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- Okay, Randy's pretty cool. - Why did Lloyd's dream conveniently get static right when Lloyd's brother was saying the age of the child he was escorting? Suspicious. But I don't know when the events of the dream took place, so it's hard to do calculations even if we did get the age. I guess it's probably right before he died.
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Jul 16, 2019 02:27
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Part 28: “And here I thought you were copying the Bracers…”  That was a little nostalgic… how long ago was that? Was it when I was 12… no, it was probably when I was 13. And after that… And then his walkie-talkie badge starts ringing. For a shonen protagonist in an anime game, Lloyd takes waking up early in a pretty easy stride. I guess he’s just a morning person. C.S.P.D. −Crossbell State Police Department−   Oh, you were awake the whole time? Do you have that report of yours completed?Yeah, I do. We’ve more or less concluded our investigation at the hospital.Good job. Now get down to my office once you’ve dressed yourself. We have a guest waiting on all of you right now....! Right away!   We’re here, Chief.The Special Support Section enters the office.   I told you guys it was her.  Thank you for your hard work! Good morning. It looks like we were right about you being our “guest”. Yeah, she swung by a while ago. Vice Commander here wants to know how your investigation is going. It’s not like I mind, but… isn’t this a little short notice? We haven’t even gone to Mainz, yet… My apologies. It wasn’t my intention to pressure you… but our situation has changed a little. Hey, whaddaya mean by that?Up till yesterday, we were acting as security for the mining village, but… as of this morning, we were ordered to withdraw.You need to withdraw…? Wasn’t it only three days ago that the monsters attacked…?   (!) P-Pointless!? Tch, that old bastard… You know him, Randy? I saw him tons of times when I was at Bellguard Gate. He’s the CGF’s top brass… not to mention that he’s in deep with the Erebonian Empire’s faction. He’s one of those types that just spends all of his time dining with politicians. I had heard the rumors, but… it really was like that?But wouldn’t withdrawing from Mainz right now cause even more issues?Exactly. If the monster attacks were localized, we might have been able to lease the issue to the Bracer’s Guild, at least. But since the issue is encompassing a large area of Crossbell, the CGF needs to be deployed in order to handle the issue. As a representative of the CGF, we CANNOT leave this incident alone.  That, coupled with the fact that the damages weren’t serious, led to a halt in the investigation by the Commander.So it was something like that, huh…?...Oh, that’s right. I still haven’t introduced her, correct? This is Sergeant Noël. She’s still young, but her aptitude in combat and driving vehicles are unsurpassed. She works as my bodyguard and second-in-command.Noël salutes.  Yeah, it’s nice to meet you too....Wait, did you just say “Seeker”? Are you related to Fran Seeker, the receptionist working for the CSPD…?That’s right, I’m her older sister! I’ve heard that you guys have been looking out for her?Heh, it’s the same with her, you know. She’s always handling reports for US. So you’re the legendary Noël Seeker, huh? I’ve heard a lot about you. Apparently you’re the rising star of Tangram Gate?...I’ve heard a lot about you too, Mr. Orlando. They say that you’re a legend... in a sense. I’ve always wanted to meet you at least once.Geez, cut it out with the flattery, will you?A… legend? Randy? At least with the women, I suspect.I mean, I can’t count the number of smoldering glares I’ve received from men, just from my prowess with women alone. Don’t worry… I’ll leave it at that.*gulp* Ha ha…...In any case, the present situation is a little unpleasant for us. If there’s anything that could make a breakthrough, it would be your investigation. Frankly, I’m desperate for any new information at this point....I understand. Here’s a quick summary of our report…  So that’s what happened…So, Sonya? What do you think?...They surpassed my expectations completely. Just the fact that a “Divine Wolf” might have appeared on the rooftop… What do you think, Noël?...Honestly, I’m surprised. It really IS different when an expert is called in.Not only that… their way of thinking about a situation also differs from us.Hm… yes, I’ve decided. I want you to continue your investigation at Mainz. If all goes well, we’ll have uncovered new facts by the end of the day.Well, that was what we were going to do, but…Wouldn’t you be ignorin’ the Commander’s orders?We were ordered to withdraw. I did not receive any orders to tell you to stop your investigation. On the other hand, if you find any clues, I’ll be able to drop everything immediately to mobilize my troops.I wouldn’t be disobeying my orders in that case, right? Crafty of you.*giggle* So there was a loophole after all…...Also, it looks like the monsters were able to predict our movements. Rather than making it obvious with a large group like the CGF, it’d be easier if a small group could slip past the monsters. At least, that’s what I’m hoping for.Heh, alright. In any case, I’d like to start heading toward Mainz now.Of course. If you figure something out, contact my office at Tangram Gate immediately....See you, Sergei. We can talk about “that” another time.Yeah, I got it. Don’t take any chances, okay?You too.Let’s head out, Noël.Yes, Ma’am!Vice Commander Sonya and Sergeant Noël salute before heading out. Special Support Section  It looks like she was busy withdrawing from the mountains all morning.That’s what happens when you have that kind of boss. And it’s not like she can slack off on guarding our borders with the Republic, either. She drew the short straw like usual…Do you know her personally, chief? You were really casual with each other.Huh, now that you mention it, she WAS the one who said I’d be a good fit here. You in some kinda special relationship, or somethin’?We go way back.Sergei lights his cigarette.  Are you really sure you want to take a hike into the mountains? On foot again?  ...I don’t think so. We were just REALLY unlucky with buses yesterday.We were thinking about just taking a bus for the entirety of today. Wait, really!? And here I thought you were copying the Bracers… ...What do you mean by that?It’s their… modus operandi, you could say. Instead of taking public transportation, they scout out the land. This allows them to build up stamina, familiarize with the type of monsters, and get a feel for the place. It’s probably one of the most effective methods they have in their arsenal.Scouting out the land…...They really do that kinda stuff, huh?So, that means that Estelle and Joshua yesterday were… ...Probably doing exactly that, yes.Speaking of which, apparently those two were crucial in solving the “Liberl Incident” that occurred last year. The incident where a complete blackout surged throughout the kingdom…Woah, woah, you serious about that, old man?If that is indeed the truth, then they already have a lot of experience under their belt.Ha, we still have the home advantage here. Make sure they don’t surpass you in that, at least....Especially for a case like this. If you take too long, the Bracer’s Guild will take matters into its own hands. Roger that. We’ll do our best to find out the truth as quickly as possible.Alright, guys. Once we’re ready, let’s head out to Mainz! We should be leaving through the northern exit right near the Residential District. Translation: “This is your last chance to buy equipment this chapter! Once we get going, we're not stopping for anyone!” and just replace the appropriate words with propa high-class speech.  In any case, now that today is a new day, we have a couple of more Support Requests to deal with! First one is pretty straightforward since it’s mostly gabbing and cutscenes. The second one down the list is a dungeon, and the last one is on our way to Mainz. There’s also a second hidden quest that we’ll be tackling after a bit of exploration. Anyway, from top to bottom, we have… Assistant Inspector Needed! posted:Client: Inspector Quattro Abandoned Apartment Extermination posted:Client: Mrs. Imelda Wanted Monster: Mainz Mountain Path posted:Client: City Hall During Mission Accomplishment  For this update, we’ll be tackling on the train station request. We’ll go around and talk to people at a better time. We’ve got the Trails edition of Papers, Please! to attend to.    Has it really been one month since we came here, already?Didn’t the train inspector ask us to help him with something?Yeah, let’s go talk to him when we’re ready. Nice to see that the train station has been keeping up with its squeaky clean floors and firm rugs in the   You are… the Special Support Section? Did you come in for a request today?Inspector Quattro is waiting for you up the stairs and to the left in front of the inspection room. Being a train station, she also sells food and the Crossbell Times, of course. And… what is this robbery, Crossbell Station? I’ve paid for movie popcorn less than that lunchbox. That said… 40% HP recovery and a panacea all in one bundle is pretty good. I’m not gonna dispute that, at least.  Didn’t Lloyd say that he came back to Crossbell from the Republic? It’s been so long now...  Excuse me, are you the inspector? We saw your Support Request… Hmph, that means your the… Special Support Section, is that right?My name is Quattro. I was transferred here from the Erebonian military to act as an inspection officer. I want to talk about what you’re going to do for me immediately. Are you ready?Yes. Would you mind elaborating on our job?Alright… hmph… drat…(?) Is something wrong, Mr. Quattro?SOME of you are a little too young to be handling something like this. *grits teeth* Tch, well whatever. It’s probably better than no one showing up at all.(A bit of a jerk, is he?)...What did you say? Ignore him. More importantly, what’s this about wanting help for an inspection?...A train inbound from the Empire is going to arrive soon at Platform 2. I’d like it if you could help me perform an inspection once everyone boards.An inspection… so we’re going to be checking that anyone suspicious or anyone who has illegal contraband isn’t boarding the train, basically....Normally there would be more inspectors to help me, but unfortunately, everyone seemed to have gotten sick around the same time. That’s why I had no choice but to call on you for today....I see, we understand the situation now....Good.The PA system chimes in.   Any passengers boarding a train heading toward the Erebonian Empire should wait a Platform 2. I repeat…  Alright! Time to police up this inspection! Bitch!  This is a little bit of a short notice, but I’ll explain more once we’re on Platform 2. Follow me.  I still kinda think he’s a jerk.But on the other hand, let’s give him a hand. He looks like he needs it. Personally, he felt more stressed out than anything. Probably because he’s the only guy on the job, and he isn’t getting paid enough for this. But ehhh…   I’ve been on an Amtrak train several times before. This checks out pretty well, minus the benches most of the time. Now about that job…  Each person will inspect one train car. Once you’re on your car, I’ll need you to check their passport and carry-on luggage. If you find any that don’t have a passport or have some sort of contraband, bring them to me immediately.Hm… inspectin’ them is fine and all, but if passengers are outta their seats durin’ the inspection, what do we do? I don’t think we’d able to cover everythin’ with some glaze-eyed newbs like us.Yeah, you need to be careful of that. However, passengers cannot move around the train until the end of the inspection. Sometimes we get people trying to cause a racket and move to another car.It’s a little strict, isn’t it?...I understand our job now. One car per person, huh…?Randy and I will be fine by ourselves. But if anyone starts up something with Elie or Tio…Why are you worried about us now of all times? Plus, you know… she has a gun if things get that bad somehow.  C’mon, Lloyd, have a little faith in them! It’s not like they’re gonna get in a cat fight with anyone. They know how to defend themselves!...Yeah, you’re right about that.Well, then… are you ready?Yes.Then it looks like we’re ready for business! I will inspect the first car myself. You can choose which cars you want to inspect yourselves.Hm… alright. I’ll take the second car, then. Elie, you take the third car, Tio has the fourth, and Randy has the last car.See you later! Roger that!Roger, roger!Do be careful… Alright, let’s get started!Lloyd boards the train. C.S.P.D. −Crossbell State Police Department−  *pulls out tonfas* Tickets, please.  I’ll need to be polite when I do the inspection. I’d like to think that while we’re looking at everything from Lloyd’s boring rear end inspection, Elie in the next train car over is already in the middle of a solo boss battle with a clown, or a cyborg ninja sent from the Republic to infiltrate Erebonia or something. Meanwhile, we get this:   You really, the inspector, son? Where’s your drat proof!?Er… (Hoo, boy. I can tell how this is gonna go already…)...Oh, that’s right! Take a look at this!Lloyd flashed his Detective’s Notebook at the passenger. I’m from the CSPD. We’re helping out with inspections today.Police…? Hmph, fine. It’s honestly easy to mistake you for a hoodlum… Whatever, do what you want.T-Thanks. (I guess.) Thanks for your cooperation.Tch, don’t need a thank you. Hurry up and get this over with! I’m in a hurry!O-Okay… I’d like to check your passport and carry-on luggage, please.An inspector? A little unusual to see someone like you out of uniform....Well? What is it? Is it THAT suspicious to see a young, charming woman like myself out wandering around the country?Um, no? Not at all? I ju-All I wanted to do was travel to Erebonia with my boyfriend! But I was dumped all of a sudden yesterday! Can you believe it!? I’d already bought our tickets, so it’s not like I could NOT travel by myself. But I won’t let myself be stopped here! I’m going to find myself a handsome, rich, preferably nice boyfriend and show him! I’ll show all of them! (...This is going nowhere. I guess I’ll just check everything while she’s talking.)  Y-Yeah, he was…*cough* Anyway, I’ve checked everything. You’re good to go.......Is… something wrong?...No, it’s nothing. I was just thinking that it felt really good to talk about it, for once. You know, if you’re interested, we can go to the Empire toge-I… I really need to get back to my job! Alright, two down, three more to go…   An inspector, eh? Lemme find our passport quickly… Daaaaaaad, Moooooooooom, why isn’t the train moving yet? *sigh* Goodness, how many times do I need to tell you to patient? *giggle* I’m sorry about him.Oh, uh, don’t worry about it, ma’am.Hey, it’s going to take just a little longer. Can you wait just a bit more?Okaaaay.