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Edit: if you're looking for the most recent update and didn't see it, it's on the previous page.Quackles posted:This made me snort. Alien Arcana posted:The dialogue box coming from behind the "you got a thing" starburst is perfect. Shut up, Mothiva, you're not relevant here. It's often the little touches that are the best. The way they write Mothiva is very effective at making her insufferable, I love it. Alxprit posted:I didn't play on Hard but I don't remember struggling with this boss. I think I really took advantage of Break to up my damage. It was probably a somewhat close fight. Maybe I remembered Bubble Shield? I don't know, I'm sad that it's felt like so long even though I only played this game a year or so ago. Glad to have this LP to remind me of all the little things! Alien Arcana posted:I think B-33 is the first main-story boss where tactical planning and resource management become absolutely necessary. Its combination of defense and "super flight" makes it very difficult to deal any real damage to (Venus' Guardian had both of those, but not at the same time!) without spending a ton of TP on Vi's specials, yet you also have to keep some TP in reserve for Bubble Shield. I've been trying to remember exactly what I did wrong my first time fighting it. I know I'd kind of forgotten about Turn Relay for a while, and remembering that existed (and figuring out what to do with it) is what eventually got me through this (dealing two hits to get it out of "super flight" is a lot easier if you can relay to Vi). The other thing is that I'd gotten into the habit of putting Kabbu in front and using him as my primary damage-dealer, to the point I gave myself a mental block about other formations. Kabbu in front is pretty effective for most of earlygame (as we've been seeing), but in this fight it's a big disadvantage and you really want Vi getting the damage bonus. When you think that through, it's obvious, but if you're stuck in a habit and it suddenly stops working, it's not always clear what in particular is going wrong. I'm not covering myself in glory here as far as my first playthrough went, but this was the fight that broke through and got me to really learn the battle system and start thinking through my strategies. The game gives you the tools, but you have to know to use them! Making that breakthrough is one of the things that made me really fall in love with the game, also. Alien Arcana posted:I really like when games do this. I'm not sure why it pleases me so much. Maybe I just feel bad for all the defensive actions that would never get used otherwise. It's always pretty satisfying to block or dodge a big attack. That said, I like it better in this game than a lot of others (why hello there Paper Mario) because using Bubble Shield is a real cost (7 TP is a lot, as is two actions), so there's still a decision involved. In Paper Mario, Bow's and Vivian's equivalent abilities cost so little FP that an enemy using a telegraphed big attack was just a sort of call-and-response: you'd use the defencive ability without questioning it (and generally wouldn't use it any other time, because the action-economy loss was too severe). Challenge runs and Master Quest change that calculation a lot, but generally because other attacks also start to be too threatening, but as far as the vanilla games go they tend to be abilities you use unthinkingly. It doesn't feel at all like that in Bug Fables. I know I've beaten this fight without using Bubble Shield before; the ram attack hurts, but you can definitely just choose to fight through it and use some healing items (or Magic Seeds) if you have to, and you might even come out ahead on actions/TP depending if you do that. (Also, if you add up the numbers, the ram attack isn't actually that much more damaging than two turns of, say, the laser or missile salvo). It seems pretty obvious the intent is for you to use Bubble Shield, and it probably is easier that way, but I like that the choice isn't forced on you.
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Jun 29, 2021 22:14
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I had no problem with this boss on my first playthrough, but when I went through again on Hard this boss was a massive roadblock. It really loved doing the laser attack on me, which hurts and you have no way to know is coming. I tried playing it safe and saving up TP to use later in the fight, but the only thing that got me through was just burning through all my TP from the first round and eating a bunch of donuts to keep it from running out.
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Jun 30, 2021 20:43
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Twelve by Pies posted:I had no problem with this boss on my first playthrough, but when I went through again on Hard this boss was a massive roadblock. It really loved doing the laser attack on me, which hurts and you have no way to know is coming. I tried playing it safe and saving up TP to use later in the fight, but the only thing that got me through was just burning through all my TP from the first round and eating a bunch of donuts to keep it from running out. My first playthrough was on Hard, as I'd been coming off of Paper Mario: Master Quest among other things. I agree with you, though, that this fight asks a lot from you TP-wise and you basically need to be packing some form of recovery items (perhaps less so if you've spent a few levels raising TP, I suppose). I was going to try to do a full analysis of what changes between the normal and Hard versions of this fight, but after looking into it I think it almost entirely boils down to the fact its damage output increases significantly (on normal the missile salvo, laser, and ram all do 1 damage less, and with lower maximum HP it spends less time with the Attack Up buff). Most of its attacks hit the entire party, making Taunt less useful, and the options for group healing at this point are very limited (not to mention if you didn't bring them in, you can't get them inside). The Bee-Boop adds also do 1 less damage with all their attacks on normal, but I'm not sure how much that matters. The other thing to consider is the freeze resistance increase. The enemy's base resistance stat doesn't change, but each time you freeze an enemy its resistance increases, by 13% on normal or 18% on Hard. In the case of Heavy Drone B-33, this means you can potentially squeeze in one more freeze on Normal. I'm not sure how much this matters, considering that third freeze would be against 96% resistance, but with Frigid Coffin that's still effectively 66%, which isn't unreasonable to hit. Every turn it's frozen is a turn you're not taking damage and can use recovery items. It's a lot of little things that somehow add up to a completely different experience difficulty-wise, which is really interesting to think about in a design context. Some of it, also, could definitely be unfavourable RNG. I think the laser is less likely than its other attacks, but if you get it a few turns in a row you'll definitely be worse off (I also think the laser is tougher/less forgiving to block, especially since you get one chance instead of, say, 3 opportunities to block the rockets). I've been trying to strike a balance in this LP between letting the bosses show off everything they can do, and also showing effective tactics against them (which leads me to use some things, like attack-boosting items and Leif's freezing skills, less than I normally would). I'm not sure how well I'm managing that; I keep worrying I'll end up making things look too easy.
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Jul 2, 2021 19:46
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27: New Complications (Part 1) 01 - Bug Fables Time to start a new chapter! And a new chapter means a new title screen. Doctor HB and Crow have joined us on the left side of the plaza now. 43 - Work That Honey We left off here, having just defeated Heavy Drone B-33 in the core room. First things first, there are some new banters and dialogue to be had around the factory area now that the crisis is past. Starting with this room:  This is the core room. We know, Kabbu. Back in the day, we heard the factory was powered with caterpillars running to spin wheels... Is that even possible? Yep. But then the core got built a few moons after the roaches disappeared. Bless science. Think of how tired those caterpillars must have been!I also have to wonder what species of caterpillars they were using, and whether they're from a sapient bug race or not...   ...It's nothing special, really. Bummer...This guard has new dialogue. She was excited to see the core earlier, looks like she was a bit disappointed by it. Back to work, I see. Yeah, work never stops. We can see why you'd want to quit, Vi.This new banter is common for all the guards and factory personnel. There's also a new general one for the room: Phew. Glad the lockdown's over. Now we can learn the honey making process at our leisure. Eh. It's better if we get going.Of course Leif is still obsessed with food.  Tuvi has this to say. Tuvi's in high spirits! We're surprised. She looks as though nothing's happened. I'm surprised she didn't quit...Understandable.   Do you know how long it'll take to clean that up!?Oops. Looks like our fight with the Ahoneynation left a bit of a mess. Let's not tell her.  The door guard is pretty shaken.  Just a few minutes longer, and I woulda missed it. I'm super in your debt!And a follow-up to this little detail. You know, this one's a bit interesting to speculate about : does this mean the bees have something like television? The only "shows" we know exist otherwise are plays (like the one we participated in and the travelling Bug Ranger shows, but that theatre's in the Ant Kingdom), and Mothiva's concerts (and Mothiva was stuck in here with us, so we know it's not that!).  The Overseer's back in her office now. There's a new banter in here too: We found the Overseer, so... can we leave? Don't like the office much? Yeah. Seriously bums me out...We can also, of course, talk to her.  I'm not sure this is quite the right lesson to have learned here? That's the overseer! Yeah, we saved her, remember?I do kind of enjoy how the game's poking fun at me for checking all these banters when I already know who the character is.  There are a few new banters in the shop too. Bleh, the store prices are so high! If we want honey, we could grab some ourselves. That's theft! Cease and desist!That one's for the shopkeeper. There's also a new one for Amber: I'm glad Lady Amber is here to help. Do you think the Bee Kingdom pays her to be here? I wonder if we could get paid to make Kabbu carry bags...Heh.  What? Magic Seeds? No idea what you're talking about, Vi. H-Hahaha!This worker won't sell us Magic Seeds any more now that we've finished the chapter.   Fat chance.Likewise, we can no longer sleep for free in the dormitory.  That's all for new content in the factory, so let's get going.  As we cross the bridge, our team stops to have a conversation. Mhm... Something on your mind? Kinda. Malbee and the Overseer never really approved of me... But they changed their mind! So, I dunno. Maybe I CAN fix stuff with my sister! Vi, you've mentioned her before, but what kind of bee is she? Her name's Jaune. She's a painter in the Hive! We got into a really bad fight... ...Thanks. I'll think about it. I'll drop by when I feel it's right! This conversation automatically adds a sidequest to our log.   We had Leif's personal quest earlier (which we still can't make progress on); now we have Vi's. As you might have expected, Vi's personal quest is to effect a reconciliation with her sister. 40 - High Above, Bee Kingdom Inside the Hive, this path by all the art supplies is open now (there was a sign blocking the way before). 22 - Fine Arts That's got to be Jaune. C-Can we go? Something wrong? I just... don't wanna be here... Sigh.Vi's pretty reluctant still. Despite that, though, we're not leaving.  Let's try talking to her.  ...Jaune. Miss, we-  What do you want? I'm busy. The Queen's commissioned me for a birthday piece. T-That's uh, really cool. My team and I had this cool mission at the factory. The factory? You're the one who solved the lockdown? N-Not that I'm impressed. So you managed to squeeze your way into an exploration team. Color me shocked. Didn't expect it from such a petite child. Yes! If only I was crass enough to treat you with half the disrespect you've shown me your whole life! I do not want your empty apologies! You seem to be doing quite well anyways, ain't you? Just go. Play with your team or whatever. I've got my issues to solve. S-Seriously? You're kicking me out!? I'm saying sorry! I've got to finish this piece, but I can't find any red paint. That's all I can afford to worry about now. I certainly can't waste my time... With a mean, greedy, selfish child like you! You've said enough about my art for a lifetime, Vi. Just leave me alone! T-This isn't going well... WE'RE LEAVING. Vi... NOW!Yeah, that could definitely have gone better. 40 - High Above, Bee Kingdom Just what did you do to her? I told her she drew like a weevil. Vi! What in blazes! You can't just go around saying that sort of thing! We're assuming this is a new type of insult... Well, she called me stuff too! Weak, short, coward... I couldn't talk about exploring without her talking down to me! Exploring is extremely dangerous. Many lose someone dear to a bad trip... Couldn't she simply have been worried? Whatever. Y-Yeah? That's pretty hard to get. It's out of season or something. Let's get it for her. That is a fantastic idea! Y-You're right! She'd be too happy to get mad! Maybe then we can have an actual conversation. Hmph. Where could we start searching? I know little of paint. I dunno either, but uh... it's made in the Golden Settlement, right? We could just take the tunnel and check it out when we're free. Then let's keep that in mind. Jaune seems to need it quite badly. Alright. Let's get a move on! There we go. We've gotten a lot of new information about this sibling conflict: it definitely seems a lot more petty than we might have assumed, but Vi certainly isn't the only party at fault here either. At least we have some kind of a lead to go on with the paint...  