Offering. Put chaos to eternal slumber… Itsuki… I’m sorry. But with this, we’ll have another 1,200 years of peace. Gaaaaaaaah! Itsuki!!!  Huh…?! What…?! What’s the matter?! What’s happening here? Look inside the monster! There’s a person inside! Star God! Is that you?! …You’re a loving rear end in a top hat!  Are you…?[***]: I descended upon this land from Sora 1,200 years ago. And I have become the Grand Star Offering… You’re the legendary God’s Gift?!Oh, right. That guy. Sorry I cursed you out. I thought you were Star God. [God’s Gift]: Star Maidens of God’s Gift… I shall bestow upon you the truth…  There’s a very quick shot here of everyone looking shocked/angry. …Except for Yuzuha, who just looks sort of confused. No way… That was the plan? Is this true?! Busted. I don’t believe it! Answer me, Narcisstes! Guh…[God’s Gift]: My descendants… You must not repeat the same mistakes…  [God’s Gift]: The phantom will vanish… for all eternity… You must… believe in your own strengths… Come on, don’t do that “Power of Love/Friendship” thing. Just let me fight it. Narcisstes, the ceremony will end in failure at this rate. What do you intend to do?Why are you asking him? There’s gently caress all Narcisstes can do about this. Mahiru already knows the truth. [Chaos]: One with the fate of a Star Maiden… Do not dare interfere with my rebirth… …Or what? [Chaos]: I am the immortal one. Mahiru, he was a God’s Gift. However, those were not his own words. He’s already been taken over by the 13th Phantom. All those words are merely to interfere with the ceremony.You raise a good point. But you’re a lying shitbag yourself, so I’m willing to flip that coin and take a chance on possible Star Jesus. Nar… Don’t you dare lie! Mana… Mahiru, why did you…?The Grim Gate appears on screen again. I think the implication is that Mirei gave one to Mahiru without Narc knowing. Mirei told me…   I’ve heard the truth from the legendary God’s Gift. It’s the only way to save this world. We must make Itsuki the Grand Star Offering. There is no other way to seal the 13th Phantom! Narcisstes, you still don’t understand? “When Star Maiden and God’s Gift souls merge, the phantom will forever vanish.” Do you not understand the meaning of those ancient words?I sure as hell didn’t. I thought it meant sacrificing both Itsuki and Mahiru. Didn’t think it was a “power of bonds” situation. Good thing I maxed out those Social Links.  Our hearts are always together.*Everyone else gets a one-liner here as well… except Alfie. Remember Alfie?! She was created for this remaster! She’s the Ophiuchus Maiden!*  Everyone here feels the same way. If we join together, we can beat anyone! The fortune I just read says we’ll turn the tables. The world’s too fun for us to let it get destroyed.  God’s Gift, please stand up! Please… Big Brother! Itsuki! Stand up! Yeah! Get up! Itsuki, I will send all of my Star Energy to you. Itsuki, I’m a man of science. You wish to tell me to believe in miracles?You kind of don’t have a choice. Science ain’t gonna save you right now. If it were me… I’d say the entire world is filled with miracles. Everything will be solved once the 13th Phantom is gone, right? All the Impurities here will vanish, and the Star Maidens’ duty will be over. So long as there’s a chance… we shouldn’t give up! Well, there’s no other choice left to us now, is there?There was never any choice! Not once in this entire game have you ever had a choice as to how this was going to turn out. …If it looks like I won’t win… then turn me into the Grand Star Offering. Itsuki, what are you saying?!AMCP, Mahiru. Please… promise me. If I lose, then you have to do it. You have to use me to seal the 13th Phantom. F-Fine… drat right we will. Prayer!*The screen goes white here for a bit, which I guess indicates that Mirei/the Maidens transferred their power or something* [Chaos]: You livestock who dare interfere with my eternal being. Despair. Submit. Pay for your sins with your pitiful lives.  Oh, drat. He knows Magic Missile. The Star Maidens are in danger! No! May all spirals of despair be slain. Your Majesty?! Ooohhh… that doesn’t look fun. Gah! Shangri-La! Oh no! He took the hit for God’s Gift! Itsuki, forgive me… Shangri-La… I have a duty to protect this world… My fellow friend from Sora… Please… release these shackles from us… Mana… I’m sorry… If the Impurities of this world vanish, you, too, will… I’m on board with this now! I’m 100% committed! Let’s kill the 13th Phantom! Hurry! We can rid ourselves Mana! What?! …I know.She’s made peace with it! Come on! Let’s get this done! I will follow you… wherever you go… Also, farewell Shangri-La. You were cool, then you were an rear end in a top hat, then you kind of redeemed yourself at the end there. One thing we can say for certain is: You loved Granvania. Right… I can do it. I will stop this cycle of suffering, of despair… I will save this world![Chaos]: You dare attempt to seal me once more? You will never… I’m not here to seal you! I’m here to erase you from existence![Chaos]: As the sword… As the hammer… Be crushed by my entire being.  Finally! Boss time. Also, he immediately opens the battle by wrecking Teams B and C for close to 3,000 damage.  Those are… those are some scary stats. Also some scary skills. Not to mention he’s got good coverage. Mental Eclipse (as well as his standard attack) will cripple any teams with Fire/Water/Earth/Wind defence. Earthstorm and Burning Fuse will let him deal neutral damage to Light defence teams while being super effective against Wind and Water, which would normally counter Earth and Fire respectively (Earthstorm and Burning Fuse are also multi-target spells). Heal is never fun for bosses to use. 9,999 is the cap for damage/healing, but due to his defences, that would be a decent setback.  This is the full view of what we’re fighting, since he’s too big to fit on screen in this battle. Having all of your teams be Light defence is the best bet, although that’s kind of a major time investment at this point if you don’t already have them trained up. That said, having your teams with Light elemental attacks is doable using equipment and possibly through some team rearranging (for stuff like Photon Drive). If not that, then Dark will work as well (it will at least be neutral). Basic elemental spells will be largely worthless.  The good news is that he seems to suffer from major turn delay on his spells. If you can survive the attack, then it should be fairly easy to heal back up while still getting some shots in. Bad news is that Chaining him will take longer than usual because skills like Gran/Temple Chain don’t build the gauge nearly as much compared to regular enemies and bosses. That said, I still think it’s a decent strategy. Be careful with your health as you do this, though.  Thankfully, you don’t need to fill the CD gauge in order to chain him. You just need to get it to 75%. Team C and Team B both held out against a second Burning Fuse (although I had to heal Team B just before it hit), then I managed to get the chain off. After this, I took the time to heal everyone up, then went to town.  I also MECUNITE Team A(wful), because their MECUNITE form is always Light based. They will spend the rest of this battle dealing out 9,999 damage per turn, which really helps chip away at the boss. The other two teams stick to Photon Driver and Arrow Fusillade/Snail Wind.  This one hurt real bad. I buffed Itsuki’s MDF using an item during his last turn precisely for this possibility. He wasn’t in danger of being OHKO’d, but the extra MDF definitely prevented him from being put into a 2HKO situation. Team C also just barely hangs on (Slaan is the only one left standing from this attack). I get Team C fully healed again and at this point the fight is essentially over. The 13th Phantom’s turn delay is simply too great for him to capitalize on his insane damage output. Chaining him also give us the chance to wail on him for roughly 10 turns with our best attacks.  To heal Itsuki (just in case), I decide to use his Bond Link skill. The game itself may have forgotten about Alfie, but RNG has not. Out of the 13 possible Maiden portraits that can pop up when using this skill, Alfie’s was the one that did. At least it’s something. Alfie’s power fully heals Itsuki’s HP and MP. Time to wrap this up.  Chaos/13th Phantom gets one more Mental Eclipse off, but it’s not a critical so it does much less damage than before. Team C gets their revenge for the previous hit by Photon Driver’ing the poo poo out of him.  Suck it, Chaos!  [Chaos]: I will… vanish…? Heed my words, livestock… So long as you exist, Impurities will arise once more. Because I… am you… Not our problem! We’re getting the hell out of this world ASAP.  [Chaos]: drat you… drat you… drat you…  [Chaos]: drat you, drat you, drat you, drat you, drat you, drat you, drat you, drat you.  Die already! [Chaos]: drat youuuuuuu! Arrrrrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhh!  Finally! Also, I’ve been looking forward to this part since Shang brought it up. Mana! Don’t cry, Itsuki… It ruins your pretty little face… Mana, please don’t go… This… is for the best… Now… *And Mana fades away as the screen goes black* ~Inn: Itsuki’s Room~ Itsuki, how do you feel? A lot better than before. That’s thanks to you. Sorry about that. By the way, how is everyone else? Narcisstes and Mirei are trying to track the Gate of Light. They want to find it the moment it appears. I see… Are you worried if it will appear? Not a chance. Until a little while ago, I thought I was going to be sealed inside that labyrinth for over a century. I’m okay with waiting. My deepest apologies… Don’t apologize. I’m only here because you all saved me. I owe y— Itsuki, we have an ultra super emergency situation on our hands! What? What’s wrong? Come out to the field at the academy! Convenient timing. ~Star God Academy Field~  Right. Thanks, Narcisstes. Itsuki, thanks to you, Impurities have been purged from this world. The Star Maidens have been relieved of their duties as well. No one would have dreamt this day would come.Yeah, that’s great. Good for you. I hate you all. Now let’s get a move on, Itsuki. I think it was worth all the pain. To be honest… Itsuki, now is your chance, should you wish to take it.Well, if you’re offering. Yeah. You’re right. But I’m not going to do that. You’re going to die someday anyway, so why not use what time you have to help the people of this world? If you’re sorry, then that seems like a better way to make amends. But, what would I know? I’m just a teenager. No, you are the hero our country. …Well, I guess that’s fine. Just count yourself lucky that the choice wasn’t put in the hands of the thread. I’ll be going now. There’s someone waiting for you… And that someone is Arie, as voted by the thread. This is where the choice of ending is made. You may have noticed that I haven’t mentioned anything about being given the option to save. This really freaked me out at first, because I thought this meant I would have to refight the boss 13 more times to get all the possible endings.  