(Okay, let’s get this over with as quickly as I can.)Lloyd looks over their passports and belongings.  It looks like everything’s in order. Thanks for your cooperation.Sure, no problem.Hurry up. I want to go around on the traaain!Honestly, how many times do I have to tell you to stay in your seat! I’d like to check your passport and carry-on luggage, please. Yes, yes. Do you mind waiting one moment?Heh, heh, heh…Is something wrong?A-Ah, sorry. It’s nothing. I was just amazed by the sight of the Knox Woodlands, which you can see through the window over there. I was just laughing because of the other sights I’ll be seeing on this trip.Well, I hope you’ll have a good trip, then....Oh, I’m sorry. You came here for an inspection, right?Yeah, that’s right. I’m sorry, but if you’ll excuse me…Lloyd looks over his passports and belongings.  It looks like everything’s in order. Thanks for your cooperation.No, no, thanks for all your hard work! Heh, heh… man, I can’t wait until departure time… Yeah, sure. Do what you gotta do, I guess. W-Wait, no! My, um… clothing is in that bag, you know?...Welp. Sorry, but that’s kinda how it is.No, sir, it doesn’t work like that! We have to follow regulations… If you really do have your, uh, clothing in there, I won’t pry TOO much.O...OK.(I can’t wait for this job to be over.)Lloyd looks over their passports and belongings.  It looks like everything’s in order. Thanks for your cooperation.You’re welcome.*glare* J-Just go away! There wasn’t anyone suspicious, so I should report to Inspector Quattro now…...(...) This was my first time doing a job like this. I didn’t overlook anything, right…? That’s a pretty big indicator that we’re not done with this Support Request, if anything. To progress this sidequest, we need to double back and talk to the group with the kid here.  No, you can’t! Stay in your seat until the inspector is finished!That’s right. We don’t want to make the inspector angry at us, okay?Huh? But that man over there came from the car in front of us!(The train car in front of us…? Isn’t that the one Inspector Quattro is going through?)(Wait… did that man move between train cars when the inspection began? The man that we need to talk to is the guy with the really shifty laugh. Well, well, well… it looks like we’ve found our purp. If you’ll follow me, sir, our First Class Air Conditioned is right this way…  Hey, inspector? Is the train ready to depart yet?Excuse me? I’d like a few moments of your time.Um, yes? I thought you were done with your inspection.There’s something that’s been bothering me. If it’s alright with you, I’d like to go over everything again....I don’t mind. Did you forget to check something? Here’s my passport and luggage…...No, I won’t be the one doing the inspection. I was going to ask Inspector Quattro to do it. H-Hey, wait, no. We don’t need through those lengths, do we? You’ve already gone over the inspection!It looks like I was right. You DID know about him.Er… w-well…Inspector Quattro went over some of the regulations before we started this. And as I recall, one of them was “You may not move to another train car during inspections”.Y-Yes, I know about that rule. Are you saying that I broke it in some way?Sorry to tell you this, but… we have a witness. The boy over there said that he saw you enter this car from the one in front.W-Whaaaaat!? L-Look, you’re making a big mistake, okay?Don’t worry, we’ll have it all sorted out once we ask Inspector Quattro about this issue. But the problem is… why? Why did you do something like this? According to the train’s regulations, you should have been inspected by Mr. Quattro. But despite that, you decided to move into this car instead.Logically, you did this in order to escape Mr. Quattro’s inspection… Am I right?Ah…... I...I just wanted to travel! L-Look, there’s nothing wrong with my passport, is there!?Hm, alright. Well… if you really are innocent, then you shouldn’t have any problems with showing it to the Inspector, right?...! Um… I don’t know how Inspectors usually react to a situation like this… but so long as I’m Assistant Inspector of this car, I can’t overlook any suspicious behavior like the one you’re exhibiting. I’m going to have to ask you to follow me....O, Okay…Ten minutes later…  Fraud…?So he faked everything on his passport, as well?He’s a former con artist from the Republic of Calvard. He likes to travel a lot, so he hides his previous convictions on his passport. He must have started avoiding me ever since I caught him the last time.This is the second time I’ve caught him now. What a fool…A former con-artist… I wonder what he’s doin’ now?He finished his prison sentence at Calvard. Honestly, he seems to be leading an honest life, nowadays. He dealt in petty thievery and other little schemes, so he wasn’t charged with a major crime....But the thing about prior convictions is that they follow you around for the rest of your life. If you were convicted of a crime before, it’s hard to travel around the world as you see fit. He probably hated that.He’s probably thinking something along the lines of “If I hadn’t committed fraud…”, but frankly he’s getting what he deserves. A crime is a crime. Once you’ve committed to it, there’s no getting rid of your sin....Do you know what will happen to that man?He’s being detained in my office right now. Once he’s gotten his warning, I’ll be sending him back to the Republic. It’s not that big of a deal, really.I see…In any case, other than that the inspection was cleared without any issues. We’re a little behind schedule now, but at least the train will arrive there safely.I owe you one, Special Support Section… If anything else happens, I’ll make sure to call on you again....No, thank YOU very much. I think we learned a lot on this job. If there’s anything else you need, please contact us at our office.Ha, yeah…Inspector Quattro leaves to lay down the law…  Truly… but I think Tio is the most exhausted out of all of us.Huh? What are you talking about?Petiote over here was mistaken as the “Station Master for a day”. Seriously, everyone she inspected wanted to adopt her!Ado- Are you alright, Tio? ......Are you THAT depressed to the point where you can’t speak!?N-No, I just want to… go somewhere quiet.Let’s go.Y-Yeah, just don’t overdo it, okay? That’s the end of that little sidequest. Just needed to go through a bunch of rowdy passengers and bust a guy who just wanted to go have wacky adventures in a faraway land. That’s alright, I guess?  All that’s left to do is to cash in that report for our salary. 5 DP and 2000 mira this time around. Well, I guess that’s something. Next time, we’ll tackle on more Support Requests and procrastinate on our real objective, because it’s not like the day ends until we say it does!
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Jul 18, 2019 20:19
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This update taught me that sprite from Final Fantasy VI is not wearing a cowboy hat, but bangs framing his forehead so you can now officially file this LP under "informative" (you're welcome)
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Jul 18, 2019 21:25
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Update sometime today. I have a bit more to transcribe + edit and some GIFs to make, so expect it early afternoon. Also, I've been meaning to say this, but thanks for waiting for all these past months. Frankly, I'm not the best at communicating on the internet, if I'm being honest here. Feel free to pester me for another update if I'm being REALLY slow for some reason. I do enjoy doing this a hell of a lot, but yeah... it does slip my mind occasionally. Pyre of Word Salsa fucked around with this message at 14:17 on Jul 23, 2019 |
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Jul 23, 2019 14:06
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Pyre of Word Salsa posted:Update sometime today. I have a bit more to transcribe + edit and some GIFs to make, so expect it early afternoon. Honestly, this whole series is just fantastic so I'm excited someone is doing this game, because I'll likely never be able to play it. You do your pace Rabbi Raccoon fucked around with this message at 14:41 on Jul 23, 2019 |
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Jul 23, 2019 14:23
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Part 29: “I get it… an extermination, huh?” During Mission Accomplishment  Back to business, as usual. Now that we got a big fat payday, I decided to deck everyone except for Tio out in better equipment. Lloyd, Randy, and Elie are now wearing black Leather Jackets, which I’m sure will make them look like they came off the set of some cyberpunk/noir film.  And since we’re kinda flush in quartz, I decided to just go ahead and open up most of the slots on everyone’s ENIGMA devices. Elie and Tio now have a shitload of MP to work with. I didn’t have enough left over to actually build any new quartz, but eh… the end of the chapter is nearing, and we’ll have plenty more to play with after that.  We’ll start evicting the apartment’s denizens in a moment. But before I begin any more Support Requests, let’s take a look around and see what’s up around the neighborhood.   *blows whistle* Hey, please drive slower! It’s for the pedestrians’ safety!...Hey, is that you, Lloyd? Long time no see, pal!Hey, Kate! Thanks for all your help at the academy! ...Are you on shift today?Yeah, I am. I’m usually the one that directs traffic flow here. If you’re heading out on a patrol, make sure you don’t get hit by distracted drivers!Heh, thanks. She hasn’t changed one bit… I was even a little nervous about meeting her again....How is she!? Did she find someone to settle down with!?Um… N-No she hasn’t (And I’m not sure if I want her to…)*sigh* Cecile… you need to think more about your own future! ...Maybe I’ll try to set her up with someone…(Wait, did I hear that right!? Let me slide in here…) (Randy… knock it off.)Ha ha ha… (I can’t imagine that pairing kicking off… ever.)Mr. Bannings? Your voice sounds a little hoarse.Typical mom behavior. I can confirm it. She’s like that every time my older brother swings by.  Is that you, Mr. Hayworth? Are you currently in the middle of negotiations right now? That’s right. I’m selling some newspapers to Tally’s right now. Are you guys still searching for that monster?That’s right. We couldn’t find it yesterday, so…We’re goin’ to Mainz, now.That’s a long ways to go… Good luck. I can’t do much for you guys, but I hope you can solve this mystery.It looks like Harold’s sprite has a moustache from the front.  Could just be me, but I can imagine it. Frankly, Harold’s probably the type to never grow facial hair ever, but a man can dream. Speaking of amazing facial hair...   Mr. Grimwood, this guy still hasn’t paid up our consultation fee… Oh, him? He told me his financial status wasn’t stable, so I decided to give him a discount....Again!? What about OUR financial status, Mr. Grimwood!? If you just start handing out discounts again, WE’LL end up in the red! O-Oh… Well, sorry about that, Pete.This isn’t something you can just apologize for! Mr. Grimwood, you’re a great lawyer, but you’re a poor businessman!And so Mr. Grimwood’s pride and generosity took yet another hit on this day.   O-Oh it’s you… Ahem, Mary’s doing well today! Anyway, onto the Support Request for today. To start it, we need to talk to Madame Imelda in her antique store right on Back Street. 2500 mira and 5 DP is nice and all, but I’d really rather just have a discount at her place. All of those endgame accessories…  Good morning. Are you Madame Imelda? That’s me… hm? You all look fairly young…Madame Imelda took a closer look at the Special Support Section. (H-Her face…)(She does have a certain air about her… Madame Imelda is one of Crossbell’s “celebrities”, after all.)...Greetings, Madame. We received a request from you about monsters going amok in one of your apartments…?Your apartments are in the city, right? Ain’t that dangerous?Ihihihi, only a little…Imelda sits down.  Well? Are you going to accept my request?Accept.Heh heh… alright, then. Let’s talk business.Go ahead. We’re listening.I own most of the land and property in Crossbell City. One of the apartments I own is called “Maison Imelda”, located Downtown.Downtown?...Makes sense that you’d call on us. If monsters start poppin’ up in the middle of the city, mobsters are the least of your worries. I’m wondering how they got there, but uh…   I get it… an extermination, huh?It would be dangerous if left unchecked. We’ll need to be thorough, then.Since you agreed to my request so nicely, I’ll lend you this.  Downtown, gotcha. Guess we have another field trip scheduled this morning. Lloyd and his crew will just leave you, your dim lighting, and your ominous Dark Souls cackle in peace, okay?  We’ll go ahead and talk to the folks over at East Street another day, since there’s quite a bit to yammer to. To progress the sidequest, we need to head over to the corner where the Saber Vipers have made their nest.  Over here, we can climb some stairs and reach Maison Imelda. I… can kinda see why no one wanted to live there anymore. Well, besides the fact that it’s in gang territory, and you run the risk of getting mugged or leered at every time you head out for work or a jog around the block.  This looks like the place.It hasn’t been maintained for a while, now… it looks all run down.Let’s go inside for now.Yeah, in a moment…Lloyd unlocks the door.  Alright, finally! Let’s get pumped!The Special Support Section enters the apartment. Revache & Co.  A lotta dust has piled up, not to mention that this place is pretty big. A big, bad monster roars in the distance. Geez, if that’s from one monster, imagine what it’s like for that apartment right next door…  It looks like they’ve fully infested the place.The request asked us to exterminate all the monsters… so we’ll do exactly that.Be prepared for anything! Eh, how much do you think an apartment in this rear end-end in the middle of nowhere building would go for…? I don’t think I’d be willing to shell out anything more than 2500 mira per month (with utilities added in). Our objective right now is to murder anything that moves and isn’t us, and for all intent and purpose, this is pretty much a dungeon. Right away, we have three paths in front of us.  Going right leads us to a dead end and some sepith. Why are those drums here…? I’ve heard some poo poo about Cornhell, Ohio from a friend going to university there, but I didn’t think it was THAT bad.  Going straight leads us to more barrels, as well as booze on TOP of those barrels. It also leads to the other side of the room on the right, but is otherwise a dead end as well.  Get Over the Barrier! (Evolution)  You know what, though? That’s fine. Let’s talk about enemies while we’re at it. Thankfully, unlike the previous areas on the overworld, there aren’t many enemy types in here. There are… three enemies here to talk about, and none are threatening in the least.  