|
Sephyr posted:The Suikoden III Manga are quite nice as well and add a lot of depth to many overlooked characters. I wish they were not nearly impossible to find in my country. Though they did turn our brave knight Chris into a bit of a weepy insecure lass, in the parts I got to leaf through. And the explanation for Geddoe's stoic autopilot personality (at least in part) was also beliavable and well-done. I think the author was actually asked to do that by Konami. Luckily, it's only here and there in the beginning before she mans up, but I can't fault them for too much on this one. The manga is very well done, all things considered. It's hard to track down in any country, but I'm sorry to hear you're having worse problems than most. One of these days I should really get around to scanning the whole thing, then posting pieces of it when relevant/not spoiler-y... Jeedy Jay posted:I love the way Geddoe seems to go way back with all the leaders and heroes of the area. He's written in a way that has him come across as an unusually credible "Fantasy CIA Man". Yep. His job is to know everyone everywhere. What's interesting, though, is that this would be super suspicious if he were anyone else. Having this many connections is actually sort of seedy, but since it's Geddoe, it doesn't come off that way at all. He keeps his secrets, sure, but at the same times he seems very trustworthy, so you don't really question it. e: Though, I guess he's a spy, so it's not really that weird. If anything, it makes the people he knows more suspicious than he is. I guess he did a lot of adventuring when he was the proper JRPG protagonist age. yokaiy fucked around with this message at 02:27 on Mar 18, 2013 |
#
?
Mar 18, 2013 02:19
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 28, 2024 02:03 |
|
|
I like the idea of Geddoe as a fantasy CIA man. "So Geddoe, where are you from?" "I could tell you but then I'd have to electrocute you."
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2013 02:57
|
|
|
yokaiy posted:I think the author was actually asked to do that by Konami. Luckily, it's only here and there in the beginning before she mans up, but I can't fault them for too much on this one. The manga is very well done, all things considered. I understand that is likely the case, but it still grates a bit. I mean, even as a kid when I first saw the S3 posters (I already loved the series from I and II) I was impressed, because I think it was the first time I saw a female video game character wearing armor without a bare midriff or exposed thighs. She looked strong and noble without being a shrew or an arrogant bitch, and playing the game it was great to see that they stuck to those design choices. Hell, even her doubts and frustrations during the plot so far have been of the "What is the best way to deal with all of this crap without failing as a Knight or dishonoring my family name?" variety, and not "Oh daddy daddy I miss you sooo much the world is harsh and scary and I don't know what to dooo!"
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2013 02:58
|
|
|
yokaiy posted:On that note, his animation for taking out his swords and putting them back is literally one frame. I didn't get a single shot of it. He goes through the motion, then POOF, it's there. Or gone. Depending on the animation. Are you grabbing screens directly from the game, or recording video first and then grabbing them from that? Cause if it's the latter, you could probably grab a small 1/2 second video of him doing it and then converting it to a gif.
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2013 03:03
|
|
|
Verbose posted:I like the idea of Geddoe as a fantasy CIA man.
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2013 03:04
|
|
|
Sephyr posted:Hell, even her doubts and frustrations during the plot so far have been of the "What is the best way to deal with all of this crap without failing as a Knight or dishonoring my family name?" variety, and not "Oh daddy daddy I miss you sooo much the world is harsh and scary and I don't know what to dooo!" To be fair, as yokaiy said that only happens at the very start of the manga and honestly I believed it to be well done for what it was. It mostly had to do with a bit of her back story that the author added, that being that she began to see the previous captain of the Zexan Knights as a surrogate father and when she saw him cut down in front of her it was like being orphaned all over again. She then promptly toughs the gently caress up and cuts a bloody swath through the Grasslander forces and saves the day.
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2013 03:23
|
|
|
Verbose posted:I like the idea of Geddoe as a fantasy CIA man.  RaspberryCommie posted:Are you grabbing screens directly from the game, or recording video first and then grabbing them from that? I've been capping in-game, since I'm not sure my laptop could run a recording program on top of the emulator. That said, I cap like mad, so I might have enough pictures to do that with anyway. I'll have to dig through my pictures again and check.
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2013 04:04
|
|
|
"And then Geddoe murders everyone" for thread title. Just wait until he gets a Thunder Rune. 
