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You can get him to change his wares through dialogue, he has about four different evolving shop selections.
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May 7, 2024 04:55
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Demons are creepy, who would've guess.
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May 7, 2024 05:42
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The Skeletal Salesman was in Kingmaker too, he’s a fun traveling merchant character. Ask what he’s selling and you can change his inventory for next time. Unfortunately, since he’s a random encounter, you don’t ever know when you’re going to meet him again. The good news- he never sells anything especially useful in my opinion. Others might prove me wrong. Far as the demons kidnapping Irabeth and a lot of other people, that’s terrible no matter what the victims’ gender or sexual orientation. Let’s go save them! And yeah, I didn’t see sexual subtext in the event at first either, but I suppose it could be there now that I think about it. Makes our mission even more urgent. Ack!
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May 7, 2024 06:55
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Cythereal posted:
I thought spending feats on XP gain was generally considered a waste in RPGs, since 10% more XP doesn't translate to 10% more levels. I suppose the part where it eventually gives you another feat means it comes out closer to even, but it still feels like you're giving up immediate power for a not-very-significant gain.
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May 7, 2024 10:35
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Nostalgamus posted:I thought spending feats on XP gain was generally considered a waste in RPGs, since 10% more XP doesn't translate to 10% more levels. I suppose the part where it eventually gives you another feat means it comes out closer to even, but it still feels like you're giving up immediate power for a not-very-significant gain. Especially because infirmary size feats are so valuable since it takes literally nothing to wipe out a stack of Archers.
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May 7, 2024 11:49
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ProfessorCirno posted:One fun note is that both Wendy and Lann, with Wendy doing it way more, comment before this on how the Crusaders don't look up nearly as much as they do, they being used to monsters hiding on the tops of caves to murder from above. It adds to the running theme of the Crusade constantly proclaiming "I've been doing this awhile now, I think I know what I'm doing!" just before loving it all up. And I feel it's poor writing that this still plays out the same after we've already seen a force of crusaders (and hellknights) get massacred by precisely this tactic. It could even be as simple as "We WERE on guard for the sky, but then Nurah set half the camp on fire and they attacked while we were dealing with that." quote:I can forgive the bit with Nurah under the idea that nobody is making calm, collected, understanding decisions right now. The camp is in a panic and people are hyper-focusing on one thing at a time. You and I are sitting easy in a comfortable room behind a monitor's glow, while our NPCs don't have the benefits of knowing the "pause button" exists. To me, the very urgency of the situation makes it that much more important to take a deep breath and consider the situation carefully instead of acting rashly. There have been military commanders throughout history famed for their coldness of command, their ability to measure, deliberate, and think before they act no matter how desperate and panicky the situation seems to be - Raymond Spruance, my favorite military figure from World War Two, being a stellar example. He was the guy giving orders at Midway, to name his first fleet command, and Japanese naval officers after the war told the Americans that Spruance was a uniquely frustrating adversary because the guy just did not panic, take bait, or be intimidated by deception. The word they liked to use for him was 'orthodox' in the sense that he was predictable. No matter the situation, whatever you didn't want him to do, that's what he would do. The railroad that Wrath often puts the player on, especially when something feels (to me, at least) like an obvious trap, is a penchant of its writing that I do not care for. Not simply that you're forced to walk into a trap, but that there can't even be a fig leaf of "Okay folks, we know this is a probably a trap, but rescuing our people is that important so we're going in anyway. Take a deep breath, steady yourselves, and keep your eyes open." This goes double when we're dealing with an almost certain traitor in the midst. Everything Nurah has told the crusade at this point should be questioned. I am, in general, of the opinion that whenever a villain expresses a clearly stated desire for you to do something, you should strongly consider not doing it. I presume that this is why Owlcat resorted to the gross and gratuitous bullshit that they have, to give an in-character reason to walk into this trap regardless. Cythereal fucked around with this message at 13:46 on May 7, 2024 |
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May 7, 2024 12:42
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I don’t like the writing issues Cythreal mentions either, especially after having dealt with them on multiple playthroughs. Ugh.