All of them go down in one to three hits, even from Elie. It’s a little sad, really. This is making me wonder if I should just restart this game and go on a harder difficulty, but I’d probably regret it.  Our first enemy type is a palette swap of those sewer rats back in the Geofront that we tackled in the Prologue. They just kinda ram into you ineffectually. And have a terrible accuracy rating… probably because they have spikes for eyes. Sucks to be them.  Other than that poor result from evolution, we also have your apartment friendly house-sized flies that drain HP from you. That’s pretty much it. I mean, good luck with that 33 HP you drained from me, champ? And that’s from Tio, mind you. I think it was significantly less for Lloyd and Randy.  The most threatening enemy in here is probably the reject Pikachu palette swap that we originally encountered on our way to St. Ursula Medical College. It has the exact same moveset in the sense that it can use Thundershock to Seal one of the team’s ability to attack. But when you can kill everything in a few hits, that doesn’t matter too much now, does it?    Other than that, everyone hit Level 15 while I was going through this horror mansion of monsters. Lloyd learned Inspiration, which grants everyone a STR +25% buff in a relatively large area around him. Hey, it only costs 30 CP too, which is rather nice bonus!   But let’s get back on track here. We need to clear every nook of monsters, or else we won’t be able to complete the request. Other than the first room, there’s pretty much a monster in every room in this building. Hell, maybe the monsters were just trying to move in and pay the lease to a monster property manager before baking cookies and offering it to their human neighbors.  Most of the rooms here are either dead ends or dead ends that contain treasure of some sort. Too bad for the guy that stashed their sepith in here and forgot all about it.   Along the way down, there’s another room that leads to an enemy and a bunch of sepith. Look, you don’t know, maybe the monsters were saving up to buy an orbal car to loving break the speed limit around Crossbell. One spike rat to operate the acceleration, another for the brake, and one of those purple Pikachu things for steering. It’s a perfect plan!  Heading further down that hallway from before will lead to yet another room, and a section of the building that’s been blockaded off. Hm… well, short of lighting the building on fire, I don’t think we can access that area quite yet. Moving the crates and stuff...? Don’t be ridiculous, we can’t just do that. That’s illegal.   Going all the way to the end of the room leads us to a hole in the wall. We emerge on the other side of that first room we saw when we descended down the stairs into the hallway. Long Barrel is an accessory that extends someone’s attack range by 1. I ended up giving it to Elie, after a moment of debate, because who else on the party would have a use out of it?  Anyway, once we’ve wiped out the remaining dregs from existence, we get a cutscene back in the hallway.  I’m pretty sure we’ve gone through all the rooms at this point...Just keep an eye out for anything, okay?.........Yeah.The Special Support Section climb upstairs and make it unimpeded, until…   ...Oh, it’s you again.We are pretty close to the Saber Vipers’ base, aren’t we? Heh heh… HA HA HA HA HA!Uh, hey... do you guys think that he’s up to something?Heh heh… *snort. Yer all covered in dust, ya nerds. ...He has us there.What did you expect? We’ve been fighting monsters. Monsters, huh…? Yeah, you usually see ‘em Downtown.This happens a lot?Yeah, I thought this place looked pretty bad.Something clutters downstairs.  That’s weird… we should have exterminated the monsters by now.I think… that monsters have been breeding here.I’ve felt their presence the entire time ever since we’ve been here. It looks like it’s coming from a deeper section of the apartment.Hah! Yer talkin’ about that now, short stuff!? ...Look, just go back and patrol yer drat city, ‘kay? Wait, what are you even doing!? And Wald just… leaves to beat the poo poo out of every monster by himself. I can get behind that. I mean, 5-to-1 odds that we still have to bail him out of a battle, but it’s the thought that counts.  Judging by his personality alone… I’m guessing that he went to deal with the strongest monsters he could find.  It doesn’t matter if it’s Wald. Going alone might cause more issues than it solves.Elie, Tio, is it alright if we leave you to guard the entrance? Because of how loud he’s being, he might scare away the monsters and cause them to attempt escape.Ah, so you want us to stand guard here.Are you two going to drag Mr. Wales back out?Something like that. We’ll be checking up on him, at the very least.Yeah, that’s probably the right call. Let’s get goin’, Lloyd…Yeah! Now we need to follow Wald Wales down this rabbit hole full of monsters. Before that though, it’s worth mentioning that we can now talk to Elie or Tio for a full HP/EP recovery, since leaving right now would probably kill off Wald in whatever cutscene he’s waiting to be saved from.  Hey, remember what I said about random battles being a piece of cake to breeze through? Well, that still applies… just that it takes twice as long now that Elie and Tio aren’t in our party. The enemies in this dungeon still attack us for a minimal amount of health, it’s just that we have to sit through all their turns every time.  But hey, that’s why we use Inspiration, now! With the buff we get from Lloyd’s Craft, we can reliably one-shot the bloodsuckers buzzing around us. The other enemies still take two shots to knock out, but batting away large mosquitos in one go is still a big improvement over them taking two turns to swat.  In any case, when we head downstairs we find the previously blockaded doorway smashed open. Wald Wales does not give a gently caress about your petty instance_create or whatever this game uses. You know you have a true delinquent on your hands when he ignores the boundaries of the universe.  C’mon, let’s get in there! Barrels… why did it have to be barrels? The second part of the apartment consists of more rooms, of course. The way we want to go is upstairs and enter the only room there. But there are monsters nearby. In fact, the rooms on the right ONLY consist of monsters.  Well, that and probably booze on the shelves. I kinda just have this feeling that people break into this building and hide stuff here all the time. Or maybe that’s just me.  The only thing worth noting on the ground floor is this treasure chest here with some (dusty) kicks for the party. Sprinter is some footwear that grants DEF +10, SPD +3, and MOV +2. I ended up giving it to Lloyd for now, but that’ll probably change once I’m out of here.  When we head upstairs, we hear Wald let out a battle cry. Given Lloyd’s duel with him in the Prologue, I wouldn’t be surprised if he started trash-talking the monster he’s duking it out with in there.   Tch, this freakin’ bastard!The apartment starts shaking.  (sweating) H-Hey, this is gettin’ kinda dangerous, isn’t it!?This is why it’s risky going it alone! Randy, we’re helping him out, whether he likes it or not!Roger that! Yeah, that’s nice and all, but I’m sure Wald can hang out for a few more minutes. We don’t want to miss the more important monster chest here. Dealing with the boss right now boots us all the way back to Madame Imelda’s for the “quest completion” chat, and I don’t want to worry about missing anything this. Our enemy is four of these guys, since Elie and Tio aren’t with us. I’m not sure if the number changes if they’re in the party, actually. Probably not, but it’s worth wondering about.  The reward for clearing the monster chest is a Fiber Coat (DEF +28, ADF +14). I decided on equipping it on Randy, since he probably needs the buff to balance out his somewhat low defenses at this point. Sprinter on Lloyd, Fiber Coat on Randy. Sounds good.  Let’s finally bail this jerk out. Man, it would be messed up if the game counted the time we took to get there, and if we overshot it, all we would find would be a hollowed out corpse or something. Hopefully Wald hasn’t been turned into chow after he left our supervision.  You bastard!The Special Support Section pulls a Big drat Heroes moment and whips out their weapons.   We’re here to help!Arrest the Criminal   Here we go! The final part of this sidequest is to rescue Wald and beat the snot out of El Flea here. You may have noticed that Wald has joined the party at half health as an NPC here. He has also managed to forget all the Crafts he had when he fought Lloyd back in the Prologue. On the other hand, true to Wald’s reputation, he still deals slightly more damage than Lloyd or Randy at this point, especially when buffed with Inspiration.  The main strategy for this fight is to reach Wald first, attacking any of the Flea’s minions along the way (preferably using area crafts such as Lloyd’s Accel Rush or Randy’s Power Smash). While the Flea’s minions won’t do much to Wald, the boss himself hits fairly hard and we just want to be there just in case he needs a heal. Not having Elie or Tio for this section means that we don’t have a long range pick-me up just in case.  Frankly, all of his minions have poor accuracy, and Wald is likely to one-shot them in retaliation. While the bloodsuckers are easy enough to defeat, especially with Crafts that target an area, there’s one reason why we want to get rid of them.   The boss is one of those types to call for reinforcements. It’s more of an annoyance than anything else, and is more of a boon since it wastes its turn instead of attacking. But damage does build up, and it’s better to get rid of them so you don’t have to sit there watching every turn go by.  Wald is our hardest hitter for this fight. We’re actually here to perform crowd control more than anything else, but once we’re done with that, we can pitch in with everything we can.  And hell, if you can get it done faster, then get it done faster. Although I do hope we told Madame Imelda that we would not be held liable for any damages incurred while inside the apartment…  So the strategy for this fight is: crowd control, bail out Wald if needed, and dog pile the boss. Buff everyone with Inspiration if you want the battle to go faster.  The only time you have to worry about this battle is when El Flea breathes mist at you. You take a pretty healthy chunk of damage and there’s a high chance you can get poisoned. In fact, Randy actually managed to go down to critical in this fight because of it.   But other than that? Pretty easy. I had to use some balms but that was pretty much it. At least he gave out some sepith to cash in. I’m… not sure what it was doing with Eye Drops, but I try not to question what kind of items a bug has in its drawers.  That was a pretty tough fella.Yeah, and we didn’t have support from Elie or Tio, either…...Are you alright, Wald?...Hmph. You think I’m some weak-rear end bitch that needs helpin’? Huh!?Try not to pick a fight here… And language.Well, it’s not like we came here thinkin’ he’d be singin’ our praises.Elie and Tio rush into the room.  Somethin’ like that. SOMEONE was in a pretty tight spot, wasn’t he?...Hey, Red. You want me to walk on o’er and crack your skull open!?(looks around) ...I can’t sense the monsters around anymore.Everyone else looks around. Yeah, it’s nice and quiet now. Guess it’s ‘cause we beat their leader.Tch, so this is where it ends, huh?  And hey, don’t just stroll down ta Downtown like ya own the joint. This is OUR turf. If yer done, then get the hell outta here!Wald leaves.  Good grief, it’s literally one word. “Thanks”. How hard is that?Hard enough, I guess. Anyway, let’s go report to Madame Imelda. You made a mess, but I can’t argue with the results....Yeah, thanks…Hey, I got a question for you, by the way. There were monsters crawlin’ all over the place. The hell even happen for you to neglect that place?If you’re managing the apartments, you should be complying to safety standards a little more…Well, either way, it’s vacant now. If people were to live in there, I don’t think the monsters would move back in.Yes, yes, it has been such a long time since it’s been used, but that’s fine, you see? The rent in Downtown has been a little too cheap, so I was waiting for the land’s value to go up. Ihihihihi… Do you see what I was doing now?I am Madame Imelda, the greatest land owner… the most handsome real estate agent! I am everything in Crossbell!”Maison Imelda” is the cheapest of my apartments. I have other places where I profit, too!W-Wow… Okay, then. (Is that her real business…?)(Madame Imelda is a name that’s well-known in Crossbell’s higher circles. As a businesswoman, she is very wealthy and influential.)(Heh, heh, no wonder she’s got that all-important air around her...)When the apartments haven’t been used for a while, monsters tend to move in. Which is why we call you in.Hm… I’ll leave the key in your care for a while. If you feel like it, go ahead and give it a scrub down!(sweatdrop) (...Let’s go back to work. I don’t have the energy to argue with her right now.)(...Agreed.)  This time, in addition to the usual DP and mira, we also got promoted! Spirit Badge is an accessory that gives DEF +15 and prevents Faint. It’s going straight on Tio, since she’s the magical powerhouse that I’m trying to make as invincible as I can. Next time in Crossbell, we’ll tackle on a hidden sidequest involving gambling and finally head out to Mainz. I fully expect to be broke by the end of the next update, so look forward to that.
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Jul 23, 2019 18:30
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: You think I’m some weak-rear end bitch that needs helpin’? Huh!? I get the feeling that Wazy Hemisphere wouldn't have needed help against a giant bug, though...
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Jul 23, 2019 22:39
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Pyre of Word Salsa posted:
Well now. I didn't go into this quest hoping we eventually get to arrest the quest-giver, but here we are.
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Jul 24, 2019 21:13
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CmdrKing posted:Well now. I didn't go into this quest hoping we eventually get to arrest the quest-giver, but here we are. Not hard to see why people are like, "thank the goddess, Bracers are here to solve my problem! Oh, you're police...well, good luck I guess." It's kind of awkward when the town is talking about which foreign-power backed mafia is going to take over most of the city. All that said, it IS good that we see difficult-to-solve social problems actually exist, because Liberl was basically perfect at the end of its crisis; here, granny is just like, "gently caress yeah I'm letting monsters bone each-other in my buildings to drive up rent, and it ain't even a crime if I just get people to thwack them for almost no pay." It kinda makes me wonder if she went to the police because she knew the Bracers might actually strong-arm her into fixing her drat building.