Mercifully, all you have to do to get more endings is run to the final portal in Ophiuchus. The game will ask you if you want to skip the battle with Chaos (as long as you're using your Clear Save data).  Yeah. I can finally go back home… Then congratulations are in order. You have fulfilled your objective. But we must now part ways… Arie… aren’t you going to come with me? I pledged myself to you in front of the Star God, Arie. I love you. I don’t want us to be separated. … About my love for you, I mean… That I feel most at ease when I’m with you. Everyone is cheering me on. They told me they want me to be happy.In your face little kid that asked Arie to marry him someday! But even so, I can’t bring myself to leave the church… Oh… But I’ve already decided. If… If, you… Arie… Itsuki, please… take me to your world. Hey, worshipping Itsuki beats worshipping that jackass. I’m cool with this. …Okay. Arie… Come with me.  Peace out, Granvania! Your world is terrible and I hate all of you! Star Children and most of the Star Maidens excluded. Also that one nice grandma from Ruka’s route. The Boss sounds like a pretty cool guy as well.  Feels good. Feels real good. …Also feels incredibly depressing. I’ve completed 3 JRPG SSLP’s in the span of one and a half years. CII started on Oct. 1, 2018. World of Final Fantasy started on Jan 9, 2019. Conception Plus started on Nov. 8, 2019. 180 hours of play time (according to Steam), which doesn’t include all the hours spent typing the drat updates or working on character icons or other random crap.  Probably not all that bad by some people’s metrics. Granted, I did all of that while also attending university and working part-time.  This game had a planning department?! Jesus Christ… can you imagine the poo poo I could have done if I had devoted 180 hours to school? That’s like a full semester at max course load! Hell, if I had devoted 180 hours just to learning more Japanese I’d probably be in good shape for studying there in a few months. Really puts things into a horrifyingly depressing perspective, doesn’t it?  Putting that aside before I end up taking up alcoholism, who the hell is Linguitronics Co., Ltd.?  Hmm… It sounds like they were the ones that did the Chinese translation. But they also mention English, so maybe they did do the Japanese -> English?  Looks like the localization team had a single editor that was also pulling double duty as the coordinator, so I guess that explains quite a bit about the multitude of errors. Hold on… who the hell is Labaamen?  Googling… whoever this is… only turns up some translation credits for a few manga (Samurai Drive, Tiger & Bunny Comic Anthology, and Tony Takezaki’s Neon Genesis Evangelion). There’s also an interview with someone from the public translation community (fansubbers, basically) where Labaamen is mentioned by the interviewee. So I guess Spike Chunsoft (North America) hired a freelance/hobby translator for this? That explains that, I suppose. I’m not going to rag on the person because I can’t find enough on them to get an idea of their usual skill level. I also can’t blame them for errors considering they were apparently working on this by themselves and Spike Chunsoft only bothered to have one person doing the editing (while also having them do a second job in tandem). But at least this gives us some possible answers about what happened with this game.  Anyway, we’ve got a little bit of story left.  Where the hell is this? Doesn’t look like the Tokyo skyline. Not obviously, anyway. A few years have passed since I returned to my world with Arie… It didn’t take long for her to get used to life here… My dear, breakfast is ready. It’s probably the lighting, but I want to believe that hat is pink and Arie ended up making a bunch of different coloured ones after she got here to wear on various occasions. Arie… you make it sound like we’re married. Isn’t it too early for that? But we’ve already sworn an oath for our hearts to be together.Itsuki, were you asleep for that ceremony or something? What in god’s name did you think you were doing when you vowed all that “in sickness and in health” stuff? Anyway, my dear, I bought this sharp kitchen knife online.Looks like she found a replacement for her weapon collecting. Good thing, because that would not fly in Japan. At the very least it would draw some police attention. My heart jumps when I see a knife first thing in the morning in our bedroom… I still don’t think I really understand… You told me, didn’t you? To act according to what my heart tells me to.She’s got you there. I’m ecstatic looking at the shine on this knife. That’s no reason to decorate the entire kitchen with knives, you know…Hey, at least she’s keeping it to the kitchen. I’ve been holding back all this time. This collection will grow even more. When you hold me… When you kiss me, my heart heats up. That feeling will never wane no matter how much time will pass… I’m glad I could bring you to this world, Arie. Buy as many kitchen knives as you want. You should live how your heart wants.So… question. Where is the money coming from for Arie’s online shopping and this apartment/house? Itsuki was only (just about) a high school graduate when the Granvania thing happened. If a few years have passed since they came back, then he’d still be in university or college. I don’t know how far into the future we’ll actually tie the knot…Who am I kidding. He probably had some inheritance from his parents that was never mentioned. Also, why are you putting that off, Itsuki? You brought this woman over from a different world/dimension. Are you seriously telling me that marriage is still in the “let’s wait and see” phase? But I wanna have children with you someday. That house is gonna require some next level baby proofing. Yes. Gladly. I love you… my dear.  Nice. Thank you to everyone that followed along with this LP. I still have more updates planned, but I wanted to thank anyone who might be planning to tap out now that the story is done. For everyone else that wants to hang around until the very end, we’ve got a few more things to look at and talk about. There’s still the final 3 episodes of the anime (Yay…), detailed and summary versions of the other Star Maiden endings, my final thoughts on characters/routes/the game itself (if anyone actually cares about that), as well as some—   NO! NO, GODDAMNIT! WE WATCHED YOU DIE! WE ALL SAW IT! YOU CAN’T DO THIS!
Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 14:11 on Apr 19, 2020 |
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Apr 10, 2020 02:37
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Missed the opportunity to end the game at level 69, for shame. Also kudos to the dudes responsible for monster design, Chaos looks like something outta SMT.
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Apr 10, 2020 03:45
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SSNeoman posted:Missed the opportunity to end the game at level 69, for shame. I actually didn't, I just timed the screenshot wrong at the end (it was taken just before I saved clear data). I'll fix it tomorrow. The fight with Chaos is what pushes Itsuki to Level 69. I think I read somewhere that one of the guys working on monster design also works on Overlord? Chaos kind of looks the skeleton dude from that show.
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Apr 10, 2020 03:52
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So all this time, sealing the God's Gift was the wrong thing to do. No wonder the Star God sucked so much. It's been sitting around, waiting thousands of years for someone to interpret a single sentence correctly. I guess it stopped caring at some point. At least Chaos was cool. And Arie still wears her hat all the time. A good choice. NOOOOOOOOOOOO
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Apr 10, 2020 05:56
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... That end boss design is actually pretty good. Also I hope Mana's revival isn't explained by "the power of friendship" because if that's the case then I think Shangri-La could've used it more. Aside from that I liked Arie's ending (although I am a sucker for the "married with kids" endings.)
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Apr 10, 2020 06:17
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Psycho Knight posted:
Star God truly is the cruelest god. FalloutFan56 posted:... That end boss design is actually pretty good. Also I hope Mana's revival isn't explained by "the power of friendship" because if that's the case then I think Shangri-La could've used it more. Aside from that I liked Arie's ending (although I am a sucker for the "married with kids" endings.) You know, I'd have been okay if Shang got the friendship resurrection. Sure, he had secret motives, but he had his reasons and even eventually turned back around... at the last moment. But hey, he did. But what we got was far from that. Arie's ending was okay. Personally I think it needed a little more, but it works, I guess.
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Apr 10, 2020 06:45
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So lemme get this straight: Did killing off the Impurity nonsense cause everything sapient to get reconfigured into a human? Also, she's not coming back to earth is she? EDIT: Also also, Congrats!! You've survived this madness! AnAnonymousIdiot fucked around with this message at 07:59 on Apr 10, 2020 |
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Apr 10, 2020 07:52
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Given that Mirei is in that image, I'm going to guess that this is from her ending and she somehow revived the evil. If that's the case, it's a good thing that she wasn't the winner of the ending vote.
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Apr 10, 2020 08:42
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Psycho Knight posted:Hold on… who the hell is Labaamen? Judging by some forums posts (and the interview you mention) they were pretty well respected in the fansubs community around the time (~2010) but disappeared shortly afterwards. I would've guessed they'd got a job with a legit translation company, but if so the company would (presumably) be credited rather than the individual. Freelance seems like a possibility, yeah. Psycho Knight posted:
I've been sitting on this awful knowledge ever since I looked around people's final videos in the hopes they opened the database after they finished the game.
