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Welcome back! The last time, a few things happened. Ken and Sachiko (who still seems to not know much about the world in general!) are still chasing after Linda, who seems to be trying to figure out the mystery behind the weird suicides in Minago, which somehow also seems to involve the owner of the dog fighting arena in Dogy Figh and also the commander of the Ozport airport. Speaking of which, aide Kammer left on a shuttle, only for shuttle to suddenly explode after launch, killing everyone on board. Admittedly, the flight attendant there seemed to look a bit familiar. After this, we finally learned that Linda has been seen in Paraside, so that's where we'll be heading next!  Here we are. Let's see now, before we go inside to look for Linda...  ...let's have at that back wall, and see what graffiti it contains this time (since they are different from Scenario A). This first one (which you can see above) is a bit mysterious, but upon closer examination appears to just be a joke on the topic of what the Japanese vision test charts look like:  Check especially the numbers which are matching with what you would expect to see on a chart like this.  The next one is here... Noriko, I love you! Let's get married, my love! 🎔 -- Yutaka Another in joke from the game's development staff, I guess.  And the last one is here... Yes! I wrote this, so now I, too, get to be in the end credits roll! Yep, these are just the developers goofing around. This dude here is the one who tells you that donations for refugees are all good and nice, but he's in need too, so you might as well give he money to him instead. And we will. But not in this scenario just yet. Therefore, let's head back around...  ...and enter the "Junk Palace" right here.  Mostly people here are saying the same things as before, but this lady here has adjusted her comments... You might recall Gomez, the boss of the hunters for hire who operate here in Paraside. We'll meet up with him in a moment. Let's take that staircase to the right of us...  We get to the bar area, so let's start by talking to this gentlemant reading his newspaper at the table... We will meet up with these guys later today, but while we're here I guess I should explain the names. "Niko" comes from Japanese word "nikoniko" which means roughly "to do something with a smile" or something to that extent. On the other hand "Gera" is simply a Kansai dialect word for someone who smiles a lot. So I guess they all have names which have to do with smiling? If we talk to the waitress behind the bar there... Another one of this game's dungeons, of course, which we will visit in due time.  All right, let's go up this staircase and keep looking for Linda (let's try not to forget why we're here!).  Up here is the room where Gomez and his gang hang out... We'll leave Gomes for last (he's the one standing in the centre in front of the table), but let's see what other guys have to say. First the ones around the table... What are they even talking about...?  For now, there's a few more of them here in the corner...  Let's not forget about this last guy here by the sink... They keep talking about these pretend-games. I wonder what that's all about. But, let's talk to Gomez! But as we approach...  ...one of the hunters restrains Sachiko in the corner there...  ...while the others surround Ken! Uh-oh, this doesn't look good...  So this comes a bit out of nowhere, but mimicking animal calls is in fact... yet another game mechanic! You can use it to lure certain animals into battle (and some can only be caught this way--again another thing for our "later" list). Based on previous comments from these jerks, I guess we should be happy they're only making us bark! It seems that we'll have to, as humiliating as it seems... In the Japanese version Gomez calls Ken "Woof-chan".  But either way, Ken has to do as he's told, and in fact it's you as player who has to navigate him three times around the table, while pressing the circle button to bark! These guys are just bullies and nothing else. And then...   So now they throw a piece of meat down on the floor and Ken has to pick it up. But, every time he comes near...  ...one of the guys kicks it over to the other side! This repeats a couple of times, and then...  So they were never going to let Ken see Linda no matter what he did or didn't do... But no matter, because the moment we've all been waiting for has finally come!  A figure with very familiar looking hairstyle approaches and throws a piece of furniture at one of these jerks! It's cutscene time! I'll give you a few moments to stop laughing! All right, then. So, it's Linda and her new arm! Looks pretty cool... but also ridiculous... but also very cool! You better believe there's going to be some awesome concept art on this topic down in the gallery section! Anyway, here's what happens next. Linda approaches Gomez, who is now singing a different tune!    They all disperse, so Linda can finally talk to Ken! Also, as you can see, yes, indeed they did make a whole new sprite of Linda with her cape and the (very) large arm! (Well and also a whole separate set of portraits where her cape is visible, too.)  And then, someone who we have all forgotten about joins the conversation, reminding us that she's still hanging about!  And with that, Sachiko leaves. In case you've forgotten, she's talking about the Beastian elder who was hacking into Federation's computers in Scenario A. Before going, Ken can take his revenge on these bullies by punching them and making them bark while they say "please, more" and things to that extent. There's not really any interesting dialogue here, but we can talk to Gomez one last time for now.  It seems their "bit of fun" is to make people pretend to be various animals in humiliating ways. Can't say that I see the fun in that. But anyway, enough of that nonsense. Let's go talk to the elder; as you might remember he's in that small room upstairs.  Well, to be honest, I fell like Gomez and the gang enjoyed the whole thing a bit too much, so I'm not really sure about the "trick" thing, but I guess we are back with Linda for now so we have achieved the desired result. In any case, the elder goes away, and so Ken and Linda get ready for bed...  ...but this time they didn't make proper sprites to represent that, so they just look like they are standing on the bed. Before they fall asleep, Linda has something to say...  Well then. The next morning...  Ken and Linda are ready to continue this together, at least for now. Therefore, before that, let's check out Linda's stats.  This time, we get Linda back into our party at level 5. Unfortunately, it does not appear that her enhanced arm results in any kind of difference in her battle stats or abilities, so I guess we'll have to go and level her up a bit before we go hunting again! But, we have a few things to do before we do that. First of all, let's go downstairs into the main area.  The Elder is down here. But I will draw your attention to the guy with a backpack heading left... he is one of those homeless guys hanging about places like Paraside or Ozport. He was here, talking to the Elder, but departed promptly as soon as Ken and Linda appeared. So, let's talk to the Elder and find out what that was all about...  