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Jul 24, 2019 23:20
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oh heck yeah. Trails is very good at reinforcing or introducing setting details and themes in the quests, and even more than the casual crime nothing quite says "turn of the century big-city corruption" to me than "scummy landlord leaving housing empty just to drive up rent". Granted it does sorta make you question why we're sticking with the police but that's a whole other thing. And honestly so far the limitations are more or less the point.
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Jul 24, 2019 23:40
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Part 30: “...You didn’t just lie so you could play at the casino, right?” Tomorrow Is Another Day  Let’s go around and talk to our buddies on East Street and Downtown. Well, our buddies on East Street, and our gang connections in Downtown. And that weapons shop right there. Look, it’s not like there are any police officers patrolling in Downtown to quirk an eyebrow at the Special Support Section’s hang out spots anyway.   Do you have ANY idea how worried Hugo and I were!?  This is the gang member that got whacked back in the Prologue. There’s actually this whole substory throughout the game where he’s forced to quit the Testaments and find legal employment… at the Testaments’ bar. I’ll try to get as much of it as I can during this playthrough.  Work…? Ah, ah, ah. It’s my little S-E-C-R-E-T. Anything more than that, and I’d have to charge you for the information.Part-Time job at McDowalls. He’s gotta keep up with the rent somehow, right?   As a side note, now that we’re past the Prologue chapter, there is another shop that opened up quietly. Guilluame Factory is a little unique in that it offers a different type of service than the ones we’ve seen up until now.  Namely, the ability to forge better weapons. To forge a weapon, we need the base weapon (in this case, the Sledgehammer from Gironde), and two U Materials. As I’ve previously discussed, you can exchange for U Materials at… er, the Exchange Shop. I won’t be forging anything for now, but let’s talk to the owner for a bit while we’re here.  He hasn’t changed at all since I last saw him 20 years ago…  I can make adjustments to it if you want?No, it’ll be faster if I do it.O-Oh, okay.  I’m in tip-top condition! Sorry about makin’ ya worried about all that!Ya said you we’re gonna go to the hospital tomorrow, right? Don’t do anythin’ stupid until you recover.G-Gotcha! Thanks a lot!That’s all we’re doing in Downtown. All of the gang hooligans who got their poo poo pushed in last month in-game are now recovering. So that’s nice. Since we’re in the neighborhood, let’s drop in at East Street while we’re at it. I do have a bit of business to take care of there, now that we’ve unlocked the ability to fish… During Mission Accomplishment  But first, let’s drop by the Bracer’s Guild and see how they’re doing on the flip side. Yo, guys. How’s tricks?   Hey, what’s up, Special Support Section! H-Hey, guys.Thank you for helping us yesterday. (irritated) *sigh* Estelle… ...Huh? Yeah, Michel?......Hmph, I guess that’s fine. Let’s continue the meeting for now....Uh… huh? Well, I think you can see for yourself… she’s kind of an airhead. I’d be happy if you could treat us like normal people. Despite all of her flaws…...Yeah, we will.We look forward to working with you in the future. Alright, here’s what I really came for. Now that we have a fishing rod, we can head down to the Fisherman’s Guild next door and talk to the receptionist for a sidequest. I should probably stress that this ISN’T a Support Request. It’s a sidequest that spans the entire game. Easy to confuse.  My brother-in-fishing, Coppen, was quick to snatch you up, eh!? I was even going to mail you a personal invitation and everything…...Yeah, I guess so. He…-Wait, when did I join the Fisherman’s Guild!? I did accept that fishing rod earlier, but…Bwah ha ha! Don’t sweat the details, my boy! You are already our comrade!(He sure is pushy…)(...But at the end of the day, we both enjoy fishing. I’m sure he could give me a few tips if I asked…)...Ah, that’s right! Lloyd, my boy, do you know about the “Certification Exam”? In the Fisherman’s Guild, we give out a rank in accordance with your ability as a fisherman! Bwah ha ha, the more you fish, the higher your rank will be!If you don’t understand something, don’t worry about asking me any questions! If you rise in rank, we’ll award you with lavish titles and awards! ...Since you just joined our guild, your current rank is “Novice Angler”. If you want to advance to the next rank, you’ll need to catch four different kinds of fish. ...So, that’s just been rotting in his pocket the entire time, huh? No wonder he woke up early this morning. I wouldn’t have been able to handle that stench clogging up the dorms either.  The Fisherman Guild Manager checked Lloyd’s Fisherman Notebook. Oh… Oh, Lloyd. These catches are making my heart burst in emotion!Very good! As of today, you are now a “Hobby Angler”! Our prize for achieving the Hobby Angler rank is a… Straw Hat. That I bought all the way back in the Prologue. T-Thanks?  Oh. Well, that changes everything then. It’s a straw hat that’s been imbued with a fisherman’s soul and heart. It has the POWER to turn Crossbell into a fishing anime with its presence alone.  Lloyd, now that you’re a “Hobby Angler”, I have a medal for you… Here is the next requirement for the certification exam!Next, you must catch ”eight different kinds of fish”. I have complete faith in you, Lloyd Bannings! Welp, I suppose that’s good enough of a sidequest as any. Unfortunately, Lloyd leaves the guild before the manager could burst out in the Fisherman’s Patriotic Anthem. Instead, our next destination is the fish vendor down on the bottom-left there. He also has an important function in our endeavors in fishing.  Namely, the ability to actually sell the fish we’ve caught for sepith! Lloyd just unloads his bundle of rotting fish and takes the sepith in exchange. That’s just the way the Special Support Section rolls.  Finally, it’s worth noting that if we go to the CSPD and show off our Combat Notebook at this point, Rebecca the receptionist will fork over 500 mira to spend. Eh… at this point I’m kinda drowning in the stuff. It’ll probably go down the drain once I start the hidden request, but that’s nice of you…   Speaking of the hidden request, to actually start it we need to pay a visit to the restaurant on East Street, and visit the inn portion that’s been tucked in the corner.  We can find a family chilling in one of the rooms. Or a parent and his child, anyway… What the hell is the Special Support Section even doing here?  <notices the party> Oh, it’s… the Special Support Section? Do you guys have that <Mishy> doll that was being sold last month? For the record, this is Mishy. It’s the current mascot for Nihon Falcom, as well as the in-game amusement park that’s definitely not Disney World. The Zero and Azure translations translate his name as Michey, which I’m sure is a coincidence.  Um… a Mishy doll?Mishy is the mascot of Michelam Health Resort. If I remember correctly, Tio is the one that’s collecting Mishy merchandise right now.Yes, but… I don’t have that doll yet.You’re a fan too, hm? Ha ha ha, my son’s a huge fan as well! Because of that, I came to Crossbell to buy a plush, but…The horror! The horror… it was sold out at the department store in Central Square!W-Wait, it was sold out at the department store? I-Is it THAT popular!?...Lately, they’ve been doing a sale where only one item is being sold at a time.This month, they were selling the Mishy doll, which has a ton of cuteness in its small size!...Huh, guess that’s Petiote for you.......Speaking of that doll, I think I saw it in the casino as one of the prizes. H-Hey, come on, don’t look at me like that. Do I look like the kinda guy to buy a plush? Anyway, I think it was lined up with their other stuff.R-Really!? But even then… I don’t like gambling…(...) Uh, if it’s alright with you, could you guys go get it for me? Don’t worry, I’ll pay you back!(The casino…? This… isn’t really part of our duties as the police. Should we…?)(As long as it’s because of a good reason, I don’t see why not.)Hell, yes! ‘Course we’ll accept!(sweatdrop) ...Someone’s in a hurry....You didn’t just lie so you could play at the casino, right? So begins our quest to gamble away our money to buy a doll for a man who wants it for his kid. Returning overdue books for other people doesn’t seem as silly now, does it?  Mishy… you son of a bitch. So YOU’RE the one responsible for all those gambling addicts in Crossbell. You’ll WISH you sound like a “Mishy” when I’m done with you… Arc-en-ciel  Well, there’s no progressing this sidequest if we don’t get our hands dirty, I suppose. We need to hit up the casino now to horrendously lose Lloyd’s life savings right now. Hell… let’s go for it! As long as we make more than we lose, we should be fine! It’s a free country! In any case, the casino is the lavish building that the bunny girl is standing in front of. This IS the Entertainment District, after all…    ...Mr. Orlando, I think you have a problem.He does this whenever he goes out on a patrol, too…If it has a legitimate purpose behind it, I won’t say no, but… Look, Randy. Don’t gamble everything away again, alright? *You can’t exchange your medals for money, but you purchase prizes with them.*   I… I don’t have enough to get back on the train.  Well, if it isn’t Mr. Orlando! Welcome back!Yo, Cherry, sweetheart! I’ve got somethin’ I’d like to ask you. You have Mishy Dolls as prizes here, right?That’s right~, it’s the cheapest prize. They’re really popular, so they get sold out quick! Hmmm… since you asked so nicely, Mr. Orlando, I’ll stock them up! Just for you… I didn’t even know that you had that side to you. That’s so c-u-t-e!Heh heh, glad ya think so, babe.What did I tell you guys?I guess even YOU have to be right… for once....Mr. Bannings, do keep in mind that he still has a chronic gambling addiction....But at any rate, let’s gamble away until we get Mishy!Yeah… alright.(...Is it just me? For a moment there was this really intense twinkle in Tio’s eyes…) The exchange rate for mira to medals is 5 to 1. Which doesn’t seem bad at first, until you realize that you need to pay up 1000 mira for 200 medals, or even more depending on how much you want to spend here.  And 1000 mira is what we need to purchase a Michey Doll. Note that we can also purchase a pair of Mewnderful Boots and a Martial Arts Uniform here. While the Martial Arts Uniform is up and far beyond the Leather Jackets most of our party is wearing, it’s pretty pricey. And we could purchase the Mewnderful Boots, except that they’re kind of terrible. But… hell, while I just did straight up buy two Michey Dolls (one for the dad, and another for Tio  ), let’s take a look at gambling. I mean, it’s gambling in an RPG. That’s always gonna be a time sink no matter what. I can’t be the only one who spent literally days in my childhood getting a Porygon in Pokemon Red/Blue.  First up, we have the casino table next to the exchange desk. We can play Poker or Blackjack here. It’s pretty standard stuff, so I’ll give it a quick overview.  In Blackjack, the dealer will… well, deal two cards to each player. The objective is to reach the sum of 21 without going over, as well as beating the opponent’s number. If we hit, the dealer gives us another card to add. If we stand, that means we’re happy with our cards, and we pass our turn onto the dealer.  Once everyone’s happy with their cards or has gone over 21, the dealer reveals everyone’s cards. Higher number wins. That’s… pretty much it. You’re always in the running as long as you don’t go above 21. Honestly, I’m guessing everyone in the thread knows how Blackjack works, which makes this explanation redundant.  The one thing I will note is that if you win, you can play a consecutive game and potentially win even more. But if you lose the game, you lose all the medals you bet during the first round.  We also have poker, which is pretty standard stuff as well. Unlike Blackjack, I’d have to waste WAY too many screenshots explaining how poker works. And really, a lot of people know how to play poker anyway. If you DON’T know how to play poker, here’s a Wikipedia article: Poker   Over in the corner, we have roulette. In this game, we place a certain number of medals on a certain possibility, whether it’s a group of numbers, red or black, even or odd, etc. Once we’re happy with our bets, we can go ahead and spin the wheel on the top left.   If the wheel lands on our bet… congrats! Your medals get doubled. If not? Well, I hope you didn’t spend everything at once.  Finally, we have slot machines upstairs. I… REALLY don’t think I need to explain what a slot machine is. I think I knew what they were when I was in first grade and I saw some slots in Wildwood, New Jersey. But there is one thing I want to note:  The slot machines are Ys themed. And when you win a round against the slots?  Adol cracks that treasure chest open. Ah, Oath in Felghana… good times. Good times.  In any case, that’s pretty much it for the casino. I ended up just buying two of those Mishy Dolls for 2000 mira. Apparently, you gain extra DP by not gambling…? I’m not sure how true that is. Regardless, Tio better appreciate that doll I got her. It doesn’t even do anything too useful (DEF +2, MOV +1), but I equipped it on her anyway. Anyway, let’s wrap this quest up.  W-We just need one! If you could give it to us…!Hand the doll over.Yeah, here you go. It wasn’t hard to get.Lloyd handed over the Mishy Doll.  Hey, Kurt? Kurt! Look here, kiddo! I finally found it!(!) I-It’s Mishy! Yay, Mishy!Thank you so, so much. How can I ever repay you?...It’s not much, but I hope you can accept this. The Special Support Section receives a grand total of… 120 mira. That’s enough to buy a pack of Skittles in a Wawa. That’s something, at least. I’m just going to blame Mishy for this. He was responsible for making me pay 2000 mira to the casino, after all.  I mean, there’s no way I could lose out on gambling. If you guys gave me just a BIT more time, I probably coulda build myself an art galle-A-HEM, shall we go back to work?…Mr. Orlando, you’d better pull your weight for the next support request....OK.  And so we now know the true evil in Crossbell: It’s Mishy. It’s all Mishy. If there was ever such a thing as an evil politician in this universe, it would be Mayor Mishy, and his promotion of gambling. If anything, I hope you’ve learned this lesson today, viewer.