All bees are sisters, aren't they? Well, yes. But even in a huge colony, some get more attached to each other. We guess so. No point in thinking about it too much.If we check for a banter about Jaune, we can get some more insight into what sisterhood means among the bees. They seem to mean something closer to found family by it, since they're all related genetically. Though I have to wonder if Jaune and Vi are very close in age, or something, they seem to have so little in common I'm not sure how they became so close unless they grew up together. Shoo! I'm busy! Go play with your team or something!If we talk to Jaune again, she just tries to get rid of us.  This was just barely visible earlier, let's grab this before we leave. (Jaune seems to have questionable taste in literature, perhaps? She doesn't have anything to say about this book either way though.) Looks like we'll be paying a visit to Reeves later  Let's go. No point coming back until we've got the paint...And Vi will say this if we check the room banter now. Let's go, for better or worse there's nothing more we can do here.  Let's check in with Queen Bianca. 42 - Bianca, Queen of All Bees Seems like there's something going on here, at least!  I-I don't know, my Queen... Reports say that something went wrong at the Power Plant, which caused the Code 32 lockdown! And you found nothing in the Power Plant? Are you certain you looked through EVERYTHING? Y-yes, Your Majesty. To think our honored guests were endangered! This must not happen again. Please do see to that. We will continue our investigation with double the troops! You should have given it your all from the start! S-sorry, my Queen...Honestly, I think she's being a bit harsh with this soldier. That said, this is pretty intriguing, we might have to investigate this ourselves. (Seeing this conversation causes a quest to appear on the bulletin board. This is a really easy quest to miss: if you don't think to come in here, nothing else will tell you about it.) Ah, Vi. I humbly commend you for your service at the Factory. It was no problem! I hope that this incident doesn't make you dread coming home again... N-no. Seriously, it's super fine! Oh hoho! I'm glad, Vi. ...I hope you can reconcile with everyone soon. Y-yeah. I'm, uh, working on it. Gotta go!We can see a new conversation if we talk to the Queen again. This one's pretty cute; I like the way she seems to be trying to strike a balance between monarch and mother. What could have happened at the Power Plant...?And the soldier just says this. That's all for the throne room, at least for right now. There's a bit more to see in the Hive. 40 - High Above, Bee Kingdom If you recall, Doctor HB said she had something to talk to us about. Let's go see her.   Thanks for the help in the factory. It was nothing, Doc. Anyway. I wanted to show you something... You see this big machine behind me? Is that possible? Yes! As long as we can get a crystal which recorded your fights. You know ancient crystals have the ability to record their surroundings, right? The roaches used them all the time to store data. My machine can read said data to recreate certain moments of the past. All that is needed is to find a crystal that recorded what you have seen on your journeys. Where would we find said crystal? Well, you're explorers, right? You probably already have something that has crystals in it. Fufu... I will be waiting for you to figure it out! Can't you just tell us...?This seems interesting! It sounds like this is where we'll be able to refight bosses, but we have a kind of puzzle to solve first.  She expects us to give her a key item. If we pick the wrong thing... That won't do. Don't you have anything with crystals in it?Sadly, she doesn't react to the Bug Ranger Plushie; I did try. Anyway, what she's looking for is our Explorer Permit. Bingo! Authentic permits given to exploration teams have crystals in them! It must be overflowing with combat data! I don't get how that works... You don't need to understand. Fufufu... Just check the computer behind me to start the B.O.S.S. program! Technology has advanced at an incredible pace... Indeed. I've registered you all under the B.O.S.S. terminal already. If you have any questions about it, just come and ask me! I'm so eager to see it in action!Let's talk to her some more and get all the details on this thing before we try it.  Yes, what B.O.S.S. stands for is... With it, you can simulate old battles you have recorded in the crystals on your permit. I still don't know how the crystal works, but just being able to read this data is fascinating! In return for letting me test and study the crystals, you are free to use the B.O.S.S. any time you want. And should you do well in Rush Mode, I'll give you prizes! It's a great deal! Just check the computer over there to start it.Yep, this doesn't just let us refight single bosses, it's also a boss rush mode!  B.O.S.S. will read the crystals on your explorer permit and load data from strong foes you have faced in the past. With that, you can refight old battles at any time you want! The HoloMachine is not perfect, though. It flickers a bit way too much for my liking... But it works well enough. You will keep items you had at the start of the run, so you won't lose any after the session. But used items stay used in Rush Mode until you either finish it or quit, so watch out for that!This is really nice, actually. There are no penalties for trying this, it'll give back any items we spend in these fights, so it's a great place to experiment with strategies or use things that are otherwise scarce without needing to feel bad about it. You can have a lot of fun here.  Yes! You will get some EXP from battles, but since these are simulations, the amount you get is very reduced. But if you do well in Rush Mode, I can give you some Medals and goodies I have stored. Tempting, right? Losing battles won't penalize you, so there is no risk involved as well. It's a safe way to see how much you've grown!This too. You don't get a Game Over for losing here, and you can also just run away to quit at any time if you decide you've had enough. There are two medals we can win in here (the two medals we saw sitting on the table in her lab earlier), and we can actually get both of them now, so let's try this out.   Welcome, Vi, Kabbu and Leif! This is the B.O.S.S. terminal! Logging off. Entering idle mode...We can select either Single Battles or Rush Mode, and face any Mini-Boss or Boss we've fought before. I really love that this is here; one of the things the Paper Mario games were really missing, I thought, was the ability to revisit boss fights (honestly, that's probably one of the reasons I ended up doing so many playthroughs of those, the bosses are one of the best parts of these games and you always want to try new strategies).  Interacting with the terminal in any way gets us a discovery!   There isn't really any new information there, but a discovery is a discovery. This also brings us to 25, which means we can get the next reward from Libren next time we're in the Ant Palace.  Let's try out Rush Mode.   Very well! Please proceed to the Arena to battle! Let's go, everyone! The gates slide open to reveal an arena and the holoprojector.  29 - Team, This One's Stronger! (Miniboss)  Battle transitions in here use grey honeycombs, but the animation's the same. First up is a hologram of Aria. This one's a bit interesting, because it's actually a slightly different fight than when we fought her in the festival: she starts out on the ground instead of on her vine, and we have our full team of three. Not to belabour the point too much, but she's even easier now.  I'm not going to show the refights, there's not really anything new to see here. We do get a bit of EXP for each one we beat. (Honestly, if you ask me, I'd have preferred if they didn't give any EXP here, so that you wouldn't get overlevelled by fighting in here. At least it's reduced, I suppose.)  After each fight, the Doctor will give us some options before the next one starts. In Rush Mode, you get three full heals you can choose to use between battles; right now, there aren't going to be enough fights for rationing these to be a big decision, but when we come back later that can be more interesting. I didn't need one after Aria, so let's just keep going. Alright then, here it comes! Next up is Ahoneynation. The order things show up in the rush is at least somewhat chronological, but a few do appear out of order for whatever reason.   I'll take the healing after this one. Very well, a bit of healing coming up! As you might expect, it's a full restoration of both HP and TP.  Monsieur Scarlet is up next. This is definitely the toughest fight of this group, and the one most likely to still need a fair bit of thought put in.  That said, we beat him once and we can definitely do it again.  Impressive! You've exceeded my expectations. Have a little something, it's on me. After beating the third Mini-Boss in Rush Mode, we can get this. Spy Specs is a neat little medal: for 1 MP, it makes spying not cost a turn (handy if you want to see all the characters' dialogue in battle rather than in the bestiary), and also makes enemies' HP visible even without spying. There's also a hidden effect: spying automatically succeeds and doesn't require an action command when this is equipped. It's a nice convenience thing, though if I'm honest I don't usually bother with it.  Let's keep going. 66 - Mothiva's Grand Stand! The last battle remaining, of course, is Team Mothiva. Interestingly, instead of the normal miniboss music, one of their themes plays during the battle. It's the theme for their second fight, though we've already heard it since it played when they threatened us in the Golden Hills, before the battle.  They're still the same as they were last time we fought them, though.  Here is something for your trouble! Not too bad! You can earn berries pretty easily here. If you want to try again, just start up the B.O.S.S. once more! Can't wait to see how you will perform next time! After the rush has ended, we regain control in front of the computer terminal.  Let's head right back in.  Very well! Please proceed to the Arena to battle! Let's go, everyone!   This works exactly the same as with the minibosses. It's really something to see how quickly these fights go now; it may not necessarily seem like it, but we're a lot stronger than we were at the start of the game.   A consequence of gaining EXP in here is that we can rank up in the middle of it (we were already pretty close).   Leif gets a new skill on reaching Rank 13! Cleanse is a bit situational, but it's pretty interesting. For 2 TP, this can remove all temporary buffs and status changes from an enemy. Do note, though, that "temporary" matters: this will not remove any permanent buffs (anything displayed with the infinity symbol). Still, this can come in handy. If nothing else, you can use it to remove charge-ups: it won't stop the enemy from using its special move if it's prepared one, but this is a way to weaken it and save TP relative to Bubble Shield.  Guess we don't need to heal since the level-up took care of that.  Venus' Guardian is up next. Interestingly, the hologram of Venus comes along with it too. It fights exactly the same as it did before.   I'll take the healing this time.  And now we're facing Heavy Drone B-33. You can well imagine how this fight went, we literally just did it.   Impressive! You've exceeded my expectations. Have a little something, it's on me. This thing is really nice to have, and (IMO) the main reason to do this now. It costs 0 MP to equip, and gives both auditory and visual signals when you enter an area where a collectible is hidden (it reacts to Crystal Berries, Medals, Lore Books, and Discoveries). I'm not sure if I'll keep it equipped for the LP since I already know where everything is, but if you're playing blind, this thing is incredibly helpful (though it can be annoying sometimes, when it reacts to a thing you don't yet have the necessary abilities to find).  Next up would be the Devourer, but I don't feel like dealing with that. I understand. Well, if you want to retry, just check out the B.O.S.S. at any time.Because I quit early, I don't get any berries. (I also wouldn't have gotten berries if I'd continued and lost, in rush mode you only get paid if you finish all of the available fights.) If you lose (or run away), you get this dialogue from HB instead: Well, you can't always win, can you? Maybe rearrange your Medals or train a bit more and try again later? That's enough of that for now. I've gotten what I came for.  Let's put the Detector on, since it's free. We have now obtained all the tangible rewards from B.O.S.S. There are actually a few different ways to get these medals, though this is the only way to do it now: if you wait until later, you can get both medals in a single rush, it'll give you the second after the sixth win (e.g. if we'd had enough Mini-Bosses to fight, we'd get the Detector after the 6th fight). (If you missed the Hard Mode achievement for any chapter boss, you can make that up by putting on the medal and fighting it again here. You'll still have to buy Artis' medal from the caravan, but at least this means the achievements aren't missable. Though I have read that while this works for the ingame achievements, the PS4 and Xbox versions may not correctly award system-wide achievements here; I haven't tested that, but it seemed irresponsible not to mention.) Winning nine fights in a row in either Mini-Boss or Boss Rush unlocks "EX Mode", which allows you to fight stronger versions of them (either in single battles or in rush mode). Finishing the entire boss rush (either in regular or EX mode) once all the fights are available has a small cosmetic reward. Other than that, you just get berries. I want to stress that there aren't any achievements tied to this, and you can get the achievement for 100% completion without engaging with B.O.S.S. any further than we have just now. In every sense, this is completely optional and its main purpose is to challenge yourself and have fun. That said, it's fun and finishing the boss rush feels like a real accomplishment, I'm definitely not going to say it isn't worth doing. We'll be back in the postgame. The boss rush will be one of the last things I'll do in this LP. 40 - High Above, Bee Kingdom Let's head to the residential area now.  