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Latest update: Chapter 37: Half-assed goodbyes. What is Tales of Destiny? Tales of Destiny is the second game in the Tales series and the first Tales game to be brought over to America. It was released stateside in 1997 and is the best selling Tales game of all time. It sports a direct sequel in Tales of Destiny 2, a PlayStation 2 remake, and a directors cut of said remake. None of those has ever made it stateside. Don't be fooled by the stateside game Tales of Destiny II. That's Tales of Eternia who's name was changed for some legal reason or another. Wasn't there an LP of this already? Kind of. Divided by Zero started an LP but sadly it got abandoned. I remember following the thread but it was a long time ago and I don't have Archives so I don't know how far he got. Divided by Zero also gave me portraits of all the main characters so big thanks to him. So what's the deal with this game? Plot wise we're not gonna be breaking any new ground. Worlds in danger, drama ensues, our hero's save it, the end. Battles is where the game really shines. Straying away from your typical "stand in a row, select attack"; the battles happen in real time on a 2D scrolling field with your party of four. Each character gets some pretty flashy special moves, most get some impressive magic spells to help kill your enemies. The enemies get their own flashy moves and spells to help kill your party. I'm going to try to show off all of those And hey, it's got talking swords! If that doesn't excite the nerdy 12 year old in you then I don't know what to say. What's the story? I'd like to get into that as the game does however here's a little quip about the story stolen from wikipedia. quote:In the past, a comet crashed into the world, throwing dust clouds into the sky and shrouding the world in cold and darkness. At about the same time, the inhabitants, the Aethers, discovered a new form of energy from the meteorite's core, which they named Lens. Combining this with further research, the people were able to create cities in the sky and live in them. Unfortunately, only a select few were chosen, leaving the rest of the people to remain on the bleak surface of the planet. These people became known as the Erthers. Sounds pretty bad rear end huh? Yeah well that happened thousands of years ago and we won't get to fight an awesome war like that. How is this gonna work? This is going to be a screenshot LP and I'll try to show off as much as I can. I was never one of the kind of people that needs to 100% a game or find every little secret so most of those were unknown to me until I recently replayed it to get reacquainted with the game so I could LP it. So while this isn't a blind run, a lot of the smaller details aren't rote memory like the rest of the game. Luckily I knocked all those out with my replay so we should be good. Main characters will have their portraits up next to their speech and I'll be finding some suitable portraits for the many NPC's we'll be encountering. My own comments will be in simple italics Are you going to do the Tower of Druaga? drat right I am.  Audience Participation This is a pretty straightforward JRPG so there's not much of a chance for that. I will however let the thread: *Name the characters. There's a seven character limit for names. *Once I get more than four party members, I'll let the thread decide my party. I'll ask this at regularish intervals. More than likely right before a major dungeon. *Much later on when it's time to recruit the optional characters, I'll let you guys decide who to recruit. Spoiler policy Yeah this game is like 16 years old and the plot isn't exactly full of thrilling twists but try to keep all spoilers in spoiler tags. As long as their tagged, talk spoilers all you want. Spoilers include up coming events, characters, betrayals, and enemies. Updates Chapter 1: A motherfucking dragon! Chapter 2: A winter wonderland. Chapter 3: Indiana Stahn and the Temple of Doom. Chapter 4: Money, money, money, money. Money! Chapter 5: In which dreams are cut short. Chapter 6: Have you found Jesus? Chapter 7: Over the river and through the woods. Chapter 8: Excuse me, sir? Do you have a minute to talk about Atamoni. Chapter 9: A pirate's life for me! Chapter 10: The angry atheist. Chapter 11: A church burning. Chapter 12: Class war fare. Chapter 13: Navy warfare. Chapter 14: Cougar Town. Chapter 15: Loose Cannons. Chapter 16: Trigger Warning: Clowns. Chapter 17: Flame Broiled Frog Legs. Chapter 18: The Bard's Tale. Chapter 19: Note to self; Buy floaties. Chapter 20: Title Match. Chapter 21: Friendship on the lonely sea. Chapter 22: All you can eat. Chapter 23: Just Desserts. Chapter 24: Naval Warfare Part 2. Chapter 25: The forest of regrets. Chapter 26: Freezer Burn. Chapter 27: Anime Amnesia. Chapter 28: Mary Mary quite contrary. Chapter 29:  .Chapter 30: Samurai. Chapter 31: Jinkies! Chapter 32: Surf the Firey Wave. Chapter 33: Pink Floyd Laser Light Show. Chapter 34: Chains and Ladders. Chapter 35: Trap doors and dick moves Chapter 36: Whiskey dick Chapter 37: Half-assed goodbyes. Bonus updates! The complete database of the Tower of Knowledge. Dalis and the fridge. Mid-game recap Ride The Gravitron fucked around with this message at 05:01 on Jul 20, 2014 |
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Mar 26, 2013 00:07
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Cast Characters  Stahn Aileron Stahn is a simple country bumpkin running away from his responsibilities. You can tell he's from the country because he's sporting a rocking mullet. He's kind hearted and overall tries to do the right thing but he's not quite obnoxious about it. He's the second best fighter and overall decent spell caster. Your average well rounded hero. Weilds the Swordian Dymlos  Rutee Katrea A street smart ne'er-do-well on a quest for money. Rutee always looks out for number one and isn't afraid to show it. She's quick to anger and even quicker to vent it. Weak physical attacks but she can steal, find money, and is the parties healer. Weilds the Swordian Atwight.  Mary Argent A carefree woman who's a master warrior. Strong, confident and full of hope. Despite her talent in battle she's rather calm and friendly. Weilds axes, swords, pikes, spears, and halberds.  Leon Magnus The youngest and most skilled swordsman in the country of Seingald. He's an rear end in a top hat and not afraid to show it. Weilds the Swordain Chaltier.  Philia An incredibly naive and kind hearted priestess apprentice. She's on this journey to make up for the fact that she had a direct hand in letting the mcguffin get stolen. Swordians  Dymlos Dymlos is pretty blunt and to the point. He's calculating, smart, and rarely has time for Stahn's country bumpkin bullshit. He's never shy about giving Stahn a piece of his mind. His attribute is fire. You gotta hand it to the game for not making the fire dude hot headed and easily excitable.  Atwight Atwight is the more clever of the Swordians. Seems to have a love/hate relationship with her user Rutee. Her element is water and is the only Swordian with healing magic.  Chaltier Fiercely loyal to Leon almost to a fault. He is the Swordian of earth with his spells able to knock enemies unconscious.  Clemente A large Swordian with the element of Thunder. Gets the most spells of any Swordian and is wielded by Philia. Is actually a dirty pervert. Fan Art! Spiffo posted:Get out of my game, bro. Spiffo shows us what could have been out of the clock tower dungeon. A nice little rundown by Phantasium about the changes in the remake. Phantasium posted:If you loved the battle system to Graces, you'll love the remake of ToD as it's *mostly* the same thing. They also changed a few story elements to make the game flow quicker (you meet Rutee and Mary on the Draconis in the beginning, rather than waiting until you crash). And the special edition let's you play the story through Leon's perspective. Ride The Gravitron fucked around with this message at 20:43 on Dec 10, 2013 |
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Mar 26, 2013 00:07
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Chapter 1 You gotta remember that this is an old game. Final Fantasy 8 came out about a year after this and kind of spoiled every one with a strong opening cut scene to set the story and get your blood pumping.  Tales of Destiny is from before that time.  "Don't complain. You're getting paid to do this." "Yes sir. (Sigh) All that's left for us to check is this storeroom." Back in the day you couldn't have an extreme close up of his, sadness in his eyes, his lips contorted into a heavy frown. There would be no well paid voice actor to voice his lament while a thirteen piece orchestra played a melancholy song to emphasis the crewman's distress. Back in the day a simple "(Sigh)" had to suffice.  "Is he...dead?" "No he's just sleeping. Hey, wake up! What do you think you're doing here?"This is one thing that I love about Tales of Destiny. Stahn isn't a lost prince with amnesia, he didn't get picked by destiny to save the world, he's not some noble hero on a quest for justice. Stahn just took a nap at the wrong place at the wrong time and got swept up in an adventure to save the world.  "..." "Hey! Can't you talk?"" It's not really worth capturing but the officer here actually kicks Stahn a few times. "..." "Could he be a stowaway?" "Sure seems like it. Hey, do you hear me?" "..."No, Stahn isn't a silent protagonist. He's just a real heavy sleeper. "He's still half-asleep. Well, you're coming with us, buddy."  "Come on, get the lead out!!" "Huh? Wha, grmblfzzz...?" "Just walk!" "Ofaay...(yawn)."     "What is it? What's all this racket?" "Sir, we found this suspicious character." "He was hiding in the storeroom below." "What!? Hiding below?!"  "Who are you?!" "Huh? Wha?" "The Cap'n asked you a question! who are you?!" "I...ahh...I'm...(ahem)... Stahn Aileron..." "Where are you from?" "I'm from the village of Lienea in Fitzgald." "We'll take that sword." "S,sure."  Stahn happily hands over the sword. A decision I'm sure he won't come to regret anytime soon. "He doesn't appear to have anything suspicious other than the sword."If I was him I'd check under that mullet. You could hide a whole armory in that hair. "The Draconis is my ship. Why are you here?!" "I,I only wanted passage to Seinegald."  You've come to steal jobs and leech off of the taxes of innocent Seinegaldians haven't you? drat you illegal immigrants! "All I want is passage to Seinegald. Please believe me." "Well, if you're going to play dumb, we can play games too. Maybe we can use him as a punching bag. Do whatever you need to make him talk!!!" "Aye, cap'n" "Wait! What are you doing? S, stop!!!" "Tell us the truth!"What ever beating they give Stahn here must be too extreme for TV. The entire screen goes black except for the text box. "Ow! I don't know what you're talking about, honest..." "You're only making things worse for yourself...Come on, tell us what you know! You came looking for IT in the storeroom, didn't you?!" "I...REALLY ...DON'T ...KNOW!" "Shaddup, and spit it out!" Eventually they break Stahn in two and he lets out a sharp irritating wail. All the voice actors in this game have shrill painful voices. Just another reason to make this a screen shot LP.  "Oh great... just what we need- a stowaway. What a pain..." "What now, Cap'n?" "Get him out of here!" "Aye, sir." "And make him swab the deck or something!" "C'mon get up. "Move it, slacker!"  For some reason the crewmans name changes to guard. Maybe they don't go by names here they just call you by your job. One day you're Poop-deck Scrubber, the next Captain's Ball Licker. Must be confusing. "How can I be all right? I just got caught and beaten up like a punching bag." "Well lad, today's your unlucky day, smuggling yourself aboard at a time like this." "What do you mean, unlucky?" "Are you dumb? Haven't you figured out by now that this ship's transporting something important? That's why everyone's a bit jumpy."You might think this is a case of the game holding your hand and walking you through every detail of the plot but it's not. Stahn really is that stupid. "Oh, I see..." "The Cap'n isn't usually like that." "Sure he isn't..." "That's enough. Let's get going."  You're drat right we're riding on top of a dragon.   "What? What are you talking about?" "Move along, and don't try anything." "Yeesssss, sir." As you can see, Stahn's already been assimilated into the system. His new name is now Stowaway. "Falling off?!" "There's nothing we can do to help you if you fall off the deck. Remember that." "(Ahem)...Sure..." "Now then, let's get your mop. The mop is over there next to the edge."   Soon they'll start calling him Crybaby. "What are you babbling about?" Very few people in the game put up with "B, because...we...we're so high up in the air..." "Yeah, so what? Of course we're high up in the air! We're on the Draconis." "Well, I'm...I'm kinda scared..." "Yeah, sure you are. Remember, you're dead if you fall." "Well, ummmm..." "Come on, don't be a wimp. You won't fall unless you try real hard." "Hey, that's easy for you to..." "Stop yer yappin', and start yer cleanin'." "Uhh..." "Sheeesh. What's the matter with you? Here, swab the deck first. You can get used to the height bit by bit." "Fine..." "Here, take this mop." "Gee, thanks...(sigh)."Elsewhere on the ship. . .  "How many are there?!" "Sir, there are approximately 100! Now at range 250! 20 seconds until intercept!" "Those bastards have finally found us! Number 1, sound the alert! Battle stations!" "Aye sir! Battle stations! Man your battle stations!!" "All hands, man your battle stations! and you- go to engineering. Increase Lens generator power output to plus 120% we can shake them!" We haven't even yet peaked grand pseudo science in this game yet. "Aye, Captain. Let's go! Follow me!" "Aye, sir!" "We can't allow IT to fall into their hands. We've got to protect it somehow! Increase power!" Is that the dragons heart? You sick bastards! What kind of foul experiments have you done? "Full power!" "Aye, aye, sir!" An alarm rings through out the dragon.  "What's the alarm for?" "I'm not sure. Something must have happened."Don't be silly. That's clearly the party alarm.  And here come the guests. If you look closely enough you can see that the back row is actually dropping onto the ship. They were motherfucking airlifted!  "M,m,m...monsters!!!" I do appreciate that this game actually acknowledges monsters. Very few games make note of the fact that it'd be suicide for any one but the protagonists to venture outside of a town. "Behind you! Watch your back!" "What?!" The guard turns around just in time to get a face full of ax!   "What do you mean, my turn? Not if I can help it! drat! *#$@!! I don't have a weapon!" "Heh, heh, heh... You're all talk, aren't you, little man?" "%#$*!"  Stahn runs away like the righteous hero he is.  This is the first time we actually get control of Stahn now. We take the time to back track just in time to see another face get the ax.    This is a bad habit of the game. There's a few times (this isn't one of them) That one NPC has the information you need to advance the plot. They give you no hint as to who it is. So now we got our mission. Find a sword downstairs but first when you gotta go, you gotta go.  If you've ever found something in a public bathroom floor you know exactly what Stahn's going to think next.  Luckily what he found was a green gel. Those are ToD's restorative items. They always heal 30% of your max health so they never really outlive their usefulness.  "Oh no, what's this?! The path is blocked by crates! But I think I can move them."Here we're introduced to a mechanic that we won't see for another 5 hours at least. Ten if you're not bothering with side quests. By standing next to a box and holding the circle button, you can move them around.  First floor: Tidied up boxes, second floor flying ax to the back of the head. Those monsters actually use that flying ax move in battles.  When we finally get downstairs, the camera pans to the back corner to reveal a conveniently placed sword. Naturally, we make a bee line right to it.   And get treated to one of about three FMV's in the entire game. "Great! A weapon... Whoa, what a piece of junk... I guess I can't complain." "A piece of junk?!! Hah!!" "Wh, who is it?!!!" "Th, the sword spoke!!!"  "Calm down, you fool! I'll protect you from the enemy." "What? Pro, protect me?" "Look in front of you! They're coming!" "I've got you now! Give it to me!"   Welcome to the first fight of Tales of Destiny. This update is kind of big as it is so we'll cover the finer details in the next update. Besides, this busta goes down in two hits.  "Not bad for a novice. But...oh, never mind. So, what's your name?" "What? Oh, sorry. It's Stahn Aileron..." Your new name is Stowaway!  Maybe I'm just immature and uncultured, but I did always like the humor in this game. "A spell? What do you mean?" "I've given you a spell called Fireball. This spell enables you to shoot small fireballs at your enemies. Remember, you must always have me, a Swordian, to cast a spell. By the way, it won't be easy for you to master them." "What do you mean by that?!"What he means is that only Swordian users can use spells. Not only that, they must have a Swordian equipped to use them. Luckily Swordians gain experience like any other character so they're never really weak weapons. On top of that you can find Aura Discs to slap on to the Swordian that can boost their stats and give you new spells. All in all there's never a reason to not use a complete Swordian team. "You'll see for yourself in time. Anyway, hurry up and get out of here now. You're finished with this place." "Okay, okay, I hear you... But say, wait a minute!" "What now?" "What do you mean, 'what now'?! You called yourself Dymlos, right? You're a sword, for crying out loud!" "How in the world can you speak?" "I can speak because I'm alive." "Aw, come on, do you expect me to believe that?!"You're having an argument with the sword right now, Stowaway. How do you not belive it. Then again you are having an argument with a sword. It's probably all in your head, you schizo. "Right now, I don't care if you believe me or not. What matters is that I'm here before you. Have you ever heard of the AETH'ER WARS? I was born in that distant past. And now, I have reawakened, And I've chosen you as my master. Do you understand me?" Apparently people in the distant past couldn't come up with orginal names. Swordian? Really? "Understand you? Err..." "I will help you with my powers. Believe what I say. If you don't want to die, that is." "Hmmm...Okay..." Now we can slaughter our way through the monsters on the dragon.  Tales of Destiny does have random battles. There's just a few areas, like the draconis, that you get monsters on the screen that you can avoid. They can also trap you and make the next 20 minutes a slog as you clear them all out. For the most part though, Draconis is a decent place to grind early and get a few levels.  This beastmeat stew refills your HP and TP to full. Moving away a screen makes all the enemies respawn so you can just kill them all, heal, rinse, repeat. Which is exactly what I do until:  That reminds me, Dymlos said we had a spell.    And while we're at it.    We'll talk more about spells and skills in the next update. For now, lets get off this crazy dragon.  "Wha?" "No, it can't fall...into the hands of... monsters..." "So this is the important thing you were talking about?" Up until now, Stowaway though this was your run of the mill talking sword. It's all starting to make sense now. "Arggggh!...Ugggh!!!" "Come on, wake up!!!" "......" "drat it!"  We return just in time to see a monster pull a hammer blow straight out of Monday Night Raw on another poor crew member. One scripted fight later. . .  "Forget about me...I'm dying. There's an escape pod over there..." If they share the same sprite, they can share the same portrait. "But..." "Shut up and go! The ship will crash soon... Aaaggggghh..." "Come on, don't die!" "Arrggh..." "No, this isn't happening!" "Stahn, escape now. We're really going to crash!"  "You stupid fool!!!" "Dymlos?" "Are you foolish enough to think that if you sacrifice yourself here, this man will come back to life?! I'll spell it out for you. You're an inexperienced weakling right now! Crush them? Hah! They'll crush YOU!! Listen to me! Calm yourself! Know your limits!" So long as that beastmeat stew lasts I'm unstoppable! "But I thought you said you'd lend me your powers!" "Yes, that I will. But I don't want to see you die in a place like this. It was our destiny to become partners. I've been waiting many years for this to happen." "Dymlos... I think I understand. Sorry." "Stahn, hurry up. We don't have much time left..."    The monster's ax actually hit the escape pod and made it start smoking like the cool kids in high school. Something breaks because of it and instead of a peaceful float to the ground the escape pod just plummets.      Spoke too soon, Stowaway. So taking suggestions for Stahns new name. I'll leave it up to a thread vote. Remember you're limited to seven letters. Ride The Gravitron fucked around with this message at 02:29 on Mar 27, 2013 |
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Mar 26, 2013 00:07
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Whoops, fixed now. Thanks for the heads up. Though I always thought the dragon was alive.
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Mar 26, 2013 00:35
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divide by zero posted:Seeing as how I was brought up in the OP, I guess I could go a bit further into why I stopped my LP of the game. Oh hey man I didn't mean to rag on you or anything. I enjoyed your LP. I wasn't trying to rub it in your face. divide by zero posted:Second was the work put into the updates. Much like how other Tales LP's have done, I attempted to inject various emotions from the characters using their skit portraits from the remake. While not all that much, combined with the fact I was writing out all the text by myself it started to add up. I don't know how you're handling it, but the game script I had wasn't formatted in a helpful way and I think had some errors too. I'm using a game script off of Game F.A.Q and yeah there's a few mistakes I noticed as well that I've had to correct. You're right about it not being formatted too well for an LP. I look it over as I play and make sure poo poo's kosher, taking notes where I see mistakes. Also I'm not bothering with the changing emotions. One picture is enough for me. Ride The Gravitron fucked around with this message at 03:26 on Mar 26, 2013 |
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Mar 26, 2013 03:23
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divide by zero posted:Oh, I didn't mean it like that! I just wanted to come a bit clean on the whole thing, if anything I should be saying sorry for blurting all that out right when you started this. Don't be sorry. I was wondering why anyways. God I hope there's NPC dialogue or I'll be pissed. Spiffo posted:I beat this game and don't remember a drat thing about it I'm surprised, there's a lot of memorable parts in the game. When I was replaying it I kept saying to my self. "Oh man I love this dungeon!"
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Mar 26, 2013 04:40
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Edward_Tohr posted:Really, the only part of this game that I really remember is the freaking tower. That tower is a complete bitch. Sixty floors, no save points, hidden treasures with no hints towards the stupid poo poo you have to do to find them. Spiffo posted:The Swordian system owns a lot though, having everybody be spellcasters is freakin' awesome and it pretty much lets you do whatever you want with gald since you're certainly not buying weapons with it. Not to mention with the lens system you'll be rolling in cash fast.
