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I never did the epilogue to this quest so it's nice to see it at last. Mecha Gear FISH is considered one of the better boss fights in the game over at the official discord server for CC and it's nice to finally see what I've been missing out on. Thanks Bruceski for showing off screenshots of the switch version too!
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Sep 8, 2021 00:20
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Bruceski posted:I wonder if it's a reference to Articuno, Zapados and Moltres. That's a classic for Nintendo (and, according to a Nintendo Power joke back in the day, suggested that there was a hidden legandary bird named Sqwaktro.) All these years, and only now do I learn this.
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Sep 8, 2021 11:55
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 (D'Kar) "He can get very, very dramatic sometimes." Our old friend D'kar sends us on one last mission to find a secret place and kill something there, so he can finally complete his pretence to talk to his children again. It's possible there might be a valuable lesson incoming on the subject of whether or not you need a pretence to talk to your children again. Notable Music: I'm out again, and the B-side is exhausted too, so my new fallback is gonna be covers. sillythewilly - Lea! (acoustic cover) - A lovely cover of an already lovely theme on piano, guitar, and briefly violin. Notable Lore:    
Fedule fucked around with this message at 18:13 on Sep 9, 2021 |
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Sep 9, 2021 14:38
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By the way, we're past the platform quest video now but I'd still be much obliged if anyone could submit the encyclopedia entries for the unique enemy and boss from the Xbox and Switch versions! These would serve to round out the Notable Lore. Preferably the sprite will be in video (I can crop and loop it myself, so don't feel the need to go to too much effort for my sake).
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Sep 9, 2021 14:50
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Here's the Switch ones. I don't think I have the capacity to capture video from it, so I can't get the animations for you, but they're not particularly elaborate and I don't think we're missing much not having them here.   
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Sep 9, 2021 15:24
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gently caress Baton Pond
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Sep 9, 2021 15:40
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I really enjoyed Baton Pond, it took me a while to figure out but it is overall pretty fair. As far as I remember you can run around the entire screen without bothering with the timer and figure out all the jumps. Then you do the timer until you can execute it after you figure out the path.
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Sep 9, 2021 16:03
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All that just for some CP. Kinda disappointing, not gonna lie.
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Sep 9, 2021 18:00
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Hwurmp posted:gently caress Baton Pond Frozenzen posted:I really enjoyed Baton Pond, it took me a while to figure out but it is overall pretty fair. It's a hell of a place. But seriously, it's like I said, it can be figured out. The least fair thing in it is the one very long jump to an offscreen pole, and even that can kind of be reasoned out based on either scoping the area out or just feeling out what's even worth doing from up there. It's designed to take a few tries, but there's a flow to it that's very satisfying, I find. DimiPZC posted:All that just for some CP. Kinda disappointing, not gonna lie. There's kind of a running joke that the main thread of CrossWorlds' lore, the one dealing with the Ancients and their gods just... isn't very interesting, and CrossCode approaches it from the requisite multiple layers of irony. The content as written just isn't very good, but what the not very good content actually says is the well trodden Ancient spiel about every step forming the path of your growth, the journey not the destination, etc etc. And from out here, looking at CrossCode, this kind of bends around and becomes true again, because the point of all this was to set up all these nifty hidden dungeons and boss fights and have you beat them, which is what you're here for. The content is the unravelling environment puzzle, and the lore dump is the sandwich in the chest you wondered how to get to. Explopyro posted:Here's the Switch ones. I don't think I have the capacity to capture video from it, so I can't get the animations for you, but they're not particularly elaborate and I don't think we're missing much not having them here. That'll serve. I'll add these to the list. (You'll note I decided to swap out today's Notable Lore for the actual enemies we fought in today's video, which frankly I should've put there to begin with. I'll put the Platform Quest stuff in the next gap, which should be soon.) (Also I've scoped out a bunch of stuff to fill out the upcoming gaps in the music schedule... although when we really hit the endgame there'll be some more from the OST)
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Sep 9, 2021 18:23
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Fedule posted:By the way, we're past the platform quest video now but I'd still be much obliged if anyone could submit the encyclopedia entries for the unique enemy and boss from the Xbox and Switch versions! These would serve to round out the Notable Lore. Preferably the sprite will be in video (I can crop and loop it myself, so don't feel the need to go to too much effort for my sake). https://twitter.com/Bruceski1/status/1436023004312465410 Edit: ah, beaten. Well there's video if you want to get loops.