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Apr 10, 2020 11:44
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Polsy posted:Judging by some forums posts (and the interview you mention) they were pretty well respected in the fansubs community around the time (~2010) but disappeared shortly afterwards. I would've guessed they'd got a job with a legit translation company, but if so the company would (presumably) be credited rather than the individual. Freelance seems like a possibility, yeah. And maybe they are great at what they do. I'm not saying you have to work at a company to be a professional. But there were clearly a bunch of weird translation decisions and spelling/grammar/translation errors. Obviously you can't be perfect, which is why editors are supposed to be reviewing and checking this stuff. I'm putting blame more on SC as a company, I guess. If they want to build up this North American branch to be a contender, then they've got to do better on stuff like this. Because eventually you're going to get your hands on the localization rights for a property with a dedicated fanbase that care deeply about the quality of the game. NiS America went through this with Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana, which they did a lovely job on and got ripped apart for by Ys fans to the point that the later Switch port needed a fresh translation done on it. Of course, SC may also just be content with being the cheap option for English localizations. BlazeEmblem posted:Given that Mirei is in that image, I'm going to guess that this is from her ending and she somehow revived the evil. Mirei is not responsible for that abomination. We'll get to it in the summary portion, but I'm 99% sure that we have Shang to thank for this (although it's more of an unintended result of his actions as opposed to a deliberate effort). I didn't read the event in detail because I always fast forward and just go back to the database later, but I think this was a result of a Star Fragment. AnAnonymousIdiot posted:So lemme get this straight: Did killing off the Impurity nonsense cause everything sapient to get reconfigured into a human? To answer you're first question: Fortunately no. The Impurities just disappeared along with the Labyrinths. To answer your second question: Unfortunately yes... The Flying Twybil posted:You know, I'd have been okay if Shang got the friendship resurrection. Sure, he had secret motives, but he had his reasons and even eventually turned back around... at the last moment. But hey, he did. But what we got was far from that. I mean, he was a well intentioned extremist. I still think he approached this from the wrong angle, but he genuinely had the world's safety in mind with his actions. I think a friendship resurrection would have been all right for him. But there’s usually a "main character death quota" in games that has to be met, so someone had to take the bullet. I liked Arie’s ending. It wasn't great, but it was sweet. I think they spent too much dialogue on the knife thing, but at least they didn't get stupid with it. I also appreciate that Arie makes a point to say that her knife hobby will always come second to her feelings for Itsuki. She has her priorities in order. Honestly, I think the terrible anime adaption of Arie just made me appreciate the official version more. Arie’s popularity in this thread has mostly come from the fact that she’s one of the most normal characters. The other thing to keep in mind is that, in this series, endings always need more work. Remember CII's endings? Some of those were literally 2 or 3 lines and a CG. I will say that, from what I saw, I think Yuzuha’s ending might be the best just based on what it implies and how the CG is handled. FalloutFan56 posted:Aside from that I liked Arie's ending (although I am a sucker for the "married with kids" endings.) I am too (except the kids part. I don’t like kids). Good news is that if you like those endings then you'll like a lot of the character endings. Itsuki is strangely insistent on having kids (I think he proposes it to every Star Maiden. I can’t think of any endings that have the Star Maiden bringing it up with him or not at all). BlazeEmblem posted:So all this time, sealing the God's Gift was the wrong thing to do. No wonder the Star God sucked so much. It's been sitting around, waiting thousands of years for someone to interpret a single sentence correctly. I guess it stopped caring at some point. Like, from how the ending plays out, this entire thing could have been ended by someone just fighting Chaos. Sure, he was strong, but it seems like Legendary God’s Gift just needed to train his Star Children more. Either that or he sucked at interacting with the Star Maidens. I like the idea that Legendary God’s Gift stepped in to tell everyone "Hey, so you kind of don’t need to do the sacrifice thing. Turns out all we needed to do was stab it a few times. Don't take the stupid option like I did. Star God made it sound more complicated than it really was." And yes, I'm glad Arie’s hat persisted in her new life on Earth. That hat is a great hat.
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Apr 10, 2020 14:55
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Psycho Knight posted:And maybe they are great at what they do. I'm not saying you have to work at a company to be a professional. But there were clearly a bunch of weird translation decisions and spelling/grammar/translation errors. Obviously you can't be perfect, which is why editors are supposed to be reviewing and checking this stuff. Yeah, I feel like most of the issues we've seen should have been picked up by an editor. The only time I did this kind of checking up on a Let's Play when there was actually one of the translators in the thread was Ar Tonelico 3 and at least some of the time it was down to how the source text was given to them and that they were unable to get any more detail/context when things were unclear so I tend to give the actual translators at least some benefit of the doubt. I had a look at the credits for some of SC's recent releases but I didn't see this particular person elsewhere (though, it was still just a single person when the translator was directly credited) Psycho Knight posted:Itsuki is strangely insistent on having kids (I think he proposes it to every Star Maiden. I can’t think of any endings that have the Star Maiden bringing it up with him or not at all). This is actually a title drop in Japanese (yes, again)
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Apr 10, 2020 18:25
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Extra Update I: Alternate Endings and PK's thoughts on the Maidens All right. So, we’ve completed the game itself and wound up with Arie’s ending. But there are still 12 other Star Maidens with their own endings to see. Other than Arie, the only other Maidens that managed to secure more than a single vote in the final poll were Alfie, Mirei, Ruka, and Femiruna. We’ll take a look at the detailed endings for those four. Everyone else will only get short summaries and their associated CG. Alfie is up first.   Even Mahiru looks super happy that you can return to Sora. This is all thanks to your help, Alfie. You trained the Star Children. That was what helped me defeat the last boss. Ehehe… I feel so happy having been able to help everyone. And I was able to go on so many dates with you. Alfie… I’ll be praying for your well-being from here. Ahaha… It sounds so stiff. R-Really? But the previous God’s Gift said it’s a formal farewell… Hey, Alfie… If you stay any longer… I’ll… I… want to say goodbye with a smile. But I don’t wanna say goodbye to you. Huh…? I know how much you love this world. So I won’t tell you to come with me… But if you’d like… Can you give me some more of your time so we can spend it together? Alfie, I want you by my side, forever. Let’s live together, here in Granvania. That makes me so happy… But to you, it will only be 10 years. Will you still stay here, even knowing that? Of course. Itsuki… I’m so glad… I became a Star Maiden…*Following the credits* ~Day Camp~  She didn’t expect to be going back alone. But when Mahiru uses Mirei’s invention on Sora… She can make it appear like I never existed in Sora in the first place. She can make things like that? That’s loving with the laws of reality. Technology like that should not exist. But Mirei… How did she know that tool would be needed? It’s like she knew this would happen… Knowing Mirei, she probably did. She must have figured we’d end up this way. Right… Now then… We have plenty of time together… But what should we do on this momentous day? Then we can chat on the sand. How about we go swimming? I really feel like swimming today! … All right. Then let’s race to the ocean! She said she wanted to swim… But she really didn’t know how to. Ehehe… I showed you such an embarrassing side of me… And from my angle, her chest was… G-God’s Gift! Where do you think you’re looking?! That’s why the other Star Maidens call you a pervert! Huh? They really called me that? But I don’t want you looking at anyone else’s… S-Sorry. I’ll be careful not to shift my pervy eyes elsewhere. It’s a promise then. A-And… A-All right, Alfie! Let’s train some more so you can learn to swim today! Yes, instructor! I’ll go wherever you take me! Come on! Don’t round your back! Kick the water! Instructor! Train me more, please! Oh, but… But what? Never. Yeah… Now I can go back to my world. Are you ready, Mirei? Yes. I’ve already taken care of all my research here. I was able to succeed where I had previously failed in my other research. You are simply amazing. I haven’t done anything… No, it’s all thanks to you. Take me with you. Take me to your world. Right… Let’s go.*After the credits* A few years have passed since Mirei came with me to my world… She has since become a genius scientist and invented so many different things…  Mirei, I brought you some snacks. Thank you, Itsuki. I’m glad you came to see me. It’s hard to return home whenever my research piles up… I’m sad I haven’t been able to see you… If this is all it takes, I’ll stop by any time. Science is so fun. It has a charm much different from Star Energy. I believe I can make an invention that will surprise the world in a few years. You really are amazing, Mirei. You’re a genius even in this world. Heheh. Of course I am. You’ll become a world-class scientist. Though, I am worried… I wonder if I’m good enough for you sometimes… Don’t say such idiotic things. This world is interesting. There is no shortage of subjects I want to research. That won’t change no matter what happens. You are my all, Itsuki. I will research you for the rest of my life… So… I will never leave your side. Thank you, Mirei… Let’s be together forever… And one day, it won’t be a Star Child… I want us to have a normal child. Heheh. What a wonderful suggestion. That is interesting. I would like to test it out. I don’t know what results will await us. I think I have an idea… I’m sure we’ll be happy together. Heheh… All right. Itsuki, will you be joining me in this research until the very end? Yeah, of course I will. I’ll go wherever you’ll be. Thank you. You truly are the best research specimen there is… I… love you, Ruka. Wh-What are you saying? I can’t just leave behind the other orphans… Even if we do love each other, there are some things we just can’t do. [Orphanage Girl]: We’ll be okay, won’t we? Wh-Why are you all here?[Orphanage Boy]: We were worried about you. You need to graduate from this orphanage already. We’ll be okay… Hehe. Th-This is all so sudden. I’m not ready for this… Let’s go, Ruka. Here, hold my hand. B-But…[Orphanage Boy]: Yeah! Go go! Ah!