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2013 05:28
|
|
|
My god he looks.... Perfect.
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2013 20:05
|
|
|
Sorry Geddoe, but you're only the second or even third best character in the game. Hell, maybe even fourth since I like Chris better than you. Now the Man in Black, he takes the top spot. Every single appearance he makes is great.
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2013 20:19
|
|
|
Tallgeese posted:Sorry Geddoe, but you're only the second or even third best character in the game. Hell, maybe even fourth since I like Chris better than you. Man in Black is classy as gently caress and a delight, but this is simply an Objectively Incorrect Opinion. Geddoe is easily top three  So is Chris. I like Hugo but Geddoe and Chris are the true highlights of this game. Love 'em both to death. Am I the only one who basically hears Smooth Criminal whenever he looks at Man in Black?
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2013 20:47
|
|
|
I'd pay a buck for DLC that puts Geddoe in a suit. It... uh, suits him. quote:I've been capping in-game, since I'm not sure my laptop could run a recording program on top of the emulator. That said, I cap like mad, so I might have enough pictures to do that with anyway. I'll have to dig through my pictures again and check. If you're using PCSX2, you don't need a recording program. The emulator has an internal recording function that will always capture footage that plays at the correct speed (even if it slows to single digit FPS when you're recording.) Give it a try the next time Hatman shows up! I believe the default button to start or stop recording is F12.
|
|
#
?
Mar 18, 2013 21:50
|
|
|
Captain Oblivious posted:"And then Geddoe murders everyone" for thread title. Just wait until he gets a Thunder Rune. It will be a thing of beauty. vilkacis posted:
 I will experiment with this! I tried it yesterday, but I think I did it wrong and it got saved out in an unusable format. But yeah, thanks! I'm still new to this so I appreciate the advice. Now I just need to wrestle with it a bit... Also, I must love you guys a lot, because I had to suffer greatly because of the "Eh" dialogue choice.  Working on the update now; I'll try to get it up within the next day or two.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2013 04:41
|
|
|
Yeah, there's a lot of options and I'm not sure how well all of them work. I use one called "(VfW) x264vfw - H.264/MPEG-4 AVC Codec" which records high quality video without getting ridiculously huge, but you may have to install a codec to get that. Uncompressed should work fine as well, but will get ridiculously huge. One problem I forgot to mention is that it records video and audio as separate files, and while it asks you to name the video, it always names the audio file "recording.wav". And, it won't ask if you want to overwrite it if one already exists... so always rename it after you're done, or it'll get overwritten the next time you record.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2013 21:10
|
|
|
How did I miss this LP? This is my favorite game in the series, though understandably that's not a popular opinion. Are you planning to show off the lottery at all? If not I'd like to show how it works, and how to exploit it to great effect.
|
|
#
?
Mar 20, 2013 22:51
|
|
|
vilkacis posted:Yeah, there's a lot of options and I'm not sure how well all of them work. I use one called "(VfW) x264vfw - H.264/MPEG-4 AVC Codec" which records high quality video without getting ridiculously huge, but you may have to install a codec to get that. Uncompressed should work fine as well, but will get ridiculously huge. Yeah, I noticed that actually. The audio file from my test turned out fine, but the video isn't usable, so I'll have to mess with that next time I'm recording. Thanks for the heads up about the file overwrite, though, I didn't know about that. Fister Roboto posted:How did I miss this LP? This is my favorite game in the series, though understandably that's not a popular opinion. Welcome aboard.  I was planning to, but if you'd like to instead, then by all means do! I'll link to it in the OP.
|
|
#
?