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Sep 9, 2021 18:46
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There were totally bunnies on that mural!
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Sep 9, 2021 20:20
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Tenebrais posted:There were totally bunnies on that mural! That's highly obfuscated!
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Sep 10, 2021 03:35
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Those are obviously crabs! 
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Sep 10, 2021 06:30
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Baton Pond and that one Autumn's Fall map with the Sapphire Ridge enemies drove me crazy. I couldn't figure out where the last few chests in those areas were and it turns out the maps were hidden!  As for the reward to the questline... While it was somewhat disappointing that there wasn't much in the way of content within the observatory, the reward being CP made me really happy because by that point in the game it takes a lot to level up and everything costs 2/3 so it's a bigger help than, say, some crafting materials or whatever would be.
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Sep 10, 2021 19:26
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I realised I never said anything about the D'Kar/observatory questline and there are some things worth talking about, so... sorry I'm late? I don't know if it's intentional, but I find the resolution of it disappointing (and also think it doesn't make a whole lot of sense), and I have some suspicions that this is partially the fault of the early access release model. I obviously haven't played earlier versions, but I've seen some things on the wiki suggesting that the Observatory had a different purpose in some early versions (some kind of battle gauntlet thing, I think? which they seem to have cut for not being particularly interesting), and wasn't connected to D'Kar at all. Meanwhile the setup for D'Kar is legitimately interesting (here's a player doing something peculiar and playing a mixture of all five classes, somehow? and he's sending us on missions to do... something?), but none of it is paid off at all in the family drama resolution and just gets left as a dangling thread. The family drama thing doesn't quite work for me either, he's supposed to be working hard to unlock this thing in the game as an excuse to reconcile them, but he does that by standing around asking other players to do it for him? It really feels like the writers had something else in mind for him at first, and either decided it wasn't working or changed their mind, then shoehorned the observatory thing in to give it some form of resolution (since, thanks to early access, they couldn't revise the earlier stuff). It leaves me wondering whether all these secret areas and bosses would have felt more satisfying if, instead of being quests given by D'Kar, were just there, and "doing all of them unlocks the observatory" was actually a secret we got to discover ourselves? Because they'd have felt perfectly natural just being there fitting into what the game is already doing. I don't know. I don't really get what they were going for, and I think it feels a bit unfinished?
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Sep 10, 2021 19:28
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For Baton Pond the trick I found was to feel the whole thing out, open up the jump back, then hit the end ones first. The time just running back to the start afterwards is less than the time lining up a bunch of pole jumps.
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Sep 10, 2021 22:05
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(Mr. Vestorovich) "The future of Evotars may very well depend on this call." Unfortunately, we cannot talk with Albert right now because he is meeting his old friend in Rhombus Square. Hey Lea! Good day for video games, right! Too bad Albert's not here because he's meeting his old friend in Rhombus Square. Wow, what's up with Albert? By any chance is he meeting his old friend in Rhombus Square? If you've got a good memory, you might actually remember learning - while Lea was reconciling with the First Scholars - that Albert's friend is named Ivan and is a stakeholder in Instatainment. That's the guy who Albert is meeting in Rhombus Square. Notable Music: Boss Rush - Plays during Boss Cups in the Arena. Good track, but you took some damage so on balance it's garbage. Sorry. Notable Lore:    
Fedule fucked around with this message at 17:35 on Sep 13, 2021 |
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Sep 13, 2021 17:19
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For those keeping track at home, this is the second time in a row I posted an update containing the PS platform quest enemies as the lore and then changed my mind. I'll get to them! But it might actually be in the DLC posts.
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Sep 13, 2021 17:36
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I kind of hate to ask but are Icewalkers not allowed for that Bergen cave trial?
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Sep 13, 2021 17:48
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Hwurmp posted:I kind of hate to ask but are Icewalkers not allowed for that Bergen cave trial? You can wear them but they won't do anything, because all your passive modifiers are disabled when in the Bergen caves.
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Sep 13, 2021 17:53
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Sergey must be a fast talker if he can record an entire recorded message in the spans we've seen.
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Sep 13, 2021 19:17
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DimiPZC posted:Sergey must be a fast talker if he can record an entire recorded message in the spans we've seen. I don't know. I think it about checks out. There haven't been a lot of times where he's done it at all, and the ones that weren't plausibly recorded at some point in advance were all sufficiently snappy that it's not really too far to imagine he could've done it on the fly while other stuff was happening. Like, off the top of my head, a whole bunch of combat had to be done against Gastropolis before he chimed in to tell us about the hax, and he probably started recording the warning about raids the second the word was said (and then sent it as a message because Lea was on the verge of agreeing to it and it would've been hella weird to have dropped out after that).