*Ruka got shoved towards Itsuki (closer to the screen)*  I’ll take care of you as long as I live, Ruka. Ugh… F-Fine… I-I’ll go with you! I’m ready for it. C-Come on already. Hurry up and hold my hand. Hold me tighter so I can feel your heart…*After credits* It’s been a few years now since Ruka came to my world… Come on, Itsuki . Help me prepare dinner.No, the grammar errors haven’t stopped just because we’re watching the endings. The kids are all hungry. Unlike where I was, there are so many more here. The kids all wanna play right now. What do you want me to do? Geez… You know, people like you are what they call a doting parent. While I’m at it, I wouldn’t mind looking after a few more. Huh…? Wh-What’s that supposed to mean? It means that I want kids with you, Ruka. Ruka… Will you have a child with me someday? Wh-Wh-Wha… D-Don’t say that all of a sudden! I’m sure you’re just overflowing with love to shower on others. I’m already giving you plenty! Y-You still want more…? I didn’t mean that, just that it’d be fun with more kids. W-Well… I’ll, um… think about it… Hm? Did you say something? N-No, I didn’t. Anyway, let’s get dinner ready. Go get to work now. … Itsuki, the kids will leave the nest someday… But I want you to always be by my side… I’ll always be by yours. That I’ll always love you…In case anyone is somehow confused, I believe the implication is that they adopted a bunch of kids and now Itsuki is talking about having biological kids.  Thanks for waiting, Femiruna. Now, let’s return together. Will you… really take me to your world? So long as you wanna go, I will show you an even bigger world. I gathered the courage to speak with Mother and Father about this. Is this… really for the best? Mother and Father were quite disappointed. Is it truly all right for me to be this selfish? It’s a little late to say that. I still find it doubtful whether I should really go with you. If you falter for even a moment, I may abandon you then and there. Just come with me, Femiruna. Take my hand. I won’t let anything bad happen to you. I won’t make you regret coming with me. So please, come with me. … Of course♪*After credits* Some years have passed since Femiruna came to my world with me… I thought she’d feel homesick after leaving Granvania, but… I cannot believe this! Do you believe the customers would like such a design? Make the skirt bolder! And the undergarment more delicate! Femiruna distinguished herself in this world utilizing her different talents… Ohohoho! My designs have garnered even more awards this year, Itsuki!Can we talk about how there is now a biological “beast-person” in charge of a fashion/design company? On Earth? That’s going to raise a hell of a lot of eyebrows. That’s amazing, Femiruna. I didn’t know you were hiding such a talent. When I design Granvanian patterns, I win all the awards. Business is booming. I am almost afraid of how great my own talents are. I bet. Setting that aside though, I’m glad to see how happy you are doing this. There are still so many things I must try. You will accompany me on my journey. Of course I will. There’s something I need your help with too. Ohohoho! Do you know what I want from you then? Wh-Why are you staring at me like that…? What is it you want to ask? I wanna make you happy for as long as you live. R-Right… Let’s be happy together, Femiruna. And someday… I want us to have a child together. What…?! I cannot believe you would say such a thing with a straight face. Do you truly believe you can shake me with those words… Femiruna… Ahh… We will be happy together. I’ll make sure of it. … And that’s all for the detailed endings. The rest of the Maidens will get short summaries, since they barely managed to get a single vote. Tarua’s ending involves her being sad because Boss supposedly abandoned her. She says he kicked her out for moping around and that he was healthy enough to no longer need her help. He also told her to run off and be with God’s Gift because she’d be happier that way. Itsuki explains that this was the Boss’s way of saying that he accepted Itsuki. Itsuki invites Tarua to his world and Tarua declares her love.  After the credits, Itsuki explains that Tarua was feeling down for a while after they arrived, but eventually took up a job as a delivery girl in Itsuki’s town. She still wishes she could have repaid Boss for all that he did, but Itsuki tells her that being happy and enjoying her life is the best way she can do that. Itsuki talks about having kids someday (carefully stating that he’s “not sure when”). Tarua states that she’ll keep delivering letters until she becomes a full-fledged mailman. She also says a cheesy line regarding her love for Itsuki (“You’re the only letter that needs no stamp”). Lillith is the only one to appear in the first part of the ending (on the Academy Field). She talks about getting lonely after Itsuki leaves and complains about Lillie forcing her to be the one to say farewell. She starts to cry, but Itsuki says that the future can be changed and invites her to go with him to his world so they won’t be separated.  After the credits, Itsuki mentions that Lillith continues doing her fortune telling and is very popular with it. As for their life together, there seems to be a constant pull between the two personalities. Despite what that CG implies, Lillith/Lillie still share the same body. Lillith talks about going on a date with Itsuki today, Itsuki could have sworn they went on one yesterday, Lillith says that that was Lillie and that Lillie also got one more date than Lillith did last month as well. Itsuki mentions that it’s been a year since they came back to the world and that he wants to tell Lillith something. He tells her about wanting children, Lillith gets freaked out and ends up tripping, which brings Lillie out. Lillie somehow knows what Itsuki said to Lillith even though she didn’t write a memo, so apparently his words are able to reach both of them at the same time. Lillie then gets embarrassed and trips, which brings Lillith back out. Lillith ends it by saying the three of them will be happy together and that they don’t need fortunes to tell them that.  Mahiru asks if Itsuki said his goodbyes to everyone, but he says it would be too sad so he didn’t say anything to them. The two of them state that they’ll go back home and play games together all night.  After the credits, Itsuki says that he and Mahiru continued on with their lives where they left off. Mahiru tries to wake him up by kissing him and tells him that he’ll be late. She also asks if he loves this “rom-com situation”. They do the “knight” and “princess” thing for half of this part by the way. The topic of “child” eventually comes up and Mahiru asks if Itsuki remembers the time she thought she was pregnant. She asks him how he would have responded if it turned out that child was real and the event ends with Itsuki saying that he would have responded with “Mahiru, let’s raise that child.” Reone opens up fully expecting this to be the two of them saying goodbyes. She’s taken aback when Itsuki asks her to go with him and wonders if he’s sure he wants her, especially since she can’t do stuff like housework. Itsuki says he’s fine as long as he can eat her baked apples. Reone declares that she’ll use the medical knowledge she obtained in Granvania to save as many sick people as she can in Sora.  After the credits, Itsuki states that a few years have passed and that Reone has become a doctor and a prominent medical figure. Reone talks about how busy doctors in this world always are and that she doesn’t even get the time to look at the stars anymore. Itsuki points out that she’s still able to come home every night. Reone points out that she makes time for him no matter what. Itsuki then asks about the prospect of making new lives instead of saving them. Reone asks him what took him so long to make up his mind and Itsuki points out that he is still sort of a university student. Itsuki asks if she’s ready to commit to it right now and Reone gets flustered because they’re outdoors and her brother might be watching from the stars. Itsuki just says that he’s confident her brother will look away just this once. Reone says to at least wait until they get home.  There’s a variation of this CG in this ending. The one above changes to this one once Itsuki starts talking to her about having children.  Sue is glad that Itsuki returned alive, like he promised. However, she’s also sad because he’ll be leaving again. Itsuki invites her to go with him to his world and talks about always wanting to come home to her. Sue is pretty quick to agree.  After the credits, Itsuki mentions that it’s been a few years. Sue also apparently didn’t want to leave her animals behind, so she somehow brought them all with her from Granvania (I’m sure that won’t result in any unfortunate consequences for the local ecosystem). Itsuki talks about having built the large animal hut in the backyard (without permission), so he’ll probably get yelled at. Sue is happy to have her animals with her and says that while she’ll take care of them, Itsuki will have to take care of her. She gets lonely when he’s not around, so she wants Itsuki to give her attention when he gets home. Itsuki also does the “One day, I wanna have a child with you” thing.  Farun says she’s happy for Itsuki and starts talking about her going back to traveling. Itsuki has to try a few times to interrupt her mumbling, after which he asks her to go with him. Farun wonders if he’s really all right taking her and he says that there’s no one else he’d want to take. She then agrees and says that she wants him to take her on a new journey, together.  After the credits, Itsuki mentions a few years having passed and that Farun has become a dance teacher. Farun wakes him up in bed and Itsuki wonders why she’s not out at her dance class. Farun says that it’s her day off. Itsuki wonders why she’s not acting as mature as she usually does and Farun says that it’s fine because she’s the “sweet kinda-big-sis-wife”. She also has picked up vernacular like “Totes” (which I think was outdated even in 2012 when the original game released). Farun also mentions that when she went out with the trash earlier, the neighbours called her Itsuki’s wife, which is why she’s started with the “big-sis-wife” thing she’s doing. Itsuki then does the “I want a child” thing again and Farun says to leave it to Big Sis Farun. They then talk about going on a trip together soon.  Collette’s ending starts with her congratulating Itsuki and also talking about the record profits that Collette’s Sweet Wheats has brought in. Collette also presents the letter from her grandmother (the “permission slip” thing she talks about in one of her last Bonding Events). Collette’s grandmother told her “You can’t run a bakery alone. If you find a partner, be sure to make them yours”. Collette also has more bread puns for us when she says “I’ll bake you mine.”  After credits (and the bit about a few years having passed), Itsuki mentions that him and Collette leased an old bakery and started working together. Collette shows off all the four leaf clovers she’s managed to collect and talks about finishing the Ultimate Breadwinner. More bread puns follow (“Don’t worry your pretty little bread. I only have a rye for you”), and shortly after that Itsuki (once again) carefully approaches the children thing. He says “Collette, when you get a little older… let’s have a family together.” Collette says that they need to become husband and wife before that, and Itsuki agrees while saying “sometime in the future”. Collette also says that it’s too early for her to be talking about that stuff. They then go back home, to their bakery.  