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I know sod all about this game, but I always favour, both in LPs and my own games, the path that shows off the most content. If that be balance, then balance be it.
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# ? Jun 14, 2024 23:49 |
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Torrannor posted:Liberty and Utility. I'm curious what a combination of those two will look like. Hopefully something like the law route
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Update 4: Side Story 1 and More Okay, by my count, it looks like Balance has just barely squeaked ahead of Morality/Liberty. I’ll take that into account from now on. Thankfully, this update doesn’t have any decisions to make. ![]() Instead of immediately following our protagonists, we’ll be popping over to Whiteholm Castle for our first side story. ![]() ![]() We come in on a bridge just outside of the castle, where a group of people are grumbling about Roland. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() From the other end of the bridge, another man approaches. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The camera moves further back on the bridge as a group of Aesfrostis walk up. ![]() ![]() Following behind them are some Hyzantians. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The delegations meet at the end of the bridge. ![]() ![]() The visitors file in behind Frani and leave as the scene fades out. ![]() But we’re not done quite yet. Instead, we pop over to the castle gardens. ![]() Where Roland is trying to sneak back in without being noticed. ![]() And doing so poorly, it seems. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() At that, Hughette’s entire sprite shakes. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() And the scene fades out as Roland shrugs. ![]() Next, we’ll head back to Castle Wolffort, ![]() Where we’re greeted in the great hall. ![]() ![]() ![]() Speaking of. ![]() ![]() Benedict shakes his head as the man rushes down the stairs. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Everyone but Benedict and Anna laugh. ![]() ![]() ![]() And with that, our band grows even further. Serenoa, Frederica, and Geela then head off while the other three stay behind. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() After that, we rejoin Serenoa and Frederica. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Frederica shudders at the thought. ![]() ![]() ![]() There’s a heartbeat sound and Lord Symon collapses. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() There’s a knocking at the door and a servant enters. ![]() ![]() ![]() The scene fades out as Lord Symon laughs. ![]() And we have reached the end of the first chapter. OOrochi fucked around with this message at 21:46 on Oct 28, 2022 |
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Dad just gave us a short and sharp lesson in realpolitik.![]() Of course since this is a fighting game one would assume that this new alliance will be tested, though none of the characters we met so far seems like a villain. I hope we get to see some quality writing in this JRPG for a change.
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By popular demand posted:Of course since this is a fighting game one would assume that this new alliance will be tested, though none of the characters we met so far seems like a villain. among the party members, or are you including the NPCs as well? ![]() ![]()
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Now you're prejudging people for their unfortunate facial tics! I'd appreciate the game a lot more if those two turn out to be innocent
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Look, he's grinning like that because he just had a great idea for how to decorate the cake he's going to bake for his niece's 6th birthday party. I don't know why you would assume otherwise.
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I do appreciate that Serenoa and Frederica are both shown to be reasonably intelligent and politically savvy, even if it's a fairly obvious situation they're using to showcase it.
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A rictus grin is a known symptom of tetanus, I hope they get checked.![]()
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So there's a particular territory that has a monopoly on salt, eh? That's quite a gold mine in a medieval context. I imagine that quite a few folks are angling to take control of that.
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Oh yeah, the game equating the worth of salt to the material that shields and arms are made of is quite a realistic take.I And of course both of those resources are not moving the economy nearly as much without river transport.
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By popular demand posted:Oh yeah, the game equating the worth of salt to the material that shields and arms are made of is quite a realistic take.I Well yeah, that's our intro setup. Everyone has a vitally required resource the other two countries need so there's this generally peaceful diplomacy happening between the three. And also the quiet undercurrent of exactly what happens when someone finds a way to acquire one of those resources without relying on one of the other two.
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You seem to be having trouble identifying commas from periods from context. There's also this typo: OOrochi posted:
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Delphisage posted:You seem to be having trouble identifying commas from periods from context. Ah yeah, the OCR tool I'm using isn't 100% perfect, and I definitely haven't caught all of its missteps, especially with periods vs commas. Thank you for pointing the misspelling, I'll correct that as well.
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It's a refreshing change that the teenage protagonist becomes a ruler not through the death of their parents, but because of his father abdicating/retiring. Unless the party turns out deadly, which is always possible in these kind of games.
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I do wish for a Red Wedding in my plot driven RPGs once in a while, but I don't get that feeling from any JRPG.