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Sep 14, 2021 22:38
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I didn't know the instant message section was timed. It's a bit weird because the clock in the background ceases ticking, so they included a clock to subliminally tell the player to not take too long in remembering the color of bananas or eggplants or whatever, but to keep the clock frozen during that period kinda implies otherwise so I'm not sure that actually worked out. Game... Design?
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Sep 14, 2021 23:31
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GimmickMan posted:I didn't know the instant message section was timed. It's a bit weird because the clock in the background ceases ticking, so they included a clock to subliminally tell the player to not take too long in remembering the color of bananas or eggplants or whatever, but to keep the clock frozen during that period kinda implies otherwise so I'm not sure that actually worked out. Game... Design? On investigation, I can't find any evidence of the game ever doing anything with this. I did go looking for dialogue, and there isn't any other than "wow! you got it right immediately!" or "wrooooong". So I don't know what the point of the big show with the pendulum was! They never do the slow transition back into real time at any other point, which makes one think there's a reason for that, but maybe it really was just for effect. Probably should have looked into that earlier. As for the clock itself, it still serves a purpose in driving home the point - to anyone who somehow still hasn't noticed - that time appears to stop while we're getting these messages. Fedule fucked around with this message at 00:42 on Sep 15, 2021 |
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Sep 15, 2021 00:36
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Someone probably already pointed this out, but: [soon. -fedule] Turns out there's a cheeky way to speed up the trial of patience. Somebody fucked around with this message at 21:46 on Sep 15, 2021 |
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Sep 15, 2021 21:19
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DimiPZC posted:Someone probably already pointed this out, but: You can just shoot the thing when it's being a jerk? 
Somebody fucked around with this message at 21:47 on Sep 15, 2021 |
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Sep 15, 2021 21:24
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Omobono posted:You can just shoot the thing when it's being a jerk? Only when the samurai bug has snooze bubbles coming out of it. I mean, it has no way of knowing you cheated if it's asleep!
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Sep 15, 2021 21:29
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This is so going in the NG+ reel. E: But, uh, I'm gonna remove that video because it shows, like, the rest of the endgame too. Fedule fucked around with this message at 21:45 on Sep 15, 2021 |
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Sep 15, 2021 21:43
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(First Scholars) "Yet all of this... suddenly became very real, didn't it?" We can't put it off any longer; it's time to let our friends in on the big secret. And the plan. Notable Music: Piano RPG - Valse d'Ahoge (Piano) - A piano interpretation that really works. It's delightful. Love the flourishes. Notable Lore:    
Fedule fucked around with this message at 16:09 on Sep 16, 2021 |
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Sep 16, 2021 16:06
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Make that the third time. 
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Sep 16, 2021 16:07
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No, this time I'm sticking with it!
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Sep 16, 2021 16:10
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For all that this game doesn't really have a lot of plot going on, the approach to the Wasteland does sell it very well. Back when I first got here, I was thrown originally by the whole sequence with Sidwell and finding out he and Lea actually had a close relationship. The game doesn't outright point it out, but it's showing you that Sidwell really does consider the evotars - or at least Lea - to be people. He's just torturing them anyway.
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Sep 16, 2021 20:19
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So hey guys bet you didn't think this fun little .hack/SAO-inspired game would have you bust into an AI concentration camp as its endgame dungeon huh?
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Sep 16, 2021 20:22
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You can't do this to me fedule I can't wait until monday I'm gonna explooo-
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Sep 16, 2021 21:36
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Seraphic Neoman posted:So hey guys bet you didn't think this fun little .hack/SAO-inspired game would have you bust into an AI concentration camp as its endgame dungeon huh? It's more of a CIA black site.