Interesting. The smug bee Vi doesn't like seems to need something. It's her. Come on, Vi. Let's see what she has to say.Let's see what this is about, I guess.   ...What's up? Can I help you? Dunno. Can you? Tell us your issue. We'll see. I thought buying a house in the Ant City would be great, but I didn't enjoy it at all. I just get too homesick for the amazing Bee Kingdom... I dunno what to do with it now. Homesick, huh. I understand how you feel. Uh, that sucks. C-Can we help? Are you interested in the house? It's right in the main plaza... You mean the red house near the inn? We could use a place... Goodness. The housing market's gotten rough. Won't blame ya if you don't want it. It's nothing compared to here. We... will... think... about it. (Let's just go...)This is interesting. Leif made a few comments about not having a place to live when we first explored Ant City, clearly he has some anxieties around the issue. We can afford to buy this, after the berry reward from earlier.  150's the lowest I'm going to go. I've already lost money on it.That's what she says if we refuse. I suppose we may as well, though.  Hey... Thanks a ton. Here's the key. You really helped me out... I can fund my next project with this... It was nice helping you. If it gets off the ground, you three can come in for free... For real. Really? Yeah... I never forget a favor. Take care, okay? Mhm. It's good not to be homeless anymore. Yeah! See you around!We'll find out later whether this was actually worth buying, but regardless, it's a pretty cute scene. There's also a bit more dialogue now: Mmm... Maybe I should try buying a house in Defiant Root.Beeette says this if we talk to her again. ...She gave us a really good deal, huh. And I've only said bad stuff about her... ...Well, at least she didn't hear you. And you helped her in the end! You've made up for it! ...Yeah. I'll watch the stuff I say a bit more now...And there's a new banter. Look at that, she's learning! (Although honestly, I can see why she wouldn't get along with this particular bee.)  After buying the Flower Key, we're finally done with the new things to see in the Hive, so let's head out. We need to return to the Ant Kingdom and report back to the Queen, after all.  When we get off the elevator, the Detector immediately kicks in. In addition to this little icon that appears over the head of the character you're controlling and flashes for a few seconds, it also makes a distinctive sound. Unfortunately for us, I happen to know the item hidden in this screen is currently inaccessible to us, meaning the medal will pester us each time we come here but we can't do anything about it. Anyway, that's how it works.  Kenny is also here now, so let's talk to him before we leave.   Yes. I must say, Defiant Root's got its charm as well. Really? The sand doesn't do much for us. Although it's not the most prosperous, people trade and work together to endure thirst and bandits. It's a historic site with a tightly knit community. Could this be the place you'll call home? ...Not yet. But I hope we'll bump into each other once more. Safe travels.Looks like he's going to keep wandering.  Let's take a shortcut through the mines. (The character limit necessitates splitting this update; this seems as good a place as any. Back momentarily.) Explopyro fucked around with this message at 04:49 on Jul 6, 2021 |
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Jul 5, 2021 10:10
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27: New Complications (Part 2) 18 - In the Court of the Ant Queen Feels like it's been ages since we've been in the Ant Palace, doesn't it?  Let's just head straight to the throne room.  Mothiva and Zasp, as well as Professor Neolith, are already waiting.  We've brought the artifact, Elizant. And by WE he means all of us, isn't that right? Nah-  Heheh. It's nice to see you all working as a team! Today marks a historic day. We have finally found all the artifacts! If only words could show my gratitude.  Vi doesn't hesitate to hand over the artifact this time.   We're still getting paid, too! This will come in handy.  M-May I? Inspect it, Professor. Mark the end of this long search!  ...Speak. Now. This... isn't the whole artifact! Explain yourself! NOW! Was this not in your notes!? L-Look, this artifact has a small mechanism at the bottom... it's missing a half! A half? Curses! Where would we even start to look? We were so close! Time is running out... What do you mean? The Wasp Kingdom grows bolder each day. We hoped we could gather them all before they made their move. T-Their move? Are they going to invade or something? Calm yourselves down. We just need to find the other half quickly. Who said that?  My esteemed scout team. You have something to share? If we overheard right, a half is missing. Yes? We're super sure it's within the Lost Sands! There's this peculiar area we have staked out for days. The sands hide more secrets still? Incredible! In the most plain of corners, a Sand Castle hides. (The complaint here is coming from Zasp, it's easier to tell ingame because his sprite does talking animations.) We suspect the missing artifact is there. It used to be an area previously inhabited by the roaches, according to my notes. A Sand Castle, you say? Where would its keys be? The mayor of Defiant Root holds this secret. But he asked that we told everyone here first. This is great news! We have a lead again. Zaryant! Reward them. They have prevented this day from being an utmost disaster. Oh, it was nothing, my Queen. We live to find secrets!  Team Mothiva, Team Snakemouth... Leave it to me, my Queen. That key will be yours before you realize we've gone. You bet! And we'll be the ones to bring it! Some healthy competition won't be the worst. Suit yourselves. We'll finish this search. Best of luck, everyone! Your orders are clear. Speak to the mayor of Defiant Root, and begin your search! 46 - Chapter 4: Mysterious Lost Sands There's the official beginning of Chapter 4.  Being a star and an explorer is so taxing! Aw. Boohoo. Go, Mothiva. I will manage until your return. Heheh. This is why you're my partner! See ya, Snakemouth losers!  Let's make sure to finish any of our business before departing. Stocking up on some items would be wise, as well. There's some spikes in the desert, right? If we could cross 'em, we could search a bunch more places! Spikes aren't much compared to electric shocks. Our Bubble Shield should be able to get us across. Excellent! Let's prepare and see what new paths we can explore!That's actually a very solid hint about where progress is. Leif's Bubble Shield can be used to cross brambles, as well as electrified floors, and we've definitely seen brambles in a few places before.  We're finally given back control, though Neolith wants to talk more.  Yes, Neo? May I be of service? I found this during my research, but the Queen has been too involved in the artifacts to take notice. What's this? I can't discern its purpose. I can't say for sure, but I think it's the key for somewhere. I'm quite tied up researching but... The last lead I got was in the outskirts, east of the association. We'll look into it, Neo. You have my word.That's mysterious. That said, we've seen the place where this is supposed to go. We'll check it out soon enough.  Zaryant has a new line if we talk to her.  As, awkwardly, does this soldier near the entrance. Normally I'd fix a typo like this rather than show the screenshot, but I can't when it's her only line...  Let's stop in at the library.   This time you have 25 Discoveries, last time you had found 21... Looks like you have enough for the next reward tier! Here you go! That seems to be all for now! Come back once you have found more Discoveries!This is a really excellent medal, and probably the best reason to be diligent about finding Discoveries (this is the earliest opportunity to get it). Victory Buzz costs 3 MP, and restores 4 TP each time we win a battle. This is, needless to say, extremely convenient and makes dealing with overworld encounters significantly less tedious. I won't say this puts an end to resource management woes completely, but it certainly lessens them substantially!  That's going straight on. (It's probably worth remembering to swap this out for something else when you know a boss fight is coming, but otherwise this is a great medal to just slap on and forget about. It's almost always worth it.)  Now that we have that, we mustn't forget Reeves!   Ah! This is one of the worst ones! Let's see... Tch. "Our Twisted Summer". Why was so much time spent setting up all those characters!? Uh... So it's like good bad? It's atrocious and disgusting. Perfect for my bookshelf. Here's your reward. One more should sate my urges... Let me know if you find more.Reeves is the best. 17 - Ant Kingdom When we leave the palace, Utter draws our attention to the fact there are new sidequests available.      We'll accept them all, of course. "Power Plant Investigation" is the one we unlocked by seeing that scene with Queen Bianca. We're going to have our work cut out for us, between these and the tasks that have already been piling up.  Let's not forget about Artis, too. He should have some Hard Mode rewards for us.   Hmmm! Good job, folks! You defeated that hardened Heavy Drone B-33! Was it too challenging for ya? You deserve a reward. Here, take this! Oh ho! You've been on a roll! Beat Ahoneynation too, eh? Here, take this as well! Come back later when you've bonked some extra hard heads with that medal, will ya?These are some interesting medals!  Empower is like  Break, it gives Leif access to another kind of status move. It's 2 MP to equip. Empower costs 3 TP, will give one ally Attack Up for two turns. It's pretty nice. Deep Taunt is an interesting one. It's only 1 MP to equip, but its effect is double-edged. While equipped, this makes taunted enemies both deal and receive 1 extra point of damage. There are definitely ways to make good use of this (especially if you're stacking attack boosts and using multi-hit attacks), but equally so, it can be counterproductive for actually tanking, so it's something to be careful with. What say we check out our new house?    It's a little barebones right now, wouldn't you say?  That said, there's one immediate advantage: we can rest here for free whenever we want. There's no longer any reason to be paying for inns.  We can also use the mushroom to launch ourselves up to the roof.  At the very top, there's something for us to find.   Charge Up is another medal that gives Leif a status spell, and costs 2 MP. This one lets Leif spend 3 TP to give any ally +1 charge-up. Truthfully, I don't like this one much, there are enough other ways to get charge-ups that spending 3 TP just seems excessive, but there are definitely ways to use this effectively. Still, a medal is a medal.That's what 150 berries for the house bought us: the ability to rest for free, and this medal. That's not all the house does, there are a few other things we'll see later, but that's the majority of it; if you're playing along, I leave it to you to decide whether it's worth it. Before wrapping up this update, there are a few more errands to run. 34 - Dodgy Business It's a new chapter, so Shades has new medals in stock! He is now offering the following:  Luckier Day (2 Crystal Berries) Power Exchange (5 Crystal Berries) HP Plus (2 Crystal Berries)in addition to the ones we didn't buy last time:  Super Block+ (4 Crystal Berries) Poison Defender (4 Crystal Berries) EXP Booster (2 Crystal Berries)Let's talk about what the new ones do. Power Exchange, for 5 MP, gives the equipped bug +1 attack and -1 defence. (It's like P-Up D-Down from Paper Mario, though significantly less undercosted.) It's still well worth it, it's an attack boost that doesn't require you to jump through hoops to access; if you're going for a glass cannon approach, this is the medal for you. Luckier Day is... certainly something. Here's the description: "This legendary medal by Kiefer is sure to make you feel lucky while fighting!" It's 0 MP to equip and... it changes the displayed message for all action commands to "UNBEELIEVABLE!" regardless of the attack. That's it, that's all it does. It's obviously meant to be a reference to the Lucky Day badge in Paper Mario, but that actually did something.And, of course, there's an HP Plus. It's actually here now, unlike last time.We have 9 Crystal Berries right now. I'm inclined to grab Power Exchange and either Poison Defender or Super Block+, but I'm open to input, feel free to vote for what I should buy.  Merab has new medals in stock too!    I have enough berries to buy all of these, so I'm just going to go ahead and do that. I don't necessarily plan to use them right away, but there are some good things here.  Heal Plus is 2 MP and increases the HP restored by 1 when the equipped bug uses a healing item. This does, however, include healing skills like Vi's Secret Stash, so it's particularly well-suited to her if you want to build her as a healer. That's certainly something you can do, if you want to play things like a traditional RPG. Meditation is 2 MP, and makes Do Nothing restore 1 TP the first time you use it in a turn. This isn't that great by itself, but you can stack it with other medals that have effects when you do nothing (like Prayer), enough effects like this and you can really get something going.And then, of course,  Freeze Resistance is yet another medal in the resistance series. Stopping by the bank to drop off the few berries I had left. We're nearly broke again, despite all that income. This seems like a good place to wrap things up for today. Next time, we'll get started on the massive pile of side content we've been presented with; the game really starts opening up here. I've described the distribution of content in this game as being somewhat bell curve shaped, and as we get into Chapter 4 (and Chapter 5) you'll definitely start to see it.