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May 7, 2024 13:15
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To be fair to Owlcat (on exactly one issue) here, the villain just flat-out announces that it's a trap. He tells you to go exactly where the trap is and then tells you what the trap is and what will happen to you there as a result. (Come to my evil lair so I can taunt you with all the people I killed and turn you into a ghoul.) There isn't really meant to be any mystery about whether it's a trap or not. It would have been a good idea for them to acknowledge that in your response to it, but between the various people that were kidnapped that you want back and the fact that the leader has some kind of divine powers that you need to deal with, you're going to have to go to Trap Mountain regardless, and you're going to want to go there quickly before everyone is turned. So they at least did some amount of spadework to justify you falling into that particular trap. I have no patience for the Nurah stuff, though. Even if you didn't flat-out execute her or drop her in prison as a result of the Vescavor Incident, you better believe she'd be out of the inner circle after that, restricted and monitored at all times and all information she provides subject to the deepest suspicion. But the game just cheerfully railroads you down the Dumb Path with her regardless.
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May 7, 2024 15:11
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Just a pity that Yua will be unable to take the option that makes this shithead demon piss himself in fear when she does confront him. 
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May 7, 2024 15:35
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Cythereal posted:Partial credit to those who suggested Galfrey as the primary damsel in distress - if Yua had used the dialogue options to get Galfrey to stick around, she would have been taken along with Irabeth. Anything interesting from that path?
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May 7, 2024 15:58
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Ah, I see we're at Operation Wife Rescue now. That part of the game gave me anxiety because Irabeth must be protected at all costs.
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May 7, 2024 16:00
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Gun Jam posted:Anything interesting from that path? Not really beyond that it's tied to Galfrey's romance. Paladins are immune to being forcefully raised as undead, so Galfrey threw herself into a gargoyle's clutches to spare a regular knight without her paladin's immunity. Whatever else you want to say about her, Galfrey really is brave and self-sacrificing in a lot of ways when the chips are down.
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May 7, 2024 16:01
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Cythereal posted:Paladins are immune to being forcefully raised as undead This can happen in the Lich path to Galfrey specifically. It's super evil tho.
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May 7, 2024 16:04
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I know. I wasn't talking about special cases and whatnot, just the story as presented in the moment in question.
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May 7, 2024 16:11
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Hmm, they could have advanced the Nurah story by having Anevia sus her out and drag the info out of Nurah. No one has to act dumb, Anevia does her job despite her personal loss, and they can even position it as Nurah spilling enough that the party might think "they won't expect us to get their plans this quick, so we might have an advantage if we move fast".
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May 7, 2024 16:54
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The crusader's consistent terrible opsec (despite having their own counterintelligence agent in Anevia) will always be fun to witness.
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May 7, 2024 17:09
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Cythereal posted:As it is, the big thing that bugs me about this quest, and Daeran in general, is how immaturely everyone acts. Completely leaving aside that 90% of Mendev is portrayed as the fun police, Daeran acts like your garden variety teenage shithead who acts out in the most wildly transgressive ways he can think of to offend people and get a rise out of them.
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May 7, 2024 18:15
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That's essentially what my reading of him has been. He's a shithead because that protects good people around him from the Other and tries not to hurt good people. Look at his reactions to Ember, for instance. Anyone attracted to this behavior is a horrid person that would not be missed in general, so he feels ok getting his sole entertainment playing the dickhead to them. His good ending is actually Good, too
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May 7, 2024 18:50
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Wrath is getting a new (and apparently final) DLC next month. Fingers crossed it won't mess up anything for the LP. Whether I purchase it or not will depend on what turns out to actually be in it and whether I think it will add anything to the game that I will enjoy enough to justify the price. Cythereal fucked around with this message at 13:00 on May 8, 2024 |
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May 8, 2024 11:50
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Well ahead of the estimated delivery date, Endless Ocean 3 arrived from Amazon. In the event there's a marked delay in updates, all y'all now know the probable reason.
