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This update is brought to you by the letter "F", the number "13", and    Kaiba confronts Yugi and his army head on. Christ, even the narration is bored of this now. How long have we been doing this? And how many times have we visited this map, for that matter?   ...So, Yugi. You've come.  Kaiba! Tell me why you're helping Scott! Words have such little value on the battlefield. It doesn't matter what I say; you and I are destined to fight. Right here, right now. If you really want to know, you'll have to defeat me first! Then you leave me no choice! Sound familiar? It should, because it's word-for-word what they said in Yugi's campaign. Of course, circumstances are a little bit different this time, and not just because we're controlling the other character. We're on an entirely different map, for one. Yugi took the fight to Kaiba at Nonnber so that he could surround the capital, but Kaiba is taking him on at Enno in an effort to defend Sygh-Varths. It's not the only time that Kaiba's campaign contradicts Yugi's, and it won't be the last either. In case it wasn’t obvious, these are more like two different ways events could have unfolded. Think Locksmith’s versus Pickpocket’s stories in Monaco.  Difference number two should be immediately obvious. Kaiba ran a very...generic army, for lack of a better word. Sure, they matched his "flavor" by using a bunch of dragons, but it was still Kaiba and a bunch of unimportant imperial soldiers. Yugi, on the other hand, brings all of his friends (except Bakura and Fizdis), and for the most part they even have teams that resemble something a human might have picked. Yugi is using the DM/DMG combo with a Buster Blader specifically to gently caress over Kaiba's Blue-Eyes, Joey is running Panther Warrior/Giltia/Flame Swordsman, Mai has her Harpies, etc, etc. Naturally, this makes this mission orders of magnitude more dangerous than Yugi’s version. They’re still AI teams, but you might need to expend a bit more effort with this one.  So let's talk about how this mission actually works. Yugi's friends all come pouring out of the castle, then slowly make their way around the map. They'll start by taking Nyuaghulla, then they'll head for Tet-Ran right next door, send someone down to the bottom right corner, then come up to get the castle next to our base. I don't think they'll ever reinforce the castles off to the west, but they do start under enemy control. To counteract this, Weevil and Pegasus are going to cut them off at Tet-Ran; there's just no way we can beat them to Nyuaghulla. Rex and Ishizu are batting cleanup at Nyuaghulla once the flow of enemies shuts off, and Bonz and Kaiba will be taking a straight shot to Yugi once everything calms down.  It is occasionally hard to tell what exactly is going on when you have three layers of information up, but Joey got to Tet-Ran literally a quarter of a second before Weevil did. This throws a pretty huge wrench in my plans - not only was I hoping to have the fortification bonus going with me rather than against me, but if Weevil doesn't clean up Joey in a single round, Shimon will join him in the castle and our odds of taking it without devoting a couple more marshals to the cause are going to plummet. One of those rare moments where marshal movement speeds are mildly relevant.  There is no dialogue with the chumps, at least as far as I can tell. It might only be with Kaiba, but frankly, I doubt that they bothered. Sadly not. I don’t think Joey and Kaiba get any dialogue together in this mission, despite the opportunity being right there.  Weevil is in an interesting position here. His team is fantastic in long, drawn-out fights like bosses - Great Moth can swing for 500-600 damage a pop and has a fuckton of HP to weather anything you can throw at it, and Man-Eater Bug has a bajillion actions and plenty of medicine to use them with. He's not so good at things that have to be done now. His heavy hitter only gets four attacks, and for all his turns, Man-Eater Bug is lucky to get over 400 damage, even when he does have Beast Fangs. Were he completely uninterrupted, this means he could theoretically kill off both Panther Warrior and Giltia on a good day. Today is not going to be a good day.  For starters, Flame Swordsman is a right motherfucker and regularly pushes 700 damage after Castle-Adept and his equipment. Given the fragile state of both QoAL and Man-Eater Bug, this makes him our first target.  