The red team/white team is a reference to the athletics events organised by Japanese schools, where children compete as red team vs. white team. This guy is just a fount of comedy, isn't he. We're going to head out slowly towards Ozport. I should mention that all the hunters have now reverted back to their normal situation where you are able to hire them to go hunting for animals (including Gomez, but anyway we can't afford him, so...).  On the way out, we can talk to this lady here... In the previous scenario, she also had a comment on this saying of Hume's, but of course it was different since in Scenario A, Hume and his wife were divorced. Of course we want to head to Ozport to speak to the "comedy troupe", but first, let's make a quick stop at Hardia to visit Ben and Ken's mum.  We find them both at Ken's house!  Well, ok, you eat your pie and we'll talk to Ken's mum in the meantime! That's everything we can do here, so let's go outside. As always we can take a break and sit on the swing with Linda here.  All right then, I know we're supposed to go to Ozport, but while we're in the East Area, why don't we first...   ...head down to Marblepolis and fight some worms to get Linda's level up a bit? Here I also take a chance to arrange Linda's equipment:  So I basically give her whatever is the strongest equipment that Ken is not using. So she ends up with entrail clothes, rhino cap and keeps her starting rabbit boots. As for weapon, I give her the hippo tomahawk a bit as a test as it is pretty strong, even though it only hits one enemy. During the leveling process, I ultimately decide that hitting multiple enemies is for now more important, so I do finally equip her with the spare swallow cutter I have. Probably I should go and craft another eagle sword, but for now we should be fine. After a few minutes of fighting worms, where Linda basically earns a level per battle, here's where we end up:  With this in mind, I feel like we're now strong enough to take on the chickens which also live in this cave:  And so we capture a few of those too, to add to our tally. With this done, let's now head finally to Ozport to meet the bounty hunters.  Let's head over to the park and see if somebody has heard something about these guys.  If we talk to the man here... The bounty hunter's name really doesn't inspire confidence at all. For the curious, his last name in Japanese original is: ポンコツ. The lady standing here also doesn't actually have anything plot related to say, but still it's something we haven't heard yet, so... A nice hint that you should use the "camp" option regularly as there might be additional dialogue to be had!  Let's head into the hotel and find these bounty hunters.  The people we're looking for are over there in the room!  All right, let's talk to Niko (or is it Gera?). And then, Gera (or perhaps this one is Niko?). Interesting... but not immediately useful, to be honest. Before we leave, let's talk a bit more with Smilly.  T-That's a lot... But we're done here for now, so let's head out. As we're heading out...  ...we run into Sachiko!  She stays there, while Ken and Linda proceed on their way out. As we are walking, Linda gets one of her bouts of insecurity...  Don't answer that, Ken. It's a trap. Also Ken's answers are not highlighted above because they don't make a difference. As we are about the leave town...  ...Sachiko comes into town and walks past us. She does not seem to notice and/or recognise us.  We try following her, but she's already disappeared somewhere. Oh well, maybe it wasn't her. Let's be on our way. Well, I don't know about you, but I think it's time for a little bit of hunting! Therefore, let's head down south again! As we're walking around, looking for different species...  ...we get another message notification. Well, that can wait a bit. And also as we go in and out of the Dogy Figh tunnel...  ...it becomes Autumn 1992. This Scenario B is surely talking a bit longer to finish than A. We were long done with A at this point in the timeline! And then, just as we're about to fight a new species, a second message notification arrives!  But this one, too, can wait. First I want to see what that animal is that's hiding behind the notification!  You probably have a good idea what this is, and you would be right...  ...nevertheless, nothing can prepare you for what they actually look like! Indeed, these are zebras, as I'm sure you've already guessed! As you can see, nothing special to be seen here. In addition, I know you are wondering how much more crazy they might have looked in the PC Engine version, but... turns out they looked mostly the same--this is one of the species which survived completely unchanged in the remake! After a bit more walking around...  ...we find another unfamiliar species.  This time it's a bunch of mantises! As you can see, there's also nothing particularly dangerous here, so we can easily capture a few. So, at this point, I get a very smart idea. I figure, well we have leveled up a bit, so why don't we try and see if we are able to deal with the roses at this point? In fact, I don't really care about the roses, but I do want to capture the grasshoppers they summon. But in order to do that, we need to be able to survive the rose! So with that in mind, we head back to Rose Garden...  ...and walk straight towards one of the big roses!  Let's see how this goes now! You might also notice that I removed the dogs from our party temporarily. This is because the grasshoppers are really weak, so the dogs, which cannot be controlled, are likely to accidentally kill them before they can be captured. Therefore, it's safer to do this without the dogs!  In any case, we start by transforming Ken into an eagle, which gives him a crazy +116 to his attack power!  This allows him to deal a whole 169 damage to the rose in one hit, which is way more than before! After a couple of turns, as expected...  ...the rose summons a bunch of grasshoppers! This is exactly what we wanted! Except now we have just a slight problem! The grasshoppers have tiny HP and Ken is way too strong now. So what I've done is unequip Linda's weapon and also I am going to use a weak ability (such as gale cutter) to reduce the damage she does as much as possible! In addition to that, Linda transforms into a leech, to reduce the damage even further. This seems quite a weird thing to do in a JRPG battle, but it's definitely necessary here and in the end we manage to capture a few grasshoppers! Another option, I suppose, could have been to take Linda directly here while still level 5. Probably that would have also worked. This is an interesting example of a situation where you really need to figure things out a bit how to capture a particular species. There will definitely be more of those in the future. For now, though, let's head back to the ark, to hand these in!   This time we're handing in: chickens, zebras, mantises and grasshoppers.  Afterwards, the robot informs us that we have so far gathered 36 species out of needed 50. So we're slowly getting there.  We're close to a telephone, so let's check out the first of those two messages we received. The message is from Dr. Emory. Well, leopards are definitely not an issue for us at this point, but let's go and visit Emory then. His home is located in a place called Laguna Lodge. So, let's head there.  