Mar 21, 2013 01:50
|
|
|
Outstanding yokaiy said earlier in the LP that the lottery in Suikoden 3 is pretty much a waste of time and money, and that's pretty much true if you play it the way you're meant to play it. It certainly has the potential to make you rich, but like the real life lottery, it might as well be like throwing your money away. Or is it!???????????  Playing the lottery is great for Hugo and Geddoe, because they either start off with a pitiful amount of money, or they have a full team of characters with dull, blunt weapons. Chris, of course, starts off with fat stacks, but also refuses to play the lottery. How plebeian. This turns out to be her undoing, because once her coins are being melted down to build a golden chamber pot for the Vinay del Zexay blacksmith, her only source is trading and grinding on random encounters. Trading is of course a great way to make money too, but in order to get the most out of it, you need a lot of money to begin with. Yay, capitalism! Fortunately, Duck Village is the first town with a lottery shop. There's also one in VdZ, so that Geddoe can play, and the rest are in places that haven't been visited yet.  Inspecting the lottery board will let you see the results of the most recent drawing, as well as the two before that. As you can see, a lottery ticket is composed of a letter followed by a four-digit number, for 260,000 possible combinations. Fortunately for you, the lottery has several tiers of rewards. For example, from this drawing, if you have any ticket that ends with a 4, you win 3000 potch! The bottom tier with the eggs on it is the special town prize, which gives you a unique item the first time you win. The top tier, the grand prize, which requires an exact ticket match, gives you infinite money. Yes, you read that right. Your cash amount gets replaced with an infinity sign. Of course, there's a catch - it only pertains to the character you win the prize on. So if by some outrageous fortune you get the grand prize on Hugo, Geddoe and Chris will be poo poo out of luck.  Talking to the duck in the boat next to the board (he actually comes zooming up to the dock as soon as you get near the board, it's pretty great) will let you buy tickets for the next drawing. You can only hold up to ten tickets at a time. Sequential tickets gives you a set of tickets in order, so if the first one is Z-2945, the next one will be Z-2946 and so on for as many as you bought. Random tickets are, inexplicably, random. Now I know what you're thinking. If you get 10 sequential tickets, then you're 100% guaranteed to get the 3000 potch prize. Well way to go sport, you discovered a way to make money! But it's a terrible way to make money. It takes about 30 minutes of real time for the next drawing to occur. At 2000 potch (3000 minus 100 per ticket) per half hour, you're definitely better off grinding on monsters. The higher tier prizes aren't going to give you a better return for your time invested either. So I guess the lottery is a big ol' waste of time and cash! But as some of you have probably guessed, there's a way to manipulate this. There is, and the best part is that it's very simple. You don't need to be playing on an emulator to abuse save states, you don't need to edit your save file's hex code, you don't need to do any kind of crazy RNG manipulation. When you buy your lottery tickets, their numbers are set in stone from that point on. However, the lottery results are not fixed until you inspect the lottery board. Do you see where I'm going with this? Step 1. Buy 10 tickets. It doesn't matter what kind. Step 2. Kill about 30 minutes. Go grind on monsters, or even just let your game idle while you take a bath or read a book.  Step 3. Put your book down, dry yourself off, return to town, whatever. DO NOT INSPECT THE LOTTERY BOARD YET. Head straight for the inn and save your game. Step 4. Now you can go back to the lottery board. If the results aren't up yet, go kill some more time and then return to step 3. Step 5. If the results are in, you can immediately start comparing your tickets.  You probably won't win anything on your first time, but that's OK! Because the results weren't fixed until after you saved your game. So just do a soft reset (press all four shoulder buttons plus start and select), and reload your saved game. Go to the lottery board, and there will be new, completely different results! You can reset as many times as you want until you get a prize that you want.  It should only take five minutes to get a 2nd prize ticket, and 100k potch is more than enough for the first chapter. As the game progresses, there will be better ways to get money, but at the very start, this is a great way to get your weapons sharpened, buy better equipment, get some good runes, and purchase the more expensive trade goods that give a better return on investment. And of course, if you're a completionist, it allows you to win the unique prize for each town without too many headaches.
|
|
#
?
Mar 21, 2013 03:40
|
|
|
Excellent, now I don't have to do it.  Part of the reason I'm so bitter about the lottery is because I tried this and wasted about 10+ minutes and still didn't win anything. So I gave up, and have cursed whatever foul luck overcame the lotto board that day, and pretty much never touched it since because gently caress that noise. Added this to the OP. Thank you so much.
|
|
#
?
Mar 21, 2013 03:50
|
|
|
Truth be told, I barely remember the lottery at all in this game. Looking at that post, I remember why I don't remember.
|
|
#
?