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Jul 25, 2019 19:43
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Mi-shi-shi, You've now experienced Mishy, the best Crossbell character.
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Jul 26, 2019 01:34
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It seems unnecessary for Mishy to be localized by the fan translators differently when Cold Steel's was perfectly fine.
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Jul 26, 2019 03:33
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Part 31: “I think someone lives here, but who would live in a remote place like this?” With our trip to Mainz, we’ll have seen most of what Crossbell has to offer. The Special Support Section needs to leave through the north exit in the Residential District to start their journey there. Remember where we found the cat in that one Support Request yesterday? That’s where we want to leave the city. The Way of the Tree Spirit   Ah…What’s wrong, Tio?Did you hear something again?...I did! Let me boost my sensor’s range! Something roars in the far distance. Welp, I guess we know where the monsters are now…  It sounds faint…...That was definitely a monster. If Petiote didn’t pick up on ‘em, we probably would have missed it too.Whew… it looks like that howl was coming from the direction of the mountain path. Around… 40 selges northwest, I think.40 selges northwest… that’s the middle of the mountain path.Wait, wait… then that means that… ...It looks like we’re gonna have to go it on foot, after all. Sorry guys, but we can’t wait for the bus at this rate....Don’t worry about us. Honestly, I had a feeling something like this was going to happen....I’ll be fine too. But that howl sounded like it was trying to say something…...What do you mean?Was it like… tryin’ to threaten us or somethin’?No… it was... filled with determination. Sorry… I can’t really explain it myself.Hm… Anyway, like Vice Commander Sonya said, if the CGF tries to capture it, it’s likely to escape. Let’s see if we can find it ourselves.I agree. But let’s make sure we’re fully prepared before exploring the mountains.Yeah. We should finish any Support Requests while we can too. Once we’re finished with our preparations, we’ll begin our search on the mountain path. Heading down the path on our left leads us to Mainz. If we go back down to the next map on the bottom, we arrive back at Crossbell. Veering up lets us take a look at an area we very briefly took a glance at some updates back.  Randy strikes me as the type to be forced to go to church, only to snore loudly during a sermon. Elie is the quiet girl in the corner who’s studiously absorbing everything the priest is saying. And Tio is busy playing video games with the volume turned all the way up in the middle of the room.   There isn’t much to do at the cathedral, for now. I just wanted to point out its existence. But if we loop around the side of the main cathedral and exit out the right…  We can find the graveyard Lloyd was paying his respects to earlier in the game. Here sleeps Guy Bannings. If we do a bit of quick math, apparently he was about 25 when he passed away. That sucks.  Enough of that, though. Let’s get out of here. We need to leave for the north if we want to make any headway in reaching Mainz in a timely fashion. I assume the Support Requests took up a good chunk of the SSS’s time, so I’d like it if we could get there sometime before the sun goes down.  A little bit different than the Road to Armorica, hm? Well, sorta. Really though, it’s structured pretty similarly to the previous sections of the overworld we’ve been to. It’s a straight shot leading from Point A to Point B, with a few detours that lead to treasure. On the other hand… it has some really pretty sights that you definitely see when you’re playing Zero for yourself.  We need to keep heading north, of course. Always follow the path… except when it doesn’t. For example, you see that little place that hooks around on the map to the right?   There’s a little fishing spot right next to the waterfall here (and a rainbow)! We can fish to our hearts content here. Unfortunately, trying to catch some fish with Dumplings is a no go: We’d need a higher tier rod for that and not the dinky little Novice Rod we literally just got yesterday. But we CAN catch something with Earthworms, if we’re patient enough.  We can find Snow Crabs here! They spit out Mirage quartz, so I ended up catching a few. We’ll get a nice tidy bonus once we peddle them to the fish merchant back in Crossbell, as well.  But despite the fact that I said we could fish to our heart’s content… we really can’t. That’s because there is, of course, a whole new circle of enemies that want the Special Support Section’s hides. Not that that’s going to happen. I’m just putting that out there. Get Over the Barrier!  First, we have what the game calls “Rock Rats”. Admittedly they look more like rabbits to me, but I’ll chalk it up to the low polygonal models the PSP version of the game has. They attack us by sorta rolling their boulders right up in our faces and smacking us for a minimal amount of damage.  It is worth mentioning though that enemies start getting hardier from here on out. That was the average amount of damage that Lloyd dished out, keep in mind. Randy was able to deal slightly more than that.   Other than that, we have the latest enemy I sorta have to go  on: Humming Gators. Yes, the bastard child of hummingbirds and alligators. At least, that’s what Tio’s analyzer kind of implies. I… I don’t even want to know how that works. They can fly and loving bite your hand off at the same time. Evolution is kinda messed up in Crossbell, if you think about it. They attack by pecking someone to death, apparently. I mean, I have to admire the SSS’s gusto. They need to have serious balls to fight off an alligator that somehow drank Red Bull and grew wings.  Then there is the third Drome variant we’ve seen so far. Fourth, if you count the big guy that almost wasted the party back in the very first dungeon. I’ve gone over Dromes enough to the point where you should know their thing already. They’re tough and heal during their turn. Sometimes they use artes corresponding to their element when they’re threatened. Pass.  We also have yellow slimes waiting to dissolve the party. These guys are pretty big bastards for one gigantic reason.   Their one and only attack, Foaming, has a high chance of inflicting either Blind or Confusion. It is a slight issue when, say, Randy decides to take a quarter of Tio’s health in one swing. Otherwise, it’s more of an annoyance that drags the battle out for far longer than it should be.  Finally, we have large, rooted plants that I feel like are recolors from either Oath in Felghana or Ark of Napishtim. These guys are a little more interesting in the sense that we’ve never really encountered them before. They have… an interesting moveset for plants. Well, one move that’s kind of interesting for a plant to have.  The first, and decidedly more generic, is their ability to spray pollen in someone’s face to make them Blind for a few turns. They can use it from a fair distance away.   Yeah, you read that right. These plants can caused localized earthquakes to ensnare their prey or whatever they cause earthquakes for. I’m not sure where to begin fathoming about how that even works. Just chalk it up as an arte and move on with your life.  That’s pretty much it for our monster showcase for now. Really, a good whalloping with a Team Rush is always a good way to solve things if you’re having a hard time. Especially if you’re good at sneaking up on enemies and getting a preemptive. The Way of the Tree Spirit  Anyway, once we’re done faffing around the area, we can move onto the next map by going northeast, if we’re going by the minimap. I am way too used to calling that direction north at this point. Just can’t get used to the cardinal directions being that way.  On the next screen, we just need to follow the winding road until we reach our next destination. Unlike before, where there was just a fishing spot, we can actually find treasure in this area. First chest is right past the chain link fence on the left there.  Over here, we can pick up some sepith. Looks like I’ve made back my 2000 mira from the casino, already. Not that it was all that hard in the first place, but it’s nice to have some pocket change to spend.  Once the SSS has extricated themselves from that detour, we can keep following the winding road north.   What a refreshing view… So there was even a place like this in Crossbell…I don’t even feel as tired from walking anymore...If you think about it, Crossbell City is the odd one out all the time. Heck, just look at all this nature!......Whoops, sorry about that. It wasn’t meant to be taken as criticism.No, I was thinking anything like that. I just kind of understood what you were getting at. I lived abroad for the past two years, so I get that Crossbell is “unusual”....I have to agree. All the countries I’ve visited during my study abroad placed emphasis on cultural traditions and the beauty of nature.But I don’t hate Crossbell at all. It’s… different in a way, both the good and the bad.Tio…Well, I think it’s a pretty good place in a lotta different ways. I mean, it’s gathered a lot of people from a buncha different places like us, don’t you think?...That’s right....The Special Support Section exists because Crossbell needs them to… I suppose that’s one way to think about it. Ha… when you put it that way, it doesn’t seem all that bad, does it? The wolf we’ve been hunting down howls in the background. Tio doesn’t have her staff out, but if she did, I’d imagine it’d be saying something along the lines of “Nature rules, Crossbell drool!”.  I heard it clearly this time!Hey, Petiote. You know which direction it came from?Wait one moment. ...It’s ten selges to the northwest. If we check the map, it looks like it’s right near a fork in the road.Roger that. Let’s get over there, then. Back to the mountain path, then. When Tio mentioned that it was 10 selges, she actually meant the next map over. That said, according to the Kiseki wiki, 1 selge = 100 meters. So that means that 10 selges = 1000 meters, which in turn is around 0.6 miles. That’s a pretty hefty length between two maps! If we consider the number of maps we ran around on yesterday, we pretty much ran half a marathon. You can’t blame Elie and Tio for practically collapsing from exhaustion yesterday.  Anyway, we can pick up another item on the way. Luminous Glasses is an accessory that blocks Blind. I’m thinking that the developers knew that you were going to be annoyed by the yellow slimes and threw in a freebie for all your efforts. I’m sure the status infliction rates are far worse on Nightmare. A more skilled player than I can check that out...   As I said before, the Mainz Mountain Path is a pretty straight shot through the area with very little detours. But there is one specific area I want to point out here. If we go up instead of hanging a loop down like the game wants us to, we can go across a bridge to find a very special treasure chest.  And I mean a VERY special treasure chest. It’s a high-level monster chest that the Special Support Section CANNOT take on at this time. The game is even kind enough to warn us that the monsters inside are Level 35, and we’d probably get owned pretty hard. For the record, the party is currently a little less than half of that at Level 16.  But, hey. You know what? I think we could take it. What’s the worst that could possibly ha-  ...Oh... Well, that’s something straight out of a cosmic horror novel. Arrest the Criminal  We’re doing this, I guess. Uh… er… welp? Meet what the translation calls the “Armored Hydra”. It has 13,742 HP and resists all status effects and debuffs. And if we do somehow defeat it, it gives out 1 EXP and not a whole lot of sepith. If I squint, I think I can sorta tell that it’s a hydra. It has two heads on the side and the third hanging on a really noodly neck in the middle. It’s a little harder to tell in-game, since it’s constantly moving like some sort of shapeshifting abomination.   All three heads slowly turn to glare at Detective Bannings.  None of them are amused. They’ve been shoved into that chest since the end of days, and now this jackass is trying to poke ‘em with a metal stick!? gently caress this guy!  Also, Elie got gassed and turned into a fine statue. That probably isn’t all that pleasant.    So, uh. Yeah. That happened. The fate of Crossbell was forever altered on this day… The Way of the Tree Spirit   KING CRIMSON! We’ll just pretend that never happened and turn back time. That monster chest will just be a barrier to get over another day. For now, let’s go in the opposite direction and duck under the bridge instead of going over it.   Say what you like about the other overworld areas, but I do really think that Mainz Mountain Path looks very pretty. It’s probably even better on the chinese PC port.   It looks like that wolf ain’t around.It may have moved to a different location before we could get to it.Elie notices the set of stairs on the right.  ...There wasn’t any information in the database about this. We may want to investigate this.Yeah… let’s check it out before going to Mainz. Up the stairs we go to the next area. This part of the path is just a bunch of stairs leading us higher and higher. We can find some healing items at the end of this path, but there is one thing I want to point out. If we make a left right here after the stairs leading up, we can find our last contender for this area…  ...The Fall Eagle, which is the monster that City Hall wanted us to exterminate. Well… we have a gun, even if it isn’t a rifle. Heck, let’s go hunting.   Hey, I think this is the first time we’ve actually tackled on a Wanted Monster request, huh? We just need to beat the crap out of these minibosses and report back to City Hall. In this case, the Wanted Monster that’s been haunting the mountains around here are the two Fall Eagles.  Let’s talk about these bosses for a very brief moment. First off, Fall Eagles can swoop down with their talons for a generous amount of damage. Lloyd gets hit for a little more, but we’re in somewhat more danger if Tio or Elie get hit, since they don’t have as much HP as the guys do.  That’s it, really. They may have had one or two more attacks in their arsenal, but if they did, I never saw them. According to City Hall, they had a high chance of inflicting Blind too, but that never happened either. They just hit hard.  Even then, the damage gets completely neutered by Elie’s Holy Bullet, which remains incredibly useful all the way to the final boss. It recovers ludicrous amounts of health to everyone, and that’s not even counting the +20 CP gain to everyone including Elie.   I immediately popped off Randy and Tio’s S-Crafts. The only thing going for the Fall Eagles is that they have pretty high defense, and attacking them with normal attacks/artes/crafts takes forever. Let’s just speed things up.  Notably, the Fall Eagles take MASSIVE damage from the Burn ailment. So if you’re having a hard time on higher difficulties, inflicting Burn with Randy’s Salamander craft is the best way to go.   Other than that, it’s a big ol’ generic boss battle to the end. Our other award besides DP and mira is a whole bunch of sepith and Evade 2 quartz. Thanks, but I still get more by just doing the Sepith Turn + Tiger Charge trick.  Reporting this gives us 4 DP and 2000 mira. Yeah, I think I’ve made back my money from the casino at this point. It might even be worth it to just go ahead and purchase a Martial Arts Uniform there once I reach Chapter 2.  For now, let’s continue on our hike to… wherever our destination is. Heading down this road leads us to…  ...That’s a rather nice mansion. Nice touch with the goth aesthetics with those dragon statues at the front. Now THIS is a “no trespassing” zone if I ever saw one. Although given that there are Humming Gators and plants that can cause earthquakes outside these walls, I don’t think the owner of this mansion has to worry about rear end in a top hat kids breaking in.  off-limits teki tou desu ne  It does have a certain atmosphere to it....It doesn’t look abandoned. I think someone lives here, but who would live in a remote place like this?Oh, hey. There’s a sign over there. Rosenburg Studio No Visitors Allowed  You know something about this place, Elie?It’s an incredibly famous doll workshop. According to the rumors, there’s an eccentric genius that makes expensive antique dolls here....Huh, I’ve never heard anything about it before.I’ve heard about it too. Apparently, it costs an entire fortune to be able to purchase his works from auctions and the like.I’ve only seen a few of his dolls, but they were all truly works of art. I heard that he lived in Crossbell, but I didn’t know that he’d be in a remote location like this.A famous doll maker… just by the sign alone, it doesn’t seem like he’d be willing to talk to us.   (A girl…?)(Is she from the studio…?)The girl draws closer.   Who are you? Do you have business at the studio?Er… Sorry, we were just looking. We’re with the Crossbell State Police Department.Oh, the police? Wow, I’ve never seen policemen outside of the city before!Are you here on a patrol?Well, not a patrol, per se… I was thinking about asking the owner for any info on monsters in the area.Monsters? I know a lot about monsters! What do you want to know?They look like wolves… did you hear anything about it from your grandpa?Hm… nope! Nothing! I did hear some howling in the distance, though… are you talking about that?Yeah, that’s we were talking about. You said your grandfather was away, right? Is there anyone else at the studio?Weeeeell… grandpa said that he would be back tonight.Well, we’ve said it once, but it bears repeating. Recently, there have been dangerous monsters prowling in the area. Can you stay inside until your grandfather comes back?Hmmmmm, well I don’t really mind. But following you seems a lot more interesting than just staying put!Um.You’re playing some tag with Wolfie, right? Or is it hide-and-seek? I wanna join in! It’s no fair that you get him all to yourself! Sure… it’s something like that.You’re an interestin’ one yourself, aren’t you?N-No, look! It’s dangerous out there, so we can’t keep an eye on you!I’m sorry about this… but we’d really like it if you could stay inside for the time being.Boo… that’s boring. *sigh* If “he” was fixed, it wouldn’t be boring anymore… Hm… should I play with Freckles today, or should I go visit the glass castle?(?) A… glass castle?Hee hee, don’t mind me, okay? I was just talking to myself!Oh! I never told you who I am, right?