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By popular demand posted:I do wish for a Red Wedding in my plot driven RPGs once in a while, but I don't get that feeling from any JRPG. After the wedding in Lufia 2, the bride and groom go out and slaughter invading monsters. Does that count?
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Unless the monsters in question have a well developed back story, family, hopes and dreams then no. Thems the rules: only lives with personhood count.
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![]() NullBlack fucked around with this message at 17:43 on Oct 29, 2022 |
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By popular demand posted:I do wish for a Red Wedding in my plot driven RPGs once in a while, but I don't get that feeling from any JRPG. Does the ethnic cleansing false flag in Tactics Ogre count?
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NullBlack posted:among the party members, or are you including the NPCs as well?
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Update 5: To Arms, Brave Warriors![]() Welcome back! To start off the new chapter, we’re treated to another bit of narration. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() With that, the narration ends and the new chapter begins. ![]() As we zoom into Castle Wolffort, chits from both Aesfrost and Hyzante arrive. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Serenoa seems distressed. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Symon looks around for a moment before being confused. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() And the scene fades out as Benedict starts talking with Minister Lyla. ![]() ![]() We next follow Serenoa out to the castle town and begin our first exploration phase. These will happen periodically, and in them we’ll be able to walk around an area, talk with NPCs, find items, and do a number of other things. ![]() Right now, most of the non-named NPCs will say something like this, along the lines of being excited for the ceremony, Serenoa’s upcoming wedding, or just how peaceful things have been since the Saltiron War. ![]() Unsurprisingly, the named NPCs and party members often have a bit more interesting things to say. ![]() That said, besides Benedict, this time most people are still just excited for the events. ![]() Just beyond Benedict is our first item. I won’t go and show where all of them are, but you can generally find them by looking for sparkles on the map. Looking around this area, we’ll find 3 HP Recovery Pellets and just under 500 coins. ![]() We can also go inside the homes. Inside them we’ll find another HP Recovery pellet, and one home in the northwest of the area has a different colored sparkle than the others. ![]() The blue sparkles signify notes. Notes give background information on the world, but don’t have any tangible effects on gameplay. ![]() The final thing of note in this exploration phase are these green marks above some characters. These signify more conviction choices. They’re not all relevant to the story, but still provide a good chance to give Serenoa a bit more characterization. Here we’ll start with Frederica’s. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() And then we’ll move on to a slightly less important one. ![]() ![]() Child: Barrels! I would’ve never thought of that, milord! Hehe, they’ll never find me now! ![]() Child: ...You're right, milord. I'll find a hidin' place no one's ever thought of before! ![]() After that bit of levity, we’ll go find the person we’re actually meant to talk to, Lord Dragan. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() After speaking with Dragan, we’re free to head back to the castle. One nice touch is that, as far as I can remember while writing this, there is no instance where an exploration phase is forcibly ended. You’re allowed as much time as you want to search around and dig through every nook and cranny if you want to. However, we are done now, and so will head back. ![]() ![]() Serenoa and Frederica are deep in conversation with Lyla when Dragan comes over. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() At that, the upbeat music instantly cuts out, and a new, more sinister song starts playing. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Before Serenoa can say more, Lord Symon steps in. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() The scene fades out and head back to the world map. There is more to do at Castle Wolffort, but we’ll start next time with another side story over at Whiteholm Castle first.
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The banquet starts with some tension between the sovereign powers but with hope on everyone's mind. The two lords we conversed with seem well aware both that politics is merely war by other means but also that a war averted is a war won. Young Serenoa of course still has a lot to learn about diplomacy and the oratory arts.
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I've had the game less than a year, but I remember being so excited by the first Exploration Phase. It's so rare to be able to wander around like that in a strategy RPG and is my big issue with the genre as a whole
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Are there any significant missables in the Exploration Phases?
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Delphisage posted:Are there any significant missables in the Exploration Phases? The conviction choices and the notes are the big things, but there's also some other opportunities later that can't necessarily be returned to. Generally speaking, you should treat each Exploration phase as non-returnable, so it's a good idea to comb every inch before windmill-slamming the advance button. Thankfully they're usually not super huge. I do really love how the HD2D artstyle gets to play here. Going in the homes especially gives it a fun little diorama feel, which ties in very nicely to the overworld looking more like a military map.