Mar 21, 2013 05:21
|
|
|
The Lottery in this game is an affront to basic economics due to you're pretty much guaranteed to turn a profit by gambling, therefore not making it much of a gamble. Really, after Gaspar tanked Toran's economy, Hans' secret counterfeiting operation spilled untold amounts of bad potch into Dunan, and the horrible inflation caused by Grasslands/Zexen backed lotteries overpaying their easily won raffles, it breaks my immersion that the whole region hasn't already collapsed into a barter-based economy because honestly, the potch should be worthless.
|
|
#
?
Mar 21, 2013 05:44
|
|
|
Personally I take the costs of sharpening as rock solid evidence of hyperinflation, so I imagine the only thing keeping potch in circulation is Harmonian tradition.
|
|
#
?
Mar 21, 2013 06:48
|
|
|
Infinite...money, huh? That sounds pretty dang useful for weapon sharpening. Wow.
|
|
#
?
Mar 21, 2013 07:14
|
|
|
Well, useful yes, but likely no. It's a one in 260,000 chance to get it, so even if you do the savescum method and it takes you a minute each reset, you're looking at 180 straight days of soft resets on average to get it. You could hack the game to give you a winning ticket, but if you're going to hack, why not cut out the middle man?Wheresmy5bucks posted:The Lottery in this game is an affront to basic economics due to you're pretty much guaranteed to turn a profit by gambling, therefore not making it much of a gamble. Well, fortunately to counterbalance this, a lot of people lost their life savings to the Failure Urn Bubble of IS 448.
|
|
#
?
Mar 21, 2013 08:45
|
|
|
Geddoe Chapter 1.5 - Castletown Night has fallen now, and Karaya Village is now under attack.  Geddoe and Queen look around, but there's not much they can do about it. They've no such obligation to Karaya. As Harmonians, even as spies, they are supposed to be neutral.  : "There is nothing we can do. We'd better leave."She turns to Geddoe. Amidst the chaos, it might not be too hard to sneak out.  : "You're right."He nods, but his answer is less committal than it sounds.     On Borus's orders, a lot of murder happens.   There's a decision to be made here. As per thread votes, I'm going with the "let's not leave yet" option. : "I have an inkling... If my opponent is none other than Borus, one of the Mighty Six Zexen Knights, I will be content."No, you rear end in a top hat, stop. Queen shakes her head. No stopping Geddoe when he actually decides to do something. : "You have some odd inclinations. Very well. I'll go with you. Let me leave a sign first." She draws something in the ground quickly., before getting up to follow Geddoe towards the knights.  He doesn't look very happy to see us. : "I am your opponent, Borus."This section strikes me as a little awkward, actually. I feel like leaving was the "correct" choice. Alas.  I can see Geddoe as being the kind of person who sometimes just gets the urge to do something ridiculous.  Such as fight Borus and his two lackeys. This fight is hard. Harder than the fight with Chris, by far. At least in my opinion. Also, this fight nets you a game over if you lose, while in Chris's you don't need to win.  There's no real trick to this fight. In Chris's fight, so long as she went down first, we were pretty much okay. In this one? You just have to get lucky.  The Knights are hitting harder than we are with normal attacks, especially Borus.   Even some well-placed lightning only take us so far. Borus has a lot of HP to back up his defense. (This was the second spell on his Rune. Without an opportunity to rest between the fight with Aila and this one, Geddoe was out his super-spell before the fight even started.)  He also has a chance to pretty much negate our damage too with his Full Defense skill, like so. We, on the other hand, are sitting on a little more than 200 HP each; a number the knights can quickly cut down to double-digits.  My personal strategy is to take out the lackeys first. You can do this with minimal danger by having Queen use medicines on herself, so that Geddoe will default to attacking whoever is closest, which was conveniently one of the generics. Since Queen is the front-liner, they will generally attack her over Geddoe. It only works so long as she has medicines, though, which is an unfortunately short amount of time.  I got pretty lucky with Queen, actually. She managed to guard and dodge more often than I thought she would, in addition to berserking from taking heavy damage.  Geddoe would use his Runes when he could, though he'd often be on medicine-duty when Borus was the only one left and Queen was out.  Yeah, even berserk, she can't do much damage to him.  And, of course, he goes berserk when he takes enough damage as well. Swordsman of Rage and all that.    A lucky dodge and a bunch of tries later, I finally manage to take him down. Geddoe surived with a grand total of 2 HP.  Delicious levels and potch. Unlike the Chris battle, winning this one actually nets you a reward.  