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Jul 5, 2021 10:11
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Wait, what do you mean Power Exchange is for glass cannoning? Was I not supposed to use it, a later medal, double Poison Defender and every HP plus I could find to turn Vi into a tank that hits like several freight trains crashing into eachother?
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Jul 5, 2021 15:57
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All the B.O.S.S. bosses being translucent and washed out is a cute touch. The game won't let Vi and Jaune not make up once we get the paint? Right? 
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Jul 5, 2021 16:13
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B.O.S.S. actually has one other function. If you’re playing on normal mode, getting kills at the rematches with the hard mode medal on will allow you to get the hard mode boss kill achievements for the bosses you fought on normal mode, so those aren’t permanently missable. However this doesn’t let you get the hard mode medal rewards for free from Artis. He only gives them out for the actual hard mode boss fight kills, so you’ll have to pay for those medals if you played on normal.
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Jul 5, 2021 16:25
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Explopyro posted:I'm not sure this is quite the right lesson to have learned here? Well this is off to a great start!  Explopyro posted:Honestly, I think she's being a bit harsh with this soldier. That said, this is pretty intriguing, we might have to investigate this ourselves. Explopyro posted:We can select either Single Battles or Rush Mode, and face any Mini-Boss or Boss we've fought before. I really love that this is here; one of the things the Paper Mario games were really missing, I thought, was the ability to revisit boss fights (honestly, that's probably one of the reasons I ended up doing so many playthroughs of those, the bosses are one of the best parts of these games and you always want to try new strategies). Explopyro posted:Monsieur Scarlet is up next. This is definitely the toughest fight of this group, and the one most likely to still need a fair bit of thought put in. Explopyro posted:The last battle remaining, of course, is Team Mothiva. Explopyro posted:Next up would be the Devourer, but I don't feel like dealing with that. Explopyro posted:I want to stress that there aren't any achievements tied to this, and you can get the achievement for 100% completion without engaging with B.O.S.S. any further than we have just now. Explopyro posted:Beeette says this if we talk to her again. Explopyro posted:When we get off the elevator, the Detector immediately kicks in. In addition to this little icon that appears over the head of the character you're controlling and flashes for a few seconds, it also makes a distinctive sound. Unfortunately for us, I happen to know the item hidden in this screen is currently inaccessible to us, meaning the medal will pester us each time we come here but we can't do anything about it. Anyway, that's how it works. I absolutely love this moment, because Kabbu is recognizing Mothiva's contribution, but he's also putting her on the same level as Gen and Eri. She must be steaming. And Kabbu doesn't even realize he's doing it, because he doesn't look down on Gen and Eri. Explopyro posted:
Zasp is so confusing. Explopyro posted:This is a really excellent medal, and probably the best reason to be diligent about finding Discoveries (this is the earliest opportunity to get it). Victory Buzz costs 3 MP, and restores 4 TP each time we win a battle. This is, needless to say, extremely convenient and makes dealing with overworld encounters significantly less tedious. I won't say this puts an end to resource management woes completely, but it certainly lessens them substantially! Holy poo poo, triple bunk beds! ...I feel like Kabbu wouldn't quite fit in there, though. Maybe he has the top bunk? Explopyro posted:I've described the distribution of content in this game as being somewhat bell curve shaped, and as we get into Chapter 4 (and Chapter 5) you'll definitely start to see it.
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Jul 5, 2021 17:03
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I absolutely vote for Luckier Day.
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Jul 5, 2021 17:26
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Victory Buzz let me use Icefall for free in every random encounter to crowd control large groups of enemies. I almost never took it off, even though I spent a lot of level ups on extra TP. The optional stuff at the beginning of this chapter somewhat amazed me. There's a lot of new places you can go with the sidequests and Bubble Shield's field effect all of a sudden. This game just oozes content, I love it so.
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Jul 5, 2021 18:18
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Alien Arcana posted:Zasp is so confusing. I feel like he's less confusing than when I first played this game. Now that I know his relationship with Mothiva is supposed to be romantic (I didn't read it that way), it makes sense that he understands Mothiva's personality flaws and how she can sometimes be detrimental to achieving their goals, but doesn't want to say that in front of her. He's able to open up a bit when she's not around and even realizes Team Snakemouth's potential. It's obviously not a healthy relationship, but him changing personality depending on whether she's around or not and him possibly being worried that she'll leave him if he doesn't act the way she expects him to makes sense. Which is why Explopyro had that content warning about their relationship being emotionally abusive. On another note, I'm one of the people who didn't think to talk to Bianca again after the honey factory, and got to the end of the game wondering why I hadn't gotten the achievement for finishing all the quests. I looked it up on the wiki and found out that I'd missed that one, and of course at that point in time I was fairly high level with a lot of great badges so the quest was ridiculously easy (plus I was on Normal anyway) so I'm interested to see how it goes if you do it earlier and on Hard.
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Jul 5, 2021 19:45
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Quackles posted:I absolutely vote for Luckier Day. Same.
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Jul 5, 2021 22:27
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Twelve by Pies posted:I feel like he's less confusing than when I first played this game. Now that I know his relationship with Mothiva is supposed to be romantic (I didn't read it that way) Same. I just read their relationship as 2 goofball friends instead of that. The romantic reading was absolutely not how those 2 came off to me.
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Jul 6, 2021 02:30
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Tatters posted:Wait, what do you mean Power Exchange is for glass cannoning? Was I not supposed to use it, a later medal, double Poison Defender and every HP plus I could find to turn Vi into a tank that hits like several freight trains crashing into eachother? Haha. Of course there are all sorts of things you can do. Serves me right for trying to be succinct  Slaan posted:All the B.O.S.S. bosses being translucent and washed out is a cute touch. It's even better seeing it in motion, the sprites periodically flicker and glitch out too (sometimes part of the sprite will be shifted separately to the rest, it almost looks like screen-tearing). There wasn't a great way to capture that aspect for this update, I don't think, but I'll definitely record the full boss rush as video when we get around to that part. As for Vi and Jaune... I have no comment except to say wait and see. Araxxor posted:B.O.S.S. actually has one other function. If you’re playing on normal mode, getting kills at the rematches with the hard mode medal on will allow you to get the hard mode boss kill achievements for the bosses you fought on normal mode, so those aren’t permanently missable.  I completely forgot to talk about this, and I absolutely intended to (I even alluded to it in one of the first updates and said I'd talk about it when the time came). That's what I get for working on these posts late at night when I should be sleeping; I'll edit in a paragraph about this. Thanks.It's a really thoughtful feature that I definitely appreciate them adding. (Although I have read that it may not work properly for system-wide achievements on some console versions; I don't have the ability to test that myself though.) Alien Arcana posted:Bug Fables really takes the philosophy of "nothing is ever permanently lost" to heart. This is something I really appreciate about the game, as a person who suffers from what I can only call "toxic completionism" (I swear I'm working on it!). It takes a lot of the anxiety out to know that nothing is permanently missable; I genuinely enjoy playing games as blind as possible and trying to discover things on my own, but if I know there are things I'll miss by doing so, I can't stop myself from looking it all up and that tends to impact my experience. (Of course, there's plenty of missable dialogue, but that's only a source of anxiety for LP purposes.) Alien Arcana posted:If you just want to get the medal, it's a good idea to do this bit before fighting Scarlet, so that you don't have to deal with his bullshit. This definitely works, though it would mean missing out on all the goodies you have access to from beating him until now. Alien Arcana posted:They're always the last mini-boss in the rush, which is a nice touch. I had thought there was an explanation for that but on further examination, you're right, they're just always the last ones you fight. Sometimes I wonder if the order of the other bosses is an indication of when the devs intended the optional ones to be fought, but it's probably not worth reading that much into it. Alien Arcana posted:*shudder* Thankfully the chapter bosses are always fought first, so you never need to re-fight the Devourer just to get the medal. Yes, that's definitely a good thing. I do also find it interesting that, whether or not you fight the optional bosses, you'll always have three available in both categories the first time this is available and can get the medals ASAP. Alien Arcana posted:Which is nice! I did eventually finish the boss rushes, but knowing I didn't have to made them much less painful. I think this goes back to the old intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation debate, and the fact studies have shown that doing something specifically to earn a reward tends to reduce enjoyment of the task and the desire to do it again later. Games can't completely escape from reward-based motivation, there's an extent to which I think it's pretty inherent to the medium, but when they do manage to do it the resulting experience is much better, in my opinion. (Achievements have so much to answer for...) Alien Arcana posted:Beeeeeeeeette God, don't remind me. That name feels so awkward to type. Alien Arcana posted:Yeah, this is really annoying. There's several treasures in Defiant Root and the Ant Kingdom that we can't get right now, so the Detector goes off constantly as you walk around. Given that there's a bunch of sidequests that require going back and forth... it really gets on my nerves. You can just unequip it, of course, but then I forget to put it back on again... #firstworldproblems The unfortunate thing is I don't really think there's a better way they could have handled it, honestly. If it didn't react to currently inaccessible things, it wouldn't be able to tell you "this place is worth revisiting when you have a new ability", and it not reacting wouldn't be any reassurance of having found all the things in an area. It may be annoying, but I don't think there's a cleaner solution (unless the real suggestion is that they might have been better off relocating certain items, which I might well concur with). Alien Arcana posted:I absolutely love this moment, because Kabbu is recognizing Mothiva's contribution, but he's also putting her on the same level as Gen and Eri. She must be steaming. And Kabbu doesn't even realize he's doing it, because he doesn't look down on Gen and Eri. I like this interpretation a lot. Alien Arcana posted:A disaster?! Lady, you've gone from two artifacts to two-and-a-half. You're in a strictly better position than before, even if you didn't get everything you wanted. Ant Queen? More like Drama Queen. Honestly, it makes me wonder if she meant to refer to something different with "time is running out" than a potential wasp invasion. Alien Arcana posted:I think that's a good way to handle things. From a narrative perspective, the beginning and end of the story are the most crucial parts, so you don't want too many distractions at those points. Yeah, when you put it that way it makes a lot of sense. Quackles posted:I absolutely vote for Luckier Day. serefin99 posted:Same. I really should have seen this coming, shouldn't I. Alxprit posted:Victory Buzz let me use Icefall for free in every random encounter to crowd control large groups of enemies. I almost never took it off, even though I spent a lot of level ups on extra TP. Icefall definitely matches up really well with Victory Buzz, yes. Although of course there are other ways you can take advantage of it, too: it's a game-changer being able to use a skill for free in every fight. It really does feel like the game opens up a great deal here. I've said many times, I really love how much content is in this game. That said, it's pretty daunting in the context of the LP; figuring out how to order everything so that the overall narrative flow makes sense is definitely nontrivial now. I've definitely got my work cut out for me. Twelve by Pies posted:I feel like he's less confusing than when I first played this game. Now that I know his relationship with Mothiva is supposed to be romantic (I didn't read it that way), it makes sense that he understands Mothiva's personality flaws and how she can sometimes be detrimental to achieving their goals, but doesn't want to say that in front of her. He's able to open up a bit when she's not around and even realizes Team Snakemouth's potential. It's obviously not a healthy relationship, but him changing personality depending on whether she's around or not and him possibly being worried that she'll leave him if he doesn't act the way she expects him to makes sense. Which is why Explopyro had that content warning about their relationship being emotionally abusive. This is very close to how I read them, yes. There are explanations for his behaviour that make sense, they're just... a bit unpleasant. Twelve by Pies posted:On another note, I'm one of the people who didn't think to talk to Bianca again after the honey factory, and got to the end of the game wondering why I hadn't gotten the achievement for finishing all the quests. I looked it up on the wiki and found out that I'd missed that one, and of course at that point in time I was fairly high level with a lot of great badges so the quest was ridiculously easy (plus I was on Normal anyway) so I'm interested to see how it goes if you do it earlier and on Hard. I absolutely did this on my first playthrough also, though I think I ended up stumbling on the quest in chapter 5 or 6, at which point it was still a bit underwhelming. I won't be putting it off too long here.