Of course, the AI doesn't like to make things easy. We'll have to shift our attention over to Panther Warrior - we can't afford to waste any turns in this fight. The AI can occasionally manage to make good decisions, if the stars align.  Conundrum #1: QoAL has our Red Medicine, and we really need her to not die. On the flip side, Flame Swordsman has opened himself up to attack by nearly killing her. There's no guarantee that Panther Warrior or Giltia isn't lined up to attack next, but if we let him go another turn, he's liable to go back on guard. After a moment, I decide to go for the kill.  And gently caress me if the AI didn't just save my rear end. There is no reason that Giltia should have guarded, but somehow that gamble paid off. See, now that’s more like the FBK AI I know. It’s nice to see a little bit of tension though.  Now we're cutting things close. Man-Eater will definitely have to heal, so that's going to take either QoAL's last turn, or we have to hope that a Blue Medicine will cover him until we get a good spot in the next fight.  Well, I suppose that answers that question. Five attacks from Man-Eater Bug totals up to ~1800-2000 damage, just enough to do it...if none of them miss.  And that's all she wrote for Joey. Even Artix sometimes has good luck.  Weevil is going to feature quite prominently in this update. I sure hope you like this screen.  So with that, the first major hurdle of the mission is taken care of. Now we have to hold it until Pegasus gets there, which is easier said than done for numerous reasons.  Challenger #1 steps up to the plate.  Summoned Skull is a little suspect, but Shimon's team is deceptively good. Dark Elf needs no introduction, Magician of Faith is still hilariously broken, and all three of his monsters have a set of Red Medicine. Neither Summoned Skull or Magician of Faith is going to be putting up particularly big damage numbers, but it still means that we have to wait them out, as Weevil doesn't have anything capable of paralysis or confusion. Definitely not the worst attempt at a defensive team. This could be very annoying for the impatient player.  I tried testing the waters, but QoAL and Man-Eater are just strong enough that Magician of Faith gets pushed into healing range. Looks like we're in this one for the long haul. A good attempt at exploiting the AI, though.  If it looks like we're going to be coming up short, that's because we are. There's just not enough AP left in the tank after keeping everyone healed, and QoAL has been hit by a Word of Spirit Stealing, so she's down 1000 ATK on top of it.  We're not in bad shape though, all things considered. Medicine's starting to run pretty low, though.  And hey, look at that. Even Weevil himself is getting in on the action.    After Joey and Shimon, Espa Roba is your breather fight.  I mean, you've got issues when this is the high point of your team. That’s really quite a letdown after seeing those first two teams.  Needless to say, Espa gets his poo poo kicked in.   Tristan isn't much better, but we're completely out of medicine aside from Great Moth's Dian Keto. I would be lying if I said that I wasn't starting to get worried here. A trio of not-too-interesting warriors seems quite fitting for Tristan.  After swatting away Tristan, Shimon is back for round two. It goes about as well for him as you'd expect.  Welp, nice knowing ya, Weevil. Hahahaaa…   Good news: Mai isn't using the Cyber Shield/Electro Whip combo.  Bad news: She's still using the loving Harpie Ladies.  Let's be honest - that went exactly how we were expecting it to. At least the game designers had some shred of mercy… Mind you, this has definitely been quite a step up. Some of Kaiba’s later missions are pretty nasty by this game’s standards.  Since Mai captured Tet-Ran from Weevil, Tea has changed course. She'll change back once we retake the castle.  If I'm being frank, Pegasus probably would have been my first choice to fight Mai in the first place.  Eat poo poo, Harpie Ladies. Ah, sweet revenge.  After taking a little time to heal up, Pegasus is in pretty good shape for Tea. If nothing else, the fortification bonus should make up for using the Raigeki here.  What impeccable timing, Pegasus. Would you expect anything less from a gentleman?   Tea's team depends almost entirely on whether or not the AI wants to play nice - if she keeps things simple, it's just matter of getting through Lucky enough times. If the Screen Mists and Reversal Benedictions start flying early, then you're hosed. For a team she starts with in Chapter 8, these monsters are still pretty drat good.  