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Mar 26, 2013 05:19
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Alright then, default names it is from here on out. Chapter 2 I was reading the fan made "Tales of" Wiki today. Specifically about Destiny's remake. I wanted to read about the changes in the battle system and discuss them this update. I didn't get that far though as a small detail stood out to me because it was actually a detail I had planned to talk about in this update.  "Ah, awake at last." You may not have given it much thought but in the first update Stahn found a Green Gel right in front of a toilet. "You're deep in the mountains of Phandaria. We found you lying unconscious by the lake, kid." "Who are you?" "My name is Garr. I'm a traveler." "Thank you very much for rescuing me." "Don't mention it. You look like you're doing some traveling yourself..." "Yes, I left to see the world and maybe become rich and famous along the way." "What were you doing by the lake?""I was aboard a flying dragon, it was attacked by monsters...but I managed to escape from it." In all the JRG's I've played Tales of Destiny is the only one I can think of that actually shows bathrooms and toilets. "Yes." "Hmmmm...seems like you've had quite an adventure." "Oh, by the way..." "What is it?" "Ummm..." "Ah, your sword. Come this way."  Final Fantasy 9 had steam engines, mist engines, water powered pneumatic devices; yet not one toilet. The people in Final Fantasy 8 had cable television, jet powered boats, machine guns, had mastered space travel; yet no one had invented a toilet. You might give a pass to Star Ocean 2 since they were on a backwards planet. But then how about an outhouse or a crap hole outside of towns? Not to mention that leaves no excuse for Energy Nede. "It's on the table." "Whew, what a relief." "By the way, you have something interesting there." "What?" "I'm talking about the sword.""Th, the sword? Is...is there...what do you mean?" "This sword will help you some day." "Dymlos will? Do you think so?" "You'd probably get an answer faster from Dymlos if you just asked him. Isn't that right, Dymlos?" Don't get me wrong. It's not like I go through games counting all the toilets I find and obsessing about it. It's more like the FedEx arrow. Once you see it, you can't un-see it. "Hey, Dymlos." "............" "Hey, I'm talking to you!" "......................" "Ha, ha ha, it's okay. I don't think he likes me." "That's right. Especially someone with a cynical attitude like you, Garr." You go through those games saving the world, slaying dragons, chasing villians and all you can think is "My god, he's been holding in his poo poo for over 40 hours."  "Ah, are you better now?" "Yes. Thanks to you." "Well, I'm glad to hear that, my boy. By the way, Garr... She hasn't returned yet. Can you go look for her?" "Again? Consider it done." "What's going on?" "Well, his granddaughter went deep into the mountains but hasn't returned yet. I'm going to look for her." "Please take me with you." "But you're still recovering. You should rest." "I'd like to do something to repay you for helping me." "Well, that's very noble of you, son. I'll take you up on your offer. It'll be dark soon, and I'm a little worried." "All right, then we'll both go." And it turns out that in the remake they decided to remove all the bathrooms for some reason. Which means the remake leaves you with the same burning question every other JRPG does; "Where do they go poo?"  "What? How do you know my name? Can you read my mind or something?" "(Chuckle) Something like that... Let's leave it at that for now. We'll get going then." "I'm counting on you." Tales of Destiny however isn't afraid to answer that question. Here; right here Stahn goes poo.  Before we go find this girl though, we should root through her stuff and loot the house. There's actually a lot of flavor text in this game. The problem is that it's all generic and repetitive. You can examine almost every pot in the game but Stahn's just gonna say "It's a pot" every single time.  With the house robbed clean, we can finally head outside and find this girl. That satanic symbol you see to the right is the games save point. You're gonna want to head left and then up to get into the proper woods.  Being the first real area of the game, the woods isn't that hard or large. It's pretty easy to explore it all and get all the treasure chests. I did however take this screenshot though to show you something about this game that'll get real old, real fast. Almost every dungeon room has four ways out. Each of those ways out is going to lead to another dungeon room with another four ways out. Combined with Tales of Destiny's high encounter rate (Which I'm not entirely sure doesn't get higher later in the game) it can make exploring a dungeon a complete and utter bitch.  Now that we aren't slogging through the intro we can take a moment to talk about combat. Battles take place in real time on a 2D scrolling field. Think like old school 2D fighters. Except the arena doesn't loop around. It's got an end on both sides. You can only control Stahn. The other party members are controlled by the AI. They're pretty stupid though so you'll have to manipulate some things to get them to fight. I'll cover that more when we get a bigger party. Bringing up the menu does pause the battle for the moment, allowing you to choose spells and items with out racing the enemy. From left to right, you're options are: Spells: This lets you command any one who's capable of to cast a spell.Now spells happen in real time too. You're going to select who you want to cast, what spell, then your target. Once your target is confirmed the battle resumes again.  Spells take a few seconds to charge up. During all this the battle continues and if the character is hit while he's charging he loses the spell. Luckily enemies adhere to the same rule. So if you see an enemy charging a spell and if you're fast enough, you can smack them and put it to a stop.  If you're hit while charging your spell you don't lose the TP cost of the spell. That's not deducted until you actually cast the spell. With some rare exceptions with the higher level spells the effects happen in real time as well. So if you're casting say a heal spell on an ally, in those two seconds it takes for the numbers to calculate, your party member could be killed by the enemy. After Spells comes Specials.  All characters will gain a decent number of specials; not just your fighters. The AI controlled characters have access to all their specials and can bust out any one of them at any time. They are not shy about this at all and if you're not careful they'll blow through their TP in no time.  You can use the special menu in battle to command a character to use a specific special. Stahn however is different. He only has access to four of his specials at any given time. Stahn's specials are mapped to the X button and a combination of directional button.  So at anytime in the heat of battle you can press X, Up + X, Down + X, or Left/Right + X to do one of four specials. Going to Stahn in the Special menu during battle lets you change which one's are mapped. After that in the battle Menu is Command that lets you issue general orders such as "Focus on healing" "Go all out" "Run away". The only time you'll ever really use it is when an enemy is absorbing an element and some one with an elemental weapon keeps hitting and healing them. Strategy comes next and that lets you issue guide lines for each characters AI. "Conserve your TP" "Defend" "Go after the strongest." Changing that in the middle of a battle only applies to that one battle so if you want long term plans set it in the camp menu. Next is Order which changes what position your characters stand in during a battle. I'll cover this more when we have a bigger party. Last but not least is items which should be self explanatory.  Since the woods aren't that big, it's not that hard to find Chelsea.  "Garr! Is there something wrong? Did grandfather send you here? What does he want now?" "I think he was saying that he needs your help badly ... He said something about sewing buttons on his pants." "Sew buttons on his pants? ...He needs me for THAT? He was once a revered master archer! This is so embarrassing!" Chelsea throws a little fit here and runs around in circles for a while. "There's more to it than that. Master is genuinely worried about you. He's afraid that you got lost again." "No way, I'm not lost! I was just hanging out with Keyaki and my other friends. We were having so much fun, and we just lost track of time. I'm not lost or anything... I don't deserve to be treated like a baby."As you can see, Stahn is not the only one with imaginary friends around these parts. There wasn't any one else when we came onto the scene and there's only one exit out the the alcove so they couldn't have left as we arrived. Chelsea has been spending her time in the woods alone talking to voices that she calls friends. "Well, a 14-year old is still a child, if you ask me. Let's go home before it gets dark." "By the way, who is this?" "Oh, this is Stahn. He's on a journey to seek fame and fortune." "I'm Stahn Aileron. Nice to meet you..." "How do you do? I'm Chelsea Torn, Master Alba's granddaughter. I'm honored to make your acquaintance, sir." "Honored to...make your acquaintance...? Wow, your manners are very good for a 14-year old."This sudden change in attitude isn't quite that random. If you dig through all of Chelsea's stuff you'll find a book about practicing your lady manners. "It's hard growing up with a grandfather who can't do anything by himself." "Well, it's hard for the master to have a grandchild who easily gets lost." "Phoooey!" "Okay, let's go." Chelsea here actually joins your battle party for the short trip back. She starts out with no weapon so is just dead weight. However if you looted Alba's house back there you would have found a bow that you can equip on her.  "Yes, we just got here."He knows, Garr. He was standing right at the edge of the forest and saw us enter the screen. I wonder if there's a mental illness about stating the obvious that could fit in theme with my thread title. I mean we got Stahn the paranoid schizophrenic talking to swords, afraid that Garr can read his mind. Chelsea seems to have schizophrenia as well making up friends. I'm sure Garr has something loose up there. "I'm glad you all are safe." "Grandpa! Can't you fix your own pants?!" "Now, calm down, child. You've got plenty of time to fix it." "No I don't!" "Really...?" "Of course! I can't keep doing everything for you for the rest of my life!" "Chelsea. that's more than enough." "You shouldn't spoil Grandpa like that." "..." "I have to put my foot down like this to make him understand my point!" "I seeeee, is this how you young ones gang up and abuse a helpless old man?" "Who's the helpless old man?!" "Have you no gratitude for the one who has taken care of you so far?" "..." "I think I'm going to be depressed..."Yeah Chelsea was being a pain but when Alba pulls out guilt trips like that you kind of begin to sympathize with her. "Okay! I'll fix your pants... But only this one last time only!" "(Sigh)" "Master, what do you mean by 'gang up and treat you badly'?"See he even got Garr to feel bad and I think he's suppose to be in his thrities. "It's just a figure of speech, son. Don't dwell on it too much. Oh, yes. I should give you two a reward for finding Chelsea." "Master, please. A reward for adults like us...?" "Well then, Garr, there's no reward for you. Let's see now. And you are Stahn, right?" "Y, yes sir." "Here, I'll give you this."Stahn however has no shame in taking a reward. Perhaps he never learned any manners in the country. If you'll remember Stahn actually went to find Chelsea to repay Alba for taking care of him. He shouldn't be taking a reward.  These things'll heal 30% of a characters HP and TP "Well, there's no need for us to stand around here freezing like this. Let's go back inside the cabin." "I was going to Darilsheid in the kingdom of Seinegald..." "Hmmm, Seinegald... You'll need to pass through Janos to get there from here." "Janos?" "It's a border town to the southwest between Seinegald and Phandaria." "I can take you to Janos if you want. How about it?" "Yes, thank you." "Garr, are you coming back?" "Not right away, master. I'm thinking about going back to my hometown temporarily." "I see... Then, give my regards to your father." "Whaaaaat! Are you leaving me, Garr?!" "Phooooey!" "Oh, do behave. I'll come back again." "Chelsea will wait impatiently for you."Referring to yourself in the third person? I'll file this one under megalomania. "Hey, hey, don't get so serious." "Thanks for everything." "Take care of yourself, son." "Shall we get going, Stahn?" "Sure."This time you're gonna want to head south out the cabin into the woods and if you wander around to the right place...  You can find your crash site. A neat touch is that the escape pod already froze. It must be freezing in Phanderia. On your way to Janos you'll encounter the same enemies as before. I didn't want to dump all the battle stuff together so let's cover the rest right now. This is the place in the update that I wanted to cover the differences in battles between the original and the remake. However I got distracted with that toilet fiasco so if some one wants to go into details about it and post it in the thread, feel free. You already know that using the X button will use a special move. To do a normal attack you use the circle button. You have two types of normal attacks and they both have their own attack stats.  You got a downward slash which you use with just a normal hit of the circle button.  And you have a thrust attack which you can use with Down + Circle.  For airborne enemies you can thrust upward. In a battle you got a semi fixed position when you fight.  When you hit circle Stahn will run to the enemy, attack them, then run all the way back to his starting position. You can stop the running back by pressing the directional in the opposite direction or by being hit. This will change his position in the fight and all your allies will run to Stahn to stay in their respective order. You can also walk when you're in your position during a battle and where you stop will be your new "set position". All in all it's pretty annoying and we won't be able to fix it for a while. Now when you're running, if you double tap the circle button you can do dash variations of your normal attacks. Stahn jumps into the air and comes down hard on the enemy for what I'm pretty sure is extra damage.  You can do this with thrusts,  Slashes,  And upper thrusts. The upper thrust is the most useful one as some flying enemies will be just out of your reach and the dash attack lets you jump high enough to smack them Now you may have noticed that Stahn has a shield now. We found one in Alba's house and promptly confiscated it.  Pressing square lets you defend and take half damage from physical attacks. There's also a chance that the Sthan will do this automaticly when he's hit. Out of no where he'll defend an attack with out your prompting. Enemies can do this too. It's based on the attackers hit rating and the defenders agility rating.  Janos isn't that hard to find. Much like in the northern section of the woods, the southern section is pretty small and easy to explore it all for treasure. Enjoy it while it lasts. "Thank you for everything." "Don't mention it. Have a safe journey." "Thanks. Please take care of yourself too." "Okay. Goodbye, and good luck."  And with out social peer pressure to look normal, Stahn's schizophrenia kicks right back in. "Why didn't you say anything?""I don't trust Garr." "Why not? He's a nice guy.""Listen! He knew that I existed." "Well, I learned about you too.""You're special. You've been chosen!"Let's go ahead and toss in Delusions of Grandeur into this diagnosis. "Chosen?" "Hey, don't let it go to your head! You've still got some learning to do." "Anyway, don't attract attention to yourself." "Why?" "Why?! Just think about it!" "Now, hold on Dymlos!" "I won't speak unless it's absolutely necessary. Do you understand?!And with that we leave Stahn arguing with himself in the middle of a town. Ride The Gravitron fucked around with this message at 03:56 on Mar 27, 2013 |
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Mar 27, 2013 00:39
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And here I thought Destiny was ahead of it's time.
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Mar 27, 2013 01:20
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Mod's please change the thread title to Teach me English as I play Tales of Destiny. In all seriousness though I do appreciate you pointing out these mistakes so I can correct them and hopefully not make them in the future.
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Mar 27, 2013 02:31
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Chapter 3 When we last left our friend Stahn he was securing his position as the town's local crazy. He isn't helping his case here by standing in the middle of the street with a blank stare on his face as he gazes at nothing. Unbeknownst to Sthan but benownst to us he's got some competition coming up for that job title. For now though let's get a move on. Garr said that Seinegald is to the north so let's head that way for now.   "I can't let you go through here without a passport. Go back."Well gently caress. Remember back when I said that many times in Tales you have to hunt for one plot-holding NPC with absolutely no clue or hint as to who? Welcome to the first occurrence of that. If you're a new player I hope you're ready to talk to every single loving NPC in town to figure out what you have to do. Let's start in the pub, that's usually a staple of JRPG information.   "Let's make a toast to your beautiful, sparkling eyes." "...Are you...like, stupid?"Welp. Maybe the next table over knows something.  "Yeah, so what?" "Whaaaaaaat?! Don't you know who the 'Black Wings' are?! Hey, listen up, pal. We hunt for Lens by going on difficult adventures and then sell them to Oberon Corporation. And many products used by ordinary people are made from these Lenses In short, we're a godsend to the people of the world. And 'Black Wings' are superior to all the other Lens hunters! We're invincible!! We're immortal!! John, 'The Beast'!" "Whirlwind Milly!" "And I'm the illustrious leader of the Black Wings- Grid, the Omnipotent! You poor helpless peons. Remember this day and my words forever in your hearts. You shall be saved by me some day!" "Yo boss! U da man, U da man!!" Yeah he actually says it like that in the game. "My greatness rules the day again... Heh, you wretched commoners. Sorry, but no autographs."Ok maybe the pub wasn't the best of places to start. Let's slowly back away and start over. I know! Let's go to the inn right next door, up the stairs, to the very last room and talk to the man tucked away in the corner purely on a whim.  Eureka! Plot!  "I have to return to Phandaria soon, but I can't go through the border without a passport. Oh, I'm in deep... (mumble, grumble)... Where did I drop that blasted thing?"Now at this point it should be obvious what you have to do.  Clearly you have to enter this unmarked and unremarkable building in the south that no one has bothered to mention or point out before. Duh.  (Even if I get this, it's probably for the wrong country, and besides, it belongs to someone else...) "What's wrong? Isn't it yours?" "Um, well...No it's not."Luckily we know who's it is.  "Oh, really?! I have to go get it. Thanks for the tip! This is a token of my gratitude. Please take it."Dude gives us Fifty Gald "Um, (ahem)..." "What is it?"What do you mean "what is it?" Fifty Gald? I found your passport and spared you the life of an illegal immigrant working the bean farms for pennies a day constantly looking over your shoulder for La Migra and all you give me is Fifty loving Gald? I could kill a bear and get more than this. "Where can I get a passport?" "Didn't you get it from the guard when you entered the town? You don't have one?" "Well, you know...I was..." "If you don't have a passport, you must be a criminal or an illegal alien..." "No, no, no, no. It's not that I don't have one I just don't have it with me..." "Sure, I believe you. Oh, I'd like to chat some more, but I've gotta run. I've got to go get it now. Thanks for your help."And just like that we accomplished nothing and are back to square one. gently caress you Stahn.  "Wha? What gives?" "You should have used that guy's passport to get out of town..." "Then I'd be going to wrong way. I'm going to Seinegald, not Phandaria." You can see the innkeeper contemplating calling the cops as he sees this lunatic covered in bear blood ranting and arguing with himself in the lobby. "Hey, didn't anyone bother teaching you about not stealing things from others?" "This wouldn't be stealing. It's something that someone dropped. Finders keepers." "It's the same thing. You're so wrong." "Fine...Whatever! See if I ever give you advice again!"   God drat it, Stahn, can't you do anything right?  "Trouble? What happened?" "Actually, what I should have said is that my friend is in serious trouble. My friend was caught in a trap inside the ruins by the snow mountain." "That doesn't sound good."I love how Stahn's not even phased by that. poo poo like that just happens in this world "I'd like to help her, but I can't do it by myself." "I see. Then, I'll help you." "Are you sure? That'll be great. My name is Mary Argent. Call me Mary." "I'm Stahn Aileron. Let's get going." "We can go to the snow mountain from the exit on the right side of this town." "Okay, lead on." "Man, you are such a pushover. Weren't you going to Seinegald?" "Will you shut up?! I can't abandon someone in trouble!" "It's nothing. Let's hurry up."Way to miss the warning signs, Mary. Despite the fact that she isn't a Swordian user, Mary is my favorite character in the entire game. She's not a walking anime cliche, she gets some of the best lines in the game, and on top of it all off she's a god drat powerhouse in a fight.  Yeah she just shoulder charged a bear.   And yeah, she did just toss that bear ten feet into the air. Aint no thing when you're Mary.    Not that far from town Mary clues you in on where to go. Because Mary knows that having to wander around aimlessly like we did before is complete bullshit. Mary's the best. "Near the end of this path, there's a hidden entrance to a passageway that will take you to the temple." The moment you enter the cave Mary promptly reminds you of what you're doing. Because she's not pussy footing around here. She's getting poo poo done and she's getting it done today!   New area means new enemies. Those little slug things spit out a purple ooze at you and the sprites kind of just bump into you. I think they might also cast magic but none of them lived long enough to even try.   One of the reasons Mary is such a powerhouse is because she's not a Swordian user. So whenever you find or buy a stronger weapon it's promptly going on her. Swords, axes, spears, halberds; Mary can wield them all. Only thing she can't use are bows but that's okay cause Mary would rather get up close and personal so she can feel the spray of her enemies' blood on her face. If the thread hadn't voted on default names I'd be petitioning to name her Xena.So while your Swordians are patiently gathering XP for higher weapon stats, Mary's already got an upgrade or two and is slaughtering her way through hordes of enemie's with a smile. Sure she'll never cast a spell but she can knock a bear ten feet into the air.  This is what Dragonatrix was talking about when he said you could use another character in combat. Equipping this on a character and pressing select on the second controller let's you control them with that controller. It was originally intended for two players to get in on the fun but it is possible to make Stahn computer controlled and then just switch back and forth between the controllers. Player 1 to wander around the world and Player 2 to fight in battles. There's a total of three of these in the game (And I think you can get one of them over and over again) so if you had a multitap you could get three friends to join you in on the fun. If you're a friendless loser though you can just sell them for a shitload of cash.  