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Jul 6, 2021 02:34
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Zasp is a wasp, right? Considering it's 3/4ths of his name. I wonder if he has any thoughts about his home country potentially invading his new home.
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Jul 6, 2021 02:38
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Zasp may not be from the Wasp Kingdom. He's a different color than the wasps we've seen, so he may be a different species from outside Bugaria, like maybe a mud dauber or something. I don't feel like this qualifies as a spoiler, but the Wasp Kingdom has a hive so they have to be a eusocial species of wasp, which limits the kind of wasps they can be, since most wasps are solitary species. Zasp being by himself and seemingly not affiliated with them would probably support him being a different species than them.
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Jul 6, 2021 05:08
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Explopyro posted:I really should have seen this coming, shouldn't I. (this is definitely a vote for Luckier Day)
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Jul 6, 2021 16:23
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Twelve by Pies posted:Zasp may not be from the Wasp Kingdom. He's a different color than the wasps we've seen, so he may be a different species from outside Bugaria, like maybe a mud dauber or something. I don't feel like this qualifies as a spoiler, but the Wasp Kingdom has a hive so they have to be a eusocial species of wasp, which limits the kind of wasps they can be, since most wasps are solitary species. Zasp being by himself and seemingly not affiliated with them would probably support him being a different species than them. Right, the Wasp Kingdom appear to be yellowjackets. I don't think it's ever specified what sort of wasp Zasp is, but he's definitely not a yellowjacket. Going by his coloration, he could be a red paper wasp. (They're also social, but Zasp could just be an outcast.) We've also seen a few other wasps. Carmina, who taught us to play Spy Cards, is a velvet ant (yes, that's a confusing name). And Madeleine, whose butler we rescued, is a cicada killer. EDIT: Oops, we haven't actually met them yet! There seems to be a bit more diversity in the wasp characters as opposed to the ants/bees, which fits with what you said about most wasps being loners. Also I'm going to vote against Luckier Day. I've found the badge makes it really hard to tell whether you've blocked or super-blocked. Alien Arcana fucked around with this message at 00:19 on Jul 7, 2021 |
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Jul 6, 2021 17:16
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Alien Arcana posted:Right, the Wasp Kingdom appear to be yellowjackets. Must be a different species of yellow jacket than I'm used to, since the Wasp Kingdom has an above ground hive similar to the bees. All the yellow jackets around here have underground hives, it would suck mowing the lawn as a kid and running over one and getting attacked, then my dad would soak a sock in some kerosene and light it on fire. He'd put it over the entrance to the hive and it would suck all the air out and suffocate them. quote:We've also seen a few other wasps. Carmina, who taught us to play Spy Cards, is a velvet ant (yes, that's a confusing name). It's funny because the intro to wikipedia says "A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant." Apparently wasps share a common ancestor with bees and ants and as such don't qualify to be classified in their own group.
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Jul 6, 2021 19:18
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Twelve by Pies posted:It's funny because the intro to wikipedia says "A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant." Apparently wasps share a common ancestor with bees and ants and as such don't qualify to be classified in their own group. Given how much this game knows about insects, it doesn't surprise me that 3 of the main kingdoms are this closely connected.
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Jul 6, 2021 19:33
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I'm not entirely sure what species Zasp is, he definitely seems to be some kind of paper wasp (which are social). The closest I was able to get (based on some things I've seen on the wiki) is Polistes metricus or Polistes annularis, both of those look very close but I haven't been able to confirm it and the artbook doesn't say. The Wasp Kingdom definitely have a lot of similarities with yellowjackets, so I tend to think that's probably what they're supposed to be. Certainly the soldiers we've seen look a lot like them. (Although, that said, "yellowjacket" can refer to a number of different species, many of which are also just known as "common wasp", it's not particularly specific.) I'm not actually sure whether Zasp has any affiliation with the Wasp Kingdom (I seem to remember him discussing it at one point, but I don't quite remember, so we'll have to see when I get to it), but he is a different species from the dominant one there. That's not necessarily evidence one way or the other, though - we've already seen the Bee Kingdom also lets bumblebees live in their hive, and those are a completely unrelated species (Queen Bianca and her children are Western Honeybees). Alien Arcana posted:And Madeleine, whose butler we rescued, is a cicada killer. Getting a bit ahead of ourselves, are we? I haven't done this quest yet, it'll probably be in the next update. Explopyro fucked around with this message at 00:32 on Jul 7, 2021 |
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Jul 6, 2021 22:05
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Explopyro posted:Getting a bit ahead of ourselves, are we? I haven't done this quest yet, it'll probably be in the next update. poo poo, my bad. I thought we'd done that one already. I've spoilered it in my post.
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Jul 7, 2021 00:19
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Alien Arcana posted:poo poo, my bad. I thought we'd done that one already. I've spoilered it in my post. No worries. As far as things that could've been spoiled go, that's pretty minor (we've been introduced to her in the quest log anyway and that has a picture), and I don't like to be too draconian about this sort of thing. I was more amused than anything else, really.
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Jul 7, 2021 00:37
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You never know when your spheculations might be accurate
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Jul 7, 2021 00:39
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28: The Butler Did It, and Other Stories We're early in a new chapter, and that means sidequests! We've certainly picked up a bunch of them. The agenda for today is getting the quick ones out of the way, so that we can start digging into more substantive ones next time. 06 - Outskirts First up, remember this cave in the Outskirts? This is what Professor Neolith's clue was pointing to. Let's head inside.  It's very quiet in here. There's only ambient noise, it doesn't even play the usual cave music. What a peculiar cave. Huh... There's nothing here! Just a rock! ...We can feel magic coming off this cavern. It's hiding something.We've seen this banter before, but I wanted to refresh our memory, it's been a while since we were here.  One of Venus' buds is also in here now. That's new. Let's see what she can tell us.  This is a really strange cave, isn't it? I can just feel something interesting is hiding here! You better look around! We didn't have what goes on this dais before, but we do now, thanks to the Professor! What a helpful chap. Let's put that in and see what it does.   The room starts shaking and the pedestal sinks into the ground.  Then the room starts shaking even more...  A giant crystal descends from the ceiling, and this huge stage rises back out.  Is that a hologram of a roach? Interesting. We certainly need to investigate this further.   The signage isn't very helpful.  Whatever this is, we can talk to it. Let's check for banters first. Woah! Is that a Roach!? It's just a projection, Vi. Still, it feels so real!There's also an area one: What an incredible device! It projects images! I've seen a few like this in the Hive. They're really cool! ...Can a projection reward us...?Vi is reminded of B.O.S.S.? (Or maybe something else similar to it?) Interesting.  Oh. That's not helpful. Ah, the Roach dialect! Come on, Leif! You've gotta translate! Uh. This accent is really weird. Let's see... Deranto te daqueda ni firosk. Teterande da... Translation Complete. Guess we won't need to translate, then... Here, you can challenge many enemies you've faced before in succession, in return for prizes and glory! Prizes!? Glory!? Aw yeah! This must be an ancient Roach training simulator! Indeed! Shall we start a test run? Bleh. It's busted. Oh, fret not, challengers! All we need is a Crystal that has recorded any battles you have fought! A crystal that recorded our battles? It must be something that has been with us since the start... But what?This is a bit awkward, I think they wrote this conversation assuming we'd discover this before B.O.S.S., but the structure of the game just naturally tends to go the other way, so it ends up making it look like our team has a bad memory.  Anyway, obviously the answer is our permit again. If we give something else, we can see this line: This item does not possess recorded data. Please provide a data-rich crystal for data reading.Let's do it correctly now.  Please speak to me whenever you are ready to start the program or you have any questions about the system. Alright! It's prize, glory, and uh... Holo-trainwhatever time!This is the Cave of Trials. It's a battle gauntlet, like B.O.S.S. but different (Paper Mario fans will definitely make comparisons to the Pit of 100 Trials). Let's get some more information.  This terminal will use your crystal's data to let you battle many foes in consecutive battles. If your crystal has no data on our enemies, they will show up as silhouettes. My apologies. You can only heal every 10 battles, and holographic enemies award less EXP. Every 10 battles completed awards a prize, and it's safe to fail. So keep changing your strategy until you come out on top!What he didn't say there is that, like B.O.S.S., there's a limitation on how many times you can use the healing between rounds. You only get 2 heals for the entire gauntlet of 50 battles (and, like he said, you only get the option after every 10th battle).  For each 10 completed Trials, you get special items, Medals or berries that may aid you in your journey. (Including this screenshot because I caught a nice view of the glitching effect, the weird characters temporarily flicker in to replace the text.) But beware, giving up before reaching a 10 battle milestone will net you nothing. Try to endure until then! Also, do not worry about spending your items, as they will be returned just how they were at the end of the battle! So use away.This works just like B.O.S.S., any consumable items you bring in will be returned at the end, though not restored between battles, so you can use powerful and rare things with impunity here.  Cold feet? Come back if you decide to challenge the Trial again!As much as I'd love to show off by beating this now, I don't think I can. You really need a certain level of sustainability and regeneration to be able to get through this many battles, and while the  Victory Buzz medal we got last time goes a long way in that respect, it's not quite enough by itself (unlike the Pit of 100 Trials in Paper Mario, these enemies don't drop items or recovery pickups). I did a casual practice run that ended at battle 20; if I'd brought better items I could've gotten through that one, but wouldn't expect to get too much further (unless I went out of my way to grind a full inventory of Queen's Dinners or something, and I'd really rather not). Even then, I wouldn't be confident: the late-game enemies get pretty nasty and the tools we have now aren't really adequate to handle them.That said, I'm inclined to say it's not a great idea to show this now anyway. Enemies we haven't seen yet start showing up as early as round 10 (they're not exactly organised by the order we fought them), and even if they appear as silhouettes only, their behaviours would still spoil future content. Many of the enemy formations in here are unique, and mix and match enemies in ways you won't encounter elsewhere in the game. This is great in that it's new content, but makes it awkward trying to figure out when to do this. There are some good rewards for this (rounds 10 and 20 give rare consumables, 30 and 40 give medals, and 50 is a key item); after you earn them the first time, you'll get berries instead on subsequent attempts. There are a few other minor things you can do after finishing it (including a really fun secret), but we'll cover those later. Playing casually, it's not a big deal to come here and see how far you can go whenever you feel up to it, but for the LP I'm more inclined to put it off until the postgame. If the thread prefers me to do it earlier, it'd be safe to do rounds 1-40 after Chapter 6, but I think that's the earliest point it would make sense. Let me know what you think, I suppose. Anyway, let's get back to exploring the room for now. Once we've spoken to it, the banter for the roach hologram changes: Woah! Is that a Roach!? It's just a projection, Vi. We can start the trials by talking to this very realistic hologram. Get ready, everyone!We can also go check the signs again.    