And here is why it's called Laguna Lodge! Because it's literally on the lake coast!  Heading inside, we can see that it was indeed built in a traditional Japanese style. We'll skip the main building for the moment though...  ...because there is also this little side building here.  Inside is a locked door on the left and some paintings on the right. If we check out the painting... The is a painting in progress depicting a man. Somehow he looks a bit familiar. Unfortunately that's all we can get here, no painting close up image to be seen. So now let's head over to the main building.   Well, there's Dr. Emory. But first we can check out these storage cabinets here.  There is a red doll with a big head here. Curious. But let's just talk to Emory for now.  Apparently that's all he wanted to do! So we start to leave, but...  Wait, how did YOU hear about that? Been there, done that last time! However, what you don't see on these screenshots is that in that other room to the right...  ...we can find his daughter, Sachiko! First of all, I'll save us all the trouble and mention immediately, that yes, indeed, she is very definitely blocking the way to that chest there. Second, there are a couple of things to be looked at here. To start with, whatever that stuff is on the table on the right side. There is a malformed doll whose whole body is red, but it has no limbs at all. The other thing is those photographs on the wall next to the entrance. Pictures of Sachiko, from her childhood all the way up to now are attached on the wall. Ok, let's talk to her then.  And she remains as weird as ever! Also, she already told us this same thing previously. However, we're definitely done here for now. So the only thing remaining for the time being is to check that other message we received earlier. So let's head somewhere where there is a phone.  This time, the message is from that Elder from Paraside! Well, thanks for that, gramps. But... what now--it seems that everybody who was investigating this Puppet Master ended up killed? The only hope is that Smilly may have been able to make arrangements for us to receive the data upon his death somehow. But, we'll see about that next time!  So, obviously today we have a bunch of concept art related to Linda's new arm! And it's truly some of the best so far! Just check this out. And one last one, showing the look from PC Engine version:
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Jan 30, 2022 23:51
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Well, that arm is (Not giving her an attack boost for it is a missed opportunity, either that or maybe Hume was more of a bodybuilder than a powerlifter.)
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Jan 31, 2022 00:15
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The final pc engine art actually makes the arm look somewhat normal.
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Jan 31, 2022 00:23
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The Linda reveal did not disappoint. RIP Smilly.
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Jan 31, 2022 02:06
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linda can really rock a cape
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Jan 31, 2022 02:28
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ivantod posted:
a Daruma doll?
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Jan 31, 2022 02:40
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Booky posted:linda can really rock a cape It's all very 'Bandit Lord'. Like, it'd fit perfectly in a more Mad Max setup or so.
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Jan 31, 2022 17:28
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Booky posted:linda can really rock a cape 
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Jan 31, 2022 18:05
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So wait a drat minute. The devs go out of their way to give Linda a new sprite, a whole new set of portraits. They then don't give her new status screen art? That's clearly her original left arm! My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined. As an aside, they could not be throwing up more flags that Adolf Emory is the Puppet Master if they tried. Tallgeese fucked around with this message at 18:13 on Jan 31, 2022 |
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Jan 31, 2022 18:10
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i saw a post about this on tumblr and was immediately sucked in; i was absolutely convinced it was just like some sort of fake concept art and nothing i read helped allay that except this and even now it seems like something from a loving scp thank you for documenting this because holy poo poo what a game
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Feb 1, 2022 10:35
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And then Linda turned into Frog from Chrono Trigger
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Feb 1, 2022 11:19
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I guess it would be pretty funny if the Puppet Master turns out to be some rando and has nothing to do with Emory and Sachiko
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Feb 1, 2022 17:06
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Connie4800 posted:i saw a post about this on tumblr and was immediately sucked in; i was absolutely convinced it was just like some sort of fake concept art and nothing i read helped allay that except this and even now it seems like something from a loving scp I can totally see how the existence of this game would be a bit hard to believe, but I can assure you it's absolutely real!  To prove it, I even took pictures of my hand holding the game CD in its case, look: Perhaps surprisingly, the game comes on only a single CD, despite the FMV cutscenes and all that. But on a more serious note, one does wonder from time to time, what series of circumstances led to somebody high up not ending up putting a stop to this project. I guess Japan-only games back then were probably more permissive in what you could do/show than the western publishers. Like for example, to take a completely inoffensive situation, I am like 99.9% sure that the bit from this last update where it's made clear that Ken and Linda will share a single bed overnight (and the game even shows them in it, however awkwardly) would be a definite no-no for Sony USA/EU in the mid 1990s. Let's not even go into more weird stuff that is in this game. I'm thinking maybe it has a bit to do also with the clout that Shoji Masuda, the game's designer/director had in the early-mid 1990s. He was coming off of twin mega-successes of his Tengai Makyou games on PC Engine in 1989/1992. While these games are not well known in the west (due to a lack of any kind of release here), they were/are huge in Japan, and back in the day were pretty much the PC Engine equivalent of Final Fantasy/Dragon Quest as far as JRPGs go. They were actually even more advanced technically than those, since even the first Tengai Makyou in 1989 was already using the PC Engine Super CD platform and had animated cutscenes and voiced dialogue, which NES/SNES games could generally only dream about. So I'm thinking his reputation may have also helped get this released. (Don't tell anybody, but I MIGHT go for Tengai Makyou II as the my next LP, but we'll see.)