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May 8, 2024 22:03
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The Butcher's Block Trip report on Endless Ocean: Luminous is that my first impressions are very positive and I'm enjoying the game, but I also would not give the game a general recommendation. The Endless Ocean games are niche titles that probably won't appeal to most people, I knew what I was buying and have been enjoying it, but I would not recommend it unless you're familiar with games of its ilk, like the previous Endless Ocean games.    "There. That's where they took them. Looks like the monsters are having a feast." (Anevia shudders.) "We've got some survivors — they escaped somehow, but they'll never make it away from those gargoyles. That reminds me, look who I met here. She was just standing there blinking, as if she knew someone would come for her." "What? Ah, yes. It must be admitted that gargoyle-borne flight is ineffective and uncomfortable. By the way, did you know that gargoyles can be tickled by scratching their heels?" (Nenio plucks a thorny burr from her hair.) "I'll wait here. Send me the ones you can save from those monsters. I'll care for the wounded and get them to safety." [Good] "How are you holding up?" "All right. Better than the people in there." "I'm heading in. Be on your guard."If you memory for details is fuzzy, we've heard a decent amount about this place before: this was once a fortified temple to Iomedae where the Crusade fell back to after the fall of Drezen, only to be overwhelmed here as well. The Crusade's wizard lord, Zacharius, stayed behind to buy the survivors time to flee. More recently, the Hellknights under Regill identified this place as a vital strategic location and an ideal strongpoint if it could be taken from the demons.   "Won't you be at risk here?" "Don't worry about me. I've been learning how to hide from monsters since I was five years old. If I don't wanna be seen, I won't be." "Iomedae watch over you!" "Desna go with you?"I will be elliding a few bits from this whole sequence because, well, I'm pretty squeamish and Wrath does not pull punches about just how vile demons are and the horrific things they do to people in their clutches. I can enjoy gore when it's treated more like ultra-violent slapstick comedy (see the Deadpool movies and the Mortal Kombat games, though even there Mortal Kombat 11 was officially Too Much for me and I quit the series there), but gore and body horror are extremely not my thing and I have a particularly severe phobia of seeing people get eaten. Which when we're dealing with demons and ghouls, that's not a great thing, and this all contributes to why I so strongly dislike this part of the main story.  Most of this map is a circle as you work your way up a trail ascending the mountain, fighting squads of gargoyles and ghouls as you go.   "And here's our blessed little beggar. I was just beginning to think I'd never set eyes on that grubby little face ever again — but it seems that fate truly does watch over the mad." "I don't know what fate is... But my grandma watches over me. And my crow!" "Yes, of course. Fate, grandmother, and crow." "No! You won't die! Look!" (Healing radiance glows in her fingertips.) "I still have spells. You don't have to die here!" (Moving with effort, the soldier pushes her hand away.) "No! I'm finished. They bit me. The pestilence is in the wound, I can feel it. Soon I'll be... like them. Run away. Before it's too late." "I think the old fellow is right. You or I could heal an ordinary wound, but we stand little chance against a ghoul bite. Come along, Ember — the longer we stand around out in the open like this, the more likely we are to end up back in the gargoyles' clutches." (Daeran looks disheveled and slightly disoriented, and his shoulders tremble with excess tension.) "No, please! Don't give up! I'll carry you! You can't die! Your granddaughter is waiting for you at home!" (The crow on Ember's shoulder croaks sadly, as if confirming her words.) "Granddaughter... Yes. You remind me of her. Boisterous little thing... But you can't lift me. No, I can't be helped. Death comes for us all, little girl. I have made my peace with it, and you should too."If you have Wenduag in the party along with Cammy, they have an argument at this point where Wenduag warns Cammy that you dismiss Ember at your peril - the girl is more, and more powerful, than she seems, mad or no.   "Are you alive, warrior? Can you walk? Get to the foot of the hill. Anevia will heal you." "I told you! You don't have to die. Not here, not today! And what should I do? I can help you fight these monsters, but perhaps I'll be of more help down there, with Anevia?" "I have the same question." (Daeran winces.) "You know, I must have heard at least a thousand stories about the horrors of the war with the demons and the nightmares of the Worldwound. I was raised on them and surrounded by them. I even lived through some of them myself... but none of it prepared me for what happened here. I can't imagine how much wine it's going to take to banish from my memory the moment when I found myself alone and surrounded by monsters. And that's why... I very much want to go with you and see the monsters quake in fear. It's only fair." [Accept only Ember into your party] "Ember, I need you. Daeran, Anevia will need your healing skills at the camp." "Sure!"This is the gimmick of this map: as you ascend the mountain you bump into party members (not mercenaries, though, Katarina is firmly MIA this update) you can put in the active party or send back as you wish.  