The text on them is now legible. They show some of our ingame stats, which is pretty cool! Trying to break your record for damage done in a single turn can be fun, too.  A training simulator, huh? Be sure to heal up before working out!Venus has new dialogue now as well. She's here to provide convenient healing, in case you're not on full health when coming here for whatever reason. That's all there is to see here; now we know what this cave is about. I wanted to show this now because it's available, even though it's a bit awkward to come here and then refuse to do anything. Let's move on to doing some actual sidequests now.  First things first, let's head to the Golden Settlement area. Someone called Madeleine says her butler's gotten lost in the Golden Hills. 30 - The Sacred Hills That must be her. We've got a hunch that this is Madeleine. Shall we say hello?If we check the banter, Leif says much the same thing. Let's see what she has to say.  That's correct! Madeleine, I presume? That's me. I'm so grateful for your help! You see... Seb, my dear butler, got lost while we enjoyed our pilgrimage. I've searched quite a bit, but I am helpless finding my way without him! Pretty please... Could you try and find him for me? How's he like? It'd help us. Please do your best, yes? I'll reward you appropriately. Heheh. We're on it! Just hang in there!Seems simple enough. Let's check the banter again before we go: Madeleine's got some good style going on. Vi, ever thought of carrying an umbrella around? Nah, I'd just get tired. Hey, Kabbu. What about you? Hmm. You think I should try it? I could look so pretty! Err, sure. If you say so...I love that Kabbu's interest in fashion continues to be a thing. It's not at all something I'd have expected given everything else about him, and I think that's what makes it work. And, of course, we can talk to her again: Oh, please! Find him soon! If anything happens to him... I don't know what I'd do!Okay, okay, no need to panic on us. The game doesn't give us any information to go on about where Seb might be, but if we think back to when we were exploring this area in Chapter 2, there was one suspicious place we couldn't go. Other than that, we explored this place thoroughly, so let's start there.  It's in the area up this elevator.  Remember that little platform with the ramp, out in the brambles? With Leif's Bubble Shield, we can now get to it.  It's distant, but it definitely looks like someone is over there!   Yeah, that's him.  Orange bowtie marks the spot. (...Wow. He's even tinier than me!)A cute little banter before we talk to him.    It's disgraceful that I would worry her so, fleeing upon the sight of monsters... I can only hope she'll forgive me. Stop worrying. She'll be quite pleased to see you. You truly think so? ...Then, without further delay, let us not keep her waiting. My, how devoted! Just stay close to us. We'll get you through safely. Seb will now follow us. That's really all there is to this quest; now we just need to take him back to Madeleine.    Milady! I'm sorry to have troubled you so... Oh, how would my life be without you to help me? I can only hope my absence would be noted, Milady. But of course. Oh, brave explorers... I can't thank you enough! Oh, Vi.  As a token of my gratitude, I hope you will make good use of this. With that said, shall we head home? I fancy some Burly Tea. Of course, Milady. With some sweet bread? You know me too well! Brave explorers... May we meet again sometime!  They walk off, and that completes the quest. That was a pretty simple one, although it could take a lot longer if you search the entire area rather than beelining for the unexplored area. Madeleine and Seb are something of an odd pair: she's a cicada killer wasp, and he's a cicada, but they seem to genuinely care about each other. (Also, if you look carefully, there's a pile of dead monsters right next to where Madeleine was standing when we found her. Seb wasn't lying about having fled, but apparently she was more than capable of dealing with them. Nobody will ever comment on this.) Anyway, let's take the book she gave us to the library. 18 - In the Court of the Ant Queen  Ah, wonderful. That is one of ours, yes. I'll put it on the shelf, so check it out whenever.  The Everlasting Sapling. It is said that the sapling was a creation of the roaches. The legends of the sapling have brought the first settlers to Bugaria, bringing about the creation of the Ant Kingdom. According to legend, it is said that eating even one of its leaves will grant immortality to the bug that eats it. Our only clue to its whereabouts are artifacts mentioned in ancient texts. They say one resides in Snakemouth Den, but its dangers have proven too much to conquer. Was it truly made by the Roaches? Could it have caused the Roaches to vanish? I hope this chapter of history will be cleared up in my lifetime.A bit of new information in that one (we didn't know the sapling was connected to the roaches before), though it's mostly speculation still. The other quests I want to address today are in Defiant Root, so let's head there.  37 - Defiant Root This soldier trying to get our attention is new! She appears here after we've seen the Chapter 4 briefing in the Ant Palace.  She offers us yet another form of fast travel.  Roger. If we agree, she'll immediately bring us here, to the Lost Sands entrance in Bugaria Outskirts.  And we have the option to go back immediately. This is convenient, I guess, though it seems a bit unnecessary when we already have the tunnels. I think this might've been added in v1.1? I never remember that this exists. Let's get back on track, anyway.  We had a request for help from someone named Eremi in the museum.  That must be her. That's a cute apron! Leif, you quite enjoy cooking. Correct? When it's stuff we like. Perhaps you should wear a cute apron as well! That's... not how it works. You just don't wanna wear it! Why don't YOU get an apron then, Vi? Ahahahaha... oh, whoops, time to get back to work!Kabbu's fashion sense strikes again. Let's talk to her now:   Err... no. You must be Eremi. Ah, yup! That's me! How may we help you combat this heatspell? Leif! Freeze her up! Wow! What a nice breeze! Mission complete. Pay up! W-Wait! It's already hot again! I'm SUPER thankful, but... I need something that will last after you're gone. Hmm... Perhaps an umbrella? Or some sort of ointment to shield you from the sun's rays? I'll take anything, really. Please... I'm begging you! So much for the easy check... We'll find something, so sit tight! Try not to, uh, work yourself up until then.So this is our quest. Eremi wants something that will help her keep cool.  Talking to her opens up the regular items menu and we can give her something. If we give her the wrong thing: This isn't really gonna help. I'm grateful you've tried, but...Let's see if we can't do something about this.  Ointment was mentioned, and we found this in the factory, so let's take it out of storage.  That said, I'm going to save here. You'll see why shortly.  Let's give her Shell Ointment. Ooh! That's a fancy brand! This should protect you long enough! Mmm, it's a good bandaid, but an umbrella would've been better. The game gives us a choice here. Let's see what happens if we say no, first. We'll see if we find an umbrella. You'll have to wait, though. I'm gonna try! Patience is hard when you're melting.They're really hammering in on this umbrella thing. What happens if we say yes, though?  Sorry, it's not perfect but it'll do. Yeah... you're right! Sorry, the heat's got me a bit cranky. I'll try it out!The screen goes dark briefly. Ah, much better! Thank you so much! No probs! Now, to seal the deal... Here, this should cover the item and more! Thanks-! This quest is unique, in that it's the only one in the game that can be completed multiple ways to get different rewards (in fact, there are three options). The hints about looking for an umbrella weren't exactly subtle, but Shell Ointment will absolutely suffice to complete the quest, and she'll pay 30 berries for it. There's something else too, though.  If we go to the caravan, they now have a  Reflection medal in stock. This is what Eremi would give us on the best path for this quest, and since we chose not to do that, it gets sent to the caravan for us to buy instead. Reflection is the third type of medal that changes Do Nothing: for 3 MP, it becomes a kind of defend action, increasing defence by 1.While it's a bit costly (Eremi paid us 30 berries, but the medal is 45, so we take a net loss, and we also lost the Shell Ointment, which we can't replace right now though we'll be able to buy more eventually), this path technically gives us access to the Reflection medal earlier than if we were to do it the "correct" way.  It's nice to finally be able to look around town without feeling like I'm melting!When we go back to the area with the museum, Eremi is walking around outside now, and seems much happier. Even though this isn't considered the optimal solution to the quest, it's not exactly a bad one. It is perfectly reasonable to complete the quest in this way, especially if you want the Reflection medal early. That said, there's a reason I saved beforehand: I'll be reloading so none of this ever happened, and we'll return to this quest later to see the other solutions.  Let's go do a quest we can actually complete.  Ven here had a request for us.  We did. Beat some bandits, is that it? Yes. These blasted bandits... I will never forgive them... Please. I cannot go myself. I have my reasons. Besides, I am not equipped for it. You have my gratitude. I need you to defeat at least 20 of them. Any of them will do. Be it the dragonflies, the crickets, the ladybugs, whichever. Just beat them up so they stop attacking the citizens of Defiant Root! You got it! Just have our reward ready when we're back! As long as they stop attacking us... You shall receive your reward. Notify me once you've beaten 20 of them.This seems pretty straightforward. Just go beat up some bandits. That said, if we talk to Ven again without having enough kills, the game will clarify exactly what this means: Seems you still need to teach a few more bandits a lesson. Just beat 20 bandits, any of them, and I will reward you. It'll be good to check the Bestiary. It should hold how many we've defeated!Specifically, quests like this look at the kill counts recorded in our bestiary. This does mean that if you're overlevelled you can't use Bug Me Not to beat them in the overworld, you have to take that off and fight the enemies properly or the counters won't increment. Let's see how we're doing:    We have accumulated 9 kills total for bandits prior to this point. When I play this game normally, I don't go out of my way to complete this quest, it's more efficient just to let it complete naturally over the course of the chapter. But in the interest of streamlining things for the LP, I'm going to go grind it out offscreen now to get it out of the way. It's not hard to find bandit enemies throughout the Lost Sands area (or, if you're feeling cheeky, you can go repeat Chubee's play in Bugaria Theatre a handful of times; it may not make sense, but those kills count too).  Justice has, in fact, been delivered! If only I had more to give. Here's what I promised you. Once more, you have my gratitude. Now at least she can rest easy. No problem. Take care of yourself. It will be much easier now. Stay safe during your travels. That completes the quest. This is our second copy of Freeze Resistance, and more or less completes the set of resistance medals: we now have two copies each for Poison, Sleep, Numb, and Freeze. It's not bad to have.Ven also has a new line now: Thank you. For everything. I am sure she is grateful too.Who is this "she" he keeps talking about?  Remember Anna? The bug who's missing a leg, implied to be due to an injury inflicted by the bandits? Her dialogue changes now too. (According to the artbook, she's Ven's fiancée, which may explain why he was so furious.)   ...Thank you... Thank you very much!That's the real reward for this quest, in my eyes. This seems like a good place to wrap things up for today (though I hope this update wasn't too disappointing, with how much of it I spent talking about not accomplishing things.) Next time on Bug Fables, more significant sidequests! Explopyro fucked around with this message at 00:08 on Jul 11, 2021 |
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Jul 9, 2021 07:45
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Explopyro posted:There's also an area one: Well, I'm pretty sure the hologram outside of H.B.'s lab is there before the B.O.S.S. is operational, isn't it? Odds are they're placed around the residential area of the hive too, either to spread propoganda or provide directions. Probly what Vi is referring to.
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Jul 9, 2021 14:28
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So regarding the Umbrella thing... I'm gonna put this under spoilers just in case. I cleared the quest in that way, but it wasn't with Shell Ointment - I used Magic Ice from the next area, and it seemed to work identically to the way you showed here. However, later in the game I was able to acquire the umbrella in question, and if I talked to her I could still give it to her and I got another reward. I'm not sure if it was Reflection or not, but I figured it was worth pointing out. And agh the quest I really want to see is next update for sure it seems. I'm too antsy!
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Jul 9, 2021 15:59
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Beating up the thieves in the play works because it's effective 'thief poo poo get hit' propaganda. 