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Feb 1, 2022 18:00
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I think the surprising thing to me is that this game was rereleased on psx after an initial release on pcengine. I have no idea what the market looked like back then but that seems to imply it was popular enough to port over at least.
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Feb 1, 2022 18:12
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There was something of a rush to capitalise on the new hardware at the time: the step up in power from the 16-bit to 32-bit consoles was arguably the biggest step forward in gaming before or since - the PS2 looked better than the PS1, the Gamecube looked leagues better than the N64, and so on but neither of those really allowed devs to completely invent new styles or genres of gameplay literally never seen before. So, in order to get cash for increasing development costs and get new projects off the ground to begin with, there were a lot of games that received redesigns/revisions/upgrades on the PS1 and Saturn. It was really more of a Japanese phenomenon, however, since, in the West, Sony, at least, had policies in place to make sure that games trying to do that had English dubs where applicable, a certain percentage of new content, etc. Sega, I believe, were more lax about that sort of thing, and towards the end of the Saturn's lifespan (and basically all the Dreamcast's life), would consider releasing anything in the West, since they were desperate to get some kind of an edge over Sony. But since the Playstation may as well have been the only game in town, it didn't amount to much.
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Feb 1, 2022 18:38
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Just want to say thanks for posting the concept art, it's great. Gonna make Linda with the nail bat my phone background.
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Feb 1, 2022 18:58
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As a whole, publishers in Japan also seem to be more willing to take risks with what we would consider to be "oddball" games. Stuff like LSD and Linda^3 would probably never see the light of day over here outside of Steam (before consoles had digital stores at any rate)
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Feb 1, 2022 23:26
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Looks like it--and you can see a maneki neko next to it on the dresser. I suspect the red doll with the big head in the locker may be a kokeshi.ivantod posted:"Niko" comes from Japanese word "nikoniko" which means roughly "to do something with a smile" or something to that extent. On the other hand "Gera" is simply a Kansai dialect word for someone who smiles a lot. So I guess they all have names which have to do with smiling?
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Feb 2, 2022 21:21
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Linda's gross Dad arm is actually rad as hell and I love it.
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Feb 2, 2022 22:03
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Hirayuki posted:Looks like it--and you can see a maneki neko next to it on the dresser. I suspect the red doll with the big head in the locker may be a kokeshi. Hey thanks for this explanation, as you can see I'm not exactly an expert on different kinds of Japanese dolls, so I appreciate the extra details! And when we are on topic of Japanese "onomatopeic" words, I should note that Linda in particular likes to use them in her speech, but of course this is not easy to convey in translation so that nuance kind of gets lost. As a good example, she refers to the "current mess" of murders and shuttle explosions that they find themselves in as このゴタゴタ. Also, when talking about her desire to experience a love triangle she describes it as ボロボロのドロドロ which I turned into "messy ugliness", but in retrospect, maybe that's not exactly the 100% accurate translation for that expression. ivantod fucked around with this message at 22:34 on Feb 2, 2022 |
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Feb 2, 2022 22:27
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ivantod posted:And when we are on topic of Japanese "onomatopeic" words, I should note that Linda in particular likes to use them in her speech, but of course this is not easy to convey in translation so that nuance kind of gets lost. As a good example, she refers to the "current mess" of murders and shuttle explosions that they find themselves in as このゴタゴタ. Also, when talking about her desire to experience a love triangle she describes it as ボロボロのドロドロ which I turned into "messy ugliness", but in retrospect, maybe that's not exactly the 100% accurate translation for that expression.
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Feb 2, 2022 23:53
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Having this giant rad arm makes my kokoro doki doki.
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Feb 3, 2022 07:13
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Hirayuki posted:No, that's great! Your translations are fab as always. That's nice to hear, thank you! 
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Feb 3, 2022 21:46
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So, guess what I was lucky enough to pick up this weekend as part of a visit to a retro/import games store? I also got a shitload of other games, but Linda's been on my list for a while. And they had three copies. So let me assure you all, this game is not an elaborate hoax!
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Feb 8, 2022 16:36
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Oh poo poo! Breath of Fire IV! I remember that game! Oh, hey, Linda^3 is there too.