Eventually the AI wises up and starts buffing, but not until Dancing Elf is long gone and GM is down to half health. It'll be rough, but perfectly doable.  With Tea taken care of, we have two people left on the hit list. Mako is holed up in Nyuaghulla, so we'll start with him.   Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the inaugural Falsebound Kingdom Useless-off.  I mean...look at this thing! Look at it! Sure, Rex isn't much better, but at least he has a fusion up his sleeve.  Q.E.D.   This little interlude just made my day.  Wow, that was just sad. I bring in Ishizu to finish the job, but it really wasn't necessary. Mako was so crippled that even Rex could have handled that one blindfolded.  Only one thing left to take care of now.   Like any dangerous fight, it's best to lead with someone game-breakingly good or someone you're not afraid to lose.   As with Mai, Yugi isn't afraid to spam the hell out of Dark Burning Magic and we don't want to be anywhere nearby when he does. The magicians having medicine is annoying, but we can work around it with bigger numbers. Buster Blader has a Legendary Sword, just for reference.  Step 1: Negate the possibility of the combo attack.  Step 2: Permanently sever the combo.  Step 3: Continue killing out of spite. You can do it too, guys! Don't be afraid to try it at home.  Kaiba! Face me! With pleasure! This sort of epic showdown is much less impressive when you remember that Yugi is down to just his Buster Blader.  I didn't have to fuse to kill him, but why would I not? I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. There’s still no kill like overkill.    Yugi is doing it for you. What?! I told him everything. He is staging a retreat so that he can sneak into Sygh-Varths and rescue your brother. Pegasus? Shhh! Keep your voice down. It's nice to finally meet you, my boy. I snuck over here alone because I have something I must tell you. Scott has found Kaiba's Achilles Heel - he's kidnapped Mokuba. He's using Mokuba to force Kaiba to fight you. Ah, now it makes sense. Even if Kaiba defeats you here, he will still be at the mercy of Scott. Scott will be watching this fight very closely; he will not be easy to fool. What do you mean? Do you have an idea? In order to fool Scott, you need to keep fighting. However, after a while, surrender. It will be a ruse, of course. Don't let your troops wear themselves out. Ishizu is working with us now, and she knows a secret way into the capital. I will share this information with you, if you can sneak into the city and rescue Mokuba. I realize that I'm asking you to undertake a very dangerous mission - I'll understand if you say no. I'll do it. But I will fight 100% until we begin the retreat. Kaiba still wants a chance to fight me. Alright. Thank you for agreeing to my plan, Yugi. It's not sympathy. He's accepted a temporary defeat now so that he can face you later. Not in some battle controlled by Scott, but a true duel with your pride on the line. Next time, it will be your turn to make that contest a reality, Kaiba. ... And that does it for this one. Between this mission and Dragon's Lair, the hardest part of the campaign is behind us now, so it's all downhill from here. Next time, we've got a date with Scott! Pegasus proves himself to be quite a smooth talker yet again. I don’t think we’ll be able to talk Scott down, though.
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May 1, 2014 05:07
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Artix posted:
I love how he's not even surprised that Mokuba's been kidnapped.
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May 1, 2014 06:10
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Hobgoblin2099 posted:I love how he's not even surprised that Mokuba's been kidnapped. For good reason. Pattern recognition, man. Kaiba needs to tie that kid to a post or something. Or set him on fire. You can't get kidnapped if you're on fire!
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May 1, 2014 07:44
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Bufuman posted:For good reason. Pattern recognition, man. Kaiba needs to tie that kid to a post or something. Or set him on fire. You can't get kidnapped if you're on fire! But you can't duel fire for your brother's soul!
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May 1, 2014 10:55
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Senerio posted:But you can't duel fire for your brother's soul! Blasphemy! Kaiba can and will duel anything in existance, especially if its for Mokuba's soul.