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Jul 9, 2021 16:35
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FYI, I've slightly edited the update, adding a line mentioning all the dead monsters around Madeleine, and one acknowledging that the artbook says Anna is Ven's fiancée, both of which I think add some context worth having. I've also fixed a handful of typos. Sorry about that.Tatters posted:Well, I'm pretty sure the hologram outside of H.B.'s lab is there before the B.O.S.S. is operational, isn't it? Odds are they're placed around the residential area of the hive too, either to spread propoganda or provide directions. Probly what Vi is referring to. Good point. Alxprit posted:So regarding the Umbrella thing... I'm gonna put this under spoilers just in case. The item you mentioned is what I'd meant by the third way to complete the quest (in addition to Shell Ointment and the umbrella). It's not very different from giving her the ointment, but she pays you less. You're not the first person I've seen mention giving her the umbrella later, but as far as I was aware the game wouldn't even let you get the umbrella if you had already completed the quest. I do know that once you get it you're locked out of the bad solutions, it won't let you give Eremi anything else if you have it. I will have to do some experimentation when we get there in the LP, I'm intrigued. Alxprit posted:And agh the quest I really want to see is next update for sure it seems. I'm too antsy! I could make a guess about which quest you mean, but then I could just as easily be wrong... that said, if you want to be more specific, it could influence the order I do things because I haven't actually quite decided yet. Leraika posted:Beating up the thieves in the play works because it's effective 'thief poo poo get hit' propaganda. Sure, let's go with that. It certainly makes a lot more sense than any other explanation I could come up with.
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Jul 9, 2021 22:40
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I want to see greens. Let's just leave it at that. I'm actually gonna boot up my game and see if my journal entry is different or something, regarding the umbrella sidequest. I wonder if that'll give any hints. E: No, the journal doesn't have a "what happened after we took the request" section unfortunately. I swear I'm not making it up though! Alxprit fucked around with this message at 05:39 on Jul 10, 2021 |
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Jul 10, 2021 05:36
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Oh hey, so related to a discussion we had in this thread a while back, Korone started playing FF9 the other day on her channel. I was curious what honorific Steiner used for Vivi since that was what was discussed, and I looked through the video for the scene on the Prima Vista where Zidane and Steiner talk about him. I can't read Japanese text so I can only go off what Korone was saying, and she seemed like she was reading the text boxes directly but I can't be 100% sure, but it sounds like Steiner uses "Vivi-tan." That could just be how Korone refers to him regardless of whose dialog she's reading, but that's what she said anyway. The text could have been different.
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Jul 11, 2021 03:24
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Twelve by Pies posted:Oh hey, so related to a discussion we had in this thread a while back, Korone started playing FF9 the other day on her channel. I was curious what honorific Steiner used for Vivi since that was what was discussed, and I looked through the video for the scene on the Prima Vista where Zidane and Steiner talk about him. I can't read Japanese text so I can only go off what Korone was saying, and she seemed like she was reading the text boxes directly but I can't be 100% sure, but it sounds like Steiner uses "Vivi-tan." That could just be how Korone refers to him regardless of whose dialog she's reading, but that's what she said anyway. The text could have been different. Steiner uses 殿 (dono), which is the older version of sama. In modern usage you only find it in form letters from old fashioned non-person entities, like the tax office. In period drama usage it only implies that Steiner is old fashioned, polite and plausibly uses that address for everybody and it says almost nothing about his relationship with vivi.
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Jul 11, 2021 14:27
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Thanks for that explanation!
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Jul 11, 2021 14:32
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29: Mother Mayhem First up, a brief mea culpa, I apparently had an error in my notes again. The thread expressed interest in the Luckier Day medal, so I went to Shades to try to buy it and it just wouldn't show up. I'm not sure if it appears partway through this chapter (and Shades therefore updates more often than once per chapter), or if I just had it down a chapter early again, but regardless I've apparently jumped the gun again. I'll show it as soon as I can. 26 - Golden Lands Today, we'll be following up on the Honey Factory lockdown and investigating the issue at the source. The Power Plant is located here at the edge of the Golden Settlement.  The guard now gives us permission to go in.  And the door's open now, so let's head inside.  The Power Plant has a similar aesthetic to the factory. Though, weirdly, there's no music in here, just a bit of ambient technological humming. The Power Plant is inside the Bee Kingdom's tree, correct? It feels like one more room in the Honey Factory. In a way, it kinda is!Team Snakemouth comment on this in the banter. Let's talk to some people and get our bearings.    They don't seem to have been able to accomplish much. The Power Plant's way cooler than the factory. How come I never got any shifts here!? Those Bees seem to be operating very complex machines. Do you know how to? I, uh, I'm sure I'd press the right buttons... Thankfully for everyone, exploring's your one true calling!There's a new banter for the workers here. Somehow I don't think Vi would have been any more satisfied with this once the novelty had worn off...  It's got something to do with all these switches... Think you can figure it out?It seems we have a puzzle on our hands if we want to go any further. There are four switches against the wall, and we have to do something with them to get the door open. That's all the game tells us, the rest is trial and error. Hitting any switch toggles both itself and any switches adjacent to it, and our goal is to turn on all four simultaneously. There are various ways to do this (you can more or less just feel your way through), but here's the quickest:   Hit the switch on the right...   Then hit this one to turn on the other three.   That opens up the door so we can proceed.  We can inspect this machine here. Vi, what is this machine? That's the Energy Converter! It, uh... converts all the energy! That's a very helpful description, Vi. It must use the power generated from the windmill to power the Factory's core! Uh... yep! That's what the Power Plant does! It's no wonder many Bees visit the Golden Settlement for the Festival. The wins here play a big part in creating delicious honey! Guess it's why the Bee Kingdom asked Elizant for control of this place. Elizant... Everyone won because she didn't cling to her territory. Bees won the most, cuz we get to make so much honey! In addition to some interesting tidbits of political history, this also gets us a Discovery.   Though the conversation had more to tell us than the discovery log does. Still, it's more progress toward the next prize threshold.  As per usual, checking it again has a new message, if not particularly enlightening. Let's check out the area further.  Maybe it is what caused the alarm? ...We should prepare before we go ahead.This conversation triggers as soon as we check behind the machine. This actually seems a bit weird now I think about it: Vi just got done telling us that she's never been here before, so why does she know this is wrong? I guess she could know the layout without ever having come here, but it's still a bit odd.  Leif's hint is a good excuse to move some medals around. In particular, Numb Resistance is a pretty good idea here (though blocking still mostly obviates the need for it, it's good to have it as a failsafe). I didn't think of it at the time, but Status Booster on Leif (for Icefall) would also have been a very good idea.  In we go.  What is this?  Is this what caused the lockdown? What's this feeling in the air...? 13 - It's Getting Scary!  It's overflowing with electricity! It's gonna pay for causing so much trouble! There's a new leaf animation here, we haven't seen this foliage yet.  Click me for video! 35 - Reckless for Glory! (Bonus Boss) Hello surprise boss fight! Meet the Midge Broodmother. Let's find out what we're dealing with...  Let's freeze up the small ones, see if it takes some pressure off us.Leif explains what the fight's going to be about. She has a lot of numbing attacks, and can summon smaller Midges. Also, 70 HP. Though with 0 defence, that's no worse than Heavy Drone B-33.  Let's get started. (If you watch the video, you'll probably notice I was a bit indecisive at first and spent a bit of time shuffling my formation around before settling on this. I thought about putting Kabbu in the rear and using Taunt with Back Support, but I didn't want to start off with that, and then never ended up deciding to. That strategy is good here if you want to go that route, though.)  Vi attacks first. Unlike some other bosses we've fought, one hit is enough to bring the Broodmother down for the others to hit.   Kabbu and Leif proceed to do so.  On her first turn, Broodmother uses this charge attack. 5 damage at base, targeting one bug. Conveniently, she went after Kabbu, taking 2 Spiky Bod damage from Super Block and also triggering Favorite One. I certainly won't complain about that!  Turn two. For now, we'll just keep attacking.    A bit more damage thanks to the charge-up boosts, but otherwise nothing special.  The boss uses the charge attack and targets Kabbu again. I'm fine with this.  Turn three. We'll continue in much the same manner.     This is her other main attack, launching a barrage of numbing projectiles. I'm not sure exactly what they're meant to be, maybe they're just electrical sparks? Regardless, this attack does 2-3 hits, each with a base damage of 3 and the ability to numb if not blocked; she targeted Kabbu with all three here, but that isn't guaranteed (unless he taunts), each shot is aimed at a random member of the party.  Kabbu's really been taking a beating, he's not looking too healthy here. Let's fix that.  Vi heals him with Secret Stash. I could've used an item for a larger heal here, but this seems like enough for now.   Then Kabbu and Leif get back to attacking.  Lots of things happen this turn! First off, she launches a delayed projectile, which will land two turns later. This doesn't cost her a turn, and she can randomly decide to do it before attacking. Presumably there's a cooldown on this: it behaves like other delayed attacks and will have at most one projectile active at a time, but I don't know the exact length of the cooldown.  Then she calls reinforcements. This also happens before she attacks and doesn't cost her a turn, and calls a single Midge. Once again, I suspect there is probably a cooldown, though I don't have more details than that.  After both of those actions, she attacks as normal. This time the projectiles are distributed more evenly.  The freshly-summoned Midge also gets to attack immediately.  This is a bit scarier. If you don't know how to deal with this, the Midges can become pretty problematic: they recognise the Broodmother as one of their own, and will counterattack every time we hit her. (Also, the numbers worked out interestingly here. There's a trigger when she gets below 50% HP, but it didn't happen yet because she started the turn at exactly 35. I absolutely did not plan it this way, but I'll take advantage of it.)  First things first, let's use Icefall. That's generally the best way to deal with them, since they can't counterattack if they're frozen. This is also why Status Booster is a pretty good idea here (Broodmother has 40% freeze resistance, and Midges have 25%), but even without it your odds are pretty good. I got pretty lucky and froze both of them.  This seems like a pretty good time for Tornado Toss, Vi has a couple of charges and we get a damage boost from the freeze. Because the small Midge is frozen, it doesn't get to counter.  Then Kabbu relays to Vi and she finishes off the small Midge.  At the start of her turn, Broodmother powers up and gains an extra action on each turn. This happens the first turn she begins below 50% HP, and lasts for the rest of the fight.   Then proceeds to use both turns to launch projectiles. That was starting to look a bit scary for Kabbu, but blocking sees him through it.  Here's where things stand at the start of the turn. You can see the permanent extra turn effect here. That said, this could be a lot scarier, we've already gotten her pretty low.   Kabbu heals himself with a Leaf Omelet. Honestly, this ended up being a bit of a waste and I could have finished the fight without it, but I thought it was better to play it safe.  Vi attacks normally.  And Leif uses Frigid Coffin, and gets the freeze (40 + 18 - 30 resistance, so it's a 72% chance of success), setting us up nicely to finish things the following turn.  The delayed projectile lands at the end of the turn, though she doesn't attack otherwise for being frozen.  Shouldn't be too difficult to wrap this up.    First things first, we get Vi in front and restore some TP. Conveniently, this Honeyed Leaf will also activate Weak Stomach for some extra damage.  Tornado Toss gets us most of the way there.  And Kabbu deals the final blow.  