Since Yua allied with the Hellknights, they're interspersed with the crusaders.  "Ready, are we? Speak for yourself! Gods, why did I ever go on this crusade? I could have stayed home, picked mushrooms, milked my goat..." "Retreat to the foot of the hill and fortify the position! Anevia is waiting for you!" "Affirmative!"Interesting detail, I've been told that in the launch version of the game there were indications that Yaker might have been intended to be a playable companion at one point in Wrath's development, even if he doesn't have a portrait. He's lawful neutral, rather than lawful evil, and would certainly fit certain mythic paths - some mythic paths do have bonus companions available and Yaker would make sense for Aeon or a certain late game path. One reason I was uncomfortable with my Aeon campaign was how goddamn happy Regill was.   "Did you know her?" "No. Not her. We were brought here together. I admit, even I was caught off guard when gargoyles grabbed me and dragged me off. The recruits must have been terrified. She did well, though. As soon as the monsters were about to land, she twisted out of their claws and helped us all escape! (Sosiel takes a heavy metal shield from the dead woman's hands, and considers its intricate decoration.) "This shield... I prayed my eyes deceived me in the darkness, but now there's no doubt. Yua, this is my brother's shield. It was kept as a relic in our church for centuries. We used to gaze upon it as children, imagining the adventures of its previous owners. When Trever went to the crusade, he took this shield with him. (Biting his lip, he looks at the dead woman's blood-spattered face.) "Who are you? Where did you get it from? In the name of Shelyn, why didn't we get to talk while you were still alive?" "Maybe her squad mates or her commander will be able to tell us something." "Yes... Yes! They must know something! When we're finished with this cursed chapel, please ask the Hellknight commander about this woman. It's unlikely he'll talk freely with me. But for now... Whoever you were — thank you". (He gently closes the eyes of the dead woman and takes hold of the shield by its leather straps.) "To arms!" [Accept Sosiel into your party] "Come with me." "Let's go. We'll clear this place of filth."This is Sosiel's primary sidequest, finding out what happened to his older brother who joined the Crusade years ago and went missing. I would have been able to nominally start this quest earlier had Yua pried into Sosiel's backstory, but the next step will have to wait for now. The shield has been added to the party inventory, it's a +1 heavy shield, worse than what Seelah already has and no one else is using a shield.  [Perception check succeeded!] (After noticing you, the woman doesn't stop screaming but nods her head subtly at the bodies next to her. It's an ambush!) (Prepare to attack the ghouls that are pretending to be corpses)Yua's ended up far and away the best in the party at Perception checks. Handy for the PC!  Idiots let Seelah and her horse walk right up to one of them and coup de grace it.   "Commander!" (As he sees you, Regill throws his fist in the air. Despite some claw wounds, he's chipper and full of fighting spirit.) "Ready to report on the situation. We organized an escape. There are no fewer than three dozen gargoyles and ghouls in the fortress. We lacked sufficient forces for a confrontation, so we withdrew." "Gargoyles and ghouls... Why do you think they stick together? Could it be because their names sound similar? Maybe if a ghoul bites a gargoyle, it turns into a garghoul?" "What an amazing hypothesis! Such an unexpected explanation! Such exceptional logic! My esteemed colleague, you most assuredly are a great scientific mind! We simply must conduct an experiment to prove or disprove your opinion!" "Look, a Hellknight stooping to help his allies. I never thought I'd be glad to see your face, Regill." "I will always preserve the lives of allied forces. If you thought in terms of efficiency and achieving your goals, as every fighter should in this war against the demons, you would be far less surprised at my actions." "Send your people to the base of the hill, the survivors are rallying there." "Consider it done. Am I to retreat with them or come with you?" "Go with the survivors, they'll need every experienced fighter they can get." "Affirmative!"If you refused to join forces with the Hellknights, or simply ignored their distress call, you'd encounter them here anyway but they'd have been massacred by the gargoyles. Regill dies a particularly grisly death.  Skipping over an edgy and unskippable cutscene that drags on far too long...  We have a new flavor of cultist! While I don't believe Kabriri actually appears in this game, his cultists pop up here and there - he's the demon lord of the undead, and patron of all this mess.  A few waves of ghouls rise out of the corpse piles as you approach the chapel.  I think Owlcat and subtlety had a bad break-up at some point in the past and they're still sore about it. As I told my last ex when she broke up with me, there's a certain virtue in having low standards.  "This chapel was a stronghold of faith for those who worshiped the noble gods! Today we restore goodness to its rightful home!"I'm skipping over more edgy torture porn.  A bunch of ghouls, one turncoat crusader, and a miniboss who goes down like a sack of poo poo when Seelah makes contact.  So remember the Wand of Zacharius, back in the cave underneath Leper's Smile? If you destroyed the wand or never found it, nothing further happens here. If you do have the wand, though, an illusory wall vanishes and leads into the basement.  