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Feb 8, 2022 18:22
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Welcome back! Last time, Ken finally managed to find Linda (and her new arm) over in Paraside after which they went and spoke to this bounty hunter "Smilly Clunker" who promised to provide them the information about the "Puppet Master" including in case something happens to him. Well, turns out something did and someone got rid of him and his crew! Ken and Linda also visited again Dr. Emory in his house at Laguna Lodge, but seemingly nothing useful was learned, other than the fact that Emory is somehow aware of the whole Puppet Master situation. Since the plot is clearly starting to set itself up for the grand finale, I figured we might focus a bit more on capturing in this episode, including some slightly more unusual captures. But don't worry, we'll progress the plot too, and even watch more than one cutscene. And finally, I have a bit of a rarity to show you today in the Extras section at the end so make sure not to miss that!  Ken and Linda are leaving Emory's Laguna Lodge residence...  As just as we've started looking for some new species to capture, Ken again gets a message notification! This one is definitely going to have to wait a bit!  But then I figure... since we're here, why not craft the eagle sword for Linda, too? It should help a little bit at least if we capture any harder enemies, right? (Sorry about the horrible weather in this screenshot, by the way!)  After capturing the required number of male eagles, I make camp and set Ken to weapon crafting activity.  As before, we need 10 eagles to make the sword...  ...and here is the result, a bit of an increase in attack power for Linda plus the ability to hit all enemies at once. I think this will serve us for the rest of our capture tasks just fine. Also, waking up from the camp...  ...we find out that it's now Winter 1992. But we still have 6.5 years left and only 14 species to capture, so we should be able to achieve that with ease. For today's capturing session, we'll visit some of the caves/dungeons where we haven't necessarily been before. As usual, for now we're mostly just capturing the animals that can be found more or less easily in the world. The more elaborate captures are for now on our "later" list, i.e. we mostly won't be doing them in this scenario, other than a couple of slightly unusual ones today. As we go about our capturing, we'll also come across a couple of other things which might pique our interest, but we won't explore them fully yet.  The darn eagles will chase you everywhere... it's a bit annoying now that we don't actually need them any more!  Anyway, first we'll take the Bird Line back to our home base in East Area, because there are a few caves there that we could go to in order to find some new animals. For this, we'll be using three things: the "shot" service from Bird Linde, which allows you to be dropped off anywhere on the map; and also two items: Escape Unit, which allows you to instantly exit any dungeon back to the planet's surface, and also the Rescue Beacon, which allows you to be picked up by Bird Line from anywhere on the map. This last one is important, as there are some areas on the map which are in between two mountain ranges and only accessible by going through a dungeon. Here, this service and items help to minimise backtracking!  The first place we'll be visiting is called Daicave ("dai" means "big" in Japanese) and its entrance is located in the general area of the square marked on the map. As you can see, this little area is surrounded by mountains and sea on all sides and it cannot be reached simply by walking on the overworld. The only real way to reach it is by going through Nebul Road, which has two entrances, one on each side of that mountain range that you see to the left of the square. So by using Bird Line services, you can save a lot of time if you need to go to Daicave.  Here it is. It's also possible to capture some unique species here outside the cave, but no animals spawn this time, so we'll come back for that.  Entering the cave, the first thing we see is again one of those weird teleporter looking things... but like almost all we've found so far, this one too seems inactive with no obvious way to activate it. So we continue on our way for now.  Yeah, this place is pretty big, and this is just one floor!  Here we run into our first species for today...  ...but it's just wolves, which we've already seen before. None the less, it does add +1 to our total towards 50!  As you walk around, you might notice what looks like some kind of red flowers on the ground. It's probably best to not approach them too close, because if you do...  ...you get thrown into a battle with a bunch of "red creepers" (creepers as in creeper plants, by the way). As you can see, like with roses, these flowers are not to be trifled with either! They are not as strong as roses, but still pretty strong. They are also not possible to capture, so they are basically just a distraction--there are a few enemies like this in the game--so basically just avoid them, really.  Soon we come across another species, one which we haven't seen before. It does look familiar, but there's something a bit off... I can't quite put my finger on it through.  Of course, it's just lions. I mean they have only two legs and also chicken feet, but let's not quibble over small details. Continuing on...  ...we get to the second floor of the dungeon. It has that large open area that I feel we should explore because it looks interesting. I wonder what's there?  Curiously, we pass by an empty tent... maybe if we come here at a different time, there will be somebody?  Eventually, we get to a point where we can actually see over the wall into that big empty area... the only thing visible is a blue flower. And well, I guess I will never learn not to touch the flowers in this game, so we're definitely heading there to check that out! The only question is how to get there, since the place has multiple stairways going up and down and this area seems to require a particular combination of staircases to reach it. Well, that's no problem, because that game guide book has clear maps of all areas in the game:  So with a little help from the guide, we can easily get to that part of the cave.  Ah, here we are. let's check out that flower.  So, uh... just a flower then? (Flowers are restorative items in this game, e.g. restoring HP, BP or such.) Still, this seems a bit weird. What's more...  ...there's actually quite a few blue flowers in this area! So I guess let's keep checking them out--in fact already by checking out this second one...  ...it turns out it's not actualy a flower, but a (male) peacock just masquerading as one! Well, that's good because we do need to capture it! Checking out other flowers...  ...we find also a female one for our collection. This is pretty neat, I actually like the design of these! So that's all there is to this open area, let's head out. Before using the escape unit, there are a couple of chests here. Mostly they just have consumables, except this one...  A beastman necklace? That sounds kind of important, I wonder what it's for? Let's have a look in our inventory...  