That wasn't too bad! For all that this fight uses the superboss music, it really isn't very tough if you know how to handle it (and it only gets easier if you come here later in the game, I definitely think it's intended to be fought around now). That said, if you let the Midges get out of control (and if you're bad at blocking), it can be a lot scarier:  Here's a screenshot from another fight where I let her get two at once (she won't summon more than that), for instance. If you hit Broodmother here, both Midges will counter, and attacking either Midge will have the other one counter also (though Broodmother herself doesn't react). You don't want this to happen (although, frankly, the Midges only have 7 HP each, so even this isn't insurmountable: just kill them). Make good use of Icefall.  That's her dealt with.  As soon as the Broodmother is dead, a few bee soldiers come in to check on us. It seems like this Midge was the issue. I see. We will get rid of the eggs before more Midges are born. Good work! Allow me to reward you for assisting the Bee Kingdom! We get paid.  Well, we have lots to do, so let's get started! And with that, we've completed the Factory Inspection quest! We're not quite done here just yet, though, there's a bit more exploration we can do still. (Incidentally, I don't think the Broodmother is meant to be a queen and imply Midges are eusocial, that would be odd whether they're flies or mosquitoes. As far as I can tell, she's just the fully grown version of the ones we've been fighting.) First off, there's new dialogue from the soldiers here:   Could they be from...?As well as a new banter: A hidden path inside the Power Plant's tree... Let's see where it leads to! (...What's with all these spears, anyway...?)That's a good question. The spears definitely look like the ones used by Wasp soldiers... that's probably worth investigating.  Let's see where this path leads! 25 - Caves We're in a cave? It's way too cramped in here. This cave could learn from Snakemouth. There's a buncha doors! Someone lives here? Hard to say. Let's see if we can open all of them with time.Seems pretty mysterious.   To start things off, there's a switch we can hit that opens the gate directly in front of us.  There are a few ways we could go here, but let's check this path blocked off by grass first.  Wait, the Ants are here?   I hope us being here isn't considered an act of war... I just hope we don't run into any monsters while here...Seems like we're in the Far Grasslands, which we previously learned was Wasp Kingdom territory. Though the ants are encroaching on it for some reason, possibly in preparation for the invasion they suspect is coming. (Who's invading whom, anyway?)  Diana is here.  Asking the usual questions. As usual, I'm not going to refuse this; shortcuts are always nice to have (even if this will use up our profits from the quest).  Oh, that's what I'm talking about! Those berries don't even taste good... We don't think her taste would be the only weird thing here... Oi, I'm doing you a favor, okay? Just sit and watch!  We're in your debt once again, Diana. Thank you. Well, I'm off! See you some other time, folks! We now have a new shortcut back to the Ant Mines. That will definitely come in handy later. Let's get back to looking around  The gate on this side is closed. We can see a switch on the other side, but there's no way to hit it from here, we'll have to come back to that later.  We can, however, take this exit to the south. 56 - Lands Untamed (Recommended listening!) This is a new area! The first time we come here, we get a discovery.    Yeah, we've stumbled into Wasp Kingdom territory. Which in a way explains what their spears were doing in the Power Plant, but, well, does that mean the Midge Broodmother interrupted an invasion?  Looking around, there seems to be a new enemy here.  04 - FIGHT! Guess we're fighting whether we like it or not! (While it's slightly differently coloured out here, it's now clear that the foliage we saw in the battle transition with the Broodmother is from this area.)  These are actually Chapter 5 enemies. We're here early. Also, this is peculiar: there's a second battle theme that usually kicks in in this area, but apparently coming here this early means we still hear the one we're used to. Anyway, let's see what we're dealing with.  That aside, this enemy's got quite the varied skillset. We'll have to watch out while we block.(If you spy on this with Vi or Kabbu, they'll react as though they think it's a wasp. Mantidflies are something quite different, though many of them are indeed wasp mimics.)  It does heal up, so we've gotta focus it down or it'll just get back up!And we have another Chomper variant. These have 2 defence!   Kabbu and Leif do the best they can against the Wild Chomper.  Wild Chompers can attack with vines from below. We've seen this kind of attack before in Chapter 2, but this is significantly more threatening (4 base damage). This attack can also do a second hit, for 2 base damage, but it didn't here. They also regenerate 1 HP after acting.  Mantidflies have a variety of attacks, including this claw swipe.  They also get two actions every turn, which means we get to see another of them. They can grab our bugs and try to lift them into the air, though we can escape before it finishes the move if we mash (A) fast enough.  Turn two.  I decided to have Vi use Needle Toss for some piercing damage on the Chomper. That said, I genuinely can't explain these numbers. Normally the second hit deals decreased damage if you hit the same target again, but it didn't here for some reason.  Kabbu relays to Vi so she can knock down the Mantidfly.  Leif attacks.  Here's another of the Mantidfly's attacks: a charging dash that deals 5 damage.  And on its second turn, it went for the grab again. I decided to let it finish the move to show what that looks like, and ouch! It suplexes Vi into the ground for 7 damage. You can block to reduce the damage as they're hitting the ground, but I didn't manage it here, and it was enough to KO her.   Hey, finally an excuse to show what it looks like when you use a Magic Seed. Incidentally, this also triggered Weak Stomach, which you can kind of see here.  It's easy enough to finish it off from there. Victory Buzz kicks in at the end of the battle, restoring 4 TP.  Fighting these guys early is worth a lot of EXP.  That said, right now there's not much else we can do in this area. The way east is blocked by boulders...  And the way south is blocked by this root. With our current abilities, we can't get past either obstacle. (Full disclosure, I had completely forgotten this was here, and had planned to cover the area to the south in this update... change of plans, I guess.)  There's nothing else we can do here, but there's a convenient shortcut back!  We come out in the Ant Mines under a sign with a symbol for the Far Grasslands.  This miner tells us a bit about how the construction process went. I did some poking around in the Hive and the Honey Factory to see if Queen Bianca or any of the factory personnel had something new to say now that we know what caused the lockdown, but I couldn't find anything. Artis should have a medal for us, though, so let's go check in with him.  Was it too challenging for ya? You deserve a reward. Here, take this! Come back later when you've bonked some extra hard heads with that Medal, will ya?Say hello to one of the most broken medals in the game (though we won't see its full potential until much later).  Miracle Matter is 3 MP, and will automatically revive the equipped bug with 2 HP, two turns after they're knocked out.It probably won't escape your notice that 2 HP is well within range to activate Last Attack; these medals go really well together. It becomes really abusable once you have access to powerful defencive strategies: there are a few different ways to set up a nearly impenetrable defence on someone, and if you pair that with someone else going fully glass cannon and equipping Miracle Matter... well, the results speak for themselves. I will definitely show this off later once it's possible, it's particularly good for B.O.S.S. rush mode and the Cave of Trials.  Since I wasn't able to cover anything else in the Far Grasslands the way I wanted to, let's get started on our next major sidequest instead. Let's hunt down some red paint so Vi can (hopefully) reconcile with Jaune; we don't want to leave that to fester too long, after all! Our best lead is that it's made in the Golden Settlement. 26 - Golden Lands Poking around town won't reveal much, until we talk to Dashy by the cochineal farms.   Much of the Bee Kingdom's clothing is dyed with their help. That's, uh, cool. Oh yeah. Is paint made that way too? Some colors, yes. Like this exquisite red paint I bought at the festival. Hard to get this time of the year. M-Miss! We have been searching far and wide for that paint! Have you? None of you seem like you know the way of the brush. It's, um, a gift! For Jaune! Ah, yes! She would certainly put this paint to good use. But I'm afraid I can't part with it. I had a special duty for it. It's not about the money! I'm decorating my chambers... I thought of drawing on its walls. If you won't sell, would you consider a trade? Hmm... There is one thing. I do love the Defiant Root's work and their patterns. If you could get me some of their fine building cloth, I would consider giving you the paint. Got it! Just, uh, please don't use the paint yet! We'll be back! Best of luck. It'd be a win-win for everyone, wouldn't it? Alright. Let's hunt it down when we can.That's progress, at least! We've found a source of the paint, now we just need to convince her to hand it over. If we talk to her again, she'll just repeat a few of her lines pointing us at cloth from Defiant Root. Let's follow up that lead.  37 - Defiant Root Looking around the town, this person wasn't here before! Before we talk to him, there's a banter: Must be rough being a Bumblebee in this heat... He's wearing a scarf, right? Doesn't seem like he minds. Now that's what I call heat tolerance...Let's have a chat.  Would you mind showing us? Sure! Beautiful, right? Indeed! This must be in line with what that fine bee wanted... It's really cool. Where did ya get it? Um, right here. But it was the last one... You wouldn't, uh, sell it or anything, right? We've been looking a long time for something like it. U-Um... If it's not for the money, we could trade for it as well? Wow, you're really serious about this, huh. Let me think... I went to the Ant Kingdom earlier, but I didn't get to pick up anything. I'd trade this cloth for a toy, or some souvenir like that? We can do that. Yeah! We live there and all! Really? Then this must be fate! I'll be here for a good while, so I'll hang on to the cloth. Looking forward to what you bring!That was fast. We've found what we need, but we're going to have to go hunt down something else to trade for it. This is turning into a huge chain of transactions. (Every game has to have one of these quests, right?) Incidentally, this bumblebee is named Genow. You might recognise this as the username of one of the developers (specifically, the lead writer); most of the devs have an ingame avatar somewhere, and this is his. For the purposes of this quest, he's just an ordinary NPC though. If we talk to him again, he just repeats his last two lines. Let's see what we can find for him in the Ant Kingdom. 17 - Ant Kingdom Remember Ann? (It's okay if you don't!) She's the one we have to talk to.  I'm sorry, Ann. I don't get to babysit you much anymore, do I? I can't imagine Kabbu babysitting! We can. Oh, we can. Look at this cool thing I bought! I saved up all my allowance! What an adorable souvenir! It carries the warmth of the Ant Kingdom.  Hm? ...! W-Wait, you two can't be- That's a pretty cool toy. You wouldn't, uh. Sell it back, right? What? No. It was the last one in the shop! W-What if we got you a cooler toy? Please excuse them. They, um, really need it. The only place that makes cooler toys is Metal Island. No way I could ever afford going there... It's like one bajillion berries. Still, if we get a toy from there, you'd consider it? Yeah! It'd be a super fair trade! Welp... Let's find out how to get there without going broke.Well then. We know what our next step is going to have to be: we have to get to Metal Island in order to complete the chain of deals. (If we talk to Ann again, she'll just repeat two of her lines to that effect.) We could just pay the fare, but it's 300 berries and that would require a fair bit of grinding. And why would we do that, when we were already given a clue that there's another way? We have that quest to find and defeat the Card Masters to qualify for the big Spy Cards tournament, and Carmina told us that competitors get a discount rate on travel to the island. Seems like it's time to play some cards. We'll start off next time with that.
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Jul 13, 2021 23:03
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I absolutely LOVE the Far Grasslands preview here. I was completely floored by it existing the first time I played. There's not much you can do there right now, of course, but it's worth remembering for later! Also that music... oh, it's absolutely one of my favorite tracks without a doubt. Kinda sold me on how much I really loved the game all on its own. So I get sentimental about weird stuff like this, I suppose. I've never seen these Miracle Matter strategies before, so I'll be looking forward to exactly what it consists of.
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Jul 14, 2021 04:11
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I'm always down for some Yu-Bee-Oh.
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Jul 14, 2021 04:39
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What happens if you offer Genow the plushie?
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Jul 14, 2021 04:49
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That babysitting line is some fantastic shade.
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Jul 14, 2021 06:26
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Yeah, I thought for sure we would exchanger our green ranger toy here, is there no special dialogue? Also, was there really no follow up with Leif? Wasn't he supposed to be scanned by that bee scientist? I really want to know what his deal is!
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Jul 14, 2021 08:29
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