You don't mess with Geddoe. : "Perhaps you're too sentimental. Not very becoming for a knight."I think he means to say "Calm yo' tits, man. No point in slaughtering civilians." He looks up at Geddoe angrily, but lacks the strength to stand or retort. Or maybe he knows that Geddoe's right. He did go overboard.  Not that Geddoe would pay any heed if he had. He's already lost interest in the Zexen.    Some new knights block our path, but a surprising interference stops them.  : "Sir Borus?" : "Not our enemies?" The two sheathe their weapons, and make way for Geddoe and Queen.  : "Well, excuse me."She tosses a farewell at them playfully, before leaving.  Back to his senses now, he makes ready to rejoin Chris and the others. But we're not going to see that again.  With no one else trying to stop them, Geddoe and Queen make for the hills nearby, to watch the blaze. : "They sure are going at it, aren't they?": "Sadly, yes.": "What's gotten into those knights? First, it's the Lizard Clan, and then the Karaya Clan. They seem a lot more violent than usual.": "Who knows?"There's a slight pause in conversation, and Queen turns to Geddoe. : "Are you holding something back again?": "Ummm..." She shakes her head. : "Don't worry. I don't expect an answer. It's just that we all trust you and depend on you. That's all..."He turns his head towards her slightly. : "I'm sorry."  Ace and Joker seem like they're doing okay. : "Not too hard to figure out."But what about Aila?  : "It's pretty bad back there..." Oh, there she is. Ace and Joker must have taken her back with them when they saw Queen's sign in the dirt.  She stares at the blaze in silence. : "What's wrong with the girl?" : "She's nuts! She tried charging the knights by herself. I could barely drag her away."Well, that seems like a pretty logical reaction to your village being destroyed, actually.  : "Wouldn't want to make a stupid move and face some angry Grasslanders and those knights."Queen glances around as she speaks, to make sure there's no immediate danger in the spot they chose. : "Good thinking. By the way, where's Jacques?" : "Here."  Where the hell did you come from?!: "Glad you're okay. Where've you been all this time?": "Thought I'd catch a rabbit for dinner.": "Well, where is it?": "All that mayhem over there scared it away." : "Hahahaha... Imagine that." The scene cuts and we rejoin our gang the next morning.  : "That's good. So, where are we going?": "We didn't really learn anything from the Karaya or Lizard Clans; that leaves the Chisha, Duck, Safir, and Alma Kinan clans. But before we go anywhere, I would like to gather more information from mercenaries in Caleria." "Dammit, no. I don't want to go back. That means more work that I don't feel like doing." We actually have the choice of agreeing to go back right off the bat, but  : "Or, do you want to look around here a little more? There may be a few survivors left.": "We could do that." Queen approaches Aila, who is staring out at the burned remains of her home. : "What do you want to do? Do you want to come with us? The villagers who escaped scattered all over the place. Since we don't know where they went, we can't really go after them." : "Will I... Do you think I'll see that woman again, if I go with you?": "What woman?" : "She seemed to know the attack was coming. Joker, the girl, and I went after her.": "Hmm... That couldn't be..." : "Uh, of course!" Yes, Aila is our first official Star of Destiny.  "You take care of it." : "I presume you can handle that. After all, you're in charge of the Unit's expenses."  : "Really? That would sure help!": "Ace!!!"   Excellent. Our first full party, minus a support.  Immediately, our map expands. Caleria is down in the south-east, past a route called the Mountain Path. The green block signifies that it's in Harmonian territory. However, somewhere else has opened up to us as well.  Lake Castle, also known as Budehuc Castle, has popped up to the north-west, as well as a new path directly to the east of it -- Mt. Hei-tou. We'll be stopping there before going to Caleria.  Getting there requires us to trek back through the Plains Amur, but there's not much interesting to speak of, so let's look at our newest member before breezing through.  Aila comes with two Runes right off the bat; the Earth Rune and the Shield Rune. The Earth Rune is, sadly, sort of lovely. It's mostly buffs, aside from the fourth level spell which Aila can't use yet. I'll show off it's spells eventually, but it's really just not very useful. The Shield Rune, on the other hand, is amazing. To compensate, it only has three spells, but they are all incredibly useful, and you'll see me using at least two of the three very frequently. I'll show it off in a bit.  