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May 1, 2014 11:57
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"Ah it makes that makes sense, is he a princess this time again or what?"
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May 1, 2014 18:00
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The fight between Team-Suck and Team-Suck-a-Little-Less made me remember that there were very few good WATER attribute monsters until things like the Mermail and Geshki cards. These teams show that if you are able to be one of the more well know people in the YuGiOh universe you are far less incompetent than one off characters or the faceless masses. Unless your name is Tristan, poor, poor Tristan.
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May 4, 2014 01:35
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I do hope that Kaiba's final boss is actually going to be the victory lap against Yugi after he clowns Scott.
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May 7, 2014 03:36
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Kaiba, Ishizu, Pegasus, and Bonz are already set; Rex was taken care of last time, and Mokuba is still missing. That just leaves Weevil and Labyrinth Ruler to clean up. Weevil's team is already pretty fantastic - Great Moth is the heavy hitter, sitting pretty at 3200+ HP, 5300/4300, 6 AP. Man-Eater Bug isn't winning any awards for survivability, but his 1600 HP, 3350/3000, 9 AP line makes him a great all-purpose unit, and the low HP is partially offset by Armor. Queen of Autumn Leaves is still finding her footing (compared to the others, anyway), but an 1800 HP, 3700/3000, 5 AP line isn't too bad for only being L30. She hits harder than Man-Eater Bug does, for all that's worth. Big Insect and Hercules Beetle are both thematically appropriate in the reserves, but they're both batting with a 2800/3100, 5 AP line. Not really much of an upgrade unless they get fed a decent amount of levels and Weevil got more experience than anyone else last map, so that's not particularly likely. ...Insect Queen? Pffffft. Let's not ask for miracles here, we only have three chapters to whip these guys into shape for the final boss.  Labyrinth Ruler is a lot harder to pin down, since he was quoted from the beginning as "a guy just there to fill a team" and that hasn't really changed. He's been quite happy to roll with the Magnet Warriors, and there's not a whole lot of reason to change that. Right now, his team looks like: Alpha - 1600 HP, 3500/3300, 4 AP, Road, Armor Beta - 1600 HP, 4200/3600, 4 AP, Road, Armor Gamma - 1200 HP, 2600/2400, 3 AP, Road Admittedly, a lot of his problems are solved by fusing up to Valkyrion and he hasn't been getting a ton of screentime so his monsters aren't as strong as they "should" be, for lack of a better way of putting it. Still, LR is essentially a blank slate, so if we've had enough of the Magnet Warriors, we can do more or less anything with him. Fusions? We've got a couple lying around, most notably Chimera. There are plenty of other underrated guys lying around Lord of D. and Curse of Dragon if we wanted to go that route. Basically, I have enough monsters in reserve that I can make just about anything work for him. Put in a vote here, but if you have a suggestion for team changes, you're going to have to post it. I have no problems with the teams as-is, so you're going to have to make your case.  Here we go! Sygh-Varths is in our sights, but first we have to go bail out Yugi and save Mokuba. Do we have time for a monster-hunting excursion?
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May 10, 2014 02:18
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Two monsters, one in the lowermost town in the middle of the map, where the two roads intersect, and one for finishing the stage. Because of course Kaiba would take a detour in the middle of his vital mission to go monster-hunting, and surely Mokuba spent enough time around Scott to
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May 10, 2014 07:38
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Well, there are those two towns on either end of the map with nothing else in them. Surely the game designers have to give you some reason to go there! How about, one monster in the extreme southeast town and one for beating the map.
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May 10, 2014 18:48
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Two monsters, one each in the middle of both rings of paths. Of course Kaiba has time for monster hunting, it's not like Mokuba's kidnapping is new and exciting to him.
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May 10, 2014 19:12
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The probability of us having no monsters in this map are still greater than 50%, so no monsters.
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May 10, 2014 19:25
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I'll say one monster between the two towns down in the South East area.