If we do that, we find that the game classifies it as "rare/mysterious" item and indicates that its purpose and possible effects are unknown. Well that's no help at all. Anyway, let's get out of here and head to our next destination, a place called Karagoram.  It's located here, at the very south of East Area.   In this place sometimes you can find these bone remains of... something.  In this chest, we can find otter shoes. I equip them on Ken for a couple of extra defence points.  Ah, but here is what I was actually looking for.  Some pretty awesome looking lizards! We have to transform into something less powerful to be able to NOT overkill them though. As mentioned above, their ability to call reinforcements really is quite a nuisance as they always seem to do it when there is one or two left--so here the all-hitting weapon does help a bit, but when they move around to separate on the field, there always seems to be just one left somewhere who then calls up another bunch. Aargh, this IS actually annoying. Exploring this location...  ...you might find this fellow here. Ok, whatever you say! Let's go past him and see what he's guarding.  Oh, hey, it's some researchers again! Let's talk to this lady. Hm, that's quite curious, I wonder what species it was. But she's not going to tell us, is she? Maybe we can figure out a way to restore water here at some point?  Inside the tent, there is another person.  But other than that, there seems to be just some holes in the ground and some equipment around, neither of which we can do anything with for the time being. So let's head to our next destination...  ...which happens to be right here.   Walking around this place...  ...we find remains of... something. But it's hard to tell what it was when it was whole.  As we walk around, we notice these little rocks everywhere. Approach one, and...  ...check this out, you get thrown into a battle with some extremely cute looking hermit crabs! They have very low HP, so the usual strategy applies to reduce your attack power and use a weak ability. In any case, that's all we came here for, so we can go to our next destination for today, and the final cave we'll be stopping at on this particular tour. (Don't worry, there's even more cuteness coming up shortly!)  After exiting from here, Spring 1993 begins! For our next destination, we'll head down to the South Area first...  ...and then literally down to this corner here!   This place is called Samakia and there are several species which can be found here.  Shortly after entering, we run into a couple of dudes!  They made a little camp here for some reason! Let's talk to this guy first... Just a quick note: "Taro" and "Jiro" are not-uncommon Japanese male names which mean respectively "first son" and "second son". So he must have really loved those dogs! The other guy gives us a bit of a hint about what we can find in this dungeon! So this is a pretty explicit hint about the situation. We can capture ants in this cavern, but there is only one female around and if you kill it by accident, then you have to wait until the next season until another one appears. This at least is more or less the same as how it is with "our" ants, so not too surprising. Equipped with this knowledge, let's head in. Ants only appear in the deepest part of the cave, but there are other species to be found here before we get to that part! By the way the tents are empty (well, they belong to these two guys) and one of them just contains a chest with a random consumable item which clears status effects. So nothing special.  As we are going deeper into the cave, we run into two new species at once! First off...  ...some very cute looking anteaters! Well, it's only logical for them to be here since there are tons of ants in this same place too. As you can see, they do have some slightly problematic abilities, among them a reminder that this game does feature a kind of equipment durability, although this is usually not a factor except in cases like this. They didn't look quite as cute in the original PC Engine version, though:  After this, let's check out the other animals here, namely the blue thingy.  Turs out it's a bunch of some very cute looking sea urchins! Let's continue deeper!  All right, here we are at the deepest level of the cave where the ant nest is. Let's check out the map...  Oh, I see now what that guy meant about weaving our way through the tunnels here!  Male ants are easy enough to find here for sure as the tunnels really do swarm with them (and anyway they will chase you and attack you if you come near since they are defending their nest).  If you look carefully, you will spot the problem here immediately! Their HP is absolutely tiny and this is definitely a problem. First of all, we're probably a bit overleveled as we're coming here a bit late in the game, but to be honest I'm not sure that even at level 1 one hit from Ken or Linda wouldn't overkill them. Even trying some of the weaker abilities with no weapon equipped still results in too much damage. So then I really started looking at what I could possibly use to capture them safely... and ultimately come up with the idea to use Linda's "cobra twist" ability. Its main purpose is to hold an enemy restrained and to prevent them from acting... but it also does a super tiny bit of damage to the same enemy on every turn! This continuous damage is small enough that it finally allows for the safe capture of ants (and you only really need one anyway). With that done, we can proceed to explore the tunnels in hopes of finding the (one) queen.  Some passages here are definitely a bit tight! Ultimately, however...  ...we find what we were looking for!  Same problem (low HP) and same solution (cobra twist) are definitely effective here, too. One interesting thing to check out is this screenshot of an ant battle from the original PC Engine version:  First of all, just looking at their eyes makes me dizzy. But, second, and more interesting is that the PC Engine version did not feature this situation with only one female per season. As you can see on the screenshot, it features both male and female ants appearing together in a group, as normal. The remake version did in fact change the location of some animals and the conditions of their capture. So a guide for one version will not necessarily work 100% for the other! But with this, we'll exit the dungeon now and it's probably time to check out that message finally!  The message is from Emory this time. And now, zombies, too? Well, why not, it's not like we haven't already had pretty much everything else in this scenario. In fact, the game's creator, Shoji Masuda wrote about this and indicated that when writing Scenario B, his intention was to just keep throwing new plot twists at the player constantly to keep it entertaining! I will be posting parts of that article later on, when it stops being spoilery. In a related bit of news, it turns out that Masuda and a couple of other people from the development team were a bit active on BBSes/net in the 1990s and early 2000s, and well, I have somehow found a website which archives some of their old posts from that time where they literally answer people's questions about the game and why some things are the way they are in it. So I'm planning to go through it and post some of the more interesting ones here too. So please look forward to that! Anyway, moving on with the game, let's try and go to Hardia to see what Ben has to say about this new zombie infestation!  