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Jul 27, 2019 22:00
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Hello reason why Este and Josh are in Crossbell.
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Jul 27, 2019 22:26
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Lloyd, please don't condescend to the Angel of Death. She will murder the entire SSS without breaking a sweat at this point.
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Jul 27, 2019 22:37
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Dun dun DUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!
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Jul 27, 2019 22:38
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Oooh, that small portrait you're using for Renne is nice. Is it her Crossbell art or something else?
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Jul 28, 2019 02:58
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If that person is there, then "doll" is meant in the sense of "20-meter tall battle robot".
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Jul 28, 2019 03:01
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CmdrKing posted:Oooh, that small portrait you're using for Renne is nice. Is it her Crossbell art or something else?  Got it from the Kiseki wiki. Then I shrunk it down to portrait size and ran it through a high-pass sharpen in GIMP (so that it didn't look too blurry). I was pretty happy with how it turned out. I'm pretty sure this is the art they used for Ys vs. Sora no Kiseki, actually.  Stabbey_the_Clown posted:
 One final note: I've finished recording the rest of Chapter 1 tonight, so we'll be wrapping it up over the course of next week.
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Jul 28, 2019 03:18
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Some Numbers posted:Lloyd, please don't condescend to the Angel of Death. She will murder the entire SSS without breaking a sweat at this point.
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Jul 28, 2019 20:10
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Commander Keene posted:Like, actual literal Grim Reaper, or just "I've killed a lot of people and all I got was this stupid nickname" Angel of Death? Renne is a very special little girl. Not "chosen one" special or anything, but she's definitely not one to be underestimated and is one of the more prominent of the series' supporting cast. EDIT: LP link redacted because I just realized a pretty major spoiler is in a picture Rabbi Raccoon fucked around with this message at 20:34 on Jul 28, 2019 |
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Jul 28, 2019 20:28
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Commander Keene posted:Like, actual literal Grim Reaper, or just "I've killed a lot of people and all I got was this stupid nickname" Angel of Death? Have you not played the Trails in the Sky games?
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Jul 28, 2019 20:40
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Some Numbers posted:Have you not played the Trails in the Sky games?
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Jul 28, 2019 21:11
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Commander Keene posted:Like, actual literal Grim Reaper, or just "I've killed a lot of people and all I got was this stupid nickname" Angel of Death? It's the "Stupid nickname" kind.
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Jul 28, 2019 23:22
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Stabbey_the_Clown posted:It's the "Stupid nickname" kind.
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Jul 28, 2019 23:29
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FWIW, the Trails in the Sky LPs were really good 100% completionist ones and are worth a read.
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Jul 28, 2019 23:52
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Played through all of Zero the past week or so so now I can properly follow this LP! I'll just say that I wish a better translation were available, I got the feeling that a lot of the charm in the dialogue was lost in the clearly unfinished script. In that sense it probably is better just following this LP instead of playing it yourself.
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Jul 29, 2019 06:31
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So is it safe to assume this house is one of the Thirteen Factories?
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Jul 29, 2019 07:40
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Rabbi Raccoon posted:So is it safe to assume this house is one of the Thirteen Factories? Or associated, but yeah, gotta be.
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Jul 29, 2019 14:20
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Super Jay Mann posted:Played through all of Zero the past week or so so now I can properly follow this LP! Azure is almost as bad, thought not quite. It's definitely smoother in some parts (compare the beginning of Azure to literally anything in Zero), but the translation is still pretty janky. It WAS going to be edited by someone, but apparently, and this is just what I've heard mind you, but there were some political differences between the editor and translator? It was something like that. Edit: On the other hand, just remember that it could very well be worse... 
Pyre of Word Salsa fucked around with this message at 18:36 on Jul 29, 2019 |
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Jul 29, 2019 18:33
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Part 32: “Grrrrrr.. woof! Bow-wow! Grrrrr….” The Way of the Tree Spirit  Hee hee… There’s someone else I want to show you, but his right leg is broken right now. Grandpa’s fixing him up now, so I’m sure I’ll be able to show him off soon…O-OK… (Is she talking about a doll, or something…?)Weeeell, I wanted to play with Wolfie, but he got away… But I’m a grown-up now, so I won’t complain....Keep up the good work, Special Support Section.Um, yeah. Thanks.Be careful.  Renne leaves before vanishing into thin air in a quick blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment. She really is just that creepy kid that makes cryptic comments to any stranger passing by her driveway, isn’t she…? Hell, better than her “friend”. Yes, she’s talking about Pater-Mater. He’s just a WEE bit beyond the SSS’s level right now.  Do you think she’s really the granddaughter of the doll maker?Yeah, I guess so. Did you guys think that she was pretty mature for her age too, or was it just me?*giggle* I thought she was soooo cute! Her way of talking just melted my heart…!(Looks befuddled at the spot where Renne vanished) …………Is something wrong, Lloyd?What’s with that look of utter confusion on your face?...No, it’s nothing. But did she call us the “Special Support Section” at the end there? I mean, I dunno. That checks out. You WERE on the newspapers a while back. I wouldn’t be surprised if she knew who you guys were.  Hey, I don’t like this. Why does that bratty creep have our number?...It IS possible that she reads the Crossbell Times and learned about us that way. She might have deduced our identities based on that.Besides that, though… I think we should keep an eye on her, just in case....I guess.Anyway, it doesn’t look like the wolves were here. For now, let’s return to the fork in the road and continue onward to Mainz.Roger that! Now for the backtracking. We have to allllll the way back to the fork in the road and cross the bridge where the waterfalls are. On a different note, I recorded ahead to the end of Chapter 1, and there’s an offhand mention that it’s still morning by the time we reach Mainz. How is it still morning…? I’d put this down as early afternoon at best.  Notably, there is a bus stop at the fork here. So it’s not like we have to run all the way back here if we want to break into Rozenberg Studio or something like that. Although that would be a poor decision in many, many ways. I’m sure Renne’s grandpa is packing heat or has a kennel of attack gatling sunflowers, or a 50-foot mecha or some other bullshit. You never know with these Crossbell natives. Just don’t get immediately immediately owned by whatever grandpa sics on you and have the footage uploaded to Orbal YouTube. You don’t want to go viral. No one comes back from that sane in mind.   Anyway, past the bridge is our next leg of the journey: a tunnel. Presumably for ease of transport for cars and other vehicles. Is it just me, or does this tunnel look a little small for transportation? Like, if you tried fitting two of Harold’s cars into this entryway, that would result in a collision. Or maybe there’s a yield sign somewhere that we can’t see. Either way, I’m thinking too hard about this.   Lemme take a guess… this is probably for Septium transportation, right? Yeah, I think so. I’m pretty sure this was constructed before Crossbell gained its independence.If that’s the case, then this was constructed around 70 years ago.Wasn’t Crossbell well known for producing a lot of Septium back then?...That is correct. It was famous for it to the point where the Erebonian Empire and the Republic of Calvard fought over it a long time ago.Even now, the yield of Septium in our country hasn’t decreased, but because technology has advanced and large veins of ore have been found in other countries, it doesn’t hold the same amount of attention that it used to.Yeah… nowadays, Crossbell is the center of trade and finance.Something howls in the background again.   It’s all up to you, Tio!I have it…! I’ve pinpointed the location that the howl originated from! It’s coming from the exit of the tunnel…!Got it, let’s go!  To progress to the next map, we need to head straight and follow the curves of the road until we reach the exit. Always go straight. I’ve been saying that a lot over the course of this chapter, haven’t I? At least it’s easy to navigate, since the overhead lights here are much better than the ones in New York or Philly.   There’s actually another exit if we take a detour a little into the tunnel and head down a level. But that is not the exit we want. Nor is it the way we want to go through. There are a few enemies there that are incredibly high-leveled. It actually is possible to defeat them with our current party at this point, but it’d also burn through my revival items.  Hey, while we’re at it, let’s talk about enemies again. For the most part, the monsters in the tunnel are actually somewhat dangerous to fight against… well, two enemies that are dangerous to fight against, an enemy that’s more annoying that anything, and the Octorocks from Legend of Zelda. Get Over the Barrier!  First up, we have these green mosquitos here. These jerks fall under the “annoying” category.  Mostly because they have Bewitching Sound, which is the only attack in their moveset. It covers a rather large range around the insect, and has a pretty high chance of inflicting Confusion. At least the yellow slimes from earlier in the road could only target one at a time. Here, Tio and Randy are blasted and will blitz anyone in their fugue.  Next, we have giant tarantulas waiting to inject their venom in any unsuspecting cretin wandering around the tunnels on their lonesome. The main difference between the two is that the white one only bites people, while its red palette swap can actually poison them. These are the ones that fall under the “dangerous” category, and for good reason.  The spider pounces on someone. Like the name implies, this attack has a passable chance of just killing somewhat outright. And as you could probably tell, it killed a few of the SSS a couple of times. I had to use… two Reviving Balms here, when I only had to use one previously.  The red variants tend to use Death Stroke every other turn, in addition to their poisonous attack. The white spiders… not so much. The battle usually ends by the time they’re about ready to use Death Stroke on their next turn.  Last, but absolutely least, we just have off brand variations of the Octorocks from the Legend of Zelda (Zero calls them “Rocktopus”  ). Like Octorocks, they just spit stones at random people. I pity the poor driver that’s going through this tunnel for a Septium transport before a Rocktopus launches a stone at his windshield and cracks it. As the Special Support Section was going through this tunnel, Randy ended up learning what is arguably his most useful Craft in Zero: Crash Bomb. I would have translated it to “Flash Bang”, because, well… you’ll see.  Crash Bomb only costs 30 CP and covers a ridiculous range. In a random battle, you’re very likely to hit all enemies with it in one go. With Crash Bomb, Randy pulls out a flash grenade and chucks it...  ...Which ends up blinding all enemies hit with it with a 100% accuracy.  Since most enemies on Normal difficulty have a somewhat low accuracy already, Crash Bomb neuters them completely, allowing us to counter them 75% of the time. It’s very broken to the point where it’s the other arte along with Holy Bullet that the developers had to rebalance in Azure. If I remember correctly, it went from a 100% chance to inflict Blind to a 60% chance. Still pretty good, though!  Let’s continue onward. Anyway, remember how we could go one level below the tunnel? Well, guess what? We can go one floor ABOVE the tunnel as well. The Way of the Tree Spirit  It leads to a bunch of sepith, but I’m already incredibly rich in that already. I’ve hit the 1000 mark for sepith already. But if the game insists on empowering me further, I’m not going to complain.  More importantly, there’s a monster chest up here. This one’s a little bit nastier than the others, and for good reason too... Arrest the Criminal   SPIDERS, WHY’D IT HAVE TO BE SPIDERS AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!  This fight is loving VICIOUS. Given that it’s a fight against six spiders who know how to instakill you at any point, it’s pretty much a war of attrition of time. How long do you think you can last? If RNG decides to throw in the towel and go on a coffee break, you’re pretty much guaranteed to be down 2-3 party members. In my case, Lloyd and Tio went down like a pair of chumps after a white spider broke their necks or something. That said, we do have a panic button save up:   In addition to straight up just healing a bunch of HP, Elie’s S-Craft also has the ability to revive party members. So we’ll just pop that and get those two slackers back on their feet. Also, seeing that screenshot above makes me think that Elie’s revolver just has a water gun mode, and that makes me smile a little.  