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May 11, 2014 23:40
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  Acting alone, Yugi manages to get inside and rescue Mokuba. Meanwhile, Kaiba prepares to attack Sygh-Varths. However, while making his escape from the city, Yugi is found out by Scott!  Scott hasn't found him yet, but he's searching the entire castle; it's only a matter of time before he does. We must take control of Vestoara-Gate right away! Yugi, you incompetent gently caress. This is twice now Kaiba has bailed your sorry rear end out of a nasty predicament, and the best you can do in response is remove half the troops that I've already killed.  I'd ask the thread who has saved whom more often throughout the whole show, but I'm not sure I actually care. Besides, nobody's going to take Mokuba's position as main rescuee.  Right, so let's address the elephant in the room first. If we don't take Vestoara-Gate by 1:00, it's a game over. You'd have to send a swimming monster after wasting half of your available time sleeping or something to run out the clock, but I suppose it is theoretically possible. This game is very odd with its overly long time limits and scripted events. Still, it occasionally manages to get things right... Fortunately, we are better than that, and Bonz is on the case. Pegasus and Weevil move out to fortify our initial position, and Ishizu runs off in the complete opposite direction. For no reason whatsoever, I'm sure.   As before, the map is loaded with cannons, predominantly of the Anti-Air variety. Kaiba's team is particularly flier-heavy, so Pegasus, Labyrinth Ruler, and Bonz will be doing most of the heavy lifting on the offensive front.   These are endgame quality teams, make no mistake. I just have hilariously broken ones at my disposal. Still, the game's doing its best to make things challenging now that we're coming into the final stretch.  Yugi! Mokuba! Are you alright? Yes, thanks to you. This is no time for gratitude. I'm going after Scott to take him out for good! Alright. It's up to you to finish this now! Bonz and Weevil hit the sweet spot between the two attacking marshals, causing them to split up. You know what they say: It's better to be lucky than good.  But before we can get to them...   Hello, my pretties!    Nothing particularly dangerous here. Castle of Dark Illusions has his special that blinds your team, and Kryuel has a special that does ~500 damage to the entire team, but otherwise they're all pretty underwhelming. I think that this is our first encounter with Zoa, though. Pity he's the least threatening member of the team.  On the plus side, they're all fiends, so two can play the damaging special game.  Really, there's not much out there that would prove to be a challenge with Ishizu's team. Zoa has joined your army! Kryuel has joined your army! Castle of Dark Illusions has joined your army!  Great, you again.  Let's not even pretend we don't know where this is going. Wait for a good opportunity and kill the Wing Eagle, pick off the Mavelus at our leisure.  Which isn't to say that there isn't a scare now and then. It's just so...pedestrian at this point. Business as usual. We've got the teams and their tactics well established by this point, but at least there's still some little things that keep it interesting.  Movin' on up in the world.  And straight from one fight into another.  They use the same strategy as before, which is still deceptively effective. I can't be bothered to bring spells/medicine to cure ailments when I could be filling those slots with something much more effective.  Like so. Artix's favourite punchline.  Second verse, same as the first verse.  Labyrinth Ruler gets his time in the sun to clear out Tower-Southern so Ishizu doesn't get sniped on her way to Kaepe-Town. See, we didn't completely forget about you! Labyrinth Who? (  ) Also, sending a bald man out marching in the sun? How cruel. Another one of these guys. This time, we have the upper hand though.  See, the funny thing about Valkyrion is that he has Status Guard. Germ Infection does literally nothing to him (but that won't let the AI stop it from trying!  ), and Raimei might land for 100 damage, if that.It's not often that you see an AI who learns what does and doesn't work. Angband does it (if you enable that option), and so does a certain not-as-good game.  While Pegasus moves up to take care of Sygh-Varths Gate and Ishizu makes her way over to Kaepe-Town, Kaiba and Weevil are getting in position for Scott. Sygh-Varths itself has Anti-Ground cannons, but Sygh-Varths Gate has Anti-Air ones, making it quite a pain to move around. Remember how I said that some of the time limits are actually set just about right? This is one of those rare ones. There's not much time for indecision.  