There's traps...  Beefy enemies...  And a lot of books down here! Yua, all told, gets +10 HP; +1 to Perception, Stealth, Lore: Religion, and Lore: Nature; and +1 to DC for spells with the Death tag. Even if you don't intend to use the Wand of Zacharius, it's worth picking it up so you can come down here. That said...    "Greetings, crusader. You have the honor of meeting Zacharius the lich, the last warden of the Newfound Sanctuary and master of this place. I sensed you as soon as you stepped through the gates of my stronghold. There is something in your bag that belongs to me. Give me my wand, and as my oath dictates I shall give you a gift." (Seelah grips her weapon and chokes out an oath.) "A lich, an actual lich... This isn't a laughing matter. We might not get out of this alive!" (The dark energy coming from the lich draws a response from inside you. A surge of power, similar to what you felt in the bandit cave, suppresses and overwhelms all other feelings, and fills you with new sensations. You lose control over your own body for a moment, as your hands, as if alive on their own, dive into the bag and take Zacharius's wand out. You would swear that it trembles with impatience, like a dog too long away from its beloved master.) "What do you want from me?"The lich mythic theme plays throughout this scene. There were hints that Zacharius was up to some not very nice kinds of magic in his bid to defeat the demonic hordes, and now we see the fruit of his work. One man, locked up in a basement with a handful of ghosts for company, unable to leave and helpless to affect the world.  "And you won't even have to devote your short life to preparing for this great event. By the time I finish preparations for the ritual, you won't have aged even a year, and I shall be freed from my magic oath and may finally leave this place. And then you and I shall never meet again." "Don't listen to him, no matter what he's got or what promises he makes. You'll be turned into an undead — that's not just shedding some unwanted flesh and bone. It will spell the end of any and all humanity you currently possess. It is evil!" "Too bad I didn't get such an offer! Girl, you must say yes, and I will record the metamorphoses happening to you in the Encyclopedia. Do it, if not for yourself, for science!" "I have some questions about your proposition."Seelah is not wrong here. Even if the undead don't have to be evil in Golarion, you're not dealing with an open-ended question here. You're talking about being tutored in a specific fashion by a specific person. Most characters in the game - not Seelah! - will be prepared to go along with the lich route as a necessary evil and the ends justify the means, but the most benign possible ending to the lich story is 'The new Lich Queen building an empire of the dead is focused for now on mopping up the remaining demons, but everyone fears it's only a matter of time before an unholy army marches out of the Worldwound once more, just of a different kind.'  "Why are you offering this power to me?" (A low growl escapes the lich before he speaks.) "Do not flatter yourself. Fate has decided this, not I who is bound by magic oaths. Only by fulfilling them will I be able to leave this pathetic place. When I was foolish and taken with crusader ideas, I made a mistake. I feared that becoming a lich might change me. I feared becoming a villain. And so I bound myself with a magic oath, which stops me from leaving this place until... until a worthy crusader comes here to return my wand and seek my aid. I dispatched my apprentice, Teldon, to spread word of my final wishes, and so began my wait for crusaders who would appear to accept my knowledge. But the days passed, and with them came a new understanding. What a magnificent idiot I had been. I had bound myself in a pointless oath, never thinking of the consequences! But now you are here, and the oath is about to be fulfilled. I shall wait no longer! Enough priceless time has been lost!" "Why is this wand so important?" (The lich answers condescendingly,) "The wand is far more than just a toy used to cast spells. It is my phylactery, the charmed vessel which holds my soul. So long as it remains intact, I am eternal. If I am destroyed, I shall be reborn again near the spiritual anchor of my phylactery. Be diligent and obedient to my will, and you too will become immortal. But that is not its main value. To be free of my oath, I must grant my power to a worthy crusader who brings me my wand and asks for help. Until that day, I serve as a prisoner in this pathetic abode." "Everything is clear to me now."Now, it's worth noting that Zacharius is Lawful Evil by alignment. He's actually completely honest about the deal on offer here, and he's loyal to his word. If you accept his offer and never try to backstab him, Zacharius can actually be a loyal and honorable ally to his prized student and you become genuine friends, parting ways at the end of the story with mutual respect. He's considerably more cranky (and has worded his magical oath very carefully) if you do try to backstab him, of course.  "Sir Lich, may I offer myself as a specimen to be transformed into a lich? It is the only way I can experience and impartially record all the sensations of this magnificent process. You must see me as a colleague, we are both devotees of science." (The lich fixes his cold stare on Nenio.) "You are not the bearer of my wand. I have no interest in you." "Take your time to think about it — your name will be immortalized in my Encyclopedia, after all!" "No." "You didn't even ask what the Encyclopedia was. It will gather all the knowledge in existence from across Golarion. Without any division into black and white, just dry, exhaustive facts. This will be a great book to determine the direction of the advancement of science toward a happy future." (The lich pauses, then turns his head to you.) "When you become a lich, get rid of her. Or you'll lose one of the main advantages of undeath — silence." [Good] (Attack) "You should have died long ago, but you will not cheat death today!" (The green radiance in the lich's eyes fades. "What a pathetic sight — a mortal refusing power over death. I have wasted enough time on you, and now you will repay me. I shall transform you into a zombie and send you to Kenabres, where you will return my wand to where it belongs. I hope the next crusader to come calling will be wiser." (Reaching out to you with his bony hand, the lich casts a spell. The wand leaps from your hands by an invisible force. Its loss fills you with a strange feeling — as if something dark and ominous, which settled in your soul when you found the wand, was just violently wrested from you.)Those who have read my previous LPs have seen an extended example of how noble dreams can start to go wrong when the power of undeath is involved. Fighting Zacharius here is strictly optional, of course.  On anything but Story difficultly, Zacharius has a reputation for being one of the hardest fights in the entire chapter, and for good reason. The Lost Chapel in general represents a notable difficulty spike in the game, even if I'm on story and have been rolling through, and Zacharius is not a fight you want to walk into unprepared. This being Story, however, Zacharius suffers a familiar fate: knocked flat on his rear end by Sosiel's mammoth and duly pummeled on the ground until he breaks, every time he tries to stand up getting knocked back down and circle stomped some more.  So ends Zacharius the lich, would-have-been master of undeath, trampled into dust beneath the hooves of a mammoth and accompanying adventurers. The Crimson Path (this update) Crusader 1 Cultists 2 Gargoyles 12 Ghouls 32 Lich 1 Spectres 3 Stone Golems 2 Succubus 1
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May 10, 2024 01:53
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Oof yeah, this whole section is pretty bad if you're not good with body horror. I don't think anyone will blame you for glazing over parts.
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May 10, 2024 02:28
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yeah, someone at Owlcat is fond of their body horror sequences. they are also fond of their "get to completely gently caress over an ancient evil who is very, VERY mad at you for not doing exactly as they'd expected" sequences though so it's hard to stay mad at them
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May 10, 2024 03:06
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The comment about the Aeon playthrough reminded me of mine, which I abandoned early in Chapter 5. I think OP mentioned wanting to do a write-up of Aeon at some point, so I'll keep it general, but I found it insultingly shallow and lazy. WELCOME TO THE SLAUGHTERHOUSE is nuanced and dense with hidden meaning by comparison. Ugh, what a waste of potential.
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May 10, 2024 04:28
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This place can be a major difficulty spike in higher difficulties. Ghouls, as undead, are immune to a lot of control spells; their attacks can both disease and paralyze you; and of course, they tend to come in groups. Especially on a first playthrough, this place can be brutal. I didn't mind the body horror and all that. You're fighting against demons! You sorta know what you're getting into. And honestly, I liked how it sorta pulls your victories out from under you. You've been hearing nonstop about the horrors of the war and how the Crusades keep getting wiped out, and meanwhile you have (likely) been doing a clean sweep the entire way here, and then suddenly you get sucker punched and given a harsh reminder of the horror show you're fighting, and why things before you were such a poo poo show. For me at least, it fit the narrative they were aiming on telling. Which goes along with the major difficulty spike this place can be. Fun note, if you tell the Queen to stick around, she actually pops out in that chapel and starts killing ghouls alongside you. It's pretty great!
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May 10, 2024 05:20
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If you’re a follower of Abadar, you can remind Rathimus of his past life as a cleric and debuff him in the battle. Galfrey will help you in that fight if she’s part of the crusade. Rathimus, for those who don’t remember, was your regiment cleric and the main source of camp healing. He has an apprentice who takes over his duties. Zacharius will give you a buff if you agree to his Lich path. The goddess of undeath Urgothoa approves of that decision while death goddess Pharasma strongly disapproves. I was disturbed by the body horror in this sequence, but still got through it. Having the option to sneak up on the ghouls torturing crusaders and gain an advantage helped.
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May 10, 2024 05:42
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Who's that bad lich in the mirror? Who is she, she is me. I wanna be her. Naturally Nenio finds lichdom appealing, she could spend 24/7 focused on research. Using her tail to tickle the gargoyle until it laughs so much it drops her is quite cartoony.