Yuzuha and Itsuki get ready to head to Sora, but Reone interrupts and asks Yuzuha to think it over one more time. Reone says that there’s no guarantee that Yuzuha will live longer in the other world. She also asks what Yuzuha would do if something happened to Itsuki. Yuzuha thanks Reone, but says that her mind is made up. She says that her time belongs to her and that she’ll decide how to use what’s left. Yuzuha says that she’ll never look back or regret her decision and that whatever time she has left is Itsuki’s.  There’s no intro by Itsuki for this part. He’s just talking to Yuzuha about what she’s sketching. Yuzuha asks about how Itsuki’s studies are going. He tells her that it’s tough, and the professor is hard on him, but that he’s making good progress on his own research. Reone gave him some data before they left Granvania and Itsuki has been using it to work towards a cure for Yuzuha’s illness as he studies medicine in school. Itsuki says that it’ll will only take a little longer to make his breakthrough. Yuzuha states that she’s happy and also that she wants to do something to repay Itsuki for everything. Itsuki asks about the possibility of having children with her and vows to her that he’ll find a cure to her illness. Yuzuha, in turn, promises that she’ll become well enough to have kids. Yuzuha says that she knows Itsuki will keep his promise, and the CG then pans over to…     Yes, that’s right. On top of the Harem Ending that I hate, there’s also a Mana ending. This game…  The Harem Ending will trigger first and it requires you to see all of the other endings (excluding Alfie’s… I think. I didn’t test it since Alfie was the second place Maiden). It automatically happens once you’ve met the conditions. Mirei introduces Itsuki to human Mana just as he’s about to leave Granvania, which is how you know that it has triggered.  Apparently all of the Star Maidens went around to the citizens and asked them to contribute Star Energy to the Star God Circle, which was used to revive Mana. Itsuki wonders why Mana was brought back in a human form. Mana mentions a fairy tale she heard from Mahiru about a wooden puppet becoming a real person, but Mirei just says to not mind the details. Mana and Itsuki then say their goodbyes and Itsuki leaves Granvania with Mahiru.  After the credits, Mahiru tries to wake Itsuki up so that he won’t be late. Then Tarua jumps on him to force him to wake up. Itsuki wonders why everyone is here to wake him up and Mahiru mentions that she called everyone over because her parents have been out of the house since yesterday. All of the Star Maidens then talk about “settling things” and want Itsuki to make a choice as to which Maiden he’s going to marry. They make their pitches to Itsuki and all take turns asking him to have children someday. They all join together in asking who it will be, but the scene fades out there.  gently caress me… Uuuggggghhhh… The Mana ending will happen after the Harem Ending has unlocked. You have to answer “There’s no one like that…” when Itsuki says “Someone’s waiting for me…”. This ending starts with Mahiru saying goodbye to Itsuki. She says she’s choosing to remain in Granvania because of all the friends she’s made, the real friends. She gives Itsuki the device that Mirei made in Alfie’s ending (the one that will erase any trace of her from Sora). Itsuki respects Mahiru’s decision and the two say goodbye. At this point, Mahiru and Mirei introduce Human Mana. The rest of the introduction proceeds the same as it did in the Harem Ending. Eventually, the dialogue changes. Mana talks about Itsuki owing him money (from way back at the start of the game). She also says that Shangri-La told her to stay behind (which I guess is a reference to her not staying dead. I can’t think of anything else this could mean). Itsuki then says his goodbyes and leaves.  The after credits scene reveals that Mana followed Itsuki and the two are hanging out together like Itsuki did with Mahiru before they got whisked away. Itsuki mentions that Mirei’s magic tool apparently made Mana take the place of Mahiru in this world, but Itsuki thinks that Mana’s strange talking/acting is suspicious and might eventually tip people off. Mana insists that she’s following Itsuki to collect the money he owes and Itsuki lightheartedly runs off while telling Mana that they’re going to be late for a math test. Mana then chases after him, but also tries to correct the way she’s speaking so that she sounds more like Mahiru.  And that’s it for endings. With those out of the way, I want to take a moment to give my personal thoughts on all the characters and stuff (for anyone that cares). ~PK’s Personal Thoughts~ #1. Arie is my favourite of the characters and has been since the start of the game. I haven’t really made a secret about that. Unlike with Narika in CII, I don’t have any long-winded defence of her as a character or why I think she’s the best. I just like her in general. Her route isn’t flashy, it’s just sweet and relaxed. Arie is a very kind and cute character that doesn’t get any moments which make me dislike her. I also love her design, especially her hat. She could have easily been done very badly. I had major concerns about her being overly in-your-face with the religious stuff and her secret hobby thing completely swallowing her. But thankfully those things never grew. They were kept to the background (in my opinion). The ending does dredge the hobby thing up again and focuses too much on it, which I wasn’t a fan of, but I still think it was sweet. Arie makes a point to mention that her love of blades will always come second to her love for Itsuki. She’s enjoying herself, but it’s clear that she has no intention of letting her passions overtake what’s most important in her life. She has restraint. She’s just a very pleasant character. Overall, I think this was less a case of me liking Arie the most because she really stood out, and more a case of the other characters/routes disappointing me while Arie remained consistently nice. #2. Mirei was my second favourite and was very close to being my favourite. I think what held her back is that the middle of her route is rear end-backwards with its messaging. If you remember back to the part in Mirei’s route involving her improving the communication device, I mentioned that the general message the game seemed to be putting forward was “Just give people what they want from you. It doesn’t matter if they abuse you or hurl insults at you or try and drive you out of town. You’re the rear end in a top hat for not giving them what they want.” That’s a lovely thing to advocate. This isn’t a mark against Mirei as a character, but it still soured me on her route. The game fumbled that immensely and I can’t bring myself to let it go. Outside of that, I loved Mirei’s design as well as the fact that she’s one of the only Star Maidens with plot relevance. She gets a lot of good moments in the later parts of the story where she takes a stand and follows her own moral compass, instead of just shutting up and following orders. I also liked her mad scientist thing, although I will admit that the game leans on it a little much in her character route. Every sentence out of her mouth is “research” this and “specimen” that. It flattens her character a bit since she never really breaks away from that aspect. #3. This is a choice I’m still not sure of. I’m not a fan of Yuzuha from a design standpoint (even though it does stand out quite a bit). I also don’t like her “Big Brother” thing or the fact that she’s clearly 14 or 15 years old. But goddammit, I love her route. Sure, it’s depressing. In fact it’s very depressing, especially when it starts getting into the stuff about how she sleeps in a coffin because she’s acutely aware of her impending death and doesn’t want to burden people by making her eventual passing an “inconvenience”. Let’s not even get into the fact that her parents are in a failing marriage that they only seem to maintain for Yuzuha’s sake and that makes her think that she’s the reason for all the yelling and tension between them because she’s sickly and “shameful”. I normally wouldn't like that, because depression is a major sticking point in my life and that kind of stuff bums me out when coming from something that's meant to entertain me. But... it does make for a powerful character route. It might make me feel like poo poo when I think about it, but I can’t ignore that it’s compelling. Yuzuha just accepts her lot in life, Itsuki slowly sparks in her a desire to live, and the message eventually becomes “Make the most of what you have and live life to the fullest.” Plus, that ending is probably the best one out of them all in my opinion. Not only does it have a last-second “happy ending” reveal by using the CG itself, but it also furthers Itsuki’s character as well. Yuzuha’s ending is the only one where we hear about Itsuki working towards a specific goal. He’s not a “university student” or just standing around while Mirei becomes a great scientist, or Reone a great doctor, or Femiruna a great businesswoman. He’s pursuing medicine. He’s aiming to become a doctor in order to save Yuzuha’s life. The cure to her illness is also something that Itsuki (presumably) earns. It’s not just a Deus Ex Machina that’s dropped into his lap. If I liked Yuzuha more as a character, she would have easily been my favourite. It’s a similar situation to Ellie from CII, where the route is more interesting than the character themselves. #4. Yeah, it is weird to see Reone ranked this highly. I was very vocal about how creepy it was for her to be constantly comparing Itsuki to her dead brother. But Reone’s route did turn around about halfway through and ended with a strong finish. Once her brother complex was put to rest, the remainder of her route involving atonement and carrying out the dream of a deceased sibling was very nice. Also, yes, I think I’ve admitted in the thread already that Reone just does it for me in terms of design. She’s hot. I don’t think she would have ever come out as my favourite, even without the creepy brother complex, but she would have done better than fourth. The other problem I had with her is the incessant referencing of Japanese drinking laws. Her route has so many moments that involve Reone talking about drinking and how it’s awesome, only for Itsuki (or Reone herself) to immediately mention “Itsuki is too young to drink.” It was very annoying, partially because of the fact that the game takes place in a (supposed) magic fantasy world and yet everyone in it adheres strictly to the laws and customs of Japan, a country that has one of the highest minimum drinking ages in the world where alcohol is basically part of cultural heritage. #5. I loved Alfie, I really did. I thought she was a fun and cute character. I also liked that her route involved the Star Children, who don’t get any representation elsewhere in the game (outside of them being walking stat sheets). I love Alfie’s design, I love the concept of her as a character (a Star Child that was turned into a Star Maiden), but holy poo poo was her inclusion in this game completely half-assed. No effort was made to accommodate Alfie. She doesn’t appear in the story at all, despite the fact that she’s the Ophiuchus Star Maiden and therefore should have a great deal of importance to the plot. She