Last grunt.  We're taking advantage of the L99 glitch for Kryuel, which isn't necessarily the best idea here. That gives both him and Summoned Skull (via Hinotama) the ability to hit my whole team for okay damage, and 300-600 damage a pop adds up real quick when it hits everyone.  You can find yourself in a hole very quickly, especially if you're not diligent with healing.  Would you believe the fucker survives to a second round? drat L99 glitch, coming back to bite me in the rear end.  You may have succeeded in fooling me, but you haven't won yet! But judgment is swift, and now, Scott stands alone.  As before, the main problem is that Cosmo Queen has a set of Red Medicine, and with 2400 HP, Super Stamina, and Status Guard, she's not exactly going to roll over for us. Fortunately, we have an easier way to deal with her. The Barrel Dragons can be knocked down to healing range with one round of attacks, and with only three heals available, we should be able to bleed her dry and take her out in the same round. We're fortunate to have teams with a good amount of AP for this strategy. If you were being foolish and trying to use only Kaiba with his Blue Eyes... Well, you'd be in for a bad time. Not that I would know anything about that...    It just feels right, you know?  Oh for god's sake, one level! ONE LEVEL!  Truly, dragons in this game are such a disappointment. This is the end of the line, Scott! It's time to give up! Impossible! How...how could you beat me? You'll pay for this! The time of reckoning is almost upon us... You'll get yours yet! Stop! Come this way.  ...Is that you, big brother? ...Kaiba... He's still a little bit groggy, but he should be back to normal soon. And that's all she wrote for Scott. The Hallowed Land of Ishtar beckons, and with it another showdown with the gods! Oh, we have Mokuba back. Yay.  Artix fucked around with this message at 00:05 on May 19, 2014 |
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May 18, 2014 13:02
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quote:’ ...Well, that's interesting. Figures the update Artix posts right before going to work is the one that breaks something. It doesn't look like that on Google Drive either, so... I don't know.
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May 18, 2014 13:45
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We’re fortunate to have teams with a good amount of AP for this strategy. If you were being foolish and trying to use only Kaiba with his Blue Eyes… Well, you’d be in for a bad time. Not that I would know anything about that… Yeah it took every apostraphe and ellipsis and hosed 'em over. Did you perhaps write them in Word or similar, where it makes apostraphes directional and ellipses a single character?
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May 18, 2014 16:25
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I'm rather dissapointed Scott didn't make us battle Mokuba at some point. I honestly thought that's where we were going with this. I mean yeah, he wouldn't have been any threat at all but still. That doesn't give you an excuse to be a lazy villain.
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May 18, 2014 23:03
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Arcade Rabbit posted:I'm rather dissapointed Scott didn't make us battle Mokuba at some point. I honestly thought that's where we were going with this. I mean yeah, he wouldn't have been any threat at all but still. That doesn't give you an excuse to be a lazy villain. That would have been a cool idea, actually; lock off the monsters Mokuba had with him when he was taken, and have that be his team. I could see it working, and it would certainly have more effect than whoever we fought.
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May 18, 2014 23:18
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Raitzeno posted:Yeah it took every apostrophe and ellipsis and hosed 'em over. Did you perhaps write them in Word or similar, where it makes apostrophes directional and ellipses a single character? Nope! I added my commentary exactly the same way I always do; straight into the Google Drive document that Artix shares with me. (Drive is a really nifty thing.) GeneralYeti posted:That would have been a cool idea, actually; lock off the monsters Mokuba had with him when he was taken, and have that be his team. I could see it working, and it would certainly have more effect than whoever we fought. You really think they could have managed that?  Still, that's not a bad idea. You could even level-scale them just for that fight.