This dungeon is actually pretty linear so it's easy to go through. You shouldn't even be tricked by this fake dead end cause the switch is glowing. Mary doesn't even bother to tell you about it because it's that obvious. Going through that leads to another part of the cave which quickly empties out into the Hidden Temple!   "Rutee!" "Mary! Where did you run off to?!" "I couldn't help you all by myself. I've recruited some help." "Mary, is this your friend?"No, this is just another random traveler who happened to get caught up in a trap. I told you, this poo poo happens all the time. "Yes. Her name is Rutee. "Let's leave the introductions for later! Just get me out of here now!!!" "Okay, okay, we'll get you down now. Stahn, please help me." "Sure thing. What do you want me to do?" "Stand in front of the right pedestal." "Okay." "Is this it?" "Well, don't push the bu... Oh no, run!!!!!!!!"   Notice Mary didn't get caught in the trap. She's too good for that poo poo. "Stahn, are you all right?" "Ye...yeah..." "Hey! What do you two think you're doing?!" "We're doing our best..." "Stahn, hold on, I'll help you." "I don't believe this. @#$%!!.. Is your head just an ornament?" "Hey, look who's talking! I don't need verbal abuse from someone suspended in midair." "What?! What are you talking about?! You're no better off than me!!!!" "Knock it off, you two. Stahn, I'll get you down."   "Whew..." "Okay. We need to push the buttons at the same time when I say so. Stahn, don't blow it this time." "Okay, okay..." (What did I do to deserve this?...) "Yeah." "Push!" The screen flashes white and obscures everything and makes for some really bad screenshots. So use your imagination. "Ugh. Why me? Why do these things always happen to me?" "I'm sorry." "Well, don't worry about it. Let's get what we want and get out of here." "Hey, don't I get a word of thanks from you?" "Thanks?! No way!! Are you crazy?!" "What?" "I didn't ask for your help. Mary brought you here, right?" "But she did that to get help for you..." "I think we have a failure to communicate here. By the way, who's the wonderboy that got trapped and had to be rescued by Mary?" "......" "So, we're even." "......" "We're wasting our time. Mary, let's go. We're going home." "What?" "Someone's coming."  "You've got some explaining to do. And quickly!!" "And who do you think you are? You sound like a bunch of thieves trying to snatch other people's treasure!" "Thieves?!!!!!" "Oh, no? Then, bandits? Sheesh. What's the world coming to?" "Why you little...we're... "That is, if you want to lose your life."Isn't Mary the best? "My, my. Don't you have a big mouth. Aw, forget it. Let's finish the three of them together!" "What do you mean, 'Finish the three'...?" "I guess you're with us now." "Hey, wait a minute! I'm not..." "Shut up! save your excuses for the afterlife!" These soldiers aren't too hard. They have 200 HP each and hit as strong as the other enemies in the area. The "difficult" part is that they have the highest HP of anything else you've seen so far.  Which is easily taken care of by charging right into their faces. A fun thing to note is that when you kill a monster in game, it'll poof into a green cloud and go away. Human enemies though will fall to the ground and stay there for the rest of the battle. Just to remind you that you murdered a person.  "They're all talk after all!" (Hey this guy might actually be useful!) "Um, Stahn, is that your name?" "Ye, yeah." "I guess this is the second time you've saved me now. Thanks, Stahn." "Huh?" "If it hadn't been for you, we would have been killed." "Now, what did I do to deserve this outpouring of gratitude all of a sudden?" "You saved our lives. Mary, you should thank him too." "Stahn, thank you for your help." "But, I really haven't..." "I'd like to thank you somehow. Can you come along with us to town? Mary, you ask him too!" "Stahn, come on, let's go together. Traveling is fun with more people, the more the merrier." "What? Oh, um...sure...(I guess)" "Terrific. There's an exit to the south. Let's go."There's a bit more of this temple to explore though not much to really show off. A new enemy does appear here however.  That jelly will kind of just wiggle at you and toss it's weight when it wants to hit you. As we looted the place though, every one gained a level and a new skill!     Power Missile is a stronger version of Stahn's Sword Missile. You can see that it also has some trails behind it. Some rather high trails. Those can actually hit low flying enemies.  Rutee's first special lets her search the ground for a few seconds to look for money.  When she fails she just lays on the ground for a moment as she wonders what kind of life she's had that has led her to searching for money on the ground. I never got the move to actually succeed for this update and I eventually gave up. I'm not 100% sure what determines success with Search Gald but I would imagine it's based on her luck skill and according to the ToD booklet, your luck changes every time you rest at an inn so I'll try again next update. After that I'm gonna turn the special off so the AI will never use it with out my prompting. Cause it is a useless as gently caress skill.  Heading south out of the temple we come into the woods. It's a short trip from here to the town and there's only three paths if you count the one leading to the temple. Even if you manage to get lost:  Now that we're out in the woods though and have bigger targets we can check out Stahn's new skill.     For those of you who don't know; the "Tales of" series is made by Namco. The same folks who brought you Tekken. You can really see the fighting game influence in the special moves.  "Oh, okay. Thanks for the tip..." "It’s a little too busy here. Let's go somewhere we can sit peacefully."  For some reason you get a choice here even though it has absolutely no bearing on anything in the entire game. Unfortunately for Stahn the military has pretty strict regulations and procedures so he'd be disqualified from joining thanks to his schizophrenia. "No. I'm not planning to do that..." "Then, what are you going to do?" "I don't know yet..." "Oh, I see... By the way, where are you from?" "I'm from the village of Lienea..." "Lienea? Where's that?" "It's in Fitzgald..." "Fitzgald?" "Wha,whaaat? Something wrong?" "That means...you're a country boy!" "You, it's Y...O...U! About the only place worth visiting in Fitzgald is Neuestadt, right? Lienea? Where the heck is that? I've never heard of that place." "Hey, enough about me. Where in the world were YOU born, miss I'm-better-than-you?!" "Why, I, I was born into a good family in Seinegald! Don't put me in the same boat as you!" "......" "Okay, that's enough of that subject... Can I see your sword?" "Can I?" "Ummm...well..." "This?"  "How do you do, Stahn?" "I thought so! You can hear Atwight's voice!"And now we can add Folie à Deux to our growing list of mental illnesses our party possesses. "Atwight?" "That sounds like...Dymlos?!" "I was right! You're a Swordian user!" As you can see Mary is confused because unlike the other two she's not insane. Mary's too cool for that. "In short, we are both swords created in ancient times. However, we are different from ordinary swords because we are sentient."Whoa there, you can't be using big words like "sentient" or "different" infront of Stahn. He gets easily confused. "But unless the user's neural wavelength is the same as ours, we can't even communicate with the user." "Does that mean the user is chosen?" "Chosen... You haven't changed a bit, Dymlos. You are so good at fooling people." "Sh, shut up, Atwight..." "Hey, Dymlos..." "Looks like you've been had." "Oh, well... His mind was simple" "and easy to read. But more than anything, he seemed like a good person..." "Otherwise, you wouldn't be able to hear my voice." "I know I'm interrupting, but..." "What!" "Do you want to work with us?" "Work?" "You don't have any plans, right? It might be better for you to travel with us instead of being alone." "What shall we do, Dymlos?" "Why are you asking me...?" "It would feel safer if Dymlos was with us." "I wouldn't object if you want to join them..." "Then, let's work together. But I won't take part in any crimes." "Of course! What do you think I am?" "............." "Well, think what you like. At any rate, we're in business together. Oh, can you give me Atwight back?" "Sure."  "Well now... I'm gonna go out for a while." "Where to?" "I'll make arrangements for our lodging. You wouldn't want to stay in our room would you?" "Of course not!" "Besides, I wouldn't want to be bothered by someone like you." "Who would bother you?!" "I just said the truth. I'm not helping you." "All you really want is to be with that Himlos or whatever, right?" "His name is Dymlos. He's just an old comrade. You wouldn't understand." "You're not exactly a young girl in love or anything." "I don't want to hear that from a money-obsessed maniac like you." "What?! You don't know a thing about me!"You literally scavenge the ground for pennies, Rutee. I'm sorry but Atwight is completely correct about you. "That's right, I can't read your mind because you won't open it to me." "You know, I can just throw you away right here if I want to!" "Do whatever you like. I'm interested in finding out what'll happen to a defenseless girl if she doesn't have a Swordian."I'd like to know what happens to a defenseless Swordian who doesn't have some one to carry it around or stop it from rusting.  "I'll get you for this someday!" "I look forward to it." "I don't know, but leave her alone." "They do this often. Don't worry." "I see... By the way, why did you set out on your adventure?" "Me? I...can't remember." "What?" "I don't remember. My memories only begin from the time I first met Rutee."Ok, fine, sure, Mary does have Anime Amnesia but she's still the best character in the game. "Isn't that called amnesia...? don't you remember anything?" "This." "I don't know why I have it or to whom it belongs to... Before I knew it, I had this sword... This is the only connection to my past for me." "I'm sorry...I shouldn't have pried..." "Don't worry about it. It's kind of liberating to not have any memories. Besides, everything I see, hear, touch, taste...everything is new to me." "Is that right...?" "You'd understand if it happened to you." "That's quite all right... that's the last thing I need." "Ha, ha, ha. You're right." "Great." "Well, I'm going to call it a day. We'll leave early in the morning tomorrow. Don't be late!" "I know, I know." "See you later, Stahn." "I'm going to bed too..."Character Status:   
Ride The Gravitron fucked around with this message at 02:02 on Mar 28, 2013 |
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Mar 28, 2013 00:11
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Yes it is, in all it's glory. There will be a huge loving rant about that when we get there.
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Mar 28, 2013 00:50
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That's coming next update. I wanted a party of three to show off the order system and the dumb as poo poo AI but there's only a short bit after you recruit Rutee. On top of that they gained skills and I wanted to knock those out of the way.
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Mar 28, 2013 01:10
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Chapter 4 Last update we did pretty good. Good enough that the party decided to celebrate by drinking and Stahn's feeling it now.  ".........Zzzzzzzz..." "Wake up!" "........" "Stahn, wake up!" "..........................." "Hey! I'm telling you to wake up!" "Oh...good...morning..." "Good morning?! How much longer are you going to sleep?!" "Yaaaaaaaawwwwwwwnnnnnn..." "I don't believe this. You're a zombie in the morning!!" "Huh? Wha?" "Oooooh! It doesn't matter! Just wake up!" "Go where?" "Oh. give me a break! I told you yesterday Don't you remember?" "No, not at all..." "I can't believe it!! There's a village called Harmentz in the northwest! We're supposed to give that cane to a guy named Walt! Do you remember now?" "Not really..." "Rutee, I don't think you told him that." "Oh, no, Mary, you don't remember either?" "I don't forget a thing." "......" "Well, listen up, we're going to Harmentz!" "Oh, sure..." "But before that..." "What?" "We'll exchange the Lens for money." "Lens?" "Let me guess..." "Whaaaat?" "...Do you want me to tell you what Lens are?" "Well, um, (cough) yeah..."You can actually choose yes or no here but I like the yes option better. "I don't believe it! You're so out of it!"I like it better because you can see how pissed and irritated Rutee is right now. "Hey, sorry for being a country boy!" "Okay, I'll teach da wittle country boy how the Lensy-wensy get schanged into M O N E Y!!" "Hey, cut that baby-talk out!!!" "I don't know what you're talking about." "Err, um, never mind..." "Well, fine! It's settled then. Let's go."  You get Lens at the end of almost every battle. It's tacked on with the XP and Gald earned for the fight. "You don't have to keep on calling me country boy!" "Just be quiet and listen to her." "I'd be happy to explain. At Oberon Corporation, we buy Lens from people in order to manufacture our fine line of Lens products." "Wait!" "Yes, what is it?" "Can you start by explaining what Lens are?" "Sure. Lens are a type of energy generating device. The name comes from it's shape. They're round and about 2.5 inches in diameter. The most commonly accepted theory says that Lens are technological legacy left by ancient civilization. Moreover, no one has been able to clearly understand it's scientific properties."Yet that won't stop us from selling them across the world. What's that? These things gave you cancer? Sucks to be you. "Oh, whatever. I don't care as long as it can be exchanged for money." "Lens are usually found in ancient ruins. However, some monsters have them inside their bodies. Since our company uses Lens as energy source for our products, they are in high demand. We buy them at a reasonable price from Lens hunters."I can't remember where I read it but the prevailing in-game theory is that regular animals eat a Lens or two and that changes them into monsters. That explains why you get Lens after a battle and why you shouldn't leave children unsupervised around these dangerous things. Still doesn't explain why you get money after a fight though. "Lens hunters?" "They're adventurers like us who hunt monsters to get Lens." "The Lens are processed in a factory at our headquarters and turned into useful products. The products are then distributed and sold through retail outlets." "Hmmmmmm..." "Now, would you like to take this opportunity to purchase a Lens product for your family?"Not until you start running those things through the FDA, USDA, AARP and every other government acronym. "We're not here to buy anything. We want to exchange Lens for Gald." "Sure, I'd be happy to help. You have 225 Lens. Our exchange is 3 Gald per Lens, so you'll receive 675 Gald. Is this all right?" "Your rate is kind of low." "A large quantity of Lens were purchased recently, so we have an excess supply of them right now. Therefore, the rate is temporarily low. Would you still like to do the exchange?" "Sure. That's fine."The exchange rate changes every time you enter a town. Normally 3 Gald per Lens is unacceptable to me and I will exit and enter over and over until it's at least 6 Gald per lens. It's an incredibly easy system to abuse and if you're ever struggling for cash you just aren't playing this game right. "Thank you very much. We look forward to serving you again soon."Now we can head out the town and the woods to explore the world.  The little box with your characters just shows them walking and such. If you don't do anything long enough they'll start lounging around in that thing. In the Japanese version of the game there were little skits in those boxes where they talked, argued, and conversed among themselves. All of that was voice acted but they never bothered to translate them so they just took them out of the game. They appear in that little box in your battle order.  You're going to need to gently caress with the battle order first thing. You see, ToD's AI is dumb as poo poo. Your allies will not attack an enemy unless it is in front of them. So if your order is Rutee, Mary, Stahn and there's an enemy in front of Stahn, Mary and Rutee are just going to sit around twiddling their thumbs. Rutee might cast the occasional spell but Mary won't do anything. This doesn't apply to bow users but we won't see another one of those for a long time. Now while the game booklet doesn't come right out and say it, it does heavily imply that you should put your fighters to the right and your spell casters to the left. This is a dumb as gently caress idea. You see battles come in three different flavors. There's your normal battle that we've already seen with your party to the left of the screen and your enemies to the right. There's a back attack with your party to the right and the enemies to their left. Finally there's a pincer attack where you got enemies on both sides of your party.   Back attacks are rare but pincer attacks happen almost just as much as frontal attacks. Which means there's around a 50% chance your spell casters to the left of the row are gonna always be getting the crap kicked out of them. My preferred order is something like what I showed up top earlier. In this order we got our fighters Stahn and Mary to the ends and our spell caster Rutee protected in the middle. If we get into a normal frontal attack Mary automatically comes out swinging and Stahn joins her as soon as he can run his stubby little legs over there. In the event of a pincer attack, Mary's got her end covered and Stahn's got his end covered while Rutee supports with spells.     Of course what she'll end up doing most of the time is her Search Gald move which is another reason you want to turn it off as soon as you get it. In the rare case of a back attack all you have to do is press L1 and the party reverses their order and poo poo's back in business. Being out in the world map of course means different enemies. Every one always warned you about the dangers of the real world but I'm sure they weren't quite expecting bees and snakes as part of that.  These cute little things will actually shoot their stingers at you and can poison you.  Snake does a standard snake bite but that's it. No chance of poison.  You'd think the eagle would swoop in and claw the poo poo out of your face but he actually sweeps over your party shooting quills out at them.  And last you got wolves. We spent enough of the last update gushing about Mary so lets talk about Rutee. Fun fact, until the plot tells you that she's a Swordian user, she's only equipped with a short sword and has no spells. So this is your first real chance to play around with her toys. Quickly we discover her main role in our party.    She'll heal your party with the power of razzle-dazzle. It's very refreshing of Destiny to make your party's healer something other than a dainty fragile woman who constantly sprains her ankle and needs the hero to rescue her every god drat second. For being Destiny's equivalent of a white mage, she's a very competent character who can take care of herself. I kept trying to get back attacked to show it off but it never happened. But rather than fight through all those fights I just ran away so here's how escaping works.  That green bar is a timer and as it goes down the lights light up.  During all this time the battle keeps on going. Your party can keep attacking and getting attacked.  Once time is up though they'll kick up some dirt and get the gently caress out of there. Once they start running they can't be hurt anymore. Now while Rutee is your party's healer, she also gets a fair selection of offensive spells.     From here on out it's a short trip to where you need to go.   Walt's house is the largest mansion at the back of this village."There's a few things you can do in this town.  Such as meeting Stahn's creepy uncle.  I never thought we'd meet again here. Let me help you. I'll give you some money."Uh, no, really. That's okay. I don't know what dirty hookers snatch this was rubbed on. You keep it. "Okay, I'll give you this."Instead of ten Gald he gives us ten lens. You do have the option to take his money but ten lens is better than ten Gald. "If you return to Lienea, say hi to my Maggie." You can also ruin a kid's game of hide and seek.  "I'll give you this so don't tell anyone I'm here."We extort him for a life bottle in exchange for our silence.  Up ahead we find a kid giving away treasure. I normally say no but for the sake the LP I save-stated and went ahead with it.   "Wait, I was wrong." "Are you sorry?" "Yes." This is not a random or set number. It's always all of your money. "Are you nuts?" "But...I..." No more negotiation. Are you gonna pay?If you want to get out you have to pay. Or reload your recent save. Whichever.  In my case I just loaded up my save state and selected no. Anyways, we should probably get going with what we came here to do.   "Punk? YOU talking to me? I'm no punk!" "Ya wanna piece o' me, little punk?!"It's a small thing but they way they toss in those little things like "Ya" or "Yer" really goes to show how good the localization is. Except for one puzzle in the game everything is pretty smoothly translated.  For his trying to be a tough man, Stahn gets knocked out like a punk. "My, oh my. We bring something important for Walt, and all we get for our troubles is this lousy welcome?" "Oy, den why dintcha say so in da faaast place? Big Boss be waitin' upstairs."Before we talk to "Big Boss" let's see if there's anything to loot in this mansion.  God drat it, Stahn! You say this yet you have no problem using their bed on a whim.    "Did you?" "Man, you're so predictable. You're exactly what I heard. First thing first. Give me the item." "All right. Take it."We hand over something called an "Old Cane." Whatever, I'm sure it isn't important or anything. "Now, you got what you wanted. Well, it's my turn to get paid for my work." "Fine. Wait a minute."  Old Man Walt hands us over 5,000 Gald! Hell yeah, today was a good day. "Hey, wait." "What?" "What do you mean what?! Did you seriously think I'd be happy with this little money?! I bet I can get at least 50,000 gald if I put this thing up for auction!" Rutee yoinks another 5,000 Gald from him. God drat, Rutee! Where were you when I handed in that guy's passport? "Well, I'll let you go this time." "Now, just a minute, Rutee! I made a reservation at the inn for you, and I was even going to wine and dine you to thank you for your work. And then you pull this fast one on me? You've got some nerve biting the hand that feeds you!" "Whatever. Thanks for taking care of our accommodations. We'll make sure to stay at the inn. See ya! Have a nice life! Come on, we're going Stahn." "She's a witch..."drat, I do feel kind of bad. Let's try to apologize.  Welp! Let's go see about that inn.   "I'm sorry but we're completely booked today." "Oh, we have a room reserved under the name Walt. Can you check please?" "Ah, I see. Just a moment please. ...Yes. We have confirmed a reservation for a Mr. Walt on file. And the room is prepaid as well. Please make yourselves at home."And that's three out of four updates that ended in a good night sleep. I'm counting passing out in the woods and almost dying of hypothermia because we woke up in a bed and with full health. I think I can get used to this game. Ride The Gravitron fucked around with this message at 02:10 on Mar 29, 2013 |
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Mar 29, 2013 01:59
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Stabbey_the_Clown posted:I like ya, kid, ya got moxie. Like I can't even call that kid taking all your money for an orange gel a dick move because 2 minutes later you get ten-thousand Gald.