As far as skills go, she's pretty good. Her magic ranks start off fairly high, and only get better. I'll have to pick up a Damage rank for her at some point, but she's very usable right off the bat. Anyway, let's breeze through this area--    That's not a Peckles. Meet a rare encounter monster that I didn't think I'd be seeing this early, the Troll Dragon! I guess I missed the Peckles encounters or something, but they'll show up as normal monsters eventually. That, or maybe they'll be around in Hugo's or Chris's chapters. Or you could check out the Sui5 LP for that version of Peckles. It's really nothing special, just a grey boar. The Troll Dragon is, much like all the rare encounters, a monster that we normally wouldn't be seeing for quite a while. Like, after we start finding normal dragons.  As you could expect, this means it's no pushover. Our damage output is going to be pretty mediocre. It's more of a threat because of it's giant pool of HP, though, as taking it down will be a very slow process, even later in the game. As far as what it can do, it's got a couple of attacks.  It can breathe fire, which looks cooler than it is. It did about 100 damage to Jacques, which is nothing to sneeze at, but I bet the Grand Holly could do better.  Additionally, it has a standard physical attack, which is sort of boring.  It's final attack hits your entire party. It dive-bombs the entire group a few times, setting them on fire as it does.  The damage is middling at best, but it adds up. So let's take care of our scrapes now, and show off something neat the Shield Rune can do.    This is the second spell on her Shield Rune, Great Blessing. It heals the entire party for a base of 200. It's pretty excellent. As for the first level spell, I'll show it off next time.   A testament to the Troll Dragon's rather absurd HP level for this point in the game. It still had quite a few rounds of battle in it after getting zapped to hell.   But zapped to hell it was, in the end.  Money and levels are had.  Passing through the Amur with little else happening, we find ourselves on the Yaza Plain next. Last time we were here, it was just a simple straight line from the south path to the north one, but this time we're heading west.  All that means is we get an extra screen, though. The route is still very short, and nothing of interest happens.  Instead, we proceed to the Lake Castle.  I like how everyone is looking every-which way admiring the castle grounds, except Geddoe who doesn't care.   The girl standing guard at the entrance promptly runs over to our little rag-tag group. You might note that the emblem on her shield is the Zexen coat of arms.  : "H-halt! Who goes there?": "No one special. Just us."I think Ace has given up on cover stories.  For once, I wish he'd attempted a cover story anyway. We could have been minstrels this time.   The castle grounds must be incredibly peaceful and quiet, if even this little commotion was enough to draw over another three people.  Not the weirdest thing we've been called, I guess.  Geddoe gives the group a dry stare, as the scene fades to cut out some exposition retelling.  Thomas bows, looks back at Cecile who frowns, and bows once more. He seems like a good kid. Still, a bit young to be a castle lord. : "We don't appreciate being treated like mountain bandits."   Queen's face.  Thomas steps in before they get to arguing. : "Business? What do you mean by that?" : "Well, this castle has recently opened itself up to free trade. We lease the land to people who want to open businesses. I thought maybe you came here because you heard about it, but I guess that's not the case." : "I'm surprised the Zexen Council approved that. Those greedy old men see any new business as an enemy, after all."Ace would know first-hand, being from Zexen.  : "That's not really an issue. You see, this is common land, held by both Zexen and Grassland. So, it's really not the business of the Zexen Council."Wait, what? Grassland and Zexen couldn't agree to not kill each other, let alone share a castle. : "She said that it's none of their business, Captain.""And? I don't care. Let them do what they want. "Except he doesn't even take the effort to say it.  : "The Zexen Guild Federation and the Six Clans for Grassland agreed to the arrangement made by the 'Fire Bringer' to make this place common land, held by both Zexen and Grassland." : "It is. So, how about it? Do you want to open up a business and bring lots of customers here?" There's a hesitation, as Thomas heaves a giant sigh.   : "Sorry. We didn't know the situation here.": "And here we were, getting all excited. If you feel so bad, how about buying some of my lottery tickets? Here. Here."No.  : "Hey. Wait a minute!": "It's a pretty good idea. I hope things improve for you. Good luck as master. Protect this place well." : "If I know of someone who wants to set up a business, I'll tell them about this place. But don't expect too much."If that wasn't a hint, I don't know what was.   And with that, we're free to explore the castle. However, I'll only be doing a minimal tour for now, and you'll see why soon.  