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May 10, 2024 07:48
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ProfessorCirno posted:
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May 10, 2024 08:12
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ProfessorCirno posted:This place can be a major difficulty spike in higher difficulties. Ghouls, as undead, are immune to a lot of control spells; their attacks can both disease and paralyze you; and of course, they tend to come in groups. Especially on a first playthrough, this place can be brutal. Yeah, selective Grease still owns them like most everything in the early game, but if you get jumped (or they get lucky on their saves), they can wreck you pretty hard. The disease is especially rough since it can linger behind a long rest, making future fights tough.
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May 10, 2024 15:28
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ProfessorCirno posted:You're fighting against demons! You sorta know what you're getting into. My view is similar to my view on depictions of rape in video games: yes, I know enough about history to realize that there's probably quite a lot of it happening in any game prominently about war, even with the noblest armies, but I feel that I do not need to be told about it and most video games make the choice, which I approve of, to not even mention it. I put depictions of mutilation and torture and body horror et al into the same vein. Yes, I know it's undoubtedly happening. That does not mean I want to read about it in my entertainment.
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May 10, 2024 21:04
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Sometimes when you write about certain topics, war included, torture and torment are obvious things writers think they have to bring up. Certain audiences expect them too. Like you, I'm glad most games leave them out, though. I prefer it also. I don't think about such things or go looking for them... but once they're recognized I can't help but gack. At least with this game we can righteously oppose such things.
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May 10, 2024 21:25
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There is also a massive difference between subtly hinting at "bad things happening" and describing it in detail. I vastly prefer the former, if it HAS to be included at all.
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May 10, 2024 21:40
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Too bad there is no option to give the wand to Nenio and turn her into the lich
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May 11, 2024 00:42
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Nissin Cup Nudist posted:Too bad there is no option to give the wand to Nenio and turn her into the lich Yeah, but he doesn't want her around forever. So, you know, relatable.
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May 11, 2024 01:24
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Paths to Destruction So, there was a reason besides loot and experience points why I brought the LP to meet Zacharius in the previous update, and it's because we've now met all six of the mythic paths you can choose from in the early game in Wrath, and as Yua marches closer to embracing her mythic powers, there's a subtle but important point about the plot that I want to highlight. Most of the mythic power sources on offer have billed themselves as grand celestial powers that can beat back the hordes of the Abyss and win the war for the Worldwound. But, if you pay attention, they all have one thing in common. Every mythic path available has already taken their shot at the Worldwound and failed.  Angels have been part of the Crusades from the beginning. Leaving aside the counterfactual of 'Would anyone else really have done any better,' the uncontestable fact is that the righteous power of Heaven has failed to stop the Worldwound and has been slowly losing ground. Yua gained her potential affinity for angelic power from the sword of a dead angel, after all.  We've seen very little of the demon path, thanks to the choices I've made, but it's come up time and again that there's a powerful and unholy bloodlust lurking under Yua's surface, seemingly tied to the wound she carries - a wound strongly implied to have been inflicted by Areelu Voresh herself, the Architect of the Worldwound. And we've already encountered one person who claims to have taken the power of demons and the Abyss for herself and mastered it, Wenduag. But if you look past Wenduag's bluster, she was only ever the flunky to a low-ranking cultist and failed at all of her stated goals.  An aeon, which Yua will never discover was her future self from an alternate timeline, failed thrice over: first in said alternate timeline that the Yua-aeon traveled back in time because she couldn't win, second when she took at crack at Deskari himself and got stomped, and third when Yua-present rejected her proposed course of action. All that power over time and space, and it amounted to nothing.  In this LP, Yua will never learn anything more about where the Trickster's power comes from, only an eccentric weirdo finding her antics amusing and teasing the possibility of inviting her to a club. Without going into details on the Trickster path for now, they're another group peripherally involved in events. They claim to be above it all and having fun, but that's ultimately all they've been doing: having some fun that's entirely failed to make a difference to anyone and not accomplished anything meaningful at all.  Zacharius talks a big game if you let him, waxing poetic about how the undead are simply superior to living beings and the perfect answer to the Abyss's power. But if you look at the factual history presented of Zacharius, he's already tried to do the Dark Lord of the Dead fighting the demonic hordes thing, and look where that got him: locked up in a basement bound by magic, his contingency plan forgotten by the rest of society and himself consigned to irrelevance. All his research and power and sacrifices did not matter a whit, and that was before Yua and crew destroyed him for good.  And the Azata? Desna, and a traitor within the demons' own ranks, informed people within Kenabres about Deskari's coming attack and the corruption of the Wardstone. Armed with foresight and knowledge, the Desnan adepts completely failed to launch and not even because of enemy action. Their fellow Crusaders stopped them from doing anything, and all the adepts had to back up their scheme, which looked completely crazy to everyone else, was "Trust me bro I saw it in a dream." Not exactly the kind of evidence that most people would permit as a valid reason to gently caress with the central holy artifact to the anti-demon defense network. As for the four late-game paths, while they're a long way off presenting themselves, Yua has in fact already seen evidence of all four (more or less, in one case) at work, and they've done no better than the six above. Despite the lofty rhetoric that some have given regarding their form of power, despite all the abilities and magic at their command, none of the mythic paths in this game have demonstrated by their actions that they can in fact get the job done. No matter what you choose in Wrath, you're taking up a mantle that has thus far been unable to prevail. Just because Yua is on the path to become a transkitsune being with celestial powers does not mean she has any guarantee of victory, far from it. She's going to have her work cut out for her, mythic powers or no.