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Mar 29, 2013 03:52
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Chapter 5 Ah another day in Destiny; another fool to rob blind. I could totally get behind a JRPG who's heroes are complete selfish assholes only looking out for themselves and their pocketbooks.  "............ZZZZZZZZ...ZZZZ..." "...Are you listening to me?" "Mmmph...huh (yawn)? Oh, good (yaaaaaawn) morning ...Did you have something to say?" "...Oh, forget it!" "By the way, what are we going to do next?" "I heard that the head of the Armeida village was looking for someone who could give his grandson lessons in swordsmanship. The pay is pretty good. What do you think?" "Swordsmanship... That sounds good" Hell yeah it sounds good. Dudes wouldn't even be able to fight back when we tie them up and loot their house. "Okay then. Armeida is northeast from here."  "They're..." "Hey, hey, hey! What's going on here?" "Shaddap! It's none of your business... Wha, h, hey! Waitaminit!!"   I imagine the JRPG of selfish heroes would go a lot like this actually. You'll go from town to town stealing plot related items while the army chases you down. Eventually your party will come to realize that the best defense is a good offense and take the fight to the capital city. "Oh, now I remember! You're those thieves who tried to mess with us before!" "Who're you calling thieves?! We're Seinegaldian soldiers."  So the final dungeon would be a raid on the castle going through floor after floor on your quest to kill the king. Each boss would be like part of the kingdoms "Elite Knights" or something anime like that.  "Did you know that the temple was under the protection and care of our kingdom?" "What?! ...Hey, hey, Rutee." "Stahn, did you know that?" "How the heck would I know that?!" "Jeepers! Well, gentlemen and sirs, as you can see, we didn't know that." Phew! Glad we could clear that up. We'll be on our way now. "Why you little punks! You're lying through your teeth!!!"  "Why, am I that famous? Do you want my autograph or something?" "I've heard many bad things about you. You should hear what they say about your mother.  "Listen you, surrender peacefully. We want to take you to the castle for questioning." "Stahn..." "Wha...what?" "Run!" "Ru...huh?!"    "Is this an ambush?!" "What's going on?! I thought you weren't involved in bad things!!" You just saw her rob a dude in front of you, Stahn. This happened the day before. How loving stupid are you? "Ugh! Will you stop your whining, Stahn?! My plan is completely screwed up now... Okay, we'll have to do things the hard way! Mary and Atwight, come on!" "Mary, please stop Rutee!" "Hee, hee, hee! Come on, you little girlie boys!! Show me what ya got!!!" Just go ahead and tell me that Mary hasn't won you over as best character. "Wha, now, hold it right...!" "We have no choice..." "You, you must be joking...!" "We have to make our stand now." "Argh! ...Lilith, I'm so sorry. I might not be able to come home ever..." "What are you blubbering about?! They're coming!!"   This battle is a cake walk. Except for the fact that now there's 8 of them, it's exactly the same as the fight in the Hidden Temple. They have the same health and attack strength. In fact because you should have gained a level or two on the way, it's probably easier than before. I really want to point out the background for this fight. It's not just a simple generic "in town" battle screen. They could have easily gone with that and used the same background for the like one or two other times a fight in a town happens. No, this background is unique to this town which actually has a bridge over a little stream like that. They put in a lot of effort into this game.  "What are you waiting for?! There's only three of them!" "Move out of my way!"   "drat it, you spineless worms... Quit slacking your job, you morons! Get up now!! I'll take care of them. You fools are going against the national army. Surrender peacefully or suffer the consequences. This is your last chance..."  You're gonna get it now! "When did they let you out of preschool?!" "I've given you a fair warning... You'll regret you insolence. Criminals have no rights. Now, you shall pay!!"  Alright let's do this thing! Gonna tear this punk a new assh-  Wait. . .what? Only five points of damage?  Okay, okay. Clearly I came into the fight unprepared. Let's start over and see how much health he has so I can plan. There's a neat little item in this game called Spectacles that let's you see the enemies health and their primary element if they have one.    Ok you know what? If the game isn't gonna play fair, neither am I.   You made me do this, Tales of Destiny, You did! I hurt you because I love you.  "Do we have to fight these soldiers? ...Don't I have a choice?" "What's your problem, Mr. Gloom-and-Doom?! If we stick together, nothing can stop us." "B...but..." "Can't you see there's no turning back now? Let's get crazy!" "B...but..."   And finished off the master swordsman, Leon Magnus. The three went on to take their place in as an infamous gang of lens hunters who roamed the four corners of the world. But that's another story The game then takes you back to the title screen. And that's Tales of Destiny, Folks! I'd like to thank you all for sticking through my first LP. Big thanks to divide by zero for those portraits as well as thanks to Stabbey_the_Clown for being my unofficial proofreader. Feel free to leave comments and critiques about what I did right, what I did wrong, and everything in between so that my next LP can be better than this one. Good night, folks! Alright, alright; I guess I should at least try to beat Leon fair and square for the LP  Son of a bitch!  Oh! "How amusing. I wasn't aware you had Swordians."How the hell would you even know? You didn't even let us live long enough to cast a spell.  "Yeah, so what? What is it to you?!" "Your Swordian skills are so primitive. What a waste of the poor Swordians..."  "Chaltier!" "Hey, what's this? Chaltier? Who? Dymlos, what's going on?!" "Chaltier was our comrade during the ancient war." "That means he's a..." "Yes, he's a Swordian master." "If he's a Swordian master like us, why won't he let us go?!"  "No way. I can't go against my master." "So, who is this master of yours?" "Leon is my master. He's the best swordsman in the Kingdom of Seinegald. He's highly respected." "Kingdom of Seinegald?" "It's a kingdom that was established after the war in the northern part of the Prime Continent in this world." People, please. This is not the time for a geography lesson. "I've never heard of it." "You don't know because you've been sleeping for ages." "What is the Prime Continent?" drat it, Stahn! What did I just say? "This is the Prime Continent. It was called by that name long ago." "Oh..." Are you happy, Stahn? Is your situation any improved now that you know about the Prime Continent? No! You're still tied up and beaten! "By the way... Chaltier, you talk differently now." "Do you think so? Perhaps, it's because of my young master...Well, I've also been through a lot..." "Chal!" "I know, master. I'll behave..." "All of you should be silent as well. Surrender your weapons now." "Yeeessss, maaassssster...!" "Hey you, Leon or whatever. What are you going to do with us?" "There is only one place for criminals to go. Just make sure to remove the unnecessary jewelry and clothing around you neck... Send these scum to Darilsheid!" "Yes, sir!" "Criminals...Hey, wait a minute!" "Why did we have to be caught by you, of all people in the world?!!" "Take them!" "Yes, sir!" "Hey, watch where you're grabbing! Hey, lemme go!! Lemme go!!!" "...What a big mouth!" And just like that, our short careers as country side thieves is brought to an end. A man can dream. 
Ride The Gravitron fucked around with this message at 03:24 on Mar 30, 2013 |
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Mar 30, 2013 02:29
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Edward_Tohr posted:I do love that this game gives you a different ending for winning the requisite unwinnable fight. Much better than the mystical cutscene powers that the enemies use in other games, even if it does wind up cutting the game a little short. A quick googling shows some  s beating him at like level 7 or something like that which I think is insanely low but what do I know? I don't even want to imagine how hard to must be.Tuxedo Ted posted:Confession time: I never beat Destiny myself. Something about the combat just made it a drag after a while. I'd like to say it's just cause I got spoiler by more modern games, but even Tales of Phantasia felt more smooth. The combos just seemed to roll out more naturally. Eventually I just lost interest, which is a shame since a ton of characters seem pretty cool. There is a slight lag to your characters physical attacks. You'll slash or thrust at the enemy and if you connect you're frozen from doing anything but special moves for like a second and a half.
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Mar 30, 2013 04:04
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Chapter 6  We catch up with our heroes in jail. They had been beaten, insulted, and shamed but that's not gonna stop Stahn from getting a good nights sleep.  And it sure won't stop him from whining about it the moment he wakes up. "Yeah! why do I have to put up with any of this?!!"  "What did you say?! First of all, Stahn, this is YOUR fault. You're the one who fought will all those soldiers!" "Hah! Look who's talking! Okay, then tell me who got us into this mess in the first place!!!" "Oh, stop your whining. Whatever the case, it's all your fault, so why don't you be a real man and take responsibility?!" Stahn's a whiny little useless moper. He'll never take responsibility. It's very strange to see a game where the main character has the weakest presence and personality of all. "Hey, who made you the judge, jury and executioner?!" "Mary, say something." "Why don't you two love birds stop fighting? You two sound like a married couple." If you readers are sick of it by now just imagine how poor Mary feels. "Why you traitor!"   "Where are you taking us?"  "You're going to see His Majesty." "What's going on?" "You have no right to ask me that question." "Oooooh! You're useless." "Take them."  "Yes, sir!"  It's a real shame that these kind of scenes don't happen more often in the game. There's a nice touch on how you're always led like a criminal. From the beginning where those crewmen take you to the captain, to being escorted out of the town by Leon's goons.     Yeah, I got no idea who they are either.  "What does the king want from us?"  "Now, take a moment to reflect upon you heinous deeds." "What did I do? I haven't a clue. Right, Stahn?" "What? Err..." "Who do you think you're fooling, you imbeciles!! You wreaked havoc in a temple under the protection of my kingdom and terrorized citizens with acts of senseless violence! Now, you shall pay for your transgressions!" You really kind of have to wonder how badly you must gently caress up in order to have the king himself sentence you. Don't they got judges or a court system? Does every little trespassing or vandalism case have to go before the king? "But, but..."   "One moment, your majesty. "Hugo, what is it now?" "Do you know what a Swordian is, sire?" "That's a strange question, Hugo. What is your point? I love that the King didn't even answer the question. The truth is that he doesn't know but he's not about to admit that in front of his subjects. Right now all he knows is "Swordian? Really? What a lame word." "These criminals before you are Swordian masters." "What? Are you sure of that?" "Yes, sire. According to Leon, although they are immature, they may be of some use to us." "Hey, what do you mean by immature...? Really, the only one who could be called immature is Stahn. Immature, naive, un-educated, foolish, hick, inbred, redneck, slack-jawed; Really a whole bunch of words could be used to describe Stahn. "If I may be so bold as to make this proposal sire, what do you think about the idea of sending them to Straylize Temple?" Are you hoping they'll find religion and reform their criminal ways? What a strange and out of the blue suggestion. "Although you're my trusted vassal, I think this proposal of yours does not make any sense. These wretched miscreants are criminals. We cannot afford to have them on the loose." "But sire, I have a solution for that. I have no intentions whatsoever of allowing them to run free. As long as we attach these restraining devices made for prisoners on them, they will be unable to escape. Guard! Hold this one!" "Yes, sir!"   "You can untie the rope now. Sire, this device is capable of generating a severe electric shock via remote control. Now, a simple demonstration of the device."  I really think this would be good for the rest of the game. Whenever Stahn acts stupid, just shock him.   "The test shock just given to the subject wasn't much, but any attempt to remove the device will generate a lethal shock." "Ah. I see. So, if they try to run away, we can control them with the device." "Exactly sire. I believe that these criminals can be easily controlled by assigning a single escort to watch over them." "Yes, but..." "What is troubling you, sire? Please tell me, I can't read your mind." Stahn instantly become relieved at this news. But who in this room can? Who?! "What I'm about to say does not leave this room. So let's just go ahead and talk about it in front of criminals who have no loyalty to the country. Hugo, you've heard of the Eye of Atamoni, have you not?" "I believe that was the doomsday weapon from the time of the ancient Aeth'er Wars." "Yes, you are correct. And it is kept underground beneath Straylize Temple." "What?!"   Oh come on, the thing has been down there for over a thousand years. I'm sure a few more hours of plot dumping won't hurt. Besides, it's not like you've actually given us a reason to worry. "No, Ashley! If even one of the Seven Generals of Darilsheid investigates this matter, the public may panic. This must be kept a state secret." He says as he spouts out state secrets in front of criminals he has no reason to trust. "In that case, I believe using them would be the most expeditious way to handle this matter..." What matter? What's the problem here exactly? "But Hugo, can we trust them with the task?" What task?! Is there even an issue here? You have a weapon, good for you! You haven't told us anything else. If there's suppose to be some sense of urgency here I am not feeling it. "We'll send Leon along with them. He'll be able to handle them easily." "Hmmm, Leon, eh? All right, make it so." "Attach the device on these two and untie their ropes." "Yes, sir."  "Where do you think you're touching me! Let go of me, you pervert!!" "Wow, this is a great fashion accessory." Mary's not worried because she knows that she could kill every one in this room with out breaking a sweat. "You're such an airhead..." "Hmmmm..." Maybe we should get Stahn some medical attention or somethi - no? Oh okay "Hey there, mister. I don't know if it's the Eye of Atamoni or the Evil Eye or whatever, but you're going to compensate us for our work, right? Otherwise, this is totally ridiculous!" While Mary is still my favorite character, Rutee is pretty high up there as well.  "You brazen hussy! Who told you to speak?!!"  "What?!" "Why, isn't she just a lovely lady? I guess having her life spared isn't a good enough reward... Rutee...was that your name? I can't promise you anything right now, but how about a reward upon completing the mission? Of course, the mission must be completed successfully. This is a very important task.A very important task of going to the temple and doing... something? "I realize that you are simple people who need some kind of motivation to get things done. Would this be all right, your majesty?" "Yes." "Come to my mansion later. I have something to give you. My mansion is the largest building in Darilsheid. You can't miss it. I love how he just casually drops that in. "Yeah, it's no big deal." "Oh, and..." "What?" "My name is Hugo Gilchrist, the president of Oberon Corporation. Remember my name." "The...president of Oberon Corporation... You mean THE Oberon Corporation?!" If they could have done it, I'm sure they would have made Rutee's eyes get filled with dollar signs here. This dude, the king's right hand man, is the president of the largest corporation in the world. That's the company we sell all those lens to. "Yes, the one and only. Well, if you'll excuse me..."  "Okay, so what are we supposed to do?!" "I shall give you two tasks. One is to inspect the temple. Contact Archbishop Marton and ask for an update. Something may have happened to him." Not like we have a reason to suspect so but eh, couldn't hurt to check up on him. "If Marton is not there, ask anyone who's available." "And then what's the other task?" "If something is going on, put a stop to it, whatever it may be. I don't care HOW you do it- just get it done." Just, you know, if by chance you come across a world threatening disaster that we don't know about or something. "What could that something be?" For once Stahn's confusion is justified. "You have to find out for yourself. Just follow Leon's instructions." "But he's just a little kid! Are you sure it's all right?" "Hey!" "Leon's skills are easily on par with the Seven Generals. Not to worry." "How lovely! I feel sooooo much better now!" "Just stay out of my way." A brooding dark loner child who's a master swordsman? Really filling up on our anime quota here. "The temple is located deep in the mountains northeast of Darilsheid. Prepare for the trip at Hugo's mansion and head for the temple. Do you understand?" "Yes." "All right. You are all dismissed." So now that we're freeish people. Let's go loot the castle and put our freedom at risk.  There's not really anything too spectacular to steal. Oh wait, what's this?  Ewww. Well I guess we're not always gonna have access to a toilet but still...   "Long ago, a comet came crashing down on these lands. Nearly half of our population was lost due to this cosmic calamity. The dust clouds that resulted from this collision spread over our planet's skies for years. This caused an unnatural winter that seemed to have lasted forever. Our world was plunged into what was effectively an ice age. Our race of people split off into two groups during this ice age - an age of darkness. They were the chosen and the outcasts. The chosen escaped from the winter on the surface and lived their lives in an utopian world in the sky. The chosen ones ruled the outcasts on the surface with lighting bolts they threw down at them. The outcasts on the surface rebelled against the tyranny of the chosen ones and thus began a war between heaven and earth. This is what became known as the Aeth'er wars - A War Without Victory. The eventual victors of the Aeth'er Wars were the outcasts - The people on the surface. Or were there really victors of this war? No, our entire race lost." Like I said before, the flavor text in this game is really kind of lame and stupid. On occasion though you can find a few hidden gems.   And with that we can head on out of the castle.  And over to Hugo's house.   Marian!! Are you here?"  I was always way impressed with that picture on the wall because it looks like someone actually loaded up a real photograph and just stuck it in the game.  "Leon, my boy. It's so good to see you." "I told you not to call me that." "Master Hugo in his office, my boy." "Hee, hee. He called you a boy!!"   Little trails of smoke follow her down. There's a lot of neat details like that throughout this game. "Silence!" "Why you little (grumble, grumble)..." "What did you just say?" "No, nothing, I swear (mumble...mumble)." "That's what I thought. Now, shut up." "By the way...who are they?" "Don't mind them. I'm traveling with them out of convenience." "Hey, I thought we were working together..." As in the way a slave works with his master, Stahn. "Was I talking to you?" "Well, you don't have to treat us like a bunch of lepers or something." "Kind strangers, please don't fret over what the boy says."  "Hah!! Speak for yourself!" "Leon tends to keep people at a distance on purpose." "Nonsense!" & "........." "Well, any guests of the young master Leon are welcome here. "Sorry, but we don't have time for that right now." "That's a pity..." "Hugo is in the office, right?" "Yes, that's right." "Fine. Well, let's go." "Oh, whatever!" "You're hopeless."   "You're here earlier than I thought. Well, let's go to the hall and talk."  "Marian, bring them here."   "Excuse me." "Let me introduce all of you to Marian. She's our housemaid." "Hello, how do you do?" "Marian, give them the Swordians." "Yes sir." "Dymlos!"  "Atwight!"   "History books say that 6 Swordians saved our world in the ancient Aeth'er Wars." "That's correct." He can't hear you, Dymlos! You're just in Stahn's head. "And now, half of them are assembled here. I expect you to be successful. Successful in what? I don't even see a problem for us to solve. Why are you sending us to a temple? "And take this too. This will help you find your way around the world. Now go ahead with your mission." Hugo hands us the customary world map and we are out of here!  drat it, Leon! Haven't we plot dumped enough yet? "Wh,what?" "I remembered something. Wait here for a while." "Where are you going?" "It's none of your business. Remember, there's no use trying to escape. I'll hunt you down in the end." "I, I know."   "Leon, what's wrong?" "Don't call me that. No one can hear us here." Maybe he just wants to be called Big Poppa Pimp. "...I'm sorry. But I thought you went off to some place." "I don't think I'll be able to see you for a while, so I just wanted to talk to you before I left." "You came back just for that?" "I'll miss you." "Oh, poor thing. Master Hugo wouldn't like it if he knew about this."  "Emilio...you shouldn't say such things." Dissociative Identity Disorder: Check. "............ I'm sorry, Marian...I was wrong." "It's fine as long as you understand." "Then, I'm off." "Emilio...please be careful." "Yeah, don't worry, I'll be fine."  "Marian... Sorry, it's nothing." "I just wanted to pose dramatically one more time." "........"  "He said he had to take care of business. I wonder what he meant by that?" "I don't know! Don't ask me!" "I wasn't asking you!"  "You never know!" "You fools! those tiaras on your heads work as homing beacons. How does that even work in a setting like this? "We know exactly where you are, wherever you go. Don't even try to get smart on me, do you hear?" "Anyway, where were you?" "It's none of your business. I don't have to answer any of your inane questions! Let's get going!" Current Status:    
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Mar 30, 2013 20:59
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Pierzak posted:We absolutely need to see those skits. Or at least the translation. Youtube answers your prayers! Here's what we would have seen up til now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtjqKqSZxUw
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Apr 1, 2013 17:21
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Chapter 7 When we last left off we were charged to go investigate a temple for absolutely no reason and no sense of urgency at all so let's take our sweet time. I was going to start off our time wasting by investigating that weird stone tablet outside of the castle but, KataraniSword posted:
So I guess we don't have to worry about it! Let's get on with this trip then.  There's a fair bit of shopping to do in Seingald but with that out of the way we can get started on our vague unimportant journey. On the way though let's pick a few fights and check out what Leon can do.     Leon starts off with both Kick Attack and Missile Sword and over the course of the game ends up sharing a lot of the same moves with Stahn.  His animations are slightly different though. As you can see for Missile Sword, instead of slashing downwards, he does a upper slash to send off his attack.   His first spell Stone Blast isn't that impressive to look at either. It's about as powerful as Ice Needle only in earth form.  With that out of the way let's check out our first stop in wasting time. This town is on the way to the temple.  There's really not much going on in this town. There's no plot and no upgrades to your equipment if you went shopping in the last town. If the name of the town sounds familiar to you though you might recognize that this is where our party was originally heading towards to teach some kid on how to use a sword. There might still be time to knock that out of the way for some extra cash so let's check that out.  "Famous Swordsmen"? I wonder who they could be.  Wait a minute. . . those sprites look familiar.  Black Wings!   "Yeah!"  "Well, whatever the case, don't bother me."  "Yeah, yeah!" You'll rue the day, Black Wings! Sadly I think this is the last time they pop up in the game. It would have been kind of cool if they stuck around as a thorn in your side all game long.  There's not much else to do here except check out some crazy cat lady's house. So let's get going.  I just think this is a great shot on the way towards the temple. You can see it in the background.  A little bit past the river you enter another dungeon like area. It's not too hard as it's pretty linear.  Early on you can find this little clearing. We've already established that the tablet isn't important but those mushrooms look kind of funky.  Hell yeah, time to trip balls. The Savory increases one characters max TP by 5%. You can use an item or a skill later on to change it to a Red Savory which increases one characters TP by 10% instead. We'll be holding on to this and any other we find for a long time.  You're also going to encounter new enemies in the woods. The Rock baboons hit hard for this early in the game but the chunbirds are just slight upgrades to the bird types we've already fought.  These Orcrot's are kind of dicks. They can shoot a volley of apples at you for some decent damage as well as strike you by shoving a root underground. They're usually in the back row and since their attacks are long range can make things slightly difficult.  Along the way Stahn picks up a new spell. This is one of the rare spells that actually stops time while it's in effect. It's also a very strong spell dealing out over 200 points of damage. It's also an area of effect so if you have enough enemies grouped up together you can one shot them all with it. Though any enemies in the air will be safe from it.   You can get a great view of Straylize Temple from this one rock. Leon even comes out for a short second to let you know what it is but it just clutters up the screen and ruins the moment so gently caress that.  At a certain point into the woods, it starts getting foggy and that triggers another enemy.  The Shrooms aren't really that impressive. They just kind of kick you or shoot spores at you and that's it. Regardless they still give enough XP that Both Leon and Rutee picked up some new tricks.  Deep Mist is Rutee's new spell and kind of lackluster to be honest. It lowers an enemies' Hit rating by 10% which means you'll be auto blocking their attacks a bit more but it's hardly noticeable.   Her new skill however is around to remind us that she's not a useless white mage. It's not as strong as any of the other fighters Special moves but it does help by time to protect a spell caster or free up an ally under attack. It's super fast if nothing else.     Leon just picks up a new spell but it's an impressive one. A series of four spikes come up from the ground one after another juggling the enemies around for a while. Each spike is dealing 75 to 85 points of damage so if they all hit it easily rivals Stahn's new spell for sheer damage levels.  Deeper into the woods we manage to pick this up. Bellebanes increase your agility by one. For those who have forgotten agility factors into your formula for auto blocking an enemy attack. Much like the Savory you can use an item or skill on it to change it into a Red Bellebane which will add two to your agility instead of one. So we're gonna hold on to it until we get that. Next time:  Bonus! Skits part two https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mskghTZVvMY
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Apr 1, 2013 22:20
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How do I submit that "plop" screenshot to it?