Anyway, we want to IMMEDIATELY use an S-Craft on these arachnids before they kill someone. Mostly because when someone dies in battle, their CP goes down to 0 as well. So we want to avoid that, or at the very least use up our CP as soon as possible.  In hindsight, Crash Bomb would have been very useful here. Except for the fact that I didn’t have it at the time. This was literally the battle where Randy leveled up and got the craft in the first place. So if you’re playing Zero yourself, just keep that in mind.  Anyway, taking out the red spiders should be our first priority. Even though the white spiders use Death Stroke once in a while, their red cousins will use them every chance they get. So it’s best to nip that in the bud immediately.  From there, it’s all about using crafts that attack in an area and reviving anyone who gets put down by a tarantula. Accel Rush and Randy’s Salamander are pretty useful for targeting multiple enemies in this battle. Tio and Elie should be focusing on spells for the rest of the battle. Easy, except for the… y’know, whole instant death thing.   Our reward for defeating the tarantulas are a pair of icky, webbed-up Engineer Boots that have been sitting at the bottom of that treasure chest for who knows how long. It’s best not to think about who they previously belonged to, really. Anyway, Engineer Boots grant DEF +14 and MOV +1, making it perfect for Tio, who doesn’t move around much.  Other than that, once our business has concluded in this area, we can follow the road all the way north to the exit.    Ah…!There it is!The camera pans over to a wolf chilling on a ledge.  The wolfo just hops down from its perch and glares at the party menacingly. Ehhhh... this isn’t good enough.  Alright, THERE we go! That’s much better!   Meanwhile, the guys in the party IMMEDIATELY pull out their weapons to throw down. Come on, guys… you can’t just cuff a wolf and toss it in a cell. That’s like using the wrong key in an apartment door’s lock and expecting it to open.  He can’t run away now! Hurry up and beat ‘im u-Hold on a moment. He doesn’t seem to be hostile....Huh?...Leave this to me! Don’t just rush out in the line of fire, idiot! The hell do you think you’re doin’!  ......We finally meet. It looks like you came all the way here to talk to us... Hm?Grrr…...Yes… yes… okay. I get what you’re saying now.T-Tio!?Do you understand what it’s saying!?More or less… I get the picture, at least....So, what did you want to say to us?Grrrrrr.. woof! Bow-wow! Grrrrr….Oh! Then… One minute before posted:
 It did look as if he was trying to tell us something.I’m… not entirely sure. But it sounded something like “The last piece of the puzzle is up ahead. The rest is up to you…”The last piece of the puzzle!?That was the impression that I got....And then he went on to say “Whether or not you choose to believe me is up to you”....Yeah, he didn’t need to mention that last part.”The last piece of the puzzle is up ahead…”If what he’s saying is the truth, wouldn’t that mean the last piece of information we need is in Mainz…?(Flustered) W-Wait a minute… even if Tio’s words are the truth, w-would it even be okay for us to believe that wolf’s words like that?Yeah, just think about it. Maybe they’re the perps. Settin’ aside the matter of intelligence, he could be playin’ us....No, I don’t think so. It’s highly unlikely that the wolf we just met is the same wolf going around attacking places.Huh…!?Hey, now… what makes you say that?You see, we can deduce that by… We get a prompt that we have to answer here. This one… actually tripped me up a little. If you answer with “Its Howling”? Well… you can partial credit.  If you answered with “Its Color and Appearance”...? I mean, you’d be right too. There’s no wrong answer here. In fact, you’re more likely to answer this than “Its Howling”, since hell if I ever noticed anything different between the voice clips. I know I didn’t while playing through this part again. My last save file was all the way back at Rozenberg Studio, and I didn’t feel like retreading old ground again, so I said to hell with that. You get what you see.  He said that the wolf looked pitch-dark… almost black....Now that you mention it…Also, at the village and the hospital, the witnesses there never said anything about their howls....Yeah, that IS pretty odd....Well, we shouldn’t just say that the wolf from earlier isn’t the culprit, either. He may have been the leader of their pack and is merely having his subordinates do all the dirty work for him....Either way, we need to change our perspective on this incident. After all, there are two distinct categories of monsters now.Yeah, that’s right. On top of that, the one we met just now may have been a <Divine Wolf> spoken in the tales.So if I’m gettin’ all this right, then that means the black wolves are the ones causin’ trouble everywhere. Hm… I gotcha.I think I have an understanding of this, too.At the very least, I couldn’t sense any hostility from the wolf earlier....”The last piece of the puzzle is up ahead”... do you think he was talking about Mainz?...Yeah, there’s no doubt about that. We’re already almost there… Let’s proceed with our visit as planned.“It’s up to you whether you believe me or not”, huh? I couldn’t give less of a drat, but that sounds INCREDIBLY arrogant of him.That’s right…  Let’s stay focused and continue our investigation.I do hope that we find the clue he was talking about, though…  Even the wolves are against the Special Support Section. We can’t catch a break, can we?  Anyway, welcome to the final leg of our journey on this mountain path. It has a very… rural feel to it. Well, except for those tire tracks. They look very fresh. Hmmmmmm…  Okay, I gave the tunnel the benefit of the doubt, but this bridge DEFINITELY can only hold one car at a time.   So there isn’t loot or any monster chests on this part of the road. But there is this abandoned mine that we can’t enter. At least in Zero. It’s a different story in Azure… Either way, we need to double back. Mainz isn’t too far off, now.  Enemies on this map are mostly mixtures of the Octorocks and yellow slimes from earlier. But we do have another race of flying fish monsters in these parts. Meet the… uh, well using Tio’s analyzer didn’t give a translation for the fish. So I’ll just call them flying fish.  They just ram into people and inflict freeze. Yup, that’s pretty much it. The Special Support Section can’t catch a break, can they?   Anyway, barring that abandoned mine, that’s pretty much all there is to this area. We just need to head back down the slope and follow the tire tracks until we reach a low quality chalkboard with MAINZ written on it and underlined. That’s nice of the locals, I guess.   Mining Village of Mainz  It sure wasn’t easy to get here…It’s more like there’s a pretty large gap between here and the city.That’s true. It looks like mining operations around here have been fully orbalized, though. The Special Support Section goes to take a closer look at it.  It’s… kinda constructed a little roughly, don’t you think?This looks like a special vehicle constructed by the Reinford Group in the Erebonian Empire. It looks like it’s the lastest model, as well.If it’s the latest model, then there must be a high price tag attached to it… Maybe it’s owned by the mayor?...Maybe.Well, speaking of the mayor, let’s go talk to him first.
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Jul 29, 2019 19:03
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Whose a good (?) boy?
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Jul 29, 2019 21:15
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Heh, Fie's version of Randy's craft got fairly nerfed when she uses it in Cold Steel. Mostly by not making it able to Unbalance.
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Jul 29, 2019 21:32
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Really though Cold Steel just decided to make mechanics broken rather than specific moves for the most part. ... unless Zero starts handing out Delay stacking like candy at some point.
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Jul 29, 2019 21:58
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Part 33: “Stay as long as you’d like in our little town. I INSIST.” Mining Village of Mainz  Well, it’s taken us six updates, but we’re finally here! Mainz, the town of mining. It’s… pretty compacted, actually. You see that blob on the minimap? That’s the entirety of Mainz.  Our objective right now is to check in with the town mayor, who’s at the far back. Kinda like Armorica Village, actually. I’m willing to bet you anything that he’ll mistake us for Bracers at first…   What’s wrong?Nothing… but it looks like he’s in the middle of something right now.It sounds like he has visitors.  This IS the mayor’s house, right? Yah, that’s right. But he’s having a serious argument right now, so we’d like it if you didn’t interrupt them.A… serious argument?Yeah, you know how the CGF pulled out this morning? They didn’t get rid of the monsters, so we were a little stumped about what to do. And then all of a sudden, these guys rolled in from the city and told us that they wanted to help out!Are you talking abou-Bracers, right?Hey, I don’t know much. I’m just a guy who mines, after all. But it looks like they’re talking about some countermeasures to the attacks right now.I don’t know what business you have with the mayor, but I think it’d be a better idea to take it to him later.Miner Marlow takes off to the left of the screen.  Hm… if he’s in the middle of something, there’s nothing we can do.For now, let’s gather as much intel as we can before visiting the mayor again.*sigh* It looks like that’s all we CAN do right now.Geez… can life NOT chuck a plot twist at us for once…? So, like Armorica, we have to go around and talk to everyone and anyone in town. And a lot LIKE Armorica, no one says anything of value or consequence. So I’ll be heavily abridging everything going around town. No, really… you aren’t missing much. It’s mostly blurbs about how this one miner got attacked a few nights ago and he’s bedridden with a broken leg or something.   I-Is there something on my face, or…?No, no, not at all!You’re travelers from out of town, right? Stay as long as you’d like in our little town. I INSIST....Though I will show off the slightly funnier ones sometimes.  In any case, like literally any other town in Crossbell, we have an inn. What’s in the inn, you ask? I’m glad you asked!  As an inn in a JRPG, we can rest here to fully recover our HP and MP, and boost our CP to at least 100. But that’s common sense.  What we’re REALLY here for is KILL - NIGHTMARE, what is probably the most metal sounding coffee you’ll ever have. It recovers 40% of HP, and cures Sleep, Confuse, and Faint. That is pretty good for coffee. I ended up buying five of those. We’ll make the Special Support Section coffee addicts by tonight... Especially Tio. I hear KILL - NIGHTMARE is actually good for promoting growth within children.   If we leave and go up to the second floor, we can find a general store there. Might as well check it out, I suppose…  Hell, someone even got really badly bruised! If someone tried that with Kimmy, they’d NEVER get away with that shi… er… nonsense!  Backerei General Store sells a bunch of stuff we’ve seen back in Crossbell already (items and a TON of ingredients). Protective Helmet sounds like it’d be nice, but it only gives DEF +5, and we have far better alternatives at this point. No, the thing we actually want to buy here are the first two volumes  So… hey. Remember how I said that collecting books in a series was an integral sidequest in previous games, but not in Zero? It turns out that I was wrong. We need to collect all 14 volumes of Dark Doctor Glenn and trade it into Madame Imelda in order to get the Zemuria Stone, which can then be traded in for one of the SSS’s best weapons in the very final chapter. But hey, just because we’re trading it in doesn’t mean that we can skimp out on story time. So let’s take a look here… Dark Doctor Glenn: Volume 1 posted:Remiferia, the 'principality of the beautiful north', is famous for its advanced medical care. The best doctors gather in hospitals equipped with the latest technology, undergoing healthy competition among producers of medical technologies. This definitely looks like the kind of reading material Ian Grimwood would not let Pete get into. Dark Doctor Glenn: Volume 2 posted:'Is there a Dr. Glenn here?', asked the nurse who had appeared at the clinic. Not Crystal Disease! How can this be!?   Hm, you know, maybe we should actually meet that miner that got ripped apart by those wolves? He probably has some good info. All the locals say that he’s in this house right here, so it’s just a matter of heading past the mayor’s house and going down a level. Let’s see what he has for us…  It’s… It’s all that drat wolf’s fault! Next time he shows up, I’ll give ‘im the ol’ shovel to the back of the head! ...Uh. That all you got? Uh-huh. Well, uh. Welp.  Hey, I TOLD you guys it was useless to talk to anyone in town. Well, all that said, once we’ve talked to all the NPCs, we need to head back to the mayor’s place. Fifteen minutes was enough time to wrap up that talk he was having, right?   Ya got plenty o’ time ta think ‘bout it, see? We’ll hear you out tomorrow.   Heh heh… not long till pay day, now. I hear the boss is givin’ us a little bonus for all the trouble we’re goin’ through.The mafiosos leave.  Those people were from Revache… What were they even doing here?Yeah, same. The hell?...At least they aren’t Bracers.You’re right about that…...Huh?   It makes sense that they would have the latest vehicle from the Empire…...But what business would they even have here?It’s hard imaginin’ them havin’ any business outside the city.(...) For now, let’s ask the mayor about their discussion. We might be able to find out why Revache was here.The Special Support Section barges into the mayor’s house without knocking. Rude.  ...Huh? Just give me a day to think abo-(notices that they aren’t mafia) ...Hm?My… aren’t you the visitors that just entered our humble town?O-Oh… I’m sorry.Excuse us.Our apologies for intruding at such a time.