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May 11, 2024 16:09
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Never thought about it like that. Interesting. Hope to see more analysis ahead.
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May 11, 2024 17:01
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And that's just the mythic path's attempts at the worldwound problem. Can't wait to see the analysis of what other people have tried.
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May 11, 2024 18:23
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So far, we've also had one failure state suddenly get cancelled out by a rush of mythic power, and, not really a spoiler to say that wasn't and will not be the only time. There is absolutely no reason you should have won back in Kenabras. Minagho should've absolutely wiped the floor with you - hell, she should've been waiting for you. If that mythic power shenanigan hadn't suddenly happened, that would've been the end of the story. The Crusaders rallied and made a valiant attempt to retake the keep, but a few brave and loyal soldiers, at the end of the day, are not a match for the supernatural power of the Abyss. And sans-mythic power there's really little chance you'd be making it out of this particular ambush. You could even viably make the arguement that the vescavors were also a failure point. On higher difficulties it can often feel like you're just barely getting by, especially on your first playthrough - and often it's only because you got those mythic powers to back you up. I don't know / remember how the tabletop game plays it out, but here in the video game, even this early on, I definitely got the feeling that someone or something is tilting the scales in your favor. Not all the way (again, I vastly prefer harder difficulties not just for gameplay reasons but because I think it makes a better story), you're still fighting tooth and nail, but something is backing you up. It's all well and good to believe that "good will always win." So far, most people around you think it's the will of Iomedae - but then, they're crusaders, so of course they would. They believe "good will always win" as a matter of faith. One of Regill's single digit good points is that there's no reason to believe Iomedae is getting involved now where she never did before, and with no fanfaire or explanation, and that whatever is going on might be useful, but it's also very suspicious in its inexplicability.
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May 11, 2024 19:40
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ProfessorCirno posted:there's no reason to believe Iomedae is getting involved now where she never did before The Wardstones were personally put in place by Iomedae, and that belt buckle Yua gave to Galfrey was originally given to Galfrey by Iomedae in person. Plus you have things like Sosiel miraculously getting his team through Leper's Smile with no losses thanks to Shelyn, and there have been repeated moments where, if you worship certain gods, they can directly act in your favor. Just because none of the gods have pulled a stunt like Deskari's open assault doesn't mean they haven't been working to help the crusaders, and my feeling on the story at this point when I was first playing was that this whole thing was a catastrophic miscalculation by the demons. Yes they landed a good sucker punch at Kenabres, but they started celebrating victory far before it was warranted and now their overconfidence is biting their tits off. To use a historical analogy, I consider Kenabres to be something like Pearl Harbor, and this is the point we are rapidly approaching: 
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May 11, 2024 19:56
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| # ? Jun 18, 2024 07:23 |
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I had the same interpretation when I played through. I think the status quo before revolved around neither the gods nor the demons really interfering outright for fear of upsetting the balance of power and causing a reaction from the other side. But then the Demons played a pretty big hand by direct intervention in Kenabres, and while the gods might not have done anything as flashy as Kenabres they did see that as permission to increase the amount of minor miracles and casual small scale smiting they were doing, since the Demons already broke the unofficial agreement to keep direct intervention limited.
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May 11, 2024 21:07
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