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Apr 1, 2013 22:30
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KataraniSword posted:I trust you know what I meant. I did, I was just running with the joke until that one you just mentioned.
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Apr 2, 2013 06:17
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rubythunder posted:Checking the tumblr, it doesn't seem like it has submissions open anyway. It's never gonna have a complete database that way.
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Apr 3, 2013 03:28
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Chapter 8 When we last left the party they were in the middle of their pilgrimage towards the temple because the king sent them on a whim even though we have no reason to suspect anything is wrong.  Well I sure didn't see that coming! "Do you think so too?" "What's wrong?" "It's too quiet." "Yeah, no one seems to be around." "Maybe everyone is dead." "No, they couldn't be..." "Well, we're here to find that out. Come on, let's go!" Oh come on, I'm sure it's not that bad.    Well at least not everything's gone to hell.   "...The bishop...and the others... are...in the back..." "Hang in there!!  Guess I spoke too soon. Let's check the back.   "P ...please spare these girls!!" "Whoa, hey, wait a minute! We've been sent here by the King!" "Wh, what? You gave me a good scare..."  What happened here?" "What happened? Maybe you can tell me!! I was visiting one of our sister temples in another country... When I returned, it was like this. Since I had to protect these girls, I couldn't leave here at all. In fact, I don't know how the others are doing..." "...You really don't know what's going on, do you? Well that'll do for now. We're going to search for the Archbishop. If you value your life, remain here for a while and don't attract attention to yourselves." Luckily since they aren't little boys we can safely leave the girls in the hands of the church. "I...I believe evil beings are still in the temple. Please take this with you. Please save the Archbishop..." Dude hands us a Talisman which boosts someone's defense by 5%. This goes right onto Rutee since her defense is the lowest. This should come in handy as we raid through the temple and slaughter the infidels! Sadly however that treasure chest is going to have to wait.   Oh it's that kind of church!  "Oh, Atamoni. Am I condemned to die here, trapped without hope?" Where's your god now? "There's something strange about that door in the back. I'll say, it's talking!  "Is anyone out there?!  "Are you on the other side? Please open the door." "I can't" "What are you talking about?!" "W, wait. I've already tried many times but it just won't open. I'm telling you, it won't open." "Stahn, a force field is blocking this door." "Force field?" "How quaint..." "We have to destroy the shield crystals. They must be around here somewhere." I love that force fields are such common things that every one knows just how to deal with them. "We'll open it for you. Hang on." "Thank you." We are now tasked with walking around the temple and finding the crystals.  These cute little fellows are guarding the crystals.  A fun little fact that'll absolutely wreck your poo poo. There was some sort of translation error here. It says "Vulnerable against" but that's total bullshit. It's actually strong to. This isn't that big of a deal early on but later in the game when the spectacles tells you that the boss is "Vulnerable against Water" you're gonna be pissed when you cast a powerful water spell and completely heal the son of a bitch.  The lizard men are not too tough on their own and the crystal that accompanies them in the battles don't do anything. They just sit there waiting to be shattered.   After every fight you'll see a small little scene of a crystal ball shattering and Stahn will count them down like a 4 year old who just learned his numbers.  The crystals are scattered all around the temple.  Unfortunately for us, the temple is actually rather large and the first time we see what I was talking about dungeons earlier in the LP.  Everywhere you go there seems to be too many ways to go and it's kind of easy to get lost. Thankfully there are no random battles in the temple.  The only fights are five of these which are all the exact same pushovers.    A gold star for you, Stahn!  "What happened to Archbishop Marton?"  "Marton...perished at the hands of Lydon..." "And, where is that THING?" "Excuse me? Thing? What are you talking about?" "Don't play the fool." Acting like you don't know about this vague thing we mention. Oldest trick in the book. "I'm talking about the Eye of Atamoni." "How do you know about that?!" "The Eye of Atamoni! The Eye of Atamoni?!" "Yes." "Oh, my..." "Show us around this place." "I can't." "I came here by the order of the king to investigate. Show us around. Now!" "B, but..." "Why didn't you tell me?" "I don't know. Didn't Hugo explain it to you?" "No, he didn't!" Because Hugo doesn't have a mental illness that makes him talk to swords! "No, we didn't know about that." "Arrrgh, be quiet!" "Hey, Rutee! Do you know how serious this is?!" "I just want the Eye of Atamoni so I can get the reward money from Hugo. This had nothing to do with you." "Oh no, this is more serious than your petty concerns!!" "Calm down, Dymlos." "How can I be calm at a time like this?!" "I said be quiet!"  "Ignore them. They're a little funny in the head. Maybe they're possessed by demons. Can you perform a quick exorcism, Ayles? "Anyway, this is an order in the king's name. You can help us, or we can go about doing things our own way." "All right. I'll go with you. There's a cathedral to the left rear of the temple. Go there first." No, first we're gonna explore this odd structure we're in now.  And in deed a lot of backstory and fluff poo poo hidden in all these books but gently caress that poo poo. We're here for one reason only.  At the very top of the tower, there's like 8 or 9 floors, you'll find this. This ring allows you to put Stahn in Manual mode during a battle which we'll get into in the next update. It's a huge loving blessing. Now that we got that though let's get going.    "May Atamoni bless us with her mercy And with everlasting truth to guide our wayward path Our guardian against darkness We ask in the name of the Goddess, to show us the way."  "Well, I'm impressed..." "Now, let's hurry." Much like everything else in religion  the prayer session is a complete farce.   If you notice on the foot of the pedestal there's a switch that goes up and down as the secret door opens and closes.  Beyond the secret tunnel you'll find another small section to explore.  It's not too hard to make a beeline right to the back to where you have to go but you're gonna find it locked.  Exploring this area will lead you to find these switches. There's six in total; three light and three dark.  Walking over one will switch it on. You just have to switch on a set. Either all light or all dark. If you step on the wrong one accidently walking over it again will correct it. Once all three in a set or completed you can go through the doors.  Hmm, must be where they do the baptisms... of small children...in a secret area behind the church that no one knows about with an overly complicated lock...   "There's nothing here..." "No...it can't be..." "What's going on?" "It's gone...the Eye of Atamoni is gone..." "What?!"  "An acquaintance of yours?" "She is an apprentice priestess studying under Lydon." "I see, an ally of the enemy. I'm going to use the Panacea Bottle on her. Step aside."    Leon just poured out that P. Bottle we found in the castle. Didn't know he was into golden showers. Then again he does have this authoritative side to him so it probably has something to do with that.  "She...she became human!"  "What happened to me...? Ph! High Priest Lydon!"  "Philia, calm down!" "Oh, sir..." "Will you explain to us what happened?" "Y ...yes...but... Who are they...?" "We came to check on the Straylize Temple by order of the King of Seinegald." And thank god we did. I mean we just stopped by to say hello see what you all have been up to. We had no idea this was going on. We were just sent on a whim. "What's going on?! You have some explaining to do." "It's terrible! But the High Priest couldn't be... How awful..." "Hey, calm down. You're not making any sense! Who is this High Priest?" "His name is Lydon. I was working on many research projects under his guidance but..." "But?" "...I never imagined anything like this would happen." "Don't bore us with your self-loathing! We don't have time to listen to your whimpering. So, I'll make things really simple. Tell us only the important things! What did Lydon do?!" He maybe a bit of a walking anime cliche but I do appreciate how Leon is all business. Can you imagine if this was Dart from Legend of Dragoon? "Oh here, cry on my shoulder for the next hour and a half of the game, it's ok let it all out. We'll get to the plot eventually" "He stole the Eye of Atamoni that was kept in this room!" "What?!" "The Eye of Atamoni?" "Oh, no!!!! What has he done?!" "He took the Eye of Atamoni?!" I know you're just a figment of Stahn's imagination but even you had to have seen this coming, Dymlos. "I can't believe it!" "What's the big deal?" "You must get the Eye of Atamoni back. It shouldn't be in the hands of mere mortals." "Get it back? First of all, what is this eye of Atamoni?" "The Eye of Atamoni is a gigantic Lens that has enough power to destroy the whole world!" "Destroy the world? Oh, come on..." "The world once was on the brink of disaster because of the Eye of Atamoni’s power. It was hidden and kept in the confines of this remote temple... How could someone steal it...?" "Don't worry! Lydon won't get away from us! Looks like you won't go free anytime soon." "(Sigh) I guess it can't be helped. We're just passengers along for the ride." "Okay, let's go!" "Ex...excuse me... May I join you?" "An enemy spy traveling with us? Are you crazy?" Well it would be nice to have some one more naive than Stahn to make fun of during this LP. "I feel totally responsible for not stopping the High Priest." As you should! If I was there I would execute you on the spot. "Please let me go with you." "How can I possibly trust your words?" "Please!" "You can trust this girl. Her eyes aren't lying." "Yeah, I agree." "Philia is not a liar." "Hey, Philia...was it? "Yes?" "We may have to fight against Lydon. Do you still want to come with us?" "Yes, I'm prepared to face what's ahead." "Good, I like her attitude. Let's take her with us. She might be even useful."  Oh god he's about to "assert his dominance" with his pee again isn't he? "Okay, hot shot, do you actually know what Lydon looks like? Philia, you know him well, don't you?" "Yes..." "..." "Come on, let's take Philia with us, Leon." "............ Stop referring to Lydon as the High Priest." "I beg your pardon?" "That thief is our enemy. Do you understand me?!" "Ye, yes!" "How about that, Philia?" "Thank you!" "The Eye of Atamoni is about 20 feet in diameter. I think it'll attract the public's attention wherever it goes." "Okay, we'll gather information as we go along and pursue Lydon and the Eye of Atamoni." "Well, I suppose we don't have any other choice." "Let's go!" And we now have more than four characters! So feel free to vote on who you want to be in the current party. Stahn can not be taken out. Vote for two different characters and the top three will be slotted in. Current Stats:     
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Apr 3, 2013 03:28
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Bonus update! The full knowledge of the Tower of Knowledge "There are secret skills that can only be learned by master swordsmen. These skills are written in the SACRED TEXTS. The SACRED TEXTS 'choose' their readers. Unworthy or unskilled readers will be unable to read, let alone understand it."  "In ancient times, a comet fell on this planet. The impact of this comet wiped out nearly half the world's population. Dust thrown up into the atmosphere by the explosive force of the comet caused a long artificial winter on this world."  "The people on this planet split into two groups during this era. The were the chosen and the outcasts. The chosen escaped from the winter on the surface and lived in an utopian world in the sky. They ruled the outchasts on the surface with lightning bolts they fired upon the ground. The people on the surface could not bear the suffering and the tyrannical rule of the people in the sky. Eventually, a war broke out between heaven and earth. This conflict became known as the Aeth'er Wars."  "The victors of the Aeth'er Wars were the Er'thers, the outcast people who lived on the surface of the planet. However, there really was no victor in this shameful war. Humanity lost."  "After losing the war, the Aetherians, the people who lived in the skies, were forcibly repatriated to the badlands of the Second Continent. This continent is now called Calvalese. The Descendants of these people were systematically discriminated against for countless years. That era remains a dark chapter of this world's history."  "The Oberon Corporation is a company whose main business focus is the manufacture and sale of Lens products. Oberon Corporation purchases Lens from people for cash and then processes them to make Lens products."  "A lens is crystal extracted from the core of a comet that fell on this world before the Aeth'er Wars. It is cut and shaped into standard sizes." "The impact of the Oberon Corporation's Lens products on the world is tremendous. Given that people can now make fire by merely pushing a button instead of actually building a fire, it is easy to see the importance of this company. This company effectively has control over people's lives by focusing primarily on home consumer products. This corporate approach has been well-accepted and supported by the consumers."  "As Oberon Corporation began to purchase Lens for cash, a group of people called Lens Hunters appeared. They made a living by taking Lens from the bodies of monsters they killed and trading it for money. The number of Lens Hunters swelled in a short period of time. However, the ranks of these hunters were reduced as poor hunters fell victim to the monsters. In addition, as the supply of Lens stabilized, Oberon Corporation lowered the exchange rate. Because of these factors, the number of career Lens Hunters has decreased considerably."  "Draconis has a Lens power plant in the center of it's body. This is proof that the Draconis was created by humans. Only a limited number of Draconis were created in ancient times since it required a large amount of bionic metals for it's construction. Currently, the only acknowledged Draconis in service is controlled by the Seinegald kingdom. This Draconis is virtually unavailable to the public. The kingdom currently uses the Draconis for delivering goods. Otherwise, it is used to fly state guests."  "Since the establishment of each temple is based on different beliefs, the religious practices of temples vary accordingly. For example, the ritual of sky-gazing is still performed in Calvalese where their system of belief centers around Aetherian principles. Peace and security of the nation and family safety are the core beliefs shred among all the temples. The organizational structure of priests consists of 5 levels (from top to bottom): Archbishop, Bishop, High Priest, Priest, and Apprentice. However, bishops and above only preside at the headquarters in Seinegald and the temples in other regions are administered by High Priests."
Ride The Gravitron fucked around with this message at 05:48 on Apr 3, 2013 |
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Apr 3, 2013 04:10
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Lotish posted:Agreed.
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Apr 3, 2013 20:04
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Chapter 9 Well the thread has spoken and Leon gets the boot!  You can switch out your party members at anytime through the camp menu. At this point in the game she's a pretty piss poor party member. She has weak attacks and since she doesn't have a Swordian, she gets no magic spells. Thanks a lot for the dead weight, thread. A little refresher in case you forgot what we were doing.  Now while I wouldn't call it a dick move per se, it's still super annoying that the game makes you backtrack your way back to the castle. We should though take the opportunity to see if we can snag that treasure chest that was blocked before.  Nope. "Philia, we've been through unspeakable horrors. And were are the others?" "Ayles is at the back of the temple. I think he can fill you in on the details. I'm going after the high priest... I mean...Lydon. When things settle down a bit, please see Ayles." "Yes I'll do as you say. Please look after Philia. May the grace of Atamoni be with you on your journey." Backtracking does give us the chance to see Philia's starting special move.  This is Inspect. It does the exact same thing as the item Spectacles... useless. We also get the chance to see what this Tech Ring is all about. I already talked about how default combat works. That mode is called Semi Auto. If you press the select button you can switch between Semi Auto and Auto. The computer controls Stahn in Auto mode. What the Tech Ring does is open up a third mode.  Manual is a fantastic mode and the only mode anyone should play this game on. Pressing the attack button will no longer have Stahn run to his enemy, attack, then run back. In manual mode pressing attack will make you attack right there on the spot you're standing.   The same goes for special moves.  If you want to run at an enemy you just double tap left or right and off you go. You can use your dash moves like that too. Manual mode is great for two reasons: 1: You no longer have to fight the "run back" part of attacking. Once you're in the enemy's face, you stay there until one of you dies. 2: Manual dash no-clips right through the enemy. So if you're trying to get to a pesky spell-caster in the back, you can just dash, run past the front line, and get at the spell-caster. You could do this in Semi-auto mode as well but it consisted of pressing one of the shoulder buttons and cycling through the targets. This is quicker and more fun. On the way back though we get into enough fights for Stahn and Philia to gain a new special.     Spin Slash is great and it will take a long time before it outlives its usefulness. If you have an enemy cornered in the back it'll hit the enemy at least 6 times. Better than that though is that Stahn can usually soar over the entire enemy line and land somewhere behind it. If you see a spell getting charged up by the enemy in the back, use this move and chances are good you're gonna stop it.    Philia's new Philia Bomb however is nowhere near as useful. I guess it can hit from a distance but that doesn't make up for the little bit of damage it does. That ten over the snake is what her bomb just did.  Before we go to the castle though, let's get paid. This is why you should never be short of cash in this game. Don't forget, that's on top of what we've earned in fights. You get both money and lens from a battle. With that out of the way we can go report to the king.  "Welcome back." "Sire, I wish to make my report. The Eye of Atamoni was stolen from Straylize Temple." "Stolen?! By whom?!" "Please ask this woman for the details." She had a direct hand in stealing the Eye of Atamoni. We'll be executing her at dawn, Your Majesty. "I'm honored to meet you, sire. My name is Philia Felice. I'm a priestess at Straylize Temple." "What happened?" "The Eye of Atamoni was taken from the temple by High Priest Lydon Bernhardt." Even now in the face of justice she refuses to sever her allegiance with Lydon and refers to him with the title of High Priest. Off with her head! "What happened to the Archbishop Marton?" "Marton died at the hands of Lydon..."  "That is most regrettable... You must find the Eye of Atamoni at any cost." "Yes, Your Majesty." Where should we start our investigation, Your Majesty?  Well how about a clue or a lead to get us started? How about at least telling us who you have working on this! Gaaaahhhh! Maybe Hugo knows something.  I got lost in Hugo's mansion...  "Leon, you're back. How did it go?" "The Eye of Atamoni was stolen from the temple by high priest, Lydon." "I see...just as I thought..." Wait you knew about this? Why didn't you tell us? We wouldn't have wasted so much time getting there. We could have stopped this! "I'm so sorry! All of this happened because I was too weak to stop it..." "Hmmm? And who is this beautiful young lady?" "She is Philia Felice, an apprentice priest and Lydon's former mistress." An accomplice to the crime! We're torturing her for information. She's close to cracking. "No, I'm not! That's not true!!" "She used to work for him. She's helping us because she really feels responsible." "Hah! Who can trust her?" "Well, in any event, we're counting on you, Philia." "I'll do my best." "All of you, do your best to find the Eye of Atamoni. Leon, I'm counting on you." "Yes, Hugo." Well that was no help either. That's right ladies and gentlemen, it's another round of "Talk to every NPC in town looking for the one random one who has the plot!"    Hey! It's the Black Wings! "Because the monsters are out there and it's dangerous!" "Huh? Who do you think we are? Hey, we're the infamous 'Black Wings' Lens hunter gang. "Yeah, and so what? I belong to the infamous 'Men of the Sea' gang!"   If you let us on the ship, I might do this, and I might do that, you know. Do you know what I mean?" "Really? Well, uhhhh... Heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh... Well then...what kind of THINGS to you have in mind?" "She means I'll train you!" "...Thanks, but no thanks!!"  Does this mean even Atamoni in envious of my talent...? Hah! It ain't easy being a hero. Ah, you're the one of those simple folk that crossed my path the other day. I see that you have more friends with you now. Well, don't follow me too closely, eh? If you're close to me, you might accidentally get associated with my greatness. Now, we wouldn't want that, would we?" "What in the world are you talking about?!" "Listen up buddy, I told you this the last time. I DON'T SIGN AUTOGRAPHS!! Man, hasn't anyone taught you manners?!"  Plot! We found plot!  "Yeah, a seaman got axed on the job 'cause he almost dropped the front of the package." "The package must be something really valuable." "That's gotta be it!"  "Were you five people just listening in on our conversation? Creeps!" "Let me see..." "Oh yeah, I think they were going to Calvalese." "Calvalese...that's Baruk's territory." "Who's Baruk?" "He's an Oberon Corporation employee in charge of the Calvalese area. I've met him a few times before." "Then, maybe we can ask him for information..." "I hope so." "Thank you very much. Let's go tell the king." "That ship there is going to Calvalese." "There's been reports of monster activities recently, so be careful."  No thanks to you, jerk. "I have some interesting news." "What is it?" "We have information that the Eye of Atamoni was disguised and shipped to Calvalese." "What?!" "We would like your approval to ready a ship for Calvalese." "Leon, are you aware of the risks involved? Especially with all the recent monster activities....." "Yes, I'm aware of that." "..................Guard!" "Yes, Your Majesty." "Go to the harbor and have a ship ready for departure to Calvalese. This is a direct order." "Yes, your majesty!" "Thank you, sire." "This is the only way. You must retrieve the Eye of Atamoni at any cost." "I'll try my best to live up to your expectations."  Oh I see how it is. We do all the work and just explain it to you! I don't think you know how plot dump is suppose to work. "According to what I've heard at the harbor, the Eye of Atamoni was transported to Calvalese." "What? Calvalese?" "Yes. We've already got the king's permission to travel to Calvalese." "Excellent. Well done. That's the kind of forward thinking I expect from you, Leon." "Thank you." "You must get the Eye of Atamoni back. Do not return without it." "I won't fail you." "Marian will be waiting for your safe return." "I shall bring back the Eye of Atamoni to you at any cost." "Hmph. Easy for you to say..." Now let's get this show on the road!  "Are ya ready?" "Yes." "Well, get yourself on board, matey!"  Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!  "Is the weather getting bad? Or is it something else?" "What? Are you worried about the Demon's Reef?" "Well..." "Hey, come on! Are you a coward? Come on! Even kids know that it's a fairy tale." "But..." "Oh, spare me. If any monsters appear, we'll destroy them. End of story!"   Just had to say something didn't you, Leon? "Come on, let's go!" No! You go! You're the one who jinxed us. I'm hitting up the bar.  You can talk to this dude twice and you'll get a Flare Bottle which increase your attack temporarily by 10% and a Liqueur bottle that reduces your attack by 20% but makes you immune to petrification. It's not that prevalent of a status effect so we'll never use it.     Gah! Give a warning or something!  "What is a sea dragon doing here?!" "Hey, don't ask me!" "There's no chance of us winning against a sea dragon." "Well, isn't that nice? But as fast as I'm concerned, we're not gonna die here!" "Wha, wha, what should we do?!" "We're gonna fight it!!" I got a feeling that was meant to be Mary's line. "Please wait!"  Yes, Philia! Sacrifice yourself so we can escape. Your death will not be in vain! "It's all right, Stahn... ...It's calling out to me." "Knock it off!! You're crazy!!" Of course she is. You're not allowed in the party unless you have at least one undiagnosed mental illness. "Philia is going to be fine. Let's go ahead and follow her."  "...It's telling me to get on..."  "Philia, wait for me." "Stahn! Have you gone nuts too?!" "I can't let her go off on her own!!" "Ugh! I don't care anymore!! We've got nothing to lose (...except our lives...)!!"  "Hey Leon, come on!" "What do you want to do, young master?" "Hey, captain!"  "If we're not back in one hour, go ahead and leave. Agreed?" "...Aye...Understood." "They're nothing but trouble!" "But master, you're the one who allowed them to accompany you." "Silence! Who asked you for your opinions?!"   I'm not really sure how this part works.  But it eventually takes us to some underwater ruins that we'll explore next update. Bonus! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GRpAykmhzE Ride The Gravitron fucked around with this message at 22:33 on Apr 4, 2013 |
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Apr 4, 2013 21:30
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Whoops, forgot to add the skits. It's in there now at the bottom.