Coming to his office, we find he's not actually here for once! However, since it is now the year 1993 (which we haven't experienced before)...  ...we can check out the calendar here to see whose picture is on it in this year.  Looks like it's Linda's mum this time (which is actually a bit weird since she was just killed... but I guess this calendar is meant to be just a bit of silly fan service with no connection to the actual plot).  On our way out, we can check with Ben's secretary briefly... Hm... can't imagine why? But we already know about the Minago situation from Emory, so of course we're heading there next!  Entering Minago, we run into Ben here...  Well, it's not like we have a choice... so let's see what's going on here.  Hmm, yeah, that does look like a zombie infestation for sure! Our goal is of course to make it to Linda's house, but as we walk towards it...  ...we get attacked repeatedly by random zombies like this. They are not really super strong, so one way or another this can be handled. After a bit of this...  ...we reach the door of Linda's house. And, uh, I guess the commander really wasn't kidding, because...  ...we get attacked by the zombie versions of Hume and Ann! They are a fair bit stronger than the regular ones, but still nothing we can't handle without much difficulty. And with this, we are able to enter the house...  ...where we find Emory and Sachiko.    Well, Linda does seem to like kissing Ken at every possible opportunity, so this kind of warning is appropriate... if this were some kind of normal siuation. But, seriously, what the heck is going on? Did he manage to let a parasitic infections somehow spread out of the hospital, or what? Well, however it is, we have dealt with the zombies and can now leave. As we exit the town, Linda...  Also, Ben is waiting for us at the exit...  And so, we're now free again until the next plot moment. So let's use it to visit a couple of people who have something interesting to say. First, we'll head over to Hospico.  There, we find Sachiko in front of Emory's door, blocking our way... So we can't do anything here. Let's head to Ozport, though.   First, this person in the corner here. Next, we'll head inside the airport building...  Another message notification... we'll check that out a bit later, as usual.  But I really wanted to come here where the airport checkin is, becasue this person has an interesting comment to make! Indeed. She did look familiar, though. The person on the other desk also has a bit of a comment... Also to the surprise of no one. The shuttle explosion clearly happened because someone wanted to assassinate Kammer, I don't think there's too much doubt over that.  Also, I completely forgot to withdraw Ken's salary from the bank all this time! So I finally stop by a branch to do that!  As you can see, there was a whole 13,085 G waiting there for us! Ken's salary is normally 100x his level at the beginning of the season for which it is paid. Before we leave...  ...let's stop by the wedding shop.  Ah, good. Even in this scenario they still have that promotional ring for 2 G! Let's buy it for Linda!  All righty then, who's for a bit more hunting? (Just a little bit!)  If we make camp with Linda, we get another bit of dialogue... All righty then, let's pick up a couple more species. First we'll head down south again.  There is a hidden animal on this screenshot, can you see it? It's the slightly different looking patch of sand directly to the left of Ken. In the actual game it does move, so it's a bit easier to spot. In any case...  It's basically centipedes! They do have those annoying abilities which can damage your equipment, but don't pose much of a threat at all. While we're down here, we can also run into...  ...some Koalas which we're already familiar with.  While we're busy with all this, it becomes Summer 1993. Ok, now let's head back north, to that little inaccessible patch of land between the mountains.  This time, there are some animals here.  Here, you can find impalas! Nothing really special about them, so we'll head over to our next capture (and also the final one for today, whew!). For this we need to go to Ozport, because the last species for today is in fact found INSIDE THE TOWN!  You might recall at the beginning of this scenario, I mentioned you can go through this little passage here.  It gets you into this little secret area, as we've seen previously. But there's a secret within a secret! If you push the top barrel... ...it reveals a ladder! When we go down...  ...there's a whole other thing here! We can talk to that guy. So he's talking about catfish...  ...and in fact they're swimming in this muck around us. They also happen to be another species which can be captured, so you know what that means:  Mostly, you will find just males, like so. But one of them will typically turn out to be female:  Aaaaa! But yes, it is indeed one of the strongest enemies in the game. Therefore I employ the strategy of Ken transforming into an eagle and then using his "desperate attack" skill to pretty much double his attack power in summary, because I really don't want to risk anything here! Incidentally, some species of catfish can indeed produce electricity in real life too. Although nobody has yet harnessed that power to power the cities! Yes. We are now absolutely done with hunting for today. Let's go and hand stuff in and then we'll check out that message!  After handing stuff in...  ...checking in with the robot tells us that we are at 48 out of 50 that we need. We only need two more and we'll do that next time because it's definitely enough for today!  Checking the message, we find out it's from Ben. “Ms. Lily" you say? I don't think it could be more obvious who it's actually from. And he did promise to send us the data in case of his demise, so... let's go immediately to the Ranger HQ!  If you say "no", he reiterates the story about "Ms. Lily" since you can come here without listening to the message.  Let me just tell you, our bounty hunter friend would probably get his account easily hacked, because...  ...it's basically one step removed from it being simply "password". Anyway, let's see what it contains. Well, let's see. 1. List of members of the selection committee (top secret) 2. Photograph (date and place unknown) 3. List of the applicants for the female ark crew member (top secret) Ok, well, let's go in order, shall we. 1. List of members of the selection committee Name: George Kammer Notes: Administrative aide, Federation HQ. Name: Liberty Orman Notes: Former BW-2 commander at Federation HQ. Owner of Dogy Figh arena. Name: Bizar Bibio Notes: Commander, Neo-Kenya Airport. BW-1 Major at Federation HQ. Interesting... Then the next one, which is a photograph.  Maybe his wife, back when she was pregnant with their daughter? And then the third one, which is another text file. List of the applicants for the female ark crew member Name of applicant: Linda Banning Place of birth: Neo-Kenya, Hospico Father: Hume Banning Mother: Ann Banning Height: 170cm / Weight 52kg Measurements: 86/55/84 cm Blood type: B / General health: good Name of applicant: Sachiko Emory Place of birth: Camp No. 372, β-Goba system Father: Yatarou Emory Mother: Tsuruko Emory (deceased) Height: 158cm / Weight 43.5kg Measurements: 82/53/83 cm Blood type: B / General health: good Additional note: Central pulmonary artery, semilunar valve; pulmonary artery trunk, traces of surgery on the left side of the chest that may have been performed in infancy, but was successful and there was a full recovery. So does that mean that Emory is our Puppet Master?  