*cough* No… no, I don’t mind. And you are...? We wanted to question you about the recent monster attacks. I honestly thought you were a bunch of Bracers new to Crossbell....We get that a lot....But back on topic. We’ve questioned the townspeople, and from what we’ve heard, it looks like the attacks are still continuing, correct?That’s right… as of now, there have been three incidents. They all occurred at night, and even though no one was hurt at first, we finally suffered our first injured worker yesterday.We were lucky… he only suffered light injuries. But the attacks have been getting worse and worse. Everyone’s afraid that they might be next…I see…And from what we’ve deduced, nothing happened when the CGF was here?Correct again. It feels like those monsters have some sort of intelligence to them…But even then, they’re the CGF! The Crossbell GUARDIAN Force! What use do we have for them if they just up and leave us like that!? You’re thinking the same thing, right!?Yeah… yeah. (Aaand that’s Police: 0, Bracers: Too many to count.)Hey, there’s been somethin’ on my mind a while now. You guys ever ask the Bracer’s Guild for any help?...We did. It was before the CGF came here. But they told us that they were completely swamped with requests as it was… And even then, there was no way they could guard us 24/7, so the CGF ended up taking over.But then they ended up withdrawing this morning…...I was thinking of asking the Guild for help again, but then THOSE guys showed up.You’re talking about Revache & Co., I presume?...What did you talk about?They offered to be our “bodyguards”, now that the CGF has withdrawn. To quote them: “Monsters could strike at any moment”. B-Bodyguards!?Ha ha… no. I think “charity case” is the complete opposite of what they are. They’re not doin’ it for free, aren’t they?No, they aren’t… but they aren’t collecting mira. They want us to mine copious amounts of Septium during this time…...Hold it.Only the Crossbell government has access to the mining rights. There are reasons why those laws exist.The mining rights are there so that we don’t gather too much at once and deplete the mines completely. There’s an international demand for Septium, which means that we can’t just sell everything all at once.Really, the only thing the town can decide on is who to sell it to.So in this case, Revache would hold a monopoly on all Septium transactions going in and out of town…And that’s not to mention all the traders we have partnerships we need to maintain. We… really don’t know how to deal with this situation.Good grief, you get tangled up with some shady folks for one second and look at what happens. I think… we can find a solution to all your problems.I… Huh!?Mr. Bannings…?You said you were the… Special Support Section? I must admit, I feel uneasy about leaving this matter in the hands of the police right now.Don’t worry about it. Just leave it to us. We’ll have this case solved by tomorrow. Big words, Detective. I see you carrying a bunch of big sticks, but I don’t see you speaking softly. In any case, it’s now evening, apparently. I guess we just ended up hanging out in the mayor’s home the entire afternoon. Probably talking about random stuff like hot nurses and getting over barriers while the town mayor and his wife just look at each other with an uneasy expression.  We know there’s two different packs of wolves runnin’ out there. But for real, can we even gank those wolves, let alone find them?No, no, you’re thinking about this the wrong way. We don’t need to put anything down. From the very beginning, our job was to call in the CGF once we discovered who the culprits were....Now that you say that, we ended up thinking about how to handle this issue ourselves, didn’t we?With that in mind, I have a proposal. Like what that Divine Wolf said, I think we have all the clues we need now. Why don’t we have a meeting to try and piece everything together?I… agree with that. If what Lloyd’s saying is the truth, then all we would need to do is to put the clues together.Heh, I’m on board with this. Should we hop back on the bus, or…?No… Let’s stay in town for tonight. We’ll have our meeting in the inn’s guest room....Wait. Then, Mr. Bannings… do you already…Well, well, looks like you already know what’s going on, just like the Downtown case.I do. I can’t say that I’m confident in it yet, but… I’d like your help in sifting through the evidence tonight.Let’s hurry up and get a room at the inn, then.Points and Lines  Well, then. Let’s begin by sorting out the information.The case outline is as follows: There has been a string of monster attacks. The CGF’s report we received at the beginning of our investigation had many vague points that weren’t elucidated on. Through our investigation, we have shed some light on several of these points and have gotten closer to the truth....But there is something we haven’t quite confirmed yet.Whaddaya mean by that? It’s back to the old questionnaire from the Prologue. Well… we do know the monster’s identities at this point: It’s the black wolves. I don’t think where they’re living is quite the issue here. So by process of elimination…  In other words, their “motive”.If you think about it… it didn’t look like they attacked the hospital ‘cause they were hungry.If we take the Armorica Village tale to heart, we can deduce that the “Divine Wolf” was warning us of our folly, but it’s much more likely that the black wolves were behind it.But in that case, we could conclude that there is no motive at all.Right… But we can’t just conclude that the black wolves were attacking on a whim, either. From what we saw of the hospital attack, they used an extremely clever route to get on the rooftop. And if you remember, they stopped without causing too much damage to either the hospital or the intern....Hmmm… that makes sense. If they were doing it just because they could, they would have dealt much more collateral.So basically, what you’re sayin’ is that there’s some kinda motive behind all this that we haven’t seen. Soooo, this is the one part of the translation where I went “What the HELL!?” even during my first playthrough. I… have absolutely NO idea how to parse the rest of the conversation, especially the question that Lloyd poses to the player very soon. So I’m going to leave this part completely unedited and let you interpret it.  The black wolves attacks on each place… I think that there should be a different <framework> which could show us a satisfactory objective.A different… <framework>... you say.It’s nothing complicated to think of. Generally, crime incidents involve four things: “Criminal,” “Objective,” “Means” and “Result”... What do you think would happen if we shifted some of what we have?W-Wait a second. I’ll try to put them together in an easy way. This part makes sense, at least. The next part… not so much. I think it was the only part of my playthrough where I got REALLY loving frustrated and pulled out an FAQ for a multiple choice question. And then I got it wrong anyway, and Lloyd just went on auto and did it himself.  And so… how do we shift them?Yeah… What about this?    I’ll give you a moment to process this and see if you actually get the right answer.   If you got this, I think you’re a madman, and I think I can interpret all of this now. Tell me if something I jotted down doesn’t make sense, please. Thankfully, this is the only time where the translation actually pulls some BS like this.  If we go with this for now… whoever’s using the wolves are trying to train them up, and are using them to attack various locations.Hey, lookitthat! You completely changed our perspective of the situation!So, you’re thinkin’ that some kinda scumbag is behind all of this?...Only if they had the ability to manipulate monsters to their will. The issue in that is that it takes a LOT to take monsters and train them.But I can think of one person who gave us a solid clue that they were trained.One person…? Who?(!) Oh, hey, wait. I get who you’re talkin’ about.Yeah, I see that you got it. The witness in question is… This one’s easy, at least. If we go under the assumption that the wolves were trained, they had to have been trained with something. And if you guys remember, Shizuku was the one who told the SSS that she heard something like a whistle. So our choice is clear…  Arios MacLaine’s daughter told us about it, remember?Shizuku…?  I didn’t hear anyone scream after that, but I did hear some panting noises. A-And then after that, I heard a thump, as if someone was jumping. I-I couldn’t get anything else other than that.O...Okay… When I was listening for any more sounds, I thought I heard a faint whistling noise. Yeah, I’d say that’s highly likely....If you think about it, wolves are like dogs in that they can hear sound frequencies that humans can’t. If they’ve been trained with dog whistles…...Even now, dog whistles are commonly used to train war dogs. Jaegers are the ones who use them the most, though…Oh, is that right?...I’m starting to get it, now. But if the culprits have trained the wolves, then they must have transported them somehow.(!) ...Wait. Is it really that simple?Yeah, do you remember that black truck we saw earlier? It’s not the most decisive piece of evidence, but it IS the most plausible explanation....All the pieces have connected to each other.Their motive is to have a monopoly on the Septium mine… No, wouldn’t that just be a bonus?Probably. Right now, Revache is trying to gather up the manpower to crush their rival, Heiyue. The most likely explanation for all of this is that they trained up those wolves to do exactly that....If you can’t control ‘em, then what’s the point? You need to test out whether or not they’ll obey your orders. drat, what the hell!? Is that really why they were attackin’ all these places?There’s no mistake about it. Even barring all that, it’s already extremely suspicious that the mafia decided to make a move on Mainz once the CGF withdrew. If you guys remember, the CGF Commander is in cahoots with the Erebonian Empire faction. Revache probably made the appropriate arrangements through him.You’re… probably right. I knew they were corrupt, but to go that far…...Do you think they’re going to go further than that…?I think they’ve gathered enough data for now. If the CGF withdrew because of them, I think they’re sort of implying that they’re not planning on causing any more trouble… for now.Even so, it really does feel like they’re desperate at this point.The Septium mine… they may be attacking one last time, just to get their hands on that.I wouldn’t put it past ‘em.Lloyd, what are we going to do if they attack?...It’s likely that the mayor will contact the Bracer’s Guild again tomorrow.I think they’re going to attack tonight, just to carry out with their threat. ...Alright, let’s do this.We ARE going to arrest the mafiosos, right?We can’t just turn a blind eye to this. Should we contact the CGF as well?...No. Unfortunately, we can’t rely on the CGF for this. If the Commander catches wind of this and reports it to Revache through whatever politician he talks to… Well, Revache won’t act.We need to do this on our own....Understood. If the monsters attack, it’ll probably be late at night, correct?Right… All of the incidents so far have occurred at night. There’s no reason why this one shouldn’t.It looks like we still have some time left… shall we make preparations?Yeah… if there’s something we’re short on, now’s our chance to resupply. Once we’re ready, we’ll standby in this room until later tonight.The Starry Sky Misty in the Night  Okay, now that we’re done with that cutscene, we can check the table to standby for the rest of the night. And as much as I’m set right now… we don’t necessarily want to. The game gives us one last chance to explore Mainz, you see. The game pulls a bit of a dick move here with a collectible, and if we don’t get it now, we won’t be able to get it for the rest of the playthrough.  To pick it up, we need to go all the way back to that one house where we talked to the injured miner.  You want it? Yeah? No? Here, take it. You’d think we’d be able to buy it in a used bookstore or something, but no. Anyway, here’s Dark Doctor Glen: Volume 3. Let’s check it out before I wrap this update up. Dark Doctor Glenn: Volume 3 posted:The rain let up before they realised, draping them in humid air. You know, if you get rid of that ‘s’ in ‘esmelas’, you’d get ‘emelas’. You know, like that retcon metal in Ys VI? It’s also the name of some shanty tower in Liberl, but who cares about that?  Anyway, let’s standby for the rest of the night. Next time, we’ll finish Chapter 1, and finally move on to the more exciting bits of Trails From Zero! I know, I’m just as excited as you are.
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Jul 31, 2019 19:00
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Wow. So either Japanese police procedurals talk about theories of crime way, way differently than American ones do or Zero is delving into forensics way more than a casual audience will follow. Because that is a WEIRD way to actually have the party logic through what they've learned to solve the case (broadly "the mafia's behavior is in line with running a protection racket, so they must somehow be CAUSING the attacks, not merely trying to profit off them"). Like all those bits fit together and explain what's going on but how the player is meant to parse the crime in that way is beyond me. That said quote:What we’re REALLY here for is KILL - NIGHTMARE, what is probably the most metal sounding coffee you’ll ever have. It recovers 40% of HP, and cures Sleep, Confuse, and Faint. That is pretty good for coffee. I ended up buying five of those. We’ll make the Special Support Section coffee addicts by tonight... Especially Tio. I hear KILL - NIGHTMARE is actually good for promoting growth within children. I am beginning to see why some consider Crossbell the best Kiseki games.
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Jul 31, 2019 23:21
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CmdrKing posted:I am beginning to see why some consider Crossbell the best Kiseki games. No Olivier. Therefore it's the worst by default
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Jul 31, 2019 23:27
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There is certainly a critical lack of that special bi energy so far. I'm hoping the lack is made up for elsewhere, although it would obviously lack the extra spice Olivier brings to the party.
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Jul 31, 2019 23:49
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| # ? Jun 18, 2024 02:00 |
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Yeah the translation does this part of the quest no favors and I had to look things up as well. Broadly you're just being admonished to look at the facts of the case from a different angle and work under different assumptions (in this case, the assumption that "The wolves are working towards a goal" gives way to "The wolves are just a means to an end being used by another third party") but the way it's communicated doesn't seem terribly intuitive.
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Jul 31, 2019 23:50
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