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May 18, 2014 23:59
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Well I'm not sure how that happened, but I fixed it.Arcade Rabbit posted:I'm rather dissapointed Scott didn't make us battle Mokuba at some point. I honestly thought that's where we were going with this. I mean yeah, he wouldn't have been any threat at all but still. That doesn't give you an excuse to be a lazy villain. That is entirely more effort than the FBK team put into this and you know it.
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May 19, 2014 00:09
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Yapping Eevee posted:Still, that's not a bad idea. You could even level-scale them just for that fight. I would only like that if they kept that level. It'd be a nice treat for someone who gave him some level 1 monsters (or even just some of their better monsters at the time when he was taken!).
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May 19, 2014 00:38
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Artix posted:That is entirely more effort than the FBK team put into this and you know it. I know, I'm sorry. I was dumb to think this game would actually push the effort button. 
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May 19, 2014 05:00
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I'd ask if there's an Easter Egg if you attack Castle of Dark Illusions with Gaia the Dragon Champion and have catapult turtle in your party butArtix posted:That is entirely more effort than the FBK team put into this and you know it.
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May 19, 2014 05:20
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Catapult Turtle is one of the kinds of turret, isn't it?
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May 19, 2014 05:56
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Maybe if you had a team with Gaia the Dragon Champion sitting in a catapult-having town that got attacked by an enemy holding Castle of Dark Illusions? It would be cool if such a thing ever happened, but sadly,
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May 19, 2014 08:04
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 Finally, with two missions left to go, we have the whole team back in business. You know, since Mokuba was really the lynchpin to our grand strategy. Or something. Look, what do you want from me? He wasn't great then, and he's pretty terrible now that he's missed something like 7 or 8 chapters worth of experience. Some games have this nasty tendency to remove party members for long periods of gameplay without recalculating their levels when they return. I understand why that occurs in this game, but it’s still annoying.  We saw all three of these guys at their absolute best in the last chapter, so I'll just hit the highlights here. Kryuel is a defensive monster, but that doesn't mean he can't take a good swing at you if he has to. 2500 HP, 4100/4800, 6 AP is pretty solid, if unremarkable, and he gets the standard of Night-Adept and Level 2 Magic. His special isn't anything to write home about, but for a one-monster special, doing a reliable ~500 damage to the entire enemy team is a pretty good investment. I'd definitely use him before some other fiends, like Reaper of the Cards or King of Yamimakai. Decent, but comes at level 1 towards the end of a campaign. Probably not the best investment, but I’d agree that he’s far from the worst fiend available.  Castle of Dark Illusions is even more defensive than Kryuel, trading 1000/500 ATK/DEF and 2 AP for a special that blinds the entire enemy team and Status Guard. He's a better support unit because of his special, but when it comes time to actually do the whole fighting thing, you can do a lot better. If you want to use blind as a status effect, Dancing Elf already exists. You probably don’t need two monsters that share this gimmick, and she has better AP.  Zoa is a pre-ritual monster, and therefore isn't even worth talking about. His line is 1900 HP, 4400/3700, 4 AP with Night-Adept and Level 2 Magic if you really care.  Now we're getting somewhere. His huge HP total aside, Metalzoa really isn't a huge improvement on Zoa classic. He will be, of course, but for now, the only thing we're getting out of the deal is an extra AP and 400 ATK/DEF. Still, every little bit counts this late in the game, and we do have room for an eighth marshal, so maybe Mokuba can make something of him. Maybe. Let's not ask for miracles or anything. On a small sidenote, Zoa and Metalzoa were two of three cards that were actually included with the game. (Goblin Fan was the third.) All in all, I seem to remember that Metalzoa is one of the better Machine monsters. If you wanted a gimmick team, throwing him in with Fortress Whale and Labyrinth Tank would be probably pretty devastating. There won't be any more safari posts for this run, that group was the last set from Kaiba’s story (that we can get, anyway). However, I do have one final vote for you guys. Mokuba didn't really have much of a stable team, and Metalzoa seems like as good of an anchor for him as any. His team right now is as follows: The Illusory Gentleman: 1700 HP, 3450/3550, 7 AP, Night-Adept Dark King of the Abyss: 1450 HP, 2700/2300, 6 AP, Night-Adept Dark Elf: 2000 HP, 4050/2850, 6 AP, Night-Adept We could use any of these guys, or none of them if you'd rather I fish out some other monsters from the backlog. So, Metalzoa aside, how should we theme Mokuba's team? It'd be a shame to let Dark Elf gather dust on the bench, but it's not like it would be the first really good monster that we tossed aside, and Kaiba's campaign has given us plenty of capable monsters to fill teams with.