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Apr 4, 2013 22:34
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Chapter 10 When we last left our heroes  They were as lost and confused as ever. "It looks like an undersea city." "The architecture looks so different from modern cities." Until four days ago you hadn't even seen a modern city, Country Boy. "Philia, do you still hear that voice?" "Yes. It's coming deeper within the city. I think we should go up to exit this room." "Fine, let's go."  Welcome to the Underwater Ruins. We won't be spending too much time here thankfully. It's rather bland but short.  There's a few rocks you gotta move so I hope you remembered that little tutorial that lasted less than a minute and was four hours ago.  Four hours into the game and we already got re-skinned enemies. These are upgraded versions of the slugs we fought back in update three.  These Green Ropers, the ones on the ground, can slap you around with those tentacles and can wrap up a party member in them and give them an electrical shock for about five or six seconds. The Cuttlefish floats around in the air and spits out little stones at you for pitiful damage.  The Starfish here aren't that strong but can cast Ice Needle on your party.  Making your way through, Philia will occasional give you a hint on where to go. This dungeon isn't too big and if you go the wrong way you're going hit a dead end right away but it helps a bit.  Eventually you're gonna realize that you can't finish the dungeon without this little bit.  You don't gotta do anything special once you have it in your inventory. It'll just auto pry open doors for you. The treasures you find behind those doors aren't anything fantastic but you do need the pickaxe to finish the dungeon, another dungeon in the future, and the Tower of Druaga.   Oh hi there, Mary! That's a neat new skill you got. A two hit strike for 99 points then 96 points of damage.  It's a demon, Philia! Your soul is unclean!  You can actually pick up two of these but you won't be able to identify them until later on. These disks can be slapped onto a Swordian for better stats and spells. There's two kind of Disks. You'll find ones with actual names such as "Flare" or "Sharp Stone" These will give a minor boost in your slash and thrust stats but give you one to three spells. The second kind go by SW followed by six numbers. These give no spells but offer much better boost to your attack stats. The first three numbers tell you how much it adds to Slash and the last three to thrust. So if you got "SW145067" disk it will add 145 to your slash stat and 67 to your thrust attack. The two disks in this dungeon were "SW010020" and "SW020020"  Following Philia's crazy voice only she can here you'll eventually come upon this.    "Who are you?" "That voice!" "Clemente!" "Can it be?"  "Oh, it's you. You're spoiling this poignant moment..." "Are you a S...Swordian?" "That is correct, sir. My name is Clemente, an authentic Swordian." "Clemente, the Eye of Atamoni was stolen." "I had a feeling something was wrong. That's why I decided to wake up. And I selected Philia as my new mistress." You couldn't have figured out a friendlier way to do it than with a sea dragon? "I'm not quite qualified to..." "You can hear my voice, can't you?" "Yes." "Then that settles it. You have a hidden skill within you. All I did was to wake it up." "But why me?" "There's no history of mental illness in my family." "Well, I prefer a young beautiful girl as my mistress." "You dirty old man!" "Oops. I shouldn't have said that." "Clemente...I'm disappointed in you..." "Hey, don't look at me like that. Can't you take a dumb joke? Here, Philia, take me in your hand."  "Hey, Philia, are you sure about using that thing?" At least make him use protection. I know your religion is probably against that but we all know the only real parts of your bible you care about are the ones that let you decide how others should live their lives. "What?" "What do you mean by 'that thing'? "Rutee, watch your mouth!" "I know it's really a sword, but it's really a dirty old man inside. Think about what you're doing." "Clemente is willing to lend me his powers..." "Well, yeah, but..." "Rutee, you're a strong woman, so you may not understand what I'm talking about. I want to carry my own weight amongst you and not to be a burden...so..." "Well, I guess I'm wasting my time... Oh, whatever. Do what you want." "Clemente, I'll accept your offer." "A wise choice, Philia. There will be many trials ahead of you, but I feel you will conquer them all." "Thank you." "Okay, we should return to the sea dragon quickly..." "Yeah, we'll be in trouble if the ship leaves us." "Let's return to the ship." If you think the scene is just going to transition back to the ship then you've learned nothing from this LP. You gotta backtrack all the way. This does give us a chance to see what Philia's got going on now that she's got a Swordian. She actually because super useful once she's got Clemente.  She picks up Stahn's Fireball spell,    A unique wind damage spell,  Leon's Stone Blast spell,  And the unique Lighting Bolt spell. You'd think a priestess would be a full out white mage but no, she's our offensive spell powerhouse. Philia will be learning more spells than anyone else and despite the fact that her Swordian element is lighting, she'll get spells from every element to use.  On the way back, Rutee picks up Ice Tornado. Now I know I said I was going to have the thread vote on the party I use. This is true and I'm sticking to it. However in Destiny the people not in your party still gain like half XP from the battles. While Leon was bench sitting he gained a level and a spell so I slotted him in real quick.     Hammer Blow is kind of useless. It does no damage in exchange for knocking out a single enemy that you'd end up stun locking anyway.  The walk back isn't that hard, just annoying.   Riding in on a sea dragon. Feel free to mouth some speed metal riffs for this. "What?! How can this be?!" "Aieeee! M...m...m...monster!!" "Calm yourself!"  "You, you...are ya all right?" "But of course!" "The sea dragon...it's going back..." "The show's over. There's nothing more to see. Make haste for Calvalese!" "Aye...aye sir."   That's not Stahn being nervous in the scene. It's super hot in Calvalese so he's just sweating. It's hard to capture in screenshots but there's also a heat shimmer that rolls across the screen. "Baruk's office is located in the town. He should be there. Baruk is in charge of Calvalese. We need to get information from him." First though, lets meet some of the friendly local natives!  Oh.  The only NPC who ever expresses a worry about you just barging into a house that isn't yours.  You can play a little mini-game here. Two to three kids will chase you around town trying to tag you. You get money equal to how many seconds you lasted and items for lasting a certain amount of time.  I'm not very good at it.  Rather than wallow in self pity, I'm just going to get plot done.   "What kind of person is Baruk?" "Weren't you listening to me at all?" "Well, all I know is that he's the Oberon Corp rep who's in charge of the Calvalese area." "Then, what is it?" "So, what's the Baruk Fund anyway?" "What does this have to do with you?" "Well, nothing, but can't I ask?" "I don't have time to waste my breath explaining unnecessary things." "........." "It's a non-profit foundation established by Baruk to focus on charitable activities." "Um, okay..." "...Did you get it?" "What's a foundation?" "It's a corporation established with seed money or trust fund provided by individuals and groups. It exists as a legal entity." "Um, okay..." "...Did you get it?"   "That's why I said it's unnecessary to explain to him. Let's go." "I'm sorry, Rutee..." "Well, it's okay. You don't know any better- you're a country boy." "That's harsh..." "Stahn, don't worry." "You're right..." "Atamoni's blessing doesn't discriminate. Even people from the countryside like you are treated equally." "Philia... Thanks for trying, but your words don't make me feel any better...." "The fact that your imaginary friend likes me means nothing, Philia. Don't make me have to pull out my list of holidays your religion has stolen, wars your religion has started, and crimes against humanity that your religion has committed." "I'm really sorry." If you were really sorry you'd renounce your god. "No, no, I'm not blaming you. Please don't worry about it."    "Well now, you brought a lot of company today." "They're not worth paying attention to at all." "Hey, why do you keep treating us like dirt?!" Poor Stahn hasn't quite figured out that he's a prisoner. "Say, are you in need of attention or something? No one said that you could talk." "Ha, ha, ha, ha... Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Baruk Songram. I'm Oberon Corp's regional manager for the Calvalese region. It's a pleasure to meet you." "I'm Stahn Aileron. Nice to meet you too." "Hmm...I can see that you're a men of great potential despite your youth. A diamond in the rough, so to speak. I have a feeling things await you, son." "Baruk, enough. All of this will go to his head." "It won't..." "Ha, ha, ha, ha... Well it seems Leon thinks highly of you."  Mary spends this whole scene investigating all around the room.  "What do you mean by that?" "He gives you a hard time because he thinks you are as strong as him. Right, Leon?" "Was that supposed to be a joke? If it was, I'm not laughing." "I didn't think it was funny either!" "Now, all of you wouldn't consider a lower-skilled person as your rival, would you?" "........" "This is nonsense..." "Of course, he'll never admit it. He's always been like that. But I suppose being competitive is not necessarily a bad personality trait... Well, allow me to apologize for Leon's lack of refinement in the manners department. I hope you all get along." "Baruk, I'm sorry to interrupt but I didn't come here for all this silly talk." "Knowing you, there had to be another reason..."  "Well a kid was born with two tails a few weeks ago but it's a small island. It's hard to keep the gene pool clean." "Hmm, let's see... Ilene from Fitzgald sent me a report." "What kind of report?" "Apparently the lens transport ships are being attacked frequently by a mysterious pirate fleet." "A mysterious pirate fleet?" "Yeah, that's right. Although, we have no information on their identity, their target is clearly our company's Lens shipments." "I see... Did you hear anything about the Eye of Atamoni?" "The Eye of Atamoni?! Oh, no, please. Is that some kind of a sick joke?" "It's not a joke. The Eye of Atamoni fell into the hands of a High Priest named Lydon. And we heard he was heading this way." "I haven't heard anything like that... But I'll start investigating on my end. Maybe people in the shipping business might know something. Could you go to the harbor and check that lead out?" "Understood. We'll leave immediately. Do what you can on your end." "Yes, I'll do my best. By the way... Take things in the boxes over there. I think they'll be useful to you."  Now I haven't talked about the food sack before because, as anyone who's played Destiny can tell you, it's useless. You start out with a small food sack and this is the next upgrade that can hold more food. You put food that you buy or get from battles and as you walk around the outside of battles you get very small amounts of health. It's better to horde all the food you find for a side quest much later on.  This is super useful. It lets you turn on the "combo counter" options. If you hit an enemy fast enough it'll combo up and the more hits you get in a combo the more XP you get at the end of the battle. It's never a lot but it does add up. I'll be keeping track of my combos when I get a new high for the play through. Let's check out what Mary was looking at earlier.   "What? What is it? Oh, a cook book.I don't get to see many of these. Adventuring and cooking aren't exactly compatible activities." "I kind of feel nostalgic. I used to make this dish all the time." "Mary, did you get your memory back?" "........ No...... No, I don't think so... But, I'm sure I made it before. I know the ingredients, the preparation, its taste...maybe..." "All right. It may be a way for you to get your memories back." "Why is that?" "Are you stupid?" The fact that you even have to ask at this point... "Your abuse is really starting to annoy me, you know." "Isn't this dish a specialty of Phandaria?" "That's a good point..." "I hope you get your memories back soon." "Yeah, I do too."  "All right, all right...Just hang on a minute will ya? Well..." "Well? This is..." "Oomph!" "Oomph? Wait a minute..." "Found it!!" "Found it? That's..." "Not yet..." "Not yet?" You know, out of context, these string of words are kind of gross. "Got it!!" "Rutee!! That's stealing!!" "Run!!" "Rutee!! This is where I draw the line!!" You've been hanging around Philia too long, Stahn. Not that long ago you watched her rob Old Man Walt and happily spent the loot. "Oh, come on, I'm just kidding." "Grumble, grumble, grumble..."   "Philia?! No, no, you've got the wrong idea..." "You shouldn't fool around with black magic!" Excuse you? "I'm sorry..." "You have to be punished." See that's the problem with you religious people. It's not about morals or some higher power you believe in. You're just in it to run other peoples lives. Isn't it funny how Atamoni hates all the same things you do, Philia. "What? Oh please..." "Here we go." "Hey, wait a minute."   This bit of "hunt down the random NPC" isn't so bad this time around. Baruk tells you to head to the harbor so that narrows down your search by a lot.  "I don't know where they went...I think a sailor named Jake knows. Jake should be staying at an inn in Cherik." At "an inn". Like there's more than one or something.    "He said he had some business to take care of at the weapon shop and left a while ago. What do you want with him?" You probably explored this town for the shops already and it's such a small place that this goose chase isn't that bad.   "He went back to the harbor. Are you stalking Jake or something? That's why I hate strangers... By the way, are you buying anything?" Not unless you updated your wares in the 10 minutes since I first came here.  "Do you know about the statue that was recently brought to Seinegald?"  "Yeah, I saw that thing. It was huge." "That's it!" "I heard the statue was going to be installed at some temple." "Which temple are you talking about?" "Well, there's only one temple in Calvalese. Are you all on a pilgrimage or something?" "What? Well, you can say that." No you can't. Stop trying to force me into your religion! "Be very careful. It's not safe as it used to be in the past." "We will. Thank you."  Funny how it's your religion that stole the world destroying weapon, Philia. I guess that's part of your gods master plan? He's probably hiding there too." "All right. He's all yours. I'll try to get information on the pirate fleet." "Very well."
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Apr 7, 2013 03:44
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Stabbey_the_Clown posted:I think this is where the last LP Left off. I completely forgot about the Sea Dragon dungeon. Almost. We're about two maybe three updates away from where the last LP left off. Don't worry about the Sea Dragon dungeon though. That isn't the last we'll see of it. Raitzeno posted:Welp, I know one crew of sailors that's gonna be doing an awful lot of extra drinking this berthing... Too bad we already clean out the bar.
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Apr 7, 2013 04:44
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Tuxedo Ted posted:Clemente being a creep didn't give me much hope, though. Guess I'll just have to wait and see. Raitzeno posted:I kinda wanna see this. What part? I'm not at all ahead of the LP gameplay wise. I play, screen cap, stop when I think I have an updates worth (usually a good narrative stopping point) and get working on the update. So I can show off something if you want to see it.