Sure, chief. So let's leave and go home, then. When we get downstairs...  Guess we're not going straight home after all, huh? Ahh, not sure about that, Linda... Incidentally, she puts on her "helpless" voice here and it's hilarious. The vocal performances are so good that this game does lose just a tiny bit when you can't hear them. All characters with portraits are fully voiced, by the way. But I guess the decision is made, however foolish it may be, so...  ...to Emory's lab we go! There we are met by Emory and Sachiko by his side.  He literally picks up that bucket and throws it at her!    But she suddenly collapses in pain... Cutscene time!   He goes over to his pods.   So it seems he's turned Smilly and his two buddies into zombies, too!  And with that, he leaves through the side door.  Zombies start closing in on Ken and Linda... but just at that moment... ...another Sachiko suddenly enters the house!   And she gets rid of all three zombies!   She gets ready to leave through that side door, too. She leaves, too. The other Sachiko reverts to her human form.  A bunch of doctors run into the house and put an end to this whole gruesome spectacle! Some time later, Linda is (again) incapacitated in her hospital room!  Hospital director is also there, so we can talk to him quickly... We've heard that story in the previous scenario.  As Ken leaves, the other Sachiko is in the room with the newborns. She intercepts Ken.  A good spot to end this part, I think! Well, that was pretty crazy, I'm not going to lie, so let's all take a moment to catch our breath, yeah? Today first we have an illustration/storyboard depicting the scene we just saw, with Robo-Sachiko and Linda on the floor in pain. And then just another weird one of Linda!  So, I did promise you a bit of a rare extra today, and here it is. This is a brief Japanese TV advert for Linda3 Again from back in 1997 when it was released on PlayStation 1! Of course, due to the age of the video, it's presented in glorious 240p! Just kidding, that's the only kind of copy I was able to track down, so... enjoy! Yes, it is ridiculously spoilery, which is why I couldn't post it until now! Well, see you next time!
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Feb 10, 2022 00:49
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Well...huh. That explains pretty much all of the mysteries. Well, minus why original Sachiko was so obsessed with being the ark candidate. I completely bombed guessing the animal from the sprite this update. ivantod posted:And now, zombies, too? Well, why not, it's not like we haven't already had pretty much everything else in this scenario. In fact, the game's creator, Shoji Masuda wrote about this and indicated that when writing Scenario B, his intention was to just keep throwing new plot twists at the player constantly to keep it entertaining! I will be posting parts of that article later on, when it stops being spoilery. In a related bit of news, it turns out that Masuda and a couple of other people from the development team were a bit active on BBSes/net in the 1990s and early 2000s, and well, I have somehow found a website which archives some of their old posts from that time where they literally answer people's questions about the game and why some things are the way they are in it. So I'm planning to go through it and post some of the more interesting ones here too. So please look forward to that! I am looking forward to that! Hypocrisy fucked around with this message at 05:39 on Feb 10, 2022 |
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Feb 10, 2022 02:44
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honestly my #1 question is how the hell did playtesters and the like react to all the advertisement immediately turning into edgy pokemon turning into hell
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Feb 10, 2022 03:34
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The centipedes, especially the male one, are a mood.
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Feb 10, 2022 03:55
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... hookay, did I accidentally ingest hallucinogens before reading that? I mean, it all makes sense, but what the gently caress did I just read?
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Feb 10, 2022 04:09
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I love how unapologetically off the rails this scenario is.
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Feb 10, 2022 04:59
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Parasites that turn people in zombies? This is just like critically reviewed 200x Xbox360 title Dead Rising.
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Feb 10, 2022 06:16
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I'm not sure what the ad said but I'm not sure wtf is the right angle to sell your game with.
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Feb 10, 2022 06:20
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 Well, that all happened.
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Feb 10, 2022 07:23
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Podima posted:I love how unapologetically off the rails this scenario is. for real also, this got me to laugh, so nicely done: quote:Of course, it's just lions. I mean they have only two legs and also chicken feet, but let's not quibble over small details.
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Feb 10, 2022 08:19
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I for one am shocked that the Hitler Doctor turned out to be a shady guy.
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Feb 10, 2022 08:20
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It was neat to see the ad, thanks for digging it up
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Feb 10, 2022 11:18
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Linda Cube The Game: fairly light-hearted wackiness with some oddly disturbing scenes (anything involving Sachiko in this route, for example), And Mad Scientist Hitler for some reason, still not sure why that's a thing. Linda Cube The Advert: "You haven't even begun to comprehend the things we will make you afraid of. When Silent Hill has nightmares, we are what it dreams of. We will dwell in your mind and make it our own until you become just. Like. Us." So yeah, bit of a tonal shift when it comes to the advertising.
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Feb 10, 2022 14:59
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King of Bleh posted:I for one am shocked that the Hitler Doctor turned out to be a shady guy.
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Feb 10, 2022 16:12
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Linda always seems to get the short end of the stick in these scenarios. It would be nice to just have a scenario where she doesn't get anything horrific happen to her.
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Feb 10, 2022 16:39
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