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Sep 16, 2021 22:04
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The game just did something with the story that I think works better than I first expected. We're at the point in the story of a "big revelation." The hero rallies their companions, exposes a truth, and together they assault whatever evil is there. At first, I felt a bit weird that everyone readily accepts what's going on with Lea. Sure, who knows how long the conversation was, and there was surely plenty of time for Sergey and Albert to answer questions, but this kind of bombshell would probably throw off a lot of people in real life. Yet here they are, agreeing with everything, going along with the plan, rallying to Lea's aid, no real complaints, no disbelief. On one hand the total agreement from everyone involved feels like a standard story concession to wrap up the game's plot. On the other hand, the fact that the story takes place inside the MMO CrossWorlds makes that concession oddly... work. I could easily imagine that, no matter how much the other players think they believe Lea and Sergey, they could still feel like this is all a kind of special CrossWorlds plot (and want to roleplay through it), or the very fact that they're in a game makes them detached enough from the real world to be as bold as they are. It's weird that that works.
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Sep 17, 2021 12:41
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Also, this is a guild of lore nerds being given an opportunity to see cut content. They're gonna be all over that like flies over jam.
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Sep 17, 2021 14:16
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Whybird posted:Also, this is a guild of lore nerds being given an opportunity to see cut content. They're gonna be all over that like flies over jam. Honestly it's more than that, they're effectively helping create new content if this is true. Seeing cut content to get to that point is just icing on the cake.
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Sep 17, 2021 16:42
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Joern has two things he likes: Shopping and taking things slow. Partying with Apollo makes it impossible to take CrossWorlds slow, and now Lea has gotten in the way of his shopping, so this is probably the most frustrated he's felt in the entire game. Not that you'd know, because he demonstrates exemplary chill.
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Sep 17, 2021 22:14
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| # ? Jun 2, 2024 09:47 |
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Tenebrais posted:For all that this game doesn't really have a lot of plot going on, the approach to the Wasteland does sell it very well. This factors in as kind of a neat positive in my opinion of how Sidwell is handled (for how little he's ever really exposited about; we are at Literally The Endgame and we've basically only just learned about him, though we also met him once when we didn't know who he was). It's not exactly a deep nuance or anything but they went out of their way to establish that he's not cartoonishly evil, he has empathy and understanding and can care for people, but does awful things despite these qualities. Bad people can be good people when it suits them, and their goodness is genuine, which is part of the reason we can have blind spots for people we've come to think of as good. Anaxite posted:The game just did something with the story that I think works better than I first expected. I don't think there either is or is intended to be any interpretation of the First Scholars' cooperation as anything other than genuine and wholehearted. It's true that not all of them are completely invested in Lea but there is unarguably a dynamic at play that has everyone on board. Emilie is the lynchpin of the whole thing, she's the one who's seen us through the whole game, who's spent the most time bonding with us, who's had a big emotional blowup and a bigger emotional reconciliation, who's probably just suddenly remembered that time she idly said that she wishes she could just live in CrossWorlds. Obviously, Emilie is ride or die at this point. Some bizarro mirror version of this is true of Apollo; he has also been a presence in our existence for the whole duration of the game, and through his slightly unhinged dedication to seeing the Honour Of Spheromancers upheld has bonded with us, and forged some respect for us (whether or not we were victorious in the duels). He's also got his whole zeal about justice going on; Apollo is here to Hall Monitor the poo poo out of Sidwell. Joern is in because Apollo is in (also, Joern is the more straightforwardly sensitive of those two and has previously seen us out of a dark spot, which is not nothing). We never really learn much about Lukas and Emilie's relationship but it's not difficult to imagine that Lukas is in because Emilie is in, and possibly Sergey might have mentioned seeing Lukas' home and workplace recreated in Vermillion Wasteland, which might have been compelling. Beowulf and Hlin follow. Hlin is in because at minimum three of her precious Whybird posted:Also, this is a guild of lore nerds being given an opportunity to see cut content. They're gonna be all over that like flies over jam. Yes. Ignatius M. Meen posted:Honestly it's more than that, they're effectively helping create new content if this is true. Seeing cut content to get to that point is just icing on the cake. Not only is there the lore of CrossWorlds, there's also presumably the rich player lore endemic to MMOs, that time when, the drama over the nerf, the player protest, and whatever else. Think of the posts that would come of this! GimmickMan posted:Joern has two things he likes: Shopping and taking things slow. Partying with Apollo makes it impossible to take CrossWorlds slow, and now Lea has gotten in the way of his shopping, so this is probably the most frustrated he's felt in the entire game. Not that you'd know, because he demonstrates exemplary chill. Pretty much every scrap of dialogue Joern has (and make no mistake, scraps are all he has) is about either shopping or just hanging around looking at stuff. Even in the Trial of Patience his contribution is just running down his shopping list. Dude knows what he's about.
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Sep 18, 2021 02:41
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