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Apr 7, 2013 05:29
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Chapter 11  Now the town we gotta go to isn't that far from where we started. If you look under the mini-map you can see Cherik where we started and just above is our destination. You'll only run into one fight on the way there so let's wander around and make sure we show off all the enemies.    I wish I could tell you more about these guys but they were so unremarkable I don't remember anything about them and I just fought them like an hour ago. I mean I guess the worms can burrow underground and goose you from underneath but that's about it.  Kalviola ain't much to talk about either. It's all rather bland and ugh. First thing you want to do is squirm your way outside.    "What?! Do you wanna get smacked?! Ugggh...You're pretty tough. How about this!"   "Agghhh... You no good bastard!!" "What are you doing? That’s crazy!" "...Get the @#$% outa my way! I'm gonna protect this town!" It's a slug. You guys don't even have any gardens for it to ruin. "I don't need no foreigner's help!" "...What an arrogant snot!" "Here I come, drat monster!"  "You should have remained quietly at home!"  "Slurrrrrrp?!"  Now, where do I know those sprites from?  Black Wings! Funny enough this bit was a complete surprise to me. I played through Destiny to get familiar with it again for the LP. I literally finished that playthrough, then got started on this playthrough. I don't know what I did wrong the other time but these fools didn't appear that first time. This is why way back in update 4 I said "I don't think Black Wings appear again". "I, Grid, of the 'Black Wings' have deigned to come here. You should be grateful!" "...'Black Who'? Are you completely nuts?"  "F, fool!! You're telling me that you don't know us? I'll forgive your ignorance for now. Now, listen carefully! John 'The Beast'" "Gwaaaar! Grrrrrr!!" "Whirlwind Milly!" "...I thought I told you not to call me that! It royally sucks!" "And I'm the illustrious leader of the Black Wings- Grid, the omnipotent! The three of us are the 'Black Wings'. Fear us, demon spawn!!" "Boss... I'm so moved by your words..."  It's a bit hard to see but if you look a bit under Stahn you can see the Sea Slug charging up its spit attack.  And it takes Grid out in one spit. "B, boss!!" "You can't dodge that stupid thing? How humiliating...!" You don't even have to dodge it. It does like 30 points of damage. We had more health than that at level 1! "Ugh...I was caught...off guard... You coward! Let's retreat for now. Retreat!" "Awright, boss!" "...Call me 'The Leader'!  Pay attention folks. This is Grid's exclusive "Hero's Glorious Retreat" that he was teaching that one kid. "Squuuuuiiish!" That squish sound summons some friends for the Sea Slug and it unleashes it's terrifying battle cry before charging.  "Ugh...ack...I'm not afraid...I'm afraid!!" "Let us take care of it!"  The fight isn't anything we haven't seen before and they go down fast. "Wh, what's the deal here?! I could have killed it by myself!! Don't interfere in my business! You @#+%@^* bastards!!"   "Stop right there. Let me guess. You're going to say 'foreigners are no good,' right?"  "Oh no, not at all. I see catastrophe and loss of all hope in your future. Well I suppose that's better than racism. What do you mean by that?! "You will be unable to escape the darkness that will surround you. Your destiny cannot be changed. "..."  "Are you hurt?" "Nah that Slug didn't even touch me. Those priests on the other hand. . ." "..." "What a strange kid." Well I think we've messed around long enough, let's get the show on the road.   "Yes, yes, how can I help you? "My name is Philia Felice, a priestess from Seinegald. I'd like to ask you something." "Oh, a priestess. You must have traveled a long way from Seinegald. And now, what would you like to ask me?" "I believe a statue has been brought here." "No, I haven't heard a thing about any statue." "A giant doomsday weapon sure but no statue." "Then, did Lydon visit this temple?" "The High Priest has not visited here." "Okay...I understand. Let's go."   "What?" "I only said Lydon's name. But that man knew that Lydon was a high priest." "Is it that unusual for him to know the name of a high priest?" "Please, spare us your ignorance. Lydon's not a high ranking bishop or archbishop! Priests at other temples wouldn’t know the name of a mere high priest." If you had taken the time to read through every single book in the Tower of Knowledge you'd know that, Rutee! "Hey, back off!" Read a book! "I believe Leon is right. This can only mean that he's somehow connected with Lydon." "Then, if we grill them for information..." "I don't think so. They're just a bunch of useless underlings." "How about sneaking during the night? "Then, I'll stay at the temple. I'll be able to unlock the back door from the inside when it gets dark." "Fine, do it." "All right. We'll stay at the inn and wait until nightfall." "Good luck, Philia!" "I'll be fine since Clemente will be with me." "Don't you worry about a thing!"  "We'll wait at the inn."   The town goes through a nice transformation during night time. There's even some new locals at the pub.    But sadly we can't whittle away the night watching chicks dance.  "Pretend you're a priest and the temple is Tosh."   Yup, it's one of those places and it's not the last one we're gonna see. "Stahn?" "Is that you Philia?! Where are you?" "Wait just a minute. I'll turn the light on."   There's not many screenshots of this place for obvious reasons. If you're lucky in your blind wandering you can pick this up.  Or you can come back when you're done with this part and the lights are on but that means actually coming back. gently caress that.   Cool, let's go kill him! Ugh, fine, let's go find the drat plot trigger first. In the dark, with no hint of where to go, and where we can't see two feet in front of us.    There's no random battles in this place thankfully. Just blind walking and four scripted battles. The Monk Soldiers and Bat Eyes aren't that impressive. The priestess' on the other hand though pack a punch.  They can cast both Wind Arrow and Deep Mist.  They also have Acid Rain which Rutee will be learning sooner rather than later. It decreases the defense of all enemies on the screen by 10%. Not all the enemies in the battle, just the screen. So in case of a pincer attack, you can only get half of them.   "What happened?!" "What happened?!!! I was locked up by a bunch of goons who said they were acting in the name of some high priest!!" "Was it...Lydon?" "Yes, that sounds about right. Do you know him?" "He used to be my mentor. Tell me what happened. "I was performing my evening prayers in the cathedral. And this man named Lydon came visiting with a large statue." "Hmph, that traitor..." "They took over the temple and locked me up...and now, here I am before you." "How many of them were there?" "There were at least 30 men, I think." "Are they in the cathedral?" "I don't know. But there is an underground tunnel that's accessed from the cathedral..." "I see..." "Err...can you get me out of here?" "Sure. I'll open the door now." "Wait, don't open it yet." "Leon!" "How can we be sure that he's not a monster?!" "W, wait a minute. I'm not..." "Man, you're too paranoid." "I'd rather not take any chances. We'll leave him here." "I agree with him." "Okay, I understand... We'll take care of the enemy. You'll be safer here, so please stay put." "I understand. I'm counting on you."  Funny enough, despite what Leon orders you can open the door and free the priest. He doesn't go anywhere nor does he or the game reward you in any way. So in order to keep Tosh safe and protected we're gonna keep him locked in.   Now that Philia's faith has been shattered she'll let us kill that guard from before. The fight is exactly the same as what we just fought.  "If there's really a secret room, they're probably inside it." "You're right. Let's look for the entrance."   Hard to tell in the dark screenshots but there's only one entrance to this room. Yet for some reason there's two doorways out that both lead you out the same entrance you came in on.    "Yikes!" My eyes! You can't just turn the lights on like that when I've spent the last hour walking around in pitch darkness.  Who is it? Who's there? I can't see a thing!   But unfortunately, what you're looking for is no longer here." "So, the Eye of Atamoni was at this temple." "Yes. But it was taken again by Lydon." "I knew it!! Lydon was here!" "Hmm...I saw you this afternoon! As I suspected, you were an imposter." "Speak for yourselves!! Why don't you reveal your true identities!" "F, fake?! We're perfectly respectable priests! We swore our allegiance to Lydon's vision- The Eye of Atamoni will control the world!"  "And when that happens, we will reign supreme over the world. We will make them understand that humans are powerless before the great Eye of Atamoni." "Hey, you're no different than us!" "We're different from you fools. We have been blessed by Atamoni as the chosen ones." "That's heresy! Atamoni's love is universal!" "Nonsense! The complex teachings of Atamoni are beyond the grasp of a simpleton like you!" Looks like you chose the wrong religion, Philia. "No, Atamoni is..." "Enough! We have no time for theological arguments! We have no use for you fools. If you tell us where Lydon went, we'll let you go!" "Oh, I don't know about that. But I wouldn't tell you even if I knew. All we need to do is sit back and watch Lydon's monster army take control of the world." "The monster army?!" No, Stahn! Don't encourage him! Look at his eyes he's got the plot dump disease! "Do you know what the monsters' source of life is? It's Lens. Oberon Corporation's cargo ships are pirated for their Lens shipments. The Lens is then used to produce monsters." Too late! "That can't be!" "That kind of technology shouldn't exist now!" "Heh, heh, heh...it's only a matter of time. Lydon will assume control of weakened countries, one by one, with the power of the Eye of Atamoni." I'm just gonna go take a nap, let me know when you're done. "I'm surprised that Lydon was behind the pirating of Lens cargo ships near Fitzgald." "Even the mere interruption of the Lens supply to Seinegald will help our cause. It will disrupt their economy, because Lens is an important part of Seinegald's industry and finance. Since the Lens is also used to create monsters, it's truly a case of killing two birds in one stone. Well, I've had enough idle chatter." Finally! "We won't allow you to interfere with Lydon. We will destroy you now. Attack them!!!"   It's sadly the exact same fight we've dealt with two times already.  But Philia does pick up a new spell.  The High Priest decides to takes matters into his own hands. Let's get geared for this boss fi-  Lame.     You get a choice here to see if you were paying attention I guess but to keep in the spirit of Stahn: "We're going to Phandaria, right?" "Are you an idiot?" "Hey, who're you calling an idiot?" "We're going to Fitzgald, you moron!" "We can find out more about the Lens cargo ships that have been attacked by pirates." "Exactly." "Okay, I understand. But let's call it a day, and find an inn so we can get some rest."  You can go back to Tosh and he'll hand you this which gives you a 30% discount at shops. I think you get it automatically after the temple but I like to think that he gives it to you for keeping his abuser locked up.  "No. We're going to Fitzgald." "Oh, Fitzgald this time, eh? You'll almost go around the world. Very well. Are you ready? All aboard!"   Next time: 
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Apr 8, 2013 20:08
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Chapter 12 We got a short update today mainly because I need a party vote before I go on. Last time we arrived in Neuestadt. If we're lucky people will be friendlier here.   "Why, a rich young boy is shopping at the harbor all by his lonesome. He looks like a servant! Ha, ha!"  "No, sis, he's an orphan, and he's certainly not rich. Mother told me that these kids had no parents so they were adopted by a rich woman." Guess not. Luckily we're already rolling in cash so we'll be alright. Just gotta make sure to avoid the poors.  "You and your sister aren't fashionable like us. Your sister is working every day, covered with dirt. She's so dirty!! Ick!!"  "......(Grumble, grumble)"  "There are so many children without parents hanging around. I'm afraid to go there." "The town looks gloomy when there are poor people around. I hate it." "That's more than enough!!!" Rutee, no! The poor must bootstrap themselves or they'll never learn.   "What? Who are you?!" "Are you telling us what to do?! We're not doing anything wrong!" "Yeah, we're not doing anything wrong! Why can't we tell poor people that they're poor?! It's the truth!" "Grrrrr! That's why I hate spoiled rich kids like you!" "What?! How dare you talk to us like that!" "Our papa is a respected man in this town!" "So what? What's your point?!!" "Owww...Why are you yelling at us?!" "We'll get you for this!!" No! Wait! We're rich too! I promise! "You should go back to your sister." "Thanks..."   I hope your character development was worth it, Rutee. Now the rich decent people hate us. "I'm...I'm just doing what I think is right. Come on, let's get moving!" There's a lot of stuff to do in this town but most of that won't be available for a while. What we can do though is race!   This kid isn't too difficult to beat.  The real difficult part is getting your poo poo in order.  For the most part he runs at the exact same speed as you. The first turn is a left turn so that gives him a bit of an advantage for the first turn.  And you're probably gonna misjudge your first few tries at this and smack into the scenery making you lose the race cause you'll never catch up.  Speed Racer here runs along a fixed path. So if you get in front of him and stop, he'll smack right into you and never move. Down these stairs he'll run about a half step slower than you letting you make up for that first turn he gets an advantage on.  The trick to beating this is to stick to the inside of the track. You take care to do that and you'll quickly gain a lead on him.  On these stairs though, Speed Racer gets a huge boost in speed. That's why it's important to know that he runs a fixed path. You can get right in front of him during this point so when he sprints, he just smacks into you and you keep the lead. Two laps and you've won.   You get your choice of three items. The thief's cape isn't that great and the Magical Rouge gives you a discount in shops. We're rich though so we don't need it. You can do the race three times until-   The items never change so I took three sages. Now that we made a little boy cry, we can continue with our plot.   "I heard your cargo ships are being attacked."  "Yes. We've been having problems with that lately." "I have a good plan to deal with this. Would you like to be part of it?" "A good plan? Well, come on in. I'll listen to what you have to say inside. Can you excuse us?"  "Yes, no problem." "This way, please."  "I don't think I've introduced myself. I'm Ilene Rembrandt." If you remember a few updates ago when we first went into Hugo's mansion there was a dude with crazy hair named Rembrandt. "I'm the general manager of the Fitzgald branch. ...And those folks?" "They are Stahn, Rutee...Philia, and Mary." Seems even Leon has grown tired of his rear end in a top hat gimmick. "How do you do? I'm Stahn Aileron." "I'm Rutee." "My name is Philia Felice." "I'm Mary. Nice to meet you, Ilene." "It's a pleasure to meet you all. So, Leon, tell me about your plan." "We'll be a decoy to draw out the pirates. When they come, we'll round them up." Simple yet effective. And besides you can't have a JRPG with out a pirate ship level. "...You make it sound so easy. They are very organized and good at what they do. We've lost a lot of shipments this month already." "All we have to do is to catch their leader. Once we find out where they're from, we can do a lot of things." "But the risk is too high." "You don't trust me?" No one trusts you, Leon. That's why you got voted out of the party so hard. "I didn't say that." "Besides, these fools here are useful as well." "Fools? Useful? What do you mean by that?" "...Well, I guess there's nothing to lose. All right. I have no other choice. But please don't do anything rash. Remember, I'm the one who will be disciplined by Hugo. Don't make any mistakes. Do you understand me?" "Yeah, I do." "You can use my house as you like until your departure. I'll get the ship ready. Please look for me at the harbor in a little while."  "Follow this...kid?" "Hey!" That's about the least mean thing he could have said about you Leon. "Do you want to say that... He is too young?" "Pardon me, but...We should select someone with more experience to be in charge here..." "By saying that, are you implying that I'm only a little helpless woman too?" "No, no, no, I didn't mean to..." "I'm just brainwashed by the patriarchy." "Ha, ha, I was just kidding. But don't worry. This is being done under Hugo's orders." "...President Hugo...I understand. Then, he's in charge now." "Well Leon, good luck!" "I won't disappoint you." "I know you won't"    Party vote time! Vote for two characters top three will be put into the party.
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Apr 11, 2013 18:58
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It was just for those two updates. I promise. I'll have an update later today or early tomorrow.
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Apr 13, 2013 16:54
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Chapter 13 I swear you guys vote for these parties to screw me over.  First you make me carry around Philia when she's useless and dead weight then you make me take Rutee out of the party when she's arguably the most useful she'll ever be in this game. "Well, you'll need to have some patience and make the best of our situation." You're only saying that because you don't know what's coming up, Philia. I need Rutee's healing magic for this part. "You should be thankful that you have the opportunity to say these inane words while things are peaceful."   "(Grumble grumble...) Arrrrrrrrgh! That's it, I've had it! So, who's turn is next?!" "Her loudness graces us with her annoying presence." "Shut up, you brat! Why do I have to go on watch duty?! This is so boring, I think I'm going insane! (Mumble mumble...) Find someone else to do it!" "What an useless woman... Fine, Mary, you go next." Even the characters acknowledge that Mary's the best character. "Okay."  "Arrrrgggghhh!! I wish they would just get it over with and attack us right now!" "That is the strangest thing I've heard. You want us to be attacked?" "Oh, give me a break!" "I think I know what you mean..." "Hey, Stahn, you'd better not start saying weird things too! Remember, it's our STRATEGY to let them attack use and get all of them with one swift blow!" You just know this is the third or fourth time they've had to explain this plan to Philia and Stahn. "Well, yeah, you're right..." "Hmmm... this strategy might turn out to be a mistake." Don't you dare, Leon. You remember the last time you predicted something while we were on a ship. "What?" "What do you mean by that?" "I mean they are not stupid. They might have recognized that this is a trap." That's it folks, wrap it up. Let's go home. Dude jinxed us again.   "The enemy is here!" This is starting to become a theme whenever we board a boat. "I guess they're stupid after all." "Are you being sarcastic?" "Not really..." "Well, let's go!"  Really, Captain? You're just gonna let them board like that with out a fight? So if you don't remember this part, I don't blame you. Your brain probably locked this memory away to protect you from mental anguish.  There's two ships to begin with and it doesn't really matter which ship you attack first, clearing one will clear both. You can enter from the back or the front, I go for the back end just so I can do a through sweep of it and collect all the treasure.  It's one of those rare places where there are no random battles. This is both a blessing and a curse. There's some times where you'll get trapped and have to fight through many of them to just walk a step. On the other hand by the end of this section you'll just be avoiding them to get this section over with.  And these are the only three enemies you'll ever fight making battles really boring and repetitive after a while. You can see the Pirate doing a high flying kung-fu move. They can also throw a fish at you. I'm not even making that up. The Berserker is just a skin swap of the Barbarian we fought back on the Draconis. And the War Vulture is also a re-skin. It's not the most exciting of places.   And it's not a very visually stimulating place either.  Naturally you'll find the ship boss when you fight your way through it all but even that's not a very exciting battle. It's nothing we haven't fought before.  And when you beat that fight:   It's another ship with the same exact lay out, the exact same enemies, and same exact fight at the end. Funny enough though, that line the captain tells you isn't always the same. My previous play through he said I was taking too long. Guess what happens when you beat that second ship.   That's right. A third god drat ship that's exactly the same. You don't get a chance to shop or rest between the ships either which is why Rutee's healing magic is a god send in this section. You guys just had to vote her out of the party didn't you? That forces me to rely on items in the fight and you can only hold 15 of one kind of item making it a real pain in the rear end. Instead of showing you all three ships have some highlights.  Philia learns a new special move called Force Field.  It makes a pretty little light in front of the selected enemy and when any enemy touches that light:  It doesn't damage them but it does stop them from advancing and buys you some breathing room. As you can imagine, three ships in a row means a lot of fights and a lot of XP. Every character picked up a new trick.    Leon's Tiger Blade is kind of like Mary's Double Blade except that the down strike can hit multiple times on one enemy.  You can see that he racked up a three hit combo all by himself. Combo's count how many hits your party can get in a row on an enemy. The higher the combo, the more XP you get at the end of the battle but it only counts the highest combo. So if in one fight you get a 5 hit, 7 hit, and 8 hit, it'll only give you a bonus for the 8 hit. Best way to combo is to send in a party member with a special, as that one is ending you send in another party member with another special, and so on.   I came down these stairs and these two enemies went for me at the exact same time. But they three stooged themselves and couldn't get at me.    Stahn gets his own version of Tiger Blade. It's less elegant than Leon's.  Sitting on the sidelines, Rutee picked up a level and Acid Rain which lowers enemies defense by 10%. She also picked up a poison removing spell but none of the enemies here can poison you so that'll have to wait.  I only had Rutee in for one fight, I promise. This is from the same fight as the earlier screenshot. Philia picks up Ice Tornado as well. She gets a lot of unique spells but also tends to pick up some from the other Swordian's as well.  This is Stahn's Fire Wall. It's pretty powerful but despite it's animation it rarely hits more than one enemy. I mentioned before how human enemies will stay dead on the battle field rather than explode in a poof of green. Pirates are human enemies so they'll do this. A fun thing to play with though is killing human enemies with a powerful fire spell. Fire Wall is our first spell that can do this. Neither Fireball nor Eruption will.  You see that dead pirate?  Also there's the fish throwing I was talking about.  "I guess we can't throw these at them..." "You fool."  Mary picks up another version of Missile Sword only this time it can knock an enemy out. Didn't work for me when I tried.  Philia picked up yet another spell. I rag on her a lot but she always has a permanent spot in my party because of her spells. She's a powerhouse.     I'm not really sure how Leon's Stone Wall hurts someone.    But I ain't complaining. So after three ships of the exact same thing  You get to go through a fourth ship. To their credit the fourth ship does have a different lay out but if anything that just makes it worse since you can't just speed your way through it. Oh yeah, also, there's no save point at anytime during all of this. Hope you're okay with wasting two hours on this section.  You'll eventually find a plastic elevator that'll take you to this room. That dude standing there is obviously a boss so you might want to explore those stairs that head south first for treasure.  Haha! gently caress you! Do the ship over again! It's actually not that big of a dick move since you'll find a save point in the room before the boss fight but still.   "Philia?!" That is actually a pretty accurate portrait as you'll soon see in the fight. "Who is this?" "He is a priest who worked with me." "I didn't think you would come after me! You should have remained as a statue!" "Batista, where is Lydon?!" "I'll tell you if you win this fight." "You're the only one left." Not true. I left about half the ship alive cause I was sick of this section and just wanted to get it done. "This is your last chance to surrender peacefully." "Who do you think you are?! You don't know the gravity of your own situation!"    Seven to Eight hours into the game and you get your first boss fight. Leon doesn't count since you can't really win that one.   Batista does not gently caress around and is probably the first wall many inexperienced players will hit.  His regular punch attacks will knock out your party members. You can see Batista back handing Philia with out even looking and adjusting his sunglasses cause he's too cool for us.    His Claw Fist move hits about two or three times in a row and drops you on the ground delaying your counter attack. I got lucky in this screenshot cause normally he'd just tear through Stahn and continue on to the next party member in line dropping them all one right after another.     Claw Thrasher hits multiple times too. It won't drop you, and it won't tear through your party but it hits harder.  By spamming a bunch of healing items (another reason Rutee is great in this section), killing his allies first, and then stun locking him in a corner we manage to kill him "Now tell us where Lydon is!" "Lydon? Who? I don't have a clue." "What!" "You promised you would tell us." Volume posted:Well it would be nice to have some one more naive than Stahn to make fun of during this LP. "You're so naive. Promises are made to be broken!" "........." "So, you think you're clever, eh? I'll interrogate you thoroughly when we get back to shore. You've been forewarned." "Hah! Don't threaten me, you little punk!" "You'll regret your insolence later."
Ride The Gravitron fucked around with this message at 22:28 on Apr 13, 2013 |
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Apr 13, 2013 22:04
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Tuxedo Ted posted:Philia sure had some weird co-workers. I don't think those are even sunglasses Batista had on, just wrap-around glasses. Handy to have when you lead the active life of a musclebound fist-fighting priest. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajLfYIHEqzk Crowetron posted:Is there any way we can trade Leon for Sadly no but there is an optional character that comes close! We'll actually be meeting him next update. divide by zero posted:Despite remembering that there was a fleet of ships to deal with, I seem to have forgotten just how many of them there were. Tuxedo Ted posted:I don't remember any of this, Pierzak posted:These weren't in the game when I played it You lucky bastards.