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May 21, 2014 04:19
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Considering Kaiba's team is basically formed out of Duelist Kingdom villains (and Ishizu), let's make Mokuba stand in for the ones we're lacking. Metalzoa stands for Bandit Keith, Castle of Dark Illusions stands for PaniK, and I'd love to tell you to give him a Blue-Eyes for the Puppeteer/weird clown, but we wouldn't want to ruin Kaiba's team. Instead, let's go with a single Harpy Lady, because for the love of God I can't think of a single other Duelist Kingdom villain and Mai was more or less one, so...
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May 21, 2014 04:56
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I like that theme, Metalzoa for Keith, Castle of Dark Illusions for PaniK, and Lord of D for Puppet Kaiba.
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May 21, 2014 05:29
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I say give him Yugi's team, just to diss Yugi.
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May 21, 2014 05:33
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Senerio posted:I like that theme, Metalzoa for Keith, Castle of Dark Illusions for PaniK, and Lord of D for Puppet Kaiba. Agreeing with this version of the idea.
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May 21, 2014 07:01
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Metalzoa was good for a machine at his time of coming out, but that didn't change the fact that vanilla Zoa plus the prerequisite Metalmorph attached to him was much better. Not a machine, but still much better.Senerio posted:I like that theme, Metalzoa for Keith, Castle of Dark Illusions for PaniK, and Lord of D for Puppet Kaiba. Fourthing this
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May 21, 2014 10:31
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Since Mokuba has no personality worth mentioning of his own, let's have him rob others of theirs. I agree with Senerio's plan.
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May 21, 2014 21:35
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Senerio's plan has a good chance of success. Mokuba is just kinda there, so let's just do whatever.
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May 21, 2014 22:02
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Senerio's plan.
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May 22, 2014 09:46
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Senerio posted:I like that theme, Metalzoa for Keith, Castle of Dark Illusions for PaniK, and Lord of D for Puppet Kaiba. Did that clown actually have a name? I mean as "bad" as Abridged Series it has a point he's pretty much just a gay clown the Pharoh once mind crushed.
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May 22, 2014 19:49
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Hey Artix, I was wondering if you had plans to tackle Duelist of the Roses at some point? I wanted to try my hand at LPing it, but not if someone else already has plans to.
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May 22, 2014 19:52
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HOOLY BOOLY posted:Did that clown actually have a name? I mean as "bad" as Abridged Series it has a point he's pretty much just a gay clown the Pharoh once mind crushed. I checked the wiki. His article is just titled "Ghost Kaiba", but he goes by "the Imitator of Death" and "the Mimic of Doom".
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May 22, 2014 19:56
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Red Suit posted:Hey Artix, I was wondering if you had plans to tackle Duelist of the Roses at some point? I wanted to try my hand at LPing it, but not if someone else already has plans to. I'm not going to say that's it absolutely never going to happen because I do have a friend who is really good at the game, just doesn't have enough time to devote to an LP. That said, my personal experience with DotR extends to about two battles past the point where you pick which campaign you want to play, so it probably won't be coming from me. If you want to tackle it, go for it.
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May 22, 2014 20:06
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| # ? Jun 15, 2024 03:49 |
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As an aside, the "gay clown" wasn't in the manga. Instead, there was a character called the Puppeteer of Demise who had a doll that was supposed to contain Kaiba's soul.
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May 22, 2014 20:17
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