The castle itself is a good example of something that used to be fancy, but has fallen into disrepair, as you can tell from the broken picture frame in the back amidst the otherwise quite nice marble interior.  Yeah.  The castle also suffers from having recently had a boat ram into it's secret indoor graveyard. Because it has a secret indoor graveyard. Or, it was once secret. Now it's just an indoor graveyard.  And a boat. This is actually the same boat and castle we saw as Hugo from the mines during the Saint Loa Knights sidequest.  Muto here is in charge of castle storage. He is one of only two "normal" Kobolds in this game. He's also adorable.  There's also an inn outside, run by the butler Sebastian.  Piccolo, the old man from before, does fortune-telling in a tent by the entrance.  And Juan is the resident bujutsu teacher.  While we're here, we buy Ace a Swing skill, and increase it to C.  We also buy Queen some Damage, and increase her Swing and Accuracy to C. With that, we've little else to do at the castle. Confused by the layout? Don't worry, we'll clear everything up surrounding this place in the not-too-distant future.  : "It may have been falling apart, but that castle had some nice character.": "They sure are having a tough time of it, though." : "By the way, Captain... Did you examine that record?": "What record?": "The mediator cited in their document shared your name. Is there some relation?" He shakes his head.   : "I wonder..." : "Ah, the ocean..." Welp. As nice touch, Jack hasn't been in our party the entire duration of the visit. The scene cuts as we finally leave Budehuc, but something interesting happens before we get control again.  A fourth pedestal is lit!  As you may have guessed, Thomas is our fourth main character. As such, we'll have plenty of time to explore the castle in his chapter, which is why I held off for now. We can't pick him now, of course, since we're still in the middle of Geddoe's chapter, but he'll be an option once we're done here. Now, this is getting quite long, so we'll rejoin Geddoe next time for a bunch of errands! And then, maybe more plot! yokaiy fucked around with this message at 23:32 on Mar 24, 2013 |
|
#
?
Mar 22, 2013 03:29
|
|
|
Here's hoping that you do Thomas next (or Hugo but whatever) as it makes a really nice change of pace to the other chapters. I'll be sure to comment on his guys qualities when we check them out fully.
|
|
#
?
Mar 22, 2013 03:45
|
|
|
Thomas's chapters are the best chapters
|
|
#
?
Mar 22, 2013 03:55
|
|
|
yokaiy posted:
Good job with the timing here. It's like Joker is glaring at him while muttering "You don't say" really sarcastically.
|
|
#
?
Mar 22, 2013 04:04
|
|
|
Why wouldn't you want to beat Borus? It's always fun to take him down a peg, especially since he serves as a decent substitute for punching Roland in his smug elf face. Ahh, Thomas. His chapters were a nice change of pace! Apparently you can turn him and Cecile into forces of death since they start at level 1, but I was too to try.
|
|
#
?
Mar 22, 2013 04:04
|
|
|
I hated Thomas chapters when I was playing through oh so long ago partially because he isn't the best fighter, but I really liked him in the manga. Maybe I should give him/the game another chance.
|
|
#
?
Mar 22, 2013 04:25
|
|
|
Testekill posted:Here's hoping that you do Thomas next (or Hugo but whatever) as it makes a really nice change of pace to the other chapters. I'll be sure to comment on his guys qualities when we check them out fully. Thomas is going to be next after this chapter, no worries. Verant posted:Why wouldn't you want to beat Borus? It's always fun to take him down a peg, especially since he serves as a decent substitute for punching Roland in his smug elf face. There's actually some interesting stuff that happens if you don't fight him, which I'm typing up a mini-post for now. Also, the Borus fight is really hard, and there's no real way to level up in preparation, since the save point right before it -- which you'd have no reason not to use if you didn't know this was coming up -- is as Ace. Of course, you can level him up as much as you want, but that won't help you in the Borus fight at all, since you've only got Geddoe and Queen. I'm not gonna lie, save states helped me out a LOT in that fight. I've never really managed to make them godly either. Last time I played, I think I worked them up to an astounding level 20-something. I am rather fond of his chapters, though.Fister Roboto posted:Good job with the timing here. It's like Joker is glaring at him while muttering "You don't say" really sarcastically. The timing of things in conversations is a thing that goes unappreciated that I think this game does really well. There are a lot of awkward pauses and sideways glances, and every one is entirely intentional. They add a lot, and I've been trying to express them in the LP, but it's sort of difficult to represent timing in screen shots, whoops. Hope I've been conveying them clearly.
|
|
#
?