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Apr 14, 2013 00:01
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Chapter 14 When we last left our heroes they just got done with a two hour slog fest through repetitive dungeons.  So lets fix that by coming back to a place we've already been with nothing new to explore. "Ilene, meet the leader of the pirates." "All of you have done well. I don't know how to thank you." "It's no big deal..." "Ilene, we have to use one of your rooms." "That's fine, but what for?" Well crazy things happen out in international waters and now Leon's got a new husband. Let's give them some privacy. "I'm interrogating this scum. I need him to give us some information. I'll go ahead to Ilene's house. Don't waste your time sightseeing! Come straight to her house!" "Okay, okay..."  "Hey, walk straight!" "Okay, all right!"  "Let's go." "Sure."  I was hoping the game would give me a chance to stock up on items after the pirate ship but nope, the moment you leave the harbor you're teleported to Ilene's mansion. All the backtracking they make you do but this one time they just teleport you. This is gonna suck. "We'll find out soon enough if you really don't know a thing. Mary, come here." "What is it, Leon?"  "Are you taking this pretty tiara off of me, Leon?" "Hey, why are you taking Mary's off?! Take mine off too!" "One is enough. Besides, I don't trust you enough to behave on your own." "What? I've been a good girl! I haven't done anything bad!" "You're interfering with my interrogation. Go sightseeing or something!" "Why you little snot-nosed brat!"  "drat it, shut up!"  "The same thing that stupid woman has." "What's his problem?! I can't take this any more!" Just be patient, Rutee. I'm sure he'll get voted out of the party soon enough.  "I'll be sleeping in my room! Wake me up if Batista says anything! Hey, Mary, you come too!" "Okay." I could have sworn I screen capped it but Mary and Rutee end up eavesdropping right outside the door. "What are you going to do, Stahn?" "Well, I don't know..." "I did always want to find out what some one else's burnt flesh smelled like." "Are you free, Stahn?" "What? Well, now that you mentioned it..sort of..." "Although there was that one time I was forced to work when I stowedaway. But other than that I've been a free man." "Would you like to go out on a date with me?" "On a...d, d, d...date with you?! Errrrr..." "Ha, ha. Look at you, you're blushing. You're so cute. I was just kidding." "Wh, what?" "I was kidding about the date part, but I'll give you a tour of the town. Or you don't want to go out with an older woman?" "Oh, oh, that's not it. Yeah, sure, I'll take you up on your offer!" "Okay, then, let's go." "Do you want to come with us, Philia?" "Might as well knock out two fantasies at once." "No...I'll stay here. I'm worried about something and I can't get it out of my mind right now." "All right then. Try to get some rest, and don't worry about things that are beyond your control." "Thank you for your advice. I'll be fine." "Okay, Philia, I'll see you later." "Yes, enjoy yourselves."    "Going out with that older woman... I can't stand it! (Grumble, grumble...) Hey, Mary, we're gonna follow them!" I always felt the love interest between Stahn and Rutee was a little forced. "Rutee, aren't you gonna sleep?" "No! Just shut up and follow me!" "Okay, Rutee. Don't get so upset."   "I'm from a village called Lienea in Fitzgald..." "So you're from here. I thought you were from another country since you were with Leon." "But Lienea is a country village and I've never been to a city like this..." "Oh. Is this your first visit to Neuestadt?" "Yes, it is." "If you don't count the time when I alienated the rich, refused to look at the poor, and made a little kid cry when I beat him at racing." "Oh, good. I can show you around then. Shall we go?"  This scene is actually kind of funny. Ilene takes Stahn around the town while Rutee and Mary stalk him.   It's mainly funny because they pick such poor hiding spots. "Those cherry trees were also in full blossom when I first came here..."  Mary eventually get's bored of the stalking and starts doing her own thing here. I'm not sure what it is but I think she's trying to eat the tree. "No. I used to live in Seinegald with my father. Are you disappointed?" "No, I didn't mean that..." "I love this town now but I really hated it when I first came here. When I felt bad, I came to this park and spent a lot of time looking at these cherry blossoms. Cherry blossoms are the same in Seinegald or in Neuestadt or anywhere else. And that's when I realized that I was letting silly things bother me. I realized that living in another country didn't really matter that's when I knew I could face anything." "I see..." Yeah, I kind of zoned out on that too. "Shall we walk by the ocean?"   The creepy part is that Rutee was here before Stahn got there. How did she know?  "You can see the islands in the distance on a clear day. The waves are a little high today though." "It looks like you could swim here if it was a little warmer..." "Sigh..." "Is something wrong?" "I can't swim..." "You can't swim?" "No...but it's okay because I don't like to get my hair wet. Besides, I've been so busy dealing with other things in my life that I never get around to learning how." "Oh, that's too bad. It really feels great to swim in a pond or a pool. Oh, yeah! I can teach you how to swim if you want." Smooth, Stahn, but I think Ilene's a bit too smart to be tricked into a bathing suit like that. "Okay I'll think about your offer. Shall we go?"    However, Seinegald kingdom's public works initiative to exploit natural resources in this area brought the prosperity that you see before you today."  Sure she's hidden from us but if either Stahn or Ilene bother to even look a bit over there she's busted. "Fitzgald was certainly reborn as a prosperous country. But this country lost something important along the way. I wonder if you can place a price on what was lost." "What?" "I'm sorry I guess I'm tired from too much work." "Are you all right?" "Stahn, you're so sweet." "I, I'm just...worried about you." Ugh, twenty minutes into your first date and you're already getting clingy and creepy. "Thank you. I'm fine. Don't worry. Oh yeah, Stahn, shall we go get some Softy Kreems?" "Softie Crea...wha?" "You don't like them?" "That's not what I mean... I've never had one." "Okay. Then, let's get some. New experiences are important."   Mary's actually making the most of her time off instead of obsessing over a country boy who hasn't shown a hint of interest in her. "Sounds fantastic." "You know it's so refreshing to be with someone who's so good and honest like you, Stahn." "Good and honest? Aw, come on, that's a joke right?"  "One might even say you're a 'nice guy.'  Can you spot the Rutee?  "Sure. It'll be 100 Gald. Here you go." A hundred Gald for two ice creams? It better be made from the queen's own breast milk to be worth that much! "Thanks." "Hey, I'll pay half." "No, don't worry. I'm the one who asked you to go out on a date with me..." "Oh, but..." "Stahn..." "Ye, yes?" "There are times when you should let a woman take care of you. Okay?" Ah, the simple joys of dating an older woman. "Ye...yes." Quite the charmer aren't you? I'm reminded of that one line from the movie Airheads where Steve Buscemi's character comments that some women just go for the dopey retards. "I'm glad you understand. Here, try it." "Thanks." "If your Softy Kreem has some letters on the stick, you can win..." "Like this?" "Oh, Stahn, you won!" "Really? Cool!!" "Take it to the Softy Kreeme vendor and they'll give you another one." "But I don't want one right now..." "There's no expiration date, so you can get one anytime you like." I don't think there's an actual way to redeem those things. "Let's see...shall we go to the arena?"     "That's the champion, Bruiser Khang. He's a monster, who doesn't know the word 'lose'. He hasn't lost in years." "He sure looks tough..." "I'll show you the waiting room. Follow me."  "The arena field is right outside if you go through that exit. Shall we take a look?"    "The next challenger is a woman?"  "It looks like the challenger is Ms. Ilene of the Rembrandt family!" "Unfortunately, I'll pass." "Hey babe, come on now." "We're just visiting today." "Hey, you with the pointy head in the back. Do you want to fight?" "Po, pointy head?" "I see, the real challenger is Ms. Ilene's friend!" "I'm just gonna list off random people until some one fights!" "Stahn, don't listen to them." "What's the matter with you, little boy? Hiding behind a woman's back how can you call yourself a real man?!" "Wh, what did you just say?!" "Stahn!" "You know he's right anyways. I got you wrapped around my finger." "First of all, I don't like the fact that a woman entered our holy arena." "What did you say, you pig?!" "What's going on? It looks like they're arguing..." "Ooooooooh, I'm sooooooooo scared. Hysterical women don't turn me on. Anyway, anyone who's not willing to fight is trash! Trash should be thrown out of here in the dumpster!!! Good bye, pointy head! You're a sissy!" "How dare you say those things to our faces?!" "I don't know if you're some kinda politician or what, but you're really beginning to get on my nerves!!! If you calm down a bit more, I'd let you be my girlfriend. Buwahahaha..."  "Stahn! Don't! You'll get hurt!" "He said things he shouldn't have... I can't tolerate trash-talking scumbags like this!" "Hey! What did you call me Scumbag? Who's the scumbag?" "Well now, let's take a look around. Now, I see one right here, and he's this baldy standing in front of me." "B, baldy?!" "I'm not gonna let this bozo beat me! Watch me teach him a lesson!" Baldy, bozo, oh man we got a real tough guy over here. "I'll beat you to a bloody pulp! It'll only take 3 seconds!" "Well, it looks like things are settled. Now, we're going to have a special match! Our champion, Khang, versus Mr. Pointy Head!" "Who's the pointy head?!" "Let's get readeee to rummmmmmmmmmmble!"  In my defense, it took five seconds, not three.  "The winner is Bruiser Khang! Pointy Head has lost!" "I expected more from Mr. Big Mouth here. Come back if you dare!!"  where am I?" "You regained consciousness." "Oh, yeah...I was at the arena..." "Getting my rear end handed to me..." "The champion wants to say something to you. Can you get up?" "Yes, I'm all right..."  "What?" "You're a promising young man. I'm certain there will come a time when we will fight again. But when that time comes, I'll beat you to a bloody pulp! Mark my words!!"  "What was that about?" "I guess it's his peculiar way of expressing his friendship to you. Shall we get going?" No we shall not. I got a score to settle with that rear end in a top hat.  This fight was the main reason I was upset that I had to rely on items on the pirate ship. I needed to conserve for this fight. Khang hits like a tank and has techs that'll hit you two to three times in a row. Many times you'll use a healing item only to have to use another right away.  There's a special item called Hourglass that freezes most enemies. A lot of bosses are immune to it and you won't really need them in normal fights. I had two of them and spammed them during this fight. I used the brief moments to cast Fire Wall on Khang. Each Hourglass only gives you enough time to cast once and so I only got off two in a row.  It barely made a dent in his health.  You're on your own during this fight so if he knocks you out cold you're pretty much screwed cause he'll just finish you off before you can wake up.  Spamming Tiger Blade and healing items you'll slowly be able to wear him down. You don't want to use kick attack as the kick portions of the move will only be doing one point of damage. Tiger Blade only hits with the sword and so will be doing more damage. If you're lucky you'll break the 40's with your damage.  Khang is probably the hardest fight in the game but unlike Leon you don't have to cheat to win it. You can do it with some patience, luck, and a lot of healing items.  "Oh, my ...this is incredible..." "Watch what you say! You asked for it! Well, how do you feel now?!" "(Gasp!)...Khang lost the match! This is tremendous, incredible! The impossible has occurred! Oh, the humanity!!" "Hey kid...you're not bad..." "I didn't win! You did this yourself! Well, we have nothing better to do here. Let's go."  "This match was an accident, a fluke. Therefore it will be treated as a non-title match. That means the champion remains the same. Khang retains the title!"  Win or lose, this scene still happens. "Well, err...not really..." "You made me very happy." "I just couldn't forgive the things he said..." "I like people who have strong convictions. Shall we go?"  "What?" How many times are you going to respond like this? I don't mean just to Ilene, but this whole game in general. "Come on, let's go home."  "Philia, how's it going? Do we have information yet?" Oh that's right, we were committing war crimes and torturing some one. Forgot all about it. "...No, nothing yet..."  "Do you feel like talking now? We want information." "Tell us the nuclear launch codes! "I, I don't know...Ughhhhh..." "Oh, spare us your heroics. All we want is information. By hook or by crook, we'll get it!" "Where's the money hidden?" "How am I supposed to tell you things that I don't know about...aghhhhh..." "Information. We want information. You'll die soon if you don't tell me." "Where does your mother keep her jewelry?" "I don't know a thing... aghhhhaaaaaa!"   "Don't mind the mess. He just passed out." Probably soiled himself too but that's what poor people are for, call in the maid! "He still has some value to me, so I'm not about to kill him quite yet." "But, this is..." "Enhanced Interrogation" "This is it for today, at least. But I don't think he'll give us any information even if I continue the interrogation."  "Let's go, Philia." "............" "Philia?" "What? Oh, yes..."   FLASHBACK! "Philia? What are you doing here at this late hour?" "Oh, Batista...I needed to research something." "Like research something for the Archbishop?" "Yes, sort of..." "Sort of...? All this secret cloak and dagger nonsense is the reason why you get stressed out and get sick." "But this has to be done by tomorrow. I really have no choice." "All right. You're hopeless by yourself, so I'll help you." "Batista...you're so kind."   Despite the odd colors this is not a flashback, it's just night.  One thing I never mentioned was that this game has some pretty decent reflections off of mirrors and water. "I'll take this drat thing off my head!"  "Heh, how cute. I get an electric shock if I try to take the drat thing off. That low-life!!"   Is it too late to join your side, Batista? "Ha, ha, ha, ha...idiots!"
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Apr 17, 2013 06:03
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Chapter 15 When we last left our heroes They had hosed up and made the last three hours of game play mean nothing.  "Oh, Stahn. Can you come with me?" "where?" "I think I'm done with dates after the last one ended up with an almost impossible fight to win." "I'm taking something to eat to Batista... He'll die if the questioning continues like this." "Philia... Sure, I'll go with you. Here, let me carry the tray for you." "Thank you."   "Huh? He's not here!" "Oh, no!" drat it! I knew we should have just executed Philia when we found her.  Sound the alarm! Release the hounds! Notify the FBI! I swear if you make me go through another pirate ship level... "What?!"  "I, I don't know..." Which shouldn't come as a surprise to any one. "Philia, you didn't..." "What?" "You didn't let him go because of your past relationship with him, did you?" "No! I didn't do anything..." I dunno, you were lingering suspiciously at the end of the last update. "Stop it, Rutee! You don't know that!" "Well now, Stahn.  "But whatever the case, we need to make some things black and white in this world!" "What's with this racket so early in this morning?!" In an odd twist, Stahn wasn't the last one awake. "Listen up! Batista escaped! And..." "Oh, that. I let him go on purpose."  Why you little... "What?" "You! Are you insane?! Why did you let our only clue to find the Eye of Atamoni go?!" "Calm down, you idiots! Why do you think I put the tiara on his head?!" "Ahhhh!" Stahn only has to hear about the tiara and he feels the pain of electrocution. "That tiara has a homing beacon built into it. I can find out where he is by using my proximity detector." A round of applause for Glazius Glazius posted:
I'd gift you with some kind of forum upgrade but  "So, you're going to let him lead us to where Lydon is." "Exactly." "Philia, I'm sorry. I jumped to conclusions... Mary, let's go!" "Rutee, you made a false accusation..." "Awwwww, shut up will you?"  "Come on, let's go."  "Well, we should go after him..." "Stahn...it's my fault. I was doing something that made Rutee suspicious of me..." "What are you saying? That's not true. As Rutee admitted, she jumped to conclusions." "It's okay. I'm too naive..." "You're not naive." "Hell, look at me. I still believe Rutee isn't a criminal." "I think you're a kind person. In fact, you are who you are because of your kindness." "But..." "It'll be a big loss for us if you leave us now. We're all working together." "Stahn..." "Hey, don't worry about it any more... Everybody's waiting for you." "Yes."    "I believe Ms. Ilene is at the harbor." "At the harbor... Then it'll be convenient for us to ask for a ship." Please, anything but another ship.  "Sorry." "Ilene is at the harbor. Let's go."  "Leon!" "Batista escaped." "That's what I heard. And a transport is missing from the harbor." "I bet he's on that ship." "You're probably right, Stahn. So, do you have any idea where he went." "He went to Aquaveil." "Aquaveil?" "Leon, you're not going there are you?" "Yes, I am. Prepare a ship for me." "Do you know that Seinegald and that country are practically at war with each other?" "That's why I'm asking you to ready your ship registered in Fitzgald." "And make sure the crew are a bunch of cowards so we steer clear of sea dragons, pirates, and what other nonsense the plot decides to throw our way. "That's insane!" "Would it be insane if I told you the Eye of Atamoni fell into the hands of Aquaveil?" "What! I didn't know that!" "I am on a secret mission from the King of Seinegald." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HxwQwujqzM "We have to recover the Eye of Atamoni from them." I've been chasing this McGuffin to long to give up now. I don't even remember why we started in the first place. "Please, we need your help." "......... I can only take you there. But it'll be a one-way trip. I can't bring you back from there. Is that all right?" "That's fine." "We're ready." "Please take us." "Okay, I understand... Captain, get the ship ready for departure!" "Yes, madam." "Thank you. I owe a debt to you." "Don’t worry about it."   "It's an island nation that has several territories. Long ago, Aquaveil broke away from Seinegald and became an independent country. It is still in a cold war with each other countries." "Hmmm..." "In other words, they're surrounded by enemies." "That's why the world is in danger. They've upset the balance of power in the world by acquiring the Eye of Atamoni from Lydon." "We must stop Lydon at any cost..." "That is correct."   "Okay, let's go up on deck."  "Where are we?" "We're near the shores just outside the Sheeden territory in Aquaveil." "I'm sorry for being unreasonable. Have a safe return journey." Stahn not waking up last; Leon apologizing for being a dick. Might we be seeing hints of character development? "Please take care of yourselves, everyone..." "Thank you very much." "Good luck, Stahn." "All right, let's go ashore." 
Ride The Gravitron fucked around with this message at 17:15 on May 11, 2014 |
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Apr 23, 2013 04:11
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Red Metal posted:Wait, did they fire the group out of a cannon in that last image? Because even if not, I like to imagine they did. Well far be it for me to break your heart. That's exactly what they did.
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Apr 23, 2013 18:07
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Chapter 16  We manage to make a relatively safe landing after our little trip. Every one should travel by cannon.  And it's a very short walk to the town. You probably wouldn't even encounter a fight but what's the fun in that?  Our first set of enemies aren't that impressive. They're both skin swaps of old enemies and bring nothing new to the table.  Now these guys are new. The Tzin are those weird shell like things. When it's standing up like that it'll shoot a rock at you and up close it'll just tentacle you from under it's shell because, you know, Japan. Mandragoras are the ones that look like those troll dolls you used to top your pencils with in grade school. They got a wide variety of magic though they tend to stick to Ice Needle and Stone Blast. If you're close enough they'll lift up their dress and...something will come out to attack you. Again, Japan.  Apparently Stahn learned this move on the pirate ship and I just didn't notice.    Vortex doesn't do much damage but it hits all around and knocks enemies away giving you plenty of breathing room if you're being overwhelmed.  While looking for fights to show off the new enemies and Stahn's Vortex, Philia picked up a new move as well.    She just lobs out two Philia Bombs which still do piss poor damage.   You gotta love a town that greets you with a juggling clown. If I could I would recruit him into my party. If you've been paying attention to the LP you might have noticed a pattern. We're in a new town and there's been no one to tell you what to do. So it's time to sniff out plot on our own. Luckily I remember exactly where this NPC is so we don't have to waste time.  Yup it sure is! Now give me that plot! Don't you dare pull this one me! I know it's you! God drat it! So apparently there's a string of NPC's you gotta talk to to trigger everything. Let's get hunting.   If only I could moon him through it.  This is in reference to some game that I never played or heard of. I'm sure half of you in the thread are now typing up some furious response on how I can't be a true gamer if I don't know about that game.   "I heard that the Lord of Moreau, master Zino, passed away. And a person named Batista became the new lord and threw the country into complete chaos." How bad must Leon's tracking device be if he can only pinpoint it to a large set of islands and no more? "Batista?!!!" "Although Master Zino had a favorite son named Fayte, I wonder why that outsider succeeded him instead?" "Um...How do we get to Moreau?" "Moreau is on another island. You can get there by sea." If Leon's technology actually worked we could have just had Ilene drop us off there.  "Is this ship going to Moreau?" "Sorry bub, but we can't go to Moreau." "Why is that?" "That area is very dangerous enough already because it's very shallow. To make things worse, there are monsters wandering around there now." Look man, I don't like it anymore than you do. If it was up to me Leon's device would have been much more accurate and I'd be there now. I'd much rather take a quick boat ride that I can just frame skip through than some arbitrary dungeon who's only purpose is to pad the length of the game. Surely we can work something out.  "You, you must be crazy!" "I'm asking you very, very nicely (and I'm usually not nice). Do you want to see me beg too?!" "Who's...begging? I realize we're asking too much from you." "Don't get me wrong. I just value my life." "...Coward!" "Chump, busta, pansy rear end landlubber" "Fine. Let's find another way."  I see this line a lot in RPG's. Granted I come from the 21st Century where people don't have to trek for days on end to reach the nearest town but do travelers/adventurers really have a look? "Can you tell us the way to Moreau?"  "Hmmm...Moreau..." "Those sailors aren't willing to sail to sea because they're scared of monsters! Those good-for-nothing men! They're a bunch of spineless worms!!" "Hey, take it easy! There's no use complaining to him." But it feels sooooo good. "Then what are we going to do?" "...I used to work for master Arthur Sheeden, the current lord of Sheeden. His son was quite an adventurer. We used to explore caves that lead to Moreau all the time." "The caves to Moreau?" "Yes, Not many people know about it, but there's an underwater passageway to Moreau." Of course there is. Cause a boat would be too easy. "Where is it?" "I believe there's an entrance near the coastline if you go south from our town. The tide is low, so you should be able to see the entrance." "Let's go there." "Thank you, sir." "Oh, no problem." I'm just saying, there's no reason you couldn't have told us this the first time I talked to you. Next time!  Stahn encounters his arch enemy: His third grade reading level.
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Apr 29, 2013 18:22
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