gets fewer bonding events than the other Maidens. She gets no side events like the Festival or Starmas. She doesn’t even show up in the Harem Ending! The ending where the self-insert protagonist is supposed to wind up in a relationship with all of the heroines specifically to cash in on some baffling wish fulfillment fantasy that weirdos have about dividing themselves among multiple partners. There’s also the fact that, although the message of Alfie’s route is nice (“Live life to its fullest” and “Time doesn’t determine whether or not you lived a good life”), the fact that she only has 10 years to live still leaves a bittersweet taste in my mouth. Unlike with Yuzuha, there is no hopeful suggestion that she’ll live a long life together with Itsuki. It’s just stated that she’s only got 10 years and that’s that. As happy as the game tries to portray it, all I can think of is “Alfie will die when Itsuki is in his late twenties. Then what? Does he move on? Does he remain devoted to only her and live the rest of his life alone? He’s stuck in Granvania, so it’s not as though he can pick up his old life where he left it. There also won’t be Star Children anymore, because there’s no longer a need for them or future God's Gifts. It’s just depressing to think about. #6. The rest of the characters are kind of hard to rank. None of them really stood out much to me. For Farun, I liked her design and the generally upbeat personality she had. Unfortunately, her route is all over the place. She’s constantly flipping between “cool and collected worldly bartender/dancer that can brush off flirting and has experienced more of her world than Itsuki has of even his own” to “giddy schoolgirl that squeals and babbles incoherently when a guy compliments her”. She also does the “Big Sis” thing a lot, which I never like (the Onii-chan thing in Japanese media always weirds me out when it’s used in a romantic/flirty context). I can barely even remember any major moments from Farun’s route. Everything just kind of blurs together. I know she did the “special love dance” at one point. There was also some minor thing about her not talking much to her parents which just kind of lingered in the background and never really went that deep. That’s about it. I know she was supposed to be a character that wore a happy mask to hide her loneliness, but I don’t feel like her route really managed to land that. #7. Sue, I guess? I like Sue’s design (her coat anyway. Not so much the fact that she wears barely anything underneath it). Her route was okay. It was very depressing, similar to how Yuzuha’s was, but I feel as though Sue’s route never stuck the landing like Yuzuha’s did. Sue has abandonment issues because of what happened to her parents. I don’t feel like things went much further beyond that. There wasn’t really acceptance of death or anything like that. Itsuki just convinces her that he’ll never leave her alone, even though he has no way of guaranteeing that. After all, Sue’s parents didn’t want to die and leave her alone. It just unfortunately happened and was out of their control. To me, it feels like Sue’s route is largely about Itsuki replacing her parents. He fills a void in her heart. I’m not saying that’s necessarily wrong, but I don’t think that’s the best message to hold up with a young/emotionally damaged character like Sue. Also, that loving sexy cat cosplay comes completely out of left field and absolutely destroys the flow of her route. It’s so jarring and unnecessary. It’s not as though this game is lacking in opportunities for fanservice. There was no need to stick that directly in the middle of Sue’s character arc. #8. Ruka and Femiruna were close, but not for good reasons. Ruka was winning me over early on. I generally dislike tsundere characters. I find the whole “I hate you, except I secretly like you” song and dance to be irritating. This character archetype also tends to remain static even after their true feelings come to light. Ruka never completely stops being angry and defensive about her feelings, even when she’s married to the loving object of her affection and raising multiple children with him. But her route showed some early promise. I liked the idea of Ruka feeling alienated from people because her powers were very invasive, but then eventually learning that forcing people away from her caused them more pain than her powers ever could. The children at the orphanage don’t give a poo poo about Ruka’s powers or any painful memories that might resurface. They’re orphans! They care about finding someone that loves them. They want someone to give them the affection and attention that they were denied, either because their parents threw them away or died. Ruka’s route does have that, but I don’t think it carried that to the finish line. We don’t get to see the reconciliation between the little barefoot girl and Ruka. The second half of Ruka’s route is just her random day trips with Itsuki. Essentially, I feel as though the best parts of Ruka’s route all happen off screen. #9. Oh, god. Femiruna. Femiruna had so much potential. There were so many ways you could go with her route. Within the first few events, we get signs of: Her being desperate for real friendship and finding that her family’s reputation and status stand in the way of that; Her realizing just how sheltered she is and how little she knows about the world at large; That her parents are emotionally absent in her life because they focus too much on their business dealings; That she’s so afraid of losing the one friendship she seems to be forming that she immediately tries to correct her bad habits and snotty behaviour so that Itsuki will like her. There’s just so many things you could do with those threads. So many ways you could wind them together. In the beginning, Femiruna’s route really impressed me by suggesting that she was going to be a character that simply didn’t know any better because of her sheltered upbringing. She seemed like a good person that just grew up without anyone willing to challenge her and therefore developed some selfish/inflated self-importance behaviour. As soon as Itsuki showed that he wasn’t just going to be a yes-man and wouldn’t put up with her poo poo, she tried to change herself for the better. But none of those threads were really followed. Instead, what we got was “Femiruna is a masochist”. There was just so much wasted potential with her. #10. I don’t have much to say about Mahiru. Her Plus-induced personality change made her early events a complete mess of poorly done cuts and weird dialogue changes. Her design is also very boring. If we were allowed to choose a “Male Avatar” or “Female Avatar”, Mahiru would be that female avatar. Plus, she’s a blood relative of Itsuki. There is no getting around that issue in a game where she’s supposed to be a viable romantic interest. It might not be as bad as “sister/brother”, but it comes real drat close. She’s Itsuki’s cousin that has lived with him under the same roof for years and has known him since childhood. #11.  I don’t like Lillie. I’ve been clear about that right from the start. Lillie is an rear end in a top hat for a large part of her route. Lillith is okay, but there’s also not much that stands out about her. She’s too caught up in fortunes and the game gives us competing messages from that. On the one hand, we’re supposed to believe that fates can be changed. But on the other hand, the game constantly shows that Lillith’s fortunes are always spot-on. The split-personality thing is also really annoying. Even in their ending, you can tell that this Lillie/Lillith/Itsuki relationship is a disaster waiting to happen. Eventually the two separate personalities are going to start getting jealous or resentful of each other because of perceived lack of fairness. #12. Tarua likes to run. I keep making that joke because it’s unfortunately just about the only thing that happens in her route. Tarua runs, she delivers letters, she likes the Boss. She’s a child, plain and simple. She’s got a one-track mind. That might match up with her Zodiac sign, but the fact that she looks like she’s 12 makes this creepy. Like Torri in CII, Tarua doesn’t need a romantic interest. She needs a parental figure. She does have one in the Boss, but her route still ultimately ends with Itsuki taking his place in Tarua’s life, except as a lover instead of a parent. #13. I don’t like Collette. Her route wasn’t bad, but it also wasn’t special. What really dragged her down for me was the unrelenting attention paid to the fact that she’s a child. The game loves to point it out and Collette herself loves to tease it. Tarua feels more childish overall due to her personality, but Tarua doesn’t stop at multiple points in her route to tease Itsuki (and by extension the player) about how young and innocent she is and how perverted Itsuki is for thinking dirty things about her. More than any other young character in this game, Collette is the one that screams “I’m here to appeal to the Lolicon crowd.” She even gets several lines in her ending that make it clear that Itsuki will totally keep his hands off of her until she’s of legal age (“someday”, “when you’re older”, “in the future”, “it’s still too early for me”). Her ending may as well have been labeled “Jailbait Wait”. At the very least the game avoids overly sexualizing her in costumes and CGs. Yes, that is very faint praise, but it’s the only praise I can muster. Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 14:40 on Apr 19, 2020 |
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Apr 11, 2020 04:26
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Congrats on finishing the game. And by doing so, revealing to our poor souls the depths of madness.  Who the hell was the Mana ending written for? Why does it exist? What possible sense of resolution was supposed to come out of Mana coming to Earth?...Or wait, maybe that's the twist. Surprise, completionists, you get the bad ending! Joking aside, I'll agree with you on Yuzuha's ending being the best. It tries a little harder. The bar's been set pretty low, so Itsuki having some personal motivation to his character goes surprisingly far? Ruka gets pretty close to there with the couple being sweet adoptive parents, for me at least, even if it's a bit light on the details.
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Apr 11, 2020 05:26
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Yeah, I mostly agree with you on how the routes went. I might put Reone and Femiruna like one place higher each, but you generally hit the nail on the head. Your Top Four are basically the only routes (out of 13 goddamn characters) where anything gets resolution, and routes like Mahiru's, Farun's, and Tarua's never really had anything going on in the first place. If they'd bothered to finish Alfie's integration instead of half-assing it to the extreme, she'd probably be a strong contender for first place to me, though. Commander Keene fucked around with this message at 05:57 on Apr 11, 2020 |
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Apr 11, 2020 05:55
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Reading Alfie's ending, I was wondering why they needed a device to make people to forget about Itsuki, since Mahiru could just tell everyone that he fell in love and eloped with someone, but I see that the machine was present in the original game. I guess that they just decided to use that existing plot device so it wouldn't feel like a one-off, as i assume it felt in the psp version. And I agree that Yuzuha had the best ending.