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There's a few important things that you might want to look ahead for and keep in the back of your mind, but for the most part it's consumables
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Rabbi Raccoon posted:I've had the game less than a year, but I remember being so excited by the first Exploration Phase. It's so rare to be able to wander around like that in a strategy RPG and is my big issue with the genre as a whole It's also a neat way to let the player familiarize themself with a map's terrain and other quirks in a low stakes context, before thrusting them into combat. Not every battle map gives you an opportunity to explore it beforehand, but the exceptions are few and far between.
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Is 'salt' in the context some kind of stand-in for something else, like bananas for opium in FFL2, and/or is there some double meaning here that I am missing? A lot seems to be being made of something fairly mundane. I know that salt was hugely important as a preservative in medieval~ish times, but it still seems to be overplayed so far. Is it some kind of oblique analogy to saltpeter/gunpowder?Torrannor posted:It's a refreshing change that the teenage protagonist becomes a ruler not through the death of their parents, but because of his father abdicating/retiring. Unless the party turns out deadly, which is always possible in these kind of games. I would like it if the father stuck around and was an advisor and emotional support to the protagonist, but we both know that that won't happen.
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They just talked about a completely new explosive powder that will be used for mining, salt is just salt.
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Salt being a preservative means food can move further from the source and still be good. In the days before refrigerator trucks this translates to being able to feed a bigger territory and weild the economic power that brings and it also enables bigger armies that can travel farther afield before needing to secure a new supply source. It's no superweapon, but it was pretty darn important back in the day.
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Delphisage posted:Are there any significant missables in the Exploration Phases? People have mostly covered it. It's mostly consumables, background lore, and every once in a while an accessory. The only real unmentioned bit is that occasionally there will be a shop with a separate set of items than the normal ones. They won't have any fully unique items, but they can have cheaper accessories or extra copies of upgrade materials that would otherwise be a bit harder to find. JustJeff88 posted:Is 'salt' in the context some kind of stand-in for something else, like bananas for opium in FFL2, and/or is there some double meaning here that I am missing? A lot seems to be being made of something fairly mundane. I know that salt was hugely important as a preservative in medieval~ish times, but it still seems to be overplayed so far. Is it some kind of oblique analogy to saltpeter/gunpowder? Nope, just salt. In addition to its use as a preservative, agricultural diets generally don't have enough salt in them by default, so it was a necessary supplement for lots of people to survive before the modern era. There's a big reason why half of the wikipedia page on salt is about its impact on human civilization.
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Also read about Gandhi's Salt March, salt was still used as a political tool until quite recently.
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Hyzante also controls the only known source of salt on the continent. The other nations can't survive without it, as it's needed to live.
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MonsterEnvy posted:Hyzante also controls the only known source of salt on the continent. The other nations can't survive without it, as it's needed to live. That's true in the strictest sense, but a meat rich diet provides enough salt that you don't need to supplement it. Problem being of course that medieval-like agricultural diets didn't include a lot of meat at all, unless you were rich. Which is why it was so valuable. JustJeff88 posted:I would like it if the father stuck around and was an advisor and emotional support to the protagonist, but we both know that that won't happen. Daddy is going to die in like the next few chapters, isn't he? ![]()
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Torrannor posted:That's true in the strictest sense, but a meat rich diet provides enough salt that you don't need to supplement it. I was thinking about the wrong thing. I was thinking about colonial US diets/maritime diets that were short on greens/vitamin C and prone to scurvy and also diets weak in iodine that caused goiters. quote:Daddy is going to die in like the next few chapters, isn't he? For the sake of narrative melodrama, he probably won't survive this sente
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The question is, will it be an assassination, an attack of some sort where he goes down fighting, or just his health issues coming to a head?
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IthilionTheBrave posted:The question is, will it be an assassination, an attack of some sort where he goes down fighting, or just his health issues coming to a head? I'm seeing assassination likely from my memory of FF Tactics. His illness is probably poison a la how Dycedarg killed the Beoulve family patriarch.
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Delphisage posted:I'm seeing assassination likely from my memory of FF Tactics. His illness is probably poison a la how Dycedarg killed the Beoulve family patriarch. Huh, either i couldn't make that out through FFT's translation, or I forgot it.
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# ? Jun 14, 2024 23:49 |
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I vote for 'dies from mysterious nameless coughing disease', probably right after a major setback that the protagonist must overcome without his beloved mentor.
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