Mar 22, 2013 04:38
|
|
|
I love Cecile's character design. It's half brave knight, half schoolgirl.
|
|
#
?
Mar 22, 2013 04:45
|
|
|
I can't wait until you show how overpowered Juan is.
|
|
#
?
Mar 22, 2013 04:47
|
|
|
yokaiy posted:There's actually some interesting stuff that happens if you don't fight him, which I'm typing up a mini-post for now. Also, the Borus fight is really hard, and there's no real way to level up in preparation, since the save point right before it -- which you'd have no reason not to use if you didn't know this was coming up -- is as Ace. Of course, you can level him up as much as you want, but that won't help you in the Borus fight at all, since you've only got Geddoe and Queen. I'm not gonna lie, save states helped me out a LOT in that fight. Yeah. I must have retried that fight several dozen times. I knew I could just skip it, but I wasn't about to let Borus go after that. So I died repeatedly instead :P
|
|
#
?
Mar 22, 2013 04:56
|
|
|
Thomas's chapters are definitely the best. Recruiting characters and building castles were always my favorite parts of Suikoden.
|
|
#
?
Mar 22, 2013 05:02
|
|
|
An Interlude - Geddoe Doesn't Feel Like Fighting Dialogue Choice We have the option to run from Karaya instead of take on Borus.  It's probably the smarter choice. It's at least the less-aggrivating one, haha.  But we're not here to be smart, we're here to be too lazy to leave! And lazy we were. Which ironically ends up requiring more effort. Funny, that.  Being not lazy means pro-actively trying to get the hell out of dodge.    It still requires a skirmish with the knights, but this one is on auto-pilot.  I think he's a little too excited at the moment.  This is possibly the worst witty banter I've ever heard during a sword-fight.   Queen runs past while Geddoe is being a distraction, but she's not going to just abandon him.  Oh no.    She's going to throw a flash bomb.    Not so fast!   Bolts from a bowgun. I guess Jacques was hunting rabbits of the Zexen Knight variety.  Regardless, he's successfully covered the escape of Geddoe and Queen, wherever he's shooting from.  The scene then proceeds like usual, including Jacques's line about rabbits. In conclusion: 
|
|
#
?
Mar 22, 2013 05:34
|
|
|
I like how Geddoe breaks his wrist.
|
|
#
?
Mar 22, 2013 05:38
|
|
|
Roobanguy posted:
You don't gently caress with Geddoe.
|
|
#
?
Mar 22, 2013 05:40
|
|
|
No joke, when I got to this point in my first playthrough, I did all of Thomas's chapters at once. It was...something! That's for sure! His merry little band is so much fun to get to know and contains an amazing shitwrecker in it. God I love Thomas's party
|
|
#
?
Mar 22, 2013 05:46
|
|
|
Thomas is such a nice young man, and I always liked his party of slackers, geriatrics and incompetents.
|
|
#
?
Mar 22, 2013 05:52
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 28, 2024 02:03 |
|
|
Thomas' core characters share a quirk that'll be easier to discuss when we have them and their stats on hand. Short version is that they're sort of the inverse of Geddoe's team. Shield Rune I find is really a mid-game kinda thing. 200 base healing is good but it doesn't scale up quite as well as the water runes do. Though the real issue is that most Shield Rune users have better skill ranks in Water, and those who don't are fairly average at both. The other thing to note is that Great Blessing is much slower than Kindness Drops/Rain or Healing Wind, so in some later fights it often just doesn't fire as fast as you might need it to. As well, it lacks an L4 spell entirely. So it synergizes well with Earth I suppose (where the only spell worth casting is the L4).
|
|
#
?
Mar 22, 2013 08:21
|
|