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Apr 11, 2020 06:40
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Commander Keene posted:Yeah, I mostly agree with you on how the routes went. I might put Reone and Femiruna like one place higher each, but you generally hit the nail on the head. Your Top Four are basically the only routes (out of 13 goddamn characters) where anything gets resolution, and routes like Mahiru's, Farun's, and Tarua's never really had anything going on in the first place. It's too late at night for me to make any sort of coherent discussion, but the difference in routes that actually did something versus the ones that never did anything is really bad. They really showed with CII that they do better with a smaller cast. BlazeEmblem posted:And I agree that Yuzuha had the best ending. Yeah, as we speculated when the polls showed her as the top vote, I remember some of us were talking about it probably being her ending. And yeah, I have to agree its the best out of all of them. It's not all magically put before you or just a "yep, we're spending the rest of our lives together" thing, but it actually has some decent emotion to it. But would it have killed them to make her, y'know, not underage? You already have 2, possibly 3 if you count Lilith, characters catering to that already. Meh, at least the dolphin hair was cool. Also, congrats Psycho, you've downed another JRPG! At least I was actually here for the whole ride this time, and not just finding it at the end like I did with CII. Got any plans as to what you're covering next (that is, probably after a well-earned break)?
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Apr 11, 2020 06:57
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I'm kind of amazed how unmemorable this game is. Like gently caress's sake nothing happens. I said it before, but this game really does put CII into perspective. Yuzuha's ending deffo feels a cut above the rest. But yeah I guess none are terrible really. Just...eh.
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Apr 11, 2020 07:00
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Yuzuha's and Alfie's are really the only character endings that deviate from a very strict formula (Maiden X comes to Earth, gets a job in a related field to their Granvanian profession, they live happily ever after) in any meaningful way, IMO. Like aside from those two, they're all 99% similar. I wonder why they decided to make Alfie's route the one where Itsuki stays.
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Apr 11, 2020 07:05
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Commander Keene posted:Yuzuha's and Alfie's are really the only character endings that deviate from a very strict formula (Maiden X comes to Earth, gets a job in a related field to their Granvanian profession, they live happily ever after) in any meaningful way, IMO. Like aside from those two, they're all 99% similar. Yeah, I honestly expected there to be more of a mix of leave/stay (I saw the CGs for most of these already but for a lot of them it's not apparent if they're on Earth or Granvania unless you read the words). I guess any stay options would technically conflict with the harem end but only if you assume that's just all the other endings smooshed together instead of a separate thing. Slightly meaner Mahiru still exists even at the very end of Conception - she phrases the 'what if I really was pregnant' as 'I really am pregnant' 'w-what?' '...what would do you if I said that?'. I can't say I'm any closer to understanding the personality adjustment since she never seemed really objectionable. I mean we saw their old poll result so obviously she wasn't a huge hit like that but neither were the other lower-ranked. Polsy posted:This is actually a title drop in Japanese (yes, again) Also bonus points for them reusing the Itsuki 'I want you to make a Star Child with me' voice clip in the English ending scenes even though they're not in Granvania any more. They even use it right here - Psycho Knight posted:
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Apr 11, 2020 13:04
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Thanks for showing off the ending(s) and summarizing the rest! The writing in this game as a whole just shows how much they improved in the sequel and even then that bar was set pretty dang low - CII liked to rely on the whole rear end in a top hat supporting cast a little too much but at least they weren't Mana-levels of terrible. Speaking of which... Goddamnit Mana didn't need to be revived. Where was my catharsis for her Commander Keene posted:Yuzuha's and Alfie's are really the only character endings that deviate from a very strict formula (Maiden X comes to Earth, gets a job in a related field to their Granvanian profession, they live happily ever after) in any meaningful way, IMO. Like aside from those two, they're all 99% similar. I mean there's also technically Arie that doesn't fit the bill either (what exactly does she even do for a living anyway?) but it's close enough. Yuzuha's ending was very sweet though. And let's be honest - do you think Itsuki would want to stay in Granvania over his hometown? Not sure why he ended up staying in Alfie's ending either, but maybe her being a (former?) Star Child had to do with it.
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Apr 11, 2020 13:52
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booksnake posted:Congrats on finishing the game. And by doing so, revealing to our poor souls the depths of madness. Given the lack of popularity for Mana (according to that old poll), I honestly think you might be right about her ending being a crack at completionists. As for the rest, there is no resolution or meaning for its existence. I think this was meant to be the "Itsuki chooses nobody" ending, similar to how the "Wake chooses nobody" ending in CII was sort of the "Chlotz Ending" (except Chlotz had redeemed himself as a character and therefore the ending was kind of nice, not to mention the fact that Wake was clearly a third-wheel to the Chlotz/Luce relationship). What bugs me is that you didn't need to shoehorn in Mana in order to get an ending like that. Just have Itsuki go back home and talk about going back to his everyday life. If you need a CG, just have him looking up at the sky from the school rooftop with a smile, as though he's fondly remembering his time in Granvania. Hell, you know what a better "end's up with nobody" ending would have been? Have Itsuki decide on taking the place of Shangri-La as king/leader of Granvania in order to carry on his will of protecting the world. Maybe Itsuki could have made Granvania a much less lovely place. For Ruka's ending, I thought it was pretty good. I like the idea that the two of them start adopting a bunch of children. It's the obvious thing to do with Ruka's ending, but it's still nice. At least the two of them are shown doing good in the world and improving the lives of others. I just felt that Ruka's character was a disappointment, which is why I ranked her kind of low. Like Femiruna, I was getting excited to see what they were going to do with her since her route appeared to be going in a good direction. Unfortunately, in my opinion, everything just kind of stops once the little barefoot girl situation is resolved. Almost as though Ruka's route peaked way too early and they weren't sure what to do in terms of wrapping it up (or they realized that Itsuki's relationship with Ruka hadn't gotten enough attention and they suddenly scrambled to try and shift the focus back to that). Commander Keene posted:If they'd bothered to finish Alfie's integration instead of half-assing it to the extreme, she'd probably be a strong contender for first place to me, though. I think Alfie could have been amazing if she had been integrated into the story. Like I said, I love just about everything about her (except the bummer "10 years to live" thing). It's just such a shame that they didn't do anything with her. She was made the Ophiuchus Star Maiden for Christ's sake! The whole game builds up to the fact that there's a secret 13th Labyrinth/Impurity God that doesn't have an associated Star Maiden responsible for it. How can you just ignore that? As harsh as it might be to say, since I liked Alfie as a character... I think they should have not bothered with her at all. If this is what they considered an acceptable addition, then I would have preferred that they diverted whatever money was spent on her towards improving other aspects of the game. I realize that they needed something to slap on the box in order to say "Look! There's new stuff in the game! A whole new Star Maiden!", but this was just a slap in the face. I mean, I'm pretty sure it's legitimately possible to beat this game without ever even coming into contact with Alfie. If you don't bother giving Independence to high level Star Children, then the city level probably won't make it to Level 6 or 7 or whatever level is required for Alfie's plot stuff to trigger. It's possible (although unlikely given the typical habits of JRPG players) that Alfie simply never shows up for some people. She gets: No seasonal events No plot inclusion No interaction with other Star Maidens, except Mirei No inclusion in the Harem Ending No inclusion in the final "Our powers combine" moment before the last boss. Not even in spirit. No appearance in the opening animation No "Star Maiden Requests" quests Fewer bonding events than everyone else Fewer generic events than everyone else That's just lazy. It's the anime equivalent of "Everyone we invited is here." "Also Zoidberg." BlazeEmblem posted:Reading Alfie's ending, I was wondering why they needed a device to make people to forget about Itsuki, since Mahiru could just tell everyone that he fell in love and eloped with someone, but I see that the machine was present in the original game. I guess that they just decided to use that existing plot device so it wouldn't feel like a one-off, as i assume it felt in the psp version. I'm guessing that's the reason, because Itsuki's sudden disappearance is something that could be easily explained to Mahiru's parents. As you said, she would have just had to tell them that Itsuki confided in her about someone he was in love with and eloped with. Her parents would still probably worry, but they would at least know he left in pursuit of happiness or something. I can't see much reason for the device in Alfie's ending other than as a reference to it previously existing and not being a convenient problem solver (even though that's exactly what it is in the Mana ending). I just don't like the idea of that device in general. Putting aside the horrifying implications of the fact that Mirei is apparently capable of producing reality/memory altering technology on that level, it's also a gigantic cop-out for an issue that only arises because the writers themselves created it. Mahiru's reasons for staying in Granvania are absurdly flimsy. She says she has made a lot of true friends. That's not a strong enough reason for abandoning her entire family forever (not to mention whatever friends she may have had in that world). It makes Mahiru look like a complete monster because she casually tosses her parents and cousin/brother figure in the trash. What makes it worse is that, because this game doesn't have a supporting cast, the player is never given any indications that Mahiru is making these "real friends". We don't even hear about her making friends with the other Star Maidens. But Mahiru is made to stay in Granvania because the writers needed to come up with some way to bring Mana to Earth without her sudden appearance raising suspicion among the government, or Mahiru's parents, or the school. Not to mention that the device also creates a situation where Mahiru's parents have had their daughter replaced by a complete stranger. Mahiru's parents know her better than anyone and Itsuki has to specifically warn Mana about acting or speaking strangely because it might break the illusion that she's Mahiru. What happens if Mana gets too suspicious and Mahiru's parents discover that this girl that looks like their daughter isn't. Does realty collapse? Does the magic device explode? Knowing Mirei, did she build in a fail-safe that blanks everyone's memory if the deception is uncovered? Everything about that device is stupid and I hate that the writers shat it out in order to arrange a way for Mana to go to Earth. The Flying Twybil posted:Also, congrats Psycho, you've downed another JRPG! At least I was actually here for the whole ride this time, and not just finding it at the end like I did with CII. Got any plans as to what you're covering next (that is, probably after a well-earned break)? There are a bunch of games that I've had sitting around that I'd like to do sometime in the future. Your VC2 LP makes me want to do an SSLP of VC3, if only to prove to everyone that the Valkyria Chronicles series did make a huge comeback with 3, but the lingering smell of 2 prevented it from ever seeing the light of day on Western shores (in an official capacity anyway). I also talked about doing Arc Rise Fantasia, which was a game known for horrible voice acting that was nonetheless pretty good from a gameplay/story perspective. Then there was someone in the request thread last year that wanted Growlanser IV: Wayfarer of Time, which I considered doing. And I've always been on the fence about trying to do a VLP. I despise the sound of my own voice and I already know from working in radio that I don't have any emotion in my voice at all, which makes me sound like a robot/incredibly boring. The problem with a lot of stuff I'd like to try is that I don't have a way of capturing footage from HD consoles or PSVR games (I thought my desktop had a capture card built in, but it doesn't. It's some kind of VR-link port/device). I used to have a VHS-->DVD capture box that would work for consoles like the PS2, but I can't find it for the life of me. Honestly, I probably won't start anything else this year. I have a lot of free time because of the whole lockdown situation we all find ourselves in, but I also have plans to spend an exchange semester studying in Japan in September. I don't want to start another SSLP only to wind up having to put it on hiatus for 6 or 7 months. We'll see. Knowing the way I am, I wouldn't be surprised if I found myself doing another LP by the end of April or middle of May. Just because I'm an idiot like that. Seraphic Neoman posted:I'm kind of amazed how unmemorable this game is. Like gently caress's sake nothing happens. I said it before, but this game really does put CII into perspective. CII had better character interactions (you know, in comparison) and a tighter cast, which does seem like something the developers learned from Conception I. The cast of heroines in Conception was way too big and none of them were all that well developed because there was no way to give each of them proper time in the spotlight. CII cut that number in half, boosted the number of bonding events in order to give everyone more time, and also integrated the heroines into the dungeon-crawling aspect which made them feel a little bit more like part of the story. I'll have a full breakdown on what I thought about the game itself either today or tomorrow, but yes, CII definitely was an improvement in several areas. I think the only thing that C/CP did slightly better than CII at was the endings. CII's endings were all incredibly rushed. For however generic you might think the endings of C/CP are, at least they went on for longer than 5 seconds and involved some actual dialogue between Itsuki and the heroine in question. Commander Keene posted:I wonder why they decided to make Alfie's route the one where Itsuki stays. Polsy posted:Yeah, I honestly expected there to be more of a mix of leave/stay (I saw the CGs for most of these already but for a lot of them it's not apparent if they're on Earth or Granvania unless you read the words). I guess any stay options would technically conflict with the harem end but only if you assume that's just all the other endings smooshed together instead of a separate thing. It is very weird. There's no particular reason for Itsuki to be so adamant about the Maidens going back to Earth with him. He lost his parents. Although he does have Mahiru and her parents as family, he doesn't have quite the same familiar ties to Sora that she does (that of Mother/Father/Child). His absence is also relatively easy to explain even without Mirei's insane magic device. Now, for some characters it does make sense (or is at least believable) to leave. Reone, Mirei, and Ruka don't have any family ties left in Sora. In Ruka's case, her ending even points out that leaving Granvania is good for her because she needs to break free from the orphanage in order to start living her own life (like all of the other orphans are hoping to do). Yuzuha's case is special in that, although she has family in Granvania, she's living on borrowed time. Like she says, it's her choice on how she'll live however long she has left. The other factor is that going with Itsuki might lead to a cure for her illness, whereas staying in Granvania likely won't (Reone says during Yuzuha's route that a cure to this disease is nowhere near seeing the light of day in Granvania). But characters like Femiruna and Collette and Farun? They have family in that world that they all casually leave behind. Family that are outright stated to love them (Farun's family has been trying desperately to reconnect with her for who knows how long). Femiruna's might be a little emotionally distant, but there are several indications that they still love her deeply. You could argue that Collette is "only" leaving behind grandparents that will only live a few more years to spend with her anyway (as well as a grandfather that no longer remembers her due to age), but that's still a shot in the gut to Collette's grandmother. Not to mention that Collette throws away the family bakery that she's been working so hard to keep open. I don't understand why there couldn't be more of a mix between "stays" and "leaves with". TracerK posted:I mean there's also technically Arie that doesn't fit the bill either (what exactly does she even do for a living anyway?) but it's close enough. Yuzuha's ending was very sweet though. For Arie, I think the implication is that she's just a housewife (which, honestly, I think is pretty fitting for her), but it's hard to tell. That's the problem I had with her ending. They spend too much dialogue talking about her knife hobby thing and Itsuki's obsession with children. We don't get to read much about how Itsuki and Arie are actually spending their life together (for example, is Itsuki a student in that ending? Is he working? Where the hell is their money coming from?). If it were me, I think I would have had Arie's ending showing her as having become a school teacher, or maybe running her own day care. Her route focused a lot on her work with children at the church, so I thought that would have been more appropriate. You could argue that this would have overlapped with Ruka's ending, but Mirei/Reone/Femiruna's routes overlap as well, so I don't think it would have been a big deal. Alfie's ending doesn't make sense either, but that's because of bad writing. Itsuki says that Alfie loves Granvania, but she also loves her Star Maiden Mother and God's Gift dad along with Japanese Idols and romantic dramas from Sora. From what the game gives us, no, it doesn't make a lot of sense for her to be the only one that Itsuki stays in Granvania with. You'd think Alfie would love the chance to visit Sora (Her "mother" and "father" are also more than likely still alive. There's a chance she'd be able to find them if she knew their names or heard about where her God's Gift comes from in Japan). But here's the thing that probably makes Alfie's ending make a little more sense: The game doesn't tell us what happens to the Star Children. In CII, the Star Children disappear and return to the Star God in the ending, but CP doesn't mention them at all. Alfie's route gives conflicting messages about what happens to them. At one point she suggests that Star Children disappear when their job is finished (such as sealing the currently broken Labyrinth), but her and Mirei also talk about Star Children only having a lifespan of 10 years (which implies that Star Children hang around until the next Star Offering fades, at which point they disappear to make way for the next God's Gift and batch of Star Children). If the Star Children do still exist, then Alfie's ending makes a lot more sense. She'd never want to leave them behind to go to Sora and there's no way Itsuki would be able to convince her otherwise (the Star Children also wouldn't do a "Ruka Ending" thing where they encourage her to go, because they don't understand the concept of "Love"). In that case, Itsuki's decision to stay with her in her world would make a bit more sense. But again, the game kind of ignored the Star Children entirely, so it's hard to tell if that's what the implication is or not. Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 15:56 on Apr 11, 2020 |
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Apr 11, 2020 15:50
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Yuzuha's ending is a real odd one out. Makes me think she was a concept for another game, and they just dragged that over?
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Apr 11, 2020 18:20
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To me, Itsuki's insistence on having children with each of them is kind of nice, especially when you think about how the Star Children are the best part (or only good part) of the anime. To me, it reads that he's gotten so used to raising these kids and hanging around with them that he dearly misses them when he comes back to Earth. He's asking for real kids to fill that void, because he's realized how much he enjoys being a dad. And really, that's a better motivation than many for having kids...
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Apr 11, 2020 20:11
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Raitzeno posted:To me, Itsuki's insistence on having children with each of them is kind of nice, especially when you think about how the Star Children are the best part (or only good part) of the anime. To me, it reads that he's gotten so used to raising these kids and hanging around with them that he dearly misses them when he comes back to Earth. He's asking for real kids to fill that void, because he's realized how much he enjoys being a dad. And really, that's a better motivation than many for having kids... I didn't think about it like that. I guess that's an acceptable reason for him to be so focused on the idea. But once again, it's something that would have had greater impact if Conception had paid the slightest bit of attention to the Star Children. I know they are player created and generic warriors, but CII at least did a little bit to make them feel like individual characters instead of tools. I'd be fine with the game making a few events involving the Star Children and simply having the game randomly apply a character model to the scene. Like, all the dialogue and animations are the same for the scene, but the game choose a random Star Child model (or member of your current party). HerpicleOmnicron5 posted:Yuzuha's ending is a real odd one out. Makes me think she was a concept for another game, and they just dragged that over? Anything is possible with this game. That's the problem with creating 13 different characters and giving them all a personal route. Some of them are going to get a lot of attention and others are going to get half-assed. There's also going to be personal attachment to certain characters for people working on the project, which results in more love and care for some compared to others. Maybe Yuzuha's was the first route to be worked on and therefore got a lot of time spent on it. Then as things went on and deadlines started creeping up, they just started rushing the later ones and slapping them together.
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Apr 11, 2020 21:48
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Thanks for the LP Psycho Knight! I'm sad that I was the lone Farun vote, but oh well. If it was 3 it would have been Farun, Alfie, and Reone. I think Farun was already somewhat estranged from her family, and had been wandering for a while. As for her swinging between worldly traveler and flustered girl, I'll chalk that up to fate or kismet where she was totally fine until Itsuki showed up and her cool demeanor got flipped.
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Apr 12, 2020 19:20
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